Somewhere between New York and Hawaii, 2 years previous…

God this can't be happening. Not on his first international long haul flight, on his first day in his new job, with a new airline.

Blaine used the time that it took for his co-Pilate Nick, a nice guy with dark hair and a warm smile- to give the aircraft announcements and introduce Blaine as a new chief pilot for the company and for this particular journey to Honolulu, to calm himself and mentally prepare what he was going to say and assess his game plan for the next 10 hours.

After stumbling his way through his morning announcements, predicting the weather and the duration and all of that spiel, he flicked the safety button on his control pad to indicate to the passengers in the cabin that it was safe to unclick their belts and move around.

“You seem nervous, are you nervous?” Nick grinned over at him, relaxing back in his seat a little. Blaine cleared his throat a little, rubbed at the light sheen of sweat on the nape of his neck, the sun was blazing out in the sky and being contained in what felt like a glass summer house dressed in a shirt and suit pants was not helping.

“Uh no, not at all.” Not nervous about flying at least. That is something he could do with his eyes closed after all of his years of training and experience. Piloting was something Blaine knew he could excel at, much like everything else he had tried and accomplished in his life, flying just felt like second nature to him, soothing and relaxing and somewhat freeing.

But talking to a seriously attractive guy, flirting and hitting on him, which Blaine knew was inevitably going to happen in the near future, that's something he was very nervous about. Even Blaine with his smooth tenor voice, and cool and calm friendly exterior just needed the right sort of kryptonite to bring him to his knees. And the young, shockingly handsome cabin crew manager- Kurt was going to be just the thing to send him all fumbling and bumbling.

He shook himself out of his thoughts as subtly as he could. “It's um, it's just hot in here that's all.”

Nick nodded and smiled, and reached up to adjust the temperature on the air-con nozzle between them. “Just let me know anything you need Cap. Mi casa es tu casa.”

Blaine smiled at the silliness and friendliness of Nick but was grateful for it all the same and after that they slid into a comfortable collection of easy conversations. They discussed likes and dislikes, hobbies and interests- they both liked to sing and after a few beverages there was no stopping them if there was a karaoke machine in sight. After a while they moved on to more personal topics and spoke about home and family life- Nick was open about how he had recently started identifying himself as bi-sexual and had started dated an old friend from school.  

Nick was easy to talk to and Blaine found himself sinking comfortably into his new surroundings, happy of the distraction until the dull beeping of the key pad outside of the cockpit alerted them that somebody was joining them.

Blaine felt sticky all over with heat and anticipation as Kurt tentatively came into the cockpit a few seconds later, a small tray in his hand with carefully balanced glasses and a sheepish but adorable smile on his face.

“Um here are some refreshments for you guys, I'd uh figured that- well its hot today in here with you-us-up here- I mean the weather is warm and-”

“Thanks Kurt-” Blaine turned in his seat his face bright and smile wide whilst Nick chuckled into his hand beside him and poor Kurt blushed beet-red. Blaine eyed the glasses of soda on the tray and turned his smile up a notch. “That's very thoughtful of you Kurt. It is hot in here, you're right. Thank you.”

Kurt smiled without quite meeting Blaine's eyes, put the glasses down in the holders beside the pilot's chairs, then gave a funny little head bob and backed out of the cockpit again. Blaine was pretty sure it looked like he fanning himself on his way out, and it probably wasn't because of the temperature of the cabin. When the door closed behind him Nick whistled loudly around a smirk, shaking his head.

“Boy is this going to be a long flight if you two keep that up the whole time.” He teased, smiling and reaching back to pick up a glass. Blaine shrugged, he could try and defend himself, put on the whole ‘what are you talking about?' act, but knew it would be useless.

Blaine was attracted to Kurt, there was no denying it, deeply attracted to him, since their fist handshake when Kurt had welcomed him aboard the aircraft as part of their team earlier that morning, Blaine had felt the stirrings in his stomach and had known it then and was powerless to stop it.

He was powerless to control the volt he felt running through him like a current when those blue green eyes, a little cloudy like the sky he looked at so closely everyday, would lock on to his and hold his gaze, determinately for a few short seconds before shyly looking away.

And now here he was shamefully flirting, in the company of others, on his first day of work, and he knew that he just couldn't help himself. He hadn't planned it, but who was he to stop it?

Five hours into the journey and Blaine didn't know how he would ever be able to fly again without the company of Kurt onboard the aircraft, good job he was the new cabin crew manager and would no doubt be accompanying Blaine on many more flights.

Every time the cockpit door creaked open from behind, Blaine's belly would flutter, wondering what Kurt had brought for him this time, or what he would say, or if he had flicked back that stray strand of hair that Blaine had to resist so hard to not move it back into place himself.

No matter how much Blaine's arms and back and neck started to ache from being held in place for so long, he would always perk up at the tell tale sound of the keypad outside the door beeping to life. Or no matter how tired his eyes would grow, blinking blearily into the clouds and deep mist from outside of the window, they would always grow wide and brighten whenever he caught a glance at Kurt breezing in with a refill or a little snack or treat or even just to keep them company and chat for a little bit whilst the majority of the passengers indulged in the luxury of being able to sleep.

Eventually they land at Honolulu and after taking care of the aircraft and replenishing it back to its supreme state for the next lot of passengers, they crew were taken to their hotel where they would be resting for the next day or so.

On the ride over to the accommodation, Kurt and Blaine sat opposite each other in the small packed space, their luggage sitting between their legs and their bent knees almost touching whilst they tried but mostly failed to not look directly at each other.

After check-in at the hotel and the other flight-attendants and Nick had made their way to their respective rooms to wash up and change, Kurt was the last one at the desk, draped demurely over the counter whilst he waited for his details to be verified.

Blaine had already been given his key card, had already been asked if he needed help with his luggage and after shaking his head politely no had been given the directions of how to get to his floor, yet still he hovered around behind Kurt whilst trying to act like he wasn't doing just that. Checking his shoe laces, eyeing up the furnishings of the hotel lobby, all random pathetic things which he knew must have been too obvious but he couldn't bring himself to feel shame about.

He and Gil had ended things on a rather light note, it had only been a short fleeting relationship anyway but the past nine months Blaine had spent alone had been time he'd used to focus on his promotion to chief pilot and then practically getting head hunted by another airline.

It wasn't that he wasn't ready to find somebody new, it was just that he hadn't expected it to happen so fast. He hadn't expected to feel so sure, so certain upon the first glance of the cabin crew manager with the creamiest, smoothest looking skin, uniquely beautiful eyes and wide pearly toothed grin, and that's not even mentioning his hair.  

The way Kurt spoke, the way his voice sounded was like heaven to Blaine's ears and if he were alone he would have laughed out loud at himself for acting like such a helpless, hopelessly in love high school boy. 

They hadn't even had the time to share a proper conversation, to discuss the basics and use proper ‘possibly dating material' etiquette. Was Kurt even single? Was he even gay? Although Blaine was fairly convinced that his ‘gaydar' though known to be wrong on some occasions wasn't wrong in this instance, Kurt might as well have just pinned an ‘available' sign to his forehead, with the way he was giving Blaine the heart eyes, who was of course giving them right back.

And if for whatever reason Blaine needed anything else to convince himself that pursuing Kurt was the right thing to do, the way he continuously decided to call him Captain Anderson was almost enough to tip Blaine right over the edge and fall at Kurt's very feet.

Kurt finally turned around clutching his key card in one hand and his mini-case in his other, tugging his lips between his teeth when he found Blaine still there, blushing furiously and blinking at Blaine behind long lashes.

“So uh, Mr-Um Captain Anderson-” Blaine's heart felt like it was melting right in his chest as the beautiful man in front of him continued to blush his way through inviting him to drinks and dinner. He of course accepted right away, no matter of who else was going to be there, Kurt had invited him so he would say yes. He could have invited him to just hang out in the janitor's closest, and if Kurt was going to be there Blaine would have accepted with a hop, skip and a jump. 

They agreed to meet up in a short while along with the other crew members after refreshing up in their own rooms. Blaine walked towards the elevator grinning like a mad man, suddenly spinning around again, needing to see those eyes and that smile one more time.

“Kurt?”

“Yes?”

“Call me Blaine, please?” The smile that Blaine received in return was enough to knock him off of his feet, he was thankful he was still holding his carry case to balance him out a bit.

“Ok um, see you soon then, Blaine.”

Blaine felt hot all over, his first name sounded even better curling off of Kurt's tongue, through his pink succulent lips, and Blaine's head spun with the many ways he could imagine teasing his name out of the man over and over again.

“Save me a seat Kurt.”

*

2 years later…

“Come on Captain, we've got work to do.” Nick teased whilst he was carried down the escalator to the gate's floor. Blaine was glad that Nick was still his first officer and had grown into one of his best friends over the past couple years.

Blaine continued to smile up at the man with the gorgeously familiar face they had just bumped into, his cabin crew manager and chief flight attendant for that shift- Kurt. Blaine stepped out and on to the travelling staircase, smiling down at Kurt as he travelled down lower. Kurt, still standing on the first level blushed and blinked adorably down at him, like they were a pair of love-struck fools just meeting for the first time.

The past 2 years seemed to have gone spectacularly well in Blaine's eyes, not a day had gone by when Blaine wasn't thankful for being headhunted that day and practically thrown into the hands of Kurt and his team.

But today, today was a special day, and Blaine felt particularly happy.

Quickly peering down to Kurt's lovely hands, Blaine eyed the take out coffee cup and smiled with a wink as Kurt leapt forward handing it over to him.

Oh the plan's Blaine had conjured up in his head for the rest of the day, if only the blushing beauty knew.

*

Later that same day…

“I'll now leave you with our fantastic cabin crew and their ever so capable hands-” Blaine continued his smooth all too-well rehearsed speech with a grin, whilst Nick smirked at him, pushing buttons on the control pad between them.

“And they are lead by the ever so skilful, professional and charming Kurt, who also has very capable and talented hands.” Blaine paused to stifle his giggle, his eyes dancing with humour and skin flooding with warmth whilst imagining the reaction from out in the cabin hold right now. He nudged his elbow towards Nick who was chuckling, leaning towards him and catcalling quietly, Blaine continued as professionally as he could muster.

“Good bye for now, please do enjoy your flight.”

*

Even later that same day…

Blaine headed straight for the bathroom when he arrived home that evening to an empty apartment. He ignored the crumpled heap of sheets left in the middle of the bed knowing that they would end up that way again soon enough if he had his way.

He washed and cleaned up, humming to himself the whole time and stepped out of the shower, into a swirl of sweet smelling steam, patting himself dry and wrapping a towel around his hips just on time to hear the click of the front door out in the hall opening and closing.

He flicked at his damp hair lightly, allowing the curls to puff out and dry on their own as the bedroom light flicked on next door and Blaine strode out into the room.

Grinning, with his body thrumming with excitement and anticipation, he outstretched his arms as he entered the bedroom, ready to grab hold of the man he now shares his home and life with.

Kurt, his love and his life, the man who makes him feel like he's flying whether he's up in the clouds or not, and he hopes to hold on to him forevermore.