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Blaine’s not sure how he found himself at the coffee shop thirty minutes before the guys had told him to be there. It’s barely three o’clock and while he’s always prompt, he’s rarely early. He tells himself it has nothing to do with the cute hearing boy that fumbled his way through an ASL conversation with him last week. He’s had time to think about it some more — to picture those blue eyes and those tighter-than-company-policy-allows pants — and honestly, what would he do with a hearing boyfriend? They would have nothing to talk about and at the end of the day, Blaine wants a relationship built on friendship, not sex.
If sex is all Blaine’s looking for, Jeff’s been trying to hook him up with his mainstreamed friend Eli for months. He doesn’t have to resort to picking up the first hearing person that can manage to sign their name correctly without having to try multiple times.
Still, Blaine is thirty minutes early and he could use some caffeine without having to wait for either Jeff or Sebastian to get here. Kurt’s working the counter and it would be weird for Blaine to sit here and not order coffee. It wasn’t like he was actively avoiding Kurt or anything. Even if the boy doesn’t know nearly enough signs, he’d still know more than Katy, who can never get Blaine’s order right even when he types it out on his phone for her to read. If anything, it’s just common sense for Blaine to go up there and talk to him.
BLAINE, Kurt signs, looking pleasantly surprised and he can feel his heart swell at the fact that Kurt remembered his name sign. It’s such a silly thing to get excited over, but he can’t help it.
HEY, he signs, trying to look casual and he’s sure he succeeds. He’s pretty sure Cooper’s acting lessons when he was younger stuck with him enough that he can master the art of subtly.
YOU WANT… Kurt pauses and looks off in the distance as if he’s trying to remember something. COFFEE? C-O-F-F-E-E?
ARE YOU TEACHING ME THE SIGN FOR COFFEE? Blaine teases with a smile he hopes isn’t too flirtatious because he didn’t want to give off the wrong impression. Not that somebody like Kurt would ever want to date him either, he was still in high school and two months from graduation or not that still made him a baby.
Kurt blushes and the way he bites his lower lip nervously sends a warm sensation down into his belly and an entirely different feeling he’s going to ignore right to his crotch.
I’M DEAF, REMEMBER? I ALREADY KNOW SIGN LANGUAGE.
Kurt waves him off, but he’s laughing which is a good thing. It means that he’s got a healthy sense of humor and Blaine looks for that in the people he dates.
The Deaf people he dates, he clarifies for himself, though at this point he’s not sure why he’s even bothering to pretend he doesn’t like Kurt.
J-E-R-K, Kurt spells.
JERK, Blaine signs for him and Kurt repeats it slowly a few times before smiling.
YOU WERE ASKING IF I WANTED COFFEE, BEFORE? Blaine signs as a young couple get in line behind him and he knows that his time for conversing is over. Kurt’s got to get back to work and Blaine can’t hold up the line.
YES.
MEDIUM DRIP, he signs and then finger spells it when Kurt asks him to repeat himself. Blaine’s impressed that he only has to spell it one time for Kurt to understand him.
YOUR SPELLING IS GETTING BETTER.
SPELLING, TERRIBLE, Kurt says while he makes an adorably disgusted face and tries to concentrate on getting Blaine’s change together.
Blaine’s about to ask if Kurt needs somebody to practice with when he feels somebody tap his shoulder and when he turns around the girl’s boyfriend is waving him along and saying something about “moving.” He doesn’t need to hear it know that he’s held up the line for too long.
SORRY, he signs, taking his changing and moving to the other end of the counter to wait for his coffee order.
Katy hands him his coffee order— the correct one, thank God — and Blaine can see that Kurt’s got a line starting to form so he makes is way over to a table and figures he can get some reading done before his friends show up. Kurt doesn’t need to be bothered by him.
****
The next time the guys plan to meet for coffee, Blaine accidentally shows up early. Then again the time after that. And again. Until it becomes a habit to walk through the doors and instantly look to see if Kurt’s working, which he is. He always is these days.
WHERE DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL? Blaine asks as he leans against the counter and watches Kurt make his coffee order. It’s a surprisingly slow day.
COMMUNITY COLLEGE, Kurt signs but there’s a nervous smile on his face that always means he wants to sign more so Blaine just sits back and waits for him to figure out how to sign whatever it is that he wants to say.
M-O-V-I-N-G? Kurt spells and once Blaine teaches him the sign for moving, Kurt nods and gets excited like he’s about to tell him some really good piece of gossip.
I MOVE-TO NEW YORK IN AUG. I GO TO N-Y-A-D-A SCHOOL. I STUDY DRAMA! He signs so excitedly that Blaine can’t even lecture him for his sloppy signing because his enthusiasm is just so damn contagious.
WOW, Blaine signs, letting it sink in that Kurt’s actually going to be moving to New York as well at the end of the summer. While he’d been talking himself out of asking Kurt out because he didn’t want to get attached to anybody this close to graduation, he didn’t have an excuse anymore.
CONGRATULATIONS, Blaine continues as Kurt hands him his coffee. I’M MOVING TO NEW YORK, TOO. I GOT ACCEPTED INTO N-Y-U.
REALLY? He signs, his face lighting up in a way that Blaine just loves. He wonders what it would be like to date Kurt, to be able to be the one to make him smile like that all of the time. I WANT SEX IN NEW YORK.
Blaine’s so shocked and caught by surprised that he actually chokes on his coffee and has to hold onto the countertop while he coughs heavily. Kurt rushes around to stand beside him and pat him on the back, giving him a concerned, but completely innocent look like he hadn’t just implied that he was looking for sex.
YOU OK?
YOU WANT SEX IN NEW YORK? Blaine signs again, praying that none of his friends will chose this exact moment to walk in the door. They’ll never let him live it down.
YES? he signs like Blaine’s somehow crazy for finding that surprising. It’s not that he’s never thought of Kurt as a sexual being — he’s thought of him that way many, many times, whenever he can get the showers to himself — but he didn’t like Kurt was the type to talk about it so openly.
I’M JUST SURPRISED YOU TOLD ME THAT. I WASN’T EXPECTING IT, Blaine explains, trying to make up for the amount of embarrassment he just caused. Kurt must think he’s completely naive now. If he didn’t think Blaine was a kid before, he certainly will now.
I WANT SEX IN NEW YORK? YES. WHY W-O-U-L-D I GO TO SCHOOL THERE, IF NOT LEARN HOW TO SEX?”
It’s about halfway through Kurt’s adorable attempt at signing a long sentence that things start to click in Blaine’s mind and he realizes that they’ve probably had some sort of misunderstanding along the way. He starts to laugh.
SEX? He signs and waits for Kurt to nod before spelling it out. S-E-X?
WHAT? NO! Kurt signs, looking around the shop frantically and turning beet red.
YOU SIGNED S-E-X, he explains, unable to stop laughing. YOU SAID YOU WANT SEX IN NEW YORK.
NO! Kurt looks horrified and he can’t help but find the entire thing adorable. W-O-R-K.
WORK, Blaine corrects him and shows him the proper way to sign it and while several weeks ago he would have been annoyed, it honestly is an easy mistake for somebody who doesn’t know any better.
IT’S OK. IT’S CUTE, he signs when Kurt’s face shows no sign of going back to its normal color.
CUTE NO. I TRY I-M-P-R-E-S-S YOU, Kurt signs.
Blaine understands what Kurt’s spelling immediately, but he’s still sure that he’s misunderstood somewhere along the line. As much as Blaine’s reluctant to date a hearing guy, he’s sure that Kurt has no interest in dating somebody who’s Deaf.
IMPRESS ME? WHY? he asks, holding his breath for the answer.
YOU’RE CUTE.
Blaine’s heart stops and he’s about to ask Kurt for his number when a sudden hand slaps him on the back and pulls him into a headlock. Jeff’s wrestling with him and Sebastian ‘helpfully’ steps in to talk to Kurt since he’s the only one of them who’s vocal. He’s asking Kurt for two more coffees, completely oblivious to what he’s interrupted. It’s habit for his friends, they couldn’t have possibly known but Blaine still wants to murder them.
And so once Kurt’s made Jeff and Sebastian’s coffee, Blaine no longer has an excuse to hang around the counter. He walks away slowly, watching Kurt the entire time. He’s smiling, but Blaine can see the look of disappointment on his face.
SEE YOU LATER? Blaine signs, regretfully.
I HERE ALWAYS.
Maybe next time Blaine’s in, he’ll finally manage to give Kurt his number. If anything, Kurt will need it so he can practice ASL with him. The last thing Blaine wants is for Kurt to make an embarrassing mistake like the work/sex one again and accidentally proposition himself to wrong person. Providing some tutoring is the friendly thing to do, right? And if their tutoring sessions turn into something more, well, Blaine might be willing to change his stance on hearing boys. After all, there’s nothing wrong with a friendly hookup between a tutor and tutoree.