#is it because I was over here in Klaine land?

[ipwarn]

When/why did young Glee fans become obsessed with I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You?? Because too many of them list that as their favourite song on Glee and yet back in the Glee days we never really talked about it at all.

[klaineccfanficlibrary]

Hello To All!

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend! I read on my phone and I’m not able to find stories. If there’s a way, please tell me how.

Please suggest adult stories for me with a great/happy ending. I prefer chapter stories of adult Klaine. Any suggestions are welcome. Need something to read tonight. Thank you for all you do!

Hello, when I search from my phone, I go onto our libary blog and into the "magnifying glass/search" at the top. I type in a particular word like "adult" or "enemies to lovers" and then a whole lot of previously recommended fics appear. Alternatively download A03 app, and you can search and filter on it.

Also on AO3 check out our 2023 Klainebingo which has 191 tagged stories written 2016-23 that fandom have recommended - not all adult klaine, but definitely worth looking at.

What I've done is made a list of recommendations here of some of Klaine fics I've enjoyed, where they are adults, or mostly post college age. Some newer, some older. ~ Jen

Seven by @scatterthestars

How far would you go for someone you love? For Kurt, that means doing the unimaginable. But if it means saving his dad, he's willing to take that risk. A risk that has him leaving his home to go states away to spend a week with the last person he ever expected to meet. Over the course of the next seven days, things don't go as planned, or thought.

Can seven days change everything?

~~~~~

Feel my heart's intention by @kurtsascot

Blaine started to hate Kurt on his first day. And it was a shame, really, because they could have been cute together. 

~~~~~

Falling for You By @caramelcoffeeaddict Coffeeaddict80

A fic written based off a mash-up of these two prompts from the @gleepotluckbigbang prompt page -- Prompt1: During rehearsal I tripped and fell into the orchestra pit and landed on you Prompt2: I have to share a dressing room with the most obnoxious, self-centered jerk; and when you sent flowers to our dressing room, they took them assuming they were for them but they were really for me Featuring: Broadway!Kurt, PianoPlayer!Blaine, Obnoxious!Broadway!Sebastian

~~~~~

Rock, paper, scissors by @gleefulpoppet

Kurt and his seven-year-old daughter are moving from the hustle and bustle of New York to the Rocky Mountains for a fresh start. On a connecting flight from Atlanta, they meet a warmhearted man who captures their attention with his enthusiasm. Will they ever see him again? And even if they do, how will he fit into their new life?

~~~~~

Nashville! by @hkvoyage

Kurt lands the lead role in a new musical, but it flops during the previews. However, his performance captivates Nashville’s newest country music sensation. They share an instant connection and it grows deeper as they get to know each other. Will Kurt be able to save the musical and keep the man of his dreams? An AU meeting featuring country singer!Blaine and Broadway!Kurt.

~~~~~

Made to keep your body warm by @quizasvivamos

Blaine is a meteorologist who works as a weatherman for a local New York news station where he's especially well-known for predicting storms. But, when a huge nor'easter blows in and the news crew is trapped at the station for three days by snow, can he predict what happens when he meets a young new intern?

~~~~~

If music be by @blurglesmurfklaine

Kurt’s just trying to survive his last semester of college, which means making it through student teaching in one piece.

~~~~~

In my place by @heartsmadeofbooks

Blaine has always been shy and introverted, so after his father dies, he looks for comfort into his childhood dream - owning a bookstore. But then Kurt Hummel walks into his life, turning his dream into a complicated affair.

~~~~~

These inconvenient fireworks by @redheadgleek

After an unexpected Tony award, Kurt Hummel is Broadway's hottest up and coming star, which comes with expectations and some admirers that won't take a hint. When his best friend Elliott Gilbert suggests that they pretend to date to get the leeches to back off, Kurt takes him up on the idea. It's all working out great - until Kurt starts to fall hard for the dark-haired music director of his latest musical.

~~~~~

Scenes from December by @spaceorphan18

An exploration of Kurt's life throughout various Decembers. The story of family and how the definition of family changes over time.

~~~~~

Home away from home by @lilyvandersteen

Cooper buys a hotel sight unseen and asks Blaine to run it for him over the summer. Only, the hotel is a health and safety hazard and Inspectors Hummel and Abrams are hell-bent on closing it down. Can Blaine spruce the hotel up in time and save Cooper's investment?

~~~~~

Living Haphazard by anna_timberlake @shame-is-a-wasted-emotion

Have you ever thought of getting cheated by a house broker and getting to know that you had to stay with another stranger who was also cheated? What if you are getting stuck up with the stranger in the apartment due to unavoidable circumstances? What if you hate him as well as have a crush on him? What if you had to fight your inner self and the stranger? What if he agreed on helping you which can only happen in dreams? This is a real living haphazard, isn't it?

~~~~ Someone like you by @iconicklaine

Kurt and Blaine keep up their very own version of "When Harry Met Sally" for years, a friendship fraught with sexual tension and longing, until the agendas of Adele (yes, THE Adele), a bored NY socialite and a super-sweet hetero couple bring our boys together. The only problem is... they're both in committed relationships.

Note: This story is AU after "Sexy" and assumes Kurt and Blaine graduate from Dalton in the same year. In this future fic, set in 2025, Blaine is based off of Season 2 Blaine. Originally posted on LJ and S&C.

~~~~~

The Journeying By @flowerfan2

Freshly graduated from music school, Blaine is thrilled when he is chosen to stay in the cast when the production of Into the Woods he was lucky enough to be part of in Boston moves to Broadway. He knows it’s going to be hard returning to New York City – the scene of his epic breakup with his fiancé and the emotional meltdown which cost him his place at NYADA. But he’s determined that this time, everything will be different. Little does Blaine know that out of thousands of potential castmates, his director has chosen none other than Kurt Hummel to play the part of Jack. Blaine has worked hard to recover from their breakup three years ago, and struggles to find a new way to relate to Kurt and simultaneously protect himself, especially when tragedy strikes.

This story looks at what would have happened if Kurt and Blaine had reacted differently to the break up in 6x01 than they did in canon; if events hadn’t brought them back together as soon, and if forgiveness hadn’t come so easily.

[spaceorphan18]

Finchel, Klaine, and Polin pt. 1

Rachel, Kurt, and Penelope

This... first of all is a reply to this post :: HERE

It's a been an interesting discourse and thought experiment given by @foundfam2754 and it ended up being so long I'm at least splitting it up into two parts, and possibly three...

****

Before digging in, a couple of prefaces -- clearly, these are fictional characters written by very different people, and whose worlds just work in vastly different ways. And I think at the end of the day, this is kind of a thought experiment about how stories and characters can function in similar ways within narratives? At least that's how I'm looking at it.

Also, I'm speaking conversationally more than anything. I don't expect anyone to agree with my interpretation - and as I'm talking about fictional characters, I always like to make the disclaimer that fictional characters are always reflected by the prism of the viewer's experiences, and we all take away from stories something different.

I guess, also, it got me thinking about how similar Finn and Blaine are, and I never really thought about it (all these years later) but it's unsurprising. Ryan Murphy and Co ha(d)ve a tendency to write the same type of characters over and over, and there are a lot of similarities in the Finchel and Klaine storylines (some of it intentional, some of it not). But does make for a fascinating analysis when compared to Polin.

[This first part, though, is really about Rachel, Kurt, and Penelope -- Finn, Blaine, and Colin will be later, as well as exploring some relationship dynamic stuff.]

****

Alright, so I want to start with Penelope and her parallels with Rachel vs Kurt. It's the easier one to compare because I think Rachel and Kurt aren't that far apart from each other. Ryan Murphy and Co really only had a handful of character types -- most characters fall into a few kinds of roles, and literally everyone on the show can be filtered into one of the few.

Rachel and Kurt, are, really, almost the same character. And a lot of the traits that they share, incidentally, they also share with Penelope.

Using some of your examples -- both Rachel and Kurt have been ignored for most of their life. Both have been bullied for being different, and for not fitting into what society deems is worthy. Both have very few people who truly understand them, or even notice them - and their qualities of goodness. Both have had to claw their way to being seen, and at some personal risk.

And I think (show) Penelope shares ALL of that with them.

Kurt and Rachel both, also, have a bit of a dark streak. They can both be divas at times. They can both be sharp and cutting with their words and actions. And, honestly, so can Penelope.

(All of them, also, have an interest and fascination with gossip, which is a funny aside.)

And then there's the point about insecurities. And, I feel like I need more time to think on this. All three of them are socially awkward. All three of them are also self-assured and well grounded within themselves. And all three of them do have insecurities, but I do think it's all in different ways. (But I may need more time to expand on that).

There is one huge, fundamental difference between Rachel and Kurt, though. I don't even mean this in a derogatory way but, Rachel is more selfish, more ambitious, and more willing to sacrifice everything to gain her goals in life. (And thus, often succeeds at being at the top.) Kurt, meanwhile, will always put those he loves first, even at great personal sacrifice. Kurt has an empathy that Rachel often lacks. And while I think that Penelope might land a little in between the two, I do think she does lean on the Kurt side, as she is softer and more caring than Rachel often is.

Then there's how they love. And it's interesting where you write that Rachel wants to be wanted while Penelope wants to be loved. And I do agree with you - but it's interesting that I think how they want to be wanted and/or loved is different. (Because I think Penelope and Kurt love similarly over Rachel)

Rachel and Kurt both crave feeling loved, because both think that they're undeserving of it for various reasons. (And, weirdly, I don't think Penelope believes she's undeserving of it - I think she believes she just won't get it from the source of where she wants it from, which is similar to both Rachel and Kurt but yeah nuance differences there.)

and... It's kind of funny that both Rachel and Kurt both fall for Finn (!!) for similar reasons -- it's a hero worship. It's this belief that Finn is going to give them the love they want and desire but feel is ultimately out of their reach. And yeah, I can see Penelope starting her crush in the same way -- that Colin is someone who was kind to her, who was nice in a world that isn't nice, that seems to look past the weirdness and oddity and the taboo and is like - I like you.

And that's such a powerful thing!

(As an aside, Kurt is going to do this same thing with Blaine.)

The thing that I really want to get into, though, and I'm going to just tease here because I'll probably get into it in a future part -- I think while Klaine, Finchel, and Polin may start out in similar places I think Klaine and Polin have something Finchel doesn't necessarily have -- a foundation of a very solid friendship.

And, again, I'll get into this with a later portion, but I realize this might where we really start to disagree. Because I think Finchel is a relationship that is meaningful for Finn and Rachel while in high school, while they're young and figuring themselves out, but it never progresses to an adult relationship. But, I mean, I also think that Jesse and Rachel are the better match. I think they like and understand each other on a more fundamental level, and they make more sense to me as a couple than Finn and Rachel.

(So while I think Jesse is nothing like Colin (omg that thought is making me laugh) I do think (for me) St. Berry's relationship dynamics are more align with Klaine and Polin -- but again, I'll get way more into that later.)

Anyway, a few more Rachel, Kurt, and Penelope things...

I think all three of them love and feel very deeply. Rachel wears her emotions on her sleeve. Kurt buries them deep and keeps them very protected. Again, I think Penelope ends up a little inbetween -- she exclaims you should declare how you feel fervently and loudly. But she also protects her heart, and keeps her feelings buried, and she's very protective over those she loves.

I think Kurt and Penelope are more so old school romantics. Rachel enjoys romance but is much flashier and gaudier about it.

One of the big things, though, that Rachel and Penelope have in common that Kurt just doesn't --- Rachel and Penelope are women. And there are struggles there Kurt's just not going to get.

Okay, so a quick note about Book Penelope who is... different. She's older -- and perhaps wiser and calmer. She's also softer and kinder. Despite being Whistledown for all those years, she doesn't have the darker edges that show Penelope has (which is more akin to Kurt and Rachel). If anyone, she's a lot more like Mercedes -- but Mercedes wouldn't bother with wasting her time being in love with anyone for fifteen years.

So yeah, I'm going to stop here for now. :)

[forabeatofadrum]

The Still Untitled Klaine December Challenge Fic (2/21)

Notes: Step aside Klaine Advent 2017 Day 13 'Mist', this is the hardest prompt I've had to use.

Anyway, let's check in with our boy, Kurt.

AO3 | S&C

-

BIKINI

Kurt’s going to miss Ljubljana. Of course, he is. This city has given him so much: love, friendship, energy. It’s his last day and it’s weird to walk around Kongresni trg with Sunil and Tadeja, knowing that he won’t be back here for probably a long time.

They’re about to grab a pizza at Ljubljanski dvor, the place where he first met Blaine. But Blaine isn’t here anymore. Kurt woke up to a message from Blaine, telling him that he’s landed safely, and then another string of messages about his brother. Due to time difference, they haven’t really talked yet. Blaine is in America. Kurt’s following suit. His flight leaves in a couple of hours.

“This will be my last meal in Ljubljana, probably,” Kurt laments. The overpriced stuff at the airport will not count.

“Awww,” Tadeja pouts.

“You could’ve stayed,” Sunil points out, albeit in a more jokey way. Sunil knows that Kurt isn’t staying. He considered it for a while. He needs to do an internship for his next academic year and it might’ve been possible to also do that here in the first semester. This is why Sunil is staying instead of going back to Sri Lanka.

And Kurt adores Ljubljana, but it’s different without Blaine.

Not only that, but he’s cooking something up. He’s already spammed his advisor’s e-mail about it. Kurt’s trying to go to Los Angeles. It’s probably too late to find an internship for September, but the second semester is also an option, so Kurt’s gunning for February.

He hasn’t talked about it with Blaine, because Kurt first wants to have a concrete plan before he brings it up. Kurt’s only told his dad briefly over the phone. His dad wondered if it was smart to uproot his life for a guy, but Kurt argued that it’s temporary and he might move in with Blaine and Quinn for those six months, so it’ll save costs and what not. His dad argued back that money is no problem, since he’s a congressman so he can help. That’s where the conversation ended, but Kurt’s only at the beginning of the planning process.

First, he has to go back to New York.

Kurt, Sunil and Tadeja eat their pizza’s and talk about silly things. No one wants to dwell on the fact that Kurt’s leaving. God, Kurt’s going to miss Sunil so much.

After pizza, they have one last walk through the centre of Ljubljana, but then it’s time to go to Tadeja’s place to get Kurt’s luggage. Since Kurt obviously couldn’t stay in Blaine’s apartment, he spent the last night at Tadeja’s.

“This is it,” he says once everything’s ready. They stand outside of Tadeja’s building. The taxi has been called.

Tadeja hugs him first.

“Nasvidenje,” she says, “Pogrešal te bom.”

“I will miss you too,” Kurt says back, in English, because he wants to spare Tadeja from his terrible Slovene pronunciation. Tadeja knows it and playfully scorns Kurt.

Then it’s time to say goodbye to Sunil and it hurts. It’s different than saying goodbye to Blaine, but it’s still painful.

“Sunil-”

Sunil cuts him off with a hug.

“I know,” he says, “I know. The feeling is a mutual.”

The taxi arrives. Sunil helps Kurt with his luggage and then it’s over. Kurt gets in the car and waves as it drives away.

--

“Hey kiddo.”

God, Kurt didn’t know how much he missed his dad until now. Kurt’s dad and Carole flew to New York to welcome him back and then they’re staying for a couple of days so that they could spend it with Kurt.

Kurt’s pretty sure Carole is weeping with joy.

The three of them travel to Kurt’s apartment. He shares it with two women named Rachel and Santana. They’re from the same fancy all-girls school and they tolerated each other enough to move in together. They originally shared the apartment with another classmate, but she moved out to go back home to Westerville, so Rachel and Santana needed a new roommate.

That’s how Kurt ended up in this place. They’ve been living together for three years and it’s fine. He likes Rachel and Santana, although they drive him mad at times, especially Rachel. He subleased his room to another New Yorker, but that person has left so that Kurt can return.

Rachel and Santana aren’t there to welcome him home, since Rachel said something about “meeting someone from the industry” and Santana wanted to “buy a bikini for her girlfriend”, but that is fine. That gives him, his dad and Carole more space to unpack in peace.

“Good to be back?” his dad asks when Kurt steps into his bedroom.

“Different,” Kurt answers.

New York is so different from Ljubljana. Kurt walks towards his window and looks outside. Ljubljana might’ve been the capital of a country, but it has nothing on New York. New York is busier, faster, louder… it’s just more in every sense. It cannot be compared to Ljubljana. Kurt already misses the charm of Ljubljana.

He wonders how Blaine is doing in LA. LA is already a completely different city from New York. Kurt hopes he’ll like it there.

“Dad, can I have a moment to call Blaine?” he asks. There’s only a 3 hour time difference between them now, which is way better than the 9 hour one.

“Of course,” his dad says kindly, “Tell him hi from us.”

Carole nods. Then they leave and close the door behind them.

Kurt calls Blaine, who immediately picks up. Blaine was expecting him to call.

“Hey there,” Blaine sounds cheerful, “Back in New York?”

“Oh, I am so tired,” Kurt says, “Is your jet lag gone?”

“Almost,” Blaine answers with a laugh.

“Is your brother gone?”

“Yes!” Blaine sounds relieved.

“Is it that bad?” Kurt asks. He’s happy and touched that his dad and Carole flew to New York for him and he’s beyond excited to spend the next couple of days with them.

Blaine seems to pick up on that. God, he knows Kurt so well.

“Well, I am glad to see him. I did miss him, but Quinn, Denise and I wanted to figure out what to do with you know what,” Blaine sighs, “We want to have some stability in life again before we tell other people that we broke up. Quinn’s mother apparently sent me a welcome home gift for, I quote, her favourite son-in-law, which was sweet but… weird.”

Kurt can imagine. When he and Adam broke up, it was also an adjustment for Kurt’s friends and family, but he and Adam were nowhere as serious as Blaine and Quinn. That, and Kurt didn’t realise he had a completely different sexuality.

What would his dad say if he came home with a woman? The thought makes him want to giggle.

“Anyway, enough of my worries,” Blaine says, “How are you?”

They talk for an hour until Kurt’s dad interrupts to tell Kurt that Rachel has gone home and wants to greet him. Kurt and Blaine tell each other they love each other and hang up. Kurt sighs. Two more weeks and then Blaine will be in New York. He can’t wait.

-

End notes: God, I actually miss Ljubljana. One of the reasons I went back and forth on this sequel plan is because I knew the sequel wasn't going to be in Ljubljana, but I also love these versions of the boys (and Quinn) so much.

I still am looking for a title and it'll probably be in Slovene for consistency, even though the story isn't in Slovenia. But you know, neither was Je tik pred vami.

[wowbright]

Fic: Own True Love

Klaine Spring Fling: wren

Words: ~800 words

Rating: Teen and up

Summary: Singing birds are a portent of spring.

This is part of my Mormon!Klaine universe. It takes place later in the afternoon on the same day as the scene I posted yesterday, Forebearance. Between Forebearance and this, something like Thy Love’s Embrace happens, BUT you have to ignore the references to Easter in Thy Love’s Embrace and substitute them with "upcoming baptismal service.” (I moved this scene in the timeline for reasons and will revise it for posting to AO3.) 

My Mormon!Klaine Masterpost. (More recent posts are in bold.)

––––

Blaine felt almost giddy as they left the Schönfelds’ house that afternoon. He felt like a bottle of soda that had been shaken up, like the slightest provocation would send his emotions gushing everywhere.

He wanted to tell Kurt what had happened—or maybe it was Elder Hummel again? Maybe first names had been for the quiet intimacy of that conversation at the piano. Now that they were outside, they weren't themselves. They were missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

So, no. He wouldn't tell Elder Hummel about the burning in his bosom. Intense spiritual matters were supposed to be private things, not to be spoken of. This was a concept that had been woven through Blaine’s upbringing in the church, repeated by prophets, apostles, family, run-of-the-mill members, and little kids in primary who hadn't even been baptized yet.

Most of the miracles we experience are not to be shared. Consistent with the teachings of the scriptures, we hold them sacred and share them only when the Spirit prompts us to do so.

After my mother’s funeral, I had an experience too sacred to share that confirmed for me the truth of the plan of salvation.

The witness that I have and the witness that each of us has, and the details of how it came, are too sacred to tell.

Some spiritual experiences are too sacred to share with others—especially outside your family.

It felt wrong, hiding something so important from Elder Hummel. But there must be a good reason for the rule. And if Blaine really thought about it, he could see why it applied here. They had been talking about difficult matters, things close to Elder Hummel’s heart—and if Blaine told him about his spiritual experience, that would take the focus off Elder Hummel and put it onto Blaine.

As they stepped onto the sidewalk, the little brown bird that had been flitting around in the shrubs earlier darted to the top. It gushed into song, not caring that it was being watched. Its voice was clear and pleasantly shrill, the melody interspersed with effervescent trills. It conveyed everything Blaine was holding inside of him.

Blaine stopped and stared. Elder Hummel didn't ask why. He stopped, too. It was one of those moments where they understood each other perfectly without saying a word.

Maybe Elder Hummel knew about Blaine’s sacred experience already. Maybe he had experienced it with him.

Blaine's heart fluttered at the thought.

“Do you know what kind of bird that is?" Blaine whispered during a pause in the performance.

“No,” said Elder Hummel. “It looks like one of the house wrens back home that were always trying to take over Carole's bluebird houses and liked to sing me awake at 6 a.m. in summer if I left the windows open. But I think this is something else. It sounds prettier.”

The bird hopped from the shrubs to a tree. Blaine craned his neck to keep watching it and stepped backward for a better angle. He felt his foot land on something that wasn't sidewalk.

Behind him came the sound of someone clearing their throat.

“Oh. Oh. Did I step on you? I’m so sorry. I’m so—” Blaine spun around to continue his profuse German apologies and was met with the amused face of Brother Schönfeld.

"I didn't mean to surprise you, Elder Anderson," chuckled Brother Schönfeld. “I’m just stopping by because we both forgot our wallets. This warm weather has made everyone a bit loopy, I suppose. But,” he added, "you really should be with more aware of your surroundings, even in spring. You almost stepped into the street.”

"Oh, but I am aware of my surroundings. Just not all of them at once.”

“Oh?” said Brother Schönfeld, suppressing a smile. “What's got your attention?”

“Over there,” Blaine said, gesturing toward the tree, at the same time Elder Hummel said, “A bird.”

Brother Schönfeld squinted. “Oh. That little thing? Do you know its name?”

“We were just trying to figure that out," said Elder Hummel. “We don't even know what it is in English.”

“Well, I definitely don't know the name in English,” said Brother Schönfeld. “But in German, it’s a Zannkönig.”

Blaine recognized the two words that made up the name—fence and king. "That's adorable!”

Brother Schönfeld shrugged. "They’re bossy little birds, but charming. This one’s singing a little early, but you should hear more of them in the next few weeks as they all try to win over new mates. I guess this one doesn’t want to wait to find his own true love.”

[hopefulobjectmiracle]

hello! hippohead here. this is a random ask out of the blue but i was wondering if you'd pick 3 random smaller klaine moments that you love and tell us about them and why you love them 🥺 just feel like being soft about our fav boys

hi there!! i couldn’t pick just three, so i’m going to give you five, if that’s okay...also somehow they all ended up being from season 6 bc that season was a gold mine for cute pining!klaine scenes. 

1. kurt talking about blaine to brittany in 6x03. 

the whole scene is gold, but i especially love when he says that watching brittany and santana sing reminded him of his own relationship with blaine. the way his mouth automatically curves into a huge smile (bottom left gif) when he says blaine’s name is so precious 🥰 

3. their looks during ‘all out of love’ in 6x05. 

6x05 had a lot of incredible blink-and-you-miss-it klaine moments, but my absolute favorite would be their sweet smiles toward each other at the end of the ND’s competition - especially blaine’s. i personally believe that this is the moment when blaine realized that he forgave kurt. 

even after all those months of pain, just spending 24 hours with the man he loves was enough for all of that pent-up resentment to just fade away like it never existed at all, until all that was left was the endless amount of love that blaine felt for kurt. 

just look at blaine’s face melting into that smile!!! he’s so smitten and my poor dead heart can’t handle this 🥺

3. their hug during 6x06. 

i think that their brief hug that we got when blaine showed up to brittana’s engagement party is the most adorable thing ever for the following reasons: 

kurt specifically makes sure that he’s the one to open the door because he wants to be the one to greet blaine 🥺

blaine not-so-subtly checks kurt out before he goes in for the hug. 

that hug is the most comfortable and relaxed that they’d been with each other all season, and to me it proves that they’ve properly re-established their close friendship. 

their sweet smitten smiles toward each other 💞

the way they linger for a moment longer than necessary after the hug is over, and the way kurt leaves his hand on blaine’s shoulder for a second bc he just has to touch him. 

kurt looking at the hallway to check that karofsky didn’t come with blaine, and his cute attempt at a poker face after realizing that blaine came to the party alone 👀

(listen, they unfortunately weren’t featured very much in this episode, but you bet that i’ll milk the hell out of their 8 seconds of screentime!!)

4. kurt turning the wheel to blaine’s name in 6x07 

something i don’t think we as a fandom talk about enough is how kurt actually moves the wheel in 6x07 so that he can have blaine as his duet partner, and it’s such a shame because that moment is so damn precious!!

i love that at this point kurt was actively interested in blaine, but blaine was still with karofsky, so kurt managed to find a subtle way to let blaine know that kurt was still interested in him while still being respectful of his relationship. and kurt’s face while spinning the wheel is so, so cute - that clever mf pretending like he didn’t manipulate the wheel to land on blaine’s name is adorable af 🥰

i like to headcanon that kurt specifically practiced spinning the wheel so that he knew how much force to use to get it to land near blaine’s name...so that he could have an excuse to spend more time with blaine 😌

5. kurt smiling at blaine when schue mentions kids in 6x11

there’s this quick moment in 6x11 when schue talks about how one day, everyone will be watching their own kids win awards, and then kurt turns at the mention of kids and gives blaine the biggest smile in the world 🥺

this is perhaps the softest moment of love that kurt has shown on the entire series bc it’s nothing but pure delight at the idea having a future with blaine. it’s so clear by the way that the smile takes up his entire face that he’s just ecstatic that he’s married to the love of his life and so, so thrilled that he gets to raise his own children with this man that he loves so much. he spent most of s6 believing that this future was out of reach, but now it’s back and it’s real, and kurt just can’t control how happy that makes him 😭

- - - 

tysm for the ask, this was so much fun to do!!! i love thinking about them and although i really appreciate the complexity of their angstier stories, it’s the softer moments that i’m here for. it gives me so much comfort knowing that they’re out there living their life with their successful careers and their family, because knowing that they’re happy makes me happy 🥰

[timelyowl0]

Brittana/Faberry Fic Recs

Hi! Here’s a list I compiled of some of my all time favorite Brittana and Faberry fics! I was originally going to separate the list by Faberry and Brittana, but many of the stories have both, so instead you can just read the pairings listed for each. They are sorted by multi-chapter complete, multi-chapter incomplete/in progress, and one-shots. Each title is a link you can click on to take you to the fic. All credit goes to their respective authors :)

Also, here’s a quick rating guide in case you needed to know:

GA/PG - General Audience

T - Teen

M - Mature

E - Explicit

NR - Not rated

That’s all, I hope you enjoy!

Multi-chapter (complete):

Between The Lines (T) - 19 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana and Rachel/Quinn - Rachel invites Brittany and Santana to a sleepover. Brittany/Santana with a healthy side of Rachel/Quinn

The Only True Paradises (M) - 20 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - The tortuous evolution of Santana's feelings toward Brittany. See also "Pas de Deux," a companion piece from Brittany's point of view.

Pas de Deux (M) - 20 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Companion piece to "The Only True Paradises." The evolution of Santana and Brittany's relationship from Brittany's perspective.

Faithfully (T) - 5 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - "That moment when Santana had sworn, even though she and Brittany were standing at opposite ends of the raised platform…that she could still feel Brittany's energy zinging toward her, like they were connected on the same current." Brittana, Seasons 1 through 5, as told in five increments.

My Girlfriend's Sister's Keeper (T) - 13 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Brittany isn't the only Pierce that has Santana wrapped around her finger. Santana's life with her two favorite people.

Mariposa (M) - 5 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Like a butterfly, Santana's journey out of the closet occurs in stages. From the first time she heard the word gay to the first time she flew free from her chrysalis, she can remember everything.

time passes, in love and in seasons (T) - 4 Part Series - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Brittana, from the end of junior year and throughout senior year, told through the seasons. Mostly follows Season 3 canon.

Brittana Shorts (GA) - 8 Part Series - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - A collection of Brittana-centric short stories

it’s nice to have a friend (T) - 8 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - They're six when they first meet. It's the first day of school in a crowded classroom and Santana finds herself drawn to the new blonde girl. OR The story of how Brittany and Santana meet and all the significant moments in their lives following the first time they see one another. - sequel

A Matter of Miserable Time (T) - 10 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - "His voice was deep, quiet, and sure, so calm compared to the last words they had exchanged. Her voice was only a faint whisper as she questioned the man she hadn't spoken to in three years.'Papi.'"

Influence (M) - 26 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Brittany is perpetually cast as the dumb blonde, but the reasons behind her demeanor are more complex than that. She looks back on her childhood, her relationship with Santana, and the life-altering effects the decisions of her youth had on her future.

It’s Not Like I Wanted This to Happen (T)- 101 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana and Rachel/Quinn - Quinn takes a very drunk Rachel home from a party...encounters the Berrys…and herself. This story contains a huge amount of Brittana and a lot of Puck.

Rough Beginnings (M) - 44 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - Quinn decides she needs to end this obsession once and for all, but life doesn't always work out the way we want it to. Sometimes it's so much better. Faberry.

Never Asked to Feel Your Halo (T) - 45 Chapters (1/2 in series) - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - The thing was, neither of them wanted this-whatever it was, but since when did the Universe care about what Rachel or Quinn wanted? Their cards had been dealt the moment they'd entered that shower together. Now it came down to how well they played them.

Standing on the Edge Dancing in the Flames (M) - 34 Chapters (2/2 in series) - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - Life isn't all singing and dancing, not even in Glee club. And what if being on top of the pyramid just gives you further to fall. When everyone feels like a frienemy and fathers and faculty and babies and boyfriends complicate EVERYTHING, how are you ever supposed to get anything right? (Book Two of the 'No Halo' series)

The South Side of Anywhere (M) - 47 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - Sometimes you fall in love with your eyes closed, and when you open them, the person is someone you never thought it could be. It started with letters, and turned into Faberry.

Somewhere in Between (M) - 77 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - Imagine if Faberry happened instead of Finchel. This is a re-telling of every episode as if Faberry were cannon. Each chapter will chronicle each episode starting at the very beginning. Some things will change and some will remain the same. Longer description in first chapter. Also side Brittana. As well as Quinntana friendship, and Puckleberry bromance.

Didn’t See it Coming (M) - 63 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana? - AU HS. After a devastating breakup, Quinn turns to Rachel in need of a friend, and ends up with so much more. - "If, one day, someone asks me how it all started; I'll have to say it was a granola bar that finally did me in." Faberry.

Bet You Didn’t Know That (T) - 19 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - Faberry. What she doesn't know, she doesn't need to find out.

Take Me As I Am Seasons 1 & 2 (T) - 48 chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn, Brittany/Santana and Kurt/Blaine - The incredibly true adventures of Quinn and Rachel, starting from Sectionals Season 1. It's just like watching the show, if Faberry were the central couple and everything revolved around them! Brittana & Klaine co-star in supporting roles.

Take Me As I Am Season 3 (T) - 26 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn, Brittany/Santana and Kurt/Blaine - The continued adventures of Quinn & Rachel as the starring couple of Glee. Some integration of canon events, but mostly this is the story of Faberry and their world! Klaine & Brittana co-star in supporting roles

Blink and You’ll Miss It (M) - 31 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - Quinn Fabray and Rachel Berry discover they like each other. Against all odds, will they be able to get together before they tear each other apart?

You’re All I Need (M) - 17 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - A Faberry romance story, set when they are both single but I haven't specified when as I'm not even sure myself but most of the events are from series 3. Points of view will change every few chapters. And that's probably the worst description you've ever read but yeah I can't be bothered to change it.

quarantining or how quinn might lose it, once for all. (T) - 8 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - It starts like the worst horror movie ever but instead of being trapped in the basement of a creepy 50-something year old, Quinn finds herself being trapped in Rachel Berry's basement.

Once More From the Top (T) - 22 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn, Brittany/Santana and others - Here's what you missed on Glee: McKinley's Glee Club reformed under the direction of Will Schuester. Rachel tried to recruit the Cheerios but that ended up being a total disaster. It's cool though because she heard Finn Hudson sing in the shower and he's actually really good. She successfully recruits him and now the Glee Club has enough members to be a real thing.And that's what you missed, on Glee!

Outside Hearts (M) - 37 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - Rachel Berry's world is about to be turned upside down when one of Hollywood's most sought-after young actresses, Quinn Fabray, abruptly and mysteriously leaves her fame behind, moves to Ohio and tries to have a normal life while attending McKinley High. (Faberry w/ some Brittana)

I See That Ragged Soul Take Flight (M) - 44 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn, Brittany/Santana, Mike/Tina, Kurt/Blaine and Sam/Mercedes - Ensemble cast piece exploring what happens after Season 3. Rachel, Santana and Kurt are in New York together. Quinn is at Yale. Explores adulthood, friendship and long-distance relationships. Eventual Faberry. Also contains, Brittana, Klaine, Tike and Samcedes content, plotlines back at McKinley, and frequent use of Santana POV.

All The Best (T, but I would rate M for descriptive scenes of suicide, eating disorders, rape, etc.) - 80 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - After spending the entire summer away, Quinn is eager to get back to normal and make the best of her junior year. Excited to put everything behind her and start fresh, she struggles to establish a new normal. But when she's least expecting it, Quinn finds support in the most unlikely places and is forced to confront the very feelings that landed her where she is in the first place.

take these broken wings (M) - 4 Part Series - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn, Brittany/Santana and Kurt/Sam - Begins in Season one and follows Quinn through her life should she have chosen to keep Beth, realize she is gay, and fall in love with Rachel Berry. The main romantic relationship will be Faberry, with a bit of Hevans and Brittana, but apart from Faberry it will be very heavy on friendship and Quinn&Beth oriented.

the state of dreaming (T) - 3 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - Rachel couldn’t help the guilt that bubbled in her chest when she watched Quinn get a prom photo alone. Determined to make it up to her, she invites Quinn over for a sleepover. It becomes a routine. Set immediately after 2x20 (Prom Queen).

Enough to Believe (T) - 2 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - Years after Shelby ups and disappears from Lima with Beth, a blonde girl shows up on Rachel and Quinn's doorstep, armed with a lot of questions, and very familiar cheekbones.

you and her loathing this cruel world (M) - 3 Chapters - Pairings: Quinn/Rachel, minor Kurt/Quinn and Kurt/Sam - "Of all the girls he had to have sex with (which really, were none), of course it was someone with a painting of Jesus above her bed, so he knows that his only hope in hell that this will go away is in a negative test result." Season 1 AU; Kurt is pretty sure he's gay, but would like to make sure. Quinn Fabray has similar questions running through her mind. They put their theories to the test, with very much unintended consequences. - sequel

I’ve Been Trying to Reach You (T) - 25 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn, Brittany/Santana, Santana/Puck, Rachel/Jesse and Sam/Tina - After falling pregnant in sophomore year, Quinn Fabray plummets from the top of the teen hierarchy at McKinley High to the very bottom. In an effort to give her a chance to start over, her parents transfer her to Carmel, a private school in the area with a blossoming arts program. It's supposed to be a new beginning, but what she doesn't count on is immediately becoming enemies with the most popular girl in school: Rachel Berry, co-captain of Vocal Adrenaline.

The Lopez Manifesto (T) - 8 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - santana starts writing a rachel/quinn fanfic for everyone at McKinley. it’s also extremely popular as everyone awaits her weekly updates. (usually based on what the girls are doing that week.) quinn is the last to find out and is… pissed.

my heart’s a leather jacket I am waiting to give to someone sweet (T) - 15 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Brittany is McKinley’s resident broody rebel who doesn’t see much point to high school, and who, completely incidentally, just so happens to be kind of a math genius. Santana is Lima's golden child, the perfect and unapproachable only child of public figure Dr. Lopez. She’s also the high school’s enigma; no one actually knows anything about her aside from the fact that she’s cold, distant, terrifying, aloof, and willing to eviscerate anyone who looks at her the wrong way. Unfortunately for her, Brittany is about to get a crash course in the complete mystery that is Santana Lopez when she is asked—or, more realistically, forced—to be Santana's math tutor.

Dead Girls Don’t Sing (T) - 39 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana, Rachel/Quinn, Kurt/Blaine and Tina/Mike - S3 AU. Brittany doesn't believe in unicorns anymore, Rachel's dreams are as dead as the world, Santana is no one's hero…and Quinn? Quinn's just trying to breathe. The world as they knew it is gone -now all they can do is survive. Zombie Apocalypse. Faberrittana Friendship. Slow Burn Faberry. Character Death. COMPLETE

Simple Parts (T) - 13 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - That awkward moment when you travel thirty years forward in time and find out you're married to your high school nemesis? Yeah, it totally sucks...except...maybe it doesn't.

The Lateness of the Hour (M) - 12 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - "Brittany has much less to lose. She always has."

half of me (T) - 4 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - a run-in (quite literally) at the bookstore, two broadway tickets, and a seven-year-old in a plaid catholic-school uniform. what has rachel gotten herself into? future AU where quinn has beth and rachel makes it on broadway.

April Fools (T) - 10 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - Santana recruits - forces - Rachel to help her prank Quinn. All she has to do is pretend that a love potion has caused her to fall madly in love with the cheerleader. Simple, right? Wrong. Faberry.

Stars & the Moon (M) - 15 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - In the midst of dealing with Beth's adoption, Quinn ends up working on a summer community theatre production with Rachel. Hilarity ensues. Just kidding.

Love Me Any Less (M) - 25 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - Junior year becomes the beginning of something no one expected, and maybe the beginning of something a few can't understand how they ever lived without. Starts mild but progresses to M rating. First fic ever! Faberry.

Better Where It’s Wetter (M) - 10 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - Rachel and her dads are going on a LGBT family-friendly cruise for the summer and Rachel's told she's can bring a friend. Who else to bring but Quinn?

Like a Seal Upon Your Heart (M) - 20 Chapters - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana? - Quinn Fabray is Daddy's little girl and the perfect Christian. She CAN'T be gay. But then her friendship with Rachel Berry starts to change...

Somewhere in Brooklyn (M) - 47 Chapters - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Santana and Brittany have been trying to get pregnant for a year without any luck. What happens when a teenage foster child and positive pregnancy test land in their laps on the same day? A unique journey of motherhood ensues.

Multi-chapter (incomplete/in progress):

Everyone's Gonna Know Now (T) - 8 Chapters (Incomplete) - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - 3/4 in series - When Santana confronted Finn about outing her, his response was, "The whole school already knows." That was pretty much true. This story is about the first moment or incident in which each member of Glee - and a few others - discovered Santana's secret.

Be Okay (M) - 2 Chapters (Incomplete) - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - “Kurt doesn’t know why he does it. It’s not as if he and Santana had ever had anything resembling a friendship, but he feels drawn to her, feels connected to the anguish in her voice as she realized that her biggest secret in the world was about to be revealed.“ This is the evolution of Kurt and Santana’s friendship taking place over a series of one-shots.

looks like a girl but she's a flame, so bright she can burn your eyes, better look the other way, you can try but you'll never forget her name (M) - 5 Chapters (Incomplete) - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - santana lopez writes down the story of her life for a reunion project set for the glee club by none other than rachel berry. aka, a deep dive into santana's life told through her eyes. very santana/brittana centric.

No One Left to Blame (M, read tags) - 30 Chapters (Incomplete) - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - Quinn Fabray is well-versed in keeping the truths of her family and her past firmly hidden away. But, her efforts prove to be moot when Rachel Berry, armed with her own secrets of the past, arrives at Dalton Academy and manages to turn both their worlds upside down - or, perhaps, right way up. Faberry. Trigger Warnings.

I’m not breaking, I won’t take it (M, read warnings) - 2 Chapters (Incomplete) - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and minor Quinn/Santana - Santana gets up and starts toward her, “Jesus, what happened to you?” she mumbles, but she's softer than she was moment before. It's obvious that she’s concerned. Quinn chokes down a sob and then admits, “There’s something wrong with me.”“Hey, listen. Whatever it is, you’re going to be fine." Santana is still not getting it, but she’s rubbing soothing little circles on Quinn’s shoulders. There really must be something wrong with her too, because then Quinn is lunging forward and then she’s kissing Santana. Quinn feels her freeze, but then Santana relaxes and she’s kissing her back. or, a study in quinn fabray.

no love like your love (T) - 5 Chapters (Incomplete) - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn, Brittany/Santana and Blaine/Sam - Following the death of her mother, Rachel Berry assumes guardianship of her six-year-old brother, Daniel. After a cross-country move for his sister's job, the first friend Danny makes is a soccer-playing, lucky fin having, firecracker of a girl named Beth.

Song of Mine (M) - 18 Chapters (Incomplete) - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Santana Lopez, the new Music teacher at a religious private school in Indianapolis, meets Brittany Pierce, the resident Math teacher. A love story with a happy ending. Promise.

Girls Over Flowers (NR) - 14 Chapters (Incomplete) - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn, Brittany/Santana - Dalton Academy—a school of prestige, refinement and the country's wealthiest students—houses the famous F3. When "commoner" transfer student, Rachel Berry directly offends F3's leader, Quinn Fabray, she becomes their target. Mayhem ensues.

we were built to fall apart (then fall back together) (T) - 8 Chapters (Incomplete) - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - Rachel and Quinn haven't seen each other for seven years and neither thought they'd see the other again. They certainly didn't see themselves starring together in a Broadway musical, as each other's love interests.

A Different Life (E) - 33 Chapters (Incomplete) - Pairings: Brittany/Santana, Finn/Rachel and Kurt/Blaine - Canon!Divergent Brittana. Santana and Brittany move to New York after high school. Everything is going perfectly until Brittany gets a phone call that changes everything. Seven years later, Santana has a daughter and she and Britt haven't seen each other...Canon until 3x16ish. No Louisville, no second senior year.

you get too close you’ll get a royalty high (so breathe it in to feel the love) (T) - 9 Chapters (Incomplete) - Pairings: Brittany/Santana, Rachel/Quinn, Sam/Mercedes, Mike/Tina, Kitty/Artie and Kurt/Blaine - "Alright," she began uneasily. "I'll do it. I'll go to the dumb school."Her parent's smiles beaming back at her were almost enough to make her think this could possibly be a good idea, but the nerves surging in her stomach said otherwise. Boarding School/Royalty Brittana AU

One-shot:

Tattoo (T) - Oneshot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - "She soaks it in for a few seconds—this night, this place, these friends, this family room floor, this girl—before she says it back." Post-3x11. Brittana.

Eden (T) - Oneshot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Brittany and Santana teach Joe about love. 4K

Riding in Cars With Girls (M) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - After Quinn quit Glee club and joined a band Rachel feels the gap Quinn has left and sets out to get her back, whatever the cost. But what happens when Quinn's only condition involves her car and Rachel's lips on hers every day at five? Punk!Quinn

and things we’re all too young to know (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Five vignettes set after the point when Brittana become girlfriends. Not too many people would guess it, but Brittany knows that loving Santana is the easiest and best thing in the world to do; Santana is just the best person to love.

My Friends Say That I’m Falling In Love (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Brittany and Santana spend the week leading up to Valentine's Day giving Mercedes grief about her date. Brittana romance, Brittanacedes friendship. Mouseverse. One-shot.

And What Would You Say If I Wrote the Whole Thing Out for You? (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Some things have changed a lot since Sam left McKinley and some things haven’t really changed at all. Set circa 3x08.

The Landslide Brought Me Down (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Our girls’ story. Sweet lady kisses, Landslide, their separation, the night of Prom Queen, Songbird, Santana’s Abuela’s rejection, the night after Santana learned about the political ad, Brittany’s senior year falling apart, the lights of New York, and other scenes.

seven (GA) - One-shot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - A companion piece to 'it's nice to have a friend'. Takes place after the first scene in the second chapter - can be read separately to 'it's nice to have a friend'. Basically just childhood fluff that examines their friendship and the items they connect to their friendship.

baby you don't gotta fight (i'll be here til the end of time) (GA) - One-shot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - She sees red for all of last period, a strange twinge of pain in her chest because all these people think they know Santana but they’re all wrong. or: three times Brittany tells people they've got Santana all wrong and the one time she tells Santana

The Unicorn Tapestries (NR) - One-shot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - We lie on our stomachs on my pale blue sheets, a book lying open in front of us that we bend our heads over, sunlight all over the page and bringing bits of gold out in your skin..

But You Could Sing (NR) - One-shot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Why am I always the one who tells bedtime stories? Because your stories are prettier, BrittBritt. But you can tell real ones. Like what?

Colors (NR) - One-shot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - The sunlight in my room shines from the south. The way I know: when I lean far out my window, the sun rises on the side where I can feel my heartbeat, and sets in the direction of my writing hand.

You’re Something Else (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - 'Quinn gets the impression she and Rachel are finally on the same page about what may or may not be happening between them. All she really knows is that it's colourful.'

Raising the Bar (M) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and minor/implied Brittany/Santana - Quinn never expected that the best matchmaker would turn out to be a lumpy pullout couch.

the one with the friends reference (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn, minor/implied Brittany/Santana and minor/implied Kurt/Blaine - "You can see it. Quinn standing in front of you, as close as she can get without touching you and saying, 'Are you attracted to me?'" Faberry. Post-season six.

Blame it on the Alcohol (or the gay, whatever) (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and minor/implied Brittany/Santana - “I can’t believe what you did to my body, I used to have abs!” - In which one sentence is totally incorrect and causes chaos and havoc and Faberry feelings to happen. Also known as drunk Rachel is kyoot and Finn is stoopid.

could you pass in love? (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - “'Quinn Fabray, I will divorce you, don’t think I won’t!'” In which Rachel and Quinn get married, sending them into a possibly out-of-character feelings frenzy . Season Three. Faberry.

Do You Wanna Know How This Story Plays Out? (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - It's not her fault that you feel the way you do about women, you know that, and you knew that then, too. But you've been angry at Rachel Berry for making you feel things you wanted to lock away for years, and it was far too easy to put all of the blame on her to avoid dealing with your own feelings. It wasn't and isn't fair, but it was about protecting yourself and it makes it a little easier to bear. - OR - After everything implodes with Finn, Quinn moves in with Rachel. They make out a lot without ever talking about how much more it means to both of them. Introspective Closeted!Quinn POV from second-person.

you succeed at being mine (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Kurt/Sam - Sequel to 'you and her loathing this cruel world'.

This Must Be The Place (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - Santana is eight years old when her Tio Carlos joins the Army. Or the less-cracky-than-you-might-expect Glee/The Losers crossover where Cougar is Santana's uncle. (If it tells you anything, i nearly titled this 'Ohana Means Family.')

This Modern Love (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Brittany/Santana - "How do you know when you're dating someone?"

Beth’s family tree (GA) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - "Now that being said, my family tree is composed by both my biological family and my adoptive family" Beth explains easily enough as she clicks the mouse. But then the next slide appears and the teacher gapes at all the information, names, colours and arrows in the diagram.

pictures of you, pictures of me (hung upon the wall, for the world to see) (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn and Brittany/Santana - "Quinn looked around her room again. She'd never noticed it before, but she had a lot of pictures of Rachel." or: a faberry oneshot set between seasons 1 and 2 where Quinn reflects on a series of moments with Rachel that led to where she is now

anything could happen (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - She stared down at the test in her hand. The line was faint, disappearing depending on the angle. It was possible she was just seeing things, but still. She pulled out her cell phone, tears running down her flushed cheeks. It felt like the earth could open up at any second, just swallow her whole. The line rang. Once, twice, she cursed quietly. She sucked in a breath as she heard a click signifying the call had connected."Hello? Rachel?" Her voice cracked. "Quinn. I need your help." A Faberry-centric rewrite of Rachel's season 4 pregnancy scare

Frannie’s View (T) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - When Frannie was a child she did everything she could to make her father happy. She was a daddy’s girl through and through. She was quiet and never disrespectful. She went to church every Sunday with her mother and father and prayed every night. Frannie had a lot of friends at school and was popular and well liked. She did very well in school though her participation grades were always low. Daddy told her women were supposed to be quiet and always treat their husbands with respect. She was a princess and he was the King. He ruled the house. Frannie absolutely hated the way her father treated her little sister. Frannie desperately tried to change Lucy. She thought if Lucy could be better then their father would be happier, nicer. OR A journey from Frannie's perspective of Lucy/Quinn and Quinn's sexuality and later feelings for Rachel.

According to Judy (PG) - One-shot - Pairings: Rachel/Quinn - How Judy Fabray deals with Quinn's infatuation with Rachel.

[sif-the-tsunami]

When I Was His Wife

“Well I was looking forward to/ staying here forever/ ‘cause you asked me to/ Didn’t think I could do better/ So I settled down/ in this ten cent town/ it’s about to break me.” These are the Best Years of my Life- Pistol Annies

This is the follow up to “When You Fall Apart” Which is one of my favorites that I’ve written.

(there is Sy just carrying the weight of all of my own internal chaos)

A/N thank you for everyone who encouraged me to write this, I adore Sy as a character. He seemed like someone who could pull off the impossible. I made some choices in here that not everyone will agree with. Tell me I’m wrong in the comments an we can discuss it there.

Pairing: Sy and Josephine

Warnings: again all of them. discussion of infidelity, Discussion of child loss, discussion of unprotected sexual intercourse, headbutting, day drinking, self medicating, therapy, swearing fealty on ones hunting knife, discussion of knife play, I’m probably missing something

 Everything is going below the cut this time to save anyone who doesn’t like this kind of stuff from unpleasantness.

word count just shy of 7.5K

Thank you to @inlovewithhisblueeyes for letting me bounce ideas off of you, love you sweet girl

tagging: @oddsnendsfanfics @willkatfanfromasia @rocket44 @feralrunaway @littlewrenofrivia​  @summersong69​  @coffeebooksandfandom​ @klaine-92​ @nothingright​ @cavillsim​ @watery-lane​ @above-average-ass-bitch 

unbeta’d

I slept for the next two days, Mama only woke me up long enough to drink some water once she started worrying about me. She managed to wrangle my out of my clothes and into one of Daddy’s shirts we got him that she left in the drawer. My phone was dead, but thankfully Mama and I had the same kind so I could charge it today. What fresh hell was going to be waiting for me on my digital leash? I lay there for a while, the murmur of conversation in the other room was comforting. Mama left a fresh glass of water some time recently, it was still chilly with only a little condensation forming around the sides. The ache in my chest was almost unbearable. The hole in my heart was Syverson sized, being sober made the edges of that abyss feel even more raw and pronounced. I don’t know if my liver could handle me drowning my sorrow much more, but I would give anything to not feel it. I need to make this feeling of worthlessness go away.

When I finally decided to rejoin the land of the living, Mama and my brother Teddy were talking at the kitchen table, discussing about if they should come with me to go get my things or if I should call the sheriff’s office to be monitored. I stayed behind the corner long enough to let them finish what they were going on about.

“If I know Jo well enough, she’s going to need someone to keep her from burning the whole house down with him in it tied to a chair,” my brother chuckled. “She’s been taking care of herself for years. You should have seen how she handled one of these girls who came up to us once on Post.

“Jo was loading up the car when this prissy little thing came walking up, she must have thought she was some kind of hot shit. You would have been so proud of her Mama, the girl said to her that she had been sleeping with James during their deployment. All Jo said back to her was ‘You’ve both been back for something like three months, right, have you seen him since?’ Little Miss Hot Shit stuttered and said ‘Well not yet,’ like she had been really holding out that he was going to. ‘He doesn’t have my new phone number.’ Jo just tiled her head to the side. Smiled at her real sweetly and told her, ‘Baby girl, he’s not going to. He knows how to find you. You were just a rental car to him, sweetie bell. Ford Fiestas are fun as hell to ride but let’s be honest, you aren’t going to pick a Fiesta over the Mercedes Benz you have at home. You aren’t the first and you sure as hell won’t be the last, now go on and get out of here before I ruin the rest of your day like you tried to ruin mine.’ One of the other officer’s wives came up to her and said she was amazed that she handled her so well without breaking Miss Prissy Pant’s face. She just said ‘I’m too pretty to go to prison, Kathy.’ And we hoped in the car. You raised one tough lady, Mama.”

“How many times has that happened, Theodore, I need to know.”

“She has only told me about four women meeting her face to face. The two pregnant girls who got knocked up to get out of their deployments, Prissy Pants, and one who thought that James was in love with her. She evidently broke down in tears on the tarmac when Josie jumped into his arms and he swung her around. But she would get letters tucked into the windshield of her car for months whenever he returned from deployment.”

“You two kept this from me for years, why?”

“Jo said that this was her problem, don’t you remember how you handled it when her first boyfriend ran out on her on prom night? She cried to you and Dad, and you just told her that no one is worth weeping over. She’s just been trying to make you proud, Mama. Daddy might have known because I know they had a really nasty fight about a month before he died.”

I walked out after that. Mama’s eyes were red, “Good morning, baby, do you want pancakes? Bacon and eggs? What do you want, Darlin’?”

“Coffee would be a good start.” I rasped. “Can I use your charger?”

“It’s right here. Cream and sugar?”

“Black as my sense of humor, please Mama.” I said, Teddy chuckled again. I reached over and squeezed my brother’s shoulder. “Hey, I’m glad you’re here.”

“I got to look after my little sissy.” He replied using what he called me growing up. “So what are we doing to get over Jimmy?”

“I was thinking tattoos and day drinking?”

“Atta’ girl, Josie. Fuck that douche canoe.”

As soon as my phone was able to turn on, it sat on the counter vibrating for the next five minutes.  Six missed calls from James. And seventy text messages. A few from stores I shop at, but the majority were from my husband.

“Ugh, I just don’t feel like dealing with this right now.” I said as my mom put my coffee in front of me.

“Just leave him on read. I doubt he’s hurting for company.”  Mama said, in almost a snarl. I looked through a few messages. The last one was from this morning. Sweetheart, I’m worried sick about you, I miss you. Please talk to me?

“Ted, do you want to go with me to Walmart so I can get a couple day’s worth of clothes, I am just not ready to go back and I can’t live in Daddy’s old shirts.”

“Of course, we can get some booze while we are there.”

“Get yourself a bathing suit while you are there, honey, its going to be beautiful today and you can go for a swim.” Mama added.

I texted James back finally as I finished my coffee. I’m sorry I worried you, Sy, I have literally been asleep since I got here. I’m not ready.

I understand. I’m sorry, I should have seen how much I’ve been hurting you. I swear to God, I really do love you. Please, let me know what I can do for you.

Yeah, you should have, James. You should have seen how bad you’ve been treating me. You can drop off the face of the earth, that’s what you can do for me, I think spitefully. Thankfully, Mama washed my yoga pants and tank top. It would have to be alright for now. My brother let me wear one of his extra flannel shirts he kept in the back of his car. An hour later, Ted and I were at the store, picking up chips, dip, and cheap champagne. Mama loved mimosas, so I thought it was the least I could do. I grabbed a couple of sun dresses and a bikini, if I was going to be gone for a few days, I was going to come back home looking refreshed, radiant even, and not like the hot pile of garbage I was feeling like. I made a small detour to the cosmetics department, got myself a couple of face masks, hair dye, and sun screen.

“Really? Dark brown, Josie?”

“That’s as close to my natural color as I can, I’m tired of the blonde highlights. I think after this I might just let it come in. Grays and all. Who ever loves me next is going to have to just deal with me as nature intended.”

“I’m proud of you. Do you think you will leave him for good?” He said, Ted has always been very protective of me.

“Well, I certainly can’t leave him for evil, can I?” Making him laugh. One the way outside there was a truck near the front of the store with a sign that read “Puppies for sale.”

“Teddy, we need to see these puppies.” I gasped. Walking up to the truck bed I saw the sweetest little German Shepard puppies. I reached in and they all started flopping all over the place trying to get pets and love. Maybe a puppy was exactly what my hurting heart needed. We haven’t had a dog since Aika passed away. It was looking like I would never have a baby but maybe this was the kind I needed. Puppy snuggles would definitely make that Syverson shaped hole less painful.

“I’ll buy you a puppy if you divorce James.” Ted said to me, half joking.

“Shit, I can afford the puppy, pay for the divorce.” I jest back. “How much for one of the precious babies?”

“$500 a pup, mom has a pedigree, but daddy was the neighbor’s sneaky bastard.” The woman also petting the puppies said. “Mama is in the front if you want to meet her, daddy is very friendly as well.”

I start laughing uncontrollably. With tears in my eyes, I ask if any of the puppies are girls, and she pulls   out a beautiful little one with floppy ears and the biggest smile I had ever seen on a dog. Oh yeah, she was meant for me.

“I’ll take her, do you take checks?” I think I’m ready to start healing.

*****

“Josephine, that son of a bitch you call your husband is here to see you.” Mama shouts from the house. It’s Sunday afternoon now, Teddy and I have exhausted all the snacks and mimosas hours ago and now we were sobering up by the pool. My new baby girl is laying next to my sun chair, chewing on her bone, wearing a pretty pink collar.

“Well, might as well let him out here.” I shout back.

“Are you sure, I can kick his ass to the curb if you want me to, baby.”

“Its okay Mama, I can handle him myself.” Sy walks out in the back yard a couple minutes later. I’m guessing Mama threatened to stick him in a meat grinder.

“I deserved that.” He said, looking thoroughly admonished. “You changed your hair, it looks really good...

“Oh bless your heart, James. That’s not even half of what you deserve.” Ted spoke up before he could finish, not moving his face towards him. He lay there in his swim trunks and dark sunglasses.

“Oh great, all three of you have been drinking. I can tell this is going to go well...” James sighed. “Who is this cutie pie, did your Ma get a new dog?”

“She’s my dog, her name is Stella Rosa.”

“I don’t think anyone asked you to come, Colonel Sanders, what are you doing here?” Ted snapped.

“Hey, I got this, okay? I’m a big girl, please, go in the house. The fuck are you doing here James?” I lift my sun glasses up.

“She’s a very sweet pup. Yeah, you are a good girl for your mama, aren’t you? I came to see you. I want to bring you home, baby, I miss you.” He’s checking out my fresh tan in my new bikini. Subtly, but he does it.

“I’m not ready. I’m not even ready to talk to you. Why would you think that I even want to come home?”

“I don’t know, I asked myself that the entire drive here. I don’t know what I’m even going to do with myself when I go home alone. Pussycat, I can’t begin to think of life without you. I know I fucked up. And I know I can’t take that back. You asked me the other day what I kept that was special just between us. I should have answered you then. All those nights where you fell asleep with your head on my chest, the evenings laying in the back of the truck looking at the stars after driving around trying to find the best nachos in town. And, baby, no matter where we go, yours are always the best. No one else ever got moments like that. You are the only woman I want to slow dance with in the middle of the night.

“You are the only person in the world that I would wait four hours in the freezing cold to get the best brisket in Austin for because you were craving bbq when we were still, you know...” He paused. I don’t think he ever stopped blaming himself for what happened. His knees were never the same after that accident, and usually whenever he stood up from kneeling, they clicked and popped painfully. He leaned a little closer spreading his legs and reached down to pet Stella. She seemed a little leery of him. It is easy to be cynical given the circumstances, but there is something about the way he is talking to me, I haven’t heard him be this earnest in years.

“When was the last time you were with someone other than me?” I can’t bring myself to look at him. I keep my eyes anywhere but on him. My body aches so badly for him to just wrap his arms around me. I miss him.

“When I got held up in Kuwait for two weeks in December...”

“December? You mean when you missed my fucking birthday. Goddammit James...” And the ache is gone. My heart shattered again. He’s going to make me cry again.

“Hey, it was after your birthday, and it was a hate fuck because I was mad that I broke yet another promise to you.”

“That doesn’t make it better.” I snap. “How many that deployment?”

“Just the one. And she’s someone who I knew was more discreet because we had that arrangement before.”

“I swear on my Daddy’s grave that if you are lying to me right now, I will end you Syverson. You couldn’t have waited a few more days?”

“I had no idea when I was going home. We boarded that fucking plane three times and had to turn back because there was a problem with it. I was two seconds away from tearing apart the first Private that so much as looked at me sideways. It felt like, at the time, the less terrible choice.”

“They sound both pretty shitty to me. You are a fucking adult James, you have to be able to control yourself or at least be responsible for your actions. If this is what you think love is, I would rather you hate me.” I stand up. Stella wags her tail excited to get away.

“Josephine, please...” He grasps my wrist, not hard, but there wasn’t anyway I was going to be able to get out of his big hand.

“Please what? Please stay so you can keep treating me like this. There are some people in this world who have no problem playing second or third fiddle, they are just thankful they are in the band. But I deserve to be your first chair, or I don’t want to play at all.”

“Mama wants to know if the jackass is staying for dinner.” Ted shouts at us.

“He going!” “I’m staying!” we yell over each other. He’s not looking at me, he’s not even looking at the pup. His eyes are somewhere else, mentally for a second he is somewhere else also.

“Baby…  I… You have always been my first chair. There is no one else on earth like you. I have never done anything with these women as an act of love. It was always been, and I mean always, just a way to scratch an itch. Every time I was gone, every time things got bad, getting to come home to you was the thing that keep me going, Jo. You have been my safe harbor for the worst parts of my life.”

“James… That doesn’t excuse what you’ve done. You aren’t the man I fell for anymore. This isn’t healthy.” He let go of my wrist, and rubs his face. Those beautiful eyes of his have seen so much. For the first time I think he actually looks… broken. Is this the remorse I have been wanting to see? I try not to keep scores, especially when it comes to my loved ones. But for the first time since things went sour, he looks like I hurt him as much as he has hurt me.

Maybe there was love between us once. However there are just two broken hearts for now.

“Come on in the house, I can at least feed you before I send you back.”

“I think I will just go,” he says it quietly. “I don’t want to be a burden on you.”

“Don’t be like that, I am still cooking like I’m making dinner for you, so its way too much for the three of us. Come on in, I made carnitas.”

“I’ll be in, I just need a minute.” He refuses to let me see him cry if he’s not waking up screaming, even after all this time. Whenever we could have a healing moment, he pushes me out. I went inside, and started setting the table.

“Are we poisoning his tacos?” Teddy asked me.

“That’s not the worst idea I’ve heard today.” Mama interjected.

“No, and don’t start anything. He’s eating dinner with us, don’t either of you make him feel bad. I already did that.” Sy walked in at that moment, those blue eyes of his rimmed with red. He looked defeated. The four of us ate our dinner in silence. There was a time where he would have made some kind of comment about eating me out when we had tacos. He looked at me once during the meal, I think he remembered it too. He offered to clear the plates when were all done and sat in uncomfortable silence. The cockiness I had grown accustomed to over the years was gone.

He carried himself like this when we lost our baby, he can’t take that kind of humility. At least not with me.

“Sy...” I waited until the others were out of the room. “Do you still want me to come home with you?”

“Not if it means all we are going to do is get a divorce. I can’t see you every day knowing that I will never get to be yours again. I let them do a lot of terrible things to me over the years, but that… that I can’t handle.” His voice cracked. “If you want out, I will give you everything you ask for. I won’t fight you. But please, give me a chance to fight for you.”

“I don’t think you are exactly in a position to make that that request.” I lean against the counter across the room from him.

“No, I’m not.” he half smirked, “I don’t deserve you.”

“Look, I’m not saying that this can’t still all explode in our faces. But I miss my best friend and that has always been the best part of us. It will never be the same as it was before, it can’t be. However, if you are willing to work with me, I am willing to see if we there is any salvageable. If nothing else, we both need therapy very badly. We can’t just shrug this off. The second that it goes back to where we were, I’m gone.”

“Okay. I’ll do it.” He sniffs hard, and his breath is broken up, tucking his arms against himself. Usually its in authority, this time hes just trying to hug himself. I gesture him to come over and I hug him. He wraps his arms around then envelopes me. Leaning his head on mine, he whispers “I’ll do whatever you want, my darlin.”

I told my mom that I would be going home, she sighed at me. “Do you think this is the best idea?”

“I don’t know, Mama. I think I just want some closure. I told him if he so much as sneezes out of line that I’m gone. Forever. There will be no more chances.”

“Well, baby, I trust you. You are always welcome back here if you need to get away.”

While I’m packing my stuff into the shopping bags I had, I hear a sudden crack and Sy groans then swears. “yeah, I deserved that too.”

“What the fuck did you just do, Theodore?” I yell coming out. Ted was still holding my husband’s hand, and Sy was holding his face. “Did you… just headbutt him?”

“Yes, I did. My sister my might be willing to move past your mistakes, but I’m not. However, I’ve always been the petty one in the family. Hurt her again, they will have to dig your nuts out of your chest cavity, do we understand each other?”

“Yep, perfectly.” Sy grimaced. There were very few men that he would not retaliate against. Teddy, at 6’5, and years of horse wrangling, was one of them. Sy was build like a brick shit house, but so was my big brother. I thought we were old enough to not resort to violence, I have been wrong before.

My probably, potentially, soon to be ex-husband put mine and Stella’s things in the back bench of his truck. I held her in the crook of my arm as I climbed up in the cab. He gently shut the door for me, I noticed his shiner was going to be pretty gnarly in the morning.

He climbed into the other side as I set little Stella down on the floor. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it was a cheap shot, I’ll be fine. At this point, I don’t want to rock the boat with your brother and Ma. She tore me a new asshole before I got outside today.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t changed your mind, say to hell with me and that I’m not worth the hassle.”

“Josephine, I might not have made the appropriate effort to show you how much you mean to me, but you are worth it.” The Syverson shaped hole in my heart roared. Why couldn’t he have been this way all along?

We talked about the girl at the movies, and how she was one of his new officers. She might have come on to him, but he never engaged with her outside of work related things. He told her several times that he wasn’t interested but she was persistent. I halfway apologized for trying to decapitate him with a tequila bottle. He acknowledged that this was a long time coming.  This was the most we had talked about anything deep for months. I don’t know if it was too little and too late though.

The rest of the drive home we made a plan of action. He would move into the office and would stay in there until I invited him back into my bed. We would start couple’s therapy as soon as we could. He would also start seeing a therapist individually. Before we got into town I also told him my final request for our reconciliation. I wanted to see other people. I had been with him since I was nineteen, I have never faltered in my devotion to him. I wanted to see if he was really the one for me.

When I got home, I poured out the rest of my alcohol, save for a bottle of champagne I was saving for our anniversary. He took Stella outside to go potty and came back singing her name “Stella bella, who is a good girl? Your Mama picks good puppies, yes she does. Good girl, Stella bella.”

Stella came prancing back to me with her tail wagging happily. He walked up behind me, and grazes the backs of my arms gently with his knuckles, leaning down to kiss my neck. “Not yet, Sy. I don’t want us to complicate things more than they already are.”

“Josie, what do you mean?”

“I don’t want to have sex with you until we start therapy.”

“So you want us to stop having sex, sleep in separate rooms and at some point you want to start seeing other men.” He starts nodding. He lets out a deep sigh and closes his eyes. “Okay, it that’s what you want to do. I was thinking about getting my stuff out of the bedroom so I can try to get some sleep. I love you, Pussycat. I’ll see you in the morning.” And with that, James went to bed. He was snoring on the couch in the office by the time I went to go lay down.      

****

It took us three weeks to get into see a couples therapist. It felt a little validating about my decision that we shouldn’t sleep together until we have really decided to try or not. She had me stay behind and talk with her for another half an hour the first time we met.  She asked me why I wanted to save my marriage with Sy if he’s hurt me for years.

“I don’t rightly know,” I told her. “Maybe its because when we are good we are so damn good. Before we were married, I was warned, I knew that things happened overseas and I shouldn’t take it personally, he’s just a man and not a saint. I never have had a doubt in my mind about if he’s been faithful when he’s been here until recently when a woman he knows started acting weird around me. The love we had was so passionate, like sometimes he thought that if he couldn’t put his hands on me I would disappear. I don’t think I will ever find someone who can love me like that again.”

The therapist suggested that he starts getting treated for PTSD and anger management while we all were working together. I would also have my own separate sessions to work on my own issues. It took a few months but I started seeing small differences in how he was handling things at work that pissed him off. He was able to defuse himself more easily. He became more open with his feelings. I think it helped that we both stopped drinking. We could be a little volatile when we had a pitcher (or three) of margaritas.

There were days with our sessions where we leave emotionally exhausted and not speak to each other the rest of the day, some of them ended in peals of laughter, others where I would cry for most of it. We discussed the infidelity at great lengths. I don’t want to rehash the details but it was definitely one of the bad days. But it seems that the root cause was him using the only the other women for comfort after fairly traumatic events. It’s why it only happened on deployments. He needed to feel something other than pain.

The lack sexual intimacy between the two of us made James start to get creative to initiate closeness between the two of us. He started helping me make dinner on the weekends, or he would bring me my coffee in the morning the way I like it. Mama and Teddy started coming over occasionally for suppers. It was nice to have the house filled with laughter. We started talking again like when we first started dating. He would take the time to go with me grocery shopping.

He started asking me out on dates again. Myself, him and Stella would drive out to the country, with a picnic basket that he would even prepare himself and we would go star gazing like we used to. I loved seeing the effort, but that hole still ached in my chest the whole time. The pieces should have all fit together, but here I was still not sure I could commit to him for the rest of my life.

On one of these dates, he asked me what I thought about him retiring. He had been in for almost nineteen years at this point and had far exceeded is expectations for being in the Army as an officer.

“I kind of just want to sell off all our extra shit and buy a really nice Air-stream. We can pull it with my truck. Just travel up and down the continent, I know you always have wanted to see the Northern Lights, we can just go anywhere. Me, you and Stella would visit where ever we could find a parking spot.”

“That sounds nice, Sy.” It came out a little half hearted.

“You don’t sound convinced, sweetheart.” He said, started sounding concerned.

“Hun, I don’t want to have a fight right now, so please just let me get this off my chest.” I sigh. And then I told him about the pain in my chest that I’ve had since my night in jail. That sometimes, like tonight, it was only a dull ache. That other times the edges are still so sharp that it feels like the pain was going to swallow me whole. He sits up, jaw dropped.

“Why haven’t you told me this before? I… Jo… son of a bitch.” He groans. He lays back down, the same defeated tone came back that I hadn’t heard since Mama’s house. “I’m trying my best, Josephine, but I feel like I have one hand tied behind my back… you will never love me again, will you?  I can grovel, and beg. I don’t know what else I need to do. I know what I want to do, but it will just hurt you more.”

“What do you want to do, Sy?”

“I want to kiss every part of your skin, remind your body that I worship it. I want to pin you to the wall of our hallway and make love to you. I want to go to sleep with my nose buried in in your hair, and wake up sliding inside of you. I have since you came home. Hell, I always want to do that with you. But that can’t be the only thing that keeps us together.” He looked over at Stella sprawl out.

“I didn’t say this to hurt you, hun. I just wanted to be honest with you.”

“I know, I… just don’t want to cause you more misery. I really thought we were, you know, heading back in the right direction.”

“We have been, and honestly, I think if we threw in the towel now, it would cause more harm than good.” I say as the tears well up in my eyes. For the first time since I was taken away, I straddle his hips. He sits up and I place my hands on either side of his face, then lean in to kiss him. He kisses me back with the same hunger. I missed him. The ache dulled a little until he pulled away.

“Let’s get going, Jo, I want you so fucking bad. I want to take you here and now, I want to make you scream my name and damn anyone who catches us. We need to stop this, the agreement was that we wouldn’t. Fuck I’ve missed how you taste.” He said before stealing one more kiss.

*****

The next week was awkward to say the least, the therapist was pleased about the kissing and that I opened up. She said that it was possible that the pain would go away, but that he and I needed to remember that it was like I was grieving. In the mean time, we should continue to take it slowly because we both needed to be sure. The following few days he was distant, and the ache returned in full force.

With his PTSD treatments, he was having less nightmares. It was the best thing I could ask for. There were still times where he would yell in his sleep but they had become farther and farther apart. It was a night after he had his individual treatment, he had come home talking about how he felt the night of my breakdown. He came home and told me a little bit, how he had never seen me so angry before, thrashing about like a caged animal. He hated himself for pushing me there. That night, in the darkness of the small hours, I woke up from being dead asleep hearing him say my name in a panic. He then repeated sounding more and more scared. “Josie, oh my god, Josie, no. I’m sorry Jo, I didn’t mean to. JoJo!”

I rushed into the office, he was jerking violently in his sleep about on the couch. I turned on the light near his head. When these dreams happen, his eyes were usually opened, it creeps my out every time. I start to gently wake him up, saying his name and touching him as gently as possible. It took a few moments but he came back to me.

“Jo, Jesus fuck, you’re alright?”

“Of course I am, sweetheart, what happened? I’m right here, I’m okay, you are okay, everything is okay.”

“I dreamed we were back in the kitchen, you were under me. Screaming and whipping about. I had to restrain you more then I accidentally broke your neck and you died in my arms. It felt real, baby, I was holding your body and then the sheriff came and that’s when you woke me up. Oh my god. I fucking can’t. I can’t anymore. I need you, Josie. If something happens to you, oh fuck.” I have never seen James sob like this. He pawed at me until I was wrapped in his arms. I slipped my arms around his neck and held his head to mine. His sobs were hard. We sat there until he let it all out.

“Come on, big man, let’s get you into bed. Come with me. I’ll stay with you all night.” He nodded at me and followed me to the bed we used to share. I wrapped him up in our fluffy blankets. He snuggled into me and was asleep in moments. I stayed there in his arms until he woke up. The Syverson shaped hole hurt less that night.

When he woke up he started crying again. He held me and started kissing my face. “Thank god. I thought you coming to me last night was another dream.”

“No baby, I’m here.” He sniffed hard and squeezed me closer to him. We went back to sleep for a few more hours and when we got up for the day he moved his things back into our bedroom. We might not have started other marital acts but we both started sleeping better having the other person in bed. It had been almost six months we started trying to reconcile.

*****

It had been an interesting couple of months while we started the transition for him to retire. Soon it was only a matter of days. The dates had continued, the kissing had continued, but something was keeping me back from being able to say that the next step was what I wanted. Therapy continued, and we would be seeing her for the next few months. Before I left my private session she asked me if I had given myself a deadline. She was concerned that I might keep dragging it out and that would just make both of us miserable. I told her I had an idea and that I planned on pulling the trigger soon.

Sy’s superiors were setting up a retirement ceremony for him, followed by a dinner with the upper chain of command. He wasn’t looking forward to it, Sy just wanted to be out and done. He came home one day while I was watching a show based on a book series I had read when we first were married. The redheaded Scot swore fealty to his wife, offering to pierce his own heart with a dagger if he should ever rebel against her again.  

“What’s this you’re watching?” He asked.

“Outlander, it just picked back up again from a season break. It’s pretty damn close to the book.”

“So is this what the ladies like these days, men in kilts offering to off themselves if they fuck up?”

“Women have liked men in kilts since I can remember. Why do you think we go to the Renn Faire every year.” I wink at him. “But yeah, I’m sure that does it for some people.”

“Well shit, Pussycat, it’s the only thing I haven’t done.” Sy walked out of the room and came back with his favorite hunting knife. It had been his dad’s once upon a time. The handle was made out of buck horn. In his warn and dusty uniform, he knelt in front of me on the living room floor. His beautiful blue eyes looking into mine, “Well, this isn’t iron, and it definitely isn’t holy. However, I will swear on it either way. Josephine, you are the only woman I have ever loved, you are my best friend, and I adore you. I will never do anything to make you doubt that love or loyalty again. If I ever do anything that makes you feel like you are less than the beautiful, smart, incredible, sexy creature that you are, you can sink this right in my heart. I will even hold it there for you so all you have to do is press it right in.” He finishes with a tongue click as an exclamation.      

“James, you didn’t need to do this. You know I am weird about grand gestures.”

“No, I think I do. I said my vows to you on our wedding rings and I wasn’t able to keep it. But, I will never break this one. If I can earn your love back, I will never do anything to make you regret giving me this chance to be your man.” He still held the knife against his chest with one hand, and placed my hand over his with the other. “So what do you think, baby girl? We still have a long way to go, but I can’t think of anyone else I would rather struggle with.”

“I think you just put yourself in a position that I could just end you now if I wanted to.” I say with my usual sass.

“Yes, you could. I don’t think you will though.” He said smiling, his voice was husky and deep as usual. I love that easy smile of his.

“Is it wrong that I want to get on your lap and make out with you while I hold this against you.” His eyebrow raised. “Maybe more than just make out with you.”

“Oh, don’t you tease me now, sweet thing. I don’t want to start anything you won’t finish.”

“Who said I won’t finish it, Colonel Syverson?” His eyes grew as big as dinner plates.  

“Wait, do you mean it?” He choked.

“Yeah, I do mean it.” I laughed. Before I could get up, he had hiked the skirt of the dress I was wearing up to my hips, pulling me to the edge of the sofa, revealing that I had skipped a certain garment that day. “I had an idea for after supper, but if you want we can do this now…. Oh fuck I’ve missed this.”

Before I can even finish my sentence, he was going to town with his tongue on his favorite part of my body. He remembered everything that made me squeal in delight. From the lack of sex on both of our ends, he was able to get me off easily. My body was desperate for his touch. He stopped once my body was trembling, kissing one of my thighs from my apex to my knee. He suddenly grunted and bit down on a tender part. He started panting and kissed the spot he bit.

“I’m sorry, sugar, I didn’t want to only last for two or three thrusts. Fuck, I have missed this pretty pussy. You taste so good.” He had a handful of his own cum and looked around for a tissue. Without a word, I grabbed his hand and licked it clean, keeping eye contact with him the entire time. He moaned out and then stood up. He took his shirt off, and lifted me up off the couch. I knew this hurt his back and knees but I wasn’t about to chastise him for wanting to be romantic. He carried me like we were on our honeymoon back to the bedroom. He lay me down as gently as possible then finished stripping himself. I took my dress off leaving myself exposed to him in a way that I haven’t in almost a year. Sy joined me on the bed, open and vulnerable to me. I loved those thick thighs and torso of his, he always eclipsed me.

“Hello ladies, nice to finally see you again.” He purred as he licked and sucked on my nipples. He leaned to one side and massaged my breasts with one of his hands. “Glad to see you that you missed me too.”

Before long, I could feel his erection pressing against my thigh. He spread my legs and rubbed himself against my opening. He leaned down and kissed my neck before sliding himself inside of me. I moan his name as he gently started making love to me. Bearing his weight on his elbows, he kissed and nipped at my neck.

Breathlessly, he told me how much he missed my body, how much he loved me, how lucky he was to have me. As his tempo increased, he started to whisper in me ear.

“Josephine, tell me what you are.” I looked at him confused. “You are my wife, I want you to tell me that you are my wife.”

“I’m your wife, James.” I tell him as lovingly as possible.

“Louder, baby.”

“I’m your wife.” I said loud and clearly. The Syverson shaped hole in my chest is gone, finally. Replaced with the warmth of knowing we were going to be able to survive this.

“Even louder, Jo.” I yell it out and he thrusts harder and deeper. “Keep going, beautiful, I want the whole neighborhood to know.”

I screamed it as he started pounding me harder, building his orgasm. As my own starts its crescendo, I screamed his name and arched my back as he pulls my hips down on himself and spilled into me. He lay down beside me, twitching and jerking a little. He kisses all the parts of my skin that is available to his reach.

“I think we should order a pizza for dinner tonight,” He says after a few minutes of catching his breath. “So we can stay in bed and make love again.”

“Or, and hear me out. I put my dress back on, you get dressed and we go out for sushi with your cum dripping down my thighs. What do you think about that?”

“Shit, I missed you being a damn freak like that. Do I we get to have more fun tonight if I say yes?” He chuckles, then kisses my hand, “I still want you to ride me with my knife pointed at me some time tonight.”  

“Aren’t you scared I’m going to cut off a nipple or something.”

“You, with a knife? To be honest, cutting off my nipple is the least of my concerns. How do I know if this just isn’t a whole plan to lure me into complacency with sex and sushi, then you just murder me in my sleep.” He rolled onto his back and whined for a second, but got up. He put on a pair of khaki shorts and a black Metallica t-shirt as I got into my dress again.

“God damn woman, you are so fucking sexy.” He tells me as he opens the door on my side of the truck and leans down to kiss me again. As I climb up he give my butt a little tap just like he used to and closes the door for me. The ache I’ve been feeling these long months has subsided. Sitting across the cab from me, holding my hand, he asks if we want to go look at travel trailers this weekend. For the first time in a while, I feel like everything is going to be alright.

[klaineccfanficlibrary]

Hiii can you recommend any long fast burn stories?

I suggest you check out our love at first sight and Soulmate!Klaine tags because a lot of the fics recs have a fast burn. Here are a few to get you started. I’m also shamelessly recommending one of my own fics that I finished posting last weekend. After writing a lot of slow burns, you can now call me the fast-build queen now! - HKVoyage

Blackbird Body Art by @gleefulpoppet

AU. Kurt owns one of the most sought after body art shops in all of New York. Blaine is celebrating a fresh start and wants to mark the occasion in ink. After two months of waiting for an opening and weeks of searching for the perfect design, he has an appointment at 11 AM. The only problem? New York is having what is being hailed as “The Great Deluge,” it hasn’t rained this much in recorded history.

~~~~~

No Cape? No Tights? No Problem! by agent.girlsname

Kurt is almost mugged as he is walking home late one night when he is saved by a dapper young man called Blaine. It's love at first sight and the pair start dating. What Kurt doesn't know is that he's dating New York's most charming superhero and neither of them are prepared for what's ahead...

~~~~~

Domus Civita by @jayhawk-writes

While on vacation to a city he's never been to, Kurt Hummel finds himself in a place that he recognized from his dreams. The person he always sees in those dreams is there, too, and they spot him and ask, “Is it really you?”

~~~~~

It Only Took an Hour by @teddyshoney

Kurt's been set up on a blind date at a bar that he hates. And the blind date is a no-show. There is this really cute boy that walks in, though, and Kurt can't stop watching him dance and flirt. The whole story takes place over the course of an hour with the exception of the prologue.

~~~~~

Nashville! by @hkvoyage

Kurt lands the lead role in a new musical, but it flops during the previews. However, his performance captivates Nashville’s newest country music sensation. They share an instant connection and it grows deeper as they get to know each other. Will Kurt be able to save the musical and keep the man of his dreams? An AU meeting featuring country singer!Blaine and Broadway!Kurt.

[spaceorphan18]

Scenes from December (6/24)

Klaine Advent Day Six : Type

***

December, 2011

There was something surreal about being on the set of a real tv studio.  It felt like, in a weird way, being in one of those Barbie houses he had as a kid - where you could open it up and look inside, and every room looked normal when you looked closely at it, but you were always aware something wasn’t quite right. 

Kurt sat on the back of the fake vintage chair and took a moment to really take it all in.  Nothing on the set was real - to the fireplace that was actually styrofoam to the lamps that didn’t actually work, to the snow on the window that in reality was paint.  It had been his dream, as a kid, to venture into one of those old, holiday specials he and his mother watched.  And now he got to live it for real.  Only it wasn’t real - because there were cameras in front of him; lights that hung from above, cords that wormed their way along the floors, and a giant crew of people not dressed up in costumes swarming everywhere as they prepared the show.  

His friends were scattered around the set - in tiny clumps, chattering idly as they waited for things to be set up.  Another run through would be good, and then tomorrow night they would go live.  Live!  It was exciting as it was terrifying.  

Kurt began to run through his lines again when he felt someone come up behind him.  He didn’t have to turn around to know who it was.  He recognized the feel of Blaine against his back, his arms wrapping around his waist, Blaine’s breath against Kurt’s neck.  A shiver ran through Kurt - would he ever get used to this? Ever get used to the fact that he a boyfriend? An incredibly hot boyfriend who just made him turn to jelly every time they touched.  

“Hey,” Blaine said easily into Kurt’s ear.  

Kurt didn’t turn around, only leaned back against Blaine, trusting Blaine’s hold on him.  “Hey.” 

“Is it just me, or is it a million degrees in here?” Blaine said, he touched his cheek against Kurt’s.  “Let it Snow is going to be a bitch to get through again.” 

“Yeah, but it’s going to look so good in black and white.” 

“Shame the audience won’t be able to see the color though.  This suit looks amazing on you,” Blaine said, then lowered his voice to a whisper that only he could hear.  “I can’t wait to take it off you.”  

Blaine’s hands had made their way underneath the suit jacket, his fingers dipping, ever so lightly, into the hem of his pants to massage the skin there.  His touch was electric, Kurt felt it everywhere.  He never thought he’d be the type of guy to allow himself to be aroused in public, but Blaine undid him in ways he never imagined.  

Blaine leaned in closer, pushed in tighter.  “I can’t wait to touch you again.”  

Kurt craned his neck back, to look deeply into Blaine’s eyes.  Blaine’s eyes were dark, and wanting, and suddenly everything around them seemed to melt away.  Here he was, living a dream come true in the fantasy land of his imagination, and yet he wanted nothing more to escape to reality.  A reality where they were both naked and Blaine’s body was hot and heavy against his.  He could give in, let his desire take over for just a moment while no one was looking, and steal a kiss.  His entire body ached to lean in and feel Blaine’s lips against his.  But he restrained the best he could - fearing that he wouldn’t be able to stop if he indulged.  

They remained in that charged moment until the harsh and blaring sound of a horn, followed by Artie’s sharp voice ripped them from it.  Blaine backed away, and the world around Kurt cooled.  They would go back to playing pretend - go back to being happy and cheery and holiday cheesy, and it would be a fun day with friends.  But Kurt spent the rest of the day looking forward to something real. 

[forabeatofadrum]

Klaine Advent 2022 (1/24)

Summary: Blaine moves to Ljubljana to help his dad expand the family business. He takes the opportunity for career reasons, sure, but also because he needs some distance from his girlfriend Quinn Fabray. Kurt moves to Ljubljana for a semester abroad, temporarily leaving behind everything he’s known in order to broaden his horizon. They meet at random at a pizza place.

Notes: Dober dan! Dobrodošel! Welcome to the still untitled Klaine Advent 2022. I am very excited and also very happy that there is another @klaineadvent. The working title of this fic is comphet babey! so if you have suggestions for a better title, please let me know. I will send you bunnies.

Even though I am extremely excited and happy to be here, I don’t know if I will be able to finish it on time because *waves around* girlboss situation, but the beauty of the Advent is that you can take your time so I definitely will.

One last thing before I let you all in on the story: I chose Ljubljana because I have lived there for six months, so I am borrowing a lot from my own experiences, but since I am only one person I have not seen everything that Ljubljana has to offer, so some of the places mentioned in the fic will be “endorsed” by me (#NotSponsored), but others not so don’t take my word for it!

Alright, enjoy!

AO3 | S&C

--

TEAM

“I love you.”

To most people, the combination of those three words is one of the most beautiful things in the entire world. It fills people with exuberance and happiness.

But to Blaine, it only fills him with dread.

Quinn is looking at him with an expectant look on her face. She’s giving him time to say it back.

But he can’t.

When Quinn realises, her face betrays her anxiety for a split second, but just like Blaine she’s been taught to school her expression and suppress whatever she’s feeling. So instead of calling Blaine out on it, she kisses his cheek and walks away.

Blaine’s left behind. He watches Quinn leave with slumped shoulders. She is disappointed. They’ve been dating for almost a year so of course she’s disappointed.

And now Blaine is moving to Slovenia and this is how he’s going to leave things off?

“Quinn!” he yells and before he can stop himself, he sprints after her.

Quinn looks back over her shoulder and her eyes widen. She turns back to face him and she wants to say something, but before she can, Blaine plants a huge kiss on Quinn’s mouth. It’s utterly romantic and right out of a movie. It’s a passionate kiss between lovers in the midst of a crowded airport with one leaving the other behind.

Well, Blaine is leaving Quinn temporarily behind. He hopes to be back in Los Angeles in the summer and they’re going to do long distance.

Blaine kisses her fiercely in the hope that finally, finally, love will be spurred, but when Quinn breaks away to take a breath, he realises that he doesn’t feel any different. Kissing Quinn is nice, but it’s not the romance he is looking for and the realisation messes him up.

Why can’t he love her?

She loves him, why can’t he love her back?

Quinn smiles and fixes Blaine’s lapels. Her eyes are shining. All the previous disappointment has disappeared.

“See you in two months,” she says, still a bit out of breath. Quinn is indeed visiting in April.

“Right.”

“Call me when you land,” she says sweetly, “I don’t care about the time difference. I need to know you’re alright.”

“Right.”

“I love you.”

“… Right.”

Quinn’s smile falters a little bit when Blaine still doesn’t say he loves her, but she no longer looks devastated. She gives him a last small peck on the lips and then it’s ready to go. Blaine has a plane to catch.

--

Once Blaine lands in Ljubljana, he immediately calls Quinn, as promised. They talk briefly and Quinn is happy to hear that he’s landed safely. She congratulates Blaine on skipping Monday, since the time difference indeed made him skip Monday by flying from Sunday noon to Monday evening. That is nice.

“Do you know where to go next?” she asks.

Blaine hums. Of course he does. Quinn knows too, but it is nice of her to ask. Blaine has an apartment in the city and he tells Quinn he’ll be fine. His dad arranged it all. After all, that’s why Blaine’s here. He’s in Ljubljana to oversee the first European expansion of the family business.

“But why Lulj-Lju-Jul-” Quinn had muttered when Blaine first told her.

“Ljubljana.”

“Where even is that?”

“It’s the capital of Slovenia.”

“And where even is that?”

“East or Central Europe, right to Italy, underneath Hungary and Austria, and Croatia is to the right.”

Quinn had pouted.

“Yes, but why there? Why not London or Paris or Amsterdam? Why go somewhere that no one has heard of.”

This was a question that had been on Blaine’s mind as well, but Blaine’s dad was certain that Slovenia was the right country since it is incredibly prosperous compared to the other Balkan countries and it’s central position was great. It’s up and coming in the European Union, which is something that he liked as well.

Blaine admittedly didn’t care.

He just wanted to go away from everyone.

From Quinn.

Of course, he doesn’t tell Quinn that. He and Quinn continue to talk over the phone while Blaine claims his suitcases at the baggage claim. Once he’s outside the airport and he starts looking for a taxi he tells Quinn he has to go.

“Of course,” she says, “I love you, speak to you soon.”

Another I love you. She must be desperate to hear Blaine say it back and the pit in his stomach only grows. He cares for her, he really does. They’re a team. They’ve been a team ever since they met at Yale. He’d say that Quinn is his best friend, but he can’t say that he loves her. It makes him feel uneasy and sure Blaine’s never been in love before but he’s pretty sure that is not how it goes.

But he needs to push that away for now. He can’t dwell on his questionable relationship. He’s in a new country!

Luckily, another reason for picking Ljubljana is that Ljubljana has a high English proficiency. Blaine’s looked up some Slovene basics, but he can tell a taxi driver where to go in English and it’s a relief. He’s spent. He doesn’t have the energy to figure it out in Slovene.

Since Blaine lives in the city centre, it is a bit of a hassle to get there, but once he sets foot in his furnished apartment he finds his way to the bedroom and falls on the bed.

It’s been a long two days. He needs sleep. Life can continue tomorrow.

--

The apartment might’ve been furnished, but it is not stocked. That’s why Blaine immediately goes out into the city to find something to eat. He passed a grocery store yesterday on his taxi journey. Since he forgot to charge his phone in his exhaustion and he cannot open Google Maps, he decides to find it based on memory.

Which soon turns out to be a mistake.

Ljubljana is a relatively small capital, but it is still big enough to get lost if you’re new. Blaine keeps walking aimlessly and he follows the big main road until he sees a small park area. His stomach is still grumbling, but he’s intrigued. He knows that Tivoli Park is just outside the centre, so the greenery is a nice surprise.

His joy gets doubled when he sees a pizza place. It might not be the smartest idea, but Blaine walks towards it.

[gleefanfictionfriday]

July & August Masterpost

Between the months of July and August, we have 5 posting days. Below, you’ll find links to each of the stories posted, divided by author. We would LOVE to have more of you participate! It’s always awesome to have more authors and more new stories to read. Remember, you can fill any prompt any time after the prompt is posted, and you can post your fill any time after the posting day for the prompt. Please consider joining us!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t had a chance to yet, please check out the works that have been posted for our prompt fills! They’re amazing! Enjoy!

Stranger Than Crackfiction by @gleefulpoppet Multi-Chapter work: Chapters One through Five (Chapter Six now available) Summary: [AU] In the magical land of Hollywood where dreams come true, there’s an adage that states, "It’s impossible to tell what is real and what is fiction." It’s even harder for Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson to separate as they were thrown into stardom overnight six years ago, and their show, His & His, is still the hottest thing on TV. Add to that being head over heels in love with each other, addicted to fanfiction, and have a propensity for roleplaying, and it’s got everyone buzzing as fans try to decide what these Hollywood stars are up to. Because sometimes, reality is stranger than crackfiction. Read it now on AO3!!!

Braid of Gold by @jayhawk-writes​ (In Every Lifetime series Part 16) Multi-Chapter work: Chapters One through Four (Chapter Five now available) Summary: Kurt and Blaine ask Caphriel to make the decision about where they go next. He chooses a lifetime where Kurt and Blaine will have to navigate a situation they've not yet been in. They'll have to work through loss and betrayal and ultimately, their bond will be stronger as a family because of it. Read it now on AO3 or FF.net!!!

Stargazing Memories by @jayhawk-writes One-shot Summary: Kurt reminisces on some of his experiences here in Cassville while waiting for Blaine to show up. This is one of those memories. (This story was inspired by KB.Ellen’s Summer Story.) Read it now on AO3 or FF.net!!!

Nerds by @jayhawk-writes One-shot Summary: Kurt decides to move away from home for college to a much more liberal town than Lima. So what if it happens to be the same place his favorite team is? That’s just icing on the cake. He fully expects to go to classes and make friends. What he doesn't expect is to meet the love of his life in the most unexpected of places while wearing the most unlikely of outfits. Read it now on AO3 or FF.net!!!

Poppet’s Standards of Communication by @jayhawk-writes One-shot - Part of the Outlined on My Finger ‘verse Summary: Kurt and Blaine are excited to read and learn from Poppet as she releases her first book into the world. Their communication is already pretty good. How much better will it get after reading her advice? Read it now on AO3 or FF.net!!!

Could I Have This Dance? by @jayhawk-writes One-shot - Part of the Outlined on My Finger ‘verse Summary: This wasn't exactly what Blaine had in mind when he told Kurt he fantasized about lap dances. He loves it just the same, though, and he'll never think of science the same way again. (Directly follows Poppet’s Standards of Communication) Read it now on AO3 or FF.net!!!

Crimson Yarn by @teddyshoney​ (In Every Lifetime series Part 15) Multi-chapter work - Complete Summary: Back from New York, Kurt has just purchased a lake house in need of fixing up to keep him busy while he tries to heal from his past relationship. Back from LA, Blaine reluctantly takes a job from his father while he mourns the loss of his dream. Will red yarn, coffee, and some heavy conversation be enough for both boys to realize that there may be an answer to their healing right in front of them? Read it now on AO3 or FF.net!!!

Do You Have A Moo? by @teddyshoney One-shot - Part of the Klaine Goes to Daycare series Summary: Four-year-old Kurt is excited to get to daycare. Why? It's "'magination Friday," and they get to play dress-up. But thanks to having to eat breakfast before playing, Kurt doesn't get to play the part he wants to play. Blaine, however, is determined to make it all better for him. Read it now on AO3 or FF.net!!!

Five Letters and A Geronimo Lily by @teddyshoney One-shot Summary: Letters slipped under doors, flower delivery, showers, and singing. Shared apartment walls are typically so annoying. Not this time. This time, they're a blessing. Read it now on AO3 or FF.net!!!

Football and Gaga by @teddyshoney One-shot Summary: Kurt and Blaine have been dating for nearly 18 months when Blaine comes up with the perfect plan to surprise the love of his life. However, he missed just a few important details, and now he needs Burt's help—complete with codenames and phrases—if he's going to pull this off and give Kurt a magical 18 month anniversary. Read it now on AO3 or FF.net!!!

The Poetry Marathon by @teddyshoney One-shot Summary: Blaine's set himself a goal: 24 poems in 24 hours. He's focused, and he's going to complete his challenge. Kurt, on the other hand, would really like just a couple of moments to distract him because he NEEDS Blaine. Read it now on AO3 or FF.net!!!

[kurtstinypurse]

nothing but a senseless babble (klaine mini-fic)

so from how this week has gone, I ended up craving the chance to write something soft and fun. I have a list of the prompts I still haven’t filled, and I decided to use one of those and see what I could come up with! here’s a “ways to say I love you” mini-fic, prompted by @porcelainandthehobbit once upon a time.

also, thank you to the best @hippohead I know for convincing me this was worth writing & for always always being so so supportive :’) 

I hope a little escape of something sweet is even close to as good for some of you as it was for me <3

“No, Kurt. You’re going to have to cut it down. Your closet at school isn’t even going to fit half of what’s in that pile, and I am not giving you any room in mine.”

“But-”

“No!” Blaine interjects right away, exasperated at the sight of the veritable mountain of clothes in Kurt’s Bring to New York bin. By comparison, his Keep at Home box is sparse, Donate essentially empty. “Do you remember the tiny shoebox of a dorm room we’re going to be living in? Not to mention the sorry excuses of closets? We don’t have room.”

They’re going to be cramped enough as it is, inevitably at each other’s throats more often than not, being forced to share a space with room enough for two beds, two desks, and two dressers, but not much else. The model rooms on NYU’s housing website looked small enough, but Blaine has a suspicion the freshman dorms are even tinier, even older, even less comfortable.

But it’ll be worth it.

He really is looking forward to living with Kurt, to the endless opportunities for sleepovers and movie nights, study sessions and late night dance parties. They’re going to have exactly what they’ve more or less dreamed of for the better part of their friendship, since they were little kids, and it’s going to be awesome. He knows it.

But he isn’t looking forward to living with all of Kurt’s clothes and scarves and accessories and shoes and everything else.

“Yes,” Kurt huffs, folding his arms across his chest and lifting a petulant eyebrow in Blaine’s direction. “But I also remember that you didn’t exactly ‘cut down’ on any of your bowties when we packed your stuff.”

His voice is dripping with sarcasm, and then he uncrosses his arms to offer mocking air quotes to emphasize how ridiculous Blaine’s idea is - cut down? Yeah right.

It makes Blaine feel nothing but defensive, annoyance bubbling in his belly, magnified by the exhaustion from packing their stuff for the third day in a row, by his nerves about moving halfway across the country, by his fears of it all not working out how he’s hoped for so long.

Defending himself is easier than confronting all of that - and so he does.

“Bowties are tiny! Your clothes are-”

“Are you saying I’m large, Blaine?” 

“No! You’re perfectly in shape and you know it. I just meant-”

“Ooooh, you think I’m perfectly in shape?”

Kurt is fully taunting him now, grinning widely in that way where his eyes crinkle at the corners and his teeth barely peek out from the stretch of his lips, and it catches Blaine off guard, throws him for a loop as he realizes what he’s just said, too.

What it implies.

Blaine has noticed Kurt, obviously. He’s noticed him often, but of course he has - Blaine is gay, and Kurt is attractive and Kurt is right there, and it’s only natural.

He rarely lets himself acknowledge it in his own head, though, let alone out loud.

Let alone to Kurt.

“I- You-” Blaine stutters, gapes, finally manages to recover. “Stop being ridiculous, Kurt! You’re deflecting. Just- Cut your clothes down!”

“You love it,” Kurt insists, shoving the folded clothes between them to either side, scooting forward on the floor until they’re sitting right in front of each other, cross-legged, knees just shy of touching. “You love me.”

Of course he does. Of course he loves Kurt, loves how Kurt riles him up and makes him feel safe all at once, loves when they get like this and loves their comfortable silences, too, loves how his friendship with Kurt is everything and always has been everything, hopefully always will be.

But-

“No. You’re ridiculous, like I said.”

He isn’t ready to give it up.

“What- You don’t love me?” Kurt gasps dramatically, his hand thrown over his heart. “Your best friend of- god, nearly a decade? Your future roommate? Your-”

“Nope!” Blaine cuts in, biting back a grin, realizing he’s somehow become amused along the way instead of annoyed, feeling competitive now instead of irritated. “You’re ridiculous, and I hate you.”

Kurt narrows his eyes into a glare that usually sends a shiver down Blaine’s spine - but tonight, it only invigorates him, makes him want to dig into this deeper, see how far he can take it before one of them breaks.

Actually, before Kurt breaks. Because it won’t be Blaine.

Not tonight.

“You love me,” Kurt insists, his voice low, almost threatening, nearly chilling, and he leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, nearly close enough for Blaine’s vision to blur as he attempts to hold eye contact. “Tell me you love me.”

He’s pulling out all the stops.

Almost all the stops.

“No.” 

Blaine stays steady, schooling his face into a neutral expression, but he knows what’s next. They’ve been here before, testing each other, rapidly approaching a stalemate. Over the years, it’s evolved from bickering over what game to play to this, something much more loaded, full of the unsaid and the unacknowledged, never referenced outside of these moments, quiet lines never crossed, boundaries never pushed past the point of no return. 

He isn’t sure why he still bothers standing his ground, still bothers trying, because if he makes it this far, there’s only one way it ever ends, time and time again.

There’s one more of Blaine’s buttons that Kurt knows exactly how to push, one more thing that Kurt always uses as a last resort to get his way.

It should be predictable. Blaine should be ready for it.

He should harness the telltale glint in Kurt’s eyes, use it to brace himself, but instead, it just makes him freeze.

It gets him every time. It works every time, this now isn’t any different.

Kurt rears back, and he pounces.

Blaine vaguely registers the sound of a yelp that he feels ripping through his own throat, but he’s too focused on falling backwards and not hitting his head against the hardwood floor to be embarrassed of or even control the noises he’s making. He manages to land instead on a rogue pile of Kurt’s clothes-

And then he’s laser focused on the feeling of Kurt on top of him, lording over him, his impossibly quick fingers tickling Blaine’s sides, making him squirm, thrash, defenseless - and making him laugh, too, deep from the pit of his belly, his body shaking with the force of it.

“Tell! Me!” Kurt insists in the midst of his own peals of laughter, and it’s like his hands are everywhere, up to Blaine’s armpits and back down again, over his stomach, his arms, his chest, hitting all of his most ticklish spots without giving a second for mercy. 

It’s funny, and it hurts, and Blaine feels utterly hysterical with the childishness of it all, with Kurt straddling him, above him, consuming him, stealing the breaths right out of his chest, overwhelming and overly stimulating and-

“Fine! F-Fine, okay, I-” 

He almost breaks - wants to break, to make it stop - but he can’t get enough of the words out to forfeit. 

“You what, Blaine? You what?” Kurt eggs him on with a grin, leaning in closer, lowering his body down nearer to Blaine’s, a mere inch or two away from holding him down completely. It gives him better leverage - Blaine can tell based on the way Kurt’s fingers speed up, dig deeper, and the determination in Kurt’s eyes, steel blue ferocity.

He’s entirely ruthless.

Blaine squirms, arms flailing in search of a chance to push Kurt off, not finding it, hands grasping in the air, at the clothes on the floor, at Kurt, in a desperate search for purchase, but he can’t find that, either.

There’s only one thing left to do, and he musters all the air in his lungs to do it.

“I love you!” he finally gasps out, voice shaking with uncontrollable laughs, feeling completely wild and unhinged. “I love you, please, I love you, I love you-”

His voice chokes, dies in his throat, cutting off his near-senseless babble of a repetition when his eyes meet Kurt’s, and he finds a sort of intensity he’s never seen before, not from Kurt, not directed at him.

They stop moving at the same time.

They stop laughing at the same time.

They stop breathing at the same time.

Kurt is raised up on his hands now, bracketing either side of Blaine’s head, and he’s staring down at Blaine with flushed cheeks, wide eyes, parted lips, hair mussed and messy, so devastatingly gorgeous and so magnetic in a way that’s startlingly new. 

Blaine feels flushed, hot with the culmination of every touch and every breath since his back landed against the floor, and he isn’t sure when it all changed. 

He isn’t sure when they went from the way they’ve always been to this.

He can’t move, can’t look away. In the past frozen moments he’s gotten lost in Kurt's eyes, and now he’s stuck there, swimming in the pools of blue and green and gray, all there is.

“I love you,” he whispers again, feeling like he’s saying it for the very first time, the words holding a different weight on his tongue and shaping differently in his mouth, too, in his chest, in his bloodstream.

But there’s nothing else to say.

Kurt’s elbows buckle, and his fingers twine for a desperate hold through Blaine’s hair, and they’re kissing.

They’re kissing.

It’s deep and it’s hungry right from the start, nothing like the few tentative kisses Blaine has shared with a few tentative crushes in the past, nothing like what he thought kissing Kurt would be like.

Because, yes, he’s thought of this. He’s caught himself staring at Kurt’s mouth before, watching as Kurt absentmindedly sucks at his bottom lip while he studies, watching as Kurt sips from his designated straw in the milkshakes they share at their favorite diner, watching as Kurt nibbles the chocolate off of his biscotti at the Lima Bean. And he’s caught his mind drifting there, too, when he’s laying in bed at night, wanting.

Wanting.

But Blaine has never identified it as anything but his curiosities latching themselves onto the person closest to him. He’s never considered that the low, twisting coil that forms in his belly when Kurt locks eyes with him across the choir room and makes him feel like he’s the only person in the building could mean something more. He’s never paid much mind to the lift of his heart when Kurt touches him, to the fact that they both always seek out little excuses to stay close and to hug and to brush and to lean, to the strangeness of these teasing tests that they give each other, to what it all points towards.

He’s never considered that the way Kurt is the first thing on his mind every morning and the last thing every night could mean something, either, but that’s because it’s just how it’s always been, from the time they were children.

But maybe wanting Kurt, needing Kurt, loving Kurt is just how it’s always been, too.

And that’s why it doesn’t feel like a first kiss - because it isn’t, not really. There’s no hesitation to it, no question in the movements of their mouths or their hands or their bodies.

The testing has already been done.

It makes it easy for Blaine to reach and to grab, one hand grasping Kurt’s hip, rubbing his thumb in insistent circles at his hip bone, through his shirt, the other sliding up Kurt’s chest slowly, coming to cup his face, holding him close, holding him right where he is. It makes it easy for Blaine to plunge into the depths of their kiss, working Kurt’s mouth open with his tongue and then inside, tasting, learning, searching, finding.

It makes it easy for Blaine to allow himself to feel, to revel in the swirls of heat that form under his skin and thrum there with an energy that becomes addictive right away, every nerve ending in his body alert, awake, responding to every part of Kurt, too.

When they finally come up for air, parting just enough to breathe again, their foreheads leaned together, Kurt’s body now settled fully against Blaine’s with a weight that soothes him and ignites him all at once, there’s no panic, no embarrassment, no apology, no takebacks.

No explanation, because there doesn’t need to be one.

The moment holds them tenderly, allows Blaine the opportunity to resurface, to come into his senses and into his body again, settling into this newly awakened iteration of himself and of them, but it doesn’t take long.

This is him. This is them. 

And of all the changes they’re about to face together, from moving halfway across the country to learning how to navigate a new city to leaving everything but each other behind, this feels like the easiest one, already perfectly known, perfectly understood, fully formed and solid and unshakeable.

It almost doesn’t feel like a change at all.

When Blaine’s eyes flutter open, he finds Kurt’s already open, gazing down at him with a fondness that makes his breath catch, so close that Blaine’s vision blurs all over again as he attempts to focus, but the circumstances are all different now, slow instead of fast, purposeful instead of hysterical, building something together full of meaning and gravity instead of butting heads just for the sake of it.

He wants to stay here forever, laying in the clutter of all Kurt’s belongings, anchored by the literal weight of Kurt on top of him and of the feelings inside of him, too, the ones he finally has a name for, all slotted into place. 

“I love you,” Kurt murmurs, and warmth blooms like flowers in Blaine’s chest, threading him into the garden of Kurt’s words and his touches and the tenderness in his eyes, each and every bit of them blossoms of meaning and of intention and possibility.

“I love you, too,” Blaine whispers, cranes his neck up just enough to kiss Kurt all over again, and it’s all they need.

They both know what it means.

[pixiealtaira]

And the Thunder Rolls

This is the first of my Glee Summer Bang fics...but I decided it was too gloomy.

It is a Klaine Break-Up Fic and this Not Klaine or Blaine friendly.

Takes place right after the end of Junior Year:

The crash of thunder shook the house.  Kurt looked out to the pouring rain.  It was nearly pushed horizontal by the wind. “Very Blustery, my ass. Hurricane force winds would have been a better description,” Kurt muttered as he watched chaos out the window.   Kurt still felt that being out in the storm would be preferable than where he was currently at, that the chaos outside would be safer and somehow 'less' than the chaos inside his being as he listened to Blaine. Lightening ripped through the sky, near enough for  Kurt to just see the light of the flash and not a actual bolt  and for the thunder to roll right after it and actually shake the house. He wondered if Finn knew he had a flashlight in his room.  Rachel didn't like power outages. Kurt leaned closer to the window to see if he could see where it might have landed.

“Kurt, I don't think you are listening to me.” Blaine whined behind him. “Do I need to go get Finn and Rachel and have them listen to this as well?  I am setting out guidelines for how I want our summer to be and you just aren't really paying attention to me.  Stop looking out the window and look at me, the boyfriend. I am beginning to think you don't actually love me at all.  You are not at all focused where you need to be focused.” “Blaine, I love you.  I told you that just a few days ago.  And yes, you are my boyfriend.  But that doesn't give you permission to dictate my summer.” Light brightened the whole room again and thunder shook the house and Kurt wished it would just hit the house.  Maybe stop what he suspected would be a defining moment to everything for the whole of the rest of his life. Blaine huffed. “I'm not dictating your summer.  I'm just letting you know how things need to be so we can see each other more often during the summer. My dad got me this job, you know, and it is Important that I am my best during the time I am working and performing.  Important people might be watching, you know.  Nila said that Jason, one of the boys who left the year before I could perform at all, got scouted and got a modeling job and a job as a back-up singer for a band.  That could be me this year, but only if I'm at the top of my game.  I I can only be at the top of my game when I know you are focused on me. You need to know when to keep yourself free to come see me and visit me. If you don't do this for me like I want it done, well then, I'm afraid we will just not be able to see each other at all.” “And I told you I am not going to be going to the amusement park and paying 80  to 100 bucks a day just to see you on your break periods, especially if I'm not 'allowed' to spend the rest of the time enjoying the park.  You can come here on your days off or I can meet you at your place on your days off.” “You cannot go to my place.  I mean...I just haven't exactly told my folks I have a boyfriend yet...so you'll have to wait for that.  And my days off are all booked with family stuff or other things I need to do.  If you love me, you'll come see me on the days I listed at the park.  It is the only acceptable option.  I just do not understand why you are having a problem with this.  A good boyfriend would be perfectly willing to do this for me, I'll have you know. And it's not like I'm asking more than others who work there have.  Nila's boyfriend was there three days a week last summer. Matt and Ryan both worked there, so I guess they don't really count, but it was so unfair watching those guys making out and whatnot and yet the rest of us had to just make due.  Now, this year, I'VE got the boyfriend and so you need to come to the park so I can have good breaks too.  You need to come on the days I listed earlier for certain and also whenever I text that the day would be a good day for you to be there. I NEED you to be there for me, Kurt.  I need to be able to show the others that I'VE got a boyfriend and that he does what I ask of him. But, you also can't like hang out with anyone, or talk to anyone...I mean, you are great and all but you just don't exactly talk about the kinds of things the other kids who work at the park do and so I need you to remember that...but also you need to make sure they know you are only at the park for me...you'll need to sit off to the side of where ever I am, just smiling and making eyes at me.” Kurt closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The lightening hit again and the thunder rolled and the lights in the house flickered and Kurt heard Rachel screech from Finn's room. There had been nothing in any of Blaine's demands for summer about wanting to spend time with Kurt, himself.  Just about wanting to have the boyfriend be there to be seen.  And curtailing as much joy as Blaine possibly could in his demanded excursions. “Blaine. You are being unreasonable.” “I am not. I am being perfectly reasonable. Boyfriends show up to support their significant other when their significant other wants them to, in whatever manner asked.  That is why people have boyfriends and girlfriends.  To have them there when they want them to be there for them.  To show off.  And if you do things the way I told you you need to, everyone will see how devoted you are to me, and to me alone.  It will do wonders for what the others think of me, you there just sitting and looking at me and not even thinking of anything other than me. But, don't try too hard.  And like, don't practice making sexy faces or longing faces or anything.  You don't do sexy.  You do longing OK, so maybe stick to staring at me longingly. It will be cute. Then it will be perfect. I mean, Nila's boyfriend just stopped by to make out with her when lines were too long for rides he wanted to ride, he didn't focus on her only.  Just think how jealous she will be when MY boyfriend just pays attention to Me in such a cute way.”   “No” The flash of lightening hit close enough that even the air in the house felt charged.  The thunder was nearly deafening. It wasn't loud enough to cover Blaine's scream. “What do you mean 'No'? You are my boyfriend, you can't just say no.” “I did just say No. No. I am not going the amusement park, at over 100 bucks a pop when you add travel and food, multiple days over the summer just to sit and stare at you...it is just not happening. There are many reasons why....not the least of which is I would be bored out of my mind. I don't have the time, or money, or inclination to be some sort of living statue for you to use to boost you ego in some sort of ego war with your co-workers. I have work, too, Blaine. And I NEED my paychecks that I get over the summer to be able to enjoy my school year.  They pay for my clothing, any time spent shopping or out to the movies or dinner or coffee or anything else fun.  I could maybe do ONE trip to the amusement park to see you...and to enjoy the park when you can't be with me and thus get my money's worth. I can not go at least twice a week every week all summer long, with a third or maybe even fourth trip to see you on demanded days at a texts notice.” “But Kurt, if you loved me...” And Kurt saw the next bolt of lightening hit.  It hit a transformer on one of the street light poles the block over and half a block down. The thunder shook the house as the lights went out. Rachel screamed like Finn was stabbing her or something.  Finn started screaming as well, telling her to calm down.  Kurt was glad, though, because with the power out Blaine could not see the tears running down his face, with with how Kurt was standing. “I guess I don't love you then.  Not if that is what you think Love requires of me. ” Kurt said, turning to look at Blaine instead of a flames spouting from the blown transformer.  He could already hear the sirens of the police and fire trucks responding to it. “And if you loved ME, and not just the notion of a boyfriend, you would have never demanded any of what you have today.” “Of course I love you.” “No, you don't.  Because if you did, you would know me well enough to not have come here and said any of what you have said in the last hour. You would know me well enough to know I can't afford your plan in the first place.  We don't have that kind of money. You would have listened to me enough to know that I will have a full 40 hour week at the garage every week, and will have hours of work at other places as well.  You would have known about other demands on my time over the summer.  You would have realized I would like to be able to do things with you that I would like to do as well, like go  swimming or go to play mini-golf. Or take you to the car shows with me and have you ride in the parades at the fairs with me.  You would know that I don't like just sitting doing nothing for long periods of time. But you don't seem to know or care about any of that, so you must not actually love me.” “Now Kurt, stop being hysterical and silly. You know none of that is true. You might work at the garage but what do you actually do there, huh? Sweep?  No one needs you there, and what else do you really have to do...that is as important or more important than me?  It is just, face it, your time and my time are not equal.  My folks plans are important.  I need to be there and show up with acceptable company, so  those periods of time are out.  My work...performing is hard, Kurt and the rest of the work at the park is just as difficult.  Do you even know what it is like to have to deal with parents who are upset because their kid is too small for a ride?  That is so much more challenging than anything you might be doing.” “And that just proves you don't actually love me at all.  Blaine, as soon as this storm calms, you need to go home.  Have a great summer. Maybe if I get in touch with Jeff or Nick or anyone else from Dalton, I'll have them say Hello from me, but I won't be getting hold of you for a while.  I need a clean break.  And you need someone else, who can love you like you think love works.” “What are you talking about?” “I am breaking up with you.  This isn't what I want from a relationship. It isn't what I need.” Kurt turned around again and stared out the window.  The lightening strike was far enough away that the whole sky didn't seem to light up with it.  Kurt counted a full Mississippi before he heard the thunder. Blaine was still talking to him, trying to tell him he couldn't break up with him and  how mistaken Kurt was and how Kurt was purposefully being difficult and misunderstanding everything and making a big show and fuss about things. The rain was coming down more vertically again, just as hard and violently, but in a more natural angle and Kurt could tell the fire was out over where the lightening had hit.  He could see a vehicle from the power company over in the area.  The chaos was calming...and things seemed to be easing up.  Kurt wouldn't be surprised if within the next half hour the storm had settled into an steady gentle rain. Oddly enough, he rather felt like he'd settled into an oddly calm and settled state as well.  He wondered if he'd feel bad latter, if he'd feel more crushed and upset at the end of his first relationship, but for now...he felt like he was easing into a peaceful gentle state of being. Not sunshine yet, but the knowing that it could be soon.

[lady-divine-writes]

Klaine one-shot “Artistic Differences” (Rated NC17)

Summary: Kurt and Blaine have known each other all their lives. They've loved each other almost as long. But as Blaine uses his love for Kurt as inspiration for his music, Kurt has yet to reciprocate. And since painting is Kurt's entire world, Blaine is worried about what that might mean for the two of them. (2703 words)

Notes: I had been writing this for the @klaineadvent Drabble Challenge 2020 prompt 'opinion'. I finally finished it. Wee! XD

Read on AO3.

Baby, you're not alone...

'Cause you're here with me...

And nothing's ever gonna bring us down...

'Cause nothing can keep me from lovin' you...

And you know it's true...

It don't matter what'll come to be...

Our love is all we need to make it through...

Blaine stops singing when he notices an echo haunting his lyrics, lingering on the high notes for longer than written. He listens with eyes closed, smiling at his keyboard. 

His boyfriend Kurt, humming behind the melody. 

Blaine has been ironing this song out for the past three hours now but Kurt hasn't complained once about the constant stopping and starting.

He never does. 

Blaine peeks over his shoulder as he continues to play with the harmonies and watches Kurt, focused on the canvas in front of him, swaying to the rhythm of the music, happily sandwiched between his two passions - art and music.

It's a mild and sunny Saturday - a whole day devoted to cleaning up commissions and tying loose ends on weekly projects before their one day off together. Blaine and Kurt share a studio space - normally unheard of for an artist and a musician, but they make it work. It helps that they've known one another for so long that being alone together is the same as being alone with themselves. That also means they get the inside scoop on what the other is working on long before the public does.

And what they're not working on, which has begun to bother Blaine.

Blaine adores everything his talented boyfriend comes up with. Even regarding his more controversial works, there isn't a thing Kurt has painted that Blaine finds objectionable. Kurt puts his heart and soul into every painting, no matter who it's for, and no matter the subject. A writer from Artforum once wrote: "Kurt Hummel goes beyond the veil to showcase not just the external, but the core of every subject - their drives and motivations. It pairs nicely with the transparency of his own soul, which shines through the gouache and the gesso to leave the viewer with a tangible piece."

And therein lies the root of Blaine's problem.

A glance at one of Kurt's canvasses and the world knows everything it needs to about what he loves.

But one subject in particular has gone wholly unrepresented.

“How come you've never painted a portrait of me?” Blaine asks.

"Hmm... what's that, love?" Kurt mutters, switching out brushes, then moving from a blob of Titanium White to a smear of Winsor Blue.

"How come you've never painted a portrait of me?" Blaine rises off his piano bench and relocates to the wooden folding chair behind Kurt's easel in the hopes of pulling his attention a bit. "You've been an artist for as long as I've known you, and I've known you your entire life. But not once have you ever painted a portrait of me."

“Why do I need to? I have you right here," Kurt says, pretending to bop the tip of Blaine's nose with his brush. "Besides, these aren’t personal." His gaze bounces between the three canvases set on easels in an arc in front of him. "They’re bought and paid for.”

"But what about your private stuff? You've shown me your sketchbooks and your digital art files. Unless you have some hidden folder marked 'secret boyfriend art' that I've yet to come across, there's not a single piece of me in any of your work."

Kurt doesn't steer his gaze away from the apple he's adding highlights to to acknowledge his pouty boyfriend, but the corner of his mouth hitches. "If you say so, dear."

"I know so," Blaine grumps, crossing his arms over his chest and dropping back in the chair so hard he nearly topples it over.

"That's your opinion."

"You're evading."

"Is it really so important to you?"

"Yes! It would be nice to be immortalized by my artist boyfriend!"

Kurt snickers. "Are you that much of a narcissist?"

"Your art is important to you! More than that - it's your life! You paint everything that you love! You've made dozens of paintings of Finn, your father, your mother, your Navigator... "

"My Navigator is my baby. It deserves love. I don't get to drive it much living in the city," Kurt defends. "Besides, those paintings I posted on Instagram landed me a huge contract with Lincoln, and that paid for our month-long tryst to Bali. You're welcome, by the way."

"I'm not saying I'm not grateful... " Blaine pauses, the smile on his face a souvenir from thirty straight days of overindulgence in sex and alcohol. "I think I more than proved that on that private beach? Under the moonlight?"

"Yeah, you did," Kurt growls, silently hoping that will be the end of this discussion.

"But... " Blaine picks up and Kurt's heart sinks.

No luck.

"... nowhere am I present in your work. Not that I've seen. Not even in the abstract. And that makes me think... " 

"Think what?" Kurt mutters, his playful attitude fading the longer this conversation drags on.

Blaine sighs, realizing how much like a spoiled toddler he sounds. But he's in too deep to stop now. "That you don't expect me to be around long."

Kurt's snicker turns into a full-blown chortle. "We've been together forever! You staked a claim on me in kindergarten! Are you suddenly going somewhere?"

"Can't you take this seriously?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because it's ridiculous!"

Blaine huffs. "Great. So my feelings are ridiculous."

"No, Blaine, your feelings are valid. This argument is ridiculous. Believe it or don't, you don't know everything about me. Or my work. What does it matter what I put on a canvas? I told you that I love you! That I would always love you! I tell you over and over and over! Those are my words! My truth! Listen to my truth!"

"B-but what if you change your mind?" Blaine grimaces when that toddler inside him begins throwing an all-out tantrum.

"Then I change my mind!" Kurt groans, slamming his free hand down on an open tube of Dandelion Green, sending a thick ribbon of paint a good four feet. "I'm allowed to change my mind! And so are you! But I don't see that happening!"

"Then why won't you marry me?"

Kurt pulls a face, probably without thinking about it. "Because I'm not very fond of marriage."

"Why not? Your parents had a great marriage! And your father has a wonderful second marriage!"

"But your parents don't have a very good marriage, do they? Nor your older brother, who's been divorced twice already! " Kurt argues, frustration causing him to forget himself and clean his stained hand on the untucked hem of his shirt instead of a rag. That should be a huge red-flag for Blaine to back down, yet he doesn't. Common sense? Sorry, don't know her. "And the national average isn't that great, either. Doesn't it mean more that I choose to stay with you instead of feeling obligated to?"

Blaine doesn't have an answer for that, even though the answer is obviously yes. Of course, it does. And in high school, that would have been enough to shut Blaine up. But admitting to that feels too much like conceding, and this one time, this is an argument he wants to win. "Did you hear that song I've been working on?" Blaine asks, switching gears so quickly, it puts Kurt on edge.

"Yes," Kurt replies, his voice becoming tight quickly. "It's lovely."

"I wrote it for you."

"Thank you. It sounds wonderful. Another huge hit in the making."

"It's the 15th song I've written in your honor."

"Wow," Kurt says dryly, predicting the direction this is heading. "That many?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's an incredibly kind and loving gesture, one that I didn't know required reciprocation."

"It doesn't require reciprocation. But it would be nice."

Kurt rolls his eyes at Blaine's agenda. Tit for tat. Is that how this is supposed to work? "From what I remember, those songs made you a pretty penny."

"So?"

"So, it's not like you wrote them for me and kept them between us. Most of those songs are chart-toppers."

"But I didn't release them for the money! I wouldn't care if they didn't make me a dime! I put them on the albums because I'm not afraid to let the world know how I feel about you!"

Kurt's brow furrows as he fights through a blooming headache to decode that declaration. Once he gets it, he gasps. "I'm not hiding you away if that's what you're implying! You go with me EVERYWHERE! Every gallery opening, every art show! There have been articles written about our relationship! You're no dirty little secret!"

"I never said I was."

"No?" Kurt chuckles bitterly. "You're sure implying it a great deal!"

"That's not what this is about."

"You're right. It's not. Blaine!" Kurt tosses his brush into a mug of water and starts pacing the floor. "I am a gay artist walking a very fine line."

"I'm a gay artist, too!" Blaine says, offended.

"But you're a musician. And a songwriter. Musicians are supposed to use love as their muse. Writing about your relationship is expected... unless you're Taylor Swift, apparently."

"Yeah. What's up with that?"

Kurt shrugs. "I don't know. The point is that the second I make a piece of art about our relationship in any way, shape, or form, I'm afraid that's all it will be about, no matter what I intend."

"Isn't art supposed to be subject to interpretation?"

"That's just it! If I hint that my art has anything to do with you, that will become the only interpretation. Because too many straight people see the homosexual experience as solely about the right to fuck who we want to fuck and nothing else. I make a portrait about you or dedicated to you, and after that... " Kurt's eyes leave Blaine's face, scanning the room and his canvasses all around for help making his argument. He finds a painting of a forest they hiked through in Bali and stops there "... a tree that I paint will no longer be just a tree. It will become a symbol. In a forest of evergreens, if one needle is slightly browner than the rest because the paint oxidizes weirdly or whatever, then it'll be about you and me on the skids and nothing else. And I don't want that to happen."

Blaine turns in his chair to find the painting Kurt is staring at. On the surface, it's trees, dirt, and sky, but underneath, it's much more than that. That painting of their beloved paradise is perfection - so much so that he can feel the sun on his face, the breeze kissing his cheek, smell the sunscreen on his skin. "I understand what you're saying, but... "

"But?" Kurt grinds out between his teeth. This is the frustrating thing about arguing with Blaine. Even when he says he sees Kurt's point of view, he doesn't seem to really.

And when he's not winning, he gets dismissive.

"... I think you're overthinking things a little."

"And you're not?"

"Another evade," Blaine says, pointing at him in a way reminiscent of his brother's only acting technique.

Kurt grabs the hair at his temple and pulls to keep from flinging the palette in his hand like a frisbee at Blaine's head. "Isn't it more important that you know how I feel about you? You inspire me every day! Your love, your support, your music - they feed my soul! But do I have to plaster it on a wall to make it real?"

"That's kind of an empty question because you don't! There are no paintings of me! Not even in our apartment! And I'm sorry, but I think that's very telling!"

Kurt nods, his lips pulled taut. "You're right, Blaine. Not one. And it is very telling." He drops his palette on his work table and circles the room, grabbing finished canvases and carrying them over. He positions them purposefully, placing some under UV lights he has mounted to runners on the ceiling. 

"What... what are you doing?" Blaine asks with worry, wondering if Kurt is about to do something hasty, something that will ruin his paintings, waste all those hours of work, jeopardize the money he has yet to collect for them. 

Kurt doesn't answer. 

He doesn't even look at him. 

He works silently, his shoulders rigid, his footsteps heavy as he collects paintings Blaine forgot about, paintings that had made Blaine bristle because they were of places they had been to together, things they had made a point to see only with each other, but not a one included him. Those Kurt flips upside down.

He swipes a squeeze bottle of clear liquid from his army of supplies. It could be water. It could be paint thinner. Blaine doesn't know, but he's not certain he wants to find out. He's about to leap off his seat to stop him, but Kurt switches off the overhead lights, turns on the UVs, and Blaine stops. He watches in horror as Kurt douses the flipped canvases in fluid, but the paint doesn't run. Whatever is in that bottle, it sticks, but only in certain areas, and before it dries completely, Kurt dusts the paintings with a fine powder, one that brings hidden images to life beneath the lights.

“Oh my God,” Blaine mutters, stepping back to get a better look.

Every painting, in one way or another, is of him. Of them. And not just recently. There are images of them from college, high school... middle school. There are profiles of Blaine in the negative space between flowers of one painting, and in the clouds of another. A fluorescent image of teenaged him playing guitar to a silhouette of Kurt sitting beside him. There are shadows of them dancing, singing, even a daring one of them making love up against a wall. 

And the flipped landscapes? Their vacation pictures, as it were? The glowing dust reveals portraits hiding in plain sight, painted upside down and invisible to the naked eye. All of these images, Kurt painted in ways where no one would detect them if they weren't looking for them. If they didn't know they were there.

And they are in every. single. one.

Now that he's seen this, it's safe to assume all of Kurt's works carry similar Easter eggs, even paintings long gone.

"Why... why didn't you tell me about this?" Blaine asks, too stuck on stupid to move, walk from painting to painting and examine them properly.

"Why did I need to? I love you. I've told you. What else did I need to prove?"

Blaine shakes his head slowly, ashamed of himself. What an imbecile he is! Kurt is absolutely right. He loves him! He didn't need to prove it! The hurt Blaine felt - that was on��him. It wasn't Kurt's responsibility to fix it. There isn't a day that goes by where Kurt doesn't show his love to Blaine in one way or another. Blaine didn't need this. He really didn't.

And right now, he doesn't feel he deserves it.

On a side note, how wrapped up in his own crap has he been that here, in this space that they share, where proximity has forced Kurt to memorize every song Blaine has been writing for his latest album while he paints, that he never realized just how frickin' talented his boyfriend is!?

"Kurt... " Blaine finally finds the strength to take a step forward, drawn to that ghostly image of them making love. It's a simple shadow of the moment, but it evokes a powerful memory "... these are incredible. How did you... ?" Blaine expects an answer before he can finish. Kurt is rarely shy about discussing his work.

Though Blaine should use this opening to his advantage - apologize since those should have been the first words out of his mouth.

But he gets nothing.

"Kurt?" Blaine looks over his shoulder in search of his boyfriend, ready to make amends. 

But Kurt is gone.

[todaydreambelieversfic]

Author Spotlight: Kuhlaine Day 1

Author: @kuhlaine 

How did you get into Glee and Glee fandom?

My best friend was very into the show from the beginning, but after some pushing from a few others I finally started watching during season two! I was instantly hooked, and since my best friend was already super into the show it was very easy to fall into the fandom after that.

In general, what drew you into writing (and/or creating)?

I've been writing since I was a kid! I wrote my first short story in Kindergarten about a little girl who rides a horse for the first time. I had some wonderful teachers who nourished my creativity and encouraged me to keep writing throughout my childhood, and now here we are!

What was it about Glee that made you decide to write fanfic for it?

I had already written quite a bit of fanfic before I joined the Glee fandom, but I didn't start writing Glee fic until I'd been watching the show for about a year or two. I'd written a lot of self-insert fics for different fandoms because I was a very self-indulgent teenager, but didn't want to do that for Glee, so I never felt compelled to write anything about it. My first ever Glee fic was an unfinished general fic about the New Directions going to Six Flags together over the summer! I then wrote two unfinished Klaine fics that I never posted (thankfully, because they were awful). 

I 'left' the fandom shortly after the final season aired. I was in college at the time and was trying to generally limit how much time I spent on Tumblr/Twitter. But, in 2018, I started a podcast where I read one of the awful fanfictions I wrote as a kid, and wondered what it would be like to try writing fic again. I was burnt out creatively at the time, after having graduated in 2017 from a creative writing program, and really wanted to write something fun and indulgent! I immediately felt drawn to Glee since it was the fandom I was most recently a part of, and decided to try writing fic again shortly after!

Have you been a part of other fandoms before? Have you written fanfiction pre-glee?

I wrote a whoooooole bunch of fanfiction pre-Glee. Glee was actually the fandom I wrote the LEAST fic for back in the day. I started off in the Harry Potter fandom, and wrote several absolutely awful self-insert fics. I mostly wrote boyband self-insert fics when I was much younger (Tokio Hotel, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, etc), that were also not good at all, and very cringy to re-read. My few Glee fics were my first attempt at a non-self-insert fic!

Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

I have some vague plans for an 'accidental marriage' fic that I'm hoping to work on in the near future!

Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

Oof, quite a few. Mpreg and d/s mainly. But I'm also not a huge fan of soulmate aus, or single parent aus so I probably won't be writing either of those at any point.

How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

I'm nurturing about a dozen different ideas at the moment, but I'm only concretely working on one of them at the moment! I can't handle working on more than one project at a time sadly! 

My current WIP is a badboy!blaine enemies-to-lovers multi-chapter, but I also have outlines for a Devil Wears Prada inspired AU, a chef!kurt/waiter!blaine AU, and the accidental marriage au I mentioned earlier!

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Check out Kuhlaine’s Fics

One More Day is Not Enough -  Kurt Hummel's rise from social outcast to co-captain of the illustrious Cheerio's is anything but cliche. What's exceedingly bland is his best friend, Quinn Fabray's, new relationship with McKinley's latest all star quarter back, Blaine Anderson. However, Blaine's wandering eye for his girlfriend's second in command keeps things from being anything but ordinary.

Cross the Line -  Blaine Anderson has a lot to look forward to this year. It's his final year at NYU, he's landed his dream internship at Sue Sylvester Productions, and he got to spend the night with a beautiful boy he met on the dance floor while out with his friends. On Blaine's first day of his internship he realizes he has a very big problem. Kurt Hummel, the beautiful boy from the dance floor, is his new boss.

Even Then, Especially Now -  Some would say it’s fate that brings Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson together during their freshman year at NYADA. They’re halves of a whole, peas in a pod, birds of a feather — two people who were destined to find one another. When a series of misunderstandings lead them to pursue relationships with other people, they’ll need more than fate to find their way back to one another.