TUESDAY - PART II

Blaine’s eyes widened as they watered when he began to choke on the bite of biscotti he had started to swallow. He shook his head and fought hard with himself to swallow, tears streaming down his cheeks in the process as he kept coughing. Kurt looked on in alarm, not sure of what he should be doing or why Blaine reacted the way he did. Blaine grabbed a napkin off the table to wipe his face as he settled himself down. Though his eyebrows were raised in shock, he had a hint of a smile on his face in between the last few coughs. 

“Homeless?” Blaine couldn’t hide the growing smile on his face if he tried. “You think I’m homeless, Kurt?” He wiped his face again with his napkin as he looked at his half-eaten biscotti. “Oh my god, is that why you tried to force me to get more food?!” Kurt’s face flushed deep red from embarrassment. “Kurt.” The younger man’s shoulders involuntarily slumped as his name fell from Blaine’s lips in a combination of teasing and adoration. They barely knew each other 30 minutes and yet it in that moment, an outsider would have sworn they were together.

Kurt brought his hands up to his face and wished he could melt into his chair and disappear from the coffee shop. “Oh my god,” he muttered into his palm, “please just don’t even look at me right now. Just let me pretend I’m not here.” He ran his hands up through his hair but kept his face down, staring at the table.

“Hey,” Blaine called softly to the boy across the table. When Kurt didn’t react, Blaine leaned over and went to grab Kurt’s hand, but at the last second caught himself and opted to brush his finger lightly over Kurt’s wrist before he sat back down in his chair. “Hey. Look at me,” Blaine asked. “Please?”

Hands still in his hair, Kurt reluctantly pulled his head up a little bit so that he was looking at Blaine. “I am so, so sorry.”

With a genuine smile, Blaine shook his head. “It’s okay, really. It was actually kind of sweet, really.”

“Sweet?” Kurt asked in disbelief. “I called you homeless.”

Blaine chuckled, “True. But you were so ready to buy me food.” Blaine shrugged. “I dunno, I think that’s sweet.” He looked up at Kurt from under his long eyelashes and felt extremely vulnerable yet somehow completely content and at ease. “You don’t even know me.”

Kurt almost swooned where he sat, but didn’t because Blaine was right. He didn’t know this other man – he didn’t know him at all. But for some reason, Kurt felt like he did, or at least that he wanted to. It was almost too much to handle. Kurt didn’t just ask other boys to coffee, especially strangers. But Blaine had come to his rescue with that water bottle the day before and his smile was so warm that it felt like home and that scared Kurt in the best way possible.

“You’re right,” Kurt said slowly, “I don’t know you. But I would really like to.” As soon as the words slipped from his lips, Kurt’s cheeks burned bright red again. He slapped a hand up to his mouth and shook his head, eyes wide. Blaine tried to suppress a grin, but failed spectacularly. “Oh my god, that sounded so forward,” Kurt said as he pulled his hand a little bit away from his mouth. “I swear I usually have a filter.”

There were a few moments of silence between the two, but they weren’t as awkward as they should have been. Blaine just kept smiling, though mostly to himself as he took a slow sip of his drink. Kurt eventually put his hand down and grabbed a hold of his cup, though he kept it on the table.

“Okay,” Blaine started slowly after he swallowed his mouthful of coffee. “I feel like you wish you could take back the last fifteen minutes. Is that an accurate assessment?” He waited as Kurt nodded. “Now, I can’t make that happen, but I can say that I would really like to know you better too.” Kurt’s eyebrows slid up, but he kept his mouth shut, not wanting to say something else he would likely regret. “So…” he held his hand out across the table toward Kurt. “Hi, I’m Blaine. Thank you, stranger person for buying me coffee and this delicious biscotti.”

With that, Kurt smiled and he instantly felt better about the situation. Blaine wasn’t trying to make him feel foolish. Instead, the boy with the glasses and endearing smile was trying to put Kurt at ease. After sighing with slight relief, Kurt reached his hand across the table and slid it into Blaine’s where it fit perfectly. “Hello. I’m Kurt.”

They shook hands a little longer than people normally do before parting and settling their hands back around their respective drinks. “So, Kurt,” Blaine started. “Tell me a little about yourself.”

Kurt relaxed and shared some information about himself. He told Blaine how he was in his first year at Point Park and that he enjoyed performing and costume design. Without hesitation, he pulled out his sketchbook from his satchel and showed Blaine his drawing from the day before.

“Wow, that’s amazing!” Blaine was honestly impressed by the sketch and was touched that Kurt shared that with him. He handed the sketchbook back to a blushing Kurt who thanked Blaine as he slid it back in his bag.

“So what about you,” Kurt asked. “Do you go here?”

Blaine shook his head as he took a sip of coffee. “No,” he said as he swallowed. “I graduated from Oberlin last June. I’m just here for the week, visiting my brother.”

“Oh.” That one syllable was packed full of so many emotions. Kurt’s mind raced as his heart dropped. Blaine was not only older than he thought, but only in town for a few more days.

Seeing a disappointed and distraught look spread over Kurt’s face, Blaine felt like he said the wrong thing. He knew he wasn’t telling the whole truth, but Kurt didn’t know that – he was in town visiting his brother, but he was also there as a guest performer for the school. Somehow, though, that didn’t matter. What he said had caused Kurt’s smile to disappear and he wanted to make it come back. Just as he was about to crack a joke to clear the air, Blaine’s phone rang.

“Excuse me,” Blaine said to Kurt, who just nodded and looked off to nowhere in particular, trying to hide his disappointment about Blaine leaving town. After wrestling his phone out of the front pocket of his jeans, Blaine saw it was his brother. “Speak of the devil,” he muttered as he pressed the Accept Call button. “Hey brother,” Blaine started before being cut off. “Wait, what?” He looked at his watch before looking over at Kurt and then back at his watch. “Oh… shit. I – ” Blaine bit the inside of his cheek. “Um… maybe.” Beat. “Okay, fine. Yes.” Kurt could hear laughing over the phone as Blaine blushed. “Oh my god, Coop, NO. I’ll see you later.” Beat. “I don’t know. Later?” Beat. “Shut up!” Beat. “I love you too.” Beat. “Bye.” Blaine hit the End Call button as fast as he could and put his phone screen-down on the table. “Sooooooo… that was my brother.” Kurt raised his eyebrows, pretending this was new information. “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” Kurt assured Blaine. “Do you, um, need to get going?” Kurt thought Blaine bought himself some more time, but he didn’t want to assume anything. In truth, Kurt was having a really great time talking with Blaine and he couldn’t bring himself to say goodbye to the other boy just yet. They still didn’t know much about each other, but it just felt right to be right where he was.

Blaine shook his head, “Not unless you do. I was, uh, supposed to meet my brother back at his apartment, but…” He looked into Kurt’s eyes, not having to finish the rest of his sentence for Kurt to know that he wasn’t ready to say goodbye either.  “Do you want to go for a walk or something?” Blaine didn’t know Pittsburgh very well, so he couldn’t just name somewhere to go. He was afraid that if they stayed in the coffee shop, he would never want to leave and he knew he had to get back to Cooper’s apartment eventually, even though he knew he was going to get teased as soon as he showed up.

Kurt nodded, “Yeah, sure.”

Together, the two boys cleared their trash from the table and threw it away. Blaine held the door for Kurt on the way out and the younger man blushed as he thanked this still almost-stranger who somehow felt like home.

They chatted as they walked. Kurt would point out a notable building and Blaine would nod and look briefly, only to bring his attention back to the way Kurt’s blue eyes sparkled with excitement over being able to share something new with him. It felt like a date and Blaine was surprised how much he didn’t mind. With his music career taking off and being carefully molded by his manager and label, he rarely had time to just be himself, let alone meet anyone who liked him for him and not just because he was on track to be a world-renowned pianist.

During their walk, they found out they had a lot in common. Both men grew up in Ohio and had a brother (though Kurt’s was by marriage when his dad remarried). Kurt was pleased to find that Blaine was only two years older than him, even though he had already graduated. Blaine felt so comfortable being himself around Kurt that when he accidentally let slip that he went to private school for high school after being beat up in eighth grade, he didn’t feel ashamed or that he was going to be judged. Instead, Kurt stopped walking because his heart hurt so much for middle school Blaine that he needed a minute to collect himself.

“I’m sorry,” Kurt said as he tried to quickly wipe a tear out of the corner of his eye before it fell. “It’s just – you shouldn’t have had to go through that.”

Blaine’s shoulders slumped, having never had someone seem to care so much after knowing him for so little. He felt bad that Kurt was sad, but at the same time felt a warm feeling inside because someone cared. “I’m okay,” he said as he nudged Kurt’s shoulder with his own. “They broke my fingers, but they didn’t break me. I promise.” Blaine wiggled his fingers at Kurt with a small smile. “See?”

Even through glassy eyes, Kurt caught sight of the pale scars on Blaine’s right hand. Without thinking, he reached up and stilled Blaine’s hand with his own. A brief moment of panic surged through both boy as they realized they were so close together. With a silent look from Kurt that asked “may I?” and a barely noticeable nod from Blaine that still screamed “yes,” Kurt cupped Blaine hand in one of his and ghosted the fingers of his free hand over the once jagged lines that had since smoothed over.

“I got beat up in school too, you know,” Kurt said softly, daring to look Blaine in the eye as he let his fingers touch the scars. He saw Blaine’s head tilt, as if he were preparing to apologize for Kurt’s horrible past experiences, but Kurt shook him off. “But I’m okay now. We’re okay.”

Almost instinctively, Blaine slowly laced the fingers of his right hand through Kurt’s. He felt the younger boy tense briefly before letting out a soft sigh. They both looked up from their hands into each other’s eyes. Before Blaine’s eyes had a chance to wander down to Kurt’s lips, they were interrupted by a car horn honking loudly across the street from them.

Thinking the car was beeping because of them having a moment out near the street, they dropped hands quickly and their faces flushed pink. When they both turned to see that the car was honking because the truck in front of it wasn’t moving after the light changed green, Kurt and Blaine looked back toward each other, but didn’t move to hold each other’s hand again. The moment was gone and they didn’t want to force another one.

“You wanna keep walking?” Blaine asked, hoping Kurt didn’t have to be anywhere.

Kurt looked at his watch and groaned, which drew a small frown from Blaine. “As much as I really want to, I have to get back to my dorm and be responsible. I have a test tomorrow morning in my math class that I need to get a good grade on. Stupid Gen Ed requirements. Like, seriously when am I going to need to know how to graph an equation in the third dimension?” He tried to laugh it off, but really he was frustrated that he had to go when he very much wanted to stay.

“Well can I…” Blaine started then corrected himself, “may I walk you to your dorm? Please?” A small look of panic in Kurt’s eyes caused Blaine to ramble on with his intentions, or lack thereof. “I don’t expect for you to ask me up, if that’s what you’re thinking. Kurt, no, it’s just – I know I’m leaving in a few days but I just know I’ll regret it if I don’t try to spend as much time with you as I can. If you’ll let me, that is. I mean, I meant what I said earlier, Kurt, I would like to get to know you better.” The look of panic in Kurt’s eyes had quickly softened to admiration. “I just feel like I can be myself around you and that’s something I haven’t felt in a long, long time. You move me Kurt, and I haven’t even known you a day.” Blaine’s cheeks were stained red by this point and Kurt thought that was sweet and terrifying at the same time because he felt the same way.

They began walking and were able to slide back into comfortable, albeit surface, conversation because talking about anything deeper was going to be too much too soon. They stuck to small talk about Kurt’s classes and how he detested his math teacher with every fiber of his being and how Advanced Calculus was definitely not what he wanted to spend his time on when he had costumes to sew and scenes he needed to rehearse.

Knuckles brushed as their hands swung dangerously close between them.

Just before they got to Kurt’s building, he turned to Blaine and remarked, “You never told me what you studied.”

Blaine blinked, “Oh. I studied English. English and music.” That wasn’t a lie by any means, but it definitely wasn’t the best preface to trying to explain to Kurt that he was actually a professional pianist. “But I –”

“Oh, this is me!” Kurt interjected before they slowed to a stop in front of the door of his dorm. It didn’t have to be said, but neither of them wanted to say goodbye. “Um… you said you wanted to spend time with me,” Kurt said nervously. He had only had one boyfriend before and even then, the relationship only lasted a couple months. It wasn’t that he and Blaine were anywhere close to dating, but he had such a sure feeling in his gut that Blaine was special and even though he was basically flying blindly, Kurt couldn’t let Blaine go. “I want that too. I mean, I’d like to spend time with you. Get to know you.” He didn’t want to sound needy, but he had to ask. “When do you, uh, have to leave?”

“Friday night,” Blaine said sadly. He had to fly back to New York that night for an early meeting the next morning with his label.

Kurt nodded, thinking over his schedule. “Well, do you want to do something tomorrow?” He waited for Blaine to nod before he smiled and said shyly, “I have that test in the morning, but I’m free after class is over at 2:00.”

Though he feared it was not going to be enough time, Blaine was determined to be grateful for the time he was given with this other boy. “Then I will see you tomorrow at two,” Blaine said as he smiled in return. His eyes lit up as he had what he thought was a brilliant idea. “Hey, we can talk more about this tomorrow, but what are you doing Thursday night?” Blaine had decided he should probably come clean the next day when he had more time and explain to Kurt about his piano playing since it was why he was in town to begin with. He couldn’t wait to share his music with Kurt and already wanted to invite the younger boy to come hear him play.

“Thursday, Thursday…” Kurt murmured to himself, thinking. “Thursday night I’m free – no wait!” he quickly corrected himself before groaning a bit. “I’m not. My acting teacher is forcing us to see his brother’s concert or something.”

Blaine’s eyes slowly widened as he realized what Kurt was talking about. “Concert?”

“Yeah, some piano player.” Kurt said with a heavy sigh. “Devon Anderson.”