Fic: Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)
Media: Fic
Title: Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)
Rating: PG
Pairings: Klaine, a little Brittana, Blainetana friendship.
Spoilers: 3.04
Word Count: 1969
Summary: Reaction!fic for tonight's episode. In which New Directions is dysfunctional, Blaine is eternally nice and wants to help people and Kurt just really likes his boyfriend.
Author’s Note: Thanks to missgoalie75 for the quick beta! Yeah, this is nothing more than me being in a writing mood but not feeling like finishing the fic I'm working on.
Even though they aren’t exactly all friends with each other or even getting along at the moment, most of the members of New Directions sit together every day at lunch, without fail. It’s one of those things about McKinley that Blaine just doesn’t understand and doesn’t want to bother trying to understand, either - he simply lets it go and holds Kurt’s hand under the table.
It’s halfway through lunch one day when Santana and Brittany come sauntering up to the table, pinkies linked. It’s nothing new, like Tina sitting on Mike’s lap or Rachel loudly setting her tray down and launching into a monologue about whatever pressing issue she has to discuss with them.
Blaine can’t shake off the feeling that there’s something more there, something they’re not telling him, and his suspicions are confirmed when Santana, very subtly takes Brittany’s hand from where it’s lying on top of the table and pulls it under where, Blaine supposes, they’re now holding hands. Had he not been paying close attention to them, he would have missed it; she really was very careful.
He approaches Santana after lunch, knowing that if he’d confronted her while they were all sitting there, the results would have been terrible. He knows she’s quick to get mad and he’s been on the receiving end of her anger, before - he admits to being a little bit scared after “Last Friday Night” - and all he wants is to make sure that two of his friends are happy. He learned his lesson last year, with Karofsky; confronting people in public is not the way to get them to talk to you about their sexualities.
Thinking back on it, though, he’s glad that Santana is finally coming to terms with everything. She may not consider him a friend or trust him enough to tell him what she’s going through, but he can just tell, because sometimes he reminds her so much of himself, before he could accept he was gay, when he pretended that part of him didn’t exist (and the eventual acceptance of it).
“Hey, Santana, can I talk to you for a moment?” he asks, holding his books to his chest as he looks at her. She is at least a few inches shorter than him, but for some reason, that difference seems nonexistent when she turns her best glare on him. It’s a good thing Blaine no longer shies away from things or people that scare him, or he’d be running in the other direction.
“What do you want, hobbit? You’re wasting my time and I can just feel my popularity drop as I stand here,” Santana says.
Blaine doesn’t let it get to him; he’s used to it by this point and he sees past her armor, can see how hard she’s trying to be strong and not show any vulnerability to anyone. It makes her insults meaningless to Blaine.
“Did something happen last night? Something good? You seem happy,” he comments. He tries to give her his best ‘I’m kind and I just want to be friends’ smile and judging by the eye roll he receives in return, it doesn’t quite work.
“It’s none of your business, Anderson, so run back to Munchkinland before I go all Wicked Witch on you,” Santana snaps. He bites back a smile, which earns him another eye roll and an exasperated sigh.
“Again, you seem happy. So whatever happened, good for you,” he says, touching her elbow lightly. “By the way, it’s Munchkin Country, but I appreciate your effort to use musical theatre references on me.”
He walks away before she can respond, smiling smugly to himself.
That afternoon, he’s lying on Kurt’s bed while Kurt sorts through his closet, bringing forward all the fall/winter items he’ll be wearing this season, when he brings her up. “Why do you think Santana acts the way she does?” he asks, idly tossing one of Kurt’s pillows in the air, then catching it with his feet.
Kurt sticks his head out of the closet and Blaine can see him smiling fondly at his antics from the corner of his eye. “Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know, I just worry about her,” he says. “But hear me out, okay? She’s grown up a lot over the summer. You have to be really obtuse not to notice the way she looks at Brittany. And from what you tell me, it sounds like she and Brittany have had something going on for a while.”
“Your point being?”
“I think something happened between the two of them last night. Something big. Like... they started dating or something. But I also feel like their relationship has developed over the summer, to the point where Santana might feel more comfortable with herself and her sexuality, whatever that may be. But she has to have spent a lot of time suppressing all these things she felt, which could be why she can be so mean all the time.”
“That or she’s just a heartless cheerleader drone,” Kurt pipes up. Blaine sits up and shoots him a look, which he hopes expresses clearly that it is not okay for Kurt to be so mean about their classmates. Usually he just gets an endearing smile or maybe even a pat on the head, if Kurt is feeling condescending, but this time, Kurt actually seems like he’s paying attention and sits down next to him on the bed. “Why are you suddenly so preoccupied about this? She’s been nothing but malicious to you since you transferred. Not that she’d been particularly kind before, anyway.”
“Just because she’s not nice to me doesn’t mean I shouldn’t treat her nicely or try to help her,” Blaine says quietly. It just about sums up how he feels about a lot of things in life. “You might never have had to deal with this - your trucker phase wasn’t about identity, Kurt, it was about being who you thought your dad wanted you to be, and that’s a whole other issue - but not being sure of what you are, what you identify as, and even more so, feeling like you have to hide it, sucks. I was a brat when I was figuring out my identity. Santana’s going through a lot of the same things, just a few years after I did.”
“Blaine Warbler, you are just too nice,” Kurt says, leaning over to place a kiss against his temple. “And I love you. But I don’t like that you’re worrying yourself over these things while you should be focusing on preparing for West Side Story.”
“I can’t not worry, Kurt. I can disregard what Finn and Santana and Quinn and everyone says, but I can’t not feel like I should be trying to help them somehow. It’s just how I am.”
“Speaking of,” Kurt speaks up. “Come with me. You and I are going to go to talk to my idiot of a stepbrother right this second and get everything solved because I cannot deal with this tension in the choir room for any longer.”
“It’s okay, Kurt, we don’t have to.” Blaine tries to stop him but once Kurt is set on something, there’s no way to deter him from his objective, no matter how hard one tries. And Blaine has definitely tried.
“Finn, open up!” Kurt calls out, having already stomped across the hallway to Finn’s door. Blaine shuffles behind him, not really wanting to participate in this discussion but knowing he should.
“What’s up, Kurt?” Finn opens his door, smiling brightly, and Blaine thinks about the contrast there is between the Finn he sees at school and the Finn Kurt sees at home, the same Finn Blaine spent so much time with this summer.
Kurt simply barges in and Blaine doesn’t have much of a choice but to follow; it’s that, or awkwardly stand outside in the hallway. Kurt has already launched into a long-winded lecture about jealousy, hogging solos and welcoming new students. “- and you just can’t be this way, okay, Finn? I understand if you feel like your role as co-captain of New Directions is being undermined here and if you feel threatened because Blaine is just as talented and capable a lead male as you are, but you can’t just treat him like that, especially after he’s been your friend all summer, okay?”
“Kurt.” Blaine places a hand on the small of Kurt’s back, trying to get him to quiet down. His gaze turns to Finn, who is sitting on his bed looking sort of dumbfounded, and he has to bite back a smile because he doesn’t think Finn was expecting this from them tonight. “Kurt, I can fight my own battles, okay?”
Kurt crosses his arms, looking upset at the interruption, but nods and quiets down anyway, so Blaine turns to look at Finn once again. “Finn, is there a reason you’ve seemed so hostile in regards to my joining glee club?” he asks.
“No, dude, I guess it’s cool if you join. I just don’t want you to forget that I’m the male lead, that I’m the co-captain and that you can’t just waltz in with your tie and blazer and steal that from me,” Finn says. He starts off uncertainly but gets more and more sure of himself as he speaks and before he’s even done, Kurt is already going off on another rant, but Blaine asks him not to interrupt Finn.
Once he’s done talking, Blaine asks, “But did I ever give an indication that I was coming to McKinley to do that?”
A few moments later, Finn shakes his head.
“So what’s going on? If I haven’t mentioned any interest in being co-captain or becoming the male lead, then why the hostility? I don’t mean to accuse you of anything, but it’s in our best interests to avoid any and all drama to make it to Nationals and win, isn’t it? That’s what you said at Glee the other day, anyway.”
Finn nods again, clearly at a lack for what to say, and it’s at that point that Blaine decides this conversation is over and promptly takes Kurt’s hand and leaves Finn’s room.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be all defensive, but he’s been so detestable these last few weeks,” Kurt says, gracefully settling down on his bed. Blaine, on the other hand, plops down next to him, reaching out to grasp his hand immediately.
“Don’t worry about it,” Blaine says. “I figured something like that was bound to happen with one of us guys eventually. I just didn’t expect it to be me. Personally, I see Puck as a really good male lead. Or you, but I’m biased, of course.”
“Really?” Kurt asks, lying down so he’s facing Blaine. “And what makes you think so, Blaine Warbler?”
Blaine laughs. “I’m not a Warbler anymore, you know,” he points out.
“Not true. Once a Warbler, always a Warbler, isn’t that what Wes said? Anyway, don’t change the subject, why do you think I would be such a terrific male lead?”
“Maybe because of your dashing looks, or your spectacular taste in clothes or your cutting wit,” Blaine says, grinning cheekily. “Or maybe because of your beautiful, breathtaking voice, that never fails to leave me speechless. And that’s saying a lot, because we all know how good I am at -”
Kurt cuts him off with a kiss before dissolving into laughter. It’s the most beautiful sound Blaine has ever heard, Kurt’s voice, and he wants to keep listening to it for the rest of his life. So while Santana and Finn and the rest of the world solve their problems, he’s content to sit and watch Kurt Hummel shine.