We had a mega competition on Tumblr last night to see who could guess the final word to the epilogue. I lost followers in the process because of my spam but meh, they're the ones missing out on the giant ball of Klaine love. Anyway, we did get a winner and it was heaps of fun and I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this when I'm not revealing the word here. I guess you're used to my random and misplaced authors notes by now.
From Mispent Youth: It's either Blaine or Kurt's birthday and so, of course they deserve a birthday kiss!
Ah, the old birthday kiss... we had so much fun with this - you know the cake cutting one? Where if you hit the plate, you have to kiss the person closest to you? Yeah, I always made sure my best friend was there so I'd kiss her... on the cheek of course. We did that every birthday and, as such, she's my inspiration for this story.
Oh, and why do we never see their birthdays? The only one I've ever heard a mention of was Sam's which was the week before Prom (and if Glee is consecutive which I don't know about at all, that means his birthday was sometime during all the allegations of Rumours... ouch)
Birthday
New Directions had never been big on birthdays. Kurt wasn't sure why, but as a group they never seemed to do much to celebrate each other's 'special day.' Maybe it was simply down to the fact that every day had enough drama to focus on anything else, but either way they hadn't ever done any kind of birthday celebration.
Joining the Warblers, Kurt had immediately decided that they would be exactly the same, if not worse. Not in the drama aspect of course, but the solemnity of the group practically screamed at Kurt that they wouldn't be going out of their way to throw parties or anything that detracted from meetings. Not that it bothered him or anything, he was used to it.
So when Kurt was instructed to hold Ethan back for a few minutes before going to rehearsal, he didn't expect the two of them to walk in to the Warblers bursting into their rendition of Happy Birthday in eight part harmony. And it was to the amusement of the whole group that Kurt was informed that he had looked more surprised than Ethan. But that wasn't the end of it. When Wes pulled out a cake, Kurt was left wondering who these guys were and what they had done with the robots he usually had meetings with.
As Ethan cut the cake, a pair of arms grabbed him and pulled him to the side. Surprised, Kurt turned to see Blaine smiling at him. "We follow tradition. I didn't think you'd want to be the one closest to him."
Kurt frowned. "What tradition?"
Ethan answered the question for him by leaning over to kiss Nick on the cheek, the action followed by laughter and wolf whistles by the group while Jeff pretended to swat the boy away. "That tradition," Blaine said unnecessarily. "Your old club didn't do that one?"
Kurt shook his head. "New Directions didn't do birthdays."
Blaine looked like someone had stolen his piece of cake, which had just been handed to him. "You didn't do birthdays?" he repeated. "Why on earth not?"
"I don't really know." Kurt accepted his own slice of cake. "I mean, Mercedes and I always got each other presents on our birthdays, but it wasn't something we did as a club."
Blaine looked like he wanted to ask more questions, but then Wes was calling out over the noise and reminding them that they did still have a meeting and if everybody could settle down? And with that - apart from the cake in everybody's hands - the meeting went on as normal. And after that day, Kurt promptly forgot about the birthday tradition.
It was only a few weeks later when Kurt woke up to his phone buzzing madly with texts from family and friends wishing him a happy birthday. He typed out his responses a bit ruefully, noticing that none of his Dalton friends had sent him anything, then remembered he hadn't told any of them when his birthday was so he couldn't expect them to know.
Except for the part where he had Wes, David and Blaine on Facebook, and there was nothing there from any of them.
You do live with them after all, his mind reasoned. They'll probably say something in person.
But when Kurt went down for breakfast, it was just like any other day. The boys gave their greetings as normal, Wes informing a slightly disappointed Kurt that there was a Warbler meeting that afternoon. As they all split for their first class, Kurt had to accept that he clearly hadn't quite settled into the group yet. Maybe next year...
The bell finally rang and Kurt pulled his books together, glad to escape. He had spent most of his other classes texting Mercedes and Tina about birthday plans for the weekend, but his last teacher had eyes like a hawk so he had had to refrain. There had still been no recognition of it being his birthday by any of the Dalton boys and Kurt just wanted to get the Warbler meeting over and done with so he could get out to Lima for his birthday dinner with his family followed by a sleepover at Tina's place. That would cheer him up.
As Kurt left the classroom, he was surprised to see Blaine waiting outside. "What are you doing here?" he asked, adjusting his bag. "Shouldn't you be down at rehearsal?"
"Just need to talk to Ms. Larken for a minute. Can you wait for me?"
Kurt shrugged, a bit surprised by the request but more than happy to oblige if it meant time with Blaine. "Sure," he said, digging his phone out as Blaine disappeared into the classroom and resuming his progressed on Angry Birds.
Kurt was just getting into the game when he became aware of a presence at his side. Looking over, he saw Blaine smirking at him. "I thought I was going to have to yell to get your attention."
"Oh, how long were you there?" Kurt felt himself blush as he tucked the phone away. Usually he didn't get so lost in the game, but it was good stress relief for a less than perfect birthday.
Blaine laughed. "Not long," he admitted. "Anyway, ready to go to rehearsal?"
Kurt nodded and the two made their way down the hall. "So," began Blaine, clearly making small talk, "have you had a good day?"
Kurt considered his answer for a few seconds. "I've had better," he answered slowly, searching Blaine's face for any signs of recognition. None came.
"Oh, well that's a pity." Blaine paused with his hands on the doors to the choir room, turning over his shoulder to give what Kurt could only describe as a smirk. "Hopefully this will make things better."
And before Kurt could even think about what Blaine was saying, the doors were opening to reveal the Warblers in formation, already singing the opening refrains to Happy Birthday.
Kurt's jaw dropped, and the memory flooded back to him. How could I have forgotten? But he had truly believed that the Warblers had forgotten about him, and to know that the entire group had set this up was getting to Kurt more than he was willing to let on.
Blaine was still by his side, smiling at him. "You thought we forgot?" he said quietly as the others finished singing. "Happy birthday, Kurt."
Kurt shook his head, stepping further into the room as the rest of the guys surrounded him, wishing him a happy birthday. "You have no idea how hard it was to not say anything all day, but Blaine insisted." Nick draped himself across Kurt's shoulder, smiling at him. "He wanted to make it special for you."
Glancing over at Blaine, Kurt found his friend staring in the other direction, his cheeks flushed. "I'm glad he did," Kurt said, loud enough for Blaine to hear. The blush deepened, but a smile was tugging at his lips.
"Cake!" Jeff yelled, and Kurt turned to see Wes bringing in a cake. The rest of the Warblers gathered around, Kurt finding himself pulled in between Thad and Blaine with a knife being pressed into his hand. A moment later, Thad stepped away a little and Kurt frowned slightly. Does he not trust me with a knife or something?
Kurt sliced the knife straight into the cake, only remembering what it meant once he hit the bottom. He turned quickly and suddenly realized that - thanks to Thad's quick maneuvering - the closest person to him was... Blaine.
Blaine was still staring down at the cake as if his mind hadn't quite caught up. Kurt swallowed harshly before deciding it would be easier to just get it over and done with - not that he minded kissing Blaine of course, but the potential awkwardness was a little too much - and leaned in to press his lips to Blaine's cheek. Which would have been fine if Blaine had not suddenly snapped out of his daze at that point, turning towards Kurt to see what he was going to do.
Their lips met.
The room stilled, as did both of the boys. Kurt knew he had approximately half a second to think about it before things got really awkward. You're already kissing him, what have you got to lose? With that, Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine's neck and began to kiss him properly. It only took another second before Blaine was kissing him back just as eagerly, his arms curling around Kurt's waist and tugging him in closer.
They finally pulled apart when Cameron let out a rather loud wolf-whistle, which was quickly followed by David smacking him on the back of the head. The other Warblers promptly decided that doing something other than watching the two boys kiss was probably wise and immediately focused their attention on getting cake distributed to everybody, thankfully leaving Kurt and Blaine in peace.
Blaine still looked stunned. "Wow," he murmured quietly.
Kurt nodded in agreement, realizing his arms were still around Blaine's neck but not making any move to remove them. "Wow indeed. Am I safe to say that you wanted that too?"
"For ages now." Kurt finally allowed a tentative smile to cross his face in response. "It's interesting actually, I was going to ask you to come out with me on Saturday night to celebrate your birthday... I guess I can ask you on a proper date now."
"I guess you can," Kurt agreed, his smile growing wider. "Hey, did you get me a present?" Blaine nodded, looking almost scandalized. "Whatever it is, I don't need it." He unwrapped his arms from Blaine's neck, allowing one hand to briefly brush over his now-boyfriend's lips. "That was the best present I could have gotten."
Blaine's smile grew. "Well then, I'll make sure to give it to you again on Saturday."
I can really tell the difference between chapters I wrote more than a month in advance and the more recent ones.
MusicalEscape:
Chapter 220, part of a quote from bully: "...nobody wants Anderson..."
*scoffs* Tell that to the multi-million amount of fangirls who have major crushes on said boy. Too bad all the good ones are gay, taken, or fictional characters. (Mr. Anderson happens to be all three :P )