The Coffee Break
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Aug. 6, 2011, 7:22 p.m.


The Actor & The Musician

The Coffee Break: Chapter XIV


K - Words: 1,220 - Last Updated: Aug 06, 2011
Story: Complete - Chapters: 15/15 - Created: Aug 06, 2011 - Updated: Aug 06, 2011
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In the past, Kurt was probably a lot more welcoming to people. As a child, he’d been the little boy who’d play with anyone, hold hands with everyone and hug them too. In fact, he’d always been comforted by contact with people until it was completely used against him. After being attacked as many times as he had been, he was a little more weary of people in his personal bubble than he normally would have been and regularly found some way to subtly move a little further away. Despite feeling rather comfortable with Blaine, which slightly unnerved him a little, he still felt a little weary; coupling this with the confusion he had over the musician, Kurt couldn’t help but keep a little space between them. It wasn’t that he meant anything by it, because he usually did it without even realizing. “Exactly,” Kurt gave a light chuckle before settling into a more serious expression and sighing lightly, his hands creeping up his arms to his shoulders defensively and glanced down to the table. “I’ve ended up in hospital twice because of high school parties, so I just tend to avoid them.” He cleared his throat after releasing a shaky breath, holding himself together momentarily to channel his inner actor to put up a strong front with a decently practiced smile. He raised his eyebrows as he released his grip on his shoulders, caressing his elbows instead as they rested on his thighs. “Oh, I’m sorry…” He tried desperately to keep his sympathetic look, really tried, but that smile was impossible to return. His eyes fell on Blaine’s hair, noting how adorable he actually looked at that moment before reminding himself that he’d known him for an incredibly short time and they were just friends, it wasn’t going anywhere else. “Well, I’d love to go with you. But you do realize I’m going to end up dragging you to more than just Wicked, right?”

Kurt let out a long breath, a little dramatically before nodding at Blaine with a little laugh. “Well, thank you, for the… fiftieth time today.” He rubbed the back of his neck. Honestly, Kurt wasn’t quite used to this level of compliment. For the past few years he’d dealt with ‘good’ and ‘okay’ as his received compliments so it was a little difficult to fully accept Blaine’s compliments. “You’ve got to be lying there, I’m sure you get amazing compliments daily.” His lips broke into a small sigh at the sound of the piano, glancing over to Blaine’s fingers and pulling his own away and placing them in his lap. Kurt pushed his lips together, biting his lower lip and looking away from the musician momentarily. “I haven’t played for twelve years…” He muttered sadly, brushing down his jumper to compose himself. “I still think I need a bit more time before I do again.” He gave a light shrug, glancing sideways at Blaine through his eyelashes with his eyes downcast.


Blaine tried to read the expression on Kurt’s face, he really did, but the man was so well-trained at keeping his emotions to himself that it was hard to tell what was going on in the head of his. He didn’t want to pry, but he had a feeling of wanting to protect the individual across the table from him, even if he didn’t know him all that well, or at all really for that matter. At his response Blaine opened his mouth, but decided he’d better think about what he said next. He was curious for sure, but he wasn’t going to ask unless Kurt wanted to explain…and according to the actor’s body positioning he could tell that was the last thing he wanted to do. Blaine chewed on his lip for a moment before he leaned further against the table and uncrossed his arms. Moving his hands across the wooden surface he placed them on the very edge near Kurt, his eyes staying on his face though he wasn’t looking back, “I’m sorry for whatever you went through, really. I…don’t want to sound cliche and say I know how you feel…but to some extent I feel somewhere deep down as though I do. And like I said, I’m really, truly sorry. But, if I may…” he paused for a moment as if he were wondering whether he should go on, thinking that it may be a little too much for just having met Kurt, “…whatever you went through, it clearly made you into this amazing person sitting in front of me. And some guy is going to be lucky as all hell to be able to call you his one day, I know it,” he smiled softly, his eyes still staying on Kurt’s face before he retracted his hands to his side of the table. Blaine waved his comment away, “No need to be sorry, things happen,” he said simply, not really wanting to say much else about the matter, which is exactly why he continued on with the whole Broadway thing before the actor could get in another word, “What else would you end up ‘dragging’ me to? And I wouldn’t mind at all, I’m sure whatever you choose would be amazing to see,” he smiled kindly.

Blaine kept his eyes on the keys as he simultaneously processed what Kurt was talking about and thought of what he wanted to play on the piano, if he wanted to play anything at all. “You’re welcome,” he said simply, his eyes finally turning away from the keys for a moment to notice Kurt rubbing his neck, it was a nervous habit that he himself had done a number of occasions, though he wasn’t sure why it would make the actor even slightly timid. Blaine smiled lightly and shook his head, “I’ve gotten a couple compliments, but I usually just keep my music to myself except for when I play here and at concerts,” he shrugged his shoulders and returned to looking at the keys, “It doesn’t bother me though, I’m not much of an attention seeker with my music, I just enjoy playing and performing it.” When he heard the tone change in Kurt’s voice he felt hesitant to look over at him, he could almost feel the pain and sadness in it…though once again he didn’t know why. But finally he let his eyes wander towards the man sitting beside him, noting the way he bit his lip and turned to look away from him to probably collect himself for whatever reason. And Blaine felt like comforting him, but he wasn’t sure how or even what he’d say. He already felt like he had pushed Kurt a little too far for one day, so this time he’d let it go…but if it happened again he wasn’t sure he’d be able to take it. “Oh…” he said quietly and turned back to the piano to close the cover ever so gently, “…I’m sorry. I can play something for you another time,” he added in an apologetic mumble of sorts. Blaine felt a gaze on him, and couldn’t bring himself to look back as he could still sense the upsetting tone emanating from Kurt, no matter how hard he tried to hide it Blaine had always had a pretty good idea of when people’s emotions changed.


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