Blaine calls from time to time and Kurt slips back into reality. He'd spent endless days with Blaine at the Un Spectacle de Joie, meeting his friends and exploring circus life, learning about the ins and outs of pre show preparation and post show clean up. Even after witnessing the mechanics of the circus the magic of it hadn't been ripped away from him. Every time he sat in the audience and watched as Blaine danced through flame and smoke he was awestruck. The fantasy and frivolity of the place never died and neither did his smile. Until the day Blaine and the rest of the Un Spectacle de Joie moved out.

It's rough and parting was the hardest part. Standing on the side of the road, the place that had been his refuge for the past week packed away and ready to go. Blaine had kissed him one last time, deep and passionately to the raucous response of the circus folk, who had become his friends and Blaine's family. He gets phone calls from them now and again, mainly when Blaine wants to talk but is busy so he hands the phone to someone else, almost always Puck, who always manages to twist Blaine's words and make Kurt blush.

Kurt's favourite calls are the calls where he just gets Blaine on his own. Most of the time he calls in the evening, the quiet chatter of his family a dull thrum in the background as he nestles himself in a corner of the tent, just content listening to Kurt's voice. Kurt tells him about his work, the friends he's visited while back in Ohio, and his family, about everything Blaine has missed while he was away. Kurt can tell he misses it, but he's found a new home at the Un Spectacle de Joie and it's not something he can just abandon no matter how supportive they would be.

It's during one of these particular phone calls that Blaine's silence is heavy and stagnant. "I miss you." He breathes in the quiet of twilight "I miss you and I miss my brother and my family and the few friends I used to have." Kurt's heart aches for him but he doesn't tell him to give up or to go home. Blaine has found his passion in performing. Absolutely nothing compares to the way he glows when he's standing in the arena, surrounded by raging fire, his staffs held aloft. He doesn't tell him to give it up but he knows Blaine's considering it and as they travel closer and closer to Ohio, the more certain he is that Blaine will choose to stay this time around.

~*~

It's a Friday afternoon when Kurt receives the phone call. The phone call that means the Un Spectacle de Joie is rolling up to Westerville sometime within the next few days and Blaine is back. Blaine sounds breathless and happy, gushing about all the things he's seen, his new tricks and interesting acquaintances including some sleazy tight rope walker named Sebastian. He waxes poetic about needing to take Kurt on a date and do things ‘properly' to which Kurt replies that the circus is enough for him, Blaine and the magic of the Un Spectacle de Joie is all he needs.

Blaine's voice becomes thick when Kurt mentions his love for the place that has shaped and sheltered him. He's reminded of why he sought its refuge in the first place and it makes it hard to let go but he's made his decision. "I spoke to Tina and she said she can show you the ropes for the silks if you'd like, before I leave that is." And that's that. He plans on giving Kurt a crash course in circus skills before the Un Spectacle de Joie departs again, in a flurry of somersaults and cotton candy, but this time leaving them both behind.

"You're coming home." Kurt whispers.

"I'm coming home." Blaine chokes out in reply and he sounds happy for the most part. He thinks it's crazy after so little time to miss him so much; to want him by his side day in and day out but it doesn't stop Kurt yearning for him. It doesn't stop him from counting down the days. And sometimes he feels selfish. That he's asking Blaine to give up so much, but that's the thing, Kurt never had to ask. Blaine has been at odds with his father for too long, broken his mother's heart and been MIA from the ‘real' world for so long he doesn't know where to begin when it comes to finding a job or a place to live. He's been off Cooper's radar for just over a year and Kurt, Kurt's been waiting for him forever.

"Are you sure?" Kurt asks.

"There's a lot to put right but I'm ready." Blaine sighs and Kurt can hear the rustle of his sheets as Blaine settles down for the night "I need to make things right, I can't keep running and hoping it will just disappear while I continue to live in some fairytale." Kurt flinches at the bitterness there, hardly ever having seen him anything but jovial and enthusiastic. He hates that Blaine feels like he's to blame for just wanting to be happy, to escape a life that didn't fit him, at least not like life as part of the Fire Folk does.

It strikes him that if Blaine leaves then there's a part of him that'll always be Fire Folk and Kurt hopes he'll keep wearing the pendant, as a memento of his time at the Un Spectacle de Joie. Kurt loves the pendant. He loves the way Blaine fiddles with it when he's nervous, loves the way Blaine will always follow when Kurt tugs on it with the intention of bringing him in for a kiss, loves the way his burning eyes go soft, smouldering gently as Kurt brushes his fingertips against the cord it hangs from, his palm coming to rest over Amber and silver, right over his heart.

Kurt wasn't just being poetic when he thought that Blaine could've been the embodiment of fire. Blaine rages with passion, and the quiet fierceness of a flickering flame. He blazes with strength and a power containable but not controllable. But he fears that if that spark doesn't fly, his flame will go out.

~*~

When Kurt catches sight of Blaine again the first thing he notices is how his skin has turned a darker shade of gold and how his broad shoulders still bare the freckle like scars from the cascade he pulled off in the arena purely to impress him. He watches from a distance and takes him in, the magical man he's been pining for, and so much has changed in so little time. Blaine's twenty two now, his skin darker from days in the sun, his body stronger, muscles more defined, his hair just a little longer and wilder. Every altered nuance of him makes his chest ache slightly. God how he'd missed him.

Suddenly there's an uproar of cheers as they secure a tent and Kurt can just about hear Blaine's laugh above the rabble of voices, warm and happy and familiar. He turns his head and meets Kurt's gaze smiling that ridiculous crooked grin of his and yelling "Kurt!" laughter still in his voice. He runs, almost tripping on the hem of his tatty blue jeans and hurtles straight into Kurt's arms, laughing like he's the happiest man on earth and clutching at him like he never wants to let go.

Kurt buries a hand in those ridiculously riotous curls and drags him in for a kiss that he hopes makes up for all the kisses they've missed. Blaine melts into him, arms tightening around his waist as Kurt's hand skims across his shoulders. His skin is hot, smooth, and real underneath his palms as Kurt breathes him in, burying his head in his neck after their lips part. Blaine let's out a breathy chuckle as Kurt nuzzles at his jaw, peppering his neck with kisses, chaste but Blaine can still feel the whine that threatens to rise up his throat and slip from his mouth.

There's a loud cough that comes from just behind them and the pair spring apart like two teenagers caught in a compromising position by the overprotective parents. A stocky man, business like but kind looking, frowns down at them. "Fire Boy, I'm happy for you" he says the corner of his mouth twitching up into a smile "but if you don't move this elsewhere I'm gonna have to remove you from the grounds on account of causing a fire hazard." Blaine freezes eyes going wide at the fact he's just been given permission by his boss to take his make out session ‘elsewhere'.

His mouth moves without making a sound until suddenly he hears Kurt snort and glances back to catch him hide his face behind his hand, it's always the fire jokes. Mr DeLione laughs, hearty and loud and pats them both on the shoulder before wandering off towards Puck, whose poi is getting dangerously close to the bunting.

"So I think we just got permission to make out..." Blaine whispers, flabbergasted and smiling. "Well then what are we waiting for Fire Boy? It's getting a little hot in here." Kurt tugs on the collar of his shirt and Blaine's eyes fall to the exposed skin of his collar bone.

It's always the fire jokes.