With his eyes fixed straight ahead of him instead of sweeping the platform, Blaine walked slowly down the stairs. His feet automatically began taking him down to the far end where he normally waited for his train and where the blue-eyed NYADA student waited as well. He managed to stop before he got close enough to be able to see Blue Eyes through the masses whiling away the time until their train arrived. He found it difficult to prevent his eyes from drifting in the direction where he knew Blue Eyes was standing and it took a lot of effort for him to not picture him and what he could be wearing. He tried both his iPod and his phone as a means of distraction, but neither worked, so instead he counted the cracks in the concrete in front of his feet. There were three, the largest one disappearing out of sight under one of his shoes.

He was counting the cracks for the fourth time when someone ran across the one furthest from him, the one that lay just on the edge of his line of vision. Glad for a distraction, Blaine glanced up and watched a short dark-haired girl in a skirt trying to make her way through the dense crowd next to him.

"Kurt!" The girl called out as the crowd parted, letting her through just as the people next to Blaine shifted and he had a sudden unobstructed view of Blue-Eyes. The young man looked up as the short girl approached him, looking puzzled. He said something to her, but Blaine couldn't hear over the noise filling the underground station. He doubted he would have heard even if the station had been dead silent. His name was Kurt.

Kurt. It suited him, suited his pale, flawless skin, his bright blue eyes, and his beautiful smile.

He dragged his eyes away from Kurt and the girl he was talking to. He was supposed to be trying to forget about him and think of him as nothing more than another one of the dozens of people that caught the same train as him in the morning, but now he knew his name it was suddenly much harder to do. His name was Kurt and he was a NYADA student. Though they had never talked beyond that brief exchange when they first saw each other, he didn't feel like a stranger to Blaine anymore, not a complete stranger anyway. Knowing his name just made him want to find out more about Kurt and he would have gone through with his plans to strike up a conversation with him if it wasn't for Jeremy. It wasn't that Jeremy disliked him talking to other guys or didn't trust him; Blaine just knew that Jeremy wouldn't think that talking to Kurt was just an innocent conversation, he was bound to think that there was something more behind it – and he would be right. There was no way Blaine could pretend he didn't find Kurt attractive or hide that he felt a strange connection to him.

It was these thoughts that caused Blaine to get on a different train car from Kurt. He didn't want to be tempted to stare or to approach him. He wanted to take Nick's advice and try and rid his mind of him, no matter how hard it would be.

"Trust me, this place has fantastic coffee." Tim led the way into the small coffee shop.

"Well, we walked over ten minutes to get here so it had better be amazing." Kurt looked around when he stepped inside. It wasn't as big as some of the coffee shops on campus, but it had a number of tables with café chairs or armchairs grouped around them. The air was filled with the delicious aroma of coffee beans and cinnamon, and it was warm and very pleasant inside. It wasn't overcrowded and noisy like the coffee shops on campus which were always packed with chattering students, instead there were only a few small groups of people sitting at the tables and conversing in low voices.

As Tim made his way up to the counter, Kurt found his attention drawn to three young men sitting at a table in the corner poring over papers and books whilst having a lively discussion. With a leap of his heart he recognised the one sitting in the centre when he looked up to take a sip of his coffee – it was the guy from the train.

Kurt froze a few paces behind Tim, who had reached the counter and was ordering. He couldn't believe it, he had only ever seen him at the station before, but now here he was at the same coffee shop as Kurt.

As he stood staring at the bowtie-wearing guy in shock, he realised that he recognised his dark-haired friend from when he had joined him on the train one day. The blond guy on Bowtie's other side was unfamiliar to Kurt and once he was over his shock at seeing Bowtie here, he couldn't help but wonder if he was Bowtie's boyfriend, even though he still wasn't sure if he thought Bowtie was gay or not.

"Kurt, are you alright?"

Kurt turned to look at Tim who was now standing beside him holding two coffees and looking a little concerned. Kurt forced a smile and turned his back on Bowtie and his friends. "I'm fine." He pointed to an unoccupied table at the furthest side of the shop from Bowtie. "Let's go sit over there."

Tim handed Kurt his coffee when they sat down and Kurt was relieved to see that the look of concern on his face had cleared and he almost sighed in relief when his boyfriend started talking about a song he was performing tomorrow.

He tried to stay focussed on his conversation with Tim, but his eyes kept drifting over to where Bowtie sat laughing and talking with his friends. Thankfully, Tim was in the middle of a long explanation on the finer details of his upcoming performance that the conversation didn't require much participation from him and he was able to get away with just a nod and a smile every now and then and with a noise of agreement every time Tim paused. This allowed Kurt to stare unashamedly over at the guy from the subway. Even though he had chosen to sit at this particular table to try and stop himself from spending a date with his boyfriend watching another guy, the chair he was sitting on had an almost unobstructed view of Bowtie and he couldn't help but stare.

Kurt watched him as he smiled at his dark-haired friend as he spoke, his smile lighting up his whole face and making a smile appear on Kurt's face, with one hand absently fiddling with his grey and white plaid bowtie. His blond friend said something to Bowtie and their other friend, gesturing at the coffee cups on the table amongst their scattered books and papers. Bowtie got to his feet and headed over to the counter, presumably to get them refills for their coffees. Just before he reached the counter his dark-haired friend called after him, his voice carrying clearly across the small coffee shop.

"Blaine, I don't need decaf! I'm not getting hyper!"

Kurt's eyes widened as he watched the bowtie-wearing guy – Blaine – shake his head and laugh at his friend before stepping up to the counter and ordering. Kurt had already felt an inexplicable attraction to this complete stranger, some kind of pull towards him, and now that he knew his name it got stronger, deeper, and it scared Kurt how interested in, and how attracted he was, to someone he didn't know.

"Kurt?"

Kurt snapped his gaze away from Blaine to face Tim, who was watching him from the seat across the table looking amused.

"Completely lost you for a minute there."

Kurt blushed slightly. "Sorry, I just have a lot going on right now."

Tim nodded. "Yeah, I remember this time last year when I was doing this part of the course. I spent a lot of evenings chained to my desk working."

Kurt nodded absently, his thoughts already back on Blaine as he watched him return to his table carrying coffee out of the corner of his eye.