In the week that passed, Blaine seemed to come across Kurt more often than when he was trying to find him. It wasn’t that Blaine was actively ignoring the other boy, but he didn’t want to have to interact with him. Every time he saw coiffed hair or heard his voice, Blaine’s heart started pumping with a combination of nerves, need, and dread. On Monday, not only did Blaine see Kurt in English, but he saw him in almost every hallway, nearly ran into him at lunch, had to sit in the back row in history class, and then had seen him in the bathroom when they went to shower. Each time, Blaine had started, opened his mouth to say something, then turn and leave. His mind would hate him for it every time, bombarding him with thoughts of pleasure and reminding him of Kurt’s proposal and why didn’t he just say yes already?

By Wednesday, Kurt had started appearing in Blaine’s dreams, first as nothing more than a smiling face, and then it was sex dreams. Blaine would wake up covered in sweat and hard, body tense with lust. His hands curled into fists by his sides and he rolled over in bed, ignoring the pressing need running through him and shoving his head under the pillow, begging for peace. By Thursday afternoon, Blaine had bags under his eyes from trying to stave off the thoughts of Kurt in his dreams. As he walked into the cafeteria, Blaine made sure that he looked nowhere but at his own tray while he got his food. When he got to his table, he sat, ate quickly, and then went to his room to grab his history textbook. Blaine had stopped reading at the table when he could still see Kurt’s face over the top of his book.

The only problem with Thursday, however, was that Kurt was coming up the staircase to the dorm rooms as Blaine was going down. They both paused, and Blaine hesitated. He hadn’t spoken to him in almost a week. Kurt’s eyes looked almost sad, but Blaine couldn’t. He started to say hello, then averted his eyes and rushed down the stairs. That was the closest Blaine had come to saying anything to Kurt in that entire week, and it would have ruined everything. Blaine could feel his heart crawling up into his throat, threatening to give him away, so he ran faster until he was tucked safely away in the history classroom and waiting for the hour to be over.

On Friday, Blaine was in better control of himself. He’d still slept very little, and every time he saw Kurt, he wanted to do something, anything, but it was Friday, and Blaine was sure that it would be okay. When he walked into the English classroom and took his seat, he was unaware of just how wrong he was. “Your next book assignment will be more in depth. I want you to write one to three additional scenes to the novel Beloved in the style of Toni Morrison. These won’t be performed, but they’re a large part of your final grade. I suggest you get started now; it’s due the Monday after next. You may get in your partner groups.” Blaine only had to turn his head a fraction of an inch to see Kurt, and he steeled himself against the inevitable interaction as Kurt sat down. Blaine pulled his book out and started making notes instead of saying hello.

He waited a full minute after Kurt sat down to glance over at his desk. “I think we should write an addition to the beginning and the ending of the book. We can expose some of Morrison’s weaknesses in her characters.” That was it. Clipped, simple, professional.

Saturday was spent in and out of heavy sleep which Kurt seemed to need as though he’d been going without rest for a long period of time. He didn’t fight it; rather just let the sleep tug him back down until he’d missed lunch, then dinner. Sunday was spent catching up on homework. Kurt hated doing homework on Sunday because to him it meant his weekend was shortened. Usually he had it all handled before Friday night was out, but well, he’d been busy. Monday Kurt through himself at his regular schedule with maybe more gusto than was necessary but the weekend had left him feeling slightly hollow and he needed the distractions to fill him back up.

As it turned out, there were not nearly enough distractions to counteract the sheer number of times he ran into Blaine. Obviously he expected he would see Blaine in class and n lunch but it was the halls in between all his classes too. They practically had a collision n the lunchroom and then, as if all of that were not enough, Blaine was there in the bathroom when Kurt slipped in for his shower. Blaine was painfully awkward each time, so much so that Kurt began being self conscious about it, wondering if Blaine thought Kurt was doing this on purpose or something. Then Kurt felt actually guilty despite the fact that he was not purposefully seeking Blaine out to make him uncomfortable. Blaine kept looking like he was on the verge of saying something to Kurt but then he would just run out leaving Kurt feeling slightly unsteady.

Tuesday brought on a new and private humiliation for Kurt when he was walking with Wes and David and Blaine was just ahead of them in the crowd between classes and David started in on Blaine. “Oh look boys it’s Captain Tight Ass.” He said.

“I think you mean Captain Hair Gel, Captain Tight Ass might be a turn on for Kurt.” Wes laughed and they fist bumped.

“Fuck you.” Kurt said, but it didn’t come out sounding half as relaxed as he’d intended it to.

“Fuck yourself! What’s got your panties in a twist? You don’t seriously have a hard on for that freak do you?” David pulled Kurt to a stop and stood there in front of him waiting for some sort of explanation. Thankfully this gave Blaine time to walk on ahead of them as he headed off to his own class.

“Are you seriously asking me about my sexual appetite right now? Because if we’re going to be sharing friends now you should know I have plenty to share.” Kurt raised his eyebrows and grinned right at David until his friend let go of his blazer and stepped back.

“No man, we’re, uh, cool. I was just kidding.” He said, suddenly all business.

Kurt had figured that would be the response so he smiled and punched his friend’s shoulder lightly. “If you’re sure.” He laughed. “Anyway, I’m sort of stuck with Anderson now and I fully intend to take advantage of his nerd status to the best of my ability.” He friends just stared at him for a minute. “The next time we have to work with partners in English I’m going to use him for good grades.” He amended, and then they all laughed and moved on. Kurt kept that damned smile in place even though he felt sullied by the whole exchange.

Wednesday and Thursday found Kurt feeling more and more stressed. He refused to initiate contact with Blaine even though Blaine was almost all he could think about. It was affecting every aspect of his life to the point that he almost cracked and sought out one of the boys on his regular rotation for a little late night release. He didn’t because he still held out some small hope that Blaine would be his, and honestly Blaine was the only one he wanted right now. Kurt’s sleep was disturbed, he had trouble caring about food, and even Wes asked him if he was into something. He just shrugged it all off.

Friday was a game changer. It was time once again to work with Blaine and Kurt didn’t hesitate to move close to the other boy. Blaine would have to talk to him now whether he wanted to or not, and Kurt new just what they should talk about. First though, the assignment.

Kurt listened to Blaine’s clinical assessment of their project and then, when Blaine stopped and still did not look up at him, Kurt spoke. “That sounds perfectly acceptable.” Kurt pulled out his own notebook and began jotting down an outline for himself. He kept his voice controlled and soft, but he leaned toward Blaine, just a bit until their almost shoulders touched. “One of us could take the beginning and one the ending and we could meet in the library later to check one anothers work and discuss other points that we want to make.” Kurt wanted nothing more than to close the distance between them. His arm practically buzzed with the energy coming from Blaine. Oh yes, this was going to be interesting.

Kurt smelled good. He smelled a little bit sweet with a spicy undertone that Blaine recognized from the way that Kurt’s pillows smelled last Friday. And then he was berating himself because he was not supposed to be assessing the way that Kurt smelled, much less thinking about the day that had changed…ruined everything. Blaine swallowed thickly and took a deep breath in. Once again, he weighed the pros and cons of taking Kurt up on his offer, frustrated by the fact that he’d asked for time. Time meant that he had to think about it, that he had to actually make a decision, and Blaine cursed himself for being the type of person who actually considered his decisions before making them. If he said yes, he’d have Kurt. And sex, which felt good. As for cons, Kurt wouldn’t do relationships, there would be rules, no cuddling, and Blaine and Kurt couldn’t talk in the world around them. Each time he thought about it, the cons outweighed the pros, but then Kurt would get within eyesight of him and Blaine would be tempted to say yes just to get rid of the awkward silences.

He was so deep in thought that Blaine hardly noticed Kurt was talking until he was close and suggesting meeting in the library. Blaine nodded once to meeting in the library, but only because his throat was too dry to form words. He could feel Kurt’s body heat rolling off of him, seeping through his blazer and warming him to the core. Blaine’s hand tightened minutely around his book. He needed to move away, to maintain the distance between them. Kurt had probably just shifted and done it on accident. There was no reason to think about it. It didn’t stop his mind from wanting to lean in closer, public be damned, and rest his head on Kurt’s shoulder and feel comfortable again. Instead, he shifted his chair so that he was far enough away from Kurt that his stomach stopped doing back flips. Then, he could focus.

Blaine clicked his pencil and turned to a fresh sheet in his notebook, jotting down ideas and characters to expand on. “We can meet in the library at half past six, that way you can eat dinner. I’ve got a math study group until then so I’ll be on the second floor on the left.” Absently, Blaine’s pencil started doodling swirls on the side of his paper, and he forced himself to stop and pay attention. Finally, finally, Blaine looked up at Kurt, and his eyes hit Blaine with all the force of a sixteen wheeler. Kurt’s eyes were devastatingly blue in the light, and his face was drawn into something that resembled studious, but there was a spark, something behind his eyes that told Blaine he should be worried, to look away now to make sure that he could save himself.

It was far, far too late. Blaine was sure that he looked nothing like what Kurt did. Kurt looked tired, but not exhausted. Blaine could almost feel the bags on top of his cheekbones, and his own eyes were tired and flat from trying to contain himself and think of anything but that damned proposition. From somewhere deep inside of himself, Blaine tried to summon the will power to return to the same strong person he’d been before he looked at Kurt. He lifted a hand to talk with. “However, I don’t think we should split up on what we’re writing. It may seem choppy, especially if we don’t agree on certain points.” Blaine gave a quick, humorless smile that was gone almost before it registered on his face, and then looked back down at his book. “Especially since the book begins and ends in such different places. They’re two completely different aspects of the novel, and if we don’t agree, we’re not going to get a good grade, and that doesn’t really work for me.”

Whoa, calm down. It’s just an English assignment. Blaine took a deep breath, which didn’t help because the smell of Kurt was firmly embedded in his nostrils, and it only sent his heart back to feeling like he’d just finished a marathon. “If,” he amended, looking back down at the book to gather his thoughts. When he wasn’t looking at Kurt, he could think. Kind of. “if that works for you.”

Kurt forcefully hid his smile when Blaine moved away from him. Then he sat up straight in his chair and focused very hard on well, not being hard because that was apparently his natural reaction to finally being this close to Blaine again. Kurt abandoned his notes because well he didn’t actually have much that had to be taken down right this second. There was always later and right now he was sitting just inches away from the boy who now consumed almost all of his waking time and a big portion of his sleeping time as well. Oh Blaine, Kurt wondered, what is in that head of yours?

He watched as Blaine pulled out his own paper and set about jotting down his notes, Blaine was nothing if not determined when it came to class. That much had always been obvious. He watched the tidy scrawl of Blaine’s pencil as it moved across the page, and then he moved to Blaine’s fingers and the way they held the pencil just so. Kurt remembered what it was like to have those fingers moving on him. He shifted in his seat and crossed his legs. The whole not getting hard plan was failing fast. Kurt’s eyes traveled up Blaine’s arms and held briefly on the way his jacket clung to Blaine’s biceps just so, reminding Kurt how compact and sculpted Blaine’s body was. He had just moved up to study Blaine’s profile when Blaine started speaking in answer to him. Blaine was looking over at him and Kurt suddenly felt like he’d been caught doing something very naughty.

Biting down softly on his lower lip, Kurt listened as Blaine told him when and here they could meet and gave his opinion on the assignment. Kurt knew he was supposed to be acknowledging this some way but really he was just sort of struck by the difference between this Blaine and the Blaine he’d met only last week. This Blaine spoke fairly quickly and to the point without beating around any metaphorical bushes. This Blaine met his eye directly and wasn’t afraid to contradict Kurt’s ideas. This Blaine was sounding almost pissed and for whatever reason that was the biggest turn on of all. Then he seemed to lose a little momentum and he looked back down to his notes before he finished.

Kurt just sat there a moment, staring at him, and then he was smiling in earnest. He couldn’t stop himself. “That works fine for me.” He said, his voice tinkling slightly with barely contained mirth. It wasn’t that this situation was funny at all, it wasn’t really, it was just that Blaine was so damn interesting. Even now, here, at the end of this incredibly long and nearly painful week, Blaine still held so much fascination for Kurt it was almost insane.

“So I’ll see you at six thirty in the library.” He finally managed to speak again, this time in a more normal tone. He did not move away. None of the other pairs broke up so he just stayed where he was for the rest of the class. He didn’t bother Blaine further as much as he wanted to, and he didn’t look at him either. It still took the entire rest of the period for Kurt to get his body back under control and the process had not been pretty. He’d had to imagine all manner of unpleasant images including the geometry teacher in a bikini, furry chest and all.