Finally! I hope I get more time to write so that the next chapter will not be so far away! Perhaps even this weekend. I have tons of plans for all of these characters.

[I do not own any of the characters from Glee or the song mentioned in this chapter, "Mr. Brightside" by the awesome band The Killers.]

Chapter 8: Running Back

Blaine had driven home from Lima before he and Kurt had any chance to talk alone, after Rachel and Mercedes and Quinn, and... well, all of New Directions, had practically piled on top of them in the auditorium yesterday. It was a weeknight, after all, and Kurt wasn't heading back to school until the next morning whereas Blaine had the excuse of the long drive back to Dalton.

So it was Kurt alone who had to take the teasing from all his old friends after they had been very polite while Blaine was still there, mostly talking about how grateful they were to him for letting them perform his songs and all that, while only slipping in here and there small and almost undetectable hints of razzing about the guys hooking up finally.

Despite the ensuing merciless teasing from his friends after Blaine left, he ended up actually wondering later that evening if he could have assumed more meaning from it than Blaine did. If only they'd been able to say anything to each other after all that kissing and before all those friends pouncing. He thought he knew where they stood now, it seemed quite clear from the non-verbal communication there, but after all, people have simple hormones and reactions sometimes, don't they? It's possible he was reading more into it because he wanted to, and Blaine was simply kissing him just… maybe, like in the moment. He really didn't think so but it was just possible that it didn't mean quite as much as he though it did. Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss.

He only saw him briefly one time all day today, but he was with a teacher, and Kurt knew he was about to head off to a preparation for Model United Nations with that teacher, so Blaine couldn't stop and talk with him even though it really looked like he wanted to. He was pretty sure Blaine was looking at him the way someone who is totally into you would, especially if they were wishing they could talk to you in private but can't right now because of some stupid teacher talking all about some stupid Model UN. Whatever. He was proud of Blaine for that. Stupid talented brilliant overly-booked kid.

After school today, Kurt, for one, didn't have any extra-curricular commitments, so when some of the guys in his dorm invited him out to the yard for some football, he gladly joined. It had been raining for almost two days, so the yard in the quad between all the dorms was practically all mud. For some crazy reason, which no one can explain but everyone gets, a casual pick-up game of football is about a hundred times more fun in the mud.

They almost hadn't asked him to join, thinking that with his always-perfect appearance including keeping his hair constantly intact, he may not be likely to enjoy rolling around in mud. However, as they found out, Kurt is not one to do anything half-way, and if there is a challenge of physical prowess at hand, especially involving a chance to display a bit of his known skills, he will dive in to participate with all he's got. Besides, Kurt loves anything that is out of the ordinary, a bit crazy, and fun. The thought of mud football made him laugh, so on with shorts and a t-shirt and out onto the muddy yard he went with his jogging and jostling schoolmates.

About 20 minutes into the game, when all the boys were covered in mud and raising up a ruckus out in the yard with all their laughter and stray throws that got away from them whenever they slipped in the mud while catapulting the football in an entirely different direction and force than intended prior to the mud taking them down, Blaine was back in his room. From his window, he had a perfect view of what was causing the very loud hilarity below.

A pick-up game of football was not at all an unusual thing, but… on the third glance down at the game, was that… it couldn't be Kurt…. Ah, but it was! Well, this Just Got Interesting.

Then again, he felt a little twinge of disappointment because he was looking forward to catching Kurt as soon as he could, because he was dying to talk to him ever since they never got to talk yesterday. For gosh sake they kissed and then never… well, not just kissed… they really kissed, and kissed some more… so, that's pretty clear… But still. He just felt like maybe it had needed at least a couple words too. They just never got the chance. And now, with the guy out there coating himself and others in mud, it may be a while longer.

As he was watching, he started to notice that Kurt was… good! Like, really good. It didn't surprise him that he had the right kind of dexterity and quickness, like a dancer, and his quick thinking and fast strategizing could have been predicted by his intelligence and wit in general and how fast he learns everything from chemistry to dance moves, but what floored him was the strength he was seeing from Kurt down there.

He thought back and realized he'd never really… felt his muscles or anything, and under most of his outfits… well, maybe he'd noticed a little bit, but never really related it to athletics or that kind of strength. Maybe he'd felt those shoulders once… yesterday. Yeah, they were strong and defined, but it hadn't really registered as the most important thing to make a note of or focus on at the time, overcome as he had been with the emotion of it all, finally making that connection and finally expressing his true feelings for this incredible man who is right now actually tackling Kenny, who is no small guy. OK, yeah, those kisses from yesterday are going to have to be followed by more as soon as possible.

As always happens with Blaine, when the phrase "it started out with a kiss" popped into his head, he knew it was a line from a song and that it would soon be stuck in his head. "It was only a kiss, It was only a kiss…" What is that from?

"It started out with a kiss,

How did it end up like this?

It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss..."

For some reason all he saw in his head was Cameron Diaz singing something... Oh! From that movie The Holiday! It's by The Killers! That song... What's it called.., Mr. Brightside. Awesome song! He thought he should go look for it online to hear it again...

And outside the window, he saw Kurt tackled. Oof. He was clearly fine, but… man. If anyone's tackling him, it should be… OK I really should stop watching before I go crazy.

And there's yet another line from the song. "I just can't look - it's killing me…"

He just couldn't stop watching, was the problem. It wasn't just that he really REALLY liked watching Kurt do anything, but also he was drawn to that level of raw talent. Blaine was a Wide Receiver on the Dalton football team, and actually started to think maybe Kurt would be someone to mention to his coach for that position for the team next fall. Even out there in the mud, he was showing all the skills on the field that make a natural and talented offensive football player.

But then something happened to change his mind completely. Not a Wide Receiver at all. Kurt intercepted the football, ducked and turned in a flash, found a hole in the defense almost instantly, and pushed right through with surprising force. Then when Tom, one of the starting defense players on the actual football team, tried to tackle him, Blaine's eyes almost popped out of his head as Kurt clocked him with his shoulder, muscled past him AND Kenny, and would have shot off on a clear run to the goal line if it hadn't been for a pothole-sized slick of a mud pocket that finally took Kurt down, laughing raucously in the mud with at least six of the other players piling on top of him just for the fun and hilarity of it all, as is the true nature of mud football.

But that move. That solidified it. Kurt would make the perfect Running Back.

"Destiny is calling me,

Open up my eager eyes…"

More lyrics from this dang song! Blaine tore his eyes away from the window and looked it up.

While he was looking for the song, he was singing the line to himself out loud, "I just can't look, it's killing me…"

He was seriously in need of a distraction, because any more watching Kurt play mud football and he was in danger of going out there to join that game, and in the mud with Kurt at this particular moment he'd end up not playing much football and that would not be good for the other players, or anyone! But Kurt is in trouble as soon as he gets back in here after that game. Oh, man, calm down Blaine. Cool it. Be a gentleman.

For whatever reason, when Blaine gets a song running through his head, he starts to arrange it for acapella voices. It just happens. So that's what happened with this song as he was listening to The Killers recording of it he'd just bought and downloaded. The harmonies and instrumentals started flooding into his mind, and soon he was writing out notes and recording practice tracks to experiment with. It was a good thing, because he needed an outlet for his creative mind right then to pour his excess energy into and to keep him from the window.

When the halls of Blaine's dorm, the one with a stocked kitchen, were invaded by a horde of crazy guys with mud drying on their clothing and faces and hair, the sound of Blaine singing at the top of his lungs was pouring out into the hallway on the third floor.

A few of the guys, including Kurt of course, wandered toward that sound before heading to the kitchen. Blaine sounded like he was singing the main melody at this point, with about six harmonies coming from probably his computer, all recordings of him accompanying himself. In the space of time they had been playing football, the guy had worked out a seven-part harmony (so far) and sounded like he'd almost perfected the blend.

"And I just can't look - it's killing me

And taking control

Jealousy, turning saints into the sea

Swimming through sick lullabies

Choking on your alibis

But it's just the price I pay"

More and more boys were showing up to find out what the gathering in the middle of the hallway was about, and each one stopped to listen along with everyone as soon as they heard Blaine's seven voices coursing through the door and into the hallway.

"I'm coming out of my cage

And I've been doing just fine

Gotta gotta be down

Because I want it all

It started out with a kiss

How did it end up like this?

It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss…"

Kenny, who had been listening to the whole thing intently all along, asked Kurt suddenly, "You guys are dating, right?"

When Kurt nodded yes, a bit shocked that Kenny knew this already, or assumed it, because really, even Kurt didn't know this for absolutely sure yet, Kenny took in an audible sharp intake of breath, and said "uh oh!" and turned on his heel and swept down the hall without a chance to question him.

"Wes? What was he talking about?"

Wes tore his ears away from Blaine's door and answered Kurt, "Oh, nothing to worry about I'm sure. Kenny loves being over-dramatic all the time."

David piped in with, "But, still... Blaine tends to do this with a song he finds um, appropriate for whatever he's going through at the moment, like, therapy? Kind of?" Seeing Kurt's worried expression, he added, "But not always! More than half the time, or at least half the time, it's just a song he likes and it has nothing to do with the guy he's in love with," He stopped short with a look that clearly said he spoke that last part without thinking. "I mean it doesn't have to mean anything just because he's singing it like that..."

"He probably just got into arranging the song," Wes offered. "He does that. It's a great song. It sounds awesome!"

"Now I'm falling asleep

And she's calling a cab

While he's having a smoke

And she's taking a drag

Now they're going to bed

And my stomach is sick

And it's all in my head…"

Kurt still worried as he listened to the sincerity in Blaine's voice working out this song.

"But she's touching his chest now,

He takes off her dress now,

Letting me go…."

After more than a few of the gathered students said things like "you guys should totally do this song," Wes finally busted open Blaine's door with a couple loud knocks as a warning he was coming.

Six of Blaine's harmonies continued until the live one said "What the..." and hit stop on the computer in reaction to about twelve Dalton boys all invading his room together.

"Did you arrange this for the Warblers to sing?" David was the first to ask.

Clearly not expecting this question, Blaine stammered, "No. ...Well, yeah. ...I guess. I mean... We could. Should we?"

"Yeah! Definitely! Of course! You should! Did you? It's great," came the replies from around the room.

Since three of the officers of the student-run Warblers were present at the time, the decision was practically already made.

Wes turned to David, and with a look they both knew very well, asked, "Regionals?"

The two of them walked out together talking a blue streak, oblivious to Blaine's gaping look and his attempts to ask, "Wha.. wait... Wes..." and too quickly all the boys emptied the room leaving its owner and his muddy boyfriend standing in amazement. Blaine closed his mouth and turned to Kurt, and seeing his amused expression at Blaine's expense, laughed and not so much asked as presented as a statement, "What just happened?"

Kurt threw his arm over Blaine's shoulders pulling him down with him so that they both tumbled backwards onto the couch laughing, and said to his gorgeous, favorite acapella arranger, "Well, I think we have the opening song for Regionals picked out!"

After they had sat on the couch for a few minutes not speaking, just enjoying being together, and Blaine having fun peeling dried mud off of Kurt's hand in his, Kurt brought up the worry that was still in the back of his mind. "Blaine? Someone said you sometimes sing about what's going on with you, or things you're going through or something like that. Was that what you were doing with this song?"

"Um… No, not really."

"So… Kind of, then?"

Blaine smiled at that persistence. He allowed, "I guess I thought of the song in the first place because of a couple lines, but the song as a whole is definitely not anything I'm thinking about right now."

Kurt nodded and laced his fingers through Blaine's.

Blaine thought about it for a second and added, "Anyway in the song it's all in his head. 'And it's all in my head, but she's touching his chest now...' he's imagining stuff in his head."

"True," Kurt answered, "But he's worried it's gonna happen."

"Sure, but mostly he's saying that all those feelings came up from only one kiss."

The fact that Kurt kind of froze and didn't know what to say, which is so unusual for him, made Blaine realize he had just almost implied that he had been singing the song about Kurt. "Hey, listen, if there was anything about that song that I can relate to, it's just the fact that it's amazing what one kiss can do to your mind, not that it turns people into jealous monsters."

Kurt was still wondering about the way he sounded singing the song. "But the point is that his jealousy is in his head, and he's worrying that she'd someday be 'letting him go' even though none of that happened."

"I guess."

"But the song definitely wasn't in your head because of that?"

"Well... no one's taking off your dress. Not even 'all in my head' or anything!"

Kurt laughed at the welcome change in tone for their little conversation. He decided to tease back. "What if someone was (he sang this part just like the line in the song) 'touching my chest now'?"

At the sound of that sweet voice singing such a thing, Blaine's eyes closed of their own accord for just a brief second until he recovered, and put a fake look of shock on his face, saying, "Oh man, maybe the song IS exactly speaking my mind!" Pretending to be overcome by a jealous rage and growling, he pounced on Kurt and then, chuckling all the while, began to attack him with kisses all up and down his muddy neck.

Kurt's uncontrollable giggles were only interrupted when he was finally able to get out, "Wait... So one part of the song was what you were thinking?"

Blaine's muffled "hmph?" against his neck just set him off on more giggles.

Recovering, and pushing the kissing-monster off him for at least a moment, Kurt asked again out of a huge curiosity, "so... which lyrics got you singing that particular song?"

"I uh... Saw you out the window."

"Playing football?"

"Being downright awesome at football."

"Haha, really?"

"Seriously."

"Huh."

"And uh, your shoulders had something to do with it."

"With being good at football?"

"Well, yeah that too. But. Uh. It was that I was um, trying to remember what they felt like."

"Ah."

"The last time I got to feel them."

Kurt's little shy smile also had a bit of a sly quality to it. "Where's that in the song?"

That smile almost killed Blaine but he held off for the moment and managed to muster some coherent words together, "ah, the kiss. 'It started out with a kiss.'"

"How did it end up like this?" Kurt's real question (did that line mean something too?) was easy for Blaine to get.

"Exactly."

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I'm not letting you go."

Whoa! That was not the kind of thing Blaine was expecting out of this flirty repartee here. But it was exactly what was missing yesterday. It was exactly the kind of thing he had needed to hear. It hit him straight in the heart and compelled him without any conscious choice or control toward Kurt's lips. Not that he wouldn't have chosen to do the exact same thing several split seconds later if he had allowed conscious thought to come into it.

Yeah, it wasn't only a kiss. Kurt had his answer too, in this moment. And this one was very much not only a kiss either. With each brush of his lips against Kurt's, Blaine was saying something stronger and deeper and more sure of exactly what he was expressing, and Kurt responded with the same level of energy and more, each movement of his hands in his boyfriend's hair and each new delicious spot he chose to grace with a kiss telling him exactly how much he feels the same.

Coming up… Mercedes has a love interest too, you know. (Why not ever on the show? grrrr) I think something may be at risk with Rachel and Regionals… And of course, our adorable boys will continue their journey in figuring out how to have a bit more confidence in reading each other and what they know to be true rather than all this getting flustered. Ah, high school boys.