Breakfast had been delicious. They'd found that cute little coffee shop a few blocks down and their cupcakes were delicious. Kurt wasn't sure he'd ever want to eat anything else ever again, no matter how unhealthy and full of empty calories they were.

They'd resumed last night's conversation over musicals and shows and had made a list of everything they wanted to see when they got the chance. Wicked was on top of that list, though they also wanted to see The Phantom of the Opera - Kurt had meant to audition for NYADA with Music of the Night, after all - and Evita. Actually there wasn't a Broadway classic not mentioned on their list and they hadn't even looked into more recent shows yet.

After breakfast they headed towards Central Park, staring wide-eyed at everything and soaking up the atmosphere of hectic and rush and too many people in too little space, breathing the polluted air and feeling free. Yes, this was definitely where they belonged.

The park itself was a nice contrast to the busy streets and they took their time lazily strolling through it. They had the whole day to themselves, after all, there was no need to rush. Once they left the refreshing green behind, they hurried to get to the Rockefeller Center. They were just walking around, looking at everything, but they spent more than an hour there, almost throwing them off their schedule.

Next destination was Times Square. Kurt couldn't wait to see it once more and practically dragged Tash along in his haste to get there. None of them cared that their feet were killing them as they craned their necks to absorb every last, colorful detail. They spent almost two hours just staring at everything and everyone, getting a quick lunch in form of a hot dog before they were off to the Empire State Building.

There was an endless line of tourists waiting to get a good view of the city but Tash insisted until Kurt gave in and just huffed in annoyance. He made sure to express his disapproval every few seconds for the whole of their wait, Tash just laughing it off. Kurt couldn't deny that it had been worth their time when he looked down on the streets they'd just walked. They seemed even more bustling with activity from up there.

Once they were back down to ground floor they just walked around aimlessly, saving the rest for another day. It was getting late, anyway, and their feet were aching so much they took the subway back home and just collapsed into the seats. The minute they were back into their apartment they were out of their shoes, stretching out on Tash's couch with Kurt ordering them enough take-out to last a week. They watched Mulan, barely humming along because they were too exhausted to actually sing.

The moment their food arrived they more or less attacked it, the room covered in empty boxes in record time. The rest of the evening was spent lazing on the couch, until Kurt remembered that he had a Skype date with Blaine and dragged himself to his own room. He made himself comfortable on the bed, hoping he wouldn't doze off and miss his boyfriend's call.

Luckily, he was only on the brink of sleep when his laptop informed him of an ingoing call and he quickly sat up straight again to answer it, hoping his hair didn't look too out of place.

"Hey baby. Someone looks a bit sleepy," Blaine laughed the minute he took in Kurt's appearance. Obviously, the hair was worse than he'd thought.

"Yeah, sorry. I've been exploring New York City with Tash all day. By foot."

"I know, I got the pictures you sent me. I hope you don't mind doing it all over again once I'm there with you."
"Of course not. It's not going to be the same, either way, since I'll be with you. It'll be ten times better."

"Aw, thank you. I don't how I'd be able to make New York better, though."
"Easy one, silly. You make everything better when I'm around you."
There was a quiet sniffle coming from the laptop.

"You need to stop saying things like that. It's already hard enough to get through the day knowing you're so far away and that I won't see you for weeks. You don't really want me to cry the whole time when we actually do get to talk."

"I wouldn't mind. I could listen to you crying for hours and it would still be better than not seeing or hearing you at all. Though I must admit that it does break my heart, so please don't."

Blaine laughed shakily, his eyes suspiciously wet. "I'll try my best. God, Kurt. I love you so much. Why can't I be there with you already?"

Now Kurt was the one who was almost losing his fight with the tears. "I don't know. I wish you could be here with me, too. I don't even know how many times I thought of you and what you would have said or done or even looked like if you had been there with us today. I miss you so much and I know I should be happy that I even get to be in New York but..."

"I know what you mean. There's just something amiss. A part of me always feels empty, no matter how happy I am. I think it's the half of my heart you took with you when you left for New York."

There was no stopping the tears now and Kurt didn't even bother trying. From what it sounded like Blaine didn't fare much better back in Ohio.

"God, we're so cheesy. Listen to us. We sound like the main characters in a poorly written romance novel," Kurt choked out somehow, not even caring that his voice was thick with tears and he probably sounded even worse thanks to the tinny quality added by their speakers.

"I thought you loved romance?" Blaine chuckled weakly, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"I do. That's still no excuse to speak in clichés. Come on, we're more original than that."
"You tell me, oh Mister Parsons Student. I'm just the gay kid from Ohio who'll probably sing Journey songs for the better part of this year."
Kurt couldn't help but snort at that. "Yeah, writing your own songs is really uncreative, Blaine. You should be ashamed of yourself. And the fact that you practically already wrote our wedding vows back in December is so utterly unromantic that I don't even have the words for it. And I'm sure anyone would have come up with the idea to spend hours on making me a promise ring out of gum wrappers."

"Wait. How do you know I actually had that written down?" The shocked look on Blaine's face was just priceless. Kurt needed at least two minutes to calm down from his laughing fit before shooting his boyfriend a disbelieving glance.

"Really?"

"I know, I know. I should have expected you to know me that well," Blaine sighed, though he obviously had to forcefully keep his lips from twitching up into a smile. "But just to make sure: Did you actually know or did you find the notes in that box in my nightstand?"

"One: Why would I be looking through your nightstand? Two: You kept them?"

"Well, of course I did. I need the exact same wording for our wedding, after all."

This time they were both crying hard enough to actually interrupt their conversation for a while.

XxxxxxxxxX

They had to end the call only two hours later since Kurt was basically falling asleep on his laptop, still exhausted from his trip around the city. He had protested, arguing that he could just disappear into the kitchen for a few minutes to make a cup of coffee, but Blaine had insisted that Kurt needed his sleep and that he didn't want to keep him up all night when he was this tired.

Already in a bad mood at the prospect of not seeing Blaine for another few hours, he dragged himself to the bathroom for his skin care regimen. After five minutes of just lying on his back, staring at the ceiling and waiting for sleep to finally come and claim him, Kurt decided that his brain was a moody bitch. Why couldn't he fight off sleep when he wanted nothing more than to keep talking to his boyfriend forever? And once they stopped, his eyes wouldn't even stay closed for more than a few seconds. Of course.

In all honesty, Kurt was quite used to insomnia. It had taken him months to find back to a normal sleeping rhythm after his Mom had died. Every now and then the problem would return. The sheer number of sleepless nights he'd had during the high phase of Karofsky's bullying was shocking. Not to mention all those nights his brain hadn't shut up about Blaine, both before and after they had started dating.

Usually, that wasn't a bad thing. Many a night the thought of Blaine had actually been the only thing comforting him enough to finally find some sleep. But sometimes the doubts would just take over or they were having a fight and he just couldn't stop his imagination from running away with him. What if that would be the thing that broke them up? What if he was just being a dumb teenager thinking his love was oh so extraordinary and would last? What if what he and Blaine had wasn't half as special as he thought and they'd just break up like every other high school couple somewhere down the road?

Those nights had been much more frequent than he'd like to admit over the past few weeks. The past year, even. Ever since it had really hit him that he'd have to spend at least a year apart from Blaine if he wanted to follow his dreams. And this was one of those nights.

There had been nothing particular about their conversation that had triggered it. But for some reason the doubts had once again snuck up on him. What would he do if they didn't last the distance? He already felt so empty without Blaine and it had only been a few days since they'd last seen each other in person. Their tearful 'see you later' - he refused to call it goodbye, even in his own thoughts and knowing that he didn't mean it like that - was burned into his memory.

He tried to think as positive as possible but the what ifs just wouldn't leave him alone. Finally, after half an hour of just turning around and trying to rid his brain of all and every thought, he decided that it was no use and got up to make himself a glass of warm milk. That usually helped a lot.

However, he did not expect to walk into his roommate obviously having the very same idea.

"You too? Well, good thing there's enough in there for two, I guess," Tash smiled weakly in his direction before returning her attention to the pot of milk on the stove.

Kurt just stared at her for a few seconds, completely dumbfounded. When he finally found his voice again it sounded much croakier than he'd wished for. "Why are you still up?"

"I could ask you the same thing. My mind just won't shut up. Guess it's the whole being in completely different surroundings thing. Though I don't get why I was deadly tired just half an hour ago and now I can't even close my eyes. I even had to get off Skype because I almost fell asleep on Ro."

"Me too."

"Then we might as well drink our warm milk together, Mister Hummel. Since we don't have anything else to do."

They sat together in silence for at least ten minutes, quietly sipping their milk, before Kurt just blurted out what wouldn't stop torturing his mind.

"I can't stop thinking about what will happen if Blaine and I can't make the long distance thing work."

He resisted the urge to hide his face behind his hands. He was pretty sure he was already a nice shade of red but it was out there and he could hardly take it back now.

To his surprise, Tash just looked up at him with wide eyes, shock written all over her features.

"Really? Because that's exactly the same thing I was thinking. Well, not with Blaine, obviously, but you get the gist. I couldn't stop thinking about it for months now. I just have this feeling we're meant to be but then again I'm only eighteen and I'm not even allowed to drink alcohol and what if everyone's feeling that way and I'm just conceited enough to think we're anything special?"

She paused for a minute to catch her breath and Kurt just stared at her wordlessly. It was as if she'd been looking into his mind for weeks and put all of his confused thoughts and emotions into her own words, somehow making them more clear to him in the process.

"I've been feeling the same."

Their eyes locked and suddenly there was no holding back. They put their souls on the line, opening up to that person that would live across from them for the next year that they'd only known for about two days. That person that still got that part of them, the part they hadn't been able to talk about with anyone else because everyone they knew just shrugged their shoulders and said 'you're gonna make it, don't worry'.

During that night they built the basis of a friendship that took them both by surprise. College hadn't even started yet and they'd already found their safe haven in this overwhelming city. After everything Kurt had suffered through in high school he couldn't believe his luck. He'd somehow found Blaine long before he'd even dared to hope he'd meet his soul mate. His other half. If he'd ever even believed he would meet that special someone some day. It probably sounded stupid but for a while, Kurt had been so convinced that he would be lonely for the rest of his life. At least that's what it had felt like at the time.

And here he was, making a friend he felt he would keep for a very long time upon his first few days in New York, a friend he had so much in common with and that conveniently lived right next to him. Kurt couldn't really wrap his mind around the idea but didn't really mind so much as he curled up next to Tash on the couch, slowly drifting off into sleep to the sounds of Come What May coming from the TV.