Epilogue

"Well, kiddo, I think that's the last of it," Burt says, placing a box marked "Kitchen utensils" on the table.

"Thanks for all your help, dad. Blaine and I couldn't have done this without you and Finn helping us with the heavy lifting."

"Hey, what are brothers for?" Finn says, appearing at Burt's side as if on cue.

"Where did you guys want to go for dinner?" Blaine asks. "My treat."

"Oh look who's Mr. Moneybags now that he's got a job," Kurt teases, bumping Blaine's hip with his own.

"Hey, they helped us lug all our stuff up four flights of stairs during a heat wave. The least we can do is buy them dinner."

"Thanks, Blaine…that sounds great," Burt says. "But why don't you guys pick the place. You know the area better anyway, and Finn and I need to get to the hotel to pick up Carole and get cleaned up. Just pick some place I can wear jeans. I didn't bring anything nicer than that."

"They have restaurants where you can't wear jeans?" Finn asks wide-eyed.

Kurt rolls his eyes at his stepbrother. Somehow he should have known Finn wouldn't think to bring anything to wear out to dinner.

"You got it," Blaine says, patting Kurt on the arm and giving his boyfriend a knowing smile. "Any preference on cuisine?"

"Just something simple," Burt says. "None of that frou-frou, granola, tofurkey, hempseed gravy stuff, okay?"

"Dad…" Kurt begins.

"I'll eat healthy," Burt promises. "As long as they have stuff I can pronounce, we're good."

"And burgers," Finn says.

"And burgers," Blaine says. "I think we can manage."

When the door closes behind Burt and Finn, Kurt sighs and spins around to face Blaine.

"We're here! We really did it," he says, throwing his arms around his boyfriend.

It had only taken four long years and countless Skype dates, but they were finally together in the same city. Kurt had just wrapped up an internship with a small, up-and-coming design house that had just offered him a job as a junior designer. After leaving NYADA his sophomore year to attend Parsons for fashion design, Kurt had a lot of catching up to do, but quickly became a standout student once he hit his stride.

Blaine had just accepted a job teaching music at a private high school and they were moving into their new apartment with just a few weeks before the school year starts.

It had been a long road, filled with arguments, misunderstandings, breakups, makeups and lots of distance, but they made it.

Once when Kurt was stressing over leaving NYADA and he was frustrated because Blaine had refused to transfer to a school in New York to be closer to him, Sebastian reappeared. Impeccable timing as always. He was also attending Ohio State — for pre-law — and when he stopped to get coffee on a brisk October morning, he spotted a familiar head of curly hair toward the front of the line.

The two boys spent the afternoon catching up — mostly because Blaine was too polite to refuse. And when Finn reported spotting them together to his brother, Kurt confronted Blaine about it. They both said things they didn't really mean, out of anger, stress, hurt, and a lot of unfounded worry. And so they broke up, as couples will do when things get tough. But it didn't last. And Blaine never saw Sebastian again. Although, he did hear through the grapevine that Sebastian had gotten into Harvard Law.

Blaine steps out of the shower to find Kurt pulling out a jacket he designed while they were broken up that year and it reminds Blaine of how they got back together.

"Do you remember that Thanksgiving when we were broken up and we were both trying to make it home and you couldn't afford a plane ticket and I got stuck in Columbus because of the weather?" Blaine asks, grabbing a fresh pair of jeans and a t-shirt from an open box near the bed.

"Of course I do," Kurt says, smoothing out wrinkles on the jacket. "You know I considered stripping again to pay for that plane ticket?"

"You did not!" Blaine says, a playful grin on his face.

"I did," Kurt says. "I even called up a place and convinced them to let me take a couple slots on the weekends, but I chickened out at the last minute."

"Kurt..."

"I was so over the whole Sebastian thing and I just wanted to see you so badly, … I didn't want to wait another month to tell you in person that I missed you and wanted to get back together. But I had promised my dad I wouldn't do that ever again, so I just couldn't."

"You're amazing, you know that?"

"So you keep reminding me," Kurt replies, stepping across the room to take Blaine in his arms.

"It's true," Blaine says. "You know what else was amazing?"

Kurt nuzzles into Blaine's neck a little and makes a quiet sound that sounds something like "hmm?"

"The makeup phone sex we had instead."

Kurt blushes and playfully slaps Blaine's arm.

"Well it was," Blaine says, feigning offense.

"Yeah, it kind of was," Kurt concedes.

Blaine laughs and kisses Kurt gently. "You do realize we'll never be apart for another Thanksgiving again, right?"

"It's kind of a shame," Kurt teases. "We've gotten so much better at the phone sex since then."

"True," Blaine agrees, following Kurt's lead with the teasing. "But the good news is we have this entire apartment to christen...room by tiny room."

He leans in to capture Kurt's mouth in his own and gasps when he feels Kurt's tongue graze his own. Even after four years together, Blaine swears he can feel Kurt's kisses all the way in his toes, and the utterly indecent things Kurt can do with his tongue always send a jolt of heat directly to his groin.

Kurt is nothing if not perceptive, so when he senses that the kissing is leading to other, more time-consuming activities, he pulls away. "Come on, loverboy...we're going to be late."

Blaine gives an exaggerated sigh. "Fine, but when we get back here I'm ravishing you in at least three different places."

"Only three?"

"Hey, it's a start," Blaine says with a wink. "We've got a year lease."

"I like the sound of that," Kurt replies.

Blaine grins broadly and grabs Kurt's hand. He spends the entire walk to the restaurant singing under his breath. Kurt doesn't realize what song he's singing until later when Finn is recounting a story about his horrible roommate from junior year, drawing Burt and Carole's attention momentarily, and Blaine leans in to quietly sing into his boyfriend's ear.

"All these intrusions take us too long, and I want you so bad…"

Kurt isn't able to focus on the conversation for the rest of the meal because he can hear Blaine humming "When I Get You Alone" under his breath almost the entire time.

By the time they make it back to the apartment — after promising to meet Finn, Burt and Carole for brunch the next morning before they head back to Ohio — both men are prickling with desire. They barely make it through the front door before Blaine is yanking at Kurt's t-shirt, trying to tug it over his head. Kurt stumbles a little toeing off his shoes, but they finally manage to get each other naked, hands and mouths everywhere as if they might never get another chance.

Twenty minutes later, they're collapsing in a heap just feet from the entryway, giggling into each others' skin.

"You'd think we never did that before," Blaine says, breathing heavily and running his hand along Kurt's hip.

"Well not standing up in our own living room," Kurt teases, turning to look at Blaine. "So what's location number two?"

"Easy there, tiger," Blaine says. "Let me catch my breath first."

"Hey, you promised me three places."

"Oh, and I intend to keep my promise," Blaine says, rolling over on top of Kurt and nipping at his neck playfully.

They manage to have sex in three different places as Blaine promised — first, up against the front door, then somewhere on the living room floor, and finally over the kitchen table after Blaine had said he'd die if he didn't get a drink of water — before collapsing naked on their still unmade bed. Somehow Kurt can't bring himself to care that they haven't unpacked the sheets, so they spend the first night in their new place curled naked against each other on a bare mattress.

Kurt wakes the next morning to Blaine, kneeling beside him on the bed, holding a gigantic mug of coffee and grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"God, you're gorgeous," Kurt says. "Even with that dopey grin on your face." Blaine rolls his eyes playfully and hands Kurt the mug. Kurt takes a long drink of the coffee and sighs. "I could get used to waking up like this."

Blaine's hazel eyes go wide with affection and he gets that cartoonish, love-struck look about him. Kurt feels himself breaking into a dopey grin.

"I really hope you mean that, Kurt, because I've got something I've been wanting to ask you..."

He holds out a small box and Kurt's face lights up with the realization of what Blaine is asking. Before Blaine can get any words out, Kurt is exclaiming "Yes! Yes...oh my god, Blaine ...yes!" and throwing his arms around him, almost forgetting to set down the mug of coffee in the excitement and spilling a little on Blaine's knee.

Blaine just laughs warmly at his fiancé as he takes the mug and sets it on an unpacked box and says, "I haven't even asked the question yet."

"Oh sorry," Kurt says, realizing he's stolen Blaine's thunder. He steels his expression into the best approximation of serious he can make knowing Blaine's about to propose, and grips his boyfriend's hand. "You were saying..." he says.

"Kurt Hummel," Blaine begins. "Would you do me the exquisite honor of spending the rest of your life with me?"

Kurt's eyes are sparkling with the beginnings of happy tears as he cups Blaine's face in both of his hands and says, "Blaine Anderson, I can't think of anything I'd rather do with the rest of my life than spend it with you."

He kisses Blaine thoroughly and when he pulls back, they're both smiling so broadly they can barely see.

"Oh, but I get to design the suits for the wedding," Kurt says, suddenly serious.

"I wouldn't expect anything less than a Kurt Hummel original for my wedding day," Blaine says.

~fin~