Blaine couldn't stop smiling to himself. He was pretty proud that he had made it all work out like this. Two weeks earlier he had called up Mercedes, and then they had started planning it. She had given him all the needed information, and he had made all the arrangements from that. And now he was there, and Kurt didn't know. He had been a good boyfriend and stayed at Kurt's house till late the night before Kurt was to leave for New York. They had said goodbye with several hugs and trying to avoid to let each other's hands go as he announced that he had to go home. Kurt had been sad, and hugged him tightly saying that he wished they could stand like that forever. They had texted each other constantly since.
And now it was about to go down. Nationals. Blaine was standing in the large deep red foyer of the theater, and he kept looking nervously around. Kurt weren't to see him yet, it wouldn't fit in.
"Whoosh, here it is. Let's go." He went in to find his seat in third row. He had a perfect view and his experience from being on a stage told him that Kurt would be able to see him too.
The New Directions were set to go on last, so he had to just wait. He sat next to a couple of teenage-girls who didn't really seem interested in what was going on up on the stage, but they seemed pretty busy giggling at each other while looking in his direction. He had Mr. Schuester on seated on his other side, which he didn't really know how to feel about, but he were being polite as ever.
The other groups were really great too. They had a killer set, with some phenomenal songs; only thing was that they had chosen songs that were obvious hits. They hadn't dared much. The New Directions would be the only group with original songs. This was really big. He weren't nervous though. They had really hit the nail back at regionals, and they had a strong line up and their vocal-work had improved a lot these last few months.
Now was the moment. The music started playing and Rachel's, who else's, vocal sounded. She looked great in her black dress, letting the spotlight love her. She nailed it, and as Finn entered the stage there was no doubt that they had written gold. The rest of the group came out on the stage and helped finishing the number. People went crazy as the tune went into next song, and the whole group were working their amazing choreography. Their vocals were in perfect harmony, and Blaine felt a rush of heat going through him as he watched Kurt up there. He looked so happy and confident. He was truly where he belonged.
The whole crowd were standing now. Cheering and applauding as the number ended. Standing ovations were hard to get in such a tough competition, and Blaine couldn't help grinning all over as he made eye contact with Kurt. The little boy on stage blushed, and shot a wide grin and blew him a kiss. Blaine couldn't resist now. He leaned in to the teenage girl next to him who had tried getting his attention all night. He let his mouth all close to her ear, so close that she could feel his breathing on her neck, before whispering very silently:
"See that guy up there? The guy who owns that entire stage. Yeah, that's my boyfriend."
He chuckled to himself, and sat down in his seat as he could feel the eyes of the girls on him. Normally he weren't like this, but he just couldn't help it. The temptation had been too much.
The New Directions had left the stage, and it was time to wait for the winner to be announced. All three groups entered the stage, and Blaine could see Kurt search for him in the audience, so he waved at him, and smiled, but it only made him look even more nervous. Blaine winked at his boyfriend and gestured to him that he should keep his attention on the judges.
All of the New Directions were holding each others hands and looked as if they were trying to hold something down. Then the bomb hit. They were in as number 2. They all looked as if they didn't know whether to cheer or cry. They still didn't let go off each other's hands as they left stage.
Blaine hurried up to follow Mr. Schuester out backstage to see the guys. He didn't get all the way in the room before two arms were swung around his neck, and he felt his neck getting wet.
"You came! Why didn't you tell me?" Kurt was crying, and his grip around Blaine's neck were so tight that he almost cut off the oxygen.
"Of course I came. I couldn't miss your big moment, could I?" He let his arms squeeze Kurt for a second before they let go of each other and let his hands find each other instead, to let them face the others.
"You were really great guys. I think you should have won. Hands down. I'm glad that we weren't up against you again." Blaine looked around at everybody, but they looked as if they still hadn't realized what had happened.
Rachel were sitting by herself in a corner looking as if people did best in leaving her alone, Tina and Mike were hugging, and the rest were standing together in the middle of the room.
Mercedes smiled at Blaine and gave him a quick one-arm-hug.
"It's great that you made it." She smiled at him, as the rest of the group agreed.
They spent around an hour on talking over what could have cost them points, and trying to pretend that it was all okay, before they left for their hotel. Blaine winked at Mercedes before he left for his own hotel, leaving Kurt with a perplexed expression on his face.
It was a little past 7pm and Blaine was dying. He was so nervous. Would he ever be able to do this right?
He took a last mouthful of air before knocking on the door. It was Puck who opened the door.
"Hey. Is he… you know.. Is he ready?" Blaine didn't know why he was so anxious about this. He never felt like this, not even before a big performance.
"Yeah, he's just getting there." Puck grinned, and let Blaine into the room. They had done pretty good. It was a nice hotel with fancy rooms.
Kurt's suitcase were open on top of one of the beds in the middle of the room. It was really obvious to see that it was Kurt's, as skin- and hair-products filled the entire right side, and the rest were a mix of bow ties and colourful scarves on top of neatly folded shirts and pants.
The door to the toilet opened and Kurt entered the room.
"Blaine… what are you doing here? We're just about to go to out, I texted you that an hour ago." He looked confused from Blaine to Puck and back to Blaine again. Puck grinned, and looked down in the floor, as he looked as if her were to explode from the tension.
"Actually… you're not going out with the others. I've come to kidnap you." Blaine feared that he was blushing and praised the lord that the lighting were dimmed.
Kurt looked as if he didn't know how to respond to this, so he just looked down himself, and then back to Blaine.
"Well, but… I can't just leave. Mr. Schuester is never gonna let me…" But Blaine held up a hand to stop him before he could finish his sentence.
"Don't worry about it, we've got that under control." He couldn't help smiling widely, and feeling proud that his entire plan had worked out to perfection with some help from the guys. They had really done great with that. The toughest part had been convincing Mr. Schue, but in the end he had shot them a green pass.
Kurt still seemed confused, but he agreed to come along, as he was extremely curious too. He grabbed his jacket, and they left the hotel room.
"Where are we going?" Kurt looked anxiously at his boyfriend who hadn't said a word since they closed the door. Their hotel were just a block away from Central Park which was perfect. They walked down the street watching the great neon signs and all the interesting people passing them.
"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise, would it now?" Blaine teased him deliberately, and he knew that Kurt would be exploding on the inside. He had never been good at waiting for surprises, but Blaine knew that when it happened all his stress would be gone, and he would agree that it had been worth waiting for.
Central Park was wrapped in twilight, only lit by light chains hanging from the trees, and a few light poles here and there along the path. It looked beautiful with the stars in the sky above them, and people were all walking in the same direction.
"Why are we in the park, Blaine?" Kurt had stopped right inside the fence of the park. He looked as if he didn't think it was good idea to go in there in the dark.
"Don't worry. I've got it all under control. I'm gonna show you something." Blaine gave him a comforting smiled, and took his hand to drag him with him along the path. Kurt reluctantly followed him, still looking around as if he expected an axe-murderer to jump out of the bushes any second.
When they reached the middle of the park Kurt dropped his jaw. There was a lit stage in the middle of the big lawn of the park. A band was getting ready, as coloured lights were shining down on them, and people were sitting on blankets at the grass in front of the stage.
"Blaine! What is this? This is beautiful." He turned to his boyfriend, and Blaine couldn't help noticing that the colours were reflected in his eyes.
But Blaine didn't answer. He merely found a free blanket on the ground in the middle of the crowd where he sat down, and pulled Kurt down with him. When Kurt sat down a little apart from him Blaine moved closer to him and put his arm around his waist to drag him close.
"Don't you think that you can sit all over there, when I'm sitting over here." He whispered the words lightly in Kurt's ear before kissing him on the soft spot behind his ear, taking in the sweet scent of his hair. Kurt giggled and then everything went quiet.
A gorgeous woman stepped out onto the stage and the band started playing. Blaine couldn't stop looking at Kurt instead of the stage. It only took him the first note to figure out what this was. This band was playing strictly Broadway songs. Blaine had come here a few times with his aunt who had lived in New York, so he was sure that they were worth it. The woman's voice was stunning, and the musicians really knew their way around an instrument. It was perfect. Kurt's face lit up like a child seeing a Christmas tree. His eyes were sparkling, and he looked as if he were gonna scream of joy. But he didn't. He just looked at Blaine and swung his arms around his neck.
"Does that mean you like it?" Blaine laughed as he looked at Kurt, taking in every detail of his excited face.
"Are you serious? I love it!" His voice was an octave higher than usual, and he were trembling over the words. He placed a quick kiss on Blaine's cheek before he turned his attention back to the stage. Blaine put his arms around his boyfriend and dragged him down so that Kurt could rest his head on his shoulder while Blaine holding his arms around him. The dark was comforting and made him feel safe. There was no place in the world he'd rather be right now than right here with his boyfriend. Kurt fumbled a bit and found Blaine's hand to link his fingers with his and squeeze. Blaine was pretty sure that for just a moment Kurt had forgotten all about the second place. He kissed Kurt on the hair, and just enjoyed sitting there feeling him close. Once in a while singing along to the tunes silently in Kurt's ear for only him to hear, and Kurt would giggle and squeeze his hand extra tight.
When the last song ended and the band had left the stage people started disappearing around them. They got up and put the blanket over to the stage where there was a place for them. Then they started walking towards town.
"So… what do you think?" Blaine was really excited to hear what he had to say. He had been dying inside to ask.
"Are you kidding me? This was… this was the best anyone has ever done for me!" Kurt squealed, and danced around letting his boots slide in the grass.
"I am so glad that you liked it. Really. It means the world to me."
They were out of the park again, and they were standing in front of a huge fountain. It was in a square surrounded by streets and stores and billboards and neon signs everywhere. Even though it was 9 in the evening there was people everywhere acting as if it had been afternoon. Doing normal every-day stuff. Music was streaming from speakers, and cars were honking at each other. Kurt looked around the scenery in awe. This was so huge and beautiful, and he felt tinier than ever. He had always dreamed of being here. And now he was; but he wasn't just in New York, he was in New York with his boyfriend.
Blaine grabbed his hand and pulled him with him to stand on the platform in front of the fountain so close that they could feel the water sprinkling their hair.
Suddenly Blaine looked very serious, and he took both Kurt's hands in his own. He looked up at the fountain before looking back to stare Kurt directly in the eye. His eyes were filled with stars, and his face were covered in the widest smile he had ever seen him wear.
"I brought you here because there's something I wanna tell you. This is my favourite place in New York. I've been here a few times when my aunt still lived here. I would always run around playing with the water, imagining that some day I would bring my boyfriend here. And here we are." He chuckled at the thought of his memories, as he let his eyes travel one more time around the square that was filled with people going to party and kids playing with balloons. He looked back to Kurt taking in every inch of his face, his hair, his clothing. Tonight Kurt was wearing a white shirt with a blue and red plaided bow tie sitting crookedly around his neck, and tight blue jeans in his knee long black Doctor Martens, all of it topped with a black leather jacket. He looked amazing. Had there ever been a person as stylish as Kurt Hummel?
Blaine was losing track of his words, and had to get his focus back on why he had brought Kurt here. So he took a deep breath and got on with it.
"I know that we've only known each other for a few months, and we've only been together for even less, but… it feels like I've known you forever. And you make me feel so good. When I'm with you I feel like the world disappears and I stop worrying about people judging me." He closed his eyes, to gather up the courage to say the words he had prepared for so long. He had went over them in his head again, and again, and again, and yet he was scared that he was gonna screw it up when he had to say it out loud. Still he got himself together and opened his eyes to let them meet Kurt's once again. He took a tighter grab around his hands before he let the bomb drop.
"I love you, Kurt Hummel. I wanna spend every waken moment with you. I will never get tired of watching you perform. I wish I never had to let go of your hand. I… I just really, really love you." He let out a sigh as if he had held his breath through the entire speech. Now he closed his lips tightly together making them only a thin line on his face.
Kurt's eyes were wide and he looked lost for words. His eyes were piercing into Blaine's hazels, and his mouth slightly open. He opened and closed it again a few times before he finally regained the power to speak.
"I am… wow. Blaine.. This is… wow. I don't know what to say." He paused to try and figure out what to say. Then he realized that Blaine looked as if he were starting to doubt whether it was the right moment, so he pulled himself together.
"I love you too, Blaine Anderson. I wish I could say something beautiful back, but you took my words. I feel exactly the same way about you." He was struck by his own words. He knew that he loved Blaine. Even back when they only just started getting to know each other he could feel that he was gonna love him in time. It was just something completely different to hear his own voice speaking the words. He had imagined Blaine saying these words to him a million times, but never like this, and now that he had said them it went over his imaginations. His insides were floating, and it felt like a dozen butterflies were partying in his entire body.
"I know it's crazy talk, we're only teenagers, and we have a whole life ahead of us, but… I just want the life ahead of me to be with you. I wanna be with you forever."
Kurt didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This was beyond his wildest fantasies. He had dreamed of faceless boys saying these kinds of words to him, but never had he hoped for it to happen. Before he met Blaine he had started giving up on the thought of him ever going to meet someone, and then he just popped up like out of nowhere.
Kurt took a step closer to Blaine, putting his arms around his waist instead of holdings his hands, and though they had this unspoken agreement of no kissing in public he decided that this called for an exception. He stood as close as possible, and kissed Blaine deep and warm on the lips, letting his right foot pop a little, like the princesses in Disney movies. Blaine really did know how to make him feel like a Disney princess.
Blaine returned the kiss and wrapped his arms around Kurt's to end the kiss with a hug. Then they spent a good 20 minutes sitting on the side of the fountain looking out over the big city scenario, Kurt's head on Blaine's shoulder, holding each other's hands while Blaine were singing "That's All" by Nat king Cole in his ear.
When they realized it was late and Kurt had to get back to his hotel they took each other's hands and walked back through New York, not letting go of each other's hands once, till they stood in front of Kurt's hotel having to say goodnight.
Blaine being the perfect gentleman placed a kiss on Kurt's cheek and held the door for him, not leaving till he saw Kurt safely in the elevator.
Before Blaine went to sleep that night he sent Kurt a simple text:
"I love you. See you in the morning, darling."