Blaine and Marie arrived at their hotel room with no problems at all. Blaine couldn't help but grin from ear to ear to the whole way back, and Marie didn't try to break through the bubble of happiness he was in since the meeting. He fiddled with his phone the whole way, waiting to see if Kurt would text him soon, or whether it would come later. He had said "tonight", so he wasn't going to text so soon after the encounter.

Marie took Blaine out for lunch on their way back, and the pair took a casual stroll through Central Park before eventually heading to the hotel.

Back at the hotel Marie changed into a nicer outfit than what she had been wearing and started putting on various jewellery items and even put on full on makeup, more than she would usually wear at any time. Blaine couldn't help but enquire about it all. "So did you meet someone at Carefree too, or are you just dressing up because you can?" Marie turned to face him with hands on her hips.

"You're supposed to dress up when you go to the theatre. That's half the fun of it." Blaine wrinkled up his nose.

"Why would I dress up to sit in the dark for a couple of hours?"

"Well, don't you want to be on Broadway one day? Maybe you should think about taking your first ever viewing seriously."

After a fair bit of arguing about the matter, Marie finally persuaded him into wearing a dress shirt with his jeans and converse. Although both of them were dressier than they might have been if they were to go shopping, they went out as they were anyway.

After browsing the shops for a while, Marie couldn't help but giggle when they entered none other than a novelty tie shop- and found a bowtie, adorned with pictures of bowties on it. Blaine smiled. "Bowtie-ception," he said, as he took it off its rack to show his mother. She urged him to try it on, and he muddled through tying it- he had only worn a bowtie once, at his aunt's wedding the year earlier- and eventually had it tied something that would resemble the correct outcome. Marie wasn't sure what to laugh at more- the goofball son she had, his failed attempt at tying a bowtie, or his choice in ties. She purchased it for him either way, and the guy in the shop retied it for him so he could wear it out. He was happy with the tie in a way he couldn't quite explain, and continued on his way to Broadway with his mom.

Blaine returned back to the hotel with his Wicked playbill clutched tightly in his hand. It was a like a dream- some intensely wonderful dream. He was in New York, returning to his hotel by Central Park, after seeing a show on Broadway. This was all the real deal. The Wish Factory hadn't done anything by halves. Marie sat down on her bed and pulled her high heels off. Blaine hesitated in taking off his bowtie, worried he'd never be able to tie it up again. Eventually he had stripped off his unnecessary layers and undone his top buttons. "That was amazing," Marie gushed, "Utterly amazing."

Blaine smiled and shrugged. He was only teasing, and that was glaringly obvious. He said, "Well, Galinda was no Kristin Chenoweth."

Marie called his bluff, saying, "Oh, stop it, Blaine. I bet if you were on that stage, if you were Fiyero- don't play dumb, I've heard you singing Dancing Through Life plenty of times- you wouldn't be saying you were no Norbert Leo Butz."

Blaine shrugged again. "I'm not," he said, "But I would make one hell of a Fiyero."

Marie giggled. "But what if you had a pretty young Galinda to play next to? Would you still be saying that she wasn't any good?"

"Hey," Blaine said, "I never said Galinda wasn't good. I said she wasn't as good as the original. I don't think anyone will ever live up to the original expectations. Not even myself."

Marie shrugged their debate off and headed into the bathroom to take a shower, leaving Blaine alone in the room. His phone buzzed on the bed next to him, and he jumped. Was it Kurt? That was quick work on his part, if it was. He checked- it wasn't. It was Sky.

Guess who has a Skype date with Hummel tonight?! It said. The overuse of the punctuation made him feel bad for whoever usually received all the exclamation points.

I don't know, his boyfriend? Blaine replied. He didn't even know if Kurt had a boyfriend or a girlfriend or anything. Everyone kind of assumed he was gay, typecasting- but he wasn't necessarily. He never gave a proper answer in interviews about his love life.

Me, you idiot!

How did you manage that? Blaine was genuinely curious.

The internet is fun!

Tell him something he didn't know.

Care to elaborate?

I've been interning at Glorious Media, and they gave the interview to me!

It's going to make my trip look less shiny at support group next week. He thought his upset probably conveyed through the text.

I'll save it until the week after!

Okay, have fun with that.

I will!

Blaine plopped his phone back down on the bed beside him, before flopping backward himself. He considered going to sleep right then, but instead chose to channel surf for a bit before settling on a documentary about otters. It wasn't the most eventful of evenings after that.

Kurt sat down with his laptop later that evening, having made sure he looked presentable. He knew the Skype call would be recorded, because it was easier to just upload his conversation with Glorious Media to the website than for the interviewer to transfer it all into words.

He glanced down at the phone in his hands, and decided that maybe texting Blaine Anderson wasn't a good idea.

Glorious Media was a popular teen website and blog, well known for its interviews with celebrities, having all the gossip, both starting and busting rumours. Some lucky kids got set up with internships and part time writing jobs, the offices being somewhere in Ohio. You would think it would be difficult to operate from there, when everyone's in LA- but the site made the most of the internet. The majority of the interviews were in videos, which meant they were also immortalised on other popular social networks.

Kurt checked his hair quickly and let his camera online. The interviewer came online shortly after- an excitable teenage girl.

"Hi!" she said, "I'm Sky, I'm interviewing you today." She said to introduce herself. "I haven't started the recording yet, by the way..."

Kurt smiled, "Hi," he said, "I'm Kurt, but you probably guessed that."

Sky giggled. "You are so funny!" She said, "Okay, I'm going to ask you um, seven questions for the site. Before we start the interview I have a little script here I'm supposed to read out, so I'll do that... um, I'm recording... now." There was a tiny pause, while Sky put on her video smile. "Hi, I'm Sky and I am a teen reporter for Glorious Media. I'm joined today by Kurt Hummel, who most of you will know as Elliot from Highlands. How are you today, Kurt?"

"I'm good thank you," he said, "and yourself?"

"I'm good too! Okay, let's start. Of all your projects, what has been your favourite to work on?"

"Well, they've all been great- there hasn't been anything that I haven't enjoyed doing, you know? I think Highlands, just because it's where I had all of my own high school experiences. I really have become friends with all the actors and it's my home away from home." He said.

"Cool! Do you have any plans for doing movies any time soon?" Sky asked, rambling off the next question from her list.

"Not at the moment. I'm being kept plenty busy with a lot of smaller side projects and I want to start writing my own show sometime, so taking six months out for a movie just isn't in the realm of possibility at this point in time." Kurt answered truthfully. He hadn't auditioned for any movies, let alone been cast in any, and that was fine by him. He just didn't have the time for it between Highlands- which he hadn't formally announced he was returning to, and all the photo shoots and video games and the rest.

"Right, right..." Sky said, pretending to know exactly what he was talking about, "Is animation weird compared to TV? Like, how was Born Rivals different to Highlands?"

"I wouldn't say weird, as such, just different. Elliot and Julio are totally different and each have their own perks, and they are so contrasting that even with the animation doing the movement for me, it was a bit of a challenge to adapt to the different character." Kurt said.

"Would you say that Elliot was the character you've connected most with?"

"Yeah, I think so. Mostly just due to the amount of time I've spent being Elliot, I've gotten to know him the best."

"Of course... I think it really shows when an actor really understands their character." Sky gushed.

"Oh, thank you!" Kurt said. He was almost taken off guard by that comment. Interviewers weren't generally as nice as she seemed to be.

"You're welcome! What have you been getting up to lately?" she said. He thought about nice it was that she had some manners. You're Welcome didn't get heard a lot around Kurt's life.

Kurt thought about his meeting that morning, as he said, "I've been signed to a charity, most recently. I had my first meeting for The Wish Factory earlier today, actually. It was... fun, and I'm looking forward to meeting the other sick kids that the charity helps out so well."

Sky knew exactly who he meant he had met with, but she couldn't say that on the recording, so she bit her lip, before saying, "What would you most like to guest appear on?"

Kurt had to think about that one for a second. "I'm actually a huge BBC fan- I think it would be awesome to be on Sherlock or Doctor Who. I could never be the Doctor though, because I don't have the right accent."

Sky laughed, and said, "I'd really love to see that, but fair enough... and, because it was the most voted question on our poll, what is your coffee order?"

Kurt listed it with ease, explaining what parts of it he could take or leave, depending on the day. How he felt about his muffins, too. It was more than he needed to share, but he was okay with that. Sky thanked him for the interview, and she stopped the recording.

Sky said, "It's really been such a privilege for me to get this. I haven't really been a huge fan of yours for a long time, but I starting playing Born Rivals a week or two ago, and it was heaps of fun!"

"Thanks," Kurt said, "I can't really take the credit for that, but thanks."

"...You know the kid that you met with?" Sky said, hesitantly.

"Blaine Anderson?" Kurt asked. He worried he wasn't smiling too much at the name.

"Yeah! He goes to my support group. He was the one who introduced me to Born Rivals." Sky explained.

"Oh, well that's a weird coincidence..." Kurt said. Especially considering he thought you stalked him, he wanted to add, but he left it.

"I guess it is! Well, I'll let you go... you probably have something super exciting to be doing." She said.

"Hardly. I was just going to watch some TV." He said, totally truthfully. He just planned on watching Sherlock until he fell asleep on his laptop again.

"Have fun with that, then! I have to go do my French homework and then send the video to the site." Sky said. It was a few more details than necessary, but he wasn't going to challenge her about it.

"Have fun with your French, hun. If you don't know the answer, just write 'Je ne sais pas'. You'll usually get some kind of credit for knowing how to say it in French." Kurt suggested. It had worked for him.

"Oh, thanks! I will!" And with that, the video chat ended, leaving Kurt alone with his thoughts. He looked down at his phone again, and smiled.

It was past ten by the time Kurt had gotten around to even setting up to watch Sherlock. He had his laptop propped on his stomach as he lay in bed, and it wasn't until eleven thirty when he had finished watching the episode that he pulled out his phone, typed a quick text and sent it off.

Good night, Blaine Anderson.

Blaine roused from his half asleep state at the slight buzz of his phone, and glanced down at it, finding a text message from whom he only assumed was Kurt. No one else called him by both his names. He texted back immediately, fumbling for the right keys.

Shouldn't you be asking for my account names?

It didn't take long for the reply to come.

How do you even know who I am? I could be some weirdo standing outside your door. Blaine smiled a little through his glazed over just-woke-up expression.

You're the only person who has ever called me Blaine Anderson, first name last name.

I find that a little hard to believe.

No, really! I'm only ever Blaine, or Anderson, or Blainers, occasionally.

Blainers? I like it. Of course he did. He just needed another person calling him that.

So does Wes.

Wes?

My best friend- he set up my wish. He had thought he had mentioned him, although he clearly hadn't. Woops.

Oh, I heard about him. Did your girlfriend mention that she was interviewing me? Blaine sighed softly at the use of the relationship terminology.

Briefly. Also, she isn't my girlfriend.

I didn't think so. She told me you introduced her to BR.

I did, kind of. I'll have to tell you the whole story sometime. I'm sort of half asleep right now. He wasn't anymore, not since he had been staring at his phone screen.

Maybe you'll have to see me in person? Blaine could have sworn his heart skipped a beat.

Are you busy tomorrow? He said, followed by, I mean, if that's what you want.

Want to take a walk tomorrow morning?

Sure. That sounds nice.

I'll let you sleep now.

Good night, Mr. Hummel.

Sweet dreams, Blaine Anderson.

He didn't get the last text until the morning, falling asleep with his phone in hand.

The next morning Marie woke Blaine up to take him sightseeing again. Blaine rolled over, groaning about how tired he was. "I know, sweetie," Marie said, "We'll get coffee on the way, promise. There must be somewhere else you want to go! Don't you want to go to the Natural History Museum or something?"

"How about I stay in bed late this morning and just savour the fact that I'm still here?" He said. He knew he was pushing his luck a little bit.

"Are you sure you want to do that, hun? You might regret it when we're back in Ohio." Blaine felt a little surprised that he was being given an actual choice. Normally his mom would have forced some more caffeine into him and hoped he perked up.

"Look, I'm going to live here one day, mom. I'll be back before I know it- I just really want to take a walk and enjoy myself today." He said. It was mostly the truth- he did leave out the tiny detail of going for said walk with Kurt.

Marie sighed. "Okay," she said, "I'll make you a deal. You stay here; go for a walk; whatever. But, when I get back, I expect all your bags to be packed and ready to go for when we leave to the airport." She shuffled around, picking up the last of her things and putting them in the suitcase, sorting out her handbag for the day, zipping both bags shut and putting her shoes on. She said, "But to be fair, you probably want to spend a whole day at the Natural History Museum."

With that, she left. Blaine jumped out of bed and got showered, dressed and took his meds in record time. He took the extra room key from the table and pocketed it, and turned to his phone. There was a text there, waiting from Kurt.

You're staying near Central, right? Wanna meet there?

can you be there?

I don't know, about five minutes? Lemme finish my coffee.

Deal.

Blaine shoved his clothes back into his suitcase and headed on his way.

Kurt was having coffee with Leah a couple of streets over from Central. After a little bit of prodding, Leah agreed to visit her sister who lived in the area. She was more than suspicious about why Kurt suddenly wanted to shake her off, but she let it be, thanking him for the morning off. He let her know that he was 'just going for a walk' and that he would meet her back at their apartment later on. She made him promise to text her when he was on his way back- if Kurt got kidnapped or something Charlotte would put it on her shoulders forever. Hell, even if Kurt had a couple of paparazzi pictures that were mildly embarrassing they would end up being Leah's fault. They finished their coffees and Kurt swore he wasn't going to do anything stupid, letting Leah finally let him head over to the park.

Blaine lurked around the park, roughly where he thought Kurt would come in. He typed out another text, hoping that they would find one another okay, but spotting Kurt on his way over before he had a chance to send it.

"Hey," Kurt said, "Not too late?"

Blaine shrugged and smiled. "Not at all," he said.

Kurt started walking alongside Blaine, eager to keep moving. He didn't particularly care where they ended up walking, but within the park's limits seemed about right.

Blaine was just pleased to be around Kurt again- he would've been fine whatever they were doing.

"I've got to meet my mom back at the hotel in a couple of hours, so we can get to the airport on time." Blaine said. If he said it aloud than there would be two of them to pester him to get back on time.

"That's heaps of time," Kurt said, shoving his hands deep in his coat pockets, "I'll get you back by then." There was a bit of a pause while they both thought up a safe conversational topic. Blaine had already asked all of his questions yesterday. "So Sky... she isn't your girlfriend?"

"No. God, no. I think maybe she's been telling people she is, but, no. Just- no." Blaine said. Sky was... Just Sky. She wasn't his girlfriend. She was just that chick at support group.

"You seem quite passionate about the fact you aren't dating." Kurt said lightly.

"She's like, thirteen! Do you know how much shit I would get at school about that?" Blaine stated.

"A lot," Kurt agreed, "But she didn't seem as bad as you made her out to be."

"She isn't terrible," Blaine said, "But we aren't best friends or anything."

"She seemed to think you were." Kurt teased.

"Really? Like, really really? Wes said- he thought- they're ganging up on me. I bet he's telling people she's my girlfriend too."

Kurt chuckled a little at Blaine's situation. "You sound like you would fit right in on Highlands." He said.

"I don't have a drug scandal," Blaine reasoned, "I mean, at least not illegal drugs, just cancer drugs."

"That's easily fixed," Kurt said, "I bet there are at least twenty dealers walking around now and you would never even guess."

"...seriously?"

"About the dealers? Yes. About doing drugs? No." Kurt clarified. He wasn't doing drugs, never had and never would. Whether or not Elliot would was a different story, but he wouldn't himself.

"Oh, okay." Blaine had worried there for a second. That really would have crushed the pedestal.

"You were going to tell me the whole story about how you introduced Sky to Born Rivals." Kurt said, thinking back to their text conversation.

"Well, my mom invited her and her dad over, because the 'rents had been talking when they were waiting for us at support group. I was just coming out of the bathroom after taking a shower, and there she was. Then she took a long time to make it downstairs again, so I wondered what else she had been up to- looking through all my cupboards or something. Then my mom made her tag along to Wes's, because I told him I was going over. There was an awkward motorbike moment, but it wasn't too bad overall." Blaine told what there was to tell.

"You have a motorbike?"Kurt said. It was the only thing that had really leapt out at him in the story.

"Well, it's my dad's, but he never uses it anymore." Blaine said with a shrug. It was pretty much his.

"That's kind of awesome," Kurt said, "but the story isn't as long as I was expecting."

"She would probably tell you a much longer version." Blaine replied.

"That sounds fitting." Kurt said. The pair sat on a bench and didn't speak for awhile as they watched the people coming and going.

"Kurt... why did you arrange to meet me again, today?" Blaine asked hesitantly.

He took a deep breath before he answered, saying, "I do need to get those accounts from you."

Blaine shook his head. "You could have gotten them over email."

Kurt didn't meet Blaine's gaze. "I know. I- I'm not sure why I met you, to be honest."

"I'm pleased you did," Blaine said, "If you're ever in Westerville, you really ought to stop by the Anderson residence."

"I might have to take you up on that sometime," Kurt said, "But we'll see."

"I could give you a ride on my motorbike." Blaine said, nudging Kurt playfully. To any onlookers they wouldn't have seemed to have met the day before.

"I'd like that." Kurt said with a little nod and a shove back.

Eventually Blaine wrote down all his accounts and handed them to Kurt. He paused a moment before saying, "You aren't going to make me delete your phone number now, are you?"

Kurt laughed under his breath, and seriously considered it for a second. "No," he said, "I won't. Just a couple of things- compromises- don't have it saved under my name. Call me whatever you want, just don't link it to me, please. If you start getting creepy I'll change my number."

"Fair enough. The same goes for you, but I don't mind if you call me Blaine."

"You really think I'll get creepy? Need I remind you which of us has a career at stake here?" Kurt said, mocking offense at his statement.

"Okay, okay. You win." Blaine said.

"Thank you. And I will start checking your blog all the time and stuff, okay?" Kurt said. He meant it- he wanted to know everything about this boy now. He felt himself sinking in over his head with every further sentence they exchanged.

"You should Tweet me. See what happens." Blaine said, mostly curious.

"Now?" Kurt said.

"Why not?" Blaine challenged. Kurt tapped a Tweet into his phone, carefully typing Blaine's handle.

@OnlyBlainers A wild tweet appeared!

It only took a matter of seconds before replies came flooding in, wondering who OnlyBlainers could be, why Kurt Tweeted him of all people, and what the hell the tweet was supposed to mean.

Blaine got a text notification shortly afterwards. "Hey, guess what?" Blaine teased, "Kurt Hummel just tweeted. And... Look at that, he mentioned some OnlyBlainers dude! I wonder who that is. I'd better reply and see!"

Kurt laughed a real, happy, sparkling laugh. "There are a lot of replies."

"You have a lot of die hard followers." Blaine admitted, not quite mentioning he was one of them.

"I don't look at my replies much." Kurt said honestly. He always meant to, but it didn't happen much.

"You should," he said, "Some of my replies are witty and flawless, and you haven't noticed a single one of them." Blaine said, feigning upset at his comment.

Kurt laughed again. "I don't usually get caught up in fans. I'm selfish like that." He said. It was a half truth.

"But you do tweet pictures of your outfits not infrequently. That's well worth it in itself." Blaine said. He looked forward to the outfit tweets the most of all- it certainly made Kurt feel more real to him, gave him fresh pictures to help imagine him. These few hours Blaine had spent with the real Kurt over the last two days were enough to give him material for his fantasy world for years.

They continued chatting mindlessly for a lot longer than you would think possible, Blaine suggesting cute responses for some of the fans who had replied to the tweet. Kurt tapped them into his phone happily, and knew he was making some fans days, weeks, maybe months, years or lives in some of the more extreme cases. He got another reply from nearly all of them thanking them from noticing him. Twenty minutes later and Blaine had finally sent his tweet in return.

@KurtHummel used interact! It's super effective! The fans have fainted!

"More Pokémon references?" Kurt said, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Don't pretend you don't love it." Blaine said.

"I won't," Kurt said, "But I will stop the battle there. Kurt Hummel remains victorious." The pair started walking back to the hotel.

"You're like, a legendary Pokémon. We're supposed to catch you with that Master Ball we found." Blaine said.

"Where did you get a Master Ball from?" Kurt asked, "I'd like to go and find some for myself."

"I don't have one. Why do you think I haven't caught you yet?" Blaine said.

"How do you know you haven't caught me?" Kurt teased lightly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Blaine said, smiling cockily at him.

"Absolutely nothing," Kurt said. The pair was in the lobby of the hotel within minutes. Blaine wasn't sure how to address their farewell this time. Kurt wasn't quite sure either.

After a silence that spanned a couple of awkward seconds while Kurt glanced around the lobby- deserted, except for the various hotel staff, all totally occupied and not looking at them at all- before Kurt kissed Blaine on the cheek quickly. "I'll text you," Kurt said, "Once I've looked through all your blogs and stuff. Turn your phone off on the plane and stuff, yeah? Don't sit and wait for a text from me."

"I won't," Blaine said, still a little dazed from what had just happened. He was fairly certain he had just imagined the last half hour. "Bye, Kurt."

Kurt smiled at him, "Blaine Anderson," he said, "now is hardly the time for goodbyes. We'll be saying hello again before you know it."

Blaine returned the smile. "Hello, Kurt. Thank you for the last couple of days. They have meant the world to me. I will um, not say goodbye, because it matters to you or something."

Kurt nudged him to face the elevator. "You had better get going," he said, "but this isn't a goodbye, Blaine Anderson."

"Not a goodbye." He returned, as he waved slightly and sauntered towards the elevator. He honestly couldn't tell whether or not that had just happened. Whether or not he had just become friends with Kurt Hummel. He couldn't tell. He couldn't be sure of anything anymore.