We'll Always Be Together
Title: We'll Always Be Together
Rating: PG-13
Part: 1 of 1 [part of the 'Dream on, Dreamer' 'verse]
Pairing: Kurt/Blaine
Word Count: 3530
Spoilers: None
Summary: Blaine Anderson hates Valentine’s Day
Blaine Anderson hates Valentine’s Day.
That is an indisputable fact.
He hates the enormous bouquet of flowers that were sitting in his kitchen before he left for school this morning, another over-the-top present from his father to his mother; he hates the stupid love songs that are playing on every radio station interspersed with cringeworthy phone-ins, the ‘Happy Valentines to my perfick ickle snugglemuffin’s’ that make him want to vomit; he hates the heart-shaped candies that are being handed out on the school steps - as if this holiday isn’t rotting his teeth enough already; he hates the stupid Glee Club assignment that stupid Mr Shue has dropped on them - Mr Schue loves Valentine’s so much that Blaine wouldn’t be surprised to find he had a tattoo of Cupid somewhere hideously inappropriate; he hates that Sugar has booked out Breadstix again because ‘last year was so totally awesome, Blaine’ [true] so ‘we should totally make it, like, a tradition’ [untrue - Blaine thinks Sugar should just quit whilst she’s ahead]; he hates that she is forcing him to attend. [He says forcing, she hasn’t actually threatened him with physical violence or anything but Sugar is nothing if not shrill and high maintenance and Blaine knows she will make his life a living hell if he doesn’t show his face and he’s pretty sure that the threat of being subjected to angry spoilt rich girl counts as coercing in anybodies book] but most of all Blaine hates that he is here and Kurt is in New York and will be in New York for ages and the best he can hope for is a Skype call later on tonight.
Blaine is grateful for Skype, on those days when he misses Kurt so badly he can barely see straight, Skype is his saviour and he is 100% convinced that if he couldn’t see Kurt’s slightly blurry face smiling at him on his iPad screen once a week there is no way he would survive this year but today, when it feels like every loved-up couple in the world has moved into Lima to make-out in the hallways of McKinley so Blaine has to fight his way through them just to get to class, today, Skype feels like a pretty poor substitute.
It’s fair to say that the whole saccharine sweet excuse for a holiday has put him a terrible mood and so he doesn’t smile at the love-themed test they’re given in French and he doesn’t smile at the ingenious way in which his maths teacher has tried to make all of the equations he’s teaching romantic in nature - Blaine thinks that’s just lame - and he doesn’t smile at all in the cafeteria at lunch time, instead he calls Santana.
[‘They’ve put pink food colouring in all the food ‘Tana. Everything is pink and shaped like love hearts. It’s like the entire school is laughing at me because I’m alone on Valentine’s Day. How is this my life.’
‘They probably are all laughing at you, and who’d blame them, but Blanderson, it’s not because of your pathetic excuse for a love life trust me.’
‘Wow. Thanks. Why are we even friends?’
‘You’re welcome sweetcheeks. I do feel your pain though and because I am the most awesome friend you’ll ever have, I have a solution. Skip class this afternoon. I have vodka, we’ll hang out in your amazingly comfortable bed and get wasted watching The Notebook.’
‘I think you’re missing the point. How is watching The Notebook going to help me in any way?’
‘It won’t but if we’re gonna be miserable we might as well do it properly, right, and the being wasted will defo help with getting through Sugar freaking Motta’s glitter fest later and that is why you are my friend……’]
Blaine doesn’t skip school because no matter how depressed he is, it’s still not his style but he doesn’t smile when he finds a Valentine in his locker and he doesn’t smile at Artie’s rapping, which is proof positive of just how miserable he is because Artie’s solos always manage to cheer him up, in fact he absolutely does not smile at all during Glee Club which is nothing short of painful and he feels awful again for the fact that he left Kurt to suffer through it last year.
Sugar thinks he smiles when she replaces his [rather dashing] yellow and black bowtie with some sort of red and pink love-heart print monstrosity but it’s actually more of a grimace and by the time Glee has finished and he’s making his way across the car park wondering just what the backlash would be if he missed Sugar’s party, he has successfully managed to not smile once all day and is so lost in his thoughts that he’s almost reached his car before he notices the figure leant against it.
He sighs, because really, he can pretty much guarantee that anybody who has to skulk around the school car park waiting for him isn’t someone that he wants to talk to and he really really isn’t in the mood right now when the figure moves, straightens up and turns to look at him and Blaine would recognise him anywhere; the graceful way in which he moves, the slight tilt to his head, the way he slips his hands into his pockets and raises his shoulders a little when he realises Blaine has seen him.
Kurt.
Blaine feels his heart speed up, his feet moving him that little bit faster across the tarmac, closing the gap.
‘Kurt.’ He breathes the word out, as though afraid that saying it out loud will break the spell and Kurt will vanish.
Kurt is all ‘Blaine, Blaine,’ and ‘I had to come,’ and ‘I wanted to surprise you’ and ‘I hate that you’re so far away’ and ‘I keep getting scared that you’re going to forget me’ and ‘what if someone came and swept you off your feet with some grand romantic Valentine’s declaration’ and ‘I wanted to make some kind of gesture but it’s hard to gesture when you live so far away’ and ‘oh my GOD Blaine, I love you so much’ and ‘I was going to turn up at Breadstix later, like last year reversed but I couldn’t wait once I got here, I just had to see you’ and ‘traffic has been a bitch’ and ‘I missed you so much’ and ‘that bow-tie is horrendous by the way, what were you thinking’ and Blaine doesn’t actually know what’s happening: Kurt’s here when he’s supposed to be in New York for another three weeks, and on top of that it’s a week night which means that he probably should have been in class today and not driving across the country and he looks wrecked and he’s talking ten to the dozen in that inimitable way that is just so Kurt and Blaine should probably be listening to what he has to say but he’s not, he can’t, because his brain seems to have lost the ability to process sounds and the only thing he is really aware of is this overwhelming need to push Kurt back against the car and just kiss the breath out of him.
So he does.
It’s probably a bit rude of him actually, because Kurt is mid-sentence and he makes a funny surprised noise against Blaine’s lips, his hands flapping a little at his sides before Blaine feels them come to rest on his hips, the tips of Kurt’s fingers pressing into the skin above the waistband of his jeans through his sweater; he’s vaguely aware that pinning your boyfriend against a vehicle before you’ve even said hello is not really socially acceptable but he makes no apologies: what the hell else was he supposed to do?
He kisses Kurt like his life depends on it; he feels like it does, he kisses him hard and desperate and fast and it takes Kurt a moment to respond because Blaine never kisses him like that, straight off the bat. Blaine is always so aware of Kurt’s feelings, of making him feel special and wanted and loved and there’s a voice in the back of his head that’s telling him to be careful, to back off, take it easy, go slow but then Kurt is kissing him back, increasing the pressure on Blaine’s hips and tugging him closer, nipping on Blaine’s lip, pushing and licking his way into Blaine’s mouth and it’s different, this kiss, all teeth and tongue, hungry and raw and Blaine is a little scared by the intensity of it. He has to force himself to pull away, reminding himself that they’re not in New York now, they’re in Ohio and he takes a small step back, dropping his hands to Kurt’s where they still rest on his hips, wrapping his fingers loosely round his wrists and squeezing gently.
‘Hello’ he says, finally remembering his manners.
Kurt huffs out a laugh and Blaine notices the flush creeping up his cheeks and has to swallow hard because Kurt being so adorable is not helping with the stopping the PDA, at all. Kurt squeezes his hips, bites down gently on his lower lip and glances down at the floor before back up to Blaine, meeting his eyes, embarassed.
‘Hey.’
‘I don’t understand how you’re here.’ Blaine says, because he doesn’t.
Kurt looks panicked. ‘Is it a problem? Oh, God, it’s a problem. You probably have plans, I shouldn’t have assumed, I’m…’
‘Hey, hey, Kurt,’ Blaine grabs his hands then, swinging them between their two bodies, ‘Kurt, breathe, it’s fine. It’s more than fine. Relax.’
‘It’s not a problem?’
‘Did I seem like I thought it was a problem to you? Because if I did then I need to really work on how I express myself. For the record though, that kiss, that was meant to convey my pleasure at you being here.’
‘Okay’ Kurt breathes the word out, dragging out the syllables and smiling softly. ‘Okay, yes.’
‘Okay.’ Blaine agrees, and then, ‘I’m really really happy that you’re here but I’m also really confused about the how’s and why’s.’
‘It’s like I said…’
Blaine cuts him off, ‘you’re going to have to say it all again’ he says apologetically, ‘you were talking really fast and I was totally distracted by your face.’
Kurt raises an eyebrow then, ‘distracted by my face, Blaine?’
As adorable as he is when he’s being bashful, Blaine thinks maybe he loves Kurt the most when he’s like this, straightening his back so he’s standing at full height [and Kurt is taller than Blaine and that will never not be hot] and being all sarcastic and faux-judgemental, tilting his head a little, eyebrow still raised , his mouth curving oh-so-slightly in a blink-and you’ll-miss-it smirk: Blaine knows that Kurt loves that he was so pleased to see him that he couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying even though he will pretend to be offended. Blaine grins then, a wide face-splitting grin because Kurt is looking at him disdainfully but Blaine knows that Kurt loves how into him Blaine is so much more than he hates his short attention span, which in all honesty is Kurt’s fault anyway because Blaine can concentrate fine when Kurt isn’t here all perfect hair and Alexander McQueen scarf and too-tight-but-not-tight-enough-jeans and that mouth.
‘Not so much your face,’ he amends, ‘more your mouth.’
‘My mouth.’ Kurt states, lips quirking again as he shakes his head, his ‘you’re such a dork, Blaine, what did I ever do to deserve this’ unvoiced but obvious.
‘Mmmm. You do this thing when you’re talking, did you know? This thing where you sort of flick your tongue out and lick at your lips really quick, like a lizard. It’s really hot and very distracting.’
‘You just compared me to a lizard.’ Kurt is openly smiling now, a smile and an eyeroll all for Blaine alone, ‘and you said it was hot. I really think we should have some kind of conversation about what that says about you.’
‘You just did it again,’ Blaine says again, leaning forward and flicking out his own tongue, dashing it across Kurt’s lower lip in demonstration. ‘like that and it is hot. And I still don’t know how you’re even here but we cannot keep making out in the school carpark and Sugar will kill me dead if I’m late for her soiree which is going to be amazing by the way.’
‘Amazing?’ Kurt tugs Blaine a little closer. ‘Your text this morning said it was going to be worse than terrible and you’d rather take a rock salt slushie to the face and now you’re saying it’s going to be amazing?’
Blaine shrugs, ‘mmm, well, things change and maybe I was exagerrating a little bit this morning anyway; those rock salt slushies hurt.’
Kurt laughs, and kisses Blaine again and Blaine swallows down the urge to grab his boyfriend by the hands and spin him around the carpark, settling instead for unlocking his car and giving an exagerated bow, ‘your carriage awaits, good sir.’
***
‘So you’re here how exactly?’ Blaine asks again later, ‘because I know you had classes today.’
They’re tucked into a booth and for the first time since they arrived it’s just the two of them; Kurt is like a minor celebrity it seems and from the second they walked through the door people have been all over them, hugs and kisses and ‘Oh my GOD Kurt, how have you been´and Kurt has laughed and joked and told stories about New York, not letting go of Blaine’s hand even for a second, his long fingers cool and familiar between Blaine’s and Blaine can’t help but keep squeezing them, as though to remind himself that Kurt’s real and now it’s just the two of them, the party still going on around them and Kurt’s hand still in his as he flicks at heart-shaped confetti with the other as though he finds it’s very existance personally insulting. Blaine thinks he probably does.
[‘Oh my God,’ he’d declared when they first arrived, looking around them and not even bothering to hide his horror, ‘why is everything so pink? And so sparkly? What on earth is wrong with Sugar Motta and who’s bad judgement let her loose in here?’
‘Says the King of bedazzling.’ Blaine had teased and Kurt had shaken his head vehemently, looking almost pained.
‘Oh no Blaine, oh no. This is not bedazzling. There is a time and a place for sparkle and it’s use has to be regulated. The line between classy and trashy is a fine one and this room goes beyond even Rachel Berry levels of bad taste; I don’t think my eyes will ever recover.’]
Kurt traces his thumb across the back of Blaine’s hand.
‘I was just miserable,’ he answers softly, ‘totally miserable, it’s been one of those missing Blaine weeks this week and you text this morning and you sounded miserable too and Valentine’s is your favourite holiday, I know that and New York, seriously, that city is like the epicentre of love or something, hearts and flowers everywhere and you can’t get away from it, and I was riding the subway to get to class and every single person on my train was making out with someone so I was feeling like I’d gotten caught in some kind of soft porn movie,’
Blaine laughs, he can’t help it, just the thought of Kurt trapped on a subway train legs crossed and hands clasped primly over his knees and surrounded by couples making out and swaying in time with the train, he can picture it so clearly and Kurt smiles back, rolls his eyes a little.
‘I know, right? Awful. I’m pretty sure some of them were close to having actual sex & the worse thing is that I wasn’t even totally appalled, I was jealous.’
‘You wanted to get down and dirty with me on a subway train. Kinky.’
Kurt blushes and presses his heel down onto Blaine’s toe. Blaine yelps because, ow.
‘Don’t. Just shush. I just wanted to ‘get down and dirty’ and as if you just said that, as if you just made me say that. God. I mean I just wanted to be with you; I wanted to have the option to be with you on the subway if I wanted and I hated that I didn’t. I know it’s just a Hallmark holiday but I don’t know, it felt like it mattered more this year, like we have so little time together anyway that we should be making the most of every opportunity and even when we weren’t together and you were in love with someone else we still spent Valentine’s together and so here I am.’
Kurt throws his hands up in the air illustratively, and Blaine just stares at him, drinking him in, this beautiful boy who never fails to astound him; who drove across the entire country just to be with him on a holiday that Blaine knows he doesn’t care about really; who despite everything, despite living in New York and all that entails is still totally hung up on him - a schoolkid from Ohio; who Blaine knows will undress him later tonight and kiss him to within an inch of his life, who will unravel Blaine with his hands and his mouth until all Blaine can do is fist his hands in the sheets and bite down on his lips to keep from crying out, who can do that to Blaine time and time again but who still blushes if Blaine mentions sex in casual conversation; who could have anybody he wanted, probably, but who is still totally and unequivacobly Blaine’s and there is so much he wants to say, there is always so much he wants to say to Kurt but he just smiles, a long slow smile that makes Kurt blush again a little bit and says ‘I love you’ and that says it all, really.
Sugar is there before Kurt has time to reply, bouncing up and down and tugging at Blaine’s hand. She looks slightly manic, a deranged vision in luminous pink that probably cost more than Blaine’s entire wardrobe but that makes Blaine wish he was wearing sunglasses all the same and when he chances a look at Kurt out of the corner of his eye, the look on his boyfriends face is almost more than he can take and he has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing: Kurt looks shell-shocked, there is no other word for it; Sugar has always been larger than life, a nasally assault on the senses, her lack of talent the only thing stopping her from giving Rachel a run for her money and she has absolutely come into her own in her senior year. On the outside she appears harsh and brash and self-centered and totally manic but she has a heart of gold, you just have to peel away all the other layers to get to get to it. Blaine has been around to do the peeling but Kurt hasn’t and he looks very much like he wishes he was anywhere else, he visibly recoils in fear when Sugar reaches out to take his hand too and Blaine can’t help but snort, earning him a glare from Kurt and a look of impatient confusion from Sugar.
‘Come on Blainers, you can’t just sit here making puppy eyes at Kurt all night. You’re my star act and you promised.’
‘Technially I didn’t promise anything’ Blaine points out even as he allows her to pull him to his feet and drag him towards the make-shift stage, keeping Kurt’s hand grapsed firmly in his, pulling him along with him. ‘Technically you asked, no, demanded and totally ignored me when I said I didn’t want to.’
‘Because I knew you didn’t mean it,’ she says, adjusting his bow tie and smiling at him fondly, ‘of course you want to; one day you will admit that I know you better than you know yourself.’
She winks at Kurt, who is stood, hand still clasped in Blaine’s and mouth open before turning to the microphone clapping her hands in excitement, ‘the one, the only BLAINE ANDERSON.’
He lets go of Kurts hand as he sings the opening bars to the song, turning to Kurt seeing his boyfriend huff out a laugh when he recognises the lyrics before stepping forward to take the spare microphone, the fact that he was going to make this a duet going unspoken and Blaine feels his heart swell a little because if anything makes him happier than singing it’s singing with Kurt. They lock eyes, both of them laughing as Kurt grabs the harmony in the way only Kurt Hummel can and they sing “It was always you and me - always - and forever” their friends dancing along and singing at the tops of their voices and Blaine thinks that maybe Sugar is right, maybe he did want to do this all along, Valentine’s is his favourite holiday after all.