July 2, 2023, 11:21 a.m.
Ljubim te: Taboo
T - Words: 1,464 - Last Updated: Jul 02, 2023 Story: Complete - Chapters: 24/24 - Created: Dec 01, 2022 - Updated: Jul 15, 2023 192 0 0 0 0 Warnings (Story): Internalised homophobia
Blaine loves watching Quinn discover the city and the country. On her first day in Ljubljana, he takes her to the CityPark shopping mall at BTC City. BTC City is incredibly ugly, but that also makes it fun in a way. Quinn also has to get used to the fact that you need to accept the receipts here. Blaine’s gotten used to it, but Quinn is a bit surprised when an exasperated cashier basically pushes the receipt into her hands.
“It’s due to a law. Don’t ask me,” Blaine says as she leads her to the next shop.
On her second day, they rent a car and visit the Vintgar Gorge before heading out to hike in the mountains at Lake Bohinj. The lake itself is also gorgeous and Blaine knows that people swim there in the summer. On the third day, they visit Maribor, the second largest city of the country.
It's great. Quinn is definitely falling in love with Slovenia the same way Blaine did. She sometimes wants to walk around and explore, even when Blaine’s tired, so he’s given her a spare key, but most of the time they’re together. The two of them truly have a lot of fun together and Blaine realises that he has missed her after all.
Which feels great.
He does like Quinn!
All of this also takes his mind off Kurt. He’s too distracted by showing Quinn around.
Quinn does ask about Kurt every now and then, though. She’s wondering when she’ll meet him. She’s heard a lot about Kurt for weeks, so of course she’s eager to get to know him. She doesn’t know that any topic related to Kurt is taboo, so Blaine just lies and says that Kurt is busy.
Blaine hopes that the longer he holds it off, the less interested Quinn is. If she thinks it’s weird that Blaine seems to be avoiding Kurt, then she doesn’t mention it.
On the fourth day, they meet up with Sunil and Tadeja at the Stanežiče Oval, just outside of Ljubljana. Sunil had texted him that Kurt’s not coming along and that he gave Kurt’s ticket to Tadeja. Blaine was surprised that Sunil is still coming, since Blaine’s also ghosted him ever since The Incident.
And so, Blaine sits on the stands, sandwiched between Sunil and Quinn. Quinn is incredibly invested and she’s enthusiastically screaming at the players.
“Denise is also a huge rugby fan!” she tells the others.
The four of them continue to watch, with Tadeja occasionally translating the commentary.
Suddenly, Sunil pokes Blaine’s side. Quinn doesn’t notice and Tadeja is also staring intensely at the players.
“Yes?”
“Hey, uhm, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“What happened between you and Kurt?”
“Nothing!” Blaine says quickly, “Nothing happened! What makes you think that anything happened?”
Sunil just stares at Blaine.
“… Okay, if I wasn’t apprehensive before, I definitely am now,” Sunil says.
Blaine quickly glances at Quinn, who is still invested in the game, before turning back to Sunil. If Sunil can clock that something is up, can he also see that something’s amiss between Blaine and Quinn? Although, to be fair to Sunil, the change in relationship between Kurt and Blaine is huge. Blaine hasn’t spoken to Kurt in almost two weeks, so of course Sunil’s seen that.
Blaine leans closer to Sunil.
“I need some time to figure something out,” Blaine says in a low voice.
Sunil looks confused.
“Figure what out?”
“That’s personal,” Blaine has to stop himself from turning to look at Quinn again. When Blaine turns back to Sunil, he sees that Sunil is looking behind him, also staring at Quinn.
When Sunil and Blaine’s eyes meet again, Sunil has a weird look on his face and in that moment, Blaine remembers that Sunil’s queer too. He might be interested in Tadeja, but that doesn’t mean that he’s straight, and Blaine can feel his heart speed up.
Does Blaine say anything? Sunil doesn’t say anything, so maybe Blaine is just misinterpreting this and he needs to calm down. Maybe Sunil isn’t thinking what Blaine thinks he’s thinking.
“Sunil-”
Their moment gets interrupted by a loud cheering. Sunil and Blaine look back to the field and the team they’re rooting for, otherwise known as the team Tadeja’s rooting for, has scored a point.
After the first half, Blaine excuses himself and he asks Quinn if she wants something to drink. He takes her hand and basically drags her away from Sunil and Tadeja. Blaine takes her to a more secluded space.
Of course she notices.
The moment they’re out of sight, she frees her hand and Blaine stops in his tracks.
“What are you doing?” she asks, aghast, “We’re in the middle of-”
Blaine cuts her off by kissing her.
Quinn’s surprised and it is an awkward kiss, but she doesn’t stop him. Instead, she kisses back and pushes Blaine against a wall. Her skirt rides up and she puts Blaine’s hands on her thighs.
They’ve never done this before, sneaking off to make out. Blaine kisses her intensely and a small part of him actually hopes that Tadeja and Sunil see it, so that they understand that there is nothing wrong between him and Quinn.
But there is, because this feels wrong.
And the treacherous part of his brain wonders what it’d be like if Kurt would push him against the wall like this.
The moment that thought passes through his head, he pushes Quinn off.
Quinn tries to kiss him again, but Blaine moves his head away. When Quinn realises, she immediately stops. She slumps against him.
“Uh… are you alright?” she asks, confused.
“We, uh… sorry,” Blaine says lamely. He can’t stop thinking about Kurt. “I wanted to try to- We shouldn’t be doing this.”
To his relief, Quinn laughs, and Blaine leans his head against the wall.
“Right. Maybe it isn’t a great idea to ditch the game. Tadeja and Sunil might wonder why it takes us some time to get drinks.”
Quinn pushes herself off Blaine so that she can straighten her clothes and Blaine nods. Yes, let Quinn believe that that’s the reason they stopped.
Tadeja and Quinn exchange numbers, since they really like each other. Sunil and Blaine watch their girlfriends and Blaine waits for Sunil to bring up what happened, but luckily, he doesn’t.
Tadeja and Sunil leave after the game. Blaine and Quinn decide to take the bus back to the city centre for dinner. On the bus, Blaine asks what Quinn wants to do and to his dismay, she is craving pizza.
Blaine knows where to get pizza. He just hasn’t been there in a while.
They get off at Konzorcij, at Kongresni trg so that they can go to Ljubljanski dvor and Blaine reassures himself that he has nothing to worry about. Yes, this is the place where he first met Kurt, so yes, he can’t stop thinking about Kurt, but it’s not like he’ll run into Kurt. Ljubljana is small, but still large enough and there are other pizza places. Besides, Ljubljanski dvor doesn’t offer Boni, and he knows that most students use their evening Boni for dinner.
So when he sees Kurt, sat outside the pizza place, fighting with some sparrows over his pizza, Blaine’s stomach drops.
He turns to Quinn so that he can quietly suggest that they go somewhere else, but Quinn recognises Kurt from the photo’s that Blaine’s shown.
“Kurt?” she asks, pleasantly surprised.
Kurt follows the sound of Quinn’s voice and when he sees Blaine, he looks surprised and somewhat horrified. Blaine’s certain that he looks the same.
But then, to Blaine’s dismay, Kurt invites them to come over and Blaine sees no way out.
I highly recommend Vintgar Gorge and Lake Bohinj. I made the same trip. The nature in Slovenia is beautiful and you can hike through the mountains. I don’t like hiking, though, so I opted to stay at the lake to swim. Lake Bled gets all the attention, which is a shame, because I personally preferred Bohinj.
BTC is truly the ugliest shopping mall I’ve seen.
I never went to Maribor. I wanted to, but again, the pandemic really changed plans. Oh, and again, I’ve never been to the Stanežiče Oval. I didn’t know it existed prior to writing this fic.