October 2012- New York City, New York

"Blaine!" Blaine searched for the source of the voice, frantically. The airport was so crowded with people; he was surprised he could even see a foot ahead of him. It also didn't help that he was so incredibly short. He was nicknamed "hobbit" at Dalton for a good reason. "Blaine, over here!"

Blaine was finally able to pin a figure to the familiar, high-pitched voice. Waving and jumping up and down was Kurt. Kurt Hummel, New York college student, freshman, studying hard to be a Broadway star, something he was destined to be, for sure. But to Blaine, Kurt Hummel was so much more than that. He was also Kurt Hummel, boyfriend extraordinaire. Kurt was Blaine's one and only reason for living. He loved him with everything he had. And finally, after two months of only emails and phone calls for communication, they were reunited. Blaine simply couldn't contain his joy, seeing the face of his high school love again.

Blaine pushed past a couple of people a tad forcefully to get to his Kurt, immediately enveloping him into a tight embrace.

"Kurt. Kurt, Kurt, Kurt. I missed you so much," Blaine whispered into Kurt's chestnut hair, which had grown slightly since Blaine had last seen it. It made Kurt look older, in a weird way. Older, but better. Almost... beautiful.

"I missed you too, Blaine," Kurt squiggled out of Blaine's grasp and reached out to grab one of Blaine's two bags. Kurt raised his eyebrows, taking in all that was Blaine. "Blaine. You're staying in New York for a week. And you only have two bags?"

"I figured that I could use you're washing machine or something. I didn't want to bring too much. I'd have to carry it all."

"That's why I'm here, Blaine," Kurt said, his expression not changing from its skeptical glare. Blaine smirked and nodded. “Come on. I have a car waiting for us.”

~~~

“And this is Cam. He’s in my theater arts class.”

Blaine smiled and shook hands with yet another stranger, trying to feign interest as Kurt introduced him to probably every guy on campus.

“Hi, Blaine! I’ve heard a lot about you,” Cam said with a friendly smile. I wish I could say the same about you, Blaine thought, maybe slightly bitterly.

“Cam is like... my only friend that actually reads Vogue. Nobody else understands! It’s so hard!” Kurt grinned.

“Well, yeah! Vogue is the best. I haven’t missed a single issue since ninth grade!” I’ve been reading Vogue since sixth grade. Blaine almost hated himself for the way he was thinking. Treating every one of these guys Kurt introduced him to as a potential threat. But the way Kurt laughed around them... It was loud and joyous and Blaine hadn’t heard Kurt laugh like that since the year they met at Dalton.

“Cam was also in glee club in high school,” Kurt mused. “His team was from California, and they didn’t make it to nationals, so we didn’t get a chance to see him. Which is too bad, because Cam has an amazing voice!”

“Kurt tells me you were in the Warblers?” Cam asked, raising an eyebrow in question.

“Well, yeah. For a little bit, like a year and a half. I transferred into the public school in Lima at the start of my junior year, so now I’m actually in the...”

“The New Directions! I was looking forward to another chance to try and beat you guys this year. Too bad I had to graduate, right Kurt?” Kurt laughed again, really loudly. Almost too loudly...

“Yeah! Well, if I were still in the New Directions, there’s no way you would have beat us! My voice is amazing, as I’m sure you know.”

“Definitely! Seriously, Blaine. Kurt’s voice is amazing! His range is just stellar. Did you know that he is a co-”

“A countertenor!” Blaine interrupted, clearly irritated. “Yeah, I know. We were in the Warblers and the New Directions together. And he’s my boyfriend. Of course I know his voice is amazing.”

“Jeez, Blaine,” Kurt said, punching Blaine’s shoulder, playfully. “Don’t have to get all angst-y about it. Come on. Let’s go and get some lunch, and I’ll introduce you to Freddy and Blake. You coming, Cam?”

Blaine all but rolled his eyes as the three of them walked together to the dining hall.

~~~

“Mm, Kurt, this is delicious! What is it?” Blaine asked, his mouth full of a mysterious sort of casserole.

“It’s just green bean casserole, Blaine. I’ve made it for you before,” Kurt said, taking tiny bites from his own plate, not bothering to look up. “Did you have a good day today? How’d you like the campus?”

“It was nice...” Blaine replied, looking back down at his plate. Blaine suddenly felt conflicted. After a long day of being introduced to nearly every gay guy on the face of the planet (except for maybe Neil Patrick Harris, but honestly Blaine wouldn’t have been surprised in the least if he did decide to show up) and watching Kurt flirt with every single one of them, Blaine felt the need to confront him about it. But he knew that if he did, Kurt would just blow up. Kurt was so unpredictable- one spark and it could cause an explosion, and Blaine would rather watch Kurt flirt with other guys but still be with him forever than have Kurt leave him for good.

“What’s up, Blaine?” Kurt was now staring at Blaine, concern etched into his expression. Blaine bit his lip, struggling to find the words to put what he wanted to say to Kurt.

“Do you still want to be with me?” Blaine blurted out, before he had much time to think about it.

“What?” Kurt squeaked. “Blaine, of course I want to be with you! You’re my boyfriend!”

“I just... I wasn’t sure because here... Here you have so many friends and they’re all so much more like you than I am. You have so much more in common with these people and I think that me being here is boring you or something and maybe you would rather be with one of them than with me...” Blaine trailed off, his eyes welling up with tears as he approached the subject that had been nagging at him all day.

“Why do you think that I’d rather be with them, Blaine? I’m with you. You know that.”

“Kurt, you were flirting with every one of them.”

“What?” Kurt squeaked, his voice rising up an octave. “Blaine, no I wasn’t!”

“Kurt, you told that guy we were hanging out with that his jeans made his butt look... how did you put it? Fabulous?” Kurt made a noise that was part embarrassment, part shock, and part protest.

“Blaine! He’s just a friend, I was just saying that because he’s my friend and that’s what friends do, they joke around and stuff. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that!”

“Kurt, if you had said that to, say Puck or Sam... It would be different. I’m pretty sure they’d be mentally scarred for life. I just...” Blaine stumbled with words again. He didn’t want to blame this all on Kurt. He did want to get his point across, however. “I just want to know that I’m still yours. I don’t want you to go off and find someone better.”

“Honestly, Blaine. I think you are over reacting.”

“So you are denying the fact that you were flirting with other guys and now you’re trying to turn this all on me?” Blaine asked, his voice turning angry.

“No! I just...” Kurt put his fork down and brought his hands underneath the table, beginning to fumble his fingers around each other like he often did when he was frustrated or angry. “Blaine, when I lived in Lima, you were the first and only gay guy my age that I had actually liked. I didn’t have any choices of guys because there were simply none to choose from. But here... here there are dozens of guys like me. New York is so different. People come here from all over looking for acceptance. It’s all here. It was never in Lima. And maybe... Maybe you and I... were just because there weren’t any other options.”

“Kurt, that is not true. Kurt, you know how much you mean to me. Nobody could ever compare to you, Kurt. Kurt, I love-”

“Don’t say that Blaine,” Kurt breathed, interrupting the three words they had been so used to expressing in the past. “It’s hard, you know? To be around all these people who could be interested in me, could have a great future with me. And I can’t give it a shot, because there’s always you, tying me down. But we never even see each other anymore, Blaine. We barely talk except for brief phone conversations and... There are guys out there who I could see every day, and I could be really great with.”

“Kurt, you and I-”

“Were fabulous at one point in time, yes. I won’t deny that I loved you.”

“Loved?” Blaine questioned, raising his eyebrow at Kurt’s use of past tense.

“Loved. Blaine, we were just going to grow apart. We would lose contact and then it will be even worse for both of us. We wouldn’t be able to move on. So maybe... maybe if we end things now, you’d be able to go find someone who would be better for you. Blaine, there are so many people out there. Amazing people, you just have to look outside of Lima, outside of Ohio. You’ll find someone, I promise.” Blaine whimpered. He was losing everything. Kurt was his life. And he wanted to end it.

“Sh- should I go home?” Blaine said, no louder than a whisper, his voice trembling.

“If you want. You can stay the night if you need to, but maybe you should leave after that.”

“Are you sure about this, Kurt?” Blaine asked, hopeful.

“Yeah, Blaine. I am.”

Blaine stood up from the table and found his two duffel bags, untouched since he arrived in New York. He paused at the doorway, looking back at the man he loved one last time.

“Goodbye, Blaine.”

And that was it. It was over.