He looked at Blaine shocked. The other boy had a huge smile on his face… so it must be…

He couldn't believe it. He was actually going to New Yor-

His thoughts were interrupted by someone running onto the stage and literally jumping onto Blaine. Kurt yelped and jumped backwards as Blaine and the girl toppled over in a flurry of black curls.

"OHMYGODYOU'REGOINGTONATIONALSBLAINERS!"

"L-Layla!" He asked, blinking furiously in disbelief.

The girl in question jumped up and pushed her hair from her eyes as Blaine got up and dusted himself off, his cheeks growing red as he realized where he was. The rest of the Warblers, besides Kurt, were laughing, while everyone else stared at them in shock.

"What're you doing here!" He hissed, grabbing her wrist as she went to wave at the audience.

"I'm here to watch my baby brother perform! Duh!" She grinned.

Everyone else had gone back to their celebrating or such, leaving the two to talk sort of privately, the only one listening in was Kurt.

"But why? Why didn't you even tell me you were in Ohio?"

"Surprises! Now… I seem to remember New Directions being the group your… Ex-girlfriend is in? Am I right? If so, tell me who she is right now." Blaine's eyes widen and he holds her wrist with two hands, hoping to hold her still. Kurt laughs at Blaine's reluctance to make a scene, and decides to immediately get onto Layla's good side by telling her, even though they haven't even introduced themselves yet.

"The blonde next to the really tall guy."

"Thank you-" She turns to look at him and her jaw drops a little. "Kurt…?" Kurt nods and she smiles and gives him a quick, awkward hug. "It's nice to meet you. If you didn't guess, I'm sort of a hugger. And by the way, you're really good looking." She winks and laughs at his blush.

As she walks over to New Directions fiercely Blaine shuffles a little closer to Kurt. "Sorry… She's a little…"

"Feirce? To the point?" Blaine tilts his head as a sign of agreement. "Calm down. I like her." Blaine seemed to genuinely smile at this and then looked over to see Layla already standing in front of Quinn.

They watched as she asked some sort of question, and Quinn nodded, a confused look on her face. And then Layla said something else and Quinn's face grew defensive as she continued. Quinn then said something, her expression becoming offensive instead, and Layla's jaw dropped and she suddenly slapped Quinn around the face.

Kurt's jaw dropped as well as Blaine's, and they continued to watch as Santana nearly leaped forwards to protect Quinn, but were held back by Puck and Mike. Blaine must've had a brain lapse, because he was admittedly slowly to rush over and pull his sister back, Kurt following closely behind, not making eye contact with any of them.

"-re a whore! You fucking-" Blaine smartly put his hand over Layla's mouth, but she bit him.

"Layla!"

She ignores him and continues to shout at Quinn. Trent came over and pulled Layla away completely, the girl struggling and shouting. The second she was off stage, Blaine turned back to Quinn.

"I'm sorry. Even though you don't deserve it, but I'll be sure to keep her on a shorter leash next time." Quinn just scowls.

"Who's that? Your new beard, Anderson!" Santana shouts.

"It's my sister, actually." He glares at Santana, not even knowing her name but having a slight dislike for her. "Unlike you I don't need a beard because I'm proud of who I am!" For some reason, this shuts her up, and she pulled away from the guys and stormed of the stage.

"I don't need your apology, Blaine-"

"At least I'm nice enough to give one. You did something much worse and I never heard a sorry."

She scowls, and eventually just walks away from them and off stage. Blaine sighs and frowns at her retreating form. And then Wes is beside him and Kurt. He smiles at Kurt quickly before turning to New Directions, or what's left of them.

"This might be a bit awkward after what just happened… but we were kind of hoping if you'd like to celebrate with us? We were going to go to Breadstix? But I'm warning you now, Layla's going to be there, with her friend. I can't remember his name, it was something like Jesse? Anyway, it's not like we're spying because none of us are really going to talk about Nationals tonight, right? Dinner's on us?"

"I don't care about you guys, but I'm coming!" Mercedes said, winking at Kurt. He smiled faintly in return.

There were a few more affirmatives before they agreed as a group. And a few more words were said until they were all ushered off stage. Blaine took Kurt and went to find Layla. He found her with Trent and some other guy in a green room. He and Kurt sat down, Kurt not looking up once.

"Layla! Why did you slap her?"

"She offended you!"

"Ex-girlfriends tend to do that! Especially when their boyfriend turns out gay!"

Layla scowls and crosses her arms. Then her friend speaks.

"It was pretty funny from where I was standing."

Kurt's head snaps up, recognizing that voice and seeing Jesse St James sitting beside Layla. Jesse grins when he sees him properly too.

"Oh look, the pasty face ghost boy switched to a better group. I knew you looked familiar. Was it Rachel's loud mouth that got you to switch?"

Kurt shrunk into himself, while Layla and Blaine looked at the two confusedly.

"Okay, first, don't you dare speak to Kurt like that again. Second, you two know each other?"

"I used to be in Vocal Adrenaline, before I left to spy on New Directions and dated Berry. And I can talk to him however I like."

Blaine scowls and Kurt grabs him arm before he says anything.

"Ohh, he's got himself some arm candy! And he's whipped too!"

"Shut it, St James. I didn't bring you here to pick on my brother or his friend. And I will personally punch you if you talk to either of them like that. You have no idea what Kurt's been through. And I brought you here so you could get back with that Rachel girl!"

"So? If she's still with Hudson, I will knock that tree down."

"Rachel's not dating Finn anymore… I heard him on the phone the other weekend about how Rachel is trying so hard to get him back…" Jesse smiled to himself.

"What did you transfer for anyway?"

The room went silent and Trent excused himself to leave, and went to find the rest of the warblers. Kurt looked down and reached for Blaine's hand. Blaine let him hold it, squeezing back.

"Look, Jesse," Layla spoke, shifting slightly. "It's not really… something to talk about. Can we just… forget about this and go get dinner? I'm starving!"

~x~

They all had to spilt up on tables, and Kurt ended up in between Blaine and Layla. Jesse was on her other side, and on the opposite side of the table were Mercedes, Jeff, Lauren, Sam and Artie had pulled up his chair at the end of the table.

Everyone had mixed themselves up so they could talk with new people, mainly against their own free will. But they had stayed adamant that Blaine stay with Kurt, and Layla with Blaine, and apparently a lot of them didn't want to talk to Jesse so he had to stay with Layla.

The conversation on their table was slow, Kurt only saying a few things when a direct question was shot his way. Lauren, Sam and Artie didn't really know what to say to him. Blaine kept their hands intertwined underneath the table.

"So… Kurt… Blaine tells me you like fashion?"

Kurt looks at Layla and nods shyly. He's liked her so far, but he felt claustrophobic in this room with everyone there, and he didn't like it. The only thing that kept him from running was Blaine's grip on his hand.

"Those blazers are a pain, aren't they? I bet you have wonderful clothes."

"Yeah… The blazers work for some people…"

"Like Blaine?" She smirked knowingly as Kurt blushed. Blaine was in a conversation with the rest of their table, excluding Jesse, and wasn't listening.

"So… Nationals. In New York. You excited?" Kurt grinned, finding that talking to Layla came so easily to him.

"Yeah. I've always wanted to go to New York. It's my dream. I can't wait!"

They continued to talk, and somehow Layla had switched to French, Kurt copying automatically without even realizing.

"So, have you ever been to Paris?"

"No, but I'd love to. My mom always talked about how wonderful it is."

"It's beautiful. You should definitely go sometime. The Eiffel Tower is amazing, and stunning at night."

Kurt was about to reply when Blaine finally realized that they had been speaking fluent French and the whole table were staring at the two confused. He interrupted, speaking French to Kurt too.

"You speak French?"

"Yes- oh my god, I've been speaking French this whole time haven't I?"

Blaine laughed. "Oui." Kurt blushed and sunk in his seat, making Blaine squeeze his hand.

"How did I not even realize?"

Layla giggled beside him.

"You must have been able to speak it fluently for a long time if you didn't even notice me switch! It must come naturally…. When did you learn?"

Kurt blinked. Layla seemed so interested in him. It was flattering as much as it was worrying.

"Urm… my mom lived in Paris for a few years before she met my dad. I learnt it when I learnt English…"

He smiled to himself, remembering that his dad had never picked up on any of the French whatsoever. Kurt liked to confuse him by switching and watching his baffled face.

"That's great! Now we can say whatever we want and no one will understand us!"

"That's if you don't swap to Italian! Not everyone can speak three languages, shorty."

Blaine simply stuck out his tongue childishly. She had always found Italian extremely hard and had eventually just given up on it all together.

"You speak Italian, too!"

Blaine nodded, winking at Kurt as he blushed again.

They all quickly got back into a conversation again, laughing and joking around, making Kurt go back to being quiet.

When it was time to leave, Blaine kept a tight grip on Kurt, making sure anyone from New Directions didn't whisk him away sneakily. But he let go so he could hug Mercedes, but then he was holding on again. This surprisingly didn't bother Kurt, because Blaine felt like his rock.

Layla and Jesse hitched a ride with them, so Blaine would have to drive them back home before heading to Dalton.

Blaine sat thinking, watching the road as his mind went at one hundred miles an hour. After a prolonged silence, he finally spoke.

"…Layla?"

Layla frowned, sensing nervousness in Blaine's voice. She leaned forwards from behind him.

"Yeah?"

"… I… I want to tell them. Mom and dad…"

"Tell them what?" She cocked her head slightly, confused. She realized that Kurt understood what he was talking about and placed a comforting hand on his knee.

"…That… that I'm gay."