The following week, things were weird between Kurt and Blaine. On Wednesday they sat in their usual seats in Chemistry. Rachel and Kurt took diligent notes as the teacher droned on about ionic bonds. Blaine, on the other hand, couldn’t even be bothered to look at his notebook. His full attention was on Kurt. Every little thing about him was suddenly the most intriguing thing that the world had to offer. The way his legs looked in those tight, dark blue skinny jeans as one crossed over the other. The way his red autumn sweater fell off to one side to reveal a delicate, pale shoulder that connected to a long neck that connected to a soft jawbone that changed into slightly flushed cheeks and gorgeous blue eyes that still, no matter what, took Blaine’s breath away. And Blaine was staring…

He quickly turned his attention to the front of the room, trying to pick up where they were in the lesson.

Covalent bonds. Shit. When had they gotten there? Where did the iconic bonds go? He still didn’t understand those yet! Blaine groaned softly in frustration. The noise caught Kurt’s attention, and he turned to look at him, the tip of his eraser in his mouth. Kurt pulled the pencil from his lips and smiled sympathetically.

“I’ll help you later,” he mouthed to Blaine.

Blaine blushed deep red and looked down at his desk, unable to look at Kurt. He nodded his response. Kurt chuckled softly and resumed his writing.

What the hell was that, Anderson? Blaine thought, internally kicking himself. Since when are you a bashful schoolgirl?

Since Kurt Hummel reentered your life, that’s when.

Kurt started biting lightly at his eraser, concentrating on the teacher’s lecture. Blaine watched shamelessly when those lips curled into a triumphant smirk as he answered a question correctly.

Why couldn’t Blaine get Kurt out of his mind? It must have been hearing Kurt sing the other day. It had changed something inside of him. Blaine had heard Kurt sing before, but never like he had when he auditioned for the New Directions. Blaine had tried to brush off the strange feelings he had been experiencing since that day.

And then they had sung together.

Blaine thought back to that afternoon. Kurt’s eyes on his, his voice ringing like a bell, his face flushed.

And Blaine was now seeing Kurt everywhere. He saw Kurt’s eyes when he looked at the bright blue sky, he heard his sweet, high voice when the birds chirped outside his bedroom window, and he was reminded of him when he took a single sip of coffee in the morning.

It was madness.

Blaine was on his way to glee club later that day when heard something strange coming from a neighboring hallway.

“Please, leave me alone!”

It was Kurt! Blaine peaked around the corner to find Kurt clutching his book to his chest tightly, surrounded by Jeremy and James. Kurt looked anxiously around, trying to find a way to escape their looming cage.

“I can’t believe you would be dumb enough to come back here, Hummel.” Jeremy said down at him.

“Seriously, how thick you can be?” His brother added.

“Oh, I’m much thicker than you’ll ever know.” Kurt snapped back, trying his best to seem braver than he felt.

James blushed to his ears, looking away.

“You better watch your mouth, Hummel!” The green-eyed brother defended, snatching Kurt’s books out of his arms, “James, why don’t we show Kurt a little tag team Bubb brother hospitality?”

The blonde boys sneered down at Kurt, ready to pounce.

“Hey!”

All three in the hallway looked to find Blaine standing in plain view. By this point, Blaine was fuming. No one treated Kurt like that! Blaine quickly slid between Kurt and the brothers, stretching his arms out wide to protect him.

“What are you doing here, Peewee?” Jeremy barked.

“Leave him alone,” Blaine said through his teeth. Blaine had never felt like this before, a strange mix of anger, rage, and protectiveness.

“Or what?” Jeremy scoffed at him.

“Or I’ll shove that Calculus book so far up you ass you’ll be seeing math equations for a week!”

“Aw, how cute, Jeremy! Anderson is protecting his little boyfriend!”

Blaine could feel his face going hot, but stood his ground and kept his face unchanging.

“I think maybe we should put his love to the test- huh?”

“Hey there, guys.” Puck said from behind the twins, a hand clasped on each of their shoulders. “Why don’t you learn to play nice?”

“Ow!” Jeremy and James bent under his powerful grip as he tightened it.

“Now why don’t you two run along, huh?” The twins scrambled out from under his grasp and disappeared down the hallway. Puck smirked after them. “Coming, Blaine?” He asked, leaving the scene.

Blaine turned and smiled at Kurt whose face was flushed and his eyes wide.

“See you for a study session and coffee?”

Kurt nodded and Blaine smirked, following Puck.

As promised, Kurt offered to help Blaine with his chemistry later that afternoon. They sat in their usual spot by the window at the Lima Bean, coffees in hand and books open. With a lot of prompting from Kurt to pay attention, they had gone over the material enough so that Blaine would be able to follow through in class the next day.

Blaine was having a hard time concentrating on the conversation he and Kurt were having. The only thing that was running through is mind was kurtkurtkurt and it was proving to be a problem.

“I can’t even fully express to you how awful those uniforms were,” Kurt complained, like it physically pained him even think about it. “I mean, I understand the clich� uniformed private school boys and their obvious sexual appeal to gay guys, but they were torture. I am just so happy to be out of it and into my own clothes.”

Blaine nodded in comment. He was unable to respond fully anyway. Blaine traced the smooth line of Kurt’s neck and shoulder where it was exposed from that red, sinful sweater with his eyes. Why was he doing this? He had never even had these sort of feelings towards Brittany!

Brittany.

She was a problem in her own right.

Earlier that week she had asked to “come over and study” with Blaine. Normally that meant five minutes of studying and two hours of making out or more, but this time was different.

They had been sitting on Blaine’s bed that afternoon when the first notable problem came up.

“Blainey-Bear,” Brittany whined, leaning over so that her already obvious cleavage was on display.

“Yeah?” Blaine mumbled, not bothering to look up from his notebook.

“So, are we going to make out or-?”

Blaine met Brittany’s eyes, shocked. “Oh. Uh, yeah, okay, sure, uh, yeah, come ‘ere.”

Blaine put his book down on the nightstand as Brittany hopped up from her spot enthusiastically. She wrapped her arms around his neck, climbing on top of his lap. She crashed their lips together. Sure, Blaine kissed back, but something was off. What was wrong? He tried forcing himself to be turned on, thinking of Brittany. Her smooth skin, her blue eyes, her soft, brown hair-

Brown? No. Brittany’s hair was blonde. Who had brown hair? No, not brown, chestnut-auburn hair, soft as down feathers.  And eyes, blue eyes that shined with such intensity they dulled any that tried to compare. And creamy, porcelain skin. And a slender frame with a secretly toned chest that could only be seen in the tightest of outfits. And tight tight tight jean clad legs that seemed to stretch for miles. And-

“Kurt,” he whispered against lips.

“Blaine?”

Instantly, Blaine was pulled out of his fantasy of the person who was not on top of him. Brittany scowled from above.

“What did you just say?”

“I uh, I said Squirt! You know, like the little turtle from Finding Nemo? We should watch that…”

“As much as I love that movie, I’d rather have sex,” she said bluntly, sliding off of him. “If you’re not into this right now, I’m going home.”

“Britt, wait, I’m sorry!”

Before Kurt had come back into the picture, Blaine’s life was finally starting to become normal. He had a beautiful cheerleader as his girlfriend, he played in a band with one of the biggest badasses in town, he was in their school glee club, and he played soccer. Sure, he had bullies like the Bubb twins, a runaway mother, and a father who was never home, but his life was more or less simple.

But Kurt had changed all that. He seemed to have a knack for making Blaine’s head spin.

The slender boy continued to talk to him as they packed their books and left the coffee shop. They headed to their cars at the far end of the parking lot and Blaine couldn’t help but stare. The young Kurt Hummel he knew really had matured into a handsome man. Though Blaine didn’t want to admit it, Kurt drove him mad.

The way Kurt’s eyes lit up when he talked about singing lead with the Warblers. The way his nose wrinkled when he complained about the atrocious school uniforms he had to wear, which did his oh-so-wonderful figure no justice that made Blaine silently thank heaven above that he was at McKinley now. The way he absentmindedly rubbed the only exposed part of his long neck while talking to Blaine about something he couldn’t possibly remember right now.

And his skin just looked so soft. The way his lips curled up above those pearly white teeth when he smiled. The way his mouth moved when he talked, rolling words like waves on a shore. And the way he licked his lips between sentences. How talented that mouth must be, with all the singing exercises and French lessons.

Before he knew what he was doing, Blaine leaned forward, pressing Kurt into his car and silencing him with a kiss. Just as Blaine had thought, Kurt tasted delicious, like coffee and roses. Could someone even taste like roses? Kurt’s eyes widened in shock, but instinctively, he kissed back. At Kurt’s response, Blaine heated the kiss, twining his fingers into the hair at the base of Kurt’s neck. Lips hot and steady over Kurt’s, Blaine felt something new he’d never thought he could feel. A sudden spark of pleasure shot through him. This was like nothing he had ever experienced with a girl; it was like a drug to him, something that he could never get enough of. Blaine’s tongue slipped out to lick at Kurt’s lower lip. Kurt’s lips parted obediently. Blaine slid his tongue into Kurt’s mouth. He groaned and impulsively felt embarrassed about it… until Kurt moaned into his mouth too. Kurt’s tongue played at his own and Blaine’s mind practically melted right then and there.

Finally, Kurt was the one who pulled away, staring at the boy in front of him. Blaine looked back at Kurt and his face twisted up into confusion.

What was that? Blaine wondered. Why did I do that? But Kurt, he- he’s just so amazing; unlike anyone I’ve ever met. But Brittany…

“Blaine?” Kurt started, giving him an eye-full of whatthehellwasthat?

“I have to go.”

“No, Blaine, stop.” Kurt called, catching him by the wrist, the golden bracelet he still wore digging into his hand. “What is going on with you? First you take me out dancing, and that duet, and then I catch you staring at me in class, don’t think I haven’t noticed, and now this?”

“That was nothing,” Blaine snapped. Blaine made to leave again, but Kurt held on tightly to him. Blaine, his body still facing away, kept his eyes trained on the ground. What a mess he had gotten himself into.
“‘Nothing’? Blaine, that was not nothing. You don’t just do that for ‘nothing’. You-”

“Just forget about it, Kurt!”

“Forget about it? You don’t want me to forget it. You can’t want me to forget it.” Kurt’s voice cracked as he whispered Blaine’s cruel words. Blaine lifted his head, gazing into those two sapphire eyes that had consumed his every thought since Kurt had reentered his life. Why was it that he couldn’t stop thinking of him? Everything about Kurt clouded his mind with thoughts that he shouldn’t, no, couldn’t have. Kurt stared back at him, his face hard and serious. “I don’t understand what’s going on, Blaine. I’m so confused. I thought you were straight?”

“I am!” Blaine shouted back. Kurt’s eyes flashed with the same hurt Blaine had seen pushed to the corners of his eyes before. It flooded forward, making his beautiful eyes sparkle with unshed tears. Kurt quickly gathered himself and replaced it with the stony expression Blaine had learned to hate. But Blaine had seen the damage. “I mean, I don’t know. I thought I was. I don’t know. Kurt, I don’t know what I’m doing. You showing back up in my life has thrown me so far out into left field. You’re the only one who has made me feel like this.”
“But what about Brittany?”

“The only one, Kurt! I just- I don’t know. I’m so confused. I can’t be… you know.”
“Gay?” Kurt said with a cross of his arms.

“Yeah, that. I’m not, Kurt.”

Kurt took a step forward, capturing Blaine’s face in between his hands. He gazed straight into Blaine’s eyes. “You’re lying,” he whispered, releasing his face.

“No. I can’t.”

“You’re lying to yourself, Blaine,” Kurt accused, taking a few steps back, shaking his head. “You want- you want so badly to be the normal American teenage boy with the cheerleader girlfriend and be the star of the football team-”

“Soccer,” Blaine corrected.

“-But you’re better than that, Blaine. The boy that I knew when we were children would have never let anyone tell him who he was or who he wasn’t. He wasn’t afraid of anything, much less what other people thought of him.”

He stepped away and got into his car, turning the key and rolling down the window. “I like you, Blaine. I like you a lot. But you need to figure yourself out before you hurt someone,” Kurt spat, voice cracking on the last word. He pulled out of the parking spot with one last look.

“Get back to me when you’ve made up your mind and you know what’s going on in that head of yours. I’ll see you in school.” And with that, Kurt Hummel drove out of the parking lot and was gone.

Blaine stared after him, unable to speak and fell back against his car.

What had he done? He had pushed away his best friend in the whole world with one swift mistake. The one person he cared about most in his life, gone without a second look. Blaine couldn’t remember ever feeling as low as he did right then.

Kurt had told Blaine to figure himself out. What exactly did he mean by that? Figure out if he was ga- no, liked guys or not?

Blaine groaned, pulling at his hair. How was he supposed to admit to everyone that he had feelings for a guy if he couldn’t even think the term in his mind without blushing?

But it wasn’t really that big of a deal, right? There were guys who liked guys everywhere! It wasn’t wrong or weird, Kurt had shown him that. But he had never thought about dating another guy before. It wasn’t really something that was looked highly upon at McKinley.

And what about Brittany?

Huh, Brittany. Blaine should start with her.

He pulled out his phone and quickly dialed his girlfriend’s number.

“Hullo?” she said a few seconds later.

“Britt, it’s Blaine.”

“Blainey Bear! How are you? Did you want to come over and study?”

“Uh, no. Listen, Brittany, I need to talk to you. Like, a real conversation. No, uh, no sex, alright?”

“Oh, I guess that’s alright.”

“Great, I’ll see you in a bit.”

A half hour later, Blaine sat on the end of Brittany’s bed with a sullen expression. She sat up against her headboard with a stuffed rainbow unicorn clutched to her chest.

How fitting.

“So let me get this straight,” Brittany started. “Well, not straight now, I guess gay. Okay, so let me get this gay; you want to break up with me… because you think you like Kurt?”

“No, Brittany, it’s still ‘let me get this straight’. The expression doesn’t change. And yes, I think so, yes.”

“What do you mean you think? You either like him or you don’t, Blaine.” Blaine blinked at her. “Well, come on, Blainey Bear, you don’t just turn gay. Everybody knows that.”

He hadn’t. This was entirely new to him.

“I-I’m just so confused, Britt.” Blaine said, burying his face in his hands.

“I’m confused all the time! Maybe I can help because I’ve been there,” she explained, scooching closer to him, “Answer me this; do you care about Kurt?”

“Yes, more than anything.”

“More than me?”

Blaine looked up at her with sad eyes. He nodded slowly. Brittany rubbed her hand in circles on his back. “It’s okay. Why do you care about him? How does he make you feel?”

“Why do I care about him? Because- because when I’m with him, I feel like I’m a better person. I feel like I can conquer mountains and solve world hunger and fly-!”

“Well obviously that’s because he’s a bird,” Brittany added.

“But as long as I am with him, I feel like anything is possible, like, it’s okay to just be me and him and that’s all. And when I’m not with him, I feel broken, like a part of me is missing. He makes me hurt, but not in a bad way. When I look into those shiny blue eyes of his, my heart aches, like, if I can’t be nearer to him, it might explode. And-and it’s such a weird feeling. People tell me it’s not normal to feel this way about another guy but I-I can’t help it. Because when he sings, when he dances, when he smiles, when he laughs, I can’t help but go weak at the knees.

“I-I like him so much sometimes, I want to cry, Britt! He- he’s like a drug to me, like something I can’t simply quit. And it’s so weird. It can’t be normal to feel like this. But he’s so beautiful and talented and smart and funny and perfect in every way that I can’t think straight! He makes me feel like I want to laugh and cry and sing and explode, but all of that would be okay just so long as I got to be with him. I’ve never felt like this with anyone before. But it doesn’t make any sense because I’ve always been told that this way of thinking is wrong.

“So why can’t I feel like this with someone else? Someone who is more acceptable to society? Someone who people don’t mind me being with?”

“Because they’re not Kurt,” Brittany added.

Blaine breathed heavily and looked at her with a kind smile.

“I’m fairly convinced there is no one else in the world like him,” Blaine clarified. “I’m so confused, Britt. I don’t know what’s come over me.”

“Sounds like love,” she said matter-of-factly.

Blaine’s head whipped around quickly, his eyes wide. “Wh-what?”

“Well, think about it, Blaine. Love isn’t supposed to be something you understand. It’s something you feel with your heart, not your mind. The only thing you can know for sure is how you feel for that other person, how that person makes you feel, and how you make the other person feel.”

Blaine wasn’t sure what scared him more, the fact that Brittany was actually making sense or the fact that she was absolutely right. This was the girl who had asked what shape The Pentagon was, after all.

But she was right about one thing.

Blaine was in love with Kurt.

“Brittany,” Blaine started, “I’m so sorry. I never meant to lead you on like this. I just, I didn’t know that I was- that I was…”

“A unicorn?” she suggested, offering him the stuffed animal in her arms. He laughed and took it from her. He smiled down at the plush doll; it had Kurt’s blue eyes.

“I’m sorry about this, Brittany. But would you mind if we, you know, broke it off?”

Brittany’s eyes widened, her gaze snapping down to Blaine’s lap and back up to his face. “What?”

“Oh god, no, Britt,” Blaine blushed, putting the unicorn on his lap. “I meant us. I mean, would you mind if I stopped being your boyfriend?”

She looked at him sadly, considering his words.

“You know, this might actually work,” she said. “This way Santana and I can keep hooking up and I won’t have to worry about her getting mad about you.”

“Wait, what?”

“I’ve got to think on this, Blaine,” she retorted, ignoring his outrage. “That’s a lot of information for one afternoon and my brain needs to settle. I can give you an answer tomorrow in glee club.”

The following day was completely torturous for Blaine. Kurt refused to speak to him for the entire day, walking away from him in the hallways and giving him the cold shoulder all throughout Chemistry. With Brittany’s promise of an answer at the end of the day and Kurt’s silent treatment, he wanted to die.

Luckily for him, glee finally came and he was ready to ambush Brittany the moment she came in. Of course she came in late, Santana on her arm.

“Mr. Schue?” she asked.

“Yes, what is it, Brittany?”

“I was hoping I could start today off with a song?”

Their teacher looked pleasantly shocked and motioned for her to take the floor. She pointed to Blaine as the band played the opening chords played.

Remember all the things we wanted
Now all our memories they're haunted
We were always meant to say goodbye

Even with our fists held high
It never would've worked out right
We were never meant for do or die

I want you to know that it doesn't matter
Where we take this road someone's gotta go
And I want you to know you couldn't have loved me better
But I want you to move on so I'm already gone

Blaine felt like he could cry. There was Brittany, singing her reply to his question from the night before. She looked from him to Santana and back throughout the whole song. Clearly she and Santana had more going on that they had let on.

Her lips curled into a shy smile each time that her eyes and Santana’s connected.

Started with a perfect kiss then we could feel the poison set in
Perfect couldn't keep this love alive
You know that I love you so, I love you enough to let you go

I want you to know that it doesn't matter
Where we take this road someone's gotta go
And I want you to know you couldn't have loved me better
But I want you to move on so I'm already gone

I'm already gone, already gone
You can't make it feel right when you know that it's wrong
I'm already gone, already gone
There's no moving on so I'm already gone

As the song ended, Blaine stood up and gave his ex-girlfriend a tight hug. He could practically feel Kurt’s dagger eyes in his back.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“Go get ‘im, tiger,” she said into his ear.