"Finn thinks we shouldn't see each other anymore till after Regionals," Kurt said casually during lunch with Blaine on Saturday.

            "What?! What makes him think that?"

            Kurt spun an ice cube around in his diet coke with his straw. "Have I ever mentioned Jesse St James to you?"

            Blaine pursed his lips. "Is he someone I should worry about?"

            "What? No!" Kurt looked up in alarm and then laughed. "No! Blaine, no. He was Rachel's ex-boyfriend."

            "Mmm. Okay." Blaine smiled fondly at Kurt. He liked it when Kurt laughed. He'd like spending the day with him. They'd already had coffee and talked, walked around down town Lima and talked, now they were having lunch and talking, and would soon be going shopping for the rest of the afternoon before catching the new Meryl Streep movie that night. He loved that they never ran out of things to say, that they had so many interests in common, that he never had to guess what Kurt was thinking about because it always came up sooner or later in full detail, and that every time Kurt smiled, Blaine could feel a tingle run through his body down to his fingertips that left him feeling completely euphoric.

            "Well anyway. Jesse turned out to be a spy from Vocal Adrenaline."

            "Oh. Those guys," Blaine nodded. Kurt had seemed reserved all morning, and Blaine was glad it was all finally coming up, but he wished it didn't have to do with Glee. When he was with Kurt, being a Warbler just wasn't important to him. He'd rather be Kurt's boyfriend than his competition.

            "And he basically tried to destroy us from the inside. Multiple times."

            Blaine tilted his head to the side, finally catching on. "And... you're worried I might be trying to do the same thing?"

            "I'm not!" Kurt clarified quickly, "Just Finn is. I'm sure it has more to do with what happened with Rachel than anything else."

            "You never found out what that was?"

            "No. He doesn't want to talk about it. And Rachel's gone especially crazy lately."

            "Do you think that this Jesse St James has to do with it?"

            Kurt smiled. "Probably not. Directly at least."

            Blaine considered in silence, then decided to ask, "Kurt? What if I was a," he searched for the word, "...threat, to the New Directions? Would you hate me? Leave me... and all that?"

            Kurt narrowed his eyes and smirked. He raised his glass as though symbolically and shrugged. "Don't go breakin' my heart?"

            Blaine couldn't keep himself from smiling. Kurt's innocent, pouty expression was tugging at the corner of Blaine's lips. "I couldn't if I tried," He replied with a grin. Then he was lost to a small fit of giggles which made Kurt blush and smile as well. Blaine reached for Kurt's hand and held it until their food arrived.

            On Monday in Glee club Rachel raised her hand and then didn't wait to be called on before calling out, "Mr. Schue? I think that for Regionals this year we should do original songs!"

            "What?!" was the general reaction from most of the club.

            "Rachel, we've been working really hard on the setlist already, starting over from scratch at this point will set us way back. Besides, none of you have any song writing experience."

            "That's not true at all, Mr. Schue!" Rachel said and launched into the history of her past song writing seminars and attempts.

            "Hey wait! What makes you think we can even learn new songs like that at this point? Regionals aren't that far away," Puck cut in.

            "To be fair, we've learned whole new routines in less than an hour before a competition," Tina said. Rachel beamed at her.

            "I don't know, you guys. It's a good suggestion, Rachel, but we should stick to what we know so we can beat the Warblers."

            This time Quinn raised her hand and cleared her throat. Everyone turned to look at her, "Mr. Schue, if I may? I actually think Rachel has a point." Everyone frowned and a few gaped. "Writing our own songs would be completely unexpected and would give us the edge. It could be exactly what we need to win. In fact, I nominate Rachel as song writer." She smiled sweetly and everyone went from staring at Quinn to staring at Rachel, who was just as dumbfounded before it sunk in and her face alighted with joy.

            Mercedes sighed, "Well if those two can agree about it, then I'm in." Kurt shrugged and agreed with her.

            Then Finn spoke up. "No. No! Now isn't the time for this. We can't just throw everything away and hope that Rachel's going to be able to write a good enough song to beat the Warblers."

            "Excuse me?!" Rachel snapped, more hurt than anything.

            Santana snapped her fingers, "Hey! Hey! Mr. Schue, can I just ask something?"

            "Yes, Santana?"

            "Why does Finn even get a vote? I'm not saying I'm on board with letting Berry ruin everything for us, but as far as I can tell, Finn, here, has been blowing us off all week because of his own little, bitchy issues." She turned to him, "Do you even know what songs we're proposing for the setlist? Were you there to talk about choreography? Or were you wiping your nose on your jacket sleeve on a bench in the locker rooms while contemplating your own pathetic existence?"

            "Santana!" Schuester scolded.

            "Sorry, but for calling himself the ‘leader,' he really hasn't been around much. I just don't think he should get a say in whether or not we do original songs."

            Schuester sighed and then shrugged. "She has a point, Finn. You haven't been pulling your weight around here, so I think it's only fair that I let the rest of the group make this decision."

            Finn looked like he was going to punch something, then he took a deep breath. "Fine. But I don't think Kurt should be in on this decision either."

            Kurt raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

            "What's Kurt done wrong?" Puck asked, leaning forward to better see the boy in question.

            "Now that Kurt's dating Blaine-" Finn started. There was a groan from the group.

            "Please can we not go into that again?" Quinn rolled her eyes.

            "Yeah, Finn, we sort of already dealt with the whole ‘Blaine-isn't-Jesse-St-James' thing months ago," Artie reminded him.

            "Wait... Blaine's a saint?" Brittney asked Santana.

            "We all like Blaine, and Kurt's a part of this group, Finn," Mercedes said, "He gets a vote."

            "I don't care!" Finn stood up. "Don't you think that with Regionals coming up so fast and everything riding on this performance that we shouldn't risk anything that could give the Warblers an unfair advantage?"

            "Advantage like how?" Schuester asked.

            "Yeah, what're you talking about, Finn?" Tina asked, gently.

            "Why are you doing this?" Kurt asked. He was turning red just from holding back how angry this whole discussion was making him. What the hell was Finn's problem with Blaine? Blaine had never done anything to make any of them think he was plotting against them. In fact, he'd gone out of his way to be polite and kind and generous toward the New Directions. The Warblers had hosted not one, but two parties for them now. Based on behavior alone, they should be wondering if the New Directions were playing dirty, not the other way around. Kurt sort of wished he had it in him to punch Finn.

            "I'm not saying Blaine is necessarily a spy-"

            "It sounds like you are," Quinn said tartly.

            "-But what if we decide to do original songs and Blaine finds out? How can we trust him to keep from mentioning it to the Warblers?"

            "Oh come on, they practically volunteered their setlist to us on Valentine's Day," Santana reminded everyone.

            "What do we even know about these guys anyway?!" Finn continued to push.

            "Uh, they're hot and they're actually nice people," Santana shot a look up at Finn, "Unlike some of us."

            "All I'm saying is that until Regionals are over we shouldn't be..." he struggled to find a term, "... Getting in bed with the enemy!"

            Kurt stood up, knocking his chair over, and shouted, "No one is getting in bed with anyone!! What is your problem, Finn??"

            Finn was already storming out and before he could help himself, Kurt kicked over the chair in front of him and then sat down on the riser, arms crossed. Everyone was staring at him and he was furious and embarrassed and felt like he was going to cry. He barely heard Schuester say, "Um... let's take 5, guys." before he was getting up, grabbing his bag, and storming out the door. Mercedes followed after him.

            "Kurt," she said softly once they'd gotten to the hall and he slowed down to figure out where he was going to storm off to. "You know none of us think Blaine's a spy." When Kurt didn't say anything she continued. "We're all really happy you're with him, Kurt."

            "Finn's not," Kurt pointed out.

            "You know that whatever's bothering him has nothing to do with this. He's just taking it out on you..."

            "Well I wish he wouldn't," Kurt snapped. Then he realized he shouldn't be mad at Mercedes. He gave her an apologetic look and let her pull him into a hug. "It's just... it feels like Blaine's the best thing that's ever happened to me and Finn's trying to ruin that. He's trying to turn the dream into a nightmare."

            "It doesn't have to be a nightmare, Kurt. But... you know, maybe you can just... take things slow with Blaine until Regionals are over."

            "What?!"

            "Just so there's nothing Finn can worry about."

            Kurt pushed himself away from her, "Please don't be on his side, Mercedes..."

            "Kurt," she glared at him, "I'm not. You know I approve of Blaine, I think he's great and would never spy on us, I just think maybe to keep down the in-fighting..."

            Kurt was shaking his head, "I can't believe this."

            Puck showed up at exactly that moment with an enthusiastic, "Hey! I know I can't tell time or anything, but I'm pretty sure five minutes are kinda up by now. Let's get in there and vote on our own destruction!" He grabbed Kurt by the shoulder and steered him back toward the choir room. Mercedes followed behind.

            "You don't think Blaine's a spy, do you Puck?" Kurt asked softly.

            "Not here to judge, just here to look pretty," Puck said, batting his eyelashes and planting Kurt down in a seat that hadn't been overturned and then heading to sit at the opposite side of the room.

            Kurt sat limply with his arms crossed over his lap. They ended up voting ‘yes' to original songs and arranging to work overtime on songwriting that week. However, it was clear that Finn had gotten to some of them because they also voted that Kurt should ease off on seeing Blaine for the next two weeks. They decided Kurt could only see him in the context of double dates, so that there could always be someone to supervise their conversations and keep anything from leaking. They decided that this was the best way for everyone to be sure that Blaine was definitely not out to get them. Kurt felt defeated. His own friends couldn't even just be happy for him now that he was finally in this relationship he'd worked so hard for, and all because his brother was having a bitch-fit and had to drag him down too. All he wanted to do was text Blaine asking for help, but the club had also suggested that he let Mercedes see his texts every day so that nothing slipped by.

            As soon as the meeting was over, he went straight to his car, crawled into the back seat, and tried not to cry. After a few minutes of fighting with himself, he called Blaine.

            "Kurt! Hi! I'm so glad you called! How was your day?"

            "Miserable..." Kurt mumbled.

            "What's wrong?"

            "I'm not supposed to see you anymore."

            "...What?!"

            Kurt breathed deeply but it came out as a sniff and a shudder. "The New Directions decided that on the off-chance you're a spy, I can't be alone with you anymore until after Regionals."

            "Kurt... but...that..."

            "It's just so stupid! We haven't done anything wrong and now everyone is just..." tears were sliding from his eyes, down his cheeks, and he couldn't stop them. He reached forward over the front seat, into the glove box for a packet of tissues.

            "Kurt..."

            "Can you come over?"

            "Yes. Where are you?"

            "I'm... in the parking lot... at McKinley. I just need to see you."

            "I'll be right there."

            When Blaine arrived he found Kurt's car and pulled up next to it. The parking lot was mostly cleared out. Inside, Kurt had forced himself to stop crying, but as soon as Blaine tapped on the window, he could feel the emotions welling up again.

            Blaine opened the door and climbed into the backseat with Kurt. He slid over till he was right beside his boyfriend and pulled him closer. He wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders, and ran his fingers through his hair, pulling Kurt's face into the crook of his neck and kissing the top of his head. Kurt clung to him and sobbed, then apologized for crying onto Blaine's blazer. "I don't want to ruin it," he mumbled, tears still falling. Blaine readjusted, pulled off his blazer, tossed it into the front seat, and then wrapped his arms around Kurt again. This time Kurt held a tissue over his face and let himself cry against his boyfriend.

            After a few minutes of holding onto each other in silence, Blaine whispered, "I don't understand why we can't be together..."

            "Not be together," Kurt clarified, "They're fine with us being together. They just don't want us to see each other. But it's not fair! I want to see you. I want to see you all the time. We worked so hard for this and now I'm finally with you and it's not fair!"

            "Aren't they your friends? Can't you talk to them?"

            Kurt took a deep breath, "I tried. Finn got them all thinking I'd leak our secrets to you and you'd use them to win."

            "But I wouldn't do that..."

            "I know! It's stupid..."

            "It wouldn't be right if the Warblers didn't beat you guys fair and square after all," Blaine said, squeezing Kurt slightly, hoping it would make him laugh or get defensive. Kurt didn't seem to find it funny. He just dug his fingers into the fabric of Blaine's shirt. Blaine leaned his head against Kurt's. "Maybe I should talk to Finn."

            Kurt sat up suddenly. "No!" His face was red and his eyes were puffy, but all Blaine wanted to do was kiss him, runny nose and all. "No, you can't confront Finn. If this really is about Jesse St Stupid-head then he'll just get flashbacks and think it's happening all over again. Everyone's all ready to believe him..."

            "So what can I do? Kurt... I don't want to lose you over Glee club!"

            Kurt blew his nose. "Glee is important to me."

            "It's important to me too," Blaine reminded him. It felt like someone was wrapping their fingers around his heart and squeezing it slowly. "But my Glee club doesn't have a problem with us being together. I don't understand what's going on, Kurt. It's two weeks till Regionals. I had to wait two months just to... to kiss you. I don't want to spend the next two weeks without being able to even see your face." He reached out and touched Kurt's cheek. It was cold and wet from the tears.

            "We can still... they said it's okay if we go on double dates..."

            "What? So we have to be supervised?"

            Kurt was crying again, "I know it's terrible..."

            "It is terrible! Kurt... I'd love to go on double dates with your friends, and I want them to feel like they can trust me, and I want you to trust me more than anything..."

            "I do," Kurt whispered.

            "But I don't want to be on probation because of something some other guy did to someone I barely know!"

            "I know, Blaine."

            "And I don't like feeling like I can't do something to make this right, because it should be right. We shouldn't have to have these rules just to date each other!" Blaine could feel himself flushing. He visualized walking right up to Finn, pulling the giant down to his level and punching him in the face until he punched the problem right out of him. He was definitely angry, but he didn't want Kurt to think he was taking it out on him, not when he was clearly upset about it too. He leaned forward so his forehead touched the back of the front seat. "What am I supposed to do, Kurt? Please, tell me!"

            "Can you just hold me?" Blaine looked up to see that Kurt had moved away from him slightly. He was leaning against the door, his legs pulled up onto the seat so he looked small and fragile. The grip on Blaine's heart seemed to shatter.

"Of course..." Blaine turned in the seat, and leaned toward Kurt, gathering him into a hug, which Kurt fell straight into. Blaine kissed the top of Kurt's head, then pulled back and placed his thumb on Kurt's chin, guiding him into a kiss, which Kurt returned before collapsing back onto Blaine's chest. Blaine readjusted them both so he was partly lying back with Kurt curled up to the side with his head and chest on top of him.

"Just... just be here for now," Kurt murmured. His voice was shaking, but he'd stopped crying. "I promise I'll figure out what to do about everything else, but right now... I just want to be with you."

Blaine wrapped his arms securely around his boyfriend's torso. "You don't have to figure it out on your own, Kurt."

"I can, though. I can do this. You don't need to worry..."

Blaine sighed. "I do worry. I will. I know you can handle anything, Kurt, but you aren't alone." Kurt remained silent, but his fingers that had been stroking the material of Blaine's tie stopped moving. "I know you feel like you've been alone, and like you should handle everything by yourself, but you don't have to. You have me. I can help too. I'll do everything I can to convince them that we can be together, that I'm not...not using you..."

"Blaine..."

"We'll never talk about Glee, or Regionals, or anything else ever again..."

"Blaine..." Kurt propped his chin on Blaine's chest and was looking up at him now, eyebrows knit together.

Blaine shook his head, "I just care so much about you, Kurt. I want to be here for you."

Kurt was silent for a moment, staring at Blaine's chin and the contours of his face. He could get used to the view from Blaine's chest and the firm, warm arms that were wrapped around him. He didn't want to lose this. "Thank you," he murmured.

Blaine settled back against the seat, then looked down at Kurt. Kurt was looking up at him and it made him smile. "Can I kiss you?" he asked.

Kurt nodded and let himself be moved as Blaine sat up and pressed their lips together firmly.

He kissed Kurt twice, the second time parting his lips and taking Kurt's lower lip between his, encouraging his mouth to open. Kurt gasped but didn't pull away, so Blaine sucked slightly before releasing Kurt's lip. Kurt's hand touched his cheek and Blaine leaned further into the kiss. Kurt took control and caught Blaine's upper lip and pressed against it before letting Blaine gently pull back.

They breathed deeply, in sync, and stared at one another. Kurt's eyes were still red from crying, but his cheeks were newly flushed. Blaine's pupils were dilated and made his eyes look enormous and dark. Kurt could feel his hormones kick in and was suddenly aware of every place their bodies were touching and how close and intimate the space they were in was. All he wanted was to have his lips pressed back against his boyfriend's. He willed his eyes to look as amazing as Blaine's. "I care about you too," he breathed.

Blaine leaned forward and touched their lips together, but hesitated immediately. His eyes darted away from Kurt for an instant, and he smirked against Kurt's lips. "We've fogged up the windows."

Kurt glanced at the window behind Blaine's head and immediately burst into tiny giggles. He turned his head and bit his lip to keep the giggles in. He wiped his cheek again because he felt ridiculous looking weepy and laughing at the same time.

Blaine was grinning. He was so relieved to see Kurt laugh, and he felt so amazing, so important in his boyfriend's life. He leaned back against the seat and immediately his eyes rolled back in his head with pleasure as Kurt nested his head against his shoulder. He leaned against Kurt's hair, which was messed up and added to the disheveled look that Kurt was now sporting. It definitely succeeded in turning Blaine on. He didn't even care why he was there, or that it was already starting to get darker out, because sitting there with his arms around Kurt in the back of that car, and he'd never felt more at home.

Kurt's mood had improved considerably come Tuesday. Making out with Blaine in the back of his car, and getting home late, looking like a wreck in all the best ways played no small part in his general happiness. He walked into Glee club that day with a bounce in his step and a smile on his face.

That all dissolved when he found the entire club waiting for him. Mercedes got up and walked over to shut the door behind him.

"What's going on?" Kurt asked, clinging to his shoulder bag as though it was some kind of barrier between him and their stern looks.

"We need to talk..." Artie started off.

"I promise, we're not saying this because we don't love you," Tina added quickly.

"You were... kinda spotted in a car with that Blaine guy yesterday afternoon," Sam explained, then added, "For like, several hours."

Puck shook his head, "Not cool dude..."

"What?!"

"You can't deny it," Santana told him. "You called him, he drove up in his shiny prep-boy car, and you smooched till long after the windows fogged over. We have proof. Earlier today we even took bets on whether or not you're still a virgin." She shrugged. "I say yes. He's cute but it doesn't look like he has it in him to pop your gay cherry."

Kurt tried to speak but he couldn't get anything out.

"Can't believe you'd do that..." Mike Chang mumbled.

"W-wha-?!" Kurt stammered, "I...I can't believe you guys would..."

"Hey! Whoa! Time out!" Santana cut in. Kurt noticed Finn was sitting in the back of the room staying quiet. "You remember yesterday how I was all in favor of your little disastrous relationship with the dreamboat a capella boy? I even voted against stalking you twenty-four seven, partly because it cut into my social life. But then you go out immediately and pull this crap on us."

"You have to admit, Kurt. It is fairly suspicious," Quinn said.

"I am kinda thrown, man," Puck said, "I mean, we all voted and-"

Kurt threw his hands up. He felt like he'd walked in on a lynch mob. "I didn't get a vote! This is my life, don't you think I should have had a say?!"

"You didn't really speak up," Sam mumbled.

"How could I, with all of you ganging up on me? And okay, maybe it wasn't the best decision I've ever made, but I was upset and I wanted to be with my boyfriend! Is that so wrong?"

"Uh... yeah! It is when he's on the enemy team," Artie pointed out.

Kurt looked at Mercedes, but she just cocked her head to the side a bit and shrugged. "Kurt... we just... we all feel a little betrayed." Kurt's jaw dropped. She went to put her hand on his shoulder and he stepped away from her. "We still love you, Kurt."

Rachel finally spoke up, "Okay! Enough of this. Kurt, as much as I hate to say this, we've taken another vote."

Kurt was shaking, his fists clenched around his bag strap. Everyone was silent for a second, then Rachel finally took a deep breath and started again.

"We want you to stop seeing Blaine... or else we want you out of New Directions."

Everything was silent. It felt like the room was spinning around him and Kurt took a step back to keep himself from stumbling into a faint. He looked between their faces, most of them were refusing to look at him, especially Finn. His dirty work was being done for him and now he was sitting there pretending he'd played no part.

"I...How--?... You can't do this..." Kurt stammered.

Rachel's fingers were digging into the hem of her skirt, "We're all agreed." After another moment of silence she added, "We do love you Kurt, we just... we want to win."

"I want to win!" Kurt pointed out, angrily.

"We thought so too, but then you go off making deals with the devil," Santana said.

"How can you believe that?" Santana just shrugged at him. Puck turned uncomfortably in his seat. Kurt stopped himself just shy of stamping his foot. "Blaine is not the devil! He wouldn't do anything to hurt us!"

"Well how should we know?" Santana asked. "All we know is that we have pictures of you and Blaine making out just hours after we politely voted on your discretion in seeing him."

"You have pictures?"

"Finn took them," Rachel said softly, stealing a glare across the room at Finn.

Kurt stared at his stepbrother. He felt betrayed. He felt hurt and used. He just kept running over the same line again and again in his head, "I've done nothing wrong!" He searched for a response but couldn't find a retort harsh enough to express how he felt. "So you're kicking me out," he finally concluded.

"No! No, no... Kurt," Mercedes said, trying to touch his shoulder again, but he flinched away from her. "We want you to stay. We need you."

"All we're saying is that for the next two weeks we need you to abstain from Blaine," Quinn said.

"Right! And after we win Regionals, you can go right back to... being together every day," Tina said cheerfully.

"If he doesn't hate me by then." Kurt looked directly up at Finn. "Well that's great. I finally find someone who makes me happy and thanks to Finn you guys decide to drop everything and tear him away from me."

"Your actions yesterday kinda spoke louder than Finn's words. You know, with the pictures and everything," Sam mumbled.

Kurt glared at Sam, and then back up at Finn. He took a deep breath and raised his chin. "Well, thanks a lot Finn. As if there wasn't enough bulling at this school. Some friends you are." At that moment the door opened and Mr. Schuester stepped in. Mercedes called after Kurt as he ducked around Schuester and out the opened door. None of them got up to follow him.

Schuester looked around the room at all the sullen faces. "Uh... what's going on, guys?"

Ten minutes later, Rachel found Kurt sitting at the front of the stage in the auditorium, one leg hugged to his chest. He was chewing on his thumb nail and staring out into the sea of empty seats. He didn't look at her as she smoothed her skirt under her and carefully sat down beside him.

"I'm sorry, Kurt," she whispered.

"No you aren't. You get all the solos now," he replied. He couldn't even work up the energy to sound haughty. He was completely deflated.

"That's true," she nodded, then cleared her throat. "Even so, it wouldn't be the same without you. We need you. I know that you love him. I know what that's like..."

"I love Glee," Kurt whispered, "I love singing."

"So come back with me. Come back to the choir room and tell everyone you're still one of us and help us work on the music."

"How can I?" he looked over at her now, trying to glare without his eyes welling up with tears. "How could you do this to me? I mean, after everything we've been through and how much I felt like you were all my family, I don't understand how everyone could be so against me. Everyone likes Blaine. He's such a sweet, caring guy, and he'd never cheat to win against us. If the Warblers beat us, they'd want to do it fair and square. He said so himself. But then Finn comes along and tries to ruin everything. I don't get it! I thought he liked Blaine. They got along really nicely at dinner..."

Rachel settled herself down, readjusting her legs. "I don't think Finn actually has anything against Blaine. And he doesn't have anything against you."

Kurt snorted. "Well he does a good job of showing that, doesn't he?"

"It's me he's mad at," Rachel whispered. Kurt looked over at her to see that her lip was trembling. "And-and I don't know why!"

"He still won't talk to you?"

"No!" she took a steadying breath, "I've tried! I even tried texting him on Friday because he avoids me at school and won't answer my calls, but I didn't hear anything back, and this week he's just seemed so angry! I don't understand. What's wrong with me, Kurt?"

Kurt readjusted how he was sitting as well and leaned over to hug her. For as upset and hurt as he was, it was just so sad. It was so pathetic to see her like this. He leaned his head against hers as she tried to keep herself from crying. "I don't know, Rachel," he whispered, "I don't know what's wrong with either of us."

She wrapped her arm around his back. "I don't want you to leave New Directions, Kurt."

"I don't want to either," he said, tilting his chin back to try to knock the gathering tears back into his tear glands. "But when I'm with Blaine... I just feel so amazing, and so safe. I never thought I'd find anyone in all of Ohio, but there he was: this beautiful, talented, kind, funny boy, and he's mine!"

"It would only be two weeks," she reminded him gently.

Kurt shook his head. "I blew him off for two months while I dealt with the whole thing with Karofsky. How can I just blow him off again for Regionals, Rachel? He doesn't deserve that."

She paused, "...So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I wish I didn't have to choose."

Rachel pushed away from him and stood up carefully, fixing her skirt, wiping her eyes to make sure no make-up had smeared, and pushing her hair behind her ears. "Do you know why I wanted to do original songs for Regionals?" she asked.

Kurt rolled his eyes, "So you could sing them?"

"Yes!" Rachel said, as though there had been no malice in his guess, "And because I already wrote one."

Kurt tilted his head to the side and looked up at her. For all her faults, she had more ambition than anyone he'd ever met. "You did?"

"Yes. I didn't think I'd know how to write it, but I worked hard all weekend and I think I have it. Do you want to hear?"

He couldn't think of anything else to be doing. "Sure."

"It's called ‘Get it Right.' I think... I think you and I could sing it as a duet at Regionals... If you want to."

"If I'm even allowed back in the group," Kurt said, pointedly.

Rachel leaned down and touched his shoulder. "We want you in the group, Kurt. People are just a little tense. I mean, New York is on the line. No one wants you to be miserable, but maybe they just don't know what else to do." Kurt looked away from her. "Just... listen to the song. If it's as good as I know it is, it might help you too, okay?"

He shrugged and she stepped back to the very center of the stage with a warning that it wasn't meant to be an a cappella solo, but he'd have to just imagine the music in the background since there was no one to play the piano and she didn't have her music with her. After a few seconds of standing with her eyes closed, she started singing.

"What have I done? I wish I could run away from this ship going under..."

They walked back into the choir room together a good forty five minutes after Kurt had initially left, to find everyone bent over pads of paper and Puck asking Schuester what would rhyme with "badass."

"Everyone?" Rachel chirped upon their entry. "We have an announcement to make! Kurt is going to be staying with us to perform at Regionals!"

She clapped, but everyone else looked up tentatively. Puck threw his notebook on the ground, "Dude! I was kinda hoping you'd stick with Blaine. You two were pretty much awesome together."

"We've reached an acceptable compromise," Rachel elaborated.

"Compromise?" Mercedes echoed.

Puck threw up his hands, "Oh no! All bets are off. I was thrown earlier by those steamy car photographs," Kurt blanched and glared pointedly at Finn. What were the pictures even of and when did he take them? They'd just barely been making out for heaven's sake! Puck continued, "I might have felt a little weird about it, but now I just feel awful. You're crazy about him, dude. We shouldn't be here breaking you two up!"

Kurt raised an eyebrow, "Agreed."

"Hey!" Finn finally cut in, "We talked about this..."

"Wait, what is going on?" Schuester asked.

Rachel raised both hands. "So back to the compromise! Kurt and I just texted Blaine, and everything is worked out. They're on hiatus until the competition is over and we have Kurt all to ourselves. Yay! Also he and I are going to do a duet to a song I wrote."

Luckily, the subsequent "Oh hold up!" was in reference to the song and not the compromise. Kurt was immediately accepted back and only Finn looked remotely bitter about it. He smiled politely, but he refused to make eye contact with anyone and made an excuse to leave early, which was fine with Kurt. He'd have to see Finn enough at home after all.

The worst part was, the compromise wasn't nearly as clean as Rachel had made it sound. After her heartbreakingly beautiful solo, which had a few kinks to iron out, but was otherwise lovely, Kurt had asked her what she thought he should do. She'd knelt down in front of him and asked for his phone, which he gave to her reluctantly, and she said she was going to text Blaine. After a moment of panic and squabble between them, she'd texted, I'm not choosing Glee over you, but I have to choose, and I am choosing Glee. Please be waiting for me with Regionals is over. Then she showed it to Kurt and sent it before he could be upset about how heartbreaking it sounded. She handed the phone back, and held out her pinky finger.

"It's done, but you have to promise me something, Kurt. If Blaine's as good of a guy as he seems to be, he'll still be there for you when this is all done..."

"Not with that message, he won't!" Kurt protested, growing furious again.

"He will! But I have to have you promise me, Kurt. You have to promise not to text him back or contact him at all till after Regionals."

"But why? That's not winning! That's giving in!"

"Maybe, but it's how you're going to get what you want and still make everything okay. Promise me."

Kurt stared at her hand and then down at his phone. "...Please can we wait and see if he texts back?"

They waited ten minutes in silence before there was a reply, but it wasn't through text, it was a call. Kurt looked pleadingly at Rachel and she nodded, settling herself closer to him so she could listen in.

"B-Blaine?" he answered.

"My god, Kurt? What's going on? What did your last text even mean?"

It almost stopped Kurt's heart to hear the dull panic in Blaine's voice. He could imagine him standing in his tidy Dalton uniform backed into a corner in the halls of the ornate school, holding the phone to his ear, face white with fear. "Blaine..." he tried again, but couldn't form a sentence.

"Are we breaking up? Is that what's going on? I don't understand, Kurt, what happened?"

"No! No, please! Please, I don't want to break up with you," he looked over at Rachel, and she wasn't looking at him anymore. She was facing the other way with her hand raised to her face.

"Then what's happening? What's... what's going on? Please help me understand!"

Kurt took a breath. "Blaine, I care about you. I care about you so much. More than anything," he stopped and took a few more deep breaths to keep his voice from cracking. "But Glee is all I have here. I want to sing."

"What? I know that, Kurt..."

"I don't want to mess this up, Blaine. Because it's perfect, you're perfect."

"Kurt, please..."

"And if everyone else doesn't understand that, then I'll make them understand it."

"What are you...? You don't have to do things on your own!"

"But you just have to be waiting for me, okay? I know I'm asking too much. I know I... I don't deserve you, and this is just one more reason why..."

"Kurt! You're perfect, I want to be with you, I-"

"But I need more time before then. My friends still don't get it, and it isn't your fault, but this... I want everything. I want to get it right, Blaine. Just please be there for me, okay? After Regionals?"

"Kurt, please! Stop. What are you saying? That even after yesterday..."

"They saw us, Blaine." Rachel looked over now, frowning. "They think I betrayed their trust, and I don't want it to have to be like that. Please understand."

"I want to be with you..."

Kurt took another breath, "I want to be with you too."

"I'll quit the Warblers!"

"Please don't..."

"I'll come over there. I'll be there in ten minutes."

"No! No, Blaine. No. You mean so much to me, just please give me these two more weeks to be strong enough to deserve you."

"I...I won't let you. I'll win you back!"

He couldn't help but smile at that. "You've already won, Blaine. But I have to have somewhere to go at school..."

"Transfer to Dalton!"

"I can't... Blaine, I have to prove we're not traitors. We're not wrong. And I..."

"Can't we... can't we do the double date thing, like they said before?"

"You said you wanted them to trust us. I want them to trust us too..."

"We'll prove it to them. Together we can prove we're trustworthy, just don't-"

"This is the only way..."

"There has to be another way!"

"I'm so sorry, Blaine," Kurt was choking up now. Rachel was watching him carefully. He was starting to cry. "Just give me this chance to prove that to them. Give me these two weeks, then I'll never leave you again. Not for anything."

"Don't say that..."

There was a long pause in which Kurt started to feel sick to his stomach. Not two months ago, he and Blaine had been sitting together on this very stage.

"... When do I get to be with you, Kurt?" Blaine's voice was shaking. Kurt's hand trembled violently. What did he really want more?

 "I have to go. I'm so sorry!" Kurt barely sobbed out the last words, and then he set his phone down in his lap as Blaine said, "Oh please, no! Kurt!"

Rachel reached forward and touched the button the end the call. Kurt bit the inside of his cheeks and took a breath before weakly raising his pinky finger. She took it. Their puffy red eyes met each other.

"Let's do this," she said bravely.