As agreed, Blaine followed Kurt out of their last class that day across the street to the NYADA gym. They stuffed their things into a locker there and found a corner past the weights.

"I'm sorry for disappointing you," Blaine whispered quietly into Kurt's ear., feeling sheepish after having had all afternoon to think about it.

Kurt nodded, reaching out a hand for Blaine's phone. Blaine handed it over, watching as Kurt opened the app and hit the play button on a new workout. He leaned the phone up against the windowsill and stood next to Blaine.

"You're working out too?" Blaine asked, surprised.

"The first one," Kurt smiled. "I was going to try to do it today anyway, and figure might as well get it over with. But the second one you're on your own."
Blaine nodded. "I understand," he said meekly.

Neither spoke as they followed the video through the advised stretches. They counted quietly to themselves as they moved into planking, then leg lifts, then situps, then squats, quickly working up a sweat in just a few minutes. After ten minutes, Blaine laid out on the mat trying to stretch the vague ache across his belly. Kurt wiped the sweat from his brow and then took it upon himself to mark the workout complete before starting a new video in the app.

Blaine fought the urge to make a face, knowing better than to voice any complaint as he crawled himself back up to start again. Truth be told, he knew 20 minutes of ab exercises was nothing compared to the 45 minute full ab class, but knowing he could have already been done hit hard. He felt sort of on display working out by himself with people in the gym walking around. It definitely made him wish he'd completed his workout in the privacy of his own bedroom in the first place. Everyone was busy doing their own workouts, and he knew no one really cared, but he still felt under a microscope somehow. He stole a glance at Kurt in between reps, who was sitting on a bench by the wall, watching. Blaine took a breath, knowing he would hear about it if he did anything half-way, and tried to pay attention to his form. He wondered if this all really would get easier if he kept with it for 3 or 6 months. Maybe after I actually see some results. He groaned quite a bit more during the sit-ups this time around. How long until I have six-pack like Sam?

Finally the video wrapped up and he was lying across the mat again, groaning and trying to stretch out the ache all across his stomach. Kurt looked turned off the video and stepped towards his fiancé, looking over him.

"All done," he said quietly, reaching a hand down.

Blaine sighed and took his hand to push himself back to his feet. He rubbed at his side, grimacing.

"Learn a lesson?" Kurt asked.

Blaine tried to make eye contact. "Yes, sir," he muttered, trying not to let anyone in the gym overhear.

"You should do some cardio tomorrow instead of strength training," Kurt advised. "You're going to be sore and need time to recover."

Blaine agreed, frowning at the thought of this gnawing pain continuing. "Yeah," he said miserably.

If Blaine was hoping for any comforting at that point, he didn't get any. Kurt handed back his phone and led him back to the locker room to get the rest of their things. Blaine sighed, knowing Kurt had gone pretty easy on him and he probably ought to be grateful for that.

"Kurt?" he asked suddenly.

"I know you think the whole thing with the app—that it's lying—"

Kurt blinked. "It is," he said simply, a little taken aback that maybe Blaine hadn't gotten the message after all.

"N-no, I mean, I know it's lying. To you, and to myself in a way."

Kurt nodded.

"I just meant—since I lied, um…" Blaine fidgeted, uncertain. "I was just thinking, that if Rachel did this, wouldn't you be, uh stricter?"

Kurt blinked, caught off guard by the question. "You think so?"

"Yeah, um, can we keep this between us? I only ask because I think Rachel would be mad."

Kurt smiled. "If you really wanted me to be stricter about this I suppose I could comply," he teased.

Blaine blushed. "Well, I wasn't going to… ask for that," he admitted.

Kurt gave his fiancé a hug. "You worry about Rachel too much. She knows I treat you both fairly, even if it's different sometimes. Besides, if she was going to be mad about how I discipline, she's going to be mad at me, not you," he pointed out.

Blaine gave a half-smile in his fiancés arms. "I guess. I don't know why I think of that. I guess I just feel like… I don't like people being mad at me. The first night I had the app I made too much noise working out and I feel like I've been sucking up to Mercedes over it ever since," he admitted.

"Oh Blaine, your friends are going to keep being your friends even if they're annoyed with you sometimes," Kurt assured. "You make me worry about you. You talk like everyone's going to drop you out of their life over something silly someday. We all love you more than that."

Blaine got misty at that, but just nodded.

Kurt rubbed his arm. "I love you, Rachel loves you, Mercedes, Artie, and Sam—we all are rooting for you. And I hate to say it but we're all going to find something you do irritating at some point, so you might as well drop trying to be perfect and just know that we're going to love you through it all. The Glee Brotherhood is stronger than you give it credit for."

Blaine giggled, relaxing. "You make it sound like some kind of secret cult," he said.

"Eh, sometimes when I try to explain life in Ohio to the born-and-bred New Yorkers around here it feels stranger than that," Kurt joked.

"I guess I just feel like I have to be super precious about my old relationships right now because I haven't really connected with NYADA folks yet. Artie's out with a different girl every night—he's totally living this college dream and I'm just trying to get a passing grade in stage combat." Blaine groused.

"Well, you're never going to feel better comparing yourself to others." Kurt commented gently.

Blaine nodded and sighed. "You're right."

Kurt rubbed Blaine's back. "It's not a competition. You just have to put one foot in front of another towards your goals. And you know we're here to help however we can. I'll just keep trying to show you that I'll be there for you no matter what, until you can believe me. But I do think you should talk to Rachel about what you said before."

"About what?"

"About what she'd think of your discipline today."

"What? Why?"

"Because you seem to think she'd hold it against you somehow. And I do think if she was going to be mad at someone it'd be me—but honestly, I don't think she'd be mad at all. But I think you'd do better to actually find out than to make assumptions about how she feels. You don't have anyone else to talk to about this, and you might find she's in a unique position to make you feel better."

Blaine considered this. "Well that… would probably require admitting I screwed up and lied in the app to her."

Kurt nodded. "Not comfortable to admit you did something wrong to someone else, huh?"

Blaine made a face. "Not particularly."

Kurt gave Blaine a quick kiss. "Well that's why I tell you and Rachel all the time, better to just behave and not have to," he said with a smile.