Hello,
Many thanks for the reviews and alerts :) I am glad people are enjoying this. This part is quite a bit longer than the other two...and I haven't even gotten to the porn yet. But, I thought I'd go ahead and post part of what I have written. Please enjoy!
The third time is a mistake. It's just a mistake…he didn't mean to. He didn't.
He doesn't think about what happened the night Kurt was cast in Joseph, any more than he let himself consider what happened the night they moved into the apartment. He doesn't want to examine those feelings, those motivations, doesn't want to look too closely at what he'd done. Instead, he ignores it. He doesn't even consider talking to Kurt about it, too afraid of what his boyfriend's reaction would be.
He doesn't really know what he'd say, in any case.
He tells himself that he was drunk—and it was just an accident. An aberration. He just can't figure out why it happened, why he would want something like that. It's not like there is anything lacking in their sex life. Kurt is a wonderful lover—maybe not the most adventurous partner in the bedroom, but Blaine has never felt unsatisfied. Sure, they've had their rough patches and dry spells…but Blaine has never felt anything other than blessed to have Kurt in his life. He's more in love with Kurt now than ever, knows without a doubt that he wants to spend the rest of his life with him.
Still, he can't deny the thrill that raced through him those two nights. The pleasure that sparked sharper than he's ever felt before, shooting like lightning through his veins. He just knows it can't happen again. Even if he could think of the words to explain this strange desire, he knows Kurt would be angry and disturbed over it. Might even leave him over it.
He can't risk that. He won't.
So he throws himself into his classes and his job. He concentrates on cultivating connections that will get him a good internship, and possibly a job offer when he graduates. He tries to be the perfect, supportive boyfriend when Kurt goes into rehearsals and comes home at night too tired to do anything other than force down a few bites of dinner and go to bed. Eventually, he manages to relegate it to the back of his mind.
It's another two months of rehearsals, costume fittings, and two major casting changes before the production of JosephandtheAmazingTechnicolorDreamcoat opens to a modestly-sized audience.
Blaine is sitting in the front row for Kurt's opening night, along with Rachel, Burt, Carole, and Finn. Mercedes flies in from Atlanta, where she's been working on demos for a possible recording contract with a small label. Blaine chats pleasantly with Burt and Carole, catches up with Mercedes, and spares a few moments to watch the by-play between Finn and Rachel. They are both unattached at the moment, Rachel having broken up with Max only a few weeks after that night at the club. He idly wonders if he and Kurt will be called on to mediate yet another "on" phase of their epic on-again/off-again relationship. He hopes not—he's not entirely sure he'll be able to prevent Kurt from doing something violent this time.
Then the opening notes swell from the orchestra pit, and the curtain rises. Kurt steps out onto the stage in tight-fitting black pants and a sapphire blue dress-shirt, over which is a fitted waistcoat with the same pattern as the "coat of many colors" costume. Blaine can't help but chuckle a little as he realizes that a stage costume for a play with the word "Technicolor" in the title is actually kind of subdued compared to some of the things Kurt has in his own closet. Then a single spotlight illuminates the figure of the love of his life and the rest of the world ceases to exist.
Kurt is breathtaking. His voice soars as Blaine is sure it never has before, hitting every note perfectly. He bounds and dances across the stage, taking the relatively simple choreography of the Narrator and twirling it somehow into more, and Blaine is sure that's not just the lovestruck boyfriend in him talking. The audience is charmed and captivated by him, and despite very capable performances by the rest of the cast, and the excellent casting of Joseph in a strong tenor with whom Kurt has great on-stage chemistry, it is Kurt who gets the loudest applause and the longest standing ovation during the final curtain call.
Blaine claps until his hands are sore, and doesn't even wince when Finn lets out a piercing whistle in defiance of every bit of theater etiquette since…ever. Looking over at Burt and Carole, he smiles tenderly when he sees Burt pause in his enthusiastic cheering to wipe discreetly at his eyes. The older man brushes a hand over his chest where Blaine knows he wears his first wife's wedding band on a chain underneath his shirt, and glances towards the ceiling with a wistful smile. Blaine knows that there, in that instant, Burt would give anything for Kurt's mother to be able to see their son up where he belongs, finally living the dreams he's had to fight tooth and nail for practically his whole life.
They wait in a cluster by the stage door outside. Blaine hangs back when Kurt finally exits the theater, looking so radiant, so happy. His hair is still damp from a hasty shower, and starting to fly everywhere (Kurt will be howling in outrage as soon as he catches a glimpse of it), and Blaine can see a few streaks of greasepaint still clinging to his neck. He is forgetting himself in his joy, his smile wide and toothy. He has never been more beautiful in Blaine's eyes than in that instant.
He lets the rest of them have their moment with his boyfriend, lets Burt and Carole sweep him into enthusiastic embraces, lets Finn pound his back too hard in congratulations, lets Mercedes and Rachel practically fall over each other to be the next to hug him. He lets them all chatter excitedly while Kurt beams. After a few moments, though, Kurt's eyes meet his over Rachel's head and it is his turn. He steps forward, pulling a single red rose from behind his back and extending it with a flourish. Kurt's incandescent smile turns soft and adoring as he takes the bloom, stepping into Blaine's arms.
"You were amazing. I knew you would be," he whispers against Kurt's neck. He leans back to capture Kurt's lips in a passionate kiss, moving to kiss his cheek and his forehead before leaning back slightly. "I love you. I love you so much, and I'm so proud of you."
"Love you, too," Kurt murmurs back, tightening his arms around Blaine's neck. They stay that way, just holding each other and basking in their happiness, until Burt clears his throat loudly and reminds them that they have dinner reservations. They laugh softly, breaking the embrace. Kurt tucks in close to his side, slinging one arm around Blaine's shoulders and twirling the stem of the rose between his long, elegant fingers as they head out to the front of the theater to catch a couple of cabs to the restaurant.
The play doesn't get nearly the publicity of a Broadway production…but it does get reviewed in a few theater magazines and blogs. The reviews are generally good, though nothing special, except for one factor…
They absolutely rave about Kurt.
They praise his stage presence and his connection with the audience, calling him the best part of the production. They use words like haunting, otherworldly, and transcendent to describe his voice. More than one reviewer declares Kurt Hummel a name to watch, and a widely-read blog states plainly that they expect to see Kurt on the Great White Way sooner rather than later.
Kurt pretends that he is simply flattered, that the reviews don't really mean anything to him…but Blaine wakes up one morning to find Kurt's side of the bed already cold, and his lover ensconced at their kitchen table with a pile of the reviews Blaine has carefully been saving. Kurt is just staring at them, breathing deeply.
He feels a lump rise in his throat as Kurt closes his eyes, and Blaine can literally see the last remnants of the boy who was told over and over that he was too unusual, too outlandish, just too much to ever succeed fall away, letting go of the man he loves after far, far too many years. He wants so badly to go and wrap his arms around Kurt—but some instinct holds him back. The moment is too personal, too private, for even him to share. He backs up into the bedroom and walks towards the kitchen again, being sure to make some noise and give Kurt a moment to compose himself.
The production adds dates to its run, and the audiences start to get bigger. It's not all because of Kurt, of course. Joseph is a popular play, and the production really is quite good. Their Joseph (a man named Liam who is a few years older than Kurt) gets better and better with each performance. He and Kurt are crazy good, blending their voices perfectly on the numbers they have together. They get to be excellent friends, and Blaine might have wrestled with a little jealousy were the man not absolutely ramrod straight. So no, the success is not due solely to Kurt…but everyone knows he is a huge part of it.
The play gets mentioned in more publications, blogs, and websites, the novelty of Kurt's performance catching attention…and the actual performances holding it. Kurt stubbornly tries to be completely realistic—maybe even a bit pessimistic—about what this will mean for his career, but Blaine and Rachel both start to think that Kurt may be one of the impossibly lucky, lucky few who get their big break right out of the starting gate.
Privately, Blaine reflects that after all the crap Kurt went through growing up, the universe damn well owes his love something like that.
Blaine doesn't attend every performance, but he tries to go to one at least every couple of weeks. He never tires of watching Kurt up on stage, watching him grow more and more confident in his abilities with every thunderous round of applause, watching him blossom and thrive under the stage lights like some rare flower that is finally getting enough sun. He loves slipping backstage at the end of a performance—theater security knows him by now—and sitting in the dressing rooms while Kurt divests himself of his costume and makeup. He loves sweeping Kurt into his arms while he's still warm and a little breathless from the show, riding the adrenaline high of performing.
And yes, there's a little part of him that revels in the envious looks some of the cast and crew members shoot him when he kisses Kurt right there in front of everyone. Blaine hasn't missed the interested glances his boyfriend gets from several of them, and he's not above admitting it's a thrill to know that this beautiful, talented man is all his.
Joseph runs for a month—and Kurt is the busiest, most stressed-out that Blaine has ever seen him. But he's also the happiest that Blaine has ever seen him, and so Blaine patiently rides out the diva moments and the freak outs over costuming and scheduling and whether or not the little tickle in the back of Kurt's throat might be a cold coming on. He reassures Kurt that it's okay when the nights and weekends that they spend together dwindle down to almost nothing, smirking and promising Kurt that he'll have his chance to be the supportive and understanding partner when Blaine starts cramming for the bar exam. They make the time they do have together sacred, in perfect accord that their relationship is more important than anything, and they make it work.
Then one night, Kurt returns home with the same expression of dazed, nervous excitement that he was wearing the night he'd first been cast in the show. Blaine pauses by the stove, where he's in the process of reheating a pot of vegetarian chili for a very late dinner (or a very early breakfast, depending on one's point of view…on performance nights Kurt rarely gets home before one in the morning, and Blaine tries to stay up to eat with him at least a couple times a week), raising an eyebrow and waiting for Kurt to speak. He does so in a tremulous, disbelieving voice, whispering that the show's director had pulled the principle cast aside after the performance that night.
"And?" Blaine asks, pulling bowls and glasses down out of the cabinets. Kurt looks too happy for it to have been bad news, but…
"The theater's board invited a group of Broadway investors and directors to come and see our final performance on Friday…Blaine, Perry Cunningham and Gina Delacroix are going to be in the audience!" Kurt murmurs, and Blaine's eyes go wide. He knows those names from Kurt and Rachel's endless discussions of every nuance of Broadway. "David said they asked about me specifically."
And Blaine doesn't have to ask what that could mean for Kurt. Every last person in the city trying to make it on Broadway would cheerfully kill to catch the attention of people like Cunningham and Delacroix. He grins, laughing aloud when Kurt finally loses his hold on his emotions and lets out a little scream of sheer delight, dancing forward and wrapping his arms around Blaine's neck.
"I can't believe this…I can't believe this is really happening," Kurt says, pressing kiss after kiss against Blaine's lips, his jaw, his neck. Blaine just holds Kurt tighter, tangling his hands in Kurt's soft hair.
"You deserve it. You deserve it, you deserve it, you're amazing and you deserve it," he says over and over, walking them backwards out of their tiny kitchen until Kurt hits the arm of the couch and tumbles over it, pulling Blaine down on top of him as their kisses turn heated and hands start to roam.
They strip each other slowly, lazily, hands and mouths tracing the places that drive them wild with the easy familiarity of long years together. They make love at the same unhurried pace, whispering words of endearment and affection. Blaine swears he can feel their hearts beating in tandem when they shudder to completion, holding each other as close as they can.