"I don't know what to say." Kurt answered honestly with a small shrug and Blaine shook his head despairingly.
"You're weirded out, aren't you."
"No-"
"You are. I know you are." Blaine cut off Kurt's answer quickly, and stood from the couch, walking around the back of it, and Kurt watched him for a second before his eyes softened and he smiled.
"No, I'm really not, you don't look at all over 40." Kurt told him and Blaine turned to give him a tight smile.
"Thanks. How old did you think I was when we first spoke?" He asked and Kurt's eyes widened at the question, and he remembered what he thought back in the club when Blaine had bumped him.
"At least 35."
"So still a good significant number then."
Kurt couldn't believe he was hearing this. This beaten in rejection that Blaine was showing, the insecurity and sadness radiating off of him as he closed himself down. Kurt knew walls for protection when he saw them, he often had them himself.
He sighed under his breath as he watched Blaine's shoulders slumping further as the conversation went on. He was obviously having another conversation in his own head. One that puts him down a lot more than Kurt would allow.
"That's just it though, right?" Kurt said quietly and Blaine paused in his misery to look at him with slight confusion.
"What's it?" He asked thoroughly stumped, like he might have missed part of the conversation but Kurt just stood from the couch and walked around to lean on the back of it next to him.
Blaine was still eyeing him warily, and Kurt looked him in the eye with an intense but gentle stare.
"Age...it's just a number right?"
Blaine's face ran through so many emotions in just a few seconds, that Kurt couldn't place them all. But he saw hope, and wonder. That could only be a good thing.
"How old are you?" Blaine asked with a very small upturn of his lips.
"24."
"...so young." Blaine groaned and buried his face in one hand, rubbing against his eyes slightly with his fingers.
"Maybe compared to you, old man," Kurt joked keeping his tone light, and he saw Blaine'sshoulders stiffen for a moment, until he looked at Kurt through his fingers and let out a chuckle.
They stood in silence again for a while, just breathing next to each other, accepting the other's information and all that had come before this confession. Blaine had lost the air of confidence he exuded earlier in the evening, and now he looked just as insecure and young as Kurt.
Kurt smiled as he watched him. He had been searching deep inside himself for the answer that Blaine probably craved from him, needed from him. Something that would say everything about this was ok.
And it was ok. Kurt had no qualms, no doubts that it was a great thing. That it was normal. And as Kurt dug deeper inside himself for any reservations about this whatsoever, he realized that he didn't. He accepted this as the norm, age, for Kurt, really was just a number.
"...I don't care." he said quietly, disturbing their silence so suddenly that it almost made Blaine jump.
"What?" Blaine asked even more quietly and Kurt turned to send him a serious look.
"I don't care. About your age I mean."
"Why? It should bother you a little at the very least, you could have whirlwind romances with guys your own age, not stuck with some old guy." Blaine said as he looked down at himself with a little contempt and Kurt shook his head before reaching for his hand.
"I happen to actually like this 'some old guy'," He said as he wrapped his fingers around Blaine's, who was just staring down at their hands, "...you're selling yourself so short, Blaine."
"I'm not really, I am old." Blaine responded as he tightened the hold of his fingers on Kurt's hand, squeezing lightly.
"Not for me." Kurt disagreed, and gave him a smile, and for the first time since the start of this conversation, Kurt saw Blaine's eyes gain back some of their light. Hope and excitement dancing around in their depths.
"Are you sure? I mean your reaction-" Blaine started to frown again and Kurt interrupted.
"I was just shocked ok? You really don't look like you're...you're..." he had no idea how to finish his sentence that didn't come off as overly nice or detrimental to his earlier proclamation.
"Your dad's age?" Blaine supplied with a smirk, but Kurt narrowed his eyes.
"My dad is 54 actually."
"Close."
"Not really." Kurt snapped a little and Blaine stared at him in wonder and surprise for a moment, before looking back at their hands and smiling softly.
"So this really doesn't feel weird to you?" Blaine asked but with the soft smile on his face, Kurt knew it was just a curious question rather than an argument and he sighed a little as stepped closer to Blaine's side, feeling the warmth spread through from their arms touching.
"No."
"You'd be the first, usually when guys younger than...35...learn my age, they run for the hills." Blaine explained with a small smirk and Kurt gripped his hand even harder and then took a deep breath and placed his head on Blaine's shoulder.
"Do you see me running?" he asked as he unconsciously snuggled closer, and he felt the tiny chuckle Blaine gave him in return.
"Not yet." Blaine added, and Kurt brought their joint hands up to his chest, thumb running along the knuckles of Blaine's and he smiled as he closed his eyes.
"Well I don't plan to."
Then there was silence, Kurt standing with Blaine, leaning against him, with his eyes closed. Kurt's thumb was rubbing patterns on the back of Blaine's hand where they were still joined and pulled up to his chest. He felt Blaine shift slightly, possibly to look down at him. He was surprised, but pleasantly so, when Blaine's other hand reached over and ran through his hair.
Maybe it would be hard, maybe they wouldn't have much in common because of how they grew up and in what time, but they were here now, they liked each other, maybe it would be ok.