Blaine started stirring around ten in the morning. He rolled over and extended his arm to try to find the body that he'd been holding for the past two weeks. Instead, he found nothing. Cold sheets. Blaine opened his eyes. Kurt had been gone for a while it seemed. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. It was a cold morning. He put on his pajama pants and a long sleeved shirt.

He found Kurt standing at the kitchen sink, washing a coffee mug. He silently tip toed over to Kurt and slipped his arms around his waist. Kurt straightened up immediately. "Good morning," Blaine said with his chin resting on Kurt's shoulder.

Kurt turned the faucet off and paused in his motions. He cleared his throat. "Morning." He slid out of Blaine's arms and went to the bathroom.

Something was wrong. Blaine could tell. He sat down at the table, waiting for Kurt to emerge from the bathroom. Kurt had taken a shower, but Blaine didn't move. When Kurt finally came out, he walked past Blaine, glancing at him quickly, but actively rubbing his hair with his towel. Blaine got up and followed him to the bedroom and leaned against the door frame. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I need to get dressed," Kurt said shyly.

"What's going on? You're acting strange."

"Can I please get dressed?"

Something was definitely wrong. Something inside Blaine knew what it was. He could feel what was about to happen, but he needed to make sure. "Go ahead."

"With you watching?" He shifted his eyes back and forth awkwardly.

"I wasn't planning on watching, but after last night I didn't think me standing here would be a problem."

"Can I please just get dressed in privacy?"

Blaine sighed deeply. "Sure, Kurt." He stepped out of the door frame and shut the door. He took a shower and got dressed. Kurt was watching TV when he got out of the shower.

There was silence. Nothing but silence. Kurt said nothing to Blaine when he came out fully dressed and said nothing when Blaine sat down next to him on the couch. Blaine waited a half hour for the program on the television to be finished. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Oo, it's a marathon!" Kurt said, ignoring Blaine all together.

Blaine grabbed the remote out of Kurt's hand and shut the TV off. "Kurt, talk to me!" His voice was shakier than he wanted it to be.

Kurt stared wide-eyed. His throat was quickly closing up by the lump that was rising. He didn't want to have this conversation. His attempt at avoidance was only coming off as cold, he knew that, but couldn't help what he was doing. He tried to swallow, but the moisture was leaving his mouth.

When Kurt didn't answer, Blaine let out a breath he was holding. "It's him isn't it?" he asked. Kurt nodded. "Your choice? It's him?"

With every fiber of his being, Kurt willed himself to stay still, to not say anything, to not nod or shake his head one millimeter. But no amount of will or wishing stopped the gentle bob of his head from happening. His eyes were drying up now. There were no tears to cry or saliva to gulp.

Blaine licked his lips and averted his eyes. This was not what he wanted to happen, but it was reality and he had to face it. "Okay." He nodded his head for lack of anything else to do. "Then we'll be friends."

"Y-you still want to be my friend?" Kurt stuttered. He wondered when the tears would come because his heart was breaking.

"Yeah," Blaine answered slowly. "I'd rather have you as a friend than not at all." That sounded like an okay answer to Blaine. It was half true. He really couldn't bare to not have Kurt in his life, but he'd rather have Kurt as his lover. He wanted to dote on him and treat him like he was special. Blaine wanted to make Kurt feel like there was no one else for him, but Kurt was no longer giving him permission to do so.

"What? !" Kurt's eyes narrowed and his mouth gaped open. The sweet gesture that Blaine tried to extend was not received well on Kurt's end.

That was not the response Blaine expected or anticipated Kurt to have. He stuttered. "Uh, I-"

"You'd rather have me as a friend than not at all? ? What was this for? What was the point of having an affair?"

"W-What do you mean?"

"If you'd rather have me as a friend than nothing at all, then what were we doing here? What was the purpose?" There was something about what Blaine said that bothered Kurt. He wished it didn't. He wished he could be okay with the terribly clich� line. He knew Blaine was just trying to make this easier. For whom, Kurt wasn't sure, but he'd heard every clich� line before. It's not me it's you. I want us to be friends. I'd rather have you this way than no way at all. He once believed them, but now he knew better. "We could have been friends and not have put Vin through all of this."

"We didn't put Vin through anything. He's none the wiser."

"I can't believe you just said that."

"Well, what am I supposed to say? Good, I'm happy for you? I don't think I need to say it out loud for you to know the answer to that. Did any of this mean anything to you?" Blaine stood up and ran his fingers through his curls. He looked frazzled. "I- we- last night… and now? Him? Was… was it-?" He stopped himself from asking if their hook up was bad and if he didn't satisfy Kurt the way Vin can. He didn't really want to know the answer. "No." He waved his hands as if to erase what he stammered previously. "I only said that I'd rather have you as a friend than nothing at all because I wanted to make what is happening easier. I was trying to be nice about it."

"So you don't mean it? You don't want me as a friend?"

"No. I do! I want you in my life and I want to be a part of yours. I'm just trying to quickly get a handle on this before I walk out that door and lose you forever. If he's what you want, fine. Okay, maybe it's not fine, but that's your choice and there's nothing I can do about it, but if I accept it and try to be there for you, maybe you'd let me be your friend again. I-I just d-don't want to not… to not… Christ." Blaine gave up and dropped his hands to his sides, making an audible slapping noise. He walked into Kurt's room, grabbed whatever he had lying around the room, and shoved it in his duffle bag. He brought his bag out and put it next to his guitar case before going to the bathroom to retrieve his toiletries.

"What are you doing?" Kurt asked when Blaine came back.

"Packing. Then leaving."

"Where are you going?"

"Home." Blaine zipped up his bag and picked it up, along with his guitar case. He put them down at the door to put his shoes on.

Kurt hadn't intended on following Blaine. He hadn't planned on stopping him because maybe it was better this way. Maybe Blaine needed to leave and let out some steam. But he couldn't end it like this. Blaine meant too much to him for it to end like this. He rushed to the kitchen to catch Blaine before he finished putting his shoes on. Kurt grabbed a hold of Blaine's duffle bag and immediately started carting it back into the living room.

"Kurt, what are you doing?"

"You're not leaving yet."

Blaine trailed after Kurt with one shoe on. He snatched a handle and pulled the bag in his direction. "Yes, I am."

Kurt pulled back. "No. You're. Not."

"Why? Huh? Why aren't I leaving? You don't want me here." Pull.

"I never said that." Pull. "We need to talk about this."

"We already did." Pull.

"No. I told you I chose him and you gave up." Kurt pulled the bag as hard as he could and stumbled a little when Blaine couldn't hold on to it. He quickly jumped back with the bag.

"How old are you, twelve?"

"Ten, actually. I'm mature for my age," Kurt snapped while taking another step back. "Don't make me throw your stuff around the room to make you stay longer putting it back together."

"Fine!" Blaine closed his eyes and shook his head. He took his shoe off and threw it at Kurt's legs.

"Hey!" Kurt jumped when the impact of the shoe hit him. "And you think I'm childish?" He picked up the shoe and chucked it back at Blaine. It hit him in the stomach.

"Ow!"

"Serves you right. Next time, don't throw something at me and expect nothing to happen." Kurt turned around and unzipped the bag. He decided to make good on his word and started tossing items from the bag out and around the living room. He did think it was weird when Blaine didn't say anything. Kurt thought it was strange and turned around. Blaine was walking in from the kitchen with the bottle of water that Kurt used to spray his plants. "What are you doing?" Without a word, Blaine sprayed Kurt in the face. Kurt tried to speak, but Blaine did it again. "H-Hey!" Blaine sprayed Kurt again and again wherever he could reach when Kurt tried for the bottle. Eleven times in total.

Kurt grabbed the bottle, which Blaine relinquished with no problem and Kurt unscrewed the top and proceeded to douse all of Blaine's things in the leftover water. He heard a small crash and he whipped around. Blaine was standing in a pile of dirt. He knocked, or toed over, a rather large potted plant and the dirt and soil spilled everywhere. "What the hell, Blaine! You knocked my plant over!"

"You dumped water on my clothes!"

"You sprayed me in the face!"

"You took my bag and threw my things all over the room."

"You threw your shoe at me!"

"You threw it back!"

About five seconds of glaring at each other passed before both of them started laughing hysterically. Kurt broke first and smiled. Blaine followed with chuckling.

"I'm sorry," Kurt admitted. "For…" He looked around the room and saw the mess they'd created. "… well, everything."

"Me too." The laughter dissipated and the mood turned serious.

"What are you sorry for? You weren't the one cheating on his boyfriend."

"No, but… I'm sorry for not being-" Blaine took a deep breath and looked away. I'm sorry for not being enough for you. He looked back. "Not being more. Or less, if that makes any sense. I don't know. I'm sorry for aiding in making you go through this. I know how much pressure you were under and I know that this is difficult for you."

Kurt walked over to Blaine and hugged him. "Thank you."

Without having to explain, Blaine knew what Kurt was thanking him for. Thank you for not needing an explanation. Thank you for being you. Thank you for taking this so well. "So… friends?" He let go of Kurt and held his hand out.

Kurt looked at Blaine's hand and thought how quickly things changed. Not too long ago that same hand was holding him and stroking his hair. That very same right hand had held his while they walked down the street and last night it was jerking him off. Kurt put his hand in Blaine's. Now he was shaking it like none of that happened. "Friends," he agreed. He exhaled a long breath and stared back at Blaine, who was looking deeply into his eyes. They were unreadable. He let go of Blaine's hand. "Can a friend help me clean up this mess?"

Blaine chuckled. "I have to. Half of the mess is my apparently wet clothes."

"I'll tell you what. I'll clean up the mess I made, if you clean up the mess you made."

"Deal." It didn't take long. Blaine's clothes were back in his duffle bag and the dirt was swept up and put back in the pot. Stray water was towel dried.

When they finished they simply stared at each other once again. "So, what now?" Kurt asked.

Blaine itched his head. "I think I'm just going to go. I wanna check out the house and I need to make some calls to the insurance company. I'll see you at work."

This felt awkward to Kurt. There was a strange finality to what they were saying. It felt like goodbye. "Okay. See you later then."

"Yep." There was another silent few moments of looking at each other then Blaine kissed Kurt's cheek. "I hope he makes you happy."

How do I respond to that? Kurt thought. He just nodded his head and followed Blaine into the kitchen, carrying Blaine's duffle bag.

Blaine put his shoes on, took his bag from Kurt and slung it over one shoulder. He held his guitar case in the other hand. "Thanks for letting me stay. You didn't have to." He was trying to make it sound like nothing had happened and he had slept on the couch every night instead of in Kurt's bed.

"What are friends for?" Kurt tried to play along, but it hurt too much and it came out sounding awkward.

"Bye," Blaine said gently.

The door opened and Kurt stood in the doorway, holding the door. "Bye," he responded and watched until he couldn't see Blaine walking away anymore.