Despite breaking up with Michael and, once again, having to watch the illusive Kurt walk away from him, Blaine still had a job to do. He had to go to work at Jericho that night.

"Dude, you okay?" Jeff asked Blaine. Jeff and Nick were sitting on Blaine's bed while Blaine picked out a suitable outfit to wear to work. It had to be something where comfort didn't matter, because comfortable attire wasn't what made men want to tip you. He settled on a pair of red skinny jeans and a black, sleeveless shirt that he buttoned up half way to show off his chest. He added a silver chain and a black cuff watch to the ensemble to finish it off.

"Yeah. I'm fine. How do I look?" Blaine responded while looking in a full length mirror and running a pick through his curls.

"Good. You sure you okay? You just dumped Michael not five hours ago."

"Yeah and I'm better for it. It's not like I'm in love with him anymore and I don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to give a relationship with him another shot. Trust me guys. I'm totally fine." He rubbed his hands together, spreading out a small amount of gel on his palms and fingers then ran them through his hair. He needed his curls to stay in place and not frizz out from the heat in the club.

"Well, it's just that, you know, last time you-" Nick began.

"-Guys! This isn't last time and what am I supposed to do even if living without Michael in my life bothered me? I still have to work. I still have to pay the bills. I'm not going to cry over fucking Michael Deeds. He's jealous, untrustworthy, and I'm not bothered by it in the least. So, can we please just drop it and talk about our next gig? I have to make sure that you guys give me enough time to either take a night off from work or that the show is early enough so I can get to work on time."

Nick and Jeff eyed each other and silently agreed to let the topic go. If Blaine said he was fine, then Blaine must be fine. They carried on with a conversation about their band and plans for the next gig before Blaine left to catch a subway train to work.

In expected fashion, Jericho was packed for a Saturday night. Blaine had little time for breaks because he was being kept busy with customers who flirted and slipped him their numbers. He flirted back with some because he would recognize some as regulars and those who tipped the best. He saw no harm in selling his personality to pay his bills.

"What can I get for you?" Blaine asked. A blonde man that he thought looked like a Ken Doll came up to the bar.

The man smiled. His teeth were perfectly white. "A Midori Sour and a Black and Tan, please."

"You got it!" Blaine was able to act cheery despite his annoyance at what happened in the grocery store earlier. He made the black and tan first because it had to settle and smiled as he made the Midori Sour because he associated the drink with Kurt. "Twelve dollars. Nice shirt."

The life sized Ken Doll fished out fifteen dollars from his wallet and handed it to Blaine. "Thanks. You have gorgeous eyes."

Blaine smiled. "Thank you."

"My boyfriend has a thing for honey colored eyes. Keep the change."

Blaine made change from the fifteen dollars and put the remaining three in his pocket. Whenever his pocket seemed to be too packed with money he'd unload his tips into a jar. It took too much time away to continuously keep returning to the jar to put every tip in it. A half hour later he was pulling handfuls of dollar bills and fives from his pockets and shoving them in his jar that read "You must be at least this high to ride me." All the bartenders' tip jars had something funny with a sexual pun written on it. Blaine's was an obvious joke on his height and the fact that he was the only gay bartender at Jericho. The other bartenders are the ones to come up what was written on your tip jar. Matty, Blaine's band mate, who was one of two other people working with Blaine at the bar tonight and his read "Gay for Pay." Jackson, the bartender, had one that read "Tip me $100 and I'll take an item of clothing off." It wasn't uncommon for Jackson to end up with nothing on by the end of the night. Jackson was a built man, who probably should have been a bouncer, but the men loved him and he made the most money for the bar over the weekends. He quickly learned to wear layers to work because the customers paid way too much money to watch Jackson strip without hesitation.

Jackson was a nice guy. Blaine liked working with him, but envied his ability to turn out tips like Rumpelstiltskin turning straw into gold. Jackson also worked for a porn site as a "performer" and often bragged about his job. Let's face it, Jackson got paid to come on screen. Whether it was with a man, woman , or alone was irrelevant because all he cared about was the paycheck. That man made more money in one month than he could possibly need. He was happy knowing that he had money in the bank, a perfect body, and sex that only regular people could dream of on a regular basis.

"Blaine!"

A voice caught Blaine's attention. He turned around. "Twice in one day." He smiled and leaned on the bar. Kurt was smiling back at him on the other side.

"I know! I haven't seen you in months and now twice in one day."

"Can I get you something?"

"A Midori Sour and a Black and Tan, please."

"Two?"

"That friend I had dinner with, we came here afterward." Blaine started to make the drinks. "I hope I didn't cause too much trouble for you and your boyfriend."

"Ex boyfriend," Blaine corrected, setting the Black and Tan in front of Kurt.

"I'm sorry." Kurt looked guilty.

"You didn't do anything. We were completely mismatched anyway." He poured all the ingredients of a Midori Sour into a shaker. "You know, if you wanna hang out-"

A pair of arms snaked around Kurt's middle from behind him and a man took Kurt's ear lobe into his mouth. The man moaned quietly for only Kurt to see. "I missed you."

"I've been gone for five minutes," Kurt laughed, turning his attention to the man Blaine recognized as the life sized Ken Doll from earlier.

"That's five minutes away from you. Did you order our drinks yet?"

"Oh! Vin, this is Blaine. Blaine this is Vin."

"Oh yeah," Vin said with a smile. "The hottie with the beautiful eyes. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Blaine smiled, but now he understood. Kurt's friend. By the looks of it, Vin was either Kurt's boyfriend or his lover. Based on Blaine's fantasy idea of Kurt, Kurt didn't do lovers. He was strictly a boyfriend type guy. Blaine wasn't happy with the thought, but he wasn't surprised. Of course someone like Kurt would have a boyfriend.

"How much do I owe you?" Kurt asked, giggling and trying to play-slap Vin's hands away from him.

Blaine smiled and shook his head. "Oh. Um. On the house. Call it even for the tip."

Kurt smiled back. It was nice to see Blaine again. Although, he did find it strange that every time he tried to find Blaine, he couldn't, but when he wasn't looking, Blaine appeared. "Thanks." He took his and Vin's drinks and gave Blaine one last lingering look before Blaine's attention was taken by a siren going off, signaling that another person tipped Jackson $100. When Blaine looked back, Kurt was gone. He sighed and wondered if he'd ever see that man for more than a handful of minutes at a time.

Kurt

"Tip?" Vin asked Kurt after they made their way to the mezzanine.

"Huh?" Kurt asked.

"He said 'let's call it even for the tip.' What tip?"

"Oh. When we met, some guy was desperate to buy me a drink and instead of ordering a drink, I just gave Blaine the money for helping me deal with him."

"That was nice of you. You could have just pocketed it."

"What was I going to do with it? It wasn't mine and it was already on the bar. It would have been weird to take it after he'd seen it." Kurt took a sip of his drink and thought about how Blaine made his favorite drink perfectly. It wasn't too sour or too sweet, but it wasn't too strong on the alcohol either. It was perfect.

"I see." Vin downed half of his beer. "Wanna get out of here whenever you finished with your drink?"

"I wanna dance some more. Why? What do you have in mind?" Kurt took a bigger sip.

Vin leaned over and captured Kurt's lips with his own. His tongue slid past Kurt's lips just once before pulling back. "I wanted to go back to your apartment and fuck the shit out of you."

Kurt's eyebrows raised and he smiled. "Again?" Vin laughed. "I recall you doing that already this evening when you first arrived."

"Making up for lost time." Vin kissed Kurt again. "And you look so sexy in that outfit."

"If I look so sexy then why do you want me out of it?" Kurt flirtatiously played along.

Vin kissed Kurt's neck languorously. "Because as mouth watering as those clothes look on you, they'd look even better on you bedroom floor."

Kurt chugged the rest of his drink in record time. "Well then. Let's not waste any more time."

Vin quickly chugged the rest of his beer and they left the bar hand in hand.

Blaine

A four o'clock in the morning, Blaine was sitting on the other side of the bar, having just cleaned up his space and cashed out his register. He had a vodka tonic and was making piles of his tips. The one dollar bills other smaller denominations were always changed out with the manager for bigger bills.

"One for the record book, boys!" Jackson yelled from down the bar. Matty and Jackson were doing the same thing as Blaine. "Twenty-three hundred dollars!"

"That's impressive," Blaine said.

"You know what?" Matty said enthusiastically. "Man, it doesn't count that a grand of that is because you took your clothes off."

Jackson was currently sitting with a towel wrapped around his waist and a smile on his face. "It counts when it's in my bank account, Playa."

The manager came around with a sack of money to swap out with the bartenders. Theo was a muscle man, like Jackson, with dark skin and short dreadlocks, who had an affinity for drag queens. "For fuck's sake, Jackson. Put you're fucking clothes on. You'd think that would be the first thing you do when we close up. The dancers put their clothes on before you do."

Blaine and Matty laughed. "Okay, Hot Stuff, how much you got?" Theo said to Blaine.

"How come he's Hot Stuff?" Matty asked.

"Because he's fuckable."

"And what the fuck are we?" Jackson asked, sounding like he was bothered that he wasn't the one with the nick-name.

"Straight," the manager answered.

Blaine chuckled again and made a face at Matty and Jackson. He turned back to his boss and made stacks of one hundreds with his money. "Sixteen forty-three."

"Not a bad night for you either, Baby."

"Nope. Can't complain when I make rent and utilities in one night." He waited while Theo counted his money.

"Hey, who was that guy you were talking to?" Matty asked.

"Which one?"

"The only one you got all starry eyed at and spent more than thirty seconds talking to."

Blaine knew exactly who Matty was talking about. "Oh." He saw Theo flick his eyes up momentarily. "Kurt. He's just a guy I know."

"And would like to know better?" Jackson called down to him.

"Yes." He took a sip of his vodka tonic. "But he has a boyfriend."

"So."

Blaine rolled his eyes. "So, I don't do that."

"Blaine has a boy-toy already," Matty informed Jackson.

"Not anymore. I dumped him this afternoon. I never should have gotten back to together with him in the first place."

"Probably because he sucked your dick like it was the last lolly-pop on the planet," Matty said. Jackson laughed and Theo smiled. "You're walls aren't that thick, Buddy. I hear you when he said he needed to talk to you in the middle of band practice."

Blaine looked away, almost blushing. "It's true. He did know what he was doing in that department. It wasn't worth the trouble though."

"For a good BJ," Theo murmured. "It's always worth it." Theo handed Blaine a stack of hundreds, twenties, and three one dollar bills.

"Not in this case." Blaine took the money and pocketed it.

"Don't forget to claim ten percent on your punch card. See you next week."

"See you." Blaine downed the last of his drink and hopped off the bar stool.

"Hey, Blaine!" Matty called out. Blaine turned back to him. "Can I crash at your place tonight? It'd save a trip on the train since we have practice at four tonight."

"Yeah. Sure. I'm not going straight home though. I was gonna grab some food at Mama's."

"Perfect. I'm starving."

"Oh, Blaine," Theo said, looking at the money he was counting in his hand. "Paul was looking for you."

"Do you know why?"

"No, but he's probably still cleaning the back room. With Nate and Tommy and Jesse."

"Oh okay. I'll be back in a minute, I guess," Blaine said to Matty.

The back room was actually a set of open room that was downstairs. They were all connected with no doors and wide doorways. It was used as a room where the owner and manager looked the other way so the customers could hook up if they wanted a quick hook-up. It was to keep the lines to the bathroom small and the dance floor free of sex acts. Blaine walked downstairs and immediately he was bombarded with the sight of Nate pressed against the wall as Tommy fucked him from behind. Blaine walked past them and pinched Tommy's ass as he went by.

Tommy winked at him. "Don't tease me, Blaine Anderson. You're welcome to join."

Blaine winked back and kept walking. He'd only hooked up with someone down here twice and it was after hours so no one else was around. It was with Michael too. Something about having sex in public wasn't something that Blaine aspired too, but the room was convenient when he wanted it to be. Tommy was attractive, but Blaine had no interest in him. It was merely just fun to play.

He said hello to Jesse as he passed him in the next room and Jesse told him Paul was looking for him in the very back.

Paul was a Taylor Lautner look-a-like. Blaine thought they had to be related, but Paul insisted that they weren't. He found him mopping the floor in the very back, just as Jesse said he would. "Hey. You were looking for me?"

"Hey, Single Lady."

Blaine made an amused face. "How'd you know?"

"Jamie told me after Michael went crying to him and then rebound fucked him."

Blaine scoffed. "Sounds like something Michael would do." Paul was one of those friends he met through Michael and helped him get a job at Jericho. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Talking wasn't really what I had in mind." He walked away from his mop and got close to Blaine. He ran his hand through Blaine's curls. "I was hoping that you needed a rebound too."

Blaine looked taken aback and bewildered by his friend's request. He chuckled nervously. People who threw themselves at him or made it painfully obvious of their sexual intensions toward him always made him a little uncomfortable, very nervous, and completely gobsmacked. "I-" He took in a breath and raised his eyebrows. "Um." He wasn't sure what to say. Sure, Blaine thought. I could use a good release right now. But since his junior year in college, he was never a random hook-up type of guy. He preferred intimacy to be with a partner he cared about and could have meaningful experiences with. That's not to say that it never happened.

When he was in college, he went through a particularly slutty phase because he was away from his family, namely his disapproving father, and the strict rules of a private preparatory academy. It wasn't until his junior year in college that he fell in love for the first time and realized what making love really was. Even after the relationship deteriorated, he was a changed person and sex outside of a committed relationship was something he no longer wanted. He tried to be the person he used to be, but he just wasn't the same. He found that he liked this person better. This Blaine was happier, more independent, and more open to seeing what was on the inside of people.

That's what made him able to be so interested in Kurt. Kurt, he thought. What would Kurt think of someone who came down to a place like this just for a quick sex-capade? He was taking too long to answer and found himself walking backward as Paul advanced on him.

What Blaine took as backing away and nervously laughing while stuttering, Paul took as playful and cute, a type of game per say. Blaine's back hit the wall and Paul approached him seductively. Blaine was reminded of how lions and tigers stalk their prey from watching a program on the Discovery Channel. He felt like Paul's prey. He didn't feel like he was particularly in a bad situation because Paul was his friend, so he didn't feel in any danger. Mainly he was just nervous and speechless. He knew he would somehow have to communicate 'no' to Paul, but his body was reacting differently than he would have liked and he was finding words hard to come by.

Paul now had Blaine pressed against him, sandwiched between himself and the wall. He leaned down and kissed Blaine's neck, just below his ear and ran his hands down Blaine's arms. "What do you like?" he asked before kissing Blaine's neck again. "Are you a top or bottom?"

"I-uh." He stammered and gasped when he found Paul's hand caressing and palming the bulge being created in Blaine's pants. He coughed and grunted a little.

"Or would you rather I suck you off?" Paul kissed him again, this time nipping at his skin. "I'd rim you, but you'd fall in love with me and keep begging for more."

"Blaine?" Matty called out from afar. "Come on, Dude, I'm hungry. Mama's will be packed with strippers by now and I don't wanna sit at the front with all their creepy admirers that think they can hook up with them."

Blaine coughed again and turned his head in panic upon hearing his name being called out from one of the other rooms.

"Also, Nate and Tommy are fucking again and I don't wanna be down here listening to them any longer than I have to."

The distraction from hearing Matty's voice was enough to put some sense into Blaine's brain and he made a move to his right while shrugging Paul off. "I gotta go," he said.

"Some other time then?" Paul suggested with a smile.

"N-no thanks. I appreciate the offer, but, um… I don't- I mean, we're friends and I- really, thank you, but-"

"Blaine!" Matty called again, this time with more volume.

"No." Blaine looked flustered and left Paul standing there with a playful smile.

Paul knew Blaine well enough to know what he was trying to say and knew to never try anything with Blaine again. It was a long shot and he thought Blaine could use a good fuck, but what else was he going to do if Blaine didn't want to? He laughed it off and went to find Jesse. Blaine left him turned on and Jesse was always good for a meaningless fuck, not to mention Jesse was eager to please and was down for anything. Paul imagined Blaine to be less kinky and more romantic, something Paul knew nothing about.

"Where the fuck were you, Blaine?" Matty asked when Blaine came rushing over to him.

"Paul wanted to talk to me."

"Can we get outta here? Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with whatever kind of sex you gays like or want… I just don't wanna see it."

Blaine and Matty walked into the front most room and sure enough, Nate and Tommy were still at it. This time, Nate was holding onto the railing to the staircase while Tommy held both his legs and rammed into him. Sweat glistened off both of them. Matty rushed himself past both of them, running up the stairs with his eyes practically closed. Blaine, who found this utterly hilarious, pressed himself against the back of Tommy and bit his shoulder blade. Tommy moaned and Blaine backed off. He slapped Tommy's ass and continued around to the stairs. He leaned down and kissed Nate on the cheek.

Nate smiled like he was in heaven, but Tommy moaned again, hoping Blaine was about to join in. "Blaine, I swear to God. This could be you. Get your ass back down here and strip."

Blaine laughed and winked. "No thanks Tommy. You two are too fabulous for me. I'd never be able to keep up." He left it at that and ran after Matty.

Kurt

Kurt fell backward onto his mattress, sweaty and out of breath. Vin collapsed down next to him and cuddled close. "How is it that I survive without that at least once a week? Hell, once a day?" Vin said with a smile.

Kurt took a deep breath and laughed because his endorphins were running high and he just had to let it out because he felt so good. "Well, in a month, you won't have to ask yourself that question because you'll be here." He kissed Vin's nose.

"Mm. Can't wait." He snuggled closer and put his head on Kurt's glistening chest. "You don't think we're moving too fast do you?"

Kurt brought his eyebrows together and looked at Vin curiously. He shimmied away and knelt on his bed, looking down on Vin. "If I felt that, it would imply that I had doubts. I have none. Do you?"

"N-no. Well-"

Kurt raised his eyebrows, hoping that Vin wasn't about to spoil the moment. "Well?"

"No. There's no doubts. Definitely no doubts. I promise. It's just that I've never done this before. I've never been this impulsive. I'm leaving behind everything in Vermont to be here with you. We've only known each other for a handful of months. I'm happy. I feel weightless and impervious to pain almost. I can't explain it. I'm just… I'm proud of myself for taking this risk and I can't believe I got so lucky to find someone like you. I mean, it was a shot in the dark that I saw you on the dancefloor and you turned out to be…" he paused, looking like he was trying to find the right words. "…you. I'm so happy I have you. I'm glad we're doing this. I just want to make sure that you want to do this because you want to and not because you think you have to." Vin propped himself up on his elbow and cupped Kurt's cheek with his other hand.

Kurt nuzzled in Vin's palm and then leaned down to kiss Vin on the lips. "I do want to. You're amazing and I'm so happy I have you too. I count myself lucky to have someone like you who is willing to leave everything behind to come here to be with me."

"Why wouldn't I do that? Why would anyone want to go from where you're from, to here, and then go back to another version of Lima where I live? I'll be happy no matter where we live, but I've never felt more alive than I do when I'm here with you. New York is always where I wanted to end up, but never had to guts to do it. You've given that to me."

Kurt kissed Vin again and then laid back down. He yawned. There was no more talk that night. The two men just laid there in silence, exchanging soft touches and small kissed here and there until sleep found them.