Part two

'I mean, it's crazy, right?' Kurt said for the millionth time, pacing the floor. 'Gettingmarried. At eighteen.'

Blaine made a non-committal noise of assent from the bed where he was sprawled on his stomach, a book open in front of him.

'Come on, back me up here, Blaine.'

'I did,' Blaine replied calmly. 'Three hours ago when we went over this for the first time.' Blaine looked up at Kurt and smiled. He couldn't find it in himself to be annoyed with Kurt's ranting – especially as he had subjected Kurt to much worse. 'But it's not our job to tell our friends how to live their lives. And it's kind of romantic, isn't it?'

'I guess,' Kurt flopped down on the bed next to Blaine who scooted to make room for him. Kurt rolled over on his back, staring up at the ceiling for a moment before sighing and continuing, 'But that's not a reason to get married. And Finn's my brother. I'm supposed to look out for him.'

'They love each other. Isn't that a reason?' Kurt moved to lie on his side, propping himself up on his elbow and giving Blaine a skeptical look. 'I mean, I can't say that I don't get it. What it feels like to love someone so much you can't imagine not spending the rest of your life with them.'

Kurt smiled fondly for a moment, before he suddenly looked mildly panicked. 'Wait, that's not you leading up to a proposal of your own, is it?'

'No,' Blaine said with a laugh. 'But thank you for meeting the idea with shock and horror.'

'No, that's not what I meant, silly,' Kurt said with a roll of his eyes and a playful shove at Blaine. 'I want to some day. But it's just, it's too early, isn't it?'

'Yeah, agreed,' Blaine said, abandoning his attempt at studying. He rolled over in his side, mirroring Kurt's position and letting his free hand rest on Kurt's hip for a minute before it (of its own accord, Blaine could have sworn) began tugging at his shirt, craving skin contact. Blaine smiled wickedly. 'Good thing we're not bothered about premarital sex.'

Kurt grinned for half a second until he realized what Blaine was up to. Then he gently pried Blaine's hand away.

'You're supposed to study, remember?'

'Plenty of time for that. I still have, like, a week until I'm allowed to go back to school.'

'Yeah, which is another week of stuff you have to catch up on,' Kurt countered, turning away from Blaine's kiss and causing Blaine to let out a small whine. 'And your dad is home.'

'Forget my dad. My dad is clueless. We'll just be really quiet,' Blaine said with a grin, before he leaned in to try the kiss again, smiling when he met Kurt's soft and pliant lips.

'One day,' Kurt murmured into the kiss. 'One day I'll learn to say no to you.'

The next day was Monday, and it marked the beginning of the third to last week before Regionals, which meant extra glee practice and mandatory Booty Camp for all. Kurt had already delivered Blaine his part ('I'm rapping?' Blaine had uttered in a horrified voice, but choosing to drop his complaints when Kurt pointed out that at least Blaine had lines – and that was despite having missed two weeks of school.) and he was itching to join the others for rehearsal.

Kurt's busy schedule meant no afternoon visit, but he did at least make it over in time for dinner, which Blaine realized five minutes before Kurt arrived would be the first to feature both of Blaine's parents as well as Kurt. Kurt seemed to be aware of this too as he stepped into the dining room, eyeing the neatly set table for four warily.

'Don't worry. It looks more formal than it is,' Blaine said reassuringly, kissing Kurt on the cheek. 'You'll do fine.'

And, true to Blaine's prediction, Kurt did do fine. Granted, he seemed a little nervous and awkward at first (which Blaine found absolutely adorable) but overcame that as soon as he realized that the questions directed at him were friendly in nature and not part of some interrogation to figure out whether or not he measured up. And, well, he was Kurt, and Blaine's parents were his parents, so of course they liked Kurt, even if they didn't understand everything he was talking about.

Everything went smoothly until the very end of dinner. Blaine's mother disappeared into the kitchen, having received an important phone call, and Blaine took that as his cue to excuse himself and Kurt upstairs.

'Sure,' Blaine's dad said as he stood up and began clearing the table. 'Just leave the door open, alright?'

'Dad?' Blaine asked uncertainly, freezing in his tracks. This was a new request.

'You're supposed to study,' his dad said simply. 'And Kurt is too, I'm sure.'

'Yeah, that's what we were-' Blaine began, feeling like he was missing something.

'I'm not as clueless as you think, son. Nor are you two as quiet as you think.'

Blaine took a few seconds to process what his dad has said, and then – Oh. Blaine felt a mortified blush creep into his cheeks, and he chanced a glance left at Kurt who seemed to be trying to pretend that this had nothing to do with him, but failing spectacularly as he stared at the floor, his face growing redder by the second.

Blaine opened and closed his mouth soundlessly a few times, but coherency was difficult when all he could think was My dad overheard me having sex. He almost wished that his dad was angry and shouting, because at least then he could be all indignant and defend himself, but his dad simply continued clearing the table, a slight smile betraying his amusement.

'Right,' Blaine finally managed. 'I'm just gonna go...die now.'

'Well, Kurt's vowed to not show his face here for at least a decade,' Blaine said the next evening as he and his dad were having dinner. The whole day had been spent avoiding his dad, and Blaine had only just recovered from the embarrassment enough that he could look him in the eye again. 'I hope you're happy with yourself.'

Blaine's dad chuckled. 'Poor boy. I'm afraid I've scarred him for life.'

'I'm pretty sure that when the time comes, he's gonna insist we not invite you to the wedding for fear that you tell some really embarrassing story,' Blaine said seriously.

His dad froze in the middle of cutting up his chicken and looked up at Blaine. 'Really?'

'No, Dad. Not really.' Blaine rolled his eyes. 'But did you really have to say that in front of him?'

'I'm sorry!' his dad exclaimed somewhat sheepishly. 'There didn't seem to be a better moment.'

'I think any moment would have been better,' Blaine countered, allowing himself a small laugh despite how embarrassed he still felt.

'Would a you rather I'd burst in on you on Sunday?'

'Ew, Dad.' Blaine held up a hand as though to block out the image his dad was putting in his head.

His dad smirked. 'Just saying. It could've been worse.'

Blaine made a small noise of assent (preferring not to think too much about the different ways in which his dad could have embarrassed him) and returned his attention to his dinner.

'So uhm...' he said a little while later as they were clearing the table, finding one thought still nagging at him. 'You don't seem upset. I mean, that we're...' He cleared his throat awkwardly, but his dad seemed to understand. Blaine had expected a lecture. Maybe something about being "inappropriate".

'I'm not gonna lie,' his dad began, his voice having lost its humorous edge. 'That was my first instinct, but your mom convinced me that there's nothing to worry about as long as you're both safe and comfortable. We trust you. And Kurt's a good kid as far as we can tell.'

'Wow,' Blaine said, pausing in the middle of packing away the leftovers. 'That's very...modern of you.' Blaine wasn't so sure that most parents thought this way. He was almost certain that Kurt's dad didn't.

'But,' his dad went on, pointing at Blaine with the dishwashing brush, and Blaine could tell that he was getting to the point of his comments the day before. 'don't forget the doctor's orders, and don't jeopardize you health just because you're in love. You're supposed to be taking it easy while you heal up.'

Blaine was tempted to point out that it wasn't as though he had broken a leg, and all this "taking it easy" was probably just a precaution – and even then it wasn't like lying on his back and letting Kurt blow him really required a lot of physical exertion. Of course there was no point in arguing with the doctor's orders, so Blaine just nodded his head.

'And don't forget you have other responsibilities besides Kurt.'

'I'm taking care of my studies, I swear,' Blaine said somewhat indignantly. He might have let things slide a little lately, but he wasn't hopelessly behind. 'I just did a whole bunch today.'

'Okay, good.' His dad nodded approvingly. 'But what about your family? Not counting your surgery, I've barely seen you since I've been home.' He gave a slight, crooked smile. 'Or is this the part where you tell me that you're nearly eighteen and too cool to hang out with your dad, hm?'

'No,' Blaine said, rolling his eyes and smiling fondly at his dad. At the same moment his phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out as he responded, 'Fine, I'll make sure to pop outside my room every now and then.'

'Good. I was thinking maybe we could-' He cut himself off, looking questioningly at Blaine who had just read the text message. 'Something wrong? You look like you need to pee.'

'It's just, Kurt and I sort of have a Skype date, like, now.' Blaine couldn't help a guilty wince, given what they had literally just talked about, but his dad simply laughed exasperatedly.

'I should have known. Fine.' He waved the dishwashing brush, spraying water in Blaine's direction, and Blaine fled the kitchen with a grin. 'Go. Shoo. I'll take care of the dishes.' Blaine was already climbing the stairs in the hall, when he heard his dad call after him. 'Hey, leave the door open, alright?'

'Dad!' Blaine groaned, and he could hear a short laugh coming from the kitchen.

'Kidding.'

As it turned out the following week saw Kurt making good on his promise to not show his face at the Anderson house, though he claimed it was because of glee practice and homework. Blaine suspected that if he really wanted to, Kurt could at least make it over for dinner for a night or two (he still had to eat, right?), but he didn't push the issue, knowing that if the roles had been reversed, and it had been Burt who overheard them, Blaine probably would have wanted to move to Australia for a week or two. Or twenty.

It wasn't like Blaine didn't have things to do either. Now that he was feeling better both mentally and physically, he did have a lot of homework to catch up on, and he did actually want to spend time with his dad too. They had a lot of catching up to do.

One afternoon Blaine walked downstairs to find his dad watching football in the living room, and on a whim he decided to join him.

'We can watch something else if you like,' his dad said after a moment.

'It's fine,' Blaine replied, not taking his eyes off the screen. 'I wanna watch it.'

Out of the corner of his eye, Blaine caught his dad frowning a little, but he didn't comment on it all throughout the game, though he did keep sending bemused looks at Blaine as he reacted to it. When the game ended, Blaine's dad muted the TV, and they sat in silence for a while until suddenly Blaine had an idea.

He crouched in front of the TV, taking a few moments to find what he was looking for, and when he turned back around, he was holding up one of Cooper's old video games.

'You up for it?' Blaine asked, grinning widely, adding when his dad hesitated, 'Or are you afraid to lose to the one-eyed guy?'

'I- No, sure,' his dad said, adding a moment later as Blaine was slotting the game in. 'I'm confused though.'

'About what?'

'Just, the football, the video games... Isn't this the kind of thing you yelled at me about? You know, "boy" stuff. I thought you hated it.'

'Oh,' Blaine said as he straightened up, the video game loading behind him on the muted TV. He hadn't even really thought about that. 'Yeah, I guess. Maybe I do like some stuff? I can't really explain it, but it feels different now.' Blaine sat down on the couch next to his dad, handing him the extra controller and falling into thought. 'I think before, when I was younger, I kind of hated everything you made me do, just on principle, because I felt like I had to like it? But, like, having talked about it, and knowing that's not how you meant it, I feel more free to like it. Does that make sense at all?'

Blaine turned his head to look at his dad, who wore a bemused smile. He made a motion as though to ruffle Blaine's hair, but then he seemed to realize that the gel prevented that, and he ended up sort of patting affectionately at the nape of Blaine's neck.

'You are one confusing kid, you know that?'

Blaine grinned. 'Thank you. I do try.'

On the morning of the fourteenth Blaine had what was hopefully going to be his last appointment at the hospital. He didn't much like coming here. He didn't like that on the night when he had been brought in, he had been made to remove his binder, making him feel raw and naked. He didn't like that nurses and doctors had seen him like that. He didn't like the curious, searching looks he had received when they realized that he wasn't biologically male.

The surgeon who Blaine was coming to see today had been seemed nice enough during the brief interaction Blaine had had with him, but Blaine thought that might have been because of his mother's no-nonsense attitude. His dad was accompanying today, and while Blaine loved him, he was not nearly as intimidating or good at putting his foot down. So Blaine couldn't help feeling a tiny bit uncomfortable, when he was called into the examining room, leaving his dad outside.

'Mr. Anderson, we meet again,' the doctor, who was a forty-something-year-old sharp-looking man, greeted Blaine warmly. Blaine decided this was a good start and smiled shyly in response.

There was another doctor in the room, however – a young intern – and Blaine became increasingly uncomfortable with the way she kept staring intently at him. Especially because he was well aware what she was doing. She was looking for a "tell" - searching for the girl behind the mask.

'Yes, thank you, Pearson,' Blaine's doctor said when this had gone on for a full minute, interrupting his speech about the healing process of Blaine's eye. 'I won't be needing your services after all.'

'But you-'

'Thank you,' he repeated sharply, cutting her off. 'You're dismissed.'

The woman opened her mouth to protest, but seemed to think better of it, choosing instead to follow the order, and a moment later, the door slammed shut behind her.

'So let's get this thing off you,' the doctor went on, continuing as though nothing had happened, and that more than anything made Blaine want to hug him.

A short while later Blaine's eye had passed every test, and Blaine hopped down from the examining table, finally able to see in 3D again.

'There we go. Good as new,' the doctor announced, winking at Blaine. 'And just in time for Valentine's too.'

Blaine smiled. Yep, just in time.

It had not been easy convincing Kurt that Blaine would have to skip Sugar's Valentine's party. Blaine had plenty of practice with concealing himself both pre- and post-transition, but when it came to things other than that, he didn't consider himself a particularly good liar. Kurt's badly hidden disappointment at the news had not made things easier, and in fact Blaine had nearly cracked and ruined the whole thing, because his heart hurt to hear Kurt that way.

However, he managed it somehow, and come Tuesday night, as Sugar announced his entrance and Blaine launched into his performance, he had to admit that the look on Kurt's face was so, so worth it. It wasn't ecstatic joy or anything like that, but a small smile spread on Kurt's face and a look of utter peace came over him. As though he finally felt at home again. Perhaps Blaine was over-reading it or really just projecting his own feelings onto Kurt, but that was how he chose to interpret it,

The moment the last notes of Love Shack had faded, Kurt flung his arms around Blaine's neck.

'God, I missed you,' he murmured into Blaine's ear as he hugged him tightly. After a second though, he pulled back and punched Blaine hard in the shoulder. 'You stupid, evil liar, Blaine Anderson. Do you realize how miserable I've been?'

However, Kurt was pouting far too dramatically for Blaine to be worried that he was truly upset, and Blaine replied in a mock-serious tone, 'I'm sorry, I can go again?'

'Oh, come here, you,' Kurt said as he let go of his angry facade and pulled Blaine forward by his jacket so forcefully that Blaine's hat fell off, capturing Blaine's lips in a hungry kiss. Blaine grinned into it at first, but the kiss soon grew more passionate as it seemed to dawn on both of them just how much they had missed this part of their relationship in the past week.

'Hey, hey, get a room, you two!' someone – Puck maybe – yelled, while a few people catcalled, making Blaine and Kurt realize that there was a world around them and prompting them to break the kiss.

Blaine felt his cheeks grow hot as he realized – and Kurt seemed to, too – that they were still standing in the middle of the crowded floor, surrounded by their friends and classmates. And that they had just shared a not-so-innocent kiss in front of them.

'Oops,' Kurt said sheepishly, and they both grinned self-consciously as they trailed off to the side of the restaurant, where they tucked themselves into an abandoned booth.

'I missed you too, by the way,' Blaine said as he drew an arm Kurt, inviting him to sit closer. 'I've been counting down the days since Wednesday.'

'Mm, tell me about it,' Kurt murmured, leaning into Blaine and resting his head on his shoulder. 'I'm just glad you're back and well. I feel like I've lived the last three weeks on the edge of my seat, so worried that the surgery would go wrong or it wouldn't do anything.'

'I'm fine. I'm always fine.' Blaine kissed the top of Kurt's head, finding his need to be close to Kurt taking precedence over their rules about PDA. And Kurt didn't seem to mind. 'And if I weren't... It's just an eye, right?'

Kurt hummed in agreement, but before either of them could say anything else, Rachel was suddenly by their table, an excited gleam in her eyes, and they both jumped a little at the interruption.

'Kurt! Kurt, you- Hi Blaine! Kurt, you gotta come sing with me.'

'I don't know, Rachel...' Kurt glanced at Blaine. 'We're kind of...'

'Come on,' Rachel urged. 'We'll dedicate it to our boyfriends. I have the perfect song.' Rachel stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. 'Please?'

For a moment Kurt looked seriously tempted, but then he glanced back at Blaine and shook his head. 'Blaine and I haven't seen each other in a week. I think we'd rather just-'

'Kurt, it's fine,' Blaine assured him. 'Go. I'll be here after.'

'Perfect!' Rachel beamed. Before anyone could get another word out, she had hauled Kurt out of the booth, and Blaine watched with an amused smile, as she dragged him towards the stage.

A minute later they started singing, and yes, Rachel was a great singer and she took up more than fifty percent of the song, but Blaine couldn't keep his eyes off Kurt. His mouth and the way it moved when he was singing. The way his eyes were alight with excitement because he was doing something he loved. The way his body swayed gracefully in time to the music. How was it possible that this was the guy, who Blaine got to call his boyfriend? Who he got to love and who loved him back?

As he watched, Blaine was overcome with a desire such as he wasn't sure he had felt before. Neither was he sure if he wished the song would go on forever so he could keep watching, or if he wanted to interrupt it right then and throw himself into Kurt's arms, and when the song eventually ended of its own accord and Kurt returned to the table, Blaine told him as much.

'I want you so bad,' Blaine whispered into Kurt's ear, as he held him in a tight embrace. When Kurt drew back, he watched Blaine's mouth hungrily, his pupils blown wide, and Blaine knew that the feeling was mutual.

'Ugh, why are all our parents home tonight,' Kurt said miserably. 'It's not fair.'

'Well, there's the car,' Blaine said, smirking and quirking an eyebrow.

'That better be a joke, Blaine Anderson, because' – Kurt wrinkled his nose in distaste – 'ew, I'm not doing it in a car.'

Blaine grinned. 'Fine. What do you suggest then?'

After a bit of deliberation and a number of interruptions by their friends who came to say hi to Blaine, they ended up deciding that Blaine's house would be the better choice on the basis that it tended to be the most quiet there, which meant that they might be afforded some modicum of privacy there, even if they wouldn't dare to actually have sex with Blaine's parents around (once was enough, thank you very much).

As luck would have it, Blaine locked them in to find the house dark and empty. Apparently his parents weren't yet back from their own Valentine's dinner.

'I'm sure they'll be back soon though,' Blaine said as they stood undecided in the hall.

'Yeah, we shouldn't start anything we won't be able finish,' Kurt concurred although it seemed to cause him great pain to.

'TV?' Blaine suggested, swallowing and trying to ignore how much he needed to feel, taste, touch.

'Yeah,' Kurt breathed, and soon they found themselves in the living room, cuddled close together on the couch as Blaine flicked through the channels until he came across one that was airing When Harry Met Sally, and they both smiled at the memory of the previous year's Valentine's Day, although Blaine also groaned a bit as he thought of the spectacular fiasco that was the "Gap Attack." Thankfully, though, everything had worked out in the end, and now he was here, happier than ever and with Kurt wrapped in his arms.

Watching a romantic movie, Blaine soon realized, was perhaps not the most effective way of assuring that he and Kurt kept their hands off each other, especially not with their track record of making out during movies. They kept inexplicably finding their lips locked together and their hands roaming, and they had to constantly pause and cool off lest things got out of control.

One such time Kurt had ended up on top of Blaine, hand roaming and tongues exploring. Blaine's shirt had been untucked, and Kurt's warm hand was running aimlessly across his stomach, but then further south, growing determined and searching. As the hand reached below the hem of Blaine's pants, Blaine whimpered softly, needing Kurt's touch. Needing Kurt.

'Wait, stop,' Blaine managed finally, and for the first time calling things off had nothing to do with Blaine being uncomfortable. 'We can't.'

Kurt pouted as he sat back up, and the look almost made Blaine jump Kurt again, to hell with being caught. Luckily he didn't, however, because not thirty seconds later they heard the front door open and close, which also sealed their fate for the night. No more touching or groping, and definitely no sex.

'Hey, can I ask you a question?' Kurt asked a short while later, when Blaine's parents had said goodnight and disappeared upstairs. Blaine hummed in response. 'It might seem a bit random, but your upcoming top surgery had me wondering, because you've never really talked about it... What about bottom surgery?'

'What about it?' Blaine asked a little more sharply than he meant to.

'Is it something you want?'

Blaine hesitated. 'I'm...undecided, I guess.'

'Why? Just, you seem so uncomfortable with what you've got. Wouldn't surgery make it better?'

'Maybe. But it's a bit more complicated than that,' Blaine said, biting his lip and trying to decide if he really wanted to get into the details of this.

'In what way?' Kurt asked quietly, and Blaine did recognize that he wasn't being pushy or awkward at all, but talking about his genitals – or lack thereof – still kind of made Blaine want to crawl into a hole.

'Because...' Blaine thought for a minute, wondering how best to approach it. 'Okay, so there's two types of surgery, right? There's the phalloplasty, which is where they take skin from somewhere on your body and sort of use that. It's the most realistic-looking...penis' – Blaine flushed involuntarily at the word – 'you'll get, but sensation isn't guaranteed, it won't be able to get hard on its own, and it's hugely complicated and risky.'

Blaine looked up at Kurt – having been talking partially to the floor before – to make sure he was following Blaine's words. Kurt gave a small nod, but his expression was unreadable.

'The other one is called a metoidioplasty, and it's where they use whatever growth the T has given you. You know, how the, uh... clitoris gets bigger. It's a simpler procedure, and it functions pretty normally, with sensation and such, but well...it's tiny.'

Kurt took a moment to digest the information. 'Wow,' he breathed out. 'I'm sorry, that sucks. I guess I just kind of assumed that there would be a perfect surgery. That it might be expensive, but that it was possible.'

'There isn't,' Blaine said, trying not to sound too bitter. 'So basically whether or not a transguy chooses to have bottom surgery is about weighing up the pros and cons and deciding if it's worth the risks and the money and all that. For me...' Blaine went on, feeling strangely relieved to be sharing his thoughts on the matter with someone who wasn't on the other end of a DSL line. 'A phalloplasty is pretty much out of the question. I mean, just the thought of squeezing some pump in my balls to make it hard freaks me out. Sometimes I think I'll want a metoidioplasty for sure, but other times I think, what's the point of spending fifteen thousand dollars on something I might not even be happy with?'

Blaine let out a heavy sigh as he sank back into the couch, annoyed with himself for getting worked up. It wasn't like this was the first time he had had this discussion with himself. He wished he could just come to a decision and find peace in that, but he kept changing his mind back and forth.

'It really bothers you, doesn't it?' Kurt said, and Blaine felt his warm hand on his knee. 'What you don't have down there.'

Blaine smiled sadly. 'Yeah.' He looked quickly at Kurt. 'I mean, it's gotten better since we've started doing stuff. But yeah, it does.'

'I'm sorry. Just so you know, though,' Kurt said, lips curling in a flirty smile. 'I love your cock just the way it is.'

Blaine let out a small self-conscious giggle. 'I like yours too.'

'No, but...' Kurt turned to sit sideways on the couch, taking Blaine's hand in his. 'You get what I'm saying, right?'

He was telling Blaine not to be uncomfortable on Kurt's behalf. That he accepted and loved Blaine's body because it was his, and that was the important part. It was what Kurt had told him that first time Blaine had freaked out, but it was not until this moment now – perhaps because Blaine realized that he had nothing else left to surprise or push Kurt away with – that Blaine truly believed it.

Little by little and step by step, things were starting to come together in a way that made sense, like the pieces of a puzzle. Teenage Dream, which was the song that Blaine had flirtingly sung at Kurt on the day they met – back when Kurt had just been a new, cute boy – contained the lyric My missing puzzle piece. Blaine had always thought that was a sweet sentiment, but he realized now that it wasn't quite how he felt. It was more like Blaine had all the pieces already, but they were jumbled and messy, and Kurt was helping him figure out how they all fit together into one cohesive whole.

Blaine looked down at their joined hands, and he smiled as he squeezed Kurt's gently.

'Yeah. I do.'