Fic: New York, New York | Part One: Road Full of Promise (7/13)
Title: New York, New York | Part One: Road Full of Promise (7/13)
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Kurt/Blaine, Rachel/Finn
Spoilers: Through 2x22 “New York”
Warnings: None
Word Count: 5,220
Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters. I’m just borrowing them for a little while.
Summary: Kurt stared dully at the blinking cursor on his computer screen. William Blake was the least of his concerns right now. How the hell could he have forgotten that Finn was coming?
Author's Note: Wow…so this chapter took way too long to write. I had to sit on it for a while before I got the inspiration I needed, and then RL kicked me in the ass. I’m so sorry about that, everybody. An enormous thank you to all who have waited patiently for this update! This chapter is super fluffy (welcome back, oblivious, cockblocking Rachel!), but some of its messages will be important down the road (ooh, foreshadowing). Chapters 8-11 are holiday-themed, so I am going to work my butt off to post them all by the end of the month.
Previous chapters: Kurtain (prologue) | Admission (prologue) | Spark (one-shot) | Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six
***
The first month and a half of college flew by in a blur of papers, coffee and dance steps. Before Kurt and Blaine knew it, it was fall break: four magnificent days free of classes, rehearsals - everything. They could hit the pause button on their chaotic lives and revel in the glory that was October in New York.
They’d been planning it since the middle of September: Blaine would take Sunday off work, Kurt would schedule his blog posts in advance; and then they would both close their laptops, put their books away, and get lost in the city - and each other.
It couldn’t come soon enough. Their busy calendars didn’t allow them nearly enough alone time. They’d quickly learned that living together didn’t mean they had built-in time - or energy - for sex. More often than not, they had to try and fit it in somewhere between laundry, and homework, and naps, and calling home, and impromptu philosophical discussions with their floormates about current events and hometown quirks and the best pizza places in Greenwich Village.
They usually settled for a different kind of intimacy: lying side by side in bed, Blaine humming along to his sheet music while Kurt listened, color-coding his class notes in three different shades of fluorescent highlighter; Kurt helping Blaine run his lines for acting class over morning coffee; Blaine snuggling his head into Kurt’s side as he fell into a deep sleep, while Kurt blogged and wrote papers well into the night.
Fall break was their chance to make up for lost time. For the past two weeks, they’d been teasing each other in anticipation: shooting off suggestive texts during work and whispering to one another in low voices over dinner.
“I have to say, my dance classes are making me very…flexible.”
“I’m going to test that statement during fall break.”
“Can we spend an entire day in bed during fall break?”
“Just one day?”
But Rachel threw a giant bucket of cold water on their plans when she breezed into their room three days before break began, as Kurt was desperately trying to finalize his literature paper. It was due next Thursday, and he’d be damned if he was going to spend a single second of his break doing homework.
“Do you guys have an air mattress?” she asked casually.
“No…why?” Kurt asked inattentively as he scanned the small paperback book in his hands, too engrossed in stanzas of The Chimney Sweeper to fully process her question. Blaine looked up from his script, punctuating Kurt’s inattentive response with a polite shake of his head.
Rachel bit her lip, deep in thought. “Okay. I guess I have time to go buy one tomorrow.” She put her hands on her hips and studied their room; her eyes roaming across the small expanse of carpet between the door and the bed. “A queen would fit in here, right?” Blaine lifted his head again, narrowing his eyes at her in confusion.
A few of Rachel’s words finally penetrated through to Kurt’s consciousness. In here? He tore his eyes from the black and white lines of poetry. “Come again?”
“A queen size air mattress. I don’t want Finn to have to sleep on a twin.”
Kurt blinked at her. “Finn?”
Over on the bed, Blaine’s eyes suddenly grew huge as he realized what she was saying.
“Yeeeesss.” Rachel drew out the word, as if she wasn’t sure why he was confused. “You guys said he could stay with you during break, remember?”
The memory slammed back to Kurt at once. “Finn can stay here with us.”
He’d made the offer so long ago - before classes had even started. Before their lives had gotten crazy. Before fall break had become an oasis in the distance that they’d been longing for, trudging toward; a much-deserved reward for their patience and hard work.
Oh my god, what was I thinking?
Kurt’s jaw dropped open. “Ohhhh…oh!” He quickly covered up his moan of regret with the interjection. “Yes. Right. Finn. Of course.” He forced a smile. “Of course,” he repeated, quieter now, as his and Blaine’s tantalizing dreams for break vanished before his eyes.
“So Chloe really won’t let him stay in your room?” Kurt could tell from the high pitch of Blaine’s voice that their trains of thought at the moment were identical.
“No!” Rachel stamped her foot indignantly at the mention of her loathed roommate. “She has some big project for…chemistry, or whatever, due the day after break is over. So she’s staying here the whole time.”
Kurt stared dully at the blinking cursor on his computer screen. William Blake was the least of his concerns right now. How the hell could he have forgotten that Finn was coming?
There’d certainly be no throwing Blaine down on the bed and screwing him senseless with his stepbrother hanging around. No long hours exploring Blaine’s newly toned, limber muscles, left hidden under clothing far too often lately...
“Kurt?” Rachel’s voice snapped him back from his indecent thoughts.
“What?” he answered quickly, cheeks pink with embarrassment and lust.
“I asked if you want to host dinner Friday night for all of us. I figured since Finn was in town, you’d like to make something special.”
“Dinner.” He’d been hoping to eat that Friday’s dinner directly off Blaine’s body. Guess I’ll have to rethink that presentation. “Yeah. Sure.”
Rachel gave them both a huge, bright smile. “Thank you so much, guys! You’re the best! We’re all going to have such a good time together!” And with that, she was gone, just as suddenly as she came.
Blaine blew out a breath, dropping his forehead down onto his script on the bed. “Damn.”
“Yeah.” Apparently, Kurt could still only speak in single syllables.
“I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to host Finn and help Rachel out and all that…” Blaine trailed off, realizing he didn’t need to explain himself any further. “But…damn.”
“I’m an idiot,” Kurt moaned, closing his eyes.
“Hey - no!” Blaine rolled off the bed and shuffled over to him, pushing himself onto the edge of Kurt’s chair. He curled his arm around Kurt’s shoulder so their bodies were pressed tightly together. “You did the right thing. It’ll be fine.”
“How, exactly? This was supposed to be our weekend together. It was going to be perfect.”
“We’ll just…” Blaine trailed off, shaking his head as desperately searched for the right words to make the situation better. “We’ll figure something out. I’m sure they’re not going to want to spend the entire time hanging out in here. We’ll still have plenty of time to ourselves.”
“Yeah, but all his stuff will be here. And his smell. That awful, straight boy smell, like socks or something.” Kurt wrinkled his nose in disgust. “It’ll ruin the mood.”
“Come on.” Blaine pulled the book out of Kurt’s hands, hoping to distract them both for a little while. “Let’s take a break. Half an hour?”
Kurt huffed out a breath. “We always only have half an hour.”
“I know.” Blaine’s voice was mournful.
“That’s why we’ve been planning our fall break sexcapade.”
Blaine chuckled, leaning in to nuzzle his nose against Kurt’s cheek. “Is that what you’ve actually been calling it?”
“No. I just thought of it now. But it’s a good name though, huh?”
“Mmmmhmmm.” Blaine was already kissing behind Kurt’s ear, lapping at the sensitive skin there with his tongue.
“I have to finish my paper.” Kurt’s protest was half-hearted, at best.
“It’s not due for a week.” Blaine reached his arm out in front of them, blindly closing the cover of Kurt’s laptop with a satisfying click. “You can work on it in half an hour.”
“What about your lines? You have class first thing in the morning.”
Blaine dragged his mouth over just slightly and began reciting his newly memorized lines directly into Kurt’s ear. His damp, rough whisper sent chills down Kurt’s spine.
"Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
Kurt swallowed hard. “Sounds like you’re ready, Polonius.”
“Oh, I’m ready.” Blaine swung his legs over Kurt’s lap, lifting himself up so the warm weight of his body pressed against Kurt’s chest and thighs. “Can I get that half hour now?”
***
When Rachel led Finn into Kurt and Blaine’s room late Friday afternoon - an uncomfortable smile on his face and a duffel bag slung over his shoulder - all Kurt could think was how strange it was to see his stepbrother here.
They’d all been in New York together before, but now it was different: Kurt had begun to think of his life at college as completely separate from his life at home; as if they were occurring in different dimensions. Now, with Finn here, the two disparate worlds were colliding, and it was weird.
Finn was even bigger than Kurt remembered: tall, of course, but stronger, bulkier; likely the result of his daily football practices. Rachel had never looked smaller, or more incongruous, next to him.
“I’m going to go upstairs to shower and change. I had to leave straight from dance class to pick you up at the airport.” She lifted herself up on her toes for a kiss; Finn obliged, bending down to give her a peck on the lips. “I’ll be back before you can miss me!” She grinned at Finn as she left him alone with Kurt.
Finn’s gaze wandered around the room, taking in Kurt and Blaine’s books and photos and furniture. Kurt had to assume the ambiance was quite different than his own accommodations at Ohio State. “Thanks for letting me crash with you guys,” he finally said, giving Kurt a goofy smile as he set his bag down against a wall. “Where’s Blaine?”
“He works on Friday afternoons. Till seven,” Kurt answered. “I’m going to make dinner tonight for all of us once he gets home. Hope you don’t mind vegan.”
Finn groaned. “Man. I totally forgot about that.”
“Yes. Well, neither Blaine nor I have died of starvation yet, so you should be okay for one weekend.”
Finn warily eyed the big bed. “Are you sure it’s cool if I stay here? I don’t wanna, you know…” He awkwardly waved his hands in the direction of the bed. “Interrupt anything.”
“Oh, god.” Kurt felt his cheeks get hot. You have no idea. “It’s not…it’s fine, Finn. Any time.”
***
It turned out that Finn actually couldn’t survive the weekend - or even a single night - on a vegan diet. So Kurt found himself leading his stepbrother to the nearest pizza joint around midnight that evening, after Blaine and Rachel had crashed: Blaine on their bed, Rachel on the air mattress she’d immediately snuggled into once she’d set it up on their floor after dinner.
Kurt justified the extra meal by reminding himself that it was a special occasion, and that Finn would probably eat most of whatever they ordered, anyway.
The conversation between brothers over a large, greasy pepperoni pizza was much different than the mirthful words they’d all exchanged earlier that evening. Finn spoke frankly about life at OSU: how he’d already made some of the best friends of his life on the football team; how he was pretty sure he wanted to major in health promotion, even though he kept telling Rachel he was studying music education - and how the girls were, apparently, a dream.
It was the same for Finn, Kurt mused as he listened to his brother talk about his own new life. He, too, was struggling to reconcile those separate worlds of college and home that seemingly existed on different planes. Except Finn had a third world to juggle: that of his girlfriend, living here in New York.
“A lot of the other guys I’ve met have already broken up with their high school girlfriends.” Finn devoured half his slice in one bite, speaking around the food in his mouth. “Too much to think about, you know? School, football, parties. And other girls.” His mind wandered back to his dorm, hundreds of miles away, and the face of a pretty brunette who lived four doors down from him. “There’s a lot of girls there.”
“Are you trying to tell me you want to break up with Rachel?” Kurt asked, his voice flat and rushed. He winced as he braced himself for the answer.
“No!” Finn exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air in innocence. “No. I mean, I don’t know. Maybe?” He sighed. “I’m just a little confused. I feel…held back from something.”
“Something being hookups with random girls?”
“It’s not like that!” Finn blew out a breath, frustrated by his inability to articulate what he was feeling. “It’s like, we’re holding on to something old. It’s not bad, it’s just not…what’s right for us anymore. You know?”
Kurt frowned. “I guess,” he mumbled, picking round slices of pepperoni off his share of the pizza. Maybe he was losing his taste for meat products, too. “All I know is that Rachel loves you, and that she hasn’t mentioned anything like this to me. Not about you, and not about any other guys.”
Finn dropped his head back against the booth with a groan. “I love her, too. We’ve been through a lot together. I just kinda feel like we’re not going the same places. She’s here and I’m there. She’s always going to be here.”
“But you’ve known that for a while. What makes everything different now?” Kurt could see Finn’s eyes darting across the ceiling, as if he were looking for answers in the stained, faded tiles above them.
“Because now it’s real. It’s not something we can put off, or forget about. It’s here.”
Kurt dumped his pepperoni onto Finn’s plate. “Look, Finn. You need to decide what means more to you: what you have with Rachel, and trying to make that work, or all these other possibilities you’re obviously thinking about.” He gave Finn a sympathetic look. “For now, just relax and try to enjoy this weekend. You guys haven’t seen each other for nearly two months. No wonder you’re so confused. Spend some quality time together, and then see how you feel. But…either way, be fair to her, please? She’s my best friend.”
Finn grabbed Kurt’s discarded pizza crust from his plate - “Carbs,” was all Kurt had said as he gestured for Finn to take it - and tore into it, deep in thought. “How do you guys do it?”
“Us guys?”
“You and Blaine.”
Kurt shrugged, even though his heart swelled at the idea that Finn was - sort of - asking him for relationship advice. “We just…do it. It’s what feels right. I don’t ever think that I’m missing out on anything by being with him. Quite the opposite, actually.” Kurt smiled to himself without even realizing it. “I don’t care about any other…options. I just want him. We’re making a life here, together.”
Finn was quiet for a moment, weighing Kurt’s words against his own feelings. They made him feel panicked; like he knew the answer to his worries, but he didn't want to let himself look at it. So he kept his blinders on, and instead focused his attention on Kurt.
“How’d you get Burt to let you guys live together?”
Kurt raised an eyebrow. “We had a discussion,” he replied vaguely.
“Sounds like fun.”
“It was a blast. Right up there with the talk.”
“Does he know you guys are, like…” Finn awkwardly trailed off. “Sleeping together?”
Are we actually talking about this? Although Kurt and Finn were stepbrothers, their differing sexualities had usually been a barrier between them when it came to discussions about intimacy.
“He deduced as much.” On a whim, Kurt decided to push his comments to the edge of their comfort zone. “But I feel like we might as well be sleeping separately, since we can’t take advantage of our big bed with you and Rachel crashing on our floor.”
Kurt burst out laughing as Finn suddenly looked up from his pizza; the expression on his face a mixture of shock, horror and panic.
“Oh, man. Now that’s all I’m gonna be able to think about when I’m in there.”
“Then do me a favor,” Kurt replied, still chuckling. “Do your best to not be in there as much as possible this weekend. Catch my drift?”
Finn turned bright pink. “Got it. I think I’ll let Rachel drag me wherever she wants tomorrow.”
***
Rachel was in full-on tour guide mode when she came back down to Kurt and Blaine’s room Saturday morning. It was her stated mission to show Finn everything while he was in New York - everything she thought he should see, anyway.
“So today I thought we’d do a loosely structured walk around Midtown. I definitely want Finn to see the Empire State Building and Times Square and the rest of the Theatre District. Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center...”
Blaine raised an eyebrow at her loosely structured tour plans. “That’s a lot, Rachel.”
“Well, whatever we don’t see today, we can visit tomorrow!”
Excellent, Kurt thought happily as he leafed through a copy of Vogue. He wasn’t actually reading the magazine; just flipping page after page, ticking down the seconds until he and Blaine were finally alone.
Rachel looked over to him, loafing on the bed in jeans and chucks. “Are you guys all ready to go?”
Kurt’s gaze flicked up from his magazine. What? “We’re not going with you.”
Finn’s eyes darted over to Kurt, then down to the bed. “Rachel, they don’t have to come with us…”
“You don’t want to come?” she asked Kurt, cutting Finn off. Her brow wrinkled in confusion. “I thought we were all going to hang out together this weekend!”
Kurt opened his mouth to turn her down as gently, and quickly, as possible. But Blaine spoke first.
“Of course we are!” Kurt knew too well the grin he saw plastered on his boyfriend’s face: broad, polite, over-happy. “We’d love to spend the day with you guys.”
Kurt shot Blaine a deadly look, trying to communicate with his eyes. What the hell are you doing? But somehow, the message failed to reach its intended recipient.
Rachel grinned back at him. “Well, let’s go!”
“What the hell are you doing?” Kurt hissed to Blaine as Rachel led Finn out of the room.
“Let’s get out of here for a little while. We need to spend some time with your brother while he’s here.” He took Kurt’s hand, pulling him off the bed and out the door. “And besides, when was the last time we went out in the city together?”
Kurt’s sigh was long and exaggerated. Their sexcapade would have to wait a few hours more. “I hate that you’re right.”
***
They had no chance of visiting all the spots on Rachel’s list in one day. Whereas the three NYU students had already adopted the fast pace of city life - cruising along crowded sidewalks, weaving among throngs of people, tuning out the loud and strange - Finn was still a true-blue country boy.
He walked too slowly, getting caught behind similarly plodding, rambling groups of tourists. He stopped to stare at every taxi that blared its horn, at every homeless person sitting against the edge of a building, at every person who raised his voice.
It drove Kurt absolutely insane.
He wasn’t the only one. Rachel was clearly exasperated at Finn’s lack of interest in the sights she was hauling him to. She kept pointing things out (“That’s the Gershwin! Where Kurt and I snuck in to sing from Wicked!”), only to have him stare down at her blankly, as if he’d never heard of what she was talking about. Worse, he’d often get distracted by something far less important.
“Dude. McDonald’s delivers?”
Kurt looked at him, disgusted. “Everything delivers, Finn. It’s New York City. Nobody has a car.”
Kurt could already hardly recall a time when he’d never been to New York. It was only a year and a half ago that they’d come here for Nationals; now the city was his home. The scope of his world had broadened so rapidly in such a short amount of time that he barely remembered the day-to-day details of his former life: living in a small town, driving his car to school every day, surrounded by bland nothingness instead of incredible diversity and constant activity.
“This is not what I had planned for today,” Rachel whispered harshly to Kurt, glaring back at Finn and Blaine strolling casually behind them, chatting about football between bites of hot dogs. Finn had insisted they stop for lunch at a hot dog cart - an act that only served to irritate Rachel even more.
“Oh, trust me,” Kurt shot back, his voice full of annoyance. “The last thing I expected to be doing today was towing my stepbrother through Midtown while he and my boyfriend bond over nasty street food.”
When Finn and Blaine finally caught up with them, Rachel looped her arm through Finn’s and pulled him along the sidewalk, pointing toward the American Girl store across the street. “Oh! I had three of those dolls when I was a little girl…”
Kurt and Blaine fell into step behind them. Blaine could sense that Kurt was pissed off. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong, Blaine?” Kurt responded sarcastically. “We’re wandering aimlessly around the city when we should be-” he dropped his voice to a low tremor “-rolling around in bed, scr-”
“Okay, okay.” Blaine cut him off, hoping to forestall the visual Kurt was about to put in his mind - for now, anyway. “Don’t get exasperated. I gave Finn the name of a restaurant to take her out to tonight. We’ll be in the clear.” Blaine had suggested a fancy, romantic eatery - one that had delicious food, but incredibly slow service, according to multiple Yelp reviews.
“I can’t wait.” Kurt just hoped Finn didn’t drop his I’ve been thinking maybe we should see other people bomb on Rachel over dinner. He turned his attention to the food in Blaine’s hand. “A hot dog, Blaine?”
“What? Forgive me if I’m left wanting a little more than sprout pitas,” he said, wincing at the memory of the previous night’s dinner.
“It was the least sexy meal I could think of.”
“Plus, it’s the only wiener I can get right now,” Blaine added, frowning at Finn and Rachel’s backs.
Kurt spluttered, nearly choking on the water he’d just sipped on. Blaine clapped hard on his shoulder blades, biting back a laugh as Finn and Rachel turned around to make sure Kurt was okay.
“He’s fine.” Blaine waved them off with a smile as Kurt tried to collect himself, shooting Blaine a horrified look through watery eyes.
“You are such a nerd,” Kurt wheezed when he was finally able to talk, face red from coughing and complete mortification.
Blaine just grinned, throwing an arm around Kurt’s shoulders and crushing him close as they walked down the street. "Just trying to make you smile."
***
It took about two seconds after Kurt and Blaine saw the taxi door slam shut behind Finn from their vantage point at their eighth floor window that they were on each other, hard and fast.
It wasn’t the slow, lazy savoring of bodies they’d been looking forward to; but it was satisfying nonetheless, leaving them dizzy and panting. They lay together in bed afterward, tangled in wrinkled sheets and damp limbs. The only sound was their quiet breathing, in and out, as they watched the light in the room dim with dusk.
“We have to eat,” Kurt finally mumbled, breaking the quiet before his growling stomach had the chance.
The sound Blaine made was practically inhuman. “I am not getting up,” he moaned, curling his body closer to Kurt’s.
Kurt laughed softly, absently rubbing at Blaine’s naked thigh, warm and hairy underneath his hand. After a few more hushed moments, he suddenly picked his head up; his eyes bright with an idea. “Sushi?”
Yes, everything did deliver in New York, including sushi: Kurt and Blaine’s one consistent splurge since arriving in the city. Fifty minutes later, they were sitting up in bed, clad only in boxer briefs, trading sushi rolls and secrets.
“He said he feels like he’s holding on to something old,” Kurt said, spilling the details of his talk with Finn. “That it’s not right for them anymore.”
Blaine hummed in agreement. “I can see that. They’re in two different places. Literally and figuratively.”
Kurt poked at a tuna avocado roll, quietly contemplating Finn’s concerns. “Do you ever feel like you’re missing out on something by staying with me?” Kurt asked, his tone serious. “Should we be exploring or dating other people to get the full college experience?”
Blaine paused to pick up a tiny chunk of wasabi with the tip of one of his chopsticks. “Well, let’s see,” he began as he slathered the spicy, green paste on top of a California roll. “You make me laugh and smile. You take care of me when I need help - which is pretty much every day of my life. You make me dinner-” he gestured to the spread in front of them “-or remind me of really good alternatives to making dinner when I’m too exhausted to function.”
Blaine held the roll to Kurt’s lips, smiling when Kurt let him feed it to him. When he continued speaking, his voice was lower, more gravelly. “You treat me like I’m your family. And I’m madly in love with everything about you.” He chased the bite with a lingering kiss, pressed wet and firm against Kurt’s closed lips. “So I guess that’s my way of saying, yes, we should definitely experiment with other people.”
Kurt batted him on the knee, laughing. “Okay, okay, I get it. I’m being ridiculous.”
“Yes. You are being ridiculous.”
“I just wanted to check.”
Blaine grinned at him. These were the parts of living together Blaine had learned to love the most: seeing Kurt the way no one else ever saw him. Blaine seriously doubted Kurt would ever let anyone else feed him - while practically naked, and in bed, for goodness sake.
No, he never felt like he was missing out on anything with this boy by his side.
Their sweet dinner quickly descended into erotic play when soy sauce accidentally dripped onto the hand Kurt held under Blaine’s chin as he fed him a sushi roll. Blaine grabbed Kurt’s wrist, licking the dark drop off his palm with one long, slow stroke of his tongue.
A low moan rumbled in Kurt’s throat. “You know,” he purred. “This reminds me of what I had originally planned for dinner last night.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. To kick off our sexcapade.”
Dinner ended quickly after that. Their kisses were deep and hungry; their touches hard digs, slow slides over every bit of skin they could reach. Kurt would never again be able to taste soy sauce without thinking of how it mingled with Blaine’s flavors: salty and smooth and manly and so hot.
They barely had time to fix their sheets, and their clothes, and their hair, before Finn was back; Rachel lingering by their door for so long that Kurt told her to just stay in their room for another night, already.
***
They turned the rest of break into a game: how long could they make out for when Finn went off to the shower? What excuses could they come up with - while trying to cause the other to break his straight face - for why they couldn’t join Finn and Rachel for a trip to the Guggenheim, or the Statue of Liberty, or dinner at Sardi’s?
(Kurt nearly lost it at the way Blaine said “dissection” when he fabricated a story about needing to complete an extra credit biology assignment.)
And when Finn and Rachel were gone, Kurt and Blaine finally spent their blessed day in bed together. Kurt took his sweet time exploring every inch of Blaine’s body; running his tongue along hard ridges and angular curves, committing his toned, tanned physique to memory. Blaine gave right back, pinning Kurt to the mattress by his hands, then his hips, then the backs of his knees, pouring everything he had into the tight contact between them.
They were so satiated that they didn’t even care when Rachel fell asleep on Finn’s air mattress again that night, and the next.
***
On Tuesday - the last day of break - they joined Finn and Rachel for a morning stroll through Central Park. Kurt and Blaine dawdled behind, sneaking surreptitious whispers and smiles, oblivious to the world around them. Fall break had left them rejuvenated, and more smitten with each other than ever before.
The four spent nearly an hour stretched out on blankets, chatting about anything and everything as they watched mothers and nannies push strollers along the park’s paved, winding paths.
“That will be me someday,” Rachel sighed, reaching for Finn’s hand as she gazed at a mother fussing over her baby.
“Really? You’d want to have kids in a city like this?”
“Of course!” she exclaimed. “There’s so much culture here. It would be an amazing place to grow up.”
Finn frowned. “I don’t know. What about playing outside in the backyard? Or football.”
Blaine rolled onto his side to face Kurt, turning his back to Finn and Rachel’s awkward conversation.
“What do you think?” Blaine prompted, leaning his head on his hand.
“About?” Kurt was reclining on his elbows, staring up into the impossibly blue October sky. He wanted to absorb all the warmth and peace of this day before they slid back into chaos tomorrow morning.
“Raising a family in the city.”
Kurt turned his head sharply, his gaze scrutinizing. “What do I think objectively, or -”
“Would you want to?” Blaine supplied, hopeful.
Kurt blinked at him, several times in rapid succession. They had never talked about this before. Had they? No. Surely, Kurt would recall if children had ever come up in their discussions about the future. Usually they were all about dream apartments, dream jobs and roles, dream dinner parties that were the envy of their fabulous friends.
In all honesty, Kurt was ambivalent about children. He tolerated them on the few occasions he came into contact with them, but he’d never really thought about having kids of his own. Not until this very moment, that is.
Because, as he turned to look out into the distance, he caught sight of a man throwing his laughing, toddling daughter in the air. All he could see was Blaine. The vision struck him like a freight train.
Kurt turned back to Blaine, offering him a small, tentative smile. “Only if you want to,” he answered. The grin Blaine gave him in response set his heart on fire.
Blaine settled back on his elbows, mirroring Kurt’s pose, and loosely wove the fingers of his left hand into Kurt’s right hand. “I want to,” he said, as they both watched the same father and little girl.
Continue to chapter eight
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Kurt/Blaine, Rachel/Finn
Spoilers: Through 2x22 “New York”
Warnings: None
Word Count: 5,220
Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters. I’m just borrowing them for a little while.
Summary: Kurt stared dully at the blinking cursor on his computer screen. William Blake was the least of his concerns right now. How the hell could he have forgotten that Finn was coming?
Author's Note: Wow…so this chapter took way too long to write. I had to sit on it for a while before I got the inspiration I needed, and then RL kicked me in the ass. I’m so sorry about that, everybody. An enormous thank you to all who have waited patiently for this update! This chapter is super fluffy (welcome back, oblivious, cockblocking Rachel!), but some of its messages will be important down the road (ooh, foreshadowing). Chapters 8-11 are holiday-themed, so I am going to work my butt off to post them all by the end of the month.
Previous chapters: Kurtain (prologue) | Admission (prologue) | Spark (one-shot) | Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six
***
The first month and a half of college flew by in a blur of papers, coffee and dance steps. Before Kurt and Blaine knew it, it was fall break: four magnificent days free of classes, rehearsals - everything. They could hit the pause button on their chaotic lives and revel in the glory that was October in New York.
They’d been planning it since the middle of September: Blaine would take Sunday off work, Kurt would schedule his blog posts in advance; and then they would both close their laptops, put their books away, and get lost in the city - and each other.
It couldn’t come soon enough. Their busy calendars didn’t allow them nearly enough alone time. They’d quickly learned that living together didn’t mean they had built-in time - or energy - for sex. More often than not, they had to try and fit it in somewhere between laundry, and homework, and naps, and calling home, and impromptu philosophical discussions with their floormates about current events and hometown quirks and the best pizza places in Greenwich Village.
They usually settled for a different kind of intimacy: lying side by side in bed, Blaine humming along to his sheet music while Kurt listened, color-coding his class notes in three different shades of fluorescent highlighter; Kurt helping Blaine run his lines for acting class over morning coffee; Blaine snuggling his head into Kurt’s side as he fell into a deep sleep, while Kurt blogged and wrote papers well into the night.
Fall break was their chance to make up for lost time. For the past two weeks, they’d been teasing each other in anticipation: shooting off suggestive texts during work and whispering to one another in low voices over dinner.
“I have to say, my dance classes are making me very…flexible.”
“I’m going to test that statement during fall break.”
“Can we spend an entire day in bed during fall break?”
“Just one day?”
But Rachel threw a giant bucket of cold water on their plans when she breezed into their room three days before break began, as Kurt was desperately trying to finalize his literature paper. It was due next Thursday, and he’d be damned if he was going to spend a single second of his break doing homework.
“Do you guys have an air mattress?” she asked casually.
“No…why?” Kurt asked inattentively as he scanned the small paperback book in his hands, too engrossed in stanzas of The Chimney Sweeper to fully process her question. Blaine looked up from his script, punctuating Kurt’s inattentive response with a polite shake of his head.
Rachel bit her lip, deep in thought. “Okay. I guess I have time to go buy one tomorrow.” She put her hands on her hips and studied their room; her eyes roaming across the small expanse of carpet between the door and the bed. “A queen would fit in here, right?” Blaine lifted his head again, narrowing his eyes at her in confusion.
A few of Rachel’s words finally penetrated through to Kurt’s consciousness. In here? He tore his eyes from the black and white lines of poetry. “Come again?”
“A queen size air mattress. I don’t want Finn to have to sleep on a twin.”
Kurt blinked at her. “Finn?”
Over on the bed, Blaine’s eyes suddenly grew huge as he realized what she was saying.
“Yeeeesss.” Rachel drew out the word, as if she wasn’t sure why he was confused. “You guys said he could stay with you during break, remember?”
The memory slammed back to Kurt at once. “Finn can stay here with us.”
He’d made the offer so long ago - before classes had even started. Before their lives had gotten crazy. Before fall break had become an oasis in the distance that they’d been longing for, trudging toward; a much-deserved reward for their patience and hard work.
Oh my god, what was I thinking?
Kurt’s jaw dropped open. “Ohhhh…oh!” He quickly covered up his moan of regret with the interjection. “Yes. Right. Finn. Of course.” He forced a smile. “Of course,” he repeated, quieter now, as his and Blaine’s tantalizing dreams for break vanished before his eyes.
“So Chloe really won’t let him stay in your room?” Kurt could tell from the high pitch of Blaine’s voice that their trains of thought at the moment were identical.
“No!” Rachel stamped her foot indignantly at the mention of her loathed roommate. “She has some big project for…chemistry, or whatever, due the day after break is over. So she’s staying here the whole time.”
Kurt stared dully at the blinking cursor on his computer screen. William Blake was the least of his concerns right now. How the hell could he have forgotten that Finn was coming?
There’d certainly be no throwing Blaine down on the bed and screwing him senseless with his stepbrother hanging around. No long hours exploring Blaine’s newly toned, limber muscles, left hidden under clothing far too often lately...
“Kurt?” Rachel’s voice snapped him back from his indecent thoughts.
“What?” he answered quickly, cheeks pink with embarrassment and lust.
“I asked if you want to host dinner Friday night for all of us. I figured since Finn was in town, you’d like to make something special.”
“Dinner.” He’d been hoping to eat that Friday’s dinner directly off Blaine’s body. Guess I’ll have to rethink that presentation. “Yeah. Sure.”
Rachel gave them both a huge, bright smile. “Thank you so much, guys! You’re the best! We’re all going to have such a good time together!” And with that, she was gone, just as suddenly as she came.
Blaine blew out a breath, dropping his forehead down onto his script on the bed. “Damn.”
“Yeah.” Apparently, Kurt could still only speak in single syllables.
“I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to host Finn and help Rachel out and all that…” Blaine trailed off, realizing he didn’t need to explain himself any further. “But…damn.”
“I’m an idiot,” Kurt moaned, closing his eyes.
“Hey - no!” Blaine rolled off the bed and shuffled over to him, pushing himself onto the edge of Kurt’s chair. He curled his arm around Kurt’s shoulder so their bodies were pressed tightly together. “You did the right thing. It’ll be fine.”
“How, exactly? This was supposed to be our weekend together. It was going to be perfect.”
“We’ll just…” Blaine trailed off, shaking his head as desperately searched for the right words to make the situation better. “We’ll figure something out. I’m sure they’re not going to want to spend the entire time hanging out in here. We’ll still have plenty of time to ourselves.”
“Yeah, but all his stuff will be here. And his smell. That awful, straight boy smell, like socks or something.” Kurt wrinkled his nose in disgust. “It’ll ruin the mood.”
“Come on.” Blaine pulled the book out of Kurt’s hands, hoping to distract them both for a little while. “Let’s take a break. Half an hour?”
Kurt huffed out a breath. “We always only have half an hour.”
“I know.” Blaine’s voice was mournful.
“That’s why we’ve been planning our fall break sexcapade.”
Blaine chuckled, leaning in to nuzzle his nose against Kurt’s cheek. “Is that what you’ve actually been calling it?”
“No. I just thought of it now. But it’s a good name though, huh?”
“Mmmmhmmm.” Blaine was already kissing behind Kurt’s ear, lapping at the sensitive skin there with his tongue.
“I have to finish my paper.” Kurt’s protest was half-hearted, at best.
“It’s not due for a week.” Blaine reached his arm out in front of them, blindly closing the cover of Kurt’s laptop with a satisfying click. “You can work on it in half an hour.”
“What about your lines? You have class first thing in the morning.”
Blaine dragged his mouth over just slightly and began reciting his newly memorized lines directly into Kurt’s ear. His damp, rough whisper sent chills down Kurt’s spine.
"Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
Kurt swallowed hard. “Sounds like you’re ready, Polonius.”
“Oh, I’m ready.” Blaine swung his legs over Kurt’s lap, lifting himself up so the warm weight of his body pressed against Kurt’s chest and thighs. “Can I get that half hour now?”
***
When Rachel led Finn into Kurt and Blaine’s room late Friday afternoon - an uncomfortable smile on his face and a duffel bag slung over his shoulder - all Kurt could think was how strange it was to see his stepbrother here.
They’d all been in New York together before, but now it was different: Kurt had begun to think of his life at college as completely separate from his life at home; as if they were occurring in different dimensions. Now, with Finn here, the two disparate worlds were colliding, and it was weird.
Finn was even bigger than Kurt remembered: tall, of course, but stronger, bulkier; likely the result of his daily football practices. Rachel had never looked smaller, or more incongruous, next to him.
“I’m going to go upstairs to shower and change. I had to leave straight from dance class to pick you up at the airport.” She lifted herself up on her toes for a kiss; Finn obliged, bending down to give her a peck on the lips. “I’ll be back before you can miss me!” She grinned at Finn as she left him alone with Kurt.
Finn’s gaze wandered around the room, taking in Kurt and Blaine’s books and photos and furniture. Kurt had to assume the ambiance was quite different than his own accommodations at Ohio State. “Thanks for letting me crash with you guys,” he finally said, giving Kurt a goofy smile as he set his bag down against a wall. “Where’s Blaine?”
“He works on Friday afternoons. Till seven,” Kurt answered. “I’m going to make dinner tonight for all of us once he gets home. Hope you don’t mind vegan.”
Finn groaned. “Man. I totally forgot about that.”
“Yes. Well, neither Blaine nor I have died of starvation yet, so you should be okay for one weekend.”
Finn warily eyed the big bed. “Are you sure it’s cool if I stay here? I don’t wanna, you know…” He awkwardly waved his hands in the direction of the bed. “Interrupt anything.”
“Oh, god.” Kurt felt his cheeks get hot. You have no idea. “It’s not…it’s fine, Finn. Any time.”
***
It turned out that Finn actually couldn’t survive the weekend - or even a single night - on a vegan diet. So Kurt found himself leading his stepbrother to the nearest pizza joint around midnight that evening, after Blaine and Rachel had crashed: Blaine on their bed, Rachel on the air mattress she’d immediately snuggled into once she’d set it up on their floor after dinner.
Kurt justified the extra meal by reminding himself that it was a special occasion, and that Finn would probably eat most of whatever they ordered, anyway.
The conversation between brothers over a large, greasy pepperoni pizza was much different than the mirthful words they’d all exchanged earlier that evening. Finn spoke frankly about life at OSU: how he’d already made some of the best friends of his life on the football team; how he was pretty sure he wanted to major in health promotion, even though he kept telling Rachel he was studying music education - and how the girls were, apparently, a dream.
It was the same for Finn, Kurt mused as he listened to his brother talk about his own new life. He, too, was struggling to reconcile those separate worlds of college and home that seemingly existed on different planes. Except Finn had a third world to juggle: that of his girlfriend, living here in New York.
“A lot of the other guys I’ve met have already broken up with their high school girlfriends.” Finn devoured half his slice in one bite, speaking around the food in his mouth. “Too much to think about, you know? School, football, parties. And other girls.” His mind wandered back to his dorm, hundreds of miles away, and the face of a pretty brunette who lived four doors down from him. “There’s a lot of girls there.”
“Are you trying to tell me you want to break up with Rachel?” Kurt asked, his voice flat and rushed. He winced as he braced himself for the answer.
“No!” Finn exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air in innocence. “No. I mean, I don’t know. Maybe?” He sighed. “I’m just a little confused. I feel…held back from something.”
“Something being hookups with random girls?”
“It’s not like that!” Finn blew out a breath, frustrated by his inability to articulate what he was feeling. “It’s like, we’re holding on to something old. It’s not bad, it’s just not…what’s right for us anymore. You know?”
Kurt frowned. “I guess,” he mumbled, picking round slices of pepperoni off his share of the pizza. Maybe he was losing his taste for meat products, too. “All I know is that Rachel loves you, and that she hasn’t mentioned anything like this to me. Not about you, and not about any other guys.”
Finn dropped his head back against the booth with a groan. “I love her, too. We’ve been through a lot together. I just kinda feel like we’re not going the same places. She’s here and I’m there. She’s always going to be here.”
“But you’ve known that for a while. What makes everything different now?” Kurt could see Finn’s eyes darting across the ceiling, as if he were looking for answers in the stained, faded tiles above them.
“Because now it’s real. It’s not something we can put off, or forget about. It’s here.”
Kurt dumped his pepperoni onto Finn’s plate. “Look, Finn. You need to decide what means more to you: what you have with Rachel, and trying to make that work, or all these other possibilities you’re obviously thinking about.” He gave Finn a sympathetic look. “For now, just relax and try to enjoy this weekend. You guys haven’t seen each other for nearly two months. No wonder you’re so confused. Spend some quality time together, and then see how you feel. But…either way, be fair to her, please? She’s my best friend.”
Finn grabbed Kurt’s discarded pizza crust from his plate - “Carbs,” was all Kurt had said as he gestured for Finn to take it - and tore into it, deep in thought. “How do you guys do it?”
“Us guys?”
“You and Blaine.”
Kurt shrugged, even though his heart swelled at the idea that Finn was - sort of - asking him for relationship advice. “We just…do it. It’s what feels right. I don’t ever think that I’m missing out on anything by being with him. Quite the opposite, actually.” Kurt smiled to himself without even realizing it. “I don’t care about any other…options. I just want him. We’re making a life here, together.”
Finn was quiet for a moment, weighing Kurt’s words against his own feelings. They made him feel panicked; like he knew the answer to his worries, but he didn't want to let himself look at it. So he kept his blinders on, and instead focused his attention on Kurt.
“How’d you get Burt to let you guys live together?”
Kurt raised an eyebrow. “We had a discussion,” he replied vaguely.
“Sounds like fun.”
“It was a blast. Right up there with the talk.”
“Does he know you guys are, like…” Finn awkwardly trailed off. “Sleeping together?”
Are we actually talking about this? Although Kurt and Finn were stepbrothers, their differing sexualities had usually been a barrier between them when it came to discussions about intimacy.
“He deduced as much.” On a whim, Kurt decided to push his comments to the edge of their comfort zone. “But I feel like we might as well be sleeping separately, since we can’t take advantage of our big bed with you and Rachel crashing on our floor.”
Kurt burst out laughing as Finn suddenly looked up from his pizza; the expression on his face a mixture of shock, horror and panic.
“Oh, man. Now that’s all I’m gonna be able to think about when I’m in there.”
“Then do me a favor,” Kurt replied, still chuckling. “Do your best to not be in there as much as possible this weekend. Catch my drift?”
Finn turned bright pink. “Got it. I think I’ll let Rachel drag me wherever she wants tomorrow.”
***
Rachel was in full-on tour guide mode when she came back down to Kurt and Blaine’s room Saturday morning. It was her stated mission to show Finn everything while he was in New York - everything she thought he should see, anyway.
“So today I thought we’d do a loosely structured walk around Midtown. I definitely want Finn to see the Empire State Building and Times Square and the rest of the Theatre District. Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center...”
Blaine raised an eyebrow at her loosely structured tour plans. “That’s a lot, Rachel.”
“Well, whatever we don’t see today, we can visit tomorrow!”
Excellent, Kurt thought happily as he leafed through a copy of Vogue. He wasn’t actually reading the magazine; just flipping page after page, ticking down the seconds until he and Blaine were finally alone.
Rachel looked over to him, loafing on the bed in jeans and chucks. “Are you guys all ready to go?”
Kurt’s gaze flicked up from his magazine. What? “We’re not going with you.”
Finn’s eyes darted over to Kurt, then down to the bed. “Rachel, they don’t have to come with us…”
“You don’t want to come?” she asked Kurt, cutting Finn off. Her brow wrinkled in confusion. “I thought we were all going to hang out together this weekend!”
Kurt opened his mouth to turn her down as gently, and quickly, as possible. But Blaine spoke first.
“Of course we are!” Kurt knew too well the grin he saw plastered on his boyfriend’s face: broad, polite, over-happy. “We’d love to spend the day with you guys.”
Kurt shot Blaine a deadly look, trying to communicate with his eyes. What the hell are you doing? But somehow, the message failed to reach its intended recipient.
Rachel grinned back at him. “Well, let’s go!”
“What the hell are you doing?” Kurt hissed to Blaine as Rachel led Finn out of the room.
“Let’s get out of here for a little while. We need to spend some time with your brother while he’s here.” He took Kurt’s hand, pulling him off the bed and out the door. “And besides, when was the last time we went out in the city together?”
Kurt’s sigh was long and exaggerated. Their sexcapade would have to wait a few hours more. “I hate that you’re right.”
***
They had no chance of visiting all the spots on Rachel’s list in one day. Whereas the three NYU students had already adopted the fast pace of city life - cruising along crowded sidewalks, weaving among throngs of people, tuning out the loud and strange - Finn was still a true-blue country boy.
He walked too slowly, getting caught behind similarly plodding, rambling groups of tourists. He stopped to stare at every taxi that blared its horn, at every homeless person sitting against the edge of a building, at every person who raised his voice.
It drove Kurt absolutely insane.
He wasn’t the only one. Rachel was clearly exasperated at Finn’s lack of interest in the sights she was hauling him to. She kept pointing things out (“That’s the Gershwin! Where Kurt and I snuck in to sing from Wicked!”), only to have him stare down at her blankly, as if he’d never heard of what she was talking about. Worse, he’d often get distracted by something far less important.
“Dude. McDonald’s delivers?”
Kurt looked at him, disgusted. “Everything delivers, Finn. It’s New York City. Nobody has a car.”
Kurt could already hardly recall a time when he’d never been to New York. It was only a year and a half ago that they’d come here for Nationals; now the city was his home. The scope of his world had broadened so rapidly in such a short amount of time that he barely remembered the day-to-day details of his former life: living in a small town, driving his car to school every day, surrounded by bland nothingness instead of incredible diversity and constant activity.
“This is not what I had planned for today,” Rachel whispered harshly to Kurt, glaring back at Finn and Blaine strolling casually behind them, chatting about football between bites of hot dogs. Finn had insisted they stop for lunch at a hot dog cart - an act that only served to irritate Rachel even more.
“Oh, trust me,” Kurt shot back, his voice full of annoyance. “The last thing I expected to be doing today was towing my stepbrother through Midtown while he and my boyfriend bond over nasty street food.”
When Finn and Blaine finally caught up with them, Rachel looped her arm through Finn’s and pulled him along the sidewalk, pointing toward the American Girl store across the street. “Oh! I had three of those dolls when I was a little girl…”
Kurt and Blaine fell into step behind them. Blaine could sense that Kurt was pissed off. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong, Blaine?” Kurt responded sarcastically. “We’re wandering aimlessly around the city when we should be-” he dropped his voice to a low tremor “-rolling around in bed, scr-”
“Okay, okay.” Blaine cut him off, hoping to forestall the visual Kurt was about to put in his mind - for now, anyway. “Don’t get exasperated. I gave Finn the name of a restaurant to take her out to tonight. We’ll be in the clear.” Blaine had suggested a fancy, romantic eatery - one that had delicious food, but incredibly slow service, according to multiple Yelp reviews.
“I can’t wait.” Kurt just hoped Finn didn’t drop his I’ve been thinking maybe we should see other people bomb on Rachel over dinner. He turned his attention to the food in Blaine’s hand. “A hot dog, Blaine?”
“What? Forgive me if I’m left wanting a little more than sprout pitas,” he said, wincing at the memory of the previous night’s dinner.
“It was the least sexy meal I could think of.”
“Plus, it’s the only wiener I can get right now,” Blaine added, frowning at Finn and Rachel’s backs.
Kurt spluttered, nearly choking on the water he’d just sipped on. Blaine clapped hard on his shoulder blades, biting back a laugh as Finn and Rachel turned around to make sure Kurt was okay.
“He’s fine.” Blaine waved them off with a smile as Kurt tried to collect himself, shooting Blaine a horrified look through watery eyes.
“You are such a nerd,” Kurt wheezed when he was finally able to talk, face red from coughing and complete mortification.
Blaine just grinned, throwing an arm around Kurt’s shoulders and crushing him close as they walked down the street. "Just trying to make you smile."
***
It took about two seconds after Kurt and Blaine saw the taxi door slam shut behind Finn from their vantage point at their eighth floor window that they were on each other, hard and fast.
It wasn’t the slow, lazy savoring of bodies they’d been looking forward to; but it was satisfying nonetheless, leaving them dizzy and panting. They lay together in bed afterward, tangled in wrinkled sheets and damp limbs. The only sound was their quiet breathing, in and out, as they watched the light in the room dim with dusk.
“We have to eat,” Kurt finally mumbled, breaking the quiet before his growling stomach had the chance.
The sound Blaine made was practically inhuman. “I am not getting up,” he moaned, curling his body closer to Kurt’s.
Kurt laughed softly, absently rubbing at Blaine’s naked thigh, warm and hairy underneath his hand. After a few more hushed moments, he suddenly picked his head up; his eyes bright with an idea. “Sushi?”
Yes, everything did deliver in New York, including sushi: Kurt and Blaine’s one consistent splurge since arriving in the city. Fifty minutes later, they were sitting up in bed, clad only in boxer briefs, trading sushi rolls and secrets.
“He said he feels like he’s holding on to something old,” Kurt said, spilling the details of his talk with Finn. “That it’s not right for them anymore.”
Blaine hummed in agreement. “I can see that. They’re in two different places. Literally and figuratively.”
Kurt poked at a tuna avocado roll, quietly contemplating Finn’s concerns. “Do you ever feel like you’re missing out on something by staying with me?” Kurt asked, his tone serious. “Should we be exploring or dating other people to get the full college experience?”
Blaine paused to pick up a tiny chunk of wasabi with the tip of one of his chopsticks. “Well, let’s see,” he began as he slathered the spicy, green paste on top of a California roll. “You make me laugh and smile. You take care of me when I need help - which is pretty much every day of my life. You make me dinner-” he gestured to the spread in front of them “-or remind me of really good alternatives to making dinner when I’m too exhausted to function.”
Blaine held the roll to Kurt’s lips, smiling when Kurt let him feed it to him. When he continued speaking, his voice was lower, more gravelly. “You treat me like I’m your family. And I’m madly in love with everything about you.” He chased the bite with a lingering kiss, pressed wet and firm against Kurt’s closed lips. “So I guess that’s my way of saying, yes, we should definitely experiment with other people.”
Kurt batted him on the knee, laughing. “Okay, okay, I get it. I’m being ridiculous.”
“Yes. You are being ridiculous.”
“I just wanted to check.”
Blaine grinned at him. These were the parts of living together Blaine had learned to love the most: seeing Kurt the way no one else ever saw him. Blaine seriously doubted Kurt would ever let anyone else feed him - while practically naked, and in bed, for goodness sake.
No, he never felt like he was missing out on anything with this boy by his side.
Their sweet dinner quickly descended into erotic play when soy sauce accidentally dripped onto the hand Kurt held under Blaine’s chin as he fed him a sushi roll. Blaine grabbed Kurt’s wrist, licking the dark drop off his palm with one long, slow stroke of his tongue.
A low moan rumbled in Kurt’s throat. “You know,” he purred. “This reminds me of what I had originally planned for dinner last night.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. To kick off our sexcapade.”
Dinner ended quickly after that. Their kisses were deep and hungry; their touches hard digs, slow slides over every bit of skin they could reach. Kurt would never again be able to taste soy sauce without thinking of how it mingled with Blaine’s flavors: salty and smooth and manly and so hot.
They barely had time to fix their sheets, and their clothes, and their hair, before Finn was back; Rachel lingering by their door for so long that Kurt told her to just stay in their room for another night, already.
***
They turned the rest of break into a game: how long could they make out for when Finn went off to the shower? What excuses could they come up with - while trying to cause the other to break his straight face - for why they couldn’t join Finn and Rachel for a trip to the Guggenheim, or the Statue of Liberty, or dinner at Sardi’s?
(Kurt nearly lost it at the way Blaine said “dissection” when he fabricated a story about needing to complete an extra credit biology assignment.)
And when Finn and Rachel were gone, Kurt and Blaine finally spent their blessed day in bed together. Kurt took his sweet time exploring every inch of Blaine’s body; running his tongue along hard ridges and angular curves, committing his toned, tanned physique to memory. Blaine gave right back, pinning Kurt to the mattress by his hands, then his hips, then the backs of his knees, pouring everything he had into the tight contact between them.
They were so satiated that they didn’t even care when Rachel fell asleep on Finn’s air mattress again that night, and the next.
***
On Tuesday - the last day of break - they joined Finn and Rachel for a morning stroll through Central Park. Kurt and Blaine dawdled behind, sneaking surreptitious whispers and smiles, oblivious to the world around them. Fall break had left them rejuvenated, and more smitten with each other than ever before.
The four spent nearly an hour stretched out on blankets, chatting about anything and everything as they watched mothers and nannies push strollers along the park’s paved, winding paths.
“That will be me someday,” Rachel sighed, reaching for Finn’s hand as she gazed at a mother fussing over her baby.
“Really? You’d want to have kids in a city like this?”
“Of course!” she exclaimed. “There’s so much culture here. It would be an amazing place to grow up.”
Finn frowned. “I don’t know. What about playing outside in the backyard? Or football.”
Blaine rolled onto his side to face Kurt, turning his back to Finn and Rachel’s awkward conversation.
“What do you think?” Blaine prompted, leaning his head on his hand.
“About?” Kurt was reclining on his elbows, staring up into the impossibly blue October sky. He wanted to absorb all the warmth and peace of this day before they slid back into chaos tomorrow morning.
“Raising a family in the city.”
Kurt turned his head sharply, his gaze scrutinizing. “What do I think objectively, or -”
“Would you want to?” Blaine supplied, hopeful.
Kurt blinked at him, several times in rapid succession. They had never talked about this before. Had they? No. Surely, Kurt would recall if children had ever come up in their discussions about the future. Usually they were all about dream apartments, dream jobs and roles, dream dinner parties that were the envy of their fabulous friends.
In all honesty, Kurt was ambivalent about children. He tolerated them on the few occasions he came into contact with them, but he’d never really thought about having kids of his own. Not until this very moment, that is.
Because, as he turned to look out into the distance, he caught sight of a man throwing his laughing, toddling daughter in the air. All he could see was Blaine. The vision struck him like a freight train.
Kurt turned back to Blaine, offering him a small, tentative smile. “Only if you want to,” he answered. The grin Blaine gave him in response set his heart on fire.
Blaine settled back on his elbows, mirroring Kurt’s pose, and loosely wove the fingers of his left hand into Kurt’s right hand. “I want to,” he said, as they both watched the same father and little girl.
Continue to chapter eight