Waking up at noon probably wasn't the best way to entertain his guest, but Finn had a hard time waking up before then without an alarm clock on most days, so it really couldn't be helped. Unfortunately Blaine was a bit of an early riser, so when Finn woke the next day to find his friend on his laptop in the guest room and his stomach rumbling so loud Finn could hear it from the doorway, he felt really bad. He risked Kurt's wrath and used the George Forman to make some grilled cheese. He wasn't particularly good at cleaning it, and usually forgot to, but Blaine was hungry and too polite to just get food on his own.

"Sorry about that, dude. We can get you some, like, granola bars or something to keep in your room if you feel weird about raiding the kitchen." Finn offered. "I think my mom left me a list of errands she wants me to run anyway, and the grocery store is probably on the list. So if you wanna do that it wouldn't be out of the way or anything."

"That'd be really nice actually, Finn. I forgot to pack another bottle of hair gel and I'm almost out of mine." Blaine reached a hand up to touch his usual gel helmet gently.

"Cool." Finn smiled. This was good, he didn't have to worry anymore.

It wasn't all that often that Finn had such an absolutely amazing idea like he'd had that morning, but Blaine was grateful that he had. Now, not only did he have a way to eat while he waited for Finn to wake up, but he had a chance to go and buy lube and condoms without fear of it being noticed. Finn, bless his non-observant heart, wouldn't notice unless he actually SAW them, and if he did, he certainly WOULDN'T ask why Blaine needed them. (And if, on the remote chance Blaine was wrong about that, he could make up a lie. He was about 99.9% sure it would be unnecessary though.)

So while Finn went and picked up the food his mom wanted him to get, Blaine wandered off with the promise to meet him at check out. He walked quickly and grabbed two boxes of the first granola bar he could find and then sped to the contraceptive aisle.

And now he was stuck deliberating and almost out of time to do it. Kurt had SAID he didn't want to do oral or anal, so the lube and condoms might not even end up being necessary, but then again… Kurt was also a blushing virgin (his opinion on that status notwithstanding at the moment) and probably had no idea what he liked. He might end up really liking everything he was so fearful of at the moment.

But he also just might not want to do that stuff with Blaine…

"Better safe than sorry." Blaine decided and grabbed a box of latex free condoms (in case Kurt was allergic) and a tube of his favorite lube. He glanced at his phone, no messages from Finn. "Good," Blaine sighed, if Finn hadn't texted he probably hadn't been through the checkout line yet, probably hadn't even gotten to it.

On the off chance he was wrong; Blaine almost sprinted to the front of the store and got on the self-checkout line. He hated buying condoms from a cashier, somehow it always felt like they were judging him.

Blaine was making sure the granola boxes completely obscured what else was in his bag when Finn called. "Hi."

"You through checkout yet?" Finn asked.

"Yeah." Blaine answered, holding in his relieved sigh. "Ready?"

"Just waiting on line, I'll be done soon. Register 6 if you wanna know."

"Thanks, Finn. I'll be right there." Blaine said and then hung up, ready to find his friend. He took one more look at his bag and then located register 6.

"You've been out of it all day, Kurt. What's up?" Mercedes asked and poked him in the side.

"Oh… um… nothing." Kurt shook his head.

"No, something's up. You've been even quieter than usual all day, and staring off into space like after Thanksgiving break..." She trailed off, her eyes getting big. "Oh my God! Are you… with that guy?"

Kurt turned bright red and nodded once.

"Kurt…" She gasped. "Oh my God."

"He's… he's really nice to me, Mercedes." Kurt insisted, ignoring how much it made him feel like a girl to be saying that.

"I don't think you'd let him anywhere near you, gay or not, if he wasn't, honey." She said and something about that… about the faith she seemed to have in him, made Kurt's heart flutter. "No I'm just… Are you guys dating now?"

"Uh… no." Kurt answered, hating how that made him sound. "We're… we talked about it and… well, he's RIGHT. Starting a relationship would be stupid right now, he's far away and…"

"So having sex with him is alright, but not going on a date?" She narrowed her eyes.

"It's not like that, we're…." Kurt shook his head and a felt his anger spike. Who was she to question this? It wasn't HER life! It wasn't like he had that many viable options like she did! "I chose this Mercedes. It's not like he's forcing me to do anything. I'm doing it because I like it and because I… I really do think he'll stop if I tell him to." Kurt snapped.

"Alright, alright, don't get pissy with me." She laughed, treating it like a joke like she usual did when he got snippy. In all truth it made him madder, but it also made him aware of how futile the anger was, so he glued his mouth shut and didn't talk until he wasn't seething anymore.

While he tried to cool his jets Kurt thought about what he'd just said, about how he'd all but declared that he trusted Blaine. A soothing warmth, diametrically opposed to the hot flashes of anger he was feeling, bowled out from somewhere around his stomach as he thought about his curly haired… friend.

Friend… Well, they were friends. Or at least getting there, so… yeah, friend was the right label for Blaine, even if he was going to do so much more with this friend than any other. And he DID trust Blaine, he did… yeah. Blaine was… something about him made Kurt want to trust him.

"Hey, Lady Face!" Kurt rolled his eyes at the sound of Azimio's voice. What did he want? "You do the French project?" The large Neanderthal stopped in front of Kurt's table, not close enough to actually speak at an acceptable indoor volume, but close enough that he wouldn't have to yell across the entire lunch room to tell the bastard off.

"Yes." Kurt answered. He'd finished the French project they'd been assigned to do, and he'd done it without any help from the oaf in front of him. He fully intended to put that on the peer assessment sheet they would be given.

"Good." The jock nodded then he was off.

"You're not actually going to let him have credit for all your work, are you?" Mercedes asked.

"Of course not. I've left a note, all in French so the oaf can't read it should he ask to look at my paper, at the end explaining how he did no work at all and that I don't ever want to be forcibly partnered with him again." Kurt explained. "I'm not stupid."

"Good boy." She patted his shoulder and then flicked his ear gently. As usual she wanted to touch his hair. Apparently he had 'the softest hair ever', her words not his.

"Wanna go shopping this weekend?" He asked.

"With a sleep over, I haven't had you over in forever and my parents are starting to wonder if you dumped me and found a new best friend." She smiled.

"Tell your brother I'll kill him if he touches my moisturizers again and we have a deal, Ms. Jones." Kurt smiled.

AN: So, confession time. I have a FAIR amount of this written (yay for readers!), which is good.
What's 'bad' (read daunting for me) is that I'm going to Italy in May, spotting internet and all. So, while I'm going to try my BEST to get this finished before I go, readers be prepared for potentially strange update waits when the time comes. Until then, daily updates. :3