Kurt was pretty quiet after his encounter with Brad, immediately downing the drink Blaine made him in one go. "Steady on," Blaine said as Kurt reached for the bottle to pour himself another, letting Blaine do it for him when his hands began to shake. "Come on.. just this next one and then we'll go and say hello to a few people. It'll be better in the long run than getting drunk, even if it's not how you feel at the moment," Blaine said gently.

"Are you seriously stopping me from getting drunk?" Kurt actually looked quite scary for a moment before sighing.

"It comes from a caring place," Blaine smiled, watching Kurt take a more gentile sip of his next drink. "I know you'll thank me tomorrow when you haven't got the hangover from hell.."

"I do hate the aftermath of a heavy night..." Kurt conceded. "You're right of course. It's only that I hate revisits to some things in my past, and the shock of what we just heard. I wasn't prepared for any of it."

"I know. I know. We can talk about it, if you want," Blaine pulled Kurt in for a quick hug. "But maybe you should at least look like you're not affected by it, at least while they're still here. You've been looking forward to tonight. Don't let someone else spoil that for you."

"I love you Blaine Anderson." Kurt linked the fingers of his free hand with Blaine's. He wanted to say more, but he couldn't find the words to express the feelings he felt when Blaine truly understood him. With other people he often had to painstakingly explain his thinking, his reasoning, but Blaine just.. 'got him'.

They ended up sharing the big armchair in the corner of Rachel's lounge, snuggling together. They'd done the rounds. Chatted and laughed with everyone they knew, tried a few hors d'oeuvres that Rachel had made with her own fair hands, praising her to the hilt, waved a fixed smile 'goodbye' to Brad and his girlfriend when they left the party and then finally, finally, did what they had wanted to do all evening.

They were both quiet for a while, maybe passing the odd comment, but Blaine waited patiently for Kurt. Eventually he broke the silence. "He was my first serious boyfriend. The first time I actually thought I was in love."

Blaine hummed a reassuring sound, letting Kurt know he was listening, pressing his hand gently on Kurt's thigh where his leg was draped over Blaine's lap.

"Of course I know now that it wasn't really love, or at least nothing like I feel for you.... and I don't know if I was just an experiment for him, or if he's bi, or just in plain denial... But somehow I really don't care.. I probably should care, or be insulted or something but I seriously don't feel anything really." Kurt rested his head against Blaine, pausing.

"Why did you split up?" Blaine asked softly.

"We fought terribly," Kurt huffed. "Not at first of course. We were together for almost two years, living together for the second year, after we moved out of college dorms, but I realised quite early on into that second year that it wasn't going to work out. He wasn't as committed as me... and I can't blame him, not everyone wants a serious relationship at such a young age. But you know me.. I don't do half measures..." Kurt lifted his head to look up at Blaine and was rewarded with a kiss.

"We drifted on anyway," Kurt continued. "Naively, I thought we would change, he would change, but things came to a head one day when I found he hadn't told any of his family about me - his boyfriend of two years. He'd been to my home for Christmas and other times as well, and was almost part of my family. I swore off of relationships after that all fell apart and became the cynical person you first met.."

"I loved that person," Blaine smiled, kissing Kurt again, this time a little deeper.. and longer until Kurt gasped into Blaine's mouth, "almost as much as I love the person you are now.... and I want nothing more than the chance to spend my life showing you how much."

"Blaine," Kurt sighed, realising with a certainty that if he travelled to the end of the earth and back again he would never find someone as perfect for him as this gorgeous man who was curled up with him in Rachel's armchair. All his life he'd craved romance, someone who was as invested in the idea of a committed relationship as he was and the thought that he'd found the perfect partner for life, hit him like a huge wave - engulfing him so he could barely breathe. It wasn't that he didn't really know any of that already, it was just he'd never thought about it all in its entirety before and seen quite so clearly how Blaine wanted all the same things as he did.

"We need to make new year resolutions," Blaine announced suddenly, noticing that there was only fifteen minutes to go until the new year chimed in. "A silly one and a serious one."

"Oh god," Kurt rolled his eyes, "I'm always hopeless at those. Thinking of what to choose and then keeping them.. and anyway are you supposed to tell other people what your resolutions are?"

"Of course you are," Blaine smiled, "especially people who have been allowed to touch your cock.. and I believe that if your cock has actually been in said person's mouth, they're allowed to help you choose what your new year resolutions are going to be."

Kurt blushed, scoffing at Blaine's ridiculousness. "Right. You go first then.."

"Okay..." Kurt could see a cheeky glint in Blaine's eye. "To have sex every day, or at least do something sexual, and if we don't see each other for a day or so then we have to make up for it when we do see each other.."

"My god," Kurt couldn't help laughing. "I assume that one's not serious. I can't wait to see what happens when we get back together after say, one of us has to go away for two weeks or something.. We'll have to make a tick chart."

"Or a dick chart," Blaine grinned, causing both of them to have a fit of the giggles. When they calmed down enough to look each other in the eyes and keep a straight face, Blaine spoke again. "Okay, also I'm going to tell you that 'I love you' every day.. and that's definitely one I plan on keeping.."

"Ooooh," Kurt turned to face Blaine, straddling his lap, not really caring who could see them. Most people were too drunk by now to take any notice of them anyway. "Why do I suddenly want to choose the same things as you?"

"Shall I help you think of something?" Blaine raised a questioning eyebrow as he smirked.

"Why do I get the feeling you've had a head start on me in thinking about this...? But it's okay.. it's just I can't think of a silly one, just lots and lots of serious ones that I really plan on sticking to. I'm going to trust you from now on, trust in us..., I'm going to never ever walk out on you if we've had a disagreement, and I don't know... I'm just going to enjoy our relationship, and celebrate the fact that I've never been as happy in my whole life as I am now.." Kurt felt Blaine's fingers threading through the back of his hair, pulling him in for a desperate kiss, deep and dirty. The type of kiss which usually lead on to Kurt begging Blaine to take him off to bed immediately, whatever the time of day..

"Come on you two rampant lovebirds," came Rachel's voice from somewhere over Kurt's shoulder, "you don't want to miss seeing in the new year do you?" They both looked up at her, seeing her standing there holding a glass of sparkling wine for each of them, ready for the midnight toast. "I've missed you two," she added with a smile.

"Thanks Rach." Kurt climbed off of Blaine, standing up next to her. He hoped that no one would be focused on the outline of his erection, prominent in his tight jeans. He couldn't do much about it, at least nothing to make it less obvious than it already was. He gave Blaine a hand to pull him up from the armchair to join himself and Rachel, pleased to notice that Blaine was equally aroused.

As the countdown began Santana came over and joined them, wanting to see in the new year with her best friends. Rachel had moved across the now crowded lounge to find Brody, everyone gathered in front of the television, ready to watch the ball drop. Kurt stood pressed tight behind Blaine as they turned to watch the screen, cheering with everyone as the hour turned.

All over the city fireworks were set off, lighting up the night sky. Brody flung open the doors to the balcony. It was a little cold, but a few people moved outside to soak up the atmosphere, creating a bit more space again in the lounge. Kurt and Blaine swayed against each other to the soft background music, becoming a little lost in each other. "This is going to be the best year ever," Kurt kissed along Blaine's jawline, his lips soft and tender, "I just know it.."

********

Six months later

Blaine lay in bed looking at Kurt's sleeping form, the early morning sunlight peeping through the slim gap in the curtains. It looked like it was going to be a nice day. He would have loved to have woken Kurt up with soft tender touches, run his hands over his smooth naked back, but he knew Kurt was tired and needed all the sleep he could get. Sex still hadn't lost its thrilling excitement for them, no matter how tired they were, and they often went to bed with the intention of sleep, only to be wriggling out of their underwear just a few short minutes later. Last night had been no exception.

Looking back, Blaine couldn't believe everything that had happened in this last year. When he'd first arrived in New York, he'd had hopes and dreams like everyone else did when they came to the big apple. He'd hoped he'd find love in the city where being gay was accepted and that he'd be able to embrace everything NYADA had to offer him and maybe find a career, doing what he loved. When he'd imagined love, he'd thought he'd probably date a few different guys, nothing particularly serious at first, never dreaming that little more than a year later he'd have been living with someone he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

A couple of months ago, Tina's boyfriend had got a job at a dance studio here in New York and Blaine immediately offered the apartment to the both of them, moving in with Kurt that same week. It had been an unspoken agreement that he would at some point move in with Kurt, and since doing so their lives had fitted together so seamlessly it was as if it was meant to be. Their relationship had gone from strength and while they still had disagreements from time to time, it was never anything that they couldn't talk through. In fact Blaine had his suspicions that Kurt would turn trivial things into full blown arguments just so that Blaine would drag him off to the bedroom for some delicious make up sex.

Kurt's new job at the theatre company turned out to be just perfect. He loved the thrill and excitement of theatre, whilst being able to embrace his creative side. He was comfortable working with like minded people and if anything his dress and style had become a little more flamboyant, no longer having to feel self conscious about who or what he was. The icing on the cake was that each day he was able to come home into the arms and bed of the man he was still absolutely crazy about.

Kurt still had the coffee shop which virtually ran itself now. He'd managed to build up a reliable bank of staff including an excellent full time manager, so it really caused him little trouble. It was reassuring to know that at least he had it to fall back on should he need it, plus he had lots of happy memories associated with the place, from the euphoria of it first opening, through to a certain young student walking through the door there looking for a job and changing his life forever.

Blaine, although still a student, was going from strength to strength. He was including more of his own original songs in his live performing and was slowly becoming someone that people came to see rather than someone who just happened to be playing live when people visited the bar. There was some talk of a recording contract at some point, but Blaine had no plans to rush into anything.

Despite their ambitions in their respective careers, Kurt and Blaine both loved the domesticity of living together, enjoying a night at home as much as a night out with their friends. Although they didn't talk about it often, despite their young ages, they both knew that somewhere in the future there would be marriage and children, when the time was right.

So sure were they that they were meant to be together, that they never once doubted that if they hadn't met when they did (if Blaine hadn't swallowed his fears and entered Kurt's coffee shop) they would most certainly have met somewhere along the way, sometime, some place. After all, that's what happens when you're soulmates, isn't it?

THE END