Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s ridiculous, that’s what it is.

If Tina or Sam knew about it, Blaine would never get a moment’s peace again. They’d bring it up at every opportunity. Birthdays, Christmas, random weekends, sleepovers, days out, phone calls… And Cooper. They would definitely tell Cooper.

So it’s best that Blaine keeps it quiet that he has been following ThreeDomsToRuleThemAll on Tumblr for six months. Had been listening to their posts for almost three years before even getting up the nerve to follow them, to admit to himself that they were a regular part of his life. There’s also their Twitter, and Instagram, and the day Blaine got followed back by their main account on Twitter, he might have squealed. And rolled his chair back. And then overbalanced, tipped the chair over, and almost died. His Mom had completely panicked when he came downstairs with blood trickling down the back of his neck, but that’s a whole other story.

As the name suggests, the blog specialises in domination. The three people who run it are Elk, who posts the more explicit domination audio, Dae, the only one who does video and is also the one most likely to interact with their audience, and Kimber.

Blaine really likes Kimber.

He posts audio every Thursday morning, and by the time Blaine gets home from school and can actually listen to it, he’s always wound up tight. Kimber’s audio is nothing like the others. Dae and Elk are explicit to the extreme; ask a lot from their followers. Kimber is softer, doesn’t actually post anything with orders to do with sex. The power behind his words is unmistakeable, but his intent isn’t to get people off. Sometimes his audio is guided meditation, other times he motivates, a few times he’s set challenges and asked people to keep him updated through Instagram.

Kimber doesn’t post much about his personal life. Between their set days, Elk and Dae often run Q&A sessions, and that’s how Blaine finds out that the three of them are in a band in New York City. Kimber takes part in the sessions, but he only answers advice questions. It’s through the others that Blaine gradually learns more about his mysterious crush, little crumbs they drop that he hoards in a way that his friends would probably call unhealthy.

Blaine doesn’t care.

He’s not stupid. He knows they have thousands of followers, that he’s one of many lovesick people eagerly awaiting Kimber’s posts. It doesn’t mean he can’t wish there was more to it than that.

He rushes home from school on Thursday, like he does every week. It’s been a bad day, a surprise test in his first class setting the mood for the rest of them. There’s a note on the fridge telling him that his parents have gone to visit his grandmother for a long weekend, and they’ll be back sometime on Sunday. Blaine had forgotten that that was this week.

Any other time he might have been annoyed, but if it means he gets the house to himself and doesn’t have to hide in his room to listen to Kimber’s newest post, he’s fine with it. Dae had posted a teaser on Instagram the night before, of a man silhouetted against a bright blue light, holding a fork in one hand.

K’s got something extra special cooking for you ready for tomorrow! Not binaural though, sorry babes!

Blaine normally listens to Kimber with his headphones, less because he’s worried about his parents overhearing and more because he likes the intimate feeling of it. Kimber does most of his audio binaurally, so it feels like he’s moving around and whispering in Blaine’s ear, like he’s really in the room. If today’s post isn’t binaural, and the house is empty, Blaine decides to indulge.

He sets his laptop up in the kitchen, makes a sandwich, turns off the light, and hits play.

“Hello there.”Kimber’s not quite whispering, but he’s speaking softly enough that Blaine has to strain to hear him. “I thought we’d do something a little different today. I have a real… craving, for cake, so I’m going to bake one. You’re going to bake one too. You don’t need to worry though, I’m right here to talk you through each step. You just have to listen carefully, and do exactly as I say.”

Blaine’s sandwich ends up forgotten on the counter in his rush to gather the ingredients Kimber wants him to have, to do the things he wants him to do.

It’s very easy, wanting to please Kimber.

He tweets a photo of his cake later that night, adds Kimber and cake, what a perfect dessert! Can’t wait for next week’s post!

He gets retweeted by the main account, and another half an hour later he gets a new follower. Kurt Hummel. 21. NYC.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out just who he is.

Blaine gets a new message, and ends up squealing into his hands.

Looks tastier than mine did, you’re a natural! Good boy.

Chapter Text

Kurt doesn’t message him for the rest of the week. Blaine doesn’t reply, doesn’t know how, and he suddenly becomes very self-conscious about what he tweets because Kurt keeps on following him. He stays extra respectful and doesn’t tweet as much as he normally does, until Tuesday morning when Sam steals his phone to take a photo of the two of them in full superhero get-up before school and tweets it on Blaine’s account.

Kurt favorites it, and Blaine can’t seem to stop himself from smiling for two days straight.

It’s Elk who puts up a teaser on Wednesday night this time, a five second video of a pillow being fluffed while someone hums in the background.

Kimber hopes you’re all ready for a little breather tomorrow!

Blaine’s gone through Kurt’s followers on twitter—mostly family and friends from the looks of things—and is confident that Elk is actually someone called Elliott, because he occasionally posts YouTube videos of him singing and Blaine recognises his voice. Dae is obviously Dani, her profile photo matches the girl in the videos Dae posts on Tuesdays. He follows them both without really thinking about it, and is surprised when they follow him back.

Dani goes a step further and follows his Instagram and Tumblr. The latter must have required some serious sleuthing, Blaine tries hard to keep his Tumblr URL away from all his other social media. Future employers don’t need to know how deep his love of bowties, hot guys in suits, and 80’s music goes.

They especially don’t need to know about the fanfiction.

Blaine finds himself hoping that she hasn’t shared any of the things she’s found with Kurt. There are definitely a few gushing posts about Kimber—very deliberately not tagged with anything that could lead them to be found—that he will die of embarrassment from if Kurt ever says he’s read them.

Which isn’t likely, since aside from favoriting that one tweet and the message from Thursday, Kurt hasn’t acknowledged Blaine’s existence.

His audio post goes up on Thursday morning like always, and while Blaine is in Glee Club, Kurt tweets on his personal account for the first time that week.

@elliottgilbert @danigotback One Three Hill pre-Christmas performance on Dec. 23rd at Spangles. Hope some of you can make it! 

Blaine doesn’t pay any attention to Mr Schue for the rest of the hour, too busy working out how to explain to his parents his sudden desire to be in New York two days before Christmas. By the time everyone is packing up to go home, Blaine has found a flight, a hotel, and is working on his speech to his parents about the importance of independence now that he’s eighteen. He doesn’t think for a second that they’ll let him go, but he can hope.

They aren’t home when he gets back, so Blaine locks himself in his room and goes to ThreeDomsToRuleThemAll. Kimber’s audio is up with a set of instructions typed out below them.

Normally I let you all decide how you want to listen, but today I have a very specific set up I want you to follow. You must be certain you aren’t going to be interrupted for the next TWO hours before you press play. There is a download link below. No viruses or anything, I promise, just download the audio and put it on your iPod, MP3 player, phone, or whatever you usually listen to music with. I want you to listen to this in your room. On your bed.

Lie down flat on your back, with your curtains or blinds closed so the room is dark. If there’s still light coming from somewhere, block it out. I want you to be in complete darkness. Have one pillow beneath your head, headphones on, and then press play.

I’ll be waiting.

It’s a relaxation exercise. Blaine closes his eyes and lets Kimber’s voice wash over him. He’s instructed to let his body go lax. Kimber talks him through each toe, finger, limb going heavy. Once Blaine’s completely relaxed, Kimber starts talking about letting go of any stress or bad thoughts, does a step by step walk through of a visualisation exercise, gives little orders for Blaine to follow. It’s just a series of move this hand, say this out loud, picture this, remember that, but by the time Kimber starts to wind the session down, Blaine’s whole body is warm with pleasure. Kimber only normally praises at the very end of the audio, but today he’s followed every prompt with a “well done” or a “thank you for doing that for me”, and for the first time since Monday, Blaine doesn’t feel like he’s about to itch right out of his skin. The last ten minutes are Kimber instructing how to remake the bed. He ends with a soft “good bye, we’ll meet again next week” and Blaine actually whines at the thought of waiting a whole week to hear that voice again.

He could just listen to one of Kimber’s old posts again, but there’s something about being made to wait another seven days each time that gives Blaine some strange satisfaction.

He tweets instead, a photo of the freshly made bed with his iPod and headphones on the pillow, and writes: Feeling very sleepy right now, 7 days until my next dose of Kimber :(

He gets favorited by Dani and Elliott as well as the main account, and Dani retweets him with a winky face and messages him a link to a private YouTube playlist of One Three Hill rehearsals. All the videos Blaine had found of One Three Hill before had been shaky handhelds that were out of focus, taken by a fan who was surrounded by people cheering and singing along. The rehearsals are much more satisfactory to watch, and Blaine loses himself in the strip of pale skin that shows between Kurt’s pants and shirt whenever he stretches between songs.

 Kurt messages him an hour later, waiting until it was more evening than afternoon, like last time. A natural baker and now nice straight edges. You’re being so good for me.

Blaine decides that even if he has to beg on his knees every day until December 23^rd, he will get his parents to agree to let him go to the show.  

Thursday evenings are definitely his new favorite.

Chapter Text

Blaine starts to hear more from Kurt.

They don’t talk directly, exactly. Kurt follows his Instagram now as well as his Twitter, and Blaine begins to get regular likes on his photos, silly little comments about his clothes suiting him or his food looking tasty. Things that should not make his heart flutter as much as they do.

Blaine has been sulking for most of the week, because his parents are still firmly in the no camp when it comes to their youngest son taking a sudden trip by himself to a strange city in another state where he doesn’t know anybody. Logically, Blaine can see their point. He could have lied, said he was staying with a friend of a friend, and they would have said yes because they trust him.

It’s just… Blaine can’t lie. Not to his mother.

He lies to his dad all of the time; little white lies that make day to day life easier. Yes I checked my oil or No, Sam and I aren’t still dressing up or Of course I remembered to empty the dishwasher. He can’t pull that sort of stuff with his mom though, because unlike his dad, his mom actually checks things. And she does that Mom Thing of “I’m not angry with you, Blaine, darling. I’m just very disappointed in the decisions you have made today. I know my son is better than this.”

Blaine remembers several occasions when Mama Anderson’s disappointed eye crinkle had made Cooper start to cry, and his younger self had been desperate not to face the same fate in his own teen years. In five years he’d only earned the disappointed talk twice, and he wasn’t going to make it a third by lying to her face.

He goes on a bit of a rant about it, actually, late on Tuesday night on Tumblr. Since Dani started following him there he hasn’t really heard from her, and when he makes the post he’s actually forgotten she knows his URL. The ask he gets thus comes as a complete surprise.

Mom stares are the WORST. You guys are arguing about coming to see our gig??? Babe that’s so flattering, wish we could help you out! I can’t even offer you our couch, E’s baby sis and her roomie are staying with us for the hols and have taken residency. Don’t you know anyone in NYC you could shack up with for the night to reassure her? I know K would love to see you there ;)

He doesn’t get the chance to reply before another ask comes in. He doesn’t recognise the URL, but a quick read of the message and a reassuring check of the blog confirms that it’s Elliott.

And if both Elliott and Dani have his URL, the chances are that Kurt does too.

Blaine tries hard to ignore that thought as he rereads Elliott’s message.

My mom would have said no to a solo trip too when I was your age, but she let me do something similar with a friend. Would she let you go if you drag someone along with you? If OTH isn’t their thing they could go do something else?

Elliott is a genius.

Seven texts, one pleading phone call, two conversations with his parents, and the condition that they stay with Tina’s cousin later, and operation Big Apple Blina is a go. Blaine is closer to Sam than Tina, but Sam just isn’t a possibility. His family are big on spending Christmas together; they were finally getting back on their feet, and Sam has been looking forward to treating his siblings for Christmas for months now. Tina’s family were much more laid back about the holidays. Couple that with her cousin having just broken up with his girlfriend and being desperate for some company, and they were set. Three nights in New York with Mattie, and then on Christmas Eve the three of them would fly back to Ohio together. Simple.

Blaine chooses not to tell Dani and Elliott that he can make it after all. He just sends them both thanks and asks Dani to make sure the gig gets recorded somehow.

 Thursday morning comes and Blaine’s usual routine gets thrown out of the window. Unique is having a sleepover for all of the New Directions, and so he has to wait until Friday night to listen to Kimber’s new audio. He likes Unique, and bonding time with his friends isn’t exactly a hardship, but Blaine can’t help spending most of the night glancing at his phone, hoping Kimber might notice he hasn’t done his usual post-audio tweet. Especially since Dani’s hint this week had been extra cryptic, just a shot of a piece of blank paper with no caption.

“Click click,” Kitty says as she brushes past Blaine on her way back from the bathroom, dropping onto the mattress beside Marley.

“Sorry?”

“I could hear your brain turning from down the hall, Anderson. Click click click. What’s up?”

“I’m fine, just—“

“Waiting for a text from his boyfriend,” Tina teases. “You’ve been looking at your phone all night, Blaine, don’t even bother denying it. You’re hardly the master of subtlety.”

Sam’s head snaps up. “Dude, you have a boyfriend? Why didn’t you tell me? We’re bros, we don’t keep secrets!”

“Who has a secret boyfriend?” Unique asks. She’s sandwiched between Ryder and Tina, french-braiding Tina’s hair while Ryder attempts to paint Unique’s toe nails…and largely fails at anything except getting red gloop on the blankets.

Unique just laughs at the mess, tying off Tina’s braid and turning her attention to guiding Ryder’s trembling hands into a smooth motion. “One down the middle, one down each side, and onto the next,” she says, letting her fingers close around his wrist so she stays in control. She looks back up at Blaine. “So who is he?”

Blaine blushes. “I don’t have a boyfriend, secret or otherwise. I’m just waiting for a text from Cooper, that’s all.”

There’s a chorus of raspberries, and Kitty and Marley hurl pillows at his head. He almost preferred it when they weren’t friends, their being so in synch these days is really throwing the rest of the group off.

“You’d never be this eager to see a text from Cooper, you didn’t even find out he had a part in that stripper movie until we went to see it,” Sam reminds him. Blaine turns scarlet.

“I thought we agreed to never talk about that again,” he hisses. Unique’s eyes have brightened, and Blaine has a sinking feeling she’s going to suggest renting it for them to watch tonight.

 He’s saved from further interrogation—about the stripper movie and the secret boyfriend— by Jake tripping over Sam, who falls on top of Artie, who rolls back into a vase that tips over and spills water onto an extension cord, causing a fuse to trip and sending the whole house into darkness. The search for candles and the fuse box takes priority, and everything pre-blackout is forgotten after Artie declares a New Directions Mario Kart tournament once the power is restored. Artie, Kitty, and Tina are trying to defeat Jake at Rainbow Road and take his place as champion, and Unique and Marley have convinced Ryder and Sam to have their nails painted, so everyone is too busy to interrogate. Blaine alternates between the two, stepping in when Tina gets too competitive and almost throws her controller at the TV, and letting Marley dot snowflakes on his nails while she waits for Sam’s to dry.

Blaine’s woken up by his phone vibrating against his leg in the early hours of the morning. He’s not been asleep that long. Everyone had only started to settle around 2am, after Marley had pointed out that they had to be up for school soon and a couple of hours napping was better than no sleep at all. It’s a twitter notification, a message from Kurt.

Didn’t enjoy the audio this time? :( Let me know what I can do to improve!

For the first time, Blaine replies.

Haven’t had chance to listen yet, friends dragged me out! Verdict tonight, sure it’ll be great.

Kurt doesn’t answer, but it is 3am, so Blaine tries not to worry.

The end of school can’t come quickly enough, Blaine’s a jittery wreck all day. He hasn’t missed a Kimber audio post in all the time that he’s been following ThreeDomsToRuleThemAll. Heck, he hasn’t missed any of their posts. He might not always listen to Elk’s audio or watch Dae’s videos, but he does make sure to always acknowledge and reblog them for his followers. He hadn’t expected to feel so worked up by missing a post. It’s not guilt that is making him feel so out of place though. Blaine feels like his skin is itching, too tight on him, and he doesn’t like it at all.

Blaine locks himself in his room and goes to find the audio. There are instructions typed below it again.

For today’s audio, you’ll need some blank paper, a pencil, a black pen, and crayons or paints to color with. Make sure you have ONE HOUR when you aren’t going to be interrupted before you press play.

Blaine doesn’t download the audio this time, and sets up his paper and pens on the desk in front of him. He waits until he hears his Mom go into the kitchen, and then presses play.

“We’re going to do something nice and simple today,” Kimber murmurs. “Please make sure the paper is in the portrait position in front of you. Now find the middle of the paper and move down until you are in the bottom third. Make sure you have a very clear idea of where this section starts and ends. This is where we’re going to begin.” As he speaks, his voice appears to move until he’s softly whispering in just Blaine’s left ear. “Pick up your pencil.”

Blaine can’t help the shiver that goes down his spine.

He’s guided through a drawing. Kimber talks him through the general idea of each line, telling him when to move onto the next part, until Blaine is left with a rough sketch of his own head and upper body taking up the bottom section of the paper. He’s then ordered to take up the pen and ink the sketch, and then talked through coloring the skin, hair, given strict orders on using only blues, greens, and yellows, for the clothes.

“Now the pen and pencil are no longer needed,” Kimber says, voice moving to Blaine’s right ear now. “I want to know what interests you. What makes you who you are. Using any color you would like, but only colors, I want you to fill the rest of the page with things that are important to who you are.”

Kimber can’t really give orders for this bit, so instead he talks them through some preparation he wants to be completed before next Thursday. He gives them a shopping list and warns that the audio will be the longest he’s posted so far, likely to take at least three hours. Blaine drifts through the drawing, sketching everything from a red piano to a tub of hair gel. Gradually his sketches get less obvious, as Kimber starts to focus back on the task he has set for them. He specifically requests the last drawing be the thing that appeals to them most as a sub, or best represents what they believe a submissive to have.

Blaine lets his hands take over, trying not to think too hard like Kimber tells him.

He keeps listening to Kimber’s suggestions about what being a sub might mean, fingers hovering over various colors before he picks up the green. He doesn’t know exactly what it is about behaving submissively that makes him so happy, but he knows how it makes him feel. Or at least, how Kimber makes him feel. He isn’t sure how to draw it though, so he writes it, one word in block capitals in the very middle of the page.

Safe.

Chapter Text

Kurt doesn’t respond to Blaine’s tweet of the picture.

At first Blaine wonders if he might have made Kurt mad, annoyed him by not sticking to their unspoken routine. He’s aware of how self-obsessed that makes him sound. Kurt doesn’t owe him anything. There are thousands of people who follow ThreeDomsToRuleThemAll, it’s not like Blaine is any more important than the rest. Maybe Kurt follows a number of his fans with his personal account. Maybe Blaine did the task wrong, drew something that Kurt didn’t like. Maybe Kurt’s got bored with Blaine and moved on to a new follower.

Worry gives way to frustration. Why didn’t Kurt respond? Sure their routine was a little disrupted because of the sleepover, but replying a day late was hardly a punishable offence. When Blaine hadn’t tweeted immediately Kurt had sought him out for god’s sake. It wasn’t fair of Kurt to give him the cold shoulder after making him feel so special. Kurt might not owe him anything, but surely human decency meant Blaine deserved something?  Blaine didn’t want a sonnet composed to him. He didn’t even need a message. Just some sign that Kurt had seen the photo, that Blaine still had his approval, that was all.

He sulked for most of the week. He checked his @replies on Twitter and his messages, but didn’t go onto Kurt’s profile or check his timeline. A combination of pride and hurt kept those urges in check. Blaine didn’t follow the orders from Kimber’s last audio out of spite, but disobeying was making him uneasy.  If he didn’t follow the orders, he couldn’t take part in the next audio. Anger and fear and confusion left Blaine sick to his stomach, unfocused when it came to school work or keeping up with his friends. He blew off Sam’s suggestions for hanging out after school, skipped most of his usual clubs, even considered missing Glee club—but Marley swung an arm around his waist when he tried to slip by the door and pulled him in, laughing at some dance off Jake and Ryder were having.

Part of Blaine’s fear was nothing to do with Kurt, but everything to do with the part of himself that Kimber’s audio posts had awakened. With the uncertainty of what was going on, Blaine had started to cease functioning like a normal person, and that in itself was terrifying. How could he let something that could cause such trouble, such distraction, affect him so? Maybe it would be better for him to lock away every submissive urge, every twinge to follow orders.

Maybe then he’d at least get to keep some sanity.

Unique finally corners him on Tuesday, dragging him to her car instead of letting him escape after Glee club. “Spill,” she says, and Blaine surrenders.

He tells her everything. About ThreeDoms, about Kimber, about Kurt, about how awful he feels. They sit in the parking lot for over an hour while Blaine just burbles on, but eventually he runs out of steam and Unique presses a tissue into his hand with a sigh.

Blaine hadn’t even noticed he was crying.

“You’re kind of an idiot,” Unique tells him. The sound that comes out of Blaine’s mouth is a cross between a laugh and a sob, and Unique smiles. She takes the tissue back and dabs at his eyes. “It doesn’t make you weak to want to submit to someone, and you’re not losing your sanity because of it. You were starting to become friends, so him snubbing you hurts. If that’s even what he’s doing. It’s just like if Sam stopped talking to you, y’know? You’d want an explanation. The fact he was acting as your dom, even in a very loose, unofficial manner, just nudges things up a level.”

Blaine sniffles pathetically, rubbing his eyes with the backs of his hands. Hard. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

“It’s just my nature,” Unique shrugs, giving a complicated wiggle of her shoulders to make him giggle. “If you want, I can be very very nasty, and give you a mighty bollocking for getting so attached to a stranger.”

Unique can be scary, Blaine knows that. He’s witnessed her cut down the bullies of freshmen in the cafeteria without looking up from where she’s painting her nails, for crying out loud. But nasty? Actually, properly nasty? She doesn’t have it in her. Her and Marley were talking about starting a hug therapy group just a few hours ago!

Before he point this out to her, his phone vibrates against his thigh. He digs it out absent-mindedly.

And then stares.

Sorry for the lack of tweets this week, Dani enforced a social media ban for a few days. Freaky roommates!

Unique reads over his shoulder. “Told you he wasn’t ignoring you,” she says smugly. “Didn’t you notice that he hadn’t tweeted all week?”

Blaine shakes his head. He scrolls through the rest of Kurt’s twitter, and sure enough, his last tweet was one about the upcoming gig. He checks Dani and Elliott’s, and it’s the same story. Finally he checks the ThreeDoms twitter. The only tweets are links to Elk’s Saturday audio, and the video Dae had put up a few hours ago. It’s easy enough to queue tweets and posts, and there’s none of their usual Q+A sessions.

“You’re right,” Blaine says, “I am an idiot.”

All he had had to do was swallow his pride and check any of the twitter feeds to be reassured that Kurt really wasn’t ignoring him after all. Kurt probably assumed that was what he had done.

Unique shoos him out of her car. “Go home. You have some shopping to do before Thursday!”

It’s not until Blaine is halfway home that he realises he never mentioned the shopping-audio dilemma to Unique. He ends up calling her as he heads up to his bedroom, and she just cackles down the phone. “Let’s just say, my Saturdays are always… eventful.”

Kurt messages him when Blaine is getting ready for school the next morning.

I loved the drawing. Will you send me a copy?

The shopping list for Kimber’s Thursday audio is exhaustive. Cooking ingredients, incense, an empty bottle or jar, paper, string, a length of ribbon, a tiny bell that took Blaine four shops to find… Blaine gets a few questions when he eventually staggers home on Thursday night, weighed down with all of the bags, but he tells them it’s for a school project and they drop it.

“As long as you aren’t making those damn puppets again,” his father warns, “every time I go into my closet when it’s dark, the puppets of your mother and me scare me to death. I don’t know why Mom insists we keep them there.”

“We’re celebrating Blaine’s creativity, and you veto-ed displaying them in the hall,” Mom intervenes, tying the belt on her coat. “You’re sure you’ll be okay by yourself tonight, honey? Daddy and I won’t be back until the early hours. You know how these Christmas parties get”

“I’m sure I’ll manage.”

“Of course he will,” Dad says, clapping Blaine on the back before ushering Pam out of the door. “No wild parties, no drugs, and I mean it, Blaine—no puppets!”

The door has barely closed behind them before Blaine is racing upstairs, bags abandoned down in the hall. He downloads the new audio onto his iPod eagerly, putting his headphones on and the iPod in his pocket as he practically skips back down the stairs.

Dani had posted the teaser again this week, a sink piled high with dirty plates. K’s feeling crafty, and Elk and I are reaping the rewards.

The moment Kimber’s silky voice flows, Blaine relaxes against the kitchen counter, closing his eyes. How could he have possibly thought he could go without this?

“This audio is just over three hours long, so I hope you’re prepared. We’re going to go on quite the adventure together tonight. I hope you managed to get everything I asked you to. Are you ready to begin?”

Blaine nods, even though he knows Kimber can’t see him.

The first hour is spent cooking Cajun chicken pasta, with a creamy sauce, and banana bread that goes in the oven to cook while Blaine settles down to eat. Kimber’s eating his own portion. Blaine can hear him as he cooks, the clatter of pans, the sizzle of hot oil. Kimber stays slow, every word carefully spoken, every pause measured. The meal is eaten in much the same way. After every mouthful, Kimber invites them to think about a different aspect of the food. They have to put down their cutlery after every bite, and take sips of water.

Blaine has never savoured food like this before. It’s wonderful.

While the banana bread cools, Kimber washes up, so Blaine does too. There aren’t orders for this part. Instead Kimber chats about a podcast Dae is starting up, with a couple of other female doms and their respective subs. His every word is enthusiastic, and it catches. Blaine finds himself humming along to the theme music Kimber plays them, which he explains Elk composed specially.

They eat banana bread, and then Blaine is guided back to his bedroom with the rest of the bags. He lights the incense—Kimber hadn’t specified a scent, so Blaine had picked jasmine, because he remembers Dani tweeting about the apartment always smelling like it when Kurt was stressed. Blaine likes getting these tiny glimpses into Kurt’s life. Likes the idea that he and Kurt have smelt the same thing, Kurt while he recorded, and Blaine now as he listens.

Dani hadn’t been kidding about the crafty aspect of this audio.

Kimber invites Blaine to write letters. One to inspire a stranger, one to inspire his five year old self, and one full of desires in a dom. Kimber is quieter as Blaine writes the letters. He has instrumental music playing softly in the background, and each time the music changes he encourage his listener to take a breath and stretch before continuing. Eventually he pipes up, “We’re going to move along now. If you haven’t finished your letters, pause the audio now until you have. There’s no reason to rush.”

Each piece of paper is rolled, tied with string, and squeezed into the bottle.

“Who needs a diary when you have a bottle?” Kimber laughs. “You can write more letters, or lists, and keep adding them until you fill the bottle up. Then start a new one. If you’ve had a really awful day, or feel out of control and need grounding, take the bottle outside and break it open. Read all of these letters. Remind yourself that you are capable of great things.”

They’re into the last twenty minutes now. “Measure your ribbon, either around your neck, a wrist, or an ankle. Somewhere you can wear it and feel safe. Cut it a few inches big, and thread it with the bell. If you have any spare beads lying around, you can thread those on too if you like. When you move, you’ll be able to hear the bell tinkle. Each time you do, I want you to think of me. I want you to remember that I am so proud of you. I want you to remember how important you are. Can you do that for me?”

The photo Blaine sends Kurt later is of the bottle of letters, his new ribbon hanging loosely around the neck until he needs it.

Kurt favorites it immediately, and sends back a photo of his own bottle and ribbon. In the background, Blaine can see Dani and Elliott holding instruments, waiting for Kurt to come back to them. There’s a print out of the scan Blaine sent Kurt of his drawing from the week before underneath the bottle.

The fact that Kurt ducked out of a rehearsal to reply to him makes Blaine’s heart flutter.

Two days later, Blaine is settling into his seat beside Tina. The runway disappears beneath them as the plane takes off, and Tina squeezes his hand hard until they level back out. Blaine fingers the ribbon around his neck, hidden by the high collar of his shirt. He smiles to himself as he thinks back to the last thing he’d tweeted that morning, while they were sitting on Tina’s suitcase as her parents wrestled with the zip.

Ready or not, here I come.

Chapter Text

Blaine’s first impression of Spangles is that it is loud.

He’s been in New York for three days now, and he already knows that his lasting impression of the city will be the sheer volume, but it’s not enough to stop him already planning his next visit. Tina isn’t as keen--though the time between rehearsals in Glee Club was spent bitching about how much they hated Lima, Blaine suspected New York was a step too far in the other direction for most of his friends.  She likes getting to see Mattie though. As soon as they got through the airport she had linked arms with her cousin, and she hadn’t let go since. To his credit, Mattie hadn’t batted an eyelid, and he’d indulged the two of them in all of the touristy things they’d asked to do during their brief stay without so much as a grimace.

“What are you drinking?” Mattie half-shouts across the table, miming tipping a glass for good measure.

Blaine had been surprised to learn that Mattie not only knew where Spangles was, but as soon as Blaine had mentioned heading there on the 23^rd, he had laughed and asked if Blaine was a One Three Hill fan. “They’re getting a bit of a name for themselves over here, just need the right people to see them perform and they’ll be snapped up,” Mattie had explained. “I used to go to school with Dani, actually, she’s a real darling. When I moved out here, I wasn’t surprised to find her already kicking ass. Reminds me of our own Tay-Tay; when that girl wants something, nothing is going to stop her.”

So, instead of having to make his excuses and sneak away to go see the concert, Blaine had company. Tina had tagged along because Mattie had promised to sneak her a couple of drinks, and now that he was actually here, Blaine was glad to have the two of them by his side. They’d snagged a booth near the stage, sharing with another group of three who described themselves as “total starchilds”, and now there was nothing really left to do except wait.

“Blaine, drink?” Mattie repeats.

Blaine shakes his head, no, and glances around the bar. The place has been filling up steadily for the last hour, and more and more people were still trying to squeeze through the doors. Blaine was pretty sure that if he was standing, he’d have had to leave, the amount of people making the already small space feel very claustrophobic.

“They’re meant to start in five!” One of the starchild girls says, beaming. “Oh my gosh, do you think they have, like, little rituals they do together before they perform? Before every Les Mis show, we do this routine, where we sort of shake out all of the nerves. It looks totally dorky, but it helps.”

“You’re in Les Mis?” Blaine asks.

The girl blushes and shrugs, twirling the umbrella in her neon blue cocktail (“it’s called a bubble blowie” she’d told Tina when she’d caught her envious staring earlier, “apparently the guy who invented it thought drinking it was like getting a blowjob for his tongue.”) “I’m only in the ensemble,” she says.

“But you’re on Broadway, Annie, which is more than most people can say,” her friend counters.

“She’s right, that’s amazing,” Blaine says.

“Thanks. Sometimes I still have to pinch myself, I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a little girl. What about you? What do you do?”

Blaine’s loathe to admit that he’s still in high school, but he’s saved by his phone vibrating against his thigh. There’s a series of One Three Hill tweets, and he grins as Tina leans over his shoulder to read them with him.

Tonight is the night! Happy Christmas Eve Eve, gonna make this a night to remember! Spangles at 9! #OTHtakeover

Babes @elliottgilbert totes just performed fellatio on a blowpop in the cab over here. Cab driver was flustered as fuck!-D #OTHtakeover

Thirty mins, if you have a song request you should tweet us using #OTHtakeover

What a crowd! Ready to blow the roof off this place, as soon as K and E wriggle their cute butts into some nice tight leather! #OTHtakeover

@danigotback is wearing short shorts, I repeat, she is wearing short shorts #ifIwereagirl #OTHtakeover

Pre-show selfie! Looking mighty fine in the middle of a @kurtehummel @elliottgilbert glamwich! #OTHtakeover

“Elliott is the one you guys call Starchild, right?” Tina asks the girls, who giggle and nod. “And Mattie knows Dani, so she must be pretty cool. What about the other guy? Kurt, right Blaine?”

“He doesn’t interact as much as the other two, but he’s kind of the leader, I guess?” Annie shouts, voice rising as the crowd starts to cheer, the lights dimming until Blaine can barely see Mattie sliding back into his seat. “You’ll see when they’re on stage, the dynamic they have together is amazing.”

On cue, the stage lights up, and Blaine is lost.

It turns out that no recording has done these three justice. Dani in particular is hilarious--all three play up to the crowd, but she takes it a step further. She doesn’t just stick to the stage, during songs she’s down dancing with the front few rows, wiggling her hips and coaxing people into rocking out with her. Blaine had been counting on the brightness of the lights to keep his presence a secret, he wasn’t sure yet whether he was going to let Kurt know that he was there, just getting to see the band perform was enough, but the choice is swiftly taken out of his hands.

Having run through their normal setlist, Kurt is reading out a list of song suggestions, getting the crowd to cheer for the ones they like the best for the group to perform in the second half. Tina has put aside her reservations and is screaming along with the starchilds, while Mattie sits back looking bemused at his cousin’s shenanigans. Blaine had thought that he wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off of Kurt, but he finds that his attention is elsewhere. Namely, on the girl stood behind Mattie, hands on her hips as she stares at him.

“You said you couldn’t come!” She yells, making Mattie and Annie jump.

“Well, you see, it’s a funny story,” Blaine begins, but she’s gone, disappearing into the throngs of people before Mattie even has a chance to turn around.

“Was that Dani?” He asks. “You know Dani? Dude, why didn’t you say?”

“I don’t know her, not really,” Blaine says, but then hands are on his shoulders and the starchilds look like they’re about to pass out.

“Ohmygodthat’sElliott,” one of them says all in one breath, eyes huge as she stares behind Blaine.

The straw in Tina’s cocktail is fascinating, Blaine decides, it really is. It has a little twirly bit, he hasn’t seen a straw like that in years! Not since Cooper took him to get milkshakes way back when he was still in elementary school.

“You managed to convince your folks after all then?”

“Mmm.”

“And you didn’t tell us because you don’t want Kurt to know you’re here?”

Blaine shrugs, letting Elliott’s hands fall off his shoulders.

“You’re all kinds of ridiculous, you know that?” Elliott asks, but he sounds like he’s trying not to laugh. His voice is right in Blaine’s ear, speaking in a loud stage whisper that Blaine doesn’t think the others can hear amongst the general noise, but he blushes despite himself.“We won’t tell Kurt, but seeing you would make his night. On the cab ride over he was writing and rewriting a message to you, Dani had to wrestle his phone away before he sent something he’d be embarrassed about later. Not that I have any problem with him embarrassing himself,” Elliott adds, “but we’re the ones who have to deal with him. He gets really whiny after a few drinks.”

“Blaine,” Annie says weakly, “you never told us you knew Dani and Elliott.”

“I don’t,” Blaine protests, but Elliott just snorts and kisses the top of his head.

“I’ll see you after the show sweetie,” Elliott coos, waggling his fingers extravagantly at the table as he glances back towards the stage. “Maybe you and your friends could join us all for drinks?”

“Elliott’s your secret boyfriend?” Tina shrieks, watching Elliott retreat back to the stage to join Dani and Kurt. “Blainey why didn’t you say anything? Where’s my phone, Sam has to know about this.”

“No!” Blaine yelps, “Elliott is not my boyfriend, we are not dating, I barely even know him! I’ve had a couple of conversations with him and Dani, that’s all, it’s not a big deal.”

“Starchild just kissed you,” Annie breathes, “you are so lucky.”

“I’m really, really not,” Blaine starts, but the general chatter of the audience has died down, and the first bars of a song he doesn’t recognise start to play.

“Okay,” Dani calls out, “we’ve had some great suggestions from you guys, and there are a couple of new songs we’ve been wanting to run by y’all. Are you excited to hear something new?”

Cheers go up from the crowd, and Tina practically falls out of the booth as she whoops along with them.

“That’s what we like to hear! First up is a little number Elliott wrote, because he’s totally amazing at everything as well as just plain dreamy,” Dani grins, while Kurt fakes a swoon. “Starchilds, this one is definitely for you. Make some noise, because this is Happy is a State of Mind!”

The show is a roaring success. The second-to-last song is another new one, and leaves Blaine speechless. The least Elliott could have done was warn him that there was a Kurt solo coming up!

Kurt winks when he steps up to the mic. “One last new song for you all, something I’ve been playing around with. Let me know what you think, and tweet me if you have a better title, but for now you can call this one The Ruby Red Blues. ”

Blaine thinks he might actually have died some time during that number. Kurt was using his Kimber voice, and even the way he carried himself was different--he stood taller, a single glance silencing the room. Looking around the booth, Blaine could see that he wasn’t the only one who had fallen under Kurt’s spell. Even Mattie was hooked.

The silence finally broke as One Three Hill took to the stage for their final bows. those who had been seated were on their feet, and those who had already been stood were stomping their feet as well as applauding. Tina whistled beside him, and Blaine let the energy of the room sweep him along, putting off his concerns about what would happen after the show for just a few moments more.

As soon as the lights went up, Blaine glanced towards the door, wondering if it was worth trying to make a break for it. Courage, Blaine.

“Going to come say hello?” Dani asks, popping up out of nowhere and flinging an arm around Mattie’s shoulders. “I mean we’ve only been in the same city for two years now, you could have at least introduced me to your girlfriend. She’s a cutie.”

“It’s nice to see you too, Dani,” Mattie says, elbowing her fondly. “And this is my cousin, Tina.”

“You were amazing,” Tina gushes, and the starchilds nod frantically.

“We were totally blown away,” Annie adds, “it was unreal.”

“Aw, you guys are so sweet!” Dani tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear, cheeks flushed from a combination of adrenaline and the compliments. “We have a post-show tradition of milkshakes at the diner a couple of blocks from here, you want to tag along? Elliott loves meeting his starchilds, and it’d be nice to catch up with Mattie and cousin Tina here. I’m sure Blaine and Kurt could find something to talk about.”

Tina turns to Blaine, eyes ramped up to eleven. “We can go, right Blainey? Just for a little while?”

Blaine looks at Dani. She’s not giving anything away, but Blaine trusts Elliott enough to believe that Kurt still doesn’t know he’s here. He thinks back to the word in the middle of his paper at home, the word he most strongly associates with Kurt.

“Okay,” he nods. “Let’s go say hello.”

Chapter Text

Of course, getting through the crowded bar was step one. Dani had one arm around Blaine and the other around Mattie, Tina and the starchilds walking as close as humanly possibly behind them. She shouldered her way through throngs of people, pausing every tenth person or so to bellow “so sorry, urgent mission, don’t mind us” at the top of her lungs. Blaine could hear Tina giggling behind him, her hand knotted in the back of his jacket.

Dani’s fans were overwhelming, pressing in on all sides, desperate to talk to her or take a photo with her. She tossed her hair and smiled at everyone, but she never faltered in the path she was carving. Blaine wondered if her adrenaline rush from performing was the same as the rush she got after filming a scene for ThreeDoms.

“This way my dears,” Dani says, waving the girls ahead once they get into the tiny hall behind the stage. “The door right at the end. Knock first, the boys get snippy if they’re walked in on half dressed.” Annie smiles bravely and leads the way, Mattie and the girls following.

Blaine waivers, his confidence lost as he realises how close he is to getting to meet Kurt. He could duck out. It’d be so easy to go lose himself in the crowd, to text Tina and Mattie to meet him back at Mattie’s place once they’d had their fill of One Three Hill.

“Don’t look so scared. Kimbs is a sweetheart.” Dani’s voice is right in Blaine’s ear, making him jump. He hadn’t noticed her doubling back. She looks uncertain, and then laughs and adds, “well, unless you agree to something else.”

Dani laughs a lot, Blaine notes, and it’s wonderful. She reminds him a lot of Unique. He remembers what Unique had said, about having interesting Saturdays. He’ll have to see if he can get Dani to send her a photo. He’d quite like to see his friend spontaneously combust.

Elliott’s voice drifts down the hallway as Dani starts dragging Blaine towards his friends. “Ah, you’re the guys from the table. Has our girl sent you?”

“Yeah, she’s back with B,” Tina replies. Blaine can just about see her over Mattie’s shoulder, twirling her hair. It looks like Tina has officially joined the starchilds. “You were so great up there. I hadn’t heard of you before tonight, but you can call me a fan now.”

“Well thank you, that’s sweet. Kurt, we have guests. I presume Dani has invited you all out for milkshakes?”

Elliott’s tall enough that he can see over everyone gathered by the door, and when he sees Blaine, his grins gets Cheshire. Between him and Dani, Blaine is starting to think they’re more invested in him meeting Kurt than Blaine is.

Then Kurt’s voice comes floating over Elliott’s shoulder, and Blaine starts squeezing Dani’s hand like he might cease to exist without some form of contact. “Our room here is too small for everyone to fit. Why don’t we do introductions outside? Dani, why don’t you take them onto the diner? Elliott and I will catch up.”

Dani motions for everyone to go out a door to her left, but she holds Blaine back. Elliott and her loom over him, almost threatening if it weren’t for the twin smiles on their faces. “Hey Kurt, you’ll never guess who made it out here,” Elliott says.

“It isn’t Rachel, is it? She’s meant to be seeing Jesse tonight, if she’s here they’ve had a fight, and I don’t want to deal with—Oh.”

Blaine presumes the sudden shocked silence means Kurt has spotted him, and his nerve promptly takes off and catches the next plane home to Ohio. He tries to speed walk through the door after the others.

Elliott throws out an arm and catches him in the chest.

“I think Kimber is going to want a word with you,” Elliott says, before gently pushing Blaine into the room with Kurt and closing the door in his face. Blaine is left facing the entrance, Kurt stood somewhere behind him.

“You never mentioned you were coming,” Kurt says. His voice is weird, breathy and nervous, and something about Kimber being nervous to meet him gives Blaine the courage not to holler for Tina to come back and get him away.

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Blaine admits, wringing his hands together anxiously. He can hear Kurt taking the few steps towards him, waits for Kurt to touch him, but nothing. Slowly, he turns.

Nothing, Blaine realizes, could ever have prepared him for this moment.

Kurt’s cheeks are flushed pink, presumably from his time on stage. His smile is a little crooked, and he’s so close that Blaine could count his eyelashes if he wasn’t four seconds from hyperventilating.

Kurt seems to realise something’s wrong, because his hands move to take Blaine’s. He squeezes them reassuringly. “Blaine Anderson, I am so glad that you’re here.”

Blaine looks down at their clasped hands, and tries to will his heart back into a normal rhythm. “I’m glad I am too. One Three Hill were amazing, I knew you guys were good, but seeing you actually perform… I’m blown away. Really.”

“Blown away enough that I can be a completely ass and ask you to help me finish packing up, given Elliott bailed? I’ll buy you a milkshake after to make up for it?”

“As you wish.”

The diner they end up in is possibly the most incredible place Blaine has ever been. If not the best, it’s definitely the trippiest.

The waiters burst into song at the drop of a hat. Tina’s on her fourth request of the night and going strong.

He and Kurt hadn’t really talked while they packed up the last of the band’s stuff. Well, they’d talked . Blaine had told Kurt how he’d gotten to New York, about Mattie and Tina, some of the stuff about Dani and Elliott’s influence. Kurt had rolled his eyes, as if his friends’ having an influence was no surprise, and asked Blaine about his parents, about what he liked to do, about school.

Kurt listened to Blaine like what Blaine had to say was the single most important thing in the world. It was a little overwhelming. Blaine had almost been glad to leave Spangles and head towards the diner.

When they had walked in, Elliott and Dani’s heads had snapped up so fast, Kurt had asked if they had whiplash. The two of them were still constantly checking in on the two of them. Every time Blaine caught them staring, Kurt apologised. “I don’t tend to interact with people who know me from ThreeDoms,” he explains. “Not in the way that they do. It’s gotten them a little excited.”

Blaine wants to ask what’s so special about him. What made Kurt take an interest in him over anyone else. But he’s also not sure he wants to know the answer. Not yet. Instead, he asks something that had been on his mind since he first got a glimpse of a One Three Hill rehearsal video.

“What is that?” Blaine asks, nodding to Kurt’s wrist. There’s a thin leather strap wrapped around it, with small silver charms threaded along it. Blaine is certain that if he moved the fabric, there would be welts left behind from where the charms were pressing into Kurt’s skin.

“A charm bracelet,” Kurt says. “With a slightly more fitting style for what we do. We all have them.”

“We?”

“Dani and Elliott and me. It’s a way for us to stay connected, to keep home close. Our charms are all different, because different things have meaning for us. We might be a hive mind on stage, and on the blog, but off camera? Well. There’s a little more variety. But then, you already knew that.”

“Yes,” Blaine says, more because there seemed to be a gap for an answer, than because he had more to say. Kurt grins.

“You can ask what they are. I don’t bite.”

Blaine can practically hear the “unless you ask him to” from Dani, even though she’s four booths over and about half an inch from having her hand up Tina’s skirt. He wonders if it’s a good thing, that he can predict what the others would say so easily. He’s had their voices in his head for years now, thanks to ThreeDoms. Even his own “inner voice” has taken on some of their quirks.

Tina has been looking into a psychology course.

He’s sure she’d have a field day exploring what that meant.

Kurt gets out of his chair and comes around the table, sliding into the booth beside Blaine. He takes off the leather, confirming what Blaine had predicted—there are red grooves in the thin skin of his wrist, stark against the blue and green veins. Kurt spreads the bracelet flat in front of them, so all the charms are facing upwards.

“Dani and Elliott picked out their own charms, but the others were my choices.” Kurt taps the charm furthest to the left. “A tire for my Dad. He owns a garage back home, I used to work there over the summers before I moved to New York. Then there’s a crystal for Mom. She died when I was little, but I remember hanging crystals from the windows with her. She liked it when they caught the sun, because they’d cast rainbows around the room. I used to think she was magic,” Kurt says, smiling fondly down at the table, “I’d tell the kids at school that my mom could catch rainbows and keep them until they were needed. They were so jealous.

“I have a gold star for my friend Rachel, and a music note for our other friend, Mercedes. Then there’s Dani and Elliott’s charms, of course.”

“Dani’s is the tiara, and Elliott’s is the top hat?”

“Those are the ones,” Kurt laughs. “Are they that predictable?”

Blaine shrugs, taps the shiny silver ‘3’ charm. “Is this one for ThreeDoms?”

“Yep. That’s them all for now. I’m waiting for the next big thing to happen before I buy another. Who knows, maybe it’ll be another number for our first number one album,” Kurt says, making his eyebrows wriggle suggestively. Blaine laughs.

Hands suddenly clap onto Blaine and Kurt’s shoulders, making them both jump.

“You guys look cosy,” Dani coos. “Elliott’s girls have invited us to a club. Tina and Mattie are game, are you two?”

Blaine hesitates. As much as he’d like to get to know the starchild girls better, and to spend some time with Tina and Mattie, he came to meet Kurt. He’s not sure how much they’ll be able to talk if they’re in a club. Hell, he might not even get into a club.

Being turned away would be humiliating.

“Actually, I was thinking about taking Blaine back to the apartment. Show him the set up I use,” Kurt says slowly, as though he’s waiting for Blaine to interrupt and refuse.

“Sure, sure,” Dani says, pulling on her jacket and shaking her head at Elliott. She goes back over to the rest of the group and starts ushering them out the door. “Show him your set up . I gotcha. You boys have fun!” She calls over her shoulder.

“We aren’t going to have sex,” Kurt shouts after her, making the teenage boys at the booth nearest them snort. Kurt groans, covering his face and then peering out at Blaine from behind his fingers. “I really did just mean—“

“Kurt, I would love to see your apartment,” Blaine reassures him. “I’ve been trying to imagine what it might be like for years.”

That makes Kurt smirk a little, although he tries to hide it behind his hands. “Years, huh?”

“Don’t make it weird,” Blaine whines.

“You’re the one who’s been imagining where I live for years ,” Kurt teases.

“Oh, shut up. You try listening to someone talk in your ear on a weekly basis from the age of 15, you’ll get curious too.”

“You were 15 when you started listening?” Kurt asks. Blaine grimaces a little, uncertain if how young he was to start with will make things awkward.

“Yeah. Is that weird?”

Kurt looks thoughtful. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. What Elliott and Dani do is the equivalent of porn, and most teenage boys watch plenty of that. I don’t class my domination audio as porn, not in the same way, but even if I did I don’t think that is what would make things weird. Your age, maybe, if the three of us were much older. When you were 15, I would have been, what, 18? That’s not so weird, not if it isn’t a direct relationship. If I’d messaged you back then I think that would have been kind of creepy, but I didn’t. There’s a reason I try and keep my audio PG, and it’s because I know we have younger listeners who get curious about BDSM.” Kurt shrugs. “I’m like the safe gateway from vanilla to a little bit kinky. I know Dani and Elliott worry sometimes about who might be accessing the scenes they post, but beyond content warnings, we can’t do much.”

Blaine nods.

“What made you start listening?” Kurt asks.

“One of my friends found a Dae video and sent the link through our group. It wasn’t anything too intense, and it piqued my interest. I ended up going through ThreeDoms. I listened to Elliott’s stuff first, actually, but I felt weird to be… y’know,” Blaine says, blushing, “getting off to a stranger in my ear. It was too disconnected and too personal at the same time. Then I found your stuff, and I haven’t looked back.”

It’s Kurt’s turn to nod. “You don’t listen to the others?”

“Well,” Blaine says, certain his face must be aflame. “I mean. I dabble. Sometimes. You’re very good at what you do. All three of you. Just er, if you could not tell them that? I’d be grateful.”

Kurt looks delighted, extending a pinky. “Pinky promise,” he says, “and don’t worry. I’d have been way more surprised if you didn’t listen to them occasionally. So, Blaine. Why did you come today?”

“I wanted to see you perform. And to meet you. I thought that was kind of obvious,” Blaine says slowly.

“No, I know that, and so you should want to meet me. I’m awesome,” Kurt says, sending himself up before resting his chin on his hand and returning to a serious expression. “That’s not what I meant. I meant, did you come to meet me because you wanted to meet an online friend, or did you come for something else?”

“Something else?”

“Someone else,” Kurt corrects himself.

“You mean, did I come to meet Kimber. Not just Kurt,” Blaine realizes.

“Yes.” Kurt’s gaze is firm, his eyes locked onto Blaine’s and forcing him to maintain eye contact. “I am happy to meet you purely as a friend, Blaine.”

“But,” Blaine prompts.

Kurt’s whole demeanour shifts, the playfulness fading into something that little bit more domineering. Blaine isn’t quite sure what it is. His eyes seem to harden, his shoulders suddenly seem that little bit broader, his whole persona having changed without a muscle moving. It’s intoxicating to watch.

“I think you’re very attractive,” Kurt says simply. “That’s why I started to take an interest in you. I became aware that I had a handsome man following my orders, and that’s an addictive position to be in. Then I actually started paying attention to the other stuff you post, and I found my handsome man had a sense of humour and oozed personality to boot. If you’re interested in finding out more about domination, with a more hands on approach, then I would be very happy to show you. If not, then we can go find something on Netflix to watch and you can tell me more about your brother’s surprise appearance in a stripper movie. No pressure.”

“I think,” Blaine begins, gnawing at the inside of his cheek. Kurt’s offering him everything he’d ever hoped for and thought impossible when he got on the plane to fly out. He’d be a fool to say no. But he’s also 18, and he knows he has a bad habit for getting into things way out of his depth.

“Could we just… see how things play out?” Blaine finally says, wincing at how lame the suggestion sounds.

But Kurt smiles, and links his fingers with Blaine’s without pity or rejection on his face. “Of course we can. Now, why don’t we go back to my place? I really do want to show you my set up.”

“I’d be delighted.”

Chapter Text

Kurt’s apartment is up so many stairs that Blaine thinks he might actually die from either his legs giving out and falling all the way back down the stairs, or his lungs exploding. Now that would be embarrassing. Blaine had always thought of himself as quite fit. He was never going to another step class with Kitty again.

Kurt is giggly but sympathetic, half dragging him up the last three flights. “Sorry, sorry,” he says, “I always forget to warn people. Dani and Els and I ran up these stairs so much our first year of living here that we’re used to it. Come on, we’re so close!”

Blaine has to blink when they finally get to the apartment. The door is hand-painted, covered in intricate little designs. There are vines creeping up one side, animals smattered along the panels, a snake guarding the door handle. “I didn’t think you were allowed to paint rented doors?” he asks, looking to Kurt for confirmation. Kurt’s grin gets wider, and he shrugs, chin up a little.

“Our landlord can’t face the stairs either. Never gets up passed the first ten flights. For the last couple of years we’ve done our annual inspection over video chat!  We’ll repaint it when we move out.”

Blaine laughs. “That’s awesome. Not planning on moving any time soon then?”

Kurt shakes his head as he unlocks the door, one hand still linked with Blaine’s. “No, we’re settled in for a good while, I think. It took us so long to find somewhere that we could afford and was near the studio. Dani likes it because she can weed out her… special friends, shall we say,” Kurt wiggles his eyebrows and Blaine snorts, “before they get through the door. If they can’t get up the stairs, they won’t cope with how vigorous some of her activities can get. Elliott is just happy to live somewhere he can store his mannequins without creeping out anyone.”

“And you?” Blaine asks as they walk into the apartment, Kurt absent-mindedly flicking light switches as he goes.

“Me?”

“You. Why do you like living here?”

Kurt pauses, looking thoughtful. He shrugs off his coat and hangs it over an empty mannequin near a bookshelf, holding out a hand for Blaine’s coat. Blaine uses the quiet moment to peer around the apartment- or at least, what little he can see of it. They’re clearly in the main living space, thrift shop bargain sofas and chairs scattered in a horseshoe around a stained coffee table. Mannequins are everywhere, some covered in fabric, others in jackets or half-finished tops, one wearing a strap-on which makes him blush and avert his gaze. Kurt follows his eyes and gives him a wry grin.

“Dani complained it was chafing, Elliott and I are trying to work out the best fabric for her. Sorry, I really wasn’t expecting to bring anyone back, otherwise I’d have put her in Dani’s room.”

Blaine nods, but Kurt crosses the room and neatly manoeuvres the mannequin behind a bookshelf and out of sight.  “There,” he says cheerily, smacking his hands as he reappears. “that’s better. Drink?”

“No, thank you,” Blaine says, fisting the bottom of his shirt nervously.

Kurt frowns, moving to stand in front of him. He gently taps at Blaine’s fists until he drops them back to his sides. “You’ll ruin the fabric,” he chides, voice just as gentle as his movements. “Don’t be nervous. I’m not going to do anything without you telling me it is okay first. Come on, let’s sit down for a bit. I haven’t answered your question yet.”

Blaine sits gratefully, secretly pleased when Kurt sits right next to him, their thighs pressed together. “I like living here for lots of reasons,” Kurt says, throwing one arm over the back of the sofa so his body is angled towards Blaine. “I like the acoustics. I like sharing my space with the people who understand what I do, instead of having to hide in a closet to record my audio like I used to way back when we first started out.  I like the view out of the window in my bedroom.” Kurt’s voice is getting softer and softer as he speaks, settling Blaine in. It feels almost like it would do if Blaine was back at home right now, headphones on, listening to the latest Kimber post. “Mostly I just like the fact that I get to be myself here. That’s all you can really hope for in a home, right?”

Blaine nods, spellbound, sure his eyes must be like saucers as he stares at Kurt. He really hopes he looks interested, rather than creepy.

Please don’t let him think Blaine looks creepy.

Delicately resting a hand on Blaine’s thigh, Kurt smiles, his lips curling up like smoke. “Can I kiss you?”

Blaine barely stammers out his please before Kurt’s mouth is on his, sweet and fleeting before Kurt pulls back a little. Before Kurt can say whatever he was planning to, to check in maybe, Blaine chases his mouth, catching it and tugging a little at Kurt’s bottom lip with his teeth as payback for breaking the kiss in the first place. Kurt laughs into the kiss, slowing Blaine down, taking the lead. He gives Blaine just the barest hint of pressure, tongue swiping against Blaine’s mouth teasingly before he goes back to dry presses which make Blaine whine. When he finally opens his mouth Blaine sighs happily, hand coming up to cup the back of Kurt’s neck.

He barely notices as Kurt presses him back, unaware of how much time passes, until suddenly a clock chimes and the door clatters open.

“You said you weren’t going to have sex!” Dani laughs, her heels and acres of leg coming into view as Blaine’s eyes flicker open. Kurt is kneeling over him. He ignores Dani and gives Blaine one more sweet kiss, before sitting up and shuffling back so Blaine can do the same.

“We’re still wearing clothes, Dae,” Kurt points out. His voice is low, much lower than Blaine has heard before, even in Kimber audio.

“She’s just jealous,” Elliott chimes in, coming up behind Dani and resting his chin on her shoulder. They both sound just the right side of drunk, voices a little slurred but eyes bright and engaged. “Mattie took Tina home, before Dani could corrupt her. His words, not mine.”

Blaine pulls his knees up to his chin on the sofa, certain he must look a sight. Kurt’s pupils are blown wide, his hair mussed, cheeks flushed. There’s no way Blaine looks any less fucked out.

“I should get back to them,” Blaine mumbles, taking the hint that it is time to go, but all three of them immediately frown.

“I don’t want you to go,” Kurt says, at the same time as Elliott says, “it’s late, you can’t go wandering through the streets alone at this hour. We walked the girls home before coming back ourselves.”

Dani drops onto one of the chairs and spreads herself out, arching her back and sighing before dropping her eyes back to Blaine. “I told Mattie that you and Kurt were probably ass deep in nerdy audio talk, that he was giving you pointers about setting up a podcast. You’re welcome, by the way. Told him we’d drop you off at the airport tomorrow morning, since y’all are flying out so early. Tina is going to pack your stuff up.”

“You’re leaving tomorrow?” Kurt asks.

“I promised my mom I wouldn’t miss dinner. Coop is flying in with his new girlfriend just so she can meet everyone, they’d be really disappointed if I missed it,” Blaine explains.

“Did you actually show Blaine the set up, or did you not make it beyond the couch?” Elliott asks. Wriggling a little, Blaine stares at the floor as Kurt fidgets with his bracelet.

Dani smirks. “I guess that answers that question. Since you’re staying over, are you sharing with Kurt or do we need to set up a sofa? One of them turns into an actual bed.” Dani pauses and frowns as she looks the three different sofas up and down. “Although I’m not quite sure which one it is,” she finally admits, eyes turning to Elliott who shrugs.

“Beats me, babe, they belonged to your weird aunt.”

“Aunt Nora was a saint so watch your devil’s tongue,” Dani pouts. “Kurt, do you remember?”

“I don’t mind sleeping on just a regular sofa,” Blaine says, right as Kurt says, “he can share with me.”

“Oh,” they chorus, looking at one another.

“I mean, if you’re sure-“

“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,”

“I’m not uncomfortable, I just didn’t want to presume-

“Really, I’d be happy for us to-“

“Okay, good, well then,” Blaine says. “I guess that settles that. Maybe you could show me your set up now? I really do want to see it.”

“Oh my goddess, they’re just as hopeless as each other,” Dani stage-whispers to Elliott.

Kurt sticks his tongue out at Dani, who returns the gesture with an added finger or two. Elliott rolls his eyes at Blaine. “I wish I could say they aren’t always like this, but I don’t like to lie,” he tells him, eyes twinkling with mirth. “Now then children, stop showing off for our visitor. Dae, let’s go see if we can sort out that glitch with the next video so you don’t have to re-record.”

Kurt sniggers and leans into Blaine. “If they can’t fix it, Dae has to convince her friend to come back and let her whip her again, which would be fine if said friend wasn’t about to do a nude shoot for a photography project.”

“She’ll come back,” Dani calls over her shoulder as she follows Elliott past the bookcases and out of sight. “I’ll just owe her a million favors and have to go streaking or something as payback.”

“She runs in weird circles,” Kurt says, nudging Blaine and grinning when Blaine nudges him back, feeling less on fire now the others have left. “And that’s coming from someone who earns part of his living as a professional dom.”

Blaine sniggers and lets Kurt pull him to his feet, butterflies fluttering when Kurt immediately tangles their fingers together and squeezes. They walk in the same direction as Dani and Elliott, around the bookcases, which takes them into a long, narrow hallway. Kurt points out the bathroom, Dani’s room, and Elliott’s room, which has the door propped open. Blaine can just make out Dani and Elliott squeezed onto a chair together, lit up by a computer screen, before Kurt tugs on him to the final door. “My room,” he says, unnecessarily, waving a hand. That nervousness from back in the diner has edged back into his voice, and Blaine finds himself reassured once more by how human it makes Kurt seem.

Kurt’s bedroom practically ignites when he turns on all of the lights, an orange glow flickering all around. There are fairy lights wrapped around his bedposts, tea lights scattered across a crooked desk, a criss-cross of hanging lights dispelling shadows from all four corners of the room. Kurt’s bed is tucked into one corner, and the main space is taken up by the desk and an impressive set up of microphones and computers. Soundproofing panels cover the wall behind the desk. Kurt invites Blaine over and sits him at the desk as he goes through what each piece of equipment does, chatting away happily about this and that.

Blaine listens intently at first, captured by Kurt’s enthusiasm, but gradually the hour catches up to him and he has to hide his yawn behind his hand. Kurt catches him anyway and laughs, so easy and open that Blaine doesn’t think twice about kissing him.

They end up on the bed, although Blaine isn’t entirely certain of how, he just knows he didn’t want to stop kissing Kurt at any point. 

"Are you going to be good for me?" Kurt asks, towering over Blaine as he straddles his hips, but there is a warmth to his expression that makes Blaine glow.

"Yes," Blaine replies. Kurt raises an eyebrow and Blaine has to fight to contain his grin as he corrects himself, even though he can tell from Kurt's face that he's not doing a very good job of it, "yes, Sir."

"There's my good boy."

Blaine is rewarded with a kiss, and once again Kurt slows things down. His kisses turn languid, little more than teasing caresses as he arranges Blaine the way he wants them. Blaine's fingers wrap around the bedposts at Kurt's insistence, and he struggles not to squirm when Kurt pushes his shirt up to kiss at his belly. Kurt recognizes his embarrassment before Blaine can give voice to it. "You're so gorgeous," he says, "you don't have to hide from me, darling. You just have to tell me and I'll stop."

"I don't want you to stop," Blaine whispers, turning his face to hide it in Kurt's pillow.

"Then stop hiding," Kurt repeats, voice firm, reaching up to tug Blaine's face back up. "I'm going to take such good care of you, you just have to let me. If you want me to pause, say pause, if you want me to stop I will stop, but otherwise I want you to be nice and quiet for me. Okay?"

Blaine nods, and promptly throws his head back when Kurt tugs his pants down, mouth hot over Blaine's skin as he peels away his underwear. Stopping is definitely the last thing on his mind.

The airport is busy, packed to the brim with people flying home for the holidays. Mattie and Tina are saying goodbye to Elliott and Dani, giving Blaine and Kurt what little privacy they can when stood so close together. Kurt has both arms around Blaine, his hug lingering. Blaine wants to breathe him, to take him back to Ohio, to get back into the taxi and go back to the apartment with him. Anything but say goodbye.

“What happens next?” Blaine asks, not really wanting to know the answer. He can’t expect anything. He knows better than to hope for something that can’t possibly happen, but hope he does anyway.

Kurt furrows his brow, hand coming up to brush imaginary dust off of Blaine’s shoulder. “You call me after you land so I know you got home safe. You keep sending me photos after you listen to my posts. I keep staring at my phone whenever you do until Dani and Elliott tease me. We text. Skype, if you’d like.” Kurt inhales and exhales slowly, like he’s thinking carefully about what he wants to say. “I can’t promise you anything, just like you can’t promise me, as much as I wish we could. So much can change in a few months. Right now, I want to be your friend. I want to know how your day is going, and I want to be able to call you and tell you all about rehearsals or what dumb thing Elliott said to the hot guy who busks outside my favorite bakery.  I want to compliment you about your bowties and get to know more about you.”

“I want that to,” Blaine says softly, “all of it.”

“And after that,” Kurt continues, “well. I guess we’ll see where we end up.”

Blaine nods, blinking rapidly so he doesn’t start crying in the middle of the airport. He refuses to be that cliché. “I’ll call you when I land.”

“I’ll answer,” Kurt says simply, giving Blaine one final kiss, chaste in a way the others hadn’t been, but no less welcome. Blaine offers Kurt a final watery smile before letting Tina drag him over to Mattie, the three of them watching as Dani, Elliott and Kurt wave them off before heading back out into the bitter cold.

Eight months later, Blaine groans as he staggers up the stairs for the seventh time that day. Dani bounces along beside him like it’s nothing, pillows under each arm as she clears the stairs two at a time. Elliott follows behind, suitcases in each hand. Stood inside the apartment, Kurt waits, a neat pile of boxes near the sofa that are waiting to be emptied inside of his room. “How long did you say it took for those stairs to feel like nothing?” Blaine sighs as he steps into Kurt’s open arms, after depositing his final box onto the pile.

“A few months,” Kurt admits, but he’s grinning. “You’ve had more practise than us though, what with you coming up every month. You’re halfway there already.”

“That was the plan all along,” Blaine admits. “Forget wanting to see my boyfriend, it was getting the hang of the stairs that made me fly over so often.”

“And here I thought it was because you wanted to come celebrate the band and our first number one single,” Elliott teases, joining the hug and sandwiching Blaine between him and Kurt.

Dani darts over to embrace all three of them, beaming. “You are all idiots. He came because Kimber asked him to, obviously.”

“Because your blog was lame without a sub’s perspective,” Blaine counters.

“Because you love me,” Kurt says.

“Well,” Blaine says, smile threatening to split his face in two when Kurt reaches down to finger the new charm bracelet wrapped around Blaine’s wrist, threaded onto his old ribbon and bell. “That too.”