To: Defenders of Dreamweaver (list)
From: Erica Leathart (imbringingsexy-jet-cat)
Subject: It's getting cold
Hey guys,
It's well and truly winter now, so all Wednesday sessions are being shifted to our house after our holiday break until it gets warms enough for us to use the park again. Once school has started up again for you in the New Year we'll get back to the roleplay, but for now just have fun with your families and all that other good stuff.
Even though it would be inappropriate for Luke and I to go, Jeff has asked us to pass on that he is having a New Year's party at his house and that you are all invited (he told me to point to Kurt here, but I didn't mention this because the session ended before we could discuss this stuff).
As per usual, any ICCs can be sent to Luke and we will count them as having happened. Unless you're Leo and Ethan, because the Carlton/Hawkbeak thing is getting weird and you never even talk to each other during the sessions. I mean really you guys, do we need to start a drug ring?
Happy holidays!
Erica (and Luke)
To: all
From: Blaine Anderson (Anderson-Blaine)
Subject: RE: it's getting cold
...drug ring?
Did we miss something? o_O
Blaine
...
"And he's got to be strong, and he's got to be fast, and he's got to be fresh from the fight."
To: all
From: Leonard Kavex (LeoKavex)
Subject: RE: it's getting cold
We weren't IN a drug ring! We were just trying to DIFFUSE a drug ring.
There's a difference, gosh.
To: all
From: Ethan Thompson (ethanasaurus)
Subject: RE: it's getting cold
Leo, we did invent a hypothetical drug ring of NPCs to diffuse. That's almost like starting a drug ring.
All I'm saying is that we aren't perfect, even if Erica exaggerated a teeny bit :)
To: all
From: Leonard Kavex (LeoKavex)
Subject: bitch please
You all know that I'm as close to perfect as y'all are gonna get. Come absorb the fabulous while you can ;)
After a lot of insistence from Blaine, Kurt finally gave in and decided to go to Jeff's New Year's Eve party. They had arranged for everyone to stay over at Jeff's house since so many of them would be coming from Lima, and Westerville was far enough away to stop them from going home too late at night. Kurt drove Marley, Unique, Leo and Hadley over from Lima, since all the others were from Westerville anyway, and all of them planned to stay the night somewhere in Westerville, whether or not that ended up as being Jeff's house after all.
Kurt did a double take as Hadley confirmed for him that they were in fact in the right place for the party. Jeff's house was huge, with a well tended garden out the front and ivy draping the walls of the house. It was the single most stereotypical house for a rich family that Kurt had ever seen, practically oozing Von Trapp, and it didn't fit the image he had of Jeff at all.
"It's a big house," Marley said first, as they all got out of the car.
"He has a big family," Leo contributed, "I guess they need the space."
"How big is big?"Unique asked.
"I think he has four siblings, but I don't know where or when I heard that," Kurt said, "I'm not really the best source of information. Still the newbie, remember?"
"Four sounds about right," Marley agreed. The group headed to the door together, which was thrown open before they even got there by Jeff.
"Hey!" he said excitedly, "everyone's downstairs in the rec room. You can leave your coats and stuff up here. There are drinks and things down there, just go ahead and help yourselves." Leo and Hadley raced down the stairs right away while the others hung back a bit. Kurt mostly couldn't follow them by how fast they dashed off and he had never been to Jeff's house in order to know where the stairs were.
"By drinks do you mean like, alcohol?" Marley asked Jeff quietly, obviously embarrassed by her question. Sometimes Kurt forgot just how much younger than him she was, but then she made it clear.
Jeff wrinkled up his nose. "My parents are in the living room. Besides, everything is more fun when you can remember it the next day." Marley breathed a sigh of relief, and Kurt was honestly glad that he wasn't the only one who didn't want to drink that night.
The group headed downstairs, Jeff clearly satisfied that everyone he had expected had arrived. In the rec room, Blaine, Nick, Ethan and a girl that Kurt didn't recognise were playing ping-pong, Hadley and Leo were standing by the food table and there was a small group by the TV, watching some movie that Kurt didn't immediately know. It appeared as though the members of the roleplay weren't the only ones invited to the party, but he didn't mind that too much. Kurt made his way over to the ping-pong table to say hi to the others that he did know, not missing Blaine's grin as he got close.
"Hey!" Blaine greeted, catching the ball instead of hitting it to offer his arms open to Kurt for a hug, which he accepted.
"Hi," Kurt said, "and hi to you guys, too," he added as he stepped away from Blaine.
"Do you want to swap in?" the girl asked.
"Sure, unless you want to keep playing."
"No, I'm really awful. You would think I'd be better since I live here, but I'm not."
"Oh, right- Kurt, this is Jaz, Jaz, this is Kurt," Nick introduced, "and Jaz, no offence, but I think I'd prefer Kurt as a partner right about now."
"That's okay. I could go and get Jeffrey or Leo, if you guys wanted to play proper couples," Jaz suggested. Blaine looked puzzled for a moment.
"Oh! We aren't a couple," Blaine said, glancing towards Kurt.
"Sorry, Jeff said that... never mind." She shook her head and then walked off, leaving Kurt to fill her space at the table.
"Jaz is Jeff's twin sister," Nick supplied, although Kurt had never asked, "and over there is his younger brother, Josiah." Kurt looked over at the TV watchers and found that he could quite easily pick the blond in the group who could be a Sterling.
"Doesn't he have other siblings?" Kurt asked. Blaine passed him the ball and he served, and they began to fall into the rhythm of playing.
"Yeah, he has two older brothers, JJ and James, but they're at college."
"...So all of their names start with J?"
"Yup. Junior, James, Jasmine, Jeffrey, Josiah." Ethan missed the ball and began to apologise to Blaine profusely as he retrieved it from where it had bounced to behind them. They kept playing for a while until Hadley and Josiah began hovering as though they wanted to play, and Nick and Ethan's boyfriends started to glance at them flirtatiously from across the room. Blaine and Kurt decided to stop playing along with the others, mostly not wanting to get involved in anything with Hadley. There was still some tension between them, even with her having a new, frighteningly Blaine-esque boyfriend.
With cans of soda in their hands, Blaine took Kurt around the room to introduce him to the people he hadn't met yet. Most of the other roleplayers had evidently met the others at previous parties or something, but Kurt was still by far the newest member of the group. He was glad to have Blaine as overlap to ensure he met people. It turned out most of the guys he didn't know already were Warblers, and the girls were either their girlfriends or Jasmine's friends (or in a few cases they were both). There were a lot of names for him to remember, and he barely bothered to even listen.
"We should play an entirely sober game of spin the bottle," Josiah suggested, tapping Jeff's arm repeatedly. Something inside Kurt didn't hate the suggestion.
"You just want to kiss Marley," Nick teased.
"Can we play?" Josiah said, not denying Nick's accusations at all.
"I'll play," Jeff said, "let's find a bottle; you get interested people in a circle." Josiah rounded up a fair group, though there were still a few who were adamantly not going to play. Kurt found himself sitting in the circle between Marley and Nick, with Blaine a few people over. There were a few of the other Warblers in the circle- Wes, Trent, and Thad, Kurt thought- and a few of the girls- Sophia, Kendra, Mel and Chloe, as Marley whispered to him. They had seemingly been brought in to balance out the heterosexuality a little bit more. Kurt could tell that Marley was nervous about playing, but by the way she smiled back at Josiah he wasn't worried about her too much.
"Standard rules," Jeff announced, "Re-spins only to avoid incest, same sex couples are accepted if not encouraged-" Kurt watched as the various couples in the circle fired winks at one another, "and you're going to end up kissing two people in a row, deal with it."
Jeff spun first, landing on Nick. The pair kissed with a lot of enthusiasm and obvious tongue, finally breaking apart to Jasmine's call of, "you rigged it!"
"Never question the bottle," Jeff said mischievously as he filled Nick's space in the circle. Nick's spin landed on Jaz, and he quirked an eyebrow at her. She made her way into the circle and kissed him quickly, but no one complained about its chasteness. They all understood that kissing your twin's boyfriend right after they kissed them was going to be odd for all involved.
More kisses followed, not all of them as entertaining as others. Jaz and Trent. Trent and Kendra. Kendra and Chloe. Chloe and Wes. Wes and Sophia. Sophia and Josiah.
Josiah somehow managed to spin Marley on his turn, and their kiss was sweet, even for the nature of the game. Everyone in the circle seemed to smirk about it, as though there was some history there that Kurt hadn't caught up on yet. When Josiah returned to the circle, he smiled supportively at Marley as she spun the bottle. She seemed entirely relieved when it fell on Kurt, and their friendship made it easy to get it done without any fuss.
Then, with Kurt in the middle of the circle, he wondered what the worst case scenario would be. Kissing one of the Warblers who he barely knew, he thought. The bottle spun a few times, and seemed to take forever to slow down.
Finally, the bottle stopped spinning, pointed perfectly at Blaine.
Kurt had too many feelings to pinpoint which one exactly he was feeling most- whether it was excitement, shyness, or fear. Blaine didn't seem to be shy about it at all; moving to the middle of the circle and cupping Kurt's face gently, looking him in the eyes with a soft smile.
Their lips finally met, and Kurt thought he could die happy in that moment. Blaine's lips were soft and warm, and they moved along Kurt's with ease and grace. Blaine broke the kiss for a moment before kissing him again, that time catching Kurt's top lip between his, setting them up for a much less chaste kiss. Kurt knew that the others were starting to call things at them, but in that moment he just couldn't care less. Blaine finally pulled away, and Kurt lamented the fact that he couldn't just kiss Blaine again. He retreated to the open spot in the circle, while Blaine spun the bottle.
There were footsteps on the stairs before the bottle had stopped, and the three Sterling kids looked worriedly towards the staircase, causing the circle to quickly disband as they all sensed the panic of a parent coming down.
"The pizzas are here," Jeff's dad said, "Do you want me to bring them down?" he asked his children.
"Me and Kurt will get them," Blaine said quickly, grabbing Kurt's hand and pulling him up the stairs before he even had time to think about it. Blaine led him to the kitchen where the boxes were stacked on the counter, but stopped Kurt before he could reach for a pile. "I, uh," Blaine started, but he stopped talking right away. "Hi," he said quietly instead, and they both laughed.
"Don't get all awkward about it now, we cuddle on a regular basis," Kurt said, trying to lighten the mood.
"Um, yeah, I guess we do," Blaine laughed uneasily, "but... that was new."
"Yeah, it was. I, uh, I liked it, though. It was a good new."
"Right, good new," Blaine repeated. Kurt wasn't sure how much he was blushing, but he figured that Blaine was feeling as awkward as he was too. "I'm sorry, Kurt. You deserved something better than that for your first real kiss. I mean, Marley doesn't really count, right? You barely touched each other."
"Oh, that wasn't really my first kiss," Kurt said, trying to be casual. In honesty that was about as real as his kisses had gotten, the first where he had really felt anything.
"What?" Blaine said, "But you've never dated anyone."
"Since when did anyone have to be dating anyone?" Kurt said, "My first kiss was a cheerleader at my school, Brittany. I didn't count that on account of she's a girl and I'm gay."
"Fair enough, but then I'd still be the first guy." Kurt laughed humourlessly.
"Nope, Karofsky kind of took that one from me already."
"Oh Kurt, I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to bring that up or anything. You could have told me that he kissed you sooner, you know? We've talked about all the other Karofsky stuff already."
"I know, I just don't believe in outing people, I guess. I don't know, Blaine. I just tried to move past it. It was awful, but I had things to distract me, more important things."
"Such as?" Blaine paused, "how long ago was this?"
"A couple of months, right after I started the LARP, actually. It was the day of Nightbird and Darcy's first date," Kurt admitted, "Dreamweaver is the furthest I can run from him, remember?"
"Kurt, I could have kissed you before him, it's not fair that he got there first because I'm slow, I'm so, so, sorry..." Kurt leapt for joy on the inside at the thought that Blaine had even thought about kissing him before tonight.
"Hey, it's okay. I can count whatever firsts I like, remember? You just said that yourself a minute ago. Look, the others are expecting us to bring the pizza down, right, so we should probably do that." Blaine nodded. Kurt reached for the boxes, and Blaine stopped him again.
"Kurt, could I... could I kiss you?" Kurt nodded, and Blaine leant forward to kiss him. Kurt slid his arms around Blaine's neck to pull him that little bit closer, succeeding in deepening the kiss. Blaine backed Kurt against the wall, never breaking contact for more than a moment, and Kurt didn't have it in him to even think about stopping.
"Yeah, they came up ages ago, so I think we should see where they w-woah," Jeff said, startling Kurt and Blaine apart, Kurt's arms still resting on Blaine's shoulders. "We didn't mean to interrupt anything." Jaz, who must have been who Jeff was talking to, was standing in the kitchen too.
"It's fine," Kurt said, clearing his throat. Blaine smiled at him shyly as he stepped away from him, returning to the stacks of boxes and taking one. Jeff grabbed the other and the pair walked from the room.
"It's about freaking time," Kurt heard Jeff say to Blaine as they left the room.
Jaz quirked an eyebrow at Kurt, "not a couple, huh?"
"Believe me, that's the closest we've ever gotten to being one," Kurt said, "I'm a little confused, but I think hopeful is a better word."
"Okay, let's grab some more stuff so you don't return empty handed." She found some extra snacks and drinks for them to carry down to the rec room with them, and when they got there everyone seemed to have their eyes glued to Kurt and Blaine. The party game sort of atmosphere had totally dissolved, and everyone was back to casually hanging out. Someone had put on some music that he didn't know, creating a nice background buzz. Blaine looked at him across the room and smiled, before finding his shoes all too interesting. Kurt couldn't believe he was getting embarrassed now.
"Kurt!" Jeff said as he bounced over to him, probably noticing the slight awkwardness hanging in the room as everyone looked between Blaine and Kurt. The thought that they all knew what had gone on upstairs didn't comfort him. "You ever heard I Fight Dragons before?"
"Um, no?"
"They're the band we're playing now. Just hold on a moment. Listen." Kurt listened. "That's the noise that Gameboys make when you turn them on. Neat, huh?"
"No one cares about the Gameboy noises!" Josiah called across the room, and Jeff pulled the finger at him in retaliation.
"That's pretty cool, actually," Kurt said. He might not have appreciated it to the full extent, but any time anyone was that excited about anything it was best to just play along. Excitable friends were some of the best sorts of friends.
"They're kind of geeky, I guess. They sing songs about superheroes," Jeff explained.
"How fitting with our friend group."
"I know!"
"Does everyone to ever visit your house need to hear this speech?" Blaine asked. Kurt was surprised to see him, since he had clearly crept up behind them.
"Yes, but I'm done now," Jeff said hurriedly, before effectively running off from them. Blaine rolled his eyes.
"No surprises there," Blaine said. Kurt watched as Blaine's eyes flicked from his lips up to his eyes and immediately could feel himself blushing. He hadn't stopped thinking about kissing his friend- could the word still be applied? – Since the kiss, either.
"Is it always going to be this awkward between us now?" Kurt said, running a hand through his hair absentmindedly.
"Not forever, I hope," Blaine said, "but it's kind of a... nice awkward?"
"Yeah," Kurt agreed, "nice awkward."
"Kurt, will you go out with me properly?" Blaine asked quietly, "I'm trying not to attract their attention," he explained, "but I'd like to go out with you properly. No characters, no annoying friend group, just us."
"Yes, I'd like that." Blaine grinned.
"We'll work the details out later," he said, and neither one of them could stop smiling for the rest of the evening.
They held hands all through the evening, opting for sitting in the back corner of the rec room instead of bouncing around as their friends seemed to be doing. Five minutes before midnight the group clustered around the TV, ready to watch the ball drop, and when everyone finally shouted their New Year's greeting, Kurt wasn't even surprised to find Blaine kissing him again.
After midnight the party settled down as most of the Westerville based guests left, leaving only the roleplay members sitting in a loose group around the TV. Blaine and Kurt sat on the couch, Blaine with his arm around Kurt's shoulders, and the various other couples were also getting cuddly. Marley and Josiah sat close to one another but didn't touch, while Unique, Hadley and Jaz formed the last group.
"You know what isn't fair about spin the bottle?" Ethan mused aloud.
"The double kiss system?" Jasmine suggested.
"Better than the double spin system," Jeff replied. She poked her tongue out at him.
"No, that I didn't get to kiss anyone since your dad came downstairs."
"Aww, sweetie," Leo said, and he didn't hesitate to make it better.
"So what's up with you two?" Nick asked, gesturing to Kurt and Blaine. Kurt wasn't at all nervous about the latest advancements between them when it came to the group he was with now. Before there were too many people he didn't know, unknown variables, for him to feel comfortable. This more intimate group was made up of the people who were often his best friends.
"We're going to go on a date," Kurt said, "and we'll see what happens after that."
"I'll print the wedding invitations," Unique teased.
"Do you know how long we've waited for this?" Jeff said.
"Can't be longer than we have," Blaine said, pressing one sweet, chaste kiss to Kurt's mouth. No one in the group made any comment, and Kurt knew in that moment that right there, in the group, in Blaine's arms- that was where he was meant to be.
A/N: Firstly, good golly, I know this was a bad chapter if you get bad second hand embarrassment but it was a nice kind of awkwardness, right?
Secondly, yes, naming all of Jeff's siblings with Js was a bit of a stab at Riker Lynch's family. Hey R5ers! You also have my full consent to imagine Jaz as Rydel and Josiah as Ross (or Rocky even, if you like).
The geeking about I Fight Dragons will be of more relevance later, but the title of this fic comes from a line in one of their songs :)