One day Kurt wakes up, and disappears.

At first it's a slow process, really. Breakfast with his father, Finn and Carole is quite normal, unless you count the fact that they won’t see each other for a few weeks after Burt and Carole go on their honeymoon. Also, his fingertips are strangely transparent this morning, he can see through them to the soft brown of the toast he’s eating. It's not like it's a surprise. He's been fading away for quite a while now.

Before, it had been merely a feeling of emptiness. It followed him everywhere, even in his dreams. It transformed them, bringing always the same nightmare. He would walk, and walk, and walk, all around town: in school, at home, in his father's tire shop; but no one would see him. In the dream, he couldn't even talk — he'd tried opening his mouth several times, and nothing had come out, he couldn't even sing — although he could still hear them whisper evil things about him because they thought he wasn't there.

At that point, tears in his eyes, he would just walk, until he found a mirror and realized that he had no reflection — he tried to scream — and then just stared in horror as he recalled he couldn't. However, there was a creature in the background, something vaguely human-looking and it was approaching him from behind. It was smiling at him through the mirror because — because it could see him! His elation never lasted long, though, since he would always wake up at that exact moment, wet tracks on his cheeks and a quiet warmth in his heart. The latter would only last a few seconds, and was gone before he could remember it.

So that morning, on the nine of November, Kurt doesn't even give a start, thinking it's only a remnant of the dream, or his mind playing tricks on him.

He shakes it off and gets ready to confront again that nightmare he has to call school.

That morning Blaine wakes up knowing that something special is going to happen today.

Of course, he’s known that for weeks now and he’s ready for it. That hasn’t stopped him from feeling giddy and excited all week. He could hardly sleep last night! Hopefully he doesn’t have bags under his eyes to show for l. He checks in the mirror and nope, his face is good. He tries on a few of his most charming smiles, he’ll need them today. He just hopes he doesn’t mess this up.

Oh god, he’s going to mess this up.

Blaine-in-the-mirror’s face falls and he can feel himself starting to panic, his heartbeat picking up and his hands sweating and—

Wait, wait, no, calm down, Blaine. You’ve practiced every word, every movement hundreds of times. You can do this.

Courage is his new motto, after all. He’d better start living by it.

And anyway, the Council wouldn’t have given him this solo if they didn’t think he could do it.