Valentine's Day was not Kurt Hummel's favourite holiday. By far. In fact, one might say it was this close to being his least favourite holiday. All the lovey-dovey couples around him just made him either want to vomit or yearn for something like that for himself.

Luckily for Kurt, Dalton was an all-boys school, which meant that there were visibly less couples walking the hallways as compared to, for instance, McKinley. However, that also meant that the couples who did walk around here were solely gay couples, which, in turn, depressed Kurt even more, if possible. After all, it was proof that there were actually more gay guys in Ohio than just him (and a certain closeted football player at McKinley he preferred not to think about), but none of them were interested in him, and he was still all alone.

Oh well; at least he hadn't been subjected to watching all the New Directions members serenade their significant others in the choir room the past week. From what he'd heard from Mercedes, it had been cavity-inducing. He also supposed it was a good thing Finn was still (or again, Kurt didn't know anymore by now) single, so the house was safe from teen romance as well. They'd managed to convince their parents to go spend the weekend together somewhere, as it was their first Valentine's Day together. That would've been all fine and dandy, had it not been for the fact that Finn, who'd somehow managed to get mono (which, in Kurt's opinion, was bound to happen when you were on a mission to kiss each and every girl in school; if Finn had done something like this last year, who knew what Kurt – well, ew. He didn't want to think about that anymore), had been in his bed the entire time and had constantly complained about everything and anything. Kurt had been reduced to being his stepbrother's personal servant, at least on Saturday. On Sunday, he'd had enough and had managed to ignore Finn for the better part of the day.

After a long day of classes, Kurt was looking forward to just going home and rest up for a bit, even though the school week had just started. However, he had been given a huge load of homework that he hoped to at least partly finish today, and he'd also promised Mercedes that they'd go to Breadstix later, to celebrate their singleness, or something like that.

It was a good thing he'd already picked his outfit for the evening, as the traffic between Westerville and Lima was ridiculously busy that day. Kurt barely had time to do his hair before he was out of the door again to pick up Mercedes.

On the drive over to Breadstix, Mercedes informed him that most other New Directions members would be there as well (the only people who wouldn't be there were, in fact, the two people who were down with mono). Kurt actually looked forward to that – while he did sometimes see Mercedes or Rachel, or even Tina, during the weekends, he hadn't properly spoken to most of his McKinley friends since the Christmas break.

When they entered the restaurant, they were immediately ambushed by none other than Rachel, who dragged them to the table she had obviously already claimed.

"I didn't realise we were actually sitting with Rachel," Kurt muttered to Mercedes on their way over. His friend just shrugged.

"When she heard I got you to come, she insisted on joining us. Maybe she was hoping you'd brought Finn."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Yeah, no. Finn's still in bed all the time, expecting me to comply to whatever he wishes."

"Are you talking about Finn?" Rachel asked eagerly. "How's he feeling? Don't you think it's very suspicious that both he and Quinn have mono now? They've obviously been fooling around even though – "

"They're not fooling around," a voice suddenly said from next to them. It was Sam. "Quinn told me what really happened. Finn was choking on a piece of gum, and she saved his life." Kurt and Mercedes exchanged glances, not quite sure how to break it to Sam that yes, Quinn and Finn were fooling around. Rachel just stared at the blond boy incredulously. "Hey, Kurt," Sam greeted him. "How's Dalton treating you?"

"Hey, Sam," Kurt said in reply. "Quite well, actually. It's much better than McKinley – classes are harder, but the other students are much kinder, which is a relief."

"I bet you think you've died and gone to gay heaven," another voice came before Sam could respond.

"Santana," Kurt acknowledged her, ignoring what she'd just said. "Nice to see you again too."

As Santana sat down in the seat next to her, Rachel squirmed slightly and asked, "What are you both doing here anyway?"

Santana shrugged. "This is Breadstix. I don't need an excuse to eat here, I'll take any opportunity I can get, even if it's Valentine's Day and I don't have a date." She let her eyes wander around the restaurant. "But maybe by the end of the night I might have one anyway."

"Quinn told me to go even if she couldn't come along," Sam replied. "I'd already made reservations, you see. Would it be okay if I joined you guys, though?" When no one had any issues with that, he added, "I just have to go and… cancel the reservation, then."

As he walked away, Santana moved a bit closer to Rachel, who cleared her throat loudly at this. "What?" Santana asked her, sounding annoyed. "We have to make room for Sam, don't we?"

"He's still with Quinn, Santana," Mercedes reminded her. "You shouldn't try to make a move on him now…"

"Why not?" the other girl asked airily. "It's what Finn did…"

Despite the current conversation, Kurt smiled; he really missed hanging out with girls. He had some friends at Dalton, of course, boys who were in various classes with him, but he was one of the few students who didn't board, which meant that the only times they sometimes hung out was in between classes, and once or twice after school. Now that he thought about it, maybe those friends weren't really… friends.

He supposed that if he joined a school club, he'd make more friends, but that would leave him with even less time to do his homework, or to spend with his family. Sometimes, he thought boarding would make it all much easier – but it was also much more expensive than the gas prices of driving to Dalton and back everyday.

"Finn's is not exactly the best example to follow," he reminded Santana mildly, causing Rachel to look indignant.

"This is hardly Finn's fault," she instantly tried to defend him. "Clearly Quinn – "

"Just shut up, midget," Santana snapped at her, just as Sam came back and squeezed in next to Santana. "No one wants to hear you talking about yourself all night long."

"I wasn't – " Rachel started to protest, but Santana turned to face Kurt, ignoring the girl next to her.

"You didn't have a hot date tonight with one of those prep school boys over at gay Hogwarts?" she asked him challengingly. "I'm disappointed, Hummel. I thought you had better game than this. How many guys have you done the dirty with so far?"

Kurt knew that he must've instantly turned beet red. "W-What?" he asked, staring at her incredulously.

"I think you just broke him," Mercedes informed Santana disapprovingly.

"We're here to celebrate the joys of being single," Rachel added.

Santana eyed her disbelievingly. "Well, of course you are, dwarf. No one in their right mind should want to go out with you on any day. I just figured that in a school like that, all those guys must be horny as – "

"It's an all-boys school, Santana," Kurt interrupted her. "Not everyone's gay. In fact, hardly anyone I know of is gay there. And if they are gay, they're already taken."

Sam nodded in agreement. "People think that a lot, but an all boys school doesn't mean all students are gay."

Santana seemed unimpressed. "You can always ask those couples if they'd be interested in a threesome. The sex gets boring at some point anyway, with some people sooner than with others, but it always happens." She looked around at her companions and sighed heavily. "Not that you would know. Ugh, why did I have to sit with some of the biggest virgins in this town?"

There was an awkward silence for a moment. Luckily, a waitress soon arrived to take their orders, after which Rachel turned to Kurt once more with a determined look on her face. "Kurt, I know that you don't want to betray the New Directions, but you must really consider trying out for the Warblers. Yes, they are our competition, but every day I'm saddened by the knowledge of your voice not being used and eventually, it's going to suffer from that. And sure, your voice isn't quite as good as mine but it was still one of the better ones in the club and it's a shame that you're not doing anything – "

"I drive from Lima to Westerville and back every day," Kurt reminded her. "That's almost four hours spent in my car. What do you think I do in that time?"

"Yes, but…," Rachel was searching for words now, which was rather unusual for her, "it kills me that you're wasting your voice like that – it would be much better to use it in a slightly more professional way and – "

"So you're saying that Kurt should join the Warblers," Mercedes deduced from Rachel's rant.

"And use my voice to produce one of the back-up noises while one and the same guy sings each and every solo they have to offer," Kurt added, causing his four friends to stare at him – three of them in disbelief and confusion, Rachel as if her dreams had come true; as if she didn't get almost every solo in New Directions.

"The same one who sang at Sectionals?" Sam asked, and Kurt nodded. "He's a pretty good singer, right?"

"Well of course he is," Rachel responded. "Of course they're giving the best singer all the solos. Mr Schue could learn a thing or two from the Warblers."

Mercedes narrowed her eyes at Rachel. "You're lucky you're sitting all the way over there, or else I would've cut you on the spot."

"I'll throttle her for you," Santana volunteered.

Rachel moved even closer to the wall and said, "But that's good to know, that the same guy gets all the solos; at least we now know what we're up against!"

Santana rolled her eyes. "So what she's saying is, you should join those Gargler guys and then tell us all their secrets so we win Regionals," she told Kurt.

Kurt raised an eyebrow at the two girls. "Have you already forgotten how awful we felt last year when we realised that Vocal Adrenaline probably knew every last bit of information about us? Do you really want to do that to others?"

"Sure, why not?" Santana replied, looking like she really couldn't care less.

Before Rachel could reply, somebody very audibly cleared their throat. They all swivelled around to see what was going on, and Kurt could feel his eyebrows almost reaching his hairline. Well, speak of the devil…

o-o-o-o-o

Blaine honestly didn't know whose idea this was, but he knew that in some way, it was his fault. He'd been the one, after all, to propose an off-campus performance. Not in this restaurant two hours away from Dalton, no, at the Westerville mall. At the Gap, to be exact. However, none of his teammates had really felt for that plan, leaving Blaine to make the trek to the store by himself, only to find Jeremiah flirting with one of the customers, much like he'd done with Blaine a couple of weeks ago, or so Blaine liked to think. Well, at least Blaine now knew the older boy (man?) definitely wasn't interested in him without having to possibly make a complete fool out of himself.

When he'd returned to Dalton, he'd been told that the Warblers were going to perform, in some restaurant in Lima, on Valentine's Day. Now that Blaine didn't have a date anyway, he was all for it – at least he wouldn't have to spend the evening alone. When he'd asked the council why they'd agreed to do this, but hadn't gone along with his proposal, Wes had stiffly explained to him that providing musical entertainment in an establishment such as a restaurant called Breadstix was something entirely different from helping Blaine win over a guy he barely knew with a song that was highly inappropriate and would surely become a cause of great controversy once the Dalton staff found out about it.

Fair enough, Blaine figured, not really in the mood at the time to argue due to the rejection that sat fresh in his mind.

So here they were, standing in perfect Warbler formation, waiting for Wes to be done talking heatedly with the lady who apparently worked here and just announce them already. Blaine let his eyes wander around the restaurant. Most tables were occupied, of course, by couples, but there were a few groups of people as well, like the bunch of teens over there who seemed to be discussing something urgently –

And now Wes had started talking, introducing their group as the Dalton Academy Warblers, and telling the guests that they'd be singing a couple of songs in honour of Valentine's Day. Blaine noticed a couple of people, including the group he'd just noticed, exchange glances, either confused or… some emotion he couldn't quite read. He shook it off quickly and just started singing as his cue came.

Somehow, he couldn't stop glancing at the group of teenagers every now and then. There was something familiar about one of the boys, but he didn't know what it was. At some point, the boy held his gaze in what Blaine thought was a slightly challenging way. He quickly forced himself to look around the restaurant again, at the other guests, who seemed to be enjoying the performance.

Still, as they started their second song, Blaine found his eyes drifting towards the group again, and the boy was listening intently, while muttering something to the girls surrounding him every now and then. The other boy at the table was bobbing his head along with the music, and Blaine had to do a double take because, really, that hair colour? Definitely not natural.

Soon, the Warblers had performed all the songs they'd prepared for the evening, and everyone around them clapped enthusiastically. Blaine hoped that the other Warblers now realised that public performances didn't have to be bad; in fact, they could definitely help them prepare for Regionals. The change of scenery had been a good one.

The group now dissipated, and about half the Warblers were going to go somewhere else next, seeing as they did have dates tonight. The other boys stayed around for a bit, mingling with the guests if they wanted to.

"Well, hello there," a voice almost purred very close to Blaine, and the boy started, before whirling around, coming face to face with a (now unimpressed and not amused looking) girl.

"Uh, hi," Blaine replied, still in shock. "Can I… help you?"

The girl's grin grew. "Oh, definitely. What do you say, I think I know a nice and cosy motel nearby and – "

"What?" Blaine quickly took a few steps back.

Now, the girl seemed annoyed. "Look, you can either drop the hard-to-get act, it got old pretty quickly, or you can just get lost and get your sweet virginal ass out of my sight before I go all Lima Heights on you – "

Blaine could only stare at her incredulously, and after a few seconds, she scoffed, pushing him out of the way and launching herself at the next Warbler instead. Blaine just wasn't sure how Nick would respond to the sudden attention.

And now Blaine was just standing there, in the middle of the restaurant, without any idea as to what to do or where to go. As if on cue, he noticed a brown haired girl waving furiously at him. Raising his eyebrows slightly, he hesitantly made his way over. Before he reached the table, its occupants seemed to have some sort of heated discussion before quieting down as he came within hearing distance. All of a sudden, he realised that this was the group he'd been watching a lot during the performance, and the girl who'd just pretty much almost assaulted him had been here as well.

He smiled uneasily as he came to a halt next to the table, glancing at the four teens sitting around it.

"You can sit down, you know," the girl who'd waved him over told him, scooting closer to the wall and pulling the blond boy sitting next to her with her.

"O-Okay," Blaine replied cautiously. "I'm not interrupting some sort of date, right?"

"Oh, no, of course not," the same girl replied, while the other girl tried to hide her laughter behind her hand and the two boys just stared at him wordlessly. "We're not on a date, we're here to celebrate the joys of being single. Except for Santana, who's just here to find a warm body to spend the night with or whatever," she finished, gesturing towards where the girl who'd just accosted Blaine was still flirting with Nick.

"And I have a girlfriend, remember?" the blond boy spoke up. "It's kind of a long story," he added, turning towards Blaine.

"Your girlfriend is okay with you hanging out with other… girls on Valentine's Day?" Blaine asked. He didn't know much about girls, but he did know they could get very jealous.

"It's not like it matters," the same girl replied again. "She already cheated on him, so it's not like she has any say in – "

"She didn't cheat on me, okay?" the boy interrupted her, sounding exasperated. "Can't you just… go back to badgering Kurt about Finn or something? Sorry," he added as the other boy turned to him with a glare.

"Your performance was great, by the way," the other girl, who hadn't said anything so far, told him with a bright smile. "You're quite the talented bunch."

The others appeared to agree, and the short brunette said, "Not to mention you sounded great on lead vocals. How did you get the others to give you all the solos?"

If Blaine wasn't mistaken, he noticed the other three roll their eyes or facepalm at this. "They all just agreed that those songs fit my voice best," he responded, not really knowing what else to say. It was true, of course, but he wasn't sure if these people would accept that.

"No auditions?" the dark-skinned girl asked, seeming a bit shocked to hear this.

"Sometimes there are auditions," Blaine explained, "but often enough, the council decides who gets the solos without auditioning."

He noticed the boy who hadn't spoken so far – Kurt, he thought – give the brunette in front of him a significant look, but he wasn't sure why. "That doesn't sound very fair," the same girl continued.

"It's just how it goes in the Warblers," Blaine replied. "Some choirs may do it differently, but we've found that this is what works best for us."

"Or are you just saying that because you get all the solos?" the brown haired boy finally spoke up, raising an eyebrow at Blaine.

"No!" Blaine exclaimed. "It's just – that's how it's always been. If you know what everyone's voices sound like, auditions aren't always necessary, right? You can determine whose voice goes best for each song without auditions."

"But if you hear the same voice over and over again, don't you start forgetting what everyone else's singing voice is like?" the boy argued.

Blaine hesitated for a moment. That may be true, but – "I don't make the rules, alright?" he asked, perhaps a little more forceful than he was used to. "And I'm not in the council either, I don't decide who gets solos or not!"

The boy shot him an unimpressed look and resumed picking at his food.

"So tell us more about the Warblers," the brunette girl said after a couple of seconds, looking almost too interested. Nevertheless, Blaine figured it wouldn't hurt to tell them more about the group of boys that had made his life a whole lot less difficult and more pleasant.

o-o-o-o-o

The next day, Kurt was actually a bit nervous to walk around at Dalton. After all, only twelve hours prior, one of his friends from his old school, who was also one of the team captains of New Directions, had sufficiently interrogated the lead singer of the Glee club of Kurt's current school. When the Warblers had left, Rachel had told him that he really should join the Warblers now, seeing as they had nothing left to hide now anyway, since she knew everything already – which meant that Kurt didn't have to spy for them if he joined (not that he was really planning on doing that in the first place).

He was certain that, by now, the Warblers must've realised that almost the entirety of New Directions had seen their performance last night; after all, Blaine – who had, in a way Kurt had seen many Dalton boys act, introduced himself at some point, although Kurt had to admit, he'd secretly known his name already anyway – wasn't the only Warbler who'd mingled with the other people at the restaurant, and Kurt could've sworn Santana even left with one of them at some point. Surely someone must've spilled the news to them?

His fears were confirmed when he walked into the school that morning and found that there was a bit of a commotion in the main hall. There stood Blaine, a blond boy, and the guy he'd seen Santana with the night before.

And Santana. Who was currently flirting with the blond guy, who looked torn between giving in and supporting his friend.

Oh God. That guy had brought Santana to Dalton last night? Kurt was fairly sure there was a rule against having girls in the dorms after hours; maybe even at all. As he stood there, rooted to the spot, Blaine – who was standing as far away from Santana as possible while still appearing to be supporting a friend – was the first to notice him.

"Kurt?" he asked, visibly uncertain and caught off guard. "What are you doing here?"

Before he could reply, Santana turned around. A smirk appeared on her face as she walked over. "Ah, yes, of course. Kurt can give me a ride home later, right?" A bit softer, but probably still audible from where the three boys stood, she continued, "He really sucked. One of the worst I've ever had – god, even that ape of a stepbrother of yours was better." Without waiting around to hear if Kurt was actually in the mood to drive her back to Lima later, she left, calling over her shoulder to text her when he was ready to go home.

Where she was off to now, Kurt didn't know.

"You know her?" the blond boy asked, looking relieved that she'd left.

"She's a… friend of mine," Kurt replied. "In a way."

"You mean you had sex with her and the next day, she didn't want to have anything to do with you?" the other boy Kurt didn't know the name of asked.

He pulled a face. "No," he replied forcefully. "She's not my type and she knows it."

"You never said you went to Dalton," Blaine remarked, most likely not even realising that he was changing the topic, if the confused look on his face was any indication.

Kurt shrugged. "You never asked."

"You two know each other too?" the blond boy asked, glancing from one to the other. "This is getting weirder and weirder every second."

"He was at Breadstix last night," Blaine informed his friend. "His friends were very interested in the Warblers."

"Great!" the brown haired boy said, smiling a bit again. "So we've got some new fans, or what?"

"I wouldn't… put it like that, really," Kurt said hesitantly, eager to get away. "Anyway, I really need to get to class, so… I'll see you around."

"Wait, what class do you have?" Blaine asked, catching up with Kurt as he'd started walking. "Maybe we're in the same class."

As it turned out, they weren't; the other two boys, Nick and Jeff, did have the same class as Kurt, though. "You know," Jeff commented as they walked to class, "I don't think I've seen you around before. Have you been here for long?"

"A couple of months now," Kurt replied.

The two boys exchanged glances before looking back at him pensively, but Kurt decided not to ask them what was wrong – it'd probably be safer not to. Luckily for Kurt, his two companions were actually seated at the other side of the classroom. When he sat down, however, Nick (who still seemed a bit shocked from being treated like that by Santana) asked, "Will you sit with us at lunch?"

Kurt frowned at him. "Why?" He knew it must sound a bit rude, but he honestly saw no reason why he'd sit with these guys – he didn't even know them.

The two boys grinned slyly at him. "Because Blaine seems to have taken a liking to you, of course!"

"Why?" Kurt repeated dryly. Why would Blaine, who was the lead singer of the Warblers and, admittedly, pretty nice and very good-looking as well, take a liking to Kurt? And why now? They didn't even know each other, and Kurt still wasn't sure what to think about the Warblers and the inner workings of the group.

"How are we supposed to know?" Nick asked. "Fact is, he likes you."

Jeff nodded. "We're his best friends, and we've never seen him this way."

"What way?" Kurt was still confused.

Jeff sighed. "Just sit with us at lunch, alright? I'm sure it'll work out just fine."

With that, the two boys walked to their seats. As the teacher started the lesson, Kurt was lost in thought. He could only hope that having lunch with these guys would, indeed, work out fine, and maybe give him some answers to his unanswered questions as well.