Kurt Hummel has lived in his apartment building for exactly six months before he gets around to unpacking his moving boxes. It's not that he isn't pleased with his apartment or the area, it's quite the opposite, it's a nice little area in Brooklyn where they call the corner stores bodegas and there always seems to be movement. He likes the deli workers because despite the look of the place the coffee is excellent and he always gets his mug filled for his train ride into the city. Kurt first realized that living in New York didn't mean he had to live in the city. Manhattan lost its appeal quickly and now with him living in Brooklyn he could visit his family in Lima a bit more frequently because his rent is no longer astronomical .When he's sick now he can afford to take one or even two days off and sometimes he uses vacation days to do nothing more than explore the neighborhood.
On his third trip downstairs he notices a man looking at him quizzically, almost as if he knows him but he shakes it off as soon as the thought it occurs because with the exception of Rachel and Blaine he doesn't know anyone in the city. Those green eyes are calling from somewhere in his memories and has he rides the elevator up again he tells himself he's being silly. He's sure in a city the size of New York there are bound to be at least one green eyed stranger that looks familiar. It isn't until he is about to turn the knob that a name triggers from somewhere into his memory: Sebastian Smythe.
Sebastian Smythe laughs at himself deprecatingly as he walks down the street, he has been seeing the new neighbor for about three months but he's never been able to see a full view of his face. The first time he was walking out of the neighborhood book store and something about a voice he heard took him back to his Dalton Academy days and his pursuit of Blaine Anderson. The voice sounded so much like Kurt. Apart of him had wondered at the fact that after all these years he knew what Kurt's voice sounded like but he had to strain even to remember how Blaine even looked. The next time he sees the stranger he's catching his morning coffee and hears "Hey Dad" and he tries to get to the front of the deli but the lady has a double stroller and no amount of maneuvering can get him around it in time and he makes it to the front of the store just in time to see the left side of the strangers faces walking out of view. He curses to himself because every time he comes so close but he never seems to make progress. It isn't until about six months later as he decides to take the stairs because someone or something was holding the elevator up and going down isn't nearly as strenuous as going down. It's also the first morning since his work transfer is officially complete and he can now take a little longer to get out and on his way to work since he's now working at Brooklyn College.
He hears the elevator and as the doors are about to close he gets to finally sees the face that's been fleeting away from him and he almost wants to yell "open the elevator" but he knows that it's Kurt and he thinks he sees a flash of recognition. He watches as the elevator display shows the elevator going to the fourth floor and he at least knows where to check later because there's no way he cannot reach out to an old friend? Acquaintances? One of the few people from the past who knew him when he was a full-l fledged asshole and even when he began to become a better person.
Kurt goes about his day and because he had promised the rest of the staff some cookies he decided to get started on it. His apartment in Manhattan had an oven but his neighbors complained so heavily if he makes anything about a soup broth. It was almost as if the smell of food would convince them to leave their perpetual diets. One time he had to tell the super nicely to "fuck off because there was no way in hell the smell of sugar cookies were that much of a bother and even if it was he wasn't going to stop." He wasn't exactly surprised when he didn't get a lease renewal offer. His neighbors here on his floor were friendly enough towards him. His apartment 4C was in the middle of 4B the Indian couple with the stay at home mother with about seven kids at Kurt's last count. And 4D, the old lady who always had a young niece or family friend to set him up with, one who met Kurt and started shaking her head. It was clear that Kurt was gay and she just told 4D, "Nan, I'm not his type." Whenever she and Kurt saw each other they would share conspiratorial winks and smirks at 4D obtuseness.
He's pulling out the last batch of cookies when he hears a knock on the door. It's not a Thursday so the Jehovah's Witness in 4A isn't coming to invite him to those ominously sounding meetings that sounds like it would be less fun that pulling teeth without some form of anesthesia, she's insistent though and sometimes when Kurt sees her looking a little too long at the picture of his first pride parade he wonders what her story is. She doesn't tell him much, only that she has an accent that melodious and he tells himself and her half-jokingly that if her singing voice was half as good as her spoken voice those Broadway wannabes like Rachel Berry would find her a formidable opponent.
He always has to remind himself that this isn't Lima and he shouldn't call out for whoever it is to come in. He did that once while his father and Carole was visiting and his father was so worried about him after that he called him so many times per day he had to appeal to Carole. "Kurt, it could've been a mask murderer." His father had said. "They don't tend to knock Dad, they just come in and kill." And that might've been the worst thing to say because even though his father doesn't call him twenty times a day, Carole does and he's sure that Santana only calls because his father as asked.
Sebastian waits anxiously at the door. By order of deduction Kurt has to be in 4C. 4B is the family with a million kids and he's held the elevator doors for them enough times and a time or two held a wiggling toddler as she tends to an infant or even one of her older children. And 4D who didn't enjoy his visual aid about male with male sex and just why he didn't need or want any of her nieces. "I wouldn't know what to do with her parts, nor would I want to touch her parts," and 4D has ignored him ever since. And 4A was easy going and though he knew she was a door-knocker, she was cool and always got a nod from him, so that left 4C.
The door opens and he excited to see that it's Kurt and he looks the same and he looks different all rolled in one and he's sure he's staring but then it's not so bad because Kurt's smiling at first and then out right laughing.
"I never thought I see the day, Sebastian Smythe looks at me that way." It's said teasingly and Sebastian sees none of the insecure little boy he last saw in Lima.
Kurt steps aside and Sebastian takes that as his cue that he's at least allowed entrance and he steps into a mirror of his apartment. A two bedroom open plan apartment with a sinful amount of space, high walls and a view that lives up to the areas name when it gets into the twilight hours. And Sebastian only just notices that he smells sugar cookies and not the type that comes from those sickly sweet air freshener cans but the kind that can only come from a oven and hard word.
Sebastian looks around and helps himself to a seat, he remembers that Kurt wouldn't have invited him into his space, his home if he didn't want him there.
"I once yelled "why can't you stay in the bookstore." And the non sequitur is so Sebastian and so not him that Kurt just laughs again.
"I guess we were in our own version of Serendipity."