"Next!"

Kurt Hummel entered the rehearsal room and looked around. He noticed three stacks of paper in front of the director, probably Yes, No and Hell to the no. He quickly walked to the X taped on the floor.

"Okay. Mr." the famous director looked at the paper in front of him "Hummel. Please dance."

Kurt did the steps he had just been taught.

"Okay, thanks." the director said, adding Kurt's paper to the tallest of the three stacks in front on front of him.

"Excuse me?" Kurt asked.

"Yes?"

"The casting call was for a dancer who can sing. I have a song prepared."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead." The director closed his eyes.

Kurt started singing a song Blaine had written for him. It was a simple song, specifically written to showcase his range.

The famous director looked at Kurt. He smiled. Then he started laughing.

"You're kidding!" Blaine was shocked. "He laughed?"

"Yes, he did." Kurt replied, smiling at his boyfriend who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, facing him. "I was mortified." He didn't look mortified now.

"You said their were other people in the room? What did they do?"

"They looked like I felt. Embarrassed."

"Then what happened?" Blaine clutched Kurt's hands.

"I kept singing."

"God! I'm so sorry for laughing like that. Adam?"

A tall thin dancer stood up from the sofa and walked over to the director. "Yes?"

"I need your opinion on something. Can you dance again..." he looked at the paperwork again. "Kurt?"

Kurt repeated the steps.

"Can you fix that?" he asked Adam.

"How old are you?" Adam asked Kurt.

"21, sir."

"Sir!" Adam laughed. "I'm only 24. Yes, I can fix that."

"Kurt, can you come back tomorrow?" the director asked, making notes on Kurt's paperwork.

"Yes, sir."

"You're a singer who dances, aren't you?" Adam asked.

"Am I that bad?"

"No, you're not that bad." He placed on hand on Kurt's shoulder and another on his hip. "Watch you posture. That's important. By the time you're as old as I am" he laughed softly, "It'll be second nature. You're not bad. It's more your technique. You're going to hurt yourself if you don't learn the proper technique. That was his concern, you'd get hurt and he'd have to go through this again. It's only for a couple of months, you know that, right? Paul's taking some time off with a new baby. I'm moving up to replace Paul, you'll be dancing my role. I thought you were a model at first, I'll bet he did too. You wouldn't believe how many non-singing, non-dancing models we've seen. That's why he was shocked when you started singing, and were good at it. That's what happens when you cast by looks instead of by talent. No offense but your portfolio got you in here. Plus we're the same size, you'll fit the costume. He's good to work with, you should see what asses some of them are."

He took Kurt by the hand and twirled him across the floor. "Watch my feet." he said when he noticed Kurt staring at him. "It's temporary, like I said. Why did you audition for this?"

"My teacher, over at NYU, thought I should." Kurt said panting slightly. Could he do this for two hours a night, 5 days a week, and Sunday matinées? "Just to practice going on auditions."

"Well, it looks like you got lucky."

It took Adam three hours to correct the mistakes Kurt had incorporated over the past several years. He finally sat down with satisfaction. "Done. Assuming you don't trip tomorrow you're set. Do you live near NYU?"

"No, my boyfriend goes to Columbia. We live half-way between the two."

"Okay, I'm taking the subway in that direction, too."

People accused Kurt of being a talker, but he had nothing on Adam. Adam talked the whole way. "What was that, what you were singing?"

"Something Blaine, my boyfriend, wrote. Appreciation, it's called. He thought it was simple enough to sing acapella, if I need to, and complex enough to show off my range. Without my range, which is wider than most, coming across as gimmicky."

"Good move. Without that song you'd be in the reject pile. Is this your stop? Mine too. I'm two blocks from here."

Rachel Berry was struggling to balance a bag of groceries with one hand and trying to open the apartment lobby door with the other. "Here, let me help you." Adam offered.

"Thank you very much." the brown-haired girl smiled flirtatiously. Then saw Kurt standing behind Adam. "Kurt! How'd it go?"

"Good. Rachel Berry, this is Adam...I'm sorry, I don't know your last name."

"Bronstein."

"Nice to meet you, Adam Bronstein." she gave Adam the seductive smile she'd been practicing in the mirror.

"Adam spent the whole afternoon teaching me to dance. Adam, Rachel is my other roommate. Rachel, the director really liked Blaine's song."

"Yeah, Blaine!" Rachel had suggested something showier but Kurt sided with Blaine. In Appreciation and Celebration of the Illustrious Occasion of the 21st Anniversary of the Arrival of Kurt Hummel to the Universe. The name was longer than the song. "Would you like to come up for a drink or something?" she asked Adam.

"Maybe some other time. I'm late as it is. Good luck tomorrow, Kurt."

"He's cute." Rachel said as Adam walked away.

"He's not as cute as Blaine."

"Not as cute as Blaine is still damned cute. Is he gay?"

"I don't know, he didn't say. Not all dancers are gay, but if I were to take a guess I'd say yes."

"That's the trouble with this town. I had better odds in Lima."

one year later

Kurt looked around at the wreckage of his apartment. To be fair, he didn't make this entire mess. It was clean when he left to take Blaine to the airport this morning so most of this happened between then and when he went with Rachel to the train station. He looked at the takeout cartons. Well, he could start with that he thought tossing them. And those magazines, they can go. He picked up a copy of Vanity Fair and noticed there was an article about Marc Jacobs. That's worth reading. He was still reading two hours later when the phone rang.

"Anderson, Berry and Hummel residence. We're all out of Andersons and Berrys but the Hummels are fresh." God, it's only been 12 hours and he was going crazy already.

"Oh, hi Adam. Sure, I remember you, you taught me to dance." he listened to the reply.

"Okay, let's say you saved me from a lifetime of constant pain." he listened.

"No, you're not interrupting me. I'm just..."

"Yes, I still sing."

"It's fine! You're not imposing on me."

"This Saturday, as in tomorrow?"

"Well, it just happens I am free to sing at your fund-raiser. Both my roommates are out of town and I'm going stir-crazy."

"Blaine, his name is Blaine. He went to Duluth."

"Yes, as in Minnesota. A friend from high school, the one who took my portfolio pictures, I don't know if you remember from last year? Anyway she's a travel photographer and her boss needed a writer on short notice. Mercedes, the friend, showed her editor some of Blaine's work and now they're in Duluth for a music festival. They used to live together so they're used to working together."

"No, he was out then. I need to find a better way to describe that situation. Back in high school he suddenly needed a place to live and her parents took him in."

"He'll be back on Monday. Our roommate Rachel, you met her once, found out her old boyfriend goes to school in Philadelphia. She's spending the weekend with Noah, that's the boyfriend. And how is your partner, Patrick, right?" He listened intently.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Had you been together for a long time?"

"Huh?"

"Your son? I didn't know you had a son." The way Adam talked he would have mentioned that.

"Oh, too bad Blaine's not here. He likes hearing long and involved stories. Says they make good material."

"Come over here?" Kurt looked around the apartment. "How about if I meet you guys at the park around the corner?"

"Okay, see you in, I don't know 20 minutes?"

Kurt hung up and frantically cleaned the apartment.

Adam was sitting on a park bench, watching a half dozen little kids playing when Kurt walked up.

"Hey, Kurt, nice to see you again" he said hugging him. "You look good."

"You look tired." Kurt observed.

"Kids will do that to you."

"So which one is yours? No, let me guess." Son, that eliminated half the kids. Of the remaining boys one was blond, one was black and one had Adam's olive complexion. He guessed the boy with the olive complexion.

"Yes, that's Max. He's seven."

"And he runs around like that all the time?"

"Not all the time, and they all do."

"Not babies." Kurt said wistfully.

"Babies? Aren't you kinda of young to be thinking about babies?"

"Well, I'm only half-seriously thinking about them."

"They don't stay babies. Five, six years later," he waved his hand around. "This is what you get."

"That's what Blaine says."

"Once Max gets to know you I'll lend him to you for a few hours. So here's the story to get it out of the way. Max is my son with a high school girlfriend. I was trying to prove I wasn't gay, she was trying to prove she was attractive to guys. Max was the result. I tried to keep in touch but she moved a lot. Six months ago she showed up at my mother's house, dropped him off and disappeared. I got full legal custody, Patrick didn't want to raise a child and here I am. Max's having a hard time adjusting to the move from Indiana. The fund-raiser you're helping me with is for his school. I'm trying to get on the principal's good side since Max can be challenging. That's what they call it these days 'challenging'."

"Indiana? Where?"

"Fort Wayne. That's where I'm from."

"Rachel and I are from Ohio, Lima. Blaine's from Toledo. Small world." Kurt looked at Max "How about Disney? For the fund-raiser."

"I'm hungry." Max had suddenly appeared at Adam's elbow.

"Max, meet Kurt." Max just stared.

"Nice to meet you." Kurt said. Max didn't respond.

"I'm hungry." he said again to Adam.

"Okay. Thanks for the help, Kurt. I'll email you the information. Come on Max, let's round up some food."

"I have plenty of food, if you cook. Blaine went shopping before he knew he'd be out of town."

"We love to cook, don't we Max?" Adam said cheerfully.

Kurt, Adam and Max were in the kitchenette chopping vegetables when the phone rang.

"Anderson, Berry and Hummel residence. Kurt speaking."

"Oh, hi Blaine!" he said excitedly. "How's Duluth?"

"Better than Toledo? Well, that's a start. How was your flight?"

"At a Hilton on an expense account? Sounds plush."

"Me, too." he lowered his voice in pitch and volume. "Is Mercedes there yet?"

"So you're there all by your lonesome?" he giggled at Blaine's response.

"Hold on for a minute." he covered the receiver and said to Adam. "I'll be right back." He took the phone into the bedroom he shared with Blaine and closed the door.