Okay, so I felt really bad about leaving you guys on such a cliff hanger, and I didn't want to make you guys wait until Thursday, and so I'm uploading two chapters in one day :)

Plus I love this chapter! Enjoy... C xx


"Kurt?" Blaine asked, scanning the face of the man in front of him. When Mercedes had told him there was someone here to see him, he had told her that he didn't want to see anybody. When she had told him that it was an old friend who was very keen to see him, he had become interested in spite of himself and asked for their name. As soon as the name 'Kurt' had passed her lips, he had stared at her for a few moments in disbelief before jumping up out of his chair and pacing slightly around his room.

Kurt was here? In New York? On the other side of his door?

And when he had finally opened his door, he couldn't believe his eyes. The young man was the spitting image of the boy he knew sixteen years ago, although he was taller, his jawline was now more defined, and the youthful chubbiness he had carried off as a kid had melted away.

Kurt nodded and grinned widely, and Blaine went lightheaded. He felt as if he were dreaming. Kurt had been his closest friend during his childhood, and when they had been separated it was one of the worst experiences of his life. But now, sixteen years later, they were reunited… and they were stood staring at each other.

Blaine knew that the formal way of handling this would be to smile and shake Kurt's hand, but to hell with formalities; he stepped forwards and enveloped Kurt in a huge hug, his eyes stinging with tears, sobbing slightly when he felt Kurt embrace him in return. After a few seconds he pulled away, looking Kurt in the face again to make sure it really was him.

"I can't-" He faltered, holding Kurt at arm's length by his shoulders. "I can't believe it's really you. You're here!" He couldn't help but laugh as he pulled Kurt in for another hug. They held each other tightly, and Blaine felt the first few tears glide down his cheeks. "Come in!" He pulled Kurt into his dressing room, wiping his eyes as he went. Mercedes excused herself from the room, leaving the two men alone to talk.

Neither of the men knew what to do with themselves. Should they sit? Should they stand? Should they hug each other again? For a few moments they just gazed at each other, convincing themselves that this was really happening and taking in the new appearance of the other man.

One of the first things that Blaine noticed about Kurt was the way he dressed. He was wearing grey-brown pants and a matching blazer. Underneath he wore a tight, white shirt and around his neck a grey scarf hung loosely. Blaine could tell he cared about the way he looked, and began to wonder what he did now. And how much he earnt from doing so.

"Blaine, I-" Kurt blushed slightly and his gaze shifted away from Blaine. "I must admit, I've been meaning to come and see you for the past few days." Blaine frowned. What did he mean, the past few days? "I came to see West Side Story on Sunday with some friends and I realised it was you, but," He sighed deeply, and Blaine wanted to reach out to hold his hand, were Kurt not holding it behind his back. "But, I was worried that you wouldn't remember me and I didn't know what I was going to say to you so I didn't-"

"Kurt!" Blaine was hurt. Kurt looked up at him, a silent tear making its way down his cheek, and Blaine felt a whole new set of tears pushing at his eyes. "How could I not remember you?" This time Blaine did take Kurt's hand in his, the way he used to whenever he saw Kurt upset when they were younger. Kurt smiled slightly, but then began to gently cry; it was all obviously a little overwhelming for him. Blaine pulled him in for a hug and allowed Kurt to cry softly into his shoulder, his protectiveness over Kurt rushing back to him instantly. "And anyway," Blaine smiled softly as Kurt pulled away to dry his tears. "All that matters is that you're here now."

Kurt smiled at him, blushing, no doubt embarrassed slightly by his tears, and Blaine thought that Kurt's smile was still as beautiful to him as it had been when they were younger. It reassured Blaine that Kurt's tears were out of joy, possibly even relief, and he wanted to make sure that from now on, Kurt was always smiling.

"We have so much to catch up on!" Blaine laughed, patting Kurt's shoulder and gesturing for him to sit down.

"I know!" Kurt sighed, perching himself on the edge of a chair as Blaine dropped into one opposite him and leant back, completely at ease. "Sixteen years, Blaine. How did it take us so long to find each other again?" He gazed at Blaine, watching his face change as he thought, realizing just how much he had missed him over the years. Blaine was thinking hard. He didn't know how to answer Kurt's question, but he wanted to know just as much as Kurt did. After moving to New York, he and Kurt had kept in contact for a few months, but once the summer was over Dennis and Aileen had told him to concentrate on his school work, and the letters and e-mails from Kurt came to an end.

He shook his head softly and muttered, "I have no idea." The two of them sat staring at the floor for a while before Blaine spoke again, this time louder and cheerier. "But, the past has been and gone. All we can do is make sure that it doesn't happen again in the future!" He leant forward and squeezed Kurt's knee, and the two men smiled at each other. Now that Kurt was back in his life, Blaine had no intention of losing him again.


Kurt was stunned by the view from his seat. He and Blaine had spoken for a little while longer before a dark-haired Latina woman, who Kurt had been introduced to as Santana, had told Blaine it was curtain call in 10 minutes. Reluctant to leave each other so soon after meeting again, Blaine had insisted that Kurt stayed to watch him perform, and when Kurt had told him that he had seen him do just so only two nights before, Blaine had told him that he would get him a seat in a different part of the theatre, 'making the experience entirely different'. Despite Kurt's polite declination, Blaine had gone to the box office himself and bought Kurt a ticket bang in the middle of the front row on the mezzanine.

A bouncy blonde girl by the name of Brittany had shown Kurt to his seat, a girl who he remembered giving Puck her number only two nights before. At first he thought that she must have read the ticket wrong, that she was leading him to the wrong seat and he would be politely asked to move, but upon inspecting his ticket he found that he was in his own seat. Blaine had also insisted on getting Kurt anything he wanted, and when Kurt had said that a programme would do him just fine, Blaine went ahead and bought him half the gift shop, all of which was in Blaine's dressing room for Kurt to pick up later. That was, apart from the programme, which Kurt was now looking through as he waited for the show to start.

After watching West Side Story the whole way through, Kurt was breathless. Blaine was right; it was a completely different experience watching from the balcony. Kurt had been able to appreciate the choreography of the opening scene between The Jets and The Sharks in a way he never had before, the closeness of the floor seats restricting his view, and he could have sworn that Blaine was singing some of the lines from 'Something's Coming' directly to him.


Kurt made his way to the foyer to wait for Blaine, but Mercedes dragged him straight back to Blaine's dressing room.

"Blaine told me to make sure you were still here, and to bring you straight to his room to wait for him." Mercedes explained with a smile when she let go of Kurt's sleeve and carried on walking ahead of him. Kurt quickly caught up with her, scowling slightly as he smoothed down his blazer. When they reached Blaine's dressing room for the second time that night, Mercedes casually walked straight in without knocking. Kurt was shocked by her attitude, but upon following her in found that Blaine was nowhere to be seen and told himself that knocking would have been pointless anyway.

"He'll be here in a sec," Mercedes told him, walking back out into the corridor. "See you later." She smiled and waved and shut the door behind her, and Kurt found himself stood alone in the middle of a Broadway dressing room.

This had been his dream, once. To be an actor on Broadway, with his name written on the door in fancy lettering that showed how important he was. But he had to remind himself that this was Blaine's dressing room, not his. He walked over to the make-up table on the other side of the room to inspect what Blaine had left lying around when a picture slotted in the frame of the mirror caught his eye.

It was Blaine, grinning widely behind a pair of dark sunglasses on what appeared to be a beach, his arm around an equally elated Sebastian. It was clear that the picture had been taken by them; the angle and intimacy of the photograph were that of one that someone took themselves, rather than asking a passer-by to take. Kurt gingerly reached out and took it out from the frame, wanting to look at it more closely, and was surprised to feel a second piece of paper underneath the first. Cautiously, he slid the second piece of paper out from underneath and almost whimpered at what he saw.

It was a picture of him and Blaine at Blaine's ninth birthday; the only one he had spent across the street from Kurt. They were both smiling widely at the camera, their arms around each other, cake crumbs and icing surrounding their lips. They were both wearing party hats, but had put them on at jaunty angles so that they pointed in different directions. Kurt had never seen this picture before, but he slowly started to recall the memory of it being taken.

Blaine had blown out his candles about five minutes before, and Aileen had cut both Kurt and Blaine a piece as soon as she had removed them. Dennis had then come along with his camera and told the boys to smile, and even at nine years old it had been one of the first pictures Kurt had ever had taken without him looking in the mirror first. Kurt smiled at the memory, his vision blurring slightly as his eyes threatened to cry for the second time that night.

Voices outside the door panicked him, and he swiftly tucked the pictures back into the frame, managing to step back just as Blaine walked in. Kurt looked at him in the mirror, and Blaine looked back at him.

"Let's go get a coffee or something." Blaine offered, grabbing his coat from a hook off the wall and sliding it on. Kurt turned to look at him before glancing at his watch.

"But it's gone ten," Kurt complained. "I have work tomorrow."

"Come on, Kurt," Blaine chuckled. "You're a big boy now; you can stay up past your bedtime if you want to." Kurt was mildly offended by Blaine's slightly patronizing sarcasm, but decided that the sixteen years they had to catch up on was as good a reason as any for him to ignore it. "What do you do now, anyway?" Blaine asked as Kurt began to walk towards the door, opening it for him.

"I'm a professor," Kurt said proudly. "At NYADA." Blaine raised his eyebrows; a touch surprised by Kurt's response, and followed him out of his dressing room, back out through the foyer and onto the streets of New York.

"So, where exactly are we going?" Kurt asked as he and Blaine wandered along 7TH Avenue. There weren't many places still open this late on a Tuesday night where they could go for a quiet drink together.

"Well, there's a bar up here called 'Tonic'," Blaine explained. "It's usually open late." Kurt had been to Tonic before, but never this late.

"So not Puck's this time, then?" Blaine turned to him, perplexed by his question and how he knew he had been to Puck's a few days before.

"How did you-?" He began, and Kurt laughed.

"Don't worry; I'm not stalking you or anything!" Kurt teased. "I was in there Sunday night with my friends when you and the cast came in." Blaine seemed happy with Kurt's explanation and was back to his usual, smiley self in a matter of seconds.

"Oh, God!" He suddenly exclaimed, his cheeks flushing at the memory. "You didn't see me when I was really drunk did you?"

Kurt laughed out loud. "No," He replied, "Although I kind of wish I had now! Rachel might have… I'll ask her later." Blaine stared at him, but Kurt laughed and carried on walking.

Tonic was relatively quiet and Kurt and Blaine sat together in the quietest corner of the bar. Kurt glanced at his watch again. 10:37pm. He winced slightly, realising how late it was and calculating how much sleep he would end up getting tonight. He guessed about six hours, seeing as it would take him about half an hour to walk home, and then he had to be up at around half six in the morning to make sure that he was showered before work.

"Stop looking at your watch!" Blaine laughed, turning Kurt's wrist so that the watch face was looking away from him. "You're making me panic that you're going to up and leave any second." Kurt's cheeks flushed bright red and apologised, feeling ashamed that he was focusing more on the time he could stay with Blaine rather than using it to talk to him. "I know this isn't exactly the best time for us to chat," Blaine continued, tracing the patterns on the table with his finger. "But, I was so glad to see you, I didn't really want to say goodbye yet." Kurt was taken aback by Blaine's confession, but felt the same way. He had been complaining to himself about the time and how he 'really should head home about now', but deep down he knew that he would rather stay and talk to Blaine. "Maybe we can meet up again during the week?"

Kurt's chest tightened with excitement, and nodded slowly. "I can't do any weekdays, really," He explained, "You know, what with teaching and stuff." Blaine chuckled.

"I can't do weeknights, either," He smiled, and Kurt realised that he had forgotten that Blaine's evenings were taken up by West Side Story. "Or Saturday nights… Or Saturday afternoons… Or Sunday nights…" Blaine frowned, trying to think of when he did actually have time free to meet up with Kurt, and Kurt supressed a giggle at Blaine's expression.

"What about Sunday morning? Or lunch?" Kurt suggested, correcting himself when he remembered that he hated getting up early on Sundays and so lunch was probably a better option. Blaine thought about it for a second, and Kurt watched him anticipation, waiting for his answer.

"Sunday lunch…" Blaine pulled a face that suggested it would be difficult for him to fit it into his schedule, before grinning at Kurt. "Sounds fantastic." Kurt released a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Come to mine," Blaine suggested in return. "I'll cook."

Kurt couldn't help but grimace slightly, concerned with how good a chef Blaine was, but luckily for him Blaine took it all in good humour. "Don't worry, I can actually cook. Mum taught me." Kurt relaxed then, remembering how good Aileen's food was, and apologised.

"Don't worry," Blaine smiled. "Dad did the exact same thing when I offered to cook for him once."

"And, how did it turn out?" Kurt had to know. Blaine thought about it for a second before motioning his hands like weighing scales, smirking as he did so, making Kurt laugh again.

They parted ways some time later after exchanging mobile numbers, both of them looking forward to Sunday as they walked home to their apartments along the night-time streets of New York. They fell into their beds, snuggled into their duvets and smiled to themselves, Sunday being their last thought before drifting into peaceful sleep.


Yay yay yay! Klaine's back together :)

C xx