“Oh, yeah. Definitely. I mean, this is what we’ve been preparing for, right?” His voice was shaky, obviously trying to muster up all the confidence he could.

This audition meant everything to Kurt. He had been working so hard on his singing, acting, he even was practicing ballroom dancing with Rachel every weekend. McKinley High was putting on it’s first real musical in years, and it just happened to be Andrew Lloyd Weber’s legendary masterpiece, Phantom Of The Opera. The show had two huge male leads, Raoul and the Phantom, and Kurt was determined to land one of them, if nothing else, to prove to himself that he could play a romantic lead. He’d even prepared an audition song traditionally sung by a man, to further heighten his chances. He didn’t feel like he was necessarily changing for the part, he was just so determined that he wouldn’t let anything get in his way. If that meant singing a man’s song, then so be it.

Finn was currently on stage, singing a stripped down rendition of ‘All I Ask of You’ that Rachel had prepared for him. Kurt wasn’t sure how she’d managed to make it a solo, but she was extremely vocal to the entire Glee club about how Finn and her would ‘make the perfect Raoul and Christine’, so she was in extra control-mode to Finn. Between helping Kurt and Finn, Rachel had been spending long nights at the Hudson-Hummel household for the past month.

That’s all I ask .... of..... you.

Rachel rushed over to Finn as he returned to the wings of stage right, and Kurt watched her hug/ critique him almost impulsively. He kissed her quickly, to stop her from babbling, and then hurried off to football practice. Puck and Mike had finished their auditions, for Andr� and Firmin respectively, and were waiting for Finn. To everyone’s surprise Tina had been training Mike on his singing, and he nailed his audition. None of the boys were really stubborn enough to try to steal Raoul from Finn, besides they feared the Wrath of Berry.

Kurt, on the other hand, would be happy with either Raoul or Phantom, but would be disappointed with any other part. As much as he loved the stage, he really felt that he deserved the parts. He was by far the best male singer in Glee club, possibly in the whole school, though everyone seemed to take him for granted.

“Wish me luck!” Rachel said, kissing him on the cheek and half skipping- half walking onto the stage.

“Break a leg, Christine- I mean Rachel.” He whispered after her, jokingly. There was not a doubt in his mind that she would get the part, she was practically born to play Christine. Kurt heard Artie, who was directing the musical alongside Mr. Schue, ask her what song she would be singing.

“I will be singing the opening song ‘Think of Me’, I believe it shows off my incredible range, while also-”

“That’s fine, Rachel, just sing,” Mr. Schue said into his mic. The piano started.

Think of me, think of me fondly, when we’ve said goodbye.

She sounded beautiful, Kurt thought. But he was too focused on, and nervous about, his audition to listen to her as she perfectly hit the cadenza in the song. He blew air out of his lips, letting them buzz together, and stretched his jaw since he had to be quiet and couldn’t do his regular vocal exercises.

Right as he closed his eyes to clear his mind there was a sharp, loud sound of something crashing to the ground behind him. He turned around to see the stiffened body of a boy frozen in fear and embarrassment. The backstage was quite cluttered and this boy had clearly knocked over a music stand when trying to silently enter through a back door. The boy moved quickly to do damage control, as Rachel had stopped singing and demanded that she restart because her concentration was broken. He dropped the papers in his hand and knelt down to pick up the music stand and the scattered sheet music that was on it.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. Someone should probably clean up back here anyways,” Kurt whispered, leaning down to help the boy. It was pretty dim so he wasn’t sure exactly who it was yet, but by the way he was acting it definitely wasn’t someone Kurt already knew.

“I’m sorry. I guess this kind of proves how flustered I am about the audition, huh?” The boy spoke. Kurt definitely hadn’t heard his voice before, but he looked over and realized that the papers he had been holding were sheet music.

“Ar-are you in Glee club?” Kurt asked, trying to figure out who else could possibly be auditioning for their school musical. They hardly had enough members to qualify for Sectionals, and their little Purple Piano Plan hadn’t exactly helped with recruiting new people this year.

“Uhm- well... not exactly.”

The boy finally looked up and his eyes met Kurt’s. No matter how dim the light was, those eyes could not be mistaken. They were an inhumanly stunning shade of gold and hazel, and were heavily shaded by long curly eyelashes. Kurt’s breath was immediately knocked out of his lungs the second their eyes locked. He tipped backwards from where he was kneeling, and a firm hand caught his sleeve pulling him back up. He was face to face with this mysterious boy, whose eyes could melt butter, and he was uncomfortable with the way this boys eyes were making him feel. He straightened himself back up, and they both stood at the same time.

“Not exactly?” Kurt asked, arching his eyebrow.

“Well, I just moved here. And I found out that you had a Glee club... and so I went to that teacher that runs it. Mr.. shh..”

“Mr. Schue.”

“Yeah, him. Um, I went to him to ask if I could audition and he told me to just audition for the musical and that would also be my Glee club audition,” the boy finished, sounding uncertain with himself.

Rachel finished her second audition and practically tackled Kurt as she entered the wings. “What the hell was that?” She snapped. Rachel was a sweet girl, but she took her singing very seriously.

“I- I well-” The boy started, his eyes flickering with panic. Kurt thought it was so cute how nervous he was acting, it eased his tension for his own audition.

“It was me,” Kurt blurted. “Sorry, Rach.”

“Well. Fine. I think I recovered fine.” She said, when she finally took a look at the stranger standing next to Kurt “Who are you? Nevermind, I have to go I’m meeting Finn after football practice to discuss how we should style our hair as Christine and Raoul. I might get rid of the bangs.”

Kurt laughed. “You haven’t even gotten the part yet.”

“I’ll let you send me flowers when I do, as an apology for this.” She joked and walked off.

“Well she’s a handful.” The beautiful eyed boy said, finally relaxing.

“Yeah... we all put up with it though... for some reason.” Kurt said. There was an awkward pause and Kurt extended his hand out. “I’m Kurt. I’m in Glee Club, which I probably wouldn’t mention if I didn’t already know you were interested in joining. We’re not exactly the royalty of Mckinley.”

“Blaine.” The boy said, taking Kurt’s hand and shaking it, locking eye contact with him again.

“NEXT!”

Kurt had almost completely forgotten he was auditioning, he was so lost in this boy’s gaze.

“Oh. Crap. Okay, that’s me. Good luck.. um.. Blaine.” He said as he scurried onto the stage.

“Hello Kurt, what will you be singing for us today?” Arite said in his best director-voice.

This was the moment Kurt had prepared for, and felt as ready as he was going to feel. “Music of the Night.” He stated. The words were met by a hushed gasp from Artie and a look of surprise from Mr. Schue. Brad the piano man winked at Kurt, they had prepared for this reaction.

“That is a pleasant surprise Kurt, I like to see you challenging yourself,” Mr. Schue said before nodding at him to begin the song.

Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation.
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination.

The song was much lower than anything they had ever heard Kurt sing. But there he was, the smooth melodies of the Phantom’s haunting words just pouring out from his lungs, transforming into a completely new Kurt. He reached the part he’d been working on the most. The part that required him to not only sing, but pour all the emotion he could into his performance. In a way he actually did feel like the Phantom, hiding behind the mask of his high pitched voice just wanting everyone to see him for the performer that he was.

Let your soul take you where you want to BEEEEEEEEEE-

His voice sounded a bit shaky as he belted the note, though it was the highest note in the song. It would usually be simple for him but he had been focusing so much on making his voice sound manly that he wasn’t fully prepared for it. He had sung low for everyone in 10th grade when they preformed ‘Give Up The Funk’ in front of Vocal Adrenaline. No one could believe that it was his real voice and Quinn and Rachel had become obsessed with trying to make him talk that low for about a week before he swore never to do it again. Until now, that is.

Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in
To the power of the music that I write.
The power of the music of the night.

Kurt finished the song as strong as he started it, and he was beaming. There was no way he wasn’t going to get a lead, he thought.

“Thank you.” Artie and Mr. Schue said in unison. Kurt exited on stage left as he smiled to himself. He picked up his backpack and headed for the door to the back parking lot when he realized he’d left his sheet music with Brad. Not that it was extremely important, but he just wanted an excuse to get one more look at Blaine in the light, so he could actually see him, and possibly eaves drop on his audition a bit. He crouched down and slowly snuck on stage, behind Brad, just as Blaine walked to the center of the stage. He was pretty short, which made Kurt question what grade Blaine was in. His hair was carefully brushed and plastered to his head with gel, which made Kurt cringe a bit. He hated to see hair treated like that. He was wearing a tucked in black polo and tight white pants that stopped right as his ankles, which were bare. Kurt’s mouth curled into a half smile at this boy’s interesting fashion sense.

All of a sudden Kurt snapped out of his trance of observing Blaine when he realized how silent the auditorium had become. He looked up to find that both Brad as well as Blaine were staring at him. Brad’s expression was quizzical as to why Kurt was crouched behind him. Blaine, on the other hand, was smiling slightly, almost laughing. Kurt’s body tensed up, paralyzed with embarrassment. Finally, after a few more painfully awkward seconds, Kurt spoke.

“I, um, forgot my sheet music,” he said, quickly snatching the music from atop the piano. “I’ll just... go now.” Kurt didn’t wait for a reaction as he turned around and shoved the papers into his backpack. Just as his hand reached the doorknob he heard it-

“Well, I actually am singing ‘Music of the Night’ also. If that’s okay.”

Kurt couldn’t believe it. This boy was about to attempt to sing the same exact song Kurt had just nailed his audition with. He was not about to miss this. Kurt held his breath and quietly crouched behind one of the curtains and waited for Blaine to start singing.

Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation.

The second those words left Blaine’s mouth, Kurt’s jaw dropped. His voice was one of the most beautiful things Kurt had ever heard. There was a strong vibrato in his voice that fit the song magnificently, better than Kurt’s ever would. Beyond the jealousy that filled Kurt was another sensation. It wasn’t anything like the way he felt when he heard his favorite song, or bought a new designer jacket, it was different, something he had never felt before. Kurt couldn’t take his eyes off of Blaine, and he damn well wasn’t about to leave and stop listening to him singing.

Let your soul take you where you want to BEEEEEEE-

He hit the note. Perfectly. And it sounded like he’d hit it without any effort. The song just spilled out of him, like honey, and the auditorium was filled with Blaine’s booming voice. Kurt was mesmerized, much like he was by Blaine’s eyes.

“Who is this kid?” Kurt whispered to himself.

Blaine finished the song and Artie started clapping wildly, and moving his hands in a bowing motion towards Blaine.

“That was... incredible, Blaine, “ Mr. Schue stammered. “Th-thank you, you are most definitely welcome to Glee club. Call-backs for Phantom will be posted on friday.”

“Thank you so much,” Blaine said, immediately becoming the slightly shy boy that Kurt had met minutes ago. He couldn’t explain it, but Kurt was completely intrigued by Blaine. But he was way too embarrassed to talk to him again so he swiftly left the auditorium and half-ran to his car before Blaine got a chance to see him.

On the drive home all Kurt could think of were those golden-hazel eyes.