They put on their uniforms and trade ties, even though no one will notice. (They’ll know, that’s what matters.)

Blaine feels a momentary pang of sadness when Kurt disappears down the hall where the juniors take most of their classes, but he scolds himself. Kurt could be in Lima right now, but he’s here. He’ll see him again soon.

-

“Excuse me.”

Blaine turns around to find Kurt, rocking the Dalton uniform better than he could ever hope to. He’s not sure if he’ll ever get used to the sight of him in a matching uniform. Blaine pulls his pocket watch out of his blazer, the one that has been broken for years and is more sentimental than functional. He pretends to look like he’s too busy to answer Kurt, but he can’t keep up the act for long. It’s Dalton at lunchtime. He doesn’t want to get stampeded.

“Do you think you can find it in your heart to show a hopelessly lost Dalton boy around?” Kurt asks as he makes his way down to the last step, stilling at Blaine’s side. “I’m new here.”

Blaine knows that Kurt more or less knows his way around Dalton. He’s spent enough time there over the past year. They even mapped out their schedules the day before classes started while they were exploring the empty hallways, pretending they would stumble upon a secret passageway.

But he keeps up the act, mostly because his boyfriend is kind of adorable.

“It would be my pleasure,” Blaine says, offering his hand to Kurt. “But first, we need to make a little detour.”

-

“...be your teenage dream tonight.”

Kurt crosses the senior commons to pull Blaine in for a hug. He’s still riding the adrenaline high of the performance.

“I didn’t mess up!” Blaine says excitedly, still a little out of breath. “At least, I didn’t think I messed up. Oh god, I totally messed up, didn’t I?”

“You were amazing, Blaine,” Kurt murmurs into his ear, still holding him tight. “You’re always amazing.”

The other Warblers are clapping him on the back in congratulations, and Blaine doesn’t know if it’s regarding the execution of the performance or the boy in his arms.

“So when might I be able to lure you into the Warblers?” Blaine asks him for what has to be the thousandth time. “That would have been way more fun with you by my side.”

“I don’t sing back-up,” Kurt shrugs. “Not even for my adorable boyfriend.”

“We could always duet.”

Kurt tilts his head consideringly. “I’ll think about it.”

-

Having Kurt at Dalton is a joy that Blaine could have never predicted the extent of. He seems happier, in more ways than one.

Kurt is constantly finding ways to embellish on his uniform, and he receives warnings from the administration more than once. Kurt doesn’t fight them, of course. He slips his pins and leather cuffs into his pockets and waits to turn down another corridor and puts them right back on. It makes Blaine laugh every time.

He leaves red and yellow roses on Blaine’s doorstep on Mondays, because he knows how much he hates Mondays. He walks Blaine to all of his classes, even when his own are on the opposite end of the hallway.

He seems like he’s freer. His posture is less stiff. Blaine catches him humming at random moments and one time even kicking off his shoes to dip his feet in the courtyard fountain.

“I like having you here,” Blaine tells him one afternoon when they’re putting off homework for a mandated cuddle break.

“I like being here,” Kurt says easily. The confirmation makes Blaine’s chest flutter. “It’s the second best decision I’ve made in the past year, I think.”

“What was the first one?”

“Talking to the boy who brought a gameboy to a NYADA mixer,” he replies, tapping Blaine’s nose gently. “I mean, honestly Blaine. You’re lucky I even talked to you. You would have sat in that corner the entire night.”

“Probably,” he admits. “I’m glad you talked to me though.”

He doesn’t like to imagine how things might have been if he hadn’t. What-ifs feel like dangerous little things.

“Me too.”

Blaine feels like his life is falling into place. The pieces aren’t all there yet, but he has all of the corner pieces. The outline. The beginnings of a picture. It’s more than he had a year ago.

He finally knows where he’s going.

“For the record, I was facing the Elite Four,” he tells Kurt very seriously. “And I was all out of full restores.”

“You’re such a dork,” Kurt giggles.

Blaine presses his lips to Kurt’s, and his giggles soon fade into hums of appreciation.

Their homework still lays at the foot of the bed, forgotten for the time being.

Epilogue

September 2011

There are crossroads in life, and Kurt has encountered many of them. As he stares across the hotel lobby, where Rachel Berry is nervously fidgeting with her NYADA mixer flyer, he wonders if this is one of them.

He thinks back to the would-be friends from McKinley, the life he left behind -

And he shakes his head. “No,” he says to himself. This is his life. A moment of time spent speculating the ‘what-ifs’ is a moment wasted.

Kurt loves his life as is. There have been difficult times, like adjusting to only having weekends with his family and feeling like an outsider, but he’s working through that. He’s made time for them. He considers it practice for when he’s in New York and they’re a plane ride away.

There was the two weeks his Dad spent in the hospital last fall, the ones where Kurt wondered if he was going to make it. Blaine was there for him, and the Warblers were as well.

He auditioned for the Warblers with ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand.’

Kurt looks over to where Harmony and Blaine are arguing over the pros and cons of indoor pyrotechnics.

He then looks back to Rachel. He approaches her, seeing as no one else has just yet.

Thankfully, Jesse hasn’t made his yearly check-in to make sure the troops are all up to no good just yet. That would have been awkward.

“Hey, Rachel,” Kurt greets cautiously. He’s seen her around the house a few times this summer, but never for more than a minute or two here and there. She’s back with Finn and he doesn’t want to intrude. He is usually on his way out the door anyway, and it’s nothing more than a passing hello.

“Kurt Hummel!” Rachel smiles. “Oh, wow. You look - wow. I mean, I know I saw you at Sectionals and Regionals, but I didn’t know how much of it was good lighting. You’re all grown up!” She flounders awkwardly for a moment before holding her arms out. “I’m going to hug you now.”

He doesn’t mention that she has been in his house, that she is currently dating his step-brother. This feels different, somehow.

Besides, Kurt isn’t so sure that Rachel even remembers that he lives there in his time away from Dalton and summer jobs.

Kurt meets her halfway for a hug. It’s not the sort of hug he’s used to. She pats his back and doesn’t linger. When he pulls away, he notices how nervous she looks. “You look great, Rachel. How’s McKinley?”

“Same old thing,” Rachel says. “And Dalton?”

“Great,” he smiles. He’s not lying. “So, listen. I wanted to give you a heads up. We’ve all been coming here for two years now, and we have a little tradition of putting on a show to.. er,” he tugs at his collar. “Intimidate the newcomers. So, yeah. Don’t sweat it. It’s our little way of saying hello.”

“That sounds... interesting?” Rachel says in a shaky tone. Kurt directs her to a chair near the front of the stage just in time for Harmony to introduce herself.

“Also, there might be fire,” Kurt adds in a stage whisper. He’s not sure if Blaine won or not.

Blaine tosses a wink in Kurt’s direction.

“Blaine Anderson, if we burn down this building, so help me god...”

Star quality is more than that initial spark of stage presence. It’s an allure that makes people want to be around you. It’s that feeling of motivation in a hopeless situation. It’s being blindly stubborn. It’s a blessing and a curse.

It can also mean knowing when to step back to let others shine. A true star lets the other stars shine just as brightly.

Kurt has had his time in the spotlight plenty of times over the past year, so he doesn’t mind stepping aside to let Harmony demonstrate what a lovely little performer she has become. Besides, he gets to dance with Blaine. He loves dancing with Blaine.

When he looks at Rachel, he sees the what-if, and it’s a nice thought.

But he dismisses it in an instant.

Kurt can’t picture his life any other way.