"Gleeks." Azimio snickered as he threw the slushie on Mercedes.
She closed her eyes in time, thanks to much practice, and immediately leaned over so it wouldn't get on her pants or shoes. Kurt saw the whole thing happen and cursed in his head.
"Honey, are you alright?" Kurt asked. She'd just gotten a new weave a little while ago, her mom was going to be so mad they if they had to get another one.
"Bathroom now," Mercedes ordered, hands coming up to paw at her head. Clearly she had the same concern.
"Come on." Kurt grabbed her arm and lead her to the nearest girls bathroom.
Mercedes' slushie clean up always took the longest of any of them, and it was entirely because of her hair. Before they even bothered with her clothing they had to make sure her hair didn't get ruined.
Kurt helped her the best he could until she sent him out to get her extra clothes from her locker. "You remember the combination?" she asked before he left.
"Yeah. I'll be right back."
"Thanks for helping."
"All I'm missing is French." Kurt shrugged. It WAS his favorite class, but it was also his easiest. Missing a day of it wouldn't do anything to hurt him.
He ran to her locker quickly and dialed the combination. Her locker was MUCH messier than his, like her car, but he was still able to find her extra clothes easily. With them in hand he closed the locker and began the run back. Unfortunately she'd been slushied pretty far from her locker so it was quite a trek.
And he had to sneak past his classroom, so he had to be sneaky. He could go another way, but it'd take him twice as long and standing around in slushied clothing was NEVER anywhere near fun.
He checked the door, made sure the teacher was turned, and made a quick dash past the door.
And ran right into another person.
Right into Blaine.
Kurt stared at him with wide eyes. "What?"
"Hi," Blaine said. "I - uh, was going to wait until your class ended but - I guess you're not in class."
"What are you doing here?" Kurt was in shock.
"I - um, I wanted to see you." Blaine licked his lips.
"I - I'm in school." Kurt blinked at him. What?
"Clearly." Blaine coughed to clear his throat. "Can we... Is it okay if we talk?"
Kurt's mouth was just hanging open, had been since he'd first seen the older boy. "But I... Mercedes..."
Blaine blinked and looked confused, then he seemed to notice the clothes Kurt still held. "Oh, you're in the middle of something. Um - I can wait?"
"Okay?" Kurt forced his mouth shut and forced his legs to move. He felt like Blaine was watching him.
The door to the girl's bathroom swung open easily. "Oh, there you are. What took you so long? Did you get stopped by Coach Sylvester?"
"No." Kurt shook his head. He handed the clothes over to her. "I'm just... Yeah, I'm gonna go, okay?"
"Sure, go on. I got this from here. Thanks." She gave him a week smile with her newly clean face surrounded by her newly clean face. He guessed she'd managed to save the weave.
Silently Kurt went back out into the hallway. Blaine was still there. Kurt blinked. Still there.
"Blaine."
He came over, bouncing on his feet like an excited puppy. "Kurt." The way he smiled around Kurt's name sent shivers down Kurt's spine.
Kurt reached a tentative hand out and ran it down Blaine's arm. Solid. Real. There.
Suddenly anger bubbled up in him, overtaking the shock. Kurt felt his face twist into a sneer and his fingers itched to slap Blaine again. "What are you doing here?" This time he asked it with venom lacing every syllable.
Blaine's eyes widened and he took a step back. "I... Kurt can we talk? Please?"
"Why should I talk to you? I haven't seen nor heard from you in over two weeks. I don't owe you anything, Blaine."
"Just... Kurt, please?" The sound of his pleading broke a little of Kurt's anger, not all of it, but enough for him to agree.
"Okay, but not here. I'm supposed to be in class and you're not supposed to even be in the building." Kurt turned on his heel and stalked down the hall. He heard Blaine follow after him a beat later.
The bell rang as they got downstairs and the floodgates, also known as classrooms, opened. Students poured out like they physically could no longer fit inside such a stifling room. Kurt almost lost Blaine in the flood, but Blaine grabbed the strap of Kurt's bag so they were connected.
"Kurt! Oh good, he found you! Hello Blaine!" Rachel appeared next to them, smile bright on her face.
"You knew he was coming?" Kurt asked her with a glare.
A glare she ignored. "Of course I did. How else do you think he knew where to find you. I had to mass text all the glee girls to find you myself, but I sent it all back to Finn who sent it back to this Wes character who then sent it to Blaine. I love being part of chain messages sometimes, it's like a lovely game of telephone without the errors."
Kurt chose to ignore that. Instead he rolled his eyes and sped up so her short legs couldn't keep up.
"Kurt, why are we walking so fast?"
"So I can lose Rachel."
"Oh, well she's gone."
"She can pop up without warning. She's like a ninja sometimes. A little annoying, midget ninja. She's lucky I like her so much, otherwise I'd REALLY hate her."
Blaine made a noise behind him at that but didn't form any real words.
They were almost to the door went Kurt was wrenched away from him and he lost his grip on the strap.
"I told you not to say anything!" an angry/tearful male voice growled. Blaine spun around to see Kurt pressed against a row of lockers by a large, somewhat familiar looking, beefy jock. A few people in the hall had stopped to look, but most continued about their own business.
"I didn't!" Kurt's voice wasn't particularly loud, but Blaine still heard him. "I told you I wouldn't and I haven't."
The large, threatening, beefy jock did not seem appeased by this answer.
"Hey, get off him." Blaine heard himself calling. Then he was tearing one of Beefy's arms away from Kurt and pushing the large jock away.
Blaine was stronger than he locked, A LOT stronger, and he could box pretty well, but on a guy so much bigger than him he really didn't have a chance. Only the surprise of it got the guy away from Kurt.
"Blaine, stop," Kurt said softly. "Karofsky you're making a scene."
Beefy, who must have been Karofsky, didn't try to get near them again. He just glowered. "You keep quiet," he said menacingly to Kurt.
"I told you I wouldn't," Kurt responded smoothy. He was still pressed against the lockers the same way Karofsky had him positioned, but he didn't look scared or even angry. He just looked nervous and a bit pleading.
Karofsky narrowed his eyes and then turned quickly. He was lost in the crowds quickly.
"C'mon, Blaine," Kurt said softly, finally stepping away from the lockers.
Blaine waited until they were outside. "That was the same guy who made fun of you at New Year's wasn't it? That was the same guy?"
Kurt stopped and turned on him. "So what if it was?"
Blaine's anger coursed through him the same as it had that night. "You can't just let those guys walk all over you, Kurt! You can't just let them get away with bullying you!"
"It's my life, Blaine. I can do whatever I want." Kurt turned and walked angrily into the parking lot.
"You can't just stand there and let people hurt you, Kurt! That just leads to disaster and more pain! People don't learn if you let them walk all over you! They just think they can do it again and again and get away with it because you just keep letting them!"
"Shut up, Blaine!" Kurt shrilled.
"No, I don't want that to happen to you, Kurt. You shouldn't let it! Fight back!" Blaine was practically yelling now.
Kurt stopped and spun again, so fast Blaine nearly ran into him.
"How EXACTLY do you want me to fight back, Blaine? Do you want me to hit them? Do you want me to stoop to their level and bully them right back? Is that what you want? Because let me tell you something, that's not who I am. I am not a bullier and I REFUSE to do it. I've been there before, and it HURTS, I HATE it!" Kurt was right up in his face.
"Don't you DARE tell me how to deal with my own bullies, Blaine. You don't know anything about it. All you know is what you saw, and that's NOTHING compared to what it could have been."
"But, Kurt, he HURT you! You can't just..."
"SHUT UP about what I can and cannot do, Blaine! Like I said: You. Know. NOTHING about what's going on."
"They're bullies, Kurt. How much to them can their be?"
"You'd be fucking surprised, Blaine!" Kurt growled. "And, while we're on the topic of people hurting me, YOU are the biggest god damned offender. Of all the bullying I've went through what YOU did to me made me feel worse than all of it. What you did made me feel dirtier than all the names people have called me over the years.
"Because I thought you cared about me. I thought you were my friend! But no, you come for a month, use my body and lead me around with fancy words I was too god damned naive to see through, and then leave and never ONCE try to REALLY talk to me. All I get is a fucking THROW AWAY text that could have been to anyone. Anyone, Blaine.
"You said you liked me, you said you wanted to know me and be my friend. You did a REALLY SHITTY job of it. All you've caused me is pain and regret. That's worse than any bullying. I trusted you and you used me."
Blaine stared at him in open mouth shock. He didn't know what to say to any of this. It was all so...
True. It was all so true.
Kurt was sixteen,and not only that, he was an INNOCENT sixteen year old. Blaine should have never made the deal. He should have never even THOUGHT about treating Kurt so casually like he treated Sebastian. Sebastian at least knew what was going on, he knew how to separate his feelings and it wasn't anything special or precious to him.
And with Sebastian there had only been sex and the occasional civil conversation. He'd never treated Sebastian like a boyfriend.
He'd treated Kurt that way. They'd gone out, they'd had sex, they'd kissed and hugged and laughed together and... Blaine had done all those things with this innocent boy and the whole time said they weren't the way they acted.
He'd used him.
"I know," Blaine said defeatedly, his shoulders slumping forward. "I know."
Kurt's steam ran out at those words. "You know?"
"I know." Blaine nodded. "I was really horrible to you, at the end, at the beginning, the middle. I made a giant mess out of it. I have a reason, but it really just sounds like an excuse."
"I still want to hear it." Maybe it would make some of this make sense.
"I was scared of you, of how much I feel for you." Blaine shrugged again. "I've never even come close to feeling the way you made me feel with one glance. It's fucking terrifying to realize that the whole love at first sight thing is somewhat based in reality."
"Love at first..." Kurt's breath left him.
Blaine smiled weakly. "I REALLY liked you just by knowing you five minutes, Kurt. I liked you more than I'd liked any of my previous boyfriends and lovers and I'd only known you a day! It was ridiculous." A breathy laugh. "But then the whole month happened and I just couldn't keep myself away from you, so I hid behind these rules and reasons that sounded so logical to my fear and that you bought because you didn't know any better and then...
"I fell for you, Kurt. I fell for you REALLY hard. It's why I'm here. I finally managed to pull my head out of my ass and I'm here to grovel and beg for you to forgive me. Because I know you felt the same. I KNOW it. You might hate me too much right now, and I'll have to deal with that if it's true, but I know you wanted it as much as I did, do. I pushed you away and I shouldn't have."
Kurt's heart was beating SO fast he didn't know how to deal with it. "You fell for me?" He was stuck on that. He'd heard the rest of the speech, but that part stuck out the most.
Blaine nodded. "Really hard. If you'll give me the chance, I want to go out with you. If I'm really lucky you'll even let me be your boyfriend." Blaine looked so hopeful.
Kurt exhaled shakily. "You have a LOT to make up to me," Kurt said. "And I mean a LOT, because you lead me on for a really long time. You didn't hid your feelings but still told me they didn't exist. You were, like, the fucking KING of mixed signals, Blaine."
"I know." Blaine grimaced.
"Okay, so long as we're clear on that." Kurt nodded to himself swiftly.
"Clear...?" Kurt cut him off with his mouth. Blaine moaned into it, warms immediately coming up to wrap around Kurt's lower back. Kurt's arms wrapped around his shoulders, holding him tight.
This kiss felt right, better than any of his other kisses, with Blaine or otherwise. This kiss was full of promise.