Thank you to everyone who reviewed and prompted, especially you amazing readers who are coming back again with more ideas. Before I get to the prompt, an apology - To those of you who look at the prompts before I post them, I'm not doing Team Bartie's Facebook prompt because I know nothing whatsoever about Facebook, and so it wouldn't have turned out to be any good. So my apologies to Team Bartie and anyone else who was looking forward to that. Anyway, here's today's prompt (also from Team Bartie). I hope you all enjoy it.
What about during the last dance at "Prom Queen?"
Disclaimer: This chapter has some dialogue taken directly from the show (two or three lines, I believe), so I realized that it would be a good time to write a disclaimer, which I've forgotten to do until now - I don't own Glee or anything associated with it. If I did, Blaine would be in every single scene. Anyway, enjoy!
Prom Queen
Blaine stood just outside the doors to the McKinley gymnasium, watching Kurt enter ahead of him, holding his thin shoulders squared and his spine straight and his head high. Blaine sighed, and wished that he could be as brave as that - to walk back into a room full of catcalls and hostile stares, to be looked at like he was something other, an animal, inhuman - and become crowned prom queen, of all titles. He'd heard about the bullying and the prejudice and, of course, Karofsky, but Blaine had never thought McKinley would be like this. He thought back to the number he'd insisted on singing that night, and felt a pang of guilt as it occurred to him that perhaps a gay boy from another school performing a lesbian song was not the most sensible choice for McKinley's prom. And he'd judged Kurt for wanting to wear the kilt.
Kurt had made it up to the stage by then, so Blaine pulled open the door and slipped in, edging his way to the Glee club and staring up at Kurt along with everybody else. With the white-blue spotlight trained on Kurt's pale face and a roaring silence permeating the air, Blaine wished he could rush up and take Kurt in his arms and shield him from the world. But this was something he couldn't keep Kurt from, so he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his tux and watched as Kurt stepped up to the microphone, even the sound of his breathing conspicuous in the huge space of the gym.
Kurt looked so small and alone and frighteningly breakable there, in front of everybody, and Blaine struggled against the urge to run to him as moments from the last ten minutes flashed back to him. Kurt's echoing footsteps and ragged, broken breathing as Blaine followed his frantic flight away from the prom and through the deserted corridors. His tremulous voice as the mirage of acceptance that he'd wanted to believe in disappeared. The way he'd looked so shattered that Blaine had been afraid to touch him. Blaine swallowed and found his own heart racing as Kurt bent his head towards the microphone.
Suddenly, however, Kurt's stance shifted - he stood more erect, he met the eyes of the audience, and a fire returned to his injured gaze as his sashayed his shoulders in a way that was so distinctively Kurt, and announced breathlessly, "Eat your heart out, Kate Middleton!" Blaine's face shone up at Kurt's, and he remembered again exactly why he was in love with Kurt.
Blaine was snapped out of his admiration, however, as Mr. Figgins announced the traditional first dance between prom king and queen. His gaze snapped to Karofsky, and he glared. As understanding as he wanted to be of Dave's predicament, and as much as Kurt insisted that he'd changed, Blaine was repulsed by the idea of that dance, of that bully's hands on Kurt. However, as he watched Dave walk nervously up to meet Kurt and, even then, keep a wary distance, Blaine's anger gradually dissolved and he was left with only pity for both of them.
They made it to the center of the ring of spectators and stood facing each other. Over the back of Kurt's shoulder, Blaine could see Karofsky's face. He appeared to be confused, and then the bewilderment cleared and a spasm of pain flitted across Karofsky's face before he uttered what was clearly some kind of apology and strode away, nearly running in his rush to disappear into the obscurity of the watching gymnasium. Blaine's eyes followed Karofsky's retreat for only a moment before they were back on Kurt, who was standing - alone, again - in the center of the circle of students like it was a cage. His face was frozen into a mask of fear, that deer-in-the-headlights expression back as the spotlights focused in on him for the second time that evening and music filled the room.
Again, Blaine was overwhelmed by an urge to reach out and hold Kurt, and this time, he intended to do exactly that. Finally, here was something that he could fix. Blaine left his spot next to Rachel and shouldered his way boldly through the hostile room until he broke free from the perimeter and stepped onto the dance floor. Kurt remained motionless, his back still to him, staring after Karofsky even though the gap in the crowd had long since sealed behind him. Blaine took two more steps forward and said smoothly over the sound of the New Directions' singing, "Excuse me."
Kurt spun around, jumpy and startled, but his face relaxed when he saw who it was. Blaine, having performed for much of the night and kept to the periphery for the rest of it, blushed slightly as he felt the eyes of the entire school on him. Of all the moments to finally find his redemption, it was now, as he extended an upturned hand to Kurt, that Blaine realized he was finishing what he'd been too afraid to complete at public school. Blaine beamed at Kurt and asked softly, "Um, may I have this dance?"
An adorable smile grew at the corners of Kurt's mouth and he answered quickly, "Yes." A pause, and a deep breath, and then he was full-out grinning as he laid his hand in Blaine's and added, "Yes, you may."
Blaine tugged on Kurt's hand and pulled him closer, sliding his free hand onto Kurt's shoulder. For a moment, they were dancing alone, and then in Blaine's periphery he saw Rachel spin out from the group of spectators and whirl in a circle, laughing. Suddenly the spotlight was off of them, and the circle surrounding them broke ranks, dissolving into happy couples twirling around them. Blaine took the distraction as an opportunity to gently let go of Kurt's hand and slip both hands down to Kurt's waist, drawing him against his chest and pressing his cheek against Kurt's.
Kurt moved his lips to Blaine's ear and whispered, "You realize that this song isn't for a slow dance, right?"
Despite his remark, Kurt reached up his arms and crossed them behind Blaine's neck. Blaine smirked slightly and pulled back for a moment to let his gaze rove over Kurt's expression. Finally satisfied, he drew Kurt closer again and murmured back, "You don't seem to mind it that much."
"No, I can't say that do."
Blaine rubbed his nose against Kurt's hair, taking a deep breath of the smell that was partly hairspray and cologne, but mostly just Kurt. I love you so much, he thought contentedly to himself, marveling at how Kurt's slim waist felt under his hands. Suddenly, Kurt's hands left Blaine's neck, and his fingers were wrapping around Blaine's wrists, moving them off of him and then interlacing their fingers, ceasing their slow swaying motion.
"You love me," Kurt repeated, clarifying.
Blaine blushed but steadily met Kurt's gaze, his eyes unwavering. "I said that out loud, didn't I?" he asked, a hint of rare shyness coloring his voice.
Kurt chuckled. "Yes, you certainly did." He stared at Blaine for a moment, triumph shining out of his bright eyes, and then took Blaine back into his arms and whispered in his ear, "I love you, too."
Just then, hundreds of balloons were let down from the ceiling, the bright lights making them seem to glow faintly as the rainbow of color cascaded down to the dancers. "You know," Kurt was saying, "Maybe this prom wasn't so bad after all."
It struck Blaine abruptly that somehow, it was just right for Kurt to be standing there, with the cheap-looking crown adorning his brow in satirical contrast to the fitted kilt and polished suit he wore. Blaine threw back his head and laughed exuberantly, swatting a pink balloon out of his face and raising the hand holding Kurt's into the air, spinning Kurt around before swapping places and twirling himself. "So much better than Sadie Hawkins," he chuckled, the hurt that had always been in his voice when he spoke about it suddenly vanishing. They were both laughing, and then, with no warning, their lips were on each other's, kissing passionately under the balloons and the lights as they spun together.
Not my best, I know. Sorry about that. Review and prompt, please!