Title: Trio
Author:
purplehrdwonderRating: PG
Genre/pairing: Past Kurt/Blaine
Characters: Kurt
Word count: 1,090
Spoilers: Through 4x11
Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.
Summary: [4.11 coda] Kurt wonders, then, when Blaine, Sam, and Tina became the Harry, Ron, and Hermione of McKinley.
Trio
Kurt is idly scanning his Facebook when a new batch of pictures that Blaine’s tagged in appears in his newsfeed. He clicks on them without a thought, smiling at the sight of Blaine in his suit from the Sadie Hawkins dance. Blaine, with his old Hollywood handsomeness, looks dapper as ever in his suit. In this first couple of pictures, Blaine and Tina, who looks beautiful in her dress, have recreated the cliché prom picture pose; Blaine is circling his arms around Tina’s waist while Tina grips Blaine’s hands, but they both look like they’re about to crack up.
And in the third one, they have-Blaine is bent over to the side while Tina is hunched forward, both sets of eyes bright and mouths pulled into gleeful looks. Blaine still has one arm around Tina’s waist, the other resting on his own knee, while Tina has one hand on Blaine’s and the other hanging loosely at her side as they laugh.
The picture takes Kurt’s breath away; he can’t remember the last time he saw such a carefree look on Blaine’s face. He looks, in that moment, like the boy who grabbed his hand on a staircase at a prep school what now seems like a lifetime ago. And, Kurt finds in surprise, the memory elicits barely a dull ache; no, Kurt finds that he’s relieved because Blaine looks happy.
For all the heartbreak between them, Kurt still loves Blaine. Blaine is still his best friend, and seeing him happy is infectious.
Now that he’s had time to step back from the breakup, Kurt has realized that he’s close to forgiving Blaine, but he won’t be able to take that final step until Blaine has forgiven himself. They can’t heal if Blaine continues to self-punish, and from these pictures it looks like Blaine has finally, finally started on that path. It gives Kurt hope in way that he wasn’t sure he’d ever feel again.
Shaking himself from his reverie, Kurt looks back at the pictures. Blaine had told him about the Sadie Hawkins dance the last time they’d spoken on the phone. He’d admitted that he was hesitant about the idea at first, memories of his freshman year ever-present, but in the end he was looking forward to spending more time with Tina. Since they’d joined the Cheerios together after Sectionals, they’d gotten a lot closer.
Kurt had burned with second-(third-?)hand embarrassment when Blaine told him about Tina serenading him-and Blaine had sounded so surprised that anyone would want to do that for him that Kurt had wanted to reach through the phone and shake him for his obliviousness-but he’s glad that they decided to go as friends.
And, Kurt thinks as he flicks through the album that Tina had posted, it looks like they’d had a lot of fun. There were some pictures from the boys performing. He laughs at a few shots that caught Blaine or Sam in the middle of a ridiculous dance move and, for a brief moment, Kurt wishes he could’ve been there.
But then he thinks of his date with Adam the night of the dance and, okay, he’s happy with his own plans.
Pictures from the dance morph into mobile uploads, probably from Tina’s phone. And there are a lot of her, Blaine, and Sam. There are some from glee club, from the cafeteria, from goofing around in the hallways between classes, and even from the Lima Bean. There various combinations of the three of them in the album, but they always seem to be together.
There’s a picture of Sam throwing a tater tot at Blaine in the cafeteria.
There’s one of Blaine and Sam reading comic books in the Lima Bean.
There are a few selfies of Blaine and Tina making fake model poses at the camera and then Sam appears in the background making bunny ears behind them.
Brittany, Joe, Sugar, and Artie occasionally appear in the album, as well as some of the kids Kurt assumes are the new members of New Directions, but the majority are just of Blaine, Tina, and Sam.
And in every picture, Kurt can’t help but notice Blaine; he looks alive, tucked under Tina and Sam’s arms with a grin by their lockers or letting out a startled laugh while being pounced on by his friends.
Kurt wonders, then, when those three became the Harry, Ron, and Hermione of McKinley.
(And wouldn’t Blaine be so proud of that reference?)
Because, judging from the tagged pictures, comments, and status updates, they’re not just getting along; they’re actually ruling the school in way that Kurt can’t quite wrap his head around. But Blaine is the student body president, Sam is his VP, and Tina is the secretary. Blaine and Tina are Cheerios and Sam is dating one. Blaine started that goofy superhero club and it took off. Tina wanted the Sadie Hawkins dance so put it together. Sam suspected the Warblers of cheating so started an investigation.
They write goofy messages to each other and comment on the others’ statuses and pictures. There are a lot of nerdy references between Blaine and Sam that Kurt doesn’t get but that they seem to find hilarious. And the three of them have Facebook messages and event invites from people Kurt never even thought about interacting with while at McKinley.
Blaine seems to fit in at McKinley in ways that Kurt never could. Now that he’s finding his place in New York, Kurt finds that the idea hurts less than it might’ve a few months before, but it’s still a bit jarring. A very, very small part of Kurt is frustrated by it-Kurt never quite fit in at Dalton; the prep school and the Warblers had been Blaine’s while McKinley and the New Directions had been Kurt’s first. But, seeing Blaine not just fitting in but belonging there, Kurt wonders if McKinley was ever his at all.
But he shakes his head and shoves that tiny voice down. It doesn’t matter now because he’s finally living his dream in New York, attending one of the most prestigious performing arts schools in the country and kind-of-maybe seeing a cute, sophisticated senior. It might not be perfect (Rachel’s drama being a major reason), but it’s getting there. He shuts his laptop after liking a solo shot of Blaine in his suit and climbs into bed.
(And if Kurt spends the night contemplating the pros and cons of a Ginny Weasley parallel, no one needs to know.)