A week later found Kurt and Blaine both hanging out in the living room and playing with Emily. After their decision to all take care of Emily together and Blaine and Kurt's conversation, the two of them actually strike a tentative friendship, to Blaine's biggest surprise. Even after they had talked and said they would try to be friends, Blaine didn't really have a lot of hope that it would actually happen. Kurt and him had disliked each other for such a long time that he didn't think it was possible for them to get along. He was wrong however, and now that they were spending more and more time together, Kurt seemed to be loosening up around Blaine, and Blaine actually feels comfortable enough with Kurt to be himself, without always walking on eggshells. While Kurt was playing quietly with Emily and blowing raspberries on her stomach, Blaine couldn't help but watch the man. They were so many questions surrounding Kurt, and Blaine couldn't help being curious about his past. Isaac has revealed some of it, and even if Blaine now understood better why Kurt was so guarded, it had raised even more question for him. What had happened to Kurt's parents? Why had he lived in an orphanage? What happened in Kurt's life to actually make him the man he is today? Those were all questions that Blaine thought about sometimes. Had him and Kurt been closer, he would have just asked the man. However, his friendship with Kurt was so new, that Blaine didn't want to risk angering the man and destroying their newfound friendship just to satisfy his curiosity. He would just keep his mouth shut and his questions to himself, and hope that one day him and Kurt had a strong enough friendship that Kurt felt like he could confide in him.

“Stop thinking so hard over there Blaine, you might actually injure yourself.” Said Kurt, breaking Blaine out of his contemplation. Hearing the sarcastic remark, Blaine turned towards Kurt to see the man with a smirk on his face, even if he wasn't looking directly at Blaine and was still playing with Emily. The two of them might be friends now, but Kurt was just as sarcastic as he had ever been. Blaine had to admit to himself that he liked it however. He never felt that Kurt was being condescending or mean towards him, but Kurt liked to tease him, and Blaine loved to tease him right back. The sarcastic comments and the teasing actually showed how their friendship had developed, and it warmed Blaine's heart to think about it, even if he would never admit it out loud, especially not to Kurt.

“Ha ha, you are just hilarious” retorted Blaine, picking up Emily from where she was lying on the floor next to Kurt, and bringing her up to his face to kiss her all over the face. “Do you think Kurt is funny Em? No you don't, and you're right, he's just a crazy old man. Yes, you are absolutely right about that baby girl, he's just a crazy old man, with his crazy talk” Blaine said to Emily in a sweet voice, which brought a huge smile on Emily's face, as if she could actually understand what her uncle was talking about.

“Crazy old man? Seriously Blaine, that's what you're going with?” Kurt asked him, pretending to be annoyed even if Blaine could see the amusement in his eyes.

“Well, you are older Kurt. It's nothing to be ashamed of, it's okay.”

“By one year Blaine, seriously. Are you ever going to let that go?”

Since learning that Kurt was a year older than him, Blaine had constantly been teasing Kurt about it. It wasn't as if it made any difference really, but Blaine loved having something to hold over Kurt's head, and Kurt would always pretend to be so annoyed with Blaine, which would be even more amusing for the man.

“Nope” Blaine answered to Kurt's question, turning his shit eating grin towards Kurt.

At his answer, Kurt just rolled his eyes and pretended to be annoyed, even if Blaine could see the small smile on the man's face. The sight of it still caught Blaine by surprise, even if it had been happening more and more lately. Since they had started their newfound friendship and Kurt had loosened up around Blaine, Kurt had actually started smiling more, which did nothing to help Blaine's attraction towards the man. This was the only problem with this new friendship. Now that him and Kurt got along, Blaine couldn't help but notice the man, and seemed to be more and more attracted to him. Kurt always had this soft smile when he was playing or talking to Emily, and it never failed to make Blaine's heart beat faster in his chest. Kurt always had these deep blue eyes which could reflect whatever he was feeling, and they seemed a lot more beautiful now that he often saw amusement and fondness towards Blaine in them, instead of indifference and boredom. He had never had this problem before, because Kurt was always so cold and closed off, but now that the man was relaxing and smiled more, Blaine couldn't help but notice how beautiful he was and found himself staring at Kurt quite often.

“You know what we should do?” asked Kurt, cutting Blaine's thought short. “We should take Emily to the park. Central park shouldn't be too crowded at this time of the day, and we could show Emily the squirrels and the swings.”

“Actually, that's a great idea. I'm not sure she's ever been before, and it would be great to show her around. I don't think she went out that much before…” Blaine didn't complete his sentence, the memory of his sister's death flooding back to the front of his mind. However, before he could drown in his sad thoughts and the memories of his lost ones, Kurt got up and clapped his hands with enthusiasm.

“Right, all the more reasons to go then! Don't you agree princess?” Kurt said to Emily, tickling her softly where she was sitting in Blaine's arms, which made the little girl smile. Hearing the term of endearment brought a smile to Blaine's face, and actually pushed all thoughts about his sister to the back of his mind. Kurt had started calling his niece “princess” a few days ago, and each time he heard the term, Blaine couldn't help but feel giddy. It wasn't just that it was Kurt using the term; he just loved seeing Kurt and Isaac get along so well with Emily. Both men obviously cared for his niece a lot, and it warmed Blaine's heart to know that he wasn't alone in this. He truly had a great support system, and his two flat mates were being fantastic. The system they had put in place when classes started was actually working quite well. Since they had managed to balance their schedules and each had work or school at different times, there was always one of them around to look after Emily. School had only started back a few days ago, so it was impossible to say if the system would hold, but for the moment, it was working perfectly, and Blaine hoped it would continue. Emily felt comfortable with all three of the men that were looking after her, even if Blaine was still the one who spent the more time with her. The little girl was adapting well, and she was now a lot more lively than she had been when she first moved in. She now babbled quite a lot and she couldn't seem to stop moving and looking at everything with curiosity, which pleased Blaine infinitely, since it showed how she was progressing and felt comfortable in her new home, as unconventional as it was.

Kurt and him got dressed to go out, and bundled Emily up in her coat and small shoes. The three men had been shopping for clothes with Emily together, and Emily was now one of the best dressed 11 month's old little girl in the world. It turned out that Kurt was really into fashion, which shouldn't have surprised Blaine, seeing how the man was always dressed so elegantly and with style. Kurt had even told during their shopping spree that he was actually studying fashion to become a designer someday. After putting Emily in her stroller and getting out of the apartment, Kurt and Blaine started walking towards Central Park, which happened to just be a few block away from their apartment. They walked in companionable silence, and it was nice for both of them to just have some fresh air. When they arrived at the park, they decided to walk around the park a little, so Emily could enjoy a little nature. The little girl couldn't stop looking everywhere around her. She didn't seem to know where to look, and was turning her face all around her to be able to see everything that was surrounding her.

“It's really cute how curious she is. I wonder if this is because she's still so young, of if it's just one of her personality traits” wondered Kurt out loud.

“It is kind of cute how's she's whipping her head around every few seconds. She looks like a character from a cartoon” answered Blaine, which brought a soft laugh out of Kurt's mouth. After walking around the park for about half an hour, the boys decided to bring Emily towards the play ground, so that she could discover the joys of swings and sand boxes. They decided to bring her towards the swings, and though Emily refused to sit in one of them at first, she seemed to really enjoy them once she finally settled down. Blaine was pushing her lightly, and Emily was all smiles and babbling. While they took turn pushing Emily on the swing, Blaine and Kurt were quietly talking, and having a good time. They had discovered that they had quite a lot in common, now that they had stopped avoiding each other and actually had conversations. They discovered that both were really into musicals, and that they could talk about the subject for hours without ever running out of things to say to each other. They also both really liked music, and clothes, even if Blaine's tastes weren't quite as extravagant as Kurt's were.

“So, do you play any instruments or anything?” asked Blaine when he discovered that Kurt was really into music.

“Not really no.” answered Kurt “I can sing, I actually used to be in Glee club in high school for a while”

“Seriously?! Me too! That's amazing! Maybe we actually met before then, during a competition or something. Did you guys ever make it to States or Regionals?”

“I doubt it” said Kurt, suddenly a lot more closed off. “I actually dropped out of Glee club when I was still in my Sophomore year and my Glee club wasn't popular at all. We never made it to a competition while I was in Glee”.

“I can't believe you can sing! We should totally sing together one day, it could be fun”

“I don't really sing or perform anymore.” Said Kurt soberly, avoiding Blaine's eyes.

“Oh, okay.” Blaine wanted to ask why Kurt the reason why he didn't sing anymore, but Kurt looked so uncomfortable in that moment that he decided to drop the subject. Blaine was sure there was a story behind the fact, but it would just have to be another question about Kurt Hummel that Blaine didn't have an answer to. Kurt still wouldn't look Blaine in the eyes, and Blaine felt like he had ruined the mood with his questions. Kurt was being abnormally quiet, and Blaine didn't like that he made his friend this uncomfortable.

“I'm sorry” Blaine said softly. “I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories.”

“It's not your fault Blaine, you don't need to apologize.” Answered Kurt, and even if he still seemed a little uncomfortable, he turned towards Blaine and smiled softly, even if Blaine could tell that the smile was forced. Still, he appreciated the effort, and decided to change the subject so Kurt could go back to being the smiling man he had gotten used to this past week.

When Emily started to fuss around in the swing, Blaine picked her up, and started walking toward the sand box, where he sat Emily down. The little girl put her hands in the sand, and just looked at what she was holding with big, round eyes. She seemed mesmerized by the texture, and Blaine was positive it was probably the first time she played in sand in her life. Kurt seemed to relax again, and him and Blaine started talking together again, while both playing with Emily who seemed to be having the time of her life. They stayed there for another half hour, and when Blaine saw that Emily's eyes were drooping, he decided to call it a day and take Emily home so the little girl could have her nap.

He picked her up, and was pretending to eat her feet while saying nonsense to the little girl, which not only made Emily laugh, but also brought a big laugh out of Kurt, to Blaine's surprise. At the sound, he turned slowly towards Kurt with a huge smile on his face, he didn't know why, but hearing Kurt laugh at something Blaine did made Blaine's heart skip a beat. Kurt just smiled softly back at Blaine, which brought butterflies to Blaine's stomach. They just stared at each other with smiles of their faces for some time, until Emily made a sound and hit her fist on Blaine's face, which brought back both of their attention towards the little girl. As they walked back towards the apartment, Blaine started thinking about how beautiful Kurt was again, and how giddy he sometimes felt around him. Blaine couldn't deny the fact that he felt more and more attracted to Kurt, but no matter how attracted he might feel, he didn't act on it. Sure, Blaine felt some attraction towards his flat mate, but it was nothing more than that and it didn't mean anything. Kurt was good with Emily, he often played with her, and his niece loved him, so it was normal for Blaine to feel that way… right? When you lived with someone who was as beautiful as Kurt was, and was amazing with your niece, it was normal to look…. Right? And if he sometimes found himself just wanting to spend more and more time with Kurt, even when Emily was asleep, it didn't mean anything, this was just something friends did… right? Sure, he felt like he wanted to know everything about Kurt, and he had hated seeing him uncomfortable in the park and was willing to do anything for Kurt to feel better, but that was just because they were friends. Kurt was just his friend. An insanely attractive friend that was amazing with his niece and seemed to love the most important person in Blaine's life as much as Blaine did, but still, just a friend. It was nothing more than that. Blaine could admit that Kurt was good looking, but that didn't mean anything right? Right. Blaine knew that this wasn't the whole truth, he knew that something was going on and that these feeling were a little more than friendly feelings, but he couldn't admit to himself what the truth and these feelings actually were for the moment. He decided in that moment that denial was the way to go, and everything would go back to normal very soon. Right, of course they would…

However, as they kept walking towards their apartment, Blaine couldn't stop but discretely look towards Kurt every few seconds, and each time, the man took his breath away.

I am completely screwed, thought Blaine as he kept walking and did his best to prevent himself from staring at Kurt.