Smack.

That's how Blaine Anderson's lunch starts: a red slushie to the face. The jocks who had thrown it on Blaine are continuing down the hallway laughing and chatting as if this is a regular part of their day. Which it is.

The cold substance drips down Blaine's face and neck and under his shirt where the white material is already stained pink and sticking to his skin.

Ugh. He thinks, taking of his thick-framed glasses and wiping the lenses off on his ruined polo. That's the last time he wears a white shirt in hopes of a slushie-free day. He pushes his glasses back onto his face and quickly walks to his locker to grab a change of clothes that he usually keeps in there for emergencies, only to open it and realize he had used it yesterday and had forgotten to bring a new set that morning.

“Dammit”, he mutters and glances mournfully at his soaked clothes.

“Aw, what's wrong, Helmet-head?”

Blaine turns to see the school's head skank Quinn Fabray and some of her side kicks smirking at him. He reaches up to his hair indignantly to find it still intact despite the slushie-facial.

“Leave him alone, Q.” That's Kurt Hummel, Quinn's second in command. “I think he's had enough to deal with today.”

Kurt has always been a mystery to Blaine. He's a skank, and definitely looks the part with magenta hair and more piercings than Blaine can count. Yet, he has never really acted like the other skanks. Blaine never saw him smoking when the other's were, and there were always moments like this; Kurt defending Blaine in an offhand-ish way. Sometimes, Blaine would do something clumsy or fumble in a way, and he would swear that Kurt was trying to hide a smile or a laugh.

It was a combination of this and the fact that Kurt was completely gorgeous - the hair and jewlery on enhancing his features rather than hiding it - that gave Blaine the hopelessly huge crush on Kurt that he has.

Blaine looks to Kurt now and sees him picking at his nails, looking bored. Quinn just shrugs at Kurt's words and then leads the “pack” to find some other nerd to tease, her Doc Martin's clicking on the linoleum floor as she walks off. When Kurt passes Blaine on his way to follow her, he pauses slightly and his eyes flick around as if checking to make sure no one was watching.

“You okay?” Blaine's eyes widen and he blinks once trying to figure out what just happened. No matter how many times Kurt had stopped the skanks from pushing Blaine around, Kurt had never directly spoken to Blaine like he was doing now.

“Um, uh. Y-yeah. I mean-uh-thanks for, you know--”

Kurt giggles a little, which cause Blaine to pause and revel in the sweet noise. A slow smile makes its way onto Blaine's face.

“No problem,” Kurt says and Blaine swears he sees...Is Kurt blushing? “I should go, then.”

And Blaine watches as Kurt turns and goes quickly to catch up with the other skanks, his heart thumping loudly in his chest and his stomach swooping low.

* * *

The next time Blaine sees Kurt he is in the library doing next week's Pre-Calc homework so that he has time that weekend to study for the Honors Physics Exam. He's sitting in the historical fiction section because no one ever goes back there - not even the couples that come to the library to make out (thats the autobiography section) - head bent over his paper and his glasses slipping down his nose. He is just about done with one calculation when a figure slumps do next to him.

“Whatcha doin' ?” says a familiar high voice.

Blaine's head whips around and he stares at Kurt, whose face looks nonchalant and is acting like this is normal for them to be hanging out like friends.

“What?” Kurt asks and his eyes start to become a bit guarded.

“N-nothing!” Blaine assures him. “It's just… you don't usually talk to me…”

“I talked to you the other day?” Kurt says it like a question

“For like two seconds,” Blaine replies rolling his eyes but he can't help the grin.

“Well, fine then. How about I fully introduce myself,” Kurt says with a sniff and sticks his hand towards Blaine. “My name is Kurt Hummel and I'm a junior here.”

Blaine shakes the older boy's hand with a blush at the contact, the shyness coming back to him. “Blaine Anderson. Er… sophomore.”

Kurt looks shocked at that, “Seriously? But you're in like four of my classes!”

“Yeah.. I kind of take some courses at the community college each summer,” Blaine says awkwardly not wanting Kurt to think he was a total nerd even though that's exactly what he was. “I might even be able to graduate my junior year early because I will have filled all of the credits.”

“How do you do that?” Kurt says bewildered. “ I need my summers. Without them I would probably have dropped out of school by now.”

“Well I guess I just want to get away from Lima as soon as possible,” Blaine says with a frown, looking at the messy scrawl of his handwriting on his paper.

Kurt is silent for a moment after that. then he whispers, “I guess I could understand that.”

Blaine just nods still looking at his paper. The bullying wasn't terrible. Sometimes it just got to the point when all Blaine wanted to do was either rip his own hair at or go home, curl into a  ball and never leave the house.

Kurt and Blaine just sit in each others company for a few minutes until Kurt speaks:

“I'm sorry.”

“For what?” Blaine says, finally looking up at Kurt's eyes again and is surprised to see tears glistening there.

“For never really standing up for you.” Kurt sucks one of his lip rings into his mouth for a second before releasing it with a choked sigh. “For just watching it happen.”

“Except you didn't, Kurt.” Blaine replies earnestly. “You didn't just stand by. You've done more than anybody and I will be forever grateful.”

Kurt looks at the curly-haired boy for a while as if studying him. “ You're beautiful you, know,” he ends up saying. “Even with those dorky glasses and dreadful outfits, you really are nice to look at.”

Blaine flushes red and doesn't know how to respond. Kurt had just called him beautiful. He is ecstatic - although the outfit comment kind of stung a little; he saw nothing wrong with polos, bowties, and suspenders - because this is Kurt Hummel, a skank and completely out of Blaine's league who was telling him this.

“Uh, hum. Y-you are, um, very good-looking yourself. Um. Heh,” is about the most coherent sentence that Blaine could get out.

Kurt smirks. “Adorable, too.”

With that, he kisses Blaine's cheek and pushes himself off the ground. As he wipes of nonexistent dirt off of his ripped black jeans he winks at Blaine. He walks off then, once again leaving Blaine with his heart pounding in his chest and butterflies in his stomach. But this time, Blaine clutches a hand to his cheek where the memory of a kiss burns, and tries not to think about what it would feel like if that kiss had been placed somewhere near the center of his face. Preferably on the lips.