"You look like you're feeling better!" Blaine said brightly when Kurt came in the next morning. He handed Kurt his order over the counter and chatted with him while Shelly dealt with the payment. "We still on for tonight?"

Kurt had decided last night that he would have to ignore his feelings and settle for friendship with Blaine. This morning, he was officially beginning the process of forcing himself back into their easy friendship. It was going surprisingly well (the friendship part not the ignoring his feelings part). "Yeah," Kurt said, grabbing his credit card back. "I think it was just a twenty four hour thing," he lied smoothly.

"Well good because you're about to have your taste buds tantalized. I would hate for illness to get in the way of that," Blaine said, following Kurt to the end of the counter where he was doctoring his coffee appropriately. "You said you could pick up wine, right? I think red would be the best choice for what I have planned."

"No problem. I'll get it on my way home from work, but on one condition," Kurt said, snapping the lid back on his cup.

"What's that?"

"You let me bring dessert," and without another word, Kurt was out the door.

0000000000

At promptly seven thirty, Blaine heard a knock on the door. He wiped his hands on a tea towel and went to see who it was. He opened the door to the sight of Kurt, holding a bottle of merlot and what looked like a loaf of some kind, wrapped in tin foil.

"I hope you don't mind," Kurt said walking past Blaine and putting his things down on the table. "The door man recognized me and just let me in."

"Not at all," Blaine said waving Kurt in and moving to stir the sauce pan that was bubbling on the stove. "Make yourself at home. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Why don't you go put on some music. My ipod is already plugged into the speakers over there," Blaine said, gesturing towards the living room area and uncorking the wine so that it could breathe before dinner. "Billy Hill?" Blaine said looking at the bottle. "I've never had this before."

"Oh it's great!" Kurt said, putting all of the Adele Blaine had on shuffle and walking back towards the kitchen. "The wine is good too, but the story of the winery is even better. It's owned by this guy in upstate New York who comes from a family of wine and cider makers. He got into this huge fight with his family over sustainable farming and then one day he just said 'fuck it' and opened another winery down the road."

"Hmmm...I can appreciate a family history like that," Blaine said and Kurt could tell there was something being left unsaid, but he ignored it. Blaine clearly wasn't going to tell him of his own accord and he was looking forward to a fun, light hearted evening. "Anyway, it smells nice. Come sit down. Dinner is served!"

Kurt sat down and Blaine placed a beautiful plate in front of him, "This looks amazing."

Blaine smiled and took the seat perpendicular to him at the square table, "I hope it tastes good, too," he said with a smile, "I figured since we were harkening back to my first year at the French Culinary Institute I'd make a classic. I present to you: Coq au vin a la Blaine Anderson."

"Mmmmm...this is so good, Blaine!" Kurt said, quickly taking another bite. "I love French food."

"Why thank you. I'm glad you like it," he said taking a bite from his own plate. "It's how I get all the guys," he said with a cheesy wink.

"Yes, I'm sure," Kurt said. as his mind worked in over drive to convince himself not to think too much about that last comment and what it meant. Like he usually did, he covered it up with the joke. "I'm sure that wink would be much more charming to someone who didn't have a boss that winks forty seven times an hour. I don't think I'll ever be affected by a wink again," Kurt said, sighing dramatically.

"Ah, yes," Blaine said, "that infamous boss of yours. Who is it anyway? I never asked."

"That, I can't tell you," Blaine gave him a questioning look. "No really, it's in my contract. I'm only allowed to tell relatives and I guess if I had a serious significant other. It's mostly to protect me actually. If people found out I was his PA I'd probably start getting hounded by media. I'm not his publicist. I'm not equipped to deal with that," Blaine looked a little hurt at the comment and Kurt realized that Blaine might have taken what he said the wrong way. "It's not that I don't trust you!" he said quickly. "It's just...my oldest friend from high school, Rachel, doesn't even know. It's just easier that way. If you're that desperate to know, you can find out the same way I can get your sticky bun recipe," Kurt quickly snapped his mouth shut when the comment slipped out. Luckily for him Blaine didn't even bat an eyelash.

"I suppose you're right," he said before popping another bite into his mouth. With that he went back to his previous happy go lucky behavior. "You can at least tell me some stories though right? You told me about all the office work you have to do all the time, but I want to here the gory details. Like, what's the craziest thing he's ever made you do."

Kurt thought for a minute. He guessed there was nothing wrong with talking about Cooper as long as he never said his name, "okay, okay so one time, he asked me to go to the store and pick him up some trail mix. When I brought it back, he made me sit there and pick out all of the cashews, because he had read somewhere that they cause male pattern baldness."

Blaine nearly spat out the sip of wine he had just taken with laughter, "Oh my god, you're kidding me."

"Not kidding you," Kurt said. "It took hours."

"There must have been an article somewhere because my brother called me a few months ago claiming the same thing. He told me that if I valued my hair and the hair of my patrons, I would stop making the cashew short bread," Blaine said.

"Well I guess I'm going to be rocking the bald look soon because I kept all the cashews and ate them myself."

0000000000

"Oh my god I love this song. I haven't heard it in ages. I've been so into her new stuff I forget how good she was when she first started," Blaine said, walking over to the speakers to turn up the old Adele song. They had finished cleaning up dinner and were hanging out a bit to digest before dessert. Blaine walked over to Kurt with an outstretched hand, "dance with me!"

Kurt looked slightly bemused, but didn't take Blaine's hand, "Um...I think I'm good," Kurt said clutching to his wine glass. "I like to set fire to the rain as much as the next guy, but I haven't danced since my high school glee club days."

"Well, lucky for you I'm an excellent lead," Blaine said, prying the glass out of Kurt's hands and yanking him up by force. Before Kurt knew what was happening he was being spun into an elaborate dance move. "I used to be a highly sought after cotillion date. The moms thought I was charming and the daughters knew I wouldn't try to get in their pants," Blaine said spinning Kurt into another seemingly impossible turn. "I've taken more than my fair share of ballroom dancing lessons."

Kurt was speechless at first. He'd known in theory that with a strong lead, dance could be pretty simple, but this was ridiculous. Not to mention that every time Blaine would slot their fingers together or spin him out just to pull him close again, something warm and bubbly would make itself known in his stomach. "Do you always coerce your dinner guests into non consensual ball room dancing?" Kurt said with a laugh.

"No, I save that just for you," Blaine said dipping Kurt on the final note. It was a bit comical since Kurt was at least four inches taller than Blaine, but his muscular arms kept firmly firmly in place.

'Oh my god his face is really close to mine,' Kurt's inner monologue screamed at him. 'Oh god, he's getting closer. Is he going to kiss me?' At that moment, Kurt's outer monologue decided to make itself know, "Um, it's getting late we should start dessert."

Blaine pulled away suddenly. He was wearing a shocked expression, his hazel eyes wide with something akin to embarrassment. He brought Kurt back to an upright position and made sure he was steady before pulling away, "Oh...erm, yeah you're right. I'll just...put some water on for tea."

0000000000

"Kurt, this is amazing!" Blaine said around a mouthful of the peanut butter banana bread that Kurt had made. They had quickly brushed past the incident that occurred while they were dancing. Kurt was convinced he made the whole thing up in his head, as usual, and Blaine was sure what to think, but he didn't want to ruin the evening. "It's so moist, but it also has this crunch to it. It's delicious. How did you make it?"

"Oh well, it's a pretty typical banana bread recipe. I just added peanut butter. The secret is to use the chunky kind, you know with the chopped up peanuts in it? It's what gives it that crunch. When my dad had his heart attack my Junior year of high school I learned all these new, healthy recipes. It's still dessert of course, but it's a little better for you. My dad likes it...it's nothing like the masterpieces you create though."

"Kurt, no way, this is some of the best banana bread I've ever had. Don't sell yourself short. In fact, I've been thinking of introducing some more healthy choices to the menu. I'd be honored if you'd let me use your recipe as a starting point," Blaine took another bite from his cake. "Also, this is the first time in years that anyone's actually baked something for me. It's a nice change," Blaine admitted, smiling a little shyly over his tea cup.

"Well, you're welcome to the recipe. This one isn't a secret," Kurt said, "and now that I know that you just told me that, you can feel free to look forward to the next time I bake for you."

"There's going to be a next time?" Blaine said, his voice tinged with hope.

"There's going to be a next time," Kurt confirmed.