The day before school ends for winter break, Kurt notices that something's different. And, well, everyone does. Placed rather un-strategically above various doors and hallways at McKinley, there are little bunches of mistletoe hanging, set up by the ASB and, namely, the student body president Brittany S. Pierce. Their purpose is "to put everyone in the holiday spirit," as stated by the vice student body present; and while very many established couples at the school are greatly enjoying the Christmas-y excuse to mack on each other in the middle of the halls, Kurt isn't sure how much he appreciates the gesture, because unfortunately, things just aren't that simple for he and Blaine.

They never really have been.

Blaine's first few weeks at McKinley were welcomed with nothing more but a few frowns and a lot of stares. Kurt knew way better than to hold hands with Blaine or act really couple-y, even though everyone already knew that the new kid had transferred just because he was his boyfriend. It was Kurt's senior year. He didn't necessarily want to subject himself to any of the crap he'd been through in years prior, especially the slushies or another Karofsky situation; and he especially didn't want to subject Blaine to any of that either, since he'd had his share of pushes, shoves, and "fag"-callings when he'd gone to public school, pre-Dalton. After a while, though, people seemed not to notice the two of them. After the first month or so of "watching their backs" because there was a "gay couple hanging around," people stopped specifically caring about the two upperclassmen boys and their implied relationship. As long as they didn't have to see it, perhaps people wouldn't be bothered to care about how different and unnatural it was. However Kurt and Blaine still limited themselves to the occasional hug and the eyes, the meaningful stares, that had to say every emotion they felt for them. Only in the choir room with their real friends could they kiss lightly or try to be themselves. And even then, Kurt was hesitant, because he just always was. The minute he and Blaine stepped on the McKinley campus, fear boggled their minds down and warned them that even though they'd found each other, the world around them hadn't changed one bit.

So now there's this mistletoe.

Kurt sees it first as he's leaving second period. There's a bunch at the entrance of the senior hallway and another in front of one of the chemistry labs on the way to his locker. He's passed by eight or nine "straight couples" that have paused to share kisses underneath, including Rachel and Finn. He makes it an effort to not look at each of them as he goes to his locker, forcing himself to blame it on the fact that he hates when people are cute and obnoxious with their PDA. And it's not until Blaine meets him at his locker before he realizes that he's actually a little upset.

"Aren't you glad this means the year is halfway over?" Kurt says as Blaine leans against the locker next to him, trading books and keeping his eyes low.

Blaine stares at him, smiling subtly. "Not really," he says. He touches Kurt's forearm with one of his fingers and drags it across it for a moment, gazing down at the contact. "All that means is that you're closer to going to NYADA and—leaving me here to deal with all—this."

Kurt glances over at him, and though he's felt a little bitter and cold all morning, that face and those eyes and the bright red shirt Blaine has on warm his heart up just a little bit. He finds it in him to smile, but then he turns into his locker again, stiffly.

"Like I'm going to get into NYADA," he sighs.

"Hey, come on, stop that," Blaine says, watching Kurt's hands as they move and then steadying on his face again. "NYADA or not, we both know you're getting out of here and going to New York in some way, shape, or form, it's your dream."

Kurt shakes his head. "Just—forget I said anything," he muttered. Yeah, with Blaine's help he'd sent in an application or two to some lower grade schools in Upstate, but it wasn't going to be the same as NYADA, and who was to say he was going to get into any of those schools?

Kurt closes his locker door and presses his back against it, as some couple he doesn't even recognize across the hall has each other wrapped up in a tight embrace.

"Kurt, what's bothering you?" Blaine says, turning his back to the lockers as well but still keeping his eyes on his boyfriend.

Kurt looks over again and tries to keep his expression level, but for some reason some of the sadness seeps through.

"Mistletoe," he says desolately, shrugging.

Blaine nods a little, and their eye contact deepens. Kurt takes a deep breath and takes in the comforting and distinguishing light brown of Blaine's eyes, and then draws his gaze down a tempting path towards Blaine's lips. Blaine notices this and feels his stomach flip, because he knows exactly what that glance means, it drives him crazy in his head, and he has a lot less self control that Kurt does when it comes to just leaning in and planting one on each other. For a moment, Blaine looks past Kurt towards the entrance of the senior hallway, realizing what Kurt's talking about with the mistletoe because he's seen it today too, and he doesn't like it either.

Blaine sighs and presses his lips together as the "straight couple" across from them shares another open kiss and then walks hand in hand through the crowd.

"I know," is all Blaine can say.

Kurt doesn't want this heaviness in his heart, he doesn't want he and Blaine to have to stand around acting like cases of self-pity; it's Christmas and they should be happy, and they still do have and love each other at the end of the day, no matter what. So he straightens himself up and smiles faintly at Blaine, gesturing for him to walk alongside him as they take each other to third period. Blaine obliges and nudges Kurt's arm with his gently as they keep in step beside each other, his cheeks becoming flushed.

In his fourth period American Government, Kurt has a particularly bad class. This teacher is the only one who's actually giving a lecture on the last day of classes, and as fate would freaking have it, that lecture is about the difference between state laws and federal laws; more specifically, should certain matters be handled at the state level individually, or nationally dealt with so that a country-wide margin exists?

And someone brings up the issue of gay marriage, saying that "things like that" should just be completely outlawed in federal court because it "taints the sanctity of marriage." And Kurt's heard that little spiel probably about a thousand times in his seventeen years of life, but today's just not the day, and he secretly hates the way that Mike Chang and Puck look back at him right after that's said, concerned, as if they know he'd been upset.

At the beginning of lunch, Kurt doesn't know why but his ears are burning, and he's been thinking of Blaine for hours and about how much he loves him, how incredible their friendship is and how no matter what kinds of misunderstandings they have, they always grow from them and they're always keeping each other's heads up. Kurt loves Blaine and Blaine loves him, and it's fucking Christmas, the season of giving, so when Blaine comes to meet him at his locker this time, his head is kind of spinning and his stomach is knotted and he knows he's about to do something chancy.

Kurt puts all his books away and Blaine watches in a little bit of fascination, wondering why Kurt seems to be in such a rush and why Kurt is blushing like that.

"What's going on?" Blaine asks.

Kurt closes the door, hard, and then takes Blaine's hand in his, tightly, leading his boyfriend quickly towards the entrance of the senior hallway, which is still full of student traffic.

Now Kurt and Blaine stand before each other, and Kurt has his hands on Blaine's shoulders firmly, staring into his eyes. He's feeling kind of dizzy and his heart is beating quickly, but he closes his eyes so that he can't look, can't see if anybody is staring at them in disbelief, and then he just goes for it. He lunges forward and kisses Blaine adamantly, solidly, closed-mouthed but harshly and roughly; of course it takes Blaine's breath away and a wave of heat sweeps over his face and body because whoa, he wasn't expecting this, but he absolutely loves it when Kurt kisses him suddenly and with so much brashness. The two of them stand there, inches apart, holding their lips together there, sucking slowly—and Blaine is the first to break their mouths away when he hears some girl nearby whisper "Gross," and now Kurt's staring at Blaine's red lips, panting, asking himself, stupidly, what the hell he thought he was doing.

People are looking, now. People at their lockers are looking at them, trying not to get caught doing so, but Kurt can feel it and so can Blaine.

Blaine catches Kurt's eyes in his and suddenly feels guilty and maybe even a little bit embarrassed, but less so than he feels so attracted to this boy and so eager to reel him back in and taste him more.

"What—" Blaine breathes as Kurt glances down uneasily, his cheeks burning up. "W-what was that for?"

Kurt shakes his head and does what he feared—looks to their surroundings there, in the hallway. And he feels like crying because he'd heard that girl too, the one that had called what they were doing "Gross" as she passed by, whoever she was, and he hated the way that people were walking around them two of them now, like they were completely in the way of their paths and causing a scene or something. A guy in a letterman brushes into Blaine, slightly knocking him, and Kurt can't tell if it was on purpose but his stomach jerks and he feels like he made a big mistake.

"I'm sorry," Kurt says now, finding Blaine's eyes again and trying not to let his own sting and water up.

Blaine glances around, catching a glimpse of two senior girls who first stare up at the mistletoe and then look at Kurt and Blaine as if they're kind of going to laugh.

"No, don't—" Blaine tells Kurt, almost telling him not to apologize. But instead he puts his arm lightly on Kurt's and steers him away from the traffic in the hall, out of the main senior hallway and down a different one that has way few less people in it, and is a bit quieter and darker.

Kurt sighs heavily and closes his eyes, calming down, and Blaine stands a foot or two away from him, thinking for a moment.

Kurt opens his eyes again and steadies them on Blaine, feeling comfortable again when his boyfriend's little figure is all that he can see. He takes a deep breath and Blaine isn't looking at him, but he looks okay and not upset, so that's good, isn't it?

"Blaine, I'm—I'm sorry," Kurt says again, his voice a little shaky. Blaine glances up at him, his eyes kind of sad. "I'm just tired of everyone acting like—we're not allowed to do that, l-like it's some kind of god damn violent display that's going to—corrupt the minds of all the little children everywhere!"

Blaine presses his lips together, and Kurt wonders why in the world Blaine looks like he's trying not to laugh.

"What?" Kurt says, exasperated.

And then Blaine lets it go; he laughs and lowers his head, feeling himself start to sweat and feeling things in his heart that he equates to the purest form of love.

Blaine looks up now and comes closer to Kurt, smiling but still showing signs of sadness in his hazel colored eyes. Kurt's breathing is a little broken again, and he feels frustrated and humiliated and his ears are on fire, but when Blaine leans in and pecks him quickly on the lips, twice, with his arms behind his back, he falls apart into a smile and laughs too.

"I love you," Blaine says, simply.

Kurt's heard those words about a hundred times but it always sounds different every time as they find more and more reasons to helplessly fall for each other.

Kurt sighs again, shaking some of the worked up tension from his body and hating himself for how emotional he feels.

"I love you too," he tells Blaine, looking him right in the eyes and meaning that so, so much; and he doesn't know why but now his eyes are tearing up, just a little.

Blaine smiles wider and links his pointer finger with Kurt's swinging it side to side a little bit. His guard isn't completely down, and so he glances up and down the hall where they stand, at some of the underclassmen that linger. But no one is watching them explicitly here. No one seems to care again.

They leave that hall and go back into the main one, not holding hands, not looking particularly different besides their flushed faces, but as they walk alongside each other, Kurt knows that they're still being looked at as "that gay couple," but now he just wants to get over it and finish the day. He and Blaine go to the cafeteria and sit with their Glee friends like nothing happened, but when Rachel puts her hand over Kurt's and smiles at him like she's telling him everything's going to be okay, he thinks she found out what happened already, and that makes him sad in the back of his mind.

Halfway through sixth period, the second to last class of the day, Kurt gets a little slip from his English teacher that tells him he's wanted in Principal Figgins office. He rolls his eyes and tenses as he leaves his desk, his nose up in the air as his classmates, including Santana, watch him like they're wondering what he got in trouble for.

When he walks into the cold office, he realizes that that's Blaine sitting there in the seat facing Figgins and Mr. Schue against the wall of bookshelves, and he stops because he knows what this is about now, and he thinks they have to be kidding, because this is absolutely freaking ridiculous—and why is Mr. Schue there, anyway? What does this have to do with him?

Kurt walks in with his arms crossed, and Blaine turns around as if he can finally breathe again now that Kurt's in the room.

"Mr. Hummel, have a seat," Figgins says.

Kurt does so cautiously, and glances up at Mr. Schue questioningly; the man looks stern but also kind of confused and annoyed.

"There have been several complaints about PDA in the hallways today," Figgins says, fixing his beady eyes between Kurt and Blaine. "At this school there is a strict no-PDA policy that must be enforced at all times."

Kurt scoffs. "No-PDA policy," he repeats, staring sharply at the principal. "So—that's why ASB decked the halls today with hundreds of little strands of mistletoe—because that would, you know, discourage PDA—"

"I understand that mistletoe is used for recreational kissing and holiday decoration," Figgins says, "but if there are complaints about things getting out of hand, the policy must be enforced and certain students must be stopped from their misdoings."

"Figgins," Mr. Schue says, rolling his eyes a little. "Kurt and Blaine are both my students, and first hand I can tell you that there has to be a mistake here—they would never do something on purpose to make anyone uncomfortable with their relationship—"

"There have been seventeen complaints about these boys, William," Figgins replies, holding up several little yellow papers in his hands. "Seventeen!"

"What you should do is enforce a damn policy regarding the homophobia that's thick in the air of this school," Kurt comments, his heart flaring.

"Kurt," Mr. Schue says, "Language."

"Blaine and I did nothing wrong," Kurt speaks again, his voice shaking and anger staining his face. "We kissed, once, in the middle of the hall; is that what the problem is?" He looks at Mr. Schue and then back at Figgins, furiously. "I took Blaine, my boyfriend, and kissed him under one of about three hundred and sixty pieces of the shitty mistletoe that's hanging around the building at every freaking doorway; we did what every other couple in this school gets to do on a minutely basis every single day. Is that what we did to inflict panic and horror on the entire student body? Is it?"

The room falls silent; Blaine feels the tension radiating off of Kurt, feels the hurt from his past starting to seeping out from under him, so he reaches over and places his hand over Kurt's on the arm of his chair, running one of his fingers in small, soothing circles over hot skin.

"I will not give either of you a detention or any kind of suspension," Principal Figgins says, as Kurt starts to tear up. "But take this as a warning, and I would like no complaints to be filed against the two of you for this kind of display ever again."

Kurt presses his lips shut and Blaine stands up, nodding at Principal Figgins tensely.

"Thank you for all of your help," he scoffs levelly, and Kurt is the only one who immediately recognizes the tone Blaine is using when he says that. It's the same one, even and deep and brim full of resentment, that he uses when he brings himself to talk about trying so hard to get the last administration to listen to him, when he told them that he was being tortured by people for being who he was, every day. It's the same one that Blaine used to tell Kurt that he'd let bullies chase him, the first day they ever met at Dalton, and sometimes Blaine thinks he's come a long way from having to hide his fear behind a blazer, but now he realizes that he's still that same boy who can't confront any of this, at all. He sort of feels compressed like that, all the time, and he hates it.

Kurt stands too now, folding his arms back over his chest and not bothering to look at Figgins as Blaine holds the door open for him, and the two of them walk out of the chilly office.

Mr. Schue walks after them, watching the way that they're walking side by side, but not looking at each other because they have a lot on their minds.

"I'm sorry about all this," their teacher says, offering the only thing he can think to say. Kurt and Blaine turn around, and Blaine acknowledges this more than Kurt does with a small, very small, composed smile. "If there's anything I can do or if you boys want me to talk to someone else about this, on the administration, just let me know."

"Thank you," Kurt says edgily, quickly wiping a tear from his face.

Blaine nods and puts his hand on Kurt's shoulder as the two of them walk silently through the empty halls, to go back to class.

And then, the end of the day finally comes, and Kurt wonders how it managed to get this long and get so emotional.

He's standing at his locker, relieved that finally, it's winter break, and he can relax. He thinks about this upcoming Saturday night; even though he's still a little irritated, the anticipation makes him smile because Blaine says he has something really special planned, including the two of them alone in Blaine's house with dinner, gift exchanging, music, champagne if he can manage it, and them lying intertwined with each other by the fireplace at the end of it all. Blaine used to say that he wasn't very good at romance, and well, now Kurt can definitely argue with that.

Blaine comes to his locker for the last time that day, his expression relaxed again and his hands behind his back, and he stares at Kurt affectionately, watching as he puts every book back and gratefully locks them away for the next three weeks.

Kurt turns to him when he's done and leans against his locker, sighing.

"Have I told you I loved you yet today?" he asks, softly, his breath catching a little when Blaine's eyes deepen in his.

"Mm hm," Blaine says, his arms still behind him. "A lot."

"Well, it's true," Kurt says. "I don't want to ever stop saying it."

Blaine smiles and the last bit of hurt that he harbored from the day's events starts to melt away. He feels himself going a little bit weak. "Neither do I."

Kurt looks around now for a bit; there aren't that many people in the hall, but he tries not to think about which ones of them could've been the seventeen who complained. He stops himself from being negative and focuses on the boy in front of him, the strong, wonderful companion he's found and never wants to let go of, ever.

"I got you something," Blaine says now, never taking his eyes off Kurt.

Kurt raises one eyebrow, smiling a little. "Did you?"

Blaine chuckles and brings his hands around, offering Kurt a tiny little box that's wrapped in green tissue paper and tied with a thin red bow.

Kurt looks up at him, a little surprised but not sure what to think. "I thought we were doing gift exchange on Saturday," he says.

"We are," Blaine replies, holding the box out a little bit further. Kurt takes it and frowns at it slightly, shaking it because it feels really light, almost empty. "Don't worry, just—open it, Kurt; it's a gift and I worked really hard to get it for you, gosh."

Kurt rolls his eyes and smiles. "Okay, okay, fine."

He tears at the paper easily with two of his fingers, removes the lid off of the miniature cardboard box, and almost cries, melts, and laughs all at once because well, wouldn't you know, it's a small strand of mistletoe.

Kurt stares up at Blaine helplessly and laughs quietly, giving up on feeling hurt and resentful and angry anymore, and he wraps his arms around Blaine in a tight hug, happiness filling his heart.

Blaine hugs him back, and when Kurt pulls away he asks, "Where did you get this?" as he stares at it in the box both like he wants to humorously rip the stupid little shits to shreds and both like he loves it and is going to really enjoy his private usage of it.

"Oh, from the entrance of the senior hallway," Blaine says in a 'take-that' tone of voice.

Kurt glances past Blaine to see that, yep, now he holds the little troublemaker in his own hands.

"I had to work really hard because I could barely reach it," Blaine says, glancing down at his own short legs. "I would've asked someone to help me, but—they might've called me into the principal's office for stealing school property."

Kurt laughs and shakes his head, staring at Blaine like he's the most perfect thing in the world.

"I know a place where we can use this," Kurt says now, as he and Blaine begin to walk.

"Yeah?" Blaine says, his stomach doing a flip.

"Several places, actually," Kurt replies, his tone dipping lower. "The first of them being my car."

Blaine grins and their arms brush against each other, and it makes Kurt feel more excited than anything else.