Kurt and his unknown partner had been trained through their steps by the choreographer individually, so they knew the basics as to where they would step and pose. Today however, would be their first time working together. 

Kurt walked into the studio in a pair of dark sweatpants and a black undershirt, which was standard uniform for these types of rehearsals. Something comfortable and easy to move in. His partner came into view across the room, similarly dressed and already conversing with the choreographer. Kurt dropped his bag at the door and both men turned to look to see what the noise was. 

"Kurt!" The tall black man smiled. His name was Clarence, an extremely talented and well-known choreographer. Cirque du Soleil was known for only hiring the best of the best. Kurt smiled back cheerfully, eager to finally get to meet his acting partner. Kurt crossed the room to the pair.

"Kurt, this is Blaine Anderson. He'll be playing opposite you as The Innocent, obviously." Clarence's smile was broad and his tone chipper. Blaine was shorter than Kurt had pictured in his head, but definitely more attractive. 

Blaine turned to shake Kurt's hand politely, eyes lingering on Kurt's chest before reaching his face.

"It's nice to meet you Blaine, I'm Kurt Hummel. I'll be The Trickster." Blaine found himself smirking to himself, eyes flitting down to Kurt's arms and back to his face.

"Nice to meet you as well, Kurt."

"Today," Clarence began, giving them little time to get to know each other. "We're going to run over the first bit where Kurt comes in, so we'll be working on his opening jump mostly and your-" He gestured to Blaine. "-movements around him."

------ 

The rehearsal was curt and professional. Kurt must have practiced his opening leap at least a hundred times, or at least it felt like it anyways. His calf muscles burned and his thighs felt bunched and knotted under his skin. They also worked on their floor moves, pacing around each other dramatically in a dance of cockiness and timidness. It was always about being dramatic.

Around noon they broke for lunch, Clarence declaring he would be spending the hour with his partner and left Kurt and Blaine on their own. Kurt laid (or collapsed, rather) down on the floor, stretching out his legs and sighing as his back cracked against the wooden floor. There was no denying that Kurt was very fit, but the ever present burn of over-exertion was still there after an intense workout. Their workouts required repetition; jump after jump, after jump, when in reality said move would probably only have to be performed once or twice a night, in Kurt's case. But everything had to be perfect. Mistakes were not optional. 

"Hey," Blaine called from across the room, snapping Kurt out of his thoughts. "You wanna grab some lunch?" He said, his voice slightly muffled by the towel he scrubbed over his damp, sweaty face.

"Sure. Apelia's fine with you?" He agreed from the floor and Blaine nodded. The two of them exited the studio together, bags in hand. Things were slightly awkward in the beginning, neither of them seemed sure on which topics to bring up. Kurt found himself eyeing Blaine up unconsciously, looking over his extremely toned body, specifically his shoulders and arms. Kurt wondered what they would feel like under his hands. 

But no, that was hardly professional.

The restaurant was out of walking distance, so Kurt offered to drive. The place was quaint with a very local feel. The restaurant was used to Cirque performers coming in because of the close proximity to the Cirque du Soleil Montreal headquarters. The waitress greeted them kindly, Kurt ordered a salad and Blaine ordered and chicken club sandwich.

"So," Blaine said, quickly swallowing a french fry. "Who were you before The Trickster?" He smirked and Kurt laughed, spearing a tomato with his fork. 

"I was in La Nouba actually, trapeze artist."

"Impressive."

"Thank you. And you?"

"Saltimbanco, hand to hand."

"Aren't you a bit…"

"Small?" Blaine chuckled. "Kurt, it's not all about size. It's how you use it." He arched his brow suggestively and Kurt clapped a hand over his mouth to silence what would have been a very embarrassing burst of laughter. Blaine's eyes crinkled at Kurt's reaction and Kurt couldn't help but to think that Blaine was kind of adorable. 

Conversation after that came easy to them. Kurt told Blaine about his forays into contortionism (to which Blaine choked on a french fry and Kurt was too concerned to realize the reason for his choking) and Blaine told Kurt about working with his former hand to hand partner. Blaine had specialized in hand to hand, lifting and posing precariously with his partner in ways that defied the odds of human strength. Because of the extremely difficult nature of hand to hand, there were at least for hand to hand performers on set at all times in case one or both partners were unable to perform. 

"So… what made you try out for the role of The Innocent, anyways? From the sounds of it, you really loved your old hand to hand act." 

"Probably the same thing that made you try for The Trickster. Wanted a starring role and this one just kind of… fit? Not that I'm innocent or anything like that," Blaine wiggled his eyebrow again and Kurt smirked. "-But the role was appealing to me." 

"Well, you do have a child-like charm to you." Blaine scrunched his face in distaste. "But I know what you mean, with me it was just- I felt like I could fit the role even when it's so far from myself. Plus I can't wait to be in full makeup and costume. Have you seen my costume yet? It's incredible." Blaine shook his head. The costumes were still in the development stage, but the costume designer had emailed out sketches to each performer, Kurt pulled up the design on his iPhone and handed it across to the table to Blaine. "The head design is just incredible, I have no idea how Marie-Chantale came up with these."

"Wow." Blaine flicked between the two costume changes with his thumb. "The head design in the red one is insane. " Kurt nodded eagerly. "My costume is much more simple than yours, my outfit is striped horizontally and I get to wear this cute long hat. Looks like pyjamas." Blaine reached into his pocket for his phone.

"I have no idea how I'm supposed to keep that thing on my head while I'm jumping around, they'll probably have to put a million hair pins or they'll have to glue it to me just to get it to stick to my head." Kurt took the phone from Blaine and flicked through the two costumes.

"Awww, you're going to look absolutely adorable in that hat. And look at your wittle red nose!" Kurt teased. Blaine's costume was much more clown like than Kurt's.

"Oh hush. You love it." Blaine chuckled. Some of the Cirque costumes were definitely… out there. But they really made the performance that much better.

They ate the rest of their lunch together in a comfortable silence. Kurt felt at ease after the initial awkwardness seem to dissipate. They'd be spending a lot of time together and Kurt definitely didn't want their relationship to be strained in any way. Kurt offered to pay for the meals to which Blaine refused and paid for both of them, much to Kurt's annoyance. There was some bickering about Kurt driving them so it was only fair that Blaine would pay and well, Kurt couldn't really argue with that.

------

Back at the studio Kurt was put through his paces again when he was asked to do a set of round offs and cartwheels. 

"Perfect, Kurt! One more time now." Seemed to be Clarence's motto. Kurt had gotten used to it, not so much to the dizziness of performing the same routine over and over again. Blaine weaved in and out, pretending to duck out of the way of Kurt's acrobatic moves as was required in the scene. Truth be told most of Blaine's character was about being in the way without actually being in the way. 

Rehearsal drew to a close 4 hours hours later with Kurt thoroughly exhausted and excited to go home and take a nice long bath. Clarence complimented them both on their efforts, leaving with a wave and letting them know to be in the same time next week for duo rehearsal again. 

"You in rehearsal tomorrow?" Blaine questioned as he leaned over to gather his water bottle and bag from the floor. 

"I'm rehearsing down in the gym with Brittany tomorrow, she's doing solo trapeze and we have some moves together. I think our characters have a bit of chemistry, the way they're instructed to move around each other."

"Chemistry, eh? I may just have to pop in and watch you two." Blaine smirked.

"Don't you have training of your own to do, Anderson?" Kurt muttered playfully.

"Nope, my day off is tomorrow, lucky for you!" Kurt rolled his eyes. Kurt knew 'a day off' didn't really mean Blaine would be watching them the whole time. When not rehearsing, each performer had to complete a certain number of hours in the headquarter work out centre in order to keep in shape. 

Kurt took a long drink from his water bottle, beads of ice cold water sliding down over his lips and down his throat. Blaine licked his lips unconsciously before shaking himself from his stare.

"Can I walk you out?" Blaine piped up suddenly.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Sure." Kurt was taken aback by the gesture, but let Blaine escort him out to his car. When Kurt reached the car door, everything felt a big more awkward again. Kurt wasn't sure what to do, so he extended his hand to Blaine.

"It was really nice working with you today. Guess I'll see you, or you'll see me rather, tomorrow?" Kurt smiled and Blaine grinned, nodding eagerly. Blaine shook Kurt's hand politely and met his eyes.

"Until tomorrow then."