Authors's Note: Hi! This is my first fic, so this is all brand new to me. Thanks for checking it out! It will have eight chapters, that I will upload over a period of time. Sorry that this chapter is so short, the others will be much longer. Most of the restaurants/bars/clubs in the story do not exist, fyi, but I'm trying to make the rest relatively accurate. Hope you enjoy! Also, I probably won't be able to post again for awhile. For anyone who already read the chapter, I've made a few adjustments in this new upload that are key to the story. Thanks :)

Please read through and review!

Old Directions

Chapter One: Sunday

Rachel awoke with a smile on her face, and lay in bed for the three minutes that she had before her iHome would start blasting 'Defying Gravity'. She always took it as a good sign when it was the birds chirping outside her window that woke her up- not that there was any reason to complain about waking up to Idina Menzel either. Those minutes before the alarm went off were the only times when her brain wasn't moving at top speed; when she had time to relax, and just listen.

When the opening chords sounded from the iHome and ended her all-too-short peaceful moment, Rachel sprung out of bed, excited but nervous for the day that was coming. It was a very big day. She went about her morning ritual, showering, putting on her pre-planned outfit and applying a thin layer of makeup, and then headed to the kitchen to make coffee. Though she usually went on a run Sunday mornings, she'd decided to give herself a bit of a break today. Kurt was already sitting at the kitchen table, sipping on a homemade latte and reading The New York Times' editorial on Lady Gaga.

"Honestly. How they can say that she's a Madonna copy-cat after all she's done for the music industry. I thought the Times was supposed to be high quality," he said, looking up at Rachel and smiling only a little. It was rare that Kurt beat Rachel to the coffee machine in the morning, but she didn't think much of it. She supposed Kurt was as excited for the day as Rachel was- although she doubted he had a bundle of nerves in his stomach that matched hers. "Want to go out for breakfast?" Kurt asked.

"Sure."

"No bringing St. Snooty though. This is Kurt and Rachel time."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Of course not. I only did that once," she said, heading over to the door to grab her purse and keys. "And I especially would not do that today," she added, looking down.

"Right," Kurt acknowledged, getting up and throwing on his chocolate brown leather jacket. He knew they needed to have a discussion about the day (and week) ahead, but it could wait until they got to their morning breakfast spot, and they were both a little more awake.

As they walked through Manhattan, Rachel marveled at the sky-scrapers and the tourists that surrounded her (it was the first weekend of spring break, causing an even larger amount of them than was normal). Sometimes she still couldn't believe she'd made it here, even though almost three years had gone by since she'd said goodbye to Ohio. Rachel smiled, remembering fondly her first two years in New York, when she'd lived in NYU residence. She sometimes wished that her and Kurt had just stayed on campus- maybe the disasters of the previous October and November would never have happened. But residence was expensive, and Kurt and Rachel had been lucky to snag their current hole in the wall apartment that bordered the Lower East Side and Chinatown. They'd only been renting it for about four months, and it was quite a step down from the Greenwich Village NYU facilities they'd had before, but Rachel was just happy they'd been able to get it after the doubly disastrous falls that the pair had had.

Her phone blipped once. Speaking of disastrous falls, she thought to herself upon seeing whom the text was from. No, Rachel self-reprimanded, you cannot still be mad at him. He apologized for God's sake! Like 50 times! He loves you...Her thoughts were interrupted when Kurt snagged her phone, and read the text aloud:

"'Morning beautiful! Winky face.' Ew. Go away," he said, sticking out his tongue at the phone. Rachel was too tired to argue with Kurt or herself about Jesse and his place in her life, so she merely sighed as the two stepped into Pain Perdu, one of the few cafés in the area and her personal preference, and grabbed a table outdoors. It was gorgeous out- spring had been treating New York kindly. Both Rachel and Kurt were very thankful for that.

"So, you never shared the details of your night out last night," Rachel prompted Kurt, not solely to avoid discussion of today's arrival. She was curious- it was rare that Kurt bailed on their plans with Taya and Caitlyn- two girls that Rachel worked at a Broadway gift shop with, who were their go-to gals for a Saturday night out- and she expected a full explanation.

"Oh..." Kurt waved a hand in dismissal. "Johnny invited me out for a drink after work again. I wanted to be polite so I went, since I've turned him down twice already. We went to Rocket, that tacky bar we used to go to last year in SoHo, with some of his friends; it was a little awkward since I wasn't drinking. Luckily he didn't try to make a move on me, and I made up some excuse and left early. Sorry I didn't explain properly last night," he finished, shrugging.

Johnny was a friend of Kurt's from his job at The Clothing Depot, an odd vintage store in Brooklyn that Kurt had been working at for the majority of the current school year. He didn't mind working there, even if the clothes weren't his style and the commute was long- at least it paid the bills. And Johnny was pretty good company, despite his was overly-flirty nature. His bleach blonde Bieber cut and eyebrow piercings weren't exactly Kurt's type; the countertenor went for softer features and darker hair...Kurt gave himself a slight shake, getting rid of the face that was forming in his mind. He couldn't give anything away to Rachel- she'd gotten all too good at reading his expressions, especially since the two of them had moved into the new apartment together, and Kurt didn't feel like explaining the thoughts that kept forcing their way into his mind at the moment.

Rachel wagged her finger. "You're far too polite, Kurt, you need to learn to say no. You missed out on quite the night. We did Rihanna/Britney karaoke at PopRocks, and Caitlyn tried to introduce us to the horrifying world of KPOP, after having a few too many drinks."

Kurt snorted. "I'm sure that went over well."

They laughed a little and the waitress arrived. The pair ordered the Good Morning Platter to share- croissants, scones and various jams. Once it arrived, and Rachel was happily eating her pastries, Kurt decided to initiate the conversation he knew she was avoiding.

"Rachel...should we talk about today?" He wasn't exactly sure how to word things; Kurt had never been the best with sentimental conversations.

Rachel looked up from her croissant with a look of fake confusion on her face.

"What about it?"

"Well...You haven't seen him since we left. That's almost three years. You must be a little freaked out," Kurt said, trying to hold Rachel's gaze. She looked away.

"Kurt. It's fine. I'm looking forward to seeing him. We're not kids anymore; we're mature adults and we've both moved on. Really..."

Kurt raised his eyebrows as Rachel trailed off. It was clear he wasn't the only one hiding feelings that morning. It was also clear that the coming week was not going to be simple.

Kurt glanced impatiently up at the arrivals list above them at JFK, tapping his foot. He checked his watch. 3:50. The plane had landed 40 minutes ago, and yet there was still no sign of their visitor. Rachel hummed sort of hurriedly, as if she was anxious to get the notes out. It was only the two of them waiting, which frustrated her. She wished they'd brought one of their other friends- someone, anyone, who might've made it less awkward. It was moments like these when she missed Blaine. He would've been able to calm her down, to tell her how to deal with the week ahead.

Suddenly, Kurt's face lit up, as one of the figures moving towards them came into focus. The tall boy lumbered in their direction, suitcase in tow, his lack of grace obvious in the Frankenstein-like steps he took. But he was smiling. Rachel had forgotten how heart-warming his smile could be. Kurt let out a little squeal and ran towards him.

"There you are! I was beginning to worry that your plane had crashed. Or that you'd slept through your alarm and forgotten to get on it," Kurt said, throwing his arms around his brother.

"Ha-ha-ha. I'm can, you know, function, Kurt."

"What took you so long then?" Kurt asked, skeptical.

"Well...It's a big airport. It took me a while to find my way here..." At this Kurt burst into giddy laughter, so happy to see his brother for the first time in four months.

Rachel lingered about 7 or 8 feet behind the boys, letting them catch up. She then took a deep breath, and walked forward.

"Hello, Finn."

Finn broke into a wide grin.

"Hey Rache." He wanted to say something more. Something like, 'good to see you' or 'you look great' or 'thank you for coming', but he had never been great with words and felt sure he would find a way to put his foot in his mouth. So instead, he pulled the girl into a hug. Rachel let out a little gasp of surprise, which Finn pretended to ignore. Kurt smiled.

"Alright, well, shall we introduce Finn to the real world?" he said, when the former couple broke apart.

"I've been here before, you know," Finn said. Kurt scoffed.

"Nationals in Junior year? That was not New York, dear brother. Get ready for NYC Kurt and Rachel style," he said, and the three headed outside together.