Kurt left early the next morning. It was tough, and both of them kept making excuses for him to stay just a little longer, but the reality was that Blaine had to go to work at noon, and they both knew that if Kurt stayed he would end up calling in sick and they would curl up on the bed for the rest of the day

Kurt promised to drop by the store Saturday, though, which made it a little easier to deal with as Blaine had feared the usual question of when they would see each other again.

When Blaine got into the store the owner himself was there and he declared that they had to schedule shifts for the rest of the year, so Blaine signed himself up for as many shifts as possible. He hated knowing that this would be in the way of his time with Kurt, but he had a hope that if he kept working hard enough the day he turned 18 would also be the day he could move out of his dad's house.

Kurt faithfully showed up in the store as often as he could. These days he took advantage of the possibility to question Blaine about music whenever they were running low on customers.

They usually spent the slow days on Blaine playing and singing a few lines of a song and Kurt would have to guess the title. He was getting better, and Blaine couldn't help feeling proud of him. It was undisputable that Kurt really wanted to get into music, and he worked very hard to memorize titles of albums and songs and names of bands and artists. Every now and then Blaine even caught him walking around singing to himself, and Blaine wished that he would sing to him because his voice was beautiful.

But Kurt refused, always with the same sentence, that annoyed Blaine.

"I am no singer," he said, and Blaine would object, but knew that it was a pointless quest to try and change his mind.

Blaine was sure that Kurt loved to sing, and when he thought no one heard him Blaine could hear that he sang a lot - but he had a theory that he had given up music when his mom died, because it reminded him too much of her, so he let it go. For now.

It wasn't that they couldn't hold hands, or kiss each other, or even give each other a hug while they were in the store that was the hardest - the worst part was when they had to part in the evening and couldn't do anything but smile and awkwardly shake each other's hands. Like they had just been friends. Distant friends, in Blaine's opinion.

Whenever he walked home all he could think about was what it would cost him to run back and grab Kurt by the arm, push him into an alley and kiss him goodbye like he should be kissed. Just a light touch of lips against lips.

Now that it was so cold Kurt was wearing mittens outside so he couldn't even feel the touch of his hand against his own when they shook hands to say goodbye, and it didn't make it better that Blaine never knew if he would show up in the store the next day.

The hall of the Hummel house was warm and Blaine felt like his eyes were starting to water up from the sudden heat hitting his face. Kurt was leaning against the wall waiting for Blaine to take off his shoes, strolling his fingers up and down his arm until Blaine finally gave up on his shoelaces and kicked the sneakers right off instead.

"And what do we do now?" Blaine asked when he stood up to find Kurt grinning at him.

"We… go to my room and get rid off your jacket, and then we'll come back down and act all social. Don't over think it, we'll just stay in the background," Kurt assured him and directed him towards the stairs.

As soon as they were back down in the living room Blaine decided to stay quiet unless people asked him anything. When Kurt's dad joined them Blaine rushed to his feet and presented his hand, but he just laughed at him and sat down in his usual chair.

"Seriously, Kurt - you should get a bit hold of your boyfriend. If he keeps being so polite I'm gonna start to question my own behavior among people," he laughed and grabbed for the newspaper, and Blaine was sure that he was crimson red all over his face.

He pulled his hand quickly away and hurried to sit back down. Kurt rubbed his hand caressingly against his thigh with a sympathetic look.

Blaine stayed shut and bit his lower lip shyly, hoping not to make anymore a fool of himself for the rest of the day.

It was the last Sunday of November and Kurt's family had invited him over for dinner. Apparently it was a tradition that on this day every year they would have dinner together. Puck and Rachel would come over too and they told Kurt that as he was with Blaine now of course he should be there too.

When Kurt had given him the invitation his first impulse was to say no. Doing a family dinner was way too scary, but he knew how much it meant to Kurt so he accepted and spent the week leading up to on freaking out.

Now he was there and was simply hoping to get through it alive.

Finn and Puck joined them and Blaine was happy that it could ease up the tension in the room, but it didn't last for long as Finn started asking him all kinds of questions about his music and his school, which resulted in Kurt's dad participating in the conversation and asking questions too - mostly if he was into sports and what his plans were.

In the end Blaine realized that he wasn't even nervous anymore and that he had been talking freely with Kurt's family for over an hour and Kurt hadn't even said a word. He had stayed in the background and observed Blaine interacting with them.

Blaine looked to him and was met by a giant grin covering Kurt's face, so he took a deep breath and let his hand find Kurt's; actually holding his hand in front of his family.

After dinner and coffee Kurt led Blaine to his room to pick up his coat so he could go home but Kurt closed the door behind them.

"That was… wow. You did it, Stardust. You spent an entire night with my family and not freaking out once - not even when Rachel tried getting you to sing. That was so amazing," Kurt beamed at him.

"Oh well now I have the entire walk home to have a post-traumatic-heart-attack," Blaine said under his breath, still shocked that he had accomplished to not die during the evening.

"Stop that. You did so great. I'm really impressed."

And that was all it took. The nerves that had been twisting around inside him for a week had transformed into butterflies and he had made it out on the other side - alive.

They kissed goodbye in Kurt's room, and Blaine said goodnight to the family before Kurt followed him to the door where he hugged him and promised that he would come see him again soon and Blaine wished that he didn't have to leave. He had started to feel so comfortable in Kurt's house and he was baffled by how much he didn't want to leave, not just Kurt, but the entire atmosphere of the house.

The walk home was long and freezing cold. Frost was starting to cover everything and his breathing was white in front of him as he walked under the lampposts. The second he came inside at home he hurried to take a long, hot shower and went directly to bed after.

It was 4:30 when Blaine woke up. He had no idea why he woke up so early on a Saturday morning but he could feel that he wasn't supposed to go back to sleep so he got up and went downstairs to make coffee. When he entered the kitchen he randomly looked outside and saw that it was snowing.

That was it. That was why he had woken up.

He ran to his room and hurried to get dressed. He pulled on the thickest sweater and the warmest scarf he could find before he rushed downstairs and out on the sidewalk. He practically ran through town - both because he was cold and still not completely awake, but also because he didn't want it to stop snowing before he reached Kurt's house.

What was he supposed to do now? He was standing in the Hummel driveway and looking up on Kurt's window. It was dark around him, except for the yellow shine from streetlamps and the light in the houses of the people who had to meet in early for work.

It was so cliché, and it was ridiculous, and he knew he shouldn't be doing it - but he had no other option.

Blaine crouched down and found a handful of tiny pebbles and starting throwing them one by one against Kurt's window.

He emptied his hand like that. A handful of pebbles against the window glass but no reaction. Maybe he was just really fast asleep. It was only around 5 in the morning so he couldn't really blame him. Blaine sighed and turned to walk home; sad and defeated. He had really wanted to share this with him.

"Hey. Don't leave without me -" Kurt's voice sounded behind him, and Blaine turned to see him run through the dark. He was still wearing pajama pants and his hair was muffled around from sleeping. His cheeks and lips looked like roses on snow from the cold already, and he was closing his jacket over the sweater he had borrowed from Blaine a month ago.

"I didn't think you heard me," Blaine said as Kurt jumped into his arms.

"Are you kidding me? I woke up and saw you down there so I just hurried to get some clothes on before you left. Seems like I was almost too late," Kurt nearly whispered. It was like the snow required them to be quiet.

"I just wanted to take you out in the first snow. And no one's up, so…" Blaine said and reached out his hand for Kurt to take it. Kurt smiled at him but looked down at his out-stretched hand and shook his head.

"No. We can't. Not here. We can never know who's watching us. But let's go, we'll find somewhere where it's okay," he cooed sympathetically, and they started to walk down the sidewalk.

Blaine walked. Kurt danced around, trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue, but most of them ended in his hair or on his cheeks. He kept up his childish game all the way to the forest where he ran in between the trees and started spinning around like he hoped to get soaked by the snow.

It was already pretty strong, and it stayed in heavy layers on Kurt's jacket, making him look like a snow creature the way he danced around and giggled like he was the only person in the world. Blaine couldn't help laughing at him - it was remarkable to see his spirit caught in a moment like that.

Blaine walked over to stand against the trunk they had balanced on and watched as Kurt seemed like he was all alone and didn't care about anyone or anything. He was still incredibly tired and could easily sleep for hours more, but it had been all worth it to see Kurt happy like this.

"Come here, dance with me," Kurt whispered as he took Blaine's hand an led him away from the trunk. He put his arms around Blaine's arms around his waist, and his own arms around Blaine's neck and they danced. Like they had done in Blaine's living room months ago.

It was like the world had been put on mute around them, and the only thing that could be heard was the silent creaking of their feet as they moved around on the fallen leaves on the ground.

"Just to dance with you
Is everything I need
Before this dance is through
I think I'll love you too
I'm so happy when you dance with me"

Kurt quietly sang into his ear. Blaine was surprised and tugged him closer. Kurt was singing to him. He wanted to move so he could see his face, but he was afraid that if he did he would stop singing - and it was too beautiful to let it stop.

"If somebody tries to take my place
Let's pretend we just can't see his face
In this world there's nothing I would rather do
I discovered I'm in love with you
Cause I'm happy just to dance with you"

He only sang the last two verses over and over again, but it didn't matter, because it was all they needed.

"I can't feel my fingers anymore," Kurt whispered after a long times silence where they had just stood moving around in the same spot.

"Do you wanna come back to my place? We can sleep a little more if you want. I'm so tired," he proposed and released his grip a little so he could look Blaine in the eyes.

It was still dark and Blaine guessed that it couldn't be more than 6am so he kissed Kurt's ice cold nose and grabbed his hand so they could walk back to Kurt's house.

As soon as they were in Kurt's room they stripped off their clothes and Kurt found some warm and dry for them to wear. Blaine put on a pair of pajama pants that were a little too long, and kept his undershirt on while Kurt took on a dry pair of pajama pants himself and revealed that he was wearing Blaine's t-shirt under his sweater - so he actually did sleep in his shirt.

Kurt was freezing after having been outside in such spared clothing. His entire frame was shaking, and his thighs were blue as he put on the fresh pants. As soon as he curled up next to Blaine on the bed his cold hands were so cold against Blaine's chest that he started shaking too.

Blaine found a few blankets in the chair by the desk and made sure to wrap them tightly around Kurt before he crawled back under them too.

"If you get sick I'm not sure I'll be too happy about myself," he muttered as he made sure Kurt's entire body was covered. Kurt was doing his best to keep his cold toes away from Blaine's legs, but he was so nervous that he would end up sick that he covered Kurt's feet with his own.

"If I get sick I'll expect you to come take care of me," Kurt yawned dozy and kissed his Adams apple. Even his mouth and breath were freezing cold and Blaine considered if he should get him the Vaseline from his pocket so his lips wouldn't crack in the morning, but decided that it was more important to get him heated up.

"I promise I will. But I'll keep you warm now, so you won't get sick, alright?" Blaine assured him and smashed his lips against his forehead.

Blaine stayed awake trying to get Kurt's body temperature back to normal by holding him close and stroking up and down his back. The second Kurt's breathing was a silent humming against his heck he allowed himself to fall asleep too.

When Blaine woke up it was around noon. A thick layer of snow covered Kurt's windows, making the room dark even though the curtains were open.

Blaine was glad to find that Kurt wasn't cold anymore. He was actually steaming hot, and Blaine moved closer to let his hands under Kurt's shirt on his back so his fingers wouldn't get cold before he snuggled into his chest.

It was impossible to tell if Kurt was still asleep, but he quickly folded his arms around Blaine and started stroking his hair. Blaine started brushing his fingertips up and down his back, and it quickly became clear that he was awake because he started moaning tenderly into Blaine's ear.

"I'm guessing you're up. Are you feeling any better, babe?" Blaine mumbled and looked to see if Kurt had opened his eyes.

He stared up at Blaine under long eyelashes with his eyes still looking tired. He started strolling his fingertips up and down his chest, and over his shoulder under his collar.

"I'm fine. Still freezing a little, but it's nothing bad." His voice was rasp and thick, but he was smiling broadly.

"You're freezing? But you're so hot -" Blaine burst out in disbelief.

"My looks doesn't have anything to do with it," Kurt teased and shuffled to pull Blaine closer in a hug, Blaine chuckling a little but welcoming the embrace.

"Thank you, Stardust. For taking me out this morning," Kurt whispered. His voice had turned weak and innocent and he hid his face against Blaine's neck. He was clearly thinking about his mom, and Blaine was happy that Kurt had trusted him with this information so he could give him this experience.

"Of course. The snow reminded me of you. And…" He didn't know why, but he couldn't get himself to say it. What if it would make Kurt upset that he had done it because of his mom, he couldn't do that.

Kurt broke away and put his head on the pillow. His eyes were searching Blaine's, even though there was no question that he already knew it had been because of his mom. He folded his arms and put his cheek on his hands on the pillow, still staring Blaine in the eyes, like he waited for something.

"I know why you did it. Because of what I told you about my mom. It's okay. Don't be nervous; I'm really happy that you did it. It was truly magical. I felt like I was back to being 7 again - only with a better sleeping-buddy," he smiled assuring and closed his eyes.

"Good. I'm glad," Blaine muttered before he sank back in the pillow and closed his own eyes too.

He listened to the wind howling outside and the sound of footsteps downstairs. He could hear someone in the hall, and a door closing. It was comforting with the sounds of other people in the house, and he came to think that he wanted to spend much more time at Kurt's place, because it truly felt homely.

There was a knock on the door and Blaine's eyes rushed open. He wasn't sure how well it would be taken if he was found in Kurt's bed that way, but Kurt not as much as opened his eyes when he called whoever was on the other side in.

"Hey kids. I saw Blaine's shoes down in the hall and I figured that I would ask if you wanted to come down to have lunch with me and Finn?" It was Carole. As sweet as always; not a single sign that she was angry to find them like that and Blaine quickly relaxed again.

Kurt looked to him to see for a reaction so he nodded in agreement and Kurt said that they'd be down in a second. Carole smiled and left the room before Kurt jumped out of the bed. He put Blaine's sweater back on and pulled Blaine close to kiss him before they went downstairs.

Finn and Carole were sitting at the table so they sat down and started eating. Carole was nice enough to get them tea, and it didn't take long until Kurt had explained how Blaine had woke him up with the pebbles and taken him out to the forest at the other end of town. Blaine snuck his hand into Kurt's under the table while he observed him speak with great enthusiasm of the beauty of the trees covered in snow, and how the light from the lampposts made the snowflakes look like crystals.

"That's so nice. As long as you remember to wear enough clothes. It's freezing out there." Carole and Kurt continued discussing the snow and after a little while Kurt directed the conversation in on art and literature, doing his best to engage Blaine and it didn't take long before he wasn't even thinking about it anymore and just talked.

Without realizing it Kurt had moved his chair closer to Blaine's and was resting his head on his shoulder. As a reflex Blaine wrapped his arm around Kurt's shoulder, and Finn grinned at him. He felt himself blush a little, but he wasn't uncomfortable about the scene at all.

This gotta be how it's like to have a well-functioning family, Blaine thought to himself.

They relocated to the living room where Kurt dragged his feet under him in the couch and snuggled up against Blaine, who didn't think twice to pull him closer.

They spend the day discussing books and music - which would be Blaine and Carole discussed books and music; Finn watched some game on TV and Kurt just looked at them, joined with a comment here and there but mostly stayed curled up against Blaine's chest, and Blaine could feel that he even fell asleep once in a while.

"Hey Blaine. Didn't know you'd be here," Burt greeted when he came home and found them in the living room. Blaine shifted a little in his seat but smiled politely, uncertain how to tackle it, as he had no idea how Burt would react to him sneaking into Kurt's bed in the early hours of the day.

"Blaine was so nice to come and wake up Kurt when he found out that it was snowing this morning. So they went out and came back to take a nap, and later the boys were so nice to come and spend some time with us," Carole explained her husband. He gave something that Blaine hoped he could interpret as an approving smile before he bent down to kiss Carole and walked to the kitchen.

Kurt tightened his grip around him and smiled up at Carole, before he turned to lie on his back, stretching across the couch, wriggling his toes in Finn's face.

"Do you wanna stay over tonight? I bet it would be okay wi… Carole can Blaine stay over tonight?" Kurt sent big, begging eyes in Carole's direction and Blaine knew that if he ever was at the receiving end of that glance he would give Kurt the moon if he asked for it.

"I will have to talk to your dad but I don't see any problem in that," Carole replied and got up to go to the kitchen.

"You do wanna stay for the night, right?" Kurt asked and turned his attention to Blaine who was snickering to himself over the way Kurt just assumed that he would be alright with it.

"I would love to stay for the night," Blaine assured him and ran his fingers through Kurt's hair.

"Doesn't really seem like it's gonna be possible to leave the house soon. It's snowing like crazy out there," Finn commented, and pulled Kurt's legs into him, his eyes still focused on the screen.

"Oh no. That sounds horrible. Being trapped in this house with you," Kurt said dramatically and giggled as he clenched Blaine's arm as tight as to his chest as possible.

He bit Blaine playfully in the wrist before he jumped off the couch to head for the toilet - and left Blaine to be alone with Finn.

"So uhm… it's pretty cool. With you and Kurt. He's so happy. I was afraid that when I left he would just sort of - sink into depression. I knew that Puck would take care of him and keep an eye on him and everything, but I knew he'd be down and stuff. Now I come home and think he haven't even missed me because he talks about you and sing and dance all the time instead -" Finn grinned at him and luckily it seemed like he actually meant it.

"I know it's been hard for him, and I - honestly just want to see him happy," Blaine said truthfully, happy to know that Kurt didn't run around being sad when they weren't together.

"You aren't planning on running away together without me, are you?" Kurt asked as he crawled over the back of the sofa to plunk down in his seat between Blaine and Finn.

"Not all, bro. Not at all," Finn laughed and put an arm around him.

Kurt put both of his arms around Finn and curled up against him, his face completely hidden in his sweater, and Blaine had to bite his cheek not to chuckle at how adorable he looked. Every time he mentioned Finn or they were with him Kurt was surrounded by a sad gloom, but as he was curled into a ball under his arm right then and there it seemed like he had completely forgotten all his worries that were related to Finn.

They went to have dinner with their parents later, and Blaine was happy to realize that even though Burt was there he still felt as easy in the Hummel family's company as he had done all day. Maybe they weren't planning on killing him after all.

"Do you wanna go to my room? I'm tired," Kurt pouted, his forehead leaning against Blaine's shoulder after they had sat in the living room for a while. It was still snowing heavily and the layers of snow on the windows were so thick that the light from the streetlamps almost couldn't be seen.

Blaine agreed and Kurt took a tour around the living room to kiss his family goodnight, hugging Finn extra tight before they started to head for the stairs, when Burt stood up.

"Hey. Kurt just go up I just need to speak to Blaine for a minute," he said, and Blaine felt it like a heat wave hit him in the face.

Kurt looked a bit nervous to Blaine, but agreed with his father and squeezed Blaine's hand with an encouraging look before he turned to go up the stairs with heavy steps. Burt indicated for Blaine to follow him to the kitchen, away from Finn and Carole, so he did.

So here's the moment where he's gonna tell me to stay away from Kurt because I didn't follow his rules. Finn heard us have sex and told him and now I will die, or he'll call my father and tell him about Kurt and my life will be over regardless of whether he's killing me or not.

Blaine's brain was going on overload and he feared that he was turning scarlet and sweat was breaking out on his forehead and he would reveal his nerves.

"Listen, I just wanted to thank you for doing that for Kurt. This morning, with the snow and all. It haven't been easy being him, and I just thought that… I'd thank you for making it easier for him now. Doing stuff with him and so. We don't always understand him, but it's nice to know that you do - or at least it seems like you do." Burt padded Blaine awkwardly on the shoulder, and sent him an appreciative glare.

Blaine shifted a little, not really knowing what to say or do about himself. This was the last thing he had expected. So now that Burt was actually thanking him, rather than preparing him for being thrown on a bonfire alive it was nearly even worse. His throat tied up and his eyes started flickering around the kitchen while he struggled for words, but nothing came out, so he panicked.

"Thank you. For… Kurt. Thank you for Kurt," he rushed out, already knowing what an idiotic thing it was to say, but he had nothing better to offer. So when Burt nodded at him with a knowing look he felt his shoulders fall in relief.

"It's cool. That was really all I needed to say. And just… if you ever need it my house is open to you, kid." Burt squeezed his shoulder before he let go and Blaine walked towards the stairs, doing his best to restrain himself from actually running to Kurt's room.

When he entered the room Kurt was sitting in the middle of the floor; legs crossed and hands folded in his laps seeming incredibly anxious.

"What did he want? What did he say?" Kurt blabbered out before Blaine even had a chance to sit down on the floor in front of him. Blaine crossed his legs too before he put his hands on Kurt's between them watching the anxiety run between around in his eyes.

"He just… thanked me. For having taken you out this morning. And… more or less for being with you. For making you happy," Blaine explained slowly, watching the worry wash out of Kurt's eyes and being replaced by stars and a smile at the corners of his mouth.

"See - I told you he likes you. And he said that it was okay for you to stay the night, so there's nothing more for you to be scared about." Kurt got to his feet and bent down to kiss Blaine's hair before he walked to sit on the bed where he started fumbling with the box of records.

"I just really wanna sleep now. I don't know what's with me, I'm just exhausted," Kurt said apologetically as Blaine dumped down to the bed next to him.

Kurt put on the Simon & Garfunkel record he had bought for Blaine and turned off the lights. As soon as he was back to the bed they both went under the covers and Blaine put his arms around Kurt's waist and his head to rest on his chest as the Bookends Theme drifted out and faded into Save The Life Of My Child.

The dark from the snow provided a feeling of safety that Blaine remembered from when he and Kurt had hidden under the blanket in the meditation room of the commune during the summer. The possibility of being able to speak freely no matter what it had to be.

"I really like being here. In your house, with your family. It feels so homely and… I don't know, it's weird. I never felt that way at my own house before," Blaine quietly shared through the dark, the only sound to interrupt the one from Kurt's heart under his ear.

Kurt squeezed his arms tighter around Blaine's shoulders and pulled the covers a little higher up around him, making a warmth spread over his back, Blaine unable to smile from the simple caring gesture.

"This is your home too now. And my family is your family - as long as you feel like it. Home is where the heart is," Kurt whispered back, and Blaine laid still and listened to the sound of the wind screaming outside the window.

Kurt was so warm and comforting. He felt so safe even though a minor blizzard was going crazy and somehow it seemed completely wrong of him to feel like that. He was lying in another boy's bed, entangled in another boy's body. He knew that if his father found out he would hesitate to beat him up over it. But it didn't matter because he felt safer than ever, and Kurt had taught him that the only thing that mattered was then and there. The moment.

"I wanna be here more often. I mean… at my house it's pretty free because my father's never home so we can pretty much do whatever we want but… your family is… cozy. And I like that."

Suddenly he realized how much he had missed having a family when he grew up. The most that had reminded of family life in his house was family dinners when his father had colleagues over and Blaine had to act as the perfect son.

"We can be here as much as you like, Stardust. Anytime."