Kurt was perusing the NYADA online course catalog, trying to figure out how to fit his remaining requirements into his senior year when all of the interesting classes seemed to be scheduled at the exact same time, when his phone buzzed with a text.

From Blaine:  Are you free tonight?  Please say yes.

From Kurt:  YES!  Are your tour guide duties over?

Marley Rose had been staying with Blaine and Sam for a few days.  She was going to be a freshman at NYU this fall, and had extended her orientation visit to New York so that Blaine and Sam could give her some additional tips for living in the city.  Kurt suspected Marley just wanted to bask in the general merriment that was Blam before going back to Lima.  Since Kurt had reluctantly started checking Facebook again (he could hardly help it, after the flurry of posts that followed after he and Blaine had revealed their relationship status) he realized how closely Blaine and Sam had kept in touch with the younger New Directions crowd.  They were good mentors, he thought, even if Sam's advice tended to be a little off the wall at times. 

From Blaine:  Marley's seeing some other friends tonight, so I'm off the hook. 

From Kurt:  She has other friends?

From Blaine:  Ha, ha.  Pick me up around seven?  We could try that new burger place.

Kurt understood the importance of heart healthy eating as well as the next guy whose dad had heart problems, but he had been dying to try this new gourmet burger restaurant near Blaine's apartment, and Blaine knew it.

From Kurt:  My arm is thoroughly twisted.  See you soon.

When Sam let him in to the apartment that night, Blaine and Marley were deep in conversation.  They had produced a keyboard out of somewhere (Kurt vaguely thought he might have seen it in a corner of Sam's room one night when Rachel insisted on modeling three identical clingy black dresses for him), and Blaine was perched attentively in front of it while Marley shuffled through a folder of sheet music. 

“Marley's got some kind of audition and wanted Blaine to help her pick a song,” Sam explained.

Blaine looked up as Kurt approached.  “Kurt!  Hi!”  He popped up off the stool and gave Kurt a slightly off balance hug as Marley looked on shyly.  “Kurt, you remember Marley, right?”

“Of course,” Kurt said, extending his hand for Marley to shake, keeping his other hand around Blaine's waist.  He was looking very summery today in a light purple polo and khaki shorts, with a green and blue striped belt.  Kurt had taken to tucking a finger into the waistband of Blaine's shorts when they stood this way, sort of a cross between a caress and a way to hang on to him when he wobbled.

Marley took his hand awkwardly but smiled warmly at him.  “Hi, Kurt.  It's really nice to see you.”  She looked very pretty in a pale floral dress and blue scarf, but still had that deer in the headlights look about her that Kurt remembered.  It was hard to believe she was going to college.  New York was going to eat her up.

“What are you auditioning for?”  Kurt asked.

“I want to try out for one of the a capella groups at NYU.”  Marley tucked her music back into her folder and set her shoulders.  “I think Blaine should do it too, but he won't.”

Kurt glanced at Blaine, who was keeping a decidedly neutral expression on his face.  “Nope,” he said simply.  “But I promise to come to all your concerts and cheer louder than everyone else.”

Marley opened her mouth to continue the argument but Sam stepped in, putting his arm around her and turning her towards the door.  “Didn't you say you had to meet your friends soon?  Let me walk you out.”

“Sorry, Blaine,” she said, giggling as she grabbed her purse and let Sam pull her out of the apartment.  “Bye, Kurt!”

Blaine sagged a little against Kurt, and Kurt wrapped both arms around him and gave him a soft kiss.  He tasted like lemonade – maybe Sam was playing English butler again today.  NYU did have excellent student a capella groups, and Kurt was sure Blaine didn't need Marley to tell him about them.  Blaine had probably already watched all of their videos on you tube and casually re-arranged their numbers to better showcase each member's voice.   Kurt knew why Blaine wouldn't audition, however, and it didn't have anything to do with his musicianship.  “They'd be lucky to have you,” Kurt whispered in Blaine's ear. 

Blaine nodded, keeping his head pressed against Kurt's for a moment, and then straightened up.  He tilted his head, as if listening to something.  “Do you hear that?”

Kurt couldn't help but smile at the silly expression on Blaine's face.  “No, I don't hear anything.”

“It's a gigantic burger calling your name.  Come on, let's go.”

By the time they were finally seated at the restaurant (which unfortunately was packed full, probably more as a result of the celebrity chef's name attached to it than the quality of the food), it was almost eight o'clock, and Kurt was starving.  They quickly made their selections – Blaine pretending to order a salad before settling on a burger with salsa and cheese, and Kurt not making any attempt to pretend as he ordered one with bacon and barbeque sauce.  Luckily their sweet potato fries came quickly, and after a few minutes of focusing on eating, Kurt took a breath and looked at Blaine.  “Sorry.  I think I can actually carry on a conversation now.”

Blaine laughed, his eyes doing that adorable scrunchy thing.  “It's okay, I know how you get when you're hungry.  By the way, my mom wants to know when you'll be performing next.  She's sort of fixated on hearing you sing.”

“How did that come up?” 

“I'm not sure, I figured it must have been something you two had discussed when she was here for my surgery.  You never did tell me what you guys talked about.”

Kurt smiled and sat up straighter.  “Nothing much.  Just how your parents will do anything to make you happy, including your mom continuing to be as sweet to me as she always has been.”

“She adores you, Kurt, you know she does.”

“I didn't really think that adoration would hold up after everything that's happened.”

“I continue to adore you, why wouldn't she?”  Blaine's eyes twinkled as he smiled broadly at Kurt.

“There was something else she said, though, that I wanted to pass on.  Just in case you hadn't heard it before,” Kurt began.

“Oh?”

“They really will support you in whatever you do, you know that, right?”

Blaine nodded.  “I do, yeah.”

“But your mom said they thought it was too soon, before – the engagement, I mean – but that she thought our relationship could be even stronger now.”

Blaine propped his head on his hand, looking thoughtful.  “I'm not surprised they thought it was too soon.  Pretty much everyone did.  I am kind of surprised she told you that, though.”

“I think she was trying to make me feel better, about us calling it off.”

“Did it work?”

“A little.  But I liked the other part even better.”

“That she thinks our relationship could be stronger now?”

Kurt nodded.  “Although I guess we have to take that as a given, otherwise we'd be crazy to do this at all.  If we didn't think it would last this time.”  Kurt suddenly felt nervous, almost as if he expected Blaine to argue with him.  Blaine wanted this to last too, didn't he?

“Kurt, are you okay?”  Blaine slid his chair closer to him and put an arm around his shoulder, pulling him close.  “Of course we're going to be stronger this time.  Unbreakable.  Like a diamond.”

Kurt let Blaine just hold him for a minute, resting his face against Blaine's, feeling the light stubble on his cheek.  “I think so too.”

They sat up when the waiter brought over their milkshakes, taking turns tasting each of them – Blaine got a vanilla malt, and Kurt opted for chocolate.   Kurt cleared his throat.  “Speaking of parents, I wanted to ask you something.”  Kurt waited while Blaine handed his glass back.  “My dad and Carole are going to be at my uncle's this weekend.  Would you want to come visit them with me?  My uncle's house is really nice.  He's got a pool, and a hot tub….”  Kurt hoped the offer sounded attractive, and not just like he was hoping Blaine would come with him and break up the possible tension of a weekend with Burt and Carole.  Not that there was definitely going to be tension, but there certainly was the last time he had been with the two of them.

“Your dad and Carole both?”

“Yeah.  My dad says things are going better between them, and I haven't seen her in a while, so they thought they'd both come this time.”  Kurt bit his lip.  His dad still wasn't being very forthcoming about the problems they were having, and with each phone call, he worried that Burt would tell him that he and Carole were divorcing.  He'd lost too many people in his family already, he didn't want to lose Carole, too, much less think about his dad all alone in Lima.

Blaine put a hand on Kurt's knee.  “I'd love to see them.  When would it be, exactly?  I've got PT Friday morning.”

“I thought we could leave Friday afternoon, spend the weekend, and come back on Sunday.  I have to be back for a rehearsal at NYADA Sunday night, so we wouldn't be coming home late.”

“That sounds great.”  A look of concern flashed over Blaine's face, and he frowned.  “Let me just check with Sam?”

“Of course.  We can always just go early Saturday morning, instead, if that would work better.”  Kurt was on the edge of suggesting that Sam come with them, but he really wanted to have some time just with Blaine.   As much as that could be accomplished with his parents and his uncle there, too.

“I think he'll be okay with it.  It's just, you know…”

“I know.  How's he doing, anyway?”

Blaine brightened up.  “So much better.  He's been on the new medication for about ten days now – not long enough yet for any real changes, I think, but enough time for Sam to feel like it's not going to do anything bad to him.  He's keeping track of how much he sleeps, and whether he has nightmares and how hard it is for him to go back to sleep, and he's feeling much more in control.”

“I'm so glad,” Kurt said, taking Blaine's hand.  “You look like you're sleeping better, too.”

“Are you saying I looked tired before?  You don't find those dark circles under my eyes attractive?”  Blaine joked.

“I find everything about you attractive,” Kurt reassured him, thinking to himself how ridiculously true this was.  He was interrupted in his attempt to seal it with a kiss when their burgers arrived. 

Blaine smiled anyway, and bounced a little in appreciation.  “It is true that I'm sleeping better.  Both my leg and Sam have been cooperating.  I feel like a parent whose baby is finally sleeping through the night.”  Blaine paused to cut his burger in quarters, and then carefully maneuver one piece to his mouth. 

“You have a lot of personal experience with babies, do you?”

“None at all,” Blaine said, wiping his mouth with his napkin and grinning.  “But Marley's cousin had a baby last winter, so I've heard a lot about it.”

“You and Marley really kept in touch.”

Blaine nodded.  “Probably more than with any of the other kids in her year, except for Kitty, but that's been different.  I sort of feel obligated to look out for Marley.  I know it might not make any sense, but I kind of identify with her.”

Kurt thought about this for a minute, while he wrestled with his burger and tried not to get any barbeque sauce on his clothes.  He thought he knew what Blaine was talking about, but didn't want to assume.  “Tell me more?”

Blaine looked at him uncertainly, then seemed to make up his mind.  “We never talked much about when I first went to Dalton.”

“Before you became the Warblers' sexy lead soloist?”

“Exactly.”  Blaine pushed his plate aside and took his glass between both his hands.  “I was pretty nervous about going there.  I wasn't sure about what kind of reception I'd get.  Plus the work was so much harder than in public school.”  Kurt nodded in agreement; he had experienced that shocker first hand.  “It took me a while for me to feel like I was good enough to be there, not just some charity case they took in to show how politically correct the school was.”

Kurt covered Blaine's hands with his.  They were cold from the glass, and he rubbed them gently.  “That feeling never really goes away, does it?”  he asked softly.

Blaine shook his head.  “No, not entirely.”  He moved his hands off the glass and took Kurt's in his, gazing at him intently.  “It goes up and down, though, for me.  And lately, I feel like things are really looking up.”

Kurt thought he was going to melt, with the way Blaine was looking at him.  “Me too.”  And this time it didn't matter if the waiter was hovering nearby to clear their plates, or about to serve them free champagne, Kurt was going to kiss the living daylights out of his boyfriend.  And he did.

Walking back to Blaine's apartment that night after dinner was slow going.  It was almost three weeks since the surgery, and Blaine had switched to using a cane as of a few days ago.  Kurt really didn't think he was steady enough for it, but Blaine complained like crazy about how the crutches made his underarms sore, and he clearly wasn't going to use the wheelchair, so Kurt just tried to be patient and stick as close to him as he could.

Kurt could tell Blaine was getting tired and struggling to keep his balance.  They were just a block from his apartment, starting to cross the street, when a bike messenger coming around the corner came too close and sideswiped Blaine, knocking him into the road.  A cab followed behind the bike, and Kurt felt the world close in around him as it braked, trying to avoid Blaine.  He couldn't see what was happening over the parked car in front of him, but he heard screaming and a car horn.  “Blaine!”