It wasn't difficult for Blaine to get into a routine and feel comfortable with the Cougar cabin. Kurt was a natural leader, and apparently Jackal had never done much anyway, so it was actually a relief for Kurt to not have to manage everything on his own anymore. It also helped that, as Jerico said, the kids were amazing and willing to listen to him even though he was new to them.

It was smooth sailing waking up and taking the kids to breakfast each morning, then out to their various field studies, returning for lunch, out for afternoon recreation, dinner then campfire each day. By day three of his time with them, Blaine felt as though he was supposed to have been assigned to the cabin all along. He and Kurt hadn't spoken about their tryst in the cabin since that night, but they'd been so busy there didn't seem to be any time for them to be alone. Even during rec time when the kids were away each day there always seemed to be at least one other person (usually Rachel) who insisted on hanging out with them.

Blaine was in the middle of a lesson on plant life and how to identify poison ivy when one of the staff members, a man named Orion, came down the trail.

"Warbler, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Blaine instructed his group to keep working on their plant journals while he stepped away.

"What's up, Orion?"

"I was wondering if you'd do us a favor this evening. Violet's partner just went into labor and she has to leave for the remainder of camp- Steph wasn't due for another few weeks, but the baby decided to make an early appearance. Unfortunately, this means that her slot at campfire is open."

"Because your cabin hasn't had a chance to perform yet, I was wondering if maybe you and Sparrow wanted to sing at tonight's campfire? Obviously you can say no, but I figured I'd give you first dibs if you wanted the spot. You'd need time to practice, of course, so I'm prepared to relieve you for the rest of the day."

Blaine grinned, "Of course! I mean, I'll have to check with Sparrow to be sure that he's okay with it, but I'm pretty sure he's been dying to sing and just hasn't said anything. This is so great! Thank you!"

"Fantastic!" He pulled a walkie-talkie from his belt. "Let me just radio Moose and let him know we've found a replacement, then you can go and find Sparrow. I believe he's out by the A-frame doing water studies with a group. He should be finished shortly, then you two can go off and figure out what you're going to perform." He chuckled to himself. "A Warbler and a Sparrow. A couple of songbirds. Very fitting."

Blaine practically floated to the A-frame. The building was situated just a bit west of the dining hall, and was the main meeting place for water study as it was adjacent to a small creek. He took a peek in through the front windows and saw a group of girls rapt with attention as Kurt stood, pointing at various pictures of the water cycle on the wall and gesturing theatrically as he explained what happened in each part.

He took a seat out on the porch and leaned his back against the building- he didn't want to interrupt, and while he would have loved to just stayed at the window and watched, he didn't want to keep staring at Kurt like a creeper. Plus, there were thousands of songs out there, and they had to decide on just one to perform. Assuming Kurt would say yes. Of course he'll say yes. Stop worrying about it.

About ten minutes later, Rachel showed up to pick up her girls. "Hello, Mr. Warbler." She said, perching herself on the railing. "And just what brings you to the A-frame today?"

Blaine gestured to the window above him. "Just waiting for Sparrow. Violet won't be able to perform at campfire tonight, so Orion asked if we could fill in. I didn't want to interrupt, so I'm just waiting for them to be finished before asking."

Rachel's eyes widened. "You two are going to perform together? Have you ever heard him sing before?" Blaine shook his head, and Rachel smirked. "You're in for a treat. That boy is a countertenor. I'll let you wait and hear for yourself just how amazing he is."

Just then, the door to the A-frame opened and the girls piled out, crowding up to Rachel. She greeted them enthusiastically, then sent a wink Blaine's way before leading the group away. Blaine stood, dusting off his pants and walking into the building.

Kurt was standing with his back to the door, using an eraser to remove the multitude of notes and drawings he'd made on the chalkboard during the lesson as he hummed quietly to himself. Blaine cleared his throat, and Kurt squeaked in surprise, the eraser clattering to the floor as he turned to face him.

"Sorry! That's exactly was I was trying to prevent." Blaine moved forward, picking up the eraser from the floor and holding it up for Kurt, who still had a hand over his heart.

"It's okay. I just wasn't expecting anyone." He took the eraser from Blaine, letting his fingers linger on the other boy's hand for just a moment longer than was really necessary. "What are you doing here, anyway? Not that I'm not completely thrilled to see you, I just wasn't expecting to spend any time with you until dinner tonight."

Blaine explained the situation and the problem it caused. "So Orion was hoping that maybe we would want to sing tonight. We'd have the rest of the afternoon off to pick a song and practice. So...do you want to?"

Kurt's eyes widened dramatically before he lunged forward and wrapped Blaine up in a hug.

"Are you kidding me, of course I want to! I've been dying since day one when Rachel was up there and I kind of hoped that maybe you'd want to sing with me because you mentioned being in a glee club and I've been kind of dying to hear you sing and oh god I shouldn't have said that out loud."

Kurt released Blaine and hurriedly began erasing the remainder off the board.

"This is great! Oh, but we need to pick a song! Did you have anything in mind? Since it's camp, we probably should stick to more traditional songs. Something tells me the staff wouldn't be too pleased if we came out singing 'I Kissed a Girl'. I know a few camp songs, but most of them are the cheesy chanting kind."

Blaine thought for a moment, taking a seat on one of the multiple worn couches in the room. "Do you know Barges?" he asked. Kurt shook his head.

"When I was younger, my dad sent me away to summer camp- it was an attempt to socialize me with other boys and turn me into...something I wasn't. We didn't have campfires each night like here, but we did sing a bit. And I remember always liking that song."

Kurt sat down next to Blaine. "Sing it for me?"

He nodded, getting to his feet.

"It's about a girl who was very sick, and she was stuck in a hospital for a long time. But her window overlooked a river, and she would see the barges. She was only able to write the two verses and the chorus before she passed away, so usually we'd hum out the last verse, although there are several people who have written alternate ending verses. But I'll just do the first two and a chorus to give you an idea."

He cleared his throat and began.

Out of my window looking in the night
I can see the barges' flickering light.
Silently flows the river to the sea
and the barges do go silently.

Barges I would like to go with you
I would like to sail the ocean blue.
Barges have you treasures in your hold?
Do you fight with pirates brave and bold?

Out of my window looking in the night
I can see the barges' flickering light.
Starboard shines green and port is glowing red
I can see the barges from my bed. (1)

He finished, not realizing that he'd closed his eyes during the song and opened them to look at Kurt. Kurt was just staring at him, mouth slightly agape and eyes glazed over.

"Was that...okay? It's been awhile since I last sang it."

"Are you kidding me?! Blaine Warbler, you've been holding out on me. That was amazing!"

Blaine felt the flush creep up into his cheeks.

"That was superb! I had no idea what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. That song's perfect too. I can harmonize a bit above you, or we can take turns with the verses. What do you think?"

Blaine mentally shook himself. This is no time to be embarrassed that a cute boy is flattering you. Get it together!

"That sounds perfect."

Kurt flashed him a smile. "Great. I'm all done here, so maybe we can go back to the cabin and rehearse now?"

They swung by the dining hall to pick up a snack and ran into Moose, who offered the boys the use of his guitar for the number. Blaine had it strapped over his back as they made their way back to the cabin in silence, enjoying the sounds of nature all around them.

Once inside, Blaine leaned the guitar against the wall and flopped himself down onto his bed.

"So, we have the song choice, which was shockingly easier to agree on than I thought. Now we just need to practice." He leaned over to lift up the corner of his mattress, extracting a leather-bound notebook and a pen. Kurt raised an eyebrow. "What's that you've got there?"

"Oh. Just...my journal. I like to write down my thoughts sometimes or if something happens that I'd like to remember later on in life."

He flipped through to an empty page and started writing hastily, tearing the page off after a minute and handing it out to Kurt.

"Here are the lyrics. You already heard me sing it once, so the tune should be easy to catch on to. Do you want to try going through it once on your own to get the words down before we do the harmonies? Then I can work on the guitar part and we can put it all together."

Kurt took the sheet, admiring Blaine's tidy scrawl for a moment. He scanned the words briefly before moving to the center of the cabin, imagining himself on a kind of stage.

Then he opened his mouth and began to sing.