Archive of Our Own

Day 1 (Day 1 of Week 1)

Good Evening! Welcome to In the House! My name is Isadora Grace and I will be your host. Tonight is the first night in the house, and we will be meeting all the residents shortly. The residents will spend twelve weeks living in the house, and the last resident in the house will win a half million dollars! For now, you will get an exclusive tour of the house with me!

Kurt sat in the green room of the soundstage that was connected to the house. He couldn’t believe his friends convinced him to audition for this silly reality show. Rachel and Santana had convinced him that three months away was just what he needed, especially if he was still going to get paid for it.

Kurt was not so keen on the idea that he was going to be on camera 23/7 for the next three months. He was grateful for the one-hour a day they turned off the cameras and allowed the residents a moment of peace. It wasn’t much, but that hour would mean that Kurt, who valued his privacy and independence, would have time to regroup after being “on show” for the rest of the day.

Kurt sighed, he had just fifteen minutes before they were going to take away his phone, until two weeks in, or he got kicked off, when they had a few minutes alone to talk to their family on the phone. They were only allowed to talk to pre-listed people, as to not sway the game or to get too much outside information. Kurt pressed the contact to call his Dad.

“Hey, kiddo!”

“Hi Dad”

“So its that time, huh?”

“Yeah, I have fifteen minutes, one of the interns just stopped in to let me know that my time was almost up. I wanted to give you one last call.”

“Well, thanks for thinking of me. I’m a little surprised you picked me to be your last call before going in.”

Kurt smiled, “Dad! Who else would I call?”

“I don't know, I thought you might call Rachel and Santana for last minute strategy advice.”

“I think I have just about enough of their advice. They were trying to tell me to form an alliance with the ‘strong burly’ guy and the ‘weirdly athletic but weird’ girl. I’m not sure what good they are expecting this to do, but right now that’s my plan.”

“Then it sounds like you’re in good shape.”

Kurt sighed, “Honestly, Dad, I’m kinda planning on getting out in the first like two weeks, before I can talk to you again.”

Burt sighed, “Oh, Kurt. Why are you saying that?”

“Because I’m pretty sure being around eleven strangers 24/7 while being filmed and live all the time is going to drive me crazy long before the two week mark.”

Burt chuckled, “Well, how can I argue with that logic? I would be driven nuts within the first day.”

“When you see me lose it on national television, you will know.”

“I’m sure I will know long before you actually ‘lose it’ on national television.”

Kurt smiled, “This is very true, you do seem to be able to tell when I am about to have a breakdown before I do.”

“You’re going to do great, kiddo. Just look it as a way to escape from the daily grind a little bit. You’re on a brand new TV show, and you have the opportunity to live with new people and meet some new interesting, and probably eccentric people.”

He sighed, “You’re right, Dad. I know. I’m just not excited about the cameras part.”

“I really don’t blame you at all. But remember in high school, you and Rachel spent four years fighting for the spotlight. Now you have it and she doesn’t.”

“Well, she is still starring in a show on Broadway, so she still does.”

“A technicality. You are starring on a highly anticipated national TV show, she has a limited audience, yours is unlimited.”

“You are ridiculous, Dad.”

“I love you, kiddo.”

“I love you, too, Dad.”

“Knock ‘em dead.”

“I’ll try.”

“Then I’ll talk to you in two weeks.”

“Bye, Dad.”

“Bye, Kurt.”

Kurt turned his phone over in his hands. He knew the other residents were sitting in the other green rooms around him; getting make-up touch ups and saying goodbye to loved ones. He turned his phone off with seven minutes to spare. He could play a game, but there was no point. Kurt sighed, resigning himself to what was going to happen.

***
And now, it is time, we are going to meet our first resident! Please welcome a fashion designer from right here in New York City: Kurt Hummel!

Kurt could hear the applause from the studio audience as he was ushered, by the same intern who had given him the warning, on stage. He had his navy blue duffel that he was given to put a few things in over his shoulder. His suitcases had already been delivered to his assigned dorm and were in the closet waiting for him to unpack. They had asked that he put a few things in the duffel so they could be used in the pre-entrance interview live on TV.

Kurt shook Isadora’s hand and kissed her cheek before taking his seat on the stool across from her.

“Kurt, welcome to In the House!”

“Thank you, Isadora. I’m very excited to be here!”

“So, Kurt. I hear you are a fashion designer.”

“I am. I work here, in New York, for Michael Kors. I am an assistant designer.”

“Have we seen any of your work?”

Kurt preened a little, he always loved talking about his designs, “I am actually wearing some of them now. I designed this vest, as well as this cravat.”

“They are just stunning pieces!” She sounded like she truly liked them, and not just for show.

“Thank you very much!”

“Do you make much women’s clothing?”

Kurt smiled sheepishly, “That is actually my primary focus and my passion.”

“Excellent. So I will have to get you to design something for me.”

“I would be happy to design something fabulous for you.”

She smiled at him and turned slightly to look directly in the camera, “What do you think, America? Should I wear Kurt Hummel designs?”

The audience went wild, cheering and whooping. Kurt wasn’t so sure that he would ever actually design for anyone of note, but it was nice to be lauded. When the cheering died down, Isadora said, “Let’s welcome Kurt into the house! Good luck!”

“Thank you!” Kurt said, entirely more cheerful than he felt. The overwhelming sensation of dread filled his belly once more, as he picked up his duffel and headed towards the front door to the house.

As soon as he left the door of the studio, he was in a small antechamber where the same intern greeted him again. “You did great!”

“Oh, thank you. Now what…” Kurt paused, hoping she would get the hint and offer an name.

“Sarah. I’ll be your off-camera assistant during your time at the house.”

Kurt smiled widely, “You are the first person who didn’t use the show’s title when talking about where I am going to live for the summer.”

Sarah smiled back, “I am already getting sick of it, and it hasn’t even really started yet.”

Kurt could hear the cheering from the door that lead to the soundstage, the next resident must have been on their way out. He knew he didn’t have much time before he had to officially enter the house. “So what does an ‘off-camera’ assistant do?”

“If you need or want any particular foods or personal items, I’ll be the one getting them for you. I also will be the person who will pull you aside if there is an urgent message either from a producer or from your family.”

“So it sounds like you will be my life saver!”

She grinned, “You could put it that way.”

Kurt smiled back, “Then I will!”

“You should get going now; all of your belongings have been unpacked, by me, in the Emerald Room, its upstairs and to the right. The other residents will be joining you shortly.”

“Thank you, so very much, Sarah.”

“You’re welcome. Good luck! And remember if you need anything, just let me know!”

Kurt smiled and walked through the door into the gigantic living room where he would be spending the next few weeks or months.

***
It wasn’t long before the next resident walked through the door. She was impossibly tall, bleached blonde, and dressed in a power suit. Kurt stuck out his hand, “Hi. I’m Kurt.”

“Anna.”

“Its very to meet you.” Kurt was being polite, but he figured he was at least going to have to be civil with these people for the next while.

She looked him up and down, nodding tersely, “I’m sure it is, for someone like you.”

Kurt was momentarily taken aback; he tried not to let his discomfort show. Putting on an overly nice and friendly face he asked, “What is it that you do, besides this reality show?”

“You don’t know who I am?” She seemed appalled.

“I’m afraid I don’t, no.” Kurt no longer was trying to hide his annoyance with her.

“Well, you should. I’m Anna Smith.” She paused as if waiting for Kurt to chime in that he knew her, but with a common name like ‘Anna Smith’ it just seemed ridiculous. She sighed, “I’m the chairwoman and CEO of Nina’s Cosmetics. But you probably haven’t heard of them, seeing how you clearly live in a cave.”

“Ok.” Kurt squeaked it out just as the door opened and the next resident came in. The next person was a tall, dark, and handsome man. He had half of his head buzzed and the rest was long and a little floppy. He looked like the poster-boy for the steampunk movement. He had black jeans that had to be painted on, with boots heavy with buckles and adornments, his shirt was ripped up along with the vest over it.

The man walked over to where Kurt was sitting on the couch and sat down next to Kurt, entirely too close for someone he didn’t know. “I’m Elliot.” He stuck his hand out right into Kurt’s.

“Hi. I’m Kurt.”

“Kurt, nice to meet you.” Elliot said, his eyes sparkling and smiling widely.

“Same.” Kurt smiled back at him, then looked at Anna who huffed and walked away from them.

“What’s her deal?” Elliot whispered nodding towards Anna.

Kurt whispered back, “That’s Anna. She’s the owner of Nina’s Cosmetics.”

Elliot stared at her for a moment before whispering, “Oh, she’s in charge of the company that is being sued for testing their products on animals and killing them in the process.”

“Oh my god!” Kurt said a little too loudly, Elliot elbowed him in the side to quiet him down. “Of course,” he whispered much softer, “I knew she looked familiar, I saw her on the news the other day.”

“She must be trying to avoid the media scrutiny for a while.” Elliot added.

“By joining a reality show where your every move is recorded and played back for the nation? That seems counter productive.” Kurt knew he was talking a little too loudly, but as he was talking, the door opened and the next resident was walking in.

Kurt could tell just by looking at him that he was a loud person. He had a full beard and long untamed hair, he was wearing tight jeans and cowboy boots and carrying a Stetson. He walked into the living room and boomed “Howdy, y’all! I’m Billy. I’m from Texas.”

Kurt smiled to himself, and of course Elliot noticed, matching his grin. Elliot said, “You’d have thought that was self-explanatory with the shoes and hat.”

After talking, Elliot cleared his throat, stood up, and walked over to meet Billy. Kurt smiled, he had a feeling Elliot was going to be a good person to have on his side in the house; he was friendly and sarcastic enough not to take this whole thing too seriously, but he also seemed like the kind of person if they had met on the outside, they would have become fast friends.

Kurt held his ground on the couch, preferring to keep an air of mystery about him for now. He knew it wouldn’t last long, but for now he was going to keep to himself. He debated going to his room to check it out, but decided against it, he didn’t want to appear anti-social on the very first evening in the house.

The next two people came in together, Brittany and Bridget. They were twins. Thankfully, Bridget had dyed her hair bright fire engine red, otherwise Kurt was sure he wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. Then the next two came in very quickly, one right after another, Dani, who had purple hair and was fast friends with Elliot, they were talking quickly and gesturing wildly, almost as if they were speaking their own language. Then David came in, he was wearing a stylish shirt and jacket with well-fitted jeans. He looked friendly enough, but he also had something suspicious about him. The next girl, Katherine, had thick and long dreadlocks and a flowing peasant skirt. Kurt was pretty sure you could see her nipples through her see-through white shirt.

The crowd in the living room was getting large, and Kurt just wanted everyone to get there so they could get on with the evening. He had been warned that the first night usually consisted of a lot of drinking and getting to know one another. Kurt knew there were just three more people to enter the house. He couldn’t wait.

The next person, he could hear the laughter and cheers from the audience on the other side of the door. He obviously was winning them over already. Kurt was a little jealous, but at the same time he didn’t really care too much, because he wasn’t planning on winning the show or being a fan favorite. When the door opened a tall and handsome man walked in. He was Hispanic and walked like he owned the room. Kurt watched him from the couch, at first glance he appeared to be taking everyone in, sizing them up. But the more Kurt watched him, he noticed that the man wasn’t looking at any of the people, but he was looking at the décor. Kurt smiled, a man after his own heart, more interested on the décor than in the people around him.

When the man sat on the couch, Kurt introduced himself and mentioned his career as a fashion designer. “Antonio, interior designer.”

“I see we have much in common.” Kurt said.

“I suppose we do.” Antonio smiled, but Kurt could tell it was a little forced.

The last girl was the next person in the house, Tina, an Asian girl with big glasses. She immediately went up to her bedroom and closed the door. Kurt couldn’t’ see her lasting very long in this game.

There were eleven people in the house, just one more resident, then the doors would be locked. Kurt could tell that when this last resident walked on to the stage to be introduced that the crowd already knew them. The cheering, shrieking, and clapping was louder than it had been for anyone before him, even for the very attractive men. But which well-known person would voluntarily be entering the house for the summer? The cheering went on for minutes, finally it died down, but after must have been every sentence from the future-resident on stage, the cheering started again.

Finally after nearly fifteen minutes, they heard the door open. Everyone turned to look at the last person who would be entering the house. Kurt’s jaw dropped as soon as he caught a glimpse of the man entering the house. It was none other than Broadway sensation Blaine Anderson. Kurt blinked hard and shook his head, figuring it had to be his imagination, but it was real. Blaine Anderson was going to be living in the same house as he was this summer.

Before Kurt could wrap his head around that, Isadora’s voice was coming through the loud speaker, and the large screen TV in the living room showed the studio where they had all come from.

“Hello Residents!” Isadora said. The audience behind her cheered again. “I trust you have all found the house to your liking and found your rooms.”

Everyone nodded.

“Great! Well, while you were all getting settled in…” Kurt laughed to himself, there was no time to ‘settle in’ they were all just pushed into the house one after the other, it had been less than an hour since he was on the phone with his Dad. “America has been voting. They chose the get-to-know-you game that you will be playing this evening. There were three choices, “Two Truths and a Lie”, “Never Have I Ever…” and “Twister.” The winner, with just 38% of the votes is…” She paused for what seemed like ages while the audience cheered. “Never Have I Ever. The rules are simple, one person starts and says something they have never done, if you have done it, you take a drink.”

Brittany and Bridget gave each other high fives, exclaiming, “Yes, we’re the best at this.”

“Have fun, and we can’t wait to get to know each of you better. And remember residents, we will be watching!” The screen went dark, but the cheering from the audience could still be heard through the door.

Everyone in the house walked into the kitchen. Kurt looked up and saw the cameras, which were tracking their every movement around the kitchen. There was a large round table with a lazy susan in the center of it. The table would comfortably fit everyone in the house around it. In the center of the lazy susan was every type of alcohol Kurt could name, and a few he couldn’t, along with any mixer he could ever want. Kurt poured himself a large glass of Diet Coke and added just a very small bit of amaretto, definitely not enough for him to get drunk off of it.

He took his seat while everyone around him filled their glasses with mostly alcohol and only enough mixer to add some color. Kurt noticed that Blaine Anderson also didn’t put too much alcohol in his glass, he wasn’t sure why he found that remarkable, but he did.

Bridget was the first to say something, “Well, since it seems as if everyone else is reluctant to get started, I’ll go. Never have I ever… thought I would be spending the summer living in a house full of strangers.”

Everyone chuckled and took a sip of their drinks. Brittany was next: “Never have I ever been on TV.” Again everyone drank. “Never have I ever played a drinking game with eleven strangers.” “Never have I ever been in a house connected to a television studio.” “Never have I ever drank alcohol on national television.” The statements continued in a similar fashion for a while until most people had needed to refill their first glass. Eventually Dani said, “This is silly. We’ve been asking questions where everyone needs to drink. I think we should go a little deeper.” She paused, for what Kurt assumed was dramatic effect, “Never have I ever… kissed a boy.”

Now that was the kind of question Kurt was afraid of, not because he wasn’t out and proud, he was and had been since high school. He just wasn’t looking forward to admitting it on the very first night. But like all of the rest of the girls, except Dani, Kurt drank, and when he looked around, he saw Blaine taking a drink too.

Huh, well that confirmed that suspicion. Kurt had long thought that Blaine was gay, but he never had enough proof, especially because he was known for playing the show-stopping romantic male lead on Broadway.

Tina added the next statement, “Never have I ever kissed a girl.” With this, all of the men, including Blaine and Kurt, and a couple of the girls drank.

Then the statements turned more and more overtly sexual, as always seemed to happen in this game. “Never have I ever kissed two men in the same day.” Both Brittany and Bridget were the only ones to drink. “Never have I ever kissed two women in the same day.” Dani was the only one to drink that time. “Never have I ever kissed two men at the same time.” Brittany was the only person who drank. “Never have I ever kissed two women at the same time.” Dani drank again. The questions about kissing until everyone ran out of ideas. Then it turned to questions about sex. Who they had sex with, how many people in total then at once. The more questions that were asked, the drunker Brittany, Bridget, Dani, Elliot, Billy, David and Antonio got. Kurt noted that Anna, didn't seem to be participating, just staring at everyone with abject horror, and Blaine, who was mildly tipsy, was just staring at Kurt.

“Never have I ever had a crush on someone I met a few hours before.” The statement startled Kurt out of his stupor and he blinked hard. Damn, he did have a crush; he slowly took a drink while pointedly not looking at anyone in the room, staring at the now significantly more empty bottles in the middle of the table. He noticed when he looked around, Blaine, Elliot, Dani, and Anna were all drinking. He felt a wave of relief that he was not the only one to drink, and they wouldn’t focus on him.

“Never have I ever had a crush on someone in this room.” Fuck, Kurt thought. He waited until at least one other person took a sip of their drink. He was surprised to see Blaine glance at him before taking a drink, the little bit of alcohol he had consumed must have clouded his mind, it couldn’t be true.

“Ooh!” came from Tina and Dani. Elliot looked at Kurt and winked. It all just wasn’t fair. Kurt had a crush on Blaine Anderson from the first time he heard him sing on the Today Show years ago. Kurt smiled at the memory.

“What’s so funny there, Kurtsies?” Brittany, who was quite drunk, asked him, slurring her words together.

“Hm?” Shit, he thought, he’d been caught, he’d lived on his own for too long and had forgotten the necessity of hiding his emotions. “Oh, just thinking about how funny it is that we are all getting drunk on national television.”

Anna snorted, “Some of us more than others.”

After a few more rounds, Kurt begged off to use the restroom. Some of the other residents were already well past drunk and Dani had almost passed out at the table. Kurt wandered around the house for a few minutes after using the restroom, knowing that he wouldn’t be missed. While he was exploring, he ran in to David.

“Hey, man!” David said.

“Hi. I wasn’t expecting to see anyone up here, I thought everyone was still playing the game.”

“Nah, most people have given up now, a few of the guys went off to see if there was any good video games in the house. The girls are watching a movie on the couch together. I just wanted to go see what all there was to the house.”

“That’s what I was doing. Have you found anything interesting yet?” Kurt asked.

“Well, that door over there,” David gestured behind him, “leads to the rooftop lawn. Do you want to go check it out?”

“Sure.” Kurt followed him and was glad to step out into the fresh night air. They could see the New York skyline around them. Kurt knew that they were only about six miles from his flat, but it felt like he was on the other side of the world.

David sat down on the couch and Kurt sat in the armchair next to him. “So, Kurt, right?” He nodded. “What do you do?”

“I’m a fashion designer. I’m an assistant designer for Michael Kors.”

“Wow, that’s cool. What do you design?”

“I designed some of the stuff I’m wearing, but I mostly do women’s fashion. I like ready-to-wear more than Avant Garde or Haute couture fashions.”

“I try to be a fashionable guy, but I’m not going to pretend, I don’t know what either of those mean.” David just said it outright, usually people pretended they understood Kurt’s fashion jargon and he had to subtly correct their misconceptions later in the conversation. It was refreshing.

“Ready-to-wear is what you would find in most department stores. It is sometimes, and I think incorrectly, called ‘off the rack’. But really its what most people wear every day. Avant Garde is more experimental and ‘out there’ and Haute couture is traditionally hand sewn and detailed in a French tradition. I like the idea that the things I design are helping people do great things every day.”

“Wow, I never knew there was so much going on in the things I ‘throw on’ in the morning.”

Kurt smiled, it was one of his favorite things about the fashion industry, “Most people don’t. I like that I can influence things in subtle ways. So, what do you do?”

David paused for a moment before saying, “I work for the local police department in Arizona, where I’m from.”

“Oh, are you a police officer?”

“No, I am more of a… for lack of a better word, consultant. I get paid by the police department, but I am not a police officer, and I don’t really work for them exactly.”

Kurt’s smile faltered, “I see… but I guess you can’t really tell me more than that.”

“Got it. I can’t tell you more.” David said nodding.

They continued to talk for another forty-five minutes or so until both men were yawning and slumping further and further down their chairs.

“I think it might be time to turn in for the night.” Kurt said.

“I agree. Which room are you in?”

“Emerald. You?”

“Ruby. Have you checked it out yet?”

“Not yet, I was just told that my stuff had all been unpacked for me by my off-camera assistant.” Kurt said.

“I was told the same thing. Kind of nice to have that resource, don’t you think?” David asked.

“It really is, I think she is going to be a life-saver, along with the hour of ‘dark’ time.”

“You think so?”

Kurt was a little surprised by his response, he assumed everyone in the house was going to enjoy the hour when all the cameras were off. “I think it’ll be nice to know there is an hour a day when we are not on display.”

“I guess when you put it that way…”

Kurt nodded and stood up, “Have a good night.”

David smiled and waved, “You too. See you later, Kurt.”

Kurt walked down to his room, excited to get into bed and sleep, it might not have been as busy as his days normally were, but he was more tired than he would have anticipated.

When Kurt got to his room, he saw Elliot had already passed out face-down on top of his blankets. Kurt chuckled. The other bed had the small reading light turned on, as if not to disturb Elliot, who was snoring loudly and clearly was drunk. Kurt went about his evening routine, quickly washing and moisturizing – he didn’t want to take too long and draw attention to his extensive routine just yet. By the time he was finished and returned from the bathroom, his other roommate was in the bed reading a book.

“Hi. I’m Blaine.” He whispered happily.

“I know.” Kurt said dumbly. He sighed and tried to save it, “I remember from earlier. I’m Kurt.”

“Nice to meet you, Kurt.” The way the Blaine said his name was like he was holding a jewel in hand, he savored every letter. Kurt shook his head, he couldn’t let the actor reel him in so easily. “How do you like the house so far?”

“Its nice, lacks a little inspiration in the décor. The emerald room is painted green, and all the décor is different, yet coordinating shades of green.”

Blaine laughed, “Designer?”

“Sort of. Fashion designer.”

“Kurt… your last name doesn’t happen to be Hummel, does it?”

Kurt was shocked, no one had ever put that together before. “Uh… yeah. I’m Kurt Hummel, fashion designer, in the flesh.”

“Wow, I’m a huge fan.”

Kurt stood there staring at Blaine with his mouth hanging open in shock. Once he realized he was staring, he said, “I’m sorry, no one has ever recognized me before. How do you know my work?”

Blaine chuckled, “Oh, sorry. You were the head of the team that designed my date’s dress for the Tony’s last year.”

Of course, Blaine had gone to the awards with his costar from The Music Man last year, he should have remembered that detail, he was over the moon watching at home that entire evening.

“Oh, yes. She looked stunning in the navy dress. And your suit looked stunning as well.”

“Oh, thank you. I think your work was a little better than my designer, truth be told.”

Kurt blushed. “Thanks.” He climbed into bed, but was still facing Blaine in his full-sized bed. “I should admit that I’m also a fan of yours.”

Blaine smiled shyly, “Oh, thank you.”

“I have been a fan of your delightful tenor since I first heard it.”

“Thank you. Might I ask when that was?”

“Oh man.” Kurt stalled, trying to make what he was about to say completely not at all creepy, “When you were doing promo on the Today show before South Pacific opened.”

“Oh wow! That was like four and a half years ago.” Blaine smiled at Kurt, “How have we never met before.”

Without thinking Kurt answered, “Oh, I tend to avoid my roommate’s Broadway parties, Rachel gets so annoying at them.”

“Rachel? As in Rachel Berry? You live with Rachel Berry, the woman who revived Fanny Brice?”

“Um… yes. We’ve been friends since high school.”

“She is always talking about how her two roommates missed their Broadway callings. You must be one of those people.”

Kurt blushed again, “She seems to think that singing showtunes in glee club in high school means that I should be on the great white way.”

“Well, if Rachel would sing with you, you must have been good.”

“I don’t know about that, she didn’t have as high of standards as she does know.”

“Why don’t I believe that?”

“Because it isn’t true. She’s exactly the same. I don’t know why I still live with her.”

Blaine chuckled, “Because its better than living in a tiny apartment that is barely bigger than a shoebox?”

“You are right.”

“Compared to my shoebox, this is a nice change.” Blaine smiled.

Kurt smiled back, “It is nice to not hear Rachel at all hours of the day.”

“I promise to keep my singing to ‘normal hours’.” Blaine grinned.

“I’m sure I wouldn't mind hearing you all day.” Kurt grimaced and hit his hand to his forehead, “I’m sorry I can’t believe I just said that.”

Blaine was grinning and blushing slightly, Kurt thought, but maybe it was just the way the light was hitting him, “Its okay. But I would like to hear you sing sometime.”

“Maybe you’ll get lucky and one of the competitions will involve singing…”

“But wouldn’t that give me an unfair advantage?”

Kurt pretended to think about it, “Hm… I suppose.”

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, Blaine picked up his book again, and Kurt picked up his journal and began to write.

After a few minutes, Blaine asked, “Aren’t you worried about everyone reading your private thoughts and using it as a part of their strategy against you?”

“Hm? Not really. Considering its all in French, I doubt many people here are fluent.”

“And you are? Wow, I’m impressed.”

“Thanks.” Kurt smiled and shut his journal. He clicked off his reading light and snuggled down into the blankets. “Goodnight, Blaine.”

Kurt saw the other reading light go off and then he heard Blaine respond, “Goodnight, Kurt.”

***
Day 2

Despite going to bed much later than he normally did, he was still awake at the same crack-of-dawn time he was every day. He took advantage of the quiet to go to the gym and run a few miles on the treadmill and shower in quiet without the other stalls being occupied. By the time the next resident was awake, Kurt had been in dressed and in the kitchen nursing his second cup of coffee for a while. He was working on some designs he saw in his dreams.

“Morning.” Elliot slurred.

“Good morning. Did you sleep okay?” Kurt had already reached the part of the morning where he was perky and pleasant to be around.

“Ugh, remind me not to try to keep pace drinking whisky with Dani again.”

Kurt chuckled, “I’ll try.”

Elliot slumped over at the table clutching at a mug of coffee. Slowly the rest of the residents turned up in the kitchen for coffee. Everyone was in varied states of dress, from just out of the shower to still in the clothes from yesterday with a blanket wrapped around their head. Tina decided that everyone also needed bacon, and everyone dug into the large plate she made, except for Anna who just drank her green tea and scowled at everyone.

Before long, the large TV in the kitchen turned on and Isadora was there greeting them far too excitedly, “Good Morning Residents!”

Everyone mumbled or in the case of some of the girls, excitedly shouted, “Good Morning, Isadora!”

“Today we are going to have the first House Leader competition. It is going to be a team competition, and then the team that wins will decide who will be the leader. If they can’t agree, they will then do another challenge to determine the winner. Today’s teams will be based on your room. Each of the four rooms, Sapphire, Diamond, Ruby, and Emerald, will compete for one of their members to be the first House Leader. Remember the House Leader is the person who puts two other residents up for eviction.”

Everyone nodded, they knew she was saying that more for the audience than for their benefit, they went through many training sessions about all the rules and how they could win different benefits. It was clear that you wanted to be House Leader, or good friends with the House Leader, because it would prevent you from being up for eviction. There were of course saves, but one person won one a week, and it could only be used to save one person per week for eviction; although it did mean you got to decide who to replace them with.

“Residents, the first challenge will begin in exactly one hour in the backyard. Please wear your team colors, and we will see you in an hour!”

Everyone rushed out of the kitchen to go get ready. Kurt calmly finished his coffee before returning to his room. When he got there, Elliot was standing in just green boxer briefs and Blaine was sitting on his bed with a green polo and bowtie on.

“I don’t know which green to wear!” Elliot said,

“They are all good.” Blaine said.

Kurt walked over to look at the options scattered about Elliot’s bed. He had various olive colored shirts and vests out. Kurt pointed to the least ripped shirt and a more grey vest “Those two, and wear your pocket watch.”

Elliot looked at Kurt and said, “Thanks, man!”

“No problem.” Kurt went to his drawers and pulled out a deep turquoise button down shirt and a peacock feather print neckerchief to go with it. He added his gold peacock broach to the ensemble for good measure. “How long do we have?”

Blaine looked at his watch. “Fifteen minutes.”

“Good!” Elliot said, “Do we have a strategy?”

Kurt shrugged and Blaine said, “I think we should try to win.”

“Well, obviously. I meant like a strategy about how we are going to win.”

“I don’t think it is going to be a physical competition, because we weren't told to wear anything specific. My guess is it’s going to be some type of mental game.” Blaine said, sounding confident.

“That would make sense.” Elliot said, “But what could the topic be, something that would be a neutral playing field for everyone here…”

“It might have something to do with the drinking game last night.” Kurt said.

“Shit.” Elliot said. “I knew getting drunk was going to be a problem.”

Kurt chuckled, “Which is why I didn’t get drunk.”

“Me either. Well, one of the reasons.” Blaine said.

Just then, the five minute warning tone sounded throughout the house. They all made their way to the backyard, excited to find out what they would have to do.

As soon as everyone was there, Isadora appeared on a screen and said, “Hi Residents! Are you ready for the first House Leader challenge?”

Everyone cheered, Brittany and Bridget jumped up and down together. Anna and Tina stood scowling in the corner, Kurt didn’t want to be there, but he at least was going to pretend to be having fun. He knew that the audience vote counted for a lot and he would be damned if he was going to be out in the first week. Especially since he was sharing a bedroom with his long-time crush Blaine Anderson.

“Today’s competition is going to be ‘Placard Puzzle’. We took pictures of everyone yesterday as they were entering In the House. Each placard has been divided into 30 puzzle pieces and mixed together in your team color’s box. Your task is to sort the pieces put the puzzles of everyone together. The team who completes the task of assembling all twelve resident’s placards together the quickest will choose the first House Leader!”

Kurt nodded and looked at his teammates who looked confident. They might be able to win this. Kurt had a knack for remembering outfits, and if their conversation yesterday held any weight, Blaine might be good at it as well.

“Residents are you ready? Go!” Isadora exclaimed, and a large timer next to the clock started.

Blaine, Elliot, and Kurt raced over to their green box and pulled it over to the green divider that had been set up to ensure no teams were cheating. They dumped the pieces on the ground and started sorting. Kurt said, “I’ll work on the outfits.”

“Good plan. I’ll get started on faces.” Blaine said.

“I can work on finding and sorting out the edge pieces.” Elliot added.

“Great! We can do this!” Blaine encouraged.

They worked hard, Kurt wasn’t sure if they were working quickly enough to win but they were putting the puzzles together. Before too long, Kurt had all the outfits put together, and they simply needed to match the faces to the clothing.

“I was wearing this yesterday.” Kurt said pointing to one of the outfits. Blaine attached his face and Elliot set about putting the rest of the border pieces on. “Elliot had this vest and shirt on. And you had the bowtie and sweater vest on.”

Kurt looked at the rest of the outfits, he could clearly see who had worn most of them. They matched up the rest of the pieces very quickly and before long, they were all working on finishing up the edges. As soon as Blaine put the last piece in the last puzzle, Elliot ran over to the buzzer and hit it.

“The emerald team has buzzed in an answer, let’s check to see if they are correct.” Isadora said. There was a fake computing sound pumped in over the speakers and then a loud dinging sound. “Looks like they are correct. Congratulations Emerald team, you completed the twelve puzzles in just eight minutes fifteen seconds!”

The rest of the teams came out from their privacy curtains and stood, dejected, watching Isadora on the screen. Kurt was watching her when Blaine’s arms flew around his neck and was holding him tight. Elliot added himself on top of Blaine and they were jumping and spinning in a circle. Elliot whispered, “We couldn’t have done it without you Kurt.”

“You were amazing,” Blaine said into Kurt’s neck, before pressing a barely-there kiss to his skin. Kurt was surprised and sincerely hoped no one noticed or worse yet, caught it on film.

When his two roommates got off of him, Kurt was flushed, he hoped it looked like it was just from excitement and celebrating.

“Emerald Team,” Isadora addressed them, “You now have ten minutes to discuss who you would like to nominate as House Leader. If you fail to come to a consensus, you will go head to head to win the title of House Leader. You may go back to your room, and we will see you again in the living room.”

Isadora disappeared from the screen, some of the other residents came over to offer congratulations, others just threw a strong glare in their direction and headed back inside. The three men went back to their room, and once the door was closed, Elliot whooped and jumped on his bed, “We did it! We fucking did it!”

Kurt and Blaine both laughed and their ridiculous roommate.

“Why aren’t you this excited? We just won House Leader!”

“I am excited, I just outgrew jumping on beds when I was eight years old.” Kurt said.

Blaine laughed even harder.

“Fine.” Elliot huffed, “You guys are no fun. So who should we make House Leader?”

Blaine said without a pause, “I think it should be Kurt. He was the most essential to winning today’s competition.”

“No. No way. Absolutely not.” Kurt said.

“What? Why don’t you want to be in charge?” Elliot asked.

“I don't want to put a target on me right from the start.” Kurt said as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

“Okay, Kurt. Who do you think should be leader?” Blaine added.

“I think it should be Elliot.” Kurt turned to face him, “You are very charismatic and everyone seems to like you, I think it would be good to have a very likable first House Leader, especially since we can control it.”

“Kurt has a point.” Blaine said, “If I were the leader it would seem like the network is making sure the ‘celebrity’ was comfortable. And Kurt, you are very likable, but if you don’t want to be leader, I understand. What do you think?”

“If y’all want me to be House Leader, I’ll do it.” Elliot.

“Great, did we decide then? Elliot is House Leader?” Blaine said,

Both Kurt and Elliot nodded in agreement. Elliot added, “We make a great team.”

Kurt smiled and laughed as he walked out of their room back to the living room.

Once the House Leader was announced and Isadora outlined his duties. The dark hour started.

Kurt didn’t realize how tired he was until he got back to his bedroom and sat on his bed. He leaned his head back against the wall for a few minutes closing his eyes and letting all of his anxiety and stress float away. He stayed that way until he heard the door to their room open ten minutes later.

“Hey,” Blaine said quietly, “How are you doing?”

Kurt opened his eyes and sighed, “I’m okay. Tired. Not sure how I’m going to keep doing this long term.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not used to people watching me, well ever. So knowing that I have an audience 24/7… well 23/7, is a lot.”

“I have to agree with you.”

Kurt scoffed at him, “You are used to being in the spotlight. You are on a stage eight shows a week.”

“True, but its not the same. I am playing a character, I’m not being Blaine.”

“So you’re not playing a character in the house? This is the real you?” Kurt asked, he knew that he was putting on a bit of a front, but was being more or less himself. He was surprised that a stage actor was not playing a character.

“I mean, its not 100% real, but yeah, this is the real Blaine Anderson. Not nearly as impressive.”

Kurt smiled at him, “I don’t know, this Blaine Anderson seems pretty great. But what parts aren’t real?”

“The excitement and cheering mostly, also the drinking last night. I don’t normally drink, and just the little bit I had last night was too much for me. But otherwise, this is just plain old Blaine.”

“I know what you mean, the excitement is not how I am most of the time; I don’t think I could live with myself if I was like that all the time.”

Blaine laughed, “Well its nice to meet the real you, Kurt.”

Kurt smiled back, he couldn't deny that the crush he’d had on this man for years was stronger than ever. He was attractive, funny, just a bit of a dork, kind, could sing like a dream, and was looking at Kurt like he hung the moon. He suppressed the nerves bubbling in his stomach, “Blaine can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” Blaine looked a little nervous but also looked open.

“Did you kiss me after we won the competition?”

Blaine chewed on his bottom lip. Kurt felt the urge to run his finger over it and stop him. He wasn’t sure where that idea came from, but he was sure he liked it more than was appropriate for your roommate on a reality show.

“I… I wanted to express my excitement about winning, and you did such a good job.” Blaine paused, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Sometimes I forget that other people don’t live their lives on stage and aren’t used to hidden subtle gestures of affection.”

“Blaine! It’s okay. It was nice.” Kurt smiled. Yep, he had a crush on this man.

“It was?”

“Yeah.” Kurt smiled in what he hoped was a vaguely suggestive way, “It was really nice.”

Blaine grinned widely, “Okay.”

“Okay. I’m going to nap now.”

“Such an exciting use of your free hour.” Blaine chastised.

“What are you going to do?”

“I was thinking either practicing a little bit or napping.”

Kurt slid down his bed and turned his head to look at Blaine, “Both of those are very exciting and private things that you wouldn’t want viewers of national TV to see.”

Kurt closed his eyes, and before long he was asleep.

***
Day 5

The next two days passed much the same as the previous days had. They had group activities and different things to do to build teams and compete, more than anything, there was a lot of down time. Blaine, Elliot, and Antonio had made it their mission to get Kurt to play video games with them. He had progressed to sitting on the couch near them and sketching better outfits for the characters.

Brittany, Bridget, and surprisingly Anna, were almost always drinking. Kurt wasn’t sure how they managed to stay almost perpetually drunk, but it seemed like that was their goal.

Elliot had to announce whom he wanted to put up for eviction. During one of the times when they had nothing to do, Elliot gathered Kurt and Blaine in their room for a secret meeting. “Who do you think I should nominate for eviction?”

“You’re asking us?” Kurt was shocked.

“We make a good team. I think we can make it a long way together.” Elliot said.

“So are we forming an alliance?” Blaine asked.

“I think we should. What do you think Kurt?”

“I’m in. It couldn’t hurt.” Kurt said after considering it.

“Great, so who should we send home?” Elliot said.

“It should be someone who isn’t well liked in the house, so it doesn’t seem like we are attacking competition yet, just ‘thinning out the pack’. You know?”

“Blaine!” Kurt exclaimed, “That is a terrible thing to say. We are not lions attacking antelope!”

Elliot laughed, “But Blaine’s right, we shouldn’t go after someone well liked or a good competitor.”

“What about Tina? She seems somewhat unwilling to participate, preferring to sit in her room with her notebooks. I swear it’s all she packed; she has worn the same outfit three days in a row.” Kurt said, judgment clear in his voice.

“I don’t know, something about her seems like she might be helpful to have around later in the game, she seems like she has good notes about what is going on.” Blaine said.

“Okay, she’s out. What about Brittany or Bridget? They are always drunk.” Elliot added.

“Nah, they are too well liked, she were walking around topless the other day, I’m sure they are a fan favorite.” Blaine said.

“Anna.” Kurt stated.

“Anna? Hm… there’s an idea.”

“I think she is a good person, she’s not well liked in here and is just always drunk. I doubt she’s well liked by fans either.” Blaine said.

“Okay, so Anna is our female vote, who should be the male, in case they do some type of mandating that it be one sex or another.”

“Billy?” Blaine asked.

“Yep.” Kurt agreed.

“Okay. So our… my nominees are Anna and Billy?” Elliot confirmed.

“Sounds good to me.” Kurt said.

“Me too.” Blaine added.

***
Later that evening, during the live show, Elliot announced whom he wanted to get evicted. He was lucky, there was a Boy/Girl coin toss, and it landed on girl and Elliot nominated Anna to be evicted. After the live show ended, Anna, who had been putting on a calm face during the show stormed off to her room and slammed the door.

“She is such a drama queen.” Elliot whispered into Kurt’s ear.

Kurt hid his laugh in a cough.

***
Day 6

The first week was coming to a close; Kurt couldn’t believe how different his attitude about the house was just a week later. He didn’t want to leave any time soon, he was surprised to find that he was having fun. It was time for the Save challenge. Someone would win the power to save Anna from being evicted and nominate another person to go out in her place. They also could chose not to use the save in favor of keeping the House Leader’s original nominee up for eviction. Which meant the only thing that could save them was a 75% vote by viewers.

Elliot was not allowed to participate in the Save competition, so he was in charge of leading it. He explained the rules, it was an individual relay race to get all of their items across a rickety rope bridge. The bridge was only suspended a foot or so off the ground, but if you touched the ground, you had to return everything to the start and begin again. The first person to get everything to the other side of the bridge would win the Save for the week.

Elliot shouted go, and everyone scrambled to pick up the first item. It was just a foam block shaped like different items someone would use to climb a mountain, it wasn’t heavy, but it was a challenge to walk across the bridge with it in your hand.

Kurt wasn’t moving quickly, he was steadily making progress. He didn’t even notice when both Tina and Antonio fell off the bridge and had to start over. Anna was a fierce competitor, but he supposed that made sense, she wanted to stay at the house as long as possible. Near the end of the competition, Anna got over confident and slipped off the bridge; the loud string of curses she let out was impossible to miss. Kurt smiled to himself, knowing the editors were going to have fun cutting that out in the next two hours for the live show.

Kurt was making progress, slowly but surely, he only had three more object to bring across when he looked up at the end of the rope and saw Blaine bringing all of his supplies back to the start and resetting, he must have fallen off. Kurt wondered who was left in the competition. He was so busy worrying about his own progress, that he hadn't been paying attention to how everyone else was doing.

Kurt had just dropped of his second to last item when he heard the buzzer go off, signaling that someone had won. He wasn’t surprised, he didn’t really think that he would win; he was just happy he didn’t fall off and have to start over, like so many of his competitors did.

Elliot announced, “The winner of this week’s Save competition is… Billy!”

Elliot handed Billy, who was very excited, a token S. He then said, “You will be allowed to use your save this evening if you so chose. Remember if you chose to use the save, you will need to provide another resident for eviction.”

Billy nodded. Then Elliot announced, “Okay, everybody, we have just an hour and a half to the live show, make sure you look presentable.”

Everyone headed to the bathroom to shower and get cleaned up. Kurt was not a fan of showering when there were others in the bathroom, but this time he didn’t have a choice. Kurt got ready as quickly as possible, and then set about cleaning the kitchen a bit before the live show. He was more nervous than he expected to be. Kurt figured that he wouldn’t care one way or another if he was evicted, but he really wanted to stay.

When the time came, he took a seat on the couch, then Blaine sat next to him, and Elliot on the other side. His too roommates were sitting closer than strictly necessary, but there wasn’t much extra room on the couches.

Isadora went through her whole speech, and then played recaps of the competition for those who missed it. Eventually Billy was called up to use his save or not.

Billy said, “I won the Save for the week, and I have thought long and hard about if I should save Anna. She is a wonderful housemate and she is always up for something fun.”

Kurt shook his head slightly, not enough to draw attention to himself, but Blaine felt more than saw it and had to hide his sniggers in a cough.

“But I think, my best strategy for winning In the House is to…” He paused for a long moment for dramatic effect. Kurt could see his roommates back home sitting on the edge of their seats cursing at him to ‘just get on with it already’. “Not save Anna at this time.”

Isadora responded, “Thank you, Billy. Please place your Save back in the box. Anna you are still up for eviction. Now it is up to you, America, if you want Anna to stay in the house another week, you need to vote to save her. She needs 75% of your votes to save her at this point, otherwise tomorrow will be her last day In the House!”

Anna made a short plea about how great the house was and how she didn’t want to leave. Kurt didn’t think anyone would buy it, she didn’t sound the slightest big sincere.

Isadora said, “Thank you, Anna. And Good Night, Reisdents!”

“Good Night.” Everyone shouted and then the live broadcast was over.

Elliot turned to his two roommates, “So, how should we enjoy my last night as House Leader?”

Blaine had a glimmer in his eye, “Movie night?”

Elliot echoed, “Movie night!” And before he knew it, Kurt was being dragged between his two roommates to the large theater and pushed into the center of one of the couches.

He laughed, “What on earth are you two doing?”

“Enjoying a movie-cuddle night with my two roommates!” Elliot said.

Blaine added, “Celebrating that we all made it through the first week!”

“You two are ridiculous. I should put you both up for eviction and have the room all to myself!” Kurt said.

“Oh, Kurtsies, you would miss us if we were gone!” Elliot said.

“I will neither confirm nor deny your accusations.” Kurt said. “So what are we watching?”

“We are watching a classic, Bridesmaids” Blaine said.

Elliot returned from the back of the room with some fresh popcorn and a blanket. “Now, we are going to celebrate and cuddle, because I miss cuddling.”

Kurt started to protest, but then Blaine wrapped his arms around Kurt and the idea was suddenly more appealing, “I’m not a huge fan…”

“Of what?” Blaine asked.

“Uh… lots of butter on my popcorn.” Kurt saved quickly. He didn’t want Blaine to think that he didn’t want to cuddle with him. In fact there wasn’t anything that he wanted more than to cuddle with Blaine, except maybe making out with Blaine, but that wasn’t going to be happening any time soon, especially not with cameras watching their every move!

“Let’s get the movie started!” Elliot shouted as he pushed play on the giant remote. He snuggled in to Kurt’s other side and threw the blanket over all three of them.

Kurt watched most of the movie, occasionally grabbing a handful of popcorn. By the time the movie was half over, Elliot had kicked the blanket off and had curled up with his feet pressed up against Kurt’s side. Blaine had scooted closer and closer until one hand was wrapped around Kurt’s waist. Blaine’s hand was rubbing back and forth, working its way under Kurt’s shirt. Kurt pulled the blanket up over them, covering them both from ankle to collar.

“You okay?” Blaine asked quietly.

“I’m great.” Kurt wasn’t sure where the line between outright flirting and just being normal flirty Blaine was, “You?”

“Never been better.”

A few more minutes passed, Kurt worked his hand from on his lap down to Blaine’s knee. Blaine looked at him and smiled and finally put his hand on Kurt’s skin. As the movie progressed, Kurt moved his hand higher and higher, just like he was in high school, and waiting for his Dad to barge in on him at any second. Kurt was grateful for the blanket Elliot had grabbed; he must have planned this.

By the time the movie ended, Blaine’s hand was rubbing circles on Kurt’s lower back, and Kurt’s hand was mimicking the motion on Blaine’s upper thigh. Blaine rested his head on Kurt’s shoulder and said, “Tomorrow? Dark hour?”

Kurt didn’t say anything in response, but nodded his head as subtly as possible, he knew Blaine felt it and understood. Blaine worked his hand out from behind Kurt and made sure that his shirt was pulled back down and resting normally. Blaine also adjusted himself in his pants, winking at Kurt as he did. When he stood up, he woke Elliot, who had fallen asleep sometime during the movie. Of course when he woke up, he kicked Kurt in the thigh, hard.

“Ow, fuck!” Kurt exclaimed.

“Eh, sorry. Don't be near me when I wake up.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

“Any time roomie.” Elliot winked at him too.

Kurt laughed as he stood up. He folded the blanket before heading to his room to go to sleep.

***
Day 7

The next morning when Kurt got up, Anna was throwing things around in the kitchen. He walked over to the coffee pot and hoped she didn’t notice him as he poured his coffee. He wasn’t that lucky.

“Did you do this?” She spat at him.

“I’m sorry?”

“Did you do this? I know your roommate is the one who nominated me. I want to know if you are the brains behind it.”

“No, I’m not the brains behind anything. Elliot made the decision on his own.” Kurt said, he only hoped people were watching this morning, the first time all week he was grateful for the cameras everywhere to capture her in action.

“I don’t believe that. He’s not smart enough to think to get rid of me. All the brass polish has gone to his brain.”

Kurt was taken aback, “I’m sorry you are up for eviction, Anna.”

“Yeah, well, once I’m out I will come after you.”

Kurt didn’t say anything as he took his mug of coffee back to his room. He shook his head and hoped that the fans saw everything she just said and didn’t vote for her to stay.

***
Kurt spent the morning playing scrabble with Tina, Katherine, and Antonio. The closer and closer it got to the 1pm dark hour, the more anxious Kurt got. He wasn’t sure what would happen, but he knew he was meeting Blaine in their room. He hoped Elliot would be somewhere else for the hour.

At quarter to one, after forcing himself to eat some lunch, he made his way back to his room. Kurt tried to sketch some new ideas, but he ended up just doodling different bowties. Just before one, Blaine came into the room, and looked over Kurt’s shoulder at what he was doodling.

“Bowties, huh?”

“Yeah, I was just in the mood I guess.” Kurt said smiling over his shoulder at Blaine. “I think they are coming back.”

“But did they ever really go out of style?”

“The way that you wear them will always be…” Just as Kurt was finishing his sentence, the tone sounded signaling that it was 1pm and the dark hour. Blaine pushed their door closed and flicked the lock. “Adorable.”

“Hi!” Blaine said, sitting down on the bed next to Kurt.

“Hi.” Kurt set his sketchbook down and turned to look at Blaine more closely.

They sat there in companionable silence for almost a minute before they both gave in and said at the same time, “So…”

Kurt gestured that Blaine should talk first, “So… what are you thinking.”

“I’m thinking that last night felt really good.”

“It did. I liked it a lot.” Blaine was blushing as he was talking.

“But what are your intentions?”

Blaine laughed, “You sound like my prom date’s father: ‘So what are your intentions with my daughter tonight’.” Blaine mimicked a stern father voice.

Kurt laughed too, smacking Blaine gently in the chest, “I’m serious. Kissing my neck, cuddling with me, intimate touches… where are they going? Is this just a TV show fling or is it real?”

“Kurt. I like you. I know this is a weird situation, and neither of us are being 100% our normal selves, it isn’t possible in this situation. But I don’t want this to just be a thing we do for show. I actually would prefer not to let anyone know.”

“So I’ll be your secret?” Kurt was not a fan of the idea, and he tried to keep his voice neutral, but he was sure it wasn’t as neutral as he wanted it to be.

“No, we will try to have a real thing inside this crazy unpredictable thing as long as we are both here, and then when we get out, we’ll see where it goes.”

Kurt couldn’t hide his smile, “Now its sounds like we’re in prison.”

Blaine dropped his head and sighed, “You know what I mean, Kurt.”

Kurt put his hand on Blaine’s arm, “I do know. I agree, we should try to make this as normal as possible. So we’ve got just over forty-five minutes before we need to be presentable again. What do you want to do?”

“What I want to do and what we should do are unfortunately not the same thing.” Blaine said, with a glint in his eye.

“Why, Blaine. What is it that you want to do?”

“I want to kiss you, I want to spend the next forty minutes kissing you.”

“Why not forty-five?”

“Because I figure we both are going to need five minutes to make ourselves look presentable again.”

“Then what is it that we should do?” Kurt asked.

“If we are going to make this as normal as possible, we should spend time getting to know each other.”

“How about we start with getting to know each other, and see where we end up.”

Blaine smiled, “I like your ideas.”

Kurt put an arm around Blaine and pulled him close, “So, Blaine. Where did you grow up?”

They talked about growing up in Ohio, how many times they might have met at different competitions, college, moving to New York, and the things they miss most one week away from the world. Kurt missed his fashion blogs, Blaine missed Starbucks coffee.

“So, Blaine. We have fifteen minutes before your five-minute regroup period. What do you think we should do?” Kurt made his voice as seductive as possible.

Blaine smiled and pushed Kurt down on his back. Blaine lay down next to Kurt and stroked the back of his hand down Kurt’s cheek. He rested his hand on the bed next to Kurt’s shoulder. Kurt smiled up at Blaine, admiring how attractive this man was. Blaine leaned down and pressed a kiss to Kurt’s mouth. It was soft and quickly Kurt pulled Blaine’s head down to his, deepening the kiss. Kurt tangled his fingers in Blaine’s gelled hair, ruining it for sure. Now Kurt truly understood the five minutes Blaine left to look presentable again.

They kissed for long minutes, enjoying each other until the very last second. When the time came that they had to separate, Kurt pulled Blaine back down again, and when he finally let Blaine up, they only had a minute and a half to make it look like they hadn’t been heatedly making out like teenagers during the dark hour.

When the cameras came back on, Kurt was sketching on his bed, and Blaine was sitting on his own bed on the other side of the room, reading a novel. Blaine caught Kurt’s eye and smiled at him.

Kurt was positive he needed to stay in the house as long as possible. Coming on the show was turning out to be the best decision he made since moving to New York.

***
The next afternoon, Anna was evicted from the house, and she stormed out without saying goodbye to anyone. Everyone in the house laughed after the door closed behind her. She was rude to everyone, completely above all of the games and activities. When they were playing video games, she would walk past and scoff at them. Everyone, but especially her former roommates, Dani and Bridget, was glad to have her out of the house, and it meant they were all one person closer to winning the half million-dollar prize.

Kurt spent a lot of time with his two roommates; they would eat together, and often spend the days when they had free time playing video games, and when Kurt could convince them, playing board games. Sometimes the other residents joined them, sometimes Kurt wasn’t in the mood and hung out in the kitchen with Brittany and Bridget, who were almost inseparable. Once a week Kurt decided to cook dinner for everyone, and they were always appreciative of his talent.

Everyday during the dark hour, Kurt hid out in his room. Most days he was busy either talking or more likely making out with Blaine. They devised a system of non-verbal signals that to the unknowing eye looked completely innocent, but gave each other all the information they needed. They had different ways of telling who would be in the room when the hour started, and who would come in later. They even had signals for ‘not today’ so that no one got to suspicious of them always being in their room for the hour off. Although most people went to their rooms for some quiet and alone time during that time.

They also worked out exactly how long they could make out before they had to call it quits and freshen up before they were on camera again. With each passing day, they dared to be intimate more and more. They discovered that the more time they spent together, not just kissing and cuddling, but playing games and just being around each other, the more they fell for each other. Kurt couldn’t be sure, but it felt real. It didn’t feel like they were acting. Kurt was able to tell when Blaine was putting on a show for the audience, and during their hour, he was always just Blaine. Kurt was still skeptical, of course, because he was on a reality TV show, and the whole relationship could be a ploy to get Kurt to allow Blaine to win. But deep down in his heart, he knew it was more than just the show; it was something real.

The house settled into a type of routine. It was like no normal routine Kurt had ever held, even when his routine was so odd in college. They stayed up late every night, well past midnight and usually until three or four in the morning; sometimes drinking, sometimes just playing games, other times still competing in the different challenges. Kurt was grateful that he didn’t want to be House Leader, the second week Elliot was up for elimination, and luckily Kurt had won the Save. He replaced Elliot with Billy, and Billy was the one to leave the house.

Looking back, the first week seemed like ages ago, and Kurt could barely remember the details of how rude Anna had been. Steadily more and more people were evicted from the house. The third person was Katherine, then Antonio was fourth, followed by Bridget and Brittany. Before Kurt realized it, he was in the top six competitors. He might have a real shot at winning the show, or at least going far. The only people left in the house were his roommates, Blaine and Elliot, and then David, Tina, and Dani.

***
Day 43 (Day 1 of Week 7)

The first day of the week was always Kurt’s favorite. They had the House Leader competition in the evening, for the live broadcast, but until then they had the day to themselves, and typically everyone was more than happy to spend the day reading or playing video games.

Kurt spent the morning working on sketches; he was working on a Tony’s outfit for Blaine for next year. Not that it was likely Blaine would ever wear it; it was fun to fantasize about what would make his boyfriend look even more fantastic. Kurt supposed they were boyfriends, despite the fact they had yet to discuss it.

Blaine ran his hand along Kurt’s shoulder as he walked passed him on the couch, “Hey! What are you working on?”

Kurt smiled, “Just a Tony’s tux.”

Blaine’s eyes lit up, “For anyone special?”

“Maybe.” Kurt winked and went back to sketching. Blaine sat there watching him for a while, until Kurt was flagged; Sarah was waiting to talk to him off camera, “I gotta go. I’ll see you later?”

“Yep.” Blaine smiled knowingly at him, before getting up and going to find someone to play MarioKart with.

Kurt walked into the little alcove off of the living room, he greeted Sarah warmly, “Hey, Sarah! How’s it going?”

“Doing well! Another week down.” She smiled, “I have two messages for you. One from your Dad, he says ‘Good work!’ and one from R&S, they say ‘Go get ‘em Tiger. You’re on fire.’ I also got the… uh…items… you requested last week.”

“Oh great. Thank you so much. And thank you for the messages.”

“Of course. The items are in a plastic bag on your bed. I will turn off the camera in your room for the next 5 min so you can put them away.”

Kurt was surprised, “Are you allowed to do that?”

Sarah smiled conspiratorially, “Technically, no. But if its just for a few minutes, no one will notice. Besides, I know some of the other assistants have done it for the girls when they needed to put their cosmetic items away.”

“You’re the best!”

“Anytime. I’m rooting for you, Kurt. I don’t mean just winning, I’m rooting for you and Blaine.”

“You are too sweet. Can I hug you?”

Sarah grinned, “Of course!”

Kurt wrapped his arms around her and gave her a quick, tight hug. “Thanks again.”

“No problem. When you go in the house, move towards the bathroom, and in two minutes I will turn the camera off.”

“Got it. I’ll see you soon.”

“Good luck!” Sarah said as she waved and walked away. It was always how they parted, wishing him luck. Until now Kurt always thought it was just about winning the competition, now he knew better, it was about his relationship with Blaine.

***
About fifteen minutes before the cameras were set to go dark, Kurt noticed Blaine watching him go up to their room. He picked up his book, trying to read, but it was futile. He was too nervous about the coming hour. He wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen, but just knowing that they could have sex if they wanted to made him very excited, but also very nervous.

Kurt had been staring at the same sentence for the entire time he was in his room. Just as it turned to 1pm, Kurt stood up and was walking around their room. Blaine came in, as usual, exactly one minute after the cameras turned off.

Without warning, Kurt pressed forward, crashing his lips onto Blaine’s own, eliciting a surprised gasp. Kurt licked into Blaine’s open mouth, stroking Blaine’s tongue with his own. Kurt’s arms had wrapped around Blaine’s back, holding him in place. Blaine moved his hands up to rest on Kurt’s shoulders, kissing him back just as fiercely.

Before long, Blaine’s brain clicked back in and realized what he was doing. He gently pushed Kurt back. Kurt’s arms were still holding Blaine close, Blaine asked, “What are we doing?”

“Having sex.” Kurt answered matter-of-factly.

“I gathered that. But here? In the house?”

“I thought we agreed never to utter those words in that order again?”

“Sorry. But is it really wise to have sex while we are under cameras.”

“We know exactly how long they will be off, and I have feeling we both want it, it should be quick.” Kurt said, his hands were roaming and grabbing everywhere.

“True, okay. But what about condoms and lube?”

Kurt pressed a kiss to Blaine’s lips. Blaine, his Blaine, was always the pragmatist; of course he was going to ask about condoms and lube. “I had Sarah get some for us. I asked for the good stuff because it was going to be under ‘cosmetic items’ on the network’s bill.”

Blaine grinned, “You planned this!”

“Of course I did. Is that okay? If its not, forget I said anything, I don’t want to like pressure you or anything…” Kurt trailed off.

“Yes! Of course, it is more than okay. It is very very okay. Well, I mean, I was going to wait until we were out of the house and had gone on a few real dates. You know the kind where we are not being filmed the whole time. Although, with our new celebrity, that might be a lot more challenging…”

Kurt cuts Blaine off with a searing kiss, framing his face with both of his hands. Blaine pulls Kurt in between his legs, holding him as close as physically possible. Kurt moved his kisses across Blaine’s cheek and down his jaw to his neck, kissing down the long column right along his vein, pausing to gently nip at a spot just above Blaine’s shoulder. Blaine let out a low moan, his head falling to Kurt’s neck, exposing more skin for Kurt. He continued to nip and suck at Blaine’s skin, until Blaine was sure there was going to be a giant red hickey there all afternoon.

Blaine’s fingers work their way under Kurt’s sweater and shirt to the skin at the small of his back. Gasping at the feel of warm soft skin combined with Kurt’s mouth on his neck. He gasped, “Kurt. Kiss me.”

He smirks, “I thought I was.”

Blaine could only whimper as Kurt’s mouth found his again. He put everything he had in the kiss, every feeling he’d ever had for Kurt that he couldn’t express otherwise was in that kiss. Kurt’s hands deftly undid Blaine’s bowtie and started unbuttoning his shirt. As soon as it was undone, Kurt’s hands were running across Blaine’s chest, caressing the warm skin. Blaine slides his hands downward, under the waistband of Kurt’s pants, discovering he was not wearing anything underneath.

Blaine broke the kiss to say, “Oh god. You’re not wearing underwear.”

“Nope,” Kurt rubbed his fingers over one of Blaine’s nipples through his shirt, “Not if I don’t want visible lines in these pants.” Kurt pushed Blaine’s shirt off his shoulders and Blaine removed his hands just long enough for Kurt to remove his shirt. He started kissing and licking down Blaine’s chest.

Blaine shifted his hands back into Kurt’s pants, running a single finger over his hole, which caused Kurt’s hips to thrust forward, his hard cock bumping against Blaine’s hip. Blaine repeated the motion, meeting Kurt’s hips halfway, slotting them together so their dicks rubbed together. Kurt moaned, “Oh, god.”

Its all the encouragement Blaine needed to continue the motion, getting them both worked up. Kurt was no longer kissing at his chest, instead he was just leaning against Blaine, panting. After the next thrust Kurt said, “Need… more…unh.”

Blaine couldn’t agree more, he moved his hands from Kurt’s pants, unbuttoning them, while Kurt worked on taking off his shirt and sweater. Blaine tries to take Kurt’s pants off over his shoes, causing Kurt to slap him slightly on the shoulder and say, “Shoes.”

Blaine looked down and paused just long enough for Kurt to kick off his shoes before he removed his pants. As soon as Kurt was naked, Blaine pulls him back into a kiss, holding him close, hands running in a long line from his shoulders to his ass.

Kurt broke the kiss saying, as his hands started on the button of Blaine’s jeans, “You’re wearing entirely too many clothes.”

In a matter of seconds Blaine had removed his shoes and pants, then his lips were on Kurt’s, kissing him and slotting their bodies together. Their hips moved together, creating delicious friction, but not enough. Kurt was the first one to say as much.

“Condoms? Lube?” Blaine asked, but it came out more of a moan than actual words.

“Fuck, ok.” Blaine said as he reluctantly separated from Kurt. He said, “Where did you hide them?”

“Where no one would ever look. In with my lotion and cosmetics.”

Blaine went over to Kurt’s drawer and pulled the box of condoms and bottle of lube from the back corner of the drawer; holding them up triumphantly. He made his way quickly to the bed where Kurt was laying down. Blaine began to lay down as Kurt scooted further up on the bed, kissing the entire time.

Blaine moved to lick one of Kurt’s nipples and Kurt’s hands wandered and caressed Blaine’s ass. Before long, they were thrusting together, and Kurt moved his hand to encircle their cocks, sliding his hand over them both. Their rhythm shifted, slower, less frantic, trying to make every second last. Kurt rolled them over on top of his sketchbook.

“Oh shit,” Blaine said, “We’re crushing your drawings.”

“Don’t care. Want you,” was all Kurt managed, as Blaine quickened the pace of his hand.

Kurt kissed him and sped up his hand and before long, they were both coming, seconds apart. Kurt collapsed on top of Blaine, kissing him chastely and rolling slightly to the side, snuggled in to Blaine’s side. Blaine held him close, running his hand down Kurt’s back as far as he could reach.

Kurt ran his fingers through the mostly dried mess of come and sweat on Blaine’s stomach. He whispered, “God, you are so beautiful.”

Blaine smiled and kissed the top of Kurt’s head, “You’re not bad looking yourself.”

“We didn’t even get to the condoms,” Kurt leaned up to kiss Blaine’s mouth one more time.

“Eh, too good. Next time.”

Kurt kissed him, “Next time. But we should get cleaned up now, its just about that time.”

Blaine’s arms tightened around Kurt, “Not yet. Basking.”

Kurt’s laugh was light and happy as he settled back down on Blaine. Blaine’s heart melted just a little at the sound.

Just as they were enjoying cuddling and kissing, they heard someone outside the bedroom door, Kurt whispered, “Did you remember to lock it?”

“Shit” Blaine whispered, “Maybe they won’t try the door.”

They had no such luck, just then the door flung open, and Tina was there asking, “Hey, Kurt? Do you know where… Oh my god!”

Blaine yelped and tried to cover himself, but just flung himself off of Kurt and ended up more exposed. Tina yelped too then stood there staring at the floor next to the bed, too shocked to move.

Kurt muttered through gritted teeth, “Tina, please wait in the hallway.”

“Yes, right. Of course. Sorry.” She muttered as she pulled the door closed.

Kurt rolled over to where Blaine’s face was buried in a pillow. He pulled the pillow away and pressed a gentle kiss to Blaine’s lips. “I know this is just about the worst timing, but we only have 5 minutes before the cameras turn again, and I really don’t want us both to be naked when they do.”

Blaine sighed, “Yeah, okay.”

Kurt kissed him again and got out of bed. He started dressing, but was still watching Blaine. Blaine stood up and looked at him, still naked, and said, “Do you regret it?”

Kurt smiled and walked around the bed to Blaine, “Not even if the whole world saw me naked. I love you.”

Blaine blinked, “You do?”

“I do.”

“Even though this whole situation is weird and nothing normal has happened in our relationship?”

“Especially because of that. Please get dressed, you have too many fangirls watching this for you to be naked when the cameras come back on.”

Blaine pulled his boxer-briefs and pants on quickly, as he was picking up his shirt from the other side of the room, where it must have been tossed, but he couldn’t remember it, he said, “Hey Kurt. I love you too.”

Kurt pulled Blaine close and kissed him again. The kiss quickly turned passionate and that was how they were when the cameras came on again, arms wrapped around each other. Kurt fully dressed with messy hair and Blaine holding his shirt in his hand pressed tight to Kurt’s back. They were pressed together from shoulder to groin and rutting against each other slightly.

As with every other day Elliot came into the room as soon as the cameras were back on, and startled them. Kurt looked up to the camera in the corner of the room, pointed directly at them from the side; there was no way everyone didn’t just see that. It was still fairly innocent, especially because Kurt was dressed, but Blaine’s shirt being off and both of their hair being a complete wreck was much more suspicious. “Fuck,” Kurt muttered.

“Hey guys,” Elliot said, trying to sound neutral. “What’s up?”

Kurt shook his head, Blaine put his shirt on and said, “Nothing much. How about you?”

“Not too much. Tina is waiting in the hall for you guys.”

“Okay, thanks.” Kurt said and walked into the hall. Tina was sitting holding her knees to her chest on the floor next to the door. Kurt sat down next to her, “Hi.”

“So, you and Blaine, huh?”

Right to it then, “Yeah.”

“How long?”

“Since day 1. Why?”

“I was just curious. You guys hid it well. No one had a clue.”

“Elliot knew. And I think a few others suspected, Blaine and I have been getting strange looks for a couple weeks; especially from David”

Tina sighed, and finally looked at him, “I’m not surprised, it would have been almost impossible logistically to keep him out of the loop.”

“Yeah. He’s been great giving us alone time.” Kurt gave a small smile.

“So what are you going to do now?”

Kurt sighed, “I have no idea. But I think it is not public. The cameras came back on while we were kissing.”

“Oh, shit. I thought I was going to be the one who ended up ruining it.” Tina looked down, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to start shit.”

“I know you weren’t. I’m not mad. I suppose it was foolish of us to think that we could keep it to just this room for the rest of the time we were in the house.”

“I don’t think it’s foolish. I think its what anyone would have done.”

Kurt shrugged, “Maybe.”

“Can I ask something?”

Kurt watched her for a moment, “Sure.”

“Is it serious?”

Kurt blushed, “Yeah it is. I love him.”

“You know you’re on camera, right?”

“I know. I wanted to set the record straight.” Kurt smiled. Now everyone knew, maybe not the gritty details, but that Blaine and he had a relationship going on, and that it was a serious, not-just-sex thing.

Tina reached her hand out and placed it on Kurt’s knee, “I’m sorry again.”

“Its okay. Everything is forgiven.” Kurt smiled. “But I’m still going to win.”

Tina smiled and stood up, “Keep dreaming, Hummel.”

***
That evening, Isadora Grace, as Kurt anticipated, wanted to talk to him and Blaine publically and get the record straight. They had both been pulled aside that afternoon and talked to producers both individually and together. They knew the set of questions she would ask, and even decided who would answer which ones , in order to make it sound less rehearsed and also a little less awkward with both of them talking at once.

They admitted how long everything had been going on, and Blaine talked about being “drawn in” by Kurt from the moment he walked through the door. Kurt blushed and smiled, because those were Blaine’s own words, not the scripted ones the producers wanted him to say.

Isadora Grace, of course, didn’t miss it and commented on it, which just made Kurt blush harder. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they moved on to the House Leader competition.

This week it was a knowledge challenge. Kurt was determined, for the first time, to be the one to win. He knew that after the little media-attracting incident, both he and Blaine would be targets. If he, or Blaine could win the House Leader position, they could nominate someone who was a bigger threat to the house than either of them were.

The game was to create a “scrapbook” of the events pictured. They had to put the pictures in the order that they happened in the last six weeks. Kurt was fairly confident he would be able to win this one.

When the pictures were revealed, Kurt inspected each of them. He was able to order all but three of them immediately. He looked at those three for a long minute, taking time to look at all the people, what they were wearing, and what they were doing. In each picture there was a clue, but most of the time it was really small and hard to find. Kurt put the final three pictures in their places, and he was fairly confident in his answer. He saw that Dani was also running towards the buzzer and he pushed it harder than he had in the past. He just barely beat her to the buzzer. If his answers were correct, he was going to be House Leader.

David, who had been House Leader the previous week and therefore ineligible to compete, made the announcement that Kurt won, and handed over the symbolic keys. Kurt celebrated and before long Blaine came over and wrapped him in a hug. “One perk of being discovered, is now we can do this.”

Kurt laughed and squeezed Blaine even tighter.

***
Kurt nominated David to be evicted. Then two days later, on day 45, David unfortunately won the Save. David was one of the people who was not a fan of Kurt and Blaine together, or as the In the House fans on the internet were calling them, Klaine. David took himself out of elimination and put Blaine up instead. It was all up to the fans. Kurt was worried, Blaine wasn’t, because he knew he had a wide a lot of fans from his Broadway shows, and the additional Klaine fans he suspected were active online voters.

When it came time for elimination, Blaine had almost 90% of the audience votes to stay, which was significantly more than anyone else had ever received. That meant that the audience overrode David’s save and David was evicted.

As he was leaving he announced that he was an undercover police detective, and all of the fans were ripe with speculation about what he was really doing on the show.

The weeks continued, and slowly but surely, Blaine and Kurt developed their relationship, less in secret, and their fans grew and grew. Kurt received word through Rachel and Santana that his popularity had skyrocketed and he had hundreds of requests for either consultations or for personalized designs.

Kurt made it to the eighth week, the second to last week. Dani was House Leader and Blaine won the Save for the week. Blaine, naturally, removed Kurt from Elimination, but put himself up instead. And while the fans were torn, not voting quite as high as the last time, saving him with only 76%. Which meant that Kurt was evicted. He was proud he made it as far as he did.

The next week, Blaine had already resigned himself to not winning. He didn’t have the physical strength that Elliot did, and was not as good at the brain puzzles as Dani. He went up for elimination, and because he didn’t win the save, the audience no longer had a way to save him from eviction, and he was out as well.

When Blaine exited the house, Kurt was waiting for him. Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine and held him like his life depended on it. They did Blaine’s exit interview together, and then were sent off to be debriefed, but eventually that night, they were able to leave the studio that they had called home for the last two and a half months, and where both of their lives changed for the better!

Kurt followed Blaine to his apartment and by the time they got there, they were so exhausted, all they could do was fall into bed together and sleep wrapped around each other, knowing that no one was watching them. It was a refreshing feeling.

The next week, the final competition between Elliot and Dani was set to happen. They were invited back to be a part of the challenges. In the end, they were happy to see the friends they made over the summer, well some of them. No one was happy to see Anna, and she was equally unhappy to see everyone too. In the end Elliot won the cash prize. But the twist on the show, was that the audience had been voting for the fan favorite all summer, and Kurt and Blaine together won $10,000 for being the fan favorites.

***
Three months later

Kurt had gone to see Blaine on his opening night in his new Broadway role. He was playing Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. After the show, Kurt met him in his dressing room with a single red rose.

Kurt kissed his boyfriend, “You were the perfect Nathan.”

Blaine smiled, still in his makeup and just a robe. “Thank you.”

“I never would have thought that I would find a pinstripe suite sexy.”

“Oh yeah? Do I need to bribe the costume people to let me take it home after a Sunday performance?” Blaine asked with a wink.

“Mmm,” Kurt pulled him close, “Maybe you should.”

Blaine laughed and set about taking off his makeup and getting ready for their post-show dinner. What Kurt didn’t know was that after dinner, Blaine was going to lead them on a walk through Central Park and propose. Blaine was very sure that Kurt would say yes. He was never more grateful for his publicist, who convinced him to join a silly summer reality show to boost interest in Broadway.

Kurt walked out of the theater to greet Blaine’s fans with him hand in hand. Happy to share his boyfriend’s successes with him.