"I'm so sorry. Seriously, so sorry. We just don't have lots of floorspace. We are open though." Blaine smiled awkwardly and pushed his hair back, watching Sam try to remove the sexual nightmare material from the floor. Thank the good lord that this guy was quick on his feet. "If you just step over the books my colleague is picking up, I can assist you. We just have to do our inventory and this is the quietest time of day. No kids."
Blaine came forward and kicked the yaois gently to the side to make Kurt a porn free path into the comic book store. He had no idea why a guy dressed like that was here at 11am, he looked more like he should be on the red carpet, not here. Maybe he was lost - but then why did he check the opening times? Weird. "Welcome to Blam! We don't usually block our entrance with gay porn."
"That's probably a wise choice, business-wise." There was something disturbing about seeing whatever a pokémon was so close to that sheer amount of lovingly and entirely too detailed drawn gay porn. Kurt shook his head and tried to move past it, figuratively, as well as literally, by stepping past the enormous blond hunk on the floor closer to the cute guy.
He wasn't really sure what usually happened in comic book stores. Maybe he should have asked Finn for help. "Erm." Great. He really had to gather his wits here. "I'm Kurt Hummel, I'm an editor at Vogue."
He looked the guy up and down and then added, for sake of clarification, "It's a fashion magazine."
"Oh. Yeah. I know what Vogue is." Well, that was a brutal slam of his fashion and probably his hair. God, he hated people seeing his hair like this when they were all hot and sexy. Usually he didn't get many hot guys in here and even if he did, he wasn't really looking to date. Even so, he didn't want to be a slob in front of this fucking handsome vogue editor.
Why was their a vogue editor? That wasn't fair! They never got fashionable people.
"I'm the manager here." Blaine introduced as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm a Bl in the Blam. It's named after me and my friend. Sam." He gestured over at Sam and then cleared his throat. "H-How do we help you?"
"BL as in Boy Love!" Sam called out from the back where he was currently trying to hide the porn, even from himself, still ready to wingman Blaine.
For a moment, Kurt smiled, feeling a little less tense. All right, he could do this. "We have an upcoming issue that will focus on comics, graphic novels, all that. The medium, the inspiration it brings to and takes from fashion, how things evolved throughout the years, all that."
He looked around now, his fingers gracing the backs of some of the comics on a shelf. "The issue is that most of what I know about comics is through my brother and he's-- He mostly just reads Archie comics. He also likes Garfield." He had quizzed Finn on it yesterday and not come up with a lot. "Presumably due to a shared love of lasagna. And Vogue is no place for complex carbs."
That joke probably worked better in the office than right here. Whatever. He looked back at Blaine and tried a sincere approach. "I always prefer writing my articles through a queer lens. Especially at times like these. And according to my research, this place is the best store in the city for that."
"Blaine is super duper queer," Sam voiced in support, standing behind Blaine now, "And he wears glasses sometimes, so. Lenses. I mean, he has those really out there yellow shades, they're totally awesome."
"You can stop, Sam. I think he gets I'm gay." Blaine assured Sam as he threw his hands out and gave Kurt a smile. Hopefully he didn't think they were total losers, even if they were doing little to debunk that since the fancy-smancy vogue guy walked in. "But sure, I can help you as best as I can. I don't know much about fashion history but I do know a lot about comics. And you can sort of see the outfits evolve so that's kind of cool. I always notice it with the girls more."
They went through the horrible offensive and problematic outfits to lame attempts to fix it to real attempts and now a retrograde.
"Some comics are also always stuck in a bit of a specific era too, both in theme and fashion. Like X-Men. Do you know X-Men?" Blaine asked as he started to walk towards the marvel comic section.
"My brother had a Hugh Jackman poster that I maybe stared at more than necessary. He had the... Scissorhands. Like Edward." He did know some references, though overall comics really were a cultural blind spot for him. Not that he'd admitted to that when he got this piece assigned, he wasn't about to self-sabotage like that. "I know Spider-man. I'm not sure they're related."
He only remembered that Hugh Jackman had something to do with the X-Men because he remembered the X on the poster. "There hasn't been a gay superhero movie, has there? I'm waiting for one of those."
"Spiderman is marvel comics, like X-Men, the Avengers and Captain America." Blaine explained as he looked through the comics and tried to find the ones he was the most interested in. "There's not been, no. Too 'woke', I'm sure. There's been some queer representation. America Chavez in Doctor Strange or Phastos in Eternals but it's not the best. That doesn't mean comics don't have a queer history, it just means that people like to ignore it."
He held out an X-Men comic for Kurt to look at, smiling. He opened it for him and pointed at a certain character. "That's Northstar. He came out of the closest in 1992 as the first gay superhero. He married his partner, Kyle Jinadu, in the first same sex marriage in a mainstream comic book. And once that door opened, the X-Men didn't stop. We got Ice-Man, lesbian power couple Mystique and Destiny and even Escapade, a trans mutant. They're all mutants."
He leaned over and picked up more X-Men comics, opening up pages and setting them on the nearby shelves. "It started in 1963 and the fashion in it evolves all the time so it could be cool from that perspective. And it's got a good message. You know, it's about being born different and refusing to change. Fighting to be who you are."
He set down a few different issues and then opened X-Men: The Wedding Special on the page of Mystique and Destiny marrying.
"Plus, you know, they're homo superior. Kind of says it all right."
With a dorky smile, Blaine moved forward and pulled the marvel pride comic down and set it onto the shelf as well. "This one is a mix of heroes. DC and Marvel do one every year now. Pride comics!"
"Homo superior," Kurt repeated, mumbling it to himself. He should really be taking notes, hopefully he'd remember. "I like that. There's a nice title for a two page spread." He had ideas already, which was a lot more than he had had a few minutes ago. "Look at that, you're all I could ever want."
He smiled at Blaine and then realised that might come across as more flirtatious than he strictly intended. Ah, well. He was single and the guy was cute in a major way, in spite or maybe even because of the nerdy vibes, so he wasn't about to pull back too much. "Is it mostly X-Men then that has the queer representation?"
He looked at the Wedding Special and imagined what it would look like with actual models involved. There was potential there and he loved the idea of a Sapphic wedding, all the better to show off bridal fashion.
He wished. He would love to be all this guy could ever want but he assumed someone like this probably dated hunky vogue models or something. Hell, he looked pretty in shape, he probably needed someone to keep up with him. Blaine was not that sort of guy. Alas.
"You know, you said Spiderman before. I think I know something you'd like. They just got their first gay Spiderman and they're iconic already." Blaine moved across to the box he had been unpacking before and pulled out the comic he wanted to show him. He walked over and held it out. "Web Weaver. Edge of Spider-Verse #5. He has a passion for fashion."
He laughed a little and then smiled. "I guess it's like if you were Spiderman." Well... that was the dorkiest way to hit on someone. He was proud of himself for managing that. He blushed and then pulled away.
"There's also queer comics, where the heroes are queer, but they're not mainstream. I'm not sure if you're interested. There's also DC - so like Batman and Superman. Did you know that back in the day, Batman was part of the lavender scare in the 50's? It's wild."
"Because of him and Robin? That is wild. And fascinating. I know the Riddler, gay guys keep dressing up as him." Almost every famous gay person he followed, if they were any degree of flamboyant, tended to dress up as the Riddler sooner or later. He wasn't sure why. "The Joker too. Catwoman. Huh. Guess I know more than I thought."
Quite a few iconic reference points there. As he mulled it over, mostly wondering just how far he might be able to push this now that he realised how much material there might be, he picked up the comic issue that Blaine was holding out. He smiled. No one had ever compared him to a superhero before.
He held the comic and looked at Blaine. "Look, I'm going to buy basically all the comics you can think of that serve my research purpose. I notoriously over-research, it's my method." He liked to be prepared. "And... Is there any chance I could get your number? I'd love to pick your brain some more."
"My -- oh. Yeah, of course." His heart was racing in his chest and he had such butterflies in his stomach. He fumbled around and then pulled out one of his business cards. He turned it around and scribbled his number down. "If you need to know anything about queerness in comics, I can always help. It's kind of my speciality."
He always had pride events here, he gave out queer comics and always took in up and coming queer artists works to sell here. To him, it was important.
"I can tell you which Robin is bi and what the most popular queer comic ship is." Blaine informed him, nervously rubbed his hands together. It was just a work thing, no way was thus guy into him but if he could help spread the queer word of dorkdom, he would do it. "I'll find you some key comics and I'll try to streamline it for you."
"You've given me a better starting point than I could have hoped for," Kurt assured him, tucking the business card away and then checking his phone. Missed call from the boss? Yeah, that wasn't great, probably meant he had a crisis to handle. "Listen, I need to get back to the office."
Without thinking about it, he reached out and took Blaine's hand. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to shake it or what, but he ended up holding it as he looked into his eyes and he forgot what he'd been meaning to say for a moment or two. Had the Earth just stopped moving? Did time stand still? Something definitely happened there. "Can I come by this afternoon to pick up the comics?"
"Uh. Yes." It was hard to think, Kurt had soft hands. The hand was arm too, as he waited for Kurt to shake it or something but no, he just kept holding it. His heart was fluttering and he stared at Kurt, looking into his eyes. Oh no. He was falling. Falling for a guy he'd probably only see in person once more. Life sucked.
"I'll put them aside for you." He smiled awkwardly and no, he didn't want to pull his hand away, even though he knew that was the smart love. He just didn't often get this. Touch. Holding hands. Sure, he did it with Sam and Tina but it was different.
Kurt wasn't sure what the acceptable time for handholding was when he had a distinct feeling that it was really no time whatsoever. But Blaine wasn't pulling away and neither was he, so here they were. Past the acceptable time and strictly in awkward or potentially in dangerous territory. He couldn't have a crush on some guy he didn't even know. He wasn't in high school any more.
"Yeah, I do. I drink it a lot, actually. Sometimes too much." He found it was calming for him to pound a couple of a day and also what the hell was happening? Was he being asked out to coffee or was he just asking to get to know more about comics and why were they still holding hands? They were holding hands. Oh no. He lost his nerve and let go of Kurt, assuming he was the weirdo not letting go from the hot guy's hand and it was starting to make him look weird.
"Do you? Like coffee." Well, duh, obviously. Why else would he ask?
"Yes. Mostly latte. Soy or almond milk." That was so not what he wanted, a coffee conversation. But given the guy had just let go of his hand, belatedly, as if he had stung him, Kurt assumed that the derailing into discussing coffee as a concept was Blaine turning him down gently. Presumably he was taken or just not interested. Fine, he could handle rejection.
Eventually the Earth would move for him again without Blaine holding his hand. Even if that was difficult to imagine right now. "I'll be by around fiveish." He turned around and waved over his shoulder, awkwardly, he was sure. "Thanks so much for your help."
With that he got out the door and Sam came up behind Blaine, providing commentary. "You threw that game at the closer, huh?"
"I pulled away. I panicked. I blew it. I did, didn't I? I blew it."
Blaine groaned and watched Kurt move passed the window with longing before he promptly covered his face with his hands in embarrassment. "I thought I was being creepy cause I was holding his hand and I wanted to ask if he wanted and -- and what the hell? I put him off! I didn't mean to, I -- coffee?! Does he like coffee? He asked! Of course he does!"
How the hell did he always manage to do that? He sighed and then flopped down dramatically onto the floor of his very open comic book store, hiding half under the DC merch display. "Leave me here to die. I'm a lost cause."
"If you want to play dead for long you should do it over by the horror comics. I could use some ketchup and make a great display." He had ideas for that. Sam glanced in the direction of where the gay guy had just walked off to, wondering what encouraging thing he could say to Blaine. "Look, he's coming back, right? You've just gotta go for it, man. Like when I want a girl to know I'm into her, I talk about her boobs. Stare at them. Kinda does the trick usually."
"One, he doesn't have boobs. Two, if I start staring at any part of him, I won't be able to stop. Fact. He's stunning. Did you see his arms? And his eyes, oh, his eyes. They're beautiful." He was so deeply, utterly embarrassed and straight frat boy help was not what he needed. He slowly sat up and stared at Sam with puppy dog eyes. "I think I just met my soulmate and I blew it. Complete buffoonery."
He put his head in his hands now, wondering what he could do. "I didn't expect him to be asking me out. I mean, what if it was just a work thing and the only reason that all happened is because I was holding his hand and not shaking it?! I don't want to strike out either."
Why did dating have to be hard? "I hate taking chances and dating is hard and I don't even wanna so..."
"I mean, he took your hand and he asked about coffee. Do gay guys not use coffee? Like, I hate coffee, but when I wanna ask out a girl, I ask her for coffee." Then he drank hot chocolate because coffee was bitter and sad disappointment, but whatever. "I didn't see his arms. Or his eyes. But I also didn't hold his hand for a minute, so."
He assumed he had missed some details. "You are hot too, Blaine! I mean, I know you are straight hot, I bet you are gay hot too. So just ask him out! What's the worst that could happen?"
"We go out for coffee and he thinks I'm a total dork and I remain a dateless wonder for the rest of my life, knowing I couldn't even make it work with the guy who makes my heart beat like this." Blaine said, thinking before he frowned and then shook his head. "Actually, no, the worst is if I just die of embarrassment. He works at vogue and he felt the need to explain to me it's about fashion. Did you see how he looked at me? He hates how I dress. We're doomed on that alone."
The pessimistic spiral was one that Blaine fell into often. He couldn't help it, he was just having a dry spell. Of forever. And he had no idea what to do about it. "I just... liked him."
"I mean, he works at whatever you say but he didn't know X-Men, so..." Who was the loser now? Sam didn't really have any degree of shame or insecurity in this regard so it was difficult to relate to Blaine entirely. "If he spends any time with you, he's gonna love you. You're Blaine! You're awesome, man. And you are the most fashionable guy I know."
It wasn't saying much, but still. "Anyway, maybe he just wants you without your clothes. People like that best with me."
"Oh God, that's a whole different nightmare." He didn't really like the idea of guys judging his naked body, he preferred anonymous porn sites where no one could see him and he could have his way with whatever fantasy took over. Gays in the club were always fit and in shape, all hot and sexy. And none of them ever talked comics with him. Probably because no one wanted to talk comics in a gay club.
"Thanks though, you're a good friend." Blaine got himself back up and then came to Sam, putting his head against his best friend's shoulder with a small pout. "Just don't get married and ditch me before I have someone, okay?"
"Nah, never. We'd all have to get married together." However that worked in Sam's mind, he was content with the thought. "Tina can join us. Don't think she'd give us a choice."
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Blaine came forward and kicked the yaois gently to the side to make Kurt a porn free path into the comic book store. He had no idea why a guy dressed like that was here at 11am, he looked more like he should be on the red carpet, not here. Maybe he was lost - but then why did he check the opening times? Weird. "Welcome to Blam! We don't usually block our entrance with gay porn."
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He wasn't really sure what usually happened in comic book stores. Maybe he should have asked Finn for help. "Erm." Great. He really had to gather his wits here. "I'm Kurt Hummel, I'm an editor at Vogue."
He looked the guy up and down and then added, for sake of clarification, "It's a fashion magazine."
no subject
Why was their a vogue editor? That wasn't fair! They never got fashionable people.
"I'm the manager here." Blaine introduced as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm a Bl in the Blam. It's named after me and my friend. Sam." He gestured over at Sam and then cleared his throat. "H-How do we help you?"
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For a moment, Kurt smiled, feeling a little less tense. All right, he could do this. "We have an upcoming issue that will focus on comics, graphic novels, all that. The medium, the inspiration it brings to and takes from fashion, how things evolved throughout the years, all that."
He looked around now, his fingers gracing the backs of some of the comics on a shelf. "The issue is that most of what I know about comics is through my brother and he's-- He mostly just reads Archie comics. He also likes Garfield." He had quizzed Finn on it yesterday and not come up with a lot. "Presumably due to a shared love of lasagna. And Vogue is no place for complex carbs."
That joke probably worked better in the office than right here. Whatever. He looked back at Blaine and tried a sincere approach. "I always prefer writing my articles through a queer lens. Especially at times like these. And according to my research, this place is the best store in the city for that."
"Blaine is super duper queer," Sam voiced in support, standing behind Blaine now, "And he wears glasses sometimes, so. Lenses. I mean, he has those really out there yellow shades, they're totally awesome."
no subject
They went through the horrible offensive and problematic outfits to lame attempts to fix it to real attempts and now a retrograde.
"Some comics are also always stuck in a bit of a specific era too, both in theme and fashion. Like X-Men. Do you know X-Men?" Blaine asked as he started to walk towards the marvel comic section.
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He only remembered that Hugh Jackman had something to do with the X-Men because he remembered the X on the poster. "There hasn't been a gay superhero movie, has there? I'm waiting for one of those."
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He held out an X-Men comic for Kurt to look at, smiling. He opened it for him and pointed at a certain character. "That's Northstar. He came out of the closest in 1992 as the first gay superhero. He married his partner, Kyle Jinadu, in the first same sex marriage in a mainstream comic book. And once that door opened, the X-Men didn't stop. We got Ice-Man, lesbian power couple Mystique and Destiny and even Escapade, a trans mutant. They're all mutants."
He leaned over and picked up more X-Men comics, opening up pages and setting them on the nearby shelves. "It started in 1963 and the fashion in it evolves all the time so it could be cool from that perspective. And it's got a good message. You know, it's about being born different and refusing to change. Fighting to be who you are."
He set down a few different issues and then opened X-Men: The Wedding Special on the page of Mystique and Destiny marrying.
"Plus, you know, they're homo superior. Kind of says it all right."
With a dorky smile, Blaine moved forward and pulled the marvel pride comic down and set it onto the shelf as well. "This one is a mix of heroes. DC and Marvel do one every year now. Pride comics!"
no subject
He smiled at Blaine and then realised that might come across as more flirtatious than he strictly intended. Ah, well. He was single and the guy was cute in a major way, in spite or maybe even because of the nerdy vibes, so he wasn't about to pull back too much. "Is it mostly X-Men then that has the queer representation?"
He looked at the Wedding Special and imagined what it would look like with actual models involved. There was potential there and he loved the idea of a Sapphic wedding, all the better to show off bridal fashion.
no subject
"You know, you said Spiderman before. I think I know something you'd like. They just got their first gay Spiderman and they're iconic already." Blaine moved across to the box he had been unpacking before and pulled out the comic he wanted to show him. He walked over and held it out. "Web Weaver. Edge of Spider-Verse #5. He has a passion for fashion."
He laughed a little and then smiled. "I guess it's like if you were Spiderman." Well... that was the dorkiest way to hit on someone. He was proud of himself for managing that. He blushed and then pulled away.
"There's also queer comics, where the heroes are queer, but they're not mainstream. I'm not sure if you're interested. There's also DC - so like Batman and Superman. Did you know that back in the day, Batman was part of the lavender scare in the 50's? It's wild."
no subject
Quite a few iconic reference points there. As he mulled it over, mostly wondering just how far he might be able to push this now that he realised how much material there might be, he picked up the comic issue that Blaine was holding out. He smiled. No one had ever compared him to a superhero before.
He held the comic and looked at Blaine. "Look, I'm going to buy basically all the comics you can think of that serve my research purpose. I notoriously over-research, it's my method." He liked to be prepared. "And... Is there any chance I could get your number? I'd love to pick your brain some more."
no subject
He always had pride events here, he gave out queer comics and always took in up and coming queer artists works to sell here. To him, it was important.
"I can tell you which Robin is bi and what the most popular queer comic ship is." Blaine informed him, nervously rubbed his hands together. It was just a work thing, no way was thus guy into him but if he could help spread the queer word of dorkdom, he would do it. "I'll find you some key comics and I'll try to streamline it for you."
He didn't want to overload him with anything.
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Without thinking about it, he reached out and took Blaine's hand. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to shake it or what, but he ended up holding it as he looked into his eyes and he forgot what he'd been meaning to say for a moment or two. Had the Earth just stopped moving? Did time stand still? Something definitely happened there. "Can I come by this afternoon to pick up the comics?"
He was still holding Blaine's hand. Why?
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"I'll put them aside for you." He smiled awkwardly and no, he didn't want to pull his hand away, even though he knew that was the smart love. He just didn't often get this. Touch. Holding hands. Sure, he did it with Sam and Tina but it was different.
This felt special.
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"Do you drink coffee?" Smooth.
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"Do you? Like coffee." Well, duh, obviously. Why else would he ask?
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Eventually the Earth would move for him again without Blaine holding his hand. Even if that was difficult to imagine right now. "I'll be by around fiveish." He turned around and waved over his shoulder, awkwardly, he was sure. "Thanks so much for your help."
With that he got out the door and Sam came up behind Blaine, providing commentary. "You threw that game at the closer, huh?"
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Blaine groaned and watched Kurt move passed the window with longing before he promptly covered his face with his hands in embarrassment. "I thought I was being creepy cause I was holding his hand and I wanted to ask if he wanted and -- and what the hell? I put him off! I didn't mean to, I -- coffee?! Does he like coffee? He asked! Of course he does!"
How the hell did he always manage to do that? He sighed and then flopped down dramatically onto the floor of his very open comic book store, hiding half under the DC merch display. "Leave me here to die. I'm a lost cause."
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He put his head in his hands now, wondering what he could do. "I didn't expect him to be asking me out. I mean, what if it was just a work thing and the only reason that all happened is because I was holding his hand and not shaking it?! I don't want to strike out either."
Why did dating have to be hard? "I hate taking chances and dating is hard and I don't even wanna so..."
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He assumed he had missed some details. "You are hot too, Blaine! I mean, I know you are straight hot, I bet you are gay hot too. So just ask him out! What's the worst that could happen?"
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The pessimistic spiral was one that Blaine fell into often. He couldn't help it, he was just having a dry spell. Of forever. And he had no idea what to do about it. "I just... liked him."
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It wasn't saying much, but still. "Anyway, maybe he just wants you without your clothes. People like that best with me."
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"Thanks though, you're a good friend." Blaine got himself back up and then came to Sam, putting his head against his best friend's shoulder with a small pout. "Just don't get married and ditch me before I have someone, okay?"
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