“We won Regionals!”
Rachel Berry’s obnoxious voice rang out through Kurt’s phone. He could hear the loud chatter of the rest of the New Directions celebrating their first win of the semester. Kurt wouldn’t admit it but his heart ached when he got the call from Mercedes. She sounded so happy, they all sounded happy and Kurt couldn’t help but think that was because he was gone. Kurt had never contributed much to his old Glee club, just sang in the background while Rachel Berry got the standing ovations and awe that he so desperately wanted. But even Kurt had helped boost Rachel’s ego. When he competed with her for a solo with Defying Gravity Kurt had butchered the note, just for the sake of his father. Which he was happy to do, his family comes first.
But still…Kurt wished someone would show him a little bit of love, just a smidgeon of respect so he could feel good about himself.

…Although, Blaine has been doing a good job of it so far.
The younger boy never left Kurt’s side. Whenever he had a few more books to carry to one of his farther classes, Blaine was happy to help take the load off. At lunch Blaine let him sit with his friends, Jeff, Nick, and Trent. He’s come to really love them all over the past few weeks. Jeff, the bright blonde who seemed quiet when Kurt first met him, was actually quite hyper. Nick was his polar opposite, not only with the dark hair and incredibly shorter height, but his attitude was calm, he usually stopped Jeff’s anger from peaking at a particular teacher or student. It was actually quite endearing, they do say opposites attract after all. Trent seemed to have a fashion mind that rivaled Kurt’s own. They spent many hushed minutes during class talking about the newest winter line, or celebrity gossip. He was so grateful for them all, especially Blaine.
“Kurt?”
Kurt blinked himself out of his trance, “Yeah, sorry. What were you saying?”
Kurt could almost feel Rachel’s smirk as she spoke, “What were you thinking about so hard? Is there someone at that charming school who’s taken all your attention?”
Kurt blushed to himself, even when boys weren’t around him still felt the effects of them, “no Rachel, I’m focusing on my education. Besides, I don’t know what I would do if I had a repeat of… you know…” He still couldn’t talk about, after all the therapy, all the pain.
“Oh Kurt,” her suggestive tone was gone, replaced with one of sheer concern, “I know, I was just… Let me start over. I was just saying that you deserve someone special. After all you’ve been through…:”
“Thanks Rachel, a lot. I really do appreciate it.”
And Kurt did. He would never admit it, but he had a soft spot for Rachel over the past few years. She was the only one in his former Glee club who had the same fiery determination Kurt had.
“Anytime, so… are you going to join the Warblers?”
This question took Kurt aback. He would’ve thought the slightest mention of competition would be enough for Rachel Berry to hang up the phone. But it’s not like Kurt hadn’t thought of it, he hadn’t sang in so long, and Blaine was a part of the Warblers.
“Of course that would mean we would be opponents.”
“Rachel, you make it sound like its war.”
“It is Kurt! All my chances for stardom solely depend on our win at Nationals, and not even you Kurt Hummel, will hold me back.”
Kurt rolled his eyes at the overly dramatic Rachel he had a love/hate relationship with.
“Whatever you say Berry.”
Kurt smiled as she filled him in on their set list for Regionals and the after party. After a while Kurt started to get homesick and ended the call saying he had tons of homework to do. He really did miss the New Directions, so much so that he found himself staring at the phone minutes after he had hung up. He was only brought back to earth by a rap on his door, and Blaine entering his dorm with a bowl of popcorn studying him closely.
“You miss them huh?”
It was rhetorical; Blaine knew how much his heart ached for McKinley after he filled him in on all the stories from his junior year. Well… not all the stories. Kurt nodded in reply anyway and sat down on his bed solemnly.
“Yeah, I just miss Glee club. It was the only place I could be myself in, the only place where I fit in.”
Blaine gave Kurt one of the most dazzling smiles he’s ever seen, and that was saying something. Blaine has many smiles. The charming one’s for teachers and parents, the friendly ones for companions and classmates, and then the one for him. It’s reserved but so full of emotion.
“Actually I have some good news for you. The Warbler’s won our own Regionals last week and while we we’re celebrating I put in a good word for you to Wes and David.”
Blaine bit his lip with a smile and paused for dramatic effect. Kurt gave him an expectant glare and Blaine squirmed adorably on Thad’s bed.
“Well?”
Blaine stood up, “Wes said if it’s alright with you we can have you audition for the Warblers as early as this Friday!”
“Oh my God, Blaine!” The countertenor ran to the younger boy with a huge embrace. The two crashed together and soaked up each other’s comforting warmth. Blaine couldn’t help the way he noticed certain things about Kurt while they hugged. Like the way his hair smelled of lavender, or the faded moles on his pale neck. Blaine was stuck in a trance sweeping his golden eyes across the taller boy’s back, instantly frowning when Kurt started to pull away.
“Blaine, thank you so much. Really, you didn’t have to do this.”
Blaine smiled a little sheepishly under Kurt’s gaze, “I wanted to, you really haven’t had a place to call your own yet and it would be great if you thought as the Warblers and me as your home away from,” Blaine laughed a little, “well home.”
Kurt put a palm on Blaine’s shoulder sending a shot of warmth down his spine. “Blaine, you’ve already made me feel more at home than I’ve felt in a long time. You and Jeff and Sebastian… You Warbler’s are such a nice bunch.”
Blaine’s giddy feeling rushed out of him like the breaking of a dam. Why did he have to mention his name? It was going so well. Blaine tried through the whole week to stop thinking about Sebastian and his plans of revenge. Of course he didn’t want Kurt to get hurt but surely he wouldn’t fall for a monster like Sebastian. Blaine was sort of being hypocritical; even he had taken a liking to the emerald eyed boy’s sultry looks and gazes.
He kept a smile on his face and prayed that Kurt didn’t notice how strained it was. Or if he did notice he didn’t say anything. Over the next few hours Kurt and Blaine ate popcorn and talked about what song he was going to choose and the old memories of the New Directions. Blaine had noticed Kurt had a great sense of musicality ranging from the classical Broadway, to the slightly more modern music. It was as Kurt mentioned love songs that Blaine had a great idea.
“Kurt,” Blaine put his hand on Kurt’s arm, “If you want I can help you practice for the audition, we have a week, I’m sure I can help in some way.”
Kurt shifted on the bed and paused his iTunes playlist that was currently shuffling through the entire studio album of Wicked. “Really?” The emotion shining in Kurt’s eyes made Blaine smile.
“Of course, that’s what friends are for.”
Blaine flinched internally. What if he accidentally friend zoned them? The Warbler just wanted an excuse to spend more time with Kurt, not self-detonate any chance they might have had at a relationship.
But Kurt either didn’t notice how awkward Blaine felt, or just chose to ignore it. “Well,” he started, “We only have till the end of the week for my audition, and that means lots of practice. I hope you’re up to spending a few hours with me in this drab room.”
Blaine felt like his head was gonna break off at the speed he was nodding. “Yeah, of course, singing… you… what’s not to love?”
Kurt smiled and rubbed his hand on Blaine’s knee before turning back to the laptop. The air in the room was a little awkward now and Blaine only had himself to blame for that. He was about to excuse himself to make more popcorn when he got an idea.
While Kurt was fishing for something in his drawers Blaine searched the boy’s iTunes quickly, once he found the song he was looking for he pressed play with the volume maxed out. The smile that spread across Blaine’s face when he saw Kurt’s look of horror was disconcerting.
“Blaine…” Kurt started slowly like he was approaching a rabid animal, “please don’t…”
But it was too late; Blaine had already started singing, much to Kurt’s chagrin.
“There's a stranger in my bed,
There's a pounding my head
Glitter all over the room
Pink flamingos in the pool
I smell like a minibar
DJ's passed out in the yard
Barbie's on the barbeque
This a hickie or a bruise?”
Blaine made an exaggerated gesture of pulling at his shirt collar looking disgusted. He saw Kurt crack a smile and that was enough to keep him going.
“Pictures of last night
Ended up online
I'm screwed-
Oh well
It's a black top blur
But I'm pretty sure it ruled- damn!”
Blaine ran up to Kurt and pulled on his arms swinging him around the room and catching him in a perfectly rehearsed manner that made Kurt’s body tingle with warmth. As he reached the chorus Blaine was jumping on the bed like a lunatic, and Kurt couldn’t say he didn’t enjoy it.
“Last Friday night
Yeah we danced on tabletops
And we took too many shots
Think we kissed but I forgot”
Blaine made a face rolling his eyes up to the ceiling as if he was recalling a memory. Hey, his parents always said he was a performer, now he can see why; it comes naturally, without a second thought.
“Last Friday night
Yeah we maxed our credit cards
And got kicked out of the bar
So we hit the boulevard”
Blaine’s back to swinging Kurt again and as he notices Thad walk in with a smile on his face he throws the boy smoothly into Thad’s arms.
“Last Friday night
We went streaking in the park
Skinny dipping in the dark
Then had a menage a trois
Last Friday night
Yeah I think we broke the law
Always say we're gonna stop-op
Whoa-oh-oah”
Blaine was now dancing with Thad as Kurt watched along feigning embarrassment. He smiled to himself and belted out the ending.
“But this Friday night, do It all again.”
Kurt clapped as he was smiling shaking his head, “I can’t believe I’m calling you my friend.”
“You love me.” Blaine said tauntingly staring at Kurt. He kind of got lost in his blue eyes again so he was completely unprepared when Thad launched himself on Blaine’s back.
Blaine screamed, consequently making Kurt scream and go down with him. In the midst of all the pairs screaming and Thad’s laughing it brought more attention to the bedroom. Eventually Blaine found himself between Thad, Wes, David, and Jeff.
“Get off!”
Blaine tried to sound menacing but it kind of came out as a puff of air. And the fact that he was laughing didn’t help either. Eventually they all piled of and Blaine realized he was crushing somebody. When he looked down his entire ability to think left him, rendering him speechless and his brain melted.
He was squished on top of Kurt.
On top of Kurt.
Basically straddling him.
Blaine tried to get up he really did but the Kurt opened his eyes, and Blaine got lost in them again, which really didn’t look good because Wes, David, Jeff, and Thad who had already gotten up could taste the sexual tension in the air.
“Graphic.” Thad whispered to Jeff.
“Definitely.” He replied, eyes still glued to the scene.
Kurt opened his eyes groggily to only feel a giant weight on his stomach. He froze when he saw the weight was in fact not a weight, but a person. A very handsome person whose choice anatomical parts where pressed against Kurt’s. Kurt could feel his face burn up. It was like his and Blaine’s combined emotional pressure was going to set the world ablaze. And Kurt’s mind wandered to one question.
Why isn’t he moving?
“Uh, Blaine?”
“Yeah?” He replied, voice thick and nervous.
“Mind getting up? As lovely as the carpet is down here I would love to avoid having this uniform pressed more than once a day.”
“Oh of course!”
The speed at which Blaine got up had Kurt momentarily stunned. He shook it off when Blaine reached out a hand to help him up.
“Thank you.” Kurt brushed the invisible dust off the elbows of his blazer. “And I’m pretty sure I can’t sing Last Friday Night for my audition. It’s tacky.”
Blaine pouted, actually pouted. “Why not? Your auditions on a Friday, I thought it was perfect. And nobody brightens up a mood like Katy Perry.”
“As that may be,” Kurt said with no real emotion, “I’m more…cultural.”
“Okay, I can still help though, right?”
Kurt blinked, “Of course, that was just one song. We need to test at least four hundred ninety-nine more to be prepared.”
Blaine smiled, but it quickly faded as he heard a grunt from their audience. Blaine honestly forgot they were here. When Kurt enters a room he’s like the sun. Blaine’s eyes are automatically drawn to him, even if there not supposed to be.
“Yes?” Blaine asked a little impatient.
“As much as we love watching your budding love grow,” Blaine blushed…again. “We do have plans for bowling tonight if you want to come?” Wes continued with a smug grin as he watched their soloists eyes go to Kurt again.
“I would love to… But I have to stay here and help Kurt with his-“
“Oh please Blaine,” Kurt waved a hand cutting him off, “I would love to go bowling. I haven’t been out in a long time.”
Wes smiled, “So that’s settled then.”
The group of Warblers exited the room. As Blaine turned around to help Kurt, Wes put a hand on his arm.
“I guess this means you’ll be coming?” He whispered with a smirk.
Blaine gave him his most menacing glare, but replied nonetheless, “Yes.”
Wes gave him a pat on the back and left the two to their own devices.
“Now,” Blaine said exasperated, “Where were we?”
~X~
Sebastian slammed his dinner tray down at the Warblers assigned table. He hated how happy Blaine was spending time with Kurt. How carefree he looked while Sebastian was suffering. Every time he saw Blaine smile it was like a stake to the heart. He could never get Blaine to smile like that, thus making him a loser, a pathetic loser that doesn’t deserve to live. He’s thought about killing himself, only a few times, and the feeling that he might be free from earth’s chains, free from all the pain have been tempting, but he’s found it far more satisfying inflicting pain on other people. Not physical pain, which can be healed quickly. Emotional pain however, takes a while to heal. The scabs and bruises are more permanent embedded into your heart and mind. Call him a masochist if you wish, he just believes it’s not fair for him to go through life with all this pain.
Which is why his plan has to work.
He’s tried hurting Blaine emotionally but he’s just too much of an optimist. He always looks to the bright side of things which annoys the hell out of Sebastian. But a few days ago he finally found the thing that made Blaine go off, like a ticking time bomb.
Kurt.
Sebastian notices these things, the slight clench of Blaine’s fist when he sees him with Kurt, the anger in his eyes when the walk arm in arm into the cafeteria. And the most satisfying is the jealousy. God knows what’s keeping Blaine from making moves on Kurt but whatever, it’s better that way. And Sebastian is getting closer, brick by brick, to making all of Blaine Anderson’s walls crumble.
Thus destroying him. Simple.
Sebastian was so busy reveling in the hurtful looks Blaine gives Kurt throughout the day when he sees the blue eyed boy with him that he doesn’t notice that the Warbler’s have already surrounded him. And Kurt is staring at him like he’s manic.
Which he is really, in a sense.
“Seb, are you okay?”
Sebastian blinks and is immensely surprised when he blushes slightly at the pet-name Kurt has given him.
“Yeah, why?” His mind still isn’t with him and he tries to summon up the bravado that Dalton knows and Sebastian Smythe.
“You were just spacing out… and…talking to yourself. It just looked weird.”
He was talking to himself? Maybe he needs to get stronger medication.
“Nevertheless,” Kurt continued, “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Kurt turned back to his food and started eating. Or nibbling, it was just a salad. He noticed Blaine come over with his tray and wave him over, Sebastian smiling at the disgusted look Blaine gives him as he sits down across from them.
“Kurt, why didn’t you save me a seat?” To others Blaine’s question would sound perfectly normal, but Sebastian can hear the underlying pain it, the betrayal, the confusion.
“Oh, Sebastian looked out of sorts so I guess I forgot, but you’re still here. It’s alright right?”
Sebastian smiled even more at the kicked puppy look that was on his face, but he quickly masked the pain, “Of course, just wondering.”
“Hey, Sebastian?”
A few minutes have passed and Sebastian found himself staring at Blaine. He may have hated the hobbit but he still felt something for him. He constantly found himself wondering why he wasn’t good enough, why he wasn’t chosen instead of Kurt. Sebastian knew this train of thought wasn’t good for his health so he shook it off and turned to Kurt with a sultry smile.
“Yes?”
“A few of the Warblers are going bowling this evening, Wes invited me and I wanted to know if you wanted to come along? I always see you sitting alone at night with a book and I thought you could use some company.”
It both shocked and stunned Sebastian that Kurt cared. He would be lying if that he said that didn’t make him feel better.
“Sure, I mean if it’s okay with Wes?’
Sebastian was sure it was. The only Warbler who seemed to hate him was Blaine, and he and Wes are chemistry partners. They get along.
“I’m sure it is. Hey! You can be on me and Blaine’s team!”
The smile that grew on Sebastian’s face was wide and evil enough to rival The Joker, but Kurt didn’t notice.
“Perfect.”
Nobody noticed Blaine dig his nails into the bottom of the table.
~X~
“Just move the ball like this.”
Sebastian was in the middle of “helping” Kurt line up the bowling ball with the pins. The alley was fairly new. The polished lanes and vivid table top colors gave the place a 60’s feel. Wes, Jeff, and Thad were on one team, and Kurt, Blaine, and Sebastian were on the opposing one. David couldn’t make it; something with his girlfriend had come up. Wes said David was happy to go, almost tripped down the stairs in his rush. Anyway, he was flush with Kurt, front to back helping him aim the ball. Blaine was staring pointedly away from them. Sebastian was getting angry, he wanted him to watch, watch his precious Kurt fall from his grasp.
Going out meant he would have to dress in ‘street clothes’ for the first time in a while. He wasn’t nervous though. He put on a red and white baseball T-shirt with faded slim blue jeans. Kurt didn’t look too bad himself, his black skinny jeans hugged him in all the right places, and the white button up shirt with a black bowtie completed the look. Sebastian could definitely see why Blaine was so interested in Kurt, but not why he was better than himself.
“I’m going to miss, I suck at bowling.”
“Oh come on, that’s quitter talk. Just-“
And he took Kurt’s arm and shot the ball to the pins. It only hit six of them but apparently Kurt was impressed because he was jumping up and down like a madman.
“Oh my God, that’s amazing!”
He gave Sebastian a bear hug, gaining the attention of Blaine, and took his seat next to said boy.
With a grin he turned around and picked up his own ball, midnight blue, and aimed it at the pins. With precision and focus he barreled the ball into the pins.
And what do you know?
He got a strike.
He turned around to see the awed look on Kurt’s face when he was disappointed to see him in a full on conversation with Blaine. They were ignoring him! Sebastian took a few deep breaths; he didn’t take his medicine today so getting angry was a bad choice.
“Hey Kurt-“
But before he could get his attention Blaine walked up beside him in his lame maroon cardigan, and black jeans.
“What?” Sebastian asked with hate in his voice.
“It’s my turn,” Blaine said with a smirk. One that said he knows exactly what’s going on inside his head. Before Sebastian could reply with his own rude statement Blaine had already come back from a perfect strike. Kurt’s eyes lit up.
Of course he saw his.
Blaine stood on his tiptoes and whispered in Sebastian’s ears: “He saw mine.”
He smiled at the devastated look Sebastian gave him and walked away, Kurt was hugging him and praising him and Blaine just has this shit eating grin on his face. Sebastian’s strike was better really, and he was going to make it known.
“Hey Kurt-“
He couldn’t hear him. With all the sounds going on and Kurt being way to overexcited than he should be his call was lost within the other ruckus.
He tried being a little louder.
“Kurt?”
Ignored. Again. And Blaine was soaking up the spotlight. Again.
His anger was peaking. He knew he should have taken his medicine. He didn’t think this short little bowling match would get to him this much. He steeled himself and asked as carefully as he could.
“Hey I just-“
But Blaine was showing the fucking boy technique, like he was some wise bowling master. Seeing the light in Kurt’s eyes and the smile that wasn’t for him broke his control.
That wasn’t for him? That’s new.
“I MADE A FUCKING STRIKE TOO!”
That was loud.
Almost all eyes in the bowling alley were on him. The first halves of the Warbler group were staring at him with slack jaws. Thad had his ears covered. Blaine looked honestly shocked at his outburst and Kurt looked at him with sad eyes.
“I-I’m sorry.” Sebastian felt the tears well in his eyes and ran out of the building. He ran out back and slid down the concrete wall. His breathing was shallow and he couldn’t focus. He fisted a patch of grass just to keep his mind tethered to earth.
The tears were falling now. Why did he have to lose control? Why can’t he just win for once? It was as he was slipping back into the dark recesses of his mind that he didn’t hear Kurt calling his name frantically.