Blaine never really got to know Santana Lopez. He hasn’t seen her in years and he hasn’t thought about her in years. Santana is one of Quinn’s childhood friends. They lived in the same hall of the dorm of their fancy boarding school. They kept in touch when they were in college. Santana and her girlfriend Brittany, who was also a friend of Quinn’s, even came to see Quinn in New Haven. That’s where Blaine met them, after all.

But distance muddled the relationship and by the time Blaine and Quinn moved to LA, their friendship had fizzled out. As far as Blaine’s aware, Quinn, Brittany and Santana only send each other an annual happy birthday message. That’s how things go. Blaine’s also fallen out of touch with people in his life.

That’s also why he didn’t expect to run into one of Quinn’s former best friends in his boyfriend’s apartment.

Blaine and Santana are staring at each other in disbelief. Kurt and his other roommate Rachel are clearly confused.

Rachel therefore breaks the silence.

She holds out her hand and walks up to Blaine.

“Rachel Berry, so nice to meet you, even though Kurt kept you a secret until now,” she says and she winks towards Kurt.

Blaine shakes her hand and manages to look away from Santana, although he still can feel her gaze on him.

“Yes. Right,” he says awkwardly, “But ah, well, that’s because of me. Mostly.”

Great. He’s a mess. He had rehearsed what he was going to say, but that was because Blaine was under the impression that he’d be meeting complete strangers. It had never even occurred to Blaine that Santana, Kurt’s roommate, is the same Santana. Kurt even mentioned that Santana has a girlfriend who isn’t Brittany!

Did she and Brittany break up? Does Quinn even know?

That’s not what matters now. What matters is that Blaine is woefully unprepared for this. Santana is still very unfamiliar with him. They barely talked when she came to New Haven, since she was there to hang out with Quinn and Blaine didn’t want to impose, but she clearly recognises him, probably as “Quinn’s boyfriend”.

And he’s correct.

“Does Quinn know?” Santana interrupts.

Everyone looks at her and Blaine can hear Rachel mutter “Quinn?” under her breath. Kurt also still looks very confused.

“Yes,” Blaine answers honestly, “Of course.”

“Ah. Damn. Okay.”

Santana nods to herself and Blaine almost wants to clarify that Quinn is fine and that she’s moved on since she’s dating Denise, but Quinn is still deeply in the closet, so he keeps his mouth shut.

“Sorry, I think Kurt and I are missing something here,” Rachel says, “Quinn? Quinn who?”

“Fabray, from high school,” Santana answers and Rachel gets a dark look on her face.

“Oh,” Rachel says and she takes a step away from Blaine.

“Quinn Fabray started dating some guy when she went to Yale,” Santana continues, “And Blaine is that guy.”

“Hi,” Blaine waves awkwardly. He is the aforementioned some guy.

“But it looks like they broke up and that Blaine’s gay now.”

“That is correct,” Blaine says. That is one way to put it.

Then Santana’s look goes from baffled to amused, and Blaine does remember that side of Santana. She has a cheeky grin on her face.

“Damn, Hummel, is your dick so good it can turn people gay?” she laughs.

“Santana!” Kurt exclaims.

“It’s a good dick,” Blaine says back, which makes Santana laugh even louder and Kurt groan. But Blaine is beaming. He can’t believe he just said that!

Maybe it’s a good thing that he sort of knows Santana. He knows her enough to understand that he can say that. He can find himself relax. Santana is also over her shock and Kurt’s turned red, but he’s smiling too. Only Rachel has retreated to the kitchen.

“But yeah, this is really new for me,” Blaine admits, “You two are actually the first people I’ve come out to back here in America.”

“We met in Ljubljana,” Kurt quickly clarifies, “We’ve been together since April.”

“Oh, wow,” Santana looks impressed and slightly touched, “I’m honoured.”

“Good for you,” Rachel says from the kitchen, and despite her obvious sudden distain for him, she sounds genuine.

Then she loudly announces that she needs to go. Kurt points out that she doesn’t have plans, but Rachel in turn says that it has been changed. It’s a clear excuse to get out of the situation, and before anyone can protest anymore, she’s gone.

“She has some sort of beef with Quinn,” Santana says once the door is shut, “Don’t ask me. I don’t know what’s up either.”

Blaine might bring it up to Quinn then.

“Well, then, Porcelain,” Santana walks towards the kitchen to open the fridge, “We really have a lot to catch up on.”

She takes out a bottle of wine and goes through the kitchen for glasses. Kurt takes the time to check in on Blaine.

“You alright?” he asks quietly and squeezes Blaine’s hand.

Blaine nods.

He is.

This really didn’t go the way he planned and he’s still nervous about coming out to more people, which he should’ve seen coming. It’s not as if he could come out once and be done with it. But he’s also alright and Santana’s babbling from the kitchen makes him feel at ease. Santana (and also Rachel) acknowledged that it was important to him, but also didn’t act as if it was a huge deal.

Blaine likes that. He really, really likes that.

Kurt’s also moved to the kitchen to get some snacks and Santana tells Blaine to sit down and just relax. She later returns with a glass for him and Kurt also emerges out of the kitchen with a tray of goodies. Santana sits down in a comfy chair and puts her feet on the table, but no one cares.

“So,” she starts and Kurt sees that as his cue to tell Santana how he and Blaine met.

“I was a mess,” Blaine affirms when Kurt describes how desperate Blaine was for pizza.

“Right. And I think I liked him from the start, but you know me,” Kurt sighs. Santana nods.

“And in hindsight, I was really drawn to Kurt since the start, but I was, you know, straight.”

“A mistake we’ve all made before,” Santana says and Kurt also lets out a small laugh. Blaine also smiles. Santana is right. Being straight was the phase for him.

“I even thought I was homophobic for a while,” Blaine mutters and Santana almost chokes on her wine.

Kurt and Blaine continue their story and once they’re at the part where they actually get together, Blaine asks how up to date Santana is about Quinn’s life.

“Honestly, I haven’t heard from her in ages,” Santana answers.

“Yeah?”

She hums.

“Yeah. I knew you were off to some European country, but truly, that’s the last I heard. We’ve really been out of touch. I haven’t even told her about Brittany yet.”

“Ah.”

Blaine wonders how she is. He also didn’t really get to know Brittany, but he liked her enough.

“How did you and Brittany break up?” Kurt asks. He also hasn’t gotten around to asking.

Santana shrugs.

“I think a part of me will always cherish her,” Santana starts, “And we parted on good terms, but we just realised there are no more feelings. Sometimes people fall out of love. I think I was in denial, but then I met Dani, my current girlfriend, and I was sure it wasn’t right.”

“Is she also still in New York?” Blaine asks.

“Yeah,” Santana answers, “Man, it’s a good thing we never adhered to the lesbian stereotype of moving in together. I mean, her school was just in a different part of the city, but still.”

“Isn’t Brittany bi?” Blaine asks.

“Does it matter?” Santana says back and Blaine frowns. He thinks it does. If it matters to Brittany. Blaine thinks about Quinn, who got quiet when Blaine brought up this same stereotype.

Santana doesn’t pick up on his slight discomfort and talks a bit more about Dani, but she really catches Blaine’s attention again when she suggests that the four of them go to a gay bar.

“New York is filled with them,” she says, “Although not all of them are great, but Kurt and I know a place.”

Kurt nods.

Blaine’s filled with a mix of curiosity and discomfort. He really wants to see the queer scene for himself. He’s been thinking about it ever since he and Kurt got together. So far, he’s only been a bystander in some Pride stuff in Ljubljana.

But on the other hand, he’s not sure if he’s ready for that. But then why isn’t he ready for that?

“Can I think about it?” Blaine asks, “I’ll be in town for a week.”

“Plenty of time,” Santana agrees.

The three of them hang out for another hour or so, but Blaine realises he’s tired. He was in Los Angeles in the morning, and now he’s here, so it’s been a long day. Kurt and Blaine tell Santana they’re going to bed and of course Santana can’t help but make a bad joke about it.

“Good night to you too, Santana,” Kurt says.