November "I think I'm falling for you..."

-Colbie Caillat

Their little question game continued after their night out together, much to Kurt's surprise. Not like he was complaining, it was nice learning new things about Blaine every day that they saw each other when they actually had time. They never played via-text, though. They came to a mutual agreement that it would be better if they did that stuff face-to-face, more real, things like that.

However, with sectionals coming up, Kurt's glee club rehearsals were starting to get longer, and he couldn't stop by the Lima Bean as often as he would like to because he still had his studies to get done at the same time. At one point he had tried to study at the Lima Bean, but Blaine was too damn distracting for him to actually get any work done, as kind of pathetic as that is.

On the other hand, Blaine's working schedule had been altered a little bit, and he had sectionals to prepare for, too, since he was in his school's glee club (no surprise), so the amount of times they had seen each other for more than five minutes in the first half of that month could be counted on one hand.

They still texted like crazy, but it wasn't really the same. Kurt's friends suddenly needed him to go out with them on the weekends when they weren't freaking out about sectionals, too, so one week he only saw Blaine oncefor maybe two minutes. Winning sectionals for the third year in a row kind of made that better, though.

Kind of.

But, at the same time, he hadn't actually expected how much he would miss the charismatic boy, and how hard it was not to talk about him with his friends, since they would automatically assume something was going on... "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" they said. It was actually so true in this case it was kind of depressing.

But, finally, finally, the Tuesday after school that marked the start of Thanksgiving Break, right before Blaine was leaving with his parents and siblings to go out of state of visit some family for the holiday, they got to spend a few hours together, lying around and reading Vogue and things of that nature. In Kurt's bedroom. At his house.

It wasn't like it was weird. It was pretty natural, having a good friend over at your house… and Kurt felt immensely at ease with Blaine around for some reason. It was just… nice.

His father had been a little hesitant about letting Blaine come over and lay around in Kurt's room without anyone watching them, since Kurt had accidentally let it slip that, yes, Blaine wasgay, but he compromised. Blaine could come over as long as Kurt kept his bedroom door open, which he did. Kurt tried not to get too offended, since he knew his dad was just being protective, but still.

Another thing that contributed to the fact that his dad said yes was probably the shock from when Kurt mentioned he'd put off starting on Thanksgiving dinner until Blaine left, since... well, Kurt liked to get a head start on that kind of thing. He didn't normally put cooking/baking second to anything, except for maybe a few things like a musical showing in town, or if he had something huge to study for...

And, now, apparently, Blaine.

They continued their game after a few minutes of brief catching up since every time they saw each other prior to that night, there really wasn't enough time to talk about their lives and things could easily be forgotten in the middle of typing a text and sometimes they would get too absorbed in whatever they were doing during phone conversations and miss something the other person said. There was also a picture taken at one point, though Kurt didn't pay it too much attention.

Things were going swimmingly(Kurt never actually got why that was an expression), perfectly, and most of all easily, until Kurt let his tongue slip (again).

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?"

Of course Kurt had to ask that. Of course. Then again, it was a question that had been bothering him for a while, and he knew that Blaine wasn't seeing anyone at the moment (not that he had asked. Actually, Kurt had checked Facebook, pathetically enough. It is dubbed the 'stalker website' after all...). They were close enough friends, so he figured that Blaine wouldn't really have any issues telling him…

There was a five second pause, and within it Kurt looked up from the glossy page of Vogue the he had lifted to turn, and he found Blaine staring at him with a nearly blank expression on his face, though there was something in those eyes…

Vulnerability? Sadness? He couldn't figure it out before Blaine nodded his head, going back to his smiley self in no time, which, surprisingly, kind of… hurt Kurt, seeing Blaine cover up his emotions so quickly like that, "Yeah, I have had a boyfriend. Nothing too major, though…"

That was the first time that Kurt had ever seen Blaine's almost… broken side. It was… interesting. New. Heartbreaking.

Kurt had vented to Blaine about the difficulty of being the only out male gay kid at his school (he knew there were more, they were just way trapped in the closet), and being picked on every day even though the abuse was worse back in his sophomore year. He loved Santana (most of the time), but it really just wasn't the same, and he got a whole lot more shit than she did, and Brittany wasn't really a lesbian… or bi… she was "Santana-sexual" as she put it.

But, still, Kurt had shown Blaine how broken he was, maybe not completely, but the other boy had gotten a glimpse, maybe even a gaze, at the mental scarring that high school gave Kurt, but Blaine had always seemed so… perfect. Unbreakable. Sure, Blaine had admitted at one point that he was bullied, too, before he went to Dalton, and yeah, it had pissed him off, but he never looked upset, or broken, he just looked angry. There was that undeniable sadness that was in his eyes when he briefly spoke about his past boyfriend, though.

There was something to prove that Blaine Anderson was real. That he was actually human, just like Kurt.

Kurt actually expected whatever small amount of "more than friends" feelings that he had developed, held and (barely) acknowledged to fade away, at that moment, and to never come back again, because that's what happened. He always ended up crushing on guys he saw as perfect and nice and sweet (case in point: Finn. Before he became his stepbrother), and then that crush was smashed when the perfection was shattered beyond all repair, or even just barely in some cases.

That was how it worked for Kurt.

Those feelings didn't, go away, though. Actually, if anything, Blaine seemed… even moreperfect than before, somehow, and there was a dull feeling at the bottom of his heart that blossomed a little bit, like a small rose bud starting to bloom at the beginning of spring.

...It kind of scared him. Just for a moment, though, before he decidedly ignored the sudden feelings, and asked Blaine to repeat the question he had missed because he was thinking too much, yet again.

He'd think about it later.

Now he had to remember one of the most awkward moments he had ever had with his dad—oh, wait, that's right, when he was caught making out with Brittany when he was pretending to be straight for the sake of his father. Well, this was going to be an interesting story to tell Blaine.

Black Friday shopping was always a crazy adventure for Kurt, and he always enjoyed it no matter what. Ever since he met Mercedes, they normally went together, but her family had insistedon staying with the extended family for a few extra days, so he ended up going with Rachel instead.

Not that that was a bad thing, since the ambitious girl at joined them last year and things had gone fine, and Rachel was one of his best friends now. The three of them were divas, but together they kind of balanced each other out pretty well.

After the long day of shopping (they had literally been up at six a.m. and left the mall at six thirty p.m.), the duo retired to Rachel's bedroom to have a sleepover after having dinner with her fathers.

Kurt was reading a magazine, lying on his stomach with his legs kicking in the air absentmindedly, as Rachel sat at her vanity, brushing her now-shoulder length hair that she had recently cut. It made her cheekbones a little sharper, but she still looked ridiculously gorgeous, and it still curled naturally, so it wasn't as dramatic as it would be if she had naturally straight hair.

Her eyebrows still needed work, though.

Through the past year, Rachel had actually calmed down from how she was a few years back. She was still horribly ambitious and would do almost anything to get what she wanted, but through all of the drama that she went through she was a more considerate person, actually. She valued her friendships more and thought before the acted… most of the time, anyways. The brunette had stopped being so dependent on Finn and less pushy about getting solos, in a way…

She had matured. Rachel Berry had grown as a person, and that was natural. Kurt himself had matured, as well.

He remembered when he had hated Rachel, and always smiled a little bit at the memories. Not due to happiness, of course, but he just… smiled. No particular reasoning to it, actually. Maybe it was the nostalgic feelings.

Kurt began to wonder if he should ask Rachel why she was even in love with Finn, one of the most imperfect people Kurt himself had ever met, not that the fact didn't make him a bad person. Finn was just… slower than a lot of other people, and could be a hypocrite and temperamental and brash.

Kurt knew that Rachel fell for the seemingly "perfect" Finn, the one he fell for as well, the one that was the star of the school and was popular, yet when she uncovered his imperfections she just seemed to love him more, unlike Kurt, though in his defense everything that was said to him in Sophomore year was extremely hurtful...

And, well, they were brothers now.

Comfortable silence stretched between them, only invaded by the soft show tunes flowing from the speakers of her radio. The silence would soon be full of chattering, Kurt knew, and within the talking his thought would be lost, so he figured that now was better than later to start the conversation.

"Rachel, why do you love Finn?" he asked, trying to make it seem casually asked on a whim by gazing back down at his magazine and turning the page.

For a few moments, nothing happened, before the sound of the brush being set down on the table penetrated Kurt's ears, and he looked over at Rachel who had turned around in her chair, her posture impeccable and her hands folded in her lap. Despite the… stiffness, there was a gentle look in her eyes that could only be brought on by her thinking about Finn, Kurt knew.

Rachel sighed and smiled at Kurt wistfully still, "Because… he's just… perfect, to me."

Well, now Kurt was even more confused than before, but he didn't let it show, "He's perfect? Finn is one of the most imperfect people I've ever met, Rachel, and I live with him."

She smiled a little bit more and stood up, making her way over to her bed and sitting down on it, pulling her legs up and crossing them to talk to Kurt, who closed the magazine but still stayed on his stomach, "I used to tell myself that, too, that he was so imperfect that he didn't deserve such a star like me," Kurt rose an eyebrow. She must've been referring to last year when then "Fuinncident", as they dubbed it, happened, "But no matter how much I tried to convince myself, he just seemed so perfect to me… he made me happy, for some reason."

"Rachel, you aren't making any sense."

Yes, Kurt was a hopeless romantic, but he had never actuallybeen in love… at least, he didn't really think so.

Not yet.

His friend gazed down at him, her smile fading and her gaze turning questioning, before realization suddenly appeared in her eyes, "It's… it's hard to explain, Kurt," she began slowly, and he sat up, crossing his legs as well and staring across at her, positioning himself so that there was about an inch of space between their knees, waiting patiently for Rachel to start explaining, because he knew that she would regardless.

"When you are smitten with someone… you think they're perfect." Kurt wanted to point out that he has asked why she loved his stepbrother, not why she simply liked him, but held back when he noticed she was about to talk again, "However, when you find out their imperfections, but still think that they're the most perfect person in the world… you know that you truly love that person. To love a person is to love them completely and totally, without a doubt, every part of them no matter what, Kurt. You don't love a person because they're perfect, you think they're perfect because you love them.

"It probably seems weird, hearing this from me, but it's one of the many things I learned from dating and loving Finn..."

That moment was kind of like an epiphany for Kurt. He suddenly realized why Finn loved Rachel despite how insufferable she could be even at that point (and, even now, she could still have her moments), why Santana loved Brittany no matter how ditzy she'd get, why Puck had loved Quinn at one point (and still might, no one ever really asked) despite how much of a bitch she could be…

Oh, Gaga help him.

Rachel tilted her head to the side questioningly, frowning a little bit at him because of his silence, "Why, Kurt?"

"I might be in love with Blaine," he blurted out suddenly, without much thought, "I… I'm definitely falling for him, but… oh… oh Gaga…"

Rachel looked shocked at his sudden confession, just about as shocked as Kurt was for realizing it.

What the hell was he supposed to do now?

"Don't judge me." That was all he said, because he didn't want to know what Rachel, hell, even Mercedes, thought on this, at all. He wasn't one to wear his heart on his sleeve.

Actually, he was a bitch at the best of times.

From his reaction, Rachel knew to change the subject automatically.

So she did.