“Mrs North assigned us homework if you remember? And I don’t know that much about ancient Egyptian politics and how it linked in with their Gods.” Kurt muttered while scanning the book titles quickly. Moving from each row to the next.

“Oh yeah…that. Oops. It’s not due in, like, a week though.” Blaine dismissed it but made a mental note to get David to help him later in the week. Kurt made a triumphant noise, plucked a book from the bottom shelf and made his way to the table next to the window as usual.
Blaine followed him sitting down on the opposite chair.

“So I was wondering…” Blaine said before clearing his throat “If you would like to come to War-”

“That didn’t end well last time.” Kurt cut in.

“We told Jake he was wrong. He promised he wouldn’t make judgements or jump to conclusions.” Blaine tried to look Kurt in the eye but the other boy was working his way through the book and taking notes.

“Why do even want me there?” Kurt looked up.

Blaine was stunned. The pure confusion in Kurt’s eyes was just heart wrenching. How could this wonderful boy not realise that people wanted his company? Whatever he had been through Blaine was going to help him overcome it. He had the boys from the Warblers to help him now it was his turn to help Kurt. He leaned across the table and took Kurt’s hand.

“We want you there because…” He took a deep breath “You’re a wonderful person Kurt, and if you were to join the Warblers or at least sit in on our sessions we could see you more. We could…spend more time with you and become closer friends-”

“I’m your friend?” Kurt interrupted again.

“Of course I’m your friend and so are Nick, Jeff, David and Wes.” Blaine really did not understand how Kurt didn’t believe they were his friends.

“I think I’m going to finish my homework in my room.” Kurt quickly packed up his things and left before Blaine could say another word.

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To say Kurt was in a panic would be an understatement. He didn’t understand why Blaine liked him and he still didn’t understand how this was a school with no bullying. He did feel a little bad about leaving Blaine like that in the library but after that maybe Blaine would realise that Kurt wasn’t good. Maybe he would forget about him. The ring of his phone cut through his thoughts.

“Hello?”

“Hey Kiddo, how’re you?” His Dads voice through his phone managed to relax him. He perched on the end of his bed and picked at his quilt.

“I’m okay. I’ve told you not to worry about me. How’re you and Carole? What about Finn?” Kurt asked.

“We’re just fine. Great actually. Carole got a promotion at work so she has better hours. Which means we’ve been able to do more things in the evening. Next time you come home we’ll go out for dinner. All of us.”

“That sounds great Dad. I can’t wait.” Ever since his Dad had found out about the bullying he had tried to bridge the gap that had appeared since Kurt had started high
school. He appreciated it but it just felt strange.

------------------------------

Blaine joined the conversation half way through again.
“And then the Doctor-oh hey Blaine.” A chipper English accent greeted him.

“Hey Tom. I didn’t know you were back. How’s your brother?” Blaine asked sitting next to the fair haired boy.

“The twat’s okay. He only thought that he could spin a football while he tried to flip. When he woke up I told him he was stupid for thinking he could combine three different footballers’ trademarks into one big move.” Tom shrugged and took another huge bite of his pizza.

“Wow. What damage did he do?” Blaine had only met Toms brother once and he never thought he was this much trouble. Tom always reported back to the Warblers the different antics and injuries his brother obtained.

“Not much.” The other boy talked behind his hand. Mouth still full of pizza. “A couple of stitches to the back of the head and a broken leg. It was the broken rib that worried everyone. I still think setting himself on fire was the best one or maybe when he got the nail through his finger…” The boys surrounding Tom all chuckled.

“On second thought I think him being attacked by that bird when he opened the shed door was the best. I told you guys about that right? He had to get stitches for his ear!” Tom set off onto another story about his brother as Blaine moved on to sit next to Nick and Jeff.

“Any news to report?” Nick asked once Blaine had sat down.

“Not much really. I talked to Kurt again. It was weird.”
Nick and Jeff both looked puzzled.

“What do you mean by weird? I know Kurt’s quiet but when I talked to him he seemed normal.” Jeff said around a mouth full of pasta.

“Jeff, honey, finish your food before you talk. What do you mean Blaine?” Nick had only had one small interaction with Kurt. He could understand that something had happened to him but he didn’t think ‘weird’ would cover it.

“He didn’t seem to understand that we were his friends. I had to explain to him why I liked him. It was almost like he had never had real friends before. That or friends that he didn’t think cared about him.”

“We’ll just have to show him.” Jeff suggested.

“We’ve been doing that. We’ve been trying to talk to him and invite him places but he just doesn’t seem to understand that we really mean it.” Blaine said while stabbing angrily at his pasta.

“No. He just doesn’t trust us yet. We have to show him he can trust us.”

“What are you trying to get at Jeff?”

“Who has Pavarotti?”