“Allez Kurt, tu sais bien que Clara raffole de ce truc et les gar�on vont le vider en un rien de temps. Il vaut mieux en prendre trois paquets pour �tre s�rs,” Paolo said to Kurt as he put two more packs of Lays chips into the shopping cart

Blaine gasped and barely had the time to plaster himself against the shelf, before Kurt or Paolo could see him. He waited a few minutes, not moving, and then sighed in relief when he saw the two men walk down another aisle in the opposite direction.

That was close, he thought to himself.

He was not even sure why he had hidden from Kurt. Part of him still felt guilty for hurting the other man. But Blaine was glad that neither of the two men had noticed his presence, especially Paolo. It wasn’t that Blaine was scared of the tall guy. Okay, maybe he was a little but who could blame him? Look at him, he’s almost as impressive as that scary guy on Game of Thrones who’s name Blaine could not recall since he’d stopped watching midway through Season 1..

Blaine sighed and slowly removed himself from the shelf, trying not to disrupt the candies too much; he’d hate to ruin the hard work of the person who had arranged them in neat rows. He stooped down to grab his shopping bag to leave when he sensed someone behind him. Thinking it was another customer who thought Blaine was in their way to get to the Skittles and Mars bars, the musician stood up quickly and turned to apologize. But the moment he was faced with the other person, he wished he had just left his shopping bag behind and run as far away as possible.

“You,” Paolo said, anger clear in his tone as he took a step closer to Blaine who hit the shelf behind him, causing packets of chocolates and candies to fall on the floor. The musician had no time to worry about it though because in the next second, Paolo grabbed him by the front of his t-shirt and pulled him close, too close for Blaine’s comfort and he started to shake a little with fear.

Today is really not my day, Blaine thought to himself as the taller man started to mutter things in French mixed with English.

“You hurt him, connard!” Paolo bellowed in Blaine’s face. Then, as abruptly as he had grabbed him, Kurt’s ex let go of Blaine and seemed to soften slightly. “But I’m sorry for the other morning,” Paolo said, struggling a little with his words.

Blaine suspected that the other man was not entirely sincere in his apology, but the musician was too stunned to point that out. At least Paolo was not preventing him from leaving anymore. But as soon as the thought of running crossed Blaine’s mind, the other man grabbed him again by the shoulders, surprisingly gently, and manage to say, “Look, I know I acted wrong, okay.”

Words seem to come a bit hard for Paolo whose strong French accent made it a bit difficult for Blaine to understand. Still, the musician stayed silent and tried to understand what Paolo wanted to say to him. “Kurt’s been unhappy since yesterday. So you better fix it.”

“It’s not that simple,” Blaine answered, preparing himself for another onslaught of Paolo’s anger. He closed his eyes and backed a little more into the shelf, sending more candies on the floor.

Paolo was about to ask the smaller man what he was doing when a security guard arrived.

“Il y a un probl�me messieurs?” he asked, looking pointedly at Paolo who had taken a step further from Blaine whose eyes were still closed. The man approached them, glaring at the mess that was on the floor.

“Juste deux vieux potes qui se retrouvent, ne vous en faites pas monsieur,” Paolo lied to the security guy with a big smile while patting Blaine on the back.

The musician opened his eyes, staring in shock at Kurt’s ex. What the hell is he playing at? We’re certainly not old friends!

The security guy looked at them both, suspicion clear in his eyes. He had seen on one of the cameras that the two men seemed to be having an argument.

“Vous �tes s�rs?” the man insisted looking directly at Blaine, trying to see if the smaller of the two had something else to say.

Blaine noticed Paolo staring at him and nodding almost imperceptibly then the musician answered the security guy, “Tout va bien Monsieur.” �Blaine faked a reassuring smile and even nudged Paolo in the side as he would any of his other friends.

“Oui, nous sommes d�sol�s pour le d�rangement Monsieur,” Paolo added sending an apologetic smile in the other man’s direction.

The security guy looked at them for another moment, they both nodded and smiled, and he finally decided that he was not needed there. He still asked both men to put the candies and chocolate bars back on the shelf before leaving them and going back to his office.

Paolo waited until the security guy was out of sight before turning to Blaine who was looking at him strangely.

They remained in their staring contest until Blaine broke the silence.

“We really should put these back where they were,” he said, as he pointed to the packets still on the floor.

Paolo nodded and together they put everything back in place. Once they were finished, they stood a bit awkwardly next to each other. Blaine did not know what to think about the other man anymore. He was about to ask him why he acted like that, but Paolo spoke first.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” he said in a gruff tone, “I wanted to ask you something, okay?”

“Okay, I accept your apology,” Blaine replied, “but I meant what I said before about Kurt. It’s more complicated than what you may think.”

“Can’t you just give him another chance?” Paolo’s tone turned incredulous.�

The man could not fathom how someone could walk away from a guy like Kurt. Paolo had hated himself so much when he had taken the coward’s way out. But back then, he had felt like leaving was the best option. He had been selfish and not a day went by where he did not regret it. With time though, he had managed to convince Kurt to let him back in his life and they had become good friends. He thought that trying again as a couple would have been a bad idea. They had talked about that possibility but, in the end, both realized the feelings they once had for each other had faded. Kurt had also confessed to Paolo that, at first, their relationship had just been a way for him to escape his failed marriage. Paolo had been there, a gorgeous man who had given Kurt attention and affection. Kurt had not denied he had been in love with Paolo but he also told him that he didn’t believe they were meant to stay together. Kurt had resented Paolo for a long time after his departure so he felt a weight was being lifted from his shoulders after their talk.

Paolo had also confided in Kurt that day. He told him that he would never have considered having another lasting relationship after Carlos had left him and Clara. When he met Kurt, he had wanted to have some fun for a while. But he had not predicted that he would fall for Kurt’s children or that Clara would also feel happier with Kurt’s two boys. In the end, Paolo had mostly stayed because of her, to see her happy again and smile like she had not done since her other father’s departure. That day, Paolo had asked Kurt if Clara could keep living with him and the boys and Kurt had accepted on the condition that Paolo would not entirely abandon his daughter. The other man had then proceeded to rent the place next to Kurt’s. Luckily for him, the owner was old and needed to move in with her children. She was on good terms with Kurt, who had convinced her to rent the place to Paolo.

Paolo had walked away from Kurt but if he could start over again, he would have changed a few things. He still would have broken up with Kurt but in an amiable way. They would have both agreed to remain friends and an entire year wouldn’t have gone to waste. So the man cared deeply about his ex and now good friend and he hated to see him hurting. That is why when he had spotted Blaine in the candies and chocolate section he decided that he would try to make things better for Kurt. Of course, he could have told his friend that he saw Blaine hiding against the shelves a few sections away from where they stood, but he doubted that Kurt would have gone to the other man. Actually, Paolo was convinced that his ex would have also hidden from Blaine and waited until the musician left.�

“I can’t do this,” Blaine said dejectedly. “He knows why and I just can’t…”

“Blaine?” Kurt’s surprised tone interrupted the musician.

Paolo decided that this was the moment to leave the two other men alone. But Kurt glared at him as his friend started to walk away. Don’t you dare! Paolo could read in Kurt’s eyes, but he just smiled apologetically and turned the other way.

“Paolo!” Kurt suddenly felt like killing his ex for leaving him in such a situation.

Blaine looked at Kurt’s back, debating whether to stay or leave. He was still scared Paolo had not really left and would be waiting around the corner to push him back to Kurt.

When Kurt turned, Blaine was still there. Their eyes met and for a moment, both men felt the phantom feeling of what they experienced that rainy morning.

“Hi,” Blaine said, breaking the silence between them.

“Hey,” Kurt replied weakly. He was not sure what to say or how to start any conversation.

“It’s good to see you,” Blaine tried but he knew that given the circumstances of the last time they saw each other, it was the last thing to say. And yet, it was only the truth. Despite his very conflicted feelings about Kurt, it still was good to see the other man.

A low chirp came from Kurt’s pocket before he could even think of saying anything else to Blaine. He took his phone out and gasped.

What happened next was too fast for Blaine to process. One moment they were both standing awkwardly, barely speaking to each other and the next, Kurt had taken him by the hand and dragged him along to continue grocery shopping. He gave Blaine one part of his list; Blaine’s eyes had grown wide when he saw that Kurt had three pages of items he needed to buy. Kurt then sent Blaine back in the food section and gave him ten minutes to meet him back at the frozen section.

Blaine did not have time to protest before Kurt took his shopping bag, put it in his cart and walked away leaving Blaine with his part of the list. The musician felt completely dumbfounded as he looked at the other man disappearing in the next section.

�

“I need more ham, Blaine, seriously, haven’t you ever gone grocery shopping before?” Kurt asked, exasperated when Blaine came back from the food section with only two packets of ham. “And you did not even compare prices,” the man added as he looked at what kind of brand Blaine had chosen. “This is too expensive. Also, one bottle of water won’t cut it when we have three children to provide for.” Kurt shook his head disapprovingly at Blaine who was at a loss for words.

The musician wanted to protest and tell Kurt that if he was not happy he should have done it himself. After all, Blaine had no obligations towards the other man. Kurt was lucky he was still there, bearing being yelled at in the middle of the frozen section.

“Okay, no, this really won’t do.” Kurt’s tone had softened a little and he was now smiling tentatively at the other man. “Come on, I’ll show you how it’s done.” And without warning Kurt took Blaine by the hand again and led him back to the food section. The musician tried not to think too much about how right Kurt’s hand felt in his or how some part of him was enjoying the domesticity of grocery shopping together.

Blaine tried to pay attention to all that Kurt was telling him as he taught him the best ways to find the cheapest items that were still good quality. Blaine’s eyes bulged out of his sockets when Kurt grabbed ten packets of ham and put them all in the trolley.

“Are you sure this isn’t too much?” Blaine asked him in an incredulous tone.

“One teenage girl, two boys, one of them eating ham sandwiches twice a day, Paolo coming to steal from our fridge when his is empty,” Kurt counted on his fingers. “No, I really don’t think it’s too much. Actually,” Kurt grabbed two more packets and threw them with the others, “better safe than sorry.” �He turned to Blaine who was still staring at all the ham with wide eyes.

Kurt laughed softly and then they moved on to get the water; four packs of clear water and two packs of sparkling water.

At some point, Blaine suggested getting an additional shopping cart because if Kurt kept on this track, one would not be enough. Kurt nodded, a look of surprise in eyes.

It took them twenty more minutes to get all the items that were on the list before heading to the check out point. Blaine helped Kurt put everything into bags and they walked together out of the shop.

“Shit!” Kurt muttered under his breath. “I forgot that we came in Paolo’s car.” Kurt looked at the two carts and suddenly regretted getting so much. How on earth was he going to take it all back to his place? A taxi at this time of the day would be too expensive and Kurt had not taken cash with him so, unless he was lucky and got one who accepted credit cards, he would have to take the metro. Kurt shuddered at the thought. Then, he realized that Blaine was still standing next to him, waiting for Kurt to tell him where to take his cart.

“Blaine, can I ask you a favor?” he said, looking at the musician who nodded almost imperceptibly. “Would you mind driving me back home? Paolo left. I can’t see his car where he parked it and I really don’t think that taking the metro is an option right now,” he explained to Blaine with pleading eyes.

The musician now understood the meaning of puppy dog eyes; usually his own friends told him to stop doing that to convince them to do anything. He suddenly felt bad for using this ‘weapon’ on them so often; he was helpless to say no. Blaine sighed and nodded again, guiding Kurt towards the car. Lucky for them, it was not parked too far from the entrance of the shop.

Blaine helped Kurt load everything into the trunk and then he waited in the car for the other man to return the two carts. Thank god, he had not taken his own car; it would not have survived the trip filled with all of Kurt’s groceries and the pots of paint. Charlotte had been all too happy to lend Blaine the car. She hoped that this meant that her son was trying to be more responsible and finally do his own grocery shopping. Blaine had not told her that he actually needed the bigger and sturdier vehicle to get paints for the show. But the musician did not feel guilty for lying to her; after all, he did end up going grocery shopping in a way. He would not tell her that either, he would never hear the end of it if he said anything about helping Kurt and then driving to his place.�