The day after the entire group had gone into Lima to look for a Santa (and then actually had to sit in his lap – Kurt didn't think he'd ever done anything more awkward and crazier for Brittany than that. And yes, that included dating her for a week), Kurt was glad that Mr Schuester didn't come up with anymore ideas to gather money for their charity. He didn't think he'd be able to handle that. So when their director asked him to stay back for a moment after rehearsal, Kurt did get a tad suspicious.

He really didn't want to get another cat thrown at him at a nursing home in the middle of a song.

"What is it, Mr Schue?" he asked cautiously. "Do you need help finding yourself a look that doesn't involve so many vests?"

"Actually, Kurt," Mr Schuester started, "I need some holiday help. I don't know if you know this, but I am really bad at Christmas shopping."

No, Kurt hadn't known this. But, to be honest, he wasn't exactly surprised. As his teacher told him about how he had to buy coach Sylvester a gift this year, Kurt's mind was already working overtime. Thus, before Mr Schuester was done talking, Kurt smiled. "I have the perfect idea."

"Great!" Mr Schue exclaimed. "So can you… tell me what it is, or…?"

"I could," he replied. "But I'm honestly not sure if you'd buy the right thing. I'll look into it when I get home and I'll let you know tomorrow. Or do you have to have it by then?"

"No, no," Mr Schuester assured him. "Tomorrow's fine with me. Thanks, Kurt."

"It's really no problem," he responded. After all, he was Kurt Hummel, and this had to do with shopping. It was no problem at all.

o-o-o-o-o

The next day, Kurt had almost prepared a multimedia project to show Mr Schuester exactly what he had in mind for the present for coach Sylvester. Knowing fully well, though, that most people didn't have the patience to sit through one of those, he'd begrudgingly just printed some internet pages.

Since there was no Glee rehearsal that day, Kurt just took the liberty to waltz into Mr Schue's office. Ms Pillsbury was married now, after all, so there was no chance that he'd interrupt some private moment. As his teacher looked up, obviously surprised, Kurt just grabbed the stack of papers from his bag and placed them neatly onto the desk in front of him.

While Mr Schue looked through some of the pictures, Kurt glanced around at the office. It was a right mess. Boy, was he glad that he didn't have to come here more often.

"This looks great, Kurt," Mr Schue told him – not that he needed to, Kurt already knew that. "Can I buy it on the internet?"

"Oh, no, no, no," Kurt said with a finality that seemed to catch his teacher off guard. "It's a Christmas present, Mr Schue. Now I know you don't like coach Sylvester all that much, but Christmas presents are not to be bought on the internet. Buying those gifts yourself is… a huge part of the Christmas spirit." When Mr Schuester kept on giving him a weird look, Kurt continued, "I mean, if it wasn't so close to Christmas already and I'd have faith in your sewing or knitting skills, I'd say, make something yourself, but I think that would only end in great disaster. So, going to the mall and actually seeing the gift before buying it is the next best thing."

"Where in Lima do they sell these things?" Mr Schue asked, and Kurt braced himself before giving the answer.

"They don't. Not in Lima, that is," he hastily added. "I checked the internet, and I found a shop in Columbus that sells all kinds of tracksuits."

"But – Columbus?" Mr Schuester spluttered. "That's a two hour drive, Kurt!"

Said boy shrugged. "But you will have a gift nobody else got for her."

He knew that his teacher didn't really like coach Sylvester and thus, probably couldn't care less about getting an original gift for her, but he'd cared enough to come to Kurt for advice and not just buy something random.

"Can you give me the address, then?" Mr Schuester asked, defeated. "I'll drive by the store some time this weekend."

Kurt shot him another look. "You can't just buy the first tracksuit you come across," he informed his director. "You have to check if the colour isn't awful, if it's the right size, and not just some cheap material, and – " If possible, Mr Schuester looked even more defeated now. Kurt sighed. "I've got some Christmas shopping left to do," he said. "Might as well look for presents in Columbus." He did need some stuff, yes, but he'd actually planned on buying those things in Lima. Oh well – maybe in Columbus, there was more to choose from. Always shopping in Lima did get old after seventeen years.

"You're coming along?" Mr Schue asked, frowning slightly. Kurt had to agree – it was a little odd to walk around a mall with his teacher.

"I'll go by myself," he replied. "I need to get there in time, and that way, you can just buy the tracksuit and head back to Lima again."

"That would be very helpful, Kurt, thank you." Mr Schuester smiled. After making arrangements for the next Saturday, Kurt left the office and, after glancing around to see if there were any jocks around, the school.

His weekend was bound to be… interesting.

o-o-o-o-o

When Kurt arrived in Columbus that Saturday, it was still early. However, since it was almost Christmas, that didn't mean it wasn't packed already. At least Kurt knew what he needed and where he needed to be. He didn't feel like getting lost in a city he didn't know. If he were to finish early, maybe he could have a better look at some of the shops here.

Indeed, he had gathered almost everything he needed by the time he decided to grab a coffee. He was meeting up with Mr Schuester soon, and he didn't think he'd make it to the final two shops and back in time. Sitting down on a (freezing) bench outside the coffee shop, he glanced around. It looked like everyone had opted to do their Christmas shopping today. On top of that, it looked like people from all over Ohio had come here to shop for the holidays.

When he heard something next to him, he glanced sideways, coming face to face with a boy his age. "Hi," the boy greeted him, sounding slightly nervous. "Mind if I sit here?"

Kurt was surprised. Most people he knew wouldn't want to be caught dead sitting next to him. And nobody had ever seemed nervous when talking to him. "No, that's alright," he replied. "You can sit. It's not as if I own this bench."

The boy smiled slightly as he sat down. Kurt realised that he, too, was holding a coffee cup. Unlike Kurt, however, he didn't have any bags with him. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Kurt glancing at the other boy a couple of times, trying to work out what his motive for sitting here could be. The boy shot Kurt's bags a few glances too, as if wondering why there were so many (though by Kurt's standards, he didn't have that many bags) or what was in them or how he'd gathered them all so early in the morning (not that it was still that early).

Truth is, it was a little awkward. So when Kurt's coffee cup was empty, he let out a relieved, but hopefully silent enough, sigh. After gathering his shopping bags, he got up. With a small smile, a nod, and a soft "bye", he walked towards the shop where he'd arranged to meet his Glee coach soon.

Mr Schuester was late, but luckily, not more than a couple of minutes. Apparently, there was a lot more traffic on the road to Columbus now than when Kurt had been driving. He actually looked a bit scared of the store they were about to enter, which Kurt thought was preposterous. Yes, it may be full of tracksuits, but it wasn't going to swallow them whole.

In this environment, Kurt could easily observe his teacher's shopping habits, and he concluded that the older man had been right when he'd said that he was no good at Christmas gift shopping. Even when they were already in a store that had exactly what he needed, Mr Schuester still managed to point out the ugliest, least fashionable of them all (not that tracksuits were fashionable in the first place, but still – not that Kurt had expected anything better from the man who practically wore the same clothes every day). Or he'd inspect a tracksuit that was obviously way too small, or far too wide for coach Sylvester, or, if Kurt wasn't paying attention, the Glee club director tried to get away with wrong material choices and other inexcusable things.

Kurt was slowly getting a headache. Even Rachel Berry (of all people) wasn't as bad. It was a good thing that he hadn't let Mr Schuester come here by himself. He quickly steered his teacher away from all the awful tracksuits, praying to a God he didn't believe in that there was at least one decent tracksuit in this shop.

And there it was. Mostly black, with some gold-coloured stripes, with a fur-lined hood – just like he'd planned. Of course, neither Kurt nor Mr Schuester were entirely sure which size coach Sylvester was (that was such an awkward thought that Kurt banished it from his head as soon as it came up), but in the end, they managed to pick one that would probably fit. The materials were good and nothing else seemed wrong with it.

Mr Schuester looked relieved that they'd managed to find a tracksuit. However, Kurt knew that, even if they hadn't been able to find anything here, Mr Schue would've come back here after Kurt had left. Who knew what he would've bought in that case. This was much safer.

After the Glee director had paid for the tracksuit, the two walked out of the store in silence. Kurt didn't really have a clue what he could possibly talk about to his teacher, and it appeared that that feeling was mutual.

Suddenly recognising a street to his left (he had, after all, walked around this place for two hours already), he said, "I think I need to go this way. I've still got some shopping left to do."

Mr Schuester nodded in understanding. "So do I," he confessed. "But I think I'll wait until I'm back in Lima for that."

Kurt shrugged. "Now that I'm here anyway, I might as well stay here." No one even knew him here. No one was yelling slurs against him for a change. It was nice.

"Thanks for the help, Kurt," Mr Schuester told him. "I don't know what I would've done without your expertise."

Kurt chuckled. "I don't think I want to know."

All of a sudden, Mr Schuester was frowning. "Kurt, I think we're being followed."

"Followed?" Kurt echoed. "What – "

"Someone's following us," his teacher repeated. "Maybe it would be safer – "

So this was the moment when one of his teachers took notice of someone potentially stalking Kurt? In a shopping environment, where everyone was running around like mad people? Of course.

"I'm sure I'll be fine," he shrugged off the teacher's concern. "I survive McKinley every single day while getting harassed – I'm sure I can handle this. There are more people around here than at school, too, so perhaps nothing will happen. Or, if it does, someone will actually step in for a change." With that, he walked off, shouting briskly over his shoulder, "Enjoy your weekend, Mr Schue."

As he continued shopping for Christmas necessities, Kurt couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. Mr Schuester must've been right – Kurt constantly felt a pair of eyes on him, watching him as he walked, and the person attached to those eyes was probably following him indeed.

Making sure to never actually look around, Kurt stubbornly continued shopping. If this was how it was going to be, then fine. He'd just drive back to Lima after he was done and maybe come back here another time.

Just as he was sifting through his bags to check if he'd bought everything he needed, someone tapped his shoulder. He'd like to say he didn't jump when that happened, but that would be a lie. He quickly spun around to see the shoulder tapper and came face to face with… the boy he'd seen earlier. The boy who'd asked if he could sit on the same bench as Kurt.

Well. That was unexpected.

Again, the boy looked slightly flustered. When Kurt raised an eyebrow at him in question, he said, "Hi," smiling nervously. "Sorry – did I startle you?" Now he actually looked concerned.

Kurt quickly shrugged it off. "It's fine." It wasn't like he wasn't used to people coming up behind him anyway. At this, the boy smiled a bit, but Kurt was still curious. "What did you need? Did I lose anything?"

"Oh, no," the boy replied. "Not that I know of, anyway. No, I was wondering…" He trailed off, shuffling his feet uneasily. Then, he stared at Kurt's bags again before continuing. "You're obviously good at Christmas shopping. Would you… mind giving me a few pointers?"

Of all the things the boy could've possibly wanted, Kurt hadn't been expecting this one. "You want me to help you Christmas shopping?" he asked incredulously. "You – I don't even know you!"

The boy had the decency to look abashed at this. After a moment, he smiled apologetically at Kurt. "I guess I'm just very desperate," he admitted. "Please? I could buy you coffee afterwards." He started sounding hopeful again. In an afterthought, he added, "Or I suppose I could just pay you, if you'd prefer that. How much – "

Kurt stared at him for a moment, wide-eyed. This boy was obviously crazy. "You want to pay me to help you?" he asked, wondering where on earth this boy came from. When the boy looked at him confusedly, obviously wondering what was wrong with that, Kurt shook his head resolutely. He loved shopping, and while he wouldn't being someone's (maybe Lady Gaga's?) personal shopper, it seemed ridiculous that a random boy his age would want to pay him to help him find Christmas gifts or whatever he needed. "No," he said firmly. "No way." When the boy's face fell, he quickly continued, "I guess I could give you some pointers, but you really don't have to pay me for that…"

The boy nodded hesitantly. "Alright," he replied. "If you're sure."

Kurt looked the boy up and down before asking, "What exactly do you need? Have you already bought something?"

The boy shook his head, seeming ashamed of himself. "No, I haven't. I really have no idea what to buy." With a sigh, he added, "And I still need to buy everything."

"Everything?" Kurt asked carefully, fearing the worst.

The boy nodded. "Yeah. All my presents – for my parents, some friends…"

Well, that wasn't so bad. "No siblings?" Kurt inquired, just to be sure. "No… significant other?" He had to admit, even though this boy was making an odd first (or second?) impression on him, he was fairly cute. Surely –

"No, I don't have any of those," the boy responded with a smile, and Kurt decided to not even think about why that felt like such a relief to him.

He briefly closed his eyes – how on earth was he going to do this? "Alright," he said after a brief pause. "Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to put these bags in my car first, and then we'll have that coffee you offered. You can tell me some things about your friends and family while we drink the coffee, so I'll at least know for what kinds of people you're shopping."

The boy nodded enthusiastically. "Thank you, so much! I'm Blaine, by the way." He held out a hand for Kurt to shake, which the other boy took.

"I'm Kurt," he said cautiously. "And – did you follow me around all this time?"

Blaine's eyes widened. "Follow you? I – yeah, alright. I did," he admitted. "But not in a creepy way!" he added hastily. "I was just curious."

"How's that supposed to be not creepy?" Kurt retorted. He glanced around for a moment, figuring out the best way to return to his car. "Let's go. I want to get back home before… well, never mind." There was no way he'd get home before the dark now anyway.

As they walked towards the parking lot where Kurt had found a parking spot for his car this morning, Blaine was oddly quiet.

"You can start telling me about the gift receivers, you know," Kurt informed him. "The more you tell me, the better the present ideas will be."

Blaine seemed to snap out of an intricate thought process. "Yeah, of course," he mumbled, frowning at his own words. "Uh – I was thinking of maybe getting all my friends the same kind of – "

"Seriously?" Kurt asked. "That's your brilliant plan?"

Blaine scoffed, obviously offended. "It's what we always do," he replied. "Everyone buys the exact same thing for everyone."

Now that Kurt thought about it, almost half his friends did pretty much the same thing – sure, they didn't buy the same thing for everyone, but all the presents were pretty similar.

"Fine," he gave in. "But – "

He was interrupted by twin shouts of, "Blaine!"

Kurt hurriedly stepped back when two boys – a blonde and a brunet – in identical clothes came out of nowhere and jumped Blaine with an enthusiasm that Kurt had never seen before on people his age.

"What are you doing here?" the blond boy asked happily once they'd let go of the shorter boy.

Blaine scowled slightly. "Shopping for Christmas gifts, of course," he replied, sounding almost too calm for it to be real.

Only now did the two new boys notice Kurt. "And you appointed him as your bag carrier?" the brown-haired boy asked, throwing Blaine a disappointed look. "Honestly, Blaine, I'd expected better from you."

"I haven't bought anything yet," Blaine replied, and Kurt nodded.

"This is my stuff," he clarified.

Now, both boys sent Blaine disappointed looks. "And you haven't offered to carry his bags for him yet, Blaine?" the blonde asked.

"We're only bringing them to my car," Kurt explained, not fully understanding why these boys were giving Blaine so much trouble over this.

"And after that, Kurt's helping me buy Christmas presents," Blaine added, sending Kurt a small smile.

"Really, Blaine?" the blond boy asked him incredulously. "You'd think that you, as a gay guy, would be able to go Christmas shopping by yourself. But hey – you hadn't even told us you had a boyfriend! Congratulations!"

Blaine looked mortified, and Kurt guessed that he mustn't look much different. This was too much to process at once –

"You're gay?" he asked Blaine disbelievingly.

Blaine's eyes widened, as did the other two boys'. "Wait, so he's not your boyfriend?" the brown-haired boy asked. Both he and his blond friend looked oddly disappointed about this.

"No, I'm not," Kurt informed them. "I didn't even know – he – "

Obviously, Blaine was thinking clearly again. "I doubt you go around telling people that," he reminded Kurt. "In fact, you didn't tell me either."

Blaine's friends seemed thoroughly confused now. "Wait – how long have you two even known each other?" the blonde asked.

Blaine checked his watch. "About… twenty minutes?" he replied warily.

"Blaine," the blond boy started, "did you honestly ask a complete stranger to help you shop for Christmas presents?"

"And you agreed to help him?" the brunet asked, turning to Kurt.

Then, the two boys turned towards each other and grinned wickedly. "We'll just leave you to it," the blond boy said with a smirk.

"Have fun!" his brown-haired friend shouted over his shoulder as they swiftly walked off.

After a minute of silence, Blaine said, "Sorry about my friends."

"That's alright," Kurt said feebly, not knowing why he was feeling so self-conscious all of a sudden. Perhaps it was because the other boy turned out to be gay now? He had to admit, it did make a little more sense now. Straight boys would never approach Kurt for any other reason than to shout abuse at him, or to physically harm him. Taking a deep breath, he asked, "Do you have to buy those two gifts as well?"

"Sadly, yes," Blaine answered. "Um. Anyway – do you need help with those bags?"

Kurt smirked inwardly. "No, that's fine. We're almost there anyway." He knew he was right, but still, he was glad to see the parking lot he'd left his car in this morning when they walked around a corner. As he carefully put the bags in the trunk, he remembered something – Blaine's friends' clothes had looked very familiar to him.

"Do your friends attend Dalton Academy?" he asked Blaine, turning towards him and locking his car.

Blaine cocked his head to the side somewhat. "Yes, they do," he replied. "As do I. Why? How did you guess?"

"The uniforms," Kurt admitted. "They were just slightly visible." He had to admit, though, that he was glad Blaine was not in uniform. "We – my Glee club competed against the Warblers at Sectionals."

As he said this, Blaine suddenly stood still. He looked at Kurt with wide eyes. "Seriously?" he asked. "You're in New Directions?"

Ah, Blaine was obviously aware of the competition. "Well, I'm too young to be in the Hipsters, so that's a definite 'yes'," he quipped.

When Blaine continued staring at him, Kurt took a better look at the other boy too. Now that he thought about it, the boy in front of him looked familiar as well.

"You're their lead singer," he stated, rather than asked, in the end. Yes, he definitely remembered the short boy in front of the other Warblers now. He'd been charming then, and he was still charming now.

"You caught me," Blaine said with a cheery smile. "Come on now. How about that coffee?"

o-o-o-o-o

Over coffee, Blaine told Kurt all about his parents. Still, Kurt felt like he was only telling him the more superficial things – what tv shows they liked, what their hobbies were, what they did for a living. He didn't tell Kurt about what they were like. Kurt reckoned that that was to be expected, seeing as they'd known one another for less than an hour. There just seemed to be something… like maybe a different reason why Blaine wouldn't tell him those things. Maybe it wasn't just the short time they'd known each other for.

As it turned out, Blaine also needed presents for his entire Glee club, much like Kurt had. The difference, of course, was that in Blaine's case, the other Glee club members were all private school boys who were much more structured than anyone at McKinley.

While they wandered through Columbus, looking for the right presents, there was definitely some small talk too and – dare he think it? – perhaps even some flirting. Some time later – Kurt didn't think it had been too long, but Blaine appeared to be thinking otherwise – they had gathered everything Blaine could possibly need.

Even though Kurt proposed to go back home now, Blaine managed to convince him to come along for yet another cup of coffee. Blaine was quite the caffeine addict, Kurt thought.

Like they'd done while shopping, they chatted about all kinds of things now and, as it turned out, they had quite a few things in common. That prompted Kurt to just take the leap and ask for Blaine's number afterwards. Yes, they were officially still each other's competition, but he wasn't going to refuse a friendship with another gay guy his age when it was handed to him like this.

Plus, if Blaine thought otherwise and didn't want to hang out after today, there was no harm done – apart from bruising Kurt's ego a little, of course. They'd only see each other at Regionals after this anyway.

To his relief, though, Blaine was more than happy to hand over his phone to allow Kurt to type out his number. After that, Blaine recited his own number to Kurt.

When they finally left the coffee shop, it was almost dinner time, and Kurt hoped that his father wouldn't mind too much. He knew how Kurt could get when given the opportunity to shop, but you never knew.

o-o-o-o-o

Blaine had never been happier. Or, should he say, more in love. Because he was sure that that was what this feeling was. He'd only gone on a handful of coffee dates with Kurt – okay, who was he kidding? They'd done that at least once a week since they'd met in December (even before Christmas). And okay, he admitted that they'd also visited the community theatre a couple of times. They texted constantly and called each other almost daily.

Yes. Blaine was certain that he was in love, much to the satisfaction of Nick and Jeff, who hadn't stopped bothering him about Kurt since they'd seen them together.

However, he and Kurt were not together. Not like that. And Blaine really wanted that to happen. Good thing it was almost Valentine's Day and the Warblers went along with anything he proposed.

o-o-o-o-o

Valentine's Day had never been Kurt's favourite holiday. This year was probably worse than other years, seeing as pretty much all his friends had someone to spend this special day with. He didn't like to admit it, but he did want someone to spend this day with as well. He figured he could, perhaps, ask Blaine, but they were just friends. And also each other's competition.

During Glee rehearsal after school nobody was paying attention. It was a complete chaos. It might have to do with the fact that everyone else had already left – all the other school clubs and teams (perhaps with the exception of cheerleading practice) had been cancelled as a result of almost every student making plans for after school regardless of whatever activity they were supposed to go to.

All of a sudden, there was a commotion outside in the hallway. It sounded like a group of students were entering the school again – which was odd. The doors to the choir room were never closed, and now was not an exception, so they could hear the students walking down the hallways. The Glee kids shared some confused glances, not really knowing what to think or do.

When a dark-haired boy nobody knew stuck his head into the room, everyone stared back confusedly. He regarded them all silently, then glanced at the piano and the other instruments. Grinning widely, he stepped into full view and shouted down the hallway, "I found them! They're here!"

Kurt, like many of his friends, only had eyes for what the boy was wearing. A Dalton Academy uniform.

Oh God. What if Blaine was here too?

Kurt quickly shook his head. There was simply no way Blaine was not somehow involved in this. When the Dalton boy disappeared again, everyone turned to Kurt, who suddenly regretted telling them (under pressure, mind you) about the whole Blaine situation. He checked his phone, hoping that there was some kind of message from Blaine that could help him figure out what was about to go down here.

Of course, there was no such message.

Footsteps – a whole lot of them – approached the choir room. "Should we go outside?" Tina asked doubtfully.

Before anyone could react, voices were heard. There was no mistaking who they were or what they were doing, and Rachel sat a little straighter in her chair, smiling happily.

After all, it wasn't every day that your competition came to your school to perform. They hadn't even needed to break into Dalton for this – in fact, it was exactly the other way around.

Kurt just eyed the door suspiciously. Something weird was going on here. A moment later, Blaine appeared, while his teammates kept backing him up. Kurt didn't have much time to appreciate the harmonies, however, as Blaine was looking right at him as he sang.

Oh.

He knew this song. Who had told Blaine that this was a good song to sing to someone? On Valentine's Day?

Kurt glanced sideways, but he was trapped in between Mercedes and Quinn, who both looked a little constipated, if Kurt was honest. It was very likely that they knew the song as well and were anticipating what was to come. Kurt could hardly wait.

More Warblers filtered into the choir room, moving around a little as Blaine had jumped onto one of the empty chairs. Kurt didn't really know what to do. On one hand, this would soon become one of the most embarrassing situations he'd ever been in, so he wanted to look anywhere but Blaine; on the other hand, this was the first time someone was singing to him… almost serenading him, he reckoned, so he was supposed to keep looking at Blaine, right?

By now, Blaine had jumped off of the chair again, only to sit down on top of the piano instead. Some other Warblers joined him as they harmonised. Kurt was still hoping that maybe, they would only sing the first verses and the chorus. Not the stuff that came after that. This was bad enough already.

Before he knew what was happening, most of his teammates got up from their seats and started dancing along, harmonising the best they could (compared to the Warblers… well, they had a long way to go) – and Kurt was the only one still sitting. Not for long, though – Brittany happily pulled him up to dance along. Soon, he was face to face with Blaine, who was grinning like a fool as he continued singing.

Oh, great. Now Blaine was singing about sex toys. Very awkward. Kurt stepped back a little, trying not to get squished by the two Glee clubs that were moving around the choir room now. Blaine, like the puppy he'd turned out to be after getting to know Kurt a little better, seemed to light up and followed him around (talk about déjà vu), obviously seeing this as a fun game.

Still, there appeared to be some sort of choreography that went with this… song, as the Warblers started playfully shooing the New Directions members back into their seats. Only now, Kurt was sitting in the front row.

When the song was (finally!) done, Blaine was standing right in front of Kurt, a satisfied grin on his face. Kurt had to admit that his happiness was contagious; even though the song had been completely inappropriate, he felt quite giddy.

"Get some, Hummel!" Puck shouted appreciatively, while Santana was fanning herself. Kurt should've known that those two would like the song choice. Finn, however, looked a bit confused, but Kurt was well aware that, once the confusion dissipated, Finn would not hesitate to tell Blaine off for the song choice (much like Kurt was planning on doing), and probably even tell Kurt's father about it – who, in turn, would be very inclined to dislike Blaine before they'd even met.

"So?" Blaine asked, still smiling down at Kurt hopefully. "What did you think?"

Kurt smiled back, though much less brightly than Blaine. "Let's take this outside, alright?"

With that, he got up and almost marched out of the room, Blaine following hastily. "Didn't you like it?" he asked after they'd turned a corner, his face falling.

Kurt sighed and turned towards him. "Blaine – you sang me a song about… I'm not even going to repeat it here. But now all my friends think we're having sex all the time, and right now as well, come to think of it. I'm not sure what you wanted to do here, but… that song was entirely inappropriate."

Blaine looked down at the floor. "So you didn't like it?" he repeated his question, now a little quieter.

"I – " Kurt started. "No, Blaine – I like the idea behind it. I think," he continued after a moment. "I just… didn't like the… lyrics too much."

Now it was Blaine's turn to sigh. "Yeah, the other guys did send me some weird looks when I told them what song I was planning on singing," he admitted. Then, his face lit up. "Come on!" he told Kurt, dragging him along. "I bought you something!"

"You bought me something?" Kurt asked sceptically. This was Blaine they were talking about, after all – the boy who'd gotten desperate enough to ask a complete stranger for help with finding good Christmas presents.

Blaine nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! I hope you'll like it. I didn't really know what to get you, because we've never talked about that sort of things." Growing a little more serious, he added, "If you don't like it, that's fine. I just… hope you'll appreciate the gesture."

Kurt smiled a little. "Blaine – I do appreciate the song, I told you that. Just not the lyrics."

Blaine had, by now, dragged him towards the parking lot. "I didn't have any time to wrap it, though," he said. "So just… consider the car one big wrapper."

Laughing lightly at that, Kurt waited for Blaine to unlock the car. When he opened the trunk, Kurt had no idea what to think. He recognised it from the Lima Bean, where they'd been selling stuff like this for today.

He also remembered telling Blaine explicitly that he thought it was completely tacky. Well then. He really didn't want to know what Blaine bought his family and friends for Christmas in previous years.

He quickly plastered a smile onto his face. "Thank you!" he exclaimed, not quite knowing what to do. "It's very… cute." He hoped that would be enough for Blaine, remembering that he had liked this… thing. According to him, it symbolised puppy love.

Wait – love?

Blaine was beaming at him. He took the decoration out of the trunk and handed it to Kurt. "I was hoping that you would… do me the honour of going out with me tonight?" he asked, sounding slightly nervous now. "As in, on a date?"

A first date on Valentine's Day? That was tremendously cliché in Kurt's books, but with Blaine, he couldn't find it in himself to care much. "But I didn't even get you anything," he protested.

"Just your company would be enough for me," Blaine replied, smiling happily.

Kurt rolled his eyes. "That's so cheesy."

"You love it," Blaine retorted. "Just admit it."

"Fine." Kurt faked an exasperated sigh. "I'll let you take me out tonight. Where are we going?"

Something glinted in Blaine's eye. "That's a surprise."

Before Kurt could press the matter, he was jumped by two boys in blazer. He recognised them as the two who'd 'attacked' Blaine almost two months before in Columbus.

"Can we call you Blaine's boyfriend now?" the brown-haired one asked excitedly.

Kurt glanced from him to Blaine, who was blushing. It was cute, Kurt thought.

"I don't know," he replied. "Maybe if tonight goes well and he asks – though if he doesn't, perhaps I may have to do that."

That answer seemed good enough for the two boys.

"Oh, by the way," the blonde told him, "your friends want you back in the choir room. We need to interrogate Blaine anyway. He'll pick you up tonight!"

Before Kurt could tell them that Blaine didn't even know where he lived (as far as he was aware), and that it was terribly crazy to drive back to Westerville now, and come back to Lima tonight, they'd all but pushed him into the car and seated themselves as well. All the other Warblers were getting ready to leave as well, so Kurt quickly moved away from Blaine's car. He'd have to put this… puppy love thing in his car before he went back inside or he'd never live it down.

As he watched Blaine and his friends pull out of the parking lot, he hoped with all his might that Blaine was better at picking out restaurants than at picking out gifts.