His Perfect Partner (4/?)
Title: His Perfect Partner (4/?)
Rating: R
Pairings: Kurt/Blaine, with appearances by Burt/Carole, Tina/Mike, Mercedes/Sam, Brittany/Santana, Rachel/Finn
Spoilers: None, but assume that anything through 3.14 is fair game for inspiration.
Word Count: 2586
Summary: After five disappointing seasons on the show, professional dancer Kurt Hummel finally has his chance at ballroom glory. With actress and fan favorite Kim Schrodinger as his partner, Kurt vows to channel all his focus into winning that mirrorball trophy - distractions, including men, be damned. Enter Blaine Anderson, a gorgeous, confusing pop star who may turn out to be the biggest distraction of them all.
In This Chapter: Blaine is everywhere, Kurt is surly, Blaine helps Kurt out of a tricky situation, and someone has a date.
Author's Note: This is a Dancing with the Stars/Glee crossover AU, in which Kurt grew up dancing and became a professional on the show in his mid-twenties, and Blaine is a pop star with a very private private life. Other familiar Glee faces, some actual DWTS pros, and a couple of OCs appear to round out the cast of characters. I'll be posting twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. I have a master glee post here, or follow my bff's tumblr for updates and some fun multi-media extras that will go along with most chapters. Thanks to
samzgurl,
wintercreek, and
gypsyangel25 for the beta as well as for general cheer-leading and fun times.
For the next week, Blaine seemed to be everywhere Kurt was. The show hadn’t even started yet, but already he and Kim, and Bitsy and Blaine, were being heralded as the front-runners, which meant that every time a publicity opportunity appeared, both couples were trotted out. Kurt was getting a little tired of Blaine’s cheerful mug showing up opposite him at every 4am morning show taping and radio interview the show could send them on.
“Stop scowling,” Kim hissed at him, while still managing to maintain her professional smile.
“I’ll stop when you stop making me sit next to the pop star,” Kurt whispered back, pointedly angling his body away from Blaine, who was being entirely too polite and friendly for five o’clock in the morning.
They were on yet another morning show, complete with obnoxious perky hosts and inane questions. Kurt was contemplating how big a coffee mug he’d need to either make this palatable or drown himself in. It had been that sort of week.
“Would you like more coffee?” Blaine asked, pushing his mug toward Kurt as though he could read minds. “I think I’ve had enough. It makes me jumpy.”
“Thanks,” Kurt said begrudgingly. Blaine was making it entirely too difficult to hate him.
“Of course.” Blaine smiled sweetly, and then turned back to keep Bitsy occupied. Earlier that week, he’d apparently figured out that Bitsy made Kurt want to gouge his eyes out with the provided coffee spoons and had taken it upon himself to keep them as far apart as possible. It made Kurt want to kiss him. Or kick him. Or something like that. He couldn’t be held responsible for his actions at this hour of the morning.
“Kurtsie, darling,” Kim said, sliding closer so no one could overhear. “If you don’t make up your mind about him soon, you’re going to give yourself an aneurysm.”
“I’ve left strict instructions to blame you if that happens. It’s clearly all your fault.” Kurt knew he was scowling again, but he couldn’t be bothered to care. It was early, and boys were confusing. He wouldn’t be surprised if he started pouting in a minute.
The interview was mercifully short, but before Kurt could escape, Kim grabbed him to talk about their rehearsal schedule for the rest of the day. Blaine wandered up a minute later, and Kim looked entirely too delighted by that coincidence to be believable.
“So, hey,” Blaine began, smiling what Kurt had decided was Blaine Anderson smile number thirty-two: bashful and yet endearing. “Tina mentioned the other day that a bunch of the cast likes to go out dancing on Thursday nights. It sounded like fun, so I thought I might go. Elizabeth can’t make it, but I thought maybe you guys might be going?”
“Oh, I can’t tonight. The kids are insisting on a movie marathon,” Kim said. Kurt was almost one hundred percent sure she’d just made that up on the spot. “But Kurt always goes. Right, Kurtsie?”
“Oh, well, sometimes,” Kurt stuttered, mentally rearranging his hit list to include both Kim and Tina at the very top.
“Great!” Blaine said, as though ‘sometimes’ meant ‘yes, absolutely, please tag along with me and make this evening just as awkward and confusing as this moment is.’ “I’ll see you there!”
“Sure, I guess,” Kurt said, but Blaine was already turning away, a bounce in his step. Kurt turned toward Kim and unleashed the glare that left both his father and stepbrother quaking in fear. Kim only laughed.
“I hope you make a stop at the ATM on the way there, Kurtsie, because you are going to be owing me some money.”
“I strongly dislike you.”
“Right. Just about as much as you dislike little Blainers, there,” Kim said.
“Did I say dislike? I meant despise. I’d double up on your rehearsals if it didn’t mean I had to see your smug little face twice as much.”
“Aw, I love you too, darling.” Kim cooed, cuddling up to him. “It’ll all work out in the end.”
“That,” Kurt said, “is exactly what I’m afraid of.”
***
Sixteen hours and six outfit changes later, Kurt called Mercedes in desperation.
“You can’t decide what to wear, can you?” She said in lieu of a greeting. He whimpered. “Boy, you have got it bad. I haven’t seen you like this in…I don’t know, ever?”
“I just can’t decide between the regular dark wash jeans or the ones with the slight sheen,” Kurt said, trying to hang on to some semblance of control. He’d been dressing himself since he was two. He didn’t do this.
“The shiny ones. Sparkle is always good, and they make your ass look fabulous. Button-down, vest, and tie?”
“The skinny black one,” he confirmed.
“Perfect,” she said. “Send me a picture when you’re all done. I want to see. And while you’re at it, you should get a picture of Blaine too. I’m dying to know what he wears clubbing.”
“I really need new friends,” Kurt muttered, feeling more himself now that his wardrobe crisis was over. “Why aren’t you just coming with me, again?”
“Because I can’t keep up with you dancing fools once you get going. Plus, I’ve got an early shoot tomorrow. Have extra fun for me, though!”
“Yes ma’am.”
“I mean it,” Mercedes said. “Stop thinking so hard and just let go. The season hasn’t even started yet. You need to relax, at least for one night.”
“I’ll try,” Kurt said.
“Don’t try - just do. Don’t make me call Tina and have her get you drunk.”
“The horror,” Kurt said, but when he hung up he was laughing.
***
"Oh, shit," Kurt said, interrupting Blaine's story about tour bus hijinks from the previous summer. They were at the bar, tasked with picking up another round of drinks for the table.
"What?"
"Don't look now, but one of my ghosts of beer goggles past is down at the other end of the bar," Kurt said. Blaine, predictably, turned right around to look. "I said don't look!"
"Ghosts of beer goggles past?” Blaine asked, grinning. “I take it the neanderthal down there is on your list of regrets? Somehow I didn't imagine you'd be into someone so...beefy."
"Like I said - beer goggles. They make anyone attractive," Kurt replied testily.
"I also didn't think you were that into beer..."
"Well mojito goggles just sounds stupid, doesn't it?" Kurt snapped. "Oh, god, he's looking this way. Help!"
"What? How?" Blaine looked around helplessly, while Kurt tried to hide behind him. It wasn't that successful.
"Ok, that's it," Kurt said, taking the drinks out of Blaine's hands and setting them on the bar. He looked Blaine up and down and shrugged. He'd do.
"Whoa, what? Why do I get the feeling I'm about to get roped into something sordid?" Blaine smiled warily.
"Because you are. Now come along and grope me on the dance floor like you're interested. I promise to tell everyone about your heroics later." Kurt grabbed Blaine's hand before he could protest and dragged them into the mass of dancing bodies.
It took a minute or two to find the perfect spot on the dance floor - visible yet protected. Kurt didn’t like anyone getting too close unless they’d been invited. By the time he turned around, intending to pull Blaine in, Blaine seemed to have recovered from his initial shock. He was rocking back and forth to the beat, hips swinging and eyes almost closed. He looked up from underneath his lashes, going willingly when Kurt reeled him in.
“How am I doing?” Blaine asked, crowding close.
“Less talking, more dancing,” Kurt said. The music was pounding, and he let it take him, take them, cocooning them together in heat and sound.
Kurt’s arms wrapped over Blaine’s shoulders, one hand sliding up the nape of his neck to skim through his hair. Blaine had Kurt by the hips, fingers curling through his belt loops. Their cheeks pressed together, Blaine breathing hot and fast in Kurt’s ear, and Kurt closed his eyes as electric want coursed through his body. Right now, Blaine didn’t feel like a means to an end. He felt like everything, and Kurt was lost in sensation.
The song changed, fast and tight giving way to slow and throbbing. Kurt’s hands slid down, palms spreading across the muscles of Blaine’s back. Blaine mirrored his motion, one hand slipping into Kurt’s back pocket while the other wrapped more tightly around his waist. Blaine dropped his forehead into the crook of Kurt’s neck, and Kurt’s breath caught when he realized Blaine was watching the way their hips rolled together with every beat.
Kurt closed his eyes, giving in to the pull that he’d felt from their first meeting. It was reckless and stupid, but it just felt so damn good. In the middle of the floor, music in his ears and Blaine inundating his senses, Kurt found it hard to care about the standards he had set for himself in the light of day. Blaine shifted, mouth coming back up to Kurt’s ear, and Kurt shifted with him.
“Is it working?” Blaine murmured.
God, yes. Everything about this was working for Kurt.
“Hm?”
“The dancing - is it working? Or is that guy still there?” Blaine kept moving, kept touching, scrambling Kurt’s brain. It took him a second to look up and focus on the bar.
“I don’t see him,” Kurt said, words slurring from sheer proximity.
“Success!” Blaine said, pulling back as the music changed again, this time to something energetic and fun. He looked slightly rumpled, and Kurt had to will himself not to drag him closer and muss him up some more.
“Looks that way,” Kurt said, disentangling himself more fully from Blaine. “It’s probably safe to go back and get our drinks.”
They made their way off the dance floor, Blaine’s hand occasionally drifting across Kurt’s lower back as they worked through the crowd. Blaine organized their drinks and herded Kurt, who was still slightly dazed, back toward their table. Tina and Mike were gone, probably off dancing, but Brittany greeted them with a big smile. Kurt slid into the booth next to her and let his head fall to her shoulder.
“Too much dancing?” she asked.
“Something like that.”
“I think it’s always more tiring when you really care,” she said matter-of-factly.
“You have no idea,” Kurt said, but he realized that knowing Brit, she probably did.
Kurt looked across the table at Blaine, who was sipping his drink and watching the dancers with a big, relaxed grin. He seemed no worse for wear following their little encounter, so Kurt resolved not to let it bother him. It was just dancing - a friend helping a friend. It would be fine. And if he ended up spending the rest of the evening convincing himself of that, no one else needed to know.
***
Cedes texted Kurt the next morning before he was fully awake, a terse “we need to talk” that meant she’d somehow gotten wind of what had gone down at the club. He put her off, citing a full day of rehearsal, which was technically true, but by seven that night, she was no longer taking no for an answer.
He answered the insistent knocking at his door, not surprised in the least when Cedes was on the other side, hands full of take-out and no nonsense expression firmly in place. He sighed and helped her set up dinner.
“So,” she began, once they’d settled at his breakfast bar. “Care to explain why I have a picture on my phone that looks like it was ripped straight out of gay soul train?”
“Shit,” Kurt said succinctly. “Tina?”
“Of course.” She pulled the picture up and showed it to him. His breath caught at the way he and Blaine looked together, wrapped up and lost in one another. “Care to make your case before the judge?”
“It’s not what it looks like,” he began in a rush. “Well, it is. We were dancing. But really, he was just helping me avoid some guy I really didn’t want approaching me again.”
“By wrapping himself around you like a particularly horny koala bear? So selfless of him.”
“Oh, shut up. He really was helping. Just not my sanity.” Kurt ran a hand through his hair.
“Oh, baby,” Cedes said, recognizing his distress. “Tell me all about it.”
“Why is he so hot and nice?” Kurt whined. “It would be so much easier if he were mean and ugly.”
“We wouldn’t be having this conversation if he were mean and ugly, K.”
“I know, I just…”
“You just nothing. I think it’s time you accept that he may not be as straight as you’ve been trying to convince yourself he is. Based on this picture, I’d go with not very straight at all.” Cedes held her phone out in front of her, turning it slightly, a dirty grin on her face.
“Oh, my god. You have to stop. You’re scarring me for life.”
“At least it’s not your ass I’m staring at, though come to think of it…”
“No! Just no.” Kurt grabbed the phone from her and put it down on the far side of the table. “Eat your fried rice and shut up.”
“Remember when you used to be fun?” Cedes asked.
“Remember when you didn’t torture me just for the hell of it?” Kurt replied.
“Not really, no. That’s at least half the fun of our friendship.”
“And let me guess - the other half is having a shopping buddy who doesn’t wilt at the first sign of a store-wide sale.”
“Right in one!” Cedes grinned at him, and Kurt couldn’t help smiling back. “I love you, K. You know that. And I think you need to give yourself a break just this once.”
“And do what? Throw myself at a guy just because he’s been nice to me? That’s a whole level of pathetic I have yet to reach.”
“Well heaven forbid you put yourself out there, but no, that’s not what I meant. Just give him a chance. Be a little less prickly for once in your life and see what happens. You might be surprised.”
“And how’s that working out for you?” Kurt said dryly.
“I,” Cedes said, looking smug, “have a date tomorrow night.”
“With Sam?” Kurt asked, eyes going wide when Cedes nodded. “Oh my god, Cedes! Way to hold out on me!”
“Sorry.” She giggled. “It just happened today, and I wanted to tell you in person.”
“That’s amazing. It’s a really good thing I didn’t take that bet, because I think I need to have my gaydar checked.”
“My point exactly.”
“Oh, fine.” Kurt rolled his eyes. “I’ll consider the possibility that I may have misjudged Blaine, but first you have to tell me everything. How did it happen? What did he say? And more importantly, what are you going to wear?”
Their dinner dissolved into happy chatter and wardrobe planning. Around midnight, after Kurt had followed Cedes home so he could personally approve her outfit choice for her date and then left her so she could get her beauty sleep, Kurt realized that he hadn’t thought of Blaine in hours. With little more than a week left before the premiere, he knew it needed to stay that way. Work came first, his love life second. Cedes and Kim might be right about Blaine, but that didn’t mean anything had to happen between them.
Rating: R
Pairings: Kurt/Blaine, with appearances by Burt/Carole, Tina/Mike, Mercedes/Sam, Brittany/Santana, Rachel/Finn
Spoilers: None, but assume that anything through 3.14 is fair game for inspiration.
Word Count: 2586
Summary: After five disappointing seasons on the show, professional dancer Kurt Hummel finally has his chance at ballroom glory. With actress and fan favorite Kim Schrodinger as his partner, Kurt vows to channel all his focus into winning that mirrorball trophy - distractions, including men, be damned. Enter Blaine Anderson, a gorgeous, confusing pop star who may turn out to be the biggest distraction of them all.
In This Chapter: Blaine is everywhere, Kurt is surly, Blaine helps Kurt out of a tricky situation, and someone has a date.
Author's Note: This is a Dancing with the Stars/Glee crossover AU, in which Kurt grew up dancing and became a professional on the show in his mid-twenties, and Blaine is a pop star with a very private private life. Other familiar Glee faces, some actual DWTS pros, and a couple of OCs appear to round out the cast of characters. I'll be posting twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. I have a master glee post here, or follow my bff's tumblr for updates and some fun multi-media extras that will go along with most chapters. Thanks to
samzgurl,
wintercreek, and
gypsyangel25 for the beta as well as for general cheer-leading and fun times.
For the next week, Blaine seemed to be everywhere Kurt was. The show hadn’t even started yet, but already he and Kim, and Bitsy and Blaine, were being heralded as the front-runners, which meant that every time a publicity opportunity appeared, both couples were trotted out. Kurt was getting a little tired of Blaine’s cheerful mug showing up opposite him at every 4am morning show taping and radio interview the show could send them on.
“Stop scowling,” Kim hissed at him, while still managing to maintain her professional smile.
“I’ll stop when you stop making me sit next to the pop star,” Kurt whispered back, pointedly angling his body away from Blaine, who was being entirely too polite and friendly for five o’clock in the morning.
They were on yet another morning show, complete with obnoxious perky hosts and inane questions. Kurt was contemplating how big a coffee mug he’d need to either make this palatable or drown himself in. It had been that sort of week.
“Would you like more coffee?” Blaine asked, pushing his mug toward Kurt as though he could read minds. “I think I’ve had enough. It makes me jumpy.”
“Thanks,” Kurt said begrudgingly. Blaine was making it entirely too difficult to hate him.
“Of course.” Blaine smiled sweetly, and then turned back to keep Bitsy occupied. Earlier that week, he’d apparently figured out that Bitsy made Kurt want to gouge his eyes out with the provided coffee spoons and had taken it upon himself to keep them as far apart as possible. It made Kurt want to kiss him. Or kick him. Or something like that. He couldn’t be held responsible for his actions at this hour of the morning.
“Kurtsie, darling,” Kim said, sliding closer so no one could overhear. “If you don’t make up your mind about him soon, you’re going to give yourself an aneurysm.”
“I’ve left strict instructions to blame you if that happens. It’s clearly all your fault.” Kurt knew he was scowling again, but he couldn’t be bothered to care. It was early, and boys were confusing. He wouldn’t be surprised if he started pouting in a minute.
The interview was mercifully short, but before Kurt could escape, Kim grabbed him to talk about their rehearsal schedule for the rest of the day. Blaine wandered up a minute later, and Kim looked entirely too delighted by that coincidence to be believable.
“So, hey,” Blaine began, smiling what Kurt had decided was Blaine Anderson smile number thirty-two: bashful and yet endearing. “Tina mentioned the other day that a bunch of the cast likes to go out dancing on Thursday nights. It sounded like fun, so I thought I might go. Elizabeth can’t make it, but I thought maybe you guys might be going?”
“Oh, I can’t tonight. The kids are insisting on a movie marathon,” Kim said. Kurt was almost one hundred percent sure she’d just made that up on the spot. “But Kurt always goes. Right, Kurtsie?”
“Oh, well, sometimes,” Kurt stuttered, mentally rearranging his hit list to include both Kim and Tina at the very top.
“Great!” Blaine said, as though ‘sometimes’ meant ‘yes, absolutely, please tag along with me and make this evening just as awkward and confusing as this moment is.’ “I’ll see you there!”
“Sure, I guess,” Kurt said, but Blaine was already turning away, a bounce in his step. Kurt turned toward Kim and unleashed the glare that left both his father and stepbrother quaking in fear. Kim only laughed.
“I hope you make a stop at the ATM on the way there, Kurtsie, because you are going to be owing me some money.”
“I strongly dislike you.”
“Right. Just about as much as you dislike little Blainers, there,” Kim said.
“Did I say dislike? I meant despise. I’d double up on your rehearsals if it didn’t mean I had to see your smug little face twice as much.”
“Aw, I love you too, darling.” Kim cooed, cuddling up to him. “It’ll all work out in the end.”
“That,” Kurt said, “is exactly what I’m afraid of.”
***
Sixteen hours and six outfit changes later, Kurt called Mercedes in desperation.
“You can’t decide what to wear, can you?” She said in lieu of a greeting. He whimpered. “Boy, you have got it bad. I haven’t seen you like this in…I don’t know, ever?”
“I just can’t decide between the regular dark wash jeans or the ones with the slight sheen,” Kurt said, trying to hang on to some semblance of control. He’d been dressing himself since he was two. He didn’t do this.
“The shiny ones. Sparkle is always good, and they make your ass look fabulous. Button-down, vest, and tie?”
“The skinny black one,” he confirmed.
“Perfect,” she said. “Send me a picture when you’re all done. I want to see. And while you’re at it, you should get a picture of Blaine too. I’m dying to know what he wears clubbing.”
“I really need new friends,” Kurt muttered, feeling more himself now that his wardrobe crisis was over. “Why aren’t you just coming with me, again?”
“Because I can’t keep up with you dancing fools once you get going. Plus, I’ve got an early shoot tomorrow. Have extra fun for me, though!”
“Yes ma’am.”
“I mean it,” Mercedes said. “Stop thinking so hard and just let go. The season hasn’t even started yet. You need to relax, at least for one night.”
“I’ll try,” Kurt said.
“Don’t try - just do. Don’t make me call Tina and have her get you drunk.”
“The horror,” Kurt said, but when he hung up he was laughing.
***
"Oh, shit," Kurt said, interrupting Blaine's story about tour bus hijinks from the previous summer. They were at the bar, tasked with picking up another round of drinks for the table.
"What?"
"Don't look now, but one of my ghosts of beer goggles past is down at the other end of the bar," Kurt said. Blaine, predictably, turned right around to look. "I said don't look!"
"Ghosts of beer goggles past?” Blaine asked, grinning. “I take it the neanderthal down there is on your list of regrets? Somehow I didn't imagine you'd be into someone so...beefy."
"Like I said - beer goggles. They make anyone attractive," Kurt replied testily.
"I also didn't think you were that into beer..."
"Well mojito goggles just sounds stupid, doesn't it?" Kurt snapped. "Oh, god, he's looking this way. Help!"
"What? How?" Blaine looked around helplessly, while Kurt tried to hide behind him. It wasn't that successful.
"Ok, that's it," Kurt said, taking the drinks out of Blaine's hands and setting them on the bar. He looked Blaine up and down and shrugged. He'd do.
"Whoa, what? Why do I get the feeling I'm about to get roped into something sordid?" Blaine smiled warily.
"Because you are. Now come along and grope me on the dance floor like you're interested. I promise to tell everyone about your heroics later." Kurt grabbed Blaine's hand before he could protest and dragged them into the mass of dancing bodies.
It took a minute or two to find the perfect spot on the dance floor - visible yet protected. Kurt didn’t like anyone getting too close unless they’d been invited. By the time he turned around, intending to pull Blaine in, Blaine seemed to have recovered from his initial shock. He was rocking back and forth to the beat, hips swinging and eyes almost closed. He looked up from underneath his lashes, going willingly when Kurt reeled him in.
“How am I doing?” Blaine asked, crowding close.
“Less talking, more dancing,” Kurt said. The music was pounding, and he let it take him, take them, cocooning them together in heat and sound.
Kurt’s arms wrapped over Blaine’s shoulders, one hand sliding up the nape of his neck to skim through his hair. Blaine had Kurt by the hips, fingers curling through his belt loops. Their cheeks pressed together, Blaine breathing hot and fast in Kurt’s ear, and Kurt closed his eyes as electric want coursed through his body. Right now, Blaine didn’t feel like a means to an end. He felt like everything, and Kurt was lost in sensation.
The song changed, fast and tight giving way to slow and throbbing. Kurt’s hands slid down, palms spreading across the muscles of Blaine’s back. Blaine mirrored his motion, one hand slipping into Kurt’s back pocket while the other wrapped more tightly around his waist. Blaine dropped his forehead into the crook of Kurt’s neck, and Kurt’s breath caught when he realized Blaine was watching the way their hips rolled together with every beat.
Kurt closed his eyes, giving in to the pull that he’d felt from their first meeting. It was reckless and stupid, but it just felt so damn good. In the middle of the floor, music in his ears and Blaine inundating his senses, Kurt found it hard to care about the standards he had set for himself in the light of day. Blaine shifted, mouth coming back up to Kurt’s ear, and Kurt shifted with him.
“Is it working?” Blaine murmured.
God, yes. Everything about this was working for Kurt.
“Hm?”
“The dancing - is it working? Or is that guy still there?” Blaine kept moving, kept touching, scrambling Kurt’s brain. It took him a second to look up and focus on the bar.
“I don’t see him,” Kurt said, words slurring from sheer proximity.
“Success!” Blaine said, pulling back as the music changed again, this time to something energetic and fun. He looked slightly rumpled, and Kurt had to will himself not to drag him closer and muss him up some more.
“Looks that way,” Kurt said, disentangling himself more fully from Blaine. “It’s probably safe to go back and get our drinks.”
They made their way off the dance floor, Blaine’s hand occasionally drifting across Kurt’s lower back as they worked through the crowd. Blaine organized their drinks and herded Kurt, who was still slightly dazed, back toward their table. Tina and Mike were gone, probably off dancing, but Brittany greeted them with a big smile. Kurt slid into the booth next to her and let his head fall to her shoulder.
“Too much dancing?” she asked.
“Something like that.”
“I think it’s always more tiring when you really care,” she said matter-of-factly.
“You have no idea,” Kurt said, but he realized that knowing Brit, she probably did.
Kurt looked across the table at Blaine, who was sipping his drink and watching the dancers with a big, relaxed grin. He seemed no worse for wear following their little encounter, so Kurt resolved not to let it bother him. It was just dancing - a friend helping a friend. It would be fine. And if he ended up spending the rest of the evening convincing himself of that, no one else needed to know.
***
Cedes texted Kurt the next morning before he was fully awake, a terse “we need to talk” that meant she’d somehow gotten wind of what had gone down at the club. He put her off, citing a full day of rehearsal, which was technically true, but by seven that night, she was no longer taking no for an answer.
He answered the insistent knocking at his door, not surprised in the least when Cedes was on the other side, hands full of take-out and no nonsense expression firmly in place. He sighed and helped her set up dinner.
“So,” she began, once they’d settled at his breakfast bar. “Care to explain why I have a picture on my phone that looks like it was ripped straight out of gay soul train?”
“Shit,” Kurt said succinctly. “Tina?”
“Of course.” She pulled the picture up and showed it to him. His breath caught at the way he and Blaine looked together, wrapped up and lost in one another. “Care to make your case before the judge?”
“It’s not what it looks like,” he began in a rush. “Well, it is. We were dancing. But really, he was just helping me avoid some guy I really didn’t want approaching me again.”
“By wrapping himself around you like a particularly horny koala bear? So selfless of him.”
“Oh, shut up. He really was helping. Just not my sanity.” Kurt ran a hand through his hair.
“Oh, baby,” Cedes said, recognizing his distress. “Tell me all about it.”
“Why is he so hot and nice?” Kurt whined. “It would be so much easier if he were mean and ugly.”
“We wouldn’t be having this conversation if he were mean and ugly, K.”
“I know, I just…”
“You just nothing. I think it’s time you accept that he may not be as straight as you’ve been trying to convince yourself he is. Based on this picture, I’d go with not very straight at all.” Cedes held her phone out in front of her, turning it slightly, a dirty grin on her face.
“Oh, my god. You have to stop. You’re scarring me for life.”
“At least it’s not your ass I’m staring at, though come to think of it…”
“No! Just no.” Kurt grabbed the phone from her and put it down on the far side of the table. “Eat your fried rice and shut up.”
“Remember when you used to be fun?” Cedes asked.
“Remember when you didn’t torture me just for the hell of it?” Kurt replied.
“Not really, no. That’s at least half the fun of our friendship.”
“And let me guess - the other half is having a shopping buddy who doesn’t wilt at the first sign of a store-wide sale.”
“Right in one!” Cedes grinned at him, and Kurt couldn’t help smiling back. “I love you, K. You know that. And I think you need to give yourself a break just this once.”
“And do what? Throw myself at a guy just because he’s been nice to me? That’s a whole level of pathetic I have yet to reach.”
“Well heaven forbid you put yourself out there, but no, that’s not what I meant. Just give him a chance. Be a little less prickly for once in your life and see what happens. You might be surprised.”
“And how’s that working out for you?” Kurt said dryly.
“I,” Cedes said, looking smug, “have a date tomorrow night.”
“With Sam?” Kurt asked, eyes going wide when Cedes nodded. “Oh my god, Cedes! Way to hold out on me!”
“Sorry.” She giggled. “It just happened today, and I wanted to tell you in person.”
“That’s amazing. It’s a really good thing I didn’t take that bet, because I think I need to have my gaydar checked.”
“My point exactly.”
“Oh, fine.” Kurt rolled his eyes. “I’ll consider the possibility that I may have misjudged Blaine, but first you have to tell me everything. How did it happen? What did he say? And more importantly, what are you going to wear?”
Their dinner dissolved into happy chatter and wardrobe planning. Around midnight, after Kurt had followed Cedes home so he could personally approve her outfit choice for her date and then left her so she could get her beauty sleep, Kurt realized that he hadn’t thought of Blaine in hours. With little more than a week left before the premiere, he knew it needed to stay that way. Work came first, his love life second. Cedes and Kim might be right about Blaine, but that didn’t mean anything had to happen between them.