#kittenfer

For his part, Blaine can't imagine anyone not wanting Kurt around. It had taken a lot of time for Kurt to fully trust him, but now, six months down the line, it's like they've known each other for years.

Blaine has just adjusted his position on the bed so he's lying on his stomach, laptop in front of him, when his door opens with a tiny creak.

"Come in," he says without looking up, but then there's a quiet sniff and he turns his head with a small frown. Standing just inside the door is Kurt, as he'd expected, but his eyes are bright and his arms are wrapped tight around himself. Even his tail is limp. "What's wrong?"

"I just got fired," Kurt says quietly.

"What? Why?" Blaine sits up on his knees and beckons Kurt closer. Kurt sits on the edge of the bed, back straight. "I thought they were hybrid-friendly."

"The customers aren't, apparently," Kurt sighs. He turns to face Blaine and crosses his legs. "Someone made a scene out of something he found in his coffee, which he thought was fur -- even though any intelligent person could have realized it was from the guy's own disgustingly long beard. My fur isn't even black."

"But they fired you just for that?"

Kurt scoffs. "Bad publicity is bad publicity. Look, I'm sorry I'm dumping all this on you--"

"No, no, don't be. I like that you're telling me this." Blaine stammers, backtracking. "I-I don't like that that happened, of course, I just mean that I'm glad you're comfortable talking to me about these things."

"I know, Blaine," Kurt says, smiling a little. "I like having someone to tell that actually cares."

"Maybe if we go down there together we can convince them to hire you back," Blaine suggests after a moment. Kurt, however, shakes his head.

"No, I'll find something else. Something better." He goes to lick his hand but pulls back, making a face. "Damn it."

"You don't have to hold back in front of me," Blaine says, reaching to grab Kurt's hand. For a second he thinks that Kurt's going to pull away, but he feels a squeeze instead. "You know that."

"I do." They take a moment to smile at each other, just looking and sharing a quiet few seconds of companionship. Kurt breaks it first, slightly hesitant. "Can I stay here with you for a bit?"

"Yeah, of course." Blaine lets go of Kurt's hand to lie back down on his stomach, returning to his laptop. "I'm almost done here, we can go watch a movie in a bit."

"Or we can stay." Kurt sounds distracted and Blaine wonders -- until there are two hands on his ass. Before he can so much as make a noise in surprise, Kurt starts kneading his ass, and he can hear a low rumble that must be purring. It's not something he's never experienced, but Kurt doesn't purr often.

"Uh, Kurt?"

"Shh, just, keep doing what you're doing," Kurt mumbles. "Haven't done this in so long, I'm so sorry--"

"No, it... feels good?" Blaine says. And it does, despite the heat creeping into his cheeks; this is just Kurt, his roommate and friend, who happens to have some feline traits, of which this is one, apparently. He's aware that Kurt spends a lot of time holding his instincts back, partly out of necessity, and he also knows that acting on them eases tension. "Whatever makes you feel better, Kurt."

"It's embarrassing," Kurt says, laughing a little, but the purring continues. "Usually it's a pillow, not a... friend."

Blaine hums and returns his attention to his laptop, at least as much as he can manage. It's more than a little distracting, what Kurt's doing, not to mention the volume of his purring, but Blaine doesn't dare say anything about it. First of all, it would hurt Kurt's feelings. Second of all, he actually doesn't mind. The fact that Kurt feels comfortable acting more catlike around him is worth way more than anything else, Blaine thinks.

After a while, Kurt starts to lean over him. His nose brushes between Blaine's shoulder blades, then his cheek, and he rubs along Blaine's back. The purring vibrates through both of them, and Blaine's finding it much harder to concentrate with each passing second. So he shuts his laptop.

"What're you doing?" Kurt asks, voice scratchy. He lets go of Blaine's ass and flattens his palms against the mattress on either side of Blaine's shoulders -- and then stretches, his long body warm even though they aren't touching except where Kurt's thighs graze the outer edges of Blaine's.

"Uh, nothing."

"There's something," Kurt insists. "I can tell. We've been, mm, living with each other for six months."

"It's really nothing, I was just distracted." The purring quiets, then stops.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Kurt starts to move off of him, but Blaine reaches back and grabs his hand, holding on despite his shoulder protesting at the awkward angle.

"It wasn't a bad distraction," Blaine says slowly. He wishes he could see Kurt's face -- they're close, but they've never been this close, and he wants to know what Kurt thinks. He lets go of Kurt (the angle really does hurt his arm) and, thankfully, Kurt stays where he is. Blaine sort of never wants him to move.

"Roll over," Kurt says suddenly, and Blaine laughs.

"You don't think I'm a dog hybrid, do you?" he teases as he turns himself, finally able to look Kurt in the eyes. His expression is unreadable, but at least there's a faint smile on his lips at the joke.

"You rolled over, didn't you?" Kurt responds. "Maybe you do have some puppy in there somewhere. You have the eyes."

"Oh, really?"

"Mhm. You know, all wide and curious." Kurt tilts his head, an ear twitching at a loose strand of his thick human hair that had dared to tickle it. "Irresistible."

Blaine swallows. "Oh."

"I have a confession," Kurt says, quiet. He looks away slightly, staring at his own hand to the right of Blaine's head. "I've never kissed anyone."

"Why not?"

"The whole part-cat thing doesn't appeal to everyone," Kurt explains. "And a lot of the people that do find it 'attractive' are... well, they're not..."

"They're creeps, right?"

"Basically. I ran into a few of them while I was homeless." Kurt goes silent for a few seconds. "I'm lucky, though. None of them got me, and I got you."

Unsure of what to say, Blaine runs a hand down Kurt's back, smiling when he unconsciously arches into the touch and gives him a look like you did that on purpose. Which is true. "I bet you'll have an amazing first kiss."

"I know I will," Kurt says. "Because, if you'll let me, it's gonna be you."

Blaine blinks, nods, and without another word pulls Kurt down. The kiss isn't much to begin with, but it's sweet and turns sweeter as Kurt learns to fit his lips against Blaine's and move, careful and hesitant. Blaine smiles against Kurt's mouth and kisses back with gentle force, silently coaching him through it. The purring returns and Kurt leans back and away, sheepish even as Blaine tries to follow his lips.

"Sorry, I'm trying to control it, but--"

"You don't have to," Blaine says. "I don't care, I think it's cute."

"Probably like it's 'cute' that I'm twenty-four and I've been kissed exactly once, right?"

"No, I genuinely think you're adorable. And attractive, in a non-creepy way. In other words, I want you to keep kissing me."

"I wasn't that good at it," Kurt says with a little scoff. 

"You're already better than most of the guys I've kissed," Blaine says, pulling him back down slowly. "And practice makes perfect, right?"

"Alright, I believe you. Just -- oh my god," Kurt groans when Blaine rubs his back again. Their chests meet as Kurt arches, and Blaine imagines he can feel Kurt's heartbeat against his. "You asshole, you know I can't resist that."

"Sorry," Blaine murmurs, his lips brushing Kurt's.

"You're not."

"No, not one bit." Finally, they're kissing again, and Blaine makes sure to only kiss him harder when the purring increases in volume a few minutes later. They don't break until it becomes almost painfully obvious how much simply making out is affecting both of them, but they laugh through the realization, Kurt's cheeks flushed pink and his tail flicking back and forth playfully.

"That was nice."

"On a scale of 1-10?"

"Definitely an eleven," Kurt says. He's lying on his side next to Blaine now, his fingers tracing nonsensical patterns on Blaine's chest as they cool down. "You're a good teacher."

"You're a good student." Blaine grins and tackles Kurt without warning, smiling wider when that manages to pull a surprised meow from him. He gives Kurt a peck on the lips. "Should we order a pizza?"

Kurt lights up, ears swiveling forward. "God, yes."

It takes them a few minutes to even get up and order the pizza, but every time Blaine looks at Kurt after they've kissed and catches that new, shy smile is completely worth it. Kurt's smiles, to him, are worth the world, and the rumble that inevitably starts up when they kiss for longer than a second is worth even more for the fact that Kurt feels safe enough to let it happen.

Maybe Kurt isn't a typical roommate, but Blaine couldn't wish for a better one. And maybe being in a relationship with a hybrid won't be easy, given the way Kurt's treated just for being one, but it doesn't matter right now. What matters is that Blaine can make Kurt feel happy and safe -- he deserves both and more.