Chapter Thirteen

"I'd like to talk, actually."

Kurt himself was surprised when he spoke. He shifted slightly uncomfortably under everyone's gaze. He took a deep breath, slipping to the edge of his seat.

"I know I've said very little over the several long months I've been here," he said. "This will probably be the first time one or two of you have heard me say anything, and it'll be the last." Kurt paused, licking his lips. He pulled out a manilla envelope from his bag. "This past week, my sister-in-law was in New York. She's still in between her husband here and her job there. She... she gave me this.

"This envelope has news clippings and papers and documents all about Alex," he told them. "Every article she found about the trial... At first I didn't even want to look at the headlines, reading 'hate crime' in big letters. It felt like a wound and they were just pouring on the salt.

"But I convinced myself to read them. I knew I had to."

"And?" a woman of about his age prompted, looking at him kindly. He smiled in response.

"I'm glad that I did," he admitted. "I needed to know what had happened, especially to the people that did this." He paused, glancing around the circle. "Convicted of manslaughter with irrefutable evidence. I was terrified that wouldn't be the case. And even though it still hurts and it can't ever bring him back, it's still this amazing sense of... closure. And after fifteen months, that's so much more than I could ask for." He offered a smile. "I feel like I can honestly just... move forward from this point."

"Thanks again for your help," Kurt panted, placing one of the boxes on the floor. "The shop's short-staffed today so Dad and Finn can't leave. Rachel offered her help, but... dear god, I was afraid for what that would be like."

Blaine chuckled, setting another box beside Kurt. "Not a problem," he assured the other man. He smiled, glancing around the room. "You know, I really like this place."

"You're acting as though you don't already know that I have fabulous taste," he quipped, and Blaine grinned.

"Well, I'm glad you found some place that satisfies that taste," he amended. "Now, let me just grab the last box before we start moving things around." With another grin, he left the room.

Kurt smiled as he gazed around at his surroundings. A few pieces of furniture had been moved in already, just a sofa and an armchair in the living room beside the fireplace, and a table with matching chairs in the dining room. There wasn't a bed yet, and he hadn't managed to get the heating and electricity to work yet, but it was perfect. It was going to be home.

Kurt froze, the abrasive sound of ringing jarring him from his thoughts. He glanced around him, spotting Blaine's phone sitting on top of one of the boxes. He picked it up, staring at the name on the screen.

Blinking, he set the phone back down and crossed the room, folding his arms across his chest. He closed his eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath.

"Hey, I—Kurt?"

Kurt didn't turn at the sound of his voice, and he frowned slightly, unsure if he'd done something wrong, and it made him feel uneasy. "You missed a call," Kurt told him in a small voice.

Furrowing his brow, Blaine picked up his cellphone. And then he understood, upon seeing the name of the person who had tried to contact him: Christian.

"Kurt, it's nothing," Blaine breathed out.

"He's your ex-fiancé," Kurt responded, turning to the other man with a forced smile. "It isn't nothing."

"It's nothing because I'm making it that way," Blaine told him firmly.

Kurt looked at Blaine uncertainly. "You don't have to," he said, sinking onto the couch. "It would be completely understandable if you wanted to be with him. It's your life. If he makes you happy..."

"He doesn't," Blaine assured him, leaning beside him on the arm of the sofa. "He's been calling me for the past week, and I don't want any of it. I don't want him to be a part of my life any more." He paused, looking at the other man intently. He raised his hand, cupping Kurt's cheek, and Kurt leaned into the touch. "I thought I'd made it very clear what I want, Kurt."

Kurt licked his lips. "Perhaps I need a reminder."

Blaine nodded at the words. He wasn't sure what he was thinking any more as his eyes flickered across Kurt's face. He wasn't sure it mattered.

He leaned down, pressing a gentle kiss to Kurt's lips.

"Wait," the brunette murmured, pulling away and for a horrifying moment, Blaine's heart seemed to completely stop as he stared blankly at the other man.

Kurt, however, leaned back slightly, placing a hand on Blaine's elbow and tugging him toward him. He smiled, understanding Kurt's intentions. He slid off the arm of the sofa, quickly capturing Kurt's mouth with his once again, before he even had the chance to fall back against the couch's other arm. Blaine felt the corners of Kurt's lips twitch, as though to smile.

This, this, this, Blaine desperately thought, this was perfection. No desperate neediness, no pain of loss trying to be pushed and hidden away... nothing but them, only them. There was something so wonderful about it all, soft and gentle and slow. Just wonderful.

And part of Blaine missed this so badly over the past ten years. And he was sure that he wouldn't change things, because he and Kurt both needed to grow and learn and love differently before they could reach a point where they could truly be forever.

Forever, forever, forever. God, maybe it was childish for the thought to come so quickly, but Blaine just wanted this to last forever, for them to last forever...

He didn't even know how much time had passed as they lay there, kissing and holding and nuzzling and humming and just laying. He was fairly certain he didn't care, and he definitely didn't want to ask. But suddenly the house was lit only by the streetlamps outside filtering through the windows

"It's late." Kurt had been the one to say it, quietly, as though speaking any louder into the silence would shatter everything that had come to being.

"I... I don't have to go," Blaine told him softly, breathlessly, and he couldn't help but feel like he was seventeen again, when questions like this were never asked because it wasn't in their prewritten terms. "Ella's over at Katie's house, and since Aiden's at your parents'..." He licked his lips, and all Kurt could think was how desperately he wanted to kiss them again. "If you want—"

"Yes," he said immediately. "Please, yes, I want you to stay."

Blaine nodded, sweeping in to kiss him once again, despite their lips being red and swollen, and it really was like being seventeen again, but it was so, so different in ways that Blaine didn't mind in the least. "Then I'll stay," he said, his breath hot against Kurt's neck, and the brunette shivered slightly at the sensation. "I'll stay for as long as you'll have me."