“You know, I think it’d be wise for you to let me in right now,” Blaine challenges, his eyebrow raised and Kurt gulps as he opens the door wider, allowing Blaine to move swiftly past him. He shuts the door and presses his face to the cold wood, wishing for a rewind button.

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I just wanted to stop by and see if you were interested in practicing our duet. By the way, I heard what you were saying before you opened the door,” Blaine mentions off-handedly from behind him, and Kurt freezes at the tone of Blaine’s voice. It’s calculating and filled with contempt. The boy laughs bitterly and Kurt turns slowly to face him. “It’s really funny to me, because the Kurt I know, the Kurt I’m friends with, wouldn’t talk like that. And he especially wouldn’t dress like this.” Blaine gestures at Kurt’s ensemble, and Kurt crosses his arms, suddenly feeling very vulnerable. “Be honest with me, Kurt. Who are you?”

“This is me, Anderson. Foul-mouthed, sloppy dressed… all of it. And honestly, it’s none of your fucking business because I certainly don’t consider you a friend. So, it’d be greatly appreciated if you got the fuck out of my house right now,” Kurt snaps, glaring daggers at Blaine, who steps back at Kurt’s cold tone. He quickly recovers, however, and smirks, crossing his arms.

“So, you’re telling me that the Kurt that I know, and that the whole school knows, is a complete fake?” Blaine shakes his head, clicking his tongue while his smirk never leaves. Kurt hardens his stance and clenches his fist, ready to literally kick Blaine out. However, Blaine turns on his heel and walks into the living room, and Kurt growls as he follows.

“You know,” Blaine continues. “If I were you, I certainly wouldn’t be threatening me. I hold a lot of power over you-“

“Oh, really?” Kurt scoffs, crossing his arms as he stares down Blaine. “And what exactly could a poor, pathetic creature like you hold over me?”

Blaine whistles low and raises his eyebrows.

“Wow, you certainly have been hiding this part of yourself.”

“Fuck off.”

“Do you like digging yourself into holes, Hummel? You’re really quick to be extremely rude to the person who holds the key to your precious reputation.”

Kurt freezes, eyebrows raising in question.

“I’ll ask you again, Anderson,” Kurt says, his voice cold, trying not to betray the slight panic he feels. “What could you possibly ever hold over me?”

“I seriously doubt any of your precious minions have ever seen this side of you. If you push me the wrong way, I could make sure they find out really easily.”

“They’d never believe you,” Kurt quickly counters.

“You and I both know that’s a lie. I may not be a manipulative, arrogant, or a complete phony like you, but even I know how much the student body looks up to me. Much like they used to look up to you.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“I wouldn’t? And what makes you think that? Give me one good reason why I wouldn’t. You’ve been nothing but rude to me since I knocked on your door. Actually, you’ve been extremely rude to me since you found out we were tied for first in our class. I’m certainly not stupid, Kurt. It’s obvious you find me to be a threat. And you’re just as much of a threat to me when it comes to academics. So, no, really, I definitely would dare.”

Kurt switches his balance to his other foot, crossing his arms uncomfortably. He’s trapped. He’s completely trapped and Blaine knows it, smirk of triumphant plastered on his face.

“What do you want from me?” Kurt asks, voice soft with defeat.

“To do my bidding. Be my slave. Do as I say.”

Kurt’s eyes grow wide and he takes a step back.

“Okay, seriously, I knew you were strange, but I had no idea you were some kind of pervert. There is no way I’m doing that shit. I may be a manipulative bastard to you, but I still have self-respect and I’ll take my reputation going to hell over being your fucking sex slave, Anderslut. Hell to the fucking no.”

�“What?!” The curly boy sputters, turning bright red. “No, no! I… oh, god. I totally didn’t mean it that way!”

“What did you mean then?” Kurt asks coolly and Blaine clears his throat, going back to business despite the blush still clear on his face.

“Well, as I’m sure you know, being in all honor classes is such hard work. And with glee club, being on the student council as well as various other clubs, and my own personal responsibilities on top of that, I can get quite busy. I see no reason why you can’t assist me with my homework. I have about four essays due next week, along with a research paper the week after that. Not to mention countless assignments. I certainly could use your help. I’ll supervise, of course, because I wouldn’t actually trust you with my schoolwork if I left it with you alone.”

Kurt stares up at Blaine with incredulous eyes.

“You want me to do your homework for you? But that’s… that’s like cheating! Academic dishonesty! Rule number one in the McKinley student handbook!”

“I really don’t think you’re in the position to judge me on dishonesty, Kurt,” Blaine challenges, eyes flashing dark and Kurt bites his lip. “So, do you agree to this or not? Keep in mind what will happen if you say no.”

Kurt nods after a few moments of hesitancy. Blaine’s seen too much, knows too much. Kurt is under his thumb with no chance of escaping, and both he and Blaine are well aware of it.

“Great!” Blaine exclaims, back to his usual chipperness, and he begins to walk back toward the front door. “We’ll begin Monday, after glee rehearsal. I’ll see my way out. Tell Finn I said hello!”

Kurt just stands there in shocked silence, even after he hears the front door close, even after he hears Blaine’s car start and pull out of the driveway, even after Finn comes home and questions him before heading to the kitchen with a concerned look on his face, arms filled with food. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but swallow it he does.

He’s being blackmailed by Blaine Anderson.

----

Kurt’s in the exact same classes as Blaine; he has the exact same assignments as Blaine. So, because of their daily slave sessions, as Kurt likes to call them, Kurt is doing double the work: his own and Blaine’s.

Unfortunately, Blaine is quite particular about the work Kurt does, and Kurt’s quickly finding out that nothing he does is good enough.

“That phrasing doesn’t work.”

“What are you even trying to say here?”

“You know, when you were given this ultimatum, it didn’t mean you could half-ass my essays on purpose, Hummel.”

“Don’t throw that calculator down! You’re not even trying! We’re in the same calculus class, Kurt, I know you know this!”

Kurt’s slowly going completely insane. With gritting teeth, he erases his answers and molds them to Blaine’s liking. He’s doing his best to ignore Blaine’s complaining and just do what he has to, but he’d be a liar if he said he wasn’t irritated beyond belief. His irritation only gets worse as he stays up into the early morning hours, catching up on his own homework and studying, throwing his sleeping schedule to the wind. His nerves are constantly being pulled past their stretching point and he’s sure they’re going to snap at any moment.

The following Saturday, a week after Blaine’s discovery, Kurt’s lying face down in his bed, too tired to even move, much less study as he usually does. Finn has reached past the point of concerned with this suspicious behavior and calls over the one person who can help.

Kurt groans when he hears a knock on his door. “Finn, please go away. I’m too tired to play video games.”

“Not Finn!” A bright voice calls from his now open doorway. He turns his head and opens an eye to find Rachel standing there, a serious look on his face. He groans even louder as he throws his head back into his mattress.

“Damnit, who called you over here?” He asks into his pillow as he feels the bed dip beside him.

“Finn did, because he was worried about you. And I can see why. I know you like to be lazy at home, but this is ridiculous, Kurt. Not to mention,” she says sternly as he pushes him continuously until he rolls over on his back to face her. “You look like shit.”

“Wow. Thanks,” Kurt mumbles, closing his eyes, and she sighs.

“I’m just saying, you don’t look good at all. In fact, you look kind of ill. How much sleep have you gotten?”

“Um, about ten hours?” Kurt calculates in his head.

“Oh, well that’s not- wait, ten hours this entire week?”

Kurt just nods and Rachel gasps, quickly turning into a mother hen.

“Kurt! You know how important a good night’s sleep is! What in the world could possibly cause you to get that little of sleep, Kurt?” She huffs as she fusses over him, trying to get him to properly lie in his bed. She’s still talking as she grabs him another blanket from his closet. “You’re going to kill over, you know that, right? Oh god, what if you get insanely sick and then you can’t sing your solo at Sectionals this year and then we lose or even worse, Mr. Schue gives it to Blaine instead of just letting me have two solos! Spill, now!”

Kurt hides his head underneath the blanket, debating whether not he should say anything.

“Does this have anything to do with you staying after glee rehearsal with Blaine every day?” Rachel asks softly, and Kurt is quite surprised as how perceptive she is. She gasps again. “Oh my god, are you having an affair with him?!”

Kurt groans again, the thought of Rachel being percipient immediately disappearing. He throws the blanket off and gives her an annoyed look.

“No, Rachel, I’m not having an affair with him,” Kurt explains, rolling his eyes. “If you insist on prying-“

“And, obviously, I do.”

“I am spending my afternoons with Blaine doing homework,” Kurt finishes over her interruption, glaring at her. He’s answered her question while remaining as vague as possible. She rolls his eyes, however, clearly not buying it.

“Kurt, I’ve been your best friend for years now. We’re practically the same person. I know how much you hate Blaine. As if you would be willing to spend your time with him outside of school, especially to do homework together. Stop lying to me, and tell me the whole story.”

Kurt sighs. He should have known that Rachel would’ve been able to see right through him. He throws his hands over his eyes, trying to rub out the tension in his head as he tries to think of where to begin.

“Well, last weekend, I was sitting at home and someone knocked on the door. I originally thought it was Finn, because he left his wallet here, and I had locked him out. But when I opened it, it was Blaine. Basically, he saw me in my home environment.”

“No!” Rachel gasps. “You mean… he saw the sweat pants and… and everything?”

Kurt nods solemnly. “That’s not even the worst part. When I thought it was Finn at the door, I kind of… well, I talked like I normally do.”

“So, you said ‘fuck’ every other word like a heathen.”

“It’s a very versatile word!” Kurt defends and then sighs again. “And I cursed even worse when he came in-“

“Wait, you let him in your house?”

“He practically demanded it! He… he said that ‘it would be wise if I let him in’,” Kurt mocked in a high, uptight voice, scrunching his nose up. “And then, he went on to say that now he knows I’m a phony and I have to be his homework slave now or else he’ll tell the entire school. So that’s where I’ve been. I’ve been doing Blaine’s homework for the past week every day after school.”

Rachel lets out a slow exhale, eyebrows raised high. “Wow. I… wow. I definitely wasn’t expecting that one. Blaine Anderson is blackmailing you!”

“I know, I know,” Kurt whines. “It’s positively awful! I have to do his homework and essays and research papers all on top of mine! I have to stay up all night trying to keep on schedule!”

“Well,” Rachel begins slowly. “Technically, you don’t.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I do,” Kurt says harshly, irritated boiling under his skin. “Or else Blaine will tell everyone
I’m a fake and they’ll all hate me. They’ll hate me for who I really am, and they’ll hate me for lying to them. I’ve worked way too hard for that, Rachel.”

“I know you have, darling,” Rachel soothes, rubbing him on the arm. “But what Blaine is doing to you is wrong. It’s clearly driving you up the wall, and it’s only a matter of time before you crack. Kurt, it’s not worth it. Blaine telling everyone about your true personality is not worth this. Besides, I know you for who you really are and I love you. How can you be so sure everyone else will, without a doubt, despise you for it? Just… I don’t want to see you lose yourself over some fake persona.”

Kurt sighs and closes his eyes. He tries to imagine a world where Rachel is right; where no one will care that Kurt’s a liar and a fraud, where everyone will like him despite his foul-mouthed, manipulative ways, where Blaine Anderson’s threats and overall existence mean absolutely nothing to Kurt. But then, he sees the real world, the world he lives in. The world where he would return to being the social outcast, where he would be ignored and treated like a nothing, where Blaine Anderson would reign supreme, and he can’t do it.

“You don’t understand, Rachel,” he says softly, voice thick with emotion.

----

Blaine’s whistling happily as he walks up to his door and unlocks it. He and Kurt had a generally good time today after school. When Kurt wasn’t throwing rude comments toward Blaine about how he was a slave driver, they talked about music and theatre, Blaine talked about languages and history, Kurt talked about fashion. They surprisingly have a lot in common, which only slightly lessens the guilt Blaine feels about doing this to Kurt.

He’s not a manipulative or vindictive person at all. In fact, the night that he had given Kurt his ultimatum, he had spent the drive home warring with himself over whether to call it off. He was just completely taken off guard by Kurt and didn’t know what else to do. The surprising revelation that was Kurt’s personality just kind of aided his desire to get to know Kurt better, so he took his idea and ran with it. Sometimes he feels sick for what he’s doing, but Kurt’s going along with it, so he’s not going to stop anytime soon.

“You’re in late,” he hears his father call from the living room as Blaine passes it. Blaine backtracks and walks into the room, where his mother and father are seated, watching the news.

Harald and Charlotte Anderson are not cruel people, by any means. They love their son, and Blaine never doubts that. But there are some things that he knows they are not okay with, and glee club is one of them.

They fought about it at Dalton, and he wasn’t sure how they would react to the news that their son joined another choir, so he’s failed to mention it.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. School stuff.”

“You’ve had school stuff every night this week, dear,” his mom points out. “What all are you doing?”

“Well, I usually just do all of my homework at the library there so I can relax at home.”

“You really spend all your time doing academics?” His dad asks, genuinely interested. “Are you not involved in any extra-curriculars? You know, college applications will be released soon, and all of the best choices want outside of school activities. Your grades are impressive, sure, but they’ll only get you so far.”

Blaine scratches at the back of his neck, relenting and deciding they might as well find out now versus when he invites them to a performance. “Well, I did join McKinley’s glee club.”

Charlotte has a fleeting moment of looking excited for her son, but the look disappears when she spots the impassive look on her husband’s face, and she quickly matches it.

“Glee club? You mean like show choir?” his dad asks. Blaine nods and Harald scoffs. “I thought we went over this with Dalton, Blaine. Your mother and I know you like performing, and we agree that you are talented, but that’s going to get you nowhere with colleges, or life, period! What you need is to join a good, solid club that you know admissions committees will pay attention to. Football, soccer, chess club, hell, even the mathletes or something like that. Why, out of all the clubs that McKinley offers, did you have to pick something so… so-“

“Gay?” Blaine challenges, voice cold. He knows that’s exactly the problem and, just like that, his good mood dissipates.

“Yes! Gay!”

“Harald! That is unnecessary!”

“Charlotte, it’s true! No outstanding college is going to accept a student with gay extra-curricular activities! This will only hurt his chances of getting into law school in the future!” He turns to Blaine. “We only want the best for you, Blaine.”

Blaine’s heard this argument from his father so many times he can repeat it in his sleep. His father has a knack for taking his own homophobic issues and justifying them with his desire to see Blaine achieve the greatness he was apparently destined for.

“I don’t understand why my being gay and being in a show choir has anything to do with my chances of getting into a respectful university,” Blaine says tiredly, rubbing his eyes.

“It has everything to do with it! The world is not Dalton Academy, Blaine. There is no zero-bullying, zero-prejudice rule out there. Not everyone is going to accept your… lifestyle, admission boards included. And participating in a show choir will only hinder you.”

Blaine’s so taken aback by the fact that his father actually acknowledged his sexuality, the first time since he came out, that he doesn’t even try to press the fact that he disagrees with his father. He bids his parents goodnight, a thousand thoughts racing through his mind as he makes his way up the stairs to his room.

Part of Blaine wonders that if he quits glee, his parents might accept the fact that Blaine’s gay. It’s a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things, although the thought of not performing hurts a lot more than he thought it would. But his dad hadn’t said anything rude to Blaine personally about being gay, and that makes Blaine wonder if maybe there’s a chance that being gay doesn’t really matter to his parents; that they really do want what’s best for him and glee club would hurt him in the long run. He thinks about Kurt, wonders what Kurt’s parents think of Kurt being gay and being in glee club, and if they’re just as against it as his own parents.

It’s the first time in his life he’s faced the decision of giving up something he loves, and he’s not sure if it’s worth it. But then again, for his parents to be proud of him despite his sexuality is worth a lot.

He falls asleep that night with his mind heavy with thoughts of glee club, parents, college, and a certain blue-eyed boy.�