A/N: Hey guys.. I know it's been forever since I've posted. I've had some major writer's block lately. Boo! I wrote this a few days ago, and to be honest, I'm really not happy with it. I edited it a few times and changed the ending, but the whole thing feels flat to me. Eh. I decided to post it anyway. Hopefully you'll enjoy it more than I do... Can't win 'em all I suppose!

So... Klaine spoilers for 3x05, anyone? I normally try not to be the crazy squealing scary flailing fangirl - but these spoilers are just too good not to positively FLIP out over. Just... OH MY FUCKING GOD! I won't get anything specific in case some of you are spoiler-free, but those of you who know what I'm referring to can do a little (or gigantic) happy-dance along with me! AAAAHH! :)

Okay, so now onto the piece.

Brave

"10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5!..."

The countdown pounded through the air, dozens of voices chanting out the numbers as the clock grew nearer and nearer to midnight, nearer and nearer to the new year.

The air was hazy all around me, filled with chalky smoke and booze and sweat and laughter. It was stifling. Stifling even though we were outside and it was thirty-five degrees. Stifling even though snow was falling all around us. Or maybe it wasn't the air that was stifling. Maybe it was the fact that Blaine, the most gorgeously attractive man I had ever laid eyes on, was staring across at me, a heated conversation flowing between us, as the numbers continued to trail away. 4 more seconds and it would be decided. 4 more seconds and there was no turning back.

Earlier...

It was going to be a long night; I could already tell.

It wasn't my idea to come to this New Year's Eve party, but somehow here I sat, Rachel draped across my lap, sound asleep, her hot sticky breath trickling across my thighs as I watched him from across the room.

Rachel talked me into it, and I must admit that I didn't exactly put up much of a fight. All she had to do was utter the words "Blaine will be there," and I (ashamedly) jumped at the chance to attend.

As soon as we arrived I knew it was a mistake, for it wasn't even 10:30 yet and people were already drunkenly hanging on all of the furniture, talking much too loudly, the music blaring at a deafening volume. I guess that was sort of the rule of a party, wasn't it? Play the music so loudly that you don't actually have to converse with anyone? Call me anti-social, but I didn't really see the point.

Rachel, of course, wasted no time in leaving me, running over to the bar and grabbing herself a drink. One hour and god-knows-how-many drinks later, and she had passed out in my lap. So much for wanting to party, Rach. That lasted long.

So there I sat, by myself in the corner of the room, away from the public eye, with a drunken friend drooling on my designer jeans. Great night.

After spending twenty minutes grinding my teeth to the same carbon-copy pop music playing much too loudly from behind me, and another fifteen minutes watching a slightly amusing and very melodramatic fight erupt between a heterosexual couple seated next to me, I looked down at my watch to find that it was nearing 11:15. Only 45 minutes left until I could make an excuse to leave. That's when I finally spotted him, standing at the far end of the room, deep in conversation with a few friends.

I didn't mean to spend the evening watching him, but I just couldn't help it. He was so effortlessly beautiful, it made my heart physically ache. I watched the way he laughed and talked with Jeff and Nick, the way he brushed his hands through his hair every once in a while, the way he bit his lower lip in concentration, the way he adjusted the collar of his black polo shirt every once in a while. I could watch him all day.

"Kurt, oh my god, when did you get here?" Blaine's voice suddenly appeared. I hadn't noticed him walking towards me. I wonder how long I had been staring at him.

"Uhh... like an hour ago..." I mumbled awkwardly.

"An hour? Why the hell didn't you come find me? What have you been doing the past hour, other than acting as a human pillow?" his eyes looked truly shocked as he took in my sad appearance, Rachel breathing heavily against me.

"I don't know. You looked sort of busy. Besides, I'm a human pillow, remember? It requires my full concentration," I sighed in return, suddenly feeling gloomy.

"Please, she's wasted. You could hit her over the head with a mallet and she wouldn't stir. Leave her on the couch and come talk to me. There's no way I'm leaving you all alone over here in the corner." His eyes looked so hopeful and gleaming that it made me shiver.

"Yeah, alright," I spoke before carefully standing up and placing Rachel's sleeping-like-the-dead frame gently back against the couch.

"Hey, do you wanna get some air? It's sorta stuffy in here, isn't it?" Blaine asked as soon as I had laid Rachel to rest.

"Please," I spoke with a smile before following him out onto the balcony of the apartment.

"Wow. It's a lot nicer out here. Quieter too. I feel like my brain can now return safely back home."

"Oh? I think that's a lost cause, sweetness." I teased, nudging him in the shoulder with my elbow. Shit, did I just say sweetness? Where the hell did that come from?

He just smiled at me, that goofy one-sided grin that made me go weak in the knees. Trying to maintain some composure, I scrambled to try and think of a conversation topic, but I suddenly felt tongue-tied and awkward.

"So..." I began, silently begging my unease to stay away from my eyes where Blaine might see it, "New year, and all that. Any resolutions you'd like to share with the class?"

"Hmm..." he looked up at me thoughtfully, an expression of honest concentration on his face before he answered, "I'd like to be more honest. Stronger. You know?"

His answer surprised me. Blaine was one of the strongest, bravest, and most honest people I'd ever met. He shone with confidence and exuberance and pride at every turn, so I was shocked and intrigued to find out why he felt he needed more of a quality I thought he was swimming with.

"You? But you're so brave and so strong. What makes you feel that way?"

His eyes quieted for a moment, becoming unreadable, before he answered me.

"I'm not as honest as you think I am..." he trailed off, seeming to not want to continue the conversation. His expression hardened just slightly, and he looked upset for a split second, before the charming ease that I was so familiar with found its way back onto his face. "What about you?" he asked, shutting me out of the possibility of questioning him further.

I didn't know how to answer him. What did I want to come of the new year? I wanted him. All of him, every tiny molecule of him. More than that, though, I wanted to find the courage to tell him how much I wanted him, to tell him how much he meant to me.

"Yeah... to be brave..." I answered simply, praying he didn't inquire any further.

"I guess we need the same things then, don't we?"

The air suddenly got chillier, a large gust of wind blowing towards us, causing me to shudder and grip my arms around myself, trying to maintain some warmth.

"Phew, it's getting freezing out here. Do you want to head inside?" he asked me.

Before I could stop myself, the words were pouring from my lips. "No. I'd rather stay out here with you."

It felt refreshing, to speak my mind, not worrying about if it was the right thing to say or not, but just to speak from the heart. He smiled at me, a brilliantly smooth and liquid smile, and I wanted to crawl into the moment and stay there forever.

"Me too," he spoke softly before stepping closer to me and wrapping his arms around my waist. There was still about a foot between us, but his warm fingertips gripped my hips firmly, and he didn't let go even as I looked up into his eyes.

"Blaine..." I started to speak, my mind reeling with emotion and unable to process what was happening. This felt shockingly intimate, the two of us alone on the balcony in a semi-embrace, silently staring into each other's eyes. I didn't know where we stood. I didn't know if we'd crossed the line from friends to more-than-friends, but I knew that I'd never felt anything more incredible than his hands on my waist, and I wanted him to pull me closer so badly.

"Kurt.." he took a deep breath before continuing, "how come we never got together?"

The air around me halted and the balcony could have light on fire, despite the snow falling around us, and I wouldn't have noticed. I wouldn't have noticed because he was looking at me with the most earnest and honest timidness, a fear and vulnerability that he'd never, ever had before.

"Because I'm not your type?" was all I could manage to get out. It was honest. It felt brave.

"Who says you're not my type?" The words left his lips with brazen honesty, honesty and dare I dream it, hopefulness.

That's when I heard it. Those familiar numbers pouring out into the air by a handful of strange voices, rocking through the moment and disrupting it instantly.

"10! 9! 8! 7! 6!..."

I tried to will my brian to conjure up the right words, but everything felt hazy and muddled. Blaine just continued to look at me with utter intensity, his expression unwavering and inquiring and undoubtedly heated. It as making me dizzy. It was making me unable to see straight or think straight or even breathe right.

"5! 4! 3..."

"Blaine -" I tried again, only managing to get his name out as my heart hammered in my chest. He moved a step closer to me until we were flush up against each other, his hands still resting on my waist.

"2! 1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Explosions of noise erupted from inside as people shot off party poppers and laughed and yelled to each other and began embracing and kissing and grouping one another.

Neither Blaine or I had moved, but continued in our never-ending stare off.

Brave. I thought. Be brave.

"Well, It is the new year, after all. Time for some of that courage," I spoke before capturing his mouth with mine. I didn't bother with being timid, or meek, or careful. I kissed him fiercely, strongly, my lips mapping his with determination and strength. He responded instantly, dragging me even closer to him and wrapping his arms around me further, securing me against his chest.

We kissed until I thought I might pass out, pass out from the sheer exhausting intensity of the moment, until my face was so flushed I thought it might catch fire, until my heart was beating so rapidly I thought it might escape right out of my chest.

When we finally pulled away from each other, we both wore matching expressions of dazzling incredulity. Had that really happened? Did we really just kiss, and kiss like that?

"Thank you," he said simply, quietly.

"For what?"

"For be braver than me. For finally doing what I've been too afraid to do for a while now. For kissing me... like that. For just being you - the perfect, beautiful, wonderful you."

I didn't know how to respond with words, so I did the only thing my brain seemed capable of doing. I smiled at him, wide and brilliant and shining, and pulled him in for another kiss, another dazzling, radiant, perfect kiss. A kiss that I hoped would be the first of many. A kiss to start a new year, a new year filled with endless possibility.