The first tap Kurt thought he imagined, but there was no mistaking the loud crack of the second pebble hitting his window.  With a confused and frustrated huff, Kurt pushes himself up off his bed where he's been going over outfit details and peers out his window.  It is difficult to see in the dark but he can just make out the silhouette of a figure he'd know anywhere.  For a second he considers ignoring him entirely but he cannot entirely count on the next few rocks to not break his window.  He shoves the window pane open.  Blaine takes a few steps forward but before he can say anything and wake the entire neighborhood up Kurt motions frantically for him to meet him at the front door.

While he waits for Kurt to come to the door, Blaine stands in the yard questioning himself for what must be the millionth time.  He'd been outside pacing for nearly half an hour before he worked up the nerve to toss the first pebble.  By the second one, he'd decided he was probably insane but that Kurt was worth it.  When Kurt opened the window, there was no backing out.

Kurt is risking a lot by letting Blaine up in his room at 2 in the morning but Burt and Carole's room are on the first floor and he's sure no one is going to wake up any time soon on a Tuesday evening.

"There is such thing as a cell phone these days, Blaine," Kurt whispers harshly as he closes the door behind him and turns to face the boy now standing in the middle of his room.

Blaine shifts his weight from one foot to another.  "I know that.  But I wasn't sure if you were going to answer me." 

"Blaine, what are you doing here?"  Kurt sits on his bed and stares at a spot just above Blaine's head.  Since Sunday things have been tense between them to say the least and he hates that he's having difficulty even looking Blaine in the eyes.

But Kurt can tell Blaine is looking right at him in the same way he always does. "Look, Kurt, now that's it's--I guess, over between us there's a couple things of mine that I want back."  Blaine loses his nerve for a moment and scans Kurt's room.  His eyes land on the hook on the back of Kurt's door and he strides toward it, grabbing the scarf he'd lent Kurt on the night of their first date.  After dinner they had gone to look at the stars--Kurt had left his own scarf in the car and neither of them had felt like moving at the time.  "I want my scarf back."

Kurt feels like he's been slapped.  "Fine.  Take it.  Now can you go, please?"

Blaine takes a deep breath.  "No," he sets the scarf down at the end of the bed and Kurt watches the movement with careful eyes.  When his gaze slides back up to Blaine's face, Blaine is closer than he'd expected.  "There's one more thing."

Kurt hates that he already feels like he's about to cry, "I don't have anything else of yours."

"Yeah you do," Blaine's voice is more intense than Kurt has ever heard it.  In his head, Blaine thinks if he doesn't say this now he never will.  It hurts too much to let things go unsaid.  "You have all my feelings about you.  And I don't have any of yours.  So anything I've ever thought about you I want it back."

Blaine feels only more frustrated by how confused Kurt looks.  "What are you talking about?"

"I mean, I thought I could open up to you and tell you how I feel.  So I said I loved you, so what?  It was the truth.  And you just left me without any explanation. Without telling me how you really feel," Blaine can feel his heart trying to jack-hammer its way out of his chest.  "You know, I thought I knew you, Kurt.  But I was wrong."

Everything from the past few months feels like a lie to Blaine.  What was the point? After everything they had been through had Kurt simply lost interest?  Had Blaine waited too long?  Blaine had put everything on the line over the weekend--so very sure that Kurt felt the same way--only to have it completely ignored.  Over the past day Blaine has been questioning everything; every moment, every gesture, every conversation.  Did any of it mean the same to Kurt as it did to him?  Was it all a joke?

He couldn't handle it anymore.

But as Kurt watches him make to leave, he blurts out, "I was scared."

Blaine turns around to find Kurt standing, wringing his hands together and looking at Blaine so earnestly he can't help but hope.  "What?"

"You wanted to know how I feel.  I was scared."  Admitting to being afraid of losing his father, to being afraid of bullies, to being afraid of other people knowing he was gay feels so much smaller than this suddenly.  So many things about Blaine terrify him in the greatest ways and he doesn't know how to tell him.

"Of me?"

Kurt blanches.  "No," Except that he is in a way. "Of what you said.  I mean, we're only sixteen years old."  He has to sit down.  The weight of the conversation has settled on his shoulders and he can't stand anymore.  He whispers, "I mean, when did you know?"

Blaine lets Kurt's words sink in.  He understands but there's so much he still doesn't quite get.  He smiles, though.  "Promise you won't laugh?"  He watches as Kurt shrugs in a I can't make that promise sort of way and Blaine laughs quietly. 

During the past couple days he's had time to think about the answer to this question.  It's one he's been thinking about for a while now.  At first, of course, he thinks back to Kurt singing Blackbird when everything had fallen into place.  But, the pieces had already been there.  Blaine knows now that it just took that moment for him to see the full picture.

Blaine moves and sits down next to Kurt, letting their knees brush against each other.  "Do you remember when we were on the staircase and you tapped me on the shoulder?  And I was in a hurry but you were obviously so lost.  And then you asked about the Glee club..."

"And you said the Warblers were like rock stars," Kurt laughs and Blaine's heart has this Pavlovian response where it leaps up into his throat, "and you took my hand."

Their eyes meet.  "That's when I knew."

 "Blaine, that's when we met," Kurt can't hide the amusement in his voice.

Blaine shrugs, "Who cares?"  They have never really followed the conventions of other people, Blaine doesn't understand why they would or should start now.

Kurt shakes his head.  "How could you know then?  I'm not even sure I know what ‘I love you' means now."  Sure, he says it to his father and even now to Carole, and he says it to his friends.  But this kind of I love you means something different.  He feels like he knows; like the word that sits on the tip of your tongue but you just can't grasp it.

Blaine moves in closer and he can see that Kurt's eyes are still tear-filled.  "All I know is you and I belong together.  I mean, I have always been able to--to talk to you.  To make you laugh.  And I have always, always wanted to take care of you." Other than his words on Sunday, Blaine has never been more sure of something in his entire life.

Kurt tries to blink back the tears that he can feel stinging his eyes as he pulls his knees up to his chest and stares at the floor.  How can Blaine be so sure?  Kurt has been through rejection enough that sometimes he feels like he cannot even trust his own feelings.  He feels like he loves Blaine, but does he really?  Can he?  He so badly wants to believe everything Blaine has said.  When has Blaine lied to him before?

Blaine watches as Kurt continues to hug himself and keep quiet.  Somewhere behind his ribs, his heart clenches and Blaine just doesn't know what to do anymore. "Look, Kurt... I've been completely honest with you.  So, I got my scarf.  I'll leave you alone."  He stands up and grabs the scarf from the end of the bed.  But as he's walking away, a hand clasps around his arm.

Kurt is looking up at him with hopeful eyes, "So that's what ‘I love you' means?"

"Yeah," Blaine tries to pulls his arm from Kurt's grasp.  "... Bye."

As his hand reaches the doorknob, though, Kurt's voice reaches him again. "Blaine?"  Even in just the one word, Kurt's voice sounds different.  It's enough to get Blaine to turn around.

"Yeah?" Blaine lets himself hope.

Kurt just stares at him for a moment before his lips curve into the most beautiful smile Blaine has ever seen.  "I love you, too."

It takes all of two steps for Blaine to get to him and wrap his arms around Kurt's waist, crushing their lips together in a long-awaited kiss.  "I was always hoping you did."