Opening night was only two days away and Kurt was, quite frankly, losing his shit. Random people in the hallways kept telling him to “break a leg” and he was pretty sure that at least half of them added a literally in their heads.

James had been insufferable, calling him at least 10 times a day to give him some last minute “advice”.

He was standing in line in one of the on campus coffee shops, going through his bag to find his money and getting more and more frustrated. “I’m so sorry, I know it’s here somewhere”, he muttered to the barista, who looked at him in exasperation. Jeez.

“I’ve got it. And could you please add a medium drip to that?”

Of course. Because these days, Kurt only saw Blaine when he was in the middle of embarrassing himself.

“Thank you”, he said nonetheless, his smile a bit tight.

Blaine smiled back, but seemed preoccupied himself. “It’s no problem.”

They waited in silence. Unlike the last few weeks, this one was more of the uncomfortable kind. Things had been weird.

Kurt wasn’t sure when it had started, exactly. He also wasn’t sure if he had done something wrong or if there was something going on with Blaine that had nothing to do with him.

When they had their coffees, Kurt thanked Blaine again and only hesitated for a second before asking Blaine to sit with him. Together, they found one of the smaller tables in the back and got comfortable, pealing the layers that were necessary due to the bitter cold weather off.

“So. How’s it going?”

And oh god, the last time they had been this awkward was after the phone sex debacle.

Blaine’s mouth twitched into a smile, undoubtedly aware of the tension between them. “I’m excited for the opening night. My brother is actually flying in, which is.. I don’t know yet. Nice, I guess.”

Kurt nodded. “I didn’t know you had a brother. You’ve never mentioned him before. Is he younger or older?”

And just like that, they got to talking again, telling each other about the pain that was growing up with a brother. Though Kurt hadn’t really grown up with his.

Kurt felt the tension leave his body for the first time in about two weeks, glad for the mindless chatter. Blaine seemed to feel the same because he got more and more relaxed, gesticulating wildly and laughing about Kurt’s stories.

After they had both drank up, they got dressed again and went outside where the wind was still going strong, destroying both Kurt’s hair styling and the warmth he had been able to restore in his fingers.

“I’m glad we got to do this”, he said, smiling at Blaine whose hair was trying to win a fight against the amounts of hair gel that he put in it.

“Me too. It’s been crazy these last few weeks, with rehearsals and everything. But I’m glad I’m in the play. It’s been so great and we wouldn’t have met otherwise.”

Kurt smiled into his scarf, unreasonably pleased with that.

Before he could ask if they wanted to meet again tomorrow before their very last rehearsal, someone was tapping on his shoulder. When he turned, he came face to face with Chandler, who was beaming brightly.

“Kurt, it’s so great to see you!”

Kurt cringed at Chandler’s enthusiasm but smiled at the other boy politely.

“Hey Chandler”

He saw Blaine side-eyeing him and quickly stood next to him. “This is my friend Blaine. Blaine, this is Chandler, we know each other from back in Ohio.”

Chandler stuck his hand out and Blaine shook it, always polite, the both of them.

“We used to date”, Chandler added helpfully and Kurt only barely managed to not roll his eyes.

“And we used to date”, he confirmed, while Blaine nodded and smiled his tight smile again. “Nice to meet you”, Blaine turned to Kurt, “I’ll let you two catch up, I need to go to the library before rehearsal, but I’ll see you later?”

Kurt nodded and with another “nice to meet you”, “no, nice to meet you”, he was gone.

Kurt turned to Chandler, who was looking at him with a knowing smile. “Is he your boyfriend?”

Kurt laughed, after so much time unused to Chandler’s blunt nature.

“No, we’re just friends. Cast-mates in the play.”

Chandler nodded, clearly unconvinced. “He’s a cutie, I would snatch him up if I were you.”

Kurt rolled his eyes, shivering when another wind blow got in-between his many layers of clothing.

“It’s freezing and I have rehearsal soon, I need to get going. But it was nice to see you, Chandler. I hope you are well.”

He leaned forward for a short hug. Chandler held on longer than was probably necessary.

“Break a leg, Kurt. I know all about the play, of course, it’s the talk of the town. I’ll be there. And if you ever want to have coffee, or, you know, catch up or something, you know where to find me.”

He winked at Kurt and made his way into the coffee shop and Kurt stared after him, shaking his head with a smile.

There was no way he was going to call Chandler. They had been dating, true, but it hadn’t lasted long because, if Kurt was honest with himself, they had just never had any chemistry. They had dated mainly because there hadn’t been anyone else to date and because it had been fun. Going on dates while still in high school, having someone to take to prom..

Kurt shook himself out of it and made his way to the rehearsal.

--

The second to last rehearsal turned out to be harsh.

Everyone was a mixture between excited and nervous and Kurt was sure someone would throw up before the night was over. He just hoped it wasn’t in one of his scenes.

Blaine and Kurt were in the middle of the first scene, acting out the phone sex with Kurt on a bed on one side of the stage and Blaine sitting on a table, the two of them divided by a curtain.

James had interrupted them at least trice now and Kurt knew it was because he wanted Blaine to talk in his sex voice as long as possible.

“You know, Cachorro, for a virgin you really know how to play this sex thing. All the porn watching must have helped with that, huh?”

Hailey wasn’t talking too loudly, so only those on the stage had heard her. James froze mid-speech and Kurt looked over at Blaine, intrigued. Blaine, who seemed to avoid looking at him, was bright red.

“Thanks, Hailey”

And for the first time, Hailey seemed to realize that she had taken things a step too far because she looked contrite and only mouthed “sorry” at him before leaving the stage to the left to let them get started again.

Kurt had no idea what just happened but James finally let them run through the whole scene and after some more screaming and adjusting and stumbling, they were all exhausted and happy to go home.

“I think we’re good. Good work, everybody. And one last thing. James, Kalinda and I have been talking and we’ve decided to cancel rehearsal tomorrow. It’s no good to have one so close to opening night and I think we’re all ready. So we’ll see you all on Friday, 2pm sharp, don’t be late or I’ll let James loose on you.”
Tim clapped James on the back, grinning at the cheering cast.

Kurt breathed in heavily when they stepped out of the NYADA theatre.

“I can’t believe there will be no more rehearsals. I can’t believe that even James thinks we’re ready. I don’t feel ready.”

Hailey laughed and squeezed his arm, looping hers through his.

“Don’t do that, Kurt Hummel. We all know you’re fabulous and will be a hit. I’m just happy we have one last free night. It’s going to be so weird when it’s all over.”

Kurt smiled at her. He only realized that Blaine was missing when they had gone a few steps already.

“Wait, wait, where is your favorite punching bag?”

Hailey laughed but tugged on Kurt’s arm to keep him going. “He was still talking to James when I left and said I should leave without him; they were gonna grab a bite or something.”

Kurt tried to school his expression into something nonchalant but by the way Hailey was looking at him, he wasn’t quite successful. It wasn’t that he wanted to be the only one to have dinner with Blaine, not necessarily. Blaine was free to hang out with and to date whoever he wanted. But James was a douche.

“What do you say, should we celebrate our last free night tomorrow? We could have a sleep-over at my place. To keep each other sane. Because let’s face it, none of us will be able to sleep the night before opening night.”

Kurt smiled at her, thankful for both the consideration and the change of topic. Everything was fine. He had friends, he had his first big leading role and he would be great at it. There was no reason for his heart to feel so heavy with the thought of Blaine and James holding hands under the table, Blaine’s bright eyes illuminated by the candle light while they were eating fancy food at a quaint little Italian place.

Kurt shook his head to get rid of these thoughts. In only two days he would receive his standing ovation and he would bask in it and feel as happy as he should be. And until then, he would be in the best company.