Fic: Blaine's Birthday, 2015 (An AV!verse story)
Title: Blaine's Birthday, 2015 (An AV!verse story)
Rating: NC-17 (quite, for a bit there)
Word Count: Just over 6000 words.
Warnings: Future!fic. Some OCs, namely the friends and roommates already established in this 'verse. Can I warn for both rimming and fluff?
Summary: "It's just... what is there to say, really? … He'll just try to fix it, he'll think it's his fault but there's really nothing anybody can do. It just... is," Blaine said with a sigh, and then he looked at her and shrugged. And right then Mallory looked at him and thought, "oh, fuck that."
A/N: OK! So this is part of a college!verse that I started waaaaay back in January (which in Klaine years should probably be considered decades ago). The previous stories in this 'verse are as follows:
Ephemera, which sets up the outline and the timeline for how the 'verse goes. If you want to read just one of the older stories, this is the one to go for, as it's PG and a quick read and sort of lays out the timeline.
Appropriate Visuals, which is actually the story I wrote first. It's pretty much straight up porn, with a side of romance and longing.
Schadenfreude, Embrace, and The Axis on Which We Turn, which is a trilogy of post-Silly Love Songs stories. It's basically romantiporn club!fic, wherein Jeremiah turns back up.
If you don't want to read any of those, here's all you really need to know: Kurt's at NYU, Blaine's at Northwestern, and they are totally in love the end. This story is set in the autumn of their senior year of college.
Written for aelora, who wanted to see them celebrate somebody's birthday, and beta'd by misscake, who continues to be completely awesome.
Blaine's Birthday, 2015
Mallory was sitting in her bed, struggling to figuring out the best way to rework a feature article when there was a knock at her door.
Blaine was peeking around the door, his face a little long. "Hey - you busy?"
"Not with anything I actually want to do. What's up?" she asked, shoving her pencil into her messy ponytail
Blaine flopped down on the bed beside her, curling up on his side to face her. His hair tumbled over his face a little, and she couldn't help it - she reached out to pull at a curl. Blaine's hair was a thing of wonder and mystery, and she'd always loved playing with it. It was just so... sproingy.
Blaine opened his eyes and suddenly squeezed them closed again. "Mal, pants, please," he whined, and god, she was so tired of these boys sometimes.
"Blaine, this is my room, and I'm wearing boyshorts, even. You and Dustin are in your boxers all the time. You're giving me a complex," she bitched, so tired of this conversation, but she shifted her ass anyway so she could pull the blankets up over her lap. "There, princess. Better?"
He opened his eyes and smiled up at her; it's part of why they get along so well, because he has a deep appreciation for her bitchy side.
"You're a star, Mallory Graham. Although that's technically not pants."
"Fuck you, Mister Anderson," she responded, batting her lashes and giving him a saccharine smile. He just smiled back at her, but it was one of his show smiles, all mouth and no eyes.
"Uh-oh, that's not a good face. What's going on?"
"Nothing, really. I think I just need company."
"You got it. What's new? You've been busy."
He rolled onto his back and scrubbed his hands over his face. "I think I'm freaking out. I finished the law school applications last night."
"You did finish them by your birthday - that's awesome! Congratulations!"
"Thanks. And I am so glad it's done. Now I just have to wait and see, and I can't do anything more about it, I just have to keep my grades up. And I just..." Mallory stayed quiet, but let her hand drift to his hair.
"This is the hard part. I have to wait and see what happens, and I feel like this entire school year is one, long, relentless slog, and I don't know what any of it's good for." He closed his eyes as she played with his hair, and she looked at his eyelashes against his cheek - fucking criminal.
"Blaine, do you want to be a lawyer?" she asked. Sometime it seemed natural, like when he was in the middle of an impassioned argument in the middle of a bar. This lump of a boy, though, didn't seem like he was a natural to be anybody's advocate.
He was quiet for a minute. "You know, I think I do. I'm not... I'm not completely sure yet, but I think I'll like it. I'm pretty sure I'll be good at it."
"So what's the problem?"
"I just - this year, it's all this waiting. Waiting to find out where I get in, waiting to be done with school, waiting to see what happens with me and Kurt...."
"What happens with you and Kurt is that you shack up and get married and get a dog and scrounge up some babies and are finally disgustingly happy together," she said.
"Is it?" he asked, a bit pensive, his brow furrowed.
"Shit, I hope so - I'm counting on you guys. But you tell me: isn't it?"
"I hope so, too," he said, turning to look at her.
"Are you... did something happen?" she asked, her adrenalin spiking just a little bit, because it would be just like Blaine to refuse to lead with this.
"No! That's part of what's so fucked up - nothing happened. We're just doing this, just this one-day-at-a-time thing, and I just - god, I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired," he sighed, turning back to stare at the ceiling. She pulled out one of his curls, just to see how long it was, and thought about trying to braid them together. Or, oh, cornrows!
"When Kurt and I got together it was - it was dramatic." She smiled. "Right, I know - Kurt's dramatic, and I'm not so bad in that department either, so of course it was. And then there were parents and bullies and the prom and then all the drama about college and the long distance thing, back and forth and back again, and now we're just - things have settled down. We have a schedule, and it's kind of nice - you know, it's solid. Except that basically our schedule means that there are these long, low periods and now there's nothing to keep me busy and I just...."
Mallory stared at him. She knew she was too invested in their relationship - she had been for a long time now, but it inspired her, made her believe love could be real and other such bullshit she would never admit to, so sue her if her own heart felt like it was breaking a little bit. "So, what? Do you want to break up? See other people? Fuck around?"
He was quiet, thinking and staring at her ceiling, and when he spoke again his voice was soft. "No. I don't want any of those things. They're not terrible ideas, they're just not what I really want."
She got it, and she couldn't help grinning wider. "Oh my god, you're pining."
He rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Mallory."
"No, you are! It's adorable. All this time that you two have been doing this long-distance thing, and I've never seen you like this!" She tugged at his hair a little bit, shaking his head in her enthusiasm.
Blaine gave her a sarcastic smile. "I'm glad I can entertain you," he said, and she kicked him from under the covers, just a gentle nudge in his ribs.
He looked back at the ceiling. "I think it was the summer - we were both so busy with the internships and I was looking at every law school on both coasts and it just... threw off our rhythm."
"What does Kurt say?"
"We haven't talked about it," he said, closing his eyes.
"Why not?"
"It's just... what is there to say, really? 'I miss you'? Hell, I've been saying that for years now. 'I miss you' and 'I love you' and 'I need you', both of us, and all there is to say is, 'I know' and 'me too' and 'I'm sorry' and 'someday'."
"Still, Blaine. He loves you - you need to talk to him." Her hands stilled in his hair.
"He's so busy right now, Mal - you don't know. When he gets stressed out, he either falls apart or he buries himself in work, and he doesn't have time to fall apart. He'll just try to fix it, he'll think it's his fault but there's really nothing anybody can do. It just... is," he said with a sigh, and then he looked at her and shrugged.
And right then Mallory looked at him and thought, "oh, fuck that."
***
Blaine laughed at himself and eventually headed out for a run, leaving Mallory with her thoughts and playing with the pencil she'd pulled out of her hair. She sat and thought about it for another fifteen minutes before she picked up her phone and typed out a text. "Right, so I don't do this, but: something's up with Blaine."
Her phone rang three minutes later.
"What's going on? What's happening?" Kurt sounded anxious.
"God, Kurt, calm down! He's fine!"
"You just texted me saying something was wrong," and god, his voice could get shrill when he was upset.
"No, I just meant - he's... something's not right," she said, and all she could hear for a few seconds was street noise.
"Kurt, are you still there?"
"Mallory, you scared the shit out of me!" He sighed.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"
He sighed. "It's fine. So, what's happening?
"He's just - He finished the law school applications, right, and I think he's just... down."
"Like, down, how?"
"I don't know, Kurt. He was just in here talking about everything, and I think the waiting is killing him. You know what he's like - give him a project and he's fine, but give him some free time and he's going back into his head and I think it's a little scary in there right now."
Kurt was quiet for a minute. "He sent me an email last week that was... I don't know, melancholy? But he's seemed fine on the phone - busy, maybe a little distracted, but not unhappy. Are you sure?"
Mallory paused, not wanting to give too many confidences away. "He - look. He said that you're really busy right now - maybe he just didn't want to bother you?"
He clicked his tongue. "Well, yes. I mean, it's always busy, but this week is sort of ridiculous. But he just - he always just thinks he knows what's best. It's so fucking..."
"Frustrating? You are not telling me anything I don't know, here."
Kurt laughed, and she could imagine his face - drawn, that little line between his eyes that he alternately swore was her imagination and hated completely.
"Yeah." They were both quiet for a while. "It's bad?" he asked.
"Kurt, honestly, I've never seen him like this."
"Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck." He took a deep breath. "Okay. So, look, his birthday is next Thursday."
"Shit, yeah, it is. I should probably plan something."
Kurt laughed, short and bitter. "Yes, you should. Jesus, a little help in the cheering up front here, please."
"I'm sorry, Kurt, I don't usually have to do this! He's usually doing it for me or, oh god, for Dustin."
"Exactly - again with the frustrating. So next Thursday: let me check, but I think I can come for the weekend. Okay with a houseguest for the weekend?"
"Always, baby. You going to tell him?"
Kurt was quiet for a minute, and then he sighed again. "I don't know yet. Don't say anything, don't even tell him we talked. Let him stew a little bit - I can't believe he didn't even call me!"
"Don't be mad at him, he's unhappy! That's not fair!"
"Hey, don't start going easy on him now! Frustrating! Keep that in mind!"
She just laughed - Blaine was in good hands.
***
It was ten days later and Blaine and Mallory were at their favorite bar with 10 or 11 friends to celebrate Blaine's birthday. It was their regular crowd - people from their old floor back at Sargent, a couple of people they'd met doing Waa-Mu, one or two guys from Thunk!. Daniel had had a little too much to drink and had started getting handsy with Blaine; it had been a while since he'd done that and Blaine was in no mood to deal with it, so he'd stalked over to the bar to nurse a beer in relative seclusion.
And that, of course, was when Mallory got a text message. She looked at the door and, yep, it was time, and that was one more reason Daniel really needed to get over the Blaine thing already - really shitty timing.
She sidled up to the bar and said, as sweetly as possible, "Blaine, don't look now, but there is a guy over by the door who cannot take his eyes off of you."
"Mal, honey, it's not that I don't appreciate this evening and all the attention, it's been great, and I will be back with you in a minute. But could you just... and I mean this in the kindest possible way, but just... could you all just fuck off for a little bit?" and he scowled down into his glass.
She raised her brow and smirked, a little glad that his moody ass was so focused on his funk, because this was going to just be that much more delicious.
"Ouch, baby. Fine, I will, but this guy... he's so your type. Pretty eyes, good hair, long legs, amazing wardrobe. And he is making some serious eyes your way. Come on, birthday boy - live a little, have a daring flirtation from afar."
Blaine followed her gaze over to the door, sullen but obviously intrigued.
"Oh my god," he breathed out, and he was off the stool like a shot. Two steps away he paused and turned back, then reached out for her and kissed her solid on the mouth. "Thank you thank you thank you," and then he pressed his glass into her hand and was gone, and she laughed as he went, calling out "happy birthday!"
***
Kurt stood by the door and watched him sulk into his glass, and he winked at Mallory and smoothed his coat. She leaned in close to say something to him, and he bit back a pout and replaced it with a fierce scowl. Kurt frowned a little - he must be in a bad way to be this rude.
And then Blaine looked at him. And the look on his face - god, the longing, and the shock and the sudden joy - that smile...
Blaine was up and over toward him, and then he was turning back to thank Mallory, and my, that was new.
Blaine washed up in front of him, almost tripping over himself, and he gathered both of Kurt's hands in his own and spread them to the sides so he could look him up and down.
"Happy birthday, sweetheart. I can't believe, though, that I came all this way and Mallory got the kiss?"
Blaine dropped his hands and cupped his face in his hands, crowding him back against the wall next to the door and pinning him with his hips. Their mouths crashed together and god, Blaine was so fucking hot for it, his tongue hot and wet and hungry, pressing into his mouth, and he tasted like beer and he felt like sex, like he wanted to just fuck him into the wall while his friends sat and cheered and catcalled, Mallory the loudest of them all.
Blaine broke the kiss to mumble against his mouth, "How long?"
"Th-three nights," he said, his breath catching when Blaine's hands slid down to his lower back to push their hips together tighter and god, he was getting so hard, so fast - his head spun with it, with everything they could do and be to each other in three nights.
"Not long enough, but I'll take it. Where's your stuff?" Blaine asked, his mouth just centimeters away, breathing hot and fast across his lips.
"Dustin met me at the airport, we dropped him -"
Blaine pulled him back into a kiss, hard and fast, and then grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the wall, turning to wave at Mallory. She winked at Kurt and raised her glass to toast them with Blaine's beer. Somebody from the table cried out, "have fun, boys!" and Kurt quirked a brow while Blaine just gave them the finger, and then they were pushing out into the brisk night air while all of Blaine's friends laughed behind them.
"I asked the driver to wait - come here," Kurt said, pulling him into a waiting taxi.
"Thanks for waiting - you know the address," Kurt breathed to the driver. He turned to settle back into the seat when suddenly Blaine was on him again, straddling his lap and pushing him back into the corner.
"Blaine - shit, the driver," he gasped out while Blaine's mouth licked and sucked at his neck.
"I don't care," he said, his breath hot against his throat while his hand slid down to grasp at Kurt's cock through his pants. "God, I just really fucking don't care. Mmm, you smell so good."
Blaine was everywhere, sucking at his throat and squeezing him tight, and he couldn't help it, he pushed up into Blaine's grasp. He could only imagine what the driver must be thinking - he and Dustin had been so awkward together in the car, so business-like, and Kurt had stepped into a bar for 10 minutes and come back out with this boy climbing all over him. It was obscene, but fuck it felt so good, and then Blaine squeezed him through his pants and whispered wet and rough against his ear, "Don't come - need you to fuck me," before he licked around his ear and that was really not the way for Blaine to cool him down.
He grabbed at Blaine's ass, pulling him closer but holding him still, and Blaine kept whispering in his ear. "I can't believe you're here, god I missed you, need you, god I need you, please, Kurt, please," and Kurt crooned at him, "shhh, soon, I'm right here, love you, I love you."
He felt the car come to a stop, and without prompting Blaine was climbing off of him and tumbling out the door and Kurt was digging for his wallet, tossing the fare and a generous tip through the glass and getting the hell out of there with as little eye contact with the driver as possible. When he got to the door Blaine's eyes were wide and he was digging through his pants pockets.
"Shit, my keys are in my coat pocket, and I left my coat at the bar," he said, a look of horror dawning across his face.
Kurt swore and turned back to try to grab the taxi, but the driver seemed as eager to terminate their relationship as Kurt had been and was already halfway down the block. Just as he was turning back around to face Blaine, though, the door opened, and Dustin stood there with a smirk.
"Mallory called, asked me to wait for you. You two are pathetic."
Blaine pushed the door the rest of the way open and grabbed Kurt by the hand. "Dustin, I love you, now go away," he called over his shoulder as he hurried down the hall to his room.
Dustin called after them, "You're welcome, happy birthday, Je-" but the slam of Blaine's door cut him off and then Blaine was slamming Kurt up against the door, and he was all over him once again.
This time, though, Blaine didn't stop at grinding them together or clutching him through his pants; he took Kurt's mouth in a rough kiss, knocking his head back against the door and starting to work on his belt right away. His blood pounded in his ears, and he shoved Blaine back hard then sagged against the door for a second before he dumped his coat and his scarf on the floor and started unbuttoning his shirt. Blaine came back at him, pushing him back against the door again and biting at his lip, rubbing against his leg, and Kurt got both of their shirts unbuttoned before he was shoving Blaine back again, and then again until he tumbled over the edge of the bed.
He felt a little bit wild with it, like Blaine had infected him, and everything about tonight seemed heightened, fraught and edged, so Kurt just said, "get your clothes off," and Blaine scrambled to obey. He finished undressing and hurried around to Blaine's bedside table, pulling out the lube and condoms, and as he turned back to the bed Blaine grabbed his arm and pulled him down, so that he tumbled to the bed in a messy heap.
Blaine flipped them and pinned him, one long line of strength, and he breathed out, "fuck, finally," and started rubbing up against him, desperate and out-of-control. Kurt's head spun - he'd landed just over an hour ago, and this was completely out of hand.
He shoved at Blaine's shoulders. "If you want me to fuck you, get on your belly, now," and Blaine licked his way down his throat and bit at his collarbone a few times before sliding off and resting his head on his pillow, ass thrust in the air.
"God, Blaine," he breathed. He scooted down the bed and roughly pulled Blaine's cheeks apart, licking all down the crease. Blaine moaned above him and shoved back against Kurt's face, and fuck it - he sucked at his thumb and then pressed it in him. Blaine groaned and swore, so Kurt licked around the rim and slid his thumb in and out. Blaine just sobbed, "more, Kurt, fuck, do it" so he pressed the other thumb in as well and fuck, that had to hurt but Blaine seemed to like it so he stretched his thumbs and went for it with his mouth, licking and pressing in, closer, more, until his tongue was lapping at Blaine's ass between and around his thumbs, shoving in and flicking against the rim. Blaine was pressing back against him in rhythm now, rutting against the sheets and moaning into his pillow and god, it was good to have him like this, whining and begging.
He pulled back and Blaine whimpered, but Kurt said, "no, just wait," and he slipped on a condom and lubed himself, dribbling a little over Blaine's hole and pushing it in with this thumbs. He lowered himself back down and pressed in with one long slide, Blaine moaning underneath him, and then he steeled himself to pull back, and started pounding into him. Blaine went limp and Kurt let him have it, pushing all of his worry and love and frustration into his body.
After just a minute Blaine stirred, pushing back, and Kurt shifted so Blaine could shove himself up and pull a hand under. "Yeah, yeah, that's it," Kurt panted, and Blaine just moaned at him, "Fuck me, yeah, please" so he quickened the pace, hard and fast stabs into him, and Blaine roared and shook and tightened around him, shaking his orgasm out into the bed beneath them. Kurt pulled back at his hips, then, pounding out the last few strokes he had in him before coming into Blaine's body and collapsing on top of him.
They lay there, just breathing, while Kurt kissed at the back of Blaine's sweaty neck and Blaine hummed, content. Eventually Blaine huffed out a breath and nudged at him, and Kurt rolled to the side, clutching the base of the condom as he did, and Blaine hissed out a breath and then was still, face still pressed into the pillow.
Kurt drew a shaky breath. "God. And to think that people believe that I must be a pushy bottom."
Blaine just snorted and half-heartedly wiped at his face, turning to Kurt with a lazy smile. "Hello. Welcome back to Evanston."
"Well thank you. I heard my services were needed?" Kurt said, raising an eyebrow.
Blaine just closed his eyes. "Yeah, I got that part. Just... please tell me Mallory wasn't explicit about what, exactly, I needed from you."
"If she were in a position to do so, I'm sure she would have. You want to tell me why I had to hear about it from your roommate? Mallory's a nice girl, but she's not the person I've been seeing for five years."
Blaine opened his mouth to speak and then just groaned. "Can we just... do it later? I think I'm a little drunk, and somebody just fucked the hell out of me, and I want to go to sleep." By the end of this little speech Blaine was mumbling, and Kurt just smiled at him.
"You going to sleep in that mess?" he asked, and Blaine didn't even respond - his face just scrunched up and then smoothed back out.
He stroked a hand down Blaine's back and went to the bathroom to clean up. When he got back to bed Blaine hadn't even moved, so he turned off the light and curled up around him and settled down to worry himself to sleep.
***
He woke the next morning with Blaine's head pillowed on his shoulder, one hand stroking gently up and down his side. He hummed low in his throat and raised his arm to curl around him, pulling him a little closer.
He dozed for a minute until Blaine spoke, his voice low and rumbling through both of their chests. "I love you. I didn't even tell you last night, I was so desperate, but I do. I'm so in love with you, still."
Kurt just tightened his arm and kissed the top of his head.
"I think it's starting to panic me. This year just seems so long and I am well and truly sick of Chicago. Finishing the applications made me think, because there's so much uncertainty. I don't know who's going to take me, and where you're going to find work, and I can't." He lifted his head to look at Kurt, and the side of his face was red and creased and his hair was a mess and his eyes were glassy with sleep and unshed tears. "I can't be away from you any more. I think I've reached the end of my patience."
Kurt stroked down his face, and Blaine turned into it. "I didn't know that was possible."
"I didn't either. I just - we have to find something that will work. We have to," and if anybody could make desperation sound resolute, it was Blaine.
"Baby, I -" He sighed. "There's May, and that's all I've got. Six months. Six months and I promise you we will find some way to live together, even if I have to wait tables to do it. It will happen."
Blaine stretched down to kiss him. "Tell me you love me," he whispered against his lips, and Kurt's heart broke, just a little. He'd never seen Blaine like this, and Mallory had said it was bad but he couldn't believe he hadn't known, hadn't realized that Blaine was carrying all this doubt and worry.
He wrapped both arms around Blaine in a bear hug and pulled him tight, so that their faces were pressed together and he could whisper into his ear. "I love you. God, I do - I love you so much, and it kills me that you have to ask to hear it."
"It's not that I don't know - I just needed to hear it this morning."
"Can you... I want to give you your birthday gift. Can you wait right here for one minute?"
Kurt hurried to the bathroom to pee, then came back with a chagrined smile and dug into a side pocket in his messenger bag. He returned to the bed with a velvet pouch and Blaine propped himself up on one elbow to face him.
"My friend Keith - you remember him? Tall, enormous hipster beard, total bear cub type but straight?" Blaine nodded. "I did some graphics work for him last winter, just some design and photography, and he paid me in custom work. This is what he made." He tipped the bag into his hand and two rings spilled out.
Blaine stared at the rings and then looked around at the mussed sheets (one of them still clinging to his abdomen) and their bed hair and said, "Wait - are you proposing to me?"
Kurt smiled nervously and said, "Do we need a proposal?"
He just shook his head, his eyes wide and vulnerable, and whispered, "no".
"We tried - we tried being apart, and it didn't stick, and I ended up mauling you up against a tree. We've been doing this for years, fitting our lives together the best way we could, and that's what I want to keep doing with you." He pulled one of the rings free and dropped the other to the bed, then reached for Blaine's hand and closed it over the top of his own, the ring trapped between their palms. "You can make this ring be whatever you want. You can wear it now or put it in a drawer or put it on a chain and wear it around your neck and call it a fashion statement. Except oh god, please don't do that." He winced and then smiled at him. "And when we actually get married, these don't have to be the rings - it's not - I don't care, really - well, much. I just - I think about it, Blaine, I plan for it, and I will make it happen, because I'm still in love with you."
Blaine took the ring from his hand and looked at it before slipping it onto his right hand and staring at it, a smile creeping across his face. "Okay?" Kurt asked.
"It's almost over, isn't it?" he asked.
Kurt threw up his hands and looked to the sky. "Finally, he gets it!" Blaine shoved at him and he continued in a normal tone of voice. "It is. It's almost Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, and by March you should start getting letters and by spring break we should be ready to go visit places. I graduate in May and you're in June, and then that's it."
"And I'm going to marry you," he said, looking up at Kurt.
Kurt just smiled at him, because sometimes this incredibly smart boy could be so slow to pick up on things. "I believe that you are, yes." He looked down at the bed. "I think we'll be very happy. I want... god, I want everything, but that's what I want most."
Blaine flopped back on the bed and just roared, actually tipped back his head and screamed at the ceiling.
Kurt fell on him laughing, putting his hands over his mouth and shushing him. "Blaine, shhh, it's 9 o'clock on a Friday morning."
He giggled underneath him. "I just... fuck, I'm so happy. I've been such a mess, and I just feel - I feel so free, you know? Like yes, now, now I can start thinking about it."
"I don't know how you lasted this long without thinking about it. I've had those rings for almost a year, Blaine!"
Blaine looked up at him, suddenly thoughtful. "Right. Right, you have, haven't you? Where's the other one?"
Kurt scrambled on the bed for it. "Right here," he said, holding it up.
Blaine took it and rolled them so he could raise himself on one elbow, and then took Kurt's right hand and slid the ring onto his ring finger. He lifted Kurt's hand and lowered his mouth to kiss the ring one time, then took his left hand and kissed that ring finger, too. "Save my spot?" he asked, peering up at Kurt from under his eyelashes.
"Only you, baby, would take a custom ring that I had made and ask me to marry you with it," but Kurt could feel the tears swimming in his eyes and fuck it - Blaine never paid any attention to his sarcasm anyway.
"That's because I know how to do a proper proposal," he quipped, and then he was crushing Kurt into the bed, kissing him until they were both out of breath.
They were interrupted by the sound of Kurt's phone chiming in his pants across the room. "Ignore it, it doesn't matter," Blaine mumbled against his lips before kissing him again, but the phone kept chiming and Kurt said, "It'll just keep going off - I'll be right back."
Blaine grumbled about how his boyfriend kept climbing out of bed when he was trying to have morning sex with him, and how this was going to change once they were living in the same place, and Kurt just giggled and slid out of his grasp and dug out his phone.
He snorted at the messages and then read out loud:
"Almost afraid to interrupt, but from the screaming it's obv you're awake. Coffee's on & Dustin has decided to make waffles, so don't be too alarmed if you smell smoke. In the kitchen once you're decent. (If you can still walk, wink nudge ahem.)"
"PS: I have B's coat & his keys & his phone. And, if he's pissed: only his best interests at heart. Love you, Blainey!"
"PPS: K, text me back if I need to leave the apartment. Srsly."
Blaine snorted out a laugh. "That girl."
"She's a good friend - I'm glad she texted me. Would you ever have talked to me about it?"
Blaine scratched at his head. "Thanksgiving, maybe?"
Kurt came back to the bed. "Yeah, I'm not happy about that." Blaine looked at him and opened his mouth to explain, but Kurt just covered his mouth again. "In a minute. First: you have to tell me these things, Blaine. Mallory wouldn't, and I flew out here because I thought... just - I hadn't intended to show you the rings this early," he said, and he looked uncomfortable.
Blaine peeled Kurt's hand away from his mouth. "Oh my god, you thought I wanted to break up with you," he breathed.
Kurt shrugged. "It crossed my mind. And don't take it out on her, because she was doing the best she could. She shouldn't have had to worry about it, Blaine. When it gets bad, if it gets bad like this again - I deserve to know."
"You do. I'm sorry." He tugged him down into the bed. "Come here. I'm still processing that you brought me a ring when you thought I was going to break up with you. That's either incredibly romantic or very pathetic."
Kurt smiled. "I appreciate that you don't think I can be both."
Blaine rolled them and pushed him into the sheets. "I never said that, but I like it when you're pathetic for me." And he kissed him, sweet and lush. The kiss went in for long minutes, breaking so that Kurt could whisper "I love you, don't scare me like that again," against his ear, and Blaine pressed, "I love you, stay with me," against his throat in return. Kurt was just beginning to consider moving them to the shower when the smoke alarm started blaring from the kitchen.
There was a bang on the bedroom door, and Mallory shouted, "Don't get up, everything's fine! Go on about your business, nothing to see here!" through the door, and Blaine burst out laughing against his face.
After they'd finished giggling, Blaine just looked at him, a sweet expression on his face. Kurt gazed back, and said, "You heard the woman - don't get up yet, birthday boy" and Blaine kissed him again.
Rating: NC-17 (quite, for a bit there)
Word Count: Just over 6000 words.
Warnings: Future!fic. Some OCs, namely the friends and roommates already established in this 'verse. Can I warn for both rimming and fluff?
Summary: "It's just... what is there to say, really? … He'll just try to fix it, he'll think it's his fault but there's really nothing anybody can do. It just... is," Blaine said with a sigh, and then he looked at her and shrugged. And right then Mallory looked at him and thought, "oh, fuck that."
A/N: OK! So this is part of a college!verse that I started waaaaay back in January (which in Klaine years should probably be considered decades ago). The previous stories in this 'verse are as follows:
Ephemera, which sets up the outline and the timeline for how the 'verse goes. If you want to read just one of the older stories, this is the one to go for, as it's PG and a quick read and sort of lays out the timeline.
Appropriate Visuals, which is actually the story I wrote first. It's pretty much straight up porn, with a side of romance and longing.
Schadenfreude, Embrace, and The Axis on Which We Turn, which is a trilogy of post-Silly Love Songs stories. It's basically romantiporn club!fic, wherein Jeremiah turns back up.
If you don't want to read any of those, here's all you really need to know: Kurt's at NYU, Blaine's at Northwestern, and they are totally in love the end. This story is set in the autumn of their senior year of college.
Written for aelora, who wanted to see them celebrate somebody's birthday, and beta'd by misscake, who continues to be completely awesome.
Blaine's Birthday, 2015
Mallory was sitting in her bed, struggling to figuring out the best way to rework a feature article when there was a knock at her door.
Blaine was peeking around the door, his face a little long. "Hey - you busy?"
"Not with anything I actually want to do. What's up?" she asked, shoving her pencil into her messy ponytail
Blaine flopped down on the bed beside her, curling up on his side to face her. His hair tumbled over his face a little, and she couldn't help it - she reached out to pull at a curl. Blaine's hair was a thing of wonder and mystery, and she'd always loved playing with it. It was just so... sproingy.
Blaine opened his eyes and suddenly squeezed them closed again. "Mal, pants, please," he whined, and god, she was so tired of these boys sometimes.
"Blaine, this is my room, and I'm wearing boyshorts, even. You and Dustin are in your boxers all the time. You're giving me a complex," she bitched, so tired of this conversation, but she shifted her ass anyway so she could pull the blankets up over her lap. "There, princess. Better?"
He opened his eyes and smiled up at her; it's part of why they get along so well, because he has a deep appreciation for her bitchy side.
"You're a star, Mallory Graham. Although that's technically not pants."
"Fuck you, Mister Anderson," she responded, batting her lashes and giving him a saccharine smile. He just smiled back at her, but it was one of his show smiles, all mouth and no eyes.
"Uh-oh, that's not a good face. What's going on?"
"Nothing, really. I think I just need company."
"You got it. What's new? You've been busy."
He rolled onto his back and scrubbed his hands over his face. "I think I'm freaking out. I finished the law school applications last night."
"You did finish them by your birthday - that's awesome! Congratulations!"
"Thanks. And I am so glad it's done. Now I just have to wait and see, and I can't do anything more about it, I just have to keep my grades up. And I just..." Mallory stayed quiet, but let her hand drift to his hair.
"This is the hard part. I have to wait and see what happens, and I feel like this entire school year is one, long, relentless slog, and I don't know what any of it's good for." He closed his eyes as she played with his hair, and she looked at his eyelashes against his cheek - fucking criminal.
"Blaine, do you want to be a lawyer?" she asked. Sometime it seemed natural, like when he was in the middle of an impassioned argument in the middle of a bar. This lump of a boy, though, didn't seem like he was a natural to be anybody's advocate.
He was quiet for a minute. "You know, I think I do. I'm not... I'm not completely sure yet, but I think I'll like it. I'm pretty sure I'll be good at it."
"So what's the problem?"
"I just - this year, it's all this waiting. Waiting to find out where I get in, waiting to be done with school, waiting to see what happens with me and Kurt...."
"What happens with you and Kurt is that you shack up and get married and get a dog and scrounge up some babies and are finally disgustingly happy together," she said.
"Is it?" he asked, a bit pensive, his brow furrowed.
"Shit, I hope so - I'm counting on you guys. But you tell me: isn't it?"
"I hope so, too," he said, turning to look at her.
"Are you... did something happen?" she asked, her adrenalin spiking just a little bit, because it would be just like Blaine to refuse to lead with this.
"No! That's part of what's so fucked up - nothing happened. We're just doing this, just this one-day-at-a-time thing, and I just - god, I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired," he sighed, turning back to stare at the ceiling. She pulled out one of his curls, just to see how long it was, and thought about trying to braid them together. Or, oh, cornrows!
"When Kurt and I got together it was - it was dramatic." She smiled. "Right, I know - Kurt's dramatic, and I'm not so bad in that department either, so of course it was. And then there were parents and bullies and the prom and then all the drama about college and the long distance thing, back and forth and back again, and now we're just - things have settled down. We have a schedule, and it's kind of nice - you know, it's solid. Except that basically our schedule means that there are these long, low periods and now there's nothing to keep me busy and I just...."
Mallory stared at him. She knew she was too invested in their relationship - she had been for a long time now, but it inspired her, made her believe love could be real and other such bullshit she would never admit to, so sue her if her own heart felt like it was breaking a little bit. "So, what? Do you want to break up? See other people? Fuck around?"
He was quiet, thinking and staring at her ceiling, and when he spoke again his voice was soft. "No. I don't want any of those things. They're not terrible ideas, they're just not what I really want."
She got it, and she couldn't help grinning wider. "Oh my god, you're pining."
He rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Mallory."
"No, you are! It's adorable. All this time that you two have been doing this long-distance thing, and I've never seen you like this!" She tugged at his hair a little bit, shaking his head in her enthusiasm.
Blaine gave her a sarcastic smile. "I'm glad I can entertain you," he said, and she kicked him from under the covers, just a gentle nudge in his ribs.
He looked back at the ceiling. "I think it was the summer - we were both so busy with the internships and I was looking at every law school on both coasts and it just... threw off our rhythm."
"What does Kurt say?"
"We haven't talked about it," he said, closing his eyes.
"Why not?"
"It's just... what is there to say, really? 'I miss you'? Hell, I've been saying that for years now. 'I miss you' and 'I love you' and 'I need you', both of us, and all there is to say is, 'I know' and 'me too' and 'I'm sorry' and 'someday'."
"Still, Blaine. He loves you - you need to talk to him." Her hands stilled in his hair.
"He's so busy right now, Mal - you don't know. When he gets stressed out, he either falls apart or he buries himself in work, and he doesn't have time to fall apart. He'll just try to fix it, he'll think it's his fault but there's really nothing anybody can do. It just... is," he said with a sigh, and then he looked at her and shrugged.
And right then Mallory looked at him and thought, "oh, fuck that."
***
Blaine laughed at himself and eventually headed out for a run, leaving Mallory with her thoughts and playing with the pencil she'd pulled out of her hair. She sat and thought about it for another fifteen minutes before she picked up her phone and typed out a text. "Right, so I don't do this, but: something's up with Blaine."
Her phone rang three minutes later.
"What's going on? What's happening?" Kurt sounded anxious.
"God, Kurt, calm down! He's fine!"
"You just texted me saying something was wrong," and god, his voice could get shrill when he was upset.
"No, I just meant - he's... something's not right," she said, and all she could hear for a few seconds was street noise.
"Kurt, are you still there?"
"Mallory, you scared the shit out of me!" He sighed.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"
He sighed. "It's fine. So, what's happening?
"He's just - He finished the law school applications, right, and I think he's just... down."
"Like, down, how?"
"I don't know, Kurt. He was just in here talking about everything, and I think the waiting is killing him. You know what he's like - give him a project and he's fine, but give him some free time and he's going back into his head and I think it's a little scary in there right now."
Kurt was quiet for a minute. "He sent me an email last week that was... I don't know, melancholy? But he's seemed fine on the phone - busy, maybe a little distracted, but not unhappy. Are you sure?"
Mallory paused, not wanting to give too many confidences away. "He - look. He said that you're really busy right now - maybe he just didn't want to bother you?"
He clicked his tongue. "Well, yes. I mean, it's always busy, but this week is sort of ridiculous. But he just - he always just thinks he knows what's best. It's so fucking..."
"Frustrating? You are not telling me anything I don't know, here."
Kurt laughed, and she could imagine his face - drawn, that little line between his eyes that he alternately swore was her imagination and hated completely.
"Yeah." They were both quiet for a while. "It's bad?" he asked.
"Kurt, honestly, I've never seen him like this."
"Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck." He took a deep breath. "Okay. So, look, his birthday is next Thursday."
"Shit, yeah, it is. I should probably plan something."
Kurt laughed, short and bitter. "Yes, you should. Jesus, a little help in the cheering up front here, please."
"I'm sorry, Kurt, I don't usually have to do this! He's usually doing it for me or, oh god, for Dustin."
"Exactly - again with the frustrating. So next Thursday: let me check, but I think I can come for the weekend. Okay with a houseguest for the weekend?"
"Always, baby. You going to tell him?"
Kurt was quiet for a minute, and then he sighed again. "I don't know yet. Don't say anything, don't even tell him we talked. Let him stew a little bit - I can't believe he didn't even call me!"
"Don't be mad at him, he's unhappy! That's not fair!"
"Hey, don't start going easy on him now! Frustrating! Keep that in mind!"
She just laughed - Blaine was in good hands.
***
It was ten days later and Blaine and Mallory were at their favorite bar with 10 or 11 friends to celebrate Blaine's birthday. It was their regular crowd - people from their old floor back at Sargent, a couple of people they'd met doing Waa-Mu, one or two guys from Thunk!. Daniel had had a little too much to drink and had started getting handsy with Blaine; it had been a while since he'd done that and Blaine was in no mood to deal with it, so he'd stalked over to the bar to nurse a beer in relative seclusion.
And that, of course, was when Mallory got a text message. She looked at the door and, yep, it was time, and that was one more reason Daniel really needed to get over the Blaine thing already - really shitty timing.
She sidled up to the bar and said, as sweetly as possible, "Blaine, don't look now, but there is a guy over by the door who cannot take his eyes off of you."
"Mal, honey, it's not that I don't appreciate this evening and all the attention, it's been great, and I will be back with you in a minute. But could you just... and I mean this in the kindest possible way, but just... could you all just fuck off for a little bit?" and he scowled down into his glass.
She raised her brow and smirked, a little glad that his moody ass was so focused on his funk, because this was going to just be that much more delicious.
"Ouch, baby. Fine, I will, but this guy... he's so your type. Pretty eyes, good hair, long legs, amazing wardrobe. And he is making some serious eyes your way. Come on, birthday boy - live a little, have a daring flirtation from afar."
Blaine followed her gaze over to the door, sullen but obviously intrigued.
"Oh my god," he breathed out, and he was off the stool like a shot. Two steps away he paused and turned back, then reached out for her and kissed her solid on the mouth. "Thank you thank you thank you," and then he pressed his glass into her hand and was gone, and she laughed as he went, calling out "happy birthday!"
***
Kurt stood by the door and watched him sulk into his glass, and he winked at Mallory and smoothed his coat. She leaned in close to say something to him, and he bit back a pout and replaced it with a fierce scowl. Kurt frowned a little - he must be in a bad way to be this rude.
And then Blaine looked at him. And the look on his face - god, the longing, and the shock and the sudden joy - that smile...
Blaine was up and over toward him, and then he was turning back to thank Mallory, and my, that was new.
Blaine washed up in front of him, almost tripping over himself, and he gathered both of Kurt's hands in his own and spread them to the sides so he could look him up and down.
"Happy birthday, sweetheart. I can't believe, though, that I came all this way and Mallory got the kiss?"
Blaine dropped his hands and cupped his face in his hands, crowding him back against the wall next to the door and pinning him with his hips. Their mouths crashed together and god, Blaine was so fucking hot for it, his tongue hot and wet and hungry, pressing into his mouth, and he tasted like beer and he felt like sex, like he wanted to just fuck him into the wall while his friends sat and cheered and catcalled, Mallory the loudest of them all.
Blaine broke the kiss to mumble against his mouth, "How long?"
"Th-three nights," he said, his breath catching when Blaine's hands slid down to his lower back to push their hips together tighter and god, he was getting so hard, so fast - his head spun with it, with everything they could do and be to each other in three nights.
"Not long enough, but I'll take it. Where's your stuff?" Blaine asked, his mouth just centimeters away, breathing hot and fast across his lips.
"Dustin met me at the airport, we dropped him -"
Blaine pulled him back into a kiss, hard and fast, and then grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the wall, turning to wave at Mallory. She winked at Kurt and raised her glass to toast them with Blaine's beer. Somebody from the table cried out, "have fun, boys!" and Kurt quirked a brow while Blaine just gave them the finger, and then they were pushing out into the brisk night air while all of Blaine's friends laughed behind them.
"I asked the driver to wait - come here," Kurt said, pulling him into a waiting taxi.
"Thanks for waiting - you know the address," Kurt breathed to the driver. He turned to settle back into the seat when suddenly Blaine was on him again, straddling his lap and pushing him back into the corner.
"Blaine - shit, the driver," he gasped out while Blaine's mouth licked and sucked at his neck.
"I don't care," he said, his breath hot against his throat while his hand slid down to grasp at Kurt's cock through his pants. "God, I just really fucking don't care. Mmm, you smell so good."
Blaine was everywhere, sucking at his throat and squeezing him tight, and he couldn't help it, he pushed up into Blaine's grasp. He could only imagine what the driver must be thinking - he and Dustin had been so awkward together in the car, so business-like, and Kurt had stepped into a bar for 10 minutes and come back out with this boy climbing all over him. It was obscene, but fuck it felt so good, and then Blaine squeezed him through his pants and whispered wet and rough against his ear, "Don't come - need you to fuck me," before he licked around his ear and that was really not the way for Blaine to cool him down.
He grabbed at Blaine's ass, pulling him closer but holding him still, and Blaine kept whispering in his ear. "I can't believe you're here, god I missed you, need you, god I need you, please, Kurt, please," and Kurt crooned at him, "shhh, soon, I'm right here, love you, I love you."
He felt the car come to a stop, and without prompting Blaine was climbing off of him and tumbling out the door and Kurt was digging for his wallet, tossing the fare and a generous tip through the glass and getting the hell out of there with as little eye contact with the driver as possible. When he got to the door Blaine's eyes were wide and he was digging through his pants pockets.
"Shit, my keys are in my coat pocket, and I left my coat at the bar," he said, a look of horror dawning across his face.
Kurt swore and turned back to try to grab the taxi, but the driver seemed as eager to terminate their relationship as Kurt had been and was already halfway down the block. Just as he was turning back around to face Blaine, though, the door opened, and Dustin stood there with a smirk.
"Mallory called, asked me to wait for you. You two are pathetic."
Blaine pushed the door the rest of the way open and grabbed Kurt by the hand. "Dustin, I love you, now go away," he called over his shoulder as he hurried down the hall to his room.
Dustin called after them, "You're welcome, happy birthday, Je-" but the slam of Blaine's door cut him off and then Blaine was slamming Kurt up against the door, and he was all over him once again.
This time, though, Blaine didn't stop at grinding them together or clutching him through his pants; he took Kurt's mouth in a rough kiss, knocking his head back against the door and starting to work on his belt right away. His blood pounded in his ears, and he shoved Blaine back hard then sagged against the door for a second before he dumped his coat and his scarf on the floor and started unbuttoning his shirt. Blaine came back at him, pushing him back against the door again and biting at his lip, rubbing against his leg, and Kurt got both of their shirts unbuttoned before he was shoving Blaine back again, and then again until he tumbled over the edge of the bed.
He felt a little bit wild with it, like Blaine had infected him, and everything about tonight seemed heightened, fraught and edged, so Kurt just said, "get your clothes off," and Blaine scrambled to obey. He finished undressing and hurried around to Blaine's bedside table, pulling out the lube and condoms, and as he turned back to the bed Blaine grabbed his arm and pulled him down, so that he tumbled to the bed in a messy heap.
Blaine flipped them and pinned him, one long line of strength, and he breathed out, "fuck, finally," and started rubbing up against him, desperate and out-of-control. Kurt's head spun - he'd landed just over an hour ago, and this was completely out of hand.
He shoved at Blaine's shoulders. "If you want me to fuck you, get on your belly, now," and Blaine licked his way down his throat and bit at his collarbone a few times before sliding off and resting his head on his pillow, ass thrust in the air.
"God, Blaine," he breathed. He scooted down the bed and roughly pulled Blaine's cheeks apart, licking all down the crease. Blaine moaned above him and shoved back against Kurt's face, and fuck it - he sucked at his thumb and then pressed it in him. Blaine groaned and swore, so Kurt licked around the rim and slid his thumb in and out. Blaine just sobbed, "more, Kurt, fuck, do it" so he pressed the other thumb in as well and fuck, that had to hurt but Blaine seemed to like it so he stretched his thumbs and went for it with his mouth, licking and pressing in, closer, more, until his tongue was lapping at Blaine's ass between and around his thumbs, shoving in and flicking against the rim. Blaine was pressing back against him in rhythm now, rutting against the sheets and moaning into his pillow and god, it was good to have him like this, whining and begging.
He pulled back and Blaine whimpered, but Kurt said, "no, just wait," and he slipped on a condom and lubed himself, dribbling a little over Blaine's hole and pushing it in with this thumbs. He lowered himself back down and pressed in with one long slide, Blaine moaning underneath him, and then he steeled himself to pull back, and started pounding into him. Blaine went limp and Kurt let him have it, pushing all of his worry and love and frustration into his body.
After just a minute Blaine stirred, pushing back, and Kurt shifted so Blaine could shove himself up and pull a hand under. "Yeah, yeah, that's it," Kurt panted, and Blaine just moaned at him, "Fuck me, yeah, please" so he quickened the pace, hard and fast stabs into him, and Blaine roared and shook and tightened around him, shaking his orgasm out into the bed beneath them. Kurt pulled back at his hips, then, pounding out the last few strokes he had in him before coming into Blaine's body and collapsing on top of him.
They lay there, just breathing, while Kurt kissed at the back of Blaine's sweaty neck and Blaine hummed, content. Eventually Blaine huffed out a breath and nudged at him, and Kurt rolled to the side, clutching the base of the condom as he did, and Blaine hissed out a breath and then was still, face still pressed into the pillow.
Kurt drew a shaky breath. "God. And to think that people believe that I must be a pushy bottom."
Blaine just snorted and half-heartedly wiped at his face, turning to Kurt with a lazy smile. "Hello. Welcome back to Evanston."
"Well thank you. I heard my services were needed?" Kurt said, raising an eyebrow.
Blaine just closed his eyes. "Yeah, I got that part. Just... please tell me Mallory wasn't explicit about what, exactly, I needed from you."
"If she were in a position to do so, I'm sure she would have. You want to tell me why I had to hear about it from your roommate? Mallory's a nice girl, but she's not the person I've been seeing for five years."
Blaine opened his mouth to speak and then just groaned. "Can we just... do it later? I think I'm a little drunk, and somebody just fucked the hell out of me, and I want to go to sleep." By the end of this little speech Blaine was mumbling, and Kurt just smiled at him.
"You going to sleep in that mess?" he asked, and Blaine didn't even respond - his face just scrunched up and then smoothed back out.
He stroked a hand down Blaine's back and went to the bathroom to clean up. When he got back to bed Blaine hadn't even moved, so he turned off the light and curled up around him and settled down to worry himself to sleep.
***
He woke the next morning with Blaine's head pillowed on his shoulder, one hand stroking gently up and down his side. He hummed low in his throat and raised his arm to curl around him, pulling him a little closer.
He dozed for a minute until Blaine spoke, his voice low and rumbling through both of their chests. "I love you. I didn't even tell you last night, I was so desperate, but I do. I'm so in love with you, still."
Kurt just tightened his arm and kissed the top of his head.
"I think it's starting to panic me. This year just seems so long and I am well and truly sick of Chicago. Finishing the applications made me think, because there's so much uncertainty. I don't know who's going to take me, and where you're going to find work, and I can't." He lifted his head to look at Kurt, and the side of his face was red and creased and his hair was a mess and his eyes were glassy with sleep and unshed tears. "I can't be away from you any more. I think I've reached the end of my patience."
Kurt stroked down his face, and Blaine turned into it. "I didn't know that was possible."
"I didn't either. I just - we have to find something that will work. We have to," and if anybody could make desperation sound resolute, it was Blaine.
"Baby, I -" He sighed. "There's May, and that's all I've got. Six months. Six months and I promise you we will find some way to live together, even if I have to wait tables to do it. It will happen."
Blaine stretched down to kiss him. "Tell me you love me," he whispered against his lips, and Kurt's heart broke, just a little. He'd never seen Blaine like this, and Mallory had said it was bad but he couldn't believe he hadn't known, hadn't realized that Blaine was carrying all this doubt and worry.
He wrapped both arms around Blaine in a bear hug and pulled him tight, so that their faces were pressed together and he could whisper into his ear. "I love you. God, I do - I love you so much, and it kills me that you have to ask to hear it."
"It's not that I don't know - I just needed to hear it this morning."
"Can you... I want to give you your birthday gift. Can you wait right here for one minute?"
Kurt hurried to the bathroom to pee, then came back with a chagrined smile and dug into a side pocket in his messenger bag. He returned to the bed with a velvet pouch and Blaine propped himself up on one elbow to face him.
"My friend Keith - you remember him? Tall, enormous hipster beard, total bear cub type but straight?" Blaine nodded. "I did some graphics work for him last winter, just some design and photography, and he paid me in custom work. This is what he made." He tipped the bag into his hand and two rings spilled out.
Blaine stared at the rings and then looked around at the mussed sheets (one of them still clinging to his abdomen) and their bed hair and said, "Wait - are you proposing to me?"
Kurt smiled nervously and said, "Do we need a proposal?"
He just shook his head, his eyes wide and vulnerable, and whispered, "no".
"We tried - we tried being apart, and it didn't stick, and I ended up mauling you up against a tree. We've been doing this for years, fitting our lives together the best way we could, and that's what I want to keep doing with you." He pulled one of the rings free and dropped the other to the bed, then reached for Blaine's hand and closed it over the top of his own, the ring trapped between their palms. "You can make this ring be whatever you want. You can wear it now or put it in a drawer or put it on a chain and wear it around your neck and call it a fashion statement. Except oh god, please don't do that." He winced and then smiled at him. "And when we actually get married, these don't have to be the rings - it's not - I don't care, really - well, much. I just - I think about it, Blaine, I plan for it, and I will make it happen, because I'm still in love with you."
Blaine took the ring from his hand and looked at it before slipping it onto his right hand and staring at it, a smile creeping across his face. "Okay?" Kurt asked.
"It's almost over, isn't it?" he asked.
Kurt threw up his hands and looked to the sky. "Finally, he gets it!" Blaine shoved at him and he continued in a normal tone of voice. "It is. It's almost Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, and by March you should start getting letters and by spring break we should be ready to go visit places. I graduate in May and you're in June, and then that's it."
"And I'm going to marry you," he said, looking up at Kurt.
Kurt just smiled at him, because sometimes this incredibly smart boy could be so slow to pick up on things. "I believe that you are, yes." He looked down at the bed. "I think we'll be very happy. I want... god, I want everything, but that's what I want most."
Blaine flopped back on the bed and just roared, actually tipped back his head and screamed at the ceiling.
Kurt fell on him laughing, putting his hands over his mouth and shushing him. "Blaine, shhh, it's 9 o'clock on a Friday morning."
He giggled underneath him. "I just... fuck, I'm so happy. I've been such a mess, and I just feel - I feel so free, you know? Like yes, now, now I can start thinking about it."
"I don't know how you lasted this long without thinking about it. I've had those rings for almost a year, Blaine!"
Blaine looked up at him, suddenly thoughtful. "Right. Right, you have, haven't you? Where's the other one?"
Kurt scrambled on the bed for it. "Right here," he said, holding it up.
Blaine took it and rolled them so he could raise himself on one elbow, and then took Kurt's right hand and slid the ring onto his ring finger. He lifted Kurt's hand and lowered his mouth to kiss the ring one time, then took his left hand and kissed that ring finger, too. "Save my spot?" he asked, peering up at Kurt from under his eyelashes.
"Only you, baby, would take a custom ring that I had made and ask me to marry you with it," but Kurt could feel the tears swimming in his eyes and fuck it - Blaine never paid any attention to his sarcasm anyway.
"That's because I know how to do a proper proposal," he quipped, and then he was crushing Kurt into the bed, kissing him until they were both out of breath.
They were interrupted by the sound of Kurt's phone chiming in his pants across the room. "Ignore it, it doesn't matter," Blaine mumbled against his lips before kissing him again, but the phone kept chiming and Kurt said, "It'll just keep going off - I'll be right back."
Blaine grumbled about how his boyfriend kept climbing out of bed when he was trying to have morning sex with him, and how this was going to change once they were living in the same place, and Kurt just giggled and slid out of his grasp and dug out his phone.
He snorted at the messages and then read out loud:
"Almost afraid to interrupt, but from the screaming it's obv you're awake. Coffee's on & Dustin has decided to make waffles, so don't be too alarmed if you smell smoke. In the kitchen once you're decent. (If you can still walk, wink nudge ahem.)"
"PS: I have B's coat & his keys & his phone. And, if he's pissed: only his best interests at heart. Love you, Blainey!"
"PPS: K, text me back if I need to leave the apartment. Srsly."
Blaine snorted out a laugh. "That girl."
"She's a good friend - I'm glad she texted me. Would you ever have talked to me about it?"
Blaine scratched at his head. "Thanksgiving, maybe?"
Kurt came back to the bed. "Yeah, I'm not happy about that." Blaine looked at him and opened his mouth to explain, but Kurt just covered his mouth again. "In a minute. First: you have to tell me these things, Blaine. Mallory wouldn't, and I flew out here because I thought... just - I hadn't intended to show you the rings this early," he said, and he looked uncomfortable.
Blaine peeled Kurt's hand away from his mouth. "Oh my god, you thought I wanted to break up with you," he breathed.
Kurt shrugged. "It crossed my mind. And don't take it out on her, because she was doing the best she could. She shouldn't have had to worry about it, Blaine. When it gets bad, if it gets bad like this again - I deserve to know."
"You do. I'm sorry." He tugged him down into the bed. "Come here. I'm still processing that you brought me a ring when you thought I was going to break up with you. That's either incredibly romantic or very pathetic."
Kurt smiled. "I appreciate that you don't think I can be both."
Blaine rolled them and pushed him into the sheets. "I never said that, but I like it when you're pathetic for me." And he kissed him, sweet and lush. The kiss went in for long minutes, breaking so that Kurt could whisper "I love you, don't scare me like that again," against his ear, and Blaine pressed, "I love you, stay with me," against his throat in return. Kurt was just beginning to consider moving them to the shower when the smoke alarm started blaring from the kitchen.
There was a bang on the bedroom door, and Mallory shouted, "Don't get up, everything's fine! Go on about your business, nothing to see here!" through the door, and Blaine burst out laughing against his face.
After they'd finished giggling, Blaine just looked at him, a sweet expression on his face. Kurt gazed back, and said, "You heard the woman - don't get up yet, birthday boy" and Blaine kissed him again.