"So we can find time to get the best school we both know you'll want to go to"

"Your father would have been a fantastic architect if he wasn't so obsessed about that "art centre" idea"

"He was a good man, just like you, but see how he could have been so much better"

"I'm pretty sure Rebecca would of grown out of her theatre phase by now and be a hardworking teen, just like you could aspire to be."

"It's what they would of wanted"

"Do it for them"

Blah blah blah yada yada yada Blaine thought bitterly, chucking his other books into his locker and shutting it hard. He pressed his head against the cool metal and breathed deeply.

Every. Damn. Time.

How could Blaine not do it if it's what everyone wanted? He knew there was no way to ask what they would of wanted, but it probably wouldn't of been that anyway.

Sometimes Blaine wished he didn't try so damn hard to please people.

He was mumbling profanities into his locker when he was tapped lightly on his shoulder. He whipped around sharply and was met face to face with an Asian girl with a bright dress and a kind smile,

"Are you okay?" She asked hesitantly, reaching out to touch his shoulder comfortingly,

"Yeah" he smiled back, shocked at how a stranger could care so much, "There just seems to be a pretty distinctive difference between what I want and what's" he made speech marks with his hands and droned, "'best for me'"

Blaine snapped his mouth shut, cursing himself for telling such personal stuff so quickly. The Asian girl chuckled and nodded encouragingly,

"I know, my boyfriend's father has been trying to make him drop the dance and do something else with his life for about as long as I've known him" she sighed, "I'm sorry, it must be hard for your parents not to support what you want to do…" she thought for a moment and looked at Blaine's shocked face,

"…that is what you were talking about, right?"

Blaine shook himself out of his reverie and nodded, adding hastily,

"Yes! It was…it's just" He ran a hand down his face, looking her deep in the eyes, "Nobody really has gotten me out of a "mother's speech" funk before, never so quick or with such kindness. Especially a stranger!"

She grinned in reply,

"Well hopefully we won't be strangers much longer" She stuck out her hand, "I'm Tina"

"Blaine" he replied, batting away the hand to shake and pulling her into a hug. He pulled away blushing,

"Sorry- I just…"

"He's right, you know" Tina smiled softly, ignoring Blaine's raised eyebrow and confused expression, "When he gushed about you…you really are something special"

The bell rang and she left, leaving Blaine more perplexed than before she arrived.

Kurt sighed. He couldn't care any less about this school. His "friends", save a few only mildly tolerated him and they all, every single one, completely ignored his bullying. And it had gotten worse. He'd come home with bruises down his back from locker bruises, the most gruesome of colours and no one knew. He'd make himself up in the mirror straight after school, putting on fake smiles and sorting out any cuts that may have appeared from the sharp edges of lockers. He had to start putting on make up onto the bag under his eyes to ignore his dad's searching looks.

Once he made sure he looked happy, he went downstairs to look after his dad's dinner to make sure he didn't have a heart attack and Kurt didn't lose another parent, another person he loved. He'd cry into the early hours of the night, feeling helpless. At school he was strong, guarded…but alone he was weak and breaking.

He was just so tired.

A few slurs later and Kurt was near breaking point. He was riding high, he admitted shyly, on a certain curly haired boy who seemed to be perfection, but it had to be ruined by insults and reminders that oh yeah, I'm gay. I'm not going to find anyone. All he wanted to do was get to French.

He gave up. If they bully him for doing nothing, why not shove it in their love? For the rest of that day Kurt Hummel is breaking down his walls and letting the anger relish through. He's not going to care what they think, what they do, he's just going to get through this day and maybe meet that boy and have the nerves to speak to his gorgeous face.

Later that day Blaine was walking down the corridor with Lola. He's stopped his thoughts about his family life - that seemed to be circling around an unfairly amount today - in favour of a heated argument of who was better looking out of Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp. They loved to play with what they had, found humour in how reversed the roles were, and often burst into laughter when Blaine was caught looking at a guy at the same moment Lola was looking at a girl. If you couldn't laugh, what could you do?

Blaine trailed off with a huff when Lola brought up the face Helena Bonham Carter "was amazing in Harry Potter and Johnny Depp wasn't even in it". They both muttered that they could see the appeal in the other's taste and the argument grew to an end.

Blaine looked around the corridor in the comfortable silence and his eyes locked to the boy he has simultaneously been trying to forget and looked out for wherever he went. He showed a spark of recognition in his eyes and they seemed to go a little brighter. They looked at Blaine so intently that he blushed heavily, but did not look away. How did this man make Blaine feel like the most important person in the world and like an extremely self conscious little boy with just one stare?

Blaine swallowed roughly and his eyes widened as a big, bulky guy with a letterman jacket appeared behind perfection. He pushed his thoughts away and looked down guiltily, almost like he thought this bulk could hear his thoughts and was about to beat him up. He didn't go to hurt him though.

He did something much worse.

Blaine heard the gasp before he saw the beautiful boy before him pushed into the locker with a loud SLAM and a quiet crack. Blaine stared, stunned and in shock as perfection was flung at the locker, wincing at the contact and sliding down the locker slowly, defeat evident in his face.

Blaine whipped his head around. Did nobody notice? Did nobody care?

Blaine's feet were moving before the rest of him realised and he was soon by this beauty's side, Lola following close behind,

"Are you okay?" Lola rushed out, reaching forward to touch the boy gently,

"Don't touch me!" A sharp, but exhausted voice snapped, stilling Lola's hand with a raised eyebrow. After a few awkward seconds Blaine shook his head slightly and Lola lowered her hand.

"You don't seem okay" Blaine gently mentioned, trying to catch eye contact with the boy who's sight was fixed on a spot on the floor. People around them were all walking bored to the hall to eat, not paying any attention to what's going on - save for a few sniggers that was met by Lola's fierce glare.

The boy sighed and slowly stood up, brushing himself down and choking out a bitter laugh, "yeah, like you really want to know"

"I do!" Blaine replied instantly and louder than normal, jumping up to his side. It shocked Blaine to his core how such a stunning person could think so little of himself.

He paused his hands, sorting his hair, in surprise and his gaze flickered to Blaine, hesitance and disbelief slipping out of his guarded eyes, "Really?"

"Yeah, of course we do" Lola said softly, standing up slowly and looking at this boy peculiarly. He didn't notice her expression, his gaze never wavering from Blaine's eyes, looking at him intensely. Blaine could feel his breath stuttering,

"I'm Lola" Lola said cheerily, holding out her hand and breaking the other two out of their haze.

Dammit, Lola! Blaine thought bitterly, annoyed that the boy broke eye contact to shake her hand,

"I'm Kurt"

Kurt. That's a really pretty name. Kurt.

Blaine sighed a little dreamily and blushed when Lola smirked at him. Kurt glanced over to him and spoke shyly,

"And you are?"

"This is Blaine. Blainers. Blainey" Lola chipped it as Blaine opened his mouth to reply, winking at Blaine as he went to shake hands with Kurt.

As they touched he could almost feel the sparks, hot under his hands and heating up his cheeks to a bright red. Blaine hoped that Kurt's matching blush meant he felt it to,

"It's Blaine. Not Blainers. Or Blainey…"

Kurt chuckled and realised their hands were still in their grip. Blaine saw something sad flash across those gorgeous blue eyes and then he pulled his hand away and looked down, defeated. He scuffed his foot across the floor and kept his eyes trained on his hands fumbling with the end of his shirt,

"Well, you must be new. People don't usually care around here…" He breathed in slowly and stiffened, waiting for them to leave. Blaine's heart swelled unnaturally. This obviously wasn't the first time this has happened and he was surprised people were sticking.

Blaine wanted to do something, anything, to connect with this boy, so he said the first thing that came to his mind,

"Well, we needed to check you hadn't ruined your McQueen" Blaine blurted out, gesturing to Kurt's boots. He mentally slapped himself because really, could you be anymore sad?

"H-how did you know?" Kurt visibly brightened, his head snapping up with a massive smile on his face and a happy - even if still lightly protected - glint in his eye. He turned this look to Blaine, effectively turning him to mush as he struggled for an answer, or anything really, to say to this boy.

"Gay" Lola supplied happily, causing Blaine to splutter unattractively and stare open mouthed at her,

"Lola!" He gawked,

"R-really?" Kurt stuttered, and looked almost - was that hopeful? Blaine scolded himself, of course it wasn't, look at him.

"As the 4th of July"

"LOLA!" Blaine shrieked. Lola had many things Blaine loved about her, but her bluntness and her speaking-before-thinking wasn't any of them.

"Oh come off it, Blaine" She rolled her eyes in exasperation, "It's so weird seeing your bare neck without a colourful and cheesy bow tie on it"

Kurt allowed himself a small smirk to spread across his features. Someone gay, in Lima! Kurt bubbled inside with joy.

He tilted his head, obviously trying to imagine it, "Bowties" he drew the word out, looking Blaine up and down. If it was an excuse to check him out, well, Kurt knew he jumped in too far with these things. There was no point trying to resist it, "And-er-I'm gay too…"

Blaine's smile became twice as big, if that was even possible. He opened his mouth to say something but was beaten to it by Lola,

"So we're like a big group of gays! We should make a club" Lola said happily, throwing her arm around Kurt and Blaine with a big grin, "Now all we need is a name"

Kurt, quickly shaking himself out of his surprise, chuckled slightly and mumbled, "GayLesbAl". He was met with two very confused looks,

"What the hell is a gaylesbol?"

"Some stupid name my friend made for another scheme to get popular or famous or something…the Gay Lesbian Alliance" He explained, blushing slightly. He looked down at the floor, chuckled slightly and suddenly clicked his gaze onto Blaine. Blaine took in an sharp intake of breath as they both looked at each other. Wow, he's so beautiful both boys admitted shyly, telling themselves the other was too good for them.

Blaine frowned as he saw Kurt deflate slightly in front of him, was he thinking the same thing as me, but that I'm too good for him?! Blaine shook himself, of course he wasn't thinking that about Blaine. But, Blaine thought sourly and with disgust, people obviously didn't pay much attention to Kurt.

Kurt looked like he was preparing himself to leave, make his goodbyes and never speak to them again.

Blaine didn't want that at all.

Like, at all.

Kurt breathed in deeply, steeling himself,

"Well I-"

"Do you want lunch with us?" Blaine cut in, looking at Kurt with those impossibly large eyes he knew had won many arguments. He shuffled a bit closer to Kurt and lay a hand gently on his upper arm, playing with his shirt and giving him the full force of his puppy eyes.

Kurt stared at him with wide eyes for what seemed like a lifetime. Slowly, a small smile spread across his face and a melodic chuckling noise ran out,

"Yeah…" he breathed, then his smile turned impossibly large, "Yes! I…I'd love to."

Their gaze stuck on each other, like there was no one else in the corridor, in this world that they noticed. Lola cleared her throat and they looked away with goofy smiles, blushes coming up their cheeks.

I can be whoever I want here, Blaine grinned to himself, I'm going to be some big flirt and sweep him off his feet!

"Well, let's go!" Blaine smiled brightly, walking in the direction he presumed was the canteen, already racking his head for witty one-liners and grand gestures he could do to woo this boy. He'd never felt anything so strong and fast with anyone before, it was like he was breathing new air!

"Er…" A voice giggled and spoke out above the crowd. Blaine looked back to see Kurt pointing in the right direction of the canteen, down another hallway. Blaine noticed Lola behind him smirking and he glared at her before shaking his head, laughing slightly and strolling back to them, aloof and cool though his brain was beating him up for being such an idiot.

As he walked past Kurt grabbed his wrist and pulled him in close, almost chest to chest. Blaine could feel Kurt's breath all over his face and it made it hard to breathe. It took him minute to realise Kurt had noticed, smirked slightly and looked up at Blaine from underneath his long eyelashes. Blaine spluttered and tried to come up with anything witty to say, but he was quite powerless.

"It takes a little longer than an hour to know your way around the school. See that door over there?"

Blaine would of looked at a door, if there was one to look at. Kurt had made no move to show what door it was he was talking about, spending the whole time staring intently into Blaine's eyes. Blaine found himself nodding dumbly, unsure what they were even talking about, and subconsciously stepping even closer. This was not flirting, this was being putty in someone's hand.

"I forget if it's a pull or a push" Kurt giggled - and award for the cutest noise goes to - and a stubborn piece of hair fell in front of his face, them being so close Blaine felt a waft of air as it fell. Kurt's loud squawk was adorable, and he went to fix it with his hands. He stilled suddenly when Blaine lifted his hand and brushed the strand behind Kurt's ear. Blaine smiled a little breathlessly,

"Okay, I'm off to the canteen, Adios!"

Kurt and Blaine turned their gazes somewhere else simultaneously. Blaine was going to warn Lola to stop interrupting one day,

"We should go…soon all they'll have left is the 'meat surprise'" Kurt face scrunched up adorably.

"Let's go then" Blaine replied instantly with a smile that felt like it might split his face in half, one that was impossible for Kurt not to respond.

The butterflies in their stomachs felt like they would never leave. They were fine with that.