Rachel didn't even look up from her phone. She'd been texting Finn for the past twenty minutes. “No, no, that's alright. We should be there any minute now.”

Kurt gave her a skeptical look. “Are you sure you gave the driver the right address? Because according to the map we're really going in the wrong direction. And this looks nothing like the pictures you showed me.”

“Really? Well, pictures can't really capture the spirit of New York anyway.” Rachel finally lifted her head to look out the window, avoiding Kurt's eyes, which only served to make him even more suspicious.

“Rachel?” Kurt seriously started to worry now. He didn't want to start off his life in New York as a homeless person just because Rachel couldn't remember street names. “What's going on?”

“What? Nothing's going on,” Rachel informed him much too cheerfully, just as the cab came to a halt. “We're here. We're home.” And with that, she was out of the car, finally putting away her phone to twirl on the spot, both arms stretched to the side, a giddy smile on her face. “We're home, Kurt. Our first apartment. In New York.”

Kurt followed her more slowly, craning his head to find something that would look even vaguely familiar. Something that had been in the numerous photos Rachel had shown him. However... “Rachel, seriously. This isn't right. This isn't the place. I do remember the pictures and unless they've torn everything down and rebuilt in a different style since you've last been here, this is definitely not where we're living.”

Rachel ignored him, busy paying the driver instead, who had just taken their heavy suitcases out of the trunk and dumped them on the sidewalk unceremoniously. Kurt, however, couldn't even find it in himself to care about his mistreated possessions right at this moment. Because this was not where they were supposed to be. He was sure of it.

“Thank you,” Rachel said to the driver, who was already closing the driver's side door, ready to drive off.

“No, wait,” Kurt shouted, but the cab had already found its way back into traffic and it was official now – they were stranded in a strange city, who knew where, and his lunatic of a roommate apparently didn't even notice.

“Ready?” Rachel asked, and, without even waiting for his answer, grabbed her enormous suitcases that looked entirely too heavy for someone her size and headed for the door.

“No, no, I'm not ready. Rachel, we're in the wrong place.” Kurt hurried after her as fast as he could, dragging his own luggage behind himself. He wasn't going to be leaving it on the sidewalk, even if he was pretty sure he'd have to carry everything out again in a minute. When Rachel finally realized her mistake. Which really should be any second now.

Or... not. Rachel marched on ahead of him, a determined look on her face as she entered a building that was so not the one she'd sent Kurt pictures of a few weeks ago, and up a creaking yet clean staircase that did not belong to the building they were going to live in.

“Here we are,” she finally declared, a little out of breath, as they reached the second floor. “Wait, I have the keys somewhere in my...” her voice became a little muffled as she almost climbed into her purse, producing a number of objects that didn't look at all like they would all fit in there.

On any other day, Kurt would have been the first to come up with a number of Mary Poppins references, but right now, he wasn't really in the mood for joking around. “Um.” He tried again. “Rachel, you haven't suddenly gone blind, have you?” he asked. “Because we are in the wrong place.”

“Nonsense,” Rachel answered, finally finding what she'd been looking for, holding up the key with a triumphant noise. “And I can prove it.”

She shoved the key into the lock and turned it and –

“Why do you have a key to this place? We don't live here.” Kurt stared at her, not sure what was going on anymore. “Where the hell are we? Why doesn't this look like the pictures?”

Rachel opened the door and dragged her suitcases over the threshold. “Well, are you just going to stand there or do you want to see your new home?” she called from inside the apartment.

Kurt shook his head in an attempt to clear his vision. Because clearly, he was imagining things. The key had fit. He had seen the pictures. This was not the right place. But the key had fit. This didn't look like the building from the pictures.

“Kurt?” Rachel called again, and he grabbed his suitcases and stepped around the door that was still blocking his view of the apartment. He didn't understand anything anymore, but –

“What...” he stopped, rooted to the spot as soon as he got a full visual of the place before him. “Rachel, this is someone else's living room. Get out of there.” It was pretty obvious that this was not an empty apartment, judging by the expensive furniture, the large TV screen and the magazines on the table.

“Oh.” Rachel looked right past his face, smiling a little nervously. “I'm... I'm sure I mentioned it...”

“Mentioned what?” Kurt felt like he'd stepped into a parallel universe. None of this made sense, and, considering that this was Rachel, that could never mean good things. “Rachel, what haven't you told me?”

“Well...” Rachel paused and seemed to shrink a little, if that was even still possible for her. “That other place... I got the call two weeks ago...” She broke off again, fingers nervously playing with the key she was still holding. “There... there was someone else interested in it and they... well, they said they'd have to raise the rent by fifty percent, and there was no way we could afford that, right? So I –”

“So you decided you'd keep this a secret from me and hoped I wouldn't notice?”

“Kind of? You'd never seen the place, actually. And I... Okay, I guess it was kind of my fault,” she admitted. “It's just that I told the landlord that we were both musicians and then there was this nice couple that wanted the place too – they're both accountants or something, you know, nice and quite people. So. Yes, it is my fault we didn't get it. I probably shouldn't have said all that stuff about rehearsing for auditions at all times of day...”

“You what?”

“...Anyway, I screwed up and I was embarrassed and I tried to make everything right, and... here we are. It is nice, though, isn't it?” Rachel gave him a hopeful look.

“You could have asked me for help, you know.” Kurt sighed. “You should have, actually. This is going to be my home, too, you know?”

“Oh, but there was really no need to bother you with this.” Rachel beamed. “It all worked out perfectly.”

“I wouldn't exactly define informing me about something like that as bothering me,” Kurt replied, confusion quickly being replaced with anger. “I mean, I'm impressed you found something so quickly, but didn't it ever occur to you that maybe I would have liked to have a say in the matter?”

“It's just...” Rachel looked away, shrugging. “We didn't have much time and you're sort of... I was a little afraid we wouldn't be able to agree on anything. You have to admit that you're a little picky.”

“Excuse me, but I'm what?” Kurt gasped. “What's that supposed to mean?”

Rachel rolled her eyes at him. “Kurt, when you send me off all by myself to find us a place in this city...”

“I had the flu! I didn't catch the flu on purpose. I would have loved to go with you!”

“Whatever, Kurt. You actually wrote me a list with specific instructions on what to be looking for.”

“Just to let you know what I wanted. It was just a short list, Rachel, just because I couldn't be there myself.”

“It was five pages. And your hand-writing's tiny.”

Resisting the urge to run head-first into the nearest wall, Kurt threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender. This discussion wasn't over, but he was too angry to continue it right now. “So, this is the apartment, then?” he asked, changing the topic.

“It is.” Rachel suddenly looked very proud of herself. “Isn't it lovely?” she sighed, taking a good look around. “I think we're gonna love it here.”

“I take it we have a roommate?” The anger was still obvious in his voice, but he didn't even try to suppress it. This was not how he'd imagined his arrival in New York. With Rachel making all the choices and him just having to accept all of it.

“Oh. Oh, yes, we have. But don't worry, you two will get along great.”

Kurt raised an eyebrow at her. “You already met him?”

“Of course I have!” Rachel looked at him like he was crazy. “You think I'd move in with a random stranger? In that case, I could have moved into a dorm. Seriously, Kurt. No, of course I know him and so do you.”

“I know him too?” Okay, this was getting more and more befuddling. And annoying. “Just spill it, Rachel. I'm tired of this and I'm tired of this day and I'm five seconds away from murdering you, but I'd like to know who I'm going to live with after that, first. If you don't mind.”

Rachel opened and closed her mouth, looking like a fish on dry land, but before Kurt got a chance to ask her to please have the courtesy to finally speak to him, a familiar voice sounded from the doorway.

“Oh, you're already here.”

Kurt froze, his eyes widening in shock, before he turned around, slowly, slowly, not quite ready to have his eyes confirm who he already knew that voice belonged to.

“Jesse!” Rachel exclaimed before hurling herself across the room to hug her ex-boyfriend hello.

“Jesse!” Kurt repeated, decidedly less excited than his roommate. “Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no.” He pressed his fingers to his forehead. This wasn't happening. He was dreaming. Having a terrible nightmare. He'd wake up in the cab any second now to find they had arrived at their apartment. The real one. The one from the pictures. The one that wasn't also the home of Jesse St. James, Most Annoying Person To Ever Walk The Face Of the Earth. His new roommate. What had he ever done to deserve this?

“Kurt. It's so good to see you again.” Jesse walked over to him, taking his hand and shaking it firmly. “When Rachel called me and told me you guys were going to be homeless, I immediately thought this would be a brilliant idea. My own roommates just moved out a few weeks ago and this apartment really is too big for just one person. This all worked out perfectly. Excellent timing and all that. God, isn't this exciting?”

He turned back towards Rachel, who was nodding eagerly, bouncing up and down on her feet and clapping her hands together. “It's perfect.”

Kurt still had trouble breathing. This wasn't real. None of this was real. It couldn't be. “Rachel?” he said, his voice trembling slightly from a mix of confusion and suppressed anger. “We're not living with Jesse, right? Tell me you didn't make us move in with Jesse St. James.”

“I know, I can't believe it either,” she squealed. “Three artists, living together in New York. This is going to be so awesome.”

“No!” Kurt couldn't quite believe her. “No, it's not. Are you crazy? What the hell were you thinking? I'm not living with him.” He pointed at Jesse, who didn't even seem to notice he was being insulted.

“Let me show you your rooms,” he just said, motioning for them to follow him. “My room's the biggest, of course, but I'm sure you'll like yours as well. My old roommates left some stuff and I added some things too. My parents buy me a new bedroom set every year and I thought you two could use some of my old stuff.”

“That's so thoughtful of you,” Rachel said. “Kurt, isn't that so thoughtful of him?”

“Yeah,” Kurt answered. “Great. Rachel, can we maybe step outside for a moment and talk privately?”

“Oh my god, a piano!” Rachel practically skipped across the room to run her hands over the black, shiny, very expensive-looking instrument in an almost loving way. “This is all so great.”

“It really is.” Jesse smiled happily. “That reminds me, I should tell you right now. I practice best late at night, so if you're light sleepers, I suggest you adjust your sleeping rhythms accordingly. You're always welcome to listen, of course. I'm sure you can learn a lot from me. Where were we.” He snapped his fingers. “Right. Rooms. So, Rachel, I thought you'd take this one,” Jesse pointed to the door to the right, “and then that one will be Kurt's,” he continued, indicating the door to the left. “Go on, take a look,” he added, when Kurt just continued to stand there, not showing any interest in seeing the room that would be his new home for... well, as long as it would take him to find somewhere else to live and be out of here.

“All right then.” Kurt sighed, feeling the beginnings of a dull headache coming on. “How bad can it possibly be?” Opening the door to the left, he found this question answered almost immediately. “Oh my...” he stopped dead on the threshold, unable to take even another step towards the sight that greeted him. He just stood gaping, mouth hanging open, trying to make a sound, but nothing came out. “What... how... this...” he finally croaked.

“I know, it's pretty amazing, isn't it?” Jesse was standing next to him all of a sudden. “I thought you might like it. Everyone does. Rachel's room looks just the same.”

“Your face.” Kurt could barely control his voice by now. “It's... everywhere.”

The whole room was covered in posters of Jesse St. James. Some of them close to life-size. Some of them with his smiling face, some of them in profile with a thoughtful expression, some obviously photos that were taken on stage, with Jesse singing, arms spread and head thrown back, belting out some song.

“No way you could be anything but an artist in this room,” Jesse informed him. “Every time you need inspiration, just look at the walls and there I am.”

“I... I can't...”

“No need to thank me. I have boxes full of those. Consider it a welcome present.” Jesse patted his shoulder, grinning brightly. “So, make yourself at home,” he added, before walking over to the piano.

“I love this place,” Kurt heard Rachel calling from the other room. “Why did your old roommates ever move out?”

Jesse shrugged. “Artistic differences,” he explained. “I think they were jealous of my incredible talent. Left the apartment every time I started rehearsing.”

“Lucky for us,” Rachel replied.

“Isn't it?” Jesse turned back to Kurt. “You should really start unpacking. And then we can all have dinner together and talk about old times.” He smiled brightly.

“Old times,” Kurt repeated. “Right. Sounds just wonderful.” He kept standing in the door frame for another minute, debating whether he should actually enter the room (because, seriously, creepy) or simply stay out here in the hope that it might disappear if he just waited long enough.

But Jesse was out here, Jesse who was now singing “Fortune Favors The Brave” on top of his lungs, accompanying himself on the piano, so Kurt decided that the posters were still better than the real thing. Because, really. He was slowly reaching the end of his patience. He just needed some peace and quiet for a while. A long while, if possible. He kind of had a lot to digest right now. So he took one deep breath and quickly stepped inside, banging the door shut behind him with enough force to make the walls shake. At least the force of it made one of the posters come loose and he watched as Jesse's face slowly slid down to the floor from where it continued to smile up at him cheerfully. He shuddered. Well, all of those would have to go before he could even consider sleeping in here.

He was halfway through ripping them down – it felt kind of cathartic, he was feeling calmer already – when there was a knock on the door.

“What?” he yelled. Okay, so he hadn't fully calmed down yet. Whatever.

The door opened a crack and Rachel poked her head around the door frame.

“Can I... can I come in? Please?”

“Why do you even ask? You usually don't when it's something important,” Kurt snapped at her.

“Are you mad at me?” she asked.

Kurt snorted. “What makes you think that?”

Rachel came inside anyway, closing the door a lot more gently than Kurt had done before. “I wanted to tell you,” she started to explain. “But somehow... it never came up.”

“It never came up that we lost the apartment we had both decided on and instead had to move in with one of the biggest jerks in existence?”

“He isn't that bad once you get to know him.”

“That's the thing, though. I don't want to get to know him. I don't want to live here. I don't want to share a home with Jesse St. James.”

Rachel nodded and leaned back against the wall. “I know you two don't get along so well. But... I kind of panicked when I found out two weeks ago that we wouldn't have a place to live. You know, I promised I'd taken care of everything and it didn't work out and I just wanted to fix it. And then Jesse called and we talked and... he offered. Can't we just... can't we just try this?” She gave him a pleading look. “I promise, if it doesn't work out, we'll find somewhere else to live. Just... give it a try. Please.”

Kurt shook his head. “I just don't get why you didn't tell me when our plans fell through. We could have come up with a new plan. Together. We would have thought of something. Instead you went behind my back and just...”

“Look, I'm sorry, okay?” Rachel really did sound like she meant that. “I just panicked. I didn't know what to do. I'm really sorry, Kurt.”

He sighed. “Okay.” He didn't really know what other option he had at the moment anyway. “I'm not happy about this, I just want to make that very clear. And I'm still mad at you and I will be for a while. You'll just have to live with that, I'm afraid. But, okay, I'm going to give this a try. Doesn't really seem like I have a choice, right? One week. I'll try one week. And if it doesn't work out, I'm going to find someplace else, with or without you.”

Rachel smiled at him. “Thank you. I promise you won't regret it. I'm sure it won't be as bad as you think. And we're still in this together, okay? I know you're probably worried I'll be spending all my time with Jesse now, but there's nothing going on between us anymore. I have Finn, remember? I wouldn't do that to him. And if I ever do want to hang out with Jesse, I don't know, you can always call Blaine – ”

Kurt gasped. “That's why you wanted me to meet him. Because you felt guilty about this and you thought –”

“But you guys did get along great, didn't you?” Rachel was positively beaming at him now. “Seemed to me like you really hit it off...”

“That's not the point,” Kurt interrupted. “Don't change the subject. And, by the way, does Finn even know about our new living arrangements? Wait, is that why he was yelling at you over the phone the other night?”

Rachel squirmed a little. “No. I... haven't told him yet, actually.”

“Oh my god.” Kurt stared at her incredulously. “You know you have to, right? As soon as possible. He's going to freak out when he hears this, and he'll have every right to do so. You know that.”

“He'll understand,” Rachel said, even though she didn't sound like she really believed it.

“Then why haven't you told him yet? I think you should – “”

“Oh, I think Jesse's calling for me,” Rachel cut him off, even though Kurt couldn't hear anything. “We're going to order take-out later. Tell me what you want and I'll pay, it's the least I can do,” Rachel added hastily, before backing out of the room, leaving him alone and a little less confused, but no less furious than before.

It took him another fifteen minutes to rid the room entirely of Jesse's face. By the time he was finished, he was not only exhausted, but also decidedly calmer. The room itself wasn't too bad, once the creepy posters were all gone. Not very big, but his stuff would fit in here and he had a view of the street, which meant it wasn't very quiet, but at least he could see the city from his window. Maybe, just maybe, he could do this after all.

His phone buzzed where he had put it on the windowsill and he saw he had another text from Blaine. He couldn't quite help the smile that spread across his face as he read it. He was kind of glad no one was here to see it.

Figured you must be in your new apartment by now and wanted to wish you a good first night in NY.

He hit the reply button before he could think about it too much and texted back:

a good night to you too. Not sure how good mine will be, though. Just wait till you hear what Rachel has done now.

About half a minute later his phone started ringing, the caller ID informing him it was Blaine.

“Tell me everything,” he said as soon as Kurt had answered, and Kurt didn't need to be told twice. He definitely needed a sane person to talk to right now. He'd call his dad later, but, he thought, it was probably best to get everything off his chest first, calm down a little. He didn't want to worry his family too much if he could avoid it.

“Oh my god,” he began. “I don't even know where to start.”

“That sounds bad,” Blaine replied, laughing. “What did Rachel do this time?”

Kurt sat down on the single bed that Jesse's old roommate had left behind – the mattress creaked horribly and gave off a weird smell, meaning that would be the first thing that would have to go, but he could worry about that later. He took a deep breath and started telling Blaine the whole story.

After he was finished, Blaine was silent for a while. “That's... crazy,” he finally said, sounding more amused than shocked. “He really put up posters of himself? In your room?”

“He said it might inspire me.”

“To do what?”

“No idea,” Kurt answered. “But I feel better now that I took them down.”

“Yeah, I can imagine.”

“So, how's your first night in New York so far?” Kurt asked, changing the subject. He didn't really want to talk about Jesse or Rachel anymore.

“It's okay,” Blaine said. “But now that I've heard your story, I'm kind of afraid to move into my dorm room tomorrow. Who knows what will be waiting for me there. Apparently, people in this city are a lot more insane than I thought.”

“Thank you for listening to me, by the way,” Kurt said. “I really needed to tell someone all of this and if I'd called my father he'd probably have had me on the next flight back home.”

“You're welcome,” Blaine answered. “My friend is at some rehearsal, so I'm all alone in a strange city. It's nice to have someone to talk to.”

“It really is,” Kurt agreed.

Blaine was silent on the other end and Kurt bit his lip nervously, not quite sure how to continue the conversation. It felt comfortable, talking to Blaine, and yet they had only met this afternoon. It wasn't like there was an abundance of topics for them to talk about. He didn't want to end the conversation either, though. Because that meant he would have to leave this room eventually and face the crazy that was Jesse and Rachel. Besides, he liked talking to Blaine. He really liked talking to Blaine. Too much for someone he just met, probably. But Blaine seemed so nice and normal. A nice guy with a nice voice, someone who was there when he needed someone to talk to, even though he'd only known him for a few hours. And Blaine didn't seem to mind talking to him, either. Kurt just wasn't really used to making friends so quickly, that was all.

“Look, I don't know anyone in this city yet, well, except for my friend David,” Blaine finally broke the silence. “So, I don't know, if you ever want to hang out or anything, if things get too crazy with your roommates, or, I don't know... just, feel free to call me, okay”

Kurt couldn't help the smile that spread across his face. “Thank you. I will. And...” he felt a little dizzy all of a sudden. Must be an after-effect of the flight, combined with the fact that he hadn't eaten yet. “You know you can call me too, any time.”

“I already did,” Blaine answered, and Kurt could hear him grinning over the phone. “But thank you. In fact, what are you doing this weekend? Because I was planning on exploring the city a bit, and, I thought, if you wanted to come along...”

“Sure, yes, absolutely,” Kurt interrupted, a little too quickly perhaps. “That sounds... nice. I was going to do that anyway, and if I can go with you I have a good chance of not getting stuck with Jesse as a tour guide. He'd probably want to show me all the street corners people have asked him for autographs or something.”

Blaine laughed. “Well then, I'm glad I can help. Call you tomorrow for the details?”

“Yes, okay.” Kurt clutched the phone a little tighter, trying not to sound too excited. “Talk to you then.”

“I'm looking forward to it. Good night, Kurt.”

“Good night, Blaine.”

He was about to let himself fall back onto the bed after hanging up, remembering at the last second that he'd really prefer not to come into too much contact with it if he could help it. He'd have to buy a new mattress first thing tomorrow.

He sighed and kept staring at the phone in his hand, feeling warm all over and considerably more at home now, in this apartment, in this city.

Somehow, hearing Blaine's voice alone had made him feel a lot calmer and a lot less homesick, and while he wondered a little how someone he had only known for a few hours could have that effect on him, he didn't really want to dwell on it too much. He felt better now, and wasn't that really all that mattered? It had nothing to do with anything. It was probably a little too early to say they were friends. They'd known each other for a day. But he couldn't help it, there was something about Blaine that made Kurt trust him almost instinctively, as if he'd known him for much longer than just one afternoon. He had learned the hard way to protect himself, to be cautious around people, to not expect anything from anyone, ever. But with Blaine, it was difficult to stick to those rules he'd made for himself. He wanted to know Blaine. He wanted to spend time with Blaine. As friends. Nothing more. And, after all, Blaine had texted him first, had called him first. And after the very, very short time they'd known each other, Kurt was a little scared to find how strangely happy that made him.

And to think that this time the day before, he'd still been afraid of meeting him, thinking he was Rachel's ex-boyfriend and thus possibly a crazy person.

“Kurt, are you in there?”

Rachel's voice brought him back to the present, and he rolled his eyes even though she couldn't see it.

“Of course I am. Where would I have gone?”

“We're going to order food. Do you want anything?”

“I'll be with you in a minute,” he answered, waiting until he heard Rachel's footsteps retreating before he got up and looked around the room again.

He could do this. Tomorrow, he'd go buy himself a mattress, and some other small things to make it look more like this was his room.

And then, this weekend, he'd meet up with his new friend and get to know this city a little better.

Sure, none of this was turning out the way he'd planned it so far. But when had that ever stopped him? He had survived Lima. He could survive sharing an apartment with Rachel and Jesse. Taking another deep breath and mentally preparing himself for whatever would meet him on the other side, he opened the door and entered the madness that was his new life.