“When are you free?” Kurt asks as soon as Blaine answers the phone. They'd finally properly exchanged contact information, which excited Blaine, but he hadn't honestly expected Kurt to call.

“Um, what for?” Blaine says nervously. Kurt sounds excited and Blaine's suddenly very anxious.

“I need you to have dinner with me. I mean, not—I didn't mean it like that. If you wouldn't mind, I would appreciate it if you would accompany me to dinner. Or lunch. Or coffee. Just somewhere where we can sit and talk for a while, preferably, and from my experience, people tend to be happier when they have food in front of them, so...”

Blaine's heart feels like it's about to jump out of his chest.

“No, yeah, sure, absolutely,” he stammers too-quickly. “I mean—I'm free Saturday evening, if that's okay? And dinner's fine. And I'm not even picky so you can decide where we go.”

“Saturday works for me. How about 6:30 at Casa de Mia?” Blaine nods furiously before realizing Kurt can't see him.

“Yeah, yes. Excellent. Sounds good. Right. See you then.” He hangs up quickly before he can embarrass himself any further. As soon as the line goes dead, Blaine tosses his phone and proceeds to jump up and down practically squealing.

Kurt Hummel has just asked him on a date. A date!

Blaine suddenly panics. “What the hell am I going to wear?”

“So we're meeting on Saturday evening for dinner!” Kurt beams across the table at a grinning Rachel.

“Kurt, that's great! I'm so happy for you! I know how hard it's been for you to find something you care enough to take a chance on. I really hope it goes well. You'll have to keep me updated on the progress, yeah?”

“Definitely,” he assures her. “I'm really excited about this, Rach.” She squeals, climbing out of her chair, scrambling to hug him tightly around the neck.

“My little baby is growing up and doing something other than sitting at home with his grumpy old cat!” she teases in a baby voice. Kurt swats her off.

“My cat is not grumpy,” he insists. “He's just very particular about things.” Rachel raises her eyebrows and purses her lips but doesn't comment further as she slips back into her seat.

“He hissed at me for sitting on your sofa,” she reminds him.

“You were in his seat,” Kurt shrugs. Rachel shakes her head.

“I swear, you act like that cat is a person sometimes. If I didn't know better, I'd swear you sang to the furry little thing.” Kurt winces slightly in response. Rachel laughs. “You do, don't you?! Wow, Kurt. Who needs a love life when you've got a life companion like that?”

Kurt frowns. “Don't be so condescending about it. He's a smart cat, Rachel, and he's pleasant company. I know he's just an animal but I mean, I can't help feeling like he gets me.”

Rachel blinks at him. “You need to get laid, mister, and soon. I don't need you ending up a crazy cat man, alright?” She stands and swoops down to kiss his head. “I've gotta go. I'm helping Jesse rehearse. Let me know how Saturday goes, yeah?” Kurt hums the affirmative and gathers his things.

He's got a housemate to get home to and Kurt knows he's hungry.

Blaine's got butterflies in his stomach. He's dressed nicely, but not too nicely. Kurt hasn't ever seen him in anything but work clothes, so he wanted to show the future-fashion-writer that he does know how to dress himself like a normal, fashionable gay male would. But he doesn't want to look like he's trying too hard, especially when they're meeting for casual Italian.

Blue button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, dark denim jeans, Oxford shoes. He feels like a million bucks.

He meets Kurt outside with a smile. Kurt, as usual, looks perfect. He's got a light purple button-down with a dark gray vest and tight black pants that leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. Blaine thinks he could skip the Italian and go straight to devouring every inch of Kurt Hummel.

“Hey!” Kurt greets him, almost breathlessly. “You ready?”

“As I'll ever be,” Blaine laughs nervously. Kurt holds the door and Blaine wants to swoon. As the hostess leads them to their table for two, he wipes his sweaty palms on his pants and forces himself to take deep breaths. Once they've been seated and ordered their drinks, Kurt smiles at him.

“Okay,” he says.

“Okay,” Blaine echos dumbly.

“So, I just wanted to start off by asking you a few basic questions,” Kurt begins.

“Sounds good,” Blaine nods eagerly. Kurt smiles again and reaches into his leather bag. Blaine idly wonders why Kurt brought a bag, but he supposes that girls don't own a monopoly on carrying things in purses. Kurt retrieves a small notepad and clicks a pen.

Blaine is confused.

This isn't typical first-date ritual, from what he knows, but he ignores it. Maybe Kurt just has a poor memory and wants to be sure he remembers every detail he learns about Blaine.

“Alright, so...” Kurt scribbles something down. “Your name is Blaine Anderson, you live in New York, you work at a movie theater and volunteer at an animal shelter.” Blaine nods and hums in agreement. “How long have you been at the shelter?” Kurt asks.

“About a year now, a little more, maybe,” he says. “I sort of stumbled across it, you know? It wasn't something I planned to do.”

“Is this the first you've heard of it closing down?” Blaine shrugs.

“We've been tight on money before, you know? I threw in some of my own money to buy extra kennels when we didn't have enough space for animals that had no place else to go.”

Kurt smiles. “That's very sweet,” he says. “You care about the place a lot.” Blaine nods. “You don't get paid for any of what you do?”

“Nah,” Blaine says, placing his napkin in his lap. He's hungry and he wants to survey the menu, but he doesn't want to be rude and seem uninterested in Kurt's questions. “If I was, I wouldn't be working at the stupid movie theater cleaning up spilled sodas.” Kurt scribbles more down and Blaine watches him. He almost feels like he's being-

Oh god, he's being interviewed.

His face heats up in embarrassment. You idiot, he curses himself, this isn't a date at all! He never said it was a date! He said he wanted to sit and talk! He's a journalist, you dolt, and he's interviewing you!

He's suddenly mortified. Of course, Kurt doesn't know that Blaine had misinterpreted his invitation, and he hopes it stays that way. When Kurt looks up again, Blaine forces a smile onto his face while simultaneously stabbing himself in the leg with his fork.

He kind of wants to curl up and die.

The rest of the evening goes well enough. They order. Kurt asks more questions about Blaine's experience at the shelter and the other volunteers, the owners, how he found the place, the animals, and his own personal feelings about the place. He asks who else he should talk to and for any additional information.

The conversation branches off into general talk about on and off-Broadway shows and the restaurant they're in, other places they enjoy eating at in the city, places they enjoyed in Ohio...

It's not a terrible evening, Blaine decides, but it isn't what he'd been hoping for. He feels absolutely moronic for getting his hopes up, but he still has a good time. Kurt is lovely and pleasant and wonderful and gorgeous and totally not making the whole not-a-date thing any easier. But Blaine has fun. He smiles a lot, which is sort of new to him.

As they finish their meal and their conversation and stand outside to say their goodbyes and part ways, they both can't help but linger. “This was nice,” Kurt says. Blaine nods, keeping his mouth shut so he doesn't say anything stupid. “We should hang out again sometime. I mean, something a little less business-like.” He nods to his bag.

“Yeah, totally,” Blaine agrees. Don't read too much into it, Anderson, he tells himself.

Kurt almost frowns. Blaine doesn't really sound like he wants to spend time with Kurt again, but Kurt had thought they were having a great time. He chews his lip.

“Right. Well, I'll just... call you or text you or something. Or you can call me! Or text me. Whichever. When you're not busy.” Kurt's been fighting butterflies all night. It had been so easy, once they sat down, to imagine their dinner as a date. He had to remind himself that it was all just for the story. None of this has ever been about the story, a twisted voice in his brain says, it's been about Blaine since the minute you laid eyes on him, you stupid, lonely idiot.

“Sounds good.” Blaine offers Kurt a warm smile and Kurt beams in return.

“Right. See you, then.” He turns to head down the street where he has a better chance of hailing a cab, forcing himself not to look back. If he does, he won't be able to ever make himself go home.

Blaine watches him go, wondering if he'll ever have an encounter with Kurt Hummel that doesn't leave his heart aching.