"I can't believe I convinced myself to let you drag me here Jeff," Kurt grumbled, twisting his pointer finger around the rim of his plastic red cup. He was completely bored out of his mind. The famous Dalton Christmas party was anything but exciting like Jeff had told him it would be. At least not for him, everyone else seemed to be having a fabulous time. "I don't even really know anyone here except you."

                The party was being held in the Dalton common room, where the warblers usually rehearse, but there were different party decorations and Christmas lights around the molding across the ceiling and along the bottom of the small stairway. There was a large pine tree in the corner of the room, and even that looked sophisticated and so pretty that Kurt focused his attention on that a majority of the time.

                "Come on Kurt," Jeff whined, throwing his arm over Kurt's shoulder. Kurt wrinkled his nose as the scent of alcohol breath hit his nose. He was pretty sure that he himself was the only person who wasn't drinking. "Just go and talk to people, have fun! Didn't you say you wanted more friends the other day?" Kurt flinched when Jeff nearly yelled the question, and some boys nearby turned to them and gave him strange looks.

Kurt grimaced. "Yes Jeff, and I really don't need all these strangers knowing that I'm lonely, okay?" Jeff nodded. "Good."

He had told him that though, he was lonely, especially since Jeff had left.

                Jeff and Kurt met when they were both in eighth grade in a small middle school in Lima when Jeff had dropped his pencil and Kurt picked it up for him. Jeff, giving a goofy grin, introduced himself and so did Kurt and they were nearly inseparable ever since.   When high school started though, Jeff's father hit him with a bombshell; he was sending him to Dalton.

                ~

                "What do you mean you're not going to the same school as I am?" Kurt asked.

                "Dad said I have to go to this private school because he went there when he was younger," Jeff answered, frowning. "I'm sorry Kurt, I couldn't tell him no. And I wish you could go with me, but it's so expensive."

                Kurt would have asked him to let Jeff stay, but Jeff's father was a scary man. Jeff's father was the governor. "Why didn't you ever go to a fancy middle school then?"

                "My dad said only high school matters, so I could just make friends and stuff in a normal school. I'm really sorry Kurt." Kurt considered being angry, but when he saw how apologetic and sad that Jeff looked, he let it go.

"Fine. We can still hang out though, right?"

                "Of course!" Jeff exclaimed, jumping up in surprise. "We're best friends, right?"

                "Yeah." Kurt grinned. "Best friends."

                ~

                And of course, that promise was not exactly easy to stand by. The distance made it immensely difficult for Jeff to come and visit a lot of the time, but somehow he made it work. His mother would drop him off at Kurt's house every other weekend so he could stay for that little time. It was a harsh change from spending so much time together nearly every day, but Kurt counted his blessings.

Kurt finally got a cell phone when he was a freshman, and they would text all of the time. Jeff would even call him as often as he could, tell him about his day excitedly and about all of the new friends he made that day. When the topic would change to how Kurt's day went though, it always ended up the same way.

                ~

                "I wish you could just go to school here with me." Jeff sighed into the phone. "There are no bullies here and then we could hang out all of the time again."

                "Yeah, me too," Kurt said, wincing as he nursed a bruise on his elbow from being pushed into a locker earlier that day. "But like you said, it's too much money for me to go."

                "Yeah, that's true. It doesn't make it suck any less though." Kurt shrugged to himself.

                "Anyways, what else happened today that is worthy of me knowing?" Kurt knew a change of topic would distract Jeff and stop him from worrying.

                "Oh!  I met someone new today, he's a freshman too. His name is Blaine! He's really nice. And he's also really short." Kurt could practically see him putting a hand up to display his height. "He's in the warblers too, and sort of the lead guy. He's a really good singer, I mean wow."

                "He seems nice," Kurt said laughing and turning his computer on so he could start typing his homework paper.

                "You would like him," Jeff added.

                "Oh yeah? Why is that?"

                "He's really cute."

                ~

 He then fixed his gaze nearby at the boy he'd spotted earlier when he first walked in. Kurt had actually been watching him for a while, because wow he was attractive. He was dancing with some of his friends, two of Jeff's friends named Wes and David apparently. Occasionally the other guy would run his own hands over his chest, and up his neck, and Kurt would swallow dryly and clench his hand into a fist. "Jeffy?"

"Yeah Kurtie?" Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Who's that?" He pointed quickly to the dancing boy and then put his hand in his pocket to seem uninterested.

"Oh!" Jeff exclaimed. "That's Blaine! I told you about Blaine!" At the sound of his name, the boy, Blaine,turned and looked to them. When he caught Kurt's eye, he smiled and waved, nodding his head. "I told you that you'd think that he's hot." Blaine froze, looking shocked when he heard Jeff. Kurt blushed because Blaine probably assumed that he thought he was hot. Which he did, but still, you know what they say about assuming. But when Blaine smiled brightly, he felt just a little less embarrassed.

"Jeff I never said that," Kurt said quietly so only the other boy could hear him. "You said he was hot." Jeff lifted his head and frowned.

"No no no, no no no no you totally think he's hot, I know you do Kurt, you're my best friend. He's gay too and everything," His voice rose in volume as he drilled on and on until Kurt was shushing him and placing a hand on his mouth.

"Inside voice," he murmured lowly, waiting until Jeff nodded in understanding before taking his hand back. He sighed, wondering why he even dealt with people sometimes instead of just becoming a hermit. He wasn't sure if Blaine was looking at him, but he decided not to check, just to save himself the embarrassment and blushing more than he already was.

The song that was blaring through the speakers changed suddenly and when the slow beat began, most of the teens dancing took a seat, or sat on the floor, or even just stood against the wall.

Bells will be ringing

The glad, glad news.

Kurt gasped and looked to Jeff, who smiled at him.  Jeff was the only one he had told the stories to about long ago, baking cookies and singing the very same song with his mother. It was an annual thing, and that song was her favorite of all Christmas songs. When Kurt was only eight, he had memorized the lyrics word for word and even after Elizabeth's death, sang it every Christmas. Sometimes he just put that one song on repeat while he put decorations on their Christmas tree or cleaned the house, or made dinner.

My baby's gone

I have no friends

To wish me greetings

Once again.

                Kurt hummed along for a little bit before he was being pulled up by Jeff and crashing into his incredibly tall friend's chest. "Dance with me Kurtie!" Kurt struggled in his grip and tried sitting back down, voicing his disapproval.

                "No thanks, I don't really want to dance." Dancing with his incredibly drunk friend didn't seem like the best idea at the moment, and he was just really tired and wanted to ditch away so he could pass out in Jeff's room. Jeff was having none of that though, and before he could blink, they were spinning around the room to the steady beat of the song.

 Even while he was drunk, Jeff was apparently a pretty good dancer, and they barely stumbled as Kurt was led across the floor with Jeff's hand holding on of his and the other wrapping around his waist.

                Please come home for Christmas

Please come home for Christmas

If not for Christmas

Then by New Year's night.

"You are the most ridiculous person in the world," Kurt said, not able to stop his chuckle from breaking free. Jeff grinned and sloppily kissed him on the cheek. When Kurt wiped the saliva off of his face with fake disgust, it only made his smile widen and he poked Kurt on the nose.

"But you love me," he said matter-of-factly.

Friends and relations

Send salutations

Sure as the stars shine above

It's Christmas time, my dear

"Yes of course I do," Kurt said. They started moving faster than the tempo of the music, and now Jeff was spinning him under one of his arms and pulling him back with a snap. Kurt laughed, a genuine, toothy grin on his face, and he started to admit to himself that he was having fun. Jeff always did have a knack of making him enjoy himself, no matter what the circumstances.

Then Jeff took both of his hands and started to spin them in circles. "Oh, Jeff! Jeff what are you doing?!" He giggled as they twisted and he closed his eyes for a moment to stop himself from feeling dizzy. "Jeff, stop!"

"You're definitely gonna love me more now!"

Kurt opened his eyes and his mouth to ask Jeff what he was talking about, but his hands were let go right at that moment and he shrieked as he spun and fell, still dizzy, but when he did, he landed straight into another body and arms encircled him, probably to stop him from falling completely to the floor. "Oomph!"

He looked up, and straight into Blaine's eyes and he couldn't get a word out before the other boy's eyes were closed and he was being kissed, a hand twining around the back of his head and the other resting solidly on his waist. He froze, shocked, and then realized that Blaine was kissing him, a hot boy was actually kissing him. So naturally, he decided to kiss back. He could feel the heat of Blaine's palm through his shirt and he shivered, pulling himself closer by Blaine's collar and tilting his pelvis so he was resting on the other boy completely.

The time of year

To be, with the one you love

Blaine kissed him once, twice, short little pecks to his lips. And then pulled back slowly, waiting until Kurt opened his eyes once more.  He cleared his throat, and Kurt could tell that he felt embarrassed or shy or something other than confident, but that was okay with him. "I um-" he pointed to the ceiling. "Mistletoe."

Kurt scoffed but grinned, still giddy and breathless and happy from the kiss. "Oh, so you mean this wasn't planned? You didn't want to kiss me at all?" He made his voice sound disappointed and did a little internal cheering when Blaine started, looking baffled.

                "No! No I mean of course I wanted to kiss you- I mean- Oh Jesus, I screwed this up." He hung his head, looking completely mortified, and Kurt took pity on him, leaning up to kiss him once more. The other boy sighed in relief and the tension in his body lessened as they kissed slowly again. They were both slightly aware of Jeff cheering behind them, but neither cared very much.

Kurt pushed against him and they both moved backwards, Blaine's back hitting the way. Kurt pulled back from the kiss as Blaine wrapped his both arms around his waist. "Don't worry, I wanted to kiss you too." Blaine grinned.

"Good because this would have been a lot more awkward if you didn't."

Kurt laughed. "So which one of you came up with this whole idea?" They pulled themselves off the wall and collapsed into one of the nearest couches.

"Me! It was my idea," Jeff called out with a goofy grin.

Kurt didn't bother responding because he was being kissed again, and he didn't feel like breaking away. Blaine pulled back, leaving barely any space between the two of them, and let out a worried sigh. "Sorry, is this.. too much?"

Kurt nodded, but then smiled and kissed him again. "Yes. But that's perfectly okay."

~

Jeff asked Kurt to stay for the rest of the break, which he readily agreed to do, having all of the clothes he needed already because he had suspected being asked that. A majority of the time, Blaine would join them while they had a video game marathon (which he made Blaine promise not to tell anyone about) or talking about school or just hanging out.

The last day, in the morning, as they were packing Kurt's stuff away, Jeff yelled out in shock, causing Kurt and Blaine (who were most definitely not kissing, nope) to turn to him in surprise. "What is it?"

"I just remembered, I can't believe I forgot!" He didn't address them and rushed to his desk, rifling through the huge pile of papers he had stacked. "Wait, I know it's here, I know it is," he mumbled to himself, hissing when he sliced his finger on one of the papers, but not letting it stop his search. When he found what he was looking for, he shook it in the air and ran to Kurt, shoving it in his face. "Read it!"

Kurt took it from it and read over it. "I- I don't understand Jeff, what is this?" It looked like a receipt, different prices listed with a staggering number at the bottom that almost made him faint just looking at it. The part that confused him though, was his name at the top of the form, and the Dalton logo above it.

"My dad," Jeff started excitedly. "He paid your school fee so.."

"He what?" Kurt asked loudly.

"He paid for it and now you can go here and get away from bullies and see Blaine and-" He cut off when Kurt raised one of his hands.

"Jeff, you can't just pay this amount of money for me, I can't and won't take it, it's way too much," he was feeling his eyes starting to get misty, because he didn't think anyone cared this much about him, or wanted to spend as much time with him as Jeff did. Blaine noticed and rubbed his back softly, placing a kiss on his forehead.

"But Kurt it's non-refundable and my dad said they'd let you come this year and everything, he convinced them to let you in, and even be my roommate since I don't have one." Jeff was smiling at him again, and damn it if Kurt could resist that smile his life would be so much easier.

"I," he paused, looking at Blaine, who just smiled at him, then back to Jeff. "I'll call my dad."

The shriek that Jeff let out probably could have deafened them all.

When Kurt hung up the phone with a curt "bye dad," Jeff and Blaine were sitting on either side, both trying to hear the conversation between him and his father. He sighed, set his phone on his knee. "So I guess I'm going to Dalton."

"Yes!" Jeff and Blaine both cheered out. Jeff ran into the hallway to scream the news to the other sleeping boys in his, no, now it was their dorm, and Blaine pulled him into a hug.

Kurt kissed him lightly and when Blaine kept staring at him with something like wonder, he touched his face on instinct. "What's wrong? Do I have something on my face or something?"

"No, no of course not," Blaine shot out. "Just, wow." He sighed happily, and Kurt blushed a dark shade of red, glancing down to the floor. "I just never realized that mistletoe also makes you the luckiest son of a bitch alive."