A couple of weeks went by, and Blaine had not come any closer to getting closure about Kurt's feelings for him. He'd tried to trick Kurt into saying it, but that had only led to odd situations that ultimately led Kurt to question him whether he was okay. Blaine quickly gave up that approach after that.

They were currently sitting at the Lima Bean with some of the Warblers – not just Nick and Jeff this time, but luckily, Sebastian wasn't there either. He'd shown up one more time, and Kurt's mood had been sour for two whole days after that. On the other hand, maybe their Dalton friends could give Blaine some more insight in what Kurt's reactions meant. He knew Rachel meant well, but she was also his sister and one of Kurt's best friends, so she was biased. On top of that, she was also trying to make sure Kurt was happy enough to not pay much attention to the fact that she still hadn't pulled out of the presidential race.

Needless to say, this mission was failing spectacularly. Blaine knew Mercedes didn't really mind their rivalry (though she'd made it known that, if she had to choose sides, she was on Kurt's), but that mostly had to do with the fact that Rachel and Kurt being at each other's throats all the time would make Blaine and Mercedes' portrayal of Tony and Maria seem much, much better.

"So how's the musical coming along?" David asked at one point.

"Opening night is in a few weeks," Kurt replied. "We could save you guys some tickets if you're interested."

Nick grinned widely. "Count us in. Though – we'll be needing two sets of tickets, right? One for each of you."

"Speaking of, who's going to be performing at opening night?" Jeff asked, frowning confusedly.

"That's still undecided," Kurt responded. "It depends on who's best prepared by that time. Or they'll flip a coin if we're all equally well prepared." After a short pause, he added, "Blaine and Mercedes, probably."

"You don't know that," Blaine instantly protested. "You're really good, Kurt. And so is Rachel."

"Yes, but since we can't actually stand each other at the moment…" Kurt sighed.

"She's still trying to become senior class president as well?" Nick asked concernedly. "That really blows."

"I'll beat her," Kurt said, his face hardening. "Eventually, I'll beat her."

o-o-o-o-o

When Nick called Blaine later that day, Blaine was almost dreading picking up the phone. In the end, he did, and he was immediately greeted by Jeff bluntly telling him, "He likes you, Blaine. Now do something about it."

"What?" Blaine was momentarily confused. "How do you know? And why should I do something about it?"

"Because it's clear that Kurt's holding back for some reason," Nick – who'd probably had to wrench his phone out of Jeff's hands – said. "There must be something you can do to initiate a kiss, right?"

"I guess." Blaine wasn't completely convinced.

"Like, you could lean closer and closer to him until there's only a short distance between you." Jeff had taken over again, by the sound of it. "So he can close the distance if he wants to."

"And if he doesn't?" Blaine asked, wondering if taking love advice from Nick and Jeff was really the smartest thing to do. After almost a year, he knew them a bit.

"Then you just lean back again as smoothly as you can," Jeff said, obviously grinning. "You can always say you thought there was something on his face."

"You know we're talking about Kurt here, right?" Blaine said doubtfully. "If there's even the slightest indication that there's something on his face that shouldn't be there, he freaks out. And he's going to hate me if it turns out to be nothing."

Jeff sighed. "Yeah," he said. "There's that." Both he and Nick were quiet for a moment.

"We'll try to come up with something else and let you know. In the meantime, if you have an opportunity to tell him or kiss him, just go for it," Nick said eventually.

"I'll consider it," Blaine promised. He was already nervous just thinking about it, however. Why couldn't Kurt just wear a huge sign over his head indicating whether or not he was in love with him?

o-o-o-o-o

Blaine spent the rest of the evening not thinking of a way to ask Kurt out, but preparing a song for Glee club the next day. That always helped him clear his thoughts, though the fact remained that his mind kept going back to what Rachel and his friends had told him. He just hoped he wouldn't be too distracted to actually perform the song.

Naturally, when he announced that he had prepared a song, Santana instantly protested. Blaine wondered why she hadn't prepared something if she was so against him and Rachel singing all the time. They seemed to be the only people who actually prepared songs for all the individual assignments. That wasn't their fault, right?

Luckily, Katy Perry had never let him down before, and Last Friday Night proved to be another hit with Blaine's fellow Glee club members – except, of course, Santana. Kurt seemed a little hesitant as well at first, but Blaine managed to get him to dance along in the end. He tried not to notice every time their hands touched, and he even managed to make it through the song without any obvious mistakes. He didn't even forget the lyrics this time.

"Katy Perry, Blaine, really?" Kurt asked him the moment they walked out of the choir room.

"Yes, really." Blaine crossed his arms. "Why? At least I got everyone out of their seats."

"Except Santana," Kurt reminded him, but Blaine simply pulled a face. "I know," Kurt continued. "There isn't much you could do you please her."

"Well, I happen to think it was a great idea," Blaine said. "Everyone's been so depressed lately. You'd think someone actually died, instead of that just happening in the musical."

Kurt nodded and sighed. "Let's go to class, okay?"

o-o-o-o-o

When Santana (somewhat predictably) quit Glee club a few days later to join the new club at McKinley, Blaine wasn't surprised. The same went for the fact that Santana dragged Brittany along over there. Blaine liked Brittany well enough, but she was very easily influenced by other people – and by other people, Blaine primarily meant Santana.

A couple of days later – by now, Kurt had told Blaine everything about his father's sudden plan to become a congressman – Finn brought along a new friend of his to try out for the club. It was quickly decided that he should get in – though Blaine was certain that Kurt did not like the boy's higher range – so at least they'd have one more member. They still didn't have enough people for Sectionals, though.

The coffee dates still existed, of course, although Kurt and Blaine didn't always have time to go to the Lima Bean after school. Blaine hoped that that was when Sebastian came around there.

o-o-o-o-o

Before they knew it, they only had a little over a week of rehearsals left before opening night. Soon, there would be kissing, so Blaine had to act quickly. Still, he didn't want to just… march over and plant one on Kurt if Kurt didn't want it. Sometimes it sucked being raised to be a gentleman, Blaine thought. Besides – if Kurt didn't want it, Blaine risked losing his best friend, and he didn't exactly want that to happen either.

That day, rehearsal went well, as always, but Blaine was still pretty anxious about the upcoming kissing scenes. For now, though, he ignored that feeling in favour of listening to the directors' commentary. Artie announced that he had some concerns, which, frankly, surprised both the actors and Artie's two fellow directors. When Artie asked if any of them had actually… well, done that, Ms Pillsbury and coach Beiste ran off as quickly as they could.

When he asked what it had been like for them, Mercedes commented, "That's really none of your business, Artie."

"Okay." Artie seemed at least appeased that Mercedes might have actually done 'it' at some point; it didn't surprise Blaine very much, to be honest. She and Sam had spent an awful lot of time together during the summer. "What about the rest of you?"

"Well…," Rachel started, looking extremely uncomfortable. As far as Blaine knew – not that he wanted to know about his sister's sex life – she and Finn hadn't done anything of that kind.

"Artie," Kurt started, sounding a little irritated, "Blaine and I are gay teens in homophobic Ohio. Where do you expect us to find someone to do that with in the first place?"

Blaine could feel his eyes widen, and both Rachel and Mercedes shot Kurt exasperated looks. Kurt obviously hadn't thought that through very well.

"Well, you said it," Artie replied, still not quite understanding that it wasn't really his place – or anyone's, really – to tell them all to go off and have sex. "You and Blaine are gay teens, meaning you're both gay, so…"

The expression on Kurt's face would've been priceless if the situation hadn't been so mortifying.

"I can't believe he said that," Blaine muttered later, as he and Rachel were driving home.

"Who?" Rachel asked. "Artie or Kurt?"

Blaine groaned. "Both of them."

Rachel just gave him a sympathetic smile in return.