To all those that asked, yes this is going to be a multi-chapter. It's a work in progress prompted from the Mike/Kurt summer love fic fest over on livejournal.

Their friendship formed and molded itself over medium-sized frappuccinos with extra whipped cream and two straws.

It was an easy and pressure-free relationship. Mike never pressed Kurt for details when he didn't land the role in the show, and Kurt never asked what happened when West Side Story had a cast change and Mike wasn't bumped up. They simply let the other talk about what he wanted to focus on, knowing that they'd more than likely be getting a call two hours later spilling the whole story.

But if Kurt had one complaint, it was his own timidity when it came to bringing up romantic relationships. He wasn't about to ask Mike on a date, not when he had just formed this wonderful friendship, but he wished he knew more about Mike's personal life. Mike never mentioned anyone special and Kurt knew for a fact that the only pictures in Mike's apartment were of his family, him and Matt, and various cast pictures from the shows he'd been in.

Kurt should have known better than to worry. Things with Mike just seemed to work themselves out naturally without any prodding, so he shouldn't have been surprised when Mike asked him completely out of nowhere, "So I kind of have to ask, since we've started hanging out on an almost unhealthily often basis. Am I stealing quality alone time from you and a boyfriend?"

He put it in such a 'sarcastic bastard' kind of way, too, which was another personality trait of his that Kurt loved.

"No," Kurt shook his head, then took a sip of the caramel frappuccino that rested on the table between them. "And funnily enough, my last relationship ended the day before you sent the message about your apartment-warming party."

Mike said nothing, just took a sip of the drink and raised his eyebrows, an invitation to continue talking. He wasn't about to butt into Kurt's business if Kurt didn't want to share.

"It's actually really embarrassing," Kurt felt his cheeks flushing. "His name was Grant and I met him at a Starbucks, actually. He was cute and I flirted a little and he gave me a medium-sized drink when I paid for a small and wrote his number on the cup. I found out that he was only sixteen after two dates."

Mike actually spat out his sip of the drink, he was laughing so hard.

"Shut it," Kurt folded his arms, frowning. "Come on, that's not nearly as bad as our English teacher from senior year admitting he dated a seventeen year old for four months before realizing how old she was."

"Doesn't make it any less funny," Mike protested. Kurt just glared at him, pulling a napkin out of the dispenser and wiping the table clean of Mike's spit.

"Fine, then, it is funny," Kurt admitted. "But it was horribly embarrassing at the time, when I started telling him all about college and realizing that he had thought I was still in high school."

"Curse your boyish good looks," Mike grinned. Kurt rolled his eyes.

"You would not believe how much of a nightmare it is when I go to a bar," Kurt let his head fall to rest in his arms, speaking to the table. "It takes them at least two minutes to decide that my ID's not fake, but then the bartender cards me before every drink, expecting me to slip up and hand them a high school ID or something."

"You poor thing," Mike let his hand rest on Kurt's head for a few seconds. "You'll have to deal with the absolute horror of looking younger than you really are for your entire life."

Kurt lifted his head up enough to glare at Mike again.

"Well, go on, then," he prompted. "Tell me about your love life."

"I'm not with anyone right now," Mike took their shared cup between his hands, spinning it on the table. He was suddenly jittery, Kurt noticed. "I used to be dating another dancer from a show, but that didn't work out."

"Woe is we," Kurt said dramatically, sitting back up. "Well, at least we can be single and happy together."

"True," Mike stopped spinning the drink. "Shit, now I forget whose straw is whose."

"Because it's such a disgusting thought to share a straw with me, thanks," Kurt pulled the drink closer to himself, taking a sip out of the closest straw. "Oh no, boy cooties!"

"Ha, ha," Mike said sarcastically.

"Well, it is good to know that I won't have any jealous girlfriend yelling at me for stealing her man," Kurt backtracked. "I mean, come on, gay barista shares drink with sexy dancer? Sketchy!"

"Boyfriend," Mike said, straw between his teeth.

"What?"

Mike took a sip of the drink first, then repeated, "Boyfriend. Jealous boyfriend."

It really said something about the nature of their friendship when all this statement was met with was, "Awesome, I can actually take you to my favorite bar now."

Kurt learned quickly that Mike had two sides to his personality. Well, obviously there were more than two, but there were two big ones that seemed to come out all the time.

The first one was Mike's sarcastic bastard side, as Kurt dubbed it. He could get snarky and sometimes downright mean about things sometimes, but it was always in good fun. Mike never left someone with any doubt that he was making fun of himself just as much as he was making fun of them, so they knew not to take it too personally.

Then there was deep, philosophical Mike. This side of Mike would go for long walks in Central Park. This Mike would sit on a bench for two hours, just staring off into space, thinking. This Mike would start conversations out of nowhere, simply asking an almost annoyingly open-ended question and pursuing its answer stubbornly until everyone was more confused than they had been when the conversation started.

And Kurt kind of loved it.

He loved how Mike would switch from one to the other almost instantaneously, laughing over some poor girl's bright pink stockings one second to pondering why the color pink has such a negative connotation in modern day society.

He and Mike started exploring the city around them. They would take the subway and get off at a stop at random, walking around until they were hopelessly lost. Mike was never afraid to ask for directions back when that happened. He would embellish this simple question, too, leaving Kurt doubled over with laughter and their poor savior looking at them, completely bewildered.

"Hello," Mike would say in a heavy Chinese accent, walking up to an elderly gentleman walking his dog. "I new here. Got lost with mail-order husband." He would wave absent-mindedly towards Kurt before asking, "Subway?"

Or another gem: "My twin brother and I got lost again. Can you help us out? And yes, before you ask, we're fraternal. I'm all Mom and he's all Dad."

These escapades turned into a weekly tradition. They would explore for hours, losing track of time and talking about anything and everything.

"Are you disappointed?" Mike asked one afternoon as they walked through a new neighborhood in the Bronx.

"With what?" Kurt asked, not quite sure what Mike meant.

"With how your life turned out." Deep, philosophical Mike was talking to him, apparently. "I mean, I remember back in high school we were all convinced that we would make it big. Rachel was going to be a huge Broadway celebrity, you were going to be some hot new fashion designer, Mercedes was going to get a record contract, I was going to get on So You Think You Can Dance and win, you know."

"We were kids," Kurt reasoned. "Kids dream. Adults can dream too, but those dreams have to change. We have to take it down a notch, look for ways to slowly achieve that dream, then settle when we don't make it."

"Did you settle, then?"

"I guess," Kurt pointedly looked in the opposite direction. "No. No, I'm not settling; I'm just waiting."

"What are you waiting for?"

"I'm waiting to be discovered."

Well, that certainly sounded egotistical and pathetic. He was almost embarrassed to have said it out loud. Had he been talking to anyone but Mike, he would have tried to backtrack and cover it up. But he was used to telling Mike things he wouldn't even consider telling other people. Mike never laughed at him. Unless he deserved it, that is.

"And what are you doing to get discovered?" Mike pressed for more.

"I'm still interning," Kurt supposed that that counted. "And I went to another audition the other day. Maybe one of those two things will actually go somewhere."

"That's a start."

"What do you mean, 'that's a start'?" Kurt frowned, looking over at Mike. "What else am I supposed to do? I can't, I dunno, it's not like I can open my own business or something. I can't jump into a lead role; I have to audition and actually get my name out there first."

"Why?"

This was deep, philosophical, and annoyingly persistent Mike. Bastard.

"Because I want to live somewhere that's not under a bridge using a newspaper as a blanket."

"I guess that's fair," Mike shrugged.

"You guess?" Kurt crossed his arms. "All right then, Mister all-knowing. What are you doing to reach your dream?"

"I am living my dream."

"No you're not," Kurt argued. "You just said that your dream was to get on So You Think You Can Dance."

"That was high school Mike," Mike smirked. "Grown-up Mike decided that reality TV was stupid and that Broadway was a better goal." Then he chuckled, adding, "And I did go to the casting call for the last season, so shut up."

Kurt couldn't help but giggle.

"That's the problem with our chosen career paths," Mike kept going, the look on his face telling Kurt that philosophical Mike was back. "We rely on other people's judgment of our talents to get us somewhere. We can't do it ourselves, because in order to do that, we need an extremely wealthy relative to die, or something. I can dance as much as I want, but if I'm not what someone's looking for, it's like all I've done was useless. It's the kind of thing that will get you down if you're not strong enough to push through the rejection."

"Very true."

"And it makes success that much better, too," Mike grinned.

"I wish we could just start our own Broadway," Kurt thought aloud. "Everyone who didn't make the final cut of whatever else could come to us and we'd put on shows just for fun. We could do whatever we wanted."

"You could put us all in flattering costumes that make our asses look nice."

"Shut up, that was purely coincidental!" Kurt flushed at the memory. It hadn't been his fault that the outfit had worked out that way.

"Whatever," Mike rolled his eyes. "But I could practically feel my entire cast staring at my ass the entire time I had that thing on."

"And how do you know you don't just have a nice ass?" Kurt shot back.

"Maybe I do," Mike was grinning again. "But those pants definitely helped."

"You're so full of it," Kurt groaned. "And why do you always have to be right?"

"Because I am always right," Mike puffed out his chest. "Watch." He waved at a girl walking in the opposite direction, saying, "Excuse me! Hey, quick question. What do you think of my ass?"

"This is a really stupid idea."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, actually, it is."

"Then leave."

"I can't; we've got to go in pairs."

"Then why are you complaining? That's not gonna magically make everything better."

"I know that! Just let me be miserable for a minute. Indulge me, for once."

"And why should I do that?"

"Because that's what friends are supposed to do."

"Oh, are we friends today? So I don't get to tell that guy across the room that you're my female-to-male transgendered sister and if he looks at you like that one more time I'll kick his ass?"

"Okay, where did that one come from? Seriously, you need to stop with these increasingly creepy backstories."

"Not my fault I'm just awesomely creative."

"Whatever." A pause. "Which guy?"

"You whore!"

"Right, says the guy who made out with a lesbian the last time I took him to a gay bar."

"Hey, she kissed me first."

"Doesn't matter; you still did it. Now, which guy?"

"I'm not telling. He looks like he'll date-rape you."

"I hate you."

"Love you too."

"Right. If you loved me you'd tell me which one he is. Or indulge me and let me complain."

"Shut up. It's good practice. Neither one of us are actually going to land a role."

"Speak for yourself. I'm going in like I've already got the role."

"That's so Jesse St. James of you. And what happened to 'this is a terrible idea'?"

"Oh, is Jesse an adjective now? Don't tell him about that or I think his head might just swell even more."

"He's actually not all that bad. Now you just sound like Rachel."

"I know he's not all that bad. Now shut up and let me be miserable and try to figure out which one of those guys you're trying to keep me away from."

"Honestly, sometimes I think you're still just a horny sixteen year old."

"Are you making fun of my boyish good looks?"

"Yes."

"Well, at least you're being honest, I guess."

"Kurt Hummel and Mike Chang, please come to room five."

Mike made Kurt hold his hand on the way in. When Kurt raised an eyebrow, he said, "Just getting into character." Kurt just rolled his eyes and knew he really did it so whatever guy had been eyeing him would think he was taken.

They weren't entirely sure which god up there had smiled on them and showered them with luck, but when they both got the phone call at the same second and got the news that yes, they had both landed the parts, both of them couldn't help but pray to the unnamed theatre gods.

Because they had just landed the roles of Jason and Peter in a limited, week-long performance of bare.

It had been Mike's idea. He was still in West Side Story and Kurt was still working at Starbucks, and neither of them had landed lead roles since college, but Mike wanted to try anyway. He had reasoned that it would be good practice and that even though he wasn't a singer and Kurt didn't have any big shows on his resume, they had a pretty fair shot.

It helped that they could do the audition together. The director obviously thought they had the chemistry that Jason and Peter needed, and the fact that Kurt still looked sixteen probably helped too.

But the kissing scenes were just plain weird.

Kurt would be flat out lying if he said he had never wondered what kissing Mike would be like. Even though his feelings for Mike were purely platonic, he couldn't ignore the fact that Mike was quite nice to look at. 'Nice to look at' translated to: 'I'm still a gay man who hasn't had a boyfriend in what feels like forever, and my best guy friend is super hot.'

The first time they rehearsed the scene was in a tiny little room with just them and the director, Courtney. She said she wanted to get a feel for the relationship they already had before bringing in the rest of the cast, so she just gave them free rein.

"Just go with it," was all the direction she gave, waving her hands and sitting down and telling them to start from the beginning of You and I.

So they did. They got the sarcastic, teasing nature down instantly, because that was exactly what their relationship was. Minus the whole boyfriend thing, obviously. So when they got to the touchy-feely parts, it got awkward. Sometimes during their walks they would link arms or hold hands, but nothing more than that.

If Kurt was being honest, their first attempt at the first kiss was really funny. Kurt's character was supposed to go all out while Mike's character was supposed to pull back, but they ended up doing exactly the opposite. Kurt was standing on his tip-toes and lost his balance just as Mike's lips touched his, so he wobbled backwards and almost fell over. Mike moved with him, looking like he was trying to keep kissing him.

After that first attempt, Courtney had stepped in to help. She told them to just keep it a stage kiss for now, if that would help. She made sure that Kurt stayed flat on his feet and had Mike stoop down. She made them freeze mid-kiss to fix where they had their hands. And while having one hand on another guy's chest and the other holding onto his jacket was nice, it was just weird knowing that the 'other guy' was Mike.

They would have to work on that.

And Mike wasn't one to beat around the bush.

"Was that just as awkward for you as it was for me?" he asked, as soon as they left and were on their own.

"Yeah," Kurt felt his face heat up. "It just felt weird."

"I know," Mike agreed. "So let's figure out why."

Kurt really didn't want to have this conversation. It was like he was back in tenth grade and he was still trying to make Finn understand that no, he was not going to try to seduce him. That was why he hadn't had many guy friends: sooner or later, they would have to have this conversation.

So talk quickly and get it over with. That would work.

"You're probably one of my best friends," Kurt blurted out. "And I'm not saying that because I want to get those stupid matching necklaces or something; I'm saying it because I truly value your friendship and you have been there for me since your party. I don't want anything to ruin that, because I've seen what can happen when a gay guy tries to be friends with another guy, regardless of his sexual orientation. And so far, we've just been friends with platonic feelings for each other and I don't want any stupid pretend kissing to screw that up."

"Nice word vomit," Mike smirked. Kurt punched his arm.

"I'm trying to be honest here," he said defensively.

"No, no, I get that," Mike nodded quickly. "But you know me. Sometimes I can't help it." He cleared his throat, then continued. "But yeah, that basically sums it up. I mean, we're both single and have compatible sexualities, but so far we've avoided that weird I-want-to-do-you-but-that-would-ruin-our-friendship thing that can happen. And I guess I'm just a little worried that playing boyfriends could change that."

"Good, so we're both on the same page," Kurt looked at his lap, not wanting to look at Mike. "So, um, I guess all we can really do is hope that nothing weird happens? And just play out the scenes and be honest with each other?"

"Yes," Mike agreed. "Let's promise each other right now that if those platonic friendship feelings ever change, we'll say something. No unspoken sexual tension allowed."

Kurt couldn't help but laugh, but he looked over at Mike and said, "Good plan. Also, I want that on a shirt."