Burt hugged Kurt goodbye a few minutes after Blaine's hurried departure. Kurt thought he'd seen tears in his father's eyes but neither of them knew how to deal with that right now so they just tightened their grip on each other before letting go very reluctantly. Kurt only took in the room when Burt had long since left after a last tearful parting smile.

It was much tidier than Kurt had expected the dorm room of a teenage boy to look. He knew he himself was kind of an exceptional case in his cleanliness and need for organization. And while Blaine wasn't as fanatically organized as Kurt the room was neat enough for him to feel at ease.

Opposite from the as of now still empty shelves and walls of Kurt's side of the room, Blaine's were covered in photos of mainly him and his friends, one or two with a young man that could be his brother and whose face strongly reminded Kurt of someone, though he couldn't pinpoint exactly who. There were trophies for everything from fencing to polo to singing contests (Kurt stoically ignored the joyful leap his heart made at the realization that the cute boy he was roomed with wasn't only tidy but also into music) and he had an extra shelf each for his CDs and vinyls (!) and his books. Both were filled to the brim and when Kurt read through the titles - he felt a bit creepy but Blaine did invite him to make himself feel at home - he couldn't suppress a squeal of delight.

Not only was Blaine obviously very cultured (something Kurt had found very much lacking in McKinley's male population), no, judging by the assortment of books and music (Broadway soundtracks, so many Broadway soundtracks!) they also shared quite a lot of the same interests! His heart was racing and even though deep down Kurt was aware that he already started building Blaine up in his head to some unachievable ideal of a person - he recognized the symptoms from when he'd done exactly the same thing with other boys, only to be bitterly disappointed - he couldn't help himself. Even from the miniature glances he'd been able to take so far Kurt could already tell that Blaine was much closer to what the man of his dreams was like in Kurt's head than any other boy he'd ever met.

Smiling to himself, Kurt deliberately turned his back to Blaine's side of the room and started to unpack his things. There was no use in putting the other boy on a pedestal before he even really knew him, so he'd try and think of something else for now. That proved to be much more of a challenge than Kurt had initially assumed, considering that the room was drenched in Blaine's - oh so delicious - smell. He didn't know why but something about it just made Kurt feel at ease, almost like coming home, and he just wanted to curl up in it and purr to his heart's content. Of course that would be silly and not only would he be late for his very first class at his new school, it was also possible that someone would find him like that and think him even more of an oddball than he already was. So Kurt focused on his clothes, sighing a bit to himself when his eyes fell on the hole in the back of his slacks, tailored specifically to give his tail some space. Kurt had offered to just buy the standard uniform and alter it himself but the school had insisted on getting a tailor to do it without charging a cent more. Burt had beamed at such an (for them) unusually kind gesture from a school but Kurt had felt like even more of an abnormality.

Eventually, all of Kurt's clothes (which weren't too many since he'd mainly taken his uniforms with him, he'd spend the weekends at home and he wasn't allowed to wear anything else on campus, anyway) were neatly packed away in his wardrobe, the shelves filled with his own CDs and books and vinyls and stacks of Vogue issues. There were a few pictures of him and Burt but other than that his side of the room looked a lot less personal than Blaine's. Kurt merely shrugged his shoulders at the realization, grinning bitterly to himself. He figured nobody expected someone like him to have many - or any, at that - friends, anyway.

Grabbing his back and the pile of papers hopefully containing his schedule and the floor plan, Kurt finally headed out of his dorm room to try and find his way to his first class, chemistry. He wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect and the subject wasn't really his forte but he was sure he could manage. Dalton's standards might be a lot higher than McKinley's but Kurt had taken a look at the required books and was pretty confident he wouldn't make a fool of himself.

Ten minutes later he seriously doubted that assessment. He had no idea which building he was even in so the floor plan didn't make too much sense, either, and he didn't dare stopping one of the boys rushing past him to ask for help. He remembered all too well what had happened when he'd made the same mistake on his first day in McKinley. So he just stood around cluelessly, trying not to be in the way or run over by some guy in Dalton uniform, feeling panic rise at the back of his mind. He knew he was only minutes, maybe mere seconds, away from hissing at someone and running for his life. His ears had already started twitching irritatedly and his tail was softly swishing behind him. Never a good sign.

Just when he'd resigned himself to a humiliating first Dalton experience, someone was calling his name over the crowd.

"Kurt!"

In the middle of all the noise surrounding him, Kurt wasn't sure where the familiar voice came from - pictures of sparkling eyes and forcibly tamed dark curls and a warm smile flashing in his mind - spinning around himself, his ears turning every which way trying to make out the source.

"Over here!" Smiling in relief, Kurt took a step forward and looked up the staircase he'd been hiding out next to. Blaine grinned down at him, holding out his hand. When Kurt just frowned at him - they had already introduced themselves, after all - Blaine's grin widened and he almost hopped down the last few steps, grabbing Kurt's hand around the wrist and pulling him with him into the mass of blazer-clad boys.

"Blaine! Blaine, where are we going?"

"To the chemistry lab, of course."

He shrugged his shoulder in response to Kurt's questioning glance.

"Mrs. Eders - the secretary - told me that we have the same chemistry class. Obviously, as new student tutor, I can't just let the newbies wander around aimlessly. I was about to go looking for you when I saw you down there by the stairs." Blaine winked at him - he fucking winked -before turning his attention back to the crowd around them so they wouldn't walk into anyone, thus effectively missing Kurt blushing to the tip of his still twitching ears. It only just now hit him that Blaine was holding his hand and if he wasn't sorely mistaken, the very same Blaine had also just flirted with him. That was a bit too much for him on his first day away from hateful stares and he was just glad that Blaine was too busy navigating them through the bustling Dalton students to notice. Maybe by the time they'd arrive at the chemistry lab his heart rate and complexion would be back to something remotely normal.

But Kurt had no such luck. Before he knew it, Blaine had pulled him out of the crowd and into a deserted hallway - admittedly the nicest hallway Kurt had ever seen but he couldn't bring himself to focus on the delicate mural paintings with Blaine holding his hand like that - shooting a radiant smile back at him over his shoulder.

"Blaine, where are we going?" he asked again, his voice slipping into a register way too high to not sound embarrassing. It reminded him of the plaintive mewls of a kitten.

"We're taking a shortcut, silly," Blaine laughed back, the sound echoing melodiously from the walls and ringing in Kurt's ears while they ran down what had to be the world's longest shortcut/hallway.