Blaine was drunk. He had not meant to be. He had been nervous – not about marrying Kurt, never about marrying Kurt – but about the impending explosion. Between Blaine’s father, the 49% of Ohioans that had voted against the recently passed marriage equality initiative, and the sheer magnitude and spectacle of a Kurt Hummel-Wedding Planner Extraordinaire-Affair, something was bound to go wrong.

Now, resting his dizzy head on Kurt’s impeccably clad shoulder, his stomach suddenly especially sensitive to the rapid, upward motion of the elevator currently carrying them to the Presidential Suite of The Westin Columbus, Blaine realized that there was never a reason to worry as long as he was with Kurt: which meant, Blaine never had to worry again because, while his mind was currently a bit murky, he was certain that a few hours ago he and Kurt had promised each other forever.

~

“Blaine are you sure you should—“ Cooper’s warning glare cut off Mike’s question.

“What?” Blaine asked, lowering his drink. Mike turned to Eddie, Blaine’s college buddy, business partner, and best man, for a second opinion, and the small, almost imperceptible shake of Eddie’s head, closed Mike’s gaping mouth and Mike instead answered Blaine with a silent shrug.

“Nothing, tri-brows,” Santana answered. “You just drink up,” she said, patting him on the shoulder.

Blaine and his half of the wedding party had been sequestered in this suite for the past two hours and the anxiety was getting to Blaine. Not content to just sit and watch as Blaine descended into madness; about an hour ago Artie had whispered to Santana and suggested she make Blaine a drink. Blaine had accepted it gladly and had been content to sip from it occasionally until about seven minutes ago when Cooper had returned from his fourth venture to the lobby shaking his head: their father still had not arrived. Now, Blaine was gulping in earnest.

“He’ll come, B. Don’t worry,” Cooper comforted as Blaine sat the empty tumbler on the dresser.

“And if he doesn’t?” Blaine asked timidly, his eyes betraying his sadness.

“Then fuck him,” Cooper said dryly.

“Preach!” Artie chimed.

Blaine huffed out a laugh, dropped his head, and smirked despite himself.

“This day is about you and Kurt,” Cooper continued. “If he can’t accept that, then he shouldn’t be here anyway.”

“Mmm hmm,” Artie hummed his agreement.

“I know…but…I just thought…it’s been ten years,” Blaine confessed.

“And that’s what you should focus on right now – the time you and Kurt have shared,” Santana counseled.

“Thanks, San. You’re right.”

“Auntie Tana always is,” she smirked. “Anyway, have another drink; I’m gonna go see Brit and check on Lady Lips.” Blaine rolled his eyes, having long ago learned that these “nicknames” were how Santana showed affection. “You boys take care of this one,” she said, eyeing Cooper, Eddie, Mike and Artie. “And don’t worry,” she said, turning back to Blaine. “I won’t tell him you’re nervous.”

“I’m not,” Blaine said immediately.

“You sure seem like it, dude,” Eddie slipped, always too honest for his own good.

“Well, I mean, of course I’m nervous, but not about marrying Kurt,” Blaine explained. “Knowing Kurt’s somewhere in this building and that I’m going to marry him is the only thing keeping me calm actually,” Blaine revealed, the blush on his cheeks and dreamy, far away grin, having nothing to do with the alcohol.

“From frantic to sickeningly in love in seconds,” Cooper deadpanned. “He’s fine, Santana. The quicker we get these two married off, the better. Go see your lady.”

~

Santana heard Kurt before she saw him. His high-pitched, breathy commands could be heard from the elevator.

“Rachel, please call the caterer and make sure they keep the pate on ice,” Kurt rapidly instructed. “Where’s the photographer? Tina, will you make sure he knows to get shots from the balcony above us?”

“Whoa, Hummel,” Santana said, entering the room, “and I thought Blaine was bad!”

Carole, who was sitting on the edge of the bed between Burt and Finn watching Kurt pace back and forth across the hotel room rattling off a litany of last minute worries, clasped her hand to her face. Why had Santana said such a thing?

“What? What do you mean?” Kurt snapped. “Is he okay? Is he thinking of backing out? He can’t! He wouldn’t!”

“God, no, priss pants,” Santana said nonchalantly. “Marrying you is about the only thing he’s looking forward to right now, seeing as it looks like his pops isn’t making an appearance,” she finished casually, walking over to where Brittany was standing and slipping her arms around her waist.

“No,” Burt said in disbelief. “He’s still not here?” Burt asked, getting up from the bed. “I’m gonna go check on the kid.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Kurt said.

“See you on the other side, buddy,” Burt said, hugging Kurt and leaving.

“I can’t believe his dad isn’t going to come to his own son’s wedding,” Tina commented, outraged, looking up from where she was applying Rachel’s makeup.

“I know right? And miss the dancing?” Brittany added simply, earning a kiss on the cheek from Santana for her efforts.

“Great! This is exactly what we need on top of everything!” Kurt huffed irritably, renewing his pacing. Finn’s eyes darted back and forth, following Kurt around the room.

“Sit down, hon,” Mercedes soothed, patting the spot on the bed next to Rachel, who was sitting stiffly, afraid one false move might make Tina poke her eye out with the pencil she was using to apply Rachel’s eyeliner. “You always knew it was going to be hard doing this here. Blaine’s dad is just another one of the ignorant 49% that populate this place, baby.”

“Like that damn florist that kicked me and Kurt out after she realized that not only was I not the bride, but that there was no bride,” Rachel piped, now that Tina had moved on to her blush.

“You got in a good storm out, though,” Finn offered.

“Oh, of course,” Rachel said, jutting out her chin indignantly and earning a frustrated look from Tina.

“We had a few, actually,” Kurt whispered, his eyes downcast.

“Well, don’t you worry about those ignorant people, honey,” Carole encouraged. “You and Blaine are perfect and this day will be perfect.”

Carole was right on both accounts.

~

The Grand Ballroom of The Westin Columbus was immaculate. Kurt had chosen it for its high ceilings and gilded d�cor. Blaine loved the floor to ceiling windows and Kurt – he would have married Kurt anywhere. The room was dressed in shimmering champagne and ivory: if Mercedes was the ebony, then Blaine was certainly the champagne to Kurt’s ivory. The focal point of the Grand Ballroom was a majestic inset, the stark white molding outlining the rectangular frame offset by the deep gold embellishments decorating the wall. The walls of the inset were basically windows, softly draped in sparkling champagne and ivory, stretched from the ceiling of the opposite wall, creating a sweeping canopy under which Kurt and Blaine would stand, before the fabric reached the windows and cascaded, billowing to the marble floor. The inset revealed a second floor balcony, which allowed guests to look down over the railing onto the spot where Kurt and Blaine would begin their lives together.

Facing this scene, sat each of the nearly four hundred chairs, covered in ivory and enveloped by a champagne sash knotted in the back and adorned with white roses. These chairs were occupied now by the friends and family Kurt and Blaine had amassed during their years together. After much thought, Kurt and Blaine had decided that they would not have the traditional separate sides or center aisle. Instead, everyone they loved and cherished would sit as one, side by side, as Kurt and Blaine stood side by side and became one. So, Tiffany, Shantell, and Lee, Kurt’s first employees and fast friends at his little boutique, sat directly next to Eddie’s mom and dad, and directly in front of Wes, Thad, David, and Trent – the Warblers with which Blaine had never lost touch. A few rows ahead of them were Tina and Mike’s parents, anxious to see their granddaughter, Michel, act as flower girl. Mercedes’ mother, Ms. Jones, and a few members from her church, sat in the same row as Sue Sylvester, which was thankfully on the opposite side of the ballroom from Emma and Will Schuester.

Beyond familiar faces from their past, the room also held new people of note – a few fledgling pop stars who owed their budding fame to Blaine’s gift for song writing, and several members of Congress who had been lured from Washington to Ohio by Burt’s constant gushing over his son and future son-in-law. No matter how they had come to know and love Kurt and Blaine, they all were there to celebrate their union, the inevitability of which had always been clear. So, at exactly 5 P.M. when a man of few words, appearing to be in his early sixties, sat at the piano and placed his fingers upon the keys, every head turned toward the doorway at the back right of the ballroom to see the woman whose raspy alto voice rose above the soft hum of the audience and filled the room.

“We were strangers starting out on a journey,” Santana sang as she walked down the right aisle, in step with the beat. “Never dreaming what we’d have to go through.”

“Now here we are and I’m suddenly standing at the beginning with you.” All eyes were now on Brittany, who had just appeared in the opposite aisle, joining in the song, eyes and feet in sync with Santana’s as they proceeded down their respective aisles.

“No one told me I was going to find you,” Santana answered. “Unexpected what you did to my heart.” Brittany and Santana locked eyes across the audience as they sang the next lines in harmony, “When I lost hope you were there to remind me this is the start.”

The crowd quickly realized they were not only being treated to a processional but also a performance, when Santana and Brittany were followed by Artie and Mercedes who picked up the vocals, blending with Santana and Brittany for the chorus:

Tina was next, proceeding up the aisle behind Mercedes. Her soft, ethereal voice sang, “We were strangers on a crazy adventure."

“Never dreaming how our dreams would come true.” Mike sang back to her from the opposite aisle.

“Now here we stand unafraid of the future, at the beginning with you,” the blend of Mike and Tina’s voices was perfected by years of marriage.

They were followed by Finn and Cooper, their strong tenors joining the chorus. The two were halfway up their aisles, when all eyes and ears were captured and dragged again to the back left of the hall by Rachel Berry’s strong soprano as she belted, “I knew there was somebody somewhere like me alone in the dark.”

Eddie, a man of formidable vocal talent in his own right, a prerequisite for him being Blaine’s best man and therefore paired with Rachel for the occasion, joined her in harmony, “I know that my dream will live on, I've been waiting so long. Nothing's gonna tear us apart.”

Finally, with the entirety of the adult wedding party congregated at the front of the hall, feet away from the spot that would be Kurt and Blaine’s beginning, they sang out the chorus once more as the flower girl, four-year old Michel, and the ring bearer, Cooper’s eight-year old son, Blake, made their ways down their respective aisles as fast as their short and nervous legs would carry them. Some members of the audience, particularly the pop divas and Trent, joined in the last few measures, as the music faded away and the a cappella voices supplied the last beautiful notes. As Rachel’s final, impressive note rose to the rafters, a silence fell over the crowd, and Tammy, the officiate of the ceremony, a petite, perky, African American woman dressed in her official judges’ robes, entered from the left side door. Taking her place front and center between the two wedding parties, the clicking of little Michel’s tiny heels, was the only sound as Tammy called for the audience to rise.

Then, gently, Brad began to play. The melody was soft, familiar, yet new. All eyes were now focused on the two sets of double doors at the rear of either side of the Grand Ballroom. The left doors revealed Kurt, clutching his father’s hand and dressed in a stunning ivory suit of his own creation, perfectly tailored, the beautiful champagne and gold detail and piping catching the light of the chandeliers. Framed in the other doorway was Blaine, his cream blazer opened slightly to reveal his deep champagne waistcoat, a matching bow tie fit snug in the collar of his white button up. Blaine’s mother, Camille, stood by her son’s side in the flattering dress she had purchased especially for this occasion, her arm looped through his. The two couples stepped over the threshold and Blaine and Kurt’s eyes immediately found each other’s.

Kurt had never been more stunningly beautiful. There was no other word for it, and Blaine’s expression was enough to reveal that he would have been incapable of verbally communicating even if such a word existed. Kurt gave Blaine a wide smile and a soft wave of his finger tips from where they rested, steady and still, at his side. Stealing excited glances at each other through the crowd, Kurt and Blaine took the last steps they would ever take apart.

Not a minute too soon, Kurt and Blaine were standing face to face, ready. This was real. They would never look back.

At Tammy’s motion, the crowd sat, and the keys of the piano stilled, the final note drowned by Blaine’s racing heart. His mother’s arm, acting as an anchor, was the only thing keeping Blaine from hopping excitedly on the balls of his feet.

“We have gathered here today, to witness the union of Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson,” Tammy began, reading from the notes Kurt and Blaine had written, “In the course of life, one is lucky to find another to love. One is blessed if, through that love, life is given to another. One is privileged, if one lives to witness that life also find a love. Here to speak of that privilege, are Blaine’s mother, Camille, and Kurt’s father, Burt.” Camille released Blaine’s arm as Eddie placed a microphone into her shaky hand. She turned to face the crowd.

“Being a mother is not easy,” she began, comforted by a few nodding heads in the room. “It is fraught with fear and worry: fear that you might fail your child and worry that the world will. All you want is for your child to be healthy and find happiness.” Camille paused, took a deep breath, and grabbed Blaine’s hand. “When Blaine told me that he was gay, I was not afraid, because I knew I would always love him. But as I watched as his health and happiness were stolen, I worried that the world would never love him.” This time it was Blaine who squeezed her hand as she took another steadying breath. “That was until Blaine met Kurt and I realized that Blaine didn’t need to the world to love him, he only needed one person to love him. There’s no doubt in my mind that person is and has always been Kurt,” Camille said, now turning to him. “Kurt, I know you will give him the world, and no matter what it throws at you two, you will face it together.” Returning her misty gaze to the crowd, she continued, “Because Blaine found Kurt, I have nothing to fear. Because they are together, I no longer worry. I love you both,” Camille finished, taking two steps toward Kurt and wiping the lone tear from his cheek before lifting herself onto the tips of her toes and replacing it with a kiss. Then, she turned, took Blaine into her arms and hugged him the way she had always wanted to and vowed to from now on. Emboldened by the sincerity of the moment, she whispered into Blaine’s ear, “Dad loves you too.”

Still slightly shaking, Camille took her seat front and center. Blaine’s tear filled eyes followed her and lingered momentarily on the conspicuously empty seat at her side before focusing on Burt, the man he had long thought of as his father – the man who was about to become his father.

For a seasoned politician, who had won multiple elections, Burt’s nerves were certainly showing as he fumbled with the microphone, cleared his throat, and straightened his tie with a nervous laugh before beginning. “Kurt and Blaine…Blaine and Kurt…what can I say?” A light chuckle rippled through the crowd. “It’s been a long time, but I’ll never forget that first day Kurt came home smiling. If you knew Kurt before Blaine, you understand how huge that is. The world can be a shitty place – excuse me,” he apologized quickly before continuing undeterred, “and it was especially cruel to Kurt. And it took me longer than I’d like to admit to completely warm to the reality of who Kurt was…is…but I always loved him and was firmly in his corner,” Burt said adamantly.

“I’ll never forget the day, in that tire shop, over nine years ago, when I looked up from a broken carburetor to find I wasn’t alone – Blaine was there too.” Burt smiled warmly and Blaine dropped his head, hiding an embarrassed but flattered grin. “And through the years we’ve been in that corner together, cheering Kurt on. And Blaine has been a great corner man, but it’s time for him to become a son. Officially.” Burt directed the last word at Blaine, before turning back to the crowd. “I had a scare once: the big guy tried to take me, but I told him I couldn’t go. I wouldn’t leave Kurt alone. Ever since, I’ve felt like I’ve been living on borrowed time.

“In that time, Kurt has gained a mother, a brother, and today he’ll gain a husband. I’m thankful I could be here, on this side, to see it. And when my time comes and I go to that big tire shop in the sky,” Burt said turning to Kurt, “I can’t wait to sit down to tea with your mother and hear it all from her side. Because, I know she’s watching,” he said, taking Kurt’s hand. “I know she approves, and I know she loves you both, as much as I do, because every time Blaine makes you smile, I can hear her cheering.” Burt’s voice broke then, and it was through tears that he said, “She’s especially loud today. So, let’s get this show on the road. We shouldn’t keep her waiting,” Burt finished, handing his microphone to Rachel, wiping his tears, and taking his seat in the front row next to a tearful Carole who clutched his hand in both of hers.

“Well you heard the man,” Tammy began, clearing her voice of tears. “Let’s make this happen. Kurt, Blaine, please follow me.” Following her directions, Kurt and Blaine took two steps toward each other, intertwined their fingers, and briefly turned their backs on the crowd, walking past their wedding party composed of friends and family, up the steps, and onto the raised platform.

Now, slightly elevated so that the entirety of the room could see them, Kurt and Blaine stood between the officiate and the assembled crowd, facing each other, both their hands extended and enveloped in each other’s.

“When I first met Kurt and Blaine three years ago,” Tammy began, “I immediately knew the one thing everyone knows when they see these two: Kurt and Blaine are two halves of the same soul. They were made to love each other. It’s a fact so strong, so true, that it cannot be ignored. There has never been a day when Kurt and Blaine have not loved each other. We are all here today, to witness them make a promise to each other, their friends and family, that there will never be such a day.” Tammy continued, “As is their way, Kurt and Blaine have chosen to express this with a song. As neither of them thought themselves capable of making it through a song at this moment, they ask that you give your kind attention to Cooper Anderson, Blaine’s brother and one of his closest friends, as he expresses Kurt and Blaine’s story, their truth, their promise, in song.”

Eddie passed the microphone to Cooper, and Cooper took the few steps down to stand, centered, in front of the crowd. Cooper nodded to Brad at the piano, who began to softly play the melody as Cooper’s vibrato filled the hall.

As Cooper surrendered the microphone, the applause drowned the sound of the opening and closing of a door at the rear of the hall. But the sound could not mask the movement which caught Cooper’s eye and caused a relieved smile to form at his lips. However, Blaine, all his focus on the beautiful man standing before him, remained oblivious to the lone figure standing in the back of the room.

The crowd quieted as Tammy’s voice signaled the continuation of the ceremony. “Marriage is a commitment, a choice, a promise to wake up every day and love. For Kurt and Blaine, love is not a noun; it is a verb – an action they freely and knowingly take each day they awake to each other. Today, they have made the choice to write the promise of their commitment in their own words. These are their vows.”

A hush fell over the crowd. Kurt closed his eyes, inhaled, and then gently stroked Blaine’s knuckles with his thumb. They stood like that, suspended in the moment, until Kurt opened his eyes once more to take in Blaine, and finally spoke. “Blaine. Throughout my life, the world has told me to tone down, to be less, to show less, and for a time, I admit, I tried. I dealt with it. I took the pain and no one noticed. But then I saw you, and you saw me, really saw me. And I felt it, my love for you,” Kurt’s voice was an airy whisper and his eyes were deep and serious. “It was something I couldn’t control, I couldn’t tone it down, and I didn’t want to. And when I found out you loved me too, I realized I didn’t have to. I could love you freely, completely.

“Loving you gave me the courage to love me, all of me, because that’s how much I love you – with all of me. Loving you has become so much of who I am, that I can’t help but embrace all of me, the way you do.

“Blaine, you are my dream, and the first one I ever had that came true,” a tear escaped Kurt’s shining eyes, but he would not let go of Blaine’s hands to wipe it away. “And because of you, all of my other dreams have come true. Ever since you came into my life, I’ve been pinching myself, convinced that one day, I’d wake up because a life like mine and a love like ours just doesn’t happen. It really is the stuff of dreams.” Kurt smiled endearingly at Blaine and as he spoke again, the smile remained in his eyes. “So, today, I promise to never stop dreaming. I’ll never pinch you, never shake you awake. I won’t even set an alarm, because the life, the dream we’ve made together is too incredible to ever leave. I vow to never get out of this bed we’re making today. I will lay in it with you until we’re old, you’ve stopped dyeing and gelling your grey hair, my perfectly moisturized skin finally succumbs to wrinkles, and we pass into next dream, whatever it may be, together.

”Thank you for giving me a reason to dream.”

Kurt finished, and Tammy waited a second to give everyone a moment to compose themselves, as Rachel and Tina were now crying in earnest, and Carole was passing a tissue over Burt to Camille. When some semblance of composure had reestablished itself in the room, Tammy nodded to Blaine, who cleared his throat and began.

“Kurt, I’ll never forget the day you turned to me in that dingy square we called our kitchen in our tiny apartment and said, ‘How about October? I’m thinking fall colors. And no, we can’t have a Halloween theme.’” Blaine chuckled along with the crowd as Kurt smiled fondly at the memory. “You always do that – say the most profound and life altering things as though they’re the most mundane things in the world. But there’s nothing mundane about our love. It took me a little longer than you to realize that.

“When you met me at the foot of those stairs so many years ago, you were ready and deep down, I was too, but I kept you waiting. When I finally opened my eyes and realized that what I’d been waiting for all my life had been staring at me with your eyes for months, I vowed I’d never keep you waiting again. So, I’m always ready, and thus I’m always waiting. And you always turn to me at the right moment and tell me it’s time.

“It was the right time on that staircase. It was the right time in that kitchen. It’s the right time now. It will always be the right time, as long as I’m with you.” Blaine’s eyes were wide and overflowing with the love that was now also spilling from his heart and mouth.

“So, I stand here today, in front of our friends, family, and whatever higher power that deemed me worthy of you, and declare that I’ll always be here waiting – waiting to wipe your tears, waiting to share in your victories and plot revenge after a defeat, waiting for you to get out of the shower in the morning so that I can dirty you before work, and waiting to rub your feet when you return home. And I would wait a lifetime, if it meant I could live another, and begin and end it with you, for my love for you does not adhere to the pretense of life and death or space and time. My love exists in its own reality where you are the only thing that is real – the only thing that matters. I promise that no matter where life takes you, my love will always be real, it will always be there, waiting.”

The look Kurt and Blaine were sharing was so intimate, so raw, the entirety of the room felt as though they were intruding. Tammy, who was closest, turned away briefly and wiped her tears. Once she felt she must continue to push the ceremony forward, she whispered, “The rings please.” Cooper gave little Blake a tap on the back, and Blake stumbled forward, presenting the pillow on which the rings lay to Rachel and Eddie. Tammy gestured to the rings held in Rachel and Eddie’s hands and declared, “These rings represent Kurt and Blaine’s love, which has no beginning and no end. It simply is and always will be.” Tammy focused her gaze on Kurt and asked,

“Kurt, do you take Blaine to be your husband? Do you promise to love him as he loves you, completely, and without reservation, forever?”

Kurt took the platinum band from Rachel’s hand, and looked directly into Blaine’s eyes, as he slipped the ring onto his finger and said, “I do, and I have, always.”

“I thought so,” Tammy quipped with a smile, before addressing the same question to Blaine, who barely let her finish before declaring, “I do. Forever.” and sliding the matching band onto Kurt’s finger. Tammy giggled and said, “Now that’s settled, you may kiss.”

Everyone was on their feet cheering, but for Kurt and Blaine the world disappeared as it always did whenever their lips met. For Blaine, there was nothing but the curve of Kurt’s chin, the flutter of his eyelashes, and the thrust of his tongue, as Kurt slipped further into the dream, his arms wrapped around Blaine as if trying to drag him beneath the covers where they could hide from the world together. But in this moment, in this room, they did not have to hide, and everyone bore witness to and felt the strength and truth of Kurt and Blaine’s love.

As Kurt and Blaine finally broke apart, it was Mercedes’ voice that filled the room with song. Up in the balcony, backed by her church choir, donning robes of ivory and champagne for the occasion, her voice floated down upon them as she declared in song, “At last, my love has come along.”

Yes, at last Kurt and Blaine were one. Married. Husbands. While they had been together, living parallel lives for the past nine years, this was their beginning. They found their dream, and they were in Heaven, together at last.

The music faded, Mercedes bowed, and when Tammy proudly announced, “I now present to you Kurt and Blaine Anderson-Hummel,” Kurt and Blaine forced themselves to turn from each other and face their cheering friends and family. Just before the standing throng blocked his view, Blaine caught a glimpse of the man still standing alone in the back of the hall, something like a smile on his lips. Blaine knew that smile, they he had not seen it often. It belonged to the man he was sure would never come—the man he needed to come—his father. Kurt was right: this was a dream from which he did not have to wake.

~

Miraculously, Kurt’s message to keep the pate on ice had reached the caterers. The food was perfect and there looked to be enough of it to feed their 300 plus guests, currently filling the reception hall, two times over. Blaine was thankful for Kurt’s tendency to over plan because Blaine’s anxiety had killed his appetite earlier in the day and now he was starving. However, as he was currently standing next to Kurt, his husband (wow, that felt good to say), greeting every single one of their guests in the receiving line on which Kurt had insisted (“It’s customary and polite”), Blaine was glad he could at least be certain there would be plenty of food left whenever he was able to finally tend to the embarrassing noises emanating from his stomach. In the mean time, Blaine was subsisting on the glasses of champagne Rachel kept bringing him.

“Thank you so much for coming!” Kurt was saying again to Mercedes’ mother.

“It was a beautiful ceremony, Kurt. I’m so glad we were able to talk our church choir into performing.”

“As are we,” Kurt smiled. “They were wonderful.” Kurt hugged Ms. Jones and she shuffled off to find Mercedes.

It went on like that for nearly 45 minutes: smiling faces, teary eyes, warm hugs, and heartfelt words of congratulations. Blaine truly appreciated it and tried his best to be present in the moment with each guest, but the anticipation was affecting his concentration…the anticipation and the alcohol. Each subsequent face that was not his father’s weighed even more heavily on his already overworked nerves. As it turned out, the person Blaine most wanted to see was the last person he did – he was always last.
So it transpired that when the guest had all been greeted and were gorging themselves on the copious amounts of food, Kurt and Blaine found themselves standing in a corner alone with Blaine’s father, William Anderson.

“Kurt. Blaine,” Mr. Anderson said in his customary and formal greeting.

“Mr. Anderson,” Kurt nodded.

“Dad, I--,”

“Blaine, don’t,” Mr. Anderson interrupted. “It is my turn to speak.” He paused before continuing. “I’m glad I came today. I saw something I needed to see.” Mr. Anderson said in his business like tone. Then he paused, searched his son’s eyes and asked, “Blaine, you love Kurt don’t you?”

“With every part of me,” Blaine answered, his voice strong and clear.

“And Kurt,” Mr. Anderson said, turning to him, this one of a handful of instances in which he had acknowledged Kurt’s existence long enough to speak to him. “You love my son, don’t you?”

“More than anything,” Kurt said, glancing at Blaine, the truth of the words in his eyes.

Mr. Anderson stood looking at both of them for a moment, then turning to Blaine, he said, “And you know he loves you?”

“It’s the only thing I know for sure.”

“I thought so…and that’s all I need to know,” Mr. Anderson said softly, nodding his head once, before addressing his son again. “I may not like this,” he gestured to where Kurt and Blaine’s fingers were intertwined, “but I love you. And he loves you, and you know it. That’s more than I could ever do for you.” William dropped his head momentarily and then continued.
“That’s all I wanted for you…for you to know you were loved even if I couldn’t show it. If Kurt does that for you…well, then…I won’t stand in the way.” And then William Anderson did something he had never done before – he extended his hand to Kurt. Kurt faltered for a second, and then shook his hand. “Thank you Kurt…for loving my son.”

“The pleasure’s all mine, sir.”

William nodded and then took Blaine into his arms, hugging him. He hugged Blaine like he used to when Blaine was small and still fit the mold, the image, William had created in his mind. With his son in his arms, William whispered, “I love you, son. I’m glad you’re happy.”

“I am,” Blaine breathed back, adding more tears to the well he had shed over his father, although these were different…happy.

“Good,” William said, pulling back, his face again serious, formal, such that if his face were the gauge, anyone walking by would have assumed they were simply discussing the weather. “Have a lovely night,” he said, turning to go.

“Dad? Aren’t you going to stay?”

“No, son,” Mr. Anderson muttered. “I don’t think that would be wise. I saw all I needed to. Your mother will fill me in on the rest.”
Blaine nodded solemnly.

“Enjoy your night, son.”

“Yes sir.”

And Blaine did just that. He shared his first dance with his husband. He smeared chocolate cake all over Kurt’s face and laughed boisterously as Kurt chased him around the reception hall, and when he finally allowed himself to be caught, pretended to fight as Kurt rubbed cake all the way up to his eyebrows. Afterward, just after Kurt had wiped the last bit of icing from his own cheek, Blaine, face still plastered with cake, grabbed Kurt and kissed him heartily, reapplying a sticky layer of icing to Kurt’s face in the process.

Later, shoulder to shoulder, Kurt and Blaine both threw the bouquet, which Mercedes elbowed others to catch. Finn found her later, clutching the flowers and Eddie’s face in a darkened corner.

It was a party of a magnitude worthy of the love it celebrated.

It was not until many hours later, when the flames of the candles adorning each table flickered on the last of their wicks, that the party began to die down and inebriated well-wishers stumbled out to their cars. As the crowd dwindled, the DJ played on and Kurt sat at the head table, his head resting on Mercedes’ shoulder on his right, and his hand clutched in Rachel’s lap on his left. Finn, Cooper, Blaine and Eddie were still on the dance floor, Blaine’s fifth glass of champagne impairing his dancing skills so heavily that Finn almost looked as though he had rhythm.

“What are you thinking about?” Rachel asked after noticing Kurt’s far away smile.

“Just wondering how we got stuck with these fools,” Kurt grinned fondly, shaking his head as Blaine began swinging his undone bow tie over his head.

“Fate, Kurt,” Mercedes offered. “It was fate.”

“Well, if I ever meet fate,” Kurt let out a contented sighed. “I’ll be sure to thank her.”

Rachel squeezed Kurt’s hand and Mercedes stroked his back as they fell once again into a comfortable silence.

“Kurt!” Blaine called from the dance floor, wiggling his hips in Kurt’s direction. “Come dance with me!”

“You better go get him before he hurts himself,” Mercedes teased.

“Yeah, yeah,” Kurt said, rolling his eyes but smiling as he rose to go retrieve Blaine.

Blaine was always so jovial and pliant when intoxicated and Kurt couldn’t help but chuckle as he draped one of Blaine’s arms over his shoulder, wrapped an arm around Blaine’s slender waist, and waving off help from Cooper and Eddie, led Blaine from the ballroom, through the lobby, and into the elevator, Blaine babbling through a goofy smile.

Kurt had just gotten them over the threshold of the Presidential Suite where they would sleep until the morning when they would board a plane for a destination Kurt hoped Blaine would still remember. Blaine had been in charge of planning the honeymoon and all he had told Kurt about their activities was that Kurt should pack for warm weather. Kurt thought about trying to wheedle it out of him now, but Blaine was more interested in spilling other, more important information.

“I’m so glad I met you that day on the stairs, Kurt,” Blaine muttered as Kurt led him into the bedroom and plopped him onto the bed. “You were so pretty, Kurt. Like a painting, or a sunset, or a painting of a sunset.” Kurt just shook his head and chuckled fondly as he removed Blaine’s shoes. “Did I ever tell you that was totally not a short cut? Because it wasn’t.” Blaine’s eyelids were heavy, as he bit his lower lip and looked down to where Kurt was undoing his other shoe.

“I figured it out, silly,” Kurt smiled, looking up at Blaine and pushing him gently so that he fell onto his back.

“You were just so stunning and perfect,” Blaine continued; content to talk to the ceiling as Kurt undid his belt. “But then I found out you were broken and I just wanted to fix you, and I tried, but it was never you that needed fixing, it was them. You helped me see that Kurt. You help me see a lot of things.”

Blaine was rambling and spilling his emotions. Kurt felt a twinge of guilt at taking advantage of Blaine’s altered emotional state, but he couldn’t resist.

“Oh yeah? Like what?” Kurt played along, gently pulling Blaine’s pants from his body, folding them, and placing them in the chair in the corner.

“You help me see me,” Blaine confessed, his eyes wide and honest as he allowed Kurt to lift him slightly from the bed and remove his vest and shirt. Kurt was not talking anymore, but Blaine didn’t let that stop him. “I didn’t know how to be me until I met the me I am when I’m with you.” Suddenly, Blaine was underneath the covers and he rolled over onto his side, looking for Kurt. “Does that make sense, Kurt? Everyone was always telling me who I need to be, that I needed to be different, but you love me,” Blaine said, finally finding Kurt under the covers as well, but for some reason Blaine didn’t want to exert the mental effort to figure out, Kurt was still sitting up, his back against the headboard. Undeterred, Blaine rested his head in Kurt’s lap, wrapped his arms around Kurt’s waist, and continued. “And I love me when I’m with you.”

Kurt tenderly stroked Blaine’s sweat-curled hair and whispered, “I love us, Blaine.”

“Us is my favorite thing,” the words slipped from Blaine’s mouth as his eyes fluttered closed. After a moment he asked, “Can we keep it forever?”

“Keep what, honey?” Kurt asked gently.

“Us,” Blaine sighed.

“Isn’t that just what we agreed to?” Kurt chuckled lightly, not wanting to jostle Blaine. “I think there were flowers and witnesses and everything.”

“Oh yeah!” Blaine said, a burst of energy enough to boost his voice but not open his eyes. “We’re husbands. Husbands! Isn’t that cool, Kurt. I think it’s cool…” Blaine’s last words were barely audible as his arms became limp and his upper body rested heavily on Kurt’s lap.

“Yeah,” Kurt whispered at his sleeping husband, “it’s pretty cool.” And Kurt sat there for nearly an hour, smiling down at his sleeping husband and running his fingers through his dark hair. The moment was so perfect, so fragile, that Kurt was afraid to fall asleep for fear that the dream would end. But every slow rise and fall of his husband’s chest assured him that the dream would never end. So, Kurt closed his eyes and slipped beneath the covers, into the arms of his husband, and deeper into the dream, secure in the truth that the next morning, and every one after that, he would awake to Blaine – his dream.