Kurt and Blaine walked hand in hand the few streets over to Blaine's hotel. They had spent an awful lot longer sitting on the couch there together, doing nothing more than sitting in each other's presence, savouring the close proximity. They each knew that Blaine would be leaving the next morning, and then it would be back to Skype sessions and phone calls. They hadn't said a lot but they hadn't needed to say anything to communicate. They had exchanged a few more kisses, but they were all soft and romantic, hardly the make out session Olivia had predicted.

They got to the hotel lobby and Blaine lifted their entwined hands to his lips, pressing a kiss to Kurt's before dropping them again. "I would invite you up to the room," Blaine said, "But I'm afraid that you wouldn't ever leave."'

"No, you're right. Besides, if Leah gets back and I'm not there she will be convinced that you kidnapped me and then you might have the police on your case. I couldn't do that to you." Kurt responded.

"Do you really think she would call the police?"

"I wouldn't put it past her. It hasn't ever happened, so I wouldn't know."

"You don't walk your dates home often?" Blaine asked, not sure how the use of the word 'date' would be taken.

"I don't have dates often." Kurt admitted. That was why that night had been such a big deal to him. He honestly didn't go out with anyone very often.

"Really? I would have thought you would be in big demand."

"Nope. It gets hard meeting anyone when Leah's hanging around all the time. I don't know what you did to persuade her to leave the apartment tonight, but you're lucky she wasn't there."

"I talked to her, that's all." Blaine said with a shrug. It hadn't been as big of a deal as Kurt made it out to be.

"You didn't bribe her?" Kurt said, feigning surprise.

"Nope. I let her get to know me a little bit better, so she was comfortable with the thought of us being alone together." Blaine said. Leah had appreciated that effort, which had definitely helped. Besides, anyone who had dated Kurt in the past had more or less ignored Leah's presence.

"No boy has ever tried to win Leah's trust for me." Kurt said, glancing down at their hands for a second before looking back up at Blaine.

"What does that make me then?"

"A guy, a dude, a man... take your pick." Blaine laughed a little and shook his head.

"Whatever. I'd better get upstairs before Olivia thinks I'm staying over at your place." he said.

"Would she think that, really?"

"Have you met her?" Blaine said, rolling his eyes. Kurt laughed.

"Okay, fair point. Good night, Blaine Anderson. It was wonderful to have dinner with you this evening."

"Night, Kurt. And likewise- I can't think of anything I would have preferred to have done while I was in New York." Kurt took Blaine's other hand in his own free one and kissed him. It was only a brief kiss, but the moment wouldn't have been complete without it.

"Night, Blaine." Kurt dropped his hands then, and walked back towards the doors, giving a slight wave to Blaine and a smile before turning to walk down the street. Blaine stayed where he was for another moment, before walking to the elevators and pressing the button, waiting for the doors to open.

Blaine woke up the next morning to see Olivia already awake and dressed, packing her suitcase up. "Morning, B," she said as she saw him stirring, "Better get packed up, we have to be checked out by ten."

"What time is it now?"

"Quarter past nine. Don't you love getting to sleep in on Mondays? Cancer perks!"

"Yeah..." he jumped out of bed and stretched before stumbling half asleep into the bathroom, showering and getting dressed. He chucked whatever had been left out of the suitcase back into it, zipping it shut and being ready to leave within fifteen minutes. "Are you ready to go?" he asked, as Olivia finished tying her shoelaces.

"Yes. Got everything?"

"I think so."

"You have your pyjamas?" Blaine nodded, "Your toothbrush?" Blaine nodded again, "Your virginity?"

"Liv!"

"What? Your date could have gone better than planned!"

"We didn't- we're not-"

"B, you are so pretty when you blush like that." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He rolled his eyes and she just laughed, standing up and patting his head. She picked her suitcase up from behind her on the bed and rolled it over to the door. "Now hurry up or we'll be stuck here another night." Blaine picked up his own suitcase and followed her out to the elevator, and in turn down to the lobby to check out. He handed over his credit card (His parents had always told him it was for emergencies, but Marie had said that the trip could be an early present for his birthday or Christmas or something. He had been instructed to put the hotel, food and gas onto the card so she could pay it off for them) and then they went and collected the car, sitting in it for a couple of minutes without going anywhere.

"So it's ten, then," Blaine said, "we don't have to drive back this second. We should head back soon, but we don't have to leave right now."

"Blaine, it's obvious you want to go and see Kurt. Just call him already and see where he's at." Olivia said. Blaine sort of smiled at her before he scrolled through his contacts and hit call on Kurt's number.

It rang a couple of times before Kurt answered. "Hey, Blaine," he answered, "What can I do for you?"

"What are you doing for the next hour or so?"

"Well I'm on set, but that involves a lot of waiting around, why?"

"Liv and I have some time before we have to drive back."

"Oh, well you could definitely come and visit! Hang on a second." Blaine heard Kurt holding the phone away from him for a bit as he talked to Leah. "Could we get a couple of visitor's passes to the set? Can you check with them quickly? Thanks." The phone was then pressed back to Kurt's ear. "Okay, so you two can come and visit the set. I'm not doing anything right now, so if you pass your phone over to Liv I can give her directions for you."

"Cool, I'll do that then."

"I'll call you back, so you aren't wasting your minutes."

"Okay."

"See you soon, Blaine." Kurt hung up and Blaine handed his phone to Olivia.

"What's this for?" Olivia asked, although she took the phone anyway.

"So when Kurt calls back you can answer it." Blaine replied, starting the car.

"What's going on? I only got half a conversation, B."

"We're going to go visit the Highlands set."

"Oh, I won't complain." The phone rang and Olivia looked down to check that it was Kurt before answering it. "Hedwig's Theme, because he's Hedwig?" Blaine nodded. "I like your style." She answered the phone after that.

"Hey Liv, so from the hotel, start by going to the end of the street and turning right, in the general direction of my apartment..." Olivia smiled again at his use of her nickname, and continued to convey the instructions to Blaine until they pulled up at the studio.

The guy at the entrance to the studio lot took Blaine's driver's license to check he was whom he said he was, and handed him two visitor's passes to the Highlands set. He told them they could drive through, giving them a couple of directions to where they could park. Olivia let Kurt know what was going on and then she hung up.

Kurt came out and met them in the parking lot and walked them inside, giving them a quick tour as they walked through to the set Kurt was working on that day. He was filming a scene in Elliot's bedroom, invariably a scene with Jasper. He introduced the other two to the director they were working with on that day, since there were several directors and several scenes being filmed at a time, and then he let them look at the set.

"It's like, a proper room. Wow," Olivia said, as she went and looked around a bit, opening the drawers, which were empty, and picking up various objects and putting them down again, as she gave her commentary. "I've always liked this little pig thing," she said as she looked at an ornament on Elliot's dresser, "Oh, it is a poetry collection!" she said as she tapped the spine of a book on Elliot's bookshelf. Blaine followed her around, taking a picture with his phone of Elliot's bookshelf instead of just looking at it. He could do something with it later.

Jasper's actor came onto the set with his own PA and a large coffee. The PA handed Leah a coffee too, and she smiled at her and handed over a few dollars for it. Kurt jumped at the chance. "Blaine, Olivia, this is Henry. He's playing Jasper, you know, Elliot's love interest." He held out his hand for both of them to shake, which they did. He seemed nice enough.

The director called their attention and Blaine and Olivia walked back to where there were chairs set up. They sat, sworn to silence, while Kurt and Henry took their places in Elliot's room, ready to begin their scene.

Elliot sat cross legged on the bed, a textbook in his lap. Jasper started by sitting at Elliot's desk, also studying, but he dramatically closed the textbook after a couple of seconds and crossed the room to Elliot's bed, where he was still reading. He walked behind Elliot, kneeling on the bed as he wrapped his arms around him. He kissed his cheek, and Elliot closed the book quickly, chucking it off to the side. "Hey," Elliot said, turning to look at Jasper over his shoulder.

The scene continued as the pair chatted. Blaine tuned out, because it was clearly going to be spoiler filled- they had to discuss something important, otherwise they wouldn't bother filming the scene. Eventually the scene changed routes.

Jasper said, "When are you going to tell your mom about me?" and Elliot just sort of sighed. "You can take your time, El, but I really don't like sneaking around." Elliot broke their gaze for a moment, looking towards the door. He turned back, but still didn't say anything. "Besides, when we're sneaking around like this I can't do this-" Jasper kissed Elliot, leaning him back on the bed, "whenever I want to. And I want to a lot, El. A lot." Elliot pushed back against Jasper, as their kisses became more desperate, hungry. The director let them kiss for a bit longer before cutting the scene, assumedly to give them plenty of footage to work with.

Olivia reached over to squeeze Blaine's hand, knowing that a scene like that could be making him feel a little bit uncomfortable. She knew he liked Kurt, that the date had been successful, and that they weren't just friends anymore.

Henry mumbled something to Kurt, who laughed, before sitting up and moving over to his PA, who was holding his coffee. Kurt climbed off the bed and straightened his clothes up a little bit before walking to where Blaine and Olivia were sitting quietly still. "So," Kurt said, "was that decent?"

Olivia confirmed that he acted perfectly well, and gushed on about how happy she was that Elliot finally had a love interest. Kurt tolerated her rambling and added comments when he had the opportunity. Blaine played with his phone for a minute while Olivia kept rambling, until eventually she decided that she ought to shut up, at which point she took out her own phone and texted her girlfriend. Kurt took Blaine's hand, leading him out of the room and into the hallway.

"Are you okay?" Kurt asked, and Blaine just nodded. "You can say whatever you like, but you clearly aren't okay and until you tell me I'm going to worry that your grandma just died."

"As far as I'm aware no relatives have died." Blaine said, continuing to walk down the hallway with him.

"So what is it then? Are you just really not enjoying being here? You can leave any time, I'm not making you stay, you know."

"Yeah, I know. It's great being here, really. Once in a lifetime opportunity and all that."

"I'd like to think that you'll visit me at work some other time, but whatever. You still haven't told me what's going on." Blaine smiled at Kurt's comment, suggesting there would be another time for him to be there in the future.

"Nothing, really. It's stupid."

"Blaine Devon Anderson, it obviously isn't stupid if you're this upset about it."

Blaine stopped walking to turn and face Kurt. "You remembered my middle name?"

"Of course. Now tell me."

"It's just... it's kind of hard to watch you kiss someone else. It's irrational, I know, and you're only acting... but there isn't any kind of concrete to our relationship. I mean, we went out once..." Kurt cut him off with a kiss, which took Blaine by surprise. He adapted to it quickly, however, and returned it, lifting a hand to Kurt's cheek. They broke apart and Kurt smiled at Blaine.

"Totally irrational. Do you feel any better now?"

"Um, yes."

"Besides, Henry is totally straight. Like, ridiculously so. He's one of those douchebags that has to look at every female ass that passes him and then make comments about it. Even if he were gay, he would be so far from my type that you have absolutely nothing to worry about."

"Okay. We should probably go rescue Olivia then." Blaine said, retaking Kurt's hand and turning back the way they came.

"You know, I think she will be okay. If he tries to hit on her she'll just wave her phone in his face and explain that she's texting her girlfriend. That will shut him up pretty quickly." Kurt didn't move from where he was, instead tugging lightly on Blaine's hand to pull him back. He stepped back to where he was before, and Kurt kissed him again. "Come on," he said, pulling Blaine back along the hallway, "we probably have time to see my trailer."

"See your trailer...?" Kurt starting running along the hallway, and Blaine kept as best he could.

It was twenty minutes later that the two of them turned back up on the set, although they were only meant to have taken a ten minute break. Kurt apologised and headed to his place on the bed, taking the book and opening it to a random page again.

Olivia eyed Blaine up and down, before leaning over and whispering to him. "You might want to go and fix your hair, B," she said, "your make out session clearly got a little too wild and, now, I never thought I would say this because you use a hell of a lot of it, but dude, you need to put more gel into your hair." She lifted a hand to try and smooth down a few loose curls, but Blaine just smiled and excused himself to go to the bathroom. For once, Olivia's make out predictions had been correct.

When Kurt was able to stop for lunch Blaine and Olivia figured they should leave, if they were going to make it back to Ohio at a decent hour. Kurt walked them both out to the car and suggested a place they could stop to grab lunch nearby, if they were planning on eating on the road. Olivia, being the brilliant wingman that she was, asked Blaine for the keys, got into the car and turned on the radio quite loudly, in a way that would have been obnoxious had she not been doing it to give the other two some level of privacy.

"It's been great visiting you at work today, Kurt," Blaine said, clearly stalling.

"Like I said earlier, I hope it won't be the last time." Kurt slid his arms around Blaine's waist and pulled him in for a hug. "Call me when you get home, okay? I don't care how late it is; let me know that you get there safely. Please?"

"Of course, if that's what you want." Kurt tilted Blaine's chin up and didn't move his hand as he captured Blaine's lips in a kiss. It was long, soft but heavy. "I'm terrible at goodbyes." Blaine mumbled against him.

"Good thing this isn't a goodbye then, isn't it?" Kurt said, "Goodbyes sound so permanent. I'll talk to you within the next twelve hours, and then we would be forced to another farewell. It's a lot easier to skip all the goodbyes and get straight to the next hellos, don't you think?"

"Okay," Blaine said. He didn't make any effort to move towards his car.

"Stay safe, Blaine Anderson. I'll talk to you soon, promise."

"Yeah. I promise too." Blaine leaned up to kiss Kurt again, before eventually heading back to the car and sliding into the driver's seat. He waved at Kurt as they pulled out of the lot and he blew a kiss in return, waving with one final flick of his wrist before he went back into the studio.

Blaine was sitting in his room much later that day, not quite ready to go to bed. He had brought his suitcase up to his room, but he was yet to unpack. He hadn't even looked at a clock since he had gotten in. He called Kurt, like he said he would. He answered before the first ring had even finished.

"Blaine, thank god. I swear I've been watching my phone for the past hour, just waiting to see if you did get home okay."

"Hey, Kurt. Yeah, the traffic wasn't too bad. I think my mom might make me go to school tomorrow though, so I should probably get to bed." There was silence for a moment. Blaine took the opportunity to flop down on his bed.

"I miss you already." Kurt said, and he really meant it.

"I started missing you about five seconds after I left. You're so far away and I can't stand it."

"I mean what I said, Blaine. If you really need me- if it gets that bad with your dad or something- I'll be there. Just say the word."

"Thanks, Kurt. I'm okay. Little bit sleepy, but I'm okay. My mom's already gone to bed, so I haven't had a chance to talk to her about the gala, but I'll do that tomorrow."

"Okay. I'd better let you go. Thanks for calling."

"I said I would, didn't I?"

"Yeah. Good night, Blaine Anderson."

"Night, Kurt." The line was quiet for a few moments before Blaine heard a gentle click and Kurt had hung up.

The next morning Marie woke Blaine at ten. "Blaine, sweetie?" she said, stroking his hair fondly as she perched on the edge of his bed, "you had better get up soon."

Blaine stirred and opened his eyes, lifting his hands free from under the covers to rub his eyes. His curtains were opened and the sunlight was streaming in, narrowly missing his face and hitting his chest instead. "Whatimesit?" Blaine mumbled, looking up at his mom.

"Three minutes past ten. I called your school; you're taking the day off."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to let you sleep. And besides, I had the day off already, I thought we could do something together. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever, Blaine."

"mmkay."

"Oh, I brought you up breakfast! Sit up," she commanded, moving off the bed to allow him to do so. She walked over to the desk where she had set down a tray and carried it over to him.

"Thanks," he said, still half asleep. He began to eat immediately, nonetheless.

"So," Marie said, "want to start telling me about how amazing your gala was? How much money did they raise?"

"I don't know," Blaine said, "I left before they announced the silent auction total. We wanted to get back to the hotel before midnight, so we could go sightseeing properly the next day."

"Oh, we'll have to look it up then... how was the presentation? Did you get to talk to Kurt again?" Blaine froze up for a moment as she asked about Kurt, before remembering that she couldn't possibly know they had been communicating, let alone had gone on a date together. She noticed him do it clearly, because she suddenly started to worry. "Oh no, he wasn't horrible to you, was he? That pedestal didn't come crashing down this time, did it?"

"No, no. Quite the opposite. He was great, as you would expect. I got another hug out of the presentation. We talked a bit, Olivia and I ended up sitting at the same table as him."

"Oh, that sounds nice."

"Yeah, it was." Blaine didn't like hiding that kind of thing from his mother, really. He would tell her properly when he knew she wouldn't completely freak out about it.

"I'm going to leave you to finish getting dressed and stuff, and then we could go out somewhere." She leaned over to kiss him on the forehead before turning and heading out of the room.

Blaine finished eating and getting ready as his mother had suggested, before heading downstairs. He put his phone on the counter in the kitchen before running upstairs to grab a couple of things he had forgotten. He got back to the kitchen to find that his mother was holding his phone, arm outstretched to him. He took it from her and clicked it on, to find there were two texts that he had received in the time it had taken him to get upstairs.

"Who's Hedwig?" Marie asked, "I didn't mean to look, it just wouldn't stop vibrating..."

"No one," Blaine answered, maybe a little bit too quickly.

"It sure doesn't seem like no one," she said, "as soon it stopped it started again. They must really want to get through to you."

Blaine opened the texts.

Bad news. Call me?

Actually it might be good news for you. Still, call me as soon as you're out of class. Need to talk to you and preferably soon.

"Yeah, okay, maybe not no one. But... I need to call them, okay? I'll be ready to go after that, I promise." Blaine said. Marie nodded. Blaine hit the call button by Kurt's name and headed out into the hallway to take the call.

"Blaine," Kurt said on the other side of the line, picking up almost immediately. His voice was shaky, and it sounded like he had probably been crying. "Why aren't you in class?"

"My mom called in, I'm taking the day off. That isn't important. What's up? Don't say that you're okay, Kurt, because you've clearly been crying. Are you at work?"

"No, I'm at home. I um, I didn't have anyone else to talk to, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your time with your mom or whatever; I thought you might just call me from the bathroom or something..."

"It's okay, Kurt, I'm here. Just tell me what's going on? Please?"

"Carole called. My dad- he's not well. I know it's probably nothing and he has Carole and Finn right there, but since he had a heart attack a couple of years ago I just haven't been able to stop worrying about him and Ohio is just so far away and-"

Kurt hadn't mentioned anything about Burt having had a heart attack, no matter how long ago it was. He knew it wasn't his place to pry, either. At that moment Kurt just needed someone to listen, someone to comfort him. "Kurt, calm down. Give me two seconds, okay? I honestly think that you are worrying about nothing, like you said. But can you tell me how that is even possibly good news for me?"

"Lima isn't that far from Westerville." Kurt said, slightly less shaky than before. Whatever he had done to calm himself down seemed to have helped.

"No it isn't, that's why I can see Olivia so frequently at the moment. Your point?"

"Leah is trying to book me a flight to Ohio as we speak. I need to be there as soon as possible- and maybe you'll find time to visit me? Or once I'm done freaking out, maybe I could go to you? But honestly Blaine, there is no where I would prefer to be right now than with you. I just want to be able to hug you or something."

"Shh, Kurt, I'm here. I'll be here as long as you need me. I might not be able to hug you, but I'm a pretty good listener."

"No, you go. Have fun out with your mom."

"If you need me Kurt, I'll be a phone call away. I can drive out to the airport to pick you up or anything, okay? I'll be here when you get here." Blaine said, and he meant it. Kurt meant the world to him and there wasn't anything he wouldn't do to make it better for him.

"Thanks, Blaine. You're sort of amazing."

"I've learned from the best," Blaine replied, "Okay, well I'll let you go. Go check in with Leah; pack your bags, whatever. We can talk later, okay?"

"Yeah. We will definitely talk later. Soon, even?" Kurt asked.

"Soon." Blaine agreed.

"Thanks again, Blaine." Kurt was the one to hang up again. And, once again, he hadn't said goodbye.

Marie was standing in the doorway as Blaine headed back through to the kitchen. "Kurt?" she asked, "sitting at his table was no coincidence, was it?"

"No," Blaine said.

"Care to explain?"