6:45 the next day finds Blaine sprawled on his bed in an inside-out sweater and sweatpants. The bathroom door opens and Kurt walks out, freshly showered and wearing only a towel wrapped loosely around his waist. Blaine lifts his head, his pupils dilating and his eyes sparkling, grazing over his exposed skin. A small whimper comes from his lips, and he props himself up on his elbow. “Kurt,” he whines.

“What?” The other boy replies innocently, crossing the length of the room and beginning to dig through his closet, even though he'd picked out his outfit hours previously.

“Come here?” Blaine kind of wants to rip that towel right off of his boyfriend. Screw his brother and his ridiculous plans.

“No can do,” Kurt sing-songs, piling up all of the layers his outfits needs in his hands. “Have you forgotten that you have a hot date in fifteen minutes?”

“I don't care,” Blaine states flatly.

“I couldn't tell,” Kurt remarks, sarcasm dripping from his tone. “At least turn your sweater outside in. The seams are bothering me. Here.” He sets down his clothes on the bed, gesturing for Blaine to stand up. He complies willingly, licking his lips and standing up straight. He lifts his arms up and Kurt slips his shirt over his head, but instead of turning it outside in, his eyes travel over Blaine's exposed skin and all of a sudden he crashes their lips together in a heated, passionate kiss. Blaine presses their chests together, skin against skin. Their tongues tangle together, they are breathing the same air, and then it's over just as soon as it began. Blaine's face falls as Kurt pulls away, turns his sweater outside and places it in Blaine's hands. “There you go. Hurry up,” he says sternly and winks, grabbing his pile of clothes and disappearing behind the bathroom door once more.

“Tease!” Blaine calls out when he can find his voice, tossing a dress shoe at the closed bathroom door.

No response.

~*~*~*�

By 7:20, when there's a knock on the door, Blaine's managed to pull himself together somewhat. His sweater is turned the right side out and his hair is gelled back neatly. He's wearing gray slacks and dress shoes (he had to retrieve one of them from outside the bathroom door). He turns to Kurt, and they exchange a look.

“Ready?”

“As I'll ever be.”

“I'm telling him tonight. I promise.”
“You promise?”

“I promise.”

Blaine smiles and kisses him softly on the lips.

'I love you,” he whispers.

“I love you, too.”

There's another knock on the door, louder this time, and Blaine sighs against Kurt's lips and pulls away. He takes a deep breath and opens the door. His brother is standing there, and he's not alone. There are two girls with him- two blonde, tall, cheerleader-type girls. They must be fraternal, because they really don't look all that much alike. Blaine forces a smile. He'll get through this, and he'll tell his brother the truth, and everything will be okay. Right?

His brother introduces the girl that's hanging off of his shoulder as Lucy and the other as Kendra. Blaine smiles at them both, and tells them that it's nice to meet them. He shakes their hands. They giggle. He feels horrible- he doesn't want to be leading anyone on. Maybe Kendra won't even like him. Maybe nobody will get hurt. Maybe nobody is already hurt.

Maybe he needs to stop kidding himself.

Charlie drives to the restaurant, with Lucy riding shotgun and Kendra crammed in between Blaine and Kurt in the backseat. They make small talk, and the blonde giggles at every other word that comes out of Blaine's mouth. She curls her hair around her finger, pops her gum and shifts so that their knees are touching. Kurt looks away, out the window, wanting nothing more than to push that hussy off of his boyfriend and possibly off the face of the earth. Blaine scoots even closer to the door.

They end up sitting around a circular table in the corner of the restaurant. Charlie next to Lucy next to Kurt next to Blaine next to Kendra. Charlie does most of the talking, Kendra and Lucy do most of the giggling, Blaine does most of the polite smiling and nodding and Kurt does most of the rolling eyes. At one point, Kendra brushes her hand against Blaine's. He shoves it in his pocket. Kurt excuses himself to go to the bathroom, and Blaine watches him go, a lump in his throat the size of Texas.

When he doesn't return in five minutes, Blaine starts to worry.

When he doesn't return in ten minutes, Blaine gets up and mumbles something about having to use the bathroom.

He pushes the door open to find Kurt staring at his reflection in the mirror, his elbows propped up on the counter and his face tinged a light pink. Blaine comes up behind him, and he watches as Kurt's reflection jumps.

“You've been gone for a while,” Blaine says, concerned.

Kurt bows his head and doesn't say anything.

“Hey, hey... Kurt? Look at me.”

Kurt lifts his head, crossing his arms over his chest, and it's only then that Blaine sees that his eyes are puffy and rimmed in red.

The lump in Blaine's throat grows to elephant size. His stomach drops to his knees.

This has been such a huge mistake, and it's all his fault. He's such a coward. He hates himself.

“Kurt... what's wrong?”

“You know very well what's wrong,” Kurt scoffs, ducking his head once more. He throws his hands up and turns back towards the mirror again, sniffling and watching Blaine's confused expression in the mirror.
“Blaine. Can I ask you something?” he asks suddenly, looking up to meet Blaine's eyes in the mirror.

“Of course you can. Anything.”

There's a silence that seems to last an eternity and a day.

And when Kurt speaks, his voice is low and soft, as if it might crack and betray him if he talks too loudly.

“Are you ashamed of me?”

It has been eating at him since Blaine's confession last night.

Blaine's eyes widen as Kurt's question settles into his mind.

“Kurt- how could you- how could you even think that?” He gasps, rushing up to stand next to his boyfriend. “Kurt, this isn't- no. No, no, no. I could never, ever be anything less than proud to be with you. Look at me, baby,” he pleads, and he takes Kurt's hands in his own. Kurt sniffs and looks up to meet his eyes, blinking rapidly.

“Are you sure about that, Blaine? Because it sure didn't seem like that out there,” he deadpans.

“Kurt- no. I'm not- I could never be- Kurt. This is all me. I'm a coward and a runner and I'm scared, I'm scared and when I'm scared I let people step all over me, but Kurt- please don't ever, ever feel that way. Please. I love you, I love you more than anything in the world and you're the best thing that has ever happened to me and I wish I could let everyone in the world know that you're my boyfriend, even though I know I don't deserve you and you don't deserve this- this, and- Kurt, I'm going to tell him, I'm going to tell him right now. Please, please don't leave me.”

Kurt doesn't say anything, shakes his head and buries his face in Blaine's neck,

“You're an idiot,” he says. Blaine sniffs and rubs his back. “I know.”

“I don't want to lose you.”

“I don't want to lose you.”

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

“Always.”

“Always.”

�

They pull away from each other after a moment or two or seven. Kurt turns back to the mirror, fussing with his hair and mumbling something about how every public bathroom should be stocked with hairspray. Blaine watches the boy he adores, thinking that he looks beautiful as ever.

And suddenly the door opens, and his brother is standing there, looking aggravated.

“Dude,” he says, not seeming to notice how shaken up the two boys are. “You've been gone for like, twenty minutes. I was starting to think you left again. Kendra is getting lonely, come on.”

“Um, a-actually,” Blaine stammers, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Kurt turn around to survey the scene wearily. “I need to talk to you.”

“Well, talk. And make it quick.”

Blaine looks hopelessly over at Kurt. His eyes are conflicted. He mouths Stay? And Kurt nods.

“Charlie. The reason I never want to go to your parties or meet your friends or sleep with every girl with a pulse isn't because I’m 'weirdly anti-social' or anything remotely close to that.” He shuffles his feet again, but he doesn't lose eye contact with his brother.

“It's because... it's because I'm gay. I like boys. I have always liked boys, and you keep... you keep trying to get me to meet all of these girls and I appreciate the gesture, I do, but, seriously, I'm not looking to meet any girls. I'm not looking to meet anyone, for that matter. I have a boyfriend.” He turns to Kurt, and the other boy walks up to him and takes his hand in his own. “I know dad likes to pretend that it's all a phase and he has never mentioned this at all, but... it's true. I'm gay. One-hundred-percent gay."

Charlie just sort of stares at him at first, and he can practically hear the gears in his brain working overtime, trying to put this all together. He looks, well.. surprised. Finally, he just shakes his head.

“Dude. Why didn't you tell me? All of those times I... oh, my god.” He shakes his head again.

“I know. But this is who I am. Take it or leave it.” Kurt squeezes his hand. Blaine squeezes back.

Charlie shakes his head again, but he smiles. “Man. I'm going to have to get used to this. Um, good for you, bro. Good. For. You. Um. That's all...wow. um. Okay. If you don't mind me, I don't want to keep the girls waiting.”

Blaine nods. He can't really tell, but he thinks this is going... pretty well.

“Go ahead. I think Kurt and I are gonna head home.”

Charlie just nods. “I'll, uh... I'll tell them that you guys are sick. Um. Bye.” and he leaves.

Kurt turns to Blaine and pulls him into a hug. “I'm proud of you,” he whispers, and Blaine wants to cry because it's the first time he's heard the words 'I'm proud' and 'of you' used in the same sentence. “He's not that bad,” Kurt adds after a moment.

“Yeah,” Blaine agrees, holding Kurt close. He laughs into his shoulder, even though nothing is funny. “He's not that bad.”

They leave out the back entrance, and call a friend to pick them up.

While they're waiting, it starts to snow.

Blaine sticks out his tongue to catch the flakes in his mouth. Kurt giggles.

“You look ridiculous.”

Blaine sticks his tongue out at the love of his life.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

“Always.”

“Always.”

They cuddle up against each other in the backseat of their friend's car, all the way home.�