Blaine clicked the small container of blush open, hovering the brush in his hand over it for a few moments. Artie’s recently stern reminder of “less is more” when concerning this particular application of makeup still rung clear as a bell in his mind, and he sighed inwardly. Last night it had been too much. Tonight it would probably end up too little.

Rachel, clad in her Maria dress, sat down next to him and began fussing with her hair, oblivious to the struggle that was taking place inside Blaine’s head. After a minute, she stopped and went still, then cleared her throat nervously and looked shyly over her shoulder at Blaine, who still hadn’t moved.

“I have something to tell you,” she whispered, not quite meeting his eye.

Blaine was actually grateful for the interruption, and also somewhat intrigued at her demeanor. He happily closed the container and sat it down on the vanity top in front of him, placing the brush next to it. He then fixed his attention on her.

Rachel bit her lip for a fraction of a second, then said lowly, “So, remember how we absolutely took the audience by storm last night, even though we were still virgins?”

Blaine furrowed his brow, already wondering where this conversation was going. He’d picked up her use of were, but their knowledge of each other’s sexual exploit status had remained the same since Artie had broached the topic back when they were still in rehearsals. But Blaine nodded his head anyway and replied, “Yeah.”

Rachel glanced around, as if to make sure that the dozen or so people bustling backstage behind them weren’t paying attention, which they absolutely were not. Blaine and Rachel could have stood up and danced a jig together, and no one around them would have so much as looked up. But she leaned closer to Blaine and whispered, “Well…I went to Finn’s house last night – which, of course, you know as Kurt’s house – and…and we…we…” She trailed off, making a vague gesture with her hand, and Blaine caught on rather quickly.

“Oh,” he said, in an understanding tone. That’s it? That’s all she wanted to tell him? It was great news for her, but for all her nervousness, you could have thought she’d stolen the secret of the universe or something. Blaine smiled at her and then turned back to reach for the blush.

But Rachel was looking at him now, searching his face as best she could, and he looked back at her, feeling at a loss for words. What else had she expected him to say? Congratulations! Was it good? Ew. He didn’t want any details. Finn was Kurt’s brother, for crying out loud. So he just stared back at her, his mouth opening but no actual words forming.

Rachel’s expression went from nervous to downright anxious and she blurted, “Don’t worry!” Her eyes darted around them, and her tone fell back down to a whisper. “It’s okay that you’re still a virgin.” The tempo of her words quickly sped up as she continued to speak, sounds and articulation rushing together almost in a slur. “I know you and Kurt are waiting for the right time and it obviously doesn’t really matter because we still killed it last night and Blaine I swear I won’t mess it up and play Maria too over the top just because it happened for me and not for you yet and—“

Blaine just started laughing, shaking his head, and Rachel’s speech died off. “It’s okay,” he assured her when he calmed down. He opened his mouth to say Didn’t you notice how Kurt didn’t come home yesterday after the show? as a segue into his own “last night” story, but just then, Kurt appeared around the corner of the stage curtain and locked eyes with him from across the way.

Rachel saw Blaine’s eyes drift over her shoulder, and she turned to see who he was looking at (or more accurately, who he was drooling over). When she saw it was Kurt making his way towards them dressed to the nines in his Officer Krupke uniform (no doubt Kurt had doctored it a bit to make his suit look as smart as possible), she relaxed and turned back to her mirror to start fixing her hair again.

“Hi there!” Kurt chirped brightly as he approached. He dragged a forgotten chair from the corner over next to Blaine, who grinned wholeheartedly back at him.

“Hi,” Blaine replied, settling his hand dotingly on Kurt’s knee, thumb brushing against his kneecap.

Kurt placed his officer’s hat next to the container of blush on Blaine’s vanity, then said matter-of-factly to Blaine, “You need more eyeliner.”

Blaine immediately tensed, and Rachel snorted good-naturedly. “Blaine and eyeliner are not friends right now,” she informed Kurt with an amused expression.

Kurt looked confused. “What do you mean?”

Blaine’s gaze fell to his lap as Rachel explained gently, “Last night he…kind of jabbed himself in the eye with the pencil. There were tears and everything.”

“Not my fault,” Blaine mumbled defiantly into his lap, sounding like a child whose dog had mysteriously eaten his homework. “It slipped. And I wasn’t crying. My eye was just watering.”

Rachel nodded sympathetically, then switched her gaze to Kurt. “I think he went through an entire box of tissues,” she stage-whispered, then started giggling as Blaine swatted at her shoulder with his hand.

Kurt focused back on Blaine and smiled at him, blue eyes crinkling at the corners. His stage makeup, Blaine noted, was impeccable. Gorgeous even. “Poor baby,” Kurt cooed empathetically, rubbing Blaine’s hand, where it still rested against his knee. “Here, give it to me. I’ll do it for you.” He lifted his hand, holding his palm out expectantly.

Blaine tried to protest, not even knowing what he would say. No, really, Kurt…please give me another chance to stab myself in the eye. It was fun being half blind for half an hour last night. “No, I—“

“I won’t poke you, I promise,” Kurt told him, and the sincerity in his tone melted any and all argument Blaine had been trying to form. “I’m really good at this, I swear.”

Well, Blaine could tell that – Kurt’s cosmetic talent was staring him in the face, literally. So Blaine took a deep breath, swept the pencil off the vanity in front of him, and handed it wordlessly to Kurt. He sat stock still while Kurt dragged his chair so he could properly face Blaine and reached toward his face with the pencil. Blaine barely breathed as he complied with Kurt’s request to close his eyes, and Kurt hummed a lovely tune through his nose and ran his warm fingers over Blaine’s face before starting the first upper eyelid.

Kurt was so close Blaine could smell him, smell his wonderful mixture of deodorant and cologne, fabric softener from his uniform, freshly minted breath from a recent brushing. Blaine thought about last night, thought about Kurt’s warm body, smooth skin, fingers digging firmly but lovingly into Blaine’s arms, his voice high and raspy, breath stuttering. Kurt switched to Blaine’s right eye then, applied the liner, and then quietly asked for Blaine to open again, so he could do the bottom lids.

Blaine focused again on his thoughts of Kurt, of the way Kurt had looked at him, the way Kurt had held him close, kissed his mouth softly and snuggled into him. How they shared his bed for the night, together, wrapped up in warmth and comfort and complete satisfaction.

“Done,” Kurt said abruptly, capping the pencil and setting it back down on the vanity. He smoothed the back of his hand down Blaine’s cheek. “You also need some blush.”

Blaine nodded, thankful that the dreaded eyeliner was done, and gratefully handed the small container of blush over. Kurt hummed through his nose again, but Blaine didn’t take himself out of the moment this time, instead concentrating on the skillful way Kurt swept the color onto his cheek. As Kurt’s hand passed over to the other side of Blaine’s face, they smiled at one another, a tiny crinkle of their eyes, a minute upturn to their lips. After a few gentle swipes, Kurt snapped the container closed and proclaimed, “You’re ready. And you look pretty hot, if I do say so myself.”

Blaine leaned around Kurt to get a glance of himself in the mirror, and not to toot his own horn but - he did look good. No doubt about it, he was shamelessly ogling himself in the mirror right now, that’s how good he looked.

“I’m sorry about last night,” Kurt said quietly then, drawing Blaine’s attention back to him. His eyes were downcast, shameful. “For not coming to see you before the show started.” He looked back up at Blaine, guilt written on his face. “I thought you were still mad at me.”

Blaine’s heart gave a squeeze as he remembered their argument in the parking lot two nights previous, how upset Kurt had looked as he’d walked away from him. Blaine took his hand and held it tightly. “It’s okay,” he assured him. “I thought you were still mad at me. And you came to see me after the show instead.” He smiled at Kurt as the memory of their kiss on the stage flitted through his mind.

A smile of pure affection seeped across Kurt’s face, and he leaned forward, pressing his lips quickly to Blaine’s. “Break a leg tonight,” he breathed softly into his ear, and then he stood up, collected his hat, and with a sparkle in his eye, was gone around the side of the curtain.

Rachel watched Kurt leave, her eyes trailing over the back of his form as it disappeared. Then she turned her head and studied Blaine thoughtfully for a few moments, murmuring, “Something’s different about you two.”

Blaine looked over at her, head cocked.

“I mean, you were always close, even just as friends. But it’s something else now.” She tapped her chin, lips pursed.

Blaine thought again of Kurt, how he’d looked this morning sharing Blaine’s pillow, hair adorably mussed, eyes shining crystalline blue in the morning light. Blaine grinned at Rachel and leaned towards her. “I have something to tell you,” he confessed, and Rachel’s face brightened in interest.

And so, with as few surrounding details as possible and his own awkwardly vague hand gesture, Blaine let Rachel in on the development of last night – which of course caused her to squeal excitedly, not just because she was happy for them (“Oh, of course I am!”), but also because now that they had elevated to the same playing field (“So to speak,” she added) she and Blaine were totally going to bring the house down tonight as Tony and Maria.

Of course that’s what Rachel would zone in on right now, twenty minutes before the play was set to open its second night at McKinley. But Blaine knew, as they took their place opposite one another on stage, gripping each other’s hands, singing confidently about their fictional love, without a doubt Rachel was reliving her night with Finn, and Blaine was quickly slipping back into his thoughts of Kurt - Kurt who rose so eagerly to his touch and murmured words of love into his ear while they shared themselves with one another, in a one-act where makeup and costumes didn’t matter, where their own voices became the orchestra, and the two required players never needed to glance at the script, as their actions dictated the direction with joint pleasure as their guide.