Blaine was only at McKinley for two weeks before he found out Kurt’s story, though it wasn’t Kurt who told it.  Blaine spent every break he had with Kurt and sat with him or glee club members during class. He had quickly become well liked with in the club and none of them minded that he never sat with them at lunch.

The day started out normally enough. It was a break he had without Kurt when it happened. It was freezing, cold ice dripping down his face and under his shirt, blue dye stinging his eyes and staining his clothes. He stood frozen in the middle of the hall, listening to the whoops and jeers from the jocks, shivering with cold and embarrassment.

Then hands were on him, pushing him into a toilet, shoving his head under a tap to wash the drink out of his face and hair. When he finally regained some sense he blinked through the water on face to see Rachel and Mercedes.

“What just happened?” he asked.

“Welcome to McKinley,” Rachel said bitterly. “Slushies, the jocks like to throw them at us lesser students.”

“Don’t know why I thought this place would be any different,” Blaine muttered.

“What?” Rachel asked. Blaine shook his head.

“Nothing,” he sighed. “Wait, am I in the girls bathroom?” he suddenly asked looking at the two girls in front of him. They both looked rather sheepish as Mercedes handed him a towel.

“Sorry,” she said, “but we ain’t setting foot in the boys.”  Blaine laughed and began to towel dry his damp curls.

Once he was dry-ish he followed the girls to the choir room. Two of the footballers were there, the one the Mohawk was strumming the guitar and the really tall one, Finn, Blaine remembered, was absently tapping out a beat on his knee.

Mohawk looked up as they entered the room let out a low whistle, taking in Blaine’s damp form.

“Got the traditional McKinley welcome then?” he asked. “You’ve now been inducted into loserdom.”

“Shut up Puck,” Mercedes snapped. Blaine made a mental note of the name, what kind of name was Puck anyway.

“You ok Dude?” Finn asked as Rachel bounced up to his side.

“Yeah, not the worst to happen to me,” Blaine commented.

Blaine took the chance, while he was in here on a break, to wander over to the trophy cabinet. Two sectionals, one regionals and one, very small, nationals trophy.

“You guys ranked twelfth at nationals?” he commented, impressed.

“Yes, sadly but we’ll win this year,” Rachel replied from behind him.

“Well we might have won last year if you and Finn hadn’t got you mack on on stage,” Mercedes commented walking up to stand beside Blaine. He raised an eyebrow because really? Mercedes shook her head with an eye-roll and began to point out which trophy was for what, despite the labels that could have told him.

Each trophy had a corresponding photo of a group of twelve or so teens in different outfits. Blaine looked at the first photo, the oldest, as Mercedes told him how glee club started. He scanned the faces, putting names to the ones he could.

“Wait,” he interrupted Mercedes. “Is that Kurt?” he asked pointed at the soft faced youth, with the wide grin, in the photo.

“Yes,” Mercedes replied sadly.

“He’s in glee?” Blaine was shocked because Kurt didn’t speak but he sang?

“He was,” Mercedes explained. She took his hand and led him to the chairs where the other sat. They’d all gone quiet.

“How do you do it?” Mercedes asked.

“Do what?” Blaine asked back, genuinely confused.

“Get him to talk to you.”

“He doesn’t, not physically anyway. Notes, texts, mostly just looks or gestures. I do most of the talking, he probably wants me to shut up.”

“You don’t understand do you?”

“What?”

“He was my best friend. I was the very first person he came out too. We shared everything. Now he won’t even look at me. I tried to get him too talk, then I tried to just be there but he pushed me away, he pushed everyone away,” Mercedes was close to tears. Rachel patted her knee and took over.

“Kurt has an amazing voice, not as good as mine of course,” three sets of eyes glared at her, she ignored them, “but it’s amazing. He can hit the high F in Defying Gravity.” Blaine was impressed. Finn frowned, looking confused,

“Didn’t he miss that note?”

“Yes on purpose,” Rachel replied, waving her hand dismissively when Finn looked like he was going to speak again.

“Have you ever seen a person just break?” Mercedes asked weepily. “Kurt was so strong and brave and fabulous,” she gave a weak laugh. “He was bullied, worse than most of us, because he was gay. His Mom died when he was just a little kid. His Dad raised him and they were close, really close.”

“Burt, his Dad, and my Mom were dating,” Finn took over. “Until our junior year when Burt died suddenly. Kurt just crumpled. That’s when he stopped talking. He stopped doing everything actually.

“He had no other close family, no one to take him in so my Mom did, I mean he would have been her step-son eventually. She managing to get him to eat properly and eventually get up and go to school again. He failed junior year though, he was sort of going through the motions but not actually trying.

“I think that gave him the kick he needed to try though, he’s repeating junior year. He never spoke again though, he closed off completely, pushed everyone away. Until you.

“Like Mercedes said, Kurt was strong, probably the strongest guy I know. I’m not proud of it but Puck and I, before glee club was around, we used to give him some crap and yet he could still be our friend. I think something else made him shut down, not just his losing his Dad, maybe that was kind of the tipping point, ya know?”

“It’s like he didn’t speak out of grief at first but for whatever reason he never found a reason to talk again,” Mercedes finished as Finn nodded along.

Blaine swiped at his damp cheeks, he’d never have guessed quite a tragic story for Kurt.

“I don’t know why?” he said by way of explanation. “He told me he was being selfish by being his friend, I think he’s scared he’ll lose more people. Maybe he just got too lonely and I turned up at the right time.”

“I just wish we could get our friend back,” Rachel sad sadly. “Maybe you can fix him.”

*

The conversation weighed heavily on Blaine throughout the rest of the day. He sat in his usual seat opposite Kurt at lunch. He didn’t look up or speak until he saw Kurt reach across the table and tap his tray. He looked at Kurt’s questioning face.

“What?” he asked, because he didn’t really know what Kurt was questioning. Kurt ran his finger across the collar of his shirt then pointed at Blaine and raised an eyebrow. Blaine looked down at his own stained shirt.

“Slushie,” he explained. Kurt rolled his eyes and made a go on gesture. “Some jocks slushied me at the beginning of my free period, Rachel and Mercedes saved me. Although that involved being dragged into the girls bathroom which was weird.”  Kurt shook his head slightly.

“I went to the choir room with them afterwards. Finn and Puck were there. You never said you’d been part of the club,” Blaine carried on tentatively, waiting to gauge Kurt’s reaction. Kurt was looking at Blaine steadily. He shrugged.

“They told me about you,” Blaine finished quietly. Kurt sighed and nodded. “Are you mad?” Blaine asked. Kurt shook his head.

“Kurt?” Blaine ventured again. Kurt nodded slightly, telling him to go on. “The glee club still cares. Your friends miss you.” Kurt looked down at his food in front of him. When he looked up, his eyes were filled with tears. “Oh Kurt,” Blaine whispered. Kurt rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and shook his head at Blaine. The topic was closed.

*

After school that day Blaine didn’t cycle home, instead he cycled to Eddie’s Diner. He locked his bike to a lamp post round the side before pushing his way inside.

“Blaine!” a voice boomed loudly. Blaine braced himself as Eddie walked towards him, the man was built like a barn door and he had a habit of slapping someone’s shoulder when he saw them. Blaine winced at the clap which he was pretty certain shook his bones. “Where you been?” Eddie asked. “Harri! He called out to the back.

“My new school’s been insanely busy,” Blaine answered as his mother appeared.

“Are you ever going to stop calling me that?” Harriet asked as she walked up to her son and boss.

“Nah, I like it,” Eddie said laughing. “Take a seat kid, I’ll get you a milkshake and some fries. Harri, take ten,” he finished as he walked off.

Blaine and his mother moved to an empty booth. Blaine shrugged his jacket off and Harriet gasped.

“Oh Blaine, when did it start again?” she asked sadly, looking at the blue stained shirt.

“Well today was the first time this happened. It’s not because I’m gay, just that I joined Glee. It happens to all of them,” Blaine explained with a shrug.

“Did you tell a teacher?”

“No, it was the football team and Mckinley only cares about its football and cheerleading squads.” Harriet reached over and took Blaine’s hands, squeezing it tightly.

“Oh my darling,” she whispered quietly, tears forming in her eyes.

“It’s ok Mom,” Blaine said, failing to hide the hitch in his voice, “it’s better than the last school. I have friends, the Glee club are amazing, the most mismatched group of people ever but they’re great and then there’s Kurt.” Blaine broke off and looked away.

“You like him?” Harriet asked. Blaine shrugged.

“I don’t know, I could I think but I don’t think he wants or needs that attention right now. Oh Mom, his story is tragic,” Blaine told him Mom what had been told to him that day. He should have felt guilty for sharing this without Kurt’s permission but he shared everything with his Mom.

“That poor boy,” Harriet sighed. Eddie walked over to them, placing a vanilla milkshake and a bowl of fries in front of Blaine and a coffee in front of Harriet. “Thank you Eddie.” Eddie looked over at Blaine and shook his head slightly.

“There’s a diner shirt that might fit you in my office, go change,” he said. Blaine smiled and quickly hurried into the back.

The diner office was tiny, it held a desk, a chair and a file cabinet. Blaine picked up one of the branded diner shirts that the cooks and male waiters wore. He tugged off his stained tee and pulled the clean blue one on, mentally thanking Eddie. Ever since he’d given Harriet a job he’d taken her and Blaine under his wing. Blaine glanced around the familiar office, a wedding photo caught his eye. It had always intrigued him because he could easily spot Eddie, standing next to the groom. Blaine could never understand why Eddie had a picture of someone else’s wedding. Tacked onto the glass the photo was in was another photo, a tiny school portrait of a little kid. Blaine shook his head and left to office, back to his mother.

*

Blaine took a deep breath, he was nervous. His plan, which had seemed so brilliant when he come up with it, had so much potential to backfire on him completely. He had been at Mckinley for two months and while the bullying was still there he now had friends to make it that much better. He loved Glee and his quiet lunches with Kurt.

While the topic of Kurt’s past had never come up again (Blaine hadn’t felt the need to divulge much of his own past either) the pair had become closer, finding many interests they had in common. Blaine had become very apt at reading Kurt’s expressions and gestures allowing an easy friendship to develop, although he had yet to see Kurt smile.

Giving himself one last mental pep-talk he knocked on the door in front of him. It was opened relatively quickly. Finn stood in front of him, with a games controller still his hand.

“Hey man,” he said, not surprised to see Blaine. Blaine had had to get the address off Finn but that wasn’t who he was here to see. Finn let him in and gave him directions. Blaine followed them and knocked on the plain wooden door.

He could hear shuffling inside the door opened to reveal a rather surprised Kurt.

“Hi, hey,” Blaine said, oh-so-smoothly. Kurt raised an eyebrow.

“So I bought a few movies and some sweets, I thought we could have a movie day,” Blaine answered the unspoken question. Kurt huffed in reply and stepped back to allow Blaine to enter the box of a room. It was tiny. There was barely space between the bed and the desk-come-vanity. Kurt quickly scribbled at note on a pad and passed it to Blaine.

Aren’t you meant to tell people when you plan things with them?

“Ah but then it wouldn’t be a surprise,” Blaine replied. “You aren’t busy are you? Have I majorly messed up?”

Kurt shook his head and grabbed his laptop before sitting back on his bed, wedged in the corner, and patted the space beside him. Blaine smiled and sat next to him and rummaging in his bag for the DVD’s.

“Ok so I have no idea what you’re in the mood for so I have The Lion King, The Sound of Music, Iron Man, The First Lord of the Rings and the original Footloose. You pick I don’t mind,” Blaine said, settling beside Kurt. He watched as Kurt looked at all of the films before gently picking up Lord of the Rings from where it lay on Blaine’s knee.

Blaine silently cheered that Kurt had picked the longest one as Kurt popped open the case and slid the disk into his laptop. Blaine cleared up the rejected DVD’s and pulled some bags of sweets out.

The next three and a bit hours were spent watching the movie and eating, or in Blaine’s case half watching Kurt, who had slid down slightly and gently rested his head on Blaine’s shoulder. When Enya started to sing the credits rolled Kurt sat up straight and stretched causing his back to crack before minimising the media player and pulling up a written document that looked like a half-finished essay. He pressed the enter key a couple of times then typed thank you.

“You’re more than welcome. Don’t forget you’re my first friend at Mckinley that makes you important and I want to spend time with you outside of school. We could maybe do this more often?” Blaine held his breath in anticipation of the answer. Almost immediately Kurt was nodding. His fingers flew over the key board once more. Will you at least tell me next time you make plans?

Blaine laughed.

“Of course but I have to go now,” Blaine said sadly as he shifted off the bed and gathered the wrappers in his hand, he moved to shove them in his bag before Kurt huffed and took them away from him, depositing them in the waste basket by his bed.

They walked to the door together; Kurt picked some keys off the table and jingled them.

“No, I’ve got my bike,” Blaine said in answer to the unspoken question. Kurt nodded and replaced the keys. When he looked back up at Blaine he bit his lip slightly before diving forward and lightly pressing his lips to Blaine’s cheek in a silent thank you. Blaine’s breath stuttered and for one wild second he considered chasing those lips for a proper kiss but that wouldn’t have been a good idea. Instead he patted Kurt’s shoulder and left, turning back to wave once he was on his bike before peddling away.