Blaine stares at the pile of curtains stacked on his living room couch, his eyes tracing the swirl of the pattern.

The curtains stare back.

Blaine narrows his eyes, wondering if he glares hard enough, with enough anger, he could make them spontaneously combust.

It doesn't work. He rolls his eyes, gives up his staring contest and walks over to them resentfully, hating the way they smirk at him when he picks them up and steps up onto the small ladder he has to use to reach the top of the window.

It's not that he hates putting up curtains. He doesn't mind any chores around the apartment, especially since he lives alone. Chores give him something to do. It's just that his mom sent him these curtains and they're so...ugly. And they don't match. Blaine hates when things don't match.

He steps down from the ladder and moves it over to the other window, glancing out quickly when something catches his eye. Across the way in the building attached to his, someone is maneuvering his way into the empty apartment there. The guy is very blond and very built, and Blaine can't help but stop and appreciate his looks. He's carrying a few boxes, and Blaine gets a nice view of his ass when he bends to set them down. Blaine smiles to himself. There hasn't been a new guy around for a while; maybe he'll get some action.

He's just coming up with ways to introduce himself to this guy at the gym (because there's no way Blondie doesn't work out) when another man steps into the apartment and sets down the boxes he's holding.

All thoughts of Blondie and his body fly out of Blaine's head. This second man is beautiful. He's tall and lean, his black shirt gripping his body in the most perfect ways and his jeans just tight enough to leave nothing to the imagination. Blaine feels his jaw drop and doesn't even bother closing his mouth. The man has unbelievable skin, seemingly glowing, and so soft looking that Blaine just wants to touch so badly. When the man turns his head and Blaine sees him in profile, he almost moans out loud at the shape of his jaw and how strong and hot it is, and how much he wants to bite it.

When a tiny bit of drool actually slips out of the corner of his mouth, Blaine manages to snap himself out of it and step back from the window a bit as to not get caught watching. He can still see as the two men bring in more boxes, and he tries to assess their relationship. They laugh a lot together, so they're obviously close. Are they moving in together? And if so, are they just friends? Boyfriends? Blaine hopes not. He feels a bit creepy, standing there spying on them, but he just can't help it.

Blaine makes himself stop watching, only catching the occasional glimpse as he finishes hanging up his curtains. Before he can stop himself, he's stepping back to the window and pushing the new curtains out of the way just enough so that he's still hidden, but has a good view.

Gorgeous and Blondie are hugging, tightly. Blondie gives Gorgeous some kind of bro pat on the back, and Blaine has to resist doing a fist pump because it confirms that these two are not dating, not even anything but friends or relatives. He watches as Blondie leaves, and Gorgeous looks around his apartment at all the boxes, smiling to himself before walking out of the window frame's range.

Blaine feels strange after having witnessed such a personal moment. He decides not to dwell on it, and he tries to convince himself it's a bad idea to go over and introduce himself to the beautiful man across the way.

It's about a week before Blaine falls in love. Every day since he first saw the man move in, he hadn't been able to keep from sneaking peeks whenever he could, standing at his window for just a few minutes at a time, watching him unpack his apartment (and if the man happened to bend over a lot while setting things up, well, Blaine certainly wasn't complaining). Blaine couldn't help but be incredibly impressed with this man's taste. The apartment slowly took form until everything was arranged, the boxes in a pile by the door.

And at that one-week mark, Blaine falls in love.

He's in his kitchen cooking dinner when he hears it: a beautiful voice floating in through his open living room window, the sound of it filling his entire apartment. Blaine feels like his ears are being caressed by soft feathers, and a dopey smile crosses his face as he practically glides over to the window to find the source of this sound.

Of course it's the beautiful man, singing along to a track in his living room, eyes closed and head tilted back, completely entranced by the music. Blaine feels under a spell himself, unable to lift his eyes from this man and the way his mouth curls around each word he sings, his voice carrying all the way over to Blaine's apartment through their open windows.

Blaine knows he's been impulsive when it comes to love before. He knows he rushes in and falls too hard too fast, but in this instant, he absolutely cannot help himself. He's in love. He's in love with the man from the apartment across the way and he needs to do something about it other than stand sketchily at his window and watch the man do things around his apartment. He makes up his mind right then and there to find an in, and steps back from the window to his dinner (now a bit burnt), brainstorming.

It isn't for a few more days that Blaine sees his way in. He's casually dusting his curtains early one morning and watching the guy from the window when he hears a loud curse and something fall over. He quickly places himself in a position where he can't be seen but can observe fully, and watches as the man kicks a mannequin that had fallen over before carefully lifting it back up and, frustrated, continuing his work on the dress shirt that covers it.

Blaine smiles to himself. It seems that he's struggling with his design work and needs a better model than some stupid mannequin. Blaine can totally be that model.

He drops the feather duster and gets to work. First, he has to bake something for the man, as a pretense for coming over at all. Baking for a new neighbor is totallya thing. He figures no one hates pie, so he'll bake the man a pie, and after careful consideration decides to go with apple. He figures the man probably likes something a little fancier, but apple pie is a classic, and he'd make his famous pecan pie but with his luck, the man would be allergic.

So he gets to baking, taking his time to perfect the lattice on top, putting the pie in the oven when it's ready, and goes about getting dressed. He needs to wear something stylish, since this man obviously knows his fashion if he's designing clothes. It takes him a while, but he settles on his hot red pants, a black shirt and his favorite red, white and black striped bowtie. He's learned over the years to control his gel overload, and works just enough in to make his hair tame but still fluffy, with a slight wave to it.

He smiles to himself in the mirror, until he smells something burning, and his smile drops instantly as he rushes to the kitchen only to find his kitchen filled with smoke and his pie burnt to a crisp.

He throws an apron over his outfit and rushes to make a new pie, getting a little messy and his lattice coming out sloppier, but he manages to get it into the oven just after noon. He glances out the window to see that Kurt is no longer to be seen, but figures that worst case scenario, he can save the pie and go over the next day. In the meantime, he goes about cleaning himself up and fixing his hair before sitting in the kitchen to ensure that this pie doesn't burn.

Luckily pie number two makes it, and Blaine carefully wraps it up once it's cooled enough to carry. He checks the time, and upon seeing that it's late afternoon, goes back to the window to check if Gorgeous is there. He is, apparently having returned, and looks just as frustrated as before. Blaine smiles to himself before getting everything in order to leave. He stands at his door, takes a deep breath, and steps out.

He psyches himself up for the entire walk to the other side of the building, passing the guard in the connecting hallway and waving. He calculated it exactly and knows which number Kurt's apartment should be—7b, since Blaine's apartment is 7a and they're in opposite buildings. He smiles the entire way down the hall, stopping in front of the apartment and raising a hand to knock, but before he gets the chance, he hears another curse.

Perfect. The man is even more pissed off at the mannequin. Blaine is totally in.

He knocks firmly three times, waiting to hear footsteps before he puts his game face on.

"Yes?" the man says as he opens the door, looking a bit frazzled and eyeing Blaine up and down.

For a moment, Blaine forgets how to speak. This man is even more beautiful up close, and he literally takes Blaine's breath away. Once Blaine reaches the man's eyes and notices him looking at Blaine strangely, his vocal box seems to work of its own accord.

"Hi! My name is Blaine; I live in the connecting building. Someone mentioned to me that there was a new guy and I figured I should introduce myself. You know, if you need any help finding anything or, um, need a friend. Or something."

The man stares at him apprehensively and then glances down to the pie.

"Oh! I baked you a pie!"

Blaine winces internally, hoping he's not about to receive his pie in his face, but luckily the other man just looks amused.

"Thank you, Blaine. I'm Kurt. Why don't you come on in?"

Blaine grins so big he wonders if his face splits. Kurt just invited him in. Which means he should probably do something other than stand in the doorway like an idiot while Kurt laughs at him. Okay, feet working, door closing, awesome.

"Wow, Kurt, this is a really nice place," Blaine compliments, mentally patting himself on the back for not screwing this up.

"Thanks," Kurt replies, a smirk appearing on his face. Blaine bites his lip, realizing his confidence is sinking in the face of this beautiful man, but forces himself to power on—he's on a very important mission.

"What's this?" he asks, gesturing to the mannequin.

"My design project," Kurt sighs, walking over to Blaine and taking the pie from him. "Or at least, that's what it's supposed to be." Kurt walks away into the kitchen, and Blaine hears a drawer open and what sounds like a knife being pulled out.

"You're a design student? Where?" Blaine had figured as much when he first saw Kurt working on the mannequin, but obviously couldn't say that without seeming like a total creepy freak for watching Kurt through his window.

"FIT. I didn't originally want to go there because it felt like such a cliché, you know? The gay boy from small town Ohio running off to New York to become a fashion designer...but I pushed aside my pride one day and thought to myself...fuck it, you know? It's what I want to do, so it's what I did."

Blaine stands there, stunned, as Kurt walks back over with two plates of pie and hands one to him, setting himself down on the couch and starting in on his own piece. Blaine hadn't expected Kurt to be so...forward right off the bat. He opened up about his life immediately, and Blaine can't imagine what he did to deserve such a beautiful, easygoing, intoxicating opportunity.

"Ah, well," Blaine responds, feeling more and more like a jackass as he just stands there with his pie. He manages to get his feet to work again and sits down a bit away from Kurt, who's digging into his own slice.

"Mmmmm, apple. My second favorite. Lucky guess, huh?" Kurt muses, licking his fork and forcing Blaine to cross his legs.

"I figured no one hates apple pie, you know?" Blaine starts in on his own piece, figuring that if he occupies his mouth with food, he'll stop saying stupid shit.

"Very good point, Blaine," Kurt says, still seemingly amused. "What about you? What do you do? Still in school?"

"No, actually," Blaine says after swallowing. "I just graduated last year. I'm an intern at an organization that fundraises for children's hospitals."

"Well shit," Kurt breathes out, putting down his plate and turning to face Blaine full on. "You're just little Mr. Sunshine, aren't you?" Blaine isn't sure if he should be offended, but the huge grin on Kurt's face seems to imply he shouldn't be.

"Thank you?" he laughs, setting down his own plate. "It's nothing, really...I guess...I've just always wanted to work with kids, and this was my first opportunity, so, you know...I went for it."

Kurt seems to be about to respond, but Blaine wants to steer the conversation away from himself...he usually loves hearing compliments, but he doesn't want Kurt to think him cocky or anything.

He quickly stands back up and strides over to the mannequin before Kurt has the chance to say anything.

"So, it seems like you and the mannequin aren't exactly friends," Blaine mentions, bending down to examine the ten or so pins that are violently shoved into the base of the dummy.

"You could say that," Kurt answers a bit darkly, eyeing the model as if it had just told him he's the worst designer in the world. "I'm working on this huge, all semester design project, where I have to create an entire line and tailor it to someone for my presentation, but the guy who was supposed to model for me broke his leg, and now this is all I have to work with." He shoots the mannequin a dirty look that Blaine decides he never wants to be on the receiving end of. "It's just...not the same as working with a real person."

"I could help," Blaine is offering before he even realizes. He straightens up to see Kurt raise an eyebrow, and figures he's already started digging this hole; he might as well bury himself now. "I mean, I'm about the same size as this thing...and you'd have a real body to work with. If you want. Up to you."

Kurt appraises him, placing his plate on the coffee table and standing to make his way over to Blaine. He rests his hands on Blaine's shoulders, smoothing them down his arms before turning Blaine around. It's all Blaine can do not to shudder at Kurt's soft touches and hums of approval.

After about a minute of silence, Blaine cranes his neck to look at Kurt, only to find Kurt's gaze fixed below his belt.

"See something you like?" Blaine teases, causing Kurt to snap his eyes away from Blaine's ass to his face, a blush settling into his cheeks. Blaine can't help but smirk, especially at managing to fluster Kurt a bit after stumbling his way through this whole venture.

"Sorry, I...yes, I'd love your help, as long as you're free three or four nights a week," Kurt replies, turning away to hide his lingering embarrassment and going to clean up their plates. Blaine can't help but be charmed by Kurt, and feels so lucky that this worked out as he intended.

"Completely doable," Blaine confirms, smiling when Kurt turns back around with the plates, grinning in return before heading into the kitchen. Blaine stands awkwardly in the living room waiting for him to come back, unsure as to how to proceed now.

"Well, why don't we start now? I could take your measurements and you could come back tomorrow," Kurt suggests when he comes back. Before Blaine can answer, Kurt's hands are on his shoulders, steering him where he wants him before stepping back, eyeing him for a moment, and turning around to rummage through a cabinet.

"Here we go!" he says triumphantly, holding up a measuring tape. Blaine stands still as Kurt works around his body, wrapping the tape around his torso, moving Blaine's arms where he needs to and scrawling measurements onto a notepad. When Kurt is measuring Blaine's neck, he's close enough for Blaine to get a whiff of his cologne, and it takes everything he has not to inhale sharply at the sweet scent. Their fingers align when Kurt measures his arm length and all Blaine wants to do is twine their hands together.

He tries very hard not to laugh when Kurt starts measuring him for the pants, because there's so much inappropriate touching going on and they've only just met. He goes from trying not to laugh to trying not to blush when Kurt is measuring his inseam, one long-fingered hand firmly on his thigh.

He is sufficiently and inappropriately turned on by the time Kurt has all of his measurements, and makes up some excuse about feeding his neighbor's cat before hastily assuring their time for the next day and hightailing it out of there.

Blaine shows up the next day a few minutes early, and they get right to work. They talk from practically the moment he gets there, only a few short silences as Kurt maneuvers fabric around Blaine's body and shows him the sketches and his designs. Most of the time, Kurt doesn't actually need to use Blaine for anything, so they just talk while Kurt pins and sews. They learn how much they have in common, from their home state of Ohio, to show choir, to their love of Broadway and cute puppies, even down to the same brand of hair product.

Blaine eats it up. He didn't realize how easy it would be to become friends with Kurt, and hopes to initiate something more, as soon as he can.

For now, he's very much enjoying Kurt's company. After the first week, he starts bringing Kurt a coffee and a snack, figuring out quickly his favorites (biscotti and bear claws). After the first time, he got Kurt's coffee order wrong, and instead of correcting him, Kurt made him guess every time. Blaine loves it, even after two weeks of getting it wrong.

One day, he shows up with a grin stretched across his face, and hands Kurt his coffee, watching intently while he takes a sip.

"Shit," Kurt curses, smiling too and rolling his eyes. "Okay, you got me. I'm a mocha whore." Blaine laughs and high fives himself.

"I am so proud of myself, you have no idea," Blaine gloats, giggling when Kurt flips him off.

They're much more flirty, after that. Kurt finds more excuses to touch Blaine while they're working, and Blaine slips as many stupid innuendos into their conversation as possible, as much to make Kurt laugh as to turn him on.

It escalates easily. Once Kurt has finished all his pieces, all that's left is to tailor them to Blaine's body. This means that each visit consists of mostly Kurt touching him. It goes from Kurt's hand on Blaine's knee for a few extra seconds to him practically pressing up behind Blaine when he's working on the collar of the shirt. Blaine trips up more often than not—Kurt's got this seduction game down to a science, while Blaine has always counted more on his charm than anything else to get him into someone's bed.

Kurt manages to take it to a whole new level about five weeks in. They've established a solid friendship and the basis of their flirtatious nature developed so naturally that neither of them feels unbalanced by it. But then one day, Kurt crosses the line.

"Hold on, I think this seam isn't quite right," Kurt mumbles, already dropping to his knees and reaching between Blaine's legs, his hand sliding up his inner thigh. Blaine gasps, almost pushing into the touch before he catches himself. Fuck, did Kurt know how to play him. This beautiful man would be the death of him.

"Hmmm...yeah, something's a little off," Kurt declares, and as his hand moves higher, Blaine can practically hear the smirk in his voice despite the fact that he is absolutely not looking down at Kurt, knowing it would be all too tempting to take action if he did. Kurt's hand keeps venturing up, and up and up and up, and Blaine can't take it anymore.

"I need to use the bathroom!" he exclaims, jumping down from the small platform Kurt has him stand on and effectively removing Kurt's hand from his body. He rushes off down the hall, wondering if the quiet laughter he hears from behind him is just his imagination.

Once in the bathroom, he turns on the sink and dabs some water on his face, careful not to get any on Kurt's suit. He glances up at himself in the mirror, noticing how flushed he is; he closes his eyes, taking long, deep breaths to calm himself down, the slight tension in his body melting away.

He opens his eyes and finds himself to look considerably more relaxed, and figures he's good to go for a little longer before getting home and taking care of things.

He dries off his face and goes to exit the bathroom, only to be spun around and slammed into the wall the second he steps out from the doorway.

"Wha—" is all he gets out before Kurt's mouth covers his, brutal and fast and so damn hot, his tongue pushing into Blaine's mouth without pretense.

"God, do you have any idea how long I've been waiting to do this?" is all Kurt says before attacking Blaine's neck, all lips and tongues and hands roaming his body and Blaine is so overwhelmed, so turned on that he just takes it, moaning and pressing into Kurt's touches.

They make out for a while, long enough to get them both completely hard, before Kurt pulls away with one last peck to Blaine's lips, leaving him thoroughly debauched against the wall.

"This was fun, but I have to go to dinner with a friend in a bit, so you should probably leave," Kurt states, leaning back against the opposite wall and smiling demurely at Blaine.

"Oh, you are such a tease," Blaine pants out, swallowing thickly and pushing himself off the wall. "I'll get you for this one, Hummel." Kurt just laughs at him and watches while he changes back in his clothes, making Blaine a bit self-conscious, since Kurt usually leaves the room and lets him change in peace. Apparently, those days are over, since Kurt can't seem to look away. Blaine bends down far to reach for his pants, effectively causing Kurt to gasp, and smirks. At least he managed to get in a tiny bit of revenge.

Blaine is changing into his clothes after one of their sessions while Kurt cleans up his supples when he notices Blondie, from when Kurt moved in, in a picture on Kurt's side table.

"Who's this?" Blaine asks, pointing to Blondie and causing Kurt to lift his head briefly.

"Oh, that's Sam. He's a friend from high school—sort of a brother figure. He moved in junior year after his parents had to sell their house and move back to Kentucky."

"That's cool," Blaine says, forgoing putting his shirt back on in favor of moving in closer to look at the picture. "He's hot."

Blaine glances over his shoulder to see Kurt narrow his eyes, although they're carefully trained on the pair of pants he's folding.

"Sure," Kurt replies coolly. "If you're into that muscled, football player, bottle blond type."

"Mmmmmmm, football players," Blaine moans, laying it on thick just to see Kurt's reaction.

Kurt doesn't disappoint.

"He's straight too," Kurt bites out, finally looking at Blaine. His eyes have gone a shade darker and they flicker down to Blaine's still naked torso.

"I wonder if he'd like to experiment sometime," Blaine teases, and it's all he can do not to scream when Kurt is suddenly on him, mouthing at his neck and wrapping an arm around his waist, which proves to be entirely necessary given that Blaine's knees are about to give.

"You're cute when you're jealous," Blaine pants out while Kurt attacks him.

"Don't call me cute," Kurt chastises before attaching his mouth back at Blaine's neck and resuming work on the impressive mark he's leaving there.

Blaine likes jealous Kurt. He'll have to explore that more in their budding relationship.

The next few times Blaine comes over, they all end the same way: Kurt will watch him change back into his own clothes, then shove him against the wall and make out with him till his lips are sore and his pants are too tight, and then send him home.

Blaine would be upset if Kurt weren't such a fantastic kisser. He doesn't mind this arrangement, until one day when it just gets to be too much.

Kurt has gone so far as to press his leg between Blaine's, rubbing against his erection and making Blaine moan loudly, before pulling away completely and going to clean up his sewing equipment.

"Oh, no you don't," Blaine growls, grabbing at Kurt's wrist and pulling him back. Kurt gasps and turns his head away when Blaine tries to kiss him. "What is this all about?"

"I—" Kurt starts, before pausing and seeming to try and choose his words carefully. "I only sleep with people I'm dating," he eventually states, avoiding Blaine's eyes.

"Kurt," Blaine says. "Kurt, look at me." Kurt looks up, eyes finally settling on Blaine's face. "Will you please, please go out with me?"

Kurt laughs, then rests his forehead against Blaine's.

"You're only saying that because you wanna sleep with me."

"No, I'm saying that because I really, really like you, and I really, really wanna sleep with you and then take you on a date," Blaine corrects.

This time Kurt throws his head back and cackles, making Blaine grin and laugh a little too.

"That's a little backwards, don't you think Anderson?" Kurt teases, his hand coming up to rest at Blaine's neck.

"It is what it is," Blaine replies, kissing Kurt deeply and nearly fist pumping when Kurt breaks away and takes his hand, leading him down the hall to Kurt's bedroom.

Later, as they lay in Kurt's bed, Blaine's head resting on his chest, Blaine decides to speak up.

"So...I have something to confess," he starts.

"You're totally married, aren't you?" Kurt guesses, making Blaine snort.

"Shut up, asshole, let me speak." Kurt gives him a slight nod after sticking his tongue out at him, and Blaine continues.

"No one ever told me that you were new here," Blaine confesses, glancing up to see a confused expression written across Kurt's face. "I...sort of was...putting up my curtains and saw you across the way from my window. And, um...I just thought you were really beautiful, and I wanted to meet you, so I baked a pie and then burned it and baked another one and got all dressed up and came over here and—"

"I'm not going out with you anymore," Kurt interrupts, making Blaine push up a little and look at him directly. Kurt has a very solemn look on his face, and Blaine can't tell what's going on. "I refuse to go on a date with a dirty window creeper such as yourself. Get out of my bed, I'm telling everyone in this building to keep their curtains closed because my almost boyfriend is a total pervert and will definitely spy on them." Kurt finishes and turns his nose up and away from Blaine, making a small "hmph" noise for emphasis.

"Oh, my god, please stop, I get it I'm creepy!" Blaine laughs, sitting up completely and facing Kurt. "Are you actually mad though? I totally did kind of spy on you."

"It's weird, Blaine, but c'mon...you don't think by now I haven't realized you're a total freak? It's part of your charm, for sure," Kurt taunts. Blaine blushes a bit, rolling his eyes and nodding.

"Okay, okay, get it all out, but this stays between us, okay? No making a toast at our wedding and announcing to everyone about the first time I ever saw you."

Kurt inhales sharply, and it takes Blaine a moment to figure out what he just said.

"I mean, not that I expect us to—it was just a joke, I didn't think I—never mind, it was nothing, it's—" Blaine is cut off by Kurt surging up to kiss him, knocking him back onto the bed.

"Shut up and let me ride you, okay?" Kurt orders, rearranging them so that they're back at the headboard, Kurt taking Blaine's hand and pressing his fingers up against him.

And who is Blaine to argue with him, really?