Saturday

It was finally summer and by some miracle it was hot enough for Blaine and his friends to head to the lake house – and by extension – the beach. The Andersons had had the beach house for as long as Blaine could remember. It was the one place where Blaine could run outside without his parents worrying when he was younger. Blaine and Cooper would go down to the boardwalk by themselves and spend all day riding rides. As the boys got older, they grew apart and didn’t want to hang out with each other as much. It’s not that they didn’t get along, they just started to have their own friends and hung out with them more. One summer Mrs. Anderson decided it was okay for the boys to bring their friends to the beach house. That summer started the tradition of the Dalton boys going down to the Anderson’s beach house. It was their third annual trip down, and about ten minutes into their first volleyball match of the day Blaine spotted him. There was a beautiful boy clad in lifeguarding gear watching a group of kids who were splashing each other in the lake. As Blaine was staring he completely missed the volleyball that Jeff had lobbed at his head.

“OW!” Blaine yelled glaring over at Jeff. “What the hell??”

Jeff laugh. “well you see, some of us are in the middle of a volleyball game here. However, you, my friend, are too focused on that lifeguard over there to pay attention apparently.”

Blaine vehemently denied this, and, with a shrug from Jeff, they continued playing.

Two hours later the six of them ran out of the water in order to sprawl out on their towels and relax. Blaine put on his sunglasses and then laid down on his stomach pretending to read. In reality he was watching the lifeguard -Kurt- he reminded himself (he’d overheard a short girl with brown hair calling him that earlier), who, to Blaine’s utter delight had pulled his shirt off about an hour ago.

Blaine had come out about a year and a half ago now. Ever since then he’d become more and more comfortable ogling boys, because he no longer had to be afraid of people discovering he was gay. He did however still try to watch guys stealthily because, as he’d learned the hard way at his old school, some people reacted violently to him being gay. Here on the beach though it was nice. He was able to spend the next few hours watching Kurt watch the water without worrying about being harmed. He doubted anyone would confront him, and even if they did, he had five of his friends here who would defend him in a heartbeat. In fact Jeff was so accepting of him that he was now trying to persuade Blaine to go talk to Kurt, while Sebastian glared at him over his shoulder.

“Come on Blaine, you’ve been staring at him since we showed up.”

“I’m busy.”

“He has his shirt off Blaine. At the very least you can go say hi and ask about a rule at the lake and see his muscles up close!”

“I was actually thinking I would get you guys to sing back up for me as I sang Come What May to him” Blaine said.

Jeff laughed. “You’re not serious are you?” Blaine grinned at him and poked his tongue out. “Oh thank god, for a minute there I thought were serious and we were going to have to stage an intervention.”

“Yeah, well as I recall you were the one who suggested I sing to Jeremiah!”

Jeff looked around awkwardly. “In my defense, it was Sebastian who convinced you to sing When I Get You Alone.”

Blaine snorted. “This is very true.”

“So, are you going to go talk to him then?? Or do I need to concoct a scheme to make this happen?”

“No and no. There is no way that you are interfering in my potential love life every again.”

“Come on Blaine! Just one little conversation? So I at the very least don’t have to deal with you fawning over a boy all summer that you didn’t even meet?” Jeff pleaded.

“No!” Blaine exclaimed. “I appreciate the sentiment, but for now I’ll just admire-

“Creepily watch from a distance” Jeff coughed.

“-him from over here and enjoy the fantasy while it lasts.” Blaine finished with a glare at Jeff. He then promptly picked up his book and read until Jeff left and he could continue watching Kurt in peace.

Kurt yawned stealthily behind his hand as he kept an eye on the water. Normally during the summer he’d be working at his dad’s shop. This week he was lifeguarding though because Sam had begged him to cover his shifts while he visited his family. The first two hours of his first shift had been fairly boring. There were just some screaming kids and a couple here and their meandering along or kayaking. At eleven however, things had become much more interesting.

A group of six boys had shown up. They appeared to be around his age, and most of them had stripped off their shirts minutes into their volleyball game. Kurt had spent the next hour continually peeking at them as he watched the water, and was delighted when they’d decided to run into the lake, as it meant he could check them out more easily while doing his job.

The group consisted of a boy that acted as though he was 12 and had white blond hair, a guy with short straight brown hair who seemed to be trying to make sure everyone got along, an Asian guy who kept pulling out what looked to be a rule book, spawning groans from the rest of the group, a tallish black guy who was constantly smiling, a skinny tall guy with a Meer cat face, and a shorter guy with curly brown hair that somehow seemed oblivious and spacey yet intensely into the volleyball game at the same time.

They were probably all straight (it was Ohio after all), but Kurt couldn’t help sneaking glances at them. He was having some trouble in particular tearing his eyes away from the tanned chest of the curly headed one who somehow seemed to be at the center of the group yet definitely appeared to keep himself somewhat separated in a way.

In any case, Kurt enjoyed being able to watch them all day. He was slightly disappointed when they’d decided to come on to the beach and lay down, but at least he could still ogle them as they sunbathed. There was even a moment when the blond haired kid had gone over to the curly headed boy and started talking. Kurt could’ve sworn that they were talking about him because they looked in his direction several times. He didn’t really think that it meant anything even if they were talking about him, but hey, if two hot guys were talking about him, the fact that they might know he even existed pleased Kurt greatly.

Eventually however the guys gathered their things and left. Kurt sighed and glanced at his watch. He had an hour left in his shift. He returned his gaze to the lake as he began imagining scenarios where he ran into the guys that night. Kurt wasn’t even doing anything that night, but hey, a guy can dream. He at least hoped that they would be back the next day. Even if he didn’t talk to them, they at least provided a very welcome distraction.

Sunday

They’d only been at the beach for two hours and Blaine had already been hit in the head with the volleyball four times.

“Blaine, what is up with you today?” Sebastian asked after nailing him in the head a fifth time.

“You’re pulling the team down here man” Nick continued.

“Sorry” Blaine moaned rubbing his head. “I guess I’m just having an off day.”

“Seriously you guys? You have to ask what’s wrong with him?” Jeff interjected, earning him a glare from Blaine. “He’s been starring at that lifeguard again.”

“His name’s Kurt” Blaine mumbled.

“Aren’t you supposed to be trying to impress him?” Sebastian asked.

Blaine blushed. “Yeah… he’s just so… Him just being there is distracting me. I can’t help my inability to focus. I mean, look at him!” At this everyone turned to look over at Kurt, Jeff even trying to hop on Nick’s back for a better view. “YOU GUYS” Blaine said loudly and in a panicked voice, “YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO ALL LOOK AT HIM! He’s going to see you and know!”

“What would be so bad about that?” David inquired. “Maybe if he knew he would come over and talk to you! You wouldn’t have to do any work at all.”

“Yeah, that or he’ll get freaked out and avoid me all week, completely destroying any possible chance I have with him.”

“You’d have to plan on actually talking to him before we could ruin anything like that” Wes pointed out. Blaine scowled at him.

“Fine.” Blaine folded his arms over his chest. “I’ll come up with a plan.”

Later that afternoon as they were all resting on the beach, Blaine sat bolt upright causing the other boys to look over at him.

“I have an idea.”

“Well come one then, spill” Wes said.

“What if I wooed him by singing Girls on the Beach to him but changed ‘girls’ to ‘boys’?! You guys could even help me by singing back up if you wanted!”

Blaine had a look of eager excitement on his face which faltered immediately when Sebastian started laughing. “You want to woo him-” Sebastian sucked in a deep breath “By singing a Beach Boys song. And you thought we would be the ones to scare him off.” Sebastian buried his head in his arms laughing at Blaine.

“Hmmm I see your point.” Blaine paused the think for a moment. “How about California Girls!?”

“Blaine you’re gay” Wes stated.

“…yes… I thought we’d been over this.”

“What I meant was: you’re gay. You want to sing a song to a boy. Therefore the song you pick should be about a boy.”

“I- yeah, ok, maybe it’s not the best idea” Blaine mumbled, “What if I sang-”

“Blaine I think you should just talk to him, ask him out to dinner, or invite him over to the house. Something simple,” David interjected. “There’s no need to go overboard. You’re overthinking it.”

Blaine sighed. “I guess you’re probably right David.” He paused, gazing at Kurt behind his sunglasses. “I’ll come up with a simpler plan of attack.”

Jeff patted him on the back. “Yeah man, let me know if you need help. I’m sure I can find a way to guarantee you a conversation with your lifeguard.”

A concerned look crossed Nicks face but he didn’t say anything. Blaine however thanked Jeff and the rest of the guys, told them he’d keep them posted, and then rolled over again so he could read/ watch Kurt. 

Monday

On Monday Blaine almost spoke to Kurt. Almost. But he lost the courage and trudged away without doing anything besides yelling to his friends that he was getting ice cream.

Tuesday

On Tuesday Jeff started pestering Blaine about talking to the lifeguard after he’d had to hear about Kurt for the past two days. He spent an hour interrupting Blaine to tell him to just go over and ask Kurt out. He then proceeded to try to hit the volleyball at Kurt, so that Blaine would have to run over there. To everyone’s disappointment (besides Blaine’s) Jeff never managed to get the ball close enough. Although he did nail Blaine in the head, resulting in Blaine yelling at him and then wandering off to build a sandcastle.

Wednesday

Blaine swore he was going to talk to Kurt on Wednesday. Wednesday was his day. He was done tiptoeing around the lifeguard stand when what he really wanted to do was ask Kurt out. Assuming he was gay of course. A little after they showed up on Wednesday however, it started to pour, meaning that Kurt closed the beach off and they all had to leave. They ended up having a movie marathon instead which turned out to be quite fun, even if Blaine spent half the time berating himself for missing another opportunity to talk to Kurt.

Thursday

By Thursday Jeff is done. He needs a plan. Blaine is still tiptoeing around the idea of talking to Kurt, and if he waits much longer it’s never going to happen. Or if it does, it’ll be because Blaine forces them to stop by the beach on their way home Monday, and at that point the purpose will be pretty much moot. Besides, Jeff has definitely caught the lifeguard checking Blaine out on more than one occasion. He’s fairly certain that this means the boy is gay and interested. So Jeff comes up with a plan.

“Jeff! Jeff! What’s wrong?!”

“Why does he sound like he’s in pain?”

“JEFF!?”

That was when Blaine saw Jeff wink at him. His head kept sinking under the water as he flailed around yelling “something bit me” as he headed toward the shore. It looked like he was in a lot of pain, but on his fourth or fifth stroke towards land Blaine could’ve sworn he saw Jeff wink. Blaine tried to puzzle out why Jeff would wink at him when he seemed to be in pain, but quickly dismissed this train of thought deciding that he must’ve imagined it.

Moments after Jeff had started screaming and heading for shore Kurt had started running from the lifeguard stand, pulling off his shirt as he went. Blaine stopped in his sprint for Jeff when he saw this. He hadn’t meant to do it, but his teenage brain was easily distracted by a hot guy running by him pulling off his shirt.

By the time Blaine had regained control of his legs, Kurt had reached Jeff, whereas Blaine was only two feet into the water with Wes, David, Nick, and Sebastian nearby. Kurt had Jeff lean on him and the red float that he’d brought in with him, while he tried to calm him down and figure out what had happened.

When they got near to shore, Blaine went to Jeff’s other side and put his arm around him so Jeff could lean his weight on both himself and Kurt. Once they had made it to the lifeguard stand Kurt had slipped out and then got Jeff to lay down on the sand with Blaine’s assistance.

“What happened? Where does it hurt?” Kurt asked Jeff urgently. “I need you to tell me so I can help you.”

“My- my leg,” Jeff wheezed out. “Something stung me. I think- I think it was a jellyfish. I say one floating around earlier when I was racing Nick to the buoy.”

Nick, David, Wes, Blaine, and Sebastian all exchanged worried looks when they heard this. Kurt however shot Jeff a calculating look.

“Jellyfish don’t live in lakes.”

Sebastian threw back his head and laughed at this. “Did you see a plastic bag and mistake it for a jellyfish Jeff?” he scoffed.

Jeff sat up suddenly, Kurt protested and tried to get him to lie back down but Jeff fended him off. “Ok, fine.” Jeff’s eyes traveled from Kurt’s to Blaine’s and then back again. “This one over here” -he gestured at Blaine- “wouldn’t stop waxing poetically about you and was refusing to just come talk to you.”

Kurt blushed and glanced over at Blaine, startled, while Blaine turned red and hid his face in his hands. After a moment of silence Blaine smacked Jeff on the chest “oh my god Jeff. Why on earth would you think pretending to get injured would help with this situation.”

“Sorry!” Jeff exclaimed, “I was just trying to help you out man, you always go out of your way for us and I wanted to return the favor…”

“Well thank you for the attempt” Blaine conceded, lowering his hands while still determinedly not looking at Kurt.  “But usually it’s best to start with finding out if the guy plays for my team, and then doing something that doesn’t involve faking an injury.” Blaine gave Jeff a stern look and then finally glanced over at Kurt. “I’m so sorry that my idiot friend here thought it would be a good idea to waste your time by faking the need for a rescue.” Blaine glared over at Jeff. “We’ll just bring him back to our stuff and make sure he doesn’t decide to actually drown next.”

They got up to go as Kurt continued to crouch on the beach starring between Jeff and Blaine in apparent bewilderment. “I- I. Okay…” As the group began to walk away, Kurt seemed to finally be able to gather his wits and form a sentence. “I am.” Kurt squeaked out as Blaine started taking up the rear, shoving Jeff in front of him.

Blaine paused and half turned to look at him, cocking his head in an expression of curiosity. “Gay. I’m gay.” Kurt stuttered out. “If-” Kurt blushed and then faltered. “If you umm were wondering.”

Blaine starred open mouthed at the boy for several seconds before he gathered himself and said something. “Does- are you-”

“BLAINE MY UNCLE JUST CALLED AND WE NEED TO GO. WE’RE LATE” Wes yelled from where he was gathering their stuff together. This year Wes's uncle was in town, and the boys had promised him they'd eat together.

Blaine deflated slightly. He looked back at Kurt shooting him a quick “I’m sorry I have to go” and then taking off down the beach to catch up with his friends. Causing him to miss the hurt look that crossed Kurt’s face as he trudged back to his chair to settle back in, staring moodily out at the water.

Friday

Blaine made sure he showed up at the beach bright and early that morning. It meant that he had woken up at 5am, poured himself some cereal and then bolted out the door before anyone else was even up. So sue him, he wanted to see Kurt and, more importantly, he wanted to finish the conversation that they’d barely gotten a chance to start.

When he’d reached the Warblers usual spot, Blaine paused to spread out some of his things. Almost immediately however, he headed to the lifeguard chair. He honestly had no idea if Kurt was actually guarding or not that day, or even what time he was likely to show up, but Blaine knew he couldn’t miss this opportunity. They were going back home in two nights and Blaine would be damned if he went home having never talked to Kurt.

This resulted in him camping out on the lifeguards chair for 2 hours. He watched the sunrise, smiled as he saw the occasional couple meander by, and he read a book while he waited.

Just as Blaine was beginning to panic that maybe Kurt wasn’t guarding and his replacement would get angry at him for sitting in the chair, he heard the slam of a car door and turned to see someone in red lifeguarding swim trunks heading towards him. Blaine watched the figure approach for a moment and then turned back to the water so he wasn’t starring the person down. He was 90% sure that it was Kurt, which caused his mind to kick into high gear as he tried to determine what he would say when Kurt reached him. He’d been too nervous earlier to even start thinking past the getting to the beach phase of his plan.

Moments later it didn’t even matter however as Blaine saw two feet stop a foot away from the chair.

“Um. Hi?” a voice said, sounding a bit perplexed.

Blaine took a breath and looked up. He locked eyes with Kurt and momentarily forgot how to speak. The boy’s eyes were beautiful.  After a slightly awkward pause Blaine blinked and came back to himself.

“Hi! I’m Blaine.” He stuck out his hand to shake Kurt’s.

Kurt hesitated for one heart stopping second, but then reached out and shook it, saying, “Kurt.”

“I know,” Blaine blurted out. He blushed. “I mean…  I, um, heard your friend call you that the other day.”

“What?” A look of confusion flitted across Kurt’s face. “Oh yeah! Probably my friend Rachel. She’s never been very good with the concept of speaking quietly so that others can relax.”

Blaine laughed. “It was probably her then.” They stood in silence for a moment (Blaine having hopped up from the chair when he went to shake Kurt’s hand) until Kurt finally spoke up.

“Not that I mind visitors, but is there any reason why you’re here so much earlier than usual without your friends and over by my chair?”

Blaine grinned, raising an eyebrow. “You know what time I usually come?”

“What? I-” Kurt blushed. “I just-”

Blaine reached out and put his hand on Kurt’s arm, effectively cutting him off. “It wasn’t something you needed to defend yourself about. I’m actually really flattered that you took notice.”

“Well, how could I not when there are six shirtless boys running around like little kids for hours?” Kurt grinned wickedly, “of course I’m going to keep tabs on them. I need to know when I’m going to have to babysit.”

Blaine laughed, glancing down at his foot and kicking up some sand. “Yeah… we can be a bit crazy when we’re all together. Although Seb and Wes will probably be offended to hear that you think they act like children.”

“Would they retaliate with ploys to make me run into the lake?”

“No, no, they’re not as dumb as Jeff is.” Blaine suddenly turned a more serious gaze on Kurt. “I actually wanted to apologize for him. He somehow got it into his head that he had to help me ask you out, and that the best way to do that was to fake a jellyfish sting of all things.” Blaine shook his head in annoyance “he doesn’t quite think these things through obviously.”

“So are you going to?”

“Going to what?” Blaine asked, tilting his head to the side in question.

“Ask me out” Kurt answered, biting his lip and stealing himself to continue meeting Blaine’s gaze.

“Oh! Um” Blaine blushed. “Y-yeah. Um. Would you be interested in going out to lunch during your break? Or dinner when you’re done? Or, I don’t know, whatever’s easiest! Ice cream?”

Kurt giggled at how flustered Blaine was and reached out, putting his hand on Blaine’s arm to get him to stop rambling. “I would love to go out to dinner with you tonight. I get off at five, and then I’ll need to get ready. So let’s say… six or seven?”

Blaine grinned. “That sounds perfect. Can I have your phone number?” he asked, holding his phone out to Kurt.

“Sure.” Kurt took the phone nervously from Blaine and added himself to his contact list as they both heard four car doors slam in quick succession.

“Look! It’s Blaine! He’s over there talking to Kurt!”

“Shut up Jeff, the entire beach can hear you.”

“Did you ask him for his number Blaine!?”

“Get some Anderson!”

Blaine groaned. “My friends are idiots, I’m sorry. I promise they will remain far, far away from this date.”

Kurt merely blushed and shook his head before pointing to the lifeguard chair saying, “I’d better get to work, but I’ll see you around for a bit before our date?”

“Yup! I’ll be here. Any chance you can be my alibi if Jeff mysteriously drowns today?”

Jeff, who had been running across the sand towards Blaine, tackled him to the ground yelling “you’d never be able to drown me, hobbit!” Causing Blaine to try to wriggle free and Kurt to merely shake his head and walk back to the lifeguard stand yelling at them to not kick up too much sand or else he’d have to kick them off the beach.