It was their anniversary, and Blaine hadn't heard from Kurt all day.

He wasn't worried. Seriously, he wasn't. He knew that Kurt was totally swamped in work right now, Blaine had been getting voicemail more often than not these days and he definitely didn't want Kurt to put himself to any trouble.

At the same time though...yeah he kind of did.

He'd been planning to take a trip up to New York to surprise him, but Rachel had shut that idea down the second he'd brought it up.

"He's really busy right now Blaine," she'd insisted, her voice nearly lost over the commotion of the city as he'd pressed his cellphone so tightly to his ear it was painful, "He would love to see you, you know that, but it would just throw everything off if you came up right now. Maybe in a few weeks?"

In a few weeks it wouldn't be their anniversary, he'd wanted to scream, but Rachel sounded so concerned, so sorry to have to tell him that that he didn't have the heart to. Besides, if the most dramatic person he knew was telling him that the gesture was a wee bit too crazy, he should probably take the hint. It didn't stop him from throwing the phone at his pillow and boxing in the basement until his hands ached for hours afterward.

So he'd settled for arranging for a florist to bring a dozen red and yellow roses to Kurt, Rachel and Santana's apartment (he still wasn't sure how that had happened). He'd thrown out a dozen of those pretty little cards that came with the flowers, trying to figure out how to put his heart into a piece of paper three inches long. Finally, he'd just written These are to celebrate you. I love you. and sent it off.

Blaine figured he had a few more weeks to get Kurt an actual present now that he wasn't going to be seeing him for their actual anniversary. Maybe he could get Kurt a monogrammed bathrobe to go with the towels. Maybe with the extra time he could get it in Egyptian cotton. The second year was supposed to be cotton, after all. He tried to think of it as a positive. Extra time. Yay.

It's not like he didn't have plenty of empty time nowadays anyway.

Tina finally snapped and shoved him out of Glee Club early when he'd answered her with "sure, that sounds good" while staring emptily out the window one too many times.

It was only Quinn's accident last year that kept him from checking his phone every few minutes to see if Kurt had texted him back on the drive home. He'd called Kurt that morning, as soon as he woke up to leave a "Happy anniversary Kurt! I love you. I miss you. So. So much. Uhm. I don't want to bother you so I'll stop here but- I. I really love you" on his answering machine. Then before leaving for school, he'd texted Kurt "happy anniversary! I love you so much 3" Then he'd left another message at the start of lunch, "I love you so much Kurt, call me okay? Or hum, maybe Skype later? I want to tell you happy birthday to your face." And then texted again at the end of lunch, "I wish I could wish you happy anniversary in person. I wish I could kiss you happy anniversary in person 3" He was going to text him again before Glee Club, when he suddenly realized what a creep he probably seemed like.

He'd been a dead man walking the rest of the day.

Once he got home, he didn't even have the energy to box. He just felt... drained.

He ended up staring moodily at the picture of him and Kurt riding that stupid dinosaur from last year's stupid prom that he kept on his stupid bedside table.

Maybe he should break up with Kurt.

Maybe Kurt was going to break up with him.

He tried to get angry, or sad, or something. He just felt numb. So cold he couldn't even feel it anymore.

Blaine just wanted to sleep until next September. Wake up and be ready to move to New York and be with Kurt every day instead of just for Thanksgiving and Christmas. He wondered if Kurt even still wanted him to be there.

Kurt hadn't even bothered to call for their anniversary.

Blaine, for the first time since he was 15 and realized that love wasn't always unconditional, wanted his Mommy. He wished he could curl up in her lap and have her comb his hair while singing to him like she used to, when he was small and had nightmares.

(when he was big and had nightmares, about blood swirling in the snow and staining his brand new tie and so much bright hot pain, he just stayed in his room)

He was interrupted from his pity party (he was just getting ready to hang the streamers and get really into it) by the doorbell.

Blaine looked at the clock. Even if one of his parents had forgotten their keys (unlikely. His family didn't make mistakes like that) they shouldn't be home for another few hours. He wasn't even supposed to be home yet.

Maybe the Empire State Building cufflinks he'd ordered online had come early.

He trudged downstairs. Not even the possibility of wearing tiny buildings on his wrists could make this day any better.

Blaine tugged the door open.

And stared.

Kurt smiled shyly at him. He held out a Lima Bean coffee cup, with a crocheted blue sleeve around it.

Blaine stared at it. It had a bowtie on it.

His brain was screaming at him, but it felt oddly disconnected from his body.

kisshimholdhimhere'

Blaine could feel his eyes starting to dry a little painfully. He should probably blink.

Kurt reached out with one delicate finger and gently closed Blaine's mouth.

The touch sent electric shocks shooting through his body, loosening his muscles and making his eyes blur with tears.

"Kurt" it came out embarrassingly croaky but he didn't even care because just like that, the spell was broken and Kurt was in his arms, finally there like Blaine had been dreaming about since the moment he kissed Kurt goodbye at the train station.

"Blaine, oh Blaine." Kurt whispered his name like a prayer as they clutched at each other. Blaine pressed his nose to the spot just behind Kurt's left ear and breathed in the smell of sandalwood and car fumes and Kurt. He could feel himself tearing up, and an answering wetness against the side of his own neck. "I missed you so much."

And then they were kissing, wet and hot and desperate. Re-learning the tastes of each other's mouths and the sounds they could wring from each other.

By the time that they finally broke apart from each other, just far enough so that they could sit down and look into each other's eye, the coffee had gone cold.

Blaine fingered the floppy blue bowtie.

"You made this for me?"

Kurt nodded, uncharacteristically shy, red spots high in his cheeks. Blaine ached at the beauty of it.

"Second anniversary is supposed to be cotton, right?" Kurt muttered, picking at the grey silk of his gloves.

Blaine covered Kurt's hand with his own. "Thank you." He tried to press all the months of love and longing, all the times he'd gone to bed and dreamed about waking up next to Kurt, into those two words. Judging by the teary smile he got in return, he succeeded.

"I-I didn't get you anything." Blaine suddenly realized. Oh god, what was wrong with him? Why hadn't he gotten that monogrammed robe just in case? Kurt had done this amazing amazing thing and Blaine had done nothing. Kurt wouldn't have even gotten the flowers Blaine had sent. Oh god, he was a terrible boyfriend, ohgodohgodohg-

"Blaine!" Kurt laughed, rubbing a thumb gently up and down Blaine's hand. The movement was so casually domestic that it made Blaine's heart hurt. "Rachel told me about your plan. I'd already planned for this, but it just made me so happy." Kurt ducked his head, "And well, you know what they say about great minds and all that."

"That I do." Blaine felt like he was being filled up with geysers of love, rushing over him like a tidal wave and shaking him to his very core. "Come on." He said, rising. "I know for a fact that we have some very high quality cotton towels."

Kurt raised a bemused eyebrow, "Are you planning to give me some of your old towels? I still have your monogrammed ones. You know, the nice new ones that your family hasn't been using for years?"

"Oh, I don't want to give them to you. I already have a gift coming." Or, it soon would be. Blaine would get the monogrammed robes overnighted, screw the cost. Kurt was here and that was worth whatever fight he might have with his dad when the credit card bill came. "But." Blaine raised a wicked eyebrow, "I was thinking that if you've driven this whole way, you probably would want to take a shower. And I was just going to be a good host, and show you how very happy I am you stopped by."

"Wouldn't want you to fail in your hosting duties," Kurt answered, his voice gone high and breathless the way it always did when he was aroused. Blaine had to hold back a moan at finally hearing that voice again, this time not made tinny by a phone.

Blaine held out his arm. Kurt took it, his tiny airy laugh sending shivers down Blaine's spine.

"Lead the way my good sir."

Blaine's cufflinks: theinsideman (dot) co (dot) uk/images/detailed/14/Empire_State_Building_Cufflinks (dot) jpg

Kurt's crotched coffee sleeve: (dot) com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/bowtie (dot) jpg