"God I hate all these fucking Valentines decorations and nonsense everywhere." Blaine spat out as he and Kurt waited in line at the Lima Bean. Valentines day was fast approaching and Kurt had come up with a novel idea to try and express to Blaine how he felt about him, because, it was becoming harder and harder for him to hide it. It was like he had to bite his tongue everytime Blaine looked at him to stop himself from just professing his love for the world to hear.

"Well... I can't disagree..." Kurt said, holding up a stuffed pair of puppies with their noses touching, "This is just tacky."

"It's supposed to be puppy love... " Blaine noted as they took another step forward in the line. "That one is actually kind of cute."

Kurt cocked up an eyebrow at Blaine and set the stuffed pun back down. "Why don't you like Valentines anyhow?"

"Ugh... It's just a reminder to me of how love is just this ideal that people aspire to and fight for but never works out in the end." Blaine insisted.

Kurt sighed softly, watching the boy he was infatuated with go on about how his parent's sham of a marriage had left a bad taste in his mouth, and how everyone who was paired up in Glee club had claimed to love one another only to end up cheating with someone else.

"I mean, I get it. I think people should lay it on the line to someone - about how they feel. But to get so worked up about a single day and make single people feel like crap because they don't have anyone to fuck at the moment... it's incredibly stupid." Blaine concluded, looking to Kurt for reinforcement.

"Well..." Kurt said, taking another step forward as they advanced, "... I was actually wondering something about romance and hope you'd give me your opinion."

Blaine gave Kurt a pathetic attempt at a smile, clearly forced, "Sure. Lay it on me sweetcheeks."

Kurt grinned a little, more from the nickname than anything else. He secretly loved it when Blaine called him that, though would never actually admit it to his face. "I... like this guy... and I want to tell him about how I feel, but I'm better at singing my feelings than saying them. Do you think it would be weird for me to serenade him?"

Blaine quickly looked away and Kurt cringed. How tactless, his mind told him, he just went on about how he hated Valentines and then you talk about putting on a big Valentines show...

"No... I think it's alright." Blaine finally mumbled.

They got to the front of the line, and without hesitation Blaine ordered for himself and Kurt.

"You know my coffee order?" Kurt exclaimed.

"Of course I do..." Blaine answered and moved off to wait for their drinks.

Kurt hummed happily to himself at that. Blaine might not like Valentines, but it was quickly becoming his favorite holiday. He just hoped his serenade could convince Blaine to give it a second chance.

I'm going to fucking ditch this club again. -B

Why? What happened now? -K

Mr. Butthead made Love the theme of the week and told us to pick a partner to sing what we thought the world's greatest love song was. -B

Aww... that's sweet. -K

No. It's fucking lame and I hate it. -B

Come on, there has to be at least one romantic song you love. -K

There's plenty, just no one I want to sing it to here. -B

Well what about picking a friendly song and singing it to Mercedes? She'd love that. -K

Lame. -B

I think you're being too critical. -K

I think you're too far away. Get over here so I can vent about how stupid this all this without having to worry about my spelling. -B

I'll be there again this weekend. -K

Not soon enough. -B

You're telling me, Kurt thought to himself and caught Trent shaking his head at him from across the room with that knowing smirk on his face again.

Well at the very least I'm glad you care about your spelling in texts. I have to spend so much time trying to translate Finn's texts to me with his ridiculous shorthand and spelling errors. -K

He's doing something dumb too. -B

Oh? -K

He's going to have a kissing booth to raise money for the Glee club because he's decided he's a huge stud now. -B

That's... kind of hilarious. -K

Oh as if you wouldn't have bought a few kisses from him before he ended up as your brother. -B

Kurt should have never told Blaine about his crush on Finn from last year.

Let's not talk about that. -K

You're right. I'll save that for when you're here. It's better when I can actually see you blush. -B

Any other news? -K

Slutana got shit on by everyone in the club for her bitchiness. It was actually the highlight of my day. -B

Poor girl. -K

You actually feel bad for her? -B

Well I don't like how she's mean to everyone, but that doesn't mean she needs to be hurt back. -K

Whatever. I don't even sit close to her. Most of the football team has been in her and I'm pretty sure she has at least several diseases by now. -B

Ugh. Another mental image I did not need. -K

How's your serenade planning going? -B

Oh, well I'll be asking the Warblers to help me out at the next meeting, so nothing new on that front. -K

What would you sing? -B

Not sure... there's a lot of really good songs to pick from but I'd like to pick one that he'd really be into as well. Suggestions? -K

I'm Too Sexy. -B

Real suggestions? -K

That was a real suggestion! -B

Nevermind... -K

Jeeze... don't get so uptight about it. Just some guy. -B

Not in my mind he isn't. -K

Whatever. TTYL. -B

Kurt frowned a little and looked at his phone. Maybe he was pushing things too far with this serenade idea, especially since it was clear that Blaine didn't seem to think much of big romantic gestures. Kurt did understand that Blaine's parents had soured the idea of love for him, but he hope it hadn't put Blaine off completely or else Kurt would just have to expect to be disappointed.

"Well... I'm in love." Kurt addressed the members of the Warblers, and got a surprising chorus of claps with that announcement.

"And I'm better about singing my feelings than saying them, so I was hoping, that with your help, you could help me serenade him off campus."

Without any warning, the room erupted into chaos, and Wes, one of the council members started into a tirade about how the last time they had sung off campus several Warblers had been killed. Kurt was definitely expecting some hesitation from them, but not all out refusal.

But that is what Kurt got. With no one there to back up his idea and suggest that the Warbler's step out of their comfort zones to gain more confidence, the idea was promptly shut down, leaving Kurt at a loss for what to do with Blaine.

"It's nice to be around girls for a change." Kurt admitted. He was in his pyjamas on Rachel's bed. He, Rachel, and Mercedes were having a sleepover.

The girls cooed and scooted over to hug him on either side, asking him about his plans to serenade Blaine.

"Well it's pointless without the backup. Anyhow... he couldn't even hang out this weekend until after he was done with football practice or something... so here I am."

"You better not be telling us we're your backups boy." Mercedes pointed out.

"Oh good grief no..." He reached for the bowl of popcorn. "... I love my girl time. I just feel like I've been making something up in my head that doesn't even exist."

"Well I know how that feels... I did it with you last year." Mercedes laughed.

He chuckled and took a handful of popcorn to munch on while Mercedes suggested to both him and Rachel that they might need to choose between love and talent since all their favourite icons were single when they rose to the top, having put all the pain and loneliness into their music. She did have a point, even if that point stung.

"I personally think you're better off without him Kurt. He's crude and demanding and violent and..." Rachel continued to list off what she thought were Blaine's lesser qualities while Mercedes and Kurt looked at one another with arched brows. Rachel still hadn't figured out that Blaine purposely was picking on her. Through their glances, they communicated that neither one of them was about to tell her now either. Both Mercedes and Kurt had a love-hate relationship with Rachel. They appreciated her talent, and that deep down inside she had a good heart, but she was just another diva for them to compete with - and she was the absolute diva of divas.

"Anyhow..." Kurt interrupted. "I was thinking that since Blaine has an appointment tomorrow and can't see me until later in the day, we could all do a little shopping. I really need to get Carol something."

"Why do you need to get your step mother something...?" Mercedes queried.

"Because it's my dad's first real Valentines day in years and he will need me to pick up something tasteful and appropriate to get for Carol... because if I leave it up to him he will just end up getting her something like a broom... or worse." Kurt said, causing both the girls to burst into giggles.

Plus he wanted to see if there was something he could get for Blaine. What said I want something more out of our relationship, but I don't want to scare you off, so please just tell me everything is alright no matter what ends up happening.

"So. I was thinking the red blouse would go nicely with the blue skirt and that I could also switch it up with the green skort." Rachel declared, holding up her clothing choices on hangers for Kurt and Mercedes to see. Kurt's mouth hung open as his eyes felt infiltrated by the horrible combinations Rachel had just proposed.

"Are you insane? For starters... a skort? Really? What are you? Eight? Secondly. No. Just no. I am not going to continue to shop with you if you insist on acting like a kid on a sugar high who has just been giving a lot of money and who also happens to be color blind." Kurt admonished Rachel, grabbing the clothes out of Rachel's hands and immediately passing them onto a clerk who happened to be walking by and was surprised by the clothes being unloaded on him, but took it in stride.

Rachel made a small tut of shock but Mercedes had Kurt's back. She held up a finger to silence Rachel and made her ruling, "Let Kurt pick out some clothing for you. Trust me."

Rachel, thankfully, nodded her agreement and Kurt went about gathering some more age and style appropriate clothes off the shelves of the GAP they were in. From behind a clothing rack was where he saw it. Blaine talking to the curly haired clerk he had just plied with Rachel's atrocious clothing selection. Kurt smiled, and was about to go to see Blaine, when he saw the curly haired clerk give Blaine a wink and then give him a piece of paper.

Please let that be a quote on an outfit.

"Oh my gosh... is that... Blaine?" Mercedes had stepped up aside Kurt and was now also peeking through the clothing to see what was going on.

"Yes..." Kurt uttered softly, his eyes locked on Blaine as Blaine, his Blaine, wrote on the paper he was given and handed it back to the clerk.

That was not a quote on an outfit.

They were smiling. Why were they smiling?

Rachel had joined Mercedes and Kurt now behind the rack. "Are we spying on Blaine?" she whispered, ducking down unnecessarily.

"Shhh." Mercedes commanded her.

After a moment, Blaine waved to the guy and then left the GAP. Kurt saw the clerk talk to a male coworker as soon as Blaine was gone and then the clerks laughed and the friend of the curly haired clerk that Blaine had been talking to made a thrusting gesture which had them laughing.

"I think he just gave that guy his phone number." Kurt plainly stated.

He felt Mercedes hand on his back, giving it a small, supportive rub. "Sorry boo..."

Kurt just stood there, collecting his thoughts and staring out where Blaine had left the store. How had he been so foolish to think that Blaine could have been interested in him at all?

Kurt felt empty. It felt like all the energy and emotion had been sapped from him and left him feeling hollow. The only thing he felt was a dull ache in his heart that felt like it could only be remedied by digging the pain out with a spoon. He hadn't cried about it though. He wasn't going to let himself be a total drama queen.

He had forced himself to continue shopping with Rachel and Mercedes, even though any interest he had in dressing Rachel had vanished after the Gap incident. Hell, he had barely bought himself anything. While Rachel and Mercedes were clearly concerned about him, he had pushed on, and then left when it was time to meet Blaine at the time they had scheduled.

He didn't know how he was going to stomach meeting Blaine after that, but he felt he had to.

"Hey sweetcheeks!" Blaine greeted him in front of the Lima Bean. Kurt just nodded, feeling like he was physically there, but not consciously there. He was going through the motions. They went in and stood in line.

"So... did you... ah... do that serenade thing?" Blaine asked, seeing Kurt that was not his usual chatty self.

"No. I made the whole thing up in my head. He's not interested in me at all." Kurt acknowledged.

"Oh. Well... sorry?" Blaine offered.

"Valentines day is stupid anyhow... stupid hearts everywhere... it's dumb..." Kurt grunted, looking at all the sickly, sweet decorations up in their favorite coffee place.

Blaine let out a small chuckle, and Kurt hated him for being happy. "Well you've sure changed your fucking tune..."

"Whatever..." Kurt shrugged as they stepped forward in line.

"Well I'm just going to change the subject then... practice went well." Blaine commented.

Wait... practice?

"You had practice this morning?"

Blaine nodded over to Kurt, but wouldn't meet his eyes when he did it.

He's lying to me.

Kurt and Blaine made it to the front of the line and Kurt ordered his and Blaine's usual. It wasn't hard to remember Blaine's order after all - it was the same boring thing his dad might have ordered here.

"Why are you so quiet and grouchy today?" Blaine asked as they sat down, looking at Kurt with concern twinkling in those damned gorgeous eyes. Why did he have to have such beautiful eyes?

"Why are you lying to me?!" Kurt snapped, bringing his palm down with a smack to the table. He might have been able to handle Blaine swapping numbers with some guy, he might have been able to handle Blaine not telling him about seeing a guy, but he wasn't about to allow Blaine to lie to him about where he was this morning.

Blaine blinked a couple times, clearly taken aback. "What?"

"I saw you... Mercedes, Rachel, and I all did. At the GAP this morning. You didn't have practice. You're lying."

"Kurt..."

"You lied to me when I thought our friendship was better than that. We all saw you, swapping numbers with that curly haired rodent there." Kurt didn't know why he felt the need to insult the clerk, but he certainly wasn't feeling amicable towards the guy who Blaine might be interested in.

"Kurt..."

"I mean, I know I'm not going to be the only guy in your life, but I thought you would have told me at least instead of make a big lie about it. How could you?"

As Kurt continued on, his pitch got higher and the grip on his coffee got tighter. He didn't care if he drew attention though, Blaine needed to know how wrong this was.

"Kurt..."

"You know what? Forget it. Lie. Be like every other guy who wants to avoid me."

"Damn it Kurt! Be quiet for a fucking second!" Blaine cried out and for a moment, everyone in the Lima Bean was silent after the outburst. Then people went back to their business. Kurt looked at Blaine with wide eyes, rimmed with the threat of tears.

"Yes. I fucking lied to you. I fucking lied because I purposely didn't want you to find out..." He dug into the pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out a small box, tossing it towards Kurt who looked at it apprehensively.

"I wasn't fucking swapping numbers. I already have Jeremiah's number anyhow. We went out for coffee a couple times beforehand because I needed some advice and he's the only other gay guy I know aside from you. For fuck sake's Kurt... I couldn't date him even if I wanted to. It would be a legal issue with the age gap, and I don't like him that way even."

Kurt looked between Blaine and the box, gently touching the box as if it might attack him.

"We weren't swapping numbers. He had given me a short list of things they had in stock and I picked from that... for pick up just before I came here."

Kurt looked down at the box again. His anger was slowly being replaced by guilt... terrible, awful guilt.

"I knew that even if I wasn't crazy about it, that you liked Valentine's day, so I got you one of those vintage look belts you were goo-gooing over when we last went shopping together."

"Blaine..."

"Let me finish... Fuck." Blaine snapped, and Kurt went quiet, gently running his fingers over the box. "I wanted to get you something just in case whomever it was you intended to serenade didn't like it, although I don't know why they wouldn't... you're fucking perfect, at least I thought so."

Oh shit.

"Anyhow. Even if I wanted to date someone, why the hell do you care? You're busy trying to serenade some other ass anyhow. Why can't I look into other guys? Why are you spying on me like a creeper? Enjoy the belt. I'm out of here." Blaine grabbed his coffee and stormed out, leaving Kurt sitting there, fingers on the little box with the GAP logo.

Keep it together Hummel. At least until you get out of the public eye.

On Monday, Kurt drifted from class to class. Blaine hadn't responded to any of his texts, and it felt like when he first went to Dalton all over again, but much, much worse. Trent knew immediately that something was up when Kurt returned Sunday night, but aside from letting Kurt know that he was there if he needed, he didn't push the issue and Kurt was grateful for the space.

After classes he quietly slid into one of the couches in the Warbler's common room. He just wanted to get through this meeting and continue on with being miserable alone, without anyone to look at him. He was so ashamed of how he had jumped to a conclusion, and that it had ruined his relationship with Blaine.

"Warbler Kurt!" Wes called on him from behind the Warbler counsellor table. Kurt looked up at Wes.

"Warbler Kurt. While we may not have been on board for your public serenade last week, the council has been talking about it, and we have agreed that we need to put ourselves out there more. Because you made the initial suggestion, we would like your input on a song list for a venue we have booked on Valentine's day for a small concert."

Kurt nodded quietly as first a hush fell over the group of Warblers, and then a chorus of clapping all began for him. "Yes. Thank you."

Thank goodness for distractions.

Working on the set list with the council and then leading the Warblers in practice over the next couple days gave Kurt exactly the distraction he needed from worrying about his relationship with Blaine. When they performed at Breadstix, his old Glee club was mostly in attendance, with the exception of Quinn and Finn who both had mono, and Blaine, who he had invited via text, but didn't respond. Kurt poured his heart into the performance, imagining he was singing to Blaine.

He had to fix it. He had to fix them - whatever 'them' was.