Part three

As preparations for Sectionals got more and more intense – what with Blaine's brother riding them all harder and harder and with the number of rehearsal hours doubling – Kurt and Blaine didn't get many moments just to themselves for the rest of the week. Their time together seemed to be made up of brief talks during lunch and between classes, half-conversations as they struggled through their homework at night and the time they spent with the rest of the glee club in rehearsal.

'You're staring,' Rachel told Kurt, sitting down next to him on Friday afternoon halfway through rehearsal. Kurt turned his head to look at her questioningly, but she just nodded her head in the direction Kurt had been looking.

'He's my boyfriend. I'm allowed to stare,' Kurt replied shortly, gazing back across the room where Cooper was working with Blaine and Artie on their number. The rest of the group was doing Booty Camp with Mr. Schue, who was tapping people out one by one as they got the move right.

'Of course you are,' Rachel conceded. 'I've just caught you doing it a lot this past week. Always when he isn't looking.'

'Look at the kettle calling the pot black,' Kurt said dryly. 'How do you even know that if you weren't also staring at me?'

'The first few times I was actually just trying to catch your attention, not stare it you,' she explained patiently, before continuing, smile evident in her voice. 'Even if I was, you're my best friend. I'm allowed to stare.' She paused. 'Look, I just noticed and wanted to make sure you're okay. You guys are okay, right?'

'Yes,' Kurt said, a small smile playing on his lips. 'More than okay.'

'Oh, my god,' Rachel whispered in sudden excitement. 'You had sex!'

Kurt whipped his head around. 'What?'

'Because you're totally acting like Finn and I after-'

'Ew, no, Rachel. Don't go there,' Kurt said, holding a hand up to stop her talking. He had no problem with his brother and best friend dating, but hearing about their sex life was so not at the top of his wish list. 'And since you asked; no we didn't.'

'But something happened,' Rachel insisted. 'You look at him differently now.'

Kurt considered his words. He obviously couldn't tell her everything that was going on, but she was still his best friend and he wanted to share as much as he could with her.

'We did take things to a new level recently,' he said, looking back in across the room, where Blaine and Artie were finishing a piece of choreography, and Cooper was giving notes. 'And it's new and scary, but I'm also more in love than I've ever been.' Kurt glanced back at Rachel, smiling and biting back a laugh as he watched her fight her own curiosity.

'Okay, since you're clearly not about to spill – which for the record I think is a little unfair, seeing as I tell you everything there is to know about Finn and I-'

'Not that you give me much of a choice,' Kurt interjected.

'- I'm just going to sit here and be happy for you,' Rachel finished, crossing her legs and sitting back in the chair, hands folded in her lap.

'Good,' Kurt chuckled, patting her leg as he got up to rejoin Booty Camp.

'Wait, you're really not going to tell me?' she called after him.

'Nope,' Kurt called back, laughing at his friend's frustrated sigh.

Luckily, Mr. Schue had overruled Cooper when the latter had suggested that they set up extra rehearsal time during the weekend, which meant that they had the weekend off, although they were all still expected to practice by themselves. As Kurt and Blaine walked into the Lima Bean on Saturday morning, Blaine was telling Kurt how he had barely managed to escape the house half an hour earlier, Cooper having insisted on rehearsing one-on-one with Blaine.

'He's insane,' Blaine ranted as they made their way to their usual table, coffee in hand. 'I didn't even get to sleep until midnight last night, because he kept wanting to go over and over the same things. At this rate I'll be lucky to have any voice left for the actual competition next week.' He gave a frustrated sigh as he sat and took a sip of his coffee, which seemed to calm him somewhat.

'At least you're featured in two songs,' Kurt pointed out bracingly, careful not to sound too bitter about his own three lines (amazingly it was a step up from previous competitions with New Directions).

'Yeah, well,' Blaine muttered bitterly. 'Maybe I shouldn't be, because apparently I suck.'

'Come on, Blaine. You do not.'

'Oh, yeah. I bet our wonderful leader would have something to say about that.'

'Finn? Finn is stupid and insecure. He's acting like this because you don't suck, and you need to just talk to him.' Kurt would have talked to Finn himself a long time ago, except Blaine had asked him not to get involved. At Kurt's suggestion, however, Blaine crossed his arms and stuck out his bottom lip in a pout.

'He started it,' he grumbled, and Kurt had to swallow his laugh, because Blaine looked a bit like a toddler in a temper tantrum.

'Very mature, Blaine,' Kurt rolled his eyes. 'Anyway, on the whole I'd say you're better off than me. No lead in the musical, no school presidency, no competition solos and no chance in hell of getting into NYADA.'

'You're right, I'm sorry.' Blaine relaxed his arms and a concerned look crossed his face. 'We haven't even talked about that since...' Blaine made a vague gesture with his hand. 'Everything.'

'That's because there's nothing to talk about. I'm not getting in. Might as well get used to a life of barista work.' Kurt waved the Lima Bean application form that he had grabbed at the counter.

'Come on, now who's being immature?' Blaine scolded mildly. 'It's not NYADA or bust, you know. There are other options.'

'But I don't want any other options,' Kurt whined, knowing that he was in danger of sounding just as childish as Blaine had a minute ago.

'Hey, guys.'

Kurt looked up at the sound of the unfortunately familiar voice, and almost groaned at the sight of its owner, who for some reason seemed to think he was invited to sit at their table.

'It's so crazy, I'm sitting over there, checking out this guy, when all of a sudden I'm, like, "wait a second, I know that hair."'

Kurt didn't like Sebastian. It was no secret and, as he watched the Warbler casually admit to checking out Kurt's boyfriend as though Kurt wasn't even there, he was pretty sure that the expression on his face betrayed his feelings, anyway. Blaine's face, meanwhile, lit up in a smile that, while far too bright to be entirely genuine, was a clear attempt to be polite and friendly.

Blaine really was quite possibly the politest, most well-mannered kid that Kurt knew – certainly at McKinley no one exceeded him in that department. Basically he was the kind of kid that every mother loved and wanted as their own, and Carole, for one, had expressed her adoration for Blaine on multiple occasions.

Kurt wondered sometimes where it came from. He knew that, even though Blaine wasn't exactly rich, his father did come from respectable money, and had disappointed his family by marrying "beneath" him and choosing a middle-of-the-road job. Before Kurt had met Cooper, he had thought that Blaine's behavior was the result of a strict upbringing. However, the more he learned about Blaine and his family and the more he thought about it, Kurt realized that it was simply in Blaine's nature to be as unfailingly polite and proper as possible. And if he thought about it a bit longer, it occurred to him that the way Blaine was always so perfect and eager to please, constantly striving to do and be better, might be him seeking approval from the parents to whom he was so certain that he was a disappointment. The idea made him sad, and Kurt thought that if anyone had a right to be disappointed it was Blaine.

The point was, Kurt thought, as Sebastian moved from his long-winded and smirky greeting to basically admitting that he stalked Blaine online, that where Kurt could sometimes be a bit cynical and snarky, Blaine was wonderfully warm and kind, the type of person who was always open to strangers, and who liked to see the best in people, and Kurt loved that about him. He really did.

The only problem was cases like Sebastian Smythe, where "the best" was so deeply buried it might as well be non-existent. The guy was creepy, wouldn't take no for an answer and gave off major stalker vibes, but still Blaine didn't have the heart to put his foot down and tell Sebastian to leave him the hell alone. It made Kurt sick to think about Sebastian texting and flirting with Blaine, not because he doubted Blaine – even if it weren't for his obvious intimacy issues, Blaine would never cheat – but because Sebastian made Kurt's skin crawl, and he didn't want the guy anywhere near his boyfriend.

And when Blaine left to get another coffee, Kurt told Sebastian as much, which resulted in the two of them slinging insults at each other, only dropping it when Blaine returned. Later as they were making their way home, Kurt brought up the topic again.

'About Sebastian... Are you planning on ever telling him to stop following you around?'

'Not especially, no,' Blaine replied distractedly, more concerned with keeping an eye on traffic.

'Do you like having him follow you around?' Kurt went on, although he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

'He's harmless, Kurt,' Blaine said, an edge of impatience in his voice.

'He's creepy.'

'He is not creepy. I know he takes some getting used to but-'

'Why are you defending him?' Kurt interrupted, raising his voice a little and getting annoyed.

'I'm not def- I'm just saying that he may not be as bad as you make him out to be. Maybe he's just trying to make friends in his own weird way.'

'Oh, I think he has a bit more than friendship on his mind,' Kurt shot back. 'Are you really that naive? Or do you just enjoy having him flirt with you?'

'Oh, here we go,' Blaine snapped. 'Jackpot. I was waiting for this.'

'What?'

'You don't trust me!'

'Well, you did lie to me,' Kurt pointed out as calmly as he could given the situation. Why were they fighting all of a sudden? 'I'm not trying to be mean here, but those are the facts, and as much as I want to I can't just magically be over that.'

'I'm sorry. I'm sorry I lied. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' They turned a corner into Kurt's street, and Blaine took a deep breath, his voice calmer and sincere as he went on. 'You know how much I regret that. But you also know that there was a very specific reason I did that, and Sebastian has nothing to do with any that. You really think I'd cheat on you? I've told you. I'm not. Interested. In. Sebastian.'

'Okay, I believe that,' Kurt replied honestly, but he persisted, realizing that Sebastian wasn't actually the real problem, anyway. 'Just answer me this then: Would you be happier if he just went away?'

Blaine shrugged. 'Probably, yeah.'

'Then why won't you make him?'

'Because...' Blaine sighed as they pulled into driveway in front of Kurt's house, and Blaine turned off the ignition, looking straight ahead as he answered the question. 'Because he's a Warbler, and I don't want to risk burning that bridge. You know how much those guys mean to me. Why does this upset you so much, anyway? It's not you he's bothering.'

'Because if you can't handle telling someone you don't even like to leave you alone or to, you know, behave like a decent human being, then how are you going to handle the really difficult conversations with me?'

'Like what?'

Kurt bit his lip. He hated saying it. He didn't want to be the asshole that made everything about this, but at the same time he couldn't pretend that it didn't matter or that he wasn't worried.

'Like... sex.' Blaine looked immediately and obviously uncomfortable, and he got out of the car without saying anything, and Kurt followed, voice raised as he went on, 'See? This is what I'm talking about.'

'Alright, let's do it now then,' Blaine yelled standing on the other side of the car and throwing his arms into the air. For one wild moment Kurt thought that by "do it" he meant "have sex", and he gaped, but then Blaine continued, 'Let's talk about it now. Will that make you happy?'

Kurt almost shouted something he would have been sure to regret, but then he caught Blaine's eye, and he let out a long breath, deflating a little and closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, Blaine's expression had softened, and Kurt sent him a sad sort of smile. They were both getting way too worked up about this, and it wasn't helping. Blaine walked to the front of the car and leaned against the hood. A second later Kurt joined him.

'Look, Blaine,' he began, staring at his feet and speaking softly. 'I'm trying. But I'm kinda fumbling in the dark here. I haven't done this – any of this – before.' Kurt looked around at Blaine and their eyes met. Blaine smiled softly.

'Me either.' Kurt nodded, shivering a little in the cold December air.

'So... let's figure it out together. Come on.' Kurt nodded his head towards the front door. 'It's freezing. Let's get inside. I'm dying for some hot chocolate.' Kurt stopped outside the door, turning back to look at Blaine. 'But later, do you think we can talk? About the sex issue? It doesn't have to be big. Really, it doesn't. Just five minutes to figure out where we stand.'

'Okay,' Blaine nodded determinedly. 'I can handle five minutes.'

The actual conversation, when they got to it later in the afternoon, turned out every bit as uncomfortable as Kurt had expected. It felt strange for Kurt to be taking the lead in this, having always believed that, of the two of them, Blaine – despite being nine months younger – was the more sexually confident. In reality, however, Blaine was anything but, crossing his arms uncomfortably throughout most of the conversation and half the time looking anywhere but at Kurt – who, for his part, struggled to keep his stammering and blushing to a minimum. It was better to have the conversation now, though, Kurt felt, rather than wait for some passionate make out session to get out of hand. So yes, it was quite possibly the most awkward conversation the two of them had had yet, but it was clear and honest, and by the end of it both of them knew where the other stood, not to mention Kurt knew what to call certain body parts and which of them were off limits.

When Blaine got oddly quiet and thoughtful afterward, barely commenting on the rerun of The Bachelorette that they ended up watching, Kurt attributed it to the lingering awkwardness around the conversation. Trent had warned Kurt that Blaine didn't like conversation to focus on his transgender identity, and it didn't occur to Kurt that there could be more than that on Blaine's mind.