“Our lines are currently all occupied. Please hold.” Blaine cursed internally. Perfect. This was just great. He looked across the street at the warm light that came from the window of Kurt’s shop. Should he just go in? Why the hell not. He was soaked, water drops were dripping from his nose and his car wasn’t going to move in a while. He’d just try to call the services again once he was inside. He shrugged, got his bag out of the car, locked it and crossed the street.

---

“Good after- Blaine?” Kurt’s eyes went wide when he saw Blaine walk into his store “Good god, you look like a drowned rat.”

“Thanks?” Blaine laughed. “Don’t worry; it’s just water.”

“You’re going to get sick like this, don’t you have an umbrella? What happened?”

“Gee, don’t worry.” Blaine smiled and waved his hand at Kurt, telling him to calm down. “My car broke down on the other side of the street, I got soaked trying to move it. The AAA are apparently busy and since I knew you’d be here and your shop is warmer than my car, I thought I’d come wait here. I mean, at least – If that’s okay with you, of course.”

“Of course!” Kurt squeaked. “But let me get you something dry, you’re seriously going to get sick.”

“I don’t think I would fit your clothes, Kurt.” Blaine muttered, fighting the urge to clatter his teeth. Kurt raised an eyebrow at him.

“Blaine. I work in a fabric store.”

“Are you suggesting that I walk around in an improvised toga for the rest of the day?” Blaine laughed and Kurt grinned.

“No, I’m suggesting that I might have more clothes than just my own. Although now I might put you in a toga after all.”

“Please don’t.” Blaine pleaded with a smile. “Anything but a toga.”

“Loincloth?”

“Shut up.”

When Blaine found something dry that fit him, he changed in the back room. He came out, twirling in front of Kurt, who was sitting on his stool.

“What do you think?” He was wearing a simple white shirt with dark brown pants that only just reached his ankles.

“Hold on.” Kurt got up and walked over to the box with ribbons and grabbed a dark green example, bringing it back over to Blaine. He carefully put it over Blaine’s head and tied it around his collar, making an improvised bow tie. Blaine’s breath hitched as Kurt accidentally touched his chest while tying the ribbon. “Perfect.” Kurt said with a soft smile. Blaine walked over to the mirror. It actually looked pretty good. He hadn’t worn a bow tie in years, but his love for them had never died. He smiled at Kurt.

“Thanks.”

“It’s nothing.” Kurt walked back to the counter and sat down. “How’s Ginny? Did she pick up some candy?”

“Some? I’m still not convinced she didn’t just take all of it.” Blaine laughed. “She was so happy with your costume. I don’t think I can thank you enough.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m glad she liked it.” Kurt said with a genuine smile. “Speaking of which: I’ve been meaning to ask. Ginny? From Harry Potter?” Blaine flushed.

“I – no.” He stammered. “No. It’s – It’s from Genevieve. It’s a family name. Genevieve. Ginny’s just a nickname.”

“From Harry Potter.” Kurt smirked, obviously trying to hold back a giggle.

“No!” Blaine blushed even more at the way his voice cracked at that and Kurt laughed.

“Calm down. I love it.” Kurt patted the stool next to him, motioning for Blaine, who had been standing until then, to sit down. “Can I ask you something else? You don’t have to answer, though.”

“Sure.” Blaine said as he climbed onto the stool.

“You – You’re a single dad and yet… there’s Ginny.” Kurt started out softly. “I know her mom isn’t ‘in the picture’, but- well… What happened?” Blaine frowned a little. “Oh god, you don’t have to answer that, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“I was curious.” Kurt whispered. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have – ”

“No, hush.” Blaine interrupted. “I’m just trying to think of where to start, cause it’s a pretty long story.” Which was true. Blaine had actually wanted to tell Kurt pretty much since they met, wanted to tell him everything, but he’d never actually thought he’d wanted to hear. And now that he did, Blaine wanted to tell his story right.

“Oh.” Kurt smiled awkwardly.

“Let’s just start with the start, right?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Blaine cleared his throat.

“The family I grew up in is quite big, quite rich and let’s just say, a tad bit conservative. They have certain values in life that they expect everyone to live up to and I didn’t, to put it lightly. I went to college for music instead of law, like my father wanted, I mean, embarrassing, right?”

“Totally.” Kurt nodded.

“Didn’t join some kind of fraternity, like my dad. Seriously, how much worse can it get?”

“Not much.” Kurt agreed.

“And then I decided to kiss some boys instead of girls. Such a disgrace.”

“Definitely –“ Kurt’s head snapped up. “Wait what?”

“Well, he never actually said that, but I’m pretty sure he thought it.” Blaine shrugged.

“But – wait. You’re gay?” Kurt stared at Blaine, mouth slightly open.

“I – yeah.” Blaine stared back. Well, this was awkward. “Does that… bother you?”

“What? No!” Kurt broke off the stare to laugh. “No. I mean. That’d be silly. Cause I am too. God, I thought I was obvious.”

“And I wasn’t?”

“No?” Kurt shrugged. “I – I just assumed that you weren’t – with Ginny… Wow.” Blaine laughed and extended his hand. Kurt raised an eyebrow and took it.

“Blaine Anderson, 26 and very gay, nice to meet you.” Kurt laughed as well.

“Kurt Hummel, 27 and also super gay, my pleasure.”

“Now that that’s out of the way, let’s continue, shall we?” Kurt softly swatted Blaine’s arm and Blaine felt a nice little butterfly move in his stomach. “So, I wasn’t exactly my dad’s dream son and he had his way of showing me that. He was never aggressive or directly rude to me, but he had turned indirectly telling me I was worthless into an art. So in the summer after my first year in college – I had just turned 19 – I was so sick of it. I just couldn’t take it and for some reason I wanted to prove him wrong, make him proud. I went to a this party, got absolutely hammered and well – let’s just say there was some rolling around without clothes involved.” Kurt laughed as Blaine continued.

“Something that night apparently went completely wrong. I don’t know what happened exactly, because I don’t really remember any of it – thank god – but a month later I got a call and basically my world started falling apart. Apparently I had managed to get drunk enough to sleep with a girl and in my drunken state I had apparently forgotten some… things and she was pregnant and sure it was mine. My dad yelled at me for hours. About how stupid I had been and how I couldn’t erase a mistake this big.”

“Do you really think Ginny was a mistake?” Kurt whispered.

“That night was the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life. It was stupid and it shouldn’t have happened. But I don’t regret keeping Ginny, that wasn’t a mistake. I have loved every moment I’ve had with her and wouldn’t lose her for the world.”

“I know.” Kurt moved his hand to hold Blaine’s and squeezed it softly.

“I mean, sometimes mistakes can be beautiful. That’s what makes life worth living, right? The beautiful mistakes you make?”

“I guess so, yeah.”

“The girl in question decided to keep the baby, but she wasn’t exactly happy when I told her that I was gay and that the only reason I had sex with her was because I was drunk out of my mind. She hardly talked to me, except when she needed money for doctor’s visits or vitamins or whatever she needed and when Ginny was born, she pretty much dumped her on me. I never heard of her after that.”

“Blaine…” Kurt looked like he had just been slapped in the face, his eyes wide, but Blaine moved on.

“I named her, raised her, dropped out of college and took online classes in creative writing and English and became a writer. That way I could stay home and take care of Ginny, but still make a living. I used the money I earned writing meaningless articles to rent a small apartment and when I got discovered and my first novel turned out to be a hit, I moved on to something bigger. I don’t have a lot of contact with my dad anymore, but my mom still sends me cards for Christmas and my birthday. I’m lucky that my older brother always supported me, because I’m not sure if I would’ve pulled through without him. He was the one who helped me get out; move here. Cooper helped me get in touch with some editors and other people and he’s basically the reason I’m here right now.”

“I – God, Blaine, I’m so sorry.” Kurt looked like he was about to cry, his hand in front of his mouth, trembling.

“Hey, don’t worry, I’m a big boy, I can take care of myself.” Blaine laughed softly but still let himself get wrapped in Kurt’s hug. “I think I should apologize for basically dropping my whole life on you.”

“No, don’t. I asked, you answered, it’s fine.” Blaine nodded into Kurt’s neck. He didn’t want to let go quite yet, but they were interrupted by a costumer. When Kurt was done, he sat back down with Blaine.

“I guess I kind of got here to escape, too.” He mumbled, staring blankly ahead of him. Blaine just looked at him and waited. “My childhood was rough, growing up in Ohio with pretty much the most uncivilized, unaccepting bunch of Neanderthals in the world. I got bullied in high school to a degree where I had to transfer schools and although after that things started to get better, it was still hard, because I had to leave everyone behind, you know? After I graduated I moved to the city to go to college for Fashion Design, but somehow I ended up here.” Kurt smiled and gestured to the shop around them. “My dad helped me set this up and gave me some of his inside tips on running a business. My father owns a tire shop back home. It’s actually where I got the name for this store from. Hummel’s Tires and Lube, Hummel’s Threads and Lace? I thought it would be fun. God, I nearly gave my dad another heart attack when I told him.” He smiled fondly. “He’s been great with me being here. At first I thought that me moving out of Ohio would maybe be too much for him. My mom… she died when I was 8, you see? I was pretty much all he had left at the time, but he remarried, so I guess he wasn’t as alone. I’m glad he was so supportive. I guess you could say he was my Cooper.”

“Yeah, everyone should have one of those.” Blaine said. “Although I could do with a little less drunken phone calls in the middle of the night.” Kurt snorted.

During the next hour or so they kept telling each other stories of their lives. Random stories about Kurt’s life back in Ohio and about strange costumers he’d seen passing by. Blaine told Kurt about Ginny’s first word (“Boo!”) and about the private school he went to and how he and his friends used to talk in British accents and pretended they were at Hogwarts, because, yes, they did like Harry Potter, so sue them. Blaine asked Kurt some questions about taste in music, after which he found out that Kurt was actually a singer. In return, Kurt asked Blaine about his books and writing. Blaine confessed that he was currently having a block and how his publisher and agent were going crazy.

“Right now I just don’t know what to do.” Blaine sighed. “I got nothing. I need a story, anything I can work off, but I’m just blank.” He just happened to leave out the fact that talking to Kurt had already gotten the little radars in his brain back to work.

“You know what?” Kurt said thoughtfully. “I think you need to find a story that lives. Something that just flows and grows naturally, you shouldn’t force it, no matter what your editor wants. It should just flow. It should write itself, so to speak.”

“Write itself?” Blaine asked, suspicious. “Wouldn’t that get predictable and boring?”

“Blaine,” Kurt raised an eyebrow “life – maybe the biggest story of them all – is the most unpredictable and interesting thing in the world, yet it seems to do a decent job of writing itself, don’t you think?” Blaine laughed.

“You’re right.”

“I know I am.” Kurt grinned. “So just let it come to you, don’t force yourself, because that won’t make things better. Cause if you do, you’ll only be disappointed by the result in the end.”

“Can you talk to my publisher for me?” Blaine pleaded with a pout and Kurt laughed.

“I’ll see if I can fit it into my schedule.”And that’s when Blaine harshly got pulled back into reality. The fact of the matter was that, while he’d had a lot of fun talking to Kurt, he still hadn’t called the AAA and that he was supposed to pick up Ginny in about 15 minutes. He had a schedule of his own, and by the looks of things he wasn’t going to make it. Blaine cursed loudly.

“Excuse me?” Kurt folded his harms and watched Blaine jump up and hurry to his bag.

“Ginny. I was – God, I’m supposed to pick her up from school and I forgot and – oh god my car.” Blaine let out a frustrated growl and started rummaging through his bag, looking for his phone. “I’m never going to make it now and she’s going to be waiting for me in the rain and I am officially the worst father ever.”

“Blaine, calm down.” Kurt walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. “I could drive you?” Blaine’s head snapped up.

“Seriously?” At this point he didn’t even care about sounding desperate anymore. “But what about the shop? Are you sure you can just leave? I wouldn’t want to get in your way.”

“Yes, Blaine, seriously.” Kurt smiled. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but all the time you were here there have been a grand total of three costumers. I think I can manage.”

“Are you sure you’re not some kind of angel or something?” Blaine sighed deeply and Kurt giggled.

“Pretty sure.”

“Thank you, Kurt. Thank you so much. You’re too good for this world.”

“I think that’s enough of an ego boost for today, Blaine.” Kurt grinned with a small blush. “Now, as long as you lead the way, I think we should be fine.”

“I – I can’t thank you enough.” Blaine muttered.

“Okay, that’s enough now, let’s get going!”

“Yes, sir!” Kurt shook his head as he took his umbrella, jacket and bag and lead Blaine outside to his car.