Chapter Text
The pub is all sorts of filled and as Kurt and Mercedes push past the masses of people to get to the bar (and get their much-needed drinks), Kurt can't help but wonder if this Blaine character who's performing there tonight is really worth all the fuss. As far as Kurt knows, he's just here to enjoy a night out with his best friend — God knows he deserves it. He works crazy hours; he likes to enjoy the time off that he gets. Mercedes insisted that this place was supposed to be really good. She said one of her co-workers recommended it and Kurt, well, Kurt was up for anything.
As the two order their drinks and settle down by the bar, the lights dim and Kurt swears his ears might explode. All of a sudden, girls are yelling like crazy, and he so would cover his ears right now if it weren't for the fact that he's holding a very promising and hopefully delicious martini that he would rather not throw away, thankyouverymuch. The curtains open, and for a moment, Kurt admires the way they rustle as they're pulled into the sides of the stage. The pub is small but quaint and it reminds him of a 40s movie; he's basically waiting for the swing music to start playing.
Then this "Blaine character" comes out and Kurt and Mercedes instantly grab each other's hands. "Yours or mine?" Mercedes whispers quickly, not wasting a single second. Kurt looks at Blaine critically as the curly-haired musician introduces himself and his song before beginning to play. There is no absolute way that this guy is gay, and Kurt can't help but lament that because he is oh so handsome. But of course he's straight. He's too handsome, too talented, too perfect to ever be gay because, come on, that'd be like something out of a movie. And Kurt's life is anything but something out of a movie.
He's twenty-six, a successful actor on Broadway and has no social life outside of his nights out with Mercedes. Obviously, his love life is non-existent; the last time he went out on a date, the guy turned out to be a tattoo artist who had an affliction with wearing shirts. Needless to say, that date was over as soon as it started.
"Oh, definitely yours," Kurt says, shaking his head regretfully. "As much as it pains me to say, it'd be physically impossible for someone that perfect to be gay." Mercedes just laughs and pats his hand comfortingly and they both go back to drooling over Blaine, occasionally commenting on the performance (but mostly thinking about how perfect this man is). During one of the last songs, Kurt could swear that he sees Blaine looking over at him, but he immediately shakes his head, realizing how unlikely that is. The lights on stage are nearly blinding and there's a mass of girls between him and Kurt. What would be the chances?
After the show is over, Kurt and Mercedes move to a table off to the side of the pub, drinking and gossiping like they haven't in a while — really, though, it's been a week, but it feels like a while. They're in the middle of discussing whether they want to attend Paris Fashion Week (although it's no question for Kurt; the only thing is he hates being alone and Mercedes isn't sure she can go; but really, for Paris Fashion Week, he'd suck it up) when Kurt hears someone clear his throat and looks up to see — yup, him — Blaine himself standing by the head of the table, looking, well, every inch as sexy as he did onstage and possibly even more so.
"Well, hi," Mercedes says and with one quick glance at her, Kurt can see she's got her sexy smile on. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine, thanks," Blaine says, looking directly at Kurt when he speaks, shooting him a wide smile. Could it be? "How about you?"
"We're great, thank you," Mercedes answers, still giving him that smile that was definitely inviting for some X-rated activities. "Why don't you join us?"
"How could I possibly say no to that?" Blaine asks, and Kurt has to refrain from fainting because he hasn't stopped staring at him. Right now, he's starting to question whether Blaine is as straight as they think. But really, is it any more than wishful thinking? Kurt definitely thinks so.
Kurt notices Mercedes looking at him oddly; she's probably noticed how flustered he feels. She has her thinking face on, probably thinking something along the lines of Blaine is so checking him out right now; after all, she insists he's irresistible. Right now, she's probably thinking that even though Blaine might not be as straight as they thought, at least her boy has a chance at a date with a cute guy. "I'm Mercedes," she says, and Kurt's eyes flicker to hers, almost as if he knows what she's about to say, "and this sexy man here, who you haven't stopped looking at, is my boy Kurt."
Kurt blushes furiously and as Mercedes just grins innocently, he notices the look in Blaine's eyes going from curious and definitely interested to full-out adoring. While Blaine flags down a waiter and orders a martini (oh yeah, definitely gay), Kurt looks at Mercedes, eyes wide and looking so excited Mercedes probably has to resist the urge to pat herself on the back. After a few minutes of meaningless chatting, Mercedes stands up and yawns. "That's my cue to leave," she says, gathering her things and avoiding Kurt's eyes, because she's must know he'll be glaring at her and sending her don't go telepathic messages. "I'll see you Wednesday, baby."
With a kiss to Kurt's cheek, Mercedes makes her exit and Kurt glares after her, tempted to make some excuse and leave as well. Mercedes very well knows how completely awkward he has the capability of being when faced with an attractive man.
"Don't look so horrified," Blaine says, smiling lopsidedly at him. Kurt looks at him and smiles, praying that he doesn't look like some dweeb who is incapable of social interaction. "I don't bite, promise."
"Oh, really? I had you pegged for a kinky kind of gay," Kurt retorts wittily, surprising himself with his straightforwardness, and the look Blaine gives him almost — almost — makes him blush. But he's twenty-six, not some giggling schoolgirl, and the blushing is not necessary.
"Who's to say I'm not?" Blaine shoots back equally quickly, an eyebrow quirking up and oh dear Gaga, Kurt might just be falling in love with this guy.
The second time Kurt sees Blaine, the performance is in a much, much nicer venue than the first time they met. It had been two weeks since Blaine's last concert and after spending the night talking and laughing (only succeeding to make Kurt further enamoured with him) and Blaine had invited him to his next show. That was how he ended up sitting in this cute little venue with a really high up stage, velvet curtains and a black and white marquee outside the place, which sported Blaine's name. And okay, Kurt did take a picture of it.
The amount of people at the show seems less than last time, since this theatre is considerably bigger, but Kurt wonders for the first time how famous Blaine is; there's actually quite a crowd at this show and they look every bit as crazy as †he girls from the last concert. For a second, Kurt wonders if Blaine's fans know he's gay — would that make them like him less or more? Kurt would think more, but then again, he's very biased.
Once the show starts, Kurt settles into his seat, not sure if he's glad he refused Blaine's offer to let him in backstage for the show or not. On one hand, the view is much better here, but at the same time, how cool would it be to just flash his backstage pass and get in? His thoughts are interrupted when Blaine starts talking; while he does so, Kurt just looks up at him with admiration. He has to wonder why Blaine picked him of all people to talk to at the bar. After all, this guy is seemingly perfect and Kurt, well, isn't.
"He's so cute," sighs a small blonde girl who's standing next to him, apparently alone. Kurt gives her a small smile, not sure what to say, but she takes it as her cue to go on. "I've been a fan of his since last year, my brother went to the school he went to, you know, Dalton, but I'm sure you knew that. So anyway, he came to perform a concert there to raise money for the children in Africa or something and I went. I fell in love. I've never met him because my mom didn't let me stay last time to meet him afterwards and all his other concerts have been too far away but now we're here on vacation and so is he so it's perfect."
Kurt nods, uncertain on what would be a proper response to this monologue the girl launched into. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I totally started ranting without even introducing myself! Nice to meet you, I'm Jamie. What's your name?" she asks.
"Kurt, Kurt Hummel," he says, and just as he's about to go on and say something nice to her, Blaine comes out and once again, Kurt goes deaf. He shrugs helplessly at Jamie but it doesn't even matter because she's not looking at him anymore; she's looking at Blaine, of course, with a loving expression that Kurt thought only existed in bad romance movies.
Following an absolutely wonderful cover of "Just My Imagination," which then somehow turned into a smolderinghotsexyamazing cover of "Fever," Blaine ends his set and Kurt heads backstage as he was told, pretending he doesn't notice the glares Jamie shoots his way. When the security guard goes to check Kurt's name on the list, Kurt waves her over, chuckling at the complete change of stance on the girl, who basically flounces over to him.
Even though the guard glares at Kurt for bringing someone else back, he does go ask Blaine to come over to the entrance for a second. "Hey, Blaine," Kurt says, waving at him as a wave of nerves washed over him. "This is Jamie, she sat next to me and was just absolutely enraptured by your show. She mentioned wanting to meet you so I thought I'd bring her along with me, is that okay?"
Blaine smiles cheerfully and lets Kurt in, hugging him before moving on to say Jamie. While the two of them talks (and the girl tries not to hyperventilate), Kurt looks around backstage, feeling immensely privileged to be there. He must have spaced out because suddenly Blaine is tapping his shoulder, an amused grin in his face. Jamie is gone and Kurt just blinks; how much exactly did he miss?
"Ready to go get something to eat?" Blaine asks, taking Kurt's hand in his. His thumb is tracing circles on the back of Kurt's hand, and for a second, Kurt can't even come up with a proper answer. All he can think of to say are things along the lines of "huh?" and "uh." He nods, truly afraid to say anything out loud in case he does end up saying something combining those two sounds (because he certainly doesn't consider them words). Blaine is still looking at him with that playful, lopsided grin, almost as if he's fully aware of the effects that he has on Kurt.
They end up going to an Italian place for dinner, and Kurt thanks the heavens because even if it's terribly fattening, Italian food is his weakness. He's just about deciding that Blaine is his soul mate and almost starts thinking of a color scheme for their wedding when their waiter brings them their drinks and their menus and then Blaine's eyes are on his and oh God what was Kurt even thinking about?
"Do you know what you're ordering yet?" Blaine asks, taking a sip of his Dr. Pepper. Kurt can't help but smile at the fact that Blaine ordered such a childish drink and just sips daintily at his Diet Coke (which, granted, isn't that much better).
"I was thinking about maybe some ravioli. Or gnocchi. Oh, yum, mushroom gnocchi," Kurt says and blushes when he realizes Blaine is pretty much staring him down, much like he was the first time they met.
He realizes that Blaine must be thinking what a pig he is; gnocchi is such a fat-person food! Why did Kurt even say that stuff? Is his filter for things he should and shouldn't say in front of cute, gay and single guys even working today? Obviously not. He realizes that while this whole battle is going on inside his head, Blaine is talking, and he struggles to catch the tail end of his sentence. "—definitely go for some," is all he hears and he just nods, hoping he didn't miss anything too important. He takes another sip of his soda and looks around the restaurant, admiring how cute and picturesque it is. Blaine definitely has good taste in date restaurants.
"This place reminds me of this restaurant where I grew up," Kurt reflects absently, twirling his drink's straw between his thumb and index finger. "Everyone at my school went there when they were on dates — typical Friday night date place. They had really good food, though. Italian, of course, and the yummiest bread sticks ever. Of course, that's why it was called Breadstix."
Blaine's eyes widen suddenly and Kurt immediately worries. Did he say something wrong? Oh, God, what if they weren't even on a date and Kurt had to go and say that about the date restaurants and holy shit, he is just such an idiot. "Wait, it was called Breadstix?" Blaine asks, and Kurt nods, holding his freak out back for a few more seconds at the least. "Did you live in Lima?"
When Blaine asks him that, Kurt really isn't sure what to say, because honestly, he knows he never told Blaine where he's from, so how would he even know? Before Kurt can answer, though, Blaine is talking again, and considerably faster than usual, even for him. "The thing is, I went to school in Westerville, about two hours from Lima. I went to Dalton, I don't know if you've heard of it, but Breadstix, we'd definitely heard of. It was so popular, everyone from Dalton went there for their dates."
Kurt nods and lets go of his straw, letting it fall back into the cup. "Oh," he says, processing all this information before deciding it's just a weird coincidence. "What a small world, right?" He thinks about Blaine's face when he got all excited about having lived two hours away from each other when they were teenagers and smiles to himself. How is this man even human?
"What are you smiling about?" Blaine asks, looking at Kurt almost as if he's the most interesting person on the planet. Kurt can't stop feeling like this is all a dream, much too perfect to be true, and he shrugs in response to Blaine's question.
"I was just thinking that it's cute how you're so excited about us both being from Ohio," he answers. Just then, their waiter arrives with their food and while they receive their plates, Blaine shoots Kurt a wide smile, but they remain in silence. Once the waiter is gone, their conversation changes to their careers; Kurt wants to know when Blaine has a concert again and Blaine wants to go see the show Kurt is currently in.
After they finish their food, order dessert and end so long talking that the waiters are all glaring at them, Kurt and Blaine finally leave the restaurant. Kurt feels as their hands brush against each other and suppresses a shiver, almost wondering if maybe he should just hold Blaine's hand and get over it. However, he doesn't, and Blaine just walks him to the subway station Kurt needs to take to get home. They say goodbye and Kurt promises that he won't fall off the face of the earth and that yes, he will save tickets for Blaine for his show and they part ways with a small wave and a smile on each their faces.
He's almost to his apartment, exiting the subway station, to be precise, when his phone beeps with an incoming message.
From: Blaine
Is it bad that I miss you already?
Not knowing how to answer this, he simply types a colon and an end parenthesis, and sends Blaine a happy face.