Sectionals were being held at Mckinley so Blaine cycled to the school in the morning for last minute rehearsals. Eventually the time for people to start arriving came and Blaine made his way to the front entrance to meet his Mom. Most of the other members of the New Directions were also waiting for their own family members to arrive.

“Check out the Cougar,” Puck muttered, Blaine ignored the comment, he was checking for messages on his phone, until Puck continued, “Why’s she with your Mom Dude?”

“I don’t know,” Finn muttered in reply and Blaine finally looked up to see Carol and his Mom side by side. Blaine coughed slightly when he finally realised who Puck was checking out.

“She is,” Puck started but Blaine spoke over him quickly.

“Shut up, please,” he said. “That’s my Mom.”

“Ooh I can see where you get your looks from,” Mercedes said.

“Erm thanks,” Blaine replied blushing slightly.

“She looks very young,” Quinn added. Blaine looked at her with one eyebrow raised.

“She is,” he said simply, silently daring Quinn to say anything.

“She must be an amazing woman to raise you,” Quinn replied and Blaine relaxed, a smile spreading over his face.

“She is,” he said again.

As Blaine turned back to his Mom and Carol the door behind them opened and Kurt stepped in, smiling at Carol who’d turned to check on him. The effect was almost instantaneous on the New Directions, they all stared slightly unbelieving at his presence there. Blaine walked towards the small group by the doors, Finn following slightly behind.

“Hi Mom,” Blaine replied hugging his Mom, then turning to hug Kurt.

“Break a leg honey,” Harriet replied, patting his cheek before she and Carol went into the auditorium to find their seats.

Blaine looked at Kurt but Kurt wasn’t looking back at him, instead his eyes were fixed on the Glee club, most of who were staring back at him. He bit his lip gently.

“They miss you too,” Blaine said, repeating words he’d said a few days before. None of the group had approached, fearing Kurt would run as he had done in the past. Kurt nodded and almost unconsciously tangled his fingers with Blaine’s holding them tightly.

“Come on,” Blaine whispered and led Kurt towards the group, Finn following behind them. Mercedes stepped away from the group to approach.

“Kurt?” she said softly when they were close enough. Kurt let Blaine’s hand slip out of his and he stood there, looking at Mercedes, tears collecting in his eyes and threatening to overflow. It felt like time stopped for a minute then Mercedes launched herself forward, grabbing Kurt in a tight hug. “I missed you,” she said into his shoulder. Kurt slowly brought his arms up around her, holding her tightly too him.

It was like permission for the rest of the group and suddenly Kurt was in the middle of a giant group hug. Blaine stood back, laughing slightly before Sam tugged him into the group and he joined. He could just see Kurt, a smile on face, wider than any Blaine had ever seen on his usually sombre face.

“Come on guys, we need to take our seats,” Mr Schuester called, coming up to the group. They parted and he saw Kurt in the middle. “Hi Kurt, it’s great you came to support us,” he said, a wide smile on his face and he reached forward to clap Kurt’s shoulder.

They parted as they walked into the auditorium, Kurt to find his seat with Carol and Harriet and the New Directions to the block of seating reserved for them. The New Directions were to preform last and Blaine sat through the first two groups becoming increasingly nervous. As the New Directions took to the back stage to prepare for their performance Blaine felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Pulling it out he smiled when he saw the text from Kurt.

Break a leg. All of you. x

Blaine passed his phone around, letting everyone see the good luck message. It had such a positive effect on the group that Blaine stored the pleased expressions on everyone’s faces in his mind, planning on telling Kurt about this later.

“I can’t believe you got him to come today,” Tina said with a smile passing the phone to Artie. Blaine just shrugged.

“I asked, he said yes.”

“You reckon you can make him like he used to be?” Santana asked. For some reason, however well-meaning she had meant it, the comment made Blaine angry.

“For a start I don’t want to make him be anything he doesn’t want to be and even if I did, I can’t because I don’t know how he used to be before. The person that he is now, that’s who I know, that’s who I love.” It took all of two seconds for Blaine to realise what he had just said out loud and how much he regretted saying it. The entire club was staring at him now and he knew it wasn’t because of the fierceness of his defence of Kurt.

“I mean as a friend of course,” he added lamely on the end. No one believed him.

“Of course you do,” Mercedes muttered but she was smiling happily.

Blaine was, mercifully, relieved of any interrogation he may have been about to receive by Mr Schue walking into the room. He called a show circle and everyone gathered in a group while he gave them a small motivational speech. Once he’d finished speaking Finn coughed to get everyone’s attention.

“Kurt’s in the audience, waiting to watch us win. I say we don’t let him down.” The group all cheered and Blaine was relatively sure he couldn’t drop the smile on his face if he tried.

Performing on a stage in front of the audience was exhilarating, Blaine could feel the adrenaline rush and it made him feel alive. He’d never thought much about a future career but this was something he could get used too.

The adrenaline was still running around his body even as he stood with the rest of New Directions waiting for the results. Tina was tightly clutching one of his hands and Mercedes clutched the other. He was sure they were cutting the circulation off but he couldn’t find it in himself to care as he rocked on his feet slightly waiting for the announcer to say who had won.

“New Directions!” It took a while for the win to sink in for Blaine as Mercedes threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. Finn was lifting the trophy up high and then Mercedes was gone and he had an armful of Rachel.

It was a blur of congratulations, hugs, back pats and kisses as the New Directions, high off their win, made their way off stage and back to the choir room. The trophy was immediately and reverently placed in the trophy cabinet and Mr Schue gathered everyone for a group photo.

The adrenaline stopped pumping through his veins and Blaine was suddenly exhausted as he and the rest of the boys moved to another class room to change back into their everyday clothes.

Blaine was the last of the boys to change; desperately trying to get his hair to lay flat again, so by the time he exited the classroom the corridor outside was empty. At least it was until Kurt rounded the corner, obviously coming to look for Blaine. Upon seeing his quarry a bright smile burst on his face and he ran forward, throwing his arms around Blaine excitedly in congratulations. Before Blaine could say anything Kurt pressed his lips to Blaine’s. It was just the simple press of closed lips on closed lips but it was amazing to Blaine. Then the soft pressure was gone and Kurt stood in front of Blaine, hunched slightly, eye’s wide with panic and one hand pressed to his mouth.

“Kurt?” Blaine said confused, reaching for him but Kurt just shook his head. “Kurt,” Blaine repeated moving to wrap his arms around him, this time Kurt turned and ran. Blaine watched him go back round the corner he’d appeared from, one arm still stretched towards him. He was frozen for a second, desperately trying to figure out what had happened. Then he realised he needed to find Kurt and he ran after him.

The next time he saw Kurt, the older boy was standing next to Carol, looking decidedly uncomfortable. He started towards him but he was intercepted by Harriet who threw her arms around him tightly.

“Congratulations Honey, you were amazing.”

“Thanks Mom,” Blaine replied trying to shrug her off but she wasn’t having it.

“What happened?” she asked. His Mom was far too perceptive.

“I don’t know, I need to talk to Kurt.”

“I don’t think he wants to talk, Sweetie, give him time.” Blaine slumped against him Mom, letting her support some of his weight, before nodding slowly. He had to tread carefully, he wasn’t about to lose Kurt over this. “Go join your friends,” Harriet added, gently shoving Blaine towards the group that was waiting for the last few girls to finish changing before they headed off the Breadstix to celebrate.

*

Blaine barely spoke the entire time they were at the restaurant but the noise levels of chatter in the group were so high no one seemed to notice. As they all bundled into cars afterwards Blaine stopped, he’d been about to go with Mike, who’d drove him to the restaurant but instead he turned to Finn.

“Hey, could I come to yours to see Kurt?” he asked. Finn shrugged.

“Sure.” It wasn’t uncommon for Blaine to end up at his house so Finn didn’t see anything out of the ordinary with it. Blaine couldn’t leave things as they were, he’d never sleep and wasn’t too sure Kurt would either.

After dropping Rachel and Sam home Finn drove them back to his. Carol looked almost relieved to see Blaine. She hugged him warmly.

“I’m so glad you’re here, Kurt’s been back to how he was before he met you, since the show.”

“Is he upstairs?”

“Yes, go on up.”

Blaine knocked on Kurt’s door and waited patiently for Kurt to open it, Kurt’s eyes widened in panic when he saw who stood before him.

“Calm down please,” Blaine begged stepping in and shutting the door behind them. “We need to talk,” Blaine added. Kurt nodded his head but he looked like he was about to cry and Blaine suddenly realised that ‘we need to talk’ never indicated good things.

“No wait, I didn’t mean in a bad way,” he added, babbling slightly, desperate to get that heartbroken look of Kurt’s face. “Why’d you kiss me?” he asked, deciding to jump straight to the point. Kurt sighed and pulled out his notebook before beginning to write.

I don’t know, I didn’t think about it, I just did it.

“So it didn’t mean anything?” Blaine asked, his heart breaking.

It meant I’m more comfortable with you than anyone. It meant that you were amazing tonight and I was so proud of you. It meant, means, that I really like you Blaine but that scares the hell out of me. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable and really, you’re my best friend Blaine and losing you is not something I think I can handle. So let’s forget it happened, let’s just go back to being friends.

“What if I don’t want to go back to being friends?” Blaine asked. Kurt let out a little sob and tears began to flow down his cheeks. “No, no, no,” Blaine said quickly, catching his face and wiping tears from his cheeks. “I didn’t mean like that. I am so bad at this.” He took a deep breath still holding Kurt’s face, forcing the older boy to look him in the eye. “I really like you too,” he said and watched Kurt’s heartbroken face morph into confusion.

“Kurt Hummel, you are singularly the most amazing, intelligent, kind, handsome person I have ever met and your feelings are most definitely reciprocated.” Kurt’s beautifully expressive face now softened to a gently smile and Blaine couldn’t help himself as he leant his forehead against Kurt’s. “Now please may I kiss you, because I have been dying too for an embarrassingly long amount of time?” Kurt’s nod was nothing if not enthusiastic.

Finally, finally, Blaine pressed his mouth to Kurt’s and kissed him properly. Sweetly and chastely but oh so perfectly. It wasn’t exactly passionate, or spectacular. There were no fireworks or cacophonies playing in Blaine’s head. It was gentle and soft and two boys with no experience and a whole lot of barely spoken feelings, showing each other they cared.

Blaine sighed softly as they pulled apart, back to resting their foreheads against each other. He smiled carefully brushed his thumb against Kurt’s bottom lip.

“Perfect,” he said quietly before quickly pressing his lips to Kurt’s one more time and then wrapping his arms around the other boy.