A/N: Hi everyone. Just want to check in before this chapter and say thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed, and favorited this story so far! You are very much appreciated. I love reading your feedback.

Quite a bit of relationship stuff in this chapter, plus flashback smut. That's the best kind of flashback: A smutty flashback. ;)

Enjoy!

Another Life

Chapter 6

The low vibration of Kurt's phone alerting him to an incoming call jolted him awake. It was 1:15am, and the caller ID read "Unknown." Hoping it would be Blaine, he answered anyway.

"Hello?"

"Hello...Kurt...Hummel…" Blaine spoke each sound of Kurt's name with great precision. Kurt could tell by the light, boyish quality of Blaine's voice that he had been drinking. This would be interesting.

"Hello, Blaine Anderson."

"Hey. Kurt Hummel. Why did you call me?"

Kurt let out a laugh. "I didn't. You called me."

"Oh." Blaine must have thought he was holding the phone away from his face, but he still ended up shouting more or less directly into Kurt's ear. "Hey! Sebastian! Kurt fucking Hummel is on the phone! He called me!"

Kurt couldn't help but to laugh again. He heard a muffled response on the other line, then Blaine spoke to him again.

"I had a really nice time with you the other day. Do you think we could do it again sometime?"

Kurt smiled. "I'm doing trivia with some friends from high school tomorrow night. Do you want to join us?"

"YES!" Kurt had to hold the phone away from his ear. "I AM THE TRIVIA MASTER OF THE FUCKING UNIVERSE!"

After taking a moment to compose himself, Kurt said, "Great. I'll text you the details."

"You're so great. So much greater than I deserve."

Kurt was about to refute that statement when Blaine shouted to Sebastian again. "Seb! Don't you think Kurt is so great?"

"I think it's time for you to go to bed before you say something dumb."

"Okay, Sebastian thinks I'm dumb. Good night, Kurt Hummel. Thanks for calling me."

"Good night, Blaine."

The trivia crew was arguing about team names when Kurt felt a hand lightly touch his shoulder.

"Blaine!" He jumped. He had not expected him to actually come. The look on Blaine's face told Kurt he hadn't expected it either. Kurt slid over to make room for him.

"Hey everyone. This is Blaine. Blaine, this is Rachel, Tina, Artie, Brittany, and Sam." They waved when he rattled off their names.

"Why don't we call ourselves the New Directions?" Sam offered.

Rachel and Tina put hands to their hearts in unison and said "Aww!"

"You're too cute," Blaine winked at Tina. "And Sam, have you ever considered modeling before?"

Kurt watched Blaine in awe. He had seen Blaine work his magical charisma on groups of new people before, but it never failed to amaze him just how naturally Blaine interacted with and charmed people. He wondered how it was possible for Blaine to have so few real friends when he was so charismatic. The Blaine he knew was better for befriending his fellow glee-clubbers. He wondered if this one could be too.

It was easy, sitting here with his friends, to forget that the Blaine sitting next to him wasn't his. He caught himself a few times - unwrapping a straw and sticking it in Blaine's root beer, stealing Blaine's pickle when their food came - things that had become second nature to him over the years.

The worst one, though, came later in the night. The team was dominating at trivia. Their collective knowledge of music helped, but each person also had their own areas of strength - Brittany's was math, Artie's was film, Sam's was sports, Tina's was art, Rachel's was pop culture, Kurt's was fashion, and Blaine, as it turned out, was a history buff.

Kurt was ecstatic that Blaine was hitting it off so well with his friends, that he forgot he had to be careful about what he was saying.

When a question about the largest species of sharks came up, he blurted out, "Oh, Blaine! We know this one! We learned it that time we went to the aquarium in Chicago, remember?"

Blaine was giving him a blank stare. He sought out Rachel's eyes and gave her a "help me" look.

"Uhh, Kurt, I think you said Blaine. You meant me. We went to Chicago together." He was so thankful for Rachel sometimes. Sometimes being the operative word.

"Isn't it strange, though?" Brittany spoke up. "Blaine, do you ever feel like even though you just met Kurt, that you've known him for a long time?"

"Brittany S. Pierce!" Kurt hollered across the table. He changed the subject immediately.

The rest of the evening passed more smoothly. Kurt's friends started trickling out to go home, leaving just him and Blaine.

"Did you have fun?" Kurt asked. Blaine now seemed almost completely relaxed, as if something that had been previously missing had fallen back into place.

"I did." His smile was brilliant. "Your friends are great, Kurt."

"They sure are."

"You know, what Brittany said earlier...about feeling like I've known you forever…"

Kurt felt panic rising in his chest. "Don't worry about what she says. She's a crazy person. She doesn't-"

"I know exactly what she was talking about. Sometimes I feel that you know me better than I know myself."

Kurt was floored. He hadn't expected such honesty. He was about to respond when someone slid into the booth across from them. Sebastian.

"Hey boys. I was passing by and thought I'd check in to see how things were going." He was eyeing Blaine, apparently looking for signs of distress.

Wow, Kurt realized. Sebastian actually cares for Blaine. Actually cares for someone besides himself. This universe really is fucked up.

"All is well," Blaine reassured him. But I do need to use the restroom." He excused himself, leaving the two men alone.

Sebastian's eyes fired up as he turned his gaze on Kurt.

"He seems happy."

"Is something the matter with that?" Kurt inquired calmly.

"Blaine has never opened himself up to any guy other than me. Ever."

"Do I detect jealousy?"

"Not at all. But I hope you can detect my irritation now."

"So much so that it's as if I'm feeling it too."

"It may not seem this way, but Blaine is...delicate. And for some unfathomable reason, he's chosen you to open up to. So just...please. Please, please be careful with him."

Blaine returned at that moment, settling back in next to Kurt and popping a pretzel bite in his mouth.

"What did you two find to discuss while I was gone?"

The corner of Sebastian's mouth quirked up. "Just a common interest."

As the evening went on, Kurt felt he was getting a better grasp on who this Blaine was, just by seeing him interact with Sebastian. Sebastian put Blaine at ease, made him lighter and happier. Something that would have made his Blaine cringe just knowing.

As Sebastian droned on telling a story of all of the famous people he'd met, Kurt noticed Blaine's attention drifting (not that he could blame him. It must be tiring being Sebastian's best friend, as it was being Rachel's). After Sebastian had to call Blaine's attention back to the story at hand, Kurt followed his line of sight straight to a very attractive man sitting alone a few tables away. Kurt almost gasped. There was nothing innocent in the way the man was looking at Blaine. He whipped his head back around to look at his date.

Blaine looked back at him, startled and wide-eyed, as though he had just realized what he was doing.

"Blaine!" Kurt exploded, jumping up. "How dare you?! You're sitting here, having a nice time with me, a guy who has expressed interest in you time and time again, but you're looking over there, eye fucking some random stranger!" His voice grew higher with every word.

Blaine looked extremely taken aback. He was frozen in place.

"I know you say you don't have much experience with dating, but even you should know that this is not how it goes!"

He stormed off, fuming.

Don't worry about it, Rachel had told him. It must have been an accident.

There was no way Kurt had misread the situation. His lips were nearly bloody with how much he had been chewing on them, fretting about Blaine. The memories of his boyfriend cheating on him were still somewhat fresh in his mind, and though he knew his Blaine would never, never dream of doing anything like that again, it still hurt to think about Blaine being with anyone else when he was supposed to be with him.

He looked forward to tonight, though, to help take his mind off of things. Rachel was due back any moment with ingredients for the dinner they were going to cook. She had even let him choose the movie for the night: Dirty Dancing. He and Blaine loved that movie. Back in high school, some time after Sebastian had taken them to Scandals and Kurt realized he had no idea how to dance with any sort of sex appeal, Blaine had taught Kurt to dance to "Love Man" by Otis Redding. They had been in Blaine's room, and it had been eerily reminiscent of Patrick Swayze teaching an awkward, stiff, Jennifer Gray how to dance in Dirty Dancing, but equally as magical. Then there had been the time they were together in their room in the loft and "Love Man" had come on Blaine's Spotify playlist and they had dropped everything and - he forced himself to stop thinking about Blaine in any capacity for the moment.

A knock came at the door. He sighed. Rachel must have forgotten her keys again. She was always doing that. He made a mental note to get her a fabulously blinged-out lanyard for Christmas.

But it wasn't Rachel at the door. It was Blaine. His heart thumped madly, as was its usual pattern upon seeing the man he loved. He had to remind himself that he was seriously angry at Blaine for being so stupid the night before.

"Before you slam the door on me, let me say something!" Blaine blurted out.

Kurt dropped his hand from the door and stepped out into the hallway to show that he had no intention of shutting the door on him.

"I'm sorry," Blaine spoke again. "About last night." His hands were shoved in his pockets and he looked more timid than Kurt had ever seen him.

"You have to know...Ever since I met you I haven't been with anyone else. I've hardly even thought about anyone else in that way. You're kind of all-consuming." He gave a shy smile. "But I've spent so long ingraining in myself that this is what I do with guys, I flirt with them, pick them up, take them home, and...old habits die hard, I guess. So again I'll say I'm sorry. This time I've spent getting to know you has been the most wonderful, Kurt. I can only hope that you find someone better for you. Someone who actually deserves you. Good bye, Kurt."

He turned with one last wistful glance over his shoulder.

Kurt unfroze and stuck his hands out.

"Wait!"

Blaine turned back to face him sadly.

"What is it?"

"Don't go."

"Why not?"

"I don't want you to."

Blaine practically floated across the few steps that stood between him and Kurt. Kurt caught him around the waist and pulled him close.

"You don't?" Blaine breathed, face just inches away from Kurt's. "You're giving me another chance?" He asked, incredulously.

"Of course I am. Everybody deserves a second chance. You-" Kurt paused, scrunching up his face. "Someone very special to me taught me that."

He caught Blaine's lips in a soft kiss. He sighed, feeling, as he always did when they kissed, a sense of home.

Blaine's hands wandered to the waistband of Kurt's pants and rucked up the bottom of his shirt. He slid his hands across the warm, soft skin at Kurt's lower back. Kurt arched into his touch. In response, he sucked Blaine's lower lip into his mouth, biting softly.

Suddenly, a jarring voice cut through the silence of the moment. "Oh, don't let me interrupt!" Kurt cursed Rachel in his head as she slid past the boys into her apartment. He pulled away slightly, with Blaine's lip still between his teeth. He took a deep breath, rolling his eyes up to the sky, then released Blaine's lip, which made a small popping sound as it found its way back to its rightful owner's mouth.

"You? Interrupt? Never!" He still had Blaine by the waist, never wanting to let him go.

Blaine looked disappointed. Kurt wrapped his arms tighter around him. "Rachel and I are going to make dinner and have a movie night. Would you join us?"

The night would have been damn-near perfect, if it had not been for Rachel. Kurt loved her, but how was it possible for one person to be so intrusive?

She, of course, demanded to know every detail of Blaine's life. He answered her questions good-naturedly, for which Kurt was grateful, until she said "Wow! Your life is so great. Is there anything you don't have?"

The pained, yet empty look in Blaine's face said it all.

"Okay!" Kurt clapped his hands, sharply drawing Rachel's attention. "Time to start the movie!" He steered his two friends to the couch and plopped them down, not letting Rachel say another word.

After pushing Play, he fell onto the cushions next to Blaine, taking care not to sit too close. They had shared a couple of steamy moments, but due to Blaine's strict "No Dating" rule, he wasn't sure how casual cuddling would be taken. He soon realized that he was right to keep his distance. In the dimly lighted, possibly romantic atmosphere, Blaine's entire body tensed away from Kurt. He tried not to take offense to it, but he just yearned for that closeness he was missing so dearly.

Kurt wasn't paying much attention to Dirty Dancing, despite it being one of his favorites. His mind kept replaying what Blaine had said to him last night. Sometimes I feel that you know me better than I know myself.

Funny, because ever since he landed here, he had been struggling with feeling like he had no idea who this Blaine even was. But maybe what Blaine had said had some truth to it. Maybe he knew the person that Blaine longed to be. It was dangerous, to think that he knew what someone wanted better than that person did, but could this be the way to Blaine's heart? Isn't that kind of what he had already been doing? He reached, for the thousandth time, to fidget with his ring that was no longer there.

He was suddenly distracted from his thoughts by one of his favorite scenes in the movie: the one where Baby walks in on the staff dirty dancing.

A weight compressed his heart as he thought back bittersweetly to a great memory.

Kurt and Blaine were folding laundry in their bedroom, but Kurt looked up to realize that Blaine had stopped, and was staring at him with a dopey grin on his face.

"What? I told you I'm not going to make fun of you for how you fold socks again…"

"I'll never stop being thankful for you giving me a second chance to be this. To be us."

"If I hadn't, it would have been the gravest mistake of my life. We belong together." Kurt almost rolled his eyes at himself. A few years ago, he never would have guessed that he would be spouting off ridiculously sappy words like that and actually mean it.

The moment the first notes of "Love Man" started playing from Blaine's phone, a spark lit something in both Kurt's and Blaine's eyes. Neither of them had heard the song since the first time Blaine taught Kurt to dance, but their bodies both clearly remembered the dance lesson years ago.

Kurt dropped the pair of pajama bottoms he had been folding, and ripped the t-shirt out of Blaine's hands, only to throw it aside on the bed.

By now, dancing together was something the two men had done often enough for it to come easily to them. Most things they did together came easily to them. One of the benefits to finding your soulmate, they supposed.

Their hips met as if a magnetic force drew them to each other. Kurt's hand grasped at Blaine's waist, and he shoved his knee between Blaine's legs. Their hips swirled and gyrated against each others', arousals becoming immediately evident.

Blaine's arms hooked around Kurt's neck, pulling him even closer, if possible. He licked his lips hungrily.

The two boys rocked and swayed and grinded, working up a sweat in their greed for each other.

Kurt danced Blaine against the wall, heart pounding with love and wanting for the insanely beautiful man in front of him. It always pleased Kurt to see how their bodies fitted together perfectly, as if they were made for each other. Blaine's body was an extension of his own in moments like these. His lips were Kurt's lips. His fingertips were Kurt's fingertips. His nerves were Kurt's nerves.

"You've come a long way since our first lesson, my protégé." Blaine whispered, rubbing his erection against Kurt's leg to create a beautiful friction.

"I'll show you how far I've come. And you're going to come too." Kurt winked, shimmying down his fiancé's body to kneel on the ground.

Luckily for him, Blaine had been wearing lounge shorts, which he rid him of in one downward tug. Blaine stepped out of his pants, and allowed Kurt to reposition himself between his legs.

Just when he thought Kurt's lips were about to make contact with his painfully throbbing member, Kurt grabbed his thigh from behind and lifted his leg onto his shoulder. He then slid Blaine into the soft, hot depths of his mouth.

"Oh fucking hell," Blaine moaned. This gave him the perfect angle to thrust into Kurt's mouth. How was it that Kurt always seemed to know exactly what to do to make him lose it?

Blaine wrapped his fingers up in Kurt's hair, loosening it from its perfect 'do. Kurt looked up and their eyes met in a rush of intensity and white-hot fire and carnal need.

There was something totally sexy, too, about most of their clothes remaining on. Would things with Kurt ever stop being sexy? He wondered. He highly doubted it.

Kurt's motions did not start slow and build. They were quick and needy from the start. Blaine could hardly hold it together.

"Goddamn it, Kurt. I'm not going to last…" He cried out as Kurt took him deeper into his mouth. "I'm going to come…"

Kurt sucked harder and Blaine met his movements with small thrusts of his hips. Kurt's fingernails dug into his ass cheeks, and Blaine could tell he was losing control too.

Blaine came in spurts, and Kurt swallowed him down like he had never tasted anything so sweet. Blaine was making noises he wasn't even sure he could replicate if he tried. He knew Rachel would get on them later about how loud they were, but he couldn't bring himself to care. His orgasm coursed through him so hard he thought he might collapse. It seemed to roll through his body and straight into Kurt's, he thought, until he realized that Kurt was coming undone too. That is what drove him off the edge: watching the man he loved come apart just like this.

When his orgasm finally subsided and he finally did collapse, he had the sense to drag Kurt toward the bed first. He lay on top of Kurt, both of them panting. Suddenly, Kurt lifted his head and looked at him with mock-anger in his eyes. Blaine tensed.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"You were so hot that you made me come in my pants."

They laughed, bodies rubbing together, and causing the flame to light in their eyes once more.

When he became aware of reality again, Kurt found that he had curled up in a ball and leaned up against Blaine's shoulder. A dab of the back of his hand told him his eyes were wet with tears.

He nearly pulled back and apologized, but heard Blaine's ragged breathing and watched as Blaine slowly extricated his arm from between them and placed it carefully around Kurt's shoulders.

How could kissing and sexual intimacy come so easily to someone who seemed almost afraid of casual, loving contact? What kind of demons was Blaine fighting that were holding him back? His fingers subconsciously slid out and tightened around Blaine's toned waist.

Toward the end of the movie, Rachel stood and excused herself to bed, saying she had an early morning the next day, which Kurt knew wasn't true.

Blaine whispered in Kurt's ear. "Want to take this to the bedroom?" Kurt couldn't help the surprise on his face.

"No! I mean...what?"

"Isn't that why you asked me to come in tonight?" Blaine looked genuinely confused.

"Absolutely not. What can I do to get it through your head that I want to spend time with you getting to know you. You. Your heart.. Your mind. This isn't like every other guy. I don't want you just for your body."

Blaine still looked as if he could not quite comprehend what the other man was saying before recovering.

"But you still do want my body a little bit, right?" He raised his eyebrows with a smirk on his face.

"You know I do. You've seen physical evidence of it in our make-out sessions…"

"Then why do you tell me no?"

Kurt agonized over his answer. "I...Um...It's just that...I'm a virgin?" As it came out of his mouth, he was suddenly sure that it was true for this version of himself.

"Why do you say that like it's a question?" Blaine laughed.

Kurt blushed. "Er...long story. Very, very long story."

Blaine shrugged. "You don't have to be afraid of your sexuality."

Kurt couldn't hold back a chuckle at the irony of the situation. "You don't have to be afraid of your feelings."

What Kurt didn't expect from Blaine, once again, was an honest response. "I'm trying."

The boys sipped on hot chocolate and talked into the early hours of the morning, much to Kurt's pleasure.

"I should probably go home," Blaine finally admitted at 2:30am.

"You're welcome to crash here," offered Kurt.

Blaine shook his head. "No, I need to get home. If I stay out all night and don't sleep with you, Sebastian will never let me live it down."

"He's quite a character, isn't he?"

"He has my best interests at heart," Blaine defended.

"Hey, Kurt?" Blaine looked up through his eyelashes, looking bashful - an emotion Kurt usually didn't get to see out of him.

"What, Blaine?"

"Thank you for tonight. For everything. I've spent years and years alone and convincing myself that nobody could ever want more than a purely physical relationship with me, and now...You are giving me this chance. It's inexplicable and amazing."

"It's not. Inexplicable, I mean. You're beautiful in every sense of the word."

Blaine didn't seem to know how to respond to the compliment. Kurt didn't mind. He would have given him a thousand compliments without any response if it helped Blaine see who he truly was.

Kurt walked him to the door and planted a kiss on his lips without seeking permission. "I'll call you soon. Good night, my amazing boy."