Being best friends with Rachel Berry could be exhausting, if Kurt was being honest with himself. He knew he couldn’t have asked for anyone better in terms of support or in pushing him to follow his dreams – after all, he wouldn’t have ended up in New York City after a failed audition for NYADA if she hadn’t encouraged him to chin up and find a way and a reason to be there. Performing on a stage might not have been his destiny, but being in that city was. It was where he belonged, and he doubted he would have made it there without Rachel.

That didn’t change the fact that she was like the Energizer Bunny on most days.

“Kurt!” There was a frantic knock on the door of his apartment, and he covered the distance to it in a few long strides. It wasn’t like there was much space to move across, the studio apartment he’d been settled in since he moved to the city was small – but it was just for him and he thought it was more on the side of cozy than cramped. After the few years he’d spent in it, he considered it home.

“Rachel?” he asked as he undid the deadbolt and yanked the door open, expecting to see her in some sort of distress considering the way her knocking hadn’t ceased since the moment it started. Except she was standing there with a smile on her face – a smile that he knew well and that tended to make him wary. It meant that she had some sort of idea going on in that head of hers. “What—how did you get up here?”

“Oh, one of your neighbors was leaving and I slipped in the door,” she said, waving her hand airily and ducking under his arm to get into the apartment. “We’re going out.”

“Out?” Kurt shut the door and turned on his heel to look at her. A quick once over was all he needed to know what she meant by out. A club was in his future and it wasn’t that he minded, per se, but he generally appreciated more warning so he could be prepared for such a night. Dealing with his internship at Vogue was enough to wear him down day in and day out and he usually had to pep himself up for a night out with her. “I don’t know if I can tonight, Rachel.”

“Of course you can! Do you know how long it’s been since we’ve gone out and had a night on the town?” She perched herself on the edge of his bed and looked up at him. “Far too long, in case you were unaware. Tonight’s the night we change that!”

“What if I already have plans?” he challenged, arms folding across his chest. Her gaze swept over him and she just about rolled her eyes.

“Kurt, you’re wearing your comfort clothes,” she said, pushing up off the bed and smoothing her hands over the fabric of his shirt, down his arms. “Not that there’s anything wrong with them, just that if you had any plans at all I know that you would be wearing something else.”

She wasn’t wrong. He’d been set and ready for a night in, and he never went out wearing that particular shirt or those pants. They were perfect for lounging and doing a whole lot of nothing, but not being in public. Besides, he had just made himself a cup of tea and had been ready to sit and enjoy it while pouring over his sketchbook. Then maybe he would have watched a movie, depending on how tired he felt. Those had been his illustrious plans for the evening. He really hadn’t been prepared for a sneak attack from Rachel.

“Rachel…”

“I’m not taking no for an answer, Kurt!” she said cheerfully, moving over to the small desk he had crammed in the corner and settling into the chair. “You go ahead and get ready, I’m in no rush.” Kurt was well aware it was hopeless to try and argue when she had her mind set on something. So much for his night of relaxation. “It’s for your own good, you know.”

“And how is that, exactly?” he asked as he rifled through his dresser, haphazardly putting an outfit together. He could judge just how casual he could be based on what she was wearing, though he never really went quite as out there as her. It didn’t do him any favors to blend in, he figured, and he liked to look good when he was out. He always had.

“You never go out,” Rachel said simply. “The only times you do, it’s when I bring it up. Your internship has completely taken over your entire life and I barely see you anymore! It’s not at all like it was when we were both in school, though you still overworked yourself in those years, but I can understand because it’s important to test your limits and push yourself as far as you can—”

“Alright fine, I get it,” Kurt interrupted, tugging off his shirt so he could put on the one he’d grabbed out. “I’m a recluse, a hermit, though an admittedly well-dressed one. I’m just trying to make the most of what I have, is that so bad?”

“Not at all! You just have to remember to go out and get some fresh air every so often. Walks to and from the subway don’t count.”

“Rachel, there is nothing about the air in New York City that could be described as fresh.”

“Oh don’t be so glum!”

He ignored her as he changed the rest of his outfit – it wasn’t exactly what he would have put together if he’d had any sort of warning that he was going to spend his night out with her, but he could live with it. Tight jeans with boots over, laced midway up his calves, were always acceptable. The little touches made it feel less thrown together and more carefully styled – the suspenders, the vest. By the time he was done, she had flipped her way through one of the magazines sitting on his desk, and had been humming the entire time.

“Ready? Excellent.” Rachel hopped to her feet and waited by the door for him as he grabbed his wallet and keys from on top of his dresser and slipped them into his pocket.

“Where are we going, exactly?” Kurt asked as he followed her out, locking the door behind him before taking the stairs down and out to the street. He could generally trust Rachel’s judgment for night spots, as long as she wasn’t trying to set him up again.

The few attempts she had made to find him a boyfriend had ended horrifically, and it wasn’t exactly like he’d been asking or wanting her to do any of it. She’d gotten it into her head that he’d feel better if he had someone to date, and off she’d gone. Those experiences usually came with warnings when they went out, and as none had been said, he assumed it was not one of those times. Then again, after the last time he had to think that it would never happen again – disaster that it had been. Though her insistence of them going out made him start to worry it was just that.

“This amazing piano bar,” she said with a sigh, slipping her arm through his as they headed for the subway. “You know how I generally don’t like places like that, because the talent is always so subpar and really unfortunate considering what a wealth of talent we have in a city such as this, but I managed to find one where I don’t feel like I should take over the stage to put the audience out of its misery.”

“How lucky for them,” Kurt replied, a smirk twitching at the corners of his mouth. He’d been present on more than one occasion where Rachel had received a talking to from security at such places, as she’d either attempted to critique a performer to their face or just plain sing over top of them. As amusing as it could be, he preferred it when unwanted attention was kept away from them.

“You’ll love it. I hope they have the same performers from the other night I was there – they were incredible. They switch off every hour or so, but they were all so good. Plus there’s a little band that backs them on songs occasionally, and I won’t lie and tell you that there weren’t some attractive fellows in there…”

Rachel didn’t stop talking the entire subway ride, which thankfully was a short one. It had been a solid week since Kurt had last seen her and apparently a lot had happened that he needed caught up on. Hearing about the drama in the theatre community – the kind that happened not on the stage – sometimes made him glad that he hadn’t ended up there. Of course, the fashion industry wasn’t devoid of drama of its own, but he liked to think that he preferred that to what Rachel was going through.

The sign outside the bar was brightly lit, reading ‘THE BIG BANG DUELING PIANO BAR’ and sparkling like glitter had exploded on it, and had a curving arrow pointing the way to the door. There was a short line of people at the door, and the wait was long enough to make Kurt regret opening the door to his apartment and letting Rachel in. He hated standing and waiting to get inside clubs and bars – especially when all he’d planned was a quiet night in. If that hadn’t been enough to dampen his mood, a light drizzle of rain started to fall and neither of them had an umbrella so they were stuck huddling together as if that would protect them somehow.

By the time they got inside, Kurt felt soggy and annoyed. He barely managed a greeting to the bouncer, handing over his ID to be checked and paying the cover. An ‘X’ marked in black was scrawled on the back of his hand and he waited for Rachel to get her own before starting down the stairs to the actual bar. It was loud – though it had been before they’d started their descent. There was the usual buzz of conversations being had loudly to be heard over the music, but then there was also the music.

They’d been to piano bars before, but Kurt was instantly aware that the Big Bang wasn’t like any one he knew. It was much more raucous, and the two baby grands facing each other were clearly heavily abused on a nightly basis. A closer look showed that they weren’t traditional pianos, and for that he was grateful – because he couldn’t imagine how often they would have to get them serviced, repaired, or flat out replaced, but he couldn’t even lose himself in that train of thought before Rachel dragged him toward the bar.

“Two shots of tequila!” she demanded once one of the bartenders approached them, and Kurt stared at her. She just looked up at him, feigning innocence. For as good as an actress she was, she really was horrible at it sometimes. “What?”

“You plan on drinking both of those yourself?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course not.”

“Rachel, you know I don’t do tequila. Bad things happen.”

“One shot isn’t going to do you in!” she replied, flashing a smile at the bartender when he came back, and handed over her card to pay. “Come on, Kurt. Live a little! You can drink whatever you want after, but I don’t want to do this shot by myself.”

Kurt took a quick glance around their general area, and took a step away to tap someone on the shoulder. He was a decent looking guy, definitely not drunk, and most importantly he had been by himself. “Excuse me, my friend has an extra shot of tequila and she seems to be determined about someone doing it with her – interested?”

“I—sure!” he grinned over at Rachel, who practically glared at Kurt for a moment before holding the shot out to the stranger with a well-practiced smile adorning her face.

“Perfect,” Kurt said, getting one of the bartender’s attention to order a drink of his own. He turned and leaned back against the bar as he waited, and he took in the whole place. The bar was set up a little higher than the rest of the place, a small balcony to separate it from the floor that was littered with chairs and tables and so many people that Kurt was certain they wouldn’t be able to find a place to sit.

There were two pianists on stage – both playing, though only one was singing. She had a strong voice and clearly had a lot of training, because anyone could sing pop music but not everyone could sing it in a way that actually made it sound good. There was no denying that she had stage presence either, because Kurt was pretty sure every straight man in the bar was twisted right around her little finger – and all it had taken was a sly little smirk and a wink as she finished out the song.

Except it was the other pianist who caught his eye. Kurt had just glanced over, as the girl who had been singing had been demanding much more of his attention, but as soon as he saw him he couldn’t look away. He was gorgeous and laughing at something that the girl had said, but Kurt hadn’t caught what it was because he was too busy staring, taking in the line of his jaw and the way his hair was done so neatly but there were little curls escaping from the gel due to the heat of the room. There was a sparkle in his eyes – a legitimate twinkle – and Kurt got to experience it first-hand because the pianist’s gaze moved across the crowd and their eyes locked.

Kurt felt like he’d forgotten how to breathe.