Klaine: The Best Prize is You
(Inspired by the "spoilers" of Glee filming at a carnival and someone saying "what if either Kurt or Blaine won something for the other one." Also, this was supposed to be a LOT shorter than this. Stupid boys. ALSO! Just found out that kurthummelismyspiritanimal was the source of the post I saw going around that inspired this fic. Credit where credit's due!)
Summary: Kurt and Blaine go to the carnival. Just as friends, though. But by the end of the day, they might be closer to being on the same page than they have been in months.
Rating: PG-13
"So... singing that song with you..."
"Blaine, look... I-I know what it said, but we chose it to show that we're still important to each other, not that--"
"I know, I know, I just... wanted confirmation."
"Okay, then."
Kurt still felt pretty guilty over the entire conversation he'd had with Blaine after they'd both sung Gotta Get You Into My Life. Blaine had seemed so enthusiastic... and Kurt had to smash down his hopes. He didn't want to. He really didn't. He just... wasn't quite there just yet. But he wanted to be. He missed Blaine, and not just because they were best friends. God, Kurt loved Blaine so much, but he still wasn't ready to allow himself to put his heart out on the line like that.
So he'd accepted to be Blaine's companion for the carnival that had just recently opened. He made sure to clarify that they were going just as friends, and Blaine had said sure, no problem, we're going just as friends, and we're going to have a good time because carnivals are fun.
That's how Kurt found himself at a carnival, for the first time since he was a little kid, tagged along by Blaine, who was much more excited than he was. "C'mon, let's go to this one now!" he kept saying, dragging Kurt to stand after stand after stand.
Then came the games.
Oh, god, the games.
Admittedly, Kurt hadn't had so much fun in a long time. They played a water-pistol game where you aimed at a target to make your avatar move forward (which was won by a kid sitting next to them). They played one of those games where you threw rings at bottles (neither of them won, sadly). They went to a game that was kind of like basketball, but smaller. They played at a Whac-A-Mole game and won some tickets. They also played a game where they had to throw three bottles of milk with two balls. Blaine only got one while Kurt got two, so neither of them technically won.
But man, it had been a while since they had both laughed so much.
They also passed a kissing booth with a girl on it. She saw Blaine first and winked, but when she saw Kurt, her eyes widened, and she bit her lower lip to seemingly stop a grin from cracking her face. Kurt didn't know how to feel about that.
But, as they went on together to all the stands and games, Kurt realized that he felt incredibly comfortable with Blaine. The first interactions they'd had after their break-up had been painful and awkward, but now Kurt felt completely cool being besides Blaine. If this had been three months ago, Kurt would've been pulling away immediately and screaming, WE'RE NOT TOGETHER! WE'RE JUST FRIENDS!
Now, though, he didn't mind Blaine's fingers brushing against his arm, or Blaine taking his wrist and dragging him forward, or Blaine linking their arms together--almost unconsciously--and pointing at all the amazing stuffed animals the stands had as prizes.
At one point, Blaine made Kurt stop so that he could get a "tattoo" drawn on his face by a girl that couldn't have been older than six.
"Really, Blaine? Really?"
"Hey, I loved these things as a kid!" Blaine cried out as he told the girl he wanted a smiling sun on one cheek and a heart on the other one. The little girl happily drew on his face and then received the two bucks Blaine gave her, one for each picture.
She was smiling giddily as Blaine stood up and caught up with Kurt, who tried not to roll his eyes at the fact that Blaine was so good around kids, so good with them, and he thought back to their conversations of how many kids they would have, because Blaine loved them, and he wanted to have them with Kurt, whether they were adopted or biological, that didn't matter. He just wanted them with Kurt.
And a big part of Kurt still wanted that, too.
After that, they went to get popcorn and cotton candy, sharing both because sometimes Blaine wanted Kurt's cotton candy and Kurt wanted Blaine's popcorn, and they were laughing as they tried to grab a bite from the other one's snack, their arms still intertwined.
When they were done eating, when the sun was starting to set, a lot of the stands started to close and pack up for the day, but they were able to get to the high striker before it closed down.
"Oh, look at the puppies!" Kurt said, pointing at one that reminded him an awful lot of Margaret Thatcher Dog. Except that this one was bigger. A lot bigger. It was probably about half Kurt's size.
"Do you want one?" Blaine asked. Kurt turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "If you want one, I could try to win it for you."
"Blaine, you really don't need to--" (Mainly, because Kurt wondered if he could.)
"It's no problem, really!" Blaine said, paying the fee to play. "And before you start on the 'we're just here as friends' deal, kids used to pay me to win them prizes at other games when I was little, so that's no excuse."
Kurt tried not to blush, but he felt his face heat up as he bit the inside of his cheek.
Blaine lifted the hammer and struck.
He didn't make it.
"Tough luck, kid," said the guy standing next to the game. "Better luck next time."
"All right, Blaine, let's--"
"No," Blaine said, bringing Kurt back from the few steps he'd taken.
"What?"
"I'm not leaving until I win you that dog!"
"Blaine," Kurt said. "You seriously don't need to--"
It was like talking to a wall. Blaine had already paid for another try and he had the hammer in both hands. He struck again.
Once more, he didn't get it.
"Okay, one more time!" Blaine said, taking out another dollar. "Third time's a charm, after all."
"All right," Kurt said. And then, for some reason, he felt compelled to say, "I trust you."
Blaine stopped with the hammer mid-raise and turned to look at him with wide, shocked eyes. "W-wha-w-huh?"
"I trust you," Kurt repeated. "If you say third time's a charm, then third time's a charm."
Blaine simply stood there, mouth slightly open, eyes wide, gawking at Kurt. And it wasn't only the owner of the stand cleared his throat and Blaine turned his focus back to the game that Kurt realized it: he hadn't said that in months. When he and Rachel came back to see the school play, he'd told Blaine that he didn't trust him anymore. He hadn't trusted Blaine since they had broken up. Not in a way that mattered all that much, anyway.
Now he did.
He did. He trusted Blaine with not only his body, but with his heart, as well. This was a boy that adored him, that loved him, and a boy that Kurt loved and adored, and hadn't Kurt been an idiot, too? Hadn't he royally screwed up, too?
Blaine turned to him as he raised the hammer, and Kurt shot him a smile and a thumbs-up. Blaine smiled back and slammed down the hammer.
The bell at the top of the striker rang, and the entire game lit up with tiny yellow light-bulbs.
"Well done, kid!" said the owner, standing aside for Blaine to see the prizes. "You can get one of the animals on the top. Which one'd you like?"
"Kurt?" Blaine asked. "Which one do you want?"
"The dog," Kurt said, pointing to the stuffed animal that had reminded him of the little dog he'd stolen from Finn on Senior Skip Day to give to Blaine. "The big, beige one with brown eyes."
The guy took down the dog and gave it to Blaine, who in turn gave it to Kurt to hold between his arms and squeeze gently, leaning his head against it.
"See?" Blaine said as they walked out of the carnival, the lights around the place lightning up their way. "I told you I'd win it for you."
"Thank you," Kurt said. "You didn't really have to, but thank you."
"No problem." They walked back to Kurt's place (where Blaine had left his car, given that the carnival was only a couple blocks away), and Blaine accompanied Kurt to the door.
"Well..." Blaine said, rocking back and forth on his heels. "I had fun."
"Me too," Kurt said. "A lot, actually."
"That's great," said Blaine, smiling a bit shyly. "We could do it again sometime."
Instead of repeating that they were just friends, Kurt nodded. "I'd love to," he said.
"Great," Blaine said again. "Goodnight, then."
"Goodnight, Blaine. And thanks again."
Blaine turned around to go back to his car, but before he could do so, Kurt gently grabbed his arm, making him come to a halt. Kurt took a deep breath, willing the courage he'd gathered up to remain exactly where it was, because if it decided to hide under a rock, so help him, Kurt was going to drag it out by its feet.
"And I don't just mean the stuffed dog. I mean the entire day. I thought this was going to be awkward or weird, but it wasn't. I had fun, and I didn't spend the entire time thinking that this wasn't a date, that we were only friends, except for a couple of times. But the rest of today, I kept thinking, 'wow, this is so much fun, when was the last time I laughed like this, when was the last time I smiled like this.' And I want to thank you for that. And for making me realize that I've been an idiot who should've trusted himself a little bit more in the first place."
Blaine had been listening closely, but now he seemed confused. "What do you mean?"
"I mean..." Kurt took another deep breath. This was it. This. Was. It. "I mean that I would like for us to try it again."
This time, it was Blaine who took a sharp breath, like he was trying to gasp but didn't have the means to. "Y-you mean--"
"Blaine Anderson," Kurt started, and a grin broke into Blaine's face. "Would you like to go on a date with me?"
Blaine let out a sound that was half a laugh, half a choked sob. "Kurt," he said, and it sounded like he was about to break into tears. "I would... I would be honored."
"Always so chivalrous," Kurt said, wiping at the corners of his eye with the hand that wasn't holding his stuffed animal because oh, god, was he actually about to start crying?
"Um..." Blaine cleared his throat. "This might seem a little bold, considering everything, but..." His gaze went down to Kurt's lips, and Kurt immediately knew what Blaine wanted to ask.
"If you want to," Kurt said.
Then Blaine leaned in and kissed him, almost urgently, as if Kurt's approval had been everything he needed to just do it. The angle was a little off, given that Kurt was trying to not let the stuffed dog get between them, so they were practically kissing each other by leaning on one side of their bodies more than the other one.
Kurt let his eyes flutter close. God, he never knew how much he had missed kissing Blaine. Kissing Blaine without the thoughts of I'm going to have sex with him tonight in his mind, without thinking that they were going to fool around and that would be the end of it. He had missed kissing Blaine and thinking I love you I love you I'm so in love with you don't go please don't leave stay here with me and kiss me some more please please I love you please.
Blaine was cupping his cheek with one hand, the other trying (and only partially succeeding) to rest on Kurt's hip. Kurt's free hand went up to the back of Blaine's neck, fingers instantly hanging to the few gel-free curls on his nape.
When Blaine's mouth became more insisting--pushed against his own, as if he wanted to devour Kurt, to stop him from pulling away--Kurt let go of the stuffed prize and used his now free arm to wrap both of them around Blaine's neck, pulling him closer, closer, as closer as they could get, breathing against Blaine's lips, swallowing the little moan he let out as he grip Kurt's hips with tight fingers and sucked his lower lip into his mouth, like he wanted to bruise him, to mark him, and Kurt pulled back from Blaine before he could let out an embarrassingly loud growl that had started to build on the back of his throat.
They panted against each other, foreheads pressed together, lips brushing but not touching entirely, eyes still closed.
"I love you," Blaine whispered, and Kurt nearly wept with relief.
"I love you, too," Kurt whispered back, leaning in to press shaky kisses to Blaine's mouth. "I missed you so much."
"Me too," Blaine said between kisses. "God, Kurt, you have no idea."
But Kurt did have an idea. And he understood it just perfectly.
"Our date," he said, his voice coming out raspy and kind of shaken, to be honest. "When..." He cleared his throat, arms still around Blaine's neck, and he finally opened his eyes and looked at Blaine, looked at his lashes, how they brushed his cheeks, and fuck, Blaine was gorgeous and he was Kurt's, he was Kurt's and Kurt's alone, and he would never allow Blaine to ever think otherwise, or to think that Kurt didn't belong to him as much as Blaine belonged to him. "When could our date be?"
Blaine huffed out a tiny laugh. His eyes slid open, and his pupils were wide, but there wasn't only lust there. There was love and desire and hope and trust and belief and faith and so, so much love.
"Any day you want," he said. "Any day's fine with me."
"Tomorrow," Kurt said without thinking, his hands coming to rest on Blaine's shoulders. "Can it be tomorrow? It's Sunday."
"Bit eager, aren't we?" Blaine teased him with a smile.
"Oh, hush," Kurt said, grabbing Blaine's face to kiss him again, smearing some of the paint from Blaine's "tattoos" on his fingers. "Can you or can't you?"
"I can," Blaine said, immediately responding to the kiss. "For you, I can any day, Kurt, any time you ask me to."
"All right," said Kurt, finally managing to pull himself apart from Blaine for more than only a couple of seconds, though that was the last thing he wanted to do. "I'll call you."
"Okay," Blaine said, grinning widely. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow."
They kissed again.
"Goodnight, Kurt."
"Goodnight, Blaine."
And again.
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
And one last time before Blaine broke away and took a step back to stop himself from diving right back in. He smiled at Kurt and walked to his car with an almost skip to his step. When he was inside the car, he waved at Kurt and blew him a kiss. Kurt--with his stuffed animal in one arm again--pretended to catch it, and he put his fist to his heart. Breaking into a grin, Blaine turned the engine, and, remembering how he wouldn't leave until he saw Kurt inside his home, Kurt took his keys and opened the door to his house, closing it behind him right after waving at Blaine.
He leaned back against the door and heard the car drive away, hugging the prize Blaine had won for him to his chest.
We're going to make it through, he thought, burying his face on the stuffed animal. We will. I swear I'll do anything for it to happen. We'll be okay. We're going to be okay.
Kurt slid down the door and pulled his knees to himself once he was sitting on the ground. Still hiding on his new comfort item, he allowed the tears of happiness to flow down his cheeks. But most importantly, he allowed himself to breathe.
It would all be okay.
