They finally went back to Blaine's apartment after spending four hours at Kurt's place. Blaine immediately fell face first onto the couch as Kurt headed to the kitchen to grab a drink.

"I can't believe you made me come up with a story of how we got together," Kurt heard Blaine grumble angrily into his pillow.

He laughed gleefully at this. "I'm just glad it didn't backfire. After Santana said that she was expecting something juicier I realized that you probably could have very easily gotten revenge on me for making you do that." He walked back into the living room and lifted Blaine's legs up so he could join him on the couch.

Blaine shifted onto his back and looked up at Kurt with his legs propped up across his lap. "I couldn't do that to you. You're doing me a huge favor. I think the least I could do is not tell Santana that we got together after you practically jumped me when I came out of the shower one day."

"Blaine!" Kurt squeaked, smacking him with a pillow while looking completely scandalized and blushing a bright pink.

"What?" Blaine asked clearly trying to look innocent. "Oo! Or I could have gone with-"

"Nope!" Kurt said loudly, pushing a pillow to Blaine's face, muffling the sound of his voice.

"Mmfph."

"No more talking for you. Not until you can behave."

Blaine finally batted the pillow away, laughing. "Okay, okay, fine. I didn't realize you were so embarrassed about jum-"

Kurt cut him off, pointing a finger at him threateningly. "I will make you sleep on the couch, mister."

Blaine stopped talking and merely grinned happily over at him. "I'm really glad you're my best friend, Kurt."

Kurt wanted to ignore him, he really did, but he couldn't help smiling back at Blaine. "Me too. Even if that does mean being your soon-to-be husband. I'm still waiting for that official proposal by the way. Can't move in until I have a ring on my finger."

"I'll get to it," Blaine grumbled. "I haven't exactly had any time away from you since you agreed to this."

"Whatever you say..." Kurt teased. They sat in comfortable silence for a moment before Kurt decided it was time to get back to business. "Do you mind if I stay for dinner? We could order in and then talk over more details and wedding plans. Speaking of - we should probably send out invitations in the next few days seeing as how there are only three weeks until the wedding."

"Definitely. We should probably send out invites via email as well just to give people a heads up – and so we can get some RSVPs back before the day of the actual wedding. Before we do that though, want to order Chinese? I should probably call my parents and let them know what's happening... I told them I would give them a call yesterday but I never did, because, well," Blaine gestured aimlessly, "you know."

Kurt laughed and raised an eyebrow. "You were too busy suggesting we have a platonic marriage?"

"Yes, that." Blaine stuck his tongue out at Kurt for a moment. He paused. "Actually, you were too busy suggesting it. I just happened to agree." Kurt rolled his eyes as Blaine stood up looking far too pleased with himself. "Alright, calling them now. You order the food? I'll have my usual."

Blaine walked off to his bedroom, closing the door most of the way behind him while Kurt dialed the Chinese place down the street. Kurt ordered their food and then settled back on the couch. As he did so, he pulled out his phone to add to his list of thoughts for the wedding, thinking about Blaine and everything doing this would entail.

Kurt wouldn't say that he's been hopelessly in love with Blaine since they met, but he has had romantic feelings for him basically since the moment they first made eye contact. It's a little bit sad that part of him has been pining for Blaine so long. When it became clear that first year at Dalton that Blaine wasn't going to reciprocate those feelings for the time being, however, Kurt had moved on. Kind of. His feelings for Blaine were still there, but he would indulge in other crushes that he had from time to time. He liked to think that he was taking the Ginny Weasley approach and dating other people until Blaine finally saw sense.

When he met Chandler in the spring of his senior year of high school, the two of them had gone on a few dates. Kurt had eventually called it off right before graduation, but they still remained friends. There hadn't really been any sort of spark, but he had definitely enjoyed hanging out with Chandler from time to time. It was an added bonus that, upon moving to New York, he already had a friend who wasn't Rachel.

His freshman year of college had led him to Adam. Adam was nice and British and they got along well. They'd dated for six and a half months before Adam had graduated and they'd both decided that there was something about their relationship that just wasn't going to allow them to work in the long run. Adam seemed inclined to blame Blaine, because apparently in the days since Blaine had gotten accepted to NYADA, their conversations had slowly begun to revolve around him moving to New York, but Kurt shrugged it off because who wouldn't be excited about their best friend moving to the same city as them? (And so what if he had not entirely platonic feelings for his best friend? It wasn't as though he had ever acted on them).

After that, Kurt had been on a few dates here or there, but nothing serious. He somehow just couldn't bring himself to care about dating when he could spend time with Blaine instead.

It did leave him in a tenuous position as far as this marriage scheme was concerned though. He didn't care one bit about any potential dates he would be missing out on (because, seriously, no guy had been able to hold a candle to Blaine, and they hadn't ever dated). He was mostly just worried about any potential strain it would put on their friendship as well as how he would contain his feelings while living with Blaine. Acting all couple-y in front of people (and that would probably have to include the occasional kiss - shit) might end up being an issue. He knew they could go through the motions no problem it was just... Kurt was worried that it would bleed into their private time and he would begin acting like that with Blaine when they were alone and he'd kiss him and then, wow, things would be awkward. But he could do this. He was a Hummel and Hummels helped out friends in need. Even if it called for marrying your best friend who you were secretly, basically, pretty much helplessly in love with.

He also wasn't entirely sure that Blaine had thought this whole thing through as far as their pretending-to-be-a-couple charade went. Sure, Blaine was a tactile person to begin with, but this would be different. And Blaine had never really had a boyfriend. There had been Sebastian while he was at Dalton, who Blaine had thought he was dating, but when Blaine had called Sebastian his boyfriend, Sebastian had laughed. After that, Blaine had declared that he wasn't interested in sex just for the sake of having sex. He was now only going to sleep with people after they'd made it clear they were boyfriends. Kurt had kind of expected that to change when Blaine got to New York, but in all of their times going to clubs together, he'd done nothing more scandalous than make out with a few guys and dance. So. Nothing scandalous really. Sex aside, Kurt wasn't sure if Blaine knew exactly what he was getting himself into, but he was quite the actor so he would probably get the hang of it pretty fast.

Blaine's raised voice cut through his thoughts. "Dad, don't be ridiculous. Kurt isn't using me for the money- I know. I know. I know it's a big thing to commit to- yes. Uh huh." There was a longer pause and then Kurt heard Blaine start talking again, voice a forced calm. "I promised him that I would pay rent and the grocery bills for a year as well as the rest of his tuition. I barely got him to agree to let me do that. He's not trying to use this marriage thing for money. In fact, I wanted to give him more. I owe him so much more than that. And he's the one who decided we need to get a prenup." Kurt heard Blaine flop onto his bed as he listened to whatever his dad was telling him. "Dad, I... I know you could get along without my help, I just- I really want to do this for you two because I can and you shouldn't both have to work for the rest of your lives because I didn't inherit the money that's rightfully mine."

Kurt stared at the door in shock for a moment. Blaine hadn't always had the best relationship with his parents - especially in middle school and high school. But Blaine had told him that it was getting better. And it really must have been, because Blaine's parents were actually trying to persuade him to not get married just because of them (ignoring the part where they had insinuated that Kurt was trying to use Blaine, it was oddly nice of them).

"Dad, he's my best friend. Obviously I love him. We'll- it'll work, okay? I'm doing this, so stop trying to talk me out of it." Seemingly Mr. Anderson relented because a few minutes later Blaine said goodbye and hung up, emerging from his bedroom a moment later.

When Blaine walked back into the room Kurt briefly pondered whether or not he should pretend to have no idea how the call with his parents went. Before he made a conscious decision one way or the other, however, words started to spill out of his mouth. "So you decided to tell your parents the truth then? How'd it go?"

"It went..." Blaine sunk tiredly down onto the couch next to Kurt. "It went okay. I mean- I didn't intend on telling them the truth at first but then I - I think they suspected something was up. They were understandably shocked when I told them I was going to get married to you three weeks from now, especially with the whole inheritance thing going on. At first they thought that you had heard about the money or something and were trying to get it from me, so I ended up spilling the truth because there was no other way to convince them."

Kurt reached over and squeezed his hand briefly before letting go. "I get it. That's why I told my dad the truth. I just hope... I don't want your parents hating me because they think I'm a gold digger."

"They don't think you're a gold digger, Kurt," Blaine scoffed. "They're just worried, and more willing to aim their doubt and concerns at a person they barely know than at me. I guess I have a tendency to be too trusting or something," he teased, and Kurt could tell he was thinking about Sebastian.

"Okay, I just. You don't owe me anything, you know. Don't deny it," Kurt held up a hand when Blaine started to insist otherwise. "I heard you telling your dad that you owed me for this, but I hope you realize that I'm doing this because you're Blaine. You're my best friend and you need my help. Besides," he shrugged, "It's not as though I've really had much luck in the boyfriend department so far. It can't hurt to give the whole 'having a husband' thing a go."

"Alright, alright. I do still owe you though. I'll just think of it as owing you favors instead because, seriously Kurt, you can't tell me that what you're doing for me isn't a big deal. Because it is. But I'll do my best not to let it make the playing field uneven between us or whatever."

"That's all I'm asking. Now... wedding invitations? You do the emails, I'll make a template for the physical ones?"

The next morning found Kurt perched on Blaine's bed as Blaine slept. Two cups of coffee were sitting on the nightstand, and his laptop was open to the friend list on his Facebook page.

"What're you doing?" Blaine asked groggily. Kurt jumped in surprise, but Blaine was too sleepy to notice, eyes already zeroing in on the coffee.

Kurt noticed his focus and laughed before picking up Blaine's drink. "The shades in your room do not block out the light, so I made coffee and started working on our guest list. Here sleepyhead," he handed Blaine a mug after he got himself sat up against his pillows.

Blaine pouted into his coffee. "Not a sleepyhead. Just tired." Kurt shook his head fondly as he continued working.

Finally, after Blaine returned from a trip to the bathroom, Kurt began to explain what he had been doing. "Seeing as how we finished our wedding invitation template last night, I was thinking we should finalize the guest list. I'm not sure how many people we want to invite, but I figured a good place to start would be determining who has to come and who we want to be there beyond that. Facebook seemed like the ideal means of making sure we don't forget any of our friends."

"Alright," Blaine flopped down on the bed next to Kurt before sliding closer to him. "Who've we got so far?"

Kurt read off a list of people that included the New Directions, the Warblers and both of their New York friends. "I don't think I forgot anyone... we just need to figure out who we're each inviting from our families and then we should be all set!"

"How many people are we allowed to invite to the Foundry?"

"They cap it at 200, but with money and such I think we should aim to invite 100 at most. That way we can still add people if we want to without worrying about not being able to fit everyone if we do. Plus, we won't have to spend a fortune on catering because we decided to invite everyone we've ever talked to," Blaine nodded in agreement.

"Pass the computer over and I'll type up the names of the family that I should invite?"

Kurt handed the laptop over, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and getting up. "Give me a shout when you're done? I'm going to make some breakfast."

They ordered their invitations the next day and had them in the mail to their guests two days after that. Of course, before most of them had even hit the mail, responses from their friends and family had already started coming in. It had resulted in a fair number of calls from incredulous relatives and way too many responses from their friends that were variations of "About time! Count me in." It was honestly astonishing how many people had just accepted it as something that had been a long time coming.

In the meantime, Kurt had been camped out in Blaine's apartment organizing all the wedding details while Blaine had spent the week secretly plotting the proposal. It involved a lot of emailing back and forth with a few of the Warblers, some discreet engagement ring and wedding ring shopping, and a phone call to Rachel while Kurt was in class. A week and a few secret meet ups with his friends later, and Blaine was ready to propose. He was also ready to hit the next person who laughed at him for making such a big deal out of a proposal for a marriage that Kurt had already agreed to. Which tended to lead to mentions of the When I Get You Alone debacle, and Blaine really did not want to think about that. Especially not right now.

On Saturday, Kurt found himself being pulled through Times Square by Rachel, who had insisted they go look at the new billboards. It was rather odd because all Rachel had wanted to talk about these past few weeks was the wedding and how she was getting to reprise her role as Maria in West Side Story at NYADA, but now she suddenly couldn't stop talking about the billboards – which Kurt was pretty sure hadn't changed because there were no new shows opening. As he was mulling this over, he suddenly heard a shout of "There he is!" and looked up to see a blond man in a suit turn and run towards the giant set of red stairs. As he looked around, slightly confused, Rachel tugged him forward and he heard an a capella group start singing. As the two of them reached the foot of the stairs, the singing grew louder and Kurt realized that those suits – uniforms really – were familiar looking, as were the people wearing them.

Suddenly, the lyrics kicked in and he locked eyes with Blaine as he spun out to face the crowd, a wild grin on his face.

Forever can never be long enough for me

To feel like I've had long enough with you

For once, Blaine didn't even pretend that he was singing for anyone else. He slowly descended the stairs as he sang, heading directly for Kurt, eyes never straying from him. For someone who knew Kurt was going to say yes, he looked nervous about making such a huge gesture.

Forget the world now we won't let them see

But there's one thing left to do

Kurt struggled to place the song as he watched Blaine sing, wide eyed and smiling. As he was listening though he felt a familiar flutter in his stomach.

Now that the weight has lifted

Love has surely shifted my way

As Blaine grinned at him, slightly nervous behind his brave lead singer persona, the song clicked into place in Kurt's mind and he gasped. Blaine would choose this song for a proposal.

Marry Me

Today and every day

As Blaine sang the chorus, the Warblers' closest to Kurt got down on one knee to sing.

Marry Me

If I ever get the nerve to say "Hello" in this café

Blaine gestured as one of the Warblers held out a coffee cup from the Lima Bean. Kurt accepted it and took a sip out of curiosity. Of course Blaine got him a non-fat mocha. He grinned down at it, smoothing his finger over the word Kurt written smoothly on the cup. Why couldn't this all be a real proposal meant for the rest of their lives?

Say you will

"Hey!" Someone shouted.

The Warblers kept singing and dancing, but Kurt was sufficiently distracted by a second shout, closer this time.

"Yo! Boys in the blazers," the man called, coming up next to them. "You can't be here!"

The boys stumbled to a halt, staring at him. Blaine stepped forward, showman face firmly in place now. "I'm sorry, what seems to be the problem sir?"

"We're filming an episode of Sing! over there," he gestured angrily across the street. "We can't have you in the background."

Blaine raised an eyebrow at the man while Kurt got on his tip toes, trying to spot the cast across the street. "You're interrupting my proposal for this?"

"Yes," he nodded firmly.

Kurt turned his attention back to the man. "Fine. We're done, you can leave now."

"Good." The man nodded to all of them before walking away.

Kurt sighed. "He's just lucky that yo-" Kurt sucked in a breath as his eyes landed on Blaine, who, to his immense surprise, was laughing.

"Much like most of our relationship," he grinned, "this apparently isn't going to go to plan, but I'm willing to improvise." Blaine pulled a ring box out of his jacket pocket, dropping to one knee at Kurt's feet. "Kurt Hummel, I know this has all happened rather quickly, but I want you in my life, as my husband and my best friend. Will you marry me?"

Kurt stared down at Blaine for a moment, taking in the slightly nervous expression gracing his face. Apparently this whole charade wasn't a complete breeze for him either. "Yes, yes I will," he replied with a grin. No matter what doubts he had because he really wished this were for-the-rest-of-our-lives real, there was no way he could say no to Blaine. "Let's just hope this wasn't some bad omen we should be paying attention to."

Blaine laughed before he stood up, fumbling to slip the ring on Kurt's finger. That was when the cheering of their friends and a few tourists turned into chanting for them to kiss. "I, umm-" Blaine pulled him into a hug before shifting onto his tiptoes to whisper in Kurt's ear, "Is it alright if I kiss you? Because they all seem to be expecting it."

Kurt suppressed a shiver as Blaine's warm breath tickled his ear. He hesitated for a moment, he wanted to kiss Blaine but it would be their first ever kiss and Kurt didn't want it to ruin everything. On the other hand, it was just a kiss and they were in public so it wasn't as though he was going to get carried away. He took a deep breath and then – "yes, yes you can kiss me. Just keep it PG – I've seen you get handsy when you kiss."

Blaine huffed out a laugh. "Only when I'm drunk," he replied, and Kurt could practically hear the eye roll as he said it. But then Blaine was pulling back and looking him in the eyes and suddenly the moment became overwhelmingly real and Blaine was kissing him. It wasn't a very long kiss, and it wasn't overly passionate, but it happened and it was a moment that Kurt had been dreaming about since the day he met Blaine. It surpassed all of his expectations. Well, all of his expectations if you ignored the prerequisite of Blaine confessing his love for real.

They both laughed for a moment after pulling away. They hugged once more and then Kurt felt a crush of people surrounding them. He panicked for a moment, worried that someone had decided all of New York City should hug them, before realizing that it was Rachel and the Warblers.

"Congrats you guys!"

"Thank god you said yes, otherwise this whole thing would have been awkward."

"I can't believe that jerk almost ruined it!"

"I still don't understand why Blaine had to propose when you guys already have a wedding planned."

"I told you, Jon," Blaine said, looking behind Kurt, "Kurt deserves a real proposal, and since it couldn't wait until after the wedding it had to be done now. Just because we played around a bit with the order that we did things doesn't mean I didn't want to try to ensure we had an excellent proposal story. Which…" he glanced across the street, "Kind of got ruined."

"Dude," Thad grumbled. "As much as I love this group hug thing going on, can we go celebrate somewhere indoors instead? I'm freezing my ass off. And I am too old to be wearing a prep school uniform."

"Alright, alright, let's head over to Dalton's. I made sure they would be open and ready for a big group."

"Dalton's?" Trent asked.

"Yeah, it's a Bar and Grill that Blaine and I found after rushing a show down at The Al Hirschfield Theater last year," Kurt chimed in.

"No wonder you guys decided to go to school here. I should try to get the owner to put a chain on the Tuft's campus," Trent sighed, speeding up to walk next to Kurt. "So besides you and Blaine finally getting together, how've you been? I feel like we never catch up."

The walk to Dalton's took about ten minutes, and before they knew it they were entering the restaurant, and being seated immediately. Kurt and Blaine ended up next to each other at the far end of one of the tables their group was at. It allowed them to talk with some privacy, but had the unfortunate side effect of keeping them from catching up with the people at the other end.

Once they ordered their drinks, Blaine turned to talk to Kurt. "So, did that proposal successfully blow your mind?" Kurt raised an eyebrow. "If you ignore that it got interrupted?"

"Honestly, I'm just glad there wasn't any talk of sex toys in your serenade," Kurt managed to get out before he had to duck behind his menu to hide his laughter.

"Hey, that was a wonderful performance and you know it," Blaine said, trying to look offended.

"Fine. Your song choice was definitely more appropriate this time around and I'm…" Kurt trailed off, his expression softening as he met Blaine's eyes. "I wasn't expecting you to go all out for your proposal like that. I'm rather pleased that I got my dream of a big public proposal fulfilled, because there is no way I'd want that for a real proposal. I would probably panic and explode from the pressure of all those people watching such a personal moment."

"But it was okay this time?" Blaine asked, looking concerned.

Kurt reached out and grasped his hand in comfort. "You successfully blew my mind this time. If we hadn't-" Kurt broke off, looking around anxiously to see if anyone was listening in before he lowered his voice. "If this marriage weren't happening the way it is, I would have had – well, not a problem with it exactly, because a proposal is a proposal – but I would have been overwhelmed. Does that make sense?"

"I think so," Blaine replied, twining their fingers together and rubbing circles on Kurt's hand absentmindedly. "If-"

"Hey love birds!" Jeff called down the table, immediately forcing them to refocus their attention. "When do we get to have the bachelor party? And will I be invited to both?"

Well crap. That was one of the things that they hadn't actually talked about. In all honesty, Kurt had totally forgotten that it was traditional to have a bachelor party because he didn't really care to have one, and Finn probably wouldn't want to plan it (and Santana and Rachel were definitely not allowed to do it instead).

He glanced over at Blaine questioningly, to find him staring back at him, mouth hanging open slightly. Apparently he'd forgotten about the bachelor parties as well.

"Wait. Don't tell me that you two weren't planning on having them? No. I have been looking forward to this day for years!"

"Years, Jeff? Really? We've been dating for like, a couple of months." Blaine said, rolling his eyes at Jeff.

"Yes, years. We all knew this day would come eventually. And lucky for me, it came when I have no boyfriend or girlfriend to worry about! Now please assure me that there will be a bachelor party," Jeff glared at them.

"Umm, we-" Blaine shot a glance at Kurt before he continued. "We should talk about it, but Cooper would be the one in charge of planning a party so I can't guarantee you anything."

"I'm not making Finn plan one and-"

"I could plan it, Kurt!" Rachel interrupted, sounding positively gleeful about the idea of it.

"No!" Kurt practically yelled in response. "No. No one else is planning a party for me because I don't particularly want one, and I'm not letting Finn be coerced into it. And god only knows what atrocities you and Santana would cook up."

"Hey," Rachel pouted, looking insulted, "If I planned it, it would be fabulous."

"No. It would be- no."

"Well, I'm sure Finn could-"

"Rachel, even if Finn did manage to pull it off, he'd probably decide he should hire a stripper just to make sure I knew he was chill with it or whatever. And if that happened, I think I would be scarred for life because the last thing I want is Finn having anything to do with - or seeing, hell, even knowing about - me getting a lap dance."

"Fine." Rachel folded her arms over her chest petulantly. "No party then."

"Did I mention that you get to sing a song or two at our wedding?" Kurt asked tentatively, hating himself for his need to make her happy while also hating her a bit for making this about her.

"Really?" Unsurprisingly, she perked up immediately. "Oh! I'm so excited, I could sing-"

Luckily, the beginning of Rachel's planning was cut off by Jeff trying to steer the conversation back around to bachelor party talk.

"Okay, so apparently Kurt's not having a party, but Blaine, man, you have to have one."

"I'm going to regret saying this, but talk to Cooper about it. He's my best man, he's supposedly in charge of that stuff. Just – don't let him try to recreate The Hangover."

"So when're you moving in?" Blaine asked a few hours later as they made their way back to his apartment.

"Two days from now maybe? It shouldn't take all that long to pack my stuff, and Rachel and Santana already know that I'm moving out soon. What're we doing about sleeping arrangements?"

"Oh! I was going to tell you. I cleaned out the spare room after you went home – I've been meaning to do it for a while now – and I was thinking that you could just bring your bed over and we'd set it up in there. We'll tell people it's the guest room, but you'll sleep there if that's okay. I figure that way we'll both be able to have our own space – plus this way we don't have to cram both of our clothes into my tiny closet."

"Anything to protect me from your cuddle whore ways or having to sleep on the couch."

"Hey," Blaine pressed a hand to his chest looking insulted. "You love my cuddle whore ways. You'd probably push me out of the bed if you didn't. Or just insist one of us sleep on the couch whenever we crash at each other's places."

Kurt giggled. "Alright, fine I probably would. You caught me."

There was silence for the next block or so as they walked before Kurt caught sight of the ring that now rested on his finger. "You did an awesome job picking out my ring by the way." He wiggled it around a little on his finger. The swirl of the silver met at the top where it held a blue gem. He'd been a bit surprised when he saw that the ring didn't hold a diamond, but the blue was beautiful. "What stone is this anyways?"

"Paraiba Tourmaline," Blaine recited. "I was going to go with a diamond initially, but when I was looking around I spotted that stone and it just… seemed perfect. It matches your eyes," he said, smiling shyly over at Kurt.

"Well I love it. And I'm looking forward to showing people at work, because most of them seem to think I'm trying to pull an elaborate joke on them with the wedding invitation. They think the email is a prank. I'm pretty sure some of them are going to think I'm taking the joke too far when the physical copy shows up."

"Clearly I need to send you flowers or something at work to solidify the sincerity of this soon-to-be marriage. I can't have the competition not buying that you're taken."

Kurt snorted, shaking his head at Blaine. "The competition? Really?"

"What?" Blaine asked. "I hear the people at Vogue dress well, and I seem to remember you going on and on about how amazing Chase is and how cute his smile was."

"That was one time," Kurt said, blushing. "And I was drunk. And in desperate need of a boyfriend."

"Whatever you say, Kurt…" Kurt shoved Blaine to the side, laughing as they entered the building. His best friend was obnoxious.

"Whatever. I should probably spend at least the next three hours over here before I go home and work on packing."

"Not that I mind, but why at least three hours?"

"Blaine. We just got back from you pulling off a giant proposal. Even if we were already engaged, I'm pretty sure that Santana and Rachel expect us to be over here having celebratory sex for a while."

"Oh- right." Blaine's cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink. "We can continue wedding planning then? We still have to iron out our menu and our list of approved music. We never got around to that last night."

"No persuading me that we can take a break and watch just one episode of Treme this time. We're focusing."