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Blaine is running late. Usually this wouldn't bother Kurt. He doesn't make it his business to keep close tabs on his roommate, generally speaking. But it does bother him today because:
a) Blaine Anderson, neurotic sweetheart that he is, is almost never late. He plans routes with the sole goal of shaving off thirty seconds of travel time. He has an actual pocket watch for God's sake. And,
b) Kurt has lived in New York for five years now and he has never experienced snow in the city like this.
It's like a celestial being has dumped icing sugar directly over New York. It went from normal grey and slightly miserable looking to the sparkling white of a particularly fantastical Christmas card so fast, that Kurt feels like it happened between breaths. And, to coin a phrase, it's showing no signs of stopping.
The blizzard, because that's all it can be, is billowing across the city in huge icy gusts. The snow continues to fall. Kurt is sure that it's already up to his knee height just from a cursory glance out the window. And Blaine is out there. In that.
Kurt pulls out his phone and quickly taps out a message.
Kurt: Where are you?
His finger hovers over the send. Maybe he's jumping the gun a little. He's not out here trying to be an alarmist for no reason. He adds a smiley face to make it seem more bright and breezy and sends it off.
He marches agitatedly back to the window seat and peers out again, staring at the snow like he can make it stop through sheer willpower. He wants Blaine to be here. With him. Drinking hot cocoa and curled up next to him, watching old movies. Not fighting a storm, outside and alone.
Kurt's phone buzzes and he snatches it up. But it's not Blaine. It's an emergency alert for weather. No fucking kidding. But, worse than that, it's quickly followed by a news flash telling him the trains are now closed and no longer running.
The spool of worry that was just starting to unravel in Kurt's belly, drops and spills, unfurling uncontrollably until he's almost sick with it. He's aware he's barely given Blaine five minutes to answer the text but he starts a call to him anyway. It goes straight to voicemail. He swallows painfully.
He knows he's jumping straight to panic with no real evidence that anything is wrong. But he's received too many devastating phone calls in the last few years alone, to ever believe that things Like That could never happen to People Like Him. That bad things couldn't happen to the people he loves.
Blaine is more than a roommate. They've been together since the dorms at NYU. He's Kurt's best friend, his study buddy, his partner in crime. Kurt needs to know he's ok.
Kurt's phone buzzes again and he scrambles for it, but this time it's his dad.
Dad: Saw the weather alert kiddo. Hope you and Blaine are safe at home and you're stocked up.
Kurt: I'm home. But Blaine isn't back from work yet.
Kurt: I'm worried about him.
Kurt types out the message with the vain hope of a child whose parent is going to magically fix everything. Even though he's way too old for all that.
Dad: Well he's probably just been delayed by the storm. He'll be back any minute. Let's give him ten before we panic. You can always call him.
Kurt doesn't want to admit he's already called and that he doesn't feel particularly soothed by Burt's practicality. So he just sends back a thumbs up.
He calls Blaine again. It goes straight to voicemail. Kurt takes a steadying breath. He's letting the fear fuel him. Maybe all that's happening is that he keeps calling Blaine at the exact same time Blaine is trying to call him. That roommate psychic link they have that means they know exactly what take out food the other person needs in times of crisis is just in full effect. He resolves to wait for a few minutes to see if Blaine will get through.
It's painful. He takes to pacing, staring at the blank screen of his phone. The screen only reflects back his own pale face, mirroring his own stress. He unlocks it again, feeling squashed by his inability to do anything practical. He goes back to his message to Blaine to check the read receipts. It was never even received.
He moves toward the door and grabs his coat before he even knows what he's doing. Some instinctual part of him was really about to march out into a snow storm to… what? Where would he even begin looking for one tiny human in a city of millions. Blaine's probably not even out there. If he has any sense, he's hunkered down with a friend or colleague that lives nearer to his work.
Sensible thinking doesn't curb the growing terror. Kurt just knows that life without Blaine in it, is not a life that he really wants to contemplate, ever, and that's far too big a thought to try and explore right now. Not with his heart trying to claw its way out of his throat.
He slowly puts his coat back on the hook.
And that's exactly when the door opens and Blaine is walking through it, snow in his hair. "Holy hell, it's freezing out there," he says and he sounds so… normal. Cheerful even.
Kurt has to accept that all things considered Blaine is only twenty five minutes late home at most. But seeing him here so suddenly, whole and smiling, makes embarrassing tears spring to his eyes.
Blaine notices that he's standing right by the door and lifts an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"
"Where were you?" Kurt gasps before he can even attempt to act cool.
Blaine looks confused but then he seems to clock Kurt's expression and he softens instantly. "Were you worried? I'm so sorry. They closed the trains so I had to get off at a stop early and walk the rest of the way. Disaster."
"I called you…"
"Ah." Blaine ducks his head and pulls his phone from his pocket. It's spidered with vicious cracks. "Bad day to smash my phone."
Kurt looks from the broken phone to Blaine's face. He's pink from cold and his curls are loose and damp from the melting snow. He's beautiful. He's perfect and alive and he's here and God is he in trouble.
"You idiot," Kurt snaps. "You absolute idiot."
He doesn't even think. Fear and relief mingle into blind action. He grabs these lapels of Blaine's coat and hauls him forward. Straight into a crushing kiss. Blaine drops his phone again.
Kurt feels Blaine's ripple of surprise all the way down his body but then he relaxes and, after a moment, his lips respond under Kurt's. Kurt softens all at once, his mouth gentling and his hands feeling across Blaine's shoulders and back and down his arms, subconsciously checking that he's truly okay.
Blaine moves with him, turning his nose to tuck against Kurt's cheek and it's freezing but Kurt doesn't care. His arms have settled comfortably over Blaine's shoulders and he presses their chests flush, greedy to feel Blaine's responding heartbeat thumping against his.
He kisses Blaine until Blaine's mouth and cheeks are warm again. He kisses Blaine until Blaine's hands have moved to cup Kurt's jaw and neck and the small noise he makes shows it's obvious that he's not just being kind, and humouring Kurt's moment of madness, he's as lost in it as Kurt is. He kisses Blaine because he can't ever imagine stopping. And Kurt thinks oh.
It's Blaine that eventually breaks it, moving back only enough to rest their foreheads together. "Please tell me that wasn't just a 'thank God you're not dead' kiss," he breathes into the space between them. He sounds like he's trying to make a joke but the vulnerability and hopefulness are tangible.
"Not just that," Kurt assures. He feels dizzy and warm. And some things are starting to make a lot of sense. "I um… might be having an epiphany."
Blaine huffs a small laugh, intimate in its closeness. "Took you long enough."
Kurt wants to ask about that but there's too many thoughts crowding for space. "Let me make you a hot drink," Kurt says instead, pressing another soft kiss to Blaine's mouth to show it's not a rejection. Blaine needs to warm up and Kurt needs to de-stress and now is not the moment for life changing conversations. There will be time for all that.
~~~
Later, once Blaine is showered and dressed in dry clothes and Kurt has coaxed him into drinking two cocoas and they're wrapped around each other while they watch Wizard of Oz, Burt texts again.
Dad: I didn't hear anything else so assumed Blaine was safe. But just wanted to double make sure my third son was home.
Kurt smiles. Burt has always adored Blaine since the moment they became roommates in the dorms. Kurt's eyes slide to Blaine. He's resting in the vee of Kurt's spread legs, his back to Kurt's chest, his loose curls tickling Kurt's chin.
Kurt ducks down slightly to press a kiss to Blaine's clothed shoulder and Blaine turns into him, brushing his nose against Kurt's cheek. It feels so natural, being with Blaine like this. Kurt doesn't one hundred percent know what this means for them yet but he does know one thing. He opens the text from his dad back up.
Kurt: Yes. Blaine is home.