A month.

That's how long it takes Blaine to restore himself to some semblance of normal. To stop jumping when someone touches him. To get over his frequent aversion to sexual contact without coaxing. To walk around the city at night without shaking.

The cuts and bruises healed a while ago, but his sanity was another story.

And Kurt had been so wonderful every step of the way. Kurt's support never wavered, and because of it, they are closer than ever. The sex is deeper, the kisses are sweeter, the companionship is stronger.

They need each other. They can't go a single day without a kiss or a hug or an "I love you". They don't live together yet, but for the amount of time they spend together, they might as well. It's more the technicalities that hinder them rather than a lack of desire to shack up. Because they want to live together, for sure. It's just finding the right apartment for the right price in the right location that they both agree on. It's a pain in the ass, frankly, and so not in the forefront of their minds.

Up until the past few days, they've been much more concerned with Blaine's health, for which Blaine is grateful to his boyfriend. There are more important things than being able to fuck on a couch without fear of someone walking in.

Blaine still isn't sure why this attack was the one that affected him so deeply. Sure, this one was a little more intense than others he'd had, and he still managed to get away.

But this time he had Kurt. He had Kurt to worry about, and him to worry about Blaine. Before Kurt, Blaine just had Sam. And it wasn't like Blaine and Sam were each other's everything. They were best friends, sure, but they have nothing on what Blaine has with Kurt. Blaine didn't have sex with Sam (ok, once, but that's a different story), he didn't have to hold Sam constantly to feel whole.

Blaine and Sam weren't soulmates. And that's what makes this time different. Because he had so much more to lose this time around, and he is forced to deal with the haunting reality of what would have transpired if something more serious had happened to Blaine. Blaine had his share of nightmares during his recovery, and they still crop up every now and then. But he'll wake up and more often than not Kurt will be right next to him to soothe Blaine's worst fears.

Kurt is Blaine's "forever". He can't picture his life without him anymore. Anything in the context of the future is "we", never "me". And Blaine is so content with that that it's bordering on ridiculous.

"Oh, please be gentle with me baby," Blaine says, tucking his arms under his head and resting his cheek on them as Kurt drapes his naked body on top of Blaine's, cock poised to enter.

Kurt hums, smoothing the curls away from the back of his neck so he can kiss bare skin. "I'll be so gentle, sweetheart. I promise."

Blaine lets out a prolonged grunt as Kurt pushes in for the first time, slow and easy as assured. "Yeah, just like that. That's perfect."

"Feels incredible. As always." Kurt sets up a steady, undulating rhythm of his hips after he bottoms out, keeping the pace reasonable and comforting for Blaine.

Blaine has been increasingly sensitive toward rough sex of any kind since the incident, discovering that fact rather brutally one night when Kurt let loose on his ass and Blaine ended up having flashbacks and sobbing and screaming for him to stop.

Kurt hadn't touched him for days after that, out of pure fear and shame, but Blaine quickly charmed him back in. They've been much more careful since then, and Blaine has found if they keep the sex mild, Blaine has no problem. He'll be ready for more soon, just not yet. He needs more time, and Kurt has been nothing but gracious with that.

Now, Kurt sucks tenderly at the skin on the back of his neck he'd kissed, most likely intent on giving him a little something of himself to keep with him. Blaine has been eerily, almost painfully codependent as of late. Kurt pretends like it's a chore, but he's always transparent when he does, finishing off his chosen commentary with a kiss to the nearest part of Blaine that he can reach.

Kurt picks up the pace very gradually in a way that doesn't startle Blaine and gives them both pleasure. His hips thrust smoothly into Blaine, acquired through much practice, and they really have memorized each other by now. Their rhythm becomes hypnotic for them, like it's second nature, falling into a familiar routine even if the position isn't always the same.

When the door opens behind them and Sam steps in, they don't even bother to stop or hide what they're doing. Nor does Sam seem too alarmed at what he's walked in on.

"Dude! Batman Animated Series marathon is on in like, twenty minutes!"

Blaine rolls his eyes, craning his head around to look at his roommate. "I'll be there, I promise."

Kurt huffs above him with irritation, thrusting with an overly loud grunt to emphasize the current situation to their intruder. Blaine's eyelids flutter with the well-placed fuck and he lets out a little moan.

"­Nnng fuck, Kurt. Sam, I'll be right out okay?" Blaine repeats, a little weaker in speech this time.

Sam sighs a little overdramatically, but turns to leave. "Fine. But we've been planning this for a week. I'm not letting you skip out because you and your bunny rabbit boyfriend want to embrace the oldest bunny rabbit tradition."

Kurt makes a noise of annoyance as soon as Sam closes the door. "Blaine, I love you, but I think your best friend is getting a little too comfortable with us."

"He means well, baby. You know that," Blaine placates, gasping a little when Kurt nails his prostate perfectly and stretching his hand to dig his fingers into Kurt's ass. "Yeah, fuck, right there. Fucking perfect. Besides, he's walked in on me one too many times to be surprised by anything I'm doing."

His body starts to shake infinitesimally as Kurt hits that right spot over and over, and he knows Kurt knows that he's not going to last much longer once that happens.

"You gonna come, baby?" Kurt asks, right on cue, not slowing down any-if anything, he's speeding up. "Gonna come on my cock?"

"God, always, baby. Come on, almost there, fuck," Blaine whimpers out, starting to grind his hips into the mattress to give his cock the friction it requires to finish him off. He falls quickly, relatively silently as well he's decently sure; he can't be positive, because there's always a whooshing sound in his ears when he comes and everything goes a bit fuzzy, like an out-of-focus camera shot. But when he resurfaces, he catches the tail-end of Kurt's orgasm, the last couple misaligned thrusts that still send shocks through Blaine's body.

The sweat between their skin has Kurt sliding off to the side of Blaine, and he resolves to flopping onto his back beside Blaine, his glistening chest rising and falling rapidly. Blaine stretches his neck out and puckers his lips, barely managing to land a kiss to the side of Kurt's bicep with the combined distance and burnout. "I need to clean up. We have been planning this all week," Blaine says regretfully, pushing himself up onto his knees and resting his hands on his thighs.

"You're throwing away a perfectly good Saturday afternoon to watch cartoons for five hours, Blaine," Kurt deadpans, grabbing the tissues off of the side table and tossing them to Blaine.

"And you're gonna be right there next to me," Blaine says with confidence and a smile as he wipes at the come on his stomach that hadn't been rubbed off by the sheets.

Kurt lets out a single, boisterous laugh. "Oh, honey, did that orgasm scramble your brains, or do you really think I'm going to sit and watch that mindless shit with you?"

"Well, your orgasms always scramble my brains, but that's not the point," Blaine says, pulling his eyebrows together in an attempt to look emotionally damaged. "I wanna be with my boyfriend. You don't even have to watch. Just work on your designs. Just be there with me?"

Kurt sighs, sitting up and leaning backwards on his hands. "Blainey..."

"Please?" Blaine begs, prolonging the second syllable of the word to accentuate and throwing in a pout for good measure.

Kurt sighs again, this time adding an eye roll. "Okay, fine-" Blaine lets out a triumphant exclamation, but Kurt talks over him, "But don't expect me to pay attention and do not continually poke me and ask me if I 'saw that' or any other commentary, understand?"

"Yes, yes, I concede to your terms!" Blaine says excitedly, pulling Kurt in with both hands pressed to his cheeks and smacking a loud kiss to his lips before releasing him. "I love you so much."

"Yeah, yeah, and you're goddamn lucky I love you too or else I would never even consider doing what I'm about to do."

Blaine just hums happily, kissing Kurt on the noise before flouncing off the bed to locate his clothes flung in all directions in their previous haste and tossing Kurt's his own in the process.

*

They're less than two hours into the marathon when Blaine gets distracted by Kurt. In his defense, his head has been resting on Kurt's shoulder the whole time while Kurt sketches designs on his ipad, and the movements of the lines keep catching the corner of Blaine's eye while he tries to watch the television.

"I love the fringe at the bottom," Blaine whispers, as to not disturb Sam's utter dedication.

Kurt tilts his head and smiles at Blaine, halting his stylus above the screen. "Yeah? Fringe is very in right now. But it needs something, and I can't tell what."

"Maybe a little bit of Southwestern influence? Isn't that sort of in right now too?" Blaine offers. "It'll go well with the fringe too, won't it? The whole 'Cowboys and Indians' things?"

It's as if the sun rises in Kurt's eyes as Blaine speaks. "Oh, Blaine, you're a genius!" Kurt drops a strong kiss to Blaine's lips and immediately sets to work on the design in front of him.

"You were bound to rub off on me at some point, weren't you," Blaine mutters, snuggling into Kurt's neck.

"Yeah, after all the 'rubbing off' we've done since we got together..." Kurt drifts off with a smirk.

"Naughty. Get back to your design," Blaine scolds playfully, kissing Kurt's neck briefly.

"Blaine, are you even paying attention?" Sam demands next to him. Blaine whips his head around, eyes wide.

"Yes! I am absolutely paying attention. One hundred percent committed to this. Really," Blaine insists, putting his eyes on the screen again.

"I swear to god, if you went an entire hour without associating with Kurt in some way your head would explode," Sam mumbles, not hiding the bitterness there.

"Hey," Blaine says softly, extracting himself from Kurt and scooting over next to Sam, curling his arms around one of Sam's and leaning his head against his shoulder. "You're still my number one bro and I love you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Sam shrugs off, but seems satisfactorily reassured. "Go back and cuddle with Kurt. I know you want to."

"Nope," Blaine says firmly. "I wanna stay right here and cuddle with you and watch the greatest Batman creation of all time." Blaine squeezes around Sam's arm resolutely.

Sam places a kiss to the top of his head and Blaine smiles. He chances a look over at Kurt, whose gaze is fixed on his ipad, but there's a subtle smile on his lips that Blaine knows is in reaction Sam and him.

For what might be the first time since the incident, Blaine feels entirely comfortable and at home.

~*~

Kurt collapses back onto the bed, exhausted and flushed and feeling like he should never have to exert this much energy unless he's having a sex marathon. Which this definitely is not.

"Come on, Kurt! We literally have, like, five boxes left to unpack!"

"No. Rest," Kurt insists, his eyes drooping closed. The bed dips next to him and he peeks an eye open to see Blaine sitting next to him, one leg curled under him and the other dangling off the bed, smiling fondly down at him.

"We've had sex more intensive than this, babe," Blaine points out, and Kurt drops his eyelid shut again.

"Yes, but I actually receive pleasure from that."

"And getting all moved in isn't a rush of satisfaction for you? God, I clearly don't know you as well as I thought I did."

"No you don't. Now kiss me, roomie." He hears Blaine chuckle and then feels Blaine's breath wash over his face before pressing their lips together. Kurt hums into it happily, sucking Blaine's lower lip into his mouth for a moment and pulling a quiet whimper from Blaine.

"That could be a fun roleplay, you know. Roommates who end up fucking from sexual tension..." Blaine muses, tracing the lines of Kurt's face with the tip of his nose.

"You're just full of ideas, aren't you?" Kurt says, amused.

Nipping at Kurt's ear he replies, "I'd rather be full of your cock."

"Oh, I'm sure you could fit both in that ass of yours."

"You flatter me."

"Not that you need the ego boost. Arrogant bastard," Kurt mutters against Blaine's lips that have found his again.

"If we finish unpacking, then we can fuck in celebration," Blaine lets linger, dragging a finger slowly down Kurt's chest and successfully enticing Kurt. "Christen every room in the apartment..."

Kurt sighs. "Deal."

"Excellent," Blaine exclaims with pride, hopping off the bed and holding his hand out to help Kurt off the bed. "I promise I'll give you the most mind-numbing blowjob you've ever had in your life."

Kurt rolls his eyes, foisting himself off the bed with Blaine's assistance and stumbling a little with the momentum and the remaining fatigue. "I'm holding you to that. And if it's anything less than you promised, I'm shoving a plug up your ass and that's all you're getting today."

Blaine grabs a handful of Kurt's shirt and yanks him forward with lust-ridden eyes. "Fuck I love when you get dominant."

"Go unpack boxes," Kurt instructs, shoving him backwards, "and when we're done maybe I'll show you just how dominant I can be."

***

They're sitting on the terrace of their new apartment, the smoke from Blaine's cigarette rising in the night sky. Kurt has Blaine between his legs, Blaine's back slumped against Kurt's chest, and they're simply content to be for a while. To just be them, be together, be at peace. Kurt may not be a fan of Blaine's sporadic smoking habit, but he knows that it's an effective way for Blaine to calm himself down, and Kurt really doesn't want to interfere with anything that quells Blaine's nerves.

"You're gonna do great at that music store, Blaine. It'll be so good for you. A nice, fresh, normal start."

Blaine hums in agreement at the mention of his recently acquired job, breathing smoke out through his nostrils and setting his wrist on the floor of the balcony, tapping the excess ash from his cigarette. "What, you don't think what I did before was normal?" Blaine jokes, tipping his head back into the hollow of Kurt's throat.

Kurt just grins and states the obvious. "No, Blaine, I don't. I want you working somewhere that's safe and where I don't have to worry about getting a call like that from you ever again." Kurt is always hesitant to bring up anything from that night when they're talking, but Blaine has been getting much better in the past few weeks with controlling his thoughts and emotions and actually beginning to work through his demons.

"I know," Blaine sighs, taking another drag as Kurt sees his hands start to shake the slightest bit from the lingering anxiety of the memory. Blaine isn't back to normal just yet, but he will be. As soon as he inhales, however, the tremor ceases once more. "I swear to god, I never meant to put you through anything like that. It's the last thing I wanted."

Kurt shushes him immediately. "It's okay. I'm glad you did, baby. It's just made us stronger, right?"

"Strong enough to last a lifetime."

Kurt thinks about that for a moment. A lifetime with Blaine. In a way it shocks him how much the thought doesn't shock him at all. Almost as if it was a given. That what they have, what they've developed-it's always been meant to fuel them for the rest of their lives. Kurt hooks his chin over Blaine's shoulder, pressing their cheeks together and internalizing the warmth created between them. "I'm going to marry you someday, you know," Kurt says matter-of-factly. He doesn't say it to pressure Blaine or make him nervous. He says it because, in his head, it's inevitable. He knows they've both been thinking it for quite a while now. And at this moment, on the balcony of their own place with the buzz of the city stories beneath them, Blaine smoking a cigarette and Kurt holding him close, it's time that the notion was finally brought to light.

Blaine replies as easily as Kurt expected him to, as sure as Kurt feels himself. "I look forward to it."

Their lips meet perfectly, softly, but with something deeper within. The knowledge of the future between them being addressed setting them both just a little more at ease with where they're headed, and assuring that they are going to do it together. Kurt slips the simmering cigarette from Blaine's fingers and grinds it out, guiding Blaine and himself to their feet. He lures him back into their bedroom without another word, and Blaine follows without prompting, not even bothering to shut the terrace door behind him.