"So, it turns out Santana slapped Finn because he outed her in front of a whole bunch of students, including one girl who's the niece of one of the congressional candidates. He made an ad that will out her publicly and she hasn't even told her parents yet about her sexuality." Kurt explained to Blaine the following morning when they were at their lockers.

"Huh." was Blaine's simple response. He felt a little bad for Santana, but overall felt relieved that he hadn't been implicated in anything.

"But... that doesn't explain why she was yelling at you..." Kurt noted, eyeing Blaine steadily in a way that meant that was a question, not a statement.

"I don't know Kurt. She's always had it out for me. She did pull Brittany away from me after all." Blaine said, hoping Kurt would buy it. It wasn't all false after all, just the first part.

Kurt hummed thoughtfully and then nodded, leading the way to their first class where he was intercepted by the afro nerd freak Jacob Ben Israel who wanted to interview him.

"Lady President, do you have your acceptance speech ready?"

Kurt smiled gently and noted, as diplomatically as he could, "Please, the race is hardly over and I wouldn't want to jump to any conclusions."

Jacob pulled the microphone back to his face, "But the only other candidate is in a medically induced coma after getting a puck to the head. You're the only real option for senior class president now that Rachel Berry and Brittany Pierce have withdrawn."

As the microphone was tilted back under Kurt's mouth, he looked to the camera - a pro already. "I just want the student body to know that I intend to run things just like I ran this campaign - with integrity and honesty. I will make good on my promises. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a class to get to."

Kurt turned on his heel and Blaine was ready to follow him when the microphone was shoved under his nose.

"And Blaine Anderson, tell us what it's like to be the lapdog of the future senior class president."

Blaine's eyes narrowed and before his brain registered what he was doing, he had Jacob by the collar and was shoving him back against the locker.

"You can't" *urk!* "silence the press!" *gah!* Jacob managed to squeeze out.

Kurt squealed Blaine's name and at this point had dropped his books and run up behind Blaine, trying to pull him back.

"Blaine! Come on! Let him be! He's not worth it!"

Blaine snarled, actually snarled and stared Jacob dead in the eyes with a silent threat before unclenching his hand and letting the boy sputter for air where he fell at his feet. With him dealt with, Blaine finally noticed that he was being watched, encircled by a students who were oogling the scene in stunned silence. Among them all, Jacob's cameraman.

"Camera. NOW!" Blaine snapped at the student, who quickly held it over despite Jacob's wheezy protests.

Blaine took the camera in hand, turned to look at Jacob, and spat, "If you ever insult me again, I will shove this up your ass. You got that?"

Jacob went wide eyed and nodded, shuffling backwards on the floor to get away from Blaine, who threw the camera against the ground where it shattered. For good measure, he stepped on a few of the more solid pieces.

"Blaine...." whispered Kurt, who looked terrified as he looked at Blaine. It crushed Blaine a little for him to be looking that way, especially when it was directed to him - but he needed to keep up his reputation or else it would be middle school all over again.

"Come on sweetcheeks. Class is waiting." Blaine muttered, as if nothing had just happened. He walked over to where he had dropped his books before grabbing Jacob and picked them up, grabbing Kurt's as well. The silent audience backed up as he walked towards his class, Kurt scuttling behind him, "Blaine!"

"Not now."

"No! Now is the perfect time!" Kurt insisted with a hiss. Uhoh. That was his 'I'm warning you' voice.

Blaine turned to look at Kurt, glaring past him at the lingering students who seemed intent on watching their drama.

"I have made a promise to these students that I will not tolerate violence, and here you are slamming kids up against lockers when you don't like what they say!"

Blaine frowned, but surely Kurt had to appreciate his position right? He couldn't be seen as weak.

"I'm sorry Kurt... but the asshole... he got in my space and insulted me... which is like insulting you!" Blaine retorted.

"None of those things is worth getting violent over Blaine. Now give me my books."

Blaine looked down at the books, up at Kurt, and then past him to the watching students. He wish they'd all just fuck off, then he wouldn't have to pick between Kurt and his reputation.

"No. I'm carrying these for you." Blaine stated. It was a silly thing to make a show over, but he couldn't let those kids see him as doing what Kurt wanted. He turned in place and continued walking towards class, with Kurt in pursuit and a low murmur of students who had begun to gossip about the scene behind him.

This was going to be a shitty day.

He was wrong, it was a HUGELY shitty day.

First, Kurt had given him the cold shoulder all day long.

Second, Brittany still wouldn't talk to him.

Third, everywhere he went, people gave him an even wider berth than they normally did.

Forth, Mr. Schuester had called him and Kurt into his office, where he was now, trying to explain why he couldn't help her without spilling his secret.

"I don't understand Blaine. You've been so good about reaching out to other members of this club and Santana is in the same boat as us. We need to support her."

Blaine groaned at Kurt's words, leaning back in the chair. Mr. Schuester and Miss. Corazon, along with Finn, had come up with a theme week about Lady Music designed to let Santana know that they were all there to support her and love her through this difficult time.

No one had ever spent a week dedicating music to him to help him.

"I'm not fucking doing it. She's been nothing but a bitch to me and she's not even in our club anymore."

Mr. Schuester frowned, and then looked to Kurt, "You could... I guess, always do a number on your own. I just thought it would mean the most coming from the two of you since you're both out of the closet."

"It's not like being out of the closet is a huge fucking deal...." Blaine grumbled. If only he believed his own words. He had come out at McKinley, but hadn't made a big show of it, because he wanted to be with Kurt, but he knew how hard it was to come out back in middle school and what it had cost him there.

"It can be Blaine... it certainly is for Santana, and she needs support now - not antagonism." Kurt insisted.

Blaine looked at Kurt steadily, who had pretty well ignored him the whole day. God, if this is what it would take to get Kurt to forgive him...

"Fine... but do we have to go first? I'm willing to do it... I just..."

"I think that's fine Blaine. Whatever your reason is." Mr. Schuester interrupted, much to Blaine's relief. Blaine wasn't sure how he was going to finish off that sentence.

Kurt nodded as well, "We'll prepare a number for Santana."

Blaine rolled his eyes up and looked at the ceiling. God. He was going to sing to Santana to show his support for her. What the hell was wrong with him?

At least Kurt was talking to him again, and Blaine had even been able to kiss Kurt yesterday.

In private, when it was only the two of them, Blaine had whispered apologies to Kurt, and begged his forgiveness. He never did promise that he wouldn't do it again, because, when it came to his anger, he wasn't exactly in control. Blaine just considered it lucky that he didn't turn green and grow ten times his size when he got angry.

Now he was watching Finn sing an acoustic cover of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun to Santana. It was sweet and sappy, and had Blaine wishing for Puck's cover of Only One from yesterday.

When Santana got teary eyed and thanked Finn, Blaine's jaw dropped and he whispered over to Kurt, "Fuck... She has a heart!"

Kurt smirked over to Blaine, as if he already knew that. Blaine was actually shocked. He had only ever seen two sides to Santana - bitchy and raging. This was new... and very, very weird.

"Are those bug bites?" Kurt whispered over, reaching to pull down Blaine's collar.

Blaine frowned. He had been having an issue with bed bugs. It turned out that old futon he had bought was infested with them, and when he tried to buy a bunch of bug spray to kill them, it only seemed to make them angrier. He had tossed the futon out into the field last night, having finally given up when he woke up scratching himself everywhere madly and with a headache from the smell of the bugspray.

"I... ah.. went for a walk and there were a lot of mosquitos." Blaine explained hurriedly to Kurt.

"Poor boy." Kurt murmured, then gently pushed Blaine's hand away as it reached back to scratch the bites. "Scratching makes it worse."

"Scratching makes me feel less crazy."

"How about you come over later and I'll rub some ointment on them."

Blaine perked up at that. It had been a couple days since he had seen Kurt outside of school. He nodded almost too quickly, making it obvious probably how much he wanted to be alone with Kurt.

"I'm serious though. Don't scratch at them."

Blaine balled his hands into fists - not because he was angry, but because it was the only thing that would stop him from scratching. "Sure babe."

"Good boy."

Maybe Jacob was right. Maybe he was a lapdog.

It figured that Blaine didn't get any action out of Kurt last night. He barely even got ointment on since Kurt, Mr. Butthead, Burt and Carol were all thoroughly engaged in pre-election day planning and last minute things they needed to do. Kurt only had one hand on Blaine when he was smearing on the ointment, a little too messily, while the other hand held a speech he was proofreading.

Blaine had left early and was sure no one noticed.

Kurt had apologized today for being so distracted the night before, and, as always, Blaine forgave him. He guess he could understand why Kurt was not solely focused on him.

And since Blaine had gone to Kurt's after school, he didn't get to the store on time to get himself an air mattress to replace the disgusting old futon, which meant he spent the night on the dirt again.

So now he was in front of the glee club, Kurt at his side, and looking like worn over shit. His eyes were bagged, and he could barely focus as Kurt told Santana that she wasn't alone and that in this room they would accept her no matter what.

"That doesn't mean I'm accepting Blaine's lack of hygiene in return." She snapped at them both, and, had Blaine been more focused, he might of snapped back. However, he needed to focus right now and get this song over with.

Kurt had picked it, and it wasn't one Blaine minded. He preferred rock, but had a guilty pleasure for top 40 hits - Pink among them. They sang and danced along to Perfect, which everyone seemed really into - except for Santana.

Should Blaine have even bothered to be surprised by that?

He wasn't. He just kept singing and dancing, reminding himself that once this was done, he could get out of this place, find a Walmart, and get one of those auto-inflating air mattresses so he could go down for an early bedtime. Kurt was too busy tonight anyhow since tomorrow was both the student election and the real election.

When they finished up, Blaine took in a deep, relieved breath, and thought he would be able to sit down. Santana had other ideas.

"I have so many horrible memories in this school, and thanks to you two, I have one more now."

Kurt frowned and Blaine glowered at Santana with daggered eyes. "What the hell? We were trying to be nice!"

Santana stood up, pointing an accusatory finger at Blaine, "No. Kurt was trying to be nice. You. I don't know what you were doing you black-mailing asshole."

Brows went up all around the room and Blaine's face soured as he kept his eyes locked on Santana.

"What are you talking about Santana?" Kurt whispered towards her, as if he was afraid to hear the response. Blaine wanted to tell him to be quiet. He wanted to tell her to shut up, but he was too tired to form the proper responses, and he knew that even if he did, things were now in motion that were going to make today go from bad to worse.

"Your little boyfriend here, and I do mean the literal little, threatened to out me unless I got Brittany to withdraw from the senior class presidency race and stopped getting in her way when she wanted to hang out with him."

Fuck.

She couldn't make it sound worse if she tried.

There was silence, and he could see from the corner of his eyes that Kurt was gawking at him, and then very slowly becoming quite red with anger. "Kurt..."

"No... no..." Kurt shook his head and looked over to Brittany. "Is it true?"

"Well. I was very concerned about strippers that looked like Ms. Hedburg, but Santana told me my plan to replace teachers with robots wasn't feasible for at least a couple years anyhow until they worked out the design issues where robots would try to take over the world. I really was just tired of sharing all my pixie stix and what happened with Blaine gave me an excuse to stop sharing. But yah. What Santana said - except the reason I stopped hanging out with Blaine wasn't because I didn't want to, but because I wanted to hang out with Santana more."

More silence. He could feel the stares, and he knew he couldn't argue this, and certainly couldn't hit Santana - much as he wanted to. Keeping his eyes on the ground, he turned and walked out of the choir room, going straight for the door out. Fuck his homework.

"Blaine!" Kurt yelled after him. He could hear him running up behind him, but Blaine stayed focused on getting the hell out of there. He couldn't deal with what was about to happen.

Except Kurt grabbed him by the hand and held him in place, not releasing until Blaine finally turned in place to look at him, willing the tears in the corners of his eyes to stay the hell down.

"Why would you do that? When you know how I feel about outing someone? I didn't out Karofsky -"

"- and you should have! It would have made things so much easier for you!" Blaine snapped back.

"No." Despite the tension, Kurt spoke calmly, and Blaine hated how he managed to do that. "I couldn't, wouldn't do it to someone... and you used it against Santana to get your way..."

"To make things better for you!"

"No Blaine! What you did was wrong. Is Brittany the best candidate? No. But she has the right to run for class president the same as anyone else, and if you were her true friend you wouldn't have interfered. I should withdraw my name. What happened wasn't right, and if I was elected it wouldn't feel right..."

"Kurt..." Blaine whined. He couldn't believe Kurt would give up something like that. After working so hard...

That's when angry Kurt came out.

"Shut up Blaine!"

Blaine held his breath. Kurt had never spoken to him like that.

"You don't get to talk right now. You threatened to out someone, knowing how I'd feel about it, you tampered with the election - what else have you been hiding?!"

Blaine looked away, down to the floor. Too much. Too much he couldn't say.

"Well?"

"Fuck Kurt. I'm not playing this game! You don't just tell me what to do and expect me to listen whenever you want!" Blaine looked up and snapped.

"This is a relationship though, and you can't keep secrets!"

"Well I fucking am! Don't like it? Too bad. I keep them because I don't want to hurt you."

"You hurt me more by hiding things from me and lying to me."

"I didn't lie."

"Not telling me is avoiding the truth which is just as bad as lying!"

"Well... FUCK!" Blaine kicked at a nearby locker. "I'll just never be able to win with you then will I?"

Kurt flinched from the noise, and Blaine took the opportunity to pull his hand away and free himself. Kurt didn't try to grab it back.

Kurt watched him solemnly. "I'm not trying to win Blaine. It's not a game. I just want someone I can trust."

"Well I guess that ain't fucking me." Blaine snarled and turned, storming off again. This time Kurt didn't call out after him or follow him down the hall.

Blaine was done with all this.

Despite his big plans of getting to sleep early and comfortably, Blaine couldn't seem to fall asleep. He had even drank several beers in an attempt to help soothe himself to sleep after pumping up the air mattress. Now he was just tipsy as well as tired.

He watched the ad that outed Santana on his phone since he didn't have any TV or computer in the booth. It was slimy and made him feel awful. Even though he had threatened Santana with outing her, he never meant to go through with it.

But, he supposed, Karofsky probably never meant to go through with it when he threatened to kill Kurt last year.

Maybe Blaine was just as bad as Karofsky.

At some point, after the eighth (... or was it ninth?) beer, Blaine did manage to pass out, and when he woke up, it was well past when he should have been at school. He wasn't overly concerned about it though. He had decided he needed some time off. He had been working his ass off for the past few years to get to the point where he didn't need to play catch up on his credits and figured he deserved it.

Plus he didn't want to face Kurt.

And he was also too hungover to want to deal with anyone.

He checked his phone, intending to see how the election was going, but it was dead, and he didn't have any electrical outlets, at least none that worked, out here. So he did the only thing that made any sense - he went back to sleep.

Periodically he woke up, drank a bit more, and then slept again. It didn't take long for him to lose a day to drinking and sleeping, so that before he knew it, another day had passed, and he was out of beer and snacks.

If he wanted to do more than lay around today, he would have to get up at some point.

First things first - empty out his stomach. That was done not far from the booth. He tried to walk out further away so he wouldn't have to go past the smell, but he didn't last long once he started moving, and once he started, he couldn't stop.

Next, empty himself out from the front. There was a part of him that really loved the fact that he could whip his dick out here and just piss whenever he wanted to - and had he really drank that much beer that he needed to go for so long?

Finally, ditch the alcohol and cigarette scented clothing for some of the new ones he had grabbed from the store the other night - still stickered and tagged in the bag he took them here in. He had intended to wear these today - an actual fresh T-shirt and jeans, to play the part of the good, supportive boyfriend for Kurt. Now they were just convenient for him since he needed clothes that didn't smell like a urinal.

When he felt like he was sufficiently emptied and better stinking, he got on his bike and drove off to the Lima Bean. They had coffee - which he definitely needed, breakfast - which would probably help, and tables near power outlets - so he could charge his phone.

Once he was comfortably seated at the Lima Bean with a coffee in one hand, a bagel in the other, and his phone plugged in, loading the coverage of the election - Blaine felt like he could finally think. He really didn't know what to do about Kurt - if there was anything he could do anyhow. He was pretty sure what he had done would be a dealbreaker for Kurt, and he tried to push that thought out of his mind as he ate. The problem was, Burt Hummel's name was all over his phone as video journalists debated over who had the right moves in this election and the results - Burt had won.

Then of course there was a video, probably from yesterday, showing Burt, Carol, Finn, and Kurt, waving to crowds as they went to McKinley's gymnasium so Burt and Carol could vote.

Even on a tiny-ass screen, Blaine could see how gorgeous Kurt was.

The reporter commented on how both Hummel's were for election yesterday, and the camera panned to Kurt talking to that weasel, Jacob Ben Israel.

Kurt looked confident, sure of himself - and why not? The senior class president position was his - as a subtitle on one of the news stories had mentioned. If Blaine hadn't interfered, would Kurt have still been so sure of himself? Would it have been worth it?

He couldn't go back and change the past, so he let that thought hang, and just continued to watch the news on his phone as he finished up his meal.

He switched over to the Muckraker blog once he had checked all the current news (checking to make sure his parents weren't in the obituaries), and loaded the video of Jacob interviewing Kurt.

"Kurt Hummel. Can you tell us how you'll be celebrating your win this evening?" Jacob queried as he shoved the mic towards Kurt.

Kurt smiled sweetly, "Well, tonight is all about my family regardless of whether or not I win, my dad wins, we both win, or we both lose. We've been there to support one another through all of this and we'll continue to do that - win or lose."

"And where is your pet today Kurt?"

That made Kurt look puzzled, and Jacob elaborated, "Your pet - Blaine Anderson."

Blaine scowled at the phone. That little jerkoff...

Kurt cocked up an eyebrow and his tone changed as he replied - more serious and frank. "Blaine is not my pet. He is my boyfriend - "

Oh thank god... or jesus... or vishnu... or who the fuck ever.

" - and he has been there to support me just as much, in his own way - which I don't always understand, even though he means well. Because he's not my pet, I do not keep him on a leash, which means I do not track his whereabouts, however, if you insist on him being some kind of dog, I'd be careful that he doesn't come and bite you in the ass. That will be all."

The camera cut off at that point, and Blaine grinned to himself smugly. Not only did Kurt still think of him as a boyfriend, he had defended him to Jacob.

With his phone charged, his coffee cup empty, and only crumbs left of his bagel, Blaine decided that maybe he would go to school today, even if there was only a half hour left.

By the time Blaine actually got to school, he had missed it all except for Glee club, which he strolled into, feeling cocky as fuck. He still had a boyfriend. He still had Kurt.

No one said anything when he came into the choir room, just watched as he sat himself by Kurt and dropped his helmet to the floor beside him. Even Kurt didn't seem to know what to say, at least not right away.

"Where were you?" he did finally ask, though quietly.

"I didn't feel like coming." Blaine responded, grinning at Kurt. Kurt probably didn't know that Blaine had seen the video, and so grinning like he was probably made him look like an idiot or an ass, but he couldn't help it.

"Not an excuse." Kurt replied simply and looked ahead as Santana took the floor and began singing Constant Craving. Blaine wanted more. He wanted more out of Kurt than scolding for skipping. He didn't want to wait for the bitch to stop her wailing to confirm that Kurt was okay with him.

But he waited, because he wasn't willing to risk upsetting Kurt any further. He waited through her song, through the unnecessary hugs, and Kurt going up to tell Santana how much she meant to him - like he had ever cared before. Blaine sat back through it all.

"Kind of sickening hey?" Quinn whispered to him from where she sat in the chair behind him.

"More than a little." Blaine muttered back.

"You know, you're probably lucky she didn't just castrate you for threatening her."

"She can go fuck herself."

"She just wants to love the person part of the world thinks she shouldn't... same as you."

"Fuck..." Blaine looked back at Quinn, who stared with hard eyes right back at him, "Why are you preaching at me?"

"Because even though I get you, and actually like you, I LOVE Santana and Kurt like family. If you hurt either one of them ever again..."

"Fuck. Fine. Whatever." Blaine grabbed his helmet and stood up, walking away from Quinn and her bullshit threats and waiting by the door while Kurt gathered his things and joined him.

Kurt didn't say anything to him, just walked. Blaine followed, assuming he was waiting until they were out of earshot of anyone else - he was right. As soon as they were out of the building and by Kurt's car, he started talking.

"You are so... selfish."

Blaine opened his mouth to respond but Kurt, ever so ready with his words, quickly went on.

"You do whatever the hell you want, run away when you get caught, and go off to sulk because you don't want to face up to your problems. Come back when you feel like it and act like you did nothing wrong. Do you know how worried I was? When I called your house - "

Oh no.

" - and your dad answered? I had to hang up. Why the hell was he there?"

Good. He didn't know the whole truth.

"And your phone goes straight to voicemail which means your phone was off or dead, so I can't figure out where you are and you aren't there to celebrate with me - not that it felt much like a celebration since the whole thing was won unethically. At least my dad won, and for all the right reasons."

"Kurt..." Blaine finally managed to get that in, but was quickly shut down again.

"I think we need a break. I need a break. I love you. Don't ever doubt that. But I don't think I should have to be treated like that... like my values and opinions don't matter. Santana and I may not see eye to eye, but she's in the same boat we are Blaine, and she needs the support, and you... you used it against her."

Blaine felt his heart sinking with every word. He turned his head away because he didn't want Kurt to see the tears brimming in his eyes. Why the hell had he bothered coming to school? Why did he ever bother to care?

"I... I'm sorry Blaine. I need to go. I need to think."

Blaine felt locked into place as Kurt got into his car and drove off, as if he were glued into the ground, as if the weight of his fallen heart had sunk so low into him that he couldn't move himself anymore. He stayed there, well after Kurt had driven away, until finally he tested his strength and found he could move.

And when he found that out, the first thing he did was crumble to the ground and cry there.