They had been sat in silence for about an hour, both absorbed in their books as the minutes ticked away. Clearly Blaine loved reading, his eyes darting from side to side as though he couldn’t drink the words in quick enough. He was adorable, Kurt noted, watching as a genuine smile lit up Blaine’s face, disappearing slowly as he read on. Thankful that his magazine could be hidden behind, Kurt continued to note the curious little motions made by his companion. 

Before he turned the page, Blaine would always run his finger under the length of the paper before smoothing it down to continue reading. Sometimes his face would scrunch up in puzzlement, and he would then rifle back through the pages, re-reading and then returning to the place he had left off. Possibly the thing that Kurt enjoyed discovering the most, however, was the way that Blaine would smile softly before mouthing the words to himself as though testing to see how well they rolled off his tongue. In Kurt’s opinion (not that it seemed to hold much value), the man was stunning. 

“Umm, Kurt?” Blaine’s voice interrupted Kurt’s progressively more stalkerish thoughts. 

“What? Sorry, what?” he stammered, a mortified blush colouring his face. Blaine grinned at him, the natural bookworm vanishing and his features schooling into the dapper almost-stranger Kurt had been so nervous with.

“So the magazines are that boring huh?” Blaine said with quirk of his eyebrow as he dog-eared his book and placed it carefully on the counter.

“No, I, erm… I didn’t get much sleep last night and I’m struggling to concentrate,” he said louder than necessary, the air of defiance clearly audible. 

Kurt looked Blaine directly in the eye, his heart pounding. The guy probably thought he was a stalker. He was going to be beaten up with the espresso machine. Oh god, oh god, oh…

But no blow came. Instead Blaine let out a chuckle and walked over to him, somehow holding two fresh coffees and a slice of cheesecake. 

“Perfectly understandable. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found myself zoning out when it comes to talking about work, no matter how interesting the subject actually is,” he sat down and slid a takeaway cup across the table to Kurt, “You look like a guy who can appreciate a good cheesecake, am I right?” he paused, allowing Kurt to nod confusedly, “I think it’s something in our brains that stops us from associating anything remotely engaging with business, but that’s just my opinion. What do you think?”

“I… sorry, what?” Kurt managed to utter, his head spinning at the suaveness of the man. 

Blaine sighed and decided that if he stood any chance of winning this man’s company, honesty really was the best policy. 

“Look, Kurt, I’ll be straight here. I don’t have many friends and there is something about you that fascinates me. Maybe it’s the fact that, unlike most New Yorkers, you actually seem to have your feet on the ground. Maybe it’s that your face looks familiar, I don’t know, but I would really like to talk to you over a coffee and my boss’s special recipe cheesecake.”

Kurt looked at him, his expression fixed into the cool indifference he had always tried to adopt in high school. 

“You’ll notice I gave you a drink to take away, so if I’m freaking you out then I won’t be offended if you leave,” Blaine added, his eyes betraying that he sincerely hoped Kurt would not choose this option. 

Kurt smiled at him before folding the magazine into his messenger bag and taking a sip of his coffee. Blaine’s face lit up into another genuine smile, back to being the guy that Kurt was so fascinated by. 

“So does Kurt have a last name?” Blaine began, beginning a long yet friendly interrogation, which Kurt answered with only a few ‘erms’ and nervous pauses interrupting him. 

Over the next hour and forty-five minutes they discovered that they both came from Ohio, that they both shared an unhealthy interest in reality TV (a topic which demanded half an hour of their time), that they could both quote perfectly from The Sound of Music, Rent and West Side Story and that they had both been involved in show choir in high school. 

“So that’s where I recognised you from!” Blaine exclaimed, making a ‘duh!’ face at Kurt, who smiled shyly into his empty cup. “We competed against the New Directions in 2011! The Warblers literally stalked Youtube looking for ways to take you guys down!” 

“Ah well, from what I heard you were some great competition for them,” Kurt said quietly, Blaine barely hearing him as he chuckled at memories of his old friends. Blaine continued to smile, before his face scrunched and he appeared to be trying to place something.

“You competed with them in 2010, right? When you did that Journey mash-up and the girls wore gold dresses?” Blaine asked confusedly. Kurt nodded, his eyes flickering away from Blaine’s gaze.

“I didn’t recognize you from the time we competed against you. Weren’t you there?” he asked, his face scrunching again – Kurt would have found it cute, but they were drifting into dangerous territory. 

“No, I erm… I had quit by that point.” There was finality to his tone that he hoped Blaine took note of. 

“Ah, how come?” he asked innocently. Crap. Kurt sighed, his pulse quickening and his mind going blank. 

“Other commitments.”

There was an awkward silence in which Blaine cocked his head to the side, surveying Kurt deeply. 

“Fair enough,” he deliberated after a while. Kurt smiled gratefully, knowing full well his lie had been transparent, and checked the clock. 

“Oh, god! Is that clock right?” he gasped, hurriedly checking his phone and muttering under his breath. Blaine glanced around, making a noise of surprise when he noted he should have closed the shop two hours ago. He gathered Kurt’s empty cup and tossed it into the bin as he walked towards the dishwasher to begin loading it for the night. He watched sadly as Kurt stuffed various scraps of paper into his bag along with the magazines Blaine had recommended.

“How much do I owe you for these?” Kurt asked, sounding more flustered than he had all afternoon. Blaine closed the till smoothly, a smile playing at his lips.

“Just locked the till, you’ll have to just take them and pay another day.”

Kurt raised his eyebrows, (well that’s new, Blaine noted), and stuffed his wallet back into his bag.

“You’re sure?” he checked, moving towards the door.

Blaine nodded. “As long as you come back.”

Kurt smiled at him, pausing in his hurry to consider his next words. “Thanks for the coffee and the magazines and, well everything really. I’ve had a really nice afternoon,” he said softly before blushing furiously and attempting to backtrack his words. 

Blaine held up a hand to indicate that what he’d said was okay. “Me too, Kurt. Not every customer is as enchanting as you are,” he said with and exaggerated cheesy smile, making Kurt laugh and duck his head in that way that made Blaine want to ruffle his perfectly coiffed hair. 

“I’ll definitely come back, Blaine. See you soon,” Kurt said with a smile, before ducking out of the shop. Blaine smiled to himself as the bell tinkled cheerfully; apparently he was still capable of conversing with someone who wasn’t fifty years older than himself.

Something about Kurt Hummel fascinated him. The way he pondered his words carefully before uttering even the simplest of phrases, the way he ducked his head and blushed whenever he felt nervous or a little silly, or the way he hadn’t read his magazines at all that afternoon, even during their initial hour of silence. Whatever, Blaine thought, it was nice to have someone who could in time become a friend. He figured they could both use the company.