Kurt seats himself at a small, square table in the unfamiliar coffee shop, nestled in a corner and partially hidden behind a row of hideous plants on a ledge. The place isn’t that large and the coffee is barely mediocre, if his nonfat mocha is anything to go by. But it’s out of Lima and far away from the school and that’s what matters.

Checking the time on his phone for the fourth time in the last five minutes, Kurt grows increasingly impatient. The fact that he’s sitting here, waiting for a date with a boy he doesn’t even want to be seen with, is driving him up the freaking wall.

Not a date, he reminds himself. Just coffee.

“I almost didn’t recognize you without your uniform.”

Blaine steps into sight, wearing a bulky cardigan thrown over another sweater vest, and seats himself delicately on the edge of the chair across from Kurt.

“You’re late,” Kurt snaps.

“I know,” Blaine says with little to no emotion. “My parents held me up.”

“Right. As if making me wait for someone like you wasn’t part of your master plan in the first place.”

“I’m sorry,” Blaine apologizes with flat eyes. “I didn’t mean to make you wait.”

“I’m sure.”

Heaving a deep, quiet sigh, Blaine gives an almost imperceptible shake of his head before speaking again. “So, do you want to study first? Or do you want to do the coffee thing first?”

“Studying,” Kurt says immediately, willing to put off any kind of unnecessary conversation for as long as possible.

With a nod, Blaine digs out his physics textbook and a notebook. They set to work and after only ten minutes, Kurt is actually surprised at how much Blaine knows on the subject. As time wears on and they work their way through a list of equations and two of the seven chapters he needs to relearn for the upcoming test, Kurt is thoroughly impressed with Blaine’s ability to tutor. He understands the material so well that even when Kurt has a question only vaguely related to the topic, Blaine can expand on the principles and theory, giving Kurt a better understanding of the material. He’s patient and kind, and damnit if he isn’t one of the best teachers Kurt has ever had.

For some reason, it only makes Kurt hate him just that much more.

He’s just so – so nice that Kurt doesn’t know what to do or how to respond.

“I think that’s all we should do for now,” Blaine says, gently closing the textbook with more reverence than it deserves. “We don’t want to cram your brain with too much, otherwise you might forget it all. Just study the notes you took for twenty minutes every night until we meet again.”

“Right,” Kurt says, shifting in his seat, afraid to admit that he doesn’t know how to start off the inevitable conversation they’re supposed to have. “So…”

“What’re you drinking?” Blaine asks politely.

“A nonfat mocha,” Kurt answers. “Why-”

“I’ll be back.”

Kurt looks on in confusion as Blaine walks up to the counter and pays for not one, but two beverages. He returns to the table, handing Kurt his drink with a small smile before sitting in his seat once again.

“You didn’t have to buy me anything,” Kurt states.

“I know,” Blaine says, “but it’s always easier to talk to someone when you’ve got something to do with your hands and something small to focus on.”

“Okay…” Kurt says slowly. “Well – um, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

A silence settles between the two of them and it’s most definitely an awkward one. Kurt fiddles with the rim of his cup, actively avoiding Blaine’s eyes while he attempts to identify the song drifting through the speakers. This is ridiculous. How is he supposed to talk to someone who he has absolutely nothing in common with? How is he supposed to talk to someone when he doesn’t even want to be here in the first place?

“You’re really not very good at this, are you?”

Kurt’s head whips up. “Excuse me? I’m not the one who insisted on this little date, I’ll remind you.”

“Not a date,” Blaine states. “They’ll never be dates unless you want them to be.”

“Whatever you want to – wait. They’ll? Dates? As in…plural?” Kurt backtracks.

“Well, yeah,” Blaine says. “One for every night I tutor you.”

“What – that wasn’t-”

“You thought I was going to tutor you for two weeks in return for one hour of coffee?” Blaine asks incredulously, a small grin on his face.

“Yes!” Kurt hisses. “That’s exactly what I thought!”

“Well I’m sorry that you mistook my bargain,” Blaine says, though he doesn’t sound sorry at all. “If you think you can’t do it, then I’ll stop tutoring you and you won’t have to meet me anymore.”

Teeth clenched and face hard, Kurt stares down the manipulative little wretch across the table. He’s officially been outwitted, duped by a boy who didn’t have enough sense to get a bigger backpack in order to avoid harassment. Kurt never would have said yes to this little deal if he had known there would be more than one coffee date and now he knows that Blaine knew that when he offered. But now, after learning exactly how adept Blaine is at tutoring and just how well he understands the material, Kurt is caught between multiple cups of coffee and multiple nights of conversation or failing the test.

“Is this how you get all your boyfriends?” Kurt spits. “You trick them into spending time with you?”

“…How did you know I was gay?”

“You just work all the angles and then you – wait, what?”

“You said – how did you know I liked guys?” Blaine asks again, visibly turning back into the quiet introvert Kurt had seen for the first few weeks. His eyes dart around the coffee shop despite the barrier of plants, lip caught between his teeth. “I never – is it that obvious?”

“No,” Kurt says, shaking his head, surprised at Blaine’s reaction. “No, I didn’t – I was just making – I wasn’t trying to – wait, so you are gay?”

It wasn’t something Kurt had lingered on, not really. He never suspected that Blaine was gay. Though…maybe he should have, especially after how Blaine had handled Kurt’s initial suggestion that this would be a date. Most guys at McKinley, if such a thing had been insinuated, would have reacted a bit more forcefully at the idea of being considered gay. They would have snapped back or been insulted at the mere possibility.

But not Blaine.

“I – yeah,” Blaine admits softly, hands coming up to squeeze his arms, as if protecting himself from something unnamed and potentially hurtful. “I mean, I’ve been out for almost a year but I just wasn’t expecting someone to realize it so easily.”

“I didn’t know,” Kurt tells him. “I mean, I wouldn’t have known. I guess my gaydar isn’t running at full capacity these days. Do you…not want people to know?”

He asks because, even though the kid has caused him some grief over the past few days, it certainly isn’t his right to out him at school, no matter his distaste for Blaine. Kurt remembers the stares and the slushies, the slurs and the dumpster tosses from his first two years in high school. He remembers the pain and humiliation and no matter who they are, be they nerd, Cheerio, jock, or loser, no one deserves to be outed.

“I just – I was out at my old school and things didn’t…go over very well. I wasn’t trying to trick you into being my boyfriend,” Blaine says, pleading with his eyes. “I swear I wasn’t. I just wanted you to see that people like me aren’t bad or less or-”

“Okay, okay,” Kurt stops his rant. “I won’t say anything.”

Blaine swallows and exhales a shaky breath. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” Kurt says. “You shouldn’t thank anyone for being a decent human being.”

Not that Kurt has done much to demonstrate that, deep down, he is a decent human being, but the point still stands. Blaine’s eyes rake over Kurt’s face, as if he’s trying to read him or gauge his temperament. He’s silent for a long moment, as is Kurt, until Blaine finally speaks.

“You’re gay too, aren’t you?” he asks softly.

Kurt snorts indelicately. “What gave it away?”

“The primping in front of the mirror at your locker,” Blaine says honestly, a smile returning to his lips. “No straight guy has the balls to do that in the hallway in high school.”

“Yes, well, I’ve paid my dues,” Kurt says primly, crossing his legs and taking a sip of his coffee.

“…What do you mean?”

“Suffice it to say that, at least here at McKinley, I think you’re making a wise decision to not walk down the halls in drag singing show tunes. The aftermath would probably be…unpleasant. Especially when everyone knows I’m gay. They’d say I brought you here to begin some sort of absurd, gay agenda or something and it would probably worse than what I had to endure.”

“What happened to you?” Blaine asks gently.

“Now, Blaine,” Kurt chides, “you can’t expect me to answer every question that pops into your head. This is only our first date, after all.”

With a shy grin on Blaine’s lips, Kurt simply lifts an eyebrow, as if to challenge him, before taking another sip of his coffee.

Well, not really a date.

Just a bargain. Payment. Holding up his end of the deal. It’s the least he can do for someone so unfortunate.

Though…not unfortunate looking, Kurt amends mentally, watching Blaine slide his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his finger. He wonders what Blaine looks like without them.