He quickly stopped the pen when he heard the click clack of shoes coming toward his general direction. He looked up and smiled when he saw a familiar face. "Hey, Blaine."

Blaine gestured at the other chair at the table. "This seat taken?"

Kurt shook his head. "Nah, just trying to get some of this done before I head home. Finn doesn't seem to grasp the concept of the fact that I have a lot more homework now… he likes to hang out in my room even though he has his own, now."

"Finn?" Blaine asked, eyebrow cocked.

"Oh," Kurt rolled his eyes. "Sorry, Finn's my brother. Well, step brother. Another long story!"

Blaine smiled and started pulling a notebook out of his bag. "You seem to have a lot of long stories."

"Yeah well," Kurt shrugged. "It's been interesting so far, to say the least."

"Well I'm an excellent listener, if you ever want to talk," Blaine said. "I never did get a chance to really talk to you yesterday, after your audition. You were amazing. Seriously, Kurt. Did I hear a high F? I think Wes may have almost passed out."

Kurt felt a blush creeping up his cheeks and he ducked his head slightly. He knew he had rocked the audition but Blaine was looking at him with such…reverence. "Yeah, thanks. A high F is the very end of my range—" he stopped when he heard his phone buzzing. "Sorry, could be my dad, let me check that." He leaned over and grabbed the phone out of his bag, looking at the screen and smiling.

"Go ahead and take it, I don't mind," Blaine shrugged, and bent his head down to look at his notebook.

"Hey 'Cedes," Kurt said, softly. "No, I'm in the library. I'm good, how are you? Oh, you know I got in, hush you," he paused and laughed. "Yeah, Finn said the same thing. Yes, yes, I can stay over this weekend…oh I don't care if Rachel joins us, I need to talk with that girl, anyway." He nodded to himself and shook his head. "Mercedes, calm down, I'll tell you everything this weekend, stop it. I'm in a library! I'm ignoring Blaine, so I'm going to let you go, yes, I love you too. Bye." He ended the call and finally looked up at Blaine who had a very unreadable look on his face. "Sorry, that's my girl, Mercedes. She can really get going sometimes."

"Girlfriend?" Blaine asked, eyes unfocused and he was chewing on his pen cap.

Kurt's eyes widened and he barked out a laugh, looking around quickly when he realized that was probably too loud for a library. "Oh, god no. Mercedes is my best friend. Oh, I can totally see how you got that from my side of the conversation. Blaine, I'm gay," he shook his head. "My dad would definitely not let me have sleepovers at a girl's house if I was straight."

"Oh!" Blaine said, eyes widening and finally focusing back on Kurt. "Oh, I mean, I kinda figured, but then with the sleepover and the I love you, that kinda threw me for a loop…" he trailed off.

Kurt waved him off. "Nah, s'no big deal. I don't really make it a point to hide it, I guess, I just figured most people could… tell. It's not like I go around wearing a shirt that says LIKES BOYS on it every day," he laughed.

"Well I'm just glad my gaydar wasn't totally off base," Blaine grinned and winked.

Kurt's jaw felt like it unhinged and he had to curl his hands into fists to control the sudden feeling of warmth creeping into his palms. "You're—" he started, almost unable to find his voice. This would be bad, very bad, if Blaine was saying what Kurt was thinking he was saying.

"Yeah," Blaine said, smirking. "I'm gay, too. Why, does that surprise you?"

Oh, holy crap.

"Actually, yes," Kurt said, trying to recover from the shock. He kept his fingers curled into fists and focused on controlling himself. "I was the only out kid at McKinley, needless to say, you're the first other gay guy I've met."

"Kurt," Blaine said, cocking his head to the side. "You look like you're going to punch me." He pointed at Kurt's closed fists and cocked his head back upright. "I figured this would be a good thing."

Kurt took a deep breath and unfurled his fingers, feeling the warmth fade. "It is, I'm sorry. You just caught me by surprise. I should head home, anyway. It's my turn to cook."

Blaine wrote something quickly down on the corner of a piece of paper in his notebook and tore it out. He handed it to Kurt. "Here's my number, if you'd like it. You're a Warbler now! So, that means you're part of the gang."

Kurt took the piece of paper and nodded. He shoved it in his pocket and started gathering his things. "Thanks, Blaine. See you tomorrow at practice?"

"You know it! Gotta start getting ready for Sectionals."

At that thought, Kurt was eternally grateful that their Sectionals weren't the same as McKinley's. He wasn't sure that he could compete against his best friends and his brother so soon after transferring. He'd deal with Regionals if they made it that far, later.

"Okay," Kurt breathed. He brought five candles from around his room in front of him and stared at them. "I can do this," he said, setting his shoulders straight. He flicked his forefinger against his thumb near a wick and rolled his eyes when a spark shot out but didn't catch on the wick.

"You have to control the fire."

"Holy shit, Dad!" Kurt yelled, jumping up and holding his chest. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Language, Kurt," Burt said, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "You didn't tell me you started noticing your fire ability."

Kurt flicked his fingers together, showing his dad the small spark that he could produce. "It's not really much of anything—I really don't know what I'm doing, or what I'm supposed to be able to do. I haven't been able to do anything with it, yet."

Burt slid his hat off and rubbed his head. "Your mother never really said too much about this one to me, but it's like anything else, you have to control it, just like you control anything that you can move around."

"But all I get is this spark that does nothing," Kurt said, flicking his fingers again.

"You know as well as I do that as you work on it, you'll be able to produce it on demand. You used to drop almost everything you moved, remember? Now you can do it without looking." Burt walked over and clasped a hand on Kurt's shoulder. "I know this is a rough period for you, trying to hone a new ability, just let me know if you need anything, yeah?"

Kurt gave his dad a grateful smile and nodded. "Thanks, Dad. I think I'll keep working a bit more and then come down and start dinner."

Burt shook his head. "Don't worry about dinner, Carole already started it."

"Dad! It's my turn tonight."

"Don't worry about it, she's already started it, you can have tonight off," Burt said, and turned to exit the room. "I'll send Finn up when it's ready."

"Thanks, Dad," Kurt said, and turned to sit back down in front of the row of candles. He held out his hand in front of him and looked at it quizzically.

Control.

He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind of anything but the fire. Of what he wanted it to do. He flicked his fingers once again and concentrated on holding a steady flame. He slowly opened his eyes and almost stopped breathing.

Holy SHIT!

There, from the tip of his forefinger was a steady flame, much like from a lighter but stronger, brighter and bigger. He waved his finger around and the flame stayed. He took his finger and held it to the first candle's wick and it took hold immediately.

"Finally," Kurt breathed. He quickly lit the other four candles. He cocked his head to the side and quickly flicked his wrist, effectively putting the fire out on his finger. "Huh," he said. He flicked his fingers again and the flame came back.

Well, that was pretty neat.

He put the fire out on his finger and sent the candles, still lit, back to their places. He could feel a wave of exhaustion coming over him, as it often did when conquering new abilities, so he crawled into bed to nap until Finn woke him up for dinner.

"So, how did you like your first official Warbler practice?"

Kurt looked up from his phone, and smiled at Blaine. "Different," he shrugged. "It's definitely different from New Directions, that's for sure. Not having a director is very strange. You seem to get a lot of love."

"Oh, I'm just along for the ride," Blaine said, a slight blush creeping up his cheeks. "The council chooses who gets the solos."

"Right," Kurt nodded, checking his phone again. He laughed when he saw the screen.

Boy, you better have pictures of all those cute boys you're going to school with now, I needs new eye candy.

"Someone texting you?" Blaine asked, trying to sneak a peek at the screen.

Kurt held his phone up to his chest. "Oh, no. My phone, not for your eyes. It's just Santana, anyway. She's a bit crazy."

"Aw," Blaine pouted. His eyebrows crinkled together. "You seem to have a lot of girlfriends."

Kurt laughed and nodded. "Yeah, they all kinda latched onto me when I came out. I have guy friends, too. New Directions is one big family, really." He smiled sadly and sent off a quick reply to Santana.

I'm not sending you pictures of anyone. Besides, I haven't taken any. I'm not a creep!

"I can tell you miss them," Blaine said softly. "But the Warblers are one big family, too! I love all the guys, they're quite insane, but you'll learn to love them, I hope."

"Oh I'm sure," Kurt said, smirking. "Nick and Jeff were already making me feel welcome today during practice."

"Oh god, those two, don't even get me started," Blaine groaned. "Anyway," Blaine said, checking his watch. "I gotta head out. Did you maybe want to grab a coffee tomorrow after school?"

Kurt felt his heart stutter a bit and he nodded, forcing himself to smile. "Sure, sounds great."

Kurt waited till Blaine was well out of earshot and let out a loud groan. What he really wanted to do was send a few pieces of furniture around the room but that'd be a little obvious. He had to get a grasp on this… crush, or whatever it was, he seemed to be developing for Blaine. There was no way he could let himself develop feelings for Blaine.

Kurt finished buttoning up his coveralls and walked into the garage. "Dad?" he called.

"I'm under this Chevy," Burt called.

Kurt walked over to the car and kicked his Dad's foot that was sticking out from under the car lightly. "Hey, mind if I help out for a bit today?"

"How much do you need?"

Kurt laughed and shook his head. "I don't need any money, Dad. I just need to… de-stress for a bit. I have a lot on my mind right now." He heard a clank from under the car and bent down to peer under the car. "Everything okay under there?"

"Yeah," Burt huffed. "I'm fine. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just adjusting to the new school and all," Kurt said. Well, that wasn't a complete lie, and he hoped his dad bought it.

"Alright, yeah, that Ford over there, the tranny is shot to hell, see if you can start on that, or just change the oil in the Toyota in the next block."

Kurt started walking over to the Ford and stopped when his dad called out his name. "Dad, I know, manual labor until the doors close. That's why I came here." He shook his head and kept walking, rolling up his sleeves and looked up at the raised car.

Well, this was going to take a while.

Exactly what Kurt needed to keep his mind off Blaine.