A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long ... my laptop is acting up so I'm kind of scared of touching it (seriously! It sounds like it'll explode any given time, so it's really a touch-and-go basis here - yikes), and I've had some real life commitments (jobs, savings plans, family, etc.) so you know, got to get there.
But, never fear! Klaine is here!
However, this chapter is not beta-ed or edited at all! So if there are any errors/typos at all, my apologies!
Enjoy!
Chapter Five
The lounge was every bit magnificent as the rest of the dormitory building. Kurt could see what Blaine meant when he said that the school was well-funded. The bookshelves were packed from floor to ceiling with impressive volumes; a state-of-the-art stereo was positioned on a chest of drawers made entirely of wood with intricate carvings. In the middle of the room was a collection of armchairs, pouffes, two sofas, all clustered around an impressive flat-screen TV that currently displayed a rather violent video game, mounted on a mantel holding various gadgets no doubt meant for the students' entertainment.
On a sofa to their left, David turned towards them, smiling from ear to ear. 'Kurt! Come here, man, we were just trying to decide which movies we were going to watch later. We also wanted to talk. You know, get to know you, and such.'
With Blaine beside him, Kurt made his way through the seats towards David's sofa. He plopped down onto it and nearly fell through, the cushion was so pliant and soft, it nearly sucked Kurt into itself. Giggling, Blaine handed him a hand to pull him into a proper sitting position as he himself collapsed into a pouffe at Kurt's feet. Blushing slightly, Kurt turned to David.
'So, what movies did you think would be okay to watch tonight?'
David looked at him gleefully, 'Well, we thought maybe a marathon of some awesome series involving the best badass wizard of all times might be fun. But then we weren't sure what you're into, and we're sort of hoping to get on your good side, you know, you're going to be making our food starting tomorrow and we can't have you poisoning our cereal, now can we?' he finished, looking slightly cautious, as though Kurt might literally poison him at that very moment.
Kurt giggled. When the Dean said they were excitable, he was under-selling these guys.
The rest of the Dalton boys in the room were now looking avidly at the pair of them. The Asian boy stood up and walked over, leaning over the back of the sofa, looking suspiciously at Kurt.
'Can you even cook? Because we don't want to be accidentally poisoned, either, you know,' he said, eyeing Kurt with a slightly anxious expression.
'Seriously?' Kurt asked, forgetting for a moment about his shyness, his determination of keeping a distance, and looking up at the Asian boy. 'Are you seriously asking me if I can cook? What's your name?'
'Wes,' said the boy warily, clearly sensing his mistake.
'Okay, Wes,' Kurt said, standing up and turning around to stare Wes squarely in the face, his hands on his hips, every head in the room turning now in their direction. 'I wouldn't sign up for the cooking chores if I didn't know how to cook. Why would I sign myself up to that if I didn't?'
Blaine jumped to his feet and placed his arms in what he hoped was comforting manner on Kurt's shoulders, 'Kurt, ignore Wes, he's just protective of his food. Wes, don't scare the new kid before movie night, we want to ease him into our craziness, not dump it on him in the first hour of his stay here. Just, chill out, everyone.'
A blond boy jumped over and stood next to Kurt, looking at him expectantly. 'Can you really cook?' he asked, sounding very much like the expectant puppy Blaine had described before they came in.
Nodding warily, Kurt found himself once again in a tight hug, this time with a bunch of blond hair in his face, rather than a mop of curly, adorable black hair. 'Thank you! You are a lifesaver! I am so tired of In n' Out! It will be so great to finally eat real food.'
'Okay, Jeff,' Blaine said, gently extricating Kurt from the excitable blond boy's sudden hug. 'Maybe not put pressure on him his first day here, okay? Everyone,' he then said, addressing the room in general, 'I know it's exciting to have someone new, especially since it seems he has so many talents,' Kurt was seriously tired of blushing around this Blaine kid, 'but let's not overwhelm him. It's hectic enough as it is around here, so let's ease him into it rather than just dump it all on him, okay? Kurt, would you like to join us for a Harry Potter marathon later this evening?'
Kurt just stared at Blaine. How could he go from being adorable and sensitive one moment, to commandeering and authoritative the next, then back to that sensitive puppy Kurt encountered outside in the hall in under ten minutes? He nodded, still unsure where exactly he landed himself and sat back down, feeling Blaine settle back down next to him, slightly leaning against his leg.
Looking around, Kurt watched several Dalton boys play video games, yelling at the screen and laughing with each other, a few were reading in the armchairs, and several were playing board games, most were just relaxing in pouffes like Blaine, talking to one another. Something struck Kurt, something he hadn't thought about ever since he left the Dean's office.
'Blaine?' he asked, looking down at the curly-haired boy, 'The Dean mentioned something about you guys having a glee club and a theatre department? Is it too late to audition?'
Blaine looked up at him, and something flickered in his eyes. 'Well, about the Warblers – that's our glee club – you'll have to talk to Mr. Salazar, that's our director, I think you met him?' he looked questioningly at Kurt, reminding him strongly of a puppy cocking his head to the side. What is it with this boy?
'Um,' Kurt shook his head for a moment, trying to clear his mind of this image of a cute puppy with hazel eyes, 'yeah, yeah, he's the … uh, history teacher here? I think my dad and I met him when we got into the administration building.'
Blaine nodded with a smile. 'Yup, that's him. He's a good guy. A bit weird sometimes, you'll see what I mean. But yeah. And about the theatre department, well, that's a particularly fond spot of Dean Greyson's. The productions we put up here tend to bring in quite a bit of funding and awareness from recruiters from colleges for the seniors, so the Dean takes whoever wants to join quite seriously and if you told him you're interested, he'll arrange an audition and you'll have to prepare. Well. But the Warblers shouldn't be a problem, if you'd like, I'd be happy to talk to Mr. Salazar for you and arrange for you to audition this Friday, we usually reserve auditions for Fridays so they don't disrupt the week's activities and stuff.'
'Wait, are you a Warbler?' Kurt was intrigued. How many more layers were to this remarkable boy?
It was Blaine's turn to blush this time. 'Um, yeah … I guess you could say that.'
On the sofa beside Kurt, David let out a snort, looking disbelievingly at Blaine, who shot him a warning look. Now Kurt was beyond curious and knew that Blaine was hiding something from him.
'What?' he asked. 'Blaine, what's going on?'
'Nothing,' Blaine said grudgingly, scratching the back of his head, suddenly looking bashful. 'It's just that I'm not just a Warbler …'
'He's more like our lead Warbler,' guffawed David, 'he's just too humble to admit that. Basically, we're an acapella group and Blaine here gets the solos because Mr. Salazar thinks he has a great stage presence. We don't resent him or anything,' he hurried to add, seeing Kurt's eyebrows rise to his hairline in disbelief and what could alarmingly look as contempt, 'we work really well together, everyone gets to perform, and we like the way things work, if you're good enough, who knows, maybe Salazar will make you two co-leads or something.'
Kurt nodded in understanding, taking all this in. Back in New Directions, everyone fought for a chance in the spotlight, but here – it was like everyone wanted to support each other, all the time. It was overwhelming. He didn't have to fight to stand out any more. Everyone were equals, and everyone could sound their voices and be heard, regardless of whether that idea is stupid or not, apparently.
Blaine scoffed at David, 'Don't make it sound like I'm the lead, David, you know full well everyone auditions every year for the lead, just because I got it twice since I came here doesn't mean I'm the only candidate. How did it work at your old school, Kurt?'
Kurt hesitated. He didn't want to sell out the New Directions, but if he was going to be part of the Warblers, he wasn't really giving information to the enemy, now was he? 'Well, the New Directions were quite …'
Everyone started laughing immediately. Looking around, Kurt frowned.
'What the hell is so funny?'
Even Blaine couldn't keep a straight face. 'Kurt, did you hear what you just said?'
Kurt rolled his eyes. 'Fine, I know how it sounds, but it's supposed to be New Di-rections, not that … other thing,' he blushed even at the thought, 'it's not my fault our director has terrible ideas, is it? Anyway, with them, it was mainly everyone fighting for a chance to get a solo, but eventually Rachel and Finn got the solos and duets, leaving us all to sway in the background. But we also danced and had musical accompaniment in the performances, so it was sort of this spectacle rather than just a singing performance.'
Wes and David looked at each other.
'Well, crap,' Wes said finally. 'We need to up our game then. I'll go to Salazar and see if I can get him to finally consider choreography. Davey, did you do the laundry rounds yet?'
David shook his head. 'I'm doing it right before the movie marathon so it'll work while we geek out.'
Wes nodded and hurried out of his room.
'Where's Wes going?' Kurt asked curiously.
'We can't leave the dormitory building without our uniform unless we're heading out of campus for home on weekends or holidays,' said Blaine, chuckling at Kurt's horrified expression.
'But,' he said slowly, 'when do we get to wear normal clothes during school?' he asked in a frightened voice, thinking of all his precious clothes upstairs in his wardrobe, 'And what am I gonna wear tomorrow? I haven't got a uniform yet.'
Blaine snapped his head up back at him. 'Wait, you don't have a uniform? Didn't … David …'
But before he could even finish his sentence, David was out of his seat and rushing out the door. Seeing Kurt's astonished expression, Blaine explained.
'David's in charge of laundry here in the dormitory, and he knows where there are extra uniforms that you can have.'
Kurt nodded, not sure how to respond to that. He wasn't too keen on wearing anything that everyone else was already wearing, but … he supposed this was the price of security and being in a boarding school. Something else was on Kurt's mind.
'Blaine,' the boy in question turned his head again in his direction, 'um, do you think maybe we could talk somewhere? Alone?'
Looking around, confused, Blaine considered for a moment and then nodded, standing up and motioning Kurt to follow him outside.
Blaine led them all the way back to Kurt's room, assuming Kurt would like as much privacy as possible, considering how fidgety he seemed the entire way there, and the way he asked to speak privately.
He sincerely hoped that it wasn't something he or the others have said or done. He knew they were an odd bunch that was always too clingy, bouncy and excited about new people, and he knew that Kurt had come from an abusive environment, and Blaine – albeit not knowing the extent of it – was sure that something happened to make Kurt transfer here in the middle of the semester.
Arriving at Kurt's door, Blaine turned to look at Kurt, who was drawn in on himself, clearly deep in thought.
'Kurt? Are you okay? Do you want to be left alone?'
At this, Kurt looked up, suddenly noticing where they were and shook his head slightly. 'Um, no, sorry. I was just thinking about stuff … um, do you mind coming in for a bit? I think it's better if we talked there rather than here …'
Blaine nodded, regretting immediately bringing Kurt to the student lounge with all the Warblers there. They were the craziest among the students in the dorm, he should have thought of that.
'Um, so, I guess …' Blaine closed his eyes, he couldn't bear Kurt wanting to go back, not when he finally found someone so, 'I guess what I wanted to ask was … is everyone in here gay? Is this a gay school?'
Blaine's head snapped up to stare at Kurt. Well, that as unexpected. And he couldn't help but let out a small laugh of understanding. 'Um, wow. Okay, that was, like, totally not what I thought you wanted to talk about. Um, sorry, um, no, it's not, though I guess you could think that just by meeting the Warblers.'
Kurt nodded, finally realizing he had basically just met his future glee club a few moments ago. Wow.
'Well, it's a school for boys, but not all of us are gay. I am, but most of the guys here aren't. I think, in our year, it's just me, Jeff, Nick and Trent.'
Kurt's eyes snapped upwards and met Blaine's. 'You're …'
Blaine nodded. 'Yeah. I'm guessing you haven't really met any gay guys … um, I don't want to assume, but are you …'
Kurt nodded. Feeling relief flooding at finally meeting someone who was like him and wasn't judging him for admitting so, or worse, beating the living daylights out of him.
'Thank you,' Kurt whispered, not really knowing what else to say. 'Thank you for being so understanding and open. It's not something I'm used to, and it's overwhelming and all, but …'
And suddenly he found himself again in Blaine's embrace. 'Don't thank me,' he whispered. 'You're safe, you can be whoever you want to be, whoever you are, and no one will judge you. I don't know what happened to you back in McKinley, but you're safe here, Kurt.'
Kurt shuddered at the way Blaine said his name. Leaning back, Blaine looked at him, unshed tears in his eyes, his arms still circling Kurt.
'I was attacked at my old school,' Kurt found himself confessing, not really sure why he was confiding in a boy he met mere hours ago. 'This guy, a football player he … um, he made my life a living hell for some time, and at some point he was taunting me so bad, that I just … I've had enough and confronted him and …' Kurt choked, he wasn't sure how to put it into words. He hadn't talked about it since telling his father.
'Did he do something to you more than say bad things?'
Kurt nodded. 'He, um … he kissed me and threatened to kill me if I ever told anyone. I couldn't stay there. I couldn't.'
He couldn't stop himself form burying his face in Blaine's broad chest, it was so comforting in its firmness. Suddenly, he felt the soft material of the sweater under his cheek begin to dampen, and he realized he was crying.
The arms around Kurt tightened and he looked up to see Blaine looking at him with a concerned expression. 'Do you want to maybe sit down?' he suggested, starting to move them towards Kurt's bed.
Kurt sat down and immediately curled into Blaine's side, not really sure why he was doing this, just knowing that the comfort that Blaine was offering was everything he needed at the moment.
'I'm so sorry for just jumping you like that,' Kurt mumbled, 'I don't know why it suddenly hit me so hard. I just … I guess I needed that.'
Blaine wrapped his arm around Kurt, closing his eyes as he felt the warm body next to him, enjoying it while he could. Then a thought popped into his head.
'Kurt,' the boy in question lifted his head to look at him through the most beautiful blue-green-gray eyes that were no shimmering with tears. He had to recollect his thoughts. 'Um, have I told you what I do around here with the chores?'
Kurt shook his head. He didn't recall Blaine sharing what his part in this weird school was.
Blaine got up to his feet and held out his hand, 'Come on, I'll show you.'
As they descended the stairs into the entrance hall of the building, they saw beyond the glass doors that it started to rain. Blaine immediately steered them to the left all the way to what turned out to be a closet for coats and umbrellas. Rifling through them, Blaine found what he was looking for and took out a fancy black umbrella, and closed the door. He led Kurt to the doors and opened them, pulling him out under the protruding roof of the entrance, glancing timidly at the torrid rain around them.
'You know what? I don't think this is a good idea, it's quite a walk there, and I don't know if we'll make it back in time before curfew.'
Kurt looked critically at the sky above, everything was covered by a thick blanket of grey-black clouds. 'Are you sure? Where are we supposed to be going anyway?'
'The stables. I take care of the horses every afternoon and thought it might be …' Blaine trailed away at Kurt's amused expression. 'What?'
'You wanted to take me to see horses? Really, Blaine?' And just when I thought he couldn't get any more adorable.
Kurt began laughing. Hard. Completely taking Blaine aback. This boy was seriously the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.
I'm making no promises, but I'm really hoping to crank another one this week, it's the Israeli Independence Day this week, so one day off work XD beyond excited. Hope to see you next time! (reviews, as always, are welcome)
