Blaine wasn't 100% by lunch, and certainly would have given anything for a nap, but food helped. He gratefully ate his chicken salad sandwich as he reviewed his Textual Analysis homework assignment on a bench outside the classroom. The professor had assigned a group project, and he was anxious to make a good impression on his classmates and make sure he didn't drop the ball anywhere. In high school he'd only shared one class with Kurt and went out of his way to try to work with him for any group assignments. When Kurt graduated he usually matched up with Tina or someone else from Glee. He didn't know these classmates very well and everyone was so competitive. He had this sense at NYADA that he was never going to be good enough, and every new challenge made him anxious.

He looked back at the classroom door, and saw that Kurt, who'd been tied up asking the professor a follow-up question, was finally getting his things and headed his way. Blaine smiled, happy to have a moment with Kurt.

"Hey, how's your group?" he asked, moving over on the bench to leave space for his fiancé.

Kurt shrugged, digging his lunch from his bag and sitting down. "Two of them are fine but I'm putting money down now that the other two are likely to blow off the whole project and make us do all the work. I hate group work."

Blaine made a face. "I know what you mean." In high school he actually had loved group work, but only because he got to work with his friends and didn't really mind if they made him do all the heavy lifting. And he belonged to so many clubs. Here he felt like school was kicking his ass so much he was afraid to take on much more. Everything is so different here.

"It's probably good for us, though. The theatre's a team sport," Kurt commented.

"True. And it's making me at least try to get to know some other people. I've been thinking I spend a lot of time with Sam and Artie when I'm not with you. I probably should try to get to know more NYADA people somehow."

"As long as you don't join show choir, I'm for it."
Blaine grinned. "I'm guessing the Adam's Apples alums aren't big fans of mine since I took you off the market?"

"Heh. Some of them. Can't fault them for loyalty I guess. Adam's fine now, but I'm pretty sure my being banned for life there stands and it extends to my fiancé too."

"Will have to find something else then I guess," Blaine mused.

Kurt took a swig of his water bottle. "So I wanted to talk to you," he began.

Blaine turned, unpeeling a banana as he did so. "Hmmm?"

"You looked pretty tired this morning."

"Oh. Yeah. A little. Went to bed a little late I guess."

"What time you get home?"

Blaine hedged. "I—uh, I think around 11?"

"You think?"

Blaine squirmed. "I wasn't checking my watch or anything."

"I only bring it up because I know you were out with Sam last night. And he's not always a model of responsibility."

"I thought you liked that I went out with him. You said you wanted me to explore the city more on my own," Blaine defended.

"Of course. But you need to be careful. If you're going out on a school night you need to get back at a reasonable hour."

Blaine scoffed. "I can't exactly tell Sam I have a curfew like some little kid."

Kurt raised an eyebrow and lowered his voice. "I wasn't considering giving you a curfew, but I can take it under consideration if it seems like that's what you need."

Blaine opened his mouth and then thought better of it seeing Kurt's stern gaze. He suddenly felt very aware that they were in public, with other students walking by. His posture stiffened.

"Would you be embarrassed to have to tell Sam you have a curfew? I've done it with Rachel, I can do it with you." Kurt pressed.

Blaine flushed. "…If I did, I probably wouldn't tell him. I'd make up an excuse," he admitted quietly.

Kurt nodded. "Makes telling him you just have class in the morning seem pretty easy, huh?"

"…yes, sir." Blaine replied meekly.

Kurt looked Blaine over. "Were you drinking last night?"

"It was a bar, Kurt," Blaine replied, feeling a little annoyed by the question.

"That's not an answer."

"…I had a- couple drinks- but I'm allowed to-"

"A couple?" Kurt interrupted.

"Why are you asking all these questions, it's not like-"

"Because I want to know if you just got to bed late or if the reason you looked like hell this morning was you were hungover."

"…I didn't throw up or anything," Blaine deflected.

"So you admit you had too much to drink last night?"

Blaine hesitated. "…Maybe a little? I don't… actually remember getting home last night," he admitted.

Kurt shook his head. "You have the alcohol tolerance of a small child, Blaine."

"Hey! I do not—"

"And you know it. You can't keep up with Sam, and you can't be doing that on a school night. I'll agree to one drink a night when you go out, but that's it unless it's a weekend."

Blaine pouted. "I'm an adult."

"Well you're not going to be feeling like much of one when you're facing a pretty childish punishment next time you show up to school hungover." Kurt pronounced.

Blaine chewed on his lip, getting the message. He looked away.

Kurt ate his food, letting Blaine sulk a moment. He took a breath. "Now there's something else I need to discuss with you."

What now?

"You had asked me to keep you accountable for your workouts."

Blaine tensed. "Um. Yeah. I know."

"I've been checking the app."

Blaine forehead wrinkled. "I logged in every day this week so far."

"Yeah, I know."

"Isn't that what you expected?"

"Sure, but I didn't expect you'd be doing your workout at at the bar last night."

"… What?"

"There's a timestamp, Blaine. Unless there's a gym across the street from that bar I don't know about, you recorded a workout in the app while you were out last night."
Blaine fidgeted. "…Oh. W-well it notified me while I was still out and I obviously couldn't do it there."

"Then why did you click that you'd completed it?"

"I j-just figured I'd do it before bed when I got home…" Blaine scrambled.

"I see. Well it seems to me you just confessed that you don't even remember going home last night. Think it's a safe bet you weren't doing crunches while you were blackout drunk?"

"I wasn't—"

"You don't know what you were. You don't remember. We could ask Sam for details, but it doesn't really matter. What matters is your dishonesty."

"…d-d-dishonesty? I didn't lie to you—"

"Sure you did. You lied in the app, which communicates with me. You knew if you didn't record something I'd ask why you didn't do your workout. You did it because you didn't want to get in trouble."

Blaine studied his hands. "I just thought I'd get to it later."

"Uh huh," Kurt said, skeptical. "You've done this before?"

"Done what?"

"Lied to me. In the app."

"I can't believe you think it's lying—"
"What else would you call it then?"

Blaine didn't have a good answer for that question. "S-sometimes I just… am busy or something, so I click complete because I know I'll do the workout later is all."
Kurt shook his head. "Well you're not doing that anymore. When I see your workout is complete I expect it means you did it, not that you meant to get to it eventually and maybe not at all."

Blaine swallowed. "…yes, sir," he finally muttered meekly.

"You know I don't like dishonesty, young man."

Blaine grimaced at the "young man" talk, here in the middle of NYADA. He nodded miserably.

"And while you claim to be unclear that this was dishonest, I hope you are clear that I will absolutely consider this sort of thing dishonest going forward."

Blaine squirmed. "Yes, sir."

"You know quite well what I think appropriate consequences for dishonesty are, do you not?"
"I… I do, sir."

"I don't care if you call it a half-truth, a fib, or a white lie—if it's in an app, a text, or in person— if you're having trouble remembering to be perfectly honest with me you know we have a wooden spoon at the loft that is pretty effective at reminding you."

"…yes, sir."

"I'm glad we understand each other then. I have to say, I'm disappointed because I thought you had been doing your workout every night and now it sounds like that's not the case at all."

Blaine flushed, embarrassed. "…I did it some nights," he defended half-heartedly.

"Then you should have recorded it only on those nights."

"…Yes, sir."

Kurt cleared his throat, and then whispered into Blaine's ear. "Well, you're really lucky you're not going back to the loft tonight, because if you were I'd be hard pressed not to put you over my knee between this and your lack of judgment last night."

"I—I'm sorry, sir." Blaine mumbled, uncomfortable.

Kurt sighed. "But seeing as you aren't, I'm letting this go with a warning and an extra workout tonight."

"Extra?"
"Your normal ten minutes tonight, plus the ten minutes you should have done last night. And you're doing it at the NYADA gym, after classes today, so I can monitor that you actually do it."

Blaine shrunk a little, embarrassed.

"Then," Kurt continued, "We'll have a clean slate going forward, with the understanding that anymore shenanigans around workouts will be met with stiffer consequences. Fair?"

Blaine nodded grimly. "Fair."