The day went quickly for Kurt, running from class to class before a quick kiss goodbye to Blaine as he left NYADA for VogueDotCom. On the way, he texted with friends from the diner and managed to score shifts on Thursday and Friday that didn't go past midnight. Working late itself wasn't that bad, but it was hard to work late and take the subway home after—especially if he had school or his internship to get to in the early morning as well. But he'd been trying to pick up more weekday shifts so he'd have less need to do it on the weekend when Blaine was at the loft and wanting together time. Aside from the abs class, he didn't make a lot of commitments on the weekend anymore, which made weekdays even more demanding. He wasn't altogether sure which was worse—being busy every single day and never getting a rest, or being beyond busy all week and then totally burned out by the weekend. He figured that there was at least some benefit to getting a little reprieve from literally running all over the city on the weekends. Monday night dinners were becoming sacred for their friends so he avoided shifts then but most weeks found himself signing up for diner shifts most of the rest of those nights.

VogueDotCom got short shrift of his time with this arrangement, which made him feel terribly guilty. So, anytime he had even an hour to swing by there he did. Isabelle was blessedly understanding so far, but he didn't want to press his luck. He felt like he'd regret it if he quit the internship entirely, but there was no way he could reasonably put in any long hours there like he had last year before he got into NYADA. He was also toying with doing some kind of study-away program next fall, depending on whether or not Blaine would freak out at the suggestion. If that happened, he'd definitely need to take a leave of absence from the internship, so he hoped to get what he could out of the connection there now, even if it wasn't perfect.

So after a full day of school and his internship, he was pretty fried when he got back to the loft, where Rachel was pacing the apartment running lines.

"Well you look wiped," she commented as he walked in.

"I am. Sometimes I think keeping up with the Vogue along with everything else may be pushing it," he confessed.

"I know you like having it for your resume, but is it really worth it?" Rachel asked.
Kurt sighed. "I don't know. I just feel so much loyalty to Isabelle, it'd be hard to leave entirely. And they'll be a good connection to have after I graduate."

Rachel nodded. She went to the freezer. "Reheating Monday night leftovers for dinner tonight?"

Kurt smiled. "Thank goodness for leftovers. Last thing I want to do tonight is cook something elaborate. When Blaine's around, I feel like I have to put on a good show these days and be a good example about cooking healthier—but when he's not, cooking just seems like a hassle."

"Less to clean up this way too." Rachel said cheerfully, putting a dish in the microwave to warm.

"Heh. Always looking to reduce your chores, aren't you?" Kurt teased.

Rachel smirked. "Maybe if I didn't have so many, I wouldn't be."

Kurt shook his head. When Blaine moved out the chore chart had to be adjusted, which meant they both had a little more to do during the week. It wasn't much, in Kurt's opinion, but Rachel was not about to let it drop that it was pretty unfair that she got more work just because they decided to change their living arrangement.

"And I thought we were going to get through the evening without an argument tonight."

"I was just saying."

"Uh huh. I'll bet good money Mercedes has Blaine and Sam doing all kinds of chores in her apartment too."

Rachel shook her head. "Blaine's Mr. Chores though—he doesn't complain about any of them!"

"I've noticed. Maybe you should take him as a role model."

Rachel pouted. "You're not supposed to be favoring him you know. He hardly ever gets in trouble," she groused.

"I'm not favoring anybody-Blaine gets in trouble plenty! The difference is when you get in trouble, you never stop complaining for the whole world to hear. If he got in trouble and you weren't around you'd never even hear of it. I bet you don't even know half the time."

"Well that's because even if Blaine does screw up, he usually thinks it was fair!"

Kurt chuckled. "Yes he does whine less than you for the most part. But I think it's more likely he doesn't' share about it because he feels guilty and embarrassed for having messed up. But when have I not been fair?"

Rachel smiled. "If it was really fair, wouldn't we be in trouble an even amount? If I'm in hot water more you should probably let up to make it more even."

"So you're saying I should let you get away with more stuff because you think statistically he's getting punished less?"

"Well, it'd be worth… considering."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "If you were really serious I'd take it under advisement but your whole premise is ridiculous. He was just in trouble like three weeks ago—over that stupid soda machine."

"Three weeks?! This is what I'm saying, Kurt."

"And then he lied in that app of his—"

"He didn't even get a spanking for that!"

"Wow, you really are keeping accounts I guess. Blaine said you'd be mad about that and I told him you wouldn't care."

"I don't care, not really- I just—"

"If you didn't care, you wouldn't have brought it up." Kurt looked at Rachel, level. "Look. Do you honestly think I've disciplined Blaine any less than he was ever deserving of it?"

"I'm not saying he should get in trouble more, exactly—"

"Right, just that you'd like to get in trouble less."

"Of course! Just because on principle that it should be even!"

"Answer my question. To your knowledge have I made a habit of letting Blaine get away with things?"

Rachel sighed. "…No," she conceded.

"Okay good. Just confirming that you're not actually concerned about real injustice here and just using this to bargain for me to be more of a pushover."

Rachel made a face, slumping. "You're impossible," she grouched.

"Just consistent," Kurt countered cheerfully. "You're just going to have to stay out of trouble honestly, I guess. If Blaine gets in trouble less—and I'm not sure that's always the case—it must be because he's meeting expectation more. Sounds like that's on you to fix, not me. Not my fault you're so brazen as to get yourself caught as often as you do."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "He's not even here most of the time now so of course you think I'm always the one doing more wrong."

"Well how do you know he's not going over my knee at the new place every other night?"

Rachel gave Kurt a look.

"With Sam and Mercedes right there? You wouldn't do that."

"Hmm. Okay, fair point. But you know I'd follow up with him on the weekend if needed. Or maybe he wouldn't get a spanking but I'd find a more discreet punishment. I find a way to get my point across when I have to."

Rachel made a face, knowing that was true. "Like your stupid essays?"

"Like my stupid essays, yes." Kurt smirked. Rachel wasn't fond of facing corporal punishment but there had been a couple times when Brody was around all the time that Kurt had made her write essays for him and by the end of that she always felt like she'd have preferred to have just been spanked and gotten it over with quicker.

"I just have to trust you to be fair?"

"Well I'll do my best to earn that trust. I don't even know where all this is coming from though—you seen Blaine get in trouble lots of times before at this point."

"I don't know, I guess I'm kind of nervous about him being at Mercedes' now," Rachel admitted.

"What, because you don't have him around to cover stuff up for you? Or someone to blame things on?" Kurt asked with a smile.

"No," Rachel replied with a smirk. "I just meant it's back to just me here—it's more pressure somehow, being the only one here sort of…under a microscope. And while I do complain a lot, I know you at least try to be fair. I just think it'd be really easy for him to go a long time without any discipline when he's not even here as much, and you know I'm going to screw up twice a week."

Kurt smiled and touched Rachel's shoulder, fond. "I get it. Both you and Blaine are really…vulnerable…in this arrangement sometimes. You just have to understand, you're different people. You'd hate an essay a lot more than he ever would, and sometimes I just have him stand in a corner and you'd think I'd humiliated him a lot worse than that. He doesn't get in trouble over chores as much as you do but he's faced plenty of discipline for other things over the time we've known each other, and you know it."

Rachel sighed, conceding with a nod.

"Now while I tease you a bit about this, I do mean it when I say I promise to try to be consistent with you and Blaine—it's just impossible to treat you exactly the same all the time, and it's not up to me how often you two decide to bend the rules. But comparing isn't going to keep you out of trouble Rachel, keeping your focus on you will."

Rachel sighed, pulling food out of the microwave and handing a plate to Kurt.

"Yes, sir."