"Kurt? Kurt?" Anna said, concerned. "Mr. Hummel!" She continued to snap in Kurt's ears, trying to get him to respond in any manner. Meanwhile, Blaine calmly got up out of his chair and grabbed his glass of water. Walking up to Kurt, he proceeded to splash the water in Kurt's face, wetting his shirt in the process. Kurt responded quickly to the slap of cool water on his skin, and gasped from the sudden wetness he was experiencing.

"Better?" Blaine smugly asked, secretly very happy that he got to splash water in Kurt's face without the slightest retribution from his boss. He felt that this put him on even ground with him again, even though what Kurt did was on a much larger and more public scale. Being pushed into that water trough that surrounded the stage was NOT fun. It had taken hours to carefully take off all the clothes off without ruining the delicate fabric that he had worn at the time. That was also why there are no more troughs of water surrounding any of the runways for fashion shows. Kurt had gotten off, and so had he.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" Kurt raged at his new state, flashing back to the harsher ice-cold bitch-slap of every single slushy he had been forced to endure being hit with throughout the halls of McKinley.

Before Blaine could even think about the strange reaction coming from Kurt, he was being slapped. Afterwards he would look back and admire the strength that he had emitted, but at the time he did not know how to react.

"Gentlemen! Please!" Anna rushed in to break up what could have been a very bad fight. Kurt, realizing what he was doing, and that Blaine was not actually one of those homophobic Neanderthals that were in search of some target in glee club to slushy, closed his eyes and took a seat with so much composure that, if he had not been wet, one would have thought he just came in and sat down. Blaine followed suit, all the while eyeing Kurt to see if he would charge once more to an unsuspecting Blaine.

"Now," Anna said, relaxing and turning on her 'business' face on, "I know that it is not typical that VOUGE does a photo shoot at a high school, especially not one in the state of Ohio. But there is a promising photographer who we would like to recruit, and his son goes to that high school. His work is very interesting, and he has said that he has always wanted to do a session in that high school. He has some unique ideas, so please just roll with the punches with this one. I think that it would be a fun experience to go on a whole new playing field than what we usually do, and the change of pace would be refreshing. Don't you agree?" She knew that by asking this they would be cornered into agreeing with her. Even though the two men sitting in front of her were world-famous models, wanted by any and every designer and photographer, SHE was still their boss and they still had to succumb to her instructions.

Blaine, still marveling at the slap he had received before Anna's rant, looked at her and nodded in a way to let her know that he had heard what she said. Kurt showed no indication but the slight twitch of the wrist. His mind was racing, trying to find a way out of having to go to the photo shoot. Trying to find a way out of having to go to Ohio. To McKinley. This kind of thinking was very unusual for Kurt. He always wanted to be in the spotlight. However, no one knew that the only exception to this spotlight need was that he now avoided any spotlight that so happened to be placed in the state of his past, Ohio. Even though Kurt's brain was racing for any excuse, he knew that there was not a way short of entering a coma that he would be excused from this session. This was mostly because they were trying out a new terrain, and she wanted to use her two BEST models; the best being himself, of course. That is why he was able to walk in ten minutes late and they would be sitting around waiting for him to arrive. That is why his agent was being bombarded with calls from designers and photographers day and night – he was only able to sleep because he had two assistants, and was considering getting a third to help out. That is also why Kurt Hummel would never have thought that he would have to ever enter the state of Ohio except to visit friends and family during the holidays. Never in a million years did he think that he would be forced to enter the building that housed him in some of the worst days of his life – even if they did help prepare him for the cruel world of fashion.

The conversation ended quickly afterwards as Anna gave them both identical folders which carried essential details for the photo shoot, even going so far as to labeling the folders with TOP SECRET so they knew to keep it to themselves that they were branching out from the norm. Kurt took the folder and walked briskly out the office door before Blaine had so much as moved to get up from his chair. Blaine stood up and took the folder with a nod of thanks and strolled down to the elevators.

Kurt was still waiting for an elevator to open when Blaine arrived, but when one did show up, Blaine hung back and nodded for him to go on ahead, sparing the both of them from having to suffer through the terribly awkward elevator ride with someone who does not particularly enjoy your presence. When the elevator doors closed Blaine counted to twenty, and summoned another elevator to get down to the ground floor with. When he got out, Kurt was nowhere in sight.

In fact, Kurt was just stepping out of the building when his personal phone went off – he had a business phone to separate private and business life. Looking down at the caller ID, he saw that Mercedes, his best friend since high school, and prepared himself for the greeting that always came when she called.

"Hi Mercedes! Long time, no call!" There was nothing but joy in his voice when he talked to her, because her voice was like a huge hug that warmed you up like the sun.

"Hey, Kurt! You know, it has been a LONG time since we actually talked face to face. I've missed you. It's so hard waiting from one holiday to the next. Maybe you would like to consider taking a break from your no-Ohio-except-for-holidays policy? I want to see my best friend again!" Mercedes tried to change up her speech up every once and a while, but it was always the same words, just a different emphasis each time.

"Well…."

"Wait. Are you actually considering coming back for a visit? Have I actually convinced you this time? Am I getting the wrong signal from the 'Well…' or is it something else? TELL ME!" Mercedes was suddenly immensely more into the conversation than she was usually this early into it.

"I'm not supposed to say." Kurt said with a sly grin, knowing that on the other side of the phone Mercedes would be analyzing every word that came out from his mouth from this moment to the end of the conversation.

"TELL ME." She urged with a finality that almost sounded like a threat to come over to New York to get the answer if she had to, even if that was not entirely plausible.

"Okay! Okay! Well, I will tell you two things. One; I am coming to Ohio in the near future. Two; I am currently window shopping."

Mercedes was thrilled with the first bit of news, but the second was always a bad sign. Kurt had enough money to not have to window shop, as he could go in and act like stores were as cheap as a store in the mall was to her. Kurt reserved window shopping for the times when he was particularly stressed, or had just gotten some bad news. Whenever life took a bad turn, he took to window shopping; or, when that wasn't available, looking at things online.

"Kurt, what's wrong, baby?"

When her only response was silence, Mercedes pressed onwards.

"You told me what you are doing and you haven't hung up the phone. That means that you want to talk about it. So talk. You know I'm always there for you!"

"I know, 'Cedes. It's just this next photo shoot…"

"Well, you're coming to Ohio soon, right? So don't worry about it until you go back. We can go shopping, and arrange a huge flash mob at the mall like we used to… and it will be just perfect!"

"'Cedes, I'm coming to Ohio because of the photo shoot, and I wouldn't mind, but the location is not the most pleasant."

"Oh come on Kurt. It can't be that bad, I mean, where is so bad as to get you window shopping? The only place I can think of in Ohio that puts you off that much when you think about it is McKinley, and that is silly, 'cause no one in their right mind would choose a high school like that as a location for a photo shoot. Even I know that."

Kurt didn't know what to say; he wanted to tell her, he did. Mercedes knew the way he felt about his old high school, but he didn't want to worry her. So he ended up settling with a half-true half-not so true answer.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right. It can't be that bad. And no one in their right mind would choose a high school. I'm just overreacting. Look, my other phone is ringing, so I got to go. See you soon!" Kurt hung up and continued window shopping until he reached a point where his hunger overcame him and he had to go back to his apartment to feed himself before going to bed for a night full of dreams.