In any case, Blaine was, at the moment, sitting on one of the luxurious Dalton couches, knees drawn up to his chest, absently picking at the threads. In all Kurt's time knowing him, he had never looked so miserable.

Which, Kurt realized with a pang, was mostly his fault.

But instead of snapping at him, or nodding stiffly, or ignoring him altogether (which Kurt was pretty sure he would do in this situation), Blaine instead looked at him and gave him a depressing, soul-crushing little smile.

"Hey." Kurt walked over and eased himself onto the couch; far enough that he wasn't infringing on any personal bubbles, but close enough that he wasn't a complete alien. Blaine went back to picking at the couch, and Kurt fought the welling urge to scold him and say, "You'll ruin the couch, Wes will be pissed." That would probably kill the mood. If such a thing existed in this situation.

Kurt crossed his legs.

Blaine pulled a thread out of the couch. It fluttered to the ground.

There was a terrible, suffocating silence.

Finally, Kurt felt that if he let it go on for any longer, the room just might possibly explode, and that would piss Wes off more than anything.

"Look, Blaine, I'm, uh, really sorry. About what I said. At the coffee shop. About you. And Rachel." And now he was most definitely over-clarifying. Blaine didn't say anything. In fact, he didn't really move. Kurt was starting to doubt whether he heard or not.

Then, there was a small, broken answer, that was so incredibly unlike Blaine it ached.

"Yeah. It's just kinda, you know. Hard. First kiss and everything…" Blaine had gotten so quiet by the end that Kurt had to strain his ears to hear anything.

He briefly wondered if all friend-crush-best friend fights were so awkward.

"I know," Kurt murmured. The silence that followed was, if he thought about it a little bit, slightly less painful. "I really am sorry, you know." Their eyes met for real for the first time, and Kurt tried to make his smile slightly more genuine and slightly less heartbreaking than Blaine's was.

"Yeah." Kurt tried not to say anything, because he was pretty sure Blaine was trying to arrange what Kurt was sure were incredibly messy, jumbled, screwed-up thoughts.

Yep.

"I just, um. Don't know. Rachel's sweet, and…" Kurt tried not to snort. Really, he did. But it just slipped out. It was the worst possible time for something like that. But he honestly could not help himself.

"What?" Blaine's true smile was just starting to peek through.

"If you're saying that Rachel Berry is 'sweet,' you obviously haven't been dating her long enough." And there it was. That magic word. "Dating." He wondered if Blaine would take it as supportive, or jumping to conclusions, or what.

Apparently, he didn't take it as anything, because the smile slipped from his face and shattered on the floor before he went back to picking at the couch.

"You think I should?"

Now Blaine was asking his advice? Well. That was brand new, considering not a month ago, he was practically bawling his eyes out on Blaine's shoulder as Blaine gave him upbeat pep talks about 'courage.'

Practically. Crying on Blaine's shoulder was a little too close to fantasy.

His train of thought derailed, and he kind of forgot what Blaine was asking about.

"Should what?" Some friend.

"Y'know. Date her. Rachel."

Oh.

Kurt sighed, but then quickly said something so that Blaine wouldn't think he was being insensitive.

Hah. Too late for that, probably.

"Look, Blaine, I won't deny that you being interested in Rachel is a little, well…unexpected." Understatement of the century. But at least Blaine was looking at him now, and not at the fancy-ass Dalton couches.

They weren't that great anyways. "But if you really do want to date Rachel, well then…"

And here he was, going to maybe just possibly give up his one actual shot at love. For Rachel Berry.

He needed to re-examine his life. "…I will completely be behind you. And I'll be best man at your wedding, and I'll babysit your vaguely Eurasian-looking children if you want a night out with her."

Blaine's smile was definitely starting to show through then. His hand twitched out to touch Blaine's shoulder, before he realized that no, you probably shouldn't do that, outta line, Kurt.

"Thanks, Kurt. That, uh, means a lot. Thanks."

And then Kurt decided, you know what, screw it. He stood up and faced the couch.

He held out his arms.

Blaine's expression switched from gently amused to baffled.

"C'mere." This was probably the worst mistake of his life. He was probably going to make Blaine feel worse. More confused.

But shouldn't he get something out of this?

"Huh?" And it was getting really, really hard not to just kiss him right there, because come on. That confused expression couldn't be described as anything but adorable.

But kissing him. Again, way outta line, Kurt.

"Come on. The opportunity for a Kurt Hummel hug doesn't arise often, you know." And if things worked out between Blaine and Rachel, well then. The opportunity for a Kurt Hummel hug would be pretty much non-existent.

Most likely for both of them.

There was a painfully awkward silence in which Kurt's arms began to tire slightly and he was thinking that he looked really, really stupid.

But then Blaine's face broke into a grin.

And Kurt was grinning back so much that he didn't even notice the slight wetness in Blaine's eyes.

Blaine stood up and stepped forward.

He wrapped his arms around Kurt's waist.

Kurt did likewise.

It was, at first, stiff and awkward. Their feet were much too far apart, and Blaine's hands were kinda strangely placed halfway between Kurt's hips and his lower back.

Eventually, though, they both relaxed. Kurt shuffled forward a little and Blaine settled his hands more comfortably around Kurt's waist. He tucked his head into the crook of Kurt's neck.

And Kurt was pretty sure that it felt just a little damp.

They broke apart, and it was awkward again, because Blaine's hands were sort of lingering on Kurt's hips and Kurt had pulled his hands up to his chest and was twisting them together.

And those were definitely tears brimming in Blaine's eyes, even though he was smiling, and Kurt fought back the desperate urge to brush them away.

"Thanks." Blaine's voice cracked. Kurt pretended not to notice, and instead turned towards the door and cocked his head backwards.

"Come on. Let's go to practice." Blaine nodded in agreement, furiously wiping his eyes when he was sure Kurt's back was turned.

Again, Kurt pretended not to notice.