Barry couldn’t get any cuter.  Watching him work through the question Blaine knew was on the tip of his tongue–he had to wonder if this was how he looked the many times Barry was the one that made him stutter through a reply to a veiled hint as to what his opinions on their status might be.  The poor guy looked like he was going to end up tongue-tied if he kept overthinking the situation.  On the other hand?  Blaine couldn’t blame him.  His track record might not be as full of tragedy as Barry’s was but he had his own experiences that made him hesitant on jumping into anything headfirst without and making sure he was doing it right this time.  “Just to make things clear?  Is that a two part question where you’re asking me out on another date or if I want to be your boyfriend-boyfriend?  Because we’ve had our fair share of dates.  I think?  I mean–those were dates.  Yeah?”  Was he cruel that he didn’t give him a solid answer?  He just wanted to make sure Barry wasn’t freaking himself out because he felt like he needed to say something.  All Blaine wanted was for Barry to make it clear what he wanted.

barry.

He saw that cringe. Oh, he knew how bad those pictures
were, but he was basically desensitized from it. There
were some cases that would get to him still, things that
made him wonder why people do these type of things to
each other. “Hey, you’re the one who wanted to know what
I was working on,” he lightly teased. Arms settling around
Blaine’s waist, pulling him closer as he arched a brow. “You
went to three different high schools? How come?” There’s
got to be a story behind that.

“Remind me to never wonder that again,” he crinkled his nose as he fit his back more firmly against Barry’s chest enjoying how close they were. “I’ll take stories you tell me and try to leave the visuals to you.  I don’t know how you take seeing that.  I admire you for being able to.” Ah, he knew the question would come. Blaine gently rested both of his hands over Barry’s arm and nuzzled into his neck. “Okay.  Well.  My first one was supposedly a great public school.  The best in Westerville. I think it was?  Bottom line–it was till Ohio and me being me?” He held his breath and squirmed around enough that he could tilt his head back and peek up at Barry only seeing his jaw and cheek from the angle but it was enough.  Not wanting to ruin Barry’s mood because of his past–he searched that pale, freckled skin he could see before giving possibly one of the briefest, huh? explanations of why he transferred schools the first time. Not on purpose.  It just came out that way.  “Didn’t work out there the way everyone else would’ve liked to pretend it did.”

Blaine knew this question would come sooner or later.  Honestly, he was hoping it would have been a lot sooner than now but they both had their baggage and dancing around the subject while enjoying each other’s company exclusively seemed to be their way of saying they were together without saying they were together.  Either one of them were bound to ask when their resolve to keep things unlabeled just seemed silly or–what Blaine feared most–frustrating. He just didn’t expect it tonight and he thought he’d be the one to break first.  Smiling gently–Blaine scooted across the couch until he was on Barry’s lap, facing him while sitting comfortably near his knees.  Enough distance that he could look him eye to eye, bite his lip and watch him carefully for a beat or two but still feel as close to him as he needed to be.  Tip toeing towards the edge of his reply–Blaine swallowed past the knee jerk reaction of nervousness creeping in to make him wonder if Barry was only doing this for his benefit when Barry might still have his reservations.  No.  They wanted this. And that’s all Blaine would let himself think.  Deflating from his momentary kick of nerves–the shorter of the pair nodded and his grin was uneven. Happy and relieved all at once.  “Yeah.  I-I think it’d be very cool.  What do you think?”