Burt followed the same routine every single morning. He woke up, went into the bathroom, brushed his teeth, showered quickly, got dressed, lightly woke Carole and then went downstairs to get the paper.

On mornings when he knew Kurt had been up writing a paper or drawing for school, he normally woke him up earlier, just because the process would take a little longer.

This particular morning, he tip toed down the hall and into Kurt's room. There were empty cans of diet coke and coke all over the desk, which would be a normal sight if it weren't for the regular coke. Maybe Carole had forgotten to get another case for Kurt the day before.

Burt walked over to the human shaped lump bed and sat down, carefully not to crush his son. It was unusual for him to stay up and actually make it to his bed. Burt had found him on the floor, curled up on his couch, asleep with his head on the desk, but never in the bed.

"Kurt, come on buddy it's time to get up."

Not a sound.

"KURT, come on. I know you can hear me."

The large lump groaned loudly and buried further in the blankets. Burt smiled and started trying to pry his son out of them.

He was pretty shocked when he felt the curly hair.

He was even more shocked when Blaine's face appeared in the lump of blankets.

"...Blaine, what are you doing in my son's bed?"

Blaine's eyes shot open. "Mr. Hummel! I...I was helping Kurt."

Burt's eyes narrowed. "Helping him with what, exactly?"

Kurt opened the door to his room slowly, being careful not to wake Blaine. He stepped in and closed it softly, causing Burt to spin around.

"Kurt, care to explain what I'm seeing here this morning?"

"Dad, remember your blood pressure. It's nothing."

"IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE NOTHING!"

Blaine pushed the covers off himself and got out of the bed. "Mr. Hum-"

"No. I need to hear it from my son." Burt turned back to Kurt. "Explain."

Kurt took a deep breath. "I was up late finishing a paper and I went downstairs to get some cheesecake."

Burt nodded in understanding. "Okay."

Kurt continued. "Blaine was down there getting water, so we shared the cheesecake and then he offered to help me with my drawings. I felt bad, I mean it's his first night in a strange place, no wonder he couldn't sleep, so I said yes. Not even an hour later he was asleep on my couch and I was still drawing, so I woke him up and got him to move to the bed, and I kept drawing until about 2 hours ago when I curled up and fell asleep on my couch."

Burt was quiet for a while before he nodded. "As long as there wasn't any funny business."

"No Dad, there wasn't any funny business."

Burt nodded and went for the door. "Kurt, I know you know we'll be leaving in an hour, Blaine you might want to grab your workout stuff, it's in the gym training today."

Blaine nodded. "Thanks, Mr. Hummel."

Burt started walking to the door but stopped and turned to look at Blaine again. "When we're at home, feel free to call me Burt. Just keep it to Coach when we're with the team, alright?"

Blaine smiled and nodded. "Sounds great, Burt."

Burt walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Kurt and Blaine's eyes met and they both burst out laughing.

"Nothing says good morning like an awkward encounter with my dad."

Blaine laughed. "That was...wow. I've never gone through anything like that before."

Kurt shook his head. "Lucky. Dad found Finn on my couch one night and asked some very awkward questions."

Blaine laughed. "Well things certainly aren't going to get boring around here."

Kurt shook his head. "Not anytime soon."

He smiled. "Well, I should probably go get ready, I'll see you at breakfast."

Kurt smiled. "Yeah."

Kurt leaned in and kissed him without thinking, and immediately pulled back. Blaine was completely caught off guard.

"Uh, thanks." He practically ran out of the room and up to his own, closing the door and sliding down it to the ground. What the fuck had he done?

Blaine got ready and marched downstairs with his gym bag. He dropped it off by the front door with Finn's and went into the kitchen. It had been half an hour since Kurt kissed him, but he was still spinning.

Kurt wasn't at the table yet, so Blaine took his seat next to Finn and started silently picking at his food.

"Honey, you really should eat if you're going to be working out all morning. If you don't like it, I can get you something else."

Blaine smiled. "It's great, I'm just not used to eating a lot on the mornings is all. I used to pretty much roll myself out of bed, change and hop in the car for practice."

Finn looked at him. "That's horrible."

Blaine shrugged and resumed poking his food.

Kurt entered the room a little while later and sat on the far end of the table, as far away from Blaine as he could and started picking at his food as well.

Burt didn't seem to notice, but Carole was eyeing Kurt suspiciously. It wasn't until after Burt, Finn and Blaine had left that she finally confronted Kurt about it.

"What's going on?"

Kurt looked at her. "What do you mean?"

She sat down at the table with him. "Kurt, you and Blaine were joking around yesterday and this morning you wouldn't even look at each other! I heard your dad yelling this morning, are you two together or something?"

Kurt smiled. "No, we're not together. He fell asleep in my room cause he couldn't sleep, and dad freaked out this morning when he was asleep in my bed. No biggie."

Carole nodded. "And the silent treatment?"

"We just had a moment. It really threw me off."

Carole gave a sympathetic look. "After everything between you and Sebastian, I don't blame you for being hesitant."

Kurt flinched at the name. "After everything with...HIM, I really just want to be alone for a while."

"Kurt, honey, you've been saying that for almost a year. It's time you moved on. We both know he has."

Kurt nodded, looking at his hands. "Do you promise not to tell dad?"

Carole smiled. "I knew there was something! Of course I won't tell him. You know me better than that."

"I don't know what came over me. I guess just having him in my room and just feeling so comfortable around him...it felt like things used to feel with Seb, so I just kissed him. I realized right away what I'd done and I apologized and everything, but yeah. I kissed him."

"No wonder things were so awful at breakfast this morning. You should clear the air with him. You know your dad's schedule. You should pop by the arena on your way to work later and catch him in the dressing room. Finn said he's in the back corner for the time being, and your dad won't suspect a thing as long as you take something for Finn."

Kurt smiled. "Thanks Carole, you're the best." He kissed her cheek and walked out of the room.

Blaine was sore. All over. Gym training was never fun, but Burt was insane. Thinking about it, Blaine was pretty sure today was the hardest day of his career. He didn't want to seem like a weakling so he matched everything the other guys were doing. He should know better than to push himself like that.

Blaine was so busy thinking about how much pain he was in that he didn't notice the footsteps approaching his little corner of the dressing room.

"Funny running into you here."

Had Blaine been wearing a towel, he surely would have dropped it from spinning so quickly.

"Kurt! Hey!"

Kurt stopped close to that set of lockers and smiled. "Hey. Sorry I scared you."

Blaine shook his head. "No problem, what brings you to the arena this afternoon?" He reached into his locker, putting some stuff away while they talked.

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Finn forgot a clean shirt, so Carole asked me to drive it over before I went to work. And then I got to thinking, maybe you'd like to come with me?"

Blaine looked at him. "Wait, what?"

"Until you fell asleep last night, you seemed to really enjoy the drawings in my sketch book, so I thought you might enjoy seeing the next step...but if you're not interested, no worries."

"OF COURSE I'M INTERESTED!" He jumped back when he realized how desperate that had sounded and smiled. "I mean, yeah. I'm interested. Only problem, I think I might be a little under dressed?"

Kurt handed him the bag he'd been carrying. "I figured you'd day that, so I snuck upstairs and went through some of your clothes and stole them."

Blaine laughed. "Oh, so you're telling me I've made friends with a theif."

"That's right." Kurt smiled. "I'm gonna go let my dad know, I'll meet you in the parking lot?"

Blaine nodded. "Sounds good." He opened the bag and started pulling out the clothes Kurt had brought for him.

Ten minutes later, Blaine made his way through the dressing room. He was almost out the door when Finn grabbed his arm and pulled him aside.

"Dude, what are you wearing?"

Blaine looked down at himself. He was wearing his nicest jeans, green suspenders and a polka dot bow tie. "uhh...clothes?"

Finn shook his head. "You look like a clown."

"I do not!"

"When did my brother start dressing you?"

"He is not!"

"Why did he bring you clothes?"

Blaine sighed. "We're just hanging out!"

Finn looked at him for a minute. "You can't date my brother."

"I'm not dating Kurt. He thought I would like where he works."

Finn crossed his arms. "I don't like you hanging out."

"You don't have to like it, cause you aren't invited." Kurt appeared behind Finn, causing him to jump.

Finn spun around. "Kurt!"

Kurt smiled. "Blaine, why don't you take my keys and go get in the car. I need to talk to my big brother here."

Blaine nodded. "Uh...okay." He took the keys and glanced back at Finn before letting the door close behind him.

Kurt turned to glare at Finn. "We have been over this."

"Ku-"

Kurt held up a finger. "No. We went over this when I started seeing Sebastian. You don't get to scare off the guys that I like. You don't get to be part of my relationships, Finn."

"Okay! Kurt-"

"No! You lost the right to have any part of my relationships when our parents got married. Understood?"

Finn didn't say anything.

"FINN!"

"You kept interrupting me..." He put his hands up in defense. "I just want you to be careful."

Kurt smiled some. "That's sweet, but unecessary. Now I'm going to leave."

Kurt opened the door and walked out to the parking lot. He walked right over to his car and got in.

"Sorry about that, ready to go?"

Blaine nodded. "Yeah, let's do it." His eyes went wide. "I mean...yeah...let's go."

Kurt laughed. "Blaine?"

"Yeah?"

"Stop being so nervous."

Blaine laughed some. "Sorry. I just...I don't normally do this kind of thing."

"Go to work with someone? I do it all the time. As I'm sure you've noticed."

Blaine shook his head. "No, I mean. This is going to come out sounding all wrong and I'm regretting having said anything already, but we kissed, and it was pretty awesome. And now you're dressing me and taking me to work with you, and I'm just really confused."

Kurt parked the car outside Rachel's dads' store and turned to him. "How about we just take things slow, and after work, we'll go grab some dinner and get to know each other?"

Blaine nodded. "Sounds good."

They both got out of the car and went inside. Kurt started cleaning up the displays as soon as he got into the store. Blaine stood in the doorway, looking around in awe. The place was bigger than he thought, and extremely well lit. The floors and walls were white, while the displays, shelving and couches were all red. There was fun music playing and a tiny girl sitting behind the desk reading over a magazine.

Kurt pranced over to her and they started chattering, glancing over at him every few seconds. The girl was full on staring him down with a huge smile on her face.

After Kurt waved him over, Blaine walked up to the pair.

Kurt smiled. "Blaine, this is Rachel, Finn's girlfriend. Rach, this is Blaine."

Rachel smiled at Blaine and held her hand out. "Hi Blaine"

He shook her hand. "Hi. This place is amazing." He glanced all around again.

Kurt nodded. "It is amazing, isn't it? Why don't you go take a look around while Rachel and I try to fix this computer?"

Blaine nodded and walked away from them, still looking all around.

They watched him for a few minutes before Rachel hit his arm. "Please tell me you and him are dating, or sleeping together or SOMETHING."

Kurt laughed and hoisted himself onto the counter. "Oh I don't know. He's been living with us for just over a day. I barely know anything about him."

"Kurt, he's gorgeous, and you're single. What else is there to consider for a night of fun?"

Kurt shook his head. "He lives with us. In a room about 30 seconds away from mine, and who knows how long he's going to be there! I can't just sleep with him and then live under the same roof, pretending nothing happened."

"Kurt, answer this one question. How long has it been?"

Kurt shifted in his seat and glanced down. "You know I haven't been with anyone since Sebastian."

"Exactly, and you two have been broken up for a while. So I say go for it. I'm not saying you need to jump his bones and never talk to him again. Maybe you guys can be something more."

Kurt let his eyes shift to Blaine, who was trying on a wonderful blazer that Kurt himself had in three different colours. "Well...he is a really good kisser..."

After Kurt's shift, they dropped Rachel off at Kurt's house to visit Finn and headed off towards the only reputable restaurant in town, Breadsticks. They sat down and ordered their dinner before Kurt finally spoke.

"So, tell me a bit about yourself."

"Didn't we do that last night?"

Kurt smiled. "That can't be all there is to know about you. Okay, what were you like in high school?"

Blaine shrugged. "I was really quiet, got good grades, stayed home every night. I was pretty much a huge nerd."

"...I find that hard to believe."

Blaine shrugged. "I played hockey, sure, but I kept my grades up, and I wasn't into girls so I never bonded with the rest of the team. They never gave me an overly hard time, but they didn't exactly make life easy. I think on some level, they must have known I was gay. How about you?"

"I had my friends, in Glee club. We were pretty much the very bottom of the pyramid, socially. I used to get a daily slushee facial."

Blaine reached across the table and put his hand over Kurt's. "That's horrible."

Kurt nodded, looking down at their hands. "It was. It drove me out of Lima. But then I wasn't happy in New York knowing that I ran away, and I wasn't happy with school, so I came home."

"Do you ever regret coming back?"

Kurt looked up, right into his eyes. "No one's ever asked me that before." He went quiet for a few minutes and then let out a sigh. "I don't know if I regret it, I just don't know if it was the best decision. Don't get me wrong, I love school, and I love working for Rachel's Dads, sometimes I can't help but feel that I took the easy way out."

"I feel like that's exactly what I did. Coming here. I took the easy way out. Your dad offered me an escape door, and I jumped through it without a second thought."

Kurt put his other hand over Blaine's. "Blaine, we heard about everything that happened with you. When my dad first heard about it, he was angry. Not at you, but at the league for letting it happen that way. We don't normally watch a ton of the league stuff, except drafts and playoffs. But my dad watched every single newscast about you, and when no one signed you, he called every single person he knew, and made sure you had a team to play for."

Blaine shook his head. "I don't know why he did that."

"He did it because no one deserves to have their life ripped away from them for being who they are."

Blaine shook his head. "I...I don't really know what to say."

Kurt laughed some. "This is probably the most intense first date I've ever had."

Blaine looked at him, smiling. "First date, huh?"

Kurt smiled. "I don't normally drop off my best friend at home before taking another guy out to dinner unless it's a date."

Blaine smiled. "Good to know."

Kurt moved his thumb gently over the back of Blaine's hand. "So, how about we talk about something less...intense? Like, what's your favourite colour?"

Blaine smiled. "I've always been a fan of purple, but I'll wear just about anything. How about you?"

Kurt thought for a minute. "I like white. It's clean, and proper."

They chatted back and forth over dinner, getting to know silly things about each other (like Blaine's favourite canadian artist and Kurt's favourite pair of pants), they shared bites off each other's plates and shared a piece of red velvet cake before Kurt drove them home.

The house was completely dark, with the exception of Finn's room, which was lit only by the tv. Kurt noticed Rachel's shoes by the door and shook his head. He picked them up and carried them into the kitchen, closing the door behind Blaine.

"I can't believe Rachel."

Blaine looked at him, clearly confused.

"We have a system. Her and Finn used to cover for me and my ex boyfriend and I always cover for them. It always worked out, cause while dad was waking Finn up, Rachel could be sneaking out of my room with her stuff and out the garage. But that doesn't work if she's leaving her shoes by the door!"

Blaine smiled. "That's nice of you though, covering for them."

Kurt shrugged. "They don't get a ton of time together when Rachel's in classes in New York, so I help when I can."

They were quiet for a few minutes before the door to the kitchen opened and Finn entered, wearing only a pair of boxers. He smiled at them nervously before getting two bottles of water out of the fridge.

Kurt shook his head. "Tell Rachel that her shoes will be just inside my door when she's looking for them tomorrow morning."

Finn looked at Kurt. "OH YEAH! Thanks Kurt! Night Blaine." He backed out of the room, closing the door again.

Blaine shook his head. "Finn is...an interesting character."

"That he is. So, I'm not really all that tired, do you wanna watch me do some homework again?"

Blaine smiled. "It sounds weird, but I actually really do. You get this really adorable look on your face when something isn't appearing on the paper the way you want it to. It's really nice to watch."

Kurt shook his head. "You grab the diet coke, and whatever you want. I've got water upstairs, and I've got the chips and left over cheesecake from dinner. Let's go."

Kurt was still sketching away at 3am while Blaine slept soundly in a pile of Kurt's pillows on the floor. He'd wanted to wake Blaine up and at least move him to the couch or the bed, but he looked so comfortable, Kurt wouldn't dare. He sighed down at the paper before balling it up and tossing it across the room.

There was a faint knock at his door, and then a small head poked inside. "Kurt?"

"Come in, Rach."

She tip toed across the room and over to Kurt's desk. "Sorry about the shoes."

Kurt smiled. "Not a problem. Just be glad I saw them before my dad."

She nodded and glanced down at Blaine. "So, it went well?"

Kurt couldn't control the huge smile that spread across his face. "Yeah, it really did."

Rachel squealed as silently as she could before sitting down on Kurt's extra desk chair. "So...is there going to be a second date? A third? A tenth? When's the wedding?"

"There will be a second. As long as he's up for it. I was thinking about it, I feel kind of bad. He JUST got here and I'm already trying to get him into a relationship."

"Don't be ridiculous. He seems smart enough, he wouldn't do this if he wasn't ready."

There was another faint knock at the door and Finn's half asleep head appeared. "Rach?"

Rachel smiled. "We'll talk tomorrow, coffee before work?" Kurt nodded and Rachel tiptoed out of the room again.