Chapter 5: Decision

When Kurt woke up, he could feel someone wrapped over him. It had been a while since that happened, so at first he was surprised. Until he recalled the events of the previous night and his eyelids flew open.

Blaine was lying snuggled to Kurt’s chest, clutching at his shirt and ruffling it miserably. Somehow, in the course of the night, Kurt slid all the way to a lying position, with his legs still resting on the floor, and he was beginning to grasp just how uncomfortable it was. But as much as he was sure he should be upset, he couldn’t help his lips twitching up at the sight of the peaceful face rested just below his shoulder.

He managed to get to his phone without disturbing Blaine, ignored the dozen of texts Rachel had sent him during the night, and discovered it was already past eight. The quiet groan he let escape his lips, though, was enough for Blaine to stir awake.

With a frown pulling his eyebrows together, Blaine studied Kurt’s chest for a moment. Eventually, he lifted his eyes with a mixture of embarrassment, disbelief and worry.

‘Hi,’ Kurt said warily.

‘Hi.’ Blaine looked him in the eye tentatively, before dropping his gaze again to Kurt’s wrinkled outfit. ‘Um- I was asleep all night, right? Liam didn’t show up or anything?’

Kurt shook his head. ‘No, you slept like a baby. Um- you know what I mean,’ he added.

Slowly, Blaine untangled himself from Kurt, careful for his hands not to wander anywhere inappropriate.

‘Good. I wouldn’t want to- screw this up,’ he muttered. ‘I mean, it would be weird.’

‘It would,’ Kurt agreed, sitting up. He tried to smooth out his clothes, but it was pointless. ‘I need to get going.’

Blaine could swear there was a tinge of regret in Kurt’s voice and almost let himself hope he was right and the guy really didn’t want to leave him.

‘Work?,’ he asked.

‘Yeah, I’m gonna be late as it is,’ Kurt said, wincing, but didn’t leave the couch. ‘Are you okay?’

Blaine’s head jerked up.

‘Yes, I guess I am.’ He smiled faintly, still not quite believing what had happened the previous night. ‘Thanks for staying.’

‘You’re welcome.’ Kurt bit his lower lip in hesitation. ‘Would you mind if I called you later? To check up on you?’

Blaine’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. He was starting to think all of this had never happened, and he was dreaming. He fell asleep the previous afternoon and his mind was playing nasty tricks on him.

‘Why would I mind?,’ he said. ‘It’s not like a ton of people really care.’

He really didn’t mean to say that. But for some reason, telling Kurt stuff like that came as easily as breathing.

Kurt didn’t know how to respond. The confession caught him by surprise; even though for some reason Blaine seemed not to have a lot of people around him, Kurt wouldn’t expect him to acknowledge that in front of a stranger. And he still was nothing but a stranger.

‘I’ll call you,’ he said, finally forcing himself to stand up. ‘And if you ever need someone, I’m a phone call away.’

Kurt thought he had never seen anyone as grateful as Blaine was in that moment.

***

Never before had Kurt been twenty minutes late for work. He hated tardiness and required even more from himself than from others when it came to punctuality. This time, though, the only thing that bothered him about it was how little it bothered him.

He was rushing to his cubicle in the fashion section office, crossing his fingers his boss hadn’t noticed he was late, as he noticed a crimson blur of motion in his peripheral vision. He swore under his breath, before plastering his best ass-kissing kind of smile on his face and turning to his boss.

‘Good morning, Rose!,’ he said, adding a little too much enthusiasm to his tone. ‘Any special tasks for today? Maybe I could go down to Starbucks and get you a coffee? Or a muffin?’

‘Well, hello, Kurt,’ his boss answered, examining his apparel thoroughly and raising an eyebrow. ‘I’ll pass on the muffin, but I could use a coffee. And I guess that so could you, am I right?’

Kurt’s jaw dropped a fraction.

‘What are you talki-‘

‘No one in the fashion section comes to work in the same clothes two days in a row, unless…,’ she paused dramatically.

‘Unless?’

Rose smirked at him. ‘Unless they got lucky.’

‘I did not get lucky,’ Kurt groaned.

‘Someone definitely didn’t like that shirt on you,’ she said, pointing to the wrinkled item of clothing.

Kurt rolled his eyes at her, as he turned to switch the computer on his desk on.

‘It’s not like that.’

‘But you didn’t make it home last night,’ Rose stated. ‘Who is he?’

Kurt couldn’t believe he was having this conversation with his boss, but on the other hand, he’d heard her talk to other people like that. He simply had never had anything to tell her about his love life. There hadn’t been any love life to speak of since before he started working there.

‘He’s just a friend. An acquaintance really,’ he said firmly.

‘You slept with a friend. An acquaintance, sorry.’ Rose smiled at him mischievously. ‘Kurt Hummel, I did not peg you for this type of guy.’

Kurt was beginning to feel really annoyed. He couldn’t quite decide what upset him more; the idea that his boss was so eager to talk to him about his sex life, or the fact that to some extent he regretted nothing happened between him and Blaine.

‘I didn’t sleep with him,’ he insisted. ‘I mean, we slept. As in actually slept. In clothes.’

‘Right. If you say so.’ She started walking back to her office. ‘Just so you know, I wouldn’t judge you if you had slept with him. And now, go get that coffee.’

***

Finally, with coffee and an oatmeal muffin in his system, Kurt decided it was time to get back to his best friend and roommate. He would’ve guessed Rachel was worried about him even without the collection of worried texts she spammed his inbox with. At least it gave him an opportunity to get a bit of revenge for her forgetting to tell him whenever she stayed over at Brody’s (he still couldn’t grasp how that relationship hadn’t turned to shit yet; deep down Kurt was constantly keeping his fingers crossed that Rachel would one day become his sister-in-law after all).

He dialed her number lazily, cherishing the still peaceful office.

‘Kurt, finally!,’ she said immediately after picking up. ‘Where have you been? I was beginning to think you got abducted by aliens!’

‘Hello to you, too, Rachel,’ he greeted her. ‘And no, I’m still on planet Earth, no aliens or spaceships were involved.’

‘Are you going to tell me what was involved, though?,’ she asked, and he could hear she wasn’t past being upset yet.

‘Um- Do you remember Blaine?’

Rachel was quiet for a second, clearly searching her mind for the right person to attach the name to.

‘Was it that model that threw a fit some time ago at a photoshoot?,’ she tried guessing.

‘No, that was Blake, Rache. I mean Blaine- you know, the guy with DID?’ Kurt winced; he hated calling Blaine that, it seemed like reducing him to his illness and nothing else.

‘Oh, you mean the crazy guy from the club, now I remember,’ she said. ‘Wait, did you sleep with him?!’

Kurt couldn’t help but groan.

‘First off, Rachel, he’s not crazy, he’s got a disorder, and second, not in the sense you have in mind.’

‘Not in the sense- What?,’ she asked.

‘I was at his place, and he- we kinda slept together. Fell asleep together, I mean. In clothes,’ he explained. He gave her more details, and surprisingly, she didn’t even interrupt him as much as he expected she would.

‘So… Are you two like- an item now?’ Rachel’s voice was wary. She didn’t know what to think about this in the slightest. It seemed like Kurt was jumping into a hundred-feet-deep swimming pool without knowing how to keep his head above water.

‘God, Rache, no,’ he replied impatiently. ‘I mean, I kinda- hope we’ll get there, but- No, we’re not.’

When she didn’t speak for a full half minute, he could swear she was making a worried face on the other end of the line.

‘Are you sure about this? You barely even know him,’ she said eventually.

‘As sure as I can be. He still may want to have nothing to do with me, so don’t worry in advance, okay?’

Rachel sighed; Kurt could be terribly stubborn and she was perfectly aware that no matter what she told him, he wouldn’t change his mind.

‘If so, ask him out.’

‘What?,’ Kurt asked. He wouldn’t have expected Rachel to support him without some more attempts at persuasion.

‘You heard me, you like him, so ask him out. This is how it works, you know.’

***

It was strange going back there. The last twenty four hours were some of the strangest in his life, and he had a feeling it was going to stay like that for a while. In a way, he welcomed that and was grateful for it.

This time, the hall outside the door to apartment 2B wasn’t as quiet as the day before. A faint sound of guitar and humming could be heard from inside, making Kurt’s face light up. He couldn’t be sure, but he guessed it was Blaine. In support of that conclusion, the moment Kurt rang the bell, the music stopped and someone trod up to the door.

It was clear Blaine was surprised to see Kurt on his doorstep, smiling sheepishly at him, still in the same clothes he was wearing the previous day. Only Kurt couldn’t tell whether the surprise was a nice or a nasty one.

‘I- I thought you were gonna call,’ Blaine stammered.

‘I was,’ Kurt nodded, his smile fading, replaced by a sudden anxiousness. ‘There’s just something… May I come in?’

Blaine stepped out of the way, letting him in. He had been looking at his phone all day, every five minutes, hoping Kurt would call, but he would never, in a million years expect him to show up like that, second day in a row.

They entered the living room, Blaine quickly picking up his discarded acoustic guitar and gesturing for Kurt to sit down on the couch, which he did tentatively, twining his fingers together in his lap.

‘So, how are you today?,’ Kurt asked, casting a quick glance at Blaine, who was still standing uncertainly in the middle of the room.

‘Fine, thanks. Better than I remember being without meds in years, actually.’ Blaine bit his lip; he was sharing too much again.

Kurt knitted his brows. ‘Without meds?,’ he asked quietly.

‘Yeah, I wanted to switch to milder stuff, but it wasn’t working out as well as I hoped- you know, Liam showing up the other night when you met him- so my therapist suggested we see what it’s be like if I were off completely for a while. So I’m off my meds.’ He could feel heat rising to his face, and expected for Kurt to freak out or look at him with pity, but no such thing happened. Kurt was still watching him with earnest interest and a little worry.

‘How has it been working out so far?,’ he asked.

Blaine shrugged with one shoulder, dropping his gaze to the floor.

‘You know, there have been ups and downs. But it hasn’t been as bad as I feared for a second it would be.’ He paused, looking back up to Kurt. ‘And last night- I really haven’t felt this stable in ages, if ever. So thank you.’

‘My pleasure,’ Kurt replied with a smile. There was something extremely rewarding in hearing he made Blaine feel better.

They fell silent for a moment, each nervous for different reasons.

‘I can’t stay long today,’ Kurt said unexpectedly. ‘I gotta get home, change, take a shower, I’m really gross right now. I just wanted to ask you something.’

Blaine stiffened; questions could be uncomfortable like hell. He knew it well enough through all of his experiences with his alters.

‘Yeah?,’ he managed to say.

‘I was just wondering if you would, um- consider going out to dinner with me?,’ Kurt asked, forcing his eyes to stay fixed at Blaine’s face.

The astonishment in his expression was blatant. Kurt could just as well be admitting to be a bloodthirsty vampire, and Blaine wouldn’t be more shocked.

‘Are you- Are you asking me out? On a date?,’ he said incredulously.

‘Um- You don’t have to say yes, I just- Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume anything,’ Kurt muttered, standing up hastily and turning to the door. ‘I gotta go. Call me, if you ever need anything, okay?’

Blaine froze for just long enough for Kurt to leave the room.

‘Wait!,’ he called after him. ‘Kurt, wait!’

He was almost at the door, when Blaine caught up with him, his eyes pleading.

‘Yes, I’ll go on a date with you,’ he blurted out. ‘I’d love to.’

Relief came over Kurt, washing embarrassment and anxiety off him and replacing them with a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest.

‘Really?’

‘Of course.’ Blaine forced himself to smile, despite the dizzying pounding in his ears and the panic that was an inch from setting in. It was probably better not to try fooling Kurt about his lack of experience in romance. ‘Only, Kurt-‘

‘Yes?’

‘I’ve never been on a date.’

For a second Kurt thought Blaine was kidding. How was that possible? A decidedly attractive guy in his early twenties had never been on a date? But then he realized that Blaine wasn’t exactly the average attractive twenty-something guy.

‘Then I’ll try not to screw up your first one,’ Kurt said with the faintest shadow of a smile.