That evening, Kurt and Rachel sat in their living room in pajamas, eating sherbet and telling each other about their first day of classes.

Rachel's had passed unremarkably, except she found her History of Musical Theatre class dreadfully boring and loved her Acting Techniques professor.

Kurt tried to be diplomatic about the retelling of his day, but it quickly dissolved into Blaine talk pretty quickly. He tried not to go on about him, but he couldn't seem to help himself. Besides, if he couldn't gush to his best friend about his new crush, then who could he gush to?

Kurt was holding out his phone to show Rachel the adorable photo Blaine had taken of himself.

"Yeah, I do remember him!" Rachel exclaimed. "He was really good. And he's so cute!"

"I know," Kurt sighed wistfully.

"Is he gay?" she asked. Kurt knew exactly where she was leading with that overly bright tone.

"I don't know. I think so, but my gaydar isn't always spot on, and it could just be wishful thinking."

As the two friends gazed down at the delightful picture, Kurt's phone vibrated in his hands, indicating he had received a text message.

Kurt clicked on the screen to open it and almost squealed like a teenage girl when he saw it was from Blaine.

Hey, Kurt. :)

Kurt looked up at Rachel, who was laughing hysterically. "Shut up!" he told her, blushing.

"Oh my god, Kurt! I haven't seen you this worked up over a guy since you first saw Taylor Lautner take his shirt off in Twilight!" She snorted and almost dumped her bowl of half-melted sherbet in her lap.

"Oh, don't act like you weren't freaking out right beside me over those mantastic abs!"

"Whatever," she said around a giggle. "Are you going to answer him, or aren't you?"

"Oh, right!" he paused. "What should I say?"

She quirked an eyebrow. "Gee, Kurt, I don't know. How about 'hello'?"

He thought for a second, then thumbed out a reply. Well hello, Blaine Warbler.

"Oh, you want him so bad, you little flirting flirter!"

"I do not!"

Rachel sat her bowl on the edge of the couch and sprung at Kurt. She started tickling him mercilessly. "Admit it!"

"Rachel, stop! Stop!" Kurt yelled around his giggles.

"I'll stop when you admit that you loooove him! You want to have his little Warbler babies!"

Kurt tried to squirm out from under him, but for such a small girl she was strong. "Rachel! Damn it, stop! We – are – adults!" Kurt was full on flailing at this point, yet he somehow managed to keep his phone in his hand. His only motivation was how expensive it had been to fix the cracked screen the last time he had dropped it. He felt it vibrating in his hand. "He – he texted back! Stop so I can reply!"

"Not until you admit it!" She was lying on top of him horizontally at this point, using her body weight as leverage against him. They had been friends for long enough that she knew exactly the parts of his ribs that were the most ticklish. It was then that Kurt's flailing foot knocked over the precariously perched bowl of sherbet on the edge of the couch. It went crashing to the floor, and the noise made them both pause. Kurt gasped for air, after his giggle fit had ended.

"I am so not cleaning that up," he said.

She climbed off of him and looked down to inspect the mess. "You knocked it over!"

"So? It was your fault. You were tickling me!" he retorted.

"Fine," she sighed dramatically, but still with a grin. "I'll clean it up, you answer your text."

In the excitement, Kurt had forgotten about the text. He checked it quickly.

So, how weird is Gates?

Kurt laughed at his thoughts from earlier in the day being echoed. So, so weird. He looks like he got lost on his way to Woodstock.

Kurt only had to wait about twenty seconds for his phone to vibrate with another incoming message. He was happy to find Blaine to be a quick text replier and that he also used proper grammar in texts. Haha. Definitely. But he's also quite charming in a way, isn't he?

Exactly. Very earnest and endearing.

So, I was thinking we could get together for coffee or something tomorrow evening and discuss our song selections for our first assignment.

Kurt couldn't help but get butterflies, even though he told himself repeatedly that this was not a date, that Blaine might not even be gay. It was just two partners getting together to discuss school work. Sounds good to me. I have work until five, but after that I'm free. Where do you live?

Upper West Side. How about you?

Kurt's eyebrows raised in shock. He and Rachel had looked into apartments when he first moved to New York. Obviously, they had started near NYADA and moved out, trying to find the nicest place closest to campus that they could afford. He knew how much apartments were on the Upper West Side, and well, they weren't cheap.

Bushwick. But I work on West 57th. We can meet around NYADA. There's this coffee shop near campus I love, the Aroma Espresso Bar.

While Kurt was waiting for Blaine to text back, Rachel came in with a rag and a spray bottle of cleaning solution. She started scooping the sherbet into the bowl and wiping down the floor. Luckily, most of the mess had missed the rug. "What's he saying?" she asked.

"We're meeting tomorrow for coffee to talk about our assignment." Kurt could feel his cheeks turn pink but hoped she wouldn't notice.

"Oooh, sounds like someone has a daaate!" she said in a sing-song voice.

Kurt shot her a glare. "What are you, twelve?"

"Twelve and a half," she shot back cheekily.

"Anyway, it's not a date. It's to talk about our assignment." Kurt tried to sound convincing but his heart plunging up to his throat when his phone vibrated with Blaine's reply was probably a dead giveaway to Rachel.

Yeah, I know where that is. 5:30?

He thumbed out his reply immediately. Sounds good. See you tomorrow.

"If it's not a date then why are you smiling like that?" Rachel asked with a smirk.

"I'm not smiling like anything," Kurt replied, even as he felt the corners of his mouth stuck in a goofy grin.

His phone vibrated again. K. :)

She dropped the cleaning spray and rag and jumped on him again. "You are such a liar!" She started tickling him mercilessly again.

"Rachel!" he said around giggles. "Stop! Stop!"

The next day, Kurt was walking a brisk pace in order to meet Blaine on time. It was the hottest time of year, and the humidity was making him sweat profusely and deactivating his hair spray. To top it off, Marissa had kept him late to run an errand. He cursed as he checked his phone. It was five twenty-eight and he still had eight blocks to go.

He walked through the door a few minutes later and looked around the sea of red – the walls, the chairs, even the tables were all the bright hue – until he saw Blaine sitting in the corner. He was glancing down intently at his phone, frowning. Kurt hurried over to him. "Hey, sorry I'm late. They kept me a little late at work."

Blaine stood up and smiled at him, putting his phone away. "No, it's fine. It's just a few minutes. Let's go get some coffee. I could use a refill." Kurt looks down and sees that Blaine's cup was indeed empty.

"How long have you been here?" Kurt asked as they headed toward the counter to place their orders.

"Not too long. Just decided to come a little early." Both boys placed their orders, received their beverages – a small brewed coffee for Blaine and a non-fat mocha for Kurt – and went back to reclaim their table in the corner.

"So, where do you work?" Blaine said after they had settled in.

"I'm an office assistant for the executive fashion director at Elle."

Blaine eyebrows shot up. "Wow, that's really awesome."

Kurt blushed slightly and shrugged. "It sounds a lot cooler than it is. It's mostly running errands and answering emails and phone calls."

Blaine took a sip of his coffee. "Yeah, but still. You work at one of the world's largest fashion magazines. That's amazing."

Kurt smiled and glanced down at his coffee. "Yeah, I guess it is." He's definitely gay, Kurt thought.

"Have you come up with your song for our first assignment yet?" Blaine asked after a brief pause.

"Um, yeah." Kurt was a little bit nervous about discussing his song selection with Blaine. He had been sure to pick a song that he could really emote through, but that meant expressing some of his more private feelings, and he was sure they were going to have to get around to talking about the motivations behind the song selections. "I picked Bonnie Raitt's 'I Can't Make You Love Me.'" Kurt could see the interest spark in Blaine's eyes but could tell he was too polite to ask.

"Hm. Good song," he finally said.

Kurt nodded. "How about you?"

"'Hallelujah' by Rufus Wainwright."

"That's one of my favorites. Very good choice." Kurt nodded his approval.

Blaine returned his nod and both boys took long sips of their coffee. There was an awkward pause, and Blaine had a smirk which quickly turned into a full on grin.

Kurt sighed and dropped his head in his hand. "We're going to have to talk about why we picked the songs, aren't we?"

Blaine chuckled. "I don't see how there's any way around it."

"Alright, well...you go first."

"Why do I have to go first?" Blaine exclaimed, indignant.

"Because I told you my song choice first." Kurt smirked at his own logic.

"That's not the same!" Kurt just looked at him pointedly. Blaine finally broke. "Okay, fine. I picked 'Hallelujah' because my mom used to play it for me all the time when I was a kid. She taught me to play piano. We've always been really close, and when I came out, she supported me wholeheartedly. When I went away to Dalton, we really kind of lost touch. I mean, she was still there for me, but it just wasn't the same. Now that I've moved away, I just...I really miss her."

Kurt was reeling from Blaine's explanation. From the declaration of his sexuality to the in depth personal details, it was so much more than Kurt had been expecting. He expected a terse sentence devoid of much actual information, and he was suddenly glad he'd elected to go second, because he wouldn't have allowed Blaine nearly as many details had he gone first.

"That's...that's really nice," Kurt said after a pause. "Not that you guys grew apart," Kurt backpedaled, realizing what he'd said. "I meant it's really nice that you have a song that reminds you of her."

"Yeah," Blaine said, nodding his understanding. "Your turn."

Kurt took a deep, settling breath. He owed Blaine the truth, but his explanation was much more embarrassing that Blaine's had been.

"I was the only out kid at my high school. Actually, I was the only...well, one of the only gay guys I'd ever really met. It was...hard. And lonely. I ended up developing quite a few misguided, empty crushes on some of my very straight friends, one of whom later became my step brother."

Kurt shuddered at the thought of Finn in a romantic sense, and Blaine's eyes widened, both in shock and in sympathy.

"Wow, Kurt." Blaine reached his hand out to cover Kurt's on the table. "That makes me really sorry that we never got to know each other back then just so you could have had someone to relate to. I can't imagine how hard that must have been."

Something sparked in Kurt's memory. "You know, it's funny that you mention–"

"Blaine?" Kurt looked up to see a tall boy with sandy blond hair standing over their table holding a to-go cup of coffee. He was looking at Blaine with what Kurt could only describe as a kicked puppy dog look. Kurt looked to Blaine, whose eyes were wide in shock.

"Oh, uh, hey..." Blaine stammered, clearly having forgotten the boy's name.

"Terrence," the boy replied, sounding greatly offended.

"Right! Terrence, of course. How are you?" Kurt had never seen Blaine so flustered. He quirked an eyebrow at the awkward situation he was now witnessing. He looked back up at the boy, Terrence, and Kurt was surprised to see him almost in tears.

"How-how am I? You never called me." Both of Kurt's eyebrows shot up at this. He could tell Terrence was trying to sound angry, but he mostly just sounded sad. Kurt kept his eyes on Blaine, but Blaine was deliberately looking anywhere but at Kurt.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," he replied after a beat. "I've just been really busy with school starting up and everything..." he trailed off.

Terrence's eyes then landed very pointedly on the boys' hands that were still in contact on top of the table. "And who's this?" he said cattily, eyeing Kurt up and down. Kurt pulled his hand away from Blaine's in what he hope was a surreptitious manner and looked to Blaine to answer the question.

"This is Kurt, a friend from school. Kurt this is Terrence."

"Yes, so I've gathered," Kurt said breezily. "Nice to meet you. Look, Blaine. It's getting late. I should probably head out."

"Oh, don't leave on my account," Terrence said haughtily. "I'm done here. Have a nice life, Blaine." As Terrence turned on his heel and walked out of the coffee shop, Kurt stood and gathered his belongings.

"I'm really sorry about that," Blaine said hastily.

"Don't worry about it." Kurt gave him a small smile. "I'll see you in class tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. Bye, Kurt." Kurt couldn't tell if it was embarrassment or something else that colored Blaine's tone, but he didn't want to stay to fine out. Offering up a small wave, he turned and exited the coffee shop. When the door closed, though, he couldn't help but turn for one last glance. Blaine was sitting with his elbows on the table and his hands covering both his eyes.

After a stuttered step, Kurt turned and headed for the nearest subway.

When Kurt walked out of the coffee shop, Blaine dropped his head in his hands and groaned. The entire last hour been an utter disaster.

First, he got to the coffee shop a little early to call his mom and tell her about his classes. She had listened for a few minutes, but then told Blaine she was busy and would call him back later.

He was debating calling Coop when Kurt walked in, flustered from rushing.

Then they had got to talking. Blaine hadn't meant to share so much of his personal life with Kurt in their first real conversation, but something about the really earnest look in Kurt's eyes had him talking about his mother. It didn't help that his disappointment was still so fresh from the call a little while before.

And when Kurt told him about being completely alone all throughout high school, a part of Blaine just melted. He couldn't not reach for Kurt's hand. He vowed in that instant to become a friend to Kurt, someone he could talk to, someone he could be there for. He vowed not to be a shithead for once in his life.

And in the seconds after Blaine had made that vow to himself, some twink he'd banged a few nights before comes up and makes a complete spectacle and ruins their conversation. Blaine tried to feel sorry for the guy – Terrence, Blaine thought, rolling his eyes – but really, he felt like the wronged party in this situation.

He had met Terrence a few nights before at a gay club downtown. Blaine had been talking to a few other guys, dancing, drinking, and having a good time when Terrence came up to him, introduced himself, and told Blaine he wanted to go back to his place. No drinks, no conversation, not even a dance, nothing.

So they went. They had a good time. Terrence was a decent fuck. But when they were done and Blaine told Terrence he needed to leave so he could get cleaned up, Terrence had the nerve to get all indignant about being kicked out. He left his number on Blaine's kitchen counter, which Blaine found the next morning and promptly threw out.

And that was supposed to be the end of the story. But then he waltzes into the coffee shop today and treats Blaine like some criminal for not wanting to marry him or whatever.

And now Kurt probably thought he was just some whore who went around using guys for sex and then tossing them aside...which Blaine supposed he was, but other guys used him, too. They used each other. It didn't make Blaine a bad person.

In fact, Blaine thought, if Kurt was going to judge him based on the exchange he saw today, then maybe he and Kurt shouldn't be friends after all. He sighed deeply, trying to ease some of his frustration. He really needed a drink.

At that moment his phone vibrated on the table. It was a text from Will. Blaine had almost forgotten about the extremely hot guy he'd met in the hallway the day before.

Hey sexy. Busy?

Even better than a drink, Blaine thought. He answered Will's text straightaway. As a matter of fact, no I'm not. Come over?

Sure thing.

"Kurt, is that you?" Rachel called from the living room when Kurt entered their apartment – from where he could see her on the sofa not twenty feet away.

Kurt sighed, "Yes, Rachel."

"Thai for dinner. It's already on the way." She was sitting on the sofa flipping through a book in her lap.

He came and plopped down next to her, huffing loudly. "Are you studying already?"

"Just looking at some of the stuff we're going to be learning," she said absently, closing the book. She turned to him, sitting Indian-style. "How was your coffee thing with the Warbler?"

"Bad news or good news first?"

"Good, of course."

"Well, the good news is he's gay."

Rachel clapped her hands together, smiling. "I knew it! No straight guy uses that much hair gel."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "He doesn't actually use that much hair gel anymore."

"Still," Rachel replied. "So, wait, what's the bad news? Is he seeing someone?"

"Worse." Kurt cringed. "He's a heartbreaker."

"Wait, hold on. How could you possibly know that?" Rachel asked skeptically. She often got onto Kurt for being too critical of the men that were interested in him, and maybe sometimes he did jump the gun on initial impressions, but this one he was sure about. Blaine had totally screwed over that guy.

Kurt retold the entire coffee shop fiasco, beginning with the personal details they had shared and concluding with the Terrence incident.

"Maybe you're jumping to conclusions," Rachel said after hearing his story. "Maybe they just went on a date or something and Blaine just didn't like that Terrence guy, so he never called him."

"No, I'm telling you Rachel. They slept together. He totally used that poor guy. I could see it all over Blaine's face. It was like he knew that he had done something wrong." Kurt leaned his head back on the couch dejectedly and closed his eyes.

"Well, so what if they did sleep together? A lot of people have casual sex, Kurt. Especially people our age. It's really not that big of a deal."

He opened his right eye to glare at her. "It's never okay to make people feel like shit, Rachel. Terrence obviously didn't think it was just a one night thing."

"Alright, geez." Rachel held up her hands in mock surrender. "I'm just saying. Maybe you could give the poor guy the benefit of the doubt. He is awfully cute."

Kurt lifted his head. "God, Rachel. Do all of your thoughts originate in your vagina?"

The buzzer sounded, announcing the arrival of their food. Rachel jumped up to answer the door, saying on cue over her shoulder, "Only when I'm hungry."

The next day, Kurt was walking to his musical theater techniques class with dread. He wasn't looking forward to seeing Blaine after yesterday's incident.

"Hey, Kurt! Wait up!" he heard someone from behind him yell. Kurt stopped in his tracks and turned to see Blaine jogging to catch up with him.

"Oh, hey," he said when Blaine was finally at his side. The boys continued walking, heading towards their share last class.

"Listen," Blaine said, "I just wanted to apologize again for what happened yesterday at the coffee shop..."

"Blaine, it's fine. Really. It wasn't your fault. Well," Kurt couldn't keep the bitchiness out of his tone, "it was your fault that you screwed that guy over, but I mean it wasn't your fault that he—"

"Excuse me?" Blaine said, stopping and turning towards Kurt. Kurt stopped, too, and turned to him.

"I said, it wasn't your fault," Kurt repeated with faux innocence.

"What do you mean, I 'screwed that guy over'?" Blaine asked heatedly. His eyebrows came down in a line as he all but glared at Kurt.

Kurt put his hands on his hips, refusing to be intimidated. "Blaine, did you see that guy? He was heartbroken."

"Oh, whatever," Blaine said indignantly. He lowers his voice slightly. "The guy goes home with me without even bothering to ask my last name and then gets offended when I don't call him? What the hell did he expect, a proposal? If he wants to pretend that I'm the bad guy so that he doesn't feel bad about his low self-esteem, whatever, that's his problem, but to have you standing here judging me is just – it's massively unfair."

Kurt's eyes widened at Blaine's outburst. Kurt, utterly embarrassed, flushed bright red. Rachel had been right, Kurt was too quick to judge. "I-I'm sorry. You're right, I overstepped. I didn't mean..."

"Yeah, you did." Blaine said. He pursed his lips and headed through the classroom door which Kurt only then noticed was right behind him.

Kurt followed Blaine in sheepishly and saw that everyone else in the room was sitting in the same spot they sat Monday, so cursing internally, Kurt walked slowly to his seat next to Blaine.

He looked out of the corner of his eye to see Blaine sitting stiffly in his chair with his arms crossed and looking pointedly away from Kurt.

Kurt sighed. This was going to be a long hour.

Blaine sat ramrod straight for the entire class period, fuming. He had expected Kurt to be thinking some terrible things about him, but he hadn't expected him to come out and say them. Kurt barely knew him, and he didn't even give him a chance to explain.

Why do you care? Blaine thought. He didn't know. Kurt's opinion mattered to him a lot, and he couldn't figure out why.

He knew Kurt was going to apologize again, and he knew he was going to forgive him.

The only thing he didn't know was how he was going to get through this semester intact.

After what felt like an eternity to Kurt, Gates wrapped up class with a final note to rehearse for their performances on Friday.

Kurt expected Blaine to leap from his chair and leave the classroom before he would get a chance to talk to him, but Blaine surprised him by sitting stock still in his chair, facing forward and glaring. A small part of Kurt really admired Blaine's tenacity. He had managed to maintain his anger all through class, and Kurt really appreciated the drama of it.

"Blaine," Kurt pleaded. "I'm really, really sorry. You were completely right. I had no place to judge you. I was narrow-minded and wrong. Will you please, please forgive me?"

Blaine turned his head to look at Kurt's beseeching face, presumably to see if his apology was in earnest. After a moment, he finally said, "Okay."

"Okay?" Kurt asked hopefully.

"Yeah, okay." Blaine replied. He started gathering his belongings.

"Sooo," Kurt said when he realized Blaine wasn't going to say anything more. "Are we going to rehearse together for our performances or I mean, I would understand if you don't want to," Kurt said quickly, standing to match Blaine.

Blaine turned to Kurt and his face softened for the first time. "Of course," he said. "Kurt, even if we're not getting along or whatever, we're still partners, and I still want us to help each other do well in this class."

"Okay," Kurt nodded, smiling. "So, did you want to meet here, or...?"

The boys started heading towards the door of the classroom and then out into the hall. "Actually, I have a piano, guitar, and a stereo for any tracks you might want to play if you wouldn't mind just meeting at my apartment. I figure that way we won't have to fight for a rehearsal room or have a limited amount of time to work."

Kurt was delightfully surprised to see Blaine really did seem to have forgiven him. Kurt quickly thought over spending time alone with a guy he just met but decided he trusted Blaine enough to meet at his apartment. Besides, Kurt was painfully curious to see where the boy lived.

"Well, I don't know," Kurt said coyly, smirking. "You're not going to strangle me, are you?"

"Only if you ask me to," Blaine replied with a devious grin, making Kurt blushed to the tips of his ears.

The boys made plans to meet the next day when Kurt got off of work to rehearse their songs, leaving them time to perfect them as best as they could that night, and bid farewell.