AN: I'm extremely sorry for the delay! I've been sort of busy traveling and unpacking and whatnot. I know I said on Tumblr that I'd have this up by yesterday, and I'm sorry about that too. I sort of hit a small writer's block. This is my first time writing Reed and Kurt together, so I hope I got decent characterization for Kurt. So without further ado, here's the third chapter (:
Again, I own nothing. I just like to play around with other peoples' characters.
No, he won't. -R.
Kurt furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Were Reed and Shane in the middle of a fight? After all, Blaine did leave earlier to get coffee with his brother; it wasn't planned or anything, Shane had randomly texted Blaine at eight o'clock that morning. It was unusual, Kurt thought.
He decided to text Blaine to see if he knew anything.
How was coffee with Shane? -K.
His reply was almost instant:
It was fine. Shane just wanted to catch up. Have you spoken to Reed? -B.
Kurt frowned. Why would Blaine ask that? He decided to shrug it off.
He's actually coming over. -K.
That's nice. I'm actually on my way to a meeting with Greg. I'll see you this afternoon? -B.
Greg was the manager of a small restaurant that Blaine occasionally performed at. Aside from majoring at English at NYU, Blaine made a living by singing at various cafes and restaurants. Greg, however, had Blaine perform at least 4 nights a week.
Sure. See you. -K.
Kurt was about to do some random tidying up in him and Blaine's bedroom, before he saw his reflection in the hallway mirror. Apparently, Reed's text had interrupted his morning hair routine; leaving it volume-less and flat. Not amused, he made a beeline for his vanity to fix his hair before Reed came over.
Reed's cab was just pulling up to Kurt and Blaine's apartment when his text to Kurt went through.
On my way up. -R.
Kurt had just sprayed his final spray of hairspray when his cellphone buzzed with Reed's text. He quickly ran to the door to unlock it, before going back to the bedroom to put away his hair products.
Door's open. -K.
Minutes later, Kurt heard the door open, close and lock before Reed's voice called out, "Kurt? Where are you?"
"Right here," He answered, walking out of the bedroom to greet his best friend. He noticed Reed holding something behind his back. "What'cha got there?" trying to peer over the smaller boy's back.
"Hmm?" Reed asked, feigning innocence. "Oh, these?" he pulled out two platinum credit cards and started fanning himself with them before walking closer to Kurt. He started circling him, trying not the stumble over, fanning the cards in front of the taller boy's face. "Just something I thought we could use today."
"You want to go shopping?" Kurt asked suspiciously with an arched eyebrow.
"No, I actually have a whole set of these things. They make for a nifty fan when the weather's warm. I was thinking we could go to the park and tan." Reed deadpanned sarcastically. "Of course I want to go shopping. Please?" he pulled a face that resembled a puppy.
A smile tugged on Kurt's lips before he took one credit card out of Reed's outstretched hand. "I guess it wouldn't hurt. To let the nostalgia of this act sink in." he winked, remembering their New Year's trip in junior year of high school.
Reed grinned, pulling Kurt through the apartment door, barely giving him enough time to grab his phone, keys and a coat.
Four hours, twenty-three shopping bags and one coffee run later Reed and Kurt were almost done with their shopping escapade.
Reed was trying on a pair of pants and Kurt was waiting in the dressing room hallway for the small boy to show him the garment.
"Hey Kurt?" Reed called out.
"Hmmm?" Kurt answered, taking a sip from his coffee.
"Could you—ow!" Reed yelped after the sound of a zipper zipping. "Could you come in here for a sec? I'm having some trouble."
Kurt only laughed and knocked on the door. "Open up, young grasshopper." Reed quickly unlocked the door to let his friend in. One hand was caught in the already tight pants. Kurt laughed. "Reed, maybe you should've unzipped all of the zippers before putting the pants on."
"But the others looked unnecessary!" Reed tried to reason. Kurt only shook his head and proceeded to unzip all four zippers. He laughed again, feeling the nostalgia from high school. "There," he said before sitting down on the dressing stall bench. "Now try."
Reed slowly shimmied into the pants, successfully putting them on. "Thanks, it was much easier," he said.
"Are you and Shane in the middle of a fight?" Kurt suddenly asked, nonchalant.
Reed blushed slightly and looked down. "W-what? No, not at all," he peeked a look at Kurt; who looked doubtful and wore his 'Bitch, please' face. "Not...exactly. We had a...discussion?" Reed leaned against the wall.
"What kind of discussion?" Kurt asked. He wasn't going to beat around the bush.
"Hekindofaskedmetomarryhim," Reed mumbled.
"He what?" Kurt raised his eyebrow.
"He, um. Shane sort of asked me to marry him," Reed sighed.
"He what? Shane Anderson asked for your hand in marriage?" Kurt exclaimed, half with excitement half in shock.
"Shhh!" Reed ran over and clamped his hand over Kurt's mouth. "Do you want to say it louder? I don't think Brooklyn quite heard you," he whisper-yelled. Kurt raised his hands in surrender, causing Reed to take his hand off of his mouth.
"I… I don't know what to say. What did you answer him?" Kurt asked, still in shock.
"I said no," Reed replied timidly.
"You said—! Reed shot Kurt a look. He brought his voice down to a whisper. "You said 'no'?"
Reed shook his head quickly and sighed. "I didn't exactly say 'no'. I didn't exactly say 'yes' either. Just…can we talk about this somewhere other than the dressing room of Bergdorf?" he asked with hopeful eyes.
Kurt stood up from the bench. "Fine. We'll pay for our last purchases, then we'll grab some take-out, okay?" Reed nodded as Kurt walked out of the stall to give his friend some privacy.
Reed suggested that he have his mom's driver drop off their respective shopping bags to their apartments, just so they wouldn't have to lug them around.
They chose a little Japanese restaurant down the street. Once they had their orders and got to the apartment, Kurt cut to the chase. Reed was perched on one edge of the couch, his back leaning against the armrest; Kurt was on the opposite side in the same position.
"So why don't you explain to me this whole marriage thing?"
Reed bit the inside of his cheek. Kurt squinted his eyes. Reed gave in. "Okay. So last night he basically asked me if I wanted to get married this year or something. Because the law was passed and whatnot. And I said I wouldn't get married this year because, and let's be real for a second here, we're still in university for crying out loud. You with me?" Kurt just nodded.
"Go on," he encouraged as he mixed together his soy sauce.
"And then I brought up my parents, and how they were apparently in love before they got married. But then they ended up hating each other and got a divorce. And he asked me if I wanted to talk about it and I said no. That's it," Reed finished. Glad that he got the story out and hoped Kurt would side with him. Kurt only sat there, thinking. It made Reed a little uncomfortable.
Finally, he said, "Let me get this straight. Basically, with all seriousness, you're scared of marrying Shane," Reed was about to protest before Kurt gave him a 'Let me finish' look. "I'm not saying this week or next month or this year. In general, you're hesitant to marry Shane. Yes or no?" Kurt deadpanned. Reed hated it when Kurt was blunt.
Reluctantly, he nodded. "Yes."
Kurt's expression and voice softened significantly, "Reed, honey, this is Shane we're talking about. He loves you so much, you know that."
Reed was fumbling with his chopsticks, trying to separate them. "That's why it scares me! You know how I am with these things. I know, it's been a couple years since we gotten together; but it still scares me sometimes. I've only been with Shane. He's literally been my first everything, and the fact that I love him so much scares me." Reed poured out, snapping the chopsticks in apart; getting a small splinter in the process. "And now I have a splinter," Reed pushed the take-out container away in frustration.
"Hey, come here," Kurt motioned, placing his and Reed's food on the coffee table adjacent the couch. Reed inched closer and stretched out his hand for Kurt to examine. "I'm going to be honest with you, because you're my best friend," he said as he looked closely at Reed's hand for the splinter. "You and Shane are the most adorable, wonderful couple I know; after Blaine and I, of course. And at the end of the day, what you really need to do is talk to him." He quickly pulled the splinter out and patted Reed's palm.
After finally eating, both boys were back to their old places on the couch. Both were hugging their knees to their chests.
"He really asked you to marry him, huh?" Kurt asked, mostly to himself than Reed.
"Uh-huh," Reed answered expressionless, pulling at a loose thread on his jeans.
"Do you think he has a ring and everything?" Kurt's voice went higher due to his excitement.
Reed shook his head, thinking as he spoke. "I don't think so. Thinking back on last night, he didn't exactly ask me to marry him. He sort of…asked what I thought about it. Shane's spontaneous, but he wouldn't propose in bed. Knowing him he'd have this big plan and everything," Reed mused with a smile tugging on his lips. "But when I think about it, maybe it would be nice to marry Shane, you know? We could move out of the city or something. And then, I don't know," Reed blushed a deep red. "Have kids or something," he smiled.
A knowing smile grew on Kurt's features. "And what would your kids be like?" he asked, half nonchalant, half giddy.
What made Kurt even more excited was that Reed didn't even have to stop to think about what he was going to say next. "I don't know, really. Because I don't think I would mind however they turned out to be, so long as Shane and I raised them right. And I sort of always thought I'd end up with two kids, just because. And they'd have curly hair. And Shane would introduce them to dance and have them stand on his feet while waltzing with them or something. And I could introduce them to painting and they'd try to out-paint each other by trying to paint better portraits of who ever.
"But then again, if neither of them are into either of those things, they could do whatever hobby they like as long as it makes them happy. Thinking about it, we might have to move and find an actual house though. Because it could get sort of crowded in an apartment, and I'm pretty sure it would be more fun for the kids if we had a yard, don't you think?" Reed finally looked up at Kurt, his cheeks turning slightly pink.
"I think you should definitely talk to Shane about this whole thing," Kurt stretched out his legs and poked Reed's leg with his toe.
"You don't think he'd…?" Reed trailed off, unsure of how Shane would actually react.
"If anything, Shane will understand and hold you tight and you'll probably fall asleep with your legs tangled and you'll wake up and Shane will smile and pull you closer to him as he waits for you to wake up," Kurt said as if it was obvious.
"How…How'd you…How do you know that?" Reed's cheeks were slowly starting to rival the colour of his hair.
"You two never changed, do you know that? After all, it was me that had to always move to Blaine's room at Dalton during the night while you and Shane got friendly."
"Oh," Reed said, his cheeks still flushed.
"Of course, thinking back on it, Blaine and I were getting cozy with each other, too," Kurt teased.
"Kurt!" Reed slapped his friend's arm.
Kurt pulled Reed into a short hug. "Go along home and call Shane, okay?" he felt Reed nod against his shoulder.
Before Reed was about to close the door behind him, Kurt called out. "Oh, and Reed?"
"Mhmm?" he turned around, looking to see if Kurt called him because he had forgotten something.
"I'm sure it would be great for your future kids if you and Shane moved somewhere with a yard," he winked.
Reed just rolled his eyes and waved at his fashionable, yet often-crazy best friend. Little did Kurt know, as Reed walked down the hall to the elevator he was biting back a smile.
And his blush had yet to fade.
Voila! I was thinking, and I'm probably going to wrap up this story in the next 2-4 chapters. I know how it'll end, but I just to to figure out how to get to that said ending, you know?
But anyways, thanks for reading. Reviews help fuel the ranebow! :D