"In Time"

By ICloseMyEyesAndBelieve (Used to be Danielle980)

A/N: 4x22 reaction fic. One-shot. Set directly after the last scene in 4x22 as the camera zooms out on Blaine's hand and the ring box. Kurt sees the ring box when someone bumps into him in the excitement of the wedding and he decides he needs to immediately talk to Blaine.

In their excitement, Marley twirls back around right into Kurt, which causes him to take two steps back in catching her.

Marley smiles, "Sorry Kurt!" And turns her attention back to Will and Emma. Kurt turns to smile at her back and says, "It's fine, hun." But as he says it, he's not smiling. He's stepped back far enough so that he's two steps behind Blaine, and he can see what Blaine's holding.

It all happened so fast, Blaine didn't have time to adjust. His eyes are locked on Kurt's in a mixture of fear and excitement.

As Kurt brings his arms down from Marley's shoulders, he looks from Blaine's hands behind his back to his eyes. Blaine sheepishly smiles.

Kurt's mind races. No. Oh, shit. No, no, DAMNIT, Blaine this is not the way for us to get back together. Oh, God, did I really push him to this point? WE'RE NOT EVEN DATING YET! He... He keeps talking about wanting to show me how serious he is about us..... That he knows we're meant to be together and is going to find a way to show me.

Oh, Blaine...

During Kurt's thirty second inner monologue, Blaine has slipped the ring into his pocket, and his eyes are worried, scared. Kurt snaps out of his thoughts and realizes with the excitement going on around him, he can pull Blaine out of the choir room. He grabs Blaine's elbow and turns them around towards the door.

"Come with me, Blaine." It's not a request, it's a need, and Blaine knows it. Blaine lifts his eyes to Kurt, nods, and lets Kurt lead him out of the choir room into the hallway, nervous and tense.

As they walk through the hallway, Blaine starts to talk, "Kurt, I nee–"

"No. Blaine, just... please wait until we get somewhere private, and I need you to listen to ME talk, ok? I need that right now. It's important." Kurt looks up at him as they're walking to the auditiorium. Blaine's worrying his lip, and he looks scared. But he nods at Kurt's request.

They walk silently to the auditorium, Kurt opens one of the doors to the house, and they slip inside. Kurt lets go of Blaine's arm, whispers, "Come with me," and walks down to the edge of the stage and hops up to take a seat.

Blaine joins him, and sits next to him on stage. He's quiet, and Kurt's glad Blaine is respecting his request to let him talk first. He turns his body towards Blaine, and takes his left hand in both of his. He sees Blaine's face light up at the contact.

"Blaine... you have a velvet covered box that suspiciously looks like a ring box. You've been talking about finding a way to show me that we're meant to be together, that you're going to show me how important I am to you. That you know that we're meant to be."

He pauses there, and looks at Blaine. God, Blaine is looking at him with such love, such openness in his eyes. Such hope.

"Blaine... is that an engagement ring?"

Kurt sees Blaine nod, smile, and reach into his pocket.

"No. Blaine, stop. Okay, just look at me."

Blaine tenses, his entire body stills. I need to be quick about this, Kurt thinks.

"I'm not going to let you ask me. We're not ready."

"But Kurt, I–"

"No! Blaine, just let me finish. Don't freak out. Please. Just let me finish."

"Okay..." Blaine gulps. Kurt watches his adams apple move in time with his swallow.

Kurt takes a deep breath in, and sighs, "Blaine, we're not ready. We're not even together right now. We have so much to fix, and so much to work on. I know how your brain works. I know you want us back. This..."

He took another breath to calm himself.

"This was going to be a huge way of letting me know you're ready for forever with me, wasn't it?"

Blaine nodded, tears in his eyes as Kurt held his hand.

"Blaine... you don't need to do that. You taking care of my dad while I've been in New York, all the phone calls we've had over the past few months, what happened between us in Februrary... the fact that you haven't seen anyone else..."

Kurt closed his eyes for a moment, and looked back up at Blaine's bewildered expression. Blaine was dying to talk, he knew. Kurt smiled a wistful smile, and turned into Blaine more.

"Last week, when you asked me to stay for regionals?" Kurt paused, "I thought... Well, I thought you were going to ask me on a date," Kurt chuckled.

Blaine raised his eyebrows, his mouth opened part way. Kurt placed his left hand on Blaine's cheek, and Blaine closed his eyes at the touch.

"I was so disappointed when you didn't, and I tried so hard not to show it. I was gearing up to say yes to you. And tonight during Regionals? Santana called me on my bullshit." Kurt paused. "I still love you, Blaine. I'm still in love with you."

Blaine involuntarily took in a sharp breath, "Kurt," his voice cracking.

Kurt smiled at him. "I want us to try again." He could feel Blaine shaking beneath his hand. "But it's going to be slow, and it's going to be difficult, and we have a lot to talk about. It's not going to be easy. But God, Blaine, what he have... what we could have... it's not something I want to give up on, no matter how much we've hurt each other."

Blaine brought his right hand up and put it on top of Kurt's over his cheek, like he couldn't believe it was real, that this was happening. He seemed to be fighting not to speak, but he so desperately wanted to know what Kurt was going to say next.

"But Blaine, asking me to marry you is not the way to do this. I want to believe that there's a future like that for us, someday. But we need to be realistic about this. This is going to take a lot of hard work, and although I might've already forgiven you, letting myself completely trust you again is going to be insanely difficult. So... put that ring away, somewhere safe. Keep it. For someday, ok?"

Kurt looked back and forth between Blaine's eyes. Blaine was openly crying now, tears coming down his face.

"I'm so sorry, Kurt. I'm sorry for everything. I just... I needed to find a way to show you how much you mean to me and how serious I am about you being IT for me, and I miss you so damn much every day and sometimes I feel like I cant breathe without you anymore and..." Blaine breathed in a broken sigh, still sitting there with his left hand in Kurt's right, his other covering Kurt's hand on his cheek.

"Hey, Blaine, hey..." Kurt made Blaine breathe. "It's ok, Blaine. It's going to be ok." Kurt moved their hands so that they were holding each other's between them now, resting on his thigh. He let Blaine breathe for a minute, fighting back his own tears. God, he really did love this man so much. And the lengths for which Blaine was willing to go for him... youthful indescretions be damned. They'd both grown a lot this year. Kurt had already forgiven him, and he knew he was partly to blame for being so emotionally unavailable and pushing Blaine away.

When Blaine's breathing was back to normal, Kurt cleared his throat to speak.

"Ask me on a date."

Blaine blinked, and half laughed.

"What?"

Kurt rolled his eyes in fond exasperation.

"Ask me on a date, Blaine."

Blaine laughed, but turned his body fully into Kurt, bringing one of his legs up under himself on the stage, Kurt mimicked his movements. Blaine repositioned his hands so he was holding onto Kurts', rather than them holding onto each other.

Blaine smiled, tears still in his eyes, "Kurt, will you go to dinner with me at breadstix tomorrow? Maybe a movie after?"

Kurt grinned back at him, feigning ignorance and tilted his head. "Like a date?"

Blaine breathed in a laugh and rolled his own eyes and grinned out, "Like a date."

Kurt smiled at him and leaned into Blaine's body, placing a hand on Blaine's cheek again. His forehead rested against Blaine's.

"Yes," he breathed, and he closed the last two inches to Blaine's lips. He felt Blaine move his arms to his back to pull him in closer, like he'd been dying to hold him again.

And if Kurt was being honest, he'd been dying to be back in Blaine's arms. As his lips moved in time against Blaine's, as he felt Blaine play with the hair at the back of his neck, as he heard Blaine whimper when he lightly grazed his lower lip with his teeth, Kurt knew he was home. There, in Blaine's embrace, feeling Blaine's lips on his, he was home. He was warm and soft beneath him and he could feel Blaine's smile through their lengthy kiss. They were starting over again together, and it felt so damn right.

The rest they would figure out in time.