"God I am so DUMB."

"Wh—What? What's... Blaine, what time is it?"

"I'm the stupidest person on the planet, Wes, I am. I swear. Oh my God."

Wes groaned as he rolled over to check the clock on his nightstand. "Blaine Anderson. It is five forty-one in the morning."

"I know."

"Explain to me why you are calling me at five forty- one in the morning."

"Because I'm an idiot."

"Clearly." Wes sat up, groggily running a hand across his face. "I'm gonna need some details."

"Well Kurt and I stayed at the bar after you and Rachel left..."

"I do not like where this is going."

"Do you want to hear it or not?" Wes was silent. "Okay. Kurt and I stayed at the bar after you and Rachel left, and we talked. For hours. We talked about so much, and it was great, and Piano Bob came to talk to us, and it was just a nice night, and—ugh."

Wes paused, waiting for Blaine to continue. "I'm not hearing a downside."

Blaine shifted uncomfortably where he was sitting. "Well—I—Shit. Okay. So we left. And it was still nice. Great, actually. But when we got to his apartment—"

"You went home with him?!"

"Will you listen?!" Again, Wes was quiet. "I walked him home, and... He leaned in to kiss me."

Wes wasn't sure he heard correctly. "Wait, what?"

Blaine groaned, clearly getting annoyed. "He tried to kiss me! And I... left."

"You WHAT."

Blaine bit his lip. "I ran."

Wes was sitting up straight, completely attentive now. "Explain to me why you would do such a thing."

Blaine fell back on his bed and let out another groan. "I don't know, okay? It's just, I mean..." He rubbed his face and let out a sigh. "Okay. You want the truth?"

On the other line, Wes rolled his eyes. "No. Lie to me. Yes, I want the truth!"

Blaine rolled to his side, hugging a pillow like it was his lifeline. "He was drunk."

Wes waited for a further explanation. "...Okay?"

"Wes! He was drunk!" Blaine exclaimed. "Of course I couldn't kiss him! What if he didn't even remember the next day? Oh God, what if he already forgot that that even happened?"

"Blaine."

"I just... Didn't want to take advantage of him when he was intoxicated."

The line went dead. Blaine waited for Wes to say something. After a minute or so, he checked the screen to see if the call was still going.

"You're fucking with me."

"What? Wes, no, I—"

"No, you have actually got to be fucking with me right now. There's no way you actually thought you'd be taking advantage of him. There's just no way."

"Wes, I'm serious, I—"

"Blaine. Answer me a couple questions. Did you initiate anything?"

"Well, I mean no but I—"

Wes cut him off. "Uh uh. Yes or no answers. I don't want any of your explanations right now. Now. Did you initiate anything?"

Wes heard Blaine huff on the other end. "No."

"Did he give you any reason to think he wasn't in control of his actions?"

"...no..."

"Has he given you any reason in the past to think that he wouldn't want to kiss you?"

Blaine inhaled sharply. After a moment, he answered. "Well, it never exactly came up, not in so many words, anyway, but—"

"That doesn't sound like a 'yes or no' to me, but I'm gonna take it as a 'no'," Wes responded, smirking. "Now, does that sound like someone who's been taken advantage of?"

Blaine paused, letting it sink in for a moment. "Well, no, but he did drink a lot, and I wasn't sure if—"

"I can't say for sure," Wes chuckled, "but Kurt doesn't exactly strike me as a lightweight. He's a big boy. I'm sure he can handle himself." Wes' eyes snapped open as an idea popped in his head. "Wait. You did want to kiss him, right?"

"What?" Blaine asked, actually looking at the phone and giving it an incredulous expression. "Of course I did. SO MUCH. I just... It didn't feel right."

Wes contemplated this. "You know, Blaine, I wasn't there. I'm not gonna tell you what you should have done. But if it's meant to work out, it will."

Blaine rolled back on the bed, snuggling into the pillow like his life depended on it. "I'm an idiot, aren't I?"

The corner of Wes' mouth twitched. "Probably. But it's not the end of the world." He checked the clock again and groaned internally. "Hey, you should probably get back to bed."

"Oh me?" Blaine asked, voice piquing. "I haven't gone to sleep yet."

"What?"

"I, um, I couldn't sleep."

Wes shook his head. "Man, if you were this much of a mess back in our Warbler days, I never would have become friends with you."

Despite himself, Blaine smiled. "Shut up."

Wes stretched, leaning back onto his mattress. "Call me if you need anything, alright? I'm flying out this morning, but I'm free to talk tonight if you need."

"Thank you, Wes. I really appreciate it."

"Yeah, yeah." Wes hung up smiling and shook his head. His best friend could be ridiculous sometimes.

He laid back onto his bed and shut his eyes, hoping to get a little more sleep before he had to be up.

Within seconds, the alarm was going off.

"I'm going to actually kill him."

...

THREE HOURS EARLIER

"Aidan?"

There he was, the same as he had always looked. He was shorter than Kurt, and cute. Not quite model status, but still nice to look at. His high-end suit was perfectly well kept and his glasses didn't have so much as a smudge. He was staring at Kurt with big, open eyes, palms out, as if to show he wasn't armed.

"Kurt, before you say anything, I just want to say I am so sorry. I should have been with you at the hospital. But hearing that you were in such terrible shape... it terrified me. I couldn't imagine life without you. Life without you... doesn't seem like life at all.

You are the light in my days and the joy in my nights. What we have together is immeasurable. You only get something like this once in your life. I want to be the one waking up next to you every day. I want to make you coffee, even though I don't like it, just because I know it would make your mornings brighter. When we're old and wrinkled and sitting on a porch, we'll look back at our lives and this moment will be but a hazy memory. This, right now, this is only the start of what's to come, and I want to spend my life by your side."

Aidan took a step towards Kurt. "I'm so sorry I ever put you through this. What I did was unforgivable. But I need you to forgive me. We are better than this. We are strong. Together. This is... This was a dark point in my life. But I know that now. And I will make it up to you, even if I have to let you go shopping with my credit cards every day for the rest of our lives together. That's what makes you happy, I know, and I'm willing to give that to you. Just... be the light in my days? Forgive me?"

Kurt couldn't move. He stood there, jaw dropped, for what could have been centuries.

"Kurt... Say something."

Kurt went to speak but no sound came out.

When he tried again, his voice shook. "Aidan..."

"Oh, Kurt." Aidan rushed in and embraced him. Kurt didn't have time to react and his arms were caught between their bodies. It took a moment for his mind to catch up with his body and realize what was happening.

"Aidan—"

"Yes?"

"How long have you been practicing that speech?"

He took a step back, Aidan looking as though he had just been slapped. "Kurt..."

"No, really." Kurt took a few more steps back and appraised the man in front of him head to toe. "Because most of that sounds eerily familiar to your wedding vows I found on our kitchen counter two months ago. And for the record, I thought they sounded cheesy then, too. And I would bet good money that your cousin Jonathan, the 'writer'" he put the word writer in air quotes, "wrote them for you anyway."

Aidan's jaw was dropped.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Aidan stammered a few times before regaining his ability to function. "But that doesn't mean I love you any less! Those-- those are all things I feel, babe, I—"

"Oh, save it for someone who gives a shit." Kurt shook his head and let out a short, humorless laugh. "I can't even believe I almost married you." He looked Aidan straight in the eye, voice clear. "So I guess he broke up with you, then, huh?"

Aidan's eyes widened. "What? No! Kurt, I... I never—"

"Oh, don't even try. I know you've been sleeping around for months now. Probably longer. But I ignored it, pretended it wasn't happening." He let out another laugh. "I actually thought that marriage was going to fix that. When did I get this na�ve? I'm smarter than this. I'm better than this."

"Kurt, babe..."

"No. I want nothing to do with you. I don't want to see your face, or your clothes, or even catch a scent of your cologne ever again. I'm done. Any chance we could have had ended the second you didn't come to the hospital.

"I knew what had happened. You chose him over me. That guy you're fucking? It was bound to happen anyway, right? You decided that I was a goner anyway, so what an easy way out. Well here's news for you. I'm fine. You know what? No. I'm better than fine. I'm great. I literally can't remember the last time I have felt like this. It's been years. You were killing me, I swear. But I'm done now."

There was a long, pregnant pause, and Kurt felt stronger than he could ever remember feeling. Aidan was staring at his shoes.

After a long moment, Aidan looked up to meet Kurt's glare, a spark in his eye. "It's that doctor, isn't it?"

The words almost physically took Kurt back. "What?"

"You're fucking that pretty boy doctor," he sneered. "I knew it the second I saw him. He's cute, sure, but what does he really have to offer? Besides, I'm sure he's not half as good as I am."

Kurt took a moment. He stared at this man he had been in love with for years—and laughed. Not just laughed, but laughed. He laughed until it physically hurt him and then he laughed some more. There were tears streaming from his eyes. He couldn't catch his breath. "You... you..." But he couldn't get the words out yet.

After several minutes of his giggling fit, Kurt finally composed himself enough to form a coherent sentence. "That's all you've got? 'I'm sure he's not half as good as I am'? What are you, a high school freshman? I actually can't believe this." He broke off laughing again. "No, no, I'm not sleeping with my doctor. But you're not even in the same league as him. He's a genuinely nice person, and he cares about me. Actually cares. You only cared about how I looked and what was for dinner."

Kurt scoffed and placed his hands on his hips. He looked around the room. "You know what? I should honestly be thanking you. Really, I should. You are saving me. I can't even imagine being married to you. I didn't think I could do any better, but now I genuinely don't think I could have possibly done worse. Wow. Wow." He pursed his lips and nodded. "I think it's about time for you to go."

Aidan looked shell-shocked. He grabbed his wallet and his phone and headed to the door without so much as a word. As he was turning the handle, though, he stopped and turned around to face Kurt. "Have fun fucking the doctor."

Aidan was out the door, but Kurt kept it open and called down the hall after him. "Have fun fucking your hand!"

He closed the door behind him and leaned on it, letting out possibly the biggest exhale of his life. He stared at his apartment and, for the first time since getting discharged from the hospital, it didn't feel like it was missing anything.

In fact, Kurt thought, it felt a little crowded.