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lilyvandersteen · 4 years

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Out of the Blue: Chapter 6

Cover art: @redheadgleek

Beta extraordinaire: @hkvoyage

Author’s Note:

I love Model!Klaine, so this chapter is my tribute to that trope :-)

Warning: this chapter might make you hungry if you check out the pictures of the party food.

Chapter 6: A True Chameleon

“But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them forever.”

(An excerpt from Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Kurt looked at the address he’d just written on an envelope and bit his lip.

Would he dare send it or not?

He was veering towards the YES option. After all, Cooper had told him he wanted to be invited to any bash Kurt threw, and Halloween was one of Kurt’s favourite party occasions, so he went all out.

He had a feeling Cooper would appreciate a Kurt Hummel Halloween Extravaganza. Slightly over-the-top and too much seemed to fit the guy to a T.

His mind made up, he shoved the invitation onto the pile and continued writing.

Of course, he had no idea whether Cooper would be able to make it. The guy did a lot of charity work, and in spite of being the CEO of a multimillion dollar firm, he still starred in many ad campaigns, so he had to be fiendishly busy all the time.

But Kurt was in luck. Three days after he’d sent the invitations, he got a call from an unknown number, and for once, it wasn’t a telemarketer but a much more welcome caller.

Cooper! Who promised to come to the party! With his brother in tow again, but hey, maybe the guy would be less grumpy this time around.

But what Cooper said next wiped the grin off Kurt’s face. He planned on buying them a sofa bed as a gift for the party. Yes, he was rich, but that was completely ridiculous and way too much.

Now that Kurt had actually met Cooper and talked with him, he liked the guy. Not because of his looks or his money, but because he was good-natured and personable and interesting to talk to. Plus, it wasn’t just on the surface. Yes, he was full of compliments and a first-class charmer, but more than that, he seemed to go out of his way to help people and cheer them up and devise solutions to all sorts of problems. Another point in his favour was that he wasn’t uppity in the least, unlike his brother.

Because of all that, it didn’t sit right with Kurt to profit off his friendship with Cooper, and he told the man so.

Cooper proved stubborn about it, however, and by the time he rang off, the delivery of the sofa had been planned for that Wednesday, with Cooper overseeing the installation and making sure the delivery men had brought the exact one he ordered.

Kurt took a few minutes to collect himself before he went to the living room to brief Rachel and Santana.

Unlike him, they had no qualms about accepting extravagant gifts from Cooper, and whooped gleefully about the sofa bed.

“And he asked for pumpkin pie, so I’ll add that to the snacks I was planning,” Kurt said. “You can nibble on anything else beforehand, ‘cause I’m making plenty, but don’t you dare touch the pumpkin pie!”

“Oh, are you making those ghost sugar cookies again? Britt loves those!”

Kurt nodded. “Yep. The other desserts are a coffin cake, Dracula dentures, blood drip cupcakes and now pumpkin pie as well.”

“Anything vegan?”

Kurt hummed, thinking fast. “I planned on making black bean hummus, because Elliott loves that. I could also make stuffed mushrooms, those choco bites you like, and your special pumpkin cupcakes, maybe? And a skeleton crudité with a vegan dip, like last year? Only I’d expect you to actually HELP this time around instead of leaving it all to me.”

Rachel swore to help, glaring at Santana, who made no such promise to Kurt.

“You’ll be making your graveyard chicken enchilada dip again?” Kurt asked Santana, who nodded lazily, grinning at Rachel, and said, “And hot pepper mummies.”

“Good,” said Kurt. “Then with the ghost pizza bites, the mummy meatballs, the puff pastry eyeballs and a parmesan breadstick spider with lots of extra legs, we’re all set.”

Kurt put their old sofa on a second-hand sales website and arranged for it to be picked up on Wednesday at noon.

“You better hope Cooper turns up with that new sofa, or I’ll bunk in your bed tonight!” Santana said before she left for work.

Kurt bit his lip, and hoped that Cooper would be as good as his word.

After the old sofa had been picked up, Kurt cleaned the whole loft and made as much room as he could for the delivery men to maneuver. Then he made himself a quick lunch and ate it.

He didn’t want to sit around doing nothing until Cooper showed up, so he got started on the sugar cookie dough for the Halloween party. He’d just put it in the fridge when he heard knocking.

Quickly, he took off his apron, checked his clothes for flour stains, and then went to open the door.

There stood Cooper, with next to him a cute and smartly dressed curly-head, who was wearing a bow tie with ducks on it and announced that Kurt’s delivery was here. His accompanying smile dazzled Kurt, who could muster up no more than a rote answer, and led everyone inside.

Two delivery men installed the sofa, and then left. The cutie with the duck bow tie did not leave with them. He stayed around to explain to Kurt how the mechanism worked to turn the sofa into a bed.

Kurt truly appreciated the cutie running him through it, because it was far from simple, and it might have taken him a while to figure it out by himself, so he made sure to thank him after the explanation.

The cutie didn’t seemed pleased, though. Was he expecting a tip? Oh help, Kurt had been grocery-shopping for the party and had no cash left! Would he dare offer the guy some of Rachel’s vegan choco balls instead of money?

And then Cooper put his arm around the cutie’s shoulder and grinned at Kurt. “My little bro knows his stuff, doesn’t he?”

Kurt took another look at the cutie. Was this the same guy Cooper had brought to the wedding? It couldn’t be, could it? This cutie was all smiles and cheery colours and fun socks and wild curly hair. It had to be another brother than the stiff and starched one with the gelmet that had come to the wedding. Right?

Cooper clearly seemed to expect a response, so Kurt, floundering, asked whether the cutie worked in the sofa business.

It must have sounded as inane as it felt to Kurt. The cutie frowned in confusion and then told Kurt he was studying music at NYU.

So he’s musical too? Nice!

Kurt needed no more than that to strike up a conversation about Broadway plays, and had all but forgotten Cooper when he butted in to offer Kurt a modelling gig in his newest ad campaign.

Wow! But am I handsome enough for that?

When he voiced his concerns, both brothers were quick to reassure him that he was stunning.

The curly cutie had been flirting rather heavily with Kurt, so him alone, Kurt wouldn’t have believed, but he did believe Cooper, and readily agreed to work for him as a model. The cutie seemed happy about that, telling Kurt he’d be working on the same campaign.

Cooper and the cutie left with twin smiles on their faces and a promise to be there at 8 p.m. on Friday.

“Looking forward to the pumpkin pie already!” Cooper said. “Your cooking is stellar!”

Next to him, the cutie nodded emphatically and echoed “Stellar”, before turning around and following his brother.

Huh? Cooper hadn’t taken any wedding cake home, had he? So how would the cutie know Kurt was a good cook? Did that mean this WAS the same guy who had come to the wedding? What was his name again? Something with a B, right?

Kurt, feeling more puzzled than ever now, watched them go down the stairs, noting absently that the cutie had a lovely backside. Then he roused himself from his fit of abstraction, shrugged and slid the door closed.

It didn’t matter. Whoever it was would be coming to the party on Friday, and Kurt planned on finding out the guy’s name, and whether a churlish disposition or a sunny one was his default.

K&B

The following days were filled with classes and shifts at the diner and lots of cooking and baking whenever he was at home. The fridge and freezer were full to overflowing with snacks and desserts for the party.

Kurt let his roommates try everything, but made sure to keep reminding them that the pumpkin pie was off limits. He’d made two pies, just in case one didn’t turn out right, but both seemed okay, and he was pleased that he could offer Cooper at least something in return for his generosity.

Santana loved sleeping on the new sofa bed, and everyone loved sitting on it to watch television. Kurt had bought a water-resistant cover for the sofa to avoid it getting stained again, and a few cushions in bright colours to liven it up, and he quite liked how the living room looked now.

When Friday evening arrived, the loft was ready for a party. Rachel and Sam had put the decorations up under Kurt’s supervision, Britt had frosted and decorated tons of sugar cookies and cupcakes, Mercedes had helped Kurt with the last of the cooking and baking, and Santana had filled jugs with bright green, orange and red drinks she had mixed. A banner above the jugs invited party-goers to “choose their poison”.

Now Kurt was humming happily as he put his wig and then his helmet on, psyched for the party. Halloween was so much fun!

Half an hour later, the party was in full swing, and Kurt was sitting on the sofa and sipping one of Santana’s very strong drinks when Rachel came their way with Cooper in tow.

Cooper was holding a shiny top hat and wearing an embroidered white waistcoat, a black tailcoat, light grey trousers and high black boots. He looked amazing.

Kurt vaguely heard Santana banter with their guest, but didn’t pay much attention to what either of them said, because Cooper dressed up like that was a sight to see. The man was impossibly handsome.

All of a sudden, Cooper started to sing. Huh? What was going on?

And then it dawned on Kurt that Cooper had brought his brother with him again, who was dressed as Gaston from The Beauty and the Beast. They were singing the Gaston song together, and very well, too.

Kurt took in ‘Gaston’. Same stature as the curly cutie, same 1000 Watt smile too. But wow, those biceps! And wow, those thighs! And what a tiny waist he had, emphasized by the belt he wore…

“You’re drooling!” Santana hissed in his ear, and Kurt closed his mouth with a snap and glared at her.

Rachel took the Anderson brothers’ song as an invitation to start the karaoke part of the evening, and Kurt sighed. Another bet lost. He really shouldn’t bet with Santana anymore. She seemed to be psychic.

He forgot all about that, though, as soon as he was on stage singing For Good with Rachel.

The rest of the night passed in a blur. Kurt may have drunk a few too many of those strong drinks Santana had mixed, and eaten too few of the mountains of snacks he’d prepared. Whatever it was, it made him wake up the next day with a pounding head and a tongue that felt like sandpaper, and no recollection of the party whatsoever.

He yawned and stretched and walked to the kitchen, where he inspected the remains of the party food in the fridge. Ha, there was still some pumpkin pie left!

He plonked down on a chair next to Santana, who was staring into a mug of coffee as if it held all the secrets of the universe.

“Those drinks of yours were a little too strong,” Kurt said, tucking into the pie.

Santana groaned. “I know. How can you eat when you’re hungover? I can’t even look at food right now!”

Kurt shrugged. “I’m hungry. Hey, did Cooper eat some pumpkin pie yesterday? I can’t remember.”

Santana’s head snapped up. “Of course you can’t! You only had eyes for his brother yesterday.”

Kurt stared at her dumbly.

“Blaine! You spent half of the party dancing with him. No more than that, though. I kept hoping you’d at least make out sloppily, or drag him to your bed, but you kept it PG. Boring.”

So his name was Blaine. Right. And apparently, they’d been dancing?

Kurt heaved a sigh of relief that no more than that had happened. He so didn’t want to have his first time kissing or having sex while he was drunk.

Plus, it would make the modelling gig scheduled for next Wednesday awkward. If he remembered correctly, Blaine had said he’d be working on it too. As the photographer maybe? Or arranging the shoot?

K&B

That Wednesday, when Kurt arrived at the address Cooper had given him, he couldn’t help staring. Somehow, they’d managed to turn an industrial building in NYC into a ranch. There was real grass on the floor. There was a cosy-looking farm house with a two-seater swing on the porch. And the ranch came with cows and calves, as well as horses and their handlers. The noise was deafening, and the chaos overwhelming.

Kurt hoped he could find either Cooper or Blaine soonish, because he felt so much like a fish out of water here in this big warehouse that buzzed with activity.

“Hey Kurt!”

Wait, I know that voice… That’s Blaine, right? Oh, good!

Kurt turned around, expecting to see Blaine in a cute vest and bowtie outfit like he’d worn to bring the sofa bed, and his eyes went wide with disbelief. Just how much of a chameleon was Blaine? He’d looked stiff and starched at Brittana’s wedding, cute and adorable while explaining how the sofa bed worked, hot and manly in his Gaston costume (unf, those arms!), but this was yet another side of him. A drop-dead gorgeous and sexy side.

Blaine’s curls were glossy and luscious, styled to frame his face beautifully. He wore a tiny bit of eyeshadow and eyeliner, just enough to make his eyes look really green. His lashes seemed longer and fuller than ever, and his lips the plumpest and most inviting Kurt had seen them yet.

He wore a tightly fitting T-shirt that accentuated his muscular arms, and jeans that hugged his legs in a way that made Kurt’s brain short-circuit.

“Come, let’s get you to our stylist and then to hair and make-up so that we can start shooting,” Blaine said, grabbing Kurt’s hand and tugging him along. “This way. I know a shortcut. This shoot is going to be so awesome. We get to ride a horse, isn’t that great?”

Kurt, still reeling from how sexy Blaine looked and how it affected him, frowned in confusion.

“You’re a model, too?”

It slipped out before Kurt could stop the words, and he hated himself for blurting that out when he saw Blaine’s face fall.

“Not that you’re not… handsome enough or something. I mean, obviously, you are… I just thought you’d be the director or photographer or something… More… in charge, you know? Seeing as you’re Cooper’s brother and all.”

Blaine’s expression became stony, and he dropped Kurt’s hand like it had burned him, leaving Kurt to hurry after him so as not to get lost.

Kurt felt the hair on his arms prickle uncomfortably, and he rambled on. “Ugh, I’m sorry, that came out all wrong. Once I start putting my foot in it, I keep making things worse. So, you’re a model, too. That’s great. Really great.”

“Isn’t it just?” Cooper boomed, appearing out of nowhere and clapping Kurt on the shoulder. “Yes, Blaine often helps me direct, and he’s photographed a few shoots, too. But for this, I needed him to model. I mean, look at how he fills out that pair of jeans!”

Cooper made Blaine turn around so that Kurt could admire his backside, which he did with bad grace, his eyes shooting daggers at his brother. But wow, yes, Cooper had a point there. Kurt had difficulty tearing his eyes away from that delectable view to focus on what Cooper said next.

“Pair that with Blaine’s curls and lashes, and his million-dollar smile – give me the smile, squirt! – and you got one killer combination. Yep, Blaine will definitely be the main poster boy for this campaign.”

Kurt nodded. “I can see why.”

Blaine rolled his eyes and said to a guy rolling a rack of clothes around, “Kyle, this is the new model Cooper selected. Get him the dark wash jeans, a blue shirt and a cowboy hat. Tell Reena to leave his hair as is. She just needs to accentuate his eyes.”

“Maybe give him a bit of a tan?” Cooper suggested, but Blaine shot him another glare and bit at the stylist, “No tan.”

“Gotcha,” said Kyle cheerfully. He looked Kurt up and down, raffled through the clothes on the rack and then thrust a pair of jeans and a shirt into Kurt’s hands. “The hats are still boxed up, hang on…”

Kurt looked at the clothes he’d been given, and turned to Cooper. “So where do I… Is there a changing room?”

A snort came from behind him. He didn’t know whether it had come from Kyle or from Blaine, but it made his cheeks glow with embarrassment.

Cooper shook his head. “Nope, no changing room. You’re supposed to change right here. I promise everyone here is professional and won’t stare.”

Kurt looked down. “All… all right then.”

In his haste to get the jeans and shirt on quickly, he was clumsier than usual, nearly falling face first onto the floor while putting the pants on.

An arm wound around his middle to stop him from face-planting.

“There’s no hurry,” Blaine assured him. “Sam and Puck haven’t even arrived yet.”

Kurt whirled around. “What? Are they modelling today too?”

Blaine grinned and nodded. “You have to admit Sam makes sense as a cowboy. And Cooper liked the look of Puck as well.”

Kurt deflated a little. He’d thought that the fact Cooper chose him for this campaign meant something, but clearly, it didn’t, seeing as Cooper had asked any friend of Kurt’s that fit the profile. So much for being stunning.

As soon as Kurt was dressed and his make-up had been done, Blaine took him to meet the horses and cattle and their handlers.

“We’re going to do a few scenes where we look like we’re herding cattle, then a few on the porch, where we’ll be eating and playing guitar, and then a few at the bar, that’s over there,” Blaine explained.

Soon after, Sam and Puck arrived, and the shoot started.

It should have been plain sailing. When he was eight, Kurt had begged Burt for horse-riding lessons. He’d been the only boy, like in his ballet classes, but he’d loved the lessons nonetheless, and had become quite a proficient rider. The horses used for the shoot were docile, as were the cattle, and keeping them in line should have been a piece of cake.

Somehow, though, Kurt kept hitting snags. When he got on the horse that had been assigned to him, the saddle proved to be loose, sliding off and making Kurt look like he couldn’t even mount a horse properly.

Cursing under his breath, he fastened the saddle, and at the same time, he fixed the stirrup straps, which seemed to have been arranged to fit a child, or a very short man. That would have made him look like an idiot again. Had this been done on purpose?

He put it from his mind, focusing on gently guiding his horse and following Cooper’s instructions. Just when the horse had gotten used to him, something odd happened again.

There was a sudden explosion, deafening and bright, right in front of Kurt. His horse reared and then bolted, racing through the warehouse. Kurt had to use his entire body to steer the panicked animal away from people and cattle and camera equipment, while doing his utmost to calm it and not fall off.

By the time the horse slowed down and quieted, Kurt was exhausted, and his heart was beating out a drum solo.

Blaine helped him off the horse, looking stern.

“I don’t know what happened,” Kurt panted. “Was that a lamp that exploded?”

Blaine’s expression became even grimmer. “I’ll look into it.”

Tears pricked at Kurt’s eyes, and he had to work hard to keep them in. Now he’d probably ruined his chances of ever being in an Anderson ad campaign again – and through no fault of his own!

They picnicked on the porch, and then Sam and Blaine and Puck all started playing the guitar, and everyone sang along, which was fun.

The last scenes were in the bar, and seeing as Cooper offered them real alcohol to drink, it didn’t take Puck long to become obnoxious.

“Some cowboy you are. Can’t get on your horse, can’t keep it under control, and you scatter the cattle instead of herding them. How on earth did you even land this job?”

Kurt gritted his teeth and turned to a couple of guys who were practicing with a lasso as a game. “Can I borrow that for a minute?”

Kurt looked at the empty bottle they’d been aiming at and estimated the distance. Easy peasy.

He threw the lasso, and it landed neatly around the bottle.

The men cheered, and Kurt turned to Puck. “That’s how.”

Sam clapped him on the back, hollering, “That’s my boy!”

Even Puck whistled and said, “Neat!”

The only one who glowered when Kurt caught his eye was Blaine.

And then Kurt remembered that they were filming a scene for a commercial. And what he’d done had certainly NOT been in the script.

Uh-oh, messed up again! Stupid Puck!

But Cooper shouted, “Cut! That’s a wrap!” and came to Kurt to congratulate him for ending the story in such a powerful way. “This is just perfect! Well done!”

Phew! Thank heavens Cooper isn’t such a stick in the mud like his brother…

K&B

When Kurt saw the commercial on TV a few months later, he smiled. Somehow, Cooper had cut the footage in a way that made Kurt look good instead of clumsy, weaving through the cattle and other horses like he was born to do it, and the scene where he shut up Puck was the icing on the cake. Now that he got to look at it from another point of view, he noticed that Blaine wasn’t glaring at him but at Puck. Probably miffed about something else then, not about Kurt straying from the script. Good.

The check Kurt had gotten for being in the commercial and posing for pictures afterwards had been bigger than he’d expected. He would have no trouble paying his share of the rent for months to come. And Cooper had promised he’d get in touch if he had another commercial Kurt would be perfect for.

Yes, Brittany inviting Cooper to her fake wedding had been one of her more brilliant ideas, to be sure.

#bbb2020 #blaine big bang 2020 #klaine fanfiction #my fic #out of the blue

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