This update is really a combination of three prompts, two from cole5148 and one from a friend of mine who gave me some general suggestions and ideas. Here are the two prompts:
Prom moment, when one of them comes down the stairs and they see each other in their formal wear for the first time.
Right after Kurt saw Blaine's performance?
Since I already have two chapters that are about the prom (Chapter 6 - Prom Queen and Chapter 13 - Kilt) and I didn't have many thoughts on how to expand these prompts into something bigger, I decided that they would work best when put together. And since this was prompted before their senior prom aired, this is about their junior prom.
Keep the prompts coming and enjoy!
Prom (Part 3)
Blaine raised his hand to knock on the Hummel's front door and then waited, his fingers toying nervously with the cuff of his tux. He looked anxiously down at the gold-wrapped box in his other hand and wondered for what felt like the millionth time if it had been the right thing to get. Before he could regret the choice, the door swung open and Burt stepped aside to let Blaine in.
"He's still getting ready," Burt said by way of explanation when Blaine walked into the living room and saw that Kurt was not yet there.
Blaine sat down on the couch and tried not to fiddle with the box in his hands, not wanting to muss the carefully tied navy ribbon.
"Nervous, kid?" Burt asked, returning from having called up the stairs for Kurt to hurry up and crossing his arms, leaning against the wall opposite Blaine.
"A little." Blaine chuckled honestly. "It means a lot to Kurt."
"It means a lot that he's getting to go with you," Burt corrected, his voice stern but kind.
"I want to make it perfect for him."
"You already have. How often is he going to find a guy that will go to prom with someone in a kilt?"
"I can hear you!" Kurt's voice echoed down to them, and Blaine looked up to see Kurt at the top of the staircase, leaning against the banister, beaming, his face so bright and eager and alive that it almost hurt to look at.
Kurt flitted down the stairs on the tips of his toes and stopped at the bottom to twirl before Blaine, displaying the finished kilt as Blaine saw it fully finished and on Kurt for the first time. The pleated skirt flared out around Kurt's white legs as he flashed a smile and held up his arms as if to ask Blaine what he thought.
His nerves and Burt forgotten, Blaine crossed the living room in a few quick strides and captured Kurt's face delicately between his hands. "Have I ever told you that you're amazing?" he whispered, gazing up at Kurt with shining, ecstatic eyes.
"You like it?"
"I love it," Blaine grinned, skirting around what he really wanted to say, that he loved Kurt. Blaine remembered the gold-wrapped box and stepped back a bit, placing his hands on Kurt's shoulders and looking him over at arm's length. "It's missing a little something, though," he said, narrowing his eyes critically.
"Did it need a few more sequins?" Kurt asked, a hint of concern coloring his expression and his teeth moving to worry his soft lower lip.
Blaine reached for the box and drew it open with a flourish in front of Kurt. "I was thinking more along the lines of this." Kurt's eyes widened as he stared down at the two pink corsages lying nestled into the layers of white tissue paper lining the bottom of the box.
"I know we decided that you'd be in charge of outfits," Blaine explained, "but you can't go to prom without a corsage. Is it right?"
"It's perfect."
Kurt was vaguely aware of an agitated turmoil in the center of the gymnasium and thought that he might have heard Finn shouting at someone, but as he stared, mesmerized, up at the makeshift stage erected at the front of the gym, he couldn't make himself care.
Of course Blaine was not always perfectly dapper and classic, but the version of him that was performing now was one that Kurt had never gotten more than a glimpse of, for a moment when they were singing Animal and their eyes had met across the deserted warehouse.
Blaine's hands were alive, thrilling even from a distance, like beings of their own. They slid down the shaft of the microphone stand, skating along the metal and then curling around it near the base as if it was his dance partner. Blaine's normally hazel eyes were dark, the irises blown, making them meet Kurt's delighted gaze even more intensely, as if Kurt was the only person Blaine saw in the crowded room. His legs were magic, bending in ways that Kurt hadn't known were possible as he gripped the mic stand.
By this time, the arguing elsewhere in the gym had grown quite distinct, and Coach Sylvester's voice had joined the din. Kurt smirked slightly as he thought he heard her shouting the names "Sugar Eight" and "Marvelous Marvin," but he kept his eyes fixed on his boyfriend as Blaine belted out the last word to the song and then dropped to his knees on the stage, his face alight with the thrill of performing.
Blaine hopped off the stage and made his way over to Kurt, breathing heavily.
"You were fantastic," Kurt said, his voice lower and hoarser than usual, grabbing Blaine's hands and squeezing them tightly, both very conscious of their surroundings and wishing that they could do more.
"You are the boy I've been dreaming of ever since I was a little boy," Blaine told him softly, his voice holding the seal of a vow as, with that sentence, he became the hopeless romantic that Kurt was more familiar with.
"I'm exhausted, Blaine," Kurt sighed as he unlocked his front door and stepped inside. "I know we made a bunch of plans, but I kind of just want to…"
Kurt trailed off and rubbed at his eyes wearily, and Blaine smiled and finished for him, "Unwind?"
Kurt barely nodded before he began wandering up to his room without a word and tossed his crown and scepter carelessly into a corner, the cheap metal clattering against the floor. Kurt began slowly taking off the top of his outfit, and Blaine wordlessly grabbed the change of clothes he kept in one of Kurt's empty drawers and went into the bathroom to change.
When Blaine reemerged, Kurt was seated on the edge of his bed, his back to the bathroom door, dressed in a loosely fitting cotton shirt and old, threadbare sweatpants. Blaine seated himself behind Kurt and reached up, placing his hands on Kurt's shoulders and slowly pushing the heel of his palms in slow circles into Kurt's muscles, massaging around the base of Kurt's neck and then down his back.
When Kurt's posture became no less stiff, Blaine leaned forwards and whispered "Relax," into his ear.
"I can't believe them," Kurt said tightly. "They couldn't give us one perfect night. That's all I wanted."
Blaine weighed his words carefully before speaking softly against Kurt's ear, "I danced with the most talented, brave, beautiful boy in Lima, Ohio. My night was perfect."
Kurt's back shifted, and Blaine could tell from it that he was smiling. "Thank you."
"I'm just telling the truth," Blaine said smoothly, his hands moving down and under Kurt's arms to wrap around his torso and clasp in front of his belly.
Kurt sighed and the tension drained from his shoulders suddenly as he slumped back against Blaine as if all the energy had been sapped from his body. "I'm sorry, I just want to sleep," Kurt said, turning part way around and smiling apologetically over his shoulder at Blaine.
Blaine released Kurt and slid underneath the covers, holding them up for Kurt to join him.
"Dad's going to make you sleep downstairs," Kurt mumbled, even as he nestled back into Blaine's chest.
"Then I'll stay until he does." Blaine's arms tightened his embrace and he hooked one of his legs around both of Kurt's, holding him as flush to his body as possible, wishing it could somehow be enough to shield Kurt from everything that had ever wished him ill.
Eventually, Kurt's face grew peaceful as his body lapsed into sleep and his breathing evened out, and Blaine looked down fondly at the boy in his arms and whispered the words he'd been aching to say all night long. "I love you."
I hadn't done a first I-love-you for one of these prompts in a while, it was kind of fun to do one again.
For those of you who are Harry Potter fans, I have created a forum called the Room of Requirement. It can be found here: forum/The_Room_of_Requirement/112160/ It's quite new so there's not much there yet, but feel free to check it out.
Thanks for reading! Review?