“That was who?!”

“Blazer,” Rachel says, toothy-wide smile in place, glancing back up at Kurt as they shuffle along the crowded corridor. “He kicked some serious ass.”

“Serious ass? Rachel, this is sounding more and more like some B-grade superhero movie from the nineties.” Kurt says, somewhat stiffly, attempting to keep his gaze fixed ahead.

“Did you see the bit where he-“

“-flew into view from mid-air? Knocked out some criminal with a single punch?” Kurt huffs.

Rachel slaps him lightly on the forearm, giggles.

“He’s pretty powerful, you know, Kurt.” She says, all-hushed. “When he flips that one guy over the counter, if you listen really closely, you can hear his wrist snapping.”

“That’s nice.” Kurt says. “I don’t really see why that’s at all relevant to-“

“-it’s relevant because while you might not care too much about the abilities clearly demonstrated in the video-“

“-abilities?” Kurt scoffs, walks a little faster. “Rachel, it’s the twenty-first century, have you never heard of special effects? Maybe even camera tricks?”

“Special effects – Kurt Hummel!” Rachel gasps lowly, glaring back at him. “Of course I have, even Broadway uses it nowadays-“

“-then why on earth are you believing what is clearly some amateur show-off who decided to stage a robbery to get his fifteen minutes of fame?”

“Because I was there!” Rachel shrieks, suddenly, the sound echoing down the hallway and freezing the footsteps and faces of the surrounding students. Rachel smiles tightly, brightly, clutches Kurt’s arm and powerwalks him down to their lockers.

“What do you mean, you were there?” Kurt asks sharply when they get there, almost wrenching his arm from its socket while attempting to get it out of Rachel’s grasp.

“I was at the robbery,” she replies defiantly, opening her locker. “Hell, the video itself is mine – I swear, Jacob Ben Israel stole it from my MySpace.”

“If you were in an armed robbery, Rachel, then why were you recording it?” Kurt sighs, leaning up against his locker, blinking his eyes awake. “Wasn’t there a bigger picture involved, y’know, the fact that you might be killed?”

He pulls out his phone, fires off a quick text to Blaine.

Hey, can you bring me coffee when you get here? Its 8:30 and my eyes are already giving up.

“This was a real-life superhero, Kurt.” Rachel half-whines, heaving a maths textbook from her locker and cringing at the worn cover. “This guy was insane – he could melt solid guns with his hands, turn things invisible-“

“-and he calls himself Blazer?” Kurt asks warily, checking his phone for a reply from Blaine.

Of course, sweetie – Grande non-fat mocha, right? xx

Kurt smiles to himself coyly, taps out a reply.

You know my coffee order? J

The reply is almost instant.

Of course I do, dummy.

“Of course he does, Kurt.” Rachel deadpans. “Every budding saviour needs an alter ego.”

“And you would definitely risk your life for a budding saviour.”

“No, Kurt!” Rachel says, voice confident-smug, snapping her locker shut. “I’d risk my life for the greater good, just like Blazer did.”

Kurt snorts. “What greater good is going to come from that video, may I ask?”

“Well, anyone that has an internet connection can now see the powers of Blazer in full storm.” Rachel’s head is high, something like pride trickling through her voice. “I think that’s pretty great.”

Her eyes light up like smiles, looking past Kurt.

“Don’t you, Blaine?”

*

“Don’t you, Blaine?”

Blaine freezes, which is a really bad idea because the coffee he was shifting hand-to-hand stays on his left palm a little too long, scalds it and he lets out a tiny ow as he switches hands and Kurt finally grabs the coffee off him and looks back with grateful, sleepy-adorable eyes and kisses Blaine’s slight-scalded palm better.

“Good morning, Mister Medium-Drip,” Kurt says, releasing Blaine’s wrist as gently as he can.

Perfect.

Rachel steps in-between them, turning to hug Blaine and suddenly Kurt’s laughing silently behind his hand and he tries not to hug back too awkwardly and tilts his head to the side to fit into the half-curve of her shoulder and it only feels half-awkward until Rachel pats his back.

“What do you think of him, Blaine?” Rachel asks as she steps away, smiling a little too sincerely at him.

Blaine gulps. “Think of who?”

There’s a video, Brittany, can you hear me? There’s a video of me in skin-tight black spandex melting guns and punching people to unconsciousness on the internet and Rachel Berry knows about it and-

Brittany rounds the corner, suddenly, slams into him and he lets out a small oh of air.

“Blaine!” She says, over-cheerful, looping her arms around him and squeezing tightly.

There’s a video now?

Just listen.

“Brittany!” Rachel says brightly, and Kurt’s eyes are wide and he’s shaking his head at Blaine, and the tension that seems to be radiating out through Rachel’s smile alone pushes static electricity to run up Blaine’s spine.

“We were just talking about Blazer,” Kurt says, suddenly, sweeping forward in one smooth motion to come between Brittany and Rachel, pulling Blaine into a hug and bringing his lips up close to Blaine’s ear.

“Just go with it,” he whispers rapidly, “she’s fucking obsessed about that try-hard kid and she hasn’t shut up all morning, seriously, just tell her what you think so we can go people-watch in peace.”

“Try-hard kid?” Blaine hisses back, squeezes his hand a little firmer against the small of Kurt’s back.

Please, don’t actually be me.

“Some teenage Houdini that likes to call himself Blazer, yeah, she recorded him stopping some robbery and now it’s gone viral. Scandal, huh?”

Blaine stops breathing for a second.

Viral?

A moment passes, and Kurt breaks the hug, takes a deep breath.

“So, Rachel, you were saying?”

Rachel pulls out her phone, crosses quickly to the centre of the group. “I’ll prove it to you – it’s my video, and I was there.”

Once Rachel’s concentration is safely focused on her phone, Blaine allows himself to glare.

*

“Blaine, you can’t actually destroy the building.”

Blaine isn’t so much punching the wall as throwing his fists at it and hoping they hit properly, but it’s nothing if not effective.

“If Rachel’s still in it, I can try.” He huffs out, all-aggressive, and lets his hands drop to solid weights by his side. “Why, Brittany? Why did she do that?”

“It’s in her personality, I guess?” Brittany tries to shrug nonchalantly, but even she looks a little pissed off. “She saw something cool happening, and she wanted a piece of the action.”

“Well, now anyone that has an internet connection-“ punch “-which is pretty much the entire population of this country-” punch “-can get a piece of the action too.”

“Look, Blaine-“ Brittany says, resting a hand on his shoulder, “-I know I’m the last person that should be telling you this, but you need to calm down.”

 “I know, I really do, but I can’t – I’ve only been a crime-fighter for a month and I’m probably already being violated online.” Blaine whines, sighs, turns back to the wall. “The video already has twenty-thousand views-“ punch “-and I don’t think I can deal with the fact that of all people to put it up, it was Rachel Berry-” punch “-I mean come on, of all the people in all of everywhere-“ punch “-it had to be her.”

He finishes, chest heaving with each breath, his body practically caving into itself every few seconds.

“-she’s fucking obsessed with that try-hard kid-”

“Kurt hates him.” He says, sudden and out-of-breath. “He hates Blazer, oh god, he hates me-“

“-Blaine.”

“-what if he finds out? It’s not that hard to figure out basic things about Blazer, Rachel did it, so it can’t be, what if he finds out that I’m lying to him and he hates me and-”

SLAP.

“For the love of everything holy, Blaine Devon Anderson, sit the fuck down!” Brittany screeches, shaking out her now-red hand.

Blaine sits on the ground, crosses his legs, rubs at his cheek as softly as he can.

“You’re a good person, okay? If people look close enough, they recognize it, and Kurt’s been looking for as long as he can and you know it.”

Blaine looks up at Brittany, eyes slitted, silent.

“He knows that you’re a good person – you’re saving people’s lives, for chrissakes!”

“You heard him, okay?” Blaine stares at his shoes. “I’m just a try-hard kid-“

“He thinks Blazer is a try-hard kid-“

“-and I’m Blazer!” Blaine’s voice echoes through the empty bleachers, and Brittany flinches.

“Again, calm down.” Brittany hisses. “And Kurt knows nothing about Blazer, okay? But he knows everything about you.”

“Obviously not, since-“

“-this is different, okay? You have fucking superpowers. People’s lives could be at risk if you tell them, so try not to worry about it, okay? You have reasons to be keeping this from him.”

“It’s gonna come out eventually, though.”

“And when it does, you’ll both cross that bridge together, okay?”

Blaine tries to glare, but Brittany pouts, and he gives up within a second.

“You’re amazing, you know that?”

*

“-and I’m Blazer!”

Don’t go back there it’s none of your business, you’ve already screwed up so much and you can’t afford to put another toe out of line, you’re already homeless-

“Blaine?” Sebastian breathes out, running a hand through his hair. The last few days had been confusing if nothing else, but this just blew things out of the water.

Superpowers? Saving lives?

Sebastian scoffs at himself.

Don’t be ridiculous, he couldn’t have…but he survived, when I…

Sebastian blinks.

…when I stabbed him? Oh god, I did stab him, fuck-“

You stabbed him alright – he got in your way.

Sebastian stops breathing for a second – he can’t handle the voice, not now, he needs to be thinking positive and stop, please, I want to be a good person-

Is goodness really better than being powerful?

Of course it is, I know it is…

You know you’re lying to yourself; you tried to be good, and your father kicked you out. How is that better?

Sebastian tilts his head to the side, just a little, and steps away from the corner where he was watching Blaine.

You could be powerful right now, but you let other things get in your way-

“Like him.” Sebastian whisper-growls to the thin air, hands clenching around nothing. “I could have everything I ever wanted, but he got everything instead.”

Exactly.

“No. No!” Sebastian hisses, suddenly, drags his hands over his face in an effort to wipe away the voice. “He’s a good person, that’s why everything’s working out for him.”

You could stop him, you know, if you listened to me.

I don’t need to stop him, I need to leave him and Kurt alone and focus on myself now can you please leave me-

But that’s not what you want.

It’s what’s right.

You’re lying to yourself.

I know what has to be done.