They locked eyes for what felt like forever before Blaine managed to take in the boy who stood on the second stair, towering above him like some sort of idyllic carving or a painting hanging in a gallery. While he certainly looked dashing, the snobbery which Blaine had acquired at his new school told him that the boy looked scruffy, as well as tremendously out of place. Blaine straightened his posture, adjusted his satchel and put on his best smile; this was how he was supposed to present himself. He directed him to the senior commons and remembered informing him that the Warblers were like rock stars, because that was what he truly believed. Blaine didn't have to try to smile when he sang; it was the only time that it came naturally. He attempted to catch the eyes of the boy from staircase at the beginning of the song, and felt a pang of guilt and embarrassment when the last note rang out and he realised that he hadn't broken the eye contact the entire time. He scalded himself, pinching his thigh sharply and made a mental note to pull himself the fuck together.

Blaine knew that Staircase Boy wasn't really new, he himself had been the new kid a few weeks ago, and it wasn't like that. Blaine will never be able to tell you what it was that made him do it. There was something in the boy that he could feel radiating from him. It made Blaine feel connected to him somehow, like they were singing a harmony to the same song. Although he prayed that he was wrong, Blaine sensed that maybe that black hole in the bottom of his stomach had something to do with it. He didn't like the idea that a boy like this could be hurt in the same way he had been, but there was something sullen about the his face and a lost look in his eyes that Blaine was sure he'd seen before, framed by a mirror.

Blaine's heart broke when Kurt cried. Disgustingly poetic, he knew, but it was true. He'd felt it shatter in his chest. A part of him wanted to pinch himself again for caring this much about a boy he'd just met, but the rest just felt a compulsive need to protect. He listened closely to the story, even though it was unnecessary (he knew what was going on just from the look in Kurt's eyes), and before he knew it, he was trying to give advice. He wanted just to tell him to never leave, but that wasn't possible and even the dazed and confused Blaine knew that. Kurt would never ever find out that Blaine had cried himself to sleep that night. He was reliving memories that he had planned to store away. Pavarotti was malting his feathers, and sat in the corner of his cage almost completely still. The warbler barely touched his food, and his chirping sounded slightly choked.