Work Text:
"Come on, Kurt, it'll be fun!"
"In which universe is eating greasy fried fattening carbs then spinning around until you vomit fun?"
"Oh, just come with me. I promise to win you a ridiculous stuffed animal."
Kurt sighed. "Fine, Blaine. But we are going in the evening when there are fewer people and it's cooler."
Kurt couldn't resist kissing him when Blaine was grinning from ear to ear.
***
It was a humid night, the kind where even the baggiest of jeans stuck to you like skin tight ones. Which made Blaine glance down at Kurt’s skin tight jeans and wonder how he wriggled in to them, but Blaine was glad he did; his ass looked hot and because of the heat, Kurt was not wearing his usual ten layers, but just a thin t-shirt and a houndstooth scarf.
As they pulled up, they could smell fried dough and cotton candy and see the flashing and spinning lights. Blaine could hardly contain his excitement as they walked in to the fair; he was practically, but not quite, bouncing. Kurt looked sourly at the screaming children who were not ready to go home. Kurt felt like he was looking in to his own future, only instead of dragging a screaming 5-year old, it would be a fussy 17-year old. Kurt sighed as Blaine dragged him towards the midway.
Blaine got in line for ride tickets and purchased two booklets. Kurt smiled at how cute Blaine was when he couldn’t contain his excitement. He was babbling about something to do with cotton candy, corn dogs, and Britney Spears. Kurt looked wide-eyed at the entire midway, taking in all the lights and the odd mixture of country and Top-40 music being played at full volume. Blaine excitedly asked, “Which one do you want to go on first?”
“Um… well I guess we could start here with the funhouse.” Kurt said, pointing to the closest ride to them. It was a fun house that looked remarkably like the one used in Grease. Kurt hoped that they weren’t playing the soundtrack on repeat. As soon as they handed the extremely bored-looking ride operator their tickets, Kurt heard it. It was the beginning strains of “You’re the One that I Want”. Kurt made to turn around, but was held in place by Blaine, attempting his best John Travolta impersonation.
“I got chills, they’re multiplying. And I’m losing control. ‘Cause the power, you’re supplying, it's electrifying.” Blaine looked hopefully at Kurt who was still struggling to go the other way as Blaine pushed him forward into the funhouse. Kurt remembered the time they sang it in Glee club, and Rachel just flirted with Finn the entire time, and how awful they sounded back then. Then Olivia Newton-John’s part kicked in, and Kurt could only see the remake of the “Physical” video Coach Sylvester had done with her. The two of those thoughts were enough to make him feel ill and never want to hear any songs from Grease ever again.
Blaine turned around and noticed that Kurt had his bitchiest scowl painted on his face and asked, “Kurt, what’s wrong?”
He looked at Blaine and said, “Just remembering the time Coach Sylvester helped Olivia Newton-John remake the song ‘Physical’ and when the Glee club attempted to sing Grease. Tragic.”
Blaine’s worried expression shifted. “Why have I not seen the Sylvester video? It sounds hilarious!”
“I’ll show it to you later tonight. It is somewhere between the funniest thing ever and the most frightening thing ever.” Kurt said laughing, his bitch face gone.
“That sounds like everything she does.” Blaine led them forward in to the funhouse. The stairs up in to it moved side to side, making it very hard to climb up into the house. Then they were forced onto two narrow shifting conveyer belts. Blaine got on one of them and turned to face Kurt on the other. Blaine leaned in to Kurt’s ear and quietly sang along with the song: “If you’re filled with affection, you’re too shy to convey. Meditate my direction.” Blaine moved his hands up and grabbed Kurt’s hands, moving them to his chest as he sang, “Feel your way.”
Kurt burst out laughing, leaning in for a very quick kiss before the shifting floor moved them apart again. Kurt turned to lead the way on to the next obstacle. This time the floor was moving up and down. Kurt danced along with the song while Blaine stood there watching Kurt’s ass. Kurt turned around and grabbed Blaine’s hands, walking backwards and pulling them to the next obstacle as the chorus started.
Kurt couldn’t help from singing along, while looking at Blaine, “You’re the one that I want.” Blaine laughed and sang along, “Ooh, ooh, ooh, honey”.
“God, I forgot how terrible the lyrics to this song are,” Kurt said.
“What are you talking about? They are so profound.” Blaine started singing with the song to prove his point, “You are the one for, ooh ooh ooh.” Kurt laughed hard stumbling on the rotating floor below him. Blaine held him close and kissed him as they spun around on the floor.
Blaine broke the kiss and pulled Kurt along to where the rotating wheel would lead them out of the funhouse. Blaine walked through first, making it look easy. When Kurt tried, he nearly fell three times, and awkwardly stumbled into the guardrail. Kurt laughed as he brushed himself off and went down the stairs to where Blaine was waiting.
Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine’s neck and said, “So what’s next?”
Blaine smiled and said, “For someone who wasn’t very excited about going to the fair, you sure are eager to go on the next ride.”
“Well, we have all these tickets, it seems like a waste not to use them. Unless, you want to go home early and…” Kurt trailed off.
“We came to the fair, I want to go on rides, eat the greasiest most fattening fried food we can find, go pet some animals, and maybe look at the creepy butter statues.”
“All right, if that’s what you want,” Kurt said; ducking out from under Blaine’s arms, “Because I was going to say we could go back to my place; we’d have the house to ourselves.” Kurt ran to go get in line for another ride.
Blaine stared after Kurt for a second before hurrying to follow him. Once he caught up to Kurt, he asked, “The house is empty? As in your father and Carole are out for the night? And Finn is over at Rachel’s? You didn’t mention that!”
“Because you were so insistent on going to the county fair, besides I figured, despite the heat and carbs and fat, it’d be fun. And we spend a lot of time in an empty house, it's good to go out sometimes.”
Blaine couldn’t even form a response; he just grabbed Kurt’s hand and squeezed it tight while they waited for the ride.
Finally, they reached the front of the line, and were watching as the run before them finished up. It was called the Cliff Hanger, and simulated hang gliding. Blaine handed the operator the tickets and led Kurt to one of the gliders. They lay down on the glider and one of the operators pulled the safety bars across their backs and locked them in. There was a pole between their legs and the safety bar pressed them tight to the metal they were laying on, but it felt safe.
Kurt reached out for Blaine’s hand as the ride started to rise up off the ground. They started to spin around slowly, then accelerating and changing altitudes as it went around. Blaine squeezed Kurt’s hand, smiling and laughing.
“It feels like I’m flying!”
Blaine laughed at Kurt and said “Wouldn’t it be cool to feel this all the time?”
Kurt glanced at Blaine and said, “I believe I can fly.”
Blaine laughed aloud as he said the next line, “I believe I can touch the sky.”
They were both laughing as they sang, “Think about it every night and day, spread my wings and fly away. I believe I can soar, see me running through an open door. I believe I can fly!”
The ride kept around, feeling faster with each rotation. Every time they rounded the corner on while inclining, it felt like they were going to spin off into the night. The lights, already bright and overwhelming, were even more dizzying as they flew through the night. Far too soon, the ride was slowing down and they were being lowered back to the ground. Kurt and Blaine didn’t let go of each other’s hands until they needed to use them to get off the ride.
They walked hand in hand off the ride and Blaine turned to Kurt, “Now, where?”
“What about that one?” Kurt said pointing to the Tilt-a-Whirl. “It was always my favorite when I was a kid.”
“Then I think we should go there next, and then maybe get something disgustingly fatty and fried to share!” Blaine said, grinning from ear to ear.
***
Once they were seated in a car on the Tilt-a-Whirl, strategically placed so they would create the maximum spin without losing contact with one another, Kurt asked, “Are you going to sing a song on every ride we go on?”
“Well, if I remember correctly, you are the one who started the last song. Also, I can’t think of any good songs about a Tilt-a-Whirl.”
Kurt bit his lip and looked down, trying not to let Blaine see his smile. Blaine moved his hand to Kurt’s thigh and squeezed. Kurt looked around to make sure they were hidden from sight before leaning over to kiss Blaine. Quickly turning more heated, Blaine licked at Kurt’s bottom lip, asking for entrance that was quickly granted. The kiss was interrupted by the ride jerking into motion.
It appeared that Kurt was an expert at the Tilt-a-Whirl, he leaned right and left at exactly the right moment so they never stopped spinning and gaining speed so all of the lights at the fair were just a blur. Kurt laughed every time he was hit with a wave of tingles in his stomach from the spinning. Blaine had a smile plastered on his face the whole time, despite feeling faintly nauseous.
When the ride ended, Kurt leaped up, ready to take on the next ride, while Blaine stumbled slowly behind him. Kurt turned around to look for his boyfriend, finding that Blaine was looking a little pale.
“Are you ok?” Kurt asked, gently touching Blaine’s shoulder.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little dizzy.”
“Do you want to go sit down somewhere?”
Blaine nodded and Kurt led them to where there was an unoccupied picnic table. As soon as he sat down, Blaine started to feel better. He took Kurt’s hand and was rubbing his thumb over Kurt’s knuckles when Kurt said, “I thought of a song for the Tilt-a-Whirl.”
Blaine raised an eyebrow in response and Kurt started singing, “You spin me right round, baby
right round like a record, baby right round round round.”
Blaine threw his head back and laughed loudly enough for the people at the neighboring table to throw dirty looks their way. Kurt laughed too. He hadn’t had this much fun at a county fair in years.
Eventually, Blaine asked, “So, how about some of that greasy fried food?”
Kurt looked skeptical and said, “What did you have in mind?”
“Cheese curds?” Kurt wrinkled his nose and Blaine said, “Not the cheddar ones, those are gross, but the mozzarella ones, they are like fried mozzarella sticks, only curd-shaped.”
Kurt laughed again and after looking at the pleading look in Blaine’s eyes, the one he could never turn down, agreed to cheese curds. Blaine leapt up and hurried to the stand, as if they were going to sell out. Kurt watched him get the fried cheese and smiled at him as he walked back with water and a huge pile of napkins.
“Do you think you have enough napkins there, Blaine?” Kurt asked with a smile in his voice.
“I hope so. Do you think we need more?” Blaine eyed the pile suspiciously.
“I think that is plenty, I think you actually have more napkins there then there are cheese curds.”
Blaine picked up one of the fried bits of cheese and popped it in his mouth with a smile. Kurt picked up one and bit it in half, inspecting the insides as he carefully chewed the fried cheese. He smiled faintly before it fell into a frown.
“You know these are probably the worst thing for you, ever, right?”
“Kurt, just live a little. A little bit of fried cheese is not going to kill you. Just enjoy it.”
Kurt smiled and popped a whole curd in his mouth, chewing happily. Blaine followed his lead and gently tossed one up in the air and caught it in his mouth.
They finished the entire basked of cheese curds, and used about half of the napkins, before they decided to go back to the midway and use the rest of their ride tickets.
***
In the car, on the way home, Blaine was singing along to Katy Perry’s newest song, hand resting on Kurt’s comfortably. Kurt interrupts him suddenly, “That was really fun.”
Blaine glances over to Kurt and smiles, one of his large genuine smiles, “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“It was the most fun I’ve ever had at a fair.”
Blaine’s smile shifts to something slightly more mischievous, “Oh really? Well you know, Hardin County’s Fair is next week. We could go over and see if their rides are as song-worthy.”
Kurt laughed, “I don’t think my stomach can handle any more greasy fried food, and doing this more than once a year would spoil the magic.”
Blaine smiled back at Kurt, squeezing his hand before turning back to the deserted county road in front of him.