He glanced up to see Kurt watching him, a small smile tugging at his lips, while he clung to his coffee cup with both hands.

Blaine panicked a little.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” Blaine went to wipe his face.

“No,” Kurt smiled. “It’s just nice, this, us. We haven’t gotten coffee in a while. I was starting to go through withdrawals.”

“Well a coffee addiction tends to do that to a person,” Blaine quipped with a wink.

“Any coffee addiction I might have is entirely your fault, Mr. Anderson. I barely touched the stuff before you came along with your lattes and your medium drips.” Kurt gave him a playful glare and Blaine laughed.

God I’ve missed this.

Kurt wasn’t smiling anymore though.

“I wasn’t referring to the coffee,” Kurt almost whispered.

Blaine didn’t know what to say.

Kurt took a deep breath and another sip of coffee. “So this Trent fellow, have you gotten him to kiss you yet?”

“Umm, no. Not yet. I’m actually starting to get a little worried, is there something wrong with me?”

“Aside from romantic ineptitude, there’s nothing I can see,” Kurt teased.

“Gee, thanks.” Blaine rolled his eyes. Kurt laughed, the mood effectively lightened.

“Well,” Kurt scrutinized his coffee cup, “do you want Trent to kiss you?”

Blaine contemplated it for a moment, and deep down he knew that he shouldn’t have had to, but he responded quickly enough that he didn’t think Kurt noticed his hesitation.

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve been dating for two weeks. It’s about time, right?”

Kurt let out a strangled laugh.

“Well, you know what you’ve got to do if you want him to kiss you, right?” Kurt smiled widely and Blaine gave him a questioning glance. “You’ve got to bat your eyes like this,” Kurt batted his eyelashes dramatically, “and puck up your lips like this.” Kurt puckered his lips in a way that was supposed to be exaggerated, but ended up just making Kurt look positively delectable.

Blaine cracked up at the reference.

“Oh Kurt, you and your Disney.”

“My Disney? Excuse me, I’m not the one that planned a Disney movie marathon in honor of Tangled opening.” Kurt shot him a pointed, if not highly amused look.

“Whatever. You were singing along to all the songs with me, so don’t even try to deny your love for the House of Mouse.” The two boys laughed, remembering the insane night that had included no less than eight Disney animated features and more sugar than either of them would like to admit.

Kurt had gotten a pimple a couple days later (an infinitesimal one that Blaine hadn’t even noticed until Kurt furiously pointed it out) and had blamed Blaine and his sugar-loaded snacks for the blemish.

Blaine had been such an idiot back then. He and Kurt sang along to all the songs and they had really hammed it up while dueting “Kiss the Girl” during The Little Mermaid. Blaine hadn’t thought much of it when their lips almost touched at the end of the song, and just like in the movie, they were interrupted by a knock on his door from Blaine’s mom asking if they could keep it down a little bit.

Little had he known that Kurt had feelings for him at the time, or that he himself had been repressing his own feelings for the countertenor. Looking back, Blaine wanted to kick his past self. If only he and Kurt had kissed then, they might be together now.

So much had happened since then. So much had changed.

Blaine cleared his thoughts, gazing at the bright-eyed boy sipping coffee across the table from him.

“I heard you and Dylan broke up. Do I need to beat the crap out of him too?” Blaine joked and Kurt flashed him a bright smile.

“No, Blaine, that’s quite all right. I broke up with him.” Kurt’s smile faded a bit.

“May I ask what happened?”

“He…” Kurt paused, searching for the right words, “he couldn’t give me what I wanted.”

“How so?” Blaine wondered aloud. Kurt blushed, not meeting Blaine’s eyes.

“It’s ah, not something we should really be discussing in public. I’ll say that much.”

Blaine gave Kurt an understanding nod.

“So what’s your plan now? Back to the other fish in the sea?”

“Sort of, I’ve got a date tomorrow night.” Kurt blushed again.

“Wow, you move quickly.”

“I hadn’t really intended to, but I guess I’ve turned into some sort of gay cat nip at Dalton. I don’t really understand it, but I must say, it’s nice to feel wanted.”

Kurt met Blaine’s eyes with an unreadable expression. Blaine felt a surge of protectiveness mingled with jealousy.

“Kurt, can you just promise me one thing?”

Kurt hummed as he took another sip of his coffee.

“Please, please be safe,” Blaine pleaded. Kurt set his cup down, meeting Blaine with a serious stare.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I don’t want to presume anything about what you do behind closed doors, but just please be safe, with your body. Use protection.”

“Of course. I always use protection. Have you so little faith in me?” Kurt asked, his cheeks stung red.

Blaine felt awful. Of course Kurt used protection, he was a smart guy, Blaine shouldn’t have questioned that.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want this little phase of yours to come back and haunt you for the rest of your life.”

“Phase, this is just a little phase to you? God, Blaine, I didn’t realize you were so uptight about these things. I can do whatever I want with whomever I want, and that is not something that you, of all people, should judge.”

Blaine’s words from months before stung as Kurt threw them back in his face, but the sentiment wasn’t the same and he was starting to realize Kurt’s side of what happened during their last fight in this coffee shop. Blaine was losing control of the situation.

“I wasn’t, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Really?” Kurt got huffy, “then how did you mean it?”

Blaine’s words were not coming out right. Fuck. This was not turning out the way he hoped. All he wanted to do was to make sure that since he couldn’t protect Kurt in the bedroom that Kurt was, at least, protecting himself. This was a mess.

“I just don’t—,”

“You know what? I don’t care. I have something I have to go get ready for, so you can just sit here and eat your damn biscotti, don’t push it back too far or you might choke you jealous, virgin prick.” Kurt stormed out of the shop leaving.

Blaine sat at the table for another ten minutes, still processing what happened before he got up, grabbed the plate of biscotti, and tossed the treats in the garbage.

Blaine was justifiably distracted when Trent picked him up for their date at seven. Blaine had already drafted several different texts to Kurt apologizing for what happened, but he couldn’t bring himself to send any of them.

If Trent noticed Blaine’s weird mood, he didn’t mention it to Blaine. Trent held his hand while he drove them to the theater to see Into The Woods. It was one of Blaine’s favorites and Blaine did his best to enjoy it.

Blaine slipped into a Sondheim high as the show progressed, but he was brought crashing back to reality during the second act when Cinderella and Rapunzel’s princes stepped out on stage for the reprise of Agony. As he watched the two clueless princes pine over the princesses that they wanted, but couldn’t have and were forced to go back to their wives.

Blaine wondered if he wasn’t less like a Disney prince and more like these idiots, parading around making fools of themselves while never making the right decisions in love. He tired not to linger on the thought and lost himself once again in the story.

By the end of the show Blaine was in much higher spirits and he and Trent bonded on the drive back to Blaine’s house over their mutual love for all things Sondheim.

Trent was a perfect gentleman and walked Blaine to his front door. Blaine shared a nervous glance with Trent.

“I had a really good time tonight.” Blaine stated softly.

“So did I.” Trent nervously wrung a hand around his wrist. “Blaine?”

“Yeah,” Blaine asked, hopeful.

“May I kiss you?” Trent smiled weakly; Blaine greeted his smile with a real one of his own. He nodded his head.

“Yeah, I would like that.”

“Okay,” Trent said, steeling himself, “I’m going to kiss you now,” he resolved.

Trent leaned in, a hand reaching up to cup Blaine’s jaw. Trent’s lips pressed lightly against his. Blaine leaned into the kiss, opening his lips ever so slightly against the other boy.

Trent’s mouth was warm and soft against his own, and the other boy applied just the right amount of pressure as he sucked Blaine’s bottom lip, his tongue darted out to swipe against Blaine’s mouth and Blaine opened against him.

It was so different than any other kiss he’d ever experienced before. Sure, he had kissed Rachel…twice. Granted the first time he was drunk and it led to a week of genuine confusion, not helped by Kurt’s haughty reaction. It was the only time that he had ever second-guessed his feelings for the boy. The second kiss with Rachel had caught him by surprise, but only affirmed to him how truly gay he was.

Trent, however, was quite different from either of those experiences and with his eyes closed he could just imagine that it was Kurt’s lips pressed against his. The image wasn’t entirely right though. One of Trent’s hands was buried in Blaine’s, for once, ungelled hair while the other pressed possessively against the small of Blaine’s back while Blaine’s hands were in Trent’s hair and running over his ever so slightly muscular shoulders. Blaine had always pictured it the other way around, him dominating Kurt, holding him close with Kurt’s hands wrapped around his neck, tangled in his unruly curls.

But Blaine was getting off track. There was a very cute boy who had his tongue in Blaine’s mouth and oh sweet lord that felt good.

Trent deepened the kiss, but even as Blaine was melting in his arms there was something that just felt wrong.

Blaine pulled back from the kiss and Trent let out breathy whine at the loss of contact.

“I’m sorry,” Blaine stated simply. He couldn’t do this. “I can’t do this.”

“Kiss me?” Trent was still a little confused in his post-kissing haze.

“Us, this. I can’t do this.” Fuck, Blaine thought.

“Why not? Am I—am I a bad kisser or something?”

“No it’s just…” Blaine trailed off.

“It’s just what?”

I’m in love with someone else. Someone who doesn’t love me. Someone who is fucking his way through the gay population of Dalton.

Blaine’s brain was moving too quickly.

Fuck Kurt. Why couldn’t he do this? Kurt wasn’t the only one with needs. He put his thoughts to rest and grabbed Trent by the front of his shirt, smashing their lips together.

Though he was initially stunned, Trent didn’t seem to mind Blaine’s tongue in his mouth and they were soon battling passionately, hands roaming over each other’s bodies. Trent slammed Blaine against the door and Blaine let out a low moan of approval.

Their hips connected and half-hard cocks ground together through layers of denim and cotton boxers. Blaine tipped his head back as Trent lowered his mouth to Blaine’s neck; pressing searing kisses to his collarbone and licking that oh so sensitive spot just below Blaine’s ear.

Even as his dick stiffened to full mast, he pushed Trent away, his breath coming in pants.

“What the fuck, Blaine?” Trent was angry now.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’ve said that twice now, but what are you sorry for?”

“I can’t be with you.”

“Why not? What about just a minute ago? You can’t deny that you’re attracted to me. You’re still hard as a fucking diamond, so why do you keep pushing me away?” Trent stared at him angry as hell, his eyes still glazed over with lust.

Blaine didn’t know what to say.

Wrong. It was so wrong and he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t just fuck another guy; it wasn’t going to help anything. It wasn’t going to make him love Kurt any less, and Trent didn’t deserve that, he didn’t deserve that.

Honesty was the best policy, right?

“I’m in love with someone else,” Blaine confessed. “I’m sorry.”

“I knew this was going to happen,” Trent stated, put out. “It’s Kurt, isn’t it?”

How did he—?

“You haven’t been able to get through a single conversation with me in the last two weeks without mentioning him,” Trent informed him. “I had hoped that you were just close friends, but it’s kind of obvious that you’re in love with him.”

“Oh,” Blaine whispered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“It’s okay, Blaine.” Trent reached up, swiping his hand gently across Blaine’s cheek. “You can’t help who you love.” Trent dropped his arm. “Tell me something though, Blaine. Why aren’t you guys together? From what I can tell, Kurt seems pretty infatuated with you too.”

“Because I’m an idiot and I waited too long to tell him I loved him and now he’s moved on,” Blaine confessed.

“Are you so sure about that?” Trent asked. “Maybe he’s just trying to get over you the same way you’re trying to get over him.”

Could he? Could Kurt actually still like me?

Trent clapped him on the shoulder.

“You’ll never know if you don’t try.”

Blaine paced his room for a good two hours trying to find the right words.

Finally, he called Kurt and it went straight to voicemail. Strange, Blaine doesn’t think that’s ever happened.

Voicemail might me easier, he thought; at least Kurt couldn’t hang up on him this way.

The tone beeped, and Blaine’s heart jumped into his throat.

“Hey Kurt, it’s Blaine. Please don’t hang up. You don’t have to respond to this, but please just hear me out.” Blaine took a shaky breath before continuing. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for what I said in the coffee shop earlier, it’s just that I care about you a lot and I don’t want to see you get hurt. I would like to offer a truce and a chance to apologize in person. I’ll be at the Lima Bean on Sunday at 11 am. I hope you’ll be there, but if not, I’ll just,” Blaine stopped, choking back a sob, “if not, I will understand and I won’t try to contact you again.”

Blaine wanted to say it right then. I love you, but he didn’t want his first time saying that to be over the phone, let alone in Kurt’s voicemail box in a message he might not even listen to.

“Kurt. If you do come, there’s something else I need to talk to you about. I really hope you’ll show up. Bye.”

Blaine flipped his light off and collapsed on his bed, his phone falling onto the pillow next to him. Blaine stared at the phone, praying that it would ring, that it would show Kurt’s name and smiling face in the caller id box, but it didn’t ring and Blaine fell into a fitful sleep.