The next morning, Blaine woke up when he heard footsteps on the stairs. For a moment, he was completely disoriented; this didn't look like his house or his dorm at all, and this certainly wasn't his bed either. When Kurt's father came into view – most likely just checking to see if Blaine was really on the couch – Blaine remembered where he was and how he'd gotten there.

He was glad Mr Hummel didn't come in and interrogate him about their night – for he wasn't quite sure how to explain what had happened, even to himself – but instead just said, "Morning, Blaine. You can use the upstairs bathroom if you want."

Blaine nodded, a little dazed still. "Thanks, Mr Hummel."

Kurt's father seemed to hesitate for a moment before telling him, "Just call me Burt, kid."

Smiling slightly to himself, Blaine sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes. He suddenly caught sight of his phone – which he'd set to silent the previous night – and noticed, to his surprise, that he had more than ten missed calls and even more text messages. He picked up his phone and looked through the calls and texts – they were all from his friends.

All of a sudden, Blaine realised that he hadn't informed them of the fact that he'd be staying at Kurt's after the non-date. His blood running cold, he grabbed the phone and hurried out of the living room, stumbled upstairs, and dove into the bathroom as soon as he'd found it – without, of course, remembering to bring his clothes as well. He'd worry about that later, though, as he now had more urgent matters to attend.

Scrolling through the lists of calls and texts, he concluded that the last person to have called him was Wes, about ten minutes before Jeff had last texted him - which had been in the middle of the night.

We'll just assume you're at Kurt's for now. If we haven't heard from you in the morning, we're calling your parents and/or the police.

It was still early, and weekend, but Blaine figured it'd be best to call his friends nevertheless. He waited impatiently for Wes to pick up his phone, and when that happened, Blaine was met by a cacophony of voices, all shouting and screaming at him. Had everyone slept in one room, or what?

"Wes?" Blaine asked tentatively.

"Where were you last night?" the head councilman demanded. "Why didn't you pick up your phone?"

"I set it to silent before the show started," Blaine replied, shifting uncomfortably even though his friends were nowhere near him. "I must've forgotten to switch it back afterwards."

Not that he thought Kurt or his father would've appreciated being awoken by Blaine's phone in the middle of the night.

"So are you still at Kurt's house?" Wes asked, sounding almost amused while asking that question.

"Yes, I am," Blaine confirmed. Hearing some loud whoops and laughing through the phone, he frowned. "Am I on speakerphone, Wes?"

"Yeah, you are," Wes replied, obviously grinning or something like it. "I must say, Blaine, I'm impressed. You work pretty quickly. Does his dad know you're there?"

Blaine fought the urge to roll his eyes. "It was his dad's idea, actually. He didn't want me to have to drive back to Westerville after the show, so he set up the couch for me. Which is where I stayed the entire night, if you must know."

"Alright, alright," Wes said. "Could you just let us know when you're staying over the next time?"

"You're not my parents," Blaine protested. "Why were you even so worried? You never worry whenever David stays out for a night, or Jeff."

"You're not Jeff, or David," Wes replied. "It was the first time you were gone the entire night, we weren't exactly sure where you could be, and besides, something could've happened to you, Blaine. You could've been in an accident, or a bunch of homophobes could've cornered you on your way out of the theatre. Besides, the reason we normally don't worry is because we're told if someone'll stay away for the night, either before going out or by text. We're your friends, Blaine. Friends should look out for each other, right?"

Blaine sighed. He hadn't known about that, to be honest. "Right," he said. "Sorry, Wes. But you didn't ask either."

"We figured you'd come back," Wes responded. For a moment, there was a silence. "We'll talk when you get back to Dalton, alright?"

"Sure," Blaine replied, not really looking forward to that talk.

After hanging up again, Blaine walked back downstairs to grab his clothes, and he bumped into Kurt's father (he'd need some time to get used to calling the man 'Burt'). "Uh – " he started not-very-eloquently, but Mr Hummel didn't seem fazed by that.

"I'm going to the garage now," he told Blaine, who only then remembered that the car shop was, indeed, opened on Saturdays. "I'm just going to have to trust you boys to stay here alone. No funny business, understood?"

Blaine gaped at him. "No, of course not, sir," he replied dutifully. Did Kurt's dad –

He didn't really have any time to think about that, as the man had left the house already and now Blaine was just standing there in the hallway; at least, until he got his feet to move again. He moved to the living room almost mechanically, picked up his clothes and left his phone on the table, and walked back upstairs. He'd see if Kurt was awake already when he was done in the bathroom. He didn't want his friend (or what was it that they were now?) to see him with his hair like this. Pausing on the top of the stairs, Blaine realised that he hadn't brought any hair gel. He hadn't seen anything of the kind in the bathroom just now, and while he was certain that Kurt must have some sort of stuff to put in his hair, he wasn't sure if he could just ask. After all, Kurt would notice his hair if he did. Perhaps he could just sneak into Kurt's bathroom, apply some of Kurt's product(s), and then wake up Kurt.

By the time he walked back downstairs, however, it was clear to him that Kurt was, in fact, already up and awake, and making breakfast in the kitchen. For a moment, Blaine contemplated sneaking past and going downstairs anyway – he could always claim he hadn't noticed Kurt already being up – to get some hair product, but then his stomach rumbled rather loudly, and Kurt glanced up.

For a moment, Blaine thought Kurt wasn't going to take any notice of the different way his hair was styled (if you could call it that, as Blaine hadn't done anything to it yet), but then Kurt's eyes travelled upwards. Blaine smiled sheepishly, debating whether he should enter the kitchen or run back upstairs.

"Your hair…," Kurt muttered. To Blaine's surprise, he sounded almost in awe; not at all what Blaine had been expecting.

"I know, it's awful," he said nevertheless. "Good morning to you too, by the way. I was just wondering if I would have to wake you up. But can I borrow some of your product? I didn't bring any gel with me."

Kurt looked at him for a moment before moving over towards Blaine. With a slight smirk, he muttered, "If I'd have known that, I would've stayed in my bed for a little longer." Experimentally, he reached out to Blaine's hair. "And your hair's not awful. I actually like this much better than when you gel it down like that. So no, you can't use any of my stuff to strap it down again." When Blaine pouted at him, Kurt rolled his eyes. After giving Blaine a light peck on the lips, he muttered, "Good morning," before walking back into the kitchen. As Blaine remained standing there, shocked to the core, Kurt called out, "Oh, and by the way, I now expect you to wear your hair like that every time we hang out."

Blaine finally moved from his spot and followed Kurt into the kitchen. "You know I can't do that. I like my hair when it's gelled, and I'm sure there's a school rule against wearing it like this."

Now, it was Kurt's time to pout. "Fine. Just… wear it like this when you're not coming straight from class or rehearsal?"

"I'll think about it," Blaine promised, sitting down at the table, since Kurt was all done with the cooking anyway. "We need to talk, though."

Kurt glanced at him, blinking curiously. "You're already breaking up with me?" he guessed.

"You mean we are officially together?" Blaine retaliated. It was exactly this – what were they and what were they going to do about it and what did it all mean? – that he wanted to discuss.

Kurt seemed to ponder this question for a moment. "Well, I don't just go around kissing people," he replied, trying to sound casual, but Blaine could definitely hear the slightly nervous undertones.

"Good, me neither," Blaine said, smiling at Kurt. After hesitating for a moment, he added, "You know, last night was technically my first kiss."

"Seriously?" Kurt sounded shocked. "Mine too. Well – with a boy, that is." Noticing Blaine's intrigued look, he shook his head. "I'll tell you some other time."

"You've kissed girls before?" Blaine couldn't help but ask.

"A girl," Kurt corrected him. "Fine. Yes, I have. I'm not inclined to repeat that action anytime soon."

"I hope not," Blaine said, causing Kurt to start blushing.

"So we're… together, right?" Kurt asked. "Boyfriends?"

He sounded so hopeful in that moment that Blaine couldn't help but reach out and take both Kurt's hands. "If you want us to be," he replied, a smile tugging at his lips.

Kurt smiled back bashfully. "Of course I do," he said softly.

"Except we can't tell anyone yet because we'd have two Glee clubs out for our blood?" Blaine added, figuring that, even if both their clubs would be unexpectedly alright with the two of them dating, they'd all at least attempt to make sure their respective teammates were treated alright.

Kurt pressed his lips together in frustration. "Mercedes told me that they'd be happy for me if we started dating, actually," he confessed. "Still, it'd be too much like last year's Jesse St James situation, so maybe we should keep it quiet until Sectionals."

"Sectionals is two weeks away," Blaine reasoned. "That should be doable, right?"

Kurt nodded, though not looking too happy. "We shouldn't have to do this," he mumbled.

"We shouldn't," Blaine agreed, "but look on the bright side – at least we've got something to keep hidden, right?"

Kurt, who, Blaine noticed, had somehow managed to eat his breakfast during the conversation, while Blaine still had his platter full of food, grinned at him. "That's true," he admitted. "Now, eat your breakfast; I think I've got some movies we can watch before you need to go back to Dalton – which is before my dad comes home."

"Can we cuddle?" Blaine asked hopefully.

"Of course we can," Kurt promised, standing up from the table and putting his plate in the sink. Blaine didn't remember ever eating as quickly as he did then.

o-o-o-o-o

By the time Blaine arrived back at Dalton, it was almost dinnertime. The day had flown by, but Kurt had ushered him out of the door around four, which was usually the time Kurt's father closed the shop on Saturdays. While no funny business had happened at all, Blaine didn't think Mr Hummel would be very impressed if he came home while Blaine was still there.

Blaine couldn't help the fact that he'd been sporting a silly grin the entire ride back, but now, he tried to wipe it off. If he didn't, one of his normally very oblivious friends (only rivalled by Blaine himself) was bound to take notice, deduce that something had happened, and then proceed to head over to Lima to interrogate Kurt. That, in turn, would warn Kurt's friends that something was going on, causing them to come to Dalton and (possibly) torture Blaine.

Yes, it was of utmost importance that Blaine entered the school with a mostly blank look on his face.

He managed to make it to his room without being seen by too many people. Once there, he quickly gelled his hair back (even if Kurt liked his hair better without any gel, that didn't mean that Blaine should never gel it ever again). After that, he left again, heading towards the dining hall, in search of his friends.

They found him before he could even start looking for them, though, and they pounced on him immediately, asking how the 'date' had done and how on earth he'd managed to be allowed to sleep on the couch.

"You got to stay the entire day while his dad was out?" Trent asked, impressed.

"That's never happened to me," Jeff added, narrowing his eyes at Blaine. "How do you do that?"

Blaine grinned, putting on his mask. "I think it might help that we're just friends and neither of us can get pregnant."

"That, or you made a very good impression on the man," David said.

Frowning, Blaine shook his head. "It can't have been a good first impression, really, seeing as during that first meeting I presented them with a car that hadn't been looked at for years."

"Was it a date, by the way?" David asked interestedly. He eyed Blaine closely, searching for any signs that could indicate that yes, it had been a date. Again, Blaine tried his best to keep his face as blank as possible.

"I don't think it was," he replied carefully. After all, it technically hadn't been called that, even though it actually had been; and besides, if he said it had not been a date, his friends would know they'd talked about it and want to know how he'd found out. "We're just friends, guys."

His friends exchanged looks. "Maybe we should talk to this Kurt," Jeff proposed, getting a few murmurs of approval. "Tell him to be clear about his feelings and intentions."

"No!" Blaine exclaimed. Kurt would never forgive him if his friends pulled a stunt like that. "That won't be necessary. I'm fine with being just friends with him; it definitely beats not knowing him at all, I know that for sure."

"But what if you both wanted it to be a date?" Jeff asked, pouting a bit. "Wouldn't you want to know that?"

Oh yes, Blaine was very glad that he'd found out about that. "What does it matter anyway?" he asked. "There's a competition coming up, so there would be nothing we could do about it. Perhaps I'll tell him after Sectionals."

Wes seemed to agree with this plan, but Jeff looked kind of annoyed. Before he (or anyone else) had the chance to continue talking about this subject, though, Wes used Blaine's words to start speaking about the competition, and what they still needed to do during rehearsals. Blaine didn't talk to Kurt much about their respective Glee clubs, but he had a distinct feeling that New Directions didn't even know yet what they were going to sing.