It was over two weeks before they moved from constant blushing and silly smiles and clumsy kisses to actually talking about their relationship. For the first few days that they were together as more than friends, Kurt was altogether less verbal than usual, literally unable to reply to the sweet things Blaine said to him half the time, but at least able to communicate in little smiles and through lowered lashes.

"See? You don't need to have sex to be sexy," Blaine had said in response to one of Kurt's particularly coquettish looks, and Kurt felt his cheeks burn and thought he was going to die.

Because of this, Kurt thought it made sense to be the one to actually start the conversation they needed to have. Because Blaine had been putting himself out there a whole lot more than Kurt that past couple of weeks, and even though Blaine didn't seem to mind, Kurt didn't want this to turn into some sort of faux-1950s heteroesque relationship where Blaine was the big strong man and Kurt was the blushing little twink on his arm.

So Kurt rallied his courage. Because as much as he was enjoying watching Blaine want him and hearing him say so, this phase they were in was nothing more than a holding pattern, and Kurt knew that it was high time he stop basking in the constant validation and start showing himself to be an equal participant in this relationship. And he could start by figuring out exactly what the hell they were doing.

Well, right now they were kissing. They were at Kurt's house, on his bed but sitting up, hands strictly above the waist by mutual nonverbal agreement. Both of them were starting to moan a little bit, and mouths intermittently traveled down necks and across throats, their ties were already off, the collars of their dress shirts unbuttoned, and Kurt knew that if they kept going, even more buttons were going to come unbuttoned, and he wasn't willing to do that until he knew for sure.

Mustering an inhuman level of willpower, Kurt pushed Blaine away. Blaine knitted his eyebrows, looking both displeased and confused by this turn of events. Kurt forced himself to speak quickly, before Blaine had a chance to open his mouth.

"Blaine, what are we?"

"Um...what do you mean?"

"Oh come on, you must know what I mean."

"Well, I don't know, we're Ku-"

"If you say 'we're Kurt and Blaine' I'm going to scream. I like labels, Blaine. Labels are good. Labels eradicate confusion and shine the light of knowledge upon the huddled masses. Am I your boyfriend or not?"

Blaine just looked at Kurt for a moment, and then he burst out laughing. Not exactly the reaction Kurt had been looking for. He felt his walls start to go up, felt himself start to grope around internally for something really deliciously mean to say, but then Blaine seemed to actually catch on to what was about to happen, and he immediately stopped laughing and stared squarely into Kurt's eyes.

"Kurt, of course you are. What else would you possibly be?" For good measure, he followed the question with a radiant smile.

Kurt let out a sigh of relief as he returned Blaine's smile.

"Well, we never really talked about it before now. I just wanted to make sure we were actually in some sort of monogamous relationship before I let things go any further. How was I supposed to know how many boys you might have stashed on the side?"

Blaine laughed softly and moved toward Kurt again, and Kurt closed the distance between them with a kiss. It was only seconds before Blaine pulled back and gave Kurt a serious look.

"Um, wait...uh, what was that about letting things go further if we're in a monogamous relationship? Because, you know, we definitely are."

Now it was Kurt's turn to laugh.

"Blaine, you-" Kurt stopped in mid-sentence when his eyes met Blaine's. My god, was that lust? Kurt felt himself blushing, but was unable to rip his eyes away.

"Blaine, you're kind of making me nervous," he whispered.

"Sorry," Blaine said, quickly averting his eyes from Kurt's. "I just...I'm sorry. I don't want you to think I just want to have sex with you right away. I mean, well, actually I do. Want to, I mean, like on a physical level, because I'm really, um, I'm really attracted to you, Kurt, but I don't actually think it would be a good idea to jump into anything like that so soon, because I really don't know what I'm doing and I want us both to be comfortable, and we've only been together for a couple of weeks, and you're still my best friend, and I-"

"Blaine." Kurt lay his hand on top of Blaine's gently, and Blaine looked up and met Kurt's eyes. Kurt had never seen him so flustered. Kurt was still struggling to accept that Blaine really did want him, but he forced himself to humor Blaine and accept his words as true for the time being, because they really did quite clearly need to have this conversation.

"Blaine, I'm really attracted to you too. Well, obviously, look at you. And I do want to go slow, I'm definitely not ready to have sex yet. But I also know that when I am ready...I'm going to want it to be with you."

Blaine flashed him a smile so brilliant that Kurt felt like he could probably live off of it for years without food or water or possibly even air.

"But, Um, I..." Kurt continued nervously, "When I say I want to go slow..." he felt himself start to blush again, felt the mischief behind his own smile, "I don't mean I want to go at a snail's pace."

"Me neither," replied Blaine so quickly that they both laughed.

They took a moment just to gaze at one another shyly, half-fighting impish grins.

"So, tonight..." Blaine trailed off, raising his eyebrows in question at Kurt. And despite his desire not to mirror some obnoxious stereotype just because Kurt was the more demonstrably feminine of the two, Kurt knew the ball was in his court on this one. It wasn't that Kurt didn't have a healthy sex drive, sex just clearly made him more nervous than it made Blaine. Sooner or later, he'd have to ask Blaine exactly how much experience - if any - he had in this arena. But for now, he chose blissful ignorance of that particular topic. He didn't want to distract himself with the sort of insane retroactive jealousy that he knew he was capable of.

Right now, Blaine was asking him how far he wanted to go. And Kurt was going to have to think about that for a minute.

He let his eyes trail across Blaine's body. God damn, the boy was gorgeous. And sexy. A very deep, quiet part of Kurt was suddenly starting to speak up. And that part wanted to throw Blaine down on the bed and strip him bare and fuck him until they both passed out. Kurt felt his breath catch in his throat as he thought of it. He also felt a distinct stiffening between his legs, and he didn't even try to fight it. He was trying to figure this out.

Whenever he had thought about Blaine while masturbating – which had been a fair amount – they were making love, and it was sweet and slow. But the reality...Kurt felt like he was devouring the delicious boy before him with his eyes, and he suddenly realized that he and Blaine were going to do everything together, and slow and sweet wasn't the half of it. All he had to figure out right now was where he wanted to start.

"Um, Kurt? Now you're kind of making me nervous."

"Oh, uh, I'm sorry, Blaine. I was just thinking."

"Clearly." Blaine shot a rather lingering glance at the bulge in Kurt's pants.

Kurt smirked and swatted lightly at Blaine's arm. He blushed, but only a little.

"I think it might be best to keep it above the waist for now, Blaine, because I'm frankly worried about our self control."

"Smart thinking. Especially impressive given the fact that you can't have more than a tablespoon of blood actually in your brain right now."

"Fuck you, Anderson."

Blaine gasped dramatically.

"Kurt Hummel, you have a filthy mouth."

"Well, I do have an idea for what we can do tonight, but it seems to me that you'd rather not hear it."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Your brain runneth over with blood. Now what's your idea?"

"No way. You'd rather make fun of me than..."

Blain abruptly tackled Kurt, who pushed Blaine off of him and onto his back. Blaine gripped Kurt around the waist with his legs, struggling to flip him over and pin his arms.

"Out with it, Hummel!" Blaine demanded breathlessly, as they giggled and wrestled and tumbled across the bed. Before long, Kurt had Blaine pinned, and the second their eyes locked Kurt's mouth was on his, and the kiss was hot and urgent and hungry and there was lots of tongue and by the time they were finished Blaine was in no position to make any comments on how little blood Kurt had in his brain.

Kurt came up for air panting, released Blaine's arms and rolled onto his back so he could cool off. For a few moments the only sound in the room was their intermingled ragged breathing, and finally Kurt swallowed and said, in a husky voice that didn't do anything to calm Blaine's straining erection, "I think you should take your shirt off."

Blaine swung onto his side facing Kurt, propping his head on his elbow. "Oh? Was that your big secret idea? Lose our shirts? I like it."

Kurt turned onto his side as well, his position mirroring Blaine's.

"Well, no. I mean, yes. You should take yours off."

Blaine narrowed his eyes and pulled playfully at Kurt's collar.

"I think not, Kurt. I have no interest in playing shirts and skins with you." Blaine wiggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively. "Unless you're skins, that is."

Kurt blushed. Again. He wondered if Blaine would ever stop making him blush.

"I just...I mean, I don't think...you're just so sexy, Blaine. And I...I know you like me, and you think I'm cute and everything, but..."

"I don't just think you're cute, Kurt." Blaine was looking at him very seriously. "I want to be clear here, because you just don't seem to get it. I want you. I really, really want you. I think about you naked. I fantasize about you, Kurt. Is this getting through? Do you hear what I'm saying? You're hot. You're smoking hot. I want to have sex with you. And I do want to wait because I love you and I want it to be special, but I'd...I'd really like to see you. And I don't want you to think that I won't like what I see, because that's impossible."

Kurt was staring at him, wide-eyed.

"Oh, wow, Blaine, I...did you...did you mean to..."

"I meant every word."

"But did you mean to say that you..." Kurt lowered his voice to a barely audible whisper. "Did you mean to say that you love me?"

Blaine froze, looking like a deer in headlights.