#gpbb

“Welp, I did my part!” Cooper said, before plopping on the couch.

Blaine looked down at his brother from the ladder he was standing on in order to hang up a garland. “What exactly did you do? The room is barely decorated.” Blaine said, frowning at him, eyebrow arching.

“I put up all the mistletoe, of course!” Cooper responded, grinning.

Blaine rolled his eyes and decided that this was a battle he wouldn’t be winning. He merely sighed and went back to trying to pin the garland in the perfect place so that the second swoop was as even as possible with the first one.

“How many people did you invite tonight?” he asked.

“Just some close friends.” Cooper responded, smiling.

“How many close friends?”

“Blaine, relax. Less than twenty, okay?”

“Twenty!?”

“Yes, twenty.”

“You invited twenty strangers into our house and I'm just supposed to relax how?” Blaine said, voice rising in anger.

“Come on, Squirt, don’t worry about it. They’re all good people.” Cooper reassured.

“They may be good people, but I don’t know any of them!”

“That’s why I also invited Kurt!” Cooper exclaimed.

Blaine froze. “You what?”

“I invited Kurt!” Cooper repeated, his smile morphing into a knowing smirk. “You two can hang out and not drink together!”

Blaine scowled at him. “I’m turning twenty - one in less than three months, Cooper.”

“Which means you’re still a minor for the next ‘less than three months’.” Cooper said and shrugged.

Blaine’s nostrils flared.

“What’s the big deal?” Cooper asked.

“Nothing! There’s no deal, big or small.”

“Okay,” Cooper said, looking unconvinced.

Blaine shakes his head and goes back to the task of decorating the living room, trying to ignore the dread in his stomach.

*

A few hours later find him leaning against a doorway, holding a plastic cup filled with lemonade, watching as mostly strangers but also a few vaguely familiar faces interspersed between them danced in his living room.

He really wasn't in the mood, he wished he could just go up to his room and lock the door and shut out everybody else in the world. Well, maybe except--

His thoughts were interrupted by an all - too - familiar voice.

"Hey, Blaine."

Kurt's voice sounded wrong. Quiet and timid, painfully hesitant, the words lacking the usual excitedness. Blaine’s heart hurt.

He resolutely did not turn to look at him as he said “Hey,” careful to keep his voice cool.

“Can…” Kurt started, then swallowed and continued after a pause, “can we talk?”

Blaine didn’t respond right away.

“In private? Please?” Kurt asked.

Blaine gave up trying to say no to him years ago.

So Blaine got his wish, and barely a minute later he was closing the door to his room, shutting the music and everyone but Kurt out.

He leaned against the door and tried to cooly cross his arms in front of him. He wasn’t sure if it worked, since he was still holding the plastic cup full of lemonade.

“Well?” he asked, when the silence got to be too much for him, “what did you want to talk about?”

He watched as Kurt fiddled with the fabric at the end of his sweater. Kurt’s gaze was fixed on his clothes, refusing to meet Blaine’s.

“You know what.” was what he finally said.

Blaine swallowed heavily. “I’ve said all I wanted to say. I have nothing more to add. So, if anyone is going to talk, it’s gonna be you.” he said.

“Words don’t come as easily to me as they do to you, Blaine, I thought you knew that--”

“Oh, don’t give me that, Kurt! I’m not asking for an essay here, you’re not going to be graded.”

“Aren’t I?” Kurt murmured, so low that Blaine was sure he wasn’t meant to hear it, “I don’t know what to say to you! And you can’t fault me for that.”

“So let me get this straight,” Blaine started, kicking off the door, uncrossing his hands, and putting the cup on his desk, “I tell you I like you, I kiss you, you run away, don’t talk to me for two weeks, then show up at my house, ask me to go somewhere private to talk, all so that you can tell me you don’t know what to say to me?” Blaine asked. He kept turning the cup by the rim, if only to have something to do with his hands.

This whole time he’d been staring at the cup, but he turned to look at Kurt’s face, curious for his response.

Nothing came. Kurt didn’t speak, didn’t look at him, he didn’t evens top fidgeting with his sweater.

After deciding that too much time had passed, he groaned, and turned his back to Kurt again. He clenched his fists until he felt his nails dig into his palm. “Look, Kurt, you don’t need to say anything else, I got it, message received, you don’t feel the same way, and that’s perfectly fine, but I’m going to need some time to just… let this run its course and get it out of my system, okay? You had the right idea ignoring me for the past two weeks, how about we do that for a couple more months and see where we’re at, okay?” he said, not waiting to hear Kurt’s response before he turned the door knob and walked out of the room, and headed downstairs.

He was just about to begrudgingly enter the crowd of people when a hand grabbed his arm and spun him around.

Before he could realize what was happening, lips were on his. He inhaled sharply. Kurt’s cologne. Kurt’s lips. On his. Kurt’s lips were on his.

He let himself get caught up in it, brought his hands up to grasp Kurt’s biceps and pull him closer. He let his senses bathe in all things Kurt, his scent, the way his skin felt, the way his lips felt, the way he moved against Blaine, but after a few more seconds, he gathered all his willpower and pushed Kurt away.

“No, no, Kurt, I don’t want this if you don’t. We’re still going to be friends, you don’t have to do this.” he said and swallowed, reveled in the fact that his mouth tasted like Kurt.

“Oh, shut up you absolute idiot,” Kurt said, fisting the front of Blaine’s sweater and pulling him forward, “I’ve been wanting to kiss you for years.”

He leaned forward to kiss Blaine again, but Blaine leaned back.

“You - you have?” he asked, bewildered, hope rising within him.

“Yes, now will you please let me kiss you again before I pass out?” Kurt said, a smile starting to form on his lips.

Blaine grinned at him and brought his hands up to circle Kurt’s waist. He took a breath to steady himself and looked up. He froze. His smile widened and he turned his eyes back to Kurt. “Well, we are underneath mistletoe. We wouldn’t want to get stuck with bad luck.”

Kurt glanced up and a small, delighted laugh escaped his lips. It was the most wonderful sound Blaine had ever heard.