“Rachel?” he questioned before he answered. “Hello?”

“Kurt!!!”

“Hey, Rachel, is there something I can help you with?” He rolled his eyes at her excited tone.

After graduating, Rachel had followed her dreams to New York as well. She got accepted into NYU and graduated a year after Kurt. Her veins pumped with Broadway blood led her to many auditions, yet she came up short every time. When she needed to find a way to pay her rent, she ended up finding a nice job at a private school as a music teacher.

“I need your help! I have a few auditions lined up for the next few weeks and I need a sub for my afternoon classes. Do you think you could do it? PLEASE?!” she hurried on the other end.

He let out a sigh. “Sure, Rachel, but I don’t get off until 1:30, you know that.”

“THAT’S PERFECT!” she shrieked.

“Okay then, when and where?”

“Two to four at Dalton Academy Elementary School.”

“Okay.”

“OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH KURT! I WILL LEAVE LESSON PLANS ON THE DESK FOR YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH! IT STARTS MONDAY AND-” the voice kept babbling on.

“You’re welcome. Bye, Rachel!” He quickly hung up the phone avoiding any irrelevant chatter she was known for spouting. He threw the phone on his desk and shoved his head into his hands, the heels of his palms rubbing into his eyes.

Kurt just sat there breathing; thinking of how he was going to handle little kids after a day of handling high school kids who acted like they belong in elementary school. He sighed again.

Then it hit him.

Next week was the start of Blaine’s after school detention. Shit.

“Maybe I can bring him with me?” he tried to reason with himself. “Yeah, bring the douche bag around a bunch of kids, Kurt. Just what you need to bring with you – to start breeding the new generation of punk ass children who don’t give a shit. Perfect.” He sat there wondering how he was going to get himself out of this.

“I need a drink,” he concluded, after what felt like hours of coming up with different scenarios that could happen if he brought Blaine along. He sighed again as he grabbed his personal items, a stack of papers he was supposed to grade, and headed out the door to start his weekend.

His ride home was silent as he lost himself in thought. By the time he pulled up to his apartment building he had no clue how he had even made it home alive, not remembering a single time he stopped at a light or stop sign. He trudged up the stairs to his apartment, jammed his key in the door, walked inside, and ran for the couch after he slammed the door shut. He face planted into the soft leather. God, this week was going to be long.

The weekend flew by. Kurt spent most of his time on the couch with a glass of wine, watching his favorite musicals and Disney movies, trying to forget about all his Blaine-related problems. The stack of papers he brought home went untouched. After his first two bottles, Kurt had almost completely forgotten Blaine, but that was until he started watching The Little Mermaid and realized how much Prince Eric looked like Blaine. Though Blaine would never be as charming as Prince Eric with his smug attitude and raging libido.

Before Kurt knew it, Saturday had turned into Sunday, two bottles of wine had turned into six, and he had to get up in four hours. He found himself waking up with a raging headache on his couch Monday morning with his wine glass hanging between his fingers. He looked over at the clock.

“SHIT!!!” he screamed as he ran to his room.

It was 6:30am and classes started at 7. He skipped his skin routine, threw on his last clean button up, styled his hair ever so slightly and was out the door by 6:45. He sped to school, angry with himself that he had let his weekend be consumed with thoughts of Blaine that drove him to drinking himself into a coma-like state, causing him to be late today.

The brunet reached the school right as the bell rang. He ran inside and up the stairs to his classroom where some of his students stood patiently waiting for him to arrive. They made a path for him to the door. He unlocked it quickly and ducked inside.

He didn’t feel well. Instead of taking his originally planned test on the Heart of Darkness, Kurt decided he would pop in the first Harry Potter movie and told them it was a last minute study day for their test tomorrow.

These kids were not dumb. Most high school kids knew that if a teacher decided to put in a video it was because they were either having a bad day or too hung-over to function, but they liked Kurt and decided not to cause too much trouble.

All his classes took pity on him and didn’t misbehave. They sat quietly as they were drawn into one of his favorite movies of all time. Kurt couldn’t help but feel his heart swell as some of them looked over at him and shot him worried and sympathetic looks, hoping he wasn’t feeling too bad.

His sixth period was even incredibly well-behaved until the devil in tight black jeans decided to grace him with his presence. He strolled in half an hour late and sat in the back flicking paper at the other students. When the class was almost over, the students started packing up, but still staying quiet as the movie played. When the bell rang the kids made their way out the door in a fashionable manner, leaving Kurt smiling at how his classes were so incredibly nice to him.

Kurt started to pack up his things when he noticed a familiar gelled-head sleeping in the back of the room. Kurt looked up at the clock. It was 1:10. He had to wake him up so they could get to Dalton before Rachel got in trouble.

As he walked toward the sleeping boy, he caught sight of his face. Blaine was lying there with a new black eye, a busted lip, and a cut above his left eyebrow. Why had Kurt not noticed this when the boy had walked in? It wasn’t the fact that he had been too busy eyeing his ass in those jeans because Blaine is his student…He leaned in toward the boy, reaching his arm out to brush across the bruise forming around his eye. The slightest brush of Kurt’s finger tips on Blaine’s skin made the boy’s eyes snap open and his forceful grip wrap tightly around Kurt’s wrist.

“Don’t. Touch,” the boy slurred through gritted teeth.

“We have to go, Mr. Anderson, or we will be late.” The brunet tugged his wrist away, turned and started to walk toward the door.

Blaine quickly picked up his stuff and caught up to Kurt. “Where are we going?” Confusion evident in the boy’s voice.

Kurt answered with only a smirk while they started walking out to Kurt’s car.

“I emailed your mother asking if it was okay for me to take you along to an engagement I had accepted, and for you to serve your detention there. She said it was perfectly fine.” Kurt gave the boy a devilish smile.

Blaine mumbled something that sounded like “she doesn’t care” under his breath. They reached Kurt’s car, got in and sped off to their new destination.

As Kurt was driving, he couldn’t help but look over at Blaine every few minutes, as if the black eye would disappear. Who could do such a thing to a pretty face like his? Kurt thought as he mentally cursed himself for calling the boy “pretty” and for his constant staring. He also remembered Blaine’s smart mouth and figured that could possibly be what got him his new makeover. Kurt wanted to ask where the cuts and bruises came from, but he opted for continuing the awkward silence instead. The silence wasn’t exactly unbearable, but it wasn’t welcoming either. Kurt pondered what he could say to him, but Blaine caught him off guard by breaking the silence.

“Where are we going, Hummel?” he sneered.

“First of all,” Kurt started, “when we are off school grounds, I’m not afraid to hit you, Anderson.” Kurt looked away from the road to be faced with Blaine’s purple framed eye staring him in the face. His tone softened a bit. “Second, I guess you can call me Kurt when we’re alone too. And finally, we are going to help out a friend of mine.”

Blaine continued staring at Kurt for a moment, mouth drawn in a hard line, before he turned his head to look back out the window. Kurt swore when the boy turned his head he saw the sides of his lips twitch up into what looked like it could be a smile.

Kurt, the boy thought, what a lovely name.

When they pulled up to the school, Kurt heard erratic breathing and could practically feel the tension coming off of Blaine. Kurt parked the car, cut the engine, and turned to face Blaine. The boy’s eyes were staring blankly out the front window, lips slightly parted, like he had totally checked out.

“Mr. Anderson?” Kurt asked with a hint of worry.

No reply.

Kurt raised his voice. “Mr. Anderson!”

The boy still sat frozen with the blank expression on his face and hands balled into fists resting on his knees.

“BLAINE!” he yelled

The boy’s head snapped around to face Kurt. He still looked incredibly stiff. He said my name! the overjoyed boy yelled on the inside as he tried to relax.

“Wha-why are we here?” he growled as he folded his arms across his chest.

“A friend of mine needs me to sub for her, and since you have detention I thought working with these kids could possibly help soften out that smug attitude of yours,” Kurt retorted.

Blaine’s jaw clenched, visibly straining himself to hold back any possible remark. He got out of the car and slammed the door, walking around to the back end of the vehicle to wait for Kurt.

The blue-eyed sighed as he caught a glimpse of the boy leaning against his car in the rear view mirror. He got out of the car, shut the door, and locked it. He started heading toward the building, walking straight past Blaine and his childish pouting.

The shorter boy had fallen in step right beside his teacher until he stopped in front of a heavy oak door. Kurt backtracked to stand next to the boy. Both of them looked up to the sign above the door, which read:

Dalton Academy Elementary School

Kurt turned to look at the boy next to him. He caught a glimpse of what seemed to be pain flicker behind those hazel eyes. He reached out and placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“Are you okay?” Kurt asked. He had no idea why Blaine was acting so strange.

No, the boy thought. “Yeah,” he answered with instead, sneering.

Kurt just shook his head and reached his other hand out to open the door, shoving Blaine in with the hand that still gripped on his shoulder. As they stepped into the front office of the school, which Kurt thought looked more like an attorney’s office he had been in back in high school, they were greeted by and elderly woman with silver hair and glasses.

“Hi, welcome to Dalton Academy what can I do for –” she stopped, eyes drifting over to the boy with his head down standing a few feet behind Kurt. “Oh, Blaine honey, what are you doing here?” she asked with a bright smile.

Kurt stiffened for a second. His jaw slightly slacked, as he tried processing what the woman had just said. Wait, she knows him? How does she know him? Is this why he was acting so strange? Was this his grandmother or something? Kurt thought as he tried to compose himself.

Blaine walked over, stepping in while his teacher still stood in thought. “He’s here subbing for a friend,” he replied, pointing a finger in Kurt’s direction.

Kurt stepped forward. “Hi, I’m Kurt Hummel; I’m here substituting for Ms. Berry.” He stuck out his hand for her to shake.

The silver haired woman reached out and grabbed his hand squeezing lightly as she shook it. “Silvia Rockoff,” she introduced herself. “It’s nice to meet you darling.”

“It’s nice to meet you too. May I ask how do you two know each other?” Kurt asked looking between the old woman and Blaine.

Silvia caught Blaine’s pleading look. “I’ll let him tell you,” she said with a bright smile. “Ms. Berry’s room is going to be down the hallway when you step through those doors and the third door on your left.” She pointed toward the double doors on the other side of the room.

“Thank you.” Kurt smiled.

He turned around, looking at Blaine through narrow eyes. He hated not knowing how they knew each other and why Blaine had been acting so strange since they arrived. I will get to the bottom of this, Kurt thought to himself.

Blaine glanced at Silvia, sending her a grateful smile as he hurried through the double doors with Kurt in tow.