"So... what do you think?" Kurt twirled round on the spot in front of Blaine, looking at him expectantly but Blaine was busy lying on his stomach on Kurt's bed, flipping through a magazine and not really paying much attention anymore. "Blaine!"

"Hmmm, what?" Blaine snapped his head up at Kurt's annoyed tone, watching as his boyfriend chewed his lip nervously wringing his hands together.

"What do you think? You don't think it's too... revealing do you?" Kurt asked. He tugged at the bottom of his loose baby blue vest that had the number 88 on it in white, his red shorts finishing mid thigh. "Maybe I should put a jumper on..."

"Kurt, it's the middle of summer." Blaine pointed out.

"But I want to look good; I'm meeting you're entire family tomorrow and what if they don't like me?" Kurt bowed his head, looking at Blaine up through his lashes.

Blaine raised an eyebrow, shuffling to the end of the bed and sitting up so his legs dangled over the edge. "You've changed outfits at least a dozen times, all of them being completely fine. I'm pretty sure they won't dislike you just because you're outfit doesn't match the grass or something ridiculous like that."

"Oh my god, I never thought of that!" Kurt's eyes widened. "I have to go change." He turned to start rifling through his wardrobe again when Blaine caught his wrist.

"Kurt just stop, okay? My parents love you and I'm pretty sure the rest of the Anderson clan will as well. You don't need to wear the perfect outfit seeing as it'll probably be ruined by sun cream and with my cousins running around who knows what you'll get on your clothes. You're fine." Blaine assured him.

"Fine? Fine isn't good enough... I just..."

Blaine smiled warmly, shaking his head. "Come here you." He scooted up the bed dragging Kurt with him so that he was lying on top of Blaine's chest.

"Blaine!" Kurt whined, trying to push himself up.

Blaine wrapped his arms around Kurt's lower back, pulling him back down again. He then planted his feet firmly on the mattress, knees bent so that his legs bracketed Kurt as he ran his fingers lazily through Kurt's hair. "You don't need to strive for perfection because you already have it."

Kurt snorted, slapping Blaine lightly on the arm. "You are just full of it Blaine Anderson and stop it, I may not be as obsessed with my hair as I used to be, but I'd like to look presentable in front of your family so stop messing it up."

"You love it." Blaine teased, rubbing his nose against Kurt's. "Plus me being cheesy is incredibly charming."

"Please. Charming is so last decade."

"Says you."

"You're insufferable."

"I'm adorable and exceptionally beautiful."

Kurt openly scoffed at that.

"What?" Blaine questioned.

"You can only describe a boy as beautiful or pretty if they look like a doll or slightly feminine, you sir, are more like rustic or handsome or... endearing. No offense Blaine, but with eyebrows like that you are most certainly not a 'pretty, beautiful boy', more like a cute puppy. If it makes you feel better, you have a very beautiful personality, and I guess some people's perception of beauty is different, just... well you know."

Blaine looked thoughtful. "So I'm like a puppy huh?"

Kurt giggled, burying his head into Blaine's shoulder. "Yes you are." He hummed, kissing Blaine's jaw. "Blaine?"

"Hmmm?" Blaine replied, placing his warm lips to Kurt's forehead.

"Don't ever change."

"Blaine... Blaine... yo, dapper Dan... cooo eeee... BLAINE!"

Blaine grunted, rubbing the heel of his hand into his eye. "Hmmm, whaa zat...?" He mumbled, rolling over and falling back to sleep again.

Sebastian rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest, glaring at Blaine. "Blaine seriously, you need to get up." He huffed. Sebastian had spent the best part of twenty minutes knocking on Blaine's door with no answer. In the end he had picked the lock, the wood swinging open and sending several empty glass bottles rolling. Sebastian then proceeded into the apartment finding it in a shambles, empty take away boxes all over the place, discarded clothes, beer bottles and case files around the sitting room floor. He found Blaine, unshaven and in the clothes he'd been wearing for the past week passed out on the couch.

"Blaine, come on." Sebastian hissed, shaking Blaine's shoulder.

Blaine swatted blindly at Sebastian's hand, Blaine's head tucked in the crook of his elbow and muscled back towards his friend. "But Kuuuurt, I don wanna help Brittitiny wash Lore Tubbings..." he said sleepily.

"Who the hell are Brittitiny and Lore Tubbings?" Sebastian frowned although Brittitiny and Lore Tubbings wasn't really the problem; Blaine had most definitely said Gay Face's name. Blaine hadn't mentioned Kurt in over six years, it had taken a year before that to realise Kurt wasn't coming back, that Kurt was gone and out of Blaine's life for good.

"Mmmm, Kurt..." Blaine muttered.

"That's it." Sebastian grabbed Blaine's legs, yanking Blaine off the couch in one swift movement, Blaine landing hard on his butt and whacking his head against the edge of the couch's arm, startling him awake.

"What the actual fu..."

"Welcome back to the land of the living Blainers." Sebastian cut him off, moving to open the curtains at the back of the room which he knew had probably remained closed for far too long. "Oh look, you actually own windows! I wondered what was behind here."

Blaine rubbed his forehead, the sun suddenly blinding and head pounding making him feel groggy. "Sebastian? What are you doing here?" he said, perplexed.

"Well evidently you've been cooped up in..." Sebastian looked around, opening his arms to indicate the space he was standing in. "What was once a very nice apartment and now a very good resemblance of a pig sty. I decided to pay you a visit because we were all beginning to think you were dead and it's a good thing too; if I'd left it any longer you'd have probably fermented and turned into alcohol."

"Look I had like, two drinks." Blaine defended although the evidence really wasn't in his favour.

Sebastian wasn't paying attention, carrying on talking over Blaine. "I mean, what have you been doing all this time anyway? Listen, I know someone close to you has died, but people in your line of work are allowed two days of mourning, after that you suck it up and hide it, not become a recluse."

"I was working." Blaine whined, resting his arms across his knees and ruffling his unwashed curls. "Can't you see the case notes everywhere? I've been trying to find at least something but there's just this... big empty black hole of nothing!" He buried his head in his hands as the events that had gone away during his sleep came rushing back, including Kurt cancelling on him. Apparently something had come up and he wasn't able to meet, thus, with no other leads, Blaine spent the rest of the week and into the next working from home, getting updates now and again from the police department. Sebastian himself had phoned previously to try and coax Blaine out but nothing he could say would work. Sebastian knew this case was hard, didn't know what exactly it was due to secrecy but he still felt some sympathy for his friend.

Sebastian sighed. "Look Blaine, trying to work everything out by yourself isn't what I'd call productive and, not that I'm condemning it seeing as you're extremely hot when drunk, any more and your liver is screwed. Now here's my advice," he sat down next to Blaine, hooking an arm over his shoulder, Blaine with his head still in his hands. "You're going to go into work and work out the case with your teammates, seeing as it's kinda what you do at the NYPD but before that you're going to take a shower because you smell like Tudor Britain. If you still feel like holding up in here then I suggest you pass this case to someone else, this clearly has a negative effect on you, whatever it is."

Blaine said something into his hands, Sebastian leaning closer to try and hear it. "Pardon?" Sebastian questioned.

Blaine lifted up his head. "I found Kurt." He reiterated before hiding away in his hands again.

Sebastian went silent, a pause filled with increasing disbelief and anger. "What?" He finally got out through gritted teeth.

"I found Kurt." Blaine repeated. "I got a tip off that he'd be working at Puck's the other night and after that... well let's just say he's a man with many secrets."

"Many secrets?" Sebastian exclaimed. "This is the boy who ripped your heart out and most probably watched it bleed. I saw what he said to you, what he did... especially after everything you went through for him; all that time you spent with him, no matter how terrifying the situation was or how guilty he seemed; you didn't care that nearly everyone was against him, you stood by that bastard through it all! And then he abandoned you as soon as he could. You shouldn't do this to yourself again Blaine! Not after how hurt you were, I couldn't stand to see you like that. Like this!" Sebastian gestured to Blaine's messy form.

After everything Sebastian hated Kurt, hated what he had done to Blaine. At first when Blaine had seen the email he had been frantic, calling and leaving Kurt hundreds of messages. Next came the anger, how could Kurt do that to him? How could he lie? Then there was the denial. Kurt wouldn't do that to him, there must be something wrong. Why? Why? Why? Well that was the ultimate question wasn't it? Either way it was Sebastian who was there for Blaine when he was completely broken. He guessed it was worse due to all the events that had happened previously.

But Blaine hadn't been the only one, as soon as everyone left Kurt had all but disappeared from their lives too leaving only his family knowing exactly what had happened, what was happening but Burt, Carole and Finn kept very tight lipped. Whether Kurt was even in the house was another matter. It took awhile for everyone but eventually it was accepted that Kurt wasn't what they had all thought he was.

"Kurt... he's... I think he's the one that came out of this with the most scars, both physically and mentally." Blaine sighed forlornly. "I know he did what he did for a reason Seb, Kurt isn't... he isn't cold unless he's hiding something."

Sebastian shook his head. "Blaine can't you see? You look for too much good in people. Kurt meant what he said and the reason he's so cold is because that's who he is!"

"Look, I'm not going to argue with you about this okay?"

Sebastian sighed, looking at Blaine out of the corner of his eye. "If Kurt's still so great then why have you held yourself up in your apartment like this?"

Blaine frowned. "I don't ... understand."

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Why is it after you find the man who stabbed you right where it hurts you suddenly start to hide yourself away?"

Blaine began to pick at his pant leg, avoiding all eye contact. "This isn't about Kurt... well it is just... it's this case, it's identical to the one that happened in High School only this time the murderer is... very skilled. We've got literally nothing!"

"Are you serious?" Sebastian stared at Blaine with wide eyes. "You're joking right?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"How identical?"

"It's literally the same. Same timings, same method of death, same sort of victims... everything."

"And now you've involved Kurt."

"I...err... no. He... he won't help, he said he would and then..." Blaine trailed off.

Sebastian looked thoughtful. He'd ask more on the matter but he wouldn't be able to get a straight answer out of Blaine anyway. Sebastian made a quick decision, patting Blaine on the leg and standing up with a grunt. "Come on, go have a shower, shave... a lot you look like a caveman and please, change your clothes. When you're ready we'll go to that coffee shop you like and get you some breakfast; I don't really fancy braving your kitchen without the proper protection. I don't suppose you have any fumigation equipment handy?"

"Oh you're so funny." Blaine said sarcastically, picking up a cushion and throwing it at Sebastian's head.

"But of course." Sebastian said, ducking out the way.

Blaine sighed. "I can't do this."

"Do what?"

"This case, it's impossible."

Sebastian leant against the door frame, an eyebrow raised. "Nothing's impossible Blaine, and if there's anyone who can solve this thing it's you."

"How do you know?"

Sebastian shrugged. "I've never known you to be one to give up Blaine."

"I'm not."

"Then prove it." And with that Sebastian exited the room leaving Blaine alone with his thoughts.

"So, your skin burning yet?" Sebastian asked, handing Blaine a Styrofoam cup.

"Come again?" Blaine blinked, taking a sip of his coffee.

"You're out in the sun." Sebastian pointed out. They began walking, the cold day making their noses numb and turn rosy red. Cars passed by, people moving around Sebastian and Blaine without a single glance, the noise of the city producing a comforting hum.

Whilst Blaine was in the shower Sebastian had decided to go get coffee by himself. He guessed Blaine would take a while and he had nothing better to do anyway. To Sebastian's surprise, when he had exited the coffee house, he had found Blaine leaning against the wall outside, black woollen trench coat on and scarf wrapped around his neck with his hands in his pockets and looking a lot better than he had previously.

"Well maybe I'm the sort that sparkles." Blaine smirked.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "Twilight? Seriously Anderson?"

"What?" Blaine shrugged. "I may have gauged my eyes out after the first movie but you tend to pick things up from the fans."

"It's not that, it's the fact that film was out years ago Blaine."

"Horrible movies aside, I've come to a conclusion." Blaine declared.

Sebastian took a sip of his coffee, an amused air about him. "Oh? You're going to get that new car after all?"

Blaine only glared at him. "You know what I mean."

"Can't say that I do, you haven't told me what conclusion you've come to yet." Sebastian pointed out.

Blaine just shook his head, deciding to get straight to the point. "You were right."

"Surprise surprise, told you you didn't need a new one."

"No, this isn't about the damn car. What I meant was you were right that I can do this."

"What? Grow a couple more inches?"

"No! This case! I'm going to put my all into solving this and hopefully I can prevent history repeating itself!"

Sebastian paused in thought. "History... repeating itself?"

"You know as well as I what the ending of this thing might be."

Sebastian narrowed his eyes. "This is about Kurt again, isn't it?"

"Well I-" Blaine was suddenly cut off by a hand on his shoulder causing him to halt in his movements and leave Sebastian to carry on ahead of him.

"Erm, excuse me detective, I think you dropped this." The man who had stopped him said.

Blaine frowned at the piece of paper being held out to him, taking it, unfolding it and reading what was hidden within. "Oh no, you've got the wrong person, this isn't mine."

The man smiled; a gesture that was telling Blaine he knew something Blaine didn't. "No Blaine Anderson, I believe that is definitely yours."

Blaine stared at the paper in his hands again, shaking his head. "How do you know..." he returned his gaze to the man only to find that he had gone. "My name..."

"Blaine! Come on!" Sebastian shouted.

Looking around, Blaine could not find a single trace of the man, the only thing left of him being the crisp white paper in his hand along with the black letters in its centre.

Chez Cedes

Be there any time between 11:00 and 1:00

Don't be late, he keeps a tight schedule.

"Blaine... you... you're..." Trent found his words couldn't form whilst he stared at Blaine when the detective strolled through the doors of NYPD; Trent's face now mimicking a very convincing fish. He had good reason to believe that Blaine had had some sort of mental break down, what with Benny, this clueless case and now Kurt; they had all seen Blaine slowly shutting down and were convinced he wouldn't be able to carry on with this. Now Blaine was stood before Trent, detective mode thoroughly in place and actually looking like he knew what he was doing; as if the events of the previous months or so were just a routine case.

"Walk with me." Blaine instructed, barely glancing at his shell shocked friend behind the desk.

"Blaine, I can't just abandon my post!" Trent complained, but Blaine wasn't listening, carrying on at a fast walk and shedding his coat as he went.

Trent began collecting papers, scurrying after Blaine and quickly asking a passing worker if they could take over for him before carrying on, catching up to Blaine as he passed into the main building. "Blaine! Wait up!"

"Did you know that is the fear of long words? Ironic huh?" Blaine mused, giving his coat to a surprised police officer. In fact, everyone looked relatively surprised to see Blaine there, all stopping to blink just in case their minds were playing tricks on them. Blaine of course ignored all of this.

"Blaine I don't know what you're talking about." Trent shook his head as they walked into the main work room, Santana, Mike, Wes and Artie all looking up from a map as they approached.

"Welcome back from Mordor Blaine, how was your trip?" Santana quipped, straightening up from where she had her hands rested on the giant glass table in front of her, moving them to her hips instead. "Looks like horse face managed to drag you away from that demon juice after all."

"Love you too San." Blaine remarked, coming over to stand with his colleagues leaving Trent to shuffle his feet nervously, feeling extremely out of place.

Blaine looked down at the glass table, staring at a map of New York brought up on the screen. There were different coloured dots littered around the image, Blaine's eyes scanning the minute yet important details. "Where's Wes?" He questioned, not looking up.

"Visiting." Mike replied simply.

Blaine nodded, tracing a finger along the screen and following the dots. "So the purple dots are where our victims were likely to have been taken from." Blaine mused. "The red dots are where they were killed but... what are the green dots for?"

Artie reached up to his face and wiggled his glasses, coughing to gain Blaine's attention. "We got the results back from the lab; it took longer than anticipated because the soil sample was so small but I managed to narrow the results down. Those are all the garden centres and flower shops in the area that sell irises and use that particular soil."

"More than a couple I see." Blaine murmured. He straightened up, clapping his hands together. "Well at least it's something. Right, we'll split up, Mike, Santana, you guys can..."

"Wait a sec, hold up squinty," Santana raised a hand, her nails sharpened and painted red. "You refuse to come in for a week, and when you finally bring your sorry arse back in here you expect us to put you back up on your leader pedestal? No me gusta."

Blaine folded his arms and stared straight into Santana's hardened eyes. "Alright, what do you want to do?"

Santana blanched, obviously not expecting Blaine's answer. "Well erm..." She shook herself out of her puzzlement, looking at the screen. "Right, Mike and I will take these shops, Blaine, if you go and grab Nathan you two..."

"Actually, I thought Trent would like to come with me." Blaine informed her.

Trent paled significantly, eyes widening in undisguised horror. "What?" He squeaked.

"You want to take the secretary with you?" Mike raised a sceptical eyebrow.

Trent would have protested at being called a secretary, but the concept of helping Blaine hunt down murderers, whether it be somewhere as innocent as a flower shop, wasn't particularly appealing. "Blaine, I can't get involved in investigations; it's not my job!"

"Just treat it as a field trip away from the front desk." Blaine suggested.

"Why do you want Trent to go with you so badly anyway yo?" Artie asked.

"I have my reasons."

"Stupid reasons." Santana muttered.

"Well I'm not going." Trent declared defiantly. "What if you get caught in like, a gun fight or or... no Blaine, don't look at me like that, I'm not going and that's final."

It was a rather quaint flower shop, the kind with a tiny brass bell above the door that tinkled merrily every time someone entered. Inside was small and compact, a different array of beautiful flowers on all sides that made a cacophony of sweet smells. Ceramic pots, sticks with paper butterflies attached, mini porcelain scarecrows and silver twisted branches that could be placed with a bunch of flowers to compliment them sat on shelves. A tall, chocolate haired man was busy putting together a collection of white lilies but apart from that the shop was relatively empty of customers. Finally there was the counter right at the back of the shop, a bored teenager flipping through a magazine and popping pink bubble gum.

"Well this shop definitely has potential." Blaine hummed, rocking back and forth on his feet.

"What makes you say that?" Trent questioned, moving further into the shop and past Blaine. "This place doesn't exactly scream murd..."

Blaine quickly shushed him, lowering his voice to just above a whisper. "Be careful what you say Trent, causing wide spread panic wasn't really on my agenda today."

Trent raised an eyebrow. "Blaine, look around, how far do you think news of a serial killer being loose in New York will go from the mouths of two people? Besides, people already know about the murders." He reasoned.

"Yeah but they don't know they're all linked." Blaine said. "Well whatever; time is of the essence my dear Watson, and we've got a particularly difficult case to solve."

"Speaking of which, why am I here again?"

Blaine didn't say anything, digging his hands into his pockets and handing Trent the piece of paper that stranger had given him that morning. Blaine walked further into the shop, stopping to look at a group of giant daisies. He wondered what their real name was; he remembered Brittany thinking they were baby sunflowers and writing her science essay on it once.

Trent looked at the piece of paper in his hand. "Chez Cedes?"

"Yeah," Blaine replied, picking up and smelling a particularly potent flower. "Apparently Kurt works there." He carried on down the line of flowers while he talked nonchalantly. "And I have an allotted amount of time in which to go and see him which would probably be whilst we are looking round for evidence or clues or whatever."

Trent picked up one of the scarecrows, fiddling with its nose. "That still doesn't tell me why I'm here." The nose snapped off, Trent's eyes widening as he discreetly hid it in a plant point.

"Because Chez Cedes is a restaurant and I'm not going in alone."

"Then why not take San, or Mike or Sebastian?"

"One, Sebastian hates Kurt and two, I want to see Kurt because I need his... gift and you're the only other person besides Kurt's family who knows about it. Also, I'm hoping if you're there with me he won't run away."

Trent was about to reply but Blaine had gone up to the counter, leaning an arm across the wooden surface and smiling charmingly at the teenage girl behind it. The girl straightened up, flicking her ruby red hair over her should and fluttering her eyelashes at Blaine. "May I help you sir?" She drawled.

"You have a lot of beautiful flowers here." Blaine beamed causing Trent to roll his eyes. Bloody flirt.

"Yes," The girl nodded. "It's harder to get them to bloom in winter but my aunt has her ways."

"Ah, so this is a family owned business?"

"Very much so."

"Nice."

The girl smiled prettily at him, twirling a strand of hair around a manicured finger. "So... see anything you fancy?" She pulled her cherry glossed lip between her teeth and Trent held back a scoff. Sorry hon, even if he was your age he doesn't exactly bat for your team.

"Yes actually, I was wondering if you had any Irises'."

The girl shook her head. "I'm sorry; we sold our last batch this morning."

"Oh... you wouldn't have kept a log as to who bought them would you?"

The girl frowned. "I'm not sure I'm..."

Blaine reached into his coat and brought out his badge. "I need them for work."

The girl's eyes grew to the size of saucers as she nodded her head. "Yes... but of course, I'll go and get the log book." She disappeared through a beaded doorway leaving Blaine to tap patiently on the counter. He turned to smirk at Trent, his face dropping at the un-impressed look from his friend. "What?"

"Do you have to act like that with every interviewee?"

"What? I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary."

The sole customer in the shop approached the counter, looking curiously at Blaine and Trent. Blaine's attention was now away from Trent, his detective mode back in place. "Sir, you come to the shop often?"

"Erm... no actually, this was just a stop on the way to work." The man said, slightly wary of Blaine.

"Those flowers for anyone special?"

The man smiled affectionately at the plant's in his arms. "They're more of an... apology really, but I know these are their favourite; they smell wondrous."

Just then the girl returned carrying a large leather bound book in her arms. "Here you are sir."

"Why thank you." Blaine winked, the girl blushing and shying away. "Now, if you tend to my friend here," Blaine patted the man with the lilies on the shoulder. "I'll start looking through that book of yours if that's alright?"

The girl nodded. "Certainly."

Kurt straightened his black waist coat, making sure his pure white shirt was tucked perfectly into his black slacks and that his cuff links were neatly in place. He ran a finger and thumb across his fringe which he had gelled off to the side making him look decidedly younger. And there he was, Kurt Hummel staring back at him in the mirror, dressed smartly and looking like the perfect waiter.

Chez Cedes was one of the most popular restaurant in New York; everyone went there, well, everyone who was worth talking about. The restaurant itself was owned by one Sam Evans, and so named after his claimed love of his life, Mercedes Jones, the famous singer and one of Kurt's best friends. It seemed all of Kurt's friends from high school had made a name for themselves, each offering a helping hand to Kurt. Kurt didn't want their charity, but when money started to become tight he couldn't refuse a job opportunity, especially as one as good as this.

With a sigh, Kurt exited out into the main restaurant area, picking up a note pad and making his way over to a table, false smile in place. He worked the floor, moving back and forth taking orders and dropping them off. It was hard work, but the tips were better than great and the pay was good although Kurt had a sneaking suspicion that Sam was giving him more than he should.

"Hey Kurt." Lindsey, one of the waitresses called. "Can you grab table five for me? My hands are full."

"Sure." Was Kurt's robotic reply. He made a bee line for table five, picking up a couple of drink orders along the way. He stopped, licking the end of his pencil and flipping a page over on his notebook. "Hi, my name is Kurt Hummel and I'll be your waiter this afternoon. May I recommend the specials? The sea bass is particularly good." Kurt looked up, his eyes flickering and smile twitching briefly when he recognised the men sat at the table.

"Kurt." Blaine said nervously.

Trent shot Kurt an apologetic look, telling him that he had nothing to do with this, whatever it was. Kurt however ignored the matter for now. "May I get you any drinks first?"

"Kurt, you know why I'm here."

Yeah Kurt. Benny said mockingly in Kurt's ear. Benny had refused to leave Kurt alone ever since Kurt had cancelled on his meeting with Blaine. Kurt hadn't wanted to cancel, it's just all his bank statements and payments had decided to all come in at once and Kurt had to hunt around for more jobs.

Kurt waved a hand at Benny, shooing him away. "I'm sorry Blaine; I just don't have the time."

"Please Kurt." Blaine begged.

The sincerity in Blaine's eyes, the pleading and... "My apartment, five o'clock."

You better not cancel this time or you'll feel the wrath of Benny!

Oh shut up and die properly already.

Blaine was late, Blaine was very late. Well an hour, but still, that was late. But it wasn't Blaine's fault he'd been caught up in a lot of agro at work. None of them had found anything not mass buying, no repetitive visits, nothing. They couldn't even find a name that reoccurred at the different shops (just in case the 'murderer' changed shops) but if that were true then it was possible they were back to square one and the soil sample they found was useless now seeing as not all places that sold flowers would use the same soil. So basically, they were once again screwed.

Blaine wrapped his knuckles on Kurt's apartment door. He was surprised when he'd realised that Kurt lived in one of the most run down areas in New York, the place was falling apart and Blaine couldn't even come to fathom someone like Kurt being here. But then again, people were full of surprises.

The door swung open to reveal a man with dreadlocks and a checked shirt, holding a tired Izzy in his arms. "Hey, Kurt told me you might turn up." Joe kicked the door open wider, revealing a cosy living room, a cloth couch facing towards a small TV with a coffee table in front of it. On the table Blaine's trained to be observant eyes picked out something rather interesting. There were a few envelopes, open, with thick red letters as horrific as a death sentence on their surface. 'Final demand.' 'Payment due'.

"Isn't he here?" Blaine frowned.

Joe shook his head. "You've just missed him."

"W-what? Where's he gone?"

"To work. He said you're welcome to stay and wait if you want? I have no idea when he'll be back though... it kind of depends on the night really..."

Blaine held up a gloved hand, shaking his head. He should have guessed Kurt would do this. "No, it's alright, I'll catch him latter."

Joe looked at Blaine sympathetically, saying a quick goodbye before shutting the door again leaving Blaine in the cold.

Blaine let out a sigh, scuffing his feet on the ground. He knew he should leave now before his mind told him to knock on the door again and take up Joe's offer, but he felt so angry now. Kurt was obviously avoiding him, and it was starting to get extremely annoying.

"I told you in the note that Kurt keeps to tight schedules." A voice said behind him making Blaine jump a good few feet in the air.

Blaine cried out, turning to see someone he'd thought he'd never see again stood behind him on the stairwell. "I-it's you!"

"I should think so; I'd be surprised if it wasn't me." The stranger from that morning replied.

Blaine's thought's were swirling, what, where, how... what? "Why are you here?" Then it clicked. "Do you know Kurt?"

"I do, yes, although I haven't been here for some time. Everything seems so different compared to where I've now come to call home, and being here again; it's all very strange really." The man pondered.

Blaine blinked ooookay. "There's one question I'd like to ask you." He said slowly, wanting to get to the point before the man went off on one.

"Shoot." The man said casually.

"Why did you feel the need to tell me where Kurt was?"

The man shrugged. "I thought Kurt needed a bit of help, and I figured you wouldn't go searching for him on your own."

Blaine frowned. "And what help would that be? And why can't you help him yourself?"

"That's what you need to find out. I'm just the middle man, as it were." He smiled. "So, seeing as you've blown the first opportunity, I'm going to give you another, here." He handed over a small business card.

"Unique's?"

"Yep, just a warning though, it's ladies night. Ask for Porcelain."

Blaine looked back at the dark purple card, the silver writing glittering in the light of the street lamp. "Ladies night?" He looked up only to see that the man had disappeared again. "Hey!" Blaine shouted, running to lean over the metal railing preventing you from falling over the stairwell. Blaine saw the man walking away, his hands deep in his pockets. How'd he get that far away anyway? "I don't even know your name!" The man just waved, not even turning round to look at Blaine.

After that, Blaine's body moved of its own accord. He didn't remember the car ride, or the searching of New York's night life, in fact, he didn't even remember entering the tightly packed night club until someone walked into him. Startling, Blaine took in his surroundings, the softly pumping beat of the music and the stifling heat. Party goers were on the dance floor, drinks in hand or at the bar. Barely dressed woman were walking around with trays of drinks, the men eyeing them with lust.

One girl caught Blaine's eye. She had long, loosely curled chestnut brown hair, her fringe clipped up into a quiff and pink streaks running through her locks. She didn't have huge 'assets' but her waist was slim, an open backed black cocktail dress showing off her body and shiny black stilettos on her feet. Blaine saw that her skin was milky white and on her shoulder blades was a tattoo of wings.

The girl, probably one of the waitresses, bent down to place a glass on a low table in front of a red leather couch, a group of men who must be business men, all laughing loudly. One of them groped the girl's arse who yelped out in surprise. Her eyes narrowed and she gripped the man's wrist. Blaine couldn't make out what she was saying, but a moment later the man who had touched her was grabbing his nose in pain. She stormed away, Blaine catching a glimpse of icy blue eyes framed by black eyeliner. The girl looked beautiful, and extremely familiar... wait... a sec. Blaine carried on watching as the girl stormed out through a door labelled 'staff only'. There was no mistaking it; she was definitely Porcelain, or rather, Kurt.

Kurt sat in front of one of the vanities in the changing room taking off all of the crap on his face. His wig was placed on the head of a manikin and his dress lay somewhere off to one side. He had changed into a pair of black skinny jeans and a loose fitting jumper that hung off one shoulder.

You made a really pretty girl you know, could have fooled even the straightest of men. Benny remarked.

Kurt glared at him. "Shut up, this job isn't exactly something I'm proud of okay?" Kurt snapped, playing about with his hair. He only ever offered to work for Wade when money was extremely tight and he tried to avoid working on 'ladies night' at all cost.

Most of the men on these nights were ignorant that some of the girls were actually guys; Unique's was of course, a gay club but Wade did have girls working here, hence he sometimes held a 'ladies night' to get a wider clientele. The guy workers tended to help out seeing as there weren't a lot of 'ladies' to make up numbers. Of course there was the fact that Wade was most definitely known for his alter ego, Unique so it was only a matter of time until the employees got involved. It was just a bit of fun really.

The idea of 'ladies night' initially was so Wade could make more money, this night being one of the busiest seeing as it was so rare of an occurrence. Thank god Unique's was a lot more sophisticated then Scandals was, although Kurt had quickly come to a conclusion that a lot of the guys here were pigs, there were those who stood up for the workers here and who were relatively polite.

Having said that, Kurt may hate this job but there were some perks to it, like the flowers on Kurt's table. He had received them earlier from an old... acquaintance he had met at Unique's a few years ago and they made him smile every time he looked at them. Lilies. They were very pretty and smelled gorgeous.

Whilst locked in his thoughts, someone managed to sneak in and appear behind Kurt in the mirror, crossing their arms and looking at Kurt expectantly.

Kurt sighed, turning round in his chair, looking down at his hands in his lap. Kurt had never wanted him to see him like this. "Hey."

"How many jobs do you have?" Blaine questioned.

"A couple..." Kurt looked away, refusing to make eye contact and blushing out of embarrassment.

"Never thought I'd see you doing something like this." Blaine remarked, remembering back in Glee club when Kurt had refused to dress up as a girl for sectionals.

Kurt laughed hollowly. "Yeah well, desperate times call for desperate measures. Of course I still look like a boy, but make-up and being in the dark plus the alcohol kind of impairs people's... judgements."

"Yeah, I kind of saw that first hand." Blaine nodded. "Nice flowers by the way."

"Yeah." Kurt said quietly.

Awkwaaaard; the ex finding you walking around in a dress... damn. Benny said unhelpfully.

"Joe a good babysitter?"

"Erm... it was supposed to be Quinn but she was busy so Joe offered. He's a good guy..." They stayed in silence, Blaine remaining cool and Kurt looking sheepishly around the room. He felt like he wanted the world to stop so he could get off, and with Blaine staring at him like that... "Look Blaine, I'm so sorry okay! Everything's been piling up and I've got a little girl to look after and..."

"Are you free now?" Blaine asked, his face stony.

"Yeah I err... wanted to finish early... I don't feel very well."

"You reckon' Joe could stay with Izzy a little longer?"

Kurt took awhile, his voice barely above a whisper. "Yeah. I figured you might show up so I bought my stuff with me. Just in case."

"Let's go back to mine then."

"Yeah..."