A cheer erupted through the McKinley campus as a cloud of graduation caps filled the sky. The members of New Directions found each other in the blur of gowns, all of them teary-eyed from Blaine and Artie’s heartfelt rendition of Green Day’s “Good Riddance” and began to gather one another in tight embraces.

“This is it, Kurt” Rachel blubbered into Kurt’s shoulder. “In just over two months, we’ll be in New York, doing what we were born to do.”

He looked down at her with a tear filled smile before nodding and squeezing her hand. Finn had decided to follow the two of them to New York. It took him awhile, but with Rachel’s help he finally decided what he wanted to do with his life. He loved performing, being in Glee club made him happy. He didn’t necessarily want to go into the Performing Arts with his girlfriend and stepbrother, but he decided to go to school for music. He wouldn’t be attending the same school as Rachel and Kurt, but he’d be living with them and his school wasn’t too far out.

Rachel kissed Kurt hard on the cheek and Kurt heard her whisper, “go find him” before running off towards Finn and into her boyfriend’s arms.

Kurt’s eyes followed her and he felt a pang of jealousy stab at his chest. Blaine wouldn’t be joining him in New York. Not for a year or so, anyway. Blaine had been held back when he was a freshman, putting him a year behind Kurt.

Over the course of the year the two of them knew the inevitable conversation of what they were going to do would come eventually, but they put it off. Every time it was mentioned that Blaine wasn’t a senior, the two of them would quickly change the subject, not wanting to deal with that just yet. On a double date with Rachel and Finn, Finn had asked them what their plans were and Kurt had grinned at Blaine and joked “Oh, Blaine whatever will you do without me!” before immediately questioning Rachel about Glee club rehearsals.

But Kurt’s senior year had flown by, and before he and Blaine knew it, it was a week to graduation. They had been lying in the grass of Kurt’s backyard, Blaine’s head resting on Kurt’s chest with his fingers laced through Kurt’s on his stomach. Blaine had spent the afternoon helping Kurt decorate his graduation cap with rhinestones and glitter, sharing laughs and kisses until Kurt had declared he needed a nap. Since Burt would freak out if he found Kurt asleep in his bed while tangled up in his boyfriend, and he definitely didn’t want Blaine to leave, they opted to lay down outside as the sun set.

Blaine wasn’t really tired but he wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to cuddle with his boyfriend, so he drew patterns across the back of Kurt’s hand with his thumb and began to think. It suddenly occurred to him that Kurt would be graduating the following week, meaning in just over two months, he would be leaving for New York with Rachel and Finn. Blaine’s eyes widened with realization. Their days together were numbered. Blaine only had the rest of the summer to hold, kiss and simply be with the boy underneath him. The boy he loved. He began to shake, and he gripped Kurt’s hand tighter. Tears crept up to his eyes and his breathing went uneven. Kurt began to stir and his hand automatically came to rest on Blaine’s lower back.

When he noticed Blaine was shaking, he automatically sat up, lifting Blaine up with him. Blaine was stiff. His eyes were wide and glassy, staring helplessly into Kurt’s eyes and his hands were now bunched up in the front of Kurt’s shirt. “Blaine.. wha--.. what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Kurt’s lips were parted, and his eyes were searching Blaine’s face. He could usually read him like a book, but he didn’t know what could have possibly happened between when he fell asleep and now.

“I’ll drop out. I’ll drop out and—“ Blaine’s eyebrows were scrunched together and he was nodding hurriedly, as if he was trying to convince himself of something.

“Drop--… what? Blaine, honey what are you talking about?” Blaine didn’t answer. He was running his hands through his hair, still nodding and tears were beginning to spill from his eyes. Kurt brought his hands up to his cheeks and wiped the moisture away with his thumbs. “Blaine, you have to look at me. What are you talking about?”

Blaine looked up into Kurt’s eyes, horror written all over his face. “You’re leaving! You’re going to New York! I’m going to be here, without you and—“ sobs began wracking Blaine’s frame and he collapsed into Kurt’s arms, clutching the back of his shoulders desperately.

Kurt wasn’t able to say anything. He simply held onto Blaine tightly, one hand tangled in Blaine’s curls and the other wrapped around his waist as he let Blaine cry into his chest. He felt tears start to prick at his eyes as frustration started to flood through him. Why hadn’t they talked about this earlier? Graduation was next week. They could have had more time to work something out! Kurt gripped Blaine tighter and began whispering “shhh, it’s okay” over and over into Blaine’s hair until he calmed down enough.

Once Blaine was composed enough to be coherent, they spent the night in the backyard, talking and kissing and holding on for dear life, both scared that if they let go the other would disappear.

Kurt had shot down Blaine’s idea to drop out, even after Blaine’s constant protests that he cared more about Kurt than his education and could go to New York and get a small job and go to auditions while Kurt went to school. The more Blaine talked about it though, the more he realized how unrealistic he was being. When it hit him what was going to end up happening, tears started to roll down his cheeks again. This time, Kurt cried with him.

“You’ll wait for me?” Blaine cried, holding Kurt’s hands as tight as he could.

Kurt brought their laced fingers up to his mouth and kissed Blaine’s middle knuckle. He managed a sad smile and answered, “Of course.”

As Kurt watched everyone around him, most of them hugging their boyfriends and girlfriends, his eyes landed on Mike and Tina. Mike’s parents had decided he would go to Stanford. Tina was in Blaine’s year, so she had to stay behind as well. Different from Kurt and Blaine though, they had decided to go their separate ways. Tina admitted she wouldn’t be able to handle long distance, and Mike had agreed with her. He watched as they clutched at each other. Tina’s face was hidden in Mike’s chest, and Mike’s head was on top of hers as silent tears rolled down his cheeks. Kurt’s heart ached for the two of them. Blaine had become friends with Tina throughout the year so that he would have someone to hang around once Kurt left, and Kurt had heard all about how hard it was on her.

He remembered when he heard his father’s voice yell “Hey buddy!” who he was supposed to be looking for. He managed a smile and ran towards his father and into his arms. Carole had run off towards Finn, finding him so they could go to dinner. “Congratulations, Kurt. I’m real proud of you.” Kurt smiled into his father’s shoulder and pulled away. Burt patted his cheek, and Kurt looked off over his father’s shoulder.

Burt sighed and looked at his son knowingly, “I saw him run off towards the trees after the ceremony, you’ll find him back there… Probably wanted it to be just you guys.” Kurt stared blankly at his father, trying to process his words. “Now go ahead! Beat it! Meet Carole and I at the car in a half hour. Blaine’s coming for dinner too, right?”

Kurt nodded and gave his father a half-smile before running off and away from the celebration. He walked five minutes before he heard a familiar voice right behind him, “Hey you.”

Kurt spun around quickly and threw his arms around Blaine, burying his face in the crook of his neck. Blaine smiled and kissed Kurt’s hair while running his hand soothingly down Kurt’s back. “Congratulations, baby” he whispered.

They stood just holding each other, swaying back and forth for awhile. Blaine began to feel hot tears on his neck and gently pushed Kurt away so he could look at him, “hey, hey, Kurt don’t cry! We still have the rest of the summer.” Blaine brushed Kurt’s hair out of his eyes as he talked “and holidays, and Skype is a heaven-sent invention..”

Blaine knew his words were not comforting to Kurt. They’d spent every night of the following week trying to focus on the positives and talk about what they could do when Kurt came back for breaks and when Blaine could go see Kurt in New York. But every conversation always ended in silence, both frowning at one another before launching themselves at each other and just feeling. After all, they would be able to talk as much as they could once Kurt left. The one thing they would have to go without though, was physical contact. So as a result, the two spent every moment they could wrapped around each other. They’d had a lot of sex, going way out of their way to find ways to be alone. They just wanted to be as close to each other as possible before their last day came. So right now, Blaine knew all Kurt wanted to do was hold and be held. But they did have a dinner to go to with Burt and Carole, so he tried to calm Kurt down the best he could, and wiped his tears away as they fell, peppering kisses across Kurt’s cheeks. “I’m just—I’m gonna miss you so much, and oh God, can you die from missing someone too much?” Kurt started to babble, tears still falling. “I don’t know, but whenever I think about leaving, it hurts, Blaine. I don’t mean emotionally, I mean it physically hurts. How am I going to.. oh God.”

Kurt collapses back into Blaine and Blaine just holds on tight. He wanted to cry. He wanted to fall apart with Kurt and tell him not to leave, not to leave him behind in Lima. But he couldn’t. He cried before the ceremony and promised that no matter what, he’d stay strong for Kurt. Courage, he had said to himself. It was Kurt’s day, and Blaine made it his goal to make it as happy for him as he could. With that thought, Blaine cupped Kurt’s face and gently pushed him off his chest. Kurt was a mess. His eyes were swollen and red, the tip of his nose was pink and his cheeks were flushed. Blaine pushed the hair off his forehead and smiled adoringly, “Baby, I’ve got you. Two more months, right? We still have two more months.” Kurt sniffled, and Blaine smiled. “Let’s save the tears for when the summer is over, and just focus on making this time count. This is graduation, it should be happy. Something to look back at and smile, and I guarantee the memory of crying into my shirt isn’t going to do that.” Blaine could tell Kurt was starting to calm down, and he pressed a gentle kiss to his mouth, rubbing his thumb across Kurt’s cheek. Kurt tried to deepen the kiss, but Blaine pulled away with a smirk, “we have the rest of the summer for that, now let’s get back to your dad and Carole and go have a good time, okay?” Blaine planted another kiss on his boyfriend’s lips as Kurt pulled himself together.

Once he was okay, Kurt nodded and Blaine threw an arm across his shoulders, pulling his head to his mouth and kissing the top of it. Kurt wrapped his arm around Blaine’s waist and dropped his head to Blaine’s shoulder as they walked back towards Burt and Carole.

~*~*~*~
“Do I have everything?” Kurt was in his closet, rummaging through the shelves, “I swear, if I forget one thing, I will die. Where’s my Marc Jacobs sweater?! I’m going to need that in the Winter!” he spun quickly around and looked at Blaine, who was seated on Kurt’s bed.

“We packed it away hours ago, Kurt. Everything is packed.” Blaine held his arms out, his eyes pleading. “Come here. Please, just come here.”

Kurt looked around his room, frantic. “But—no! I—we—there was so much time! Where did it all go?!” Kurt was looking at Blaine, eyes angry and sad at the same time. Blaine was just looking up at him, eyebrows drawn down and mouth in a frown as he continued to plead with his eyes. “We had all summer, why are there only—“ he looked at the clock, “Twelve hours left?! I only get twelve hours with you until I have to leave you for 3 months!”

Blaine got impatient then, and stood. He walked over to Kurt slowly, and placed his hands on Kurt’s shoulders. He wasn’t crying, but his nose was red and he was sniffling. “Kurt. We knew this was coming. Now please… please let’s just enjoy this.” Kurt grabbed Blaine’s face and smashed his lips against his desperately, sending Blaine staggering back. Blaine quickly brought his hands up to rest on Kurt’s hips as Kurt kissed, licked, and nipped down Blaine’s jaw, just tasting. “Dance with me.” Blaine breathed.

Kurt’s head lifted and they locked eyes. Blaine took the radio remote out of his pocket and hit Play. A tune Kurt knew started playing through the speakers and he smiled through his brewing tears. Blaine pulled him close by the waist, and grabbed his hand, never breaking his gaze. Kurt put the hand that wasn’t in Blaine’s and wrapped it around Blaine’s shoulder, before dropping his head there too, placing a soft kiss there.

Darling, hold me
Hold me, hold me
And never, never, never let me go

Blaine began to sway, just barely. They didn’t really dance, they just rocked back and forth on the spot, reveling in the feeling of being in each other’s arms. Blaine placed a kiss on Kurt’s head every so often as he tried to push back the tears.

Darling, kiss me
Kiss me, kiss me
And never, never, never let me go

Kurt however, couldn’t hold back the tears. They were trailing slowly and noiselessly down his face as he held onto his boyfriend. He was smiling, though. In just a year, that’s all, Kurt would be helping Blaine pack to come to New York where they could live together and never have to be apart. They just had to get through the year. It would be hard, Kurt knew that. But he also knew Blaine would never forgive him if he’d chosen to stay in Lima. So, they can look forward to the times when they could see each other, talk as much as possible, and try their damn hardest not to let the other drift away.

Lock my heart, throw away the key
Fill my love with ecstasy
Bind my heart with your warm embrace
And tell me no one could ever take my place

“Kurt?” Blaine was definitely crying now, Kurt could tell by the way his voice cracked.

“Yeah, baby?”

Darling, tell me

“I love you. So much.” Blaine lifted his hand from Kurt’s waist, to the back of his head and he held it against his.

Tell me, tell me

“I love you too, Blaine.” Kurt pulled off his shoulder and cupped Blaine’s cheek, smiling sadly. He leaned in and kissed him, gentle and reassuring. Blaine sighed. This was going to work. They were going to make it work. They would miss each other, but it would be okay because they love each other, and that’s worth everything.

You’ll never, never, never, never, never, never…