The bus ride to regionals seemed to be an inverse of the bus ride to sectionals. Everyone was loud and chatty except for Kurt who was quiet and thoughtful.

In a few hours he would be singing in front of a competition audience for the first time. Last year they had came last at regionals and Kurt knew he wouldn't be happy with anything other than first place. First place meant the possibility of meeting Blaine but it was more than that. First place meant going to New York for the first time ever, competing at and maybe winning a National singing competition. He realised how much pressure he was under to perform well.

"Kurt are you okay?" Mercedes asked when they arrived at the venue.

"A little nervous but I'm fine." he replied.

"We're up last," Rachel informed them. "So let's go find our seats.

The new Directions took their seats, ready to watch the first act, Aural Intensity, perform.

"I can't believe coach Sylvester would coach our rivals," Rachel hissed.

"At least she's not a Judge this time," Kurt reminded her, causing them both to shudder.

They watched in disgust as Aural intensity closed their set with 'Jesus is a friend of mine'.

"Is that their strategy for every competition? Just suck up to the judges?" Kurt whispered in annoyance, remembering the mash up of Olivia Newton John and Josh Groban the club had performed last year.

"How do they even find out who the Judges are?" Rachel demanded.

"It doesn't matter," Kurt replied. "We're definitely better than them this year."

"What about them?" Rachel motioned towards the warblers who were leaving their seats, ready to perform.

"I'm not sure yet," Kurt said honestly. "But we're about to find out."

The warblers entered the stage in their matching uniforms. Kurt tensed up waiting to see what they would come up with. They had drew with them during sectionals and they were undoubtedly the New Directions biggest competition now.

Kurt recognised the curly haired singer standing at the front as the boy he'd bumped into during sections. He groaned, of course he'd have to be their lead vocalist.

The group started singing a song that Kurt recognised.

Right right, turn off the lights,
We're gonna lose our minds tonight,
What's the dealio?

I love when it's all too much,
5am turn the radio up
Where's the rock and roll?

Kurt's heart started pounding which made him frown. It was like he knew this meant something important and he was trying to figure out what it is. Then the smooth voice that was singing lead burst into full song.

Party Crasher,
Panty Snatcher,
Call me up if you are gangsta
Don't be fancy, just get dancey
Why so serious?

His eyes widened. That voice. He recognised it. It sounded slightly different but it was definitely the same voice. This song, he said it was on his set list. This meant that the boy singing was...

So raise your glass if you are wrong,
In all the right ways,
All my underdogs,
We will never be never be anything but loud
And nitty gritty dirty little freaks
Won't you come on and come on and raise your glass,
Just come on and come on and raise your glass

"Oh my god," Kurt said, a little too loudly.

"I know, they're really good." Rachel whispered back.

"No. Rachel," he said trying to get his breathing back under control. "That's Blaine."

So if you're too school for cool,
And you're treated like a fool,
You can choose to let it go
We can always, we can always,
Party on our own

How was this possible? Out of all the show-choir groups in all the states. How could Blaine be here? How could he have been right here in Ohio all this time? He wondered if Blaine knew. 'No', he thought, 'He wouldn't have lied to me all this time'.

"I knew I recognised his voice from somewhere," Rachel hissed triumphantly. "Wow, he's really cute."

Kurt was battling with himself internally but Rachel's words still soaked in. He focused back on the stage, at the boy singing lead. At Blaine.

Rachel was wrong. He wasn't cute, he was gorgeous. He danced around the stage like he owned it and the rest were just his backing group. His dark curly hair was neatly gelled back and out of the way of his eyes. His eyes which were huge and hazel coloured. But the thing that caught Kurt's attention most of all was his smile. It wasn't a fake 'show-smile'. It was genuine and seemed to light up the whole room.

It was a strange feeling. It felt like this Blaine was a different entity. As if it was possible that this might not be the Blaine he'd met and gotten to know so well through text, through words on a computer screen that were ultimately just sequences of 0's and 1's.

But even though the Blaine singing on the stage and captivating his audience seemed to be completely separate to his Blaine, Kurt was certain that he was in love with both of them.

The singing stopped and everyone stood up to applaud. Kurt was still dazed and only stood up when Rachel dragged him up by his arms. He knew what was coming next. He had wanted to know what he had inspired Blaine to sing and now he was going to watch it. He felt a twinge of guilt when he realised that Blaine hadn't wanted to tell him and didn't know he was watching now. They sat back down when the warblers began singing what was the music to a song that Kurt didn't recognise. Blaine wasn't grinning anymore and looked more pensive. Then he began to sing.

I find the map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from here to where you'd be
It's only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place where I'd find your face
My fingers in creases of distant dark places

I hang my coat up in the first bar
There is no peace that I've found so far
The laughter penetrates my silence
As drunken men find flaws in science

Their words mostly noises
Ghosts with just voices
Your words in my memory
Are like music to me

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
I, I pray that something picks me up
And sets me down in your warm arms

After I have travelled so far
We'd set the fire to the third bar
We'd share each other like an island
Until exhausted, close our eyelids
And dreaming, pick up from
The last place we left off
Your soft skin is weeping
A joy you can't keep in

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
And I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
and I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

He stayed frozen until the people sitting in front of him jumped up to clap, blocking his view. This time he wasn't dragged up by Rachel to join in. He turned to see her gaping at him.

"Guys!" they heard Mr Schue call. "Let's go, we're up!"

They stumbled out of their seats to go back stage.

"What was that?" Rachel asked.

"I... I don't know," Kurt breathed."

He felt a hand on his shoulder as they reached the backstage area and jumped. It was Mr Schue.

"Ready for your solo Kurt?"