A/N: I'm awful! I'm sorry! I have two unfinished stories, one of which is on hiatus, yet I go ahead and post a brand new story without good reason.
Okay I do have one reason: The Break Up aired yesterday and I'm in a horrible post-Klaine depression and I'm in desperate need of some fluffy Klaine drinking coffee.
And also, this fic takes place during autumn so it would only be appropriate to post it in October. Right? Yes? Good.
Okay so I'm not sure what I'm doing. My head is still spinning from The Break Up, so I apologize for my rants.
I probably have to change the summary later because my head is a hot mess and I can't think properly. OH WELL.
The New York autumn of 2017 was exactly like the ones always covering the postcards one can buy in those tourist stands along every single street. The trees were burning brightly in red, orange and yellow along every avenue, in such sharp contrast to the meek grey ten-floor-high buildings towering all around them. The pavements were covered in dirty leaves that had long since fallen from their mother tree and gotten trampled under the feet of the many thousands of stressed New Yorkers constantly raging through the streets on their busy days.
It was September, and the summer heat was starting to fade into a more comfortable chill, and along with the change of temperature came the change of clothing; people were taking their summer shorts and skirts and putting them in the back of their closets, instead pulling out the scarves and coats and gloves to bask in the glory of their season finally arriving.
Autumns arrival also meant replacing the summer colour palette with darker shades; maroon, navy blue, black, grey and brown.
Kurt Hummel, however much he loved snuggling up with a good book by the fire dressed in a knitted maroon sweater, had for once decided to go somewhat against the fashion stream and keep his wardrobe colorful during this season as well. He was one year out of NYADA, to which he had been accepted to along with his best friend Rachel Berry five years ago, and since graduating, he had had a hard time finding work. Rachel, of course, immediately found acting jobs that included both singing and dancing and that left her without much financial issues.
Her dads contributed to her income, too, so she had plenty to spare once the rent of hers and Kurt's joint apartment was paid. This usually meant treating herself, and now and then a few friends, to a classy brunch, or purchasing more dresses and skirts to add to her ever-growing collection.
Kurt, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky.
He was unemployed and, unlike Rachel, his parents were not very rich and couldn't cover for him for too long.
The first few months after graduating from NYADA, he tried applying for interesting-looking acting jobs, Broadway productions and, due to lack of judgment after a wild night out on the town with Rachel and a few friends he made during his years at NYADA, he even sent in a few applications to modelling agencies.
He did get a few modelling jobs, actually, which he had not expected, but none of the agencies signed him permanently.
The income for those gigs secured him for two months or so, as he during his student years had picked up the habit of not eating too much and therefore saved quite a lot of money on smaller expenses for food and supplies.
But then one day, the money suddenly ran out.
He only barely made it through a couple of the particularly rough months, and he was only days away from having to sell some of his very expensive clothes to pay the rent when he got that final pay check for a small runway show he had done.
During those months he couldn't afford to buy even the tiniest scarf for himself, which was very difficult for him despite the already generous size of his wardrobe. He needed fashion and extravagant clothes as much as he needed air, and not being able to add new members to his little family was physically painful to him.
Rachel offered to pay his part of the rent for their apartment for a month or two until he got a steady income, but he refused. Part of living on his own, making it in the big city, was paying for himself and being independent. Until he was edging on getting kicked out of the apartment, he wouldn't accept any help. It was difficult enough to pretend not to notice the small amounts his dad put into his account whenever he could spare some.
So it was in this state he lived during September of 2017; broke and unemployed but fabulously so, in a crammy New York apartment with his best friend.
And so, when the crowds around him turned grey and black, with small outbursts of blue or red under heavy woollen coats, he put on a bright yellow sailor-styled coat, or a pair of bright red slacks, all matched with various of his boldly coloured scarves.
He was, and had been for so long, in such a rough patch – economically, mentally and emotionally – and refusing to let his outside reflect his dark inside was one of his ways to cope with it all.
But, even aside from the darkened fashion suddenly surrounding him, the autumn season always made him feel slightly melancolic, and each day it got harder to smile. Rachel for once put aside her own issues long enough to notice her best friend's unhappiness, only to make it her holy mission to get him a job and turn that frown into a smile.
Her first attempts were unsuccessful, to say the least. She started out with asking the producer of her latest acting job if they couldn't find a place for him, too, but they took one quick look at him and sent him packing.
Roles for people like him were limited, after all, and he didn't expect much from her attempts, despite Rachel's bursting excitement when she declared that she "was totally hitting it off with her producer and that it would be impossible for him to resist her request".
Obviously, she had overestimated her abilities to seduce people.
The quest went on, however, and she determinedly asked everyone in the business for a job for her "dedicated and hard-working friend" who was in desperate need of a decent-paying job.
When there were no takers after far too long, Kurt finally convinced Rachel to give up.
There were no great roles waiting for him out there, nor were there any of Rachel's contacts who could cast him for even the smallest role.
So when the end of September rolled around, the colorful leaves soon threatening to completely vanish from the trees and leave him alone to brighten the world in their wake, his financial status finally hit rock bottom and forced him to sell one of his precious coats to a friend of a friend. The first time Kurt ran into the guy on the street, he was wearing Kurt's coat and he didn't even remember it was Kurt who had sold it to him. Kurt made sure not to ever see the guy again afterwards, because the sheer pain in his body that came with seeing his precious clothes on another's body was torturous.
Promptly refusing to get rid of any more of his babies after that, he finally swallowed his pride and went to the local coffee shop and applied for a job there. It was something he was furiously reluctant to do and he had put it off as long as humanly possible, but he would soon be evicted from the apartment or forced to loan from Rachel, and he decided that would be far more humiliating.
Working at a coffee shop was certainly not what he would count as "making it in New York City", but he had no choice left.
It was either that, or working at some cheap supermarket, or at a McDonalds. At least he was very fond of coffee, and it was something he thought he would be able to do without too soon feeling the need to jump off a cliff. It would only be temporary, of course, until he got something more permanent and, well, worthy.
He did want to get famous, after all, and use the talents he had nutured for the last few years at NYADA. Serving coffee was such a waste of his talent, but what choice did he have? He couldn't afford to be picky.
He didn't get the job, though, to his complete and utter embarrassment, and he was forced to go to the next coffee shop, this time almost crawling around on the dusty floor, begging for them to employ him.
They didn't.
His search stretched out over another few painful weeks until his quest finally led him to a coffee shop approximately twentyfive minutes from his apartment.
That one he actually did get, and he was told to show up that next monday at 6.15am to get a set of keys and get his newbie training by one of the more experienced workers.
He was humiliated and exhausted, but at least now he had a steady income.