"We don't have that much time really..."

"And we all know Blaine will end up winning."

"That doesn't really give anyone a fair chance though."

The members of the Warblers were fighting over what to do about the upcoming festival. A few different school around the area were all getting together over the weekend at Dalton, and they were only told this morning that they needed to prepare a song. Even though it was unfair, it was true. They didn't have enough time to hold auditions. At the same time though, it was clear that a few of the Warblers were pissed that Blaine always sang lead.

"Yeah... We're not going to be perfect, so we might as well just have auditions today."

"Exactly! Hold them today and then we can practice tomorrow and Thursday."

Wes smashed his found gavel down, the noise echoing around the room. "Look," he spoke up and everyone stopped talking at once. "We. Don't. Have. Time. Blaine is doing it, end of story." Blaine didn't say anything. He loved to preform, he wanted to do it, but the people fighting were right, it just wasn't fair.

"How about a duet? We used to do them all the time at my old school," Kurt spoke up. He had been in the group for about two weeks now, and Blaine had been avoiding him like wildfire. Even since they sang together a few weeks ago he had been nervous to talk to him. He didn't want to have any trouble with his father again, and more than anything he didn't want to get Kurt kicked out of the school. At Kurt's words though, he couldn't help but do something.

"I have to go home early," he announced, trying to get Kurt out of the room. "Doctors thing. Kurt, I gave you my math book for class and I kind of need it for homework. So... lockers. Now," he said, rushing out of the room. As he was leaving he heard whispers going around the room.

"A duet? It he trying to insult us?"

"Where did he even come from?"

Blaine just ignored them though and stood outside of the doors waiting for Kurt.

"What the hell was that about?" Kurt asked and he and Blaine started down hall.

"You can't just say stuff like that, Kurt," Blaine sighed. He was whispering, although he didn't know why. Classes were going on and he could be sure that there was no one else in the hall, so there really was no point. "You can't just ask if people want to do duets. Maybe you can wherever you live. But not here. Not in this kind of a situation. People here don't sing duets, because in a way duets are two people together. We aren't together with anyone here. We're all on our own, all looking for a way to get out of this place. If you get a solo people are more likely to pay attention to you. More likely to want to be with you. When singing a duet people just don't care as much." He knew that he was probably overreacting, but it was for Kurt's safety. People were starting to notice that something was different about him, it wasn't good.

"I didn't know," he mumbled, the two of them finishing the seventeen steps down the hall to Blaine's locker. "Besides, you sang with me and didn't protest." Blaine flinched at that. He was hoping Kurt wouldn't bring it up.

"That was different," he mumbled, running his fingers along the braille numbers on his lock. "It was the first time that I ever sang with someone else. I don't even know why I did it. It just... felt right."

"It was fun though, right?"

Blaine thought for a second. "Well, yes. I guess it was."

"So then," Kurt said, cheerfulness returning to his voice, "let's do it again. None of the Warblers need to know. It doesn't have to be a part of this stupid show. Just for fun. Just for us."

A grin split across Blaine's face, but it was gone as fast as it appeared. "I'm not really supposed to talk to you, Kurt. I'm not sure how my family would feel about me singing with you."

"So?" Kurt's response was instant. "Like I said, it's just for us, your parent's don't need to know either."

"I'm pretty sure they're going to notice if you show up at my house. They aren't that stupid."

"You know I have a house too, right? Come on, you can just tell your family that you went out with friends after school-"

"I don't go out with friends."

Kurt laughed at that, what kind of a school was this? But he continued anyways, "Fine then, you went out with some girl, they'll like that. Just make up some stupid story about her and they won't batt an eye."

Blaine silently shrugged. He hadn't ever lied to his parent's before, but it made complete sense. He could say that a few of the girls who were going to watch the Warblers at the festival had visited and he went out with one of them. Throw in a random name and they would believe every word of it. "Alright," he said, now smiling. Blaine could still talk to Kurt and be friends with him, just as long as no one really knew what was going on. It had been a waste of time to avoid him for almost two weeks. "How do we get there anyways?" Blaine had never been to the South Edge, and his parents had always taken him to school. Some students took the bus' that the school provided, but he was fairly certain that they wouldn't drive that far away just to pick up one kid.

"The train. It takes about an hour and a half one way, but anything to get here, right?" Blaine agreed absentmindedly, but scrunched his eyebrows together. Why would Kurt do that every single day just to come to a school that he wasn't even allowed to be himself at? There had to be better schools in his neighborhood. Schools where he was accepted no matter what. Blaine didn't ask him though, not wanting to push it. He wasn't sure if they were really friends yet and was unsure about how much he was allowed to say.

Thad took in a deep breath, feeling the beat of the first few notes of music filter through his speakers. Instead of watching his reflection in the mirrors that covered the walls he shut his eyes.

He had danced most of his life with no sight, and it just didn't feel right if he could see what he was doing. He didn't dance for competition. It wasn't even to be good. It was just to get his emotions out when he couldn't even admit them himself.

The music flowed through his body as he moved around the room. His motions were sharp and didn't follow any particular style, but it just bled with all of the things that were building up inside of him ever since her death.

He stopped moving for a second, but didn't stop dancing. His thoughts were still racing, and even though his body was still, his feelings were dancing around the room.

Thad leaned forwards onto his knees and let the raw edge of the song take over his dancing once again as he moved along the floor.

He smashed his fists into the ground for a second, his anger taking over him. It was his way of getting it out without actually screaming. This whole dance was his voice yelling for something. Yelling for someone. Yelling for her.

Getting back onto his feet Thad proceeded to take over the song, letting his body freely repeat jumps across the room. He knew the layout of it without even having to think and didn't have to worry about hitting anything.

Thad stopped dancing once more as the song came to a close and just stood there with his head down, singing the last few words to himself.

"Thad?" he whipped his head up and opened his eyes for the first time in a few minutes to see his younger brother Alan standing at the door. He was only thirteen and didn't have his sight yet, but had been dating the same girl for the past year and his family figured that it was only a matter of time. "We're eating dinner in a few minutes," Alan finished and left the room. He didn't really like to spend time with Thad ever since the accident. His whole family just felt kind of uncomfortable with him and no one really knew what to say or do.

"Coming," he whispered to the empty room before flicking off the speakers and wiping his sweat and tear stained face on his sleeve.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Blaine groaned after what felt like hours of sitting in the uncomfortable seats on the train. "I'm pretty sure it's been days."

Kurt chuckled and shook his head. "We're five minutes away. Jeez, I wouldn't have brought you if I knew you were going to be so impatient."

Blaine bit on his nails, waiting for the minutes to tick past. He had been fine with the idea of going to Kurt's place in the moment, but after an hour and a half of sitting on a train he really thought about it. There was just so much that could go wrong. Someone could see him going to the South Edge and tell his parents... Kurt's family could hate Blaine and tell everyone... His parent's could ask to meet the girl that he was with. It was just really risky. He was already almost there though and it would be pointless to go back now.

The train slowed and eventually pulled to a stop, and everyone pushed out. Kurt and Blaine were closer to the back and followed the bumps on the floor out. "Where do we go now?" he asked, nervously.

Kurt grabbed onto his hand and walked down the familiar street, "It's not far," was all he said and before the two of them knew it Kurt was pushing open the door into his house. "From what I know about the North Edge it's nothing like that here," he said, still holding Blaine's hand and walking him around the house. "We're in the living room now, and to our right is the kitchen. There is a small bathroom here," Kurt explained, walking a few steps forwards and tapping on a door. He spun Blaine around and put both of their hands on a railing. "Here's the staircase," they walked up the steps together and Kurt counted that there were eight of them out loud. "The first bedroom is mine, the next room is another bathroom. Beside that is Finn's bedroom and at the end of the hall is my dad and Carol's room. Sorry that we don't have the markings on the ground here. It's not really as common as where you're from. They're just expensive and, well, yeah."

"Is Finn your brother? And you call your mom Carol?" Blaine asked, curiously. He had never met anyone who called their parent's by their first name before.

"Step brother, and she's not actually my mom... My mom... she died when I was young. My dad just recently got remarried and Finn's her son."

Blaine bit his lower lip. Things really were different here. He didn't realize that people got married after the first time. Kurt must have realized that something was wrong because he spoke up.

"I guess you wouldn't be used to that, sorry. There's probably a lot you're not used to."

Blaine shifted uncomfortable, he didn't really want to talk about it, though. Everything he didn't know just made him feel really ignorant. "Do you have a guitar?" he asked, trying to change the topic.

"Yeah... Finn tried to teach himself at one point, I'll see if I can find it, you can just head into my room," Kurt sounded confused at Blaine's question which came out of no where, but he let go of his hand, pushed open his bedroom door, and walked down the hall.

Blaine felt his way around the room, becoming familiar with it. He started running his fingertips on the wall closest to the door and continued until they hit a small table. The edges were smooth, and from what he could tell, sitting on top of it was a small box. He continued around the room, finding a desk, a dresser, a keyboard, a filled bookshelf, and a bed. The cover on it was silky and inviting so Blaine flopped down onto it. He wasn't sure if he should be, seeing as he didn't really know Kurt that well, but all of this stress had just been building up on him and he needed to lie down for a second. The door creaked open a few minutes later.

"I actually found it! Finn's room is a disaster and I'm pretty sure I almost broke an arm digging through his stuff, but I found it!" Blaine sat up in Kurt's bed, leaning against the headboard.

"Awesome," he grinned, reaching out as Kurt walked over to where his voice was coming from and handed it to him. Blaine moved over a little on the mattress and Kurt sat down next to him. He didn't say anything about him sitting there. That was a good thing. Blaine fiddled around with the the guitar for a bit. It was way out of tune and clearly hadn't been played in a long time. He messed with different chords, just getting the feel of it. "You don't care what we sing?" he asked Kurt quietly. It was going to be his second time singing with someone else, and now that it was planned and not spontaneous he was actually really nervous.

"Just go ahead, I'll probably know whatever you want to play," Kurt leaned his head back, listening Blaine strumming on the guitar. As he started to sing though, it was as if it was the first time Kurt could actually see the music.

A grin spread across Blaine's face, reaching his ears. It was worth coming here. In the moment it didn't really matter if anyone found out, it was just so amazing. Amazing to sing to someone just because.

Blaine continued to play the guitar as Kurt took over singing the next verse. He could tell that Kurt was also smiling just from the tone in his voice. The thought made Blaine feel warmth all the way down to his toes. It was a feeling he wasn't used to, but something he wanted to feel forever.

They sang the second chorus together, voices blending harmoniously. Somehow they just worked together, and in some ways, Blaine really wanted to be able to sing the duet with him at the festival, but at the same time he was glad that they couldn't. There was something special about no one hearing them sing except for each other.

Blaine sang his way through the next few lines as Kurt sang in harmonies on certain words. If it was possible, both of their smiles grew even larger.

Blaine stopped playing the guitar at that moment and put it down in front of him as the two of them finished together.

"That was..." Blaine started, but wasn't exactly sure what he was getting at.

"Yeah."

"Kurt?" He asked after a few moments of silence. He wasn't sure why, but he always felt so much more comfortable talking to him after singing. It was as if it calmed everything that had been bothering him. Kurt's voice just had that affect.

"Mhhm?"

"Why did you come to Dalton?"

"Kurt!" The voice was followed by the slam of the front door. "Kurt! I brought home Chinese!"

Blaine was about to ask who exactly that was, but his thoughts were interrupted by Kurt.

"Finn."