"Alright class," Professor Monroe monotoned, making his way around the room and passing out final exams to each student. "As always, when you finish your test, you're free to leave. I'd like to thank you for your cooperation and hard work this summer throughout our time together. I understand summer classes aren't always ideal for you guys, but you've powered through it and done a great job. Once you've completed the exam, drop it off at the podium and have a nice rest of your summer."

Finally, Blaine thought. It felt like these two summer classes had dragged on for forever. He and Kurt had both taken their English final earlier that same day, but like they had for the past week, parted ways afterward until they both showed up to biology. Kurt had respected Blaine's wishes for a few days, actually giving him the whole week. They hadn't been so immature that they sat clear across the room from each other in their classes, but they'd also stopped sitting directly next to each other.

Blaine hadn't really spoken to Laurel, either. He wasn't usually one to hold grudges; in fact, most of the time Blaine got angry, he only stayed that way for an hour, maybe two, until he just broke down and begged for everything to be okay again. Ever since he lost his parents, he hated conflict. He couldn't risk losing anyone else in his life, and he knew better than anyone that saying things in the heat of an argument could damage a relationship permanently.

This was different, though. It wasn't just any argument; it wasn't about something frivolous; it was about Trevor.

God, even when he's gone, he's still fucking up my life.

Suddenly, Blaine felt like someone was staring at him, so he looked up and glanced around to find that yes, actually, someone was; Kurt. He was subtly pointing with the end of his pencil to something on the wall. Blaine followed the direction and looked at the clock, realizing it had already been 10 minutes and he had yet to even start on his 85 multiple-choice questions final.

He shook his head, rolled his neck, bounced his shoulders and set to work.

After what felt like ages, he filled out the last answer and stood up to turn in his test and leave. He chanced a look over at Kurt's desk, only to find that he'd already finished and left. It figures, Blaine thought. Kurt was always finished before him.

As he stepped out of the room, a familiar voice stopped him in his tracks. "Hey."

Speak of the devil.

"Hey," he returned.

They fell into step beside each other, heading down the hall and towards the exit. "So, how do you think you did?" Kurt asked.

"Alright. In all honesty, I'm just glad to be done with these classes."

"Yeah. Same here."

Blaine didn't say anything back, but as they walked out of the doors of the building and started heading towards the parking lot, he stopped and grabbed Kurt's hand. For a second, Kurt seemed so startled that Blaine thought he'd rip his hand away. He didn't. Instead, he turned and took a step closer to Blaine. When they were standing this close, Blaine could see every detail of Kurt's face, and he couldn't help but notice that Kurt's dark circles looked so much worse than they had that Monday.

I guess he really does need those conversations every night.

"Blaine, I—"

"Do you want to come over right now?" he interrupted. "Laurel's not home, she went shopping with some teacher friends from Dalton."

Kurt blinked, like he couldn't believe Blaine was opening up their communication again. "Yeah, sure. Absolutely. I'll just uh…I'll follow you, in my car, so I don't have to leave it here."

"Okay. See you there."

Blaine debated for a second before pressing a light kiss to Kurt's lips, trying to say, Hey, I'm ready to work this out. Let's just go to my house and talk. The spark Blaine had come to know found its way back into Kurt's eyes, and it made his heart clench. Yeah. We're gonna be okay.

As Blaine got into his car and started heading on the road home, he smiled internally. Yes, he and Kurt had had an argument. They'd both done some things and said some things they wish they hadn't, but they were going to talk it out and move past it. Kurt had already apologized for what happened, and explained his side, and now it was Blaine's turn.

Because after having a week to think about it, Blaine realized that yeah, maybe he overreacted just a bit. Or a lot. He hadn't meant to blow up at Kurt like he did, or say some of the things he did. It was just…the Trevor of it all. And he would explain that when they got to his house—which, apparently, was a lot sooner than expected, because just as he was thinking about it, Blaine pulled into his driveway.

Kurt was already there, sitting on the front porch steps waiting. At the sound of Blaine's car, though, he'd shot up, so now he was standing awkwardly on the stairs waiting for Blaine to come unlock the door and let them both in.

"Do you, uh…want anything to drink?" Blaine offered.

Despite the situation, Kurt chuckled softly. "No, thank you. Can we just, you know, sit and talk?"

"Sure, of course."

They sat next to each other on the couch, and just as Blaine turned to his boyfriend to begin his apology, the taller boy spoke. "I just want you to know how awful I feel about everything, Blaine. I didn't mean for any of this to happen, for us to get in a fight or anything. You know you're my first boyfriend and I don't exactly know the protocol for certain things, regardless of how confident I work hard at coming across, and I'm just so freaking sor—"

"If you finish that word, I swear, Kurt," Blaine cut in. He could already see the tears forming in Kurt's eyes at the unintentional severity in his words, so he hurried to continue. "I mean because you've already said it enough. It's my turn to apologize, okay?"

Kurt looked so uncertain, so taken aback by the fact that Blaine was actually apologizing, that it broke his heart. Had he really been that much of an asshole? As he stared into Kurt's eyes, and noticed again the dark circles around them, he decided that yeah, he had been. His left hand found its way into Kurt's and his right slid up to cup Kurt's cheek. He traced with his thumb Kurt's left eyebrow, his cheekbone, and finally the dark circle under his eye, and frowned.

Realizing what he was doing, Kurt turned away.

"You haven't been sleeping well, have you?"

"It's not important," he whispered.

And that was just the twist of the knife in his heart, because Kurt didn't think he was important, and that hit a little too close to home.

"Of course it's important, Kurt. You're important. And I'm sorry I haven't been treating you like you are." He sighed, turning to put his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. "I've been such a douche bag to you this week."

"You needed time. It was fine, I understood."

"It wasn't fine, though. I shouldn't have blown up at you like that, shouldn't have yelled at you. It was wrong and for all my talk about you and Laurel crossing lines, I crossed a pretty huge one too." Blaine grabbed Kurt's hands again and faced him. Soulmate didn't immediately turn to him, so he let go briefly to bring Kurt's face to his and reclaimed the hand he'd abandoned. "I'm so sorry, Kurt. I don't have any excuse, other than it was my time of the month."

Kurt giggled. "Is there something you're not telling me about what you've got going on under those clothes, Blaine Anderson? Because as cute as you are, I'm sorry, but a vagina is a deal-breaker for me."

Blaine shook his head, laughing too, and squeezed Kurt's hands. "Stop being nice to me when I'm trying to tell you how sorry I am for being so awful to you on Monday, and Sunday, and all week, actually."

"You don't need to do that, Blaine."

"I do, though. Because I was a terrible person and you deserve a legitimate apology for the way I treated you."

His tone of voice, apparently, was enough to convince Kurt to stop fighting it and just be silent, ready to listen to the apology he so deserved.

"When I found out you asked Laurel about Trevor, I was already mad. I was still upset at her for that whole sex talk fiasco, and then she brought up you asking about Trevor, and really, it was just bad timing. So the anger just built on itself and exploded at you, and that wasn't fair to you, so I'm sorry. I know you didn't mean anything by asking, and if I take Trevor out of the equation, it's not even a big deal that you asked Laurel about it. In the end, it all comes back to him. And I promise you, Kurt, I am going to tell you about him. No one knows the full story, not a single person. Laurel was there for everything, and she helped me a lot, but there are a couple things that happened that even she doesn't know about. I didn't want to tell her; I didn't want to tell anyone. But I want to tell you."

"You don't have to—"

"I want to. Not just because you're curious, or to even us out secret for secret, but because out of everyone that has come and gone in my life since then, I've never felt comfortable enough to talk about it with any of them until you. I know, deep down, that it's not going to change how you look at me, or how our relationship works, that's not what I'm worried about. I just…it's a lot. It's a lot to say, a lot to explain, and it hurts. I—…Right after everything happened, I—…"

For some reason, Blaine couldn't even bring himself to say one little detail yet. Not about before, not about after, not about everything in between. It all just still felt so fresh, even though it had happened years prior.

"It's okay," Kurt said, caressing Blaine's knuckles with his thumb. "It's alright, don't say anything just yet. I never should have pried; you can tell me when you're ready."

He sighed, frustrated with himself. "I know. I will, I swear to you. But right now, it's not about him. It's about us, and me, and how I acted towards you. I just need you to know how sorry I am, and that I had no right to attack you like I did."

"It's okay," his boyfriend repeated.

"Obviously it's not," Blaine whispered, inspecting the dark circles again.

Kurt caught on and blushed. "I'm just a big baby. Don't worry about it."

"Of course I'm worried about it, Kurt. I can't believe I put you through that this week. You look like you haven't slept in days."

"I haven't."

"Oh, baby." Blaine sighed and pulled Kurt into an embrace, feeling his entire body relax now that they were in each other's arms again.

Kurt turned his face in to nuzzle Blaine's neck, and Blaine was about to sigh for a completely different reason this time when he felt the sharp tug of teeth digging into the skin just below the corner of his jaw. Strangely…it was slightly painful and erotic at the same time. He felt Kurt's lower lip drag over his skin until his mouth was at his ear, breathing hot. "I thought I told you not to call me baby," he whispered.

And shit if that didn't bring back memories of a very pleasant, very vivid dream he'd had at the beginning of the week. Especially when Kurt started nipping and licking at his earlobe.

Blaine pulled away a fraction to be able to think clearly again, and it was apparent what Kurt was doing. After all, Blaine had invented the art of deflection.

"Kurt, stop. Come on." It took every ounce of self-control he could muster to utter those words, and even to his owns words they didn't sound entirely convincing. And his boyfriend took full advantage of that, diving back in to drag his bottom teeth and lip across his jawbone, blowing a little along the way, and fuck if that wasn't the greatest thing he'd ever experienced. "No, wait. Stop for a second."

"It's okay, I'm fine with this," Kurt whispered against his skin.

"It's not about that. You're trying to distract me from how much you haven't been sleeping this week, because of me."

Kurt exhaled and leaned back, not meeting Blaine's eyes. "It's not a big deal. It was just a few days, and we're okay now so you don't need to get all worked up over it. We'll talk on the phone and everything will be okay again. Alright?"

"That still doesn't help the nightmares though, does it?"

"No," Kurt murmured. "I mean, it helps a little, but…"

"But it's not enough. Kurt, why don't you just spend more nights over here? You said it yourself, you didn't have a single nightmare when you were sleeping with me. Our classes are over, so we don't have to worry about school anymore. Just spend most of your nights here, cuddling with me."

"Or we could, you know, try some nights at my house, too."

That gave Blaine pause. They hadn't talked about Blaine meeting Kurt's family yet, about him going to Kurt's house or anything. But now that Kurt was suggesting it, it seemed pretty nice.

"Unless you don't want to, or it'd be weird. I know that I've already met Laurel, but that's just your cousin, so it wasn't like a huge deal or anything. Meeting my family, my dad and step-mom and step-brother, probably sounds like too much and now you're totally thinking about how much you don't want to meet them, which is completely understandable—"

"Actually, I was thinking about how nice that sounds."

Kurt snapped his head up to look at Blaine. "Wait, really?"

"Of course." Blaine smiled, leaning their foreheads together. "Why wouldn't I want to meet the amazing people who helped shape you into the beautiful person you are today?"

Seeing the color rush to Kurt's cheeks made Blaine's heart swell, and he resolved then and there to always try to make Kurt blush, because it was basically the cutest thing he'd ever seen in his life.

"Okay. You can come for dinner tomorrow, meet everybody, and then spend the night. Sound like a plan?"

Blaine moved his lips the couple of inches forward to meet Kurt's. "Sounds like a date," he said, adding an eskimo kiss for good measure.

Kurt chuckled, and that was that. Their fight was over. They'd both apologized, and now they were moving past it. Couples fight all the time, Blaine thought. It's how they handle those disputes that show the true strength of the relationship. He and Kurt were able to admit what they'd done wrong and talk about it like two mature adults, then forgive and forget. Working through fights functionally was what made a relationship stable. That was one of the big problems that had caused his and Trevor's downfall.

…

That was the last time Blaine thought about Trevor for the rest of that afternoon. He pushed all those thoughts aside and just snuggled up with Kurt on the couch. Blaine was lying down behind Kurt and against the cushions and Kurt was on the edge with his back pressed to Blaine's front; Blaine's arm was thrown over Kurt's waist, and Kurt entangled their fingers together with the palm of his hand over the back of Blaine's. They chose to watch TV all day instead of putting in a movie because then one of them would have to keep getting up to switch out DVDs, and after not so much as a handshake all week long, they couldn't stand the thought of losing contact with each other.

At some point, Kurt fell asleep—As well he should after not sleeping for almost an entire week—so Blaine used the hand of the arm under his head to start raking his fingers through Kurt's hair. Eventually, Blaine fell asleep too, and that's exactly how Laurel found them when she walked through the front door.

They both woke up at the sound of the door shutting loudly, and a shout of "Blaine, I'm home! Are you in your room?"

"Nope," Blaine called out. "Living room."

The boys were just sitting up, stretching from their nice nap, when she entered the room. "Oh, I didn't know you were here, Kurt. Hi."

"Hey, Laurel. Nice to see you."

"Yeah, I hadn't seen you in a while, and Blaine was moping, so I thought maybe you two had…"

Blaine cut in swiftly. "Laur, remember that time we talked about you crossing lines? You're doing it again."

Laurel looked thoroughly reprimanded, even though Blaine was 7 years her junior, and started to back out of the room. "Right. Well, I'm just going to go set my stuff down and start on dinner then. Are you staying, Kurt?"

"No, that's okay. I should probably be heading home. Thank you, though."

"No problem."

She was already around the corner when Blaine said, "Actually, hey, Laurel? Can we talk?" At Kurt's worried glance, he added to his boyfriend, "Don't worry, I'm not going to yell at her. Now that we're okay, I want her and I to be okay, so that everyone can be okay. Okay?"

Kurt smiled at the repetition and kissed Blaine's nose. "Okay." He stood up and headed out as Laurel headed back in. "You'll call me tonight?"

"Try and stop me," Blaine grinned. With one last beautiful smile, Kurt was out their front door, leaving just him and Laurel, who looked like Blaine might pull out a shank at any moment. Ouch. What kind of person had he become this week? "You don't have to look so terrified, Laur, I'm not going to jump you."

"With how you've been acting lately, I'm not sure."

"Fair enough, I deserved that. Can you sit down a sec so we can talk about it?"

His older cousin eyed him warily before sitting down on the floor right where she was standing in the archway.

Blaine rolled his eyes. "Oh, real mature."

"It's just a safety precaution, in case you pull out a shiv."

"I'm not going to pull out a shiv, Jesus. I just want to have a simple conversation."

Laurel lifted one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows. "A simple conversation?"

"I won't raise my voice once."

"Alright, fine. Go ahead."

"You're not going to come sit on the couch?"

"Nope. I paid good money for these wood floors. When I first got the house, it was shag carpet."

"I know, I remember." Things got quiet as they both remembered the circumstances that brought them to live together. But no, that wasn't what Blaine wanted to talk about. He needed to stay on topic. "Look, we already talked about the sex thing, and even though I still think it was weird and out of line, I'm going to let it go for now. It happened two weeks ago, it's done, whatever. What I want to talk about is Kurt."

"What about him?"

"You've been back and forth with him. I first tell you about him, and you're suspicious. You meet him, spend a day with him, and you're all nice and you have witty banter and you're saying that he's a keeper. Then, you throw a weird sex talk at him because you think he's going to molest me, which, who's to say I'd be opposed to that anyway?"

"Blaine."

"And then I try to explain to you that Kurt's a good person, and you compare him to Trevor, saying that he was nice at first too, and I should keep that in mind. But the next second you turn around and say that if there was anyone in the world to tell the Trevor story to, it should be Kurt, because he's a good person and he deserves to know, and I'm just confused. Which is it? Do you like him, or do you hate him? Do you trust him, or are you just waiting for him to snap? You can't keep going back and forth like this. It's either one or the other."

"That's the problem," Laurel replied, gathering up her hair at the base of her neck and flipping it over her shoulder. "I can't figure it out."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"I know, just, give me a second. Hear me out. It's like, on the one hand, I'm so happy for you, Blaine. I haven't seen you smile the way you have when you're with him in years, if ever, really. Kurt seems to genuinely make you really happy, and that makes me happy, because you know that at the end of the day that's all I want for you, especially after what you've been through."

"So then why the hot and cold?"

"Hold on, I wasn't finished. Then, on the other hand, I'm scared for you. I told you up front that I was worried about you being with Kurt. This whole thing, sometimes, it just reeks of Trevor. And I'm not going to get into that because it feels like that's all we talk about lately—"

"You're telling me."

"—but it just makes me uneasy. I want to be able to just forget about that and focus on Kurt and how good he is for you, but there's a part of me that just wants to lock you away forever. It's the same part of me that was in that room with you at the family reunion talking about you getting your first boner in the locker room showers after gym class." Blaine reddened considerably and looked down at his feet. "It's the same part of me that answered the phone that night two years later when you called me barely able to utter a word because you were crying so hard and couldn't breathe. It's the same part of me that was there after the Trevor Incident exploded. I'm already not a very emotionally stable person, Blaine, you know that. But when it comes to you, I go even crazier. The claws come out, and I will fight to the death to protect you from any and all future bad things that come your way. And Kurt, as lovely as he is, comes across to me as just another person to hurt you. Not because of anything he's done, but because of what you've done."

"What I've done?"

"You've already given him your heart, that's plain as day to anyone who even glances at the two of you. His hands hold it now, and that gives him the power to break it."

Blaine stood up and crossed the room to sit in front of Laurel, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking right into her eyes. "He wouldn't, though."

"Sometimes, it's not something we can control. I didn't say he'd do it on purpose, although that is something too. We don't always intentionally hurt the people we love. But that's the problem. With love, it's such a strong emotion; we almost don't have a handle on it. It goes all over the place, in both good ways and bad. It could make us feel euphoric in one moment, like nothing in the world can touch us as long as we're with that person, but in the next moment, it has the power to make us go crazy. You and me are a prime example. My love for you, dear sweet Blainers, makes me do stupid things sometimes. It kicks my momma bear protectiveness into overdrive and gets me to give your boyfriend a wild sex talk."

"I'm his first boyfriend, by the way. He's never been in a relationship before. So, as just another attempt to get you to stop being so paranoid about us having sex, he's never been anywhere close."

"Did he say as much?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did he tell you specifically he was a virgin, or just that you were his first boyfriend? Because you don't have to be in a relationship to have sex."

Blaine groaned and leaned back to lie on the floor. "Seriously? Again with this? What is your obsession with Kurt and I having sex?"

He expected Laurel to have some snappy comeback about STDs or glove before love or wrap it before you tap it, but she didn't say anything. Not a single word. And that just seemed…fishy. So Blaine shot right back up and stared at Laurel hard, studying her face, which decidedly looked extremely fidgety and anxious.

"Laur…What are you not telling me?"

"It's just…it's from a long time ago, Blaine. A really long time ago."

Now Blaine was starting to get worried. "What is?"

"Look, I never told you about this because by the time you were old enough to really get to know me, I was in college, and a very different person than who I was in high school."

Yeah. This was definitely not sounding good. "Who were you in high school?"

The blonde stood up and turned her back on her baby cousin, crossing her arms and almost folding in on herself. "I was…not okay. You know our family; you know the kind of stifling environment being raised in it creates. So once I got to high school, I kind of…broke out. I turned into your typical rebel, wild child. I snuck out, went to parties, got drunk at parties that lasted entire weekends. I never did any of the drugs, though, I can say that. Alcohol, yes, but I would never take random drugs from a stranger at a party. Even in my party girl stage, I was smarter than that. Although, given that whole time period, I guess I wasn't really being smart at all.

"Neither were the people I was hanging out with. Blaine, I can't tell you how many times I had to take my crying girl friends to the free clinic because they were too scared to tell their mom they might have some kind of STD. I mean, geez, these girls were 15, 16, 17 years old. Contracting a sexually transmitted disease shouldn't even be on the list of worries at that age."

Blaine couldn't help himself at this point, he had to know. "Did you…you know…ever hook up with anybody at these…parties?"

Laurel turned around to face him, and she had this far off look and shook her head, not negating his question, but trying to clear her head. "There was this guy I thought was the hottest guy around. He wasn't the coolest guy in school, but I liked him well enough. He seemed sweet, just kind of lost, like me. We clicked at the few parties we saw each other at, and I felt like over that time we really bonded, you know? Broken families and all that clich� shit.

"Then there was this one party the summer before my junior year when I just got totally wasted. I blacked out, and honestly, I still can't remember that night. The only reason I had any clue what had happened was because I was so sore the morning when I woke up, and not just in my head from the hangover." Blaine winced, knowing full well what had happened by now. "I woke up next to that guy, and I thought, well maybe now he'll want to be with me. I knew we had sex, and even though I couldn't even remember it, I still thought that meant something, you know? But to him, it didn't. All that time I thought he really cared about me, that we had this 'special bond,' and he just hung me out to dry. I'm not saying that's all he was after, because even now I still don't think that's who he was, but he just left me. He stopped coming to parties, and no one saw him that fall when we went back to school. He just kind of…disappeared.

"I just want sex to mean something more for you. I know you and Kurt are in a relationship and your situation with him is nothing like mine, especially since you're both not into drugs or alcohol. But the basic principle still stands. I don't even remember my first time, and I don't want it to be that way for you. You deserve the whole special, romantic, candles and rose petals set-up. It's not that I think Kurt won't give that to you, it's just that I don't know that he will, either."

She took a second to take a few deep breaths, trying to collect herself before continuing. "Like I said before, I just want what's best for you. I don't want you and Kurt to rush into anything you're not ready for. This whole thing with him happened so fast, I'm afraid you're going to keep that same pace in the bedroom, and I don't want that for you."

This was all too much. Blaine was still trying to wrap his head around her back and forth with Kurt, and the fact that she used to be a crazy party girl, and that she lost her virginity when she was so wasted she couldn't even remember it the next day. Of course, now it all made sense when he put it together, but it was a lot to take in all at once. He could stare at Laurel all day long and never see her as being like that. She always seemed so put-together.

"What made you change? I mean, obviously you're not that girl anymore."

"No," Laurel smiled. "That summer was kind of a wake-up call for me. I ditched that crowd and started focusing more on school. I wasted so much time getting wasted that I had no sense of what I wanted to do post-high school. I knew that if I wanted to have any shot at college, I needed to pull myself together, and quick. Especially after my parents threatened to send me to military school if I didn't pull my act together. I mean, honestly, Blaine. Could you picture me in camo? So not the right look for me."

Blaine chuckled and rolled his eyes at her, rising from the floor to engulf her in a hug.

"I'm sorry I've been so on your case lately," he said into her hair. "And I'm sorry that you had such a hard time when you were younger."

"You didn't exactly have a cake walk either, mister."

"I know. But I had you to turn to. You didn't have anyone."

He felt her burrow her head into his chest. "No," she whispered. "I didn't."

He pulled her away to hold her at arms-length and smiled at her. "Thank you for telling me all of that. I appreciate knowing where you're coming from. I promise that if my relationship with Kurt reaches the point where we're talking about having sex, or I know it's going to happen soon, I'll talk to you about it. Okay?"

"Deal."

They stood looking at each other for a few more seconds before Laurel turned away, walking in the direction of the kitchen. "I'm going to finally start dinner. Any ideas?"

"Pizza."

Her head popped back from around the corner. "Really? You want to order pizza?"

"Is that a valid option?"

"It could be. In all honesty, I don't really feel like cooking tonight, anyway."

"Cool. I want triple meat." She disappeared again into the kitchen, probably to retrieve the phone to call the order in, when Blaine suddenly remembered. "Hey, that reminds me. I was going to go over to Kurt's house tomorrow for dinner, meet his family, and then spend the night there. Is that okay?"

He picked up her purse from where she'd dropped it by the door on his way to the kitchen and set it on the counter next to her while she punched some numbers in. "You're meeting his family?" she asked without looking up.

"Yeah. I mean, he's met you already. And he spent the night here. So we figured we'd kinda do the same, but reversed."

"Sure." She pressed the phone to her ear over her hair. "I don't see why not. If they cook something good bring me home a plate."

"Not happening," he said, laughing at her as he finally left to go to his room.

He heard her start placing the pizza order when he shut the door and smiled. Now that they had had their talk, not only were they on good terms again, but Laurel would stop bombarding him about his and Kurt's sex life, or current lack thereof.

All in all, despite the fact that he had to take two final exams, it had been a good day. He made up with Kurt, got in some good cuddling, made up with Laurel, and set up some plans to meet Kurt's family tomorrow, with the promise of even more cuddling for their sleepover.

Oh, shit, wait a second. He was meeting Kurt's family tomorrow. He was going to meet the famous Burt Hummel, Carole Hummel, and Finn Hudson. What if they didn't like him? What if they thought he wasn't funny enough or smart enough or good enough for Kurt?

Before he'd even realized what he was doing, he plucked his phone out of his pocket and dialed Kurt's number, waiting for his boyfriend to pick up.

After three rings, "Hello?"

"Oh, thank God, Kurt. I'm freaking out."

"About what?"

"About meeting your family tomorrow! What if they don't like me? What if I say the wrong things? What if I'm not interesting enough or pretty enough—"

"Pretty enough, Blaine? Really?"

He could hear Kurt trying not to laugh, but this was so not the time. "This is not a laughing matter, Kurt. Your dad is going to forbid me from dating you once he meets me, I'm sure of it."

"Forbid me? Oh, Blaine, sweetie, calm down. It's going to be fine. I talk about you so much that when I told Carole you'd be joining us for dinner tomorrow, she squealed like a school girl and hugged me, gushing over how excited she was to finally meet you."

Okay, well that made him feel at least a little better. At least the step-mom seemed enthusiastic about meeting him. Now he only had to win over the dad and brother. That wasn't so bad.

"You really think it will be okay?"

"I know it will. Everyone is really looking forward to being able to put a face to a name. They see me talking to you every night and are very much happy to see whose beautiful face that sexy voice belongs to."

Blaine scoffed. "I hardly think your dad would describe my voice as 'sexy,' Kurt."

"No, that part I added myself. Nonetheless, you're going to be fine. I, however, want to know about how things with Laurel went. When I left, the atmosphere was pretty tense. You're not still mad at her too, are you?"

"Not anymore. We worked things out and everything is good again."

He could hear the smile in Kurt's voice. "Well, look at you, putting an end to all of your fights. I'm so proud of you, sweetheart."

"Okay, now that's just not fair. You get to call me 'sweetie' and 'sweetheart' all the time now, like suddenly it's a thing with us, but the one time I try a pet name, you bite me!"

Kurt's musical laugh rang through his ear to his brain and made his whole body quiver. "That's because you used one that I vetoed. And if I recall, I didn't bite you hard. You actually seemed to like it, from what I could tell."

That was even more not fair. Kurt wasn't supposed to be aware of the power he had over him. Blaine was supposed to be able to keep himself in check and not show how much Kurt's mere presence turned him on.

"Aside from that, you have to give me a term of endearment that I'm allowed to use. Otherwise it's completely one-sided and our relationship is out of balance."

"I hardly think our relationship is out of balance because I call you 'sweetheart.'"

"A pet name, Kurt."

Kurt went quiet for a minute, and Blaine was hoping that that meant he was mulling over his options and finding one suitable. He was very wrong. "Nope."

"Come on."

"Nuh-uh."

"Fine," Blaine resolved. "I'm just going to call you every pet name in the book until you tell me one that's acceptable."

"Don't you dare."

"What's the matter, baby? Don't I dare what, honey? I'm just talking to you, darling. Not doing anything wrong."

Even though Kurt sighed, trying his best at sounding exasperated, he knew that in reality, Kurt loved it. "Stop it."

"Stop what, babe?"

"I'm going to hang up."

"No you're not, dear."

"Just you wait and see."

"You wouldn't do that to me, would you, pumpkin?"

Blaine could feel the eye roll. "'Pumpkin,' Blaine? Seriously? That's your next move?"

"And there are so many more I can think of, you don't even want to know."

The night continued on in much the same fashion, with the two boys teasing each other and playing and just generally catching up on all the cuteness they'd missed out on all week. They never even really talked about anything serious or meaningful. Honestly, they were content with just hearing the other's voice, a privilege they'd both sorely missed.

Absence really does make the heart grow fonder.