THANK YOU to all who reviewed. I deeply love you. so, to make up for the wait that was longer than I had planned, you get an extra long chapter! weeeee
edit: thanks to badumtiss who caught my mistake of putting 'Darren' instead of 'Blaine' in a sentence. I just can't seem to think about anything other than Darren Criss so it's a relatively frequent problem for me.

Kurt placed his lunch box on Blaine's desk and began to take out the meal he had packed for himself. He had thrown together a small salad and a thermos of broccoli cheese soup, and he had been planning to eat both but that was before he knew how gorgeous Mr. Anderson was. He started to put his thermos back in his bag but then Blaine interrupted him.

"Um, I have a microwave in here if you want to use it. I usually use it for popcorn in between classes. I've got a thing for popcorn." Blaine stopped talking quickly, as if he was embarrassed or had said too much.

"Oh, okay thanks. But it's warm enough." Kurt stood awkwardly next to Blaine's desk, he suddenly felt strangely out of place. Blaine looked so comfortable in his office, his habitat, and Kurt felt as if he was intruding on this man's private area. The office was dimly lit for Blaine didn't like the harsh color of the ceiling lights and instead opted to string icicle Christmas lights across the ceiling. He had posters hung on the walls of the Beatles and Elvis Presley and behind his desk he had a collage of pictures of himself and various boys in Dalton uniforms and an older couple that looked as if they could be his parents sitting with a toddler in between them.

"I like your office. It's quite… homey." Kurt twirled slowly to take it all in and stopped when he came full circle to stare anywhere but Blaine Anderson's pink, soft-looking lips.

Blaine bent just slightly at the waist in a mock bow, "I greatly appreciate your approval," he sounded almost as if he was mocking Kurt but he was just so charmed by the older man, Kurt couldn't find it in himself to be even remotely insulted. Blaine then pulled out the chair at his desk for himself and plopped down into it. "Kurt, please, just sit." Blaine smiled and bit his lip lightly, and kicked out the seat opposite him.

Kurt sat in the ratty blue chair that wouldn't even look salvageable at a thrift store and dug into his lunch. The pair ate in silence for a moment, just eating and enjoying the company of the other. Kurt felt as if all the chummy conversation they had shared that morning had flown out the window and they were back to square one. But then with perfect timing, Blaine opened his mouth.

"How have you liked your classes so far? You've only had two so far, right?" Kurt nodded. "Any of the boys give you trouble?"

Kurt thought about it for a moment as he chewed on the cherry tomato he had just popped into his mouth. "The classes are good, not that I didn't expect them to be. I was definitely more nervous than I should have been." Blaine nodded along as Kurt spoke, "although there was this one senior boy in my last class, I think his name was Sebastian. I think he was trying to proposition me, but his French was so awful I couldn't tell if he was asking me to sleep with him or wash his dog."

Mid way through a bite of his pasta salad, Blaine giggled cutely, and covered his mouth with his hand, "Kurt, stop!" Blaine coughed and Kurt almost reached forward to pat his shoulder but then Blaine smirked through the tears that had gathered in his eyes. "I'm gonna choke."

"Oh, so that wasn't you choking just then?" Kurt pointed accusingly at Blaine with his fork.

Blaine wiped at his eyes and stuttered out one last cough, "Really though, Sebastian is a pain in the ass. He used to be in my class, but I threatened to turn him into Dr. Elmore. I guess he moved on, and now he is hitting on younger, prettier meat." Blaine winked slyly at Kurt and the younger man nearly dropped his fork.

But Blaine just continued talking as if he hadn't just stopped Kurt's heart with one flutter of his eyelashes. "So we didn't get to finish talking about you this morning. And as much as I do love talking about myself, I'd like to get to know you." Blaine glanced up at Kurt, "I mean, only if you want to tell me. It's fine if you don't."

"No, I have nothing to hide," Except my blaring homosexuality, "Ask away."

"All right. Let's start with the questions you asked me earlier. So first, where'd you go to college?" Blaine began to eat his pasta salad again and fixed Kurt with an imploring look.

Kurt swallowed his mouthful of dressing-drenched lettuce and took a swig from his bottle of water. "Well, I went to NYADA," Blaine looked last at the acronym so Kurt clarified, "the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts." Blaine appeared even more confused at that. As far as he knew, most art schools weren't equipped with foreign language education programs. "I was there for two semesters studying musical theater. I loved it. I really did, and I felt like I belonged there, in New York, you know what I mean? I fit in there. But the summer before my sophomore year I took a trip to France with my friend Rachel and I fell in love with everything about it." Kurt trailed off in a nostalgic haze and got caught up in his thoughts of street cafes and rolling fields of grape vines and men with smooth, delicious accents. "I did take French in high school and middle school though, so I could speak to everyone fairly easily. It was hard to come back to the States and hear all the American accents, and see all the obese people in line at McDonalds." Blaine snorted, but shrugged and nodded in agreement. "I transferred to NYU not long after that. I still have a place in my heart that regrets not staying at NYADA, but I've been teaching for almost three years and I can't imagine doing anything other than this."

Blaine's eyes twinkled as he interjected, "No, I totally understand. Teaching was never anything that I had planned for myself either. I went to Germany in high school with my teacher and the experience changed everything about me." Blaine smiled softy, "Just being with all these people who were so much like me, but so different in a way that I couldn't explain. And of course the nightly partying in our hostels was a plus." He let out a laugh that sounded more like an exhale of breath than anything, "We even went to France for a day."

Kurt raised his eyebrows with a smile, "Oh yeah?"

"Sure did. And I hated it." Blaine deadpanned and made to take another bite of his lunch.

Kurt laughed in disbelief, "you're joking."

Blaine looked up and chuckled for no reason other than the fact that Kurt was laughing, and his bright, spritely giggle was infectious. "I'm serious! They were rude and the food sucked and the toilets didn't have toilet seats."

Kurt almost choked on an olive as he fell into another fit of laughter. "What the hell? What part of France were you in?"

"The shitty part, obviously," Blaine settled further in his seat and wiped his mouth with his napkin. "In all seriousness though, I may just be a little biased. I'm a native German at heart. But also, my teacher in high school, Herr Scheuerman, used to mock the French. For no real reason. It was all in good fun, and we would make jokes in class. I guess those feelings stuck, huh?" Blaine's voice was serious but his lips held a mocking quirk to them, and his eyes were dancing with laughter and Kurt felt like he was in high school again when his cheeks flushed.

"Fine, if that's how it's gonna be," Kurt scooted his chair a few inches to the right, the opposite direction of the other teacher. He looked at the older man through his eyelashes, "I vomited a little in my mouth when I first saw that hideous flag on the wall in there." He jerked his head in the direction of the classroom.

Kurt was surprising himself by how flirty he was being, but he felt comfortable around Blaine, so he found himself speaking even more coyly the longer he talked to the older man.

"That's not nice." Blaine pouted and moved his own chair closer to Kurt's, and when he came to a stop, they were several inches closer than they had been originally, and Kurt felt his heart rate increase.

"Let's continue with the interview though, lunch is almost over. You mentioned earlier that you went to high school in Lima. Why didn't you decide to take a job there? I'm also assuming you were working in New York prior to this."

Kurt nodded, "you are correct to assume this. I worked at a private school a lot like Dalton, which is one reason why I took this job. I was there for only two years but it was great. Recently though, just this past May actually, my step-brother's wife had their first child, and my dad has also been sick and getting worse lately. I just want to be here for all of them." Blaine gave Kurt a sympathetic look and reached out to pat the younger teacher on the shoulder. "I just really missed my family while in New York. A lot more than I thought I would, if I'm being honest."

Blaine looked as if he wanted to say more, but then he glanced at his watch and sighed, "Okay I think we have time for the lightning round. Ready for this?" Kurt gave a firm nod. "Okay… Favorite color?"

"Teal."

"Favorite movie?"

"Hmm… Moulin Rouge."

"Good answer. Uhm… favorite book?"

"Pride and Prejudice. No contest."

"Also a very good answer; I was afraid you were going to say Twilight." Kurt swatted at him, insulted. "Okay, okay. Favorite... I don't know. Designer? You look like you know your designers." Blaine gave the other man a sideways glance and analyzed Kurt's perfectly pressed trousers, his shined boots, and the expensive looking blazer that was adorned with various buttons and zippers.

"I sure do. Alexander McQueen is the best that ever lived, may he rest in peace." Kurt grabs at the long strap of his leather bag that is slung over the back of his seat and pulls it onto his lap to show Blaine. "This is a bag from his fall collection of last year."

"I'm… sorry. I'm unfamiliar with him." Blaine said and reached forward to stroke the supple leather of Kurt's bag. But before his fingers could graze the material it was snatched away from him.

"Excuse me? Blaine Anderson, I am ashamed of you. You're probably the best dressed man I've seen in Ohio, besides me, and you haven't heard of McQueen?" Blaine gave him an innocent smile, batted his eyelashes and stood.

He began to gather his trash and tossed it into the trashcan across the room, "I apologize, Kurt. But my meager teacher's salary only allows me to shop at Urban Outfitters and the Gap." He collected his lesson plan notebook and a stack of papers lying in his printer. Then he pushed his chair back under his desk with his toe and waltzed to the door of his office. Before he left Kurt's line of sight he turned and winked at his new coworker, "I'll see you later, Kurt. I've got a class to teach."

And with that Blaine left Kurt in the silence of his dim office Kurt sat that for a moment in stunned silence, but then he drew his bottom lip into his mouth and bit down to stifle the excited squeal that threatened to escape his throat. Blaine Anderson was quite charming, and if Kurt slapped the back of his own hand in the silence of that office to punish himself for forming a little crush on his coworker, well that was his own business.