Nailed Shut

Chapter 7

”Hi there!”

Kurt looks down from the treetop to find Blaine standing in front of him, smiling. Kurt smiles back. “Hi. How was your evening with Aimee?”

“Awesome.” Blaine’s eyes drift to the sky for a moment before he looks back at Kurt. “We drew pictures, watched “The Little Mermaid” and then I read her a story and sang her to sleep.”

“Sounds like a pleasant way to spend the evening.”

“Indeed. What did you do?”

“I read through all the poems that you’d marked in your books, and then I went here to sing and… think.”

“Nice.” Blaine takes a step closer. “Could I ask you a favor?” Kurt just looks at him questioningly, so he continues. “I need help to decide where to put the piece of artwork that I just got.”

“I love interior design! I could redecorate your whole room if you’d like!”

Blaine chuckles. “Let’s not get carried away here.”

“So, how big is the artwork?” Kurt asks while looking around at Blaine’s walls.

Blaine gestures with his hands. “’bout this big.”

“Well, since there isn’t much of a color-theme in here with the stuff on the walls, I guess the colors don’t matter. We just need to find an empty space.” Kurt walks over to the wall beside Blaine’s bed, the side that doesn’t have the picture of Blaine and Aimee. “We could put the painting here. It would give some balance.” He turns to face Blaine, who is holding back giggles. “So, where is it?”

Blaine walks over to his bag by the door and pulls the picture Aimee drew out of it. He holds it up so Kurt can see it. “It’s a dinosaur.”

Kurt raises an eyebrow at Blaine. “Charming.” Kurt takes the dinosaur-drawing and pins it to the wall above the nightstand that Blaine rarely uses. “It’s really cute. But I was hoping to get some actual art in here.”

“It’s art to me. And, at least I have poetry.” Blaine shrugs.

The next Friday afternoon Kurt sits in Blaine’s car waiting. He manages to turn the radio on to a station with acceptable music. He turns the volume down low when he sees Blaine approach the car with damp curls – that makes Kurt’s mouth fall open for a second, before he manages to close it again – and a pink (Pink? Seriously, Blaine? PINK!) t-shirt visible below his coat.

Blaine smiles at Kurt after getting into the driver’s seat. “Hi. I had to shower and change. I always feel silly when I wear my blazer in public.” Blaine puts his seatbelt on.

“But you don’t feel silly wearing a pink t-shirt?”

Blaine chuckles. “At least no one at the mall will judge you for hanging out with me. Since they can’t see you.”

“Are we going to the mall so you can buy a birthday present for Aimee?” Kurt asks as Blaine starts the car.

“Yup. I brought the list.” Blaine says and picks the folded piece of paper out of his pocket, handing it to Kurt.

Blaine starts driving off of campus as Kurt unfolds it and giggles at the pink crayon letters. “I’m assuming you’re not getting her a pony or a puppy?”

“Nope. Her parents wouldn’t like that.” Blaine sees Kurt’s hands jerk involuntarily. “I’m getting her the other things.”

“What is this Christmas show? You haven’t told me about that.” Kurt says and folds the paper again.

After a moment Blaine feels Kurt slip the paper into his jacket pocket and Blaine thinks that his heart might have skipped a beat.

“It’s the last day of school before the winter break. On the evening of the 23rd of December the Warblers will have a… concert , I guess. Wanna come?”  Blaine smiles at Kurt before exiting the school grounds.

“You won’t be able to keep me away.” Kurt smiles back.

They drive for a while in silence, Kurt squirming a little in his seat. “Blaine?”

“Yes, Kurt?” Blaine glances at him briefly.

“Her parents? Is it really that bad?”

Blaine chuckles darkly. “Yeah… I only call them “mom and dad” when I’m talking to Aimee. If not, I call them either “her parents”, “Mr. and Mrs. Anderson” or by their first names. It’s been that way for a while.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nah… There’s not much to say. You know the reason for it…”

“When did you come out?”

“It was back in September of 2008, when I had just started High School. So Wyland sent me to Dalton like two weeks after I started going to my old school…”

“That must have been rough.”

“It was. I was just fourteen after all. But Dalton welcomed me with open arms.” Kurt sees the corner of Blaine’s lip twist upward a little.

“I wish I could have had that.” Kurt whispers before he can stop himself.

“I’m sorry, Kurt.” Blaine looks at him for a second longer than probably appropriate when driving. “When did you…?”

“2009, sophomore year. My dad took it well, he said he had known for a long time. My friends weren’t really surprised either. But the bullies used it against me. And apparently being gay was enough for me to get killed.”

Kurt is dead, Blaine thinks. He is dead, you know that. Why do you keep forgetting? He tries to brush it off, to seem nonchalant. But by the look Kurt is giving him, he has failed. “I wish you could’ve gone to Dalton too.”

Kurt looks thoughtful for a while. "I get to be there every day now." Kurt smiles as Blaine drives the car into the mall's parking lot.

Blaine doesn't really know how to respond to that, so he just smiles back. He parks the car close to the entrance and they get out.

The first thing to greet them when they come inside is a coffee-shop with huge potted trees in the corners of the serving area.

"That's where I know those from!" Kurt exclaims.

They are in a public place now, so Blaine doesn't ask Kurt about his outburst; he just raises an eyebrow at him questioningly.

"Oh. Um... When I first arrived at Dalton I didn't remember much about stuff from before I died, or at least I didn't think about them. When I first saw the tree in your room I started thinking about coffee and clothes. This explains it. I was remembering going to malls!"

Blaine grins at Kurt when he turns back to look at the plants. They continue walking past a few clothing stores that Kurt glances at longingly. They turn a corner and a toy-store comes into their line of vision. Kurt releases a cry of delight and starts running. Blaine thinks it would look weird for him to start running too, so he just walks a little faster into the store.

He finds Kurt between two rows of all kinds of pink toys.

"Look Blaine! This tiara is beautiful! Aimee's going to love it!" Kurt squeals and holds the tiara out toward Blaine. "It doesn't even look plastic and crappy like-"

"Kurt!" Blaine hisses in panic, looking around. "Put that back! People can't see you, remember?"

Kurt hurries to put the tiara back on the shelf as Blaine runs a hand down his face.

"I'm sorry Blaine! I forgot." Kurt looks at his feet. "I just got so excited and-"

"It's okay Kurt." Blaine interrupts him in a whisper. "But we didn't even get a shopping basket." He smiles softly when Kurt looks up to meet his eyes again. "I'll go get one. Why don't you try to find those colorful horses with glitter and stuff?" Kurt nods happily and wanders off. "Just don't lift anything!" Blaine calls out after him, as quietly as he can while still wanting Kurt to hear him. Blaine sighs through his grin and walks back to the entrance of the store to get a basket.

The store is bigger than it looked like from the outside, so it takes Blaine a couple of minutes to find Kurt again. But when he does, Kurt is standing with his back toward him, bending down to look at something on a table. Blaine stands next to him and he looks up.

"Found 'em!" Kurt chirps happily.

"What color should we buy?" Blaine asks when he's made sure nobody is around to hear them.

“Oh, definitely the white one!” Kurt points to a horse with silvery tail and mane.

"I think she's going to love that one." Blaine grabs an identical horse (in packaging) from the shelf behind the table that’s showing off the different color-choices, and drops it into the basket. “Great!” he exclaims as Kurt straightens to continue the shopping. “So that’s your gift. Which one should I get her?”

Kurt gapes at Blaine. “What? No. No, no.”

“I’m not wasting money, Kurt. I was planning on buying her two anyway. This way one will be from you.”

“You can get the money back from my dad! We can go over there after-“

“Kurt. Stop it. I’m paying for your gift for her. ‘Kay?” Kurt huffs. Blaine grins triumphantly at him and continues. "What about the rainbow one?" He points to a very light-pink horse with rainbow-colored tail and mane.

“Oh my God, Blaine! You had to pick the gay horse?”

Blaine giggles and grabs one of those from the shelf too. “It’s pretty.” He shrugs and walks away.

Kurt follows him back to where he had found the tiara. He watches Blaine’s arms when he reaches up to grab a tiara from the top shelf. Wow, Kurt thinks, Blaine’s gorgeous. Blaine puts the tiara in the basket and gestures for Kurt to follow him to the clothes-section of the store.

The two boys are sitting on the floor of Blaine’s dorm room; with the gifts, wrapping paper, tape and present-string scattered around them. Blaine wraps the sparkly pens in glossy pink paper and puts white string around it while Kurt wraps one of the horses in golden paper and purple string.

When Kurt is done with wrapping the other horse he looks over to see Blaine putting paper around the princess-dress that they bought. “You are ridiculous, Blaine. Give me that!” He snatches the dress from Blaine and tosses the box with the tiara at him. “Wrap that instead. I’ll take care of the dress. Do you have an empty box that I can put it in?”

“Ah! Very smart.” Blaine chuckles. “I’ll check.” He stands and looks around in his closet for a while. “Found one!” Blaine emerges from the closet and gives the box to Kurt, before returning to wrap the tiara in the golden paper.

Kurt folds the dress neatly to fit in the box and wraps it in a pale pink paper.

Blaine is free after lunch on Monday, as per usual. Kurt accompanies him at lunch and when he loads the car with Aimee’s gifts.

“I forgot to buy her a card. So we’ll just swing by the store so I can get one.” Blaine says while he pulls shirts out of a drawer in his dresser. “What should I wear?” he whines, looking pleadingly at Kurt.

“Well, I would assume she loves the pink t-shirt. But I’m going to advise you to never ever wear it again. Therefore, I suggest the crimson cardigan instead.” Kurt says matter-of-factly from his position in the armchair.

“You seem to know these things.” Blaine removes his t-shirt and pulls the cardigan over his head. When he looks back at Kurt his mouth is open slightly, eyes wide. Blaine clears his throat.

“Oh! Um, yes. I would say I’m kind of an expert when it comes to fashion.” Kurt averts his eyes away from Blaine, and focuses them on something on the wall beside his head. “Do they have cake at that pancake place?”

Blaine walks into the bathroom to fix his hair. “Nope. I thought we could buy one on the way over. So it’ll be “fresh”.” he says through the open bathroom door. “We can eat it at her house while she opens the gifts. And then we leave for Pancake Palace when we get hungry. Her parents will be at work since it’s still daytime.”

Kurt follows Blaine into the store to find a card. They stop next to the shelf and scan it for the perfect one. Kurt sees a card with the number five on it (pink and very sparkly) and points at it. Blaine picks up the card next to it, one with a cute kitten on it. When he opens it the card purrs like a cat, and Blaine shuts it again.

“Not that one. The pink one!” Kurt says and points again.

Blaine puts the kitten-card back and picks up the pink one, together with an envelope. He pays for it and scribbles his greeting into it, since no one is in line behind him.

“Happy Birthday Aimee! Love, Blaine.” Kurt reads over his shoulder. “Aaaaaaawwwww!” he exclaims and Blaine smiles as he puts the card in the envelope.

“What kind of cake should we get her?” Blaine asks as he parks his car in front of a bakery.

“What does she like?”

“I don’t know really… But everybody loves chocolate, right? Especially girls?”

“Perhaps.”

“Welcome to Westerville’s Cakery!” a fat man greets them from behind a huge counter filled with pictures of cakes. “What can I help you with?”

“I need a birthday cake for my little sister who turns five today. What flavors would you recommend?” Blaine says and leans his hip casually against the counter.

“Well, for a lil’ girl I’d probably recommend either strawberry or our double chocolate cake.”

“Does the double chocolate one have dark chocolate?” Blaine furrows his eyebrows and Kurt giggles. Blaine must not like dark chocolate, Kurt thinks.

“No. It’s regular chocolate, and also white.”

“Oh! Then I want one of those. The biggest you have, please.” Blaine smiles at the man.

“Do you want anything written on it?” the fat man says and starts scribbling on a post-it-note.

“Happy birthday Aimee. That’s A-I-M-E-E.” Blaine spells out for him.

“Thank you. It’ll be done in a few minutes. You can wait over there.” the man says and gestures toward three chairs beside a round table behind them.

Blaine and Kurt sit down across from each other. “Not a fan of dark chocolate?” Kurt asks with a grin.

Blaine shakes his head.

Kurt rings the doorbell to Blaine’s parents house a few minutes past one o’clock.

Charles the butler opens and smiles wide at Blaine. “Sir Blaine. Welcome!” Blaine and Kurt step inside and Charles closes the door behind them. “Annie is with Aimee in her room.”

They walk down the hallway toward the kitchen and Blaine finds Kurt’s facial expression very amusing. Kurt is looking around like he has never seen the inside of a house before. Blaine isn’t surprised that someone (who isn’t used to the amount of money that Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have) finds the decorations of their house to be… interesting.

“Blaine, dear!” the blonde nanny named Annie exclaims and hurries toward him.

“Annie.” Blaine greets her with a kiss to each cheek, while still holding the box with the cake. “How’ve you been?”

“Just great. I love looking after Aimee. She’s got quite the personality, just like her big brother.” She winks at him.

Blaine laughs a fake laugh. “Very funny. I am taking Aimee out for her birthday, so you can go home early today.” He smiles at her.

“Thank you. I do have something important to tend to.” she says and hurries down the hallway.

“Annie!” Blaine calls after her, and she stops to look back at him. “Could you ask Charles to bring in the gifts from the trunk of my car?”

Annie the nanny blows him a kiss and continues toward the front door.

Blaine leads Kurt into the massive all-white kitchen and sets the cake-box down on the kitchen island. He opens the box and searches through the cabinets to find something to serve the cake on, while Kurt explores the room in awe.

“It’s so PRETTY!” Kurt squeaks.

Blaine chuckles as he finds a big silver tray to put the cake on. He puts the cake on the table on the far side of the room.

“I found balloons.” Kurt says, holding open a cabinet.

“Perfect. Can you blow those up while I go get Aimee?” Blaine asks and puts two plates on the table.

“Sure!” Kurt says and begins doing so as Blaine leaves the room.

“Happy birthday baby!” Blaine exclaims when he bursts through the door to Aimee’s bedroom.

“Blainey!” Aimee shouts and throws herself into his arms. They hug for a minute before she leans back to look at him. “Did nanny Annie go home?”

“She did. It’s just you and me for a few hours.” Blaine rubs their noses together. “I got you something. It’s in the kitchen. Let’s go. Don’t peek!” Blaine puts her down and leads her into the kitchen with his hands over her eyes.

He puts her on a chair in front of the cake, while she hides her eyes behind her own hands. Kurt has hung balloons in fitting areas of the kitchen and Charles has brought the presents in and put them on the table next to the cake. Charles also seems to have made a pitcher of lemonade.

“Okay, just a little while longer.” Blaine says and lights the five candles on the cake. “Done! You ready?” Aimee nods as Blaine sits down in the chair opposite her, Kurt standing beside him. “Look!”

Aimee removes her hands from her eyes and squeaks in delight. “It’s so pretty, Blainey!”

“Blow out the candles. But don’t forget to make a wish!” Blaine smiles at her.

Aimee thinks for a while, looking down at her plate. “Oh!” she says and stands on her knees on the chair to blow the candles out. “I wished that-“ she begins when she’s done, but Blaine interrupts her.

“Don’t tell! Then it won’t come true.”

She beams up at her bigger brother and sits back down properly. Her eyes go wide. “Oh! I’m sorry. Hi! I’m Aimee. What’s your name?”