"...please welcome, Blaine Anderson."

Kurt's jaw dropped. The man descending the stairs was breathtakingly gorgeous. He had a head full of thick dark curls, gently tamed with gel. He had bright, hazel eyes and a smile so genuine and bright that it lit up the whole room. Kurt had never seen a man so beautiful.

One of the stagehands brought out a small wooden stool along with a microphone stand which Blaine promptly positioned himself in front of, accompanied with a guitar. He tilted his head slightly downwards, his eyes sweeping through the huge audience. He smiled shyly, and cleared his throat.

"Hi everybody," he greeted, "I'm Blaine, and I will be performing a song that means more to me than I care to explain tonight.”

After briefly introducing himself, he shifted on the stool and turning his attention to his guitar. The room fell silent as he began strumming his guitar with the opening notes of the song.

Sometimes we fall down, can't get back up

We're hiding behind skin that's too tough

How come we don't say ‘I love you’ enough?

Till it's too late, it's not too late

Kurt gasped; Blaine’s voice was breathtaking. His voice was smooth like he had done this before, but there was a hint of a roughness proving that it had been awhile since his last performance. Kurt had never heard anybody so naturally talented. He turned his head to gauge Rachel's reaction and saw that she was rendered speechless as well. He didn’t even have to look to know every other patron was just as enthralled as he.

At the instrumental break of the song, the audience finally snapped out of their reverie. They clapped and cheered loudly, there were cat-calls and whistles coming from all sides of the room. Blaine beamed at the enthusiasm of the crown as he began to sing the next verses.

Our hearts are hungry for a food that won't come

And we could make a feast from these crumbs

And we're all staring down the barrel of a gun

So if your life flashed before you,

What would you wish you would've done?

Yeah, we gotta start

Looking at the hands of the time we've been given

If this is all we got and we gotta start thinking

If every second counts on a clock that's ticking

Gotta live like we're dying

Kurt let his eyes trail back up to the stage, amazed at this stunning man.

We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to

Turn it all around or to throw it all away

We gotta tell them that we love them

While we got the chance to say

Gotta live like we're dying

When Blaine looked back out at the crowd this time, his eyes met Kurt's. Another small smile stretched across Blaine's lips as he stared back at Kurt, not letting their gaze fall for the remainder of the song. When he had finished singing and was playing the final notes, the whole audience erupted in a loud round of applause causing Blaine's face to light up even more.

"Thank you," he whispered into the microphone. He stood up from his stool, still clutching his guitar close, and took a small bow before walking to stand closer to the emcee for the second part of tonight's event.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Moore called out as the crowd began to quiet down, "Blaine Anderson. Shall we start the bidding at $1000?"

An elder lady in the back of the room raised a small paddle.

"We have $1000," the emcee announced, "Can we get $1500?"

Another woman, around Kurt and Rachel's age, sitting at the table next to the pair raised her paddle.

"We have $1500, can we get $2000?"

This time, Rachel surprised Kurt and raised a small paddle in her own hand. Kurt turned in his seat to stare at her and saw a small blush growing on her cheeks as she refused to look back at him.

Kurt turned back around to look back up at the stage where Blaine was shifting awkwardly from foot to foot, obviously not used to being bought off. When he met Kurt's eyes again, however, he stood a little taller, a little more confidently. They exchanged smiles, but Kurt was surprised to see Blaine's gaze never left his own.

The bidding continued up to $10,000 when Rachel raised her paddle again. Blaine's smile faltered a bit which caused Kurt to make a snap decision as the emcee called for a bid higher than Rachel's.

"Fifteen thousand," Kurt called across the crowd. Every eye in the room turned to look at him. He could feel Rachel's nasty glare boring into the side of his head. He shrank back in his seat at the attention; he only half hoped he would be outbid.

"What a generous bid!" the emcee called. “Sold, to the man with the white dove in the front. Now, our next bachelor...”

Kurt stopped listening as he watched Blaine step off the stage and begin walking towards him. He could feel Rachel pulling on the sleeve of his jacket. Swatting her hand away, he stood up to greet the man who had just reached the table.

Before Kurt could say anything, Blaine held a hand out. "My name's Blaine."

"Kurt."

"It's nice to meet you, Kurt," Blaine whispered, attempting not to disturb the auction still taking place behind him. "Why don't we… uh...” he tilted his head towards the doorway.

"Right, yes," Kurt said quietly, "let me just stop by the table at the front to, uh, pay for you? I guess... Wow, that sounds terrible. You're not property, this whole thing, wow, it's finally all settling with me and it's actually really unsettling I can't believe it-"

"Kurt," Blaine cut him off, "it's okay. It's all for charity, and it's not forever, remember?"

"Right...”

Rachel cleared her throat from behind the two, clearly irritated at being forgotten.

Kurt turned around and saw her glaring at him, one eyebrow raised in annoyance.

"Oh," Kurt said, "Blaine, this is my, uh, friend, Rachel. Rachel, this is Blaine."

Blaine held out his hand causing Rachel to forget all past grievances and smile brightly at her friend before turning to Blaine and holding out her own.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," she greeted.

Blaine pulled her hand up to his lips, kissing it softly. "The pleasure is all mine," he smiled back.

"So uh," Kurt started, "we're just gonna go. You'll be alright, Rachel?"

She nodded at her friend before turning back to the stage and watching the rest of the current bachelor's performance of Chasing Pavements by Adele.

Kurt held out his arm for Blaine, who quickly latched on and allowed himself to be lead out to the door. Before leaving, Kurt wrote his payment information down on a slip of paper and handed it to an auction official behind the tables in the lobby.

Once out in the New York City streets, Kurt turned to Blaine and asked teasingly, "So what will this grand date entail?"

Blaine stared at Kurt for a second before remembering where the two had just come from. "Oh, right," Blaine finally said, looking extremely uncomfortable. He stared down at his feet and starting playing with his thumbs awkwardly. "Actually, I uh planned to, erh.. I sort of planned for a, uhm, girl."

"Oh," Kurt sounded hurt.

"Kurt, I-"

"No," Kurt cut him off, "it's okay. I should have just let Rachel win. You're straight. I just thought- not a big deal, though. It's alright, it was all for charity. Just, uh, have a nice night, Blaine." He turned to walk towards his apartment when he felt a hand close around his arm.

"Kurt, wait," Blaine pleaded. "I just have to rethink it, is all? This is actually better; we'll have much more fun than I would have with Rachel or any of those other women."

Kurt stared at Blaine in confusion. When he didn't respond, Blaine continued.

"The only reason I did this whole thing was because my parents insisted," he explained. "They are big investors at the different children's theatres around the city because they say it looks good or something, I don't know. They thought maybe if I did this I could be the 'meet a nice girl and finally settle down, Blaine,' and I was kind of hesitant, all things considered. I planned this big night of carriage horses and chick flicks. I arrived tonight and saw all these desperate-looking middle-aged women and I just wanted to get through the night, but then you were there and you were looking like that and you were smiling at me and I thought maybe but you looked so disinterested during the bidding and I got kind of excited when Rachel bid because she looked the most normal (Kurt huffed out a laugh at that one) but then you bid and it was so much and I-"

"Blaine," Kurt said, finally deciding to calm Blaine down. "Can I get the short version?"

Blaine just stared back at Kurt for a minute before feeling his cheeks heat up. He looked down at his shuffling feet again. When he looked back up, he met Kurt's eyes and let out a tiny whisper.

"I'm gay."

Kurt let out a small laugh in relief. "I am too," he admitted.

"I figured as much," Blaine told him, finally meeting the other man's eyes.

"Am I that obvious?" Kurt sighed.

"No!" Blaine all but yelled. "I mean. I really wasn't sure, to be honest. Until you bid on me. Most guys won't bid. On a bachelor. At a bachelor auction,” Blaine stammered, his face heating up.

Kurt stood for a minute, taking the other man in. Blaine was shuffling his feet slightly, clearly uncomfortable with the silence that had befallen the two men. It was he that finally broke the silence.

"Well, Kurt," he began, holding out his arm for the man to take, "would you accompany me on a short walk to a super secret location for a date in which I will charm your pants off?"

"Oh, so you do only want to get in my pants," Kurt quipped, a smirk on his face.

"What?" Blaine sputtered. "No, I- it's just an expression, I didn't mean-"

"Blaine," Kurt cut him off. "I was joking."

"Oh," Blaine said, sighing in relief.

"I would love to," Kurt finally said, taking Blaine's previously offered arm in his own and smiling at the other man. "Where to?"

"Like I said," Blaine told him, "it's a surprise."

With that Blaine began to lead Kurt down the street, the pair walking in comfortable silence.