Fic: Five Times Blaine Played For Kurt
Title: Five Times Blaine Played For Kurt
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Senior Commons have the grand piano which is far better than the upright in the Warbler’s practice room, and none of the Seniors seem to mind Blaine plinking away at the keys and mumbling to himself as he erases holes through his sheet music.
Author’s Note: I don't think anyone ever needs an excuse to write Klaine fic, but this was mostly written because there's not a whole lot I wouldn't give to see Blaine play the cello.
1. sitting here wasted and wounded at this old piano, trying hard to capture the moment this morning I don't know
Blaine feels something shift the moment Kurt walks into the room. The Senior Commons have the grand piano which is far better than the upright in the Warbler’s practice room, and none of the Seniors seem to mind Blaine plinking away at the keys and mumbling to himself as he erases holes through his sheet music.
“I’m transferring back to McKinley” There’s a screech of protest from the piano as Blaine’s hand drops heavily onto the keys. Kurt’s eyes are wide and honest and he drops onto the stool next to Blaine to pull him sideways into an embrace. They’re facing opposite directions which makes everything a little awkward but Kurt is babbling about change and courage and not afraid, not anymore while Blaine just clings and his brain wildly tries to catch up with what it’s hearing.
He doesn’t try to stop the broken sound that tears out of his chest and Kurt squeezes tighter and buries his face against Blaine’s neck.
At his old school, Blaine had let himself escape into music. He hadn’t been brave enough to join the glee club there, but he’d played the piano in the school band and that had been almost enough. His bullies could beat him and tease him and make him run but they couldn’t take away the beautiful sound of the piano.
F Major rings clearly through the room and Kurt looks at Blaine’s hand on the keys and gives the tiniest of nods. Blaine doesn’t pay attention to the music, just watches Kurt’s face while his hands dance across the ivory.
“Bon Jovi? Really?” There’s almost a laugh in his voice, but Blaine keeps playing and lets himself sing quietly along, and it might be cheesy 80’s soft rock, but Kurt is still humming, a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.
Blaine doesn’t expect him to sing, soft and sweet, but Kurt’s voice is somehow hopeful and mournful all at once as he laments his mistress calling him back to the spotlight and the loneliness he feels.
The last notes fall heavily in the room and there are hot tears on Blaine’s face, because Kurt is leaving and there’s no comfort in music, just an extra pull at the raw, aching wound in Blaine’s chest.
“I’m not saying goodbye” Kurt peppers his face with kisses, holding their bodies close. “Never.”
2. someday I'll pay the bills with this guitar, we'll have it good, we'll have the life we knew we would
“New York is so amazing. You should be here” Kurt says down the phone and Blaine can hear the smile in his voice. One day he’s going to the one cheering in the front row as Kurt sings on a Broadway stage, one day he’ll turn to the person next to him, point to Kurt and say “that’s my boyfriend” and he’ll never feel more pride in his life.
“Maybe next year” He says, only half kidding, because he’s been considering it, he really has, and before Kurt can comment on that he says, all in one breath, “I want to play you something okay?”
“Okay” Kurt murmurs and Blaine puts the phone on speaker and picks up his guitar, humming as he strums the intro. He can’t hear anything from Kurt’s end but he knows he’s still there, hanging on the end of the line, hundreds of miles away. There’s a slight twinge in his chest, because he wants to see Kurt’s face while he plays, wants to see the blush creeping over his cheeks and the moisture in his eyes. Those things are beautiful and precious and a week is too long to miss them.
It’s a fairly easy song to play, but Kurt does shine brighter than New York ever could, and if Blaine has to borrow words to say it then he will. He hears Kurt gasp as he starts to sing and yeah, that was kind of the point, even if he has to sing Kurt’s full name in order to keep the flow of the song.
There’s a shuffling sound on Kurt’s end and someone says “Put it on speaker you tease!” so suddenly there’s a great sigh of feminine voices and Blaine doesn’t stop playing because he doesn’t care who hears, this is all for Kurt.
When he finishes, there’s a round of applause and another voice pipes up “That was so romantic!”, Blaine thinks it might be Tina but it’s hard to tell and he doesn’t really feel like asking Kurt to clarify.
There’s a soft scraping sound and it’s just Kurt again, and in the background the squeak of a door opening and closing again.
“Thank you” Kurt sounds choked up and his breath is loud in Blaine’s ear, uneven and punctuated by the occasional quiet gasp. So Kurt is definitely crying, and yeah, Blaine is just a little bit proud of that.
“Come home soon” He says, and Kurt gives a quiet laugh.
“Just as soon as we’ve won nationals”
3. some days I just pray to the God Of Sex and Drums and Rock 'N' Roll
“Rachel really digs it when I sing, but... ” Kurt’s running late closing up the shop and Blaine is on the floor of Finn’s room, kicking his ass at Call of Duty, which is admittedly not very difficult when Finn is too busy going on and on about whatever song he wants to serenade Rachel with this week. Blaine almost chokes when he mentions which song it is, because a song about promising to remain faithful is maybe not the most romantic of choices, considering Rachel and Finn’s past.
But that song has a pretty kicking drum beat and Blaine might be pretty confident in his voice but he isn’t ready to have Rachel tear down one of his solos yet so this is a good way to win a little trust from the rest of New Directions. It’s not that they don’t accept him, but he’s heard about the infamous Jesse St. James and understandably they don’t quite trust he won’t go running back to the Warblers any moment. He knows Jesse spent most of his time stealing the spotlight, being willing to fall into line will probably endear him to the group a lot more.
“I could play the drums for you, I know you usually do but...”
“No, dude, that’s awesome, this way I can dance for her too!” Finn is overly enthusiastic, even if for all he knows Blaine could be terrible at it. But then, impressing Rachel Berry is not the easiest of tasks and she’ll probably barely notice if the drumming is a little off.
So he sits obediently behind the drum kit the next time Glee club meets and grins when Kurt raises a curious eyebrow at him.
What are you doing? Kurt mouths, and Blaine just shrugs and twirls the drumsticks over his long fingers, which definitely steals his boyfriends attention, just for a moment.
“So um, this is for you Rachel” Finn babbles nervously, but he calms when the piano starts to play, and by the time Blaine starts to drum, Finn is belting out the song like his life depends on it.
Rachel actually leaps up to spin around and sing the female solo, and considering she’s really telling Finn to cheat on her and get it done with, they still look pretty wrapped in each other while they sing.
Kurt bobs his foot in time with the music, and he and Mercedes bend their heads together to sing along, but as Blaine finally brings the song to a clattering end in a way the original distinctly never had, the smile on Kurt's face is all for him.
4. dance me to your beauty with a burning violin, dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
They’re lying on Kurt’s bed in a state of significant undress when Kurt suddenly breathlessly asks:
“When are you going to sing a solo?” And wow, Blaine was not expecting that at all, not considering the way he’s rutting against Kurt with reckless abandon and Kurt is arching against him, fingers digging into his back.
“Do you want me to?” He murmurs against Kurt's jaw and Kurt pushes him back for a moment to look very seriously into his face.
“I want you to sing for me! Finn sings for Rachel, Sam sings for ‘Cedes, Puck sings for Lauren every second week, why haven’t you sung for me yet?” His voice rises an octave towards the end as Blaine rolls against his hips and sucks a dark bruise onto his collarbone
“I’ll sing for you then” He whispers and Kurt smiles beautifically and shoves a hand roughly into Blaine’s pants.
A week later he’s sitting in his seat waiting for Mr Shue to stop blabbering on about reworking songs and that’s actually kind of perfect so he smiles at Kurt and shoots his hand into the air. This would be a whole lot less awkward if the whole room didn’t turn to stare.
“Uh, Mr Shue? I have an example of reworking” He springs to his feet and pulls the violin case from beneath his chair, savoring the look of surprise on Kurt's face.
“This is traditionally a jazz song” He starts, resting the violin under his chin. “But I’m classically trained so I’ve mixed it up a bit”
Kurt turns a gorgeous shade of pink when Blaine fixes his gaze on his face and begins to play. Kurt just about melts when he sings, sliding down his chair until Mercedes grabs his hand and hauls him back upright.
“Oh god” Kurt actually moans when Blaine drops his voice low and sings the final verse. He crosses his legs uncomfortably and Blaine drops a kiss to his mouth before he steps back to finish.
Kurt doesn’t seem too bothered at all when Blaine returns the violin to its case and then hauls him from the room to throw him against a wall somewhere, not even when wolf whistles follow them down the hall.
5. I’m a solo cello outside a chorus, I’ve got a secret, it’s time for me tell
Kurt hasn’t spoken to him in three weeks and two days. They’ve fought before, but never like this, never with such intensity. Blaine can’t stand it anymore. He can’t remember why they’re even fighting, why they sit on opposite sides of the room during Glee Club and pretend like it isn’t killing them both. Most of Blaine’s friends are really Kurt’s friends who hang out with him by extension, so none of them will speak to him either, and he’s getting tired of sitting on one side of the room while everybody flocks to Kurt's side on the other.
Mr Shue looks surprised when Blaine asks if he can play something and even more so when when he walks over to the orchestra and has a hushed conversation with the cellist. His eyes nearly pop out of his head when Blaine drags a chair to the center of the room and rests the cello between his knees, settling the weight against his chest and brushing the neck against his cheek as he moves into position.
Kurt cocks his head sideways and looks suspicious. he has every right to as well, he doesn’t know this is an apology.
He closes his eyes as he plays, and tune might not have much resemblance to the original, but the words are the same, and the warm, throaty notes of the cello are perfectly mournful, and harmonises with his voice like they were made to go together. The song might originally be an upbeat piece of pop fluff, but Blaine makes it his own, turns it into something slow and sad and filled with the pain he feels every second he can’t call Kurt his.
“Oh Boo” He hears Mercedes whisper halfway through, and he might be singing about no-one ever measuring up to Kurt but the object is not actually to make him upset, so when he cracks one eye and sees the shine of tears on Kurt’s cheeks he nearly stops playing. Nearly.
“You my boy Kurt, but if you don’t take him back I will kick your ass” Puck says, and Blaine wants to smile at that, because Puck has spent the last three weeks trying to figure out exactly what he did to upset Kurt so he can kick in his face for it.
He lets the final notes hang in the air before he finally finishes, head bent over the cello, almost afraid to see Kurt’s reaction. The moment seems to last forever, until finally he hears footsteps moving towards him and suddenly Kurt’s mouth is pressed against his, hot and wet and perfect and someone grabs the cello which is great because Blaine needs his hands empty to hold Kurt tightly against him.
“I missed you” Kurt murmurs when they finally part, and he hears Puck call out “Yeah, get it Kurt!” before he’s loudly shushed.
“Never saying goodbye right?” Blaine whispers to Kurt, and Kurt grins and kisses him again.
“Never.”
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Senior Commons have the grand piano which is far better than the upright in the Warbler’s practice room, and none of the Seniors seem to mind Blaine plinking away at the keys and mumbling to himself as he erases holes through his sheet music.
Author’s Note: I don't think anyone ever needs an excuse to write Klaine fic, but this was mostly written because there's not a whole lot I wouldn't give to see Blaine play the cello.
1. sitting here wasted and wounded at this old piano, trying hard to capture the moment this morning I don't know
Blaine feels something shift the moment Kurt walks into the room. The Senior Commons have the grand piano which is far better than the upright in the Warbler’s practice room, and none of the Seniors seem to mind Blaine plinking away at the keys and mumbling to himself as he erases holes through his sheet music.
“I’m transferring back to McKinley” There’s a screech of protest from the piano as Blaine’s hand drops heavily onto the keys. Kurt’s eyes are wide and honest and he drops onto the stool next to Blaine to pull him sideways into an embrace. They’re facing opposite directions which makes everything a little awkward but Kurt is babbling about change and courage and not afraid, not anymore while Blaine just clings and his brain wildly tries to catch up with what it’s hearing.
He doesn’t try to stop the broken sound that tears out of his chest and Kurt squeezes tighter and buries his face against Blaine’s neck.
At his old school, Blaine had let himself escape into music. He hadn’t been brave enough to join the glee club there, but he’d played the piano in the school band and that had been almost enough. His bullies could beat him and tease him and make him run but they couldn’t take away the beautiful sound of the piano.
F Major rings clearly through the room and Kurt looks at Blaine’s hand on the keys and gives the tiniest of nods. Blaine doesn’t pay attention to the music, just watches Kurt’s face while his hands dance across the ivory.
“Bon Jovi? Really?” There’s almost a laugh in his voice, but Blaine keeps playing and lets himself sing quietly along, and it might be cheesy 80’s soft rock, but Kurt is still humming, a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.
Blaine doesn’t expect him to sing, soft and sweet, but Kurt’s voice is somehow hopeful and mournful all at once as he laments his mistress calling him back to the spotlight and the loneliness he feels.
The last notes fall heavily in the room and there are hot tears on Blaine’s face, because Kurt is leaving and there’s no comfort in music, just an extra pull at the raw, aching wound in Blaine’s chest.
“I’m not saying goodbye” Kurt peppers his face with kisses, holding their bodies close. “Never.”
2. someday I'll pay the bills with this guitar, we'll have it good, we'll have the life we knew we would
“New York is so amazing. You should be here” Kurt says down the phone and Blaine can hear the smile in his voice. One day he’s going to the one cheering in the front row as Kurt sings on a Broadway stage, one day he’ll turn to the person next to him, point to Kurt and say “that’s my boyfriend” and he’ll never feel more pride in his life.
“Maybe next year” He says, only half kidding, because he’s been considering it, he really has, and before Kurt can comment on that he says, all in one breath, “I want to play you something okay?”
“Okay” Kurt murmurs and Blaine puts the phone on speaker and picks up his guitar, humming as he strums the intro. He can’t hear anything from Kurt’s end but he knows he’s still there, hanging on the end of the line, hundreds of miles away. There’s a slight twinge in his chest, because he wants to see Kurt’s face while he plays, wants to see the blush creeping over his cheeks and the moisture in his eyes. Those things are beautiful and precious and a week is too long to miss them.
It’s a fairly easy song to play, but Kurt does shine brighter than New York ever could, and if Blaine has to borrow words to say it then he will. He hears Kurt gasp as he starts to sing and yeah, that was kind of the point, even if he has to sing Kurt’s full name in order to keep the flow of the song.
There’s a shuffling sound on Kurt’s end and someone says “Put it on speaker you tease!” so suddenly there’s a great sigh of feminine voices and Blaine doesn’t stop playing because he doesn’t care who hears, this is all for Kurt.
When he finishes, there’s a round of applause and another voice pipes up “That was so romantic!”, Blaine thinks it might be Tina but it’s hard to tell and he doesn’t really feel like asking Kurt to clarify.
There’s a soft scraping sound and it’s just Kurt again, and in the background the squeak of a door opening and closing again.
“Thank you” Kurt sounds choked up and his breath is loud in Blaine’s ear, uneven and punctuated by the occasional quiet gasp. So Kurt is definitely crying, and yeah, Blaine is just a little bit proud of that.
“Come home soon” He says, and Kurt gives a quiet laugh.
“Just as soon as we’ve won nationals”
3. some days I just pray to the God Of Sex and Drums and Rock 'N' Roll
“Rachel really digs it when I sing, but... ” Kurt’s running late closing up the shop and Blaine is on the floor of Finn’s room, kicking his ass at Call of Duty, which is admittedly not very difficult when Finn is too busy going on and on about whatever song he wants to serenade Rachel with this week. Blaine almost chokes when he mentions which song it is, because a song about promising to remain faithful is maybe not the most romantic of choices, considering Rachel and Finn’s past.
But that song has a pretty kicking drum beat and Blaine might be pretty confident in his voice but he isn’t ready to have Rachel tear down one of his solos yet so this is a good way to win a little trust from the rest of New Directions. It’s not that they don’t accept him, but he’s heard about the infamous Jesse St. James and understandably they don’t quite trust he won’t go running back to the Warblers any moment. He knows Jesse spent most of his time stealing the spotlight, being willing to fall into line will probably endear him to the group a lot more.
“I could play the drums for you, I know you usually do but...”
“No, dude, that’s awesome, this way I can dance for her too!” Finn is overly enthusiastic, even if for all he knows Blaine could be terrible at it. But then, impressing Rachel Berry is not the easiest of tasks and she’ll probably barely notice if the drumming is a little off.
So he sits obediently behind the drum kit the next time Glee club meets and grins when Kurt raises a curious eyebrow at him.
What are you doing? Kurt mouths, and Blaine just shrugs and twirls the drumsticks over his long fingers, which definitely steals his boyfriends attention, just for a moment.
“So um, this is for you Rachel” Finn babbles nervously, but he calms when the piano starts to play, and by the time Blaine starts to drum, Finn is belting out the song like his life depends on it.
Rachel actually leaps up to spin around and sing the female solo, and considering she’s really telling Finn to cheat on her and get it done with, they still look pretty wrapped in each other while they sing.
Kurt bobs his foot in time with the music, and he and Mercedes bend their heads together to sing along, but as Blaine finally brings the song to a clattering end in a way the original distinctly never had, the smile on Kurt's face is all for him.
4. dance me to your beauty with a burning violin, dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
They’re lying on Kurt’s bed in a state of significant undress when Kurt suddenly breathlessly asks:
“When are you going to sing a solo?” And wow, Blaine was not expecting that at all, not considering the way he’s rutting against Kurt with reckless abandon and Kurt is arching against him, fingers digging into his back.
“Do you want me to?” He murmurs against Kurt's jaw and Kurt pushes him back for a moment to look very seriously into his face.
“I want you to sing for me! Finn sings for Rachel, Sam sings for ‘Cedes, Puck sings for Lauren every second week, why haven’t you sung for me yet?” His voice rises an octave towards the end as Blaine rolls against his hips and sucks a dark bruise onto his collarbone
“I’ll sing for you then” He whispers and Kurt smiles beautifically and shoves a hand roughly into Blaine’s pants.
A week later he’s sitting in his seat waiting for Mr Shue to stop blabbering on about reworking songs and that’s actually kind of perfect so he smiles at Kurt and shoots his hand into the air. This would be a whole lot less awkward if the whole room didn’t turn to stare.
“Uh, Mr Shue? I have an example of reworking” He springs to his feet and pulls the violin case from beneath his chair, savoring the look of surprise on Kurt's face.
“This is traditionally a jazz song” He starts, resting the violin under his chin. “But I’m classically trained so I’ve mixed it up a bit”
Kurt turns a gorgeous shade of pink when Blaine fixes his gaze on his face and begins to play. Kurt just about melts when he sings, sliding down his chair until Mercedes grabs his hand and hauls him back upright.
“Oh god” Kurt actually moans when Blaine drops his voice low and sings the final verse. He crosses his legs uncomfortably and Blaine drops a kiss to his mouth before he steps back to finish.
Kurt doesn’t seem too bothered at all when Blaine returns the violin to its case and then hauls him from the room to throw him against a wall somewhere, not even when wolf whistles follow them down the hall.
5. I’m a solo cello outside a chorus, I’ve got a secret, it’s time for me tell
Kurt hasn’t spoken to him in three weeks and two days. They’ve fought before, but never like this, never with such intensity. Blaine can’t stand it anymore. He can’t remember why they’re even fighting, why they sit on opposite sides of the room during Glee Club and pretend like it isn’t killing them both. Most of Blaine’s friends are really Kurt’s friends who hang out with him by extension, so none of them will speak to him either, and he’s getting tired of sitting on one side of the room while everybody flocks to Kurt's side on the other.
Mr Shue looks surprised when Blaine asks if he can play something and even more so when when he walks over to the orchestra and has a hushed conversation with the cellist. His eyes nearly pop out of his head when Blaine drags a chair to the center of the room and rests the cello between his knees, settling the weight against his chest and brushing the neck against his cheek as he moves into position.
Kurt cocks his head sideways and looks suspicious. he has every right to as well, he doesn’t know this is an apology.
He closes his eyes as he plays, and tune might not have much resemblance to the original, but the words are the same, and the warm, throaty notes of the cello are perfectly mournful, and harmonises with his voice like they were made to go together. The song might originally be an upbeat piece of pop fluff, but Blaine makes it his own, turns it into something slow and sad and filled with the pain he feels every second he can’t call Kurt his.
“Oh Boo” He hears Mercedes whisper halfway through, and he might be singing about no-one ever measuring up to Kurt but the object is not actually to make him upset, so when he cracks one eye and sees the shine of tears on Kurt’s cheeks he nearly stops playing. Nearly.
“You my boy Kurt, but if you don’t take him back I will kick your ass” Puck says, and Blaine wants to smile at that, because Puck has spent the last three weeks trying to figure out exactly what he did to upset Kurt so he can kick in his face for it.
He lets the final notes hang in the air before he finally finishes, head bent over the cello, almost afraid to see Kurt’s reaction. The moment seems to last forever, until finally he hears footsteps moving towards him and suddenly Kurt’s mouth is pressed against his, hot and wet and perfect and someone grabs the cello which is great because Blaine needs his hands empty to hold Kurt tightly against him.
“I missed you” Kurt murmurs when they finally part, and he hears Puck call out “Yeah, get it Kurt!” before he’s loudly shushed.
“Never saying goodbye right?” Blaine whispers to Kurt, and Kurt grins and kisses him again.
“Never.”