Blaine walked into the crowded classroom. It was the first day of his senior year at McKinley High, and he daresay it was one of the most nerve-racking days of his life. And that was saying a lot, he sang in the middle of a Gap to his crush just the year before. The classroom seemed stuffy, but he blew it off knowing it was just the stress that rolled off of every student and fogged the air. He walked to the back of the class and took a seat next to Mike Chang. With a curt nod and one last adjustment to his bow tie position, he sat rigid in his uncomfortable plastic seat and twiddled his thumbs, waiting for class to start.

Moments later, a grumpy looking old woman with short blonde hair walked in with a sour expression on her face. Blaine's hazel eyes drifted across the heads in his class, figuring out who was who, seeing who was in his homeroom. It was good to have Mike there, a fellow glee member, and soon he spotted Puck sitting upfront. His unmistakable mohawk stood out amongst the heads. He appeared to be doodling on his arm with a sharpie, and from what Blaine could see, it was a bad sketch of some stick figures surfing and then being attacked by a shark.

His teacher began to speak, going through the introductions with a depressing monotone voice. They had arranged seating in this class, and soon after she finished the speech that probably every other teacher was using at the exact same second, she pulled out a list and began to name off the seating arrangement.

"Noah Puckerman next to Rachel Berry… Kurt Hummel next to Blaine Anderson."

Blaine's heart stopped cold. How had he not seen Kurt's perfectly coiffed hair among the students? Maybe his eyes just chose to not see them on purpose. Mike nudged his arm with an elbow and murmured, "are you alright?"

Blaine then realized that his jaw had hit the floor and he wasn't breathing. He puffed out a breath and put on a smile. Turning to the dancer, he nodded and reassured, "yeah, no, yeah, I'm fine."

Mike smiled and went back to staring blankly across the room and tapping his feet rhythmically. Blaine looked back to the empty seat he was supposed to be occupying. It was so intimidating. A tall figure blocked his sight of the blue plastic chair he was staring at and Kurt sat down in the seat next to it, placing his binder carefully on the table and then gracefully sitting down.

Blaine sighed, thought it wasn't really a sigh it was more of a strangled wheeze since his throat had closed up and the breath was catching in his throat nervously. He scooped up his thick blue binder and slowly stood up. The walk to the seat felt like an eternity, every step he took dragging on forever. He couldn't take his eyes off of the boy who sat next to his empty seat.

Once in his assigned seat, he placed his binder down in front of him. He felt Kurt's piercing blue eyes quickly flicker to him. How could he not? Blaine had spent hours of the previous year just staring into those eyes, looking deeply into them, admiring the specific and unique kind of blue they were. They reminded him of ice. It was ironic though, all he ever saw in those beautiful eyes were warmth.

Kurt Hummel sat next to him. THE Kurt Hummel. His aching heart thudded rapidly in his chest, just from being in mere proximity to him.

He and Kurt had dated for the majority of the year before. They spent it happily inseparable. It was the happiest Blaine had ever felt, and all he really wanted was to hear Kurt say "I love you" one more time. Just one more. Was that too much to ask? One of Blaine's friends from Dalton Academy, Jeff, had been pining over Kurt for a few months after they had started dating. It pissed Blaine off, to be honest, but he never got in Jeff's face about it. Jeff hadn't done anything to break them up. Or so he thought. It turned out, that when Kurt was up late at night studying in the commons, Jeff was right there with him. He was supposedly "tutoring" him. Over the study sessions, Jeff had started spewing lies about Blaine to Kurt, implanting thoughts and doubts about their love in Kurt's mind. Being the sweetheart he was, Kurt never confronted Blaine about any of the things Jeff had said to him. Life went on blissfully normal until one summer evening.

"So. How is Kurt doing tonight?" Blaine asked happily, staring up at his ceiling as he and his boyfriend lay on his bed together. He had his arm wrapped around Kurt and his other hand was intertwined with Kurt's.

"Oh, Kurt's doing absolutely great. How's his very handsome boyfriend?"

"Oh, I think he's doing just fine." Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand and twisted their legs together, sighing happily. "How's Sebastian doing?"

Kurt grew very quiet and very stiff. Sensing something had upset his love, Blaine twisted around to face Kurt. "What's wrong, love?"

Kurt looked back at Blaine with sad eyes. "Do you like Sebastian?"

Blaine stared back into those breathtakingly blue eyes. He was baffled by this sudden accusation. Sebastian was certainly a handsome man, it was hard not to say that, and Blaine will admit that he might have checked him out once or twice, but had never actually developed feelings for him.

"No.. what makes you say that?"

"Jeff told me the other day that you said he was hot."

Anger flickered through his hazel eyes as he put the pieces of what Jeff was doing together in his head. "I've never said anything like that to Jeff, he made that up."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I am!" Blaine said incredulously. Kurt still eyed him suspiciously. "Kurt, are you seriously doubting my faithfulness?" Kurt stared back with tight lips. "Oh my god, you are!" Blaine broke their hands apart again and sat up. "I would never even think of cheating on you, Kurt! Don't you have more faith in me?" Kurt didn't answer.

Feeling very hurt, Blaine turned his back to Kurt.

"Well… if you don't have that much faith in our relationship… maybe we shouldn't have one." he said under his breath, just loud enough for Kurt to hear.

Blaine's eyes flickered over to Kurt, who was sitting ramrod straight, as usual, and was staring straight ahead, as if avoiding looking at Blaine on purpose. Maybe we shouldn't have one. Those were the last words he had ever spoken to Kurt. Kurt refused to answer any of Blaine's calls or texts, he had even stopped by the Hudmel house one day to see if he could take him out to coffee and apologize, at least hear his voice. Finn had stammered and created a horrible excuse, then shut the door in Blaine's face. Over the summer, Kurt had dated Jeff. Hearing how good of a boyfriend Jeff turned out to be for Kurt, Blaine had spent the summer telling himself that it was all for the best, that Jeff was better for him, that he would get over Kurt one day and all of these leftover feelings would dissipate. He had wasted his entire summer in his room, playing Teenage Dream on a loop, crying into David or Wes' shoulder. Now, the summer was over, and he would have to face Kurt with a strong heart and a steady voice.

He looked back to Kurt, only this time seeing that his attention was turned to Rachel, who sat next to him, in a happy discussion of a showing of Wicked coming to a local theater. Blaine smiled. That was one of the things he loved about Kurt. His love of musicals and his ability to own up to it and wave it in everyone's face with a proud smile. Blaine's eyes traveled down from the back of his ex-boyfriend's head to check out his outfit. As daring as ever, it was a red velvet suit. Blaine was unable to see, but he could almost put money of the idea that Kurt was wearing a bow tie, too. Another thing Blaine loved: his fashion sense and how every extraordinary outfit he put together basically scream, "look at me, I'm Kurt Hummel!"

Blaine's attention was turned back up to Kurt's face as a peal of laughter sounded from him. The sound almost blew Blaine away. He remembered then that Kurt's laugh was one of the millions of things Blaine loved about him. It almost sounded like silver bells, chiming away in a beautiful pattern, creating a lovely, wholesome sound.

Blaine felt his heart soar at the sound. No matter the circumstances, that sound was always able to lighten his day and make him smile. He closed his eyes and looked down, trying to hide the grin that was fighting to overtake his face. He savored the laugh, capturing it and hiding it away.

"Hello."

The grin on his face vanished and his curly head snapped to his right at Kurt. Was he talking to him? Yes, he was. Kurt was looking back at his expectantly, his cheek propped up on his hand, a devastatingly small smile on his face.

"H-hello, Kurt."

Blaine mentally cursed himself for how weak his voice came out, much unlike Kurt's, which had come out melodically and even.

"How are you?" Kurt asked very quietly.

Now Blaine was really confused. Why was Kurt just now talking to him? What if Kurt wasn't really ignoring him and he had just lost his phone over the summer, and Finn's excuse was really the truth but it just sounded lame coming from him?

"I- I'm good!" Blaine said, trying to sound steady and slightly gruff.

"Oh, that's nice." Kurt smiled brilliantly at him, rudely taking Blaine's already unsteady breath away.

"How… how, um," Blaine tried once more, "how's J-Jeff?" he asked very timidly. He was treading on thin ice here, don't wanna fall through while he was doing so good.

"Oh, he moved." Kurt stated simply. He doesn't seem too sad…

Blaine swallowed his happiness and tried to respond, "are you guys… you know… d-doing… long distance?" please god, no, please no, please please please!

"Oh, god no."

"I always p-pictured you as the long distance type, actually."

"No. I wouldn't be able to see him and it would suck."

"Oh."

Much to Blaine's delight, they carried on the conversation steadily throughout the class. The teacher really didn't care. When the bell rang and students were gathering up their things, Blaine looked up to see Kurt vanish out the door, only to pop back in a second later and smile at him, then leave again. Blaine stood, stunned and delighted. He hurried to zip up his binder, then raced out of the classroom and took off down the hall after Kurt, a smile lighting up his face the whole time.