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Blaine lays out on the couch with his head in Kurt’s lap, watching some old movie that’s playing on AMC that he’s seen so many times he doesn’t even need to read the captions. He’s doing his best not to moan at the wonderful fingers that are busy playing with his hair. He’s not even worried about how messed up his gel will become, not as long as Kurt is there strong and steady, and smiling down at him like he’s something special. It’s been two weeks since their first kiss and every little touch still feels like something to be cherished. He hopes that feeling never goes away.
They still haven’t had that conversation yet, the “are we, aren’t we boyfriends” talk that Blaine desperately wants to have but hasn’t wanted to bring up for fear of ruining whatever it is they are doing. It feels right, but what does he know? He’s still in high school and has never had a real boyfriend. Kurt’s in college, maybe this is how things work in college?
WHAT’S UP? Kurt signs, giving him a curious look.
NOTHING, he shrugs.
YOU WATCHING ME, he signs, shifting around self-consciously, as if anything could possibly be wrong with him. Kurt’s perfect.
I LIKE WATCHING YOU, Blaine teases.
Kurt blushes and turns his attention back to the TV. Blaine attempts to watch as well, but it’s difficult to focus when Kurt is so close to him.
STOP IT, Kurt signs as he sinks deeper in the couch and instinctively moves to cover his face with a pillow. Blaine grabs the pillow and throws it across the room before Kurt can have a chance to grab it again.
I HATE YOU, Kurt signs with zero malice behind it.
He sits up just enough to kiss away the pretend scowl on Kurt’s face and when he pulls away, they are both smiling.
I LIKE KISSING YOU, Kurt signs.
He feels like he might die of happiness at that exact moment. Rather than trying to figure out something suave to reply back, he sits up and attacks Kurt’s lips, chasing the flavor of the chocolate chip cookies they’d baked earlier. He could kiss Kurt forever. He knows they haven’t done this often — there was the first kiss in the coffee shop, a few sweet kisses hello and goodbye on there second and third date, but nothing like this.
He opens his mouth and has to hold back a moan when Kurt takes control of the kiss. His tongue makes it’s way into Blaine’s mouth and he can feel himself getting pushed back until his back hits the sofa cushions and there’s suddenly the delicious feeling of a boy in his lap. This is exactly how Blaine loves to be kissed — passionate and uninhibited — it makes him feel wanted. He grabs a handful of Kurt’s sweater, silently pleading with him never to go.
Kurt’s hand rubs up and down his chest, and even though the feeling is muted by two layers of fabric, it sends a shiver down his spine. When Kurt’s lips move to kiss at his jawline, he can’t help thrusting his hips up into Kurt’s — he’s a teenage boy after all.
Kurt pulls away far enough for them to see each other and Blaine is so distracted by how swollen Kurt’s lips are that he almost misses him sign, ARE YOU OKAY?
YEAH, he replies. He’s still breathing heavily, but the distance between them has helped clear his mind enough to think clearly. Blaine’s ready for this, he trusts Kurt and he’s ready to move past chaste kisses and innocent hand holding.
ARE YOU OKAY? he asks when Kurt doesn’t respond.
YEAH, Kurt signs back, cheeks red and smile as big as the moon.
He is just leaning in again, eager to start up right where they left off when Kurt’s head suddenly snaps to the left and his eyes widen with horror before leaping from Blaine’s lap.
WHAT? Blaine asks, but Kurt doesn’t have a chance to answer him before a gruff looking man wearing flannel and a worn-out baseball cap walks into the room. Blaine can only assume that it’s Kurt’s father, but he’s certainly nothing like Blaine had pictured Kurt’s father looking like. They don’t even look related.
“Hey — — — on — —?” Blaine tries to read what the man is saying, but his lips are hard to see from this angle and he’s mumbling his words just enough that it’s impossible to make much out.
“Hey Dad, this is Blaine,” Kurt attempts to sign as he talks so that Blaine can follow the conversation, but he’s still so new to signing and it’s not always easy to vocalize and sign at the same time, so his signs become a bit choppy.
He’s trying though, Blaine reminds himself, that’s the important thing. It’s moments like this that his friends still think dating Kurt is a bad idea, but Kurt’s learning and it’ll only continue to get easier the more practice he has.
Blaine moves to stand and shake Mr. Hummel’s hand, remembering his manners.
IT’S NICE TO MEET YOU, he signs while Kurt interprets for him.
“— Blaine — — deaf —?” Burt says
“Blaine’s my tutor,” Kurt says as Mr. Hummel looks Blaine up and down.
He’s curious why Kurt’s lying about the two of them, but he knows better than to question him in front of his father. Especially since it looks like his father would know about fifty ways to kill him for even looking at his son. Perhaps Kurt’s dad isn’t supportive of his sexuality. He’s never heard Kurt say anything negative about his dad, but it’s possible that he just doesn’t like talking about it. Maybe his father wouldn’t approve of Kurt dating another boy?
“You — — uh —?”
“I have a big test,” Kurt answers whatever question his dad asked.
“Ok.”
“Ok,” Kurt says shifting back and forth awkwardly, causing Blaine to grow increasingly more uncomfortable at how excluded he feels from this conversation despite Kurt’s attempts to sign as he talks.
“Dinner — — — — hour, — — bringing something —. If you — —, — — game — — like — —.”
“Sure, we can just study upstairs,” Kurt says and walks past his dad towards the stairs. Blaine nods at Mr. Hummel and he barely makes out his, “Nice to meet you, Blaine,” before heading off towards Kurt.
I’M SORRY, Kurt signs once they are up in his bedroom with the door safely shut behind them. HE CAN’T SIGN.
MOST HEARING PEOPLE CAN’T, he signs, trying not to let it show how much it bugs him when he’s forced to read lips and people don’t speak clear enough. How much it bugs him when he can’t communicate through sign. It’s been a long time since he’s had to deal with the frustration of not understanding the conversations going on around him — Dalton’s solved a lot of those problems for him.
Kurt pulls Blaine down to sit on the end of the bed next to him and it hits him. He’s sitting in Kurt’s bed. He’s in Kurt’s bedroom. The walls are a very classy white and he has these amazing built in shelves that hold various books, magazines, and some adorable photo frames of Kurt when he was younger. He looks around to take the rest of the room in, from the vanity hiding in the corner to the comfortable looking brown love seat loaded down with pillows. The entire thing is so artfully put together to look like it came out of a magazine page, but still gives the air of being lived in. A trait his mother has yet to master in their own home that’s filled with expensive, modern furniture but never quite feels like a place you can live in.
This is Kurt’s room. His beautiful, room that absolutely screams Kurt. He’s sitting on Kurt’s bed. His incredibly soft bed that he could just melt into…
He leans back on his elbow, looking like a GQ model with the way he’s beckoning Blaine with an artfully raised eyebrow and crooked finger. Blaine’s not stupid enough to deny him anything, so he allows himself to be pulled back onto the bed until he’s stretched out and Kurt curls up into him like a cuddly cat. He smiles as Kurt nuzzles into his side, eventually settling down once he’s completely comfortable.
Blaine kisses the top of his head and plays with Kurt’s hair absentmindedly, still in awe that the most attractive man he’s ever met is choosing to spend his time with plain, little, still-in-high-school Blaine. Skilled fingers trace shapes onto his stomach and he can’t even bring himself to feel self conscious when his shirt rides up to reveal some of his skin. He’s always been a bit embarrassed about the little bit of baby fat around his stomach that never goes away no matter how much he exercises, but Kurt doesn’t seem to mind.
He’s just about to drift off into a nap when he feels a tapping at his stomach to get his attention. When Blaine opens his eyes, he watches as Kurt signs, I CAN HEAR YOUR HEART BEAT.
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE, he asks curiously, knowing he’ll never get the chance to hear it for himself.
He can imagine what it sounds like, sure. He’s seen videos of hearts pulsing and felt the vibration in his own veins anytime he gets anxious about something. He has a painting in his mind of what it would sound like, but he’ll never hear it for himself. That used to make him feel bitter, but he’s come to learn that it just means that he sees the world differently from others and that’s a gift.
Kurt doesn’t answer him right away, but he can see his eyebrows furrowing in thought as he continues to listen, trying to work out the right answer.
STRONG, Kurt answers. BUT GUARDED. CONFIDENT BUT SWEET. CARING. LOVING. SMART. IT SOUNDS PERFECT.
Kurt punctuates the last sign by tracing out a heart on his chest and leaving a sweet kiss over it that he can’t really feel physically, but he feels it in his veins and he blinks away the wetness that suddenly appears in his eyes.
He never thought he’d find a hearing person that could understand him so well. He never thought he’d find anybody like Kurt.
CAN I TRY? he asks, wanting the chance to feel Kurt’s own heartbeat.
Kurt doesn’t comment on the fact that Blaine won’t be able to hear his heartbeat, he’s not that ignorant. He simply sits back so that they can switch positions. Blaine can’t help but smile when Kurt’s arms wrap around him and pull him closer and he settles against his chest, wondering if it was possible to stay here forever. He gently reaches out his hand until it’s just barely resting against Kurt’s neck, knowing that this will be easier if he can feel his pulse as well.
He’s never done this with anyone else before, but he’s heard about his friends doing it with their girlfriends. It feels a lot more intimate than he imagined it would be, but it’s not uncomfortable. In retrospect, perhaps this isn’t something that people do with the boy they’ve only been dating for two weeks, but nothing about this feels strange or forced.
It takes a few minutes for Kurt to stop shifting around and even longer for his breathing to steady out, but when it eventually does, Blaine can feel the very slight vibration of Kurt’s heart as it beats in his chest. He closes his eyes and waits for the picture to begin to form in his mind that happens every time he listens to music.
It starts out just as little blobs of meaningless color, like always. There’s a cluster of little yellow dots that begin to spread out slowly with each beat of the heart, almost like sand over a trampoline. The shape is meaningless, but it fills him with a calm joy and his mind starts to clear of anything except for the transfixing image in front of him. Slowly the colors begin to bleed out into orange and reds, leaving a yellow circle in the center. It’s warm and leaves him feeling safe and secure. By the time the edges of the image begins to turn purple and light blue, Blaine knows that he’s looking at the picture of a sunrise — calming, beautiful, and full of hope.
The last bit to show up is black and tiny, but as it grows he can just make out the outline of a bird. A black, elegant bird as it slowly flies through the air. It’s strange. He doesn’t often visualize animals or anything living for that matter when he tries to picture sound, but it makes sense somehow. Kurt’s breathed new life into him. Kurt, his little blackbird. It works.
Once the picture is complete, Blaine takes a minute to commit it to memory before pulling away. Almost immediately he notices how completely zoned out he’d been. He has no idea how long they’d been lying there like that, but there’s still a but of sunlight streaming in through the window so it can’t have been too long.
WHAT DID YOU HEAR?
A BEAUTIFUL SUNRISE AND A BLACKBIRD FLYING, he explains, unsure what exactly Kurt expected him to say. He looks a bit surprised, but he doesn’t let it show for long.
IT’S GETTING LATE, Kurt frowns, pointing over at the clock. It’s almost seven-thirty. Blaine has to be back in time for curfew at nine and it will take almost an hour and a half to get back from Kurt’s house.
I NEED TO GO, he signs regretfully and begins to crawl out of the bed.
ARE YOU COMING INTO THE STORE TOMORROW? Kurt asks.
IF YOU PROMISE TO TAKE YOUR BREAK WITH ME, he signs, smiling when Kurt reaches out to smooth the wrinkles from Blaine’s shirt. When he’s finished, he lets his fingers loop through his belt loops and pulls Blaine in for a goodbye kiss.
IT’S A DATE, Kurt signs once they part.
The two of them make their way downstairs, where Mr. Hummel is waiting for them.
YOU WANT STAY DINNER? Mr. Hummel signs and it’s incredibly rough to watch, but he understands the point well enough. He has to stop and grab onto the bannister to keep from falling the rest of the way down the stairs, he’s so shocked. An hour ago, Mr. Hummel didn’t know any sign language.
Blaine looks over at Kurt for an explanation, but Kurt looks just as confused.
“Dad, you’re signing.”
“That’s all I know,” he says, careful to annunciate each word without speaking too slow. He’s looking right at Blaine when he does it, making it possible for him to read his lips. It’s a complete turn around from earlier today. “I looked it up online. I figured if you two are going to be dating, I should probably learn some sign language.”
Blaine doesn’t know what to say. He’s barely spent more than five minutes with this man and he’s already trying to learn how to better communicate with him, meanwhile, Blaine’s own father still refuses to learn how to sign. Blaine knows that his dad thinks it’s for his own benefit, that Blaine will only learn how to work in the real world if he can read lips and vocalize, but still. It’s hard to know that a virtual stranger to him would learn sign if his own father never has.
“Blaine and I aren’t… we’re… Um,” Kurt starts to explain and he’s so nervous that his hands are shaking as he signs, but his dad cuts him off.
“Oh stop, I know you well enough by now to know when you’re lying,” Mr. Hummel says to Kurt, but he doesn’t look upset like Blaine’s parents always are whenever he’s caught in a lie.
“Blaine has to go home, he has curfew,” Kurt says, opening the door so that Blaine knows they are free to go. He grabs his shoes and puts them on and is about to leave when he realizes that he can’t just go without saying something to Mr. Hummel.
GOODBYE, M-R. H-U-M-M-E-L, he signs slowly, not sure if he’ll understand any of it but he figures it’s better than leaving without saying anything. IT WAS NICE TO MEET YOU.
YOU CALL ME B-U-R-T, Mr. Hummel signs and his fingerspelling is a mess, but Blaine figures it out well enough and is impressed at the amount that he mastered in under an hour.
GOODBYE B-U-R-T, he signs again, unable to hide his smile. He’s not sure what he did to deserve the Hummel’s but it must have been something really amazing.
He walks over to where Kurt is leaning against his car door, wearing an adorable pout.
YOUR TUTOR? he teases.
SHUT UP, Kurt signs with that blush he loves so much.
NO, NO, IT’S FINE, he signs with a laugh. YOU’RE JUST USING ME FOR ASL PRACTICE, I GET IT.
Kurt punches him on the shoulder lightly and he throws his hands up in surrender.
IF I TOLD HIM YOU WERE MY BOYFRIEND, HE WOULD HAVE ASKED YOU A MILLION QUESTIONS.
AM I YOUR BOYFRIEND? he asks, biting his lower lip and praying that it hadn’t just been a slip of the hand, that Kurt really did consider Blaine to be his.
WELL AREN’T YOU? Kurt asks and the way his eyes go big with worry, like Blaine might not want him back makes him want to cuddle Kurt close and never let go.
YEAH, I GUESS I AM.