“Out of the way, people!” Kurt yelled as he attempted to make his way through the crowded Planet bullpen to his desk, eyes rarely leaving his iPhone. He knew he’d reached his destination when he nearly ran in to Blaine.

“Whoa! Kurt, watch out!” Blaine called as Kurt stopped short of barreling in to him.

Kurt briefly looked up. “Huh? Oh, sorry, Westerville. Just checking the news cycles, getting up-to-date on what I’ve missed.”

“What you’ve missed? You mean while you were asleep?”

Kurt’s smile bordered on patronizing. “There’s 24 hours in a day, Anderson, and news never sleeps.”

Blaine responded with his usual thousand-watt grin. “Oh, speaking of being asleep, I got you some coffee.” He handed Kurt a Starbucks take-a-way cup. “One grande non-fat mocha.”

Kurt’s eyes narrowed slightly as he sat at his desk next to Blaine’s (a recent addition). “You know my coffee order?”

“Of course I do. I’ve heard you yell it at the interns enough.” Blaine laughed, “I thought I’d give them a break today.”

Kurt huffed a bit at that, but still took the cup. He had never been the type of person to turn down caffeine. Blaine shot Kurt another grin before turning to his computer.

Even after a few weeks of working together, Kurt just did not get Blaine Anderson. Years of working at the Planet had taught Kurt that people, in general and especially journalists, were hard and cynical. Kurt had made his way in the world by building up his walls to defend against a nearly daily onslaught of assholes and idiots that tried to bring him down. First it had been the small-minded small-town people he was forced to grow up with on the countless army bases where his father dragged Kurt and his sister. Then it was the cutthroats of the news world that assumed a fashion-loving countertenor could only report on clothes or gossip, that he could never do something serious or worthwhile. But Kurt had showed them all, from his father to some of the more narrow-minded Planet employees, that he was not a man to be messed with. Kurt Hummel was a hard-hitting journalist, one of the top investigative reporters in the world at this point, and he had worked every day of his life to get and maintain that reputation. After all of his clawing and scraping to get to where he was, Kurt had learned a lot about people, from small towns to Metropolis. But Blaine Anderson flew in the face of everything that Kurt knew. Blaine was sincere and enthusiastic and just plain… nice. 

“What’s your game, Anderson?”

Blaine looked up with wide eyes, a pencil sticking haphazardly out of his mouth. “Huh?” He quickly pulled the pencil away and shook his head. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, what’s your game here? Nobody is this nice, especially to the competition.”

“Competition? Are we competing for something?”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “This is the Planet, Westerville. Everyone here wants the chance to cover the best stories, to be the best.” He still wasn’t sure Blaine understood. “Look, I’ve seen the picture you’ve got on your desk of you and a gaggle of Dead Poets wannbes. Some kind of prep school music group?”

Blaine looked over at the photo in question. “Yep, my high school glee club, The Warblers.”

“Right. And didn’t you all want to get a solo? I went to enough schools as an army brat and I’ve seen enough glee clubs to know that most performers would kill for the spotlight.”

“Kurt, you can sing?” Blaine was giving him one of those excited puppy dog looks again.

“Not the point, Westerville. The point is, didn’t you fight for a solo? It’s the same here. Every reporter wants to be the star.”

Blaine shook his head. “Actually, I never minded being in the background. Just like I don’t mind not being the ‘star’ here. The Daily Planet is the best paper in the world, just working here and doing my best is enough.”

“Ha!” Kurt scoffed at that. “You know you’re kind of a kiss-ass.”

“That may be true, but that doesn’t make me any less sincere.” Blaine stood up, smiling down at his partner. “Besides, there was never much competition for solos. I got every one.” Blaine winked and walked away, leaving Kurt looking surprised and a little bit pleased.

********************************************************************

It didn’t take long for Kurt to realize that, as weird as it was, Blaine simply was that nice of a guy. It was refreshing, really, after so many years of dealing with jerks.

“Morning, Westerville.”

“Morning, Kurt. Coffee?”

“Blaine, you’ve got to stop buying me coffee.”

Blaine shrugged. “You can get it next time. I drink a medium drip, in case you were wondering.”

“Boring as always, Westerville.”

“Sweet as always, Kurt.”

The partners smiled at each other across their desks, only to be interrupted by a yell across the bullpen.

“HUMMEL! ANDERSON! GET IN HERE!”

The duo rushed towards their editor’s office.

“God I hope he’s got something good for us. I feel like I’ve been twiddling my thumbs all week.” Kurt mumbled.

“Hopefully. Or maybe he’s going to call you out for almost getting killed at that police raid last week.”

Kurt glared at Blaine. “That wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t hear over the gunshots, I had to get closer. Besides, Superman swooped in and everything turned out fine.”

Blaine shook his head as the reached Burt’s office.

“What’s up, Chief?”

Burt looked over from his desk. “There’s been a break-in at a Star Labs facility, the one just outside of town. Go check it out.”

Kurt beamed, ready for action. “You got it Chief!”

Kurt was interrupted before they could leave. “And try to stay out of trouble, kid!”

Blaine looked over at Kurt with a wicked grin and a pointed look.

Kurt rolled his eyes. “I’ll try. Let’s go, Westerville.”

 ********************************************************************

The duo was quickly on their way to the Star Labs facility outside of Metropolis in Kurt’s Navigator.

“There better be a scoop here. We’re wasting most of today in transit.”

“Do you have somewhere else to be, Kurt?”

Kurt shot Blaine a glare. “I keep telling you, Westerville, the news never stops. What if something happens while we’re driving to the sticks? What if Superman saves the day and I miss it?”

They were both quiet for a few minutes.

“Kurt, you, um… you’ve seen that Superman a few times, right?” Blaine asked, adjusting his glasses.

“Obviously, Blaine, you’ve seen my stories. It’s not my fault you seem to prefer doing research and eyewitness interviews over jumping into the action. You do read your own paper, right?”

Blaine blushed a bit. “No, I meant… have you talked to him?”

“Oh…” Kurt stared forward at the road, shifting uncomfortably. “Well, no. Not exactly. I gave him my card back at the Star Labs explosion and he hasn’t… He did save my life a few times, at the police raid and that robbery and the whole helicopter thing, but as soon as everyone is safe he just flies off without a word.”

Blaine turned towards Kurt, looking at him with a mixture of concern and curiosity, but his partner’s eyes never wavered from the road.

Kurt sighed almost inaudibly and mumbled, “All this time and he hasn’t even tried to contact me.”

They both sat in silence for the rest of the drive.

 ******************************************************************

When they arrived at the Star Labs facility, they found the site of the robbery surrounded by police tape and a few officers. Both men recognized one officer immediately.

“Captain Lopez!” Kurt welcomed warmly.

“Beat it, Lady Lips. This is a crime scene, no snoops allowed. And who’s the hobbit?”

Kurt sighed. “Santana, this is my partner Blaine Anderson.” Santana raised her eyebrows. “No, not that kind of partner! Get your mind out of the gutter.”

Santana grinned wickedly. “Doesn’t matter how many of you are on this story, I can’t let you through.”

“What are you even doing here, you’re on Special Crimes. Was there a meta-human involved?”

“Hummel, this is facility deals with highly classified materials and has more security than the Pentagon. In cases like this, we assume meta involvement until proven otherwise. And don’t quote me!"

Kurt jumped a bit as Santana’s yell, quickly dropping his mini notepad back into his back pocket.

Blaine stepped forward and put on his best puppy-dog eyes.

“We understand this is an active crime scene, we’re not here to interfere. But is there anything you can give us?”

Santana eyed him warily before sighing in resignation. “Fine. I can’t give you anything on the room, but if you happen to see a ginger in a lab coat wiping her eyes in the coffee lounge down the hall, I’d stop and ask her what’s ruined her day. And you ladies owe me, comprende?”

Blaine smiled widely. “You got it, Captain!”

Santana’s eyes widened and then narrowed at Blaine’s face, her face suddenly crunched in concentration. Neither man noticed though, as Blaine grabbed Kurt by the arm and turned him, both walking down the hall leaving the Captain and the crime scene behind.

Right where Santana said she would be, the partners found a petite woman with vibrant orange hair obsessively cleaning a mug of coffee and looking as if she had only just stopped crying.

“Excuse me.” Kurt began timidly, but the woman’s head shot up as her doe eyes took in the two men. “My name is Kurt Hummel, I’m from the Daily Planet, and this is my partner Blaine Anderson. We wondered if we could ask you a few questions?” Blaine was momentarily taken aback by Kurt’s calm and gentle tone, but he was used to Kurt surprising him.

The woman quickly looked between the two of them, visibly terrified, but she nodded slowly. The two men slowly sat down across from her at the table.

Blaine smiling warmly. “What’s your name?”

“I’m… Emma. Dr. Emma Pillsbury.”

Kurt pulled his notepad back out. “Dr. Pillsbury, your office was broken into last night?”

She nodded again. “Yes.”

Blaine interjected. “What was taken?”

“I’m not entirely sure. The room was ransacked, my files and samples strewn everywhere. I… I’ll be in there all week just trying to decontaminate.”

Blaine and Kurt shared a quick look of confusion.

Kurt continued. “Were any alarms tripped?”

She looked down quickly, rubbing at the mug again. “No, that’s what’s so strange. Whoever it was they… well, they got in without anyone noticing. I have no idea why, my work isn’t so important.”

Blaine gently pushed for more information. “Have you noticed anything specific that’s missing?”

“There…. Well, some files from one of my projects. Nothing serious, just some specs, early findings. Nothing classified or important just… musings, I guess. Something a few colleagues and I had been tinkering with in our free time this month.”

Kurt looked up from his notepad. “What’s the project on?”

“It… it’s silly really. Just… ever since the explosion in the city last month….” She paused. “You won’t put my name in the paper, right?”

Blaine shook his head. “Not if you don’t want us to.”

“I don’t.” She took a deep breath. “Well, the project was sort of about… Superman. His powers, what he can and can’t do from what we’ve seen of him. And… well, what he really is.”

The three of them sat in silence for a moment, Emma not looking up from her mug, Kurt staring at his notepad. Blaine had simply leaned back in his chair, his eyes glazed as he tried to keep his breathing steady, his thoughts racing.

Kurt was the first to speak. “Thank you for your time, Dr. Pillsbury.”

 ********************************************************************

The drive back to Metropolis was just as quiet as the ride to the facility.

“Kurt… Who do you think took the files?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. But someone who really wants to know about Superman. Someone who can get into a high security lab on the off chance that there’s information. I don’t know, but probably someone… bad.”

Blaine nodded, though Kurt couldn’t see him with his eyes again on the road.

By the time they returned to the office, Blaine had come to a decision.

“Kurt, I’m gonna make a quick coffee run. You interested?”

“Sure, Westerville. I’ll see you upstairs.”

When Kurt reached the 38th floor, he felt an odd draft cross the bullpen. When he reached his desk, he noticed a small note sitting against his computer.

         Dear Mr. Hummel,

         I think it’s time we met. Are you still interested in that interview?

         Meet me on the Daily Planet roof tonight at 8.

         -A Friend