Kurt and Blaine were at their usual table in the Lima Bean. They'd been here the day before and the day before that, but today there was one important difference. They were both McKinley High students. Blaine had made quite an entrance at his new school, too. Kurt knew Blaine hadn't intended his first performance at McKinley to be quite that dramatic, but Kurt appreciated a bit of drama.

"Do you think people are mad about the piano?" Blaine asked as he stirred sugar into his coffee.

"At you? No. You're not the one who set it on fire." Kurt wasn't sure what was up with Quinn and her skanky new persona, but it was no surprise that Santana had been involved in a prank that resulted in the destruction of property. Really it was a wonder that she didn't burn things up more often.

Blaine got up to throw away his empty sugar packets. "Finn seemed kind of mad," he said over his shoulder.

"Finn seemed kind of jealous," Kurt said. As much as he loved his stepbrother, Kurt wasn't blind (or deaf) to Finn's weaknesses. "He's been the leading man of New Directions by default, but now there's a new boy who's a better singer, a better dancer, and much better dressed."

"So you do like this outfit?" Blaine asked, gesturing at himself.

In Kurt's opinion the best thing about Blaine's outfit was the short-sleeved shirt. Blaine had told him he'd spent a lot of time swimming this summer when he wasn't working at Six Flags. It showed. As dapper as Blaine had looked in his Dalton uniform blazer, Kurt was glad that his boyfriend wouldn't need to keep his lean, muscular, gorgeous arms covered all the time now. A relaxed dress code was definitely one of the benefits of the public school system.

Blaine had asked about his clothes though, not his physique. Kurt managed to turn his attention back to the former and give a proper answer. "I'm not sure about the yellow sunglasses. Otherwise, yes. Especially the pants." Kurt tilted his head. "What are they, Brooks Brothers?"

"Well spotted," Blaine said, returning to his chair.

"I'm sorry I didn't notice your beautifully coordinated preppy casual ensemble at first." Kurt patted Blaine's knee under the table. "I was distracted with all this beginning of the year madness. Food fights and college applications and everything." He took a deep breath, then smiled. "But now I know I'm going to have the best senior year ever, because I have the best boyfriend ever."

Blaine ducked his head modestly. "Well, I don't know about the best."

"We're going to have so much fun," Kurt continued. "It's too bad we hardly have any classes together, but we can coordinate our schedules next semester."

"Yeah, about that—" Blaine said.

"And there's still between classes, and lunch, and glee club. Oh hey, do you want to go to this NYADA thing with me and Rachel tomorrow? You're planning to apply there too, right?"

Blaine grimaced. "Probably, but—"

Kurt rushed to reassure his boyfriend. "I'm sure you'll get in, you're so talented." He meant it, too. Blaine was special. He had managed to captivate a crowd of McKinley students during lunchtime without ending up covered in food, something Kurt and the rest of New Directions had failed at just the day before.

"Thanks, but I—"

"Just think Blaine, you and me in New York. It's going to be amazing. Only one more year!" Kurt clasped his hands together and let out a happy squeal.

Blaine still looked uncomfortable. He cleared his throat and said "Kurt, I'm not going to graduate this spring."

"Of course you are, silly." Kurt wasn't sure why Blaine seemed to be lacking his usual poise this afternoon. Maybe he was feeling stressed about changing schools so quickly. "If you could make it at Dalton believe me, the classes at McKinley aren't going to present a challenge."

"It's not that," Blaine said.

"What is it then? Is something wrong?" Kurt was struck with a horrifying thought. "Blaine, are you sick?" When Kurt's dad had been released from the hospital Kurt had hoped he wouldn't be seeing the inside of Lima Memorial again anytime soon, but if Blaine was having medical problems then Kurt would be there with him every day after school. He'd bring him homemade soup and read to him. He'd do anything to make Blaine feel better, because Blaine had to get better. He was so young and had so much living left to do.

Kurt steeled himself, determined to be strong for Blaine, but Blaine was shaking his head. "I'm fine Kurt, really, I—"

He did look healthy, which was a relief, but only something major could keep Blaine from graduating. Kurt's mind immediately leaped to another possibility. "Is it your parents?"

"No. Well, not directly, but—"

Kurt reached across the table and clasped Blaine's hand. "Sweetheart, whatever it is I want you to know that I'm here for you. We can get through this together. Okay?"

Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand, looked deep into his eyes, and said "Are you going to let me talk now?"

Kurt realized he had been interrupting. He pressed his lips together and nodded.

"It's nothing bad, really," Blaine said. "It's just...I'm a junior."

For brief but intriguing moment Kurt thought his boyfriend was confessing to buying clothes in the teen girls' department. There was no reason that needed to interfere with Blaine's graduation plans, though. Kurt had been known to wear sweaters and accessories that had technically been marketed for women, and even at McKinley that wasn't the sort of thing they could fail you for.

He must have looked as confused as he felt, because Blaine clarified. "In school. As in, not a senior."

"But we're the same age!" Kurt exclaimed. "Aren't we?" Blaine's Facebook page said he was born in 1994, the same year as Kurt. Surely Blaine wouldn't lie on Facebook.

"Yes, but when I was little I wasn't very good at sitting still and paying attention. I was kind of small for my age, too. My parents decided to redshirt me."

Kurt blinked. "A good color on you, but I don't see the connection."

"It's a football term," Blaine explained. "See, for college sports a player is only eligible for four years, but if a guy is still growing or he needs more time to learn the playbook..."

Playbook. Plays. Kurt's mind started to wander, as it tended to do when any of the men in his life talked to him about football. He wondered what the fall musical would be this year. If they even had a fall musical this year. The last two had been cancelled for various reasons, but Kurt hoped his senior year would be different. Maybe they could do Rent. No, that was probably too edgy for McKinley, especially after their disastrous attempt to push the envelope with The Rocky Horror Show last year. They should go with something more traditional.

"Lady Gaga!" said Blaine suddenly.

Kurt's head snapped up. Blaine smirked. "Just trying to hold your attention. Anyway, redshirting means my parents decided to wait another year and have me start kindergarten when I was six."

"Why didn't I know this?"

Blaine shrugged. "We never talked about kindergarten. It didn't seem important."

"It didn't seem important that I'd be graduating a whole year ahead of you?"

"It might have seemed important if I'd known," Blaine said. "But I didn't know you were a year ahead of me. You didn't introduce yourself as Kurt Hummel, 11th grader. I didn't even realize what grade you were in until you started talking about your junior prom."

Kurt considered this. "So before prom you thought I was a sophomore?"

"Yeah." Blaine looked down at his coffee cup and mumbled "Mostly."

"Wait, you thought I was a freshman, didn't you?" This was humiliating. No wonder Blaine had been so eager to offer advice and encouragement when they'd first met, he'd thought Kurt was a poor little fourteen year old being bullied by an upperclassman.

"Um, at first." Blaine raised his eyebrows and made what Kurt thought of as his please-don't-be-mad-at-me face. "Only until I found out you could drive. That meant you had to be sixteen already, so I figured you were probably a sophomore. Like I was."

Kurt had thought they were in the same grade too. He hadn't ever actually asked, but something had made him certain that Blaine was a junior. It wasn't just because he'd been far more debonair than the average sophomore. No, there was something else. He remembered now. "But you said you were a junior last year!"

Blaine shook his head. "I don't think so."

"You did! At the Warblers meeting before Regionals, you said you appreciated getting all the solos even though you were only a junior."

"I said I was a junior member of the Warblers. As in, I hadn't been a Warbler that long," Blaine said. "And it wasn't all the solos. Jeff had one at Sectionals, remember?"

Kurt preferred not to think about how he hadn't even made it to the second round of auditions for last year's Sectionals competition. He stirred his coffee unnecessarily and took another swig.

"I wasn't trying to trick you or anything, Kurt," Blaine said softly. "When I found out you were a junior I felt really stupid for not figuring it out sooner. I thought you must have known I was a sophomore the whole time. Then when you asked me about moving to New York for college, I realized that you'd thought we were both juniors. Right before Nationals didn't seem like a good time to bring it up, though." Blaine fidgeted with the cardboard sleeve on his coffee cup. "Then everything was so busy with exams and the end of the year and me going off to Six Flags, and it just kept not seeming like a good time."

"When were you planning on telling me?"

"Now, pretty much." Blaine sighed. "Sometime this week. I knew it was going to come up once school started, but I wasn't in a hurry to disappoint you. I know it would be better if I was a senior too."

He looked so sad that Kurt wanted to hug him, but they were in public. That would have to wait until later. "You know, I actually thought you were a senior when we first met." He gave Blaine what he hoped was an alluring smile. "You seemed so mature and charming. But as it turns out, I'm the older man in this relationship."

"By a few months."

"By a few months and a whole grade level." Kurt patted his hair. "I'm practically Mrs. Robinson."

Blaine's mouth twitched the way it did when he was trying not to laugh. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"I'm not sure," Kurt said. "I do have a darling leopard print jacket for when the weather gets colder."

"Sounds like you're ready, then."

"Hey, I haven't been building up my wardrobe for nothing. I'm ready for anything." Kurt reached over and took Blaine's hand again. "Anything you can throw at me."

Blaine gave Kurt a small smile. "Is it really okay with you?"

"Yes. I wish we were graduating together, but we're still going to have the best year ever," Kurt said. "Whatever happens next year, we'll get through it. We'll find a way to make it work."

"I don't want you to feel like you're missing out on things because you're stuck with a younger boyfriend."

"I like being stuck with you," Kurt said, squeezing Blaine's hand. "You're not sorry you transferred, are you?"

"No. I like being stuck with you, too."

THE END