If the saying "You learn through your mistakes" is true, Finn Hudson is pretty sure he's learned a lot in his somewhat short life.

Things like not putting your wet jacket in the oven to dry it, or like remembering to take the plastic covering off the bag of microwaveable popcorn before microwaving it.

That Ke$ha doesn't really brush her teeth with a bottle of Jack, and that you shouldn't either.

That putting Kurt's new white sweater in with his own red boxers will cause the sweater to turn an appalling shade of pink that even Rachel Berry wouldn't wear.

That he should never ever ask Kurt if he's PMSing - firstly because Kurt's very much a guy, and secondly, because it makes his bad mood ten times worse.

That a grilled cheese sandwich can't really answer your prayers, even if it has the face of Jesus on it.

And if he thinks about it, Finn is pretty sure he's learned enough to write a short book. But that takes way too much work, so he settles for the next best thing - a list of all his lessons; a survival guide, so to speak. And since he likes to think of himself as a kind and caring person, he'll use this list to dole out advice. Because sharing is caring.

---

"I can't believe summer's over," Finn groans, dropping onto the couch beside Blaine, barely looking at the movie they're watching.

"Technically," Kurt says, continuing to trace hearts onto Blaine's arm with his finger without looking away from the screen, "the last day of summer is near the end of September."

Finn rolls his eyes and grabs a handful of popcorn . "You know what I mean, dude. And everyone would agree that summer ends as soon as school starts. Because summer is fun, and school is not."

Blaine shrugs. "I dunno... I think I'm kind of looking forward to the first day of school this year..."

"Really?" Kurt raises an eyebrow. "You're not nervous at all?"

"Not really," Blaine replies, shrugging again. "Should I be?"

Kurt doesn't answer. Instead, he picks up the now-empty (courtesy of Finn) bowl of popcorn and says "I'll go refill this."

Blaine turns to Finn, eyes wide. "Should I be scared?"

"Kurt almost killed me the last time I wore plaid. Just make sure you ask him what to wear. And don't call anything weird," Finn advises. "But other than that, not really." Okay, so maybe he's not being completely honest, but the jocks at McKinley can smell fear from a mile away, and he doesn't want them to have the upper hand. And anyways, going against Kurt's idea of what's fashionable is asking for a death sentence.

{Little Life Lesson #166: Do listen to Kurt's fashion advice, even if you think his clothes are weird.}
{Little Life Lesson #167: Don't tell Kurt you think his clothes are weird.}
---

Kurt wakes him up at 6 a.m. to get ready for school. Half of Finn wants to ignore Kurt in favor of going back to sleep, but the other half (the "I am the most awesome brother in the world" half) knows that even though he acts confident, Kurt really is nervous about his first day back at McKinley. So he pulls himself out of bed, muttering that Kurt totally owes him one, bro.

Kurt totally makes it up to him by letting him eat the rest of the Count Chocula cereal at breakfast. Finn is so into the chocolatey goodness that he almost doesn't notice that Kurt hasn't eaten anything.

"Dude, don't you think you should eat something?" he asks around a mouthful of cereal. "You don't wanna like... pass out or something on your first day."

"I'm getting coffee with Blaine. I think." Kurt frowns slightly. "I'm waiting for him to text back."

Finn makes a face. "I hate coffee."

"I know," grins Kurt. "Hence the Cocoa Puffs."

"Count Chocula," Finn corrects. "And you'd hate coffee too, if Puck spiked yours with black pepper."

{Little Life Lesson #32: Don't eat or drink anything Puck gives you.}
Kurt's about to say something, but then his phone buzzes. "Blaine says that he'd love to get coffee. I'll text him and tell him that we'll be there in 15. Eat quickly."

Finn shovels the cereal into his mouth as fast as humanly possible. Because he remembers how Kurt once left him to trudge to school in the rain because he was late to Cheerios practice.

{Little Life Lesson #153: Don't test Kurt Hummel's patience.}
---

Finn stares at the giant behemoth of a house as they pull into its driveway. "Holy shit, Kurt. How does Blaine not get lost in there?"

"There are signs posted on the walls," Kurt says seriously.

"Really?!" That is so cool. He thinks their house should have directions on the walls, even though he hasn't gotten lost in it yet.

"No, Finn," Kurt sighs, rolling his eyes. "I was--"

"--being sarcastic," Finn finishes. "Right. I forgot."

{Little Life Lesson #148: Kurt likes sarcasm. A lot.}
"And also," he adds, trying to salvage some dignity, "you've got a really good pork face."

Kurt just stares at him. "I really hope, for your own sake, you meant poker face."

"Of course," Finn says hurriedly. "Now go call your boyfriend."

Kurt narrows his eyes before stepping out of the car and making his way over to the door of the castle-slash-house. The door flies open and a girl throws her arms around Kurt. That must be Blaine's aunt, Finn reasons as Blaine pries her away from his boyfriend. Kurt laughs and grabs Blaine's hand, waving at the latter's aunt as they make their way towards the car.

"Backseat, Finn," Kurt says when he reaches the car. "Please," he adds as an afterthought. Finn grumbles and steps out of the car.

"Hi, Finn," Blaine says cheerfully.

"Hey," Finn says as he slides into the backseat, trying to stretch his legs as much as possible. "Nervous yet?"

"Just a bit," Blaine replies.

Kurt smiles at him and squeezes his hand. "You'll be fine," he says reassuringly. "I'm so glad you ditched the hair gel," he adds with a grin, pushing a stray curl of hair away from Blaine's face.

Blaine rolls his eyes. "You get to touch my hair, but I don't get to touch yours. How is this fair?"

"It's not. But I'll buy you coffee to make up for it," Kurt replies, nudging Blaine. "Come on." They pull into the practically deserted parking lot of the coffee shop.

"I'll stay in the car," Finn says. "You two get your coffee."

Because Finn is an awesome bro, and he knows that Kurt probably wants to be alone with Blaine for a bit before school starts, he lags behind.

{Little Life Lesson #174: Sometimes you need to give people time alone.}
(Also, he doesn't feel like getting up, especially since he hates coffee to begin with.)

---

Blaine and Kurt come out of the coffee shop with their arms linked, and coffees in hand. They make a cute couple, Finn muses as Blaine laughs at something Kurt says. It's too bad McKinley won't see it that way. For a moment, Finn wonders if Blaine and Kurt will act all couple-like at school. He knows for a fact that they like holding hands, because they've been doing so all morning. He's glad Karofsky won't be here this year.

When they reach the school, they've got about 20 minutes until the first bell.

"You really don't have to do this, Blaine," Kurt tells him (for the ninety-sixth time -- Finn's been counting).

"I know," Blaine replies patiently. "But I want to. And I'll be fine. We'll be fine," he adds, holding up their linked hands.

Kurt smiles. "Oh Blaine, you poor misguided optimist," he says, pressing their lips together.

"Okay!" Finn exclaims brightly after a few seconds. "Let's go!"

{Little Life Lesson #238: Interrupt Kurt when he's kissing Blaine, because the shirts tend to come off pretty quickly.}
Kurt pulls away from Blaine, nods and squeezes Blaine's hand. "We can do this," Blaine reminds him.

"Of course," Kurt says haughtily as he fixes his hair. "I'm Kurt Hummel."

---

Blaine is in Finn's homeroom class, which means their lockers are relatively close. Kurt manages to wheedle him into switching lockers with him ("Come on, Finn. Do you really want to walk all the way upstairs? And my locker is right beside Rachel's.")

{Little Life Lesson #126: Don't bother arguing with Kurt Hummel -- you'll always lose.}
But Kurt's in a really good mood - he has chem with Finn; French and history with Blaine. As they walk out of their chem class on their way to lunch, Kurt's laughing about Mr. Dwight's ridiculous toupee and Finn thinks that this day is going pretty well, considering it's McKinley. But then they round the corner just in time to hear a jock yell "Welcome to McKinley, new kid!" and see a grape slushie hit Blaine in the face.

{Little Life Lesson #14: Beware of the jinx.}
The way the smile falls off Kurt's face would be funny if Blaine wasn't standing there, dripping with purple ice. Finn hears Kurt mutter "fucking bastard" as they make their way towards Blaine.

"Dude, are you okay?"

Blaine doesn't have a chance to respond to that, because Kurt is dragging them both into the bathroom.

"Blaine? Come on, let's wash your hair." Kurt pulls Blaine towards the sink and turns the tap on. "Finn," he says tersely, "I need you to bring me the black bag in my locker. Please."

Finn nods. It probably has a towel and stuff.

{Little Life Lesson #160: Always carry extra clothes in your locker.}
He tries to get back to the washroom as soon as possible. When he gets there, Kurt's hugging Blaine tightly, seemingly oblivious to the dampness from Blaine's hair seeping into his shirt.

"I'm so sorry... That stupid little bitch, just wait till he sees what I'm gonna do to his car. Stupid Strando."

"Hey, that's alliteration," Blaine jokes weakly, pulling away.

"Oh god, Blaine," Kurt says incredulously with a startled laugh. He pulls Blaine back into a hug, pressing a kiss to his hair.

Finn clears his throat awkwardly and they pull apart quickly.

"I uh... have your, uh, clothes and stuff."

"Thanks," Kurt says, taking the bag from Finn and handing it to Blaine. "Here - go change your shirt. Then I can introduce you to the wonders of McKinley's cafeteria food."

Finn's about to protest that the cafeteria food is not wonderful at all, but then he remembers - sarcasm. Kurt likes it.

---

"I take it you're joining glee club," Rachel says briskly as she seats herself at their table, not even bothering with a greeting.

Kurt raises an eyebrow, but refrains from saying anything.

"I'd like to," Blaine says. "As long as none of you mind, I'm all for it."

"You'd probably be the most talented member of the club, after me, of course."

Kurt looks like he wants to strangle her. Finn suppresses a snort as Blaine says, "And Kurt."

Rachel frowns. "Kurt refuses to acknowledge my superior talent when it comes to singing--"

"Screeching," Kurt amends under his breath. Finn can't help it this time; he snorts. Rachel glares at both of them.

"As I was saying," Rachel continues, "we've already heard you sing at sectionals and regionals last year, so you don't need to audition - you're in. We need to start practicing for sectionals as soon as possible."

Kurt rolls his eyes. "We don't have our setlist done until a week before competition. Blaine can audition if he wants to."

Rachel opens her mouth to respond to that, but Blaine quickly says, "That's fine, if I can get in without an audition, it means that I don't have to worry about picking the right song."

Finn sighs in relief.

{Little Life Lesson #111: Watching Rachel and Kurt argue is like watching a train wreck.}
Mr. Schue is excited to have Kurt back, and even more excited to welcome Blaine to the club, but drones on about the importance of teamwork for the entire rehearsal. Finn sees Kurt shoot Rachel a smug look out of the corner of his eye. He wonders when -- if ever -- this rivalry between the two will end.

---

"So," Kurt says to Blaine as he hoists his bag over his shoulder. "What do you think? On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest."

"Well..." Blaine pretends to consider. "You're here, so that's a definite ten."

Kurt rolls his eyes, but Finn sees the corners of his mouth twitch. "Too much cheese, Blaine. It's not good for you."

"You love me anyways," Blaine grins, nudging Kurt with his shoulder as they step out into the parking lot.

Kurt shrugs at him, smirking. "Can't deny that. The feeling is mutual, though."

"Of course." Blaine says with a fond smile. "Today wasn't so bad."

"One word for you, Blaine. Slushie."

"Well... yes, there was that," Blaine says, pausing beside the Navigator. He looks around at the students milling in the parking lot.

"Hey, Kurt."

"Yeah?" He turns around as Blaine wraps his arm around his waist.

"How about we get them back for that slushie?"

"How exactly would we do that?" he asks a little breathlessly.

"Like this," Blaine says, and closes the distance between their lips. Kurt lets out a little "mmm" and tugs Blaine closer.

"Dudes," Finn hisses. "People are staring." He is ignored completely.

So he adds one more little life lesson to his list:

{Little Life Lesson #394: Kurt and Blaine are in love, and nothing can change that.}