A few days later, Blaine pulled into the student lot of McKinley with a renewed sense of confidence. He figured he knew what to expect. Hed gotten used to the lumbering jocks and their constant need to intimidate people, hed even gotten used to Rachel Berry. The thing he hadnt gotten used to happened to be the thing which caught his immediate attention when he got out of his car, jaw dropping in horror.

Kurt Hummel was dangling from the hold of the two meat-heads who seemed to target him every day of his life, and they were holding him over… the dumpster. It was like slow motion as Blaine ran across the concrete toward the dumpster, hoping he could reach them in time but knowing he was already too late. Kurt closed his eyes and braced himself for the fall and the jocks forcefully threw him down into the trash.

With a high five and some joke about the fairy, the jocks made their way to the school and Blaine shuffled up to the dumpster. He poked his head over the side and looked down at the sad sight that was Kurt. "Um… n-need a hand?" He felt a little dumb for offering something so simple and meaningless as a lift from the pile of trash, but what else did he have to give the boy? Hed never seen someone actually get tossed in a dumpster before, and it was kind of terrifying, really.

Blue eyes widened as they stared up at Blaine and his offered hand. Kurt looked… a little lost. "Blaine? What are you… thanks." He muttered as he took the offered hand and crawled out of the dumpster to stand before Blaine and tried to wipe off the scumminess that came from being in a damn dumpster.

"Thats something Ive never actually seen before. Kurt…" he looked at the boy before him and Blaine felt his heart break for the other kid. It was like watching himself two years ago- so hurt, so hated, so alone. Seeing how much Kurt struggled was making it hard for Blaine to keep his act up, but he just… he couldnt go through it all again. Even if he wouldnt be alone. "Kurt, why dont you tell Finn about them? Why dont you let him get those guys to lay off?"

The blue eyes hardened as Kurt reacted to the words. "Theyre my problem, not his. Im not weak or helpless or whatever the fuck else Azimio or Karofsky or you think. I dont need anybody else to fight my battles for me." And with that he turned on his heel and strutted to the school, not sparing another look for the stunned Blaine.

_______________________________________________________________

Classes that day went by slowly as, in both English and chemistry, Kurt completely ignored Blaines existence. He noticed the other boy was relatively quiet with everyone else as well, and he seemed to put a lot more effort into his studies compared to what was normal for him in the days Blaine had been at the school so far. To say he wasnt concerned about the guy hed consider almost a friend at this point would be a lie, but Blaine tried to play it cool.

Even with the goal of not letting things bother him, Blaine still was so tense by the end of the day that he was practically buzzing with energy as he entered the weight room after changing into a pair of sweatpants and a simple white tank. He wrapped his hands and slid the gloves on, securing them at the wrists and flexing his fingers as much as he could while they were confined mostly to fists. The restraint was a comfort, and Blaine couldnt hold back the satisfied grin that crossed his lips before he turned into the bag and swung. Hard.

The affirmative smack that sounded when he laid into the bag made Blaines blood pump just a little harder and gave him a release of all the tension in his body. After the first punch it was easy to let loose, getting in fast jabs and hard hits that made the bag vibrate along with his muscles. It felt so good. A true release. Blaine loved the strength that ran through his very being when he laid the bag out like this, and he loved the way it made him feel like he could actually take on the world. With his ability to fight, Blaine knew he would never be the weak kid he was in ninth grade. Hed never be weak again.

When his arms fell at his sides and he panted a bit, taking a small break, a somewhat familiar noise reached his ears. Blaine had to control his panting in order to hear it more clearly, but there it was- music. And it wasnt the original artist, either. There was singing and a live band performing the backing and… he was definitely hearing the voices of the kids he sat with at lunch. He could almost pick them all out individually.

"Can you hear the horses?

Cause here they come

And I never wanted anything from you

Except everything you had and what was left after that too"

He caught them mid-song, but Blaine was still stuck staring dumbly at the air vent where the voices flowed from. Florence and the Machine? He didnt think the Warblers would ever pick an alternative style song like that. Katy Perry and pop hits that were easy to set to whistles and other natural noises, yes, but edgy gritty music with feeling? That was… foreign to the boxer.

"Fun fast for your mother, run fast for your father

Run for your children, for your sisters and brothers

Leave all your love and your longing behind

You cant carry it with you if you want to survive

The dog days are over"

Leave it all behind had been the idea that Blaine came to this school with, but was it really what he should have done? Was surviving worth it if you were a mere shell of who you were meant to be? Hed thought fitting in would be worth forgetting the bow ties and singing, his love of public performance, but now he just wasnt so sure. He was especially unsure when he heard that specific countertenor finishing the song.

"The horses are coming

So you better run"

Blaine swallowed hard and shook himself from head to foot, willing his nerves to leave his body, before laying into the bag with a new found vigor. Thats exactly what hed done. Blaine had turned tail and run. And now he felt so trapped and so damn alone, hiding behind the facade of some confident t-shirt wearing straight boy who didnt use near enough hair gel and he hated himself for it. He was a coward. A coward who would have bruised knuckles despite the gloves and tape by the time he was done taking out his frustrations.

_______________________________________________________________

The weekend allowed Blaines knuckles to heal and his parents didnt even notice the bruises when they happened to be in the same room as him, so it hadnt been much of a problem. When Monday came, though, he didnt know what to do with himself.

When he walked into the school that morning, Blaine was pleased to see that Kurt hadnt been tossed into a dumpster (at least not yet) but he was significantly less pleased when a whole group of letterman-clad idiots shoved past him and right up to the taller boy, throwing not one, but four slushies in his face and over his front, covering his body in grape-flavored ice.

"Why dont you guys pick on someone else for a change?" The words were out of his mouth before Blaine consciously thought about it, and he regretted it the moment the two biggest jocks turned to glare at him.

The cups hit him and Blaine flinched, only to be laughed at by the whole group of jocks. "Oooo, Hummels got himself a boyfriend," Karofskys voice rang through the hall. A few high-fives were exchanged before the whole group took off pompously down the hall, and Blaine was left there shaking just as much as Kurt, though his wasnt due to the chill of four slushies.

Without much thought, Blaine turned and stalked away from the boy who was still covered in a purple mess, not stopping until he reached the weight room. He skipped English that morning, spending the period pounding into the punching bag and pretending his angry tears were just more sweat. It wasnt until lunch that he started thinking clearly enough to realize he hadnt seen Kurt since that morning. It wasnt until chemistry that he realized Kurt had left early. It wasnt until he was leaving the school that he overheard Finn talking to Rachel about how he was worried about his brother, about how the boy had left after the slushie attack that morning, about how he didnt know how much more Kurt could take and how frustrated he was that the other boy insisted on handling everything on his own.

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Time passed relatively easily after that day. Blaine was spending less time around Kurt which meant the jocks were spending less time paying attention to the new kid, and he was working with the bag every day after school again. Blaine had stopped himself from punching too hard again so that he wouldnt bruise his knuckles and keep himself from his daily work out, and he had taken to listening to the Glee club whenever he needed to take a little break for some water and breathing.

It seemed as if Kurt was having a little less trouble with the jocks. They at least had lessened their attacks to single slushies a couple days a week, and hed only been put in the dumpster once more since that first time Blaine had seen it. The locker shoving was still almost every day, and he could tell there were lingering bruises that never quite got the chance to heal, but Blaine didnt bring that up. He didnt force himself on Kurt at all.

The thing was, Blaine wasnt sure if he was looking the other way to spare Kurt some embarrassment or if he was doing it all for himself. He knew he didnt want to risk the attacks from the jocks. He didnt want them using that word again. Boyfriend. He couldnt risk something like that. Not when he was finally fitting in at least a little.

Every day that he heard the Glee kids singing, though, it pulled at Blaines heart. He missed that. He missed singing and performing and feeling the adrenaline rush of getting the words and moves just right. More than that, Blaine missed being a part of something bigger, and he missed being himself. Every time he heard Kurts voice belt out a verse, usually followed by a and thats why I can sing anything you can, Rachel Berry, he caught himself grinning from ear to ear and wishing he was in that choir room too.

When he got tired of swinging lazily at the bag, all his frustrations gone within the first half of his workout session, Blaine would drag himself to the showers in the locker room and listen to the end of the Glee rehearsal. Each day hed find himself barely holding back from joining in with the songs, and each day hed leave without turning the radio on in his car, instead opting to sing those songs hed just listened to.

It was almost a week of this routine before Blaine finally gave in and filled the empty locker room with the sounds of his own voice. The club was singing one of his favorite songs, and he just couldnt help it. The music wouldnt stay inside any longer, and as he stood beneath the steaming stream of water, the curly haired boy held his loofa and let loose.

"You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine

Just own the night like the 4th of July

Cause baby, youre a firework

Come on, show em what youre worth

Make em go, "Ah, ah, ah"

As you shoot across the sky-y-y"

Blaine didnt think about the fact that if he could hear the singing from the choir room in the shower, they could probably hear the singing from the shower in the choir room. At least, if they were quiet. The thing about the Glee club was that they often had to stop for changes to be made to a song, even if the song wasnt finished. So, at times, the room would go quiet while adjustments were made, and during one of these times, those club members were struck even more silent by the velvet vocals being delivered through the air vents.

"You dont have to feel like a wasted space

Youre original, cannot be replaced

If you only knew what the future holds

After a hurricane comes a rainbow"

He turned around while he sang, rinsing the suds from his body and figuring he was about finished there. Blaine sighed and turned off the water, grabbing his towel and running it over his head, chest, and back before securing it about his hips and exiting the stall.

That was when he stopped in his tracks and stared with wide hazel eyes as no less than four sets of eyes stared at him.

"I told you guys, theyre always in the showers!" That was Finns voice. The quarterback had his hands over his eyes in an apparent attempt at giving Blaine some sort of privacy. Meanwhile, Rachel was openly gaping at his chest and arms, Mercedes was muttering something about how unfair it was that he looked that good and could sing, and Kurt was… turning a rather vivid shade of crimson. Interesting.

Blaine blinked at the four Glee club members, waiting a moment before finally opening his mouth and speaking. "Uh, sorry, but what? Who is always in the showers? And… why are you guys in here? For one, two of you are girls and this is the guys locker room and for another… shouldnt you be in Glee club?"

Finn seemed to be groaning about this being a bad idea or something while Kurt kept elbowing his brother and telling him to shut up already. Mercedes was still muttering about his skills, but Rachel seemed capable of actual useful conversation. "Singers. Thats how Finn was discovered too. In the shower. Here in the locker room, actually. We were in the choir room and we couldnt help but hear you and wow Blaine, why didnt you ever tell us you could sing like that? Youre really good. I mean, not as good as me obviously, but really good. You have to join Glee club! Its been decided. We had to come see who was singing and make them join. So now you have to join. Welcome to New Directions!"

This had to be a weird hallucination or something. That was the only explanation for Rachel Berry going all crazy too-many-words-in-one-breath at him when he was still standing with just a flimsy towel around his naked body. There was no way this was really happening. Blaine went so far as to pinch himself before he admitted that he was really standing, in a towel, in the locker room shower, in front of four familiar faces. And they wanted him to join the show choir. This was… definitely one of the weirdest things Blaine had ever experienced, and hed dealt with Jeff and Nick for a year.

"Whoa, wait. You want me to join the… no no no. I cant. I mean, thats like… I already get enough shit from people. The last thing I need to add to that is a slushie facial to look forward to." The thing was, Blaine really did want to join the Glee club. He was just… scared. More than scared. Blaine was terrified of facing the bullying he did two years ago.

Of course, this didnt deter Rachel in the slightest. "See, thats just it! You already hang out with all of us anyway, and you already get all the flack the lesser members get, too. Why not just be part of the club if youre already treated like one of us?"

It actually made sense if Blaine thought about it that way, but he didnt want it to make sense because his heart wanted it to so badly and if it started making sense to his brain he was doomed. "I… but… Rachel it-" Oh, who was he kidding? It wasnt hat easy? Sure it was. All he had to do was say yes and that was that. It all made sense and it was what Blaine really wanted and it would make him happy and it would make his friends happy, too. "Fine. Fine, but if this ends badly I am blaming all of you. Yes, even you, Finn."

He was still grumbling at them as the four other students told him to come to practice the next day and excused themselves, Rachel actually squealing while Kurt grinned at Blaine and rolled his eyes. Finn still wouldnt uncover his own eyes and Mercedes was now going on about how shed best not have to give up any solos for the new kid.

Finally able to get dressed, Blaine sighed and shook his head. This was going to be one hell of a year.