A/N- Clear sailing for the boys? Don't be silly. I want this fic to try and deal with things at least a little bit realistically, so I think this is a valid concern for Kurt. Then again it gives Blaine a chance to establish himself as boyfriend. So realistically its also mad fluffy. And I'm okay with that. Thanks for the continuing reviews, alerts, favourites, and for those who have taken a look at the my one-shots as well. They are all very much appreciated and enjoyed.
Stopped at the red light, Kurt tapped his left foot against the floor.
"Come on, come on..." He was right on time to be late for rehearsal. And all he had thought about for the last hour and a half was the cost of Dalton for his family. It wasn't fair. He shouldn't have to choose between money and his safety. There were probably dozens of boys at Dalton who had no idea how much this place meant to him. Boys whose parents didn't have to cut back on basics to send them to this school. Boys who could afford, in a lot of ways, to do or not do whatever they wanted. And this was only after one year of tuition. If he wanted to keep going to Dalton next September, there wouldn't be several years of savings to redirect. This year had pretty much drained that source of cash flow.
By the time he passed the sign that said "Welcome to Westerville" Kurt knew he had to do a few things.
He had to grow up and get realistic about the costs of Dalton, and what he owed his family in return.
He had to work harder in his classes and start looking into scholarships the school offered.
And he had to face up to the fact that because of this, he might have to quit the Warblers.
"Hey." Julia hung into Blaine's room from the door frame. He looked up from his seat on his bed, surrounded by carefully organized papers.
"Hey, sorry, am I-"
"You're not late. I'm early." She assured him, wandering into the room and sitting on Reese's bed. "Go ahead and finish."
"It's fine. I'm just working on my essay. I'm almost done this paragraph anyways." Blaine looked back down at the computer on his lap, scrunching up his face in concentration. "How's the end of semester for you?" Julia curled her legs up.
"Okay, I guess. I have a Spanish exam on Tuesday, and my final project for art has to be done Wednesday."
"Oh, was that the life-size statue of Wes subjugating a freshman Warbler?" Blaine grinned, not looking up from his work. Julia rolled her eyes.
"I considered it, but I just ended up doing a printmaking project instead."
"Shame." Blaine sharply typed a few last words, and shut his computer. "All done. Wanna head downstairs?" Julia nodded, grabbing her bag. Blaine frowned.
"No coat?" The flush in her cheeks made Blaine break out in a grin. "Juuuuules. Exactly how early were you?"
"I left it in... Alex went home for the weekend, and Wes had the room to himself, so..."
"I am telling your brothers!" Julia grabbed his arm tightly, pulling him out of the dorms.
"Don't you dare. They'll hunt Wes down and I will never hear the end of it."
"I know. Hilarious." Blaine reaffirmed to himself. Julia frowned at him.
"You suck. If you tell Neil or Andrew, then I'm going to tell Kurt that you have a dirty, dirty crush on him."
"Okay."
"Okay? Why aren't you freaking out?" Blaine skipped a few steps on the stairway and looked at Julia over his shoulder. He just shrugged. "Blaine. Blaine. Oh my god tell me you told him?"
"Um..." Blaine cast his eyes up to the ceiling. "No...not in so many words."
"Well in how many then! And why didn't Wes tell me?" Julia followed Blaine into the library.
"Five words for you. We went on a date. And Wes doesn't actually know yet. Or David,or Reese, or anyone actually, because it was just last night."
"You have a boyfriend! Blaine, that's great. And Kurt is so nice, and cute. Can I tell Neil?"
"Jules." Blaine was flushing slightly, but his smile looked painfully large.
"Did you kiss him?" Julia pulled him onto the couch. Blaine shook his head.
"He kissed me. It was amazing."
"That's awesome! And super cute. But speaking of, where is he?"
"Well hopefully not coming into the room while I'm gushing like a moron." Blaine looked at the door slightly nervously, before checking the clock on the mantle. "He drove home today. It's two hours from Lima, so maybe there's traffic or something?"
"Have you talked to him yet?"
"No. He left pretty early."
"Too early." Both their heads turned to see Kurt appear at the threshold. "Sorry I'm late."
"No problem. We just got here." Julia assured him. She looked between the two boys, clearly anticipating some sort of lovey vibe, but Kurt just gave a half hearted smile as he laid his coat and bag in the corner. Blaine's initial grin faded slightly, and he tried to pretend Julia hadn't clearly noticed.
"How was Christmas tree hunting?" Blaine attempted, hoping that he could raise some kind of positive response from Kurt.
"Oh, it was alright. Nice to be home."
"Good. Good." Blaine glanced over at Julia, who just shrugged helplessly. "We should get started. Concert's coming up quickly." He perched on the arm of the couch where Kurt sat, leaning on the other side. Julia stood in front, by the fireplace. "Warm ups, then some run throughs. Okay. A. A. A. A." Blaine prompted, Julia's voice joining quickly, followed by Kurt's.
"So, Kurt, any suggestions?" Julia asked, looking at the scratched out notations they had made.
"I already mentioned the harmony change in the fifth section?" Blaine nodded, flipping quickly through his own pages. "Okay, well, other than making sure the pacing is on, I think it sounds good."
"Okay, well... I guess we can cut out a bit early for the night." Blaine said, biting his lip slightly in consideration.
"Awesome." They turned as Wes spoke out from the doorway. "We were out in the hall waiting for you guys to finish up." David and Reese followed him in.
"We were going to start up some Guitar Hero in the common room, if you guys wanna come." Reese offered.
"Well, I've got an hour now before I have to head out, so sounds good to me." Julia said cheerfully.
"You guys coming?" Wes asked, looking at Blaine and Kurt. Julia subtly slipped up beside him and prodded him. He glanced from her, shaking her head just slightly, to Blaine, who was watching Kurt absently pick at a cuticle. "...Cause if not maybe I'll have a chance to win this time."
Wes's brain pedalled quickly to comply with his girlfriend's implications. He saw Reese open his mouth to goad the other two, but gave him a quick shove back towards the door.
"At least give me a few minutes to enjoy beating these two before you come and crush us." Wes continued, waving slightly, and pushing David's shoulder forwards at the same time.
The four of them shuffled ff, the murmur of David's fading voice sounding quizzical. Blaine stood by the mantle, looking around the room aimlessly for a moment. Kurt stood and wandered over to the corner to collect his things.
"Is everything okay?" His voice hung awkwardly, surrounded by the suddenly still air in the room.
Kurt nodded.
"It's fine." Fine was the worst word ever. Every time Blaine could remember himself saying "fine" like that it had been much closer to meaning awful, horrible, sick in his stomach and throat, hiding and angry. And completely convinced in keeping it to himself. He wasn't sure what to try with a Kurt who was that kind of "fine."
"Are you mad at me? I thought everything went well last night." It immediately became clear to Blaine that this had been the wrong thing to say.
"Not everything's about you Blaine." Kurt retorted, his face immediately clouding with guilti. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. Last night was...great. Amazing." A soft smile drifted across his face and disappeared. Blaine felt at least a little relieved. He moved closer, his arms wrapping loosely around Kurt's chest.
"Blaine, don't." Kurt pushed his arms away and moved to sit on the couch. His advances rejected, Blaine's arms crossed defensively over his chest.
"Sorry. I just wanted to give you a hug."
Kurt grunted in frustration, grinding the heels of his hands against his eyes.
"Blaine...I think I might have to quit Warblers."
"Wait. What?" Blaine sat down suddenly, the couch creaking in protest at the jolt of wait. "You can't! Are you leaving Dalton?"
"No, I'm not leaving Dalton. And it's not like I want to quit. I just..." Kurt took a deep breath. Blaine shifted closer carefully. His voice was unsure when he spoke out, crackling in the quiet.
"I'm...I'm your boyfriend, right? I'm supposed to be the guy who you tell these things to." Kurt looked at him with open eyes. Blaine was watching him cautiously, his hands itching to touch him.
"Boyfriend?" Blaine just shrugged slightly, watching Kurt from under his drawn brows. "Boyfriend." Kurt repeated, quietly and almost to himself. He looked up, his eyes suddenly fierce instead of dull and distracted. "Can I...is that hug still on the table?"
Blaine nodded sharply, scooting across the couch to meet Kurt's head leaning onto his shoulder. Kurt's arms wrapped around him before his had the chance. Instead he just lifted them up to clasp Kurt's joined hands.
"It's stupid money problems." Kurt said clearly, accenting it with a heavy breath out. "I guess in the whole rush of transferring, and adjusting, I never really though about the real cost of it all." Blaine leaned his head against Kurt's.
"I went home and it was just stupid things, like not having the brand name orange juice, or selling the old truck we used to have. And Christmas. My dad mentioned that my gifts shouldn't be too expensive this year, and I'm totally okay with that, but like, he said it and I felt like it was all my fault. He didn't mean it that way, but really, it is my fault isn't it?" He fluttered his hands to shush Blaine's protests and he continued. "No, really. Maybe not fault, I guess, but reason, yeah. And that's just this year. When they had already been saving for a while. What about next year, or after, and then college..." Kurt petered off for a minute, tugging thoughtfully on Blaine's fingers around his own hands. "I thought about it the whole ride back. And I've decided that I need to start doing my part. I need to focus on school, maybe get a job or something to at least help out. Maybe I can get a scholarship for next year. And that means I might not have time for Warblers."
Blaine shifted, pressing his lips against Kurt's hair, his words mumbled into it.
"But you love singing."
"And I love my family." Kurt countered, not managing to keep the sadness out of his tone.
"Is there anything I can do?" Kurt shook his head.
"Put up with me? I'm sorry I get... well... bitchy. I didn't mean to."
"It's okay. You've got a lot on your mind." Kurt shook his head.
"I have no idea what I'm going to do."
"Well, right now, you're going to come with me and we are going to destroy Wes at Guitar Hero to cheer you up a bit. And as for this, we'll figure it out." Blaine hauled them both up from the couch, as Kurt rolled his eyes a little.
"Hmmm. Better already I see." Blaine retorted, waving a finger at Kurt's slightly sarcastic expression. Kurt fought to keep the corners of his mouth from rising, but failed. It was Blaine's fault. Blaine's wonderful, warm fault.
"Yeah, well, shut up." Kurt shot back, a real smile finally appearing on his face for the first time all evening.