Two weeks' notice wasn't strictly necessary, but Kurt gave it anyway. Burning bridges wasn't exactly his style, and he didn't want to completely blow his chances of getting a job back there if he ever needed it. Besides, it wasn't like it had been abadjob. His boss had been perfectly kind and understanding with anything and everything Kurt had ever brought to his attention, and his coworkers bland yet inoffensive, so he didn't want to throw his resignation in their face and walk out the door all at once. He'd been mentally checked out long before then, it was just a matter of formality.

The time went by quicker than Kurt had expected. Having something waiting at the end of it, he'd expected the days to drag on and feel like they would never end. But they didn't, and before he knew it he'd cleared off the walls of his cubicle and packed up the few assorted personal belongings that were left there, turning off his computer for the last time before leaving the building for good. The exit interview had been brief, and he'd been logged in just long enough to see the security awareness email go out to the entire company, letting them know that he was no longer employed there, and then he was gone.

His last day had only been half of one – a Friday morning spent mostly not working but rather going through all the motions of finishing what was necessary. He hadn't wanted to be there the whole day when there was no point, and besides, Blaine had decided there should be a celebration of sorts that evening. It was partially for Kurt, leaving the corporate world and giving in to the creative one whole heartedly, but also about the gallery. It wasn't just a celebration, it was planning. It was time for them all to get together and collaborate on what they wanted to do for the grand opening. So Kurt left midday and went to his apartment to drop off his things and get changed into something other than office attire before heading out again.

The ride to Brooklyn didn't feel any different, though Kurt had imagined it would. There was no overarching weight of 'real life' or reality trying to pull him away from feeling free and relaxed, because that was all he had from that point forward. He had freedom –thatwas his real life and reality. He could do what he wanted when he wanted, which was still so absurd to think about, and he knew it would take time to get used to but he couldn't shake how overwhelmingly happy it made him to think about.

"Kurt!" He'd barely made it through the door before he heard his name being called from down the corridor, and he glanced up to see Blaine wandering down it toward him. "How was the last day?"

"As good as it could have been," Kurt replied, smiling as he slipped his keys into his bag, splitting the distance with Blaine and meeting him toward the middle. "It feltreally goodto leave and know I'm not going back."

"I can imagine." Blaine smiled brightly, and he glanced over his shoulder briefly before looking back to Kurt. "We were going to get pizza, is that alright with you? We didn't order yet or anything, so toppings are still up for debate."

"Sounds perfect." Kurt followed Blaine back through the building to where everyone else was already, sitting on the floor in a large open space and laughing at something that had been said. Brittany was most likely the culprit, sprawled on her stomach with her feet kicked up in the air behind her as she giggled, only breaking off when she looked over and saw Kurt taking his bag off his shoulder and setting it down.

"Kurt, yay! You're here!" She propped herself up on her forearms and smiled over at him before her expression turned serious – well, as serious as it could. "You don't like anchovies, do you?"

"No, I don't," Kurt answered, moving to sit on one of the blankets on the floor, his legs folding in front of him.

"Good, it's settled. No anchovies. Fish don't belong on pizzas, just in tacos!"

There wasn't too much discussion further about the food, considering that they were going to get multiple pizzas anyway so everyone could pretty much get whatever they wanted regardless. Brittany had been concerned about the anchovies because of how horrible they smelled more so than someone actually liking them on pizza. Drinks were gathered from the refrigerator off in the corner – beer for everyone even though Santana threatened tequila shots. Blaine was quick to shut that down, at least until serious discussions were out of the way so they would all remember what was going on.

"Alright, so while we're waiting for the pizza," Blaine started, after calling and ordering, "We should get the gallery talk out of the way."

"What do we need to talk about?" Quinn asked, tilting her head and taking a sip of her beer. "I mean, I know therearethings to talk about but I just didn't know where you were starting."

"For me, the most important thing is determining what we want to have for the opening," Blaine continued, nodding in her direction. "Obviously we're all used to doing our own thing and being fairly removed from the public eye... but this is different and opens us up a little more. I was thinking we could all work together – not all at once, that would be crazy – to showcase our differing mediums and projects through collaboration."

"Oh, like you were talking to me and I said I could dance with people," Brittany piped up, tapping her fingers against the bottle in her hand. "I liked that idea."

"Exactly, like that," Blaine replied with a soft smile, and Kurt thought that he looked proud. "Did you want to maybe explain that to everyone else?"

"Sure!" Brittany pushed up from the floor and sat back on her knees, setting her beer in front of her and folding her hands in her lap. "It's just like what I do always, but with someone else! So I was thinking, um, different colored paint obviously but I could teach everybody a different type of dance to do with me and then we would do that. It sounds kind of... simple, but I thought it would be something cool..."

"It is," Santana interrupted, leaning over and nudging Brittany's shoulder lightly. For as confident and pleased with the idea as she'd sounded at the beginning, Brittany had faded slightly throughout her explanation. Maybe it was the difference between excitedly discussing something with Blaine and then trying to present it to a group of people. It was intimidating, Kurt thought, no matter how well a person knew the people involved. Santana had clearly picked up on it too. "We've done it before just for fun and I thought it was great."

"So that's a great example of what I was talking about." Blaine's eyes flitted around the entire little circle they'd formed, and then seemed to sparkle a little extra when they met Kurt's. "This gallery is kind of... well, almost like a coming out party. We've kept our names out of it all until now and I don't think that's going to change when it comes to the magazine or anything like that, but with the gallery it seems like we should actually put ourselves out there. We've already proven our merit so this is just the next step.

"I figure it would be nice to have these projects that we work on with each other to kind of... introduce ourselves without actually having to do just that," he went on, idly tracing around the label on the bottle in his hands. "Then other than that, we can look and see what else we want and how it will work together. We have a couple months before opening, so there's time to talk and figure it all out. I know I'm really excited about it all and I hope you are too."

There wasn't much more discussion before the pizza came, at least not with the whole group gathered there together. Side conversation murmured around him, and Kurt picked up little pieces here and there. Sam reassuring Brittany that he thought her idea was good and that he was looking forward to it – "and I call dibs on red paint, so don't let anybody else take it!" – mixed in with Quinn talking with Santana and using the condensation off her beer to trace something out on the floor. Kurt quietly mulled over ideas in his head, sorting through possibilities. The doorbell interrupted it all and Blaine hopped up to answer it, coming back with pizza boxes to set on the table.

It was hot andso goodand when Blaine asked if it tasted like freedom, Kurt couldn't do much other than nod. It wasn't just the pizza itself, though it really was delicious and even better than the pizza place that Kurt loved near his apartment, but he thought maybe it tasted better considering he was surrounded by friends and people that were just enjoying themselves. It wasn't like he'd eaten with others that often and even rarer in a group of more than two or three, but these were people that he'd grown to know over the months and it was comfortable. Pizza tasted better when it was being shared by friends, he was sure that was part of it. That and the fact that it was the first thing he'd eaten since freeing himself entirely of his job.

"So what areyougoing to do?" he asked Blaine, leaning over and nudging their shoulders together lightly. Blaine raised an eyebrow but then smiled, finishing the bite he'd been chewing and swallowing it down.

"I had a thought," Blaine replied, his head tilting to the side and his gaze moving around to everyone before settling on Kurt again. "It'll only work if everyone agrees to it, though I'm not exactly expecting resistance..."

There was a long pause and Kurt took the opportunity to finish off the piece of pizza he'd been working on before speaking up again. "And what was this thought? Go on..."

"Portraits of everyone. Simple, but stark and clean," Blaine continued. "I just have this vision in my head, and I feel like they could be really powerful. There are a few details to iron out but I think I know what I want to do."

"I can't wait."

"You'll let me take your picture?" Blaine asked, a soft teasing lilt to his voice and his smile reaching up to his eyes.

"Blaine, I'm pretty sure if there was only one person ever who I would let take my picture, that would be you," Kurt replied, his gaze dropping down to his nearly empty beer bottle before he finished it off and looked back to Blaine. He could feel that his face was flushed – he had hoped the chill of his drink would help and it hadn't – but he was glad to see that there was a bit of pinkness on the apples of Blaine's cheeks as well.

"I can't wait," Blaine said softly, repeating Kurt's words from just moments prior and looking like he was going to say something more when Santana stood up and cleared her throat loudly to get their attention.

"Excuse me, but I believe there's more than one reason we're here," she started, giving a pointed look toward Kurt and waving around the tequila bottle in her hand. "All the serious talk is done, right, Blaine?"

"Um yes," Blaine replied, setting down his plate. "I mean, everyone already knows so—"

"Hummel's done being ridiculous and has finally seen the light to come and join our happy little commune," Santana continued, slightly louder than was necessary. "So that's even more reason for celebration andthat means tequila!"

"That's really not necessary," Kurt spoke up, eyes widening slightly. It wasn't that he didn't like tequila, because he did, there was just a glint in Santana's eyes that he didn't trust. "Really, it's not—"

"We arecelebrating. Totally necessary." Santana gave him a look that she clearly believed ended any discussion about the topic. "Brittany, bring those limes over!"

It was somewhere between the second and third shot that Kurt found himself leaning back on his hands, lazily gazing around at the people gathered there and thinking about how he'd ended up there with them. If anyone had told him months before that was where he was going to be – sitting around with a bunch of people he'd never met until someone on his computer told him to go somewhere, eating pizza, drinking tequila, planning artwork to be put up in a gallery – there was no way he ever would have believed it. He thought it was a lot of luck, but Blaine was always quick to point out that it was hard work – if Kurt hadn't put in the work previously and been talented, it wouldn't have mattered how much luck he had.

And fate, Blaine would add.Also fate.

"Seriously," Santana said as she poured more liquor into his shot glass. "I'm glad you finally dropped that job."

"Thanks, Santana," Kurt replied, a soft smile pulling at the corners of his mouth as she clinked their glasses together and downed her shot.

"I'm glad too," Blaine added from his other side, bumping shoulders with him. "But you already knew that."

Blaine raised his own shot in a toast before downing it. Kurt followed suit, skipping the salt but not the lime, his nose scrunching at the tartness of it before he discarded the rind. He felt warm and a more than a little tingly all over, and he felt like it was mostly to blame on the alcohol but not entirely. It was also Blaine and the way he smiled when he looked over at him, like he had some sort of secret behind those dark honey colored eyes of his that he refused to tell. There was still that annoying yet wonderful swooping feeling in Kurt's stomach any time their hands touched, and he blamed that too.

"So when was the last time you didn't have to set an alarm for Monday morning?" Blaine asked, smiling over at Kurt before starting to gather up all the plates still scattered on the floor between everyone.

"I can't even remember," Kurt replied honestly, watching him a moment before gathering the empty bottles within his reach. Blaine got to his feet first, offering him a hand to help him up which Kurt gladly took. "I'll probably still wake up at the same time even if I don't..."

"But with the bonus of being able to roll over and go back to sleep," Blaine pointed out, tossing the plates into the trash can and offering him a smile. "That's the best part, I think. I mean, I always wake up early but knowing that most days I can just bury myself under the blankets and ignore the morning for a little while longer... it's one of the best feelings."

Quinn was the first to leave, despite having been locked in conversation with Brittany and Santana for a long time. She gave them both hugs before wandering over to where Kurt was rinsing out the beer bottles in the sink, despite Blaine insisting that it could wait and he could do it later. It gave him something to do and made him feel helpful, but he quickly dried his hands when Quinn came over and slipped her arms around his waist in a slightly cuddly hug.

"I've got to get home," she said, tilting her head on his shoulder to look up at him. Her cheeks were rosy and Kurt figured she was at least tipsy considering he couldn't think of any time that Quinn had touched him past trying to get his attention a time or two, yet there she was, but her smile was soft and sincere. "But I'm really glad you're here, Kurt."

"Thanks, Quinn," he replied, returning her hug before she slid over to say goodbye to Blaine.

"I'll get her home," Sam said as he came over, patting Kurt on the shoulder and nodding over toward Blaine. Kurt assumed his comment was meant more for Blaine than him, but he appreciated knowing she'd get home safe all the same. "She's on my way."

They had barely left before Brittany grabbed onto Kurt's hand and swung it between them. "We're going up to the roof, want to come?"

"The roof?"

"Yeah, it's upstairs," Brittany replied, staring at him. Kurt blinked, caught between wanting to reply but not knowing what to say. "It's my favorite place."

"Sure..." It wasn't that Kurt was opposed, he'd just never considered much beyond the first floor because he'd never gone there. There were three floors, but he'd never had reason to go exploring – everything he'd been interested in was right there when he came in.

"Are there still chairs up there, Blaine?" Brittany asked, glancing over at Blaine as he came back from walking out Sam and Quinn. "On the roof?"

"No, they got taken off not too long ago," Blaine replied, shaking his head. "We could take the blankets up, though, if you wanted to sit."

They gathered up the blankets they'd been sitting on there in the room before traipsing up the stairs. Other than the stairway, the second floor was dark. Blaine mentioned that it had his dark room but was mostly storage other than that, and the third floor was the same minus the dark room aspect. The building wasn't huge, but there was room for growth and for keeping what wasn't on display somewhere and that people didn't have room for or want where they lived.

The roof itself was bare, lit faintly by the glow of streetlights below just enough that Kurt didn't feel like he was going to trip over anything. Brittany wrapped her blanket around herself and wandered to the edge, carefully sitting and letting her feet dangle, and Santana wasn't far behind. Blaine checked to make sure the door wouldn't lock behind them, though he reassured Kurt that he had his keys with him, and ventured out onto the middle of it with him, stopping to spread out his blanket and lay down on it.

"You can sit," Blaine said, looking up at Kurt and smiling softly when he did. It wasn't the most comfortable place Kurt had ever sat, but the view made up for it entirely.

There were strings of lights overhead, he could see, the bulbs reflecting some of the ambient light around. It wasn't quiet, nowhere in the city ever was, but it seemed peaceful despite the noise around them. There was chatter from nearby apartments, other people taking advantage of the decent weather, cars driving by, music playing faintly from somewhere up the street – but it was all in the background. Kurt could never see the stars when he was in Manhattan, the lights of the city far too bright to let them be visible, but there on that rooftop he could.

"I still can't believe it," Kurt murmured, leaning back on his hands and looking up at the sky. Staring up like that made him feel small, which wasn't a new feeling because he'd felt that way a lot since moving to New York. It was difficult not to, with so many people crammed into one city. Everyone went there to try and make it, and when there was a sea of humanity all striving for success it was easy to get buried beneath it all. "Any of it."

"I have trouble with that sometimes." Blaine voice was soft next to him, floating up through the dark of the night and coming through the soft giggles echoing from the edge of the roof. "I think back to what I was doing before, try to figure out where I would be now if I hadn't gotten that phone call, but I can't even imagine becausethisis what I'm meant to be doing. Iknowit is. Even still, there are days I can't believe it – that I got so lucky."

"Fate," Kurt added softly, not wanting to let Blaine off with giving all the credit to luck when Blaine always corrected him in turn. He glanced down to find Blaine looking up at him, a serene smile pulling up at the corners of his mouth. "Don't forget fate."

"Never."