“Blaine, you promised we’d go out tonight!” Kurt huffed and adjusted his cell phone. Tonight was supposed to be their first date in three weeks. Kurt had made reservations the day before at a local wine-tasting event. The date was the only thing that had gotten him through the day, which had included two tests and a pop quiz in one of his history classes. Kurt had barely walked into their apartment before Blaine had called.

“Kurt I’m so sorry, but they’re swamped and just scheduled me for another two hours! If I leave now they’ll fire me, and you remember how long it took for me to get even this job!”

Blinking back frustrated tears, Kurt tried to clear his head. He knew it wasn’t Blaine’s fault, and they honestly probably could use the money. However, it didn’t make the situation any more appealing.

“Fine. Stay there. Work is far more important than the boyfriend you claim to love.” And with childish determination he hung up. Immediately guilt flooded him, and the sensation only grew when Blaine’s picture flashed a minute later, clearly trying to continue the conversation. However, Kurt was not in the mood to be mature, and he shut his phone off completely.

He knew he should start on his design project for next week with his newly freed evening, but Kurt couldn’t care less about homework at the moment. Every minute that Blaine wasn’t there, he felt worse about what he had said, but he couldn’t bring himself to turn his phone on and apologize. Cursing loudly for no one to hear, he grabbed Crime and Punishment from his bookshelf and tried to forget his troubles through Dostoevsky.

---

Two and a half hours and a mere thirty pages later, Kurt broke down and turned his phone back on. It was all he’d been able to concentrate on anyway. Immediately a number of messages flashed, and Kurt could see that Blaine had tried to call at each of his breaks for an hour before finally texting, “We’ll talk when I get home.” Kurt’s mouth grew dry. He had messed up big time, he knew it. All he had wanted was to spend a nice night with the boyfriend he had barely seen over the past month, and now they were fighting. Again. It was all they seemed to do these days. Kurt’s 19 hours of classes were proving to be too much for him and Blaine’s serving job had officially taken over his life ever since he was promoted two months ago. They were both being stretched too thin, and unfairly they were taking it out on each other. Something had to change. Kurt couldn’t imagine…Blaine couldn’t be angry enough to suggest that they-they-

The door clicked as Blaine walked in. He threw his keys on the table harder than usual and dropped a bag on the counter.

“Well it’s not fine wine but I figured I’d bring home something for you to eat,” he spat.

Kurt rose so quickly his book fell to the floor, forgotten. “Blaine, I-”

“Save it,” he said as he held up his hands defensively. “All I’m trying to do is earn the money for us to pay for this apartment, but clearly that’s a punishable offense. Excuse me for not knowing.”

Kurt took a deep breath. “I shouldn’t have yelled. You didn’t do anything wrong. I was way out of line.”

“You think? I bust my ass for the two of us, convinced you to focus on school rather than get a job, and you can’t even be grateful or supportive. I had a long day too, you know! I have classes too!”

“Blaine, I’m sorry!”

“You know what? Forget it,” he said as he made his way to their bedroom. “I can’t even look at you right now.”

As he slammed the door, Kurt sank onto the couch with his head in his hands. This was it- Blaine was going to break up with him. Apart from being an overly-needy boyfriend, he’d been a lousy friend all semester. He’d been taking Blaine for granted, he couldn’t deny that. He deserved to be dumped, though he would have traded anything to change the situation. Now all there was to do was to wait until Blaine opened their door and declared them done. Kurt bit hard on his finger but he couldn’t stop the tears or the taste of blood from biting so hard or his falling to the ground and oh God he was sobbing uncontrollably and Blaine was rubbing his shoulder-

Kurt stiffened. He had been so hysterical he hadn’t heard the door. Gulping on too much air, his eyes found Blaine’s.

“Wha-what are you going?” he managed to choke out.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Blaine half-heartedly chuckled, though Kurt could tell he had been crying as well. “I’m trying to console my boyfriend.”

It was like the word boyfriendboyfriendboyfriend had sent a jolt through his entire person. Surely he hadn’t heard that properly.

“You’re not going to break up with me?” he asked in a low voice.

Blaine closed his eyes. “Kurt, I’m going to be honest, I really thought about it.” He opened his eyes but kept them lowered. “More than I ever had. I was so angry with you and everything. I thought maybe us breaking up would make things better.” He paused and laced his fingers with Kurt’s. “But every time I thought about it, I realized how much I’d be losing, and how much more I love you than I hate our problems.” He looked Kurt straight in the eyes. “Babe, something has to change because the past month has been hell, but I don’t think it’s you and me we need to change.”

Kurt’s mind was blank. He couldn’t think. All he knew was that they weren’t breaking up and Blaine was right, something needed to change, but then Kurt remembered that they weren’t breaking up again and before his brain had caught up he was kissing Blaine fiercely and sorrowfully, trying to say every unsayable thing he was feeling. Kurt tasted the saltiness of Blaine’s mouth and knew he wasn’t alone in his renewed tears. It was stupid, it was not what they needed but it was everything that they needed because they were in love and even as Kurt couldn’t focus on anything but Blaine and his lips he couldn’t stop thanking, not God, but the world perhaps, or maybe God, or anyone that was listening, that Blaine was here and sharing this with him, because he had so nearly lost it forever.

After a few heated minutes they had stopped kissing and were simply clutching to each other. Kurt finally broke it off and began to repeat, “I am so sorry-“

Blaine cut him off with a quick kiss. “I know,” he smiled through his tears. “Let’s talk about this over dinner. Are you hungry?”

Kurt nodded and stood up to help Blaine to his feet.

“I love you, Blaine.”

“I love you too. Now, what are you in the mood for? I tried to grab some of your favorites from our leftovers, so I have alfredo, spinach pastries, chicken tetrazzini…”