The limo pulled up outside of the hotel where the gala was being held in the ballroom. It was far swankier than the hotel that Blaine and Olivia were staying at, and seemed to fit the high profile event perfectly. They shuffled around inside the limo to allow Kurt to get out first when the driver opened the door, knowing about how the photographers there would react. After letting Kurt walk a few steps ahead the other three got out of the limo, and Olivia looped her arm through Blaine's again. As was only to be expected the paparazzi weren't interested in the three of them, and they passed down the line of them and got inside without much commotion. They passed through the lobby and down to the ballroom, where their invitations were checked at the door and their names crossed off the list. They were there early enough for the event to have barely started; there were plenty of people milling around, but it was yet to properly kick off. Kathryn Woodrow saw that Blaine had come in and hurried over, barely noticing that Kurt and Leah had entered only a few steps ahead of him and Olivia. She ran him through the evening's plans quickly, saying she would let him know ten minutes before the presentations so they could assemble the young presenters by the stage that had been set up before calling up the supporters.

After Ms. Woodrow left Blaine and Olivia walked over to Kurt, who was waiting nearby for when they were done talking. He suggested that the four of them sit together, seeing as there didn't seem to be any seating plan and although Kurt knew a lot of the other invitees he wasn't friends with them; he felt infinitely more comfortable in their little group than with any of the others. He knew a time would come when he would need to socialise with some of the people at the event, but that could be interspersed with time spent with his real friends.

"Do you think she even noticed we're here as a group?" Blaine asked, and Kurt shook his head.

"Honestly I don't think anything bad can come from us sitting together for a woman like that. If she sees us she'll probably gush to me about how charitable I'm being by talking to you." Kurt replied. It was an added bonus, if anything.

They sat down and some of the special guest performers were announced, along with other general notices about the evening's line up. The release of the ad campaign would be later on that evening, as would the presentations for the newest celebrity supporters of the charity. It was a traditional part of the gala evenings to honour the celebrity guests, and anyone who hadn't been welcomed at the previous year's gala was to have their presentation take place.

Popular musicians played throughout the evening. Some guests chose to dance in the area clearly empty to serve as the dance floor while others simply nibbled at the refreshments that were being offered around by the waiters. Olivia pulled Blaine to his feet and the pair danced for some time, while she lowered her voice and said, "Don't look now, but..." as every celebrity that was invited that she recognised came in or danced past them. Nearly every time Blaine looked even though she had said not to.

Kurt, meanwhile, was expected to shake hands with just about any person who addressed him, including a large number of financial supporters. This meant that Leah spent a lot of time sitting by herself, but she was over it these days. A few of the guests would recognise her occasionally and say hello, but that wasn't a frequent event. She enjoyed the evening just the same, listening to the entertainment and tweeting pictures of the event on Kurt's "official fan insider" twitter.

Blaine noticed what was going on and, checking first if it would be okay with Olivia, asked Leah to dance. She flushed pink and it seemed as though it was a rare occurrence, which made Blaine feel all the better about having done it in the first place. The song ended and was replaced by a far slower one, and all the people on the dance floor seemed to couple up. Leah went to sit back down, but Blaine caught her hand.

"Hey," he said, "I don't bite, really. It can't hurt to keep dancing with me." She smiled at Blaine, who managed to be the slightest bit taller than her. She positioned her hands where she supposed she was ought to and Blaine readjusted them ever so slightly before they began to dance again. Olivia smiled at Blaine over Leah's shoulder, giving him a thumbs up. "You know what else is good about slow songs?" Leah didn't respond. He took that as his cue to continue. "They give you an actual chance to talk."

She looked up at him slightly and shrugged. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know, maybe you want to get to know me a little better? Because, you, uh, you don't really seem to like me very much. I don't whether that's something about protecting Kurt or thinking I'm some sort of criminal, but you might like to hear a bit more about my background and all that stuff?"

"Yeah, okay," she agreed, "and I don't think you're a criminal, for the record. It's more about worrying for Kurt's sake."

"You don't want a copy of my full criminal background or anything?"

"Do you even have a criminal record?" She said, eyeing him up and down for a second. You really couldn't expect anyone who gelled his hair- with raspberry gel, nonetheless- to have ever even gotten into any fights that weren't solved with a sing off or a dance battle.

"Nope. But that's not the point. Let's see... My name is Blaine Anderson, I'm seventeen, I attend Dalton Academy where I am the lead vocalist of the glee club, more popularly known as the Warblers. I am a survivor of pancreatic cancer. My dad is a lawyer and my mom is some sort of secretary or something. I drive a motorcycle on general day to day business but I can drive a car just fine, too. I am a huge fan of the hit teen drama Highlands and have a chronic video game addiction, and at the moment my best friend Wes and I, with help from various others, are working towards the completion of the latest Born Rivals game, but it's taking a long time because he's always so caught up with his girlfriend. Need I go on?" Blaine stated, hoping he had listed off the most important things.

"No, I think that's a decent overview... I just need to ask you one question."

"Okay then, go for it."

"Do you like Kurt?" Leah asked. She knew that Kurt had some level of feelings for Blaine, and she didn't want him to get hurt. The two of them had planned a date together, after all- but she needed a solid answer from Blaine if she were going to stop worrying about Kurt's love life.

"I've always liked him, Leah. My blog is dedicated to pictures of him, photoshopped or otherwise. If you mean it how I think you mean it, duh. I don't know when I realised that maybe liking him in the from afar, celebrity and fan relationship sense could be different to liking him in person, and having feelings and all the stuff, but I really do. That's why we talked about what we did, okay? Have I answered your question sufficiently?"

"Yeah," Leah said with a nod, "thanks, Blaine."

Kathryn Woodrow found Blaine ten minutes prior to the presentations as she had said she would. He had been sitting at their table with the other three- Kurt had finally finished talking to everyone long enough to sit down and eat something- and he followed her down to some seats by the steps up onto the stage, ready to be called up. He said hello to some of the other teenagers, and they all politely said whom they were there to present to. Then, she took the stage and called for everyone's attention, thanking the last musical guest to have played. She explained why they were presenting certificates to their new supporters (to acknowledge and thank them for their input) and why they had asked the teens to present (to close the circle- they were the first of many, and they liked to acknowledge that, too) before beginning with the list of supporters.

One by one Kathryn would read out a small speech that no doubt was written by some interns and not her, and then call up the teenager to present their certificate, before finally welcoming the celebrity to the stage to collect their certificate.

"Our next supporter that we would like to honour tonight is Kurt Hummel," she began, and the crowd applauded, "Kurt has inspired hundreds if not thousands of teenagers, both with persistent and terminal illnesses and those without with his role of Elliot Twyman on the teen drama series, Highlands. Although Elliot suffers from a fictionalised illness, the struggle and treatment process are honestly and realistically portrayed. Recently Kurt has become a supporter of our charity and has met with numerous teenagers, also becoming an active member of our work in hospitals and homes. Tonight Blaine Anderson, who was the first teenager that Kurt met with as a supporter, is presenting Kurt with his certificate." Blaine knew that was his cue to walk up the steps onto the stage, collecting the certificate from the table at the top before crossing the stage to the main staircase. "We now welcome Kurt to the stage."

Kurt walked from the table to the base of the stage and then up the main staircase to wild applause. He shook Blaine's hand and accepted the certificate. Blaine said, "Congratulations, Kurt," with a warm smile, before Kurt opened his arms and the pair hugged. The crowd continued to applaud. Kurt and Blaine joined the line of supporters and presenters to one side of the stage and the applause died down for Kathryn to continue her speeches.

After all the celebrity and presenter pairs were done there was a final round of applause and everyone was told they could go back to their seats. There was another musical guest, a duo who was apparently regulars who played in the hotel's bar that sang entirely covers from a range of artists. Olivia pulled Blaine close enough to whisper in his ear about how cute the hug was, although they hadn't been the only pair to do so. Leah congratulated Kurt, and smiled knowingly at Blaine and Olivia. It made Blaine wonder what the two of them had said to each other in their absence.

The song the performers were singing ended and they began to play the next immediately. Blaine got to his feet, claiming that he loved the song they were singing.

"Is this a High School Musical song?" Kurt asked up at Blaine, who was now standing in front of him and holding out a hand to help Kurt up.

"Yep, glad you can identify it." Kurt made no effort to move from where he was, although Blaine's hand was still extended towards him.

"That's pretty random." Kurt said, listening carefully to the song. Yes, it was definitely a High School Musical song. It wasn't even in the original movie, but on the special features- Kurt was embarrassed in himself that he could still recognise it, even though there seemed to be so much more work to go into it than just watching the movie through.

"Yeah, I guess so," Blaine agreed, hand still outstretched. He wasn't moving either, not until Kurt took his hand and finally danced with him. He had waited all evening for a chance.

"And you want to dance to it?" Kurt asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Why all the High School Musical hate?"

"It's not hate, as such..." Kurt said, just a sort of confusion, he thought.

"Well I like this song. Come on." Blaine said, giving him an infectious smile. That was enough for him to lose any resistance he had left and take his hand, getting to his feet.

I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You continued to be sung as Blaine led Kurt out onto the dance floor, the two of them blending in with the crowd effortlessly. No one was paying attention to the two of them there. Blaine looped his arm around Kurt and rested his hand on the small of his back, holding his other hand out to the side. Kurt took Blaine's hand, but slid his other arm under Blaine's and up along his back, resting that hand on his shoulder, pulling them even closer together so that he was practically forced to let his head drop onto Blaine's shoulder. Blaine in turn pressed his cheek against the top of Kurt's head as they started to twirl slowly, becoming completely lost in their dance.

There was no denying from anyone's perspective that the dance was shared by two people who were no longer simply friends.

The time came for the advertising campaign to be unveiled, as was promised to be the highlight of the evening. They started by showing the group shot design, a landscape picture with a white background, all of the supporters standing in various poses. Jumping in the air, lying on the ground, on one leg, hands in the air, just about anything you could imagine. Printed boldly at the bottom of the ad read Together we are the strongest force, with the Wish Factory logo in the corner.

All of the individual ads were revealed next, designed to be one page advertisements for in magazines and other printed media. Kurt's ad was a mid-shot of him against a baby yellow background, as so that you could clearly read his t-shirt and that the purple stood out. In the top right hand corner of the ad was a quote from his interview, reading, 'It only takes one spark to start a fire' in larger lettering, with a smaller 'it only takes one small gesture to have a huge impact' underneath. The number for the donations line for the Wish Factory was printed near the bottom of the ad, clear enough for someone to find easily but small enough that it didn't steal your attention from the rest of the picture.

Olivia and Blaine returned to the hotel room and changed into their pyjamas as they had the night before, both chatting through their evenings, yet to come down from their gala induced high. They each got into bed and Blaine flipped through the channels aimlessly while Olivia read an excerpt from A Midsummer Night's Dream that she was meant to be learning for English.

"Liv?" Blaine asked eventually, breaking their silence, "I need to talk to you about tomorrow." It was now getting close to the early morning of Sunday instead of the late night Saturday. The party was still going when they left the gala, but they had left early to the celebrity standards fuelled by their out-of-towners excuse. They were only going to be in New York for one more day, and they told whoever asked that they planned on filling it with more sightseeing. Of Hummel's chest, Olivia had teased, knowing as well as Blaine that neither of them would really be spending much of the day seeing anything touristy.

"Okay," she said, putting down her booklet, "I'm going to stay here and finish learning my monologue for drama while you go and make out with Kurt."

"We aren't going to make out-" Blaine said, planning to argue. He knew arguing with Olivia about the things she teased wasn't really worth it overall. "You don't have to stay here, if you don't want to. But I'll be going over to Kurt's. Because I think I'm going on a date tomorrow night. A real one. With Kurt Hummel."

"I don't know what you called tonight then," Liv said, "You two looked awfully close there on the dance floor."

"It was... nice."

"B, you stayed that close to him for nearly five songs. It wasn't until part way into the performers' completely random tempo change into Super Bass that you realised the song had changed, and after that you two hesitated to pull away from each other. After all that, all you can say is that it was nice?"

"It was, though. And the way he smells... and how soft his hands were... it was all... nice." Blaine said, starting to stare off into the distance a little bit.

"Blaine, I get how sleepy you must be getting since you're practically a human puppy, but if you don't use some new adjectives soon I might have to punch you."

"Good night, Liv."

"Night, B. Please don't try and spoon me and call me Kurt, that's crossing a line."

"I won't."

"Whatever," she teased finally, leaning over to kiss him on the forehead, "now turn off your lamp and we can go to sleep already."

"Kurt, we've got to go otherwise we'll be late!" Leah said, pulling on her coat and gloves.

"Coming!" he called from the other room, before running out with his boots in hand, sitting down to put them on in the living room. Finally finished he headed over to the door, took his coat from the rack and put it on. He gave himself a once over and turned to Leah. "Okay. We can go now."

They rode down the elevator to the lobby where Kurt headed towards the door, but Leah hung back. "I just need to check and see if something has arrived, okay? I'll catch up in a second." Kurt nodded and Leah walked over to the apartment's reception. Although the apartment building probably didn't need to employ receptionists they still did, along with a doorman. She slipped the receptionist a named envelope containing a spare key to their apartment and a card to operate the elevator. "Blaine Anderson will be coming to collect this later on; can you make sure he gets it, please?" the receptionist agreed and put the envelope in a rack behind the counter, writing a quick note and sticking it to the top of her computer.

"Did it?" Kurt asked as Leah rejoined him.

"Did what do what?" she asked.

"Did whatever you were checking about arrive?"

"Oh, no, it didn't. That's okay; it will turn up later. You'll see."

Blaine turned up at Kurt's apartment building just before six. Leah and Blaine had exchanged cell phone numbers on Saturday morning when they had planned for the date, and she had texted him some instructions about how to get into their apartment first of all, and also when. She said that they were planning on having lunch with his step-brother, while he just so happened to be in town and that Kurt would invariably con him into going shopping. She had promised text updates throughout the day, which she had stuck to- that was why Blaine turned up when he did. Leah let him know that they were planning on being back about seven, after Kurt was finally caught up on everyone's happenings.

He went to the reception, as Leah had told him to. "Hi," he said, "I'm Blaine Anderson. I was told to collect an envelope from here?" The receptionist looked up at him and nodded.

"Right, of course. I have it right here. Do you have any ID on you? Not that I think you're suspicious, just a standard procedure."

"Oh, sure," he said, finding his license from his wallet and handing it to her.

"Thanks for that. Here you go, Blaine," she said, passing him both the envelope and his license back.

He opened it there before passing to the back of the lobby where the elevators were. He pressed the button and waited before stepping inside and scanning the card as he had seen Kurt do, pressing the number of the floor. He knew they lived on the top floor, which meant it wasn't hard to figure out which button to hit. He let himself into Kurt's apartment and took off his wet shoes and his coat, hanging it on the rack.

Blaine carried his bag of groceries through to the kitchen where he set out all of his different ingredients, having settled on making lasagne ("Will you be able to eat spaghetti without dropping it all over yourself?" Olivia has asked when he was running through his ideas, at which point he agreed and changed his mind).

He had been making dinner once a week at home since he was ten, although he needed a lot more help back then. He didn't need a recipe to follow and had enough experience cooking the meals in his repertoire that he wasn't panicking with how he needed to adjust to the different kitchen. He found everything he needed easily enough and got set cooking.

It was ten past seven when Leah texted Blaine to say that Kurt was on his way back to the apartment, since he had just texted her. She had left Finn's hotel room twenty minutes earlier, saying that she had a couple of errands to run before she went home, and that Kurt was welcome to stay longer, which he had done.

Before she had left the hotel she had talked to Kurt about how he planned on getting home (Finn was going to drive him over), and what time he expected to be back (half an hour or so). She made a grand charade of checking through her bag to see if she had everything, before emptying the entire contents of her bag onto the table, checking through everything as she put it back in. "How on earth did I leave my key at home?" she had said, "I never forget anything!" She had then turned to Kurt and asked if she could take his key. He agreed and handed it to her before she left.

Of course, she hadn't really misplaced her key; it was simply in her pocket. And she didn't really intend on turning up back at the apartment for some time, either.

Kurt turned up at the apartment building a little after Leah had warned Blaine he was going. He thought it was odd that she had forgotten her key but not the key card for the elevator, but he didn't question it any further. He swiped the card as normal and headed on his way up to the top floor.

He tried the door knob to his apartment and it didn't twist. He knocked on the door, calling out through the door, "Leah? You took my key and locked me out, want to let me in?" there was no response but the sound of footsteps suggested that she was on her way over to the door.

The door opened, and much to Kurt's surprise, it wasn't Leah standing there, but Blaine.

"Hi!" Kurt said, unsure what else to do, "what are you doing here? Did Leah let you in but not me?"

"Sort of," Blaine said, stepping aside so Kurt could step over the threshold. He took his coat and boots off while Blaine continued. "She loaned me a key so I get in and..."

Kurt finished unlacing his boot and pulled it off his foot, straightening up to look around the apartment properly. Blaine had covered every surface that wouldn't lead to household fires in candles, which were now the only light source for the living room and kitchen/dining room areas. Blaine took Kurt's hand and led him through to the kitchen, where he pulled out a chair for Kurt at the table. He sat while Blaine finished serving the lasagne, putting a plate in front of Kurt and then sitting at the table himself.

"So you did all this?" Kurt asked.

"Leah helped, a bit. Mostly in the letting me use the apartment sense of things, but she had her part in planning."

"But why?" Kurt had never had anyone go to this big a deal to do anything for him. He wasn't sure why Blaine needed to do it for him.

Blaine reached across the table and took Kurt's hand. "Because you're worth the effort, Kurt." He gave his hand a gentle squeeze before letting go, retreating it to his own side of the table. Kurt hoped it wasn't too obvious how his expression had fallen when Blaine let go.

They were quiet for a moment as they each started eating. "Blaine?"

"Yeah?"

"Is this a date?"

Blaine put down his knife and fork for a moment to look over at Kurt. "I was sort of hoping so, but if you don't want it to mean-"

"Are you kidding?" Kurt said, and Blaine started to feel like those were the first words leading to his rejection. "Blaine, of course I want it to mean something. This is by far the best date anyone has ever planned for me."

"Really?" Blaine said, his eyes lighting up once more.

"Definitely. Don't tell my step-mom, but this is by far the best lasagne that I've ever had. And all the candles, and the sneaking around so I wouldn't find out, and even getting Leah onboard, of all people. You managed to get Leah to warm up to you, and that is certainly deserving of a fair date in itself."

"I really like you, Kurt. That sounds so stupid, like we're in middle school or something- but it's true, and there isn't anything I can do about it."

"I think this was a pretty good thing to do about it."

"Thanks." Blaine said, beginning to eat some of his food again.

"Who would have known that Blaine Anderson was a romantic at heart?"

"Certainly not Blaine Anderson, that's for sure." Kurt couldn't help but giggle, even if it were totally unfunny.

They finished their dinner and dessert and Blaine cleared the dishes, instructing Kurt not to do anything to help clean up. Kurt took that as a decent excuse to go and change out of what he was wearing into something more comfortable, from his standard going out designer outfits to throwing a hoodie on over his jeans. He was still barefoot and figured he could stay that way. It said something about his relationship with Blaine that he was fine to dress that way around him.

He returned to the kitchen to find Blaine putting the last few dishes away (he may have been wearing a hoodie, but it had taken so long to choose exactly the right one). He smiled over at Kurt, who returned the smile. "What are we going to do now?" Kurt asked.

"I'm not sure I really thought this far ahead," Blaine replied, "is there something you would like to do?"

"Will you sing for me?" Kurt said shyly, pulling Blaine through to the living room.

"Oh, sure," Blaine said, "If that's what you want, of course I will." He crossed the living room to the piano, where he opened the lid and sat on the stool, although he turned to face Kurt. "This is okay, right?"

Kurt nodded. "Definitely. I've been neglecting it, since I've been so busy with work. I'm sure it'll love being played by someone for a change."

"Great. This song is kind of weird on piano, since it's such a guitar song, but I don't know, I like to sing it and- well I'm going to stop talking now." He played the intro to the song and began to sing. "Hey there, Delilah, what's it like in New York City?

I'm a thousand miles away buy girl, tonight you look so pretty, yes you do

Times Square can't shine as bright as you,"

He played the last chord and closed the lid, crossing the living room back to where Kurt was sitting on the couch, smiling up at him. He sat down and turned to Kurt. "So," he said.

"You're really good, Blaine Anderson."

"Thanks."

"I mean it. Thank you, for singing at my request."

"You're welcome. This is your date night as much as it's mine."

"Blaine?" Kurt said, shuffling on the seat so he was facing him properly.

"Yeah, Kurt?" Blaine did the same, so they were now both sitting side on, their torsos rotated so they were now properly face to face. They were so much closer now than they had ever really sat together before.

With no warning, Kurt closed the gap between them, pressing his lips to Blaine's. He felt Blaine soften against him, returning the kiss, bordering the line between sweetness and enthusiasm perfectly. Kurt brought his hand up to rest on Blaine's chest, while Blaine had slid his arms around Kurt's waist.

Eventually they broke apart, and they simply looked at each other in a new light.

"Hi," Blaine said to Kurt, who was still only inches from him, his arms still firmly around his waist. A smile played at his lips and his eyes shone.

"Hey," Kurt replied, dropping his own hand from Blaine's chest to reposition it on his hip. Blaine kissed him again, much softer than the first they had shared, but with just as much meaning.