When Blaine arrived back at Dalton, his mind was still reeling from everything that had taken place at McKinley. On one hand, it made him all the more relieved that his parents had sent him to Dalton and not just another public school, but on the other hand, he was incredibly scared for Kurt's safety. Karofsky was every bit of mean and menacing bully Kurt had made him out to be, and then some. They had no idea how far he would go, and Blaine could understand that Kurt had no intention of ever finding that out. Still, he would feel a lot better if Kurt would just tell someone, or let Blaine tell someone.

He had to find a way to get Kurt out of there. Surely Kurt's friends couldn't be so selfish as to keep him there for their own benefit, while Kurt wasn't safe at all, right? Blaine groaned softly. If Kurt wasn't so damn stubborn, this would be so much easier.

Deciding to figure out a way to convince his boyfriend to transfer to Dalton, Blaine finally got out of his car and locked it before walking inside. He wasn't really hungry, but he could do with some rest. Yes, some rest sounded amazing right now.

Naturally, he had no such luck. He could've expected it, of course, seeing as he skipped Warblers rehearsal that had been scheduled for the entire afternoon. So when he walked past the rehearsal room without even fully realising it, he was grabbed by the arm not two seconds later and dragged inside.

Disoriented for a moment, Blaine looked around wildly. Not a lot of people were in the room – just the three council members, and Nick and Jeff.

Wait. That was slightly suspicious, wasn't it?

"Where were you today?" Wes had straightened his back and crossed his arms in order to look intimidating. It might've worked better if he was taller than he actually was, but Blaine took a small step back anyway.

"Why are we asking him where he was?" David asked before Blaine could respond. "We already know that. The real question is, why weren't you here?"

"I – ," Blaine started. "Wait, you already know?"

"Yes," Wes replied icily. "We do. You went to Lima to spend time with your boyfriend. Who also happens to be the competition."

Blaine's head whipped sideways, towards where Nick and Jeff were sitting. They cowered slightly under his gaze. "Why did you tell them?"

"So you're admitting it?" Thad asked, clearly not wanting to be left out.

Blaine blinked. "Well, they already told you, so…"

"They told us that you're dating this Kurt, regardless of what we or his club has to say about it. So when you didn't show up today, it wasn't difficult to realise that you were probably visiting him instead." Wes shot him a disapproving look.

"We were going to tell you eventually," Blaine said. "After Sectionals. Or at Sectionals, we haven't really discussed the details yet."

Thad shrugged. "You can still tell the New Directions members, if they don't find out earlier as well."

For a moment, Blaine stared at him, before turning to Wes and David, whose facial expressions he didn't exactly trust at the moment. "You can't tell them," he said, also turning around to face Nick and Jeff. "You can't. They'll make him break up with me and I'll probably be much too depressed to sing at Sectionals and we'll lose."

Wes shrugged. "Your behaviour today was unacceptable, Blaine. Maybe we'll just have someone else sing lead at Sectionals. You knew that today would be important, Blaine, and yet, you disappear all day long to spend time with your boyfriend, who we, as council members, do not approve of."

Blaine gaped at him. "You can't be serious, Wes! You know I'm your best bet for those songs, you're the ones who gave them to me. And what do you mean, you don't approve? As my friends, I would've expected you to be happy for me."

"We're happy you found a boyfriend," David interrupted. "But we're not so happy about who he is."

"Look, I'm sorry for skipping rehearsal," Blaine said, "but when else was I going to see him this week? Plus, it's not like he has it easy at McKinley or anything." Today's events were enough proof for that. "Oh, and from what I heard today, New Directions isn't preparing for Sectionals yet. I know," he added when both Wes and David opened their mouths to protest, "I know that that doesn't mean we can slack as well, but we're already ahead of them. And I did practise the songs in the car, if that means anything…"

"We'll let you know what we've decided to do," Wes told him, and turned on his heel. When the three council members were all gone, Blaine turned towards Jeff and Nick.

"Why did you tell them?" he asked, feeling slightly exasperated. "Didn't I ask you to keep it a secret?"

Again, the two cowered under his gaze. "We know," Jeff said. "But they thought you had some kind of deathly disease – "

"They wanted to put together a get well soon medley to perform for you," Nick added.

"And then they went to your room and you weren't there."

"They got so angry."

"They tried to call you but you didn't pick up – "

"So they wanted to kick you out of the group – "

"Which none of the others actually supported."

"But then they asked if anyone knew what you could be up to – "

"If anything had happened to you lately – "

"And you know we suck at lying – "

"Especially when Wes has his gavel at hand – "

"They must have realised we knew something because the next thing we knew, everyone else was gone and it was the three of them against the two of us!"

"Then they threatened to kick us off if we didn't tell them where you were – "

"Which we obviously didn't know – "

"But then Nick – "

"You mean you – "

"No, you – "

"Guys!" Blaine interrupted them. "What happened next?"

Nick sighed. "Well, one of us – Jeff – accidentally mentioned that Kurt was your boyfriend now and you know the rest."

Jeff crossed his arms. "I still maintain that you were the one to tell them."

Blaine sank down on the couch opposite theirs. "Awesome," he muttered to himself. "Do you think any of the other guys know?" he then asked his two friends.

Jeff started shaking his head, and Nick said, "No, I doubt that. Not that we know of, at least. And I don't think they would purposefully tell anyone, least of all New Directions."

"Okay," Blaine said, slowly standing up again. "Then I'll just… go." He definitely needed to lie down now.

"Did he seem angry?" he heard Nick ask as he stepped out of the room.

"Not really," Jeff answered. "But not thanks to you. Why did – "

Blaine sighed. As if today hadn't been bad enough already. When he arrived in his room, he sent Kurt a quick text to notify him of the fact that three more people knew and that they weren't happy about it. Still, no matter how the council felt about Kurt, and Blaine's involvement with him, Blaine would have to bring up the transfer thing again some time soon.

o-o-o-o-o

When Blaine woke up the next day, he noticed that Kurt had messaged him back the evening before, saying that he'd call Blaine later today. Blaine quickly opened a new message, to wish Kurt good luck today and to let him know if things at McKinley went awry, but that Blaine would call him that night after dinner, since the council was already not pleased with him. Luckily, he saw right before he headed to breakfast, Kurt seemed to understand and even wished him good luck as well.

Entering the cafeteria, Blaine instantly sought the other guys out. As usual, the Warblers had a table to themselves, and Blaine found himself stalling a little longer than he normally did when choosing his food. As he approached the table at last, excited murmurs broke out.

"Blaine!" Ethan cried out. "You're back! You're alive!"

Unsurprisingly, this caught the attention of many boys around them. Well, Blaine figured, it was kind of true. At least Wes hadn't chosen to rip him apart limp for limp. For now, the head council member just observed Blaine as he ate his breakfast, but when he was done, Wes said, "Blaine? A word, please."

Blaine reluctantly stood up and followed Wes out of the room, where the other boy got straight to the point. "You get one chance," he said. "This afternoon, we're going to run through both performances to see how they can be fitted together. If you're not up to par, we're holding auditions again."

Although he was grateful that at least, he'd get another chance, Blaine felt the need to point out to Wes, "That's going to cost us Sectionals."

"You getting cozy with the competition, especially during rehearsal time, might also cost us Sectionals," Wes countered. "I honestly thought you were more responsible than this, Blaine. I must say, I'm very disappointed in you."

With that, he walked back into the cafeteria, while Blaine continued standing there for a little longer. Wow. It had been a while since he'd heard that sentence. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Blaine hastily followed Wes back inside.

o-o-o-o-o

All throughout the day, Blaine kept sending Kurt texts to check up on him. Not that he didn't know Kurt might be pretending to be alright when he actually wasn't, but he wanted to make sure that Kurt knew that he could talk to someone, even if Blaine wasn't physically there.

He found himself growing more and more anxious as rehearsal approached. He knew that he knew the lyrics, and at least half of the steps to both songs – unless they'd changed everything yesterday – so he hoped he'd do fine.

Like Wes had told him that morning, they ran through both numbers without any interruptions, and considering the fact that all three council members were standing behind Blaine most of the time, Blaine had no idea what they were thinking. The fact that the rest of the group was behind him as well didn't help either; he could barely sneak a few looks sideways to see if he wasn't completely out of tune with the others. At least the vocal part of it was going pretty well, or so he'd like to think.

Without saying anything to Blaine, Wes made them work on the choreography for the rest of the hour, before dismissing everyone but Blaine.

"You're not picking up on the choreography very quickly," Wes stated with a frown.

"I know. I'll work on it," Blaine tried to convince him, figuring that pointing out that no one was giving him any pointers or advice wouldn't go over well with Wes at the moment.

"We'll just have to find some extra rehearsal time," Wes mused. "Then again, we've got all weekend, so you should be perfect by the end of that."

All weekend? Oh. "Kurt's dad's getting married this Saturday," Blaine told Wes. "They're… kind of expecting me to be there."

Wes closed his eyes and sighed. "Then you'd better hope you've got the choreography down before that time comes."

"So you're not taking my solos away, and I'm not getting kicked out?" Blaine asked, just to make sure.

Wes sent him an annoyed look. "Just go before you give me any ideas, Blaine."

o-o-o-o-o

So Blaine practised his steps some more before deciding to ask other Warblers for some pointers later on. The choreography wasn't that hard – most of it consisted of simple side-steps and the like – but somehow, it took Blaine some time figuring it out this time around.

Hoping he'd do better the next day, he flopped down on his bed. He didn't have an awful lot of homework today, and the stuff he'd been told had been covered the day before shouldn't be too hard to figure out either. Blaine was nothing if not prepared by now for the huge work load Dalton teachers liked to give them every day, so he would find a way to do it all in time. Now, however, he had a phone call to make.

Kurt picked up very quickly, but before he'd properly gotten a greeting across, Blaine asked, "How was today? Did he say anything? Do anything? Did anyone give you trouble?"

Kurt sighed audibly. "It was alright," he said in the end. "He didn't… try anything, and the only people giving me trouble were my teammates, for inviting the competition to the wedding."

"What?" Blaine frowned.

"We're going to be singing, Blaine," Kurt said. "It's a week before Sectionals, and you're in one of the competing choirs."

"So I'm not allowed to come?" Blaine asked, slightly disappointed. "I could always bring ear plugs and close my eyes or look the other way when you guys are performing."

"Dork," Kurt muttered, but he didn't sound angry or annoyed. "No, you can come. I told them that I wasn't going to cancel your invitation because of the competition being next week. Rachel suggested… or practically demanded that you should some songs sing as well, that that was only fair. Most people agreed with that."

"They want me to sing?" Blaine asked. "Sure, that's no problem."

"I figured as much," Kurt said. "I should warn you, though, most of them are rather excited to meet you, and they don't even know we're dating yet."

"Yeah, about that," Blaine muttered. "Apparently, Nick and Jeff were put under a lot of pressure yesterday, so now the council knows as well."

"That's what that text was about?" Kurt enquired, and Blaine nodded, before remembering he'd have to speak.

"Yes, it was. While they're happy that I've found someone, they're not happy that you're in a rival choir. Which brings me to the next, or should I say, previous matter – "

"Blaine," Kurt interrupted him, "I can't just transfer. I can't. And before you say anything, I know it's not safe here at McKinley. But with my dad's heart attack and Sectionals coming up, there's no way I could tell him and then just leave. You know we've only got twelve members…"

"Would you be willing to tell your dad about it after Sectionals?" Blaine asked, eager to reach whatever compromise possible.

"Perhaps," Kurt said. "Well, I think I could tell him about how the bullying has increased. Maybe that'll do the trick."

"At least you're not determined to stay there for another year and a half," Blaine said, feeling very relieved at that notion. "Wait. Does that mean something has happened?"

"No, Blaine, nothing happened," Kurt replied dutifully. "I mean it. I've just been thinking. Dalton will probably be a lot safer. It'll look better on my resume when applying to colleges, and if I leave after Sectionals, they've got another few months left to find a new member to replace me."

Choosing not to comment on Kurt's apparently firm belief that New Directions was going to win Sectionals, Blaine asked, "Should I start looking into possible scholarships for you?" He was fully prepared to pick up some pamphlets, search the school's website and visit the guidance counsellor about the matter.

"You don't have to do that," Kurt told him. With a sigh, he added, "Then again, I suppose there's no stopping you, is there? You really are amazing."

"I think you're mistaking me for you," Blaine replied, fully aware of just how sappy that must sound.

It took Kurt a few seconds to reply – Blaine hoped that was because he'd been smiling too hard before. "Anyway, the wedding. Are you sure you're okay with singing there?"

"Kurt, I'm in a Glee club as well," Blaine reminded him. "Of course I don't mind. I love performing." And he was certain that he'd be bending over backwards that Saturday just to impress Kurt. And maybe Kurt's friends. And family. But mostly Kurt himself. "What should I sing, though?" Blaine knew a lot of songs, yes, but he wasn't sure what kind of music Kurt, or rather, the happy couple, had in mind for the wedding.

"As long as you don't sing any… inappropriate songs, I think anything's fine," Kurt replied, a smile evident in his voice, which was good to hear. "Though I think you may also want to stay away from Bruno Mars' music. We're already doing that."

"Marry you?" Blaine asked.

"That's the one."

Recalling the lyrics to that particular song, Blaine chuckled. "How romantic."

"And oh-so-appropriate," Kurt agreed, and Blaine could almost see him rolling his eyes. "But it has to do with weddings, and it's up-beat, so it got the majority vote. I don't know what kind of music Carole's into, but my dad doesn't really… understand Broadway, so that was out of question anyway."

"So no Broadway," Blaine repeated, storing away that little bit of information. "Noted. But you know that Top Forty is my forte, right? That means that if you're allowed to do Bruno Mars, I won't have to feel bad about doing something like that as well."

"Just make sure it's not inappropriate," Kurt reminded him. "Officially, New Directions is in charge of the music during the wedding, so we'll probably be singing the entire time. I wouldn't be surprised if Rachel or anyone else suddenly decided they wanted to sing a duet-turned-duel with you, by the way."

"Do I get to sing with you?" Blaine asked. "Or at least a dance?"

"I think I'd like that," Kurt replied, before launching into the story of how he still had to teach both Finn and his dad to dance before the wedding, among other things. Blaine listened dutifully, wondering how people like Kurt actually existed and were willing to be a part of the lives of people like Blaine. It never ceased to amaze him.