If there was someone Kurt tried not to think about, that person was Blaine Anderson.
He didn't hate Blaine. Of course not. He and Blaine had parted on amicable terms when Kurt left for New York with Rachel after graduation. He still kept in touch with Tina and Artie from time to time and they'd drop him little hints here and there, but Kurt never asked for more info. The last he'd heard, Blaine wasn't coming to New York after graduation. He was off to LA, or San Francisco, or somewhere warmish where he could continue not wearing socks.
It was stupid. Kurt just … didn't like to think about Blaine. It was his choice to not keep in contact with Blaine. The ball had been left in his court when he left for New York, and he thought it would be easier on both of them to get a little distance between them – aside from the physical distance. Looking back, his relationship with Blaine had been easy and blissful for the most part – but isn't that what first love is supposed to be?
That's what he kept telling himself, anyways. That's what he told himself when he never clicked with anyone quite like Blaine – he was an adult now. It wasn't supposed to be easy. There had been school, sure, but there had also been work and productions and who had time for easy? Everyone he'd met since moving to New York had the attitude of 'conform to my world because I don't have time to conform to yours' and after five and a half years of dating in the city, Kurt had picked up some of that as well. At least he realized it.
And, okay, maybe Kurt had been thinking about Blaine a bit lately, because he was in between relationships and instead of going to their five year reunion, he and Rachel had stayed in New York with alcohol and old recordings of New Directions performances, on the standing that five year reunions are stupid, no one's life is fabulous when you've just graduated from college and are trying to find your way in the world. Nostalgia had reared its ugly head, and Kurt had been two mouse clicks and a half a bottle of wine away from googling Blaine's name a few weeks back. In the end, he called Finn instead, getting caught up on the actual reunion. Finn went, of course, because his life of a wife and kid with a townhouse in Brooklyn was just wholesome enough for Lima to eat up with a spoon.
So, really, it's the last thing he expected to see while having breakfast on the run with Rachel. One bagel, half for each of them, and two cups of black coffee while they were on the run to a yoga session with some half rate celebrity turned fitness instructor that Rachel had purchased for them on Groupon. Kurt complained and complained because they had to trek all the way down to Times Square on a Saturday of all things, and fight tourists and the unbearable September cold snap that had come through the night before, and what the hell more were they going to learn from some nobody, anyways?
Rachel noticed it first, stopping dead in her tracks and staring upwards. "Come on, what are you doing?" Kurt huffed, tapping his foot. "We're going to be late for this stupid thing, the stupid thing you of all people insisted we go to…"
He finally looked up to where she was pointing and saw why she was gaping. It was Blaine's face. Forty stories high on a Broadway poster. Blaine was accompanied by a whole football team in vintage costumes, standing behind him and much smaller.
"Rachel, how did we not know about this?" Kurt hissed as he continued to stare at the poster. "You're married to a Broadway producerfor god's sake, how did we not know about this?"
"It's at Gershwin," Rachel managed to squeak out, still gaping. "Frank doesn't bring up anything that's going on at Gershwin, ever, because it's not Wicked." Thanks to Frank, Rachel and Kurt had attended Wicked's closing show, and Rachel had clung to Kurt, practically sobbing the whole entire time – for how far they'd come since they first set foot on that stage, and how far they hadn't.
Once Kurt got over the shock of seeing Blaine's face plastered on a building, he actually read the words underneath. Tackled! A brand new musical in the historic Gershwin Theater with Blaine Anderson in his Broadway debut, opening October 9th.
Kurt, like Rachel, had purposefully skipped over articles which concerned the Gershwin Theater for the past six months in his morning news roundup, because in his mind, nothing could replace Wicked. "How did neither of us know he was here though?" Kurt finally asked after a lull of staring and silence.
Rachel shrugged. "He went to California for school, right? It does say Broadway debut, maybe he just got here. You know … if it's at Gershwin … it's not like we haven't snuck in before." Rachel's eyes were twinkling, and Kurt had to admit, checking the show out was a much better idea than the yoga class she was dragging him to.
"I suppose it has been a few years since we dropped in unexpectedly. Your bachelorette party was, what, two years ago?" Kurt mentioned it just to get a rise out of Rachel – her bachelorette party ended with a group of them sneaking into Gershwin at three in the morning, in various states of intoxication, and the guard a little less forgiving than the last time they were there. Frank had to come down and sort it all out, and it was A Thing, one that was never to be mentioned again.
"Oh, be quiet!" Rachel squealed. She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment before another thought popped into her head. "Come on, let's drop our bags with our yoga stuff at Frank's office before we go so we have less to carry and don't get caught. And before you start, you look fine, which it doesn't matter, because we're not going to get caught this time."
Kurt gave her his 'bitch, please' look, because their track record proved otherwise, but went along just the same and made Rachel stop at a bathroom in Frank's building so he could at least check his hair.
It wasn't difficult sneaking up and into the mezzanine – with rehearsals going strong, all sorts of people were coming or going, and the two of them had spent enough time in theaters over the years to not be conspicuous. They settled into a pair of seats on the end of a row and watched the scene before them silently. From what Kurt could gather, the musical looked like it was based on football in the 1920s, which made Kurt chuckle – Blaine had always lamented in high school that he was too short to play, so of course he'd find a role that let him. He just had to be transplanted a century backwards.
Kurt exchanged a glance with Rachel. Blaine was good, really good – he somehow made the absurdity of the role work. The delivery of his character's lines was hilarious instead of campy, unlike some of the other actors. Barnaby Andrews was supposed to rally together a whole football team with his charisma, and charisma was something Blaine had in spades. They moved in place for what seemed to be their closing number, and Rachel grabbed onto Kurt's arm, smiling at him slightly. As Blaine led the rest of the cast in singing about how football was the greatest game on earth, Kurt saw him squint slightly up towards the mezzanine.
"Crap, Rachel, he made us," Kurt whispered, and he half thought about sneaking out before it was over, while Blaine's back was turned. "So much for not getting caught."
"Oh well!" Rachel said, grinning, and Kurt just gaped at her. Of course she'd want to track Blaine down either way. The number finished with a flourish, and the director praised the cast, telling them to break for lunch. Blaine turned to a few of his castmates, talking low enough where Kurt and Rachel couldn't hear him all the way in the mezzanine. Kurt was about to tell Rachel they should go when Blaine turned and yelled up to them, "Meet me in the lobby!"
Rachel waved and was still grinning wildly, crashing her shoulder into Kurt. He was going to kill her, he was sure of it. If he hadn't seen her face when she saw the billboard with his own two eyes, he'd accuse her of planning the whole thing outright. "I hate you," he hissed at her as they made their way to the lobby. "Why couldn't we just wait and accidentally run into him somewhere else? Like normal stalkers do?"
Rachel patted his arm as they made their way down the stairs. "Oh, Kurt, I'm just speeding everything along. Do you know how much time normal stalking takes?"
Kurt saw Blaine first, because he could pinpoint the exact moment when Blaine saw him and Rachel. His eyes widened and his grin was rivaling Rachel's, and he raced up to them, pulling them both in a bone crushing hug.
"When I saw movement up there, I knew for sure it had to be you guys. I'd been meaning to look you both up to see if you still lived in town, but it's been crazy – you guys look amazing! Sorry, I'm rambling, this is just a surprise." Blaine pulled back from the hug to catch his breath, and Kurt's face softened, because this was Blaine, after all.
"You looked incredible up there. Really, really amazing," Kurt said, smiling warmly and still holding onto Blaine's arm, crap, he should let go, but he really couldn't bring himself to.
Rachel burst in at that point. "You were just brilliant, Blaine! Kurt and I haven't been following the show much, since you know, it's replacing Wicked and all, and we had no idea until we were walking through Times Square earlier and then boom! There your face was! Forty stories high!" Rachel exclaimed.
Blaine laughed at Rachel's bubbliness. "Yeah, I guess that went up earlier today, I still haven't seen it. Crazy, right?"
"You haven't seen it?" Rachel exclaimed. "Blaine, you have to see it – do you have time now?"
"Rachel, the man is putting on a Broadway show, he doesn't have time to go running down to Times Square with us!" Even though Kurt wouldn't turn down more time with Blaine, he knew it was highly unrealistic. Even though it was lunchtime, he probably had meetings or –
"No, actually, I've got an hour free. Do you guys mind? I mean, I know it's cheesy, but it all really hasn't set in yet, and it would be really lame of me to go alone." Blaine silently pleaded with Kurt, and damn, that still worked after five years of not seeing him. Good to know.
After a stop at a Starbucks for coffee for the three of them and a sandwich for Blaine, they were off. "Enough about me," Blaine said as they walked down the block. "How are you guys? What are you up to? It's – it's really good to see you." Blaine's eyes met Kurt at that point, and he had to agree. As weird as the whole situation was, it definitely was good to see Blaine.
Rachel never missed an opportunity to talk about herself, so the moment was gone as soon as it came. "I had vocal cord surgery during our sophomore year and can't sing professionally anymore, sadly," she said with a sigh. It had been three years and Kurt thought she was almost over it. Almost. "But, on the upside, I did meet my husband, Frank, because of it! He was looking to cast me in this revival of A Chorus Line he was producing, but because I couldn't sing, well, we started dating. I'm Rachel Wagner now and I work for NYADA as a consultant and recruiter – they've started actively recruiting from glee and drama clubs now that they've opened up admissions a bit."
"Wow, I'm sorry to hear, Rachel," Blaine said, frowning – if there was anyone who understood what Rachel not being able to sing aside from Kurt, it was Blaine. "It seems like things have worked out for you though."
Rachel gave him a genuine smile. "They really have, I'm happy. And Kurt," Rachel continued, looking over at him, and oh god, who knew what she was going to say about what Kurt had been up to for the last five years. "Kurt is running this wonderful new little boutique in Chelsea, Selene & Endymion."
"No performing for you either, then?" Blaine asked before taking a bite of his turkey sandwich, and he seemed sad about the whole thing.
"No, apparently even a degree with honors from NYADA doesn't get someone like me roles right out of school," Kurt said with a laugh, it coming out a bit more bitter than he intended it to. "I actually switched to NYADA's costuming program my junior year and haven't given up working in the industry, per se, but the boutique thing fell into my lap and it takes up a lot of my time."
Rachel rolled her eyes. "The boutique thing just fell into your lap? Kurt's being modest – it's Frannie Richardson's boutique, the costume designer? We worked with her at NYADA, and she'd wanted to open a boutique for a long time. Kurt was the one who pushed her to do it, and then this contract gig in London came up that she couldn't refuse but it started a week after she had planned to open – she was going to can the whole thing until Kurt stepped in. It's practically Kurt's shop, it's just her name on the door. I still say she doesn't pay you enough for what you do," Rachel said, eyeing Kurt over her cup of coffee.
"Oh, she pays me plenty," Kurt replied, glaring back at Rachel, because they'd had this discussion a dozen times already. "I enjoy what I do, that's a lot more than other people get to say," he added, offering Blaine a smile.
"I'm glad you enjoy what you do, Kurt. So, Rachel has Frank, you seeing anyone special?" Blaine asked before tossing the wrapper from his sandwich in a nearby trashcan.
There it was. The question Kurt had been avoiding for the last twenty minutes. "No, you?" was all Kurt could get out, and in the seconds after he asked, Blaine's face was unreadable.
"There is someone I'm seeing. Todd's in LA though. He comes in on Monday for the week though," Blaine said, face brightening in realization. "The five of us should go out to dinner next week! It'll be fun." He grinned at both Kurt and Rachel as they turned the corner.
"It will be!" Rachel said, clapping her hands together. "You get off early on Wednesdays, right Kurt? So we can shoot for that! I'll make reservations somewhere."
The last thing Kurt wanted was to be the fifth wheel, but he didn't want to hurt Blaine's feelings. "I do get out early Wednesdays. Great idea, I can't wait to meet him." Kurt smiled warmly again at Blaine who returned it, only breaking their eye contact when they heard Rachel squeal.
They'd reached Times Square and the three of them stood staring up, the cold wind whipping around them. Kurt turned to watch Blaine while his emotions changed on his face. "Feels real now, huh?" Kurt asked as Rachel curled her arms around Blaine's waist to hug him – she would deny it later but she was definitely sniffling.
"Yeah," Blaine said, heaving a sigh. "I mean, I moved here in July after graduation and it's been go, go, go since then, and I just really haven't had much of a moment to sit and think about what it all means, you know?"
Blaine had one arm wrapped around Rachel's shoulders and he reached his free hand out to squeeze Kurt's. Kurt tried to not jump from the surprise contact and looked over at Blaine questioningly. "I know we haven't kept in the best contact over the years – or okay, any contact, but it really means a lot to me that you're both here now."
Kurt tried not to melt inside and squeezed Blaine's hand back, firm and sure.
After a few minutes of silent staring, a few people had realized it was Blaine on the billboard and were pointing back and forth. Blaine was too transfixed on the poster to even notice. Kurt finally asked, "So, I have to know how you got the role."
Blaine dropped his gaze away from the poster and chuckled. "It was my last semester at UC Irvine and my roommate, Vale, reads in the paper they're casting for Tackled! She reads the summary out loud and tells me I have to audition, it's the perfect show for me. So, I audition, thinking that any part would be awesome, and I get called back for Barnaby. Long story short, they gave me the role in May, I graduated in June, I was here in July. What?" he asked, grinning when he saw Kurt shaking his head.
"You are the type of person who would get a leading role without even graduating. I mean that as a compliment," Kurt said, squeezing Blaine's hand again, and well, shit – he was still holding that wasn't he? He let go of Blaine's hand, and it was if the moment had snapped, Blaine glancing at his watch and realizing the time.
"Shit, I'm going to be late. Do you guys have cards?" he asked, reaching in his pocket for his wallet. They exchanged cards and Rachel promised to be in touch about Wednesday. Blaine hugged her tightly, saying something quietly to her that Kurt didn't catch, before turning to hug Kurt just as tightly.
"I'll have to stalk you more often," Kurt joked as he squeezed Blaine's shoulders.
Blaine smiled slightly before saying, "You better, I'll be counting on it." He leaned in further to whisper just loud enough for Kurt himself to hear. "You're just as stunning as I remember, Kurt."
Blaine broke their embrace before Kurt had a chance to respond. "I really do have to run. Let me know the plan for Wednesday, okay?" he said before turning and breaking into a jog. He waved right before he sprinted across the street and only then did Kurt turn to face Rachel.
They stared at each other for a moment before Rachel asked, "You're getting him back, aren't you?"
The side of Kurt's mouth began to quirk up. If Blaine was happy, he was happy. But if he wasn't?
"No question."
