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Blaine has never had a boyfriend before and up until Kurt, hadn't kissed anyone (that mattered) either. Sure, he's had some dates in the past and kisses on cheeks and made out with Rachel once when he was drunk (and kissed her again to make sure it was just the alcohol) but never mouth-on-mouth kissing with another guy, let alone a boyfriend.
So this whole thing with Kurt, the barely-there kisses in between classes and the "you look great" kisses and goodnight kisses and the "I'm going to get more popcorn" kisses, is really fucking new to Blaine. And kind of overwhelming.
Don't get him wrong, Blaine really enjoyed kissing Kurt. It was basically his favorite pastime, but right when Kurt's lips landed on Blaine's, he always felt his heart tighten and his stomach jump and he felt--
"Love," Blaine accidentally whispers against Kurt's lips one day. He stills for a second before relaxing when he realizes Kurt didn't hear him.
"Did you say something?" Kurt said when they pull away. They're nose to nose, so close that Blaine could feel Kurt's eyelashes every time he blinked and probably vice versa.
They're not at the point in their relationship yet. Blaine feels love, but that doesn't mean Kurt does too and he doesn't want to push him.
Blaine's known to go headfirst into things and not think about the consequences, and he doesn't want the first time he says "I love you" to be an asinine thing. He wants romance with it. He wants to take Kurt out and buy dinner and flowers and then say the big three words.
Right now, they are tender touches. They are sneaking glances when they think the other isn't looking. They are sweaty hands clasped together, shy kisses on chapped lips, and arms nervously wrapped around the other.
They are new to this relationship-- to relationships in general, and Blaine wants to give them the chance to grow bigger before they sprout into something beautiful.
He catches himself a few times stumbling over those three words.
"I--" he begins to say when they're at Warbler practice and Kurt finished singing, "need to go ask Wes a question." And he turns on his heels and walks in the opposite direction.
"I--" he looks over at Kurt in the driver's seat, on their way to the mall for a spur of the moment shopping spree, "love this song." Except there's no music playing. So he turns the radio on, and makes it louder so he can do his best to ignore Kurt's weirded-out glances his way.
"I--" Blaine's very comfortable laying against Kurt's chest as they watch a marathon of Project Runway, "should probably be heading back to Dalton. It's getting late." He glances down at his wrist to check the watch he's not wearing.
He kisses his boyfriend goodnight outside his house, in the driveway and next to Blaine's car.
Blaine has his hands on Kurt's waist, albeit fairly low and probably bending their "hands above the waist" rule, but not enough to break it. Kurt has one hand on Blaine's chest just over his heart and the other one on the back of his neck and has him leaning against the driver's side door. Kurt's dad would probably kill them if he saw them, but he's inside the house.
Eventually, the porch lights flicker, which is Burt's signal for 'you've been out there way too long for just a goodnight kiss, get your ass back in the house'. They kiss on the lips one last time, slow and sweet, before Kurt drops a final kiss to Blaine's forehead and sends him on his way.
Blaine pulls out of the driveway and is on his way home, almost missing turns and getting lost because of how much he adores Kurt. Yeah, he's fucked.
When Blaine says I love you, it's not how he wanted it to be. It's not a fancy restaurant with an expensive dinner and beautiful flowers. It's at the Lima Bean and they're drinking overpriced coffee. He doesn't even know he's saying it until he watches Kurt's face transform to surprise and momentarily thinks the coffee he just took a sip of is going to come shooting out of his mouth.
For a second Blaine wants to take the words that tumbled out back because this isn't how he wanted it to happen. But then Kurt's smiling at him over his cup of coffee and saying he loves Blaine too and suddenly he doesn't want to take them back. Ever.
After their first "I love you", it seemed as everything else fell into place.
Blaine would still feel overwhelmed when they kiss, so taken back with how much love he feels for his boyfriend, but the three words wouldn't nag and gnaw at him anymore since he could say them freely now and not have to worry about if Kurt loved him too because he knew.
"I love you," Blaine would murmur in between long kisses where the only reason they would part is to catch their breaths.
"I love you," he would whisper to Kurt when they should be paying attention in class.
"I love you," would be his closing line to their phone conversations.
And every single time, Kurt would say it back. Blaine concluded that he would never get tired of hearing Kurt saying he loved him too.