Things in Glee club were different at McKinley. The New Directions never got as far as in-fighting. They were banded together. When it came time to divvy up for Sectionals, Schuester caved and Kurt was offered the biggest solo of his life, sharing the spotlight with Mercedes, Tina, and Rachel, as the lead singer in a remix of Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen.” He got to stand at the front of the stage, living it up in the spotlight and feeling stronger and more at home than he’d ever felt in his life. Life was so much easier for Kurt at McKinley without Karofsky around. He wasn’t living in fear. Even the people who used to harass him verbally had heard that Noah Puckerman was standing up for Kurt and that the other heavy hitters in the club were prepared to do the same, and they’d backed off for the most part. Friendships were stronger than they had been the previous year, even Rachel was easier to deal with since she had what she’d wanted from her relationship with Finn. Rehearsals for sectionals had actually been fun. When the day finally arrived, they were more than prepared. Kurt was having the time of his life.

The New Directions were playing the first slot of the three Glee clubs. The boys of the acappello team from Dalton Academy, the Warblers, were sitting in the audience. They had the final slot and were eagerly, but confidently, checking out their competition.

Their confidence waned with the opening number. Kurt was a fire on the stage with his girls around him and his voice working through its range. Despite the difference in their voices, Stevie Nicks turned out to be a match for him. New Directions had sexed up the song in the classiest manner. The team was wearing all black, including lace gloves. Kurt was in a suit and top hat like the rest of the boys, and the girls were in black dresses with black flowers. As the lights came on, Kurt, Mercedes, Rachel, and Tina were stationed at different corners of the stage, lit for dramatic effect, with simple, but strong choreography. Kurt traded lines with each of the girls in turn and carried the song until the final chorus introduced the entire team and he fell back into formation.

The audience adored it. Kurt couldn’t keep his cheeks calm as they were overtaken with all the proper effects of overwhelming joy.

He didn’t go unnoticed.

Blaine Anderson only realized he’d been holding his breath when he found himself rising to his feet along with the rest of the audience. When the song ended and they were back in their seats, he leaned across the seats to ask the Warbler’s captain, Wes, “Who is he?”

“What? The guy with the solo?” Wes asked back. Another Warbler who Blaine was leaning across smirked and elbowed him.

“Oooh. Blaine’s got a crush on the competition!”

Blaine blushed and set his lips in a mockingly disdainful smile. He sat back in his seat. A moment of clapping and reformation on the stage passed and then Wes leaned across to Blaine, winked, and said, “I’ll find out for you” just as the next song began. Blaine kept his eyes trained on the boy for the rest of their time on stage.

When the New Directions’ three-part set had ended and the Warblers were moving backstage to prepare for their number, Wes grabbed Blaine’s arm.

“His name is Kurt, and he’s out.”

“Kurt?” Blaine repeated, trying to ignore anything and everything that could possibly be implied by the latter part of the statement, but grinning despite himself. It was a nice name. It fit him. That fierce look he’d shot at the audience the first time “Just like the white winged dove” passed his lips, and the toothless smile scrunching up his face that he’d failed to hold back when the song ended… they were both just so… “Kurt.”

“We are going to intercept them on their way offstage and you, Blaine, are going to cordially congratulate the New Directions on their performance.”

The rest of the Warblers were in on it now and smiling and patting Blaine on the shoulders. “Just make sure you shake his hand!” one of them said.

“Just hug him. Make him yours,” David teased, coming up on the other side of Blaine and leaning into him as a nudge.

Blaine raised both hands in the air casually. “It’s nothing like that guys,” he was smiling, “I just really enjoyed his voice. I enjoyed the whole performance. It’s not—”

“Ask him out!”

They rounded the corner and came face to face with the exact Glee club in question. The New Directions cumulatively looked the dashingly dapper Warblers up and down while Blaine steadied his heart by taking a breath, stepped forward, and did his part as soloist and ambassador. He extended a hand and a dashing smile to their rival team.

“We’ve never been formally introduced, my name’s Blaine,” he started off, his hand meeting Schuester’s, but his eye catching a glimpse of Kurt at the back of the group. He was talking to the black girl he’d been singing with and they hadn’t even noticed the group had stopped until they almost ran into their teammates and Kurt looked up in alarm and moved to see what was holding them up over a taller girl’s shoulder. The way he sucked in his lips, the excitement that was still in his eyes, and that he was the only boy in the group still wearing his tophat, were the focus of Blaine’s attention as he said, “We’re the Warblers. It was a pleasure listening to your performance. It was incredible.”

“Thank you,” Schuester replied with a smile and a firm shake. Blaine looked over to Kurt hopefully, but he was still at the back and was leaning to say something to the black girl again. Another girl tugged on Kurt’s sleeve. To Blaine it just looked a lot like Kurt was a lady’s man. His heart flipped a little, and he had to remind himself that it was just a song and that he didn’t know anything about this guy, pretty or otherwise.

And he was pretty. He was gorgeous. Pale skin, rosy cheeks, classy… he didn’t look like anyone Blaine had ever seen before the same way he didn’t sound like anyone Blaine had ever heard. Maybe he was just an appreciative Fleetwood Mac fan, which he was, and he was projecting, but he wanted to get to know Kurt.

The rest of the Warblers had stepped in and introductions were being made, which jostled the group a bit and made it hard to climb back through to the back where the boy was standing—either shyly or haughtily, no way to tell. Blaine had his hand held too long by a hyperactive and talkative brunette apologizing for her lack of a proper solo, and then a sassy brunette and then almost got kissed by the tall blond before he was saved from it by Wes apologizing for having to move the group along to get ready.

His eyes only met Kurt’s one more time as they were passing each other, never once touching. They held each other’s gaze for a long moment. Blaine decided on shy. Of the two, he looked confident, but if “out” meant “out” then those eyes were saying shy. They turned another corner.

Blaine got a punch in the arm. “You fail!” a teammate chided.

They had to wait through the old people’s lovely rendition of “The Living Years,” but once they got on the stage, Blaine’s whole persona was found. This was where he shined, and he knew it. They all knew it. For the first time ever, the New Directions were going to see Dalton Academy’s secret weapon. The confidence was back before they even hit the stage.

“Hey, Soul Sister” was a powerhouse in acappella. Blaine found Kurt in the audience before the number began and when the line “Let you blow my mind” passed his lips, he stepped forward, out of formation, and pointed at him. He fell back in line immediately, but that one moment had established something for Blaine. He wasn’t challenging Kurt, because it wasn’t a competition to him right then. What he wanted most was for Kurt to be seduced by his singing the way he’d been seduced by “The Edge of Seventeen.”

He was focused. Blaine sang the entire rest of the song to Kurt. After a few verses, Rachel, who was sitting beside Kurt, and Mercedes on his other side, were not the only members of the group who began to notice. It was very clear, due to the small scale of the auditorium, who Blaine was pointing to and who his gaze was fixed on. Rachel leaned in and whispered to Kurt, but he was pursing his lips trying to ignore the subtle prodding.

All Kurt could think was, who the hell was this guy, and could it even be possible that there might be a chance…? Kurt had struck out before. He had never been any guy’s type and here was one whose voice made him weak. He had to be singing to Rachel. He just had to be. What were the chances that the all-boys school’s lead singer would be gay? Because if he was, he was just as appealing to the girls as he was to Kurt.

Blaine was a dream on the stage. The Warblers finished out their set with Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” which was also sung by Blaine and was also blatantly directed at Kurt. The lyrics, the masculine choreography, the blazers, and that voice were so hot Kurt could feel himself blushing and coming a bit undone sexually, which made him shift awkwardly in his seat. He was eternally grateful that it was so dark. Several times his heart skipped, and when the song ended and the audience erupted to the extent of near violent praise, he leaned over to Mercedes.

“Is it okay if I’m in love with him?” he whispered in her ear, complimenting the question with a bashful smile and a laugh.

Mercedes didn’t even need to ask who. Who were they all feeling hot and bothered about, after all? She leaned toward him and said a little more loudly, “Sweetheart, I think he’s in love with you.”

“What if he’s not gay?” Kurt hissed.

On the other side Rachel was tugging on his arm, “Oh my god! Isn’t he dreamy?” she yelled over the clapping, and he agreed, his attention now stolen. Mercedes took his hand and squeezed it, but she didn’t have a response. If Blaine-the-Warbler turned out straight she’d just have to apologize to Kurt later for stealing such a catch from him.

The New Directions didn’t return to their seats. They had to get backstage and line up for awards. They had to find out that they’d tied for first with the Warblers.