Kurt hasn't changed. His skin is still beautifully pale and luminescent. His hair is still the same rich chestnut tamed into perfection. His eyes are still the breathtaking mix of blue-grey-green that Blaine can get lost in for hours if Kurt lets him and his smile is still as blindingly beautiful as it was the day he waved goodbye and stepped onto the plane.

Blaine hates to admit it but he's relieved. Part of him had been worried that living New York, being in college, being a man would change Kurt. That Kurt would outgrow him and become "New York Kurt" and "New York Kurt" wouldn't want "Ohio Blaine".

When Kurt pushes him up against the door of his tiny studio apartment ("It's the size of a shoebox but I was not going to subject myself to the dorms") and licks his way into his mouth, Blaine realizes he tastes the same. Kurt still wears Mango Butter flavored Burt's Bees and brushes with cinnamon flavored toothpaste. His hands are still baby soft, and they still skim over his skin with reverence, as if Kurt thought touching him was something sacred. The moans, groans, whimpers and sighs are the same ones that have existed in memory for the past few months, taken out late at night and used as the soundtrack to his masturbatory fantasies.

It takes a couple of days for Blaine to notice that Kurt has changed, but in only the best possible ways. He's happier. He laughs easier, and he's more open. The biting wit is still there but its not so sharp and he's not so defensive. He's more careful but less cautious…he's aware of their surroundings in a way he wasn't in Lima but he doesn't hesitate to pull Blaine into his arms and kiss him breathless on the sidewalk or in the middle of a coffee date like he did back home. Kurt fits in. In Ohio Kurt was always the square peg trying in vain to slip into the round hole, but in New York Kurt doesn't stand out quite so sharply and the differences that made him a target back in Lima simply make him part of the tapestry of the city in New York.

It isn't until Blaine's been there five days and Spring Break is almost over that Blaine sees just how much Kurt's changed for the better. They are at a gay friendly club with some of Kurt's friends and a strawberry blonde in a pair of jeans so tight that even Kurt wouldn't try to shimmy into them approaches Blaine. He's cute, in a vaguely slutty kind of way and he's flirtatious and attentive and Blaine just knows that Mount St. Kurt is going to blow at any moment…but the eruption never comes. Blaine sends the guy on his way and makes his way back over to the bar where Kurt is, anxious to ease Kurt's insecurities and make sure his boyfriend knows he had nothing to worry about.

When Blaine reaches Kurt and looks into his eyes, he doesn't find anything but amusement twinkling in their depths. "You could have danced with him, babe." Kurt says simply. "I know that I'm the one you'll always come back to."

Blaine is floored. Back home Kurt had always responded to anyone displaying interest in Blaine with his patented Kurt Hummel Bitch Face and a deluge of sarcastic, passive aggressive, razor sharp insults. Kurt's insecurities, the very real result of years of being told he was wrong, that he was abnormal and disgusting, unwanted and unlovable had always been an issue for the couple but now, Blaine was standing in front of a Kurt Hummel who trusted not only that Blaine meant it when he said he was the only one he wanted but believed that he deserved to be the only one Blaine wanted.

The newfound, quiet confidence underscores to Blaine just how profoundly Kurt has changed. "Ohio Kurt" was an remarkable boy but "New York Kurt" is an amazing man and Blaine is so very thankful that he has the good fortune to have shared his past with the boy Kurt used to be and be sharing his future with the man he's become.

Blaine presses himself close to his boyfriend and whispers in his ear, "You take my breath away. I'm so proud to be with you."

Kurt pulls away with a bit of a grin and replies,"I hope so, I want you to be."

"Take me home," Blaine whispers, his breath tickling the shell of Kurt's ear, hands slipping under Kurt's shirt to explore the heated flesh underneath.

"Always," Kurt replies, kissing him quickly and dragging him to the exit.