He usually still had dinner with Bianca and her family but one evening in early May Kurt decided to dine alone. Kurt was sitting in the outdoor part of the cafe, sipping his wine and translating what he could of his menu when he saw Blaine come out of the school. It was pretty late for Blaine to be leaving work. Kurt watched him pass the statue in the center of the piazza, greeting a few people that passed with small wave and a smile. He neared the cafe and Kurt debated whether or not to say anything. Blaine preempted any decision he would have made by walking right up to him.

“Kurt! How are you this evening?” he asked, hands slipping casually into his pockets. His hair wasn’t gelled back like it normally was so it laid in small ringlets. He looked tired but his face was still friendly and smiling. “Why aren’t you eating with Mamma and Nonno?”

“Oh, I just wanted to give them some space this evening. Your family has done so much for me, the least I could do was stay out of their hair for an evening.”

The waiter came over and spoke to Blaine and it was clear to Kurt that he was being asked if he would be joining him. Blaine made a gesture that said ‘No’ and began backing away.

“Please, join me if you’d like. I wouldn’t mind the company.” Kurt motioned to the empty chair across from him. “I’ll buy,” he joked.

A big grin formed on Blaine’s face and he said something to the waiter who promptly left. “Well, in that case, why not!” He hoisted a leg over the rope that quartered off the restaurant from the square. “What wine are you drinking?” he asked, inspecting the bottle as he sat down. His eyebrows arched as he read the label. “Okay, you’re not allowed to pick your own wine anymore.”

“What?” Kurt asked. “What’s wrong with what I chose? It’s what I’ve been drinking since I came here.”

“It’s the house wine. The owner’s mother makes it in the back by the liter. It’s no better than grape juice spiked with vodka. In fact, that might be what it is,” he chuckled. He took Kurt’s menu from him and turned it to the wine list. The waiter returned with a plate of focaccia and a small bottle of olive oil. He set it on the table and poured some of the oil on to a little plate. As he ground some pepper over the oil, Blaine spoke to him again in Italian, waving his hand at the wine bottle. The waiter shrugged as he replied which clearly didn’t sit well with Blaine. He spoke sharply to the waiter, something that surprised Kurt greatly.

“Is everything alright, Blaine?” he asked, tentatively, as the waiter left again.

“Yes, I’m sorry.” Blaine rubbed his face with both hands, leaning back in his chair. “It’s just be a long day. I had to finish report cards this afternoon and then I found out that my plans for my vacation next month have fallen through. And I’ve known that waiter for years and he is an ass.”

“What happened to your vacation plans?”

Blaine sighed, breaking off a corner of the bread with his fingers and dragged it through the oil. “I was going to go backpacking through Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark with a friend but he has chosen to go to Australia instead. It’s frustrating because we were supposed to leave next week and I already paid for my train ticket to Munich.”

Kurt followed his lead and tore a piece of the focaccia off and dipped it in the oil. “You could always travel by your self,” he suggested.

“I would have but...” his voice trailed off as the waiter returned with a new bottle of wine and took their orders. “It wasn’t just a friend, Kurt.”

“Oh,” he said, sniffing the new wine in his glass before taking a small sip. Blaine had been right. His original bottle was nothing in comparison to this.

“He wasn’t a boyfriend or anything, but we were-- um-- we had a physical relationship,” Blaine winced as the words left his mouth. “We were friends for a long time and--I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be dumping my problems on you.”

“Blaine, it’s okay! I totally understand, I’m in a similar boat myself right now,” Kurt admitted.

“Really?” he asked, bringing his own glass to his lips. “Tell me your story after I tell you mine?”

Kurt bit his bottom lip, considering his offer for a moment. “Sure. Now, spill!”

Blaine smiled and took another gulp of wine. “Okay, well, Giorgio and I were friends at university and last year, we both went through a break up around the same time. His was much more sudden, but mine was pretty rough, too. He’s an engineer and he lives in Pisa. We... We just had sex. I know that sounds-- not so good, but I wasn’t ready for a real relationship yet and Giorgio had never been one for them in the first place. So we saw each other a few times a month, had a couple of nights together and that was it. But lately, I had been feeling more for him than just physical feelings.”

“You wanted a relationship from him,” Kurt guessed.

“Yes. And when he invited me to go traveling with him this summer, I thought he wanted the same thing.” Blaine gave him a sad smile as he continued, “But then he called me today to tell me that one of his other... friends... was paying for him to go to Australia for a month and that Germany was off. He wasn’t even apologetic about it, he hung up before I could even respond.” He sighed, setting down his glass as the waiter came with their meals. He scooped up some of his pasta on his fork, taking a large bite. “So, that the gist of my sob story. What’s yours?”

“I came home from work and walked in on my fiance getting fucked by the guy that made high school a living hell for me.” He stated it matter of factly, as if each word didn’t feel like a knife going through his heart. Blaine choked on his pasta and coughed it into his napkin. “Sorry, that was a little blunt.”

Blaine downed a glass of water, struggling to clear his throat. “Um, yeah.”

Kurt began to eat his dinner, watching Blaine put himself back together. “I’m kind of at the point where it seems like it happened in someone else’s life. It’s all disconnected and blurry and I have to remind myself that it was my fiance, it was our apartment, it was our bed and it was our life together that disappeared in a moment.”

“I’m so sorry, Kurt.” Blaine’s voice was barely a whisper. “That really-- I had no idea. Mamma didn’t tell me.”

“Oh, I only told her that I was going through a break up. She doesn’t know the specifics.” He absentmindedly swirled his fettucini around his fork.

“Still, I am sorry. No one deserves to be cheated on.”

Kurt changed the topic to Blaine’s students and Blaine’s cheerful self returned in full as he regaled him with stories. It was clear that not only was Blaine a popular teacher, he was a damn good one. He had gotten the school to adopt a zero tolerance policy regarding bullying, no mean feat for a parish school, and coached in a girls’ football league in the summer and fall.

“Why the girls and not the boys?” Kurt asked, dragging the final morsel of the focaccia through what was left of the sauce from his pasta.

“I started the league. There are four boys’ leagues and none for the girls. They were always showing to practice and playing with the boys but they weren’t allowed to play in the games. It wasn’t fair!” Blaine poured them both another glass of wine. “Some of them were--no, are!--better than the boys and they deserved their own teams and uniforms and all the things that come with it!”

Kurt chuckled at him. “You’re so passionate about it.”

Blaine smirked, “Yeah, I guess I am. I just-- I don’t want any of my students, boys, girls, undecided, to feel somehow lesser than anyone else because of the skin, the organs, and the soul they were given.”

Kurt smiled sadly. “I know exactly how you feel, Blaine.”