“So Kurt,” Nick said, almost appearing timid.

“Yes Nick?” Kurt asked back in the same tone, raising a questioning eyebrow across the library table at his friend. 

“Have you slept with Blaine?”

“What?” Kurt was not proud of the shriek that escaped his mouth, eyes darting around in search of the no doubt angry librarian.  

“We’re just wondering,” Jeff said. “Because he hasn’t really been sleeping around lately, and everyone knows he’s interested in you.”

“Well it’s great to see that you have so much faith in me,” Kurt turned back to his notes, really wanting to bring the conversation to a close as fast as possible. “And no, I haven’t. He is an ass, and really not my type.”

“Oh please,” Jeff snorted. “He’s everyone’s type…sort of…” He trailed off at the look Nick was giving him.

“Not mine!” Kurt said defiantly, silently daring his friends to push him further. He did not want to talk about it.

---

Kurt was walking aimlessly around the school halls during a free class (something he had taken to doing whenever he had the chance as a way to get used to the place that was now his home) when his phone rang, the vibration in his pocket startling him out of his thoughts and halting his movements.

A grin took over his face when he read the caller ID. “Mercedes!”

“Alright boy, spill.”

Kurt laughed at her enthusiasm. “What am I spilling?”

“Everything! How are you? How are you settling in? Have you found yourself a hot private school boy yet? Need I go on?”

“Oh how I have missed you…”

“No, but seriously, Boo, are they treating you well over there at Hogwarts?”

“Everything is fine, Mercedes.” Kurt assured her, starting to slowly walk down the corridor again. “No slushie facials or locker slams or dumpster dives. There’s no you either though so the jury is still out on whether I actually love it here.”

“But you like it?”

“I really do. I’ve made some good friends, and my roommate is nice and quiet. The work actually requires me to use my brain as well.”

“Now where is the fun in that?” Mercedes laughed and Kurt smiled at how easy it was, talking to his friend like this, and how content it made him feel. He was already missing the New Directions, but there was no way he was going back to that hellhole of bullying any time soon.

“So how are you?” He asked. “How is everyone? Did you find a replacement for me for sectionals yet?" 

Kurt meandered along, laughing at the stories of his friends, Puck and his adventures with Miss Lauren Zises and Rachel’s usual antics, happy to hear what was going on with everyone at home. He had spoken to his Dad every couple of nights, and Finn had shouted hello in the background one or twice. But apart from that, and quick texts between classes, he had been too busy with homework and the Warblers to actually call his girls and have a good catch up. He’d be going home for the weekend though, so that was exciting. 

The sound of a familiar voice and the tinkering of fingers flying across a piano broke through their conversation and he recognized a soft melody coming from inside one of the music practice rooms that he had been walking by. 

“Cedes,” he interrupted her. “I’m really sorry, boo, but can I call you back tonight?”

“Of course, what’s going on?”

“Something’s come up, I’ll fill you in later. Love you.”

“Love you too, Kurt.”

Quickly disconnecting the call, he crept to the door closest to him, which stood slightly ajar, allowing the sound of a familiar song to drift through.

It was a Beatles song, Kurt realized, as he stepped closer, placing a hand on the door gently. It was being played softer than the original, but he would recognize their music no matter how it was being played – the Beatles had been his Mom’s favourite band, and since she had passed away, he always listened to their music whenever he was feeling down, or just wanted to be reminded of her sweet voice flittering through the house as she went about her day.

Not wanting to be noticed, Kurt moved silently, slowly pushing the door open and thanking the heavens he didn’t believe in for janitors that made sure none of the doors in the school squeaked. To say he was a little shocked to find Blaine, eyes closed, fingers moving over the keys of the piano with ease, was an understatement. He had had his suspicions, had recognized the voice of the singer when he was on the phone with Mercedes, but he couldn’t quite believe that Blaine could look so…peaceful. There was no frown on his face, no smirk, just a boy singing a slow and clearly heartfelt version of ‘Misery’ by one of Kurt’s favourite bands.

For some reason, the whole situation sent a shiver of curiosity down Kurt’s spine, and he had to hurry from the room when he realized that Blaine was playing the last notes and would no doubt open his eyes and see him standing there like some kind of fish, his mouth hanging open stupidly.

After seeing Blaine so innocently putting his all into that song for no one but himself, Kurt was in a bit of a daze. It bothered him to no end that he couldn’t help but be so interested in Blaine, what made him the way he was, how he could be so crass and horrible one day and then have this hidden softness when he thought no one was looking.

He somehow made it through his last classes of the day, and was slowly making his way back to his dorm via a couple of hallways that he knew to usually be empty, when Blaine was all of a sudden right there in front oh him, Kurt so distracted that he didn’t notice till the last moment.

“Hummel,” Blaine said. “The innocent act is kind of sexy, but I’m over it now.”

Before Kurt could even process what he had said, there was a pair of soft lips pressed firmly against his own, an arm by his head crowding him up against the wall and a hand gripping his hip, holding him close. And then he was kissing back, threading his arm around Blaine’s waist to bring him even closer as they moved their lips together. Kurt let out a soft moan, surprising them both, when Blaine nibbled lightly on his bottom lip, trailing his own lips along Kurt’s jaw to suck at the spot just below his ear, sending shivers straight through him.

Kurt’s head was spinning and he couldn’t explain it, but he just needed Blaine’s mouth back on his own. He turned his head and then they were kissing sweetly, the slow gentle pace of their tongue’s gliding together a sharp contrast to seconds earlier and to the harsh feeling of their bodies up against the wall. The slide of their legs brought Kurt crash landing into reality when he felt the aching evidence of what was happening, pressing into his thigh.

He pulled away quickly, eyes wide to take in Blaine’s disheveled appearance, flushed cheeks, swollen lips and damn him, red really was his colour. 

“Stop,” Kurt blurted out, watching Blaine’s eyes darken.

“Come on babe,” Blaine’s usual smirk was back, and he cocked his head to the side, hand holding him against the wall, as he glanced down at Kurt’s crotch. “It’s time to admit how much you want me, which there is really no use denying.”

And just like that the moment was gone and Kurt was back to wanting to slap the smug bastard.

“You don’t get told ‘no’ very often, do you?” He pushed the boy away from him. “You have some issues, Blaine. And I am not interested until you figure all of this out.”

Walking away, Kurt touched a hand to his own kiss-swollen lips, a tear in his eye as his mind raced. He’d only been kissed once before. That too had been a surprise, and the scariest moment of his life. But Kurt had decided it didn’t count as his “first kiss”.

He wanted to be angry with Blaine for taking that moment again, because surely this counted – Kurt had kissed back, he had enjoyed it. He wanted to be angry, but Blaine was nothing like Dave Karofsky. Blaine was spoiled, arrogant, demanding and rude, but he wasn’t dangerous, Kurt was sure. And the way he had kissed him had turned so innocent and sweet; there had been feelings there. Or at least, it had seemed that way.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, Kurt hurried to his dorm, eager to not let what had just happened ever occur again. His feelings for Blaine were so complicated and impossible to decipher. He had been through too much this year to get wrapped up in something so difficult, someone with the potential to hurt him so badly.

The worst part was that the rest of the school had cottoned on to the fact that something was happening, or rather something wasn’t happening, between the hot soloist of the Warblers and their newest recruit. Blaine was storming around the school with more force than usual, spending more money on lavish items for himself (rumor was that he had started paying his teachers so he didn’t have to hand in his assignments anymore), snarling at everyone, and as was scandalously whispered in the halls, turning people down when they turned up at his room for sex. 

The Warbler’s council all approached Kurt over the next couple of days, each with their variation of a “what have you done to our soloist” speech.  “He is so damn sexually frustrated,” they would all say, looking at Kurt pointedly and causing him to blush to the tips of his ears. 

And Blaine still wasn’t giving up. A couple of days after the kiss, he had merely asked Kurt in passing, “go out with me” and hadn’t even said a word at the simple “no” he received in reply, simply scowling as he had walked away. 

Kurt was hoping to be able to get away from the topic of conversation when he went for coffee with Nick and Jeff after classes that day. He should have known that he wouldn’t be so lucky.

“Maybe you should just go out with him,” Jeff suggested quietly, taking a sip of his hot chocolate.

“I’ve known him for years, Kurt,” Nick added with a nod. “And I haven’t seen him like this in a very long time.”

And just like that, they had Kurt’s interest. “Like what?” He said.

“Angry, dejected, lost,” Nick said offhandedly. “A myriad of other non-Blaine-like characteristics.” 

Kurt took a second to think over what they were saying, of what he had observed of Blaine since they had met. 

“Well, I’m still not interested.” Kurt attempted to sound sure of himself, but by the way Nick and Jeff were sharing another of their ‘we’re a couple, we can communicate without talking, and we don’t believe you’ side-glances, he wasn’t really convincing anyone.