When Blaine was younger, his parents tried to make him the more independent possible. So, when he started school, his mom gave him a special buzzing alarm clock. All Blaine needed to do was connecting a vibrating device to the main base and put it under his pillow. It seemed to work well until Blaine woke up with the wire nearly strangling him.

Scared to death, Vivian bought him a new alarm clock. The clock was connected to a lamp and it would light up the entire room very brightly so that Blaine could wake up. Thing was, Blaine always slept with his face in his pillows, so the new alarm clock was completely ineffective.

When Cooper learned the truth about Blaine's sudden change of alarm clock, he simply proposed to put the vibrating device back under the pillow but also under the sheet so the wire would not be dangerous to his little brother.

It was with the familiar device that Blaine woke up, like every morning. He had been dreaming of Kurt for the second time that week when he felt the familiar pulse under his pillow. Having Kurt in his dream really was fascinating. Unfortunately, it also came up with dreaming of his own bullying problems he though he got rid of more than a year ago.

He finally got up after snoozing a few times and headed to the shower. He knew he had to get up before his mom would come barging into his room like every mother would. His mom never thought about the simple light switch on the outside of his room that was so easy to flash to let Blaine know that someone was at his door. There were days where his deafness was easy to live with. There were other days where he just wished he could be normal and listen to music, sing with the Warblers and talk to everyone he wanted to without having some kind of language barrier.

It was when Blaine was finally making the last part of his knot on his tie that his mother, as predicted, came up in his room to make sure he was ready. When he saw the door opening from the corner of his eye, he sighed heavily. He knew it must have made an impatient sound. He hated when his mother was pulling this little stunt. She must have known he was awake, since he took a shower and dropped the full shampoo bottle twice. From the vibrations in the tiled floor, his parents certainly heard him from the kitchen downstairs.

Blaine realised that his mom must have something to say because she was still there, leaning on the doorframe. He finished to knot his tie and turned around, facing her with a questioning look.

"French toast or pancakes?" she said, or mouthed. Blaine knew for a fact that his mom was often mimicking words and not speaking them out loud. What is the point of making sounds anyway? he thought

Blaine answered by gesturing a familiar sign. As if his right hand was a spatula, he flipped an imaginary pancake from his left hand. By the raise in Vivian's shoulders, Blaine knew his mom was disappointed and had just sighed just as heavily as Blaine earlier. It was just another moment in their morning routine. She was trying to make him talk with easy and small questions but Blaine wouldn't bite. It's been like this for a year now. Blaine was used to it but his mom didn't get the message that he didn't want to speak anymore. He was perfectly happy with his whiteboard and his signs, as long as he had Wes or Nick with him at school. Everything was fine and easier that way, anyway. He was mostly happy of this deal he made with himself.

He followed his mother downstairs. His father, like every morning, was sitting at the table reading the newspaper. Blaine took the Arts section, like every morning, and started to browse through it.

He was reading  some play's review when his mom put a plate in from of him. Blaine almost choked on his first bite when he saw that a production of Rent would be in Columbus this week. He immediately thought of two things. First, he needed tickets. The movie was heartbreaking and he needed to see the show live on stage. Second, he needed Kurt to go with him. He wanted to share a moment with him and, also, it would cheer him up.

Blaine got up to get the notepad his family was keeping in the kitchen and immediately wrote a note to his dad, asking him to get tickets when he would be downtown, for work. Charles knew ASL, he was not very good at it, though. He always got messed up between signs and Blaine did not have the patience to explain to him what he wanted anymore. He preferred to write.

When his dad read the paper Blaine handed him, he laughed. As Blaine analyzed his father's features, he realized that it was not the mean kind of laugher.  His face was still soft and his eyes were glittering with some kind of joy.

"I guess you'll need two tickets?" His father said when he made eye contact with Blaine. The boy nodded, smiling.

"Who's the lucky one?" Charles asked. At this moment, Blaine blushed. Blaine was not the type of teenager to always go out with friends. He was seeing them at school and enjoying their company. It had to be someone with some special ability to make Blaine wanting to go out somewhere.

Charles was familiar enough with the ASL letters so Blaine knew he could just raise his hand and make four little gestures with his hand. K-U-R-T. Somehow, the way his fingers shaped the letters felt weird. To form the K, he had to stuck his thumb in between his first and middle finger while the other fingers were folded on his palm. His middle finger had to be forming a right angle with his pointer finger, so it wasn't upwards. Then, the U. His first and middle fingers glued together as the thumb joined the two other fingers. For the R, he only had to cross his two fingers together. He then signed the T, closing his fist with his thumb stuck between his pointer and middle fingers, again.

The name felt strangely familiar to sign, yet, it was the first time he did. It made Blaine's heart clench a bit.

"Kurt." Blaine's father simply said as the teenager was not looking. He smiled a bit from the corner of his mouth. He would need to meet this Kurt boy, the one with the power to make his son blush.

--

"I can't believe were going to actually see Rent on stage! I had the DVD from the last Broadway cast... But seeing it live?" Kurt was babbling as he was driving to Columbus with Blaine at his side. He had stopped in Marysville to get Blaine and now they were heading to a little café Blaine knew was near the theater they were going to, thanks to his friend Google.

 "I'm sorry I'm talking so much" Kurt said, looking apologetic. Blaine only shrugged. He laughed a bit, making sure it was silent laugh.

When they finally pulled into the coffee shop's parking lot, Kurt had calmed down. He was still apologetic to Blaine (I can't believe I'm babbling that much! I mean, I've always love to talk... but never like this... I guess I'm nervous. I mean... yeah... it must be the nerves talking right now. Maybe I'm trying to speak for two people.. Oh God! I didn't want to say that I swear! I'm so sorry) but Blaine was more amused by Kurt's behavior than anything else. After all, people around Blaine were mostly silent. Because what is the point in talking when your interlocutor can't hear you? Apparently, the fact that Blaine could read on people's lips was not important.

Nonetheless, when they sat at their table with their coffee and sandwiches, Blaine got his whiteboard out and wrote to Kurt that he didn't care if he was talking, that he was glad to see Kurt this enthusiastic and happy. Reading, Kurt smiled brightly at Blaine and started to tell Blaine about his dad, New Directions and their current subbing teacher in the choir room. Sometimes, Blaine would stop Kurt speaking by putting his hand on his arm and then he would write something, trying not to make a one way conversation.

Kurt was also full of questions for Blaine. That's how he learned that Blaine could read music and that he learned from vibrations of each notes how they were was supposed to sound. His grand-mother, Edith, taught him when he was little. He would sit on the piano bench next to her and, with the patience of an angel, she pressed each keys while Blaine had his hands on the wooden panels of the instruments. One day he was able to play a simple melody, reading the music on the sheets. Edith was calling Blaine his Little Beethoven.

Blaine also shown Kurt the Rent libretto he had in his bag. This way, he knew a little bit about the different songs, how they were supposed to sound and what was their places in the play. Even if he'd seen the movie, he wanted to immerse himself in the play as much as he could.

The one thing that Blaine didn't tell Kurt was one of the reasons he wanted to see the play; he knew it would make Kurt happy, that it would get his mind elsewhere, away from the bullying and the harassment he was suffering from.

The show was great and Kurt cried during Finale B. They got back in the car and Kurt talked about the show. Blaine tried too, but it was hard since Kurt couldn't read on the board as he was driving. His gestures were unclear to Kurt, but still, mimicking Maureen mooing was really funny.

When Kurt finally dropped Blaine home, Blaine was really surprised to see a little sad glimpse in the other boy's eyes. He gestured his incomprehension the best he could, keeping a questioning look on his face. He did not want to get his board in his bag and Kurt was really good at guessing what Blaine wanted to say, anyway.

"I really wish we could talk more" Kurt explained

Blaine took Kurt's hand and wrote to simple words.

"We can" Kurt read as Blaine was tracing the letters "We can when we're sitting at a table and you can write. I want conversations in the car or when we go on a walk... I - Blaine? Can I ask you something? You have every right to say no if you don't want to..."

Blaine looked at the other boy curiously

"I want you to teach me the sign language." Kurt asked

Blaine smiled widely. For the first time in his life, he had a friend, someone of his age, that cared about him and who was wanting to know about him and how his life had been going. Kurt was not trying to treat him differently. He was treating him for who he was: a teenager living with deafness. There was a big difference between the two concepts for Blaine. He asked Kurt to wait by raising his palm and mouthing the word. Blaine ran in his house and got out a few minutes later handing Kurt a little book. It was some basic signs, the one his parents used to learn ASL when Blaine was five. Kurt took the book and flipped through the pages rapidly. When he found was he was looking for, he raised his hand to his mouth so that his fingers were touching his lips and then lowered it.

Thank you