“Are you ready to cross another thing off your list?” Blaine asked, shifting slightly so Kurt was more comfortable against him.

“Sure, why not,” Kurt sighed, the alcohol in his system relaxing him significantly.

“Okay, good, because otherwise coming up here would be a total waste.” Blaine nodded towards the western ledge of the rooftop. The sky over New York was a brilliant orange-pink color, and the lights of the skyscrapers dotted the horizon with squares of florescent yellow. Kurt sat up and watched, wide-eyed, at the beauty of it all. New York was magical from street-level in that busy, crazy, rush of a way, and it was incredible from a far, standing out proud and tall against a wall of nothing, but from up here? From up here the city was unreal. Kurt slowly rose and made his way towards the ledge, wanting to get a better view of it all. As he approached and more of the city came into view he realized that there was a whole side to New York that he’d yet to experience.

“Thank you,” he said, turning around to Blaine, who still sat against the far wall. Blaine smiled and motioned for Kurt to turn back around.

“It goes quickly, this part,” Blaine said, just loud enough to be heard. “You don’t want to miss it.” Kurt watched in awe as the sky melded from one color to the next, as lights popped on across the city, as the dark encompassed everything as if putting New York to bed. He listened as the noises changed from frantic and hustled to joyous and carefree. Kurt watch as New York turned from a business capital to the city that never sleeps.

When twilight ended and it was well and truly Dark Kurt turned and walked back to where Blaine still sat, waiting.

“Did you like it?” Blaine asked as Kurt sat once more next to him.

“It was amazing,” Kurt replied, leaning against Blaine.

“That was only half of it,” Blaine whispered, more to himself than Kurt.

Kurt was asleep in under an hour, all the wine finally taking its toll.

Blaine, for his part, was wide awake. He reached for the blanket he’d packed and managed to grab it without disturbing Kurt. He threw it over the both of them and snuggled in. He would let Kurt sleep, he figured, until just before dawn – that way he wouldn’t miss the second half of the list item, but he also wouldn’t feel like crap while watching the sunrise. Well, not as much as if he hadn’t gotten any sleep.

As Kurt slept, Blaine pulled the list, now soft from continual unfolding and refolding, from his pocket so he could read it once more. He wondered desperately what the top item was, but knew that he’d have to work for that one. He had his guesses, based on the other 24, but none of them seemed to fit Kurt – not that a lot of the things fit the Kurt he knew, but then again that seemed to be the point of this exercise.

It would take every connection Blaine had, and a lot of planning, but he was determined to make every last one of the items on the list come to fruition in the next year and a half. Kurt deserved it.

Blaine knew as soon as he saw Kurt that he wanted to know him; the way Kurt carried himself, the way his face crinkled with concentration as he poured over the books, the careful way he crafted each letter of each word as he wrote his list, the musical quality of his voice when he finally spoke. There was something about Kurt that just seemed to draw Blaine to him, something that was begging to be won over. It was going to be a battle, Blaine knew that, and it was obvious that Kurt had issues in the past, but Blaine wasn’t going to give up. He could be a stubborn jackass, and for once it was going to come in handy.

Talking to Rachel provided some insight as to Kurt’s history, and that first date had given Blaine a fairly good idea of Kurt’s personality, but the picture wasn’t whole yet. Blaine knew the basics, he knew the surface, and the rest was all speculation. He knew what Kurt appeared to be, but what he really wanted to know, what he really wanted to discover was the Kurt that no one saw. He wanted to know Kurt at least as well as Kurt knew Kurt.

As he looked down and saw Kurt, peacefully asleep, he smiled to himself. There was a front that Kurt put up, a protective barrier, but Blaine was finally starting to get past that, on to the next layer.

Blaine wasn’t nearly as complex; the Blaine you saw was the Blaine you got. Well, at least in terms of personality. He had his secrets, everyone does, but they were more his history than himself. Blaine spoke his mind, acted on his whims, and did whatever he wanted to, he just never talked about his past. Mainly because, well, it was in the past, and he felt it was incredibly important to live in the present. But also, if he was being honest (which he usually was), because he hated thinking about it.

As the hours passed, Blaine snuggled in to Kurt and pulled the blanket tighter around them both. He wasn’t sleepy, and he didn’t want to waste a moment of time with Kurt, so instead he sat and thought. He planned out how he would accomplish some of the list items, and he thought about Kurt, and he thought about himself. He thought until the sky began to turn from the dark midnight blue to the creamy cobalt of pre-dawn.

“Kurt,” he whispered, nudging Kurt gently. “Kurt, it’s time to wake up.”

“Hrmmmm, 5 more minutes.”

“No, silly, now, or you’ll miss it.” Kurt groaned again but reluctantly opened his eyes. Blaine reached over and handed him 2 asprin and a bottle of water. “Wine hangovers are a bitch, take this.” Kurt side-eyed Blaine quickly before taking the meds and thanking him.

“Now why am I up at this un-godly - oh” Kurt cut himself off as he saw the sky once more turning colors. He stood, slowly, and turned.

The sky was once more a canvas of colors, but something was different. There was a quiet to sunrise that didn’t exist at sunset. The city was coming to life once more, traffic noises were picking up, lights were flicking on, but the atmosphere was still calm, quiet, almost intimate. The city seemed small.

“This is...wow,” Kurt said, looking around, trying to take in as much of the view as possible. It felt as though Kurt was watching the city as it transformed in the few moments it took for the sky over the city to lighten completely. Before he knew it the quiet tranquility of dawn had given way to the hectic hum of the early morning. As Kurt stood, surveying the city, Blaine began cleaning up their wine tasting picnic from the night before.

“What are you going to do now?” Kurt asked, turning to watch Blaine instead.

“What do you mean?” Blaine paused, eyeing Kurt.

“Now that all the easy things are done. Well, most of the easy ones anyway.”

“Oh, that,” Blaine laughed. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

Kurt really hated that smirk. But he also kind of loved it.