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The notification came in at 4:30 from a B. D. Anderson. Kurt was going to avoid the pick up, let some other driver grab the fare, but something made him click the little accept button. The pick up location appeared as a little black dot, a matching black line showing the route to the specific spot. The Natural History Museum was a common tourist hot spot, but the name on the screen and the fact that his best friend in high school, Blaine Devon Anderson had been obsessed with going there, Kurt was already feeling the tendrils of doubt creep in.
Nervously, he pulled up and went to confirm the pickup, but he could hear the telltale sounds of a phone call, so he stopped and watched as the curly haired man climbed in. His head was bent low over his phone as he spoke quickly in a language Kurt was sure he recognized as tagalog.
‘Strike 3,’ Kurt thought to himself as he set the GPS within the app to navigate to an address in Bushwick, only a few blocks from his own address.
Kurt hadn’t heard much of the Filipino language, but Blaine had been fluent, as his grandma was Filipino and mostly communicated in her native tongue. Blaine had habitually used random Filipino words when talking, mashed together with his English. Kurt had thought the habit was adorable though he had never admitted that to Blaine, not even on the last day he had seen him over twelve years ago.
Kurt remembered meeting Analyn Anderson once. She had been sweet, been chatty and adored her grandson, constantly sending him back from visits with sweet treats Kurt knew Blaine’s mother and father disapproved of. Kurt's visit had ended much the same as she insisted on shoving containers of homemade baked goods at him to take back to Dalton.
Kurt had been a mid-semester transfer in his sophomore year, his father deciding after an incident with a jock that he would be much safer in a school with a no bullying policy. Blaine had been there since September, following his own bullying incident. The two of them had connected instantly, bonding over their love of Chicago, Wicked and The Sound of Music .
Kurt turned the radio down a bit so as not to disturb his passenger’s phone call, before checking his mirrors and heading off. In city traffic, he’d be lucky to complete this job in an hour, but that still left him plenty of time to get back into the city for his audition. He had graduated from NYADA eight years ago, and had enjoyed some mild success in ensemble parts and supporting roles, but tonight he was auditioning for the role of Billy Flynn. He was worried it was a long shot, but his agent was confident that he would be able to bring a new shine to the role.
His thoughts drifted back to Blaine as the man in the back continued to talk rapid fire with the person on the other end of the phone. The man was dressed in a sharp suit and carrying a genuine leather satchel that Kurt could tell was expensive. He was quite striking, dark curls hanging loose around his face as he stared at something on his phone. Kurt could see the black cable of earphones trailing up toward his passenger's face and deduced that was why he couldn’t hear the responses.
The man could be an older version of Blaine, at a distance. Kurt might even have mistaken him for Blaine, but wasn’t all that sure that seeing Blaine again would be a good thing.
The last time he had seen Blaine was when he had shown up at the Anderson residence, ready to confess his feelings for him. Kurt had brought flowers, planned a speech and had spent some time with Wes and David, two of their friends from the Dalton Warblers, rehearsing The Wooing of Blaine Anderson. But when the door had opened – Kurt had never been so relieved in his life to have left the flowers in the car for the time being – Blaine had greeted him with smiles and a nervous twitchiness and introduced him to Sebastian Smythe.
Blaine’s boyfriend.
Kurt had faltered, but stepped forward to shake Sebastian's hand as Blaine gushed about their first date the previous weekend. Kurt had stood and listened and given the best performance of his life as he played the role of excited best friend and not the heartbroken boy he felt inside. He knew Sebastian had seen right through him.
He left two hours later, went home and decided he needed to focus on himself – no men. Definitely no Blaine Anderson – and start his future now. He’d sent a hurried text to Wes and David letting them know what had happened, before blocking Blaine on everything, every website, every app, his phone, his life; the sheer embarrassment of it all driving him into a social media blackout. He made David and Wes swear to never tell a soul and left for New York two days later, moving into the loft with Rachel and Santana, friends he’d made during his brief stint at McKinley High School, before he’d transferred to Dalton.
“Mabuti, mabuti!”
Kurt startled, recognising the word as Bye from the small number of words he had learned from Blaine. Kurt braced himself and prepared for the worst, but was surprised when the stranger continued to look down at his phone. They continued their drive in comfortable silence. Neither of them felt the need to make conversation and the man seemed entranced watching the city go by.
Blaine Devon Anderson was not having the best day.
When he had woken up in New York that morning, he hadn’t known that his therapist would cancel his appointment at the last second, or that work would end up being so busy he couldn’t think straight. He hadn’t been able to get a cup of coffee until noon, and by that time, the private school he worked at was breaking for lunch and kids were clamoring for his time for additional support with work. He was helping with the school musical, he’d had Active Shooter Training for two hours and now, here he was, in the back of an Uber whilst the the man who had cut all ties with him for no reason drove him home.
When he’d seen Kurt’s image pop up on the Uber app, he’d been stunned into silence and had never been so thankful that his Grandma chose that moment to call him so he had an excuse to not interact with Kurt when he pulled up.
He was still trying to work out how Kurt Hummel had ended up driving with Uber in New York and not on the Broadway stage. He murmured a soft greeting but continued to focus on the email app open on his phone. He was 99 percent convinced this was Kurt, and he was not sure what to say after twelve years of nothing.
Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t realize when he started humming along with the radio, but he’d never been able to resist Shania Twain.
Kurt wasn’t sure how long he’d been driving when he heard the soft singing from the back of the car. The Blaine look-alike was good, if the whispered singing was anything to go by, and Kurt found himself hoping he was not wasting his talent in some fancy, corporate job that made him thousands of dollars an hour for pressing two keys on a keyboard.
“The best thing about being a woman…is the prerogative to have a little fun and… ”
Kurt cranked up the radio by instinct and joined in on the chorus, providing harmony for his passenger’s lead vocals.
“Oh-oh-oh, go totally crazy…forget I'm a lady…men's shirts, short skirts…Oh-oh-oh, really go wild…yeah, doin' it in style…Oh-oh-oh, get in the action, feel the attraction, color my hair, do what I dare, Oh-oh-oh, I wanna be free, yeah, to feel the way I feel, man! I feel like a woman!!”
He could hear the man singing along louder once Kurt joined him and the two of them continued to belt out the next verse together, as the traffic moved along the streets. It was nowhere near as bad as normal and Kurt was secretly hoping this would allow him ample time to get back to the city in time for something to eat before his audition.
Kurt had learnt long ago that music was the key to soothing his soul, and it seemed to be having the same effect on the man who sang his heart out in the back seat of Kurt’s uber.
It was a very Blaine thing to do.
Strike 4.
His voice was smooth like honey and Kurt wanted desperately to see him properly but there was nowhere for him to safely pull over. At the next set of lights he glanced back, but the man had his head tipped back, his elegant neck stretched as he belted at the top of his voice, and Kurt grinned.
This was turning out to be the most exciting fare that he had ever taken.
The end of the song neared and Kurt realized they were fast approaching their destination as he and his passenger finished it together.
“Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, I get totally crazy, can you feel it? Come, come, come on, baby! I feel like a wo-man!!”
He lowered music abruptly as he turned onto the correct street, laughing slightly at the energy a good singalong had given him, and he could hear the chuckle from the back as he slowed to a stop. The quiet laugh sent shivers down his spine. It was smooth and deep, the kind of chuckle that warmed you from the inside out.
He glanced into the rearview mirror as he opened his mouth to speak. “I believe this is your…” his eyes connected with the man he had been driving, who had done his damnedest to not look at him and Kurt swallowed down the shock. “ Blaine,” he breathed. As his mind echoed, ‘ Strike 5.’
The man in the back of the car froze on the spot. But he didn’t seem quite as surprised as Kurt would have thought.
Blaine, to his credit, remained composed, despite the second of shock that passed over him when Kurt recognised him. Time to face the music.
He offered a small smile as Kurt held his gaze. “Hello, Kurt Hummel.”
Kurt gaped at him. “I really didn’t think it was you.”
“Or… you hoped it wasn’t me…” Blaine offered a bite to his tone.
Kurt glanced down and fiddled with a cable. He had ghosted Blaine. Vanished from his life with no explanation and no contact at all. His heart pounded as he stared at Blaine in the rearview mirror. Surely this was his brain playing tricks on him, but then Blaine was moving, yanking on the handle of the door and Kurt’s brain finally caught up with him.
“Blaine! Oh my God”
Blaine stopped when he found Kurt in front of him, nearly tripping on the curb as he moved to stand on the sidewalk.
Wow, he really grew up was the thought that spun through Blaine’s brain.
The last time he’d seen Kurt was when he’d panicked and thought he could make Kurt jealous by introducing him to his “boyfriend”. Sebastian had never been anyone's boyfriend, and only went along with Blaine's ridiculous idea because he thought it might get him a free pass into Blaine's pants.
Kurt had been taller than him, but hadn’t quite grown into his skin yet. Here he was though, twelve years later, with muscles he definitely hadn’t had before and eyes that shined from his handsome face. His hair had highlights, and those jeans …
“Where have you been!?” Blaine snapped, his hands coming to rest on his hips.
“In New York!”
“No shit, Sherlock! You just vanished and blocked me on everything, I’ve been looking for you since I got here a year ago! You just ghosted me Kurt…”
Kurt knew Blaine had every right to be angry, but so did he.
“Well, I was hardly going to hang around when I’d just embarrassed myself in front of your boyfriend, Blaine.”
Blaine looked hurt and Kurt bit his lip, hating to be the one to bring that look to his face.
“Embarrassed? Kurt you didn’t do anything!”
“No…but I planned to.”
“What?”
“I panicked, okay? I turned up at your house to tell you I was in love with you, and there you were all cozied up with Sebastian…”
“You loved me? ” Blaine asked, his eyes wide.
“There are those puppy eyes,” Kurt sighed. “Blaine. I had spent weeks planning how I was going to confess my feelings to you, I had it all rehearsed, I’d run the plan past Wes and David so many times, they were sick of me. Then I showed up to do it… and there was Seb-” He was cut off by Blaine.
“Rehearsed? You… Kurt, I… Sebastian wasn’t my boyfriend!” The emotion seemed to drain out of him as he blurted it out, his shoulders slumping and his eyes becoming wet. What was the point of the anger after all this time?
Kurt’s eyes bulged. “What?!”
“I had kind of worked out you liked me by junior year and I was so focused on being your friend because of what happened with that Karofsky kid, that I pushed it aside. I figured I had to let you take the lead… and eventually I decided that if I got a boyfriend that would force you to confess… after you vanished, I realized that maybe I’d ruined any chance I had with you forever…”
“You’re so oblivious, Blaine…how on earth did you know?”
“Kurt,” Blaine offered a small smile, “How could I not?”
Kurt stared at him for a moment, taking in the hazel eyes that he had dreamed about all too often over the years.
“I worshipped the ground you walked on, Blaine… when you had Sebastian…”
“Sebastian was a mistake, Kurt. I wanted you, to love you… be the man I thought you deserved… .”
“I know that now…” Kurt sighed. “Is it… where do we go from here?”
Blaine shrugged, his eyebrows narrowing together at the thought of letting Kurt just walk away, never to be seen again. He heard a soft laugh and looked up to find Kurt looking at him, a gentle smile on his face.
“Aww, you still do the eyebrow thingy...”
Blaine raised one of said eyebrows. Kurt's smile deepened and Blaine’s heart tripped all over itself in an attempt to beat normally. “Eyebrow thing?”
“Yeah, when you think of something you don’t like… your eyebrows scrunch together…”
“I was thinking about you walking away and me not stopping you.” Blaine answered. “I don’t think I can let you walk away, Kurt. I missed my chance once with you, ruined it for both of us by trying to force it… but maybe… maybe we were just made for now .”
Kurt raised his own eyebrow and bit his lip, “I know you thought that making me jealous might have tripped me up, but I’ll be honest, the most important thing to me was that you were happy, Blaine… and if Sebastian made you happy, I never would have said anything.”
Blaine was deep in thought as he stared at Kurt. “And now?”
“I just really don’t want to walk away without kissing you. Because twelve years has done nothing to diminish those feelings I had for you.”
“You had feelings for me right from the beginning?”
“From the minute you stopped on that staircase and I was asking you for directions to Biology.”
Blaine paused for a moment, his head cocking to one side. “Do you remember our first duet?”
“Of course I do… Baby, it’s cold outside…” Kurt trailed off with a self deprecating smile. “The whole time we were singing I just wanted to switch off that damn boombox and give you the world's most passionate kiss…”
Blaine nodded once. “ Fuck it… ” he breathed.
He rushed forward, caught Kurt’s face in his palms before hesitating. But he needn’t have worried.
Kurt reacted by throwing his arms around Blaine’s neck, forcing Blaine’s hands to his waist and pulling him the rest of the way. Their lips met – finally – after all this time. Kurt abandoned all thought of his audition and food and anything else that would take him away from this moment.
Blaine grinned into the kiss, his hands tightening on Kurt’s waist as he pressed him backwards. He ran one hand further up Kurt's back to support him before dipping him, causing Kurt to laugh against his lips. He pulled back slightly and murmured, “You always said you wanted your first kiss to be Hollywood style. ”
Kurt laughed again. He had plenty of time to tell Blaine about his first kiss. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to Blaine's lips once more, ran his fingers through Blaine’s hair, an action he had fantasized about when they were in high school.
“Wait… no hair gel?”
“What?”
“Blaine you used to wear so much, I could knock on your hair and it would echo!”
Blaine laughed and shook his head. “Come upstairs and I’ll tell you all about my hair gel!”
“We have so much to talk about…”
“We do… you should…”
“I have an audition,” Kurt breathed reluctantly, “In like… oh crap, like an hour, but you could meet me after?” Kurt suddenly felt adrenaline course through him as he moved to back away from Blaine.
Blaine was nodding before Kurt had finished. “Yeah, yes…”
Kurt grinned and leaned him to kiss him again. The overwhelming joy of knowing and feeling Blaine again was making him giddy, but he just couldn’t be late.
He didn't know how he would get through this audition now, knowing Blaine Anderson would be waiting for him.
Blaine kissed him again, again and again, desperate to hold on now that they had found each other once more, even if Kurt was trying to rush off.
“I need to go… but I really don’t want to.”
“You can’t go yet,” Blaine breathed. “I can’t meet you if you don’t tell me where…”
Kurt laughed lightly and nodded, pulling away from Blaine, and ignoring the part of him that never wanted to let go again. “I love you, Blaine, I never stopped. Meet me at the Gershwin theatre.”
Blaine grinned, his eyes alight with pride. “Gershwin, 7:30”
“7:30…” Kurt nodded, stepping away and leaning into the car. He produced a business card and handed it to Blaine. “Just in case…”