Kurt's feet pounded the ground. His sweat sticky clothes clung to his body, his chestnut colored hair plastered to his face. He felt like he'd been running for miles, completely in circles, running hard, running fast, but never getting anywhere. His lungs burned, and with every breath in he tasted blood.

“Oh, please,” he cried silently, “oh, please. I have to find him. I have to get to him…before it's too late.”

Kurt suddenly came face to face with a cave entrance he was certain he hadn't seen before. It didn't look too promising, but at least it was something different, so he took a chance and plunged into the dark.

Kurt stopped short, feeling his life was in danger. He blinked, trying to adjust to the near complete darkness. With every blink, more of his surroundings came into view. The toes of his boots had stopped right at the edge of a ledge, and beyond the ledge, a drop to which there seemed no end. Kurt's heart stopped, and he scuttled backward, trying to put as much distance between himself and the abyss as he could. He turned around. This was obviously a dead end, but the tiny squeak of a voice in the dark stopped him.

“Kurt?”

Kurt's heart hammered in his chest.

“Blaine?” he called softly, thinking it might just be a trick, an echo of the wind blowing over the pit, but everything around him was still.

“Kurt!” A voice, a little stronger, much more pained.

Kurt turned, facing the danger, facing the dark.

“Blaine!” he yelled. Then, as if his words had prompted some sort of shift in the clouds, a single stream of moonlight penetrated a shaft in the ceiling of the cave, illuminating a tiny plateau at the pit's center, on which stood a cage…and inside the cage, Blaine.

“Oh, Blaine!” Kurt cried, reaching out a useless hand, trying to touch Blaine past the void.

“How am I supposed to get to you?” Kurt called, so close and yet so ready to give up.

“I…I don't know,” Blaine called back, his voice sounding weaker with every interaction.

Kurt stomped his foot, frustration vibrating his body. He knew he was about to say something he'd regret, but he didn't care.

“Urgh! Blaine! I'm so pissed at you right now! Why are you always getting yourself into these predicaments that I have to get you out of?”

A loud groan filled the cave, and the floor beneath them began to shake. The rock ledge beneath Kurt's feet split in two, and another piece of rock appeared, extending the ledge towards Blaine.

“What…what did you just do?” Blaine asked.

“I'm not sure,” Kurt said in wide-eyed amazement, scanning the floor beneath him for clues. “Do you think if we just wait, it'll do that again?”

“I don't think so,” Blaine replied. “I've been here a while, and I haven't seen the cave do that.”

“Maybe if I repeat what I said…”

“I'd rather you didn't,” Blaine admitted softly.

Kurt could hear the hurt in his voice, but rolled his eyes anyway.

“Blaine! I have to get you out of here! Why when the chips are down do you always become so spineless? Do you think, if you just sit there, good things are just going to come to you? Oh, wait. Sure you do! Because that's always what happens!”

The ground groaned again, and this time the ledge shot forward twice the distance.

Kurt raced forward to the edge, almost half-way across the abyss, but in his tiny cage, Blaine scooted back.

“So, do you think this ledge grows when I say something insulting to you?” Kurt wondered out loud.

“No,” Blaine whimpered. “It grows when you tell the truth.”

Kurt's body went cold.

‘Oh, God!' Kurt thought. All those things he said, they were cruel, but they'd also been true.

“Blaine, I…”

“D-don't be sorry for how you feel,” Blaine said, trying to sound stronger than he felt. “Just…please, get me out of here, and we'll deal with everything else later.”

Kurt swallowed. There were so many truths hidden inside, truths about the way Kurt felt, truths about their relationship, truths about…he started with the big one first, hoping to put an end to this and just get Blaine away from this terrible place without too much damage done.

“I hated you for telling me to go to New York, and then feeling like I was pulling away from you,” Kurt said. “I…I don't know if I can forgive you for throwing away my love without even talking to me about it first.”

He heard Blaine whimper again, but he was sure that would be the end of it. The ledge would take him to the cage, and then all he had to do was set Blaine free. But, the ledge barely even budged.

Kurt huffed out an exasperated breath.

“I resented you for getting the part of Tony in West Side Story, and for every moment I had to sit on the sidelines and watch you sing. I mean, I had to endure how many Slushies to the face, fight for the right to be who I am, for you to be a copy of me, only alpha, only better, and take away everything I had worked for!”

Kurt felt himself getting angry, not even able to appreciate when the ledge surged forward, almost knocking him forward into the pit. From this distance, he could see Blaine's eyes, filled to their golden depths with deep pain and sadness.

That should have stopped Kurt in his tracks, should have made him resolve to try and think of getting to Blaine another way, now that he was so close. He should have at least felt sorry for hurting Blaine's feelings, but it just seemed to spurn him on further.

“And…and I liked Adam! He was cute and kind and he treated me really well, but even more than that, I liked the idea of getting on with my life, and forgetting all about you.”

The ledge shot forward like an arrow, and Kurt stumbled and fell to the ground beside the cage when the two rocks connected.

Kurt scrambled to his feet, trying hard to avoid looking into Blaine's broken hearted face. Kurt pulled at the bars. They were barely more than bamboo twigs, tied together with vines, but they wouldn't move. Kurt started hitting the sticks with the flat of his hand. The bamboo bent, but it refused to break.

Kurt sighed, deep and shuddering, and slid down the cage to the ground.

“You know that's not how this works,” Blaine whispered, almost as if he was fading away under the pain of all of Kurt's confessions.

Kurt flailed, pounding the ground with his fists, drawing his knees up to his face, resting his forehead against them, and squeezing his eyes shut.

If truth was the key to freeing Blaine, than why hadn't the last one done it? It was obviously strong enough to bring the ledge all the way to the plateau. Hell, it almost shot Kurt straight to the other side. Kurt's breathing slowed, thinking of all of the truths he's already unleashed, all truths about how much he resented Blaine for hurting him, how much he hated the negative effects Blaine has had on his life.

All the hate, all the pain, all the hurt.

But what about the love?

Kurt opened his eyes. He turned toward the cage and its frightened occupant deep inside. Blaine shivered when he saw Kurt approach. He closed his eyes, afraid of what new and hateful truth he might reveal.

Kurt looked down on Blaine, his blue eyes shining in the dark, trying so hard to lead Blaine home.

“But, what I think I hated most of all,” Kurt said, his voice soft, “is that no matter what you did, no matter what happened between us that was wrong or bad, I could never stop loving you.”

Blaine's eyelids fluttered open. He looked up at Kurt, standing slowly, trying to get closer to him.

“Is that true?” Blaine asked, resting his hands on the bamboo walls.

Kurt nodded and smiled.

“Yes, it's true,” Kurt said. “It's always been true. From the first moment you took my hand, and ran me down that hallway at Dalton, it was true. I love you, Blaine Anderson, and I'm pretty sure I always will.”

Kurt felt himself fall forward as the bars of the cage dissolved around him, disappearing in a wink of brightly shimmering ashes and dust, leaving the two of them together, wrapped in each other's arms.

“Kurt,” Blaine whispered against his fiancé's skin. “Kurt…”

“I love you, Blaine.”

“Kurt…Kurt…Kurt…” Blaine's voice repeated. Kurt felt himself trembling, shaking.

He opened his eyes.

Blaine's whiskey-colored eyes shone down on Kurt from where he rested his head in Blaine's lap, stretched out on the couch in their loft. Kurt blinked, trying to resolve the fantasy of the dark cave with the reality of the cozy apartment he was in, and the man staring quizzically into his face.

“Kurt, honey,” Blaine said quietly. “Wake up. You missed the whole show.”

Kurt's eyes flicked to the t.v., catching just the tail end of the sneak preview of next week's episode of “Once Upon a Time”.

“Oh.” Kurt sat up, hand to his head to stop the spinning as more light flooded his eyes. “Did…did they find Henry yet?”

“No,” Blaine said, crossing his legs and turning on the couch to face Kurt. “No, he's still missing.”

Kurt nodded, regretting the movement. Blaine's face came more into focus as the throbbing ebbed away.

Blaine smirked sadly.

“You said you loved me.” Blaine looked down into his lap. “I thought, after that fight, you weren't ever going to speak to me again.”

Kurt sighed.

“I know.” Kurt barely recalled even arguing with Blaine, but as Blaine's sad eyes became more clear, so did the fight that prompted them to sit down quietly, fuming at opposite ends of the couch and watch “Once Upon a Time”.

Kurt was all for storming off to his room and letting Blaine have the couch for the night, but after his experience in the cave he realized something even more important than proving he was right.

It was getting passed this, and moving on to a life with the man that he loved.

They would have to talk it out. He couldn't keep his feeling trapped inside.

Communication was the key.

Get it all out.

The good as well as the bad.

Kurt took Blaine's hand.

“Sweetheart,” he said, pulling Blaine close and holding him tight. “I think it's time we had a talk.”