It was a week before Kurt saw Blaine again, he was on his lunch break and needed to pick up a few groceries and it was the only time he would be able to get the shopping done. So he headed to the mall to pop into the small grocery store that was there, making sure not to pick up anything that would spoil from sitting in the back seat of his car for three hours. Kurt was a very put together person on the outside, never a hair out of place. But he was kind of a headcase when it came to keeping the house together, he had never realized how hard it was to cook and clean until suddenly he had another person depending on him to do it every single day. He was standing in the isle with all the breakfast cereals, looking at a box of Lucky Charms when a voice piped up from behind him. "You didn't strike me as a Lucky Charms kind of guy." Kurt gave a little startled jump, spinning on his heel to see who was speaking to him. He couldn't help but smile when he was met with the grinning face of one Blaine Anderson, the man standing easily just outside Kurt's personal space, his hands hooked in the front pockets of his worn jeans. "You put much thought into people and their cereal habits?" Kurt asked with an arch of one finely trimmed eyebrow, only to get a nonchalant shrug in return. "What're you doing here?"

"Well, it's a grocery store, so, shopping?" Blaine gave another little shrug.

"Was that an answer or a question?" Kurt asked with a chuckle.

"Maybe a little of both." Blaine smiled which just made Kurt shake his head in an amused manner as he turned to place the box of cereal back on the shelf. He began to walk down the isle again, not expecting but hoping that the other man would follow and he did, Blaine falling into step next to Kurt.

"I never got to thank you properly for last week, you being so nice to Jamie." Kurt said, glancing at the other man.

"There's nothing to thank, she's a little kid, and a sweet one to boot. Why anyone would be rude.... Kurt?" Blaine stopped walking when he realized that the taller man was no longer beside him. "What's wrong?" He asked, turning around to see him standing there looking at him in slight awe.

"You said 'she'."

"Yeah, she specifically asked me too." Blaine said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Who are you?" Kurt said in disbelief.

"What?"

"You can't be real, I've dreamt you up haven't I? This is a fever dream or something, because people aren't like you. Because no one looks at Jamie and just accepts her for who she is, no one." Kurt said, unable to tear his eyes off the shorter man, afraid to blink in case he suddenly disappeared. Like he really was a figment of Kurt's imagination and any second not he would blink out of existence.

Blaine laughed softly, taking a step toward Kurt. "Of course I'm real, see?" He asked as he reached out and grabbed a hold of Kurt's wrist, giving it a gentle squeeze. Kurt did his best not to shudder at the sudden crackling tingling sensation that ran up along his arm from where Blaine's slightly calloused fingertips pressed against the pale soft flesh on the underside of his wrist. "Real." He reiterated.

"I see this." Kurt said, glad his voice didn't come out any higher pitched than it already was. Although he had no doubt that his face was flushed, damn fare skin.

"You've not had it easy have you?" Blaine asked, his honey colored eyes bearing into what Kurt was sure was the depths of his soul. He had never seen someone with such beautiful eyes, so honest and kind and old. Ancient eyes almost, like he had seen so much more than one would assume, lived so many times, his very being having seen the start and end of so many lives before his own. Instead of answering, Kurt just shrugged one slim shoulder. Blaine smiled gently, allowing his hand to finally slip from Kurt's wrist. "Do you have time for a coffee?"

Kurt looked down at his watch before looking back at the man. "I can make time." Ten minutes later the two men were sitting in a small coffee shop just outside the food court area, chuckling and smiling at each other as they chatted idly about life. Kurt explained more about Jamie, how he come to adopt him and how the child had been left in the system for so long just because he happened to be different. They spoke about where they went to school and how they came to get their jobs. "When I was in school, things were really hard. I was beaten up a lot, which I think is why I decided to become a guidance counselor." Kurt explained. "I mean, the parents can only do so much. If there's no one at the school to stand up for the kids, well then their shit out of luck. I remember wishing my teachers would stand up for me, my classmates, my friends, they all turned a blind eye. No one cared, no one even noticed until I was put in the hospital when I was sixteen. This bully bruised three ribs, dislocated my shoulder and -"

"And cracked your tailbone." Blaine cut in.

"What?" Kurt asked, looking at Blaine curiously.

"You had three bruised ribs, a dislocated shoulder and a cracked tailbone from a boy elbowing you roughly into a line of lockers causing you to slam into them and then thump onto the floor." Blaine rattled off easily, looking at Kurt like he had just seen him for the first time in his life.

"How... how did you know that?"

"I know where I know you from." Blaine nodded. "We shared a hospital room when we were teenagers, I was fifteen years old and had just gotten the shit beat out of me by a group of boys at my school. My face was all swollen and purple so I couldn't really talk but I was so bored since I couldn't get out of bed thanks to my legs being in casts and you -"

"I read to you." Kurt interrupted, the memory of the boy from the hospital suddenly flooding his brain. "Harry Potter." They both said at the same time, Blaine giving a little nod. "My dad bought you a stuffed dog from the gift shop when he came in one day and caught you crying because no one ever came to visit you, but people were always visiting me."

"Yeah." Blaine smiled.

"Oh my god!" Kurt laughed in disbelief, leaning back in his chair to stare at the other man for a moment. "I can't believe this, what are the odds."

"Maybe it's fate." Blaine shrugged in a playful manner.

"Must be." Kurt smiled in agreement.

During the Friday night dinner at the Hudson-Hummel household, Kurt found himself in the kitchen with Carole as he helped her set the table. Jamie had talked Burt into having a tea party with him, which Burt of course agreed too almost instantly. Not only because Jamie was his first grandchild and therefore spoiled rotten, but also because Burt was an old pro at tea parties, having played the same game with Kurt as a child. Kurt thought it was sweet, how much Burt adored the little boy, although it had never even crossed the young man's mind that his father wouldn't. That wasn't Burt's style, he loved kids and kids loved him. "Okay." Carole said, her tone happy and light. "What's that smile for?" She asked, Kurt pausing his movement around the table where he was placing sliver wear down at each setting.

"What?" He asked.

"You've got this goofy smile on your face, it's adorable."

"I do not." Kurt said, ducking his head slightly in an attempt to stop the apparent goofy smile he was wearing.

"Okay, who is he?" The woman asked abruptly, leaning her hip against the counter, arms crossed over her chest in an easy fashion.

"What are you talking about?"

"That's an 'I've met someone' smile." Carole pointed at him.  "So who is he? What's his name?"

Kurt gave a little sigh, looking down at a fork as he straightened it a bit before sitting down in one of the chairs, leaning his elbow on the table, his chin resting in his upturned hand. "His name's Blaine." Carole grinned brightly. "And before you ask, we're not dating or anything, he's just this gorgeous man that I met last week."

"But you like him?" Carole asked, walking over to sit down across from Kurt.

"I do, he's... I don't even know how to explain him. He's sweet and funny and did I mention gorgeous?"

"You did." Carole chuckled. 

"He runs this shoe store I took Jamie too and the people there were, well they acted like people usually do around her." He said, getting a nod in return, because they all knew. The world was not kind to people like Jamie, it was horrible how hateful society was. "And when he came over, he just saw Jamie as... well as Jamie. As a kid, happy and bright and innocent. I could've kissed him, like, I was just so happy to meet an adult who wasn't an asshole."

"He sounds fabulous." Carole smiled.

"He is, we've had coffee a couple times and I'm just so smitten."

"But?" She prompted.

Kurt sighed, giving the table a light tap with his fingernails. "I dunno, I mean, besides the fact that I haven't dated anyone since college. There's Jamie to take into consideration, I've never brought someone into our lives, even casually. I just don't want-"

"You can't hide behind him." Carole cut in with a kind motherly smile, reaching across the table to place a warm caring hand over his. "Trust me, I know. I was alone for sixteen years, telling myself that bringing someone into my life wasn't fair to Finn and that I didn't want him to get attached to whoever I was dating. Because what would happen if it didn't work out? He'd be hurt too. And you know what? I was just using him as an excuse, because I was scared of getting hurt. I hid behind my child, always too afraid to put myself there. And I know that if it hadn't been for a certain nosy boy pushing his father in front of me during a parents night, I never would have stopped hiding. I never would have ended up with the family I have now, never would have been so happy." Kurt beamed at her, his happiness at her words shinning in his blue-grey eyes. "Jamie will always come first to you, it's because you're a good parent. But you're still allowed to be happy, to want love, it doesn't make her any less important to you."

"How come you always know just what to say?" Kurt asked in a teasing way.

Carole gave a little playful shrug. "I'm just brilliant that way." She said before pointing at him. "So next Friday, I don't want to see you here. You are to ask this Blaine out to dinner, you are to drop Jamie off here, he can spend the night with us if need be. And you are going to wine and dine the heck out of this gorgeous man, then give me the full details the next day."

"Oh really?" Kurt arched his eyebrows.

"Yes, that's an order." Carole smiled, chuckling when Kurt shot her a mock salute in return.

A date? A real non-coffee related date? Kurt hadn't been on a date in years, and it had been even longer since he had been the one doing the asking. But he could do it, it was just one dinner. One night out, it could't hurt, could it?