The same day that Kurt returned to New York, he got a call from Blaine asking if Kurt wanted to come over later for dinner. Kurt accepted and by six o'clock he found himself ring Blaine's doorbell.

Blaine greeted him with a great big smile when he opened the door. "Merry-few-days-after-Christmas," he said, openly gazing at Kurt with glistening eyes.

"Merry Christmas," Kurt returned. There was a pause and they stood awkwardly with the door open. "Can I come in? It's cold outside."

"Oh! Um. I'd let you, but, you see-" He bit his lip and looked up.

Kurt followed Blaine's eye line and saw mistletoe hanging above them in the doorway. He chuckled softly and gave Blaine a peck on the cheek. He stayed true to himself that he wanted to find out the extent of how he feels, but that didn't mean that he would allow himself to jump into physicalities with Blaine just because he could. His open relationship with Vin was now affording him the option of kissing Blaine. He couldn't deny that just one look at Blaine's full lips made him want to taste them instantly. Now that he was allowed to think these things he couldn't stop the repressed thoughts from surfacing from the depths Kurt had pushed them to.

Blaine stared at him with an expression to mean that's it? "That's not a mistletoe kiss," he pouted.

"That's not real mistletoe," Kurt replied flirtatiously.

Blaine stepped out of the way and let Kurt in. "Well played."

Blaine's house was still decked out in Christmas decorations with holy and ivy and wreaths every where. Lights were tastefully placed on the banisters with garland.

"Who decorated?"

"Wes and I. The others are too much like boys to be able to pull this off." He gestured around the house.

"Any special occasion, other than Christmas?"

"We had an Ugly-Christmas-Sweater part."

"Oh?" Kurt asked with a hint of disappointment. He wondered why he hadn't been invited.

Blaine was quick to add, "You weren't here. I would have invited you, but you were in D.C. and it was a last minute thing."

"Blaine, it's fine. Not every part of your life involves me…" His face softened, allowing himself to show his relief that Blaine actually wanted him around. "…but thanks for saying it." Blaine smiled. "What smells so good?"

"Meatloaf. It's nothing special, but my Nana had a fantastic recipe."

"Nana?"

Blaine blushed. "Well, what do you call your grandmother?"

"Grandma." Kurt deposited his shoes and Blaine hung up Kurt's coat.

"Wine?" Blaine asked.

"Please." They made their way to the kitchen and Blaine poured them both a glass and explained that they had the house to themselves because everyone else was still home in Ohio except Wes, who had to come back with Blaine to get back to Broadway. "That's too bad," Kurt sympathized.

"Not really. I like working and if you spent more than two days with my family you'd want to come back here before you pulled your hair out too." He took a large sip of wine and checked the status of his meal before asking Kurt about Christmas in Washington D.C.

Kurt had already told everything to Vin that he was saying to Blaine, but he found himself being more animated with his stories because Blaine seemed way more excited listening than Vin. Vin has been a little distracted lately, he thought

Blaine poured himself another glass of wine and hopped up onto the counter top by the stove to sit and listen to the rest of Kurt's time in the nation's capitol.

"…And Finn pushed my grandmother for the whole parade in her wheelchair, while she held a sign that says: My grandson gets his taste in men from me." They both laughed heavily at the thought of a grumpy old woman holding a pride sign.

Their laughter tapered off slowly and they found themselves staring at each other in one of their emotion filled eye locks. "Come here," Blaine stated soft and low.

Taking only a second to think about the command, Kurt moved across the kitchen and stopped in front of Blaine, putting his glass down next to Blaine's full one on the counter.

"Closer," Blaine said again. Kurt licked his lips and moved closer still, so that his hips were touching Blaine's dangling legs. He could small Blaine's cologne from their close proximity.

Blaine's hazel eyes searched Kurt's them flicked down to his lips. "Closer," he said lowly. It was almost a whisper.

A shiver went through Kurt's body from head to toe. He lifted his hands and made a motion to put them on the counter near Blaine's, but Blaine caught his fingers and brought them to rest on his hips as he spread his knees further apart so Kurt could tuck himself in closer.

Kurt's breath caught and took notice of how close he was to Blaine right now. He could count the number of lashes Blaine had on his eyes, see the hint of a scar on his hairline, and smell his aftershave. His heart began to pound hard inside his ribcage. He licked his lips again and whispered, "There's no mistletoe."

Blaine brought his hand up and brushed away a stray lock from Kurt's forehead. His heart was pounding just like Kurt's was. He swallowed audibly and he let go of the breath he was holding through his nose. "Maybe we should just pretend."

In the time it took for Kurt to take a breath, Blaine's lips were on his, soft and gentle. They kissed slowly, their lips becoming wet and making soft smacking noises between kisses. He could taste the wine that Blaine drank as Blaine slipped his tongue into his mouth. Blaine's lips tasted like the lip balm that Blaine must have put on previously to Kurt arriving. The combination of mint and red wine was a strange combination, but whatever the flavor, Kurt only knew that he wanted to taste more of it.

Kurt's hands gripped Blaine's hips tighter and pulled Blaine closer. Blaine's grip on Kurt tightened as well and a whimper erupted from each other their throats. Their heads began to careen back and forth as their kissing became more heated and intense. The scent of dinner cooking wafted in the air while the house was silent, which made their moans seem that much louder. Blaine was pawing at Kurt's back, his hands running up and down the fabric of Kurt's shirt, reveling in the feel of contact.

Beep! Beep!

The alarm from the oven timer blared right next to Kurt and Blaine and both jumped, startled by the sound. "Shit!" Blaine exclaimed. His hand hit one of the wine glasses and knocked it over. The red liquid seeped onto his shirt and pants.

"Oh God!" Kurt yelled with him and backed off of Blaine instantly. The glass crashed to the floor and shattered. "Um… Shit." He wasn't sure what to do first. "Don't jump down; you'll cut your feet on the glass." He held up his hands protectively. "Mop?"

"Hallway closet."

Kurt ran to fetch the mop and brought it into the kitchen. He carefully started mopping up the wine and pushing the glass out of the way so Blaine could get off the counter. When he was done he went back to the closet to get the broom and dustpan. He wasn't paying any attention to Blaine because he was so focused on the glass and picking it up. When he put everything away he went back into the kitchen and halted instantly. Blaine was standing in his boxers, which were also stained by the red wine, holding his jeans and shirt.

There was silence for a few moments and Kurt saw Blaine's chest speckled with pink splotches. Blaine was blushing. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat. "I-I need seltzer water," he said bashfully.

"Oh. Um. Okay. Here." Kurt tore his eyes from Blaine's mostly naked figure and held out his hands. Let me soak your clothes and you can go get dressed.

"Alright." Blaine walked over to Kurt, handing his clothes over and gulped before turning to walk away.

Kurt couldn't stop himself from glancing once or twice at Blaine as he walked down the hall.

While Blaine changed, Kurt soaked Blaine's clothes in a large bowl of seltzer water, and took dinner out of the oven so it wouldn't burn. He searched through the cabinets to find plates and he served both Blaine and himself. He brought both plates into the dining room. He poured two more glasses of wine and brought those into the dining room as well as two settings of utensils. By the time Blaine rejoined him, he was just lighting the candles on the table.

Blaine snuck up behind him and kissed his neck lightly. "Sorry about that," he said as he blushed and took a seat in front of one of the plates Kurt put down.

"It's okay. I have your clothes soaking, but I don't know how well the wine is going to come out."

"You didn't have to do that, but thank you for cleaning up."

Kurt batted his eyes and smiled. "I wasn't about to let you do everything. It was a mess and it needed to be cleaned up." There was an awkward pause as Kurt took the empty seat. "So, dinner smells good."

"Thanks for taking it out… and serving it. I feel like I invited you over to do everything."

"Stop right there. I'm sure you didn't plan on knocking over your wine and ruining a gorgeous Armani shirt." He reached forward and picked up his wine glass.

"No." He licked his lips and looked at the table, away from Kurt. "I was hoping to kiss you like that though."

Kurt almost choked on the wine he had in his mouth and he put the glass down. "You were?"

"Yes. I always hope to kiss you like that." Kurt didn't answer. "Sorry, but it's true."

The corners of Kurt's lips turned up slightly and he blushed. "Don't be sorry. I like it when you kiss me like that."

Blaine finally looked up from the table and smiled bashfully at Kurt with glistening eyes. "I missed you."

"I missed you too."

Dinner was lovely and their time was spent catching up on missed time and staring at each other dreamily before someone dared to break the silence.

By eight o'clock, Wes had called Blaine during his intermission and said that there was a party that one of the cast members was having and he was asked to extend the invitation for Blaine to come. Blaine said he'd call Wes back because Kurt was with him at the moment and Wes invited Kurt along too. "The more the merrier."

"Do you wanna go?" Blaine asked.

"If you want. We can go."

"Whatever you want. I'm just as happy sitting alone here and popping a movie in or just hanging out."

"If I weren't here, would you go?"

"Maybe."

Kurt giggled. "That's not an answer."

Blaine smiled, still loving the sound of Kurt's laugh. "Okay, fine. Yes, I'd probably go. Theater parties are the best."

Kurt stood up. "Okay then." He picked up his empty plate and empty glass. "Then we'll go."

At the party, Kurt had a nostalgic moment. He kept thinking that if he could have told his younger self that he would be partying with Broadway actors, he knew he'd never believe himself. But here he was, on Blaine's arm, and chatting it up with people that were Tony nominees, former television actors, professional dancers, and the like. Everyone was friendly and everyone was funny. It seemed that everyone wanted to be his friend and he'd never felt more at home with a group of people, than he did right now, since glee club in high school.

Blaine kept reminding Kurt not to drink the punch like it was water because it wasn't uncommon for this group of people to put entirely too much alcohol, that you couldn't taste, in their drinks. The more Kurt drank, the less he remembered and after one too many, he was freely dancing with Blaine in the living room with reckless abandon.

It wasn't that Blaine was paying more attention to what Kurt was drinking than himself, it was that he didn't want to get more drunk than Kurt. He wanted to be at least semi coherent to be able to take care of him. Because if memory served him correctly, Kurt often needed to be taken care of after a night of drinking. Tonight was no different.

Two o'clock in the morning came faster than expected and because Kurt's apartment was closer than his own, Blaine took Kurt to his home with the expectation of staying there as well because he wanted to make sure Kurt was okay. The last thing he wanted to do was leave a very drunk Kurt to his own devices with no help. Also, after newly reuniting, the kiss they shared earlier, the grind dancing at the party, the many kisses they shared through out the night, and the fucking adorable way Kurt kept blushing, Blaine really didn't want to leave Kurt's side. He just wanted to look at him. He wanted to hold him and lye next to him and look at how beautiful he is.

That's what Blaine wanted. Kurt, on the other hand, pounced at Blaine in the hallway of his apartment and pinned him to the wall. Kurt had something else in his alcohol addled brain.

Their lips moved together fervently in a kiss that was all lips and tongue and heavy breathing with a moan here and there. Blaine spun Kurt around and pushed him against the wall outside the door to Kurt's apartment continuing to kiss him hard. He backed off a little, but still hung on to Kurt. "Wait. We need to cool down."

"Why?" Kurt asked, breathing like he'd just run a mile in three minutes. He pulled Blaine back up against him. They moaned together as Kurt plunged his tongue into Blaine's mouth.

"Uhng! Kurt. I… I want you. I want you so bad." He went back to kissing Kurt like it'd be that last time he'd ever taste Kurt's plush lips.

"I know." Kiss. "I want you too." Kurt pulled Blaine's hips to his own and grinded his groin forward against Blaine. Their lips were making smacking noises and Blaine moaned into Kurt's mouth at the recognition of what Kurt just said.

"You do?"

"Yes."

"Oh God, Kurt. I've wanted you for so long." Blaine was pushed off of Kurt as Kurt rolled to the side and started fiddling with his keys to get into his apartment. Blaine stood behind him and kissed his neck softly, making sure he wouldn't leave a mark.

By the time the door opened they were laughing and stumbling inside. They kicked their shoes off and Kurt threw his coat onto the kitchen chair.

"Kurt?" came a voice from the living room. "Kurt is that you?"

Kurt's stomach was threatening to jump into his chest and he feared his dinner was going to make a surprise appearance. This was a voice he knew and knew well. It wasn't Puck's. It wasn't his stepbrother.

It was Vin.

Blaine dropped Kurt's hand instantly and Vin appeared in the doorway of the kitchen looking tired and rubbing his eyes, like he had just woken up. "Where were y- Blaine? What are you doing here?"

Kurt lost all ability to talk. He was drunk and just making out with Blaine in the hallway. Not to mention he was about ninety-nine percent sure that something would have happened between him and Blaine, despite the fact that sex was something that wasn't supposed to happen outside of Vin and Kurt's open relationship. He looked to Blaine with wide eyes for help, but stumbled a bit when he turned his head too fast. Clearly he was still massively drunk.

"Uh. Party." Blaine tried his best to sound as sober as possible. "Kurt drank a little too much and I brought him home." He paused, looking at Vin and hoping that he believed him. He didn't want to start any more trouble for Kurt than Kurt already felt he was in. Looking at Vin and seeing the look in his eyes, he was sure that Vin was not happy to see Blaine, nor was he expecting it.

Kurt just stared at Vin, still not being able to talk.

"Well, thanks. That was nice of you… But I'm here so I can take care of him now." Vin sounded jealous. It was dripping from his words and expression.

"Right. Um. Okay." Blaine turned to Kurt and saw his bruised lips, hoping that Vin didn't see what he saw. He wanted to tell himself that he wished Vin did notice and know that Kurt was kissing Blaine, but he didn't want Kurt in pain and didn't want to rush Kurt. If they were to split, it should be Kurt's doing and not Vin leaving him because Kurt did something wrong. "Thanks for hanging out with me. It was fun."

"Y-yeah," Kurt said, finally finding words. "Thanks for the invite. Your friends were really great."

"Okay." He raised his hand to wave slightly and he tucked his lips behind his teeth. "Good night. See you around."

"Bye."

"Good to see you, Vin." That was a giant lie. He'd rather not have seen Vin and currently be in bed with Kurt.

"Yup. You too," Vin said blandly. "Hope you get home safely."

Blaine gave Kurt one last look and gave him a sympathetic look. "Thanks," he said and turned to leave.

Once the door was closed, Kurt and Vin stood there in silence. "You're here early. I didn't expect you to get here until Saturday."

"I missed you." That was partially true. He was really there because he had something important he wanted to say to Kurt, but now it seemed to have flown out the window the second he saw Blaine. "When did you start talking to Blaine again?"

"Not that long ago. We ran into each other in a coffee shop and got to talking. He asked if I wanted to go to a party and meet some Broadway people."

"Why you?"

"Huh?"

"Why you and not one of his other friends?"

"I… I don't know. Does it matter?"

"Yes."

Kurt looked at Vin quizzically. He was still completely drunk and was surprised he was still standing. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that it matters to me that before we broke up, he kissed you and after half a year of not talking to him, he suddenly comes back into your life and you didn't tell me. Not to mention you're stumbling into your apartment drunker than I've ever seen you at ungodly o'clock in the morning with him."

"Oh." Kurt rubbed his neck. "You're jealous. I get it."

"I'm not-"

"Yeah. Yeah you are. Even with my blurred vision I can see it written all over you."

"I just don't like knowing he's around you when he kissed you."

"But you'd be okay with me dating anyone else and kissing them because you agreed to an open relationship. Is that it?"

"Is that what that was? You were on a date with him?"

"No! I wasn't on a date with him. I went to a party with him and met his friends."

"Who are great apparently. You seem to really like his friends, but you hated mine."

"Seriously? We're having this argument again? Fine. I didn't like yours because they wanted to fuck me three ways from Sunday like I was a bought and paid for whore! His friends wanted to get to know me and we talked about Broadway shows and music. When did your friends try to get to know me once? If it had nothing to do with what's in my pants, they wanted nothing to do with me. God, Vin! Who's the drunk one here?"

Vin took a breath. Kurt was right. There was a reason Vin didn't hang out with that group of people any more. "You're right. I'm sorry. I'm just… I'm jealous like you said. I'm jealous that he kissed you once and then less than a week later, you and me broke up."

"And he and I stopped talking until recently. I didn't do anything wrong." That was true. Kurt had only kissed Blaine. According to their open relationship agreement, he was allowed to do that. Even in his drunken, hazy thoughts, he knew he hadn't done anything wrong this time. Had Vin not been here, he might have done something wrong, but now that Kurt thought about it, he was grateful that Vin was here because it stopped him from doing something he wasn't supposed to. Although, he was still curious why Vin was here at all because he wasn't supposed to be there for a few days.

Vin calmed himself down and gently rubbed his forehead. He opened his arms and took a couple steps toward Kurt. "Come here. Please? I missed you."

Kurt sighed and stepped toward Vin, his head spinning, making Kurt need to right himself. Vin chuckled and went the rest of the way to Kurt and enveloped him in his arms. "Come on. I'll tuck you in."

Kurt took one more step and lurched. "Ugh. Bathroom. I'm going to throw up." He took one step. "Nope. Not going to make it." He rushed over to the trash can, which was four steps away and vomited. Vin kept his arms around Kurt to make sure he stayed in the right place to continue vomiting and rubbed his back. "Guh. This does not-" he heaved again. "-taste good on the way up."

"What did you eat? It looks like cat food."

"Meatloaf." Kurt vomited once more at the thought of food. "It's in my nose."

Vin laughed. "Well maybe you shouldn't drink that much next time."

Kurt, feeling like he was finished heaving the contents of his stomach, slumped down to the floor. "Ugh, he warned me too."

"Who?"

"Blaine. He told me not to drink so much so quickly because what I was drinking was a lot stronger than I thought."

"Why didn't you tell me you were talking to him again?"

"It never came up. You also don't like talking about him. You get this look on your face-" he lolled his head to look at Vin, who had gotten napkin with warm water to wipe his face. "-that one."

"What one?"

"The look on your face now. You have it whenever Blaine's name is mentioned. You don't like him."

"It's not that I don't like him."

"Yes it is."

"I'm actually happy to know that he was there to take care of you tonight. I mean, he took you home and warned you about the drinks, but this wouldn't be happening if he didn't take you to that party. You know?" Vin didn't want to come out and tell Kurt that he thought Blaine was trying to take Kurt away from him. He knew Kurt wasn't doing anything wrong, but he didn't miss how shocked Kurt was for Vin to see them. Kurt said that the topic of Blaine never came up, but Vin knew that Kurt didn't tell him on purpose. This led Vin to believe that he was right in thinking that someone was giving Kurt attention and now he thought he knew who it was. He wished he was living in ignorant bliss because he felt that it could have been anyone that gave Kurt attention, anyone but Blaine. He still harbored insecure feelings about Blaine since he found out they'd kissed. It only made it worse when they had broken up because he equated Blaine with Vin and Kurt breaking up. He knew it wasn't Blaine's fault, but because of the series of events that took place, his brain chunked them together. Blaine equaled heartache in Vin's eyes.

Vin helped Kurt clean up. He made him snort water to rinse the vomit out of his nose and drink milk to balance out the acid from his stomach. Then he gave him crackers to eat to settle his stomach and tucked him in. He curled next to Kurt, wrapping is arms around him and snuggling his nose into Kurt's hair. He told Kurt that he was there because he missed him, but that wasn't the real reason why he was there. He needed to tell him something that was eating him up inside and now that he was here and holding Kurt, he couldn't do it. Not after what happened when Kurt came home. Taking care of Kurt and seeing Blaine with Kurt, it made Vin chicken out on coming clean with the truth. He loved the man he was holding right now. How could he tell him the truth about why he was there? Instead, he snuggled closer and held Kurt tighter. "I love you," he whispered into Kurt's ear.

"Mmm," was Kurt's very sleepy answer. Seconds later Kurt was asleep.