B- I don't think I'll stay too long or drink too much. I have a headache from all the studying anyway.

K- I want you to have fun, so do whatever you feel like, but without trying to sound like a controlling boyfriend… PLEASE don't drink so much you black out.

B- Promise.

K- Thank you. I'm just worried that since I'm not there to take care of you, something bad could happen to you.

B- Been watching lifetime again?

K- haha very funny… dork… you don't function very well drunk. Less so when you black out. AND I'd like for you to not have a dick tattooed on your face with permanent marker

K- I don't want you to die from choking on your own vomit and I don't want you to get gang raped.

K- Okay the last one was a bit lifetime channel, but I still don't want it to happen.

B- Who are you trying to convince? Lol I'd also like for none of those things to happen.

B-No more than a few beers I promise. Besides, I have a headache anyway.

B-I might sneak out early. I really only have to be seen with a drink in hand in order to not be hazed by "the fraternity." lol

K- So much for zero tolerance

B- It's a tradition and it's acceptable hazing. Nothing too bad. Remember when they duct taped that freshman to the wall halfway into the night because he didn't perform his freshman duties at one of these things?

K- Oh yeah… that was a weird thing to walk past the next morning.

B- Definitely don't want that to happen to me.

K- Okay I gotta go. I still have grossness on my hands from the tire shop today. I've washed a hundred times and it's still not off.

B- I'll be picturing that tonight in my dreams… you covered in oil telling me how dirty you are.

Kurt laughed on his end. K- I'm dirty… Please make me clean? ; )

B- I'm afraid I'd only make you more dirty, Beautiful.

K- Have fun tonight. Can't wait to see you in the morning.

B- Love you. Can't wait to see you too. Xoxo

An hour later Blaine was sitting on a couch, clutching a half drunk beer that he'd been nursing a while and surreptitiously alternating between clenching his jaw and rubbing his temples. He was surrounded by some of the upperclassmen, trying to sound interested in their conversations about girls and hooking up around campus. Every now and then the topic of sports would come up and Blaine would enter in the conversation. A freshman brought around a plate of brownies that the guys, Blaine included, gobbled up instantly.

"Man," the nameless freshman complained. "Those went quick."

"Shouldn't have brought them around to the big boys first, kiddo," one of the bigger Crathern boys said as nicely as a taunt could sound.

"Dude, are you alright?" Bradley asked.

"Uh, yeah. I got a splitting headache. I might bounce outta here early." Blaine always found that he spoke differently around straight men than gay ones. Particularly the straight men who walked and talked tough.

"I got some Advil in my room if you want some."

"You, know what? I don't have anything in the realm of headache meds, so that'd be awesome."

"Hey, my room's closer," James inserted.

When did he join us? Blaine thought. Then he remembered that James and Bradley had been chummy since James' first day and figured James had joined the group of boys when Bradley did and Blaine didn't notice.

"I got something for your head. Besides," he said turning his attention to Bradley. "Brad, you're up next at the pong table. You miss your slot, you're waiting for a long time."

Blaine didn't have the energy to say no thanks and find someone else's med cabinet to raid, so he stayed silent and watched James clap Bradley on the shoulder on his way out of the Warbler room door.

He got into a conversation with Jeff about American football and five minute past before he felt a tap on his shoulder. James had returned and was sitting on the couch next to him holding his hand out, palm up. A single blue tablet was in the center.

"What is that?" Blaine asked. "Isn't Advil brown?"

"Bradley said he had Advil. I said I had something. Relax. It's Aleve."

"Isn't the dosage two pills?" Blaine asked, trying not to sound ungrateful.

"Bottle said one," James replied. Blaine went to take the pill from James' hand when James closed his fist around it. "Truce?"

"What?"

"Truce. I won't say anything about Kurt if you promise not to punch me again. You pack a whole lot of weight behind that fist for a short guy."

Blaine looked in James' eyes searching for some kind of authenticity to his words, but saw nothing. James was a hard person to read. His head was pounding along with the sound of the music.

"You promise to leave Kurt alone?"

"I promise." James put his free hand over his heart and smiled.

"This doesn't make us friends, but, fine. Truce."

James opened his palm back up.

Blaine took the tablet and swallowed it, downing it with the beer in his hand. "Thanks," he said.

"No problem." James smiling peacefully and walked away.

Blaine heard his name being called from the flip cup table. He walked over and declined the invitation to play this round, but he'd take the place of the freshman who was refereeing so he could play. He refereed three games before Nick convinced him to play at least one game. One game gave him the equivalent of two drinks.

It took twenty minutes for whatever it was that James gave Blaine to kick in because his headache was now gone. "I don't think I should have taken that pill with alcohol," he told James at the beer pong table."

"Why not?" James asked looking at Blaine with sleepy eyes and a dreamy smile.

"I've only had three beers and I feel buzzed already. I usually can drink a lot before I feel like this."

"Try drinking some water and eating," he suggested.

Blaine shuffled his feet over to the snack table and grabbed a tortilla chip. He remembered holding it and putting it in his mouth, tasting the saltiness of the chip and the crunchy texture. That was the last thing he remembered.

Saturday morning

Blaine vaguely remembered getting a text message from Kurt at 9:00AM telling him he was on his way and would be at Dalton in about an hour, but he wasn't sure if texting Kurt back was a dream or not. At 10:15 AM he was awoken by another text from Kurt saying he was downstairs and needed to be let in to the building.

B- I'll be right down. Love you. Blaine felt like his head was going to burst. His skin was tingling like all his limbs had gone numb and were just getting feeling back and his mouth felt unbelievably dry, but his skin and mouth issues were overpowered by the amount of thumping going on in his skull.

He felt so bad for being in the state he was in. He swore to himself that he wouldn't drink that much- but, wait… Did I drink that much? I didn't think I did. He took his blankets off his body and when he stepped his feet to the floor, Blaine realized that he was without a stitch of clothing on. Wouldn't be the first time I was too drunk to put clothes on for bed, he thought. He grabbed a pair of boxers and just as he was grabbing a pair of lounge pants he heard a knock on the door.

He was too lazy to put the pants on, so he just swung them over his shoulder and opened the door. Kurt had somehow found a way in. "Good morning," Kurt whispered.

Kurt had a cup holder of two coffee cups, what looks like a smoothie, and a bag with the label Lima Bean on it. "After your text message this morning I got the impression that going out was out of the question so I brought brunch to us. Also, I have the perfect cure for a hangover."

Blaine sighed and looked at Kurt unbelievingly. He shook his head. "I love you," he said, opening the door further for him to come in.

Kurt smiled and brought everything into the room, resting it all on Blaine's desk. I bought you scrambled eggs because those will settle pretty good in your stomach. They're not too heavy so they won't threaten to come back up. I also got you a banana smoothie. The dairy calms your stomach while the banana and ice are good for your head. When you're done…" He tapped the cover of one of the coffee cups. "…Medium drip."

Blaine collapsed onto Kurt. "You are the greatest boyfriend ever. I love you so much." He backed up slightly and placed a chaste kiss on Kurt's lips.

Kurt let Blaine kiss him, but couldn't stop himself from wiping his mouth after Blaine backed away. "You know I love you, but you really need to brush you teeth. You taste like stale saliva." Kurt laughed while he said the last part.

Blaine covered his mouth. "I'm sorry."

Kurt laughed breathily through his nose. "You know, every time I've woken up next to you, you've never had morning breath. You've always tasted the same."

"Sorry," Blaine said again.

Kurt handed Blaine the plastic container with the smoothie in it. Blaine immediately put the straw to his lips and sucked. "What happened last night? I thought you said you weren't going to drink much." He saw Blaine's expression and read it as another apology. "I'm not mad. I trust you. I just know how wild those parties can get and I was wondering what made you change your mind."

Blaine went over to his bed and sat at the head of it with his eggs and smoothie. Kurt followed his actions and sat at the foot of the bed with his coffee and fruit parfait. "To be honest, I don't remember. I had three beers and then it goes fuzzy. Last thing I remember is James telling me to eat something."

"James?" Kurt asked as if to say: Why were you around him?

"Yeah, um." He squinted his eyes shut, trying to remember. "We were standing at the beer pong table. I wasn't hanging out with him. I walked up and he was there." He opened his eyes. "I said something to him. I can't remember. He told me to drink water and eat something. I remember eating a chip or something and then…nothing."

Kurt reminded himself that he wasn't mad at Blaine, but he was bothered. "Blaine do you know how dangerous that is? I've seen how you are when you're black-out drunk. How did you get up here? What if you choked on your vomit? I would have walked in your room to a corpse."

Blaine tilted his head down, he felt embarrassed and ashamed. "I know. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened. I swear I only remember having three. Obviously I had more, but I just can't remember it."

Kurt sighed and took Blaine's chin between his thumb and index finger, tilting it up to look him in the eyes. "I'm not mad. I'm concerned, but what's done is done and you look fine now. So, let's agree to let it go and not let it ruin our morning."

Blaine was giving Kurt his puppy dog look, but didn't mean to. He really did feel guilty. "If it makes you feel better, when I woke up, my entire body felt like it had fallen asleep."

"I don't understand. Isn't that the point of sleeping?"

"No. I mean, you know when, like, a limb falls asleep or something? It goes numb and then when it wakes up it's all tingly? My body felt like that."

"Cause that's not weird or anything." Kurt paused. "I'm sorry," he said after shaking his head.

"For what?"

"I'm coming off as judgmental. I don't mean to be. I just get worried because every time you've been drunk since we've met, I've been there to help you and take care of you. I hate thinking that you blacked out and I wasn't there. I know our friends are great and all, but I don't know how much they partied and if they were just as bad as you. I just get worried about what COULD have happened." He paused again to take in Blaine's expression. He still looked ashamed, but he was more concerned than anything. "Okay, I've said my peace and I can see that nothing bad happened to you, so if there's anything else you'd like to say, then you say it and we'll be done with the whole thing."

Blaine took a minute to think. There was a lot he wanted to say. "Okay. I've said it a million times already, but first, I'm sorry. Second, thank you for being so nice about it because you have every right to be mad and attack me. And third, I promise to try my best to never make you look at me like that again."

"Look at you like how?"

Blaine puckered his lips and softened his eyes. "Like you're disappointed in me and I've let you down." Kurt's face took on an angelic and apologetic form. Blaine shrugged his shoulders. "You used to cry all the time and you haven't shed a tear in the past couple weeks… All I want is to make you happy and if you do cry, I don't want to be the cause of it. I want to be the solution that stops the tears and makes a smile."

The two ate their breakfast in a friendly fashion, discussing Kurt's afternoon in Burt's tire shop and then dinner with Puck as their guest. When the last drop of coffee was finished, Blaine licked the front of his teeth. "I need to take a shower and brush my teeth." He licked right to left again under his top lip. "My teeth are wearing sweaters."

Kurt made a face that signified 'ew,' but smiled anyway. "Do you wanna come?" Blaine asked innocently.

Kurt batted his eyes and smiled flirtatiously. "No. I don't think so."

Blaine stuck his bottom lip out and pouted.

"Since your head is pounding harder than you ever could me, I don't think me screaming in ecstasy in a room with great acoustics would help."

Blaine leaned forward and crawled over to Kurt, making Kurt lean backwards. "But what if I promised to keep you quiet?" Blaine asked seductively against Kurt's lips.

"Ugh, um, gross." Kurt laughed, turning his head away from Blaine's face. "I'm sorry," he giggled out. "Your breath smells so bad. I swear you could be telling me I'd get another gift from Tiffany's if I kissed you right now and I'd say no."

"Aww," Blaine pouted and rolled off of Kurt. He got up and headed for his bathroom. Kurt heard the shower start and he looked over to the bathroom with a smile. Blaine popped his head back out. "Do you want to pick out an outfit for me?" His head disappeared back into the bathroom.

"We're still going shopping?" Kurt yelled.

"Yeah. I promised both brunch and shopping, but you brought brunch. Is there something else you'd rather do?"

Kurt walked over to the bathroom door and watched Blaine brush his teeth as he leaned up against the doorframe. There is no way to make brushing teeth sexy, Kurt thought with a smile. He quickly changed his mind as he forgot about the foam coming from Blaine's mouth and focused on the olive skinned boys body. His skin was free from any imperfections and his back was rippling with muscles. Kurt's eyes traveled down the sides of Blaine legs and stopped at his calves. Again, muscular, like a runner's calf. He snapped back into reality when he saw those calves turn in his direction.

Blaine had wiped his mouth with a towel when he realized Kurt was watching him. He enjoyed the way Kurt looked at his body. Kurt had seen Blaine's body plenty of times to be comfortable with it by now, but Blaine's ego only grew when he'd catch Kurt staring at him like that. Kurt always seemed to take in Blaine's body as if he were seeing it for the first time. Blaine tossed the towel in the sink and turned his body towards Kurt.

Blaine stood leaning against the sink with a hand on his hip. He gave Kurt a 'come hither' look and licked his lips. Kurt nibbled a little on the left side of his bottom lip and stayed leaning against the doorframe. The slender boy's breath caught.

Blaine swallowed hard and stripped his boxers off. He looked deep at Kurt's face, while Kurt's eyes were having a hard time staying up. Blaine swaggered over to Kurt and stopped mere inches from his face. Kurt's mouth watered at the sight of seeing Blaine's muscles moving and Blaine's arousal swelling. "This is what turns you on? Onlookers?"

"Close," replied Blaine. "I'm turned on by YOU looking on. The look on your face swells my ego."

"That's no the only thing that swells."

Blaine chuckled softly and ran a hand over Kurt's hip and around to cup his ass. "You should feel proud because it's YOU that's making it swell."

"YOU should feel proud because it's so big it probably has it's own ego."

"Maybe you should knock it down a few pegs." Kurt rolled his eyes and grasped Blaine's dick at the same time. He began to slide himself down when Blaine caught him. "Uh-uh," Blaine began, "I want you to look at me eye to eye."

Kurt gasped Blaine harder and began to pull and push the skin back and forth as he looked Blaine in the eyes. His lips were just brushing Blaine's, but they weren't kissing. Blaine was still recovering from his skin waking up and the electric feel he was getting from Kurt touching him was beyond incredible.

Kurt stroked and pumped Blaine, letting his free hand come up to stroke the side of Blaine's face while Blaine moaned quietly and nuzzled into Kurt's touch.

"Oh Kurt," Blaine moaned breathily.

The sound of Blaine's voice sounded off to Kurt. It wasn't sexy or pleading like it normally was during intimate moments. It sounded sweet, romantic even, like an 'I love you' shortened to the sound of his name. A wave of emotion hit Kurt and looking into Blaine's eyes, he was sure Blaine felt it too. I was a feeling with no words; it was bigger than love, bigger than any emotion they've felt for one another combined.

Kurt let go of Blaine's member and grabbed his face with both hands. He pushed Blaine backwards into the opposite side of the doorway and kissed him feverishly. Blaine knew what this was. It wasn't erotic or sexy, it was need and love.

Blaine kissed Kurt open mouthed, his tongue massaging Kurt's gently. Kurt tasted the lingering toothpaste in Blaine's mouth and sucked Blaine's top lip in his mouth, licking it before letting it go.

Blaine lifted Kurt off the ground and the taller boy wrapped his legs around Blaine's waist. Blaine shuffled his way, unable to see what was in front of him, over to his bed. Kurt unwrapped himself and touched his feet to the floor. They both curled onto the bed, their lips still entwining themselves.

When they finally let the other go, they stayed silent and stared at one another while they caught their breath. Here and there Blaine would run a finger or two through a lock of Kurt's hair and Kurt would trace Blaine's face, neck, and arms with his index finger. They did this for a half hour, lulling Kurt to sleep.

When Kurt woke up an hour and a half later, he was cuddled up against Blaine chest, but something was different now than from when Kurt had fallen asleep. Blaine was now fully clothed. He looked up and Blaine was awake, watching the beginning of a movie while cuddling with Kurt.

"When did you get dressed?" Kurt asked groggily.

"After I showered," he answered with a smile.

"When did you shower?"

Blaine chuckled. "While you slept. I waited until you were seemingly fast asleep and I slipped into the shower, took care of the problem you created earlier, washed up, and got dressed."

"Did you just admit to masturbating in the shower?"

"Yes. I had to. It would have hurt otherwise and I thought it would have been selfish and rude of me to wake you up just to finish the job you started. Plus, I loved what happened instead of you finishing it so I'm not complaining."

"Good." Kurt snuggled closer. "What are you watching?"

"Stranger Than Fiction."

"I've never seen that movie, but it's about a guy who's life is being written about in a book, right?"

"Close. He hears a voice narrating his life and the rest of the movie is about him appreciating the life he has in a round about way. It's really pretty poetic and romantic in a carpe diem way."

Kurt and Blaine laid there, cuddled close for the remainder of the movie. They laughed at all the funny parts and Kurt teared up at the moving parts while Blaine kissed his head and rubbed his arm. By the time it ended, Blaine felt healthy again and wished they had time to go out. By the time three o'clock rolled around they were standing hand in hand and looking from one another to the clock and back.

"You have to study," Kurt pouted.

"I want you to stay," Blaine whined.

"I'm a distraction."

"You're a motivator."

"You're impossible."

"I am impossible." Blaine licked his lips and the two boys chuckled into an embrace. "We just have to get past this week and next weekend. Then I'll have all the time in the world for you because I won't have to worry about exams and you won't have to worry about nationals. It'll just be the benefit concert to work on together and that'll be awesome."

"I won't have all those excuses to come running here or for you to drive over to my house and spend the night like you have been."

"Then…" he said dragging out the word, "I'll just have to start coming over late at night again. I'm quite fond of that shed."

"Mmm, it is nice isn't it?" Kurt grinned into Blaine's lips.

Blaine's lips parted and he reached up to cups Kurt's face between both hands. He twisted his head and snaked his tongue between Kurt's lips.

"Walk me to my car?" Kurt asked when they pulled back.

"Of course."

Blaine returned to his dorm, happy with how the morning and afternoon turned out. This would be a long week and an even longer weekend to follow, with Kurt in New York, but Blaine knew Kurt's return would be the sweetest gift of the year. He missed him already. Wow, I'm such a dork. I'll see him Monday afternoon. I can miss him Tuesday. He laughed to himself. He opened his dorm room door and as he stepped in he saw a white square on the floor that had been slipped under his door. He picked it up and stepped into his room completely.

Upon examining it, he saw that it was a hand made envelope out of printer paper. There was a disc inside. He looked at it curiously because it didn't have a label.

Blaine walked it over to his laptop and popped it in the disc player. He thought it must be pictures from the night before or perhaps a CD one of the boys made him of a new band. That happened from time to time. But when the window popped up, he found it was a movie. Still curious, he opened the file and the second the movie started playing he froze. The timeline of the video said it was forty-five minutes long; just long enough to send his entire world crashing down.

The video on the screen showed two people kissing…two people Blaine knew…