There were waiters walking around holding drinks and other small snacks. Most people stood with friends or colleagues, talking in excited or hushed tones. He couldn’t spot a Hummel in sight, but they were there somewhere. More importantly he had no idea where Nick was.

As he walked farther into the party he began to be noticed and greeted. He shook hands, hugged a few people, and exchanged pleasantries as he continued to move forward. He wasn’t sure if he was looking more for Nick or for Carole or Burt.

“Hey, man, happy birthday!”

An arm was thrown around his shoulders unexpectedly and Blaine stumbled before catching himself and then he began to laugh.

“Wes!” he cried and then pulled the other man into a hug. “I can’t believe you’re here – oh, god, we haven’t talked in years…wow, man, I didn’t even think…”

Wes laughed and let Blaine go, but draping his arm around Blaine’s shoulder’s again. “Kurt called some of us Warblers a few days ago and asked if we could make it. We’ve kept in touch, you know, and David and I were just telling him about how we were thinking of moving back to New York and he asked us to come.”

Blaine couldn’t believe it. Wes had probably been his best friend aside from Kurt at Dalton and then later at NYU. With all the drama after Kurt broke up with him, Blaine had drifted apart – they had been drifting apart even before then and Blaine knew it was in part his fault and his lack of effort. They hadn’t talked in years except for the holiday greeting card and the “happy birthday” message dropped in each other’s facebook walls. He’d missed Wes. And of course Kurt had kept in contact with him.

“Who else is here?” Blaine asked.

“David. He was dragged away by Trent though – did you know he’s a doctor now? Neurosurgeon.”

They talked for a while longer, trying to catch up. Wes, asking about Nick and then Kurt both times looking as if he knew something Blaine didn’t. Wes had always been like that. Back in high school it had irritated Blaine to no end. But conversation came to an end when Blaine spotted Kurt.

It had been almost two months since the last time he properly set eyes on Kurt. Two months spent trying to win back Nick and then go through therapy to salvage what they had and seeing Kurt was almost enough to break all of that work.

“I see nothing’s changed,” Wes muttered.

Kurt was busy talking to Rachel and Lucy the girl that Finn had hit almost a week before. Blaine noticed at once that Rachel was looking at Lucy as if she wanted to beat her over the head with the heaviest object she could find. Kurt however was talking to her animatedly, hands gesturing and eyes gleaming. He was beautiful, more beautiful than the man he’d been trying not to picture in his mind.

“Oh, for god’s sake, just go talk to him,” Wes said and nudged him.

Blaine shook his head. “Not the best idea, I think. But I should go find Nick.”

“I heard what happened,” Wes said, “and from someone who knew you and Kurt during high school and after, that is far from over.”

Blaine opened his mouth ready to protest.

“The way you look at him hasn’t changed, Blaine, and it never will and that tells me more than anything you say.”

Wes patted his shoulder and then after giving him a tight smile, he walked away and Blaine was left trying to ignore the churning in his gut that told him Wes was right and that he ultimately did know it.

He looked across the room and spotted Kurt again. He was with Amie now and they walked together out of his sight. Blaine wanted to walk over and talk to him, to ask if those smiles were real and if he really could just get over what could have been between them. It wasn’t fair, he knew, to ask that of Kurt. He turned away. Where was Nick?

Blaine found Burt instead. He was off near the dining room with Carole. He headed in their direction.

“Oh, there you are, Blaine,” Carole said and stepped forward to hug him, “we didn’t see you arrive. Happy Birthday.”

Burt shook his hand after Carole had let him go. “What do you think?” he asked afterwards, “not too extravagant?”

It actually wasn’t. It could have been much, much worse. They could have held somewhere other than Hummel Plaza and invited even more people that he didn’t really know.

“It’s perfect. Thank you. You really didn’t have to do this.”

“Nonsense,” Carole said, “where’s Nick?”

Blaine looked back at the crowded room but there was no sign of his fianc�. “He was supposed to meet me here. He was dropping off Mia at the babysitter’s and coming straight here.”

He didn’t add that they’d had yet another fight and that Nick had actually gone as far as to yell at him and Nick rarely yelled. Blaine had missed the dinner Nick planned for the two of them for his birthday – really he’d been almost twenty minutes late and when he arrived at the restaurant Nick hadn’t been there. That had started the fight and then it had gone on to Nick bringing up the party.

“It is perfectly fine for your to put everything aside to attend the party that they are throwing for you,” he’d shouted, “but you can’t even be on time when it comes to something I plan.”

They’d really gotten into it and even Claire’s techniques didn’t work, but that had been the night before and in the morning Nick had told him he’d be at the party.

“I hope everything’s alright,” Carole said and Blaine could see the concern in her eyes.

“Me too,” he muttered.

After that things got a bit easier. He was drawn into conversations by David who finally appeared, already nursing a drink. It was strange to have Wes and David back. They had been a large part of his life during his teenage years and after and Blaine almost couldn’t believe that he had stopped talking to them.

Blaine was sipping at the drink he’d been handed by Wes when he saw Kurt approach his father. They hugged which wasn’t unusual, but he also saw their hands meet as if they were exchanging something. Kurt smiled at his dad and Carole and then he turned and for the first time met his eyes. He paused and then his lips quirked up.

He gasped in a breath and smiled back. When he turned away he thought he saw someone that definitely had no reason to be there. They moved too quickly for him to get a better glance

A while later, Blaine thought he saw him again, but he couldn’t try and look for him. Not after people had gotten wind that he was there. Even if they hadn’t met him yet they wanted to talk to him. It wasn’t until he was talking about where he’d gone to school with a man in a well tailored grey suit that he realized they were all interested in him because they’d known his father and then everything was different.

They were comparing him to Drew Anderson, watching him to see if he’d be like his father. Every now and then he caught a sight of Kurt and they always smiled at each other and somehow that gave Blaine strength. Nick still hadn’t appeared.

“I hope you’re enjoying yourself, Blaine.”

Blaine almost jumped, but he nodded at Burt. “I am,” he said and snatched up a quiche from one of the waiters passing by.

“Good.”

“But I think I might need a bit of a breather, too much talk about my father.”

Burt nodded tensely and Blaine realized that he wasn’t alone in trying to get away from people talking about Drew. His father had been Burt’s best friend when it came down to it.

“The kitchen should be empty,” Burt told him and winked before walking away.

Blaine stayed for a little longer, this time talking to Trent who was telling him about his lack of a social life, but then he excused himself and he sneaking into the kitchen. It was empty except for trays with the appetizers that had been going around, but Blaine wouldn’t mind if it was a waiter that interrupted him.

His father had not been the best father in the world. He’d been flawed and made too many mistakes where Blaine was concerned – mistakes that Blaine didn’t want to make – and yet Blaine couldn’t really hate him. What he did hate was hearing these people talk about him simply as the amazing lawyer and business man that he’d been. There had even been rumors that it was he that was going to take over if Burt ever stepped down and not Kurt.

Blaine leaned against a counter and closed his eyes. If he was going to be really childish he would blame his father on everything that’d happened.

The door swung open and Blaine opened his eyes expecting to see a waiter. Instead it was Kurt.

“Oh,” Kurt said lamely and paused with the door half open, “do you…I can go.”

For most of the night, Blaine had been spent it trying not to stare at Kurt and trying not to just walk over to him and start conversation with him. For weeks he’d tried to stay out of Kurt’s way and Kurt had probably been doing the same. Seeing him at last and being in the same room with him was throwing all of those reasons he’d had for not wanting to talk to Kurt out the window.

“No,” he said, “you can stay…unless you…”

Kurt didn’t even wait for the whole question to be posed. “No,” he said at once.

“How have you been?” Blaine asked.

He was gripping the edge of the counter with his hands, tightly.

“Good. Busy.”

“With Steve.”

Kurt merely nodded and then he stepped farther into the room, “and you?”

“Good,” he said, “busy with work and…”

“Nick,” Kurt supplied. He didn’t say the name with any modicum of disdain and Blaine was impressed and worried by it.

“We’ve been going to couples’ therapy,” he admitted, “to try and work things out, but I don’t think it’s been working.”

Being even closer with Kurt in this way, together alone brought it all back again and Blaine knew then without any doubt that the reason he and Nick weren’t making it work wasn’t lack of trying but that they just didn’t belong together. He hated to think about it, he hated that it could mean hurting Nick.

Kurt didn’t react. He walked closer, though, and paused in front of Blaine, “you made your choice, Blaine,” he said softly.

“I miss you,” Blaine said and the melancholy in his voice spoke for how true that was. “I just got my best friend back and I had to give him up.”

Kurt laughed. “Amie has never filled the shoes very well.”

“Thank you for calling Wes and David. I missed them. I can’t believe I didn’t keep in touch.”

He shrugged as if to say it wasn’t a big deal. “I wanted it to be more than stuffy men in suits trying to impress my dad. Not all of them, but most. It’s a birthday party after all. Which reminds me, Happy Birthday.”

Blaine laughed and he released the counter. His fingers ached. It was slightly awkward talking to Kurt due to everything that’d happened, and yet it was still so easy. Blaine wanted to fill him in on everything that had happened since they last talked, he wanted to hear Kurt’s opinion on everything. It dawned on him then that he’d been thinking about Kurt for the past two months during any part of his day wondering about opinions or even trying to decide what Kurt would have said about something on his own. He’d never thought about Nick that much.

“Thank you. It was yesterday, you know.”

Kurt nodded. “I know.”

“Kurt,” Blaine said and shifted his feet nervously, “how did we end up like this?”

“I don’t know. I guess maybe we were silly to think that we could last forever – we were so young. We wanted completely different things.”

Blaine nodded. He knew that. “But why didn’t we try harder? I never understood…you said yes, Kurt, I know you did and then…”

Kurt took a deep breath and he fanned himself. “You know why, Blaine. I couldn’t give you what you wanted. I couldn’t hold you back from it either and I…I didn’t want to go against what I wanted either. It would have been unfair to both of us. And maybe we could have worked through it but we’re both so darn stubborn. I would have done it for you, and for months afterwards I wondered if I’d made the right choice. I wanted it too. God, I pictured it. Us married with our own place and two kids, a golden retriever puppy that you couldn’t help but buy – but it was too soon and I could also see all the constrains.”

“I would have never held you back from anything,” Blaine said gently, “you did know that didn’t you?”

He was shaking his head and he stepped closer, reaching for Blaine’s hands. “I didn’t want to have to split my time between my dreams and you…and I didn’t want to tell you that I wanted to wait a while longer.”

His biggest regret had to be just walking away. Yes, he’d been hurt and his heart shattered but they could have worked everything out. Their love should have been enough. Kurt held his hands together and rubbed them gently. Blaine could feel the tingle from his touch down to his toes. Nick didn’t make him feel this way – didn’t electrify him that way.

Kurt let go. “I should get back,” he said and added, “you too” when he reached the door.

It only hit Blaine after Kurt had left that for all of their talking nothing had been resolved. Kurt was still with Steve and Blaine was still with Nick.

He left the kitchen and it was just in time to see Steve’s assistant – the elusive man from earlier – walking in the direction of Burt’s office with the man himself.

- - -

Kurt hadn’t picked out Blaine’s gift from Burt, but where the rest of the party had been concerned, he’d had a hand. Carole would have handled it fine, but Kurt had known that he had to be involved after watching her create the guest list full of family friends who would know Blaine but wouldn’t be his friends. So, he’d called Wes and then later David and asked them to try and bring along any Warbler that could come. He’d even asked Carole to talk to Nick about it, but Nick hadn’t returned her call.

All in all the party had turned out a success. He hadn’t been able to stay away from Blaine as he’d wanted to, though, seeing him any time he moved around his own living room. And then, as fate would have it they were in the kitchen alone.

Memories of another party where they’d ended up in the backroom alone were brought back from where he’d tried to stash them in his mind as a way of getting rid of them.

He hated the way Blaine affected him, how his very being made Kurt want to just ignore everything else in order to be with him.

When he left the kitchen, he tried to compose himself as well as he could and then he headed back into the fray and towards Rachel who was glaring at Lucy and Finn who were seated together and talking. Kurt didn’t try to understand the unnatural jealousy that Rachel seemed to have for Lucy. Her latest theory insisted that Lucy was just trying to get money out of it and had jumped in front of the car deliberately. Kurt knew that she could have already gotten money by pressing charges, which she wasn’t.

“Do you know when she’ll be leaving?” Rachel asked.

Kurt shrugged. “No idea. I expect in a few days.”

Rachel sighed dramatically. “Life sucks. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is going right for me.”

Kurt didn’t want to point out that Rachel actually had everything even though she was going through a hard phase of her own making. She had a husband that loved her even if he did do idiotic things, two children that adored her and worshiped the ground she walked on, a large fan base that didn’t even care about her drug issues and were still campaigning for her to star in some new musical that didn’t even have a name yet. And she had the career. Every dream she’d ever wanted, Rachel had got.

“Is she still whining about Finn?” Amie handed Kurt a drink.

It was something minty and sweet and he lifted the glass to her lips after the first sip.

“Yup,” he said.

Blaine was on the other side of the room with Wes and David. They were making him laugh about something. He was still a bit surprised that Blaine hadn’t kept in touch with Wes and David, but he had. Wes had explained as Blaine becoming way too focused on him rather than anyone else. And it made sense. No wonder he’d been obsessed with getting married and starting a family, not that those hadn’t been genuine wishes of his. Blaine had been focused only on him.

Still, he couldn’t believe that after the breakup he’d let himself become isolated from them as well. Kurt had stayed in touch of course, but barely, but it was obvious watching Blaine with them how much he’d missed them. It was also strange to see the interactions simply because having Wes and David there with some large party at his house brought them all back to high school and when times had been simpler.

Blaine looked up and he smiled at him. It was the kind of smile that made his eyes shine and the corners of his eyes crinkle; the smile that Kurt had missed.

“Oh my god, you’re so still in love with him,” Rachel said and Kurt remembered then that he hadn’t told her about what happened at Brittany’s party.

He didn’t answer.

“He is,” Amie confirmed, “and the best part is that Blaine knows he loves Kurt back.”

Blaine broke eye contact. Something else had caught his attention. Kurt followed his gaze, it landed on Nick.

- - -

Nick arrived late and as he walked past the foyer inside the house he couldn’t help but admire it. He’d been there a few times by now, but for someone that had studied art in all kinds and forms, it still struck him how beautiful the d�cor was. It was simple and elegant with lots of white, and it was perfect.

As he continued into the living room, he couldn’t help but wonder how many people had actually gotten the chance to share what they experienced entering the Hummel’s home. There were articles of course and photoshoots in magazines, but they had all painted the picture of perfection that this house and this d�cor was made to do.

No one ever went into the nitty gritty, the secrets that ran through everyone in the family. No one ever talked about how money made the Hummels secure enough to do anything they wanted. Nick unlike most people knew just what went on behind closed doors thanks to Blaine.

No one paid him any mind as he walked around. He couldn’t spot Blaine anywhere, but he did see Mrs. Hummel with a few women her age by the beautiful cake that must have cost something no cake should cost.

And then finally he saw Blaine. He was coming out of another room, and he paused to look at something beyond Nick, frowning before he began to walk towards what he’d seen. Nick moved to follow him and he saw Blaine pause at the end of a hall and then turn and walk a different direction where a somewhat familiar man wrapped an arm around Blaine’s shoulders and led him away.

Nick grabbed a drink from the bar and decided to wait it out and watch. Blaine looked happy. He fit in among them like Nick didn’t. He was laughing and talking animatedly in a way Nick had only seen him do with Mia lately. So, he watched partly hidden. He was losing him.

After a while he began to look around again and then he saw Kurt. Of course Kurt was there. Nick had expected it, even, but he hadn’t expected to be filled with so much disappointment at seeing how even though they were in opposite sides of the room, talking to different people they couldn’t keep their eyes from each other.

He had never imagined that heartbreak might actually literally hurt his heart. His chest was all constrained and his stomach churned.

Blaine saw him. Nick watched him excuse himself.

“You’re here,” Blaine said and the smile was genuine.

Nick nodded. “I am. But I shouldn’t have come.”

“Of course you should have,” Blaine said.

At that moment Burt entered the room. He was followed by another man and he didn’t look particularly happy.

“No,” Burt said, “I don’t want to listen to you any longer, Mr. Smythe. In fact you should not be here. This is a private family party and I am sure my – Blaine does not appreciate party crashers.”

Burt’s voice was filled with his anger and his hands shook as he spoke, arm lifted and pointing in the direction of the elevator.

Blaine next to Nick stood frozen. “That’s Sebastian,” he muttered, “but that was the assistant.”

Sebastian, or Mr. Smythe, whoever he was turned in the direction of Blaine, then.

“Happy Birthday, Mr. Anderson,” he said in all politeness, “and I must agree it was impolite to crash your party.”

“Leave,” Burt said and his voice held all finality, “and do not come near my family again.”

Sebastian said something too low for Nick to catch, but it must have upset Mr. Hummel, because he lunged towards Sebastian who stepped back and said something else, and then he addressed Kurt.

“I’ll give my brother your best, Kurt.”

The next few moments were very confusing because as Burt shouted something more at Sebastian, he swayed and then he began to fall. One of the guests, a younger man caught him before he hit the floor and then lowered him down.

Kurt ran to his father’s side at once as did Mrs. Hummel and Blaine.

No one knew what to do for a moment, and Nick was as confused as everyone else, but he saw that at least Amie had pulled out her phone and was dialing what he assumed at 911.

Someone, one of the party guests began to instruct people to leave and though some tried to linger, most tried to stay out of the way, each other asking for news when there were some. Most of them looked stricken. A few women were crying. One had gone to try and comfort Mrs. Hummel who was on the ground next to her husband but out of the way of a man that was actually doing CPR on him.

But what struck Nick was seeing Kurt, hand clasped to his mouth, standing just a few feet about from his father as if he were afraid to move closer, tears streaming down his face and Blaine standing next to him as if it weren’t just Kurt’s father on the ground but his own. And maybe he shouldn’t have been focusing on that, but he saw as Blaine reached for Kurt’s hand and how they just clasped together. No other contact was made. They both stood as still as possible looking at Burt Hummel as the man giving him CPR brought him to steady breaths.