A/N: Originally written for the glee angst meme. This was written before Silly Love Songs aired, so it's not entirely in line with canon, but I wanted to post it anyway.

The guy was staring at him from across the cafeteria. Kurt concentrated on transferring a salad to his tray, pretending not to notice. After adding a plastic fork and a handful of serviettes, he ventured another glance.

The guy was still staring.

Kurt took a deep breath. Dalton had a no tolerance policy to bullying. This guy wasn't going to try anything. He was safe here. The guy wasn't going to try anything.

The guy had a slight smile on his face – a smirk, Kurt thought. His eyes flickered as he stared at Kurt, seeming to take in everything from the tips of Kurt's polished shoes to his immaculately groomed hair. He smirked again. Apparently Kurt still reeked of gay even in uniform, if this guy's expression was anything to go by.

He was taller than Kurt, though that wasn't necessarily anything to boast about. He had blond hair and wide eyes that were a brilliant shade of blue. His uniform was carefully tailored and the shade of his jacket implied that it hadn't seen too many washes, which meant that his family was wealthy enough to buy him a new set whenever it got slightly worn or faded. His eyes had that cockiness that Kurt associated with seniors – as far as Kurt could tell, this boy was at the top of the school hierarchy. Kurt hadn't had many good experiences with the tops of school hierarchies.

Kurt grabbed his tray tightly and slunk over to the seat that Blaine was saving for him as quickly as possible. Once he was seated, he let out the breath that he'd been holding. While he'd been standing, the guy could have tripped him or shoved him and then claimed that it was an accident. Now that he was sitting, the anti-bullying policy should protect him.

Blaine was smiling at him and saying something, but Kurt couldn't quite take in the words. He glanced around again to try to find the guy, but he seemed to have evaporated into the crowd. Somehow, that didn't make Kurt feel any better.

"Kurt, are you okay?" Blaine asked, fingertips on Kurt's arm.

"Fine," he said, inwardly wincing. Apparently his calm mask wasn't as good as he'd hoped. He glanced around again. This time, he caught sight of the blond boy. He was closer now, weaving through the crowd towards Kurt. Kurt unconsciously shrugged back slightly in his seat to try to make himself smaller.

When a tall shadow loomed over him, Kurt shut his eyes, preparing himself for the inevitable.

"Hey," the blond guy said. "I, uh, I saw you from across the room and—um, I'm sorry, but I just had to ask, are you single?"

"What?" Kurt asked. He frowned slightly as he tried to interpret this strange new turn of events. If this was bullying, at least Kurt had to give it points for originality. No one at McKinley had ever teased him for not having a boyfriend.

"Well, uh..." The guy swallowed and crossed his arms nervously. "I was wondering—maybe I could buy you a coffee some time?"

Kurt stared blankly, realising how badly he'd misinterpreted the situation. He looked to Blaine for a clue, but Blaine was unhelpful, his entire attention focused on shovelling his lunch into his mouth as though he couldn't hear the conversation going on right in front of him. Kurt wasn't going to get any help from that quarter.

Kurt turned back to the blond guy. "You're asking me out on a date?" he asked. It came out sharper than he'd intended.

"Yeah," the guy said, biting his lip slightly.

"Why?" Kurt asked.

"I don't—look, it was stupid. I know that you're out of my league," the guy said, turning to go.

Kurt grabbed his arm to stop him. "No, seriously. Why are you asking me out? I really want to know."

The guy laughed incredulously. "You're hot. I mean, I know it's shallow of me, but, damn. I mean, I just saw you and my jaw dropped and my friends were laughing at me, cos, God, I lacked game, but you're smoking. I wanted to get to know you better."

Kurt's jaw had dropped. He grasped incoherently for words for a long moment. He looked to Blaine, expecting him to be signalling that this guy was crazy, but Blaine seemed to be blushing slightly and nodding along.

"You really—Are you sure?" Kurt asked.

Both Blaine and the strange guy nodded.

"Anyway," said the guy, blushing, "Here's my number." He handed over a napkin with a phone number hastily scrawled on it. The guy's handwriting was messy and the pen he'd used had torn a hole in the napkin, but it was still legible. "Now that I'm done humiliating myself I'm going to go back to my friends, okay? And if you ever decide that you want to get a coffee, or even hang out and have me openly ogle you, give me a call." The guy gave a self-depreciating bow and retreated.

Kurt looked to Blaine for advice. "Can you believe that?" he asked. "I mean, he's obviously mentally challenged or something, because I'm not—but, he actually thinks that I'm hot?"

"I can definitely believe it," Blaine said slowly. He glanced from the phone number to Kurt and then back again.

"I don't even know his name," Kurt told Blaine.

Blaine shrugged. "So, uh, are you going to call him?" He was using his plastic fork to twirl the scattered remnants of his pasta round and round on his plate. Kurt reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him and was surprised when Blaine didn't pull away.

"Am I really attractive?" Kurt asked Blaine.

Blaine nodded. "I can't believe you even need to ask."

Blaine had this look in his eyes which scared Kurt slightly. Kurt broke eye contact and stared down at the napkin. "What do you think I should do?"

"Uh," said Blaine, fidgeting slightly in his seat, "I'm not sure if I'm the one you should ask."

"Don't be stupid," said Kurt. "You're the best friend I have here, you're one of the few people I know who wouldn't freak out about the idea of me dating and, most importantly, you saw him. So, what do you think?"

"I still don't think I'm the one you should ask," said Blaine, blushing slightly. When Kurt was about to ask why, Blaine muttered, so softly that Kurt could only just hear, "I'm not exactly objective."

Kurt turned those words around in his head. "So, you have a crush on him? Or were you dating and things ended badly?" Kurt's chest felt suddenly heavy, like it had that time Dad had taken his car off him when he'd discovered Kurt's tiara collection, except worse. He looked down at the lunch that he hadn't had a chance to touch yet and pushed it away, suddenly not hungry.

Blaine was silent and things were starting to feel awkward. Kurt forced himself to accept that, yes, Blaine did like someone else and this crush was just as hopeless as the ones that had come before. He looked up, expecting Blaine to be smiling at him compassionately. Instead, Blaine was staring at him with one eyebrow raised, shaking his head slightly.

"You really think that you're not attractive?" Blaine asked.

"I don't know what this has to do with..." Kurt started, but something in Blaine's expression made Kurt trail off.

Blaine's cheeks were tinged with pink and he looked uncharacteristically nervous. "I thought you knew that I like you," Blaine said quickly. "That's why I wasn't going to push – not after everything that happened and your first kiss and everything, but, I really like you. I mean, I thought that if you were interested you would have said something, so I was trying to get over it, but... You seriously didn't realise...?"

"You like me?" Kurt asked, just to be sure.

Blaine nodded.

"Oh," said Kurt.

"So, uh..." Blaine was staring back down at his pasta again. "I get if you want to just be friends or if you want to go out with that guy – his name's Danny, by the way, just so you know – but I don't think I'm really objective enough to give good advice about what you should do with that number, since I was kind of hoping that eventually you might decide that you want to be with me."

Kurt reached out slowly and took Blaine's hand. Blaine's hopeful look in Kurt's direction would have made Kurt laugh if he wasn't still in shock at the fact that someone might like him – two someones, in fact, including the guy of his dreams. Kurt squeezed slightly.

"You know," said Kurt, "It would have been much easier if you'd told me this earlier. I didn't think—are you sure you find me attractive?"

Blaine was wearing a grin that stretched from one side of his face to the other. "God, Kurt. How can you doubt that?"

Kurt was glad that he didn't blush easily. He tried to reach for his superior facade. "Well, I always thought I looked good – it was just the world that wasn't ready for my fabulousness. ...Is fabulousness a word?"

Blaine laughed. "I'm not sure, but I certainly think that you look fabulous."

Kurt laughed and moved to cover his face with his hands when his elbow brushed the napkin again and he sobered slightly. "What am I going to do?" He looked down at the napkin. "I mean, he seemed like a nice guy and I never thought that I'd be turning a nice guy down."

"I'm sorry," said Blaine.

"Don't be," said Kurt. He reached for his phone and typed in a message, then handed it over to Blaine. "What do you think?" he asked nervously.

The message said, I'm really sorry. I didn't get a chance to say anything, but I do have a boyfriend. If you want to be friends, I'd still be interested in getting a coffee, though I completely understand if that would make you uncomfortable.

"Is it bad that that message is making me grin like an idiot?" Blaine asked. True to his word, his face was dominated by that goofy smile he usually saved for performances.

"I do feel really bad about it though," Kurt mumbled.

Blaine squeezed his hand. "Yeah. I get that."

A moment later, Kurt got a text back: yeah i figured, hot guy like u. let me no if u break up with bf. ;) srsly, though, just friends is fine. still wouldnt mind getting coffee. my friends dont like it, the heathens – need a new coffee buddy.

Blaine read it over Kurt's shoulder. "Should I be worried?"

"I don't think so," said Kurt, still staring at the message. "Am I really that hot?"

Blaine nodded. "Yes, Kurt, you are."

Kurt smiled slightly and reached for his lunch, suddenly hungry again. Blaine was smiling into space with a slightly dreamy expression on his face. Kurt was still holding his hand under the table. He couldn't quite believe Blaine and he wasn't convinced that this blond boy wasn't just up to some new and inventive way of hazing the gay kid, but for the first time in his life, he felt ready to be convinced that he might be wrong.