010 - Clairvoyant

Blaine is really thankful for Zach, his roommate, for being late that night, because his jumping on the bed and happy whines might have made him feel embarrassed afterwards, if someone would have been there to witness them. As it is, Blaine is alone and free to celebrate Kurt agreeing to join his project however he feels like. He takes a few minutes to answer just to make sure he doesn't say anything horribly stupid to Kurt again, in his excitement.

09-20-12 22:45 To: Kurt
Great! I'm so happy you decided to try. :) When would you have time to meet and discuss it? Maybe with a cup of coffee?

09-20-12 22:51 From: Kurt
In the coffee shop again, tomorrow at 4pm?

09-20-12 22:53 To: Kurt
Sure! See you there!

09-20-12 22:55 From: Kurt
Sleep well, Blaine. :)

/

Blaine gets to the coffee shop a few minutes early, because he wants to buy Kurt a coffee. When he is there, however, he notices Kurt already sitting there, with two coffees in front of him. They exchange pleasantries and talk about nothing for a while, until Kurt takes out his notebook and opens it, a few pages from the beginning.

"I thought we could do this one first. What do you think?" Kurt smiles a bit timidly but there is a certain kind of challenge in his voice. Blaine thinks he must have chosen this one for a reason, to see what would happen. What would Blaine do?

"This is one of the first ones, it was written before my mother.." his words wander off, not wanting to say 'dead', but he doesn't seem too sad, so Blaine doesn't feel he needs to worry. Kurt points the line and Blaine reads "I want to see the future like the lady in the circus."He glances at Kurt with a smile. "Yeah, this one would be kind of hard to realize in real life, wouldn't it?" Kurt actually laughs a little, though he is still holding himself back.

"Yeah, we can do it," Blaine continues himself, "I already have an idea."

Blaine gets excited again when he starts planning the main idea for the photo and how to make it happen. They schedule to do the photo shoot the next evening in the university studio, and Blaine tells Kurt to bring some white clothes with him tomorrow, if he has any. Kurt has been a bit nervous, even if not overly so, but this makes him scoff.

"No need to worry about that. There are very few kinds of clothes I don't have as long as we are staying in the fashionable category." Blaine grins happily, eyes shining. He had noticed Kurt's carefully planned outfits - though not exaclty extravagant, they were always in fashion and perfectly fitting for the boy. It's like he wanted to fade into the masses, but wanted to do it in style.

"I don't know what I was thinking." Blaine laughed, joking good-naturedly. He congratulated himself when he got an honest and unreserved smile back.

/

When Kurt gets to the studio the next day, he is a lot more unsure and nervous than the day before. He is there and he is not telling Blaine he doesn't want to do this, yet, but Blaine can sense the boy is not very far from saying it. His eyes keep moving around like a cornered animal trying to find a possible escape route. He eyes the camera in Blaine's hand nervously and licks his lips. He is wearing white, tight jeans and a white button up shirt, all in white just like Blaine asked him. It's perfect for what Blaine has in mind.

Blaine does everything he can to make the boy relax: explains what he thinks they could do, the concept of the picture, what all the equipment are and what he wants Kurt to do. Kurt listens attentively, but his body is still tense. Blaine honestly isn't so sure anymore if this is going to work.

When Blaine takes out the candles and starts lighting them, Kurt crouches down to help. It seems it's more him needing to do something with his hands than honestly wanting to help, though. They light a dosen or so white candles and place them on the floor in a half sircle. Blaine has set a white fabric on the wall and flowing on the floor to create a backround with no lines. Then he takes a round candle holder made of class. It's tinted white, with small holes around it to let tiny rays of light come out. He lights one more candle, puts it in and offers the ball to Kurt.

He positions Kurt in the middle of the circle of candles, sitting cross-legged and staring in the candle holder like it's a crystal ball. He turns the lights off in the room and all that is left is Kurt lighted by the soft, yellow glow of the candles around him, his face lit with the small rays from the glowing ball.

And suddenly everything changes in Kurt. It's as if all the tension, worry and unease just flies away with the fluorescent lights, and all that is left is Snow White, the boy who does not truly exist to anyone else but himself, the boy who forgets he is part of the world and flows in his own ethereal form. Blaine is almost afraid to take pictures, lest he disturbs the peace surrounding Kurt, but Kurt doesn't seem to notice the clicks of the camera or Blaine slowly moving around him. It's almost as if Kurt really can see the future in the ball in his hands. It's perfect, and when it's all over and Kurt comes back, he is smiling freely at Blaine and looking like someone freed him from a cage he didn't know he was in. It doesn't last long, but it is still there when he takes his notebook and determinedly strikes through the dream in his book.

011 - Confusions

Kurt hasn't yet told Rachel about Blaine or the project he is starting with him. To him Blaine is like a precious, wonderful dream, and he's afraid that if he shares it, it will somehow prove to be just that - only a dream. It's hard for him to convince himself that this is really happening, that yesterday in the studio actually happened. He traces the line over the words in his notebook with a finger and tries to wrap his head around everything. It has all been so sudden.

Kurt is still a bit afraid, but he is starting to trust Blaine a bit more, especially after he got a few photos from yesterday's shoot attached to an email just an hour ago. The message said the photos are not finished yet, but to Kurt they are already wonderful. Not so much because he likes to look at himself but because they represent his mother's love for him, in a strange way, and his own thoughts and dreams being noticed. Even though it's just a silly thing he wrote with a red felt-tip pen when he was eight, it is still something that he did not believe would ever happen.

He considers crossing the wanting to be a model dream as well, but he decides against it. He thinks, maybe he will wait until the project is over. He doesn't want to make this end before it has even begun. He is still pretty convinced that Blaine will eventually realise this is not the project he wants to be doing - that Kurt is not the person he wants to do it with - but he wants to ride this dream for as long as it lasts. He owes it to his mother. And, he guesses, to himself as well. He thinks how his father used to tell him, that even the blackest clouds have silver linings. Sometimes he feels like there are nothing but black clouds in his life, but when things like this happen, he can see what his dad meant.

This is when he gets a text from Blaine, asking him out for coffee the next morning. The point Blaine makes in the message is that it's Saturday tomorrow, so a late morning coffee would be a great way to start the day. He doesn't mention anything about the project, but Kurt assumes it's something about the second photoshoot. Why else would Blaine ask him there? He doesn't really understand why Blaine thinks he is the perfect model for his project, but it still makes more sense than Blaine just randomly wanting to hang out with Kurt.

Kurt gets to the shop early again, but this time Blaine has beaten him there, and waits him with a sunny smile and a steaming cup of coffee. Kurt feels a jolt of happiness in his stomach. That smile was directed to him.

"Hi, how ya doin'?" Blaine asks him with a grin. It sets him off a little, he just doesn't know how to do small talk, or jokes, or teenage talk.. or any friendly and social talk really. He's awkward. The realisation makes his own smile fade a little.

"Hi," he says, somewhat lamely, and sits down. He takes the coffee Blaine offers him thankfully, because it gives him a reason not to look at Blaine. Sometimes moments like this just whack him with the knowledge how much less he is than some other people around him - like Blaine for example.

He sees Blaine frown a little but his smile is back on before Kurt can pay too much attention to it. "Did you sleep well?" he asks and Kurt can't help but think that his smile is a bit too wide for a morning, even if it is a Saturday.

They speak of some casual things and Blaine doesn't seem to be in any hurry to discuss the project. Kurt starts to feel a bit confused and finally mentions it himself.

"Uhm, so, did you want to speak about the next photo shoot today?" Kurt asks, and stares at a faded stain in the table. When he looks up, Blaine looks mildly confused as well.

"Oh, did you want to talk about it?" Blaine asks, tilting his head to the side a little.

Kurt is pretty sure the same kind of confusion is showing on both of their faces. "I just - well, I just thought you wanted to meet me to discuss it." For some reason, Kurt blushes a little. Fricking awkward, he thinks to himself. He is desperately aware that even the tiniest blushes always show on his pale face.

"Oh." Blaine says and thinks about something for a while, with a slight frown. "No, I just thought we could meet, have some coffee and talk. You know, get to know each other." The last part is offered with a - is that hopeful? - smile.

This definitely makes Kurt blush. Not because he is touched or embarrassed or any of the usual reasons, but simply because it takes him completely by surprise. He does remember Blaine saying that he wants to get to know Kurt, regardless of the project, but Kurt did not really register it before as more than empty politeness. He is dimly aware of something in his head saying that he should be scared, because this is shaky territory for Kurt, but mostly he feels mild shock and approaching happiness.

He looks at Blaine, gorgeous, well-dressed, smart Blaine who is smiling at him - and feels his heartbeat quicken just a little. He thinks, maybe, just maybe, he could like Blaine. And maybe - admittedly this is a very small chance, but still - maybe Blaine could be a person who likes Kurt back. Maybe Blaine could be the silver that makes all the clouds in Kurt's life beautiful. When they say byes in front of the coffee shop an hour later and Blaine hugs Kurt tightly without any hesitation, Kurt's heart flutters pleasantly. Something unbearably light and bubbly is crawling its way into his stomach.

012 - Doing it wrong

"Shit FUCK!" Blaine shouts when he accidentally knocks down Zach's almost full shower gel bottle from the bathroom sink so hard that it breaks down on the floor and spills its contents absolutely everywhere. It's Axe and it has an axe-esque super strong smell that is only good in small doses, not when the whole bottle is emptied on the floor in a small, closed room. Blaine is not even sure how it is physically possible for it to get into so many places, but the plastic bottle broke in half as it hit the wall and jumped from there to the floor, and as a result the strongly smelling goo is now covering the small bathroom rug and the whole of the shower floor.

This is really not what Blaine needed, because he is already going to be late from meeting Kurt and he still has to get his hair gelled. He finds an old t-shirt that they use as a rag and starts to clean the goo off the floor, because no matter what he can't leave it there or their whole room will smell of it for weeks. The small rug is a harder case to solve, but finally he just ends up wiping most of the Axe off with a paper towel and then putting it in a plastic bag to wash (or throw away) later. It's not perfect and Zach will probably be very displeased at the way Blaine handled the mess, but he just doesn't have time to do more, because Kurt is waiting him and it's already 11:57 and they were supposed to meet for lunch at twelve and his hair is still completely gel-free and fuck.

He finally decides to just put some careless stripes of gel to get his curls tamed just a little bit and wear a hat. It's not like his outfit was ever going to be as perfect as Kurt's always are anyway. The Axe smell clings to his hands but he just has no time do anything about it. He's in a rush and in a foul mood but he can't help smiling when he realises he doesn't actually instantly remember how many times he has met with Kurt before this. This is new because he used to be counting. It's been almost three weeks since the first photo shoot. They have done one more shoot during this time (21. I want to be the president of the USA) and they are currently planning a couple of other ones. They have also met for coffee or lunch or just hanging out several times during these weeks and they have learned a lot more about each other.

While he half-runs towards the cafeteria they planned to meet in, Blaine thinks how much Kurt has already opened up to him, even though he still is very firmly hiding behind his wall. Blaine has seen peeks of Kurt behind it and every now and then he can't help but notice that Kurt is blushing more, laughing more at Blaine's jokes, speaking more and - most importantly - watching him from the corner of his eye somewhat yearningly when he thinks Blaine doesn't notice. It's all so very small that he is not sure if he has just been imagining it all, but he really hopes he's not, because it's very flattering and also something Blaine has been doing as well.

Blaine hasn't been quite his touchy-feely self with Kurt, which means that he has tried very hard not to hug him or otherwise touch him every time he wants. He knows Kurt is not a physical person and is very reserved with people in general, so Blaine wants to respect that. But, because he is Blaine, it's very hard to resist, and he ends up touching Kurt a lot anyway. It's not even that he wants to touch Kurt, specifically, he just is that kind of person who needs physical connection with people he likes and is spending time with. At first Kurt used to cringe or recoil from him every time Blaine touched or came too near to him unexpectedly, but lately it seems as if he has gotten used to it and maybe has even started to expect it. Which, naturally, makes Blaine very happy and hopeful for the future.

Now Blaine can see Kurt standing in front of the cafeteria, looking the other way. He doesn't seem to have noticed Blaine, so he just slows down and nears him quietly, wanting to surprise him. He wants to see how close he can get to Kurt before he realises him. The afternoon crowd around them makes it much easier to get close without being seen or heard so now Blaine is just a meter away from Kurt, who is still very much unaware of Blaine's presence. This is too delicious a chance for Blaine to pass, so even knowing Kurt and his reservations he desides to put his hands over Kurt's eyes and shout "Guess who it is!" in his ear, cheerfully.

He expected Kurt jumping and shouting out in surprise. He expected Kurt tearing his hands away and turning around, as well. What he didn't expect was Kurt hitting him in the chest, a few increasingly weak strikes, with unseeing eyes and then backing slowly away from him, repeating no and don't and please over and over again. And now Kurt is leaning heavily against the wall of the building, eyes closed and body shaking, silent but barely just holding the words in. What the hell did just happen?