Kurt had text Blaine the following day and it turned out they both had Wednesday afternoons free, so they arranged to meet at The Bean the following week.

When Blaine arrived, Kurt was already there, sitting at the exact same table as the previous encounters. Dressed impeccably yet again Blaine noticed, this time in a green tartan suit. It really shouldn’t have worked, but it did. Plus Kurt had added a bowtie and Blaine had a certain fondness of those. Okay maybe he had a slight obsession. Some would say a problem, but he didn’t care. Bowties are cool.

Kurt was completely immersed in a book when Blaine approached him with his drink. He had his back to Blaine, so hadn’t seen him arrive. Blaine stood directly behind him and leaned over his shoulder.

“Good book?”

Kurt squealed and nearly hit Blaine in the face with his book. Blaine had never seen anyone jump so much in his entire life and was practically crying with laughter when Kurt turned around.

“Jesus, Blaine you scared the life out of me!”

Kurt’s voice had increased an octave and he wore an expression of shock, anger and amusement on his face. Blaine – who was struggling to regain a normal breathing pattern – could just about reply:

“I’m sorry but-“ He let out another laugh “- I couldn’t resist. And your reaction –“ laughter uncontrollably attempting to escape again “- was priceless!” He let out another stifled chuckle then sighed to compose himself before sitting down opposite Kurt.

“Well, never do that again! I honestly thought was going into cardiac arrest!”

“I’m sorry, truly” Blaine tried to keep a straight face “But you still haven’t answered my original question” He smirked.

“Oh really Blaine, you’re surprised I didn’t answer your question, after you made me jump so much I thought I’d land in the next street. I didn’t even hear the question!” Kurt started with a sarcastic drawl but his tone became more hyped up as he continued “I was immersed in a world of witches and wizards and magical beasts! A..A...A Land Of Stories!” He stopped mid-rant to see Blaine grinning back at him.

“Are you even capable of not smiling like a fool at something I say?” Kurt asked dead-panned.

“Sorry, but you just seemed like you were on a roll. I was wondering how long you could keep going before pausing for air. It was getting very impressive” He smirked “A Land Of Stories though, very poetic, it would make a nice book title”.

“It would actually” Kurt mused.

Blaine nodded towards the dog-eared copy of The Goblet Of Fire still clasped in Kurt’s hands.

“Good choice of book, that one happens to be my favourite, I’m not surprised you zoned out”

“I was not zoned out! You were just freakishly quiet like a .... like a...” Kurt wracked his brain for a quiet animal “JELLYFISH!”

“Jellyfish?” Blaine questioned, eyebrows raised.

“I couldn’t think of another quiet animal okay?!” Kurt protested, heat slowly rising to his cheeks.

“And the first one you thought of was a jellyfish?” Blaine fought back a laugh.

“Well, what would you have said?”

“Umm, I don’t know, call me cliché but a mouse maybe?” Blaine chuckled, although to be perfectly honest, he would have more than likely said something equally as strange under pressure.

“Well I’m not into cliché’s, I like to be unique” Kurt replied with a slight nod of the head.

“And that you are” Blaine murmured, taking a sip of his drink. “Hi, by the way”

“Hi” Kurt replied coyly, still slightly flushed with surprise and embarrassment.

“Why’d you bring a book anyway, did you anticipate our conversation to be completely boring?” Blaine teased.

“Oh you mean, opposed to our highly intelligent jellyfish discussion” Kurt challenged.

“You brought it up!”

“Only because you scared me and made my brain turn to mush!”

“You should have been expecting me!”

“Oh zip it Flitwick or I’ll feed you to a Hungarian Horntail”

“Touché”

They just smiled then, each taking sips from their drinks, eyes locked on each others.