Blaine was hypnotised. That was the only explanation for why he was staring at Kurt like he was… the greatest thing he had ever laid his eyes on.

He knew it was beyond wildly inappropriate for them to be having lunch together (well, brunch because it was only 10.30 in the morning) but he couldn’t help himself. When he had seen Kurt in Village Book Shop he couldn’t stop himself from saying hello.

He had meant to it to be innocent enough – just say hi and then leave but when Kurt had the book – his book – in hand, Blaine lost any sense of morality that he had making him keep his thoughts professional. It was highly stupid and not to mention risky of him to be out with Kurt like this. Sure, it was innocent enough to anyone watching but Blaine knew his feelings for Kurt were anything but.

Blaine was ashamed of himself for letting his feelings get the better of him. Kurt was his student, which automatically made him off limits, despite the fact that he was eighteen.

He just couldn’t do it, though. Kurt was there, sitting in front of him, speaking animatedly about his poetry. His poetry. Kurt loved his work. The thought made him feel like a giddy teenager who had just received an A plus on his school work.

Kurt amazed Blaine. He spoke so passionately about the things he liked and apparently that included wanting to read anything else Blaine had written. Blaine had a hard time saying no to Kurt back in the bookstore and he knew he wouldn’t be able to resist any longer if Kurt kept asking.

He probably wasn’t even aware of the affect he had on Blaine. How he made Blaine’s heart race a little bit every time he smiled at him – which was surprisingly often.

Blaine picked up his sandwich, willing the inappropriate thoughts out of his head. He focused on what Kurt was saying instead like the teacher he was supposed to be.

Blaine watched Kurt eat his sandwich and engaged in the conversation as often as he could. He stopped and stared when he noticed that Kurt had a bit of mayonnaise in the corner of his mouth. Kurt didn’t realise and Blaine couldn’t stop staring. He set his sandwich down and picked up his napkin.

“You have, uh…” Blaine trailed off, lifting the napkin to wipe gently at the corner of Kurt’s mouth.

The room seemed to still completely and Blaine pulled back his hand quickly. He flushed and opened his mouth a few times to talk but no sound came out.

“I’m sorry,” he said eventually. “That was inappropriate.”

“It’s okay,” Kurt whispered. “I…”

“I think we had better leave now, Kurt.”

“Mister Anderson, it’s fine,” Kurt protested.

“I’ll see you in class on Monday, Kurt,” Blaine said, standing and he left the caf� as fast as he possibly could.

Blaine spent the better part of his weekend mentally reprimanding himself over behaving inappropriately with Kurt. What he felt for Kurt could not be acted upon, no matter how much Blaine liked him. At least not until he graduated. Which, Blaine’s mind supplied, was only until June next year.

Blaine busied himself making papers and grading the tests he had given out to his other classes and he purposefully stayed away from the pile of papers from his senior AP English class. Looking at it was just asking for trouble.

Eventually, Blaine had to look at the pile as he had to grade the papers his students had given him – including Kurt’s extra credit work.

He quickly located Kurt’s papers and put them to the bottom of the pile.

“Out of sight, out of mind,” he muttered to himself as he poured himself a glass of red wine.

Blaine sat down on his couch and pulled Kurt’s paper out from the bottom of the pile, unable to resist seeing Kurt’s excellent prose one more time. He picked up his red pen, ready to mark any mistakes or errors but he couldn’t find any. He set the red pen aside and smiled at Kurt’s recognisable passion and the subtle quips here and there. He sipped his glass of wine and turned the page, completely entranced by Kurt’s words.

He was ridiculous. Behaving like he was with his crush on Kurt. It was completely unprofessional and Blaine could lose his first job teaching if it got out to anyone at all. He sighed and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. He just had to distance himself from Kurt, that was all.

It proved to be a little bit more difficult than Blaine would have liked as Monday afternoon, Kurt stayed behind after class again.

“Umm,” Kurt started. “Here’s your book, Mr Anderson.”

“Thank you,” Blaine replied, trying to avoid Kurt’s gaze.

“Mr Anderson?”

Blaine looked up. “Yes, Kurt?”

“Thank you for lending your book to me,” Kurt said. “It was fantastic.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Mr Anderson?”

Blaine looked over at Kurt again, hand stilling on the whiteboard where he was erasing the notes he had written on there.

“I just wanted you to know I didn’t take anything that happened on Saturday wrongly,” Kurt continued. “I mean, it’s better that you did that or I probably would have drove home with mayonnaise on my face and that’s just embarrassing.”

Blaine smiled, unable to help himself. “That would have been embarrassing.”

Kurt gave him a small smile in return. “So, you really did me a favour.”

Blaine turned back to the whiteboard, erasing the last of the notes. “I have your papers, if you would like them back?”

“Oh, I’d love that,” Kurt said.

Blaine pulled the papers out of his desk drawer and passed them to Kurt. “You know, I think you could do a lot more with your talent than just writing plays or fashion articles. You should try writing some short stories.”

“Can I do it for extra credit?” Kurt asked immediately.

Blaine nodded. “Sure,” he replied. “If you write me a… twenty-five hundred word maximum short story based on any topic you like, it can be counted for extra credit.”

“Any topic?” Kurt asked.

Blaine nodded, leaning against his desk. “Any topic, as long as it is appropriate to be read by me. A guy in my writing class first year of college basically wrote pornography and the professor wasn’t happy at all.”

Kurt crinkled his nose. “I think I’ll stay away from anything… risqu�.”

“Good to know,” Blaine replied.

“I’d better go,” Kurt said. “I don’t want to miss Warbler practice. Good night, Mr Anderson.”

“Good night, Kurt.”

Blaine stared at the door for a good five minutes after Kurt left before he caught himself and shook his head. He closed his briefcase over and headed for the exit of the classroom.

He nodded and smiled and a few different students as he walked down the hall stairs to the first floor. Just as he was about to leave, a familiar female voice called out to him and he stopped.

“Sally, hi,” he said.

Sally smiled and fell into step with him. “So, your friend Wes is nice,” she started. “He took me out to this really nice restaurant on Saturday.”

“Oh, really?” Blaine asked with a grin. “And how did it go?”

“It was amazing,” Sally replied. “We wined and dined me and then we made out for three hours. I felt like a teenager again.”

Blaine chuckled. “I’ve heard a few girls say Wes makes them feel like that.”

“He’s so dreamy, Blaine,” Sally said.

“I’m glad things worked out well.”

They spoke a little more about Sally’s date with Wes and they reached the teacher’s lounge a few minutes later. Sally pottered around while Blaine kept talking with her and they left the school grounds shortly after.

“What about you?” Sally asked. “Anyone you’re romantically interested in?”

Blaine’s mind automatically went to Kurt and he flushed a little. “No, there’s no one.”

“I know that look,” Sally said with a smirk. “That’s the ‘I am totally crushing on someone’ look.”

Blaine shook his head. “It isn’t, trust me.”

“C’mon, who is she?” Sally asked with a grin as they reached the car park.

“Definitely not a she,” Blaine replied before he could stop himself.

“So? Who is he then?”

“It’s no one,” Blaine said. “I don’t know him and he’s not from around here. It was just a fleeting look in a coffee house, nothing more.”

Sally assured him that it probably wasn’t but Blaine couldn’t think about it. Wouldn’t think about it. He had pushed things too far already and he wasn’t even certain how or why he had pushed them in the first place.

Kurt was innocent. He had done nothing to provoke Blaine’s perverse interest in him and absolutely nothing could ever come of it. It was a stupid crush and Blaine would get over it. Just like he had got over every other crush he had had that hadn’t been reciprocated.

“Come over for dinner,” Sally said. “I think you need a night off. You look stressed.”

Blaine blinked and looked up at her. “I… uh…”

“Blaine, I’m the Home Ec teacher; I am a fantastic cook,” Sally reminded him.

“Sure, why not.”

Sally grinned and gave him her address and two hours later, Blaine arrived at her apartment. He was greeted with the smells of cooking food and his mouth started to water at the aroma.

“I’m cooking risotto, I hope you don’t mind?”

“Risotto is perfect,” Blaine replied.

Sally poured him a glass of red wine while their meal finished cooking and they sat on her couch, sharing work stories. Sally told him about some of the more fascinating things that had happened during her classes and Blaine listened with rapt attention. He had always admired someone who could cook well and to be able to teach cooking to not only a bunch of boys but teenage boys was a feat, he thought.

They chatted over dinner and Blaine relaxed more than he had since starting at Dalton. While he loved teaching there, it was completely different to being a student. As a student, he had had his homework but as a teacher, he not only had to plan lessons for each class he had but he had to assign papers for his students to write and he had to prepare tests and then he had to mark them all as well.

He had no idea what he was going to do come finals time. He felt like he was barely keeping his head above water as it was.

He told Sally his fears and she just smiled.

“It sounds scary, I know,” she started. “But honestly, after you’ve done it once, you won’t even remember why you thought it was so hard.”

Blaine sipped at his wine, still unconvinced. “My senior AP English class is my best class,” he said. “So preparing those finals will be more than easy. I’m much more worried about my freshmen or my juniors. The freshmen are still in awe over everything and some of them are in a daze even in the lessons but then on the other end of the scale, my juniors are freaking out over their workloads and I feel like I should be cutting them some slack.”

Sally shook her head. “Don’t,” she said. “They need to learn how to deal with the pressure. High school is a piece of cake compared to college – then there’s the ‘real world’ after that.”

Blaine sighed. “I know, I know,” he said. “I just feel bad.”

“I know you do,” Sally said sympathetically. “Believe me, I went through this when I started three years ago but if you cut them some slack, then you’ll forever be known as the ‘easy’ class and students will want to be in your class just so they can slack off.

“I know Dalton is a very prestigious school but we’re meant to deliver a certain level of education to these students. That’s why they’re there. That’s why their parents pay the big money – so they can get the best possible education they can.”

“So that’s why my parents sent me there,” Blaine teased with a smile. “I promise I won’t give any of them any reason to think my class is the ‘easy’ class.”

“Good,” Sally said and she refilled their glasses with more wine. “Now, onto the juicy stuff. Past lovers – go.”

Blaine flushed. “I… I haven’t really had any,” he admitted. “There was this guy in college but it didn’t last long.”

Sally raised her eyebrow. “Blaine Anderson, are you telling me you’ve never…”

“No!” Blaine blurted out. “I… We… Yeah, we had sex but he pretty much broke up with me afterwards.”

“Oh, Blaine,” Sally said. “I’m sorry.”

Blaine shrugged. “That’s what I get for dating a college guy.”

“Want to tell me about it so I can justly hate him for you?” Sally offered with a smile.

Blaine smiled at the sincerity on Sally’s face and proceeded to tell her about Michael, his college boyfriend.

Michael had been in been in Blaine’s sophomore creative writing class and the first time he had ever spoken to Michael, they had been paired together to write a short story based on a past experience of theirs. Once Michael had started talking about himself, he realised they could use their mutual experiences of coming out to their friends and family. Blaine’s past had been a little more difficult than Michael’s had but they had worked well together and ended up getting an A on their assignment.

Michael had asked Blaine out after that and Blaine had readily agreed. He had shied away from any remote romantic interest anyone might have had for him during high school, not trusting the fact that he was in an all-boys boarding school. Michael had been different. He had sandy blonde hair and a killer smile.

They had dated for a short while before Michael had initiated sexual contact for the first time. Blaine had been scared out of his wits and held Michael off until he could do some research about what to expect.

It had taken another couple of weeks but Blaine gave his virginity to Michael only for him to break up with him three days later saying that they just weren’t compatible.

Blaine had been devastated. Michael had dropped out of the class and Blaine had spent the remainder of his college years completely single and completely celibate, too afraid to get close to anyone.

“Blaine,” Sally said softly once he had finished his tale. “You can’t let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”

“Did you just quote A Cinderella Story at me?” Blaine asked.

“I don’t know whether to be impressed that you got that quote or scared,” Sally said with a snort of laughter. “Despite the Hilary Duff moment, the quote remains true. You need to get back out there! There are plenty of young gay guys and you’re not exactly hard on the eyes.”

“This is Ohio, Sally,” Blaine pointed out. “While times have changed a little, there are still plenty of people who make comments and turn their noses up at gay couples. While Dalton was always a safe place for me, the rest of Ohio isn’t as understanding.”

“One day, you’ll find someone,” Sally said and she rested her hand on his forearm. “Hopefully soon. And hopefully even sooner, people around here will open their freaking eyes and stop being so judgemental.”

Blaine smiled softly. “I’d like to think it could happen.”

“It will,” Sally said decisively. “And, when you get married to Mr Right, I want to be your maid of honour.”

Blaine exited his small office off his third floor English classroom rather late one Wednesday evening. He had had a particularly gruelling day of tests he had given out to three of his classes. The gruelling part wasn’t giving out the tests; it was the marking that was involved. He had worked closely with a couple of his students in his freshman class, helping as much as he could during lesson time so they could breeze through the tests whenever he gave them.

One particular student had been struggling with the work since the start of the semester and Blaine had arranged to tutor him after the school day finished on a Tuesday and Wednesday evening. The tutoring sessions were paying off and the student was doing much better in Blaine’s class.

He walked down the stairs and as he passed the senior choir room, he heard voices. He stopped to listen, memories of his own time as a Warbler flooding his mind.

The door was ajar and he peered in, spotting Kurt immediately. He wanted nothing more than to sit in on one of their rehearsals but he knew it was sometimes unnerving for the students to have a teacher present.

He settled for just watching the students he could see.

Kurt stood next to Nick and they seemed to be leading the rest of the Warblers in a clearly unrehearsed number from the smiles he could see on the students’ faces.

Kurt took Nick’s hands in his own and danced with him. Blaine smiled to himself as he saw Kurt’s tilt back and a rich laughter fill the room.

“Nicky!” a voice called out and a moment later, Jeff came into Blaine’s line of vision.

Blaine shook his head and quickly left, eager to head home and relax with a book for the evening. He knew he had tests to mark but the headache he had called for a glass of wine and a good book.

That fantasy was short-lived, however, as he had just stepped out of the shower when there was a knock on his door. He hastily fastened his towel around his waist and answered it.

“Blaine, where are your clothes?”

Blaine rolled his eyes. “Hi, Wes, do come in.”

He left the door open for Wes to enter and he headed to his bedroom to quickly dry off and get dressed. He headed back out a few minutes later and found Wes in the kitchen.

“I brought dinner,” Wes said, pulling out the boxes of Chinese he had brought with him.

“Oh, good, I’m starving,” Blaine said, pouring Wes a glass of wine as well.

“Wine on a Wednesday, Blaine?” Wes asked, eyebrows raised.

“Shush,” Blaine said. “It’s been a hard week.”

Wes snorted. “Luckily I like wine, so I will share the bottle with you.”

Blaine just grinned and they headed to the living room with the boxes of food and wine. Blaine opened a box as he listened to Wes ramble on about his own week.

He was half-way through his first box of shrimp fried rice with lemon chicken when Wes brought up the topic of Sally.

“She likes you,” Blaine said through his mouthful of food.

“Blaine, manners,” Wes admonished.

Blaine rolled his eyes and picked up his glass of wine to wash down his food. “We had dinner a couple of weeks ago. She spoke highly of your kissing skills.”

Blaine grinned as Wes’ cheeks flushed.

“Yes, well,” Wes coughed a little and turned his attention to his food. “She is a lovely woman.”

“She is,” Blaine agreed. “She’s a good cook too.”

Wes nodded. “I know,” he replied, smiling.

Blaine smiled and they chatted a little more about how Sally and Wes’ relationship had progressed. They had seen each other a few more times since the initial first date and Blaine could tell that Wes really liked her. It was sweet. Wes hadn’t had a girlfriend since his sophomore year of college. Wes had focused more on his studies and his girlfriend at the time was living in California. The distance had been too much for them to deal with, so they decided that separating was the best thing for them.

“I think Sally could be the real thing,” Wes said after they had finished eating. He sat back against the couch, glass of wine half way to his lips.

Blaine raised an eyebrow. “Really?” he asked. “It isn’t too soon to tell?”

Wes shook his head. “Not at all,” he replied. “She’s amazing, Blaine. We connect so well and everything we do together is… amazing.”

Blaine smiled, unable to help himself. Wes sounded so smitten. He was glad that Wes had found someone who could keep up with him intellectually as well as emotionally. Wes and Sally had a lot of things in common from what he had heard from their conversations and they definitely had a spark. Blaine was a little jealous but mostly he was happy for his best friend. He deserved happiness.

“I know it’s early days yet but I think I might take her to my parents’ cabin for the weekend. We could use a little alone time.”

“Wow,” Blaine started. “You’re really serious about her, aren’t you?”

Wes nodded, sipping his wine. “That and we both have room mates that seem to constantly be around.”

Blaine laughed. “It’s times like that that I’m glad I live alone. Not that I have anyone to bring home but if I ever do, I know that I’ll be alone… Room mate free… I can be as loud as I want…”

“I get it, I get it,” Wes said with a smile and a shake of his head. “I really should find an apartment for myself.”

“You should,” Blaine agreed with a nod.

“Speaking of relationships, anyone on the horizon for you?”

Blaine snorted. “I don’t think so,” he replied.

“So there’s no one in the Dalton staff who takes your fancy?”

“Definitely not,” Blaine said. “I’m the youngest male there by at least ten years. Some of the teachers are still there that we had. It’s so strange being their colleagues now.”

“Does old Mr Peters still teach History?” Wes asked.

Blaine nodded. “And the kids are as bored as we were back then.”

“Ouch,” Wes said, making a face. “Still, I think a boyfriend would be good for you, Blaine.”

Blaine gave Wes a pointed look. “I doubt that,” he replied. “I don’t need a guy to complete me, I’m fine the way I am.”

“And that’s why you were drinking wine, alone, on a Wednesday night?”

“Yeah, shut up,” Blaine said without heat and he took a sip from his glass. “I like how I am.”

“Sure, sure,” Wes said, waving Blaine off.

Blaine shook his head and affectionately poked Wes in the side as he listened as he changed the subject to talk about something else.

Blaine wondered if Wes was right. Maybe he did need a boyfriend. At the very least it would get his mind off one Kurt Hummel.