Cameras stopped rolling, lights dimmed, and audience members began gathering their belongings together whilst chattering excitedly about the show. As various members of the crew hurried backwards and forwards in what appeared to be random directions to someone unfamiliar with their work, Kurt made his way backstage along a short corridor which made a sharp turn out onto the stage. He paused for a few minutes at the dressing rooms of his guests - a well-known actress and the winner of a recent reality TV show - and once again thanked them for appearing on his show.

Sometimes he wondered who should be thanking who. His show - The Kurt Hummel Show - was extremely popular and he had won several TV awards for it, including an Emmy, and an appearance on it boosted the popularity and status of every guest, but at the same time it earned Kurt a living and the added bonuses of awards and celebrity status. Some of the people who appeared on his show realised this and thanked him for the opportunity of being on the show, but others, obnoxiously swaggering around with their over-inflated egos, didn't bother.

He sank down on the small couch in his dressing room with a sigh and eyed the fruit platter sitting on the table in front of him, trying to decide if he was hungry or not. He was in the middle of debating whether to eat snacks here and then cook dinner at home later or to go out for dinner tonight when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said absently, his mind still on his dinner plans.

One of the show's producers, a young woman named Taylor, entered the room carrying her earpiece, which she'd obviously just removed. He returned her smile as she sat down next to him, pushing her blonde hair behind her ears. "Good show today," she complimented. "You handled that mess-up during the performance well. I didn't expect an American Idol winner to be so nervous, but I guess it was her first performance since she won."

Kurt slid the fruit platter across the table to Taylor, offering her some as he popped a grape into his mouth. "I think she was just worried about meeting everyone's expectations. She recovered well from it and it's obvious how talented she is from her performance anyway."

Taylor smiled and thanked him as she helped herself to some fruit. "Yeah, and everything else went smoothly so it's all good." She bit into a strawberry. "Just so you're aware, we are in final negotiations with Taylor Swift's manager about getting her on the show soon. It looks like she'll be appearing in about a month."

"That's good, it's been a while since she was last on so we'll have a fair amount to talk about."

"Are you all prepared for tomorrow's show?" she asked. "We have that musician Blaine Anderson on and he'll be performing his latest single, and we also have that child actor-"

Kurt stopped listening after she mentioned Blaine Anderson.

He loved Blaine's music and had been to several of his shows when he had performed in the area. Blaine was extremely talented - he could sing, play several instruments, and wrote all his own music - and very attractive. So attractive, in fact, that Kurt wondered how many of his female teenage fans only bought into his music because of his looks. He just hoped he wouldn't turn into a replica of one of those blushing, stammering teenage girls when he met Blaine tomorrow.

He suddenly noticed that Taylor was looking at him expectantly, obviously awaiting an answer to a question he hadn't heard her ask. "Sorry," he said a little sheepishly, "what was that?"

Taylor looked at him strangely and Kurt knew what she was thinking; he was normally always on the ball with everything to do with his show.

"I was wondering if you are coming to the studio earlier tomorrow for Blaine's performance rehearsal?" she repeated.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think I will."

Taylor eyed him for a moment, a slight frown on her face. "Right, well, I'll see you tomorrow then," she said as she stood up.

Kurt called out a farewell as she left the room before heading over to the dressing table against the wall opposite the door and sitting down in front of the mirror. He examined the work of the hair and make-up team critically, tugging at a lock of his hair.

He had done his hair the same way every day since he had been in high school - stylishly coiffed - only occasionally changing it, but he wondered if he should do something different with it tomorrow. He turned his head this way and that to examine his face from all angles, checking his make-up for flaws until he realised he was being ridiculous and stopped. He couldn't change the way he did his hair and make-up just because Blaine was coming on his show. Sure, Blaine might be attractive and gay, but that didn't mean he should suddenly change the way he had done things for years and go all out to try and impress him.

He fidgeted with the lapel of his suit jacket as he remembered when he had found out that Blaine was gay. The musician had famously come-out to the public after making an offhand comment during an interview not long after he started becoming the chart-topping sensation he was now. The media had had a field day with it and Kurt was sure hundreds of teenage girls' hearts had been crushed, but Blaine didn't seem to see what the big fuss was all about. He said that being gay was just another part of him, like his curly hair and hazel eyes. He didn't see why people should be writing articles about it or constantly asking him about it in interviews. Yes, he was out and proud and happy with who he was and had been since his early years in high school, but that didn't mean he thought he should be making money off of interviews about it or that it was a worthy big news story. However, Blaine was a big supporter of organisations such as The Trevor Project and was more than happy to talk about subjects relating to that during interviews.

Seeing Blaine come out and managing to have it all blow over in under a month and get through it all with minimal homophobic slurs thrown his way gave Kurt the courage to come-out publicly himself. During an interview on the red carpet of the Emmy's he was asked about his relationship with Broadway star Rachel Berry, who was his guest for the event and had been for many others and rumours that they were dating had surfaced several times. He had told the interviewer that Rachel was just his best friend and roommate and, mimicking Blaine, casually added that he was gay to the end of his reply.

He was able to get away with less media attention than Blaine had received. This was due to having considerably less teenage female fans, following Blaine's lead, and a few rumours about him having already floated around, mostly stemming from his outfit choices.

He dropped his eyes from his reflection, smoothing out his jacket. He always picked out his own outfits and had never wanted a stylist. So, he wouldn't change his hair or make-up, but he would put extra effort into picking out his outfit for the show tomorrow. It was probably silly doing so; even though he and Blaine were both gay and around the same age, it didn't mean anything was likely to happen between them.

'Still,' he thought, getting to his feet and preparing to leave, 'I don't want Blaine to see me looking anything less than my best.'

Blaine drummed his fingers on the armrest on the car door as he watched buildings creep slowly by through the blacked-out windows. The car came to a stop again, presumably at yet another stop light, and Blaine sighed. Diverting he eyes from the window, he let his head fall back against the headrest and allowed his thoughts to drift to the show he was appearing on today. 

Despite the show being extremely popular and himself being a chart-topping artist, this was the first time he had ever been on it, having missed previous opportunities due to his busy touring schedule. It was annoying since this was the show he wanted to be on the most, even if the reasons behind this desire were silly, but Kurt Hummel was very attractive and, from what he had heard, a very interesting and genuine person. Blaine had wanted to meet him for around a year now. He had come close on several occasions, one time being at a party here in New York City, but had always just missed out.

The car was moving again and after crawling through New York traffic for fifteen more minutes it turned into the studios. He hopped out of the car the second it stopped and waited impatiently for his manager Charlie to join him. Charlie came out of the car with his phone pressed to his ear, nodding along to whatever the person on the other end of the line was saying. He held his index finger up to Blaine, telling him to wait a moment, but Blaine just rolled his eyes and went and got his guitar out the trunk of his car.

He had just set his guitar case carefully down on the ground and was waiting for Charlie to finish his phone call when an assistant appeared and Charlie was forced to end the call. The assistant was there to show them where to go and Blaine followed him into the studio, his stomach now churning with nerves - not a familiar feeling for him.

He was shown into a dressing room and given the details of his rehearsal and the show later on and then the assistant left with Charlie to go talk to one of the show's producers.

Blaine tapped his fingers against the side of his guitar case as he looked around the dressing room, his stomach continuing to squeeze unpleasantly. Not wanting to stand around whilst his nerves made him feel progressively sicker, he picked up his guitar again and left the dressing room and headed for the stage to rehearse.

The familiar actions of playing his guitar and singing dampened down his nerves and he quickly forgot about where he was and why he had been so nervous in the first place. He had always enjoyed this: standing on an empty stage in a deserted room, playing some of his songs. In the early days of his career it had been his way of calming any pre-show nerves and he still found it relaxing and therapeutic. He finished the song, letting the final chord ring through the room until the sound faded; it was then that a voice spoke from behind him.

"You sound different than when you play on tour."

The voice was beautiful, melodic, higher than those of most males and despite never having heard it first-hand before, he recognised it immediately - Kurt Hummel.

He spun around to find Kurt standing near one of the doorways leading backstage. He was partly in shadow, but when Blaine faced him he stepped forward into the light on stage. He wasn't dressed for the show yet, instead wearing a white button-down with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows underneath a navy waistcoat and paired with well-fitted jeans, but his hair was flawlessly swept up in his trademark style. Blaine simply gaped at him, his sudden appearance rendering him temporarily speechless.

"It's not a bad different," Kurt continued in the same musing tone, "you just sound more...I don't know, it's hard to explain. I want to say you sound more natural, but that doesn't sound right and it implies that you're putting on pretence when you know you have an audience which I know you're not." He shook his head and stepped towards Blaine, smiling. "Sorry, I'm drivelling." He held out his hand. "I'm Kurt Hummel."

 Blaine snapped out of his stunned trance and shook Kurt's hand and returned his smile. "Blaine Anderson." Something Kurt had just said suddenly registered. "You've seen me play live before?"

Kurt nodded, his eyes flicking from Blaine's face to the deserted audience seating behind him and back again. "I've been to a few of your concerts," he said. "I'm a fan of your music."

"Oh." Blaine hadn't been excepting that. "Well I'm glad you like it," he said lamely.

Kurt just smiled at him, shifting his weight as he tugged at the bottom of his waistcoat. "You can go ahead and finish rehearsing and if you don't mind I'd like to watch. Like I said, I love seeing you perform and it's different here to how it is at a concert."

"I don't mind," Blaine said, turning back to face the empty audience seats and beginning to play again.

He thought he would struggle with playing, knowing that Kurt was watching him, but somehow he managed. Maybe it was knowing that Kurt liked his music and was enjoying listening to him play or maybe it was the fact that, despite being bumbling, blushing, and nervous around Kurt, there was something about the other man that made him want to just be himself around him - no forced smiles, no forged happiness, just Blaine.

He finished the song and Kurt applauded him. "That was great; I can't wait to hear it again later."

Blaine turned to smile at him. "Thanks."

There was a beeping of a cell phone and Kurt pulled his phone out the pocket of his jeans and peered at the screen. "Crap," he muttered, his thumbs rapidly typing out a response. He lowered his phone. "I'm late for getting ready for the show and I think you are too."

Blaine checked his watch and squinted slightly as he tried to remember what the assistant had told him earlier. "Yeah, I think I am."

"I'll see you later when we're doing the show." Kurt slowly turned to leave. "Thanks for letting me watch you rehearse."

"You're welcome," Blaine smiled at him, a little confused as to why Kurt was thanking him, it was his show.

With a small wave Kurt headed backstage and Blaine stood staring after him for a moment before remembering he was running late and hurried back to his dressing room to get ready for the show.