Instead of anxiety Kurt felt calm. Blaine made his heart pound without filling him with trepidation. They sat there on the steps of Dalton testing the limits of how long they could stay, trading kisses, oblivious to the rest of the world.

The limit was approximately 10 minutes and then they were interrupted by not one but three Warblers.

"Dalton is a classy,discreteservice," Wes scolded from the door. "Not a place for graphic displays." Beside him Jeff and Nick peeked around the frame.

"We weren't keeping a secret!" Blaine said too quickly to Wes's scowl, sounding far guiltier than he should considering there was nothing to keep secret until a moment before. "I mean I . . ." Blaine stole a glance at Kurt. "We weren't, right?" Blaine clutched Kurt's hand harder.

"No." Kurt squeezed back. The worry on Blaine's face retreated a little. Kurt thought getting caught like this would be horrifying, but he didn't mind as much as he thought he would. The worst part was that Wes stopped him in the middle of a very good moment.

"We noticed," Wes said dryly. "The neighbors probably did as well."

"Watching Kurt and Blaine make out is like watching puppies snuggle. Who doesn't love that?"Jeff patted a hand over his heart.

"Good, wholesome fun," Nick agreed. "Don't stop on his account."

Kurt didn't want to think on how long they'd been watching.

"Move it inside." Wes spun on his heel, assuming his orders would be carried out whether he watched or not.

Blaine scrambled up. Kurt hesitated. Steps were one thing and Blaine's bedroom – or the common area where Nick and Jeff and anyone else could watch supportively and provide encouragement,god– was quite another.

Blaine held out a hand to help him up. "Let's go for a walk. You can tell me all about this date we're going on and how soon it's allowed to start."

***

More rewrites and more rehearsals for the workshop followed, although Blaine was very good at finding reasons to pull Kurt away from Schuester before they had a chance to be alone. The rest of the cast caught on quickly and soon it was like he had his own personal guard. They all excelled at distractions and excuses, from Rachel making long-winded demands for higher billing or bedazzled microphones that Kurt only half believed she wasn't serious about, to Tina insisting she and Kurt had a fabric appointment in Brooklyn that they had to leave for immediately, to Brittany's questions on social media strategies and whether they should involve fondue, to Santana losing all subtlety and spilling coffee down Schuester's front when she decided he got too close with a not-at-all-believable "oops." Artie pitched a diva fit about how, as the director and a perfectly capable one at that, Kurt should stop acting like he was running the show and surrender most of the creative control to him. Between their demands, Kurt and Schuester never were free at the same time. The cast never acknowledged what they were doing, humoring Kurt's stubborn pride.

The workshop went well enough to secure additional funding and they began working on the fully staged production that they hoped for but was now a certainty. On the first day of the second round of rehearsals Kurt and Blaine stole away to the dressing room under the shakiest of pretenses given the lack of costumes. They bolted for the dressing room faster than reasonable at Kurt's realization that they could be properly alone there, no roommates or producers or nosy Warblers for once.

"There's no lock." Kurt looked around for a chair or something else to prop under the handle but of course the unused room was mostly empty.

Blaine pressed his back against a door. "Come here." Blaine eagerly coaxed Kurt close, hands at Kurt's waist and chin tilted up invitingly.

Infatuation hit hard and relentlessly. Blaine was straight out of fantasies his didn't know hehad. He was never close enough. There was work, there was the play, and there was kissing Blaine. Everything else was a tertiary need at best.

Opportunity went to their heads a little. It'd been hours of sitting next to Blaine or going through a routine alongside him or letting Blaine's character trail hopefully behind him on stage and not being able to do any of this. Making up for lost time involved a lot of fumbling and Kurt whimpering out embarrassing noises and Blaine separating layers to get at bare skin at Kurt's waist.

"We should . . ."Slow down. Stop dancing around intimate moments in dressing rooms. Finish sentences before words disappear from my tongue to make room for Blaine's."Avoid anything too sexual." Even as he said the words his lips ghosted over Blaine's. Mixed signals, yet again, he hadn't figured out the balance to give anything else.

He felt Blaine's steadying breath. "Okay," He murmured, accepting Kurt's inconsistencies without question and making Kurt want to get back to kissing him more than he already did. Blaine let his head fall back against the door to allow for more space without loosening his grip at Kurt's waist. "Can you define sexual? I'm not trying to be titillating. I want to do this right."

"Unfit for public consumption?"

Blaine shook his head. "Those definitions are specific to you." Which explained the man unabashedly swatting and petting his girlfriend's ass on the subway ride over like the rest of the car bought tickets to a live sex show. "They're about what you're comfortable with. Like, for example, can I put my tongue in your mouth?"

Kurt unwittingly clenched his jaw while images of that scenario washed over him. "You just did." Kurt hadn't complained in the slightest. The very recent memory made it hard to insist on talking.

"But can I?"

Kurt appreciated, considering all the things Blaine didn't pick up on, that he picked up on that nuance.

"If you want to."

Blaine wanted to. There was no point in Blaine asking for something he didn't want. A thrill ran through Kurt at the reminder that Blaine wantedhim.

"Not in public," Kurt clarified, then frowned as he realized his own contradiction. If he knew Wes was going to come down the steps during their series of first kisses he would have been slightly more cautious because letting other people watch them kiss (in any way, but particularly with heat) contradicted the intimacy he wanted to feel for Blaine. Fit for Public Consumption wasn't good enough of a rule to go by given how constraining his definition was – he wanted more than that. "How about anywhere not covered in clothes is fair gamein private?"

Blaine released Kurt's waist and the rumbled layers and Kurt whined in protest.

"Oh?" Blaine brought Kurt's hand to his lips with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Tell me if you don't . . ." Kurt sucked in a breath as, after a ghosting kiss at his fingertips, Blaine sucked two of Kurt's fingers into his mouth.

"Nggh." How was that so hot? And obscene. Of all the things to be instantly turned on by, Kurt hadn't been prepared for that one.

"You realize by those standards I can do that to you, but a hug is off limits?"

"Touché." Kurt opened his eyes. He moved his hand, wet fingers held away, to Blaine's jaw and rubbed a thumb along his cheek. Blaine leaned into the touch, nuzzling into his palm and then turning to plant another kiss there. "Honey, focus."

Blaine looked up. "I get endearments?"

Kurt blushed. "When being endearing? Yes." It slipped out. Blaine was the kind of person you wanted to coo endearments at. "Veto what you don't like. As for the other thing, let's say get express permission before going anywhere that's clothed and below waist level."

"So, by reverse logic, can we take off your clothes above the waist?"

"That seems fair," Kurt agreed quickly, surprising himself. Apparently he was okay with more than he thought. As long as it involved Blaine. Reciprocity meant he could maybe get Blaine shirtless sometime in the near future. He'd agree to a lot for that.

Blaine leaned forward to kiss below Kurt's jaw. He smiled into Kurt's collar as he toyed with the buttons.

"Maybe asking or considering the situation is a good idea," Kurt chided without heat, just amusement. He assumed Blaine could figure that much out for himself.

"Well, we are in a dressing room." Blaine planted a kiss right where the collar turned away from his skin. He left the rest of the buttons alone though.

"Now tell me your boundaries."

"I don't have any," Blaine replied automatically. Something must've shown in Kurt's face because Blaine followed shortly with a hesitant little "Is that okay? Anything I don't like, I assume you don't know the words for."

Kurt snorted. "Don't try anything I can't name. Noted." He bit back a response on how boundaries were exactly what Blaine needed. It'd come across as a psychoanalysis of his job. Kurt's own career was rife with material for that when honestly he pursued acting because he was fantastic at it – and correcting to say this assessment was based solely on Blaine's personality and following that unsolicited observation with strict orders to change wouldn't help with the end goal of developing Blaine's ability to say no. They'd go slow. They had time to figure it out. Kurt would not allow his obligations to Schuester dictated the timeline. He'd waited this long. . .

***

Caution was hard to keep in mind, particularly when time was limited and Blaine and the play conveniently overlapped. They took precautions like waiting to hold hands until they were out of the neighborhood (and out of Kurt's neighborhood as well, but that was because it wasn't a nice neighborhood). Kurt tried to instigate a No Kissing Unless the Door is Locked policy, which morphed into a No Kissing Unless Someone's Weight is Against the Door policy because too many doors didn't have locks. Or they would go where no one would think to look altogether. It was only a matter of time before they were caught, and they were, first by Rachel when he thought he'd locked his bedroom door when he hadn't and then by Santana when she looked up and noticed them lost in each other on the catwalks.

"Congratulations on making up for years of missed sexing opportunities, but this plan is even less incognito than your usual mooning over each other with heart eyes, honeys," she called up at them. "No one's going to believe you if you say you're rehearsing a balcony scene."

Kurt turned just enough to scowl at her, unable to move too far from Blaine's embrace. He needed better hiding places to be alone with Blaine.

Blaine murmured, low for only Kurt to hear and with more urgency in his voice than Kurt would expect, "O gentle Romeo, if thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully: or if thou think'st I am too quickly won, I'll frown and be perverse an say thee nay, so thou wilt woo; but else, not for the world."

Kurt's laugh came out giddy and disbelieving. "How are you real?" Blaine continually surprised him. He fought to remember that he couldn't allow himself to kiss Blaine again while they were being watched, as tempted as it was. Forget the catwalks, Kurt could float on his own.

Santana tapped her foot impatiently. "Kurt, you can fool around with the whore after you let Schuester break your hymen."

"Isn't that the reverse of what you wanted?" Kurt snipped. They reluctantly disentangled the rest of the way. She seemed too far away for it to be pressing as their feet dangled above the ground. Blaine fixed a strand of Kurt's hair that had gone askew, his expression still soft and open. Blaine was so, so good to him. Why did he do anything besides kiss Blaine? Kurt unconsciously tipped forward again, noses brushing, eyes only for Blaine. And his lips. Blaine's lips deserved all Kurt's attention.

"Should've changed your mind before I got invested in my stardom. Now I've changed mine. You know how possessive Schuester is. He's gonna flip his shit. Learn. To. Hide. Better."

Bored with the lack of focus on her, Santana turned to leave.

"You won't tell," Kurt called after her as she retreated through the wings. He means for it to be a statement. There was a waiver of a question at the end. Santana seemed to hate Schuester even more than she hated everyone else, but she was unpredictable around 1) secrets and 2) fame.

Santana leaned back into view just long enough to throw an incredulous look up at them. "How could I know what goes on 12 feet over my head?"

He felt like they were floating. He thought working on the show was as fulfilled as he would ever be. He fought to keep himself grounded. Part of him had to wait for the inevitable undesirable consequence that followed being so satisfied. Schuester's moods swung unpredictably. Kurt's recklessness with his affections could cost them the show, and his friends couldn't keep running interference forever.

Blaine kept his distance despite their unintended audience's departure, waiting for a sign from Kurt to tell him how to react. Kurt scooted closer. "Don't worry. You heard Santana. We're untouchable."

***

Blaine caught up with Santana as she and Brittany, pinkies linked, headed to the theatre exit.

"Our deal's off," he called.

"Too invested in your stardom to follow through?" Santana placed her free hand on her hip. "Because I was goading him. This is all limbo – we all knew when we signed up that it would be best if it didn't happen – and you should've known the goal was to make it come crashing down, not to give you a chance at your singing/dancing/smarming dreams. He's supposed to pick you."

"He won't do that for me. I'm not asking him to." Kurt would never let the show be ripped from under him. Nothing mattered to him more than getting the show in front of an audience. Blaine couldn't change their circumstances. They had to make their relationship work within the confines. Blaine didn't sayI think I'm too late. It wasn't for him to say. "Can you settle your bill with Dalton? Formally?"

Santana leaned hard, her jaw set. Blaine resisted the urge to retreat. Her voice hit dangerously low. "Deposit was upfront. So. Do I owe you anything?"

"No, no of course not! I'm not asking you to pay for myrelationship. I need you to make it official. I don't want there to be any confusion."

"Kurt doesn't like ambiguity. It's a very romantic request," Brittany nodded. "You love him because you want to."

"It wasn't alovecontract you made. Kurt's still keeping you waiting? He's dating you and he's not the least bit worried about sealing the deal?" Santana laughed. "I don't know why I'm surprised."

"Kurt gets what Kurt wants," Brittany explained. As if Blaine didn't already know.

"The one night I got him wasn't good enough, oh no, he wants all of you on his terms. I must have picked the perfect boy out of all the Stepford boys."

He didn't care how flippant Santana was; he was going to like her anyway. He'd admire anyone who was so unapologetically who they were. It led to a lot of unhealthy relationships (and a lot of people who weren't so forgiving about who Blaine was), but also to Kurt. Blaine hadn't wanted love for himself, mostly out of the tiny scrap of self-preservation he had left, but Kurt was impossible to resist. He forgot all reservations when it came to Kurt. No way could his heart be in trouble.

"So what's the time limit here?" Santana teased. "How badly do you need this done right now? Sometime in the next few months okay?"

He thought of Kurt all the time. It would be Kurt's decision, whenever Kurt was ready, whether that was days or weeks or months or years away. He understood she wasn't serious but answered honestly. "As soon as possible, please."

The fewer outside obligations the better.

***

"Maybe it doesn't count as losingyourvirginity unlessyou'rethe one who orgasms," Blaine murmured, apropos of nothing as far as Kurt was concerned, his lips brushing against Kurt's skin. Despite his master status in both Seductive Looks and Moaning, Blaine clearly never wrapped his head around The Art of Pillow Talk.

"I know a lot of women who'd be happy to hear that," Kurt said wryly. He resisted rolling his eyes at the wall. A few more moments of quiet and Blaine's steady touch holding them together and Kurt could just slip away, but instead Blaine had to try and help. Kurt didn't find it comforting to rehash definitions after dodging another 'private rehearsal' with Will – talking in general wasn't his goal when he'd thrown caution to the wind, led Blaine to lie down on his bed, and wrapped Blaine's arms around him to relax into the comfort of being held. He was pretty sure Blaine would offer up any definition as long as long as it would make Blaine the one he'll lose it to.

Blaine meant well, so Kurt chose to try and settle for amusement over annoyance. "Does that mean everyone pretty much takes their own virginity via masturbation? Sounds empowering. Very self-reliant of me."

"Mmm. Your self-reliance turns me onso much." Blaine chuckled low into Kurt's shoulder. He pressed a kiss to the soft skin he exposed there for good measure, pushing the sleeve of Kurt's t-shirt out of the way. "Not what I meant but feel free to tell me more about it."

"Okay, so it's a little silly," Kurt admitted despite his gleeful amusement at his own definition that no one else would ever accept. He might mentally count it anyway. Perhaps it was a sign of self-centeredness but he liked that he was the only one that mattered in that definition: it was a decision he well and truly made for himself, and shouldn't what he'd done for his own sexual pleasure count the most? At least if he said it did?

"You're allowed to like silly things."

Kurt bit back a joke about liking Blaine. One Blaine's many endearing quirks was a habit of making pronouncements like that, as if Kurt needed someone to give him permission to his feelings. Kurt didn't wait for permission for much of anything, least of all his own feelings. Yet another thing Blaine did to be kind that Kurt didn't understand but tried to appreciate anyway.

"What I'd like is to escape everyone else's virginity anxiety. Is there anything else that people care about so much the first time and then not at all after that?"

"Kids?"

"You're horrible!"And not an only child. Kurt made a mental note to ask about Blaine's older sibling(s) later, with a less what's-your-childhood-trauma segue. Soon enough Kurt would introduce Blaine to his own brother, when Finn came out to see the show. It was a quieting thought. Finn symbolized so much of Kurt's life before the show and outside of New York. Nothing forced Kurt to reflect on his boyfriend the prostitute and a show that hinged on seducing the financer quite like an impending brunch date with his brother.

Kurt settled further into Blaine's embrace. "It doesn't matter. Not counting something as significant doesn't erase it from happening altogether. Picking a finite moment doesn't change what I've done for Will. Or how little it means to me compared to the brush of fingertips with you."

Blaine ran his fingers playfully down Kurt's arm. "I love every part of you," Blaine whispered against his skin.

"You don't know every part of me." Kurt's voice came out soft as well. He couldn't stay even mildly annoyed at Blaine's ability to obtusely say whatever came to mind when he was also capable of saying things like that.

"I love every part of you that I know and I see no reason why that trend wouldn't continue." Blaine's hand teased around Kurt's midriff and the hem of his t-shirt. Kurt marveled both at the physical feeling that had him leaning into Blaine and how un-tense he felt about it. Kurt didn't usual let himself this close to anyone, not to just feel. With Blaine there was no reason for their constant touch other than want. When he was still he could hear Blaine's heart beating. He could feel each breath Blaine took. He radiated warmth. Out of all his choices Blaine would always, always be easy to explain.

Blaine tipped his chin over Kurt's shoulder. "Don't freak out, okay?"

"That's an ominous segue in a conversation," Kurt teased, wariness of what was to follow quickly replacing the sense of calm he was finally settling into. Blaine sounded playful but something must be on his mind to lead with that kind of caution. He turned in Blaine's arms so they were face to face.

"Nothing bad. I don't think." Blaine's eyes were earnestly wide.

"Then I won't freak out."

Blaine took a breath. "I love you. I told you in a quote, and I said I love everythingabout you,and it doesn't seem fair to leave it like that. It should be real. And unambiguous. So. I love you."

"And it's not bad?" Kurt confirmed with just a little waver. Despite the previous hints at something close to it, Blaine's confession took him by surprise given Blaine's track record with love. He kept his excitement firmly under wraps while he watched Blaine's expression for a sign that told him he could be happy with the news.

"I think I've got it bad but it's definitely not a bad feeling." Blaine ran a nervous hand over his hair. "You told me we're untouchable. I can't doubt in us after that. Even I can't screw that up, right?" Blaine's nose wrinkled to counteract self-deprecation with being endearing.

"Oh!" Kurt belated realized he hadn't said it back. "I love you, too."

He hadn't realized how tensely Blaine held himself until he relaxed. A dopey grin splayed across Blaine's face. Perhaps Blaine told him things he needed to hear himself. Blaine deserved to hear it. "I'll try not to screw anything up either." Blaine tried to take care with Kurt's feelings and he should return the kindness. "You're too cute not to keep around."

He felt the want in Blaine's kiss. The relief too. Kurt could feel Blaine's heart pounding through the thin layers between them. He worked the first two buttons of Blaine's shirt free to kiss over the accelerated beat.

"I love you," he repeated. So pleased to say it. This was why people in love were so smug, he thought. Out of all the things he'd screwed up lately, he'd gotten this right.

He could tell Blaine was hard. "Subtle" would never be a word he would use to describe Blaine. Blaine got all wiggly and flushed and suddenly failed at maintaining eye contact as he tried to angle his hips away as much as possible. Endearing. His boyfriend's hard on was endearing. There's something he hadn't expected.

He was probably even more endearing with his pants off. Kurt turned that piece of information over in his mind.