If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me

And just forget the world?

- Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol

Kurt Hummel looked out the bedroom window in Rochester, New York. It wasn't New York City, nor did he want it to be. His dreams of stardom had fallen through, but, after all, they were just fancies. He didn't really expect them to work – it would have been nice, but it definitely wasn't the end of the world. He was now working as a part-time French tutor and French translator for films and the like.

The income was steady, the work satisfying and the colleagues friendly, as it would have been on Broadway – but without the stress of not knowing when your next job would come in.

Every Christmas and summer, Kurt went up to Lima, Ohio, to visit his dad and Carole for ten days. It was a long-standing arrangement, and one Kurt just went with. There was no point in arguing with them about it. The part he hated most was Carole grilling him about boyfriends. He didn't have one, and he wasn't sure he wanted one.

Blaine Anderson was somewhere in the United States. He didn't know where, nor did he really care. Their breakup was amicable enough, halfway through senior year, and there were no hard feelings, but nor were there tears. If Kurt had wanted to cry, he would have cried. But he'd seen it coming, and he'd accepted it. After all, you can't have everything, and 98% of high school relationships don't work out.

Him and Blaine were simply part of that 98%.

It just got a little annoying, Carole pestering him on boys, when he didn't have that much interest right now. He wasn't pining, he just simply couldn't care about dating.

He'd tried a few blind dates, set up by his friend Madeleine at work, but they always fell through. Kurt was sure it was something to do with him being 'too effeminate', as the second one – Michael, his name was – had insensitively told him. He didn't care. They were just blind dates, people he didn't know and didn't care about. He had chosenBlaine. It had been better that way.

Two years ago, he gotten so desperate that he'd tried doing a one-night stand. He tried not to dwell on it, but vowed to himself 'never again'. It wasn't worth all the stress that came with it.

Kurt did love his life here. Rochester was on the edge of Lake Ontario, and it was really a beautiful city. His life right now was where he wanted it to be; he was on the right track. There was still that nagging 'what if' thought in the back of his mind. What if he was living in New York City and performing on Broadway right now? What if Blaine and him had stayed together? What if they had got married, like Blaine had sworn they would?

Kurt shook his head, clearing it of the 'what if' thoughts. He needed to stop dwelling on them. He liked it here. He liked Rochester, he liked his flat, he liked his job, he liked his friends. He wasn't going to see WMHS again, he wasn't going to see Blaine Anderson and he saw his family for twenty days a year. Everything was fine.

Twenty minutes later, Kurt was walking to work, thoughts about his old life gone. He dipped his head politely at people he passed in the street as a way of hello, smiling slightly.

He was passing a coffee shop, Java's Cafe, when he heard it. He'd refrained from going to coffee shops when he first moved here, because the thought of Blaine still hurt, even if his heart hadn't completely broken when they split. He hadn't gone into any, and the habit had just stuck. Java's was nice enough, but he'd never had the heart to go in.

But that wasn't happening. Because a certain irritating, curly-haired, dapper man was definitely singing. The door was wide open, and he was being unnecessarily loud, as he'd always been.

Why the hell was Blaine in Rochester? In the café closest to where Kurt lived? Surely that wasn't a coincidence. If Blaine was trying to spy, he was as awful as Kurt was. But it was the song that he was singing that stopped Kurt in his tracks.

Chasing Cars, by Snow Patrol. Kurt could still remember their summer together, Blaine picking the song out and declaring right there, on the spot, that it summed them up better than Teenage Dream ever could. And Chasing Cars became their song.

Now Blaine had the nerve to sing it? Stop it! Kurt said to himself. He probably doesn't even know you're here. It's just a song. It doesn't matter. This shouldn't be affecting him. They weren't together. It had been five years. Kurt was over him. Kurt had been over Blaine for a long time.

"Would you lie with me, and just forget the world?" Blaine was singing.

Kurt rolled his eyes. He was done with that idiot. He'd been done for five years. Blaine would never have to know they'd been two feet apart.

Kurt strode away.

He really needed to stop lying to himself – he missed Blaine more than anything.

Kurt turned on his heel and walked into the café.

If I lay here

If I just lay here

Would you lie with me

And just forget the world?