"Kurt! Where is that email I asked for?" Isabelle snapped as she burst through his office to get to her own.

Kurt looked up, eyes wide. "I sent it an hour ago," he replied.

"Then how come I don't see it in my inbox?" Isabelle called out.

"I'm sending it again," Kurt said, hastily turning to his computer to send the email.

"Got it!" Isabelle called a few moments later. Kurt let out a sigh of relief and turned back to the previous email he had been composing before he had been interrupted. He thought he should schedule an appointment time for one of the IT people to take a look at Isabelle's computer; she had been getting emails less and less frequently lately and Kurt was on his last nerve dealing with her yelling at him.

It was a stressful time for them all. Three of their full time staff had come down with the flu and were out and Kurt was dealing with his work for Isabelle on top of ghost writing a regular piece by one of the girls, Charlie, while she was out. Today alone he had to cancel lunch with Blaine and he had accidentally hung up on his dad when he had called that morning. There was just no time to breathe, let alone do anything else.

"Delivery for Kurt Hummel?"

He just could not catch a break today.

"That's me," Kurt replied with a tight smile.

He reached out and signed for the package and set it down on his desk to open. His phone rang and he glared at it before answering. "Isabelle Wright's office."

Kurt hastily jotted down the message and quickly hung up the phone when he saw that Blaine had sent him the most gorgeous scarf he'd ever seen. Which said a lot considering the industry he worked in.

Kurt picked up his phone and dialled Blaine's number to leave him a voicemail message. He gushed his thanks into the phone and promised Blaine that he would be home as early as possible before he disconnected the call to wrap the scarf around his neck.

"Is that new?" Isabelle asked as she walked passed again.

"Yeah, it is," Kurt replied. "Blaine just sent it to me."

"Cute," Isabelle commented with a smile. "Coffee?"

Kurt nodded. "Please."

Kurt lifted the end of the scarf to his cheek to feel its softness.

"He has good taste," Isabelle said as she set a mug of coffee on his desk a few moments later.

"Yeah, he does," Kurt replied.

Isabelle smiled at him as she headed back into her office and Kurt picked up his mug to take a sip from needing the caffeine hit.

Kurt had just clicked save on his work when the entire floor lost power. Kurt gaped at his computer screen for a good few moments before a frustrated sound came from Isabelle's office.

"What's going on?" Kurt asked as Isabelle crossed back into his office.

"There's some kind of fault or something," Isabelle said. "I'm going to go downstairs and see if I can get a better answer."

"No can do," Simon, one of their workers said. "I already called down, everyone else has lost power. Most of the other staff are already leaving. We're the only ones stuck here to make sure the magazine gets to printing."

"Just great," Isabelle replied with a sigh. "I'm sorry, guys, but I'm going to need a few of you to stay so we can get work done when the power comes back on."

"I'm good to stay," Simon said before he ducked back into his own office.

"Kurt, please tell me you sent off the layout for printing?" Isabelle asked, sounding harassed.

Kurt froze. His eyes widened as he took in Isabelle's face and she closed her eyes, sighing heavily. "I hit save..." he started. "But I still had a few more pieces to finish before I could send it."

"It's... nevermind. We'll deal with it when the power comes back on."

Isabelle's cell phone rang in her office and she headed back to answer the call.

Kurt pulled out his phone again and dialled Blaine's number once more. "Hey," he started. "I just wanted to let you know that we've lost power. We're all fine here but we're not sure how long until the power comes back on..."

"Two hours? Are you freaking kidding me? We're on deadline here!" Isabelle yelled from inside her office.

"...Apparently it's going to be two hours," Kurt continued into Blaine's voicemail. "Call me when you get this?"

He hung up and set his phone down on his desk before tentatively approaching Isabelle's office.

Isabelle had the back of her chair facing him and Kurt could hear her clicking something.

"Isabelle?" Kurt asked.

She turned back around, her stapler in hand, tapping it closed in a nervous habit. "It's going to be at least two hours..." she started. "Apparently something short circuited downstairs and it caused the three floors above it to lose power." She sighed. "Why today, of all days? We go to print today. Deadline is in three hours. There is no way we're going to make it on time."

"Is there any way they can speed up the process?" Kurt asked.

Isabelle shook her head. "They're doing everything they can," she replied.

"Let's go have some cake," Kurt suggested. "There's still some in the kitchen from brunch today..."

Isabelle shot him a small smile. "Cake sounds perfect right about now."

Kurt grinned and they headed to the kitchen together. The other staff members seemed to have the same idea as most of them were in the kitchen already, eating the leftover snacks and cake they'd had for brunch. Kurt cut himself and Isabelle a slice of cake and sat down next to her at the table, chatting happily while they ate.

After two hours, the power still wasn't back on and people were starting to get ratty. It was already five o'clock and everyone had lives they wanted to get back to but they were having to hang around until the power came back on.

Blaine had sent Kurt a message saying he hoped Kurt got out of there soon but after the two hour mark, Kurt called him back, saying it wasn't likely.

Everyone had retreated to their offices and Kurt glanced down at his phone to see the time when it shut off, the battery power completely gone. He sighed and shoved the phone in his pocket. He now had no way to contact Blaine if he needed to.

Another hour later had Isabelle in her office, on her phone yelling at the maintenance crew, demanding that they fix the problem quickly.

"We're stuck," Isabelle said with a heavy sigh as she walked back into Kurt's office. "We are stuck in this office until they get the power back up and running so we can get the magazine off to print. They have no idea how much longer that is going to take, or if it will even be tonight. So we might have to stay the night just to get the work done. I'm sorry, Kurt, I can't let you leave."

Kurt's eyebrows shot upwards. "I... Shit," he grumbled. "Can I borrow your phone? My battery died and I need to call Blaine."

"Go ahead," Isabelle said, sounding as exhausted as Kurt felt. "It's sitting on my desk."

"Thank you," Kurt said, getting up. He picked up her phone and dialled Blaine's number, waiting for his boyfriend to pick up. "Hey, it's me."

"Are you still at the office?" Blaine asked.

"Yeah," Kurt replied. "We still have no power, we've missed deadline and they have no idea how long the power is going to be out. We could be waiting here all night."

Blaine sighed through the phone and Kurt wanted nothing more than to curl up with his boyfriend on their sofa, or in their bed and just forget about the day he'd had. "Shit, Kurt."

"I know," Kurt said. "I just want to come home already."

"Is there anything they can do?"

"They're doing the best they can, apparently," Kurt replied. "My cell phone has died and I can't be on Isabelle's for too long in case maintenance calls, but I'll be home as soon as I can, okay? I love you."

"I love you, too," Blaine said. "Let me know the moment you get power back. I'll come and pick you up."

"There's no use," Kurt said with another sigh. "I have to stay so because we still have so much work to do before printing. I might be here all night."

"...Okay," Blaine replied. "I'll see you when you get home."

They said good bye and Kurt hung up the call. He re-joined Isabelle in his office and sat back in his seat.

"This day sucks," Isabelle said.

Kurt nodded. "Yeah, it really does," he agreed.

The power finally came back on at eight o'clock and Kurt immediately set to work, wanting to finish everything to send it off for printing. Isabelle was in her office, making as many phone calls as she could to explain what had happened. Kurt did not envy her one bit.

Everyone else had finished by nine thirty but Kurt was still working. He had far too much to do and by the time he was finished, it was ten o'clock and he was exhausted.

"Take the day off tomorrow, Kurt," Isabelle said. "Think of it as an early birthday present."

"But my birthday isn't until next month..." Kurt said.

Isabelle gave him a pointed look. "You're missing the point. Everyone else left half an hour ago, you've been here since six this morning, just take tomorrow off and have a nice long weekend with that lovely boyfriend of yours."

Kurt smiled gratefully. "Thank you," he said, giving her a tight hug.

"See you on Monday, Kurt."

Kurt waved and made his way out of the office as quickly as he could. He just wanted to get home to Blaine and also shower. He felt gross from being in an office with no airflow for six straight hours.

Blaine had nodded off in his recliner arm chair when Kurt got home. He smiled at the sight and kissed him on the forehead before heading to the bathroom to shower.

Halfway through his shower, the door opened and Blaine stepped in, wrapping his arms around Kurt from behind.

"Why didn't you wake me?" Blaine mumbled against Kurt's neck as he kissed at the spot.

"I didn't want to wake you," Kurt replied.

"Mmm, I wouldn't have minded being woken."

Kurt turned in Blaine's arms and kissed him softly. "I missed you. Isabelle told me to take tomorrow off, so I'm going to just lie in bed all day until you get home."

Blaine chuckled. "So I get to come home to you naked and waiting for me?"

"Mmmhmm," Kurt mumbled before kissing Blaine again.

"Have you thought any more about doing less hours at Vogue?" Blaine asked. "And doing more with your designs?"

"I don't have time to focus on my designs right now, Blaine, you know that," Kurt said, reaching for the shower gel.

"Maybe you should focus on them more," Blaine continued. "You have a real talent, Kurt. You could send your designs into Marc Jacobs or anywhere. I'm sure they'd be thrilled to look at them. Who knows, after a couple of years working there, you could have your own seasonal line..."

"Can we not do this right now?" Kurt asked as he rinsed himself off. "I like working at Vogue. Sure, I've taken on a lot more responsibilities lately, but I can handle it. Vogue has been good to me these last few years, you know that."

"You don't have to put all of your eggs in one basket though, Kurt," Blaine said. "You're far too talented to do that. I'm just saying you should give it a try. The worst they can do is turn you down."

"I appreciate that, I really do," Kurt said, as he shut off the water and stepped out of the shower to grab his towel. "But I'm not about to just up and leave Vogue."

"I'm not asking you to," Blaine insisted. "I just want you to keep your options open."

Kurt sighed. "Look, can we talk about this tomorrow? I've been at work for the last sixteen hours and all I want to do right now is to go to bed and fall asleep for the next twelve hours. I don't want to fight with you before we go to sleep."

"Fine," Blaine said with a nod. "We'll talk about this later."

"Thank you," Kurt said, relieved. He gave Blaine a chaste kiss and hung his towel back up on the rack before crossing into their room and crawling into bed. "Are you coming to bed?"

"Be right there," Blaine called back from the bathroom.

~*~

Golf was relaxing to Blaine. He could forget almost everything else that was going on in his life in favour of focusing on the game.

He swung back, getting ready to hit the ball. He watched it sail through the air until it landed in the general direction of the hole. He climbed into his golf car and drove towards the hole, parking off to the side. It only took another two shots to get the ball into the hole.

He collected his ball and shoved his club back into his caddy before climbing back into the car to drive back to the club rooms. He parked car next to the other ones and got out, ready to head back to the club rooms to shower and change and head back home before Kurt got back from work.

"Thought I might find you here."

Blaine glanced up to see Cooper in his own golfing attire, one hand on his caddy. He stopped next to his brother.

"Hey, Coop," Blaine said with a nod at his brother. "Sorry, I'm finished if you were looking for a golfing buddy?"

Cooper shook his head. "Not at all," he replied. "You looked like you needed to be alone."

"That obvious, huh?"

"I'm your big bro! I'm supposed to know these things," Cooper replied. "Trouble in paradise?"

Blaine sighed. "Not really," he started. "Kurt's just been working so much lately and he won't listen to me when I try to suggest that he cut his work hours back or actually submit his designs somewhere."

Cooper nodded, taking out a club from his caddy. "He's an independent little thing, isn't he?"

"He is," Blaine said with a nod. "And I love that about him. I just don't want to see him burning himself out over a job. He's young and he has so much potential, Coop. You should see some of his designs, they're amazing."

Cooper set up the tee in the practice range and swung his arm back. Blaine stepped out of the way to make sure that he didn't get hit. "Submit them for him."

"What? No, I can't do that," Blaine said. "That's violating his privacy, not to mention his trust."

Cooper hit the ball and smiled brightly at how far the ball went. He turned back to Blaine and stared pointedly at him. "Look, Bee, sometimes you have to give the ones you love a push in the right direction. Do you want to spend scraps of moments with Kurt where he's stressed from work, or bringing work home all of the time or do you want to see him happy, doing something he loves?"

"But he loves working at Vogue," Blaine protested. "And he's amazing at his job."

"Then you either leave it as it is and take whatever you can get, which will probably strain your relationship even more than it already is," Cooper started. "Or you can do something about it."

Blaine sighed. "Thanks, Coop," he said. "I'm going to shower now, I'll see you later."

"Anytime, Bee," Cooper replied. "Oh, wait a moment."

Blaine stopped and Cooper reached into his pocket for a folded up envelope. Blaine stared at the familiar Anderson and Sons logo and he glanced up at his older brother. "What's this?"

"Just a little something for your help on that case the other week," Cooper said. "Just take it, don't argue with me for once. Take Kurt out somewhere nice and remind him that he has an awesome older boyfriend who can take care of him."

Blaine bit back a sigh and nodded instead. "Thanks," he said.

"That's more like it," Cooper said, flashing a brilliant smile at him. "See you later, Bee."

Blaine pocketed the envelope without even opening it and headed into the clubrooms to clean up.

It was only when he was travelling in the elevator up to his apartment that Blaine remembered the envelope. He fished it out of his pocket and opened it. He rolled his eyes at the sum on the cheque, knowing that his time wasn't worth that amount of money. He also knew that Cooper would comment if Blaine didn't cash it. An idea popped into his head and he smiled to himself as he stepped out of the elevator and into his apartment.

All thoughts of money immediately left Blaine's mind as the smell of cookies baking invaded his senses as he walked through to the kitchen.

Kurt was standing at the counter, a mixing bowl in hand and a few dozen cookies on cooking racks next to him. "You're home early!" he exclaimed, sounding surprised.

"I am? I think you're the one home early," Blaine said as he approached Kurt. He gave Kurt a quick kiss and pinched a cookie from the rack. He took a bite and moaned as the chocolate chips all but melted in his mouth. "What's the occasion?"

"No occasion," Kurt said, setting down the bowl of cookie dough he was mixing. "I just wanted to do something nice for you to come home to."

Blaine felt his stomach swoop pleasantly at the comment. "Thank you," he said softly, setting down his half eaten cookie to wrap his arms around Kurt's middle, pulling him close.

"I know things have been stressed between us and with me in general lately and I wanted to make sure we were okay?"

Blaine nodded. "We're okay," he said, leaning up to kiss Kurt on the lips. "More than okay."

"Good," Kurt replied, kissing Blaine again.

Blaine knew it was a bit of a lie, they still had to talk properly about everything but right then, he wanted nothing more than to just hold Kurt close and kiss him senseless. Kurt tasted like the cookies he had been baking and Blaine leaned closer, wanting to chase the taste.

Kurt giggled and pulled away. "Mmm," he said. "I have to stop or the cookies that are in the oven are going to burn."

"...Just how many cookies have you made?" Blaine asked as he watched Kurt pull out the freshly baked ones from the oven.

"Umm, just a few," Kurt replied. "I tend to stress bake. But think of it as you get to take cookies to work every day next week."

Blaine chuckled. "I look forward to being the envy of the staff room."

"Good," Kurt said, setting the hot trays on the side of the sink to cool a little. "That's what I like to hear, my man being the envied cookie king of the school."

Blaine grinned. "Need a hand with that last batch?"

Kurt glanced up. "Sure," he said. He got another spoon out of the utensil drawer and handed it to Blaine.

Blaine scooped out the dough and put it in even spaces on one of the trays Kurt put in front of him. "I saw Cooper today," he started. "He gave me a cheque for helping on that case a few weeks ago and I was thinking..." he trailed off, a little nervous to share his idea.

"Yeah?" Kurt prodded gently. He had stopped what he was doing and turned his entire body to face Blaine. Blaine appreciated the gesture more than he would ever tell Kurt. It was something he loved about his boyfriend – he would give his undivided attention all of the time and would listen to every single word that Blaine had to say.

"I was thinking we should open up a joint bank account?" Blaine suggested.

Kurt's brow furrowed and the little crease appeared on his forehead like it did when he was confused. "I thought only married couples did that?"

"Well..." Blaine cleared his throat and picked up the spoon, stabbing the cookie dough that was still in the bowl. "I know most of them do but we're living together and I would like to think that marriage is on the table at some point."

"Blaine Anderson," Kurt breathed. "Are you proposing to me?'

Blaine's eyes widened. "No! God, no! Wait, not 'God, no' in a bad way." Kurt's own eyes were wide and Blaine felt like he had put his foot in it. "I mean," he paused and cleared his throat. "I mean that I'm not proposing. Not now, at least. If that helps?"

"So... soon then?" Kurt asked, voice soft and high, his eyes still wide and staring at Blaine.

"Maybe," Blaine replied. "I mean, I don't have a ring picked out or anything but yeah, marriage is definitely on the table in our future."

Before Blaine could even finish speaking, he had an armful of Kurt. He held Kurt tightly, returning each kiss that Kurt had for him.

"I love you," Kurt whispered. "You have no idea how happy you make me."

Blaine smiled and kissed Kurt again. "I think I do," he replied.

He knew it wasn't going to happen right then but the idea of one day marrying Kurt made Blaine's heart soar.

~*~