It isn't like the movies, not really. There isn't a haze, and the crowd is still firmly in his ears. But he finds he doesn't care much with Blaine's arms around him, soft lips on his and one of his hands on Blaine's hip. It feels like music sounds, like when a sentence comes out just exactly right, like cheesecake and happiness and comfort all rolled into one. It feels like a promise. After a few moments - or lifetimes, he's sort of lost perspective - he pulls back a little to breathe, leans their foreheads together.

"You take my breath away."

Blaine's smile is real, a little shy. "This is all a little..."

"Big?" Kurt suggests. "I went for the big gesture."

"I noticed. Sorry I was late."

"I'm glad you decided to come." He sees the football team edging closer, trying to work their way onto the field. Number eight (Puck) is yelling something he's sure is utterly charming. "Maybe we should continue this conversation somewhere more private."

Blaine closes his eyes briefly. "That might be a good idea - I - I'm here, but there's some things we need to -"

"I know. I promise, I know." He offers his hand. "Hi, I'm Kurt Hummel. Just me this time."

The corners of Blaine's mouth tilt up. He rolls the name around on his tongue like it means something new. "Kurt…" A hand moves to Kurt's cheek and the other combs through his hair. "There you are," Blaine murmurs quietly, "I've been looking for you forever."

When Coach Bieste blows her whistle at them, Kurt takes his hand, pulls him off the field, and knows it isn't the kiss that's making him feel different, feel like so much is possible and his future is so much brighter.

It's Blaine.

Epilogue:

It isn't like it's all smooth sailing from there.

They talk about it a lot, fight about it a little, and eventually unknot all the he-saids and she-saids and I-really-didn'ts of the whole thing.

Blaine tells him about his research, about the transition from realizing that Kurt wasn't a student to allowing himself to see him in a different way. He tells him about asking Wes' sister to dig out her yearbook, later frustrations at the mystery and the feelings he found developing. He tells him about the hurt after prom, about almost telling his father he would move to Denver just in the hopes of escaping this whole thing, the sadness that he'd thought might swallow him whole.

And then he tells him about coming back. About reading the article and believing they were, and still are, worth the chance.

Kurt tells him everything too - about Sue, his assignments, about Figgins and what he knew had been on the line. The actual safeguard that Blaine himself had put in place by telling Figgins that he knew, and his own personal vow to protect Blaine at all costs.

Life moves on.

They go out to dinner on their first official date and Kurt takes great delight in opening doors, picking up the check at the end of the night. Blaine teases him for it, but he's the exact same way later that week when they walk through the park hand in hand, pause on Kurt's stoop to say goodnight. On their fifteenth (by Kurt's count) date, they each say "I love you" and god, do they mean it.

It takes them awhile to perfect the answer to the question "so how did you two meet?"; the first time they're asked Kurt answers "he was my English teacher," which leads to a whole host of awkward looks and a three minute monologue as Kurt tried to backtrack and explain. They work it out, though. It's worth it.

Kurt gets his source and his article is printed. The people running the LGBTQ shelters in question are investigated and eventually charged, and the plight of the victims brought to the public eye. Fighting with Sue about every assignment eventually exhausts him, so when - a long while later and with a few more wins under his belt - he manages to get an offer to move to a slightly not-quite-as-well-paid job at The New York Times, he talks it over with Blaine. He takes it.

Blaine takes the show choir to Nationals in Las Vegas the following year. They place eighth, and he calls Kurt from the hotel to gush over how amazingly they did, already talking about a fall musical next year, song selections for regionals after. He changes his syllabus every year, tries to work in new books and material, but he keeps As You Like It in there and smiles every time a student writes their paper about gender roles.

There are stupid fights, and while both of them try to stay away from it, Blaine does bring it up once (how do I know this entire relationship isn't built on a lie?). After that night and the next few days of missed calls and misery (it's a two cheesecake week), they find their way back to each other, promise to never fight again, never to use their past to hurt each other like that again, to love each other always.

Two out of three isn't bad.

A year and a half after they first kiss they find an apartment, and Blaine has a shelf in the closet dedicated to just his ties. Burt and Carole come to dinner before the boxes are unpacked and Finn shows up with a pizza and crowing over McKinley's latest football triumph, the proudest assistant coach in the world. Kurt looks around at the kitchen table and it feels like home.

Six months later he buys a ring.

Four months after that Blaine decides to go back and finish his masters degree, and money is tight for a long while, the wedding on hold while they scrape together what they can, saving as much as they can put aside for their future.

The day after Blaine graduates they set a date, and Mercedes and Rachel argue every single time they have a fitting. He thinks Tina just enjoys watching, her baby bump growing bigger every time the seamstress makes an alteration. He holds Blaine's hand when they tell both sets of parents, accepts the Anderson's cool congratulations with grace (it's really more than they'd expected), lets Finn almost knock them both over when he hears and squeezes the life out of each of them.

It's a warm day in September when they stand in front of their families and promise each other the rest of their lives.

That kiss, and every one after it, feel just as beautiful, just as important as their first.

Every kiss matters.

There's something about that - a lot, really - Kurt finds secretly thrilling. At first it's because it turns out that kissing is fantastic - and while he's totally been missing out, Blaine proves himself willing to help make up for any lost time - but as time goes on he realizes all the things that a kiss can mean. A quick kiss goodbye in the morning, as one of them leaves for work, long goodnight kisses at the end of a date, casual pecks when Blaine says something cute, or Kurt rambles.

And there's things besides kisses too; Blaine's hand on his hip as they debate the best kind of mango in the grocery store, ruffling his boyfriend's - husband's - hair when they're sitting on the couch, Blaine working his way through a stack of papers on Lord of the Flies. There's sex, everything that entails, sheets and sweat, laughter and the light in Blaine's eyes. There's a sense of family, of knowing that Blaine arguing with Finn over football stats at Thanksgiving, talking Carole through her co-worker drama and helping his Dad with the dishes, is, even if there isn't such a thing as meant to be, at least utterly, wonderfully right.

There's him, and there's Blaine, and what they are together.

And that's everything.