The day after the concert an announcement is posted on the bulletin board about the end of summer concert. Kurt is pleased to see that he has got two spots, one vocal, singing a song he had never heard of before and one for piano. What he isn't pleased about is who he's doing it with. His accompanist for his vocal piece is someone called Sam Evans, and Kurt only knows of one Sam, Blaine's friend. Of course, seeing him play yesterday, Kurt knows he is an excellent guitarist, but he's still unsure about how well they will work together.

His piano piece is kind of puzzling to him because he thought Beethoven's Romance no 2 was for violin and orchestra, but here it says violin and piano, just him and... and Blaine. 'Wait, what?!'

Kurt has to double check, but there it is, in black and white

'Kurt Hummel – Piano, Blaine Anderson – Violin'

He didn't even know that Blaine played the violin; it makes him wonder about what other things he doesn't know about the boy.

After breakfast Kurt is in search of a free rehearsal room, checking each door to read the signup sheets. He finally finds one that is supposed to be free and pulls out his pen to put his name on the current timeslot.

The trouble with this old building is that things sometimes don't work like they are supposed to. For example, there are doors that are hard to open and then there are doors like this one, which seems to have trouble staying shut. The pressure from Kurt's hand as he leans in to write is enough for it to swing open and there, leaning back on a desk is Rachel, Finn hovering over her, their lips glued together.

"Holy crap Rachel!" Kurt squeals, before spinning around to avoid looking at... at that. He fumbles for the door handle, but can't find it.

"Kurt, how about you knock before you enter!" Rachel shouts.

Kurt spins around to face her and Finn, who is busy trying to button up his shirt, Kurt really didn't need to see that.

"How about using the signup sheet!" he shouts back.

Doors are opening down the hall.

"Will you stop shouting; some of us actually want to practise!" Wes shouts.

"Is everything alright?"

It's the kid in the wheelchair.

"No, everything is not alright," Kurt bites him off and hurries away, he really need some air. He can't believe what just happened. He knew that Rachel had a crush on Finn, but she had never spoken to him about an actual relationship. Also it was Finn, the homophobic moron. 'Don't forget that you thought he was cute once,' a voice in Kurt's head reminds him, but Kurt really doesn't want to think about that.

"Kurt! Hold up... Will you wait a second?"

Kurt turns around and folds his arms as Finn hurries to catch up with him.

"What do you want Finn."

Finn looks uncomfortable but he isn't deterred by Kurt's unfriendly tone.

"Dude, will you chill out. I just wanted to apologise for what I said the other day. I didn't know you would react like that, but then Blaine told me off for being an ass..."
"Blaine?" Kurt wants to slap a hand over his mouth as soon as the name passes his lips.

"Yeah, you know, short guy with black hair, wicked talented..."

"I know who Blaine is, Finn." Kurt sighs in exasperation.

"Uh okay, then why... You know you are really hard to figure out Kurt." Finn really does look confused and Kurt finds that he can't really be angry with him because he looks like an overgrown kid.

"Apology accepted."

"Huh?"

"You apologised, I accept your apology. I guess I reacted the way I did because back home people are always calling me names because I'm gay. I just really didn't want that to happen here as well."

Finn reaches out and places a hand on his shoulder. "Dude, I'm an idiot. I didn't know that it was a bad word, I really didn't mean anything by it."

Kurt gives him a little smile.

There is a sound of someone clearing their throat behind Finn and both boys look to see who has overheard their conversation.

"I guess this means you two are on speaking terms, then?" Rachel says. She looks hopeful and also more nervous than Kurt has ever seen her before, and that is counting prior to any performance she has ever done while he has been around.

"I guess we are," he says, looking up at Finn who's wearing a ridiculous grin. Kurt cannot help but torment Rachel just a bit though, so he puts on his most bitchy face.

"You and me girl, we've got to talk." It takes a couple of seconds but then he cannot keep it together anymore and Rachel lets out a squeal when she sees his smile and throws herself around his neck.

Kurt isn't sure if it is the hug from Rachel or something else, but he is in an unusually good mood the rest of the day and decides to find Ms. Korokova so that he can start figuring out his vocal piece on his own.

Having looked for her without success Kurt finds himself walking down the hallway in the administrative part of the building when he is brought up short by loud voices.

"...told you when I got here that I don't want to do this ..."

The sound is muffled but they have to be shouting because he can still make out some of the conversation even through the thick oak walls.

"Mr. Anderson, is it too much to ask you to do this piece with Mr. Hummel. Mr. Motoshiko says you are such a gifted student and..."

"That has got nothing to do with it. Please, I will do another piece, a group number..."

Kurt has heard enough. He doesn't care about finding Ms. Korokova anymore; he'll talk to her tomorrow. His good mood has disappeared after hearing Blaine tell someone that he doesn't want to do a number with Kurt. What is so wrong with me that he doesn't want to even be around me, Kurt asks himself?

The next morning it was time for his first rehearsal with Blaine and Kurt didn't look forward to it one bit. They had by some miracle been awarded the auditorium to rehearse in, a thing which Kurt was grateful for. The grand piano was what he would be playing on the day of the concert and he preferred to get in as much practise time as possible just to get a feel for the instrument.

He used the main door to get in, giving him a clear view of the stage as soon as he opened the door. Blaine was sitting on the piano stool, his violin case open beside him with the violin resting on the red velvet lining. The dark haired boy was playing the grand and a beautiful little melody was forming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boogLwUZtCU (only listen to 0.36 if you want to hear what Kurt heard)

Kurt didn't want to interrupt, but it was his precious practise time as well, so he made his way down the steps towards the stage. Blaine's head came up and the playing faltered.

"Hi," he said and rose smoothly from his position.

"Hi," Kurt replied, crossing the stage and putting his bag down by the piano. "Let's just get this over with."

Blaine froze as he was picking up his violin.

"Why do you have to be such a bitch all the time? Can't you at least pretend to be nice just to make this more bearable for the both of us?" the dark haired boy said in exasperation.

Kurt barked a laugh. "At least I am honest. I don't go behind people's backs and complain about them."

The words were out of his mind before he realised what he had said.

"That's rich..." Blaine scoffed.

Kurt broke him off. "Oh shut up Blaine, I know I'm not perfect. I heard your outburst yesterday, so since neither of us wants to be here... could we get on with it?"

Kurt didn't wait for a response; he simply struck out a note leaving Blaine to scramble for his violin so that they could tune up.

Kurt felt the other boy's eyes on him as he tuned the violin. They were about to start going through the piece when Blaine lowered his instrument.

"Wait! You think I was complaining about you yesterday?"

Kurt just shrugged; he didn't want to let on that he cared.

"Well I wasn't, okay. I was complaining about the piece, the set up."

Kurt put his hands in his lap and actually looked at his duet partner; he looked about as frustrated as Kurt felt.

"I don't get it?"

"Of course you don't get it, you like being the centre of attention. I saw you at the concert, how you came alive when you took your place in front of the orchestra. You love performing." Blaine's voice was steadily rising.

They were facing each other now, Kurt having stood up, Blaine holding his violin by the neck.

"And you don't? Please, I have had classes with you for three weeks now and it's always Blaine play this, Blaine show the class, Blaine why don't you give us an example. If you hate it so much, why do you jump at every opportunity to show off. It's like you can't help but rub everyone's noses in how talented you are."

"I don't do that!" Blaine spluttered, his cheeks red either from anger or embarrassment. "Besides, that's different!"

"How is it different? I see no difference!" Kurt was almost shouting now, having worked himself up with his previous speech, letting all his resentment flow out.

"I don't like being paraded around like some show dog, okay. I don't want to do a solo piece."

Kurt guffawed. "This isn't a solo, this is a duet!"

"Same thing!"

"No it's not!"

'How did this get so juvenile?' Kurt thought.

"Well don't you dare quit on me, without you I have no end of summer piano piece."

"I don't see why you have to do a piano piece at all. With your voice you could just stick to the singing." The frustration was visible on Blaine's face.
"Yeah, well I got into Julliard on both, so I'm showcasing both!"

Kurt looked at the boy before him taking in the flashing eyes, the red cheeks and that mouth, slightly open and breathing hard after their shouting match. It was too much. He found himself closing the distance between them in a rush. His lips met Blaine's lips hard because of his momentum, but then he softened the kiss. It seemed like the other boy was shocked by the turn of events and Kurt was about to take a step back, because what the heck was he doing? However, before he could be consumed by doubt, Blaine's mouth started to move. The other boy's lips were so soft and he nipped at Kurt's bottom lip making him moan before he could control himself.