Blaine put all his concentration into taking notes on what the lecturer was saying. His brow furrowed as he focused on the pen in his hand, the paper in front of him, and the words coming out of the lecturer's mouth. Unbidden, the memory of Kurt singing on stage crept into his mind and took root there as it had been doing ever since the NYADA performance last Saturday.

When he had gotten home on Saturday night he had been exhausted from trying to act normal for the rest of the evening and keeping Nick's words buried in the back of his head. It was only when he was sitting in his room did he allow himself to really think about what Nick had said. He was only able to think it over for a short while until the direction his thoughts were going, the realisation his mind was about to grasp onto, started to scare him and he shoved it all – Kurt, Nick's words, the performance – to the back of his mind again, locking it away.

He was doing a pretty good job of keeping it all shut away and of avoiding seeing Kurt on the subway with him only occasionally slipping up and remembering Kurt singing or glancing over at him at the subway station. Worryingly, the number of times these slip-ups occurred was becoming more and more frequent as time passed and now barely a few hours passed without him thinking of Kurt. He had hoped he was stronger than this and would be able to resist the temptation to think about Kurt better, he had hoped he would have been able to forget about him.

"Blaine!"

Blaine started, looking around for the source of the voice, feeling like he had just been jolted awake from a deep sleep.

"Blaine?" Scott was watching him with a raised eyebrow.

Blaine shook his head slightly, trying desperately to clear his mind of Kurt. "Sorry, what?"

"I know you're probably nervous and that's completely understandable, but I didn't think you would be so worried about it that you would barely pay attention in class."

Blaine's face screwed up in confusion. "Nervous about what?"

Scott looked even more confused that Blaine felt. "Your gig tomorrow night at Bar4."

"Oh," Blaine sat back in his chair, "right." Suddenly noticing that the rest of the class were leaving, he quickly gathered his notebook and pen and shoved them into his bag before getting to his feet. "Yeah, I'm just worried that the performance won't go well, that I'll mess up or something."

Scott followed him as they made their way slowly down the steps in the tiered lecture theatre towards the doors down at the front of the room. "You've got nothing to be worried about; you've performed here lots of times before."

"Those were college performances for part of my grades, that's different to playing at a venue in the city for a much different audience."

They exited the theatre and Scott was able to walk alongside Blaine. He clapped a hand on Blaine's shoulder. "I know you want to be perfect all the time, but you don't have to be so nervous. Your songs are great, you're great, they're going to love you, don't stress about it."

Blaine smiled and breathed a sigh of relief when Scott changed the subject. He didn't like keeping the truth from his friends, but he wasn't ready to tell the whole story about Kurt to anyone, not even himself.

Loosening off his scarf, Kurt stepped into the bustling coffee shop, sighing a little at the ruckus all the students were making. 'At least it's warm,' he thought, as he weaved his way through the tables and chairs to get to the counter.

"Grande non-fat mocha, please," he smiled at the barista.

Whilst he waited for his coffee he searched the room for an available table. A couple of young women who had been standing talking to a group sitting towards the back of the room headed for the doors and Kurt spotted Tim sitting at a table by himself by the back wall.

The barista handed him his coffee and he made a bee-line for Tim.

"You're early. I wasn't expecting you to be here for at least another ten minutes."

Tim smiled at him, his eyes lighting up. "Class finished early," he said, leaning forward to give Kurt a quick kiss. "How's your morning been?"

Kurt shrugged as he sat down. "Nothing exciting. Yours?"

"All right, better now though," Tim replied with a smile. "So, do you have any plans for tomorrow night?"

Kurt thought for a moment, sipping at his coffee. "Rachel and I have some coursework to do, but we should be finished before dinner."

"Great, because I've been hearing great things about this place called Bar4 which has live music from local musicians on most nights and I thought we could go and check it out."

"Sounds good! I'm up for that!"

Tim shot him a dazzling smile. "I'll pick you up at eight then."

Kurt was lacing up his boots when the buzzer sounded. Hurrying to answer it, he was glad that Rachel was out with Finn that night as she had been making a point of answering the door whenever Tim came over. He pushed the intercom button. "Hello?"

"Hey, Kurt! Ready to go?"

Kurt smiled when he heard Tim's voice. "Come on up, door's open, I'm almost ready." He pressed the button to let Tim into the building and unlocked the door of the apartment for him before dashing back into his bedroom to grab his coat.

He was checking his appearance in the mirror one last time when Tim suddenly appeared reflected behind him. He wrapped his arms around his waist and pressed a kiss to his neck and Kurt closed his eyes, leaning back into the embrace.

"You need to stop fretting about how you look all the time," Tim murmured into his ear, his breath against Kurt's skin causing a shiver to run through him. "You always look beautiful."

Tim made a trail of kisses along his jawline and Kurt turned in his arms to capture his boyfriend's lips with his own. Tim pulled away after a minute, smiling at Kurt's noise of protest. "As much as I'd love to just stay and continue, we'd better go if we want to arrive before the live music starts."

Kurt sighed and stepped back. "Fine, let's go."

They caught a cab to Bar4 and arrived not long before that night's first performer was due on stage. The small bar was packed and had a lively atmosphere. A reasonably-sized stage was set up towards the far end with a microphone on a stand, a few amps, and a piano already on it.

"Do you want a drink?" Tim waved a hand at the bar running along one wall.

Kurt chewed on his lip. He didn't really feel like drinking something alcoholic tonight and he couldn't help but remember what happened the last time he drank alcohol around Tim. "I'll have a diet coke, thanks."

Tim flashed him a smile. "Be right back," he said, before heading over to the bar.

Kurt walked over to the small tables scattered in the space near the stage and sat down at an empty one.

A man stepped out onto the stage and stood in front of the microphone just as Tim returned with their drinks and took a seat next to Kurt. The man on stage announced that the night's first performer was Blaine Anderson before smiling at the crowd and swiftly leaving the stage.

Kurt's heart had given a sudden leap when he heard the name 'Blaine' and he rolled his eyes at himself. New York was a big city, the chances that the guy about to perform was the same Blaine he saw on the subway were extremely slim. He forced down the hopeful feeling and took a sip of his drink, almost spitting out his mouthful when he saw who was walking onto the stage. It was Blaine, his Blaine. So stunned he was at the sight of Blaine stepping up to the microphone with a guitar that he didn't even tell himself off for thinking of this guy who was still a stranger to him as 'his Blaine'.

Blaine smiled at the crowd and Kurt felt his heart stutter.

"Hey guys, I'm Blaine and tonight I'm going to be playing a mixture of original songs and covers. I hope that's alright."

'Oh, it's more than alright,' Kurt thought. His brain finally managed to pull out of its stunned state and he realised he was about to hear Blaine sing. He had to remind himself to breathe.

Blaine opened with a cover of Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream' and Kurt was unable to take his eyes off him. Blaine had a beautiful voice, one that he could listen to for hours, and he was excellent on the guitar. He had a way of drawing the crowd into his performance, so you couldn't help but watch and listen to him perform, but at the same time he got completely lost in the music – he was clearly really passionate.

Kurt was vaguely aware of Tim leaning closer to him. "Hey, he's really good."

"Mmm…" Kurt responded distractedly, his eyes still on Blaine as he smiled at someone in the crowd whilst singing the chorus.

Blaine moved on to a song of his own composition next and Kurt shifted in his chair, resting his arms on the table and leaning forward, watching Blaine intently as he started playing. He wished he could record the performance so he could listen to it again later when he wasn't in a crowded room with other people talking around him, so he could hear the melody and the lyrics properly, but he knew Tim would probably question this and he didn't want to try and explain himself.

With each successive song the amplitude and enthusiasm of the audience's applause at the end of each song increased until Kurt was sure everyone in the building was cheering and applauding Blaine's performance. He restrained himself at first and only politely applauded the songs, but as the performance went on he lost the ability to care if he was being over-enthusiastic and cheered loudly every time Blaine finished a song. He was even more impressed when Blaine played some songs on the piano, he had always loved listening to the piano and hearing Blaine play one whilst singing was just indescribable.

"Do you want another drink?"

Kurt dragged his gaze away from Blaine, feeling a little annoyed. "What?"

Tim indicated Kurt's half-finished drink on the table in front of him and his own empty glass.

"Oh, no thanks, I'm good," Kurt told him brusquely, before turning his attention back to Blaine.

He didn't notice Tim returning, but he must have because a short while later he made a comment about Blaine's choice of song.

Kurt spared him a quick look before turning his eyes to the stage again. "What's wrong with Neon Trees?" he asked, his mind paying more attention to the sweat glistening on Blaine's neck than Tim, so he missed the reply to his question.

All too soon, Blaine was announcing his final song. "I have one last song for you. This is a cover of The Cab's 'Vegas Skies'."

He played the opening notes and then started to sing, raising his eyes to look at the audience. He was just lowering his head again to drop his eyes to the piano in front of him when his eyes met Kurt's. Their gazes locked and Blaine almost missed the start of the chorus, but caught himself and continued to sing whilst keeping his eyes on Kurt. Deep down, a tiny part of Kurt was screaming to look away, to drop his gaze before Tim noticed the intensity with which they stared at each other, but that part got smaller the longer he held Blaine's gaze until he didn't think he could look away even if he wanted to. Blaine's hazel eyes burned into him, touching some part of him that he didn't know existed, causing something to start coalescing in him, but before it could form into something recognisable, the song ended and Blaine looked away. Kurt watched breathlessly as Blaine licked his lips – and was that a blush on his cheeks?

"Ok, well- uh, thank you, guys. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoyed at least one of the songs." Blaine smiled at the crowd as everyone applauded once more, his smile widening as his gaze shifted to somewhere off to Kurt's right. His eyes flicked to Kurt once more before he turned and left the stage, guitar in hand whilst Kurt stared after him, still unable to form a coherent thought.