It was the day before Christmas Eve, and Kurt didn't think anything could be more perfect than it was in that moment.

They had finished their classes a few days before, both of them having done remarkably well their first semester at NYADA, and now he and Blaine were exiting the theater onto 45th Street, gloved fingers intertwined and bodies pressed close against the cold. Kurt felt his nose immediately turn frosty, and he was sure it was turning pink.

They should have been walking quickly to get to the subway and out of the cold, but as Kurt took in the view of the tall buildings, the bright lights, the bundled up people and the jam packed street that were staples of New York City during the holidays, he didn't have it in him to rush away.

Blaine must have felt the same, because he didn't seem to be in any hurry, either. Together the boys just strolled down the street, ignoring the below freezing weather.

"So, what did you think?" Blaine asked.

Kurt laughed. "Are we going to play that game again?"

"Well, that depends. Are you going to pretend like you didn't like it?"

Letting his eyes linger on Blaine's face awash with lights from the street, Kurt said, "I loved it. I really loved it, Blaine. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas present."

"I'm glad," Blaine said earnestly.

Kurt thought back on the argument they had had that morning when Blaine had handed Kurt the envelope with the tickets in them.

They had fallen asleep watching a movie at Blaine's apartment the night before, and for once Blaine had woken up first. He presented Kurt with a cup of coffee and the envelope when Kurt finally managed to peel his eyes open.

"Merry Christmas!" Blaine said with a wide smile.

"It's not Christmas, Blaine," Kurt retorted grumpily.

"I know, but the present I got you is kind of time sensitive. You have to open it today."

Kurt sat up suddenly, glaring at Blaine when his groggy mind caught up with the situation. "Blaine. You got me a Christmas present?" The question could have sounded playful or surprised, but Kurt's tone wasn't either of those things – it was dangerous. And from the way Blaine's eyes tightened and his smile fell slightly, Blaine knew it.

"It doesn't have to be a big deal, okay? Please just open it." Blaine held the envelope a little closer to Kurt, but he shirked away from it.

"We talked about this. You promised." Kurt got out of bed and stood, wanting to be on equal ground with Blaine.

They had made a deal over a month ago when Blaine paid for half of Kurt's plane ticket to go to Lima that it would be Blaine's Christmas present to Kurt. It had been a compromise that neither boy had been happy with – Kurt because he felt like it was too much for even a Christmas gift and Blaine because he didn't like the idea of not being able to get Kurt a "real" Christmas present – but it was the only way Kurt could afford to fly home for Thanksgiving.

And now Blaine was trying to give him something else, after he had promised that he wouldn't. Kurt was not having it.

"I know I promised, but I couldn't let our first Christmas pass without giving you something. Besides, this gift is just as much for me as it is for you." Blaine sat Kurt's coffee that he had refused to take on his dresser and approached Kurt slowly, like he might a wild animal.

Kurt's heart sang softly at hearing Blaine refer to their first Christmas together, clearly implying that there would be many more, but he wasn't going to back down.

"Then you take it and use it. I don't want it." Kurt took a step back.

Blaine let his forced smile fall. "Dammit, Kurt, would you stop being so stubborn! Why won't you just let me give you things?"

"Because it's too much, Blaine. I can't – I can't give you gifts half as nice as whatever is in that envelope." Kurt thought of the coat he had made for Blaine that was wrapped neatly under the tree at his apartment. Yes, he'd spent the last six weeks or so designing and sewing it and he personally thought it looked amazing, but really, it had cost almost nothing to make and was the equivalent of a macaroni portrait on the gift giving scale.

"It doesn't matter to me what kind of gifts you give me. You can give me socks for all I care. I'll just be happy to get anything from you, no matter what it is. What if I couldn't afford to get you nice things and you could? Would you still be upset with me that our gifts aren't of the same 'caliber'?"

"Of course not," Kurt answered immediately.

"So then why be upset with me now? Please, Kurt. Please just open them."

Kurt looked into Blaine's pleading eyes and felt his resolve start to slip. He knew Blaine was right. It didn't matter to Kurt what kind of gifts Blaine bought him and he would be happy with socks, too. It was a beautiful day and the day before Christmas and they were fighting and it was just so stupid. Still, Kurt had to try one last time.

"Can't you just take them back?" he asked feebly.

Blaine sighed and looked at Kurt like he was disappointed in him. "Open them, and if you really truly don't want them, then yeah, I'll return them."

Blaine held the envelope out again, and this time Kurt reached for it. He opened it and pulled out two tickets for Once on Broadway for that night.

Tears sprung to Kurt's eyes, because really, it was the perfect gift. Kurt remembered watching Once with Blaine over and over again on his couch and practicing the song from the movie for their duet. He and Blaine had both talked about how great it would be to go see the musical that had won eight Tonys this season.

And now Kurt was holding tickets. And he wanted to go. He really, really wanted to go. But Kurt checked the seats and knew the tickets were about two hundred dollars apiece.

Kurt looked up at Blaine and thought briefly about lying, but he and Blaine didn't lie to each other, and Kurt wasn't going to let his pride hurt Blaine more than it already had.

"So?" Blaine asked dejectedly, like he already knew what Kurt's answer would be.

Kurt launched himself at Blaine, throwing his arms around his boyfriend's neck. "They're perfect," he said.

Blaine laughed, surprised. "Really? You want to go?"

"Of course I want to go." Kurt pulled back so he could look Blaine in the eyes. "Thank you so much," he said, hoping Blaine could hear the "I'm sorry" in his words.

"Anytime," Blaine replied, and Kurt knew that he did...

"Yoohoo, Kurt," Blaine sing-songed.

"I'm sorry, what?" Kurt asked.

Blaine smiled indulgently. "I said, do you want to stop and get some coffee?" He pointed to a busy bakery with a silly name a little ways ahead of them.

Kurt nodded, and the boys headed into the warm building that smelled like chocolate chips and brown sugar and Heaven all rolled into one. Kurt nearly groaned in ecstasy. They stood at the back of the line and Blaine looked over at Kurt and laughed at how he was eying the display of cookies with barely concealed lust.

"Do you want to get a cookie to share?" Blaine asked with a twinkle in his eye.

Kurt straightened up. He nearly had his nose pressed against the glass he was eyeing the desserts so closely. "We probably shouldn't..." he hedged.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Blaine said with affected importance.

When they got up to the cashier, Blaine grinned at the girl behind the counter and placed their order. "Can I please have a medium roast coffee, a nonfat mocha, and..." Blaine glanced at Kurt before saying, "a red velvet cookie."

"Blaine," Kurt said admonishingly.

"Kurt," Blaine responded in the same tone. "It's for me."

The cashier laughed and Kurt huffed but otherwise didn't say anything, not even when Blaine reached for his wallet and paid for their order. He decided they had had more than enough arguments over money and he didn't care to get into another.

When they received their coffee and Blaine's cookie, they opted to take them outside instead of trying to find a spot in the crowded bakery to sit.

The icy air hit Kurt's face when Blaine opened the door, making him shiver. As they started walking down the street, he took a sip of his coffee to combat the cold and was mildly surprised to find that it was delicious. Good coffee was not always a given, especially at slightly overpriced bakeries in the theater district.

Blaine removed one of his gloves in order to properly eat his cookie. Kurt watched as Blaine ripped a piece off and put it in his mouth. He moaned around the sweet, and Kurt positively began to salivate.

"Oh my god, baby, you have to try this," Blaine said, his mouth full of cookie. Kurt knew Blaine got his favorite flavor of cookie to be spiteful, so he decided he was most definitely not going to eat any of it.

"No, thank you," he said sweetly.

Blaine swallowed, looking at Kurt somewhat suspiciously. "Kurt, come on, just one bite won't kill you."

Kurt shook his head, making sure to not look at the cookie so Blaine wouldn't see how much he secretly wanted it. "It's going to make my coffee taste bad," he said. Okay, it wasn't technically a lie. The sugary treat would probably make his coffee taste overly bitter.

Blaine stopped and looked up at Kurt like he knew the game Kurt was playing and he planned on winning. "You're seriously not going to take one bite?" he asked.

Kurt figured the jig was up, so he let the smug smile that was tugging at the corners of his mouth free. "Not one," he replied. So what if he had to go back to that damn bakery tomorrow and get one of those cookies? He was going to win.

Blaine looked at Kurt for a few long seconds. He transferred the bag with the cookie in it to the hand he was using to hold his coffee so his right hand was free. "Okay, fine," he said, shrugging nonchalantly.

Without warning, he grabbed the back of Kurt's neck with his free hand, pulling his face down until their lips met in a crushing kiss. Blaine's tongue forced entry into Kurt's open mouth, and Kurt tasted the buttery, creamy, sweet flavor of the cookie he had so desired. He pressed his own tongue past Blaine's lips, trying to extract as much of the flavor as possible.

When he was completely breathless, Blaine finally pulled away, giving Kurt the most self-satisfied grin he had ever seen.

"You are so mean!" Kurt exclaimed, laughing.

"What?" Blaine said indignantly. "I figured it was the best of both worlds – all the flavor, none of the calories."

Kurt groaned. "Give me a bite of that damn cookie," he said.

"I don't think so. This is my cookie. You said you didn't want any."

Kurt's mouth gaped open. "Are you serious?" he exclaimed.

"As a heart attack. Looks like you missed your chance." Blaine shrugged dramatically and turned, walking away from Kurt.

"Blaine."

"Kurt."

Kurt walked up behind Blaine and pulled on his arm, turning him around. Before Blaine could catch on, he planted his mouth on the other boy's, and while he was distracted, Kurt snatched the bag with the cookie out of his hand.

Kurt pulled away. Blaine lunged for the bag, so Kurt held in high in the air above Blaine's head and out of his reach.

"Kurt, give me back my cookie!" Blaine said, jumping as high as he dared with a full cup of coffee in hand.

Even with the added height of the jump, Kurt still managed to keep it well out of Blaine's reach.

"Nope," he said. "You were being mean. You don't deserve this cookie."

"I was being mean? You're the one picking on me because I'm short!" He lunged for the cookie again and Kurt suddenly found it hilarious that he was holding a cookie over Blaine's head in the middle of 45th Street. He glanced around and saw a few people giving them strange looks and that only made him laugh harder.

"What?" Blaine asked, his eyes still twinkling from their game.

Kurt lowers his arm, but Blaine doesn't reach for the cookie this time. When Kurt finally quelled his giggles, he looked adoringly at his boyfriend, noticing the stray curl of hair on his forehead, the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, his pink cheeks, his big, golden eyes... he had never seen someone more beautiful.

"I love you," Kurt said. He had never known anything with more certainty.

Blaine looked pleasantly surprised, but then a smile settled on his face and Kurt could tell that he knew, too. "Kurt, I'm so in love with you," he replied before Kurt could even be afraid that maybe he wouldn't say it back.

Kurt didn't know who initiated it, but suddenly they were kissing and it was so different from their other kisses. It was slow and sweet and as full of all the love they had just proclaimed as either could make it.

They shared the cookie.

Between bites they punctuated the sweet taste with little kisses, and Kurt decided Blaine was probably his favorite flavor of all.

The next morning, Blaine was curled up around Kurt, snuggled into his side to escape the cold. Kurt's apartment didn't have the best heating, but Blaine would choose waking up freezing with Kurt than waking up warm but alone at his own apartment any day.

Some people might find it weird that Blaine and Kurt slept together without sleeping together, but it worked for them. Ever since Kurt had gotten drunk and stayed the night at Blaine's, they had made crashing at each other's apartments a regular thing, and when they had gotten together, it was just a natural progression to sleep cuddled up next to each other.

And Blaine never slept better than when he was in Kurt's arms.

Blaine heard a knock at the front door, loud and insistent and he realized what had woken him up. "Kurt." He shook Kurt's arm and Kurt groaned. "Someone's at the door," Blaine said without opening his eyes.

Kurt buried his face in Blaine's neck. "Well, go see who it is," he mumbled.

"Your house," Blaine said, pulling the covers tighter.

"Mmm, too cold," Kurt said.

Blaine heard the knocking again, even louder this time. "Kurt," Blaine groaned.

"If you loved me you would go see who's at the door," Kurt said matter-of-factly.

Blaine peeked one eye open to look at Kurt. Seriously? They had been saying it for one day and Kurt was already using it against him?

Blaine sighed but crawled out of bed, swearing softly as his feet hit the icy floor. He always wore socks to bed when he slept over at Kurt's but every time he managed to kick them off in the middle of the night.

As he made his way quickly through the apartment he cursed Rachel and her noise cancelling ear plugs that helped her "maximize sleep time in order to be fully refreshed each morning."

He swung the door open, not really sure who to expect in the early morning on the day before Christmas. As such, he was definitely surprised to see Finn standing on the other side of the open door.

"Finn?" Blaine asked, rubbing his eyes blearily.

"Uh, hey, Blaine." Finn sounded just as surprised to see Blaine. His eyes were comically wide and his cheeks were starting to redden. It took Blaine a second to realize that Finn must think if Blaine was spending the night, then he and Kurt must be...

"Uh, come on in," Blaine said, shuffling his feet. "Rachel and Kurt are still asleep."

"Yeah, sorry to, um, wake you guys. My bus just got in, so I came straight here." Finn was having trouble meeting Blaine's eyes and honestly, Blaine thought that was best for their current situation.

Blaine ran a hand through his unruly morning hair, trying to give it some order. "Right, well...you can just..." Blaine gestured awkwardly to the living room, "and I'll go wake them up."

"Oh, you don't have to do that..." Finn trailed off.

"No, it's fine. They would want to know you're here anyway."

"Uh, okay then," Finn replied. He walked over to the couch and set his bag down somewhat stiffly.

Blaine high-tailed it back into Kurt's room, closing the door firmly behind him.

"Kurt, wake up," Blaine said insistently.

"Mmmm," Kurt moaned, rolling over and burying his face in his pillow.

"Kurt," Blaine said. When Kurt didn't respond, Blaine crawled in the bed with him, kissing the back of Kurt's neck. When Kurt still didn't stir, he stuck his cold feet against the exposed areas of Kurt's ankles at the bottom of his pajama pants.

Kurt hissed and jerked away, but Blaine pushed his feet further, keeping them on Kurt's warm skin.

Kurt gave up and just moaned pitifully, letting Blaine's icy toes stay on his ankles.

Blaine laughed. "Kurt, baby, you need to wake up."

"Why?" Kurt croaked.

"Finn is here," Blaine said in a loud whisper, "and I'm pretty sure he's like five seconds away from giving me the 'What are your intentions with my brother?' speech, so you need to get up and go talk to him."

Kurt sat up, looking confused. "Wait, what? Finn is here?"

"Yeah, in the living room. Right now."

Kurt groaned again, but slowly got up out of bed. Blaine followed him, watching jealously as Kurt's socked feet padded across his bedroom floor to the door.

"Hey, wait," Blaine said.

Kurt turned around and Blaine stood on his tiptoes to give Kurt a chaste kiss on the lips. "Good morning, my love," he said sweetly.

Pink tinged Kurt's cheeks as he smiled and replied, "Good morning."

Kurt turned and opened his bedroom door.

Blaine listened as Kurt greeted Finn with a hug and asked him what he was doing there, but instead of joining them Blaine cut across the apartment to Rachel's door, knocking once before entering. He knew she wouldn't hear him knock, anyway.

She was lying in her big bed, wearing one of those eye-masks covering her face.

"Rachel," Blaine sing-songed, "It's time to get uuuuup."

She didn't stir like Blaine knew she wouldn't, so he decided it was time for payback. He grabbed her comforter by the end and snatched it off her bed. Rachel yelped and curled in on herself in the fetal position.

She sat up, snatching her face mask off and pulling out her ear plugs. She glared at Blaine fiercely. "Blaine! What?"

"It's time to get up," he repeated with a big smile. "You have a visitor."

"Who?" she asked irritably.

"You'll have to come see." Rachel lunged for her comforter, but Blaine snatched it out of reach, setting it on her dresser. "Come on, Sleeping Beauty. It's Christmas."

Rachel flopped back on her pillow with a groan. "I hate you," she said as Blaine turned and exited her room.

"You love me," he said over his shoulder.

When Blaine got back in the living room, Finn was telling Kurt a story about something a boy named Puck had done. Blaine kept picturing the fairy from A Midsummer Night's Dream, though he vaguely remembered meeting someone with that name at Rachel's a few weeks ago. He thought it might have been a guy with a Mohawk.

"...ten minutes into the final, Puck bursts into the room with his guitar and some guys from the music department and starts playing 'Hot for Teacher' like we live in a freakin' music video or something."

"No!" Kurt exclaimed, his hand covering his mouth. "You're making that up. He did not. Surely even Puck knows better than to do something like that."

Blaine went and sat next to Kurt, listening to their conversation but not wanting to interject.

Finn shook his head, smiling. "I swear on my life."

"What happened?" Kurt asked, scandalized.

"When he finishes, the class breaks out into applause. People are clapping and cheering. Then, it's like this weird feeling goes across the room as we all remember we're takin' a test and what's she gonna do, you know? Everyone quiets down and I'm sitting here thinking, like, man, Puck's such an idiot. He's going to get himself expelled or something."

"So, what did the professor do?" Kurt asked, unable to contain his excitement.

"Here's the most unbelievable part. She's looking at Puck and she looks pissed and she says," - Finn straightened his back and cleared his throat to do his impression - "'Mr. Puckerman, this is an exam. I encourage you to leave your antics at the door and come get a copy of the test.'"

"No!" Kurt replied, delighted. "He didn't get in trouble at all?" Blaine smiled to himself. He was having more fun watching Kurt's reaction to the ridiculous story that actually hearing the story itself.

Finn shook his head. "She didn't even send him out. The other guys left, and Puck came and sat down and took his test like nothing had happened."

"I just can't believe that," Kurt said.

Just then, Rachel walked into the room. She made sure to glare at Blaine, before turning to see just who their visitor was. She stopped in her tracks and stared at Finn. "Finn? What are you doing here?"

"Merry Christmas to you, too, Rachel," Finn said with a shy smile, standing.

"No, I didn't mean that, I just meant...we weren't expecting you." Rachel came over and gave Finn a tentative hug. Well, it started off tentative, but then she melted into his arms with practiced ease like she was made to be there.

Blaine gave Kurt an inquisitive look, but Kurt just mouthed, "I'll tell you later."