Rise Against
Kurt felt warm under Blaine’s gaze. When his eyes drifted to Kurt’s neck, he instinctively moved his hand there and blushed, looking down, “Right.” He grabbed his diet coke and took a drink, dropping his hand from the side of his neck, “I’ll be right outside the kitchen.” He backed away from Blaine looking at him for a long moment, and then turned on his heels and walked into the next room.
Once he was out of sight he took a breath and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes and thinking about everything that had happened that day. For a long while he was terrified, but being with Blaine helped. He knew that while Blaine was with him Karofsky couldn’t touch him- but Blaine couldn’t be around at every moment, and Karofsky chose those moments to bully him. This time was worst. It was a lot worse than a locker check or a shove to the ground- Kurt was afraid in that moment that Karofsky could have done much worse to him
When he heard Blaine come from the kitchen, Kurt shook out of his thoughts and smiled a little. He loved seeing the warmness in his cheeks- he looked like a blushing teenager. He followed Blaine upstairs and smirked a little, counting each step in his mind, “It’s like you’re a relative of the Crawleys,” he said, knowing Blaine wouldn’t get the pop culture reference, but it was another bullet point in the long list of things he needed to catch Blaine up on. He had a feeling Blaine would love to watch the drama that took place in Downton Abbey.
His mind was swimming with different things he could do to the house as he followed his boyfriend down the hall and through the doors of his room. He stopped when he realized they’d reached their destination and blushed, his eyes looking at the bed and then around the room, “It’s nice,” Kurt said softly, “could use a little work, but it fits you, too.” He paused, “I really should bring over the shadow boxes I bought and we can put some together for your room.” He took a step closer to the bed and blushed, “You’ve never? Not even when you were human?” he asked, walking across the room to the old fashioned record player. He smiled and ran his fingers over it and then looked at the records, “Disco, Blaine? Really?” He smirked and shook his head, “don’t ever tell the Glee club, they’ll mock you endlessly.” His fingers moved across the sides of the records. They stopped on the Beatles and his breath caught in his throat. He pulled it out and looked down at it, closing his eyes for a minute, “My mom used to play this album when I was younger.  She’d always sing In My Life in the softest voice. It was perfect.”
Kurt smiled at the cover again and slowly put it back, continuing his inspection of the records, but his mind a million miles away.
Blaine watched Kurt exploring his room with satisfaction unfurling in his chest, filling like a balloon full of hope and affection and - not that he'd put real name to it yet even to himself, really - love. His eyes were warm as he tracked Kurt's movements and he shook his head, tucking his hands into his pockets. "I was never allowed. I mean - " he grimaced a little to himself in recollection. "At the time it would have caused talk if I had, so I just never did ... " he paused, and watched his boyfriend rifle through his records, pausing on the disco and casting him a coy look that returned a smile and an unrepentant shrug from the vampire.Â
"Disco's great. You should give it a chance," he encouraged, leaning his weight against a bedpost and watching Kurt with a smile. He could sense the change in the other boy's demeanor the instant his fingers hit the record. Blaine tipped his head to the side, an enquiring motion almost bird-like in execution.Â
"Kurt?"
A beat.Â
Softly. "Oh." He followed in Kurt's footsteps as he moved away and picked up the record in question, sliding the disc free with practiced care and setting it on the track; tipping the needle down with a scratch of vinyl before familiar chords rang out. Blaine approached the other boy from behind, stopping close and holding a hand out so it entered Kurt's line of sight.Â
He studied the curve of the other boy's neck, the dip where it would meet his shoulder were his shirt not covering it; basked for a moment in the sweet scent of him, in the warmth radiating from his body even through layers of clothing.Â
"Dance with me?" He offered quietly, his palm turned up in question, fingers braced to curl over the other boy's and draw him around and into an easy stance. It felt a very long way from the high school and Karofsky's bruising kisses. There was safety here in the warmth of Blaine's bedroom with its old fashioned hat stand and dusty records. Even Blaine seemed surer of himself here in his own home, in the space that was his and had been his once, when he was still a boy like Kurt was now.Â
Full of hopes and dreams for the future, mind clouded with the every day concerns of the living, of someone with their entire life spread out before them. There was also something to pity in the rich furnishings, they were the objects and settings of a boy's bedroom without doubt but there were no hints to who Blaine was; only that he'd been a child with talents for sport and performance; that he'd liked to collect things; Playbills were neatly set on a bookshelf beside old, dog eared paperback novels and a few faded toy cars.Â
The only hints at this new life he was living were the schools resting on a chair; the clothing peeking out of his wardrobe; bright colors against the duller wallpaper within.Â
Still, as the curtains fluttered and distantly a dog began to bark, a lawnmower rumbled into life and water bubbled from the fountain in the lush gardens, it felt ... easy, to pretend nothing else existed except for the soft lullaby of the music rising around them and the offer of Blaine's hand.
