There was a small place about a block from where he was staying that was essentially a Vietnamese restaurant (more like a luncheonette, nothing fancy). Initially drawn in by the smell of something delicious Kurt became a regular in the mornings. Song, the owner/chef loved cooking for Kurt who had a curious palate, always interested in trying whatever was put on his plate. It became routine, Kurt and his grandmother would have morning coffee, decide what they wanted to do with the day then walk together to the restaurant. Here his grandmother would splinter off to meet her friends for their walk, or mah johng and he would eat whatever Song could think of to cook for him. Kurt loved the stories Song told about the different people who came and went in the restaurant. Encouraging Song to tell more and more stories, he would listen and picture how his life would look when he was a part of the city for real. Sometimes he’d sit and imagine Blaine laughing with friends at the table by the window, or studying lines, a slight furrow to his brow as he worked to decipher the deeper meaning of a part he was auditioning for.

Song enjoyed Kurt’s company. He loved his enthusiasm for new things and Kurt’s reports on each new discovery he’d make when he’d strike out into the city alone, or with his grandmother. After a week of Kurt watching Song prepare meals the older man motioned for him to come behind the counter. “You like this the best.” He referred to the dish he’d made for Kurt that morning, something Kurt couldn’t pronounce and didn’t care at all. It was delicious and he told Song again and again that it was the best thing he’d tasted in New York. “I’ll teach you to make it for your boyfriend when you go home.”

After that Song showed Kurt how to make all sorts of dishes, Kurt even hopping behind the counter to help out when Song would run to the bank or upstairs to tend to his pregnant wife when she was ill.

His afternoons were constantly changing. Sometimes he and his grandmother would shop, or aimlessly wander. They visited museums and art exhibitions and rode the hop on hop off tourist buses to Chinatown or the Circle Line around the Bay. At night they saw shows, Broadway, off Broadway and more.

The ends of his nights were unfailingly the same. He and Blaine were on the phone, sharing their day. Some nights Blaine didn’t seem to say much and Kurt put that down to him being stuck at the rehab hospital and not having much going on day in and out, but other nights he was animated and full of news about his progress, his father and updates on his mother.

“Tonight was Spiderman right?” Blaine asked.

“It was, the theater was across from the Ripley’s Museum, Gran almost dragged me in but I deflected, thank God.”

“Oh, I don’t know Honey, I think it could be fun.”

“Maybe with you, probably not though. It’s all just creepy.”

“So, go ahead, what was the theater like?”

“I don’t love the Foxwoods. The foyer beats the dark alley feel of the Hirschfeld but once you’re inside it’s just…I don’t know, disappointing. It didn’t feel any different than the auditorium at McKinley.”

“Where were your seats?” Blaine would close his eyes and picture everything Kurt explained.

“Center orchestra, about 22 rows back, any closer and you’d never know what the hell was going on because there was so much stuff up in the air.”

“On stage? Like Peter Pan?”

“That and over the audience. And those unitards leave nothing to the imagination, I can’t even think about flying over an audience with my junk dangling down threatening to take someone’s eye out.”

“Thank you for the image, I’ll be filing that away for later.”

“Don’t be gross. Anyway, the design was ingenious, even if the plot was thin and hackneyed. “

“That’s disappointing; I kind of wanted it to be great. Wasn’t there any part you liked?”

“Arachne, the mortal weaver who was turned into a spider by an angry god was spellbinding. She never touched the ground; she weaved these patterns that fell in ribbons with dancers attached. When she turned into a spider she was mesmerizing, such a beautiful costume and her voice was hauntingly beautiful. I’m ripping the cd now so I can send you the music.”

“Cool, are you thinking of doing something of Arachne’s for glee club?”

“I don’t know, maybe, but there’s a duet I want you to hear, I really want to sing with you.”

“If you hadn’t deserted me at school we could have done it in a show.”

“I’ve been thinking about that.” Kurt laid on his side and chewed on his bottom lip.

Blaine’s voice was more excited than Kurt had heard in awhile. “About coming back to me and the Warblers?”

“Not exactly, and I didn’t leave you, I left the school. What would you think about coming to McKinley?”

Blaine was quiet for a minute and Kurt panicked, “No, never mind. I was just…forget it.”

“Calm down, I’m just thinking. I don’t know. I mean, the Warblers are my friends and they depend on me. And besides, Dad’s making progress but I don’t know if he’s going to go for taking me out of Dalton to follow you to McKinley.”

Kurt shut down a little, Blaine could hear it in his voice. “No, you’re right. Never mind. Why would you leave Dalton? Or your friends. Look I’m really beat, I’m going to go to bed. I’ll send you the music in the morning okay?”

“Kurt, stop it. I didn’t say no, and you left Dalton because you missed YOUR friends, you know how much they meant to you, my friends mean something to me too. I’ll think about it, I’ll talk to my Dad about it next session okay?”

“You don’t have to. It’s fine. What did you do today?”

Blaine sighed heavily. “Babe? What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing. Why does something have to be going on? I just thought it would be fun if we could spend more time together but if you don’t want to I’m not going to force you.”

“See? You’re being passive aggressive and I know you know you’re twisting things just to be unreasonable, and if you say ‘if I’m so unreasonable you don’t have to talk to me’ I swear I’ll leave this hospital tonight, fly to New York and tickle you.”

“I hate being tickled.”

“Yes, you do, and I’m excellent at it, as you well know, so let’s get down to why you’re upset.”

Kurt put the phone on speaker and rolled to his stomach, his head on his arms. “I just miss you so much, and when I get home we’ll already be starting school and we’ll only have weekends, IF our parents decide we can see each other at all.”

“And after school.”

“I’m going to have to get a job after school I think. I don’t know. Dad hasn’t said anything but I know he wants me to do something other than…well, you. Besides, if we’re going to be living in the city we need to have some kind of work experience, it’s not like we’re going to get jobs on Broadway first day out.”
“I really am going to talk to Dad about McKinley, it’s only fair, you tried Dalton, I should try your school, and besides then I’ll be around if Karofsky decides to start with you again.”

“He won’t. I know it. He’s really sorry.”

“Fine, but he wasn’t the only one.”

“Honey I don’t want you there to fight my battles, just to be my boyfriend.”

“I’m that no matter where I am. You know I miss you too, but you seem sadder tonight than you have been since you left. Did something happen?”

Kurt knew they’d get there eventually. He wasn’t looking forward to it. “So you know Madison?”

“Your grandmother’s friend’s granddaughter, the one that wants to be a model.”

“The closet puker, yeah. She came to Spiderman tonight and after dinner asked me if I wanted to go hang out with some of her friends. I figured maybe one of them would be slightly less vapid and maybe I’d find someone under 80 to hang out with so I went.”

“Good, you need to meet some people to see the city with.”

“Yeah. You’d think. Anyway we met her friends at some club.”

“Club? How did you get in?”

“They didn’t even check, they knew her and just assumed I was part of the modeling agency I guess. The place was packed with models. I’ve never seen so much smoke in one place before.”

“Did you dance, was the music good?”

“I , the music was mostly loud. I did dance, briefly.”

“Briefly?”

“So this friend of Madison’s seemed pretty nice and friendly and all and he works at one of the theaters in town, just doing sets and stuff, but still. We talked for a little while and he asked me to dance so we did but then…”

Blaine’s voice was tight, “Then?”

“Then he got a little close.”

“Dancing in a crowded room close?”

“Not really.”

“Kurt.”

“He tried to kiss me.” Kurt buried his face against the pillow.

“Tried? What does that mean?”

“He was more drunk than I thought he was I guess, and we were just dancing around and he started dancing behind me a little closer than I was comfortable with so I spun around to just kind of dance back away from him but before I could back up his lips were on my face.”

“Did you happen to mention that you had a boyfriend?”

“Are you blaming me for this?”

“No.” Blaine’s voice was scary calm. “I’m just trying to decide whether he was just some guy you met who couldn’t resist how gorgeous you are and didn’t realize you were off the market, or if he was a complete ass who knew you were taken and tried to kiss you anyway.”

“He knew.”

“As in, before you got on the dance floor you told him you have a boyfriend and that meant nothing to him.”

“Yeah, when he told me what he did I told him that my boyfriend and I were going to be moving to New York and studying performance and hoping to be on Broadway one day. But it was loud, I mean, maybe he didn’t hear the boyfriend part, Blaine, I don’t know. Are you mad?”

“At you? No. But I want to punch something. I hate the thought of anyone doing that I mean, you didn’t want him to kiss you right?”

‘NO! Blaine, no.”

“Why does everyone think they can just, USE you, Karofsky, now this guy, it needs to stop.”

“It wasn’t the same, he wasn’t abusive about it, he was just coming on to me, drunk and being sloppy. I didn’t feel violated after like I did with Dave.”

“How DID you feel?”

“I missed you. I missed the way we kiss, I missed being able to look across the room and know that my other half is there, looking back.” He was crying, he didn’t want Blaine to hear it, but he was.

Blaine shook his head and closed his eyes, “I’m going to find a way, I’ll come to McKinley.”

“You don’t have to, honestly, I know the Warblers mean a lot to you, I was just missing you so much, missing us. Mini crisis, that’s all. I was just hoping to have someone to talk to here.”

“We’ll talk about the transfer later. What happened after he tried to kiss you?”

“I reminded him that I had a boyfriend, he said, ‘me too, I don’t see either of them here’ which was just so gross, so I told him I actually loved my boyfriend (Blaine made an awww noise here and said “love you too” but Kurt carried on) and that he should respect that. Then I told Madison that I was leaving and she told me not to be such a baby. You ask me hanging out getting wasted in some club and making out with other people’s boyfriends is NOT a sign of maturity, which I would have told her if I thought she understood polysyllabic words, but instead I just turned and left.”

Blaine had to smile, THIS was his Kurt. “Baby, I love you.”

“You know what I’ve been thinking?”

“Could be anything with you.”

“I really loved Arachne’s costume, and I kept thinking how Spiderman’s outfit could be so much more flattering.”

“Um, Okay.”

“What if I studied fashion design as a back up to performance? I think I’d really like doing costumes for shows.”

“Because you want to? Or because you’re getting scared that you might not be good enough for Broadway?”

“There aren’t a lot of parts for guys like me, I know that, I’m not saying I won’t try and maybe at some point I’ll even write a show I can do, that we both can do, but I’m good at fashion and it seems to be what I notice at every show I go to. Why not add it to what I do?”

“You are good at it, and you know I’ll support whatever you want to do, I just want to make sure you aren’t holding back on what you really want because when you sing Kurt, you’re amazing.”

“Thank you Mon Ami.” They were both quiet for a few minutes, and then Kurt pulled his quilt up over his shoulders. “Blaine?”

“Mmm?”

“I love you.”

“You too, Beautiful Boy.”

“Do something for me?”

“Anything.”

“Will you sing to me, like, until I fall asleep? I just miss you so much.”

“Of course. What song?”

“You pick.”

“Okay. Do you want me to hang up when you’re asleep or do you want to stay on the phone?”

“You can hang up if you want to.”

“And if I don’t want to?”

Kurt smiled to himself “Then I’ll listen to you talk in your sleep.”

“Let me know if I say anything sexy.”

“Sing Blaine.” Blaine didn’t need video chat to know Kurt was rolling his eyes at him.

So he did. He didn’t need to think of a song, it was right there, in the back of his mind since the moment Kurt had said someone else had tried to kiss him. The twisting knife of panic in his stomach, the fear of losing Kurt to some experienced New York guy had been eating at him since the day the love of his life got on a plane.

He sang God Only Knows by the Beach Boys. Kurt hadn’t heard it before, he stuck closely to show tunes, but it broke his heart. He didn’t let Blaine finish, “Honey? Please stop. I’m never leaving you. It’s not going to happen. Should I have not told you about tonight?”

“Of course you needed to tell me. I mean, you didn’t have to, not telling me wouldn’t have been like cheating or anything, I’m just saying I know it upset you and you can tell me anything that you need to talk about.”

“You’re not going to sleep tonight are you?”

“Not without drugs, no.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. You can’t help it that you’re handsome, funny, and perfect. I just have to learn to deal with the fact that guys are always going to be hitting on you. I’m never going to like it, but I’m going to have to deal with it.”

“But you also have to remember that it doesn’t matter who hits on me because none of them are you, and you are all I want. Never mind singing, tell me a story.”

“Where do you want to go?”

Kurt thought for a minute, “Wherever you are.”

The last thought Kurt had before drifting off to sleep was how lucky their future children would be that Daddy Blaine was so adept at bedtime stories that were both fascinating and soothing enough to send you softly into slumber with the sweetest of dreams.