Whatcha doing?

College stuff. My brain is beginning to fry.

Time to take a break?

More than likely. Any suggestions on what I should be doing instead? ;)

Do you have Skype?

Obviously.

What's your username?

Kurt typed out his username and quickly logged into Skype on his laptop, smiling as a contact request appeared instantly from Blaine. He accepted it, and a video call began to buzz through. Kurt dashed over to the mirror to make sure that he looked at least half-decent, and then scurried back to the couch.

'Hey you!' He chimed as he answered the call, squinting at the screen for a second to make out the new surroundings he could see behind Blaine. And then of course he focused all of his attention back on the man himself, because he looked stunning. He was wearing a soft, pale blue cashmere sweater, and Kurt wanted nothing more than to dive through the laptop screen and cuddle him to death.

'Good afternoon, Mister Hummel.' Blaine grinned. 'And how are we today?'

'We are very well, thank you. How are we?'

'We are equally good.' Blaine replied, and Kurt pulled a sceptical face. 'Seriously, I'm good. Do I not look good?'

'Oh you look very good, but that's another conversation altogether!'

Blaine clutched a hand to his cheek and then fanned it lightly, putting on his campest voice. 'Stop it - you'll make me blush!'

Kurt chuckled and then heaved a little sigh, staring through the screen into Blaine's smiling eyes, wishing he was close enough to touch. They sat in silence for a moment, simply grinning at one another.

'Did you miss me?'

'Kurt, I saw you less than twenty four hours ago.'

Kurt pouted.

'Are you kidding me? Of course I did ... dufus.'

Kurt gasped. 'Did you just call me a dufus? Because that's a hang-upable offence you know.'

Blaine leaned into the screen and smiled. 'I'm sorry. I take it back. And even if you were a dufus, you'd be my dufus, right?'

'Well, yes. But I'm not a dufus. Got that?' Kurt answered with a stern face.

'Absolutely.' Blaine bit his cheek in an effort not to laugh.

'Who's a dufus?' A tiny high-pitched voice rang out, startling Kurt a little.

'Ahhhh - here she is!' Blaine grinned down at something out of shot, and reached out his arms, scooping up a bundle and placing it upon his lap. A beautiful pair of dark brown eyes looked up at the laptop screen, belonging to one of the cutest little girls Kurt had ever seen. She had soft, caramel coloured skin and crazily curly hair which was bunched into two tight pigtails on the top of her head. She gave a baby-toothed grin and pointed to the screen.

'Who's dat, Blaine?'

Kurt's heart swelled a little as he gazed at the gorgeous sight, not sure whose pretty eyes to look into first.

'That fine gentleman is Kurt. Remember I told you about him?' Blaine said into the little girl's hair, all the time looking at the screen.

'Oh yeah. You wuuuuv him.' The toddler said in a silly voice. Kurt laughed and felt a flutter of excitement in his stomach. Blaine just looked mildly mortified.

'I did not say that.' He chided, looking down at the girl and then back up at the screen. Kurt cocked his head to one side. 'I mean ... I don't remember what I ... um ...'

Kurt laughed again. 'And what's your name, sweetie?'

The little girl giggled and turned her body to look up at Blaine, bashing him in the face with a pigtail as she did so. 'Haha ... his voice is funny!'

'His voice is lovely, Jayda. Don't make fun cos that's not nice. Say sorry to Kurt.'

'Sowwy, Kurt.' Jayda said, looking down and pouting a little.

'Awww, that's OK - I do have a funny voice.' Kurt smiled, meeting the gaze of the little girl as she looked up excitedly. 'It's very nice to meet you, Jayda.'

Jayda looked away, seemingly shy all of a sudden. Blaine grinned at the screen again.

'Jayda is my friend Mercedes' niece. They're in town for a couple of days and stopped by to bring me a nice healthy breakfast.'

'Well, I'm pleased I'm not the only one who wants you to take better care of yourself.'

'Amen to that!' Another new voice rang out in the background, this time that of an older female. Blaine laughed.

'That's her. She'll be over in a sec. But in the meantime, Jayda and I want to perform a little song for you, don't we Jayda?'

The little girl looked up at Blaine and nodded, placing her hands in front of her in preparation. Kurt realised that she and Blaine must have been sitting at a piano, the laptop perched on the frame of the instrument.

'Oh ... well, I'm honoured.' Kurt said, loving the sight of his gorgeous friend whispering something in Jayda's ear. He clearly adored this little cutie, and it warmed Kurt's heart to know that he was so good with children.

'OK, here we go.' Blaine said, taking hold of Jayda's wrists gently and guiding her hands over the correct keys. They played a very sketchy and tentative version of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', singing the song as they slowly pressed each note, with Blaine occasionally planting a small kiss in Jayda's hairline to let her know that she was doing well - or maybe just because he loved her. Kurt simply tried to hold back the happy tears.

The song ended and Kurt gave a big round of applause as Jayda squealed 'I did it!' and was hoisted into the air by Finn as he entered the shot. She giggled as Finn swung her about and turned her upside down.

'Hey, man.' Finn waved at the screen. 'How's it going?'

'Hey Finn. Good thanks.' Kurt smiled. 'I see you're keeping my room-mate rather busy these days.'

Finn gave a sheepish half-smile and shrugged, the little girl still in his arms. Kurt chuckled gently. Another figure entered the frame, this time that of a curvy black girl, impeccably dressed and beaming up at Jayda, taking her from Finn and smiling at the screen. She was very beautiful, and her smile was so warm and inviting that Kurt felt as though he'd known her forever.

'Kurt, this is our friend from high school, Mercedes.' Blaine grinned.

'Hey, Kurt.' Mercedes beamed with a wave. 'It's great to finally talk to the guy this one can't shut up about!' She nodded down to Blaine, who hung his head shyly.

Kurt laughed, feeling very shy himself all of a sudden. 'Thank you. Lovely to meet you too. Your niece is adorable, by the way.'

'Yeah ... and she knows it.' Mercedes smiled, placing the restless toddler down on the floor and watching her scurry away. 'So, did Blaine ask you yet?'

Kurt's heart skipped for a second. 'Um ... ask me what?'

Blaine looked to the screen and frowned a little. 'Oh, right ... no I hadn't had chance yet.'

Kurt raised his eyebrows expectantly, but nothing more came. He gave a little smirk and repeated himself. 'Ask me what? Come on, Anderson - spit it out.'

Mercedes laughed and excused herself from the frame, leading Finn away and leaving the two men alone.

Blaine looked sheepish. 'Well, I know we said that we'd maybe meet up for coffee this afternoon ... but I really wasn't expecting to see the girls today, and ... well, I wanted to catch up with them so much ... '

Kurt couldn't help but feel a little dejected, but he hoped that it wasn't obvious. He smiled gently. 'Of course you should - we can see each other any time.'

'Oh, but I still really want to see you too!' Blaine blurted out, making Kurt grin inanely. 'I was just wondering if you might like to come out for dinner with us. Finn's already invited Rachel. I mean if you're not too busy with college stuff. Please?'

'Awww, how could I say no to that face?' Kurt grinned, feeling all warm and fuzzy as he took in Blaine's pleading expression.

'Really? Awesome!' Blaine bounced on the piano stool, seemingly giddy with excitement. 'We weren't gonna do anything fancy though - not with this one in tow.' He gestured behind him to where a squealing child could still be heard.

'Fine by me.' Kurt smiled. 'Anywhere as long as I'm with you.'

It was Blaine's turn to tilt his head and look adoringly at the screen. 'You're too good to me.'

Kurt shrugged. 'You deserve it. Most of the time.'

Blaine gasped and feigned a hurt look, replacing it with a huge grin. 'I promise I'll do more to please you in the future.'

Kurt choked out a laugh. 'I'll hold you to that one ... and I look forward to it.'

Blaine smiled and looked down into his lap bashfully.

My god, I love it when he does that.

They caught each other's gaze for a moment and shared a dreamy sigh.

'So, what time and where?' Kurt breathed, finally breaking the silence.

'Oh, yeah ... well, we're not too sure where to eat at the moment, but I guess we could decide that when we're all together. So we were thinking that if you and Rachel met us in Times Square at about seven, we could take it from there.'

'Sounds great.' Kurt chirped. 'I can't wait.'

'Me either.'

'OK, so ... I'll see you at seven, then.'

Blaine paused for a moment and slumped into his seat with a sigh. 'Thank you, Kurt.'

'For what?'

'For being amazing.'

Kurt smiled. 'You see, this is where I'd probably want to lean in and kiss you for saying something so sweet.'

'Save it for later.' Blaine purred.

***

The impromptu date couldn't have gone any better. The general concensus had been for good old American cuisine, so they had all piled into the nearest burger joint and ordered lots of sharing platters. Kurt couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten out in such a big group, and he was loving being surrounded by so many happy, smiling faces, all laughing and joking and enjoying their time together. He found himself looking at Blaine most of all, hoping that it didn't freak him out whenever he caught him gazing in his direction across the table. Blaine just grinned back, clearly enjoying the attention.

Kurt was also bowled over with how contented Rachel looked as she sat with Finn. It was obvious just how much they were into each other, and Kurt's heart swelled with pride as he watched them interact. He'd spent too long seeing his best friend waste her time sleeping around with any guy who took her fancy, never allowing herself the chance to deserve to find someone she might want to spend more than one night with. But things seemed different with Finn - she looked softer somehow and more serene, even playing and talking animatedly with Jayda, which was something Kurt honestly never thought he'd see. At that moment he couldn't have been more grateful for having these lovely stepbrothers come into their lives and turn everything upside down.

Rachel and Mercedes also got along like a house on fire, of course. Both Kurt and Rachel were in complete awe of Mercedes' killer session-singer voice, and at one point the whole table was singing a rousing rendition of Somebody To Love, with crazy harmonies flying all over the place. They received some weird looks from the other patrons, but in that moment none of them seemed to care - and Jayda had loved being serenaded by so many amazing voices, as even Finn and Kurt joined in, belting out the song at the tops of their lungs.

Mercedes and Jayda had left at around nine, as the little girl was making a very poor job of hiding her sheer exhaustion, and the four remaining diners moved to a cosier table near the bar. Rachel's obvious relief for being able to let loose with her normal crass behaviour without having to reign it in for the sake of young ears was evident, and she soon had them all laughing raucously at some hideously lewd jokes. The two couples were now sitting side by side, Rachel and Finn facing Blaine and Kurt, and the feeling of Blaine's warm hand in his, rarely ever breaking apart except for when he'd excused himself to use the bathroom, made Kurt feel giddy. He was sure that the grin plastered across his face could've lit the room had there been a sudden power-outage.

At the end of another fairly boozy night, the couples had reluctantly split apart, all needing to be up bright and early for various work and college commitments. Blaine had, in his own words, requested the pleasure of Kurt's company on Thursday evening, expressing the need to repay Kurt's kindness when he was sick by cooking for him in return. Kurt had jumped at the chance to see more of the bright and airy apartment he'd seen in the background on the Skype call earlier that day, and the date was set. With a heavy heart Kurt had gently kissed Blaine's soft, warm lips and then his cheek, breathing in the heavenly scent of his cologne and feeling the brush of those curls against his nose one last time, before whispering a sad goodbye and linking arms with Rachel to make their way home.

***