This dream was becoming tedious for Kurt. How was he going to recognize the all-important realization he needed to find, if he had to sift through everyday things. Kurt had hoped this dream would skip meaningless things like P.E. or the annoying taunts and harassment he went through daily back then.

Kurt really missed New York and the life he had there. Yes, he was heartbroken there but there was no hateful attention for him in NYC. If people didn't like you they mainly just ignore you, it was actually really nice.  Here they wanted to make sure you felt their disapproval and he had the bruises to prove it.  Kurt wanted a little bit of his real life back.

He had tried to talk to Rachel but she just yelled "Spy" at him. Rachel's dramatics boarded on Tourette's Syndrome. She wouldn't even talk to him. He had known they weren't close back then but he was sure they could have at least had lunch together.

"That girl needs to lighten up." Mercedes said as she came to stand next to Kurt. Seeing Kurt was upset she added "Don't sweat her, Kurt. Let's go get lunch."

Kurt and Mercedes went to sit with Tina who was already sitting with Mike and some of the guys from glee club.  

 Kurt tried to listen to what everyone was talking about but he was too caught up in his own thoughts to do it well. Kurt couldn't understand why he dreaming this? So much of this dream was filled with things he had already come to terms with.

He was still present enough to heard Sam say "Ask him." and see Mike nodding. Kurt figured his song choices earlier had won those two over. Sam was excited to be asked to do a Vincent Price impression. Mike enjoyed being able to perform elaborate dance moves for him while Finn's stiff rhythm less moves would still make perfect sense. Kurt never did understand how a drummer had so much trouble moving to a beat. Really wasn't that a drummers whole job?

"Hey Kurt, do you want to come over tonight? We're all going to play Call of Duty: Black Ops." Finn asked.

"No, I won't be able to join you. I need to practice some new Cheerios routines."

"Your loss, Bro." Puck told Kurt "but what would make tonight better is if Finn's TV didn't suck."

 Kurt could see this was a perfect way to show his dad that he and Finn were able to get along. "You know Finn we are practically brothers now, and I have the better TV. Why don't you guys use my house?"

"Dude, that would be awesome." Finn said.

"Good, but don't call me dude." Kurt told Finn.

"Yeah, but we wanted to play until midnight. I don't think your dad is well enough for us to keep him up that late." Artie pointed out.

"If my dad stays at Carol's tonight then it won't matter when you guys leave." Kurt took out his phone to call his dad. "Finn you need to text your mom."

By the end of lunch Kurt and Finn had texted and call their parents so many times they may have agreed just for the peace and quiet it would bring.

"Kurt, is it okay that one of the guys that's coming over tonight you haven't met yet?" Mike asked as they were leaving the lunch room.

"Yeah, because I expect you and Finn to keep everyone under control whether I've met them before or not."

When Kurt got home that night he helped his dad pack a couple of overnight bags. "You know I only need one bag. Don't you think this is excessive?" Burt told him.

"You can't be excessively prepared." Kurt told his Dad sensibly.

Burt started searching the bags. "What if I need something and it turns out to be in the last place I look?" Kurt could tell he was looking for his toothbrush so he pointed out where it was.

"Whatever you're looking for is going to be in the last place you look because you don't keep looking once you've found it. Speaking of Carol," Kurt smiled shrewdly at Burt. "I wanted to make sure you'd eaten before she gets here."

Burt snickered, weakly drawing Kurt into a one armed hug. "Most people can't turn a conversation about a toothbrush into one about love." Kurt smiled but he hated seeing his dad so ill.

 While Kurt was clearing the dinner dishes Finn and Carol showed up. Finn put Burt's bags in the car promising the whole time that he would keep everything under control tonight. It was almost six fifteen when the there was a knock at the door "Pizza is here!" Finn yelled to everyone even though he was the only one who cared.

When Finn left the room Carol asked Kurt to try to keep an eye on Finn and the other boys. Then she left the room to give Burt and Kurt a minute to say goodbye.

Kurt straightened his father's jacket. He tried his best to envision his father the way he was in real life: healthy and strong again because it was heartbreaking to see him this frail. "Are you sure about this Kiddo?" Kurt could tell his dad was nervous about leaving him after this morning's incident. "I'm just saying yesterday you thought eating solid food was too much for me." Burt knew Kurt would put someone he loves interests before his own and wanted to make sure this was about Kurt and no one else. "Today you're okay with me leaving the house for the night. Then to top it all off you're okay with Finn and his friends playing video games here until midnight."

Kurt didn't want his dad to worry about him. Fact was if he could handle walking alone in Bushwick after dark, he could handle being home alone with boys that at their most ‘bad ass' might take cold medicine or play a video game before the midnight release date. "First off of course I'm sure. I trust Carol with my life. In fact I trust her with something far more important to me..."

"Your clothes" Seeing his father joking around made Kurt confident this was the right plan.

"No, and thank you for ruining the moment, funny man. I was going to say you. Secondly, you need to be in a low stress environment; being stuck at home with me smothering you with my good intentions isn't lowering your anxiety level." Even if this was all a dream Kurt still wanted what was best for the people he loved. "So I am granting you a reprieve for tonight. Besides Finn volunteered to host some boys' night and Coach Sylvester informed me that I was joining the Cheerios today and I need to learn the routines. So if Finn and I take over one house, you can get some rest at the other."

"Okay I'm trusting you on this one, Kurt but everyone is out of here by midnight got it?"

"Yeah, Dad" Kurt assured Burt. Kurt walked Burt and Carol out to the garage. "Call if you need anything, Kurt. I don't care if it's that you just want to talk. Just because I'm not here, doesn't mean I'm not here for you. Got it?" Burt told him as Carol nodded in agreement.

When Kurt went back in he could hear Finn talking to someone and Kurt didn't want to bother them so he just went down to his room.

He needed to move a few things back so there would be enough room to do scaled back versions of the routines. He had just finished when Santana and Brittany came down.

"Wow, this is nicer than I thought it would be. It's not all Judy Garland posters or gay nightclub."

"A nightclub would be great." Brittany told them.

"How many routines do I need to learn?" Kurt asked not bothering to decipher if Santana wanted to compliment or insult him.

 "Six, so this is probably going to be an all-nighter if you're still in shape from last year. Otherwise you've completely ruined my plans for at least a week."

"Then we better get started." Kurt said flatly.

Santana and Brittany started to run through a very difficult routine half way through Quinn showed up.

"You think you got it?" Quinn asked smugly. Only Brittany seemed okay with being there.  

Kurt couldn't help the huge smile on his face when they finished because he knew that routine. It turned out that he knew most of these routines either from Sue taking over Booty Boot camp or from Brittany helping with choreography.

The hardest one was the one that Sue first taught them. She wouldn't let them leave until they knew it. He had to email Mr. Schue about the way she'd been treating them after watching Finn spend 10 sisyphean hours trying to get it.

After the girls left he took a hot shower. He used the body wash that he bought last year when he first was a Cheerio. It was meant to lessen muscle pain, but he ended up using it for the pain from being slammed into lockers, that is until Blaine mentioned in passing that he liked it. Kurt hated that even in a dream he still couldn't escape the thought of Blaine but at least that was consistent with the real world.

After his shower Kurt looked through his clothes for the most comfortable thing to wear because no matter how well you know the routines four straight hours of high impact physical strain was likely to make you hurt the next day.  Kurt put on a comfy long sleeve henley shirt and some dancer leggings that he hoped would help him avoid some of soreness tomorrow.

He went up to verify if Finn and the guys were under control and have a small snack before bed. 

Kurt was singing while making his snack. Kurt started to dance a little but he was worried that his legs would hurt the next day so he mainly just kept to hip movements.

 Finn suddenly gave a loud angry yell of "Dude, what are you doing?"

Kurt didn't look, if this was Finn's old homophobic ways he was just going to have to get over it. Kurt wasn't about to let it get to him not when he knew that Finn would understand soon enough. More importantly this wasn't even really Finn. "Finn, I've asked you not to call me Dude."

"I wasn't talking to you, Kurt. I was talking to him."  At that Kurt turned to see an angry Finn hovering over a small, shy and guilty looking Blaine.

‘Why was Blaine even here?' Kurt thought. He didn't want to have to deal with him. He should have been able to avoid this by not going to Dalton. Kurt got his annoyance under control he wasn't going to wake up if he let his resentment get the better of him all it was going to do was make him irrational and want to hurt Blaine emotionally in ways that he easily could because they knew each other well enough to know what would wound the other the most. Kurt didn't want that, it was one of the reasons he'd stopped talking to the real Blaine.

Kurt couldn't help thinking if this is about Blaine then why deal with a timid version of Blaine. This wasn't how the really Blaine would have acted he got angry when he felt he wasn't in control. It just didn't make sense why this Blaine was here.

"Finn this isn't what you think. Let's go." Kurt heard Puck say but he couldn't draw his attention away from Blaine.

‘Why was any Blaine here?' Kurt kept wondering. Blaine didn't even know these guys until Kurt introduced them. Kurt was surprised because this maybe a dream but nothing had been this out of place before. Yes, people had acted a little out of character but it wasn't like people he just met in New York were now running around Lima. Which meant Blaine shouldn't be here.

Giving a meek smile the small timid sounding boy said. "Hi, I'm Blaine." It was as if he was the polar opposite of the Blaine that Kurt first met. He wasn't a rather arrogant guy that would describe himself as a rock star or be so self-assured that he would grab a stranger's hand without asking - to drag them along to watch him sing. In fact this Blaine was so shy that he didn't even offer his hand when introducing himself.

"No, he's spying. Didn't you see?" Finn was still yelling about this Blaine.

 "Yeah, I saw. Kurt found pants tighter than the ones he wears to school and that Blaine kid was sporting wood for him. I am sure this hasn't got anything to do with singing." As Puck was talking Blaine's eyes became amusingly large and he colored with embarrassment as Puck freely scandalized him. Blaine looked like he wanted to run and never look back.  Blaine was far more humiliated than he had been over the Gap thing. He truly looked traumatized.

Kurt thought ‘God, my subconscious is vengeful. I knew I was angry but this is just cruel.' Kurt found himself laughing almost uncontrollably at what his mind came up with as punishment for Blaine. He had to fight to be able to ask Puck and Finn. "Could you give us a minute?"

Blaine was so upset he hid his face in his hands. Kurt wasn't sure if Blaine was going to cry or not but he didn't want that, he didn't even want that in real life.

 "No, no, no. I am sorry. It's going to be okay I swear." Kurt was trying to force himself to think of only the happiest thoughts about Blaine hoping that would get his imagination to ease up on its treatment of this poor innocent version of Blaine. "It's just that I didn't expect this. I haven't expected anything that's happened in the past twenty four hours." Which was an understatement but no one would ever expect to get caught in a dream of their past.

"I can relate." Kurt sincerely doubted that statement.

"I bet things have been weirder for me today than they've been for you." Kurt told Blaine.

"I'd take that bet." Blaine grinned at Kurt trying far too hard to hold eye contact. It only reminded Kurt that this Blaine was a sweeter and sillier version of Blaine. 

"Do you want to sit down and talk? I could make us a snack." He needed to find out what was going on if he wanted to wake up. Maybe this is how he could do it and this wasn't really Blaine this was a figment of Kurt's imagination so maybe it would work like journaling his feelings.

 "I can't think of anything I want more than to be able to talk to you." That was the first thing said that seemed like the real Blaine.

Kurt was thinking of all the witticisms he would have said if he knew how this Blaine would react.

 "Shut up." Blaine did that coy move he always did when Kurt teased him of smiling and looking at the floor.

 Kurt had wondered if he did it only because he knew he looked adorable when he looked up from under his lashes. Kurt could picture the real Blaine practicing in front of a mirror. "I didn't say a word."

Kurt finished making up their snack when was heading to the table he noticed that Blaine was looking at him the way the real Blaine used to when they were planning out their future together. For Kurt it was a bitter sweet reminder of what he lost. He hoped they would someday be friends again able to talk about their futures but from now on if they talked about the future it would be separate paths possibly parallel but never again intertwined. "So, tell me everything I need to know about Blaine Anderson." Kurt realized dream Blaine hadn't told him his last name yet. He didn't seem to notice though maybe because it was a dream or maybe because the real Blaine wasn't observant either.

Blaine told Kurt his life story; it was filled with things that the real Blaine wouldn't have revealed so freely. Kurt assumed it was because this was what he had wanted Blaine to be. Or it could have been that the real Blaine had revealed all of these details to him.

Kurt didn't know what he needed to figure out. His thoughts were only getting even more muddled sitting here with this Blaine who wasn't the image of perfection he first got a crush on but closer to the real flawed  boy that seemed perfect to Kurt. He embodied everything that Kurt fell in love with about Blaine. And this Blaine wanted nothing more than to win over the boy he like and Kurt was that boy.

Blaine lend a little closer looking miserable and worried giving the impression he was about to reveal a deep dark secret to Kurt "I often try to convince myself and everyone around me that I am perfect and know what I'm doing in life but you should know that I'm far from an angel. I've make terrible mistakes because I don't know what I'm doing. I really wish I did but I'm just as lost as every other boy my age."

So this was it. This was why he was here. At that Kurt reached over and held Blaine's hand. "We all do that." This Blaine's big secret was close enough to the speech the real Blaine used to brush Kurt off after the Jeremiah incident that it must mean something. Kurt tried to analyze and answer the statement all at once; find how it related to himself and to the real Blaine.  "I think it's why we hurt one another we forget that the other person isn't as divine as they want us to believe.  That's what it's like to be human we're all a little lost. We know how small and scared we are when dealing with life but we forget everyone else feels that same way too. It's difficult to remember that when it comes time to forgive someone else for showing their weaknesses." Kurt knew you were to strive to be perfect but you would fail every time and of course Blaine hated to fail. Blaine was like the little kid that would spend so much time trying to color within the lines that when he couldn't he would scribble all over the page to show his frustration. Is this it, is this his epiphany? "Maybe that's it; maybe it's why forgiveness is so important it acknowledges the reality we don't like to see." Knowing these things didn't help, Kurt still felt hurt and betrayed and unable to forgive Blaine. "Unfortunately knowing something and feeling it are two different things." And Kurt figured he was stuck here in this dream because of it.

 "You're the most forgiving person I know."

 The irony of the moment wasn't lost on Kurt that this sad boy that was trying to convince him that he was forgiving was the boy he couldn't forgive. "I should know how to be even more forgiving than I am." He couldn't let his own pain go. "I know how easily you could lose that person and never be given the chance to set it right again." Forgiving Blaine would mean he could spend time with him again like he was with this imaginary one. "I lost my mother when I was a kid, I almost lost my father" If he could forgive Blaine he would at least have his friend back. He didn't need to be able to date Blaine just forgive him.  Then Blaine touched Kurt's cheek and he knew even if he was hurt by what happened he still loved him. "and I lost the boy I loved."

Blaine removed his hand from Kurt's cheek and Kurt looked away. This was too much for him. He was drowning in what ifs and if onlys but those are just another way of saying I don't want to live in reality. Which Kurt feared was why he was here maybe there was no epiphany to be found but Kurt wasn't ready to give up on the idea of there being a great realization that would get him back, at least not yet.

Then Blaine spoke again in a voice that was too controlled for Blaine to be in control. "Tell me everything there is to know about you."

Kurt decided that if this Blaine was asking him for his life story then it must be important to the dream. Kurt gave the most succinct account of his life he could. Kurt added in his new ambitions; realizing that if he really could have gone back two years ago he would have add enough extracurricular activities to get into any college he wanted.

Kurt hadn't even notice Blaine was holding and caressing his hand until he started to wonder what else he would change if he could.

Kurt couldn't see the harm in giving it to the fantasy playing out in front of him: The one were Blaine would look at him like he was the only man in the world the he would ever want and Kurt could believe it was true.

Blaine moved in closer to Kurt a look of passion and longing in his eyes. Before they could even kiss they were interrupted the guys were stand there uncomfortably saying their goodbyes.

Kurt couldn't believe how amusing he found this.  Finally these guys that hang allover girls in the most inappropriate way got a tiny bit of payback, too see that it might be awkward for others to have to see it. But the best part was Blaine overly animated rapidly changing expressions from disbelief, annoyance, frustration, and of course the special one just for Kurt of why do you find this funny.

But it wasn't just the way Blaine looked like Rachel practicing her acting skills. Part of it was Kurt thinking: "What am I doing? Was I really hitting on an imaginary friend? Well it wouldn't be the first time I fantasized about what I'd do with Blaine if I had the chance. Hell, I've been doing that sense the first time I met him but this was the first time I cockblocked myself. So, that's something new."

Blaine and Puck both seemed to be trying to be the last to leave. While Finn talked to Blaine Puck came over to talk to Kurt. "Bro, I never understood you until now. You're a sex shark like me but haven't had any prey. Now I see why you have always been so moody."

"Yes, thank you. Have a nice night." Kurt said trying to usher Puck out before he could say anymore offensively friendly thing.

Finn stood there for a moment appearing extremely uncomfortable then with flailing gestures and in a loud voice with way too many pauses like he was in a badly staged play he said "I will be going up stairs now to take a shower then I will come back down the stairs to make up the couch so I might sleep there."

That disturbing attempt a subtlety actually make Kurt forget Blaine was there.

"Could I get your number...please?" Blaine asked as if it was a life changing question.

"Sure, you can text me your number later." Kurt added his number to Blaine's phone.

Kurt still wasn't certain why he was dreaming of Blaine but Kurt supposed he would follow this Blaine lead if he tried to kiss him. Kurt would ask him to stay the night. If he left he would let it go as his mind telling him that Blaine should only ever be looked at as a friend.  

Once again this Blaine was being indecisive he was giving every sign that he wanted to kiss Kurt but then he said goodnight and left.

It was probably all for the best anyway. Kurt couldn't imagine how embarrassing it would be to wake up from this dream in the morning and have to face Rachel after having a sex dream with her just a curtain away.

Kurt had been tidying up the house when there was a knock at the door.