What’s there to handle? I thought to myself. It’s a dumb, stupid, little crush of absolutely no consequence. You’ll get over it in a few days, and that’ll be that.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted it to actually go away or not, but if it saved me from the inevitable embarrassment of liking someone who doesn’t like you back, I’d sacrifice these warm fuzzies in a heartbeat.

I stopped cold in my tracks when I heard my door open, and I heard my dad call down the stairs.

“Kurt, Rachel’s here. Were you expecting her?”

I sighed. “No, but that doesn’t ever stop her from showing up.” I walked up the stairs and smiled a big, toothy smile at my father. He giggled at me, and we left the stairwell, headed towards the foyer.

Through the hallway, I could see Rachel sitting down next to Finn on the couch. He had his arm wrapped around her, and her head was nuzzled into the crook of his shoulder. When I peeked my head into the living room, however, she looked straight up, and then up to Finn.

“Babe, I’ve gotta go,” she whispered to him.

Finn gave her a small pouty face, and then kissed her on the lips before relinquishing his grip. If he had thought for one second that I’d steal her away forever, he wouldn’t have let her go, but we trust each other now. It’s kind of strange, seeing how our relationship as brothers has evolved, but it’s good, because I get just as much time with his girlfriend as he does.

She walked over to me, grabbed my hand, and tugged me towards my bedroom. With more force than I knew Rachel had in her whole body, she almost pushed me down the stairs. I stumbled into my bed and sat down.

“Well, hello to you too, darling,” I snarked at her.

“Kuuuuuuuurt,” she whined. She began to pace.

“Are you fretting about this now too?”

She looked up at me with her big eyes. “Fret probably isn’t the right word. Excited. Nervous. A little freakin’ out.”

“You think you’re freaking out? You’re already dating my brother, there’s nothing left for me to freak on. I know he likes you. Hell, I know he loves you. I don’t even know if your brother knows my last name.”

“Oh, honey,” she said as she sat next to me and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “I don’t know a whole lot yet, but I know a little.”

She had officially piqued my interest.

“Oh, really now,” I asked, leaning my head into the crook of her neck. I pushed myself off of the bed and sat on my knees in front of her, hands on her knees. “Tell me everything.”

She cracked up laughing. “Kurt, you really are stressing!”

“I know, I know. It’s almost depressing.”

“Well,” she started. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got him convinced to audition for Ms. O’Shea’s English. He was really hesitant until I told him you were in the class.” I watched the smirk crawl across her face.

I got a small jolt through my stomach.

“Oh, this can’t be good for me,” I said.

“On the contrary, my dear. I believe that this will, in fact, be very good for you.”

I can only hope.

***

The next day passed without much incident. Spanish and Advanced Biology were my classes of the morning, and I can’t say I learned anything particularly exciting. Lunch passed quietly, as I sat between Mercedes and Blaine, gently breathing in his scent. I know it sounds creepy, but he just smells so good. Almost spicy, with distinct hints of cinnamon. Almost like a deep-dish apple pie, but made of man.

Man.

When did that happen? When did Blaine evolve from the twiggy little brat who chased dogs in the backyard to this deep-dish of a man? With his broad shoulders, nicely toned arms, and eyes the color of aged honey. How had I not noticed it before?

I eagerly looked forward to Glee at the end of the day. I hadn’t gotten to sing with all of them for quite some time, and it was easily my favorite time of the school week.

***

By the time Glee rolled around, I’m not sure if I could have been any more excited. I strolled into the choir room, and plopped down into a chair on the top row. I had gotten out of my last class early, but only had ten minutes to wait until everyone else got there. I had just started to drift off when I saw a figure in the doorway. I leaned my head towards the door to see who it was.

Blaine.

He looked, well, fantastic. Form fitting black pants, white belt, and a bright red polo. Hair tamed, but not ridiculously so. Smile that’d knock out the sun. And it was staring right at me.

“Hey Kurt,” he said, strolling into the choir room. “Am I early?”

I looked around at the empty room. “Yeah. We don’t start until three thirty, but I got out of class early. I can only assume you did too.” I smiled at his smile, and his smile got bigger.

“Yeah,” he said as he took the seat next to mine on the top row. “Second day of school bonus, I suppose.”

“So, you’re joining the Glee club? Did Rachel force you?”

“Not really,” he responded. “I like to sing. I’m not half bad at it. And if there’s any possibility that I can annoy my sister, you know I’m there.”

Blaine giggled sheepishly, and looked down at the floor. It was so cute, I couldn’t stop from smiling.

I leaned down closer to his face, which was still facing his shoes. “She’ll want you to sing backup for her.”

I must have startled him a little bit, because all of a sudden, he jumped in his chair and his head shot up. Which put his head face to face with mine.

My breath caught in my chest, there was a warm bubbling in the pit of my stomach, and a distinct rush of blood heading southward.

“You might be right,” he sighed. “But I’d much rather sing with you.”

Did he just flirt with me?

If I had been standing, I would have sat down. Or fallen down. Or been subject to gravity in some form. But thankfully, I’d been sitting down, so I lived to embarrass myself another day. But somehow, I managed to respond.

“You think so? You think you could keep up with me?” The smile creeped onto my face, and I saw his eyes flash down to my lips.

Oh God. This can’t be good.

“You bet I could,” he said. He pulled his face away, and stretched into his chair.

I was still a little flustered, but I’m pretty sure I saw him wink at me when he pulled away.

I had just sat up in my chair when I saw Rachel stride into the room, linked arm in arm with Finn. Mercedes entered right behind them with Artie.

“Hey, y’all,” I heard Mercedes say. “Excited to be back in Glee club?!”

“Absolutely,” Rachel responded as she and Finn sat next to each other in the front row. “I haven’t had the chance to sing for a proper audience in ages.”

“Yeah,” Blaine snarked from next to me. “Because your stuffed animals really don’t count.”

Rachel turned around and gave him a look that could detonate.

Blaine simply smiled. Rachel snapped her head away, and then Blaine looked back at me. He giggled, shrugged his shoulders, and looked back at the front of the room. Slowly, everyone entered. There was Quinn, who walked in with Santana and Brittany. Then Puck, followed shortly by Sam. Then Tina and Mike. Finally, Mr. Shuester made his appearance.

“Hello, New Directions!” he shouted. “Now, I know you’ve all got a buzz about being back for the first week of school, so I thought our assignment for the week would be something to hopefully make it a little better.”

He turned around to the whiteboard, and wrote a word in big, blue letters.

Disney.

Perfect.

“Now, I know that we can’t do Disney songs for Sectionals, with their stranglehold on copyright, but I’m thinking we can do it to put ourselves in a better mental state to start the preparation for competition.”

“Nice use of words there, Mr. Shue,” Santana quipped from the corner.

“Oh, come on, San,” Brittany sighed from the next chair over. “At least he’s trying to perk us up,”. She nudged Santana with her shoulder, and Santana gave Brittany a smile that I was pretty sure she only used with her.

“Besides,” chirped Puck. “It could be a lesson on Journey.”

“Or Disco,” added Sam.

“There are plenty of solos for both the ladies and the gentlemen, and plenty of duets of all kinds for those of you who want to sing together this week. I know I haven’t really given any of you time to prepare, but does anyone actually want to go right now?”

The room shrunk and got kind of quiet. Even Rachel didn’t jump immediately at the thought, but I suspected that had less to do with her not wanting to perform and more to do with her trying to figure out exactly which song she was going to grace us with.

“Well,”

We all turned to face the voice, which happened to be coming from the seat next to mine. Blaine stared at Mr. Shue, and then turned quickly to look at me. I nodded out of nowhere, but it felt right. He turned back to Mr. Shuester with a big sigh.

“I’ll go ahead and go, unless someone has something else planned. I’ve got to audition anyways, right?”

Mr. Shue smiled and guided him towards the floor.

“For those of you who don’t know,” Blaine started, “I’m Blaine. I’m Rachel’s twin brother.” He pulled a stool out of the corner, and looked through the guitars in the jazz station. “She may refer to me as her little brother, but I’m only younger by four minutes, and she’s a little full of crap. But just a little,” he added, and threw a wink Rachel’s direction.

“I will be singing,” he started, pulling one of the acoustic guitars from the stand, “one of my very favorite Disney songs. It happens to come from one of my favorite movies of all time, and if you have a problem with it, well, I’ll ask politely that you don’t.”

He sat on the stool he had sat in the middle of the floor, guitar in hands, and smile on his face. He brought the guitar up to position, and looked at me one more time.

The look on his face had changed. His eyes seemed to be looking for something as opposed to at something, but I couldn’t tell what. He looked down and began plucking out a melody that was familiar to most of the room.

“I love this song,” I heard Quinn whisper from the other corner.

“Me too,” Rachel responded, her eyes never leaving her brother.

Look at this stuff.
Isn’t it neat?
Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete?
Wouldn’t you think I’m the girl,
The girl who has everything?

Santana giggled quietly at his use of the word “girl”. I smiled softly.

As he sang through the song, he would look up meekly at different corners of the room. Once at Rachel and Finn, who I watched smile. Finn nodded at him as I had, and it seemed to give Blaine a little bit of confidence. The second time he looked up, he looked over at Mike, who had his arm wrapped around Tina, and gave him the same nod. As he started into the title phrase, he looked up, straight ahead, and straight at me.

Up where they walk,
Up where they run,
Up where they stay all day in the sun,
Wandering free
Wish I could be
Part of that world.

He went into the second half of the song with more confidence. His meek looks had turned into strong visual strides across the choir room and the members of New Directions. As he wrapped up the song, his gaze had once again turned to me.

When’s it my turn?
Wouldn’t I love,
Love to explore that shore up above?
Out of the sea.
Wish I could be.
Part of that world.