Blaine's already waiting for Kurt outside the library when he arrives.

'Sorry, am I late?'

Blaine shakes his head. 'Not at all. After you.' He gestures to the doors, letting Kurt in before him. They wander upstairs to the quieter section of the building – not that any of it is loud. Back home, the library was never buzzing, but here it's even emptier. He picks a random book from the shelf so he can sit at one of the desks with Kurt, with plenty of notebooks and pens out for them to ignore just like at school. Hopefully, away from the basketball guys, Kurt will feel a little more open with Blaine.

He gets what he wanted, and then some.

'Their routines are perfectly nice, just a little pedestrian if you ask me. I've helped Brittany practise, and I know she can do so much more than she's showing.'

Even though he knows it might make him feel terrible, he takes the risk: 'How are things with you and Brittany?'

There's a pause. 'Oh, great. She's swell.' He's less convincing than yesterday.

'Do you want to talk about it?'

Kurt doodles a butterfly on his notebook. 'It's fine. Sometimes I think maybe… look, can I tell you something?'

Blaine leans in and nods.

'I lied before about us holding hands. She keeps trying to, but I feel strange. She hugs me a lot and gets in really close and it's- it kind of- I get all nervous. It makes me uncomfortable. It's so silly.'

'Kurt, that's not silly. You shouldn't have to do anything that doesn't feel good.' He considers the irony of this, how much he's done that made him feel awful, but he shakes it off. 'Dating someone should be exciting. If you hold hands with someone you really like, it feels great.'

Kurt looks around, as if he's scared of being heard.

'Have you done it? Held hands with a girl?'

Blaine can't help smiling a little at his innocence. 'Not a girl. I mean, I would maybe hold a girl's hand as a friend, but I-' alarms are screaming in head, begging him to stop, because this is so huge for this place, but- 'I don't really date girls. I like boys.'

'You mean as friends?'

He shakes his head. 'I mean, like, dating.' He's never actually been on a date in his life, but he knows better than to try to explain apps and sex and secret meetings with questionable strangers. 'When I've held hands with people the way Brittany wants to hold hands with you, it's always with boys.' He's lying. Nobody has ever held his hand. But the phrase will have to be a placeholder for now.

Kurt stares at him, eyes unblinking. 'But… how?'

'Well, where I come from, it's not a big deal. Dating doesn't always means boys and girls; sometimes it's two boys or two girls, and it's fine.' He realises Kurt is eyeing him with suspicion, and he worries he's gone too far. He also hopes he's gone just far enough to make it click for Kurt. 'Are you okay?'

Kurt opens his mouth to speak a couple of times, but falters. Finally, he asks 'What do you mean?'

'Well, it's not that compli-'

'No, no… what do you mean, "where you come from"? You're from here. Lima. Just like everybody else.'

Oh, god. He's given away something a lot bigger than 'sometimes boys like boys' – this is something potentially universe-altering.

'No. I mean, just a different part-'

'Main Street? I didn't know anybody lived on Main Street-'

'A different part of Ohio. I used to live in Westerville, but now I live here. That's all I meant. You know what, I think I need to make a start on this book report.' He picks up the slim leather volume. 'The Catcher in the Rye. God. I mean, swell! Let's get started.'

He opens the book, praying he remembers enough of the story that he won't have to read the whole thing, until he realises he can't read anything at all. The book, just like the textbooks at school, is full of blank pages. He flicks through the whole thing, just in case. Nothing.

'This doesn't make any sense. Are all the books like this?' He shows it to Kurt, who nods, slowly writing 'Westerville' in his notebook. 'Why does this place even have a library if- this is insane.'

'I thought you said you'd read it before. Don't you remember what happens?'

'God, it was such a long time ago…'

Kurt's stopped doodling now, and he's sitting up looking so intently at Blaine that he suddenly wishes he knew the whole thing by heart so he could tell Kurt everything.

'Well… how does it start?'

Blaine scours his brain, trying to remember. 'It's about this teenager, Holden Caulfield. He's just been expelled, and then he goes to New-' he stops himself from expanding Kurt's geography knowledge any further, 'somewhere else. And he's this really angry kid, and he keeps calling everybody a phony.'

Kurt looks at Blaine like he's got questions, and Blaine's too focused on hoping they won't be about where Holden goes to realise that Kurt's gaze has moved to the book.

'Oh my goodness, Blaine! Look!'

Blaine looks down to see the pages fill up with text, and he yanks his hands away as if the book's on fire. Kurt grabs it and starts flicking through the pages. 'Blaine, how did you do this? This is incredible!' He gets to about halfway through and the words tail off. 'Wait, it's not finished. How does it end?'

Blaine's mind is blank. 'I- I don't think I ever finished it.'

Kurt's face falls. 'Oh. Okay.'

'But I bet Santana knows,' he scrambles, 'we could go and ask her. She's working today; why don't we go to the diner?'

Kurt looks a little nervous. 'Just the two of us? Together at the diner?' He fiddles with the cuff of his sweater. 'Would people think – would that be strange?'

Blaine shrugs. 'It's not strange to me. That's what friends do, right?'

Kurt sighs, and Blaine would give his arm to figure out if it's in relief or disappointment.

Sitting in a corner booth, Blaine watches as Kurt keeps flicking through the book. He keeps scraping the barrel of his brain for information, hoping he'll remember more of the story, wondering how on earth he's going to explain any of it to Kurt.

'Good afternoon, gentlemen, what can I get you?'

Looking up at Santana, Blaine flashes back to numerous nights at the café back home. He shakes his head a little – it's the last thing he needs right now.

'We don't need anything. We just need to talk to you.'

'If there is one person without eight thousand calories of food in front of them, I think my boss will have a breakdown. Order something, then we can talk.'

Kurt looks a little thrown off by the way she acts around Blaine. 'Could I get a cherry coke please?'

At least she can muster up a genuine smile for Kurt. 'Sure. Anything else?'

'I'll have the same. Thanks.' She leaves them alone for a moment.

'Blaine, there's so much of this I don't understand. Is this all made up? What's a hotel?'

Blaine isn't sure where to begin. 'The people in it are made up. But a lot of the stuff in it is real. Hotels are places where you can stay when you go out of town.' Kurt doesn't look any less lost. 'Like, if you wanted to visit another place, you could pay some money, so you could stay there. So you'd have a place to sleep.'

'And why does he get this girl to come to his room?'

Oh, shit. There's a prostitute in this book. Can he convince Kurt she comes over for some hand-holding?

'Here we go, two cherry cokes, and a free plate of fries because I'm delightful. I've got ten minutes; what's up?' Santana sits down next to Blaine, forcing him to shift over so that he's next to Kurt rather than opposite him. He feels him tense for a moment, but it passes quickly.

'I, uh, did something.'

She raises an eyebrow.

'What kind of something?'

Kurt passes her the book.

'Santana, it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. This book was empty this morning, just like all the others, but then Blaine started explaining what happens in it, and the words started filling in!' He can't contain his excitement, and people around them are starting to listen in. 'Look! Pages full of words! Did you know there are things called hotels that you can pay to sleep in if you go to a different town?'

Santana glares at Blaine. 'So you had a busy study session, then?'

Blaine winces. 'You could say that. I didn't mean to do it, but – well, I never finished the book. And it feels weird that only half of it is filled in. So I was wondering… do you know how it ends?'

'How did you not finish it? It's like, ten pages long.'

Some of the guys from school are at the next table, and Finn leans over to see what's happening. 'Did you say… a different town? What does that mean?'

'I don't get it – you can always just walk home again; why would you need to sleep somewhere else?'

'So all the writing and grammar practice we do – people actually use all of that?'

Before they can stop it, the information has spread round the whole diner and everyone is listening, waiting for answers – namely, for Santana to explain the rest of the story.

'Well, basically… Holden spends all this time acting like he hates everybody, but later on he talks to his sister, and you see this whole other side to him. And as much as he wants to pretend he knows everything and he doesn't care what people think of him, he's actually just,' she feels Blaine's shoulders tensing up next to her, 'really lonely.'

The rest of the book fills in, and the diner bursts into conversation.

'Oh my gosh!'

'Gee, did you see how all that writing just appeared?'

'Are all the other books supposed to have words in them too?'

Blaine and Santana are just looking at each other. Santana's synopsis hits a little too close to home for both of them. He looks down to see that it's not just the inside of the book that's filled in – the cover has gone from grey to dark blue. He grabs it and shoves it into his bag, hoping nobody else noticed, but one look at Kurt's face tells him he's too late.

'Was that – was that what I think it was?'

Blaine braces himself for a huge reaction, but Kurt is just staring in disbelief. 'Wow. That was so pretty.' He looks up at Blaine. 'Are you alright? I won't tell the others if you don't want me to.'

He nods. So much is happening so fast that it's making his head spin, but suddenly he feels grounded again when he feels something brush against his hand. Kurt's fingers have slid close to his and his hand looks so close to taking hold of Blaine's that he can hardly breathe. Blaine slowly turns his own hand over, so it's open and ready to take if Kurt wants to, and he very nearly goes for it, so close Blaine can feel the heat from his palm – but he pulls away at the last second.

'I'm sorry. I can't. Brittany.'

Blaine's close to passing out. He felt more excitement in that than in any one-night stand he's ever had.

'Of course. I'm sorry if I-'

'You didn't. It was my fault – sorry.'

They could go on in an endless loop of apologies and sudden shyness, but just as the buzz from the book dies down, Tina gasps next to the jukebox.

'The music's changed!'

She picks a track – Santana recognises Elvis' voice crooning out across the diner – and she and a handful of other kids start dancing. They're useless at it, but they're beaming and giggling, hopping from one foot to the other and twirling, and she just smiles. Even she can't bring herself to hate this. She looks down at Blaine and Kurt again, and they've gone weird. They're both sitting up extra straight and apologising and laughing awkwardly. She gets up.

'Anyway… I better get back to work. Enjoy your drinks, boys.'

Kurt swallows. 'I'm not really thirsty.'

'Me neither. Shall we get out of here?'

Kurt nods.

Outside, Blaine finally feels like he can breathe properly again. 'I hope you didn't feel uncomfortable in there. I mean, I wasn't trying to push you to – if you didn't want to-'

'No, I know you weren't. I wanted to- I still want to. But not now.' Blaine nods. He knows Kurt cares a lot about Brittany, even if he might not understand all of his feelings yet.

'I like that you're so loyal to her. You're a good person, Kurt.'

'But hugging can just be friends, right? Even if it's two boys?' Blaine's a little taken aback – this is pretty forward for Kurt – but he nods.

'Of course.'

'Okay. Um,' he inches towards Blaine, then steps back again, as if he doesn't even know how to start this. Blaine edges forward to meet him halfway, and if yesterday was a friendly hug, this one is definitely not. Kurt isn't just caught up in a moment this time: it's considered and tentative, and once they finally meet their bodies fit together warmly, intimately. Blaine has to squeeze his lips together, so he doesn't gasp when he feels Kurt's hand pressing into his back, but he still feels himself trembling. Kurt smells so fresh, and the way he holds Blaine is firm yet so nervous. For all Blaine knows, they could be standing like that for hours, but the sun is still shining when Kurt steps away. It takes every ounce of strength Blaine has not to hold on and keep leaning into him.

Kurt lets out a shaky breath, and a little nervous laugh. Blaine manages to remain somewhat dignified, even though he wants to squeal, and just smiles.

'Was that… okay? Did I do it right?'

'More than okay. Lovely. As long as you didn't feel, you know, uncomfortable.'

Kurt can't shake his head fast enough. 'Definitely not. Um, Blaine, do you think I could – could I borrow the book? I want to read the rest of it.'

Blaine hesitates for a moment. He doesn't remember everything, but he knows the books gets intense, and he doesn't want to corrupt the innocent, happy boy in front of him. But he knows it would be unfair to hold anything back. He takes it out of his bag.

'Of course. Here.'

Kurt takes a moment to marvel at the blue cover, running his fingertips over the gold lettering on the spine. 'Oh my goodness.'

That's when Blaine sees it. 'Um, Kurt.' He gestures at the little dragonfly brooch on his chest. The silver is the same as before, but the tiny gems down its spine are bright blue. Kurt's face lights up even more. He takes it between his thumb and forefinger, turning it so it catches the sun and glitters.

'Oh, Blaine. Did you-?'

Blaine shakes his head. 'No, I think it was all you.'

'Gosh, it's so beautiful.'

Staring at Kurt's eyes and mesmerised by the way they manage to sparkle even in black and white, Blaine nods. 'Yeah. Beautiful.'

'I think… I need to go home. Do some reading.'

Blaine nods again and clears his throat. 'Yeah. I can't wait to hear what you think.'

'It's got to be more interesting than basketball.'

Once he's sure Kurt's out of sight, Blaine does a tiny hop and punches the air.

On Sunday, Santana takes Brittany out for ice cream. She's determined to find out if she was crazy to think something happened between them before, especially now that Blaine has got some colour out of Kurt. He's been sickening since yesterday, secretive little smiles and long, yearning sighs, and it's great, really. She wants him to be happy. But she doesn't want him to hog all the happiness for himself.

The girls split a sundae between them. Santana is more used to low-calorie ice cream substitutes, and can barely believe how delicious this is. Brittany dabs a blob of cream onto her nose, making her giggle. Even she wouldn't be able to put her finger on the last time she giggled, but she's not thinking about that now.

'So the book really just filled in? Words on every page?'

Santana nods. 'Yep. A whole story. And then the jukebox at the diner was full of new music, and everybody started asking a million questions; it was crazy. Blaine told me the book turned blue after we filled it in.'

'Blue?'

'Uh-huh, dark blue. And apparently the gems on Kurt's little pin went into colour, too.' She notices the mention of Kurt makes her go quiet. 'Sore subject?'

She shrugs and prods at the cherry on the ice cream. 'I don't think he likes me.'

'What? That's crazy; how could he not like you?'

'Well, it's just that- I didn't think dating someone would be like this. We talk and laugh all the time, but whenever I try to hug him, or hold his hand, he gets all funny. I always thought it was supposed to be the boy that wanted to do everything, you know, all the touching and stuff, but I feel like it's only me. Is that bad for a girl?'

'No, it's totally normal to want to touch someone. Be close to them.' Santana certainly hopes it's normal, because touching Brittany is all she's been able to think about since they got here. 'Kurt likes you a lot, but maybe more as a friend.' Should she feel guilty about this? Is she trying to destroy their relationship so she and Blaine can pick up the pieces? She doesn't want Brittany to get hurt, but it's not like she's ecstatic as things are. 'Brittany, you're incredible. You deserve to be happy.' She hopes that's vague enough not to be evil.

Brittany frowns. 'Wait. Go back. Did you say things went into colour?'

Santana narrows her eyes at her, wondering if maybe she's just on a delay.

'Yeah. The book, and Kurt's brooch. And on Friday, my mom's earrings were green.'

Britt looks up, letting out an 'Ohhhh…'

'Oh what?'

'I thought I'd just remembered it wrong.'

Santana freezes. 'Remembered what?'

'Well, when I walked home from your house on Thursday, one of the roses in our garden was pink. I figured it was probably always like that and I'd never noticed.'

'The first thing you'd ever seen in your life that wasn't black, white or grey, and you thought it had always been there?'

Brittany shrugs. 'My brain's like that sometimes. Things take a while. It could easily have been there for 17 years without me seeing it.'

Santana allows herself a little laugh. This sounds more like the Brittany she knows back home.

'So before you saw that flower, did something feel… different?'

Brittany's face hardens and she stares at the table in concentration. 'Hm. I went to school. That was normal. I went home and had dinner with my family. That was normal.' She looks up into Santana's eyes. 'You. You're the thing that's different.'

Ridiculously, this makes Santana feel guilty, even though this is what she wanted. It's hard not to feel culpable when someone is pointing at her and saying 'you'.

'What do you mean?'

'When we hugged before I went home, it was, like, the kind of hug I wanted to have with Kurt. Really close and…' she licks her spoon and Santana prepares herself for the worst, 'and nice.'

Santana sits up a little straighter. 'Nice?'

Brittany nods. 'Yes! I think about this stuff all the time, wanting to touch and hold hands and nobody else ever talks about it so I always think it's just me. I thought there was something wrong with me, like I was totally different to everybody else.'

Santana inches her fingertips towards Brittany's until they're just touching. 'It definitely isn't just you.'

They walk home together and keep talking, keeping quiet in case anybody hears the scandalous details of their conversation.

'Can I tell you something else I think about all the time? Something nobody else here talks about?'

Santana links their pinky fingers together. 'Sure.'

Britt leans in so close it gives Santana goosebumps. 'Kissing.'

'Kissing?'

Brittany nods, a sneaky smile playing on her lips. 'I know it's a real word, so it must be a real thing. But I've never even seen anybody do it. Everybody at school gets so excited when a boy and girl hold hands, but I hold hands with the girls all the time and it doesn't seem like a big deal. Kurt freezes when I try. But I want to do so much more than that.'

Santana stops walking, and Brittany looks at her questioningly. Santana answers by pulling her pinky away just so she can hold Brittany's hand properly, fingers intertwined, arms touching, barely standing an inch apart.

'So this doesn't feel like a big deal?'

Brittany has to blink so she doesn't freeze up staring into Santana's eyes.

'Okay… maybe this kind of does.'

Brittany blushes, and there's a undeniable tinge of pink in her cheeks. Santana's heart stops for a moment when she feels Brittany's thumb stroking against hers.

'You really think about kissing that much?'

Yes, Santana thinks about just pulling her close and making out with her right outside her house, but she decides she's okay dragging this out a little. She brings Britt's hand up to her mouth and presses her lips gently against her skin. She keeps looking at Brittany's face. Her eyes close at the contact, and she gasps a breath in and holds it. Santana thinks she might even be swaying a little.

She knows she could probably take things further and Brittany would be more than okay with it, but right now she just feels so warm and happy that it's enough.

'See you at school, Britt.'

Startled, Brittany opens her eyes. 'Huh? Oh, um. Yeah. School.' Santana tries to walk away, but Britt holds onto her hand an extra few seconds. 'Thank you. That was… wonderful.'

Santana smiles and walks home, and when she gets there she sees someone else at the door.

'Oh, Santana! Hi!' Kurt is clutching a stack of grey books to his chest. 'Do you know if Blaine's home? I rang the bell, but nobody's answering.'

'Really? Okay, well, we can just go in.'

Blaine is out in the backyard with their parents. Dad is mowing the lawn, Mom is tidying the flowerbeds, and Blaine is clipping the hedge. Terribly. Every time Santana thinks she's getting used to the situation, she gets another glimpse of Blaine doing shit like this and it becomes hilarious.

'Blaine! Guest!'

Kurt's mouth falls open when a very sweaty Blaine turns around.

'Kurt! Hi!' He tries to wipe his forehead with his arm but it has little effect. Santana looks from one to the other, both boys equally flustered and frozen, and rolls her eyes. She eases the shears out of Blaine's hands.

'This is the part where you walk a little closer.'

He mutters 'shut up' before telling Mom and Dad he'll finish up later. They both smile and wave hello to Kurt, and Santana slaps Blaine on the ass as he goes inside. 'Can I get you anything to drink? Iced tea?'

Kurt nods, eyes glued to Blaine's arm where it's just about bulging over the sleeve of his t-shirt. He has to clear his throat just to get out a 'yes, please'.

'What have you got there?' he nods to the books Kurt is still gripping onto while he pours two glasses of tea. 'Done with the other one already?'

Kurt shakes his head a little to focus. 'Not yet. But I found these other books in the house, and I thought you might be able to help fill them in. And… I thought maybe they would go different colours.' Blaine notices he's wearing the same brooch from yesterday. He keeps glancing down at it every now and then, when he's not glancing down at Blaine.

'I'll do what I can. Do you mind if I shower first? I've been working outside all day; I don't want to get you all sweaty if we- you know, from reading together.' He can see Kurt's brain short-circuiting until all he can do is nod.

He imagines what he would do normally if this was a hook-up. He'd shove the books to the floor, grab at Kurt's clothes and drag him to the bedroom. Or couch, or table, or floor, or whatever, as long as he could get out immediately afterwards. Now, escaping is absolutely the last thing he wants to do. He can't wait to spend the afternoon talking about these books with Kurt, seeing the same excitement that was on his face yesterday.

Still.

'I'll be back in ten. Make yourself comfortable.'

Of course it would be easy to wait until he gets upstairs to take his shirt off. But he'll never make a change around here if he doesn't take some risks. When he peels it off, he's certain he can hear a whimper sneaking out of Kurt, and he grins to himself.

Seven minutes and one attempt at taming his hair later, he comes downstairs in slacks and a loose, unbuttoned shirt. It's a little too much for Kurt this time, who chokes on a mouthful of iced tea and drops his glass on the floor.

'Oh, shoot, I'm sorry-' he splutters out between coughs. 'Gosh, what a mess.'

'Don't worry; I've got it,' Blaine says, fetching a cloth and picking up the glass. Kurt jumps up to try and help, but slips on the tea, just in time for Blaine to catch him with an arm around his waist. 'Are you okay?' Blaine realises this is definitely too much. Kurt is shaking, heart pounding, blinking at an alarming rate.

'Books,' Kurt blurts out. 'I brought the books.'

Blaine stands him upright again and backs away a little. 'Right, of course you did.' He quickly wipes up the rest of the mess and buttons up his shirt. 'Oh, Kurt, your sweater.' There's a mark on the hem of Kurt's cardigan where the drink splashed. Let me get you out of those wet clothes? No. Kurt looks close to a panic attack already. 'If you give it to me, I can soak it and it'll be stain-free before you leave. Let me get those,' he takes the books and busies himself at the table long enough for Kurt to take it off without feeling like he was being stared at – even though Blaine could happily stare at him, cardigan or no cardigan, for hours. Kurt hands Blaine the sweater.

'That's probably a good thing. It's ever so hot today. It'll be easier to concentrate now.'

Blaine hums in agreement. 'So,' he scrubs at the splotch of tea before leaving the sweater to soak, 'which books did you bring?' He sits next to Kurt.

Kurt holds them up, showing Blaine the spines. 'Only three. Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451 and Frankenstein.'

'Wow. Keeping it light?'

'Are they bad? They've been in our house for years, just sitting there empty. I'd love to be able to show them to my mom, all filled in and in colour.' Blaine shifts in his seat. Even he knows that back home Kurt's mother died years ago. It's strange knowing that this Kurt has a perfect life in so many ways.

'No, they're not bad; they're classics. I'll explain as much as I can.'

Lord of the Flies is easy enough to summarise. Boys land on island. Does not end well. The story clearly has zero appeal for Kurt, who just cannot understand why the boys can't get along without hurting each other, which makes Blaine smile. The words fill in and the cover goes a light green, which makes Kurt smile more.

He's still marvelling at the colour through most of the explanation of Fahrenheit 451. The dystopian genre just seems ridiculous in the current situation. Does this version of Lima fall into that category? Or is it the opposite? Either way, the deep red cover gives Kurt a thrill.

Frankenstein is the most complicated, because this time, as disturbing as it is, Kurt is actually interested in the story.

'And what does he make the creature out of?'

'Out of parts of other people.'

'Where did he get them?'

Uh-oh. Can he explain graverobbing without bringing that panicked face back?

'Well, he took them from people who had already died, and he stitches them together and uses electricity in a storm to make it come to life.'

Kurt's expression stays very serious. 'And… is it okay?'

'Short answer? No.'

'Long answer?'

Blaine pauses.

'Everybody is scared of the creature, because he looks so different to them. Even though he learns to speak and he just wants some companionship, some closeness, nobody is willing to let him in apart from an old blind man, and that goes wrong when somebody think he's being attacked, and they chase him away.'

Kurt's sad face is far worse than his flustered-sexual-tension-induced-panic face.

'And then what happens to him?'

'He hates Victor for creating him. A lot of people get hurt, and in the end he's determined to kill him.'

Kurt puts a hand over his mouth. 'That's awful. And what about Victor? Does he feel bad for what he's done?'

Blaine looks at the books, at Kurt's brooch, at the lost expression staring back at him. He nods. 'Terrible. He knows he made a huge mistake, trying to change the way everything works. He thought he would help the world, but he just ended up hurting everyone he cared about.'

A tear rolls down Kurt's cheek, making him touch his face in confusion. 'Blaine, what's happening?'

Awesome. The first tears shed here. Blaine's mission of enlightenment just invented sadness in the happiest town in the world.

'You're crying. It happens when people get upset. But it's okay, it happens for a while and then it stops. It can even feel good afterwards. Sometimes you just need to get those feelings out of your system.' He picks up a napkin and dabs Kurt's cheek with it.

Before Blaine even knows what's happening, Kurt leans in and hugs him close. He isn't fully sobbing or anything, but it's the first sad story he's ever heard. Blaine didn't even talk about how many characters die. He soothes his hand over Kurt's back. 'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you sad.'

Kurt pulls away, shaking his head and sniffing. 'No, you didn't. I've just- I've never heard anything so… so beautiful before.' They both glance down to see that their hands are locked together. Blaine tries to keep his hand loose, so Kurt can easily pull away if this is too much, but Kurt holds on. They look at the book again in time to see the words trickling onto the pages. Blaine flicks through – yep, all full. Kurt closes the book to see the rich, violet cover. He brings his hand, and Blaine's with it, to his chest. Blaine can feel his heartbeat again, less frantic this time, strong and clear. 'Oh my goodness, Blaine. Look.' He tentatively strokes the leather. 'It's gorgeous.'

Blaine smiles at him. 'Yes it is.'

Kurt lets out a deep sigh, squeezing Blaine's hand. 'Thank you. Thank you so much, Blaine.'

When Kurt leaves, he does so with a mustard-yellow cardigan draped around his shoulders.

Notes: All the books mentioned in this chapter have been banned at some point, but not all in 1950s America. In case it wasn't painfully obvious from the very long descriptions of hugs, yes I am living alone during lockdown. I'm FINE.