Kurt killed his performance. Blaine watched, captivated, as Kurt belted out Animal by Neon Trees. He was playful, almost seductive at times, and unbelievably talented throughout. Blaine wondered what it was like to be able to open yourself up like that so easily. To just sing and trust that you were going to be good.

Kurt got the most applause yet, and one table full of drunken twenty-somethings cheered out for an encore. Kurt waved to them, calling out, “More later on!”

He rejoined Blaine at their table, his face slightly flushed, a smile plastered on his face.

“You were fantastic,” Blaine said simply.

Kurt’s smile softened, becoming personal, directed solely at Blaine. “Thanks,” he said softly.

They were both quiet for a moment as the next singer-a woman, one of the older patrons in the crowd-set up. Kurt stood then. “I’m getting another drink. You want something?”

Blaine nodded. “Can I try liquor? I promise, I won’t puke in your car.”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “Everyone who has ever puked in my car has said that first.”

“Do a lot of people vomit in your car?”

“Well, it just happened once. But still.”

Blaine laughed. “I’ll break the streak.”

Kurt headed towards the bar and returned, this time with two glasses of clear liquid. They toasted eachother. “To a good crowd,” Kurt said as they clinked glasses.

Blaine shuddered as the alcohol hit his throat, but forced himself to swallow it. He wasn’t about to make a fool of himself in front of Kurt. Plus, he was already feeling pleasantly lightheaded from the beer he’d consumed-his mood was bound to improve with more booze. That’s how it worked, right?

“When are you going to go up there?” Kurt asked.

Blaine swirled the liquid in his glass around, not looking up. “I don’t know.”

“It’s really fun,” Kurt assured him.

“Maybe for you,” Blaine muttered.

“What?” The woman singing Destiny’s Child was hard to hear over.

“In a bit!” Blaine responded before taking another sip of vodka.

Kurt was in the bathroom and Blaine was watching the people at the bar and feeling comfortably relaxed when he felt his phone vibrate.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Hey, Blaine.” It was Maia.

“Hey,” Blaine said. “What’s up?”

“Where are you?” Maia asked instead of answering Blaine. Blaine opened his mouth to answer without being quite sure what he was going to say. His first instinct was to lie, but he silently chastised himself. Why on Earth would he need to lie to Maia? “In a bar.”

“A bar?” Maia repeated, incredulous. For some reason, Blaine felt slightly offended.

“Yes. I’m with Kurt.”

“Oh.” Maia’s reply was curt. “I thought we were going to go out tonight?”

Blaine wracked his brain, and then remembered their conversation from the other day. He wasn’t the kind of person who forgot obligations. “Oh, right. I’m sorry, Maia. It’s just that we never talked about it today, and Kurt invited me out last night…”

“You were talking to him last night?”

Blaine decided that perhaps he shouldn’t mention that he’d been talking with Kurt because he’d been having dinner at his house. For some reason, Maia didn’t seem to like Kurt. She didn’t understand that Kurt was almost as good for Blaine as she was. How could he make her understand that? “Yeah. He’s really great, Maia. Like, he’s a friend of mine. You two should really meet.” He added the last bit on a whim, without thinking about it.

Maia sighed on the other side of the phone. “Right. I should meet this mysterious Kurt. Blaine, I thought that we were going to see eachother tonight.”

“I’m really sorry. I just thought you were busy. And Kurt-“

“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” She interrupted. “Can’t you come over now though?”

Blaine couldn’t help himself-he laughed slightly at the suggestion. “Maia, I’m already with Kurt. I can’t just ditch him.”

“You mean like you ditched me?”

“Maia, I didn’t ditch you! We didn’t even make plans. I’m not going to leave Kurt now. I have an obligation to him and I’m gonna honor that.”

Maia scoffed. “Right. You’re just fucking great at honoring obligations.”

“Maia, don’t-“

“I’ll talk to you later, Blaine.”

And she hung up. Blaine stared at his phone, at a loss. He looked up and saw Kurt returning from the direction of the bathroom. Quickly, he opened up a new text message to Maia.

I’m sorry about the misunderstanding. I’ll call you later, we can make plans. <3 Blaine

He sent it, and then smiled up at Kurt as he sat down again, slipping his phone away.

It was an hour and three vodkas later when Kurt asked again. “You should sing soon!” He urged.

Kurt had already done one encore performance of a Maroon 5 song. It had been just as brilliant as his last performance. He was setting the bar pretty high for Blaine, who hadn’t sung outside of his shower since the third grade.

However, as Blaine finished his most recent drink, he was feeling a bit better about the whole idea. Not everyone who went on stage was as good as Kurt-not even close, actually. But the audience cheered anyway, seeming to appreciate anyone with the audacity to get up and sing. Blaine looked at the cubes of ice in his now-empty glass. Ice seemed a lot more fascinating than it had thirty minutes ago.

“I’ll tell you what,” Kurt said suddenly, leaning over the table so that he was only inches from Blaine’s face. “If you go up and sing a song, then we can do a duet together afterwards.”

“A duet?” Blaine asked.

“Yeah!” Kurt exclaimed. Blaine smiled-the enthusiasm was contagious. “We’ll sing a song together! But first you sing.”

Blaine thought it over for a moment, swaying slightly in his chair. Then he banged his glass down onto the table. “Yeah!” he said. “What the hell, yeah, I’ll do it!”

Kurt grinned back wildly. Blaine stood and walked over to the DJ just as the previous act was finishing.

The rather bored-looking DJ asked what song Blaine wanted. Blaine said the first thing that popped into his head, something Maia had put on a mix CD for him recently. He walked up the stairs, stumbling slightly, and got on stage.

He knew that the bar was rather loud with chatter and other various noises, but it seemed to him that the only sounds in the whole room were his heartbeat and his footsteps on the wooden stage. There was a dim spotlight that he stepped into. As he turned out to face the crowd, he saw that most of them were hard to see, blurred by the light in his face and his own inebriation. Not being able to see their faces didn’t particularly help the unsettling feeling that was taking over his stomach, however. An abstract audience is an audience still.

Then he turned to his left, feeling desperate, and his eyes landed on Kurt’s face, strangely clear among the hazy room. Kurt was smiling brightly, encouragingly.

And Blaine knew he’d be okay.

The music must have started a few seconds prior. Blaine tore his gaze from Kurt just in time to realize that his cue was coming up.

“Your lipstick stains, on the front lobe of my left-side brains…I knew I wouldn’t forget you, and so I went and let you blow my mind…”

As the song began there was already some clapping from fans of the song. Blaine stumbled his way through the first verse, and then hit his stride. It really wasn’t that hard at all. The lyrics were coming out of his mouth before he could even consciously think of them. His singing wasn’t top-notch, but it wasn’t half bad either. And whenever he felt unsure of himself, he’d glance over to Kurt, who was still smiling widely, and he’d get right back on track.

“Hey, soul sister, I don’t wanna miss a single thing you do…tonight.”

Blaine completed the song and was met with quite a bit of applause. He could pick out Kurt’s cheers above the others. Grinning, he bowed slightly, almost tripping, and then made his way off stage. He sat back down at the table.

“You were great!” Kurt told him.

Blaine began laughing. Once he started it was hard to stop. “Oh my God,” he said between giggles. “I can’t believe I just did that.”

Kurt joined in on his laughter. “You’re a star in the making!” he insisted. “I’m buying another round for the most talented table in this whole fucking bar!” he exclaimed, standing to head back to the bar. Blaine watched him bob and weave between other customers, still letting out chuckles. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt so carefree.

It seemed as though the more he drank, the better alcohol tasted. Blaine idly wondered whether this was a bad thing, but his thought was interrupted when Kurt pulled him from his seat abruptly. “Let’s sing together!” he said, pulling Blaine towards the stage.

There was some slight confusion about the song(“You know Hey Monday, right?” Kurt asked insistently. They were very close to eachother. The DJ was rolling his eyes.), but they got it figured out and were eventually standing on the stage together, someone having procured another microphone for their duet.

It was a slow song, and Blaine did indeed know most of the lyrics(well, he thought he did, but he stumbled over more than he expected. That might have been the booze, though). They started on opposite sides of the stage.

Kurt sang first. “The power lines went out, and I am all alone, but I don’t really care at all, not answering my phone…”

He turned to Blaine, signaling that it was his turn. Almost forgetting to hold the mic to his mouth, Blaine picked up where Kurt had left off. “All the games you played, the promises you made, couldn’t finish what you started, only darkness still remains…”

Then they sang the chorus together. Blaine looked out to the audience, but found that his eyes were drawn back to Kurt. Even when they were both on stage, Kurt commanded Blaine’s attention. It was fascinating, really.

Time seemed to pass irregularly, and suddenly they were singing the last line of the song together, much closer than they’d started out. They sang to eachother more than to the crowd, and as they both belted out “but I think I’ll be alright…”(Blaine slightly off-key, he could tell), they were only four or five inches apart from eachother. The music faded away, and for a slim moment there was silence. A perfect picturebook second where there was no noise Blaine could hear but Kurt’s breath and his own, the spotlight shining off of Kurt’s light skin, his eyelashes casting shadows down his cheeks, his pupils dilated from alcohol and adrenaline.

Then there was clapping. The two boys stumbled off stage, victorious. They sat down at their table and finished their drinks, but then decided to leave. They’d gotten everything they needed out of their night.