We Aren't Who We Were - Epilogue

Blaine smiled, fidgeting with the paintbrush in his hand, and leaned back slightly to look over his work, almost finished. The curtains of his bedroom were open wide, allowing the unusually bright San Francisco sunlight to stream in, shining itself right on the sleeping figure, still buried beneath the covers. Blaine laughed quietly to himself as he watched Kurt groan and turn over in the bed, hiding his head beneath the pillows and pulling the covers over his partially exposed body.

Blaine had set up an easel and a stool at the side of his bed earlier that morning, after being hit with a sudden burst of inspiration, and scrambled out of bed in hopes to get the painting finished before Kurt woke up.

That morning he was going to paint Kurt—he was going to finally do it. And this time, there were no heavy weights on his heart, or other troubles clouding his mind. This moment was perfect.

He laughed softly. Kurt wasn't a heavy sleeper, at all, and he was starting to stir, moaning as he tried to escape the sun's bright beams.

It'd only been a few days since Blaine finally decided that today was going to be the day. Today he was going to ask Kurt to move in with him. He was rather hesitant about it at first when the idea popped into his head. He and Kurt had tried to take things slowly, but they'd be lying if they said they didn't get swept up in it all every once in a while. There were moments when their past seemed to just disappear, and things seemed to just pick up where they'd left off in high school, but the scars were still there.

It was tough, rebuilding their relationship from the ground up again—but it was also refreshing and fun. Though he and Kurt were now very different people from the young teenagers that had fallen in love so many years ago, Blaine realized not that much had changed since then. He remembered the first time Kurt had reached over intertwined their hands together—it was after one of their dates, and they'd been strolling through the quite city streets, enjoying the fresh air. Blaine still remembered the tingly fluttery feeling when it happened, wondering how such a simple act could have made him feel so flushed.

Despite everything that had happened between them, it seemed like now, it was the little things that made his heart beat a little faster, and his cheeks blush a little redder.

Kurt yawned sleepily, turning around in the bed, completely and blissfully unaware of what was going on as he snoozed.

Blaine felt a rush of happiness flood his body as he added the final few streaks of color to the nearly finished painting. He finished. After all this time—one failed attempt after another—hefinished. Blaine felt a grin spread across his face as he glanced over the finished product, beaming with pride.

Blaine stared at his work. Kurt was stretched out on his stomach, head resting peacefully on the pillow with one hand by his face, his other buried beneath the pillow. The sheets were tangled into his legs, falling right above his hips, exposing his long, slender back.

Kurt might kill him when he was it when he woke up, but…he could deal with it later.

Blaine slipped on a robe, and crept out of the room silently, leaving a note on the bedside table and a wild flower he's stolen from his neighbor's front yard—the old bat wouldn't notice anyways.

Blaine hummed lightly under his breath as he brewed some coffee and stuck a few pastries into the toaster to heat up.

Ideas ran through his head about how exactly he was going to do this. Should he casually weave it into conversation, or make a romantic gesture out of it? Blaine's mind even considered the possibility that Kurt would say no, that it was too soon, and they were stepping out of bounds.

Blaine sighed in content and waved off the negative thoughts.

Perhaps it was too fast—but it felt right, and to Blaine, that's all that really mattered now.

He stared past the small kitchen and into the wide open living room, that was now completely unpacked, arranged similarly to his loft back in Brooklyn.

Blaine laughed at the old beaten up, worn out couches and random paintings he had hanging up on the walls. If Kurt were to move in, he had a feeling a lot of these things might have to go.

Blaine had even been secretly cleaning out one of the empty rooms, and had a few shelves, drawers, and dressers installed upstairs to act as Kurt's closet. Blaine could vaguely recall Kurt's enormous old closet back in Ohio—and that had been 16 year old Kurt's wardrobe. Blaine could only imagine how many clothes Kurt had now, considering his head spot at Vain Magazine probably got him in on all the latest fashion trends, and he had more than a few platinum cards in his wallet to swipe.

He glanced at the clock—the morning was beginning to settle in, and Blaine knew Kurt would be soon be roused by the cheerful birds that chirped loudly outside Blaine's bedroom window.

Blaine smiled and took a deep breath, settling himself in the kitchen, and nervously waiting for Kurt to come down.

It was going to be a big day—he could feel it.

Kurt blinked open his eyes, furrowing his eyebrows at the brightly lit room, groaning as he heard the familiar irritating chirping from the birds perched on a tree beside Blaine's window. He pushed the covers aside, yawning as he did so, and glanced around the room, still feeling drowsy, his heavy eyelids still half closed.

He smiled as he found a small flower on the bedside table, placed delicately atop a small note scrawled on a piece of paper.

Kurt picked up the note and searched the floor for his clothes, feeling himself blush as he found spotted his shirt hanging over a lamp across the room.

He shrugged on his shirt, attempting to smooth out the wrinkles, but failing. He grabbed his pants from where they were draped over a chair, and planted himself back onto the bed, resting the note beside him as he pulled his pants on.

Kurt, good morning!

I wasn't sure if I should be there or not for the "unveiling" or not, but there was a small part of me that felt you might get mad at me, so I decided to hide downstairs until you saw it. I brewed coffee!

Kurt narrowed his eyes in confusion, glancing around the bedroom hazily, blinking open his eyes, hoping to catch sight of what Blaine was talking about.

Kurt's eyebrows shot up as he noticed a easel at the side of the bed, with the back of a canvas resting on it.

He didn't…

Kurt crawled over the bed to the other side, and climbed off, hesitantly staring at the painting from the side.

His breath hitched as he stepped in front of it, his mouth falling open as his eyes scanned over the painting. Kurt flushed with embarrassment as he recognized, and the very inadequate corner of blanket covering his groin as he slept blissfully unaware.

In a matter of seconds Kurt was bursting out in laughter, feeling a mix of embarrassment and overwhelming love towards Blaine.

Blaine was waiting downstairs when he heard rustling from upstairs and saw Kurt making his way down the steps, his face unreadable.

Blaine's eyes were trained on him, following him as he crossed the living room and into the kitchen, a look of nonchalance plastered on his face. Blaine eyes were bright, practically beaming at him, his eyebrows raised in silent questioning—what was Kurt playing at?

Kurt sat down across of Blaine at the kitchen table and poured himself a strong cup of coffee, and flashed Blaine a tired smile, settling nicely into his chair.

Blaine could feel a small smile creeping onto his face.

Kurt took a strong sip from his mug, his eyes fluttering shut for a moment as he felt the warm liquid flow through his body, warming him up, the burst of caffeine helping him fight off the morning drowsiness.

He opened his eyes to find Blaine grinning at him, waiting expectantly.

Kurt burst out into giggles.

Blaine let out a breath and joined Kurt in the laughter.

"So you finally finished huh?" Kurt asked between gasps. Color was rising to his cheeks as he laughed.

Blaine scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "So I take it you liked it?"

Kurt's eyes were twinkling in Blaine's direction, "I loved it, Blaine."

Blaine could feel his heartbeat quicken, and his confidence grow slightly. This was it. This was the moment. Just ask him Blaine. Ask him.

Blaine cleared his throat, his nerves starting to catch up with him.

Kurt looked at him with a content smile, holding the warm mug between his cold fingers, gazing happily at Blaine from across the table.

"Kurt…I uh—I wanted to ask if you um…" Blaine began to blush despite himself. This shouldn't be too hard should it? I mean honestly…

Kurt raised an eyebrow and tried to keep from bursting out in giggles again, from seeing Blaine's flushed face, blushing more than Kurt had seen in a while.

"Don't tell me—you have others," Kurt said with a soft chuckle, taking another sip of coffee, and smiling warmly as he reached across the table for a warm pastry.

Blaine eyes widened in momentary panic, "Wait what? No—Kurt I swear that was the only one! I've never, ever—okay maybe a few sketches here and there but I haven't actually done another—"

"—Blaine!"

Blaine relaxed, and blushed even harder as he watched Kurt break out into a grin, his soft laughter filling the room—making Blaine's heart swell with affection. That laughter—that simple, perfect, beautiful laughter—he wanted to hear it everyday. He wanted to be close to that laughter all the time, and share that laughter, maybe even be the reasonfor that laughter.

Blaine cleared his throat again and chuckled nervously, reaching across the table to cover Kurt's hands with his own, squeezing gently.

"Kurt I—um, I was wondering if you wanted to…maybe…" Blaine started grinning as he slowly lifted his head to meet Kurt's curious eyes.

Kurt flashed Blaine an amused smile as he watched Blaine struggle with his words for a moment, wondering what exactly Blaine had up his sleeve this time.

"Move in with me," Blaine breathed out, leaning over the table, and pulled Kurt's hands to his lips and kissed at the knuckles nervously—his eyes never leaving Kurt's. He could see his eyes light up in excitement, then narrow in confusion, and finally widen with panic.

"Wait, are you—are you sure you're ready? I mean it's only been—" Kurt began, his face going pale.

"—yes." Blaine said quickly, scooting forward, his bright eyes meeting Kurt's hesitant ones. "I'm so ready Kurt." Blaine was practically beaming as he spoke, "I know we said slow but—I canbarely standit when I'm not with you. I hate waking up and tuning over, half-expecting you to be next to me, only to find out that you're not. I want to be with you Kurt—and you living so far away from me is literally killing me." Blaine reached out to brush a strand of hair from Kurt's forehead, "Move in with me, Kurt."

Kurt opened his mouth to speak, giving Blaine a searching look before letting a soft smile sweep over his face. "I'm—I'm kind of nervous."

It was Blaine's turn to break into a gentle laughter. He tugged on Kurt's hand, gesturing for Kurt to come to the other side of the table, and pulled him into his lap.

Kurt settled into Blaine's lap, still smiling sheepishly as he rested against Blaine's shoulder, turning slightly to face him.

Blaine wrapped his arms around Kurt's chest, and leaned forward to press their foreheads together.

"We'll figure it all out together," Blaine promised, nudging Kurt with his nose, making him smile. "And maybe it is too fast given the circumstance but—but I want to try anyways. I miss you too much. Besides—it feels—it feels right, doesn't it?"

Kurt looked at him meekly, still sort of worried about pushing Blaine too far. Things were still sort of raw, and it scared Kurt to think of messing it up again.

"Hey…" Blaine whispered softly, catching Kurt's concerned expression, "We'll be okay…it just—it takes time to heal a wound this big."

Kurt chuckled softly, his eyes hesitantly meeting the shining hazel ones before him, "Blaine, I've planning us moving in together since junior year of high school, what do you think my answer is?"

Blaine laughed and let Kurt nuzzle against him again.

It felt nice. Sure, things weren't perfect—but it some ways, they kind of were. Yeah, Kurt and Blaine didn't have a perfect little house, with perfect lives to match—and far from it, really. They still argued when bits of their past crept up on them unexpectedly. They still got worried they discovered things they'd never known about the other, but learned how to adjust to it.

Kurt was still skeptical when Blaine claimed he hadn't used hair gel in his hair in years aside from the few formal occasions he had to clean up for an art gallery or something. Blaine laughed when he found out Kurt still had that habit of chewing on his fingernails when he was nervous, and an abnormal addiction to coffee.

There were times when they just fell back to who they were with each in their blissful youth, while other times required more talking and getting to know, because surprisingly enough, people change over the years. Seven years was a big gap, and it took a while for them to get to know each other again. Not many things had changed—but some did, and while it tough some days, at least they were together—and to Kurt and Blaine, that was all that mattered. They'd never bothered to talk too much before, both being blinded by lust and desire to care, but things were different now and they wanted to know these things.

Their past may have caused a lot of trouble, a lot of pain, and lot of hurt, but they will move past it. Things just take time to heal. Even though they were on two different tracks, they were slowly merging into one, one step at a time.

Blaine sighed contently as he playfully nuzzled at Kurt's left ear with his nose, laughing softly to himself as he did so.

"I love you, Kurt." He whispered into his ear.

Kurt shifted in Blaine's lap, turning to look at Blaine. He was beaming at him, casually, but with a fire in his eyes that still—after almost 8 years—still caused Kurt's heart to thud loudly in his chest, and his cheeks warm up with a rosy blush. He'd said those three words with such simplicity—as if it was the most obvious thing in the world—that it just was, and saying it merely justified the feeling.

Blaine pulled Kurt closer absently, wrapping his arms around him tighter, and rested his head against Kurt's neck. He left out a comfortable sigh, and let one of his hands rest in Kurt's lap, one of his fingers playing around with the fabric of Kurt's robe.

Kurt cupped Blaine's cheek with his hand, turning ever so slightly to look into Blaine's eyes, and leaned in to press their foreheads together.

Their breathing sped up as they sat there staring into each other's eyes, Blaine's lips pulled into a grin—Kurt's following shortly.

"I love you too, Blaine."