It was a few weeks into the new year before things died down at work. Families were finally done traveling from one state to another, and they were less worried about whether or not their insurance plans were still in top shape. The first few weeks back didn't leave very much time for either one of them to see each other—Kurt had taken a few extra flights during the week, and even when Blaine left his office for the day, he would bring home a briefcase full of work.

Two Wednesdays after New Year's they were finally able to spend an entire night together without interruptions. "Hey," Kurt pulled Blaine through the front door of his apartment not even ten seconds after he had knocked, "I missed you last night."

"Yeah?" Blaine said playfully, kissing him as he wrapped his arms around Kurt. "I missed you all week."

"Yeah, I've had way too much take-out to eat, and my bed has been a little cold." Kurt pulled him to the couch so they could sit down.

"You know, heat would help with that." Blaine pulled Kurt into his arms.

"Or you there next to me."

"I think I spoil you too much. What normally happens during the weekend when I'm not here?"

"See, that's why I need to buy a dog. A big, fluffy dog with shaggy hair just like yours." Kurt ran his hand through Blaine's curls as if proving a point.

"Well, if it helps, I missed you, too." He kissed the side of Kurt's neck.

"What came up so last minute?"

"I… just work stuff. The office mainly. I-I had to go in and deal with a certain customer who's been giving a few of our staff members some trouble. It was nothing really." Blaine sat up and moved Kurt off of him. "So, what's for dinner?"

"Um… I just took th-the lasagna out of the oven." He kept staring at Blaine. "Are you sure everything is okay?"

"Yes, it's fine, okay, Kurt? Now let's go eat." Blaine gave him a kiss on the forehead before disappearing into the kitchen.

Kurt took his time before joining him, trying to figure out what exactly was up with Blaine. As they ate, Kurt tried to make conversation, but once Blaine answered, that was it. The conversation was over and they moved on to another topic after a few more minutes of silence.

Blaine excused himself when he was finished and walked back into the kitchen to wash off his plate. Kurt sat on the couch finishing his lasagna and picked up Blaine's phone when it started to buzz on the table. Seeing that it was a text from Luke, he opened it up, thinking he'd say something snarky in reply. What he read wasn't anything like what he'd expected, though.

Hey. Nice date last night. Next time can I at least kiss you goodbye before you run out?

Kurt froze and stared at the text until Blaine walked in. He clutched the phone in his hand, turning his head to the side and willing the tears not to fall down his face.

Blaine moved towards him and held out his hand, completely clueless. "Are you done with your plate? I can take it into the kitchen for you."

"I think you should leave," Kurt whispered, barely audible.

"W-what?" Blaine froze for a few seconds, but finally sat down next to him and put a hand on his back, which Kurt quickly shrugged away.

"Please," he choked.

Blaine could tell he was crying, but didn't have a clue why. Kurt had been fine just five minutes earlier. "Kurt, what's wrong? Please talk to me."

"We jumped into this entire thing too fast, didn't we? We've only known each other for a couple months, yet we practically live at each other's apartments. We spend all of our free time together. You even met my family! It's just all too soon. You didn't have a chance to explore a relationship with anyone else, and neither did I. I… maybe this isn't right. Maybe it isn't the right time. Maybe we just need some space to figure out what we want." He took a deep breath. "Just go, okay? This is me allowing you to meet other people. You aren't tied to me anymore."

"Kurt, where is this coming from?" Blaine tried once again to pull Kurt into his arms, but failed when Kurt turned around to face him, his tears finally visible.

Kurt shoved the phone in his hands and walked to the front door. "Go. Now." He said, opening the door.

"Kurt, you don't have to do this. I don't want anyone else," Blaine said weakly, on the verge of tears himself. When Kurt didn't budge, he stood up and walked to the door, kissing Kurt's temple and walking into the hallway. "I'll call you later, okay? I wish you'd talk to me." Blaine knew there wasn't any use standing in front of Kurt and waiting for him to talk. He didn't do that. Kurt kept to himself when something was wrong and the only thing Blaine could do was give him space. Just a few weeks earlier at the cemetery, he made a vow not to cause Kurt any pain, so if leaving was what he wanted, Blaine had to do so. His mind was screaming at him to stay and demand to know what was wrong, but he didn't. He loved Kurt, and as strange as it sounds, that love was what was forcing his body out into the hall instead of standing inside and fighting to stay.

To say Blaine was distraught would be an understatement. He still didn't have a clue what had happened with Kurt to make him react the way he did, and part of him didn't know why he was sitting in his cold apartment instead of laying in Kurt's warm arms. However, deep down, another part of him knew why he'd done what Kurt had said. He'd been in that situation before; a time when someone told him to leave because they no longer wanted him there. He had obeyed back then and he had obeyed when Kurt asked him as well. Blaine's past had broken a part of him, and it was only a matter of time before Kurt realized that and let him go; he just hadn't assumed it would be that quick.

Blaine laid in bed that night staring at the ceiling, remembering the time he and Kurt did the same thing back in Lima. He turned his head to the side, letting the tears fall when he didn't see the familiar blue eyes staring back at him or feel the soft hand tracing paths along his stomach. He forced his eyes shut, trying to fall asleep, but it was nearly impossible without Kurt.

He had thrown his phone on the nightstand as soon as he got home and ignored it each time it rang. It wasn't the special ringtone he had set for Kurt, so he didn't care. He didn't want to worry about his job or his friends or anything else in his life. All he wanted was Kurt, and that's the one thing he didn't have.

He grabbed the pillow next to him and clutched it against his chest, burying his face in the pillowcase and allowing Kurt's scent to fill his nose. It was that scent that finally allowed him to relax enough to fall asleep.

Kurt was thankful for the early flight he had the next morning. Thursdays were usually full of even more rude businessmen, but he needed the distraction. He wanted to forget about how Blaine lied to him, and how he had gone on a date with Luke instead of spending the night curled up on the couch with him as they watched a movie.

He went through the motions during the flight. He didn't care about being kind to each passenger or going out of his way to make sure they were comfortable. He did the minimal amount of work possible and hid behind the curtain for the majority of the flight while he let his tears fall. He didn't know if he could fly every week knowing that was where he met Blaine. That was where what he thought was the best part of his life had started, when in reality, it was only a small portion that led to him getting hurt.

Before he knew it, he was stepping off of the plane in New York, not so eager to get home. He debated catching the next plane to Ohio, but he wasn't ready to talk to his family about what had happened. What had happened? Everything had seemed fantastic between the two of them, and suddenly it wasn't.

He pulled off his hat and slowly trudged down the long hallway that led from the employee area into the airport. He didn't want to deal with the crowd of people or the busy parking lot. All he wanted to do was lie in bed and cry himself to sleep, as pathetic as that sounded.

He opened the door and nearly knocked into someone on his way out. "I'm sorry! I wasn't looking wh- Blaine."

"Kurt."

"You shouldn't be here." Kurt tried to push past him, but Blaine didn't budge.

"I'm not going anywhere. Not today." He fished around in his pocket and pulled out his phone, holding it up for Kurt to see. "Is this what all of this is really about?" He took Kurt's silence as confirmation. "I didn't check my phone until this morning. I didn't really have the best night without a certain flight attendant there next to me. I ignored everyone's calls because the one call I wanted never came. When I finally checked my messages this morning, I noticed I had a message from Luke that I hadn't read yet, but somehow it was open." Blaine pulled Kurt's chin up so he could look into his eyes. "Kurt, I don't know what you thought about that text, but it wasn't anything. I just want you to know that I would never cheat on you because there's absolutely no one in this world that makes me happier than you do. I really wish you would've told me what was going on last night so that I could've cleared things up right then and there. I gave you that key for a reason. That key was a promise to always be in your life until you tell me to leave. That's why I did leave last night. I can't stay around if you don't want me here, but I can't let you push me away because of a silly text."

Kurt looked down again and Blaine almost missed it when he spoke. "I don't want to push you away," He looked back up, "but why did you lie to me? Why did Luke say you went on a date?"

Blaine pulled Kurt out of the doorway to let a few employees through. He kept his hands on Kurt's elbow. "Kurt, Luke… he's an idiot. He's a jerk and I'm a little irritated with him at the moment. He… okay, well, you know he's gay. I honestly didn't think it was a big deal. Not until last night, that is. He's not my type and I'm not his. We've always been really close friends, and that's it. There has never been anything more on either side." Blaine waited for Kurt to pull away, but he didn't. "I didn't lie to you. I really did have to go to the office to deal with that customer. Luke was there as well and we went out to dinner to go over plans and stuff. When we were leaving, he…. I… he tried to kiss me, Kurt. But I didn't let him. God, I don't want to kiss anyone but you for the rest of my life. All I want is your lips on mine; your lips on every inch of my body and only yours. He started saying bad things about you. About how you were worthless to me and I could do so much better. Like him. And that's when I left. I wanted to come over to see you, but I couldn't. I needed to clear my head and I told myself that in a little over twelve hours, I could be at your apartment with your arms wrapped around me. Please tell me you believe me when I say nothing happened, and that it was strictly a business dinner until he tried to make it more."

Kurt nodded. "I believe you."

There was a minute of silence before Blaine spoke again. They just stood together, probably a little too close for two people who were supposed to just be friends, but they remained where they were. "What you said about us jumping into this too quick; do you really believe that?"

Kurt shook his head. "No. I like spending so much time with you, and I've never been happier to introduce my family to someone in my life. I don't want you to go anywhere. I don't want you to meet other people. I'm sorry I said those things."

"No, you don't get to apologize. This is completely my fault. I should've told you the truth, I just didn't know how."

"What if we ever break up for longer than twenty-four hours? I didn't know how I was going to survive another night without you," Kurt laughed.

"We just won't let that happen. Besides, I don't consider this a breakup. It was just a misunderstanding." Blaine pulled Kurt into a hug and buried his face in the collar of Kurt's uniform. "I want to kiss you right now, but I can't do that in the middle of the airport. Can we go home now?"

Kurt smiled. Home. "That sounds perfect."

Blaine walked into Kurt's bedroom the next morning with two fresh cups of coffee and sat them on the nightstand. "Good morning, beautiful." He kissed Kurt's forehead, hoping to wake the sleepy boy up a little.

"Mmm'I was wondering where you went." Kurt rolled over and buried his face in the pillow when Blaine crawled back onto the bed. "Wa'time is it?"

"Nine o'clock. You got a call saying the flights out of New York were cancelled today." Blaine laid down on top of the covers next to Kurt.

"W-why? Did something happen?"

Blaine pointed to the window. "Take a look outside." Kurt rolled to his other side and watched the snow falling outside of his window. Blaine wrapped his arms around Kurt and held him close. "Looks like we're snowed in today. What do you say to being lazy?"

"You know what? That sounds amazing."

Blaine leaned over to pick up one of the cups of coffee and handed it to Kurt. "I brought you a little something to help you wake up."

Kurt sniffed the sweet coffee and took a sip before offering it to Blaine, who eagerly took a drink. "So, what are we going to do first?" he asked, setting the cup on the table next to him.

"Well, I thought I could make us breakfast and then we could lie in bed and watch one of the new movies you bought the other day."

"You know, that sounds lovely," Kurt rolled over to face Blaine, "but I think I have a little something I'd like to do first." He leaned in and nibbled at Blaine's lip, kissing up his jaw until he reached his ear. He let his head fall on Blaine's chest and listened to the steady rhythm of the other man's heart. "Blaine, I lo-"

The timer in the kitchen went off, Blaine pulled away. "Hold that thought. I have to go flip the pancakes." He leaned back down on the bed to place a wet kiss against Kurt's lips.

Kurt buried his face in the pillows again and fell asleep. This time when Blaine returned, he didn't wake up the sleeping man. Instead, he crawled under the covers and wrapped an arm around Kurt's back before drifting off to sleep.

"I can't believe we slept until one thirty and then watched movies the rest of the afternoon. I haven't been this lazy since I was sick with strep throat in tenth grade."

"Well," Blaine started, "sometimes being lazy can be relaxing. It can de-stress you."

"I hear sex can do that as well, though I've never tested that theory."

Blaine chuckled. "I've heard that chocolate works as a great substitute." He raised Kurt's shirt up to reveal a little patch of skin and drew designs along his waistband.

"This is completely random, but I have an idea."

"What is that?" Blaine propped himself up on his elbow and snatched a grape from the bowl beside them.

"Well, you know how I'm a flight attendant?"

"Yeah, that may have come up a time or two."

Kurt ignored his sarcasm. "What if we take a trip this spring? Just the two of us. I've been dying to go to France for the longest time, but I've never had anyone to go with me. I thought maybe you might like a week or two away from the office as well. What better way to get rid of some of the stress in your life than by visiting one of the most romantic cities in the world?"

"France," Blaine repeated.

"I can get great deals on airline tickets. We'd end up paying next to nothing and I know of a couple great places to stay. I can speak the language fairly well, so you won't have to worry about language barriers, and their food is amazing Blaine. I've had to fly there a few times, but I never made it more than a few miles from the airport, of course." Kurt realized he was talking too much and slowed down. "I mean, you don't have to go if you don't want to. I can find someone else to go with, or just not go at all. I don't want you to feel forced to say yes by any means."

"It's not that. I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to tell my dad I need a few weeks off to visit the most romantic city in the world." He placed a kiss on Kurt's collar bone. "With." His hands made their way under Kurt's shirt and pulled it up over his head. "My." Blaine kissed Kurt's stomach as he aimlessly threw the shirt into the corner of the room. "Beautiful." He shifted to straddle Kurt, kissing a trail up his chest, before finally reaching his lips. "Boyfriend." Blaine pressed his lips to Kurt's, letting his emotions take over him. It was as if his mind and his heart were no longer one, and his heart dominated. He wanted Kurt. He wanted all of him.

Kurt smiled beneath him, thrusting up to meet Blaine as their kisses got messy. "I take it you like my idea?" he asked in between kisses.

Blaine propped himself up, trying to control himself for a few seconds. "There wasn't even any convincing involved."

"Great. Now more kissing." Kurt pulled Blaine back down on top of him and groaned when the other man rolled off onto the empty space beside them. "Come back here." Kurt began to move, but Blaine put a hand to Kurt's chest to stop him.

"Can we just talk for a few more minutes?" Blaine had started to blush, but he hoped the quickly darkening room would hide the redness in his cheeks.

"Blaine, can I ask you a question? I… Are you ready for this? For more with us?" Kurt bit his lip, worried that he was going to screw something up. He'd never been in this situation before. There hadn't been a time in his life when he was ready to share himself with another man the way he wanted to share himself with Blaine.

Blaine was ready for everything with Kurt, but he wanted to make love to him. He didn't want to just have sex. He wanted Kurt to know how much he loved him as they shared themselves with each other. He wanted their first time together to be perfect in every way. Blaine didn't want there to be a single secret between them, and until he could say those things to Kurt, he didn't want to get carried away.

"I'm ready for everything with you, but that doesn't mean it's the right time."

"Let me guess. You're a romantic who believes there should be a thousand rose petals and dozens of candles surrounding us, correct?"

"Not quite," Blaine laughed. "There would only be two hundred rose petals at the most." They both looked away from each other bashfully. "No, I'm just kidding. I just want the timing to be right. I don't want it to be something that seems planned." And I don't want to do it until I say I love you and I know you love me.

"Then what do you want to talk about?" Kurt glanced at the clock on his nightstand. "It's 10:40. We still have an hour or two before we should go to sleep."

"Well, what's on your mind?" Blaine sat up against the headboard, but Kurt remained lying down.

"Well, um… a-are you a virgin, Blaine?" Kurt could feel the uncontrollable heat in his cheeks.

"No," Blaine murmured in response.

Kurt had been expecting a different answer from him. "You… no? I… um, I thought you said you didn't know what sex what like. When we first met or whatever." He had said that, right? Kurt hadn't imagined that conversation.

"I don't. Not really, anyway. I don't consider it making love, so much as letting all of our urges take over. You have no idea how much I wish I could go back in time and relive that part of my life over. I want to erase it all away, but that's not possible." He began fumbling with his thumbs to try to distract himself from Kurt's fixed gaze. "I'd been lying to myself the entire time. I thought I knew what love was, but I didn't. I had convinced myself I was in love with the person, but in reality, I didn't even like him all that much."

"It… it was with a guy, right? I mean, this wasn't some experiment of yours?"

"What? No way," Blaine laughed. "It was with a guy. We'd been together for a couple years by that time, but I was just too young. I had just graduated high school and I didn't really know who I was as a person at that time."

"Who was it?"

Blaine squeezed his eyes shut and turned away from Kurt. He was hoping Kurt wouldn't ask who the man was. He knew at some point, he had to explain everything to Kurt, but he had hoped it would come up later on. Kurt deserved to know and maybe Blaine should've been honest from the beginning, but he was scared of what Kurt would think. He didn't want his past to be a deal breaker in their relationship, and there wasn't an easy way to explain how you'd messed up your life because you were young and immature.

When he felt Kurt reach up and grab his hand, he squeezed back, a little too tight to be comfortable. "Hey, it's okay. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. We can talk about something else."

"It was my ex-husband," Blaine blurted out. That was it. The truth was out, and there wasn't anything he could do to take it back. Blaine kept his eyes closed and waited for Kurt to tell him to leave, but he didn't. Instead, Kurt joined him against the headboard and turned Blaine's face to meet his. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before," Blaine whispered. "I was afraid that once you found out you wouldn't want anything to do with me. I'm only twenty-seven. I'm not old enough to have already been married and divorced."

"Hey, nothing is going to make me leave you, okay? Especially not something that happened in your past. You're here with me now and that's all that matters. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone has something in their past that they're not proud of and that they wish they could change, but it's how you deal with it that makes it all better. I don't know about the guy, but he was lucky to be married to you, even if it was just briefly. If he's the one that wanted the divorce, he's crazy, but as selfish as it sounds, I'm glad you did get divorced. If you were still married, I wouldn't be able to do this." Kurt leaned forward to kiss him, and that one kiss is all it took to ease all of Blaine's worries. Everything would be fine. Somehow, Blaine had found one of the most understanding boyfriends he could've ever wished for.

Blaine started to speak again. "Our parents were always against our relationship. His family wasn't okay with him being gay and mine didn't think he was a very good influence on me. They kept trying to keep us from each other and used the excuse that we were underage and they could control us. Naturally, the more they kept us apart, the more we wanted to be together. I turned eighteen in November, but he didn't turn eighteen until May. His birthday was two days after graduation, so as a little celebration and rebellion, we packed up our stuff, took the little money we'd been saving for the past year, and left without telling them. They were furious of course. They were calling our phones so much that we turned them off and ignored them. We got the cheapest tickets available and flew to Vegas. He had booked a crappy little hotel, but it didn't matter because we were finally alone. We went for a walk through the city, and you'd be surprised at how easy it is for two underage boys to get alcohol in Vegas. We were drunk before midnight, and ended up heading to a little chapel on the edge of town. We were married by one in the morning. That's the reason I don't drink anymore. I'm terrified of what would happen if I did.

"Anyway, we eventually went back to Ohio, and the minute we stepped through his front door, his parents kicked him out. He didn't have anywhere to go, and we knew my parents would be furious that we just took off like we did, so we decided to rent an apartment. We didn't know where we were going to get the money, but we knew we had to. My parents didn't offer to help out a single bit. They said if I were to ever grow up and decide that the relationship I was in wasn't a healthy one, I could move back in and I would go to work for him at the insurance company."

"And you work there now," Kurt stated.

Blaine squeezed his hand again. "Yeah. Living with Elliott—that was his name, by the way—was okay at first. Of course we had sex, but we also went on a few dates. It wasn't until I got so much time alone with him that I realized he really wasn't the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I didn't get the butterflies in my stomach that I should've had when he kissed me. I didn't want to spend all of my time with him and I found myself talking to the few other friends I had more than my own husband. I realized that despite what I had believed, I wasn't in love with him. I tried to sit him down and tell him that I didn't know how much longer things would work out because it wasn't fair to him, but he didn't want to talk. All it took was me saying I wasn't in love with him and for him to tell me to leave, and the next thing I knew, I was standing on my parent's porch waiting for them to open the front door.

"I did as they said. I moved back in, I went to work for my dad, I signed the divorce papers when they came a few months later, and that was it. He was out of my life completely. The strange thing is, I didn't miss him at all. Kurt, if I put together every single ounce of pain I felt when I broke up with him, it wouldn't even begin to compare with the pain I was dealing with when you told me to leave. Those butterflies I was talking about; I don't just get them when I kiss you. I get them every time you walk into the room." Blaine wrapped his arm around Kurt and stared into his eyes. He was sure he'd never seen anything more beautiful in his life. "Do you want to know why I feel that way whenever I'm with you? I fought with myself for so long. After Elliott, I began to doubt what love really was and I thought I'd never be able to fall in love with anyone. I think that's part of what kept me from being in a relationship with anyone else until you came along."

Kurt rested his head on Blaine's shoulder and squeezed him tight. "You deserve all of the love in the world, Blaine." Kurt turned his attention to the TV and listened as the menu screen played over and over. "What do you say to watching another movie? I feel like Home Alone is a little appropriate considering the weather we're having."

"Are you going to get up and put it in?"

Kurt groaned. "I take it back. I'll just go to sleep." He slid down and buried his face in his pillow. Blaine laughed and hopped out of bed long enough to slip in the DVD and turn out the lights.

He got back into bed and pulled Kurt into his arms. It didn't take long for the other man to fall asleep, leaving Blaine with nothing more than the movie in front of him and the sound of his own thoughts running through his head. "Do you want to know a little secret?" Blaine whispered. He knew he was talking to himself and that Kurt wouldn't hear anything he would say, but maybe that's why he had the nerve to say it. Blaine took a deep breath, completely aware of what he was about to do, but he didn't have any regrets. "I've fallen in love with you. God, Kurt, I love you so much."Blaine swallowed the lump in his throat before repeating himself, this time a little quieter. "I love you, Kurt. I know it may sound crazy, but I already know you're the man I want to spend the rest of my life with." He pressed a kiss to the top of Kurt's head and froze when a pair of blue eyes met his own hazel. "K-kurt, I thought you were asleep."

Kurt smiled and tenderly kissed him. "I love you, too," he whispered against Blaine's lips. Their eyes were just inches apart; their bodies as closed together as possible; their lips still on each other's. "Blaine, will you make love to me tonight?"

Kurt didn't have to ask again. Blaine began to kiss him again with more love and compassion than Kurt had ever imagined. It was only a few minutes before Kurt was lost in Blaine's tender touch.

Little things that have been mentioned throughout the story have led up to Blaine being married before. It was definitely something I had in mind from the very beginning. It's the reason Blaine has kind of kept to himself and why he had only had one boyfriend by the time he was twenty-six.

Anyway, the next chapter is Valentine's Day! :)