Kurt had said he was in his corner, if he wanted him to be. Blaine had almost asked the senior if that was a trick question.

What Blaine should have done was nodded politely and then walked away; he should have never asked Rachel and Tina about the mysterious boy with the purple hair and the tattoo on his left bicep that he only ever got glimpses of from afar. He should have kept his odd infatuation with the boy, the pink haired girl he always saw next to him and why they seemed to be important to Puck. So important that whenever something negative was said about one of them in Glee or in class or anywhere in the school it was only ever done where Puck couldn't over hear.

Rachel was useless in terms of finding out more about Kurt Hummel other than a rather long speech about bad life choices, peer pressure, babies and two gay dads that he didn't listen to. Tina had just rolled her eyes, told Rachel to stop talking about things she didn't know or comprehend then turned to the other junior, "It's not our place to tell you about Kurt or Quinn. It's definitely not Rachel's...Talk to Puck."

Blaine had been disappointed, but he could see where she was coming from. He would have hated if anyone had gossiped about his transfer to Dalton in that first year. He knows people did, he's just also aware that no one knows the full story and only the Warblers knew the vaguest of details, so even if they did tell someone (which he doubted) it was never the full story. As for talking to Puck about two people he seemed oddly protective of, despite almost never being seen with them in school, well that didn't seem like an option to Blaine. He had no idea where he stood with the jock; he wasn't going to push it with questions about the two 'skanks' as he'd been informed. 

Brittany had found out through Rachel about his want to know more, and she seemed to be the only one who offered any sound advice. "Nobody knows what happened except Q, because they love each other." His heart sunk at that first bit. "But he's still my dolphin, and I know my dolphin. He looks at you, so he'll tell you himself."

"What's a dolphin?" 

"You are. Dolphins are gay sharks, so if you're gay you're a dolphin. Just like Kurt." And then she'd danced off to link pinkies with Santana leaving Blaine with the only sound piece of information anyone had given him. It was useless because there was no way in hell he would get up the courage to talk to Kurt first, and he highly doubted Kurt looked at him or would talk to him first. He resigned himself to keeping his crush on the boy with ripped skinny jeans and band t-shirts to himself, taking it to the grave if necessary.

Blaine stumbled into math the next morning half asleep, his parents had been home for once last night. Meaning family dinner happened; and an argument between him and his father; then a fight between his parents that kept him up all night. To say he was felt like a bit of a mess was an understatement. He perked up a little bit when he spotted the only male skank slumped in the corner desk next to his, fast asleep by the look of things. So he let himself look; he would work on not being obsessed with Kurt another day, maybe he would get away with it for the lesson.

But then Kurt caught him looking. He thought he was safe; the taller teen had seemed beyond engrossed in his doodle after giving up on the equations in front of him. But while Blaine had been in the middle of trying to figure out what his tattoo that peeked out from under his sleeve was and what all the different pieces of metal in his ear were called, see-green eyes flicked up to his. It was only first period and Blaine was already turning scarlet, clearly his day wasn't going to look up any soon.

He was right of course, he was coming out of the bathroom when he spotted Karofsky slam into Brittany, and he'd been on the receiving end of those kinds of shoves enough to see it wasn't an accident. So he'd said something, because Blaine couldn't just help Britt up, mention something to a teacher and make sure his friend was okay. He had to engage the football player head on, only realising his mistake too late. 

"Hey! What the hell man? You can't shove a girl!"

Next thing he new he was being shoved through a door and outside, away from prying eyes. He'd frozen, everything he'd learnt in boxing had flown out of his head and the flashbacks from before Dalton pushed to the forefront of Blaine's mind. His heart was pounding and hands shaking by the time Kurt showed up behind Karofsky, the mere sight of the other boy allowed maybe three seconds of relief - someone, Kurt, saw him being shoved - before doubt followed. After all, everyone saw him being pushed around at his old school and it never made a difference. Why on Earth would it now?

It's safe to say that Blaine's slightly crush on the boy didn't look like it was going anywhere anytime soon. He's not naive enough to pretend it hadn't gotten worse. Especially when Kurt didn't walk off with his friend and comfort her, he'd made sure she would be okay sure, but he'd stayed with Blaine. He'd sat on the dirty ground in silence while Blaine tried not to cry, because men do not cry Blaine, especially the Andersons.

Clearly Britt was right, Kurt wasn't a bad person. Not that Blaine had ever thought that; the first time he'd laid eyes on the boy it had been when he'd forced that whinny kid with the ginger afro to apologise to Brittany for calling her stupid on the second day of school, Blaine's first official day. Granted it was by grabbing the kids arm as he passed Kurt in the hall, dragging him over to the cheerleader, shoving him up against the locker and informing him that he was sure he'd misheard what he's said, because surely someone like Jewfro, he'd almost spat the nickname at the boy, wasn't dumb enough to do something so mean.

Blaine had watched amazed as the whimpering boy stuttered out an apology and a promise to never do it again before hurrying away with fear in his eyes. Kurt had had a quick conversation with the Cheerio where she'd brightened up before stalking off back towards the girl with bright pink hair.

So he began to notice the other boy more, noticed how he never took part in any bullying; the only time he was ever threatening towards another student was in situations like with Britt. Though he was constantly sarcastic and abrasive towards pretty much everyone in the school except Quinn, so much so that until Brittany gave her speech about Dolphin's he'd been convinced they were together.

But Kurt was gay. Gay, and beautiful. Someone Blaine never in a million years thought he would be attracted to. He was normally into guys who worked at the Gap, (though he tried to never think about that and swore the Warblers to a vow of silence) not boys with multiple piercings, tattoos and a smoking habit. Kurt wasn't exactly the kind of boy you brought home to meet the parents and have them fall in love with him. Although he could bring home a prince and his parents would hate him based on the fact that it was guy, so he supposed Kurt's appearance was irrelevant in all his 'this is my boyfriend' fantasies. Not that he'd had any "meet, Kurt, my boyfriend" fantasies at all.

Kurt was the visual definition of a bad-boy, he'd somehow, and Blaine's not sure he wants to know what I know what he's capable of means, scared the school's main bully into walking away from beating the shit out of Blaine. In fact looking back on this morning Blaine's sure he doesn't want to ever know what Karofsky is capable of; the look in his eyes was enough to make Blaine shut down let along what he could physically do to the boy.

Shuddering slightly as he tried not to think about how Kurt, rough around the edges Kurt, knew what the jock could do. Has done by the sound of it. Blaine frowned, Kurt seemed so closed off from everyone at McKinley save for Quinn and possibly Puckerman. So why the Hell was he seemingly making an effort to be there for Blaine in a way that no one else was?

He got that Kurt felt like he couldn't ignore bullying going on under his nose because of past experiences - that was fair enough. But why did he make it a point to remind Blaine that he was there to talk to if he needed it? At home he was on his own, the rare times that Cooper visited they kept conversation superficial, his parents were hardly ever there and hadn't been for years. At Dalton he'd had friends, been popular even, but still no one could really grasp what he'd gone as none of the Warblers had ever been through something like that. The zero-tolerance bullying policy kept him safe from everyone else in the school so he never found out if anyone had a problem with him outside of his friends.

He really needed to stop over thinking everything.

"Did you know, if you keep your face like that for long enough it'll stay that way?" Kurt appeared in front of him, leaning one arm casually against the locker next to his. 

"Huh?" Blaine blinked stupidly before flushing and turning to his still closed locker, fumbled with the lock and tried to remember why he'd come here in the first place. How he'd gotten here was still a mystery - had he really been that far in his own head?

"You alright?" Kurt titled his head, eyebrow bell-bar glinting.

"What, yeah, yeah totally fine. Why?" 

"You're aware that you've picked up and replaced your Biology textbook three times right?" the taller teen seemed to be failing at biting back a smirk. "Am I making you nervous?"

Yes. "No, not at all." Blaine's eyes darted to his locker, picking up his correct textbook this time and shutting the damn thing to prevent anymore embarrassment. Oh God, please just change the subject.

"Okay..." Kurt shifted away from the lockers, grey cotton clad arms crossing over his chest, which of course did not draw Blaine's eye to his biceps, or pecks, or body in general. "Um I just wanted to make sure you were okay after yesterday? And remind you that you can talk to me, I really don't bite," the smirk came back, "well unless you're into that." Winking at the dumbstruck junior Kurt turned and walked away form Blaine, denim clad ass directly (kind of) in Blaine's face.

Shaking himself Blaine smiled lightly as he headed towards his Gym class that he shared with the glee guys. Blaine could admit to himself that he was oblivious at the best of times but it seemed like Kurt was flirting with him. Of course the boy was friends with Puck, who seemed to throw out innuendos like they were candy so maybe it was proximity thing. He really needed to stop -

A jock shoulder checked him into a locker before high fiving Karofsky who was beside him. Clearly was trying to get around Kurt's threats.  

Shaking it off Blaine carried on to the gym.

By lunch Blaine had been shoved into three lockers and slushied once. Thankfully it missed most of him - no wonder the baseball team wasn't doing so well, they couldn't aim for shit - so he only had to remove his cardigan. He managed to get most of it out the sleeve it landed on in the toilets and hung it in his locker to take home and wash.

It wasn't pleasant, of course it wasn't, he got it worse than the other gleeks but they did get it too. They just didn't get the names, fag, homo, fairy. Or the shoves. Still it could be worse; it could be like last time. He could handle it easily, let it roll of his back, through his gloves and onto the bag he had handing in his basement.

So why was he walking towards the bleachers intent on finding Kurt? He only hesitated for a few minutes before ducking under them and finding a faded old couch and two skanks smoking on it.

"What the fuck do you want?" The darker skinned one glared at him.

"I - "

"Back off Sheila." Kurt's voice came from behind him, where he was leaning on the chain link fence, cigarette hanging from his lips, eyes narrowed at the two girls on the couch. "Tell her about your latest trucker or something Mack."

"What's he doing here?" Mack, at least Blaine assumed she was Mack, dragged her eyes up his body, upper lip curled back.

"Nothing to do with you is it?" Kurt raised an eyebrow, almost daring the girls to say anything. Rolling eyes in sync they stood up, "Whatever, we're getting a Big Mac, want?" 

"No." The girls left, glaring at Blaine as the passed him, causing him to shrink back slightly. Kurt chuckled quietly, pushing off the fence and sauntering over to the couch, throwing his lean body onto the far side of it and smirking up at Blaine. "I'll be honest; I didn't expect to see you so soon."

Blaine rubbed the back of neck lightly, "so soon?"

"Everyone needs someone to talk to Anderson, but I would've thought you'd stay away until it reached breaking point." Kurt titled his head, a softer look taking over as he flicked the ash off his cigarette and exhaled a stream of thick smoke from his nose and gestured to the seat next to him. "You seem like the kind that suffers in silence."

"How'd you figure that?" He felt his feet walking towards the boy before he'd given them permission to do so. Kurt nodded smiling more than smirking now, though it was a tiny one.

Blue eyes followed him as he sat, running lightly over him before settling on his face. He bit his lip in amusement. "Lucky guess." Another drag on the cigarette.

"You said you could distract me, not like that!" Kurt snorted lightly, hands raised in mock surrender.

"Okay! So what am I providing my distraction services for?" The light smile disappeared slowly, "Karofsky's not done anything today has he?" Blaine shook his head. "Normal Neanderthal dick heads then?"

It was Blaine's turn to snort, "yeah, normal stuff."

"Well, until we get a principle that doesn't have his head permanently up his ass when it comes to shit like this, we're on our own." Kurt stubbed his cigarette our angrily. "Douche bag makes out like he's on our side but he's not. No one really is, after all," he put on a mocking tone "it's his words against yours. Every man for himself in this place."

"Sounds extremely healthy." Blaine found himself resenting his parents just a little bit for pulling him out of his safe haven due to 'finance issues'.

"Yep, but the bright side is I have an amazing sense of self-preservation after three years in this place." Kurt pulled a face, "well, I'm calling it the bright side."

"It's not a bad thing."

"No, but it's not something that's supposed to be gradually beaten into you is it? Sadly until people like us get out of places like this, that's all we've got."

Blaine turned to stare at the skank who wasn't paying attention to him, but staring at the fields that stretched out from the back of the school towards the highway. "Isn't that a bit pessimistic?"

"Maybe." Kurt's eyes were still fixed on the horizon. "I like to think of it as realistic. There is nothing that will stop me from leaving this place as soon as I graduate...what about you?"

Kurt's head snapped to meet his, lips pulling up in one corner, sunlight glinting off his hair and the metal dotted around his ears. He flicked his tongue bar against his lips when Blaine just stared at him, forehead slightly creased in confusion. "Blaine?"

"Wha - oh yeah, um I've got another year after this to figure that out."

Kurt snorted again, raising his pierced brow sceptically. "Bullshit. I had my escape out of here planned out by the time I was twelve. It's been in fine tuning over the years but it's still the same foundation. Graduate and get the fuck out of Ohio and go to New York. If it weren't for my family I'd already be gone; graduation can happen anywhere."

"You'd...stay for Finn?" Blaine's voice went up at the end, he'd honestly got the impression that the two step-brothers weren't the closest, not that he could judge from his own relationship with his 'big brother'.

Kurt let out a harsh laugh, eyes dark, "Screw Finn, I meant my dad, Q and Beth. Dad's all I've had since I was eight, and Q was there for me when it mattered most." He let out another mocking laugh and leant back against the couch, "whoever said you can't pick your family was a fucking moron. Family isn't just blood Blaine."

The bell rang shrilly in the background, Blaine looked behind himself standing up and dusting himself off. Kurt stood up and stretched, his pale gray henley lifting enough to show a sliver of highly toned stomach, Blaine got a brief impression of dark swirls of ink before the cotton dropped back to just below his jeans waist. Clearing his throat Blaine made a show of checking he had everything before biting his lip turning away from the other boy to head back towards the main building.

Kurt kept up with him easily he noticed, probably due to the inches he had on him Blaine mused. He tried not to think about everything as they headed in the direction of Blaine's locker, but he couldn't help wondering why Kurt was walking by his side, eyes sliding over everyone who stared at them like he didn't see them while Blaine couldn't help biting his bottom lip slightly at all the added attention he was getting on top of being the 'new kid'.

Both boys stopped once they reached Blaine's locker, Kurt suddenly looking a lot less sure of himself than he had been throughout lunch. His hand ruffled the back of his head in what Blaine would have sworn was a nervous habit, one Kurt clearly did without realising because he dropped his hand as soon as he noticed. Opting to break the slightly awkward silence Blaine opened his locker to grab his books for his last class and sheet music for glee club, waiting for Kurt to say something.

"Thank you."

Blaine blinked. "What, why?"

"You saved me a lunch hour spent listening to Mack describe her latest hook up in great detail; trucker's aren't really my type." He seemed to have got a small part of his confidence back because he added a wink to the end, smiling a little bit when Blaine did.

"You're...welcome? I think." Blaine shifted as the second bell rang; he'd never been late to class since his second year at Dalton, but he wanted to stay and talk to Kurt. The more time he spent with the skank the more he liked what he saw.

Kurt rolled his eyes and playfully shoved Blaine away from the lockers. "Go on, wouldn't want you to be late."

Blaine smiled in thanks and turned to leave, offering a small wave, holding back his happy dance when he got one back. "Hey Blaine," Kurt's voice carried after, making him turn slightly to see the other boy walking slowly backwards, eyes on him. "I'm glad you took me up on my offer." With another wink Kurt turned around and strolled off around a corner leaving Blaine with a slightly goofy grin on his face. He'd spoken to Kurt, he'd held a conversation that didn't occur after a run in with a bully and where he didn't stutter or get caught staring.

Still grinning he headed off to his Biology class not caring for once if he wasn't bang on time.

At the other end of the corridor Kurt was smiling to himself too as he headed to his French class to meet Quinn. Blaine made the effort to come and talk to him, despite clearly not being comfortable in 'skank territory' he'd sought Kurt out. Maybe it was because of Kurt's offer to distract him from the bullying or be there for when he wanted to talk. In fact it most definitely was but Kurt let himself hold onto that tiny piece of his mind that hoped it was because the other boy liked him in spite of his looks and reputation.

Kurt didn't normally let himself hope about boys anymore, he hadn't for over a year, but the signs were all pointing towards Blaine liking him (as a friend at least) so he figured a little bit of hope wouldn't hurt. He just wouldn't make a move; at least until he found out for sure if Blaine played on his team or not.