We're not meant to be alone.

 
I remember the broad outlines of this fic... but not, of course, the title or author.

This is a "modern" (non-immortal) AU. It's Joe/Nicky, but I don't think it was explicit -- maybe teen or mature rating.

Premise -- Nicky is talked into meeting a blind date at X location (pub/bar/restaurant). When he gets there, Joe is sitting alone, Nicky introduces himself and they hit it off. At the end of the meeting they finally get around to exchanging last names and Nicky is puzzled; he understood he was meeting someone named 'Keane'.

The tag happens back at Nicky's work, where the guy who set up the 'date' is chortling about how Nicky would feel when his fictitious date didn't materialize. I don't remember if they had egg on their faces when Nicky was so happy after his date, or if the reader is just left to imagine it.

I think it's fairly short -- under 8,000 words -- because I didn't send it to my iPad to read over several days. (My habit for 15+K stories.) The problem is, checking my history won't help -- I'm downloading/saving every OG fic at AO3 that looks remotely interesting. (Over 10,000 files in my OG folder; no exaggeration, I just checked folder properties.)

Does anyone recognize/know this fic? I appreciate any help you can give in locating it.

FOUND! by Tarlanx, plus another that also looks fun. Links in comments.