A/N: For this one, I was inspired by a prompt on tumblr. However... I definitely made the prompt my own because it is QUITE different from the original prompt. I'm sorry to that prompter! I also would like to credit my friend, Tina, who came up with some details with me. Without further ado, Danger de L'étranger! (Stranger Danger in English)
"Hey, new kid."
Blaine looked up from the map he'd been studying at the familiar voice. Coming from all small, one-story schools, the map had felt like his first collegiate pop quiz.
"I think I may be developing worry lines already." Blaine whined, leaning face-forward into the familiar shoulder. In a more private setting, Blaine would have nuzzled the soft knit of Kurt's sweater. He restrained himself, able to see how that might look strange in a public setting.
The shoulder shook slightly with Kurt's laughter. Blaine grumbled, half-heartedly whacking Kurt with a loosely formed fist.
"One: you're going to give me laugh lines. Two: you're losing your boxing form already, and that's preeeetty sad." Kurt said, demonstrating his points by counting with his fingers. On each number, he poked Blaine in the side.
"One: who talks in lists? Two: that was my only point." Blaine retorted, poking back at Kurt's ticklish stomach. He won a small giggle from Kurt. He was much worse at hiding his laughter while being tickled than Blaine was. In his frustration, Blaine was willing to take any amount of small victories.
Kurt shrugged Blaine off his shoulder. Blaine observed his familiar pout.
"One, rude. Two, really rude." Kurt shot back at him, crossing his arms. "So are we going to talk about your mood? If you remain mopey, Rachel will sense it from Funny Girl rehearsal and come and pelt you with a 'Don't Rain on My Parade' solo until there is zero percent of Blainers tears showers."
Ignoring Kurt's quips, Blaine complained, "I should have studied the map more. Why didn't I study the map before?" His outfit (maroon polo, khakis, navy blue bowtie with little boats on it) had been prepared for days. How could he have forgotten the map?
"You were too busy having celebratory sex with your fiancé." Kurt gloated, elbowing Blaine's side suggestively, or as suggestive an elbow jab could be.
"We've been engaged for a year and you still describe our sex as 'celebratory?'" Blaine pointed out. Butterflies still flew at that comment, he noted with small smile.
"And for most of that time you lived in the State That Shall Not Be Named. My point is you had better things to do—a better fiancé to do—than worry about which hallway to take on the first day." Kurt finished with a smirk.
"Well you can repay me for all the sex with a hug and a shortcut." Blaine replied hopefully, leaning forward on the balls of his feet with the most enticing, pleading face he could manage. He found the desperation wasn't that far away.
Kurt rolled his eyes, a perfected move at this stage in his life. A move Blaine had received many times at this stage in their relationship. "Right, because you got nothing out of that sex." Kurt huffed, while moving forward with outstretched arms. Blaine hurried into Kurt's welcoming embrace, wrapping his arms around Kurt's middle.
"Now, while I've got you trapped in a hug, you can't escape listening to me." Kurt began, rubbing Blaine's back idly with one of his hands while he spoke. "I think we both know this whole map freak-out is just you projecting your nerves. Luckily, we both also know you are going to knock the socks off everyone in this school. Blow them out of the water. Break their legs. Et cetera."
Kurt pulled away, ending the hug much too quickly for Blaine's tastes. "Show me that Blaine Anderson confidence!" He said, hands on his hips with a quirked eyebrow. Blaine took a leaf out of Kurt's own book and rolled his eyes.
"That's more of the Blaine Anderson sass—but I'll take it! Let's get you to class." Kurt grabbed his hand and led him to a stairway near them. Blaine had a feeling the handholding wasn't purely for guiding.
"Are you enjoying turning the tables on me?" Blaine asked, making note of the "new kid" and shortcut with handholding references.
"You're not the only one that dramatizes, B. I'm drawing romantic parallels; you're freaking out over a map." Kurt managed to shoot him a teasing grin amidst watching out for the sea of students as they climbed up the stairs.
"Your romantic parallels can do themselves tonight." Blaine responded indignantly.
Kurt stopped and faced him. "You forget you don't get sex when I don't get sex." Kurt replied with an evil grin. "I'll see you at home—celebratory sex on me. Or under." He swooped away with a wink and mwah to Blaine's cheek.
"But you didn't—"
Blaine paused mid-protest. The doorway opposite him was Blaine's first class, Improv 101. He even had five minutes to spare.
Kurt's shortcut was actually effective. Well that ends the parallels.
"Can I have a medium drip, please?"
The hustle and bustle of a coffee shop brimming with students felt extremely hospitable to Blaine. He may have been ordering coffee in New York, but it didn't feel much different from ordering at the Lima Bean. That was oddly calming for Blaine, though he'd never taken himself for one to be homesick.
He was supposed to meet Kurt, but he appeared to be running late. After a grueling Improv class, followed by his Broadway Vocals class, Blaine was ready for caffeine whether Kurt was present or not.
He juggled his various bills that had spilled out of his wallet while ordering. Kurt was always telling him to organize his wallet, or charge like "the rest of the world, Blaine." He just couldn't help that he was an old-fashioned guy—an old-fashioned, unorganized guy.
"Sorry, here's two dollars, I think I have some coins somewhere…" Blaine checked the innermost flap of his wallet, not to be confused with the other flaps of his wallet. Why exactly did his wallet have so many flaps?
A body pushed past him, and Blaine instantly froze. He'd heard all the stories of impatient and rude NYC residents. What if this was his first harsh New Yorker encounter?
"Here's the 50 cents." A rather British-sounding voice said.
Blaine looked down at the outstretched hand in disbelief. Sure enough, the person really was handing 50 cents to the cashier.
"Thank you, wow, no one in Ohio ever did the random act of kindness thing." Blaine thanked the male attached to the previously observed hand.
The blonde looked a few years older than him and pulled off a blue beanie in way Blaine never thought he could. (He could practically hear Kurt informing him, "No, Blaine, you couldn't, because it would become glued to the cement ozone surrounding your captive, voluminous locks.")
"Don't mention it." The guy responded with a friendly smile. The smile was quite refreshing after his small freak out over the potential conflict with a real New Yorker. Blaine really needed to invest in yoga or some other relaxing activity. He liked yoga. Or, he liked Kurt in yoga pants.
Blaine stepped aside (avoiding annoying the other potentially abusive New Yorkers patrons in the café) to wait for his order. The beanie-clad guy ordered before walking over to join him.
"So Ohio? You know, I met my ex from Ohio at almost exactly this time last year."
"Yep, Birthplace of Aviation." Blaine paused, regretting the useless fun fact that even he didn't care about. The guy gives you 50 cents and this is how you repay him. "Hopefully you don't have anything against Ohioans as a result of the ex." He added, faking a nervous laugh.
"Oh, no. I have nothing against the… birthplace of aviation?" The man responded, twirling a keychain with several apples around his finger. "Quite the opposite. I'm trying to win the ex back. Well, I'm thinking about it, at least. I don't know if he'd ever take me back, though."
Now this subject Blaine had useful information on. He was about to repay the 50 cents with his sunshine and rainbows optimism that filled his post-proposal world.
"I went through a bad breakup last year, too. I never thought my ex would take me back either! But we're engaged now." Blaine flashed his ring Kurt and he had finally gotten over the summer. "I know you're thinking, 'Wow, he's really young to be engaged,' but just focus on the fact that anything's possible when it comes to love!"
So the conclusion may have been a bit corny. It almost called for his famous rendition of All You Need is Love. Beanie Guy seemed to be buying it though, nodding his head along enthusiastically.
"That's so weird, my ex is engaged too!" By this point both their drinks had arrived, but they were too focused on the conversation to notice. "That's part of the problem, besides the initial breakup, of course. I don't think he should be engaged! And when I informed him of my opinion, he became defensive, and then I was so angry, I kicked him out of the group we were in. It was such a mistake!"
The guy's breakup situation may have been slightly more complicated than Blaine had prepared himself for, but if he'd convinced Kurt to take him back, and could manage this guy's messy love life.
"Okay, this is what you should do." Blaine began, gesturing widely with the plastic lid for his cup.
"First, sing him a song. Put on a show! Impress him and whoever's around you. Follow up with communication. Woo him with words more promising than those of your already passionate song choice. Let him know exactly how sorry you are, exactly how you care about him, and exactly how determined you are to get him back! He will have no choice but to come back to you." Blaine snapped his coffee cup lid on with a satisfactory snap.
The guy grabbed his coffee while looking doubtful. "Are you sure that would work?"
"It worked for me." Blaine said, shrugging his shoulders and smiling proudly. He'd gone by those guidelines, essentially. Yes, Kurt and he had had multiple duets intermixed with their communication (or lack thereof), with the final climax of his proposal, but it was pretty much the same thing.
"You know, I may just take your advice. It's not like I have anything to lose." The man took a drink before continuing, "Thanks for the advice, man."
"Thanks for the change!" Blaine replied brightly.
"Well, see you around." Blaine nodded, watching the blue beanie disappear into the crowd of frenzied students. Coffee, check. Improving a random guy's love life, check.
"New kid, we meet again."
Blaine looked away from girl he'd just witnessed dropping all her sheet music, only for a student on a skateboard to roll right over it, and smiled widely at Kurt.
"Sorry, I'm la—"
Blaine leaned forward, interrupting Kurt with a quick smack of a kiss. "I forgive you." He replied sweetly, grabbing Kurt's hand, swinging it between them. "I'm truly having the best day, so I'd like to continue that trend with the celebratory sex offer, if you don't mind."
"Wow. Well then, let's not delay." Kurt replied, slightly dazed.
"You should tell me about your day now—I don't plan on much talking back at the loft."
They left the café, heading for the subway. Blaine filled Kurt in on his classes and the generous, mysterious guy with the beanie. (There was a slight digression in which Blaine asked Kurt if he could pull off a beanie.) It was safe to say they both forgot about the whole incident once arriving at the loft.
Imagine Blaine and Kurt's surprise when, later that week, Adam Crawford, the beanie man himself, serenaded Kurt with an acoustic version of Sir Mix-a-Lot's Jump on It, complete with backup dancers in jumpsuits. Needless to say, Kurt, Adam, and Blaine all had some explaining to do. But that is a story for another time.