Blaine grabbed a pillow and pressed it against his face, muffling the pained groan that escaped him as he got up from the common room sofa. He sucked in a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, not exhaling until Rachel’s voice came from the other side of the room.

“Oh, honey. What’s wrong?”

The Hufflepuff lowered the light yellow pillow from his face, clutching it against his chest and smiling forcefully at Rachel whilst biting the inside of his cheek in attempt to refrain the piercing pain in his kneecap.

“Nothing. I’m fine.” He said and swallowed, pursing his lips. With a quivering breath he shifted his weight on the left leg, the pain shooting through his entire body. This was absolutely not happening.

The brunette girl, as she happened not to be blind, didn’t buy his lousy lie one bit, sprinting across the room to him. “No, you’re not. Is it your leg?” She pressed worriedly, lying a gentle hand on his shoulder.

What was the point? If his supposedly recovered knee had decided to re-break, what was the point in hiding that?

“Uh, I-“ He straightened the knee, reaching down to rub his fingers over it. “Yeah.”

The Gryffindor frowned, grabbing the pillow from his grasp and throwing it back on the sofa. “I was going to say something to you about that, sitting on your injured leg like that-“

Typical Rachel Berry.

Blaine rolled his eyes, gently whacking her upper arm. “Right.”

“No, I swear. I’m sorry I didn’t.” She said genuinely apologetically, making him feel very bad considering he had no reason to. The girl wasn’t into acting for no reason.

“Could you just maybe walk me to the library?” He asked, feeling the girl’s arm immediately linking with his. “I really need to write a paper on goblin rebellions and I have barely started.”

With a sharp nod and a sympathetic smile from her – because she knew from experiece he would most probably fall asleep ten minutes into doing research about said goblin rebellions, they were headed to the library upstairs. He was utterly, utterly grateful that she left her quips about him needing her help to get up two stories of magical stairs he’d been climbing up for years, letting him solely focus on just how much his knee was bothering him and how much weight he could put on it without having to take too much support of Rachel and falling face forward onto the stone floor, taking her with him.

As they were getting closer to the end of the stairs and Blaine’s grunts and groans were minimal, Rachel turned to look at him. “I’m really happy for you, you know?”

“Because I managed to pick up an already recovered injury?” He asked, knowing perfectly well what the girl was actually talking about – he was really just not in the right space of mind to be thinking of that, no matter how sweet she was being about it.

“No. Because of you and Kurt.” She said, gripping on his waist unnecessarily tightly for the last few stairs. “I said that you absolutely were meant to be. I’m not wrong often, as you see.”

Blaine couldn’t help laughing at that declaration. As much as he maybe despised to admit it and boost her already big enough ego, it was true. Rachel pretty much knew everything, always, but then again he was sure it was because she was constantly consuming so many meaningless rumors about ex-quidditch players retiring because they’d been caught with enhancing their performances with non-allowed magic or something just as monumentally exciting and expanding her knowledge-in taking possibilities that way. Or then she was just a phenomenal witch that just happened to be a know-it-all. Who really knew?

They walked in through the doors of the library and were immediately greeted by Mr. Figgins, the librarian. They politely greeted him back, Blaine through slightly gritted teeth, because standing there with his leg straight wasn’t the most comfortable position he could be in. “Oh, I’m so sorry.” Rachel muttered, squeezing his shoulder quickly and helping him walk towards the tables meant for students.

“Speaking of you and Kurt” She said then, pointing to the direction of the back of the library.

Blaine turned to look in the same direction, a smile spreading on his face. Sitting there, in the far corner of the room, was Kurt; with his hair coiffed to its usual perfection with what Blaine was convinced was magic, surrounded by dozens of books and papers.

Rachel walked him over there, letting go of him just behind the Slytherin’s back. “Have fun.” She stage whispered, giving him such an exaggerated wink he couldn’t help chuckling despite his slight mortification.

Her whisper was enough to startle Kurt, making him turn towards the sound in his chair. Before he could see where it had come from, he was faced with Blaine; gorgeous, honey-colored eyes and ridiculously long lashes owning Blaine. The very same Blaine who he now knew liked him back, though still couldn’t quite believe that to be real life.

“Oh, hi.” He said, a smile taking over his features very quickly.

Blaine mouthed hi back, cocking his head towards Rachel, who was still standing there a few steps away from them with a grin on her face.

Kurt turned towards her slowly, not knowing what to expect. Seeing the Gryffindor girl standing there was a relief of sorts. “Oh, Rachel. Hi.”

She didn’t lose the grin as she waved at him and turned on his heels to head what he imagined was back to the Gryffindor common room. With her in question, you really could never be sure.

Typical, typical Rachel Berry.

Blaine shook his head, approaching the table and the seat opposite Kurt with as much grace he could muster up with his limping and bitten back grunts.

“Is it okay if I sit here?” He asked, although it kind of seemed like the silliest question in the world now. The boy was aware of his feelings and vice versa and it still felt very unrealistic – as did the fact that he needed to keep shifting slightly on the spot in order not to show any signs of his knee feeling like it was being stabbed with hundreds of tiny little needles. Kurt wasn’t stupid though – he was really sharp, and that didn’t help his uneasiness at all.

Sure enough, the Slytherin raised his brows at him quizzically. He let his gaze wander to Blaine’s knee before looking him in the eyes again. “Is your knee okay?” He asked, more quietly now, worry written all over his features.

Blaine brushed it off and sat down simply because he couldn’t stand standing anymore.

Damned be his manners.

He shook his head again, more vigorously this time, pinching his knee. “It is.”

“It is definitely not.”

“How can you say that?”

“You wouldn’t have sat down without my consent if you could actually stand.” Kurt stated simply, a gentle, knowing smile tugging at his lips.

Ducking his head, Blaine clutched his History of Magic book and stack of papers tighter on his lap. He wasn’t one to deny Kurt’s statement because it was actually true.

The charming idiot suffered for thirty extra seconds just to act like a gentleman, Kurt thought, and he couldn’t decide if he was putting more weight on the charming or the idiot part.

He scanned the library around them several times before reaching out to grab the Hufflepuff’s hand on top of the table, lightly brushing his knuckles with his thumb. “The answer is yes, though. You can sit there.” He said, equal parts amused and perfectly charmed.

Yeah, maybe the weight was falling on the charming part.

He bit his lower lip and squeezed Kurt’s hand before letting go. The library was quite quiet, not many people were around, but he wouldn’t risk someone who wasn’t supposed to see them seeing them. He didn’t fancy having Sebastian Smythe barging into the library only to witness his quidditch team star being unnecessarily friendly with a rival – a rival said Smythe was convinced the said star had sabotaged for their team’s advantage.

“Sebastian doesn’t know how to read, Blaine. I have neglected to share that with you, haven’t I? He’s not around here, ever” Kurt said as if he was reading his mind. There was no need for that, though, because after a long conversation they’d had about what was challenging about them spending more time together they’d come to the conclusion that Sebastian was probably the number one thing they would to the both of their utter frustration have to be concerned of.  

“Uh, yeah, you have.” He said, opening the History of Magic textbook from the page he’d marked as the one he’d have to start with. The dark-haired boy was just about to open his mouth to ask him what he was doing in the library, but he was much faster to change the subject.

“That is not something we should be focusing on now, though. Why’s your knee so bad again?”

It was almost as if every time it was mentioned or he thought about it that the knee stung even persistently, reminding him that it sure still was there and very much bothering him.

“Oh. Turns out sitting on your recently recovered knee isn’t the best thing you could do.” He said flatly, grabbing a pen and writing his essay topic on the top of the paper in front of him.

Kurt frowned and sighed, slipping a piece of paper between the pages of the book he was in the middle of reading before closing it. “I’m sorry.” He said so apologetically that it felt like he was apologizing for something he actually had a reason to be sorry for.

The Hufflepuff looked back up from his book and shook his head lightly. “No, no. You couldn’t have-“

“No, I know.” He replied with a nod. “But I’m still sorry. What kind of a person would want to see someone they care about hurting?”

These words felt like the most unbelievable yet natural thing that could’ve come out of the Slytherin’s mouth. He no longer needed to keep it to himself how much he really did care about Blaine and how much of his brain capacity the boy had actually taken up since he’d first seen him. The fact that he could admit his feelings to him now, over and over, was bizarre but then again - inevitable.

Blaine blinked several times, eyes fixed on the other wizard. The boy’s feelings weren’t any new revelation to him, but it not being new didn’t make it any less terrifyingly amazing.

“Right. I’m sorry that I was so inconsiderate, of course I know you, uh, care.” He stammered out, not taking his eyes off of Kurt.

The Slytherin rolled his eyes in amusement. “How about we stop apologizing for stupid things and you try and write that paper of yours?”

“Although not the loveliest task to have at hand, I know I need to, so yes.” He agreed, almost saying sorry but managing to keep himself from doing that.

“Also, I highly doubt you even have the ability to be inconsiderate.” Kurt said, sharp blue eyes suddenly so kind and admiring Blaine couldn’t help but feel like he was melting into a puddle of goo under his gaze.

“Isn’t that what happens? When you get sorted into a house certain often completely human emotional abilities just disappear? Like with Hufflepuff, everybody knows exactly where to find everything, but I’m sure there has been a point in time when some of your friends lost their shoes and couldn’t find them again.”

The badger scoffed. “So you mean like when you get sorted into Slytherin, you just forget that other people have feelings?”

“Yeah, exactly like that.” He said with a chuckle, shooting him a look that suggested him not going down this path further - again.

They spent over two hours in quite comfortable somewhat a silence, and Blaine found out that Kurt was really in the library doing something precisely as exciting as him – He was in the middle of making a presentation about the most remarkable clashes between wizards and centaurs from the last five centuries.

 They both actually wrote quite a bit of their respective papers, until Blaine looked up at the clock on the wall and realized dinner was going to be served in about a half an hour. He didn’t even need to say anything, because Kurt was already on his feet, everything packed, looking at him quizzically.

“Are we going?” He asked with a smile, offering his free hand to Blaine, causing his stomach to twist up in dozens of knots.

“Oh” The shorter boy breathed out and ducked his head in attempt to hide his very evident blush. He gathered his things and grabbed Kurt’s hand, letting him pull him up to his feet.

“Are you sure-” Blaine was starting to ask as Kurt wrapped his arm around his waist, supporting him in the very same fashion he had when he’d first gotten the injury.

“Yes, I am sure. It’s fine. Your walking struggle is obvious, so it will look like I’m just being a shockingly decent Slytherin.”

The Hufflepuff tried his absolute best not to read into the situation too much, but despite all of his attempts not to, he ended up doing just that. Yes, they had kissed, and just the reminder of that made Blaine’s heart flutter in his chest. Kurt had pretty much poured his soul out for him, telling Blaine everything Blaine himself had thought about telling Kurt many times. Rachel had also on several occasions told him that the two were definitely bound to be together, and that was it, because that's what Blaine wanted to think too. Of course he did. If after a week and a half of close contact a person could feel as familiar as Kurt did, he could only wonder what kind of a difference a month, a year would make. And he definitely had wondered, so many times he’d lost count. He had probably even actually come to thinking of the wedding invitations he’d so many times heard Sam gush about, and that was speaking the levels of what this meant to him. But he truly, truly didn't want to push it, especially considering in which position they were with only spending time together and just because of their differing houses.

Blaine was shaken back to reality by not only his knee hitting the door frame on their way out of the library, making him hiss again, but also Sebastian’s voice coming from not five feet in front of them. 

“Oh hey, Hummel.”