“A small, non-fat café au lait, please.” Kurt placed his order at Grounds for Thought, the local coffee shop that was half coffee house, half used book store. He waited for his coffee while Rachel placed her order. Café au lait was not Kurt's preference, but it was half the price of the mocha he preferred.

As Kurt waited, his eyes scanned the section of the room with seating. His eyes passed over and then went back to a table in the corner. There, in a heated and obviously intimate conversation was Blaine Anderson, practically nose to nose with an oddly familiar, chin-dimpled, chiseled-featured Adonis right out of central casting for a Disney prince. Kurt felt his stomach plummet, then he realized that his stomach had plummeted, and his inner Kurt berated him for being such an idiot. Was he really jealous because his student had a boyfriend? That was ridiculous.

Rachel followed his eyes. “Oh my God, Kurt!” she lit up. “Do you know who that is?”

“Yeah, he's in my class.”

“What? No, Kurt, the guy in the corner.”

“Yeah, the guy in the corner is Blaine Anderson. He's the frat boy I was telling you about.”

“Not him, silly…although, wow, he is cute. But, no, the guy with him. That's Cooper Anderson, you know, the credit rating guy?”

It finally struck Kurt why the man was familiar. “Oh, wow, Rachel. It is!” Kurt's hand went to his mouth. Kurt felt extra stupid. Blaine had a sexy celebrity boyfriend; he was definitely just screwing with Kurt.

Rachel, however, put it together. “Blaine Anderson. Cooper Anderson. Do you think they're brothers?”

“Oh. I….oh. Yeah, maybe.” Kurts heart rose a little at that thought.  

Rachel looped her hand through Kurt's arm. “Let's go say ‘Hi.'”

“No, wait, Rachel,” but Kurt was already being dragged across the coffee shop.

When they got to the table, Rachel simply stopped and looked up at Kurt expectantly. Kurt turned twelve shades of red and said lamely, “Um, hi, Blaine.”

Whatever reaction Kurt expected, it was not the one he got. Blaine instantly rose to his feet and grabbed Kurt's hand. “Professor Hummel. It's great to see you. You have to join us. Here let me get you a chair.” He turned and grabbed two chairs from two surrounding tables and pulled them to the table. “You have to introduce me to your friend. This is my brother, Cooper Anderson. You have to join us. Cooper, this is Kurt Hummel and his…um…this is…” He finally ran out of steam.

“Rachel Berry,” Rachel gave a beatific smile and extended her hand.

“Enchante'.” Cooper took Rachel's hand and gave her a smoldering look, completely ignoring Kurt.  The actor rose from his seat, took Rachel's cup from her hand, and pulled out her chair.

“What a gentleman. Thank you,” Rachel beamed.

Kurt watched with interest as Blaine visibly tensed. Then he slid into the chair next to Blaine and took a sip of his coffee.

The following half hour involved Cooper talking to Rachel (mostly about himself), Rachel making adoring and encouraging comments, Blaine rolling his eyes so much that Kurt worried that he might injure himself, and Kurt quietly sipping his coffee and surreptitiously watching Blaine.

Then Kurt realized that Cooper had addressed a question to the group, and neither Kurt nor Blaine had noticed. “Pardon?” asked Kurt.

“I said we should all go for dinner. Blaine made us reservations at The Tavern, but I'm sure they can stretch it to four for a celebrity.”

“You're not a celebrity,” Blaine muttered through gritted teeth.

“What's that Blaine?” Cooper asked with mock innocence.

Blaine cleared his throat. “I said, I'm sure they can stretch the reservation.”

“No, really, we can't intrude…” Kurt began.

Blaine's hand fell on Kurt's arm. “Please come.” He turned pleading eyes to Kurt, and Kurt realized that it was a sweet, puppy-dog look that he was never going to be able to refuse. It also didn't hurt that Blaine's hand was scorching through Kurt's skin, and Kurt was never going to wash that arm again.

“Yes, OK. We'd love to.”

Rachel gave Kurt a huge smile, Blaine looked faintly relieved, and Cooper looked smug. Kurt mentally reconciled his bank statement in his head and decided that if he kept his order to a cup of soup, he might barely be able to afford The Tavern.

Cooper put out an arm for Rachel, who took it happily, and Blaine and Kurt followed behind, walking side by side, arms occasionally brushing.

The next three hours were a seesaw of tedium (Cooper talking) and sexual arousal (Blaine doing anything). Whenever Cooper talked, Kurt wanted to stab him in the throat with his fork, so he distracted himself from his homicidal thoughts by looking at Blaine, but he swore that every one of Blaine's actions was purposely chosen to make Kurt as hard as possible.

First, Blaine shredded a dinner roll. It shouldn't have been sexy, but all Kurt could think of was those same long, tapered fingers on his own body, touching, pinching, poking, sliding…gah. Then Blaine drank from his water glass, and as a bead of water landed on Blaine's lips he licked it away with his tongue, and Kurt's own tongue dried up completely and grew three sizes. Then Blaine drummed his fingers on his thighs, and Kurt imagined those fingers drumming up his own naked thighs. Then Blaine pinched the stem of his wine glass with his thumb and forefinger and ran them up and down the wine stem, while Kurt imagined those same fingers sliding up and down something else cylindrical that was thicker and longer and very much attached to Kurt. When Kurt thought his pants might explode, he purposely tuned back into Cooper's monotonous monologue.

It was a long night.

As they were finishing dessert (thankfully Blaine had announced as they sat to dinner that it was his treat, so Kurt didn't have to come up with some religious excuse about why he was on a soup-only fast), Cooper announced, “I think Rachel and I are going to go on for an after-dinner cocktail. Why don't we meet up with you guys later. Say, at breakfast?”

Rachel didn't even blink at Cooper's presumption, but Kurt kind of goggled. However, before he could say anything, Blaine put his hand on Kurt's arm again (again!) and said hurriedly, “That sounds great. We'll see you guys later. Have fun.”

As Rachel and Cooper left and Blaine paid the bill (Kurt had no qualms about this, because he had come to grips a long time ago with the fact that all of the undergraduates had far more disposable money than any of the graduate students), Blaine suddenly took Kurt's hand in his and said, “Thank you so much, Kurt, for coming tonight. I know it wasn't what you planned, but I get a little crazy around my brother, and I really needed someone to run interference.”

It took every ounce of Kurt's strength to make himself pull his hand away from Blaine's. “It's no problem.” He smiled, “Besides, I got a free meal. Thank you.”

Blaine leaned forward and licked his lips, his eyes intent on Kurt. “How about I take you out and get you a free drink, too?”

Kurt stood so suddenly that he had to catch his chair before it toppled. “That's very nice of you, but, no. I have to go, but thank you again for dinner.” Then Kurt left the restaurant and kicked himself all the way home.