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“I don’t know if I can do this,” Kurt says abruptly, as Chris slots the DVD into the player and Blaine sits beside him, all pressed into his side. It’s nice, and sort of distracting, but not distracting enough. “Can’t we just watch something else?”
“Told you,” Chris whispers in a sing-song, twirling the remote in his hand and settling into the angled armchair.
“Shut up, Chris,” Kurt bites, glaring at him. “There’s nothing wrong with not liking scary movies.”
“They’re just movies, Kurt,” Blaine assures, voice soft and encouraging, and Kurt swallows. “It’ll be over, and we’ll turn it off, and none of it will be real.”
It’s easy for Blaine to say, and that sounds logical, but this isn’t Kurt’s first attempt at overcoming his fear. His brain just doesn’t work that way. Horror movies make him paranoid, and he’ll probably have to spend the next night sleeping with his bedroom light on.
“Wait for me!” Darren skids into the room, sliding on his bare feet and then folding down on the ground by Chris’s legs.
“What are you doing?” Chris looks down at him, clearly unamused, but Darren just cradles his bowl of popcorn in his crossed legs and shrugs.
“No way I’m sharing the couch with our brothers. Movies are just an excuse for people to make out.”
Kurt blushes violently, and he chances a glance at Blaine, who looks equally mortified. He flicks his own piece of popcorn in Darren’s direction, and then Darren’s attention snaps towards them in an alarming way.
“Okay, no, I am not getting in the middle of one of your weird fights.” Kurt holds up his hand. “So can we just… Start the movie and get this over with?” He crosses his arms, sinking back into the couch as if it will somehow protect him from the TV.
“Oh, wait!” Chris scrambles out of his seat, and a second later the lights are out, the room illuminated solely by the DVD menu. “Can’t watch a movie with the lights on.”
“Of course not,” Kurt mutters darkly. As if the scary movie wasn’t going to be bad enough, they have to do the whole thing with the lights off.
Just perfect.
*
It feels like it’s been days, but it can’t have been more than a half hour. Even so, Kurt has nearly screamed at least twice, and has jerked so hard in surprise that he’s upset Blaine’s popcorn bowl a number of times. Blaine doesn’t seem bothered by it, though. If anything, he’s a little amused, and sits up taller when he slides an arm around Kurt’s shoulders. It’s nice, being this close to him. Kurt almost smiles, leaning his cheek into Blaine’s shoulder.
…why does the music have to be so intense?
“Someone’s going to pop out, aren’t they?” Kurt whispers, now tucking his face between Blaine’s shoulder and the couch so that only one of his eyes is focused on the screen.
“Don’t go that way!” Darren yells, mouth muffled with popcorn.
“Dare, she can’t hear you,” Chris comments, amused.
“Oh god, the music is getting louder,” Kurt whimpers.
“The shadow! Look behind you! The huge, ominous, machete wielding shadow!”
“Why do they always have to have such bad lighting?! Why would anyone in their right mind walk into a corridor full of flickering lights and leaking pipes?!”
“LOOK BEHIND YOU!”
Kurt isn’t even looking anymore, but the girl screams, so he screams, and Blaine holds fast to his shoulder, stroking it in an attempt to soothe him.
It doesn’t really work.
*
“Can we please watch something else?” Kurt’s voice wobbles embarrassingly, but there’s nothing he can do to stop it. He’s almost shielding himself with Blaine’s body at this point, trying to put as much between himself and the TV screen as he can (including a blanket that he’s pulled over his head a few times).
“It’s almost over,” Chris argues.
“HE CUT OFF HER HAND. It should be over already! She should be dying of blood loss!”
Blaine murmurs soft, reassuring nonsense in his ear, and Kurt tucks his face in Blaine’s neck.
“Dare?” Chris whispers, and Kurt looks over. Darren had forced himself into the armchair, and has slowly climbed into Chris’s lap and wrapped himself tightly around him. Kurt grins into Blaine’s shoulder, but Darren is staring at the screen, deathly still and silent, eyes wide and flicking back and forth across the screen. “You okay?”
He doesn’t answer, and Chris pats awkwardly at his hand.
“He does that,” Blaine finally says, as the credits roll and Kurt feels no sense of closure from the fucking movie. The girl lost her hand and he’s just supposed to expect that she goes on to live a long and healthy life without any psychological problems? Okay, so the movie hadn’t implied that, but still.
“What?” Kurt still feels sort of shaky, like he hasn’t eaten all day, and they both look over at Darren, who Chris is sort of shaking and isn’t really moving.
“He enters this weird sort of trance. Sometimes he starts screaming.”
“That’s not normal,” Chris comments, looking over at them. “Can’t I just throw water on him or something?”
“How about we watch like… A happy movie?” Kurt suggests, not sure that even the campiest, cheesiest, fluffiest movie could erase the images burnt into his brain.
“Like what? Disney?”
Darren seems to reanimate.
“Oh thank god, yes.” He scrambles off Chris’s lap and towards where they keep the DVDs. “We’re watching Aladdin.”
“Wow, just like that?” Chris raises an eyebrow.
“He’ll be fine by the time we get to Prince Ali,” Blaine says, voice infused with years of experience.
“Chris, come sit on the carpet with me so we can reenact Whole New World.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Can we watch The Little Mermaid after?” Kurt asks, his voice quiet, as his brother bickers with Darren (but consents to sit next to him on the ground). Blaine runs his fingers through the hairs at the nape of his neck, and he feels himself settle into the circle of his arms.
“We can watch whatever you want.” Blaine looks at him, and then shoots a quick glance at Chris and Darren before quickly kissing Kurt’s temple. Kurt smiles at him, draping the blanket over their laps and cuddling closer as the screen turns blue and the Disney castle lights up the screen.