A/N- Long chapter for your patience! Had to fit in Blaine and Flint in one section, and there really isn't room for two boys like them at once. Squee-splosion! Enjoy the date, and look forward to the next chapter, where we learn more about Flint than just the fact he's cute as all get out.
Also, tomorrow should see me actually responding to everyone's reviews! Thanks to those who have made them so far!
Kurt sat down next to Blaine at the breakfast table and dropped a banana muffin onto his tray. Blaine looked up and smiled.
"What's that for?" Kurt just shrugged.
"They brought out a fresh batch and I know you love them. It's still warm." Blaine took the muffin and unpeeled the wrapper before taking an exaggerated bite.
"Ugh. So awesome. Thanks." Blaine hugged Kurt around the shoulders with his other arm. Kurt's smile was mild and not as bright as it usually was towards Blaine.
He took another bite and cocked his head to the side.
"You okay?" Kurt looked up from slicing a banana into a bowl of yogurt.
"Well." He finished cutting the last piece and put down his utensils. "We're friends? Good friends?"
Blaine's eyebrows rose up, and his answer hurt a little in its open earnestness.
"Best friends Kurt. I've never met anyone that I got along with so well."
And despite the fact that it wasn't a declaration of undying love, it was actually really nice to hear from him. Kurt had said before that he loved Blaine, and that included as a friend. It was nice to at least cement that the other boy felt the same in that respect.
"I have a date tonight."
"Oh." Blaine's mug of tea stopped halfway to his mouth and he turned to face Kurt fully.
"It's with-"
"Flint. Yeah, I saw you two hanging out during the movies on Wednesday."
"Is that...are you okay with that?"
Blaine nodded slowly.
"I guess it's up to you really. You like him?"
Kurt shrugged, but he grinned at the same time.
"We don't know each other that well. But he's been really sweet..."
"And he's cute." Blaine added, making Kurt roll his eyes.
"Yes, and cute too."
"So you do like him." Blaine surmised, pulling Kurt against his side and leaning his head on top of Kurt's.
"I do, and that's why..." Kurt sighed. "I think we both need to be more aware. About each other."
"What does that mean?" Blaine looked genuinely confused.
"Well, we can both be very tactile. Like now." Blaine looked at his arm around Kurt's shoulder, and moved quickly to take it away, but Kurt grabbed his hand to stop him. "No, it's okay. It's been fine when it's just us two, but you've got Jeremiah, and I'm going to be going out with Flint tonight, and just, for their sakes, maybe we should be more careful about personal boundaries."
"Oh. You're probably right, I suppose." Blaine's brow was furrowed and Kurt put a hand on his arm to draw his attention back.
"Flint didn't have anything to do with this by the way. I don't want you to think that he's influencing me like that, in our friendship. I just think...that maybe he might be a bit uncomfortable with it." Blaine probably didn't know just how uncomfortable Flint might be, considering the circumstances.
"But...it's not like it means anything." Blaine winced a bit at the way his voice rose in a questioning tone.
Kurt sighed.
"You're really important to me. You've meant a lot in these past months and..." He paused and frowned, trying to figure out how to say what he wanted. "And you are very handsome Blaine, you know that, and...I can't say that I didn't at least think about it."
Blaine groaned and pushed his hand through his hair.
"Ugh. I am such an asshole."
Kurt could only shrug and try to give him a somewhat comforting smile.
"All last week I was just blathering on to you about Jere, and singing, and Valentines, and I just didn't think...I didn't even think, I guess."
"It's okay Blaine. Really." Not really. Blaine still looked slightly distressed, reaching to grab Kurt's hand, before remembering the whole focus of their conversation. He let his own hands fall back to his lap and clutch together. He looked at the taller boy intensely, like he was trying to find something in his eyes.
"You know its not you though, right? I mean... I was crushing on Jeremiah since before you even came here. And then we started getting coffee after Christmas break, and...I should have said something, but it wasn't really anything yet, and..." Blaine paused, flustered and a bit red in the face. "Flint's a really lucky guy if you like him. Seriously."
Kurt wasn't sure if he could hear an almost regretful tone in the way Blaine said it, but he pushed it away. Instead he just gave a half smile to his friend.
"Thanks. Jeremiah's lucky too. Even after the whole Gap Attack thing."
Blaine winced.
"Yeah. I've been trying really hard not to think about that."
Kurt gave a little burst of laughter and Blaine looked at him, pouting.
"Don't laugh at my romantic missteps! I'm really not very good at this kind of thing." Kurt just grinned and tossed his banana peel at Blaine's tray. But he couldn't help thinking that yes, Blaine really did suck when it came to romance.
Flint and Jeff walked into the bio lab comparing the background information they needed to have before they could do today's in-class assignment on plant reproduction.
"You did remember to grab the sheet on monocots vs dicots, didn't you?" Jeff frowned as he reached over and shuffled through the pages Flint had.
"Yeah, of course. You only reminded me five times when we left the room this morning." Flint pushed his hands away and pulled a print out emerging from inside his binder. "Here, its got-"
"Excuse me," They both turned as Kurt held out his hand towards Flint for a moment. "Can I-"
"I'll go set up." Jeff smiled at them both and grabbed Flint's books out of his arms, heading to the back of the room. Suddenly empty handed, Flint jammed his hands into his pockets, rocking back and forth slightly on his toes.
"What can I do for you?"
Kurt leaned on the edge of his desk, letting another student pass between them, before fixing Flint with a sharp appraising look.
"I wanted to firm up plans, if you're still available that is." Kurt tipped his head politely. Flint cocked his head in tandem, a small smile being held back by his teeth on his lower lip.
"Yeah, nothing's come up luckily." Kurt raised an eyebrow. Flint let his smile creep across his face. "What time did you want to head out at?"
"Six thirty? I know it's kinda early for going out to dinner, but Dalton dining hall has entirely screwed up my meal schedule."
"Okay. That sounds great." Kurt nodded primly, giving Flint an intriguing look.
"I'll stop by your room at six thirty then." Flint just nodded and headed back to his desk.
"You've got it bad." Jeff murmured.
"Focus on the seeds Jeff. Focus on the seeds."
Jeff was at the studio until seven, which was great, because Flint could freak out about his date in peace. He wasn't concerned about what he was going to wear or anything. He had his own style that he liked and felt comfortable in. And if Kurt had been motivated to ask him out while he was wearing his uniform, then really, pretty much anything was going to look better for tonight. He had decided to wear his glasses, because his contacts had been in all day and his eyes were already sore. And because they looked cool. Mostly the second one.
It was six twenty eight on his clock when a knock sounded.
"One sec!" Flint slipped on his shoes as he moved across the room and pulled open the door.
"Hi."
Kurt was standing, already wrapped up in a long blue coat, the tall collar close around his jaw line. His hair hung looser than it did during the day, and his dark stovepipe pants made him look like a bit of a mod. Flint dug it. And he didn't mind the scan of light eyes over his own form before Kurt spoke up.
"Hey. Dyou wanna take your car or mine?" Flint reached to the hooks on the back of the door, grabbing his nice coat and a fedora. It had been his grandfather's a long time ago, and Flint was loving that it was okay to rock them again.
"Yours is fine."
Kurt nodded, waiting patiently as Flint pulled the overcoat on and clapped the hat on his unstyled hair.
"I like." Flint caught Kurt's gaze and noticed he was gesturing towards the fedora.
"Oh, yeah. I'm kinda a retro style nerd." It was totally true. But from what he had seen and knew, Kurt's concepts of style were a bit...high brow. He hadn't been sure if Kurt would like his more laid back look.
"It works for you." Kurt smiled, nudging him with his shoulder as Flint turned to lock his door.
"Yeah, well, you always look great, so I didn't want to disappoint." Flint complimented hesitantly. It seemed like he'd said the right thing though, cause Kurt's face lit up. He grabbed Flint's shoulders from behind and urged him towards the stairs, moving to fall in step.
"Come on. Our reservation's for seven, and I am starving."
They were heading into Columbus a bit, but Kurt had only said that he was taking them to an Italian place Kyle had recommended to him. He scanned the roadsigns as they passed through an intersection and Kurt tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. He glanced over at Flint momentarily when they were stopped at another red light.
"Hey, can you check the directions? I saved an image of the mapquest screen." Kurt pointed to his phone in the cupholder.
"Of course." Flint grabbed it, navigating to the photos. He found the mapquest image immediately, but he also saw that next to it was another familiar picture. He glanced sideways at Kurt, wondering if he should say anything. His curiosity and the flick of hope in his chest won out.
"Hey, you've still got the picture I took at sectionals." His voice was casual, but he was nervous to see what the response from Kurt would be.
Kurt glanced sideways at it.
"Yeah."
"We look ridiculous." Kurt twitched, like he was going to turn to Flint, but kept his eyes on the road.
"I always liked it." Flint could see the small smile on Kurt's mouth and it made something expand happily in his chest. He listened to his urge, like he had the night he'd taken it, and sneakily set the photo as Kurt's wallpaper before pulling up the picture of the map.
"Okay, so its left at Coronet Road. And then the second right." Flint confirmed, and slipped the phone back into the cup holder.
The restaurant was nice, like Kyle had said. Busy enough that it actually created some privacy. They had been sat in a booth luckily. It gave them room to shuck off their coats and scarves. Flint took off his hat, hanging it on the corner post and quickly trying to brush his hair into place.
"So, I realized that I don't really know that much about you." Flint announced, as the waitress dropped off their drinks. "I mean, I know like, music you like, and style and movies and friends stuff, and personality, but all I know about you before Dalton is that you went to school in Lima."
"Well, what do you want to know?" Flint pondered this for a second. He was genuinely interested, but he didn't want to end up getting too personal or anything too quickly.
"How about we go back and forth, ask some questions. And both of us have to answer the question."
Kurt sipped through his straw, his eyes bright at Flint. He pulled back, running his tongue over his lips, pulling Flint's gaze with it.
"Good safe guard. Okay. How about...brothers and sisters?"
Flint grinned.
"Older sister. Vanessa. She's at Ohio State. And younger sister Danielle."
"Ages?"
"Oh, twenty and thirteen. You?"
Kurt laughed in a way Flint wasn't quite sure he understood.
"Um...I have a Finn. Same age."
Flint cocked his head in interest.
"Twin?"
"Stepbrother." Flint nodded in understanding.
"Ah. Your parents divorced?" He asked cautiously.
"No, my mom died when I was little. So did Finn's dad."
"Sorry." Flint's nose wrinkled in sympathy, and Kurt was surprised to find that it was actually really quite cute on him.
"It's okay, really. But thanks. How about your parents? What do they do?"
"My mom's a buyer at Nordstroms." Flint laughed as Kurt's eyes lit up. "And my dad works for Goodyear, doing marketing. We live up in Mansfield, so they can both commute, although my mom travels a lot anyways."
"My dad has his own garage." Kurt responded. "So I learned how to change a tire by the age of eight. Does your dad like cars, or is it just work?"
"Loves them. We used to screw around in the garage on weekends with this old piece of junk that was the same model as his first car. We never really got anything done, but it was cool to hang out and learn some of the simple stuff." Kurt nodded eagerly.
"Yeah, my dad and I did that, but with my car." He motioned towards the doorway they had come in through. "It came in all smashed up after some guy left it in neutral on a hill and it ran into a telephone pole doing thirty. Dad got it for five thousand bucks and we rebuilt the engine together and fixed the body work. And then the windshield when Mercedes busted it." Kurt waved off the last detail to his eager answer, but Flint stopped him.
"Mercedes?"
"Yeah she's one of my friends from McKinley, that's where I went before here. We had a misunderstanding and she kinda accidentally intentionally busted my window out. But its all cool now." Flint laughed.
"Who else should I know about from... McKinley is it?" Kurt nodded, and launched into a series of descriptions and explanations, only barely interrupted, by ordering and the arrival of food, and accented by sharp and silly remarks from across the table.
"So what's the story between you and Jeff? You two seem to be really good friends."
Flint nodded, twirling his fork around his bowl of pasta.
"Yeah. We've been friends for a while now, and living together in dorms, so it's kinda like having a brother now. We still get into it sometimes, but I think its just that we know each other, so we really know what pisses the other guy off." Kurt nodded along, taking a bite from his thin crust pizza.
"Yeah, I think that's kinda where Finn and I are headed. I'm almost entirely sure that he purposely left wet towels on the bathroom floor all Christmas break because I accidentally used one of his t-shirts to polish my dress shoes."
Flint laughed as Kurt got slightly defensive.
"He throws them all over the place, and it ended up against rags I usually use, and it had a hole in the hem, so I thought it would be okay. Apparently not."
"Yeah, Jeff got me a couple months ago for walking in on him and his girlfriend. He ended up confiscating all my socks for a month, at least the good ones, including the lucky ones I had planned on wearing to sections. I still blame him for us tying rather than winning."
"I noticed you're a bit of a sock maven." Kurt commented, and Flint almost had diet cola out his nose. He was embarrassed, but tried to play it cool, blowing his nose into the paper napkin.
"Sorry, I've just...never heard it referred to like that before." Kurt was smiling though, passing over another napkin. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. And I like it. It's a little bit of style and individuality in a place that is sorely lacking."
Flint nodded.
"Exactly. I mean, I like clothes and I go vintage shopping sometimes. The Dalton uniform can get a bit boring, so it's my little wardrobe rebellion."
"I think you may have won me over at vintage shopping." Kurt replied, leaning closer against the table.
"We should go sometime. Together."
Flint almost rolled his eyes at himself. Really? Did he actually need to say together? It sounded a bit desperate to him.
But Kurt just looked delighted.
"I'd love to. There's this great consignment shop in downtown Columbus."
"Yeah, dyou know Mad 4 Mod?" Kurt nodded eagerly.
"I got my belt from there." Kurt gestured downwards before screwing up his face slightly as he realized that Flint couldn't see below the table, and it looked like he was pointing at his...well. "Anyways, um, yes. We should." Flint grinned at the boy across the table. It was nice that he wasn't the only one who misstepped on the date sometimes. Although he was pretty sure that there was no way he could ever be as unintentionally charming while doing it at Kurt was.
They had fallen into a comfortable silence for a moment as Kurt finished up his last piece of pizza. Flint was slicing up the last of his pasta with the side of his fork, pushing it around the bottom of the bowl.
"What's so interesting?" Flint looked up and saw Kurt watching him. Oh.
"Um...uh..." Good charm offensive, Flint. He had to make some kind of response. So he pushed the fork around a few more times and tilted the dish towards the other side of the table. "Abe Lincoln?"
Kurt frowned, staring at the dish and then up at Flint.
"I'm not seeing it." Flint glanced down. Oh. He spun the plate around again.
"Sorry, upside down for you."
Kurt seemed to be playing along, and he squinted before nodding.
"Not bad. I like the green pepper to make the stovepipe hat." Kurt nodded slowly, then all of a sudden looked up at Flint with a glint in his eye.
"Who else can you do?" Flint grinned, and grabbed his fork again.
"Pretty much all of the Warblers. I'm surprised you haven't seen my skills. I'm really popular in the dining hall on Italian buffet night. Like one of those caricature artists." Flint joked, as he pushed the pasta around quickly. "In freshman year I made a Mount Rushmore out of garlic bread." Kurt laughed loudly as he turned the bowl and held it out again. A bunch of noodles gave the portrait away immediately.
"Jeff?" Flint rolled his eyes.
"Yes. Here, try this one."
A few images later, Flint was teasing Kurt, who was looking at the dish like it was some sort of brainteaser.
"I have no idea."
Flint rolled his eyes.
"Seriously?"
"Thad?"
"Thad! Thad! Not even close." Flint pretended to be deeply offended. "It's me, of course. Can't you see the classic features and great hair?" His smile was wide and cheesy and genuine at once, as he tried and failed to stop himself from laughing. It make his chest warm and tight to hear his laughter mixed with Kurt's. To be able to think "I did that. I made that smile."
"I really like that you're silly." Flint frowned slightly. He hadn't remembered to consider that Kurt might be laughing at him, rather than with him.
"Thanks?" He must have let his insecurity leak into his voice, because Kurt shook his head immediately.
"I mean, you don't take yourself too seriously. You can always make everyone laugh." Flint felt his mouth taking over, as it did when his mind wasn't exactly sure how to process what he'd just heard.
"Yeah, well usually I'm just trying to make you." Which was true. Whenever Kurt was in the room he found himself glancing over at him, checking whether or not he was able to keep the other boy's interest at all.
But apparently his mouth had said the right thing, because suddenly Kurt's lips were against the rasp of his cheek. It felt just faintly cooler than the rest of his face, and embarrassingly, his hand moved to touch it before he could pin it under his leg. It was still at the table for a moment before Kurt spoke up again.
"I'm really glad that we did this." Kurt said quietly, watching for any signs of hesitation from Flint. Yeah, not happening.
"Me too."
Kurt looked very contented at his reply.
"Should we get the bill?"
Flint nodded.
"I can pay-" He started, reaching towards the pocket of his coat, but Kurt shook his head.
"I asked you." He pulled out his credit card and gave Flint a daring look. "You can pay next time."
Next time. Next time was good.
They drove back to Dalton, and they walked together to their dorms, even though it was only 8:30.
"I should get a few things done and get to bed. I have to get up and run some errands tomorrow." Flint determined, as they neared his door, which was closer to the stairs than Kurt's.
Kurt nodded along, paying more attention to the way that their hands bumped together between them, allowing their fingers contact without making an actual link.
"Well, I guess the upside to boarding is no parents waiting inside to embarrass you or threaten death." Flint joked, looking almost anywhere but Kurt. They stopped in front of the doorway. Flint was finally was caught in his glance. "Except Jeff I guess..."
He trailed off as Kurt made no response.
He wanted to kiss Kurt. Really, really badly. The gentle peck on the cheek at the restaurant wasn't enough.
But what if Kurt didn't want to? What if he pushed him away, got upset at his assuming or pushing him. What if he kissed him badly and Kurt didn't want to give him a second chance or a second date. Oh god. Kurt was looking at him. He couldn't read the look in his eyes. His hands were clammy. What was he supposed to-
"'Kay, well..." Kurt seemed to be pausing, giving him a chance for something. He was supposed to kiss him now. Flint had figured that much out by the way Kurt angled towards him slightly, and watched Flint's eyes flit over his face and figure. But now he was frozen. Oh god. Do something!
"Night Flint."
He didn't do anything, so Kurt just moved and hugged him, going through the motions of kissing him on the cheek, but his lips didn't press. Their faces touched along the skin of their cheeks, just momentarily before Kurt pulled back and moved down the hallway. He looked back over his shoulder at one point, and gave a little wave. Flint returned it, before slipping into his own room and letting his coat land on his desk chair haphazardly.
"How'd the date go?" Jeff asked, peering over the top of one of his graphic novels.
"Amazing." Flint groaned, collapsing onto his bed. Jeff frowned.
"Then why do you sound so miserable?"
"I should have kissed him." Jeff let out a burst of laughter at Flint's pathetic tone. Flint couldn't even bother to reply or even glare. He just pulled a pillow over his face and let out a noise of frustration. Jeff shook his head and turned a page.
"Maybe next time Wills."
