Dalton was everything Blaine Anderson had remembered it being. As he walked down the empty hallways in the early morning, waiting for other students to arrive, he couldn't help but be engrossed in the enormity of it all. It was beautiful.

There weren't any lockers for him to be thrown into and all around the school were reminders of the zero tolerance for bullies. And Blaine knew he might have found somewhere to belong. Finally.

He made his way to the lounge, still empty, and started to make a coffee with the espresso machine. Quickly, the smell of coffee beans started to fill the space and Blaine just took it all in. This was fantastic.

"What're you doing here so early?"

Blaine whipped around, almost dropping his coffee, and found himself face to face with Jacob.

"Um- I-"

Jacob looked behind Blaine and saw the espresso machine cooling down. He then turned his attention back to Blaine.

"Coffee?"

Blaine nodded. "Yeah, I, uh- I wanted to get here early to try and get a feel for the school."

Jacob smiled. "I always get here early. That thing gets hogged right before class. We Dalton boys might be nice, but we're nice about anything but coffee." Blaine laughed nervously. Jacob watched him as he stirred his coffee. There was an awkward silence. "Why don't I show you around?"

Blaine perked up. "Yeah, okay."

"Great."

Jacob had brought Blaine to the glee club rehearsal room last. Blaine had thoroughly enjoyed the time he got to spend with Jacob. Against his will, he actually found that the boy was very smart, very nice, and very talented. He'd introduced Blaine to everyone they saw as people started to wander in and even suggested to his lacrosse captain that he let Blaine try out.

Blaine thought it was actually kind of funny. He'd thought of Kurt as the only gay guy he'd ever met and not been surprised that he jumped at the opportunity to have a crush on him. But Blaine realized now that Jacob was gay too, and yet Blaine wasn't imagining that Kurt didn't exist and he would get to be with Jacob.

"So I'm assuming you'll try out for the Warblers."

Blaine directed his attention back to Jacob, sitting in one of the large couches in the Warbler room. "I thought I might, yeah."

Jacob nodded. "Kurt really loves it. And it's not run by teachers so they get a lot of freedom to do whatever they want really. But they're all talented and motivated so it's not like a blow-off period at all."

Blaine nodded as he sat across from Jacob. "That's good. I really loved Glee at my old school. It really was the only thing that kept me from wanting to leave."

Jacob leaned forward, and in what Blaine thought was a seamless transition, asked, "So why did you decide to come to Dalton Blaine?"

"Kurt didn't tell you?"

Jacob looked confused. "He was involved?"

"Yeah. He was the one who encouraged it and explained the situation to my parents."

Jacob looked down. "No. He didn't mention it."

Blaine tried to back track, "He must not have had time or thought-"

"Do you like him?"

Jacob's eyes were suddenly staring into Blaine's. Blaine sputtered for a few seconds when Jacob interrupted him. "You do don't you?"

Blaine closed his mouth and nodded.

Jacob nodded slowly. He'd already known. He stood up and made his way to the door and Blaine let out a deep breathe.

But Jacob turned around right before he left and looked at Blaine. "Don't make me regret trusting you to be appropriate. Kurt's taken. There are other guys."

Jacob then left the room.

Blaine knew he was right. Jacob was a nice guy and Kurt was a nice guy and they had been together before Blaine even knew Kurt. Blaine could get over a simple crush. Kurt was happy and Blaine wanted that more than anything. And maybe what Jacob had said meant something. Maybe there were other guys at Dalton.

Blaine sat in his math class, 5 minutes before the bell even rang. Most of the guys hung out in the halls waiting for classes to start, but Blaine had never been particularly apt at making friends with strangers. It'll just take time he told himself. They'll get to know you. And he would make friends in the Warblers practice right? That's where all of his friends at McKinley were.

"I forgot you were a year ahead in math" Kurt said at the door of the math room, walking over towards Blaine and dropping his stuff down next to him.

Blaine looked down at his textbook, remembering what Jacob had said, and simply replied, "Yeah. I like math." Not you. I like math, not you.

Blaine felt a little poke on his shoulder. "Cheer up. Warbler practice after this."

"But I haven't even auditioned yet. I don't know that they'll take me."

"How could they not? You're adorable," Kurt said, jokingly pinching his cheek. Stop it. Kurt is taken and not even remotely attractive. Except for the fact that he's gorgeous.

"Do you think they'll have me audition today?"

Kurt shrugged. "Sectionals is next week so they would have to do it quickly if they did. But then again, if you don't perform at Sectionals you can't perform at Regionals so they'll have to do it today. Who knows, I just know that whenever you go you'll be fantastic."

Blaine blushed. "You've never even heard me sing."

"Au contraire. I recall one very adamant singer during Come What May. You insisted everyone else shut up. You sang both sides of the duet."

"Shut up. It's my favorite song."

"No kidding?"

"What? Why?

Kurt took his math textbook out of his bag. "It's mine too."

Blaine sat outside the Warbler hall, twiddling his thumbs and biting the inside of his cheek. He'd sang one of his favorite songs from Rent. 'One Song Glory' had never failed him, but still. He was worried that he'd missed a note by a half step or maybe the Warblers were really really top 40s and he should have sang Bruno Mars or something. He liked Katy Perry, why didn't he do that? Or a P!nk song? Blaine was cursing all of his choices at this point.

"Mr. Anderson?" Blaine looked to the door where Kurt winked at him. "The jury will see you now."

Blaine smiled and followed Kurt back into the room. One of the captains, Wes if Blaine remembered correctly stood up.

"Welcome to the Warblers Blaine Anderson."

The rest of the group cheered and clapped him on the back and congratulated him. Blaine just smiled and thanked them all, hoping that this would be a sign that things were turning around.

"I told you."

"You did."

"They loved you."

"I think they adequately liked me."

"Blaine."

"Kurt."

"They. Loved. You."

"Okay so they loved me. I'm just ready to get Sectionals over with. I completely forgot we were going up against the New Directions."

Kurt nodded. "I think it'll be okay. They understand why you had to leave right?"

"They understand, but I don't think they're happy."

"You weren't safe Blaine."

Blaine looked down at his lap. "I shouldn't have run," he said quietly

Kurt reached across the table and grabbed Blaine's hands. "I can't stand to see you blaming yourself Blaine. This isn't your fault and sometimes running can be the courageous thing to do. It can be hard to stand up, but it's harder to admit it's time to back down."

Blaine looked at Kurt's hands holding his and tried, desperately to push the thought out of his head. The thought that kept coming up: I like Kurt.

Blaine pulled his hands away from Kurt's. "Yeah. Thanks."

Blaine stood up and said, "I'm going to order now. Want anything?"

Kurt shook his head and Blaine walked away.

Blaine had been acting sort of peculiar lately.

Kurt would say something and Blaine would react, and then act like he wasn't supposed to. And Blaine had been kind of avoiding him. Not in a very obvious way, but in conversation Blaine moved away from talking about Karofsky or how he missed his friends or anything personal really. Kurt knew Blaine had the right to be mad. Kurt had stopped talking to him without explanation for a week and then run into him at a wedding and pretended that nothing had happened. But still, wouldn't Blaine have said something if he was upset? Didn't he owe Kurt at leas that?

Blaine returned back to the table and sat down wordlessly, sipping his coffee.

"Blaine? Are you mad at me?" Blaine suddenly looked very taken aback. "It's okay if you are! I understand, I'd just like to do something about it if I could."

"I'm not mad at you Kurt."

"Okay, good."

Blaine took another sip of his coffee. The silence was deafening.

"So Sectionals is Friday."

"Yeah."

Blaine was adjusting his blazer backstage and Kurt was watching him as Wes went over some last minute stage directions.

Despite being a member of the Warblers for only a week, Blaine Anderson had landed the solo.

Kurt could see the nerves etched all over Blaine's face as Blaine furiously kept finding things to adjust on his outfit. Straighten the pin, fix the lapel, tighten the tie, adjust cufflinks and repeat.

"And so at the end you should be back to the center alright?"

Kurt nodded halfheartedly, "Yeah okay, Wes. I'm going to go talk to Blaine. He looks like he might pass out."

"Good idea. See you out there."

Kurt walked over to Blaine and Blaine was too busy adjusting his sleeves again that he jumped when Kurt said, "Never thought that you'd be nervous about attention."

"And what does that mean?"

Kurt laughed. "Nothing! Loosen up. You're about to have a solo at a competition. And Train is a good band for you to sing."

Blaine nodded and closed his eyes. "I could barf."

"Please don't."

It was Blaine's turn to laugh as he looked at Kurt. "Do you really think I can do this?"

"I don't know about Kurt, but I do."

Kurt and Blaine both turned around and saw Jacob standing there, grinning at both of them. "I came to wish you guys luck."

"You're too sweet," Kurt said, leaning in for a quick peck.

Blaine shuffled his feet and Jacob looked at him. "You ready Blaine? A solo's a big deal."

Blaine nodded. "I have to go get something," he said nervously before walking away.

Kurt watched him go with concern. "He's always so fidgety around you recently. I thought coming to Dalton would make it better but I think he's actually gotten more nervous. Wonder why."

Jacob shrugged. "No idea."

Sectionals ended up being really weird. A tie seemed a little bit more than just convenient. New Directions seemed so excited, and Rachel even ran across the stage to give Blaine a hug. But Blaine couldn't help but place a little blame on himself. The Warbler had trusted him to help them win and all they got was a tie. But none of them seemed remotely bothered. To them, they were advancing, and that was all that mattered.

Mercedes quickly joined Rachel and gave Blaine a kiss on the cheek and they both congratulated him and said that they were impressed that he had been offered a solo so quickly despite just arriving at Dalton.

Jacob ran up on stage and picked up Kurt, twirling him around and kissing him on both cheeks. Kurt insisted it was barely a victory, but Jacob said he was proud nonetheless.

Finn clapped Blaine on the back before walking over to Kurt and shaking his hand. They were learning how to be better stepbrothers.

Blaine congratulated the New Directions on their impressive performances and asked Tina in a hushed whisper if Sam and Quinn were dating because, really, who sings 'Time of Your Life' platonically?

Puck shouted over all the cheering backstage that there would be a get-together at his house and Blaine was allowed to bring the 'Dalton traitor' if he insisted.

To Kurt's disappointment, Blaine didn't.

Jacob said he had reservations for dinner to celebrate and Kurt asked him how he knew they'd win. Jacob just said he had a feeling.

New Directions started to head out to the bus and insisted it would be easier if Blaine rode with them. Across from the bus, Kurt was climbing into Jacob's car, on the way to dinner.

As they both got into their respective modes of transport, Blaine and Kurt locked eyes. It only lasted a second, but both of them broke off the look nervously.

And then they went their separate ways.

"Are you a new student here?"

Blaine looked up and saw a boy, only a couple inches taller than him, with short, curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

"Um- yeah," Blaine started, closing his notebook and giving the boy a look over. "Yeah, I started last week."

"Well then, nice to meet you. My name's Derek. I run the PFLAG chapter here at Dalton."

Blaine raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

Derek nodded. "You're welcome to join. I hate to assume, but Kurt Hummel did mention that you were a openly gay student."

But Blaine was looking over this attractive and well versed student with new eyes. Eyes that said it was time to stop looking at guys who had girlfriends or boyfriends and maybe just for once open them to someone who might have the same feelings back.

Kurt Hummel who?