Title: I Can Hear You Dreaming (chapter 8)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Men in a tub...?
Disclaimer: These people aren't mine, the places don't belong to me...nothing does :( I make no claim to own them, and am making no profit of this.
A/N: I tried and tried to format the e-mail addresses, but it just wouldn't accept the damn "at" sign! Does anyone know how/if I can make that work? Any advice would be much appreciated. :)

When Kurt woke up on Saturday morning, something immediately felt off. He rolled over to face Blaine's side of the bed and instead of the dark mess of curls that usually greeted him every morning, he found a squashed pillow and sheets that were cool to the touch. Kurt ran his hand over Blaine's side of the bed; he could not ever remember a time that they had gone to bed together and he had woken up after Blaine. Most weekdays, they would rise at the same time, woken by the obnoxious ring of their alarm clock, but Kurt never slept later than his partner. "Blaine?" he called out, pushing the covers down and glancing at the clock. It was 9 am. Blaine never got up this early on a weekend unless he had a very important reason to do so. When no response came, Kurt called out a little louder. "Blaine, sweetheart?"

"I'm in the kitchen, I said," came a light hearted response from outside of the bedroom. Kurt reached down and picked his underwear up off of the floor and tugged it on before heading out the kitchen. He walked over to where Blaine was at the stove, flipping pancakes and kissed his cheek softly before moving to pour himself a mug of coffee.

"Good morning, you. What are you doing up so early on a weekend?"

"Well," Blaine said, dropping the last pancake onto a plate piled high with them, "I thought with all the stress of the last few weeks, you could use a break. I'm making you breakfast, then we're going to a spa so you (and I) can get a massage." He smiled widely at Kurt before continuing, "Then, we'll go for lunch – I already made reservations, but don't ask me where, it's a surprise – and then we're going to go the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We'll cap the day off with dinner, back here, cooked by yours truly." He finished his speech with a small bow and a flourish of his hand. "Don't you think that will be nice?" His trade mark eyebrows rose a little in apprehension when his plans did not elicit an immediate response from the younger man.

Kurt leaned back against the counter and took a sip of his coffee. "That sounds lovely. It was really sweet of you to think of all that. But Blaine…can we really afford to just throw money around like that?" Since Christmas, money had been fairly tight, and the high cost of a fantastic therapist like Dr. Drayden had not helped financial matters. The boys were being very cautious about their spending habits in order to make ends meet.

"Don't worry about it. I've got it all covered." He grinned ever so charismatically, and dished up a plate for each of them. "Come on, sit down and eat with me before all this food – which I slaved over a hot stove to make – gets cold."

Kurt let out a small yelp of a laugh and walked over to sit in the chair Blaine had pulled out for him. "How'd I get so lucky?" he asked, picking up his fork and knife.

"I think the same thing every day," Blaine speared one the blueberries on Kurt's plate and popped it into his mouth.

After a lunch at Pavilion Grill, where Kurt exclaimed the food to be "absolutely fantastic", the couple decided to walk to the museum. The walk was relatively short, and by moving continuously, they kept from being too cold in the falling snow. Blaine clasped Kurt's hand, unable to link their fingers as he might like, inhibited by their leather gloves. "This is so romantic," Kurt sighed, looking up the light sky. "This was such a great idea. I really needed this." He looked at Blaine, who appeared to have been watching him the entire time. Kurt leaned in for a kiss and they stopped walking. (Once, they had continued walking while kissing, and Kurt had run into a lamp post.) Blaine put his hand on Kurt's cheek.

"I'm glad I could do something for you," he said when they pulled apart after a moment. "I felt like…" he thought to himself as they began walking again, searching for what he wanted to say, "I felt like you were drowning and I couldn't save you. I wanted to throw you a life saver, but all I could find were these little tiny fucking balloons." He glanced sideways at Kurt to see if he had properly interpreted his extremely skewed metaphor.

"Oh, Blaine," Kurt smiled widely, pulling their clasped hands to his chest. "Your balloons do more for me than anyone else's ever could." He paused for a moment and upon realizing what he had said, began to choke. "Oh, God!" he shouted over Blaine's laughter, "That is not what I meant! You knew what I meant! I was trying to be romantic and sweet, and just…damn." But the smile came back to his face quickly and he raised Blaine's hand to his face, letting his lips graze the glove covered knuckles. "But in all seriousness, you haven't failed me in the least, okay? You're my everything right now, I thought you knew that?"

"I do," Blaine nodded, chuckles still subsiding. "But I just want you to be happy again."

"I am," Kurt said as they rounded the corner and came up to the entrance of the Met.

"You know what I mean, happy like you were before. All the way happy."

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

After a long day out, both men came home, tired but feeling as though some of the weight had been lifted off their shoulders. After Kurt hung up his coat, he reached out his hand to take Blaine's. "I think I'm going to take a bath," he told Blaine.

"I just have to pop this in the oven, and then I'd love to join you." Blaine turned to pull a casserole dish out of the fridge.

"Alright," Kurt stuck his hand in Blaine's back jean pocket, and leaned in very close so that his lips ran over the shell of Blaine's ear with every syllable, "I'll go run the water. Don't be too long."

"W – won't be," Blaine stammered. He still couldn't believe that after more than half a decade of being together, Kurt still had that effect on him. He heard the clicking of computer keys as he set the temperature on the oven, and knew that Kurt was quickly checking his e-mail. That man couldn't spend one whole day away from the internet. He couldn't even try. Blaine smiled to himself and took their pans out of the oven before pushing the casserole in. "I don't hear any water running," he said tauntingly as he walked towards the bedroom.

"I'm just checking my e-mail, real quick. Just one…from Finn."

"Everything okay?" Blaine asked as he came into the bedroom, pulling his sweater over his head and dropping it onto the bed.

"I don't know, I'm waiting for it to load. Stupid wi-fi."

"Well, maybe if you wouldn't mooch off of our neighbors," Blaine crouched next to where Kurt was sitting, planted a kiss on his head and turned his attention to the computer screen where the e-mail was loading.

From: f_hudson at gmail. com

To: Kurt_humm at hotmail. com

Subject: Dad

Message:

Kurt,

Sorry to bother you but I was helping Burt out at the garage the other day and he seemed upset and I asked him what was wrong and he said it wasn't his
story to tell and that I should ask you about it, but I don't know what he means, so anyways I'm e-mailing you to see if you know what's going on? Rachel says
that is a run on sentence, I don't actually know what that means, but I'm sorry. Hope everything is going okay.

Love,
Finn

Kurt turned to look at Blaine. "What do you think?" His voice was so quiet it was almost a whisper, though it was highly audible in the silence of the apartment. "What should I say? Should I tell him the truth?"

Blaine thought for a moment before providing Kurt with a highly unhelpful gesture that was something of a cross between a nod and a shake of the head. "I think that's a personal decision you're going to have to make on your own. Do you want me to go run the bath while you decide what to say to him?"

Kurt nodded and turned to the computer, settling his fingers on the keyboard in the home position, ready to type before he even knew what he was going to say. After a few moments, when Kurt heard the water stop and sensed that Blaine was waiting anxiously, he closed his computer and walked into the bathroom. "I can't decide what to say," he told his fiancé. Blaine reached over to undo the buttons on Kurt's cardigan. He pulled the sweater off slowly without saying a word. When Kurt stood in front of him in his jeans and t-shirt, Blaine pulled his partner close and wrapped him in his arms.

"Don't think about that now," he said into Kurt's ear. "Think about us. Think about this. Focus on this moment. You can worry later." His voice was deep and quiet, hushing in a whisper over Kurt's ear. He pulled back from the embrace and began removing the rest of his own clothing, while Kurt followed suit. They climbed into the bath tub together and Kurt sat behind Blaine, resting his head against the cool tile of the wall. His hands rested comfortably on Blaine's chest, fingertips just brushing the bubbles in the water. Blaine ran his hands up and down the length of Kurt's legs. "I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be –"

"Than here with you," Kurt finished, his smile audible in his voice. Blaine rolled over so that was facing Kurt, pushing his hands against the sides of the tub so that he wouldn't crush his lover. He kissed him softly, pressing harder against Kurt's lips after a few seconds, letting his body fall towards the younger man. Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine, gripping at his ribs.

They stayed still, kissing and moving away from each other to breath in every once in a while. After the water had grown lukewarm and their muscles were tense from supporting each other, Blaine decided dinner would be ready. The two of them enjoyed a quiet dinner, revelling in the comfortable silence they found so easily together. Tomorrow, Kurt would need to decide what to say to Finn. Tomorrow, Blaine would have to grade papers. Tomorrow, they would have to go back to reality. But tomorrow was another day – today would be theirs.