BLAINE ANDERSON: KAFFE 1668, 275 GREENWICH ST: FRIDAY AFTERNOON


Oh. Oh. He had not been prepared for that. Not at all. Though he realized that he should have been, knowing Annalise.

He had been suspicious when Annalise had told him she wanted to be picked up at Kaffe 1668. She had said that she had been thinking about the place ever since he told her about it, and that the bridal fitting she had gone to with Kurt had happened to be close by.

Not even a minute had passed after entering the store when he had realized it was a set-up. She had been there like he had expected, yes, but she hadn't been alone. Kurt had been there too.

"Kurt," he breathed when he reached the table they were sitting at. Apparently he lacked the ability to think of anything more logical to say.

Annalise raised her eyebrows in amusement. Though Kurt also looked a little taken aback by seeing him there, he still composed himself with a grin.

"Hello to you, too, Blaine."

"Sorry, I just didn't know you'd be here," he said lamely. He stood for a moment, and both Annalise and Kurt watched him. When nobody said anything, he pulled out a chair and sat down.

Kurt patted Annalise's shoulder. "Likewise. It was all this girl's idea."

"I don't doubt it," Blaine mumbled.

Another silence fell over them, in which Kurt shifted uncomfortably in his seat and Blaine watched him pull off his dress-to-impress work attire flawlessly. He looked stunning as always in skinny pants and a steel blue button down shirt. But watching Kurt made him remember the night in his office two days ago, the memory of which he had been trying to suppress. It had been far from his proudest moment, and he was more than ashamed of himself. If that was possible. What was worse than ashamed? Mortified. He was mortified.

He shifted his gaze down, to where his hands were fidgeting on the table. There was no escaping that he still had some feelings he needed to deal with. There were feelings, he'd come to realize, that he'd kept in his heart all this time even though he had sincerely thought that he had gotten rid of them all. He wished that there was a handbook titled Getting Over Kurt Hummel, because after all this time he still didn't know how to do it properly. There was a lump forming in his throat, a heaviness to his heart, that out of nowhere made him want to cry. Realization was finally catching up to him that all these years of thinking he was fine had only been him fooling himself. He wasn't fine, how could he be? He didn't want to be sitting in the ruins of his glorious past, with his half-time daughter and his lost love staring him down. He wanted to be anywhere but there. He needed to be alone.

He almost jumped out of his skin when a soft hand touched his. His eyes snapped up and met Kurt's blue irises watching him sadly.

"Are you okay, Blaine?"

"Yeah, fine," he lied.

Kurt saw right through it, and he knew it. Maybe that was how well Kurt knew him. Then again, he had always been a poor liar.

"You suddenly looked like someone had kicked your puppy," Kurt said gently, trying out a comforting smile.

Kurt's pale hand was warm on top of his, his fingers soft and comforting as they gently squeezed Blaine's fingers. Blaine couldn't remember the last time he had felt Kurt's hand against his own, or the last time he had felt the smoothness of his skin. Despite everything he was feeling, he visualized Kurt doing his skin care routine every day like he always had, and he smiled. Some things never changed, and he was grateful for that. At the end of the day – even though the world was ever-changing – he could still count on Kurt to take care of his skin. He found comfort in that.

"I'm fine," Blaine said, with more conviction this time.

"Good." He withdrew his hand quickly. "Because otherwise I'd have to go all Sebastian Smythe on your ass."

"Who's Sebastian Smythe?" Annalise wondered curiously.

"Care to share?" Kurt asked him, raising an eyebrow. Annalise's eyes darted restlessly between the two of them.

"Uhh," Blaine said, scratching his neck. He wasn't entirely sure what Kurt was getting at. "He was a guy I went to high school with."

"To specify," Kurt told Annalise, "he was a guy with a thing for Blaine, and his methods of approach and comforting were far from orthodox."

Annalise gave them both an amused look before her eyes settled on Blaine.

"It's true."

"I'm not surprised," she said. "Everybody loves you, Daddy. How could they not?" She must have noticed Kurt blushing and busying himself with his coffee cup, because she quickly added, "I mean- just... you're hard not to like."

But Kurt still looked uneasy, and Blaine didn't like it at all. Despite what you should feel toward an ex, Blaine didn't like feeling like he was somehow above Kurt or better than him, and he certainly didn't like watching him squirm.

That was probably why he said what he did then.

"Oh, I sure remember a certain someone liking the hell out of me Christmas of 2010 when I dragged him out of studying to perform an impromptu rendition of Baby, It's Cold Outside for my performance at Kings Island Christmas Spectacular."

Kurt shook his head to himself, but he was grinning.

"I would definitely want to hear that sometime," Annalise told them.

"I can't believe you would bring that up," Kurt said. "It was so embarrassing!"

"Why was it embarrassing?" Blaine asked, beating Annalise to it, who just shut her mouth without a word. "We were good. Actually, we did that song brilliantly together."

"Yeah, we were great," Kurt agreed, "but I was also head over heels for you and so blatantly obvious about it that everyone at school knew about it. Except you, of course, mister Oblivion."

"Really?" Annalise said, her word almost getting lost in her fit of giggles. "It sounds like Blaine."

"It's true. I was completely clueless. Afterwards, I would think back of things he did and things our friends at school and in our glee club The Warblers said and did that made it so obvious. I actually didn't find out until around Valentine's Day when Kurt told me about it. I had actually made Kurt and The Warblers help me serenade another guy. That's another story, but long story short, it became clear why my friends had been so against helping me perform for another guy. They had even told me that if I wanted to perform a Valentine's song at Dalton - just for glee club - they'd gladly help me."

Blaine felt himself smile when Kurt and Annalise didn't stop laughing at him.

"I used to be a very clueless kid, okay?"

That just made them laugh even harder. Kurt was laughing so hard that he had to wipe tears from his eyes.

Blaine threw his arms up after a minute.

"What? What's so funny?"

They were barely able to get any words out.

"You used to be-"

"Clueless kid-"

"Okay, okay," Blaine concluded. "So I might still be a little bit slow at getting hints."

That didn't do anything to stop their laughing.

"Might!" Kurt squeaked.

"A little bit!" Annalise wheezed.

"You're just too adorable!" Kurt said and laughed. But then he seemed to realize what he just had said. His laughter slowly faded with a prolonged sigh, and he wiped at his eye one more time.

"He is adorable," Annalise agreed, grinning at him.

"Thank you both. You have sufficiently embarrassed me for one day."

"You are welcome," Annalise said seriously.

"Yes," Kurt agreed. "If we don't embarrass you, who will?"

Blaine rolled his eyes. "I think I'd live."

"Admit it, Dad, you'd miss us to death if we weren't around."

Blaine smiled at his girl, about to reply. However, he moved his gaze to Kurt, who was looking down at his coffee cup with a strange sort of smile.

"Yes, I would," Blaine said truthfully.

"Exactly. So what is all the fuzz about?" Annalise batted her eyelashes at him, which was low even for her. He was the one who had taught her that move. "You love me even when I have mad sugar craves."

"Speaking of," Blaine said. "I was thinking you and I head home and bake cookies for dinner. Screw nutrition and just live for the day!"

Kurt's eyes met his briefly before they moved away, to Annalise.

"You're more than welcome to join us, Kurt, if you'd like."

Blaine had no idea why he said that. It had just slipped out. Okay, maybe it hadn't slipped as much being spoken as soon as the thought had hit him, before he had even processed what saying it would mean. Being nice to everyone came naturally to him. He was often overly nice, like inviting his ex-husband over for cookie baking just because he happened to be there when they made the plans. He was too nice. That was the explanation he was sticking with.

"Um, actually-" Kurt began.

"Yes, Daddy, pleeease," Annalise begged. "Come with us."

"I would love to, but I'm afraid I still have work to do before my weekend can begin."

Kurt gave her an apologetic smile when she pouted, but when he turned to Blaine his smiled faded. Blaine knew why. He knew Kurt had a lot at work, but he also knew Kurt could have postponed it had he really wanted to.

"Some other time, then," Blaine said, watching Kurt.

Kurt stared back. His head was titled to the side, just barely. His eyes were slightly narrowed, also just barely. They were subtle motions that Blaine noticed. He knew Kurt was trying to read him, figure him out. Did he have an ulterior motive? Why was he inviting him along? Did he honestly want him along or was he just being polite?

He didn't even have an answer to those questions himself.

"Yeah," Kurt whispered finally. "Some other time."


I burned my hand today while I baked cookies myself so typing hurts and it sucks :( Please review to let me know what you think of this chapter.

Also, mini spoiler-ish: I can't wait for chapter 14! I've been dying to write it for like a week!

See ya soon xx