With Finn in town for a week or so in early March, Blaine and Kurt find themselves subject to a few too many double dates to be healthy. So when Santana and Sebastian are available to hang out and Rachel decides to tag along, Kurt is quick to fabricate a day for a quadruple date that allowed for him and Blaine to spend some time away from Rachel and Finn. The eight of them meet for lunch at Blaine and Santana's apartment, while Kurt explains the date. Each couple is to visit as many photo booths as they can around the city and get a strip of photos from each, and when they met up for dinner whoever had the most from different booths didn't have to pay their share of the bill. Sebastian and Rachel are instantaneously the most competitive and before long all of the couples have split up as each recalls some odd photo booth they found at some point, almost all of them naming a bar or two.

"Isn't it nice to be Rachel free?" Kurt says, after they have headed out, the last pair to leave following a heated session on the couch. His hand is in Blaine's, as is customary for them. These days they hardly walk anywhere without holding hands. "It feels like it's been far too long."

"As horrible as that sounds, I think I agree," Blaine admits.

"She's just... loud. And demanding. And she's shaping herself up to be a bit of a bridezilla, but that's okay."

"It's nice to spend time with her and Finn, but it gets a little bit repetitive."

"Ohio, wedding, didn't you miss him, Burt and Carole, happy to see you. Over, and over, and over," Kurt mimics, rolling his eyes.

"They'll get married in a few months, and then this will all be over, Finn will be living in New York full time, etcetera," Blaine says, giving Kurt's hand a gentle squeeze, "I love spending time with your brother and sister-in-law-to-be. Just maybe not all day every day."

"Which is why today is for us. I don't mind paying for dinner, so long as we do play along with the hunt for a little bit. At least let us visit enough to give me one adorable strip for in my wallet."

"I'm completely willing to have photo booth sex with you."

"What?"

"Nothing." Kurt slaps Blaine lightly with his available hand.

"I'm too greedy for public sex, you know that," Kurt teases. Blaine laughs with an infectious grin to his boyfriend, who can't help but chuckle too, "Besides, we just hooked up like, half an hour ago."

"I still wouldn't turn down a round two. You should know that." That earns Blaine another gentle slap.

Though the weather is finally getting warmer, they are glad to be in the warmth of the first bar that they enter. The bartender noticeably sighs as they pass the bar, walking straight for the photo booth in the corner. Blaine goes in first, and Kurt squashes in next to him. "Okay, what're we doing?" Blaine asks.

"We have a few more booths to go, so we can't do all the poses out there now."

"Good point. Okay, one sensible one," Blaine says. They smile politely at the camera, and then alternate calling poses between the flashes. With one strip down and safely inside Kurt's wallet, they set off again in search of the next bar, and Kurt smiles apologetically at the bartender as they leave.

It isn't until their third photo booth port of call that they stop to have a drink. It isn't such a bad idea as far as they are concerned, and the bartender reminds them that alcohol will warm them from the inside out. As soon as they finish Blaine nudges Kurt lightly and says, "Come on, we'd better take pictures here and get going for the next one." The bartender sighs heavily and rolls his eyes.

"Another lot? How many of you are there?" He asks.

"Who has come by already?" Kurt replies, not answering the question.

"A Hispanic chick and a blonde," they nod, "and two guys, one who was snarky and ordered a scotch and the other who was British and too polite for his own good." They nod again.

"Okay, yeah, they're both with us. Just wait until you get a giant being dragged through by a hobbit who speaks too loudly," Blaine says, "but don't worry, they'll be the last."

"Who am I looking out for? Two guys or two girls again, or..?"

"Heteros, actually. Surprising, huh?" Kurt jokes. The bartender nod once.

"Whatever. Go take your pictures. It doesn't concern me." Kurt leaves a generous tip, feeling bad for putting him through the stress of all of their friends (who aren't always the easiest customers), when they only really intended to be there for the photos. Kurt goes in first this time and Blaine kisses his cheek for the first snap.

Then Kurt kisses Blaine's cheek.

And then they have their arms wrapped around each other, smiling into their shared kiss.

The next few shots show them slowly falling out of the frame, leaning back into the booth as their kissing turns a little more heated than they planned, Kurt's limbs flying everywhere, but the grins on their faces perfectly obvious.

With newly straightened clothing, they collect the strip and giggle as they leave. "Still no public sex?" Blaine says, pouting at him, and Kurt whacks him again.

"No. However, photo booth make out sessions I can live with."

After walking around for a bit longer and using Google to direct them to another bar with a photo booth, they sit down for a decent chunk of time, ordering drinks again. "Are you hungry?" Kurt asks, and Blaine shakes his head, "Well screw you, I'm getting wings." When everything arrives Blaine realises that he is in fact hungrier than he had suggested, and reaches out to take a chicken wing. Kurt slaps his hand. "No."

"No?"

"My wings. You aren't hungry." Blaine pouts at him, complete with a flutter of his eyelashes. "Those puppy dog eyes don't work on me, Anderson."

"But Kurt..."

"Okay, fine. Only because I love you."

"I love you too." Blaine perks up as he takes a wing, leaving Kurt to roll his eyes in fond exasperation.

"Kurt?" a voice comes from behind him. Kurt wipes his mouth and pulls a worried face at Blaine, who is looking up at the man. He turns around and blinks blankly at their new company.

"Oh, Owen, hey," Kurt says with calm confusion, "what are you doing here?"

"What, no hug?" Kurt stands up and hugs him in as friendly a manner as he can manage when Owen's arms are so low around his waist. He pulls away after a couple of seconds, actively pushing off Owen's hands that are too close to his ass for comfort, and glances back at Blaine. "It's good to see you," Owen says, "mind if I sit with you for a minute?" Kurt shakes his head and takes his seat again as Owen pulls a chair up to their table.

"So, uh, what brings you to New York?" Kurt asks, clearly still not over the initial shock of his ex-boyfriend being there.

"I just moved here a few weeks ago, job opportunity. I'm living with my girlfriend. Who's this?" Owen asks, turning to Blaine.

"Blaine Anderson," he introduces himself, holding out a hand for him to shake. Owen takes it and shakes it firmly.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Owen," he says, adding, "Youngman," as an afterthought.

"Right, the high school boyfriend," Blaine says.

"And you're the current boyfriend then?"

"Exactly. Soulmate, even."

"Oh, you believe in that stuff? The countdown's not a law," Owen says, reaching for a chicken wing. Kurt glares at him but doesn't stop him the way he did playfully with Blaine.

"Yes, we believe it," Kurt says impatiently, "that's the whole reason we broke up, remember?"

"We only dated for like, a week, Kurt."

"It was five weeks, and it was a big deal when I was sixteen, okay?" he sighs and finally continues, "I take it your girlfriend isn't your soulmate then?"

"Oh, no. I only slept with the guy I ran into post-countdown once and then he kicked me out of his place before his girlfriend got back. It's not so bad, Anna is great." Kurt looks longingly at the wings left before he downs his drink and Blaine promptly follows suit. Kurt nudges Blaine's leg with his foot, and he nods in response.

"Hey, Owen, it was good to see you, but we've got to get going now, okay?" Kurt and Blaine stand up and join hands again, "I might see you around though."

"Yeah. See you." They leave before Owen can think to follow them. Kurt shivers and wraps Blaine's arm around him, tucking into his side as they walk.

"What an ass," Blaine says, "you dated that dickhead?"

"Dickhead?" Kurt mimics, "what are you, twelve?"

"Oh, shush. What did you ever see in him, anyway?"

"He was a friend and he made me feel good and he wasn't unattractive. It made sense at the time. These days I realise that he is, was, and always has been a douchebag." Blaine nods.

"So he said nice things to you so that you would let him put his tongue in your mouth?" he questions with a quirk of his eyebrow.

"Well when you put it that way it makes me sound desperate," Kurt says, "We went out on a few dates and he let me hold his hand at the movies and stuff. And yes, we made out and then we moved on. He was the first guy to ever make me feel wanted though, and that was a big deal. He used to tell me that I was the hottest gay guy that he knew, but I mean, I was the only gay guy he knew. And he would make up stuff about the oceans in my eyes and I just... I was a silly romantic. But I did realise after we had been on a date or two that there wasn't anything there. I let it drag on though, because kissing was fun, new, and exciting."

"Ah."

"So, I suppose we have another few bars to hit still, and they will all be ex free."

"I hope so. Do we have enough exes left between us to run into anyone?" Blaine asks.

"Not unless we break up now, and then we'll have another ex each," Kurt suggests.

"Not going to happen, babe." Blaine tightens his arm around Kurt, and Kurt leans into him again as they keep walking. It reminds him just how strongly he believes that no matter whom or what his past was, Blaine is his present and would be his present forever. "And it's galaxies, Kurt, not oceans. Fucking amateur. He doesn't know what he's talking about." Kurt laughs and Blaine couldn't possibly miss the way he blushes.

"Anderson," Blaine says to the hostess at the restaurant where the group is meeting for dinner, "Table for eight?" She rolls her eyes at him.

"I take you're actually Anderson? There are four others sitting in the bar already. Are the other two still coming?"

"Yes and yes, as far as I'm aware." They follow the hostess through the restaurant and to the table, where Blaine and Kurt sit down. The hostess goes to collect the others from the bar, and Sebastian, Adam, Santana and Brittany join them at the table.

"Hey gays," Santana greets, where the others all politely say hello.

"So we're missing Rachel and Finn then," Kurt says, "surprise surprise. She's going to be far too into it and Finn is going to be starving when he gets here."

"Can we say that they're disqualified if they don't turn up in ten minutes?" Sebastian suggests.

"We'll vote," Kurt decides, and it is negotiated (for the consciences of the few who feel bad) that they have fifteen minutes to get there before the disqualification occurs. They order a round of drinks, and twenty-five minutes later Rachel and Finn show up. Rachel's mouth falls open in horror as they break the news of her being out of the competition.

"Okay, so we got three," Santana says, passing the strips to the left so that the others can view them all, "we sort of gave up and went shopping instead."

Adam produces his strips from his pocket and lays them out on the table to count before passing them around as Santana had done. "We have five."

"It turned into more of a drinking mission, despite the original competitive spirit," Sebastian says with a shrug, "We felt bad for not buying something at every bar we went to."

"And alcohol is the only thing you could have possibly bought?" Kurt teases.

"So how did you go then, Buttercup?" Blaine and Kurt produce their strips, which they hadn't put in particularly convenient locations, and count them up.

"Six! Ha! We actually won, we didn't expect that!" Kurt replies.

"We would have won, if you hadn't disqualified us," Rachel says bitterly. The eye rolls that follow are almost audible.

"Let me see yours," Santana demands, holding her hand out for Kurt to place the strips in. "These are cute," she compliments. Blaine and Kurt blush at one another. She fans herself when she sees the one of them making out in the booth, and awws at the appropriate moments.

"So you two just walked around for this stuff all day?" Blaine asks Finn.

"Yeah, man, I'm so hungry. She wouldn't let me eat anything. I could eat a donkey, or whatever."

"Can I look at your pictures?" Finn passes Blaine the pile and he flicks through the pictures- all of them look a little forced from Rachel's side, and completely dopey and loveable from Finn's. The picture that quickly becomes Blaine's favourite is the one in which Finn is smiling at Rachel, totally lovesick, while she looks at the camera and flashes a million dollar smile. The second frame shows her snapping at him for it, and then him doing it again, and then a final picture where they both look to the camera and it's genuinely happy. He hopes that their wedding photos are going to resemble the last frames.

Finn stops paying attention to what Blaine is doing, chatting with Rachel, Brittany and Santana instead. Blaine turns to the other side, to converse with Adam, Sebastian and Kurt. "-it's a shame Blaine isn't a little more piratical, really," Adam says. When he sees Blaine tuning in, he smiles towards him.

"Piratical?" Blaine queries, quirking an eyebrow.

"Yeah, we're just discussing why Sebastian went with Buttercup," Kurt explains.

"Stop judging me," Sebastian says over the rim of his glass before taking a drink. Blaine gestures that they should elaborate.

"He made a reference to The Princess Bride," Adam says proudly. Sebastian pouts into his drink.

"You're kidding."

"Not at all. I made him watch it the other day. He is the spitting image of the kid with his grandfather, I swear, right down to the 'kissing book' questions, and being 'concerned' for her safety. I reassured him that she didn't die."

"So you're the grandfather?" Adam wrinkles up his nose.

"That makes it all a little incestuous."

"No, I mean, you have that supreme authority over what's in the story."

"Of all the characters, I'm the grandfather," Adam sighs heavily, "well anyway, you're Westley, and Kurt is Buttercup. And being the Dread Pirate Roberts, you really ought to start dressing a little more piratical."

"I'll bear that in mind."

"Buttercup isn't the worst nickname," Kurt says, "I certainly prefer it to some of the things Tana calls me." Santana shoots him a glare from down the table, but it's playful and Kurt does no more than laugh it off.

"Kurt... are you sure that you're okay after all the Owen stuff?" Blaine asks, and a few of their friends look mildly worried about it, since it's the first they have heard.

"Of course. It was a long time ago, B. Seeing him today just reminded me how much better off I am without him."

"Ouch, run in with the ex?" Sebastian asks.

"If you can call it that." Kurt finds himself running through a point by point list of all the events between his first date with Owen (they shared a packet of M&Ms on the swings in the park) and his break up (Kurt didn't kiss him goodnight on the doorstep, patted him on the arm and said 'I think you know this is for the best'), until his friends are satisfied with the justification that yes, Owen Youngman is indeed an asshole.

"You should have seen the way he hugged Kurt," Blaine all but growls.

"It's not like I enjoyed it either."

"Oh, you two," Santana says fondly, "it's not like you'll see him again. And if you do, let me know so I can come right away and judge his appearance before I kick his ass for meddling with my gaybies."

"Thanks, Santana," Kurt says, "but from the way he talks his about his girlfriend, I think you'll have to join the queue." But they really didn't have any intention of ever coming across Owen again. They knew which bar he hung out in, and knew that from then on, they had no reason to go there- as they had found out over the day, photo booths were easier to find than one might think.