He was thirsty and cold and the heiress that he had been working with part-time (because a certain someone was his full-time client) had gone out wearing a parka and wedges and he of course was accountable and that meant grappling with p.r. and he tripped over his toes a little bit as he got out of the elevator.

He walked down the hall, toward the office he shared with Tina, and as his hand rested on the door handle, he heard Tina’s delighted laugh, and he wondered what caused it. He opened the door.

Blaine was there.

He was in Kurt’s desk chair, but not behind his desk- no, he had rolled it toward where Tina sat, and was embroiled in a quiet yet cheerful conversation.

“Why are you here?” Kurt demanded, before he could gain control of his mouth. Blaine swiveled around in his chair- Kurt’s chair!- and smiled at him, standing up.

“Hey, baby!” He said, with that easy grin, getting up and crossing the room, towards him. Kurt’s eyes flew to Tina’s, and she looked nervous, like she had been caught in the act. Before he could mention this, though, Blaine was greeting him with a chaste little kiss on the mouth and a squeeze of the hips. Kurt grabbed his hands and threw them away.

“No. What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to pick you up, I thought we could go to dinner, and then maybe st-”

“No! Blaine, I don’t want to talk about how you are going to take me to dinner. I don’t want to talk about what we’re going to be able to do over the weekend, and I don’t want to talk about when we’re going to covenant, I want to know why the fuck you are in my office!”

“Kurt.” Blaine said quietly, and cautiously reaching for his hands again, “Kurt. I need you to calm down for me, and then we’ll talk about thi-”

“I don’t think I have to calm down, Blaine. I really don’t. I really think I’m at just the right level of calm. It’s been, what, two fucking months and you’ve already inserted yourself into my life. Now I’ve been pretty fucking good about that. I’ve wanted it, even. But for you to come into my office and sit in my chair, the one place I’m, I’m not… I don’t feel like…” He trailed off.

“Like a sub?” Blaine asked, raising his eyebrows. “Funny, I… I thought we were getting somewhere.”

“I don’t… It’s not… Damn it!” Kurt spluttered, his eyes pricking with tears. He pushed past him, trying to get as much space in between himself and the other man, because it was unreasonable that what made him want to cry the most right now was how hurt Blaine looked when he said it. He should feel good that Blaine was hurt. He should feel good that he’d maintained the power to hurt. He was mad as hell.

“It’s not what, Kurt?” Blaine asked, his voice hollow.

“It… It doesn’t have to do with... with that.” He said, shakily. He took another breath and coached himself back to anger. “It’s to do with how you have the damn nerve to come up here. To invade the last place I’ve kept private!”

“I’ve been in your office before, Kurt.” Blaine sounded weary.

“You’ve been downstairs in the stock room. You’ve never been here!”

“Kurt, you’re being si-”

“Shut up! Jesus Christ, don’t you ever stop with your opinions on my personal behavior? My own feelings? I know pretty damn well what I’m being, Blaine Anderson.”

“You want me to go?” Blaine asked quietly.

“What do you think?” Kurt answered, throwing his hands up in the air.

Blaine nodded. He left.

Kurt collapsed where he stood.

Tina was over to him in an instant, and Kurt tried to find his voice.

“Did I just ruin everything?” He found himself asking.

“No, honey.” Tina said automatically, petting his hair.

“Can you go get him?”

“No.” Tina said again.

“At least tell him not to go permanently?”

“He knows, Kurt. He knows.” Kurt nodded, needing to believe that, and then dissolved in Tina’s arms.
***

“You make really good tea.” Kurt said, looking down into his mug. Tina sat across the island from him- She and Leon, what with dual fairly successful incomes, had done pretty well for themselves, he reflected, running his fingers over the smooth marble at the center of the kitchen.

“Half-asian.” She shrugged. “My father’s family had all the herbal recipes and my mother is the world’s biggest hippie. You end up with a shit load of tea.” Kurt snorted softly. “It helps, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Tina had called the deep green tea she poured ‘kai hua,’ and it had dissolved away the headache that Kurt was left with after the crying jag. He took another sip.

“You’re going to be okay, you know.” Tina said, delicately. “It’s not over.”

“I don’t see how it isn’t.” Kurt said, putting his cup down and laying his chin on his arms. Doms and subs never fought. It went against the instinct.

“You had one fight.” She said, looking at him over the rim of her cup.

“Exactly!” He said, pressing his eyes closed. “We fought. He’s not Max, he’ll release me right away, but god, I didn’t want it to end, Tina.”

“Okay, we’re going to discard the concept of whatever you did with Max for a few minutes, because he doesn’t count as healthy relationships. You didn’t want to be with him.” She waited for Kurt’s nod. “But it’s not like that with Blaine.” She waited again. “So, why do you think one fight would end it?”

“Because… I’m a sub. I’m not supposed to fight.”

“Being a sub doesn’t negate being human, Kurt. You of all people should know that.” Kurt didn’t say anything. “Being a sub or a dom… living that way… we don’t do it because it makes for the perfect relationship. Think of how absurd that would be. How much a sub would have to give up. How much the dom would have to train themselves not to go mad with power.”

“Then why?” Kurt asked, feeling a bit petulant. “Why do we do it?”

“Because… it’s better. It’s better to be in a relationship that’s imperfect- and every relationship is- than to live a perfectly clean and celibate and loveless life on your own-”

“I was trying the latter for a while there-” Kurt interrupted, and Tina chuckled.

“And because being a sub or a dom is natural. We’re just animals, after all. You see it in the wild all the time. One takes control. The other is indulged. Maybe they spend the rest of their lives together, maybe they move on, but either way- its nature. It’s the way of the world.”

“So… fighting…”

“It happens, Kurt. Leon and I do. I slapped him once.” Kurt laughed softly, taking a sip of his tea. “And I shouldn’t be the one to tell you this, but honey, boy’s in love with you. He’s not going anywhere just because you threw him out of your office.” Kurt wondered if he should be scared of this, but he smiled into his tea.

“Thanks, Tee.” He said, quiet.

“Do you want to stay here for the night?”

No. He wanted to go home. But Max was there, and he couldn’t have Blaine to hold him all night and keep that particular ghost away.

He wanted to see Blaine. He also wanted to give him time.

“If it’s alright with Leon.” He said, and Tina smiled, before waving her hand, and asking which movie they should rent.
***

He was scared when Blaine hadn’t called by the next morning. Because what if Tina was wrong? He confronted her. She looked at him like he was dumb.

“He’s not going to call you first.” She said, handing him a small stack of buttery toast. “He’s going to wait for you to come to him. He’s giving you space. Plus, it’s Saturday morning. Maybe he’s still asleep.”

“Could be.” He said, softly, fidgeting in the armchair he had nestled in to stare at his phone.

“Oh, go on.”

“What?”

“Get in the shower first, and then go.”

“I didn’t-”

“Kurt, I don’t want to see you making sad faces at your phone all over my house when I could be enjoying my Saturday. Go and see if that boy can fix your teenage fever.”

The words ‘Teenage fever’ had him blushing a hot red, but he got up to kiss Tina on the forehead and head upstairs to shower.

“No need to thank me!” She called up the stairs.
***

Blaine had looked better.

It looked like he had reverted back to the second time they’d ever been together. A loose tee shirt, his curls untamed, those goddamn yoga pants.

He stared at Kurt for a good two seconds before pulling him in by the hips and kicking the door closed, only to press him against it.

The kiss was soft, not possessive. It was, however, hungry, and Kurt opened his mouth to him, wrapping his arms around his neck.

“Kurt.” Blaine sighed his name back into his mouth. Kurt just mmm’d. “C’mon.” He pulled away and took Kurt’s hand, leading him to the bedroom.

Kurt wasn’t scared this time. He knew Blaine wouldn’t do anything, and even if he did, Kurt might just be okay with that.

Blaine allowed him to toe his shoes off before he sat on the unmade bed, and Kurt thought for a minute about the intimacy of that. Blaine lay in these sheets in his sleep, his world vulnerable, his cells falling into the linen, his sweat when the night was warm making it smell like him. He wasn’t bothered by it. Blaine sat across from him.

“Can I?” He asked, quiet. Blaine nodded. “I’m so sorry, Blaine. I freaked out for no reason. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I should have let you calm me down so we could have worked it out.”

“It wasn’t no reason.” Blaine looked up at him, eyes bright with relief. “You don’t want me in your workspace. I can get that. I probably should have thought about it, but I just wanted to see you. I can be a bit impulsive. It’s not a good trait in a dom.”

“Losing my job because I’m a sub is something that has scared me since I started working. You just…”

“Triggered it. I’m so sorry, Kurt.”

“Don’t be. I should be sorry. I am. And…” He looked up at Blaine, who was, of course, smiling. This was going to be hard to say, but he’d thought about it all night. “And I think you should punish me.” He would have laughed at the expression Blaine gave him, his eyebrows almost disappearing into his hair line, had the situation not been serious.

“No, Kurt. That’s not… I’m not going to punish you for being angry with me.” Blaine said, tipping his head to the side. “And I’m not sure why you want me to.”

“I broke the rule. I didn’t tell you what I need, I lashed out. Besides, I broke quite a few rules that will eventually be in place for me, I assume.”

“Such as?”

“I spoke disrespectfully. I yelled. I didn’t trust you. And I disobeyed a direct order.” Blaine didn’t say anything. “You told me to calm down. I didn’t.”

“Kurt. Why do you want this?” Kurt nodded. He had prepared for this question.

“It’s one of the benefits you’ve been telling me about. If I’m punished, and I take it well, all is forgiven. And I know-” he overrode Blaine as he opened his mouth. “I know you forgive me anyway. But maybe I need this. To know you do. To forgive myself. And you promised me you wouldn’t ignore it when I told you what I need, Blaine.”

Blaine mulled this over.

“You bring up a good point. Several, actually.” He chuckled to himself. “But if I do this, you need to promise me that you understand that I’m not punishing you for your anger. I’m not punishing you for disagreeing with me, or for seeing me in a less than positive light. I’m punishing you because you disobeyed.” He said, his tone growing more and more firm. Kurt nodded. “You’ve been a good boy, being honest about your needs and telling me that you misbehaved. So it won’t be a difficult one.” Kurt nodded again. “Tell me your safeword.”

“Corduroy.”

“Good. I want you to lay on your stomach, honey. Undo your pants first.” He was quick to obey as Blaine pulled the top sheet and down onto the floor. “Hold onto this.” He gave Kurt a pillow from behind him, and Kurt got the message, hugging it close, pressing his face into it and trembling. It smelled like Blaine. The little curl of fear in his stomach was only that- a little one.

“I’m going to spank you, honey. Ten, open palmed, only on your ass. Do you understand why this is happening?” Kurt thought that was a bit of a silly question, but he nodded anyway. “May I?” He asked, his fingers sliding under the waistband of his pants. Kurt nodded again, and lifted his pelvis so that Blaine could pull his pants and underwear down.

Blaine’s hands were on him at once, smoothing over the skin of his ass. Kurt shuddered a little under the touch, but knew not to grind up or down.

“You’re so beautiful, Kurt. Can you count for me?” he asked, as he brought his hand down, so it landed, a sharp crack, against his ass.

The pain was quick, sharp, and it melted away instantly as Blaine ran his open palm over his skin again.

“One.” Kurt said, his voice quiet.

“Good.” Blaine said, before mirroring the slap on the other side.

“Two.” Kurt counted.

“That’s it.” He said softly. Three and four came sharp and hard, in quick succession. Five was accompanied by a little gasp of pain. “You’re doing so well. Halfway there.” He whispered, as six came cracking down. “My good boy.”

Seven made Kurt jerk a bit, and Blaine pressed a firm hand between his shoulder blades, holding him down ever so gently while Kurt counted out eight and nine.

“Ten.” Blaine whispered soft words of praise to Kurt and rubbed the skin of his ass, burning ever so slightly, in small circles, around and around. The pain melted slowly, and Blaine leaned down to kiss him where his skin was warmest before pulling up his underwear and pushing his pants off entirely, before taking the pillow Kurt clutched and throwing it aside, holding him instead, running a hand up and down his back.

“That’s my boy. I’m so proud of you.” He said, after they shared a soft kiss.

“All is forgiven?”

“Of course, my love.”

“Thank you.”

“No need for that.” Blaine dismissed, kissing his forehead. “Now I don’t know about you, but I got absolutely no sleep last night…” He trailed off, and Kurt leaned his cheek against his chest, fitting perfectly under his chin, and letting his eyes slip closed.