“Kurt,” he said, “don’t hide anything this time, okay?”

Kurt looked up at his father, who was staring at him in that way that made Kurt sure the man could read every fluctuation of his emotions. “I have nothing left to hide from him.”

Burt gave a wry smile, clapped his son on the shoulder and pushed him gently towards the door. Kurt entered the hallway, closing the door to the living room behind him before taking a deep breath and turning around. Blaine was standing on the doormat, biting his lip. He looked afraid to enter the house proper without Kurt’s permission. Kurt couldn’t help but smile at the other boy’s expression. He gestured to the staircase.

“My room?”

“Yeah,” Blaine said, giving Kurt a relieved smile in return. Both boys were amazed that they were being so friendly to each other. It was awkward as hell, but no-one was crying. Kurt almost took Blaine’s hand to lead him up the stairs as he so often did, but he remembered that he didn’t know what Blaine had come to say yet. Blaine watched the twitch of Kurt’s arm as he pulled it back to his side, but didn’t comment on it; the sight, however, stopped the smile on his face.

Blaine shut the bedroom door behind the two of them and they stood awkwardly for a moment before speaking at the same time.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“I should have said something.”

Kurt bit his lip, then tried to speak again, but Blaine stopped him.

“No, let me say this. Kurt, you know better than anyone that I’m not very good at romance. I’m terrible at indentifying my own feelings and others’.” Blaine took Kurt’s hand and this time the other boy did not resist his need to hold onto it. “I think…I think I ignored the chance that you might fall in love with me because it was easier that way.” He kept his eyes locked on Kurt’s, squeezing the other boy’s hand tightly. “I was so…confused about my own feelings. I didn’t know how to define the way I felt – the way I feel about you and it was safer to just pretend there was no chance you’d connect to me in that way. I guess I didn’t want…” He had to look away then, lifting his free hand to brush tears from his eyes. He wasn’t looking at Kurt, so he missed the way the other boy’s eyes had widened as he understood what Blaine was saying. Blaine should have looked, because Kurt’s eyes were the most beautiful colour in that moment and filled with more happiness than Blaine had ever seen there. “I didn’t want to hope too much,” he continued, staring at the floor. “You connect one way and that’s it. Your feelings don’t change. If I’d let myself imagine it, I think that even though I wasn’t sure of my feelings for you, you connecting to me as a friend would have crushed me.” He took a shaky breath, running his fingers through his hair.

Kurt just stared at Blaine in silence for almost a whole minute, letting the other boy keep hold of his hand as he watched the floor. Blaine could hear his own heartbeat in his ears, speeding up the longer Kurt did not reply. Eventually, he couldn’t stop himself from speaking again. “Kurt, say something.”

Kurt took a deep breath, as though Blaine had just reminded him of where he was, and squeezed Blaine’s hand a little. “We’re so stupid,” he said, shaking his head.

“Wh-what?”

“We’re totally blind, both of us. God, Blaine,” Kurt said, laughing as he placed his other hand on Blaine’s cheek, turning Blaine’s head so their eyes locked, “we could have been in love all this time.”

Blaine grinned back at him. “So you’re not—”

“Turning you down? Blaine, are you crazy?”

Blaine didn’t know why he felt so relieved. He had known that Kurt was in love with him. Nothing could change that. But somehow he still thought the other boy might turn him away, tell him he’d waited too long, broken his heart too much. He pulled Kurt into a tight hug, burying his face in the crook of Kurt’s neck and just breathing him in. Kurt rested his cheek against Blaine’s hair, smiling as he slipped his hands under the other boy’s arms and up behind his shoulders, holding him close. He had that feeling which he was starting to become familiar with: a sense of completion when his connection with someone was recognised and returned; an idea of being whole. Blaine tightened his arms around Kurt’s waist, before leaning his head back and looking him straight in the eyes.

“I love you.”

Kurt pressed his lips together, trying not to cry. He looked into Blaine’s eyes, bright hazel and shining, and saw the truth of the other boy’s statement in them. There was nothing Blaine had to hide from Kurt any more – nothing either of them had to hide – and he was laying his emotions out, pressing them into Kurt’s hands with no fear that they would be unwanted. A tiny sob worked its way out of Kurt’s throat, but he was smiling. “I love you, too.”

“Can I kiss you?”

The faerie’s eyes widened, becoming overly large in his face. He had been expecting the question somewhere in his subconscious, but his conscious mind hadn’t quite caught up yet. His breathing picked up and he stuttered as he spoke.

“I-I’ve n-never—”

“I know. That doesn’t matter.” Blaine stroked Kurt’s back with one hand, then seemed to realise what he had said. “I mean, of course it matters. Your first kiss is important and momentous and…another adjective I can’t think of right now. I just meant that it doesn’t change the way I—”

Kurt pressed a finger to Blaine’s lips, the corners of his mouth twisting upwards as he suppressed a grin. “Blaine, I get it. I’m just a little nervous, but,” he chuckled, “I think you are, too, so it’s okay. We can…be nervous together or something.”

Blaine let out a breathy laugh and squeezed his arms tighter around Kurt’s waist. “Okay. Nervous together. Now?”

“Now.”

Blaine nodded and Kurt almost laughed at how the other boy was obviously steeling himself. He didn’t though, because suddenly Blaine had moved a little closer to Kurt, shuffling his feet between the other boy’s, and was tilting his head as he leaned forwards.

When their lips touched, Kurt was momentarily sure that they had connected all over again. He felt the same rush through his veins, the same sensation of being able to do anything. After a second, however, Blaine was less tentative and pressed his lips harder against Kurt’s, drawing him right back in. Neither of them moved. They just paused at that point, experiencing the moment they first solidified their love for each other.

Blaine pulled back and Kurt tried to follow him, to keep the contact between their lips. Blaine laughed and placed a hand on either side of Kurt’s face, making their eyes meet.

“I love you,” he said, because one time wasn’t enough. He wanted to say it over and over again, so Kurt could have not a single doubt in his mind that Blaine wanted him, only him, forever.

“I love you,” Kurt said, laughing breathily because he knew it should be funny. He could tell what Blaine was trying to do, though, and it only made him love the other boy more.

“Can I kiss you again?”

Kurt giggled, his eyes dropping from Blaine’s as he blushed. “You don’t have to ask every time, you know. It might get a little frustrating.”

“You say that like we’ll be kissing a lot.”

Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine’s waist and pulled the other boy against him. He kissed Blaine quickly before he spoke, simply because he could. “You forget, Mr Anderson, that I have a lifetime of love for you left in me. That’s an uncountable number of kisses.”

Blaine stared into Kurt’s eyes, the brightest he had ever seen them. He knew he was only seventeen and he should be terrified that he and this beautiful boy were promising their lives to each other, but he couldn’t be. He knew that Kurt’s emotions were as strong as anyone’s could be and he knew that his matched them. He couldn’t be afraid of that. He realised now that love wasn’t something to fear, not with the boy in his arms. So he kissed Kurt again; the third kiss in what he hoped would be a lifetime of kisses. And maybe he span Kurt around a little, lifting the faerie’s feet just above the floor, because he was so happy. Maybe both boys knew it was terribly clich�d, but maybe neither of them cared.

Rachel buckled herself into her seat, careful not to brush her wrist against that of the man beside her. She was not going to spend a whole flight stuck next to someone she loved while she pretended not to be interested in them. She tugged the arms of her jacket as far down her wrists as she could and folded her hands in her lap. The flight attendant walked briskly past her aisle seat and she pulled her elbow closer to her body. She was also not going to fall in love, romantic or otherwise, with the man who was going to be offering her orange juice in an hour or so.

She had her gloves in her pocket, ready for the airport. She tucked her hands between her knees as the pilot for their flight from New York to Ohio introduced himself over the speakers. She would be sad to leave this city, and not just because of the newfound loved ones she was ripping herself away from. There was something about its streets, its theatres and its cafes that served truly excellent coffee which drew her, and not just with the allure of the number of potential connections they held. However, she had only booked herself in for a weekend of heartbreak. She had to be back before here fathers if she was going to keep this trip and her little connection habit a secret.

She leaned forwards a little to watch their take-off through the window. She was done with New York for now. She was going home.