Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
To be honest, Blaine was not that surprised when he didn't see Kurt at school on Monday. After running around with wet clothes all day long, he had gotten sick, he had started coughing a lot on Saturday when they had their dinner.
Nevertheless, Kurt sent him a text to come see him after school, so there he was, heading to Kurt's home after school with a bowl of hot chicken soup.
"If your little friend is sick, darling, you need to bring him chicken soup", Pam Anderson, his mom, had told him with a wink before he left.
Blaine had buried his face in his hands. "He is not my friend, mom", he had groaned "Actually, it's kind of complicated. He's just…"
"I understand, baby", Pam said jokingly. "But you have been talking about that boy for weeks now."
"You mean Sebastian, my actual boyfriend I'm in love with", Blaine corrected her, but at that, his mom just threw him a knowing glance.
Whatever.
Blaine was about to ring the doorbell when the door was opened. "About time." Kurt dragged him inside and closed the door behind them. He looked paler than usual and was wearing sweatpants and an oversized sweater. Kind of weird seeing him not wearing stylish clothes. "We have a lot of work to do this afternoon, so better hurry." He coughed in his elbow, and Blaine cocked his eyebrows.
"Shouldn't you be resting?", he asked tentatively.
Kurt laughed a bit before breaking into a coughing fit again. "There is no time for resting, Bledward. The wedding is going to be next weekend, and prom next Friday. Everything needs to be perfect until then. Besides, I feel good anyway" His pale face told Blaine otherwise, but he didn't dare answering Kurt back.
He led the other boy to his bedroom and closed the door behind him. And Blaine was surprised to see another girl in the room as well.
"Bledward, that's Rachel", Kurt introduced them to each other. Blaine shortly nodded at the other teen that was busy typing texts into her phone. He was sure he had seen her on the hallways of McKinley every now and then. "She will help us fake everything. You know, at our prom and at the wedding."
Blaine quizzically furrowed his eyebrows. "I thought you didn't have any friends."
The killing glance Kurt threw him let him shudder a bit. "We are no friends", he snapped "Rachel is an actress, I paid her.", he explained, and Blaine nodded slowly. This mission must be important to Kurt, why else would he pay his schoolmates to help them?
"And how is she going to help us?"
"Rachel is an actress, she will work on your acting skills, of course", Kurt explained, rolling his eyes.
"I am going to be a big Broadwaystar one day", Rachel said proudly and looked back at her phone again.
Blaine nodded. "Okay."
While he took a seat on the chair, Kurt asked him: "So Blaine, how are you going to introduce yourself to my parents?"
"Yes", Rachel wanted to know, putting her phone down and crossing her arms as well. "Just pretend I'm one of Kurt's parents."
So Blaine cleared his throat and stepped towards her and stuck his hand out. "Good evening, Mr. or Mrs. Hummel. I'm Blaine, Kurt's boy-"
"That was horrible!", Rachel cut him off with a shake of her head. "You sounded disinterested and disrespectful."
"I sound like I normally sound", Blaine pointed out and scratched his head. "What's wrong about that?"
Rachel snorted. "Everything. You need to sound as if they were majesties. As if you would want to kiss their feet. As if you loved them from the moment you first met."
"But-"
"Do what she says, Bledward!", Kurt barked with narrowed eyes. "I pay her five dollars per hour, so you better try harder. Even a fly is more of a talented actor than you are."
Fighting with Kurt was pointless, so Blaine lifted his hands and tried again. Instead of sticking his hand out, he took Rachel's hand. "Mrs. Hummel, I'm more than delighted to get to know you better." He softly kissed her hand, and Rachel's eyes widened. Trying to hide her blush, she uttered: "That was better."
Kurt, however, rolled his eyes while he lied on his bed and gnawed on his low carb chips. "Mediocre. Try again."
So Blaine took Rachel, pulled her closer to himself, leaned down to her ear and whispered: "You are the most beautiful being in the world, milady, and I'm more than honored to call your wholesome stepson my boyfriend."
"Oh, Blaine", Rachel purred dreamily, she seemed to have forgotten she wasn't thrilled about his acting skills first. "So am I."
"Okay, that's enough." Kurt jumped up and dragged him away from Rachel. If Blaine didn't know better, he would say that he saw something like…jealousy in the other boy's eyes. But that was nonsense. After all, Kurt couldn't stand him and didn't really hide it. But what if…?
"Anderson? Are you even listening?" Kurt snapped his fingers in front of his face, and Blaine blinked.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I kind of spaced out. What did you just say?"
"I want you to tell my parents about our relationship." He pointed at Rachel. "And be convincing this time, but don't sound like a salacious pervert."
Salacious pervert? So he really was jealous because he indirectly flirted with Rachel? Interesting.
"Alright." He grabbed Kurt's arm and pulled him closer to himself, flashing his best stage smile. "Kurt is the best thing that ever happened to me in my life", he started recounting. "We were through thick and thin, and he was there for me whenever I needed him."
"Where did you meet first? And when?", Rachel asked him curiously, totally in tune with her role. "Kurt never told us about his little friend, you know. We have so many questions!"
Blaine scratched his head, and Kurt threw him a killing glance. "Don't dare doing that in front of my family", he hissed angrily. "You are embarrassing me!"
He seemed to have forgotten that Rachel was not his stepmom, but Blaine didn't dare pointing it out. Being on the receiving end of Kurt's wrath was no nice experience.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Blaine turned to Rachel again, smiling. "We met in the hallways. It was my first day of McKinley, and when we crossed ways, it was love on first sight."
Well, not really. Actually, he described his first encounter with Sebastian. Kurt had cursed at him when they first met, as far as he knew.
"His aura was so …blinding. I felt drawn to him the moment he looked at me. I just couldn't help it: I fell in love instantly. Without him by my side, I felt incomplete. I cannot imagine my life without him anymore."
Kurt looked at him with an unreadable face expression. "Th…Thanks Blaine." He cleared his throat, suddenly nervous for some reason.
"And now, kiss", Rachel suddenly instructed, and Kurt threw her a killing glance. "Excuse me?"
"Kiss", she repeated, unimpressed by his sharp tone "If you want to fake your relationship, you need to practice your kissing skills as well. Do yoga with each other's tongues to know what it feels like."
Not really thrilled about her order, Kurt shook his head fervently. "That's out of question!"
"Yes, I don't know whether that's necessary", Blaine agreed with him, rubbing his neck. Not like he had a lot of experience anyway. The only boy he had kissed before was a boy named Jeremiah, his crush in his early teen years when he was still in Florida. Too bad that Jeremiah told him he had a boyfriend a couple of seconds later.
"If you want to be a convincing couple, you need to kiss", Rachel said insistently. She put her hands on her hips. "Come on, get it started. I want to see what you can do."
Kurt sighed, defeated. "Alright. Let's get this over with."
Before Blaine could protest, he had already grabbed him by the collar and pulled him closer, pressing his lips onto the other boy's in a sullen way. Like on autopilot, Blaine opened his mouth, granting him access. But soon, Kurt pulled away from him, staring at him for a while before he cleared his throat.
"That's enough. After all, I don't want to make Blaine sick as well, that would be all we needed." There was this breathlessness in his voice, but Blaine blamed it on his flu.
But what if his suspicion was right and Kurt liked him more than he wanted to admit?
Rachel clapped her hands. "Well, actually, it wasn't that bad. But next time, please look more enthusiastic when you kiss, not as if you are about to get sterilized."
Blaine sheepishly looked down, but Kurt just nudged him. "Don't worry, Bledward. Just think about the meerkat if you need to kiss me again. I will also picture kissing someone else. Someone who's not you."
Ouch.
How could he ever think that Kurt liked him? He was such an idiot.
…
Kurt picked him up the day of the wedding. Fortunately, he seemed to have recovered and strong enough to attend the wedding even though he was still coughing a bit.
"Let's get this over with, Bledward", Kurt said when Blaine got into his car "And don't forget about what we practiced. Did you do the speech practices Rachel taught you?"
"Yes."
"Did you put on the right tuxedo I chose for you?"
"Yes."
"Did you-"
"Whatever you want to ask me, the answer will be yes, Kurt", Blaine reassured him with a smile. "Don't worry about that, okay? Everything will be fine."
Kurt just threw him a short, skeptical glance before he concentrated on the road in front of him again. "Let's hope you are right, Bledward." His tone was softer than before, so he had managed to appease him.
But in fact, Blaine had noticed that Kurt didn't act like he hated his guts that much lately. He didn't nag or curse at him that often anymore and he was more patient with him. And frankly speaking, he wondered what had changed. Whether Kurt was just nicer to him because he was looking forward to the end of their deal?
…
The wedding party was in full swing when Kurt's aunt Annabeth came over to him and Kurt. Until now, Kurt's relatives had loved his phony boyfriend, they hung on Blaine's lips whenever he told them about his and Kurt's fake-relationship. A couple of times, he had caught Kurt staring at him weirdly for some reason, though. But maybe he was just imagining things.
At the moment, they were at the bar, begging the bartender to let them drink one of those good-looking cocktail, but since they were still underage, he refused to serve them even one drop of alcohol.
"So you are Kurt's little boyfriend?", Annabeth asked Blaine curiously, sticking her hand out "I'm Annabeth, Kurt's aunt."
"Nice to meet you, ma'am", Blaine said politely and kissed her hand. Annabeth threw him a delighted glance and turned to Kurt with sparkling eyes. "Kevin was right; your boyfriend really is a gentleman, Kurtie."
Blaine thought that he had seen Kurt blush a little. "Thanks, Aunt Annie", he said sheepishly. He looked his aunt up and down, impressed. "You look beautiful today."
Annabeth turned around once in her glittery wedding dress. Her chestnut hair was in braids with pearls and highlights, and the eye makeup accentuated her emerald green eyes perfectly. "Thanks a lot, sweetie", she laughed.
"Where is my stunning woman?", another voice called out, and a handsome black man came rushing over to the trio.
Annabeth laughed. "Did you already miss me, Dominic?"
The British groom, Dominic grinned. "Of course, baby. If I had it my way, I would handcuff you to me forever so that nothing could separate us." He pulled her closer by the waist and kissed her passionately.
The boys looked down, kind of sheepish.
"Aren't you exaggerating a bit, Dominic?", a female voice said in a British accent, sounding amused, and the boys turned around.
A black girl was standing behind them, having crossed her arms displeasedly. She was wearing a purple bridesmaid dress and shook her head, laughing.
Dominic pulled away from the bride. "This is my day, dear niece, so would you please let me enjoy it?"
The girl rolled her eyes with a smirk before she linked arms with Kurt and Blaine. "Pardon us if we don't want to watch your gross make-out session." She dragged them to the balcony of the ballroom where she turned to them with a grin. "Sooo…the two of you are dating?"
"Yes", the boys answered in unison, and at that moment, Blaine's phone rang.
"It's my mom" He threw the other two teenagers an apologetic glance. "I will be right back." He turned around and left to talk to her in silence.
Once he was gone, the girl, turned to Kurt with a knowing glance. "You are Annabeth's nephew?"
Kurt nodded. "Yes. My dad is her brother."
"I'm Mercedes. My mom is Dominic's younger sister and we are all from London", she introduced herself. "Kurt, right?"
He nodded again.
Mercedes nudged him playfully. "Let me guess: You paid that guy so that he pretends he is your boyfriend?"
Aghast, Kurt stared at her. "W…what? But how do you know? Who told you? Finn?" Since Blaine faked being his boyfriend at the wedding where Finn was going to be around as well, Kurt was forced to tell his stepbrother about the fraud, threatening him with his browsing history in case he wouldn't keep the secret. He would so call out that boy afterwards.
But she just shook her head. "No, he didn't. I found out myself. You see, I tried that trick as well after my ex Anthony dumped me for another girl."
"I'm sorry", Kurt said compassionately. "The same happened to me as well one month before the wedding. I didn't want my parents to pity me, so I kind of invented a new boyfriend." He looked over to Blaine who was still talking to his mom. "Luckily, Blaine crossed my way and was willing to help me out."
"But you do like him, right?", Mercedes said wisely. "Your feelings for him are not fake, I can tell."
"What? No!" Kurt shook his head fervently and went over to the bannister of the balcony, but Mercedes didn't give up that easily. She followed him and leaned against the bannister as well, looking straight ahead.
"I have seen you interact all day long. How you looked at him, how you laughed about his jokes, the way you acted around him…Believe me, that's how I acted around Anthony as well when I still had the hots for him."
Kurt rubbed his neck and looked over to the full moon in the sky. "That's nonsense", he said weakly, but he wasn't even convinced himself. "I cannot stand him, he is nothing more than a liar and a dazzler. And even if I liked him, what I don't, that wouldn't change the fact that he is already taken", he added, sounding somewhat bitter about it.