Coal To Diamonds (R)
Title: Coal to Diamonds (Glory Box 3/6)
Rating: This part is probably an R, but it doesn’t really make sense unless you’ve read the very NC-17 part that kicks everything into gear.
Word Count: 1234 (nifty!)
Spoilers: Through Furt, if that can even be counted a spoiler at this point…
Warnings: Beware of angst - from the boys as well as me, because angst isn’t my usual wheelhouse, so this whole series is a bit of an experiment.
Summary: Third part of what I’ve dubbed the ”Glory Box” series, which began with ”Unknown Pleasures” and continued with ”Mysterons”. Blaine had an experience once, and he’ll never be able to forget it.
All blame for this lies squarely at the feet of cgfan09, who nudged me toward exploring the consequences.
The next couple of weeks went by in more or less a blur. Between Warblers practice and his upcoming mid-terms, Blaine didn’t really have a lot of time to dwell on things too much.
At least, that’s what he kept telling himself.
The truth was, Blaine did precious little other than dwell on things with Kurt. He didn’t know how he’d gotten so involved, so fast, without actually being involved with someone, but that didn’t change the fact that he and Kurt were clearly becoming fixtures in each other’s lives. Whether or not this was a good thing, Blaine was never really sure. Come to think of it, there were a lot of things Blaine wasn’t really sure about, these days.
Why he was so hesitant to tell people about all the time they’d been spending together, for instance. After his trip to McKinley, Blaine had changed Kurt’s profile to vibrate silently, and he was careful to only take Kurt’s calls when he had a certain level of privacy. The more his teammates knew about his interactions with him, the more questions there would be. Blaine was sure of it. The problem was, he had too many questions of his own to even think of trying to answer anyone else’s.
Not even Kurt’s.
So when they spoke, he tried to remain upbeat. To be friendly and encouraging, without crossing the line into overt flirtation. When they’d hung out, he tried to tell himself that the way his skin buzzed at Kurt’s touch was just because he associated it with that day in the park. Almost immediately, he’d call himself out on it.
That day in the park still rang clearly in his mind, but all the things he was feeling were because of the Kurt he was getting to know in the here and now. Kurt may have had his own issues with confidence and self-image, but he was unapologetic about who he was in a way that Blaine hadn’t seen very much even in people twice his age. His biting humor, his flair for the dramatic, the obvious love he had for those close to him - each thing Kurt revealed about himself was like another drop of water that threatened to cause Blaine’s heart to overflow. Sometimes, he allowed himself to think Kurt might be feeling the same for him.
Mostly, he tried not to let himself think about it. Thinking about how Kurt might feel only brought how Blaine felt into sharper focus, and thinking about how he felt only served to remind him of how other things had felt.
Like Kurt’s lips as they’d wrapped around his cock.
Blaine was just overwhelmed with too much feeling, in every sense of the word.
So when Kurt told him about his father’s upcoming wedding, Blaine, of course, Had Feelings. Confidence that Kurt would look handsome in whatever he wore as he stood beside his father. Hope that Kurt would ask him to come. Sadness, when he realized he wouldn’t. Often, though he did his best to keep himself from expressing it, there was bitterness at the thought that Kurt, as a sixteen-year-old boy, was good enough to plan a wedding, but not considered good enough to have one of his own, were he a legal adult.
The bitterness, he knew, was partially for himself. Sure, people loved Lady GaGa and Modern Family, but there was still so much hate out there, and he saw it every day. Even at Dalton, home of the zero tolerance harassment policy, there was at least one incident a week that served to remind him that in the eyes of most he wasn’t normal, and never would be. ”Fuck normal,” he’d say to himself when it started getting a bit much to take, but it never really did enough to take away the sting.
As the day of the wedding grew closer, Kurt’s phone calls and texts dropped off. Blaine did his best to tell himself it wasn’t personal, Kurt was probably just busy with preparations and plans, but it didn’t help. Every night, he’d hit refresh as he looked at Kurt’s Facebook page, desperate for some clue to what was going on in his life. Saturday night, notifications started popping up that Kurt had been tagged in various people’s mobile uploads, and the sight of him in his trim black suit made Blaine’s heart ache. Outings to plays and dinner “as friends” were great, but he knew he wanted more, and he had to say something before much more time could pass.
The next time they talked, he decided, he would ask him out. For real. No more of this pretense at “just friends.” It had been a few weeks since The Karofsky Incident (as he always thought of it), and Kurt’s mood had seemed increasingly brightened when they’d spent time together. There was hope, and Blaine clung to it tightly through the rest of the weekend.
Monday, he began to worry. Kurt‘s Facebook page showed no activity at all. Kurt wasn’t saying anything to anyone, and no one was saying anything to him. Blaine tried calling and texting him, but there was no response. “He’s just busy,” Blaine said to himself. “His dad just got married; there’s probably just a lot of dust that needs settling.” If he didn’t hear from him by Wednesday, Blaine decided, he’d drive up to Lima after Warblers practice. He could come up with an excuse, if he couldn’t bring himself to be completely honest.
Tuesday morning, his phone buzzed in his pocket during Calculus, and he almost jumped in his seat at the shock. Carefully taking it from his pocket and checking it beneath the edge of his desk, he saw the notification of a new text from Kurt.
”What time is your lunch?”
After getting a hall pass from Ms. Adams, Blaine ducked into the nearest restroom and messaged back.
”Twelve thirty. Do you need to talk? I can call you then.”
It seemed he was staring at his phone forever, but it was really less than a minute before Kurt’s response came in.
”Talking would be good, but you don’t need to call. I’ll meet you on the stairwell. The same one as before.”
Blaine’s eyebrows shot to his hairline, and it was all he could do to not skip his next two classes and just set up camp at the foot of the north stairs. When lunchtime finally rolled around, he practically mowed down everyone in his path in his rush. When he arrived, though, he felt the sink of disappointment. A sea of blazers and sweaters, just like every other day.
“I remembered my jacket, this time.”
Blaine spun around and his eyes grew wide. There stood Kurt, shifting slightly from one foot to the next, wearing a stiff new Dalton blazer. Blaine couldn’t think enough to really piece two and two together just yet, but he was coherent enough to realize that Kurt’s silence and sudden appearance couldn’t be a coincidence, and it probably wasn’t a happy one. Swallowing hard, he did his best to regain his composure and slung an arm over Kurt’s shoulders in what he hoped would pass as a friendly gesture.
Friends. Because Kurt needed friends. The time for more would be later. It had to be.
“Come on, new kid,” he said as nonchalantly as possible. “You’ll fit right in.”
[Each installment of this series is named for a song I listened to while writing it. This one is "Coal to Diamonds", by The Gossip.]
Executive MBA
Rating: This part is probably an R, but it doesn’t really make sense unless you’ve read the very NC-17 part that kicks everything into gear.
Word Count: 1234 (nifty!)
Spoilers: Through Furt, if that can even be counted a spoiler at this point…
Warnings: Beware of angst - from the boys as well as me, because angst isn’t my usual wheelhouse, so this whole series is a bit of an experiment.
Summary: Third part of what I’ve dubbed the ”Glory Box” series, which began with ”Unknown Pleasures” and continued with ”Mysterons”. Blaine had an experience once, and he’ll never be able to forget it.
All blame for this lies squarely at the feet of cgfan09, who nudged me toward exploring the consequences.
The next couple of weeks went by in more or less a blur. Between Warblers practice and his upcoming mid-terms, Blaine didn’t really have a lot of time to dwell on things too much.
At least, that’s what he kept telling himself.
The truth was, Blaine did precious little other than dwell on things with Kurt. He didn’t know how he’d gotten so involved, so fast, without actually being involved with someone, but that didn’t change the fact that he and Kurt were clearly becoming fixtures in each other’s lives. Whether or not this was a good thing, Blaine was never really sure. Come to think of it, there were a lot of things Blaine wasn’t really sure about, these days.
Why he was so hesitant to tell people about all the time they’d been spending together, for instance. After his trip to McKinley, Blaine had changed Kurt’s profile to vibrate silently, and he was careful to only take Kurt’s calls when he had a certain level of privacy. The more his teammates knew about his interactions with him, the more questions there would be. Blaine was sure of it. The problem was, he had too many questions of his own to even think of trying to answer anyone else’s.
Not even Kurt’s.
So when they spoke, he tried to remain upbeat. To be friendly and encouraging, without crossing the line into overt flirtation. When they’d hung out, he tried to tell himself that the way his skin buzzed at Kurt’s touch was just because he associated it with that day in the park. Almost immediately, he’d call himself out on it.
That day in the park still rang clearly in his mind, but all the things he was feeling were because of the Kurt he was getting to know in the here and now. Kurt may have had his own issues with confidence and self-image, but he was unapologetic about who he was in a way that Blaine hadn’t seen very much even in people twice his age. His biting humor, his flair for the dramatic, the obvious love he had for those close to him - each thing Kurt revealed about himself was like another drop of water that threatened to cause Blaine’s heart to overflow. Sometimes, he allowed himself to think Kurt might be feeling the same for him.
Mostly, he tried not to let himself think about it. Thinking about how Kurt might feel only brought how Blaine felt into sharper focus, and thinking about how he felt only served to remind him of how other things had felt.
Like Kurt’s lips as they’d wrapped around his cock.
Blaine was just overwhelmed with too much feeling, in every sense of the word.
So when Kurt told him about his father’s upcoming wedding, Blaine, of course, Had Feelings. Confidence that Kurt would look handsome in whatever he wore as he stood beside his father. Hope that Kurt would ask him to come. Sadness, when he realized he wouldn’t. Often, though he did his best to keep himself from expressing it, there was bitterness at the thought that Kurt, as a sixteen-year-old boy, was good enough to plan a wedding, but not considered good enough to have one of his own, were he a legal adult.
The bitterness, he knew, was partially for himself. Sure, people loved Lady GaGa and Modern Family, but there was still so much hate out there, and he saw it every day. Even at Dalton, home of the zero tolerance harassment policy, there was at least one incident a week that served to remind him that in the eyes of most he wasn’t normal, and never would be. ”Fuck normal,” he’d say to himself when it started getting a bit much to take, but it never really did enough to take away the sting.
As the day of the wedding grew closer, Kurt’s phone calls and texts dropped off. Blaine did his best to tell himself it wasn’t personal, Kurt was probably just busy with preparations and plans, but it didn’t help. Every night, he’d hit refresh as he looked at Kurt’s Facebook page, desperate for some clue to what was going on in his life. Saturday night, notifications started popping up that Kurt had been tagged in various people’s mobile uploads, and the sight of him in his trim black suit made Blaine’s heart ache. Outings to plays and dinner “as friends” were great, but he knew he wanted more, and he had to say something before much more time could pass.
The next time they talked, he decided, he would ask him out. For real. No more of this pretense at “just friends.” It had been a few weeks since The Karofsky Incident (as he always thought of it), and Kurt’s mood had seemed increasingly brightened when they’d spent time together. There was hope, and Blaine clung to it tightly through the rest of the weekend.
Monday, he began to worry. Kurt‘s Facebook page showed no activity at all. Kurt wasn’t saying anything to anyone, and no one was saying anything to him. Blaine tried calling and texting him, but there was no response. “He’s just busy,” Blaine said to himself. “His dad just got married; there’s probably just a lot of dust that needs settling.” If he didn’t hear from him by Wednesday, Blaine decided, he’d drive up to Lima after Warblers practice. He could come up with an excuse, if he couldn’t bring himself to be completely honest.
Tuesday morning, his phone buzzed in his pocket during Calculus, and he almost jumped in his seat at the shock. Carefully taking it from his pocket and checking it beneath the edge of his desk, he saw the notification of a new text from Kurt.
”What time is your lunch?”
After getting a hall pass from Ms. Adams, Blaine ducked into the nearest restroom and messaged back.
”Twelve thirty. Do you need to talk? I can call you then.”
It seemed he was staring at his phone forever, but it was really less than a minute before Kurt’s response came in.
”Talking would be good, but you don’t need to call. I’ll meet you on the stairwell. The same one as before.”
Blaine’s eyebrows shot to his hairline, and it was all he could do to not skip his next two classes and just set up camp at the foot of the north stairs. When lunchtime finally rolled around, he practically mowed down everyone in his path in his rush. When he arrived, though, he felt the sink of disappointment. A sea of blazers and sweaters, just like every other day.
“I remembered my jacket, this time.”
Blaine spun around and his eyes grew wide. There stood Kurt, shifting slightly from one foot to the next, wearing a stiff new Dalton blazer. Blaine couldn’t think enough to really piece two and two together just yet, but he was coherent enough to realize that Kurt’s silence and sudden appearance couldn’t be a coincidence, and it probably wasn’t a happy one. Swallowing hard, he did his best to regain his composure and slung an arm over Kurt’s shoulders in what he hoped would pass as a friendly gesture.
Friends. Because Kurt needed friends. The time for more would be later. It had to be.
“Come on, new kid,” he said as nonchalantly as possible. “You’ll fit right in.”
[Each installment of this series is named for a song I listened to while writing it. This one is "Coal to Diamonds", by The Gossip.]
Executive MBA