Better late than never? Maybe it isn't. I don't know if anyone cares about this fic anymore, but I promised I would finish it so here it is. Hope you enjoy how it ends :)

KURT HUMMEL: RECEPTION HALL: SATURDAY NIGHT, FOUR MINUTES UNTIL

Kurt realized that he – just as any other human being – had flaws. In his work, he always did his utmost to obtain perfection in the detail as well as the big picture. Yet this time he had been mistaken. What mattered was not always about how something appeared, but also how it felt.

As he sat on one of the beautiful Victorian chairs (those that were meant to have been used in the reception by every wedding guest instead of only the cheap ones on Thomas' side) he came to the conclusion that he had never sat on a more uncomfortable chair in his life.

That fact kept bugging him. How come he didn't try sitting on the chairs he picked out for his customers? Granted, the wedding between Aisha Lyle and Thomas Hayes never took place, but if it had, Kurt knew that he would have had to make sincere apologies afterward about the severe back aches and numb butts to the bride and groom.

Kurt sighed, turning a pink rose in his hands. The band him and Rachel had picked out was playing onstage, some guests were even dancing quite happily along to the romantic tunes, and the food on the buffet table looked delicious even if most of it was left untouched.

There was one more thing that bothered him: the fact that the wedding was called off. Not because of the bad reputation his company might get, or the lack of money or publicity. No, it was what Aisha said to him right before the wedding was called off.

"This is all wrong!" Aisha moaned, tugging at her veil in places so much that her hairdo was starting to fall apart. "This is not what's supposed to be."

"Hey, hey, relax," Kurt tried, reaching his hands out to stop her, yet thought better of it and let them hang mid-air. "You look amazing."

"Of course I do, I just…" Her struggling finally paid off, and she let the veil fall to the floor.

Kurt stared at her in silence.

She smiled sadly, a sort of crooked half-smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"You know," she said, "I never thought Thomas would propose."

"But he did," Kurt said softly. "After all you two have been through, you are finally getting your happy ending."

Aisha looked at her reflection in the mirror, running her hands over her flowy wedding dress. "That's just the thing: I don't want it to end."

"It's just an expression," Kurt said lamely.

"I know. But if I get married now, it really will be the end. We'll become one of those old, childless couples whose hobbies include dressing up petite dogs and binge-watching Martha Stewart."

Kurt momentarily removed the headset from his ear, in case anyone would be listening in at the other end. "You're just saying that because you're scared. That's okay. A lot of people freak out before they get married, it's just a part of the process."

"I'm not freaking out, though," she said. "I could easily see myself in ten years, driving for hours just to go to a Farmer's market and all that. I think I would even be okay with that being the rest of my life. But it's not how I want my life to end. I want it to be spectacular; a tabloid rush. The whole excitement with Tom was that we were fighting the odds. We were never meant to be together forever. If I had spent my whole life with him from the moment we met, we'd gotten divorced by now along with everyone else. He was a thrill, and I loved him, but I swear that if I marry him now I will always regret it. It would kill our love, and our story was too great to end like this."

Kurt just hadn't known what to say to that. He especially didn't know what to tell Blaine, if he ever appeared tonight. He could hardly believe the mischief Rachel and Annalise had been getting up to right under his nose. He hoped that Blaine would be the attentive one, see through the scam, and not show up at the venue that night.

Then again, Kurt thought as Blaine appeared through the velvety-draped curtain entrance to the reception hall, Blaine was known for being oblivious.

Blaine looked around the room with confused lines on his forehead. When his eyes landed on Kurt, he exhaled a long breath through his lips.

Kurt rose from the back-killing chair and walked slowly to meet Blaine on the dance floor.

"Hi," Blaine said. "Before you ask what I'm doing here, may I just have this dance?"

Kurt looked at the hand Blaine reached out for him.

"Wait, let me just say a few things first," Kurt said, making Blaine's face completely serious. "I know why you're here."

"You do?"

"Yes, I do." Kurt shook his head slowly. "This was all Annalise's idea. She tricked you into coming here."

"What?" Blaine breathed.

"I'm really sorry. I don't know everything she told you, but it was all a plan for us to get back together. She's been trying to make it happen for a while now, apparently."

"Wow, okay, that explains a lot," Blaine said, and laughed a breathy chuckle at the absurdity. "So everything was a hoax? I mean, I should have known. She did go quite over the top with her speech about how you wanted me to fight for you and how I was your only dream and all that."

Kurt's eyes grew wide. "Wait, she said that?"

Blaine blinked a few times, stunned silent for a moment. "Yeah," he breathed, then cleared his throat. "I mean, I kind of figured she was overselling something you'd said, but it also sounded like a very 'you' thing to say."

"That's because I did say it." When Blaine's eyes grew wide with surprise, Kurt elaborated. "But that was years and years ago. When we first split up. I guess Rachel must have told her that. Gosh, I can't believe she remembered that."

"Rachel was in on it, too?"

"To a certain extent, I think."

Blaine nodded. Now that they had established that it was all a scam, they didn't really have anything else to say.

"Well, then," Blaine said. "Now that that's been cleared up I guess I should head home. It was good seeing you."

"You, too."

Blaine turned around and started walking away, but he had only taken a few steps when the band started playing a new song.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night,

Take these broken wings and learn to fly.

Blaine stopped and looked at the band. When Kurt saw the wonder in his eyes and the parted lips that were just barely mouthing the words, that was when he realized it.

"Blaine," he called out to him, and took a few quick steps toward him to close up the space between them. "You're here."

Blaine raised his eyebrows, looking at Kurt like he was stupid. "Yeah?"

"I mean… you didn't know Annalise was lying to you. You came here, thinking what she'd said was true."

Blaine gulped, but stayed otherwise silent.

"Do you… want to get back together?"

"Kurt, I…" Blaine was visibly fighting for words for a few seconds. Then he placed his arms around Kurt's waist, making Kurt tense up for a second. "I don't know. I do still love you."

"Blaine-"

"No, let me finish. I know things have always been working against us. I know that so much time has passed since we were together that it would be nothing short of insane to start things up again. We're both different people now than we were when we were young and in love. Chances are that we would miss the person we first fell in love with and never quite be satisfied with what we've become. But… I love you, and if I still love you after all these years, what makes you think I could ever stop?"

"Oh, gosh, Blaine." Kurt shook his head and put his arms around Blaine's neck. "I don't know what to say."

Blaine shrugged. "Just say you didn't give up on your dream of spending your life with me."

Was it really that easy? Could he just say that he hadn't given up on them, and everything would somehow be okay again? Could they just go back to what they used to have?

When Kurt didn't reply, Blaine smiled. "It's okay, take as much time as you need to think about it. I'll be here, waiting. I promise. I will always be here."

EPILOGUE - BLAINE ANDERSON: HOTEL BEDROOM: SUNDAY EARLY HOURS

There was something different about his heart now, he thought. It was the same heart he'd always had, yet now the beats held a different rhythm. It was faster somehow, even though he felt really calm and relaxed. It was beating with a new fire fueling it, and it made him so giddy he couldn't go to sleep.

Instead of sleeping, he clasped his arms tighter around the man tangled up with him in bed, head on his shoulder and hand on his heart. His Kurt.

He had no idea what time it was, nor did he care. Nothing seemed to really matter anymore, at least nothing that didn't revolve around Kurt.

And that was how he knew: he was falling once again.