You say you want
Diamonds on a ring of gold
You say you want
Your story to remain untold

All I Want is You by U2

The thing about this song is that I really feel like this is how you feel about me. And it’s how I feel about you.

I would give you anything Kurt, anything you needed. Things you would never in a million years ask for, I would give you without a blink of an eye. I would give you a kidney. I would give you both kidneys. Though you would never let me do that.

I love you Kurt and you’re all I want.

~~~~~

Blaine trudges through the second week of March. There’s one day where the weather’s warm enough to start the majority of the snow melting, but then the next day there’s an ice storm that turns the sidewalks into a series of treacherous ice luges. But that’s how March in New York is sometimes.

He makes his way from class to speech therapy, to work. Lather, rinse, repeat. His adult intensive class doesn’t start until the week after spring break. It’s good timing, he would hate to miss the first week. He’s not sure if he’s dreading it or looking forward to it, but he’s definitely hopeful about the endeavor in general. Chad claims that it was one of the best things he ever did for his speech.

Spring break is the following week, so at least he has that to look forward to. And open mic night is the night before he leaves for his road trip to Ohio with Matt and Puck. They’re going to spend Saturday night at Kurt’s house (which Blaine is fully expecting to be weird) and then Sunday the three of them plus Finn, and maybe Sam, are going to a casino in Canada for a couple nights. Should be an interesting spring break to say the least. Not like Kurt’s week in Italy, but interesting just the same.

On Friday night, everyone heads to the coffee place. Rachel’s working the counter. Kerry, Puck and Tina sit at a table in the middle. And he and Matt give it their all to the almost packed coffee house.

He and Matt haven’t done a lot of performing this semester and it never fails to flood Blaine with a feeling of success. This week is no different. They play their old stand-bys, a lot of top 40, a little medley of their favorite tunes they made up and finish it all with Angry Young Man because it’s become one of Matt’s favorite to play on the guitar. Blaine thinks it’s a ridiculous song for the guitar because half the fun is in the Prelude part, but there’s no talking Matt out of some things.

When they end their set, Matt runs to the bathroom and Blaine starts packing up. He can’t wait to tell Kurt about how well it went. In fact, he really wishes Kurt could have seen it, because he knows he’s never felt that confident in front of a crowd before. Kurt would be proud of him. Maybe next time he’ll get someone to record the set, so Kurt can see how much he’s improved.

While he was playing, he was completely in the zone and didn’t even notice a guy in the crowd who couldn’t take his eyes off of Blaine. And while he’s cleaning up their gear, Blaine doesn’t notice as the same guy approaches him.

“Hey,” an unfamiliar voice says from above Blaine. He’s crouched down, snapping a guitar case shut.

Blaine stands up quickly and takes a step back. He didn’t realize how close the other person was. The guy is smiling brightly and looks friendly, but being taken by surprise never bodes well for Blaine.

“Um, hi,” Blaine says awkwardly, glancing away, but then darting his eyes back, trying to figure out if he knows this person, or if he’s supposed to know this person. He doesn’t remember ever meeting him, but that’s not rare for Blaine. Sometimes it’s like his anxiety about meeting new people practically gives him amnesia.

The guy smiles, a bit uncomfortably. “I, uh, I’ve heard you play a bunch of times and I just wanted to say that I think you guys sound great.”

Blaine blushes. “Thank you.”

“And I’ve seen you here with your boyfriend, but I’ve noticed he’s not around lately, so I figured I’d get up the nerve to come talk to you this time. Just to say... hi or whatever. And tell you that I like how you play.” He says all this in a rush and Blaine is shocked, stunned.

“Oh. Um. He’s uh, abroad this ss-ss-semester. Paris.”

The other guy looks down. “Ah ok. Yeah, that makes sense.”

Blaine bobs his head.

“Well, anyway. I’m Justin.” He puts his hand out to shake.

Blaine shakes Justin’s hand and clears his throat. “I-I-I stuh-stuh-stutter, so just...” He holds up his finger asking Justin to wait one minute. “Bah-bah-bah-Blaine.”

“It’s nice to meet you Blaine,” Justin says, seemingly unphased by Blaine’s speech.

“You too.”

“Anyway, I guess, um. I figured I’d say hi, since I see you a lot, but. Whatever.” Justin shrugs.

Blaine’s not entirely sure what Justin wants from him, but he feels like he needs to state something for the record.

“My. My, mmmmm...” Blaine stops his block and starts a different sentence. “Kurt and I-I-I are ss-ss-still together. While he’s away.” Blaine is finding his speech pretty much miraculous at the moment. He never sounds this good talking to strangers.

“That’s cool, doing the long distance thing.” Justin looks around like he doesn’t know what else to say.

“Well, I think... I’m gonna...” Justin makes a thumb hooking gesture towards the door. “Maybe I’ll see you around, sometime.”

Blaine smiles and waves, and Justin waves back.

It’s only as Justin’s walking away that Blaine notices the dark red blush that had spread across the other boy’s neck.

~~~~~

Everyone goes back to not-Kurt’s apartment after open mic night. They pick up massive amounts of Chinese food on the way.

Blaine’s sitting on the kitchen counter, going to town on pint of shrimp mei fun, humming under his breath, when Tina asks him a question.

“Who was that guy you were talking to Blaine?” she asks.

“What guy?” Blaine asks. It takes him a minute to remember that he even talked to a guy that night.

“The cute guy that came up to you at the end? Do you know him from class or something?” Kerry interjects.

“Oh, Justin. No, I’d nah-never ss-ss-seen him bb-bb-bb-before. He wah-wah-wanted to ssssay that he thought Matt and I sss-sss-sounded great.”

“Huh,” Matt pipes up from his spot by the kitchen island. “That was awfully nice of the random stranger. Did he also ask to have your babies?”

Blaine shoots him a “what the fuck” look.

“You know, when he was hitting on you,” Matt says, knowingly.

Blaine blushes. “He wah-wasn’t hitting on mmmm-me.”

“What else did he say?” Rachel asks.

Blaine suddenly feels all five pairs of eyes on him and shrinks back a bit. “I-I-I-I don’t know. Nothing rr-rr-really.” He hangs his head and stares into his Chinese food container, feeling awfully shy in room full of people staring at him.

“Nothing... really?” Tina prods gently, but she’s curious nonetheless.

“Fine.” Blaine sighs and looks up, noticing that while all eyes are on him, they all look friendly, interested. Kind. They want him to talk. Even though he still feels uncomfortable, his confidence is bolstered by their interest.. “Um. That he’s ss-seen mmmmme at the coffee place and w-w-w-with Kurt and he hasn’t sss-seen Kurt around lately, so he finally got up the nnn-nnn-nerve to come talk to mm-me.” Blaine rubs at the back of his neck self consciously.

“Holy shit, dude!” Puck says. “He was totally fucking hit on you!”

“What did you say to him?” Kerry asks.

“Nothing. Just that, that, that Kurt’s away and then he told mmm-me his nay-nay-name and I-I-I told him mmm-my name and I dunno. He said he’d ss-ss-see m-m-m-m-me around.”

“You told him your name?” Rachel wiggles her eyebrows teasingly.

Blaine shrugs. “Yeah.” And then he turns to Kerry, “Wait, you ss-ss-said he wah-was cute?”

“Yeah, he was definitely cute.”

“He wwww-was bah-bah-blushing,” Blaine says and then starts blushing again himself.

“Did you stutter?” Matt asks.

“Obviously,” Blaine answers. “Buh-uh-ut I told him I-I-I-I ss-ss-stuh-stutter, so that helped.”

“I can’t believe someone hit on you,” Kerry says excitedly. Then her face drops a bit. “Are you going to tell Kurt?”

Blaine hadn’t even really considered it. Did he have to tell Kurt? Would Kurt be mad at him? It’s not like Blaine could control who talks to him and who doesn’t. Would Kurt be jealous? Did he kind of want Kurt to be jealous? No, Blaine tells himself firmly. He doesn’t want to play games.

“I-I-I-I guess I will. I dah-don’t ww-ww-want him to be m-m-m-mad. Do you think he’ll be mmm-mad at me?”

This question gets a different response from everyone.

Rachel makes a pensive face and brings a finger to her lips in thought.

Tina shakes her head.

Matt shrugs.

Puck scratches his head, “Fucked if I know!”

And Kerry, ever kind and sweet Kerry, comes over next Blaine and puts a hand on his arm. “Why would he be mad? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Kerry’s right. Blaine promises himself that he’ll go home and write Kurt an email though, because he needs to get the encounter off his conscience.

~~~~~

To: Kurt, From: Blaine
Date: Fri, Mar 13, 11:38 pm
Subject: Um. So that happened.

Ok, so tonight at open mic night, a guy came up to me and said that he liked how Matt and I play and that he’s seen me around and stuff.

And I talked to him for like 30 seconds and I told him I had a boyfriend or whatever, because he brought you up. Apparently he’s seen us around. But anyway, now everyone (Matt, Kerry, Puck, Rachel, Tina) is saying that he was hitting on me.

And I felt like I needed to tell you. Clear my conscience. I mean, it’s not like I lead him on or something, I could hardly talk of course. But I just wanted you to know. Please don’t be jealous or mad at me or anything.

Also, it kind of made me wonder. That night you told me you liked the set with Matt, were you hitting on me?

I love youuuuuuu!

~~~~~

To: Blaine, From: Kurt
Date: Sat, Mar 14, 11:47 am
Subject: re: Um. So that happened.

HOLY SHIT! I can’t believe you got hit on!

Is it weird that I feel proud of you for actually talking to the guy *this* time? Because even if I wasn’t necessarily as blatant about it with you, I was sort of … pre-hitting on you. I didn’t know if you were gay or not and I really did want to let you know that I liked your music, but I think I would have been hitting on you if I knew for sure you were gay. I thought you were absolutely adorable and talented. And of course I immediately noticed you had a nice ass.

So, I’m sticking with the idea that I was pre-hitting on you.

And since that guy had seen you with me, he knew you were gay (or at least bi, I guess) and therefore he was TOTALLY hitting on you.

I’m not jealous or mad, I promise.

Love you too, poop!

~~~~~

To: Kurt, From: Blaine
Date: Sat, Mar 14, 8:01 am
Subject: re: Um. So that happened.

I hate that I’m awake right now, but I’m leaving with Puck and Matt for Ohio in a little while and I still haven’t packed.

I was worried and I just really had to tell you. Thank you for not being mad. And thank you for being the first person to ever sort of hit on me.

I have to admit, I was also sort of proud of myself for at least being able to, like, say words. Baby steps, ya know? When I ran into you that night by the bathroom and you were being so nice, I just kept thinking “Say words!” And then I was like “But what words!?!?” And then I didn’t even smile. Oh, well. At least fate brought us together via the internet.

Have fun in Italy!!