“Blaine. I’m picking you up at 3 Be ready.”

Blaine had looked at the strange message for what felt like ten times within the last hour. He hadn’t heard a word from Kurt for three days, even though he had tried calling and texting him. When he had tried calling the house phone his dad had just given him the message that he was asleep - as he had been the many times he had tried calling before.

And now he had sent that odd text. It was 3:08 and Kurt still hadn’t shown up or replied to his messages, when a car was honking in the driveway. Blaine would know that horn any day, so he grabbed his coat and hurried downstairs. His parents weren’t home so luckily there was no need for explanation.

“Hey there beautiful.” Kurt smiled warmly as Blaine closed the car door behind him.
“What’s going on?” He wasn’t going to pretend that he wasn’t angry. Blaine’s voice was sharp and his eyes were hard as he looked at Kurt.
“What do you mean?” Kurt didn’t lose the spark in his eyes but kept up the innocent look on his face.

“Come on, Kurt. Don’t play dumb with me. You’ve been avoiding me for three days, and frankly you’ve just been acting really weird for the last two months. Sometimes you disappear from the face of the Earth - you don’t answer my calls or my texts, and your dad just tells me that you’re sleeping. You don’t even come to school those days; and then when I finally do see you your moodswings are like a rollercoaster. One second you’re singing and dancing and laughing, and then the next second you break down crying or get all pissed about nothing. Would you please tell me what is happening?”
Blaine locked his eyes on Kurt who more or less resembled a deer caught in the headlights of a car.

“It’s nothing, Blaine. I’ve just been a little sick lately. It’s nothing. It’s just some virus. No big deal.” His voice had turned weak and his eyes had grown darker. Blaine sighed and looked out the windshield before he turned back to Kurt with a slightly softer expression.

“I know. I know. I just can’t help feeling that there’s something you’re not telling me.”
Blaine knew that if Kurt was actually hiding something it was serious. They had always told each other everything, and this was also the reason he decided to do his best to convince himself that he was just being paranoid.

“It’s just - let’s just go, okay.” Blaine continued. “Where are we even going, anyway?” He forced a smile and silently tried convincing himself that everything was okay, hoping to forget it soon.
Kurt changed drastically; from seeming scared and hurt, to immediately changing his attitude to playfully teasing Blaine.

“If I told you now it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?” He stuck out his tongue before he started the car and began to sing along to the song on the radio.
Blaine didn’t say anymore during the entire trip; he observed the rain that was pounding on the windows, while he listened to Kurt singing along to every song that was played.

Kurt parked the car in front of a small sports arena about fifteen minutes after being on the road, and then he turned to Blaine.
“Kurt. What are we doing here?” He was confused as the people running through the rain across the parking lot were families, or single mothers or fathers with their kids.
But Kurt still refused to spill the details, so Blaine merely followed him inside the arena.

The sight that met him was a chaos of playing children. He hadn’t considered the fact that every Saturday for the duration of October and November a traveling play centre would be put up inside the arena.

There was screaming and playing kids everywhere. Trampolines, bouncy castles, little girls with crooked pigtails and mothers stopping fights between little boys.
Blaine looked confused around the arena before he returned his attention to Kurt.

“This has gotta be the last place I would have expected we’d be spending our Saturday. What’s up with this?” He was completely taken aback by the huge grin on Kurt’s face. Suddenly he seemed like a child himself - there was something innocently cute about the way his cheeks were flushed from the warmth inside the arena and the way his eyes sparkled by the sight of the fun and games surrounding them.

“I’ve always wanted to come here and forget being a teenager for a while. I never did these kinds of things when I was a kid, because I was too busy playing dress up and having tea parties for my dolls. Then yesterday I drove by a poster advertising it, and I thought that you probably would love this too.”

Blaine tried to hide a snicker by looking down to the floor. He thought that it was really cute, but he had no idea how Kurt could have the idea that he would enjoy something like this. To run around acting like they were 7 years old with screaming toddlers and the smell of feet and sweat around them. To be honest he would never in a million years have thought that Kurt would have found this appealing either.

“What? You don’t like the idea? Well so be it, I am gonna go out there and have fun.” Kurt stuck his tongue out at Blaine before he hurried down the stairs to get an overlook on where to go first. Blaine walked casually after him giggling to himself at Kurt’s silliness, observing how much Kurt actually resembled the playing kids around him.

It was like watching him in a whole new light, Blaine had never seen him like this before. Kurt was mostly playful in his outfits and performances, so to see him be playful and childlike in this fashion was mindblowing and made Blaine fall in love with him all over again. He couldn’t help feel an urge to run after him and not care about anything.

He watched as Kurt opened his boots and threw them onto the ground next to a trampoline before he crawled onto it and started jumping next to the fascinated girls looking at him with big eyes. Blaine had to stop himself from bursting into laughter when Kurt caught his eye.

“Come on, Blaine. It’ll be fun. Stop being so scared of what people think and be a little ridiculous instead,” was all Kurt could squeeze out between his heaving for air. His cheeks were red and it looked like his wide grin was cemented into his face. He looked amazing like that and Blaine had completely forgot that he had been mad at Kurt when he had got in his car previously that day.

Kurt fought his way across the trampoline to get out onto the floor to throw his arms around Blaine.
“Will you go with me to the ball pit then? Please? I promise you that you’re gonna have fun,” pleaded Kurt, his eyes huge like a puppy.

“Okay then - but just because you’re cheating by giving me those eyes,” agreed Blaine with a giggle, letting his fingers lock with Kurt’s as they walked across the floor to the big pool of balls in all kinds of colors. A group of kids were playing around in the pool, throwing the balls in the air and throwing them at each other.

Kurt quickly jumped into the pit without letting go of Blaine’s hand. Blaine just stayed in the spot looking at him.
“So you expect me to take off my shoes and follow you into that?� Do you have any idea how many diseases that‘s gotta be stuffed in there?” He raised an eyebrow in disbelief, not sure whether or not he even knew his boyfriend anymore, but as he stared at Kurt it slowly hit him that he was being serious and that Kurt wasn’t going to stop begging him until he was acting like a child.

So Blaine gave in and kicked off his shoes to join Kurt. He only got one foot into the pool before Kurt dragged him down so both of them fell and all they could see was a blur of colors and the smell of children and feet. This didn’t seem to bother Kurt though, because he just giggled and let his hands fight their way to Blaine’s hips so he could drag his waist closer to his own where Blaine instantly felt why Kurt was in this sudden giggly cuddly mood.

He had to admit that Kurt’s enthusiasm for the playground was a bit more attractive than he would have thought it to be. As they were hidden in the dark under the colorful orbs and the sounds of cheerful screams and laughter over their heads, yet they were out of people’s eyesight; he started to feel it too.

Blaine let his hands rise up to find Kurt’s face so he could drag him closer and let their lips clasp together in an eager kiss. As their tongues met it was like a fire lit inside Kurt and his breathing instantly got heavier while the temperature in his cheeks skyrocketed in less than a second.

Kurt let his thigh slide in between Blaine’s to start rubbing his knee up and down his crotch making stars start dancing at the inside of Blaine’s closed eyelids.
He could feel his jeans getting tighter and the adrenaline was shooting through his veins - it was so wrong to be doing this here, but it felt so good.

He smiled against Kurt’s lips massaging his own before he let his right hand slide down over Kurt’s neck, down his chest and ribs, crossing his perfectly sculpted abs to end at the line of his jeans.
They were so goddamn tight and Blaine knew that they shouldn’t be doing this. He just needed to feel him. Just for a second.

He started fumbling with his buckle, and it only took him a few seconds to open both his belt and pants. Practice made perfect.
He let his thumb lift the elastic line of Kurt’s boxers so he could let the tips of his fingers slowly slide down to have the palm of his hand feel how hard Kurt had got. This caught Kurt off guard for a brief split second, and yet he wasn’t surprised, as he bit softly down on Blaine’s lower lip to avoid a sound louder than a gasp escape his throat.

Now that he closed his hand around Kurt’s cock he was starting to doubt that this was a good idea to be doing this. All he wanted was more now, and he could feel that Kurt wanted more too.
His head started feeling dizzy by the sound of Kurt’s moaning in his ear as he rhythmically let his hand swipe up and down inside his boxers, and he could feel Kurt’s fingers dig deeper into his shoulder.

But then something happened. It was like they had fallen into an alternate universe where everything was opposite.
One second Kurt was biting his earlobe whispering for more, the next he had his palms firmly placed on his chest pushing him away as if he had been burned.

“What happened? Did I hurt you? Are you okay?” Asked Blaine so fast that he was afraid Kurt didn’t understand a word he had said.
Kurt didn’t respond. His face was pained and his hands were frantically trying to button his jeans with his fingers shaking so much that Blaine felt an urge to help him, but the look on Kurt’s face suggested that wouldn‘t be wise, and that it was best if he kept his distance.

“I’m not feeling so good,” said Kurt under his breath before he got up and disappeared out of the pool.
Blaine felt it as if a bucket of slushies had been dropped over his head as he sat up and saw Kurt determined walking across the arena to get his boots.

He got out of the pool himself and hurried to put on his shoes so he could run after Kurt who was almost at the door now.
When he caught up with him he stayed a few feet behind him. He wanted to grab his arm and demand an explanation, but he was afraid that it would cause a scene and he didn’t want that.

As they got outside it had gone from raining to pouring and Kurt was walking so fast that Blaine had to run to keep up with him.
Kurt slammed the car door after him and leaned his forehead against the steering wheel as Blaine got into the passenger seat next to him.

“What the hell was that about? Kurt, you can’t just walk away like that. If I did something you have to tell me. I can’t read your mind, you know! Would you look at me? I am talking to you -” but he stopped mid sentence when he saw that Kurt was shaking. Was he crying?

Blaine felt his stomach drop to his feet and a bad taste well up in his mouth. Why couldn’t he just have shut his idiotic mouth and try talking to him instead of yelling?
He wanted to stretch out his hand to touch Kurt’s shoulder softly, to find out if he really was crying, but he knew that there was a very big chance that it would only make the situation worse.

Kurt sat up in his seat and wiped his cheeks dry before he put the key in the ignition and turned it, leaving Blaine sitting next to him, staring in confusion.

“Kurt. Would you please talk to me? What did I do? I am sorry. I thought you wanted it too,” implored Blaine. He didn’t dare to look at Kurt. He knew that he was crying and he knew that his insides would curl up by the sight, but he also knew that when Kurt was in this mood he would freak out if Blaine tried to do something about it.

“Just - leave it alone, Blaine. I’m driving you home,” sniffed Kurt putting the car into gear before he drove out to find the street and headed for Blaine’s house.
Neither of them said another word on the ride home; Kurt was staring coldly out the windshield keeping focus on the road he drove along, strongly emphasizing how much he didn’t want to look at Blaine.
Blaine was sitting with an internal struggle between wanting to beg Kurt to talk to him and being really angry and just felt like screaming at him, explaining that he couldn‘t behave like that, and that he owed him an explanation.

When Kurt parked the car in the Anderson’s driveway Blaine wondered whether or not it would be fitting to try and discuss the episode one more time, but he couldn’t help being afraid of the consequences.

“Will you call me tonight?” He settled for asking when he looked into the car before shutting the door after him.
“Yeah. Sure,” replied Kurt halfheartedly not even looking at him, so Blaine sighed and slammed the door before he walked towards the house, turning on the footstep to see Kurt’s car disappear behind the hedge at the side of the road.

*

Kurt didn’t call that night, and Blaine refused to be the one to call or text when Kurt had said that he would. He was well aware that he was being childish, but he was getting tired of being the one to do everything in their relationship.

Blaine couldn’t stop picturing Kurt’s face when he had pushed him away and jumped out of the pool of plastic balls. The way he had looked when he had asked him to just leave it. He had looked like someone Blaine had never met, as if he had been a completely different person; and it was scary. How could he change from being happy and playful, lustful and horny to just being… like that?

Blaine rolled around on his bed to look at the stars they had painted on the ceiling over his bed. His parents didn’t know that they were even there. If they knew they would kill him - at least his dad would.

One weekend when Blaine’s parents had been out of town Kurt had stayed over and they had gone to town to buy glow-in-the-dark paint to make the hidden stars so they only could be seen at night.

It had been Kurt’s idea. He had pulled out the box of Disney movies Blaine had hidden from his dad under his bed and they had watched Lion King for the millionth time.
As Simba looked to the stars to ask Mufasa for help Kurt had jumped to his knees in the bed and crawled to sit on Blaine’s hips blocking the TV.

“I’ve got an idea. You’re gonna love it. We’re gonna paint stars on your ceiling the way you told me that you wished for as a kid but your dad said that it was for girls,” proclaimed Kurt eagerly. He was grinning wide and it looked like he had already painted stars in his own eyes.
Blaine had laughed at him and tried looking around him to finish the movie, but Kurt refused to move. His face changed and he suddenly looked very serious.

“I’m not kidding, Blaine. Let’s hurry before the store closes.” Kurt jumped down on the floor and started putting on his Alexander McQueen jacket. When he turned to see that Blaine was still lying on the bed he let his arms drop to his sides.

“Kurt, you know my dad is gonna kill me if I paint stars all over my room.“ Blaine tried to explain without putting out Kurt’s mood completely, but to his surprise the spark in Kurt’s face grew even stronger than before. It reached a point where Blaine couldn’t stop himself from smiling at the sight of Kurt’s ecstasy.

Kurt crossed the floor in one leap to grab Blaine’s hand starting to pull him up off the bed.
“That’s the brilliance of it, silly. We’re gonna do it with that glow-in-the-dark paint so it can only be seen in the dark.” Kurt beamed at his own cleverness� when he saw Blaine’s face light up in a grin too.

“That is pretty genius, I‘ve gotta say.” He put on his own jacket before he pulled Kurt close to him.
“That way we can have sex under the stars even though it’s freezing outside,” he whispered with a smirk, letting his mouth get so close to Kurt’s that they could taste each other’s breath. He saw Kurt’s eyes swim for a second before he had to shake his head to remember what their purpose with getting up was in the first place.

They had spent an hour at the store trying to convince the teenage girl that they were cousins that were getting married. They had laughed all the way home discussing the girl’s shocked face when she had caught them in a kiss.

When they had got back to Blaine’s room they had covered up the entire room in plastic and turned off all of the lights to see the paint glow and when they were done painting they had taken a long shower. Together. So they could help each other wash off the paint they had played around with and got a bit too much covered in.
The rest of the weekend was spent in bed with closed curtains and as little clothes as possible pretending that they were trapped in a dungeon and would never be able to get out.

When Blaine drove Kurt home before his parents got home Sunday night Kurt had cried and said that he didn’t want to leave. That he would miss him too much and that it was way too hard to be apart.
“But we’ll see each other at school tomorrow, and then we can be together after school. We’ll only be apart for a few hours, and for most of them we’ll be asleep,” Blaine had tried desperately to cheer him up with, but the tears had just kept on rolling down Kurt’s porcelain cheeks.

“But a few hours is way too long. I hate it when you’re away. I just wanna be with you all the time,” Kurt had sobbed. Blaine had wrapped his arms around him and let him cry out not really understanding this sudden blast of emotions.
It had ended up with Blaine promising to call him as soon as he got home and had said hi to his parents. They had talked for three hours until Kurt had fallen asleep to the sound of Blaine singing `I’ll Be There�.

It had only been a month ago but it already felt like it had been years. It seemed like everything had changed without him even notice it.
He kept picking up his phone just to throw it back on the bed because he knew that there would be nothing, before a text ticked in and made him fumble desperately after it.

“Bro. We’ll be there at 2.”
Of course. He had forgot that he had promised Puck and Finn that they could come over and watch the game the next day.

They usually watched football at Blaine’s house. His dad always seemed weirdly satisfied when Puck and Finn came over to watch sports, and then he would let them use the TV room that really was more like his dad’s man-room. Blaine had a theory that his dad was still hoping that he was going to turn straight as long as he did stereotypical straight-stuff with stereotypical straight guys.

In reality he didn’t really feel like hanging with them the next day, but he just texted Puck back that it was all cool. He did promise, and maybe he could get a bit out of Finn on why Kurt was acting so strange.

When he finally fell asleep that night he had a restless sleep filled with odd dreams of Kurt turning the back on him just as they were about to kiss. Then when he turned back, his face had disappeared and he would be dressed in all black.
Blaine woke up several times during the night feeling strangely uncomfortable in his own bed not really knowing if he was hot or cold, and was unsure if he wanted to sleep anymore.

*

“Hey dude, what’s up with you today?” Puck punched a brotherly fist against Blaine’s shoulder when he sat back down in the couch. He put up his feet on the mahogany table as he took another sip of his soda.

“I don’t know, man. Kurt has just been acting really strange and he’s been like this for some time now. I’m starting to worry that he’s not into me anymore.” Blaine choked the can in his hand and threw it on the table. Puck looked as if Christmas had been canceled and didn’t move an inch.

“Are you saying that you and Kurt are gonna break up?” Puck’s tone was concerned and his face had turned pale. He was staring at Blaine with a confused expression in his eyes and his mouth open.

“No. I could never leave him. But if he doesn’t want me anymore -” But Blaine didn’t get to finish the sentence when out of nowhere Finn cut him off in a raised voice.
“Dude. He still loves you, okay. You’re everything to him!” Puck and Blaine simultaneously turned their heads to look at him in surprise.

Every time they had touched the subject of Kurt there had been a shift in Finn’s mood. It wasn’t until now that Blaine noticed it though. Now that he thought about it he remembered that Finn had tried avoiding all talk of Kurt, and every time Blaine or Puck had mentioned anything about him casually, Finn had shut close and drawn away from the conversation.

“But what is it then? What did he tell you? Come on, Finn. Help me out here. I know you guys talk - and lately Kurt hasn’t told me anything.” Blaine felt the discomfort rise inside him. He hadn’t mentioned his worries to anyone, so now that he finally said it out loud all of his worrying thoughts resurfaced at once. His brain overloaded with all of the paranoia that had filled his brain since his concern started to take form.

“Just - he still loves you. He’s just been a bit stressed out lately. College and future and everything. Just stuff, you know.” Finn kept his focus directed towards the screen, but Blaine was still feeling uneasy. Something just didn’t add up.

“Bro, what the hell does that even mean? If he’s got problems he should talk to Blaine about it. They’re boyfriends!” argued Puck, suddenly sounding angry as if it was Finn’s fault that Kurt didn’t talk about what was troubling him.

“Gee, relax. It’s not my fault. I told Kurt to talk to Blaine but he doesn’t want to bother him. Can we just watch the game?”
That settled it. Both Blaine and Puck knew that the conversation was over, so they retreated to finish watching the game in silence.

For the rest of the afternoon Blaine’s brain was a blurry mess of thoughts.