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It’s been two months since the last store-wide meeting. Two glorious months in which not much has changed around the store. Schuester is still a terrible GM. Finn is still woefully unqualified for his position. Sue and everyone that works under her in the Appliances Department are still evil. Blaine still needs several charts and graphs to work his way through the store’s various romantic entanglements. The only real difference is that now, Blaine is a part of that tangled web of entanglements, because for the last two months, Blaine has been seeing Kurt.
After the last meeting, Kurt and Blaine walked around the corner to Denny’s and had breakfast. They spent three hours talking about everything and anything. They talked about their childhoods-- spent just two hours apart from each other in Ohio-- and what it was like coming out and being out in the Midwest. They shared how they both originally wanted to go to New York, but for various reasons, ended up happily at UCLA. They told embarrassing childhood stories, like Kurt’s attempt at making paella when he was nine, and how when Blaine was six, he went snooping into his big brother’s closet looking for a lost toy, and when his brother came home unexpectedly, Blaine wound up stuck in the closet listening to his brother lose his virginity.
They left only when the waitress started giving them dirty looks. It should have been time for them to go their separate ways for the day, but they didn’t. Instead, they wound up in Santa Monica, enjoying the beach and the pier and the mall, until Finn started texting Kurt wondering why he fell off the planet after the meeting.
They’ve been inseparable ever since. On days that they work the same shift, they arrive together, spend lunch together and leave together. They make eye contact across the store. They spend all of their time off together, they see movies together on Friday nights after closing. Blaine has taken Kurt to all his favorite spots in the city. When they have Sundays off, Blaine accompanies Kurt to the Fairfax High School Flea Market and Jet Rag’s $1 sale. He’s even gone with Kurt, Mercedes and Tina to a flea market at the Rose Bowl.
Everyone in the store assumes they are dating (well almost everyone, but Blaine tries his best to just ignore Sebastian), most invites came in the form of Puck yelling at him in the stock room, “What are you and Kurt doing on Saturday?”
However, despite all of that, Blaine isn’t actually sure what he and Kurt are. They’ve kissed a bunch of times, they hold hands more often than not, in fact, the more Blaine thinks about it, the more he realizes that they are almost always touching in some way. But they haven’t had sex. They’ve spent the night in each other’s apartments, but they usually kiss each other goodnight and spoon until one of them falls asleep.
The night before the meeting, Kurt’s working the closing shift along with Sam and Mike, so Blaine joins Mercedes and Tina at Sugar’s house for some drinks, and decides (after several brightly colored drinks) to ask for advice.
“Blaine, are you serious? You guys have not had sex yet?” Tina asks, shocked.
“No, we haven’t,” Blaine answers, pouring himself a shot.
“Why the hell not?” Sugar side eyes him, her hands on her hips, “You guys are constantly all over each other, I could have sworn you were tapping that.”
“No. No tapping. Nothing is getting tapped,” Blaine slurs, “We’ve kissed. I love kissing him. If I could get paid to kiss him, I’d quit UCLA and Best Buy and become a professional Kurt kisser.”
“Okay Boo, it’s time to cut you off,” Mercedes takes Blaine’s drink and hands him a bottle of water from her purse. “Drink that. Anyway, is this issue just that you’re not having sex? What’s the problem, because you better not be trying to hit it and quit it.”
“No. Nooo, I would never. I just want to know what we are. Are we just really snuggly friends?”
“I’m pretty sure that if Kurt is kissing you, you’re not just his friend,” Mercedes says matter-of-factly.
“Hey Blaine, here’s a novel idea, have you talked to him about it?” Tina asks.
“About sex?” Blaine asks, leaning back into Sugar’s plush couch.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“About our relationship status?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Blaine do you even know what you want?” Mercedes asks, using her hand to guide Blaine’s hand and push the water bottle towards his mouth.
“I want to be his boyfriend. I don’t want him to date anyone else. I don’t want to date anyone else. I’m not even looking at anyone else.”
“I don’t even know how you’d have time to look at anyone else,” Tina says, rolling her eyes.
“Well, I know one thing, Blaine, you better say something soon, because let’s say he does want to be your boyfriend, he may think you don’t want to be his, and you know there’s someone else who may want up on your man,” Sugar says ominously.
Adam.
Adam was the new Sales Manager. He transferred from some store in some place that Blaine didn’t care to remember. He was all stupid smiles, and stupidly intentionally tousled hair and he’s stupidly British with a stupid accent to match. Adam had taken a liking to Kurt instantly, promising to not only get Kurt out of his department, but to get him a promotion as well.
Blaine didn’t trust him as far as he could throw him. Hell, Blaine couldn’t trust him as far as Marley could throw him.
Blaine pulls into the parking structure the morning of the meeting hungover and still a bit down after the discussion the previous night. He parks his car in the back, in what Santana has started calling their “Monogrammed His and His Parking Spots”. He sips his coffee and tries to enjoy the silence of the parking structure. He rests his head on the steering wheel and closes eyes, hoping to will away his pounding headache, when he hears the tell tale bass of Kurt’s stereo. Sure enough, he looks up to see Kurt pulling into the structure. Blaine takes off his seatbelt and gets out of the car, grabbing his coffee before he closes the door and leans against it. He watches as Kurt checks his hair in the mirror before he turns off the engine and climbs out of the car, reaching back in and pulling out a cardboard tray with two cups of coffee before he closes the door and beeps his alarm.
When Kurt notices the cup already in Blaine’s hand, he frowns.
“Oh, you already have coffee?”
“Sorry, I needed it this morning, but it’s almost empty, see?” Blaine shakes his cup to demonstrate his point.
“Well, that makes me feel a little better.” Kurt says, reaching behind Blaine and sitting the tray on the roof of Blaine’s car. Once his hands are free, he pulls Blaine into a hug. Blaine sighs, leaning into Kurt’s body, trying to stifle a yawn as Kurt kisses his forehead.
“Hmmm... you’d think you were the one who worked until eleven with Finn and Brody and then had to stay up until almost two listening to Finn rant about Brody.”
“Went to Sugar’s with Tina and Mercedes last night,” Blaine says tiredly.
Kurt smiles, “Well that explains it,” Kurt reaches behind Blaine, handing him his coffee, before grabbing his own and taking a sip, rubbing his free hand up and down Blaine’s back.
“ ‘m sleepy, should’ve stayed home.”
“You probably should have, you know what happens when you drink with her.”
Kurt pulls Blaine closer, laughing when Blaine smacks his lips sleepily.
“ ‘m gonna fall asleep standing up.”
“You better not, you’ll send us both tumbling to the ground and these are new uniform pants.”
“Well, don’t you two look cozy,” a voice comments from behind Kurt. Blaine looks up to see Adam walking over to them, smiling at Kurt.
“Morning Kurt, Blaine.”
Blaine tries to hold on to Kurt, who lets go of him. His back stiffens, and Blaine takes a sip of his coffee, using the cup to attempt to hide his scowl.
“So Kurt, you ready for the big announcement?” Adam asks, Blaine almost drops his coffee, looking questioningly between Kurt and Adam.
“What announcement, Kurt? What announcement? Did I miss something?”
“No, you didn’t miss anything,” Kurt raises his eyebrows at Adam in an attempt to get him to stop talking, but Adam doesn’t catch it.
“I can’t believe Kurt here didn’t tell you.”
“It’s nothing, Adam, really, it’s not a big deal.”
“Don’t be modest Kurt, it’s a big accomplishment, you should be proud. Kurt here -”
“Well, well, well, gay Bobsey Twins, Doctor Whocares, good morning,” Santana says as she saunters over, holding Brittany’s hand, and clutching a Monster energy drink in the other.
“Satan,” Kurt greats Santana before waving at Brittany who frowns at Blaine.
“Blaine’s eyebrows look stressed out. You shouldn’t make that face, Blaine, it’ll freeze that way.”
Before Blaine can say anything, Adam offers Santana his hand to shake, and doesn’t react when she refuses to take it, just lowers his hand and smiles.
“Good morning Santana, Brittany. You all ready for the meeting?”
“Sure, I love waking up before Jesus on a Sunday morning, why do you think I’m clutching this can of heart attack juice. Let’s move, I wanna get this over with so Britz and I can get our Roscoe’s on. Quit leering at Lady Hummel and let’s get this shit over with.”
Santana waves Adam towards the elevator and pulls Brittany along with her, the three of them leaving Kurt and Blaine behind.
Kurt takes Blaine’s hand, “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” Blaine answers, though it’s clear from his voice that he’s not.
“Are you sure? Just ignore Adam.”
“So you don’t have an announcement?” Blaines asks, not sure if he’s hopeful or not.
Kurt sighs.
“There is an announcement, probably multiple announcements, and yes, one of them is about me.”
“But you didn’t tell me, I didn’t know you had anything coming up.”
“Blaine, it’s nothing serious. You’ll understand once you hear what it is. It’s nothing to be upset over, I promise.”
Blaine deflates, dropping his hand from Kurt’s.
“It’s fine, Kurt. You’re not obligated to tell me anything.”
Kurt nods sadly, “Okay then. I guess I’ll see you inside.” Kurt looks up at Blaine one more time, before heading towards the elevator, leaving Blaine alone. Blaine leans back against his car and sighs. He contemplates taking another sip of his coffee, but his stomach turns. He turns to head towards the elevator when he hears footsteps and someone calling out to him.
“Hey dude, where are you going,” Sam asks, catching up with Blaine.
“Up to the store, where the meeting is,” Blaine answers, sounding impatient.
“What’s wrong?” Sam asks.
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“You are such a terrible liar. You have like no poker face at all.”
Blaine sighs deeply before looking up at the ceiling of the parking garage.
“According to Adam, Kurt has some big announcement to make, one that only he and Adam seem to know about. He didn’t tell me, because I’m not his boyfriend. Just some guy he’s killing time with, probably until he meets someone, I don’t know, taller or who works in a cooler department, or is a Manager.”
Sam rolls his eyes, “Blaine. Do you honestly believe that?”
“Why else would he keep it a secret from me? I’ve clearly imagined our whole relationship in my head. He’s probably announcing his transfer. That’s why he never made official, because he’s been planning to leave all along.”
“Oh my God Blaine, really? Okay, fact: Before you and Kurt started hanging out, he only really hung out with Finn and Rachel. Now he hangs out with me and Mercedes and Tina, and you guys do like everything together. He went with us to a midnight screening of The Man of Steel, even Mercedes wouldn’t go to that, and she’s been my girl for longer than whatever you and Kurt are doing.”
“Then why hasn’t he tried to make it official?”
“Why haven’t you? He probably thinks you don’t want to,” Sam answers simply. He watches as Blaine contemplates what he just said, “Yeah, you didn’t think of that, did you? Now come on, if we’re late, we have to clean the Hub.”
When Sam and Blaine finally walk into the store, Kurt is standing with Rachel and Mercedes, nodding sadly. He looks up as Blaine walks in, making eye contact briefly before Blaine looks away and follows Sam to clock in just as the meeting is getting started. Blaine can’t help but think about that meeting two months ago, and everything he had done to get Kurt’s attention, hoping to just spend a couple of hours sitting on the floor next to him, and how much fun they’d had that day.
Blaine sighs again, before walking to his department, casting one more longing look in Kurt’s direction.
“You are going to feel so stupid by the end of today,” Tina says darkly as she walks past him.
Mercedes walks over with Unique and Marley behind her, leaning on the counter next to Blaine.
“Tina’s right, I hate to get in it, so I’m not, but Tina is right,” Mercedes says, patting him on the arm.
Blaine does not pay attention during Emma’s presentation. Marley is kind enough to elbow him when it’s almost his turn to read from the informational packets they’ve been given, and he knows he’s going to end up calling her tonight to get an overview of the new credit card policy before his next shift. All he can think about is Kurt.
Blaine replays all the significant moments from their two months of being whatever they are (or were), as if he can figure out, based solely on his memories of Kurt’s every smile and passing glance if there’d been a sign or a signal, or the relationship equivalent of an anvil that he missed.
One night in particular stuck out to him and he’d been coming back to it.
There had been a night a few weeks ago, where Kurt invited Blaine over to his apartment and made him dinner. Kurt had seemed nervous and jittery throughout the meal, and just as they were sitting down to talk, Finn came home and dropped the bombshell that Rachel had hooked up with Brody. The rest of the night was spent with Blaine on the couch watching Mob Wives while Kurt and Finn talked and argued in Finn’s bedroom.
Blaine was so immersed in his memories of that night, that he didn’t notice that his department finished early.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Blaine looks up and sees Adam standing in front of him, smiling wryly.
“It’s nothing, really.”
“Well, in that case, Blaine, if you have a minute, I’d like to speak to you in the SD room.”
Blaine looks up at Adam confused, but Adam just continues to smile at him, Blaine composes himself before following Adam.
Once they get into the room, Adam shuts the door behind them, and Blaine’s stomach drops when he notices Will Schuester and Sue Sylvester sitting at the table waiting for them.
Of course, Blaine thinks. He’s screwed things up with Kurt, and now he was getting fired, in the middle of a meeting, which means it will be obvious to everyone when he’s escorted out. The only thing that could make this day worse, would be Cooper getting an award nomination for his acting.
“Anderson, take a seat,” Sue says.
“Do you know why we’ve called you in here, Blaine?” Blaine swallows before shaking his head, trying to remain composed.
“Well, Eyebrows, it was brought to my attention by Sebastian that you had to help him cover the department last Saturday.”
“Yes, that’s true. Did I do something wrong?” Blaine trails off, not sure what’s happening. Sebastian is known to be ruthless and he can only imagine what kind of story he spun for Sue about the thirty minutes Blaine spent in the Appliances Department.
“Well, turns out Sebastian thought you handled yourself very well. In fact, he tells me that you managed to sell that $1500 piece of crap open box refrigerator that I’d been begging Schuester to ship out for the last four months,” Sue says.
Adam smiles at Blaine, “I believe the word Sebastian used was flawless.”
Blaine’s jaw drops in surprise, Sue rolls her eyes.
“Well, Cardboard Cutout of Gordon Ramsey, I was leaving that part out because it’s clearly the hyperbolic reaction of a boy with a crush, and I don’t think Schuester here would appreciate adding my vomit to whatever the hell it is he puts in his hair, but yes, Sebastian said you were ‘flawless’. The only flawless person in this store is me, Sue Sylvester.”
Blaine looks between the three of them, still not sure how to react.
“Thanks?”
“Blaine, what Sue is trying to say is that we have been making moves all week and we’re trying to put people in the departments that best suit their talents. Are you happy in Customer Service?”
Blaine thinks a second before answering, “It’s great. Emma’s a great Manager, I really like my team, and Rachel’s... she’s improving in her leadership role,” Blaine says, choosing his words carefully.
“Cut the crap, Anderson, what Schuester is failing to spit out is the real question, do you want to continue working in the bottom department of the store, spending your days cleaning up Berry’s messes and telling people their credit sucks, or do you want to work with a winning team, in the number one department in the store. Look, Fabray got knocked up and I’m moving her to Customer Service until her fetus pops, and I’m giving you her full time position, including a pay raise, to be announced right now in the meeting. The transfer is done, no one says no to me. I’ll see you Monday at opening. Now, let’s the get the rest of this meeting over with I have a colonic scheduled for 11.”
Blaine’s still reeling when he leaves the SD room a few minutes later, having learned his new hourly wage from Adam. When he comes back to the sales floor, the entire store has gathered in front where Finn is addressing them. Blaine joins Sam in the back of the group.
“What was that about?” Sam whispers.
“You’ll see. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”
They turn their attention back to the front as Will joins Finn and begins to speak.
“Before I excuse everyone and let those of you with the rest of the day off get on with your day, we have some things to announce. As you guys know, a lot of moves have been made lately, we’ve had some people coming and going and some departments have changed. And we have a few more to announce today. So, Adam, I’ll let you take the floor for this one.”
Adam smiles widely at everyone.
“Hello team. So this person, he’s been working very diligently for quite some time trying to get his foot in the door. I personally worked with him,-”
“Wanky,” Santana calls out from her spot on the floor.
“Santana,” Will warns.
“Whatever, y’all were thinking it.”
Will gives her a warning look.
“Whatever, go on Tea and Crumpets.”
“As I was saying, I took it upon myself to become sort of a coach to this person to help him improve and find the position that was right for him, so I am delighted to announce that Kurt has been promoted to Media Supervisor.”
Everyone claps, as Kurt, blushing bright red, joins the managers and supervisors in front of the group, waving and Blaine heart drops.
Oh.
Kurt got promoted. He’s out of the Car Audio Department, the one thing he’s wanted as long as Blaine’s known him. That was the announcement. He wanted to surprise Blaine with his news. Blaine feel sick with the realization that he screwed things up with his own insecurities. He begins to formulate his plan to win Kurt back and beg forgiveness when Sam nudges him.
“You with us Anderson? Or are you going to make me regret my decision?” Sue asks, “Get up here and join your team.”
Blaine rushes to the front, looking sheepishly towards his old department, who all appear shocked (as well as hurt and betrayed) at his announcement. When he approaches the rest of the Appliances team, Sebastian winks at him.
“Welcome to the Department, Killer,” Sebastian pats him on the back.
Blaine looks over at Kurt, who cocks an eyebrow at him, which oddly calms Blaine. He may not be Kurt’s boyfriend, but he knows him really well, and he has every one of Kurt’s expressions memorized and that eyebrow quirk is a hint that maybe things will be okay after all.
After the meeting, all Blaine wanted to do was find Kurt and talk to him, and possibly sing to him, but he was being pulled in multiple directions, first by Sue and Sebastian who wanted to finalize his new schedule, then by his old department, who were demanding answers as to why he switched department without telling them. Twenty minutes had passed before Blaine was able to try to get away.
As Blaine heads towards The Hub to look for Kurt, Puck throws an arm around him.
“If you’re looking for Hummel, he took off while you were being cornered by the shrieking harpies from your old department. By the way, what are you two doing tonight, because I’m having a little sumthin sumthin at Chez Puckerman tonight.”
“I don’t know Puck,” Blaine answers, dejected that he missed Kurt, “I don’t know what Kurt and I, if there’s a Kurt and I right now.”
“Huh. Does he know that, because when I asked him about the party, he said he wasn’t sure you guys could make it because you were taking him out.”
“What?” Blaine asks confused, before moving out of Puck’s grasp towards the door, pulling his phone out.
“Okay dude, just hit me up later and let me know if you’re coming.”
Blaine ignores him as he checks his phone for messages and runs to the elevator, trying to call Kurt, and only getting his voicemail.
Blaine gets on the elevator, pocketing his phone, and presses the button for the garage level, all the while creating a mental list of apology song he could sing to Kurt with minimum accompaniment, though if Sam’s not busy, he could probably get him to play guitar.
When Blaine gets off the elevator in the garage, he rushes towards his car, stopping when he sees Kurt leaning against his driver’s side door, mirroring his own position from just a few hours prior.
“Congratulations, looks like I wasn’t the only one with an announcement today,” Kurt says, a small smile on his face.
“Kurt, I am so sor-”
Kurt hold his hand up to stop Blaine.
“You didn’t even know I interviewed for the position. I never really told you what all my meetings with Adam were about, why he was always in my department, why I was spending so much of my shifts working with him, you didn’t know anything about it. Of course you jumped to conclusions when he said we had an announcement. I’m so sorry about that Blaine. Even after everything Adam was doing to get me the promotion, I never thought I’d get it, and I didn’t want to tell you about another interview, only to have to come back a few days later and tell you that I didn’t get it.”
“Kurt, why? I want to be there for you when you’re disappointed,” Blaine says, leaning against the car next to him, shoulder to shoulder, the backs of their hands brushing together and their sides.
“I guess I got tired of having only disappointment to share with you when it comes to this place. And you take my disappointments harder than me, and I hate that. And I wanted to surprise you with this, I don’t know why, I thought it would be fun. I didn’t count on Adam running his mouth.”
“I shouldn’t have reacted like that Kurt, I should have trusted you, I had other things on my mind,” Blaine says quietly, looking at the floor.
“Like what?” Kurt asks curiously.
“Kurt, what are we doing? What are we? Are we just friends?”
Kurt looks at Blaine, surprise evident on his face, “All the time we spend together and you’re worried that we’re just friends?”
“We’ve never discussed it.”
“No, we haven’t, but I haven’t seen anyone else, I haven’t even thought about someone else. And I thought about asking you, but then Finn interrupted us, with the drama with Brody and Rachel, and do you remember what you said?”
Blaine’s face goes blank, “No. What did I say?”
“You were on the phone with Sam, I was coming from the bathroom, and I heard you tell him that it was a terrible idea to fall in love with a coworker.’ And I assumed that Finn and Rachel’s drama scared you out of wanting to try to have anything serious with me. I expected you to break things off with me that night. But you never did, and I like you a lot, so I thought maybe if I kept seeing you, you’d think I was worth the trouble.”
Blaine turns to Kurt, apologetic, “God Kurt, I really screwed this up. I thought you were going to ask me to be exclusive that night, you’d made dinner and you seemed so anxious, and I was waiting and then nothing happened. When Sam called, I wasn’t talking about Finn and Rachel, I was talking about me and you. I thought you didn’t want me, and I’m so crazy about you, but I thought I’d read it wrong, and made a huge mistake. Of course I want to be exclusive with you, it’s all I’ve wanted all along.”
Blaine cups Kurt’s cheek, Kurt smiles.
“We’re so dumb,” Kurt says with a small laugh, “We could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble if we’d just said something.”
“I promise from now on to tell you everything I’m feeling,” Blaine says, gaze dropping to Kurt’s lips.
“So we’re good now, everything’s out on the table?”
Blaine nods, before he stops himself.
“No, want to know what I’m feeling right now?” Blaine asks, Kurt nods.
“I feel like kissing you.”
“Then you should. And tonight, I want you to come to my apartment.”
“Okay,” Blaine whispered, before leaning in and pressing his lips to Kurt’s.