gleeverse bingo card!
(371 words)
"Hi, I'm--"
"Darren, I know," Chris blurts out, and he feels his cheeks color as he sticks his hand out for Darren to shake. "Wow, you're short. I imagined you to be taller." Now his face is really burning and Darren looks amused and he wants to melt through the floor.
"Really? Dude, are you sure? Last time I checked, I was like, six foot something, and I don't think it's possible for me to have shrunk overnight." Chris tilts his head as he studies Darren, and he doesn't know what to make of him just yet. "Maybe you're just really tall."
"Actually, I'm a certified giant," Chris says with a shrug, his mouth slanting the way it does when he's being sarcastic. "Only don't tell Cory I told you that because he'll be sure to tell you I'm lying." What he says isn't that funny, it's actually not funny at all and he feels like an absolute dork for saying it, but Darren bursts out laughing in a way that's so endearingly genuine.
"Okay, yeah, I'm short," he says, holding his hands up toward the sky. "But it's a secret, okay? Our little secret. HA. GET IT?" His eyebrows wiggle and Chris feels a tug in his stomach. "Don't tell anyone." He wraps his arm around Chris's shoulder, pulling him close. "You can keep a secret, can't you?" Chris nods dumbly. "Great. Hey, I'll see you when we start filming, okay? I want to go introduce myself to everyone."
"I loved you in A Very Potter Musical," Chris blurts out, and Darren's eyebrows raise high on his forehead.
"Dude," he says. "You didn't have to say that. But I appreciate it just the same."
"No," Chris says, confusion passing over his face. "I didn't have to. But I wanted to. I've loved it for a long time now. Pretty much since you guys first put it on youtube."
"Thank you," Darren says genuinely, and he laughs. "You're a funny dude, Colfer. See you around, huh?" Chris is pretty sure he's never been called 'dude' so many times in such a short time. He wonder if he's ever been called 'dude' that many times in his life combined. He also can tell Darren doesn't believe him. But that's okay.
(210 words)
Chris has more willpower than this, really, he does. This is not the first time he's had a crush on a co-worker. Kurt having a crush on Finn was less acting and more of an exercise in trying to keep his composure around Cory. Also, he'd had less than pure thoughts about Chord when he first started.
But those were both just little passing things, his brain picking cute guys to keep his attention, absolute 'crushes' in every sense of the word. Chris can't imagine anything in the future with Cory or with Chord, and he can't even imagine anything past kissing them, which is hard enough to conjure in his brain.
With Darren, he can see everything in his future, and it kind of scares him.
He's once heard that crushes only last for four months because your brain doesn't have the attention span to stay interested longer than that. If you're still interested after four months, then it's already love.
"When did you first start working here?" Chris asks Darren.
"God, I don't know. Six months ago, maybe? You gonna eat the rest of that sandwich?"
He feels the last little bit of resolve he had leaving him, letting himself tumble head over heels as he hands Darren the rest of his sandwich. Shit.
(240 words)
"You smell good," Darren quips one day while they're tangled up in each other, and Chris feels his cheeks warm. "Do you wear cologne or is that your natural scent? Oh god, if you smell like that naturally, I'm going to bottle you up and sell you. I'll make a fucking fortune."
"Darren," Chris laughs, shaking his head, rolling onto his back, feeling the lights from the set bore down into his skin. "No one smells like this naturally."
"Hey, you never know," Darren says, shrugging a little, as if this is a completely normal thing. "You could have just been born like, the greatest smelling dude in the history of the world."
"It's called Rain," he blurts out. "It's by Marc Jacobs. It's a womens perfume, okay? Do not judge me. I can feel you judging. Oh god, why did I tell you that?"
"I never would have guessed," Darren says, and he's serious, and he leans in to breathe Chris in deeper. It makes his heart flutter. Stupid, stupid, stupid. "I don't know, maybe it's because it's mixed with you. You don't smell like a woman to me."
"Um," Chris says, at a loss for words. "Thank you?"
"No," Darren says seriously, placing a hand on Chris's cheek. "Thank you for not smelling like gross dirty boy when I have to cuddle all day long with you." He grins cheekily and Chris wants to smack him and kiss him all at once.
(459 words)
"You like Darren, don't you?"
It's a statement, not a question, and Chris feels the blood drain out of his face as he stares up at the four girls who are circling him and staring at him and quite frankly, scaring the shit out of him.
"No," he says calmly, though inside, he is screaming. "Who told you that?"
"No one had to tell me," Lea says just as calmly. "It's just something we've noticed."
"Who is we?" Chris asks in a panic. "Just you guys? Or is this like a cast-wide thing, where everyone thinks I like Darren and talk about it behind my back?"
"Relax, honey," Amber says, and she takes his hand. "We're not judging you. That boy is fine."
"Double fine," Naya says, grinning so she shows all her teeth. "If I wasn't so sure he was gay, I would be all over that." Chris nearly chokes on air at her words, and he shakes his head furiously.
"Oh god, Darren's not gay!" His voice is even more high pitched than usual, coming out in squeaks that only dogs can hear properly, and he's giving Naya a death glare. "He is not gay, Naya. You can... you can go be all over that. If you want."
"Sure, you don't like him," Lea says. "That's why you stuttered at the thought of Naya with him."
"Actually, I was stuttering because the thought of Naya all up on anything is going to scar me for life," he lies easily.
"Please, baby, I'm so hot, I--"
"Do not finish that sentence," he groans out, shaking his head. "Please, please leave me alone." Ashley has been silent the entire time until now, and she steps forward to wrap an arm around Chris's shoulder. It feels warm and comforting, like she's his security blanket, and he sighs happily, leaning into her.
"We're just trying to look out for you, sweetie," she says, holding him closer. "And we can see how you look at him and how he looks at you, and we just wanted to help out."
"If by 'help out', you mean 'interfere in every last little bit of my life', then you're doing an excellent job," Chris says dryly, then he places his head in his hands. "Yes, okay? Yes, I like him. Now leave me alone."
He hears a collective squeal and he hears the door to his trailer bang open, one of them running out of it, though he doesn't want to look up and see which. He gets the answer from Naya's squeal of "THIS IS SO FUCKING EPIC!" outside the window.
He really, really does not want to know what makes his pathetic crush (crush, he will keep calling it that forever, to downplay the seriousness of it all) 'so fucking epic'. He's more than a little scared.
(343 words)
"Hey," Darren says, and he's breathless, and he's sweaty. He looks gorgeous to Chris.
"Hey," Chris says back, and they stare at each other for a minute. He's about to make a joke about awkward silences and how painful they can be, a joke that's stupid, but bound to make the silly older man laugh. Then Darren launches himself forward and kisses Chris full on the mouth, hard.
Chris doesn't know how to react at first, standing still, his eyes wide, his heart pounding. Is this a dream?, he thinks, and he pinches himself to be sure. When he realizes it's really happening, instead of pushing Darren away and questioning him like he wants, he makes the choice to place his hands on the other man's hips and kiss him back, his eyes fluttering shut. Darren seems surprised and kisses with more enthusiasm, causing Chris's heart to skip a beat.
"Oh my god," Darren finally says as he breaks the kiss, and he's breathless. "I was so fucking scared there. I thought she'd lied to me."
"Who lied about what?" Chris asks, even though he doesn't have to. But it just seems so unbelievable and his brain aches at the thought of it.
"Naya," he says simply, and he feels his cheeks flush. "She told me you liked me, so uhh... so I decided to act on it."
"Why would she tell you that though?" None of it makes sense to Chris and he feels vaguely like he's being punked. "I mean, that was my private business. Why would she immediately go telling you?" He's dangerously close to tears, and Darren grabs his hand, squeezing it tightly.
"Shhh, no," he says soothingly. "It's okay. No, Chris, she only told me because I told her ages ago how much I lo-- like you. We were just waiting to see if you were interested too."
Chris does not miss the near slip of 'love'. It makes his heart soar.
"I'm very interested," Chris somehow manages to say.
"So am I." Darren's voice is low as he presses close to Chris, their lips meeting again.
(882 words)
"The happiest fucking place on Earth," Darren says with a sigh, spreading his arms wide. "I'm so glad we're here together finally."
"I think there's something vaguely blasphemous about saying 'fucking' in Disney's nickname," Chris says sarcastically, and he reaches down to grab Darren's hand, squeezing it tight. Even though he's been doing it for a year and a half, closer to two, he'll never tire of the way it feels to hold hands. It's such a simple gesture, but it lets everyone know, non-obnoxiously, that they are together. I am his, and he is mine. We love each other.
They ride all the rides three, four, five times, until Darren announces rather dramatically that he needs to eat something or he's going to shrivel up and die right there on Main Street.
"Relax, you drama queen," Chris says, though he can't hide the way it makes him smile. "We'll go get you some food. Calm down." He isn't embarrassed anymore to kiss Darren in public, in fact, he actually enjoys the way it feels to lean down and press a kiss to his lips.
"You tell me to calm down and then you kiss me," Darren says with a sigh as they walk. "That's not going to help anything. You should feel my heart right now."
More than anything, Chris loves that he still has that effect on Darren, that just a simple kiss can send his heart into a spiral. They stop and get slices of pizza, sitting at a table together. Darren inhales his pieces, then watches as Chris cuts his with a knife.
"You're ruining the sanctity of pizza by eating it like that, babe," Darren says, leaning back in his chair. "You've gotta like... fold it and eat it quickly, so it's all gooey and cheesy and fucking delicious. Pizza is a finger food."
"To you, maybe," Chris says, raising an eyebrow. Their differences are what makes them fit together so perfectly. They fit together in all the natural ways, like with their love of Disney and Star Wars and Harry Potter, and then they fill in the spots where the other is lacking. Chris is a little more reserved, where Darren is wild. Chris sometimes has trouble opening himself up and Darren is a book that doesn't even have a cover. Sometimes, Chris believes in soulmates when he thinks of his relationship with Darren. Two halves of a whole that are just meant to be.
When they walk by Cinderella's castle, the picturesque building like something out of his dreams, they stop and stare. Chris is taken aback by his gorgeous it is in person, and he sees Darren doing something out of the corner of his eye, so he turns to face him.
Chris can feel his heart skipping and fluttering around in his chest just from the way Darren looks at him, and he opens his mouth to say something, but then Darren's taking his hand, and looking into his eyes, and his words melt away.
"You're the love of my life, Chris Colfer," Darren says softly, and he can see the way his golden eyes sparkle with tears. "I always believed in love, in soulmates, but I never thought it would happen to me. Not like this. Not where I know with absolute certainty that I'm going to love you forever."
"I've been alone," Darren sings, and Chris's heart gives a huge leap, a grin spreading across his face. "Surrounded by darkness, I've seen how heartless the world can be. I've seen you crying," and Chris can remember the first time he cried in front of Darren, the way he held him and brushed his tears away and made him feel safer than he ever had in his life. "You felt like it's hopeless, I'll always do my best to make you see, baby, you're not alone 'cause you're here with me," Darren's voice breaks a little, the way it does when he's emotional, and Chris wants to cry all over again. "And nothing's ever gonna bring us down, 'cause nothing can keep me from loving you and you know it's true, it don't matter what'll come to be, our love is all we need to make it through."
Chris already feels like he's going to cry, but when Darren sinks down to one knee, he absolutely loses it, tears running down his face in probably the ugliest way possible, but he can't even bring himself to care.
"Will you marry me, Chris?" Darren asks, and Chris wants to freeze this moment so he never loses it, never forgets the way it feels to be standing in front of Cinderella's castle, being proposed to by the love of his life, and he sees people taking pictures, but he can't bring himself to care about that right now. Because he is the happiest he has ever been in his whole life.
"Of course I will," he somehow manages to say, and Darren pulls out a ring with a simple row of diamonds, sliding it onto his finger.
"I don't know if it's standard protocol to get you an engagement ring," Darren admits. "But I wanted to so badly. I wanted to see it on your finger."
"Get up here and kiss me," Chris says, and his smile is so wide, his face feels like it might break.
(171 words)
As he looks down the makeshift aisle, the beautiful white flowers lining it, the guests standing and smiling widely on either side, Chris has never been more glad that gay marriage was finally legalized in California.
The sand is soft under his bare feet as he walks, his eyes firmly locked on Darren, who is glowing even brighter than the sun. They both wear simple outfits, white button down shirts with nice pants, and the bridesmaids, who already stand up at the altar, are wearing simple pink dresses.
Chris wanted blue. But Darren insisted.
"Hi," Darren whispers as he stands in front of him, taking his hands.
"Hi," Chris whispers back, and it takes all the energy he has not to kiss Darren before the vows.
Chris's vows make Darren tear up, and Darren's are punctured with cute little things that make Chris both cry and laugh all at once. When they are finally, finally, allowed to kiss, everything melts away except for Darren and Chris knows he's the luckiest man in the entire world.
(343 words)
"Holy shit, she's so small," Darren says in awe, and Chris shoots his husband a dirty look.
"You are not allowed to swear in front of our baby. We have talked about this." Darren pouts a little, but nods as he reaches out to touch the little girl's hand, his eyes widening as her fingers wrap around one of his.
"Look at that, she likes me," he says softly, and Chris nearly wants to cry. It took them a long time to get to this stage, and an even longer time to convince Ashley to be their surrogate, but four years since they got married, and here they are with their first little child, a girl whose name they haven't decided on just yet.
"Of course she likes you, you're her daddy," Chris says softly, stroking his fingers over the soft dark hair on the baby's head. "I think she's going to have your curls. Look at how dark her hair is already."
"Babe, I just thought of something," Darren says in a panic, his eyes wide. "We're both her daddies. Isn't she going to get confused? What if she wants you when I think she's calling for me? What if--"
"Darren," Chris says, his smile growing. "Relax, sweetie. We'll figure something out. You can be Daddy and I'll be Papa. Something like that. We won't confuse her and she won't confuse us. We'll work it all out." He leans over to kiss Darren, and then he holds the little girl toward him, smiling. "You want to hold her?"
"I... oh," Darren says, and he nods, and he's so careful with the baby, as if he might break her if he holds her any tighter.
Chris wraps his arms tightly around his husband, kissing his cheek lightly.
"You're already a great dad, you know," he says softly, and he smiles as the little girl opens her eyes and blinks up at them, her eyes gorgeous blue exactly like Chris's.
"You think?" Darren asks, and he sounds nervous, but proud.
"No," Chris says, shaking his head as he corrects him. "I know."
(290 words)
"God, I feel so old," Darren says as he waves at their son, pulling his car out of the driveway, on his way back to college. "When did we get so old?"
"Hey, speak for yourself, old man," Chris says, a mischevous smirk on his face. "You've got three years on me. You're already over the hill." He looks at Darren, his curly hair thinner than it once was, peppered with grey, and he still feels just as in love as he did that first day where they met on set and he teased him about his height.
"Fuck you," Darren laughs, but he pulls Chris close anyway and kisses him, the gesture still making his heart go wild. It's something that's never going to change.
"I love you so much," Chris says, and he sighs out of sheer happiness.
"After all this time?" Darren's eyes sparkle, and he knows Chris will catch on to what he's going for.
"Always," Chris says, and then he laughs. "I can't believe you just quoted Harry Potter, you dork. You are such a dork, you know that?"
"Hey, you're the one that married me," Darren says, smiling wide to show all his teeth, and Chris knows he has a point.
"It's a good thing I love dorks, huh?"
"No, no," Darren says, shaking his head. "You love a dork. Me. I'm your dork."
"Yeah, yeah, I kind of love you," Chris says, and he pulls Darren in for another kiss.
"Forever?" Darren asks against his lips between kisses, and Chris smiles.
"Forever and a day, Darren."
"That doesn't even make sense. You can't have forever and a day. Forever means forever. It can't go further th--"
"Darren," Chris laughs, exasperated. "Don't make me change my mind."
The whole exchange actually just makes Chris love him more.