Blaine wasn't sure how the rivalry had started. Being a supermodel was hard work but he knew how petulant and ungrateful he would sound if he moaned even slightly about the long hours and the difficult life habits he had to adopt. He was lucky, he knew that and he got to do amazing things but he still went home alone and the only thing his agent ever suggested was to watch this Kurt Hummel and his sudden rise to acclamation.

Kurt Hummel. God he was beautiful and he knew it. Blaine would take one look at him on the front cover of a magazine and sigh in both annoyance and secret admiration. His porcelain skin and cheek bones seemed to only accentuate his lofty and unattainable angelic qualities. Those blue eyes of his, at once piercing and peaceful, seemed to search the soul of anyone that looked on his picture. And suddenly he seemed to be everywhere.

Blaine's agent, Nick would thrust Kurt's pictures his way, point at his profile in a magazine or when he was interviewed on television and explain that this guy was doing things right. Blaine had no trouble getting work and the last thing he wanted to hear was that someone was vying for his top model position and making it look so easy. Blaine had been in the business for a few years now, was renowned for his body as well as his curly hair and warm brown green eyes and he didn't need some lofty and fragile boy trying to make him look bad.

Any magazine or runway project that didn't want Blaine clearly wanted Kurt and they were never in the same publication together. They looked so different, Blaine knew, that instead of capitalising on that, he guessed that they only wanted to separate them further. He hadn't actually met this guy, someone that had only been a model for a year, his sudden rise to great fame clearly coming as a shock to him but Blaine knew he would be unlikely to see him in real life. Blaine was often required to attend magazine parties, celebrations of fashion and the fashionable elite but Kurt seemed to avoid these events or only attend those that Blaine wasn't invited to. The idea that Kurt was invited to more exclusive events annoyed him further.

"I wish you wouldn't push pictures of him in my face," Blaine said to Nick, a disgusted expression on his face as he gave the pictures back. "Why are you showing them to me anyway?"

"I think you need to take him more seriously, Blaine," Nick said exasperated as he sat back in his leather chair in his office. "He gets the magazines we want Blaine; he gets the contracts that we strive for. We need to take note."

"Why?" Blaine said, just as annoyed. "I'm never going to be what those people want. If they want Hummel they can have Hummel."

"That's not the attitude, Blaine," Nick said more measured now, considering another tack. "I'm not saying the work is going anywhere, you're definitely sought after and people are desperate for you," he said as Blaine smiled with a mixture of relief and arrogance, "But everyone seems to want Kurt now and I worry that if we don't point out how versatile you can be, you'll soon lose favour."

Blaine looked at Nick carefully. Nick had been there the whole time and he knew how lucky he was to have his oldest friend act as his agent. Meeting at Dalton, their mutual love of music and Nick's business acumen had proved invaluable to Blaine when he was spotted in a mall in Ohio when he was a late teen. Nick had studied as a lawyer while acting as Blaine's agent which only made him more important to him and looking at him now, he knew he meant no malice and only wanted to give advice.

"I get it Nick," he said sighing, "I do but I don't want to change who I am. I'm not Hummel."

"I know that Blaine," he said smiling slightly, "But maybe we can push you two together in the public eye a bit, ensure you're seen together and your profile raised. Maybe then people will see how well you could go together?"

Blaine thought about it. He did understand the logic and he could see how it would work but he knew Nick hadn't factored in one tiny little issue.

"I think you've forgotten the one problem we have here," Blaine said, smiling sadly.

"What's that?"

"Kurt Hummel can't stand me."

---

"I need water or something," Kurt said as his face unravelled and his body relaxed. He had been posing for hours, the photographer and shoot director pushing and prodding him, seeming to forget he was human. Most people seemed to assume that models never needed food or water, perhaps being some kind of other-worldly creature that existed without normal human needs but Kurt needed to remind them. He had changed into countless outfits until they were satisfied and no break given he couldn't go ahead without something.

His assistant soon got him a bottle of water and he thanked her profusely before being approached by the director again.

"I think we need another outfit Mr Hummel," he said, stroking the material of the jacket Kurt wore as if forgetting that Kurt was underneath. "I'm thinking a fierce T-shirt, perhaps with just the jacket over your shoulders, as if you don't quite belong here," he said, his eyes roving over Kurt's body, images and ideas flitting across his mind. "Mandy," he shouted to the corner of the room and Kurt grimaced as the director walked briskly in the direction he had shouted in.

"God he's insufferable," Kurt moaned, looking carefully at his assistant Sara, who smirked in amusement. "It's not funny," he said though he couldn't help but smile slightly at her cheeky grin.

"You've got to admit it is slightly," she said, still laughing and starting to flick through a magazine, "I mean just one look at your face makes me laugh."

"Thanks," he said trying to sound annoyed but she knew he wasn't. "Do you think I could just walk out? Do you think they'd miss me?"

"I think so," she said looking around at the bustling bodies and in particular one poor woman who was transporting various outfits to another side of the room. "Only after a while though."

"Exactly," he said, finding some food in his satchel and scoffing it down, "Fancy a meal afterwards?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed, "Thank god I work for the only model that eats normally."

"I'm graced with beautiful genes and a high metabolism," he said, waving his arm in the air dramatically.

"And a giant ass ego," she said winking. She hadn't been working for Kurt that long and he laughed that she felt comfortable enough to insult him so soon.

"Ooh look at this guy," she said spotting a model spread in her magazine, "He's something else," she cooed, looking a little closer. Kurt did the same.

"Oh yeah," he said, stepping away, "He's something else alright," he said.

"Do you know him?" she asked, suddenly the most animated she had been that day.

"Sort of," Kurt said, "I know of him of course and that is just as much as I want to know him I think."

"Why?" she asked, perplexed.

"It's a long story," he said looking out for the director to see if he was needed soon. "Blaine Anderson is just obnoxious, enough said."

"What did he do?" she said leaning in closer as if Kurt was going to impart the juiciest gossip.

"He was at some event and a television crew did a little piece on the lives of models which he featured in. He'd obviously had a few to drink and was with some other guy but he was asked his opinion of the new up and coming model Kurt Hummel and he smirked to the camera and said clear as day: 'Kurt, you left your pants at my place so I sold them on eBay.'"

Sara looked wide-eyed at Kurt for a moment, a beat only as this sudden knowledge worked itself together in her mind and she suddenly laughed at the realisation of what he had said. Her laughter rang out in the bustle of the room, people who had been on a mission suddenly stopped to stare at her and Kurt tried to hush her by pulling at her arms.

"Oh my god," she said amidst her giggles, "I can't believe he did that," she gasped, "That is perfect!"

"It isn't perfect," he hissed, trying to get her to lower her voice, "He's annoying and arrogant. As if I'd let him anywhere near me."

"Oh yeah?" she asked, smirking, "You sure about that?" She clearly didn't believe him and to prove her point she pushed the magazine article with Blaine's picture blazoned over it, in his face.

"Yes I am sure," he said pushing it away. "Blaine Anderson is nothing but an arrogant, obnoxious, annoying little hobbit and...." He tried to continue but seemed to run out of steam.

"And?" Sara questioned.

"Oh what the hell," he said lifting his arms up in resignation, "He's sexy as hell and he knows it."

"Ha!" she said, smirking and triumphant in her success. Kurt just laughed.