Kurt felt the CV being ripped from his hand. He looked, up startled to see Blaine angrily tearing it in half. Kurt watched emotionlessly as he shoved the pieces of paper into his pocket before he rounded on Kurt.

‘Why did you look at this? You said you weren't hiring anyone' Blaine was whispering harshly, clearly not wanting to draw any attention towards himself or Kurt.

‘Well I was a bit curious and anyway I do need someone to look after the upstairs part of the shop' Kurt said evenly, watching Blaine with interest.

Blaine was breathing heavily, still glaring at Kurt but didn't say anything.

‘Look I'm sorry I looked, my curiosity got the better of me' Kurt shrugged. ‘But your father did give it to me.'

Blaine's eyes softened a little but he was still looking very angry. ‘I hate him' he spat suddenly, jerking his head towards his father who was back on his phone.

‘Come on, you don't really mean that' Kurt said.

‘Oh I do, he's such a bastard. I don't know why mum puts up with him' Blaine scowled deeply and stared at his parents.

‘Because she loves him' Kurt said, clearly a bit disturbed from what he heard but put it behind him, Blaine was clearly being an over emotional teenager.

Blaine scoffed ‘she only loves order and tidiness, can't you tell?'

Kurt looked over at Blaine's mother who was back to scrutinising over the stationary.

‘She doesn't care what happens at home, she doesn't care that the dick she's married to is fucking his sectary behind her back.'

Kurt blinked slowly, absorbing that information with a grain of salt. ‘Well she sort of reminds me of my guidance councillor at school, Miss Pillsbury; she obsessed over the little things like that.'

Blaine's eyes narrowed, he could tell that Kurt thought he was lying and making up stories because he hated his father.

‘I'm not lying, I caught them in his office the other week, he begged me not no tell mum' Blaine looked glumly down at the floor.

Kurt stared blankly at Blaine then over at his parents. There was something off about the way they angled their bodies, away from one another. From all the couples Kurt had seen, they seemed to always angle their bodies towards each other.

‘I-I believe you' Kurt said simply.

Blaine looked up at Kurt, all his anger vanished from his face.

‘I can't stand them. I really do want to get a job and move out…but I need a job first' he sighed. ‘That's the only good thing about him, he's pressuring me to get a job, doing what he did here in literally every shop we go to.'

Kurt looked over at Blaine's father again who was now pacing up and down, clearly in an argument of sorts. 

‘Well if that's what you really want…I can always give you a job here…the pay might not be too great though' Kurt watched Blaine carefully.

The boy looked he was on the verge of tears, it was odd how quickly his emotions were changing.

Blaine looked up at Kurt and scowled again. ‘I don't need charity-'

‘-Who said anything about charity? This will be hard-ish work for not much money, minimum wage only' Kurt said, cutting Blaine off.

Blaine stared at Kurt for a moment before he turned around and watched his parents.

His mother was holding an armful of products that she deemed worthy and his father was still arguing on the phone. Kurt knew what Blaine was going to say before he did. 

‘I can't live with them too much longer…fine I'll take it. But remember I have school' Blaine said seriously.

Kurt was a little surprised that Blaine was talking seriously about school but he brushed that away. ‘Yes, I know that. So how about you come here tomorrow and I'll fill you on everything that needs to be done.'

Kurt had no idea what he was doing, he wasn't even making any money, he had a big mortgage on this place and he was still living in his father's house, now he has to pay a moody teenager on top of everything?

But the look of hope on Blaine's face made Kurt know that what he was doing was the right thing.

‘Thank you, thanks so much' Blaine said. ‘Oh I can't wait to see the look on his face when I tell him' he chuckled a little.

Kurt couldn't help but to chuckle a little too, Blaine was a strange kid, but as Kurt watched them leave the shop half an hour later, he felt a pang of sadness for him.

‘So how was the first day?' Carol asked as she placed a steaming plate of food down in front of Kurt that night.

‘It went really well actually. I had a ton of customers, way more than I thought I would' Kurt happily cut off a strip of meat and placed it in his mouth.

‘So did you turn a profit?' But asked from the other end of the small table, a steaming plate of food also placed in front of him.

‘Yeah actually, I won't tell you how much but I did' Kurt looked very happy.

 ‘Well that's great sweetie' Carol said happily as she sat down at the table.

‘And I also hired someone to-'

‘-Wait, you've already hired someone. Don't you think that's a little…premature?' Burt said, suddenly, nervousness creeping into his voice.

‘No, I will have to explain to him the risks of working for me tomorrow when he comes in. But you should have seen him, dad, he was so desperate I couldn't not hire him.'

‘So you hired him out of pity? Kurt does he even have any experience working in a shop?' Burt was looking a little angry and worried, but Kurt held his own.

‘Dad this is my shop, not yours. Let me make my own decisions even if you think they're wrong. It's up to me to decide on these things' Kurt was staring at his father.

‘I know, I know. But that doesn't mean I can't worry about you, I am still your father' Burt said evenly, taking a sip of wine as he talked.

Kurt shrugged. ‘I'm not your little boy anymore dad, I have to make my own decisions, I have to make mistakes and learn from them and if this is a mistake let me handle it.'

Burt looked at his son, an air of sadness hanging around him but he nodded and said nothing more on the subject.

‘So you'll have to go in tomorrow, then?' Carol asked.

‘Yeah, I was planning to anyway, but this sort of solidifies it a little bit.'

‘Well don't stay too long, you need a day off too, remember' Carol said gently.

‘Carol, I've only worked there for one day, I'm fine' Kurt said gently.

Kurt stood up, having finished his dinner. ‘Thanks for dinner, I have to go upstairs and plan for tomorrow, do you mind?'

‘No, no, go ahead' Burt said.

So Kurt walked out into the small hallway and made his way up the flight of stairs at the end.

As he walked through the hallway, he paused at the spare room, the room that used to be Finn's. He leaned against the frame and stared into the plain room. There was hardly anything that remained of Finn's in that room anymore, just the bed and dresser and a few pictures.

Kurt sighed and walked into the room, looking at the pictures of his step brother.

He smiled at Finn's goofiness; he wished that Finn was here to look after him, to look after his parents. He wished that he was still in New York with Rachel and Santana.

He hadn't heard from them in a while. The last he heard from Santana was last year.  She had moved in with that waitress, Danny that he had heard a lot about.

And Rachel was apparently engaged to a guy Kurt had never met. He looked over at a picture of Rachel and Finn hugging one another at graduation, looking so happy and carefree that it hurt Kurt a little to look at it. They had such big plans for their lives together.

Kurt hadn't realised that he was crying until he tasted salt, his tears were running thickly down his cheeks. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve, something that he would never have ever done ten years ago. He shook his head and walked away into his room.

Most of his furniture was still in there; just most of the old expensive stuff had disappeared as the money got tight.

His wardrobe was not the same, he had no designer outfits anymore, and most of his clothes were from thrift stores that he had hand tailored to make them look a bit better and to fit a bit better.

His vanity was virtually empty except for some old high school photos of his glee club. His had given up his skin care regime years ago. He had realised early on when he was living alone that he needed the money to buy food and food was more important.

He walked over to his bed and collapsed down upon it with a groan.

He closed his eyes and thought about tomorrow, he really had to warn Blaine about the fact that he might not be paid so much. Suddenly an image of Blaine burst very clearly across his vision, he looked very angry yet something else was stirring in his dark eyes, something that Kurt couldn't quite put a name to.

Kurt opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times. He groaned and sat up; rubbing his eyes softly, the image of Blaine fading into blackness.

The next day Kurt was opening the shop when he saw a mop of messy black curls followed immediately by the scowling face of Blaine.

Kurt shook his head (was he always scowling?) and pushed the front door open, leaving it open for Blaine and future customers.

He walked behind the desk and waited. A few seconds later Blaine entered, bringing his strange stench of tobacco and alcohol.

‘Good morning' Kurt said politely as Blaine stomped in, wearing shoes that looked two sizes too big.

He grunted in response and leaned his arms against the polished wood of the desk.

‘So did you tell your parents you got the job?' Kurt asked.

‘Yeah, god, you should have seen their faces. The old man looked like he would have a heart attack, it was awesome.'

Kurt frowned; the subject of heart attacks was no laughing matter to him.

Yet he said nothing, the look on Blaine's face was rather…disturbing and he would rather not awaken his anger which always seemed to be right beneath the surface. 

‘Right, well let's begin. So you know that I might not be able to pay you on occasion?' Kurt said gently.

Blaine's eyes narrowed suspiciously but he nodded his head slowly.

‘But I will try to pay you. Secondly if you work here you're going to have to tidy up a little.'

‘What do you mean?' Blaine grunted.

‘Well for instance wear shoes that actually fit' Kurt pointed to his feet. ‘And non-baggy pants, preferably black. And a clean white shirt if possible' Kurt gestured at the horribly stained top that Blaine was wearing yesterday.

‘Fine, but what will I do? Will I get day's off?' Blaine grunted.

‘Of course you will. The shop will usually be closed on Sundays but I needed to open it today because I need money and I need to teach you how to use everything.' Blaine nodded his shaggy head but said nothing.

‘So because you have school you will need to come here straight after you finish and leave here around five, is that alright?' Kurt asked.

‘What about exam time?'

‘Are you planning to stay here until exam time?' Kurt asked a bit surprised at his question.

‘Well duh, I do need the money' Blaine said.

Kurt frowned. ‘Well we'll have to figure out a schedule around that time. You'll just have to tell me when they are.'

‘Fine, now what do you want me to do? I hope you know that I don't bake' Blaine said sternly.

‘Follow me' Kurt led Blaine up the set of tightly spiralling stairs in the corner of the shop.

There was a small landing with a white arch separating them from a very cosy space where there were a cluster of brown leather sofas and chairs around little mahogany tables. As with downstairs there were little tiffany lamps littered everywhere giving off a subtle orange glow.

The smell of fresh cookies and coffee were strongest up here. On the far back wall there was a display cabinet with many backed goods lying on white platters, all Kurt had baked yesterday morning. 

Blaine walked through the sofas without saying a word, yet he was running one of his hands lightly over one of them.

‘So you will be working up here' Kurt said.

Blaine turned and looked over at his workstation.

‘Who're they?' he asked pointing to a photograph of two black and white people.

Kurt gulped and stared at the photo. On the left side there was a picture of a pretty woman with Kurt's bone structure and long wavy hair. Next to her was a photograph of Finn.

‘That's my mother and step brother' Kurt said softly. ‘I named the shop after them.'

Blaine looked over at Kurt who had tears welling up in his eyes.

‘Um ok…So are you going to show me what to do now?' Blaine asked.

Kurt nodded and walked around the counter, followed by Blaine.  

‘So this is the register. It's pretty simple to use. All you do is type the amount on this keyboard' Kurt showed Blaine. ‘Then you press this 1 button and enter. The receipt should come out here' Kurt pointed at the place. ‘And this should do all the maths for you, just do, say 10 then this little plus button and say 15.' Kurt demonstrated and then let Blaine have a go. He picked it up very quickly.

‘Good, good I think you have the hang of things' Kurt clapped his hands together and smiled at Blaine who was scowling down at the register, he had thrown a small fit when a receipt had got caught in the machine.

Kurt didn't say anything about it though. ‘You may go now' he said politely. ‘Your first shift will be tomorrow after school!'

Blaine nodded and walked out from behind the counter. Kurt watched silently as the boy passed, giving off that horrendous stench again.

Kurt heard the tinkle of the door opening and closing. He walked over to the balcony just in time to see the mop of dark curls running down the street.