Dalton Boys are Codependent
Title: Dalton Boys are Codependent
Author: loveronhermione
Rating: PG-13 (for some swearing)
Characters: Kurt Hummel, Blaine, Wes, David, and some other Warblers
Pairings: Kurt/Blaine, brief mention of Kurt/OC
Summary: Ridiculous crack fic, in which all of the Warblers are incredibly codependent.
Warnings: Crack
Spoilers: Definitely through Furt, and maybe some of Special Education if you squint.
Word Count: 2,664
Disclaimer: Oh, trust me, I don't own them. Even I probably wouldn't do this to them if I owned them.
Note: This is based off of a conversation that I was part of in the kurt_blaine MSN chat group. It's absolutely ridiculous, and I know this. I dedicate this to all of them, even the ones who weren't there when the conversation was had. You guys are awesome.
They’d had to pull a few strings with the administration, but they’d managed to get Kurt a room on the Warbler floor of the dorms.
“You guys have a floor?” was Kurt’s first reaction.
“Well, not officially,” Blaine replies as he helps Kurt settle into his room. “But, yeah, we all live together. It’s just easier this way, you know?”
Kurt doesn’t really know, but he nods anyway. How hard could it be to live on separate floors from your friends and just visit them every once and a while? But Kurt’s never lived anywhere but with his dad before, so he just assumes he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and moves on.
“Oh, one thing,” Blaine says as he’s getting ready to go back to his own room. “Leave your door unlocked.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry, we’re not gonna haze you or anything. We all leave our doors unlocked. We’re just open friends.”
Kurt nods again. That doesn’t sound too bad.
---
That being said, Kurt’s a little confused when he walks into his room and sees three guys sitting on his bed, studying. It’d be one thing if his roommate, Nate, were there. But no. Wes, Andrew, and Kyle are the ones in his room, and they seem to be scouring trig textbooks as if they hold the answers to life.
“Uh. Hi, guys.”
“Hey, Kurt,” Wes replies, nonchalant. He doesn’t even look up from his textbook to look at him.
“What are you guys doing in here?”
“Well, your room was the cleanest,” Kyle, a tall brunet, says, as if that’s explanation enough.
“All right,” Kurt says slowly, then backs out of his room. He walks down the hall a ways and knocks on Blaine’s door.
“Come in!” he hears from the other side. When Kurt steps inside, Blaine asks, “Why’d you bother knocking?”
Kurt stares blankly at Blaine for a moment. “Uh, because it’s your room? And I didn’t want to disturb you?”
“Oh,” Blaine says, as if that didn’t even occur to him. “So, what’s up?”
“Well, I was going to ask why Kyle, Andrew, and Wes were all sitting on my bed, studying. But, uh, that doesn’t seem to be a concern?”
“Why would it be?”
Kurt pauses. “Um…because it’s my room?”
“Well, yeah. But you could just as easily go into any of their rooms. It’s not really an issue.”
“It’s not an issue, I guess. I’m just confused.”
“Well, I told you. We’re open.”
“Apparently.”
Blaine gets up and hugs Kurt tightly. Kurt feels warm and loved and suddenly, it doesn’t really matter if this is all weird, because Blaine is hugging him. And it strikes him that it’s kind of sad that all it takes is a hug to make his whole life feel right, but again with the not caring. Blaine hug time. “Don’t worry about it, Kurt. You’ll get used to it, and eventually it’ll all feel normal.” Blaine pulls back and bumps Kurt’s shoulder with his own.
Well. Kurt could certainly get used to this, at least.
---
Kurt ends up staying in Blaine’s room for the next couple of hours watching The Lion King, cuddling through the second half of the movie. Kurt doesn’t even know if Blaine feels anything more than friendship toward him, but at this point he doesn’t care. Something about touching Blaine just makes him content. When he finally heads back to his room, it’s with a smile on his face.
He walks into his room, finding that the study group is gone and his roommate is back. “Hey, where’ve you been?” Nate asks casually.
“Over in Blaine’s room.”
“Oh. That explains that grin.”
“What do you mean?” Kurt asks. He’s flustered, sure he’s been caught in his affections.
Nate laughs. “Everyone knows Blaine’s a cuddlebug.” Kurt raises an eyebrow at the last word. “In fact, I’m pretty sure he needs hugs to live.”
“He…what?”
“Oh, yeah, dude. Blaine hugs pretty much everyone. And cuddles with them. And is pretty much the biggest fan of body contact anyone’s ever met. And I think we’d all be a little bit weirded out by it if it weren’t for the fact that his hugs pretty much have magical powers.”
Kurt can only sputter.
“Only minor ones,” Nate laughs. “It’s no big deal. But people get homesick, you know? But when Blaine hugs you, everything gets better. Or if someone gets a bad grade, or your girlfriend or boyfriend breaks up with you, or you have a fight with your friend, whatever. People just go to Blaine for hugs, and everything’s better.”
Kurt’s heart drops a bit. So cuddling with Blaine wasn’t special at all. Everyone did it. Somehow Kurt feels used. Like he’s given his cuddle-ginity to a big ol’ cuddle-slut. Apparently this shows on his face, because Nate says, “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t care, you know. We’re all just pretty open.” And there was that word again. “We all just kind of develop different ways to show special affection.”
“Like what?” Kurt asks.
“I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun. You’ll figure it out.”
Kurt just rolls his eyes and pulls out his homework.
---
The next day, Kurt’s final class lets out early, so he rushes back to his room. It’s not that he doesn’t like the other Warblers, but he wants some free time before they all start invading each others’ rooms again. He knows some of the guys have free periods at the end of the day, but he figures that they’ll all be with each other, and he’ll be able to have some personal space.
It’s weird, though. Outside of their floor, the glee club acted like everyone else at the school. There might be the occasional high five or nudge in the hallway, but nothing overly touchy-feely. They also seemed to have more personal space in general, not sliding into each others’ seats like they do their rooms. He knew that New Directions had sort of been its own little family, but the hidden codependency of the Warblers just seemed a bit ridiculous to him, even moreso now that he knew it was a private thing.
Kurt opens his door (not bothering to pull out the key, because clearly locking your door on the Warbler floor is for losers), expecting a quiet and empty room. What he finds is David and Wes napping on his bed. Together. Weren’t they supposed to be some of the straight ones?
“Uh, guys?”
Wes (who was the big spoon to David’s little spoon) rolls over, groans, and opens his eyes. “Oh, Kurt. Hi.”
“What are you doing in here?”
David grumbles incoherently. Wes translates. “Our roommates were both in our rooms and busy, and we both wanted to nap. We thought you had class, so we didn’t think it’d bother you.”
“I got out of class early. And you felt the need to share my bed?”
Wes sits up. “Oh. Nate was in here when we went to sleep. It’s not a problem, right?”
And Kurt supposes that it’s not. “No. I was just surprised, I guess. Do you, uh, know where Blaine is now?”
David actually opens his eyes, finally realizing that this conversation isn’t going to end anytime soon. “It’s Thursday, right?”
“Yes?”
“Then he’s in Wyatt’s room for Halo.”
Kurt wracks his brain. Try as he might, he can’t remember a Wyatt. He mentally scolds himself. He was so sure that he’d memorized all of the Warblers’ names.
Once again, Kurt’s emotions are obvious. “Don’t worry if you don’t remember him, he’s not actually in the Warblers. We just bring him to every performance of ours so that he can fist-pump. It really gets the crowd excited, you know?”
Kurt laughs at that. He remembers the boy from his first day at Dalton, when he’d been a spy. His Jersey Shore moves should have seemed out of place, but somehow went with the energy of the performance. “Well, if they’re playing Halo, I certainly don’t want to disturb them.”
“Oh, please,” Wes says, rolling his eyes. “I don’t think you could annoy Blaine if you tried.”
Kurt blushes. “What do you mean?”
David laughs. “He doesn’t know what anything means yet, does he?”
“Hey!”
Now Wes is laughing, too. “No, he doesn’t seem to. Do you think we should tell him?”
“Heck no. Did anyone tell us, or did you accidentally seduce Jason Taylor our freshman year?” David asks.
“I’m right here, guys.”
Ignoring Kurt, Wes looks down in shame. “I thought we were never to speak of the Taylor Incident again.”
David finally looks at Kurt again. “The point is, Blaine will not be ‘disturbed’ if you go find him. And hell, maybe he can even teach you a thing or two about Halo.”
“Oh, please. My step-brother is a quarterback. I’m fairly certain that he has never had a male friend who wasn’t a football player at some point in their life. I’m pretty sure I know a thing or two about Halo.”
---
That evening after dinner, all of the boys (except Wyatt) go to Warblers practice. Kurt briefly wonders why they don’t just practice in the commons, but lets it go. The acoustics are better in the room they practice in, anyway.
Today people are just goofing off at practice, as no decisions for the next performance had been made yet. Without a teacher, they don’t have silly, irrelevant assignments each week. But they still need to practice regularly to keep their vocal chords in good condition. People are just singing whatever strikes their fancy, and Blaine bursts into “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” from The Lion King, clearly still having it stuck in his head from the previous night. Soon everyone’s picking which parts they want to sing and going along with the rest of the song. But the boys are shying away from Nala’s part. Kurt’s not the only countertenor, but he’s the least shy, and no one else wants to try to hit her notes. Once he starts, though, a few brave others start to harmonize with him. It’s a somewhat weak display, but really only in comparison to the other parts in the song.
Contrastingly, Blaine has several guys singing backup to him. No one’s really surprised. “Everybody look left,” Blaine sings, backing vocals accompanying him. All of the guys are jumping and dancing around the room by this point in the song. Blaine spins himself left, bringing him closer to Kurt.
“Everybody look right!” Kurt and his few boys counter. He pointedly looks right at Blaine.
“Everywhere you look, I’m!”
“Standing in the spotlight!” everyone in the room (except the few Zazus) sings together. Kurt throws his arms out with a flourish as Blaine comes even closer to him. Kurt tries to keep his heart from pounding. He reminds himself that the Warblers, and especially Blaine, have no sense of personal space whatsoever. And, as if he needed further evidence, Blaine shoulder-bumps him. A lot of the guys smile, a few even laugh, at the gesture. No one looks surprised, though. That’s for certain. Kurt honestly doesn’t understand how this small bit of contact is different than the dozens of hugs Kurt’s seen Blaine give.
Wanting to figure it out, Kurt decides to test it, shoulder-nudging Nate after the next Nala line. Everyone who’s looking in their direction stops singing, and Nate gives Kurt an odd look. Kurt looks to Blaine for guidance, but Blaine is just glaring at Nate. “Dude, it’s not my fault,” Nate protests, putting his hands up. “He nudged me.” Now everyone has stopped singing.
Blaine looks no less angry, but now the look is mixed with sadness. After a few moments, he looks down to the floor, defeated. “I guess you’re right.” Now he’s looking at Kurt, and his face holds nothing but pain. “If you’re sure that’s what you want, Kurt.”
“Hey, don’t I have a say?” Nate asks. Blaine glares at him again.
“What the Hell does bumping someone’s shoulder even mean?” Kurt asked. Wes and David, and some of the other guys, as well, begin to laugh again.
“You mean, you didn’t know?” Blaine asks. Kurt stares at him with a look that clearly says, Who else was going to teach me, cuddle-slut? Well, maybe the cuddle-slut part might not be conveyed in the look, but Kurt’s still a bit peeved that snuggling is normal, but an accidental shoulder-check causes a damn scandal, and no one seems inclined to tell him why. “So you honestly have no clue why I nudged your shoulder that day back at McKinley?”
“I thought you were just trying to be comforting,” Kurt responds.
“You’ve been out of public school too long,” David chuckles at Blaine, barely even paying attention to Kurt. “No one does the nudge thing but us, Blaine.”
“Oh.” Blaine’s expression transform again, this time to embarrassed. “Right.”
“Is anyone ever going to tell me what the hell’s going on here?” Kurt yells, exasperated.
“Well, basically, shoulder-nudging is like marking your territory,” Wes says.
“Yeah, like pissing on a tree!” David interjects.
“Except cleaner, and the administration doesn’t get pissed off. They really didn’t take that well the last time,” Wes finishes. Kurt’s jaw is practically on the floor.
“You’ve been marking me as your territory? This whole time?” Kurt blurts out, wheeling toward Blaine. Blaine is positively blushing by this point. “Why didn’t you just tell me that you like me?”
“Uh…second nature now?”
Kurt glares at him again, but only for a moment, until a smile creeps onto his face. Then, “Well, I guess I always knew you were kinda weird.”
“Hey!”
Kurt smiles and slowly walks toward Blaine. And then, somewhat cautiously, Kurt shoulder-checks Blaine.
Blaine’s smile is a mile wide, and the moment after Kurt’s shoulder loses contact with his, he pulls the other boy in for a kiss. A kiss which, for the record, makes Kurt absolutely melt, inside and out. The Warblers all cheer, and a few catcalls can be heard. When they pull back, both of them are blushing. Neither of them looks displeased with the turn of events, though.
“Well!” Adam, one of the council members, calls out after a moment of awkward silence. “I think today’s practice is pretty much done. Don’t you guys?”
People agree and start moving toward each other. This, at least, Kurt has seen from the group before. They end every rehearsal with a group hug. Kurt theorizes that Blaine’s magical hug powers could spread throughout the circle, but he had yet to be able to prove it. Kurt ends up near Wes in the hug, and once they’re finished, he takes the opportunity to smack Wes on the arm. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Everyone’s gotta learn it in their own way.”
“But I could have been getting some this whole time,” he protests, only loud enough for Wes and a few of the surrounding guys to hear in the bustle of everyone getting their stuff to leave.
“Sucks to be you,” Wes replies.
David can’t help but add one more note. “Oh, and, swallowing’s bad for your vocal chords. Kindly refrain.”
---
That night, as Kurt is lying in bed, he realizes that he is content for the first time that he can remember in a very long time. Sure, Dalton was weird, but it wasn’t a completely bad weird. And although he has a funny way of showing it, Blaine feels about Kurt the same way Kurt has been feeling for him. All in all, he was definitely calling his experience so far at the school to be a success.
Still, things aren’t perfect. While going over his thoughts, Kurt jumps when he feels someone climb into bed behind him. But as soon as the arms wrap around him and he feels the instant wave of calmness he is growing to be familiar with, Kurt calms down. Blaine. Of course. He’s such a cuddlebug.
Author: loveronhermione
Rating: PG-13 (for some swearing)
Characters: Kurt Hummel, Blaine, Wes, David, and some other Warblers
Pairings: Kurt/Blaine, brief mention of Kurt/OC
Summary: Ridiculous crack fic, in which all of the Warblers are incredibly codependent.
Warnings: Crack
Spoilers: Definitely through Furt, and maybe some of Special Education if you squint.
Word Count: 2,664
Disclaimer: Oh, trust me, I don't own them. Even I probably wouldn't do this to them if I owned them.
Note: This is based off of a conversation that I was part of in the kurt_blaine MSN chat group. It's absolutely ridiculous, and I know this. I dedicate this to all of them, even the ones who weren't there when the conversation was had. You guys are awesome.
They’d had to pull a few strings with the administration, but they’d managed to get Kurt a room on the Warbler floor of the dorms.
“You guys have a floor?” was Kurt’s first reaction.
“Well, not officially,” Blaine replies as he helps Kurt settle into his room. “But, yeah, we all live together. It’s just easier this way, you know?”
Kurt doesn’t really know, but he nods anyway. How hard could it be to live on separate floors from your friends and just visit them every once and a while? But Kurt’s never lived anywhere but with his dad before, so he just assumes he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and moves on.
“Oh, one thing,” Blaine says as he’s getting ready to go back to his own room. “Leave your door unlocked.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry, we’re not gonna haze you or anything. We all leave our doors unlocked. We’re just open friends.”
Kurt nods again. That doesn’t sound too bad.
---
That being said, Kurt’s a little confused when he walks into his room and sees three guys sitting on his bed, studying. It’d be one thing if his roommate, Nate, were there. But no. Wes, Andrew, and Kyle are the ones in his room, and they seem to be scouring trig textbooks as if they hold the answers to life.
“Uh. Hi, guys.”
“Hey, Kurt,” Wes replies, nonchalant. He doesn’t even look up from his textbook to look at him.
“What are you guys doing in here?”
“Well, your room was the cleanest,” Kyle, a tall brunet, says, as if that’s explanation enough.
“All right,” Kurt says slowly, then backs out of his room. He walks down the hall a ways and knocks on Blaine’s door.
“Come in!” he hears from the other side. When Kurt steps inside, Blaine asks, “Why’d you bother knocking?”
Kurt stares blankly at Blaine for a moment. “Uh, because it’s your room? And I didn’t want to disturb you?”
“Oh,” Blaine says, as if that didn’t even occur to him. “So, what’s up?”
“Well, I was going to ask why Kyle, Andrew, and Wes were all sitting on my bed, studying. But, uh, that doesn’t seem to be a concern?”
“Why would it be?”
Kurt pauses. “Um…because it’s my room?”
“Well, yeah. But you could just as easily go into any of their rooms. It’s not really an issue.”
“It’s not an issue, I guess. I’m just confused.”
“Well, I told you. We’re open.”
“Apparently.”
Blaine gets up and hugs Kurt tightly. Kurt feels warm and loved and suddenly, it doesn’t really matter if this is all weird, because Blaine is hugging him. And it strikes him that it’s kind of sad that all it takes is a hug to make his whole life feel right, but again with the not caring. Blaine hug time. “Don’t worry about it, Kurt. You’ll get used to it, and eventually it’ll all feel normal.” Blaine pulls back and bumps Kurt’s shoulder with his own.
Well. Kurt could certainly get used to this, at least.
---
Kurt ends up staying in Blaine’s room for the next couple of hours watching The Lion King, cuddling through the second half of the movie. Kurt doesn’t even know if Blaine feels anything more than friendship toward him, but at this point he doesn’t care. Something about touching Blaine just makes him content. When he finally heads back to his room, it’s with a smile on his face.
He walks into his room, finding that the study group is gone and his roommate is back. “Hey, where’ve you been?” Nate asks casually.
“Over in Blaine’s room.”
“Oh. That explains that grin.”
“What do you mean?” Kurt asks. He’s flustered, sure he’s been caught in his affections.
Nate laughs. “Everyone knows Blaine’s a cuddlebug.” Kurt raises an eyebrow at the last word. “In fact, I’m pretty sure he needs hugs to live.”
“He…what?”
“Oh, yeah, dude. Blaine hugs pretty much everyone. And cuddles with them. And is pretty much the biggest fan of body contact anyone’s ever met. And I think we’d all be a little bit weirded out by it if it weren’t for the fact that his hugs pretty much have magical powers.”
Kurt can only sputter.
“Only minor ones,” Nate laughs. “It’s no big deal. But people get homesick, you know? But when Blaine hugs you, everything gets better. Or if someone gets a bad grade, or your girlfriend or boyfriend breaks up with you, or you have a fight with your friend, whatever. People just go to Blaine for hugs, and everything’s better.”
Kurt’s heart drops a bit. So cuddling with Blaine wasn’t special at all. Everyone did it. Somehow Kurt feels used. Like he’s given his cuddle-ginity to a big ol’ cuddle-slut. Apparently this shows on his face, because Nate says, “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t care, you know. We’re all just pretty open.” And there was that word again. “We all just kind of develop different ways to show special affection.”
“Like what?” Kurt asks.
“I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun. You’ll figure it out.”
Kurt just rolls his eyes and pulls out his homework.
---
The next day, Kurt’s final class lets out early, so he rushes back to his room. It’s not that he doesn’t like the other Warblers, but he wants some free time before they all start invading each others’ rooms again. He knows some of the guys have free periods at the end of the day, but he figures that they’ll all be with each other, and he’ll be able to have some personal space.
It’s weird, though. Outside of their floor, the glee club acted like everyone else at the school. There might be the occasional high five or nudge in the hallway, but nothing overly touchy-feely. They also seemed to have more personal space in general, not sliding into each others’ seats like they do their rooms. He knew that New Directions had sort of been its own little family, but the hidden codependency of the Warblers just seemed a bit ridiculous to him, even moreso now that he knew it was a private thing.
Kurt opens his door (not bothering to pull out the key, because clearly locking your door on the Warbler floor is for losers), expecting a quiet and empty room. What he finds is David and Wes napping on his bed. Together. Weren’t they supposed to be some of the straight ones?
“Uh, guys?”
Wes (who was the big spoon to David’s little spoon) rolls over, groans, and opens his eyes. “Oh, Kurt. Hi.”
“What are you doing in here?”
David grumbles incoherently. Wes translates. “Our roommates were both in our rooms and busy, and we both wanted to nap. We thought you had class, so we didn’t think it’d bother you.”
“I got out of class early. And you felt the need to share my bed?”
Wes sits up. “Oh. Nate was in here when we went to sleep. It’s not a problem, right?”
And Kurt supposes that it’s not. “No. I was just surprised, I guess. Do you, uh, know where Blaine is now?”
David actually opens his eyes, finally realizing that this conversation isn’t going to end anytime soon. “It’s Thursday, right?”
“Yes?”
“Then he’s in Wyatt’s room for Halo.”
Kurt wracks his brain. Try as he might, he can’t remember a Wyatt. He mentally scolds himself. He was so sure that he’d memorized all of the Warblers’ names.
Once again, Kurt’s emotions are obvious. “Don’t worry if you don’t remember him, he’s not actually in the Warblers. We just bring him to every performance of ours so that he can fist-pump. It really gets the crowd excited, you know?”
Kurt laughs at that. He remembers the boy from his first day at Dalton, when he’d been a spy. His Jersey Shore moves should have seemed out of place, but somehow went with the energy of the performance. “Well, if they’re playing Halo, I certainly don’t want to disturb them.”
“Oh, please,” Wes says, rolling his eyes. “I don’t think you could annoy Blaine if you tried.”
Kurt blushes. “What do you mean?”
David laughs. “He doesn’t know what anything means yet, does he?”
“Hey!”
Now Wes is laughing, too. “No, he doesn’t seem to. Do you think we should tell him?”
“Heck no. Did anyone tell us, or did you accidentally seduce Jason Taylor our freshman year?” David asks.
“I’m right here, guys.”
Ignoring Kurt, Wes looks down in shame. “I thought we were never to speak of the Taylor Incident again.”
David finally looks at Kurt again. “The point is, Blaine will not be ‘disturbed’ if you go find him. And hell, maybe he can even teach you a thing or two about Halo.”
“Oh, please. My step-brother is a quarterback. I’m fairly certain that he has never had a male friend who wasn’t a football player at some point in their life. I’m pretty sure I know a thing or two about Halo.”
---
That evening after dinner, all of the boys (except Wyatt) go to Warblers practice. Kurt briefly wonders why they don’t just practice in the commons, but lets it go. The acoustics are better in the room they practice in, anyway.
Today people are just goofing off at practice, as no decisions for the next performance had been made yet. Without a teacher, they don’t have silly, irrelevant assignments each week. But they still need to practice regularly to keep their vocal chords in good condition. People are just singing whatever strikes their fancy, and Blaine bursts into “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” from The Lion King, clearly still having it stuck in his head from the previous night. Soon everyone’s picking which parts they want to sing and going along with the rest of the song. But the boys are shying away from Nala’s part. Kurt’s not the only countertenor, but he’s the least shy, and no one else wants to try to hit her notes. Once he starts, though, a few brave others start to harmonize with him. It’s a somewhat weak display, but really only in comparison to the other parts in the song.
Contrastingly, Blaine has several guys singing backup to him. No one’s really surprised. “Everybody look left,” Blaine sings, backing vocals accompanying him. All of the guys are jumping and dancing around the room by this point in the song. Blaine spins himself left, bringing him closer to Kurt.
“Everybody look right!” Kurt and his few boys counter. He pointedly looks right at Blaine.
“Everywhere you look, I’m!”
“Standing in the spotlight!” everyone in the room (except the few Zazus) sings together. Kurt throws his arms out with a flourish as Blaine comes even closer to him. Kurt tries to keep his heart from pounding. He reminds himself that the Warblers, and especially Blaine, have no sense of personal space whatsoever. And, as if he needed further evidence, Blaine shoulder-bumps him. A lot of the guys smile, a few even laugh, at the gesture. No one looks surprised, though. That’s for certain. Kurt honestly doesn’t understand how this small bit of contact is different than the dozens of hugs Kurt’s seen Blaine give.
Wanting to figure it out, Kurt decides to test it, shoulder-nudging Nate after the next Nala line. Everyone who’s looking in their direction stops singing, and Nate gives Kurt an odd look. Kurt looks to Blaine for guidance, but Blaine is just glaring at Nate. “Dude, it’s not my fault,” Nate protests, putting his hands up. “He nudged me.” Now everyone has stopped singing.
Blaine looks no less angry, but now the look is mixed with sadness. After a few moments, he looks down to the floor, defeated. “I guess you’re right.” Now he’s looking at Kurt, and his face holds nothing but pain. “If you’re sure that’s what you want, Kurt.”
“Hey, don’t I have a say?” Nate asks. Blaine glares at him again.
“What the Hell does bumping someone’s shoulder even mean?” Kurt asked. Wes and David, and some of the other guys, as well, begin to laugh again.
“You mean, you didn’t know?” Blaine asks. Kurt stares at him with a look that clearly says, Who else was going to teach me, cuddle-slut? Well, maybe the cuddle-slut part might not be conveyed in the look, but Kurt’s still a bit peeved that snuggling is normal, but an accidental shoulder-check causes a damn scandal, and no one seems inclined to tell him why. “So you honestly have no clue why I nudged your shoulder that day back at McKinley?”
“I thought you were just trying to be comforting,” Kurt responds.
“You’ve been out of public school too long,” David chuckles at Blaine, barely even paying attention to Kurt. “No one does the nudge thing but us, Blaine.”
“Oh.” Blaine’s expression transform again, this time to embarrassed. “Right.”
“Is anyone ever going to tell me what the hell’s going on here?” Kurt yells, exasperated.
“Well, basically, shoulder-nudging is like marking your territory,” Wes says.
“Yeah, like pissing on a tree!” David interjects.
“Except cleaner, and the administration doesn’t get pissed off. They really didn’t take that well the last time,” Wes finishes. Kurt’s jaw is practically on the floor.
“You’ve been marking me as your territory? This whole time?” Kurt blurts out, wheeling toward Blaine. Blaine is positively blushing by this point. “Why didn’t you just tell me that you like me?”
“Uh…second nature now?”
Kurt glares at him again, but only for a moment, until a smile creeps onto his face. Then, “Well, I guess I always knew you were kinda weird.”
“Hey!”
Kurt smiles and slowly walks toward Blaine. And then, somewhat cautiously, Kurt shoulder-checks Blaine.
Blaine’s smile is a mile wide, and the moment after Kurt’s shoulder loses contact with his, he pulls the other boy in for a kiss. A kiss which, for the record, makes Kurt absolutely melt, inside and out. The Warblers all cheer, and a few catcalls can be heard. When they pull back, both of them are blushing. Neither of them looks displeased with the turn of events, though.
“Well!” Adam, one of the council members, calls out after a moment of awkward silence. “I think today’s practice is pretty much done. Don’t you guys?”
People agree and start moving toward each other. This, at least, Kurt has seen from the group before. They end every rehearsal with a group hug. Kurt theorizes that Blaine’s magical hug powers could spread throughout the circle, but he had yet to be able to prove it. Kurt ends up near Wes in the hug, and once they’re finished, he takes the opportunity to smack Wes on the arm. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Everyone’s gotta learn it in their own way.”
“But I could have been getting some this whole time,” he protests, only loud enough for Wes and a few of the surrounding guys to hear in the bustle of everyone getting their stuff to leave.
“Sucks to be you,” Wes replies.
David can’t help but add one more note. “Oh, and, swallowing’s bad for your vocal chords. Kindly refrain.”
---
That night, as Kurt is lying in bed, he realizes that he is content for the first time that he can remember in a very long time. Sure, Dalton was weird, but it wasn’t a completely bad weird. And although he has a funny way of showing it, Blaine feels about Kurt the same way Kurt has been feeling for him. All in all, he was definitely calling his experience so far at the school to be a success.
Still, things aren’t perfect. While going over his thoughts, Kurt jumps when he feels someone climb into bed behind him. But as soon as the arms wrap around him and he feels the instant wave of calmness he is growing to be familiar with, Kurt calms down. Blaine. Of course. He’s such a cuddlebug.