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Kurt knows the route to Blaine’s house like the back of his hand at this point. Despite the fact that it’s not far from his own house, Kurt has driven down the same roads too many times to count.
Blaine has a car, of course he does, but Kurt likes to drive and driving the same path all the time is not so unfortunate when he knows what is waiting for him at the end of it.
The kisses they share when Blaine gets in the car Kurt holds close to his heart, and he tries to remember the exact way Blaine cradles his jaw and melts into his mouth.
“Where to?” Kurt asks when they pull away, licking over his lips again and again and putting the car into reverse. Blaine never sits facing forward, always choosing to lean towards him on the console with his body angled towards Kurt as he drives and the trust both scared and delights Kurt.
“I really don’t want to tell you, -- “
“I am the one driving, here -- “
“ -- but since it’s rather necessary,” Blaine plows right over Kurt’s attempted sentence with a smile, “I got us tickets to the carnival.”
“Of course.”
Blaine pretends to be affronted, raising a hand to his chest, “Of course? I can’t be that predictable.”
“You really, really are, but that’s okay. One of us has to be.”
--
The Lima Annual Carnival is something the mayor hosts every year, encouraging kids and their peers to come out and interact with the People of Lima every summer. It’s not as mediocre as everything else Lima has to offer, and Kurt’s always looked forward to it with grudging appreciation.
Everyone looks forward to it, but years before Kurt had always been a third or fifth wheel to the dates that his friends went on -- trying but not really trying to keep him included as they sucked face on the ferris wheel (and anywhere else they could) until he felt so disgusted he left and found his own way to entertain himself, usually in the form of cotton candy and frozen yogurt. But this year he has Blaine and the urge to stuff his face out of depression and loneliness is decidedly smaller than it has been the past years.
The dirt crunches beneath their feet as they shuffle in with the crowd, Blaine excitedly leading the way by their attached hands to the center of the carnival. It’s bright in a way Kurt’s eyes have to adjust to, but the entire place gives him a light, elated feeling in his chest. Maybe it’s the popcorn he can smell and practically taste but maybe it’s the way Blaine holds his hand and smiles whenever he suggests a game.
Normally they’d both be more cautious but their friends surround them and make them loose, chattering loudly and excitedly about the things they’re going to do. Mike and Tina are insistent about doing the ferris wheel first and they eventually convince Rory to tag along, promising over and over there’s no way they’d just sit there and make out and forget about him; Finn is going to valiantly attempt to win Rachel every stuffed animal she asks for. Puck and Sam are going to go “dominate the go-karts” and soon they’re left alone, still debating what they want to do.
They drop their hands when the crowd gets too thin and attention could be called to them, but Blaine still stands close and attempts to convince him that the games are there to play.
Kurt knows this, but, “Wouldn’t you rather find some place quiet to just make out?”
Blaine laughs and shakes his head no, taking Kurt’s choice away from him when he drags him to the first game and pays to have them both shoot water at balloon holes. The game ends quicker than expected when Kurt accidentally squirts the attendee, and they walk away quickly giggling.
Aimlessly they walk and swing their hands, sticking to the shadows and not saying much, just squeezing randomly and reassuringly and it’s so far from boring. Being with Blaine has never been boring.
They somehow end up in a rather long line, not really paying attention to anything but each other so they have no clue what it's for but the line moves quickly until they’re near the front and Kurt can see the words Haunted House across the top of a purple arch to a makeshift victorian looking house.
“Oh my god, no,” Kurt’s stepping out of line as soon as he realizes, “we’re not going through a Haunted House, Blaine.”
Blaine and everyone else knows how he handles scary, frightening things. As romantic as Kurt thinks it is to jump into his boyfriends lap out of fright -- movies like Child’s Play are just not worth it.
Santana appears seemingly out of nowhere, Brittany right behind her as she pulls at Kurt and demands, “Come on pussy cat. We need at least one more person in our group before they let us in or they’ll pair us with those weird finger lickers behind us.”
“I thought you liked it when I lick your fingers, Tana.”
Santana ignores it and that’s how they end up ten people ahead of where they were and alarmingly close to the entrance. Kurt swallows and grimaces, seeing no possible way out.
“Oh come on, Kurt,” Blaine’s teasing him, pulling him close with a mischievous grin. “These things are always so tame. And I’ll be there every step of the way.”
“You’d better.”
--
At the first ghostly puppet that appears out of nowhere and practically claims Kurt's life he's trying to escape, jumping backwards, straight into Blaine's chuckling body, his heart racing at alarming speeds.
"This was a bad -- this is a terrible idea, we can still turn around now if we -- " Blaine grips his sides and walks them forward slowly, Kurt resisting it completely, shutting his eyes automatically when something else jumps out from the shadows. They lost Santana and Brittany a while back, Santana probably trying to scare the little children they let in ahead of them.
"Kurt!" Blaine presses a chaste kiss to the skin behind his ear, making it extremely hard for Kurt not to relax back into Blaine’s body like every bit that’s not preparing for a fight with fake evil little puppets of him is screaming to. The tiny little clown that tilts it's head demonically and burst into flames still sends him jumping into the air but Blaine's delighted, mischievous chuckle as he kisses the back of his neck again and holds him tight prevents him from going too far, even if he wanted to.
Kurt logically knows there’s nothing to actually be afraid of but he can’t help the way he jumps when things pop out of the shadows with very realistic looking bloodied knives. They eventually come to a room where everyone is supposedly waiting for them and Kurt isn’t for sure if it’s him or Brittany that lets out a loud scream when the doors shut and the lights go down. Fake thunder crackles and the lights goes back up and the ghostly looking butler that Kurt knows, he knows is a real person but whom looks fucking animated wishes them farewell.
It’s surprisingly well done for a Lima production but that doesn’t register to Kurt immediately after they get out. All he can think of his how happy he is to be out of there, and how Blaine is still attached to his back, chuckling into his neck. “Is it terrible you were a lot more entertaining than the house?” Kurt wants to laugh with him but he has to pretend he’s mad for such a terrible experience (even though it wasn’t so bad in the end. but Blaine -- he can’t know that).
Kurt shakes his head and lets out the breath that he’d been holding the whole time, “We’re never doing that again.”
He gets pulled into the shadows and spun around so quickly he goes breathless but then Blaine is kissing him, arms around his back and disposing of any lingering fright Kurt might have had left in him. Kurt kisses back for no reason other than the fact that Blaine’s mouth makes him weak in the knees, shifting as close as he can get without disconnecting their lips.
Yes, this is what he’s wanted to do since Blaine got in the car, Kurt thinks, opening his mouth and thinking of ways he can convince Blaine to just go back to the car with him. Maybe if he says he’ll go through the Haunted House again…
“Boo!” is what he hears just as he works up the will to pull away and suggest it but Santana appears and scares him again, just for the hell of it and them laughing together at his expense is not cute, not cute at all.