Kurt had been at Blaine's place for two days after the epic fail that had been their new years eve. Blaine's father had only been home briefly where they had been in the kitchen, safely on each side of the table. He hadn't done anything but grunting at them, and Blaine decided to not let it get to him. He was having way too much of a good time with Kurt to let anything ruin it. His father shouldn't have that satisfaction.

They had spent new years day in bed covered in nothing but sheets and each other. They had laughed and snuggled, kissed and fucked, talked nonsense and enjoyed the silence surrounding them. To Blaine it was always a poetic epiphany to be with Kurt, because even though he was so earthbound and often talked in ways where Blaine couldn't even follow he also touched Blaine's inspiration and he felt like creating beauty, which mostly ended up in him tracing patterns all over Kurt's naked body with his fingers or his tongue and lips.

Now Kurt had talked him into going out in the Andersons' garden. Luckily it was surrounded by tall hedges, so they didn't have to worry about being seen which was one of Blaine's main criteria for moving outside the house; he wanted to be able to hug, kiss and touch Kurt whenever he felt like it.

The snow was thick and covered the entire lawn. The frost was biting its way into Blaine's cheeks, with the sun reflecting in the snow crystals sharp in his eyes. He staggered a bit around the garden, listening to the creaking under his shoes and wondering if he would ever be able to feel his toes again.

Kurt had stuffed his mittens into his pockets so he could feel the snow on his fingers. He let the tip of his tongue lightly taste the white stuff, flinching by the cold, but grinning from the taste. His cheeks were round and red as he danced across the garden attacking Blaine by splashing a handful of snow against his face with a loud giggle.

The snow dripped into his mouth and quickly melted on his cheek as he turned around to catch Kurt that had ran around the corner. Blaine quickly decided that it meant war so he picked up a handful of snow himself and headed for Kurt.

In a matter of seconds snow was flying through the air, both of them laughing and screaming. Kurt ended up running around the house for refuge where he tried to hide behind a rosebush. Blaine quickly found him though but was surprised by a snowball hitting him in the back of the head.

He looked around and saw two girls and a boy in the street grinning widely at him. They all looked like they were around 12 years old, and it was clear that they were expecting a match. Kurt chuckled and returned fire. It quickly turned out to be Blaine and Kurt against the kids in the garden of the Anderson house.

The kids were all pretty good at shooting and the fight wasn't as unfair as Blaine first had thought it would be. There were no rules, and no rules were followed. The kids hid behind bushes and trees, and Blaine hid behind Kurt until he realized that the boy was sneaking up on him from behind.

He took up a heated one-on-one battle with the boy until he heard Kurt squeal loudly from the other end of the garden. The girls had taken him hostage and was threatening to fill his shirt with snow - Blaine had no other choice than to grab around the boy and get ready to fill his hood.

"No. No, no! I surrender! Leave the kid and I will hold fire!" Kurt declared with his hands in the air. He was grinning and panting, the girls having a hard time holding him back because they were bending over from laughing themselves.

"Leave Kurt and I'll spare the kid," Blaine screamed at them, doing his best to not let laughter take over and keep up a highly serious face, but he could feel the smile creeping up on him, and the boy started tickling him so he had to let go in panic.

Now there was nothing left to do than for Blaine to run Kurt to the rescue. He sprinted across the lawn, almost slipping in the snow, before he grabbed Kurt's hand and pulled him down in the grass with him.

It was hard to say who was laughing the hardest; Kurt, Blaine or the kids, but it didn't take long for their enemies to start fighting each other, pushing each other down in the snow too.

"That didn't exactly help, considering I've now got more snow under my jacket, than I would have if you had left me to those monkeys," Kurt panted, trying to get hold of whatever oxygen his lungs would willingly take in.

"You're very much welcome, sir -" Blaine heaved back at him, staring into the sky. The kids were gasping for breath next to them, still chuckling and giggling to themselves. Kurt nudged him in the ribs before he turned to lie on his stomach so he could look at the kids.

"You played a decent game. I demand a rematch - but not today! Wanna come in for tea and lunch?" he offered them, shooting Blaine a grin.

The kids accepted the invitation and they all went inside. Blaine and Kurt took turns on going to Blaine's room to change into some dry clothes. They offered the kids sweaters, t-shirts and pajama pants while their own clothes dried up. It was quite big for them, but it didn't matter so much.

Kurt and Blaine made tea and sandwiches for all of them before they sat down on the floor in the living room with music quietly playing in the background. The kids introduced themselves as Katrina, Jaime and Zac. At first they were a little shy, but Kurt quickly got them to open up, and they ended up laughing as much as they had done outside.

It was fun and liberating to hang out with them. There were no talk about politics or war, no questions about future or romantic life - all there was between them was laughter, music, comic books and cartoons.

"I saw you at the record store a few weeks ago," Jaime suddenly muttered. She was the shyest of them all and hadn't said much until that point. Her hair was brown and freckles covered her nose. She was wearing one of Blaine's blue Dalton t-shirts, and a pair of Kurt's pants.

They were all lying on the floor after having eaten way too much, and Katrina had suggested they laid on their backs pretending to look at stars on the ceiling. Of course Kurt was thrilled with the idea and they quickly turned it into a game of who could make up most constellations. Blaine and Zac mostly pretended to find clouds shaped as weird figures as they had no clue on the names of the different stars.

"You should have said hi. Do that next time," Blaine grinned and poked her in the ribs.

"I wanted to. I was going to ask you to play a song, but my mom said I couldn't." She sounded embarrassed and insecure. That was strange.

"Well, then you can tell your mom that I don't bite," he said, a little unsure why her mom would have said that.

"Jaime's mom says that you two are boyfriends. She says that every time we see you," Katrina burst out, and Jaime kicked her on the shin.

"Auch. What'd you do that for? It's true," she said and sat up, looking around at the others.

Blaine felt everything inside him tie up, and he could have sworn that some alien life existence was preparing to gnaw it's way out of his stomach. He was frozen in the spot, and had no idea whether to tell them to get out, to act dumb and say that it wasn't true or to fake a heart attack in the middle of the living room floor.

He could feel Kurt staring at him. His big, blue eyes were piercing into his skin, through his skull and into his brain searching for what was happening, begging him to act or do or say something, but he had nothing.

"But boys don't date boys, so it doesn't matter. Let's go, Zac," Jaime snapped and jumped off the floor, heading for the hall. Zac looked confused between Katrina and Blaine before he gazed at the door where Jaime was waiting for him.

"Are you coming?" she demanded, putting her hands on her hips with a sour face.

"Jaime, please come back and sit with us. I think we've got some explaining to do," Kurt softly inquired of her. He sat up and gave Blaine a desperate glance, obviously wanting him to take the decision on what to say or do. His brain cramped, and his throat tied up. Even if she did come back to sit on the floor and some miracle hit him with something to say to her he wasn't sure he would be able to get a sound out.

The girl stared at them in disbelief before she sighed and returned to the circle. Everyone was sitting up now; all three kids staring at Kurt and Blaine waiting for one of them to break the ice and say what they, apparently, had to say.

"Listen - sometimes… it's not really that…" Blaine started stammering, closing his eyes, searching for words, hoping for his voice to disappear so he could excuse himself. He looked to Kurt and realized that he was waiting just as much for an explanation as the kids were. What was he waiting to hear?

"Do you want to know a secret?" he paused and the kids were gauging at him; huge eyes and open mouths, waiting in suspense. Kurt was holding his breath next to him, and he wasn't really sure what he was hoping for, or what he was expecting to happen.

"Yes. We are boyfriends. Boys can date boys if they want," Blaine said and snuck his hand into Kurt's, feeling his eyes burning more intensely into his face than ever.

"But the thing is… not everyone thinks that's cool, so… we need to make sure that no one knows. Because bad things can happen to us if they do. My… father is one of those people. If he knows that I have a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend he will send me away, and then I won't have Kurt anymore," Blaine explained as neatly as possible.

He wasn't sure why he was telling them this. He could have just lied, that would have been so much easier and they would have been out of the door letting him and Kurt back to being alone. However, for some reason he felt that he needed to be honest to them; tell about this joyous part of his life that he couldn't tell to anyone else, except for the people brought into his life by Kurt. It was like fireworks shooting out of him exploding through his mouth.

"That's… weird. I've never seen boys kissing boys before," Jaime burst out looking at her friends.

"Well, you never saw a rocket, but you know the exist, don't you?" Zac snapped at her, receiving a wistful glance.

"I don't care. If you like each other I think that's cool. I just still wanna borrow those comic books you promised," he said and turned to Blaine with a matter-of-factly expression on his face.

Blaine felt like an iceberg melted in his chest, and he sighed heavily, chuckling a little in relief and squeezed Kurt's hand.

"Of course. We can go get them right away," he responded, nearly feeling dizzy as if he had been hit in the face by a shovel. He started to get up, but Kurt kept him down on the floor.

"Katrina. You haven't said anything?" Kurt asked gently, tilting his head a little as he waited for a reaction.

"I don't know," she muttered into the sleeve of a sweater she had borrowed from Kurt.

"So girls can be with girls too? Just not say anything?" she asked a little insecure.

"You know what; a person can be with whoever they want to be with. If they're in love then that is all that matters. Not everyone has to keep it a secret. Hopefully some day it won't be necessary. We're just doing it so I can stay here with Kurt," Blaine told her, not really sure how convincing he was.

"So - do you all want to keep our secret?" Kurt asked a little upbeat to lift the mood of the conversation.

Jaime and Zac agreed, but Katrina looked a little pensive before she nodded to express her own accept of the deal.

"I think you should get home. It's gonna start getting dark soon," Kurt declared and got to his feet. He showed the girls to the bathroom where they could change back into their own clothes while Blaine and Zac went to his room for the comics.

As soon as Zac had changed too they all met in the hall so they could say goodbye. They agreed to have a rematch of snow fight soon, and the kids thanked them for tea and lunch. They politely shook Kurt and Blaine's hands before they disappeared out the door and down the driveway.

Kurt and Blaine headed for the living room to clean up when the doorbell suddenly rang. They looked at each other, confused, because who would ever come visit them? Blaine let down the mug he had just picked up and headed for the hall where he found Katrina waiting on the doorstep.

"Hey. Did you forget something?" he asked, not really sure why she would have come back.

"I just… I just needed to say this," she bit her lower lip as she looked at Blaine. He wasn't that much taller than her really, which he found awkward - but not as awkward as this encounter altogether.

"I think I like Jaime. Only… not as a friend," she said, her entire face going scarlet and tears running to her eyes.

Blaine was baffled. Thoughts were racing around in his brain, and sentences were so busy fighting each other that none of them reached his mouth.

"I'm sorry. Don't tell anyone," the girl cried and ran back down the driveway.

"Katrina! Come back," he yelled for her, but she was already down the street and there was nothing he could do to get her to come back. She was already so far away that she would be around the corner next second.

Blaine closed the door, squinting his eyes, feeling like his knees might give in at any second and let him crash to the floor under him.

"Who was it?" Kurt asked from the kitchen as he turned the corner and appeared in the hall.

"Stardust, are you okay? What happened?" he crossed the floor in quick steps staring at Blaine like he had seen a ghost.

"Yeah. I'm fine, let's just… let's clean up the rest and go to my room or something," he said a little distant.

They made sure the living room and the kitchen looked like they hadn't even been there, and got the clothes the kids had borrowed in the hamper in the bathroom before they retreated to Blaine's room.

Kurt curled up on the floor with his pencils and paper while Blaine found out a book. For a long time neither of them said anything, but kept their focus to their own stuff instead. Blaine's head was still pounding with thoughts of the afternoon's events, but he tried pushing them away by reading the same paragraph over and over again, letting the scratching of Kurt's charcoal over the paper fill his ears.

"You're worried, aren't you? That they'll tell everyone. That everyone is already talking about us," Kurt asked and grabbed the book out of Blaine's hands. He hadn't even noticed him coming to the bed.

He sat down in front of him, his index fingers running in circles on Blaine's knee. His eyes were concerned and somehow it seemed like he was mentally holding his breath.

"It was Katrina," Blaine blabbered out.

"What?" Kurt said, his eyebrows nearly meeting over his nose.

"By the door. She… said that she thinks she likes Jaime. She asked me not to tell anyone. Kurt, the girl thinks she's gay," he explained, realizing that in some way he felt a little sorry for the girl. She had to be so confused.

"Oh. Wow. I… didn't see that coming," Kurt expressed, blinking rapidly for a second.

"But to answer your question; yes, I am… a little nervous. But I don't wanna think about it. We can't do anything about it anyway. Even if people are talking, that's what they do all the time. It's just rumors," Blaine sighed and let his head rest against the headboard.

"Stardust, that's… so true. Jesus, you keep on surprising me," Kurt smiled impressed and leaned forward to sit on top of Blaine to wrap his arms around his neck and kiss his nose.

"I'm really glad that you're taking it all so easily. With Lucy the other night, and with… the kids and now this… I don't know what's gotten into you, but I like it," he said light voiced and caressed his hair with a thumb.

"What can I say, I had the best teacher," Blaine chuckled under his breath, and Kurt smirked back at him before kissing him, and releasing his grip around his neck.

"But seriously, it's okay to be nervous. If something happens we'll figure it out. I won't let him take you away from me," Kurt assured him, and touched his cheek gently.

"I know, but I don't really wanna think about it. I just wanna enjoy being here with you, and take the crap when it comes - if it even comes," Blaine assured him.

They fell down on the bed and discussed the events of day. Laughed about the snowball fight, and talked over the conversation after the shocking revelation of the town rumors. Kurt admitted that he had hoped for Blaine to tell the truth, but didn't expect him to, so when he had actually done it he had been ready to kiss him right then and there in front of the kids. Blaine was glad he had restrained himself; that had been a bit too much for one day.