MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!
Not a long A/N here, for obvious reasons. But my Christmas present to you all is love.
...
Just kidding! Well, that too, of course, but I've given you all something more material. I'll explain after this chapter.
I'm afraid this week's instalment isn't overly interesting. I hate to call it a filler chapter but it sort of is. And not festive at all (come on, give me some credit, it is set in the middle of June!) I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.
Story so far...
Klaine returned from the Warbler weekend exhausted, wanting only to snuggle up and do a puzzle before Kurt sent Blaine out for a Thai takeaway.
-*T&C*-
"Kurt?"
"Mm?"
"Can I...?"
Kurt turned over. "Can you what?"
"Snuggle?"
Kurt's only reply was to open his arms wide for the younger man to cuddle up to him. With the other's warm body against his chest, Kurt closed his arms again, this time around his boyfriend.
It had been a long weekend. They had exhausted themselves with the Warblers and they had spent the last two hours lazily eating and talking. It reminded Kurt very much of when they'd first started dating. It made Blaine think of what they could be doing in their future. But then again, really, everything reminded Blaine of their future. He couldn't help but think of them together thirty, forty years down the line. It felt right to. Just watching their children grow up and move on and get married themselves. It was how he wanted to spend the rest of his life. And he had to let Kurt know that.
"I love you, you know."
"I know."
"I really, really love you."
"I love you too, Blaine."
"No, I-"
"Blaine! What's wrong?"
Blaine burrowed his head further into Kurt's chest, placing kisses into his neck.
"Blaine?"
"I," kiss, "love," kiss, "you," kiss, "so," kiss, "so," kiss, "so," kiss, "much."
Kurt sighed and resorted to stroking Blaine's hair whilst pressing his own kisses into it. "I am here for you. You know that. If you ever want to talk." He paused. "If there's ever anything wrong?"
Blaine shook his head while it was still nestled into his boyfriend. "Sleep."
Kurt felt Blaine drift off to sleep in his arms only moments later. For Kurt, it took a bit longer. He knew something was up. But, then again, Blaine would tell him. Right?
As he too drifted off to sleep, he knew he'd have a nightmare-filled night.
Kurt woke on Sunday morning to the sensation that something was brushing past his face. It felt like a butterfly, but that wouldn't make sense. What would a butterfly be doing in their apartment? He flicked his eyes open slightly just in time to feel the butterfly again, this time at his chin, and then see his boyfriend's lips retreating, preparing to swoop down again.
They paused just before they reached his lips to murmur "oh, you're awake," and then continued.
Their lips pressed together and Kurt couldn't do much to stop it. Not that he wanted to. They kept the kiss soft and chaste, just proving their early morning love for each other. As Kurt felt Blaine nibble on his lower lip, he pulled away.
"Morning breath," he mumbled.
Blaine raised an eyebrow. "You honestly think I care about that?"
Kurt shrugged and Blaine went in again, this time nibbling straight away and pushing his tongue in to mate with Kurt's.
They lay like that, kissing, for another twenty minutes before Kurt's alarm rang to cut the silence.
"No, don't leave me!" Blaine snuggled further into his boyfriend's chest and reattached their lips hastily.
"Nnnnnggghh, Blaine! I have to get ready. As do you."
"Five more minutes?" Blaine dashed his lips in again, the alarm still singing Perfect in the background. Kurt relaxed, getting more into the kiss. After another couple of seconds he felt Blaine relax too, and used that to roll away, pulling his arm out from underneath him and jumping out of bed.
"Hah!" He went to turn the alarm off. By the time he looked back at the bed, Blaine's bottom lip was quivering slightly, his eyes wide. Kurt swore mentally. "I'm sorry. But I can't be late to work today. I've already missed enough time recently, and I'm going to miss my Saturday shift for the forth time next weekend. I can't be in late." Blaine nodded in understanding, but he didn't look any less upset. "You know that I'd rather spend every minute of every day with you, but that isn't an option; we need to eat and we need money to eat and we need to work to get money. If I had the option I'd take you to work with me, but you have the Warblers and Dalton and-"
Kurt was cut off as a huge smile filled Blaine's face and he too stood up from the bed. He went to wrap his arms around Kurt's waist. "Hey, it's fine. I was only joking." He kissed his boyfriend quickly and then unwrapped his arms. "Bagsie bathroom first!"
He dashed towards the ensuite, quickly followed by Kurt calling "oh no you don't, mister!"
She stood at the kettle, slowly stirring her coffee. Her weekend had been highly enjoyable. It had been a long time since she'd felt that good. She just wanted to go back and live it over and over and over. Which is what she was doing mentally whilst stirring her drink. How he had picked her up. How they had gone to the park. How they had laughed for hours. How she had been mesmerised by his eyes. How he had kissed her goodbye. Then everything went black.
"Ku-urt!"
Kurt removed his hands from over her eyes and grinned. His eyes flickered downwards and before Gina could stop him, he had grabbed her coffee and taken a sip from it.
"KU-URT!"
Kurt dropped the mug from his lips. "What?"
Gina sighed and smiled, grabbing another mug and putting the coffee granules in the bottom. "Never mind." And in all honesty, it didn't. She didn't mind stirring another coffee and reliving every moment with Reggie again. "So how was your weekend?"
"Oh, it was good. Very tiring, but so much fun." He paused, taking in the posture of the girl who still had her back to him, dragging the spoon through her coffee. "And you? Anything happen with Mystery Man?"
Gina giggled childishly, keeping her back to Kurt. "He's not a Mystery Man, Kurt."
"He is to me. All I know is his name and that he is a highly skilled kisser."
Gina blushed. "That's true. But..." Now she turned, leaving her coffee behind her as she talked to Kurt. "But we were wondering if you'd like to go on a date with us? Reggie is bringing one of his friends from work. Apparently he's gay too. And he has been asking about Reggie's Mystery Woman, as you put it. So, we thought, why not make a thing of it? Three couples. And you'd finally get to meet him."
"Finally? G, it has only been, what, a week? Just over?" The girl turned back to her coffee looking defeated. "But... I'd love to." She turned back around with the biggest smile Kurt had ever seen on her. "When do you want us?"
"Blaine!"
The curly-haired man turned around as he was about enter the code for the apartment block. He was surprised to see Kurt bouncing towards him. "Didn't you get back from work hours ago?"
Kurt shook his head. "I went to the coffee shop with Gina afterwards. She was telling me about her weekend. Anyway, why are you back later than usual?"
"I had a meeting with Greg after rehearsal. He wanted to know how the weekend went. I think he wanted me to go somewhere with him on Wednesday as well but then your text came through. He said it wasn't urgent and anyway, there is no way I'm not meeting the man who has made your working day so much more interesting."
"Oh, haha." Kurt walked past his boyfriend to type the code in, turning back around to give him a sly kiss before he entered the building. They stood in the lift together.
"So what did you do at work today besides go for a coffee after it?"
"We had a big meeting at lunch, which is why I couldn't come out to see you, and basically head office had been in and liked what we'd done with the store. They want to look at the portfolios of all the designers. Paula is retiring at the end of the summer so they're having a staff shuffle up in the store here in Columbus."
"And they're giving the top job to you?"
Kurt scoffed. "Hardly. I'm already in a position way above my age and experience. But I'm hoping someone will finally notice Gina's work. Some of the stuff she has designed I want to steal and put under my own name!" The lift came to a halt and the doors opened. "Anyway, what about you? You look tired. Is everything okay?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, fine. I'm still in a last minute frenzy about this weekend, as always. I feel so much less prepared this time around."
Kurt bit his lip and held Blaine's hand in his own outside their apartment door. "From what I saw, you're going to trounce the competition. I mean, that one song you did for the first time, erm, Welcome To My Life, was amazing, and that was that good after only four or five run throughs. Those boys are talented. This will be fine, I promise you."
Blaine smiled, happy that Kurt accepted his excuse for his fidgetiness. He dug in his pocket with his free hand, pulling out his keys a d stuffing them in the lock behind Kurt's back. He pushed the door open. "Shall we?"
"So you're sure you're busy on Wednesday night?"
Greg's brow was furrowed as he looked pleadingly at his employee sat opposite him at a table in the staff room. He seemed desperate in whatever it was he wanted Blaine for.
Blaine chewed the inside of his cheek. "Well... Simple answer yes. But, if this is really important to you, I guess I could, I don't know, work out what time I have to be where and hope it doesn't clash too much?"
Greg's haggard face lit up. "Oh, thank you, Blaine. Honestly, I'm so grateful."
Blaine smiled. He was confident he'd done the right thing. "So; time, place and occasion?"
"Yeah. It's... sort of a meeting. I'll be meeting some new people, at least, and you know how rubbish I am at that. I have to be there for about half past five, which seems ridiculously early to me but hey. And it's at the CATCO. So," here he took a breath and held it, "can you do it?"
"Well Kurt's thing starts at half past seven at the Gateway, so, yeah. Yeah, I think I can." Greg's grin quite honestly spread from one ear to the other. "But I'll have to check with the man himself first, obviously."
Greg nodded vigorously. "Of course." His normal, happy-go-lucky smile returned to his features. "Thank you anyway, though. At least for thinking about it."
"No problem."
Well, thoughts? I'm not too happy with this one but it helps me move on with this story and will set the next chapter up. I hope it wasn't too awful and didn't spoil your Christmases too much.
Right, on to your gift; I know that's what you were all reading the chapter for! You know that WordPress site that I was going to make months ago and never got round to it? Well... :) thank you to IThinkILeftMyCoatOutside for the name. You didn't even know what you were naming when you first said that, but I always knew it was perfect! You can find the site at luspeak. wordpress .com and there should be a post up already.
Finally, thank you for begin with me for however long you have been. It means so much to me. I love you, each and every one of you. Happy Holidays. Next time I talk to you it will probably be 2013, so Happy New Year too. I hope it's a good one.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!
I never feel like I do enough for charities. Sure, all my old stuff goes to Cancer Research and I am always in the charity shops in my town. But I want to just go up to collection pots and put money in. So, for every signed review I get for this story, I will donate 10p to a charity. If you have a favourite, please let me know in your review and I'll see what I can do. Let's see how much we can donate, eh?
What else would I put as the buzz sentence on Christmas Day? Choose a holiday greeting, any language, anything from Happy Hanukkah to Feliz Navidad ;)