Having parents in high places really paid off. Especially when said parents scored him two front row tickets to Rent. Of course, the moment Blaine had those tickets in his hands he decided that, yes, he would be taking Kurt with him. That night, Blaine immediately picked up his phone and quickly typed a text message to Kurt.

Kurt’s answer was quick.

Blaine found himself staring at the text message for a few seconds, trying to figure out if Kurt meant what Blaine thought he meant. And if he was correct then, ohmyfreakinggod, his heart was about to beat right out of his chest. Kurt missed Blaine.

----

“Hey, wait up!” It was on the spiral staircase in the main building that Blaine finally found Kurt that morning. The younger boy stopped at the foot of the stairs, stepping aside and out of everyone’s way as Blaine hurried to catch up to him. Kurt was giving him that little smile of his that Blaine absolutely adored.

“So what’s this extravagant surprise you have for me?” he asked.

“Hey,” Blaine cut in, “I never said it was extravagant.” He smiled a little before pulling the flap of his bag open and pulling out the little envelope that held the tickets. “My parents have connections,” he began explaining. “And they managed to snag me two front row tickets to Rent for Friday night.”

Kurt was staring at the envelope the entire time, eyes a little wide. After a few moments, those blue eyes flicked up to meet Blaine’s. “No way,” he muttered.

“Yes way,” Blaine responded as he handed Kurt the envelope. “And you are more than welcome to hold on to them until Friday night.”

“Blaine this is--this is amazing. I’ve always wanted to see Rent on stage--”

“And now you will have the opportunity to do so. And, added bonus, I’ll be there.” He winked before placing the tickets in Kurt’s hand and pulling him into a quick hug. “I’ll see you at Glee rehearsal.” And then he was hurrying away. Yes, Blaine made a very good choice in deciding to invite Kurt along. The look of pure happiness and amazement on Kurt’s face when Blaine showed him the tickets was just enough to make Blaine want to melt into a little puddle of bliss on the ground at Kurt’s feet.

---

Was this considered a date? Blaine had provided the tickets, he was driving and they were going to see a show--just the two of them. So, technically, it was considered a date in some form wasn’t it? Well, a date as two friends. Friends went on dates. Yeah, totally. Even when one of the friends thought the other was the cutest most adorable thing in the world all bundled up in his black coat and striped scarf. Blaine loved the way Kurt’s cheeks and nose would always turn this shade of pink whenever it was really cold outside.

When they reached Blaine’s car, the older boy hurried in front of Kurt to open the door for him and Kurt nearly bowed his head sheepishly as he quietly thanked Blaine. In turn, the older boy just grinned before shutting the door beside Kurt and hurrying over to the driver’s side of his car. Once he was settled in, he turned on the car and promptly cranked up the heat.

“I hate Ohio weather,” muttered Kurt as he buried his nose into his scarf in a way that made Blaine’s stomach do this funny little flip.

“But cold weather is an excuse to wear scarves,” Blaine pointed out as he put the car in reverse and slowly began pulling out of the parking space.

“Yes, but it doesn’t have to be ridiculously cold,” Kurt replied immediately before sitting up straight and tugging at the scarf a bit.

Half of the drive, Blaine spent it sneaking little peeks over at Kurt as the younger boy sang along to the music blasting through the speakers. There were times were Blaine just wanted to turn down the music completely so he could just listen to that beautiful voice instead of the voices coming out of his iPod. Kurt managed to notice Blaine looking over at him at one point and the younger boy smiled a little nervously.

“What?” he asked quietly, voice barely audible over the sound of the music.

Blaine shook his head and shrugged. “I just really like that scarf,” he lied with a grin.

Kurt turned his eyes away from Blaine, the gesture just as nervous as the little smile he had given Blaine. “Light’s green,” he murmured as Blaine’s head snapped forward just as the car behind him honked impatiently.

Driving with Kurt in the passenger’s seat was very distracting.

Kurt did nothing to hide his excitement tonight, though. The moment they drove into the parking garage and were stepping out of the car, he nearly bounced beside Blaine as they made their way towards the elevator. At one point, he was pretty sure he heard Kurt squeal before he spoke. “Front row seats, Blaine. Front row!”

Blaine laughed a little. “I know. I’m the one who got them, remember?”

Kurt shot him a little look to which Blaine grinned before bumping his shoulder into Kurt’s before chuckling quietly. “C’mon,” he said as he grabbed Kurt’s hand and began tugging him out of the elevator. When they stepped out, though, he didn’t let go. When they crossed the street and began walking towards the Performing Arts Center, he didn’t let go. When they entered the building, he didn’t let go. Despite the little side glances Blaine got from two or three people, he did not let go of Kurt’s hand because he couldn’t let go of Kurt’s hand. Holding the younger boy’s hand was far too pleasant. Besides, Kurt’s hand fit in his rather nicely. Friends didn’t hold hands on dates, a little voice in the back of Blaine’s mind pointed out.

Eventually, though, Blaine did have to release Kurt’s hand when it was time to pull out the tickets and turn them in. When the two boys found their seats and were settled in, Blaine turned a little in his chair to look at Kurt with a smile. “Now, I just want to let you know,” he began, “that I don’t expect anything in return for this, Kurt.”

The younger boy looked like he was about to protest, but Blaine cut him off.

“The tickets were free,” he said. “Really, it’s no big deal, we get them all the time.”

Kurt sighed before leaning back into his seat with a quiet little, “Fine.” and then a silence settled between them as Blaine tugged the playbill open and began flipping through it quietly. The silence lasted for a few minutes, and then Kurt was speaking up softly. “Can I ask you something?”

Blaine looked up from the little booklet in his hand. Kurt’s face was serious which made Blaine draw his eyebrows together for a moment as he muttered, “Uh, sure.”

“Is this a date?”

Blaine nearly choked on his own breath. He wasn’t entire sure how he managed to keep composure as he managed a soft, little, “Umm…” before looking down at his lap for a moment and then looking up at Kurt. “Technically, yes,” he tried. And after a moment he smiled softly. “Yeah, it is.” This time, his voice was a little more sure of itself. It was a date.

Kurt smile was soft as he looked down at his playbill and flipped it open. Blaine watched the younger boy for a few moments before turning his attention down to his own playbill. Now he was confused. This wasn’t Kurt’s weird way of asking Blaine to be his--ohgod--boyfriend, was it? The very term made Blaine’s heart flutter in his chest. No, they weren’t boyfriends. They hadn’t even kissed. They were just really, really good friends.

Blaine had trouble focusing throughout the show. He was far too focused on the boy sitting beside him. Far too focused on wondering if he should reach over and grab Kurt’s hand. Far too focused on the idea of pulling that hand up and pressing a kiss to Kurt’s knuckles just because. He wasn’t allowed to, though. Because he was stuck in the friend zone. But he could change that, couldn’t he? Blaine really, really wanted to change that because he really liked Kurt. He liked him more than a friend or a mentor should. Intermission came and went and Blaine was able to focus a little more during the second act. It wasn’t as much of a blur in his mind as the first one. However, the only reason Blaine was able to focus his attention on the show was because he stopped thinking about holding Kurt’s hand. The reason: he had finally reached out and taken the younger boy’s hand and held on to it for the rest of the performance.

Kurt was giddy and bouncy and all kinds of happy and Blaine mentally filed that away for later use: take Kurt out to see Broadway shows more often. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was something Kurt loved doing but didn’t do enough. Considering it wasn’t really his dad’s thing and Mercedes didn’t seem to be too much of a musical theater fan to let Kurt drag her out to these shows so often.

“I couldn’t have hoped for a better reaction from you,” Blaine said as he started up his car.

“Oh, God. Anything that has to do with musical theater will have me reacting this way, you should know this by now.” Kurt beamed.

Naturally, they sang Rent songs on the drive back to Dalton and this time, they had no music to accompany their singing so Blaine could listen to that beautiful voice. It was dark, so Kurt probably didn’t see the look of sheer bliss on Blaine’s face which Blaine was a little thankful for. That would have been a little embarrassing.

As they walked into their hall, Kurt was chatting away about the woman he was sitting next to. “She would not shut up, Blaine, you have no idea. Stop me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it theater etiquette to not sing along with all the damn songs?”

“No, no, you’re completely right,” Blaine said. “Did she at least have a good singing voice?”

“No!” Kurt snapped as he shoved his key into the lock and pushed the door open. “She was god awful! I can’t believe you didn’t hear her.”

Blaine laughed with a little shrug as he shut the door behind him.

“I guess someone said something because she finally stopped singing during the second act.” Kurt sighed as he dropped down onto the edge of his bed, tugging off his scarf. Then he froze. “Oh. Oh, god, I’m sorry, Blaine. I didn’t mean to complain or anything about the seats. They were lovely--perfect. I--”

Blaine laughed at Kurt’s sudden change in attitude. “It’s fine, Kurt. Really.”

Sitting beside Kurt, Blaine dropped down to lay back on the bed, legs dangling over the edge as he spoke. “I’m so glad you agreed to come along with me tonight. The other guys don’t really appreciate musicals as much as I do.”

Kurt scoffed. “Are you kidding me? Musicals are my life.” And then he paused. “Well, except for fashion. They’re kind of on the same level…They’re like my children. I can’t really pick a favorite.” And then he leaned back on the bed beside Blaine. “Thank you for inviting me. Tonight was amazing…”

Blaine turned his head a little to look at Kurt. He expected Kurt to be looking up at the ceiling, but instead, his eyes were on Blaine. They stayed that way, looking at one another silently, a little smile tugging at Kurt’s lips. And then, Blaine was propping himself up on his elbow, looking down at Kurt who was still staring up at him with those pretty blue eyes.

Slowly, Blaine was leaning down, tilting his head a little as he lightly pressed his lips to Kurt’s. For a moment, Kurt froze beneath him and for that split moment, Blaine thought this was a bad idea. Maybe he should have let Kurt be the one to kiss him. After having his first kiss stolen by Karofsky, Blaine didn’t want to force himself on Kurt. Right as Blaine was going to pull away, Kurt was responding, bringing his hand up to touch the back of Blaine’s neck and press into the kiss a little. Blaine nearly sighed in relief, shoulders relaxing a little bit. And those lips felt so incredibly perfect again his own. Blaine broke the kiss for a moment to kiss at Kurt’s bottom lip once, a sweet, chaste little kiss before he pulled away. Kurt’s fingers were still lightly pressed against the back of Blaine’s neck as he felt the younger boy sigh against his lips which were still hovering over Kurt’s. Blaine smiled down into those pretty blue eyes before pulling back a little more, Kurt’s hand falling from where it held the back of Blaine’s neck. Blaine suddenly felt like this heavy weight had been lifted up off of his shoulders. He had finally kissed Kurt and it was perfect. Kurt hadn’t freaked out or pushed him away or anything. In fact, Kurt was smiling up at Blaine with this blissful little look on his face.

“A perfect way to end a perfect date,” Kurt breathed with a little laugh before Blaine leaned down for another kiss, just for good measure. This time, Blaine brought his hand up to touch the side of Kurt’s face that was warm beneath his hand. Blaine wanted to memorize the feel of Kurt’s lips against his own. Memorize that feeling that he had caught himself thinking about far too many times. Blaine smiled against those lips before slowly pulling back and sitting up, hand still against Kurt’s cheek. He watched as Kurt leaned his face into Blaine’s touch before opening his eyes to smile up at the older boy.

This probably meant that Blaine had definitely gone past that friendly mentor level, didn’t it? And Blaine was totally cool with that. Kurt seemed to feel the same was judging from the way he was just staring up at Blaine with these lovesick puppy eyes.

“Absolutely,” Blaine finally responded softly to Kurt’s words, finger brushing over his cheek. And then he laughed a little, face completely flushed at this point. “You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to do that,” he whispered.

And then that beautiful laugh filled the air as Kurt closed his eyes for a moment, nuzzling into Blaine’s hand before looking up. “Oh, I think I might have an idea.” And then he grinned.

Kurt couldn’t have spoken truer words. This definitely was the perfect way to end the best date (and pretty much only) Blaine had ever been on. Front row tickets to Rent followed by a kiss shared with Kurt Hummel? Yeah, that was pretty amazing. Kurt was pretty amazing.

“I should, um,” Blaine heard himself saying, “I should probably go.” He saw a little flash of disappointment cross Kurt’s face before he nodded a little, sitting up as Blaine slid off of the bed and stood. “Breakfast tomorrow?” offered Blaine with a little smile as he took Kurt’s hand into his own, thumb brushing over the back of Kurt’s hand. The younger boy smiled as Blaine bowed his head, bringing Kurt’s hand to his mouth, brushing a kiss against his knuckles. “Very good then,” he said, pulling away with a hint of that fake British accent that made Kurt laugh and roll his eyes as he pulled his hand out of Blaine’s gentle grasp. “Goodnight, Kurt,” Blaine said, words free of that cheesy fake accent.

Kurt smiled softly as he muttered a gentle “Goodnight…” before Blaine stepped through the door, leaning against it the moment he shut it. Eyes slid shut as leaned his head against the door with a little sigh. His heart was still racing and his face was still flushed.

So, this meant that Kurt was officially his boyfriend, didn’t it?

Blaine was cool with that. He was totally cool with that.