The Symphony Verse: Drabble #22
stilesthejeepwhisperer asked you: For Ellie’s birthday, can you write the boys watching The King’s Speech?
This prompt is actually several months old. Carey asked me to write this for Ellie’s birthday a long time ago. And quiet frankly, how could I say no? Carey and Ellie were the first people on tumblr to message me about Interludes, they were the first people I saw talking about it, and they totally made my day back then. So now I’m giving a little back. Hope you like it!!
~~~~~
“Fuck!” Blaine cries as he burns himself on the edge of the pan. He’s making crepes one Saturday morning. Matt’s at Kerry’s, and he and Kurt have the apartment and the evening to themselves. It’s cold outside, definitely not worth leaving for brunch.
“Don’t touch hot things, poop,” Kurt admonishes him, not even raising his eyes from the magazine he’s flipping through.
“Fuckity, fuck, fuck,” Blaine mutters around his finger in his mouth.
“Anytime you swear like that it makes me think of The King’s Speech.”
Blaine doesn’t respond beyond a distracted “hmm.”
“You know, ‘Fuckity, shit, shit, fuck and willy. Willy, shit and fuck and… tits.’” Kurt giggles. “Too funny.” Kurt’s watching Blaine now, his eyes are down and his cheeks are getting red.
“What?” Kurt says.
Blaine glances towards him and shrugs.
“Did you hate The King’s Speech?”
Blaine turns off the burner, says nothing.
Kurt’s confused by Blaine’s silence, and then realizes that they’ve never discussed the movie before. “How have we never talked about The King’s Speech? Up until I met you, all I knew about stuttering I learned from The King’s Speech.”
Blaine plates the crepes, gestures for them to move to the coffee table. Matt and Blaine don’t have room in their apartment for a proper table.
The boys sit quietly for a minute as they start to eat, and Kurt makes all the appropriate noises of food approval, when he realizes why Blaine isn’t saying anything about the movie.
“You’ve never seen it,” Kurt remarks.
“Never seen it,” Blaine agrees.
“How come?”
Blaine smirks. “I b-b-b-bet you can hazard a guess.”
Kurt nods, knowingly, understanding Blaine’s hesitance, but also feeling like it’s a movie Blaine really should see. “So, you want to watch it?”
“Right now?” Blaine licks his lips.
“Sure, we have nothing else going on today. I swear it’s good.”
“I’ve never really b-b-b-been concerned with the … quality of the film. More like the b-buh-bucket of tears I will inevitably cry while w-w-watching it.”
Kurt frowns, but only because he’s trying to keep himself from laughing.
“Go fly a kite,” Blaine mutters. “I see you holding in your giggles. Laughing at mmmm-my pain.”
“Aw, poop. I’m not laughing at your pain. I’m mostly laughing at the phrase ‘bucket of tears.’ I bet you’ll really like it.”
“It just hits a, a, a little close to home, Kurt.” He leans back against the couch cushions and crosses his arms, not looking at Kurt.
Kurt moves closer, cuddling up against Blaine’s side and squeezing his hand through the crook of Blaine’s elbow.
“Fine, we won’t watch it.”
Blaine huffs and rolls his eyes. “Fine. We’ll watch it.”
“I said we didn’t have to,” Kurt says innocently.
Blaine turns to Kurt on the couch, his face serious.
“You know if we dah-dah-don’t watch it, it’s going to become this, this, this, this ridiculous … thing. And every time we see that it’s on tv, or in the bah-bah-bargain bin at Target you’re going to give me a mmm-meaningful look and then I’m going to feel guilty for not watching it with you. And eventually I’m going to just b-b-break down and watch it, so, so, so it might as well be today.”
Kurt smiles triumphantly, already searching for it On Demand.
Kurt’s not surprised that he spends most of the movie watching Blaine, trying to anticipate his reactions, to guess when he might need a little extra cuddling.
Blaine winces through the first scene, and half smiles when Bertie tells his daughters the story about the penguins. He laughs out loud during the swearing scene, and smiles all the way through the therapy montage. Kurt feels Blaine shudder when Bertie tells Logue about his nanny abusing him. He frowns while Bertie and Logue fight.
But mostly, Blaine just watches.
“Okay, you were r-r-r-right that was really good,” Blaine admits as the end credits roll. “And man, the end. It’s totally … hopeful.”
Kurt sniffles.
“Oh my god, you’re crying.”
“Yes,” Kurt mumbles, standing up to get a tissue from the bathroom.
“Why aren’t I-I-I-I crying?” Blaine calls after him.
“Because you’re an emotionless robot!” Kurt calls between nose honks.
Kurt comes back from the bathroom to find Blaine sitting with his elbows propped on his knees and his fingers steepled in thought.
“What are you doing?”
“Willing mmmm-myself to cry.”
“You are an idiot.”
“I agree.” Blaine squints his eyes. But the emotion just isn’t there. “We should watch s-s-s-something that makes me cry. It’s not fair if you’re the, the, the only one who cried tonight.”
“So, The Goonies?”
“I mean, when Mikey leaves the gold for One Eyed Willy, and, and, and Sloth love Chunk! ‘It’s our time, it’s our time down here!’ And I-I-I-I could cry just thinking about it.” Blaine’s eyes are indeed a bit wet.
“Cooper has you brainwashed to love all of his favorite movies.”
“It’s practically Stockholm Syndrome,” Blaine says somberly.
Kurt shakes his head and gets up to put in the disc.
