Second Skin

"Kurt? Are you okay in there?" Blaine asks, conscious of the changing room attendant eyeing him sideways. "You've been in there for half an hour, did something go wrong?"

"I need help," Kurt whispers, and it almost sounds like he's crying. "Is anyone watching?"

"No, it's empty out here, Mercedes and Tina went for burgers," Blaine says, choosing to ignore the attendant now giving him a glare.

"Can you come in here?" Blaine darts a glance around to make sure no one will walk in and pulls the curtain aside to join his boyfriend.

"What's wrong, sweetie? Are you hurt?"

"It's really embarrassing, do you promise not to laugh?" Kurt asks, and now that he looks up Blaine sees that there are tears in his eyes. He nods once and Kurt sighs heavily before whispering, "I'm stuck in these jeans."

Blaine doesn't laugh, doesn't even feel the urge to, because this is the sort of thing that matters to his boyfriend. "I could've told you they'd be too small for you, sweetie," he says, eyeing the denim clinging to Kurt's legs and hips like a second skin. "You shouldn't always listen to Tina telling you tight is good."

"Please don't just tell me you told me so, help me get these off!" Kurt exclaims, nearly in tears. Blaine presses a gentle kiss to his forehead.

"The shirt looks great on you, by the way," he says softly. "Sit down, okay. I have to do this for my sister and it'll be easier if I pull them off your feet first."

"Your sister makes you take her shopping for skinny jeans?" Kurt asks, sitting down on the little bench as Blaine kneels down to start picking at the material tight around his ankles, trying to loosen it a little.

"And dresses she has to be laced into," Blaine explains, finally wriggling one finger under the denim. "Cooper always refuses so I get lumped with her constant questioning of 'Should I go a shade darker with this top?' and 'Is this skirt too short?'"

"So when I ask you if the shirts I pick are too tight over my shoulders or if the jeans are too loose you're being lumped with my fashion crisis?" Kurt asks, seeming offended.

"No, I like helping you because you're not my annoying little sister," Blaine says, picking at the denim and trying not to injure Kurt with how closely it's clinging to his skin. "I get to appreciate the results."

Kurt giggles slightly and blushes in pleasure, falling silent as Blaine works, occasionally wiggling a little on the tiny bench to help Blaine in his endeavour. They've only been dating a few months and they're still learning to trust each other with everything, with their bodies and with their minds and with their hearts and still loving being able to hold hands across the table, hug in public and kiss goodnight at the end of a long day. They haven't made many forays into physical affection beyond making out, and the memory of lying horizontal on the wonderfully squashy sofa in Blaine's living room when his parents were out, exchanging long kisses until their lips were sore still makes skin heat and heats speed up. Their relationship is still rife with awkward moments, most recently while hanging out in Santana's back yard during a barbecue by the pool when Rachel coerced them into a competition with her and Tina of 'Who can stay sitting on their boyfriend's shoulders longest?' They're still moving painfully slowly after the steamiest first kiss in existence and Blaine has to push away his teenage libido at thinking of everything he could do down here, actively taking Kurt's clothes off with his permission, because when they eventually get to that stage he wants it to be perfect and beautiful and romantic for Kurt, and it wouldn't be any of those things in a dressing room in public when Kurt's friends are going to be coming back for them soon enough.

"There you go, sweetie," Blaine says, carefully pulling the jeans off Kurt's legs and folding them over his arm. "You're free. Don't buy those."

"Of course not, I'm not stupid," Kurt says, breathing out gratefully and grabbing his own jeans, tugging them on quickly before Blaine gets distracted looking at him. "Should I buy the shirt?"

"Definitely, you look amazing in red," Blaine says without thinking, daydreaming of the night at Rachel's, before everything went pear-shaped, when Kurt had looked so amazing in that shirt that Blaine hopes constantly he will wear again.

"Oh, stop it, you're making me blush," Kurt laughs, pushing him away. "You better get out before people start wondering what we're doing in here. I need to get changed, buy these shirts and then we'll go find Tina and Mercedes. I'm starving, shopping trips really take it out of you."

"Okay, sweetie, I'll go find out where those horrible jeans go and put them back," Blaine says, smiling and pecking Kurt's cheek before he turns, pulling the curtain outside and going to hide the jeans that made his boyfriend cry deep within the bowels of the store so no one will ever buy them and they will lie lonely and limp on the shelf forever.