“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? There’s more than enough room for you in the moving van.” Kurt whispers for what seems like the thousandth time since they woke up a few moments ago. Blaine presses closer to Kurt, nestling his head just under Kurt’s chin and pressing a kiss to his collarbone. His response is muffled against Kurt’s bare skin as Blaine refuses to let even an inch of distance come between him and Kurt in the precious few moments they have left together. Kurt reaches a hand up and tangles it in Blaine’s curls, tugging slightly to urge Blaine to move back just a little bit. “I can’t hear you.” Kurt shifts his head and brushes his nose against Blaine’s in an eskimo kiss as he speaks.

“It’s best if I don’t.” Blaine can feel a lump begin to form in his throat as he speaks, causing his voice to break ever so slightly. “You need to spend some time with your dad and say goodbye to him. I don’t want to get in the way of that.”

“Oh Blaine, you’re never in the way.” Kurt slips his hand out of Blaine’s tangled hair and cups Blaine’s cheek. As Kurt runs a thumb over the smooth expanse of his cheekbone, Blaine closes his eyes and tries to memorize this moment so he can call upon it in later months when times are tough and Kurt won’t be here to comfort him.

“You know what I mean, Kurt. We had our time to say goodbye last night; this time is for you dad, not for me.” Blaine had never been more thankful for his parents frequent business trips than he had been last night. Burt had begrudgingly allowed them to spend the night together at Blaine’s to say goodbye properly.

“It’s not goodbye. It’s never goodbye for you and me.” Kurt whispers fiercely, his eyes burning into Blaine’s, “It’s just farewell for now.” Blaine can feel the tears forming in his eyes and it takes every bit of strength in his body to stop them from falling. He presses his head into Kurt’s neck again, savouring the feeling of Kurt’s warm body against his own. Both of Kurt’s hands drop down to rest on Blaine’s lower back and he pulls Blaine even closer.

The trilling sound of Kurt’s phone alarm breaks their peaceful silence. Both of their bodies tense immediately at the noise, not wanting to accept what it means. Kurt reaches a hand out and quickly silences the alarm, but neither of them leaves the bed.

“You should get ready. Your dad will be furious if you guys are late getting on the road.” Blaine whispers, his lips moving against the soft skin of Kurt’s shoulder.

“Not yet.” Kurt’s voice is alarmingly unstable as Blaine feels the pair of arms wrapped around him tighten even more.

“Kurt, you can’t be late.” The tears are back again, prickling at the back of his eyes. Blaine had known it would be hard to let Kurt go, but he didn’t know it would feel like this – like he was losing a part of himself.

“What if I didn’t go? I could take a year off and stay here; Dad always needs help with the shop now that he’s in DC most of the week. I could work there for the year and save up enough money that we can get a decent place together in New York next year.”

Blaine gently shushes Kurt with a chaste kiss. Blaine pulls back slightly to speak, but their lips still brush together with every word. “Don’t be silly, Kurt. You’ve been dreaming of this day for years. You have a great place to live already, there’s no reason for you to stay for a year. You need to go show what big city what they’re missing.” Blaine moves out of Kurt’s grasp, it kills him to do so, but he has to be strong enough for both of them right now.

“I don’t want to leave you.” Kurt says simply, sitting up as Blaine hands him the clothes that had been strewn all over the floor in their hurry to get to the bed last night.

“Hey now,” Blaine sits down on the bed again, brushing a few strands of hair away from Kurt’s eyes, “It’s just for a little while. You’ll be back again at Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and then Spring break. We’ll have Skype and texts and phone calls in between. We’ll be okay.” He presses their foreheads together as they both whisper ‘I love you’ at the same time.

After Blaine finally coaxes Kurt out of bed and back into his clothes, they stand in the front entrance of Blaine’s house for what seems like hours, neither of them willing to give up the sweet caresses and silent promises sealed with kisses. When Kurt finally pulls out of the driveway and disappears down the road, Blaine allows himself a few moments of weakness. He climbs the stairs back up to his room slowly, his feet almost catching on the stairs multiple times. The heels of his hands are pressed into his eyes, trying to stop the flow of tears until he’s tucked safely away in the cocoon of his bed.

He closes the door a little too forcefully when he enters the room, the loud noise making him jump in the otherwise silent house. He collapses onto the bed and finally lets himself cry. The blankets and pillows still smell like Kurt, Blaine burrows his head into the pillow that Kurt had been resting on just a short while before, taking comfort in the familiar scent.

Suddenly, his hand comes into contact with something that has a distinctly different texture than the cotton sheets surrounding him. He pulls the pillow back and finds a small scrap of paper covered in Kurt’s writing.

I love you.
I love you when I’m in Lima, I love you when I’m in New York, I love you when I’m beyond or anywhere in between.
Never forget that.

Blaine stares at it for a moment before reaching over to the picture frame resting on his bedside table. Inside it right now is their picture from Kurt’s senior prom, they look completely ridiculous (especially Blaine with his frizzy hair) but they’re radiating happiness. He fumbles with the clasps on the back for a moment, trying to see through the hot tears that are still forming in his eyes. He rubs at them furiously and wills himself to stop crying. When he finally succeeds in opening the back of the frame, he slips out the photo, places the small bit of paper at the bottom left of the frame, and then puts the photo back. He places it back on the bedside table, right next to the lamp, so Kurt’s message and that photo will be the last thing he sees at night and the first thing he sees in the morning.

Blaine feels a buzzing in his pocket just a few seconds after he puts down the frame. When he finally fishes his phone out of his pocket, he sees a new text from Kurt.

Is it ridiculous that we’re not even out of Lima yet and I already miss you so much that it feels like a part of me is missing?

Probably. But I started missing you the second you walked out the door, so I’m just as ridiculous as you.

I love you.

I know. I found the note. And I love you too.

He quickly snaps a photo of the note’s new home in the picture frame and sends it to Kurt.

How many days until I see you again?

82, I’ll be counting down the days.

Blaine doesn’t need to look up the dates or count days; he’s had it memorized for weeks.

And how many days until I’m back for the summer?

242. 242 days until it’s over. Then I’ll be graduating and we can go to New York together just like we planned. I’ll be expecting you to give me the grand tour, you know.

242, I’ll be counting down the days.