When Blaine's eyes blinked open early the next morning, it took a moment for him to remember where he was. He remembered, however, the moment he became aware of the warm weight snuggled next to him on the couch in the bakery. He looked down at Kurt's sleeping form and his chest tightened suddenly. Once they had finished the pastry and talked for a little longer Kurt ended up falling asleep on Blaine's shoulder, exhausted from the events of the night. Blaine didn't have the heart to wake him at the time so he just moved himself and Kurt so they were lying down and pulled the blanket from the arm rest over them both. In his years of working here, occasionally into the wee hours of the morning, Blaine had taken naps and sometimes slept through the night on that couch, but this is the first time he had anyone else there. In fact, this was the first time in a long time that he had slept with anyone else by his side, especially someone as gorgeous and kind as Kurt. It felt really good.

Blaine scolded himself for thinking that way. No matter how much he wanted him to be, Kurt wasn't his. Blaine's chest tightened even further at the though, but he didn't have much time to analyze it before Kurt's eyes began to flutter open. He blinked sleepily for a few moments shifting his eyes around in tired confusion, a tiny frown on his lips. Finally he sat up and stared at Blaine as if he was trying to figure out how he got there.

"I...um...sorry, I didn't mean to um...fall asleep on you like that," Kurt said blushing a little, his sleepiness doing little to dull his embarrassment. "I'll just...go..." Kurt continued making to collect his stuff.

"Hey, wait, Kurt it's fine!" Blaine said, grabbing his hand and pulling him back to sit next to him. "You had a rough night and you fell asleep. It's fine. What are...friends for, right?" Blaine said wincing internally at the word. Kurt seemed to relax a little and dropped his bag back down on the floor. "Why don't you go sit at one of the tables and I'll make us some coffee. I could even pop some croissants in the oven."

"You're going to make me fat!" Kurt said, but he did as he was told anyway. "Maybe you should learn how to make salad."

Blaine laughed and was relieved to have their easy banter back after the heaviness of last night and the embarrassment of this morning. "You know, I did have to do a year of general culinary school before I could move to the pastry track. I'm an excellent cook," Blaine said pointing his nose in the air in mock indignation.

"If you do say so yourself," came a woman's voice as she walked into the shop. She looked to be about sixty and was dressed in the black and yellow bakery uniform. Kurt recognized her as someone who worked the front of the shop occasionally. "You're going to have to do better than that to woo a beauty like this one," she said, pointing her thumb in Kurt's direction.

And there's that embarrassment again, Blaine thought as he forced a laugh out despite himself, "Um...Beverly, this is my friend Kurt Hummel. Kurt, this is the woman who runs the front on weekends and some afternoons during the week, Beverly."

Kurt reached out and shook her hand, "It's nice to meet you."

"You too, kid," Beverly then turned on Blaine. "What are you doing here anyway. You're usually gone by now when it's your turn to do the Friday night shift, and why do you look like you slept in your clothes."

"Um...I may have fallen asleep after making the buns. I'm just grabbing some coffee and breakfast for us and then I'll be out of your way. Jeremy is already in the kitchen," Blaine said retreating into the back to avoid Beverly's raised eyebrows and questioning glance.

Kurt immediately averted his eyes and started fiddling with his phone and Beverley mumbled something about how stupid young people were about love.

1 new txt from Rachel

Lunch 2day? Hubby's work thing

Kurt rolled his eyes at her text speak, but was pleased to hear from her. It had been too long since the two of them had time to sit down and catch up.

Outgoing message to Rachel

Sounds good to me. Meet at usual place at one?

Kurt and Rachel had been going to the same little cafe on fifteenth street since Kurt moved into his current apartment. They would share a milkshake between them and go have-sies on a sandwich while chatting about everything and anything. Rachel Berry wasn't known for giving the best advice in the world, but he could always depend on her when he needed to gush/obsess/over- analyze about a boy.

Rachel texted her affirmation just as Blaine was putting a to-go cup of coffee and a take away container of fruit salad in front of him, "a fruit salad just for you," Blaine said, smiling wide. "There's not a prayer that I'm going to ruin your flawless physique, but I know you like to eat healthy so I caved and chopped up some fruit. You're lucky, we just started making a new mango buttercream for our gingerbread cupcakes and Jeremy hadn't used all the fresh mangoes yet."

Kurt peered into the container, smiling widely, "Mango is my favorite."

"I know," Blaine said simply, smiling back. "I think my employees might kill me if I hover any longer. I was thinking maybe we could walk for a bit and have breakfast in Union Square Park. I mean...if you're not busy."

"Not busy," Kurt said shouldering his bag and leading the way out the door. "I'm meeting a friend for lunch at one, but until then I'm free."

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"Okay so the first time I had to make a wedding cake on my own, I'd only been out of culinary school for a few months and I had this crazy bridezilla. She was super intense and picky, but refused to give any real information about what she wanted," Blaine recounted, as the two were sitting on a park bench, enjoying the crisp day. It was chilly, but sunny and they both had plenty of coats, sweaters, and scarves. They were swapping war stories from their respective professions. "Finally, her fiance had to lead her outside to take a walk and he came back in to tell me what they wanted. Turned out she just wanted a simple tiered cake with white detailing, but she had gotten it in her head that I couldn't be trusted as a baker if I couldn't figure that out based on the information she gave me. I wished that man the very best of luck when they left. He needed it."

"Do you like doing that stuff, decorating huge cakes? Seems like it would be super tedious," Kurt asked, popping a piece of cantaloupe into his mouth. "Don't get me wrong, I love weddings. My Dad used to say that my Power Rangers got married and divorced in so many combinations they were like Fleetwood Mac, but I can't imagine having the responsibility of the centerpiece of someone else's wedding on my hands."

"Well, I mean, I prefer the baking side of things. Most of the stuff in our shop is made to be delicious and not necessarily to look fancy, but I don't mind cake decorating and most brides are pretty flexible about the cake. They want it to look good, but most people don't know enough about it to know the difference," Blaine explained. "And the main thing is that I like to make people happy with the things that I make and wedding cakes are a huge part of that, especially when I get a couple with a story that really speaks to me."

"Did you always know you wanted to do this? I feel like I went through about a million career options before I settled on directing. Sometimes I'm still not even sure I made the right choice."

"Actually, I originally wanted to be a singer," Blaine said. "I haven't thought about that in forever."

Kurt looked up at him in surprise, "really, what happened then?"

"Well, I went to college at the Manhattan school of Music and I realized slowly that I didn't want it as much as I thought I did, especially compared to my classmate. I got a job behind the counter at another bakery on the lower east side and the head baker there slowly started teaching me how to do more things around the shop. I had been baking all my life as a hobby, but I never really thought about it as a career until then," Blaine said rubbing his hands together and then shoving them back into his warm pockets. "About half way through my sophomore year, I finally dropped out and enrolled in culinary school. I was so worried that I would regret it, but I never did. Once I got through the general track and on to pastry something clicked and I realized that it was what I was supposed to be doing."

"That's what happened to me with directing, but I just feel like, how much longer am I supposed to be a PA? When do I get to actually start doing what I trained for?"

"Well, you're doing Santana's video tomorrow right? I'm sure you'll do an amazing job on that and it'll all be up hill from there," Kurt looked a little disbelieving, but he gave Blaine an amused smile anyway. "It'll work out. You'll see."

Kurt made a non-committal sound in his throat and went back to stabbing fruit onto his plastic fork, "So when do I get to test you on your claims of being an amazing savory cook?" Kurt asked around a piece of pineapple.

Blaine let out a laugh, "Whenever you want. How about Tuesday night? Mike and Tina have date night and I was just going to get take out or something, but I wouldn't be adverse to cooking a real dinner," Blaine said and Kurt agreed that the time worked for him. "Prepare to be amazed!"

0000000000

Monday morning, Blaine was frosting a batch of sugar cookies and anxiously waiting for Kurt to come in and tell him all about the video shoot. Mike had come home the night before tired, but excited and singing Kurt's praises. He told him that he thought it was the best video yet, but Blaine wanted to hear everything from Kurt. He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of his phone.

1 new txt from Kurt

Boss sent me out on a different errand early this morning. See you for coffee later?

Blaine was slightly disappointed, but his heart fluttered at the thought of their afternoon tradition.

Outgoing message to Kurt

Sounds good. See you then! :)

He was about to wash his hands again and get back to work when he heard a familiar voice in the front of the shop. "Blaine, I know you're back there. Come out. I want breakfast," Cooper's voice shouted through the kitchen door.

"One second, Coop. I'll be out in a minute. In the mean time, try not to bother my customers."

Blaine walked out just in time to see Cooper wink at a young college aged girl in an NYU sweatshirt and claim that he didn't see anyone complaining. Blaine looked a little sadly at the dirty chai and muffin that he had already set out for Kurt.

"It's like you knew I was coming!" Cooper said grabbing up the items meant for Kurt's boss and taking a bite of the muffin. Blaine was about to protest, but figured there was no point since he wasn't coming in anyway. "Come sit with me, Squirt. I have the morning free until my assistant comes back with a new script someone's trying to pitch to me. I want to talk to you."

"Just because you have a free morning doesn't mean I do, and don't call me that," Blaine said, but he sat down across from Cooper anyway. The sugar cookies could wait for a few minutes.

"Ask me why I'm so happy," Cooper insisted.

This was familiar territory for Blaine. This was how Cooper had been giving him what he deemed as 'important news' since they were kids. Blaine thought it was because it made him feel like his little brother was genuinely interested in what he was saying. "Why are you so happy, Coop," Blaine sighed.

"I found the perfect man for you," Cooper said smiling proudly. "Don't worry you can thank me later."

Blaine blanched at the unexpected comment. Blaine supposed he should be impressed. It was rare that these little announcements were good for anyone besides Cooper, but he couldn't be too pleased. The last few times he had allowed Cooper to set him up had not gone so well, "While I appreciate it, and I really do—I'm going to have to pass. The last time you set me up with someone he spent the whole date talking about how intuitive his gold fish was. The time before that, the guy just wanted to date me to get close to you. Excuse me for my skepticism, but you don't have the best track record."

"No, I'm serious about this one. I think he's perfect. He's been my assistant for about a year now and he's great. He even has that pale elven look you're so obsessed with," Blaine groaned. He should have known that the poster of Legolas that had taken up permanent residence on his wall all through middle school and high school would come back to bite him one of these days. "Just give him a chance. You won't be disappointed."

"Look, Coop you know how much it means to me that you're supportive of my you know...sexuality- especially after how Mom and Dad reacted, but I need you to stop setting me up on half baked blind dates," Blaine said fiddling with the coffee collar on Cooper's empty cup. "And besides, even if you were the match maker of the century...I uh...already have my eye on someone."

Cooper raised his eyebrows in interest, "Well then, why didn't you just say so?" Cooper's phone alerted him to a text message and he glanced down at it. "That's him now actually. He's back at the office. I gotta get going, Blaine. Let me know if you change you mind or if there are any updates about this mystery guy," Cooper gave him the same obnoxious wink he gave everyone and slipped out the door.