The boy with the sad smile sat in the same place for the same amount of time everyday for…what…seven days straight now. It was Tuesday, and the boy sat nibbling on a salad that, to Kurt's eyes, looked completely lush.

He took another bite of his own salad, spearing a piece of chicken on the end of his fork while maintaining his inconspicuous observation of the boy from across the cafeteria. The boy paused and looked up; scanning the room before taking a sip of the coke can he had sat in front of him. Seven days was enough of a wait right? He would totally walk over there and say hi and make friends with him and they would totally hit it off and the wedding would be autumn themed…

Whoa, Kurt, chill out. You don't even know if he's gay

He's totally gay.

How do you know?

I can just tell

And you're such an expert?

He froze the internal soliloquy in its tracks when he noticed the guy making a move to stand. No, he had this.

Thing was, this school didn't have much of an appreciation for anything out of the ordinary, and that boundary was most definitely crossed by Kurt on a daily basis. It seemed in modern society, being fabulous was outlawed; a concept Kurt chose freely to ignore. His life was glitter and Broadway and romance. His life was what life used to be, what in his eyes it should be. Not the shambles society had allowed it to become. Honestly, what had happened to dating? Did people even date anymore? Or was straight to…you know…the dirty stuff? Not that he would know. He was a single as pringle, and proud to be. If nobody around him could understand how marvellous he was then why would they be worthy of him. Kurt may be single, but he did have standards. Standards that it was likely nobody would reach in these premises. Well, until seven days ago when this darling showed up.

So Kurt wasn't a forward guy, yeah, maybe when he was up on stage belting it out he was confident but he was sick and tired of taking a back seat. He had thrown enough notes to make himself invisible, he wasn't going to let this opportunity slip the net. He swallowed and stood, taking his own tray in hand as he snaked his way with difficulty, over to the boy with the sad smile.

"Hey!" he grinned down before placing his tray down neatly and sliding onto the bench opposite. The guy froze in the act of ruffling through his bag (not faux leather, to Kurt's satisfaction) "Kurt Hummel" he shot out a hand for the stranger to shake. He took it wearily. Kurt felt the softness of his skin, the warmth, but it was obvious this guy was stronger than he looked.

"Blaine Anderson" he replied. He took his hand back and closed his bag, seemingly finished with whatever he was doing.

"You're new right? I haven't seen you around before " he tried to sound offhand but the way Blaine was looking up at him through his eyelashes, eyes boring into his own had his heart melting in his chest.

"Yeah, I'm a junior, just transferred from Dolton." He smiled and took a sip of coke.

"Ah the Warblers" Kurt rested his elbows on the table and set his head atop his clasped hands.

"yeah, how'd you…" the boy looked confused

"I'm part of the New Directions, I've seen you perform. I was sent to spy last year" he admitted

"Oh right okay." He looked a little uncomfortable but Kurt was determined to keep this conversation going. And it had nothing whatsoever to do with the way his companions head tilted to the side with shyness or the way his hands were clasped in his lap.

"So you're finding your way around alright? Classes are okay?"

"Yeah, it's a lot bigger than Dalton" he gestured to the room "but I'm sure I'll get used to it. anyway I erm, I should go, I have an ap class I need to catch up with" he made to stand up and Kurt mirrored him. "It was nice to meet you Kurt. Maybe I'll see you around?"

"Sure" Kurt agreed, smiling warmly and waving a hand as Blaine made towards the doors. He sank back into seat as soon as he was out of sight. Holy Streisand he is freaking gorgeous.

Okay, relax Blaine, you can do this.

Dalton had been smaller, this was just…bigger. A lot bigger. And a lot scarier. And just a lot of things really.

He tugged the collar of his shirt down a little and walked timidly into the parking lot. He observed carefully as he walked, taking in the jocks here, the cheerleaders there. He made note of where best to avoid any attention and made his way to his first class of the day.

Mostly he spent his time in between classes avoiding notice and trying not to make friends. Friends were not fun things to have and he wanted to avoid any kind of kinship in that area.

But then there had been Kurt. Sweet smiling Kurt.

He had been so warm, so welcoming, it made him question his choices. It was also nice to find someone else with some dress sense. No, Blaine was not going to make friends. He was not going to go down that road.

He pulled open his locker at midday and placed his math books carefully inside before inspecting his timetable to see where he was going to go next. Then came a light tap on his shoulder.

"Kurt" he exclaimed, spinning on the spot. The boy smiled slightly at the mention of his name.

"Hey. You looked a little lost" oh now he was being helpful.

"Yeah I was just trying to figure out how to get to the caf while avoiding the locker room."

"Why do you want to-"

"I'm just trying to avoid trouble" he indicated his outfit, today light green Capri pants and a black polo shirt. "not exactly typical for around here" he laughed softly and turned back to his locker, hitching his bag higher on his shoulder.

"I can show you if you'd like?" Kurt asked hopefully, dipping his head slightly. It had Blaine on the brink – fight or flight. That adorable smile though, he gave in after only a moment's hesitation.

"Sure, why not" he sighed, snapping his locker shut. "Lead the way"

"Great!" Kurt replied, bouncing a little on the spot "this way." He began to walk back the way they had come, pointing every time they needed to turn a corner. They fell into step and conversation.

"I like the outfit by the way it's very…ete." Blaine swallowed a smile

"I like to dress brightly when the sun's out. You don't get that chance in the winter"

"Oh my god exactly. Grey is so overrated."

"You said it"

Silence fell as they continued to walk

"So was there a reason you transferred over here or..." Blaine cleared his throat

"I'd kind of rather not talk about it" he shrugged apologetically "I'm sorry it just…"

"No, no don't worry honestly! I was just being my usual over curious self. It's a problem. I go to therapy for it"

"Now that I doubt"

"hey! It's too early for you to be doubting me Blaine Anderson." Kurt swatted his arm. Blaine Smiled.

"I'm sorry" he held his hands up in mock surrender "forthwith I give you permission to, erm…" he trailed off.

"Give me permission to…sit with you at lunch? Yes there. Your punishment – though not much of a punishment – is to sit with me at lunch for the rest of the week" Kurt smiled smugly, apparently pleased with his quick thinking. Blaine's heart dropped. Sure he would love too sit with Kurt at lunch - for the rest of his life to be honest - but the thought of having to keep up conversation was more than a little bit daunting. He wasn't a talker, but it seemed he wasn't escaping this one. He sighed.

"If you insist! Although I must warn you, I'm pretty terrible company."

"Oh whatever. With style like that, I'm sure your head is full to the brim with interesting things."

Blaine had nothing to say to that. Okay so maybe he did have a head full of interesting things. Like how right now the fact that Kurt had just complimented his style had his stomach doing somersaults.

"Here we are" Kurt stopped, gripping the strap of his bag with both hands. "And you my friend, are coming with me to meet the rest of Glee" he was about to protest when Kurt grabbed his wrist and began to pull him over to a table on the far side of the caf. They stopped abruptly as the reached the group, each of them looking up and shooting a variety of confused and warm smiles over at them. "Everyone, this is Blaine. Blaine this is everyone." They all raised hands to give him short waves and nods which he returned. Kurt slid into a chair and patted the one next to him, motioning Blaine to sit down. He did so, slinging his bag onto the table in front of him.

"You new Blaine?" said the girl with the jewish nose and dark hair. He opened his mouth to speak but Kurt spoke first.

"He's a junior" he said, leaning forward slightly and lowering his voice "from Dalton" the group laughed. Blaine wasn't entirely sure what was so funny. Catching the confused look on his face Kurt shrugged and began to explain. "Since we beat you at sectionals last year nobody seems to be able to take the Warblers seriously. I mean hell they're brilliant, you were brilliant" he added, nudging him with his shoulder "but the fact that we managed to pull it out of the bag seemed to confirm that we had no need to fear you guys." The laughter died out and Kurt turned to him again, spearing a piece of lettuce with his fork "I for one am pretty sure it was a close call, with someone like you at the helm I have no idea how we managed it" he chuckled and turned back to his salad. Blaine was a little taken aback.

He wasn't entirely sure, as he took out his own lunch, whether he was offended by the group's apparent lack of respect for his old peers, or amused. Or whether the fact that Kurt had once again complimented him…well things were a lot harder to sort out when your head was buzzing with delight. He cleared his throat and took a small bite of his sandwich, looking around the room absentmindedly. The rest of the table were deep in a debate as to whether multimedia was the way to go with this weeks Glee assignment. The jocks were laughing at one table, the cheerleaders at another. People laced between tables on their way from one place to another. The place was buzzing, and it was bizarre to Blaine's eyes. Having come from a school where practically everyone knew everyone, the concept of going your entire high school career only actually knowing about a fifth of the school's population blew his mind a little bit. And that's knowing people on the surface. There were the people you knew well, the people you knew, and the people you knew of. That made up a third of the fifth. Then there were the people that hated your guts. You knew about them, but you wouldn't want to be friends were them. The last fifth of the fifth was those people you wished you knew, or at least wished would acknowledge you. It seemed however, that Blaine had struck lucky in the fact that he had found Kurt so quickly. After a week, he was sure that this boy would have been one of the latter portion; being admired by Blaine from a distance and being the subject of his thoughts every time he had a free moment of time that wasn't taken up with work, or school or memories. And he had plenty of all three.

Blaine scratched at his forearm as he placed the crust of his sandwich back in the foil wrapping and made to enclose it again.

"er what are you doing?" came Kurt's voice. He paused

"what?"

"Leaving your crusts!"

"I don't know, I never eat the crusts…" he felt a flush creeping up his neck and he dipped his head in embarrassment.

"They're the best bits! And supposedly make your hair curlier, although that fact I never really believed" he waved his hand in dismissal

"I actually already have pretty curly hair" he saw Kurt Blink a couple of times in surprise and avoided his gaze. "It's the Italian in me" at that Kurt's eyebrow began to creep up his forehead. After a moment he seemed to realise that he was staring openly agape at Blaine and shook it off before turning back to his food, cheeks slightly pink. Blaine smiled to himself.

"Why do you err" Kurt cleared his throat "why do you gel it?"

"I guess I never really liked it" Blaine hated talking about himself like this. He didn't mind talking about his clothes, because they were his choice but he'd never really been happy with the way he looked so talking about that just made him cringe.

"Well I'm sure it looks fine" he popped the box containing his lunch closed and slipped it back into his bag, standing. "Where are you headed after lunch Blaine Warbler?" Blaine had to stretch his neck to look up at him. Like, okay he was tall.

"I have the afternoon off actually, I take an extra curricular Italian class outside of school so it replaces what I could be doing here"

"Lucky. I have French" he didn't seem too pleased.

"You not a language person?" Blaine understood – some people just weren't linguistic.

"Oh no! I can practically speak it fluently but that's the problem." He jerked his head in the direction of the door and Blaine stood to follow him out. Before they left the group the dark haired girl spoke up again

"Blaine!" she came skipping round the table – and that was literally the motion she made. Blaine froze. "Were you thinking of joining Glee? We could always do with more dark haired, vaguely Italian looking guys with gorgeous voices to back me up." She grinned up at him expectantly. He narrowed his eyebrows.

"erm, well isn't the point of glee that it's a group effort?" he heard gasps from the group behind him. The girl looked as if she had been slapped in the face. "What? I'm just stating a fact. It seems kind of pointless for one person to sing with backup right?" he looked up at Kurt innocently just to see that his lips were almost bursting in an effort to hold his laughter in. he nodded vigorously. "Yeah. But anyway, I don't think so. But thanks for the offer." He smiled at everyone and raised a hand in farewell before following Kurt out. As soon as they were in the corridor Kurt let out a cry of Mirth. He was practically bouncing too Blaine's confusion.

"Oh my God, Blaine, Oh my God I can't believe…Blaine you are wonderful" he turned in awe, shaking his head slightly.

"What did I do?" he was confused. Surely he had just been telling her what everyone else was thinking? He may not be the best communicator but he sure as hell wasn't going to go bullshitting people.

"That was Rachel Berry." Blaine felt his face burn and he groaned

"awr crap that was…oh my god what an idiot what chance with Glee do I have now" Kurt paused in his bouncing

"Wait…you were thinking about trying out for Glee?" he had his hands stuck out at his sides like a Disney princess.

"Well no I…maybe…" Kurt squeed and looked as if he was going to throw his arms around Blaine's neck but thankfully held himself back.

"Oh you have to let me help you choose a song" he clasped his hands in front of him with that puppy dog look on his face. As much as that face took Blaine places, his confidence was quickly receding at the idea of joining a group of people he hardly knew.

Friends weren't something he did. Not anymore. He swallowed and took hold of his bag strap before taking a half step away from Kurt and tuning his body.

"On second thoughts maybe…maybe I'll give it a miss. See you around Kurt" he smiled and turned to walk away.

"oh-okay. Yeah I guess so" he didn't turn to see if Kurt looked as crestfallen as he sounded. Blaine hated letting people down. But was also used to people having expectations he couldn't fill.

With a sigh he hitched his bag up his shoulder and made his way to the library.