“So.” He ran a nervous hand through his curls, motioning the other around the small space. “Welcome. Make yourself at home.”

Kurt smiled, taking off his light summer jacket to hang it up, his shoes joining Blaine’s by the front door. Blaine tried to calm his giddiness at the sight of Kurt's things next to his. He liked that. Quite a lot, actually. More than was probably appropriate for a first real date, he thought.

“I like your place,” Kurt commented, taking a look around as he walked over to the couch to sit down. “So is it just you and your roommate here?”

“Just me and Laura, yes,” Blaine confirmed. “We just... we're both so busy all the time and dorms can be exhausting, so we started looking for something at the end of last semester. And this place... it's a shoe box and not as close to campus as we would have liked, but it's ours and it's nice.”

“It is.”

“Wine?” Blaine asked, making his way to the tiny kitchen. “It's probably not very good, but—”

“Wine would be great, thanks,” Kurt said. “Was she the friend who failed to come to the lake with you?”

“Oh.” Blaine had to stretch up to get the bottle from the top shelf. He just hoped it wasn't too disgusting. It had been cheap enough. “No. That was my friend Nick. We were in the Warblers together. We had planned to catch up over the summer—he goes to college in Chicago—but he got back together with his girlfriend at the last second and canceled on me.”

“Well, that sucks.”

“Yeah, well. He offered to come anyway, but he'd been in a pretty bad place when they broke up and he was so happy, I pretty much told him to just stay with her instead.”

He had found the bottle opener and set to work, startling when Kurt spoke up from behind him all of a sudden, leaning against the doorjamb. “Are you always this... nice? To everyone?”

Blaine shrugged, grinning sheepishly. “No, I'm not. I just... I don't know. I can work on being more of a jerk, if you want me to, though,” he offered, wiggling his eyebrows at Kurt.

“No, don't. I like you this way.” Kurt blushed at his own words, looking down for a second before he pushed off the door, straightening his back. “Okay. Wine. Where do you keep the glasses?”

Blaine, who had almost won his fight with the bottle opener, indicated the right cupboard with a wave of his head. “Second door.”

Kurt went to get wineglasses, his shirt riding up to expose a strip of pale skin as he leaned up to reach them (he’d lost some of the tan he’d acquired at the lake already, Blaine noticed, even tough he wasn’t looking, of course not, it was just a tiny kitchen and it was impossible not to notice), and they both went back to the couch once the bottle was successfully opened.

It wasn't that they'd had trouble communicating before, but the wine loosened them up some more and soon enough they were giggling, interrupting each other as they went over their favorite memories of their time at the lake.

“Your face, though, when Rachel pushed you in,” Blaine laughed. “Oh god, that was priceless.”

“I was still fully dressed,” Kurt exclaimed. “And I was planning to get in the lake at some point, you both just wouldn't listen... You could have defended me, by the way!”

“You pulled me in after you when I offered you my hand to help you out!” Blaine complained. “I was trying to help you.”

“I was already in the lake with my clothes on, how much help did you think I needed at that point?” Kurt took another sip of his almost empty glass, leaning back against the couch cushions. “Your face was pretty priceless too, though.”

“My face is always priceless. I get lots of compliments for it.”

“Really?” Kurt scrunched up his nose in disbelief. “Your eyebrows are too big, though.”

“Your hair is too high.”

“Yours is too curly.”

“You have freckles.”

“Ouch.” Kurt held up a hand. “That was a low blow, Anderson.”

“I'm sorry.” Blaine leaned forward, kissing Kurt lightly on the lips. “I'll have you know that I like your freckled face very much.”

“It's okay.” Kurt cupped his cheek and kissed him back. “I like your ridiculous eyebrows.”

“Just my eyebrows?” Blaine pouted.

“Your hair too.”

“I complimented your entire face!”

“Well.” Kurt set down his glass, giving him a challenging grin. “I'm flawless. Face it.”

“You're wonderful,” Blaine said, and just like that, the mood shifted from playful to... something else.

They kept staring at each other for a few seconds, the air between them heavy with something, something Blaine knew neither of them was entirely ready for. Finally, Kurt cleared his throat and looked away.

“It's... late. I should probably get going.”

“Oh. Okay.” Blaine did his best not to let his disappointment show. He really wanted Kurt to stay.

“I'm... how do I get back to my apartment from here?” Kurt asked, looking puzzled for just a second.

“You could...” Blaine gathered all of his courage, playing with the edges of the blanket that was hanging over the back of the couch to pretend this wasn’t a big deal at all. “You could just stay over. If you want. It's late and this isn't the best neighborhood, exactly. Laura won't mind, she won't even be back before noon tomorrow. So...”

Kurt swallowed, seeming to think about it for a moment. “...Okay,” he finally said. “If it's really all right with you.”

“Of course it is, that's why I offered,” Blaine hurried to tell him.

“Okay,” Kurt agreed, leaning in to kiss Blaine again. “Then I'll stay.”

Blaine found him a fresh toothbrush and a clean pair of pajamas while Kurt texted Rachel to let her know he wouldn't be home that night, and they brushed their teeth side by side in the small bathroom. It felt so oddly familiar to Blaine, he could barely contain his happiness. This was what he had missed over the past few weeks. This was the lake all over again, the easy connection between them.

“You can have the bed,” Blaine told him after they were done. “I'll sleep on the couch.”

“Don't be silly. It's your apartment. If anyone takes the couch, it should be me. Or...” Kurt shrugged before he continued, downplaying the moment. “You know... it's not like we haven't shared a bed before...”

Blaine couldn't help the way his entire face lit up at Kurt's words. He didn't want to seem overexcited and give the impression that this was why he’d wanted Kurt to stay. And, in truth, it wasn’t the only reason. He genuinely didn’t want Kurt to leave just yet. They hadn’t seen each other in three weeks and it didn’t even matter that they had only known each other for twice that long, he had missed him. A lot. And if Blaine had learned one thing over the summer, it was that he never slept as well as when Kurt was right there next to him.

“I guess that might work,” he answered nonchalantly, taking Kurt's hand and leading him into his room.

Blaine turned off the lights while Kurt slid under the covers, joining him a moment later. They came to rest on their sides, facing each other.

It was Kurt who closed the distance between them first, capturing Blaine's lips in a kiss that tasted like toothpaste and memories of summer nights. Blaine sighed into it, tilting his head to give Kurt better access, their bodies shuffling closer together until they were tangled up in each other. Just the way they had been back then, so many times, not enough nights, never enough.

Blaine felt his heart hammering away in his chest as Kurt rolled him onto his back, moving until he was covering him with his whole body, nuzzling his face against Blaine’s neck.

It started out slow, almost tentative, gentle touches and slow kisses, both of them testing how far the other was willing to go. And, Blaine thought, he would have been okay with it if it ended here, if Kurt decided the next second that he’d rather go to sleep and cuddle all night. But Kurt didn’t stop, instead kept kissing him, touching him, and Blaine wrapped his arms around him and breathed in deep, filling his lungs with the scent of Kurt’s skin that he hadn’t been able to forget since they had parted.

He was growing hard quickly and almost groaned with relief when Kurt shifted on top of him and he could feel him pressed against his hip, just as hard, just as affected by all of this as Blaine was.

“This okay?”

Blaine nodded, hands fisting in the back of Kurt's pajama top. “God, yes!”

He tried holding back, tried letting Kurt set the pace, taking off their clothes piece by piece, hands roaming over exposed skin, rediscovering what they already knew. But when Kurt slid between his legs, their naked erections pressing together finally, he couldn't wait anymore.

He rolled his hips up as Kurt rocked down and they both moaned, jolts of pleasure running up Blaine's spine at the welcome friction.

It was a little dry, a little fast, but Blaine didn't care, he just wanted, and Kurt seemed to be in a similar place, judging from the desperate, jerky movements of his hips against Blaine's, the way he kissed him too sloppy, held onto him too hard.

“Kurt,” Blaine gasped, “Kurt, Kurt, Kurt...” He never wanted this to end and yet he needed to come so desperately. “Oh fuck, oh god...”

“Blaine.” Kurt's voice was breathy, trembling with want as he set a frantic pace, grinding himself down against Blaine again and again.

A broken moan escaped Kurt's throat as Blaine's hands found his ass, pressing him down harder, and Blaine felt him come, spilling between their bodies, open mouth pressed against Blaine’s shoulder.

It was all Blaine needed, and with a few last shaky thrusts upwards he followed Kurt seconds later, his body shaking as he came harder than he had in weeks. His body was trembling with the force of it and he threw his head back, sharp pleasure shooting through his body as Kurt still held him, kept moving his hips in tiny circles to ride out the last waves of it.

**

Blaine stayed awake even after Kurt had fallen asleep, trying to hang on to this moment for as long as he could.

The room was dark and quiet, the only noises their breathing and the faint sounds of cars outside the window. And he felt... content. Even asleep, Kurt still had his arms firmly around him, holding him close, Blaine’s head resting against Kurt's chest and he could hear Kurt’s heart beat under his ear.

As far as first dates went, he thought this one had been pretty amazing. He was hoping they'd have the chance to do it all over again at some point. All of it. Soon. The talking over dinner and the hand-holding and the sex, yes, that too. Kurt was still summer sun and lazy afternoons and the taste of lake water on chapped lips, but he was beginning to be so much more to him as well.

Summer was ending soon, but Blaine hoped (wished, started to believe) that what they had found would last much longer than that.

Falling asleep in Kurt's arms after their first date back in their own lives didn't just feel like the end of a great date.

It felt like a beginning too.