The sunlight streaming through a gap in the curtains woke Kurt on Sunday morning and he rolled over with a groan. He wasn't ready to face today – to face Rachel. He knew that Mercedes would be a lot more understanding of his situation and would be more willing to put the past behind them and move on, which is why he had wanted to see her first, but Rachel was bound to make a bigger deal of it and be less eager to forgive and forget.

Kurt turned his head to look at the small collection of photo frames that stood on the cabinet by his bed. In the largest frame was a photo of him and his parents, taken a few months before his Mom had died, a picture of the Warblers after the performance at the nursing home stood next to this. On the other side was the most recent picture – taken by Wes just a few days ago – of him and Blaine pulling goofy faces at the camera. Hidden at the back and covered with a light layer of dust was a photo of the New Directions after their first Sectionals win. Sitting up, Kurt picked the frame up, brushing dust away with his fingers, and examined it. A wistful smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he took in the smiling faces of his old Glee club. Kurt stood in between Rachel – who was in the centre of the photo – and Mercedes, his arms around both of them, a smile on his face. His own smile faded when he remembered that it was not long after this moment that he had become worried that people, Rachel and Mercedes in particular, were beginning to care about him too much. He remembered struggling with pushing everyone away at first and he would go home every night hating himself, but after a while he got used to it and the bitchy comments and petty insults came naturally, and being by himself all the time felt like second nature. It got harder when the bullying escalated and got a lot worse. It was hard having no one to turn to for support, to have no one to tell him that he wasn't alone and that it would get better, but he eventually learned to cope with that on his own as well. Once or twice he did think about just ending it all – at the time he didn't believe anyone would care if he did – and singing was the only thing that kept him going through those dark times, though it was touch and go at some points.

Pushing those memories to the back of his head and replacing the photo on his cabinet, he got out of bed and hurried to his bathroom, hoping a shower would be able to wash away all the lingering traces of the memories of one of the darkest periods of his life.

"Should I be scared about meeting Rachel? She sounds pretty full-on." Blaine watched Kurt flick on the indicator and turn off the street his house was on.

"That's one way of describing her." Kurt fumbled for his sunglasses as the sun came out from behind a cloud, reflecting off the car in front and dazzling them. Blaine picked up Kurt's glasses and passed them to him. "Thanks." Kurt slid them on, shaking his head at Blaine's bright yellow pair.

Kurt concentrated on the road for a minute. "Rachel will probably be too occupied with what I'm going to be telling her to pay much attention to you, and I wouldn't be surprised if she storms out once I've finished telling her – Rachel loves making a dramatic exit."

The Lima Bean came into view and Kurt slowed the car, preparing to turn off. He parked the car and they got out, Kurt hanging back slightly as they neared the doors.

"I can't see Mercedes anywhere." Blaine informed him as he opened the door to the coffee shop. He glanced at his watch. "We are a few minutes early, they maybe aren't here yet."

Kurt followed him up to the counter where they ordered their usual coffees and then found a table. Kurt sat facing the door and would look up every time the door opened.

"Relax, Kurt." Blaine told him, laying a hand briefly on top of his. "It will be-"

"Oh god, here they are."

Blaine turned in his seat to see Mercedes walking through the door, her eyes scanning the customers in the shop. Spotting Kurt and Blaine, she smiled. Coming through the door behind her was a shorter, dark-haired girl dressed in a sweater with a poodle on the front – she had a determined, confident air about her. The two girls stopped at the counter to get their coffees before Mercedes led the way over to Kurt and Blaine's table. Kurt jiggled his leg nervously as they drew nearer and Blaine fiddled with the lid on his coffee cup when Rachel's gaze landed on Kurt and her eyes narrowed slightly.

"I honestly wasn't sure you guys would be here." Mercedes admitted as she sat down - Kurt switching seats so he was next to Blaine with the two girls across from them.

Kurt smiled tightly. "I said I had changed and wanted to start over again and I meant it. I really want to have our friendship back."

"Me too." Mercedes smiled at him and took a sip of her coffee.

Kurt peered anxiously at Rachel over the top of his coffee. "Rachel, this is my friend Blaine."

Blaine smiled and held a hand across the table to the girl, who was eyeing the pair of them sceptically, one eyebrow slightly raised. She reluctantly shook Blaine's hand, letting go quickly. There were several long minutes of uncomfortable silence, during which Kurt and Blaine shot each other a few anxious glances, Mercedes sipped her coffee, and Rachel stared stonily at Kurt, only breaking her gaze to take a drink.

Rachel broke the silence, surprising Blaine. "Well, Kurt you might as well start explaining why you ditched me and our friendship and chose instead to spend your days ignoring me or sneering at my outfits and personality. Mercedes was sketchy on the details when she talked to me last night and she had to promise not to fight me for the next solo to get me to come here today."

Blaine raised his eyebrows, inwardly wincing at what Kurt was having to deal with.

Kurt took a deep breath and met Rachel's hostile glare before beginning to explain, telling Rachel everything he had told Mercedes yesterday. Blaine watched Rachel's face whilst Kurt talked; when Kurt began to describe how bad the bullying was and how he had felt alone and struggled to cope with it all, Rachel's expression turned stony again and she said nothing when Kurt finished talking.

More awkward silence followed this where no one seemed to know what to do or say. Kurt was watching Rachel, biting the inside of his lip, his expression bordering on heartbroken. Blaine took his hand under the table, lacing their fingers together and Kurt returned the pressure, smiling at him gratefully.

Mercedes set her coffee down. "So, are you two dating? I know you said that you were friends but..." She trailed off, her eyes flicking between Kurt and Blaine, a smirk spreading across her face when identical blushes stained Kurt and Blaine's faces.

"I- I- we- well, we-" Kurt spluttered, his eyes darting around the room to avoid the gazes of everyone else at the table. Rachel was now watching them expressionlessly.

Blaine licked his lips. "We-" He broke off when Kurt gave his hand a light squeeze, and the denial he had been about to say died on his lips – Kurt wanted to tell the truth. "Yes," Blaine admitted, "we're dating."

Mercedes smiled in delight. "I knew it! I'm so happy for you two! You are so cute together!"

Blaine exchanged a quick smile with Kurt, running his thumb over Kurt's knuckles.

"I really can't believe you never trusted me enough to tell me that you were struggling and being tormented." Rachel broke the moment, the atmosphere around the table turning tense again. "All those times you slept over at my house and we had long conversations into the night and shared secrets and you never mentioned it. I thought we were best friends, Kurt." She finished, her voice small.

"We- we were, but you heard what I said, you know why I didn't tell anyone." He said desperately, his eyes begging Rachel to understand.

Blaine watched the scene unfold anxiously. Kurt had been right, Rachel was taking this a lot worse than Mercedes had, the short girl looked to be on the verge of storming out, and Blaine could see the deep hurt in her dark eyes.

"Rachel," Blaine leant towards her slightly across the table, "Kurt never broke off your friendship intentionally. I've been in a similar situation to him – I was bullied at a previous school – so I know how hopeless you feel, how helpless. At the time, neither of us had someone who knew exactly what it was like, who truly understood what we were going through, to help us, to tell us that we were worth something, to give us hope. It's really easy to slip into despair and to feel like it won't get better, that you'll feel like this forever, and to slip away into yourself – to isolate yourself." All eyes were on Blaine as he spoke, the defiance and anger on Rachel's face was gone, replaced by sadness, concern, and a bit of shock. "You start to feel like the whole world is against you and eventually, this leads to anger at the world – at everything."

Silence followed Blaine's speech and he blinked back tears as he took a drink of coffee for something to do whilst everyone at the table continued to stare at him.

"I didn't realise..." Rachel sat back in her chair, looking disturbed. She exchanged a quick look with Mercedes whose expression almost mirrored Rachel's. "I've never really been bullied before – I get picked on for being in Glee but that's nothing. I didn't realise how bad it could be, how you would feel." She paused. "I'm so sorry, Kurt."

"It's fine." Kurt said quickly before Rachel could say anything else.

The rest of their meeting was more enjoyable. They talked mostly about Glee – Rachel, Mercedes, and Kurt discussing everything they had sung since they had last seen each other. Rachel was reluctant about discussing songs they were currently working on seeing as they would be competing against each other, so the conversation changed to Dalton – both Rachel and Mercedes were interested in hearing how it differed from McKinley. After a while, Rachel announced that she had to leave and they all decided to follow suit, arranging to meet up next week at Kurt and Blaine's usual coffee shop near Dalton seeing as Kurt and Blaine would be staying at Dalton that weekend to prepare for Sectionals. They said their goodbyes outside the Lima Bean before they split to their cars, Kurt and Blaine heading across the deserted car park with their hands linked, Kurt looking the happiest Blaine had seen him all weekend.

Kurt snuggled closer to Blaine. "Thank you for coming to my rescue in the coffee shop today, for saying all that, for explaining it all."

"No problem." He murmured into Kurt's ear, his breath causing Kurt to shiver. "I thought Mercedes would have taken it worse seeing as you were closer to her than you were with Rachel, but you were right, Rachel is very intense."

"I did warn you." Kurt picked up the DVD remote. "I'm glad my Dad is out so we can cuddle whilst watching a movie."

Blaine gave him a quick kiss. "Me too, but I think you should tell your Dad about us soon."

Kurt felt his stomach twist with guilt from his Dad still being lied to, but he forced himself to forget about it until later. He would tell his Dad soon, right now he just wanted to enjoy some time with his boyfriend.

He was about to press play when he remembered something. "Hold on a second." He said to Blaine, getting up and hurrying over to the cabinet by his bed. He quickly adjusted the positions of the photo frames, arranging them so the one of himself and New Directions was no longer hidden and could be seen as clearly as all the other photos. Smiling, he re-joined Blaine, curled up next to him, picked up the remote, and pressed play.