Blaine is exhausted and it's only Wednesday. He's still not sure why he thought a double major in education and economics was a good idea, but it's too late to turn back now. He's only a few weeks into his sophomore year at The Ohio State and he's not quite sure how he's going to last eight more months at this rate. But, honestly? He wouldn't change anything. The work is hard and demanding, but at the end of the day, he's doing what he loves and that's all that matters.

He heads to the on-campus coffee house for a quick caffeine pick-up before heading to his afternoon statistics class when he sees him. There's a new guy behind the counter, smiling as he hands the girl in front her order. He is quite possibly the most beautiful boy Blaine has ever seen. He has thick, dark hair that Blaine just wants to sink his fingers into as he ravages that perfect pink mouth and leave marks all over his perfect, pale skin. His eyes are bright with happiness and he almost reminds Blaine of a porcelain doll.

And then he laughs.

Blaine hears it clearly over the usual din of coffee cups clattering and milk being steamed. It's bright and clear and so carefree that Blaine wants to cover his ears with his hands and keep the sound trapped forever. It's completely ridiculous, but Blaine would swear that he's just fallen in love.

The line keeps moving forward, Blaine's eyes never leaving that face and soon Blaine finds himself face-to-face with this boy and he's completely speechless.

"Hi!" the boy greets him; Kurt, his nametag reads. "What can I get for you today?"

Blaine has to bite his tongue to keep himself from replying with "Your number" and finally clears his throat to try and find his voice.

"Um, medium drip, two sugars, please," he manages to stutter out.

"Can I get you a delicious pastry or tasty sandwich with that?" Kurt asks.

"No, thanks."

"Okay. That'll be $2.13."

Blaine hands over a five dollar bill and can't stop the blush that comes when their fingers brush against each other.

"Here's your change and your drink," Kurt says holding out the items to Blaine.

Blaine blinks before grabbing the change, hastily shoving it in his pocket and taking his drink from Kurt. Their hands brush again. Blaine mumbles a "Thanks," and turns before he embarrasses himself even more.

"Have a great day!" Kurt calls after him as Blaine rushes out the door.

Blaine is breathless by the time he gets to his class and stands in the hall for a moment to compose himself. He can't quite shake the feeling that his life is about to be changed forever.

---

After some surreptitious research (not stalking), Blaine finds out that Kurt works afternoons on Mondays and Wednesdays, Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. Luckily for Blaine, the coffee house is on his way to class on Mondays and Wednesdays. Not so luckily, he has a late class Thursday evenings. More often than not, Blaine finds himself leaving for class earlier than usual so he can stop in for an afternoon pick-me-up. And if he's up early enough, he'll walk over for breakfast on Saturday mornings. The pastries at the shop are far superior to the runny eggs in the cafeteria, Blaine reasons.

Most Saturdays are quiet, so Blaine will sit at the corner table with a book or the newspaper and people watch. If most of the watching is focused on Kurt, well, no one else needs to know that. Kurt has an innate gracefulness as he moves around behind the counter. Blaine's even caught him shaking his hips and singing along to the radio on occasion. Blaine can't help but smile behind his coffee cup at the sight of Kurt strutting around to Beyonc�. His coworkers, a pretty Asian girl and a red-headed guy that Blaine sort of recognizes from one of his classes, seem to be enjoying it just as much as and keep egging him on. Kurt's dancing is getting bolder the more they clap and cheer, encouraging the other patrons in the shop to join in. By the end of the song, the radio is blaring at full volume and Kurt has come out from behind the counter to finish the routine on the open floor. As his audience erupts into a raucous applause, Kurt makes a grand bow in thanks.

"Thank you," he replies. "Our next shows will be at two and five. Don't forget to tip your waiter!"

There's a smattering of laughter at his joke and as Kurt turns to head back to the register, he catches Blaine's eyes and gives him a full smile and a flirty wink. Blaine just blushes and ducks his head, turning his attention back to his book. He looks up to see Kurt hugging his coworkers before batting them playfully on the arm. He wishes he could hear what they were saying. What just happened seems to be something of an in-joke between them. He admires Kurt's boldness and carefree attitude. He has always wanted to perform like that, but his parents were rather strict about his extracurricular activities and had always brushed off things like theater or choir as foolish nonsense that wouldn’t serve him any practical good in the real world.

Blaine finishes his coffee quickly after that and packs his things to go. At the last minute, he stops by the register, where Kurt is standing, and drops a five dollar bill in the tip jar.

"That was quite a performance," he manages to say.

"Well, thank you very much," Kurt replies. "Shall I reserve your usual seat for the same time next week?"

"Maybe," Blaine says coyly.

"Anything I can do to turn that into a definitely?" Kurt asks, leaning into Blaine's space.

"Um," Blaine coughs, looking away. He has no idea how to respond to that. He doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to this sort of thing and even though Kurt seems to be giving him the all clear, he's still wary of making the first move.

"Hey, no worries," Kurt says backing away. "If you can make it, great. If not, no big deal."

"Right," Blaine replies, looking back up. "Guess we'll have to see how the week goes."

"Sure. See you Monday, though?"

"Um, yeah," Blaine says, surprised that Kurt remembers him. "Monday for sure."

"Great. I can't wait."

"I'm Blaine, by the way," he blurts, holding his hand out.

Kurt looks at his hand for a moment before smiling shyly and reaching out to shake it.

"Nice to meet you, Blaine. I'm Kurt."

If this were a movie or some silly romance novel, Blaine would swear he felt as spark as their hands touched. As it's not, Blaine simply writes it off as static electricity from the dry air.

"I should go…" Blaine trails off as he finally lets go of Kurt's hand.

"Right," Kurt says. "See you Monday."

"Monday," Blaine agrees, walking backwards towards the door just so he can keep an eye on Kurt a little longer. He ends up almost running into a display of mugs and knocks a few over. Luckily, none of them break, but Blaine is still mortified. Then he looks up and see Kurt smiling at him fondly. He just smiles back, straightens up the last mug and gives a little wave before finally heading out the door.

When he gets back to his room he is once more very grateful for having a single. He flops face down on to his bed and groans loudly into his pillow. I am such a dork, he thinks. Why can he never be the cool and suave guy when he needs to be? Every time that moment comes, it's like his brain just shuts off and he goes into full-on dork mode.

Ever since that incident with Jeremiah his junior year and thinking they actually had a relationship when they apparently didn't, Blaine had been very wary of trying to make the first move in any situation. That kind of humiliation wasn't something he was eager to repeat.

So, for the next month, he keeps admiring Kurt from afar. Whenever he stops in for his coffee, Kurt has his drink already waiting, and if it isn't busy they converse for a little while. The topics never stray into anything too personal, but just having the few minutes of conversation is nice.

One Saturday morning, Blaine is sipping his coffee, eating a croissant and reading his book as has become his custom. He looks up when someone sits down at his table. He almost chokes on his coffee when he sees that it's Kurt.

"Hi," Kurt says with a smile.

"Um, hi," Blaine replies.

"So, listen. A bunch of friends and I are going out to the movies tonight and I want to know if you want to come with us."

"I… what?" Blaine is confused. He didn't realize they had reached this level of friendship during their brief encounters.

"All right. Here's the deal. Tina," Kurt says, gesturing over his shoulder to his coworker, "thinks you're adorable and that we should date. So, this is me asking you out on a date without it being like a date date because you seem really shy and nervous so I don't want to scare you off."

"Oh," Blaine says. That's a lot of information to take in. But the most important thing is that Kurt wants to date him. "Okay," he finally agrees. "I'd like that."

"Great! Do you have a car or should I pick you up?"

"I have a car," Blaine replies.

"Good. We're going to meet at the AMC over on Kinnear at 6:00."

"I know where that is."

"Great!" Kurt says. "I'll see you then."

Blaine waves, like the dork he is, as Kurt gets up and goes back to work. He has a date with Kurt. He has a date with Kurt tonight.

What the hell is he going to wear?

---

Blaine pulls up to the theater just before 6:00 that evening. He gets out of his car, brushes some imaginary lint off his jeans and looks around for Kurt. He quickly finds him standing with a somewhat large group of people near the box office. When Blaine sees what Kurt is wearing, he almost gets back in his car and drives off. Everyone who works at the coffee house has to wear the standard uniform of a white polo shirt and black pants. Kurt always manages to look way better than any of the other students there and Blaine suspects the use of a tailor. Seeing Kurt out of uniform is like a revelation. The outfit he's wearing isn't particularly flashy. Just gray tweed pants, suspenders that are hanging down with a navy and gray striped henley and two-toned brown shoes. He just looks so put together than Blaine feels like a schlub in his jeans and polo shirt.

But, no. Everything is fine. So, Kurt has an impeccable sense of style. It's just one more thing for Blaine to add in the "plus" column. He slowly crosses the parking lot, walking into Kurt's line of vision to hopefully avoid any awkward hovering once he meets up with the group.

"Blaine!" Kurt calls, looking up as Blaine steps onto the sidewalk. He runs over and grabs Blaine's hand, dragging him back to the group. There are about ten other people standing there and Blaine is a little astounded that Kurt has such a large group of friends. Not that Kurt shouldn't have so many friends, just that Blaine couldn't imagine having that many. Sure, he had been close with the most of his classmates, but they were really just acquaintances. There are maybe only two or three people Blaine would actually call friends.

"Everyone, this is Blaine. Blaine, this is everyone," Kurt says in introduction. "You probably recognize Tina and Colin from the coffee shop. And this is Mercedes, Sam, Christopher, Julie, Simon, and Olivia. That big guy in the back is my step-brother Finn and his girlfriend Rachel."

"Hi, everyone," Blaine says nervously.

He recognizes Julie and Simon from a couple of his classes, in addition to Tina and Colin. So, this isn't too bad. He can do this. Everyone is very nice and welcoming and Blaine starts to feel at ease. Of course, that could also be because Kurt is still holding his hand and running him thumb over Blaine's knuckles almost absentmindedly. The small act is causing Blaine to start flushing; it feels oddly intimate for their first date.

"Hey," Blaine says turning to Kurt. "What movie are we seeing?"

"The new Wes Craven one? With Zefron and Emma Stone. It seemed appropriate with Halloween being next week," Kurt adds with a smile.

"Oh," Blaine says flatly.

"Oh," Kurt replies. "Do you not like horror films? We can see something else."

"No," Blaine says. "No, it's fine. I would just like to apologize in advance for any girlish shrieking I may do."

Kurt laughs and pulls Blaine close. "That's okay. I'll protect you from the boogie man," he whispers.

Blaine shudders slightly at the feeling of Kurt's breath ghosting over his neck. He turns and Kurt is so close, Blaine can make out the little flecks of green and gold in his deep blue eyes. He almost leans in to kiss him, but quickly remembers where they are and pulls back.

"Hey, come on, guys!" Finn calls. "The movie starts in like ten minutes and I need snacks."

Everyone laughs at Finn and they all file into line to buy their tickets. Some of them head off to the snack bar, while the rest go ahead to find seats for everyone in the theater. Kurt and Blaine end up on the end of the row, which Blaine is kind of thankful for.

The movie ends up being pretty decent for a horror movie. There is some sort of plot greater than "let's scare the crap out of everyone" and Blaine only screams twice, once turning to duck his head against Kurt's shoulder before he realizes what he's doing. Kurt just squeezes his hand and pets his head reassuringly.

As they leave the movie, Kurt is still holding on to his hand. They stop just inside the lobby and discuss where to go now. Kurt rejects any suggestion of a coffee shop, claiming he gets his fill of coffee at work. They decide to head over to the twenty-four hour diner a couple blocks away where those that want coffee can have coffee and those that don't can have something else. Kurt had ridden to the theater with Tina and decides to ride with Blaine to the diner.

"So, your friends seem nice," Blaine says as they settle into their seats.

"Yeah," Kurt says. "They're kinda crazy, but I love them."

"That's good," Blaine says. "So, um, I don't think I've ever asked you this, but what are you studying at OSU?"

"Theater," Kurt replies.

"Yeah, I can see that," Blaine says with a smile. "Have there been any encores of your Single Ladies performance?"

"No," Kurt laughs. "Sadly, there has not. I'm not even sure how they got me to do that the first time around. Well, Tina I've known since high school and we actually worked on figuring out the choreography together which I ended up teaching to the football team when I was the kicker."

"You were on the football team?" Blaine asks incredulously.

"I was, indeed. Not for very long, but still, it counts."

"What else don't I know about you?" Blaine wonders.

"Oh, so much, Blaine," Kurt answers with a wink.

They pull up outside the diner and Blaine puts the car in park, turning to look at Kurt.

"I think I'd like to find out," he whispers.

Kurt unbuckles his seatbelt and leans in to press a quick kiss to Blaine's lips. "I think I'd like to tell you," he replies.

Blaine sits in his car, smiling like the dork he is as Kurt gets out and joins some of his friends that have arrived at the diner. In a minute, Blaine will get out of the car and sit next to Kurt in a little booth with torn vinyl. He will laugh and smile and get along well with Kurt's friends.

But for now, he will sit in the car and smile and stare at this wonderfully amazing boy who has just turned his world upside down. He can't wait to see what happens next.