It only took three trips between the five of them (Santana, Rachel, and Kurt's friend Elliott were helping) to move Kurt out of his loft and into Blaine's apartment. The speed of it was basically the only upside to being a poor college student; for as many clothes as he had, there weren't many bulky possessions that he had to take (just his mattress and bed frame which was quite the task). Once everything was sitting in Blaine's apartment - their apartment now - Elliott, Santana, and Rachel went home while Kurt flopped down on the couch and Blaine collapsed on the floor. They both laid there in silence for a moment before Blaine groaned from the floor, "We need pizza and water like ten minutes ago."
"You call. Too many stairs. Why's your apartment on the tenth floor? Why'd the elevator break?"
"I don't know," Blaine grunted. "Never leaving again." Kurt heard Blaine shifting around on the floor but couldn't bother to open his eyes to see what Blaine was doing. "Phone. Where's my phone?"
Kurt finally opened his eyes and rolled his head towards Blaine. "It's on the coffee table." He watched Blaine lift his arm, trying to reach the table a foot away from him without getting up.
"Too far," he said, letting his arm drop back to the floor with a dull thud. "You call."
"I put my phone on the table when I walked in."
"Kuuurt, why would you do that?" Blaine whined pitifully.
Kurt laughed. "You did it, too." Blaine huffed in annoyance, and, after a moment Kurt finally found the willpower to stand up. "I'll order the pizza, but then I'm showering and you're in charge of answering the door, okay?"
There was an affirmative grunt from where Blaine was lying on the floor so Kurt picked up the phone and ordered a large Hawaiian pizza and a greek salad.
"Best fiancé ever," Blaine said when Kurt hung up a minute later.
"I try," Kurt winked at him, turning to go shower. He picked up a box of his clothes on the way and brought them into the guest room. "You better answer that door when they get here though, or else you're going to have a very unhappy fiancé." He couldn't help but grin a little as he said the word. They were getting married. Kurt had a fiancé. Even if it was all kind of make believe.
A few days after moving in with Blaine, Kurt was working in his office at Vogue when there was a knock on his door.
"Hey handsome," Blaine said from where he was leaning against the doorframe. "Care to go out to lunch with me?"
Kurt grinned. "What are you doing here?"
"Heard a rumor that people didn't believe you were engaged, figured I'd stop by to prove them wrong," Blaine shrugged.
"Well, come on in then fiancé. I have to finish writing this so I can send it to Emily before lunch, but it should only take me a few more minutes."
Blaine entered the room, settling himself down in the chair across from Kurt's desk, automatically reaching out to fiddle with the Rubik's Cube Kurt had there.
A minute later, Blaine jumped, turning around at a knock on the door. "Hey Kurt, I wa- oh," the man said, eyebrows raising as they landed on Blaine. "Who's this?"
Blaine glanced over at Kurt and saw a smirk cross his face before he settled on a polite smile. "This is Blaine, my fiancé. Blaine, this is Chase."
Blaine stood up, shaking Chase's hand. "It's nice to meet you."
Chase nodded, eyeing him shrewdly as he dropped his hand. "You're Kurt's elusive fiancé then? Who none of us met or knew Kurt was dating until a few weeks ago?"
"Um, yeah," Blaine said trying to sound confident. "We wanted to keep the relationship quiet while we got settled, and, well I'm sure he told you about our sudden transition to fiancés."
"You having some regrets about jumping into it so fast?" Chase smirked, and Blaine really did not like this guy.
"Of course not," Kurt interrupted, grabbing his bag. "What was it you came in here for Chase? Blaine and I were about to go out to lunch."
"Oh- I wanted to drop off this," he said, passing a folder to Kurt. "And I was also wondering if you wanted to join me and a few of the others for lunch, but you seem to have plans already," he added with a disdainful look towards Blaine.
"Yes, I do," Kurt snapped, trying to contain his anger at the way Chase was treating his relationship with Blaine. They had hooked up one time. Chase had no claim on him, and certainly no reason to be rude to Blaine. He grabbed the folder, putting it on his desk before grabbing Blaine's hand. "You ready to go?"
"Oh, uh, yeah," Blaine said, following Kurt out the door with one last confused look at Chase."What was that all about?" Blaine asked when they finally reached the sidewalk outside, still holding hands.
"Well," Kurt started, allowing Blaine to lead him in the direction of the restaurant he had picked out. "I told you that the office thought I was joking,-"
"Yes! But he was weirdly rude about the whole thing."
"Chase decided that I was doing it because I was upset about him not wanting to turn our hook up back in September into a relationship. He's selectively forgetting the part where I didn't want to date him and I was a bit drunk when we hooked up. I think he's bitter about the whole thing," he added as they stopped at a light. "I didn't think he'd be such an asshole about it."
"So he's not always like that?" he asked, holding the door of an Italian restaurant open for Kurt.
"No, he's apparently just like that when he gets possessive for no apparent reason."
They were seated minutes after entering and quickly ordered their food. This was a relief to Kurt who only had an hour for lunch and didn't want to have one eye on the clock the entire time.
"The handholding was a good add in," Blaine commented when they got their food.
"What? Oh, yeah," Kurt averted his eyes, hoping his blush would be hidden by the dim lighting. "It seemed like it would be a simple way to do the whole 'we're in a relationship' thing without going overboard."
"We should probably do that more often," Blaine commented. "You know, the little casual things like handholding. It always seems to be key in movies and on TV shows."
"It's been so long since I dated anyone that I've forgotten about these things," Kurt laughed.
"And then there's me who's never really dated anyone," Blaine chuckled. "There are all of these things and I thought we'd be prepared for it, seeing as how the two of us are pretty much the biggest romantics ever, but it seems to be more difficult in practice. I feel like I need a checklist to constantly refer to or something."
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Kurt asked, leaning towards Blaine conspiratorily. "Romantic comedy movie marathon tonight?"
"Romantic comedy movie marathon tonight," Blaine agreed.
For the fourth night in a row, Kurt came home to an empty apartment. Despite having a few classes together, their schedules had not meshed well lately. Kurt was waking up early every day to get some hours in at Vogue and to make calls for the wedding, while Blaine was out late perfecting performances for class. Kurt sighed to himself, opening the refrigerator door and rifling through for some leftovers.
If he was being honest with himself he had expected that the two of them would be spending more time together now that they lived under the same roof. Instead they were seeing each other less and less, most days they would maybe get a two minute conversation in before one of them had to run off or focus their attention elsewhere. Logically it made sense, they were both busy people to begin with, and throwing a wedding in on top of that did not help. It did little to comfort Kurt emotionally. At this rate, they wouldn't have a chance to really talk, just the two of them, until after the wedding. Which was definitely not ideal. On the exterior their wedding was almost completely planned, but between the two of them? Well, Kurt was kind of freaking out. There were first dances to work out, and the whole "casual intimacy" thing, not to mention the kiss during the ceremony and the kissing they would probably be coerced into during the reception. And before the reception for their wedding photos. Plus, they had to practice their duet. It needed to be perfect.
Just as Kurt was considering getting a head start on some assignments for the following week, the apartment door creaked open and he turned to see Blaine making a beeline for the kitchen.
"Well if it isn't my elusive fiancé," Kurt called out after him, hearing the sounds of Blaine rummaging through the fridge.
He heard a thud followed by a grunt of pain before Blaine poked his head into the living room, box of Chinese food in hand. "Is that the melodious voice of my husband-to-be that I hear?" He clutched his chest dramatically. "Could it be that he and I are actually in our apartment at the same time and we're both actually awake?"
Kurt laughed. "I would go on and on about how I've been up for hours worried sick, but I'll skip the pleasantries seeing as how we pretty much haven't had a legitimate, non-assignment related conversation since I moved in. Tell me, how is Blaine Anderson?"
"Well, let's see." Blaine headed for the couch. "I got an A on my play writing assignment, the group I'm directing in my directing class decided to actually get their shit together this week and show up to our rehearsals," he sat down. "And this amazing guy that I live with ordered me dinner last night even though I didn't make it home until after he was asleep. How have you been?"
"Way too busy with wedding preparation and Vogue and school, but I have the evening free. Would you be up for a night in of catching up on the DVR?"
"Let's do it! I'll grab the wine, you get some shows queued up for us."
The next morning Kurt sat up with a grunt. "Where am I? What is with the noise?" he groaned, looking around himself in confusion. After a moment, his eyes landed on the table where a phone was ringing. Not thinking, he picked it up and answered.
"Hello?"
"Well you certainly don't sound like Blaine," a voice chimed loudly.
"Why would I be- oh. This is Blaine's phone isn't it?" Kurt glanced behind him and finally realized that he and Blaine must have fallen asleep mid movie, as Blaine was currently asleep on the couch in an odd position. Clearly Kurt resting his head on Blaine's shoulder while he closed his eyes for just a minute had resulted in an eight hour nap.
"Are you Blaine's bit on the side? Perhaps a secret lover? A helpless stranger who happened upon his phone on the subway? I could use this to practice my method acting!"
"What on earth? Who is this?" Kurt demanded as Blaine shifted beside him, snuffling quietly before his eyes opened and landed on Kurt.
"Tis I! Blaine's brother Cooper."
"...Why are you suddenly speaking in a Scottish accent? It's too early for this nonsense, I haven't even had any coffee. I'm handing you over to Blaine now." Kurt dropped the phone onto an adorably baffled looking Blaine's chest. "It's Cooper. I'm going to make some coffee."
"Why'd you answer it?" Blaine whined, looking at the phone nervously.
"Because I was confused and it wouldn't stop ringing and I didn't think it would be some crazy person speaking in accents and spewing nonsense about characters and method acting before ten am." Kurt stood up, wrapping a blanket that had fallen on the floor around him like a cape. "And make sure you tell him I'm not your 'bit on the side.'"
Blaine picked the phone up and tentatively put it to his ear. "Cooper?"
"Hi Squirt! I was beginning to think that your boss had hung up on me."
"My... what?"
"I'm thinking of auditioning for this tv show where the main character's boss loses his house and has to move in with one of his employees so I-"
"It's way too early for this Coop. The guy who answered the phone was Kurt. As in my fiancé." Blaine stretched out on the couch, trying to regain feeling in his arm as he did so. "What are you calling about? It's not even seven am over there, what are you doing up?"
"The character I'm auditioning for today gets up early every day and no one's up right now so I decided to give you a call. I have some questions about this best man business and I also need to know when I'm actually meeting this guy of yours because it has to be before the rehearsal dinner."
"You've already met him Coop. You might not remember because you were too busy pointing at things, but he was at my graduation."
"Huh. Really?" There was a loud "hmmm" as Cooper apparently pondered the news that he had met Kurt before. "Wait, was he that kid with the hair that went for miles?"
"Yeah, probably," Blaine said, barely resisting the urge to bang his head against the wall repeatedly.
"I remember him! He was quite the fan of me if I remember correctly. Really loved my credit commercial. You might want to make sure he's not just marrying you so that he's related to me."
"I can assure you that he is not marrying me to get closer to you. Regardless, I smell bacon so I'm going to have to go. Bye Cooper, I'll see you soon!" Blaine barely waited for a response before he hung up the phone and dropped it onto the couch before standing up. "Is that bacon I smell?" he called out to Kurt, whom he could hear humming in the kitchen.
"It might be, I can't tell you until you clean up your mess from dinner!"
"Give me thirty seconds." Blaine paused to fluff the pillows back into their original form before wrapping himself in a blanket and scooping up his trash from dinner. "Why is it so cold in here?"
"I don't know, you should turn up the heating though because I'm freezing."
Blaine fiddled with the thermostat, turning it up until the heating kicked on, and then walked into the kitchen. "Mmm, that is bacon I smell," he said, wrapping his arms around Kurt from behind and tucking his chin over his shoulder. "And there's definitely enough for me there. I might just have to keep you here forever. I'm just going to have to pretend that my lawyer got it wrong and we have to stay married forever."
Kurt laughed loudly in response. "At least I have proof that you just want me for my cooking. Bacon is such a basic thing to cook though Blaine, I'm sure you don't need me for that."
"Maybe, but it's so much nicer to wake up with coffee already made and the occasional bits of food prepared for me. I think I've had breakfast more times since you moved in than I've had since the semester started."
"Ah, so it's laziness then, I see. Well. Here's your bacon. I'm meeting Adam for lunch in an hour, and then you and I are getting dinner with Santana and Rachel tonight. I'll be home well before that though."
"You're getting lunch with Adam?" Kurt wasn't sure if he was imagining it or not, but he was fairly certain that Blaine's arms had tightened infinitesimally around him as he spoke.
"Yeah... we haven't hung out just the two of us in months and he wanted to spend some time together before I got married. I think he also wants the chance to say 'I told you so' in person, because when we broke up, he made it clear that he thought you and I were going to start dating and he was just fooling himself by trying to stand in the way."
Blaine shifted away to sit down at the kitchen table, Kurt following him. "From the sound of it, everyone has just been sitting around waiting for us to get together. I think they've been taking bets on it for years."
Kurt couldn't help but let out a laugh at the confused look on Blaine's face. "I spent most of my Junior and Senior year of high school having to repeatedly tell people that no we aren't dating, we're just friends. It wasn't even people I knew half the time. Everyone thought we were dating. Coach Sylvester refused to believe we weren't."
"Huh. Now that I think about it, the Warblers used to tease me about us being boyfriends even though we weren't. Clearly all of them have just never had a friendship as awesome as ours." Blaine got up to wash his plate off, missing the exasperated look that Kurt gave him. "I think I might go work on some audition pieces for the day. It's been ages since I had the chance to really practice something that wasn't for a class."
"Okay, meet back here by three so we have time to get ready for dinner?"
"Sounds like a plan."
When Kurt arrived at the diner, Adam was already seated. "Hey, sorry I'm late," he said, sitting down across from Adam.
"Don't worry, you're not late. I got here a little early." Kurt nodded and glanced down at the menu. He'd been here a few times before so he already knew what he was getting. "How've you been? How's the engagement?"
Kurt laughed. "The engagement is going well, everything is a bit crazy right now, but it's good. Life is good."
"While I was expecting you and Blaine to start dating one day, I have to be honest Kurt, I wasn't expecting everything to happen all at once," Adam said, raising an eyebrow as though waiting for some sort of explanation.
"I wasn't either," Kurt started. "I-" he cut himself off as the waitress stopped by to ask for their drink and food orders, using the time to think up the best way to have this conversation.
"What were you saying?" Adam asked after the waitress had walked away.
"I wasn't expecting things with Blaine to happen so fast, I know that when we broke up you said that it was because of Blaine, but I seriously never expected anything to come of it. The two of us have been best friends for so long now and I don't know, I guess I just got used to the idea that people would make jokes about us acting like an old married couple and that one day I would get over my crush. Now that I'm with him though… I don't know, it's just really crazy that it's actually happening."
"You're not regretting it are you?" Adam asked worriedly, a tinge of hope in his voice.
"No, no, of course not. Sure it's all happening so fast, but I've been in love with him since the day we met, even when I didn't think I was, I would see him again and it would bring me right back. I don't think I could ever regret marrying Blaine." Although if this fake marriage blows up on us I might, he silently added.
"Well in that case, I'm glad you're happy," Adam said with a genuine smile. "And I am also obligated to say I told you so. So. I told you so. I knew our relationship was a lost cause the first time I heard you talking to him on the phone. There was just no way that I was going to worm my way between the two of you."
"I'm glad we decided to stay friends," Kurt said, reaching across the table to briefly squeeze Adam's arm, ignoring the why his stomach flipped at yet another confirmation that people had been expecting him and Blaine to get together.
"I'm glad the two of you got yourselves together and finally started dating. I would have gone crazy if I'd had to watch either of you starting dating someone else. The two of you really are perfect together."
Kurt smiled half-heartedly before digging into the food the waitress had just brought them. How was it that everyone except Blaine seemed to see them as the perfect couple? Strangers at coffee shops sometimes asked them how long they'd been dating. Sure it worked well as a cover for the whole real-but-fake marriage thing, but the fact that everyone but Blaine could see how well they would work romantically drove him crazy. Even his ex saw it. If Kurt weren't so sure that Blaine didn't want him that way, he would find it funny. As it was, it was simultaneously a little bit upsetting and it was feeding the tiny tendril of hope that their fake marriage might somehow morph into something more.
By six o'clock he and Blaine were heading out the door for Rachel and Santana's place, a bottle of wine in hand and both of them dressed a little fancy just because they could. They had discussed their plans for any physical intimacy - hand holding, cuddling when appropriate - and had come up with a few romantic date stories to share if needed. They were pretty certain that they were fully prepared to take on this dinner, and if worse came to worse, they could always subtly get Rachel to start talking about herself to take the attention away from them.
Twenty minutes later they were knocking on the door and Rachel was letting them in. "Kurt!" she squealed, "I haven't seen you in ages how are you?"
"Rachel, you saw me two days ago," he laughed. "I'm good though. Way too much to do, but living with Blaine cuts ten minutes off my daily commute!"
"Damn, I knew you had to have some ulterior motive for marrying me," Blaine groaned good naturedly.
"It's not my fault that you have prime real estate - at least compared to here," Kurt said, shrugging and sticking his tongue out at Blaine before turning back to Rachel and Santana. "How are you two?"
"Well," Rachel started. "As you all know, I've been working on my Senior Project, and I think it's going well, except the guy who is supposed to be doing one of the duets with me doesn't rehearse. I swear he's trying to sabotage me. I had thought that he wouldn't feel threatened by me because it's not as though we're in competition for parts, but apparently my talents are too much for him. I'm thinking I'll have to find someone else instead. Do you think I could get someone from Newsies to help me out? I know that technically we're supposed to only ask people from our class, but if it's someone on Broadway…" Rachel trailed off with a dreamy look in her eyes.
"She's been like this all week," Santana said, rolling her eyes. "I'm so glad that it's easy to find someone to hook up with between the NYU campus and my job, otherwise I'd have to spend even more time listening to her."
"Hey!" Rachel glared at Santana. "I wanted to fill Kurt and Blaine in, we've barely seen either of them since they got engaged. Besides, it's not like I don't have to put up with you going on and on about the girls that you're sleeping with. At least I don't go into detail about my sex life."
"That's because your sex life is with Finn."
"Okay so… before this gets out of hand, because under no circumstances do I want to hear about either of your sex lives, when are you two free to go groom's-women dress shopping?" Kurt asked.
"You're letting us be part of your bridal party!?" Rachel asked excitedly, no longer glaring at Santana.
"You get to be part of our wedding party. If you keep referring to it as a bridal party I will kick you out and reconsider letting you sing at the wedding," Kurt threatened. He took a breath. "Anyways, I was thinking we would could go tomorrow if you're both free? I already have Finn's suit planned, so we just have to find something that will complement that, as well as fit both you and Mercedes. I'm thinking if we can settle on a color and a length, then Mercedes can find a dress in LA and none of you will have to fight over favorites."
"I've got work tomorrow night, so if we can go early afternoon that would be perfect," Santana said. "Blaine, I'm going to need you to make sure you have some hot women in your half of the wedding party for me to get with."
"Sorry," Blaine smirked at her as he sat down at the kitchen table, Rachel and Santana throwing the finishing touches on the food before bringing it to the table. "I've got Cooper, Jeff, Nick, and Wes all lined up to be my groomsmen. No room for anyone else. Besides, I'm not sure that I actually have any women that I'm close enough with to ask to be grooms-women. Especially if that means subjecting them to you."
"Alright gel-head, you know me too well. Kurt's told you too much. You've spent too much time in this loft. It's probably a good thing that you're no longer practically living with us on the weekends." She set a salad down in front of him. "Now let's eat. I'm hungry."
Dinner went by surprisingly fast. They caught up on each others gossip and Kurt realized just how much he truly loved Santana and Rachel. Especially now that he didn't have to deal with their crap day in and day out.
Silence fell around the table when they all finished eating, Rachel bouncing up to fill it, pointing at the television. "So I picked out a few movies-"
"We're not watching a damn musical, Berry," Santana interrupted.
"Fine." Rachel huffed. "You pick out some choices then. No porn."
"Whatever."
Kurt and Blaine glanced at each other before standing up simultaneously. Blaine quirked an eyebrow at Kurt, glancing over at the sink.
Nodding subtly, Kurt started stacking the dishes on the table, Blaine collecting the food dishes while Santana and Rachel continued arguing.
Kurt was so focused on scrubbing the dishes that he nearly dropped one when Blaine knocked their hips together. "You done yet?" Blaine whispered quietly into his ear.
Kurt suppressed the pleasurable shiver that threatened to run down his spine at the feeling of Blaine's breath, hot against his neck. "You just gave me a whole stack of dishes to clean," he accused.
Blaine sighed dramatically before slinging a dish towel over his shoulder. "Fine, I'll dry, you wash."
They worked in tandem until the dishes were cleaned, high fiving in victory. They turned around and finally remembered they weren't at their apartment when their eyes landed on Rachel and Santana who were watching them intently.
Kurt shifted nervously as Blaine froze. "What?" he finally asked when Rachel and Santana merely continued to stare at them.
"Nothing," Rachel said, shaking her head.
"You guys act pretty much the same as you did before you started dating."
"There are little differences, but that's it," Rachel added.
Blaine shifted slightly, "Well, as you've all pointed out numerous times over the years, we already acted like an old married couple before we even started dating."
"I guess that's true," Santana sighed. "I still don't quite get it though."
"Well, it's our relationship, not yours, so don't worry about it," Kurt threw in sharply before changing the topic. "What movie did you two pick?"
They ended up watching Princess Bride because it had enough romance for Rachel and enough action for Santana. Kurt was honestly just pleased that they managed to choose one of his favorites.
They were halfway through the movie when Kurt decided he should probably do something to stop Santana from questioning their relationship all of the time. He could tell that she was keeping a close eye on them, like she knew they were hiding something. Apparently the two of them taking up one entire couch cuddling wasn't good enough.
Just as Buttercup and Wesley were reunited, Kurt felt Santana's eyes on the two them. He pulled Blaine a little closer to him, stomach swooping when Blaine made a pleased sound and snuggled closer. Blaine weaved their fingers together in response, and Kurt kissed the top of his head lightly. For a brief moment he was able to believe that they were actually dating. It was just so easy.
The spell was broken however when Rachel squealed loudly. "I just love this part!"
Blaine rolled his eyes at her, before turning his head towards Kurt. "I don't miss this part of hanging out at the loft," he whispered.
"Hey," Rachel glared at them, throwing some popcorn in their direction. "I heard that!"
"Both of you shut up so I can watch the movie," Santana interrupted harshly. "And Berry, you're in charge of cleaning up the mess you just made."
Kurt was just throwing the finishing touches on dinner when Blaine walked in the door.
"Honey I'm home!" came the teasing greeting.
Kurt laughed, turning off of the oven before looking over his shoulder at Blaine who was standing in the doorway. "How was your day, dear? You're home earlier than usual."
"I am," Blaine replied, stepping into the kitchen and making a beeline for the food. "I finished my paper way more quickly than I thought I would. I hope this doesn't mean you have to change any plans," he added, a playful look in his eyes.
"Change any plans?" Kurt asked, eyebrow raised, uncertain what Blaine was trying to get at.
"You know, the strippers, the other boyfriend?"
Kurt shoved his shoulder lightly, moving to bring the food to the table. "How about instead of fabricating another fake life for me, you make yourself useful and grab some plates. We haven't had a proper conversation unrelated to wedding plans in a few days. All I know is that you watched Masterchef without me, and I only know that because I was cleaning out the DVR because we're behind on everything."