May 24, 2013

The day had finally come—it was the day that the New Directions were getting on a plane to make their way to Philadelphia to perform at Nationals. Blaine drove himself to the airport slowly—his parents were out of town and he didn’t want to bother Burt or Carole. He had a feeling that would backfire on him when the couple found out that he had left his car in the parking lot for four days, but he couldn’t bring himself to think about that yet. He was upset with his parents for missing yet another important event in his life and he knew he wouldn’t be able to handle having another person’s parents lavish him with love and attention when his own couldn’t care less.

He met up with the rest of New Directions at the coffee shop before entering security. Everyone was chatting excitedly and laughing. Blaine sat off to the side by himself; he wasn’t much in the mood for talking at that moment.

Tina noticed Blaine sitting by himself and threw him an encouraging smile. He smiled back weakly and went back to focusing on his cup of coffee.

“Alright, everyone! I have your tickets so we can go ahead and get through security. We have,” Mr. Schue looked at his watch, “twenty minutes before our flight starts boarding, so we should have plenty of time.”

Everyone jumped up from their seats and grabbed their bags. The group made its way through security easily and quickly.

Soon they were on the plane and Blaine decided to use the time to take a nap so that he could spend more time with Kurt when they were together in Philadelphia.

The plane landed a few hours later. The members of New Directions quickly picked up their bags and headed to the exit. Standing near the doors were Kurt, Rachel, Santana holding a large sign that said “New Directions—National Champs!” Everyone started laughing and talking loudly when the two groups met. Brittany threw her arms around Santana and the girls shared a kiss. Rachel started talking exuberantly with Tina and Artie.

Blaine and Kurt locked eyes over the crowd. Quickly, they made their way towards each other and wrapped their arms around each other in a fierce hug.

“I missed you so much!” Kurt said.

“I missed you, too.” Blaine said, smiling. “But we’re so close to the end of this separation—we have three and a half days to visit and then we’ll see each other in just a few weeks for graduation.”

“True. So let’s make the most of it!” Kurt smiled broadly. “We need to head over to the hotel and check into our room.” He looked over at the rest of the group, who were chatting excitedly. “I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to get Rachel and Santana to leave, though.” Kurt sighed.

“Let’s go break up the reunion. We can continue this at the hotel.”

Blaine and Kurt walked over to the rest of the group. “Guys!” Kurt said loudly. When no one seemed to hear him, he tried again. When that didn’t work, he whistled loudly. A hush fell over the group as every eye turned to Kurt. “We should really move this little love fest to our hotel. We need to check in and get dinner before it gets too late.”

“Excellent point, Kurt!” Mr. Schue picked up his and Emma’s bags. “Let’s get on the bus, everyone!”

Kurt, Rachel, and Santana walked the group to their waiting bus, and then headed toward their rented sedan. The trip to the hotel was short, and Blaine was thankful for that fact. He only had so much time with Kurt, and he hated that so much of it was going to be spent apart from him. Between rehearsals and the actual performance, Blaine would only really be seeing Kurt at meals. But the last day of their trip, which also happened to be Kurt’s birthday, was going to be different. Either way, Mr. Schue had already allowed them to spend an extra day in Philadelphia, so even if they didn’t win, they could mourn their loss in a great city and not back in Lima.

They reached the hotel and everyone got off the bus. When they entered the lobby, Blaine was happy to see Kurt, Rachel, and Santana waiting for them.

“You guys could’ve checked in!” Mr. Schue said, walking up to the counter.

“We wanted to try to get on the same floor, but we didn’t know what floor you guys were going to be on.” Kurt explained.

Mr. Schue nodded and checked in for the New Directions. They were on the third floor, and thankfully there was an available room down the hall from where the New Directions were staying. Everyone excitedly made their way to the elevators to settle into their rooms. Mr. Schue sent a mass text to all of the members of New Directions in Philadelphia (current and former) telling them to meet in the lobby in half an hour. Blaine was as ready as he needed to be to go out to dinner, so he made his way down the hall to Rachel, Santana, and Kurt’s shared hotel room. He knocked lightly on the door. It swung open to reveal Santana standing on the other side looking annoyed.

“It’s just you.” Santana spat, turning around and walking to her bed.

Blaine looked around the room—there were two queen beds and a sofa that was already pulled out into the bed. “It’s good to see you too, Santana.” Blaine chuckled.

Santana waved her hand. “Ya, ya. If you’re looking for Porcelain he’s in the shower.” Santana paused and snapped her head up to look at Blaine. She put up a warning finger. “Don’t you even think about joining him in there and getting wanky. Berry and I still need to shower still.” She seemed to consider for a moment. “Plus, you two broke up, didn’t you?”

Blaine looked down. “It’s a little complicated.” He sighed. “But yea, we’re on a break. Nothing’s going to happen. I’ll just wait out here if that’s okay with you.”

Santana went back to unpacking her bags and hanging her clothes in the little closet. “Sure, fine, whatever. Just don’t get in my way.”

Blaine sat quietly flipping through a book he found on the table. He stopped when he saw familiar handwriting in the margin of one of the books. He turned the book to look at the front cover. The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein—Kurt’s favorite book. He smiled and turned the book back to look at what Kurt had marked.

“The true hero is flawed. The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles—preferably of his own making—in order to triumph.” (A/N: This is an actual quote from the book. Don’t believe me? It’s on page 135. This is an amazing book, I suggest everyone read it if you like to read (which I assume you do because you are reading this).)

In the right hand margin Kurt had written two bullet points:

                -NYADA

                -Blaine

Blaine smiled sadly to himself. He understood what Kurt was trying to say with this simple annotation. Not getting into NYADA had been a huge blow for Kurt—but now he was an intern at Vogue, he was working with one of his fashion icons, and he was working on getting in to design schools in New York after deciding that fashion was what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Blaine knew that he himself had thrown a wrench in Kurt’s plans by deciding that the couple should take a break, but he couldn’t help but think that at the end of all of this, they’d pull through and “triumph” together.

Blaine was pulled out of his musings when he heard Kurt clear his throat from the other side of the table.

“Find anything interesting?” Kurt asked, amused.

Blaine put the book down and smiled up at Kurt. “Always.” He took in Kurt’s outfit—a long-sleeved teal t-shirt under a gray vest matched with a pair of gray jeans. “You look good, have a hot date?” Blaine teased.

Kurt smiled coyly. “Actually, I do.”

“Do tell.”

“Well...”

Kurt was cut off by Santana groaning. “Oh, no you don’t.” Blaine and Kurt looked at Santana questioningly. “You two say you’re broken up and you still act like that? Why in the world are you broken up then?” She shook her head. “I swear, you two make absolutely no sense sometimes. And I ain’t got no time for you two to flirt and ogle each other from a distance.” She went to the door and opened it, making a gesture for them to leave. “You’re both ready; go to the lobby early and get out of here before you make me vomit rainbows.”

Blaine and Kurt looked at each other and chuckled. Kurt turned and started to leave the room, grabbing his wallet from the table as he left. Blaine stood and followed Kurt out of the room. The door closed behind him but not before he heard Santana muttering to herself. “Those boys seriously need to get their shit together before they drive us all insane. I thought living with Hummel was bad enough but now they’re here together and it’s a million times worse.”

Blaine smiled to himself as he steps into the elevator after Kurt. They rode in silence, stealing glances at each other and occasionally making eye contact and blushing.

“It’s amazing that we can still make each other blush.” Kurt commented as he steps out of the elevator.

“I love it.” Blaine murmured.

“So do I.” Kurt whispered in return.

The pair rounded the corner into the lobby and found many members of the New Directions sitting around and chatting. Over the next fifteen minutes, the rest showed up in pairs until everyone was present and they all made their way to a pizzeria for dinner. The group ate and talked excitedly about what would happen over the course of the next few days. Kurt and Blaine sat side by side, thighs brushing and—on more than one occasion—Kurt’s hand settling on Blaine’s thigh and giving it a light squeeze. After everyone was done eating, they all headed back to the hotel.

Mr. Schue stood up on the bus and made an announcement before they were able to get off the bus.

“I want everyone sleeping in their own beds tonight, okay? I’m not going to do bed checks, but I’m trusting you to be responsible and make the right decisions. And be in bed early, we’re going to start practice at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning.”

Mr. Schue got off the bus and everyone else followed. They walked into the lobby of the hotel. Blaine was about to walk to the elevator when a familiar hand grabbed his and pulled him the opposite direction.

“Hey!” He shrieked.

“Sh! It’s just me!” Kurt whispered, laughing.

Blaine took stock of his surroundings. They were pressed into a small indentation in the wall. “What’re you doing, Kurt?” Blaine inquired, giggling quietly.

“I wanted to talk to you alone. This seemed like a convenient place to do so.”

Blaine nodded. After a few seconds of silence, he said, “And…”

Kurt shook his head. “Oh, right! I talked to Rachel and Santana and they both said it was fine for you to come and sleep in our room tonight if you wanted. Santana was planning on sneaking Brittany in—so we have a mutual understanding not to rat each other out. And Rachel won’t tell because she snuck Finn into her room at Nationals last year and I didn’t tell on her.” Kurt paused and cleared his throat. “So, um, would you? Like to stay in our room, on the pull out bed, with me, tonight?” Kurt asked apprehensively.

Blaine chuckled. “Do you really need me to answer that?”

Kurt sighed with relief. “Okay, good. Meet me in the hall at midnight, then? You can stay the whole night and just say that you got up early and came to our room because you knew I’d be awake and you didn’t want to wake any of the other guys.”

Blaine nodded. “Perfect. I’ll see you then.” Blaine smiled and stepped out of their secluded spot. Kurt followed and the two quickly walked to the elevator. They went to their respective rooms without saying a word—the promise of later hung in the air between them.

Blaine quickly changed for bed and lay on the floor next to Sam. He knew Sam would cover for him if he woke up and noticed Blaine missing. At midnight, he silently got up and made his way out into the hall. As he closed the door silently, he looked up and saw Kurt standing outside of his room, the door cracked slightly behind him.

“Come on, it’s freezing out here.” Kurt whispered.

Blaine ran in stocking feet to where Kurt was standing. The two entered the room quietly. While Kurt closed the door, Blaine’s eyes flickered to Brittany and Santana curled around each other in the middle of Santana’s bed. He smiled softly and then walked over to the pull out couch. He lay down under the covers on the left side of the bed and waited for Kurt to join him. A few seconds later, Kurt had laid down on the bed and instantly curled himself into Blaine’s side.

“Good night, Kurt.” Blaine whispered as sleep overtook him swiftly.

“’Night, Blaine.”