Blaine wakes up the next morning to the sound of his regular alarm and takes a moment to reorient himself before tracking the noise to his jeans pocket. He rolls over and extracts the phone from his pocket and turns the ringer off. He was now wide awake and doubted he would be able to just roll over and get back to sleep. He glances around his room for a moment, unable to place what exactly is wrong with it; he is lying at the wrong end of the bed, on top of the covers. He stands up and looks at himself, fully clothed, with sleep ruffled hair, and sighs gently. He leaves the bedroom on a quest for coffee, and is immediately handed a cup by... Kurt.

"Good morning," Kurt greets, "do you have any clue when we fell asleep?"

"None whatsoever," Blaine responds, sipping his coffee.

"I hope you don't mind, but I completely raided your baking supplies to make pancakes." Blaine's face lights up.

"Pancakes?"

"Yup, you can get started whenever you like." Kurt flips another pancake onto an already large stack. Blaine grabs a plate and eagerly begins piling it with pancakes and toppings. Kurt turns off the element and gets himself a plate too, following Blaine to the table. "We can finish cooking those when Brittany and Santana get up, if they ever do." Blaine takes his first mouthful of pancake and his eyes widen.

"Oh my... Kurt. These. Glorious. Yes." Blaine says, and keeps eating. Kurt laughs.

"Thank you. I'm flattered, really. I'm just being a good houseguest."

"If you cook like this, you could move in tomorrow and no one would care, I swear. Tana and I only have a few meals each in our repertoires. Pay rent in food."

"Maybe it could just be a standing offer that I can stay here any time so long as I cook breakfast?" Kurt suggests.

"That works for me. Santana will be on board once she starts eating these, too. Promise." They chat all through breakfast, conversation flowing easily between them. Any pressure that had been on them to act a certain way was seemingly lifted, as they settled easily into being friends, ignoring the fact they had only met each other the day before. Their wrists were bare, only the softest marks indicating their countdowns had been there in the first place. They weren't noticeable unless you were really searching for them. Eventually Santana and Brittany join them at the table, agreeing with Blaine about the quality of Kurt's pancakes. "If things don't work out properly with the hobbit, I will marry you," Santana says, making Kurt blush, "though I would settle for marrying these pancakes."

Blaine begins work at Mode D'Etoiles on the Monday two weeks later. He checks in at reception as he had the day of his interview and is handed his ID card, which allows him access to various parts of the building, and is instructed to go to Quinn's office. He steps out of the elevator on the fifth floor and is greeted by her PA. "Good morning Mister Anderson, Ms Fabray would like to see you in her office now, if possible, to sign your contract and such." Ava explains.

"Thanks, uh..."

"Ava."

"Right. Thanks, Ava. And it's Blaine, okay? No need to worry about that Mister Anderson stuff." Ava nods in agreement, leads him to Quinn's office door and knocks for him. Quinn opens the door and smiles.

"Ah, Mister Anderson. Right on time. Thank you, Ava." Quinn says, stepping aside to let Blaine pass. Blaine steps into the office and Quinn walks back over to her desk, gesturing for Blaine to sit opposite her. He does so, and she slides him some documents and a pen. "So this is your contract, all standard things, nothing we haven't talked about already. Just sign here... here... and here." Blaine signs it all. He had been emailed a copy earlier and he was completely prepared to go along with everything in it. "Perhaps we should discuss your assignment?" Quinn suggests rhetorically before continuing, "Most of what you do will be under Mister Hummel's guidance, although I'll be approving anything final. You have a few weeks, however long it takes to turn out a well formed campaign, no time stress. At the end we'll be evaluating your work, and then we will write you either a reference letter for your next employer or a full contract. Questions?" Blaine shakes his head. "If anything comes up, you're welcome to ask Ava. She will show you to your space now, and you can get started. Kurt- Mister Hummel- has most of the details. I'll let you get to it." Quinn smiles, and Blaine stands to leave. "Oh, Mister Anderson? Is it suitable to operate on a first-name basis?"

"Sure," Blaine says, returning the smile, "Blaine."

"Alright. Now run along and get acquainted with your partner." Blaine laughs softly to himself as he leaves Quinn's office, wondering how much she knows about his situation regarding Kurt. He figures he probably shouldn't inform her of their prior acquaintance. Since the celebratory drinks on the fateful Friday two weeks earlier, Kurt and Blaine had been texting and had met up for coffee a couple of times. Neither one wanted to push their relationship too far, and although the soulmate title meant a lot to both of them, neither wanted to put too big a deal on that fact. They were friends and things were comfortable.

"She told me to ask you to show me to my space?" Blaine says to Ava. She immediately gets to her feet and walks Blaine down the hallway.

"So here is the meeting room... and most of these offices here are for the various designers who work under Quinn. Between us, she has the charisma but not the talent, which is a large reason the system operates like this. The floor is symmetrical, with another meeting room and set of offices to the left of the elevators. Now, this is a shared office space, so you won't be able to access the floors which don't concern our company, even with your ID card. Upstairs are more offices, with Julia- Quinn's associate- and her team, but they cover all the web design aspects, along with the business side of things. I think strictly speaking Quinn runs the 'creative department' and Julia runs the 'administrative department'. Above that we have the studio and dressing rooms, which is also where the Vault is. There are other places around, but you probably won't need to be heading there any time soon. The fourth floor is the recreation centre, with the kitchenette and lounge and also the gym. It's regularly patrolled so no one spends too much time there." They arrive at their destination, an office door with a gold nameplate, reading Kurt Hummel, Designer. Ava knocks twice before opening the door. Kurt looks up from his drawing board to the entrants.

"Hi," he says, "I'll be with you in two seconds." He finishes up the lines he was adding to the sketch and slides off his stool. "Okay. I'm done."

"Blaine, you know Kurt, right?" Ava asks, although she knows the answer already.

"I do."

"Great, I'll leave you in his care. If you need anything, let me know." She leaves the room and closes the door behind her, leaving Kurt and Blaine alone.

"Quinn made us share an office," Kurt says apologetically, "some of the other designers share, but she didn't seem to think you would need a whole office to yourself."

"I don't need a lot of space, figuring I can use the studio when it comes to the physical photo taking."

"Which would be her point, I think. So the drawing board is mine, and the desk, and the sewing machine, and the mannequin. You get a desk."

"I don't know what I'd do with a mannequin anyway." Blaine reasons.

"We can rearrange all the furniture, if you like. I sort of wanted to, anyway."

"What do you propose?"

"I wanted to move your desk over so it was opposite mine, more like one big desk. I don't know; I don't want you to feel exiled to that corner of the room."

"Right, and that would open up a lot of space over here for you to use. You can move the sewing machine and mannequin over here, and keep the window spot for the drawing board, keep the natural light?" Blaine says, walking around the room and using his hands to gesture the movements.

"Yes! Okay, we can move this later. Do you want to talk concepts first or take a tour of the whole office?"

"I wouldn't mind seeing the studio."

"Tour it is, then." They begin by walking down the stairs to the fourth floor, so Blaine can see the so called recreation centre. It was a glorified staff lounge and gym at one end; at the other was the material storage. The gym was glorified in itself, no more than a few exercise machines and an iPod dock. They take the elevator up to the sixth floor, where there are the offices for Julia's team. Kurt says hi to her PA; there isn't a lot to see there, so they walk to the stairwell and then up to the seventh floor from there. They go through to the studio first, and Blaine surveys the area thoroughly. It isn't set up for a shoot and that much is clear, but he is happy with it overall although he hopes to see it while fully functional. Kurt shows him the Vault- the Mode D'Etoiles library. Inside is rack upon rack of prototype design, the originals of every garment in the Mode D'Etoiles lines from over the years kept in a somewhat chronological order. They were only a small company, but they had plenty of partnerships with bigger labels. As much as Blaine claimed to have no knowledge for fashion, he had a general basis of understanding and had respect for the room and its significance to someone like Kurt.

They return to their newly shared office and move the furniture around. Next, the pair sits opposite each other in the small living area of sorts- two couches and a coffee table- in their office. Kurt talks Blaine through his designs, explaining his concepts as best as he can. Blaine listens intently, and then they brainstorm concepts for the campaign.

"Contrast," Blaine states, "summer colours on winter backgrounds. Blonde, fair models in dark clothes with dark makeup. Everything very striking, drawing focus. Taking risks. Use daring choices for the models and select girls who wouldn't fit the norm, yet still compliment everything you've done."

"And then we pair two models that are completely different in one shot, to show that the clothes can be suited to all kinds of people?" Kurt suggests.

"Exactly. We can play around with all kinds of things- we'll set up shots in all kinds of backgrounds- at parties, beaches, professional settings. We can shoot for a variety of ideas before we select what we want, Kurt."

"Okay."

"And these aren't even decisions we need to make now. We have a few hurdles to jump before we get close to seeking Quinn's approval."

"Where do we start?"

"You check with Quinn about which items she wants you to market for- if she says everything, we do everything. She hadn't approved it all yet, had she? So we need to do that first. Then we have to cast models. You form the ensembles and dress them, choose the accessories and all of that. We take test shots and make sure everything is set up. Then we shoot, either in the studio or on location. We choose which photos we like best. I edit. And finally, we present."

"So we're finished here?" Kurt asks.

"I think so."

"Do you want to go get lunch?"

"I'd love to." The pair leaves their office and stop by Ava's station on the way out, letting her know that they would be back in an hour if Quinn asked, and that, if she was available that afternoon, Kurt needed to book an appointment with her. She smiles a little too much as they leave together, although she pretends not to watch them standing close to one another as they wait for the elevator, or notice the small smile they share.

Blaine arrives home that evening to find Sebastian sitting on the couch, watching something mindless on TV. "Why are you in my apartment?" Blaine asks as he takes off his coat, though he sits down next to him.

"I was waiting for you to get back from your first day, because that's something that caring friends do, Killer," Sebastian explains, "so how was your day? How's the boyfriend?"

"Good. We talked concepts today and asked Quinn to advertise for our model casting. And Kurt and I went out for lunch. But he isn't my boyfriend, okay? We're just friends."

Sebastian snorts. "You keep telling yourself that. Do you know when Santana will be getting home? I would tolerate listening to her harp on about the sickening details of her dickless sex life about now."

"No clue," Blaine says, rolling his eyes, "And as much as I'm sure she loves sharing, you could be a little nicer about her new found sexuality. It's not like you prefer stories with hetero sex, Bas."

"This is true, but I wouldn't want to venture further than guy on guy. Do our sexual exploits make you uncomfortable, Blaine?" Sebastian teases, "Or are you putting out now?"

"Kurt and I are just friends!"

"Then why are you so delightfully scarlet? All the guys I sleep with aren't boyfriends."

"Can we not talk about this?"

"I thought there was nothing for us to talk about." Sebastian raises an eyebrow at Blaine, delighted by how worked up he is getting.

"There isn't!"

"So you retain your virginity?"

"Oh my god, Bas. Yes, if you really must know." Blaine says, rolling his eyes. It was the sort of teasing he was used to, and yet it got to him just as well as if he wasn't.

"You can sleep with someone and still be just friends, you know. The offer remains standing, any time you want to take it up."

"I'm not going to sleep with you."

"Your boy toy doesn't care that you're a virgin then? Because I can fix that, is all I'm saying." Sebastian shrugs.

"I wish you wouldn't call him that. And he doesn't."

"But 'soulmate' just doesn't have the same ring to it." Sebastian sighs. The door clicks softly.

"Doesn't have the same ring as what?" Santana says, hanging her coat up by the door.

"Boy toy," Sebastian reiterates.

"Mm. He has a point there, B." She joins them, sitting immediately between them on the couch. "Good day at work? How's the studio?"

"Yeah," Blaine affirms, "it's small, but it's functional and workable. I'll take some test shots tomorrow."

"Do you have an office home? Somewhere to lock Katy up for the night?" Blaine nods. Sebastian laughs quietly to himself, the way he always does at any mention of Katy. He would never be over Blaine naming choice of his camera, of all things.

"I'm sharing my office, actually."

"You mean to tell me that you and the boy toy moved into an office together?" Santana quips, "damn, boy, you move fast."

"It's not like it was my choice, Quinn just stuck another desk in his office. We're just friends."

"Sure, sure; next you'll get a cat together or something, be more committed yet."

"Santana, you can't give him ideas! He'll never relinquish his virginity if he can get cats with the boy." Sebastian says.

"It's a wonder you aren't each other's soulmates, really." Blaine muses as he stands up from the couch, "Let me guess, you're going clubbing even though it's Monday," he says, pointing to Sebastian, "and you," he points to Santana, "are going to Brittany's. You only planned to be here long enough to pick up your pre-prepared overnight bag, but then you got distracted and were just being polite."

"It's never too early in the week to secure hook ups." Sebastian says with a shrug.

"Brittany won't get home until eight," Santana mumbles.

"I, on the other hand, am going to finish watching America's Next Top Model."

"What are you going to do with your life when you finish ANTM, Blaine?" Santana asks.

"I don't know, start on Project Runway? Go back a season?"

"Get a social life?" Sebastian suggests.

"I have a social life! What do you call this?"

"This is me hanging out with my buddy Santana and her weirdo roommate intruding. Right, Tana?"

"Yeah, Bas and I are super besties. What time is it?" She says.

"Like, half past seven?" Blaine estimates.

"Oh, I should really be on my way." Santana gets up and collects a bag from her bedroom, as Blaine had predicted. "Want to walk with me, Bas? I'm going that way."

Sebastian gets up off the couch and stretches. "Okay. Bit early for the clubs, but I can find some other way to waste time."

"Who knows, you might pick up a guy at a bar instead of a dance club." Blaine says.

"Don't wait up for me," Santana tells Blaine, "I'll be staying."

"Tana, can I use your room for hook ups tonight?" Sebastian asks.

"Ew, no. I don't want to have to disinfect every surface in there because of you."

"Then don't wait up for me, either. See you later, Killer." Sebastian throws a wink over his shoulder as he walks to the door, Santana in tow. Blaine settles himself back into the couch and queues his episodes, ready to be mindlessly entertained for a few hours. There was some fashion and photography between the drama, and surely it could count as being educational.

Blaine A. ANTM counts as working, right?

Kurt H. Totally.

Blaine A. Okay. That's really all that matters.

Kurt H. Yep. I'm yet to watch it instead of working during office hours, though.

Blaine A. Maybe I'll have to sway you from your squeaky clean record?

Kurt H. I have a line at stake here.

Blaine A. I'll make a bad boy of you yet, Hummel.

Kurt H. Of all crimes, watching ANTM?

Blaine A. Shh, you'll ruin the moment.

Kurt H. Maybe we could sneak off and watch it together tomorrow?

Blaine A. Sure ;)

Kurt H. It's a date.

"I believe we have a date with Tyra Banks?" Kurt says as he and Blaine walk back in from their lunch break together, "But not a date-date." He confirms. Blaine persuades himself that he isn't disappointed.

"That we do," Blaine replies, hanging his bag on the back of his desk chair, "So do you just want to get started now, or...?"

"Actually, I have an idea." Kurt unplugs his laptop and carries it to the door. "Are you coming?" Blaine hurries to his side and they leave the room together. They walk up the stairs to avoid passing by Ava's station to the seventh floor, where Kurt unlocks the Vault and they slip inside. He leads Blaine to the far corner and sits on the floor, setting up his laptop on his lap. Blaine joins him on the ground, and they sit close together, hip to hip, and balance the laptop on a thigh each. Kurt passes Blaine an earphone, and they watch an episode together. And then another. And then they start the next.

A key clicks in the lock. They freeze. Kurt pulls the earphone from his ear and shifts the laptop off his leg, leaving it with Blaine. He stands up slowly, as to not attract too much attention, and begins to look through the rack that he is closest to. Blaine looks at him with panic filled eyes, pauses the video and stashes the laptop underneath a rack. He get's slowly to his feet too, joining Kurt. "See what I mean, Blaine?" Kurt says, "My design is too similar to this one." Blaine has never seen the dress before in his life, and it isn't anything like any of Kurt's designs that he had been shown.

"Yeah, okay, I can see that now that you mention it, I guess." Blaine plays along, not even daring to look over his shoulder at whoever had entered.

"Sorry this took so long to find. You probably had something important to be doing." Kurt grins at him, and Blaine grins back, loving the mischievous twinkle that had appeared in Kurt's eyes.

"Not really, but we could get back to our of-"

"Kurt!" he turns and sees Ava, stopped at the end of the aisle. "Wondered where you had gone. Quinn wants to talk to you- both of you- I think it's about model casting... do I need to escort you back down?" she glances between the two, checking for some sign that they hadn't been innocent in the room, but finds no reason to accuse them of having made out. Both shake their heads. "Good. I'll see you downstairs in a minute." She leaves again, and Blaine retrieves the laptop.

"Well that went fairly well," Kurt reasons, as they begin to walk out together, "Ava had her suspicious face on, though."

"What would she be suspicious of?" Blaine asks.

"Knowing Ava? That this was more than date-date." Blaine laughs.

"But that would be silly, right?" he says, although he believes it less and less every time he says it.

"Yeah," Kurt agrees, "we're friends."