Blaine said yes. Kurt knows that it probably shouldn't be a surprise seeing as they spent most of yesterday night making out but he'd said yes and now he had a problem. Because he's never been on a date and despite all their joking taking Quinn out to dinner and paying isn't a date. Beth is with them half of the time and they often spilt the bill and Kurt isn't attracted to Q or vice versa.

So that's why he's waiting outside the boys toilets for Puck to hurry up with meeting him.

"Kurt! Dude got your text, what's up?" Puck's rounding the corner, raising one hand when he spots his friend leaning against the wall opposite the bathroom door, fidgeting with the pieces of metal visible above the neck.

Kurt returns his fist bump in a distracted manner before blurting out "I have a date with Blaine and I can't believe I'm doing this but I need your help."

Puck nods sagely, "I'm assuming you asked him and are paying that's why you've come to the Puckzilla and not Q?" Kurt glared at him. "Alright dude, chill, I got this."

"I only want advice on the date I do not need or want to know how to get into his pants."

"You so do man." Puck snickered to himself, sobering up slightly at Kurt's glare. "Seriously man, just relax about it all, don't try so hard."

Kurt waited for him to go on but when Puck said nothing he scoffed, "That's it? That's all the advice you have for me?"

The mohawked teen grinned and nodded. "You don't want to get into his pants...yet. The only girls I ever really dated were Satan, Q and Lauren. I don't think Tana even counts as a girlfriend."

"Get on with it Puck I'm only supposed to have gone to the bathroom." Kurt waved his hand in front of him before crossing his arms.

"I dunno man; all I can really say is chill about it. Go to Breadstix and if there's anything good on see a movie. Standard date - can't go wrong."

"How you get dates, more than once, is beyond me."

Kurt ran back to his Lit class, skidded to a stop just before the door and strolled back inside in an attempt to not look rushed. Ms Mesher merely raises her eyebrows at him to which he offered a meek smile that he knows she won't be able to be annoyed at him for. Blaine's own eyebrows and furrowed in confusion.

"That was either the world's longest pee or you didn't go to the toilet."

Kurt smiled innocently. "I have no idea what you could possibly mean."

"Where'd you go?"

Kurt snuck a look around to see everyone working on their projects so he leant across the gap between the two of them, waited until Blaine turned back to look at him and placed a soft kiss on his mouth. "Patience is a virtue...or so I'm told, so you'll find out tonight."

Blaine, on his part, recovered quickly with only a light blush to provide any tell-tale signs to anyone looking. "That is hardly fair."

"I never said anything about it being fair."

Blaine narrowed his eyes and stuck his tongue out to which Kurt rolled his eyes, amused. "Mature."

"Never said anything about being mature." Blaine mimicked with a cheeky smile before it dropped a little bit and he glanced around to see everyone still working - or rather pretending - to work on their presentations and turned sideways to face Kurt completely.

Kurt frowned and mirrored his movements. "Am I staying at yours again tonight?" The skank fought the urge to roll his eyes at Blaine's hesitant tone. His bottom lip was being chewed on again and for once Kurt was allowed to do something about that, unless in a classroom with a teacher he actually respects. He reached across and pulled Blaine's lip out by rubbing his thumb across it.

He forgets sometimes that just because he and Quinn use each other's houses as second homes not everyone has this dynamic. He doesn't answer just rolls his eyes at the other boy and goes back to doodling in his margins and ignores Blaine's mocking glare.

They make their way through the rest of English before wandering off to History where Quinn is leaning up against the open door, eyes permanently giving off death glares to anyone to who's own so much as glance towards her.

Her eyebrow quirks in amusement at the sight of Kurt walking side by side with Blaine; something Blaine doesn't notice but Kurt does. She throws her arms around each of their shoulders in a weird three-way hug and pulls them into the class to the back. There isn't a seating plan here. Sit where you can find a desk and shut up basically. Mainly because their teacher is too old to care much about their names as long as they pass and don't give him grief.

Quinn levels Jewfro with a look menacing enough to cause his eyes to widen in fear before she's opened her mouth. Anyone else would probably class her smile as sweet but Kurt smirks. She may not be head cheerleader anymore, may not be the most popular girl walking the halls but damn, she can still pull out her inner Queen Bitch at the drop of a hat.

"Move."

"But..."

"Move. Now." She smiles again, eyelashes fluttering in a mockery of flirtation while her eyes are like steel. Kurt merely grins at a terrified Jacob when he glances behind her to see Kurt and a slightly confused Blaine. "Kurt, baby, did I stutter?" She turns to the other skank, a mocking frown in place.

Kurt held back a low laugh, a lopsided smile slipped through, "I heard you perfectly Q."

"He heard me perfectly Jewfro. So now I'm wondering why you're still sitting here?" By now she's placed her hands, all ten fingers painted a perfect glossy jet black, on his desk and leant over him, teeth bared.

Kurt would feel sorry for him, he really would, but it's Jewfro. The same boy who filmed him being slushied or thrown in dumpsters or having fucking pee-balloons hurled at him and then posted on his blog. He's pretty sure this kid is one he'll never ever have any sympathy for. 

It gives him great pleasure to wrap an arm around Q's narrow shoulders and raise his pierced brow at the boy, "Run along now Jacob." Delighting in how fast said boy moves, looking close to either tears or pissing his pants.

"I'm not entirely sure what I just witnessed." Blaine is moving into the seat on Kurt's left while Quinn throws herself bodily into the corner seat on his right.

"Blaine, Jewfro is one of the few people in this school who hands down deserves every God damn wedgie or swirly that comes his way. Scarring him out of a seat so I can sit with my boy and his boy is nothing compared to what I would love to do to him." Quinn grins at both boys before pulling out her ipod and putting the right earphone into place so she can still listen to them but appear uninterested in everything else going on around them.

"Was that really necessary?" Blaine is staring wide eyed at Kurt and Q. Kurt blinks, unaccustomed to the feeling if guilt growing in his stomach; not at messing with Jewfro but with feeling like Blaine might be disappointed in him.

Quinn snorts in a decidedly un-lady like manner, something her previous Cheerleader self would have abhorred, and leans forward on her desk to level Blaine with an amused look. "Don't tell me that wasn't the least bit funny. He looked about ready to shit himself." She giggles quietly to herself.

Kurt bites his lip and looks down at his hands, then back up between his best friend and his...well he's not sure what Blaine is. More than a friend but less than a boyfriend. But there's no way he wants to let him down; anyone and he wouldn't really give a crap, except for his dad. He's pretty sure he's disappointed the majority of his old friends - hell, he's been told that by some of them.

When his eyes land on Blaine again the other boy is biting his lips, eyes dancing in amusement that he clearly wanted to hide. Kurt flashed a meek smile in response, he opened his mouth to say something when their teacher walked in, essentially causing all conversations to halt for the remainder of the lesson - it's why it's so easy to sleep in this class. The old guy doesn't tolerate talking and he lectures, everything else is done at home, and if you don't show up you don't show up. It's why Kurt likes Mr Turner normally, but right now he wants to talk to Blaine and find out if messing with Jewfro in front of him was a bad move.

When class ends Kurt's not entirely sure if he took anything in; he's spent most of the lesson doing his usual doodling, trying not to eye up Blaine too much and planning out tonight in his head. He stood up when the bell rang, gathering his things and turns to face the shorter boy. In hindsight this was probably a mistake because as he goes to say something to the junior he's interrupted again; this time by Quinn grabbing his shoulders and jumping up onto his back causing him to stagger slightly in surprise before righting himself and shoving his arms under her thighs quickly.

Turning to glare at his friend who has a faux innocent look on her face before she rests her head in the crook of his neck he nudges her lightly with the side of his head. "Warn a guy next time Quinn; I could've dropped you."

She wraps her arms tighter around his neck and shakes her head, "You've never dropped me. Carry me to my car, pretty please?"

Kurt rolls his eyes and huffs out a long-suffering 'fine' before looking back to Blaine, who's again trying not to laugh. "Apparently I'm carrying Quinn to her car."

"I can see that, it's very chivalrous of you." He breaks then and lets out a snicker before quickly trying to sober up.

Quinn giggles along quietly, and mumbles into his shoulder, "See; be a fucking gentleman Kurt. I was up all night with my child; have some sympathy." Kurt contemplates dropping her on her ass as he trudges out of the classroom feeling rather like a pack-horse.

"You're really heavy." He mutters darkly as they reach the main doors, ignoring the looks from everyone still in the building, Blaine has to hold the door open for him.

There's a sharp bite on his shoulder where his top has slipped slightly and a slightly amused "Shut up and deal with it," as a response.

"Ow, seriously woman you need to stop abusing me or, or..."

"Ooooor."

They've reached her car by now; it's only a few spots up from his own so Kurt jokingly drops her on the hood, smirking at the ruffled look she now sports. "Or else."

"Blaine, fair warning, Kurt likes to talk in his sleep sometimes, ask him awkward questions and see what he says." She grins, hops off her car and slides into it, winking at her fellow skank who deadpans at her. "Use a condom!" She yells out of her window as she pulls out of her spot, cackling to herself when Kurt shoves his middle finger up into the air.

A smothered laugh jolts Kurt back to the parking lot, where Blaine is beside him hiding a wide amused smile behind his hand. "Shut up." He shoves the other boy's shoulder lightly and stalks off to his own car.

"So you talk in your sleep huh?" Blaine chuckles at the glare Kurt sends him, raising his eyebrow at the sharp 'no' that's muttered as they climb into the Navigator. "Hey, I thought you had work tonight?"

Kurt shrugged as he pulled out of the spot, "One of the guys needed some overtime so Dad gave him one of my shifts and one of Finn's from next week. I get paid pretty well so it's not a big deal." He turned to flash Blaine a small smile.

"So what's the plan for tonight? The vaguest of details then if you still won't tell me everything." Blaine pulled a face as he added the last part when Kurt merely smirked at him.

"I told you, dinner."

"Dinner, yes, am I expected to guess the times or dress code for...Breadstix?"

This time it was Kurt that pulled the face. "Everyone goes to Breadstix. So no; not for a first date at least." He pulled into his drive, happy to see Finn's truck wasn't there, and turned towards Blaine, "Call me crazy but the fact that that particular restaurant is where 'the Puckzilla' takes all his dates doesn't make me want to jump at the chance to go there for this."

Blaine was smiling widely as they both climbed out of the car and headed into the house. "Kurt Hummel, if I didn't know any better I'd say that you were putting a lot of effort into this date."

"Shut up." Kurt accompanied his statement with a sharp poke to his side as he strode past him to the stairs. Kurt threw himself down onto his bed, picked up his laptop bag from it's spot on the floor by the wall, turned it on and opened up the folder labelled 'tv and shit'. Blaine came in shortly after, looking slightly awkward for a moment while Kurt fiddled with a lead to connect to the speakers on his shelves, he squeezed Blaine's hip as he got up to reach around him, "We've got about an hour and half before we should leave."

They ended up spending an hour watching Friends until Kurt got up and began rifling through his closet, pulling out plain black skinny jeans and a grey-scale looking check shirt that had shades of navy in up close. He turned back to Blaine and shuffled his socked feet minutely, "Umm, it's no where fancy or anything, but I'm gonna go change, er....you can too I guess." His lip quirked up in one corner quickly before he left the room.

Blaine was tying a bright red bowtie when Kurt walked back in, jeans changed and looking sprayed on despite the hole on his left knee that pretty much bared it to the elements, the check shirt hanging open over the same v-neck from earlier. Kurt's eyes ran up and down his body as he moved to his vanity to grab some of the chains draped over the corner of the mirror and hanging them over his neck.

Jesus that polo makes his arms look amazing. He moved away to shove his feet into a pair of navy Toms while Blaine checked his hair was still cemented to his head. Kurt tried not to lick his lips when the black polo he was in stretched over his biceps; that coupled with the bowtie and ankle-bearing red chinos stretched over his ass had Kurt hurriedly standing and fumbling in his bag for his phone, keys and wallet.

"Ready?" Kurt grabbed his leather jacket from the hook on his door as Blaine grabbed a thick grey cardigan and nodded. "After you then."

By the time they reached the hole in the wall bistro/bar that Kurt stumbled across a few years ago his nerves are starting to wane a little bit. He remembered to hold the car door open for Blaine, earning a bemused but grateful smile from said boy; he doesn't buy into it making Blaine less of a man, it's polite and he wants to make a good impression tonight. Beside's he's always held doors for his friends, now he just puts a bit more conscious effort into it.

There's no parking outside of the bistro with it being on one of the smaller back streets of central Lima so he has to pull into a space a few roads over. He doesn't rush around to open the door for Blaine this time, partly because he doesn't see the point but also because Blaine's opening the door before he's even shut his own, so he just waits by the sidewalk.

"Where are we?" Blaine is looking around at the little boutiques and cafe's, Breadstix is just around the corner along with the cinema so these streets, while by means empty are never very busy in the evenings. It's why Kurt's always loved these parts of town; there's less chance of harassment. Of course that was more of a problem before the end of junior year more than now-a-days but still, it's clear he and Blaine are more than friends out to dinner.

Kurt sends a lopsided, secretive smile to Blaine as he leads them down the street towards their destination. "You'll see." He stands back when they reach the door, making a mocking sweeping gesture to the door, "Much better than Breadstix for a first date."

Blaine smiles as he moves past the skank to let himself in, this time he holds the door for Kurt and he sends Blaine a small smile before waiting for someone to come and seat them; the place is so small there's no point in having a hostess. Sure enough one of the waitresses comes over, smiling brightly and asks for the size of their party or if they have a reservation. Kurt bites back the sarcasm and answers with a short "Two, it's under Hummel."

He nods for Blaine to go ahead when the girl grabs two menus and says "right this way sirs" before leading them to one of the small booths in the far right corner. The surrounding tables are either empty of far enough away that Kurt's pretty sure he won't spend too much time worrying about someone seeing if they act too affectionate to be just friends. Of course it wouldn't stop Kurt but he's willing to bet it would make Blaine (and himself for that matter) a bit uncomfortable...for now at least.

The waitress waits until they've seated themselves and then places the menus down and makes them aware that the specials along with the soup and fish of the day are on the blackboard opposite their corner. She takes their drink orders and then leaves them to it for the time being.

Kurt can't help but let a little smug smile show as he watches Blaine's eyes take in the two exposed brick walls the two turquoise ones and the black and white photography that covers them. "Well?"

Blaine turns back to him and grins, "Definitely better than Breadstix so far."

Kurt smiles wider, pleased with his idea of vetoing Puck's go-to date location and stick to the advice instead. He slides his jacket off and places in between his body and the wall while he looks over the menu; Blaine is slipping his cardigan off and eyeing the specials board.

Their waitress bounds over with their Cokes, happily asking if they're ready to order, still smiling brightly when Kurt asks for a little bit more time. He stares incredulously after her, he's pretty sure he's never anyone so bubbly and has to wonder if it's all out on for tips. Shaking his head he turned back to the menu.

"How'd you find this place?" Blaine's watching him; head tilted to the side and for one odd moment Kurt is reminded of a curious puppy.

"Luck, it was a few years ago, I was...just wandering around town and I found this place. Came in because it was raining and I couldn't find my umbrella and ended up having the worlds best hot chocolate. It was a good day for fourteen year old me." He scrunches his nose a little.

"I might just have to try that after we've eaten."

"They still do it; it's heavenly."

Blaine's grin spreads from ear to ear and when he begins to reach across the table for Kurt's hand that stupid, happy waitress was back and chattering on about if they wanted to order; the whole time they did Kurt had to refrain from glaring at her.

In the end Kurt did order them both a hot chocolate when he went to the bathroom arriving just after Blaine had sat back down at their booth. He smiled before taking a mouthful and letting out a ridiculous moan to release over hot chocolate.

"You need a room with that drink?"

Blaine narrows his eyes at him momentarily before closing them, inhaling deeply and taking another gulp. "Shut up, I don't even care, this is too damn good." He added a lightly tap of his dress shoe to Kurt's shin.

"Hey so I was thinking about ordering one of the cheesecakes to go? We've got one more place to see."

"Okay."

Blaine let Kurt choose claiming that he wouldn't be able to decide and trusted Kurt to get something good, so he went with the mango and passion fruit, getting it brought to them in a box along with the bill. He sent Blaine a glare when he went to reach for it, "You can pay when you ask, tonight is on me."

Kurt lit up a cigarette when they were outside walking back to his car, inhaling deeply and closing his eyes fuck, quitting was going to be so hard...maybe he could just cut down. Blaine shot him a look half way between exasperation and fondness as he took another drag.

"Quitting is hard." Kurt defended himself, tapping gently to remove the gathering ash.

Blaine laughed quietly, took the bag with the cheesecake in from the hand closest to him and replaced it with his own fingers. Kurt kept his eyes firmly forward but squeezed gently to show he didn't mind the gesture. At all.

Unfortunately two guys walking towards them on the other side of the street didn't agree. Kurt saw them first, tensing and tugging Blaine a little bit closer out of instinct before the jeers hit them.

"Fucking faggots!"

"Get the fuck off our streets queers."
"You're both sick."

He'd heard worse, had worse done to him too so he might be thankful that they carried on walking, seemingly happy with just hurling abuse towards the two boys. All it did was remind Kurt of last year, of him and of the hell he's gone through pretty much everyday since his mom died. He was shaking by the time they reached his car, climbing inside in dead silence. Blaine took Kurt's hand gently again once he'd pulled out of the spot and rubbed his knuckles slowly.

He couldn't tell if the shaking was out of anger or what but Blaine's ministrations seemed to be keeping him calm for the moment so he didn't think too hard.

It wasn't until they were back in his bedroom after having brushed their teeth side by side in silence, Kurt with his back rigid against his closed door and Blaine awkwardly taking his shoes off on Kurt's bed that he noticed how tense Blaine was.

"I'm sorry."

The shorted boy looked up in shock at the whispered apology; Kurt kept his eyes fixed on his Toms. "I should be used to it shouldn't I? Getting called fag or queer," he let out a harsh laugh and ran his hands through his hair, messing it up without intent for once. "I fucking hate this town. Sooner I get out here the better; I can't fucking take it much longer."

Blaine was staring up at him with wide eyes and Kurt felt his anger return at the sight. Blaine was too kind, too beautiful for that kind of shit, he really hated humanity sometimes. He yanked off his leather jacket with jerky movements before clenching it in his fists, attempting to take a deep calming breath and violently hurling the coat into the cubby section of room when that didn't work.

Blaine stayed quiet, electing to toe off his now untied shoes, pull off his bowtie and pull his jeans off so he sat cross legged in only a pair of boxers and his polo. It was a mark of how far gone Kurt was heading that he didn't linger over the new exposed skin too long; instead he angrily pulled his own clothes off until he was left in just the v-neck and his own boxers. He threw himself down onto the bed beside Blaine, staring blankly up at the ceiling.

When he glances over at Blaine the other boy has his legs under the duvet sitting upright with his back against Kurt's headboard, eyes fixed on something on the shelves opposite Kurt's bed. When he follows Blaine's sight he find a photograph of himself, eight years old, sitting on the sofa in their old house with his mother's arms around him, story book across his bony child legs both of them beaming up at the camera with identical smiles. That's the last picture of them that he has.

He shifts under the covers, tearing his eyes away from that photo and the memory that she would die just three weeks later in the process. Blaine slid down and rolled over to face Kurt, bringing up a hand to brush back some of his hair that had fallen out of place.

"Can I ask you something?" He was whispering, face mere inches away from Kurt's who closed his eyes and nodded. Soft lips pressed against his forehead and the hand returned to brush his hair once more. "What the hell happened to you?"

Kurt kept his eyes closed but snorted sadly, curling into himself slightly, "How long do you have?"