“What just happened?” Kurt wondered aloud. “If he just let me talk we could be laughing about this whole thing!” He exclaimed to the empty car.

Kurt had been stunned into immobility for the last five minutes. Now he was kicking himself for not following Blaine. Kurt looked up and spotted the blonde that had come to warn Blaine about his father. He threw himself out of the car and ran to catch up. “Hey, wait up! Jeff right? You have to tell me where Blaine is.”

“Did you try the teacher’s lounge? If they have coffee then that’s where he’ll be.”

“Just stop. I know he’s not a teacher. Listen, he was really upset and I need to talk to him. You’re a friend of his aren’t you? Please tell me where he would go. Everything is a mess right now and I need to fix it. I can fix this.”

Jeff seemed to think it over for a moment before answering. “Dalton Academy. If he is upset then he will go to Dalton. His father kind of runs the place so Blaine can get in at any time.”

Won’t his dad look for him there as well?”

Jeff shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Principal Anderson is on his way home for his evening cocktail. Where he will tell his wife of the grand effort he made to help their poor son. He’s done for the day, believe me.”

Kurt drove faster than he should have. He could hear his dad yelling at him to slow down the whole way there. All that mattered is that he get to Blaine. He would make him listen! Kurt heard his side of the story now it was Kurt’s turn to tell his.

Once at Dalton, he followed the directions that Jeff had given him. He tried to blend in but it wasn’t necessary. The halls were fairly baron save for a straggler or two. But no one questioned his presence. As he neared the gym Kurt could hear a very distinct, ‘Thwack!’, of glove meeting bag.

He went through the door as quietly as he could. And there he was. Shirtless and moving with a dancers grace as he worked the punching bag. This was the first time Kurt had seen Blaine shirtless and he was a little stunned. He knew that Blaine was in shape but he had no idea just how gorgeous that shape was. Blaine kept hitting as Kurt watched. His back was to Kurt so he still didn’t know that he was there. He stopped and put his arms around the bag and rested his head against it. Kurt watched the play of muscles with each inhalation as he tried to catch his breath. Blaine straightened and pushed the bag to the side and walked past it. Kurt followed.

They ended up in the showers. Blaine kicked off his shoes and stepped into one of the stalls. Now Kurt just had to let Blaine know that he was there before he took off his…Oh my God! He tried to tell himself to leave but he refused to listen. He drifted forward until he was only about three feet away. Blaine started to wash his hair and Kurt watched as the soap trails worked their way down his body. Curving over the more pronounced muscles in his back. Going down, down until the lace like line of bubbles slowed and gathered before journeying over the curve of his ass. Kurt was startled out of his study by the sound of Blaine’s voice.

“You shouldn’t be in here Kurt. You’re going to get so wet.”

Kurt tore his gaze away from Blaine’s backside. Embarrassed at having been caught in the act of objectifying. “How did you know I was in here Blaine?”

Many things happened in the span of the next thirty seconds. He only objected to one. That it only lasted thirty second.

Blaine turned; his eyes looked dark and slightly glazed. With one hand he pushed the wet curls off his forehead. With the other, he reached out and grabbed Kurt’s arm. He took a gasping breath when his body slammed into Blaine’s. The warm water from the shower ran over them both as Blaine’s lips pushed into his. This was not the first kiss he had imagined with Blaine. It was desperate and wanton, wet and needy. Definitely not the shy first soft touch of lips that he had expected. Sometimes you don’t really know what you want until you have it. He gasped into Blaine’s open mouth when he felt him tug at his hair.

Blaine kissed his way to his ear. “Kurt, I want you. I want you so bad.”

Kurt turned his head until his lips found Blaine’s mouth once more. Digging his fingers into Blaine’s back, he guided them toward the shower wall. When Blaine’s back met the cold tile, he gasped and broke the kiss. His eyes flew open and widened.

“Kurt?” He placed a hand on his cheek. “You’re really here?”

Kurt had to get his breathing under control before he could speak. “Of course.” He laughed. “What, did you think I was just a very realistic shower fantasy?” He started to laugh again until he saw the look on Blaine’s face. “Oh my God! You did.”
He ran his fingers through Blaine’s wet curls. “I can assure you, I am very real.” He moved in to kiss Blaine again.

“Kurt wait.” He pushed at Kurt’s shoulders to keep their faces apart. “What are you doing here?”

Oh, right! There was a reason why he came here. A reason other than Blaine Anderson’s lips and his warm wet skin. “I came to make you listen to me. You ran off before I could get a word in edgewise. So, now it’s my turn to talk while you listen.”

“Kurt, I can’t talk to you like this.”

“Yes you can! There are things I need to say and there are things you need to hear. This time you are going to stay right here and listen.”

“Kurt! Kurt, I know. It was stupid of me to run like that, and you will have your say. I will let you yell at me for as long as you need to, I promise. I just can’t do it like this.”

“Blaine what are you talk…“ Kurt felt Blaine run his hands down his back until they came to rest on his hips. He pulled them closer. Then he understood. He could feel the problem. He could feel it pushing against a problem of his own.

“Blaine. You’re naked!” Kurt jumped back and turned away. “I… I’ll just go and let you get dressed.”

Kurt stood just outside of the locker room and waited. A few minutes later Blaine came out fully clothed and carrying a towel.

“Look at you Kurt, you’re all wet. I am so sorry! I’m afraid I may have ruined your outfit.” He started to rub the towel over his shirt.

Kurt shook his head and with his finger tips forced Blaine‘s chin up so he would look him in the eye. “Blaine I don’t care about my clothes. And that statement right there should prove the importance of what I have to say.”

Blaine took Kurt’s hand in his. “Okay, come with me. I know a place where we can talk privately.”

Blaine led him outside to the grounds surrounding Dalton. They walked a ways before stopping beneath a large tree. Blaine laid the towel he had with him down on the ground for Kurt. They sat side by side leaning up against the trunk.

Kurt reached over and grabbed Blaine’s hand. He did not know if it was to comfort him or anchor him so he wouldn’t try running again. “Okay. Well, you started your tale with an age so I’ll do the same. I’m twenty years old.” Kurt would have laughed at the look that came over Blaine’s face, but he didn’t want to stop talking long enough to do so. “I’ve been lying to you. I am from Lima. I did go to McKinley. It’s just… I haven’t been to either for a while. And most importantly, I really, really care for you. I have been studying fashion in New York for the last two years. I also work as a part time assistant to a designer named Nora. She is a little insane and a lot… fantastic. She made a request of me last week which is what brought me to you….”

So Kurt talked, and kept talking. Their hands were still clasped and somehow their bodies had moved impossibly closer. Kurt had started the conversation looking him in the eyes. However, he was too close now. Instead, he had finished his story speaking softly directly into Blaine’s ear. His legs had found their way over to Blaine and were draped over his lap. They had, had more physical contact in the last hour than they had the entire time they had known each other. It seemed as though their bodies did not want to break that connection.

Kurt finished talking and laid his head on Blaine’s shoulder. “When you called this a comedy of errors, you didn’t know at the time just how right you were. So, if I forgive you will you forgive me?” Kurt’s question was met with silence. “Blaine? Please?” Even the leaves overhead had stopped rustling. The quiet was overwhelming for Kurt.

“When are you leaving?” Blaine’s voice whispered through the silence.

That question would have taken Kurt to his knees if he hadn’t already been sitting. That’s right, he thought. I’m leaving. “Blaine, we can make this work. I can skype you everyday. You could come see me in New York every weekend if you want to. I promise we won’t lose this connection between us if we just try. Please say you want to try.”

“When are you leaving?” Blaine asked again.

“Day after tomorrow.” When his voice broke as he answered, he took it as a reflection of his heart.

“I don’t think I can handle just having some of you, some of the time.”

“What are you saying Blaine?”

“I’m saying that this crazy connection I feel with you may be messing with my brain. But I am clear enough to know that just seeing your face on my computer screen would never be enough. Not being able to reach through and do this…” Blaine shifted them around until they were face to face. He pressed his mouth to Kurt’s and just held it there with no movement. Just a connection through their lips. He pulled away and rested their foreheads together. “It would kill me Kurt. I think it would be easier to get through the pain of trying to get over you, rather than the pain of seeing you and not having you.”

Kurt squeezed his eyes shut and fought the tears that had gathered there. “So what now?”

“How about we sit here for a while and watch the sunset. We can finally talk without worrying about letting anything slip. You can tell me all about your fabulous life in New York. I can tell you all about how I am going to kill my roommate Jeff for telling my father where I was today.” He grinned at Kurt and guided his head back down to rest on his shoulder. “And, it will give us a chance to say goodb…”

“No!” Kurt took the hand that had been resting on Blaine’s stomach and placed it over his mouth. “I am never saying that to you. Never.”

So as Kurt’s clothes dried in the waning sun, they talked. Talked about things that they had both avoided until now. Blaine laughed at Kurt’s Nora drama.

“Seriously Blaine! She has texted me pretty much on the hour since I got here asking for pictures of, as she calls them, ‘her fashionable ones’. Finally, last night I sent her every picture I’ve taken while I have been here. Including pictures of you and of my dad! Just wait until I get back and tell her about the girl she sent me here for in the first place. She took that fashion forward look from old yearbook pictures of my friend Brittany.”

“Wait. Kurt, if she was an old friend didn’t you know she had stolen the look?”

“Oh that. Well, Nora was sending me first class. First class Blaine! And I got to see my dad.”

During their conversation Kurt discovered a new favorite shade of pink, on Blaine’s face when he asked, “So Blaine, how often do you think about me when you’re in the shower? Just how many showers have you taken since we met?”

“I… It wasn’t…. Okay, a lot. Next topic!”

Blaine asked him the question his family and friends knew to avoid. “Why are you studying fashion and not music? Everything you have told me about your life before New York was all theater and singing. What changed?”

“I made the switch at the end of my senior year. It wasn’t as if I suddenly rejected music and theater, at the time, I felt like it rejected me. Do you remember what you said about my singing the first day we met?”

“That you needed to share your voice with the world.”

“When you said that it was like you took a match and relit my desire to perform.” He laughed. “It might be in some dinky karaoke bar, but I am going to perform again. What about you? You said that when you sang for me it had been almost a year. Why? Even if you had chosen a different career path, you could have still performed somewhere. Do you even want to teach, Blaine?”

“It’s what… No, I don‘t. It is what my grandfather did. It’s what my father does. If my brother had followed in our fathers footsteps, he might have been a little more understanding with me. But as it is, the family legacy fell to me. I wanted to pursue music like you. When I was with the Warblers here at Dalton? Kurt you should have seen me! I think you would have gotten a kick out of that confident, could do no wrong, kid. That part of my life ended when my dad came to work here. Instead of singing and the Warblers being my entire life, my dad made sure I knew that it was a hobby not a career.”

Kurt tightened his embrace around Blaine’s waist. “But it was still a choice wasn’t it? Why did you agree?” Blaine brought his hand up and began to rub circles on Kurt’s back.

“When Cooper left for Hollywood my dad acted like he lost a son. When I came out, for a while he acted as if it happened again. As though he were mourning the death of the ideal he had set up in his mind of me. For once, I wanted him to look at me and see the son he wanted. So I gave up music.”

Kurt laid a small kiss on Blaine’s earlobe and whispered. “It seems like music was missing from both of our lives. We just needed to remind each other.”

Soon the world around them changed. The sun slipped out of the sky. The sounds of daytime were replaced by the evening sounds of crickets and cicadas.

They watched the moon make its entrance as they held each other, both refusing to say goodbye. When they finally did pull away from one another, they just stood and stared. There were a million things that he wanted to say to Blaine, but only one question. He was sure that it was in his eyes because the answer was certainly in Blaine’s. The request lay unspoken between them but it was loud nonetheless. Kurt’s silent pleading question of, ‘please come with me’, was answered by Blaine’s silent, ‘I can’t give up the life I know for someone I have known less than a week’. Kurt nodded, grabbed Blaine and crushed him to his chest for one more brief touch; he then turned and walked away.

Later, Kurt slipped inside his old house. He was so glad he had taken Finn’s suggestion and come here instead of back to the hotel. He needed to be home. Carol was in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner and his dad was sitting on the couch watching television. Burt looked up when he heard the door. He just stared at Kurt’s face and without a word held out one arm. Kurt walked over and sat down, falling easily into the position they had perfected after years of comforting each other.

“Dad?

“Yeah Kurt?”

“Love hurts.”

“Love?”

Finally, Kurt let the tears he had been fighting, flow.