June 29, 2012, 10:29 a.m.
Where The Lines Overlap: Chapter 17
T - Words: 2,276 - Last Updated: Jun 29, 2012 Story: Complete - Chapters: 21/21 - Created: Jun 19, 2012 - Updated: Jun 29, 2012 959 0 0 0 0
"See you tomorrow!" Blaine clapped Scott on the shoulder and went to hurry out of the lecture theatre.
Scoot looked up, startled. "Wait, where are you going?" he called after Blaine who was standing a few steps down from where they had been sitting. Blaine paused and spun to face Scott. "I thought we could go get coffee or something."
Blaine shook his head, bouncing on the spot a little as he grinned at his friend. "Can't, I'm meeting someone." He turned and continued on down the steps to the door leading out of the theatre.
"Who?" Scott called after him. "Blaine, who are you meeting?" He raised his voice so he could be heard over the sounds of their classmates preparing to leave.
Blaine just laughed and didn't answer, waving at Scott over his shoulder without turning around, before pushing the doors open and hurrying out of the building.
As he made his way across campus he couldn't help but compare how different he had been and felt when he had been going to meet Jeremy for coffee last week to how he felt today. Instead of walking slowly, dragging his feet with his eyes downcast, and his shoulder slumped; he was walking briskly and jauntily with his head up and a smile on his face. He couldn't wait to get to the café, whereas last week he had dreaded arriving and had wished time would slow down or even stop so that he wouldn't have to see Jeremy and face up to the problems in their relationship.
He had been in such a good mood these past few days that he was surprised his muscles didn't hurt from smiling and laughing so much. Things were good between him and Jeremy, better than they had been when they were dating. They had passed the slightly awkward first meeting since their split where they had eyed each other uncertainly when they had gone to greet each other, unsure of what to do, until Jeremy had shrugged and laughed, pulling Blaine into a hug and effectively erasing all tension and after that it was just like being around a friend – and now he was on his way to see Kurt.
He and Kurt had agreed to meet for coffee one morning on the subway and Blaine hadn't been able to think of much else since. Nick had noticed his change in mood and had rolled his eyes, calling him blind and oblivious, which Blaine had ignored.
His smile grew wider as he pushed open the door to the coffee shop in which he had spent many an hour with Nick and Scott and spotted Kurt sitting at a table with two coffees in front of him.
"You bought my coffee last time, it was supposed to be my turn," Blaine said as Kurt pushed a coffee towards him once he had sat down.
Kurt just flashed him one of his beautiful smiles. "You should have gotten here quicker then."
"It's Scott's fault," Blaine said, pulling the lid off his coffee. "He held me back asking dumb questions about where I was going."
"What did you tell him?"
Blaine smiled mischievously. "I said I was meeting a beautiful young man for an afternoon of delight." He winked at Kurt.
Kurt choked on his coffee. "You didn't?" His face was turning red.
Blaine shook his head, laughing at the expression on Kurt's face. "No, I just said I was meeting someone."
As Kurt rolled his eyes at him, a smile on his face as he took another sip of his coffee and the colour slowly fading from his cheeks, Blaine had that familiar feeling again that he was missing something, that there was something almost within reach in front of him. It was the same feeling he got sitting down in front of his piano trying to write lyrics to that piece of music he had been struggling with for months – it nagged at him constantly these days.
He couldn't remember the last time he had enjoyed himself so much having coffee. Now that he and Kurt knew each other better, they were joking around more, playfully teasing each other, and creating inside jokes. They were getting to know the smaller, finer details about each other now rather than just the basic things like favourite books and music. Blaine loved learning these things about Kurt, loved discovering the little things like how he had once taken his Dad's credit card to buy a designer scarf online and had managed to get away with it until over five months later, and how he had had a crush on Taylor Lautner as a teenager.
They stayed at the coffee shop for hours, a lot longer than Blaine realised, and it wasn't until Rachel texted Kurt asking him if he would be home for dinner that they both realised how late it was.
"I should probably get home," Kurt sighed, sending Rachel a quick reply.
Blaine got to his feet. "Yeah, I should too, actually. Nick will probably be wondering where I am, I said I would cook dinner tonight."
They walked out of the café together and Kurt suddenly slapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh, we'll be taking the same train home. For some reason I forgot we live near each other in New York as well."
Blaine had forgotten this as well and his mood peaked again at being able to spend more time with Kurt. When they got off the subway and went to go their separate ways, Kurt stepped forward and hugged him and Blaine resisted the urge to nuzzle against Kurt's neck, contenting himself with holding him maybe a little tighter than he would normally hug his other friends and breathing in Kurt's scent.
"We should do this again soon," Kurt said when they had let go of each other. "I'll see you on Monday."
"Bye," Blaine smiled at him and took a few steps in the direction of his apartment before glancing back at Kurt over his shoulder. Just before Kurt was swallowed up by the crowds on the street he dragged his eyes away from him, just missing Kurt looking back over his shoulder at him.
Moving the stack of sheet music off the piano bench, Blaine sat down and rested his fingers lightly over the keys, trying to decide what he was in the mood to play. He absently played a few random chords as he thought and found his mind drifting to Kurt: his bright blue eyes, his smile, the way his nose crinkled up when he laughed, the way Blaine's heart raced and breathing hitched just at the thought of him, and that indescribable feeling Blaine felt whenever he was around him…
His fingers began moving fluidly across the keys and he was still so focussed on Kurt that it took a few seconds to realise that he was playing the tune he had composed months ago, the one he was struggling to write lyrics to. He continued to picture Kurt in his mind's eye as he played – he wasn't entirely sure why, it just felt right.
"All I want to do is write a song, one I haven't ever sung before,"
The words came to him without him even needing to think about it. It was as if they had always been there inside of him, locked away, and now he had found the key.
"All I want to do is write a song, but everything I say just comes out wrong,"
He could picture Kurt as clearly as if he was standing right in front of him, his blue eyes twinkling in the soft light coming through the windows, the sun picking out streaks of lighter brown in his hair, his smooth skin glowing, his mouth quirked up in a smile.
"I just lost control, I just needed you to know, when in front of you, I feel invincible,"
His surroundings melded into nothing, a nonsensical blur of colour, as he played. He was pouring everything into this song – his heart, his mind, his body – and his eyes were fixed ahead of him as if Kurt really stood there watching him play.
"All I've got to do is sing a song, tell a little truth to everyone,"
He played through the last chorus and when the song was finished he kept his fingers on the keys, letting the final note hang in the air. His gaze was still fixed ahead of him on seemingly nothing, but he was still lost in his own head, unfocused on what was around him. He was only just processing what he had just realised, what he had just written a song about.
He was in love with Kurt.
Rachel looked up from the stove as Kurt entered the kitchen. "How was coffee with Blaine?"
He felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth at the thought of Blaine. "It was great, we're going to try and make it a weekly thing if we can."
Rachel stepped away from the stove and pulled open the fridge door, sticking her head inside as she searched for something. "I see," she said in a tone that had Kurt glancing up from poking at the vegetable stir fry Rachel was making.
"What is it?" he asked her, absently twirling the wooden spoon in his fingers.
Rachel pulled her head out the fridge and walked back to the stove carrying nothing. As Kurt suspected, she had only been looking through the fridge to hide her expression from him.
"What's what?" she asked mildly.
"You have something on your mind that you're not telling me. Considering you normally tell me absolutely everything, including a lot of things I really don't want to know about you and Finn, I don't think you should start keeping things from me now."
Rachel was looking around on the counter, frowning. "It's nothing," she glanced over her shoulder at him and her frown cleared. "Pass the spoon, please." She held out her hand for it.
Kurt stopped twirling the spoon and held it close to his chest. "You can have the spoon if you tell me what you're determined to keep from me."
Rachel rolled her eyes. "Cut it out, Kurt." She lunged forward to try and grab the spoon from him, but he was quicker and held it up above his head out of her reach.
"Tell me."
Rachel sighed agitatedly. "Fine, but it's nothing I haven't told you already, although you refuse to listen when I do tell you, so maybe you'll actually listen this time." She exhaled. "You need to sit down and really think about Tim and Blaine because you are making a big mistake all because you are too blind and oblivious to see what is right in front of you."
Kurt sighed. "This again?"
"Yes, this again! I know Tim has been acting like the perfect boyfriend since you made up, but that side of him that he showed that caused the fight is the real Tim and someday in the future it is going to appear again and I really don't want to see my best friend in a relationship with someone who behaves like that. Tim isn't good for you and you are most definitely not going to be alone forever, or whatever other crazy thoughts you have been having, if you break it off with him." She tugged the spoon out of Kurt's limp hand which now hung by his side. "Since you are still struggling to realise something I thought you would figure out eventually on your own, I'll spell it out for you. You, Kurt Hummel, are in love with Blaine Anderson." She shook her head at him, a small smile on her face. "It was almost painful to watch you two together the day in the Lima Bean as it was so, so obvious how both of you felt about each other, but you were both so ridiculously oblivious about it."
She turned back to the stove then to finish cooking their dinner leaving Kurt standing staring at the spot where she had previously stood. The buzzer sounded and he numbly left the kitchen to go answer it, letting Tim into the building without even registering who he had just spoken to through the intercom. There was a knock on the door and he opened it, still looking and feeling rather shell-shocked.
"Tim?" he blinked at his boyfriend who was standing on the threshold.
Tim didn't seem to notice his confused tone or his stunned expression, he just launched into a speech that Kurt didn't hear a word of.
A hand was laid on his shoulder and he finally snapped out of his head and into the present, suddenly hearing Tim's voice like he had just tuned a radio.
"…don't you?" Tim smiled at him, taking Kurt's silence as confirmation and leaning forward to brush his lips across Kurt's.
Kurt leapt backwards, a hand against Tim's chest to prevent him from coming closer. "I can't do this."
Tim looked hurt and a little bit annoyed.
Kurt shook his head, his movements slightly jerky. "I'm sorry, Tim but I just can't."
"Did you want to take things slower? I'm sorry, I thought we were doing ok now and-"
"No, it's-" Kurt took another step back, Rachel's words ringing in his ears. "It's not that, I- I can't do any of this, I can't do us anymore." He was struggling with words; his head was all over the place just now.
"Kurt…" Tim took a step towards him.
He backed away, shaking his head. "No, just leave it, Tim, please. I should never have agreed to try and give it another chance."
Tim tried to approach him again, saying something Kurt didn't hear. "Just leave, please," he whispered.
Tim stared at him for a moment before turning on his heel and leaving the apartment, the door thudding shut behind him.