Blaine sniffled in Kurt's embrace, emotionally drained. He felt a little better having talked things out a bit, but still so much seemed wrong these days.

"Let's order a pizza," his fiancé murmured in his ear. "It's been a long day, neither one of us is going to feel like cooking."

"Hmph." Blaine grunted. "Thought you'd outgrown comfort food…" he muttered somewhat bitterly.

Kurt looked at Blaine somewhat reproachfully and Blaine ducked his head.

"Sorry. I don't mean to be snarky. I don't know what's wrong with me." Blaine offered meekly.

Kurt nodded. "If I was bossy the other day about dinner, I'm sorry. I really don't care what you eat, I just feel better about myself these days if I'm more thoughtful about my meals."

Blaine sighed. "You weren't wrong. I probably should be cutting back on calories; I didn't think the Freshman Fifteen was a real thing until I got here, but I guess it is," he grumped. "I'm probably not going to feel better about myself anytime soon if I'm not doing something about it."

"Okay, how about we make it a vegetarian pizza, and I'll let you make of your ridiculous zero-calorie sodas." Kurt said, earning a little smile from Blaine.

"Deal."

When they got to bed that night Blaine was feeling a little better. He snuggled up and laid his head against his fiancé's chest.

"I don't like when we fight," Blaine murmured.

"I'd rather we fight than not know what's going on in your head." Kurt commented.

"Sometimes… you don't seem to want to know." Blaine offered, hesitant.

"Hmm?" Kurt reached down and turned Blaine's face to him. "I do?" he asked concerned.

Blaine shrugged. "You said you think we talk too much," he said simply, leaning his head back down.

Kurt sighed, running his hand lazily on Blaine's back. "I did. I—I'm sorry. It isn't fair for me to call you out for keeping things inside if I'm being dismissive when you try to reach out."

Blaine smiled. "In fairness, maybe Combat class isn't the best venue for a heart to heart."

"No," Kurt agreed. He paused, trying to decide whether to bring something up. "I guess you've been struggling a lot in that class."

"That teacher hates me."

"He doesn't hate—"

"Kurt, come on, you're not blind. Every time he makes a safety speech it's basically entirely directed at me."

"You're just not used to getting criticism. In Ohio you were always Mr. Perfect Performer."

Blaine pouted. "I don't know about that. Artie had no problem criticizing me every ten minutes during West Side Story. I spent that whole show just trying to please him."

"And didn't you tell me that when you auditioned for Grease he told you that you were the Danny Zuko of his dreams?"

Blaine rolled his eyes. "I played Teen Angel in that show."

"But you wouldn't have if Artie had had his way."

"Well I think his opinion of me dropped considerably when I left that audition sobbing."

Kurt chuckled. "I still can't believe you turned down a lead role."

"I was a mess back then, you have no idea."

They were quiet for a little while.

"Everyone goes through times when they're a little bit of a mess I guess," Kurt finally offered.

Blaine swallowed, and nodded softly. He thought how normally on a Friday night with Rachel at rehearsal they would be messing around by now—and he still just… didn't feel like it. It made him feel guilty, especially knowing that Kurt had read his avoidance of intimacy as some kind of rejection of him. He just felt… heavy… lately. When he thought of the person he was in high school, he thought of someone so light and easy… maybe I did just get things handed to me a lot back then.

Kurt cleared his throat. "Alright, I need to talk to you."

"Hmm? I thought we were—"

"I think you need some help here. I don't like seeing you unhappy, but I'm not sure I'm really helping if I'm letting you indulge in a pity party about it."

Blaine absorbed this, rolling back on his back. "It's not like you can… fix me," he ventured, blinking away a tear dangerously close to falling. "I don't know what's wrong with me these days."

Kurt sat up on his arm. "You said you felt insecure," he pressed. "About your body?"

Blaine nodded, avoiding eye contact. "It's stupid, I tore a hole in my pants—I didn't realize how much weight I'd gained until… and it's just been hard because you just—you're in basically the best shape of your life," he said, with a shrug.

"Well that didn't happen overnight you know. I had a realization that if I'm going to be an artist I need to take better care of myself—that no one else can do that for me."
"Makes sense."

"But if you want to, I can help. We can go grocery shopping together, I can get some vegetarian recipes from Rachel… I know you like restaurant-hopping, but you'd probably save a lot of money and calories just buying some healthy food regularly and packing your lunch every day."

"I don't suppose Cronuts qualify as healthy?"

"Rachel had me monitoring her diet for quite awhile. She wanted to be in good shape for her Broadway debut."

Blaine made a face. "Is it bad if I say that sounds unpleasant?"

Kurt leaned over and kissed him. "Of course not. I just see you're struggling—if I can help, I'm here. That's all I'm saying."

Blaine bit his lip. "I don't know if I want to be in trouble over what I happen to eat for lunch, but the idea of grocery shopping together sounds nice. And when I'm here we can try to cook healthier, experiment with some new recipes maybe?"

Kurt smiled. "I think that sounds very doable."

Blaine snuggled back into Kurt's arms. "…I saw the NYADA gym offers some classes." He said shyly.

"Like Zumba and water aerobics?" Kurt asked.

Blaine smiled. "I guess, lots of different stuff. I saw a posting outside Theatre History and had kinda thought about it."

"You think it'd help?"

"It's worth a try. I'd really like to try this Abs class the have but I was sort of intimidated because I wonder if it's like some kind of Sue Sylvester boot camp style thing and I'm just- kind of out of shape and sensitive right now, I don't know if I can take that level of abuse like I did on the Cheerios," he confessed.

Kurt laughed. "I doubt it's anything as evil as that."

"Well I figure other NYADA students will be there, people we know. If I screw up something or am not as in good shape as they are—I'd just, be embarrassed."

"Blaine, people who are in an exercise class aren't taking notes on how everyone else is doing. They're just worried about their own heart rate most of the time."

"I guess."

"Would it help if we took the class together?" Kurt offered.

"It's on Saturdays, you wouldn't be able to take morning shifts at the diner."

Kurt shrugged. "I was trying to cut back on those since our together time was more weekend centered these days anyhow."

Blaine looked at Kurt. "You'd really do that?"
"Of course. It sounds like fun."

Blaine rolled his eyes. "This is how I know you're in ridiculously good shape. No one is supposed to think of a class like that as fun."

"It'll be fun, because we'll do it together. It'll force us to be productive on a Saturday morning and then the rest of the day we'll feel like we accomplished something out of the gate. I told you, we can run this race together if you let me."

Blaine took a breath. "Okay. At least if I know you're going, I won't be tempted to just chicken out I guess."

Kurt kissed his fiancés forehead. "No you know I would never stand for shenanigans like that."