Blaine opens his eyes slowly. He realises that he is not in his own bed and is reaching for his shoes before he remembers whose bed it is. It's automatic. His hand is not half way to the floor before he remembers where he is and he looks over to see that Kurt is still sound asleep next to him. Smiling, Blaine slides back down under the covers, his elbow propping him up. It's the second morning in a row that he has woken up next to Kurt and to Blaine that means something. Kurt looks so peaceful and Blaine wishes, yet again, that they could somehow freeze this moment and stay in it forever. Not least because a very small part of him is worried that Kurt might freak out again when he wakes up.
Kurt's apartment is darker than Blaine's in almost every way. Kurt's apartment is far smaller, there aren't as many windows, and the windows that are there face away from the sun, but there is colour everywhere. There are blankets and throw pillows and paintings and a corkboard absolutely covered with photographs. And clothes. The whole apartment is filled with clothes, the bedroom in particular being filled almost to the point where it's difficult to move. There is an old sewing machine in the living room, half a jacket lying over the machine, still waiting to be finished, surrounded by reams of material and piles of sketchbooks, and there are mood boards on every available surface. Blaine had of course noticed that Kurt took pride in the way he looked and that he always wore very unique outfits, but he had had no idea at all that fashion was so large a part of Kurt's life. It makes him wonder what Kurt is doing wasting his time working in the bookstore.
Blaine doesn't even realise that Kurt is awake until he says, "tell me you haven't been watching me sleep."
Blaine laughs. "Maybe a little."
"Well that's kind of creepy." Kurt shifts and Blaine immediately reaches out to wrap his hands around Kurt's wrists. "What are you doing?" Kurt asks, finally opening his eyes to look at Blaine.
Blaine moves closer to Kurt, still holding Kurt's hands together between them both. "I don't want you trying to run away again."
"This is my apartment, where would I run to?"
Blaine shrugs. "The kitchen?"
"If I promise not to run away to the kitchen then will you give me back my hands?"
"Nope." Blaine brings Kurt's hands to his mouth and slowly kisses each of Kurt's fingers in turn. Blaine's eyes are barely open, turned down to look at Kurt's slender fingers, and his long eyelashes brush against his cheeks. Kurt blushes a little at the intimacy of the gesture. Once he has finished kissing Kurt's fingers Blaine finally releases his hands but Kurt immediately laces the fingers of his right hand with those of Blaine's left. Blaine looks up into Kurt's eyes and smiles softly. "I wish we could just stay here forever."
"Why would you want to stay in my apartment?" Kurt asks, a little breathless at the sudden switch of conversation.
"No, here. Right here, in the bed." Blaine bounces their intertwined hands on the mattress between them lightly.
"How would we eat?"
"We'd get food delivered."
"Right to my bed?" Kurt laughs.
"Right to your bed," Blaine insists, his smile broadening.
"I don't think they do that."
"Kurt," Blaine says, suddenly very serious, "my father is a very rich man. I think I can find someone willing to deliver food to your bed for the right price." He smiles and Kurt bursts into laughter, which only deepens Blaine's desire to never leave this bed again.
"Maybe we should set ourselves up in your bed instead and get your maid to bring us our food," Kurt teases.
"No, Rita would never agree to that," Blaine replies as though actually considering this. "Besides I like your apartment, it's like one big closet."
Kurt gives Blaine a withering look but Blaine only smiles in response.
"Well until you find someone who will agree to deliver our food we are going to have to leave the bed sometimes." Kurt insists, pushing himself up so that he is sitting with his back against the headboard.
"No." Blaine shakes his head and burrows underneath the duvet.
"What are you doing?" Kurt asks.
"Protesting." The duvet muffles Blaine's voice and there is a quiet thud that Kurt assumes is Blaine's fist hitting the mattress. Kurt rolls his eyes and slides out of the bed. Blaine's head immediately pops out from under the edge of the duvet. "Wait what are you doing?"
"Getting dressed," Kurt says as he searches one of the many rails of clothes in the room for something to wear.
"But I'm protesting."
Kurt turns to look at Blaine and he can't help but smile at his dishevelled hair and tired eyes peeking out from under the duvet. "You are a child," Kurt laughs.
"Is that why you're falling in love with me?" Blaine grins. Kurt purses his lips and turns back to his clothes.
He is already pulling on a shirt when Blaine's arms sneak around his waist, his chin coming to rest on Kurt's shoulder. "I thought you were protesting?"
"I crossed the picket line."
"I'm not getting back in bed. We need breakfast and I have things to do today."
Blaine groans and buries his face in Kurt's shoulder. The coarse stubble on his chin scratches at Kurt's skin and he shivers a little at the newness of the feeling.
"We should eat." Kurt says quietly. Blaine kisses the back of Kurt's shoulder once before pulling his hands away from Kurt's waist and Kurt doesn't stop smiling until later that morning when Blaine leaves to run errands with a promise that he will be back later to take Kurt to lunch.
Blaine stares at the door in front of him, trying not to think too much about the last time he saw this door. Blaine never comes back, ever, but he has had this watch since he was fifteen and besides he has something now that he has never had before. It takes all of his effort not to turn around and run away but right when he thinks he is going to he just thinks about the past few days with Kurt. He thinks about Kurt's smile and his laugh and the pale curve of his back and he quickly knocks on the door before he can change his mind.
He only has to wait a few moments before the door swings open.
"Blaine?"
"Hi Jake."
Jake looks as terrified as Blaine feels as he steps out into the hallway, partially closing the door behind him. "What are you doing here Blaine?"
As Blaine looks up into Jake's eyes, wide with unnecessary fear, he finds himself remembering all sorts of things, but the thing that sticks in his mind the most is the memory that Jake always seemed a little frightened of everything.
"My watch," Blaine answers, digging his hands into his pockets. "I left it here… before."
"Oh." Jake seems to sigh in relief but his eyes are still wide as he opens the door again and steps back into his apartment. "Yeah I put it away. Come in, I'll get it."
Blaine is apprehensive about entering the apartment again but he forces himself to follow Jake anyway.
The apartment looks slightly different to the last time that Blaine was there. It looks cleaner somehow, and there are the obvious signs that it is no longer solely the apartment of a single man; a woman's coat hanging behind the door, two pairs of high heels standing neatly next to Jake's work shoes.
Blaine stays by the door, not daring to move any further into the apartment. There may be new cushions but they are on the same old couch, and even looking at certain parts of the apartment brings back memories that Blaine would like to forget, memories that he is trying to replace with memories of his own couch and maybe, if he can clear the sketchbooks and pencils off of it, memories of Kurt's couch.
Jake heads straight to the desk by the window where he has kept Blaine's watch in a locked drawer ever since he left it there.
"I would have sent it to you," Jakes says as he brings the watch back and gives it to Blaine, "but I didn't know where you lived."
Blaine smiles as he takes the watch from Jake, their fingers brushing together lightly. His smile only gets bigger as he fastens the watch around his wrist. "That's better," he says under his breath. Jake laughs a little. Blaine looks up at him again and there is a moment where they simply look into each other's eyes and smile. Then Jake coughs lightly and they both look down. "I should go," Blaine says.
"Yeah Lisa will be back soon," Jake adds. Blaine nods and smiles up at Jake again briefly.
"Thanks for holding onto this."
"No problem." Jake shrugs. "I figured you'd be back for it eventually. I remember you saying that you'd had it for a long time."
"Well thanks." Blaine starts to move towards the door but Jake stops him.
"Blaine?"
"Yes?"
"Did you… did you find him? Your Soul Mate?"
"What makes you think that?"
Jake shrugs. "You just seem… happier."
Blaine smiles to himself before looking back up at Jake. "Yes," he says, thinking of Kurt, "I think I did."
As soon as the door closes behind him Blaine falls against the wall next to it and simply breathes for a few moments. He barely has time to think about how grateful he is that the entire thing had not been more awkward when his phone rings. His face lights up when he sees that it is Kurt phoning him.
"Missing me already?"
"I'm sorry I found this number in my phone but I just can't remember anyone with this name. Have we met?"
"Yep. I'm the guy you're falling in love with."
"Oh right. I just called to let you know I'm running away to the kitchen."
"You promised you wouldn't!"
"You crossed the picket line."
"Why did you really call?" Blaine laughs.
"This jacket is taking far longer than expected and I promised Finn I'd pick up a book for him to give mom for her birthday. Would you mind dropping into the store and picking it up on your way back here?"
"Of course not," Blaine says, thinking it better that Kurt not know that he is currently only two streets over from Kurt's own apartment.
"Thank you. I already called the store and Miranda's holding a copy back for me so all you have to do is go and pick it up from her."
"Sure. See you in a little while."
"Bye."
When Blaine arrives at the bookstore he goes straight to Miranda's office and finds her in there unpacking a box of new books.
"Hello," he says as he peeks around the office door.
Miranda smiles up at him, her eyebrows raised slightly. "Hello Blaine. We missed you yesterday, thought maybe you were sick when you didn't show up this morning."
"Sorry about that," Blaine says, smirking a little. "Kurt sent me to pick up a book that you put back for him."
"Kurt sent you?" Miranda asks, reaching into one of her desk drawers. "So you've been with Kurt while you haven't been here?"
"That would be telling," Blaine says as he makes his way over to the desk.
Miranda laughs as she holds the book out to him. "Here you go."
Blaine reaches for the book but as he looks down at it he sees the books in the box on Miranda's desk, the ones that she had been unpacking when he entered the room. His smile disappears completely and the colour drains from his face as he instead picks up one of the books from the box.
"Are you OK?" Miranda asks, noticing that Blaine's hands are shaking and he has now gone completely pale.
Blaine shakes his head. "What are these?" he asks, holding the book up in front of her.
"New stock." She shrugs. "Some crime thriller. They just arrived today. Maybe you should sit down Blaine, you don't look very good."
"Are these all of them?" Blaine asks. There is an intensity in the way that he is looking at her now that both worries Miranda and scares her a little bit.
"Yes. Blaine I really think you should sit down."
Blaine immediately begins putting all of the books on the desk back into the box.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm buying them," he says as he continues to throw all of the books into the box, his hands still shaking.
"What?"
"All of them, I'll buy them all, whatever price you want."
"Blaine I don't understand, please, just sit down a minute."
"How much will it be?"
"Blaine." Miranda lays one hand on Blaine's shoulder and as he looks into her eyes she is sure that she sees fear in his own. "What's wrong?"
"Kurt can't see these books," Blaine tells her and his voice catches in his throat. "He can't ever see this book. You have to let me buy them all and you have to promise me that you won't order any more. I'll pay you whatever you want but please, he can never see this book." Blaine is begging now and Miranda has no idea what to do, she has never seen him look this vulnerable before and the more upset he seems, the more troubling she finds it.
"Blaine I can't promise anything until you tell me why."
"Because," Blaine picks up the box full of books and clutches it close to his chest. "The author is my Soul Mate."
There is a knock on the door as Kurt is almost finishing up his jacket. He sighs as he goes to answer it, mentally preparing himself for whatever strange joke Blaine is going to make when he opens the door. The more time that Kurt spends with Blaine, the stranger Blaine's sense of humour seems to get. However Kurt is incredibly surprised to find that the person standing on the other side of the door is not Blaine at all.
"Dad?"
"Hey Kurt." Kurt's dad immediately pulls his son into a hug and surprised as he is Kurt can't help but fall into it. it has been so long since he has even seen his father.
"Not that I'm not glad to see you," Kurt says as they pull away from each other, "but what are you doing here?"
"Finn called me," Burt admits as he walks into the apartment and Kurt closes the door behind him.
"Finn?" Suddenly Kurt remembers the phone call the day before and how Blaine had interrupted him talking with his brother. "Oh God."
"He was a little worried," Burt says, pushing aside a few of Kurt's things to make a space on the couch where he can sit down.
"About what exactly?" Kurt asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Now don't look at me like that," Burt says, "he was concerned. He heard a man's voice and then he says you lied to him. He's your brother he has a right to be concerned."
"I did not lie to him," Kurt insists, "I can't believe you drove all the way here just because Finn can't mind his own business."
"Don't lie to me Kurt." Burt says, "we don't lie to each other, we never have."
Kurt looks down at his father and his resolve softens a little because this is completely true. Throughout Kurt's entire life he has never once lied to his father and as far as he knows his father has never lied to him either. "I'm not lying," Kurt says as he perches on the edge of the couch next to Burt.
"This guy that Finn heard you talking to, you seeing him?"
Kurt let out a long breath. It was so typical of his father to get straight to the point like this.
"Yes."
"You slept with him?"
"Dad!"
"Kurt."
"Yes."
"You use protection?"
"Oh my God yes."
"Good. What's his name?"
"Blaine Anderson. He's from Westerville. I met him at the bookstore."
"Westerville, Ohio?"
"Yes. He went to Dalton Academy."
"Huh. Small world." Both Hummel men relaxed slightly now that the awkward questions seemed to be out of the way. "Well it's not like I never expected it. If anything I'm surprised it took so long, you saw how many girls Finn dated before he and Rachel really got together. I am surprised though Kurt. You've waited so long for Tobias. Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Kurt nods.
"And what about when one of you meets your Soul Mate?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Kurt says, repeating Blaine's own words.
"It's not going to be easy," Burt tells him. Kurt smiles, as if he isn't already painfully aware of that fact.
"Can I ask you something?" Kurt straightens his back and fidgets with his hands the way that he always does when he's nervous.
"Of course."
"Do you ever wonder if, maybe, a person could have more than one Soul Mate?" Burt looks worried but Kurt continues anyway, needing to say everything he has been thinking. "I mean, mom was your Soul Mate but you love Carole, right?"
"Of course I do."
"So do you ever wonder if maybe it's possible that Carole is your Soul Mate too?"
Burt seems to think for a while before answering very carefully. "I've wondered yeah. Of course I have. I love your mother and Carole and I always will. But Kurt, you need to be sure of whatever you do. As long as you're happy I will always support your decisions, you know that, and when you were ten years old and The Matchmaker came to tell you your Soul Mate's name I didn't care whose name it was so long as there was a name. I just want you to be happy and loved, that's all I've ever wanted."
"I am," Kurt says, tears blurring his vision as he tries not to let them fall.
"I can see that," Burt promises him.
There is another knock at the door and Kurt exhales shakily and wipes the tears from his eyes. "That'll be him. We're meant to be going out to lunch, I'll ask him to come back later."
"No, that's alright," Burt says, standing up from the couch, "I should be going anyway."
"You literally just got here."
"I've got things to do at home. Some conversations just have to be had in person no matter how short they are." Burt shrugs and pulls his son into another hug. "Now, let's meet this boy then."
Kurt rolls his eyes and pulls the door open. "Blaine," he says before Blaine can do or say anything embarrassing, "this is my dad."
Blaine looks a little shocked as he enters the apartment to find Burt standing behind his son.
"Hello Mr Hummel," he says as he reaches out to shake Burt's hand, "I'm Blaine Anderson."
"You can call me Burt."
"It's very nice to meet you Burt. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, I'll come back later." Blaine passes Carole's book to Kurt and makes his way towards the door again.
"Don't worry about it, I'm leaving anyway," Burt says, clapping his hand on Blaine's shoulder as he makes his way past him. "Kurt I'll see you in a couple of weeks."
"Yep, see you then," Kurt smiles.
Burt looks down at Blaine for a moment and then over at Kurt and finally back to Blaine. "You're more than welcome to come along too, Blaine," Burt says.
"Come along to what?" Blaine asks, glancing between both Hummels in front of him.
"It's mom's birthday in a couple of weeks time, everyone's getting together to celebrate," Kurt explains before adding to his father, "are you sure no one will mind?"
"Of course not," Burt promises, "we'd be more than happy."
"Well thank you very much Burt," Blaine says, "I'll check my schedule and get Kurt to let you know if I'm able to come along."
"I'll put you down as a definite," Burt insists. "See you both then."
"Bye dad, love you."
"Love you too Kurt. Bye Blaine."
"Bye."
Kurt closes the door behind his father and exhales loudly. "You don't have to come," he says to Blaine.
"No, I want to," Blaine insists planting a quick kiss on Kurt's lips.
"Are you OK?" Kurt asks. "You look a little pale."
"I'm fine," Blaine says with a smile that looks just a little bit too forced.
