Chapter 15

Author's Note:  A quick shoutout to one of my favorite followers, klainecrisscolferwilsonlove on Tumblr.  She's forever reblogging my posts about TATIA and for that, I adore her.  Everyone go follow… right after you follow me.  You know where to find me!

Kurt immediately loses his clothes again and retreats under the covers.  He glances at Blaine through his eyelashes expectedly before Blaine can react.  Blaine grins and mimics the motions, lying on his side to look into Kurt's eyes. 

“About time, pretty boy.”

Kurt laughs.  “Oh, whatever.  You like me more with the slow build of sexual tension.  You love driving me crazy, don't you?”

“Mmmhmm…” Blaine bites his lip, pushing his way through the space between until their lips are connected, all teeth and tongue and smiles.  They mutually break it while it's still considered romantic and stare listlessly into eyes of blue and turquoise and gold and green. 

He breaks the kiss but brushes his lips against Kurt's chin.  “You can say no…”  Blaine trails off, nervous that he will say no. 

“Mmmm, not likely.”

“Are we actually boyfriends?

Kurt chuckles, overjoyed with everything tonight represents.  “Oh, you little teenager.”  He gives Blaine a pointed look.  “Do you still want to be?”

“Best birthday ever.”  Blaine whispers, like it's a secret no one will ever know.

Kurt side eyes him, investigates the deep blush, and then sits up with excitement.  “Are you insinuating that your birthday is today?”

Blaine sits up and takes his hands, hopeful that Kurt won't completely hate him.

“Tomorrow.”  Blaine looks up at Kurt's eyes boring down on him, pleading with him to not kick him out again.  He knows all of his thinking has been irrational lately; he doesn't put forth enough effort to care.

“Oh my God!”  Kurt grins.  “Come here.”  Kurt pulls him into his chest and lies back down, hugging Blaine and rubbing tiny circles into the middle of his back.  “Happy birthday, honey!”  He kisses the top of the boy's head. 

“Thanks.”  Blaine mumbles sheepishly.  “Are you sure we're okay?  I mean, the sex?  The whole ‘Yay!  You're my boyfriend' thing?”

Kurt stills and holds him out by the shoulders to get a good look into Blaine's eyes.  He stares deep, but reels his mind back in before he goes on an internal tangent of exactly what color they might be.  “Hey, I wanted to do this, okay? Don't you worry your pretty little head.  I don't regret this anymore, as long as you don't either.”

“But-”

“But nothing, Blaine.”  Kurt bops Blaine lightly on the nose. “Do you want to be with me?”

Blaine pulls himself back into Kurt's chest and nods against it without hesitation.

“Well, me too.  So stop beating yourself up.  I've been thinking about this for a long time, since pretty much right after our kiss in my foyer, and my decision today was final, regardless of how apprehensive I was before.”

Blaine rolls his eyes again and gives him a half-smile, letting only a hint of a tear pass through onto his cheek.

“God.”  He furiously wipes away at the moisture and shakes his head.

“Stop.”  There's a pause.  “You know, for big, bad don't-fuck-with-me Blaine Anderson, you're a little softie.  He actually has a heart!”  Kurt smiles and brushes his knuckles down Blaine's forearm.

Blaine sighs and hangs his head, giggling. “Shut the fuck up.”

“Make me.”

“Fuck you.”  Blaine is grinning up at his boyfriend through his words.  “Keep saving me, see what happens.”

“Always in these shitty situations, my Blaine.”  Kurt grins and kisses his forehead.

Blaine can't hold back a yawn, masked only by his smile. 

“Let's get you to sleep.”

Blaine laughs again and darts one hand to his eyes to wipe an invisible tear, pushes himself up and over to straddle Kurt and starts to mark his neck.  “Mmmm.  Not tired.”

Kurt moans and throws his head back into the pillow.  Blaine's lips meet his a moment later and they make out like the schoolboys one of them is for upwards of a half hour, licking and tasting all that is theirs.  It remains romantic and does not venture into raunchy by any means before Blaine rolls off and smiles, easy to see he's high on life; he's on cloud nine.  There is unspoken word that it won't go any further, that the romance is exactly where it should be tonight, that this could be the start of something really special.  Besides, it's only a few minutes shy of midnight and Kurt subconsciously doesn't want to fuck anything up further than it's already been.

Kurt licks at the creases of Blaine's ear and pulls back to look tenderly into his eyes. 

Blaine's head leans into the nuzzle to his cheek and they catch gazes.

Kurt's lips crack upward slightly and he sighs, pulling him in closer to cuddle. 

His blush reaches his ears.  No one has ever looked at him like that, ever.  “Goodnight, pretty boy.”  Blaine's breath is hot against Kurt's lips, and he wouldn't have it any other way. 

Blaine shifts, and Kurt feels the transformation into a wide smile against his neck while they slip into a deep sleep, together.

xK&Bx

The alarm is wailing rooster sounds and it startles Kurt awake, a falling sensation on the end of his mattress.  He's surprised at first by a boy's presence, then Blaine's presence.  The memories of the last few hours come whirling back suddenly, and he's as giddy as he'll ever be before dawn.

He wiggles away; he squirms out of Blaine's arm over his waist, then sprawls out on top of Blaine's sleeping body and attaches their lips together to wake the boy.  He moans into it, his eyelids fluttering open, disoriented. 

“Mmmm.” 

“Good morning, birthday boy.”  Kurt kisses his nose and grins sleepily.  Kurt will never get used to waking up so early every morning. “I know it's really early, but I have to go downstairs soon and I have a present for you.”

“Noooo.  You… so many croissants… pretty.”  Kurt's fairly confident Blaine is still sleeping.  He laughs and kisses him again.

“Blaine, wake up baby.”

“Hmmm?”  Blaine is sloppily licking at Kurt's lips with eyes that have yet to be opened.  The kiss is wet and almost disgusting, so much so that Kurt needs to pull away.

Blaine unfastens his eyes; they glisten toward Kurt.  “Pretty boy.”  He whispers through a smile, like the realization changes the outlook on his entire world.  Like one person just became his world.

“Meet me downstairs when you wake up, okay?”

“Making me work on my birthday?”

“Someone has to clean that counter.  I have a feeling it's filthy.”

Blaine laughs.  “Oh, fuck.”

“Which brings us right back to your present.”  Dropping his weight entirely on Blaine, Kurt situates his hands to twirl around the unruly morning curls on Blaine's head. “I wanna ride you.”

Blaine whines; he's completely awake now. He throws Kurt off of him so he can situate himself flatly, ripping the pillows out from underneath his head, and kicking the comforter spastically until it's crumpled in a ball on the floor.  He yanks at Kurt's hair until he's on top of him again, hands latching to Kurt's hips as he shifts down once more.  His brows are furrowed in deep concentration. 

Kurt kisses his forehead and brushes a curl out of his eyes as a response.  He looks down at him expectedly.

“I'm eighteen today.”  Blaine grins, proud.

Kurt laughs and takes Blaine's bottom lip captive between his teeth, nibbling and pressing down on his lips hard, a “muah” sound rejuvenating his energy.

“You and me, we're not even dangerous.  I wanna still be dangerous for you, Kurt.” 

“You're so bad for me.”  Kurt sneaks his thumbs underneath the waistband of Blaine's shorts and repositions to pull them below and off his legs.  He places a kiss to his infected ankle then the box itself. 

“Why are you so obsessed with that thing?”

“It reels me in when I start thinking about how crazy this is.  Besides, it's a part of you, Blaine.”  Kurt teases, like he's rattling off basic mathematics, glancing up at him.  It's in this moment that Blaine can confirm that he could positively love this boy sooner than later, if he's judging by the skipping beats and flutters in his heart.  “I really like all the parts of you.”

Kurt reappears on top of him and pulls one knee to each of Blaine's hips.  He pushes Blaine's face to lean on one cheek and brings his own cheek to lean on his face. 

“I'll bet you do, pretty.”

“Want to watch me get ready for you?”  Blaine's eyes go wide and he pushes up to see whatever he can, ripping Kurt's face off of his own in the process.  He realizes Kurt's been fingering himself through the whole conversation.

“Oh my God, Kurt.”  This is like every fantasy coming to life.  Blaine may be a little bit happier at the reality right now, because he is going to be sore for days.  Kurt took him like he had never imagined last night, and he's so lucky to have found Kurt for so many reasons he can't even think about right now, but mostly because he's totally okay with switching. 

This stunning older man in front of him is rocking back on his own hand and displaying his entire soul like every feeling is a spectacle, like his very soul is the Mona Lisa and Blaine is the Louvre.   His hormones ignite into a fire, ripping at his heart and body and the lower pouch of his abdomen. 

Blaine's hands conform to be as one with Kurt's back then hair then scalp, tugging and smoothing and scratching and pulling him closer with the use of Kurt's gold strands of hair.  Their lips connect for the millionth time, and it isn't wrong to say Blaine has a legitimate obsession with Kurt's luscious, full, femininely lined mouth.  Blaine rubs comforting circles against the man's back and Kurt's forehead crashes into Blaine's clavicle as he pants, sweats, and stretches himself wide enough for what Blaine has to offer.  His moans are sinful with the faintest sound of Blaine on his lips. 

“Ready, pretty boy?”  He bows his head to kiss his hair and his cock twitches when Kurt clamps his fist around the base to change its angle and guide Blaine directly to the Mecca of all things perfect in the world.  Kurt lifts up so he's squatting just over Blaine's slit.

“Always.”  Kurt's hand guides Blaine's cock to rub against his hole and Blaine's eyes are swimming with overwhelming tears as Kurt bends on and over him to insert completely.  This is only the third time Blaine's ever had sex.

Blaine is in love with this feeling; there's no condom so he feels the heat rubbing against his soul.  He's not sure it'll last, that they'll last, but it's definitely worth everything to try.  It's only been a few hours, officially, but he can't help but think that nothing else had ever gone right for him so why should this?  It's in the back of his mind, far away from the thoughts of the incredible feeling of Kurt sinking up and down on top of him.

It seems too good to be true that Kurt randomly comes back from a date and all of his opinions about the severity of furthering an age-gap relationship with Blaine changes so quickly and in an extreme fashion.  Even if it was legal the whole time, and would have been since the day Blaine turned sixteen in the state of Ohio, the pair is still eleven years apart.  Just the fact that Kurt was in the fifth grade when Blaine was born is an overwhelming fact to take in.  When Blaine really thinks about it, it's kind of like dating, loving, fucking his brother – or at least someone his brother's age. 

“God, Kurt.”  Blaine grits his teeth and folds his ribs in too much and looks up at Kurt with an open mouth, breathing to take the back burner, secondary to staring at his beautiful boyfriend of half a day.  Kurt smiles and takes his mouth in his, all the while gesturing to hurry to take his cock in his hands.  The agreement is unspoken and Blaine's so inexperienced, so he sheepishly sneaks closer to Kurt's cock and reaches with an open grasp; Blaine's entirely buried in the man who is currently sitting on his most important asset and floating atop his body.  It feels so good, so connected, that Blaine remotely believes that his cock might fall off, and he probably wouldn't even mind.  Kurt utilizes his calves and quads to sink down and up over and over again in a rhythm that could resolve world wars or even the slightest conflict between friends.  It's a give and take of both of their best offerings, all balled up into one single emotion that neither of them could describe if they tried.

Kurt's fingers are latched and tangled, wrapped tightly into Blaine's hair, using each curl as focus on each thrust.  Blaine lies still, allowing Kurt to work his magic, absentmindedly with Kurt's cock in his hand like a joystick.  Kurt bends at the knees ever so slightly, and it changes the angle drastically.  They both moan deep in their throats at the new, deeper, perfect feeling.  Kurt slows to take it all in, desperately seeks a regularity that fills him to the brim, all the while pulling in and out on dark, twirling, shiny, dark curls as though they are nothing, unattached to the nerves of every follicle. Blaine scurries his feet even closer to the rest of his body in an effort for Kurt to sink deeper. He thrusts so that Kurt is nearer to him.  Kurt's face is inches away after almost crushing Blaine chest to chest as hips do the dirty work.  The rise and fall of it all is rather soothing and they find themselves lost in each other with every advance becoming second nature.  It's a see-sawed ride of orgasm and sweat and heat and maybe one day love, so that soon they're both coming without so much as an exhale or whisper of a name.  It's hitched breaths and silence and gasps and countless kisses while going over the edge together, captivated in a world that's only theirs from here until the end of time.

Blaine's legs fall straight and shaky, and he lets go of all the air in his lungs.

“You are literally the hottest man alive.”  Don't you dare ever leave me.   

Kurt giggles and scurries off of him, then rolls again so he's leaning his chin to the palm of his hand and has his elbows propped up in the plush of the mattress, crossing one ankle over the other and swinging his legs to and fro like a four-year-old watching cartoons on Saturday morning.  “Too much?”

Blaine rolls his neck from right to left to right again and rubs at the crook in a massaging circle before centering his axis again.  He sheepishly grins at the ceiling.  “Never.  God.  I'm worried about how sore you're going to be, though.”

Kurt collapses and rolls over once more, and they lie there for several minutes.  Eventually, Blaine slips his hand into Kurt's and they fall into a slumber again.  It's 5:30 in the morning and while that might seem late to Kurt, neither seems to care at all.

xK&Bx

There is a loud knock at the door that doesn't seem to stop for one full minute.  Blaine flutters his eyes open and gets reacquainted with his surroundings, grins when he sees Kurt next to him, pulls on whatever pants are balled up on the floor next to the bed, and goes into the hallway to see what the ruckus is.  He shuffles to the front door rubbing his eyes and flings the door open to find a fully dressed and impatient Julie.

“Kur- Oh my God, Blaine?”

He grins and opens the door further to let her in.  “Good morning, Julie.”  He looks at the poor innocence in her large chocolate eyes; she's blushing forty shades of purple from the lack of a shirt fitting against Blaine's chest.  She's staring, her mouth open only a few inches in astonishment.

“Julie.”

“Huh?”  She's admittedly gaping at his chest.

Sure, Blaine could probably be a little taller, and without a dollop of gel, he has the tendency of looking like a wild animal with bed head, but he's always thought he's a pretty attractive guy.  He always knows when to the take the opportunity to make whoever swoon, especially adorable straight girls pining for him in high school.  He stretches his arms high above his head, mostly to show off the definition of his arms and chest; he can't help but tease her.  He knows she's attracted to him, in a cute schoolgirl kind of way, and it's really fun to agonize little girls who are nervous when they look into his eyes.  His own eyes, however, don't dare leave hers as he rakes his fingers through his afro of curls, lifting an eyebrow in a way he's only learned from George Clooney's vintage work.  “Julie, why are you here?”

“Oh!  Umm, I need the key from Kurt.  We're a little… late opening.”

Kurt shows himself, completely clothed with a ring of several keys dangling around his pinkie finger.

“Thank you, Julie.  You are the best.”  Kurt smiles at her; he smiles a genuine, endearing smile for his, umm… second favorite employee.  Well, almost.  “I'll be down soon, okay?”

Julie nods, jaw dropped in shock, speechless.  She turns and exits the apartment, turns to look over her shoulder at the pair, then runs down the stairs to open up and start work, hyperventilating the whole way down.

The only piece of Blaine's body that moves is his arm to push the door closed again and he spins to look at Kurt, raising an eyebrow and smirking.

“Would it kill you to put on a shirt when answering my door?”

“Probably not.”  Blaine leans in just an inch toward Kurt's face then freezes.  Teasingly, he turns away from his new boyfriend and marches back into the bedroom, splaying himself horizontally across the bed on his stomach and plunging his head nose-first into the mattress. 

“You are relentless, Blaine.”  Kurt leans down to kiss the back of his head, traveling to his neck then between his shoulder blades. 

“I'm also sleepy.  What time is it?”  Blaine pulls his face out of the mattress to find Kurt.  He smiles at him.

“6:45.  You can sleep more then come downstairs when you're ready?”

“Mmmmm, kay.”

“And Blaine?”

“What?”

“Happy birthday.”

“Mmmm.”

xK&Bx

Kurt sighs and hops in the hot shower for the first time in so long, not before taking a moment to remember the planes and angles of a teenage back and shoulder muscles.  Although they've only known each other since May, and they've only had sex a few times, Kurt takes the time in the shower to really think about what he's getting himself into.  He needs normalcy, and right now it's more of an obsession.  He needs to talk to Blaine so they can tone it down a bit.  He wants to get to know Blaine, really get to know him.  He wants to take it slow and start back at the beginning.  He wants to analyze text messages and get giddy at the new prospect.  He wants a normal relationship that grows gradually until there's no turning back, not something completely backwards starting with raunchy, over-the-top sex and teenage boys splayed over countertops.

He gets lost in his thoughts; he's startled by a knock as he's primping the last of his hair with a dollop of gel in the full-length mirror on the inside of the bathroom door.

“Pretty?  Can I shower here?”

“Of course.”  He pulls the door open so Blaine can come in; the boy is standing there with a plastic shopping bag and a rubber band.  “Ummm…”

Blaine winks and places a peck on his lips carefully.  He sighs and sits on the lid of the toilet bowl, crosses his locked-in ankle over his other knee and wraps it intricately with the plastic, securing it with the rubber band above the Achilles' heel. 

Then it clicks for Kurt.  Obviously, Blaine can't get that thing wet.

“I'll leave you towels on the sink.  Use anything you need.”

“Use me, pretty boy.”

Kurt blushes and grins and Blaine begins to slide off the boxers with no concern for privacy.   

“I'll see you downstairs.”  He raises an eyebrow and heads into the foyer for his shoes before plummeting down the stairs to the coffee shop, shaking his head and grinning all the while.

Yeah, Kurt could get used to this.  Eventually.  Down the road.  Later.

xK&Bx

It feels like only seconds before Blaine waltzes in, smelling like Kurt's body wash, wordlessly picking up an apron and tying it around his waist with enough force to cut off circulation.  He ignores the hat again and greets Julie by rubbing her arm innocently while she's in the middle of helping one of her favorite customers. 

She has to stop and revel in the contact, blushing up to her ears before turning back to the customer and politely asking him to repeat his order.

Blaine heads to the back room where Kurt must be and leans on the door's frame, peaking around it with his hands up to his face.

“Hey, pretty boy.  I'm here.  I see the counter got cleaned up.”

Kurt looks up from his schedule etched in pencil, trying to fit Blaine into an attempted rotation.  He grins.

“Hey.  That was fast.”

Blaine shrugs.  “Where ya want me, boss?”

Kurt raises an eyebrow as his mind resorts straight back to the gutter of the countertop last night; his eyes drift to the area subconsciously but Blaine catches it. He laughs. “I'm just gonna go bother Julie, then.  She wants me bad, you know.”  Blaine winks and leans down for a quick peck on the corner of Kurt's mouth before heading back in Julie's direction.

He watches the boy leave and mulls over exactly the level of resistance it takes from his body to not ravish him right here in the middle of a moderately busy time at the coffee shop.

Kurt shoves the eraser at the pencil's tip in his mouth and balances it between his teeth, strumming his finger on his desk to the rhythm of the music overhead.  He concentrates again on the schedule in front of him.  It's seconds before his mind wanders to Blaine again.  He just can't get enough, but he definitely needs to figure out a way to lead Blaine back two or three steps.

“Blaine?” He calls, shoving the chair backward to go meet his boyfriend's eyes.  “When did Santana say you start school again?”

“Uhhh, Monday?” He looks up at the man from his gaze toward the cash register over Julie's shoulder.  He's shadowing her, trying diligently to memorize where each button is. 

Julie looks like she's shaking.  He laughs and shakes his head at the interaction.  How is Blaine so endearing, adorable, and drop-dead sexy to make boys and girls of all ages swoon, all at the same time, and even when he has no clue what's going on? 

“Is three shifts during the week okay?  Can you handle that and your studies?”

“Yeah, whatever you need, Kurt.  I'll make it work.” 

Kurt nods and looks at him with nothing but lust.  His hooded eyes are darker than usual but Blaine knows this look.  Evidently Julie does as well; her blush is neon pink all the way down her neck.  Poor girl, heartbroken, under a circumstance she can't control, and inserted directly in the middle of it all.   Blaine smiles at him sweetly and throws himself back into Julie's attention with the inner workings of a seemingly simple cash register.

“Show me what you got, Jelly Bean.”  Blaine smiles at the nickname and is convinced he'll make it stick.

Kurt laughs with no sound, only breaths through his nostrils, and slides into Blaine's customary chair from when he was just a customer and leans into his schedule, left fist on his forehead, hunched over and analyzing his work.

Ten minutes go by of working simultaneously when Kurt lets out a yawn.  It's not that he's tired, per se; he's blissfully worn out.
 
Blaine whispers to Julie that he needs a breather and fills a cup of coffee, stirred to perfection, and sets it down in front of him. 

Kurt looks up again and takes the cup, tipping it at his lips.

“Thank you.”

“Thank you.  For everything.  You're positively saving my life, Kurt Hummel.”  It's an earnest statement, truly appreciative and honest. 

Kurt smiles up at the boy and takes a sip, holding the cup to his lips as he sighs a breath of relief.

xK&Bx

“Blaine?”

Hazel eyes glance upward distractedly from restocking some paper cups from the supply closet in the back.  A shining ball of light glistens at the realization of who stands on the other side of the counter, peering through the see-through glass of the pastry cabinet.  “Hey.”

The two of them were busy in their own Lima Bean tasks, and if Kurt was purposely staying in the back room while Blaine was trained in the front… well, he tried not to make it too obvious.  Kurt swears there's a method to his madness, even if he was only swearing it to himself hunched over his laptop.

“You can't work the whole day on your birthday.  Come on.”   Kurt's already got his phone and his wallet from the back room; he glides to the front door and holds it open expectedly, staring back into Blaine's direction.

“I really don't mind, I just wanna learn everything.”  Despite what's coming out of his mouth, Blaine has shoved the cups where they belong and is gravitating, not for the first time, toward Kurt and the front door. 

“Lunch with my boyfriend starts now.”  Kurt says for only Blaine to hear.  “Jules, we'll be back in hour or so.  Want lunch?”

“No thanks, I'll probably just steal a croissant or something.”

“Take whatever you want.  See you.”  He grins at the girl and watches as Blaine makes his way through the door.  Catching up to the boy, he slips his hand into Blaine's and leads them to Breadstix down the street.

Blaine smiles up at him; it's all he could possibly do.  Everything is so new and fresh between them, and Blaine is concentrating on taking it all in.  After all this time, he's finally getting what he wants out of Kurt with no push back and it's working perfectly for them so far, even if they've only been boyfriends for less than a day.

The one-block walk is quiet, but not in the awkward first-official-date way.  It's soothing and comfortable.  It's connected; it's good.  It's the beginning.  Both boys, for once, don't need to say anything at all. 

Blaine beams at Kurt with an open mouth when they arrive at the door to Breadstix and curtsies toward him, holding the door open for his boyfriend.  His hand quickly finds the small of his back to lead him through the foyer and to the hostess stand, where Kurt glances around the near-empty restaurant.

Kurt smiles at the hostess.  “Two please.”

“It's your birthday!”  Kurt opens his menu.  “Get whatever you want.”

Blaine doesn't open the menu.  Instead, he stares at the godly figure sitting across from him in what's bound to become their booth.  “Kurt, seriously.  Thank you.  For everything.  You don't know how much all of this means to me.”

“No sweat, lover boy.”

Blaine exchanges a pointed look with his boyfriend, flabbergasted by just how happy he could allow himself to be if he just tries.  He takes Kurt's hand in both of his and shakes his head.  He lets go and sighs.

“Oh?  We really need to be more creative than that, like you said.  Lover boy and pretty boy, sitting in a tree… I was thinking of dropping the boy part and just calling you pretty.  I mean, maybe it sounds offensive on the outside, you're not offended that's my name for you are you?”

Kurt giggles.  “While some may find it sort of offensive, I think it's adorable that you think I'm pretty.  Stop worrying about every little thing and pick what you want to eat.  We don't have all day.”  Kurt smiles.

Laughing, Blaine picks up his menu to cover his face completely.  After mumbling words that remotely sound like “Hmph, fine,” he starts to occupy himself like a toddler by tapping out a beat nonchalantly on the table with his fingers.

Kurt sighs and catches the eye of a middle-aged waiter who's stopped abruptly in his tracks on his way over to their booth.  The man scowls and about-faces and disappears into the kitchen.  As an instinct, Kurt looks anywhere in the room except for at Blaine.  He's so grateful Blaine's back is to the kitchen door; he doesn't need to go bail Blaine out of anywhere today and he knows the boy's reaction to the homophobia would have been less than acceptable.

Ohio is always going to be Ohio; Kurt knows this like the sun in the sky.  He's not sure if the waiter forgot their waters or he is refusing to serve them because they were holding hands moments before.  He's not sure if it has something to do with the clear age difference (although Kurt still likes to believe he appears at least a few years younger than he really is – call it a quarter-life plus three year crisis) or if their heart eyes are displaying true feelings for one another. 

Kurt deserves to be happy, as does Blaine.  Blaine deserves happiness and love more so than Kurt, of that Kurt is certain.  With everything that Blaine has been through with his poor excuse for a father, Blaine deserves the world.  Come to think of it, both have gone through so much of the dirty path and Kurt only wishes for them to make it out relatively unscathed, and most importantly, alive. 

Kurt is definitely taking a sincere chance on Blaine, but at least he's willing enough to do even that.  Had it been only two years ago, Kurt would have still had his blinders on.  He was hurt and bothered by the glares he'd get when he opened his mouth anywhere, and now he's openly inviting exactly that behavior by being out and proud, holding Blaine's hand at a public location in the Midwest.  It's a risk that he's determined to make right, though, because there's just something about Blaine that reels him in, despite all of the issues they've been thrown into together. 

Blaine has a chip on his shoulder because he feels he needs it to keep people away from him.  It appears that Kurt is the only one who could knock it off freely and with determination to open Blaine's soul up to him a bit more.

But they're doing it far too quickly for Kurt's liking; it's all too serious.  It is vastly accelerated, and although it wasn't out of the blue (they'd both seen it coming, subconsciously or not), the level of intensity is still somewhat unexpected.  It's starting to get a bit too intense.

The past twenty-four hours have been a whirlwind, and he needs to gain control on the situation.  They need to act like boyfriends of one day rather than ten years, so there's no future resentment of going too fast and too hard.  Kurt giggles out loud; there is absolutely no pun intended in his thoughts.

Blaine glances at him over the list of mediocre Italian cuisine that is so far-removed from authenticity, it's embarrassing.  He literally waves the younger boy off and they continue to scope out their menus.

Kurt feels like it's zero to sixty and the only way to handle it is to go slowly.  Make progress, yes, but steadily.  They'd taken each other for all that they are worth just last night and again this morning, rushing into what could easily be identified as a somewhat-serious relationship.  He needs Blaine to understand that they should take it slow, not only for each other, but to keep a handle on the overall unacceptance from everyone that surrounds them locally.  They need to truly get to know each other so they can become a team of two against the world.  It's just one more factor any gay couple needs to take into consideration, especially in a place as weary as this.

“So, in addition to celebrating your legality to buy cigarettes, vote, and have sex with older, very good-looking and sexy and helpful boyfriends such as myself, there's another reason why I'm taking you to lunch.”

Blaine's face falls, stabbing Kurt with guilt when it comes to the sadness he's already caused the poor boy.  “I don't like the sound of that.”

“I think it's good for us in the long run, B.  Shut up and listen.”

Blaine nods.  He could listen to Kurt for days.

“So I think we should maybe slow it down a little bit?  I mean- ahh.   Umm.”  Kurt pauses.  There is nothing he can accomplish when he's flustered, especially a conversation with his boyfriend eleven years his junior. 

“Slow it down?”  Blaine's utterly confused.  “Slow us down, Kurt?  You can't push me-”

“Blaine.  Stop.  You always get so defensive when what I am trying to say is good.”  He takes the boy's hand again, not caring what waiter or stuck-up conservative in this split-down-the-middle state thinks.  “I'm not pushing you away.  I'm just saying that we shouldn't… we should date and get to know each other as boyfriends at a much slower pace so we can have a normal relationship that moves forward like anyone else's.  Maybe limit our time together, ease into it a little bit, rather than going full speed ahead.  We're doing this backwards.”  He looks at Blaine to make sure he's still with him.  “I can feel us quickly becoming fixated on one another, and before that happens, we should make sure that it's what we really want.  Do you feel me?”

Blaine nods.  “We have to work on your teenage language, pretty boy.  Really?  Do I feel you?”  He grins, before allowing it to drop, turning his face into a suddenly furrowed mess.  “Kurt?”

Kurt smiles; he's not sure who he's trying to kid, but he's already captivated in Blaine.  “Mmm?”

“I was thinking about that, too.  But I have nothing to compare it to, so… Hm, maybe I should only come to the coffee shop when I'm working or something.  I'll cheat on you with Starbucks the other days and maybe find another boyfriend who owns the franchise in the mall.”

“Oh I have never!”  Kurt clutches his heart dramatically.

“Mmmhmm, but I think that's best for us... you know, in the long run.”  Blaine takes Kurt's hand again and tilts his head, a teasing smile plastered on his face until kingdom come.  “But really, I get it.  I want to make this work.  I'm following your lead because you're the only one with experience in the boyfriend department, and so whatever you think we should do for the benefit of the so-called long run, I'm down.”

“You're down.”  Kurt deadpans, blinking, smiling. 

“I'm down for it.  I'm game, I'm willing to do it.  Teenage vocabulary, Kurt.”

“Oh, God.  I'm dating a teenager.”  Kurt says with a grin and a twinkle in his eye.

“No regrets?”

“None, whatsoever.”

They stare at each other and burst out in a laughing fit at exactly the same second a new waitress comes up to take their orders, complete with two tall glasses of ice water.