Tuesday morning, Kurt ate a quick breakfast with Sebastian because he had asked again. He had gotten up early on his own and made Kurt coffee. When Kurt left the building, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Santana sat leaned back against the building across the street down a half-block until Kurt had crossed the street. She moved down and sat directly across from the building listening to music on her phone until she spotted Sebastian leaving the building at 9:00.

"The criminal chipmunk? No way," she said quietly. She had assumed that Kurt had moved in with someone from NYADA. She waited until he was out of her sight and headed towards the building to see which apartment was Sebastian's, all the while wondering why a high school student had a flat in NYC.

X-X-X-X-X

Tuesday afternoon, Kurt slipped into the Conde Nast building with just enough time to get to his office without being late. His classes had kicked his butt all day and he was running on fumes, but he made it on time. He flopped down in his chair and took a few deep breaths before turning his iPad on and sorting through his to-do list. He quickly prioritized it making sure that he walked past the coffee pot on his first errand.

The rest of the afternoon and evening passed in a blur of frantic activities. He changed as soon as his official work day ended and was ready to be Isabelle's plus one to the gala she was attending. He sat at his desk reviewing who would be there and waited for her to come get him. He always enjoyed the limousine rides and the pageantry, even if he was working the whole time. He knew that he might never be invited to events like this, and if he ever was, it would be years in the future, so he enjoyed every minute he could in between doing his job.

When he finally made it back to Sebastian's apartment, the lights were out and it was quiet. Fortunately, he had been allowed to eat at the gala, so he went straight to his room and stripped down. He showered and got ready for bed. Without even bothering to look at it, he plugged it in to charge it.

X-X-X-X-X

Blaine waited until a few minutes before rehearsal was set to begin on Wednesday before entering the choir room. He had successfully avoided Tina all afternoon, but she had been relentless earlier that morning. She knew something was wrong and was doggedly attempting to figure out what. He had overheard her asking Sam. He entered the room and sat on the opposite side from her. She got up and moved to sit behind him.

She leaned forward and kept her voice down."Where were you all afternoon? I even checked the nurse's office because you've been acting so weird I thought maybe you were sick since you missed school on Monday."

"I just, I just needed some time to think." Blaine tried his best to make his whisper sound angry.

"Think about what?"

Blaine didn't respond.

"Does that mean you've set a date? Is that what you were thinking about?" she asked excitedly.

"Just leave it, Tina!" Blaine nearly yelled. "I don't want to talk."

Her tone changed quickly. "You were non-stop 'Kurt this, Kurt that. Help me get Kurt back. Help me propose to Kurt.' And we did. And now, you're just acting like someone ran over your cat. It doesn't make any sense."

Blaine was saved by the fact that Mr. Schuester walked into the room and clapped his hands. "I'm sorry I missed school Monday. You all did a great job at Regionals and we're headed to Nationals. And you all pulled off a fantastic flash proposal over the weekend. It was truly amazing to see four rival groups pulling together for such an elaborate proposal. Good job, guys!"

Blaine groaned silently.

It was so very unlike Blaine to pass up an opportunity to publicly preen while shyly pretending to not bask in public adulation that both Tina and Kitty took notice. Tina frowned. Kitty leaned forward and raised an eyebrow while giving him her patented HBIC exasperated look.

Mr. Schue seemed a little confused when Blaine didn't say anything, but he moved on quickly. "Since spring break is next week, I thought we'd have a fun week and have one of our famous girls against boys competitions. And to make it extra challenging, your song needs to be from the '40s or '50s."

Kitty groaned. "We, like, just had The Beatles week for two weeks. And that was enough lousy British accents and gays creaming their pants to last a lifetime."

"Enough Kitty. Glee Club is about expanding your musical horizons too. The '40s and '50s have so much to offer." He went on and the whole room tuned him out for the next ten minutes. They all realized they hadn't been paying attention about the same time when they heard him speaking louder. "I meant to go ahead and move now and start looking for songs. You need to be ready to perform them on Friday."

Kitty rolled her eyes. She got up to move, but she noticed that Blaine was still staring off into space. "Did Kurt already send you his boudoir photos? You've been out of it for the last two days? Move."

"Shut up, Kitty," he snapped back at her.

"Oh, is Kurt too 'refined' for boudoir photos? Is that what's got you in a mood?"

"I said shut up! Just go sit with the girls and leave me alone."

"Dude, not cool," Jake said. "You've been rude to, like, everyone. We gave up our Friday and Saturday to help you with your perfect proposal. The least you could do would be to not be so dickish to everyone."

Blaine took a deep breath. He pulled his phone out to find a song. "This is stupid."

"Well, yeah. That's not new. What's new is you thinking it's stupid," Ryder said.

Artie said, "Yeah, I'd think a '50s song would appeal to your inner Warbler. You know, you on lead with the rest of us harmonizing in the background."

Sam said nothing.

Tina wasn't paying attention to Unique offering song suggestions at all. She was watching Blaine. She leaned forward and backed Artie up. "Yeah, Blaine. Since when did you not jump in and offer to be the lead on a doo-wop?"

Blaine's eyes flashed, and he finally lost control of his temper. "I just don't feel like it."

Tina kept it up. "Let's take Blaine to the nurse because he's obviously sick."

"Yeah, sick of you all not minding your own business."

"You've made us part of your business for ages," Kitty sassed back. "We tried staying out of your business. You shoved it down our throats. You drove us all over the greater northern Ohio area last week to assemble even more people to be part of your business. Now, you've been sulking for two days. Kurt not put out before he left town?"

"Just shut up about Kurt, okay? I thought I made it clear I don't want to talk."

Kitty didn't back down. Annoying him was just too much fun. "Didn't Kurt get you a ring? You're the one who couldn't seem to remember you were unavailable last fall."

"No."

Tina pushed. "Why not? I thought you were all for equality."

"Neither one of us is wearing a ring, so how's that for equality?"

"That makes no sense. We all saw you put a ring on it," Jake said.

"Why wouldn't Kurt be wearing his?" Tina was totally confused.

"Wait, what?" Unique chimed in. "We were all there. We did not mass hallucinate 60 people singing and you asking Kurt to marry you and him saying 'yes'." She paused. "Oh, my God. Kurt's not dead is he?"

"What?" Blaine looked at her like she had lost her mind.

"Is he in a coma?" Tina continued. "Is that why you've been so down? Wait, did Burt get more test results? Were the first ones wrong? Is his cancer back?"

"Kurt's fine. So is Burt," Sam stated matter-of-factly.

Tina turned on him. "You know something. Spill!"

"I know that neither of them is dead or in a coma. I live with Burt and Carole, remember?"

"Whatever, I meant something about Kurt and Blaine."

"He asked us to leave him alone. I did."

"Thank you, Sam," Blaine said. "At least one person did what I asked." He huffed.

"I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for Kurt."

Blaine turned and looked at him. He realized in that moment that Sam knew.

Kitty stood up. "This is ridiculous. I have homework. I'm leaving."

Mr. Schue finally remembered that he was in charge. "Sit down, Kitty. Get back to work, all of you."

The two groups quit interacting, but didn't start working.

Blaine turned on Sam. "Some best friend you are."

Sam ignored him.

Blaine continued. "You know, it's been really hard, and I would expect you to be there for me."

Sam looked through his phone. "Mr. Schue said to work on our assignment."

"I can't believe you're being so callous." His voice rose as he became more agitated. "Kurt broke it off with me for good and you're more concerned about a stupid Glee assignment."

Tina had still been eavesdropping. "Oh, my God, Blaine. He called it off?"

Everyone turned to look at Blaine. He grabbed his stuff and stood up. "Fine. Now you all know. Neither of us are wearing rings because he's not my fiance." His diva storm-out rivaled Rachel's.

Everyone was stunned into silence before the room broke out in quickfire assumptions and possible reasons.

"Why would anyone not want to marry Blaine?" Tina asked.

Most of them had only met Kurt a couple of times and didn't really have anything to suggest as an answer.

Kitty said, "Why would anyone want to marry Blaine? He's 18 and in high school."

Sam finally put a stop to it. "None of this helps anything. Kurt didn't want to marry him obviously. The end."

He and Tina got up. Tina went in search of Blaine and brought him back to the choir room to console him and build him back up. When she brought him back, Sam and Kitty were both gone and Mr. Schue had given up and was sitting at the desk in the room grading papers.

X-X-X-X-X

"I think I need an agent." Santana said as she put the box she was carrying on the floor next to Rachel. "I guess those contracts I signed for those commercials said that I waived my right to residuals in exchange for a lifetime supply of Yeast-I-Stat." She grabbed one of the boxes and scoffed. "Though I don't know whose toxic vagina would need that much of that stuff. I mean, if you're producing that much yeast, you should probably start a bakery."

"Don't complain, Santana. At least you're doing something."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Stop whining, Berry. Soon you'll be dumping us to play Fanny Brice."

"Oh, no," Rachel said. "That ship has sailed. If I got it, I would have heard by now. But it doesn't matter. My whole life I've been looking to be part of something special to feel special, but the truth is that I am special, okay? And I don't need producers to tell me that. I'm gonna play this part, and if it's not in this production, then that is their loss."

Before Santana could respond, Gunther walked over to where they were sitting. "Somebody at table fourteen is looking for the short one." He pointed at Rachel. "Go."

Rachel exchanged a look with Santana and headed in the direction of the table.

When she got closer, she recognized the customer as one of the producers. "Mr. Campion." She smiled nervously.

"Do you have any whole cakes, Rachel?"

"Just a whole cake?"

Mr. Campion hummed. "I'd like one."

"Okay." Rachel started to walk towards the kitchen.

"But I need you to write something on it for me. Can you do that?"

"Yeah." she walked back to the table.

"Good. I want you to write-" he paused. "Congratulations, Rachel Berry. You are Fanny Brice."

Rachel put a hand over her mouth. "Are you serious?! Really?! Oh, my God! Really?! Thank you so much! Thank you!"

Mr. Campion grinned.

"I got Fanny! Oh, my God! Thank you!"

X-X-X-X-X

Once the excitement died down from Rachel announcing that she got Fanny, she asked Gunther if she could leave early. He agreed just to get her out of his hair. Kurt and Santana finished out the shift, splitting the tables that had been Rachel's responsibility.

Before Kurt could slip off, Santana blocked his way out of the small locker room. "Let's have dinner."

Kurt looked at her like she had three heads. " You want to have dinner with me ?"

"I don't want to eat alone again, so sue me. Yes or no?"

"What about Dani?"

"She's busy. She's working on some big assignment."

"Fine, but you're buying. I have leftovers at home that I can for free."

"In that case, let's get coffee."

"Cheapskate."

"It's coffee or Gray's Papaya. I'll spring for a hot dog and a tropical drink since that will cost the same as a good cup of coffee."

"At least it's food. Lead the way."

After they had their food, they fixed up their hot dogs, and sat down.

She stared at his left hand as he held onto his cup. "So, where is your ring?" She knew because of the insane number of times Tina had texted her in the past hour. She had set her phone to silent after the first three, but it kept vibrating in her pocket.

"I'm not sure actually," he answered honestly. "But definitely not on my finger."

She looked completely confused. "Obviously. Thus, me asking. Why?"

"Because I don't want to be engaged. Especially to Blaine."

"Wait, so you gave it back?"

"Yeah." Kurt took a sip from his cup.

"So, you and the Hobbit aren't engaged?"

"No."

"He's like your Disney Prince. He set up that huge proposal. Why would you say 'yes', and then give the ring back?"

He considered his words carefully, knowing that they would be repeated again and again. "Blaine and I broke up last fall because he cheated on me. I agreed to give him a second chance under duress at a picnic he set up at McKinley, but after I thought about what he said, I couldn't go through with it because I realized that even though he promised to sign a 'No Cheating' contract that he had changed up why he said he cheated on me while we were talking. I just can't with that. First, back last fall, he said it was because I wasn't there when he needed me. Then at the picnic, he told me it was because he thought I was through with him. The day he showed up at the loft, I had just talked to him on the phone at lunch and told him that I loved him. How could he think I was through with him? I Skyped, I texted, I called. We watched TV shows together over Skype, even. I had only been gone two weeks and he cheated on me."

"Then why did you say 'yes' at first?"

"Everyone was staring at me. Everyone was happy for me. Everyone seemed to think it was such a good idea, even my dad. I didn't want to embarrass him or humiliate him by saying, 'No thanks, Cheater McCheaterpants." Kurt was getting agitated.

She gave him the HBIC staredown. She was starting to piece together Sebastian's involvement. "The Criminal Chipmunk. He was missing early on, too. At the time, I thought he just got bored and left. But he drove the getaway car, didn't he?"

"I'm not going to answer any more questions. I left. I met up with my dad and Blaine. I gave the ring back. My dad knows about Blaine's cheating now. He and I aren't dating. He and I aren't friends. You got the answers you were looking for. The end."

"Is it really only because he cheated? Everyone in Glee Club cheated or got cheated on, but you're making a really big deal out of this. Do you really not love him anymore?"

"The cheating was an important part, obviously. He slept with someone else ."

"Wait. He had sex with someone else?"

"Thus, the word choice. He cheated on me."

"I thought he, like, made out with someone while drunk. You know, like he did with Berry at her horrible party back in junior year."

"No, the having-sex-with-someone-else kind of cheating, but the truth is that Blaine and I hadn't been doing well even before that. I'm just only realizing it now. I'm realizing that I was convinced that keeping him happy made me happy. But as convoluted as it sounds, it was also keeping me from being happy."

"Yeah, I do get that, though. I could have kept Brittany happy if I had stayed or gone back to Lima. But I wouldn't have been happy there. We couldn't both be happy. And I broke up with her, but I still love her. That's what I'm getting at. I have Dani now, though," she sighed. " Britt…" She looked away and got herself back together. "...is at MIT being a genius. But sometimes when things don't go like we think they should, they still turn out okay. I'm happy with Dani."

"Yeah."

She resumed her interrogation. "He's moving here. Are you sure you're not just going to go back to him as soon as he moves here? Is it really, really over?"

"It really, really is."

"Alright then. When people ask me, I'll tell them that it's really, really over and to leave you alone about it."

"Honestly, I'd rather you just stayed out of it. I'm not broadcasting what happened. I have no idea whether he's even told anyone."

"Got it. Don't get any ideas about me having a heart or anything because telling people to not ask me saves me the trouble of answering them."

"Thank you, Santana." He didn't know what else to say because she was being nice, which made his skin crawl, but left him little in the way of options other than responding kindly.

"Don't get all mushy on me. Everyone knows, by the way. Tina blew up my phone with texts towards the end of our shift."

"If you knew, why'd you ask?"

"I wanted to know why, plus from what I can gather, everyone is taking his side. Except Sam and maybe Kitty, but I think she's just enough of a bitch to hassle both sides in a breakup just for kicks."

"What's your angle?"

"It's all fun and games until it's not, right? Being a bitch is fun most of the time, but it also gets old when you don't have any friends."

He just stared at her like she was one of those aliens in Men in Black wearing a Santana suit. "Right."

They had finished the hot dogs and people were waiting for a place to sit, so they got up and took their drinks and moved out to the sidewalk.

"I'm serious. Look, I know we've had our issues, mostly on my part, but it sucks things didn't work out for you. It sucks when people aren't who you think they are." She hugged him and stepped back. "That never happened." She raised her eyebrows and glared at him.

"Sometimes it doesn't suck when people aren't who you think they are." He let her think that he meant her, but he was thinking about Sebastian, who was proving himself to be not at all what Kurt had expected, but in a completely good way.

They parted ways. Kurt went back to Sebastian's, showered early, and shut himself in his room to do his schoolwork. He checked his texts just to see if he had any from his dad or Carole after he plugged his phone in to charge. He ignored all of the others and went to bed.

X-X-X-X-X

Early Thursday evening, Sebastian got up to answer the knock at the door. He looked through the peephole and saw a man about his height with dark blond hair and a beanie, smiling broadly holding a basket. He knocked again.

Sebastian didn't open the door, but said, "I didn't order anything. I think you have the wrong place."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure this is the right place. I'm looking for Kurt Hummel. I'm Adam Crawford."