"The way I care about you."

168 Days Until Kurt's Wedding – 9:06 AM

It was still early morning when Kurt got home. As soon as he opened the door, the almost-night last night made him immediately feel guilty. He was supposed to come home, he remembered. Alek had planned them a romantic evening – evidence of which were scattered all around the apartment.

Kurt stepped on the rose petals that lead across the living room. Alek had taken every single blanket, pillow, and cushion in their apartment and assorted them to make a bed-like structure in the corner of the room. He had tied their thin, silk sheets as drapery that drifted down to the floor. There were lit Christmas lights hanging around the sheets like floating stars. Kurt glanced towards their Christmas tree to find that it had been stripped on its lights. Smiling, he crawled into the fort and into the arms of his fianc�.

Kurt started to kiss the hollow of Alek's neck. Alek made an affectionate noise.

"Wake up, you," Kurt hummed.

"It's light out. What time is it?" Alek questioned, tightening his eyes shut but pulling Kurt closer nonetheless.

"Does it matter?" Kurt whispered, kissing Alek's lips. Alek smiled against them; it really didn't.

Kurt and Alek's Story – Sophomore Year

Blaine was the hardest person to wake up. The only thing that could really wake him was his alarm, which he abused the snooze button on every morning. Kurt had a system though; he knew how to wake his roommate up. He had a year of practice.

Kurt loved having classes with Blaine. It was rare because of their conflicting majors. However, when Kurt realized they'd signed up for the same class at 8 AM, he almost pitied himself.

The first class on the first day of classes sophomore year was Modern Art – 8 AM. It only took Blaine ten minutes to get ready, so as Kurt readied himself, he let Blaine sleep. When Kurt finished, he began the routine.

Kurt hopped up onto Blaine's bed and started to jump. The boy pulled his covers closer to his body and grunted incomprehensible words.

"Blaine! Blaine! Blaine! Blaine! Wake up! Wake uuuuup!" Kurt called down at his friend.

Blaine kicked at Kurt's right leg. This part was when Kurt would fall to his knees to prevent anymore kicking.

"Blaine! Blaine! Wake up! Blaine!" Kurt said right into Blaine's face.

Kurt prepared himself because in the next second, Blaine tossed him onto the floor.

"Go away," Blaine mumbled, digging deeper into his pillow.

Kurt grinned mischievously as he gripped the sheets and tugged, pulling the sheets and Blaine off the floor. Blaine's eyes shot open with strong dislike as he glared at Kurt.

"This year too, Kurt?" he groaned.

"If you'd wake up like a normal human being…"

Kurt packed his books in his shoulder bag as Blaine changed, styled his hair, and brushed his teeth. In ten minutes, they were on their way to class.

"Do you actually like doing that?" Blaine asked, sipping the coffee Kurt had made for him.

"Yes, actually," Kurt admitted.

Blaine elbowed him lightly, hiding a smile. They got to the building. Their class was in a pretty big lecture hall, which meant they'd be able to sit wherever. The class wasn't full yet, but the teacher had already started talking when the two boys snuck in.

"-small class size for a big room. How this happened, I don't know, but I'm going to assign seats, so you're not scattered around, and then I won't have to shout. Okay, let's start. Anderson, Blaine!"

Blaine suddenly perked up, standing. He walked down the aisle to where the teacher instructed.

Blaine glanced back at Kurt. He threw him a look that could be read as, Really? Assigned seats?

Kurt returned a look that could be interpreted as, I know!

Blaine shook his head, and Kurt saw his face read, And I'm in the front row. No dozing off for me.

Kurt smiled, sending back, You'd never wake up.

Blaine threw Kurt a sarcastic screw-you face.

Kurt was laughing as the professor called, "Hummel, Kurt!"

Breaking eye contact with Blaine, he jumped up. She directed him a few rows back from his roommate. He almost tripped on the boy sitting next to him.

"Sorry," he mumbled, catching the boy's eye as he sat.

He was cute, Kurt decided. He could use a hair cut because his sandy brown hair kept blocking his light eyes, but that was something that could be easily looked over. He was playing with his reading glasses and kept glancing at Kurt. Kurt blushed because his own glances kept getting caught.

"That's a great bag," the boy said softly. "Is that Marc Jacobs?"

Kurt smiled down at it. "Only the best."

Before either boy could say anything else, the professor started teaching. Kurt allowed himself a look or two towards the light eyed boy throughout the lesson. When the class ended, Kurt paid really close attention to packing up his books. He almost felt the boy's eyes on him.

"Kurt, want to get some breakfast?" Blaine's voice asked.

When Kurt looked up, the boy was bending past Blaine. Kurt was almost disappointed, but then he saw Blaine's smile.

For the next few weeks, Kurt and Blaine would start the beginning of class with their silent, unspoken conversations. Kurt only ever smiled at his neighbor; they never spoke.

One day in October, Blaine couldn't make it to class.

"Where's your friend?" the boy immediately asked, as he sat quietly, waiting for class to begin.

Kurt's head snapped sideways. "My roommate? He's sick."

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to be nosy," he said, sinking a little into his seat.

Kurt laughed. "You're not. I'm Kurt because it's silly that we haven't been introduced yet."

"Alek," he said with a warm smile that made Kurt's heart beat in protest.

They talked for a few minutes before the lesson started, and Kurt realized that all he wanted to do was end the lesson so he could talk to Alek some more.

"Hey, did you maybe want to study?" Alek asked as they headed out into the city together.

He was composing a text to Blaine when Alek asked. He almost dropped his phone.

"That'd be great, yeah."

Kurt never finished that text.

In class, the conversations between Blaine and Kurt get shorter and shorter and the conversations with Alek got longer and longer. Outside of class though, he mostly spent time with Blaine. Alek was great, but he was no Blaine.

168 Days Until Kurt's Wedding – 11:46 AM

Alek fixed them breakfast as Kurt texted Blaine at the table. From behind his back, Alek placed a plate of pancakes in front of Kurt, kissing his neck.

Alek must have read the text because he said, "How is Blaine?"

"Awful," Kurt mumbled, putting his phone down.

Alek hugged Kurt's shoulders. "Take as much time as you need to fix him up."

Kurt touched the arms around his torso, leaning back into Alek.

Blaine and Eddie's Story– Freshman Year

Blaine's alarm rang for the umpteenth time before he finally woke up. Scrambling off his bed, he walked like a zombie towards the light switch. As soon as he flicked it on, the overhead light flickered and burnt out.

"Really?" Blaine muttered, glaring at the ceiling.

Grabbing his key off his desk, he trudged through the hall. Somehow in his sleepy haze, he ended up in front of his R.A. Eddie's dorm. Rapping on the door, he waited. Eddie pulled the door open.

"Did you just wake up, Blaine?" Eddie laughed.

"My light's out in my room. I come to you, right?" Blaine said, his voice not strong enough to speak.

Eddie couldn't hide his smile. "I'll tell the custodians. Go back to bed."

"Class," Blaine said, walking away.

"Hey, Anderson, you know, maybe after class, after your light is fixed, we can study or get Starbucks or just walk around town…"

This woke Blaine up immediately. Spinning around, Eddie was smiling confidently at him.

"Sure," was all Blaine could say.

The entire time Blaine was with Eddie, he kept trying to text Kurt. He didn't want to be in an awkward situation with their R.A. on his own. Kurt refused to reply. By the time of their Starbucks run, Blaine realized that Eddie was really cool and choosing to go into town with him wasn't a hard decision.

Things only took off from there. Whenever Blaine wasn't with Kurt, he was with Eddie.

"Want to come out with me tonight?" Eddie asked him on a random Thursday night.

Blaine pulled his face out of the novel he was reading. "Not my thing."

"It's not mine either," he said, coming towards Blaine, before pulling his book out of his hands.

"Why do you go then?" Blaine said, giving Eddie room to sit on his own bed.

He shrugged. "I guess to fit in. It's fun though, but my inner gay comes out way too fast when I'm drunk."

Blaine laughed, blushing. "Your inner gay?"

"I'm an incredibly slutty drunk," Eddie admitted, laughing. Blaine joined him. "And by inner gay, I mean, I'm usually good at not being flamboyant, but when I'm drunk, if you're a boy, you are uncharted territory – gay or straight."

Blaine bit his lip. "Oh, you're gay?"

Eddie chuckled. "Really, Blaine?"

"I-I just…I didn't…"

"I thought you of all people could tell."

"Me? Why me? Because I'm gay?"

Eddie shuffled closer, their knees touching. "Because I really like you, and I thought you knew."

Blaine's mouth dropped open. In his head, he wanted this to happen, but he was sure Eddie was straight. But as Eddie leaned forward, Blaine suddenly figured out why Eddie always wanted to hang out.

The kissing was an added bonus, even though Eddie didn't want anything serious. When Blaine told Kurt about what was happening, Kurt was less than thrilled.

"He's a closeted homo, Blaine, that's asking you to tiptoe into his closet for a quick make-out, but when it comes down to it, he's going to drop you for the first hot beard he sees!"

"Kurt!" Blaine said shocked.

"I'm just trying to look out for you. You're so smitten, you don't even realize that dating our R.A. isn't allowed!"

"We aren't dating…"

"You're right. Sex isn't dating," Kurt said, annoyance in his tone.

"We kissed a couple of times! That isn't sex!"

"Whatever. Do what you want…"

And Blaine did. The more deep he got with Eddie, the more Eddie didn't want a relationship. But Blaine didn't care because he really liked him and everything they were doing with each other was so new, so exciting. He was a teenage boy after all.

Kurt avoided the subject until it disappeared all together, and he and Blaine fell back into their groove. By the time the term ended, the relationship was disappearing as well.

"Where are you living next year?" Eddie asked, scattering kisses across Blaine's shoulder.

He and Blaine were lying in Eddie's bed; Blaine's bare back to Eddie's bare chest.

"Hayden again with Kurt." Eddie made a disappointed noise. "What's wrong?"

Blaine felt Eddie lumber off the bed.

"This was harder than I thought it would be, Blaine, and it's coming a lot sooner than later," Eddie said as he pulled on his boxers.

"What is?" Blaine asked.

"I think we should end this. I mean, it wasn't anything serious anyhow."

Maybe they weren't boyfriends, and maybe all they did was fool around, but Blaine felt like his whole world was falling apart. Grabbing his shorts, he threw them on and ran back to his dorm. Kurt wasn't there, so he waited. By the time his roommate came back, Blaine was certain he'd cried himself dry. He was wrong.

Kurt ended up popping in the fourth Harry Potter movie and held his roommate until they both feel asleep.

Kurt, Blaine, Alek, and Eddie's Stories Continue – Sophomore Year

Kurt hated his History of Western Art II class. He found himself in the library more often than not. Balancing six or seven books, Kurt dug through his pockets for his room key.

He suddenly heard a moan coming from inside his room. Almost dropping his books, he stood there in shock. Another moan. What the hell was Blaine doing in there? Kurt's cheeks burned as his mind wandered. What was he supposed to do now? Maybe if he dropped his books or-

"Oh, oh, Blaine," a voice panted.

Kurt couldn't breathe. He knew that voice. Angry flooded the shock, and he wanted to kick down the door. This was his room! Why was Blaine soiling it!

Ready to barge in, he heard them talking again, so he froze.

"Tell me when you're ready," Eddie breathed, his voice harsh.

"Yeah. Yeah, go ahead," Blaine whimpered.

There was a moan and then a yelp, followed by a gasp of pain.

All other emotions resisted Kurt. Trying not to feel dirty for what he'd just heard, trying not to break down and cry, he abandoned his room and sauntered down the hall.

Blaine had said he was over Eddie. Blaine had said that he hasn't spoken to Eddie since that day he ended things freshman year. How did Eddie talk his way back into Blaine's life? And why was Blaine letting this happen? Why was Blaine giving Eddie that?

As Kurt sorted through the answers, he found himself in front of Alek's door. He didn't realize how far he'd traveled. Letting the books slip from his arms, he banged against the door.

Alek pulled it open, looking surprised. He seemed happy for a second until he realized that Kurt wasn't there just to say hello. Kurt crashed into his friend's arms.

Kurt didn't cry or sob or anything of the sort. He was just emotionless. He stared off into space as Alek rubbed his back.

"What happened?"

Monotone, Kurt said, "My roommate was having sex."

Alek made a damn!-that-sucks hissing sound. "Wait…that Blaine guy? The one you like telepathically have conversations with?"

"Unfortunately…"

Alek pulled away, looking stunned. Kurt glanced over at Alek. He looked way more upset than he needed to look.

"Cut back on the empathy," Kurt said, "and tell me how I look at Blaine without barfing the next time I see him."

"You know it's more than that, Kurt."

"What do you mean?"

"You're going to be fighting a lot more than just your gag reflex – maybe something to the equivalent of a dagger through the heart."

"I don't underst-"

"How long have you been in love with him?" Alek asked abruptly. Kurt expected to hear frustration or sadness, but Alek was simply curious. When Kurt couldn't manage an answer, Alek continued, "I thought so. Blaine obviously doesn't care about you the way you care about him."

Kurt was ready to defend Blaine, when he saw how quickly Alek's eyes softened.

"Blaine doesn't care about you the way I care about you."

Kurt stared wide-eyed at Alek. The other boy's glances shifted between Kurt's lips and his eyes. With a shaky hand, he touched Kurt's cheek, his thumb tracing the line of Kurt's bottom lip. Kurt sucked in a breath and snaked his hand behind Alek's head, only to pull him forward.

For a second, he forgot about Blaine…only for a second.

168 Days Until Kurt's Wedding – 12:14 PM

"Is it okay if I go back over?" Kurt asked, washing the dishes. "He probably hasn't eaten."

Alek kissed Kurt's cheek. "You don't need my permission."

As he headed out of the apartment, he felt guilty for leaving Blaine in the first place. Blaine's where Kurt's head had been the entire morning. Kurt felt guilty about that too.