If Kurt was expecting Blaine to call him that very same night, he would be disappointed. Luckily he was not. He didn't expect anything at all from Blaine. The simple fact that he was even back in Kurt's life in any capacity was quite enough for him right now.

Besides, Kurt has options to consider now, remember? He holes himself up in his room as soon as he arrives home and immediately does some research on Dalton Academy. The private school itself seems to have been around for a while, as has its zero-tolerance harassment policy. The curriculum at the academy looks to be a bit more rigorous than the one at McKinley, but honestly Kurt's fine with that because his classes kind of bore him anyway.

Tuition however…that was a problem. He knew his dad didn't have the money.

There were scholarships offered but the scholarship options were greatly reduced when one transferred in the middle of the year.

He wasn't quite sure what to do.

At dinner, Kurt doesn't say anything to his dad or Carole (she and Finn finally moved in with them) about his trip to Dalton or his interest in the school.

He doesn't tell them about reconnecting with Blaine either.

Kurt doesn't hear anything from Blaine until three days later but the text message was well worth the wait in his eyes.

He's sitting in the choir room during Glee club when his phone vibrates in his pocket while the girls are performing their mash-up. He discreetly slips it out of his pocket. It's odd for him to get a text during Glee considering all of the people that usually text him are in this class.

Kurt can't stop the smile that spreads across his lips.

Have courage. Keep smiling.

He almost doesn't notice when the girls are done performing.

The next week, he receives a text message in the morning, right when he pulls into the school parking lot.

Coffee after school? I can drive.

Kurt immediately responds that yes, coffee would be fantastic and if Blaine was so eager to drive then yes, he would meet him outside when school was over.

He's slightly surprised and somewhat confused by Blaine's willingness to hang out despite everything Kurt had done in regards to destroying their friendship, but he's certainly not going to say no, of course not. He refuses to look too much into the matter. It's not a date. It most definitely is not a date. It's simply two friends meeting for coffee. That's it. There's no more to it. The end.

But he can't stop himself from smiling and he can't stop himself from feeling a tiny glimmer of hope. And he keeps remembering Blaine's eyes and he keeps remembering his slight laugh and can't wait to see it again and all he wants to do is make Blaine laugh again, wants to see those little smile crinkles around his eyes and he wants whatever he can get.

The day passes so slowly that Kurt's ready to strangle every one of his teachers by the end of it.

He steps out the front door of the high school and Blaine's standing right there against the wall, the dark curls on his head completely free of gel.

He is not dressed in his Dalton uniform as Kurt expected him to be.

Oh no.

Blaine's got on a pair of light, skin-tight blue jeans, a plain white, v-neck t-shirt, a pair of boots, and a tight leather jacket.

It takes every ounce of strength that Kurt possesses to keep his jaw from hitting the damn ground.

"Hey," he finally says, though it comes out as more of a squeak than an actual greeting.

"Hi," Blaine says with a smile. "Sweet, you have a jacket and good shoes on. You ready?"

"Y-yeah."

What the – why is he stuttering like some smitten teenage girl? And what did his jacket and shoes have to do with anything?

Blaine's smile just widens slightly, explaining nothing more and they begin walking towards the parking lot.

"You should leave your bag in your car," Blaine advises.

"…Why?"

"Just trust me. Not much space."

Kurt lifts an eyebrow, curious and slightly confused, but he fishes his wallet out of his bag and they stop at his Navigator so Kurt can toss his bag in the back. He pockets his keys and turns back to Blaine, still a little unsure of why he has to leave his two hundred dollar bag in his SUV.

"How was school?" Blaine asks him as Kurt follows him to his car.

Kurt simply shrugs. "No better, no worse."

"I'm sorry," Blaine says quietly. "Can the teachers do…something? Anything?"

Kurt gives him a flat look. Blaine nods, understanding. Teachers turn a blind eye and even Mr. Schuester is generally oblivious to the true extent of Kurt's suffering.

"Where did you park?" Kurt asks, needing a change of subject.

"Right here."

"…What?"

They walk around someone's suburban and –

No. Freaking. Way.

No.

Kurt literally cannot believe what he's seeing.

Blaine tosses him a helmet.

"You drive a motorcycle?"

Blaine stands back and grins. "I do."

"You…are you serious?"

"Yes," Blaine laughs, walking over to Kurt and taking the helmet out of his hands to place it on his head.

"I'm going to have helmet hair," Kurt pouts as Blaine buckles the strap under his chin.

"I'd prefer it if you had helmet hair rather than a fractured skull."

"What?"

"Relax," Blaine says, biting back a smile. "I'm a magnificent driver."

"Biker. You're a biker. You even have the jacket."

"Call it what you will. It's not even a real motorcycle. Well, it's a type of motorcycle. It's a sport bike. Some people call them crotch rockets," Blaine explains. Kurt snorts at the name as Blaine pulls the visor of Kurt's helmet down over his face.

"Why do I need the visor? I thought we were just going for coffee. I thought you only needed the visor when you go fast. What're we doing? Please don't kill me. Please," Kurt says, panicking only slightly.

"Calm down," Blaine grins. "Seriously. We're going to be fine. I know what I'm doing."

Kurt watches as Blaine straddles the motorcycle…type…thing and oh sweet lord, Blaine's butt looks fantastic in those jeans.

Blaine places his own helmet on his head and secures it. "Hop on, Kurt." He flips the visor down.

Kurt gulps.

Oh god, this is far more than he was expecting. He shoves his wallet deep in his pocket and then proceeds to gingerly straddle the back seat. He settles his hands awkwardly on Blaine's shoulders and Blaine laughs loudly before taking hold of Kurt's wrists and dragging them down to pull them around his waist.

"Scoot closer," Blaine instructs, "and hold on to me."

Okay.

Kurt's pretty sure he just died and went to some form of gay heaven.

He does as he's told and secures his feet on the pegs placed on either side of the bike. This…is really, really nice. Blaine kicks the kickstand up expertly and turns the key in the ignition. The bike groans to life and yeah, Kurt decides he might actually like motorcycles a bit, especially considering just how flush his chest was against Blaine's back.

"Don't lean too much with me when we turn," Blaine says loudly over the sound of the sport bike. "Try and stay centered."

"Uh okay."

Blaine grabs Kurt's arm and pulls them even tighter around his waist so that Kurt interlocks his fingers.

"Don't be afraid to hold tight," Blaine yells. He does something with his wrist and something with one of his feet and ohokay they're moving now!

Kurt's arms instinctively become stiff around Blaine's middle and he can feel Blaine's stomach tense under his leather jacket as he laughs. They're crouched over just a bit and Blaine maneuvers the bike easily through the parking lot until then they come to a slow pause at the stop sign.

"You can put your head on my shoulder," Blaine tells him so Kurt does just that because he doesn't really know what the hell else he can do.

They turn out of the parking lot and Kurt's trying to stay centered, just as Blaine told him, but he's continually distracting by the shifting body in front of him. Being like this, being so close that it almost seems a bit too intimate is doing things to Kurt's sanity. But Blaine wasn't lying when he said he knew what he was doing. He controls the bike with an ease Kurt's never seen him display before. He feels fairly safe here, wrapped around his childhood friend on the back of a damn motorcycle and he's surprised to find himself enjoying the ride. He sees the reason for the jacket now, that's for sure. The autumn wind is even colder but the fresh air is amazing. Kurt kind of wishes he didn't have his visor down so he could determine if Blaine's familiar scent was just as lovely when mixed with the chilly wind.

They stop at a stop light and Kurt adjusts himself, moving forward again just a bit, unlinking his fingers to simply hold on to Blaine.

"Having fun?" Blaine asks over his shoulder.

Kurt is almost positive that he feels Blaine lean back into him just a tiny bit more than necessary. But he doesn't comment on it.

"I am, actually," Kurt replies because he is, truth be told. "Where are we going?"

"We're taking a special route," Blaine informs him before the light turns green and they're accelerating again.

Special…route?

From what Kurt can see, he's not too sure he knows where they are.

And he's lived here his entire life.

So he's thoroughly confused when Blaine takes a few unexpected turns and they find themselves on a fairly desolate road.

"Where are we?" Kurt needs to ask when they come to a completely random stop on the side of the two way road because he does not like not knowing where he is.

Blaine straddles the immobile bike and lets his feet hit the ground to stabilize them. The engine's still running but he turns around in Kurt's hold, flipping up his own visor and then doing the same to Kurt's.

"Do you still trust me like you used to?" Blaine asks, looking directly into Kurt's eyes.

"I – what?"

"Kurt. Do you trust me?"

Kurt's heart pounds fiercely in his chest when he realizes that yeah…yeah, he does.

He nods. "Yes. I do."

He sees those little smile crinkles around Blaine's eyes and for once Kurt feels like he did something very, very right. Blaine shoves Kurt's visor down swiftly and then does the same to his own. He turns back around and Kurt's not expecting it when Blaine brings his arms back to grip Kurt's hips and pull him even closer.

"Stay with me," Blaine instructs as he crouches over and Kurt does the same, hunching over Blaine and pressing the chin of his helmet firmly down on Blaine's shoulder. "And trust me."

He tightens his hold around Blaine's waist once more and suddenly they're pulling back onto the road and steadily increasing speed. As Kurt looks ahead, he sees the road is a straightaway, for which he's totally grateful because trust or no trust, he might freak out if they made a sharp turn or something and then they'd crash and die and just…no.

He's caught off guard when he hears Blaine shift again and feels him crouch down even further, but he does as Blaine said, moving down with him.

Stay with me.

Kurt would really like to hear that said to him a little more often.

Blaine shifts again and then he shifts once more and Kurt realizes the wind is outrageous and they're racing down the desolate road, trees whizzing by at an unnaturally swift rate. The road ahead looks like it's nearly a blur and everything is so fast. His heart is racing nearly as fast as they are, pounding against his ribcage as if it had the wings of a hummingbird. But he's wrapped around Blaine, firm, steady, calm, unexpectedly strong Blaine and there's leather under his freezing palms.

They're hurling down the paved road at an extremely dangerous speed, in a part of town he didn't even know existed, alone, and everything is a mesh of colors and lines but Kurt feels more complete than he's felt in a long, long while.

He smiles.

Blaine pulls the sport bike into a parking spot outside the coffee shop and kills the engine, using his foot to nudge the kickstand down.

Kurt doesn't want to let go.

But Blaine doesn't make him release his hold immediately; they just sit up straight together, as though they'd been fused into one being. Blaine unbuckles the strap of his helmet, pulls it off, and then he runs both of his hands through his curls, fluffing them up just a bit. He then swivels around, still not making Kurt release his grip, and unfastens Kurt's helmet, pulling it off as well.

Their cheeks are both a little red and Blaine's got this huge, goofy smile on his face that Kurt decides he kind of maybe definitely adores.

"Well?" Blaine asks, almost breathlessly. "Did you like it?"

"Pretty much the most amazing thing I think I've ever done," Kurt replies with a shy smile. "It was really fun."

"Awesome," Blaine says. "However, if you actually wanna get coffee sometime soon, you're going to have to let go of me."

Yeah. Perhaps he should. He pulls his arms back from around Blaine's middle, though maybe he purposefully lets them slide against the cool leather just a few seconds too long.

Blaine doesn't seem to mind, though.

They climb off the bike and carry their helmets under their arms as they walk inside the coffee shop and up to the counter. Just as Kurt's about to open his mouth to speak to the cashier, Blaine interrupts him.

"Wait. Let me try and guess your order."

Kurt lifts an eyebrow, accepting the challenge without a word. Blaine's gaze is speculative and he tilts his head in that oh so familiar way that Kurt remembers, signaling that Blaine's attempting to solve a riddle.

Blaine turns back to the cashier.

"Can I get two medium non-fat mochas," he says before glancing at Kurt once more, "with extra whip."

"Wha – how did you do that?"

"It's a gift," Blaine replies with a wink, handing the cashier his credit card. "And it's on me."

Huh.

Why in the world is he being so nice, Kurt can't help but wonder? He's even being…flirty.

Well, at least that's how Kurt saw it. Then again, he didn't know too much about flirting.

When they were finally seated at a table, they set their helmets aside and both began speaking at the same time.

"Sorry," Blaine says with a little laugh. "I was just going to say that helmet hair looks kind of good on you."

"Ugh," Kurt hissed, having completely forgotten about that bit. Then again, he simply can't be bothered to care at this point.

That in itself was a first for him.

Blaine bites back a smile and lowers his head to take a sip of his coffee.

"So," Kurt begins, "where'd you get the bike?"

"It was my sixteenth birthday present. It was all I wanted."

"I never expected you to get a motorcycle. I just keep remembering how you always wanted to be Ariel at our tea parties and the two concepts don't seem to mix. At least not in my head, anyway."

Blaine's smile seems to slip at the reference to their past.

Things suddenly get very serious a little too quickly.

"Why did you invite me out for coffee?" Kurt wants to know. For some reason...he needs to know.

Blaine shrugs and leans back in his chair. "Because I wanted to see you."

"I may have been under the impression that you didn't plan on spending any unnecessary time with me." And okay, maybe he's fishing a little because Blaine was the one to ask for his phone number but Kurt wanted to know the reason behind this little rendezvous.

"I've always wanted to spend time with you," Blaine states. "I never stopped wanting to spend time with you."

"I just…didn't thing you'd want to hang out with me so soon after our unexpected…reunion. I'd consider myself lucky if you had called me in a month."

"You were my best friend, Kurt," Blaine says softly, his eyes focused on his coffee cup. "I lost you once. I don't want to lose you again, okay?"

"…Just your best friend?" Kurt asks. He feels kind of guilty for pushing Blaine on the subject so soon, but he's also a little confused, more confused than he felt when Blaine initially asked to meet up. "Did you…were we ever…more?"

Blaine picks at the coffee cup lid with his thumb. "We could have been."

"So there's…nothing left?" Kurt wonders, hoping that his heart won't be broken in the next few seconds.

"I don't know, honestly," Blaine says. "It's not like we know much about each other anymore. And -"

"So ask me."

"It's not that simple."

"I'll tell you whatever you want to know," Kurt says. "Anything."

"That's not the only reason."

"Then what? What else is there?" Kurt asks him.

"I have a boyfriend."