Love The Stranger (Glee)

Kiss Me, Coward.

"He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature."

-Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

~B~

He saw Miss Pillsbury again today.

She was spraying her potted plants with water and putting up paintings of flowers on her wall. The ginger hair that striked Blaine at first was pulled back in a neat bun, her bony fingers in blue latex gloves. She looked busy, so Blaine didn't want to bother her.

Before he could run away, though-

"Come," she said, not taking her eyes off her plants, "look at these daffodils I got."

Blaine stood there in silence; at the door like a deer in the headlights.

Was she talking to him or had he just heard wrong?

"Blaine, come," now she was looking at him, latex gloved hands hurrying him over, "look at my flowers."

He was on autopilot, the salt on his tongue dissolving like nothing. The kindness in her voice driving him forward. And when he stepped up towards the bright blue pots, he knew why he had been so driven to come.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?"

With yellow triangular petals protruding out and a bloom of orange and red in the middle, they were amazing. Little balls of fire, ready to take your eyesight away. Light-bearing, and confident in their little blue pots. It almost made Blaine smile.

"Yes," he said, "yes, they are."

"The choir room."

"The what?"

"They'll be in the choir room," Miss Pillsbury grinned, "That's where the light shines brighter, is it not?"

She is correct, though the sun has been on hiatus for the past few days. She has told Blaine she will keep them under artificial UV light until the sun comes back; she says Blaine can come and watch them anytime he pleases. He agreed, he will.

Now he's on his way to Glee club, ear buds in and listening to Katy Perry. A line of bliss follows each word until-

Pop!

The wire gets tugged out and half of Katy Perry falls at his side. And what's more better than Katy than seeing Kurt waving a hand in his face. The other earbud falls out by itself. At this point, he's too distracted to hear the loss. Falling from cloud nine, it screams until it is gone, replaced by...

"Do you have my sweater with you, Bee?" Kurt asks, raising an eyebrow at Blaine's glasses perched on his head.

"B? Who's B?" Sam Evans appears as well, his face definitely not welcomed.

Does he still have a heart or did it just stop working?

"Blaine," Kurt says, "Blaine, I mean -- you don't have the sweater do you? I don't have yours."

"Yes, I do," he says, eyes flitting between Sam and Kurt. "It's in my locker."

"Cool," and after a pause, "do you think... You could give me the code so I can get it myself?"

"Thirty one, twenty one, and six," his arms tense just looking at them. "Be gentle, unless it won't open."

They leave with nothing more to say, and Blaine watches Kurt's back, head aching with something. Stop, stop this now. But it doesn't.