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Sunday morning meetings were both Blaine’s favorite and least favorite thing about working at Best Buy. On one hand, they’re at 7am on Sunday morning. He’s a college student, Sunday mornings were supposed to be sleeping, not waking up at 6. And then, you had to go in full uniform, which was no fun at all. On the other hand, it was one of the only times you’d get all 150 employees in the building at the same time, and he got to see people he only ever saw in passing. The meetings were actually a lot of fun, lots of yelling things out and prizes and sometimes there were games. And he had a feeling he was up for department MVP this month, which he’s never won.
But first, he needed to crawl out of bed.
He’s actually looking forward to this meeting especially because he’ll get to see Kurt.
The weird thing is, Kurt’s been at this store since Blaine transferred, and he’s always been friendly, but they never saw each other. Blaine’s a customer service rep, and Kurt works in the car audio department, way on the other side of the store. But for some reason lately, they’ve been getting scheduled the same shifts, whenever Blaine opens, Kurt’s there in the chalk talk, opening as well. Whenever Blaine closes, Kurt’s closing too. Their lunch breaks seem to be matching up as well, so whenever Blaine walks into The Hub with his salad from Ralph’s, Kurt’s right there.
They’d been friendly, just saying hi and bye to each other until last week. Blaine got called in on his night off to work a closing shift, closing the customer service desk by himself. Towards the end of the night, the only operations senior on duty, Rachel, of course, decided to take a long break leaving Blaine to run the Customer Service desk as well as handle cash register issues. She just gave Blaine her register password and left with Finn.
Finn Hudson, Home Theater supervisor, better known as, the Next Manager, because the GM, Will Schuester loves him. And everyone knows that Rachel and Finn are in some kind of “secret” relationship, though it’s nowhere near as secret as they think. Blaine was in the Hub when they got into a shouting match about Finn going out to lunch with Quinn Fabray, from Appliances, and Blaine has never wanted so badly to melt into a recliner. Of course, Finn’s very close with Will, and Rachel is dating Finn, so no one was surprised when within two weeks, Rachel went from inept cashier to department senior.
Which lead Blaine to doing her job for two hours while she and Finn disappeared. (According to Santana, who works in Product Process, she saw them having sex in Finn’s truck in the parking structure. Something Blaine really wishes he didn’t know). Trying to deal with returns and help Sugar at her register, because Rachel stuck Sugar at the register with the broken scanner and the loose cable on the credit card machine.
Between all of that, Tina and Artie had a difficult customer over at Geek Squad and called Blaine over to explain the return policy. Finn was supposed to be running the MOD for the night, but he was gone, leaving the insane Appliances supervisor Sue in his place.
Needless to say it ended horribly.
The customer threw a fit, threw some racial slurs at Tina, making her run into the backroom crying, called Artie some unkind names and left calling Blaine THE NAME. The name he hasn’t been called since he left Ohio. Kurt just so happened to be walking up as it happened.
He was the one who listened to Blaine rant and rave about Rachel not doing her job and Finn leaving Sue of all people in charge so they could go do God knows what. Kurt sat there for ten minutes and listened to Blaine swear that when Rachel came back he was clocking out and going home and never coming back. And that he is not paid enough to be called names like that when all he was doing was his job.
When he was finished ranting, Kurt hugged him, and told him he understood. That everyday coming to work, he fears that someone will call him that name. That everyday, he loses a little bit of dignity and pride when he puts on that uniform that makes people think they can say whatever they want to him. That guys actually refuse help from him because they think there’s no way he could help them choose a car stereo, let alone install it.
They talked off and on for the rest of the night. When Kurt came in at closing to get his go backs, he told Blaine that they should get lunch sometime and talk some more, and Blaine had been happy.
But for the entire week since then, he’d been too nervous to take Kurt up on his offer for lunch. Whenever they have their break at the same time, The Hub is full of people, they sit next to each other at the table, and exchange glances and smiles, but they never actually speak.
Puck works in the car install bay, and has been encouraging him to get Kurt’s number and “tap that”. That Kurt’s quiet and rarely goes to store parties or functions, but he’s Finn’s stepbrother and actually got Finn the job, and that Schuester refuses to promote Kurt or transfer him to another department despite the fact that he’s a wiz with appliances and personal shopping.
There’s a lot of gossip at Best Buy, which is another reason Blaine’s been reluctant to make a move.
Everyone knows what everyone else is doing and with whom. He knows that Santana regularly hooks up with Brittany from Media.
Puck’s hooked with Quinn and is now seeing Lauren from Merch. Sam from Gaming used to date Quinn, but is now dating Mercedes. Tina likes Mike, who’s in DI, but used to date Artie who now dates Sugar. And apparently, even though he’s only been at the store for a few weeks, the kid with dreads from LP has also hooked up with Quinn. And even though he’s the GM and married, Schuester apparently hooks up with Blaine’s boss Emma. And Blaine doesn’t know how to feel about that, because he really likes Emma.
Blaine is going to need a power point presentation or a flow chart to keep track of all the hookups.
But he can’t help be smile at the fact that Kurt’s name is not mentioned anywhere. It’s not like he and Kurt are the only gay guys in the store. There’s Chandler in Media, and Sebastian Appliances.
So yeah, Blaine’s looking forward to this meeting. He has a plan. He’s going to hang out in his car, pretending to be reading or listening the radio, until he sees Kurt’s car pull up. Blaine’s going to make sure he makes the elevator at the same time as Kurt so he can strike up a conversation. He’s then going to ask Kurt is he wants to sit with him before they break out into their departments. If it all goes according to plan, (and Kurt doesn’t have to work the shift immediately after the meeting) Blaine is going to ask Kurt to get breakfast with him after the meeting.
Which is why Blaine is sitting in his car, listening to Journey waiting for the tell tale sign of Kurt’s Escalade to pull into the structure. Most mornings when Kurt pulls in, you can hear Lady Gaga or Beyonce blasting from his stereo. He always parks in the back of the structure in a corner away from everyone so his car does not get scratched.
Just as “Don’t Stop Believing” starts to play, Blaine is startled by a tap on his window. When he looks up, he sees Sugar, Tina and Mercedes waving at him, Sugar is holding out a cookie and gesturing for him to roll down his window, instead, he turns of the car and gets out.
“Blainey!” Sugar pulls him into a hug.
“I think she’s still drunk from last night. Speaking of which, Blaine Anderson, where were you? Why weren’t you at Puck’s kickback?” Tina puts her hand on her hip, clearly waiting for an explanation.
“Because, unlike the rest of you, I enjoy sleep and didn’t want to stumble into the meeting still drunk and unable to function.”
“And it has nothing to do with avoiding Sebastian after the last party?” Mercedes raises an eyebrow at Blaine.
“Well, someone needs to tell him to back off. We kissed one time, and it was a dare. I’m not interested.”
Blaine goes reaches into his Volvo and grabs his coffee. Just as he’s shutting the door, Kurt pulls into the structure, “We Found Love” by Rhianna blaring from the speakers. Blaine watches as he pulls into his usual spot and starts speed walking to the elevator.
“Why are you suddenly in such a rush, the meeting doesn’t start for 20 more minutes, I thought we’d hang out down here and I can tell you about last night. Or more importantly, how this is me doing the walk of shame. You haven’t even noticed that I’m still in last night’s makeup.” Blaine stops and looks at Tina as Sugar and Mercedes laugh.
“Who was it Tina? Was it Mike?”
“Let’s just say that the rumor about Asian guys? Not true. That boy knows how to use his hips and I’m working really hard to hide my limp because my legs are hardly working this morning.”
Sugar laughs, and Mercedes smacks Tina in the arm, while Blaine just stares at her. While Blaine gapes at Tina, he doesn’t notice Kurt, Rachel and Finn walk past them towards the elevator. Blaine rushes off to follow them. Kurt sees Blaine and tries to hold the elevator, but Finn presses the button one more time and the door closes before Blaine can reach it.
“Okay, boo, what was that? Did Finn Hudson really just close the elevator in your face?” Mercedes puts an arm around Blaine’s waist.
“He’s been such a dick to you lately, what’s his deal?” Tina asks, pulling out a compact and trying to cover the marks littering her neck.
“The deal is that Curly McDreamy over here witnessed a shouting match between The jolly green giant and the little hobbit that could. And for some reason, he thinks Blainers here is the reason the whole store knows about him and Rachel bumping the ugliest of uglies, when really they just suck at keeping it a secret.” Santana walks up, still in last night’s clothes, uniform and tennis shoes hanging from one hand, Brittany holding the other.
“They made out in Kurt’s lap at the party last night.” Brittany mumbles before taking a sip of her Red Bull.
“Kurt went to the party?”
“Yeah, but he didn’t really talk to anyone other than Rachel, Finn and Puck.”
“No, not true, Santana remember he danced with Chandler for a bit, they seemed to be having a good time, they even went out on the balcony for a while. Maybe they hooked up, I don’t know,” Tina interrupts.
Blaine’s stomach dropped at the idea of Chandler hooking up with Kurt. Before he could react the elevator door opened. Blaine was trying not to feel nervous as he pressed the button, his plan so far hadn’t worked and what would be the point anyway, if Chandler asked Kurt out first.
When they get off the elevator, they find a group of kids standing around in white polos looking unsure and nervous.
“Joy, fresh meat,” Santana rolls her eyes as she walks past them. They all follow Santana in and Blaine looks around hoping to see Kurt. When he finally spots him, he finds him leaning against the customer service desk arguing with Rachel.
“Missed you last night, Killer. Where were you?” Blaine closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before putting on a smile and turning towards Sebastian.
“I had some studying to do, and I didn’t want to be too tired for the meeting today. Did you have a good time last night?”
“Not as good as I could have if you’d been there. What are you doing after the meeting?”
“Probably more studying. A lot more studying.”
“Well, if you ever decide to take a break, you have my number.”
“Yep, I do. I’m gonna go check in with my department, I’ll talk to you later, Sebastian.”
Blaine starts to walk towards the front lanes, and turns back to see Kurt walking away from Rachel, Blaine starts to follow him when Puck grabs his arm.
“Dude, where were you last night?”
“Sleeping. I gotta go.”
“You still haven’t said anything to him yet?”
“No! I had everything planned out, but I keep getting interrupted.”
“That’s why you should have been at my place last night, dude. I told him you were coming! He asked about you like three times, before he ended up outside with what’s his name. You flaked on him.”
“How could I flake on him when I didn’t know he was expecting me, Puck? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You’ve gone to everyone of my kickbacks since you transferred here, like i knew you’d suddenly turn into sleeping beauty. And it was a good one, everyone was hooking up with everyone.”
Blaine rubs the back of his neck in frustration, “Fuck. Do you think he hooked up with Chandler?”
“Hell no. He just likes talking to him because the kid’s crush on him is obvious. He’s always texting Kurt these lame pickup lines, he shows them to us back in the install bay. But he’d never hook up with him, even if Rachel keeps telling him he should.”
“She does? Why?”
“Fuck if I know. But look, he’s outside talking to Quinn, go out there.”
“I don’t know, Quinn kind of scares me. Everyone in Appliances scares me.”
“Dude, would you sack up, it’s either talk to Kurt, or deal with Sebastian.”
“I’ll talk to Kurt.”
Puck pats Blaine on the back encouragingly and Blaine heads for the door, but just as he reaches it, Will Schuester stops him.
“Blaine, where are you going?”
“I was just going to step outside for a minute.”
“Well, there’s not time now, the meeting is about to start. And what did I say about your uniform. I’ll let it slide because it’s just a store meeting, but you have to start wearing socks Blaine,or it’s a write up.”
Blaine sighs dejectedly before heading over to customer service to clock in.
When everyone comes inside, Blaine stands around stalling, hoping to find a seat near Kurt. He thinks he sees Kurt walking in his direction, but Rachel grabs him and drags him away, so Blaine goes and sits on the floor next to Sugar, who lifts his arm and wraps it around her shoulder. Blaine laughs and pulls her close and wraps his other arm around Mercedes, who’s sitting on his other side. He really does like the girls in his department.
*****************
Even though he stayed home, Blaine could not focus. He zoned out during the ice breaker, he couldn’t focus on the training video they watched, he just watched Kurt, across the room, lying on the floor with his head in Brittany’s lap and his legs draped across Sam. He was instantly jealous of Brittany’s position, running her fingers through Kurt’s hair as they laughed at was probably Sam impersonating Schuester. Blaine was so focused on watching Kurt that he didn’t even notice that it was time for the department breakouts, which meant he’d be headed to the front lane registers and Kurt would be headed for the back of the store where the car install bay was.
“Boy, you have it bad.” Mercedes grabs his hand and pulls him up.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re crush on Kurt that can be seen from space. Are you just going to watch him everyday, or are you going to ask him out?”
“We don’t know each other very well.”
“Get to know him. Sam’s one of his roommates, I can have him put in a good word.”
“I’ll let you know.” Blaine jumps up to sit on the counter of one of the registers while Emma passes out the department pamphlets
***********************
Thirty minutes later, after explaining the difference between a PRP and a PSP for the fiftieth time and learning that they finally canceled the magazine subscriptions, but replaced it with a new Reward Zone Mastercard, Blaine was ready to go home. The whole morning was a bust. He hadn’t been able to speak to Kurt and he was tired and cranky. The only thing he was looking forward to now was the MVP awards, if he lost that, he’d probably run out of the building screaming.
********************
Will called everyone back from their departments, Blaine tried to hide his excitement. He didn’t really know why he was so excited for MVP, maybe for the prizes, they always got really cool stuff. Maybe just because he likes knowing he’s doing a good job and that his hard work is appreciated, but he was excited. So excited that he didn't’ even notice when Kurt sat down next to him and smiled.
“Where have you been hiding, I haven’t seen you all morning.” Kurt smiled at Blaine, bumping his shoulder playfully.
“Really? Because I’ve been around. I should ask you the same thing.”
“I’ve been around. You didn’t go to Puck’s last night?”
“No. I usually go, but I knew we had this meeting and I wanted to get to bed early.”
“How responsible of you. I should have followed your lead. Let me know next time.”
“I’ll do that.” Blaine smiles, shyly at Kurt and then looks up at Finn and Will as they stand in front of the store.
“Before we get to the Department MVP’s, I’d like to introduce some of our new associates, kid’s come up here.”
The kids in the white shirts join Finn and Will up at the front of the store, looking around nervous.
“Alright guys, introduce yourselves, tell everyone what department you’re in and something about yourselves, okay?”
The first girl starts to speak, looking down at the floor, “Um, I’m Marley, and I’m going to be in the front lanes?”
Kurt leans over to whisper to Blaine, “This place is going to eat that girl alive.” Blaine smiles, but claps for the new member of his department.
The next girl starts to speak, but before she can say anything, Brittany calls out, “Mercedes, I didn’t know you had a twin!”
“I don’t!” Mercedes calls back, but waves and winks at the girl up front anyway.
“I’m Unique, and I’ll be in the front lanes too.” Mercedes reaches out and pulls Unique to join her on the floor.
The next guy talks, but Blaine doesn’t hear what he says, because Kurt is whispering to him, “Okay, even Justin Beiber gave up that haircut, someone needs to live in present.”
The next girl speaks, nose in the air, “I’m Kitty and I’m in Appliances.”
“$5 says she’s pure evil,” Blaine whispers to Kurt, who has to put a hand over his mouth to muffle his laugh.
“Think about it Kurt, look who’s in appliances, Quinn, who scares me, Sebastian, who is creepy, and Sue Sylvester is their supervisor, something is wrong with that department. No way this girl isn’t evil.”
“Quinn’s not so bad once you get to know her.”
“Rumor has it, that she’s the one who put Rachel’s phone number on the wall in the restroom. The Men’s Restroom.”
“Okay, that is true.”
“See, told you. That department is evil.”
They spend the rest of the new hire introductions just like that, making sarcastic comments back and forth to each other. It’s the most fun Blaine’s had at a store meeting in a while and he’s so relaxed that he doesn’t even realize the MVP awards had started. He looked up and saw Artie, already sitting next to Will, holding his Best Buy duffle bag.
“And next, the MVP for Car-fi, Finn, would you please?”
“Sure, since the Car-Fi supervisor is out. This person has been so patient and helpful, often covering both the sales and installation parts of the department. He’s always willing to help out in other departments as well, the MVP for Car-Fi is Kurt Hummel.”
Everyone applauds as Kurt joins Artie in the front of the store, Will shakes his hand and hands him his duffle bag.
“Shannon, do you want to give out the award for Media, Gaming, Merch, Product Process and LP?”
Blaine watches as Kurt goes through his bag, pointing things out to Artie and laughing as Sam, Brittany, Lauren and Joe are all awarded for their work in their departments.
“Okay, Emma, will you do the honor for Operations?” Emma blushes and stands next to Will.
“Well, this person that I’m awarding today is one of the hardest working guys in the store. No matter what we ask of him, he does it with a smile on his face. He’s so reliable and he’s currently number one in replacement plan and credit card signups, Blaine Anderson.”
Blaine gets up and joins them in the front, Mercedes, Sugar and Tina cheer for him. He gets his duffle bag from Will, who shakes his hand and tries to not to be offended when Finn hardly looks his way.
He looks inside the bag to find a deflated work out ball, some weights and one of those dancing video games.
Last period’s MVPs got $100 gift cards.
***************************
When the meeting is over, Blaine’s standing around customer service with Sugar, Mercedes, Unique and Marley when Kurt approaches them. Blaine excuses himself and tries to ignore the looks he’s getting from Mercedes and Sugar.
“Hey.” sits his duffle bag down on the floor in front of him
“Pretty anti-climatic, huh? I was really hoping for a gift card, I’ve been eyeing that Gilmore Girls box set and I don’t want to spend my money on it.”
“What, you don’t need a workout ball and Just Dance?”
“You know, I really don’t. I wonder who I can regift it to?”
They smile at each other.
“So, Blaine, MVP, how do you plan to celebrate this momentous occasion?”
“Well, obviously by going home, blowing up my new workout ball and doing some crunches. Then maybe I’ll dance to ‘Call Me Maybe’.”
“Well, that’s too bad.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“Well, I was hoping you’d go to breakfast with me, and if you don’t have to work later today, maybe we could see a movie or something?”
“Oh, well in that case, my abs can wait. I’d love to.”