Christmas came with a hurry this year and somehow it made Kurt really happy. There was a lot of Christmas shopping and decorating and laughter and even some kisses under the mistletoe.

“Oh, come on guys,” Mercedes said before a glee practice and willfully held one by Kurt’s and Blaine’s head. “Kiss already, it’s like a law.”

“It’s almost against the law for us to kiss around here,” Kurt snorted.

“Kurt, you’re in the choir room,” Mercedes stated with a low and serious tone because no one who cares about two kissing boys would ever walk in here.

“Ah, just come here,” Blaine huffed then and pulled Kurt to sweet kiss.

“You see?” Mercedes teased while her smile widened. “That’s how you do it.”

“How about you show us how to do it while I hold it by you and Sam?” Kurt couldn’t help but reply to that sarcastically.

Mercedes narrowed her eyes but didn’t say anything. She simply turned away from them to walk over to Tina and Mike.

“Well that’s a great Christmas spirit, Kurt,” Blaine muttered and put his arm around Kurt’s waist to slightly massage his boyfriend’s hipbone through the shirt with his thumb.

“Sorry,” Kurt sighed, resting against Blaine’s chest. “It’s just that Sam is always asking about her in home and it kills me to see her turning him down.”

“Kurt?”

“Hm?”

“I hate to break this to you but this is between them, not you. You can’t change her feelings about Sam..”

“Well, hello there, Mr. Christmas Spirit.”

“Kurt.” Blaine’s voice was warning.

“Yeah, I know,” Kurt gave up with a little peck onto Blaine’s cheek.

Kurt’s Christmas changed even busier during that week. New Directions were asked to create a holiday special for the local PBS station and Artie gave both Kurt and Blaine important parts for this. Kurt’s mind was doubtful about this but Artie had talked him into it.

“Kurt, you love performing, you’ll be fine. Trust me,” Artie had said and Kurt had simply smiled to that.

He did love performing but now, when he had passed the deadline for applying to NYADA, he had officially given up with his dreams. This was it, there was no way anymore..

But it was still his dream, a bright and beautiful dream that he sadly thought about before going to sleep at night. It hurt so much to think about it that he had wondered if he should back off from singing, to end it so it would be easier to just move on. But he couldn’t quit the New Directions – that was the only thing that kept him sane, the only place where he had friends and they needed his voice for competitions. And even though Blaine and Rachel had seemed to except Kurt’s choice with NYADA, he still wasn’t sure what they would think about him cutting off from singing entirely.

Rachel and Blaine really hit off after Sectionals. Kurt often saw them discussing something and Rachel started to use Blaine for duets since Finn didn’t bother to learn new songs for her. Kurt knew that he shouldn’t be suspicious because these two were perfect duet partners for each other and he grew closer to Rachel himself but he couldn’t help but feel a little weird about this.

“Wait a second,” Blaine mumbled to Artie just before their holiday special filming. “Are you seriously saying that we can’t introduce ourselves as.. boyfriends?!”

Artie’s looked tensed and sorry, Kurt understood. Although he and Artie had never really been close, he still knew him better than Blaine did.

“Yeah,” he breathed. “Look guys, I’m sorry but that’s just what the channel wants. Most of their audience is really narrow minded and they just ask you to.. keep it down a little.”

Blaine was about to argue again but Kurt interrupted.

“It’s okay, Artie,” he said and put his hand against Blaine’s chest to calm him a little. “We get it.”

Artie shot a final short smile and left.

“How can you be okay with this?!” Blaine almost hailed in whisper, trying not to draw too much attention.

“I’m not,” Kurt admitted. “I just handle it differently.” He winked to his boyfriend who just blinked back with confusion.

That’s how they came to an idea to change the script a little and play, make a few references to the plans that they didn’t really have but eventually came true anyway. In Kurt’s mind, Blaine had a little too much fun, but it was funny to see everybody’s reaction: Rory’s blank expression, Rachel’s embarrassment as she shot them an angry look after, Artie’s kind of frustrated but kind of proud countenance. In the end, nobody else really cared and maybe didn’t even notice the change in the script. That meant more laughing after and forgetting about the things that bought Kurt’s mood down.

“Hey, smile,” Blaine’s voice came out of nowhere, all cheerful and happy. “Winter break is almost hours away.”

“I know,” Kurt answered as they walked down the hall next to each other. His voice came out way to high. “And I feel good about the special and what we did at the shelter.. It’s just.. the holidays always make me a little melancholy.”

It was exactly a lie, but it wasn’t actually the only thing in Kurt’s mind.

“Really? So you’re still going to admit that it has nothing to do with Liz Taylor jewelry auction which ended midnight last night.”

Oh, right. That too..

“Well, I was outbid on everything anyway,” he sighed kind of sadly.

“Kurt, those things sold for, like, millions of dollars. I mean, how were you supposed to afford-“

“-The Edith Head ivory disc necklace?” It was a little scary to admit that to Blaine because he was right: it was kind of stupid.

“Aah, any of that..”

“Well, I still have Marc Jacobs clothes in my closet although..” Kurt looked around before continuing with lowered voice. “I don’t feel like wearing them but I always found a way to afford them.”

Kurt hadn’t really paid attention to his clothes since summer: his usual designer clothes were mostly replaced with simple shirt and jeans and even some vests. He still admired fashion and often looked through new collections when he was at mall with Mercedes or Tina but didn’t buy anything too expensive anymore.

“I know, it’s stupid,” he stated after a short pause. “It was auction porn. Just a fantasy but it was so hot.”

Blaine laughed a little to that, Kurt smiled too. With Blaine he couldn’t talk about his dreams yet but he could easy compare his not so little obsessions with porn.

“I think, that this year, we should be thankful for what have, not what we don’t have.” Blaine’s voice suddenly changed into lightly nervous, uncertain drabble as he guided Kurt away to the more quiet corner. “I know that this is only our first year together and we’ve been already moving too fast..” He dug in his bag and pulled out a small, adorable, red box to what Kurt’s heart beat raced immediately. “Just.. open the box.”

Kurt swallowed and opened it. His eyes flickered over the bow tie ring just for a second because he was still unsure what this meant.

“It’s a promise ring,” Blaine explained to Kurt’s confusion. “It’s nothing big but I just feel like I need to be a closest I get to you..”

Kurt just stood there smiled, feeling the overwhelming heat inside him rising as he had to hold back the tears. Blaine’s nervous look eased to that.

“Just something that I made out of gum-wrappers. Juicy Fruit..” he continued.

“My favorite Wringley’s. And..” Kurt looked at the ring closely again. “Is that a little bow-tie?” Blaine looked even more precious as he smiled wider and nodded proudly. “But.. what exactly are you promising?”

“To always love you,” Blaine answered with a soft voice. “To defend you even if I know you’re wrong. To surprise you. To always pick your call no matter what I’m doing. To bake you cookies at least twice a year and to kiss you whenever and where ever you want. But mostly to make sure that you always remember how perfectly imperfect you are. “If Kurt wasn’t blushing before, he was now. “And I know that life has been quite hard on you, but you’re still the strongest person I know and I admire that. A lot.”

Kurt let out a breath that he didn’t even know he was holding and looked at the ring again. It was about the small things: how Blaine knew his favorite gum and for the god’s sake he made a ring out of its wrapper.

“I know it’s not something that Elizabeth Taylor would have worn, but..” Blaine drabbled again but Kurt didn’t let him continue. He had done enough taking.

Kurt pulled him to a tight hug and rested his chin on Blaine’s shoulder.

“I love it. I love you,” he said quietly but loudly enough for Blaine to hear it. They stayed like that for a while and Kurt hided his face into other boy’s soft cardigan, forgetting everything else for a moment. “Merry Christmas, Blaine. It’s our first Christmas together.”

“First of many,” Blaine smiled as they pulled apart. Kurt had to bit the inside of his mouth not to grin like an idiot. This made him ridiculously happy.

They drove to Kurt’s house because this was the place where they both felt most comfortable with each other. After they had started with intimacy, they spent most of their free time at Blaine’s house because it was almost always empty, but for now they didn’t really care about that. It turned out that Kurt’s house was empty for at least couple of hours anyway and without a word they decided to use this time wisely.

“I, ah, have a present for you too, actually,” Kurt mumbled between the kisses when Blaine pushed him down to the bed.

“Can’t it wait?” Blaine asked and Kurt quickly agreed because this moment was perfectly too heated and desperate.

They always shared a desire but no matter how hot it felt, until this day, they had always kept it slow, patient and tender. This time it felt also tender and careful, but a little less patient and little more desperate. Kurt felt more vulnerable but he trusted Blaine. He knew, that for a long time Blaine would probably be the only person who he could trust like that and Kurt hoped that he would never feel the need to trust anybody else.