The moment seemed frozen, and Kurt would have been concerned that he had made the wrong move if Blaine’s lips hadn’t been so soft and plush against his, the faintest taste of whiskey lingering on them. It took him a second to realize he could taste that because he was kissing Blaine and Blaine’s lips had parted so slightly beneath his almost instantly. Kurt felt like his head was swimming, and there was no way he could describe it as anything as arbitrary as fireworks because he was feeling so much more.

Blaine’s hands slid down to his shoulders and Kurt had just barely traced his tongue along his bottom lip, taking in that sweet taste of malt and liquor, when Blaine pulled away with a strangled sound in the back of his throat. “Kurt, I—we—”

“Blaine, fuck, there you are.” Kurt stepped back quickly, hand moving up to cover his mouth as his gaze shifted between Blaine and Santana, who had just come out through the door to the bar. Her eyes narrowed as she took them in, and Kurt really didn’t need the added embarrassment of that when he didn’t even know what had just happened. “They need you back downstairs.”

“Now?” Blaine asked, looking highly annoyed.

“As much as you might want to get some ass, you’re still on the clock,” Santana said airily, giving him a look before turning on her heel and disappearing back inside.

“Oh hell,” Blaine muttered, pursing his lips. He looked up at Kurt, his eyes softening, and he reached over to gently tug his hand down. “Please stay? I know it’s late and you have a flight and I will make you coffee if you want, but stay? And we can talk… about this… once I’m done being a slave to this place.”

“Okay,” Kurt murmured, giving a small nod. Blaine smiled and squeezed his hand lightly before heading back down into the bar with him, disappearing off into the back as soon as they hit the floor.

Kurt moved over to the bar again, getting another one of Brittany’s drinks from Sam and staying right there for the rest of the night. There were so many thoughts flying around in his head that he was having trouble pinning one down. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to.

He’d kissed Blaine. Actually kissed him. He hadn’t kissed anyone since Ryan, but he kissed Blaine.

The music being played was just background noise, except Kurt did pay attention when it was Blaine who was playing. He was trying to read him, trying to see if he could figure anything out from him eyes, the way he carried himself, any of it. Except Blaine was a performer, and that meant it was hopeless to try. He was joking and talking with Santana as if nothing had happened between sets – meanwhile Kurt felt like everything in his world was perched on the edge of a precipice and he couldn’t do anything but sit and wait to see what happened next.

“Last call,” Sam said, leaning across the counter and tapping against his glass. “Anything else?”

“No thank you,” Kurt replied, shaking his head. “Just my bill.”

“I was informed that someone was buying your drinks.” Sam stepped away for a moment, and then came back with his card. “So no bill necessary.” Kurt could feel his cheeks flushing, and he grabbed a good amount of money out of his wallet to leave for the tip, extra since he wasn’t paying and because Sam had kept him from feeling completely out of place.

By the time the bar closed, there were less than a dozen patrons left. Kurt shifted over toward the stairs, managing to catch Blaine’s eye and motion to him that he was going up to the street level, and headed up them to get some air. It was quiet outside, other than the echoing laughter of the few people wandering their way to the nearby parking garages. He considered snagging a chair from a nearby patio of a restaurant and settling in until Blaine was done, but he didn’t have the chance.

“Hey.” Kurt turned and saw Blaine standing in the doorway, offering him a hesitant smile. “So I wasn’t kidding about the coffee, but options are limited.”

“Limited to…”

“My apartment.”

“My hotel is probably closer,” Kurt replied, and then tilted his head back as he realized how that sounded. “Not…I didn’t mean anything by that, just that it’s two blocks that way and I know there’s coffee sitting out, waiting to be brewed.”

“Hotel it is,” Blaine said quietly, slipping his hands into his pockets. “Shall we?”

There was no conversation between them as they walked, and Kurt felt like he was teetering on the brink. Because as much as Blaine was quiet politeness in that moment, all he could think about was that look he’d had in his eyes right before Santana had interrupted them. There had been something there beyond surprise and shock, something so much deeper, but he’d barely gotten a glimpse of it before it had disappeared.

“Thanks for getting my drinks, by the way.” The silence was so loud, and Kurt had to say something to break it as they reached the hotel. “At least I’m assuming that was your doing, unless I missed something from one of your coworkers.”

“No, that was me,” Blaine replied, holding open the door for them and following him across the lobby to the elevators. “I said I’d buy you a drink, didn’t I?”

Kurt hummed in response and didn’t say anything else. His heart was racing because he was alone with Blaine, in his hotel of all places, and he had no idea what to expect. It didn’t stop as they got to his floor, or into his room, or when he switched on the coffee pot and turned to see Blaine leaning against the edge of the desk in the room – opting for that instead of sitting on the bed.

“I’m sorry,” he began, and Blaine’s head tilted up to look at him. “I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t have done that, kissed you. It just felt… right. I’m sorry.”

“Kurt.” Blaine pushed himself up off the desk and stepped in closer, but not close enough for Kurt to reach. “Do you have any idea?” His voice was low, soft, and it was like all those times he’d spoken quietly on the phone and Kurt had closed his eyes and imagined that he was sitting right there next to him – except he actually was right there. “I’ve wanted to kiss you so many times. I wanted to when you sent me those bow ties. Then when I called you and woke you up and you sounded so adorable tired, and all I wanted to do was kiss you back asleep. Every time you text me something and make me laugh. Every time you text me something and make me smile. I wanted to that night at the diner, and even before, the first time I saw you. So please don’t apologize.”

The entire time he was talking, Kurt just stared. He’d been feeling ridiculous for having these feelings for someone who was a friend, felt like maybe he was betraying some kind of trust, but then there was Blaine, who had been in the exact same boat. He shifted a step closer, resting his palm against the side of Blaine’s face and closing his eyes for a moment as Blaine tilted his head into his touch. “So kiss me.”

“I’m sorry,” Blaine whispered, and just like that, all the hope and wonder that Kurt had been feeling started to crumble beneath him. “It wouldn’t be fair, Kurt.”

“Why?”

“Everything’s still complicated. Ohio, New York.”

“I’m not asking for a marriage proposal,” Kurt said, well aware that he was starting to sound petulant. “Just a kiss.”

“Kurt, you know that’s not true,” Blaine murmured, looking up at him and shaking his head. “It’s more than that. No, it’s not a proposal, but it’s more than just a kiss. Because I know I wouldn’t be content with just that, and I don’t think you would be either.”

“Then what’s stopping us from having more?” Kurt asked, his fingers sliding back into the curls at the nape of Blaine’s neck.

“Distance.”

“I don’t care about that.”

“I do,” Blaine said, rocking back on his heels to put a little more space between them, because Kurt had been inching closer. “Kurt, I see what distance does to people, does to their relationship. I see that every day, living with Santana. I have never seen anyone more in love than her and Brittany, and I’ve seen what happens. Every time we go to New York, it’s like the best and worst days ever all at the same time. They can’t have what they want the way they want it and I see how much it kills Santana. I hear about how much it hurts Brittany.”

“Blaine…”

“That… I don’t want that. I don’t think I could do that. I need more, and I feel like you know you would too. Don’t you?” Kurt hated that he knew Blaine was right, because he wanted so much more. As much as he wanted to think they could make the distance work, what would make it different than how things had been before? Nothing he could think of, other than titles or labels that were just words.

“So what do we do now?” Kurt asked, and it was a question that he wasn’t sure he wanted Blaine to answer. If only Blaine didn’t care so much and would just go along with it – but he knew he wouldn’t be nearly as captivated by him if he was the type of person who would do that.

“I’m still trying to get transferred to New York,” Blaine replied slowly, as if thinking over every syllable before saying it. “I can’t… do anything to speed that up, and I can’t ask you to wait for me to get there.”

“You don’t have to ask,” Kurt said, shaking his head. It wasn’t like he put himself out there, went looking for dates, for someone to spend his time with. Even if he did, he would have thrown it all away because Blaine. Blaine was someone worth waiting for. He’d dealt with a few months of nothing but texts, emails, phone calls – he could put up with some more. He knew he could, if Blaine was what was at the end of it all waiting for him. “You’re annoyingly noble, you know that?”

“Annoyingly?” Blaine tilted his head and the corners of his mouth turned up into a hint of a smile for the first time since they’d gotten there.

“Annoyingly in that you’re right.”

“I usually am,” Blaine said teasingly. “Which I suppose would be annoying to people who aren’t me.” Kurt rolled his eyes, and that made Blaine smile outright. “Coffee looks like it’s done. Let’s sit and you can tell me all about your trip to wonderful Ohio – because I know you didn’t just come here to see me.”

Kurt poured the coffee into the mugs provided and they sat facing each other, him on the edge of the bed and Blaine in the desk chair nearby. He hated how easy it was to just dismiss everything they’d been talking about before and start telling Blaine about his whirlwind visit to Lima, but it was always easy to talk to Blaine. That was one of the things Kurt loved most about him. He would just sit and listen, as if completely enthralled by whatever Kurt was saying. It was like that when they were on the phone and Kurt was discussing the horrible patterns some of the designers at Vogue were working with, and it was like that then, when he was talking about helping out at his dad’s garage the day before.

Despite the fact that he’d been there to see his dad, Blaine seemed appalled that Kurt had spent next to no time at all in Columbus. It wasn’t like there was as much to see like there was in New York, but he would have made sure to point him to the right places to eat at least. Apparently Kurt had missed out on the best ice cream in the world, according to Blaine, and the next time he happened to be there, Blaine was going to drag him to get some whether he liked it or not. Kurt was sure he wouldn’t actually put up a fight, but it was adorable to see Blaine get so passionate over dessert.

His sketchbook got pulled out of his suitcase around the same time the second pot of coffee was done brewing, and Blaine settled in at the desk to look through it. Kurt leaned nearby, wanting to be able to see what he was looking at and his reactions. He’d shared very little of his work with Blaine before then, despite saying he would, but mostly that was because he didn’t know how to approach it. He had so many designs that he could have scanned in and sent his way, but it all seemed so unprompted. Blaine had been interested, he knew, but that didn’t tell him exactly what he might be interested in seeing.

From what it appeared, watching Blaine slowly work his way through them all, he seemed to be interested in seeing everything. Occasionally he would ask a question, and Kurt would lean in to see exactly what he was referencing, but for the most part he just poured over the sketches and plans on his own, fingertips brushing feather light across the page as if he was trying to feel the fabric Kurt planned on using. The drawing of Brittany’s dress was in there, and Kurt was glad Blaine didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary about it, despite the fact that there was nothing else even close to similar to it on any of the other pages. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell him what he’d done, though he wasn’t sure why he wouldn’t.

Kurt’s phone went off when Blaine was about three-fourths of the way through his sketchbook, and it was his alarm. His brow furrowed as he looked at the time, not sure how it’d manage to fly by so quickly, but somehow it had. Blaine looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“Nothing, just… I have to leave soon,” he said, rubbing at his face and glancing around the room. He hadn’t really unpacked much, considering what little time he’d spent there, but there were still belongings that needed to be gathered and packed away. “You can keep looking; I’ll just get ready to go.”

Blaine hummed his consent and finished off the last of his coffee as he flipped through more pages, glancing over them with less lingering in an attempt to get through it all before Kurt took it away. The suitcase Kurt had brought was small, as he’d only been away for a weekend, and everything struggled to fit inside again. He knew he was going to have to open it to get through security, so he wanted to make sure everything that he needed to be easily accessible wasn’t buried, which meant a good bit of planning and strategy was involved.

By the time he was done, Blaine was sitting there watching him, the sketchbook closed and resting on his lap. Kurt felt slightly exposed, considering he couldn’t remember the last time anyone had looked through that much of his work that hadn’t been a teacher or colleague. Even still, not everything that popped into his head was worthy of showing someone, yet Blaine had looked at it all. Well, everything he had with him, at least.

“This is all amazing,” he said, rising up from his chair and holding the book out to Kurt. “Thank you for letting me see it.”

“Thanks for looking,” Kurt replied, tucking it into his satchel and doing a quick once over of the room to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything. “Did you want—did you need a ride to your apartment? I could drop you off before I go to the airport.”

“My car’s at the bar, but thanks.” Blaine offered him a smile. “Ready to go?”

Kurt really wasn’t, but he nodded anyway and headed down to the lobby with him, checking out and returning his key. He wanted to think he would get a little bit of sleep on the plane, but he doubted it, which meant it was going to be a long day. It was incredibly worth it, considering the amount of time he’d gotten to spend with Blaine, but he knew he was going to feel dead on his feet by the end.

“So…” Blaine hesitated. “I guess I’ll see you the next time I’m in New York. Or should you decide to grace Ohio with your presence again…”

“It was good to see you, Blaine,” Kurt said softly, biting the inside of his lip before leaning in to hug him. Hugs were fine, he figured, considering that was how Blaine had greeted him – and friends hugged all the time. Blaine’s arms circled around his waist tightly and he could feel his face burrowing in against the crook of his neck. Letting go felt like it was going to be near impossible, considering how warm and inviting Blaine felt pressed up against him, the way he could feel his breath playing across his skin.

“Good to see you too,” Blaine murmured, giving him one last squeeze before his arms dropped and he took a step back. “Let me know when you land.”

“You’ll be asleep,” Kurt pointed out, reaching into his pocket for the keys to his rental car.

“Well when I wake up I’ll know that you got there,” he retorted, rolling his eyes. “Work with me, Kurt.”

“Go sleep, Blaine.”

“Go fly, Kurt.”

Soft smiles were exchanged before Blaine took a few steps backwards, raising his hand in a wave before turning and heading for the bar. Kurt watched him go until he got to the corner of the street, where Blaine glanced back at him, and then headed for the parking garage to find his car.

The drive to the airport was short, the flight was full of enough turbulence to keep him awake, and it took long enough to get back to his apartment that he barely had time to drop off his suitcase, shower, and change before heading to Vogue. It was a long day, and he wasn’t quite sure how he made it to the end without passing out, but he was fairly certain it had something to do with Blaine constantly texting him to make sure he hadn’t fallen asleep because what would the future of fashion do if Kurt took a drowsy tumble through a fabric store and came out with visions of seersucker and crushed velvet?