Thinking back on the Rachel Berry House-Party Train-Wreck Extravaganza, Kurt isn't really sure why he's allowed Blaine to talk him into attending the party tonight. He tells Blaine just that as they walk up Rachel's porch steps.

"Come on, Kurt. It's her chance at redemption! Besides, you guys have had a couple New York parties, so she has a little more experience up her sleeve now. It'll be great!"

Really, Kurt isn't even sure if he's back on good terms with Blaine. Sure, they had their reconciliation at Christmas, and their disastrous hook-up on Valentine's Day, and the visit for Regionals had been fairly pleasant.

Still, he isn't really sure he's ready to trust Blaine again wholeheartedly. Kurt trusts Blaine on going to this party, but he isn't sure about trusting Blaine with his heart again.

Even though, truthfully, Blaine still had it, and he always would.

Kurt sighs before ringing the doorbell. Rachel answers the door promptly and gives Kurt a bear hug, as if they don't live together and see each other on a regular basis. When she lets go, she moves on to Blaine, giving him an equally enthusiastic hug.

"I'm so glad you guys could make it! And Blaine, congratulations on your Nationals win and graduation. I know that you were named the New Rachel at the beginning of the year, and I'm so glad to see you've kept my legacy in a winning light."

Blaine chuckles as they're led inside. "Thank you, Rachel."

As they head down the stairs to her basement, Kurt half-listens to Rachel prattle on about the rules of the evening—(since moving in with her, Kurt has mastered the fine art of tuning out Rachel Berry).

"The alcoholic beverages are on top of the washer, the non-alcoholic beverages are on top of the dryer. You may pick your poison and mix your own drink, though any spills must be cleaned by the offending spiller. There are two fish bowls on top of the piano. You must write your name down on a small piece of paper and fold it up, then place it in the first; in the second, you must write a song on a piece of paper. The game of the evening is Karaoke Roulette!"

She claps excitedly before leaning close to Kurt, whispering, "This is much better than junior year, right?"

Kurt smiles indulgently and pulls Rachel in for a side hug. "Much better, though I have to say I appreciate that you didn't sacrifice your organizational skills for the sake of making the party more whimsically fun."

Rachel grins and gestures towards the laundry machines, then goes to attend to Tina and Mike, who are making out on her couch, already tipsy.

"What'll ya have?" Blaine asks, standing in front of the washing machine.

As he glances over his options, Kurt makes his way over to Blaine, standing next to him but making sure there's enough space to say "friends."

"Vodka sprite is fine," he decides.

Blaine nods and goes about making the drinks. "Vodka sprite coming up!"

Kurt thinks back to those pamphlets his dad gave him junior year, just before he and Blaine got together. The pamphlets that said he should never allow anyone to make him drinks at a party, because they could slip something in. Kurt trusts Blaine not to hurt him with date rape drugs, so why can't he trust Blaine not to hurt him in a different way?

Because Blaine has never drugged you, but he has broken your heart.

Breaking out of his thoughts, Kurt accepts the drink Blaine is holding out to him and smiles. "Thank you."

"Of course."

They survey the crowd, and Kurt realises they must have shown up later than he thought, because most of the other glee kids are already drunk or well on their way.

Puck, Jake, and Kitty are dancing in some kind of awkward three-way manner in the middle of the room while Artie watches from the sidelines, almost wistfully, Kurt notes. Mike and Tina are back to making out, despite Rachel's protests. Mercedes and Sam seem to be having a serious conversation on one sofa, while Brittany and Santana do the same on the other. Marley and Ryder are sitting on the floor near the piano, talking and laughing.

"Did Marley and Jake break up?" Kurt asks Blaine.

Blaine follows his line of sight and furrows his brow. "Oh, yeah. It was pretty bad for a while, but I guess they're both moving on."

The sentence strikes Kurt in a way that catches him off-guard. He shuts his eyes for a moment before opening them, shaking his head, and downing a good gulp of his drink.

"I guess we should go write our names and songs," Kurt says, heading over to the piano.

He writes his name easily, but the song is a little harder. There are so many options, so many genres, so many routes he could take.

"What song did you write down?" he asks Blaine.

Blaine folds his piece of paper and smiles, dropping it in the fishbowl labeled SONGS. "You'll see."

"Blaaaaaine," Kurt whines. "I can't decide which song to pick."

"It's not that hard," Blaine laughs. "Just pick a song."

"What genre? Showtunes, pop, top 40, hip hop?"

"You don't know any hip hop songs."

"You don't know that. I could have developed a taste in hip hop recently and you wouldn't know."

Kurt watches the way Blaine's face falls at his remark and immediately regrets saying it.

"You're right. I wouldn't."

Taking a leap of faith, Kurt reaches for Blaine's hand and gives it a squeeze. "You know I didn't mean it like that."

"I know," Blaine says, lips twitching back into a smile.

Kurt gives Blaine's hand one last squeeze before letting go, returning to the blank piece of paper before him. "So. Songs."

"What about 'Popular'? It's a classic that everyone in here probably knows and loves."

"I'm always down for a good Wicked rendition," Kurt says, writing it down. He smiles up at Blaine. "Thank you."

"Anytime."

They leave the piano and mingle for a while. When Blaine notices Kurt's drink starts running on empty, he quickly disappears for a minute to make him a new one. So, with Blaine's attentiveness, after about an hour, Kurt is feeling quite light and happy. He's laughing louder and touching Blaine more often—a hand on the shoulder when someone says something funny, leaning in and placing his hand on Blaine's lower back to say something quietly in Blaine's ear. Blaine doesn't seem to be complaining, and it's a party, so who cares?

Rachel pops up on the mini-stage and announces that the game of Karaoke Roulette is about to begin. She explains that she will pull one name from the name bowl and a song from the song bowl, and that person must perform that song. At her discretion, duets will also be selected.

The first song she fishes out is "Popular," and Blaine nudges him on the shoulder and gives him a secret smile, which Kurt returns. Of course, as fate would have it, Rachel pulls her own name, and so the game is kicked off with a drunk Rachel overacting while she sings "Popular" to Tina, who looks slightly offended to have been cast as Elphaba in this scenario.

Next up is Puck, who has to sing the song "What the Hell" by Avril Lavigne. Kurt has to admit, he doesn't do too terrible of a job. Then Mercedes, who performs "Come On Over Baby" by Christina Aguilera, winking and hooking her finger at Sam every other line.

Then, Rachel decides it's time for a duet. The first name she pulls out is Blaine. She throws a wink his way and Kurt places his hand on Blaine's thigh, smiling at him. Rachel breaks out in a grin as she announces Blaine's duet partner is Kurt, and Kurt is a little suspicious as to whether she set this up or not.

"And the song they will be singing is..." She swirls her hand in the bowl for a moment before selecting a paper and announcing, "'Just Give Me A Reason' by Pink!"

Kurt's heart drops to the bottom of his stomache as he hears the name of the song.

"And featuring Nate Ruess, lead vocalist of Fun.! Don't forget him!" Tina calls out.

Blaine stands up and offers a hand to Kurt to help him up. Kurt takes it, and when Blaine pulls him up, he says, "Do you mind if I take Pink's part? I know you're usually the higher melody in our duets, but—"

Kurt shrugs and says, "That's fine," before Blaine can even finish speaking. Honestly, Kurt doesn't really care who sings what part. He's had two drinks but he can tell that the pleasant and warm buzz that had taken over his mind is about to be sucked away by singing this song with Blaine.

When they get up there, they each take a stand at a microphone stand, and the music starts.

Right from the start
You were a thief
You stole my heart
And I your willing victim
I let you see the parts of me
That weren't all that pretty
And with every touch you fixed them

The way Blaine looks at Kurt as he sings reminds Kurt of the way Blaine had looked the night he'd asked, "Who's Chandler?" It broke Kurt's heart that night—though he didn't show it—and it's breaking his heart now.

Now you've been talking in your sleep, oh, oh
Things you never say to me, oh, oh
Tell me that you've had enough
Of our love, our love

Seeing the hurt flooding Blaine's features as he sings distracts Kurt from the song for a moment. What right does Blaine have to look that hurt? Blaine is the one who did all the hurting. Blaine is the one who cheated.

Just give me a reason
Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again
It's in the stars
It's been written in the scars on our hearts
We're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again

Kurt pushes down his anger and jumps in on his part.

I'm sorry I don't understand
Where all of this is coming from
I thought that we were fine

When Blaine sings his echoing background line, "Oh, we had everything," the way he stares at Kurt makes him fumble through the beginning of his next line. Still, he makes it, and he tries to convey through the song how he feels.

Your head is running wild again
My dear we still have everythin'
And it's all in your mind

Blaine sings his back-up line, "Yeah, but this is happenin'," this time looking at the ground, not meeting Kurt's eyes.

You've been havin' real bad dreams, oh, oh
Used to lie so close to me, oh, oh
There's nothing more than empty sheets
Between our love, our love
Oh, our love, our love

When the chorus starts up again, Blaine harmonizes with Kurt perfectly, just like always.

Just give me a reason
Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again
I never stopped
You're still written in the scars on my heart
You're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again

Kurt yanks his mic off the stand and steps towards Blaine, singing directly to him as they banter back and forth through the bridge.

Our tear ducts can rust
I'll fix it for us
We're collecting dust
But our love's enough
You're holding it in
You're pouring a drink
No nothing is as bad as it seems
We'll come clean

Kurt isn't even sure how he manages to finish the song. At this point, they've both completely disregarded the other people in the room and are singing solely to each other, trying to convey different messages through the same song.

When the music fades out, there's a smattering of awkward, drunk clapping, but Kurt pays it no mind.

Blaine is breathing heavily and there are tears in his eyes. Kurt grabs his hand and pulls them off the stage, up the basement stairs, ignoring Rachel's call not to go in her room and heading straight there.

Kurt tries to ignore the amount of pink fluff surrounding them as he closes the door to Rachel's room and turns to face Blaine, who has seated himself on the edge of Rachel's bed.

"Talk," Kurt demands.

Blaine looks at him with the Chandler eyes and Kurt can't stand it.

"Don't look at me like that! I know you put that song in the bowl!"

There's a moment of silence, and when Blaine speaks, he doesn't even really answer Kurt's unasked question. Instead, he raises one of his own. "Did you know I was going to propose to you?"

Kurt's heart stops. "What?"

"Earlier this year. Around Regionals, actually. I was going to propose to you. I bought a ring and everything. Everyone told me I was crazy, that we're not even together, there's no way you'd agree to marry me. I even talked to your dad—"

"You did?"

"Yes. I wanted to ask his permission. He didn't give it to me."

Kurt's head is swimming with all of this information. He leans his back against the door. "Why?"

"He said we're too young."

"He's right."

"He also said that I shouldn't worry, because when two people love each other like we do, it works out."

When Blaine stops speaking, Kurt pauses to take a breath. He hadn't been expecting this at all. His dad never mentioned anything, never even hinted. Now Kurt just feels blindsided.

"What changed your mind?" Kurt finally asks.

"About proposing?"

Kurt nods in response.

"It was what your dad said, combined with seeing you. I knew during your visit earlier in the semester that you had too much on your plate with your dad and his cancer, and I could tell you just weren't there yet. You still didn't trust me."

"What do you think now?"

"About what?"

"Do you think I trust you?"

Blaine sighs. "That's a loaded question."

"I think it's simple."

"No," Blaine says, shaking his head. "See, that's one fundamental difference between us. You see everything in black and white and I see it in shades of grey. All you saw was that I cheated on you; you didn't see anything beyond that, any of the things that factored into that. It was a singular act—one mistake—and it cost me everything."

Kurt's first instinct is to tear into Blaine. He's offended at the way Blaine's worded this, as if Kurt is the bad guy and not Blaine. Kurt knows, though, that immediately prickling up and getting offensive wouldn't be productive.

Instead, he says, "Okay, fine. Tell me the other factors."

Blaine's mouth falls open a little, like he hadn't expected Kurt to even ask. "I—"

When Blaine doesn't continue, Kurt says, "You wanted to tell me everything that night when I came to see Grease. I didn't listen then because I wasn't ready, but I am now. I'm listening. Tell me."

Blaine's brow furrows before he begins speaking. "You weren't there." He drops Kurt's gaze and stares at the floor. "You weren't there for me. You went off to New York and forgot all about me, just like I said you would."

"I didn't—"

"No, let me finish. You said you were listening, so please, just... You started ignoring my calls, or cutting them short so you could get workplace gossip. Our Skype dates started turning into all about you, until they just stopped altogether. You were always busy with Vogue or Isabelle or Rachel or any number of things that weren't me. New York had swept you off your feet and you left me here in your dust. I used to sit by the phone and just wait for you to text me. It didn't even have to be anything important, all I wanted was a simple 'Hey,' because at least it meant you were thinking of me.

"But there was nothing. There was no, 'Hey,' or 'I miss you,' or even an 'I love you.' There was nothing. We started going whole days without speaking at all, and I'm not clingy, Kurt, you know that, but god, you're the only thing I have left. You know how my parents are, you know how Cooper is. Sometimes it feels like you're the only one left that cares about me, and then it felt like even you stopped caring."

"So you started looking for attention elsewhere," Kurt deducts.

Blaine recoils. "God, no. Give me some credit here, Kurt. The guy I slept with, Eli, he's Nick's cousin. He messaged me on Facebook after a particularly bad day and I... I should've said no, I know that now. I should've just ignored his message and tried talking to you. But I am the absolute worst at communication, you know that."

"You're doing pretty well right now," Kurt offers, trying to make Blaine feel better. Because now that Kurt is finally listening, now that he's hearing the backstory, the events and emotions on Blaine's side that led up to the break-up, he can't help but feel the weight of his responsibility in all this rain down on him.

Blaine smiles a bit. "Thank you."

The alcohol is still running in Kurt's system, though dulled by the seriousness of his conversation with Blaine. It gives him the confidence he needs to take the few steps over to Rachel's bed, kneeling at Blaine's feet and taking Blaine's hands in his.

"I'm sorry," he says sincerely. Blaine opens his mouth to speak but Kurt shakes his head. "No, let me say this. You had your turn now it's mine. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you like I should have been. I know you, and I knew at the time that it was wrong. There was a little voice at the back of my mind nagging me to drop what I was doing, to excuse myself for a minute to call you, just so you'd know that I still cared. That was my fault, Blaine. It was my job to always show you how much I love you and I didn't do that. I'm sorry."

"Do you still?"

"Still what?"

"Do you still love me? I know we've started saying it sometimes again, but I didn't know if you meant it as friends, or..."

"Blaine, I will always love you as much more than just a friend."

There are tears in Blaine's eyes as he smiles down at Kurt and says, "You're my soulmate, Kurt."

Blaine's voice breaks when he says Kurt's name and if that isn't enough to damn near break Kurt's heart all over again, he doesn't know what is. Before he can over-think it, before he can psyche himself out of it, before he can question it, Kurt rises up and surges forward, pressing his lips to Blaine's in a kiss that feels a lot like coming home.

It's a sweet kiss, short and soft, and when Kurt pulls away, Blaine says, "I love you, Kurt."

"I love you, too. Let's hold off on marriage though, okay? At least for a couple of years."

Blaine laughs shakily, grinning at Kurt even as a tear rolls down his cheek. "Okay. I can do that."

Kurt wipes the tear from Blaine's cheek with his thumb, staring into Blaine's eyes, wondering how on earth he ended up here. In Rachel Berry's room, kneeling at the foot of her pink, floral, canopy bed, kissing and laughing with Blaine. And crying with Blaine, he realises when Blaine mirrors his action and wipes a tear away from Kurt's own cheek.

Blaine leans their foreheads together, sighing happily. After a moment, he murmurs, "If you say this is just bros helping bros, Kurt, I swear to god."

Kurt dissolves into laughter and grabs both sides of Blaine's face, kissing him soundly. When they pull apart, he says, "Definitely not bros helping bros."

"If you say this was fun, but—"

Kurt kisses him again, rising up and pushing Blaine backwards to lie down on the bed, Kurt hovering over him. Kurt caresses the side of Blaine's face, running his fingers over the bridge of Blaine's nose, his eyebrows, the curve of his lips.

"I've missed you," Kurt whispers.

Blaine smiles softly. "I've missed you too."

They both dive in this time, crashing their lips together. The kissing leads to groping which leads to sex, and Kurt finally understands why everyone goes on about make-up sex, because, wow.

And if Kurt goes deaf for a week from the shrill shriek Rachel lets out when she finds them naked in her bed the next morning, he thinks to himself, it's entirely worth it, and not a bad way to start off his summer vacation.