I have like five stories started right now and no time to write them, but I managed to finish this one because of my three day weekend :-)

It's set during New York, and has spoilers for that. But if you haven't seen New York by now, I don't know why you'd be coming on here and expecting to not see spoilers... Still, better safe then sorry. So spoilers.

I just remembered that hearts show up on here as just 3s, but I want to leave the hearts in so they'll just be 3s.

It's just a tiny bit non-canon. I don't own Glee.

Kurt tossed another skirt from Rachel's suitcase onto her bed, narrowly missing Blaine, who was sitting and watching his boyfriend with amusement.

"Kurt!" Rachel protested, reaching over Blaine to grab the skirt and inspect it. "Aren't you the one who constantly lectures people about how to treat clothes? Honestly."

"I lecture people about how to treat nice clothes," Kurt corrected, holding up a shirt to critique. "Not clothes from Gap Kids."

Rachel frowned but didn't deny this.

"Well, I liked that one," she protested, holding it up for Blaine to see. "Don't you like it, Blaine?"

Blaine winced. Whichever way he answered this question, he was likely going to have an overdramatic diva mad at him. Of course, only one of said divas was an attractive boy with whom he got to make out on a semi-regular basis. That tipped the scale quite a bit.

"Well," he said uncertainly. "It's really pretty but… It's also very summery and it's not totally summer yet. That other one that Kurt packed is much more... springy?"

Kurt nodded approvingly behind Rachel's back as she considered this.

"You're so right," she decided. Blaine breathed a sigh of relief. "I should save my summer clothes for barbecues and the like." She turned to Kurt. "Still, usually you just make snide comments about my outfits after I've got them on. You're being awfully early on the criticism right now."

"Aren't you a vegan?" Blaine asked curiously.

"Vegetable kabobs, Blaine. And veggie burgers with soy cheese." she responded, rolling her eyes as if this was obvious before turning back to Kurt to hear his response.

"This is safe," Kurt decreed, folding up the shirt he had been appraising and placing it back in Rachel's suitcase, then turning to face her. "Rachel, we can't go to New York and not look fabulous. Especially if we want to intimidate any other teams we may happen upon."

"Why are you packing that?" Rachel asked, pointing to the blue dress Kurt was putting in the suitcase. "We're not really going anywhere formal, Kurt."

Kurt sighed.

"Because," he said. "As soon as we get out of Ohio, that incredibly tiny chance that we'll meet a hot young male celebrity akin to Taylor Lautner that for some reason wants to take you to a celebrity shindig will get just a little bit larger. And as your friend, I'm not letting you miss out on that."

"Taylor Lautner lives in California," Blaine pointed out, sounding just slightly hurt.

"You never know," Kurt shot back, throwing a pair of tights in Blaine's direction. "Rachel, where is that hat that matches this coat?"

Rachel sighed and went to dig through her closet. Blaine smiled as he watched Kurt take it from her, pack it, and close Rachel's suitcase with a look of satisfaction.

God, I love him.

After a moment, this thought completely registered in his mind and his eyes widened.

Oh my God, I do love him. That's new.

Kurt glanced over at Blaine.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Blaine said, his voice cracking a little. He coughed. "I mean, yeah, I'm fine. So we're packed?"

"Yes," Kurt said, looking triumphant. "Rachel will be as well dressed as possible considering the contents of her wardrobe."

"I'm right here, you know," Rachel said irritably.

"Don't take it personally," Kurt said, patting her shoulder. "I attempted to do it for Finn too, but he just refuses to give up the puffy vests."

"I—" Blaine started to say before stopping himself. He couldn't tell Kurt that he loved him while Rachel was there. Especially when they were in her bedroom. "I wish I could come with you guys," he said instead. Kurt's expression softened.

"I wish you could come too," he said, walking through the mess of clothes and taking Blaine's hand. Rachel, in an odd moment of tact, mumbled something about going to the bathroom and slipped out the door. "But I'll call you every day. And someday, we're going there together, okay?"

"Okay," Blaine agreed, smiling just slightly despite his disappointment.

"Good," Kurt said, smiling down at him.

"Will you buy me an 'I Heart NY' t-shirt?" Blaine asked, cheering up a bit.

"If you promise to never wear it outside of the house," Kurt said, nodding. "I will buy you any t-shirt you want."

I love you so much.

He barely restrained himself from saying it out loud.

"You have your phone, right?"

"Yes," Kurt sighed.

"And your charger?"

"Yes."

"Camera? Boarding pass? Emergency credit card?"

"You know," Kurt said. "I think that my dad is supposed to ask me these things, Blaine."

"But you do have them?" Blaine asked.

"Yes. I have everything. Honestly, Dad stopped after cell phone and credit card," Kurt sighed.

"Rape whistle?" Blaine suggested. Kurt stared at him.

"You are spending way too much time with Rachel," he finally said.

"I just don't want you to get hurt," Blaine sighed. "Because, you know…"

Kurt raised an eyebrow at him as he trailed off.

"Because?" he asked.

Because I love you.

But Blaine couldn't tell him now. Not when his entire Glee club, including his teacher, was standing twenty feet away.

"Because," Blaine said reluctantly. "You're just really important. To me. Okay?"

"Okay," Kurt said softly, blushing. "Well, Rachel has a whistle, and I doubt I'll be going anywhere by myself. It'll be fine."

"Kurt," Rachel called from where she was standing with the rest of the club by the bus. "Come on, we have to go in a minute."

"You should still be asleep," Kurt said, glancing down at his cell phone to confirm the time. "You didn't have to drive me, you know."

"Well, I had to say goodbye," Blaine said. Kurt glanced back at the bus. Upon seeing that nobody appeared to be looking in their direction, he pulled Blaine forward and kissed him quickly.

"Bye," he said softly as they pulled apart.

"Bye," Blaine responded as Kurt turned and walked away, glancing back at him for just a second before climbing onto the bus that would take him to the airport.

I love you.

He turned and walked back to his car, driving away so he wouldn't have to watch the bus pull out of the parking lot.

The rest of the Warblers weren't in particularly good moods that week, either. Blaine wasn't sure if this was a good thing because he wouldn't have to pretend to be happy during practice, or a bad thing because it was dragging his mood down even more.

Of course, the rest of the Warblers were only upset because fifty other Glee clubs were arriving in New York for Nationals while they were singing a capella oldies to the residents of the Westerville Retirement Center.

But as Blaine sat on a couch in the Commons, staring glumly into the empty fireplace, he wasn't thinking about the competition at all. Well, maybe a little, because he wanted Kurt and his friends to win.

Does falling in love always cause a person to become completely pathetic?

"You're not pathetic," Jeff reassured Blaine as he sat down beside him on the couch. Blaine jumped and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Did I say that out loud?" he asked cautiously.

"All you said was 'I'm pathetic,'" Nick informed Blaine sitting down on his other side. "Was there anything else?"

"No," Blaine lied.

"Look, Blaine," Jeff sighed. "Right now, you're moping even more than you did when Kurt transferred back to McKinley. He'll be back in a few days."

"I mean, we know you're like in love with him, but still…" Nick said, trailing off and shaking his head.

Blaine was silent.

"Oh my God," Jeff said after a moment. "He didn't deny it."

"He didn't yell at us that they weren't there yet and we should shut up and not say stuff like that because we would make Kurt uncomfortable," Nick agreed excitedly.

"And he's still not denying it!" Jeff exclaimed. They both looked back to Blaine, who glared at them.

"What do you even want?" he asked irritably.

"Well, we wanted to makes sure you were all right," Jeff said.

"But now we want to know why, if you're in love with Kurt, you're sitting here moping instead of prancing together through a meadow filled with bunnies and Klainebows," Nick continued.

"I love their name," Jeff said to Nick. "You can make pretty much anything Kurt and Blaine related by putting 'kl' at the beginning of the word."

"Klisses," Nick suggested.

"Klexting," Jeff replied.

"Kluddling."

"Klating."

"Kloving."

"Klex."

"Really?" Blaine finally interrupted. "Now I am going to yell at you that we're not there yet."

They both looked back at Blaine, seeming to just then remember that he was there.

"Well, if you're in love with Kurt, why are you all depressed?" Nick asked again.

"Because I haven't told him, and now he's in New York," Blaine whined. "Because I couldn't tell him with Rachel Berry there and I couldn't tell him at dinner with his family or over Skype or in the car or in front of his friends. And now he's gone."

"You sound like a Dr. Seuss book," Jeff commented.

"He could not tell Kurt here or there, he could not tell him anywhere!" Nick agreed gleefully.

"You two aren't really helping," Blaine sighed.

"Sorry," Nick said, sobering. "He'll be back in a few days, Blaine. Then you'll tell him."

"But what if he gets mugged or the plane goes down or he meets Taylor Lautner and they run off together?" Blaine asked desperately. "Then he'll never know and I'll never know if he loves me back. Oh God, what if he doesn't love me back?"

"Okay," Jeff said slowly. "He's not going to get mugged and the plane isn't going to go down, Blaine."

"And Taylor Lautner lives in California," Nick pointed out.

"And of course he loves you back," Jeff reassured him.

"How do you know?" Blaine asked.

"Honestly, Blaine, it's on his Wikipedia page," Nick said, rolling his eyes.

"Are you two emotionally incapable of taking my problems seriously?" Blaine asked. "Because I was perfectly content moping until you came over here."

"He loves you back," Jeff repeated. "He just hasn't said it because he's not you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Blaine asked tiredly.

"Well," Nick said. "Kurt's a bide-my-time-and-send-not-so-subtle-signals kind of guy."

"And you're more of an express-my-feelings-as-openly-as-possible-the-moment-I-realize-them kind of guy," Jeff finished. "So it only makes sense that you'd be the one to say it first. Especially since he really doesn't want to scare you away because that's happened before with other people and it sucked."

"Wait, what?" Blaine asked. "How do you know that?"

"He tells me stuff," Jeff said defensively. "He can have friends here besides you, Blaine. Honestly."

"He wouldn't scare me away," Blaine mumbled.

"The point is, he'll be fine but when he gets back, you should tell him," Nick said.

"Yeah," Jeff agreed. "You should. Whether you be in a box. Or with a fox."

"Or in a house. Or with a mouse," Nick said solemnly.

"I hate you both," Blaine grumbled.

Blaine bit his lip, tapping his foot impatiently as the phone he was holding to his ear rang.

It went to voicemail. Blaine sighed.

"Hey," he said, trying not to sound too disappointed. "I know I talked to you this morning but I wanted to call you before you guys performed but I guess you're already too busy… So I hope you get this before you go on, because I just wanted to say good luck, and I love you and—Damn it. That's not good… I mean, I do love you. But I'm going to get rid of this message because that's not how you were supposed to…"

He trailed off and began frantically trying to remember what you were supposed to do to delete a message before it went through. Then the message tone beeped again to inform him that his message had been sent.

Okay. Don't panic. You can fix this.

He quickly punched Rachel's number and listened with growing anxiety as it rang.

"Hi! You've reached Rachel Barbra Berry, but I can't answer the phone right now because I'm busy winning Nationals! In New York! Leave your number and I'll get back to you soon!"

Blaine groaned and hung up quickly. He thought quickly for another moment before dialing Finn's number, crossing his fingers.

It rang only twice before Finn picked up.

"Hey, dude," Finn said, sounding dejected.

"Hey," Blaine said quickly. "Can I talk to Rachel? Like, now?"

"I don't know," Finn said sadly. "Rachel's kind of upset with me and I don't think—"

"Please just give her the phone, Finn?" Blaine pleaded. "It's really important."

"Fine," Finn huffed, before presumably handing the phone to Rachel.

"Hello, Blaine Warbler," Rachel said. "What can I do for you?"

Blaine sighed in relief.

"I need you to do me a favor," he said. "Can you get to Kurt's phone before he does and delete the voicemail from me?"

"Ooh," Rachel said, intrigued. "Why?"

"I'll tell you later, just don't listen to it," Blaine said, then paused before speaking again. "Actually, I know you're going to listen to it, so just don't tell Kurt about it. Please?"

"Fine," Rachel said. "But you owe me. If Kurt finds out I took his phone he'll murder me."

"Just go do it. I'll pay you back, I swear," Blaine said.

"Okay," she sighed.

"Thank you," he said vehemently. "And good luck with the show. You'll be awesome."

"Thank you, Blaine Warbler," she replied happily, before hanging up.

Five minutes of anticipation later, his phone beeped at him, indicating a text message. He opened it to see it was from Rachel.

That was very sweet, but I'm not going to tell him. You owe me.

Blaine smiled in relief.

Thank you, he replied. Then he hit 1 on his speed dial, intent on leaving Kurt another message, preferably a calmer, less revealing one.

But Kurt picked up after a few rings.

"Hi," he said happily.

"Hi," Blaine said, grinning. "How're you doing?"

"Freaking out just a little bit," Kurt admitted. "But we have songs, and the only people having issues are Finn and Rachel. And them having issues is almost always a given, so we're still doing pretty well."

Blaine laughed.

"Well, I just wanted to say good luck," he said. "And I miss you. So much."

He could hear Kurt smiling on the other end when he replied, "I miss you too. But I'll be back tomorrow."

"And you'll have a Nationals trophy," Blaine added.

"Don't jinx it," Kurt scolded teasingly.

"You guys are going to be amazing, though," Blaine said.

"Oh, I have to go," Kurt said. "Mr. Shue is glaring at me because we're supposed to be getting our pep talk right now."

"Good luck," Blaine repeated. "I'll talk to you later."

"Okay," Kurt agreed. "Bye."

Blaine spent the evening watching Mean Girls (because it was on TV and nothing else was on. And his mom was in the room too and was surely half-watching as she read her book, so it would be rude of him to change the channel), ignoring all of the texts he was getting from various Warblers that were filled with advice on how to properly "profess his undying love" to Kurt, and trying to figure out the best way to kill Jeff and Nick for telling everyone.

Actually, a school bus didn't seem that bad of an idea. Maybe the movie was onto something. Not that he liked it all that much or anything.

He was just wondering where he would get a school bus, anyway—maybe Kurt's friend Puck could steal one for him; he seemed to be the person to go to for that kind of thing—when his phone buzzed for what felt like the hundredth time that night.

Blaine sighed and glanced down on it, then grinned at the sight of the screen, which read Text Message from 3 Kurt 3. Which Kurt had totally saved himself as, and Blaine just didn't want to be rude by changing it. He was definitely not sappy enough to save a contact like that. No matter what Kurt said to the contrary.

He opened it, hoping desperately for good news. Instead, all he got was one cryptic instruction.

Search "The Kiss That Missed" on YouTube. Yes, it is already online.

Blaine winced. That couldn't be good. However, he pulled out his headphones, plugged them into his phone, and did as he was told.

He couldn't help but wonder what was going on with Finn and Rachel, because last he had heard they were broken up and now they were singing that song (which Blaine was rather impressed by, considering the circumstances of its composition) right to each other. But it seemed to be ending, and he could just see Kurt in the background when—Oh.

As he watched Finn and Rachel make out on his iPhone, all Blaine could think was that he hated to be judgmental, but he had held off on telling Kurt that he loved him for so long and they couldn't have waited five more minutes? Really?

Speaking of which… Finn and Rachel finally parted, and applause slowly spread throughout the audience as the second song began. It was faster, and fun to watch, and hopefully it had been enough to make up for the unscripted kiss. The video finally ended, and Blaine texted Kurt back.

Wow. What'd you place?

Kurt replied, 12th. I can't really talk, because l might have to save Finn and Rachel's lives sometime in the near future. See you soon, though 3

Blaine's heart stuttered just a little, and he tapped out a reply.

See you soon 3

The next morning found Blaine once again in McKinley's parking lot, sitting in his car and impatiently drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. Kurt had texted him that his plane had arrived quite a while ago, and the bus should have pulled into the parking lot by now.

Calm down, he told himself. You need to stick to the plan.

Right. The plan. He had to remember the plan and not profess his love for Kurt when they were both exhausted and it was early in the morning and Kurt had just gotten off a plane.

First, he was going to take Kurt to get coffee, because Mr. Shue had decided to just this once be overly responsible and not let any of the kids separate from the group to even make a Starbucks run at the airport in New York.

I think it's because he feels guilty about letting Finn and Rachel kiss… apparently he didn't notice any of us sneaking out of the hotel, though. So he's probably being more responsible than sadistic but the only thing keeping me from killing him is the thought of seeing you and going to the Lima Bean the second I get home, Kurt had explained in a text earlier that morning.

After that, they had the whole day free to be together, so Blaine was going to spent the rest of the day with Kurt and not say anything about loving him until their date at Breadstix that night.

His phone buzzed, and he glanced down to see a text from Kurt:

Pulling in now. I see your car :-)

Blaine looked up quickly to see that Kurt's bus was indeed pulling into the parking lot. He scrambled out of his car and stood beside it, bouncing on his toes in anticipation.

He watched as Rachel got off the bus. Then Finn. Then Quinn, who had somehow gotten a completely new haircut while in New York. Then Santana, and Brittany, and Puck. Mike and Tina. None of them seemed to be speaking at all and they parted ways without goodbyes, with the exception of Mike and Tina's passionate kiss before Tina got into her mom's car.

Kurt managed to be the last one to get off the bus before Mr. Shue. Blaine grinned automatically upon seeing him, impeccably dressed as ever despite the early hour. He smiled back at Blaine and walked quickly across the parking lot to get to him.

"Hi," Blaine said as Kurt reached him.

"Hi," Kurt said happily, before pulling Blaine forward slightly and kissing him. "Good trip?" Blaine asked, slightly unsteadily, as they pulled apart.

Kurt shook his head.

"Coffee first," he said. "Then trip details. I'm way too tired to get into it right now."

"You don't look tired," Blaine commented as they got into the car. "You're the only person I know who can look fabulous right after getting off an airplane."

"I think the first class seats helped," Kurt said, shrugging. "But I always look fabulous, Blaine. You should know that by now."

"I do," Blaine replied, grinning, as the pulled out of the parking lot and started to drive to the Lima Bean.

"Oh my God," Kurt was saying. Blaine was listening intently. He still hadn't quite worked out how relationships worked in New Directions, but apparently Finn and Rachel had quite a dramatic one. "You should have seen it. We all looked at the top ten list for showcase, and we all just went numb. And then Jesse just kept going on and on about how Rachel and Finn's kiss was what cost us Nationals…"

Apparently Jesse St. James fit into the story somewhere, along with Quinn. Someday he'd have to just sit down with Kurt for a few hours and have the whole thing explained to him.

"While I understand passion, I do think that was unprofessional," Blaine commented. "But sorry, keep going."

"Okay, so we get back to the hotel," Kurt said. "And Santana loses it."

He stared into space for a moment, looking amused and probably remembering exactly how Santana losing it had gone down. Apparently it was both terrifying and entertaining when she went off on someone in Spanish.

"I mean, and the plane ride home was completely silent," Kurt continued after a moment. "Like, nobody said a word. We all just sat there with our face buried in our complimentary copies of Skymall."

That probably explained the lack of goodbyes in the parking lot. Still, Kurt didn't seem all that upset. In fact, he looked happily excited as he described the unfortunate drama of the New York trip.

Blaine hadn't counted on the fact that it was so much harder to keep something like this from Kurt when Kurt was actually present.

"Wait, I don't get it," Blaine said confusedly. "You don't seem that sad at all."

Kurt shrugged and smiled slightly.

"Well, it was still amazing," he said. Blaine smiled contentedly and watched Kurt talk about how great the trip was anyway, ruminating on how much he really, really loved his boyfriend and how much he really, really wanted to tell him.

I'm going there with him someday, he thought. And I love him and I'm going to tell him tonight.

"…I sang on a Broadway stage," Kurt finished, smiling that really happy smile that Blaine loved so much, then pausing to take a sip of his coffee.

Screw it.

"I love you."

It's just a little non-canon because in the episode the last scene is supposed to be before school, but I like it this way and it works better for the story. I really hope I can finish another story soon, or update my WIP... I really miss writing :-/ Stupid school.

I wrote the last five words of the story before writing any of the rest, which I thought was funny because I've noticed that I tend to come up with story ideas by thinking of a climax and then figuring out a story to write around it. That's probably weird, but it works pretty well for me. A little author trivia.

Reviews are very important to me. I'm crazy about them, they move me, and I've been looking for them forever.

I'm totally not planning to tell readers that I love reviews when we all go out to Breadstix together. ;-)