Blaine sat in the Senior commons waiting for the inevitable explosion from Wes. He knew the council member was not happy with him. He had made every attempt not to recount his McKinley adventure, leaving rehearsal as soon as it was over, ignoring the call of his friends as he retreated, not answering his phone, he even feigned sickness all weekend so his mother would not admit Wes or David to his room since he was sleeping. Not only did he not want to tell his friends he had been caught after being pounced on by a closeted bully. He did not want to tell them about the performance that he saw. He felt he would be betraying Kurt if he told Wes and David anything about the rival glee club.

Blaine knew there was no chance of running anymore. Wes had texted him saying if he didn’t meet with them at lunch today in the Senior commons, he could kiss anymore solos goodbye ever. Blaine wasn’t sure it was possible for the ban to be permanent but he knew better than to try Wes, he knew way too much about Warbler by laws.

“Now, Blaine, why have you been avoiding us?” The young Asian man said as he entered the otherwise deserted room. David followed with a serious look on his face. “Don’t tell me you didn’t go after our deal.”

“I went.” Blaine began but was cut off.

“Well, then what happened?” David questioned.

“They performed two numbers, each mash-ups, but before I could leave I was sort of… attacked?” Blaine gave them a sad smile hoping to take them off the subject of Kurt’s group.

“Attacked how?” Wes said angrily. “Do we need to call a council meeting to deal with this other group?”

Blaine was quick to jump to the defense of the New Directions. “No, not by the glee club, it was this homophobic football player.”

David’s concern was evident as he asked, “Are you alright? How in the world did he know you were gay?”

“I’m fine!” Blaine assured them, then a blush spread over his cheeks as he tried to explain, hoping this was a conversation with his two best friends and not with two of the council members. “There was this… guy in the group… he’s perfect, I mean really he is my dream guy… and their director may have said his name… and I may have repeated it.. and I may have been smiling..”

“Like you are now?” Wes observed.

“Yeah, maybe… anyway the jerk heard me and started giving me a hard time. He had me pinned against the door. I mean I was dangling from his hands against the door. And THE guy… he saved me. He actually followed this monster and layed into him, tore him a new one… seriously. I saw the whole thing… he dragged me along… it made me… it made me wish I had been brave enough to do the same thing at my old school.” Blaine told his friends, looking at his shoes.

“So, I take it you are into the big body builders then?” David chuckled.

“No.. gross… he’s… well he is a little taller than me… not much… but he’s kind of… I don’t know elfin? Like Lord of the Rings Elfin, not Keebler.” Blaine’s face was hot and he knew he was a furious shade of red.

Wes looked at Blaine seriously. “But were they good?”

Blaine took a deep breath, and willed himself to give the least amount of information possible. “They are, but they are just really different from us. I don’t think we can do anything different than what we already are.”

But Wes would not be placated with this answer, “How are they different?”

Blaine sighed before answering. “They seem to be looser, less controlled. They are more like if Vocal Adrenaline had souls. But even then, their sound it isn’t as powerful as ours, they move more, have more fun with it, are less precise. At least from what I saw… they weren’t even working on a competition piece.”

“How do you know?” David asked.

“Well. You know how I told you Kurt saved me right… that’s the boys name.. Kurt (Blaine couldn’t help but smile and he even had a little giggle in his voice when he said the name) after told the guy off, he figured out I was a spy, told the whole glee club and we went out for coffee and talked.” Blaine blurted out.

“You went on a date with the competition!” Wes yelled.

“No, it wasn’t a date, I think he wanted to make sure I was okay. Anyway, he wouldn’t even give me his number…”Once again Blaine was cut off by an irate Wes.

“You asked for the number of a boy from a rival glee club… what in the world were you thinking?!?”

“I wasn’t,” Blaine yelled back. “He just seemed so nice and gorgeous and… do you know how hard it is to find a nice guy, in Ohio, who is gay when you are 17? I just couldn’t let the opportunity pass. I’m not like you guys, I can’t just turn the corner and know that there are dozens of people who I could ask out… if you ask out the wrong person… you might get laughed at… I ask out the wrong person, I could be beaten or worse. It doesn’t matter anyway, he probably has forgotten about me by now.”
Kurt sat across from Mercedes, finally getting to recount the whole spy incident to her. “Then he asked for my number…”

“Did you give it to him Boy?” Mercedes asked raising an eyebrow.

“Who do you think I am, Rachel? No, I couldn’t even chance it.” Kurt replied with a sad smile.

“But we would have understood boo. It’s not like you rescue hot gay boys everyday.” She smiled at him.

“Who said he was hot?” Kurt asked his cheeks flushing a bit.

“Oh, I saw him remember? Now he doesn’t compare to the hotness of you, but he was one fine example of man.” Mercedes laughed.

“Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I told him that he couldn’t have my number yet, and I am sticking to it. I have enough problems without another Jesse incident.” Kurt said with an air of superiority.

“Yet? So does that mean you will be handing out your number soon?”

Kurt let a small giggle escape his lips before responding, “He won’t be the competition forever, one of us is bound to win sectionals and when we do, he just may find himself a new entry in his phone, if he plays his cards right.”

When Mercedes walked into Glee Club that day, Mr. Shue was still out sick. Rachel had taken it upon herself to take over, to no one’s surprise. Luckily Kurt is as smart as he is good looking and he came up with a plan that would save all their sanity.

Blaine laid on his bed, alone in his room his face haunted by the face of the boy who he couldn’t seem to forget. Finally he stood up and brought his laptop to his lap. After opening up his web browser he carefully typed Kurt Hummel into google. The first thing to pop up was his facebook page. Although his page was set to private, there was a striking picture of the young man visible.

Blaine sat transfixed by the features of the boy illuminated on his computer screen. He hovered the curser over the ask as friend button, but he couldn’t bring himself to click it. He didn’t want to mess things up at this point and Kurt had made it clear he was not interested. But Blaine couldn’t forget the condition, not yet.

Kurt’s back ached, falling on the floor during Glee was not his idea of a great time. Stupid Puck and his need to prank the sub. So, Kurt laid on his bed thinking about his week, Karofsky hadn’t let up on picking up on Kurt this week, but he only seemed to do it when one of his buddies was around. Otherwise, he seemed to act like Kurt didn’t exist, which was just fine as far as the smaller boy was concerned. All in all the week was going pretty good, for the first time in forever Kurt actually went a day without having to use his spare outfit. He knew that Karofsky was scared he would tell someone about his attempted kiss, but Kurt pushed the thought out of his mind, knowing that no good could come out of dwelling on the scared little boy.

“Blaine, I need you to go back to McKinley.” Wes said matter-of-factly to Blaine during lunch on Thursday.

Blaine’s head shot up to meet his friend’s eyes. “What? Why?” Blaine frantically looked over at David, hoping that at least he would support him against Wes’ competitiveness. Unfortunately he was nodding his approval at the idea.

“We need to know if our set list is going to stand up against theirs. This is my Senior year I would like to at least attend more than one competition this year.” Wes narrowed his eyes at Blaine.

“I will be recognized, why don’t you send someone else?” Blaine did not support this plan of action, still feeling the hint of betrayal for even being presented this idea.

“Don’t you see, you can kill two birds with one stone, you can say you wanted to see the boy of your dreams again, and you can see their rehearsal.” An evil twinkle lit Wes’ eyes as he told of his plan.

“As much as I want to see Kurt again, he made it very clear that he wants nothing to do with me as long as we are members of rival glee clubs. I am not going to screw this up, because you are insecure about our set list.

Plus, I can’t miss French again, I am barely passing as it is.” Blaine hoped this would secure his release from what Wes saw as his duty to the Warblers.

Wes, however, was not relenting, “Tomorrow is a half day, no need to miss French, and I will personally pay for a tutor if you need one.”

Blaine knew there was no getting around agreeing with Wes, but he had a plan of his own up his sleeve that Wes need not know about. “Fine, but this is the last time.”

Kurt was walking to the auditorium preparing for the last glee rehearsal of the week when Karofsky slammed him into the nearest set of lockers. Kurt was surprised to see that no one else was around, the halls were deserted, save him and David.

“Have you told anyone?” the football player demands in a whisper.

Kurt had almost been expecting this, “No, and I’m not going to. While I don’t believe in denying who you are, I don’t believe in outing either.” He didn’t bother keeping his voice down, but spoke in a level tone.

“I’m not gay!” Spat Karofsky looking around.

Kurt barely held his chuckle in, “Be that as it may, your attempted assault on my lips is safe with me. I know what you are going through it is a scary…”

Karofsky had heard enough, he forced Kurt back against the locker, making Kurt hit his head painfully. “If you ever tell anyone I will kill you!” He yelled pulling his arm back wanting to break Kurt’s face.

A voice rang through the corridor, “What did you say to him?” Both boys heads whipped around to see Finn and Puck stalking toward the pair.

“Just keeping this fag in line.” The hulking boy laughed back at the pair, obviously thinking they would have his back.

“No, you just threatened my boy! No one messes with Kurt while I’m around.” Puck yelled cracking his knuckles.

“Yeah, Karofsky, so back off Kurt. What did he ever do to you anyway?” Finn added.

“What are you going to have a threesome later?” The bully shot back, thinking he had dealt a low blow.

“Grow up! Just stay away from my boy Kurt, I see you around him again, if he so much as has a hair out of place you will me answering to me and the rest of the glee boys.” Puck growled. He then grabbed Kurt around the shoulder and led him away.

Kurt could hardly believe what had just happened, the boy who used to throw him in a dumpster every morning before school, had just threatened the life of his newest bully.
“You okay, Kurt?” Finn asked striding beside him.

“Sure, he just surprised me is all.” Kurt gave a small smile hoping they would let the conversation drop. As much as he appreciated the boys help, he couldn’t help but wonder if they had made a bad situation better or worse.

“We’ve got your back Hummel.” Puck added as they entered the auditorium to get ready to rehearse.

“You do realize everyone is going to kill us when they realize we left them with the clean up while we snuck off for coffee,” Mercedes chuckle taking a sip of her latte. She and Kurt were sitting in the middle of the Lima Bean, having run out of the auditorium while everyone else was changing.

“I would rather drink coffee in sopping wet clothes than ruin my new Marc Jacobs boots mopping up water. It wasn’t my idea to kick water all over the place.” Kurt told her with a smile. “Besides, they will have forgotten it by Monday.”

“I wouldn’t mind so much if I could change.” Mercedes added running her hands down the wet thighs of her pants.

“Well, you look fabulous, doesn’t that count for something?” Kurt added with a smile.

“Oh, no!” Mercedes gasped, “It’s that your Dalton spy over there in line?”

Kurt looked to the counter and sure enough there stood Blaine in skinny jeans and a t-shirt. Kurt had to admit he did look scrumptious, but quickly pushed the thought out of his mind. He turned back to Mercedes trying to ignore the boy waiting for his order.

“Okay, whatever you do don’t draw attention to us, and we can talk about anything BUT glee. Got it? If he is a spy I don’t want to give him any ammo to take back with him.” Kurt whispered to Mercedes, then began recounting the newest issue of Vogue.

Blaine stood at the counter waiting for his Medium Drip, trying to perfect his lie to Wes. The girl behind the counter handed him his cup and he turned around looking for a seat. His eyes fell almost instantly on the boy who had been dominating his every thought for the last week.

A war waged itself in Blaine. Part of him wanted to go over and talk Kurt, just to hear his voice, the other part wanted to run out of the shop before Kurt could assume he was there to spy. Not that that would be a ridiculous conclusion he was sent to Lima to spy, but that was not why he was in the coffee shop.

Finally, against his better judgment the lovesick side of Blaine won and he approached the table where Kurt was sitting with a pretty black girl. “Kurt, what are you doing here?” He heard himself say.

Kurt looked up with a half smile at the dark haired boy.
“Getting coffee with my friend, see I actually live in Lima. The better question is what are YOU doing here Blaine Warbler? Isn’t Westerville two hours from here.”

Blaine speaks before he can even let himself think of a lie. “I was sent here to spy on your glee club, but I couldn’t go through with it. I wouldn’t put it past Wes, he’s one of the leaders of the group, from looking at my odometer, so I drove here, decided to get coffee and hang out for a while and then I was going to drive back to Westerville. I was just going to tell Wes that you didn’t have rehearsal today.”

Mercedes looks up at the boy standing beside their table and says, “I’ve got to run Kurt, if I don’t change out of these wet clothes, I am going to go crazy. Don’t forget to call me about that thing we were discussing.” She stands and kisses Kurt on the cheek, before whispering in his ear, “What are you waiting for, would Jesse have done that?” She stands giving him a knowing look then grabs her bag and walks out the door. Knowing full well that Kurt would either have to catch a ride with the Warbler or call her to come pick him up.

Blaine shifted uncomfortable for a moment watching Kurt watch his friend walk out the door. “Um… do you mind if I sit down?” He finally asks.

Kurt eyes him warily before nodding and gesturing towards the chair Mercedes had just vacated.

“So you admit that your glee club is trying to use you for information?” Kurt asks over his cup of coffee.

“Wes… he’s Wes, he is just hoping with the new divisions we will actually be able to do more than one competition this year. I think he has gone a little crazy. I have been trying to avoid him all week, hoping he would forget about it, but apparently it didn’t work.” Blaine smiled a Kurt, who tried to squash the butterflies that erupted in his stomach with that smile.

“Why not just spy? Wouldn’t it be easier than lying about it to your friends?” Kurt was intrigued by this boy.

Blaine chuckled, and felt his face warm a bit. “It wouldn’t have felt right.” He said simply. Then his curiosity got the better of him. “So why exactly are you and your friend soaking wet? It’s sunny outside.”

Kurt smiled a genuine smile, the first one since Blaine appeared in front of him. “Glee club. I feel safe telling you this because I am certain we won’t do it at sectionals, but we just finished a mash-up of Singing in the Rain and Umbrella.”

“Really? Wow that sounds impressive! So what did you do wet your costumes down to make them look authentic?” Blaine asked raising his bushy eyebrows.

“Of course not,” Kurt said casually, “We performed with simulated rain. You know kicking up puddles, it was a lot of fun.” He sipped his coffee, like he had truly been discussing the weather.

“What? Were you outside or something?” Blaine coughed out, trying not to choke on his own coffee.

Kurt couldn’t help the superior smile that sprang to his face. “No, in the auditorium, silly. Just like when they toured with Singing in the Rain. Of course Mercedes and I snuck out while everyone else got ready to clean up. I am all for great special effects, but I did not bring my coveralls to school today, so I am not cleaning any floors.”

“You wear cover alls to clean?” Blaine asked.
Kurt gave him his ‘Bitch, please’ look before answering, “No, I use them when I am helping my dad in his shop. He’s a mechanic.”

Blaine’s face broke into a love sick smile, “Wow, there is a lot more to you than meets the eyes, isn’t there.”

“There is, and you only have the five minutes it will take you to get me back to my car to find out more.” Kurt said getting up and sauntering to the door. It took Blaine a second to realize what had happened before he stood to follow this fascinating boy.