As Heidi approached the group with the infamous button bag Blaine knew what it meant: teams. Team challenges happened only once or twice during the competition, minus that one season a few years ago when every challenge was a team challenge. To Blaine it seemed like they were mostly about stirring up trouble among the designers but, he did admit, collaboration was an important part of the design world.

Heidi explained they would be working in teams of two except for one group of three. It seemed like bad planning on their part to have this challenge when there was an odd number of people left. The challenge itself was to create a design based on piece found in the Museum of Modern Art.

Finally the moment came that Blaine had been waiting for.

"Okay, time to pick teams!" Heidi said with her overly bright smile. "Kurt, since you were the winner of the last challenge, you get to choose your partner."

Blaine held his breath. His eyes met with Kurt's for only a brief second but it was enough for him to know what this meant. This was how he would make his decision.

"I would like to work with... Blaine." A small, genuine smile lit his face for a few seconds before the colder and more calculated one took over.

Blaine walked over, gave Kurt a brief hug as was customary, and then stood beside him. His hand itched to grab Kurt's where it hung right beside him but he resisted.

"Now Kurt would you like to be the team of three and pick another person?" Heidi asked.

Kurt declined and so the rest of the teams were drawn from the bag. The group of three was Alice, Alexander, and Mary Jane and Blaine could actually see them working well together. Mary Jane was older but that made her wise and she might be able to rein in Alexander's over ambitiousness and Alice's emotional breakdowns. Also together was Harry and Stephan which was sure to cause some fireworks.

Kurt was, in a hushed tone, asking rapid fire questions about Blaine's knowledge of modern art and how many times he'd been to the museum when he suddenly straightened up. "Oh shit! I left my sketch book in the other room."

With that he sprinted off and Blaine was left feeling a little lost. He slowed his pace down but kept walking towards the front of the building where the taxis would bring them to the museum.

"It's shame about Kurt picking you huh?"

The voice caused Blaine's head to whip around from where it was straining to see if Kurt was coming back. Harry had fallen into step with him and the sneer on his face counteracted any attractiveness he had. "What do you mean?"

"I mean it shows his true feelings towards you."

Exactly, Blaine thought, his eyebrows furrowing. Why was Harry making this out to be a bad thing. "Yeah um, I fail to see the issue here..."

"Blaine," Harry said slowly, as if he was talking to a toddler, "Kurt won the last challenge. He has immunity for this one. So guess who goes home if your team is on the bottom? You just better hope he's on his a-game today," he called as he walked away.

The words brought a sinking feeling to Blaine's chest. Surely that wasn't Kurt's thought process; it couldn't be. Kurt may have wanted to win but not in that way. Harry's implication, that Kurt would throw this challenge to make Blaine go home, it was preposterous. He felt bad even considering it. He knew Kurt better than anyone here and he might seem prickly on the outside but he wasn't capable of that.

But Harry's words brought a niggling doubt that just wouldn't leave Blaine no matter how he rationalized it. Kurt must have noticed it because after he rejoined Blaine, sketchbook in hand, he asked him what was going on. They were just climbing into the cab though, and a camera man was sitting in the front seat, so Blaine spared him a quick glance before shaking his head and whispering "not here."

The designers were given an hour to explore the museum and plan their designs before they would head off to Mood. As much as Kurt liked planning every little detail, he agreed with Blaine that they couldn't do much until they found the artwork they would use as inspiration, so the ride was uneventful. Neither of them had much experience with modern art so they decided it would be best to just wander the museum until they found something they both liked.

For the first few minutes the camera man assigned to Kurt and Blaine's team followed them around but once he realized they weren't really doing anything not worthy he left to go confer with his supervisor. Once he was fully out of view Blaine didn't waste any time.

"Hey uh Kurt, can I ask you something?"

Kurt hummed but continued to stare at the sculpture in front of him.

"You picking me as your partner... that meant something right? Because I thought so but then Harry was telling me- well he was probably just trying to get inside my head but I have to make sure I'm not reading this wrong."

That caught Kurt's attention and after realizing the cameras were gone and it was just them he stepped forward into Blaine's space. He leaned in slowly and caught Blaine's upper lip, sucking on it slightly, before pulling away. "Yes," he breathed out. "Sorry for being a jerk the other day- no it's true," he said when Blaine tried to contradict him, "I was honestly just scared. But I want this, I really really do."

Blaine tried to kiss him again but Kurt only let it go on for a few seconds before gently pushing him away. "Come on, we only have forty-five minutes left, we need to get going."

&&&&&

"Okay first things first," Kurt said as he dropped the Mood bag on the table and began rifling through it. "Do you want to make the dress or design the pattern? I mean we have the basics but one of us is going to need to set each in stone."

"The pattern I guess..." he said, trying to sound like he didn't care either way. Because honestly he didn't really.

"Great, then I'll get started on this," and without another word he was pulling out the black fabric and measuring it carefully.

Blaine froze for a good thirty seconds before collecting himself enough to make it look like he was working. Kurt had, without a second thought, let Blaine take over the real creative side of this project. The black dress was obviously crucial but without the gold patterning it would be nothing special. Blaine already knew Kurt didn't trust many people, especially when it came to fashion, but he had made that shortlist. It was heady feeling.

Once the feeling faded (or at least dulled enough so he could focus) Blaine took a look at the notes they'd taken in the museum. The artwork they chose for inspiration was The Black Paintings by Izhar Patkin. It was a stunning piece, or collection of pieces really, that took up the entire room. Paktin had used gold and silver ink to paint on a black, rubbery material and it was it's unique medium that attracted the boys to it originally. After reading the description they found the painting was based on a play by Jean Genet, The Blacks: A Clown Show, but neither of them were familiar with it. Instead they took in the setting of the painting and tried to imagine what somebody in that place would wear.

Blaine had finished the sketch ten minutes ago but he was too nervous to show Kurt. Tim wasn't wrong the other day when he told Blaine he needed more confidence in his work. Blaine's stage presence had always been one of a confident, suave guy, but when it came down to it, he had a bit of a self-esteem issue. He drew a direct correlation between his worth as a person and the level of achievement he exceeded in any given subject. That's what kept his grades up, and his front-man status on the Warblers, so it wasn't all bad, but when he did fail at something, his self worth took a heavy blow.

And worse than anything was failing in the eyes of people who he cared about. He doesn't think his parents ever figured that out about him, and if they had, things at home might have gone a bit differently.

Finally Kurt approached him. "You all done?"

Blaine wordlessly handed over the paper and tried to look anywhere but at Kurt.

"I would never have done the hearts, but I like them." Kurt nodded one last time, offered him a few suggestions on the layout of some of the shapes, and then handed back the paper. "The dress is coming along even quicker than I thought so I should be able to help you in just a little bit."

"Awesome, thanks," Blaine said and the two of them shared a lingering smile, both a little too close. Blaine wanted to kiss him right now, cameras be damned, but he was obviously going to be respectful of Kurt not wanting that. Instead he gave Kurt's hand a quick squeeze and then shooed him away to keep working.

&&&&&

To be honest these last few days hadn't gone as Kurt expected them to. With Blaine on his team he hoped it would allow them to spend more time together, and while it admittedly did that, it wasn't the kind of time he wanted to spend with him. Other people were around literally all of the time plus there was no shortage of work to be done. Besides the few minutes in the museum yesterday morning they hadn't had a moment to themselves.

Then, to make things worse, he had just been told that this afternoon was booked with promotional things. Interviews and pictures and all of that. His plans of having a nice evening with Blaine went down the drain.

Speaking of Blaine, he really should have been there by now. Kurt was waiting in line to consult with the makeup artist over their model's look and Blaine said he just needed to fix one quick thing before he met him there. Blaine still hadn't arrived when Kurt was called so he decided to go in without him. Things had been discussed only broadly so Kurt just had to go with his gut. He settled on having a large amount of dark, smudged eye shadow and then framing the eye itself in liquid gold eyeliner. Other than that he kept thing pretty plain.

When Blaine still hadn't shown up after the ten minute conference finished Kurt began to worry. What if something horrible had happened to the dress? What if it ripped? He picked up his pace as he rounded to corner and he ended up slamming right into Blaine himself.

"Oh my god, sorry Kurt!" Blaine was out of breath and his hair was breaking free from the gel. "Did I miss it?" he asked, sounding guilty. "Yes, but what happened with the dress? Is everything okay?" Blaine disheveled appearance didn't give off a great vibe.

"It is now," Blaine said brightly.

"Blaine..." Kurt warned but then let out a squeak when Blaine kissed him sweetly on cheek.

"Don't worry, everything's great," Blaine said as he led Kurt by the hand back to the workroom.

Indeed, even after Kurt's thorough investigation, the dress seemed to be in perfect condition. He'd ask Blaine later what happened but right now he really didn't need the extra worry. Fitting the model was already stressful enough because now matter how many measurements you took you could never be sure exactly how it would ft.

In the end it fit nicelt, and now sitting next to the runway, with Blaine at his side, Kurt could finally relax a little. He was proud of this piece, of the collaboration with Blaine, and he knew it was one of his bests so far.

After inching his hand closer and closer to where Blaine's hung off the arm of his chair, Kurt finally laced their fingers together. If anyone asked he could reason that it was because they were teammates and he was worried about their piece. But, if the smile that played on his lips was any indication, Blaine knew what this meant, and that's all that mattered to Kurt.

For a second Kurt found himself wishing the competition would just be over already although he quickly pushed that away. He and Blaine would have all the time in the world to truly explore what this was after the competition. This, being here, winning, that's what was most important right now. An opportunity like this is once in a lifetime and Kurt wasn't going to waste it.

"What are you thinking about?" Blaine whispered, bringing his head close.

Kurt hesitated because they hadn't talked about this before. "I was just thinking about how I can't wait to go on a real date after all this is over."

"Kurt," Blaine said, his eyes going soft, "I can't wait for that too."

To make up for the fact that Kurt couldn't lean over and kiss that intoxicated look off Blaine's face, he kept a tight grip on his hand throughout the entire runway show and lingered even after the lights came back up.

&&&&&

They didn't win. It hurt, as every loss did, but even more so this time because Kurt could have won with Blaine. They could have celebrated it together, without lingering sorrows or contained excitement as not to make the other feel bad. Now that Kurt was being honest with himself he knew things were about to change.

He wished more than anything that he could talk with his dad right now. In high school Kurt didn't feel totally comfortable around him but after getting to college, and suffering his first heartbreak, which was a series of one night stands that Kurt misunderstood, his dad made it clear he was always open to talk. Since then he'd never really taken him up on it, not even after the Marcus debacle, but he would now.

Unfortunately contest rules said that along with no internet or TV, there was also no contacting anyone on the outside. Some seasons had challenges that included family members or friends, and all had at least one time where you got to contact your loved ones, but Kurt didn't know when that would be. And even when it did happen, he'd read on blog from previous contestants that the sessions were monitored and often recorded so he wouldn't be able to talk about sensitive subjects anyway.

Kurt felt tears building behind his eyes and he quickly swiped at them and scolded himself for being so childish. All of a sudden the homesickness and the stress of the competition and these huge, scary feelings he was developing for Blaine came together and overwhelmed him completely.

Blaine, as if sensing something was off, wrapped an arm around Kurt's waist and pulled him close. Kurt stiffened and thought about fighting it but the comfort was too much to resist. There were no cameras following them on their walk back to the apartments and if any of the other designers could see them in the fading light Kurt didn't really care. If he was being realistic Harry probably blabbed his mouth about them anyway just to spite them.

Once it became clear Kurt wasn't going to pull away Blaine looked up at him with those warm, sincere eyes. Smiling back, Kurt leaned into him so he could rest his head on his shoulder, wishing that they wouldn't have to part in just a few minutes.