However, Blaine wasn't listening to Rachel's inquiry because Austin had his arms around Kurt, kissing his neck playfully while Kurt giggled, his cheeks flushed a dark pink. It was that giggle. The one that Blaine always knew could cure cancer and erupt the birth of small, adorable animals. The giggle that Blaine caused almost every day when they were young and in love.

Blaine clenched his fists, unable to look away so James answered for him, peering down haughtily at Rachel through his glasses. "We were thinking of renting one of his yachts for a discount after we get married," James informed. "Like throw our rehearsal dinner on it or something, take a cruise before we depart for Europe."

Even through Kurt's charade with Austin, he didn't miss a word, feeling his heart sink to his stomach. Kurt gazed up at Austin for guidance of how to proceed, but he just pressed his lips into a hard line and shook his head shortly, grip tight around Kurt's waist.

"Oh," Rachel said sweetly, licking her lips and smacked the bar for another drink. Kurt suspected that she was also fishing for details in Kurt's favor. He made a mental note to thank her later. "So when are you guys planning on getting married? A couple of months? We'd love to be there! Is it going to be in the City?"

"You sure ask a lot of questions," James pointed out irritably, and Blaine elbowed him impatiently before saying, "Next weekend."

"Wait what?" Kurt couldn't help but butt in, his heart sinking further. "Seriously, next weekend?"

"Yeah," Blaine responded in a snippy tone, avoiding Kurt's gaze. "We thought to move it up a bit since we are running out of money, and also we thought it should be on the beach or something, maybe in a cute little Hampton church."

"But you hate church," Kurt complained, feeling his blood pulse in his ears. The most frustrating part of all this was that James wasn't even that great of guy, why the hell was he even competition to Kurt? What was Blaine playing at?

"We still haven't decided," Blaine shrugged nonchalantly before leaning his head back and gave James a kiss. Kurt flinched at the sound of their lips smacking together. Kurt then felt color drain from his face all together when the stretching of Blaine's sinewy neck behind his collar revealed a small mouth shaped bruise created undoubtedly by Kurt earlier that day. He gulped, unsure how to feel about it. He was mostly curious if James had noticed yet.

"Hold it together," Austin whispered so nobody else but Kurt could hear. "You can't be as obvious as him."

Although difficult, Kurt held his tongue the rest of the night until the five of them got increasingly more drunk. Austin and James were the ones who held their drinks best while Blaine was completely blitzed out of his mind, flirting with the female bartender, referring to her has a he. She wasn't even masculine in the least, either.

James got increasingly more surly, crossing his arms and was clearly disapproving of Blaine's behavior, yet said nothing about it. Kurt at least kept himself sober enough so he wouldn't say something he regretted, and also wanted to keep Rachel in line, knowing her and her lack of inhibitions.

Blaine eventually started playing pool with a bunch of strangers, clearly a hit with the ladies, but he announced at the top of his lungs, "I'm soooooo gay! Like, really really gay. See that's my boyfriend over there! Isn't he good looking?"

Kurt didn't know whether or not to laugh when James' ears burned bright red. Blaine had referred to James as his boyfriend once again, not fiancee and it was probably driving him wild. Kurt could have at least sympathized if he wasn't the enemy.

It was when Rachel attempted to get up on the pool table with Blaine, dancing around and singing when the rest of them decided it was probably time to go home.

"I'll go ahead take Rachel back to your place," Austin said. "It's the dollar store right?"

"Yeah can't miss it," Kurt responded. "Are you just going to wait there for me? Why don't you want me to come?"

Austin smiled like he had a secret. "I think you should help Blaine home. Don't worry, I'll be in your bed once you get back. Naked preferably." Kurt laughed, blushing a little, nudging Austin playfully.

"I dunno," Kurt then sounded extremely unsure, watching as Blaine took Rachel's hand and twirled her around the bar for amused onlookers. "I really don't think James would like that. He looks jealous of Rachel even."

"He can suck it up," Austin reasoned, smoothing Kurt's bangs back onto his forehead. "Blaine seems like a loose canon, so you should make sure he doesn't screw something up. Also it's good to get to know your competition."

"Ugh," Kurt groaned. "He's so boring, I don't understand why Blaine would be into him of all people."

Austin sighed, shoving Kurt into the direction of Blaine. "That's why you need to find out what about James makes Blaine tick. Now go fetch Rachel, bring her to me and I'll see you in about half an hour tops?"

Kurt struggled with words for a moment before huffing out, 'fine' and did as instructed. Rachel went with Austin willingly, leaning heavily into his side and breathed slurring words hotly into his ear.

"C'mon Blaine let's go," James called, rousing Blaine's attention. A girl smacked his shoulder, kissing him on the cheek before he stumbled over into his fiancee, laughing hysterically. Kurt grinned, making his way over as well.

"Kurt!" Blaine exclaimed with joy, all traces of earlier resentment completely gone. He smiled openly at Kurt, so wide Kurt probably thought his cheeks were hurting. "Wanna go on a walk?"

He slung an arm around Kurt's shoulder and sighed happily. But Kurt pretended to be scolding. "I don't think James wants to go on a walk, you guys probably have stuff to do tomorrow."

"We do," James amended quietly, winding an arm around Blaine's small waist, giving his both sides equal leverage between them. Kurt was pleased to see James wasn't complaining. Yet.

"Just a quick walk pleeeeeeeeease," Blaine whined, sounding like a child. Kurt found it oddly endearing despite the fact that him asking James permission for anything lately seemed a little off in his opinion. "Kurt can show us around!"

"There's not much to see," James countered, but Blaine wasn't paying attention. The second they were out the heavy bar door a seagull swooped by, startling Blaine before he started clapping weakly, snorting with amusement. Kurt gave him a look of bewilderment.

"Has he always been like this when drunk," James laughed, and it was the first time Kurt saw him smile. It was actually quite beautiful, Kurt realized with some disdain, but he pushed the feeling away to respond.

"Yes, he's always been a big goof," Kurt revealed. "Before we were dating, he hung out with my friends from our high school glee club and he had to sleep over or his dad was going to kill him for coming home so wasted."

"Huh," James said. "We more smoked weed in California rather than drank. That's probably why he's such a lightweight."

Kurt laughed brightly. "He's always been a lightweight! One time we went to the only gay bar in Lima and he had literally one beer, and he was already tripping over himself."

James laughed too, and Kurt didn't expect it. It sounded like a bark almost, and Kurt couldn't tell if he was genuinely amused or just faking it. "It's probably because my baby is so tiny."

Kurt had to physically force to keep his smile on his face after that endearment, so he pushed passed it so James wouldn't notice. "So where you guys staying?"

"It's just right up here," James pointed, and Kurt nodded, hoisting a now semi-conscious Blaine more firmly onto his shoulder.

They walked the rest of way in silence, save for a few hiccups from Blaine and idle chatter from a few others along the street. It was that time of night where not many cars were parked along the main road, but the street lamps shined upon them, dull and oddly comforting.

"Here we are," James announced once they reached the cozy little hotel around the corner and Blaine roused from his stupor. "M'tired," he mumbled.

"I know honey," James cooed, leaning down to peck Blaine wetly on the lips. Kurt cringed, but looked away in a manner that looked like he was trying to be polite, despite all three of their close proximity. Kurt could tell James was just dangling their relationship in front of them, no matter how 'polite' he was being. Kurt couldn't really say anything because he was sort of doing the same thing with Austin earlier.

Blaine hummed, kissing James deeper and once they pulled away he murmured like that of a lover, and it shivered down Kurt's spine before he realized what Blaine was exactly saying. "Kurt, you made me feel so good today."

Kurt froze, dropping his hand from around Blaine's back and took a step back. James looked up slowly at Kurt, his face set in a terrifying scowl. Oh god, they were caught. Kurt was sure of it. He was a dead man.

"It's me," James said through grit teeth, eyes glinting menacingly toward Kurt." James, your future husband."

Kurt swore he wasn't breathing, his body tensing for the onslaught. He bit hard into his own lip while Blaine blinked blearily at James before shaking his head and laughing wheezily. "I know, of course you are."

Kurt let out a relieved breath quietly, willing his body to stop shaking. James watched Blaine's expression for a moment, then looked at Kurt and then back to Blaine again. Then, "I'm taking him up, but wait here. I'll be right back."

James heaved Blaine up the the stairs and Kurt watched as their figures disappeared into the shadows. Kurt tried not to have a panic attack. He was never very good at lying so if James questioned him on what happened earlier today, he feared spilling the beans. This would be bad for Blaine and his face. He couldn't afford to beaten to a pulp. James looked like a big, strong guy as far as Kurt was concerned.

Kurt glanced in the direction of the dollar store Uncle Dave owned and saw the light was on in their room. Rachel was a really needy drunk, so Austin was still having to deal with her. Kurt was out here alone. What if things got really violent? Kurt felt ice chill his veins despite the fact the rational part of his brain told him he was being ridiculous.

James jogged down the steps and approached Kurt, his face impassive. So Kurt did the best thing he could do in that moment; blabber. "I'm really sorry he said that. I'm not sure why, Blaine gets really incoherent when he's drunk. Make sure he drinks a lot of water or he's going to be hugging that toilet bowl all day tomorro-"

"What is your goal, Kurt?" James interrupted, his voice like a deadly whip. The rest of Kurt's sentence died in his throat. "Are you trying to break up a future marriage, because that's not very moral."

Kurt was shocked into silence, so James took advantage of it. "If you really think that by some workings of fate or some shit that you two meeting after all these years would bring you two back together, you're wrong."

James' words were harsh, biting. "It pissed me off so much when I met Blaine, because he was still hung up so on you. A guy that was willing to drop everything you two had together just to go to New York and fuck other guys. I bet the minute you moved, you hooked up with that Chandler guy-"

"Hey that's not the case at all-"

"Let me finish," James practically snarled. "As far as I'm concerned, I picked up the pieces of his broken heart, and I don't intend for him to throw himself out like that again for the likes of you."

James pointed a shaking finger at Kurt's chest, his eyes wild with fury. Kurt shrunk, terrified. "You just dragged him a long like this little pet because you felt guilty. Well that's really fucked up Kurt. You should have given him a way out before you really did some damage, but like you gave a shit about his feelings!"

Kurt puffed up, a surge of anger coiling hot in his stomach. "Stop talking about things you don't understand!"

"I'll tell you what I understand Kurt," James practically yelled. "You're just a fever dream, a first love. That's all you will ever be to him, but never a true love. You were basically a rebound from Jeremiah and a blockade from hooking up with Sebastian."

"What?!" Kurt was horrified. "He actually said that?"

"Maybe he did, maybe he didn't," James said with a sneer. "Just know to stay out of his life, stay away from our wedding. He doesn't want you there and neither do I."

"It wasn't my impression that was what he wanted," Kurt said through thin, cold lips. A darkness was creeping over him, and he was having difficultly breathing or thinking about anything other than what James was saying. Was it true?

James cackled and tears flooded Kurt's eyes. "He's the one who insisted we move the wedding up to next weekend when we were picking out rings today. You do the math."

And with those words, James departed up to his hotel room where his fiancee lay, drunk and completely out of the loop. Kurt felt a crushing agony consume him completely, so he turned on his heel and ran home, hoping the rush of wind in his ears would make everything bad go away.

Kurt let Austin fuck him raw that night, face pressed in a pillow so he wouldn't see his tears.