8:53 p.m. Kurt scowled at the time display on his phone. Blaine/Blake was supposed to have met him in front of Pastis thirteen minutes ago. Their dinner reservation wasn't until nine, but the couple had decided to meet earlier to go over any last minute details. Translation: Blaine was going to calm Kurt down from whatever frenzy he had undeniably worked himself into.

8:54 p.m. Well, here Kurt was, frenzying away, yet Blaine was nowhere to be found. He contemplated sending his boyfriend a "where the hell are you?" text, but Kurt realized that may have been on the wrong side of bitchy, and especially since Blaine was probably busy rescuing kittens from trees, or helping old ladies cross the street, or whatever Blaine did when he was Superman. The hero never really liked to talk about it.

Still 8:54 p.m. It was going to be so weird to see Blaine as a blonde…and to have him be taller than himself…and to hear him speak with the Tom Welling-esque voice they'd decided on…yeah, the voice was probably what he was looking forward to the most. Now if Blaine would only get here and they could get on with this.

8:55 p.m. Kurt was worrying again. Blaine never had a problem with taking the night off…what if he chickened out? No, Kurt told himself, he's just running late. Blaine promised you he'd be here.

"Kurt!" Tina's voice tore Kurt away from his intense staredown with his phone's clock. "Hey!"

"Hi!" Kurt chirped back in reply, hugging the Asian woman once the group of them had come close enough. He shared firm handshakes with Sam and Mike, exchanging pleasantries as they did so before he embraced Mercedes and pecked her on the cheek.

"So…where is he?" Tina inquired excitedly. She was actually bouncing a little on the balls of her feet from anticipation.

"Oh, he's…" Kurt faltered. "…he's running late. I was just about to call him."

The way Mercedes' face fell didn't go unnoticed by Kurt. The other three seemed ready to brush off Blake's tardiness however.

"Okay, you call him and we'll give the name for the reservation," Sam said. "See you in there, Kurt."

"Yeah," Kurt replied, a little peeved and embarrassed, as he selected Blaine's name from the list of contacts on his phone. It rang once…twice…three times…four times …and then "You've reached Blaine Anderson. Please leave your name and number and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you."

Voicemail? What the hell? Kurt thought to himself as he waited for Blaine's answering machine to beep and allow him to leave a message. Why isn't he answering his phone? Kurt had expected Blaine to answer him immediately, bombarding him with apologies and reassurances that he'd be there in five minutes before Kurt could have gotten a word in.

"Hey, it's me. Where are you? I thought we said we'd meet at twenty before nine?" the reporter struggled to keep his voice from betraying any frustration. "Anyway, Tina, Mike, Mercedes, and Sam are already here and they're waiting for me inside and…just get here as soon as you can, okay? I know you're probably busy saving someone but I need my boyfriend right now, Blaine. I can't do this alone."

Kurt hung up and joined his friends inside the bustling restaurant. He sat down at the table, the anger inside of him at Blaine's absence growing by the second.

"So what's the deal?" Tina asked.

Kurt scrambled to think of a cover story. "He…he's…he must be working late. I'm not sure when he's going to be here."

The couples all shared concerned, wary glances.

"What exactly does Blake do, Kurt?" Sam inquired, squeezing his girlfriend's thigh in a nonverbal warning not to fly off the handle just yet.

"Law enforcement," Kurt told him. They had rehearsed this. Yet, the plan had been to answer the questions together instead of leaving Kurt to field all the questions by himself. "He's a detective and gets called on cases a lot."

"Oh cool, like CSI?" Sam said.

"Yeah, sort of," Kurt mumbled.

An awkward silence followed. Kurt kept his eyes trained downward in order to avoid Mercedes' skeptical glare and the others' sympathetic but pained smiles. How could Blaine humiliate him like this? Just abandon him like this, like he didn't mean anything. Kurt hadn't felt this pathetic in a really long time. At this point, his friends probably thought that Blake wasn't even real, that he was some figment of Kurt's imagination. The anger began to bubble up inside of him as he continued his train of thought. Kurt was Blaine's boyfriend, and that usually implied he held some sort of significance in Blaine's life. But if that was true, why did Blaine always choose to attend to strangers rather than the man who had dinner waiting for him when the hero when he came home? Who fucking worshipped his cock for a whole hour last night to help him unwind from a strenuous day on the job? The hero had warned Kurt that things like this might happen, but he had also assured Kurt that he would make him a priority. And it seemed to Kurt that Blaine's priorities were out of whack, because Blaine knew, he knew how important this dinner was to him, was supposed to be for both of them. Well if Blaine thinks when he gets back tonight that he's going to have a warm meal and a blowjob waiting for him, that son-of-a-bitch has another thing coming…

Kurt had been so busy stewing in his own ire that he had been ignoring his friends' stilted attempts at making conversation. He was about to excuse himself and leave Blaine a voicemail in which he gave the bastard a piece of his mind when Mike asked the group, "Hey, did you guys hear about that huge earthquake?"

Kurt's stomach dropped. All of a sudden, he felt nauseous, although he hadn't had so much of a bite of the bread the busboy had brought out a few minutes ago.

"What?" he demanded.

Mike, a little shocked by the severe turn Kurt's tone had taken, expounded on his previous comment undeterred. "There was a massive earthquake this afternoon in the Pacific, near the Philippines I think. I mean, I only caught a glimpse of it as we were leaving, but it's pretty bad."

"Is Superman there?" Sam queried.

"I mean, probably," Mike answered him. "But he's got his work cut out from him. If you all could have seen the devastation—" the dancer shuddered at the memory "—and that's not even the worst of it. The expert they had on CNN said that they were expecting aftershocks, starting sometime tonight, and they put the entire area on tsunami watch."

"I-I have to go," Kurt announced abruptly, his voice thick as he rose from his chair. Without any more explanation than that, he hurried out of the restaurant, tears beginning to spill over into his cheeks.

Fortunately, Pastis was around the corner from his apartment. Yet before he could tear down the street, he felt a pull on his wrist. He whipped around to find Mercedes standing there, a concerned expression plaguing her features. "Kurt, what's wrong? Why did you just run away like that?"

"Please, Mercedes," Kurt pulled his wrist out of his friend's grasp. "Just let me go."

"Not until you tell me what's going on…oh my God, Kurt are you crying?" Mercedes was shocked. Kurt tended to bottle up his emotions, always hiding behind his carefully crafted mask of disinterest. So if her best friend was showing any vulnerability, especially in public, whatever was bothering him had to be serious.

"No," he responded through tears. "I need to get out of here, can't you just leave me alone?"

"It's Blake isn't it?"

"No…well, yes…sort of," he sniffled.

"I swear Kurt, that man is more trouble than he's—"

"HE IS A THOUSAND TIMES THE MAN I WILL EVER BE!" Kurt lashed out unexpectedly. "HE IS THE MOST UNSELFISH, NOBLE, SELF-SACRIFICNG PERSON I HAVE EVER MET AND I DON'T DESERVE HIM!"

"Kurt…" Mercedes began, taken aback by his outburst.

"You don't understand Mercedes!"

"I know I don't! Help me understand, Kurt! We're all worried sick about you. You've turned into a rollercoaster of emotions lately and we want to help you, we really do, but you won't let any of us in and it's so frustrating Kurt…"

"Well, I'm sorry I've been a burden of a friend," Kurt responded icily. "But if you really want to help, you'll let me have my space tonight."

Mercedes want to shake Kurt, or slap him across the face, do something, anything that would stop her best friend from acting like this emotional wreck. She paused to contemplate how to handle this, but Kurt had used her hesitation as an opportunity to escape and had disappeared into the crowd and down the street.

0-0-0

Kurt flew across his apartment, barely remembering to close the door behind him and turned the TV on immediately. It was already tuned to Headline News due to Blaine's frequent visits.

"Now back to the tragic situation in the Philippines, where earlier today, at 6:39 P.M., 6:39 A.M. Filipino time, an earthquake of an 8.6 magnitude on the Richter scale rocked the archipelago. We go now to our correspondent, Anne Key, for more on this devastating developing story."

The shot of the female news anchor changed into a montage of harrowing images and clips of the damage the earthquake had already caused while another woman narrated with more information. Collapsed buildings, flooded streets, and woeful faces filled the screen, and Kurt couldn't hold back the sob the sights caused.

"…the only redeeming aspect of this story is that Superman was on the scene less than hour after the earthquake," the correspondent said. The camera cut to various shots of Blaine lifting up entire walls, carrying crying children, and a few clips were just a blur of red and blue shooting across the sky. "Locals have said that having the superhero here has been the saving grace amidst this catastrophe."

The tears were flowing freely now as Kurt watched clips of interviews talking about his boyfriend.

"Well, before we'd need a team to excavate and unbury any victims from a building," an American middle-aged man told the camera, obviously some sort of FEMA or Red Cross worker. "But with Superman here we're able to get to people out and to help in a fraction of the time than we had before, so it's really been a lifesaver, literally."

The next interview was of a young Filipino boy, his dialogue translated into English with subtitles that appeared on the bottom of the screen. "I was playing with my sister and the ground began to shake very hard, so hard it broke apart. I was very scared, I thought I was going to die. But then Superman was there and he took us up into the air, and put us down somewhere where the ground was not shaking anymore. My sister was crying, but he told us that we were okay, that we shouldn't be scared. It was very amazing. I want to be just like him when I grow up."

Kurt was crying so hard now that he old caught bits and pieces of the next interview, which was of another native, this time an old woman. She described her own experience during and after the earthquake, asserting at the end of her clip that "He is our Savior. He is an angel on Earth."

It was official; Kurt was officially the worst person on the planet. He couldn't believe how greedy he had been, how narrow-minded and selfish. How could he have gotten so upset over a stupid little dinner that meant nothing? Blaine was off saving peoples' lives and Kurt had been angry because he hadn't been the center of attention for once. He hated himself. He didn't deserve Blaine. How on Earth had he tricked himself into thinking that he was worthy of such selfless person? Superman deserved to be with someone who didn't get so ticked about him missing one measly little dinner, that didn't make him pretend any more than he had to for his own selfish preferences, that didn't make him push his physical boundaries because he was only trying to make sure he didn't get hurt.

He spent the rest of the weekend glued to his television screen, occasionally nibbling on something in his fridge and drifting off into a restless sleep. He didn't respond to any of his calls, and only kept his phone on if by some extraordinary fortunate circumstance, Blaine contacted him. He knew the probability of that happening was zero to none though, no one had been able to corner Superman for his reaction to the earthquake all weekend, the hero just flitted from one place to rescue someone or prevent something from collapsing, disappearing so quickly afterwards that the camera could barely focus on him.

Kurt looked like shit when he dragged himself to work on Monday. He didn't even want to go in the first place, but instead of calling in sick, he opted to show up so he could talk to Sue.

"No way, Hummel."

"But Sue, this is the biggest story in the world right now," Kurt argued. "I need to be there."

"I know. But Anderson's already over there, apparently by some cosmic coincidence he was visiting family this weekend, and it doesn't make any sense to send another reporter. Besides, you look awful, Kurt," explained Sue, speaking sincerely for once. "I'm surprised you came to work today. You look sick and there's no way I can send you to that country if you're carrying any form of illness."

Kurt whimpered in defeat. He wished he could tell Sue what was really going on, that Blaine wasn't in the Philippines reporting, he was there as Superman. And as Superman's boyfriend Kurt had to be there too, because he knew Blaine, and that the hero put everyone else before himself, neglecting sleep and probably food because if he took a moment to himself and couldn't save someone because of it, he'd never forgive himself. Kurt knew he was the only person that could get Blaine to slow down, if only for a second, and stop him from running himself into the ground.

"Come to think of it, you're probably infecting me with whatever contagion you're currently suffering from by sharing this relatively small, closed space with me," Sue said. "I'm ordering you to go home, Hummel, and don't come back until you're in perfect health. Sue Sylvester does not get sick, getting sick is for weaklings and gingers."

"But—"

"Don't open your mouth! You're letting the germs out!" the editor-in-chief reprimanded him. She hit the intercom button on her phone. "Becky, get Hummel out of here and then call the CDC. I'm going to need my office thoroughly sterilized."

"Sure thing, boss," came Becky's voice in the speaker. She appeared a moment later. Whenever Kurt was convinced that a black hole inhabited the space where Sue's heart was supposed to be, Becky always reminded him that his boss wasn't some sort of emotionless cyborg. He let the handi-capable girl lead him out of the office.

Kurt slumped into the hard plastic of the subway seat, burying his face into his hands. What is wrong with me? He knew he shouldn't be making such a big deal about this. Blaine was invincible, he was going to be fine. And even though Kurt felt about bad about getting mad at Blaine for missing dinner with his friends, he hadn't actually lashed out at his boyfriend about it. Then why was he such a wreck? Why did he miss Blaine so much? Why was he crying like hormonal woman? The moping and wallowing in his self-pity he'd been engaging for the past couple days was far from normal and healthy behavior.

Deep down, Kurt knew why. He'd known since the night Superman appeared on his balcony and took him flying. Blaine had confirmed it when he sang him Teenage Dream. And now, for the first time, Kurt was ready to let himself admit it.

I'm in love with Blaine. He lifted his head from his hands as he allowed the gravity of thought to sink in. A small smile spread across his lips. I'm in love with Blaine.

0-0-0

The remainder of the week had passed by in a flurry of productivity. Sue had forbade Kurt from coming back to the office until next Monday at the earliest, so Kurt spent his rare time off catching up on things he had been neglecting. He Skyped with his dad, Carole, Finn, got a facial, and decorated Blaine's apartment (where he'd decided to stay for the rest of the week to feel closer to him). He remained vigilant on updates from the Philippines, the TV was always on while Kurt rearranged Blaine furniture, and his Google Alerts had been set to receive any breaking news on his iPhone when he was out. Kurt missed his boyfriend terribly but the knowledge the he loved him and Blaine loved him back made the absence so much more tolerable.

0-0-0

"Kurt?"

The soft call of his name roused Kurt into wakefulness. "Hmmm?"

Blaine stood before him at the edge of the bed. His suit was tattered and torn, his hair was mussed and actually still had some pieces of rubble in it, and his eyes were bloodshot with dark bags under them. Kurt just stared at him for a few moments, blinking and trying to determine if this was a dream or not.

"Sorry I woke you up, I wasn't expecting yo—"

Blaine's apology was interrupted when Kurt sprung up out of the bed and launched himself at his boyfriend. It had been a week since he'd seen him, smelt him, touched him And now, being able to throw his arms around him felt like sensory overload after a week of deprivation.

"Oh, Blaine!" Kurt gasped as he nuzzled his neck and pressed a quick kiss into the tendon there. "I missed you, missed you so much…"

"I missed you too," Blaine told him once Kurt pulled back. "I'm sorry I missed our date, Kurt."

"Blaine, don't be silly! I'm just glad you're oka—"

"No," Blaine interjected, his voice wavering. "You needed me and I wasn't there and…"

The hero had trailed off and although it was dark in Blaine's bedroom, he could see the moisture gathering in his eyes and hear how Blaine was unsuccessfully trying to catch his breath.

"Blaine," Kurt began gently, rubbing his thumb across his boyfriend's stubbly cheek. "What's wrong?"

Blaine broke down into hysterics. At first, Kurt didn't know what to do. Blaine was always so strong and sure, he was usually the one usually who did the comforting in the relationship. After a few seconds, Kurt was able to move past the shock of seeing his superhero boyfriend cry, and maneuvered them to a sitting position on the bed and pulled Blaine tight in his arms. For several minutes, the only sounds one could hear were the hero's loud sobs and Kurt's attempts to soothe him as he bawled into his arms.

Eventually Blaine gathered up enough coherency to pull away so he could address Kurt. "I'm sorry, I—"

"Hold it right there," Kurt cut him off. "This is an apology-free zone. Now, do you want to talk about what happened?" '

"Not really, I…" Kurt waited patiently while Blaine endeavored to collect his thoughts. "It was just so awful, Kurt. It was hell. As soon as I saved someone, there was another person that needed my help, but people were still dying no matter how hard I tried. It was maddening, I have all these powers and I was using them but it felt like it wasn't making any difference, there was so much death…"

Blaine had begun to snivel again, and Kurt didn't hesitate in wrapping him back into his arms. "Shhhh, Blaine, you made a huge difference. I've been watching the news nonstop this past week and everyone's been talking about all the good you did. They compared this earthquake to past ones of a similar magnitude and there was so much less death and destruction because you were there, Blaine. No one can control nature, not even you, Superman, you just have to accept it and be thankful that you could do something about it with all your amazing abilities."

"You're right," Blaine conceded. The couple shifted so they were lying down and the next moments passed in silence.

"Kurt?"

"Yes, Blaine?"

"Would you still want me if I wasn't Superman?"

Kurt frowned and propped himself up so he could get a better look at Blaine. "What?"

"Would you still be into me if I didn't have my powers, if I was just me?"

Kurt opened his mouth, ready to ask Blaine how he could even think that and that frankly, inform that he was a little insulted that Blaine thought he liked him only for his hero alter-ego. He caught himself however, and reminded himself that Blaine wasn't in the best mental state. "Of course, dear."

"But you used to call me Lame Anderson at work," Blaine pointed out. Kurt could tell that his voice was faltering again.

"Oh Blaine, I only called you that because I was jealous of you. You were getting all the big stories while my exposé was going nowhere. And that was before I went out with you, before you let me see the real you, the amazing man who takes me to French restaurants and sings me love songs and lets me decorate their apartment. You're the most remarkable person I've ever met, and I…I love you, Blaine."

"You…you do?" Blaine spluttered.

"I do," Kurt assured him, placing his hands on either side of Blaine's face and kissing him. "I have for a while now, but I…I was afraid to admit it. But with you gone this week, I realized how difficult it's become for me to live without you."

"Oh Kurt," Blaine exhaled and captured his lips for another kiss. More tears had appeared in his eyes, yet Kurt knew they were happy kind. "I never stopped thinking of you this week. You were what got me through when I was surrounded by all that darkness, you were like this ray of light that kept me going."

Now Kurt was crying too. "I love you so much."

"I love you too," Blaine replied before crashing their lips together. Their lips moved against each other's languidly, communicating what they couldn't verbally, slowly allowing the passion and intensity to build. When Blaine moved to straddle Kurt, their erections brushed against another's, causing them to gasp into each other's mouths. "I…Kurt, I want to…"

"Yes," Kurt keened, thrusting his hips up into Blaine's. "Please make love to me."

Blaine dove back down for another fiery kiss as his hands found the hem of Kurt's (well technically it was his, but Blaine loved that fashionista boyfriend like to wear his clothes, so he had no complaints) shirt and tugged it over his head, throwing it off to side. He kissed Kurt on the lips once before he began a trail of kisses down Kurt's neck and chest, pausing to lick at each of his nipples before continuing his descent to the waistband of the sweatpants his boyfriend was sporting. He pulled the fabric down Kurt's long, slender, perfect legs, pausing only to press a kiss into the tip of his cock on his way down.

Once the pants were discarded, Blaine straightened up to rid himself of his now ragged suit and shorts while Kurt reached into the drawer for the lube. They met for another kiss and Kurt pressed the bottle into Blaine's hand before resting back onto the bed while Blaine wet his fingers.

Kurt held his breath with anticipation and let his eyes flutter shut as he waited for the first of Blaine's fingers to penetrate him. The last time they had gotten any butt play was a couple weeks ago when Blaine blew him for the first time and Kurt had been aching for more ever since.

"I can't."

The two strangled words caused Kurt's eyes to snap open, and were met with the sight of a tormented Blaine, clutching onto the bottle of lube helplessly.

"I'm too afraid Kurt, I'm so tired and—" Blaine was beginning to cry again.

"No no no no no," Kurt said quietly, immediately sitting up to be face-to-face with Blaine. "I completely understand, Blaine, it's fine. I forgot what kind of week you had. We shouldn't do this tonight. Let's get some rest and we'll reconsider it tomorrow."

Blaine didn't look any less agonized. Kurt sighed in exasperation. "What is it, Blaine? You have to tell me what's wrong or I can't help you."

"I really want to do this tonight," he confessed, his eyes averted. "I need to feel close to you."

"Okay, well…" Kurt struggled to think of something that would mollify his boyfriend. "Do you want me to top? It'd be safer that way, right?"

Blaine looked at Kurt with shock. "You'd do that?"

"I'd do anything for you. I love you," Kurt reminded him as he pressed a kiss to Blaine's unresponsive lips.

"You're sure?"

Even though it had always been an unspoken accordance that Blaine would top when they finally got around to doing the deed, it was obvious that Blaine couldn't handle trying to keep his strength in check tonight after all he'd been through.

"Positive," Kurt promised him, kissing him and procuring the bottle of lube from Blaine's fingers. "Now lie back. I'm going to take care of you."

Blaine complied and flopped back down on the bed. Kurt paused momentarily to revel in the sight of the perfection that lay before him before leaning into kiss and nip at Blaine's neck as his lubed finger circled Blaine's entrance. He felt Blaine shudder beneath him at the touch and smiled into the patch of skin on the hero's neck he was concentrating on. He let his finger skirt around his hole for a little longer before he pushed inside.

"Ohhhhhhhh,"Blaine moaned as Kurt inched his finger in further.

"Does that feel alright?" Kurt asked, though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

"Better than alright," the hero panted as Kurt resumed his ministrations to his neck. "Amazing."

"Mmmmm," Kurt hummed, beginning to move the digit in and out. He allowed Blaine to adjust to the feeling of something inside of him before asking for permission to add another one. Blaine acquiesced immediately, and by the time Kurt had three fingers working into Blaine, his boyfriend was a writhing, wanton mess on top of the sheets. Kurt drew his mouth away from where he'd been nibbling on Blaine's ear to look him in the eyes and ask, "Are you ready?"

"Oh yes, Kurt, God yes," Blaine replied, his voice wrecked.

Kurt sat back on his heels, mesmerized by the sight of Blaine's large erection, standing at full attention and leaking, as well as his hole, opened and waiting for his cock. He went to grab the lube, but Blaine beat to him to it and took hold of Kurt's dick, stroking him at a slow pace to thoroughly smear the lubricant all over him.

Kurt groaned and grabbed Blaine's wrist to stop him. "Blaine…that's enough or I'll…"

The hero didn't need for Kurt to finish his sentence to get the message. He removed his hand from his lover's cock and spread his legs a little more in anticipation. Kurt braced his hands on either side of Blaine's head and before he slid, almost painfully slowly, into Blaine's tight heat. Both men let out their own respective cries of ecstasy at the sensation of becoming one.

Kurt began to move. He made sure to keep his thrusts slow at first, he wanted to savor the experience. Yet slow became increasing difficult when Blaine wrapped his legs around Kurt's hips to draw in him further, causing him to change his angle slightly and—

"AH! SHIT! Right there, Kurt, right there," Blaine shouted as he squeezed around Kurt's length.

"Oh! Oh…okay," Kurt replied, slamming his eyes shut as he tried to keep himself from coming. "You feel so good Blaine…"

"You too, Kurt, unnngh, so good," Blaine told him while Kurt continued to thrust, now hitting his prostate with every stroke of his cock.

There wasn't any more speaking after that, Kurt had dropped down to his elbows and claimed Blaine's lips as he moved in and out of Blaine. The kisses were much sloppier than the ones before, all open-mouthed with tons of tongue, which added to the passionate desperation of the moment. Kurt could feel himself getting close, so he snaked his hand down in between their sweat-slicked bodies to fist Blaine's cock with the hope that they might climax together, or close to together at any rate.

Blaine, whose super-endurance had been drained from the sleeplessness and for the most part nourishment-less week, was the first to let go, his hot seed spraying his stomach and Kurt's as the fire of his orgasm consumed every inch of his body. The subsequent fluttering of his muscles caused Kurt to empty himself inside of Blaine a few moments later with a loud cry, his vision whiting out as he did so.

Kurt collapsed on top of Blaine for a second, their sweat and Blaine's cum between them. They shared another meaningful kiss.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Kurt rolled off of the hero to fetch a wet washcloth from the bathroom before returning to his blissed-out boyfriend, who was sprawled out on the bed. He cleaned them with light, gentle strokes, just as Blaine always did before tossing the washcloth with the rest of their long-forgotten clothes on the floor. Blaine wasted no time encircling his arms around Kurt, the press of his lips against the back of his neck the last thing Kurt registered before drifting off to sleep.