The rest of the day, everything was how it was before. Only better. There was an understanding between them now. Neither of them was in a hurry to have sex, to rush it and make it anything less than perfect. They had time, and they had each other. So they both relaxed. They kept laughing and making fun of each other, and when they thought nobody was looking they would exchange subtle ‘I Love You’ glances. Of course, everyone was looking. Finn had heard Kurt explain all of his problems to Burt, and he’d told Rachel, and Rachel had told everyone. They all sat together at lunch, Puck constantly mentioning sausages and Santana muttering about how sickening they were, but as far as they were conerned, they were the only two people in the building.

But Blaine still never explained why he’d brought his guitar, and Kurt was too busy being smitten to ask.

When 3:30 rolled around, Kurt went and sat at the back of the choir room as always, but was surprised when Blaine didn’t appear next to him. Instead, he was whispering to Mr Schuester, guitar in hand. Schu nodded to him, smiled at Kurt, and sat down with the rest of the kids. Kurt tensed slightly. Everyone was grinning at him, and then looking back to Blaine, as he sat on a stool. Brittany was biting her lip and smiling, her fingers playing with Santana’s absent-mindedly. Artie and Puckerman were practically sniggering. Kurt was pretty sure they loved Blaine almost as much as he did. But not quite. He focused on his boyfriend, ready to perform in front of these people he didn’t even know all that well. Alone. Kurt felt his heart beating faster, swelling inside his chest.

“Kurt. I know you’ve forgiven me for last week. I just wanted to… To thank you.” He didn’t need any more words. He just started playing. For the first few chords, Blaine stared at the guitar. He didn’t have to, the song was one of his favourites, but it was so personal he didn’t think he could do it if he could see all those pairs of eyes looking back at him. Not to mention, if he looked at Kurt’s eyes he’s just melt, and that wouldn’t make for a very professional performance.

‘You had a fast car; I wanna take it to anywhere,

Maybe we make a deal, maybe together we can get somewhere,

Any place is better, startin’ from zero got nothin’ to lose,

Maybe we’ll make somethin’, me myself I got nothin’ to prove’

Kurt loved this song. His mind was all over the place, but mostly between two thoughts: How well this song suited Blaine’s voice, and how beautiful this moment was. A beautiful, kind man was singing to him, trying to get forgiveness which he already had, just to prove that he loved him.

‘You got a fast car, is it fast enough so we can fly away?

We gotta make a decision; leave tonight or live and die this way’

Blaine managed to look up at Kurt. He was obviously unsure of what to do with himself. One minute he’d trapped his hands between his legs and the next, he was twisting his scarf in between his fingers in one hand, and slowly rubbing his thigh with the other. The rest of the club weren’t grinning any more. A couple had closed their eyes, and others were silently tapping their feet and nodding their heads ever so slightly.

Part of Kurt felt like he should have been embarrassed. Like every now and then he should give someone else a glance, to show some kind of self-awareness. But he didn’t have any. Like the rest of the group, he couldn’t take his eyes off Blaine. He didn’t even wipe the tears from his cheeks. He just tried to hold onto himself, his leg, his neck, in case he let go and shattered on the spot.

‘So I remember when we were driving, driving in your car,

Speed so fast it felt like I was drunk,

The city lights lay out before us,

And your arm felt nice wrapped round my shoulder,

And I, I, had a feeling that I belonged,

I, I, had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone’

Those last three lines, Kurt and Blaine’s eyes locked. He repeated the chorus, and Kurt could barely breathe. Blaine looked so vulnerable yet so strong sitting there. He was small and alone, but the passion he put into playing and singing, and the expression of love on his face, and the lines in his brow as he put so much emotion into the song… They all strengthened him. Elevated him. He became so much more than the boy who was scared of what his father thought. He transformed into the man who would do anything, be as strong as he needed to be, for his boyfriend.

The song came to an end. There was a pause as he looked up at the other members of the club to see if he had their approval. In that moment of silence he thought he’d overstepped, but it didn’t last long. Puck stood up first, clapping to cover up the sound of his sniffing and sharp intakes of breath. The others soon joined in, and now it was Blaine’s turn to wonder where to put his hands. He got up and stood the guitar next to him, gripping onto the neck with both hands so he could pretend to be confident and sure of himself. He didn’t fool Kurt though, who jumped down from his seat and pulled Blaine into a hug. Finn grabbed the guitar to stop Blaine fumbling with it, so he could hug Kurt back.

Kurt had one hand on the small of Blaine’s back, pulling him close, and the other hand in his hair. Not just stroking it this time. In it. And for the second time that day, as he felt his boyfriend’s arms wrapped tightly around his waist, he clung to Blaine’s hair as he kissed him. He managed to restrain himself, because there were PDAs and then there was just being Finn and Rachel, and he and Blaine were better than that. He stood back, his arms still on Blaine’s shoulders, but they were quickly separated by the rest of the club, elbowing their way in to congratulate him and hug him, the girls giggling and the boys trying (and failing) not to cry. Rachel was talking so quickly and clapping and jumping, it made Blaine dizzy. Despite the many friendly punches (which hurt him more than they were supposed to) and girly cuddles, he kept looking over his shoulder at Kurt. It was fine that they had been pulled apart for now. Because they would always be pushed back together again.