Kurt Hummel was not having a good start to his Monday morning.

He had awoken late for work when his alarm had failed to go off, so Kurt had had to skip his morning skincare ritual, the one he'd been practising since he was thirteen years old and had discovered the horrors of pubescent pores. He'd then tried to make his daily grande, non-fat mocha and had discovered a lack of milk. He then decided to pop over to Puck's apartment and sneak some milk into his coffee because, good lord, were those boys in his debt for food stealing, and had been greeted with a half-naked Blaine who'd just stepped out the shower, the water droplets still glistening on his hard-toned torso.

A red-faced Kurt had mumbled something about red sky in the morning being shepherd's warning and had swiftly left, the slamming front door causing a slight breeze that Kurt, fortunately, hadn't been around to witness.

Standing in the rain, outside the building where he lived, Kurt had hailed a taxi in the way he always did - with a wave worthy of the Queen of England, and had promptly been splashed by a passing school bus. He could almost hear the children's cackles of glee from behind the two inch glass and it hit him like a slushie to the face.

So, safe to say, by the time Kurt Hummel finally reached the Vogue building where he worked, he was pissed off, soaking wet and a little turned on.

"Good morning, Mr Hummel," drawled Beatrice from where she was wedged in behind her desk. Beatrice was his fifty year old secretary, and with a resume boasting experience from the most fastidious businesses in the tri-state area, he'd hired her without batting an eyelid. Unfortunately however, soon after this transaction, Beatrice had arrived home to find her husband of 26 years of marriage lying in bed with a skinny blonde's legs wrapped around his neck. She made the courageous decision to walk out of the apartment and pretend that nothing had happened. Instead of finding solace in signing the divorce papers, she'd run to the loving arms of comfort food. Two years on and she'd gained an impressive 450 pounds, a high blood pressure and surly disposition.

"Yeah, hi, Beatrice, how are you?" Kurt muttered distractedly as he attempted to wring out the purple velvet blazer he was wearing. Without waiting for an answer, he marched toward his office door, flung it open and stepped inside. He shut the door behind him, then placed the leather satchel he was carrying down on the table and slowly walked towards the floor length window which loomed over his office.

He pressed his forehead to the cool glass and sighed as he watched the rain lash down on New York City.

He shook his head as the mental image of Blaine's bare chest floated into his mind. He sighed again. This had been the first time he'd been alone with his thoughts since Blaine had bounded into his life again and he didn't really know what to make of them.

Did he want to get back together with Blaine? His heart still twanged painfully at the thought of his name, it had dulled over time, but it still hurt that the only person he'd ever opened his heart up to trust had just cheated on him. He didn't know what the normal protocol was in this situation, but was he supposed to forgive and forget just because it had been five years? Or hold on his pain and hurt even if he was missing out on a potentially wonderful relationship with a man he was still in love with?

He banged his head against the drizzly glass. He really didn't know what to do.

…

"I'm really glad you decided to stay Blaine," Puck grunted through a mouthful of pancakes. Blaine smiled faintly.

He was sitting at the breakfast bar with Puck and Finn, sipping his coffee and pretending to read the New York Times. Quinn had taken Beth to school a few hours ago and had not returned so he didn't know if Beth had told her mother about last night's confrontation.

"Yeah, me too," said Finn, and cleared his throat, "it's so great that you're going be sleeping on our coach for the next few days… weeks… months…?" he trailed off with an air of nonchalance.

Blaine hesitated, he didn't know how long he'd be staying. He didn't have anywhere else to go.

"Um, I'm not really sure, Finn," he said awkwardly, "I'm really sorry, I'll try and help out with the bills as much as possible but I don't have that much money unfortunately."

"It's fine, Blaine. Stay as long as you want!" Said Puck enthusiastically. Finn smiled half-heartedly.

"Maybe," Blaine started, "maybe I could help out with your pool cleaning business, you know for free, and you could put my would-be wages towards paying the bills?"

Finn's eyes lit up, "Yeah!" He cried, and looked at Puck, "Do you know what this means? We can expand our company, go for bigger pools and have richer clients!"

Puck whistled and fist-bumped them both. "This is gonna be sweet!" He said. The three of them cheered and Blaine felt an unfamiliar feeling of light heartedness wash over him as a comfortable silence fell in the tiny kitchen. He cleared his throat.

"Hey, guys?" he asked, timidly. They looked up at him concernedly. Blaine got the feeling that Puck sometimes thought of him as a little brother whom he needed to guide through life and bestow wisdom upon.

"Yeah?" asked Finn.

Blaine swallowed nervously, "Do you - do you think I should try things again with - with Kurt?" His voice broke as he spoke Kurt's name. He cleared his throat again, slightly abashed.

Puck nearly leapt out of his chair, "HELL YEAH!" he yelled, thumping Blaine hard on the back in what Blaine took as encouragement. Finn didn't say anything, he just looked down at his coffee mug.

"Finn?" Blaine asked uncertainly.

"I don't know Blaine," Finn paused, "I mean, I've never seen him so distraught as when you two broke up and you know that you hurt him real bad?"

Blaine nodded solemnly.

"But I've also never seen him so happy as when you two were together or when he was talking about you and the stuff I never really understood but you did understand, you know?"

Blaine nodded again, his eyes began to fill up and he tried furiously to blink them away.

"So, I guess what I'm saying is, maybe it's time for Kurt to be happy again," he finished, his expression still neutral. Blaine glanced at Puck, did he have permission from Finn or not? Then Finn's face broke out into a smile, and Puck was beaming at him and his vision began to go blurry and Puck was yelling "Group hug!" and he was filled with a feeling of elation that he hadn't felt in five long years.

…

Quinn turned around the corner from the school which she'd just dropped Beth off at. She huddled into her jacket as the rain pounded down on her, battering across her makeup-less face. She spotted her bus trundling along the flooded pavement and began speed walking towards it, racing it towards the stop.

As the bus slowed to a halt in front of her, she waited for the doors to open. She clamoured up the steps and her feet squelched as water seeped into the thin soles of her shoes. She paid for her ticket then made her way to the back of the bus and sat down.

The bus had just begun to move again when she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She picked it up and looked at it, her brow furrowed. It was from an unknown contact. She double-clicked it and the text popped up, projecting brightly in the reflection of her green eyes.

"You can't run forever Quinn."