"Kurt?"

"Mm…"

"Wake up, buddy—Carole's made pancakes. Come on. You have to get ready for school—"

Kurt shot up. It was lucky that his dad had such good reflexes or they would have head-butted. Thankfully, Burt Hummel moved out of the way quickly enough and Kurt stared at him. "It's Monday already?"

"Sure is, kiddo. Carole has breakfast all set out. First day back at school. I trust you got all of your homework done?"

"Dad, it's me."

Burt smirked. "Yeah. Okay. Get dressed and come down."

Kurt sighed, kicking the blankets off instead of slipping out them so as not to ruffle his duvet. Sue him. He was tired. His father peered at him curiously and Kurt arched an eyebrow. "What?"

"You went out with Mercedes yesterday, right?"

"Yeah." No, in fact, he had not. That was just what he had said he was going to do. But instead, he had gone to Blaine's. They had hung around on the couch, watching cartoons and just being with each other. And then Kurt had cooked them dinner and they'd done the dishes together. Which then ended with Kurt up on the counter, both of them soapy and wet, laughing through their kisses at how silly this all was when there was a bed right around the corner.

"So why do you have a hickey?"

Kurt's hand flew up to his neck. "Wh-what?"

"Look, kid, I know teenage years are about…finding yourself and stuff, but you don't have to pretend to like girls again—I think you only managed it with Brittany because she's not the sharpest nail in the toolbox—"

"Dad, no—no, no, no, I'm not—it's just…" But he didn't have anything to say.

Burt looked worried, but he simply nodded. "Okay. Listen, just…bring him around to dinner sometime or something? I don't want you sneaking around behind my back. I'd like to meet the kid."

"It was just…a one-time thing. Just this guy I met at sectionals…" Great, more lies. He'd never lied to his father before. "It was stupid. Nothing happened. I'm sorry."

"Fine," his father said, and nodded. "But if you need to talk about…anything like…that stuff… I'm here. Carole gave Finn some condoms—"

"No! Dad!" Kurt held up his hands, stopping his father's words. "No. No need for condoms." He and Blaine weren't having actual sex yet—in fact the thought was threatening and not really something he wanted to even entertain at the moment. "Honestly."

"Alright. But…if you do—"

"Got it, Dad! Thanks! Bye now!"

And Kurt practically shoved him out the door.

-0-

Kurt and Blaine were sitting across from one another at Blaine's desk later that afternoon, coffee cups clutched in front of them, as Kurt relayed the morning's horror story.

"So my dad came in to wake me up this morning—"

"That explains why you were the last one in the door this morning."

"—and he saw this." Kurt pulled away his scarf, showing the red and purple mark at the base of his neck. "I didn't even know it was there."

Blaine's eyes went wide. "Well, right about now I could offer a snarky comment about how it was because you were too distracted to notice what I was doing to your neck…but I didn't realize I'd done that either, so…"

"So we're both pretty equally at fault."

The curly-haired man sighed and took off his glasses to rub at his eyes. "Shit, Kurt. What'd you tell him?"

"That it was some guy from sectionals. I promised it would never happen again."

"You told him it was Drew?"

"Oh. Huh. Well, I didn't really think about it. But, yeah, I guess. Just without the name. He tried to give me condoms." Kurt smiled, taking another sip of his coffee. The smile fell away when he noticed that Blaine looked…well, stressed. "Hey." He covered the older man's hand with his. "What's wrong? I promise, I'm not actually interested in Drew, like at all, so—"

"Kurt, I could lose my job. I'm…I'm a cradle-robber."

"I'm 17! I turn 18 this summer! You're hardly destroying my innocence!"

"Except that I am!" he whisper-shouted, pulling his hand back. "When I'm supposed to be focused on watching Madame Henri and doing things for her, I'm watching you and thinking about you. I can't. This is my job. I want to be a teacher one day, Kurt. I have to get a full year of observations. Most people switch to new teachers every few weeks—you wanna know a secret? I was going to do that. I was going to be like everyone else and stay here for two weeks, then maybe an English teacher, then maybe a Chemistry teacher, and then on to the next school. But then I saw you in that classroom and I just…I couldn't make myself leave. And I knew I was going to torture myself by staying because I couldn't have you, but…it was okay because I wanted to get to know you." Blaine dropped his glasses and ran his hands through his hair.

"Blaine—"

"I love you, Kurt," he said evenly, staring at his desk, his hands clenched in his hair with his elbows resting in front of him. "And it scares the shit out of me."

Kurt felt numb. His mouth was open and he knew what he wanted to say…but it just wouldn't come out. Finally, he licked his lips and swallowed. "Blaine," he whispered, reaching for his boyfriend's hands. "I love you too. And I…I'm so sorry—"

"You have nothing to be sorry for." Blaine squeezed his hands. "Nothing at all. It was me. I let myself get jealous of Drew; I let myself sing that song with you; I kissed you."

"Are you…are you saying that you want to break up with me?"

Blaine shook his head immediately, no hesitation. "No—god, no, Kurt. Never. Didn't you just hear me say that I was in love with you? I'm saying that no matter how much I know I should…I couldn't. Because you're worth this. And so we have to be a lot more careful. No more hickeys—"

"At least visible ones."

"—and no more kissing in school parking lots." He fixed Kurt with a glare. "I mean it."

"Fine. I guess."

Blaine nodded and let go of Kurt's hands. "Now, moving on—I have to grade the homework packets from over break but it's getting late and sooner or later the janitor is going to kick us out, so what do you say we call it a night?"

"I don't want to go home," Kurt whined.

"God, you're such a teenager."

The brunette gave a lewd smile. "Yeah, but you know what it's like being a teenage boy." Blaine jerked when he felt Kurt's foot traveling up his leg. "So you're actually very lucky to have me. My sex drive never ends."

Kurt could see Blaine's throat move as he swallowed. "Yeah, well… Shit, Kurt, you can't say things like that to me. Put—put your shoe back on."

"Why don't we go back to your place?"

"That's not such a good idea, Kurt."

"Aw, come on."

Blaine stood, gathering his papers. He pulled his glasses on and glared at Kurt over the top of them. "I'm trying to be a gentleman."

Kurt watched as the man—and he really was all man—in front of him packed folders into his bag. "What if I don't want you to be a gentleman? What if I like it better when you're corrupting my innocent youth?"

"Don't even joke, Kurt."

"It's not a joke. I…I'm not ready for all of it, Blaine. But I really like the stuff we do." When Blaine didn't do anything but continue putting his things away, Kurt sighed. "I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's nice, Blaine. It's amazing being held and being touched and being loved. You never had to come to terms with the fact that you weren't going to be all of those things until maybe past college, if ever." Kurt looked down at his hands. "I'd like to enjoy these things as much as possible now that I have them."

Blaine leaned over his desk, waiting for Kurt to look up. When he did, Blaine said softly, "I understand that, Kurt. And I'm sorry that you ever had to feel like you were never going to get those things. I want to hold you and touch you and love you for as long as you let me, okay?"

Kurt smiled. "Okay."

"Promise me you won't try to convince me to let you spend the night?"

"Pinky promise."

"Alright—let's go."

-0-

Kurt was laughing as he pinned Blaine to the mattress, mouths moving together softly, lazily. They weren't really trying to get anywhere, they were just comfortably kissing, being with each other, enjoying…this.

Blaine chuckled, fighting against the hold the younger boy had on his wrists. "Come on, Kurt," he whispered, biting down on Kurt's bottom lip. "Let go."

"Not if you're going to keep tickling me."

"I promise not to!"

But Kurt simply brought their mouths together again so that there was no more talking.

Blaine eventually managed to get Kurt beneath him and his shirt off and right as things were moving from comfortable and lazy to hot and desperate, Kurt's phone rang.

"Ignore it," Blaine rasped, lips trailing a line down Kurt's throat.

"It could be my dad."

Blaine rolled off of him, staring up at the ceiling. "Fine. But don't expect me to not start without you if you take too long."

Rolling his eyes, Kurt grabbed his phone from his bag on the ground and took it out into the kitchen.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Kurt! It's Drew."

Shit. "Oh, right. Hi."

"So, we haven't spoken in awhile. I was wondering if you wanted to go out on Friday."

This could not end well for him. If he told Drew he had a boyfriend, he would get curious. He could somehow find out it was Blaine. If he told Drew he was busy, he would call him out. And if he told Drew he wasn't interested, he'd insist that Kurt was playing hard to get. Ugh… "Drew, give me like two minutes, okay?"

"Sure."

Kurt walked back into the bedroom and cleared his throat. Blaine was staring at the ceiling with his hands behind his head, but he was in nothing but his boxers. He looked up, grinning. "Hello, love."

"What do I tell a guy that asks me out what we are?"

Blaine looked pensive. "Drew?"

"Yeah."

He shrugged. "Go out with him."

"What?"

"Kurt, I don't control your life. You're 17. You seem to like him enough and he likes you." Another shrug. "It doesn't have to be an actual date. So go out with him. Your dad will get suspicious if you're always 'over at a friend's house.'" He exaggerated the last few words, winking.

"But…"

"Plus this can offer an explanation for the hickey." Kurt frowned. "The sooner you end the phone call, the sooner you can get back in bed."

Kurt raised the phone to his ear again like lightning. "Drew?"

The boy on the other end of the line cleared his throat slightly, before saying, "Listen, Kurt, I hope this isn't awkward, but my brother's in town and well…how'd you feel about a double date? Do you think you could ask your friend Blaine?"

"Um… Give me another second—sorry, I'm trying to, uh, bake."

"No problem."

Kurt put the phone to his chest. "A double date. Me with Drew, you with Christian."

Blaine's eyes went wide. "No way in hell."

"Come on. It'd be a way for us to go have dinner in public with each other."

"Kurt, we'd be on dates with other people! I'd be on a date with my ex!"

"So he is your ex. Who broke it off?"

Blaine rolled his eyes, getting off the bed. "It doesn't matter who broke it off," he said, grabbing his jeans and tugging them back on. "I'm not going out with him."

"Well fine; then I'm not going out with Drew. Why would you even want me to?"

"Because you deserve a real night out. I feel bad, like I'm taking away your teenage years."

Before Kurt could process how ridiculous that was he said, "So come with me."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Kurt, do not fight with me on this."

Kurt scowled at him, his fists clenched. He raised the phone again. "I just texted him. He'd love to."

"Awesome! Breadsticks on Friday? 6 o'clock."

Blaine shook his head slowly.

"Yup," Kurt said. "It's a date."

Blaine scoffed, moving past him into the rest of the apartment. "I can't believe you did that."

"I can't believe you'd try to convince me to go out with a guy because you feel like you're robbing me of my teenage years! Blaine, we just talked about how loved I feel with you and how that's all I want! What part of that did you not understand? What part of that made you think that I wanted to go out with someone else?"

But Blaine appeared not to have heard him.

"Blaine?"

The TA simply opened up his fridge.

"Are you seriously doing this? And I'm the teenager?"

Silence.

"Fine." Kurt went back inside of Blaine's room and pulled his shirt back on with jerky movements, anger making him shake. He grabbed his bag and stormed back towards the door of Blaine's apartment. He paused in the doorway for a moment. Blaine was watching him. "I'm happy with you, Blaine. When you get over whatever this is and realize that, call me."

Kurt started crying as soon as the elevator doors closed.