‘And now, for our second performance of the programme, from Dalton Academy in Westerville, the Warblers!’ A voice boomed, introducing the glee club McKinley was up against.
Kurt looked on from his seat next to the rest of New Directions as the lights came on and the curtain rose. He gasped when he saw the lead singer.

He was beautiful, with dark brown hair gelled neatly on top of his head, and huge brown eyes that reflected the lights of the cameras in the audience. There must have been twenty other boys on the stage, but Kurt didn’t give any of them a second glance; he couldn’t tear his gaze from that boy. And his voice! It rose out above the rest of the group, bouncing off the ceiling beams, and the feel-good song they sang made Kurt’s heart swell even more.

‘Who is that guy?’ He breathed, awestruck.
‘That’s Blaine Anderson,’ Rachel replied, making him jump; he hadn’t realised that she’d heard him. ‘The lead of the Warblers, as far as I know. He’s got talent, I’ll give him that. But don’t worry, we’re much better.’ She concluded confidently.

Kurt didn’t think he’d ever heard anyone sing better than that.
The song ended and Kurt was one of the first people to jump out of his seat and applaud; he clapped until his hands ached.
When it was their turn to perform, he sang with everything he had. He sang it for that boy – for Blaine. Trying to locate him in the audience was impossible, what with the bright lights and the sheer number of people. At this moment in time, he didn’t even care if New Directions won; he just wanted to talk to that boy. And distantly, he knew it was probably stupid to fall so hard and so fast for a boy he hadn’t even talked to, but he didn’t care. He just had to talk to him.

And suddenly the song was over, and he couldn’t hear himself think over the audience’s applause. It felt right, like this is where he should be. The thought that somewhere in the audience clapping him was the brown haired boy was just an added bonus.

They hurried off the stage and waited in the dressing room for the judges to decide on the winners.
‘Those Hipsters were a joke!’ Puck laughed. ‘We have this in the bag.’
‘But what about the Warblers?’ Finn asked. ‘They were pretty good.’
‘Yeah, they were amazing,’ Kurt agreed, blushing.
‘But we were better!’ Mercedes piped up.
‘You sure about that?’ Kurt asked quietly, a mixture of worry at that statement being true, and protectiveness for the Warblers at the cattiness of it.
Mercedes only picked up on the worry, though. ‘Listen. We were amazing out there. Regionals, here we come!’ The rest of the group cheered, and not long after Mr Schuester was ushering them all back out to the stage for the results.
Kurt pushed the boy out of his mind and held his breath, praying for a win. Because they needed this.
Naturally, the Hipsters came in last place, and Kurt couldn’t even bring himself to feel sorry for them in his state of excitement. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the commentator to announce the winners.
‘And now, the winner of this year’s West Central Sectionals is... it’s a tie. Congratulations, you’re all going to the Regionals!’ The man shouted, and Kurt thought to himself that winning like that was probably even better than winning flat out, because the Warblers were amazing.

Mr Schue shook hands with Blaine and they said something polite to each other, and suddenly Kurt felt bold enough to go talk to him. If he didn’t do it now he’d have to wait until Regionals, and he wasn’t sure if he could last that long.

‘Hi!’ He said, standing in front of the boy as most of the Warblers and New Directions shuffled happily off the stage. ‘I’m Kurt. Congratulations for tonight, you were really good.’ He smiled nervously, and wow was Blaine good looking up close.

‘Blaine,’ said the other, stretching out his hand for Kurt to shake. ‘And thanks! You guys were really awesome, too. That solo you had was amazing. Far too short for my liking.’ His smile was so charming it almost took Kurt’s breath away.
‘That makes two of us,’ he joked, and Blaine laughed – a little too much for a joke that albeit wasn’t that funny? Or was that just wishful thinking on Kurt’s part?
Kurt opened his mouth to speak again just as Blaine did.
‘So, uh -’ one said.
‘Hey, so -’ the other began.
They laughed it off awkwardly.
‘You first,’ Kurt breathed, smiling a little.
‘I was just wondering if you maybe... wanted to go for coffee sometime?’ Blaine asked, blushing.
Kurt’s heart beat double-time in his chest. ‘I’d love to,’ he agreed, smiling meekly. ‘I love coffee.’
‘Me too,’ Blaine grinned.

They swapped numbers and arranged the details of their date – an actual date! – before Mr Schuester interrupted them.
‘Time to go, Kurt.’ He smiled, much to Kurt’s disappointment.
‘Right... I’ll meet you on the bus in a minute, okay?’ He asked, not wanting to leave this amazing new boy.
He turned back to Blaine. ‘Guess this is goodbye,’ he told him sadly.
‘Would it be too soon if I called you tonight?’ Hope was evident in the other boy’s tone.
‘Not at all.’ He whispered in reply, and with that he walked off. Because if he didn’t do it then, he probably wouldn’t have the willpower to leave at all.
That night he talked to Blaine for two hours. He was almost worried that they wouldn’t have anything to talk about on their date the following weekend. But they did, and a year later, sat in the same coffee shop as they had on their first date, they still had things to talk about, only this time their conversations were punctuated with murmurs of ‘I love you’ and thoughts of how extremely lucky they were.

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