As it turned out, Kurt did get friendlier, or at least he didn’t have nearly as many reservations about talking to Blaine. He’d been there when Santana first pronounced Blaine her boyfriend. Maybe Blaine going after her so quickly had helped, or maybe it was the fact that Santana had been waiting for him in the parking lot the next morning so they could walk in together, hand in hand.

It felt strange to hold Santana’s hand, mostly because it was nothing like Kurt’s. He’d held Kurt’s hand so many times: walking with him up the stairs to his room at Dalton, laying there on his bed, sneaking him back out after hours. He wasn't sure if having those memories run through his head while his fingers were laced with Santana's was helpful or just made things worse.

“Hi.” Blaine glanced up from his locker as he worked at putting the combination in. Kurt was standing there, so close, his gaze flickering back and forth between him and Santana. She let go of his hand, leaning up and brushing a kiss against his cheek with an annoyingly smug ‘told you so’ whispered in his ear before she stepped away under the pretense of getting a drink of water.

“Hi,” he replied, finally getting the door to his locker open.

“So, Santana?” Kurt raised an eyebrow, but there wasn’t anything challenging about his tone. It seemed more like curiosity – seeking a confirmation.

“Santana,” Blaine said with a nod, pulling out the books he needed and nudging the door shut. “What, are you surprised or something? I’m highly marketable. Ladies love me.” It wasn’t exactly a lie; any time they’d had mixers at Dalton with their sister school, Crawford, he’d had to disappoint a lot of girls – which would almost be an ego boost if he hadn’t felt so bad about it.

“Clearly,” Kurt said with a light snerk of laughter. Blaine couldn’t help but smile, because there was a hint of the Kurt that he knew.

“So are you actually going to talk to me now?” he asked quietly, glancing over at him. “I mean, I understood – knew why you weren’t before. I might not have liked it, but I got it. But…”

“I want to,” Kurt replied, his voice practically a whisper as he fidgeted with the hem of his t-shirt. “I—” He broke off as Brittany came up behind him and her arms slipped around his waist, her chin tucked up onto his shoulder. “Brit, Blaine and I were talking.”

“But I like talking to Blaine too,” she said, her brow furrowing.

“I really like talking to Blaine,” Santana practically purred as she sidled up next to him, her arm slipping through his. He closed his eyes for a moment, wishing they would go away. For the first time in weeks he’d actually felt like he was going to get somewhere with Kurt, but no, as usual it wasn’t going to work. He managed not to jump away in surprise when he felt Santana’s hand run across his chest, and he opened his eyes to look at her. She quirked an eyebrow in response.

“Well, Blaine needs to get to class,” he said, taking a step back from them all.

Santana walked with him down the hall, since they were headed to the same part of the building. He wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to do it, if that was how the first morning had gone – not even the whole morning, just the start of it. Maybe it would get easier, and it had gotten Kurt to talk to him, and it wasn’t like he was going to back out of it.

As it turned out, being Santana’s fake boyfriend meant that he got a lot of random physical affection. It wasn’t something he was used to, especially not out in the halls of the school. Dalton had been different, and with Kurt it had always been behind closed doors. With the] few boys he’d dated, there had been light touches or hand holds every once and a while but not much. He wasn’t against it, just didn’t always feel comfortable with it considering what had happened the first time he’d dared to do anything in public with a boy.

But it was Santana, and that made it different. There was no threat of people glaring, hurling insults, throwing punches just because they were holding hands. He kind of understood why Kurt liked having Brittany around – it was almost reassuring to have someone to be able to hold on to. It wasn’t much different than how they had been before, walking along, talking, eating lunch together, just more touching. A whole lot more touching – almost all of which was initiated by her and not him.

“You’re making me feel clingy,” she commented as they made their way to glee club at the end of the day. “It wouldn’t kill you to try a little.”

“I keep thinking that you’ll slap me or something,” Blaine said, holding his hands up defensively. “I don’t know why, I just have this vision of pain.” It was partially true, but also that he just plain wasn’t used to the openness of it all.

“How about we make a deal,” Santana said, a glint in her eyes as she looked over at him. “You don’t have to worry about me slapping you unless you grab my tits.”

“Oh my God.”

“And since we know there’s absolutely no way you would ever do something that stupid, because you don’t have a death wish, I think we’re good.”

“Yeah, we definitely don’t have anything to worry about,” Blaine said, shaking his head as they walked into the choir room. He reached for her hand and tugged her over to what had become their regular seats. Kurt watched them as they crossed the room, and their eyes met for a split second. Blaine couldn’t help but smile a little as he settled in beside Santana.

He couldn’t get over how disorganized the glee club remained. Mr. Schuester occasionally came up with ideas but mostly it was Rachel deciding the songs of the week and what should happen – and no one seemed to think to question her. It was such a far cry from anything Blaine was used to, and it kind of drove him nuts. The Warblers had a council, sure, but they were still a team. They worked together to make decisions, choose music, everything.

Maybe it was because he missed Dalton, missed all his friends, felt so bizarre because of the whole development with Santana, but he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Mr. Schue?” he asked, raising his hand toward the end of the rehearsal. “I know that I’m new here, but I was in a group at my old school and we did things a little differently…”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, in almost every way, but I think there’s something to be said about doing at least one number a cappella,” he continued, not even reacting when Santana’s arm slid around the back of his chair. “Not that we don’t have an amazing band or anything,” he added quickly, glancing over at them. “Seriously, you guys are great, but it really shows you what a group is made of when they can hold their own without instruments backing them up.”

“We’ve never done an a cappella number,” Mr. Schue mused, his head tilting as he considered it.

“Mr. Schue, I have to protest,” Rachel interjected. “There’s no way that doing a number a cappella will give us the power and emotional meaning that we get when we have the band backing us up.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised,” Blaine said before he could stop himself, and Santana’s hand gripped onto his shoulder. He looked over at her and she was smirking. Rachel looked appalled.

“Blaine, I know that you’re new here and all but we have a very specific sound…”

“I’m not saying to change it completely,” he said, shrugging. “I’m just saying it couldn’t hurt to give something new a try just once, and also that you can get plenty of power with just voices alone. If it’s alright with everyone, I’m pretty sure I could get the Warblers to come over here for a performance after school one day to show you what I mean. Besides, it’ll give you a chance to get a look at what could be your competition…”

“No one has football or Cheerios practice on Fridays,” Kurt offered helpfully, anticipating the next block that was going to be thrown out as a reason against his idea. Blaine shot a grateful look back toward him and got a smile in return. 

“Well if they’re up for it, I see no reason why it wouldn’t be a good idea to get some perspective on what other people are doing, even if we don’t decide to adopt the style for ourselves,” Mr. Schue said, the last part said with a look sent Rachel’s way. She seemed pacified by it. “You’ll have to let us know, so we can make sure to have everyone here.”

“Oh, they’ll definitely be up for it.”

It was the first time Blaine had been back to Dalton since moving out, and it felt so much like home that he couldn’t help wandering around the grounds a while before making his way to the Warblers' practice. He’d texted Wes to make sure they were still held at the same time, same place, and he’d forgone his usual trip to the locker room after school to make it there. He didn’t feel the need to box when he was so excited about seeing his friends.

He stopped outside the room, letting the familiar space and environment wash over him – it was almost calming. It was crazy how different a building, a room, could make him feel. McKinley was so crazed and hectic, and Dalton was reassurance and comfort. He hated how much he found himself wishing he could get back to it.

“Excuse me, but I believe you’re missing something.” Blaine turned around, his face brightening when he saw Wes standing there. “Your blazer, for one…”

“I came straight from school, and for some reason they don’t require me to wear it there,” he replied, pulling his former roommate into a tight hug.  He took a step back and grinned at him. “Cutting it a little close, aren’t you?”

“Well, I was alerted to some spy from a nearby high school skulking around the grounds, so I figured I should come check things out,” Wes said, sliding his hands into his pockets. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“I have a proposition for you,” Blaine said, trailing after him into the all too familiar room.

“You waited until after you weren’t living with him anymore to proposition him?” Jeff asked as he came up beside Blaine, slinging his arm around his shoulders. “That’s bad timing, my friend.”

Blaine didn’t have a chance to respond, just to take in the glare Wes shot Jeff’s way, as the majority of the Warblers came over to say hello. There were a few new faces, but for the most part they were all the friends he’d had with him over his time at Dalton. Being there in that room with them, Blaine felt like he belonged. It was the feeling he had yet to have at McKinley. He couldn’t even help grinning when Wes started banging his gavel to bring them all to order.

“As you have all clearly noticed,” he said, somewhat dryly, “we’ve had a Warbler return into our midst. Newcomers, this is Blaine, he was with us until the beginning of this year.”

“I promise I’m not here to interrupt your rehearsal,” Blaine said, offering Wes an apologetic look. “I just had a performance opportunity to extend to you.” He paused, waiting for a nod from the council before he continued. “I go to McKinley High now, and their glee club could use a little Warbler-fication, so to speak. I’ve gotten a bit of resistance to my suggestion of a foray into the realm of a cappella, and was told that there was no way it could be as emotional or powerful as a song with an instrumental backup.”

There was a murmur around the room, and he held his hands up to silence it before Wes had the chance to reprimand them. “I know. Believe me, I know. That’s why I’m here, because I think if you all came and showed them how things are done here at Dalton, they wouldn’t be able to make such misinformed statements.”

“I assume you already factored in that we can’t go during school hours?” Wes asked.

“Of course. A majority of our glee club,” he said, and it felt weird to be referring to a group other than the Warblers as the group he belonged to, “is very involved in fall athletics, but there are no practices on Fridays. If there was any way for you to come right after school on a Friday, that would be perfect.”

“Let’s take a vote. All in favor of going to McKinley to show them what we’re made of?” Every single person in the room raised their hand, and Blaine felt an overabundance of pride swell up inside of him. “That settles it then. There’s just one little matter involved with that, though.”

“What’s that?” he asked, his brow furrowing as he looked over at Wes.

“We haven’t exactly been under any sort of pressure to have songs performance ready,” Wes explained. “So either we’ll need a bit of time, or we could perform songs from last year—”

“Songs from last year work,” Blaine said with a shrug.

“—for which we’re going to need to borrow our soloist from McKinley,” Wes finished smoothly, looking at him evenly.

Blaine stared at him, trying to ignore the overwhelming silence in the room. It was like everyone had taken in a breath all at once and nothing was moving. “Well, I don’t know,” he started, rubbing the back of his neck. “I heard that guy kind of turned into a jerk once he hit the public school scene. He never visits, rarely calls…”

“I think we’ll forgive him for that,” Nick piped up, clapping a hand onto his shoulder. “Once a Warbler, always a Warbler, right?”

“Right,” Wes agreed, his eye still fixed on him.

“Well, if that’s alright with everyone else, I’d love to sing with you guys again.”

Singing with the Warblers again was enough to make everything that had been happening at McKinley fade away. There wasn’t any of the drama with Kurt, the fake relationship with Santana – just Blaine getting to be with his friends and do what they loved to do. It was what he had been hoping it would be like with the New Directions, but he knew that was a very new aspect of his life and it wasn’t going to come easily. He wanted to take in the moment and keep it fresh in his mind.

There were plenty of songs to choose from, but they wanted to make sure they picked the right ones – the ones that would prove their point. Considering they were using songs they’d performed so many times before, they didn’t even need that much rehearsal time. All it took was every afternoon after school that week – Blaine went without boxing for the good of the cause, and that he didn’t feel much like doing it when he got to be around his friends – and they were ready to do it that following Friday.

It was all he could think about all week, and each rehearsal made him that much more excited. There were some nerves, because clearly people were wary of what he was trying to do, but he couldn’t help looking forward to a performance with his friends. That was his comfort zone, and he was thrilled to get to spend some time there again. Not that he had told anyone at McKinley that he was going to be singing with the Warblers – not even Santana. Kurt had mentioned that he was looking forward to it, since he’d never heard the Warblers all together and he was sure that Youtube didn’t do them justice, though he had seen their rendition of “Teenage Dream” and thought that Blaine had done an amazing job.

Which he had said with the most unfair hint of a smile tugging at his lips, and what could have almost been mistaken for a wink if Blaine had been willing to let himself believe it.

“Your boys are performing out in the courtyard, right?” Santana asked as she leaned against the lockers next to his after the last bell. “A little serenading out amongst the masses?”

“Yeah, the courtyard,” he agreed absently, grabbing his bag and slipping it over his shoulder before shutting the door and turning to her. “Ready?”

“Are you?”

“Of course,” he said, not hesitating in the least. She linked arms with him and walked down the hall, out to the stairs and courtyard that had always seemed so out of place but was perfect for what they were about to do. The rest of the New Directions were already there, scattered along the stairs and around the tables, waiting. He knew they wouldn’t have to wait long – the last period at Dalton ended sooner than at McKinley - but still he couldn’t wait to see his friends.

It was bizarre to see the brethren of boys in blazers appear at the top of the stairs, looking so proper and completely out of place as they walked most of the way down.  The stairs gave some semblance of a stage, and they were there to perform, after all.

“New Directions?” Wes spoke up, and Blaine couldn’t fight off a grin. “Our friend Blaine told us that you needed a little persuading into the world of a cappella music, and we’re more than happy to give you some examples of just how great it can be.” Blaine thought he heard a ‘hmph’ from Rachel, but he didn’t care because he knew they were going to prove her wrong. The Warblers started chiming in with the soft chords and Blaine smiled to himself as he started singing.

“Hey…”

Santana startled a little next to him as he got up, giving her a little wink as the Warblers echoed back to him and he moved to join them where they were. They hit their bell tones perfectly and he stood right in the middle beside Wes as they started in on "Hey, Soul Sister.”

Their choreography might have been simple and not very well practiced, but that was hardly the point. Blaine loved the opportunity to connect with an audience – especially one where he felt like he had something to prove. That was why he sang so much of the first song looking directly at Rachel, though he could see everyone else’s reactions around her as well.

Santana looked amused, but then again she’d fully admitted to watching a lot of the Warbler videos before she approached him to join the glee club. Not all of their stuff was out there on the internet, but "Hey, Soul Sister" was, since it was something they’d done at competitions. Kurt was staring, and Blaine could feel his gaze even though he wasn’t looking to see it. Brittany was mimicking their dance steps from her seat right beside Kurt, oblivious to her boyfriend’s fixation. Everyone else seemed stuck somewhere between wanting to sing along and being a little shocked.

That was right where they wanted them – caught slightly off guard but still getting pulled in.

“Bright, bright, turn off the lights, we gonna lose our minds tonight…”

Blaine felt completely in his element when they launched into "Raise Your Glass.” There was a substantial group forming aside from the New Directions: students who had been lingering after school or who had been leaving and heard something going on and came to see what it was. Apparently, a group of prep school boys singing Pink was quite the sight, based on number of cell phones that were being pulled out to take pictures and video.

Rachel certainly couldn’t keep up her arguments against them, considering how Brittany had managed to get her to dance along a little, and the way she her face kept breaking into a smile. That might have been Jeff’s doing - he kept making faces at her every time they hit ‘dirty little freaks.’ Adrenaline carried the song, and it was probably a little faster than it should have been but that didn’t matter. They drew in more of a crowd as the song continued, and Blaine’s glance flickered around them as they moved through the last chorus.

It was an interesting mix, a little bit of everything. About half the football team was there, most of the Cheerios, but then again they were all the people who were used to staying after school and had probably been hanging back out of habit. There were also a good number of people he recognized from different classes, or from the cafeteria whenever he and Santana actually ate at the school. Most surprising was that there were several teachers. There was a smattering of applause when the song ended, and Blaine bit back a smile as the Warblers sang the opening chords of their last song.

“Vum vum vum vummmmm….”

“This last song,” he said, fighting to keep his gaze from wandering to Kurt as he spoke, “goes out to a special someone.” Santana owed him, big time, she just didn’t know it.

“Vum vum vum vummmmm…vadava vum”

“Baby girl, where ya at, got no strings, got men attached,” Blaine started, hopping down from the stairs and slowly sauntering over until he was right in front of Santana. The rest of the Warblers weren’t far behind him, making their way over to the New Directions to sing more directly to them than they had been. Santana’s eyes were wide, as were everyone else’s, and that was exactly what they’d been going for.

They'd never performed "When I Get You Alone" at any kind of real function. It had been a trial song that they’d done for the glee club from their sister school, Crawford, to great success. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen a group of more flustered looking people ever in his life than he had that day – until they were right there in front of the gathered students and faculty of McKinley and there were so many blush-tinted cheeks in the crowd.

He couldn’t look at Kurt. When they’d been going through the song choices at Dalton, when he’d suggested that they do that particular one, Blaine knew he was only choosing it because of him. It was just too perfect, too fitting for everything that had and was was still going on between them. He couldn’t show it, couldn’t look at him, because that would have been too telling. So he settled on Santana, whose jaw was slightly open as she watched him sing to – flirt with – her. And that was the thing, because Blaine was so in love with performing and got really into it, and was so focused on the words being for Kurt and trying to sing it in a way that Kurt would get that, he definitely was selling it.

He let himself steal a glance toward everyone else, seeing how each of the Warblers had picked out either someone in the New Directions to sing right to – or someone in the crowd nearby – all girls, except for Jeff, who seemed to think it would be fun to sing to Puck. If anything would have made him break the performance and start laughing, it would have been that, because Puck was just staring up Jeff like he’d suddenly grown a second head that was singing right along. Jeff was unphased, and clearly having the time of his life.

They hit the last chord, the last ‘vadavavum,’ and he pulled away from Santana, stepping back with the rest of the Warblers as they lined up and took a little bow. There was applause, more than a few catcalls, and Wes nudged Blaine mid-bow and raised an eyebrow when he looked over. The eyebrow raise was partially a question of whether he thought it was a success, but mostly what-the-hell-is-going-on as he followed up with a look to Santana and then back to Blaine again.

“Later,” Blaine mouthed, wrinkling his nose and rolling his eyes. He really should have warned at least Wes, but he hadn’t wanted to get into any of it. Of course it would have been assumed that he picked the song for Kurt – because he had. There was just no way he could have sung it to him legitimately. They straightened back up and Santana was immediately there, arms slipped around him and mouth pressed up close against his ear.

“You are the best fake boyfriend ever,” she whispered, and he returned her hug automatically, fingers splayed out against the stiff fabric of her cheerleading uniform as he glanced over her shoulder and saw the amount of people watching them. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d actually think you’d want to get all up on this.”