“Aw, Kurt! You did amazingly tonight!” She exclaimed quietly as she let go. Her hands lingered on Kurt’s shoulders and he knew she wanted to say more. He raised an eyebrow to tell her to continue. “I know you two broke up ages ago, and everything, but Kurt…” Tia lowered her voice and leaned closer to him, “You cannot tell me you don’t still have feelings for him, no matter how long you’ve spent trying to get rid of them. Not after that performance.”

“No, Tia. I don’t. Honestly he’s just—” Kurt began, but all Tia had to do was glance at him and he sighed, giving in. “Okay, I may like him a little,” He could tell Tia was about to start on one of her high-pitched rants about him finding true love, so Kurt hurried to continue, “But seriously, Tia, just let it drop. We had our… er, “romance” I suppose. I just want Blaine as a friend.”
Kurt saw her mouth open in protest but she was, thankfully, interrupted by Kurt’s security guard, “Excuse me, Mr. Hummel?”

“Yeah…?”

“Mr. Anderson is asking for permission to come backstage to see you.”

“Let him in, of course!” Kurt exclaimed loudly, forcing Tia into a fit of giggles. Kurt almost didn’t want to know what was going on in her mind. He shot her a glare before walking closer to the entrance of the stage. Kurt watched the doorway nervously, not quite sure if he was ready to face Blaine or not. What if he didn’t enjoy it? If he was honest with himself, Kurt thought he would probably play Sandy better. All thoughts were erased from his mind when Blaine entered the room, however. All Kurt could focus on was how great Blaine looked. Blaine was wearing a grey suit that clung to his body in all the right places, emphasizing his great arms and stomach. He wore a bowtie, which separated him from most of the men that had come to see the performance. What shocked Kurt most, though, was the fact that he had gelled is hair back again. Oh, and the single red rose he was carrying in his left hand.

“Hey, Kurt,” Blaine said quietly with a smile, moving in to kiss him on the cheek as he handed Kurt the rose, which thankfully didn’t have any thorns.

Kurt couldn’t stop the blush that spread up his neck as Blaine pulled back, so he tried to cover it with conversation, “Hi Blaine. Oh, this is nice. Thank you. Did you enjoy the performance? Tia seems to think it went well, but I don’t know…”

Blaine’s throaty chuckle rang through Kurt’s ears, “You were amazing; the whole cast was, but you were especially great.”

“Ah… thanks,” Kurt replied shyly. His face was starting to itch from the stage makeup, and he took that as an excuse to get away before the whole crew saw how embarrassed he was.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Blaine coughed uncomfortably as he watched Kurt’s retreating back.

“You can go after him, you know,” Came Tia’s voice from behind him.

“I’m sure he wants to be alone, get his makeup off and stuff…”

“From what I hear, he’s got n o problem with you seeing him like that,” Blaine stared blankly at her. What on earth was she talking about? “Just go, Blaine,” she urged with a roll of her eyes.

With a quick nod he headed after Kurt. His dressing room was at the end of one of the long hallways near the back of the theatre, Kurt’s room marked by gold lettering reading ‘Kurt E. Hummel’. Blaine paused, about to knock, as he heard Kurt singing quietly.

Blaine’s memories suddenly clouded his eyes, bringing him back to his junior year, his first year knowing Kurt.

“Blaine Warbler, I’m going to rock your world,” Rachel’s drunken voice said as she leaned in and grabbed him by the shirt and pulling him forward so their lips crashed together. Blaine felt strangely into the kiss. He reached up to cup Rachel’s face, barely aware of the cat-calls from the New Directions, and the false laughter from Kurt that would haunt him later.

“Your face… tastes awesome,” Rachel whispered as she pulled away, they shared a look of confusion before Rachel turned to the small circle of Glee clubbers’, “I think I found my new duet partner!”

Blaine tried to shake the memory. That part may’ve been… well, enjoyable, but the days after that were far from it.

“Are you kidding? You spent the entire night sucking Rachel Berry’s face. That, sir, is what we call rock bottom,” Kurt said through forced laughter. Blaine was about to reply when he felt his phone vibrate from within his blazer pocket.

“Ah, speak of the devil,” It was Rachel calling, and for some reason that excited him, “Hi, Rachel! Kurt and I were just talking about you.”

“You’re such a cutie pie with your blazer and your pants,” She said in what Blaine assumed to be her version of a seductive tone. He glanced at Kurt as she began to speak again, grabbing his Medium Drip from the counter. “So, I have a question for you. I wanted to know—”

“Is she drunk?” Kurt intercepted, but Blaine gave him a stern look and shushed at him before listening further.

“Would you like to you out tomorrow night?”

“Um, yeah. Alright, I’ll see you then.”

“Great! Bye, Blaine.”

“Okay, Bye.” Blaine pressed the ‘End’ button on his phone as he sat down, “Rachel just asked me out,” He told Kurt with a laugh.

“Oh, that’s amazing! She’s got a girl crush on you!”

As he walked over to the counter that held the sugar Blaine heard Kurt’s laughter stop. Apparently he was catching on.

“Wait a second, why’d you say yes? You can’t lead her on…”

“Who says I’m leading her on?” He replied with a shrug. And he wasn’t. As much as it confused Blaine to admit, he enjoyed the drunken kiss they shared.

“You can’t be serious.”

“We kissed, it felt good.”

“It felt good because you were drunk.” Kurt informed him defensively. Blaine could almost feel the anger beginning to rise through the boy.

“What’s the harm in one petty little date?” Blaine tried to keep the mood light-hearted, but Kurt wasn’t having it.

“You’re gay, Blaine.”

“I-I thought I was… but,” He began to stumble over his words, and he wasn’t even sure how to begin to explain the whole thing to Kurt seeing that he hadn’t even figured it out yet. Why was Kurt so concerned about it, though? “I’ve never even had a boyfriend before. Isn’t this the time you’re supposed to… figure this stuff out?”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this right now,” Blaine heard Kurt mutter, and he felt a pang in his chest.

“Maybe I’m bi, I dunno…” He said weakly.

“Bisexual is a term that gay guys in high school will use when they wanna hold hands with girls and feel like a normal person for a change.” Kurt spat at him.

“Woah, woah, woah. Why are you so angry?” Just keep your strong persona, Blaine, he couldn’t help but think to himself.

“Because I look up to you! I admire how proud you are of who you are. I know what it’s like to be in the closet and here you are about to tip-toe back in.”

Blaine rolled his eyes, Kurt was making this about him. Again.

“I’m really sorry if this hurts your feelings, or your pride, or whatever, but however confusing this may be for you, it’s actually a lot more confusing for me. You’re 100% sure of who you are, fantastic. Well, maybe we all can’t be so lucky.” Blaine could feel that stinging behind his eyes again so he grabbed his coffee cup and opened it, refusing to make eye contact with Kurt. He was not going to cry.

“Yeah, I’ve had a lot of luck, Blaine. I mean I was really lucky to be chased out of high school by a bully who threatened to kill me.”

“And why did he do that?”

“Because he didn’t like who I was.”

Blaine didn’t even give Kurt time to get his last word out before he started bitterly on his argument. “So, exactly what you’re saying to me right now, isn’t it?” Kurt cocked his head to the side, squinting at Blaine through eyes that held tears. “I am… I’m searching, okay? I’m honestly just trying to figure out who I am. And for you of all people to get down on me for that?” Blaine flinched at the change in octave as he tried to hold back his own emotions, “I didn’t think that’s who you were.” Blaine gave Kurt one last pleading look before standing up and grabbing his scarf and bag from the back of his chair. “I’ll see ya,” He couldn’t stop himself from turning back again to Kurt, his voice now filled with sarcasm and anger, “I’d say bye, but I wouldn’t want to make you angry.” And with that he walked out of the room and away from Kurt, refusing to look back.
*~*~*~*~*
Deciding that he was presentable, and calmed down enough, Kurt walked to the door of his dressing room and swung it open. He didn’t expect to see Blaine standing there with his hand in mid-air as if he was about to knock. Kurt waited for the awkward laughter that would usually follow after something like this happened, but when it didn’t Kurt looked at Blaine properly. His eyes were clouded over and he seemed to be in some sort of deep thought.

“Blaine?” Kurt asked as he touched his shoulder gently.

“Huh?”

“You okay? You were just, er… standing here.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. I’m fine. Just had a bit of a flashback.” Blaine laughed bitterly and Kurt gazed at him, eyes full of concern.

“What brought it on?” Kurt pressed as he stepped back and invited Blaine into his dressing room.

“I, uh, I heard you singing Don’t You Want Me. Reminded me of Rachel’s party way back when.”

“Oh,” Kurt’s voice dropped at least two octaves at the memory. Rachel’s party… their argument. Lovely.

“Yeah… That was a, er… interesting experience.”

“I was horrible to you about that. Not to mention I must have seemed like such a hypocrite.”

“How?”

“Well, I experiment too, remember?” When Blaine raised an eyebrow Kurt realized that it was one detail he had never told Blaine. He had been too embarrassed.

“I don’t recall you mentioning it, no.”

Kurt didn’t bother to wait for Blaine to ask the inevitable question, starting in on the story instead, “Yeah, I… I was still half in the closet to my dad, or so I thought, and suddenly he was spending all this time with Finn. I got jealous and thought that maybe if I acted more like my dad he’d want to spend time with me again. Not only was I wrong, but I made myself look like a complete idiot.”

“What did you do?”

“Well, I traded in my extremely fashionable wardrobe for my dad’s baggy-jeans-with-a-lumberjack-shirt look, among… other things.”

Kurt was sure if Blaine had been drinking something he would’ve spit it all out, “Baggy jeans? Lumberjack shirt? You’re lying.”

“I wish. I never felt so stupid as I did when I found out that everything, and trust me when I say everything, I did made absolutely no difference.”

“But you didn’t practically make out with a girl.”

“No, you’re right. I did much worse. I made out with a girl I knew I didn’t like. And I was completely sober.”

“What? No way… Who?” Blaine couldn’t help but ask, it was too tempting. And finding out Kurt wasn’t always as confident in himself as he was now was strangely comforting.

“Brittney,” He heard him mutter under his voice.
“Seriously?”

“Seriously.” The room was silent for a couple minutes before, out of no where, Kurt started to laugh.

“Look at us Blaine,” He said through giggles, “it’s just like old times, and I’m not even going to try and lie about this: it feels great.”