#oh technology

Blaine hadn’t gone far.  Kurt found him on a bench outside the park across the street, keeping warm from his anger and the seventeen layers he had wrapped around him.  At this point Kurt would kill for that scarf again, but that would be the definition of presumptuous.  

“Hey,” Kurt said.  “I… saw you in the back of the bar.”

Blaine turned his head to glance at Kurt.  The irritation was still plain on his face but his cheeks were becoming rosier by the minute due to the cold.  It was hard to look irritated with rosy cheeks and those lush eyelashes.  How had Kurt never noticed his eyelashes before?  “I’m surprised,” Blaine said.  “You seemed preoccupied with a lap full of Sexy Santa.”  

Ugh, Blaine sounded bitter.  “I’m sorry,” Kurt said.  “I shouldn’t have said those things at the office.  It wasn’t fair of me to unload all of my single frustration on you in that moment.  Plus… I realize that I was incredibly off-base.”

“Yeah, what boyfriend?” Blaine asked.  “You know I’m not seeing anyone.”

Kurt wrapped his arms around himself both to ward off the cold and to hide whatever small part of his shame that he could.  “See, here’s the thing… I thought Cooper was your boyfriend.”

“Cooper?” Blaine exclaimed.  “You thought I was dating my brother?”

“I didn’t know he was your brother!” Kurt insisted.  “I just thought he was your incredibly attractive boyfriend on your desk and in my head every time you wanted to spend time with someone special you were smugly alluding to the fact that you were gonna get… romantically intimate with him…”

Blaine’s expression was somewhere halfway between disgust and horror.  “How could you think he was my boyfriend?  We talked about it that night…”

“The night you took me home?”

“Yeah.”

Kurt groaned and covered his mouth with his hand.  God, this was the last thing he wanted to admit.  “So, here’s the thing.  I might… not… remember anything after I had my last drink in the bar.”

Blaine’s eyebrows lifted at that.  “You don’t remember telling me about the magic of Christmas and my sweaters in the line?”

“No.”

“Or asking me to spin around because you wanted to look at my ass?”

“No.”

“Or about how my brother, Cooper, stripped on the side?”

“Is that why you told me you’d give me the number of a pole dancing instructor?”

“And you don’t remember me telling you how much it sucked that every guy I’ve been interested in tells me how unbelievably hot my brother is compared to me?”

Kurt’s expression moved into the signature look of pain mixed with regret he was perfecting this holiday season.  “Oh, balls, did you really tell me that?  And I’m sitting here telling you about wanting to get felt up by Sexy Santa?  I’m sorry Blaine, I didn’t realize.”

“So why didn’t you say anything?” Blaine asked.  “Why didn’t you just say you didn’t remember that night when we were talking later?  I mean, I just thought you’d forgotten about shopping for Rachel’s gift.  I didn’t know I was basically talking into a void.”

“Do you know how embarrassing it is to have to admit that you don’t remember anything about your work crush taking you home, especially when he sounds so happy that you both got to talk?” Kurt insisted.  “I… didn’t want you to think I was a drunk.  Or sloppy.  Or… anything.  I wanted you to think I was great.”

That made Blaine smile.  “Kurt… you’re amazing.  That night just made me realize it, and man it sucks that you don’t remember it.  You told me I was cuter than my brother.”

“Well, you are cuter than your brother,” Kurt said.

“And after that I just wanted to get to know you more.  But we just had to be careful about it at work.”

Ah, yes, work.  Work, where they weren’t allowed to date.  Was it presumptuous to start looking for a new job?  Would that make him pathetic to do that for a man he hadn’t even kissed yet?  Was anyone hiring around the holidays?  “Yeah, I know… I know that we can’t be together because of the policies…”

“But I got moved to management on four.”

Kurt shrugged.  “But I’m not allowed to date management.”

Blaine smiled that bright, beaming smile again.  “Kurt… you can’t date management or other members on your team.  Why do you think I pushed hard to get this transfer?  I was due to be reviewed in a year, but I convinced them to do it now.  We’re on different teams now.  We’re good.”

“We’re good?”

“You really should read the employee handbook more closely,” Blaine laughed.  

They were good.  Everything was in the clear.  He started to laugh, but it came out as his teeth chattering instead.  

“Oh, you must be freezing,” Blaine said.  He unwrapped his scarf and draped his around Kurt’s shoulders.  “Don’t worry about returning this quickly.  Some big hearted Secret Santa got me a spare.

“Let me guess, I told you I was your Secret Santa when I was drunk.”

“But you made me promise not to tell myself your secret.”

“God, I’m an idiot.  I’m also going to lean hard into Dry January,” Kurt declared.  Blaine just laughed, and Kurt was sure that was the best sound he’d heard all season.  “So, different teams.”

“Different teams.”

He reached out to grab Blaine’s hand.  “No boyfriend.”

“No, no boyfriend.”

Blaine’s face was beautiful under the light of the street lamp.  So open, so hopeful.  Why had he ever considered that someone like this would lead him on?  Blaine’s face couldn’t hide a lie if he tried.  Everything he was thinking, right there out in the open.  So if he was reading him right…

Kurt forced himself to stop thinking as he leaned forward, closing the distance between them, and kissed him.  Candy canes and joy, that’s what Blaine tasted like, he decided.  Candy canes and joy and reindeer sweaters and spare scarves and the biting December air.  Blaine’s other hand was up on his cheek and Kurt found himself unsure of what felt better, soft lips or strong hands.  

They didn’t break until Kurt felt something icy on his other cheek.  He pulled back to find fat snowflakes falling and catching in Blaine’s dark hair and impossibly long lashes, making him shine even more in the moonlight.  “How did you figure out that he wasn’t my boyfriend?” Blaine asked as he caught his breath.

“Cooper told me, while he was dancing up on me.”

Blaine laughed again.  “Yeah… that sounds like Cooper.  Nothing he loves better than a good matchmaking.”

Kurt glanced up, watching the snow fall harder around them.  “You know, Mercedes was insistant that there was Christmas magic.  I just didn’t think that magic would be Santa Claus as performed by your stripteasing brother.”

“I guess magic shows up when you least expect it,” Blaine replied.  “Hey, are you doing anything right now?”

“Did you have something different in mind?”

“Kurt Hummel, could I take you out to dinner?” Blaine asked. He stood up from the bench and offered Kurt his arm..  “On a real, honest to god, no ambiguity date.”