They spent all of Christmas day texting, sneakily on Blaine's part after his parents yelled at him for it. Kurt sent him pictures of the parts of diner he'd helped make and a video of everyone saying 'Merry Christmas'.

After the video came in Blaine had snuck off to the bathroom to call Kurt and tell him how much he loved him. They talked so long Blaine's grandpa came to knock on the door twice. Blaine gave the old man a sheepish look when he came out, hiding his phone in his pocket and hoping he wouldn't ask him anything.

Later, when he came back from sneaking away again to call Kurt and complain about his cousins, his aunt cornered him. "Blaine," she asked. "Where do you keep going?"

"The bathroom," Blaine lied quickly. Well, technically it was true, but the reason wasn't.

"Are you feeling alright? You've been in and out all night." She reached out a brushed her fingers just under his bangs. It was usually meant to be a comforting gesture, but it just felt weird coming from her. She didn't like him. She'd barely liked him before she found out he was gay, afterwards she was all but hostile towards him.

"I'm fine, I just drank too much." Blaine gave her his show smile and backed away. He didn't need her causing a scene of any kind.

She narrowed her eyes at him and pursed her lips, but she didn't say anything.

"I'm a bit peckish, talk to you later." Blaine smiled again and forced his footsteps to be slow and even. He wasn't hungry, but he couldn't think of another reason to get away from her.

Cooper was by the desert buffet, talking animatedly with their grandma. He was pointing too much, it looked weird.

Blaine made himself a coffee and grabbed a few cookies for show, then he settled himself in the corner of the room and tried to look unapproachable.

It seemed to work for a while. Every once in a while he'd look up and no one seemed to be paying him any attention. When he'd finished his first cookie and half his coffee Blaine risked pulling his phone out to see if Kurt had texted him again.

From Kurt:
/OoO\ Finn ate almost ALL the cookies in the tin somewhere between last night and two minutes ago! I went to get them and there were 12.5 left. YES 12.5! I'd kill him, but he looked like such a kicked puppy I can't do it. Le sigh, at least HE enjoyed them. Luckily I made more than enough desert even without the cookies. (Though more than half of it's fat free, shh, don't tell my dad.)

Blaine chuckled quietly to himself.

To Kurt:
What emoticon is that? I haven't seen it before.

From Kurt:
Shock, Blaine. It's Shock.

Blaine smiled to himself.

To Kurt:
It's adorable, just like you.

From Kurt:
-^.^- (that's me blushing)

To Kurt:

:X (Kiss)

From Kurt:
ily.

To Kurt:
143 too.

From Kurt:
My, my, someone's getting fancy with the 'i love you' s.

To Kurt:
Well, I do try.

Blaine's phone buzzed with Kurt's response but he didn't get to read it before the phone was ripped out of his hands. Blaine let out a noise of protest and immediately jumped to his feet to retrieve it.

He was met with his aunt's hard stare. "Put this away, Blaine." She was seething. "I don't want you doing this in my house."

Blaine's insides hardened. "Understood." He held out his hand for his phone. She dropped his in his hand like it was poison.

"NEVER again," she hissed.

Blaine went to the bathroom and called Kurt five minutes later just to spite her. He kept it quick though, he didn't need her to flip out on him. If Christmas got ruined because of this his parents would probably blame him and he would get grounded.

"How's the 27th looking for you? Still free?" Blaine asked.

"Completely," Kurt said.

"I have to go now, I love you." Blaine tried to keep the tension from his voice.

"Okay, I love you too." Kurt sounded worried anyway.

The 27th dawned bright and cheery, at least Kurt thought it did. He slept in until ten and then lazily went about his morning routine.

Finn was still home when Kurt finally went down for breakfast. He stood in the kitchen staring blearily at the inside of the fridge like it would somehow start cooking for him.

"Sit, Finn," Kurt ordered. "I'll make you something."

"Thanks, Kurt." Finn yawned and backed away from the fridge. He basically collapsed at the kitchen table.

"How do you feel about waffles?"

"Good." Finn crossed his arms on the table and lay his head down.

"Okay."

Finn was snoring lightly when Kurt finished the waffles. He poked the tall boy awake and slid a plate to him. "There's coffee if you want it."

"I'm good. Milk?" Finn asked, eyebrows perking up hopefully.

Kurt pushed the carton to his brother.

They ate in near silence, too tired to talk to each other. It wasn't until Kurt gulped down the last of his coffee that he spoke. "Are you still going to Rachel's today?"

Finn nodded. "Yeah, for a little while. Then I'm going to Puck's. He's got something to show me apparently."

"Oh." Kurt nodded. "When do you think you'll be back?"

Finn shrugged. "I don't know. Puck said come over after diner, so late I guess."

"Okay." Kurt speared his last bit of waffle. "I'm having Blaine over."

"Oh." Finn said. Then comprehension dawned on his face and he repeated himself. "I'll stay out all day, dude."

"Thanks." Kurt only blushed a little bit.

Blaine was SO tense still. He'd called Kurt when he got home from his STUPID aunt's party and talked with him until almost midnight, but it had barely helped. He hadn't even wanted to try fingering himself again. It was the first night Blaine hadn't felt the urge to do so since he'd first tried.

The next day it had snowed so Kurt couldn't come over as planned. Blaine was, predictably, EXTREMELY disappointed. They'd talked all day, even tried to venture into phone sex but it ended badly. They couldn't stop laughing and they were TERRIBLE at dirty talking. Blaine hadn't even gotten his pants off before they had to stop.

He'd been too tired that night to finger himself, instead falling asleep.

If he hadn't been able to drive on the 27th, Blaine was about ready to brave walking all the way to Kurt's house. Luckily he didn't need to try. He just had to drive REALLY slowly on the way over.

He practically tackled on Kurt when the taller boy opened his front door. Blaine even forgot to check if anyone could see them first.

Kurt just hummed happily and let Blaine push him against a wall, kissing back enthusiastically. When he pulled away for air Blaine when for his neck. "Someone's eager today," Kurt said, gasping.

"Missed you - so much - no idea." Blaine said between hard sucks on Kurt's neck. "I love you so much."

"I love you too." Kurt's fingers wound in his hair, left mostly ungelled just for this purpose, and tugged gently. Blaine reluctantly let Kurt's insistent tugging pull him away from the older boy's delectable neck. "Not that I don't love this, because I SO do, but what's the matter? You never do things like this."

Blaine sighed. "I've had a crappy few days. My family, no, specifically my aunt, kind of suck." Kurt let Blaine's head fall against his shoulder. "You know how my parents are still working on the being accepting thing? Yeah, well my aunt isn't trying at all. She never liked me anyway, no she thinks she has a legitimate reason to hate me."

"How could someone dislike you? You're adorable and charming." Kurt made an adorable little aghast noise.

"That's my word for you," Blaine said and kissed Kurt's shoulder. "And I don't know. I think I might have broken something expensive of hers when I was younger or something. I just know she refused to babysit me and my grandma always had to do it."

Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine more firmly. "Well forget her, you don't need to talk to her if you don't want to. It's okay to be rude to people who hate you."

"I didn't want to cause a scene." Blaine sighed heavily. "But enough about this. I want you."

"That can be arranged, we do have the house to ourselves." Kurt smirked.