Dislaimer: Glee belongs to FOX, the writers, producers, actors, etc. I am making no money from this, and no copywrite infringement is intended. All quotes were found online and are attributed to their authors if I could find them.

AN: The second story in the "When Flowers Bloom" series, reading the first is not necessary but would be helpful. This takes place about two weeks after the first story, "Blossom," and is set a few days before the episode "Born This Way."

Taking Chances

By Lady Callista

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"The flower has opened, has been in the sun and is unafriad. I'm taking more chances, I'm bold and proud." -Paula Cole

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They had only been dating for just under three weeks -19 days and three-ish hours, he thought, both embarrassed by the fact that he was keeping count and proud of the fact that at least he didn't count to the minute anymore- and Kurt could still feel the buzzing thrill of being cuddled up together on Blaine's bed rather than sitting with their backs to the headboard and their shoulders only occasionally brushing. It was their weekly get-together to watch the new episode of American Idol, and it was so familiar while being so vastly different.

Physical closeness wasn't something Kurt had been accustomed to before Blaine, while his boyfriend -yup, the amazement and delight at being able to say that word still coursed through him at odd moments- was the exact opposite. Blaine was nearly a compulsive toucher, from less than a minute after they met when he had grabbed Kurt's hand, to only half an hour ago when he had greeted Kurt with a long, warm hug that turned into a breathtaking kiss.

So while it wasn't something he had been used to before Blaine, and he still wasn't used to it with anyone but Blaine, Kurt found that he was coming to crave this closeness more and more.

Blaine was a warm, comforting weight on his chest, and Kurt was acutely aware of the hand that had started resting on his heart and been cautiously inched up until it rested on the curve of his neck, thumb trailing maddeningly wonderful random patterns up the side of his neck, occasionally brushing a spot just behind his earlobe that sent a twinge of heat through Kurt every single time.

He was equally aware of his own arm wrapped around Blaine's body, his fingers resting on the slight curve of the younger boy's waist, finally growing brave enough a few minutes ago to start caressing, trailing in ever growing spirals. Their blazers had been discarded before they lay down to cuddle, as had now become normal, and Kurt loved feeling the heat of Blaine's skin through the thin white dress shirt.

Kurt looked away from the TV, which he was barely paying attention to anyway despite it being tuned to one of his favorite shows, and glanced down at Blaine, daring to raise his free hand and trail his fingertips over the side of Blaine's neck and down to the hollow of his throat.

Their ties had been discarded along with their blazers for the first time, the top few buttons of their shirts undone, and Kurt suddenly knew why two hundred years ago a glimpse of ankle had been considered sexy, or why geisha had been trained to flash the underside of their wrist while pouring tea or dancing. His fingers trailed from the hollow of Blaine's throat to trace lightly along his collarbone with a kind of wonder, a joy at this type of intimacy that Kurt had always envisioned but didn't think he would ever be allowed to have. Such a small, innocent glimpse of skin, made sexy simply be the fact that he had never touched it before.

Something so simple, being able to cuddle with someone you cared about, and to Kurt it felt almost as good as he imagined winning a Tony would. Because in some ways it had seemed more unobtainable, and because Kurt knew that it would affect his life just as much. He knew, even with barely any history behind them, that Blaine would become one of the most important people in his life, possibly even the most important.

That knowledge was just a little bit more wonderful than it was terrifying.

The show switched to commercial then, Kurt registering it only because his mind had memorized the music that always accompanied the switch long ago, and he pulled himself out of his deep thoughts when Blaine spoke softly.

"So, which Disney princess is your favorite?"

"That's easy - Ariel." Kurt answered at once. "I kinda feel like her ocean is my Ohio, and that everything will be fine once I get to where I want to be."

"New York City, center of the universe…"

"You are not about to break into song." Kurt recognized the cadence of the words at once. "Especially not one where all the people want to do is get out of New York."

"Fair enough." Blaine chuckled before adding, "Your turn then."

"Hmmm… favorite ice cream?" Kurt queried after a few seconds of thought.

"Gotta go with cookie-dough-fudge-mint-chip." Blaine responded at once. "Although I only eat ice cream when I really need a comfort food."

Kurt filed that information away for future reference even as Blaine asked the next question.

"Favorite color?"

"Black." Kurt answered at once with a smirk, pausing slightly before adding, "It goes with everything."

Blaine chuckled as he tilted his head to kiss Kurt on the cheek. "Trust you to think of fashion first. Okay, your question."

"Same question." Kurt decided.

It had been Blaine's idea to play what was basically the first half of Truth or Dare as a way to get to know each other better, to move beyond friends to boyfriends in a tangible way, and Kurt had been skeptical at first. As much as he was in love/lust with this boy, it was still difficult for him to open up and trust someone with too much of himself. He had managed it when they talked last week, and been so much more relaxed in their relationship once he learned how unfounded all of his fears were. But they had kept things light since then, and while the make-out sessions had become a little more intense, the conversations had not. They were both comfortable where they were at the moment.

The questions so far had all been mundane, and Kurt did have to admit that even these small glimpses and tidbits made him feel closer to the boy whose head was currently pillowed on his chest. "Favorite color."

"I'm not sure." Blaine said softly.

Kurt could swear he heard embarrassment in Blaine's voice, so instead of teasing him about not knowing something as simple as his favorite color Kurt asked softly, "Why not?"

There was a long pause, and Kurt resisted the urge to push, knowing from Blaine's tone that for some reason the question was more personal than it seemed. His patience was rewarded when Blaine finally answered him.

"Because I can never decide what color your eyes are." Blaine felt the heat rush to his cheeks even as he spoke softly, and he heard the sharp intake of breath Kurt let out at the words. Gathering his courage, he raised up onto one elbow to look into Kurt's eyes. "Like, right now, they're this really light blue, like the sky on a clear summer day. But when you first walked in they were darker, almost like a sapphire. And I swear I've seen them every shade of green, and sometimes even gray."

Still somewhat shocked that Blaine was using his eyes to determine his favorite color, Kurt looked down into dark eyes that was similarly difficult to classify and smiled softly, feeling the blush on his cheeks. "Well, it says blue on my driver's license, but the proper term is glasz."

Blaine cocked his head, "Which means what exactly?"

Kurt chuckled, "Well, it means you can't really use it as your favorite color, because it's a word only used to describe eyes, but it basically means that they change from blue to green to grey. It's not used much, cause it's kinda rare, but, well… I can't believe you noticed." Kurt left it unsaid that no one ever had before.

"I notice everything about you." Blaine felt his blush intensifying and ducked his head back down unto Kurt's chest

It should have been corny, or sounded like a line, but Blaine's tone of voice was one of simple truth. Kurt tilted his head down slightly to kiss Blaine's forehead, still feeling a thrill that he could, that the simple act was not only allowed but welcome, even encouraged. But beyond that gesture Kurt didn't know how to acknowledge Blaine's comment; saying thank you sounded dumb, echoing the line back dumber, and beyond that his still slightly stunned brain wasn't offering any suggestions. The quip came automatically as his brain defaulted to wittiness, although with humor rather than bite. "You never noticed that I liked you."

"I did, a little, at first." Blaine said into Kurt's chest, registering the teasing tone yet wanting to answer seriously. "The look on your face the day we met, when you first saw me and the Warblers perform, god, Kurt, no one has ever looked at me like that before."

"I must have looked so stupid." Kurt reflected back on the moment fondly though, and even replaying the memory in his head sent a jolt of adrenaline through him that washed away the embarrassment.

"You didn't, actually, you looked kind of cute." Blaine gathered his courage and raised himself back onto his elbow again, looking deeply into Kurt's eyes. "But then you told me what you were going through, and how someone had forced you to kiss them, and you just… you really seemed like you just needed a friend. And we got along so well, we had so much in common, and most things were so easy to talk about. It was just, like, instant best friend, you know?"

Kurt smiled fondly, understanding where this was going. "I know, it was exactly the same for me."

"And then we get to the part I've already told you, that I cared about you too much and was afraid to mess things up." Blaine concluded.

Kurt's smile grew. "I'm glad you decided to risk it."

"Me too." Blaine's smile beamed as he leaned in for a soft kiss.

The kiss grew as Blaine's free hand came up to cup Kurt's cheek, and Kurt responded by sliding his fingers lightly up and down Blaine's side. Their mouths opened slowly, deepening the kiss even as twin thrills ran down their spines. Kissing deeply like this, even after a few weeks of doing so, was still new and exciting as they explored angles and techniques, and being vertical for only the second time while kissing this deeply was both amazing and a tiny bit nerve-wracking.

Last time they had know Burt would be home in twenty-minus-X minutes.

Here, in Blaine's room at Dalton, knowing that Blaine's roommate was going to be out with his girlfriend for hours yet, well, that made the nerves they had thought were gone after the first time return, and return full force.

But those nerves slowly heated into excitement as the kiss deepened yet again, and both boys stopped thinking altogether.

Long moments passed before they drew apart in unison, breathing deeply as their eyes opened and held each other's. Neither of them noticed that the commercials were long done and the show was back on.

Every nerve in his body humming, blood rushing to parts of his body he didn't want to think about right now, Kurt knew that he needed to cool down a little. He lightly tightened the arms that were still wrapped around Blaine, urging his boyfriend to lay back down on his chest.

As he cuddled in, Blaine said seriously, "It's my turn to ask a question, but I need to know if you want this to go back to being light and easy, or if it can get more serious."

"Can I decide once you ask?" Kurt felt the flutter of nerves in his stomach, yet it melted almost completely away on the wash of sweetness that flowed through him when he felt Blaine lacing their fingers together. He trusted Blaine, he knew nothing he ever said to him would go further than them, nor would it ever be used against him. But there were some things he just knew he still wasn't ready to talk about, even with Blaine. He had told the other boy as much last week, and it was still true.

"Of course." Blaine said reassuringly. "I meant what I said that it's okay if there're some things you don't want to talk about yet. We have all the time in the world."

Kurt could hear the smile in Blaine's voice, as well as the endless patience that was slowly wearing away the shell he had developed out of sheer self-preservation. "Then ask the serious question." Because he wanted to know more about this amazing boy, and he couldn't think of anyone else he would rather share his real self with in return.

"If you don't want to answer it, you don't have to."

Blaine was the one who sounded nervous now, and Kurt managed a light chuckle. "As someone who notices everything about me, you should know just how much of a pushover I am not. But I, I like this. I like that I have someone I can talk to like this, about, you know, anything. About all those things I've never told anyone, and about all the things no one has ever cared enough to ask. I'm not used to it, and I'm still a little nervous, but I like it."

Blaine raised their still joined hands to his lips, kissing the back of Kurt's hand tenderly even as he whispered, "That's exactly how I feel. And what I wanted to ask was… and I'll answer the same question… but, uh, how did you first come out?"

Kurt tensed automatically as an echo of the fear and near panic that had washed over him when he first told Mercedes came back, not fear that she would tease him or torment him, he was used to that, but fear that he would lose one of the only friends he had. Panic that she would focus more on the fact that he had lied to her about liking Rachel, that she had bared her heart and he had responded with a lie.

Blaine felt it immediately when Kurt tensed, and he raised their hands again, his kiss this time landing on Kurt's fingertips. "How about I tell you mine first, and then… if you want, you can tell me yours."

"You really are the most amazing boyfriend." The words were out of Kurt's mouth before he realized he'd thought them, but he had no desire to call them back.

Blaine chuckled self-consciously, "I just feel like I can tell you anything, Kurt, and more than that, I want to. I want you to know me in a way no one else ever has, and it seems crazy since we've only known each other for a few months, and been dating for a few weeks, but I feel like I can trust you with anything."

"You can." Kurt whispered simply even as a whirlwind of emotions ran through him. He didn't know what he had done to deserve that trust, but he vowed to himself then and there that he would never betray it. "And I feel the same, I really do, there're just some things I barely let myself think about, let alone talk about. Some things I'm not ready to share with anyone, but I can promise that when I am you'll be the first."

"And that's perfectly okay." Blaine responded immediately, yet again raising himself up on his elbow to watch Kurt's face. "So, the simple question was going to be what your favorite desert was."

"It's cheesecake." Kurt answered at once, taking a deep breath before leaning forward and kissing Blaine lightly on the lips. "And I want to know how you first came out. I want to know who you told, and what made you decide that was the right time. And I want to know what you were feeling when you did it, and how that person reacted. And then…" Kurt took another deep breath before finishing, "And then I want to tell you all those things too."

TBC….