The next morning Kurt woke up in his bed still fully clothed. His head pounded and his throat was dry. Memories of the previous night slowly came back to him. He remembered whisky, singing and dancing. When the memory of kissing Rachel returned to him he groaned loudly. He needed a shower and to get out of these clothes. Most of all he needed water.

He sat up, too quickly and his head started spinning. He waited for the dizziness to go away before standing up. He didn't want to risk his dad seeing him hung over so he got a drink from the bathroom, followed by a long hot shower which helped to wake him up and feel less gross. After changing into a pair of silk pajamas he considered just climbing back into bed and sleeping all day. As tempting as that sounded, it would probably cause his dad to think he was ill, or even worse, he'd realise that he was hungover.

Instead he settled for wrapping his duvet around himself and sitting down at his computer.

Kurt: Blerrrrrrghhhhhhh

Blaine: Good morning to you too!

Kurt: It's a bad morning, a very bad morning

Blaine: How's the hangover?

Kurt: Why would you assume I drank alcohol?

Blaine: I think my assumption stems from you slurring over the phone while telling me I have a sexy voice?

Kurt: Shut up. That did not happen!

Blaine: Don't you remember? "I kissed a girl, Blaine!"

Kurt: Oh my god

Blaine: "I want boy kisses"

Kurt: Oh my god, shut up

Kurt: Please don't repeat anymore

Kurt: I'm so embarrassed

Blaine: It's ok that was actually the worst of it

Kurt: I can't even remember calling you! Or how I got home

Blaine: Ah, well I cleverly engineered that

Kurt: You... what?

Blaine: Well you were clearly drunk, and you said Finn was sober so I told you to go and chat to him, hoping that he'd see how drunk you were and would take you home. Worked like a charm

Kurt: I don't know if you're my hero or an evil mastermind

Blaine: Can I be both?

Kurt: Sure, why not

Blaine: Why DID you kiss Rachel anyway?

Kurt: A bad game of spin the bottle

Blaine: Well at least it didn't turn you straight Mr "I want boy kisses!"

Kurt: Oh god, please stop. Could this morning get any worse?

Blaine: Um... maybe

Kurt: Huh?

Blaine: There... is something else

Kurt: Oh god what did I do

Blaine: Actually it's what Rachel did

Kurt: I'm confused

Blaine: So, don't get too mad at her, she was probably just as drunk as you were

Kurt: ... what did she do?

Blaine: She emailed me last night, I guess during your party and uh... she sent me a video

Kurt: She sent you a video? What of?

Kurt: Wait

Kurt: No way

Kurt: She said she wasn't recording! !

Blaine: Yeah. Well. She lied

Kurt: I'M GOING TO KILL HER

Blaine: Straight to murder, huh?

Kurt: I can't believe her!

Blaine: I'm sorry, Kurt. I didn't know what it was until the end else I never would have even watched it without asking you first :(

Kurt: It's okay, it's not YOUR fault

Blaine: For what it's worth the video quality was really poor... I could barely even make you out

Kurt: Oh good. I'm glad the first time you saw me perform was so bad

Blaine: Just the video quality was bad, everything else was... really good

Kurt: We weren't even being serious, we were all half drunk by that time. I'm usually much better than that

Blaine: That you must be pretty spectacular when you're on form because even half drunk you sounded really good

Kurt: You're exaggerating

Blaine: I'm not, I was kinda mesmerized actually

Kurt: Really?

Blaine: Really

Kurt: I'm still going to kill Rachel

Blaine: Poor Rachel :(

Monday morning Kurt stormed through the corridors until he found the person he was looking for.

"Rachel!" he yelled, running towards her locker.

"Kurt..." she said. He stood in front of her, his arms crossed over his chest and an expectant look on his face.

"Look... if this is about the kiss-"

"WHAT? Grow up, Rachel!" he interrupted. "This is about that video you sent to Blaine!"

"Really?" She said surprised. "I was doing you a favour. You looked hot."

"Maybe you could have ASKED me first?" he snarled.

"I didn't think it was a big deal, It wasn't like the video was clear enough to really see you," Rachel stammered. "And Blaine has heard you before anyway. You were on the phone to him last night!"

"But he hadn't heard me sing," Kurt shot back.

"So? If we get to Nationals then he'll hear you sing there," Rachel pointed out.

"Exactly!" Kurt yelled before storming off, leaving Rachel close to tears.

Kurt's lunchtime rehearsal was interrupted by Rachel entering the choir room.

"Kurt, I'm really sorry," Rachel burst out, before he could speak.

"I know..." Kurt said quietly. "It's ok."

"I really didn't think you'd mind." Rachel said earnestly. "I still don't really know why you do."

"It's really stupid," Kurt said, crossing the room to sit down.

"Look who you're talking to," Rachel smiled, taking the seat next to him. "I think I probably set the bar on stupid, the way I've been pining after Finn these last few months..."

"I had it all worked out in my head y'know," he started. "We would win our regionals and Blaine would win his. Then we would both be in New York competing at nationals. We'd go up on the stage and Blaine would see me perform for the first time ever."

"Kurt..." Rachel said sadly.

"It would be perfect. The stage, the music, the magic of New York. It would be so perfect that he'd watch it and fall madly in love me." Kurt looked over to Rachel who was looking down guiltily.

"There's no point beating yourself up over it... it never would of happened anyway," Kurt sniffed.

"I really don't think I'm the best person to give love advice," Rachel started.

"I agree," Kurt said.

"But," she carried on. "I think that real love isn't like in the movies... where one perfect moment causes someone fall in love."

"I did," Kurt said, thinking back to the first time he heard Blaine sing.

"You didn't," Rachel shook her head. "Those feelings for Blaine had been building up for a long time. The realisation was sudden but you were just realising feelings that you had all along."

Kurt frowned at her. "That actually kind of makes sense."

"You don't want someone to fall for you because they're dazzled by the bright lights of New York or they're just caught up in the moment. Love like that fades quickly." Rachel put a hand on Kurt's shoulder." One day you'll meet a guy, and he'll fall for you because he's dazzled by you."

"When did you get so knowledgeable?" Kurt said suspiciously . "You're kind of freaking me out right now."

"I always have been," Rachel said proudly. "I just have a bad record for taking for taking my own advice."

"He'll be 'Dazzled' by me though?" Kurt chuckled. "Sounds very 'Twilight'!"

"Fine then, he'll be 'mesmerized' by you," Rachel laughed.

Something about her choice of words cause Kurt to frown. He was brought out of his thoughts by Rachel pulling him out of his chair.

"C'mon Edward. Regionals are just around the corner and you have a solo to rehearse."

Kurt spent the next two weeks perfecting his solo with help from Rachel when she wasn't too busy writing her own songs. Any time he wasn't doing school work or rehearsing he was texting or IMing Blaine. The evening before regionals he took a break from rehearsing and schoolwork to make sure both he and his voice were well rested for the competition.

He checked his computer every now and then but Blaine wasn't online. He thought about texting him but he really wanted to just call him, which was weird. He'd only talked to Blaine on the phone twice, and one of those occasions he couldn't even remember. Text and IM had always been enough. He thought it was probably the pressure of regionals tomorrow.

He scrolled down to Blaine's name in his phonebook and paused. He wasn't sure if it was ok for him to just phone Blaine. What if they weren't 'phone-friends', maybe they were still just 'online-friends'. Eventually he realise how absurd he was being and just hit 'Dial', immediately cringing and regretting it. If Blaine wasn't online then he was probably busy with something. Before he could disconnect the call he heard Blaine's voice."

"Hey! Kurt!"

"Hi Blaine, I hope it's ok that I called."

"Of course it is, dummy."

"You're not busy with anything?"

"No I was just reading, it's fine."

"Oh what were you reading?"

"MockingJay. From the Hunger Games trilogy?"

"Ah Mercedes keeps telling me to read that. Any good?"

"Very. I probably wouldn't have made it to the last book otherwise"

"Oh, of course..."

"Is there a particular reason why you called? Usually you just text."

"I know it's just... it's regionals for both of us tomorrow and it got me thinking."

"Thinking what?"

"We might both win."

"Well after seeing that video of you I'm sure you will."

"And you're not too modest about your own talent either."

"That's true."

"So it's possible that we might both be in New York. At the same time."

"This is just occurring to you? Because we've been talking about nationals for the last couple of months"

"I know! I was thinking that maybe we'd actually be able to meet up in New York?"

"Um..."

"We could grab a coffee or something and just chat."

Kurt waited for Blaine's response but was only met with silence.

"You don't want to. I knew it. It's ok it was just an idea. A stupid idea."

"Kurt, relax! I just don't want us to get ahead of ourselves."

"What do you mean?"

"I know we joke and we play confident... but I think we both know that regionals is no picnic. I have some fierce competition tomorrow, and I'm sure you do as well."

"One of the groups we're facing actually is really good..."

"Exactly. And if we start making solid plans for New York then it's just going to be really disappointing if we don't make it there... "

"That's the only reason why?"

"If we both get through to New York. I would love to meet you, really. And if not... then I'll be at your Broadway debut."

Kurt snorted.

"I'm dead serious, I'll be there. With flowers!"

"Ok, well let's just get through regionals first."

"What's your final set list anyway?"

"Well aside from my solo, we're singing a group song that we wrote ourselves."

"Wow, an original song?"

"It was sort of last minute but we're all really excited about it. What about you? "

"Well you already know our 'anthem'. And I also have a solo which I picked out myself."

"Ooo what is it?"

"Um... It's kind of a secret."

"I'm hardly going to tell your competition am I?"

"I know it's just that the song choice was sort of inspired by you."

"Me?"

"Yeah.."

"So why can't you tell me?"

"I... um. I just don't want to jinx it..."

"But I know the other song?"

"If we win regionals I promise I'll sing it for you, okay?"

"Okay. You better win then!"

"I plan on trying my best to."

"I should probably go... I want to get an early night and make sure I'm well rested for tomorrow."

"Me too actually. I'll text you after the competition to let you know how it went. You'll do the same?"

"Deal. Good luck, Blaine.."

"You too... and please try your best to win. Having coffee with you in New York sounds great."

"I promise. Good night Blaine."

"Good night Kurt."