After Kurt opened up the café at 7 sharp, as always, he sat down at a table with Blaine, who had tagged along with him. They each drank a cup of coffee and Kurt made Blaine eat a hot meal of eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, and two slices of toast. They shared a scone after that, though Blaine insisted that he was full, leaving Kurt to eat most of it.

"I don't want to go," Blaine whispered, looking down at his coffee. "I'm not ready to...I don't want t leave you. We just met and I already feel so...I don't want to risk not seeing you again."

"Don't say that," Kurt replied sharply, looking hard at Blaine. "You're going to come back, okay? You're going to be fine. I'll be here when you get back. I'll wait."

Blaine sighed and nodded, looking over at the clock. "We should go out and wait for the bus now," he said quietly. Kurt nodded and stood up, telling Blaine that he'd take care of the dishes when he got back. No one ever came in this early, and if they did, Carole was in the back.

They walked to the bus stop hand in hand, and when they got there it was crowded with people. Not just soldiers, but their family and their loved ones. It wasn't long before the bus was pulling around the corner, and everyone was told they'd have a few final minutes to say goodbye. Kurt turned to Blaine, ready to say something, but it was washed from his mind when Blaine threw his arms around Kurt's neck and kisses him hard on the lips. It was quick and when they parted they were both blushing and looking around to see if anyone saw, and Kurt cleared his throat. Untying the thin scarf he had around his neck, he said, "I want you to have this. Think of me, even when you're not writing me a letter."

Blaine's eyes shone with tears and he nodded as he took it. "I wouldn't dare think of anyone else." He looked over to see soldiers starting to board the bus. "I think...I think it's my time to go."

Kurt sniffed and nodded, giving Blaine one last hard hug. "I'll wait for you, Blaine Anderson. Don't let them rough you up too badly over there, okay?" He laughed half-heartedly as a tear rolled down his cheek. Blaine smiled sadly and squeezed Kurt's hand, starting to walk away. "This isn't goodbye. I won't let it be."

"I'll...I'll see you, Kurt. So long."

He boarded the bus quickly, choosing a seat close to the front so he'd be close to where Kurt was still standing on the sidewalk. The engine roared to life and with one last wave and a pathetic excuse for a smile, Blaine was gone. Kurt wrapped his arms around himself and willed himself not to cry. If he could be strong, maybe Blaine could too.

A month and a half passed before Kurt got his first letter, and at that point Kurt had almost convinced himself that he had made everything with Blaine up in his head. When he came home from work on a blistering hot summer day in early July and found an envelope with an address from a training camp in California, Kurt's day immediately perked up. He ran to his room and shut the door before flopping down on his bed and tearing at the envelope. When he opened it to see the scratchy writing of who he assumed was Blaine, as well as a picture of he and a blond man with rosy cheeks, the grin that washed over his face was almost painful in the best ways.

Dearest Kurt,

I'm so sorry it took me so long to write to you! We've been incredibly busy over here. I got here three weeks ago and they immediately put us all to work. My hair is a lot shorter than the last time you saw it. There's a guy here named Sam that I...I really think we could become close friends. While all the other guys made fun of me for keeping the scarf you gave me in my pocket all the time, he thinks it's sweet. He has a girl named Rachel at home, and she gave him her locket. The thing is, Kurt, I told him that you're a boy. He didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, he hugged me and thanked me for trusting him. I never really knew people could be like that!

How have things been in Ohio? Everything okay at the café? I miss it. I know I haven't been gone that long, and I'll be gone for a lot longer, but I really do miss it.

In two weeks we'll be shipping out to Vietnam, and I'm...I'm really scared. I've never seen things as terrifying as war, and that was only on the television.

They're calling for us now, so I think I should wrap this up. Write me back, okay?

Yours,
Blaine Anderson

P.S. Enclosed is a picture of Sam and me in the mess hall. The guys at camp gave us each a camera with a few shots worth of film so we could send pictures in letters. Wasn't that nice?

Kurt beamed at the letter before folding it up and putting it back in the envelope. He grabbed the picture and moved to stick it on his corkboard, sighing happily at the smile on Blaine's face in the picture. It's true, his hair was shorter. The curls were still there, but they weren't as shaggy as they used to be. He looked cleaner cut, more professional in a way that only the army could ensure. After grabbing a piece of stationary, a fresh envelope, and his favorite pen, Kurt sat back down on his bed and began writing back. He wrote about how he wished Blaine had been able to see the look on the woman's face when Kurt had to tell her they were out of the coffee cake, and how doing dishes just hasn't been the same without Blaine there. He wrote about how he thinks Sam looks like a cool guy, and how Blaine is really lucky to have found a friend in him. He closes the letter with saying how much he misses Blaine, and signs it "sincerely," because even though Blaine signed "yours," he's still confused as to what he and Blaine are, and "sincerely" seemed safe. He snagged a photo off of his wall of him and his step-brother, Finn, and tucked inside the envelope along with his letter. After scribbling addresses and slapping a stamp on it, he clipped it on the outside of his mailbox. Kurt smiled to himself, knowing that this was shaping up to be a wonderful summer, after all.

The next letter came within a week, and Kurt was both very surprised and very pleased. It was shorter than the last one, a quick explanation that Blaine wouldn't be able to write for a while because of the move. The next time he mailed Kurt, there would probably be a few letters written on the boat, whenever Blaine could write in the process off the move. More "I miss you"s were exchanged, this time with an "I don't think I'll ever forget how beautiful you are, but I'll keep your picture with me all the time just in case." Kurt was told not to write back now, but when he got the next set of letters. There was another picture included, this time just Blaine on camera. It was taken in front of a sunset he could only assume was on the infamous California beaches. He was beautiful, with the sun glinting off of his dark hair and his smile shining brighter than the sun ever would.

Kurt smiled to himself and pinned the picture up on his board right next to the other one.

Summer carried on.

Letters came and went; conversations carried on and dropped when new ones were picked up. Kurt's corkboard became filled with pictures of Blaine and all of the friends he had made. Puck, a tough looking guy with a gold cross ever-hanging from his neck, also knew about Kurt. He was a bit more nervous around Blaine, but he was generally one of his best friends along with Sam. Kurt ended up buying rolls on rolls of film to take pictures of him, pictures of the café, pictures of everything, especially the pier they sat on the day they met.

In August, right before school was to start, Kurt received a letter that he will remember to this day.

My Dear, Sweet Kurt,

I have a confession to make. After all of this time, writing letters and sending pictures along with them and sharing all of these things about me that I didn't even know until I wrote them down, I just...I think I'm falling in love with you, Kurt Hummel, and you have no idea how much that terrifies me. I'm not there with you. I can't see your face right now; I can't see your reaction. All I know is that whenever things get rough or a little scary, I just think about the day we sat on the pier, and what it was to feel so open with another person that I barely knew. I think about what it was like kissing you that night, and how much I loved the feeling of your lips on mine. I hold your scarf and pretend that I can remember how you smell or what your laugh sounds like.

So why am I scared? Oh, Kurt, the answer is right in front of you, right where I'm not. I've fallen in love with you with no guarantee that I'll make it back. I've fallen in love with you with no guarantee that you even love me back. There are so many other people, Kurt. So many other people out there for you that I understand if you don't love me back. Hell, you were asked to dinner by a guy last week. Sure, you turned him down, but what if you hadn't? What if there turns out to be someone else? I'm scared because I'm realizing that I'm in love at one of the scariest moments in my life, and now this only makes it scarier.

I don't really know what to do. I guess I just wait for you to write me back? If you write me back, that is. I understand if you don't want to anymore. I would really like you to write me back, but that's hardly the point anymore.

I guess...We'll see what happens.

Yours,
Blaine

When Kurt finished the letter he immediately folded it up, wiped a tear from his eye, and grabbed a piece of paper from the bin. After grabbing a pen, he sat down on his bed and began writing the shortest letter he's ever written to Blaine.

Blaine,

I love you, too. I'm just as scared.

I'll wait for you. You will come back. You're not allowed to not come back, okay? Someone who is in love with you said so, and so it shall be.

Yours (Yours yours yours),
Kurt

Kurt's head was spinning. Things like this just didn't happen to him. He was perfectly content with harboring his love for Blaine, assuming that Blaine just needed a friend and that the kiss was just to fill some little bit of loneliness he had. Yes, they'd grown really close, but never in a million years did Kurt think that Blaine would have fallen in love with him. With one last look at the letter, he sealed it and put it in his mailbox for the mailman to get the next time the route ran. His heart swelled the tiniest bit and he smiled to himself. Blaine is in love with me, he thought.

Little did he know that his life was about to completely change forever.