With a raspy gasp Blaine woke up from his short night sleep. All night he had been doing phantom violin orchestrations without making any noise - not willing to wake up anyone in the house. His arms were pounding, his neck straining and his fingers stiff, but he nailed a small section of an unknown piece.

How he wished he could have actually played to feel the emotionsg more, to make them real - but explaining to his father why he was playing at three in the morning could be seen as a difficult task.

There we also the images he had while ‘playing'. And the images had continued vividly in his dreams. He imaged hands caressing him, arms forcefully pushing him up against a mirror and lips attached to his neck.

"Blaine.." he fantasized being breathed against his skin and Blaine shot up in his bed. His arms were heavy, the limbs indeed sore from practicing. There were still a few inky spots on his fingers from viciously writing down notes. As soon as Cooper was gone and his parents were out of the house, he could practice if the notes sounded the same as in his head.

He tried to rearrange his legs so he could turn around and sleep some more, but he was encountered with a rather sticky situation in his boxers.

"Fuck." He threw his arm to cover his eyes. "Are you kidding me?" he said to his ceiling. He threw the suffocating blankets off him, wincing at the movement in the damped pants. Quickly he deposed himself of any clothing, making sure the boxers went down deep into his hamper before turning on the shower and let the water wash away the remaining stickiness. Just another thing to suppress from this week.

With extra care he chose his outfit for the day. Dress shirts, polo's, jeans, the yellow pants Cooper once tricked him into buying - nothing seemed perfect. It was until he stumbled upon a bow tie he once wore to a Doctor Who themed Warbler party (damn his friends were nerds) and soon he was dressed up, ready to play the shit out of some music - to his brother's boyfriend.

He still had no idea what has gone into himself. Thinking about Kurt while composing, thinking about Cooper touching Kurt was more likely.

What did Kurt see in him anyway?

Blaine exited his room and stared at the lump of body that was his brother, lying shirtless on his belly - cuddling the bed in his sleep. Not to mention the bound breaking snores coming from his mouth. Cooper was loud, obnoxious - a ridiculous flirt. Blaine could even recall during the last mano a mano conversation that Cooper said he wasn't looking for a steady relationship.

Then again - he met Kurt.

Kurt could move oceans if he wanted to.

Only if Blaine transferred to McKinley a year earlier. They would have been in glee club together, bonding - becoming friends. Or why wasn't he just a year older and already graduated, studying in New York? They would have probably stumbled upon each other at some Juilliard versus Tisch party - don't think about Juilliard, you barely finished your audition piece - or what if Kurt had just come to Dalton. Even to spy - or transfer, or whatever.

They would have met before Cooper stole him. But Blaine would never admit those thoughts to anyone, because as much as he was falling for Kurt (falling hard) - he loved his brother.

With a deep hum in his throat he went down the stairs and entered the kitchen to find his mother drinking the last sip of her coffee.

"Blaine, honey." she greeted him and pecked a kiss on his forehead. "Don't you look handsome today."

"Thanks, mom." he grumbled, but secretly pleased with the fact that even his mother noticed he was looking just fine today.

"Do you know when Kurt is coming?"

"Around noon." he answered. Cooper had been gushing the entire night that Kurt was coming, followed by numerous stories and excitements to go back to New York to continue their awesome life.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

"Oh, what a pity." his mother said with sincerity and Blaine gathered some toast for breakfast. "I'm leaving for the club in a few minutes, your brother should get ready - it's already half past eleven."

Blaine raised his eyebrows, eying the clock on the microwave to indeed find it closer to noon than he expected. Cooper should really start to wake up. Or not.

While contemplating the idea of letting his brother sleep so he had a few moments with Kurt alone, his mother kissed him goodbye and left the house. For a few minutes he swallowed down his breakfast. He could wake his brother - it would still take him half an hour to get ready and he didn't risk Kurt wanting to wake him up.

Guess it was time for the good old ‘Fuck-you-Blaine-I-will-suffocate-you-in-your-sleep'-way to wake up his favorite brother - well, his only brother.

Five minutes before noon Blaine was standing on a safe spot in Cooper's room. His violin dangled next to his leg and the fiddlestick was being pursed against his lips.

"Sorry, bro -" Blaine sighed, "but ya had this comin'."

He raised his instrument and Cooper's bedroom shook at the blaring sounds of Pink's So What coming from Blaine's violin.

There was a thud, a moan - Blaine carefully backed to the door - a cuss, another one and eventually the usual threat of Blaine not waking up next time he would sleep. He ran into the safety of his own bedroom, half playing, half laughing - and let down his instrument down to enjoy the well deserved laugh.

Cooper cursed some more in his sudden awoken state.

"Damn you, Blaine!"

"Love you too!" he shouted through the door. Footsteps returned to Cooper's bedroom and probably bathroom because a shower was turned on at the same time the bell rang.

Kurt was here.

Kurt sighed and fidgeted with the cuff of his jacket. Stupid Ohio weather, always as bipolar as a cat who lacks getting attention. He heard the stories about New York winters, but autumn was doable, so he only brought his light Marc Jacobs jacket  back to Ohio - huge mistake.

He rang the bell again and halfway through the ring, the door was opened by Blaine. The younger boy was smiling broad, looking pretty dashing in his well arranged outfit including bow tie.

"Hey." he greeted Kurt, stepping out of the way to let him in. Kurt relished himself into the warmness of the Anderson's house. "Can I take your coat?" Blaine's eyes were positively sparkling. Damn this boy was polite. Kurt shrugged off his coat and handed it to Blaine. He was about to ask about Cooper, but Blaine already filled him in.

"Cooper had some trouble waking up this morning," Blaine talked animatedly with his hands, "so he's a bit late, doesn't matter - he'll be down in a moment. Anyway," he grinned toothy - what happened to the shy, blurting boy from the past few days? "Do you want something to drink?"

"Uhm, sure - do you have a sprite or something?"

"I'll check." Blaine gestured to the kitchen and later they were sitting on the couch where they had their first conversation not three days ago.

The random topic they were talking about was cut off by stumbles upstairs, followed by cussing.

"Yeah," Blaine said, eyeing the stairs, "Cooper's not really a morning person - and he might have taken my waking skills a bit wrong."

Kurt stared at him curiously. He wasn't sure what happened, but he really liked this Blaine.

"Did you know he's afraid of ladybugs?"                                                       

"Haha, what? No?" Kurt smiled.

"Terrified," Blaine said as a matter of fact, "he also got rejected for the leading role in his High School musical, he was quite close to poisoning the boy who got it - but that would kill his rep as mysterious handsome guy. He did end up crying in my bed while we watched reruns of Full House with a lot of illegally imported ice cream."

Kurt barked out a laugh.

"There was also this one time around Easter where grbmpf -" Blaine was silenced by a big hand and Kurt looked up to the sudden appeared Cooper.

"Good morning," Cooper said with a sly voice, "Blaine - I believe we had an agreement."

Blaine mumbled something inaudible into Cooper's hand.

"No, that's the agreement on waking me in the morning with Pink, which I'm also fulfilling right now."

"I thought you would wait until I was sleeping with that one?" Blaine gasped after he released himself from Cooper's hand. He dipped his head back so he could look at his brother.

"Fine." Cooper stated, flipping Blaine's gelled hair a bit. Finally he looked at Kurt, giving him the smile only destined for Kurt. "Hello, sweetheart." He leaned over Blaine, getting protests from his little brother while he squished him into the couch, to plant a small kiss on his lips.

Blaine turned silent after he was able to breathe again.

"Blaine, go get your god damn violin - which I will burn next time to you try that again." Cooper pointed warningly with his finger, poking into Blaine's nose. Kurt couldn't be more curious on that special method Blaine used to wake him.

The boy rolled his eyes, got up and disappeared upstairs to retrieve his instrument.

"Do I dare to ask about Easter?" Kurt questioned teasingly.

"I'll keep that honor for Blaine to speech at our wedding, get up -" Cooper pushed him up to lead him to another room, but Kurt was still in too much of a shock of the word ‘wedding' coming from Cooper's mouth to notice.

Blaine found Kurt and Cooper cuddled up on the loveseat in the music room. The room was usually not in use, because Blaine preferred playing in his room - except for piano, because his parents refused to move it upstairs - even though Blaine was the only one playing the gorgeous instrument against the wall. But the room was the main stage for Blaine and Cooper's dueling Simon LeBall impersonations when they were younger.

To get their attention Blaine dropped his guitar case on one of the matching chairs. When that didn't work, he sighed deeply - staring at the two idiotic lovebirds gazing into each other's eyes.

"If you two are going to be nauseating like that, I have better things to do." It came out a bit snappier than he meant it - or maybe he did mean it like that, but at least it worked because Kurt untangled himself immediately.

"No, no!" he said quickly. "I want to hear you play."

Cooper let out a frustrated groan.

"There, there Coop." Kurt soothed, petting Cooper's knee in long strokes. "Okay!" He returned to the room in general.

"Why are we doing this again?" Blaine mumbled, feeling like a third wheel.

"Because we're all ridiculously talented." Kurt simply stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And it reminds me of glee club." he said a bit softer. "I just miss the random performances. I even miss Schuester's weekly assignments so we could express our feelings more, does he still do that?"

Blaine nodded while unlocking his violin. "At least he lets us audition for the solos, I kind of rebelled him onto that." He smirked. "And it's always fun to see Sugar audition."

Kurt laughed loudly, startling Cooper out of his daydreaming. Blaine's brother's eyes went from Kurt to Blaine and back again. He was definitely feeling left out - good, Blaine thought.

"Okay!" Cooper repeated the last thing he heard from the conversation. "Who's up first - Blainey? Go fiddle your fiddle for a little while." And he settled in closer with Kurt again.

Blaine wanted to resist, claiming that Cooper should go first - but Kurt's encouraging look made him feel fuzzy inside, so he gave in. Carefully he got out his violin and tucked it under his chin. He went for a more classical piece than Katy Perry or Pink, hoping Kurt would appreciate it. Going by the glassy look, parted mouth and intense stare - it did.

He hid a small smile and promptly ignored his brother's yawn. Kurt clapped enthusiastic after he bended out the last note.

"Babe, you're up." he said, slapping Cooper loudly on the knee. Again he seemed to wake up from some kind of nap.

‘Whu? What?" he asked with a sleep-grogged voice. Kurt gave him a disapproving look, rolling his eyes - Blaine could almost taste the embarrassment.

"If you want to sleep, you go do that upstairs while I entertain your little brother." Kurt said. The two Anderson brothers gave Kurt a similar confused look, both for different reasons. "Please? It's my last afternoon in Ohio and I decided to spend it with you -" He poked Cooper. "Instead of my family."

"I thought your dad had to work." Cooper answered, even more confused.

"So? I have a brother too?" Kurt seemed slightly upset and Blaine couldn't blame him. He coughed loudly to interfere and reached for his guitar.

"I can play some more, I don't mind -" he started, but Kurt cut him off.

"But you just played - I-"

"Really, I don't mind. I'm actually happy someone wants to listen." Especially if that someone is you, but he didn't add that. He sat down on the piano stool and wanted to start playing something random, but again Kurt interfered.

"Do you know any Beatles song?"

Blaine huffed; did he know any Beatles song - that was almost offensive. But he only shrugged.

"Sure." Wait - why?

"Do you know Blackbird? Haven't sung a Beatles song in two years so -"

Blaine just stared at Kurt while he rattled on. Kurt was going to sing. He was going to accompany him on guitar - the guitar that was now slightly trembling because of the excitement that was flowing through Blaine's veins. Kurt was going to sing.

"So do you know it?"

Blaine wanted to reply, but he was afraid he would only ramble out words that weren't considered English - so instead he just started the first accords.

Kurt gave another encouraging smile, counting with his feet - waiting for his cue and then opened his mouth: "Blackbird singing in the dead of night..."

Blaine almost stopped playing and missed a note in startle. Kurt's voice was perfect, calm - controlled, it was even better than on the videos of competitions. Blaine knew Tisch had to do with that. In pure improvisation - and an old Warbler tick - he added some background humming and singing to complete the song.

Kurt wasn't looking at Blaine anymore. He had his eyes closed while he gave in to the song. It was so beautiful to witness it almost hurt.

Blaine's breath hitched, his fingers played on instinct and might have been a bit off - but the realization pulsing through his body shut him completely down. He had tried to ignore it for the past few days. If he could he would deny every feeling he was having right now. But hearing Kurt sing with such passion and divinity, didn't make Blaine face the music - the music was slamming him flat-handed in the face.

He was in love with Kurt Hummel.

"You were only waiting for this moment to arise..."

"You're quiet." Cooper muttered. They were three hours into their drive back to New York and Kurt had indeed been quiet while driving.

"No, I'm being passive aggressive." he replied while resisting the urge to flip off the van that hauled them.

"O-kay?" Cooper's head was turned toward Kurt, trying to let his blue eyes pierce through his boyfriend to force some more out of him. "Kurt?"

"I -" Kurt started, picking his words carefully, "I guess I'm just sad to leave my family."

Right before Cooper arrived at the Hummel-Hudson residence to drive back home, Burt had taken his son aside and handed him a little check. In the first place Kurt had refused to accept it; he was an adult, living on his own - if he needed money he should find a job. But Burt sneaked it into Kurt's hands, telling him that he was doing perfect on his own and that he deserved a little something - "Take Cooper out, go see a show - remember what we talked about before summer -"

"Dad -"

"I know you're happy there now, but don't risk losing that again, okay? You're going to be alright, I know, but sometimes it's okay to remind yourself why you're doin' it."

His dad was sometimes too wise for his own good, but eventually he accepted the check - stuffing it into his wallet to make sure not to lose it. The honks coming from outside indicated that Cooper arrived and that he didn't want to go in to pick up Kurt properly. Both the Hummel men had sighed in response, giving each other the usual bear hug and the promise that Kurt would come during Christmas. Finn had already left for Cali yesterday, squishing Kurt goodbye until he couldn't breathe, and Carole kissed him sweetly on his forehead - telling him to be careful.

As he left his Ohio home, Kurt was deeply wishing not every goodbye to his family would end up in the tear fest that was about to happen all over again. But he kept strong next to Cooper, who was smiling wide - obviously happy to leave Ohio behind him. And now they were on their way back.

"Kurt? Talk to me?" Cooper whispered. Kurt saw an hesitant hand reaching for his leg from the corner of his eye. When he didn't say anything, Cooper took the permission to stroke it a bit - albeit a bit careful to make sure it didn't afflict Kurt's driving.

Kurt sighed deeply. "I just feel bad for spending most of my time home with you instead of my family. There." The realization of that bubbled up during their musical Saturday. Cooper had apologized for being so sleepy and used the old theatre excuse that he's used on living in the evening and not in the morning.

"Oh, sweetheart." Cooper hushed, squeezing his leg. "You spend full days with them, we just met up a few times and don't you dare lie to me that you wouldn't have gone crazy if you had been inside that house all the time."

Kurt grunted at the truth. Even when he was living with his parents, he was usually outside with friends - because after years being alone, he used every opportunity to make up for his loneliness by hanging with Mercedes and others.

"Yeah, okay." he admitted. "It's just, I could've hung out with old friends. Met up with them."

"Then do that during Christmas break, Kurt." Cooper said as if it was the most obvious thing. "Two weeks is long, with New Year's Eve and everything, surely there must be a party where we can get drunk." Kurt coughed. "Okay, where I get drunk and you carry me home and maybe take advantage - something I wouldn't mind."

Kurt snorted. "Not sure if I would enjoy your unconscious, intoxicated body."

"I'm pretty sure you would and don't deny that my body in general intoxicates you." Cooper said whilst clacking his tongue teasingly. Finally Kurt was smiling again. "There we go, no more passive aggressiveness, m'kay?"

"Fine." Kurt wanted to snap, but it came out giggly. The hand on his leg disappeared and a finger caressed his cheek.

"I'm sorry if I kept you too long." Cooper whispered. "I just enjoy having you."

For the first time during the ride Kurt took his eyes of the road to glance at Cooper. The most handsome man in the whole of North America enjoyed having him. How was he supposed to let something top that feeling? Ever?

"Do you want to see Ghost the musical with me?" Kurt asked some time later.

"I would love to." Cooper answered. "Let me see if I can snatch some tickets."

"No, no," Kurt said, "my treat." He could feel Cooper's eyebrows rise.

"You sure?" There was some definite confusion, yet also some pleased feelings in this voice. Kurt nodded. "Wokay! Let's pick a date."

The tension broke and the rest of their journey they spend deciding on dates, plans for Christmas and a lot of singing along. Hours later New York greeted them home.

---

"So I'll see you Tuesday?" Cooper asked as Kurt sleepily got out of the car to head back to his dorm.

"Yes, I belong to Nancy these days, sorry." He took over the bags that Cooper fetched.

"That's alright." Cooper carefully replied. "You're all mine after that." With a final wink and kiss, he returned to the driver's seat and honked Kurt goodbye - even though it was the middle of the night and he probably woke up half of the dorm.

He was half up the stairs when his back pocket started to vibrate.

"Don't be offended by my frank analysis," he dropped his bag at hearing Nancy's ringtone, "think of it as personality dialysis, now that I've chosen to become a," he reached for his phone, slightly panicked, "pal, a sister and advisor, there's nobody wiser! Not when it comes to... POPU-!"

"Hello?" he cursed his out of breathe voice.

"Are you home yet?" Nancy muffled on the other end of the line.

"I'm just entering," Kurt answered and took his bag unhandy with one arm, "sweetie, it's one in the morning, why aren't you sleeping?"

"See you in fifteen." She ignored the question and hung up.

A worried feeling took over Kurt's emotions. He hurried his pace to his room to make sure he arrived there before Nancy did.

Not five minutes into his room, he was disturbed by a soft knocking on the door. Upon opening he found Nancy dressed in her Spongebob pajamas with her usual not matching slippers - she looked like she just crawled out of her bed to his room, something she probably did. Her hair was poking in every direction, eyes were red-rimmed and the biggest pint of ice-cream Kurt hadn't seen in a long time was clutched in her arms.

"He has a girlfriend." she hiccupped. "Dickhead has a girlfriend."

Kurt barely registered what she said, taking her arm to drag her inside and promptly planted her on top of his sheets on his bed.

"Stay." he ordered. "I'm going to change, exfoliate and then - no wait, I need to get a spoon first -"

"I brought two." Nancy said watery, raising said spoons.

"Perfect, five minutes. Hang in there." He placed a soft kiss on her forehead, turned around and ruffled through his left behind belongings to find some kind of sleepwear. His body was tired, but the urge to soothe his best friend was bigger, so he ignored it. He shortened his skincare by two crèmes, jumped into simple black sweats and shirt and returned to his bedroom.

Nancy hadn't moved a muscle. She was staring into the tub of ice-cream, lips pouted and trembling and was waiting patiently for Kurt to come back. Her eyes flashed up as he appeared in the doorway.

"I - I'm just -"                                                                                                                  

"Scoot." Kurt made sure she got up so he could pull back the sheets, seated himself against the pillows and created a hole for Nancy to sit in. The curved body slid in next to him and he threw the covers over them, ice-cream carefully placed on top.

"Spill." Kurt demanded and accepted the spoon to scoop some of the half-melted sugary goodness. And Nancy spilled everything from the past week. Apparently Chad, aka Dickhead, had taken his brand new girlfriend to a yearly bonfire and forgot to mention that to Nancy.

"And I really don't like him anymore, but -" she sniffed, "it's so mean he finds someone else before me, you know." Actually Kurt didn't, but he didn't answer. She hiccupped again. "Why isn't there a nice boy for me here? I had so much hope -"

"You don't need a man." Kurt mumbled. "You're my precious, loving friend and you're doing awesome on your own."

"Says the guy with the perfect boyfriend."

Kurt swallowed loudly.

"Boyfriends aren't everything, I think I've learned that now." He snuggled Nancy closer to him and she placed the ice cream on his nightstand, spoons aside. "My dad told me I needed to remind myself daily why I'm doing it, school I mean. Broadway." He sighed and let Nancy lie against his chest. "I - can I tell you something?"

"Hm, yes." Nancy mumbled.

"I almost didn't go to Tisch." he confessed and Nancy let out a confused shriek. "I got rejected from my dream school. Almost gave up everything. My best friend - back then -" he assured her, "she did get in and nobody cared for me. I was so alone during my school period, but I made a friend - a few and they hoisted me through the bad times, but after I got rejected I - I was empty. No one got through to me." Kurt had to admit he missed sleepovers with girls, even if the reason was as sad as it was. "But my family pushed me, and that's what you are to me, Nance. You're my family here and I'll be yours if you want to."

"I'd like that." Nancy answered groggily.

"Perfect, we can pull each other through." Kurt smiled.

"Does that mean I can list you as my gay sugar daddy on Facebook?" Nancy's voice didn't lack of amusement. Kurt laughed in response, making his body shake and Nancy shook with him.

"Oh, I missed you so much."

"M'you two." And Nancy fell in a soft snoring sleep.

Next morning Kurt woke up to the sickening smell of melted ice-cream, not world's best smell in the early hours and glanced down to the sleeping girl on his chest. Strangely enough he felt better after last night and the day including to it. He didn't need to see a show to remind himself why he was doing it like before, he needed his family and friends.

He reached out for his phone and scrunched at the sticky feeling of it, apparently it had been lying in a drop of ice-cream the entire night. Without moving too much he scrolled down the texts and found the mysterious unknown number belonging to Rachel.

His head hit the wall as he banged it backwards in frustration. There he was talking about reuniting with the New Directions over Christmas break, completely forgetting that to every event possible Rachel would be there too. He felt like he was done avoiding. He needed to man up. But as Nancy twisted a bit against him he felt the courage slip away. Nancy came last night here with a broken heart, but Kurt now realized he had been walking around with a gap in his chest himself. His family had tried to heal it, Nancy had been sowing it close and Cooper had been filling it again.

But the scars were still there.

The first week of school couldn't drag even longer in Blaine's opinion. It was finally Friday after a horrendous week with Mr. Schue gearing up for regionals.

"Winter break and spring break will kick a dent in our schedule since regionals is end March, so I propose we start even earlier!" He added a clap of his hands as he walked away from the whiteboard with the regionals envelope. "The theme for regionals is, drum roll Finn uh- someone..."

Rory did a pathetic attempt at a drum roll.

Mr. Schue opened the envelope, eyes reading the words and his eyebrows showed more emotion than regularly. "A... classical? Touch?"

The choir room had never been so silent.

"Mister Schue!" Sugar's arm flailed up, smacking Tina in the face. Blaine rolled his eyes from the back of the choir room. "How can our theme be like touched by classical? Isn't that like - stone ages?"

"My pet stone turned three last week." Brittany added.

"Why do I have the feeling Figgins has to do with this?" Tina muttered next to him.

"Maybe they mean classical rock?" Sam tried, but Mr. Schue shook his head.

"My stone's name is rock!"

Blaine couldn't hold his snort anymore. This whole week was ridiculous.

"Glad that we have your attention, Blaine." Mr. Schue said and Blaine noticed the sudden silence around him. He cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the situation. "I'm sure you can help us out with this one."

Blaine wanted to protest, but the teacher was already rounding up their glee club meeting. Blaine had promised himself not to get too involved with glee club. Sure it was fun to do and he gave his all during competitions - but in order to keep his father happy he needed to continue his streak of straight A's, plus he was already juggling glee club with extra curriculums and his training ship with the orchestra.

Last Wednesday he had a spare hour alone with Brad the piano man and all Blaine did was show the freshly written music and the notes in his head were shortly after coming out of the piano. It was exactly as he heard it in his head, lacking a bit of passion - but it was only practice. The entire encounter was already weird enough because Brad could definitely make out the name ‘Kurt' on top of the paper - even though it was scratched out.

And the composition wasn't even based on Kurt - maybe a little - but definitely not completely about the boy Blaine had been getting vivid dreams about. There was more emotion to it.

As everyone packed their things to leave, Blaine sprang forward to their director.

"Mr. Schue, I -"

"Blaine!" Damn his happy tone. "Do you already have some ideas? You're the only one here with somewhat classical training -"

"I don't think -"

"So I'm really happy that you're in our team this year, Blaine and not your old school choir -"

"Auditions -"

"Maybe we can start -"

"Mr. Schue!" Blaine said, a bit louder. A few strayed New Direction members stopped with what they were doing to stare at them. Mr. Schuester's eyebrows were raised to his shrinking hairline and Blaine was even the most shocked of all - he had never risen his voice to a teacher. "I'm sorry - it's stress, my Juilliard deadline is coming up." he said quietly.

"Oh." Mr. Schue replied disappointed. "Oh, ah well - I can try to find things for now, but you need your head in the team, Blaine." Guilt talk, just what he needed. Blaine had no idea how Mr. Schue survived the past three years - at the beginning of sectionals he had been in complete stress and depression, a black out even. Turned out all of his arrangements mostly came from old members who had graduated - like Kurt, he thought fondly.

Kurt.

Kurt had been the only thing he thought about the past week. They way he laughed during Cooper and Blaine's Duran Duran moment (Blaine was still trying to figure out how his brother had convinced him on doing that - again), the way he playfully pushed Cooper around, but also the way he snapped at him for his carelessness.

Blaine knew they sort of made up for it - considering their goodbye included smacking noises that had sent shivers down his spine. Still, it was nice to know not everything was rosy in their relationship department.

He couldn't sleep that night without thinking how much of a horrible person he was. If it was anyone else he could hate their guts and fantasize about all the horribleness that could happen to them - but this was his brother. He wasn't a homewrecker. He couldn't do that - could he?

The entire evening after Kurt left he had tried to talk to his brother - or to get more information out of him was more likely, but Cooper was too distracted by his phone or he had been refreshing his mailbox on the home computer. The last time that happened was when Cooper was living at home and waiting for his Tisch application to return, even though it came by real post - not the digital kind. Cooper was a nervous waiter, always had been.

So Blaine gave up on talking to him and right before he went to sleep he had decided he wasn't in love with Kurt. Or at least he would try to fall out of love with him, because it was a little too late to admit he didn't have feelings for the boy.

The halls of McKinley High were peacefully empty on Friday afternoons. Everybody was either fleeing home to greet the weekend or at some kind of practice. The entire glee club had cursed Mr. Schue in unison for planning rehearsals after last period.

Blaine stuffed the things he didn't need for next week into his locker when Tina fell back against the lockers next to him. She grunted miserably and Blaine subtly drew the door of his locker to him so she wouldn't see the inside of it. Mainly because of the black and white picture he had found of Kurt.

It was ridiculous, he knew it - it was dangerous, but he couldn't help himself when he came across it when he was going through a box in the choir room, looking for inspiration for his audition piece. The picture was perfect and had a James Bond vibe all over it. There and then he couldn't deny that Kurt was part of his inspiration. So much for falling out of love.

"What up, honeypot?" Blaine asked carefully. Tina had been the only, slightly, sane person in the New Directions and had taken Blaine under her wing for senior year. Mostly because she was sort of miserable because her boyfriend was studying miles away.

"Mike thinks because he came here with Thanksgiving, he's not going to make it by Christmas." She sighed deeply. "I only had him for like a day and I had to share him with his dimsum eating family."

"Then visit him." Blaine answered with frowned eyebrows. "No family, maybe an annoying roommate."

She smiled. "Maybe, I'll think about it. I feel like I haven't talked to you the entire week. How was your brother's boyfriend?" Blaine dropped the geometry book he was holding. He neglected to tell Tina that his brother's boyfriend was actually old glee club member Kurt.

"He's - he's nice." Blaine flustered and bend down to pick up the book.

"Blaine you're blushing!" she exclaimed. "Is he cute? I bet he is, I mean no offence but your brother is like -"

"Yeah, no." Blaine waved his hand in front of her face so he didn't have to hear it. "It's bad enough as it is, so don't make it worse by calling him after some kind of Greek god." Like Sugar had done after she stalked his Facebook page.

"Ah, I'm sorry." But she didn't sound sorry. "Luckily for me I have my very own Asian god." Her eyes turned dreamily, probably envisioning Mike in some toga. "Anyway, I need to run. Extra vocal practice to keep my instrument going for applications."

"Have you decided yet what school?"

"Every music program close to Mike's uni in Chicago and -" she turned a bit quieter, "I want to try NYU and NYADA."

"But that's New York." Blaine said. "I thought you wanted to stay close so you didn't have to do the long distant thing -"

"I know, I know, but Blaine - it's New York." Tina's face cracked into a smile. "And knowing that Kurt," Blaine blushed against his will, "and Rachel got out last year makes me eager."

Blaine looked at his friend with apprehension. "I -, I can't give you other advice than just try." Tina returned a smile.

"Thanks, anyway - I really need to run now. Have a nice weekend, Blaine!" She started to walk off, leaving Blaine alone in the hallway.

The deafening noise of metal clanging screeched across the corridor and Blaine flinched visibly. With top speed he turned around, party falling into the open space of his locker and came eye to eye to at least three quarter of the McKinley hockey team.

Scott was leading the gang as usual and was also the one who punched a random locker to gain the shorter boy's attention.

"You think you'd get away from our little mall meeting?" he said with an amount of saliva.

Blaine's eyes flickered from left to right to see if anyone was still in the hall, but of course the team had awaited the perfect moment to bash him.

"Well, I was certainly hoping yes - but if you want to go shopping again, call me." Blaine didn't even think through the words he was saying, but regretted them nevertheless. Scott's fist landed in the locker next to Blaine's, missing his face with a few inches. He was leaning against the door of his locker, picture of Kurt hidden behind his back.They're just trying to scare you, Blaine thought, they won't hit you on school grounds.

There weren't any cups in sight, so they weren't out to slushie him. If they wanted that, they would've done it this morning so he would have the shame of it the rest of the day.They're just making a statement.

"You think this is a joke, Anderson?" Scott spat. "You think we're here for tea?"

"I could get biscuits from home ec?" Blaine flinched again at his own words, but he just couldn't stop them from coming. He needed to fight, that's why he transferred back. Fists couldn't be used, not with so many people against him - so he used his second best weapon.

"He thinks it's all a joke!" Scott turned around to his fellow team members, arms open wide as if he was a gladiator. "Well, buttboy -" he let his arms down, creeping closer to Blaine than his personal space usually allowed and added threatening: "It's not." He grabbed Blaine by his lapels, tugging forward and slammed him back hard against the metal of his locker. His head was sneering with pain, hand automatically reaching for the sore spot and eyes snapping shut.

"HEY!" an authorized voice yelled, definitely belonging to Mr. Schuester. Scott let go of Blaine immediately and with his eyes closed he felt the group leaving the scene as quickly as possible. "Scott Cooper, you stop right there!" A gush of wind went by Blaine when the teacher passed by. Blindly Blaine stepped forward and slammed his locker shut.

"Hey kid, you alright?" a new voice said and Blaine fell back against the lockers in surprise. He thought Schue was alone, but when he opened his eyes, he was staring at an older man in some sort of suit. Somehow he looked familiar, but Blaine couldn't place him. He had no hair and was about the same age as his father. The expression on his face was sincerely concerned.

Blaine still had his hand on the sore spot on his head, and the man forced him to lower it.

"Damn kid, you're bleeding." He was? The man took the arm he lowered with a sturdy grip. "Let's get you to the nurse." Without even the chance of protesting, Blaine was guided to the nurse by the unknown - yet familiar - man.

---

Blaine had never been to the McKinley nurse before. To be honest; he was surprised she was still here so late on a Friday afternoon. The friendly woman was circling around him, muttering about the dangers of the average teenage life, but Blaine only paid attention to the conversation that was going on right outside the office.

There was no doubt Mr. Schue and the man knew each other. They had been quietly chatting to one other - obviously about Blaine - and agreed on several occasions.

"This is why we need the policy, Schuester -"

"I'm well aware." Mr. Schue answered.

"To be honest, I thought it had calmed down after K-"

Blaine hissed at the sting on his head, missing part of the conversation.

"Oops, sorry." the nurse said and dapped some more disinfecting lotion onto the wound. The cut was near his hairline, somewhere close to his eyebrow and temple. He had no idea how big it was, but he prayed to whatever there was that it wouldn't leave a scar. He couldn't handle another reminder of all the shit that had been thrown at him.

A band aid was unwrapped and carefully planted against the wound, but the nurse didn't seem satisfied by it. With a scrunch in her face, she opened the curtain and Blaine saw the two men standing in the doorway. They stopped talking and looked up at the reveal.

Mr. Schuester made no notion of staying calm and practically barged into the small room to get closer to Blaine.

"You okay?" he asked and Blaine raised an eyebrow - forgetting about the wound and flinched at the pain. Still. It was kind of remarkable that Mr. Schue was actually concerned. Or maybe he didn't want to lose his only classical factor for regionals.

Blaine shrugged at his question. He gestured to the nurse for her to speak, considering she saw the wound. The teacher's focus immediately changed, but the other man kept his eyes on Blaine.

The nurse sighed deeply. "To be fair, I have no clue. The cut seems deeper than I thought, but I don't have the time to look closer to it, because I need to get going to my cousin's bar mitzvah. Maybe he could go to the hospital-"

"No hospitals!"

The three adults snapped their heads to the boy on the bed. Blaine swallowed uncomfortably at the attention.

"No hospitals." he repeated. The urge to explain himself had faltered away.

"Blaine, you sure? It's a nasty cut, I wouldn't want that to get infected -" Mr. Schue tried.

"No. Hospitals." Not again.                                                                                                     

For a moment nobody knew what to do or what to say, until the unknown man proposed something.

"Maybe Carole can take a look at it, she'll be home at six." He shared a glance with Mr. Schue. "We have a aid kit and everything, she won't mind."

"Are you sure? You don't have to impose -"

"She won't mind, trust me. She'll probably kick my ass if I didn't do something." The man shrugged, but was clearly using some kind of overpowering to convince the teacher.

"Very well then, - Blaine." Mr. Schuester turned his attention back to Blaine. "Burt's wife is a nurse, they live close to here. She can take a look if you like. No hospitals." he assured.

The man - Burt, even his name was familiar - gave him a nod. "You can trust me, kid - my son and stepson used to go here."

"He's right, Blaine. And both of them were in glee club." Well that was reassuring. Blaine didn't really know how to respond. If he would go home, he could call the family doctor and he'd come over to check up on it, but that would mean he would walk around with the cut for at least four more hours.

"Fine." he finally gave in and raised his hands in surrender. It was better than letting Mr. Schue drive him home as he overheard while being taken care of.

"'Kay kid, grab your stuff. Carole'll be home in an hour." Burt said, giving another trustful look.

If getting kidnapped by a strange man that was trusted by my History teacher was my punishment for being in love with my brother's boyfriend, so be it. Blaine thought miserably.