Kurt had double-checked their combined schedule before he went to see Jared on Monday before heading to Vogue. He agreed to rehire Kurt to work six hours a week, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 2:00 until 5:00, which was when Sebastian's physics lab let out.

After finishing his shift at Vogue, he stopped by a nice market bought a single orange rose with some baby's breath for Sebastian and some tiny fresh blueberries.

When he got home, he put the flower in a vase, put a table cloth on the table, and placed the vase in the center of the table. He washed the blueberries and pulled up a recipe he had found for lemon poppyseed pancakes and read through it one more time.

He got everything he needed out and had it all in the right amounts, ready to go. He texted Sebastian and asked him to let him know when he got off the subway. As soon as he heard from Sebastian, he whipped up the batter. As Sebastian unlocked the door, Kurt plated the pancakes and put them on the table. He walked to the door and greeted Sebastian with a kiss as he came in.

"No complaints from me, but what was that for?"

"Wash your hands and come eat. Dinner's done."

Sebastian sat his bag on the floor near the door and washed his hands in in the kitchen sink.

Kurt was standing close enough to him to block his view of the table. Once he dried his hands, Kurt stepped closer and wrapped his arms around him. "As for what it's for – it's just because I love you." He pecked him on the lips and stepped to the side, allowing Sebastian to view the table.

"Are those lemon poppyseed pancakes?"

"They are. Let's eat before they get cold."

"Thank you for the rose. It's beautiful," Sebastian said as he sat down.

"You're welcome." Kurt waited for Sebastian to take the first bite. He had made a quarter-sized pancake first to taste it just to make sure they were okay, but he wanted to see whether or not Sebastian liked them. Kurt watched him cut into the stack and put the bite in his mouth.

As he began to chew, his eyes lit up. After he swallowed, he said, "This was a great idea. They're delicious. Thank you." He cut a bite of one of the sausage links on his plate and ate it. "Ooh, maple turkey sausages. They go with the pancakes really well. Delicious."

Kurt was excited that Sebastian liked them so much. "I'm glad you like them. How was your day?"

"Well, you told me to choose a few people to invite over this Sunday evening, so I did. They're both in my Physics class. Harry and Kyle. I saw them outside walking into the building together so I figured I'd start with them since they're obviously already friends with each other."

"Sounds promising."

"Mmm hmm." He took another bite and ate it. "You asked about my classes. My Art Humanities professor is really good at making the subject interesting. He had some really cool photos that he showed in class today. He uploaded them to Blackboard so we can look at them again later. I'll show them to you if you want to see."

"Sure. I went by JJ's and he's going to hire me for six hours a week."

"Excellent. That's exactly what you wanted."

"It is. No Saturday mornings. I'm going from from 2-5 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We can make extra meat on Mondays and Wednesdays so that dinner will be fast on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"You got it to work out just the way you wanted. I'll update the combined schedule and print three copies."

They ate in silence for a while.

Sebastian took the last bite of his pancakes. "These are definitely on the repeat-worthy list."

"I'll send you the link."

"I'll put in into the template we made and print it too. We can add it to our Hummel-Smythe recipe collection."

Kurt smiled. He liked how that sounded. Despite it only being three and a half months into their relationship, Kurt felt every word of the song they had written together was true for them – that they'd make it because they worked hard to build their relationship to be strong and healthy. "Ooh, I have an idea."

"What's that?"

"Let's take a photo of the alcove wall and use it to make a background for a cover to print to put inside the clear sleeve on the front of the half-size binder we're keeping the recipes in."

"That's a cool idea. Maybe you can work on that while I type up the recipe and print stuff out."

Kurt got up and grabbed their plates and put them in the dishwasher. "I can do that. I'll get my camera."

He moved his spotlight and aimed it at the alcove wall after the first few shots were dark and shadowed. After he took a few new photos, he uploaded them to his laptop and chose the best one. He used Picassa to create a nice title where the coat rack was on the wall, about a third of the way down from the top, and sent it to Sebastian. He quickly researched something and went into their spare room before he moved the light back to where it went.

When he walked into the spare room, he said, "Defrosted frozen peas."

Sebastian looked up at him. "Those are good on salads."

"For the ducks."

"Oh, okay. We'll grab a bag for this Sunday when we go shopping Saturday and a bag for our salads." He motioned for Kurt to come closer. "Was there anything else that needed changed on our combined schedule?"

"Nope. I looked it over for any mistakes in my stuff this afternoon and didn't find any."

Sebastian saved his work and sent it to the printer. When the copies came out, he put them in clear sheet protectors. He handed Kurt one. He put the other in his binder, and then took the other into the kitchen and put it on the refrigerator. Kurt took his into their bedroom and put it in his binder. He started to pack up what he needed for the next day.

"I'll send the photo to CVS and pick it up on the way home tomorrow." He took the scissors from Kurt's desk organizer into the spare room and cut the recipe he'd printed in half and slipped it into the binder so that the two halves faced each other. He took the binder and put it back in the kitchen. He went back into their room, put the scissors back, and wrapped his arms around Kurt. "I'm glad you got back on at JJ's. I know you enjoyed being able to keep your skills up."

"I do like it. I don't want to do it 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, but I do enjoy it." Kurt kissed up Sebastian's neck towards his ear. "Ready to shower so we can snuggle and study?"

"Umm hmm."

The next Sunday night, Kurt had managed to make it through dinner before he pretended to get a text from Dani requesting his urgent help with her statistics homework. He gave his apologies, grabbed his satchel and jacket, and left. He didn't go to Dani and Santana's though. He just went down to Mercado sin mancha and sat in the taquería and ordered a non-alcoholic Sangria. He sat at a table and called Marley. After they talked for nearly an hour, he pulled out a script, and began to work on memorizing more of his lines.

A half-hour later, Sebastian texted him and told him that Harry and Kyle were gone. Kurt packed up. He grabbed a piece of tres leches cake and paid for it before he left. He let himself in. Sebastian heard the door open and turned from packing their lunches for the next day.

"I had no idea, Kurt. I feel really bad."

"I know you didn't. You're not mad a me about lying about Dani?" He handed Sebastian the tres leches cake.

"Mmm. This looks good." He put it in the fridge. "I'm not mad at all. I was going to speak up, but I saw your slight head shake, which I assumed meant for me not to say anything."

"That's what I meant. You have to go to school and probably be in a lot of classes with the two of them over the next three years."

"I'm glad you left and didn't stick around. After you left, I moved the conversation to a movie quickly so that I didn't have to appear to agree with them. We watched the newest Transformers movie."

"Which I happen to like, but I talked to Marley for an hour and I still got several pages of dialogue memorized, so that was a good use of my time."

"That's good. If I do anything with the two of them again, I'll keep it to lunch on campus or something." He finished loading the dishwasher and set it for a 2-hour delay.

"Will it bother you if I invite two girls next week?"

"No. Why would you think it would?"

"I didn't want to make assumptions. I haven't decided who to ask yet. I'm still people watching without completely hanging back. Everyone knows each other already. Coming into the program as a sophomore, I'm the odd one out. Everyone seems pretty friendly so far, but they have all of this history that I'm not a part of – inside jokes, events they participated in, stuff like that."

"How much schoolwork do you have?"

"None. I was just going to do some reading if you still had homework to do."

"How about some dancing after we shower, before I study?"

"I do love to dance with you." He wrapped his arms around Sebastian and tipped his head onto his shoulder, his lips just touching his neck.

"So, that's a yes." Sebastian squeezed him just a bit.

Kurt began to hum and then sing "The Bones" and sway danced. Sebastian joined in singing and moving along with him.

When they stopped, Kurt said, "Definitely a yes. Let's find a place to go out dancing soon. We can invite Dani and Santana. I really like Dani. I'm still struggling a bit with Santana. Not because I'm still upset with her, but because we've known each other for so long, well, known of each other for so long that It's harder to find common ground with her like I can with Dani. Santana and I know too much about each other to do the cute-funny-stories-from-when-I-was-growing-up thing. And other than singing and performing, she and I don't have a lot in common. I think if we can find a couple of activities to do together that would help."

"Well, dancing is definitely on that list. Anything else?"

"She liked watching Facts of Life with me. But she's busy every evening, except Sunday and Monday, and she already spends Monday evening with us singing, so now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not even sure when we could ask them to go out dancing since I can't ask her on their only evening together. That's the huge downside to working in theater, which we'll have to face at some point."

"Research and studying doesn't have to be done at a certain time of day, so I'm sure we can work it out." Although Sebastian couldn't see it, he could feel the smile spread across Kurt's lips, which made him smile too. He leaned back just enough to get Kurt to lift his head from his shoulder and look at him. He kissed him gently. "I knew going into this that you wanted to be a performer. If I hadn't been willing to work unusual hours for us to spend time together, then I would have let go of the idea of us being more than friends. I knew your schedule wouldn't be flexible."

Kurt's expression changed to confusion. "You really thought about that?"

"I did. And in case you have some idea floating round in the back of your mind that I consider being a performer isn't important because I'm not pursuing it as a career, especially after listening to those two at dinner, I'll just tell you right now that I do think performing arts and visual arts are important. Medicine, physics, chemistry, and all of the serious areas of study are important because they further our knowledge of how our bodies, nature, and the universe work, but the arts let us explore our thoughts and feelings. There are so many things that science can do, but it can't lift my spirits like a song or reading a good book or looking at paintings or drawings or dancing. What you're planning to do as a career helps people in ways that physics will never be able to, but physics will also help people create things to improve people's lives in tangible ways that the arts can't do."

"I think so too, but obviously not everyone does."

"Well, I won't be pursuing a close friendship with Harry and Kyle, but like you said, I will probably have to work with them for the next three years. I'm sure that over the course of my career, I will have to work with homophobes and effeminophobic straight and gay people. And guys, like Harry and Kyle, who think the arts are a waste of time and money. It's just part of life, but I don't have to invite them into my personal life or into our home."

"I think maybe this week, I should invite two people out to do something. I'm not sure that I feel like inviting anyone else here until we have an idea of whether or not we actually like them."

"I agree. Neither one of us has ever really done this. I didn't consider how it would feel to have people be negative about you in some way here in our home." He ran his thumb along Kurt's jawline.

"At least it didn't get personal because I didn't mention what I was studying."

"Whenever anyone says anything negative about you, even something about what you're studying, I want to deck them." Sebastian sighed heavily. "And then I remember what a shit I was to you and it just–"

Kurt cut him off with a kiss. "You did some stupid things as a teenager. We all did. We've had this conversation. I want to stop that slippery slope to self-recrimination." He kissed him again.

"Right. Water under the bridge."

"You spent a lot of time thinking about us being together. I know you told me that you had, but I thought you meant in a more sexual way back then. I was still getting used to the idea that you would think of me that way and enjoy it, so I didn't ask any questions. I hadn't considered that you had been thinking about how our career choices could work together in the long run."

"Babe, I spent a long time thinking about you in a lot of different ways." He kissed Kurt, He ran his hand up Kurt's side, under his arm, and up his chest until he reached his neck. He cupped his chin, kissing him once again. He slid his hand behind Kurt's neck supporting it so that he could press in and deepen the kiss until they were breathless and had to pause to catch their breath. He nuzzled into Kurt's neck and said, "You've surpassed all of my daydreams. Honestly. Being with you is so much better than I had imagined." He kissed along Kurt's neck. "Can we move this to the shower?"

"Mmm hmm. Yes." He began to unbutton Sebastian's shirt as they moved to the bathroom.

Tuesday at noon, Kurt made his way into the auditorium with about 50 other hopeful students. He took a seat at the end of a row and began to fill out the questionnaire. He paused after he filled in what little information he had to put in the roles/experience section. He took a deep breath and moved on. A few minutes later, a woman about 25-30 walked along the aisles and took their forms. She took them up front and sorted them. She called off a list of names and a middle-aged man took the group to another room.

Everyone who was left was called up to the stage for some vocal warm ups. They played several games with balls, balloons, spoons with cotton balls on them, and did a few obstacle course relays.

Afterwards, she had them sit along the sides of the auditorium and she called them up one at a time to sing. After each person finished, she gave some of them a number and had them sit in groups. Once everyone had finished, she sent two of the groups to other areas and a about a third of the people who had been taken to another area initially had returned and joined the groups. She distributed a 2-page scene to everyone and gave them 15 minutes to look them over.

They performed the scenes in groups of four. After all five groups had gone. Several people's numbers were called and they were sent to another room. The remaining eight people were regrouped and asked to perform the scene again.

Kurt took the stage with two girls and a guy. When they finished, they sat back down and watched the other group. They were regrouped and performed the scene once more. The four of them sat down together afterwards.

The woman in charge pointed to the group Kurt was sitting in and informed them that they were being offered the lead roles. Kurt looked confused, as did the other three people in his group. The other group would be their understudies.

She distributed scripts and hoodies. They were asked to wear them to classes two to three days a week to publicize the performance. She congratulated the leads and asked their understudies to move to the room she had sent the others. She went over more information and gave them a rehearsal schedule.

When he was released, Kurt headed to Columbia to wait for Sebastian outside his last class before his lab.

Kurt pulled the script out and began to work on his lines. When he heard the door open across the hall, he put it in his bag quickly and stood up.

Sebastian stepped out into the hallway and saw him immediately. "Kurt!" He hurried across the hall and kissed Kurt. "What a great surprise."

The smile on Kurt's face could not have gotten any bigger. "I came to tell you in person. I'm one of the leads!"

He kissed Kurt again. "That's great. Which one?"

"Darby." Kurt smirked teasingly.

Sebastian noted the smirk. "Is that the Scarecrow's name?"

"Nope."

"The Tin Man?"

"Nope."

"The Lion usually is usually a baritone at least."

"Not the Lion either."

"I'm lost then."

"Darby is the lead. My understudy is a girl."

"You're the lead lead. Like Dorothy?"

"I am. I was as shocked as you are. I thought gender-blind casting meant that they'd have all of the minor roles filled by whoever auditioned that didn't get a speaking role, but it meant that they cast the roles with no regard to gender whatsoever. They did cast based on singing parts though. Only lower voices were considered for the Lion, like you said. It was a very unusual casting process that felt more like I went to a theater camp for a couple of hours. We played games and sang. Looking back, they were watching how we moved. The director showed me a picture of my costume. It's a long-sleeved button up in the traditional blue and white gingham plaid with denim overalls over the top. That was their plan to start with."

"We have to go out and celebrate. I have 30 minutes before my lab starts. We can make it to the bakery. Let's go." He took Kurt's hand and pulled him through the people in the hallway.

Kurt's heart flip-flopped as he realized that Sebastian had not only kissed him twice in front of all of his classmates, but he was enthusiastically holding Kurt's hand through the hallway. Sebastian didn't let go once they were outside the building. He stopped long enough to hug Kurt and kiss him again before nearly jogging to get them a slice of cheesecake to split.

They sat outside on a bench and ate it together.

Sebastian got up and threw the container out after they finished. He sat back down as close as he could to Kurt and wrapped his arm around Kurt's shoulders and kissed him again when he turned to look at him. "I'm so excited for you, babe. What did your dad say when you told him?"

"I haven't told him yet. I came straight here."

This time it was Sebastian's heart that was sent all pitter-pattering. He stood up and offered his hand to Kurt. "Walk me to my lab before you head to work?"

Kurt took his hand. "It would be my pleasure."

When they got there, Sebastian pulled Kurt into another kiss. "I love you, babe. I'll see you in a few hours."

"I love you too." He took off towards the subway.

Sebastian headed into the building.

His lab partner, Jace, was a few feet behind him and caught up quickly. "You're gay?"

"Yeah, why?" He turned and looked at him square in the eyes? "Is that a problem?"

"No, no. Not at all." He lowered his voice low. "Me too."

"Oh. Okay." Sebastian started to walk towards the lab room again.

Jace moved to catch up again. "Aren't you afraid of what people will say or do, being so open like that?"

"Not particularly here. Why? Do you know something that I don't, but should?"

"Oh, no. Not really anything about campus. I guess it's just because I lived in a really hostile environment when it came to being anything but straight."

"That's rough. My parents – my whole family has always been accepting. I didn't have any concerns telling them. I know that's not the norm, though."

Jace kept his voice low enough that only Sebastian could hear him. "Landon's parents are like that. He's my boyfriend." He pulled out his notebook and pencil and put his bag in his locker.

Sebastian did the same.

They grabbed their lab coats and goggles and moved to their table and got everything set up.

Jace started to talk again. "We're roommates now. We met last year in our Art Humanities class. We were seated next to each other in the professor's seating chart."

"I have that class this semester. I really like it so far."

"I learned a lot. I came from a small town and my high school didn't offer much of anything outside the required courses for graduation and a few AP classes like Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus, all taught by the same teacher. Landon had actually seen some of the pieces we studied in person."

Their professor walked in and everyone fell silent. After that, there was no more personal conversation and they focused in on their work.

"I have a nosy question," Sebastian said.

"Go ahead," Jace responded. He pushed the door open and held it.

Sebastian walked through. "Let's move away from the building more." Sebastian walked a little ways away. "What's Landon's major?"

"Creative writing. That's not very nosy," he teased. "I thought you were going to ask me something really personal."

"Give me a second, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. I don't have another class today, but I'm meeting Landon at the library."

Sebastian texted Kurt and asked him if he had invited anyone out and got a reply more quickly than he had expected. "So, do you and Landon like tacos?"

He nodded. "Why?"

"I was wondering if you'd be interested in going out with me and Kurt Sunday evening. I know the meal plan doesn't include dinner on Sunday."

"We usually just order a pizza and have it delivered, so sure. Tacos sound like a nice change of pace."

"I know I have your number on the lab partner sheet, but will you just put it in my phone and save me the time of pulling that out?" Sebastian handed Jace his phone.

After Jace put his number in he handed it back.

Sebastian looked up the address for Mercado sin mancha and texted it to Jace. "Meet us there at 7:00. I know it's a little late, but we have rehearsal before that."

"Sure. Can you give me an idea of the prices at this place?"

"Oh, yeah, Sure. We can eat there for less than $10 each."

"Sounds like my kind of place. I gotta run. I'll see you Thursday." He waved as he jogged off.

Kurt had texted Burt on his way to JJ's, but knew he wouldn't get an immediate reply. He checked his messages after he cleaned his hands, right before he was going to change. Before he managed to open his messages, his phone buzzed with an incoming text from Sebastian asking whether he had invited anyone yet. After he responded that he hadn't, he looked through his messages. Burt had replied that he'd be free briefly at 5:15 and Kurt could call. He changed and called Burt as he headed for the subway.

"What's up, bud?"

"I got the lead in the Wizard of Oz."

"That's great. So, who are you?"

"It's a gender-blind cast. I'm Darby, which is what they changed Dorothy's name to so that the role could be played by a guy or girl."

"I don't think I understand."

"They didn't pick the roles based on the actor's gender. The Cowardly Lion is a girl and so is the Scarecrow. The Tin Man and I are guys. My understudy is a girl. All of the other roles were cast regardless of gender as well."

"Well, that will be different. I know you love all of Dorthy's songs."

"I do. I think it will be a lot of fun, and it's certainly something unusual."

"Well, I'm proud of you for putting yourself out there and getting a lead role. You let me know when the shows are and me and Carole will be there."

Kurt smile grew. "I'll text you the dates and times."

"You do that. I gotta run for now. Congratulations. Why don't you call Carole and tell her yourself. Otherwise, it will be late tonight before I can tell her."

"How's she doing?"

"The counseling has been helping. She's still sad of course, but she's coping better."

"Alright. You're sure this won't upset her?"

"This? No, not at all. Finn never had any aspirations of being in plays or musicals. He didn't even do that one with you in high school even when he told me that Rachel was begging him to."

"What?"

"Yeah. He told me something about her wanting him to audition for the lead with her, but he turned her down. I gotta go. Sorry, bud."

The phone line went quiet.

So Rachel asked Finn to audition for Tony. Makes sense I guess. At least he had the guts to turn her down and keep his word. Kurt knew that Finn wasn't really interested in the part, but he also knew how persistent Rachel could be. It was nice to know, even long after the fact, that Finn had kept his word about not auditioning against Kurt.

He didn't have to wait long for the subway. He held his ground and walked towards the opening door. Eleven stops later, he exited and headed home.

He stepped inside and found Sebastian waiting for him.

"Hey, babe. Dinner's almost done. You think you can manage to eat first and then we can shower? I know you like to do it right away."

"It's fine. JJ went easy on my for my first day back. No tires or anything that made me get super sweaty. It smells good." He pecked Sebastian on the lips before going to the bathroom to scrub his hands again. He sat down to a plate of stir-fried chicken and vegetables with some rice. "This looks so good." He took a bite and moaned lightly. "Mmm." He took several bites before he said anything else. "My dad was excited. I haven't called Carole yet. I'll do that after we shower."

After they finished cleaning up, Sebastian pulled his phone out and asked, "When are the shows?"

"The first night is the October 30th. It will be just for students and family. The official opening is Halloween with an earlier start time. Kids are the target audience. Anyone in high school with an ID or kids in costumes will get half-price tickets. They're having a Trick-or-Treat event before the performance, so I have to be there at 5:00 to hand out candy and take pictures in costume with the kids."

"So, my parents can come on Friday evening?" He had sent a text already telling them that Kurt had gotten the part. "They were really excited when I told them that you had gotten the lead. They want to come see the show. If they come on Friday, they could bring Marley and Jillian and stay the weekend. I know you'd still have shows to do, but we could spend some time with them."

"Yes. Friday would be good." He took Sebastian's hand. "Join me?"

"Of course."

"So, tell me about Jace and Landon."