“Kurt? Can I come in?” Kurt heard Blaine’s voice from the other side of his dorm room door and sighed, pushing Pavarotti’s food tray back into his cage whistling a slight tune along with the bird. He opened the door to see a snow covered Blaine shivering at his door.

“Jesus Blaine what have you been doing?” he asked pulling his friend into the room and staring him up and down.

“I went shopping, last minute Christmas p-presents, then I got back and the groundskeeper was outside and he dropped this b-big box of tools and he’s old Kurt, so I h-h-helped him carry a few things to his tr-truck. I forgot how c-cold it was.” he sighed as Kurt pulled Blaine’s coat off and steered him to stand in front of his rooms radiator, cranking it up to its highest setting.

“Here, wrap this around you and don’t move until you are sure you’re warm and won’t be catching pneumonia anytime soon.” Kurt handed him the blanket off of his bed and Blaine accepted staring up at him gratefully from his position on the floor.

Kurt then continued to busy himself around the room, putting the finishing touches on the presents he was giving his family and a particularly annoying assignment for French that was the last one he had to turn in before his Christmas break could start. He was only slightly aware that Blaine was watching him as he warmed up and his cheeks flushed slightly in the comfortable silence.

“Finally” He sighed clicking the submit button sending his French teacher his final assignment. He sat back in his chair and silently rejoiced turning as he did to meet Blaine’s gaze.

“Finished?” Blaine asked, still slightly shivering.
“Thankfully yes, I can’t believe I forgot about it, French is the subject I’m always on time with. I think I just wanted a break so badly” Blaine smiled up at him and sighed stretching his legs out and unwrapping the blanket from around him.

“I feel much better, so much so that I think we should do something to celebrate Christmas, before you leave for your house tomorrow.” Blaine pulled himself off of the ground and reached to put his now dry coat back on.

“Oh and what did you have in mind Mr Anderson?” Kurt smiled up at him questioningly.

“Well that might just be a surprise Mr Hummell, but I will tell you to grab your bag and join me downstairs in thirty minutes?” He smiled down at him then turned and walked to the door, “See you soon” he said, flashing Kurt one of his more lovely smiles and clicked the door closed behind him. Kurt sighed happily, standing up singing a Christmas tune to himself merrily.

His relationship with Blaine had only gotten better especially after one night in the Warbler commons only a few nights earlier when Kurt had helped Blaine practice for a festival he’d be singing in. They’d shared a look, Kurt was sure of it and things had seemed to ease into an even more comfortable version of the friendship they shared.

It was also when he’d realized he was perhaps, sort of, definitely falling for Blaine, hard and fast. As he changed into a pair of jeans that were slightly more uncomfortable he wondered where Blaine would be taking him and debated whether or not he’d have time to do a quick version of his moisturizing routine. Half an hour later as he grabbed his bag before he went downstairs he stopped for a moment, pulling a small red parcel with a rather spectacular green bow from his desk, he heart beat a little uncomfortably as he placed it into his bag and made his way downstairs, hoping his shopping ability would not let him down now.

~~~ “Blaine this is wonderful!” Kurt gushed holding the fabric of the Marc Jacobs scarf he’d been talking about for weeks up to his face.
He looked Blaine in the eyes, a familiar swooping feeling happening at the bottom of Blaine’s stomach “Really though it’s just, beautiful, thank you.” Kurt grabbed Blaine’s hand over the table of the restaurant they’d come to have dinner at and gave it a quick squeeze before putting the scarf back into the Christmas box and placing it next to him.

“Okay your turn” he said nervously giving Blaine a small red box with a large green bow.
“Kurt you really shouldn’t have” He smiled up at him as he started to pull the ribbon of and carefully tear open the wrapping paper. His eyes opened wide and his heart thudded against his chest as he stared at the present he held in his hands. “Kurt…” he said softly.
He picked up the small crystle Christmas ornament. It was beautiful, hand crafted into the shape of a treble clef it was delicate in his hand and sparkled in the light.

“It’s not much I know, I just didn’t know what to get you and I saw this, it’s terrible isn’t it? Ugh I’m sorry I’ll take it back if you’d like?” Kurt rushed the words out searching for any sort of confirmation in Blaine’s face.
“It’s just, you told me you and your mother collected ornaments and so I, I…” he trailed off looking worried. Blaine just stared at him with an adoring smile on his face.

“It’s amazing, you’re a-thank you” Kurt looked at him curiously, wondering why he’d stopped himself from saying that he was amazing but taking it as a compliment nonetheless. Blaine wondered too as he placed the ornament carefully onto the table. Because it was true Kurt was amazing, it was getting harder and harder to try to convince himself otherwise these days.

He still couldn’t bring himself to completely think about how he saw Kurt, he pushed the thoughts firmly from his mind, and continued eating his dinner with Kurt as they chatted about anything and everything easily.

That’s how it was with Kurt, easy and wonderful and…he stopped himself again as he watched Kurt daintily wipe at the corners of his mouth with a napkin. It was difficult to keep reminding himself that he was Kurt’s mentor and friend and that’s all it could ever be.

Kurt was still too, vulnerable and Blaine wasn’t ever taking advantage of what an amazing friendship they had. That’s all it was Blaine thought as he looked at Kurt explaining something his hand waving about and a wide smile plastered over his face, it made Blaine’s heart hurt, it was just a friendship.

~~~

Kurt ran his hands through his hair as he all but ran back to his dorm after Warblers practice “How could I have been that stupid?!” He hissed to himself as he threw himself onto his bed.
It was a week before Valentine’s Day, the stupidest holiday ever invented. How could he have thought Blaine had wanted to serenade him? He cursed at himself for even assuming it as his heart beat rapidly in his chest. Who the hell was this Jeremiah guy anyway? Blaine had never mentioned him before. “Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!” Kurt groaned smacking himself in the head.

He was interrupted by his phone ringing out “Teenage Dream” he cringed at his choice of ringtone and sighed unhappily as he answered the call.
“’Lo?”

“Wow boy you sound down in the dumps, what’s up?” Mercedes voice filled his ear and he sighed.

“I’ve just yet again walked into a friendship seeing more and been shot down completely!” he groaned again as a fresh feeling of disappointment washed over him.

“Uh Oh, well you are coming to Rachel’s tonight to eat pizza and do our hair and have facials and you are explaining to us why I have the feeling that I need to kick someone’s ass”

“You girls are the best, but I’m afraid this time it’s my fault.” He collected his things together and left his dorm as soon as he could, running head first into Blaine. Of course, he thought to himself.

“Hey, what’s your hurry?” Blaine asked him, reaching down to pick up the keys he’d dropped.

“Oh going to stay at Rachel’s tonight, catch up with her and Mercede’s, haven’t seen them in a while” he started walking towards his car and Blaine hurried to keep up, his slightly shorted legs walking slightly faster than Kurt’s.

“Oh okay, I thought we were going to get coffee?” he heard some disappointment in Blaine’s voice and his head reeled.

“Why don’t you ask your friend from the gap?” Kurt snapped. Blaine stopped and grabbed Kurt’s arm making him stop too.

“What does that mean?” he asked him looking slightly hurt. Kurt’s mind reeled, what did it mean? it’s not like Blaine had ever really said he’d liked Kurt or anything, he’d just gotten his hopes up. Again. This time it had felt different though. He bit his lip and decided to make this easy.

“I just mean I’m busy so you could hang out with someone else, we’ll do something after the weekend though.” he put a hand on Blaine’s arm and squeezed slightly before turning around and leaving again. This time Blaine didn’t follow, allowing Kurt to let a few tears fall down his cheek before he made the drive back to Lima, listening to the Wicked soundtrack as loud as he could to drown out all the feelings he was having that he knew he shouldn’t.

~~~

Blaine stared into space as he made his way to the entrance of the Gap store with the rest of his Warbler friends, he was nervous, really nervous. He felt stupid too, why had he thought this would work?

“Come on man, you can’t back out now, you know how much I didn’t want to do this.” Wes said to him, hitting him on the back.

“I think it’s nice to be nervous, give you some adrenaline” David piped in standing on his other side and urging him forward.

Blaine sighed, it was too late now anyway, they’d practiced the song and they were here. He swallowed loudly as he entered the store, the rest of the Warblers walked to different positions around clothing racks, mannequins and sunglasses displays and Blaine waited a few minutes, he looked around and found Kurt standing next to a scarf table, playing absent-mindedly with some of them.

Things between them had been kind of awkward since Kurt had gone to Rachel’s a few days before. They’d still caught up and gotten coffee and seen each other but the conversation hadn’t run as smoothly as it usually did. In the pit of his stomach Blaine thought he knew why but he didn’t want to think about that, not now when he was about to sing to a guy he’d been on three dates with. It all felt too ridiculous, but he shook his head and signaled to the rest of the Warblers, gaining some courage as he heard them open with the first few notes.

The car ride with Kurt on the way home was silent, mostly because Blaine was embarrassed, he’d look over at Kurt every now and then seeing a slight smile on his lips before he dragged his eyes back down to the socks he’d stupidly bought after singing to Jeremiah.

“Okay, so it didn’t go to plan, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world” Kurt said softly as he pulled into the Lima Bean.

“Ugh, I’m just so embarrassed! After everything, for that to happen, I just, want to crawl into a little ball.” he shook his head.

“Nuh-uh, come on, we’ll get some coffee and talk this out, you’ll feel better by the end of it” Kurt smiled at him as he turned off the car and got out. Blaine stayed in the car for another moment before getting out, following Kurt and throwing the stupid socks into the first trashcan he saw.

~~~

“I thought you were going to sing, to me.” the line resonated against the walls of Blaine’s head as he groaned into his pillow for the thirtieth time that night.

Kurt had done it, he’d taken Blaine’s advice and used the upmost amount of courage to tell Blaine he had feelings for him, and still aware of their wonderfully confusing friendship Blaine had let that get in the way.

It was for the best his conscious told him, but his heart fluttered uncontrollably as he thought back to Kurt’s face and his eyes and his mouth and oh…he hated himself for not being able to just let himself be there for Kurt in the way he wanted him to, but he just couldn’t, not yet. And that was the most annoying part of it all.

He rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling trying to think about anything and everything that wasn’t directly related to Kurt Hummell. But he couldn’t, his chest ached as he thought about him, but he knew, even still, that nothing could happen. he argued with himself for what seemed like hours before finally getting under the covers and making himself fall into a fitful, uneasy sleep.

~~~

Kurt sank into his desk chair with a small sigh and topped up Pavarotti’s water bowl. He’d finally done it, he’d told Blaine how he’d really felt, and now he felt.

Relieved? Happy? Sad? None of those really, he just felt more, at ease. He didn’t have to lie about the way he felt. His feelings were officially out in the open and even though Blaine had basically told him nothing was happening, Kurt still hung onto some hope, he didn’t really believe nothing would ever happen, but he was willing to wait he decided. Until whenever Blaine had decided how he really felt. He would wait forever.