A/N: Okay so I'm gonna start this off with a GIGANTIC apology. It has been waaaay too long since my last update. School has me so short on time, ugh. Sorry to keep you guys waiting so long, I'll try to never do that again. D:

Anywho, here's this chapter. This is a warning for crude language and homophobic slurs, so if you feel like you might get triggered, please be careful reading.

And the disclaimers!: I do not own Glee or any characters associated with it (sigh).

Kurt got to the Lima Bean first, after Blaine got stuck behind quite possibly one of the only railroad crossings in their part of Ohio.

This gave Kurt enough time to order his coffee and sit down at a table near the back, next to the buzzing coffee machine. He took a sip of his drink and breathed deeply to try to calm his nerves. He didn't understand why he was nervous in the first place, though. Blaine seemed like a nice, genuine guy.

But for some reason, being around him made Kurt's heart beat just a little faster. Even during their English class, Kurt had tried to act nonchalant and cool, but if Blaine had moved just a bit closer, he would've heard how fast Kurt's heart was beating. He couldn't help it, the strange feelings just seemed...chemical. Innate.

Kurt took another long sip of his coffee and promptly started coughing and choking when Blaine appeared suddenly in front of him with a coffee of his own. His smile quickly turned to a mask of concern.

"Kurt, oh my gosh, are you okay?" He set down his coffee and walked to Kurt's side of the table and thumped his back lightly.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Kurt said shakily, once he regained his breath. His cheeks were flushed. Blaine still hadn't moved his hand from his back, and he was close to Kurt's face. Really close. "Just a bit embarrassed, is all," he breathed. Suddenly it felt like there wasn't enough air in the room and his eyes travelled down Blaine's face to his lips and lingered there.

"Kurt, you don't have to be embarrassed, you were just choking," said the lips, and Kurt looked back up at Blaine's eyes and stared. He felt an unexpected jolt go through him.

Blaine's eyes.

They changed color! Kurt thought as he stared in amazement at Blaine's now golden purple eyes. He couldn't stop staring. It was almost as if he was hypnotized, and all he wanted was to stare into Blaine's eyes forever. The rest of the shop seemed as if it just fell away, and only Blaine and Kurt existed. There were mysteries swimming in his irises, something like a secret that Kurt wanted to know. They were the color the sky just before sunset, a beautiful mix of purple and gold and blue-green, but somehow so much brighter and deeper and so much more...enticing...

"Uh...Kurt?" Blaine said slowly. Kurt snapped out of his trance and leaned back slightly. The world rushed back into motion around them and Blaine's eyes had changed back to their usual hazel green. Kurt was left wondering if he just imagined it all.

"Yeah, I'm fine, sorry. Just spaced out a little there," Kurt said quickly. How long was he staring?

Blaine hesitated for a couple seconds, frowning a bit before walking back over to his side of the table and sitting down. He opened packets of various coffee spices and dumped them into his coffee. Kurt stared curiously for a few seconds.

"Why do you put so much stuff in your coffee?" Kurt asked after the fifth packet of vanilla.

Blaine scoffed and smiled slightly before answering. "Why not?" Kurt laughed and nodded understandingly.

"So. Gatsby," said Blaine, sipping his coffee and taking out his book.

"Yes, Gatsby. I don't understand Nick Carraway's motive," Kurt said, leafing through the pages. Blaine then launched into an explanation of Fitzgerald's writing style, unconsciously moving his chair around the table in increments as he pointed out passages in the book. Soon they were sitting almost shoulder to shoulder at the little round table and Kurt's stomach was doing backflips. He couldn't explain it, but there was something about having Blaine close to him that made him feel...

"So did you understand that?" He heard Blaine say.

"Wh - Oh, yeah! You were such a great help, thank you so much," Kurt said. His hand moved to rest over Blaine's before he registered what he was doing. But the simple touch felt like a shock of electricity, and Kurt felt it reverberate throughout his body like a ripple of water, reaching the tips of his toes and back again. He instinctively moved to pull away but Blaine flipped his hand over and laced his fingers through Kurt's.

The feeling intensified and buzzed through Kurt, and there was a strange rushing in his ears, and he almost didn't hear it when Blaine asked softly, "Can I?"

Kurt's heart stuttered when he replied, "Yes."

It was weird how strongly he was feeling. The smallest contact with Blaine made Kurt's mouth run dry and his mind go blank. But it didn't matter because Blaine was holding his hand in the middle of a crowded coffee shop like it was no big deal. And Kurt didn't mind.

"Blaine, I - "

"Hey, fags!" Kurt heard a deep voice behind him. "Get a fucking room, no one wants to see that shit here!" And just like that, the moment was gone. Kurt closed his eyes breathed out through clenched teeth. He felt Blaine's hand tighten almost painfully around his.

"Blaine, calm down, it's fine. Just ignore them."

"No, Kurt. We've got just as much of a right to be here as they do," Blaine said in quiet anger.

"But they're just stupid, Blaine. Let's just get out of here so they won't bother us anymore," Kurt reasoned.

"Fags! Weren't you fucking listening?" called the head guy, backed up by a group of snickering jocks. "Stand your twink asses up and - "

"Shut the fuck up, Karofsky," Blaine said sharply, standing up. The air around him had gone icy, Kurt could feel it. There was this energy around Blaine, a feeling of foreboding. How did Blaine know this guy? Kurt just assumed he was a homophobic stranger.

"Blaine, please - "

"Kurt, no," Blaine said quietly, gesturing for Kurt to stand behind him. He turned back to the stunned jock. "Look, Karofsky. We're not in elementary school anymore, so just drop the teasing. It's getting old and I'm sick of it."

Kurt could tell Blaine was trying to be as calm as possible. Obviously there was some connection between the two, because the other boy - Karofsky - was standing with his jaw slack and a look of recognition in his eyes.

Blaine continued. "And there's no staplers or applesauce around here, so just calm the fuck down, please. We're not doing anything to you." Finally Karofsky seemed to come to his senses and lunged forward suddenly.

"Anderson," he practically growled. There were shouts from around the coffee shop as people yelled for someone to stop this, because Karofsky was pushing chairs out of the way as he stormed his way over to Blaine, who was now so tense his jaw was clenched. But he didn't seem afraid. Only furious.

Karofsky was coming closer, eyes locked on Blaine. Kurt stood in complete shock, unsure of what to do and on the verge of panicking and just dragging them out of the coffee shop before a fight broke out, but then suddenly there was a hissing sound next to Kurt, from the coffee machine they had been sitting next to. Then there was a BOOM and hot water, really hot water oh my god, it splashed everywhere and there was a scream, but was that his or Karofsky's? He couldn't tell but he wasn't sure it mattered, because his arm felt like it was being scraped apart.

Kurt chanced a look down at his sleeve. Blaine was there right away, all traces of fury gone and replaced with a tender concern. His sleeve was wet and smoking slightly from the boiling water that had just been splashed on it. His arm absolutely seared in pain and he couldn't help but let out a whimper of pain from between his clenched teeth.

"Oh my god, Kurt, are you okay?" Blaine said, carefully taking Kurt's elbow and leading him to the bathroom in the back of the store. There was a group of people forming around the spot where Karofsky had fallen. The water had landed on his shoulder, from what Kurt could gather.

"Yeah, I'm - shit, no I'm not."

Blaine was muttering under his breath and shaking his head as he carefully rolled up Kurt's sleeve and ran cold water from the sink over it. Kurt hissed as the water touched his skin and cooled it down, making it feel immensely better. It was silent for a few minutes, save for the sound of the running water. Kurt could see his skin becoming less irritated with every passing second.

"Blaine, it's fine, you don't have to do this."

"Yes, I do," he muttered. Then he said something else under his breath.

"...What was that?"

"I said, I'm sorry." Blaine carefully patted Kurt's arm down with a scratchy paper towel before turning to face Kurt.

Kurt laughed weakly. "It wasn't your fault, Blaine. Don't apologize. God knows this place needs new coffee equipment. It was bound to happen."

Blaine still looked anxious. He bit his lip and ran his hand nervously through his hair. His eyes seemed clouded with...guilt?

"Blaine, it's not your fault," Kurt repeated softly, reaching out to rest a hand on Blaine's shoulder.

There.

Another shock of something. And it made Kurt want to move closer, so he did.

They moved simultaneously, and somehow ended up in a tight, warm hug. Blaine had his face pressed into Kurt's neck and Kurt almost forgot about his burning arm, and he honestly couldn't think of anywhere else he wanted to be right now. Which was strange, considering he had just met Blaine. But it seemed...chemical, almost. Like this was meant to be.

'Woah, woah, Kurt. It's just a hug, calm down' he thought.

"I don't know if this is awkward to say, but..." Blaine paused. "I don't want to let go."

Kurt's heart fluttered when he said the next words, not even realizing how true they were.

"Me neither."

xxx

The second Blaine had gotten home, he'd yanked his zhayrr out of his backpack and pulled at it furiously. His parents weren't home, so he had no reason to try to contain his anger. He went straight to the greenhouse and began to pace back and forth. The blob of metal-rock was putty under his hands as he exuded negative energy and anger, mostly at himself. How could he let himself get out of control like that? And in front of Kurt?

He felt terrible. One second his vision was practically red as Karofsky, fucking Karofsky, approached with an angry face, eager to get revenge for what happened in 8th grade. The next thing he knew was that everything happened at once - the boom of the coffee machine, Kurt's scream, Karofsky's low-pitched groan of pain, shocked customers yelling for help.

But mostly he noticed Kurt.

Blaine stopped pacing and breathed in the smell of green and fresh dirt from the plants around him. He liked this room. Being surrounded by nature and normalcy calmed him like almost nothing else could.

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

Blaine turned to face the wall farthest from the door. He felt along the wall until he found the latch, then pulled it open and climbed inside the small room. It used to be an old garage that was connected to the greenhouse, but his parents remodeled and a new garage was built on the opposite side of the house, leaving this garage empty and dull. So Blaine had turned it into a secret garden of sorts.

This was the place he could lash out and not hurt anything or anybody. Besides his zhayrr and the rest of the greenhouse, it was one of the only things that calmed him down. Here, the plants molded to however he wanted them. Flowers covered the walls in colorful splatters of petals and it smelled wonderfully, delicately fragrant. Blaine had even gotten the floor to be lined in a layer of spongy grass.

This was one of the more positive aspects of his powers. There were others, this Blaine knew, but he hadn't quite discovered them all yet. All he knew now was that he could make things move without touching them (how very Matilda-like) and that he had an affinity for the earth. Plants would grow at his will and it was amazing. He didn't know what the other powers were, but he could feel them, just lying there beneath the surface waiting to come out.

Once he was decidedly calmer, Blaine settled down in the hammock he had stretched in between two poles in the garage-turned greenhouse. The ceiling of the garage had been transformed into a huge window that, although covered with vines, still managed to let a fair amount of light through. He laid back and stared at the blue sky through the holes in the greenery. Blue like Kurt's eyes.

Kurt.

Blaine chuckled humourlessly to himself. He'd fucked up, hadn't he? First he let his emotions get out of control and send the paper bird, and then he made a coffee machine explode on him. Wonderful.

But that hug...Blaine knew it was stupid, but it was such a nice hug. It made him feel warm and safe and a lit a fire in his chest that he'd never felt before. A fierce protectiveness had engulfed him and he couldn't suppress the words that came out of his mouth, because they were so very, very true: "I don't want to let go."

And his very soul sang when Kurt said "Me either."

And Blaine knows something happened when Kurt stopped choking and looked into Blaine's eyes. Blaine felt it himself. It was something like a burning in his irises and a mental numbing, like he was spacing out. But he just shook himself out of it and Kurt did too, and that was that. But Blaine couldn't shake the feeling that something important happened. Everything seemed more intense after that, and Blaine couldn't restrain his fingers from lacing their way in between Kurt's until it had already happened, and it gave Blaine the most fluttery feeling. He felt so alive.

Blaine liked this feeling. He wanted to keep it. But first he had to get Kurt. How to go about this task was something Blaine could not figure out. Obviously, Kurt knew Blaine liked him. His subconscious had made sure of that in class.

And Blaine was mostly sure that Kurt liked him back...but, shit. Blaine didn't know what came after that.

Frustrated, he looked at a beautiful bouquet of flowers hanging from the ceiling. A second later, it burst into fluttering petals, each of which bonded together again to make a long daisy chain as they floated to the ground. He sighed and picked it up, thinking of all the romantic comedies he's watched as he crushed the daisy chain in his hands and let it drop to the floor as a newborn lily.

Usually the guy made himself look stupid in front of the girl, she fell for him after an argument in the rain, and then they giggled maniacally as they ran hand in hand into a sunset.

But that was, well...stupid.

Kurt deserved better. Blaine wanted to make him smile. But he didn't know how.

Sighing, he pulled out his phone and typed out a message to Kurt.

xxx

5:22 PM
From: Blaine
Are you okay?

5:24 PM
To: Blaine
Yeah, my arm's feeling better, thanks for asking. :)

5:27 PM
From: Blaine
Ok that's good :) I'm sorry, again.

5:28 PM
To: Blaine
Blaine, don't be sorry. I told you already, it's not your fault. If anything, I should be mad at the Lima Bean for having such faulty coffee equipment.

5:32 PM
From: Blaine
Yeah, faulty coffee equipment..

Kurt frowned at his phone.

"Hey bud, who you textin'?" Burt asked, breaking Kurt's concentration as he walked into the kitchen.

"Oh, hey dad. No one, just a friend."

"A friend? Do I know this friend?"

"Nope, I just met him a couple days ago."

Burt raised his eyebrows. "Do I need to know this, uh, friend?"

"No, dad. It's not like that." But I wish it was.

Burt gave his son a wary look as he took a waterbottle out of the fridge and left the kitchen. Kurt sighed and slumped down into a chair, looking at Blaine's message again and frowning. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about Blaine. Like something wasn't quite right.

Kurt suddenly remembered how Blaine's eyes had changed colors in the shop. It was strange how quickly it happened - there was a flash of a beautiful purply-blue-golden brown that was so enrapturing, pulling Kurt closer, forcing him to stare just a bit longer - and then it was gone just as fast as it came. But Kurt knew something happened. There was no way his mind could've just created that color from nowhere, no way he could've just imagined it all.

Honestly, it. creeped him out a bit.

Kurt grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl in the kitchen and bit into it, still thinking. Of course Blaine seemed nice. The way he dressed and presented himself in general made sure of that.

But there was something else to him, an intriguing edge, that made Kurt want to both get closer and get as far away as possible.

Blaine was...interesting, to say the least.

But Kurt didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

A/N: Hi! I posted a [badly drawn] picture of Blaine's eye color, as I imagined it, on tumblr. Link on my profile!