“Hi, can I help you?”

Kurt looked up from the brochures that were neatly displayed in a stand next to the front desk. “Oh, yes. I’m here for Puppy Paradise?” 

The man behind the desk beamed. “Oh, that’s great! Are you looking to adopt?”

“Unfortunately not. I’d like to, someday. I just don’t have the space for a pet just yet. College life, you know?”

“Yeah, I do know. That’s why I started volunteering here. There’s never a shortage of adorable animals to play with. My name’s Blaine, by the way. Blaine Anderson.”

Kurt shook the hand that Blaine held out to him. “Kurt Hummel. Nice to meet you, Blaine.”

“You, too. If you’ll just fill this out for me, then I’ll take you to the playroom and you can meet your new best friends.”

Kurt took the form he was handed and quickly filled it in, eager to get started. He and Rachel had discussed getting a pet, but she was allergic to cats, and neither of them was home often enough to properly take care of a dog. They tried fish, but after the first five betta fish went belly up, they gave up on that idea as well. Luckily, the local animal shelter regularly had special days where you could come and play with the animals. 

Kurt had seen the flyer hanging up on the notice board in the lobby of their building as he came home from class, and, seeing that they had one scheduled that day, he had rushed upstairs to throw on some old clothes that he did not mind getting dirty and made his way to the shelter. 

As Blaine waved Kurt ahead of him, he was glad for the foresight. He thought he’d seen Blaine give him a once over in the front office, and he put an extra sway in his hips, glad he chose a particularly flattering pair of yoga pants that did wonders for his ass. 

The first thing Kurt noticed as he walked through the door was the noise. The room was filled with all kinds of puppies running around and yapping excitedly, and Kurt crouched down to give head scratches to the bravest of them, a tiny little chocolate labrador who had come running up to him and Blaine and tried to jump up their legs. 

“Hi there, little guy. Who’s a good boy? Yes, you are!” he cooed to the puppy, doing his best to dodge the overenthusiastic licks hello the puppy tried to give him. 

“His name’s Charlie,” Blaine said as he crouched down next to Kurt and scratched the dog behind his floppy brown ears. 

“How did he end up here?” 

“We always get a few pregnant females a year, but this year we had three at the same time. It was the usual story, people get a dog, fail to get them spayed, and then end up not wanting the responsibility of taking care of them when they get pregnant. So they bring them to us. It’s not great, but we’d rather take in a hundred pregnant dogs than for them to end up dumped in some dark alley, or worse.”

“God, that’s awful.”

“It is, but we do what we can,” Blaine said with a shrug. “C’mon, we’ve got a couple of beanbags in the corner that’ll be a lot more comfortable than crouching all the time.”

Thirty minutes later, Kurt was extra glad he had changed out of his normal clothes. After he and Blaine had sat down on the beanbags, the other puppies came running and tried to climb all over them. Bit by bit, Kurt had slid down until he was sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out in front of him and his back resting against the beanbag. Blaine was lying next to him, spread out on the floor, and they both had dogs climbing all over them, licking their faces and begging for scratches. 

“So, how long have you been doing this?” Kurt asked Blaine, gently freeing one of the puppies from inside the hooded sweatshirt he had taken off a bit earlier. 

Blaine slowly turned his head to look at Kurt, doing his best not to dislodge the puppy that had decided Blaine’s unruly curls were the perfect place to lie down. “About a year now, I suppose. I started out as a volunteer dog walker, taking the more active ones for runs on the weekends. One of the receptionists recently went on maternity leave, so I applied to be her temporary replacement.

“These play dates were actually her idea, so I’m glad I can help keep them going until she returns. Even if nobody ends up adopting one of them, at least they’re getting plenty of attention.”

“That’s really admirable, Blaine.”

Blaine quickly ducked his head, but not fast enough for Kurt to miss seeing his blush. 

“What about you? What keeps you too busy for one of these adorable balls of fluff?”

“I’m double majoring in Fashion Design and Management at Parsons, and I work at Vogue.com. Just don’t judge me by this very basic outfit,” Kurt laughed as he gestured down.

“I think you look great, Kurt.”

Kurt could feel the blush heating his cheeks. “Thanks.”

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, one of the puppies chose that moment to try and play tug of war with Blaine’s shoelaces, and the moment was broken. 

Blaine grabbed a squeaky ball and successfully distracted the dogs by throwing it across the room, making them run after it frantically. 

After playing with them for a while and wearing them out, Blaine and Kurt ended up lying starfished on the floor, covered in tired puppies. Charlie, the chocolate Lab had curled up on Kurt’s chest, and he had two of his friends lying on his arm and legs, respectively. Blaine had laid down with his head next to Kurt’s hip, and the puppy on Kurt’s leg decided to take advantage of that by lying down with his body on Kurt’s leg and his head atop Blaine’s. 

“I didn’t know how much I needed this until I got here,” Kurt admits quietly, feeling as if speaking too loudly would break the spell that had fallen over the room. 

“I get that. I was the same, to be honest. I was stressing so much, trying to keep up with my classes and making rent, that I was burning out before I even hit twenty. But these animals, they don’t care about what you’re dealing with. They only want one of two things from you, attention or food. Give them a bit of both, and they will be your friend forever.

“Since I started working here, I’ve been feeling so much more relaxed. Whenever I have a bad day, I only need to cuddle a puppy or kitten, or go for a run with some of the older dogs, and nothing will seem quite as bad after.”

Kurt reached down to gently pet the puppy lying on his leg. “I’m glad you have that. I think I might have to make this a regular thing as well.”

“We would be happy to have you, Kurt.”

Kurt ran his hand down the dog's curly head. “Thanks, that means a lot.”

“Um, Kurt?”

“Yeah?” he said absently. 

“That’s not the dog…”

Kurt’s head flew up, and he was shocked to see his hand buried in Blaine’s curls, instead of the dog’s curly fur like he had thought. “I - what? Oh, shit. I’m so sorry, Blaine. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Hey, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.” Blaine reached up as best as he could without dislodging the dogs napping on him and gently patted Kurt’s arm. “Really, I only said something because I didn’t want you to be unaware. It felt kinda nice, actually. It’s been a while since I had a cute boy play with my hair…” 

“Oh…I - you think I’m cute?”

“I think you’re gorgeous, Kurt. And if you’re not opposed, I would love to take you out on a date sometime.”

Kurt blushed fiercely, but made no effort to hide it this time. He looked Blaine right in the eye as he told him, “I’d love to.”