Title: It Just Was

Rating: T but it might actually be an R...

Spoilers: The finale.

A/N: Okay so this is just a companion piece for Those Three Words that kind of just happened, as fic usually does with me. It's a switch to Blaine's POV and covers a different angle and, actually, isn't completely compatible with the first part. But I'm putting it onto this one because they're very much a pair. Thank you so very, very much for all the lovely reviews you left me on the first chapter, they seem to have inspired me and you can't know how much they mean to me. Seriously, some of those were just epic, epic reviews that left me with a massive grin for the entire day. Thanks also to Tessa the beta for reading through this one as well and poking me to write the next one.

Anyway, on with it. Read it, enjoy it, review it. Or critique it, I'm always up for that. And never be afraid to throw ideas at me, you never know what might grab my interest.

Blaine realizes he's in love with Kurt when Kurt gets up in front of the Warblers and sings for a recently deceased bird. He looks fantastic and doesn't hold back his tears and that's when Blaine realizes it. Ten minutes later he decides he's being pretty stupid because love isn't silly like that and whatever he's realized it isn't love. He redefines it as attraction and like-mindedness and compatibility. He thinks about Kurt for the day, replays conversations and disagreements and fleeting glances in his head and wonders why he hadn't realized it before the dead bird.

They match each other in a sublime way that he's only ever seen on screen or within the pages of a novel. They agree on the things that matter, disagree enough to make them individuals and have already made it through so many ups and downs and embarrassments. And Blaine likes Kurt because he's adorable and weird and exuberant and considerate and thoughtful and challenging and growing into someone even more amazing before Blaine's very eyes.

Blaine wants to say all of this to Kurt but realizes over fake gems and a tiny casket that Kurt's eyes are hesitant and wary even though he's talking about moments and emotions. Blaine wants to kick himself for taking months to see what was right in front of him and for accidentally being unkind in the past and cuts his rambling off—summarizes. "You move me."

Certainly not "I love you" because he doesn't. You don't fall in love in an instant.

Kurt blinks and there's a smile tugging at his lips and Blaine decides against any further rambling, kissing Kurt and being kissed back and when they break apart there's no hesitation left between them and an hour after that they're in a relationship and have labeled it and are boyfriends. The word makes Kurt giggle in a way that makes Blaine's stomach knot.

And they're so, so happy like that. They hold hands and kiss and soon enough are doing things that make them blush even as Blaine murmurs that it's perfectly natural for teenagers to fool around and Kurt just rolls his eyes and gets more and more playful and adventurous with his kisses.

Their first fight is dramatic and stupid but they're both inclined towards both of those things and when they make up it's with sloppy kisses and mumbled apologies and the realization that they can and will and should fight. And they should make up. They always will. They fight about big things and they make up with flowers and chocolate and hand written notes. When Kurt tries to start a fight about Blaine's taste in shoes Blaine guesses his game in seconds and they end up uselessly tickling each other on the bed until there are tears running down Blaine's cheeks and he pushes Kurt onto the floor.

Kurt transfers back to McKinley and it's smoother than expected. And then prom time approaches and Blaine says "I'm crazy about you" even though his brain is screaming "I love you" and he can't shut it up and he's still not sure that's something you say as a teenager to the boy you've been dating for a couple of months and who has just found out you've got a past and who is looking at you with hope and trepidation in his eyes. So instead Blaine agrees to go to prom and it falls apart but ends up being put back together again and they're stronger because of it. It's a rollercoaster of ups and downs that they both kind of want to forget about but instead end up talking about for the rest of the weekend.

The first time Kurt makes Blaine come it's by accident and in his pants and on the couch and he really thought he had a few more seconds of rubbing against Kurt above him before he had to push him away and maybe he would have if Kurt hadn't slipped his hands beneath Blaine's shirt and up and scratched and bit at his neck and mewled "Oh, Blaine," into his ear.

It's a shock and a disaster for a moment as Blaine rides out an orgasm against Kurt's thigh and Kurt just watches and bites his own lip to stop from speaking, from breaking the moment or coming himself and then Blaine's eyes open and go wide and he scrambles out from under him and blushes and apologizes so profusely that Kurt ends up laughing at him. It's terribly awkward for a few minutes as Blaine can't stop talking and Kurt ends up with the hiccups from laughing so hard while attempting to swallow his laughter.

They end up in the kitchen, Blaine shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, mortified by the sticky mess in his pants and trying to ignore it while Kurt gulps down a glass of water. Kurt's hiccups subside and that's when Blaine becomes aware of Kurt's jeans or rather what's straining beneath them and with disbelief that he's not in trouble for going too far, that his boyfriend isn't freaking out, asks, "Are you…?"

Kurt laughs again but it's lower and breathless and then he tugs Blaine to him and grinds against him, arching and groaning and whispering something Blaine must have misheard—must have because Kurt doesn't say things like that. Kurt drags one of Blaine's hands down to the front of his jeans, pressing there until Blaine takes the hint and palms him through the thick denim and stares wide-eyed moments later when Kurt's body tenses and his breath catches and he comes undone.

It's still awkward after that, both of them feeling the weight of something strange and new and more. Something beckoning and tempting. But it's not awkward enough to stop them from doing it again half an hour later on Kurt's bed. Even if Kurt insists the lights stay off.

Two days later Kurt insists the lights stay on and mumbles something about wanting to remember what Blaine looks like and Blaine forces them to take it slower, to build something between them and it's better and less awkward than the times before.

The following day they want desperately to do it again. When Blaine comes over after school, Kurt just wants to drag him upstairs and get his shirt off and maybe dare to slip his hands down the front of his pants. Except Burt is home and talkative and keeping them downstairs and Kurt just ends up staring at the dark cotton stretched across Blaine's chest as though he can will it out of existence.

When Blaine has to leave Kurt can only press a kiss to the corner of his mouth because his dad's watching and then Blaine's gone, wondering the whole drive home if the way Burt was staring hard at him was because he somehow knew the steady stream of images passing behind his eyes. A half an hour later he Skypes his boyfriend just like most nights, and wonders if they can get off together like this, whether he can ask. Somehow they up talking about New York until one in the morning instead.

The next day is the day before Kurt leaves for Nationals and Blaine has school and tutoring and Warbler practice and can only find a half hour's pause to visit Kurt, say goodbye and wish him luck. They sit on the couch as Burt and Carole bustle around them, present but giving them space. Blaine listens again as Kurt rambles about what he's going to see and do and ends by saying he wishes Blaine was going with him.

Before he can stop himself, Blaine's whispering "One day," and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Kurt looks at him with piercing, considering eyes and then he says, his voice a strange mixture of determination and hesitance, "I think I'm going to want to go there after school."

He lets his words hang there and Blaine hopes he's saying what Kurt wants to hear because it's what Blaine wants with all his heart and for so many reasons and he's only just realized it. "I think I'm going to want to go with you."

Sure enough, Kurt grins and buries his head in the crook of Blaine's neck, his grin only widening against Blaine's skin as Blaine presses a kiss to the top of his head. They sit still for a few moments longer and then Blaine moves, sighing because he doesn't want to leave at all but he's already stayed longer than he should have. Kurt follows him out the front door, closes it behind them and presses a chaste kiss to his mouth, lingering just a little but not moving, just smiling and smelling and breathing in. Making a memory. Blaine wills himself to do the same, to concentrate, but he's overwhelmed in the moment.

It doesn't sink in until he's driven halfway back to Dalton.

That that was when he knew, that that's the story he'll tell anyone that will listen in a dozen years' time, that standing there on his boyfriend's front doorstep, Kurt barely touching him but making a memory to last the few days of separation, that that was when Blaine Anderson knew he was desperately, stupidly in love.

God knows how long he's been like that but in that moment, as Kurt breathed in and his lips quirked up, his eyes closed and his fingers slipping over Blaine's arm, that moment was when Blaine's brain stopped screaming "I love you" and he stopped imagining saying it and he stopped imagining Kurt saying it back. And it just was.

Except now he's thinking about it again, wants to say it and finds himself mumbling it as he drives, mumbling "I love you, Kurt," to no one at all and then saying it stronger, then yelling it and feeling stupid and amazing and fumbling for his phone as he drives.

He hits the speed dial for Kurt's mobile and holds the phone to his ear as it rings. His boyfriend answers with a quip about missing him already and Blaine realizes in an instant that this isn't how you do these things and, if nothing else, Kurt would never let him forget it if he first professed his love over the phone. He scrambles for something to say as Kurt calls his name because he's dropped the conversation. Blaine makes a lame remark about indeed missing him already and hangs up. Kurt will probably think it's just him being weird.

Then Kurt flies away to a different state and is run off his feet and only calls Blaine twice to talk fleetingly about New York and how amazing it is and sound breathless and happy and then cuts the conversation short as he's dragged off for another adventure.

Blaine's left in Ohio, repeating those three little words to himself as he falls asleep and resisting the urge to tell random strangers in the street or enlist the Warblers for a serenade when Kurt's plane finally lands. He doesn't think Kurt would like that.

Then Kurt calls and tells Blaine that New Directions didn't make the cut and they're coming home winless and he sounds disappointed but not broken and ends the conversation sounding excited and saying he can't wait to show New York to Blaine.

They organize coffee for the morning after Kurt gets back and all Blaine can think when they meet in the doorway to the Lima Bean is that he loves this boy. Loves him really and truly and forever and it should be terrifying to know you're a teenager and thinking things like that and knowing they're true but it isn't. Kurt hugs him hard and then sends Blaine to find a table while he gets the coffee and then Kurt is talking a million miles a minute again and Blaine can only rest his chin on his hand and listen.

Stare and listen and mostly get lost in the convoluted retelling of how New Directions lost Nationals because Kurt's looking back at him with bright eyes and a smile and talking breathlessly and with humor and Blaine loves him. Halfway through the story, Kurt pauses and looks back and Blaine wonders if he's given the game away with the blatant adoration he knows is painted across his face. Kurt just smiles and gulps at his coffee, then grabs at Blaine's hand and squeezes it briefly and then keeps talking.

He tells of the aftermath of their destruction, of Santana in the hotel room and the plane ride home and Blaine has to wonder aloud why Kurt isn't sad, actually seems the opposite and Kurt just smiles and puts it down to the New York of it all and there are echoes between them that speak of the future. Their future. And New York. And happiness.

And maybe it's because Blaine has been saying it inside his head, believing it, knowing it even since Kurt left for New York and thinks of it like some sort of timeless universal constant but now he says it again, only half aware that he's saying it out loud and Kurt looks surprised, swallows and Blaine just watches him, the same blissfully content look on his face because he knows Kurt loves him back.

What they have is absolutely utterly a two-way thing.

And then Kurt says it back, quickly and still breathless, smiling, eyes impossibly bright and that's all there is. "I love you, too."

Kurt continues and says it's been a good year and Blaine finds himself agreeing even though he's mentally counting off the things that have been terrible for them, for Kurt especially. But they're in love and that kind of trumps anything else.

Blaine kind of wants to say it again, to hear Kurt say it back, but they're interrupted by Sam and Mercedes and by the time they're alone again the moment has passed and Blaine just dives into the next topic of conversation: the summer and everything that goes with it. They discuss his audition pieces first and then Kurt's musical and then the chatter dies and there's a moment of comfortable silence. Blaine finds himself wondering how many times he'll say "I love you" before the summer's through—how many different ways he can say it and instantly his mind provides him with a dozen possibilities.

"What?" Kurt asks, startling him.

Blaine's eyes have glazed over a little and his grin is even more dopey than usual and he blushes to have been caught and it makes Kurt ask him "What?" again, more insistently.

Blaine's hand finds his under the table, fingers interlacing. "Just—" and this time, the second time, there's wonder and awe and amazement in his voice, "Just—we're in love."

All together now: Awwwwww. Hope you all got fuzzy feelings from this. As always, let me know!