Finally, the ever longing awkward silence was broken. Well, not really. Sometime when Kurt was lost in his thoughts, Blaine reached over and grabbed Kurt's hand. The feeling of Blaine's hand had surprised Kurt and brought him back into reality. He wasn't expecting Blaine to randomly do that, then again, this was Blaine, the king of the unexpected. Kurt let out a sigh of relief at Blaine's touch, breaking the silence. "What are you thinking about?" Kurt slowly turned his attention away from the window and back to Blaine. That question was just so broad. "Honestly?" A simple nod was all it took before Kurt began to spill.

"First off, what went down between you and my dad" This was currently one of the biggest burdens on Kurt shoulder. He loved his dad, but he knows how intimidating he could be. Kurt hoped he didn't say anything to push Blaine away. "Secondly, how nervous I am right now." Which he was, because let's face it. Blaine wasn't the only one who was allowed to be nervous.

"Finally, maybe this is all some cruel joke and I'm just dreaming?" Kurt's ramble died down as he noticed Blaine's face was plastered with a smile. "It's cute when you're frazzled, Kurt." He rolled his eyes, furrowing his lip between his teeth. Damn it, why did Blaine have to be all perfect and compliment him when he was practically shaking with nerves? Batting Blaine's hand away, Kurt teased him. "Oh my gosh, stop!"

Blaine pouted like a puppy dog at the loss of Kurt's hand. He reached back over for it, finding no resistance from Kurt. "Oh come on. Would it make you feel better if I told you I still feel butterflies from before?" Watching Blaine closely, Kurt saw an adorable shade of pink creep up his cheeks. Oh God. Kurt was sure that if he could make Blaine blush like that, he would be set for life. After a moment of silence from Kurt, Blaine knew he had won this argument. However, Kurt wasn't angry at the loss of the argument like he usually would be.

Kurt was a stubborn little bitch when he wanted to win an argument but this wasn't one of those times. He got the chance to see Blaine so unkempt and raw of emotions. But within seconds, Blaine's facial expression shifted from a blush to something else. His isosceles eyebrows, that Kurt secretly favored, furrowed. "I uh, actually wanted to talk about that." Um what? What was there to talk about? They kissed. It was great, well great being the understatement of the year. But what if Blaine didn't think that? What if Blaine, now looking back on it, regretted the kiss in some way?

Oh God, please let this not happen. Play it cool. Kurt thought, trying to push back his thoughts. His mind failed however, repeating itself again, but this time out loud for Blaine to hear. "What's there to talk about? All we did was kiss." Way to state the fucking obvious, Kurt. His mind shouted at himself until Blaine spoke again. "And I feel terrible about it." The words hit Kurt hard, so hard his eyes began to sting painfully with tears. A sad monotone sound emitted from his lips. "Oh," was the only word he managed to respond to Blaine

How could I have been so blind? Kurt was being hard on himself now. He knew it. Blaine felt terrible about the kiss. He regretted every single moment. But then why were they still going out? Was this a pity date? Kurt didn't realize what was going on. At some point he slipped his hand out of Blaine's. This alarmed Blaine, realizing Kurt must have took his words wrong, he quickly defended himself. "Oh wait. No. That didn't come out correctly."

Kurt's face had already turned back to the window, tears streaming down his face quietly. He didn't want Blaine to hear him. It would only further embarrass him. Kurt tried his best to speak normally, hoping his voice didn't crack from his violent sobbing. "No. It's o-okay. I g-get it." He stuttered miserably, positive that Blaine could hear him crying. Thankfully, they had just pulled up to a red light. Blaine wasted no time in turning to face Kurt. "Hey, look at me." Blaine's voice was soft and pleading.

Kurt wasn't sure why he obeyed effortlessly, but he did. The first thing Blaine noticed were the tear stains on Kurt's pale cheeks. It pained him to see Kurt cry but he couldn't help but notice how beautiful Kurt looked in that moment. "I feel terrible about how I threw myself at you, how I acted so hysterical, not that I feel terrible about doing it." Blaine had to fight the urge to reach over and pull Kurt into his arms, just like Kurt previously did earlier that day to him. Unfortunately, the light turned green and Blaine had to continue driving.

Disbelief ran throughout Blaine. "You thought I meant the kiss? That I felt terrible about it?" Blaine scrunched up his face at his own words. "You thought I regretted it, didn't you?" A small whine escaped Kurt's lips as he wiped his tears with his right hand. Blaine guessed that Kurt was agreeing with him. "If I regretted it, why would I have admitted to still feeling butterflies Kurt?" Oh yeah. That had slipped Kurt's mind for some stupid reason. Kurt gave a weak shrug as Blaine scoffed.

Blaine really had a hard time coming to terms with this. How could Kurt be so oblivious? "Kurt, you obviously don't understand how crazy I am about you." Kurt wasn't sure it was normal for someone's mood to change so abruptly. He felt like Mr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Then again, the only person that was possible of making Kurt feel this crazy was Blaine. It was absurd really, one minute he was hurt, broken to where he was literally in tears, and the next minute hearing Blaine say he was crazy about him made him want to burst open with happiness.

No one brought up anything else related to the earlier events of the day. The conversation about the kiss was dropped right then and there. For the rest of the car ride Kurt and Blaine sang along to the radio, sometimes trying to out-sing one another. Kurt laughed when Blaine couldn't quite reach those falsetto notes that his counter tenor range easily could. They had been driving for about an hour and a half when Kurt reached for Blaine's hand once again.

They hadn't held hands since Kurt pulled away before. Of course Blaine took his hand without protest. "Blaine, where exactly are we going?" The sun had just set, a dark mysterious blue stretched across the sky. "It's a surprise." Kurt liked surprises but he was still curious as to what he and Blaine would be doing. Giving in, he didn't want to pick it out of Blaine. "Can you at least tell me if we're close?" Peering out the corner of his eye, Blaine smiled over at Kurt. "We're very close."

Kurt wondered where they were. He didn't recognize the surrounding area that Blaine was driving through. It was a nice town, fairly populated with people walking up and down the streets. They stopped at another light, thankfully this time Kurt wasn't crying. He was glancing at the innocent bystanders who were walking by when he spotted a boy. Kurt began to study him carefully. He must have been about the same age as Kurt. The boy was attractive; slim but sculpted, short spiked brown hair. He was also standing on the corner alone, looking around aimlessly. Was he lost? He looked lost.

It was more like he was searching for someone, probably his cute girlfriend. The light turned green and as they drove away, Kurt saw exactly who the boy was looking for. That cute girlfriend was actually a cute boyfriend, who snuck up behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist lovingly. Shock and jealousy filled Kurt then. Shock because there were other people around and not just a few, a whole lot. Where ever Blaine was taking them for the night must've accepted gays or at least tolerated them.

Jealousy spread throughout Kurt because he yearned for what that boy had. The whole hug from behind move was something Kurt desperately wanted to try, to feel. It was a sort of a secret of his, to experience such a caring gesture. Maybe someday he'd get to feel that warm embrace from Blaine. He could only hope. He could also hope that Blaine would explain why exactly he was staring out the window and up at a colorful, gigantic Ferris wheel. This was Blaine's surprise?

As they turned the corner, Kurt took in the whole picture. There were people scattered everywhere, surrounding booths and rides. It was a lot to take in, there was nothing like this in Lima. Blaine was taking him to a carnival. Well, this was definitely a surprise. "We're here." Blaine smiled over at Kurt once they parked. Sliding out of the car, Blaine zoomed over to the passenger side and opened Kurt's door for him ever so gentlemen like. Once out of the car, Blaine held out his arm for Kurt to take, which he did willingly.

"Excited?" Blaine looked over at Kurt, searching for some sort of good reaction. Kurt was excited, as well as nervous. He was also smitten that Blaine had brought him to a carnival. The multiple never ending carnival-date scenarios popped up in his head. "Still nervous but..." He nodded, taking in a deep breath. "…of course, excited." Kurt exhaled his shaky nervous breath and smiled over at the other boy, who was lunging towards him and planting a firm kiss on his cheek.

Blaine lips lingered on his cheek for a moment before he pulled back smiling. "We're just a mess, aren't we?" Kurt only pulled Blaine's arm closer to him in response. He was anxious, and he was nervous, and he was scared shitless, but around Blaine he couldn't help but to take light of the situation. In hindsight, Kurt loved the whole carnival idea. Tonight would be wonderful. He was with Blaine and he was going to have a spectacular time. They walked through the carnival ground arm and arm, over viewing everything.

There were children and parents scattered around at game stations, people chatting over carnival food, and couples lined up for rides. Music filled throughout the carnival, VV Brown's "Shark in the Water" just came over the carnival speakers. "Oh my gosh, I love this song!" Kurt squealed and pulled Blaine closer. Blaine laughed, looking over at Kurt with widened eyes. "Really? I always took you as someone who was permanently glued to a Broadway's Greatest Hits collection sets." Kurt straightened up, laughing as he did so. "I'm very eclectic. I like to try new things." With that, Blaine brought them to a halt. They stood in front of a gigantic roller coaster. It had to be the biggest one at the carnival. "How about trying this?" Blaine stepped in front of him, his eyes glistening with excitement and hopefulness.

Kurt swallowed hard. It's not that he didn't like roller coasters because he was a huge adrenaline junkie, just that this one was huge and he was pretty sure that it might have been the biggest coaster he's ever seen. He was nervous, but Blaine looked so psyched. "Yeah, let's go?" Blaine could hear the apprehension in Kurt's voice, so he took his hand to comfort him. "If you're scared, we can hold hands." Flashing a smile over at Kurt, he studied his facial expression. Kurt was nervous to say the least but at the mention of holding hands, his face lit up with a smile. This was reassuring for the both of them.

Both boys stood in line for only a few minutes. There weren't many people in line for the coaster, probably due to how intimidating it looked. When they we finally seated, Kurt was sure to grab Blaine's hand before the coaster took off. He was also sure to squeeze Blaine's hand right when they were seconds before going down the biggest slope. It was fun and over too quick. Before they knew it, both boys were walking out of the exit. As they did so, they were laughing and talking about how much they enjoyed the ride. Kurt was teasing Blaine for screaming like a girl when he was the one that was really scared.

"You sounded like a girl Blaine! And that's a lot coming from someone who's been mistaken for one over the phone numerous times." Kurt laughed hysterically, literally poking at Blaine's shoulder as they walked. Blaine tried to take the teasing lightly at first, trying to brush it off but Kurt just kept on picking. "I'll show you how much of a girl I am. Come on." A confused Kurt tilted his head as he watched Blaine wander over to a deserted game booth.

There on top of the booths counter was a single baseball and placed far to the back of the boot was the tiny bull's eye. A teenage boy, mildly attractive according to Kurt, stood next to a tracker. Blaine swiftly pulled out a 5 dollar bill from his wallet, handing it to the teen who nodded at him. "The object of the game is to hit the bull's eye with the fastest pitch. The higher the speed you throw the ball, the larger the prize; 40 for the smallest prize, 60 for the mediums, and 80 for the larges."

Kurt stood next to Blaine, rolling his eyes. 'What was this?' Blaine was trying to prove his manhood and he realized maybe the teasing wasn't the best thing to do. "Blaine, you don't need to prove how manly you are. I know you're a guy." Paying no mind to Kurt's words, Blaine proceeded to roll up his sleeves and grab a ball. Silently, Blaine took a step back and wound up his pitch. Kurt watched carefully, noticing Blaine's stance. His knee stretched up to his stomach, his arms bent behind his head with the ball still in hand, and lunged forward to release the pitch. Kurt's eyes immediately shot to the tracker that read 85 mph. Clearly, Blaine had done this before.

Standing back straight next to Kurt, Blaine shot him a smug smile. "I'm pretty sure a girl couldn't throw that fast." If Kurt wasn't as stunned as he was, he would've argued with Blaine. Surely a girl could pitch just as fast but that didn't matter right now. "You never told me you played baseball!" Kurt shoved at Blaine's shoulder as if being able to pitch was some sort of secret Blaine never decided to share with him. Stepping forward to claim his prize, a huge stuffed penguin, Blaine laughed quietly.

After taking his prize, he retreated back to Kurt's side rightfully. "You never asked." Blaine petted his new fluffy friend and handed him to Kurt. The penguin was so huge that it almost reached to Blaine's neck. So Kurt took the animal without asking and curled it under one arm, holding it for Blaine. "You're so good." Kurt said. Blaine thanked Kurt sweetly as they started to walk again. "So you sing, dance, and play baseball?" Blaine laughed, running his fingers through his perfectly gelled hair. "For the record I can barely dance, but yeah, I used to pitch back in the day."

Images of Blaine in a baseball uniform fled throughout Kurt's mind. He didn't know much about baseball but of course he knew what players wore. Nice tight pants that showed off just about everything. Trying to rid the image of Blaine in tight pants, Kurt eyes squinted over at Blaine. "At your old school right? I don't remember Dalton having a baseball team." For an all-boys private school, Kurt never understood why the school didn't have a football or baseball team. A fencing and archery team sure, but Dalton would never participate in something so formal.

"Yeah, I played my freshmen and sophomore year. I loved it." Blaine's eye sparkled with what Kurt could only guess were memories of him on the baseball team. It was obvious to Kurt that Blaine was good at the sport just by watching him pitch once. He didn't know why, if Blaine loved playing so much, he stopped. But before he could ask they stopped in front of the huge colorful Ferris wheel that Kurt had laid eyes on before. Since Blaine had dragged him on the roller coaster, Kurt was going to drag him on the Ferris wheel. Kurt grabbed Blaine's hand and pulled him in line, Blaine standing behind him. Blaine hadn't complained about being pulled into line without asking, so Kurt took it as a good sign.

Once the boys were set in their spots, Kurt turned to Blaine to finish the conversation they were having. "What I don't get is, if you loved baseball, why did you stop?" As Kurt finished his sentence, Blaine let go of his hand. Kurt's eyes flew to their dismembering hands then to Blaine's face. It had scrunched up, his mouth smoothing into a thin line. The question put Blaine off, his reluctance to talk about it made that clear. Kurt instantly felt guilty and tried to change the subject. "Anyway, the…"

He was cut off by Blaine's soft words. "It's hurts to talk about it." Fuck. If it was even possible, Kurt felt guiltier in that moment. He also felt like punching himself in the face. "I'm sorry. I'm insensitive. I shouldn't have asked." Kurt tried to apologize because he was truly sorry. It wasn't his place to just ask personal questions like that. Yeah, Blaine was his… what was Blaine anyway? They were best friends who shared a kiss. Kurt liked Blaine and Blaine liked Kurt. This was a date, right? It didn't matter though.

This seemed like there was something more to this story, more personal. "Don't ever apologize for wanting to know more about me, Kurt. It's just… I didn't think I'd end up telling you like this." The line moved up and instead of telling Kurt to walk, Blaine placed his hands on Kurt's shoulders and gently pushed him back. Kurt stepped back until Blaine stopped him, squeezing his shoulders. "Telling me what like this?" Blaine let go of Kurt's shoulders and placed his finger tips at the hem of his shirt. Inhaling deeply, Blaine pulled his shirt up a bit.

Confused, Kurt's eyes stayed planted on his face. Why was Blaine stripping? Was it even okay for Kurt to look or was that invading Blaine's privacy? One of Blaine's hands left the hem of his shirt and grabbed Kurt's, leading it to his stomach. "What? I don't… oh." Blaine had placed Kurt's hand on a peculiar scar. If he was allowed to touch Blaine's stomach, surely he was allowed to look at it now. So Kurt's eyes shot to Blaine's stomach, and if he wasn't confused about why Blaine had a 4 inch scar across his stomach, he might have fainted. Boy, he was gorgeous.

Kurt's finger traced the scar once, twice, and a third time before his retrieved his hand back to his side. "I'm still not getting this." Blaine shook his head and released his shirt. Sucking his lip in between his teeth, Blaine focused on the ground. "The end of sophomore year was when I decided to come out and when my…" Blaine stopped, closing his eyes for a moment. "…the team heard the news most of them didn't take it too well. So one day they wanted to let me know that they didn't want a 'fag' on their team."

Kurt's eyes searched Blaine's pained face for some indication that the story would lighten but unfortunately it didn't."They ambushed me in the locker room. I thought they'd just rough me up and be on their way, you know? But that didn't happen. They messed me up pretty bad. Someone held me down while a few guys took a few cheap shots. I tried to fight back, but I couldn't over power a group of guys." Kurt was sure he was going to throw up. If he was a mess over what happened between Karofsky and himself, how messed up was Blaine on the inside after all of this?

"At one point, I broke free though but one guy caught me and pushed me. On the way down to the floor my stomach nicked a bench, that's how I got the scar." Kurt was stunned and saddened by the story and by the images of Blaine being hurt like that. He didn't want to think about it, it hurt too much. "Thankfully some guys didn't care about the news and actually cared about me. They walked in on the beating and managed to stop the rest of the guys. When I got to the hospital, they said I was in pretty bad shape; a few bruised ribs, a black eye, and because of the bench my stomach was cut open. Once my mom saw what happened, she transferred me to Dalton. We always knew about Dalton, even considered it but I told her everything would be fine at my school. Unfortunately, everything wasn't fine. I wasn't fine. I wasn't safe there."

Blaine finished his story and finally looked up at Kurt, whose eyes were leaking with wet tears. "Oh, Kurt…" He stepped forward to comfort him but Kurt swung around, his back facing Blaine. "I'm sorry they did that to you." Kurt's voice was soft and weak from crying, but he knew Blaine was still able to hear him. "I'm not." Blaine didn't know it was possible for Kurt's head to turn that fast so quickly. Surely he would have gotten whiplash. "What?"

Right then and there, Blaine placed his hands on Kurt's hips and brought him close to his body. The same action that Kurt saw happen between the two boys on the street corner was now happening to him. Blaine was hugging him from behind and if he wasn't so flabbergasted at Blaine's words he would have screamed with happiness on the inside from this embrace. "The bruises healed and now I have a battle scar but..." Blaine let out a laugh that tickled Kurt's ear, which made him smile. "If that didn't happen, I would have never gone to Dalton. I would have never met you. We would have never kissed. We wouldn't be here right now. And if I had to deal with one lousy beating to get to this moment right now, I would take that beating again."

In a way, Blaine had just admitted that he would take a beating for Kurt. He couldn't imagine himself allowing any kind of pain to reach Blaine, even if it was for him. It was too bizarre and the last thing that Kurt would ever want. He didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve Blaine. He was sure he was about to start crying again but right then it was their turn to step onto the cart of the Ferris wheel. "Come on." Blaine ushered Kurt to walk first, pushing him a little. Kurt whined from the loss of Blaine's firm warm hands on his hips but he piled in the cart anyway.

"Where do you want me to place your little friend?" Kurt said, referring to the huge penguin Blaine had won earlier. He wasn't sure if he should plop him in between him and Blaine and he hoped Blaine didn't want him too. He wanted to be close to Blaine. He needed to be. "Give me." Kurt handed Blaine the penguin, which Blaine placed to the side of him, leaving no space in between Kurt and himself. They locked themselves in the cart as it took off. Blaine placed one arm at his side and scooted closer to Kurt, his arm lying behind Kurt's head.

"And he's not mine, he's yours." Smiling ever so sweetly, Blaine looked over at Kurt. "And don't even say that you won't accept it. I won him for you, isn't that how it goes? I know it's utterly clich� but I want you to have it." It was hard to do on a moving Ferris wheel but Kurt could do nothing but thank Blaine by kissing him on the cheek. He wasn't going to argue over a stupid penguin. As they came to the halt at the top of the wheel, Blaine shook his head. "You missed." Kurt cocked his head over at a smirking Blaine, not sure what he meant. "What do you mean…?" He was cut off by Blaine's warm lips against his. And there they were, lips pressed to lips at the top of the Ferris wheel. Kurt was sure this night couldn't get any better.