"Always, huh?"

Blaine raised his head up from Kurt's lap. He was lying on his back on Kurt's bed reading the novel they had been assigned to read for English but wasn't taking much of it in as Kurt was running his fingers lightly through his hair. He peered up at his boyfriend's face. "What?"

Kurt had been wearing a small smirk, but it disappeared when Blaine met his eyes and he hesitated before he replied. "Yesterday when we were talking to my Dad and he told you to take care of me, yo- you said 'always'." Kurt was avoiding Blaine's eyes now.

Blaine reached for Kurt's hand. "I meant it." He said softly. "I know we're young and lots of teenagers probably think this when they're in love for the first time, but I can't imagine myself being with anyone but you."

Kurt's eyes met Blaine's again and Blaine could see the tears forming in them – he was feeling a little teary himself. Kurt smiled down at him, squeezing his hand. "Me either." Kurt whispered.

"I-" Now Blaine was the one faltering. "I sometimes think about the future, imagine us living together in New York."

Kurt bent down to kiss him, his lips lingering on Blaine's before he pulled back slightly so there were only a few inches between their lips. "And we'll fight over the bathroom in the morning because, even though I've managed to cut you back on the gel, we both need lots of time to do our hair."

Blaine's face felt like it would split, his smile was so big. "But I'll always give in and let you have the bathroom first and have breakfast ready for when you come out."

Kurt moved his head closer to Blaine until there was only a sliver of air separating their lips. "Then I'll kiss you and tell you that I love you." He closed the space between their mouths and kissed Blaine. When he pulled back he gazed down at Blaine with so much love that Blaine felt like his heart would swell up and burst. He felt his eyes watering up more, sometimes he couldn't believe he had Kurt, a couple of years ago he never dreamt he would ever have someone love him like Kurt did –that he'd ever fall in love.

"I love you." Blaine said, his voice choked with his unshed tears.

Kurt's lips met Blaine's again, putting his unspoken response into the kiss.

Kurt was hurrying along the corridor with Trent, both of them complaining about how Wes wanted them to start thinking of songs for Regionals to 'get a head start on the competition'.

"Mr. Hummel?"

Kurt and Trent both turned to find Ms. Price standing by her office door.

"I'll see you in class, Trent." Kurt smiled at the other boy and watched him continue down the corridor before returning his gaze warily to Ms. Price. The History teacher waited until a large group of students passed before she spoke. "I haven't had a chance to talk to you since that night as you've been so busy with the Warblers – congratulations on your win by the way."

Kurt smiled briefly. "Thanks."

Ms. Price squinted up at him, looking concerned. "How have you been since you found out the curse was false? Are you coping alright?"

He nodded. "I told my Dad the truth about everything that happened and our relationship has improved and I'm re-building my friendships with people from my old school." He paused. "It hasn't been easy, and I still struggle sometimes with being able to act myself again, but Blaine has been helping me and I'm getting used to not being cursed – or believing I was.

"I'm glad you are. I was worried when you took off out of my room like that." Ms. Price smiled at him. "I'll let you get to class." She glanced around the almost deserted corridor and lowered her voice. "But if you ever need to talk about your experience with the demon you are more than welcome to come and see me."

"Thanks." Kurt told her, knowing that he would never take her up on that offer. He never wanted to think about that demon and the mess it caused to his life again if he could help it. And he was getting better at not thinking about the whole ordeal, it had been a while since he last woke up – drenched in sweat and gasping for breath – in the middle of the night after his sleep had been haunted by images of a snarling dark red demon standing over the body of his Dad or Blaine, and he hadn't flinched away from Blaine's touch in around two weeks now. Blaine had been fantastic, helping him out with his Dad and old friends, and being patient and understanding when Kurt would jerk away from him when he went to take his hand or kiss him before Kurt could remember that there was no curse on him preventing him from showing affection.

Kurt got to class seconds before the bell was due to ring. He slid into his seat next to Trent, muttering to him that Blaine had left one of his books in her class as his excuse for why Ms. Price wanted to talk to him.

As their teacher started the lesson, Kurt let his mind wander back to the phone conversation he'd had with his Dad the night before. His Dad had told him – both excitedly and a little nervously, unsure of how Kurt would take the news – that he had recently started dating a woman named Carole Hudson – Finn's mother. Kurt was happy for him, he knew his Dad loved his Mom, but that didn't mean he had to be alone for the rest of his life – Kurt had thought that he would have to suffer that fate and would never want his Dad to go through it. The conversation did give Kurt a lot to think about though; with his and Finn's parents dating he would likely be seeing quite a lot of the taller boy. His Dad had mentioned having Carole and Finn over for dinner one weekend Kurt was at home so that they could all get to know each other better. This meant that Kurt would have to go and see the New Directions, something he had been hoping to put off for a little longer. He had seen Finn briefly at Sectionals, but unless he wanted an extremely awkward dinner with him, his Mother, and his own Dad then he would have to talk to him properly and explain why he left McKinley so abruptly and why he treated everyone like shit before he left. However, he couldn't keep picking out individuals from his old school and trying to make amends with them one at a time, it was time he faced the whole of his old Glee club, including their teacher Mr. Schuester.

Dalton had an afternoon off classes the next week, conveniently on a day on which Kurt knew the New Directions had Glee club after school. Knowing he was out of excuses for putting off going to visit them, Kurt decided to drive to Lima and go to McKinley during their Glee meeting. When Kurt told Blaine about his plans, Blaine offered to come with him and Kurt agreed to this suggestion, knowing that there was a good chance some of the New Directions wouldn't be so forgiving of him and so it would be a good idea to have Blaine there to support him and to give him the courage he needed.

They visited Kurt's Dad at his work until it was time to head over to McKinley. Kurt and Blaine did the short drive to the school in silence, parked in the almost deserted car park, and made their way inside. Kurt had told Blaine that there was a chance they could run into some of the homophobes who had bullied him, and Blaine had told him that he would be careful to not show too much affection just in case, but Kurt was the one who had to stuff his hands into the pockets of his coat to prevent himself from taking Blaine's hand. Luckily they met no one as they made their way through the corridors to the choir room. As they neared the door, Kurt could hear Rachel's voice rising clearly above everyone else's as the group argued about something. He hesitated by the door, not particularly wanting to go in there in the middle of a disagreement and try to explain everything whilst they were all fired up and angry, but he wasn't going to back out now. Blaine smoothed his hand briefly over Kurt's and Kurt closed his eyes at his boyfriend's touch. Courage. He turned the handle.

The argument stopped as soon as Kurt and Blaine entered the choir room and everyone turned to stare at them. Rachel and Mercedes smiled, but everyone else looked shocked.

Mr. Schuester took a step towards him, frowning in confusion. "Kurt?" He sounded flummoxed.

Kurt cleared his throat. "Hi," his voice came out higher than normal, "I just thought I'd come here and-"

"And what, Hummel?" Santana interrupted, her eyes narrowed at him. "Have a cheery little catch-up? Reminisce about the good old days where you would sit in here with your fancy outfits – which I see you've traded for a prep boy uniform – and insult and ignore us?"

Kurt shook his head. "No, I-"

Santana cut him off again. "I know I can be a bit of a bitch, Hummel but I've never taken it to the level you did, and you just started it out of the blue as well, didn't even build up to it. I thought you were just on your-"

Rachel stood up. "Santana shut up and let Kurt explain!" She glared at the other girl.

"Let him explain? Oh, so you've already heard his lame excuse and swallowed it have you?" Santana said, rounding on Rachel.

Rachel opened her mouth to argue but Mr. Schuester stopped them. "Guys, enough! Let's just hear what Kurt has to say."

Kurt cleared his throat again, shooting Mr. Schuester a grateful smile. "I know I was horrible to you all, but I am really sorry for that and for just transferring schools without telling any of you." Santana rolled her eyes and shook her head disbelievingly at him but Kurt ignored her. "I've already told Rachel and Mercedes this, but the reason I was behaving like that was because I was being bullied so badly that I became very depressed and angry with the whole world."

He carefully watched the reactions of everyone hearing this story for the first time as he explained it all to them. Mr. Schuester looked especially troubled, Santana was watching him with an eyebrow raised but her expression had softened.

When he finished talking Mr. Schuester dropped his head into his hands. "How could I have missed this happening? I knew you were being picked on, but-" He broke off, raising his head to look at Kurt. "I'm sorry, Kurt I'm your teacher, I should have been able to help you with this, you should feel safe at school."

"Well, I do now; Dalton Academy has a zero-tolerance bullying policy."

Mr. Schuester nodded.

"So who was it that was making your life hell?" Puck spoke up from where he was sitting next to Finn. He cracked his knuckles menacingly. "I'll teach them a lesson!"

"Puck-" Mr. Schuester started warningly.

Kurt cut him off, shaking his head at Puck. "I'm not giving names. You can't beat the homophobe out of them and I've moved on from that stage in my life, I don't want to bring it up again."

Puck looked disappointed but didn't say anything more about it.

"But, Kurt surely you want the people who did that to you, who caused you to feel that worthless and depressed, to pay for what they did?" Finn looked a little confused. "Even if you don't want to do what Puck said, shouldn't you at least tell Principal Figgins so he can, I don't know, suspend them or something?"

Mr. Schuester frowned. "That's a good point; did you mention any of this to Principal Figgins? We need to make sure none of this happens again."

Kurt glanced at Blaine who smiled sympathetically. He dropped his eyes to the floor. "I did tell him – I told him when I was doing my transfer – but he said as there was no actual evidence, just what I had told him, he couldn't do anything about it."

Nobody said anything to this and Kurt could feel all their eyes on him. He wanted to leave now, wanted to go back to Dalton with Blaine, curl up with him on his bed, watch a movie, and forget about all this. What did it really matter if a bunch of people he would only ever see at show choir competitions didn't like him? Why did they have to forgive him? He had Blaine and all his other friends at Dalton now, and he was friends with Mercedes and Rachel (who he had forgiven for letting slip a secret to his Dad), and that was all that mattered. He could deal with Finn outside of the New Directions. It wasn't like their parents were getting married and he had to live with him, they were just dating, he didn't have to be best friends with him.

"Um, Kurt?"

Kurt raised his eyes to see Tina looking at him a little apprehensively. "Yeah?"

"I was just wondering who your friend was." She said, indicating Blaine with a wave of her hand.

"Oh," Kurt glanced over at Blaine who stepped forward until he was standing next to Kurt.

Blaine smiled at the group. "I'm Blaine, Kurt's boyfriend." He took Kurt's hand and Kurt felt a surge of love for Blaine at the pride and affection in his voice when he announced his relationship with Kurt.

A bunch of comments of how glad people were to see Kurt so happy and how adorable a couple Kurt and Blaine made followed Blaine's announcement, Santana's voice carrying clearly above everyone else's.

"Wanky!"

Kurt rolled his eyes, but couldn't keep the smile off his face as the members of his old Glee club hurried over to him and began asking about Dalton, complimenting their performance at Sectionals, and telling him stories of things that had happened since he had left McKinley. It was almost as if they had never stopped being friends. Even Santana forgave him, saying that she would let him off this time as she understood it hadn't been easy for him, but if he tried it again, she would take her own insults and bitchy comments up a level. Kurt caught Blaine's eye at one point and he gave Kurt a knowing smile. The last thing tying him to the experience with the demon was dealt with, he could move on with his life.

"Remember how I said Rachel was scary?" Blaine traced one of Kurt's veins down his inner arm from the crook of his elbow to his wrist with a fingertip.

Kurt hummed without opening his eyes; he nuzzled against Blaine's neck.

"I take that back, she's nothing compared to some of the others in New Directions."

Kurt chuckled, sending vibrations through Blaine's body. "Which ones?"

Blaine lightly drew a circle on Kurt's wrist. "Santana and Puck."

Kurt laughed softly again. "Yeah, they take a bit of getting used to."

Blaine closed his eyes as well, enjoying the feeling of being with Kurt, of feeling his breath against his neck and their bodies touching, of hearing his steady breathing, and knowing that he and Kurt loved each other.

"I still can't believe Wes did that." Kurt shifted slightly, lifting a hand to caress Blaine's chest.

When Wes had sat down at the Warbler table for dinner earlier he had loudly – so everyone at their table along with a good number of other boarders heard – suggested that Kurt and Blaine sing 'It's Getting Hot In Here' at the next Warbler meeting as he thought it was a good choice for them as long as they didn't act out the lyrics like they had been in his room a few weeks ago. Everyone had laughed whilst Wes had smirked wickedly at them. Kurt had buried his face in Blaine's shoulder, his cheeks on fire, and Blaine – as red-faced as Kurt – had scowled at Wes and warned him that he would get him back for this.

Blaine opened his eyes, his face feeling hot again at the memory. "So much for the slim chance that he was scarred for life." He felt Kurt smile against his shoulder and Blaine turned his head to press a kiss to his forehead. Kurt lifted his head and captured Blaine's lips with his.

"He's just jealous he doesn't have what we have." Kurt said when they broke apart.

"He is," Blaine agreed, leaning back in for another kiss, his mind and body thrilling at what he had with a boy he never thought could possibly exist.