6. COMING HOME

The next morning, over late breakfast, Blaine could feel his mom’s eyes on him. When she finally spoke, she sounded worried.

“Baby, are you all right? You look tired.”

“I’m fine. I just couldn’t sleep last night, so I went for a walk along the beach and came back pretty late.”

“How late is pretty late?”

“Um, half past four?” Plus the time he spent in the shower “with” Kurt. And he woke up early because he’d forgotten to reset his alarm, and spent some more time um… thinking about last night, before he came down for breakfast. But his mother didn’t need to know those details. Blaine smiled quickly and dug into his fruit salad, trying to cover the blush that was creeping up his neck when he thought about it. “Don’t worry, I’ll nap later. Anyway, what do you want to do today?”

For a moment Blaine felt as if his mom was reading him like an open book as she sat, drinking her cappuccino, but then she nodded once and stood up.

“I have a plan; I’m sure it would improve your mood, but I need to go check if it’s feasible. I’ll come to your room when I get all the information, okay?”

“Sure.” Blaine doubted any attractions would really lessen the longing for Kurt that was still flaring like an ache in his chest – nothing could, but he felt mildly intrigued anyway. Finishing his breakfast and going back up to the room, Blaine ran through possibilities in his head. When his mom found him on the balcony half an hour later, he had already created quite a list of possible scenarios. Some were actually fun, but the reality, it turned out, surpassed them all.

“Come on, pack up. Be ready to go in an hour.”

Blaine raised his brow, surprised.

“What should I pack and for how long?”

“Everything, silly. We’re going home.” His mom smiled widely.

Blaine sat up so fast the deck chair folded under him and he landed gracelessly on his butt on the hard tiles. He hardly felt it, overwhelmed by emotions.

“Home? As in…”

“As in Ohio, do you remember us having any other homes?”

“But…”

His mom pet his hair, a soft smile on her lips.

“You miss Kurt too much to take pleasure in being here any longer. And I’ll be glad to spend my remaining days off in my garden. I’ve never been a great fan of beaches anyway.”

Blaine could feel his eyes sting; he couldn’t believe that his mother would not only accept his boyfriend and their relationship, but actually cut short their vacations only to let him go back to the boy he loved and missed. Yet that was exactly what was happening. Blaine got to his feet and hugged her tightly.

“Thank you Mom... I love you so much.”

“I love you too, honey.”

They were going to arrive in Columbus late at night and it was still a fair way from Lima, but Blaine couldn’t imagine waiting another day, one hour more than he had to. Now that it was so close, the need to see and feel Kurt was so overwhelming it left no place for anything else. His mom agreed to drop him by Kurt’s on the way home, if only Burt and Carole didn’t have a problem with him visiting so late at night.

Blaine hadn’t told Kurt he was coming back earlier – as much as he’d love to hear excitement and happy anticipation in Kurt’s voice, he wanted to see his face brightened with surprise and delight even more. So he’d sent an email before leaving the hotel, saying – quite truthfully, really – that he was going for a trip with his mom and they wouldn’t get anywhere near an internet connection till tomorrow, so he wouldn’t be able to Skype Kurt today. He’d gotten no response by the time he switched off his laptop to put it in his carry-on, but it didn’t matter. They would be together soon.

Now Blaine just had to talk to Kurt’s parents. He had a key to their house, he’d had it since June, when Burt had decided that Blaine needed one because he was there so often. He’d gotten permission to come in unannounced any time he wanted, but he felt it wouldn’t be proper to just sneak in without a word in the middle of the night when he shouldn’t even be back in the States yet. What if they thought he was a burglar? Besides, he promised his mom he’d make sure everyone was fine with it. Well, everyone but Kurt, Blaine thought excitedly, Kurt can’t know yet.

Eventually, he decided to call Carole – she was the one more likely to keep a secret without dropping any hints that could clue Kurt in. Blaine had the conversation well planned before he even dialed the number.

As soon as he heard the sound of the connection, he blurted.

“Carole please don’t say my name aloud.”

There was a second of silence, then, “Okay?”

“Is Kurt within hearing distance?”

“Yes.”

As if in confirmation, Kurt’s voice sounded somewhere in the background, his tone irritated, and Blaine’s heart leaped. Maybe he should just tell him now, make his day brighter? But he resisted the temptation – he had a plan. So he just asked Carole instead,

“Can you go somewhere where he won’t be able to hear you?”

“Yes, of course. Wait a moment, sir, let me go and check.”

Blaine could hear her steps on the stairs, the familiar creaking of the floor of the upstairs landing, then the sound of a closing door before Carole spoke again.

“Okay, I’m far enough. Why the secrecy?”

“I don’t want to spoil a surprise – we’re coming home right now, a bit earlier than planned, and I don’t want Kurt to know till I arrive. Can you keep it a secret?”

Blaine could practically hear Carole’s delighted smile.

“Of course. Oh, it’s wonderful news, you can’t imagine how it feels here lately. It’s like there’s a massive storm cloud in the house. Wait, is that why you’re not calling him on the computer tonight?”

“Yes. Is he mad?”

“No, he’s depressed. Muttering something about stupid impulsive ideas, whatever that means. He’s wearing sweats, can you believe it?”

Blaine hissed. Sweats were bad. Really bad.

“Oh, ouch. Keep holding on, it’ll be over by tomorrow. Carole, the problem is we’ll be back late; very late, way after midnight. Do you think… could I come over anyway? I know it’s the middle of the night and probably inappropriate, and maybe the few hours until morning don’t seem like much -”

She interrupted him heatedly.

“Nonsense, darling, of course they must seem like a lifetime to you right now. You can come whenever you want to. Do you happen to have your key on you? It would be easiest if you just let yourself in.”

“I have it. You really don’t mind?”

He could hear the smile in her voice and he knew she meant it.

“Of course not. You need each other, I get it. I’ll make sure nobody knows until the morning.”

“Thank you. You’re the best. I’ll slip in quietly, just please make sure Burt doesn’t jump out with a shotgun if I make any noise after all.”

“Don’t worry, just as long as you won’t make Kurt scream in surprise, Burt probably won’t hear a thing. He sleeps like a log; but don’t tell him you know.”

They both chuckled lightly and said goodbye, and Blaine went to join his mom in the waiting area, his heart singing, because Kurt, he was going to see Kurt, tonight.

The single key in his hand was sweaty as Blaine collected his carry-on bag from the back seat, said goodbye to his mom and got to the front door of the sleeping house. His heart was pounding, his skin thrumming with happy anticipation. He hadn’t been so close to Kurt in almost three weeks. He couldn’t wait to see his beautiful face again.

The hall light was on when Blaine slipped quietly in, locking the door behind him. The house welcomed him like an old friend, its smells and sounds comfortably familiar, and Blaine smiled widely. He felt like he was coming back home.

He was sweaty after the long journey, his clothes crumpled and his hair flattened in places. It was not how he wanted Kurt to see him after such a long time. Taking off his trainers, he was just wondering if taking a quick shower downstairs was out of the question in the middle of the night when he heard quiet footsteps and Carole came down, in her pajamas and with sleep-lined face.

“I thought I heard the door open.” She smiled widely and hugged Blaine, who returned the hug happily. “Oh my, you’re all tanned. I’m so happy you’re back safe. I bet you’re tired after the flight?”

“I’m fine, and so happy to be back, just stiff and feeling gross after all those hours on the plane.”

“You can shower here before you go up to bed; don’t worry, nobody will hear you.” She smiled with understanding, clearly having fun with this conspiracy. “Would you like anything to eat? Some tea?”

Blaine shook his head. Eating, drinking, breathing could wait. He wouldn’t wait one minute more than absolutely necessary.

“No, thank you. I’ll just shower and go to get some sleep.”

Carole just nodded, said goodnight and went back upstairs, tactfully silent about the fact that she must have known just as well as he did how improbable it was they would actually sleep when Kurt woke up in a moment.

Blaine rushed through showering  and five minutes later he was ready, in his pajama pants and a t-shirt, his hair falling in a mess of damp curls on his forehead. It felt absurd, but here, now, so close to seeing Kurt again, he felt the longing more than ever; squeezing his chest, making it hard to breathe. It was like all the time he had missed Kurt was concentrated into this moment when he was almost close enough to reach and touch.

Resisting the urge to run up the stairs at full speed, Blaine took his bag and snuck up, barefoot, step by painfully slow step, until Kurt’s half open door stood before him like an invitation. An invitation he could not refuse, obviously. He slipped through the door, closed it noiselessly behind him and leaving his bag there, made the last few steps that shared him from the bed. And the world stood still; or maybe it was just Blaine’s heart. Because there he was – asleep and perfect, curled on his side, his torso bare and his hand hanging over the edge of the bed. Kurt.

All love he felt for this boy filled Blaine chest so full he thought it would burst as he dropped to his knees at the side of the bed, just inches from Kurt’s relaxed face. His plan was to wake him up with a kiss, but now he couldn’t tear his eyes away, happy just looking at him, sharing the same space, breathing the same air.

After just a moment Kurt stirred, however, and whispered Blaine? into the soft darkness of the room. Clearly half-asleep still, he reached his hand out and Blaine took it, the hand he dreamed of holding in every city and every street he’d been to in Italy, and suddenly the world was right again. It was like everything fell back in its place. He felt complete. Barely holding in the tears, he whispered, “I’m here” and leaned in.

Kurt fell into the kiss immediately, easily, but it took all of three seconds – three seconds in heaven, Blaine thought – before he gasped and stiffened, his eyes opening wide, fully conscious now. Blaine withdrew quickly and put his finger on his lips, prompting him to be silent. When he reached to switch on the bedside lamp, Kurt looked at him like he saw a ghost. A very welcome ghost, but a ghost nonetheless, his reaction somewhere between terror and ecstatic disbelief. Before he could utter any sound, however, Blaine spoke quickly.

“I’m back early, I had to see you. God, I’ve missed you so much.”

It must have been enough to convince Kurt that what he saw in the middle of the night in his bedroom wasn’t some sort of hallucination, but really, truly his boyfriend. For a moment he looked like he might jump out of bed and fall into Blaine’s arms – a very nice prospect, if you asked the owner of said arms – but then he startled, his hand flying to his hair, the other pulling the sheets up higher as he sat up.

“Oh my god, Blaine! Why didn’t you tell me you’d be here tonight? I’m totally unprepared! I must look terrible!”

Blaine just smiled widely.

“Oh hi, it’s so good to see you too! And you look absolutely amazing.”

He stood up and sat on the edge of the bed instead, reaching to pull his beautiful, beautiful boyfriend into another kiss. But Kurt wouldn’t budge. Weird, Blaine’s fantasy about this moment included definitely more kissing.

“Blaine, no, I have morning breath.”

“No you don’t, it’s not morning yet. And even if you did, I wouldn’t mind in the slightest, you know that.”

Kurt whined.

“But I would and you know that. I’ll just go and brush my teeth and I’ll be right back.” He made a move to pull the sheets aside and froze. “Or… maybe not.”

“Great! Then get over here, I was hoping for a real kiss.”

Kurt was clearly torn, looking frantically between the covers and the bathroom. Finally he asked, his voice pleading.

“Is there any way to convince you to wait outside while I get up and go to the bathroom? Or at least to close your eyes?”

Blaine raised his eyebrows.

“Why? Are you naked?” Kurt blushed furiously, but shook his head, and Blaine almost groaned. Why would he ask that? Why the hell would he ask such a question when he was in the bedroom with his boyfriend, in the middle of the night, after almost three weeks of separation? The boyfriend whom his imagination had no trouble picturing vividly after having to do without him for so long? He spoke quickly to cover his reaction.

“So why? I’ve seen you without a shirt, remember? And I’ve really, really missed you, so don’t make me miss a minute more.”

Clearly resigned, Kurt sighed and pulled down the covers, revealing the lower half of his body clad in…

“Kurt, are those my pajama pants?”

“Um, yes?” Kurt was blushing and wouldn’t look up at him. “I just… I missed you so much and they’re soft and yours and…”

He couldn’t finish because Blaine pulled him into a tight hug, burrowing his nose in the crook between his neck and shoulder, inhaling the familiar smell that was so essentially Kurt. His boyfriend melted into the embrace, muttering into Blaine’s neck.

“I know, it’s stupid.”

“No silly, it’s adorable.” Reluctantly, he let go. “Go brush your teeth if you insist. I want to kiss you. I’ll die if I don’t kiss you. Go.”

Kurt staggered out of bed and almost ran to the bathroom, and Blaine decided he might as well lie down. Knowing Kurt, it would take him longer than the necessary two minutes – he’d want to fix his hair at least. Stretching out on his usual side of the bed, Blaine sighed with delight. Oh, how he’d missed this room, this bed. There were so many memories connected with it. Most of them good, perfect even.

Yes, he’d been here right after the worst night of his life, but it had been a sanctuary, a safe place. And it was here that Kurt had held him and sung to him when the darkness threatened to swallow him up. It was here that they’d had their first kiss and where they confessed their feelings for the first time. They’d spent so much time here since then – talking, laughing, crying, kissing, touching, cuddling to sleep… There weren’t many places in the world that had such positive connotations in Blaine’s mind.

He didn’t have much time to think and remember though, because much sooner than he expected the bathroom door clicked and then Kurt was flying towards him, his hair still a glorious mess, a smudge of toothpaste on his cheek and wild happiness across his face. He looked as if he might squeal and Blaine was worried for a fraction of a second, but then all worry flew out of him along with his breath as, with a thump, Kurt landed on him and showered him with kisses, whispering frantically in between.

“I can’t believe you’re really here, I think it just hit me. I’ve been so worried! I thought I freaked you out last night, that you woke up and decided you couldn’t talk to me because maybe it was stupid or awkward or too forward or...”

Blaine silenced him with a kiss; straight on his lips, deep and passionate and exactly what he needed – what they both needed, judging by the moan that ripped out of Kurt’s throat. Blaine shushed him urgently, rolling them over so that he hovered over Kurt now. And then they fell into each other again, lips and hands checking carefully if time apart didn’t do any damage, didn’t change them, if they still remembered every single detail. So close, so real at last, reveling in the hushed moans and silent gasps, rapid breathing and racing heartbeats.

The slide of the tongues, breaths stuttering and unimportant. Kurt’s lips catching on Blaine’s stubble, the naked skin of his chest hot and electrifying under Blaine’s fingertips. Kurt’s cock, hard and insistent and there, right under Blaine’s thigh. Kurt’s fingers tangled tightly in Blaine’s hair as they instinctively pressed closer, and his high keen, sounding exactly like last night in the phone, and Blaine’s blood boiled.

He rolled off Kurt quickly, before his body had a chance to protest, and whispered against the sweet smelling neck.

“Can you be really quiet?”

Kurt’s eyes looked a little wild as he nodded hesitantly; as soon as Blaine’s fingertips danced lightly around his nipple though, he gasped. Blaine smiled mischievously before licking a long stripe up the pale, arched neck.

“Kurt, you need to do better than this if you want me to continue…” – butterfly kiss to the pulse point - “doing…” – deep kiss right under the ear - “this…” – sucking on the spot between neck and shoulder that made Kurt shiver and whimper.

He could feel it was driving Kurt crazy, his muscles all tensing, eyes squeezed shut and his hand clenching Blaine’s t-shirt, but he was quiet now, only his labored breathing loud in the room. Keeping his eyes focused on the beautiful face he’d missed so much, Blaine sat up by Kurt’s side and took his hand. Gently, lovingly, he started kissing each fingertip; just a hint of tongue touching as he did was enough to make Kurt bite on his lower lip, already dark pink and swollen from the kissing. Blaine continued calmly, kissing the warm center of Kurt’s palm, the pulse point on his wrist, licking his way up; reveling in Kurt’s smell and taste, the softness of his skin, in every quiet sigh. By the time he reached the crook of his elbow, Kurt was panting helplessly. All the way up to the shoulder. Laving and sucking slowly, leisurely on one nipple, then the other. Down his stomach, inch by inch. Kurt was writhing already, his knuckles white where he gripped the sheets, his back arching, his head thrashing. His voice was absolutely broken when he whispered urgently.

“Blaine, I want you to touch me. Please, just touch me now, please…”

Blaine’s hand that was ghosting around Kurt’s bellybutton seemed to react by itself, sliding towards the waist of his pants, crossing this last boundary and before Blaine realized what was happening, there was only a thin layer of cotton pants between his hand and the hard, hot, solid object that was Kurt’s cock. It felt like his hand belonged there perfectly, his fingers curled lightly over the shaft; unable to resist, Blaine stroke slowly up and down – once, twice…

It was enough. Kurt’s keen muffled by his own hand he bit on, his cock pulsed under Blaine’s fingers as he kept moving them over and over, turned on, fascinated, awed… He did that. He made Kurt fall apart under his hand, made him feel good. It was beyond anything Blaine had ever imagined. It was breathtaking.

After a moment Blaine took his palm from the front of Kurt’s pants and lay back down to pull his boyfriend into a kiss. When they parted, Kurt was still breathless and a little dazed, but his flush looked more like the result of embarrassment than passion now.

“Sorry. Was it too much? I know we wanted to talk about it first…”

Blaine smiled.

“No, it was just right. And we did talk, last night on the phone. So if you don’t regret it, well, neither do I.”

“Oh god, thank you. That was…”

“So hot.” Blaine admitted.

“Amazing. Come on, let me...” Kurt leaned over him now, kissing, his hand resting on Blaine’s hip for a breathtaking second and then coming down, closer, ever closer, until…

Uh-oh.

Blaine stilled Kurt’s hand a bit too rapidly.

“Um, maybe not tonight? You’re sleepy now, I can tell, and I’m tired too; we have time. It’s enough novelty for one night, don’t you think?”

Kurt murmured in assent, then sat up.

“Okay, I’ll go clean myself up and change my pants, and we can cuddle to sleep. You have no idea how I’ve missed it…”

“Oh, I think I do.”

Minutes later, with Kurt breathing evenly in his embrace, Blaine felt peaceful and happy, drifting off to sleep. The one uneasy thought that kept nibbling on his brain wouldn’t spoil it. Not tonight. Not when he was back at last.

He’d think about it tomorrow.