"Uh ... Kurt?" Blaine's quiet voice came from somewhere near the door, and Kurt gripped tightly to the front of the desk to bring his chair to a halt. He received a gentle, amused smile that made his toes tingle. "Sorry to interrupt the ... uh ... spinning. I just have a message for you."

"Cool! I mean ... thank you, Blaine." Kurt gathered himself and motioned for Blaine to approach the desk.

"That looked like fun." Blaine said, his face breaking into a huge grin that threatened to take over his whole face when he caught Kurt's mildly embarrassed flinch.

"It was - but the chair's mine, so keep off buddy!" Kurt teased out a warning, but couldn't keep a straight face.

Blaine raised his eyebrows knowingly. "Funny you should choose that word - it reminds me of your message."

"Which is?" Kurt was intrigued now.

Blaine handed over a piece of paper silently and awaited the change in Kurt's expression. It came very quickly, as his mouth dropped open and he screwed his eyes tightly shut for a moment before looking up.

"Crap. And how did that go?"

"It was fine." Blaine smiled gently. "Well, initially it was somewhat terrifying, but it got better."

"I'm sorry, Blaine ... I've been meaning to mention you working here to him for a while, but the moment never seemed quite right."

Blaine shrugged. "Well, he definitely knows now."

"And you promise he was OK with you? I mean, he didn't threaten to jump the first flight over here just so that he could hunt you down and skin you alive?"

"It definitely sounded like he was contemplating it for a while, but no ... he was actually pretty cool."

"I'll bet he didn't actually call you 'buddy' though ..." Kurt winced, fearing the worst. Blaine simply pursed his lips, raised his eyes to the ceiling and nodded. "Ooh, that traitor! Wait 'til I see him next ..."

Blaine could only laugh. "Oh, come on Kurt - you know you have the coolest dad on the entire planet. He might be over-protective and a little scary to some people, but that's only because he loves you so damn much."

"Stop that. You sound like him." Kurt scolded.

"Sorry." Blaine tried to control his smirk and failed miserably. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure he believed everything I told him about how we broke up. And why."

Kurt nodded sadly. "He heard it a fair few times from me. I guess any confirmation from you would just prove that I wasn't making it up. That being together, but apart, was just too painful to deal with."

Blaine shifted uncomfortably on his feet and Kurt dragged a hand across his eyes. The office fell eerily silent and suddenly felt twice its usual size.

"I'm so sorry, Kurt. We were young ... if I'd known then what I know now -"

Kurt glanced up, meeting Blaine's gaze and stunning him into silence. He frowned some more. "What's so different now?"

"Just ... I'm older. I get that whole 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' thing about a million times more than I ever did before." Blaine sighed, dropping his eyes to the floor and slumping his shoulders. He looked totally defeated, and Kurt's heart ached at the sight. He jumped out of his seat and closed the space between them, taking hold of Blaine's shoulders and rocking them gently until he raised his head.

"Don't do that." Kurt soothed. "Don't beat yourself up over stuff that happened way too long ago. It was a joint decision."

"But it hurt ... Kurt," Blaine screwed up his face at his choice of words and gave a weak smile, his eyes beginning to shimmer in the dull light of office. His lip quivered slightly when he chose to speak again. "I've never felt so empty ... and when I thought about you and how you might've been feeling too, I just wanted to lock myself away and give up."

"Give up on what?" Kurt whispered, gripping tighter to Blaine's shoulders and rubbing his thumbs over the soft fabric of Blaine's shirt.

"Everything." Blaine sniffed and turned away from Kurt's gaze. His bottom lip brushed lightly against Kurt's knuckle, the accidental intimacy causing both men to jump back in surprise.

Blaine flushed and wiped at his eyes, backing away quickly towards the door. He cleared his throat, hoping to steady the shake in his voice. "So - uh, yeah. Call your dad. You're missed."

The nod Blaine gave with the last statement pierced right through Kurt's heart as he closed the door behind him, and Kurt knew that he wasn't just relaying the words of Burt Hummel. He felt his own eyes stinging with unshed tears and slumped back into his chair, instinctively kicking out into another spin, but this time at a much slower, pre-occupied pace.

***

"Come on, baby ... please? You know you want to."

Blaine let out a sigh as he perched on the edge of the bed to tie his laces. His boyfriend was once again stretched out naked behind him, stroking himself lazily.

"No ... we'll be late, Mikey." Blaine frowned, paying no attention to the heavy breathing coming from the top of the bed. "Come on - I thought you wanted to make a good impression with Rachel. Arriving late won't exactly score you any points."

"I don't want to score points, I want to score you. I just want my dick in your ass - is that too much to ask?" Michael smirked, licking his lips.

"You sure know how to turn on the romance, Michael." Blaine grumbled, checking his hair in the wardrobe mirror.

"Hey, I can't help my high sex-drive - especially when you're so hot." He quirked his eyebrows suggestively and licked his lips again.

Blaine rolled his eyes. "You just seem to be choosing the most awkward times to want to do this stuff."

"Like when?!" Michael protested.

"Like now. Like at 4am when you woke me up just so that I could give you a blow-job."

"But that was fun." Michael grinned.

"You didn't have to get up for work an hour-and-a-half later." Blaine huffed.

"Jesus, is that what time you have to get up every morning?" Michael frowned, sitting up and propping his hands behind his head.

"Have done for the past four months now." Blaine sighed in exasperation, fogging up the mirror. "Good of you to notice."

"Hey, I'm a heavy sleeper." Michael breezed without an ounce of remorse.

"Except when you're looking for a blow-job."

Michael grinned, seemingly oblivious to Blaine's annoyance. "I could do with one now, if you're offering. Let's just blow off the dinner thing and you can let me screw you into the wall for a while."

"Are you serious?" Blaine span around, red-faced, and glared at his boyfriend in disbelief. "Are you fucking kidding me?!"

"Hey, what did I do?" Michael frowned back.

"What you did is harass me for weeks and weeks to set up a dinner date so that you could schmooze with my incredibly busy friend Rachel, and now that it's finally happening, you want to blow it off?!" Blaine fumed, his voice growing louder with every word.

"Alright - fine!" Michael sighed petulantly, grabbing some underwear from the dresser beside the bed and shrugging it on. "So what am I wearing?"

"I'm not your mother, Michael - dress your fucking self. I'll be in the living room." Blaine said, storming out of the bedroom and jumping in shock when a shoe came flying past his ear at full force, just narrowly missing him. It clattered heavily to the floor further down the hall and all he could do was stare at it, trying to shut out the sound of Michael's catty laughter behind him.

"Fuck you." He whispered, blinking back the angry tears welling in his eyes.