Chapter 31

January seemed to be over the moment it arrived. It was a weird month, because, ever since the end of August when a certain new senior student had transferred to McKinley High, so much had happened in both that new student’s life, and the life of a particular boy, that really wasn’t a boy, named Kurt Hummel, had changed drastically. 

  It was kind of nice, they both had to admit, having time to just relax without a crazy amount of things on their minds. 

  Things were still happening, of course. Kurt continued seeing Mrs. Jacob, twice a week, just like Blaine continued seeing Mrs. Black once a week. They both worked and went to Scandals ever now and then, both noticing how much the number of visits suddenly dropped for both of them.

  “Oh my God, don’t tell me we’re turning into some kind of anti-social-couple couple,” Blaine said in mild horror one night when they came across the subject.

  Kurt laughed against his hair, wiping a couple of sweaty curls off Blaine’s forehead, just to play it out. “Of course we’re not,” he assured, though the thought still stuck with him a little when they agreed to just go to sleep instead of going another round, or even take a shower.

  The next morning both of them wished they had though. They both got out of bed within ten minutes of waking up, taking turns in the shower while the other brushed their teeth. Kurt’d even got his own toothbrush at Blaine’s place now, as he’d started spending more and more time there, especially nights.

  “Oh my God.” Kurt said blankly when Blaine stepped out of the shower.

  “What?” he asked, looking down at his naked body, for a moment thinking Kurt was talking about something about it. That wasn’t the case.

  “I have a toothbrush at your house and last night we went to sleep practically in each other’s arms… We’re really starting to turn into a couple aren’t we?”

  Blaine cocked his head to the side and thought about it for a moment. This, on top of the fewer and fewer Scandals visits, really was… He wasn’t sure exactly. New, maybe. 

  “I guess we are,” he said, walking across the room to take position in front of the mirror. “Is that good or bad though?”

  “I don’t have an answer to that question.” Kurt said after trying to find one.

  “Me neither…” said Blaine, starting to cover his cheeks and chin with shaving cream.

  “Thank you for finally taking care of that,” Kurt said airily when Blaine was done with his shaving.

  “What?” Blaine asked, getting dressed. “Doesn’t the stubble add to the whole bad boy look you say I have?”

  “Maybe,” Kurt said with a shrug, pulling his tank top over his head. “But my dick really doesn’t agree with it.”

  Blaine chuckled, thinking back on the acts of the previous night. “You know,” he said then, almost half to himself. “It’s actually different with you.”

  “What’s different?”

  Blaine rolled his eyes. “Going fishing,” he said sarcastically. “Sex, meathead.” Then added, “Or I mean, don’t you think?”

  Kurt stopped. He’d actually thought of this just before going to sleep yesterday. “Yeah, I think so too.” he admitted. “Also, fucking someone more than once does add to it.”

  They’d walked out of Blaine’s room and were halfway down the stairs. “Wait – you mean you’ve never done that before?”

  “No, don’t think so,” Kurt shrugged.

  “Ever?”

  “Well I mean, maybe, once or twice, but,” Kurt shrugged again.

  “How do you even do that?” Blaine asked, walking into the kitchen and getting a bowl out for his breakfast. “Like, there aren’t that many gay men in Lima, and far from all of them go to Scandals. Even fewer are around our age.”

  Kurt shrugged one shoulder, grabbing an apple and walking after Blaine to the living room, settling down on the couch and kicked his feet up on the coffee table, before saying, “You’d be surprised.”

  Blaine gave him a look. “Oh, please, you have to’ve been at it more than once with quite a few guys with the speed you work through them.”

  “What do you even want to gather from this conversation?” Kurt asked, arching an eyebrow high on his forehead.

  “Nothing,” Blaine laughed, eating his cereal, Kurt watching him, nibbling on his apple. He couldn’t understand how he could eat so much so early in the morning every day. “I just wanna figure you out.”

  “Like you haven’t done that already?”

  Blaine shrugged with a little smile. “I’m sure there’s still plenty I don’t know about you, Kurt Hummel.”

  He said it in the kind of way that made Kurt snort, though not at all in an unkind way. “There are some things better left unsaid.” he said, though not really seriously.

  “Not to be like that, but I think you’ve told me most of those things that you claim ‘are better left unsaid’,” Blaine told him.

  “And you’re still here, somehow.” said Kurt quietly, making the mood more serious than it was before.

  “Of course I am,” Blaine said, leaning forward and putting the empty bowl on the coffee table. “Just like you’re still here yourself.”

  For quite a long moment, they sat in silence, looking at each other, serious, but not too much, tiny, tiny smiles on their faces. Then Kurt started laughing quietly. 

  “What?” asked Blaine, cocking his head a little to the side for the second time already today.

  “We’re both such posterchildren for fuckups.”

  Blaine laughed a little with him. “Why, that’s why we’re so good for each other,” he joked and leaned forward to kiss him, Kurt meeting halfway. 

On their way to school, they somehow came across the subject of Kurt’s not-actually dead father.

  “‘You gonna see him?” asked Blaine, a little hesitantly.

  Kurt snorted angrily. “Why the fuck would I?”

  “I dunno,” Blaine said with a little shrug, looking over at Kurt in the driver’s seat. “Because he’s your family, maybe?”

  He laughed hollowly. “That man is not my family.” he said. “And anyway, who’re you to ask me that? When was the last time you saw your dad anyway?”

  “My twelfth birthday,” Blaine said right away, his stomach knotting in anger. 

  There was a moment’s silence. Then, “We both have pretty bad daddy issues,” said Blaine. “Yours worse than mine, admittedly, but still. Let’s agree not to talk about it?”

  “Agreed.” said Kurt without a moment’s hesitation. Thinking of his father only made him feel nauseous and angry, and still pretty damn confused. It still didn’t add up in his mind.

  They didn’t mention their fathers again after that.

  “You two’ve got to stop showing up to school together.” Santana told them matter-of-factly once they arrived to the parking lot. 

  It wasn’t like they planned it or anything. Except for today, of course. Kurt was getting his first paycheck today, and Blaine was going to go with him. (They went to the office of the guy who ran the shop. They weren’t sure if that was totally normal, though the way they’d gotten hired maybe hadn’t been the most normal – maybe even legal – way either)

  School seemed slower and even more boring than usual that day. Kurt couldn’t even fall asleep during science class. Why was he getting so nervous? It was only a paycheck. Totally normal. 

  “You’re pale as a sheet.” Mackie commented at lunch. Kurt shot her a bitch smile and the finger. 

  “What’s up with him?” she asked, turning to Blaine.

  “He’s getting his first paycheck today.” he answered before reminding himself that it wasn’t really his information to tell.

  Kurt kicked him under the table and shot him an angry look.

  “Ohh,” smiled Santana teasingly. “little Kurtie’s grown up.”

  “Fuck all of you.” Kurt grunted, not able to stomach the food on his tray.

  When they left the cafeteria, all he’d eaten was three orange slices. Though he was pretty sure that if he’d eaten any more it’d just come back up.

  “This is fucking ridiculous,” he complained in a low voice to Blaine, making sure none of the others heard him. 

  Blaine chuckled. “Don’t worry about it.” he said.

  He repeated the same four words when they were about to step inside Mr. Stevens’ office four hours later, and again when they went to put the money on his credit card (which Kurt’d finally managed to get).

  “Scandals?” Kurt asked, getting into the car again, his stomach still a mess of wild kangaroos.

  Blaine started to nod, but stopped himself. “I need to go home and check on mom first,” he said, in a kind of apologetic way.

  So Kurt set the course towards the Anderson house instead of the bar. It was dark when they arrived, and Blaine was in and back in the car in fifteen minutes. He came back with a sandwich and a pear. Kurt rolled his eyes.

  “You don’t have to feed me, Blaine.” he said, though the corner of his mouth tugged upward a little.

  “I know,” Blaine shrugged. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t, right?”

  Kurt rolled his eyes again with a little snort, but reached for the pear. It’d been ages since he’d have one of those. He wasn’t overly fond of the taste of them, but that didn’t really matter with his… situation. With a little jolt of his stomach, he realized that maybe now he’d be able to buy food for his own, instead of practically living off of the school’s cafeteria food, which he’d started to sneak more and more of ‘home’ too, since he was a much worse thief that Quinn. And eating at Blaine’s house made him feel stupidly guilty, though it was hard avoiding it, as he was spending more and more time there.

  When they stepped out into the cold late-evening air of the club’s shadowy parking lot, Blaine, holding his hand out in front of him, exclaimed: “Hey, look, it’s snowing.”

  Kurt turned his head upwards, and just like Blaine’d said, a couple of snowflakes landed and melted on his face. He let out a little one-breathed laughter-like sound. There’d been close to no snow at all that winter. Still cold as balls, but nearly no snow.

  “The universe is congratulating me,” said Kurt in a ghostly voice, waving his hands around in front of him. Blaine shook his head with a little laugh.

  “You suck,” he said, kissing Kurt’s cheek quickly when he passed him.

   Kurt stood still for a moment, smiling lazily to himself. Things were so different.

  The cold bit hold of him after only a couple of seconds, and he hurried after Blaine, passing the sleeping (actually sleeping) so-called guard at the door. 

  Both of them quickly noticed the looks they got, walking together, so close, and settling down by the bar, stools close together so they’d be able to talk over the loud music.

  “Do they know we’re a couple?” Kurt wheezed in Blaine’s ear. It almost seemed to be the case, and he didn’t like it. 

  Blaine cast a look around the small club. They surely were getting a few looks from a couple of other regulars, almost as if… as if what? There was no way. They hadn’t been holding hands or anything. He shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “How could they know that?”

  Kurt shrugged one shoulder, then decided to agree with Blaine. Then he lifted and rubbed his hands together, half to warm them up from the cold, half because of what he was about to say and do. “First beer’s one me!”

  He laughed upon hearing the words. Blaine felt really happy for Kurt, he really did. “Don’t waste all that money on booze now, will ya’?” he said, deciding that it’d just be too boring if he got into how much he liked seeing that happy and satisfied glint in Kurt’s eyes when the bartender handed them their beers and he got to pay for them into actual words. 

  Kurt didn’t get the time to answer, before a hand appeared on both their shoulders.

  “Lovebirds!” shouted the voice belonging to the head now between their own. They shifted on their stools, both uncomfortable under the weight of Sebastian’s hands. His breath stunk with alcohol and cigarette smoke.

  Kurt shot Blaine a look. What the fuck is he doing here?

  Blaine returned it, an eyebrow high on his forehead. Don’t ask me.

  “So, what brings you here?” he slurred on.

  They didn’t answer. Kurt turned his face forward, and Blaine thought he could glimpse the muscles of his jaw working under his skin. It took him a minute to realize why.

  They’d avoided the Sebastian Topic completely, not deliberately, yet still not completely by chance. And because of this, Blaine realized, Kurt didn’t know that he’d ‘called it off’ with Sebastian already, with the words “I’m in love with someone else” including the conversation.

  “Would you be so kind and get your hand off my shoulder, Sebastian?” Blaine said sweetly. The look in his eyes made Sebastian lift it away immediately, holding it up in that ‘calm down’ sort of gesture. Blaine shot him one last glare then turned away, ignoring him.

  Sebastian didn’t leave. Kurt and Blaine didn’t talk. Or look at each other. They both felt irritated and a tiny bit uncomfortable and imposed on by Sebastian’s presence. 

  “Wow.” they both heard the tall boy pant what felt like several minutes later. “This is awkward.”

  Kurt made a hugely irritated face, letting out a groan that could not be heard over the music.

  “It was never this awkward with the two of us now was it?” whispered Sebastian loudly, to be heard over the music, and also to make sure that Kurt would hear.

  Blaine whipped around. “Stop.” he snapped, both extremely irritated by Sebastian’s behavior and also not wanting to see what it would bring out of Kurt if it continued. Yet he really, really wanted Kurt to react and snap and snarl and maybe even punch. Or at least push. Anything would do, really. Okay so he wanted it to happen. 

  And it did.

  Sebastian once again lifted his hands up in that same gesture, chuckling, at Blaine’s word. His stance seemed unstable, and he swayed every now and then. When he started to laugh lowly, looking at Blaine up and down with those eyes that told him that he had something else entirely in mind, biting his lips and even winking, only half a joke, Kurt put his beer down as calmly as he could and stood up. He did his best not to punch the tall teen square in the face. Instead he took a step forward, placing himself in-between him and Blaine, facing Sebastian, back turned to Blaine. He smiled a poisonous smile, breathing calmly. He wouldn’t start a fight. Not here, not now, and not with him. If the other hadn’t been drunk off his perky little ass, maybe he’d given it a shot; there’d be actually pleasure in it then, when his supposed opponent would actually have a chance. Now it looked like he’d fall if Kurt as much as breathed his way.

  “Back off.” he said, actually managing a tone close to that tone that Blaine used to always speak to him with. 

  Just with those two words, Sebastian seemed to sober up intensely. Almost so much it made Kurt wonder if he’d faked just how drunk he was. Had he? It seemed a stupid thing to do.

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m telling you to.” said Kurt, actually kinda liking the way Sebastian straightened  up his back, towering over him; it’d make making him crumble more fun. 

  “And tell me,” said Sebastian, taking a tiny step forward. “why should I listen to you – the sluttiest man-slut Lima has ever seen?”

  Kurt bowed his head with a little laugh. “What’s so hard to understand?” he said. “Blaine’s over you.”

  And he caught himself thinking that, was he? Was Blaine over him? Had he been ‘into’ him, Sebastian,  to begin with? Were they still seeing each other now? Had he failed to miss that? Did he care?

  Yes.

  Yes, he cared.

  “And what makes you so sure about that?” There was a challenging kind of smile on his lips now, and Kurt could feel his anger coming sneaking in.

  “I’m warning you.” he decided to reply with, keeping that sweet-poisonous tone.

  Sebastian carried on as if he hadn’t hear him. “Are you sure he doesn’t think of me when you’re fucking? When you’re kissing and touching and smiling together? Are you sure it’s actually you he likes – loves, if what he told me is true –”

  He’d told him he loved him? That… While that was admittedly scary about that, there was something that relaxed within him upon hearing it. Blaine’d told Sebastian that he loved him, Kurt. Yet his words did get in under his skin a bit. A tiny little bit. But most of all it made his anger boil up even more furious.

  “and not someone else?” Sebastian carried on. “Like, me.” He cocked his head to the side and looked at him in feigned sadness. He was mocking him. That was not okay.

  There was a touch to Kurt’s fingertips. Blaine’d reached out and touched his fingers lightly against his, to calm him; but even more, it felt somehow, to reassure him. 

  He’s lying, the touch said. 

  Of course he is, responded a part of Kurt’s mind. His anger remained just as strongly still, of course, but the almost-fear that Blaine was still seeing Sebastian was gone. 

  “You poor, pathetic thing.” Kurt said, cocking his head to the side in the same manner Sebastian had seconds earlier. “Don’t tell me your trying to make me jealous?”

  “Oh no, of course not, darling.” smiled Sebastian. “I would never do such a thing. Your implication that I would wounds me deeply.”

  Kurt nodded, laughing somewhere deep in his throat. Don’t punch him, he repeated in his mind. That’ ll only please him way too much. He wasn’t too sure it would, but told himself this to keep himself from lashing out. It worked well. 

  “Maybe,” he said, now being the one taking a tiny little step forward. “you’re actually the jealous one? Maybe what you’re telling me are things you’ve been telling yourself to make the fact that Blaine broke things off bearable? To sooth the pain?”

  “Oh please,” said Sebastian. Though Kurt had spotted the, only there for a second, look in his eyes. Had he actually managed to hit a nerve? Was this what was actually going on? 

  Oh, grinned his mind, that was just too delicious.

  “Okay, okay, whatever you say.” Kurt told him with a little shrug of one shoulder, though his eyes remained fixed on his, looking down on him, making him feel smaller, pushing him off of the high horse he’d been sitting on minutes ago. 

  Sebastian Smythe had lost the game.

  “Well,” sighed Kurt. “Just one last thing,” He smiled again. “Please stay the fuck away from Blaine, from both of us, if you like your head on your shoulders remaining together like that. Because until he says otherwise, he’s with me.” He reached forward and patted Sebastian on the chest a couple of times, then let his smile and cheery-looking expression fall, shot him one last angry glance, turned, and sat down on his barstool again. 

  When Sebastian finally accepted what had happened and finally shuffled away from them, Blaine actually broke out laughing. “Wow,” he said, turning his face towards Kurt where he’d laid down his head on his folded arms in front of him. “Where did that come from?”

  Kurt made an ‘ugh’ sound and faked a shudder. “I do not like him.” was the response Blaine got, which made him point at Kurt and say that:

  “You’re jealous!”

  Kurt scuffed. “Sorry what now?” he said, then, “Please don’t pat yourself on the back like that Blaine. What’s there to be jealous of?”

  “That me and Sebastian used to have tons of sex.”

  Kurt rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, you’re not anymore, now it’s us doing that.”

  Though maybe Kurt was a tiny bit jealous. But that’s not something he’s admit to.

Chapter 32

Life almost got boring there for a while. 

  Soon, both Kurt and Blaine caught themselves calling the other their boyfriend. It was Blaine who did it first, when buying them drinks at Scandals one night. He stopped, wide-eyed, just like Kurt. For a moment he was almost scared. He wasn’t sure why, though. They were boyfriends, they’d both agreed to that. And, plus, he’d already told Kurt he loved him. But that was once. Only once, and in the desperation of the moment. And in absolute privet.

  From Kurt’s point of view, while it’d admittedly surprised him, for him to be referred to as boyfriend, but it’d also sent a jolt through his entire being. He wasn’t sure if it could be seen from the outside, but on the inside, he was a chaotic mess. But only for a second there. He recovered quickly, as he did ever so often, and only told the bartender that “Well, you heard him. Hurry up”.

  When Kurt got his second paycheck at the end of February, he was again irritatingly nervous. He kept his credit card with him literally all the time, scared it was going to grow legs and fly away if he didn’t know exactly where it was for just a second. 

  Come March, and the boys were once again sitting in Figgins’ office.

  “How many more times do we need to have this conversation?” said Figgins’, his stern look now turning both irritated and a bit bored. He’d seen those two in his office quite ofttimes lately. Everytimes because of the same thing. 

  “Hey, don’t look at me,” Blaine said with a half grin, hands held out by his shoulders.”It’s all his fault.”

  “My fault?” cried Kurt in mock hurt. 

  “Your fault.” affirmed Blaine with his chin high in the air.

  Sue Sylvester, the sport-suit-wearing, megaphone-yelling, smoothie-drinking, blond, tall cheerleading coach, snorted loudly by their side. Once again, it had been her walking in on them.

  “I don’t give a damn whose ‘fault’ it was” she said angrily. “I just want to stop having to fear for my life every time I enter an empty classroom. That’s supposed to be locked and off limit to all student.” she added with an angry glare, directed half towards Figgins, half towards Kurt and Blaine. She seemed to be uncertain where to place the blame on that one.

  “I don’t even understand what all the fuss is about.” Kurt said calmly. “I mean, we were even fully clothed.”

  Sue’s face twisted into a disgusted grimace. “That does not make what was going on any less unacceptable.” she said, then: “Seriously, with all do respect Mr. Figgins, how can you let this continue?”

  The little man looked hopeless, as he had a tendency of often doing. “I am doing my absolute best, Ms. Sylvester.” he assured.

  Though that did not help in the slightest. In fact, they would both be shirtless, hands nowhere to be seen, next time Sue would walk in on them at McKinley. It was just something that kept happening without planning, and without any attempts to keep it from happening made my either of them when it did. It was fun, it was them, and it was always entertaining to see the face of whoever walked through the door (almost always at least. There was that one time when Blaine had been so annoyingly close when they got interrupted, he almost ripped the head of the poor freshman). 

Finals were only days away from starting, the group stated one day. All of them were seniors, and none of them really had amazing attendance history at the school.

  Well, none of them but Blaine. His attendance was damn near perfect. Apart from the days he’d stayed home to take care of his mom, and apart from a few days when he’d skipped of different reasons (Kurt had been that reasons more than once, of course), he was ridiculously good at going to school and actually attending classes, even paying attention and doing the required work.

  “How can you still be so respected in school when being such a nerd?” Mackie said, in a half complaint.

  Blaine rolled his eyes. “I’m not respected, I’m hated and feared. And I’m not a nerd. It’s just not that much of an effort to me because I’m clearly a genius, and I’d like to graduate with good grades. That’s all.”

  Graduation. It was kind of a touchy subject for all of them. 

  Quinn was soon going to be a teen mother. Blaine had to take care of his mother. Santana’s parents would not accept her daughter becoming a career failure as well as a lesbian. Ronnie couldn’t wait to move away from her stupid, drunken parents and move in with her uncle.

But other than that, none of them really knew anything about the future. Kurt maybe least of all. More than that he was going to try and stay alive and maybe continue working at the weird Coffee Shop, continue trying to stay sane and try to get through day by day, he knew nothing. Graduating seemed like something he’d never be able to do.

  “Don’t even sweat it,” said Sheila. “You’ll graduate alongside the rest of us.”  

  Kurt shrugged. “I don’t even care.” he said. “And I don’t think that’ll be the case.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I haven’t attended all classes of one day even once in years. I know basically nothing you’re supposed to know to be able to graduate highschool, I haven’t done a single piece of homework for five years, not a single assay or group project, and attended to less than three tests. They’re not going to let me leave this place this year.”

  After that, they all agreed that it did sound rather hopeless for him. 

  The subject died out pretty quickly, the mood lower and even a bit anxious. Kurt wanted to leave, and after throwing a sideways glance at Blaine, he saw that he did too.

  “We should all skip school some day and, like, celebrate and stuff,” thought Ronnie out loud just the second they’d decided to leave. “I’ve heard a lot of people do.”

  “Yeah, because we don’t skip school enough already as it is.” said Mackenzie, rolling her eyes, though secretly thinking it sounded like a pretty nice idea. 

  “Where’re we supposed to go anyway?”

  Ronnie shrugged. “Why do I have the one deciding?”

  “Because you brought it up?” Santana muttered, only loud enough for them all to hear. 

  They agreed on doing it in the end though. Maybe, at least, “I’ll think about it” and “we’ll see” did come up, but it was pretty much decided.

  Bars or any other kind of club were out, which would normally be the obvious thing for them, since the whole baby thing were still going on with Quinn.

  She was just starting her sixth month of her pregnancy now, and was really starting to get big for real. She’d started reacting very strongly to some things, her mood swings getting more frequent, she didn’t throw up as much anymore, but she’d started reacting to certain smells, in the kind of way that’d almost make her throw up sometimes, if the smell was, at least in her mind, strong enough. Cravings happened sometimes, and that was definitely something new for her. It was strange, but all a part of being pregnant. The thing she did notice almost the most, apart from her back being even more of a douch, the way she felt swollen and about as acrobatic as a fridge, how she could barely wear a bra anymore because her breasts were so swollen and over all ouchy and so on, was how people seemed to respect her less now that her stomach was round. It angered her, and she’d even had to hit a jock for thinking that now it was okay to treat her like garbage, which none of them thought with the Skanks anymore. Some students had even started meeting her eye in the corridor when she passed.  

  Kurt was still not speaking to her, and she understood and accepted that fact. Yet she did really miss him. He was still her family, after all. And she had done it to protect him. 

  Had she though? Or was that just something she told herself? Because if she’d really wanted to tell him, she would’ve, no matter what Katherine had said, or what they’d agreed on. She should have told him.
  Oh, she knew that. But what was done was done, so she was contempt watching his back when he left, side by side with Blaine, as they so often appeared now a days. And that did continue to give her comfort to some part. 

  She wondered if Kurt knew she’d helped pay his new guitar. 

“I should speak with her, shouldn’t I?” Kurt asked, biting his lip.

  “Will my opinion matter?” said Blaine, putting on his helmet; they’d arrived with Blaine’s motorcycle that morning.

  “Depends,” responded Kurt.

  “Then maybe.” Blaine settled with. “I mean, you’ve carried out the silent treatment perfectly now for over two whole months.”

  “Is that childish?”

  “Maybe,” Blaine said again. “But apart from what she did, how ever unacceptable, she’s still your family, is she not?”

  “‘Suppose.” muttered Kurt.

  “You’re cute when you get like this.”

  “I hate how you keep calling me cute.” Kurt said in a childish voice.“I’m not cute. I’m scary.” he informed, chin his in the air.

  “Mm,” nodded Blaine, stepping forward. “Super scary. Terrifying. Paralyzingly frightening.”

  Kurt took Blaine’s helmet off, since kissing him with that thing still on wasn’t really an option. Not a nice one anyway. 

  Blaine’s stomach made a stupid little jolt when their lips met, and again when their lips parted for a quick touch of their tongues. What made it all even better was the fact that he knew how so many people around them reacted to their “open display of affection”, as it’s called when gay couples kiss in public.

  They eventually got going, and Kurt wrinkled his brow when he realized that Blaine was going the wrong way. What? He was going into the city, so to speak. Why?

  He gave him a questioning look when they got off. Blaine just smirked, pleased.

  “Where’re going?” Kurt demanded, but Blaine just turned and walked over the street. Kurt followed, of course, annoyed but nervous in an almost happy kind of way.

  They walked for about five minutes before they arrived at their destination.

  “What’s this?”

  It was a second-hand shop.

  “We’re gonna do some shoppin’,” Blaine grinned.

  It was the cheapest thrift shop around, and Blaine’s favorite, if he had one. Ninety percent of his and his mom’s clothes, as well as a bunch of other things in their home, came from here. If  you’d be able to buy food there as well, that would be a thing Blaine would’ve done. It was cheap, even for a second hand shop, and had a fairly broad assortment. 

  Kurt stepped inside, a look of almost astonishment spreading on his face.

  “You’re a genius.” he said to Blaine.

  “I’m used to live on little money,” Blaine corrected. “And I like this place.”

  He waved hello to the woman behind the counter, and from the look on her face, she recognized him well.

  “Clothes.” Blaine informed, dragging him across the small shop. “Pick.”

  Kurt just stared. He was so not used to this.

  Blaine watched as Kurt lifted his hands and started looking through the clothes, his heart both being very, very warm, but also hurting. It wasn’t fair, how this seemed so unreal to Kurt.

  “I can’t choose,” complained Kurt after about fifteen minutes. 

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m gonna spend money on this. And then I’ll never get it back.”

  “‘S better than spending it on booze, is it not?” Blaine said with a little wink. Kurt groaned.

  “How am I supposed to chose anyway?”

  “Just pick the ones you like the best.”

  “How?”

  Almost fifteen more minutes passed before he settled with a pair of sturdy looking jeans and a hoodie completely deprived of holes, deciding to chose from what he needed most instead of what he may like the most. He found a pair of winter boots that weren’t too expensive, but the coldest times of the season had passed, so he didn’t buy them. Though he did point to them and tell Blaine how he should’ve brought him here sooner so he wouldn’t have had to spent yet another winter unable to feel his feet.

  He bought two warm blankets for his bed as well, even more needed than clothes, though again, the worst cold had passed for now.

  “One last thing,” Blaine said with a little glint of his eye when Kurt said he was done. They walked to the back corner. “You need something better to do with your time than drink and stare at the ceiling.”

  “Oi,” said Kurt, hitting his arm playfully. “It’s not always the ceiling. Sometimes it’s the wall too.”

  Blaine laughed softly, though the truth of it wasn’t all that funny.

  “Books.” said Kurt when the arrived, looking at the shelves before him.

  “Books.” confirmed Blaine. “Personally my favorite method of passing time. Except from other things of course,” he added, winking at Kurt jokingly. 

  It’d been years since Kurt’d actually read, let alone owned, a fictional book. He’d tried reading some time in english class, but had never really cared to continue. Though Blaine assured him this was only because the books they got to read in english class was often immensely boring.

  For a moment he didn’t want to buy any; he’d already picked out so much. But Blaine showed him a very cheap they all were, assured him he had the money, and told him that books could be used again and again and could help you escape reality in a healthier way than alcohol, and in a different way than music. 

  He bough the first two Harry Potter books, just because he had no idea what to pick, and because Blaine said they were pretty good. The language was simple too, he said, but the plot still interesting and the writing colorful. They had first been thought to be children’s books, but were really great for all ages. Kurt had a feeling Blaine liked those books more than he let on. And it was kind of cute how happy he seemed to get when he decided to buy them, especially when he tried to hide it by looking the other way.

  “You’re disgusting.” Kurt groaned, taking hold of the collar of Blaine’s jacket, pulling him around and giving him a quick kiss. 

  Now they were even kissing in public places, Kurt thought again, and not even to piss someone off.

  It was weird how… warm he felt exiting the shop almost an hour later, after having bought things he really needed, plus things he didn’t desperately need, but he actually had the money to get anyway.

  “You’re smiling.” Blaine had to say.

  “I’m not.” smiled Kurt, and they both stated laughing quietly, Kurt looking down on the ground.

  Walking there, next to Blaine, the things in the bags in his hands being his, payed for by money he’d earned, not stolen, his life felt a lighter shade of dark.