PART SEVEN: IF YOU HAD SUCH A DREAM, WOULD YOU GET UP AND DO THE THINGS YOU BELIEVE IN?
Eight hours later, Kurt realized a barista was standing awkwardly next to their table. He looked up at her.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt you two," she began hesitantly, smiling at him and Blaine, "but we're closing now."
"Oh my god," Kurt said, looking around the coffee shop, which was empty except for a couple more baristas standing amused behind the counter, watching. "How long have we been sitting here?" he asked, turning back to Blaine, who had his phone out and was furrowing his brow.
"Is it really 10 p.m.?" Blaine asked the barista in confusion, craning his neck to look at the clock over the door.
She laughed. "Yes, it is."
"We've been here eight hours?"
"You have."
"Kurt, I'm so sorry," Blaine said, lowering his voice. "I know you must have had so much else you wanted to do in Chicago."
Kurt shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Blaine, don't even." He giggled and picked up his blazer, which had been shed hours earlier. "Come on, let's go get dinner, for some reason I'm hungry."
They apologized to the barista staff on their way out but were just countered with knowing and sweet smiles. Out on the street, Blaine stuck his hands in his pockets and tilted his head to one side.
"It's kind of late for most restaurants in this neighborhood," Blaine said, scratching his neck. "We could, um…"
Kurt waited for that sentence to finish but it didn't. After several seconds he supplied, "We could go back to my hotel and order room service?"
Blaine looked surprised. "Really? Won't it be insanely expensive?"
"The Duchess pays for everything." And she'll be so happy I'm spending her money on you, he added mentally.
"Well…" Blaine hesitated and looked away. "Look, I know we just had a life-changing epiphany-like coffee… date," he started slowly. Kurt tried to catch his eyes but Blaine studied the sidewalk carefully. "But what are we doing?" Blaine finally looked up at Kurt. "What are you doing? Does this end tomorrow, like…"Like with every other guy you've taken home the last five years, Blaine might as well have finished.
Kurt winced. He deserved that. He sighed and held his hand out, open to Blaine. "I don't know. But I know I haven't had a conversation like that," and he jerked his head back at the coffee shop, "in years. Since high school," he concluded meaningfully. "And I don't want to say goodbye to you."
"You've said that before," Blaine said, his voice getting small.
"When I was sixteen and an idiot," Kurt said, sighing. He was about to take his hand back when Blaine carefully reached out and fit his fingers around Kurt's.
"Okay. Let's try," Blaine said.
They walked back to Kurt's hotel instead of taking a cab. It was a half-hour walk, and though they talked the whole way and the time flew by, Kurt was still uncomfortably warm from the hot summer night and the exercise. It was a long time since his Cheerios days, when a walk like this in the heat would have been a breeze. He breathed a sigh of relief when they walked into the hotel's brisk air conditioning.
He nodded hello to the security guard and front desk staff and led Blaine to the elevator. Once inside, Kurt shook his arms. "Ugh, I'm gross."
Blaine was watching him with dark eyes. "It was hot out," he said, but his tone of voice didn't really match the words, and Kurt looked up at him with a crinkled forehead.
"Yeah, I'm all sweaty." He stared at Blaine, feeling increasingly uncomfortable as Blaine didn't tear his eyes away from Kurt. Kurt held out his bare arm, which still had a few drops of sweat, as proof.
Blaine leaned in slightly, staring at his arm almost hungrily. "You have goose bumps," he murmured.
Kurt shivered, but not from the temperature. "The A/C is cold."
"Is that all it is?" Blaine asked, glancing up at Kurt. He smirked and took a step closer to Kurt, his hands reaching out and cradling Kurt's arm lightly. He pulled Kurt's arm up by the wrist slowly and then ducked his head and licked up along the inside of Kurt's forearm quickly.
Kurt inhaled sharply and jumped back against the wall of the elevator. "God, Blaine, you can't just—"
Blaine grinned, and stepped forward again, until he was pressed flush against Kurt. He dropped Kurt's arm and let his fingers wander up to Kurt's shoulders, and then to his upper chest. He pushed Kurt back against the wall softly and leaned in until his lips were pressed so, so gently against Kurt's neck. Kurt could feel his heart pounding wildly, and he struggled to stay still as Blaine let his lips glide to Kurt's clavicle, but barely maintaining any pressure. It tickled and the heat of Blaine's breath against his skin felt like it should be uncomfortable but instead was incredible and everything. A whine left Kurt's throat completely of its own accord and he squirmed under Blaine's hands.
At that second, the elevator dinged and they had finally reached the top of the hotel. Blaine pulled away from Kurt, and then held out his hand. Breathless, Kurt took it, and together they walked down the hallway to Kurt's suite.
Kurt let them in the door and started momentarily at the rugs laid out on the floor. "Oh, I forgot about them," he said.
"Those don't really match the rest of the décor," Blaine said, following closely behind Kurt.
Kurt took a few seconds to answer, his brain completely distracted by Blaine's close proximity. "One of them, uh, is going to the Duchess. I just couldn't figure out which one at the warehouse," he said. "I need to figure that out tonight." He fished around in the drawer of the desk by the door and pulled out the room service menu, then turned around to hand it to Blaine, who was closer than he expected, and staring at him with such intensity.
Kurt breathed in sharply and dropped the menu. Blaine looked down at it on the floor, and then his eyes dragged pointedly to Kurt's groin. Seeing Kurt was half hard, Blaine's lips curved into a grin, and he looked up at Kurt. "Did I do that?" he whispered, putting his hands around either of Kurt's biceps. Kurt tensed and his breathing grew shallow and quick as Blaine slid one of his thighs between Kurt's legs. He pushed forward against Kurt and moved up slightly to breathe into the shell of Kurt's ear, "Can I still do that to you?"
Kurt shuddered under the weight of Blaine's body and he groaned when Blaine ground his thigh into Kurt. "Oh god, Blaine—" he gasped.
Blaine stepped back, and Kurt groaned in frustration at the loss of his touch. "Come back," Kurt said helplessly, holding out his hands and grabbing at Blaine.
Instead, Blaine smirked and crossed his arms. "I'm just interested in how this is going to play out."
In his hormonal haze of sexual frustration, Kurt couldn't comprehend Blaine's statement, let alone articulate a response. Instead he just moved forward lustily, grabbing at Blaine's hips, but Blaine danced back gracefully.
"Blaine."
Blaine laughed. "Aren't you hungry?"
Kurt's mouth dropped open and he shook his head, gesturing wordlessly at his body, so obviously turned on.
"Not that kind of hungry, silly," Blaine said, leaning down to pick up the menu for room service. "We were going to order dinner."
"Are you—are you stopping?" Kurt managed, moving back a step to lean against the desk, his head woozy from the blood rushing elsewhere.
Blaine paused and looked patiently at Kurt. "For now. I was just curious, if I could…"
"Could what?" Kurt asked testily when Blaine trailed off.
Blaine smiled. "If I could still make you fall apart like that."
Kurt barked out a mirthless laugh. "Obviously, Blaine. Oh my god."
Blaine's smile faltered. "Because, Kurt, you told me how many guys you've been with the past ten years, and…" He blushed and looked away sheepishly. "…it made me wonder if I was still sexy enough for you."
"Shit, Blaine," was all Kurt could say. His mouth was dry from panting and his skin felt like it was on fire, even in the cold air conditioning. "I can't—" He pushed a hand against his forehead to bring his mind back from its trip southward, and sucked in a breath. He stared at Blaine, at his perfect face, and his beautifully sculpted body, still small but muscular despite what must have been years cooped up in libraries reading books for his two degrees, and then at Blaine's hands, which had no right not to be wrapped in his. Kurt shook his head in disbelief. "I was such a fucking idiot," he said.
"You keep swearing," Blaine commented. "Is that one of the things new about you after my ten years asleep?"
"You weren't asleep," Kurt mumbled. "I was."
Blaine didn't say anything.
"Do you feel the same way I do?" Kurt asked him softly, taking a deep breath. "Like today, everything came together again?"
Blaine licked his lips, but didn't answer.
Kurt took a half-step forward. "Because even though I tried to move on from that breakup, it still haunted me. I was always on edge, always searching, and no matter how many guys I slept with, I never felt any better. I felt worse," he admitted. "But today, putting my hand in yours again after all these years… that felt more right than anything I've done for a decade."
Blaine rocked his head back and forth slightly and finally it wobbled into nodding. He smiled at Kurt, and Kurt felt all the darkness in the world disappear as Blaine slid his hand into Kurt's. "It feels right," Blaine said.
"It's not something they warn you about in sex ed," Kurt said lightly, twining his fingers around Blaine's possessively.
"What's that?" Blaine asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"How dangerous it can be to meet your soulmate in high school," Kurt said sincerely, putting his free hand around Blaine's back and pulling him in close.
"Do you believe that?"
"What, that I'm pretty much realizing I'm yours forever or that it's dangerous?"
"Both," Blaine said after a second of consideration.
"Yeah, both then, I do," Kurt murmured, kissing into the curve of Blaine's neck.
Blaine leaned into Kurt's lips and hummed a pleased note as Kurt bared his teeth and mouthed against Blaine's neck, lightly nibbling at Blaine's skin. "You taste awesome," Kurt whispered, blowing on his saliva on Blaine's neck and smiling at the goose bumps that rose up. But then he pulled back. "We should eat, though. I feel really light-headed, and I don't think it's just your presence."
"Yeah, I'm starving," Blaine said, looking down at the menu in one of his hands. He skimmed it quickly and said, "I kind of just want a burger and some fries."
Kurt laughed. "That sounds good to me. You want to order or me?"
Blaine smiled secretively. "I'll do it."
Kurt narrowed his eyes at him but didn't say anything. "All right."
While Blaine got on the phone on the other side of the suite room and ordered food and god knew what else, Kurt went into the bedroom and hung his blazer up. He hadn't worn it walking, so it didn't particularly need washing before he got back to New York City. Kurt paused in flattening the lapel of the blazer. Thinking about going home hit his heart heavily and he frowned. He liked New York. Loved it, even. Most of the time. He didn't really have a lot of close friends, so going out was almost always about hooking up instead of just hanging out, and his apartment was smaller than he would have liked. He probably could have afforded better at this point, with the Duchess, but he didn't want to take any chances. Maybe if Blaine moved to New York they could get a nicer apartment together…
"Hey Kurt?" Blaine called in from the other room.
"Yeah?"
"Uh, what do you want on your burger?"
Kurt went back into the main room and told him, then stood there raking his hand through his hair agitatedly. He saw Blaine looking at him curiously from where he was sitting with the phone still against his ear. Finally Blaine hung up and pressed his lips together, watching Kurt.
"What's bugging you?" he asked.
Kurt blew out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. "You asked me earlier what I was doing, what was going to happen after tonight."
Blaine got up slowly from the chair by the phone. "Yeah?"
Incredibly, Kurt felt tears threatening to build, and he almost laughed at himself. "I was just in the other room, thinking about … a possible future, I guess."
"Oh?"
Kurt nodded. "I can't even fathom you not being in it at this point. It's crazy, after just one day."
"After ten years," Blaine correctly quietly.
"Ten years apart."
"Ten years lost, when we should have been together," Blaine said fiercely. "Don't talk yourself out of what we just figured out, Kurt. We belong together."
Kurt smiled and felt tears break and slip down his face. "That sounds like one of my dramatic speeches from back in high school."
"You were smart then, too," Blaine said, and closed the gap between them. "It's electricity, what we have. And it's like for ten years I've been on a closed circuit just circling around myself with no purpose. But touching you again, talking to you again, being with you again, I feel alive. I feel like myself again. I feel like going out and singing karaoke and being ridiculous."
"That sounds like fun," Kurt said quietly, wiping tears out of his eyes. Blaine reached up and helped him wipe them away.
"It will be fun. And look, Kurt. I have a job here, and you have a job there, but fuck if I'm letting that ruin us with ten more years apart. Distance destroyed us back then, and I'm not letting that happen this time. And you're not either, okay?"
"Okay," Kurt said.
"Now stop worrying and let's order a movie to watch while we pig out," Blaine said.
Kurt laughed. "Okay. Good plan."
There was a TV in the main room as well as the bedroom, and for a second, Kurt hesitated about which one to set up in front of. But, he thought wryly, go big or go home, and he led Blaine into the bedroom.
They settled onto the bed together, and Kurt reached across Blaine to grab the remote off the nightstand. As he was leaning back, Blaine grabbed him around the middle and held on tight.
Kurt struggled briefly but finally collapsed, laughing. "Damnit, Blaine!"
"You're not going anywhere," Blaine whispered darkly into Kurt's ear, and Kurt shivered again, still not from the cold. Then Blaine loosened his grip marginally and said cheerfully, "But first, let's order that movie."
"What do you want to watch?" Kurt asked, turning the TV on and flipping to the pay-per-view channels. He immediately snorted at the titles.
"That all looks like porn," Blaine said.
"Yes, it does. It can't all be porn…"
Kurt flipped channels until he found something that wasn't porn. He chuckled at the title. "While You Were Sleeping. Fate is kind of messing with us, isn't she?"
"Let's watch this one," Blaine murmured, and Kurt complied.
A few minutes into watching Sandra Bullock moon over Peter Gallagher, there was a knock at the door. Kurt started and immediately moved to get up, but Blaine still had a tight hold on him. Kurt turned to him, a vexed look on his face. "Blaine, come on. Let me go get food."
Blaine shook his head. "You're not going anywhere. You're staying here and watching Sandra take Peter to the hospital. I'll get the food."
Kurt huffed in exasperation, but sat back on the bed as Blaine got up and left the room. In just a few minutes, Blaine was back with trays of burgers, home fries and soda. Kurt was slightly suspicious that that was all he had when he had been so secretive on the phone, but forgot about it when he bit into the burger.
"Oh my god," he said. "I haven't had a burger this good in months."
"They don't feed you in New York?" Blaine asked, grinning.
"I just usually order Thai or Japanese food."
"You don't cook?" Blaine asked. "You used to love cooking."
"It's just not as fun to cook when you're only cooking for yourself," Kurt said, smiling sadly. He popped a home fry into his mouth. "I used to cook for dad at home, and sometimes for you… and I cooked a lot the first couple years I lived in the city, when I was kind of broke. But once I started making money and I could afford it, it just didn't seem worth it. No one was seeing my brilliance."
"I'd like to see your brilliance," Blaine murmured, sipping at some soda.
"Oh, you will," Kurt said, but he couldn't think how or when or what needed to happen to make that a reality. Instead he focused on devouring his burger and the rest of his portion of home fries, which only took a few minutes. He stared at the empty tray. "I was really hungry," he said.
Blaine was just finishing up his fries. "Me too. Hadn't eaten since lunch. Oh, and that biscotti at the coffee shop."
Kurt smiled fondly at him. "I still can't believe we sat there for eight hours talking and didn't even notice."
Blaine looked at him with hearts in his eyes and Kurt felt his chest flutter, his heart pound. "It felt so perfect. It still does." He picked the trays up from the bed and got up, walking to the door. "I have a surprise," he said to Kurt over his shoulder.
Kurt waited impatiently while he heard Blaine messing around with the room service cart outside. Finally he reappeared holding another tray, circular, with a lid on it. It looked heavy, and Kurt had no idea what could be in it. Blaine set it on the bed carefully and then licked his lips. He smiled at Kurt.
"I hope you like this." Then he lifted the lid off and Kurt gasped in delight.
It was a fondue pot, with the flames still on underneath to keep the contents—dark, smooth chocolate—warm. Cut in pieces around the pot were apples, strawberries, pears, and bananas. There were two fondue forks resting on the side of the tray. Kurt looked up at Blaine, his heart bursting. "This is the sweetest thing—"
Blaine cracked up. "Tell me that pun was on purpose."
Kurt giggled. "If you want it to be."
"I do," Blaine murmured, sliding onto the bed and leaning across Kurt's lap to kiss him softly on the lips.
It was the first time they had done that since high school, and all the old feelings came flooding back even stronger. Blaine's lips were soft but sure, and Kurt felt his hands tense involuntarily when Blaine's tongue pressed into his mouth. He felt himself melting, his head light and his heart pounding, and he reached up and grabbed Blaine's neck, pulling him in, needing him closer. After what was probably forever, they broke away from each other, gasping. Blaine was still hovering over Kurt, and instead of backing away, his fingers went to the top button of Kurt's shirt.
"You need this off," Blaine muttered, working at the first button.
"Do I?" Kurt asked breathlessly.
"Might get chocolate on it," Blaine answered, smirking, and as he worked down to the last of the buttons, he swooped in and kissed Kurt's chest right above his left nipple, and sucked hard on the skin. Then his mouth was gone and he was pushing Kurt's shirt back from his shoulders.
"You too," Kurt said inarticulately, his hands fumbling at the bottom of Blaine's sweater. Blaine lifted his arms up and Kurt pulled the sweater off, tossing it somewhere on the floor where Blaine had thrown his shirt. Then he began working at the buttons of Blaine's shirt too. Blaine kept leaning in and kissing Kurt's cheek, neck, chest, mouth, and it made undoing the buttons a challenge, but in the end Kurt was successful and slid Blaine's shirt off him as well. He reveled in the sight of shirtless Blaine, something he hadn't seen since senior year of high school.
"Chocolate," Blaine mumbled against Kurt's shoulder.
"Pardon?" Kurt gasped as Blaine kissed a trail up his neck and behind his ear.
"We have all this chocolate. We really shouldn't waste it," Blaine whispered into Kurt's ear, then pulled away slowly.
Kurt watched with enamored intoxication as Blaine picked up a fork and speared a piece of apple, then dunked it into the chocolate fondue and swirled it around until it was completely covered. Then he put his hand underneath it as he brought it toward Kurt's mouth. Kurt opened his mouth and leaned forward to take the whole apple piece off the fork with a slurp. As the apple and chocolate melted together in his mouth, he smirked at the look on Blaine's face. Without taking his eyes from Kurt's face, Blaine pierced another piece of apple and smothered it with chocolate. Kurt ate it whole again, and Blaine was probably having a heart attack, the look on his face. Kurt licked his lips as Blaine reached for a strawberry and, holding it carefully from one end, swirled it around in the fondue.
He brought the strawberry to Kurt's lips and Kurt opened his mouth just wide enough for Blaine to push it in. Kurt sealed his lips around the strawberry and sucked most of the chocolate off, just for show, and then he bit into the strawberry, his eyes trained on Blaine's. Blaine let out a strangled moan and tossed the end of the strawberry back onto the tray before tackling Kurt, his hands around Kurt's wrists and pushing him down onto the bed. Blaine straddled Kurt's lap and attacked his mouth with ravenous kisses, his hands still pinning Kurt's arms to the bed. Kurt struggled a little, wanting desperately to grab Blaine in return, but Blaine wanted the control, and Kurt was more than willing to give it to him. Instead, he bucked his hips up into Blaine's groin meaningfully, and Blaine ground down into him.
Kurt wanted his pants off, immediately. His erection swelled almost painfully against his tight jeans and he could feel Blaine just as hard against him, though he was wearing more forgiving slacks. When Blaine stopped to take a breath, Kurt gasped out, "Pants. Now."
Blaine didn't need to be told twice. He slid down Kurt's body a little for easier access, and then undid the button and, carefully, the zipper on Kurt's jeans, then pulled them unceremoniously off. It was more difficult to wrangle his own pants, though, and Kurt pulled from underneath him to get on his knees opposite Blaine and work his slacks off him. Blaine fell over on his side as he pulled the slacks over his knees and Kurt couldn't help laughing. Uncontrollably, he laughed into Blaine's thigh, his eyes watering with tears. Blaine's pride, while a little hurt, couldn't withstand how contagious Kurt's laughter was, and he joined in. He leaned forward giggling into Kurt's side, and then calmed down enough to nibble a little at the side of Kurt's stomach.
Kurt stopped laughing as he gasped at the feeling and lifted up to meet Blaine's mouth. Blaine pulled Kurt up and then pushed him down onto his back on the side of the bed opposite the fondue pot. He carefully turned the flame off underneath the pot but then picked up another strawberry and dipped it into the chocolate. He brought it over to Kurt's chest.
With one hand spread-eagled, Blaine held Kurt's chest down as he let the chocolate from the strawberry drip onto Kurt's stomach. It was somewhere between warm and hot but not scalding. When most of the chocolate had dripped off the strawberry, Blaine dipped it into the fondue again and again let it dribble onto Kurt, making patterns of diamonds. After a few trips to the fondue pot, the strawberry had served its purpose—Kurt moaned when Blaine bit into it and set the end of it aside. Then he dipped his head down and began licking the diamonds off Kurt's stomach. Kurt bucked his hips up involuntarily a few times and his hands settled on Blaine's shoulders and neck, so when Blaine moved farther down Kurt's body, his fingers found themselves instead in Blaine's curls. Kurt gasped and tightened his fingers in Blaine's hair when Blaine fit a finger between the band of Kurt's boxer briefs and his skin. Blaine ran his finger slowly across the waistband, from one side of Kurt to another, and then with both hands, he tugged Kurt's boxer briefs down, revealing his almost embarrassingly hard cock.
Kurt writhed as Blaine licked a stripe up from the base of Kurt's cock to the head, and then slurped at the head, sucking it into his mouth. Kurt let out a whoosh of air and his stomach contracted. Blaine pushed his hands onto Kurt's hips and held them down as he lifted up and then took Kurt's cock completely into his mouth.
Kurt's brain exploded. Blaine sucked and worked at those most sensitive parts of Kurt that he had to have remembered from countless times doing this ten years before. Kurt came completely undone in Blaine's mouth, and his hands tugged at Blaine's hair. Blaine sucked up and down Kurt's cock and he took one of his hands off Kurt's hip to grasp around the base of Kurt's cock where his lips couldn't quite reach. He let his fingers trace over Kurt's testicles and Kurt tensed, his hips bucking uncontrollably as he felt himself coming to the edge.
"Blaine—oh—god, Blaine—oh my—god—Blaine—" Kurt gasped and moaned as Blaine expertly brought Kurt to the end of his tether.
At the last second, Blaine took his mouth off Kurt long enough to say, "I know you," before sucking again on the head of his cock. With a cry, Kurt came into Blaine's mouth, and Blaine sucked on him until he was dry. Kurt's mind was a complete blank except for Blaine, Blaine, Blaine… Blaine was everything. He moaned as he came down from his orgasm and then squirmed a little from oversensitivity. Blaine took his mouth off Kurt's cock and then crawled up onto Kurt and kissed his neck gently.
"Let me take care of you," Kurt murmured into Blaine's curly hair, and then his hand snaked down and into Blaine's boxers, grabbing at his cock and getting enough lubricant from the precome on the head to began working his hand up and down Blaine. Blaine let out a moan from deep inside and began thrusting his hips up into Kurt's hands.
"I'm so—close," he whispered brokenly, his lips just set against Kurt's neck as he panted, unable to form them into kisses. With his free hand, Kurt raked his fingernails across Blaine's back and Blaine arched into Kurt's hand. Kurt stroked him more quickly just a few more times and then, groaning and biting into Kurt's skin, Blaine came all over his hand, jerking his hips. Kurt stroked him through it and then pulled his hand out of Blaine's boxers and brought it up to his mouth. He licked tentatively at the come on his hand, smiling as he realized he remembered the taste.
Blaine moaned into Kurt's neck and then lifted his head to kiss at the side of Kurt's mouth. Kurt tilted onto his side a little and wrapped his arms around Blaine, pulling him in close. Blaine in turn put one arm under Kurt's neck and the other around the small of his back, then fit his legs through Kurt's to they were entwined as closely as they could be as two separate people.
Part of Kurt wanted to brush his teeth and wash his face and clear the fondue pot away, but the other part of him, the more important part, the part that hadn't let go of Blaine all those years, insisted he stay where he was and fall asleep in his lover's arms.