A/N: I’ve decided to change the day I update to Friday, because it just makes more sense with my schedule. Sorry for the lack of forewarning! But I think you’re gonna like this chapter, a lot. ;)

Warning: There is bullying in this chapter. Yes, I warned for this at the start, but it’s quite angsty here.

Disclaimer: If I owned Glee, I probably wouldn’t be up until 1AM at least once a week writing fanfiction...

Chapter Six: Confessions.

“I’m still grounded.” Kurt announced dramatically as he spoke to Blaine for the first time that day, leaning against the locker next to Blaine’s and shaking his head. “Dad lectured me for an hour last night when I asked why I was still grounded for something that happened 3 weeks ago. It’s pointless, really – the whole experience put me off of alcohol forever. He doesn’t need to punish me for it.”

Blaine closed his locker and smiled wryly at Kurt. “Hello to you, too.” He teased, glad to see that Kurt wasn’t really annoyed, just whining for the sake of it.

The irritable glare he received would suggest otherwise, but he knew Kurt well enough by now to roll his eyes at him in response to what he knew was just theatrics. “I’m going to be grounded until I move out.” Kurt complained.

“Well, it’s not as if you have any huge social events coming up.” Blaine pointed out gently, before turning to head off down the corridor, managing to walk a few paces before he realised Kurt wasn’t following. He turned.

Kurt was still leaning against the locker. “I resent the implication that I don’t have a social life.”

Incredulous stare. “Fine, I’m sorry, your social life is wondrous and bountiful. Now can we go to the cafeteria?”

Kurt sniffed theatrically, which seemed to be his way of accepting his apology, and then moved to sweep past Blaine imperiously. “Come on!” He called over his shoulder as he passed him.

Blaine hurried to keep up with him. “Your legs are longer than mine!” He protested.

“That’s because you’re tiny.”

 “I am not tiny. I’m the average height for a male American.”

“You actually checked that, and I’m the one with no social life?”

Blaine nudged Kurt as they entered the cafeteria, and mock-glared at him, before glancing around the room.

Coming into this room was still a little terrifying. Strangely, it seemed as if here, the cafeteria was safe, neutral territory. It hadn’t been like that at Westerville.

The two of them headed over to the counter to get food. “Ah, nutritious, healthy food.” Kurt muttered in an undertone just loud enough for Blaine to hear, and he stifled laughter as he held out his tray to receive the fries, baked beans and chicken nuggets.

He flinched away a little as a burly jock jostled him, and followed Kurt quickly over to the table which Mercedes, Tina, Artie, and Rachel were already seated at.

“Whaddup, homeboys?” Artie greeted them, and Blaine blinked at him, sitting down slowly. Though Kurt had told him he was welcome here, he still felt like an outsider, especially when they all started talking about Glee.

“Kurt, Finn’s been looking tired recently, right? You’re with me on this?” Rachel pleaded with the countertenor.

“Much as I hate to agree with you on anything, you’re right, Rachel.” Kurt let out a long-suffering sigh, picking up a fry with his hand to eat it, the other hand propping up his chin.

“Do you think it’s because of the baby?” Tina asked quietly, and all six of them leant in a little.

“What, like he’s worrying about it so much he’s not sleeping properly?” Mercedes glanced around at the others. “I don’t know, you guys; he doesn’t seem worried. Maybe he’s just got Teenage Boy Syndrome.”

“Hey!” Blaine, Kurt, and Artie all protested simultaneously, and Blaine felt a momentary feeling of warmth, stupid as it seemed, a feeling of unity with them.

“Don’t worry; you guys haven’t caught it yet. When you start being assholes to girls, then you’ll know. Except you, Kurt. You’ve escaped.” Mercedes reassured him.

“With the power of the gay?” He asked wryly.

“It is a great power. But with great power comes great responsibility, Kurt Skywalker.” Artie said solemnly, and they all laughed.

Blaine picked at his food with his fork, suddenly no longer hungry.

Rachel began talking about Sectionals. Artie, Tina, and Mercedes all groaned loudly and threw fries at her.

Kurt nudged Blaine, and he looked up, startled, before returning Kurt’s smile.

He just had to suck it up. If he was gonna be too scared to come out, he’d have to deal with the consequences of that.

---

“Rachel has actually forbidden me from talking to you.” Mercedes told Kurt seriously the day after Will had given them their assignment for the week.

Kurt rolled his eyes, not surprised at the girl’s enthusiasm. “Ugh, she’s only one who’s taking this competition seriously.”

“It’s Rachel, what do you expect?” Mercedes shut her locker and turned to face Kurt. “Anyway, we all know the boys are going down.”

“That’s what you think.” Kurt scoffed. “Finn and I are on the same team, we’re bound to win.”

“Go on, what songs are you doing?” Mercedes nudged him.

“I’ve been sworn to secrecy.” Kurt nudged her in return. “They may be too ‘cool’ to show it, but they really want to win.”

“Then I’m afraid they’re going to be disappointed.” She retorted sassily.

“Oh, like you girls have something better planned?” He asked, derisively.

“Way better. You don’t stand a chance.”

“Mercedes!” They both rolled their eyes at the call, knowing that it was the very girl they’d just been complaining about. “You’re fraternising with the enemy! Sorry, Kurt.” She added to him, making shooing motions.

He mouthed a ‘see you later’ to Mercedes, who gave a long-suffering sigh as Rachel hooked her arm through hers and began whispering fiercely about choreography.

“Meeting after school today, Kurt!” Artie called out as he wheeled past him.

Blaine walked over to Kurt, nodding to Artie as he passed him. “Meeting for what?”

“Our Glee club assignment this week is to perform a mash-up. Boys versus girls. We’re meeting to discuss what we’re doing.” Kurt explained.

“Oh, right. That’s cool. Good luck!” Blaine smiled. “What songs are you doing, then?”

“We haven’t decided yet, hence the meeting.” Kurt told him.

Blaine quirked his lip in an acknowledgement of their disorganisation. “Mash-ups are hard, aren’t they? ‘cause you have to find two that go together.”

Kurt nodded, impressed with his knowledge. “Yeah, you do.”

“In our last year of middle school, my friend mashed up What Time Is It from High School Musical and School’s Out Forever, and then she insisted on standing at the school entrance singing it at people as they left on the day school broke for summer vacation.” Blaine told him, a smile tugging at his lips at the memory.

This was the first time Kurt had heard anything about Blaine’s childhood, and he smiled at the idea of a younger Blaine standing next to his friend and looking embarrassed while she sang at people.

“People kept throwing money at her, actually.” Blaine added.

“Oh, so she was a good singer, then?” Kurt inquired, intrigued about this girl.

“No, they were throwing money at her to get her to shut up.”

His words surprised Kurt into laughing. “Right, well, that’s... that must have been a bit of a blow to her ego.”

Blaine’s smile was both fond and nostalgic. “Oh, she knew she was a terrible singer. She just didn’t care.”

The way Blaine was referring to her in the past tense set off alarm bells in Kurt’s mind. “So, uh... are you still friends with her, or...”

He trailed off as Blaine shook his head with a rueful grimace. “No, she went to a different high school, and we promised we’d stay in touch, but you know how it is.”

Kurt offered him a sympathetic smile. “I do indeed. Such is the curse of being 14 years old.” But he had to wonder; did Blaine have any other friends? Had he kept any of his friends from Westerville?

Or the real question; had he had any friends at Westerville?

---

“Hey, new kid, welcome to McKinley!”

“Loser!”

Slam.

Blaine collided hard with the lockers as he was shoved into them. Horrified, he cringed away from the jock as he strolled past, laughing and high-fiving his friend.

For a few minutes, he simply leant against the lockers, breathing in and out to regain control and fighting back memories from Westerville. Memories of being shouted at, tormented, pushed around, Sadie Hawkins-

He stopped that memory in its tracks by focussing on the pain where he’d been shoved into the lockers, concentrating on the pain, a tactic he’d learnt at Westerville. Physical pain was easier to deal with than emotional pain.

The panic threatening to overwhelm him subsided a little after a minute or so, and he was able to breathe normally again and straighten up, fixing his clothes.

It was no surprise to him, on glancing up from the floor, that no-one was looking at him. No-one was offering him help. Nobody cared.

He’d been stupid to think that moving here might make the slightest difference. That this would be the safe haven he’d hoped to find at Dalton, and had began to wonder if he’d found here. This place was just the same as Westerville. He was going to spend the next three years being tormented just because he was small and different, even if they didn’t know he was gay, and he was going to have to put up with it because he literally had no other choice. He had no other choice than to be tortured for three years in a school where nobody cared, not even the teachers. Where going to the school administration would get you absolutely nowhere because they didn’t care about your safety. Where nobody was in the slightest bit interested in how you were.

Nobody... except Kurt.

He let out a long breath, calming down enough to be able to function normally again. Though he was positive that nobody in this corridor would have noticed if he’d broken down on the floor.

It wasn’t just that they didn’t care, of course. It was the same in every school; they were just used to it. This was how things were, and you had to play by the rules. Everyone was busy watching their own back. They didn’t have time to watch out for someone else.

But Kurt was different. And, from what he’d seen so far, so were Kurt’s friends.

So maybe the school was exactly the same.

This difference was, this time, he had real friends.

---

Kurt glanced over at Blaine as they walked out of English – their last lesson – the next day, hearing him groan. “What’s up?” He asked, noticing that he was looking at his phone, and leaning towards him a little to try and peer at his screen.

Blaine shook his head a little, sliding his phone into his pocket. “Mum’s been held up at work. She won’t be here for another three hours.”

Seeing the look on his face, Kurt spoke without thinking. “You can come over mine, if you’d like.”

Blaine looked up at him, a shocked expression on his face. “Really?”

Already cursing himself, he shrugged. “Well, if you want to, of course.”

“Of course I want to! I want to meet your dad, since you spend so much time extolling his virtues.” Blaine responded quickly, with a smile.

“‘Extolling his virtues?’” Kurt repeated, laughing.

“Reading Wuthering Heights is affecting my vocabulary.” Blaine explained quickly, looking a little sheepish.

“I can see that, Blaine.” He responded dryly. “Come on, let’s go.”

“So you walk home, then?”

“Ever since my father took away my car, yes.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Blaine said solemnly.

Kurt gave him a stern look. “You should be. That car is my baby.”

They settled into companionable silence, occasionally speaking up to talk about school or their favourite musicals (Kurt still couldn’t believe that Blaine preferred Hairspray to The Sound of Music. (“The songs are more fun, Kurt!”) and, on finding out, had studiously ignored him for several minutes before Blaine’s sorrowful puppy eyes had won him over.)

“So, it’s just you and your dad, then?” Blaine asked hesitantly half an hour later, as he followed Kurt into his house and into the main room.

Kurt nodded. “Yes. My mother died when I was 8.” He paused, eyes lighting on the only picture of her that Burt kept in the house, on the little coffee table. “Cancer.” He added, looking back at Blaine.

“I’m sorry. That’s awful for an 8-year-old to have to go through. I mean, it’s awful at any age, but...” Blaine left the sentence unfinished; there wasn’t really any need to continue it.

“I really miss her.” He didn’t know why he felt he could tell Blaine this. Maybe it was the understanding sympathy Blaine’s eyes shone with. “Dad’s great, but… he doesn’t understand me in the way that she did. And she would’ve been better at dealing with the whole, well, ‘gay thing’.”

Blaine nodded understandingly, walking over to stand next to Kurt, looking at the picture. “She was pretty.” He commented gently, glancing at Kurt. “You look a lot like her.”

At any other time he would have taken offence, asking if Blaine was calling him feminine, but at this moment, he took it for what it was: Blaine’s honesty and kindness. “Dad says so, too.”

 “Has he never… y’know, dated anyone else?”

“No. He’s still not over her. It’s very romantic, in a way.” Kurt sighed a little.

“What would you think if he did?” Blaine asked neutrally, head tilted to look at him with openness and curiosity.

“I… I think I’d be okay with it, I guess. I miss mom, but… I want him to be happy.” Kurt told him honestly. He’d thought about this quite a lot when he was 13 and his father had made a lady friend. At the time, he’d been unsure. Maybe his father had picked up on this, or maybe it just hadn’t turned into anything between him and the woman, but one day Burt had simply stopped seeing her.

“That’s very mature.” Blaine commented.

“I like to think I’m very mature.” Kurt teased a little, just to see Blaine smile. “Do, uh, do you like Grey’s Anatomy?” He asked, feeling a change of subject was in order, and needing some way to occupy them until Blaine’s mom turned up.

“Surely the only appropriate answer to that question is yes.”

Kurt gave him a serious look. “Well, I was thinking I’d have to throw you out of the house if you said no.” Blaine flinched, and he frowned. “I… I was joking.”

“I know.” Blaine shook his head a little as if to clear it. “Sorry. I, uh, I’m not always good at telling when people are joking.”

Deciding after a moment that he shouldn’t push the issue – if Blaine had simply been thinking of something else, or had misheard him, he wasn’t going to embarrass him by making him admit it – Kurt walked over to the TV, grabbing the Grey’s Anatomy Season 1 DVD, turning to wave it at Blaine.

“Good plan.” Blaine grinned, before pulling out his phone. “Uh, could I have your address, so I can tell mom where I am?”

“Oh, right.” Kurt recited it, putting the DVD in and turning on the TV, before bounding over to Blaine, pulling him down onto the couch next to him. Blaine let out a little squeak, and he snorted. “I haven’t dragged you here to kill you. Calm down.”

“I’m a jumpy person, I can’t help it.” Blaine had finished texting now, and looked attentively at the screen.

Kurt did too, though his mind was ticking over the last few months. He’d known Blaine, what, over 2 months now?

In that time, he’d never heard him mention his father.

It took the length of one and a half episodes for him to gather the courage to ask. Speaking over Meredith talking on-screen, he inquired casually, “So… what about your father?”

Was it his imagination, or did Blaine tense a little?

“What about my father?”

Was that tone overly-casual? Was he reading too much into things? Did he need to stop watching detective shows? Probably.

“I just… you’ve never mentioned him. I was just wondering about him.”

Blaine shrugged slightly. “Uh, he’s a dad, I guess?” He scrunched up his eyes a little. “We don’t have a very good relationship, really. I’m closer with mom, although I’m not really a mommy’s boy either. I dunno, I’ve never been really close with either parent.”

Kurt nodded, though it always grated on him a little when teenagers were so casual about not being close to their parents. He would have killed for the chance to have his mother back, and so many just didn’t care enough about their parents. But if Blaine had personal problems with his parents, then he wasn’t going to lecture him or get down on him for it. He’d just be here for his best friend.

“Well, as long as there isn’t any topic I’ll have to avoid when I meet your parents, then.” He joked, to ease the tension that seemed to have settled over the room, and turned his attention back to the TV, missing the slight frown on Blaine’s face.

---

“Hey, guys.” Blaine began cautiously, walking over to Kurt and Mercedes where they stood, deep in conversation. “Uh, I didn’t want to say anything at the time, but... are you both okay?”

Mercedes let out an embarrassed laugh. Kurt had the grace to look sheepish as he turned to face Blaine. “If you’re asking about Mercedes’ behaviour yesterday, and mine the day before, don’t worry. We took something.”

Blaine’s eyebrows shot up. “And that’s supposed to stop me worrying?” He asked incredulously, completely unsure how to react when your friends told you they’d taken drugs.

Mercedes snorted and quickly explained. “Finn was advised by the nurse to take some vitamin to energise him, and it really energised him. So all the guys took some for their mash-up on Tuesday and were awesome, so we copied them yesterday to make it equal.”

Kurt nodded. “The vitamin’s over-the-counter, but...”

“Now we feel awful.” Mercedes shrugged as Tina and Artie came over to join them. “Mr Schue seemed so happy to see us so energised, that we feel bad for cheating.”

Blaine nearly sighed with relief. ‘Over-the-counter’ vitamins sounded a lot better than ‘we took something’. “Well, I hope you’ve learnt your lesson.” He told them, mock-severely.

“I feel t-terrible.” Tina admitted, glancing at Artie, who nodded in agreement.

Finn strode past them at that moment, face set in a determined expression, and Kurt raised an eyebrow. “It looks like Finn’s on the warpath.”

“Do you think he’s going to tell Mr Schue?” Artie wondered aloud.

Mercedes shrugged. “If he doesn’t, one of us will.” They all nodded, and Blaine’s lips quirked in a smile. They really were good people.

Watching Kurt smile as he talked with his friends, he thought about how lucky he was to have met Kurt. He thought about how lucky he was that he was already so close to Kurt.

And he thought about what he was going to say when he came out to Kurt later today.

---

“See you tomorrow!” Mercedes waved at Kurt and Blaine as she left at the end of the day, and they both waved back.

Blaine fumbled with his locker combination, managing to enter it wrong twice before getting it correct, quickly throwing his books into his locker before shutting it. He’d been trying to build up his courage to tell Kurt all day. But he’d wanted to tell him while they were alone together – he wasn’t ready for anyone else to know yet.

“Come on, Blaine.” Kurt had already walked a few paces off, impatient to get home. He felt a small twist of guilt that he was keeping Kurt from going home, but pushed the feeling down. No excuses. He had made up his mind to come out, and he was going to, before his courage failed.

“Kurt. I... I need to tell you something.” He kept his eyes fixed on his locker.

---

In Kurt’s experience, the phrase ‘I need to tell you something’ was never followed by good news. “What is it, Blaine?” He attempted to be casual, but on seeing how Blaine was staring at his locker, bit his lip and relented a little, taking the few steps to stand next to him, leaning against the lockers and looking at Blaine. “Hey, relax, okay? You can tell me anything.”

Blaine nodded, still not looking at him. “I know. I just, uh, I’m...” He closed his eyes, and when he spoke, sounded more confident. “I’m just... I haven’t had the best experience with telling people this before. And I know you’re not going to react badly, so this is really stupid of me.” He opened his eyes and turned to look at Kurt. “And I need to tell you.” He paused, swallowing hard. “Kurt... I’m gay.”

Kurt simply stared at him for a few moments before blankly asking, “Wait, what?”

“I’m gay.” Blaine repeated, staring at him and looking like he was about to throw up.

“I-I heard, I’m just... you’re gay?” It was like he’d fallen into some weird dream. Blaine was gay. Blaine... was gay. Huh.

It actually made a lot of sense, now he thought about it.

“Yes. And I’m so sorry for not having told you earlier, Kurt, I just-” Blaine began, but Kurt cut him off.

“Don’t be sorry. I’ve been there, remember?” He raised an eyebrow, and Blaine managed a smile. “I know what it’s like.” He hesitated, aware of how Blaine had worded his lead-up to his revelation. “What... what did you mean, when you said you hadn’t had the best experience when telling people, before?”

Blaine’s lip twisted at the corner. “Can you forgive me if I say I’m not ready to talk about it, yet?” He asked, and Kurt pushed down his disappointment. “I can’t tell you, not yet, but I will. One day, I will, I promise.”

Blaine’s earnestness was enough to make Kurt smile. “I believe you.” His eyes raked over Blaine, taking in the relief clear in the boy’s expression. “I know your mom’s outside waiting to pick you up, so I won’t keep you any longer. But thank you for telling me, Blaine.” He stepped forward and hugged Blaine tightly, feeling his best friend clinging to him in response and hearing a whisper of ‘thank you’ which only made him hug Blaine tighter, before letting him go.

Meeting eyes that were shining with tears, he smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Talk to you later, Kurt.” Blaine practically beamed before darting off.

Kurt watched him go with a fond smile, before leaving to go home.

The fact that Blaine’s sexuality would eventually be known to the school niggled at him, and he wished it was possible for Blaine to escape, but with the gossip network in this school, it would be practically unavoidable.

He’d just have to be a supportive friend when that time came.

A/N: If my word count keeps increasing every time, this fic is going to end up extremely long...