Archive of Our Own ^beta

Blaine checked the weather forecast on his laptop one last time before shutting the computer off. The forecast hadn't changed in the last five minutes; a heavy snowstorm was still scheduled to hit New York that night. The sky was light in a 'full-of-snow' way rather than an 'is-daytime' way, so he was pretty convinced the storm was coming. He just had to hope that his plane managed to take off and get him out of there before it hit.

He looked around the apartment, shoving the last couple of bits into his bag and unplugging the battery charger for his camera before slipping the battery into his pocket and dropping the charger into his suitcase. He was pretty sure he'd done everything he needed to – his neighbour had a key and instructions to water the plants. He had made sure to tell her that she would have to use water from her own apartment because he'd switched off his own. If there really was a cold snap, he didn't want to come back to frozen pipes, or worse – exploded ones. He'd learned that lesson the hard way last winter after a disaster he affectionately referred to as "Pipe-ageddon". Not exactly catchy, but the ability for pipes to burst in winter was just one more thing on a growing list of facts he needed to remember about having his own place to live.

So the water was off, he'd checked three times that he'd unplugged all of his appliances, and he had all of his bills paid early just in case he couldn't get online to do anything over Christmas.

It was a lot of effort just to get to go and see Cooper for a week and a half, but the possibility of some sunshine and clear skies instead of the wind and occasional blizzards New York had been experiencing for the last month or two had swayed him into letting Cooper pay for the flight. He'd even agreed to his brother's condition that he would leave all of his college work at home, because he knew that for once Coop was right when he told him that he needed to relax.

This trip would be the first time he would have been to stay with Cooper in Los Angeles without their parents, and also the first time since Cooper became a household name. After years working on commercials and being recognised as 'that guy from that thing', Cooper had finally found the perfect job. Thanks to a friend of a friend of a girl Cooper had been sleeping with at the time, he'd been cast in a reality show following Cooper and six other 'young' hopefuls in Hollywood. Almost overnight Cooper had started showing up on gossip websites and trashy magazines that Blaine would never admit to reading but had somehow ended up with a pile of them stacked in his bathroom.

He could still remember Cooper calling him the night it was confirmed they wanted him on the show. "Blainey," he'd gushed. "I'm going to be the new The Situation. It's going to be awesome. Just don't ever tell anyone I'm thirty, they wouldn't take me on unless I was under twenty six."

"Coop, I'm not even going to be telling anybody I'm related to you, so I'm absolutely not going to be going into detail about how old you are."

"Awesome," Cooper had replied, either missing or ignoring the insulting undertone of Blaine's response. "I'll get them to send you some tapes in advance."

Despite Blaine's protestations that he really didn't have to do that, Cooper had been true to his word. Blaine had watched the first three episodes before he felt like his brain was going to melt out of his ears. Over the course of the first half an hour, Cooper had broken up with the girl who'd gotten him the job, completely bombed three auditions and managed to score a callback for a commercial for a hair loss drug – a role which Blaine already knew Cooper had ended up missing out on. They'd said he had too much hair to play the 'after' guy – it would mislead people into thinking the drug was better than it was.

By episode four Blaine had decided it was going to be best for his sanity if he just didn't watch any more – there were some things about his brother he really didn't need to know.

Blaine had stuck to this plan, with the exception of occasional clips he hadn't managed to avoid, or the one time his friend Thad had mailed him a copy of season one on DVD requesting that Cooper sign it and Blaine had cracked and watched the finale out of curiosity. He even continually told Cooper right to his face (on the phone) that he wasn't watching but he didn't think Coop believed him, so this was going to be an interesting trip. All he could do now was hope that his brother let him enjoy the vacation and he didn't have to spend too much time with any of the other self-obsessed members of the cast.

He still had four hours before his flight left and he'd already checked in online, but he'd much rather be early than risk getting stuck on the subway while his flight took off without him. Slinging his carry-on over his shoulder and dragging his suitcase out into the hall, he locked the door behind him, and slid an envelope with a few extra instructions and a little bit of thank-you cash underneath Mrs Metcalfe's door before he headed out into the cold.

On a whim, he stopped by the army and navy store he passed every day on his way to the subway and bought a couple of the sleeping bags they had on sale. Nobody goes camping in winter so he managed to get a couple of cheap ones for less than twenty bucks total. They rolled up tight enough that they'd fit inside his carry on bag, but they would still be enough to keep him warm if he ended up stuck in the airport overnight. And if the flight took off as scheduled, they were so cheap that he would probably just ditch them once he landed in LA.

In the end getting to the airport only took him half an hour longer than he had anticipated, and that included the time he'd built in to get some lunch before he got on the subway. So he arrived with a little over two hours until his flight was due to leave. He checked his main suitcase at the bag drop kiosk and made his way through security relatively quickly, happy to see his flight was still listed as 'on time' on the departure board.

There were only a handful of people sitting at his gate when he got there, so he picked out a nice seat by the window and settled down with his Kindle, putting his iPod on a low volume and only using one ear-bud so he would be able to hear any important announcements.

Despite that, he was engrossed enough in his book that he didn't notice that it had actually started to snow until a little girl came thundering past him, skidding to a halt at the window and pressing her face right up against the glass. "Daddy, look!"

Her frazzled dad came running up behind her, shrugging apologetically at Blaine as she jumped up and down, pointing excitedly outside.

"Can we play?" She beamed at her dad and Blaine felt sorry for the guy that he was clearly going to have to say no to her. She couldn't have been older than about four, and he just about remembered what that excitement was like. It must have been snowing for a little while without him realising because there was a good covering on the ground, but the flakes seemed to be getting smaller even as he watched and he glanced back over to the departure board to see it was still listing his flight as on time. The gate had filled up while he hadn't been paying attention – most of the seats were now occupied and a few people were standing around against the walls. One in particular caught his eye – a guy on his own that seemed to be around Blaine's age, tall and slim with amazing hair and even better taste in clothes. He let himself appreciate the man for a few more seconds before turning his attention back to the little girl and her father.

"Not now, sweetheart," the girl's father replied, and Blaine watched as her face crumbled. "We have to stay inside, remember? We're going to California to see Mommy!"

Still pouting, she allowed herself to be picked up and tightened her stumpy arms around her dad's neck as he twisted so she could still see outside. "Will there be snow in California?"

Blaine could tell the guy was weighing up his options – whether to lie and deal with the fallout when they got there, or tell the truth and have to pacify her right here at the gate. It was a choice he was glad he didn't have to make.

"Um," he started, catching Blaine's eye. Blaine crinkled his nose in sympathy and nodded ever so slightly. Surely by the time they got to LA, she would have forgotten all about the snow. "Yes, baby. There'll be snow. But more importantly, Mommy will be there!"

The girl didn't look completely convinced, but she at least stopped pouting and pressed her face back up against the glass.

"Okay, why don't we go take a walk? I'll get you some ice cream."

"No."

"Sweetie, I need to-"

"No, I want to watch the snow."

"But Daddy needs to-"

"No."

Blaine couldn't help himself. He shoved his Kindle back into his bag and stood up. "I can watch her, if you need a few minutes." He turned to the little girl and crouched down, holding out his hand politely. "Hi there, cutie! My name is Blaine. What's yours?"

She giggled shyly as she reached for his hand and shook it enthusiastically. "Jessica," she beamed.

"Well that's a very pretty name!" He straightened back up and turned to her dad. "Seriously, I don't mind. It's not like any of us are going anywhere 'til they start to board, and I bet you can get whatever you need to done much quicker if you can run around on your own. Jessica and I can watch the snow together."

The guy let his shoulders drop, looking a little relieved to get a few minutes to himself. "I'm not sure my wife would approve of me leaving our daughter with a random guy at an airport, but thank you so much."

Blaine laughed. "I won't tell her if you don't."

"I'm Matt." Matt smiled, offering his hand for Blaine to shake, and Blaine obliged. "My wife just started a new job and we're still looking for somewhere to live out there, so I'm pretty much spending all my time running round after this little madam. It's the first time I haven't had anyone else around to help and it's just..."

"Daunting?"

"Yes. And very, very tiring," Matt laughed. "So if you're really sure, I'm just going to run off and buy a couple of things and I really need to pee, so..."

Blaine snorted a laugh. "Go!"

Matt ran off in the direction of the nearest restroom and Blaine turned his attention to Jessica, who had flopped down on the floor as she stared out of the window. He sat down beside her and pressed his own face to the glass, trying to ignore the growing worry in the pit of his stomach that the snow didn't seem to be subsiding after all and the flakes were getting bigger again. It's not like being late to see Cooper was the biggest disaster of all time, but he just liked it when things went to plan.

"It's pretty," she stated without looking up at Blaine.

"Very pretty," he agreed. He was about to try and draw her attention into playing some kind of game when a bing-bong signified an announcement from the desk. Putting one hand on Jessica's back so that he could keep track of her, he twisted to look at the girl who was about to speak.

"Passengers awaiting American Airlines flight one-eight-one, scheduled to depart for Los Angeles International airport at four-forty pm. Good afternoon – I'm sure you've all noticed the weather has taken a turn for the worse. Currently the flight is expected to depart as scheduled, we've been informed that the blizzard is likely to stop within the next hour which should allow us to board and take off within our allotted time slot. We'll keep you updated with any further changes, thank you."

Blaine turned back to the window and tilted his head questioningly. He was far from a meteorologist but he was fairly convinced that there was enough snow in the sky that it wasn't going to stop in time for the flight to take off. One glance at the departure board showed that his flight was one of the few that were still expected to leave on time; the majority of the others were all already cancelled or delayed with no new departure time listed.

"That lady said the snow is going to stop soon," Jessica repeated, pointing outside. "I think she's wrong."

Blaine laughed. "I think you might be right about that."

"How will we get to Mommy if it doesn't stop? Can we walk?"

"I think Mommy might be a little too far away for that, sweetie," Blaine smiled. "But I'm sure it will be fine."

"If we can't get on the airplane can I go play in the snow?"

"You'll have to ask your daddy about that."

"The snow is pretty."

"It's also very cold. At least in here we're cosy and warm, right?"

Jessica looked back and forth between Blaine and the window a few times while she considered this. She pointed down to the tarmac where two men wrapped up in big coats and hats were loading luggage onto a plane. "Those men look cold."

"They do."

"They should make a snowman."

Blaine laughed as the image of a happy snowman sitting at the side of the runway popped into his head. "Maybe they'll do that when they've finished doing their work."

"I can make snow angels. Daddy showed me how."

"Oh?"

"Yes." Jessica suddenly lay flat out on her back and started wiping her arms and legs back and forth across the floor. "Like this!"

"Oh, that's absolutely perfect!" He exclaimed, scrambling up onto his knees and then leaning forward to lift her to her feet. "But the floor is dirty and I don't think your daddy would be very happy with me if he came back and you were covered in dust."

Blaine looked up to see Matt approaching as he set her back on her feet. "It's not like it's something we're not used to," Matt laughed, and Jessica spun around as she heard his voice.

"Daddy!" she exclaimed, running to him with a grin and wrapping her arms around one of his legs as if she hadn't seen him for weeks rather than just ten minutes. "I was showing Blaine how to make snow angels!"

"Of course you were," Matt grinned, picking her up and then nodding towards the departure board. "Any news?"

Blaine shrugged. "They made an announcement that they still expect to depart on time, but..." he gestured out of the window to show he didn't have much faith in that. Almost exactly on cue, there was another bing-bong from the desk.

"Passengers awaiting American Airlines flight one-eight-one, scheduled to depart for Los Angeles International airport at four-forty pm. We have now received updated information that it is unlikely that the weather is going to improve enough for our flight to depart as scheduled; as of right now, this flight is cancelled. If you would like to reschedule, we have a few seats available on our departures tomorrow on a first come first served basis, and we will provide you with a voucher for a discounted rate at a local hotel for tonight. Alternatively you can reschedule your travel for any time in the next thirty days; request a full refund; or we can place you on our standby list for the first available flight on any airline. Thank you for your patience and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."

While she was talking, Blaine gathered up his things and headed for the desk. He looked back over his shoulder and saw a number of other people doing the same – mostly solo travellers, while couples and families were the ones hanging back to discuss their options. It meant he was fairly close to the front of the line at the desk, and he was next to be served when the man in front started yelling at the poor girl who'd had the misfortune to serve him.

"What do you mean you can't get me to LA tonight? I have a meeting at 9am and I can't reschedule it, the offices are closed after tomorrow for the holidays."

"I'm so sorry for the inconvenience, sir. If there was anything I could do-"

"There is something you can do; you can get that damn plane in the air! It's just a little snow!"

"Sir, I understand your frustration but I-"

"I don't think you do!"

Blaine felt uncomfortable just standing there but he had a feeling if he'd intervened it would make things worse. Eventually the guy realised that his yelling was getting him nowhere and accepted a refund for his flight ticket before storming out, complaining loudly on his phone as he went.

Blaine stepped up to the desk and smiled at the girl, making sure he smiled and thanked her even more than he ordinarily would have done. "You didn't deserve that, you were just doing your job."

"Oh," she smiled through a sigh. "It's fine, I'm used to it."

"It's still not fair. I hope he's the last person tonight who talks to you like that."

She laughed a little as she took his boarding card and pulled up his information on the computer. "I'm sure he won't be, but thank you. Friendly folks like yourself make it worth it." She tapped a couple more buttons and then looked up at Blaine. "Okay, thank you for your patience, Mr Anderson," she smiled again. "We have limited seats still available on the seven am departure tomorrow morning; would you like me to book you on that?"

"Please," Blaine smiled. As she tapped away at her computer he looked around again and spotted Matt and Jessica at the desk next to him.

"I'm sorry, sir," the girl at that desk said to Matt. "There's only one seat remaining on the seven am departure tomorrow and your daughter will need a seat of her own, I'm afraid she can't just sit on your lap. The afternoon flights tomorrow are already full – I can get you on a flight departing at nine tomorrow evening and put you on the standby list for anything earlier, but I'm afraid that's the best I can do."

"There's really nothing earlier?" Matt sounded downbeat – Blaine could tell he was trying to think up ways to occupy Jessica for another entire day before getting to LA to see her mom.

"Excuse me," Blaine interjected, making both desk agents look up. "Let him have my seat. With mine and the one spare, they can both get on."

Matt's eyes lit up, but even so he shook his head. "I couldn't let you do that, you've already been such a help this afternoon."

"I'm going to spend Christmas with my brother and he's kind of a nightmare - it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if I didn't get there. You need to get to your wife. No more arguments." Blaine turned back to the girl at his desk. "Thank you – let him take the seat, I'll go on the standby list."

Blaine stepped away from the desk with a fist full of new documentation and some meal vouchers, and started fishing around in his bag for his phone so that he could send a message to Cooper. Flight cancelled. Will try and get on something tomorrow – don't wait up for me. By the time he'd finished writing, Matt and Jessica were behind him.

"Seriously, you didn't have to do that," Matt told Blaine, in a voice that proved very clearly to Blaine that he'd done the right thing. "They booked us into a hotel, so we're going to go reclaim our bags and I'm going to get Jess something to eat. But it's absolutely the nicest thing anybody's done for me in a long time, so thank you."

"My pleasure, man," Blaine smiled, and then laughed louder as Jessica stuck her hand out to shake his, copying the way he'd offered his hand to her earlier. He obliged, and she started to giggle again. "Just do me a favour," he leant close to Matt's ear so that she couldn't hear him. "When you get to that hotel, take her out and build a snowman. And then send me a picture." He hurriedly scribbled his number on the back of his now-defunct original boarding pass and handed it over to Matt. "Now go!"

Jessica reached out for a hug and then started beaming as Matt set her down on the floor so she could walk on her own. "You're like a Christmas miracle or something."

"If I could make miracles happen I'd have just held off the snow," Blaine laughed, and Matt grinned as he took Jessica's hand and let her pull him with her as she skipped away.

Blaine watched as they disappeared around the corner and then turned back to the gate area. A lot of people seemed to have chosen to take the option of a refund or had managed to reschedule onto the flight they wanted, because the crowd had thinned out considerably. He sat back down in his seat by the window, which was remarkably still free, and pulled his Kindle and iPod back out. If he was going to be here for a while, there was no point in rushing to get food. He'd just sit and watch the snow for an hour or two, then see how things were going before he ventured in search of something to eat.

Or at least that was the plan. In reality, he read another couple of paragraphs before there was a tap on his shoulder and he yanked his ear-bud out in surprise. His breath caught in his throat as he looked up and saw the guy that had caught his eye earlier, standing there, smiling at him.

"Hi," Blaine mumbled. "Do you need something?"

The tall, attractive man with great hair smiled, and Blaine mentally added amazing smile to the list of qualities he had apparently been keeping. "No, no. My name is Kurt, and I just, um," Kurt laughed a little as if he was nervous, and Blaine found that incredibly endearing. Kurt suddenly walked in front of him and sat down in the seat on the other side of Blaine, causing Blaine to twist so fast he practically got whiplash. "I saw what you did for that guy and his daughter," Kurt explained. "I was a couple of people behind you in the line and I thought it was just the nicest thing, and I figured if I'm going to be stuck here on standby for god knows how long, then I may as well hang out with the nicest person here."

Blaine felt himself blushing as a smile spread across his face. "Oh. Really?"

Kurt's smiled widened into a full on grin. "Absolutely. Let me buy you a coffee?"

Even if Kurt hadn't been hot, that would have been a no-brainer for Blaine. He loved talking to people and hearing their stories, and he could read any time. It's not like his Kindle was going anywhere. "Sounds great."

Kurt waited while Blaine put his Kindle away yet again, and then turned to lead the way. "I saw a Starbucks down here..." Kurt waved his arm as Blaine set his carry-on on its' wheels and fell into step beside Kurt.

"Oh – I'm Blaine, by the way," Blaine blurted out as they walked, and Kurt's eyes twinkled with amusement. "I forgot."

Blaine could tell Kurt was trying not to laugh. "You forgot you were Blaine?" It was accompanied by a little shoulder nudge that let Blaine know Kurt was just kidding, making him laugh a little self-consciously.

"I- yeah," Blaine smiled. He had a sudden burst of confidence that seemed to come from nowhere, and let his mouth do the talking before his brain could catch up. "Call it temporary hot guy induced amnesia."

Kurt ran his thumb along the underside of the strap of his bag where it met his shoulder and laughed quietly. "Is this a condition you suffer from often?"

"Not so often, no." Blaine realised that they'd reached Starbucks and Kurt pushed the door open rather than coming up with a reply, but he was fairly certain he wasn't the only person flirting here, which was making his heart beat a little faster.

"Venti skinny hazelnut mocha, and..." He turned to Blaine, gesturing for him to order.

"Oh – you don't have to, I'll get my own."

"And how exactly would that be me buying you a coffee? Order a drink or I'll make something up." Blaine clearly still looked doubtful, because Kurt turned back to the barista. "He'll have a venti extra hot triple shot caramel latte with-"

"Oh god, just an Americano, please!"

Kurt looked satisfied. "A venti Americano for Blaine, please." As the barista scribbled Blaine's name on the side of the cup, Kurt pointed into the corner of the store by the window. "Want to grab the table over there before somebody else does? I'll wait for the drinks."

Blaine nodded and wheeled his bag to the table Kurt had indicated, dropping his jacket on one of the chairs and then returned to Kurt's side, taking Kurt's carry-on too. Kurt smiled appreciatively as Blaine set the bag beside the other seat, and then dropped into a chair himself. Blaine watched as Kurt drummed his fingers absently on the bar while waiting for the drinks to be made, making small talk with the barista that Blaine couldn't quite hear. When she was done, Kurt picked up both cups and as he turned towards Blaine, Blaine noticed that he was balancing a plate on his forearm. He leapt to his feet to help, taking one of the cups and leading the way back towards the table.

The first thing Kurt did once they were sitting was to loosen his scarf and drape it carefully over the arm of the chair. Blaine watched with a smile, lifting his cup and taking a sip, trying hard not to look too much like he was staring. "Thanks for this," he added.

Kurt smiled back at him and pulled his own drink closer to the edge of the table, and then reached towards the plate. "I couldn't resist one of these chocolate chunk cookies, but I forgot how big they are. I think this one is as big as my face." He picked it up with both hands, using his fingers to snap it in half and offered one of the pieces to Blaine. "Here. I'll regret it for the rest of the night if I eat the whole thing myself."

"Well we wouldn't want that," Blaine chuckled, accepting the piece. He was fairly certain Kurt had never intended to eat the whole thing, but that was kind of sweet and he didn't want to throw Kurt's generosity back in his face. "Thank you."

Kurt just smiled again, and they sat in silence for a few minutes as they drank. Blaine had a good view of outside from his seat, and the snow didn't seem to be letting up any. The white on the ground was a good few inches thick at this point, and he figured they had a long wait ahead of them.

"So are you LA bound too? Or are you headed somewhere else?" Blaine started. "I mean, I know you're on my flight so you are going to LA, but that might not be the end of your journey. You might be heading somewhere super exotic from LA, like Hawaii or Thailand or the Yemen."

Kurt looked amused. "The Yemen?"

"First place that came into my head. Well," he counted back. "Third actually. Third after Hawaii and Thailand."

"I can confirm I'm not heading to the Yemen. Or any of those places, actually. But I am supposed to be heading onwards to San Diego on a train tomorrow - that's not looking very likely now."

Blaine wrapped his hands around the cup. The caffeine of the first few sips was starting to perk him up again, and he didn't want to drink the rest too fast in case it gave him a headache. Instead he let the cup warm his chilly fingers.

"San Diego sounds nice."

"Mmm," Kurt mumbled. "My best friend and her dads invited me on their annual Christmas cruise. We depart out of San Diego and then we're Mexico bound. Or at least that's the plan, assuming I manage to get there."

"That sounds like a really nice Christmas."

Kurt grinned. "You might not say that if you'd ever spent any time with Rachel. I love her, but trapped in a room on a boat for a week with nowhere to escape? I might end up throwing myself into the ocean."

Blaine snorted a little into his coffee, blowing bubbles into it. "Please don't do that."

"I'll try." Kurt smiled happily and relaxed back into the chair. Blaine was glad they'd managed to snag one of the tables with the comfortable armchairs, rather than the stiff backed wooden ones. He certainly wouldn't object to staying here in this cosy corner with Kurt for a good while longer, and the comfortable chairs were a big help with the likelihood of that happening. "So did I hear you say you're visiting your brother? That should be fun."

"Yeah. You haven't met Cooper." He suddenly started laughing. "Hey, want to swap? I'll take your cruise and you can spend ten days with my brother."

"If we ever get out of this airport, it's a deal!" Kurt exclaimed, echoing Blaine's laugh. Even though they were both clearly kidding, it was nice that they seemed to be on the same wavelength.

Blaine watched as Kurt dipped his half of the cookie into his cup, letting the shortbread soak up the coffee before lifting it up and sucking the liquid out of it. It was a long few seconds before Blaine realised that he was transfixed by the way Kurt looked and he was definitely staring, so he dropped his eyes down to his own cup and concentrated on that instead. It wasn't until he heard Kurt exclaim, "Oh, shoot!" that Blaine looked back up, to find Kurt holding the remaining piece of cookie and staring down into the cup with a frown. "I had a disaster," he explained, waving the cookie and sticking out his bottom lip in an exaggerated pout. "I overestimated my dipping time."

Blaine laughed. "You're just going to have a soggy mess at the bottom of your mug now."

Kurt scrunched up his face in mock annoyance. "Thank you so much for your understanding," he deadpanned, before letting out a giggle and jumping up to grab a spoon from the cart. "Time for a salvage mission."

Blaine watched in amusement as Kurt chased pieces of chocolate around the bottom of his cup and lifted up a teaspoon full of cookie-coffee-mush. Both of their drinks were lukewarm now, and while Kurt's concentration was on the mission at hand, Blaine hopped up from his seat. "I'll be right back." Kurt nodded without even looking up, and Blaine smiled to himself as he stopped back by the counter, ordering another drink for each of them before slipping away to use the bathroom.

By the time he returned, Kurt had given up on salvaging any of his remaining cookie and was busy typing something into his phone when Blaine set the drinks down on the table.

"Venti skinny hazelnut mocha," Blaine said. "I hope that's actually your regular drink order and not just something you ordered on a whim and hated, and then you faked that whole cookie disaster to get out of having to drink the rest of it."

Kurt's hand was halfway to the cup and he paused with his hand in mid-air, looking up at Blaine with an amused expression. "It's my regular order," he confirmed, slowly. "Your brain works in an unusual way, Mr Yemen-is-the-third-place-I -thought-of." He picked up the cup with a smile as he dropped his phone out of the other hand into his lap. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Blaine paused and then grinned. "I didn't buy you a replacement cookie, though."

Kurt chuckled. "Probably for the best." Before he could say anything else, he was distracted by his phone chiming in his lap and he sighed as he picked it up to read the text. "It's Rachel," he explained apologetically. "I just broke the news to her that I'm stuck here for at least tonight and she's freaking out about trains and boarding times and I've told her it's out of my hands now but, well. She's Rachel."

"Are you on a tight schedule?"

"Well," Kurt shrugged slightly, swiping across the screen on his phone to exit the message conversation and bring up his calendar. "I'm supposed to be meeting Rachel tonight in LA and we're getting the train from Union Station tomorrow at noon, but I think now she's going to have to go on her own and I'll get whatever train I can on Wednesday. Our boat doesn't leave until Thursday so I do have a little leeway but she's acting like I've done this on purpose."

Blaine laughed. "I sent my brother a message earlier and I haven't had anything back yet – not even an acknowledgement that he's read it. Knowing Coop, he's probably forgotten what day I'm meant to be arriving anyway."

Kurt's phone buzzed again and he let out a frustrated groan, opening the message and reading aloud. "'Kurt, my dads are aware of your situation and they will liaise with Amtrak re: rescheduling your ticket once your arrival is confirmed.' I mean seriously, does anybody actually write like that in a text message?"

Blaine huffed out a laugh. "I'm all for good grammar whilst texting, but that does seem to be overly formal."

Kurt's fingers flew across the screen as he quickly fired off a reply, reading it out to Blaine after he'd pressed send. "'Rachel, you are crazy. Leave me alone.' Does that sound harsh?"

"Maybe a little?"

Kurt nodded, pressing reply again and sending a second message. "'But thank you and I love you. Talk to you tomorrow.'" Kurt looked up at Blaine. "At this point I should probably explain that Rachel and I actually share an apartment, but when I'm there if she's driving me crazy I can just go out and take a walk. It's the confined space of a cruise ship that's concerning me."

"Well," Blaine started, taking a sip of his coffee as he considered the situation. "If it helps, I'm pretty sure cruise ships are like a floating village. You can probably escape her pretty easily still, if you need to."

"That is actually an excellent point."

"I can occasionally be good for that."

"She recently got cast in an off-Broadway revival of the Carrie musical, so I'm full expecting her to spend the entire week going over her lines even though she's been off-book since two weeks before her first audition, and to be honest in all the time I've known her, she's had a tendency for being very..." Kurt trailed off, trying to think of the right word. "Method."

Blaine snorted into his coffee. "Method acting and Carrie. That doesn't sound like the absolute best combination. Especially not on a cruise ship."

"Exactly." Kurt dropped his phone back into his bag and turned his attention back to Blaine. "If she wants anything else she'll just have to wait. I'm so sorry I've turned this into a 'rant about Rachel' session – even when she's not here and I'm talking to somebody who doesn't know her, she still manages to pull focus."

Blaine laughed quietly. "Oh, you've got my focus. Don't worry about that."

Kurt smiled that same wide smile he had when Blaine had first accepted his coffee invitation, and couldn't help but laugh a little too. "Well, I've spent the last twenty minutes talking about my Rachel Berry dramas, but I can still count the number of things I know about you on one hand. You're very good with incredibly adorable little girls, you like strong black coffee, and you have a brother."

"A brother who lives in California," Blaine added, and Kurt laughed loudly.

"Oh, my apologies for forgetting that important fact – now I feel like I've known you my whole life!" Kurt grinned again. "Seriously though. Tell me something about yourself. Rant about your brother if you want to. Anything to level up the playing field."

Blaine sat back in the chair, trying to decide where to begin. "Well," he started slowly. "I go to Columbia. I'm in my last year of my English major, and I'm planning on going on to Teachers College next year to get qualified to teach high school English."

Kurt tilted his head. "A teacher. I can see that. I wish my high school English teacher was as hot as you. Although I did have an incredibly attractive Spanish teacher for the last six months of high school." Kurt smiled at the memory. "Mr Martinez. My Spanish grade improved dramatically in those last six months, and it was only a tiny bit related to the fact that Mr Martinez could actually speak Spanish."

Blaine had been fixating on the words 'as hot as you' until the last part of the sentence struck him as odd. "Your previous Spanish teacher couldn't speak Spanish?"

"Nope. That was a shocker to all of us. Apart from Santana."

"I... am lost for words."

Kurt laughed. "Just one of the quirky tales I could tell about William McKinley High. I'm pretty sure at least half of our teachers either weren't qualified or somehow managed to get qualified despite knowing absolutely nothing about their chosen subject. It's like it was a dumping ground for the weirdest collection of teachers ever."

"You seem to have turned out okay."

"Well I'm just an anomaly," Kurt preened, with a cheeky smile that let Blaine know he was joking around. "I somehow managed to get out of there with a decent GPA and Rachel and I got in to NYADA. I graduated last spring."

"A theatre star in the making?" Blaine smiled. "I should probably get your autograph, right?"

"I don't know about that," Kurt shrugged off the compliment with a laugh. "As much as I love performing, there's only room for one star in our apartment and right now, that's Rachel."

"Well that sucks," Blaine commented. "You shouldn't let that put you off."

Kurt smiled and reached forward, patting Blaine's hand on the table. "I appreciate your sincerity without ever having actually seen me perform, but it's really fine. I did an unpaid internship at Vogue.com when I first moved here and I stayed in touch with my mentor after I left. She moved on to Vanity Fair, and as soon as I graduated Isabelle offered me a freelance gig writing theatre reviews, amongst other things. I love it."

"Wow."

"Yeah. It's great. It gives me freedom to do other things, so if one day somebody happens to write a musical with a part just made for me, I'd be able to consider it."

Blaine drained the remaining coffee from his cup and pulled a face. He hadn't realised how long they'd been talking for, and the liquid was now stone cold. "Ugh."

Kurt laughed, looking at his watch before glancing outside, where the snow was still falling pretty heavily. "Doesn't look likely we're going anywhere any time soon," he commented. "How about we go and get some dinner?"

Blaine nodded, shrugging on his jacket and setting his suitcase onto its wheels while Kurt wrapped his scarf back around his neck. "What do you feel like?" They wandered out of Starbucks, stopping to look around as they got out onto the main concourse. "Pizza, steak, Chinese or Italian? Or McDonald's?"

Kurt considered the options in front of him on the map of the terminal. "Let's go for Abitino's," he decided, pointing in the direction of the pizza joint. "Plenty of choice. Although since Rachel is a vegan and we mostly go to her favourite places, the idea of a steak is incredibly tempting. I occasionally just get these insatiable red meat cravings."

"We can go to the Steakhouse if you want," Blaine laughed, making the decision for Kurt and walking off towards Bobby Van's, in the opposite direction to Abitino's. "I have no such aversion to a good chunk of cow." He stopped and looked at Kurt. "That was kind of disgusting, wasn't it?"

"Kind of."

"Has it put you off the idea of steak?"

"Not even a little."

"Me neither."

They walked past the departure boards, pausing for a moment to check that everything was still listed as CANCELLED – they were, though a couple of airlines were still being somewhat optimistic and listing DELAYED instead.

There were a few other people already waiting to be seated when they walked through the door to the restaurant – a couple that Blaine estimated were in their fifties, and a mom and dad with their incredibly bored looking teenage kids. Blaine vaguely recalled seeing them all earlier around the gate area, so he figured they must have taken the standby list option too.

By the time the hostess got to them there were only a few tables left in the place. She seated them at a booth in the corner and left them to consider their menus while she went back to the growing line at the door. They both studied the menu in silence, and after a few minutes a girl in her early twenties with curly blonde hair and a bright smile appeared at their table.

"Hi guys," she chirped, and Blaine couldn't help but grin back at her. "My name is Stacey and I'll be your server today. Can I get you some drinks to get you started?"

Blaine glanced at the menu again. "Can I get a beer?"

Stacey nodded and scribbled it on her pad, and then looked up at Kurt. "Just an iced tea for me, please."

"Sure." Noting that down, she looked back over at Blaine and shrugged apologetically. "I'm just gonna need to see some ID real quick, if that's okay."

"Of course." Blaine reached down into his bag, knowing he had his passport somewhere near the top. While he looked for it, Stacey turned her attention back to Kurt.

"And then are you ready to order, or do you need a little more time?"

"Um," Kurt replied. "I'm ready, but do you...?" he trailed off as Blaine straightened back up and handed Stacey his passport.

"No, no, I'm good. We can order."

Kurt smiled. "Okay – I'll have the sliced steak sandwich, please. Medium rare."

"Of course. And for you?"

Blaine glanced down the menu one last time, making sure there was no sneaky last minute item jumping out at him that he'd missed. "Sliced steak sandwich for me, too. But can I get mine well done?"

"No problem." Stacey made a note of everything and then took back their menus, tucking them under her arm as she slipped her pad back into her apron. "Let me know if you need anything else."

Suddenly finding himself starting to get hot in the packed restaurant, Blaine hooked his forefinger under the collar of his shirt, loosening it a little to try and let some cool air in. He was extra glad he'd decided to forego a bow-tie for travelling, but even his smart slacks and cotton shirt weren't thin enough to stop him from heating right up.

He and Kurt hadn't exchanged words since Stacey headed back into the kitchen, and the silence was starting to slide from comfortable into not-so-comfortable. Kurt was staring at something over Blaine's head and drumming the fingers of one hand on the table, and Blaine wasn't faring much better.

Eventually Kurt cleared his throat. "Is it me, or is this suddenly really awkward?"

Blaine breathed through a relieved laugh. "It really is."

"We should probably find something to talk about and power through it."

"Yeah." Blaine's mind was completely blank. "Any suggestions?"

Kurt wrinkled his nose in thought. "Um."

Blaine's phone chose that moment to light up on the table beside his hand, and he was suddenly glad he'd forgotten to put it back in his bag with his passport after showing Stacey his ID. "Sorry, this is probably Cooper finally gett-" he cut himself off as he realised it was a text message from a number he didn't recognise, and it certainly wasn't Cooper. "Oh!"

"Well?" Kurt teased. "Don't keep me hanging. Is it a selection of appropriate question topics for dinner with a guy you just met at the airport, coincidentally sent at exactly the right time by some cracked out spam sender?"

"No," Blaine replied, swiping to open the message fully and twisting to show the screen to Kurt. "It's from Matt. It's Jessica with the snowman I told him to help her build." As Kurt took the phone with a delighted smile, Blaine added. "But please do let me know where your spam comes from; it sounds super helpful compared to the stuff I get."

Kurt chuckled and passed the phone back to Blaine. Jessica looked absolutely delighted with her snowman – or possibly even snowlady – that was at least twice as big as her. It was wearing a little coat and scarf that Blaine recognised as the ones Matt was wearing earlier. "I just have this image of Matt shivering because Jessica made the snowman wear his jacket while he took this picture."

"The things parents do for their children!"

Blaine couldn't remember the last time his parents had played in the snow with him, but he did have a clear memory of Cooper showing him how they could make their own toffee by warming up maple syrup and letting it set on fresh snow. And he definitely remembers his mom yelling at Cooper for about twenty minutes because Blaine had been completely hopped up on sugar, but Cooper was cool as a cucumber. It was one of his favourite childhood memories, from before Cooper went completely Hollywood. "Yeah."

Kurt frowned as if he realised he'd hit a nerve, but didn't push the matter. "It looks like she's raided the hotel kitchen for carrots, too."

Blaine squinted at his phone. "And I think it has spoons for ears."

They were interrupted by Stacey bringing their drinks over, and Blaine slipped his phone back into his pocket.

"So," Kurt started, taking a sip of his iced tea. "Are you from California originally? I'd love to have warm Christmases."

"Oh, no," Blaine shook his head. "Cooper lives there now, but we're actually both born and raised in Ohio. I'm completely used to having actual seasons. The first year Coop moved out there, he couldn't make it home for the holidays and on Christmas day he emailed me a photo of himself. He'd gone and bought a stupid inflatable snowman and he was standing there in his shorts with his sunglasses on, with the Hollywood sign in the background, holding this snowman. He looked ridiculous."

"You're kidding," Kurt breathed.

"No, he really did that. I told you he's crazy."

"No, no," Kurt laughed, his breath catching a little. "I'm from Ohio too."

Blaine blinked in surprise. "No way."

"Way." Kurt prodded at the ice cubes in his drink with the straw. "And he doesn't sound that crazy to me."

"Next you'll be telling me you were in Vocal Adrenaline."

Kurt coughed, trying to stop himself from either choking on the iced tea or spitting it back out. "How do you know about Vocal Adrenaline?"

Blaine's eyes widened. "You weren't, were you?!"

"No – I – no. I'm from Lima, but Vocal Adrenaline were our rivals my entire time in high school."

"Pretty sure they were the rivals to all glee clubs across Ohio – at least until Miss Corcoran left. Their performance of Bohemian Rhapsody is legendary."

"I was there that day."

"No way."

"Yeah. Regionals of my sophomore year. We won at Sectionals and our glee director Mr Schuester had us all so hyped up, we were convinced we were going to kick Vocal Adrenaline right out of the competition. I mean I guess we'd have been even worse if he hadn't done that, but still, it was a ridiculous suggestion. We were clearly nowhere near their standard."

"I can't believe you're from Lima. I went to Dalton Academy in Westerville." Blaine thought hard, dredging up memories of things he hadn't thought about in years. "We made it to Regionals a couple of times, but we never got any further. I never had the honour of competing against Vocal Adrenaline, though. Or you, I don't think. I'm sure I would have remembered you."

Kurt blushed a little and swizzled his straw in his drink again. "I definitely don't remember ever competing against a school from Westerville," Kurt confirmed. "We did finally manage to out-do Vocal Adrenaline, by the way. My senior year, we won Nationals."

"New Directions!" Blaine exclaimed, his eyes bright. "You said before you went to McKinley High, I knew I recognised the name! You were in New Directions!"

"How-"

"I remember getting a text from my friend Wes about you guys. He'd been the head of the Warblers since before I started at Dalton and he left at the end of my sophomore year. My junior year he couldn't stop himself from stopping by every couple of weeks to see how we were doing and he was convinced this was going to be our year to win. Alas, we didn't even make it past Sectionals, but I got this text from him the day after you guys won saying Vocal Adrenaline have fallen, another from Ohio have taken the crown. That should have been you, Anderson. I could just feel the disappointment oozing from my phone."

"That seems harsh! Surely it wasn't all down to you."

"There was a little... shall we say... pressure on my shoulders. I got most of the solos."

"Oh my god," Kurt laughed, a grin spreading across his face. "You were your Rachel Berry!"

"I was not!" Blaine exclaimed defiantly. He didn't even know this Rachel girl but from the little he'd heard from Kurt, he didn't like the idea of being compared to her. "I didn't want them all, I was forever trying to get other people to take at least one of the competition songs but they just kept telling me that we wouldn't win if I didn't." He took another swig of his beer with another laugh. "Turns out we didn't win even when I did!"

"That's a lot of pressure on such tiny shoulders."

Blaine raised an eyebrow and tried not to laugh. "Is that a short joke? Did you just make a short joke about me?"

Kurt shrugged, smiling sweetly back at Blaine. "Well... I mean... good things come in small packages?"

Blaine snorted. "Right, because I've never heard that one before!"

Before Kurt could reply, Stacey returned to their table with two plates. "Steak sandwich medium rare," she placed one plate down in front of Kurt. "And one well done. Can I get you guys anything else? Any sauces or more drinks?"

"I'm good, thanks," Kurt glanced at Blaine. "You?"

"How about a weather update?"

Stacey laughed. "Still snowing. I'll keep you in the loop."

As she headed back into the kitchen, Kurt looked down at his plate with a happy sigh. "This looks so good."

"Smells great too. I love steak."

Kurt nodded, picking up his knife and fork. "Me too, but do me a favour and never tell my dad. I always feel guilty when I eat excessive amounts of red meat because after he had a health scare when I was still at high school, I spent my entire time forcing him to order chicken or other healthy alternatives."

"It's good that you took such an interest!"

Kurt shrugged slightly. "Yeah. My mom died when I was really young so for a long time it was just the two of us and I wanted to look after him almost as much as he wanted to look after me. But then when I was in tenth grade I introduced him to the mom of a guy I had a crush on-"

"The obvious move."

"-I know, right?" Kurt laughed. "It's mortifying to think of it now, but at the time I think I thought I was a genius by getting Carole and Finn to move in with us so that I could see him whenever I wanted."

"And this Finn.... was he, you know?"

"Gay?" Kurt queried, and Blaine nodded. "Not even a little. It was all very dramatic for a while, but eventually we all figured out that we would work really well as a family, and Dad and Carole got married. She helps me restrict his diet these days, although I'm pretty sure she doesn't stick to the list I gave her." He dug his fork into the salad on his plate. "She's probably pretty sick of the monthly menus I email to her. I moved out four years ago..."

Blaine guffawed, pausing to laugh for a minute before holding down his sandwich with his thumb and forefinger and using his other hand to cut it in half. As he picked up one half, he grinned at Kurt. "I'm sure your dad appreciates the thought."

"Debatable," Kurt laughed, spearing a couple of fries. "I'm just glad he has Carole. I probably never would have left home if he didn't."

"And that would have been New York's loss," Blaine nodded decisively. "And on the bright side, you at least seem to have graduated to hitting on guys who are actually gay!"

Kurt had been taking a sip of iced tea and found himself fighting a coughing fit as he swallowed too much at Blaine's words. "Um."

"Oh god, I mean – that is, if that's what's been happening here. I shouldn't have said that. Pretend I didn't. I'll just go back to my steak."

Once Kurt had his coughing under control, he stared at Blaine, amused at his rambling. "That's what's happening, Blaine. Calm down."

Blushing, Blaine ducked his head and smiled down at his sandwich before looking back up at Kurt. "Okay. Cool." Kurt turned his attention back to his sandwich, carefully cutting it into squares and using his fork to eat it. Blaine felt a little self-conscious as he went back to his own meal, using both hands to pick up the remaining half of his sandwich and bite into it.

They ate in a comfortable silence until Blaine had finished his sandwich. Just as he was wiping his hands clean on his napkin, his phone started to ring. Sighing, he fished around in his bag for it and when he saw it was Cooper he cancelled the call, tossing the phone onto the seat next to him. "Just my brother," he explained. "He can wait." He still had a pile of fries on his plate, he wasn't going to let Cooper interrupt his dinner.

Kurt drained the last of his iced tea from his glass, making a loud gargling noise through the straw as he did so. "I'm going to get another drink, do you want something?" As he spoke he spotted Stacey approaching behind Blaine's shoulder, and waved her over.

"Is everything okay for you guys? Still snowing, by the way," Stacey grinned, pulling out her pad.

"Everything's great, thank you," Blaine replied, munching on one of his fries.

"Can I get a white wine, please? Just whatever's the house special would be fine," Kurt smiled, handing her his ID before she could ask to see it.

"Sure. Glass or bottle?"

"Oh god, glass. I'll be asleep within the hour if you bring me a bottle."

Blaine cleared his throat a little. "Actually, wine sounds good to me. If you want to get a bottle, we could split it?" He grinned. "Then it might take you two hours to fall asleep."

"Sounds perfect."

"Awesome. I'll be right back with a bottle and two glasses."

Kurt pinned down another square of his steak sandwich with his fork, twisting it around on the plate before eating it. "I didn't realise how starving I was until this amazing smell was put in front of me."

Blaine checked his watch. "Well, we would have landed by now if the flight had taken off on time – so I guess you probably would have been getting something to eat with Rachel."

"Yeah. And I don't like to fly on a full stomach – no real reason, just a weird habit I picked up – so apart from that cookie earlier, I hadn't had anything since breakfast." He watched as Stacey set down two glasses in front of them and started to pour. "Hence ordering the iced tea until I'd eaten something."

"Ah," Blaine laughed. "I thought I probably came across as an alcoholic, or something. So what's drunk Kurt like? What have you robbed me of?"

"I would have probably been super chatty for about twenty minutes and then thrown up on your shoes."

"So not a huge loss to me, then? It's not like you would have been dancing on the tables or something?"

"No."

"And my shoes are safe now, right? Because I'm probably going to be wearing them for at least another twenty-four hours, so I really don't want to have to wash them."

Kurt rolled his eyes fondly. "Your shoes are safe, smart-ass. Like I said, I can't guarantee I won't fall asleep on you at some point, but I'm not anticipating throwing up."

"Excellent news." Blaine's phone started to buzz again on the seat beside him and he picked it up, sighing as soon as he saw Cooper's face filling the screen.

"You can get that, you know. I won't be offended."

Blaine shook his head, cancelling the call again. "No – I'll call him back after dinner. Everything always has to be on his schedule. He can wait just this once, now that he's apparently actually interested in my plans."

"Sounds fair." Kurt finished the last piece of his sandwich, setting his fork down on the plate and leaning back in his seat.

"Top up?" Blaine asked, reaching for the wine bottle and holding it near Kurt's glass until Kurt nodded. Blaine topped up his own glass after Kurt's, and then sat back in his own seat, mirroring Kurt's pose.

"This is actually the most relaxed I've been in months," Kurt sighed happily. "Maybe I should book cancelled flights more often."

"Me too. It's the first time I can remember that I haven't had my mind on some assignment or another. Cooper actually told me that if I brought any school work with me, he would recycle it."

Kurt gaped at Blaine. "No! Seriously?"

"Yeah," Blaine nodded. "The thing about Cooper is that it's hard to get a read on him. Either he was deadly serious and he will go through all of my things while I'm sleeping just to be sure I'm not hiding my laptop under the bed, or he'll have completely forgotten he ever said anything. I just thought it wasn't worth the risk, and I'm actually kind of glad." He took another sip of his wine and smiled at Kurt. "I made sure I finished all of my assignments before I left, and I do have a couple of tests when school starts back up again but I'll have enough time to study for those when I get home."

"I know what you mean. I was working right up until this morning, going through edits on my last article over the phone. I actually just hung up before my cab arrived. I even locked my Blackberry in Isabelle's desk at work so that I can't be tempted to check my emails. That one was her idea."

"It's a weird feeling."

"Hey guys," Stacey stopped by their table to take away their plates. "Sorry to interrupt. Was everything okay for you tonight?"

"Perfect, thank you," Blaine smiled, and Kurt nodded in agreement.

"Awesome. Can I get you guys anything else? A coffee, or the dessert menu?"

Kurt wrinkled up his nose in thought, and then leant forward across the table closer to Blaine. "I could really go for some cheesecake. We are on vacation, after all."

Blaine nodded, swallowing hard. This was starting to feel more and more like a date, but for some reason since their initial awkward silence, he didn't feel anywhere near as nervous as he normally did on a date. Maybe it was down to this having happened so naturally and he hadn't had time to get worked up about it. Or maybe it was just because Kurt was really great.

"Cheesecake sounds awesome."

Stacey nodded, balancing their empty plates on her arm like they were nothing. "One each, or to share?"

"Um," Blaine shrugged helplessly, turning to Kurt. "Whatever you think."

"We'll share," Kurt smiled at Blaine and then up at Stacey. "This may be a vacation but let's not go overboard."

Stacey laughed. "Sure. I'll be right back with that."

Kurt balled up his napkin and set it down on the seat beside him. "I'm just going to the bathroom while we're waiting," he explained.

Blaine smiled and nodded, picking up his phone from the seat beside him as Kurt made his way through the chairs and tables to the bathroom. Cooper had left a voicemail after one of his calls, so Blaine hit the dial button and listened to the message.

"Blainey! Why aren't you picking up? Are you on a flight yet? Call me as soon as you get this, I need to know what time you land so I can get the producers to make the arrangements. Call me."

Blaine sighed. Anything that involved the producers of Cooper's show always worried him, so he scrolled through his contacts until he found his brother and hit dial.

"Squirt!" Cooper exclaimed in answer. Blaine hated that nickname, but over the years he'd stopped complaining about it. He was hoping that if he stopped letting Cooper know it annoyed him, he'd stop using it, but deep down he knew it was pretty unlikely.

"Hey Coop. I'm still at the airport, it's still snowing."

"Damn, B, that sucks. So you won't be getting out here tonight?"

"Not tonight, no." Blaine took another gulp of wine. "Hopefully sometime tomorrow, but I'll just have to wait and see. I'm on standby."

"Haven't you told them who I am? I needed you here tonight, Blainey."

Blaine frowned. "Wait – why? Why specifically tonight? Is everything okay?" As Kurt slipped back into the booth, Blaine covered the speaker and whispered to him. "I'm sorry – I'll go take this outside. I'll be right back."

He made a move to get out of the booth but Kurt reached for his wrist, shaking his head. "No," he whispered. "It's fine, really." He pulled his own phone out and Blaine smiled gratefully, settling himself back in his seat and turning his attention back to his brother.

"Well," Cooper whined, making the word last as long as possible. "There's a big party tonight and I thought it would look really great if there was some footage of us together."

"Coop, no. I already told you no."

"Look, B – the producers think-"

"I don't care what the producers think, Coop!" Blaine hissed. "I don't want to be on camera. I told you that when I agreed to come."

"I know you did, but-"

"No, no buts. You said it would be okay."

"But you're young and hot and you'd be really great for ratings." Cooper paused. "And they got wind that you were coming and they said I can't stop them from filming in the apartment, something about my contract, and if I refuse then they can kick me out because they own it and I would be violating my terms or whatever."

Blaine groaned in frustration. "Cooper, I am not going to be part of your stupid show. I'm going to be a teacher, I can't be associated with reality television. No students would take me seriously if I was on your show." He sighed. "It's fine. I'll get a motel."

"But Squirt-"

"Will you stop calling me that!" Blaine yelled, and then ducked his head in embarrassment. "I'll call you when I know more. I'll get a motel when I land – you can pay for it."

He hung up without saying goodbye, and exhaled angrily. He should have known better than to call Cooper until after dinner, he could already feel all of his relaxation fading away. He looked up at Kurt, who was staring at him, his eyes wide. "Sorry, Kurt."

Kurt blinked again, clearly gathering his words. "Is... is your brother Cooper Anderson? From The Show Must Go On?"

Blaine had his head in his hands, pressing his fingers into his eyes in frustration. "Um."

Kurt hastily held his hands up in apology. "I mean – you don't have to tell me, obviously, it's your family stuff, it's fine. It's just that I only just made the connection that his name is Cooper and you said your name is Anderson, and I wasn't eavesdropping I just couldn't help but overhear-"

"It's fine," Blaine smiled. It was the first time he'd seen Kurt flustered and he couldn't help but find it too cute to be irritated at the question. "Yes. My brother is that Cooper Anderson. Please tell me you don't watch his show?"

Kurt tapped one finger against his lips, clearly trying to avoid meeting Blaine's eyes. "I..."

Blaine groaned. "Oh my god, you do."

"It's a guilty pleasure thing! When I have deadlines and I'm so stressed I think my head might explode, I watch an episode of that show." He cleared his throat. "And then a few more episodes. And then sometimes it turns into an entire night. Is he really sleeping with both of those girls? No, wait, don't tell me."

"He's not," Blaine sighed. "Or at least, not as far as I know. I think a lot of the relationship stuff is scripted. I try to avoid watching the show, but it's really hard to ignore it when you walk into the grocery store and your brother's face is all over the front of every copy of In Touch and Us Weekly."

Kurt nodded sympathetically but he was biting his lip and Blaine could tell he had more questions. And weirdly, he didn't mind Kurt asking them as much as he usually hated it when people tried to talk to him about Cooper's show.

"Go on," Blaine smiled, moving his wine glass to the side to make room on the table as Stacey deposited their cheesecake with a smile and then rushed off to another customer who was calling her over. "I can tell you have more to say."

Kurt picked up his fork and took a mouthful of cheesecake while he thought. "You really don't watch the show?"

Blaine shook his head. "Not if I can help it. I've seen clips, but no. Not an entire episode."

"He talks about you sometimes. He's super proud of you."

"He – really?"

Kurt nodded. "Not all the time, but now I know it's you... he tells people about his little brother who's at an Ivy League school and is going to be a teacher."

"Does he mention that I'm gay?"

Kurt was a little taken aback by the question and stopped to think. "I – yeah, I think he has mentioned it once or twice. Once he was at a Trevor Project gala, so it came up."

"Ratings."

"Oh Blaine," Kurt sighed. "He loves you, that's obvious. Maybe he's encouraged to talk about you, but – and please don't be offended by this – I don't think he's a good enough actor to say those things if he doesn't really mean them."

Blaine coughed, almost choking on his cheesecake with surprise as he started to laugh. "No, you're right. He's really not good."

Kurt grinned back at him, eating another forkful of cheesecake. "Let's change the subject. I have a stack of episodes waiting on my DVR and if we keep talking about Cooper you might drop a bunch of spoilers on me."

Blaine rolled his eyes, laughing. "Deal. No more talking about my brother." At that exact second, his phone started to ring again and he picked it up to see Cooper's face lighting up the screen once again. "I swear he's psychic or something."

"No, just annoying like big brothers are meant to be," Kurt smiled, holding out his hand. "Give me your phone."

"What? Why?" Without even waiting for an answer, Blaine dropped his phone into Kurt's outstretched palm and watched as Kurt answered the call.

"Cooper, hi, this is Kurt. Your brother's on a date right now so we'd appreciate if you'd just call back in the morning? Okay? Thanks." Kurt hung up and handed the phone back to Blaine with a cheeky grin.

Blaine stared down at the phone for a minute before looking back at Kurt. Kurt was staring at him expectantly. "We're on a date?"

Kurt nodded. "I'm pretty sure that somewhere along the way that's what it turned into, yeah."

"Huh." Blaine breathed out, trying to keep his voice steady when it felt like his heart was about to beat right out of his chest. "Then just so you know, at some point, I'm probably going to kiss you."

Kurt pressed his lips together happily and lowered his voice. "I'm really hoping you will."

"Not right now, though," Blaine caught Stacey's eye as she was passing with an armful of dishes and she nodded at him, indicting she'd be over as soon as she could. He turned back to Kurt. "Because there ought to be an element of surprise." Before Kurt could respond, Stacey stopped at the side of their booth. "Could we get the check, please?"

"Sure!" She took away their empty cheesecake plate and glasses, and by the time she returned Blaine had just about gotten his heart rate back under control. They split the bill and left Stacey a generous tip, and then they stood to leave.

"Now what?" Blaine murmured as they walked out of the restaurant side by side, close enough that their shoulders touched as they walked while they both pulled their carry-on bags with their outside hand. Blaine was glad he'd chosen one with wheels, because he was finding himself having to do a lot more walking around with it than he had anticipated. "More coffee? Um, what else do they even have at this terminal? I feel like I'm Tom Hanks."

Kurt turned around in a circle, as if he were looking for something. "Aha – over there," he pointed at a sports bar. "I overheard some people talking on my way back from the bathroom and apparently they're having a karaoke night in there – they're staying open later than usual, too. They've got some gear stashed away for nights like tonight when a lot of flights are grounded and passengers are stuck." He looked at Blaine for confirmation if this was a good idea or not. "We could get another bottle of wine and maybe sing a couple of songs? I'd love to hear you since I never got to see you perform with your glee club."

"Sounds perfect," Blaine beamed, and they headed towards the unit Kurt had pointed out. "As long as you promise the second bottle of wine won't make you fall asleep."

"Somehow I don't think either of us will be getting a lot of sleep tonight."

Blaine stopped and stared at Kurt, a smirk playing on his lips as he teased. "Is that what you say to all of the guys you go out on dates with?"

"Oh, ha ha," Kurt stuck his tongue out, pushing Blaine in the shoulder even while he was laughing. "You know what I meant. Those chairs back at the gate are not comfortable enough for sleeping."

Blaine hummed in agreement and unzipped the top of his bag, pulling it open enough that Kurt could see inside. "Good thing I've got precautions then, huh?"

"Blaine – is that a sleeping bag?" Kurt looked up at Blaine, his eyes wide with wonder as Blaine nodded. "Well at least one of us will be getting some sleep."

Blaine cleared his throat. "I, uh. I actually have two."

Kurt looked between Blaine and the bag a few times before speaking. "Answer me something honestly?" Blaine nodded, and his mouth dried up as he waited for the question. Whatever Kurt was about to ask, it seemed serious. "Were you ever a boy scout?"

Blaine burst out laughing and closed the zip on his bag, looping his arm through Kurt's and dragging him towards the sports bar. "Maybe."

Kurt cackled as he skipped a little to catch up. "Oh my god, you were."

"Fine, yes. For a couple of years."

"That's adorable. I can just imagine a tiny little Blaine out in the woods lighting fires and tying knots."

The bar was getting full, but as Blaine's eyes adjusted to the dimmer light he noticed a couple putting on their jackets in a corner booth. He tugged Kurt in that direction, standing just far enough away that it wouldn't look like he was hounding them to leave, but close enough that they'd be able to snag the table when the couple left.

As soon as they'd gone, Blaine slid into the booth and Kurt shoved both of their bags under the table before slipping in alongside Blaine. "Got to be able to see the stage if there's karaoke happening," Kurt explained, answering why he hadn't taken the seat opposite without Blaine having to ask. Not that Blaine would have asked, of course. He wasn't going to complain about having Kurt pressed up so close beside him. "Anyway, you haven't told me why you brought two sleeping bags to the airport."

Blaine shrugged. "I just had a feeling there might be a delay and thought it might be a good idea to have something more comfortable to lie on than a balled up sweater." He reached out to look at the list of speciality beers and cocktails while he was talking. "And I figured either I could use the second one to lie on to make the floor less hard, or there might be somebody else that had nothing."

Kurt smiled fondly. "Well aren't you just the kindest and most thoughtful person I've met since I moved to this city?"

Blaine smiled, resting his elbow on the edge of the table and leaning his cheek against his fist "I don't know. Am I?"

Kurt nudged him in the side with a roll of his eyes. "Stop fishing for compliments. I'll go get us some drinks – you want the wine, or would you prefer a beer?"

"Um," Blaine stalled, scanning the list again. "Beer, actually." He pointed one out. "This one says it's chocolate."

"That sounds disgusting," Kurt commented, taking note of the name. "I'll be right back."

Blaine watched as Kurt found a route between chairs and tables and made his way to the bar. Most of the screens were still showing various sports, but there were a couple around the room which were showing a load screen from a karaoke DVD, and a bartender was setting up screens and a microphone on the little stage off to the side. They had a perfect view of everything but more importantly, thanks to being right in the corner they would still be able to talk if they wanted to.

He was itching to get up and take a look at the book so that he could choose a song, but he couldn't abandon the table until Kurt got back and even then he didn't particularly want to be first. That would just reinforce Kurt's idea that he'd been the Warblers lead soloist through his own choice rather than by default and the sheer force of the other guys. He was, however, thrilled at the idea of getting to see Kurt sing. None of the guys he'd dated in the past had been able to – or willing to – sing. For some reason, Blaine just couldn't picture himself ending up with somebody who had no music in their soul. He hadn't thought it was important to him, but he was increasingly starting to believe that maybe it was. Which probably explained why none of those relationships had lasted more than a couple of months each.

Kurt, on the other hand, was turning out to be a pretty great guy. And as much as he had never really believed in fate before, everything about this night just seemed a little too perfect to be a coincidence – even right down to having to spend one less night with Cooper.

Kurt returned to the table with Blaine's beer and a glass of... something... for himself. "If you brought beer for me and iced tea for you just so you could amuse yourself by watching me get drunk, I'll..." Blaine trailed off.

"You'll what?" Kurt raised an eyebrow as he slid back into the booth. "What will you do?"

"Well it'd just be super unfair," Blaine finished, lamely.

"It's alcoholic iced tea. With peach schnapps and sweet tea vodka."

Blaine's eyes widened. "That sounds almost lethal!" He reached his hand out towards Kurt's glass. "Can I try it?"

Kurt nodded and pushed the glass in Blaine's direction, and Blaine swivelled the straw out of the way so that he could sip from the side of the glass instead. "Ack," he replied, scrunching up his nose and sticking his tongue out in disgust. "Well I definitely believe it has alcohol in it."

Kurt laughed, taking the glass back and taking a sip through the straw. "It's not even that strong."

"No, but I don't like iced tea."

"Then why did you want to try it, you big idiot?"

Blaine shrugged. "I like peach schnapps." He took a drink of his beer to take the taste away. "Wanna try my chocolate stout?"

Kurt pulled a face. "No thank you. That one's all yours." He cleared his throat. "See, I know how to say no if I don't like something."

"You're clearly smarter than me."

"'Smarter than I'," Kurt corrected, teasingly. "I thought you wanted to teach English?"

"I don't want to teach anybody anything after two beers and half a bottle of wine," Blaine moaned, dropping his head down onto the table in mock frustration, feeling too lazy to try to decide whether Kurt's correction was even right. When Kurt didn't say anything, he opened one eye and twisted his head to see Kurt looking down at him, shaking his head in amusement. "You can't judge me."

Blaine sat back up, leaning his elbow on the table again and resting his cheek on the palm of his hand. A girl had just taken the stage and started to murder My Heart Will Go On – if Blaine had a least favourite song to listen to other people do at karaoke, it would probably be this one.

"So," Kurt started, discretely plugging the ear nearest the stage with his finger. "What's your favourite- um. I mean, do you-" He winced just as the girl hit the chorus. "Man, she is terrible."

Blaine snorted. "She's kind of a conversation killer, that's for sure."

"I knew a girl like her once. All confidence, zero talent." He looked back to the stage and squinted, double checking. "Nope, that's definitely not Sugar." He sucked on his straw again and Blaine tried not to stare. "I mean don't get me wrong, she was crazy and a sweetheart and she was great at making up the numbers and dancing in the background, but everything went much smoother once she accepted we weren't going to let her sing. Karaoke nights though, she was allowed to sing as much as she wanted. As a compromise."

"So you guys were close? As a group, I mean? It sounds like you were."

Kurt nodded. "It was kind of us against the world." He swirled his straw around in his drink. "Glee club was the lowest of the low - at McKinley at least. Even though at any given time we could all be fighting with each other for different reasons, we would always stick together against the outside world. Especially if it involved a slushie to the face." He paused, thinking about the memory. "I haven't seen Sugar in a while, but I know if I ran in to her it would be like no time had passed. I see a lot of them whenever we're all back in Lima, and I live with Rachel and Santana so obviously I see them the most, but I'd definitely still consider them all my friends. It's like we survived a war together. What about you? Do you still see your fellow Warblers?"

Blaine nodded. "It's mostly texts and emails these days, but this will be the first year I'm going to miss the Warbler Christmas party."

"How will they cope without their leader?"

Blaine snorted. "Hey, I was the lead soloist, I wasn't the leader. We were a democratic body with three elected council leaders... and no matter how many times we had that drilled into us, we all knew that Wes was the one in charge. Even after he graduated he came back to make sure our performances were arranged to his standards. Couldn't let the school down."

"I think we were always expected to let the school down so any time we did anything good, we got around a week's grace before the slushies and insults started back up again. Those were always good times. So your glee club was actually something the cool kids did, huh? What was that like?"

"It was amazing. But don't get me wrong – I think some of the Warblers just assumed that's what things were always going to be like in life, but I had some experience of the kind of thing you're talking about. I actually went to a different high school before Dalton - there was no glee club there, but I was encouraged by the teachers to join all of the drama clubs and anything that involved any kind of performing. I started there right after Cooper landed his first TV gig - even though it was just a commercial, everybody knew I was 'Cooper's Brother' because he'd gone to that school too, and they were expecting me to be a mini version of him."

"But you weren't?"

Blaine just looked at Kurt, raising an eyebrow and laughing a little. "You've seen his show. Do I come across as Cooper lite to you?"

Kurt snorted. "Well, no. I don't think I'd be talking to you if you did." He paused. "So how come you changed schools?"

"I..." Blaine took a deep breath, trying to get the words right in his head. Usually he would do anything to avoid talking about his first high school and why he left, but for some reason he wanted to tell Kurt the whole story. Well. Edited highlights, maybe.

"I'm sorry - I'm prying. I shouldn't have asked that."

Blaine shook his head again. "No - it's fine." He swallowed, trying to figure out where in the story to start. He decided diving right in was the best course of action. "I decided to join the drama club as a compromise to keep people happy. I don't know whether it was actually down to my talent or just because they thought they should give 'Cooper's Brother' the good parts to make sure they kept my family on side, but they cast me as the lead in the fall play."

"I'm sure it was your talent," Kurt smiled encouragingly.

"Maybe. Of course, the play happened to be Romeo and Juliet. The girl playing Juliet was sweet – one of the nicer cheerleaders – and after a few rehearsals we ended up dating. At the time that seemed like an awesome idea."

"But?"

"But there was this boy."

Kurt nudged Blaine's knee with his own, a knowing smile on his lips. "Ah. A boy."

Blaine smiled. "Yeah. He was super quiet and I just found him... intriguing. He had signed up to work behind the scenes and one afternoon I'd stayed late for an extra Math class. I stopped by the auditorium to pick up my costume to take home and try it on, and he was there painting the sets. We started talking, and talking led to..."

"Kissing?"

"A little kissing," Blaine confirmed, smiling at the memory. "And then I started staying behind after school more often, claiming I was there to help him paint the sets. And I did help him with that, but there was also always the kissing, and of course one afternoon my Juliet walked in on us. There was no coming back from that - she walked out completely calmly and I naively thought she hadn't seen us, until I arrived at school the next day and from the way people were staring at me I just knew she'd told everybody. I'd gone from one half of the power couple to the villain overnight and I completely closed myself off to everybody. I pulled out of the play and rarely left my house except to go to school."

Blaine had one hand around his beer and the other, the hand nearest to Kurt, was resting on his leg, his fingers tapping restlessly. Kurt slid his hand on top of Blaine's, stilling his fingers. "What happened next?"

"That boy - Julian, ironically - came to my house one night and invited me to prom. And I just thought you know what - fuck them all. Let's do it. So we went, and..." Blaine sighed, putting his glass down and using the free hand to rub the bridge of his nose. Kurt squeezed the other hand, as if he sensed Blaine's anguish. "And once again I thought it was fine until some football players beat the crap out of us in the parking lot afterwards."

Kurt's hand flew off Blaine's and up to his mouth, his eyes wide. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. We were both sore but okay, but after I got checked over at the hospital and sent home I had to have a discussion with my parents. My dad avoided using the word 'gay' but my mom was calmer, and kinder, and they decided that I should go to a different school where nobody knew who I was. Somewhere with no Cooper connection and no bad memories."

"Blaine, that's..."

Blaine shook his head, finding Kurt's hand again and squeezing it back in thanks for his sympathy. "It's fine. I'm fine. We've all gone through stuff, right? It's not my favourite memory to relive and I don't talk about it much, but I truly believe it's made me stronger now. I'm a lot braver."

"Thank you for sharing, then."

"You're welcome. Now, tell me about these slushies."

Blaine hoped that Kurt would take the hint and let him change the subject, and there was understanding in Kurt's eyes when he smiled and replied. "Ugh, they were awful. The syrup would get right in your eyes – the grape was the worst, for some reason. I mean, even if it wasn't a colour that-"

Kurt suddenly stopped when he heard their names being called from the stage. Grinning, he grabbed Blaine's hand and Blaine followed him up to the karaoke machine, confused.

"When the hell did you sign us up?"

"When I was at the bar," Kurt grinned, still holding Blaine's hand as he tugged him towards the stage. "The book was just sitting there when I was waiting for our drinks while they finished setting up."

"What are we singing?" Blaine hissed, taking the microphone that the guy on stage was holding out to him and stepping beside Kurt, looking out at a sea of faces.

"You'll see," Kurt replied in a sing-song voice, and Blaine felt excitement rising in his chest. He had absolutely no doubt that Kurt would have picked a song he at least knew, but he wasn't even worried it would be something he hated. He was just going to go with it. Tonight was turning out to be the most fun he'd had in forever.

The lyrics popped up on the screen just before the song started and Blaine let out a delighted laugh as the Spice Girls' Stop began to play. Kurt nudged Blaine gently and pointed at the screen, and Blaine realised Kurt wanted him to take the first couple of lines. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath, turning on his charm and launching into the song.

"You just walk in, I make you smile, it's cool but you don't even know me." He looked over at Kurt and Kurt nodded again, so Blaine carried on with the next line too. "You take an inch, I run a mile - can't win, you're always right behind me."

He saw Kurt lift his microphone and Blaine took a step back when he'd finished his line, letting Kurt take the next two lines. "And we know that you could go and find some other, take or leave it or just don't even bother," Kurt sang, and Blaine was mesmerized by his voice. "Caught in a craze, it's just a phase - or will this be around forever."

Blaine chimed in for the bridge, blending his voice with Kurt's as Kurt reached out to set his mic back in its stand. Just before they reached the chorus, Blaine suddenly realised what Kurt was doing and fumbled to get his microphone in the stand too. Kurt beamed and nodded in confirmation, and they burst into the chorus together with their hands free to do the dance moves. Blaine had danced in his bedroom to this song more times than he cared to admit, and Kurt was a genius for choosing it.

The rest of the song went by in a flash. They alternated lines and joined together for the choruses, Blaine happily boogying on the spot when Kurt was singing. By the time they reached the last couple of lines they were pressed back to back, each holding their microphone in one hand and throwing their free arm up to the sky for a finishing pose that would easily of outscored any finishing move Blaine had ever attempted on Just Dance.

As the last notes faded away they turned to face their audience and Blaine felt himself flushing at the applause they were getting. Kurt slipped his hand down to his side and laced his fingers through Blaine's, squeezing them gently as they both took a slightly embarrassed bow and handed their microphones back to the bored bartender who had been tasked with running the karaoke.

"Next up, we got...uh... Jeffrey," the guy announced in a monotone as Blaine followed Kurt down from the stage and back towards their booth, their fingers still joined and Blaine's adrenaline still pumping. He didn't turn around to look back at the stage, just sped up his steps so that he was pressed close to Kurt, only just leaving enough space between them so that they didn't trip over each other's feet. They reached the booth just as the opening notes to The Final Countdown filled the bar and a laugh caught in Blaine's throat that he couldn't stop from escaping. He tugged on Kurt's hand, making him spin around in surprise just as he was about to slide into the booth.

"Did you-" Kurt started, but Blaine stopped him before he could get any further. He pressed his lips to Kurt's, a combination of the post-performance excitement and alcohol giving him a burst of confidence that he couldn't be sure he'd have again. At least probably not tonight.

Blaine felt Kurt's lips part slightly and Kurt freed his fingers from where they were still laced with Blaine's, bringing his palm up to cup Blaine's cheek instead. Blaine's hands settled comfortably at Kurt's waist, just as Kurt pulled back from the kiss. His pale cheeks had the faintest blush of colour across them and he was smiling at Blaine, slightly breathless. "I was going to asked if you enjoyed that, but I think I got my answer."

Blaine laughed, nodding. Kurt pulled on Blaine's shirt sleeve and they tripped back into the booth, Kurt switching their glasses around now that they'd ended up sitting in opposite seats. Blaine watched as he rested his elbow against the back of the booth so that he could twist to face Blaine comfortably, the coy smile still playing on Kurt's lips as he started to speak. "So if someone had told me when I left for the airport that this was on the cards for tonight, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have believed them."

Blaine laughed. "I know. I never thought I'd be glad about a flight cancellation leaving me stranded in the airport, but here we are."

Kurt grinned. "And you're not just happy because you have to spend less time with your brother now either, right?"

Blaine reached for his bottle, taking a sip of his now lukewarm beer before turning back to Kurt, trying to keep his face straight even though he knew he would fail miserably. "Nope." After a short pause for dramatic effect, he added, "only like ninety percent because of that."

"Hey," Kurt laughed, flicking his thumb against his forefinger where his hand was resting near Blaine's ear.

Blaine grinned. "Eighty? Sixty?"

Blaine's breath caught in his throat as Kurt leant towards him again, capturing his lips in a gentle kiss. "How about now?"

"Um," Blaine breathed. "Cooper who?"

"You're such a charmer," Kurt teased as he took a sip of his drink, swirling what was left of the ice with the straw. "Rachel's been trying to set me up with guys recently and it's been a string of one horrible date after another. One or two of them weren't even gay and they hadn't realised they were meant to be dates. It was pretty awkward when they found out."

Blaine snorted, caught off guard and accidentally blowing into his beer which made it bubble up the neck. "I can only imagine!"

"A few weeks ago I told her to stop and that I wasn't going to meet up with anybody else she wanted me to date. I was just tired, and I figured someone would probably come along right when I've stopped looking. I'm not usually one to believe in fate, but..."

"You can't help but wonder, right?" Blaine finished, and then asked a question that had been on his mind since they went up to the stage to sing. "How did you know I would know that song?"

Kurt laughed a delighted chuckle that Blaine decided he absolutely had to make Kurt do again and again for the rest of their lives. Not that he was getting carried away in the moment, or anything. He just thought it was probably best if he didn't say the 'forever' part aloud just yet.

"When I first came over to talk to you earlier, you pulled out your headphones but you didn't stop the music right away. I caught the cover art on the screen and when I saw the incredibly nineties listings in the karaoke book I figured it would be the perfect thing. The fact you knew the dance moves too was just more than I could have hoped for."

"There's a lot of nineties stuff in the book?"

Kurt nodded, chewing on his straw. "I don't think they wanted to spend money on equipment or updated music when they only use it occasionally. The speakers were pretty dusty."

"Interesting."

"You're thinking about what you can sing next, aren't you?" Kurt queried and Blaine nodded bashfully. "I think you should do a solo so that I can appreciate your performance fully from out here."

Blaine laughed quietly and drained the last of the drink in his glass. "Maybe later. I don't want to be a stage hog." He reached down, fishing around in his bag for his wallet. "Same again?"

"Sure," Kurt smiled. "But can you get some water too?"

Blaine nodded and headed for the bar, his head swimming a little. It was partly the alcohol in his system, but he knew it was mostly that he was overwhelmed how far he'd gotten away from what he'd expected to be doing tonight. He hadn't been on a date in over a year, and when questioned by his friends or by Cooper he always claimed it was just because he wanted to concentrate on his school work. But in reality he knew it was mostly down to him just not having met anybody that he really felt like he clicked with. He might only be 21 but lately he'd been watching all of his friends pair up and move in with people and he was beginning to wonder if he was going to end up alone forever.

While the bartender was putting together their drinks, he wandered over to the side of the stage to have a look at the selections for the karaoke machine. Kurt wasn't kidding when he said they'd obviously bought this kit in the nineties – after deliberating for a few minutes, he finally chose some Backstreet Boys over 'N Sync or Britney, and headed back to the bar to collect the drinks and pay.

He returned to the table just as Kurt was slipping his phone back into his bag. He set the tray of drinks down on the table – one beer, one cocktail, two empty glasses and a pitcher of water and ice – and started to pour water into their glasses. It had been a good idea of Kurt's - it was getting hot in there and he definitely didn't want to let the booze get to his head any more than it already had.

"Listen," Kurt started as Blaine slipped back into the booth. "You can say no if you want, but I have a spare ticket for Rachel's off-Broadway debut in January. Would you like to be my date?"

Blaine smiled broadly as he gulped down some of the cold water, shaking off the slight brain freeze before he answered. "Why on earth would I say no to that?"

Kurt wrinkled his nose. "Because it's probably going to be terrible, and it might involve you meeting Rachel."

"Ah," Blaine laughed. "Well, I think I can cope. Are you reviewing it?"

Kurt shrugged slightly. "I'm not supposed to, since I live with her. Which would actually work out well for me because I wouldn't have to figure out how to tread the line between best friend bias and lying." Kurt suddenly tilted his head and stared at Blaine. "But..."

"What? You look like you're having a thought."

"Well, I did tell Isabelle I'd find a reviewer and if I couldn't I'd just have to do it myself with a fake name and try not to offend Rachel too much. Maybe you could help me form a non-biased opinion, Mr English Major."

Blaine raised his eyebrows. "You want to turn our first non-airport date into work? And make me do the work?"

"Well," Kurt smiled, moving his mouth close to Blaine's ear and lowering his voice. "I was thinking more that if you're going to help me write the review, we'd be forced to extend the date past the end of the show and work together late into the night to get it done. And by that point, what would be the point in you going home?"

Blaine's mouth was suddenly dry as a bone. "If you put it like that," he croaked, reaching for his water to quench his sudden thirst. "That sounds like a really good idea."

"I thought so," Kurt smirked, straightening himself back up. "Now tell me what song you picked. I saw you over by the sign-up sheet."

"Oh no," Blaine laughed. "I'm not telling. You'll just have to wait and see."

"Is it Britney? I bet it's Britney."

"I'm not telling!" Blaine grinned, secretly pleased he'd decided against his usual go-to karaoke choice of Stronger.

"It's so Britney."

"It's not Britney."

"Aha!" Kurt cackled. "I knew you'd crack."

"You still don't know what the song is," Blaine whined. Now he wished he'd picked Britney but told Kurt he hadn't. He wondered if it was too late to change the song without Kurt realising.

Kurt just laughed, and then reached out towards Blaine, settling his arms around his neck. He leaned in for another kiss and Blaine shifted in his seat, settling into a comfortable position and relaxing in Kurt's arms as they kissed.

They stayed like that for longer than Blaine realised, not really pulling apart until Blaine heard his name being called from the stage. He felt like a teenager again, losing track of time making out with a cute boy in the corner – although wasn't sure there'd ever been a time he felt this comfortable. He figured it was probably Julian, the last time he'd felt like kissing was something special in its own right, rather than just as part of what came before sex. Blaine's last two boyfriends had been sweet enough but unlike in the far too detailed relationship stories his friends always unloaded onto him, he'd never really been that into making out on the couch in front of a movie or spending lazy Sunday mornings just kissing in bed without it leading somewhere else.

On the plus side, it had stopped him feeling like he was missing anything much when those relationships inevitably ended.

"Blaine," Kurt whispered, nudging him slightly with his shoulder as he straightened himself up and reached for his drink, which was once again full of mostly melted ice. "They're calling you."

"Mm?" Blaine shook himself out of his thoughts and scrambled to get to his feet. Before he could get away, Kurt took a fistful of the back of his shirt and pulled him back for one more kiss. "Kick ass up there. And don't think you're getting out of telling me what you were thinking about when you get back."

Blaine checked his watch as he headed up for the stage. It was almost eleven – that meant it was just over six hours since Kurt first introduced himself, almost four since they went for dinner and not even two since they'd had their first kiss. Yet he felt completely comfortable in Kurt's company, save for that slightly awkward five minutes of silence when they first sat down at dinner.

He didn't want to be over dramatic, or get clingy or carried away, but he was wondering if this was what people were always talking about when they say that when you meet the one, you just know. Because right now, this felt pretty perfect.

As he took the stage he regretted his song choice, and he regretted being so coy about it with Kurt. Every new line of lyrics that appeared on the screen made him worry that Kurt would be scared off, that he'd assume it was about him and Blaine was coming on too heavy. He'd really just chosen I Want It That Way because it was an awesome song and he'd always found it really great for karaoke.

After the first verse his eyes had become accustomed to the lights shining in his face and he was able to see Kurt in the dark corner. He was smiling, Blaine was glad to see, and it meant he could finish the rest of the song with a smile on his face and performing it the way he wanted to instead of being too much in his head and worrying about everything.

By the time Blaine reached the climax of the song, he remembered exactly the kind of thrill that performing with the Warblers used to give him. He hadn't been lying to Kurt, he had always tried to convince the other guys to take some of the solos when they competed - but they had always refused and voted (usually unanimously) for him to sing lead on their songs. And despite the fact that they never made it further than Regionals, he always absolutely adored the thrill he got on competition days.

Blaine directed his grins over in Kurt's direction as the gathered crowd applauded at the end of his song, and Blaine saw him put his fingers to his lips and whistle as he made his way off stage. "That was incredible," Kurt clapped delightedly, taking Blaine's outstretched hand and pulling him back into the booth.

"It was so much fun," Blaine agreed, pecking a quick kiss against Kurt's lips. "You should do one too."

"Mmm. Maybe."

Blaine was resting his knee on the seat, tucking one leg underneath him as he cupped Kurt's face in his hands with a smile. "No maybes," he laughed, enjoying having a slight height advantage on Kurt. He tilted his head to lean in to kiss Kurt again but before he could, he felt a tap on his shoulder and spun around.

He was faced with a couple who he thought were probably in their mid-thirties. "I'm sorry," the woman frowned apologetically. "I don't want to interrupt, but-"

"But we were wondering if we could join you," her companion interjected. "There aren't any other seats left."

"Oh," Blaine replied. He was a Dalton boy through and through and his politeness won out, even though he really wanted to keep Kurt all to himself in this dark corner. He turned to look at Kurt and could tell he was having a similar train of thought - they just couldn't justify turning this perfectly nice looking couple away when they had a big booth all to themselves. "Sure."

"Thanks." As the couple moved to slide into the seats on the opposite side of the booth, Kurt rushed to pull their carry-on bags out from under the table in an attempt to make a bit of extra leg room. He pushed them towards Blaine, who stacked them carefully at the side of the booth while still making sure that everybody had space to get out.

"I'm Kurt, this is Blaine," Kurt smiled, sticking out his hand towards the woman. She happily shook it, introducing herself as Ashley and her partner as Jim.

"This is actually our honeymoon," she sighed. "I can't believe we're stranded here, isn't it just terrible?"

Jim rolled his eyes a little and put his hand on top of hers on the table as she leant up against him. "It's okay, baby. We'll get there tomorrow."

"I know. I just wanted everything to be perfect..."

Fearing that she might be about to start crying, Blaine turned to watch the stage instead, although he realised he probably looked either uncomfortable or rude considering they were between acts and the stage was currently empty. Kurt poked him in the side and he jumped, startled.

"Why don't we go pick a song for me to sing?" Kurt whispered, and Blaine nodded slightly, relieved. "You guys don't mind watching our bags, right?"

Blaine was already on his feet and waiting for Kurt to join him before either Jim or Ashley could reply. "Of course," Ashley smiled. "Got to make the best of a bad situation, right? I bet you two are wishing you were anywhere but here, I know we are."

"Baby, we can't do anything about it, okay? Let's just try to enjoy our first night as a married couple."

"Actually, we just-" Kurt started, cutting himself off as Blaine tugged on his hand to pull him away towards the song book at the side of the stage. "What?"

"I don't think they need to hear our story right now," Blaine whispered, slinging an arm around Kurt's waist while Kurt flipped through the pages of the book. "Somehow I feel like telling them we're happy to be here would just make things worse for her. Or you know. For him."

"Good point." Kurt continued flipping the pages until he spotted one that looked different from the others. "Hey, this one's newer!"

Blaine peered down to look at the songs on the list. Kurt was right - this one looked like they'd actually bought an extra CD at some point in the last ten years and just stuck the track list in at the back of the book. Based on what he'd seen of the equipment it looked like they were just using a multi-disc changer for the karaoke so it was easy enough for them to insert a different CD. It just surprised him they'd even bothered. "What do you feel like singing?"

There were only two names above Kurt on the sign-up sheet that hadn't been crossed out yet. He checked over the list again and nodded, having decided. "Scissor Sisters," Kurt read aloud as he wrote it underneath 'Tori - Bat Out Of Hell'. Kurt pushed at Blaine's arm, indicating a spot by the wall that they could wait for Kurt's turn to come up.

They waited side by side until Tori was almost done with her song. "How about we get out of here after this?" Blaine murmured, his arms crossed over his chest but his shoulder pressed snugly against Kurt's. "Check out what the weather's doing."

Kurt nodded. "Sounds good." He flexed his hands a few times and shook his body, warming up. "I think Jim and Ashley could probably use the time alone and we have been hogging that table for a while now."

"Fresh air would be nice; it's getting kind of stale in here." He grinned, catching Kurt's pout just as his name was called from the stage and Blaine turned to kiss him good luck. "Present company excepted. Now go kick ass."

Kurt was a natural performer. Blaine was astounded by his range as he completely owned the stage with a flawless performance of 'I Don't Feel Like Dancin'' that Blaine was sure wouldn't have been out of place on The Voice. He'd known Kurt was good when they'd sung together earlier, but now that he was able to give Kurt his full concentration he realised exactly how special he was.

When Kurt finished the song he ran straight into Blaine's arms, his face flushed with excitement. "God, I haven't done that for years. I mean, I sung at school but the last time I just got up there and did that, on my own, and just for fun? It was such a rush."

Blaine smiled fondly. "You should do it more often. Maybe think about..." he trailed off. He and Kurt had known each other less than a day - it wasn't his place to be suggesting a career change for Kurt.

"Trying it out professionally?" Kurt finished, anticipating where Blaine had been going. He shook his head. "I think I like it more like this. It makes it more special."

Blaine couldn't help but grin, slipping his arms loosely around Kurt's waist. "Then in that case, I'm so glad I got to see it."

"Me too." Kurt's voice was soft, and Blaine dropped his arms so that he could take one of Kurt's hands in his.

"So, shall we venture out into the real world?"

"The real world of mostly closed airport kiosks and super bright lighting?" Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"The very same."

Kurt laughed. "Sure."

They stopped by the booth, where Jim and Ashley had stayed true to their word and kept an eye on their things. It didn't look like the newlyweds' evening had improved any, and Blaine mumbled a hurried "Congratulations again, guys..." as he and Kurt picked up their bags and headed for the exit.

When they made it back out into the main concourse of the terminal, it took a few seconds for Blaine's eyes to readjust to the lighting. The first thing they did was check out the departure boards - there were still a few flights listed CANCELLED but most of the listings were now for the next day's flights and they were all optimistically listed as ON TIME.

"The snow has stopped," Kurt commented, squinting towards one of the big windows. They moved closer to the glass and as they approached, Blaine could see that Kurt was right, it had stopped. So come the morning the runways should be cleared, the planes de-iced and the airlines could start trying to get people on flights to their final destination.

"Is it weird that I'm kind of sad the end is in sight? This is probably the biggest adventure I've had in years," Blaine admitted.

Kurt checked his watch and Blaine leaned against him to see the numbers. It was instinct - he had his own watch, but checking Kurt's seemed more convenient to his tired brain. He noticed that it was almost twelve - eight hours had passed since he arrived at the airport that afternoon and it felt more like two at the most. "There's plenty of time for us to extend our adventure yet, softie," Kurt replied quietly with a smile. "There's at least seven hours until the first flight starts boarding and I can't imagine we'll manage to get on that one."

Blaine looked around them as they approached their gate. Most of the kiosks had closed for the night and there seemed to be people trying to grab a few hours of sleep in any available corner. Either the airport or the airline had provided some travellers with portable cots, with a row of them off to one side of the gate area. "Did you want to try and get a cot from somewhere? I don't even know who to ask..."

"No. I don't sleep well on those - too easy to fall off."

Blaine snorted again, laughing at the image in his head. "Well, we have the sleeping bags, so maybe we can find a space and just use those. I think that would be more comfortable than trying to sleep on the seats."

"Sounds like a plan."

Blaine yawned, stretching a little and rubbing one hand over his face. "I'm just going to go to the bathroom. Freshen up a little." He crouched down, rummaging in his carry-on for the little toiletry bag he knew was somewhere near the top. Straightening up, he heard his back crack as he zipped the bag back up. "Can I leave this here with you?"

Kurt nodded. "Of course. I'll see if I can find us a quiet space to try and settle down in."

He headed for the bathroom, using the toilet and freshening up with toothpaste and a quick splash of water to the face. When he was done, he found himself leaning on the sink, facing himself in the mirror. Even after washing his face his eyes looked tired and while he'd thought that putting gel in his hair had been a good idea for travelling, now that it had been half a day since he left his apartment he looked like a bedraggled mess. Sighing, he rooted around in his bag for the mini bottle of shampoo he knew was in there somewhere from the last hotel he'd stayed in.

He wasn't sure exactly how this was going to work. Just as he started to run some water into the sink to try planning to just dunk his head into it and hope he didn't get water all down his front, he heard Kurt calling his name.

Kurt's voice was close enough that he only called it once more before he came around the corner into the bathroom. "Sorry - you were gone for a while and you looked kind of tired, I wanted to make sure you hadn't fallen asleep in one of the stalls!" He took in the scene in front of him - Blaine grasping a bottle of shampoo and with a half-filled basin in front of him. "What are you doing?"

"Um," Blaine started. He looked back and forth between Kurt and the water, finally settling on looking at Kurt. "Washing my hair?"

"I can see that. Why?"

"I need to get the gel out." Blaine felt like he was speaking very slowly and deliberately, like all of a sudden the bright lights had made the alcohol catch up with him. "Before I sleep."

Kurt laughed and pulled the two bags along the ground until he was standing beside Blaine. He carefully took the bottle of shampoo out of Blaine's hand, and Blaine watched as Kurt moved one of the suitcases closer to the basins. "Sit down. Let me."

Blaine did as he was instructed, perching on the edge of Kurt's suitcase as it was much sturdier than his own wheeled hold-all. Once he was settled, he allowed Kurt to push him forward so that he was leaning over the basin. "This is crazy, I can do it."

"I'm sure you can, but I don't mind. This will be easier." Kurt carefully started rinsing the gel out of Blaine's hair, having to rely on cupping water in his hands. "It's probably not comfortable but it'll be quicker if I do it. You'd kill your back if you tried to do it yourself."

Blaine could feel his hair getting looser as Kurt worked his fingers through it, and he had to fight against closing his eyes in case he actually nodded off. It was like he was getting an impromptu scalp massage at the same time, and that was definitely something he wouldn't have had if he tried to do it himself. He heard a squelching sound as Kurt squirted some of the shampoo into his hand and started working that into Blaine's hair too, humming a tune that Blaine couldn't quite place while he worked. "Oh, wow. It's curly!"

Blaine shifted slightly so that he could turn his head to look up at Kurt. "I have more gel in the bag somewhere - just a little will keep it under control until morning. I kind of overdid it before the flight."

"Nope."

Blaine tried to straighten up but Kurt's hands kept him in place, starting to rinse the shampoo out with some fresh water. "What? Did I forget to pack it? Ugh - I'll have to try and buy some when the stores open the morning. I can't turn up to Cooper's place looking like this."

"No, you're good, there's some in here. I just think you should stay au naturel for tonight. They're cute curls."

"Oh." Blaine was glad that his face was in the sink, because he was trying to hide the smile that had broken across his face. "Just for tonight, then."

"Shit - do you have a towel, Mr Boy Scout?"

As soon as Kurt's hands weren't keeping him pressed into position any longer, Blaine automatically straightened up as his back was starting to hurt. "Somewhere, I-"

"Hey!" Kurt laughed. "Stop moving so fast, you're flicking water everywhere. Just tell me where to look and I'll find it."

Blaine had no idea why the thought of Kurt, a relative stranger, rooting around in his things didn't seem weird or uncomfortable, but it just didn't. "In the main pouch, somewhere near the top. It's just a small hand towel but it should do the job." He tried to keep his head as close to the sink as he could, until he heard Kurt's triumphant "Aha!" and the towel landed on his head.

Reaching up, Blaine repositioned the towel and started to rub his hair dry. Looking up in the mirror he saw Kurt standing behind, and he couldn't help but smile at him. "Thanks for that."

"My pleasure."

Once Blaine had soaked up most of the water with the towel, he started trying to flatten it with his fingers. He made eye contact with Kurt in the mirror again and Kurt laughed, stepping behind Blaine and pressing Blaine against the edge of the sink. He reached up and settled his hands on top of Blaine's, lacing their fingers together and pulling Blaine's hands down from his head. "Leave it alone."

Kurt pushed up against Blaine, bracing his arms against the basin and pressing as close to Blaine as he could get. Blaine closed his eyes and took a shaky breath as Kurt started kissing his neck, dropping his chin to his chest and letting Kurt carry on kissing until he reached his ear.

"If we weren't in a public place," Kurt whispered into Blaine's ear. "We'd both be naked already."

Blaine let out the groan he'd been trying to hold in and snapped his head upright so that he could lock eyes with Kurt in the mirror again. Kurt was smiling cheekily and they both laughed when their eyes met. Blaine turned around in Kurt's arms. "Tease."

"That's me." Kurt stepped away from Blaine, retrieving the towel from where Blaine had dropped it and folding it neatly. Reaching into his own suitcase, he pulled out a plastic bag and put the towel inside of that before putting it back inside Blaine's bag. Blaine leaned against the wall, waiting for Kurt to straighten up and look at him. When he finally did and realised Blaine had been staring, Kurt frowned. "What?"

"Nothing. Just impressed at your level of organisation." Blaine stepped forward, lifting his bag with one hand and slipping the other into Kurt's. "Are we done in here?"

Kurt nodded, taking the handle of his own suitcase and leading the way out of the bathroom. "There's an area of the gate where they've dimmed the lights a little to try and let people get some sleep. We should be able to find a space there."

Blaine followed Kurt back out onto the main concourse and over to the gate. There was a line of cots that the airline had set out with a few people covered in thin airplane blankets. Nobody looked comfortable or particularly warm. When they reached a space near the windows, Kurt stopped. "This is probably our best bet. It might be chilly near the windows but everybody has obviously had the same thought, so this is the biggest space."

"Looks great." Blaine immediately sat down on the floor and opened his bag, pulling out the two sleeping bags he'd bought and handing one to Kurt. Looking around, he spotted a charging point just to their left so he pulled out his phone charger too, shuffling along on his knees towards the wall and plugging his phone in. The screen lit up as the power started to flow through it and Blaine realised that he'd had a handful of calls from Cooper since Kurt had spoken to him, including two voicemails.

While Kurt unrolled the two sleeping bags and laid them out side by side close to the windows and the wall, Blaine hit dial on the voicemail button and listened to the first message from Cooper. "Blainey, are you even at the airport? Who was that guy? What are you doing? This isn't like you - call me." Blaine sighed as the message ended, hitting the delete button and listening to message number two. "Also, way to go, Squirt. If you're going to blow me off, I'm glad it's for someone who can literally blow you off. You've been too uptight lately. Call me after."

"Ugh, Cooper."

Kurt was wriggling into his sleeping bag and stopped, looking up at Blaine. "What's he done?"

"Just his best Barney Stinson impression. Probably best I don't go into detail." Blaine made sure the phone was on silent and unzipped his sleeping bag, squeezing into the space Kurt had left between his own sleeping bag and the wall. It meant he was able to hide the phone under his bag, close enough to his body that if anybody tried to get in and steal it that he would probably wake up.

"I won't ask, then." Kurt was sitting up, rummaging through his own bag. "Ah - here." He pulled out two carefully folded sweaters and handed one to Blaine. "This is probably the closest we can get to pillows."

"Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Only now you've washed the gel out of your hair."

Blaine snorted and put the sweater down on the tiled floor, finding the best position for it before lying down. Kurt following suit, turning onto his side to face Blaine. "So... goodnight?"

Blaine nodded, lowering his voice so that they wouldn't wake anybody while they chatted. "Weirdest day ever, right?"

"Right." Kurt smiled. "Good weird though, yeah?"

"Definitely."

Blaine watched as Kurt closed his eyes, his eyelashes fanning over his cheeks. After lying there for a few minutes, Kurt opened his eyes again and raised an eyebrow. "Are you just going to stare at me, or are you going to sleep too?"

"I was thinking maybe the creepy staring thing," Blaine grinned. "Sorry. Goodnight."

It wasn't until Blaine closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on getting at least a couple of hours sleep that he realised Kurt was right - it was quite cold by the windows. He pulled the sleeping bag tighter around him and tried to forget about it, running through his memories of the day in his head instead. It was working, and he'd just started to nod off when he jolted awake to find Kurt kneeling beside him, looking in his own suitcase for something. "Kurt?"

Kurt turned around in surprise. "Sorry," he whispered. "I didn't mean to wake you. I was just looking for another sweater. I ran out of room in my other suitcase and I know I put a few extra bits in here."

"Mm," Blaine murmured, sitting up and pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes. "It's kinda cold over here."

"Should we move? It's probably warmer if we get away from the windows?"

Blaine nodded for a minute, thinking through their options. "We could. Or there's something else we could try.

"What? More layers? Or I'm sure we could get a couple of blankets from wherever all of these people got theirs from," Kurt mused, gesturing at the row of people sleeping on cots.

"If we unzip these bags, they should zip together like a double sleeping bag, and we could share it." Blaine shifted uncomfortably, wondering if this suggestion was a step too far. "Body heat, you know?"

Kurt stopped looking in his bag and turned all of his attention to Blaine, a smile on his lips. "I wouldn't normally sleep with someone on the first date..." He trailed off, teasing, but immediately started to wriggle out of his sleeping bag and unzip it. "I think I can make an exception this time."

"You know technically, I think this counts as our third date. Coffee was number one, dinner number two, karaoke number three. The third date is a perfectly acceptable time to start sharing a bed." Blaine laughed, following Kurt's lead and unzipping his own bag before reaching over for Kurt's to try and connect them. "Here. Let the boy scout do the difficult part."

The words had barely left his lips when Kurt hit him in the back of the head with one of the sweaters they were using as pillows. Kurt started to giggle as there was a hissed "shhhh!" from somewhere, and Blaine turned and glared at Kurt in mock annoyance.

"Contrary to popular belief, non-boy scouts can just about manage to use a zipper." Kurt commented, reached to pluck the sweater from where it had fallen onto Blaine's shoulders and started to fold it up again. "However, I will still let you do it."

"Good, because I'm done already." Blaine had left it undone at the top, pulling a corner back on Kurt's side. "Hop in."

Kurt did as he was told, sliding into the bag and moving over so that Blaine could follow him in. Once they were inside, Kurt rolled onto his side to face Blaine, draping his arm across Blaine's stomach. "This is nice."

"Mmm," Blaine confirmed, lacing his fingers through Kurt's and pulling his arm further over as he turned onto his side, his back pressing close against Kurt's front. "Much warmer."

Kurt's chin settled against Blaine's shoulder and Blaine couldn't help but smile as he felt Kurt's breath tickling the back of his neck. He closed his eyes again but after the little interruption he absolutely wasn't tired. His heart was beating too fast. He hoped Kurt couldn't feel it, but as they lay there in silence cuddled close together he felt Kurt's breathing get slower and more even until he was certain Kurt was asleep.

He stared out through the window, watching the snowy ground sparkling as the night got colder. The sky was dark now, a real night time kind of dark, not the way it had looked full of snow earlier. The contrast with the snow on the ground was kind of beautiful and considering that he had a beautiful man sharing a bed – sort of – with him, Blaine felt pretty damn lucky.

He was woken a few hours later by a little finger prodding him incessantly on the shoulder. It took him a minute to get his bearings, remembering where he was and who he was with. He didn't open his eyes right away, but after a few more seconds he realised that one of Kurt's arms was still around his waist and the other hand's fingers were tangled loosely in his hair – which didn't leave any hands free to be poking him.

He slowly opened one eye and was confronted with the sight of an excited Jessica beaming at him. As soon as she knew he was awake she dropped to her knees and grinned at him. "Blaine!"

"Jessica, get back here!" Matt suddenly appeared near Blaine's feet, leaning over and scooping her up into his arms. "Stop bothering Blaine – I'm so sorry, I was talking to the gate agent and I turned around and she was gone and thank goodness she was over here but I'm so sorry she woke you." He stopped his run-on sentence to survey the scene, realising for the first time that Blaine wasn't alone inside the sleeping bag. "I – sorry."

Blaine carefully removed himself from Kurt's arms, sitting up straight and rubbing his eyes as he yawned. "No, it's fine. If flights are starting up again we probably ought to be up anyway. We're on standby so they could call us any time." He looked out of the window and saw that even though it was still dark out, most of the snow was now gone. The runway was bustling with activity, getting rid of the remaining snow and de-icing the planes.

"You stayed here all night?" Matt questioned, and Blaine nodded. "I'm so sorry, man. You didn't have to do that for us."

"Stop apologising!" Blaine turned to look at Kurt who was miraculously still sleeping. "I actually had a nice night."

"Who's that?" Jessica asked, pointing at Kurt. "He wasn't here before."

"That's none of our business, sweetie," Matt replied, swinging her around and making her giggle. "We should go; they're going to start boarding soon." He shifted Jessica onto one arm so that he could extend a hand to Blaine. "Thanks for everything. I hope you manage to get on a flight soon."

"Yeah, thanks. Enjoy California!"

Matt set Jessica down on the floor and took her hand, dragging her off to a row of free seats at the other end of the gate. Blaine waved at her as they walked away and she waved back happily before turning to continue babbling at her dad.

Blaine knelt down on the floor beside Kurt and tried to decide on the best way to wake him. He immediately ruled out using kisses – now that people were up and awake and the lights were all switched back on, it didn't feel as comfortable or as right as it had just a few hours earlier. "Hey," he whispered, shaking Kurt's shoulder gently. "We should get up."

There were still a few people sleeping and a few cots still occupied, but for the most part now that the kiosks were open – and more importantly, the coffee shops – there was a lot more activity around the gate. Kurt stirred slowly as Blaine shook him a little harder and finally opened one eye, squinting up at Blaine. "It's bright."

"I know."

"It's early."

"I know that too."

"Ughhh."

Blaine laughed at Kurt as he rolled over, trying to bury himself back inside the sleeping bag. "Not a morning person, huh?"

"Shhhh."

Reaching down, Blaine found Kurt's hands and pulled him up into a sitting position. Kurt finally opened his eyes and stared grumpily at Blaine.

"I know, it sucks, but if we're not ready to go and there's availability on this flight, we'll lose our places on the standby list and we'll have to go home."

Kurt made another guttural groaning noise as he finally forced himself to crawl out of the sleeping bag, letting Blaine unzip them and roll them up tight. By the time he'd forced them back into his case, Kurt was standing with his hand on his bag, waiting for Blaine.

"Okay. I'm up. I need to do something with my hair."

Blaine nodded and Kurt led the way back into the bathroom. By the time they were done, joining a number of other people lining up to clean their teeth and make themselves look semi presentable, Kurt seemed to have perked up considerably. They headed back out to take seats at the gate just in time for the seven am flight to start boarding.

Kurt flopped down into the seat next to Blaine and closed his eyes, dropping his chin to his chest. "Wake me if they call us," Kurt mumbled, and Blaine laughed quietly.

Moving his mouth closer to Kurt's ear, Blaine spoke softly. "I have a better idea."

Kurt opened one eye and looked at Blaine. "Mmm?"

"How about you keep your eyes open long enough to hear if they call us and I'll go get us both a coffee."

"My eyes don't have to be open for my ears to work."

Blaine snorted. "Do you want a coffee or not, smart-ass?"

"Yes please," Kurt nodded meekly, sitting up straight and trying to look awake.

"Okay." Blaine pulled his wallet from his bag and stood up. "Hazelnut mocha? Same as yesterday?"

"Yeah," Kurt yawned, and then suddenly changed his mind. "Actually – can you get me a grande non-fat mocha? No hazelnut. It was my regular drink when I was in high school and even though I've since discovered the joy of syrups, sometimes it wakes me up better than anything else."

Blaine nodded. "I've got my phone, call me if I miss anything important."

"Will do."

Blaine headed off for Starbucks, checking his watch and hoping there wasn't much of a line. He was in luck – there were only three customers in the store and they had all already ordered. By the time he'd placed his order and collected the drinks, the line had grown and was almost to the door – he wouldn't be surprised if people had heard him whisper the word 'coffee' to Kurt and realised the suggestion was a good one.

Kurt's eyes were closed again when Blaine reached the gate and he laughed, taking the lid off Kurt's coffee and holding it just out of reach. "Kuuurt," he whispered. "Caffeine's here..." He carefully moved the cup so that Kurt could smell it.

"Yay," Kurt smiled, pulling himself back into an upright position for the second time in ten minutes and taking the cup from Blaine. "Thank you."

"My pleasure." He nodded towards the activity at the gate. "Any news?"

Kurt shook his head. "No, they've been making busy noises but no official announcements yet."

Another five minutes passed with no word from the desk and Blaine was just considering going up to enquire politely about their chances of getting on this flight when one of the girls at the desk moved to the public address system.

"American Airlines welcomes passengers awaiting flight thirty-three to Los Angeles International airport. At this time we are ready to start the boarding process, and priority boarding passengers, those with small children or those who may need help are welcome to board now. For those passengers who are on standby after yesterday's adverse weather conditions, we're pleased to announce that after a number of cancellations and no-shows we are able to offer some spots on this flight to those of you on the standby list in order. If your name is called, please make yourself known at the desk and we'll try and get you all on your way as soon as possible – thank you." She paused, flipping through some paperwork in front of her. "Passengers Blaine Anderson, Jennifer Murray, Alexander Owen, Sarah Owen and James Reynolds, please come to the desk."

Blaine frowned, turning to Kurt. "Well that sucks."

Kurt shrugged, sighing. "Yeah. It's okay though – they might still call some more and I'm pretty sure the last guy they called was the one who was right in front of me in the line last night so I'm probably next."

"You should take my spot."

"Blaine," Kurt teased gently. "After you let Matt take your spot yesterday and now you're offering it to me, anybody would think you didn't want to see your brother."

"I just don't have any rush to get there. You have a cruise ship to get on. Those things don't wait for people."

"I'll be fine, Blaine. Even if they don't call me for this one, I'm going to be right at the front of the list for the next one."

"I still think-"

"Go to the desk."

Blaine paused. "What if I don't?"

"Don't what?"

"If I don't go to the desk. Then they'll assume I'm not here and they'll call you, because you'll be next."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "I love that you're the most chivalrous guy I've ever met, but you really don't have to do this. It's a dumb idea. You'll miss your spot and yeah, maybe they'll give it to me but then you might not get on at all."

"So let me donate my spot to you like I offered the first time and I'll take yours."

"Blaine."

Blaine sighed. "Fine. I just-"

"Blaine. Go."

Eventually he stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder and looking towards the gate but not making any attempt to move. Kurt stood to join him and stepped up into Blaine's space.

"Blaine, why are you being weird?"

"I'm not."

"Yes you are. I only met you last night and even I can tell you're being weird."

Blaine sighed and dropped back down into his seat, undoing all of the good work that Kurt had done in getting him to stand up in the first place. "I just kind of don't want this to be over," he mumbled. "I am being weird, aren't I?"

Kurt laughed quietly and held both hands out towards Blaine. Blaine obliged and slid his hands into Kurt's, squeezing back and staring at them until Kurt tugged, catching Blaine by surprise and pulling him to his feet.

"Listen," he started, smiling and speaking as quietly as he could that Blaine would still be able to hear him over the hustle and bustle of the airport. "You're going to get on that plane and fly to LA. You're going to have a nice Christmas with your brother and when I get back to the city I'm going to call you and we're going to have a real date."

Blaine nodded, feeling tears springing into his eyes and wishing more than anything they would just go away. He was pretty sure he was only feeling this clingy and emotional because he was tired, and logically he knew Kurt was right. He should get on the plane, he should say goodbye to Kurt like a grown-up and they would pick this up when they were both back home after the holidays.

And yet no matter how many times he told himself that, he couldn't quite let go of his grip on Kurt's hands.

"Passenger Blaine Anderson, final call for passenger Blaine Anderson on standby for flight thirty-three to Los Angeles International Airport."

"He's right here," Kurt called out, not breaking eye contact with Blaine. "Before you go, can I say something super cheesy?"

Blaine produced a watery smile, nodding and trying desperately to blink away the tears that were threatening to spill down his face. If he could at least keep himself from full on crying, maybe Kurt wouldn't think he was a total freak and spend the next two weeks on his cruise trying to think up reasons not to call Blaine ever again. "Go ahead."

Squeezing one of Blaine's hands, Kurt leaned in to his ear and whispered. "This is not the end. It's the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end." He cleared his throat, and Blaine suddenly realised that Kurt was doing exactly the same thing he was, trying to compose himself. "I'm fairly certain that I don't exist only within the walls of this airport so I'm not going to disappear like a puff of smoke never to be seen again. How about you? Are you any kind of mythical, magical creature?"

Snorting, Blaine shook his head. "No. Not that I know of, at least."

"Good. Then I will probably be calling you every night of my trip so you can talk me down from trying to think up ways to creatively murder Rachel. How does that sound?"

"Sounds perfect," Blaine nodded, feeling much calmer. "You can do the same for me with Cooper. Or alternatively we can plot a whole 'strangers on a train' scenario, if it gets even worse."

"Deal." Kurt leant forward, pressing a soft kiss to Blaine's lips but pulling away before Blaine had the chance to deepen it. "Now go catch your flight and there'll be more of those waiting for you when we're both back."

Nodding again, Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand and picked up his bag, deciding it was probably best just to avoid the word goodbye altogether. He strode up to the desk and checked in, taking his boarding pass and heading down the jetway without looking back at Kurt.

By the time he was settled in his seat with his ipod in his ears he'd managed to get himself back under control and was regretting behaving so weirdly in front of Kurt. The last thing he wanted was for Kurt to remember the weird stubbornness and obvious tears instead of the fun, amazing night that they'd had, but there was nothing he could do about that now. He'd already switched his phone off for the flight but he decided to text Kurt when he landed and apologise. He could even spend the rest of the flight thinking up the perfect wording so that it wouldn't come across as stalkerish or annoying.

He closed his eyes as the music drifted over him, relaxing back into the chair and getting as comfortable as possible. He had almost dozed off when he felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up to see the stewardess standing in front of him. She tapped her ear and he scrambled to pull out his ear-bud.

"I'm sorry, sir – I'm going to have to ask you to put that away until take-off. You'll be able to use your electronic items once we're in the air."

Blaine grimaced apologetically. "I'm so sorry ma'am, I forgot." He reached forward, stowing his ipod in the seat pocket and the stewardess smiled, satisfied, and carried on with the rest of her cabin check.

He had been staring at the screen of the entertainment system in front of him for a couple of minutes before he spotted a message on the screen that he hadn't noticed before.

SEAT-TO-SEAT MESSAGING SERVICE: MESSAGE FROM 32K

Blaine glanced to his left and then to his right to see if a similar message was showing on the screens of the passengers either side of him. It wasn't. Curious, he reached out and tapped at the screen.

COME TO SAN DIEGO WITH ME.

Blaine blinked at the message. 32K... he was sitting in 25C. So that would mean 32K would be... he unclipped his seatbelt as quickly as he could, standing up and leaning on the back of his seat as he scanned the seats looking for row 32.

It took him ten seconds to spot Kurt grinning back at him from a seat by the window. "So, are you coming?" Kurt called out.

"I can't just-"

"Sure you can."

"Sir-" the same stewardess from earlier approached Blaine. "I'm going to need you to take your seat now, the captain is ready to lock the cabin doors and push back from the gate."

"Right. Sorry." Blaine slid down into his seat, and then almost immediately that her back was turned he twisted round again, belt not fastened, and hissed back at Kurt. "It's not that I don't want to."

"Sir, I really do have to ask-"

"I just-"

"You can absolutely finish this conversation as soon as we're up in the air and the captain has removed the seatbelt sign but for now I just need you to take your seat so that we can be on our way."

Blaine sighed, turning back around and clicking his belt back into place. He drummed his fingers on his thigh for a few seconds and then reached forward, opening up Kurt's message on his screen again, and this time pressing the 'reply' button. The touch screen wasn't the most responsive thing ever and Blaine quickly started to get frustrated at having to press each letter three or four times before it would register.

I JUST THINK-

"Excuse me."

Blaine sighed. He was fairly certain he wasn't doing anything wrong this time, but it wasn't the stewardess who'd spoken. It was the guy sitting beside him in the window seat. He was wearing a business suit and he had been reading the Financial Times when Blaine sat down and hadn't even looked up before now. "Yes?"

"Would you like me to switch seats with your friend back there?"

Blaine blinked. He had been half expecting to get yelled at for delaying things even further, not such a friendly interjection. "Oh, I-" He wasn't sure how to respond. Obviously his instant reaction was hell yes, but he managed to bite that back. "I'm not sure the cabin crew would love me for that, I think they're pretty much ready to go."

The man smiled. "We can be quick. Ready?"

Blaine sprung into action, unbuckling his belt again and politely squeezing past the lady on the other side of him in the aisle seat. "Kurt, quick!" he yelled out as Mr Financial Times started to make his way out of the row. Kurt jumped in surprise, realising what was happening and quickly gathering his things from the seat pocket and excusing himself from his own row.

"Sir, I really am going to have to ask you to sit down now or I'll have to have you removed from the flight."

"I'm so sorry," Blaine hovered in the aisle, hopping from foot to foot as Kurt and the Financial Times guy ran to the back of the plane, switching sides and each making their way to the other's assigned seat. Blaine waited until Kurt had slipped into the seat before following him back into the row, slipping into his own seat. The stewardess watched this play out, tapping her foot impatiently as it became clear that it was going to be quicker to just let the switch happen than hassle Blaine any more.

"Can I trust that you'll remain in your seat now, sir?"

Blaine nodded, his face now beet red. He wasn't used to going against authority or even really doing anything that he wasn't supposed to, so getting chewed out in front of everybody on the flight was more than a little embarrassing. Kurt giggled beside him and Blaine slid down in his seat, buckling his belt and resting his head in one hand.

"So I was thinking," Kurt started, keeping his voice low as the plane finally started to pull away from the gate.

Blaine shook his head, pressing a finger to his lips as he stared intently at the safety demonstration. He wasn't going to give her another reason to yell at him – he needed to be the model passenger for the rest of the flight if he wanted to redeem himself in his own eyes, let alone in hers. Finally, as the cabin crew took their seats for take-off and the plane started to taxi down the runway, Blaine turned his attention back to Kurt.

"So you were thinking?"

"Yes. I was thinking." Kurt nodded. "I was thinking about how you told Cooper you'd get a motel tonight, and how I'm not getting the train to San Diego until tomorrow so I'll be staying at the hotel by myself. And then I thought, the train ride is like two hours, so the company would be nice. So why don't you come stay with me tonight and get the train with me tomorrow."

"And then wave you off on your nautical adventure and get the train back to my Cooper-y doom?"

Kurt snorted. "Something like that. So... wanna?"

Blaine didn't even hesitate. "Yes. That sounds perfect." He leant forward to kiss Kurt, hearing the ping of the seatbelt light going out just before their lips met and used his free hand to unfasten his belt and push up the armrest between their seats. Blaine closed his eyes, nipping at Kurt's bottom lip with his teeth and starting to laugh as he felt Kurt smiling against his mouth. As the kiss ended Blaine pulled back, pressing closer to Kurt's side so that he could look out of the window, watching as the buildings below them became smaller and smaller.

"See?" Kurt murmured against Blaine's ear. "We left the airport behind and we're both still here, together."

"I see that," Blaine laughed. "End of the beginning, right?"

Kurt nodded, beaming. "Yeah."

"I can't wait to find out what the beginning of the middle feels like."