The Vote

Standing there, in Dave Karofsky’s front yard, Blaine is the happiest he can remember being in weeks. He and Kurt are solid, Dave is dealing with his issues, and it seems that Sebastian might actually be on his way to being a friend (a true friend this time, instead of someone trying to come between him and Kurt). Santana and Brittany are actually becoming good friends of his and Kurt’s now; despite Santana’s penchant to antagonize everyone (it’s easier for them, Blaine thinks, because they already spend so much time together with glee). It’s a strange little group they’ve formed, but Blaine doesn’t think it would have worked with any other group of people. The six of them may have more issues than a magazine subscription, but they listen to each other and they help each other and that’s more than Blaine ever expected to happen when Kurt suggested they start the group all those weeks ago.

He knows that they come off as a bizarre group to other people. Kurt and his former bully; Blaine and Sebastian, the guy who took his eye out; Santana and any of them, given her general disdain for admitting she cares about anyone or anything besides her family and Brittany. Blaine is aware that the rest of New Directions has no idea what to make of them spending time together, and neither does Kurt’s family. Blaine hasn’t even bothered to mention it to his parents – what they don’t know won’t hurt them. There’s a lot that they don’t know these days.

He is tired and exhausted from working on Dave’s closet, but he wouldn’t have traded the day for anything. It’s probably the only time he’ll ever see Kurt at less than his absolute best (unless he counts all the times he’s had Kurt looking completely wrecked while in bed together), and he can’t stop staring at his paint-covered boyfriend.

Kurt clears his throat and the six of them fell silent, looking at him. He’d sort of become their de facto leader, since the Unicorn Club had been his idea. “So it’s been almost two months since we started having these meetings,” Kurt begins. “I don’t know about you guys, but I think they’ve really helped me out a lot.”

“It’s nice to have someone to talk to who gets it,” Dave admits. “And without you guys’ help today, I still wouldn’t be able to sleep in my room. Because of what you did for me today, I’m going to sleep in my own bed tonight.”

“That’s great, Dave,” Kurt replies, smiling at him. Dave flushed a little at the attention. “So this is my question, and I’m putting it to a vote.” He met each one of their gazes. “Do we keep meeting? I want to.”

“I’m in,” Blaine finds himself saying. And he is – because this was Kurt’s idea and it’s a good one and it’s actually working. Just knowing that he’s got five other people to talk to if he needs help dealing with his life has made a world of difference.

“Me too,” Dave adds.

“What the hell,” Santana agrees. “I see half you losers at school anyway.”

“Gee, thanks Santana,” Kurt snipes. “I’ll have cards printed up with that ringing endorsement on it.”

“Bite me, Hummel,” she snaps. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be.”

Kurt nods and then looks at Brittany.

“I want to, too,” Brittany says, “even if I am contributing to Lord Tubbington’s abandonment issues. It’s why he turned to drugs.”

“Sebastian?” Kurt asks.

Sebastian gives him a smirk and shrugs. “Sure,” he sighs. “Why not?”

“Then we’re all agreed?” Kurt wants to know. The five of them ring out a chorus of ‘yes,’ and Kurt smiles. “Okay then. I guess we’ll see everyone next weekend.”


The Seventh Saturday


The last thing Blaine expects to be doing is dragging Cooper along with him to the Unicorn Club meeting, but here he is, heading for the Lima Bean with his brother in the passenger seat of his car. Cooper is quiet but Blaine can feel Cooper’s eyes on him occasionally. For an actor, Cooper seems unable to hide the fact that he is worrying about Blaine. Blaine fights back a sigh. Things between him and Cooper are tenuous (though they’d had an amazing time the night before, making that audition video for Michael Bay), and Blaine doesn’t want to put more stress on it. They’re finally in a good place and Blaine doesn't want to ruin it.

They’d really talked though, yesterday, and cleared a lot of the air. He just hopes that he and Coop could keep it up. Cooper’s so oblivious sometimes that it’s hard to tell what has sunk through to his brother.

Blaine picks up his phone and dials Kurt, who answers after a moment. “Hey, you,” Kurt says.

“Hi,” Blaine replies. “I wanted to let you know I’m on my way but I have company.”

“Cooper?”

“Yeah,” Blaine tells him. “He wanted to join us and meet you guys before he heads off to the airport.”

“Sounds good,” Kurt agrees. “Everyone else is here.”

“Okay, see you in a few,” Blaine states. “Love you.”

“Love you, too,” Kurt returns and they hang up. Blaine feels Cooper’s eyes on him again.

“What?” he demands, but not harshly.

“You two are so cute,” Cooper tells him. “I mean it, little brother.” He pauses. “Kurt really cares about you a lot – I could tell yesterday when he came to talk to me.”

Blaine nods. He knows he owes Kurt for talking to Cooper. Somehow his boyfriend got through to Cooper when Blaine couldn’t, probably because he and Cooper were too close to the situation.

They pull into the parking lot of the coffee shop and sit in the car for a moment after Blaine parks.

“This looks… quaint,” Cooper comments as they get out of the car.

“It’s Kurt’s and my ‘place,’” Blaine informs him. “We like it a lot here.” Cooper puts his arm around Blaine as they head inside. He can see Kurt and the others sitting in their usual spot. Blaine points them out to Coop, who tells him to go sit. Cooper heads to counter gets in line to order while Blaine
makes his way over to the group. He drops down onto the couch next to Kurt.

Kurt promptly hands him his satchel and Margaret Thatcher Dog. “You forgot these yesterday,” Kurt says. “I went to check on you two and you were gone.”

“Ooops.” Blaine smiles sheepishly. “We went home to work on Cooper’s audition tape.”

“I figured,” Kurt replies. “How did it go?”

“Better than expected,” Blaine admits. “Thank you.” He presses a kiss to Kurt’s cheek and Kurt blushes a little.

“So you have a brother?” Sebastian wants to know.

“Yep,” Blaine answers. “He’s about ten years older.”

“He’s hot,” Santana adds in. “Wait until you see him.”

“Where did he go?” Kurt questions him. “I saw you two come in together.”

“He’s ordering.” Blaine points to Cooper, but his back is to them. He can hear the faint sound of Cooper’s voice complete with a slight indication of an accent and Blaine shakes his head with a smile. He wonders which accent Cooper is doing this time.

“So my dad and I made a decision about school,” Dave interjects. Blaine turns his attention to Dave and waits for him to continue. The others are looking at him too. “I’m going to be home schooled.”

“Really?” Kurt arches an eyebrow at Dave and Blaine can tell Kurt is surprised by the news.

“Yeah,” Dave says. “I’m already doing my homework and stuff at home, so we’re just going to keep me enrolled there and my dad’s going to hire a tutor.” Dave shrugs. “It’s only a couple of months until I graduate anyway – I didn’t see the point of trying a new school. The sports I play are over, so it really doesn’t matter too much.”

“That’s great, Dave,” Kurt tells him.

“I wish I could be more like you, but I just can’t go back to that school.”

“I did my fair share of running too,” Kurt murmurs, and Blaine wants to sigh. Dave hurt Kurt in ways that neither he nor Dave probably fully understand(hell, Blaine doesn’t know either) and he still can’t get passed the idea that Kurt has forgiven Dave sometimes.

Cooper chooses that moment to hold a coffee in his face. Blaine tilts his head back and looks up, taking the coffee. “Irish or British?” he asks Cooper.

“G’day, mate,” Cooper answers him, moving to get a chair from a nearby table. Australian. Okay then. Cooper scoots the chair and turns it around so he can straddle it, resting his arms on the chair back as he faces the group. Dave and Sebastian are both kind of staring at him in shock. Blaine almost wants to laugh at them (which is a far cry from the annoyance he’d felt about Cooper getting the attention all week).

You’re-" Dave tries to get out. Cooper just flashes his megawatt smile.

“Dave, Sebastian, this is my brother, Cooper Anderson,” Blaine introduces. Dave is just staring.

“Yes, he is the guy from the Free Credit Rating Today Dot Com commercials,” Kurt chimes in, sounding a little breathless. Blaine wants to frown, but he doesn’t because he knows it’s harmless. Kurt may find his brother attractive, but Blaine knows that Kurt loves him.

He pushes those feelings away. It’s not Cooper’s fault that people find him attractive.

“Cat got your tongue, Dave?” Santana teases. “It’s a wonder you hid in the closet for so long. You’re so obvious.”

“Thanks, Santana,” Dave nearly snaps, clearly embarrassed. She shrugs, as if to say ‘anytime.’

“Looks like the Anderson family has its share of good DNA,” Sebastian adds, sounding, for a moment, just like the guy Blaine had met at the beginning of the school year: smarmy, cocky, and ready fall into bed with whomever, just because he thought they were hot.

“Sebastian, is it?” Cooper turns to him, smiling his big smile again. Sebastian smiles back.

“Yes,” Sebastian answers, and Blaine can see that he’s turned on the charm. Kurt’s rolling his eyes, and Blaine takes a sip of coffee to keep from smiling.

“So you’d be the one who nearly blinded my brother, then,” Cooper says calmly, his smile still in place. Sebastian’s smile falls. Blaine can feel Santana shaking with laughter next to him on the couch, Brittany on her lap.

“That was me,” Sebastian speaks quietly. “You’ll never know how much I regret what happened.”

Cooper nods. “Blaine’s a good person,” he tells Sebastian. “The fact that he’s decided to forgive you – that he and Kurt are even sitting here with you - is remarkable. Don’t screw it up and make me fly back here from LA to kick your ass,” he finishes. Sebastian looks startled by the force behind Cooper’s words. Dave’s mouth is hanging open in surprise.

“Thanks, Coop,” Blaine murmurs.

“You’re my brother,” Cooper replies. “The only one allowed to pick on you is me.”

“I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say that we’d love to hear some stories about young Blainers here,” Santana practically purrs. Blaine can almost hear the gears turning in her head. She’s probably salivating at the thought of using anything she can against him if it’s needed.

“Yes, lets,” Kurt agrees, practically panting at the idea, his hands clapping together lightly.

“No, let’s not and say we did.” Blaine puts his foot down. “Don’t you need to be getting to the airport anyway?” Blaine asks his brother.

“I do,” Cooper says, flashing Blaine a knowing look. Blaine gives him a grateful smile in reply. “Sorry to cut your meeting short, but Hollywood awaits.”

“Can I have your autograph?” Dave blurts out in a rush; so fast, in fact, that Blaine’s not sure he heard Dave correctly.

“Sure thing!” Cooper exclaims, pulling a sharpie out of his pocket (“Always be prepared, Squirt. You never know when you might be accosted in public.”), and raises the arm on Dave’s short-sleeve t-shirt in order to sign Dave’s bicep.

Dave looks like he’s about to pass out and Blaine honestly feels worried about him for a moment. “To Dave; thanks for being my number one fan,” Cooper mutters as he writes, the sharpie cap between his teeth. He signs his name with a flourish and recaps the marker, sliding it in his pocket.

As Blaine follows Cooper out the door, after kissing Kurt good bye (on the cheek, of course), he can hear the others (namely Santana) teasing Dave and asking if he plans on washing his arm anytime soon.

In the car on the way to the airport, Blaine gets a text from Kurt that makes him laugh:

Just got Dave to admit your brother is his first male celebrity crush!

He doesn’t tell Cooper what’s so funny even when Cooper asks, and turns off his phone instead. He remembers what happened to Quinn, who’s just come back to school (and is wheelchair bound) and doesn’t want to take the chance of ending up like her.

He’s sad to see his brother go when he puts Cooper on the plane, yet he can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief once his brother is gone. They might have worked everything out but having Cooper around is a bit much for him.

Still, Blaine promises himself that he’ll call Cooper more. His brother is a lot easier to handle when he’s thousands of miles away.


The Eighth Saturday


“If I hear one more disco song, I think I’m going to scream,” Santana says, dropping in next to Blaine on the couch.

“I like disco,” Blaine tells her.

“I know,” she replies, “but some of us are cool and like music that’s not from last century,” Santana snarks. “Besides, disco’s just a big euphemism for being gay or whatever and I already got enough of that going on.”

“Well, actually…” Blaine starts to correct her, but trails off when they’re joined by everyone else. Kurt settles in the armchair next to him, Dave in between him and Santana on the couch, Brittany squeezing in the end. Sebastian takes the other armchair.

“So you ladies have been busy bees this week,” Sebastian says, looking to Santana and Brittany. “A hundred thousand YouTube hits in three days. Not bad.”

“You saw it?” Santana snaps, and Blaine knows she’s referring to the sex tape that she and Brittany had made and that Brittany had posted online. She’d had Brittany take it down, but the damage had apparently been done.

“I go to an all-boys school. Of course I did.” Sebastian raises an eyebrow in her direction. “Nice camera work; good angles. You and Blondie definitely have a future in the business. I found the cutaways to Lord Tubbington especially tasteful.”

“Alright, jackass,” Santana gets up, looking angry. Sebastian just smirks. “I don’t care how much you say you’ve changed. You’re still acting like a douchenozzle.”

“Stop this,” Kurt hisses and they both look at him. Blaine doesn’t know what to say – Sebastian shouldn’t be talking about the girls like that but on the other hand, he can’t believe they made a sex tape either, let alone posted it online.

He’s wondered, ever since his eye injury, exactly what Sebastian feels about Santana. He seems to out of his way to antagonize her, and given that Sebastian hasn’t ruled out girls altogether, Blaine wonders if Sebastian is attracted to her. Of course, with Santana being a lesbian, he’s pretty much out of luck. Maybe that’s why Sebastian’s so mean to her. Of course, it could be that Santana’s mean to him (well deservedly, in some respects, Blaine has to admit, so maybe it’s just a vicious cycle and he has no idea what he’s talking about).

“Sebastian, that was out of line,” Kurt tells him.

“Sorry,” Sebastian mutters and Blaine wonders at the ease of his apology. He seems to genuinely feel bad and Blaine thinks that maybe he’s trying to banish the old Sebastian, but the old him bleeds through into the new Sebastian without his permission. Santana sits down after a moment.

“Relax, Santana,” Sebastian continues, turning back to her. “You looked hot.”

She looks momentarily mollified. “Damn right I did.”

Blaine can feel Kurt giving him a side-eye while everyone is talking around them, but he ignores it. He’s been busy the last few weeks, dealing with Cooper (and skipping Senior Skip Day) as well as keeping caught up on his homework. At least, that’s what he tells himself when the guilt flares up (and Kurt, when he asks to spend time together) – he hasn’t been spending much time with Kurt.

He knows Kurt is wondering about his behavior – how it’s still the same as before they had their big talk the night Kurt suggested they redo Dave’s closet. Blaine had promised himself at that time that he’d stop pulling away from Kurt, but he can’t help himself. He’s not doing it to be mean. He’s just trying to figure out what life will be like without Kurt in it daily.

It doesn’t help that every conversation he and Kurt have these days is about NYADA and New York or Kurt’s audition and all Blaine can feel like is that Kurt is more than ready to go and leave him and Ohio behind (no matter what he’d promised Blaine that night in his room).

He can’t bring himself to tell this to Kurt, though. Kurt’s trying too hard to keep everything together as it is all while achieving his dreams and Blaine is not about to get in the way of that. So he avoids situations where they have to talk about it.

If Blaine talks about it, it’ll be real.

He tunes back into the conversation to find them discussing Kurt’s upcoming audition (what else is new?) and he sighs. Kurt pats his arm as Dave asks if Kurt’s picked a song yet.

“Not yet,” Kurt replies. “I’ve got it narrowed down to a couple of them, all of which I’ve been rehearsing extensively.”

And he has – Blaine’s knows how hard he’s worked and he can’t wait for the audition, because he knows Kurt will blow it out of the water. He’s resisted helping out with it though, because he can’t bring himself to participate in something that will send Kurt so far away from him.

Blaine hates that about himself, but he can’t help the way he feels.

“I got into college,” Santana changes the subject.

“You did?” Kurt asks. “That’s amazing, Santana. Where?”

“University of Louisville,” she answers. “Brittany and Coach Sue sent in my application and I got a cheerleading scholarship.”

“I thought you just wanted to be famous,” Blaine teases her a little. She raises her chin at him.

“Mark my words, little man. One day everyone will know my name.”

“I can hum the Cheers theme song,” Dave offers and Santana reaches over to smack him lightly.

“Do it and you’re a dead man.”

Blaine freezes and he waits to see what Dave will do. Dave laughs, much to Blaine’s relief. He’s made that idle threat himself to people before, usually Warblers when they would tease him about stuff and it never hit home until now how someone like Dave might take it. “I got into Ohio State,” Dave says, “ona football scholarship.”

“Dave, that’s amazing!” Kurt exclaims.

“Thanks,” he says shyly. “I’m going to be a sports agent.” Dave gives Kurt a knowing smile, which Kurt returns. “And I’ll be near Westerville if you want to hang out next year.” He looks at Sebastian.

“Could be fun,” Sebastian agrees. “You’ll know all the best college parties.” He pauses. “By the way, rumor has it you guys might have some competition from Vocal Adrenaline at Nationals,” Sebastian speaks up. “It looks like dressing in drag is all the rage in show choir championships this year.”

“Hey,” Kurt warns. Blaine knows that this is a touchy subject for him. “Unique is a person, not a punch line.”

“I was just commenting,” Sebastian defends.

“It’s not drag anyway,” Kurt replies, looking at him. “He identifies as female.”

“What are we talking about?” Santana interjects.

“The lead singer for Vocal Adrenaline is Wade Adams,” Kurt tells her. “He came to me for some advice this week because he wanted to wear a dress and heels at their Regionals and perform as his true self, Unique.”

“He’s a unicorn?” Brittany clarified.

“Yes,” Kurt tells her. “She’s a unicorn.”

“You didn’t tell him what a terrible idea that would be?” Dave asks. “I know that show choir stuff is a little more lenient with the gay community or whatever, but that’s a bit much for it here in Ohio.”

“I did try,” Kurt says, “but he – she,” he corrects, “she was determined to see it through. And they won, so she must have been on to something.”

“Maybe things are changing,” Blaine posits. “Slowly. I mean, there’s marriage equality in like, eight states now.”

“We can hope,” Kurt murmurs. They drink the rest of their coffee in silence. Blaine wonders what the future will be like when they can finally be who they are without prejudice.


The Ninth Saturday


He and Kurt are practically joined at the hip when they stroll into the Lima Bean. Blaine catches Kurt’s eye and they smile knowingly at each other as they get in line to order. The others are already there – he and Kurt are running late because he’d stayed the night at Kurt’s (making up for lost time) and Kurt had distracted him (in all the best and most delicious ways) throughout their joint shower that morning.

“Medium drip,” Blaine says to the lady behind the counter taking orders. They’ve been here and ordered from her a zillion times, so he’s pretty sure she has his order memorized, but he still gives it anyway.

“Make that two,” Kurt chimes in. “And it’s my treat.”

Blaine moves to protest but Kurt silences him with an arched eyebrow in his direction. Blaine smiles instead. “That shade of blue really makes your eyes pop,” he tells Kurt instead, making Kurt blush and the barista gives them a knowing look. Blaine doesn’t care – he’s just happy that everything is back the way it’s supposed to be, now that he and Kurt have really, really talked and Blaine realized how close he was to losing Kurt. When he’d started pulling away, he’d done it to help him try and deal with the coming year – but never once while he was doing it did Blaine ever consider that Kurt might not be there waiting for him when he’d come to peace with everything.

If there’s one thing that Kurt understands though, its self-preservation. Blaine knows Kurt’s a pro at that.

They pick up their coffees and join the others, squishing onto the couch next to each other, laughing a little as they try to awkwardly get settled without spilling their drinks everywhere.

“Nice to see that you two managed to kiss and make up.,” Santana says, examining her manicure. “If there’s no hope for you two to make it, then the rest of us are so screwed.”

“What is she talking about?” Sebastian is the one that speaks up and Blaine shifts uncomfortably.

“Nothing,” Kurt replies. “It’s just been a long week.”

“Yeah,” Brittany adds. “Kurt turned into a cheetah and everything.”

Blaine can feel Kurt getting upset beside him. He knows how much guilt Kurt still feels about the whole mess with Chandler, though Blaine knows he’s to blame too (albeit for entirely different stuff. Kurt’s ‘cheating’ is all on Kurt). After Blaine had gotten angry and aired all their problems to the glee club (oh, look, he was finally fitting in), Kurt had expressed how uncomfortable he was with everyone knowing the private details of their relationship. Blaine had had to give him that one. He should have kept it between him and Kurt.

Dave and Sebastian still look confused.

“Casanova just finally proved he’s human like the rest of us and went browsing in the men’s section behind Blaine’s back,” Santana explains.

“Yes, let’s just tell everyone,” Kurt snapped. “And I didn’t browse,” he muttered. “It was barely even window shopping.” Blaine sighs. Kurt has maintained that he didn’t cheat but he knows that in Blaine’s eyes, he did.

“Hey, this group was your idea,” Santana tells him. “What’s the point if we don’t share?”

Kurt rolls his eyes and Blaine puts a hand on Kurt’s knee. He’s forgiven Kurt and Kurt’s forgiven him. “It doesn’t matter what happened. What does matter is that it’s over and Kurt and I are still together.”

“Wait,” Sebastian interrupts. “Let me get this straight.” He looks Blaine in the eye. “He cheated on you and you forgave him?” He sounds incredulous and when worded like that, it does make Blaine sound like an idiot. But that’s not what happened, not exactly, and there’s no black and white here. There’s just a lot of varying shades of gray and no distinction between them.

This is what Blaine knows. He loves Kurt. Kurt loves him. They both hurt each other, intentionally or not. Forgiveness goes both ways with them and it always will, because that’s who they are.

“It’s not that simple, Sebastian,” Blaine murmurs.

Sebastian rolls his eyes and leans back in his seat. “I think it is. Kurt’s spent all year telling me to stay away from you and the minute I do, he turns around and hooks up with some other guy.”

“I didn’t ‘hook up’ with anyone!” Kurt exclaims. “I didn’t do anything more with Chandler than Blaine has done with you.”

“And yet, somehow, I’m the villain and you come out smelling like a rose,” Sebastian says, angry.

“You tried to come between us,” Kurt hisses. “You didn’t care that Blaine and I are together or that he wanted nothing more than to be your friend.” He paused. “You pushed and you pushed and when you didn’t get your way, you went after me with a tampered slushie.”

“I apologized for that,” Sebastian mutters.

“And you’re trying to be a better person, I get it,” Kurt replies. “We’ve all been there. But don’t compare what I did with Chandler to what you tried to do with Blaine. It’s not the same.”

Blaine wants to interrupt. He wants to tell Kurt and Sebastian that he’s not something they can fight over, that he’s a person who can make up his own mind. He just sighs and tightens his grip on Kurt’s knee instead. Kurt falls quiet. Sebastian gives them both a long look.

“Guess I just should have waited,” he says, getting up. “Kurt would have done my work for me.” Kurt’s mouth falls open, anger flashing in his eyes, but Blaine hushes him with a look. Sebastian stalks out, tossing his empty cup in the trash as he goes.

“I’m going to go talk to him,” Blaine announces, getting up.

“What?” Kurt turns to him in surprise.

“I need to talk to Sebastian,” Blaine repeats. “I’ll be right back.”

He hurries off before Kurt can say anything, and he wonders what they’re saying behind him as he walks away. Blaine finds Sebastian at his car and calls out his name.

Sebastian turns around to see him standing there and sighs.

“We need to talk.” Blaine crosses his arms over his chest.

“So talk,” Sebastian instructs him, mimicking his pose, crossing his arms too.

“You have to stop this,” Blaine tells him. “From the moment we met, you’ve done nothing but come on to me. It stops now.”

“Kurt cheated on you and I’m the bad guy?” Sebastian stares at him. “Great talk, thanks Blaine.” He snaps, opening his car door.

“No, wait,” Blaine pleads. “Just listen, okay?” Sebastian pauses and Blaine knows he’s got one chance to get this right. “I screwed up with you.”

“You have my attention,” Sebastian states, closing his door.

“Like I said, from the moment we met, you’ve done nothing but come on to me. I didn’t stop it. Quite frankly, as Kurt has pointed out to me, I might have enjoyed it a little.” Blaine hates admitting this because it means that Kurt is right and that all these months of Blaine telling Kurt that Sebastian was harmless means that Blaine has spent a lot of time lying to himself.

“So why are you still with Lady Hummel then?” Sebastian wants to know. Blaine steels himself, ignoring the remark against Kurt. Calling Sebastian out for saying things about Kurt is not going to help this situation.

“As much as I was flattered by the attention I got from you, Sebastian, I love him,” Blaine says, his voice filled with emotion. “I love Kurt, more than anything.”

“Fantastic,” Sebastian mutters. “If I wanted to hear a diatribe on your endless love, I’d have stayed in there and watched you two chastely grope each other in public.”

“You’re missing the point,” Blaine replies. “I never told you no – not the way I should have.” He sighs. “That day we first met for coffee, I told you I had a boyfriend and then I spent the next three months letting you say whatever you wanted to me in front of him instead of shutting you down. You called and you texted me and I did nothing to discourage you.”

“What’s the point of all this, Blaine?”

“I want us to be friends.”

“We are.” Sebastian’s voice is tight.

“No, what we we’re doing right now is pretending,” Blaine says. “For the group.” He looks Sebastian in the eye. “You’re still hoping that I’ll leave Kurt or cheat on Kurt or whatever and be with you.”

“So what if I am? Can you blame me?” Sebastian asks.

“I’m drawing a line, Sebastian,” Blaine decrees. “All we’ll ever be is friends.” He holds his hand out for Sebastian to shake.

“You’d probably be better off if I just left the group and never called you again,” Sebastian speaks quietly, staring at Blaine’s outstretched hand. “In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t know how to be just friends with someone.”

“Now’s your opportunity to learn,” Blaine encourages. “Kurt once told me that being a part of something special makes you special.” He smiles. “I think the six of us have the makings of something special, don’t you?”

“God, you turn those stupid puppy dog eyes on and no one can say no to you, can they?” Sebastian shakes his head, and then put his hand in Blaine’s, shaking. “Friends.”

“Come back in side?” Blaine asks. “I’m sure we’ve got lots more to talk about.”

Sebastian nods after a long moment and falls in step with Blaine as they head back in.
“You know, my brother says the same thing you did,” Blaine says, “about me giving ‘puppy dog eyes.’ Do I really do that?”

“You have no idea,” Sebastian tells him. “It’s part of your appeal.”

“Oh.” Blaine doesn’t quite know what to do with that information.

“So your brother,” Sebastian continues, nudging Blaine with his shoulder as they cross to where the rest of the group is sitting, waiting for them. “Are you sure he’s not gay?”

Before, Blaine wouldn’t have laughed at that. Before, he’d have been uncomfortable and unsure. Something’s shifted between him and Sebastian now, though, he can feel it. He laughs, surprising everyone.

Sebastian and Kurt stiffly apologize to each other and then the topic gets changed. Dave talks about his therapy a little bit and Santana talks about her grandmother and her plans to try and have it out with her again. Blaine is content to just sit and listen for a while.

Finally though, he can’t take it any longer. Kurt’s nestled against him, smelling wonderful. Blaine takes out his phone and discreetly types something before slipping it back into his lap. Kurt’s phone buzzes a moment later and Blaine watches him read it, his jaw dropping in surprise. He turns to stare at Blaine, a light blush coating his cheeks.

“Hold up,” Santana leans over him. “Did you just sext Hummel with the rest of sitting right here?”

Blaine just smiles. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He stands up, holding his hand out for Kurt, who takes it. “Kurt and I are going to go. See you guys next week!”

With that, he leads Kurt out of the Lima Bean, the startled faces of the rest of the Unicorn Club in their wake.


Tuesday Afternoon Interlude


“Help me make the music of the night,” Kurt sings, waving his arms at Tina and pressing their hands together. Blaine can’t take his eyes away from Kurt. It’s one of his favorite things to do – watch Kurt perform. It’s like there’s a switch that gets flipped somewhere inside Kurt and he just lights up when all eyes are on him. Blaine is the first one to his feet, clapping when Kurt’s done.

“Fantastic!” he exclaims. “I loved it.”

“Really?” Kurt asks, slipping his Phantom mask off. “I don’t know. My entire future is riding on this audition. It has to be perfect.”

“I don’t know what the hell you were watching, gay wonder, but I’ve never been more bored in my life,” Santana says, leaning forward in her seat next to Blaine. “I had to pinch myself to keep from falling asleep. I have a bruise.” She holds out her arm to show it off.

As if on cue, Brittany lets out a snore. Blaine turns to see the blonde has curled up in her chair and has actually dozed off. Kurt’s mouth falls open a little.

“I’m with the devil,” Sebastian adds, nodding his head in Santana’s direction. “This is, like, your one shot to get into this school, right? You come over completely sexless and yeah, it’s a little boring.”

“I don’t really think that he needs to be sexy, Sebastian,” Blaine denies, unsure if Sebastian is trying to be helpful or just taking an opportunity to insult Kurt. They’re still feeling out their friendship.

“I don’t really have an opinion,” Dave says. “I thought you sounded great, but I don’t know enough about this to tell you more than that.”

Kurt smiles his thanks at Dave and then sighs, sitting down on the edge of the stage. Tina mentions that her foot has fallen asleep and goes to walk it off. Kurt looks at them.

“They’re right,” he tells Blaine. “It’s too safe, too predictable,” Kurt mutters. “It’s boring. I’m boring. Hell, I’m bored.” His face lights up as he continues. “What if I sequin my cape? Or I sing it in German? Or I do it in the nude?”

“What?” Blaine asks, shocked, at the same time Dave makes a choking noise and has to cough into his hand. “I think you’re overthinking it,” he replies. “Honest.”

“I should start from scratch.” Kurt goes into a panic. “Do something fresh and edgy, something unpredictable.” He eyes the stage. “Or… maybe I just need more candles…”

“Oh, God, no,” Blaine murmurs. “Not more candles.”

“What if…” Kurt begins and Blaine has no idea what will come out of his mouth next. What he does know is that Kurt’s audition is in a few days and if he doesn’t nail a song down, it’s not going to go well. “What if I did ‘Not the Boy Next Door’ from the Peter Allen bio-musical, The Boy from Oz?”

“Am I supposed to know who that is?” Santana asks. “Cause some of us don’t speak theater geek.”

“Same,” Sebastian agrees. “I think that reference is too gay even for me.”

“Kurt,” Blaine finds his voice. “That’s really risky.”

“But it’d make me stand out,” Kurt counters. “And gold pants, Blaine. I could wear the gold pants.”

Blaine clears his throat and shakes his head to get rid of that image, because wow, this is not the time or the place for that fantasy, and focuses on Kurt. “You’ve rehearsed ‘Music of the Night’ more. I think you should stick with that.”

Kurt nods after a long moment, setting up to go through the song again. Tina’s back, limp free and ready to be Christine. Even as he launches into the song a second time, Blaine can see the doubt and uncertainty in Kurt’s eyes. Blaine knows what he has to do now.

He needs to talk to Rachel. She’s the only one Kurt will listen to right now. If Kurt doesn’t get in, if he messes up the audition, he’ll never forgive himself, and Blaine – well, Blaine won’t be able to forgive himself either, because he’d have been able to stop it from happening.


Thursday Afternoon Interlude


Blaine is practically beside himself as he takes a seat in the auditorium. This is it. Kurt’s audition is today and there is so much riding on the outcome. Santana, Sebastian and Dave have surprised him by showing up – he’s not sure where Brittany is – and mostly Blaine’s just glad he doesn’t have to sit alone in the back. Mr. Schue is a few rows behind them, having just shown the judge to her seat, and Blaine wonders if he’s surprised to see them there. Rachel is with Kurt backstage.

Blaine feels like he’s going to fall out of his chair when the woman calls out Kurt’s name.

Kurt walks out onto the stage, dressed in his Phantom of the Opera outfit. Blaine wants to hug Kurt when he starts talking, as he sounds completely terrified and breathless.

Blaine covers his mouth in shock when Kurt, during his conversation with the judge, suddenly decides he’s changing songs. He calls Brittany, Tina and Mercedes out of the back and makes a joke that no one laughs at before launching into the song.

He looks scared. Blaine wishes he could be up there beside him, helping him, but all Blaine can do is watch and hope that Kurt soars, like Blaine knows he can. The song picks up tempo and Blaine nearly gasps out loud when Kurt dances to the side of the stage and rips his Phantom costume off (and, wow, okay, they need to explore that later) to reveal a tight black shirt and those famous gold lame pants.

Rachel pops into the seat next to him and Blaine grabs her hand as Kurt mocks playing the piano and then climbs on top of it, gyrating his hips before sinking down on it and stretching his leg up as far as it’ll go. Blaine can hardly breathe and he can’t take his eyes off of Kurt. Maybe Santana and Sebastian were on to something when they said Kurt’s original piece lacked sex – because this is both sexy and brilliant and if the judge doesn’t let him in, it will be an absolute travesty.

“Wanky,” Blaine hears Santana murmur next to him, as Kurt slides down off the piano and then lifts his leg up onto it before dropping it and turning around. Santana looks like she’s about to whistle when Blaine suddenly sees Dave lean over out of the corner of his eye. Dave claps a hand over Santana’s mouth. Blaine is really, really glad he’s not Dave right now, because if looks could kill…

Blaine attention returns to the stage and he can’t look away as Kurt spins and then drops to his knees before lying on his back on the stage. If nothing else comes from this, Blaine has learned that Kurt is incredibly flexible, looks fantastic in gold and that those pants leave absolutely nothing to the imagination.

Kurt hits an amazing last note and the auditorium falls silent. Blaine wraps his arms around himself. He’s practically vibrating with energy, almost unable to hold still, and yet he can’t move, terrified of what the judge will say.

The judge tells Kurt about working with Hugh Jackman and then how Hugh would be impressed and how Kurt took a great risk. Kurt practically bounces off stage and Blaine is bouncing in his seat, he’s so excited. Blaine blows a kiss at Kurt’s retreating form.

Rachel’s audition is next and it only takes a moment for Kurt to come out and join him in the audience. Finn is with him, and they sit right behind Blaine to watch Rachel. It’s probably a good thing that Kurt doesn’t sit right next to him – Blaine’ s not sure he can keep his hands to himself when Kurt is dressed like that.

It’s clear within moments that this audition is not going to go Rachel’s way.

She chokes, and chokes big time. Blaine wants to cry for her, but his happiness for Kurt won’t let him. Finn rushes off to find her when she leaves the stage in tears. The rest of them are silent as the judge leaves after letting Kurt know he’ll be getting a letter with her decision in a few weeks. He nods and then thanks her again and turns to them. Brittany comes up to them, dressed in her Cheerios uniform once more.

“So?” Kurt says, looking at them. “How’d I do?”

“Well,” Santana practically drawls, a devious smile on her face. “You worked that stage like a hooker pole.” She laughs. “And Rachel thinks I’m the one most likely to end up working as a stripper.”

“Knew I could count on you to keep things in perspective, Santana,” Kurt snaps.

“Hey, don’t take it out on me,” Santana replies. “I’m not the one who tore off my clothes during a performance and then proceeded to dance around in an extremely revealing outfit.”

Kurt is bright red at this point.

“Blaine is a lucky, lucky man,” she continues, eyeing Kurt’s crotch before glancing at Blaine. “Very lucky – or, you know, you will be if Hummel ever lets you get in his pants.” Blaine is blushing now too, because he has been ‘in Kurt’s pants’, though it’s not exactly something they’ve ever made a point to tell people.

Rachel might know but Blaine’s pretty sure Kurt swore her to secrecy, and as far as he knows, she’s kept her word.

“Oh my God,” Kurt mutters. “I’m changing. Now. Right now.”

“Stop it,” Blaine interrupts. “You look amazing and you sounded fantastic.”

“I did, didn’t I?” Kurt grins at him, but his face falls after a moment. “I can’t believe Rachel…”

“I know,” Blaine says softly. “She’ll be okay.”

“You don’t know Rachel,” Kurt murmurs. “This is going to kill her.”

“Don’t let what happened with Rachel ruin this for you,” Blaine tells him. “You earned the right to celebrate. Come on,” he says. “We’re going to the Lima Bean. Coffee for everyone on me.”


The Tenth Saturday


“I’m serious,” Blaine says as they join the others in their usual spot. Blaine sometimes wonders what the workers at the Lima Bean think about them coming in every Saturday and holing up in their seating area for hours. “It’s your birthday. We need to do something.”

“I just want to keep it simple,” Kurt replies. “My Dad’s stuck in DC and Carole’s with him. Finn’s idea of birthday fun was whacking me on the arm this morning and grunting out birthday wishes,” he adds. “I just don’t need to make a big deal out of it.”

“You only turn eighteen once, Kurt,” Blaine points out, sitting down.

“I know.”

“It’s your birthday?” Dave asks, sipping from his cup. Kurt nods.

“Yep, I’m officially an adult. I can vote, join the army and get married in select states.”

“We should do something,” Sebastian suggests. “It’s your birthday.”

“We are doing something. We’re having this meeting,” Kurt refutes, his tone insistent.

“Not that hanging with you all isn’t a grand ol’ time,” Sebastian tells them, leaning back in his chair, “but I could think of lots of way more fun things we could do to celebrate.”

“Like…?” Santana waves her hand, indicating that Sebastian should elaborate.

“Like, I can get you girls a couple of fake IDs and the six of us can hit Scandals later.”

“No,” Kurt mutters, standing up. “Absolutely not.”

“Kurt,” Blaine protests.

“Not after last time, Blaine,” Kurt snaps and then stalks to the counter for a refill on his coffee.

“Something I said?” Sebastian wants to know, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ll talk to him,” Blaine says, getting up and joining Kurt at the counter. “I know you don’t want to go, but I really do think Sebastian is trying to be nice.”

“Are you sure he’s not still trying to get in your pants?” Kurt asks him, angry.

“Haven’t I proven to you by now how much you mean to me?” Blaine wonders, staring at Kurt.

“Of course you have.” Kurt hastens to tell him. “Blaine, it’s not you I don’t trust.”

“But that’s just it, Kurt.” Blaine catches his gaze and holds it. “You should know by now that I would never do or say anything that would put me in an uncomfortable position with Sebastian or any other guy. The fact that you still think I’m going to leave you for him is baffling to me.” Blaine knows he must resemble the wounded puppy he feels like because Kurt’s face immediately softens. With all the stuff in the last few weeks with Sebastian and Chandler and Kurt leaving, Blaine can’t help but be hurt by that accusation.

“I’m sorry,” Kurt murmurs softly. “I know you talked things out with him and he’s probably not trying to… well, I hope he’s not, but I just can’t go back to that bar.” Kurt sighs. “I just keep thinking about what happened in the parking lot afterward and I just… I don’t want to be put in that kind of position again, Blaine.”

“I get it,” Blaine tells him. “We’ll think up something else.”

They go back to the seating area. Brittany looks at Kurt, excited, as they sit back down. “Santana says we’re going to dancing tonight for your birthday.”

“Britt…” Kurt protests.

“Come on, birthday boy,” Santana presses. “Britts and I want to get our dance on and you need to live it up a little.”

“I do not,” Kurt snapped.

“Oh, so you won’t be hitting any clubs next year in New York?” she wants to know. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. If you can handle clubs in New York, you can handle one night at Scandals.”

Blaine watches as Kurt stares at Santana in shock, appearing speechless (one of the few times that has ever happened, Blaine knows).

“It’s your birthday, Kurt,” Blaine gets his attention. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want.” He keeps his tone light but gives both Santana and Sebastian pointed looks while he’s talking.

“No,” Kurt mutters. “No, she’s got a point. What the hell. I only turn eighteen once.”

“Are you sure?” Blaine asks.

“Yes,” Kurt replies, and Blaine knows that he is. Once Kurt Hummel makes up his mind to do something, he does it, no backing down and damn the consequences. It’s one of the things Blaine loves most about him.

They make plans – Kurt coordinates outfits with Brittany, Santana and Dave, while Blaine, Dave and Sebastian work out who’ll drive and who’ll drink. Dave reminds them all that he can’t drink on his medication, thus electing him the designated driver.

He and Sebastian decide to take a cab to the bar, the rest of them coming in Kurt’s Navigator. Dave would just drive them all back to Kurt’s, with Dave and Sebastian leaving from there.

Blaine watches as Kurt excitedly discusses clothes, practically dressing all of them right then and he smiles. They’ll make it a night Kurt won’t forget.


Sunday Morning Interlude

“It’s way too early for this,” Santana grumbles over her menu. They’re sitting at local diner, the six of them, and the only one not groaning in pain is Dave. It had been Sebastian’s suggestion to meet up for brunch – he swore there was nothing better for a hangover than greasy diner food.

Kurt is definitely looking skeptical about the whole plan as he is giving the restaurant a once over with a critical eye. “If I get some kind of food poisoning from this, Smythe…” he says, trailing off.

“Then it’ll probably incapacitate you before you could do any real damage,” Sebastian tells him. “I’m pretty sure I’m safe.”

Kurt glares and Blaine takes his hand under the table. That’s when he notices it. Between the pounding behind his eyes and his rolling stomach he hadn't done much since they’d sat down except eye the menu and try not to get sick – so when he finally sees it, it takes him by surprise.

It’s Sebastian and Dave. The way they’re sitting isn’t any big deal, except that they’re sitting kind of close together. Really close. Blaine resolves to keep an eye on them. Maybe he’s imagining things… or maybe Sebastian and Dave got a little bit closer last night after they’d left Kurt’s house.

They discuss the previous night’s adventure in soft whispers until the waitress comes over with hot coffee for all of them. They place their orders and continue the conversation.

Blaine doesn’t remember offering to make out with Kurt in public, but everyone else does and his face burns with embarrassment. “Sorry,” he mutters to Kurt.

“It’s okay,” Kurt says, smiling softly at him. “I know how you get when you drink.”

“Apparently you just want to feel up everyone,” Santana replies, “And gender goes right out the window.”

“Gee, thanks.” Blaine puts a hand over his eyes. They fall silent when the waitress comes, putting platefuls of food down. The silence reigns while they all tentatively dig in (except Dave, whose mound of food is enough to make Blaine’s stomach rebel).

“Oh,” Kurt speaks up from a delicate bite of his toast. “Next Saturday’s meeting should either be moved to Sunday or postponed until later in the day or something.” He looks around the table. “Next Friday night is Senior Prom at McKinley.”

“You’re going?” Dave asks, his fork stopping in midair as he looks at Kurt.

“The reigning queen has to crown the new one,” Kurt answers, angrily taking a bite of his egg-white omelet. Sebastian looks up at them.

“Wait,” he interrupts. “You’re the reigning prom queen at McKinley?” Sebastian is staring at Kurt. “I know you made some offhand comment about having a crown last night, but that’s not what I expected.”

“Yes. The student body wrote me in on the ballot as a joke. Go ahead, laugh,” Kurt tells him. “You know you want to.”

"I’m not laughing,” Sebastian replies. Blaine glances at him and sees he’s telling the truth. There’s no laughter in his eyes. “I know I said some horrible things… before… about…” he trails off, looking uncomfortable. “But that’s not funny.”

“No,” Kurt agrees. “It’s not.” He sighs. “And it’s equally humiliating to have to go back up there and stand in front of all the people that voted me queen and crown the new one.”

“Who was prom king? What happened?” Sebastian asks. Kurt’s looking at him like he can’t believe Sebastian wants to know, and Blaine is kind of surprised too, but Sebastian seems sincere. Kurt must agree, because he launches into the story.

“Dave,” Kurt nods at him. “They elected Dave Prom King and me Prom Queen.”

“It’s why I transferred schools,” Dave adds, “though that ended up not doing me any good.”

“I’m running again this year,” Santana says, looking up.

“Do you think they’ll vote for you?” Dave wants to know. “Now that you’re out?”

“They better if they know what’s good for them,” Santana replies and Blaine figures that she’s pretty much got this in the bag. “If only Quinn was out of that chair. She’s totally going to get the sympathy vote.”

“I’m sure she’d rather be walking than be prom queen, Santana,” Kurt says.

“Don’t bet on it,” Santana mutters. Brittany leans over and kisses her on the cheek.

“I’ll run for prom king and we’ll both win,” Brittany tells her. “That way it’s in the bag.”

“You have the best ideas.” Santana smiles.

They fall silent again, finishing their meals. Blaine notices that Sebastian’s hand and Dave’s hand are sitting close together on the table. Kurt’s made plans to go prom dress shopping with the girls by the time they’re done eating even though Blaine knows full well Kurt really isn’t looking forward to prom this year.

Maybe they’ll get lucky. Maybe it’ll be okay.


The Eleventh Saturday


“So tired,” Santana murmurs, her eyes closed. She is leaning on the arm of the couch with her head propped up on her enclosed fist. Brittany is next to her, Brittany’s head lying on Santana’s shoulder. Blaine finds himself squashed in between her and Kurt, and really, the Lima Bean needed to invest in bigger furniture. Dave and Sebastian are occupying the armchairs and eyeing them carefully.

Brittany had tried laying her head on Blaine when they’d first sat down, but Santana put a kibosh on that right away. Besides, now that his hair wasn't completely frizzy and utterly ridiculous looking, Brittany wasn’t as interested. She did apologize for making him go hair gel free to the prom though, and Blaine appreciated that (he did wish that it hadn’t happened at all, but Kurt had finally seen his true hair and hadn’t gone running for the hills, so that was something).

“Rough night?” Sebastian asks, smirking.

“Off with his head,” Kurt mutters, blinking awake. Blaine can’t help but chuckle at him. He’s slightly more awake than the others, but not really.

“You’re not the queen anymore,” Santana reminds him. “Rachel is.”

“God help us all,” Kurt mumbles. “I can’t believe she won.”

“Wait, Rachel Berry won prom queen?” Dave repeats, staring at them in shock. “Rachel Berry?”

“I think you broke him,” Kurt tells Santana.

She laughs softly. “Actually, if you must know, Quinn and I set it up so she’d win,” Santana explains.

“You did?” Blaine turns to her with wide eyes.

“Quinn won by one vote, but she didn’t want it.” Santana shrugs. “And I didn’t want it if Brittany didn’t get king, so we decided to give it to Rachel.”

“I’m holding you personally responsible if she becomes impossible to live with,” Kurt promises, pointing his finger at Santana. She rolls her eyes.

“Whatever, PonyBoy,” she replies. “And if I find out that this information leaves this group, I will personally come find you and make your lives a living hell.”

“Awww, Santana,” Blaine says, smiling at her. “You did something nice. It’s a good thing. You should be proud.”

She groans. “Oh, no, I triggered his optimism default setting. Someone turn dear Blainers off before I vomit from all the goodwill coming from his mouth.”

“Blaine’s a robot?” Brittany asks, glancing at him. “That explains so much.”

“Why do you always have to be so…” Blaine starts to speak and then trails off.

“Bitchy?” Santana finishes for him, leaning over Brittany. “You can say it, you know. I’m sure a real person exists under that dapper facade.”

“That’s enough, Santana,” Kurt interrupts, eyes flashing. “I don’t know what your problem is, but I think you’re projecting it on Blaine and he didn’t do anything.”

“I’m sorry,” Santana mutters after a moment. “I had a fight with my abuela this morning.”

“She’s still not coming around?” Dave wants to know, reaching over and taking her hand in his. Blaine watches as she squeezes Dave’s hand for a moment and then lets go. Blaine realizes that it’s kind of eerie how similar the two of them are - both angry and bitter, with tendencies to say horrible things to people out of fear. Granted, Santana never takes it as far as Dave has in the past, but Blaine often wonders if she could’ve.

“My mom is petitioning the court for custody,” Dave tells them. Kurt inhales sharply next to Blaine. Sebastian’s mouth falls out and Santana lets out a litany of what Blaine imagines are swear words in Spanish.

“But you’re eighteen now,” Kurt protests. “She can’t do that.”

“She can if she insists that I’m not well and gets a judge to buy it – and blames my dad all the while.”

“You’re not sick just because you’re gay,” Sebastian points out, angry. Blaine’s kind of surprised by the intensity of Sebastian’s reaction, but then recalls how Dave and Sebastian were at their post-Scandals brunch.

“I know that,” Dave murmurs, “and she knows she can’t use that as a mental illness because it’s not classified as one anymore – but she can use the fact that I’ve been depressed and tried to kill myself.”

“That’s terrible,” Kurt breathes out and Blaine takes his hand. Kurt grips it tightly. Blaine knows how hard things have been for him where Dave is concerned and that he feels responsible for Dave’s suicide (even though everyone, including Dave, had said that it was not Kurt’s fault in anyway), so he was probably having a hard time hearing that Dave could get sent away to reparative therapy – because that’s what Dave’s mother getting custody meant. “I’ll tell my father.” Kurt looks at Dave. “He can speak up for you. He’s a congressman – a judge will listen to him and tell him that you’re better off with your dad or on your own than with your mother.”

“My therapist is against it too,” Dave adds. “She’s going to do all this stuff and give it to the court so they can see how I’ve been progressing under her care.”

“Do you feel better?” Brittany asks the innocent question, looking at him.

"Yeah,” Dave answers, looking around at them. “Thanks to you guys, I don’t feel alone anymore.” He smiles. “Knowing that it’s all out there, that I don’t have to hide anymore… it’s so freeing. I can stop worrying about every move I make because there’s nothing left for anyone to figure out – they already know.”

“That’s great, Dave,” Kurt encourages him.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.” Dave looks at Kurt, his expression a little intense. “Without all of you guys, actually,” he finishes. Sebastian is frowning a little, but smiles when Dave includes the rest of the group.

Blaine’s pretty sure there’s something going on between them but he’s not sure how serious it is. After all, Sebastian is a playboy – he gets around (and it’s one reason Blaine could never seriously consider him, even if Kurt weren’t in the picture. Now that he knows what a stable, loving relationship is like, Blaine knows he can never settle for anything less than this), and Blaine’s not sure that Dave would be up for that (or that he should be, given his current emotional state), so he’s wondering if he should be concerned or not.

“Now that we’ve all gotten our Kum-by-ya-ya’s out, can we be done for the day? I needs to get my nap on.”

“I think I had that once,” Brittany says. “But the doctor gave me some medicine for it and it went away.”

“And on that note…”


Wednesday Afternoon Interlude


“So what’s your new idea?” Blaine asks, walking over to Kurt once Kurt’s done talking with Mr. Schue and Coach Sylvester.

Kurt smiles. “Get Santana and Brittany and meet me at the Navigator. We’re going on a road trip.”

“What are you going to do?” Blaine wants to know, eyeing his boyfriend’s mischievous grin with a little bit of trepidation. It’s hard to tell, sometimes, what Kurt will think is a good idea.

“I’m going to call Dave and Sebastian and then get some supplies.”

He kisses Blaine on the cheek and then practically flounces away while Blaine stares after him.

*

“Okay, ladies,” Santana leans forward in her seat. “One of you needs to explain why we’re all doing our best sardine impressions back here.”

“This is all Kurt,” Blaine replies. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

“We’re on a mission,” Kurt tells them, grinning.

“Mission?” Dave asks.

“Yep,” Kurt answers.

“Where are we going?”

“Carmel High,” Kurt announces.

“Yes!” Santana exclaims.

“I’m confused,” Sebastian interrupts. “What exactly are you planning to do once we get there?”

Blaine gave him a knowing look. “Kurt,” he says, a warning in his tone. “Are we going to spy on Vocal Adrenaline?”

“And if we are?” Kurt replies, his tone light.

“Kurt, that’s spying,” Blaine protests. He doesn’t want to be the group that won because they spied on the competition.

“Oh, lay off your high horse, Anderson,” Santana snaps.

“Does he have a high horse because he’s so short?” Brittany wants to know, looking at Santana.

“I just don’t believe in cheating.” Blaine regrets the words the minute they come out of his mouth. Kurt is gripping the wheel tightly, his whole body stiff.

“I’m well aware that you don’t believe in it, Blaine.” Kurt’s voice is low. Blaine sighs. “We’re not cheating. We’re simply going to observe their routine... and possibly film it.” He glances at Blaine. “Besides, don’t you remember how we met?”

Blaine wants to protest again. This isn’t right… but he doesn’t, because Kurt has a point. They blatantly performed for Kurt that day, knowing he was a spy. Blaine remembers flirting with Kurt during the whole song, even.

“We’re not stealing their routines,” Blaine warns. “We’re just watching.” He pauses and then looks at Brittany. “And I’m not that short.”

“How did you two meet?” Santana asks after a moment. “I never cared before.”

“The boys were being their typical Neanderthal selves during last year’s boys versus girls competition. Puck suggested I go spy on the Warblers. So I did.”

“Badly,” Blaine adds. “You’re just lucky we liked you.”

Kurt rolls his eyes. “Blaine pretty much serenaded me right there. We’d known each other for about five minutes.”

“Hey, we were trying to make a good impression.”

“Yeah, a good impression is being nice, Blaine. You grabbed my hand, took me on a ‘short-cut’ and then flirted with me through song.”

“Then what happened?” Brittany wanted to know.

“Do we really have to discuss this?” Sebastian interjects. “As fascinating as it all is, shouldn’t we be planning what we’re going to do once we reach the school?”

“I was completely friend-zoned,” Kurt answers Brittany. “It was months before we got together.” He glances at Sebastian in the mirror. “And don’t worry about what to do when we get there. I’ve got a plan.”

Blaine has a feeling this isn’t going to go the way Kurt wants it to, but he doesn’t say anything because the others seem excited. He can only hope that this is a simple in and out type of thing. He really, really, really doesn’t want this to go badly. He doesn’t want to have to answer to his parents or Kurt’s parents – or worse, somehow get themselves kicked out of the competition. He’d never heard the end of it from the rest of New Directions if that happened.

Even as he reaches over and takes Kurt’s hand, an apology in his eyes for his earlier comment, he knows this will not end well.

*

“Ouch,” Santana hissed as she crouches down next to him. “You stepped on my hand.”

“Sorry,” Blaine whispers. The six of them have just snuck in to the back of the Carmel High auditorium, and Vocal Adrenaline is gathered on the stage, clearly getting ready to start practice.

Kurt’s got his video camera out, the lens poking through the hole between the seats, sitting on the armrest. Blaine would love to be snuggled up next to him in the aisle but alas, he was voted to the lookout spot.

It’s Blaine’s job to make sure no one discovers them while they’re filming. He hadn’t wanted it, but he’d been unable to deny the logic of the argument. Simply put, he’s the only one of their group Jesse St. James, new coach of Vocal Adrenaline, won’t recognize. He obviously knows Kurt, Santana, and Brittany from New Directions. There was fear that he could also recognize Dave from his brief time matriculating as a student at McKinley. Even Sebastian is a risk – Jesse had apparently staked out the Warblers sectionals in an attempt to recruit Sebastian.

That left him, on the end of the row, his eyes peeled for anyone looking their way. Vocal Adrenaline starts rehearsing, the music blasting on as Jesse yells at them to get in formation. Blaine sees first hand just how right Kurt is about them – they really do come over as robots. Not a one of them remotely looks like they even want to be there, let alone performing for Jesse. Still, they go through the routine and Blaine hates to admit it, but they’re good.

“Oh, crap,” he mutters, looking around.

“What?” Santana whispers.

“Jesse’s gone,” Blaine nods toward the stage. “I didn’t see where he went.”

“Then you better go find him!” she snaps quietly. Blaine stares at her for a long moment, debating on how serious she is. “Go!”

So Blaine gets up, still hunched over and heads for the door at the top of the auditorium stairs. He slips out unseen (or so he assumes, as he can still hear the music going in the auditorium and he didn’t hear anyone crying out about spies as he left), and pauses in the hallway. He heads down the corridor and then turns, heading down the stairs. He’s in luck. Jesse’s standing there, talking on his phone. Jesse hangs up, looking upset and that’s when Blaine makes his move. It’s probably best to keep Jesse out of the auditorium until the others are done anyway.

“Excuse me,” Blaine calls, coming down the last of the steps. Jesse turns around and stares at him. “Can you help me? I’m new here.”

“I really don’t have time for this,” Jesse mutters. “Do I look old and bitter to you?” he asks Blaine. Blaine stares at him, confused for a moment.

“No?” he offers, unsure of what to say next.

“Then why are you treating me like an information booth?” Jesse replies. “Those people have terrible fashion sense and my skin tone would completely clash with those horrible polyester uniforms they’re required to wear. It’s terrible. If I was a better man, I’d do something about it and save all those decrepit people from their fate.”

Blaine wasn’t sure his eyes could actually open any wider. It was a wonder his eyeballs hadn’t fallen out. He’d though Kurt was exaggerating about Jesse in the stories he’d told, but Blaine was now fully aware that may Kurt had been telling the truth. He had no idea what to do with that.

“I’m looking for Jesse St. James,” Blaine says, ignoring Jesse’s words for the moment, hoping to get the conversation back on track.

“You found him,” Jesse replies. “Honestly, I’m a little hurt that you didn’t recognize me. I was so sure that I had fanbase among those under five foot five.”

“I’m actually five foot eight,” Blaine tells him, the words slipping out before he can stop them. He has no idea why he’s engaging Jesse this way.

“I’ll forgive you for that,” Jesse says. “Can we make this quick? I have to go turn those unwashed, uncoordinated masses into something resembling dancers. It wouldn’t be so difficult if any of them had a modicum of the talent I possess.”

Blaine blinks at him for a second, once again speechless. He thinks he was going somewhere with this conversation but it’s gotten so derailed from his original intent of distraction that he blurts out the first thing he can think of. “I was hoping to get a late audition for Vocal Adrenaline.”

Jesse stares at him for a long moment, his eyes roving over Blaine’s body and then lets out a sigh of what Blaine can only assume is disappointment. It kind of makes him uncomfortable, but he doesn’t say anything. “Can you even sing?” he asks, doubt written all over his face. Now Blaine’s offended. It takes a lot to get him to that point, but five minutes with Jesse St. James and he’s about to snap.

Blaine tries not to let Jesse see how much he’s getting to him. The last thing he needs is to give Jesse any kind of power in this situation. “Of course I can.”

Jesse nods. “Look, Poindexter, I’ve come across a lot of kids at this school who ‘think’ they can sing,” he tells Blaine. Blaine lets him talk, trying not to laugh when Jesse does ‘air quotes’ with his fingers. “If someone gave me a Tony for the number of times I was told someone could sing, I'd be able to line Broadway - from Inwood to Bowling Green - and still have some left over to use as door stops for my future city loft on the Upper West Side."

“I was the lead singer in the glee club at my old school,” Blaine says in a rush.

“And was that elementary school?” Jesse wants to know. “Between your outfit and stature, you look like you’re twelve.”

Blaine can’t even with this guy. He’s not sure what he can even say to that, and really? Because Jesse’s considering letting him audition and if he really things that Blaine is twelve, he wouldn’t even be in high school. Kurt had vaguely mentioned that Vocal Adrenaline was extreme, but Blaine thinks maybe that was Kurt being nice and he’s really starting to wonder if Jesse’s breaking any show choir rules.

“I don’t have all day.” Jesse gets his attention. “I’m prematurely wrinkling here and I refuse to have crow’s feet before I’ve even been on Broadway. Can we wrap this up?”

“It’s just…” Blaine flounders for something else he can say. He can hear that Vocal Adrenaline is still rehearsing and hasn’t seen hide or hair of the rest of the group. “You’re kind of a legend, you know?”

“Of course I am.” Jesse stands up a little straighter, and pats Blaine on the shoulder. “I respect a man who can admit that others are better than him, especially when he suffers from such obvious shortcomings.”

Do not get angry, do not get angry, do not get angry, Blaine mentally repeats to himself. He just has to keep this up for a few more minutes. “I really can sing, honest, and it would just mean so much to get to work with you and,” Blaine has to force the next words out, nearly choking on them as they leave his lips, “learn from your expertise.”

Jesse puffs his chest out proudly. “I did lead the school to its seventh National Championship. I could teach you so much.” He sighs. “Of course, there’s only so much I can improve on, but we all have our failings. Not everyone can be as talented as I am.”

“And that’s why I want to join – think of the things I could learn from you.” Blaine has no idea what he is saying; he is just letting the words flow from his mouth now. He can only hope that he doesn’t end up regretting anything that slips passed his lips.

When they got back, the others were going to owe him big time for this. He was going to demand payment in coffee and he’d be lucky if he had to pay for any hot beverage again before he graduated from high school.

“What grade are you in….” Jesse trails off, indicating he wanted to know Blaine’s name.

“Blaine,” he answers, hoping Jesse won’t recognize his name. “I’m a junior.”

Jesse is giving him a critical eye now, much different than the once over he gave Blaine at first. “I’ll tell you what, short stack, I like you. You’re polite and obviously recognize it when someone is more talented than you are.”

Blaine blinks at him for a moment.

“You kind of remind me of me,” Jesse continues and Blaine just kind of wants to curl up in a ball and die at that comment. Never in a million years did he ever thing he’d be compared to Jesse St. James and he’s pretty sure it’s not the compliment Jesse seems to think it is. “Except my features are more aesthetically pleasing and I don’t dress like I shop in the children’s department at the Gap.”

Blaine just stares at him with what he’s praying is a hopeful expression.

“Come find me tomorrow between classes and I’ll make sure you get an audition,” Jesse tells him and Blaine can’t actually believe this has worked. Of course, when he didn’t show up for the audition and then Jesse saw him performing at New Directions at Nationals, he’d probably be a little pissed, but Blaine couldn’t worry about that for right now.

“Thank you so much!” Blaine exclaims, trying to make it sound like he’s really grateful. If nothing else, this has definitely been a test of his acting skills. Blaine can’t decide if Jesse’s so conceited he just hasn’t noticed how terrible Blaine is at this or if he’s actually good at it. Blaine’s not sure he wants to actually know the answer.

The auditorium door clatters open behind Jesse and Kurt sees Sebastian poking his head out. Jesse turns toward the noise (after all, his glee club was supposed to be rehearsing, not sneaking out of the auditorium), but Blaine grabs his arm. Jesse’s mouth falls open like he’s about to tell Blaine off for deigning to touch greatness without permission or something, but Blaine is so desperate to keep Jesse from seeing the others that he doesn’t care.

“So tomorrow, you said?” Blaine repeats, hoping to keep his attention and Jesse sighs.

“Yes, come find me and we’ll make sure you get squared away. I better not regret this,” Jesse replies. “Maybe you should see about getting a hearing aid between now and then too. I really don’t like repeating myself. People should be hanging on my every word.”

Blaine nods, watching as Sebastian darts into the hallway and around the corner, followed quickly by Brittany and then Santana.

Dave runs out next, his shoe squeaking on the freshly mopped floor. Jesse goes to turn his head again, and Blaine does the first thing he can think of. He tightens his grip on Jesse’s arm and practically simpers out, “Oh, my God, is that your bicep?” Jesse stares at him, eyes wide as Blaine moves closer. “Do you work out?”

Kurt creeps out and into the hallway, looking in their direction to make sure the coast is clear. Blaine can see him over Jesse’s shoulder. Kurt pauses, his eyes wide when he takes in how close Blaine and Jesse are standing. Blaine wants nothing more for Kurt to keep going so he can end this farce as soon as possible, but it’s like Kurt is frozen, just standing there in the hallway.

“I asked around about you,” Blaine says in a rush, stroking his fingers down Jesse’s arm before lifting his hand to rest on Jesse’s shoulder. Jesse looks like he doesn’t know if he should be flattered or not. “And I was told that you were sex on a stick and you sing like a dream.” He points at Kurt with the hand on Jesse’s shoulder, so it’s out of Jesse’s sight. Kurt’s still just standing there in the middle of the hallway and Blaine’s starting to panic because he doesn’t know what else he can do here. “I can’t believe they were right. You’re everything I was told and more.”

Blaine struggles to keep a straight face as he plays at flirting with Jesse, though that last part is the God’s honest truth. He’s never going to doubt Kurt’s stories again.

“Listen, Bart,” Jesse replies, looking like he’s about to relay distressing news.

“Blaine,” he can’t help but correct.

“Whatever,” Jesse continues. “I hate to break it to you, but I’m a one woman man – whether she knows it or not.” He looks sad for a moment and Blaine almost feels bad for him. Blaine’s got a pretty good idea Jesse’s talking about Rachel.

Suddenly Sebastian comes from around the corner and grabs Kurt, jerking him backward and out of sight. Blaine exhales and meet’s Jesse’s gaze, giving him a half smile. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then?” With that, Blaine lets go of Jesse’s arm and moves around him.

He follows the others around the corner, seeing them standing there. “What are you waiting for?” he hisses. “Let’s go!”

They break out into a run, slamming through the exterior doors of the building in their haste, and it’s not until they’re out in the parking lot the first laugh escapes. It’s contagious and suddenly they’re all laughing as they climb into Kurt’s Navigator and speed off out of the parking lot.

*

“Okay, I just have to ask,” Santana speaks up from the backseat. “What were you doing?” She’s looking at Blaine. He flushes under her gaze.

“I was trying to keep you guys from getting caught,” he answers, unable to look her in the eye.

“’Cause from where I was standing, it looked like you were hitting on him,” Santana continues. Blaine just covers his face with his hands in embarrassment.

Santana cackles out a laugh. “Oh, Blainers, that’s classic. Wait until I tell Berry.”

“I knew you were hitting on him!” Kurt exclaims, his fingers tight on the steering wheel.

“Well, if you hadn’t done your best impersonation of a statue in the middle of the hallway, he wouldn’t have had to,” Sebastian points out.

“I didn’t know what else to do!” Blaine bursts out. “I’d already played the ‘I’m new here, can I have an audition’ card and then you guys came bursting out of the auditorium like herd of elephants loose in a china shop,” he explains. “I did the first thing I could think of.”

“What did you say?” Santana prods. “Inquiring minds want to know.”

“First, at least tell me you guys got something we can use,” Blaine replies.

“Of course we did,” Kurt confirms. “Now spill.”

“Okay, so I told him I was new and wanted to join Vocal Adrenaline,” Blaine explains. “And then he agreed to give me an audition. It was going well and then you guys showed up.” He can feel his face going red again. “So I grabbed his arm and complimented his bicep.”

There’s a giggle from behind him but Blaine can’t tell if it’s Santana or Brittany.

“And then…” Blaine pauses, ‘cause he can’t believe he’s about to say this. “I told him that I’d heard he was sex on stick and that he sang like a dream.”

Santana is doubled over with laughter now, practically collapsed into Brittany’s lap. Brittany’s laughing too. Kurt makes a choking sound and Blaine realizes he’s pulling the Navigator off to the side of the road. Before he can ask what Kurt is doing, his boyfriend leans over the steering wheel, forehead resting on it and shoulders shaking. For a second, Blaine thinks he might be crying but then a laugh escapes and Kurt leans back, wiping his eyes.

Kurt is laughing so hard he’s crying and that’s why he’s pulled the SUV over. Even Sebastian and Dave are chuckling behind him.

“Oh, laugh it up, Sebastian,” Blaine says, turning around. “That is the exact same line you used on me when we met. I couldn’t make that up.”

Kurt pauses for a second and Blaine wonders if he’s going to get upset about that information but he just busts into giggles a second time. “Wow,” Kurt mutters. “I can’t believe I was worried about you stealing him,” he says to Sebastian. “That’s a terrible pick up line.”

“I thought it would work,” Sebastian defends. He’s still laughing. “The best part about it is that I didn’t make it up either. I really was told that.”

Blaine knows he can’t get any redder and he’s laughing now too and oh, his face hurts. “Oh, God. It was Thad, wasn’t it?” Kurt manages to get out.

“How did you know?” Sebastian calms down just enough to ask. The rest of them are trying to get themselves under control but failing at it. “He wouldn't shut up about Blaine for the first month I was there.”

“I knew he had a thing for you,” Kurt crows between his tears and his laughter, pointing at Blaine. He’s starting to feel like he slipped into some kind of Twilight Zone episode, given the events of the afternoon and adding in the fact that Kurt and Sebastian are sort of bonding about bad pickup lines and boys who have crushes on him.

It’s another ten minutes before Kurt can calm down enough to put the SUV back in drive and back onto the road. The rest of them are in good spirits, now exchanging the world’s worst pickup lines Blaine has ever heard (and he’s pretty sure Sebastian wins with “The word of the day is ‘legs.’ Let's go back to my place and spread the word”).

All in all, Blaine supposes it could have gone worse. He reaches over and take’s Kurt’s hand. Kurt smiles at him quickly before turning back to the road, his eyes full of love.

“By the way,” Blaine casually drops into the conversation. “Every single one of you owes me coffee for life.”


The Twelfth Saturday


“I can’t believe no one stuck up for me at all this week,” Kurt laments as he and Blaine find seats at the Lima Bean. “I mean, they all just sat there and let Coach Sylvester go on and on about me dressing up like a girl.”

“I’m sorry,” Blaine says sincerely. And he is. He has no idea why Coach Sylvester is so fixated on this as what they need to win. Sure, there’s Unique, who’s clearly a weapon for Vocal Adrenaline. Now that he’s seen what they can do first hand, Blaine has to admit that they are against some steep competition at Nationals. He just hopes that they can pull off a win. The seniors - especially Kurt, Mercedes and Rachel, who’ve been there since day one - deserve it.

“I don’t understand why you can’t just take one for the team,” Santana says, plopping down next to Blaine on the couch, cup of coffee in her hands. “I mean, Noah Puckerman put on a dress and was willing to do it. Why aren’t you?”

Brittany takes the seat beside her. Kurt glares at Santana.

“What are we talking about?” Sebastian asks, joining them, sinking into one of the armchairs. Dave is on his heels, joining them.

“The fact that everyone in New Directions apparently thinks I’m female,” Kurt muttered.

“I don’t think you’re a girl,” Blaine replies, trying to be helpful.

“That’s because you’ve seen him naked,” Santana points out. Blaine doesn’t know what to say to that, so he just puts his arm around Kurt’s shoulders.

“Wait,” Dave interrupts. “Go back to the part where Puck was wearing a dress.”

“He was dumpstered for it too,” Santana tells them.

“I’m sorry,” Sebastian says. “Dumpstered?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” Kurt mutters. “You get thrown in the dumpster.” He pauses. “I hope it wasn’t spaghetti day. That stuff never comes out.”

“You used to get thrown in the dumpster?” Sebastian asks.

“Yes,” Kurt answers. “By Puck, which is all kinds of ironic.” He sighs. “You name it; I’ve probably had it happen to me.”

“Yet you had your chance to escape and stay at Dalton, but you chose to go back and you dragged Blaine with you,” Sebastian replies. “I don’t get that. Why would you go back to a place where people bully you?”

“I transferred back because every day bullying I can handle,” Kurt tells him. “Things got out of hand for a while and I had to get out of McKinley, but I love New Directions – we’re family. I wanted to go back to that.” Blaine can see that Dave is staring at the rim of his coffee cup, not meeting anyone’s gazes. Everyone there knows exactly what Dave has done (maybe not Sebastian) and he’s surprised to see that Dave still has guilt about it.

“The same family who let your cheerleading coach call you a girl and tried to get you to wear a dress?” Sebastian points out. “Sign me up for that.”

“Would you believe I’m her favorite student?” Kurt says. “Besides - family is family. At the end of the day, we love each other despite mistakes we might make or things we might say or didn’t say.”

“But you wear girls clothes all the time,” Dave finally speaks up. “Why is wearing a dress such a big deal?”

Blaine can’t explain what happens next. Maybe it’s because Kurt’s had a long week and he’s stressed out or maybe it’s just one too many people telling him that he’s too effeminate, but Kurt just snaps. “Because I’m not a girl, David!”

David looks momentarily chagrined.

“I’m sure things between us last year would have been much better if I had been,” Kurt continues and Blaine’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise – Kurt doesn't talk about the bullying that he suffered very much. Blaine’s pretty sure he’s the only one who really knows how much Kurt actually went through because of it.

“I didn’t mean…” Dave trails off, looking stricken.

“No one ever does,” Kurt mutters. Silence falls and they all shift awkwardly in their chairs. Blaine’s just about to suggest maybe they should call it a day when Kurt speaks again. “I’m sorry. It’s just a very sensitive subject this week.”

“You shouldn’t be apologizing to me,” Dave insists.

“We said it was all water under the bridge, David,” Kurt replies. “I forgave you a long time ago.”

“Why?” Dave asks.

“Because I needed to,” Kurt tells him. “And because you needed it.”

Blaine presses a kiss to Kurt’s cheek and Kurt smiles at him.

“Okay, now that we’ve all sufficiently made nice,” Santana interrupts, “can we go back to freaking out about Nationals?”

“How about something else?” Dave looks at them, and Blaine can see he’s got an idea brewing.

“What?” He can’t help but ask.

“Well, you guys are freaking out about Nationals, right?” Dave pauses while they nod. “Before I would play football, I had a pregame ritual–"

“I am not forgoing bathing or washing any clothing,” Kurt cuts him off, pointing at Dave. “Not happening.”

“I used to go bowling,” Dave says. “It kept my mind off the game.”

“So you’re suggesting we get all sweaty and throw some balls around?” Santana clarifies with a grin.

“I’ve done that,” Brittany interjects.

“Something like that,” Dave confirms. “You guys in?”

Blaine bounces in his seat. He loves bowling. He’s all for this.


Saturday Night Interlude


The bowling alley is loud and boisterous when they arrive. Kurt looks around in disdain, but doesn’t say anything. Blaine wishes he could take Kurt’s hand, but he doesn’t think they could get away with it here, so he doesn’t. He’s only a little bitter that Santana and Brittany can, observing the pair walking with their pinkies linked between them.

The double standard with regard to PDA is something that Blaine doesn’t often worry about - he and Kurt are private about their relationship because they prefer it that way, not just because it wouldn’t be socially acceptable for them to kiss in public.

Convincing Kurt and Santana to come along had been like pulling teeth. Kurt had refused on the grounds that he would have to rent shoes and Santana refused because she didn’t want to ruin her manicure. Still, between himself and Dave, they’d managed to get everyone to agree. Sebastian had taken some cajoling as well, but not nearly as much as Kurt and Santana had. Blaine was pretty sure he was only there because Dave had asked him to come.

The music was pumping over the loudspeakers and balls crashed into pins behind them as they went over to the counter to pay. Dave reserved them two lanes before setting into the difficult task of renting shoes.

They found their lanes and set about switching out their footwear.

Blaine watched as Kurt put on two pairs of fresh socks. “What are you doing?”

“If I have to wear these, I’m going to do whatever I can to keep my feet from touching them.”

Blaine was pretty sure that wearing double layer socks would mostly likely make Kurt’s feet sweat and probably defeat the whole purpose of trying to avoid exposing his feet to disease and might also cause dry skin, but he didn’t say anything because he really, really wanted Kurt to bowl with them.

“Have you ever bowled before?” Blaine asks him instead, changing his shoes.

“Rented shoes, Blaine,” Kurt replies, as if that says everything and yeah, Blaine guesses that it does.

“So that’s a no?” he teases, leaning toward Kurt.

“Yeah, that’s a no.” Kurt confirms, returning his smiling. Blaine can see the dimple that shows only Kurt is truly smiling and knows that even though Kurt doesn’t want to do this, he’s willing to because it means spending time with Blaine.

The others are about done too and the argument about who should play on which team begins. Santana insists on being with Brittany, Blaine has no preference and Sebastian doesn’t seem to want Kurt on his team. Blaine frowns at that, unsure if it’s Sebastian reverting to his old misconceptions in regard to Kurt or if he just really wants to win and thinks he won’t with Kurt on his team because Kurt’s never bowled before.

“Okay,” Blaine interrupts. “Why don’t we do this?” He points to himself. “Sebastian, Santana, and me on one team, and Kurt, Dave and Brittany on the other.” He suggests. Santana looks like she’s about to complain, but Blaine heads her off. “We’ll probably win,” he tells her. She sighs and finally agrees.

“But if we lose, sparkles, I’mma go all Lima Heights,” she says. “Just so’s we clear.”

“Crystal,” Blaine replies, giving her a big smile. She breathes out a laugh and smiles back at him, and Blaine can’t help but be happy about that. “Let’s kick some ass,” she tells him. He makes an after you gesture as the group heads off, picking out their bowling balls and deciding on team names.

The competition is fierce once the game starts. Nothing is off limits – cat calling, flirting – they all took part. Sometimes it paid off, but mostly it just made them laugh. Blaine can’t remember the last time he’s had this much fun. They need to make a point of doing this more often, especially while Santana and Kurt are still in Ohio.

He pushes that thought away though, picking up his ball to take his turn. Kurt lines up next to him, ball in his hand, ready to take his shot. He does a little shimmy and then takes two steps before letting the ball leave his hands. He’s thrown like this all night, and each time Blaine can’t help but stare. Kurt’s jeans are skin tight and practically look painted on, and he’s a sexually active teenage boy, so of course he’s going to be staring at Kurt’s ass.

It’s very distracting and Kurt knows it.

Every time Kurt’s done it, Blaine’s missed his shot. Sebastian’s already cranky about it – Blaine wonders if isn’t considering that he messed up not having Kurt on his team. Kurt also seems to have beginner’s luck – only Sebastian is currently scoring higher than he is. He takes his throw, trying to block out the sight of Kurt in those pants and manages to knock over all but two pins. He sighs and waits for his ball to come back. Kurt got a strike and he’s bouncing on his feet in excitement. They both go again. Kurt knocks over about half of his. Blaine misses completely and he hears Sebastian groan behind him.

It’s Dave and Sebastian’s turn now. Blaine watches as Dave gets up and is reaching for his bowling ball when he freezes. Blaine sees that he’s staring at lanes farther down from them and follows his gaze.

McKinley jackets.

“What’s wrong?” Kurt asks, seeing Dave motionless. Dave inclines his head and Kurt turns to look. “Oh, crap.”

“What?” Sebastian wants to know, coming over with his ball in his hands. “Friends of yours?”

“Hardly,” Kurt mutters. “That’s at least three members of the hockey team and their girlfriends.” The girls are all wearing Cheerios uniforms.

“The guy in blue,” Dave says, talking about the only guy not wearing a McKinley jacket in the group, “That’s Nick. He’s the guy who outed me.”

“What’s he doing with those guys?” Blaine looks at the guy. He looks like a nice person. It’s hard to imagine someone doing something so terrible, but it had happened. He remembers the day he and Kurt had found out about Karofsky’s attempted suicide very vividly. “I think his girlfriend is one of the Cheerios.”

Santana starts swearing in Spanish under her breath, fire in her eyes.

“Calm down,” Kurt hisses at her. “The last thing we need is to cause some kind of trouble.”

“We should leave,” Blaine suggests.

“No,” Dave counters. “I’m not letting them chase me out of here. We were here first, we’re having fun and we’re not hurting anyone. If they have a problem with it, they can leave.”

“Are you sure?” Kurt asks. “We can go do something else.”

“You should never give in to the tyranny of your oppressors,” Brittany offers. They all turn to look at her for a second. Brittany’s always surprising. Blaine can’t figure out if she’s got a learning disability or if she just refuses to pay attention to things she doesn’t care about. He also can’t bring himself to ask and Kurt doesn’t know (because Blaine had asked him back when they’d first become friends and he’d met the members of New Directions).

“I want to stay,” Dave says, picking up his ball. “Besides, we’ve actually got a shot to win this and I can’t wait to rub their noses in it.”

Kurt laughs and some of the tension eases a little.

“Bring it on,” Santana urges, laughing.

They resume the game but Blaine can’t take his eyes from the group of jocks. He’s uncomfortable, but Dave has a point – they aren’t bothering anyone and neither are the jocks and he doesn’t really want to leave because they’re having fun. It’s the first time in days any of them have relaxed because Nationals have them all wired and stressed out.

He and Kurt have just finished their turns, Kurt kissing him on the cheek in celebration because Blaine had actually managed a strike that time when he feels eyes on him. Blaine glances down and sees the jocks have noticed them now. His heart beats faster in his chest and he kind of can’t breathe.

He sort of stumbles to the nearest chair, collapsing into it like his body has turned to jelly. Blaine can feel himself trembling, knows he’s on the verge of a panic attack and tries to take a deep breath.

“Blaine, are you okay?” He manages a nod and concentrates on his breathing. He can get through this. “Blaine, you’re scaring me.”

The others have stopped playing now, standing around watching him and he hates the way that makes him feel, vulnerable and exposed and responsible for ruining their fun.

“I just got a little shaky,” Blaine manages to get out, the panicky feelings residing a little with concentrated breaths. He can do this. He goes to McKinley every day with those guys and they never mess with him. He can handle one night at a bowling alley.

“Why don’t we go to the caf� and get something to eat?” Kurt suggests. Blaine glances at the score. They’ve each one frame left to bowl and the game is tied.

“You hate this kind of food,” Blaine protests.

“I’ll get a diet soda,” Kurt replies. “Come on.”

“The game is tied,” he tries again. He doesn’t want them to end the game just because he had a momentary freak out.

“And you look like you’re about to pass out, so let’s just call it a draw, get some food and –"

“Karaoke?” Blaine asks with a hopeful expression. If he can perform, he can shake off the panic he’s feeling. He knows that the bowling alley has karaoke nights on Saturday’s and should be getting ready to get it started in a bit.

Kurt groans. “Fine, karaoke. But only because I love you.”

“You’re the best,” Blaine says, rising on trembling legs. The others gather their stuff, and just as Dave is turning to lead them to the caf�, they come face to face with the McKinley jocks and the guy the Dave said had been the one to out him.

“’Sup, Karofsky?” one of them asked. Blaine wasn’t sure he even knew any of their names. He just concentrated on his breathing and not passing out. This was like every nightmare he’d ever had coming true.

“Not much.” Dave shrugs, his hands in his pockets. Blaine wonders what they must look like, standing there. He’s clinging to Kurt, Santana and Brittany are holding hands, and Sebastian is just behind Dave, arms crossed over his chest.

“Heard you caught the gay,” another one of them said.

Dave barks out a laugh. “That’s so funny,” he chortled, turning around to glance at the others. “Isn’t that so funny, guys?” he says, his tone suddenly becoming sarcastic and angry. “You might want to back up then, in case I’m contagious.”

Blaine can hardly believe this is happening. He’s not sure what he’s finding more bizarre in this scenario – the fact that they’re actually having a face-off in the middle of the bowling alley or the fact that Dave Karofsky, of all people, is defending them. He’s kind of come pretty far in a year – considering this time the previous year he was a permanent resident in the closet and wouldn’t even dance with Kurt at prom.

Blaine’s even more surprised when Sebastian moves forward and drapes his arm around Dave’s shoulders, leaning against him. “Is there a problem, fellas?” he asks. “You’re kind of interrupting our night out.”

The McKinley jocks look shocked at the action and the blond guy grimaces. “Dude,” one of them pipes up from the back. “We showered with you.”

“Dude,” Karofsky drawls. “I’m not interested and I never was.”

Silence reigned at that comment until the guy continues, “Why not? Are you calling me ugly?” He almost sounds offended and Blaine can feel a smile tugging at his lips at the utter absurdity of the conversation currently happening around him. He knows he can’t laugh though, because even if this situation doesn’t escalate, he doesn’t want to be accused of laughing at one of them and turning it into something dangerous.

“You’re not my type,” Dave answers. Blaine can see Kurt smirking out of the corner of his eye and wants to elbow him but he makes himself hold still. “I prefer men,” Dave continues, and then shocking them all, he leans over and kisses Sebastian on the mouth.

A grumble goes through the group and the guy in the back shifts like he is going to move against Karofsky. Blaine is sort of relishing the fact that he already had figured it out about Sebastian and Karofsky having something going on, but this is so, so not the way he wanted to get any kind of official confirmation on the subject.

“Hey,” Kurt got everyone’s attention. “You really want to start something here?” He gestured around. They’d amassed a bit of an audience. “You can be identified. Sometimes you’re smart boys. Act like it.”

“Let’s get out of here,” one of them growls and the group picks up the Cheerios from their lanes and heads out.

Blaine lets out an exhale and grips Kurt’s arm tightly in his hand. “Should we go?”

“Let them leave,” Santana says. “We were here first anyway.” She takes Brittany’s hand and leads the way toward the caf�. “What I want to know,” she glances at Dave and Sebastian, who are now holding hands, “is when you two hooked up and why you didn’t spill sooner.”

The answers are put on hold while they approach the counter and order food that Kurt is horrified at (except then his boyfriend turns right around and orders a large slice of pizza and Blaine can’t help but tease him about it). Once they have their food, they find a booth and sit down.

“Okay, spill,” Santana tells them. “I want all the juicy details.”

“We just realized we kind of liked each other… after Kurt’s birthday party,” Dave answers, blushing.

“You could have told us,” Kurt points out, taking a large bite of his slice. Blaine is enjoying his chili cheese fries and waiting to see what Sebastian and Dave will say next.

“We were still figuring it out,” Sebastian shrugs. “Not like I’ve ever been monogamous before. Wasn’t sure it was for me.”

It kind of hurts Blaine to hear that because he knows that while Sebastian is being truthful, it means that all the time Sebastian spent perusing him was truly just to get him in bed and not because he really had any care for Blaine himself or how he might feel about anything. Blaine has never been more grateful that he said no, that he turned Sebastian down, because he would have hated himself so much if he’d thrown away what he and Kurt had for what would have been a fling on Sebastian’s part.

“So are you together now?” Brittany wants to know. “’Cause I can have Lord Tubbington throw you a tea party to celebrate if you want.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Sebastian comments, but he’s smiling and Blaine can’t help but like him a little for that.

“We’re still… seeing how it goes,” Dave finally speaks, biting into his burger.

Kurt makes a noise under his breath and Blaine elbows him. Thankfully Sebastian and Dave don’t seem to hear it because the last thing they need is another fight. Familiar strains of music wash over Blaine as he hears someone mangling one of his favorite songs. He quickly rushes through his fries, urging the others to hurry. He’s been promised karaoke and after what they’ve been through so far that night, he’s going to get it.

They finish up their food and make their way over to the side of the bowling alley where the karaoke is set up. Blaine turns to them and smiles. “We’re all singing and I have the perfect song.”

There were a couple of groans, but Blaine pulls out his ace in the hole. “You all owe me for helping you spy,” he reminds them.

“Fine, Gene Kelly,” Santana agrees. “Let’s just get this over and done with.”

“I have to get home before Lord Tubbington’s medication wears off,” Brittany adds, as they climb the stage and find microphones. The song starts and Blaine starts.

“Oh, nowhere left to go. Are we getting closer, closer?” he sings, holding the mic in one hand.

Kurt came in behind him. “No, all we know is ‘no.’ Nights are getting colder, colder.”

Brittany and Santana sang together. “Hey! Tears all fall the same. We all feel the rain. We can't change.”


“Everywhere we go, we're lookin' for the sun. Nowhere to grow old, we're always on the run.” They were all singing together now, harmonizing. “They say we'll rot in Hell, but I don't think we will. They've branded us enough, outlaws of love.”

“Scars make us who we are. Hearts and homes are broken, broken,” Dave sings the next part, his voice shaking a little. Blaine’s not sure if it’s because they’re singing in public or the song lyrics.

Sebastian’s next. “Far, we could go so far, with our minds wide open, open.”

Santana and Brittany sing again, and then they’re all back to the chorus, their voices rising and falling together. The smattering of an audience they’ve accrued is watching them intently and Blaine’s can’t tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. An older man in the corner looks like he might be crying, but Blaine’s not sure.

The last note rings out and the small crowd applauds. They eat it up, bowing (and in Kurt’s case, curtseying), until the guy who normally works the counter gets Kurt’s attention.

“Hummel,” he says. “You own a black Lincoln Navigator, right?”

Blaine’s stomach sinks when Kurt nods.

This is going to be bad.

It’s worse than Blaine thought it would be. The guy behind the counter leads them outside to where his manager is standing. The alarm on Kurt’s Navigator is going off and the lights are flashing.

Brittany lets out a cry when she sees it and Santana pulls her close. Dave and Sebastian both stop short. Kurt keeps walking though, his hand pressed over his mouth. Blaine follows behind him, feeling that panic he’d pushed away earlier come back full force but he tries to control it because he can’t fall apart right now. Not when Kurt needs him, because he does.

The Navigator is trashed. All the windows are gone. There’s broken glass on the ground under their feet, making crunching noises as he takes Kurt’s hand and they walk around inspecting the vehicle. Someone has spray-painted slurs and phrases like “rot in hell!” on every available surface. The tires have been slashed and the hood was raised. Blaine has no idea what kind of damage could have been done to the engine.

“I called the cops,” the manager tells them. “They’ll be here soon.”

Kurt sort of crumples at his words and Blaine pulls him close, holding him tightly. He thinks he might murmur something reassuring in Kurt’s ear but Blaine has no idea what he’s saying.

“I have to call my dad,” Kurt sniffles and pulls back. He pulls out his phone and dials.

“Dad?” he says after a moment. “There’s been an… incident.”

*

Blaine collapses onto Kurt’s bed, bony weary and utterly exhausted. Kurt falls into bed next to him. “I’m so tired, I don’t know if I have the energy to get my clothes off,” he says, his voice muffled by the pillow his face is smushed into. That’s pretty tired in Blaine’s eyes, considering how Kurt feels about his clothes.

They’ve just gotten back to Kurt’s house from the bowling alley and it’s getting to be early morning. Blaine already has permission from both sets of parents to stay the night. It’s just a matter of getting themselves into bed at this point.

The cops had come as Kurt had gotten off the phone with his dad. They’d been asked several questions about what happened and who they thought might have done it before the cops had turned to the manager and questioned him and the staff as well. They had to come down at another date and make an official statement. The cops took pictures and so did Kurt, once he’d stopped crying and started getting angry. The cops let Kurt open the doors and investigate the contents to see if anything was missing – Kurt thought maybe some of the tools he kept in the trunk were gone but he didn’t really keep much in there from what Blaine recalled.

Burt pulled up just as the cops were wrapping things up, the Hummel’s Tire and Lube tow truck clattering to a stop when he shut off the engine.

Burt was full of questions, taking in the six of them standing there looking upset.

Kurt had cut him off, insisting that they’d tell him the whole story later and they just wanted to get the car up on the tow truck so they could go home.

Santana’s mother had shown up while they were working and taken Santana, Brittany, Dave and Sebastian home. Finally, Burt had driven the Navigator to the shop, dropping them off at the house on the way.

And here they were, Kurt too tired to take advantage of what appeared to be an empty house (with Carole at work and Finn at Puck’s). Blaine knew he should be as worn out as Kurt was, but the anger of what had happened thrummed under his skin. He needed an outlet but he didn’t have access to one at the moment – he resolved that he would get face time with the punching bag at the gym in the morning.

“I undress you, you undress me?” Kurt offered, yawning. Blaine rolled onto his side to look at Kurt.

“Is that a serious offer? Cause you sound exhausted,” Blaine asks.

“I just…” Kurt lifts his head from the pillow and meets Blaine’s gaze. “I need to remind myself that they don’t know anything and that what we have isn't wrong.”

Blaine knows all about that feeling. He’s had it before (after the Sadie Hawkins dance) so he knows exactly where Kurt is coming from. “Come here,” he whispers. Kurt complies, arranging himself so that he and Blaine are face-to-face in the middle of the bed, their legs bent at the knees and hanging off the bed.

Blaine presses a gentle kiss to Kurt’s lips. “We’re not wrong,” he murmurs against them. “Nothing in my life has ever felt so, so right.”

“Blaine.” Kurt’s voice rings out right in Blaine’s ear as his mouth places kisses along Kurt’s jaw and then down his neck. Desperate, shaking hands made short work of their clothes, and Blaine let out an exhale against Kurt’s lips when he was able to press against him, skin on skin.

This is what they needed after such a great night went horribly, horribly wrong.

Blaine took his pleasure from taking Kurt to the edge several times but not letting him fall over. He relished every noise that escaped Kurt’s lips and reveled in every tremor of Kurt’s body as they moved together. Only when Kurt was reduced to a writhing mess, alternating between cursing Blaine’s name and begging for more, did Blaine let them both tumble into ecstasy.


Wednesday Night Interlude


Blaine pulls up in front of the Hummel house to see Kurt and his dad standing in the front yard. He gets out and crosses quickly to them, taking in the object of their attention.

“Wow,” he says, shocked.

“You’d never know anything happened to it,” Kurt says, staring at the Navigator currently parked in the driveway. “It’s like new.”

“The boys at the shop made it a priority while you were gone,” Burt replies, putting an arm around Kurt’s shoulders. “They know how much it means to you and they feel real bad about what happened.”

“Remind me to bake them something,” Kurt tells him, resting his head on his dad’s shoulder. He glances down at this watch after a moment, and stood straight up. “Crap, I have to go get stuff ready. They’ll be here any time now.”

“Relax,” Blaine reassures him. “I’ll help.”

“So you and Karofsky and this Sebastian kid are all getting along now?” Burt asks as the three of them turn and head into the house.

“We have been for some time, Dad,” Kurt points out, heading into the kitchen to get snacks situated on a tray and drinks ready to go. “We’ve been having meetings for months. You know this.”

“I only know what you tell me, kiddo,” Burt counters. “I’m just making sure that after all the crap Karofsky put you through and after that Sebastian guy nearly blinded Blaine.” Blaine flinches at Burt’s words. He doesn’t like to think about that time, being woozy from medication and constantly worrying that he’d never see out of his right eye again. “That they aren’t doing anything else I should know about.”

“No, Dad,” Kurt answers. “They’re actually… not terrible once they stopped acting like jerks. And David’s been working really hard in his therapy to deal with his issues. We’re friends.”

“Good,” Burt grunts, snatching a cookie off the tray.

“Hey,” Kurt protests. Burt just grins and leaves him to it.

“When’s everyone getting here?” Blaine wants to know.

“Another ten or fifteen minutes,” Kurt replies. He pulls Blaine close and Blaine lets him, taking advantage of probably the only time they’ll have alone all night to kiss him thoroughly. “Can you believe school today?” Kurt wants to know after he pulls away and picks up the snack tray he’s assembled. Blaine carries the cans of soda as he and Kurt head into the living room.

“It was definitely unexpected,” Blaine agrees.

“I mean, the glee club is finally on top for once,” Kurt continues. “It’s crazy and what sucks is that graduation is days away and I can’t even really enjoy it.”

Blaine’s throat tightens when Kurt mentions the dreaded “g” word. It’s creeping up on them so fast now and he doesn’t know what to feel about it. Kurt’s promised their going to be okay, that he’s “never going to say goodbye” to him, but there’s this niggling fear in the pit of his stomach that says once Kurt’s in New York, once he’s gone, that that will be it for him and Kurt. Kurt will have the whole wide world at his fingertips and why would he need Blaine?

He hates that he feels this way – but Kurt’s sort of proven him right already. After all, he found Chandler here in Ohio. Blaine can’t help but imagine all the amazing and interesting people Kurt will meet in New York – people a thousand times more interesting than he is.

Yet Blaine wants Kurt to go to New York. It’s what Kurt wants, what he’s always wanted and Blaine doesn’t want to be someone who stands in the way of Kurt’s dreams. He’s going to make it big and Blaine can only hope that he’s right there beside Kurt when it happens.

Blaine pushes those thoughts away when Kurt turns to him, smiling.

“So serious,” Kurt teases him. “A penny for your thoughts?”

“Please,” Blaine replies, letting his angst go, telling himself to enjoy the time he has with Kurt. “They’re worth at least a dollar.”

Kurt laughs, pulling Blaine close once they’ve set their stuff on the coffee table. “How about we negotiate?” he asks breathily.

“Can we exchange payment in kisses instead?” Blaine wants to know, smiling.

“I think we could work something out,” Kurt murmurs. “Later. After everyone’s gone.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Blaine promises, barely brushing his lips against Kurt’s when the doorbell rings. Kurt looks sheepish, pulling away to answer the door and usher everyone inside.

“National Champions, Bitches!” Santana exclaims as she steps into the living room and slaps Blaine a high five. Brittany’s right behind her, with Dave, Sebastian and Kurt bringing up the rear.

“I still can’t believe you guys actually won,” Sebastian says, sitting down on the couch, Dave settling next to him. Santana plops down into the armchair and then tugs Brittany into her lap.

“Well, you best be believin’, cause we kicked some serious ass,” Santana replies.

“Looks like a certain prediction you made around Sectionals was proven completely wrong,” Kurt says to Sebastian, looking kind of cocky. Blaine has no idea what Kurt is referring to and gives him a questioning glance.

“Let’s just say that Kurt and I didn’t see eye to eye on who was going to win Nationals,” Sebastian explains. “Among other things.”

Now Blaine has the feeling that they’re referring to him and he shifts uncomfortably in his seat. Kurt offers up snacks and drinks as they get settled into their seats. Kurt hits play on the DVD and they grow silent as the music starts.

“Ouch, you guys had to go first?” Sebastian comments. “That slot sucks.”

“We managed to be memorable,” Santana tells him.

“You’d never know that Quinn was in wheelchair a few weeks ago. Just look at her,” Kurt speaks quietly.

“I knew she would walk again,” Brittany adds. “Lord Tubbington had a dream about it.”

The girls performance of “Edge of Glory” comes to a close and Kurt pauses the DVD.

“We kicked ass,” Santana crows.

“You guys were really good,” Dave agrees.

Blaine notices that Dave and Sebastian are holding hands from where he and Kurt are snuggled together on the couch next to them. Kurt’s feet are in his lap and Blaine occasionally runs his fingers up and down Kurt’s back, making his boyfriend shiver slightly against him.

Kurt presses play again and Rachel appears on the DVD to sing the next song.

“Damn, she’s good,” Kurt mutters. “Carmen Thibodeau was in the audience, did you know that? Rachel got her to come and watch us. Rachel still might have a shot at NYADA.”

“You’re kidding?” Sebastian replies. “After that disastrous audition?”

“The eternal mystery that is Rachel Berry,” Santana says as if that explains it all. Blaine thinks it kind of does, because even though he loves Rachel, he has no idea how she even managed to pull that off or if it will make any kind of difference for Rachel’s application. He wants it to, though, not just for Rachel – for Kurt, who’s been planning his career in New York since last year and intending on having Rachel right by his side. He doesn’t want Kurt to be alone in New York either, and with Rachel there, he’ll have a piece of home with him.

Rachel’s song comes to an end and she rushes off stage after her bow.

“Wow,” Sebastian says, watching as the third song starts and the girls run and slide. “That’s impressive.”

“It looks harder than it is,” Santana tells him, and then she laughs. “Look at little Blainers. Finn could squash you like a bug.”

“Hey,” he protests, but he does look awful short dancing behind Finn, now that he can see it.

“You guys really did Meatloaf?” Dave asks, and Blaine nods.

“You’d be surprised,” he replies. “We do all kinds of songs.”

“Look, there we are!” Kurt exclaims as he and Blaine do their little duet on screen.

“Wait, hold up!” Santana leans up. “Pause it.”

“What?” Kurt asks. “Why?” Santana reaches over, nearly dislodging Brittany from her lap and snatches the remote from Kurt’s hand. She points it at the screen and hits rewind to Kurt and Blaine’s part and then pauses it.

“Hah, I was right!” She’s deviously happy about something but Blaine has no idea what.

“About…” Blaine waves his hand to get her to elaborate.

“Oh, nothing,” Santana answers coyly, “Just you checking out Hummel’s ass on stage in front of thousands.”

“What?!” Kurt shrieks. “Please tell me you did not do that.”

Blaine can feel his face turning red and he’s at a complete loss for words, because yeah, he’d totally done that. How was he supposed to resist?

“Is Kurt’s ass nice?” Brittany asks Blaine. “He wouldn’t let me touch it that time we made out.” Now Kurt’s face is bright red as well, and at least Blaine is not alone in his mortification.

“I was looking at his feet,” Blaine finally manages.

“Uh huh,” Santana teases. “I’m so very sure that’s what you were looking at. And when you and Kurt disappeared from the party in conference room that Mr. Schue lets us have, you were just ‘taking a walk.’”

“All right, you’ve embarrassed us enough, Santana,” Kurt snaps, stealing the remote back and hitting play so they can finish watching.

“Then my job here is done,” she says smugly.

They watch the rest of the song in silence, Kurt stopping the DVD when it’s over.

“I guess you guys were good,” Sebastian grudgingly allows. “But you better be prepared for next year, Anderson. The Warblers are going to wipe the floor with you guys – if you can even get enough members to compete.”

“You just wait and see,” Blaine replies. “Now that we’ve won Nationals, I’m sure we’ll get enough members.” He pauses. “And we’ll win, too. We’re still going to have Tina and Artie.”

“Challenge accepted,” Sebastian smirks. “May the best team win.”

“We will,” Blaine promises, smiling at him. Sebastian laughs.

“I have a question,” Dave asks, interrupting. “Did Jesse St. James ever figure out who you were?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Blaine stammers. He can’t help but flashing back to yesterday, when Jesse had cornered him and Kurt before the competition.

“Well, well, well.” Blaine stops in mid-step, Kurt stopping with him. The two of them are walking through the outside courtyard, looking for Rachel. Mr. Schue wants them all in the green room to warm up. “If it isn’t Casper and his boyfriend Brutus.”

Blaine looks up to see Jesse St. James standing there, a betrayed look on his face.

“Blaine,” he can’t help but correct. He feels stupid though, because Jesse is angry with him and has every right to be and what does it matter what Jesse calls him anyway?

“It’s a good thing I didn’t bother to remember your name,” Jesse continues, “Since it turns out that you’re competition.”

“Jesse,” Blaine tries to interrupt.

“You cheated,” Jesse cuts him off. “You spied on us. I should turn you in. I thought you had more respect for my talent than that, Barney.”

“Blaine,” he nearly growls through gritted teeth.

“Oh, whatever, Jesse,” Kurt jumps in. “Like you’ve never done anything underhanded before.”

“If I wanted to talk to ghosts, I’d hire a medium,” Jesse snapped at Kurt. “This is between me and Benny.”

“Go ahead and turn us in,” Blaine says, tightening his grip on Kurt’s arm. “You can’t prove anything.”

“Of course I can,” Jesse replies. “You showed up at Carmel.”

“So?” Blaine tells him. “I bumped into you in the hallway and what? Asked you for audition? Told you I thought you were hot?”

“Exactly!”

“Did you ever actually see me in the auditorium?” Blaine presses. “Did you see any one from New Directions?”

Jesse’s mouth falls open.

“No,” Blaine continues. “You didn’t. So go ahead, turn us in. You don’t have a leg to stand on.”

“And then we walked away,” Blaine finishes telling the story.

“At least he had nothing to turn us in on,” Santana says. “Because Auntie Snix is a damn good spy.”

“You know you’re from Lima Heights Adjacent and not actually from Lima Heights, right?” Dave points out to her. “I find it really hard to be intimidated by someone who’s got a pool in their backyard and whose father makes more money than mine does in a year.”

“You didn’t seem to have a problem cowering in fear when I threatened your testicles,” she replies, glaring at him.

“That’s a valid threat no matter where you’re from,” Sebastian comments.

Dave clears this throat. “So what happened when you guys got back to school with the trophy?” he asks.

“Would you believe the whole school turned out to congratulate us?” Kurt answers. “I got hugged by a jock.”

Dave’s staring at him with wide eyes. “Seriously?”

“Glee club’s on top now, I guess,” Kurt shrugs. “It’s going to be interesting to see how it goes next year.”

Talk turned to the end of the school year and finals and finally Kurt stood up. “I hate to kick you guys out, but I really do have finals to study for,” he tells them. They all got up, gathering their things and heading for the door.

“Sure, you do,” Sebastian teases. “More like you and Blaine want to ‘go all the way, tonight, tonight,’” he continues, laughing.

Blaine doesn’t think; he just throws the throw pillow in his hands at Sebastian. Sebastian ducks just in time and the pillow manages to hit Santana in the face. She stares at the pillow for a moment where it’s landed on the floor and then bends down and picks it up with a glint in her eye.

“It’s on, bitches.”

Twenty minutes later, Burt comes into see what all the noises is about and finds them sprawled out together on the floor, gasping for air and laughing their asses off.

It’s one of the best nights of Blaine’s life.


Thursday Afternoon Interlude


“Why didn’t you say anything?” Sebastian asks. They’re meeting before graduation, to celebrate the impending ceremony. Except that Brittany is the bearer of bad news and Blaine feels so, so sorry for her.

“If we’d known, Brittany, we would have helped you,” Blaine adds. It’d come out earlier in the week that Brittany wasn’t graduating, but this is the first that Sebastian and Dave are hearing about it. Santana looks upset, and she’s holding Brittany’s hand tightly as if to keep her permanently there. Blaine knows that desperate feeling, the one that steals over him sometimes and makes him want to grab Kurt and hold him close so he’ll never leave. Of course, Blaine also knows that’s completely unrealistic and slightly insane. He wants Kurt to go to New York and he wants Kurt to achieve his dreams.

“I have a zero point zero grade point average,” Brittany replies. “There’s nothing that could have been done.”

Blaine can’t even begin to fathom how that’s possible. How had no one noticed that Brittany was struggling or hadn’t actually turned in any assignments all year? What were the teachers doing at McKinley that they didn’t even notice one of their most prominent students – the Class President, for goodness sake, was failing all of her classes? For that matter, where were Brittany’s parents? Didn’t they care that their daughter flunked her senior year of high school and would now have to repeat a grade?

“Next year,” Blaine turns to her, smiling sadly, “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you graduate.”

She smiles widely at him, launching herself at him to him a hug. Blaine laughs and hugs her tightly, slightly startled when she drops into his lap. “I really am sorry I made fun of your hair,” Brittany tells him.

“It’s okay, Britt,” Blaine promises. He’s over it by now. “It all turned out all right.”

“Good.” Brittany nods. “Would you be willing to do it again? Because Lord Tubbington needs a new scratching post and your hair would be perfect.”

Blaine is thankfully saved from answering (because, no, no he would not do that, no matter how much he likes Brittany and thinks she’s a great person) by Santana, who reaches over and tugs Brittany into her lap instead.

“My legs were cold,” Santana tells her and Brittany smiles happily. Blaine figures that she’s jealous given the small glare that Santana shoots his way, but Blaine has no idea why – he’s gay. He’s so not interested.

“I’m not going to graduation,” Dave offers up. “They called my dad and said I could walk with my class if I wanted.”

“Are you sure, Dave?” Kurt asks.

“I’ll get a diploma either way,” he explains. “I just can’t go back there and see those people. I don’t know what I’ll do if I come face to face with Nick again.”

“Did the cops ever figure out it was that douchebag and those guys from McKinley who trashed your car?” Sebastian wants to know. In the rush of Nationals and finals and preparing for graduation, the vandalism of Kurt’s Navigator has fallen by the wayside.

Kurt shook his head. “No security cameras and no witnesses. The guys all swear they left and if someone came back, they don’t know about it.”

Blaine sighs and reaches over to take Kurt’s hand, squeezing it gently. Kurt had been so upset when the cops had called and updated his dad.

Silence falls over them, angst-ridden and tension filled as they all think of something to say – Blaine knows that they’re all angry. They were attacked – though Kurt’s vehicle might have taken the damage, it was a mark against all of them, for simple being who they were and loving who they loved.

Santana clears her throat. “So would this be a good time to mention that I don’t really want to cheer for the University of Louisville?”

“What?” Kurt turns to her in surprise. She shrugs.

“I don’t know, I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t think it’s what I want,” Santana tells them. “I’ve been thinking more and more about New York, actually.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Why not? It’s a great place to make get a chance at a big break and you’ll be there. Rachel too, and Quinn is just a train ride away. I can do a community college or something until I figure out exactly what I want.”

“If that’s what you want, you should do it,” Kurt encourages. “Blaine and Brittany can travel up on the weekends to see us.”

“So you two are staying together?” Sebastian asks.

“Of course we are,” Kurt practically snaps.

Blaine squeezes his hand again, smiling. “We know it’s going to be hard. We’re willing to put in the effort. I’ll be in New York with Kurt as soon as I can anyway.”

Kurt gives him that smile Blaine loves so much and his stomach does a flip flop. He can’t believe it’s been over a year and Kurt still has this effect on him.

“We should get going,” Kurt says, glancing down at his phone to check the time. “They want the graduates there early.”

They get up and toss their trash on the way out. Santana and Brittany are riding with him and Blaine, and Dave and Sebastian are following Dave’s car. Blaine’s throat grows inexplicably tight as they get into their respective vehicles. He vows to himself that this isn’t the last time they’ll do this. High school might be ending for some of them, but their friendship won’t.

*

“It’s still weird being here,” Dave admits as they walk through the slightly crowded halls of McKinley High. There are students in red graduation gowns running around frantically, siblings and parents wandering the hallways.

They walk in as a group and there are some stares. After all, no one at McKinley really knows who Sebastian is, but they do know Dave and the fact that he’s hanging out with the “gays” is kind of attention worthy. There are more important things happening though, and after a moment, no one pays them any further attention, which Blaine is grateful for. Today should be a day of celebration, not defending who they are.

They find Kurt’s parents with Finn, Rachel and her dads, along with Quinn and Santana’s mothers. It’s an interesting crowd, Blaine has to admit. Kurt talks to his dad for a moment, getting the garment bag with the robe inside so he can change.

Burt says something else and then holds out a white envelope to Kurt, who takes with a shaking hand. Blaine knows what it is, can read Kurt’s emotions even from behind.

His NYADA letter had finally come.

Kurt speaks to Rachel and Finn, both of whom are holding identical envelopes.

Today was either going to be a big day of celebration or the worst day ever.

*

Blaine’s mind kept straying to the letter the entire graduation ceremony. Kurt had left it with his dad for safe keeping, before turning to them.

“I’m going to go put this on,” he’d said, biting his lip nervously. He’d stared at Blaine for a long moment. “Oh, screw it.” He’d grabbed Blaine and pulled him in for a hard and fast kiss, right there in the hallway, in front of everyone. “I wanted to do that while I still go to school here,” Kurt had explained to Blaine’s dumbfounded expression.

Burt had led him and the other non-graduates to the auditorium while Santana, Rachel, Kurt and Finn had all linked arms and gone off to meet the other graduates.

Blaine could still feel Kurt’s lips on his and he alternated between thinking about that and the letter waiting for them after the ceremony. It helped him pass the time through the speeches and through most of the names being called. When Kurt was called, he cheered loudly and handed his crying boyfriend a handkerchief.

Before Blaine knew it, hats were flying in the air and Kurt was no longer a student at William McKinley High School. He’d done it. He’d be getting out of Lima and leaving it (and Blaine) behind.

Blaine forces a smile to his face when Kurt bounds over to where he’s standing with Kurt’s dad, Sebastian and Dave. It’s an awkward group, thanks to the history between them. Burt grabs Kurt up in a hug and Kurt lets out a shriek when Burt nearly lifts him up off the ground.

“You done good, kid,” Burt says. “I am so proud of you, and I know your mom would be too.”

“Thanks,” Kurt tells him, grinning but looking a little emotional at the mention of his mother. Blaine sees Rachel and Finn over Kurt’s shoulder, robes off and letters in hand. He nudges Kurt and points them out. “My letter?” he asks his dad.

Burt hands it over. “Good luck,” his dad tells him. “And remember, no matter what it says, you’re still gonna make it.”

Kurt nods, taking the letter. He slips off his robe and hands it to Blaine. “We’re going to go open these in private, okay?”

Blaine forces a smile. “Sure,” he agrees. “Want us to wait?”

“You don’t have to,” Kurt replies. “But… if you wanted to…”

“We’ll snag the girls and wait outside.”

Kurt kisses Blaine lightly on the cheek, says goodbye to his dad and turns, envelope clutched in his fingers as he joins Rachel and Finn and the three of them make their way out of the auditorium.

*

The school clears out fast and Blaine’s checking his watch every few minutes as the hot afternoon sun beats down on him.

“Relax, Blainers,” Santana says. “There’s no way your boy didn’t get in. He’s a music school’s wet dream.”

“I hope so,” Blaine mutters. “Everything hinges on this.” Blaine runs a hand over his face. “I don’t know what it’ll do to him if he doesn’t get in.”

“His audition was good,” Dave reminds him. “The lady even told him that.”

“But everyone she saw was probably good,” Sebastian points out. “Otherwise how else would they get an audition?”

Blaine nods in agreement. “This just means to so much to him, and if he doesn’t make it, if he doesn’t get out of Lima…” he trails off because he knows the others have an idea of what means. Blaine’s only seen Kurt that low one other time in his life, and it was when Dave was bullying him.

The doors to the school open in front of them, Rachel, Kurt, and Finn coming into view. Blaine stands up straight from where he’d been leaning against Kurt’s Navigator, his eyes locked on Kurt. The three of them are arm in arm and it’s clear that Rachel and Kurt have been crying when they get a little closer. Kurt looks dumbfounded and Blaine has no idea what that means. Rachel gives Kurt a half hug and Finn pats him on the shoulder as they separate from Kurt and he walks over to where they’re standing.

“Well?” Blaine asks, breathless.

Kurt takes a shuddering breath and then shakes his head, his entire face crumpling. Blaine feels like he’s been sucker punched, his breath stolen from his body. Until that moment, he’d never realized just how much he’d wanted this for Kurt, all simply because Kurt had wanted it so badly. He pulls Kurt toward him and holds him tightly as Kurt cries into his shoulder.

“Finn?” he asks and Kurt shakes his head against Blaine’s shoulder. Blaine had no idea hearing that would hurt either – but it does, because Finn’s become a friend of his now. “Rachel?” Kurt makes a choking sound and then nods, slowly.

Blaine feels kind of numb at that news. Rachel made it?


“What the hell?” Santana snaps at that. “Ol’ girl choked her audition and then stalked the dean and practically coerced her to coming to Nationals and she got in?” She starts swearing loudly behind them in Spanish and Blaine’s pretty sure she’s preaching about the injustice of it all, but she’s speaking too fast for him to keep up with the limited Spanish he knows.

Dave and Sebastian are off to the side, probably looking as awkward as they feel. Brittany joins in their hug, holding Kurt from behind. “I think you sing like a princess,” she tells Kurt. “If they don’t want you, then they’re stupid.”

Kurt manages to pat her arm before pulling away from the both of them.

“Guess I’m not going anywhere after all,” he forces out with a wavering voice and Blaine’s heart breaks all over again. Maybe, somewhere down deep, there’s a very small part of Blaine that’s glad Kurt won’t be leaving him – but it’s so small he hadn’t even paid attention to it until now.

Sure, Kurt will stay in Lima, but at what cost?

“Okay,” Santana interrupts. “This calls for a pity party.”

“A pity party?” Sebastian repeats.

“You’ve obviously never had your heart broken,” she tells him.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” he mutters and Blaine can feel Sebastian’s eyes on him. It would probably bother him more, but all he can do is hold Kurt, as if holding Kurt will keep him from completely shattering to pieces.

“A pity party is basically all the junk food you can eat, and sad movies so you have an excuse to cry.”

“Chick flicks?” Dave asks with a groan.

“If pretty boy over here wants chick flicks, then he gets chick flicks,” Santana orders with a glare.

“No, you guys, I’m not going to be good company,” Kurt protests.

“You need to wallow,” Santana tells him. “If you can’t wallow with your best friends, who can you wallow with?”

“I always swallow,” Brittany chimes in. “It’s messier if you don’t.”

Blaine doesn’t want to touch that comment with a ten foot pole, so he pulls Kurt back into his arms and holds for a moment. “It’s okay to let us take care of you for a change,” he murmurs.

“Okay,” Kurt whispers and lets Blaine lead him to the car.

That’s how the six of them end up sprawled out on the Hummel’s living room furniture, eating assorted snacks (popcorn, ice cream, and all the candy they could scrounge up), while watching The Sound of Music. Blaine’s seen it a zillion times and he knows Kurt has too. Even Santana and Brittany have seen it, but Sebastian and Dave never have.

In between being amused at their reactions when Sebastian hums along with “Doe, a Deer”, Kurt actually laughing at Santana and Brittany’s dramatic reenactment of “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” and Dave snorting loudly at “My Favorite Things,” Blaine plots and plans in his head.

He knows what he needs to do. Tomorrow is the last day of school and he had been planning on skipping it and spending the day with Kurt – but now he’s going to go. He needs to speak with Ms. Pillsbury and make some phone calls.

He needs to make this right for Kurt and he’s going to make sure the rest of the Unicorn Club helps him do it.

*

Santana drives him to school under the pretense that she needs to clean out her locker. Really, Blaine thinks she’s just kind of antsy and can’t admit that school is over yet, but he doesn’t call her out on it. Besides, he gets to explain his plan to her. Once she’s done making fun of him for it, she tells him it’s a good idea.

Blaine smiles in reply.

“I’m going to miss you, you know,” she suddenly tells him. “Don’t get all weepy or anything.”

Blaine can only stare at her in shock.

“What?” she asks. “Don’t give me that look.”

“I’m just surprised you admitted it.”

“Yeah, well, don’t let it go to your head,” Santana replies. “You’re not so terrible.”

“You’re not so bad yourself,” Blaine tells her. “I’m glad we’re friends.”

“Okay, slow your roll,” Santana cuts him off. “We’re not pledging our undying love.”

“I’ll miss you too,” he says, and Blaine means it. Santana’s the type of person that grows on someone over time. He had no idea how much he’d like her.

“I’ll keep an eye on your boo in New York,” she promises. “I’ll kick anyone’s ass who tries to come anywhere near his.”

Blaine stares at her for a long moment, his face flushing as he wonders if she meant that exactly the way it sounded. That’s apparently the end of the conversation though, because they’re pulling into the school parking lot. He thanks her and then rushes inside. He could care less about actually showing up to class. He just needs to find Ms. Pillsbury.

He finds her in the choir room with Mr. Schue, perched up on the piano while he stands in front of her and they’re very cute and intimate that Blaine almost feels bad about interrupting them. Almost.

“Excuse me, Ms. Pillsbury?” They turn around to see him and a flustered Ms. Pillsbury slides down off the piano.

“Hi, Blaine,” she greets. “What can I do for you?”

“It’s not for me, actually,” Blaine says. “It’s for Kurt.”

He explains what he wants to do and she listens. Mr. Schue looks a little emotional when Blaine tells them how Kurt didn’t get into NYADA, and Ms. Pillsbury puts a comforting hand on his arm.

“This is great,” she crows when he’s done outlining his idea. “Come with me and we can get started.”

Blaine smiles. This just has to work. It just has too.

He doesn’t know what he’ll do if it doesn’t.


The Thirteenth Saturday


“You doing okay?” Blaine asks Kurt as they pull away from the train station. He’s holding back unshed tears and it clenches at Blaine’s heart to see him in so much pain. He almost can’t take it, almost tells Kurt what’s waiting for him at home, but he doesn’t because he wants it to be a surprise.

Kurt’s going to get out of this town; he’s going to get to New York if it kills Blaine to make it happen.

They’ve just seen Rachel off on her train to New York. He knows that it had to be hard on Kurt, watching everyone send her off and knowing that he wasn't going with her. Still, Kurt had stuck a smile on his face – which is just one more thing that Blaine loves about him. Kurt isn't begrudging Rachel any of her success. He put her on that train knowing that she’s going to be living their dream, no matter how much it might have hurt him to do it.

“We’re not going to the Lima Bean?” Kurt questions in reply, avoiding Blaine’s question all together.

“Nope,” Blaine answers cheerfully.

“Blaine Anderson, what are you up to?” Kurt demands to know, giving him a look.

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Blaine teases. “I promise only good things.”

“You’d better, because I’ve really been craving a grande non-fat mocha.”

“This is better than that,” Blaine promises. At least, he hopes Kurt thinks so.

“The surprise is at my house?” Kurt wants to know as they pull into the driveway.

“Just hush and come on,” Blaine scolds as they get out of the car and head inside.

Blaine steers him into the kitchen and Kurt stops short. There, in front of him, are Santana, Brittany, Sebastian and Dave. There’s a large stack of paperwork and brochures in the middle of the kitchen table and Dave is holding a cardboard carrier filled with coffees from the Lima Bean.

“What’s going on here?” Kurt looks around at all of them.

“This is us, helping,” Santana tells him. “Have a seat, lady.”

Kurt sinks into a nearby chair and stares at them. “Helping me with what?”

“Getting your ass to New York,” Sebastian answers as they all take seats around him. Blaine reaches for the stack of paper in the middle of the table and pulls it toward him and Kurt.

“I spoke with Ms. Pillsbury yesterday,” he tells Kurt. “We spent a few hours pulling up every brochure she had on internships and colleges still accepting late applications and -"

Kurt cuts him off with a hard kiss. Startled, Blaine goes along with it, his hand coming up and cupping Kurt’s cheek automatically.

“Thank you,” Kurt breathes out against his lips. “Thank all of you,” he says. “I had no idea what I was going to do.”

“Well,” Blaine replies. “Don’t get your hopes up too high, but maybe your future lies somewhere in this stack.”

“What are we waiting for then?” Kurt wants to know. “Let’s get to work.”

They dive into the documents, Blaine dividing them out. The first task is to go through them and see if they are truly things that Kurt might want to do. Each of them takes a few and they take turns reading them a loud (some with more colorful commentary than others).

The next step is checking them all for deadlines and placing them in order by the ones that need to be done right away. They manage to narrow down the list to eight choices. A couple of fashion internships Kurt seems really interested in, a few others that Kurt liked a lot, and a couple that Kurt decided he could do if he had to. Anything to get him to New York.

They set about gathering everything he’s going to need to send them in. Portfolios, recommendation letters, essays – they are a flurry of activity. Finally Kurt sits down and starts filling out the applications one by one.

It’s already been a long day, but none of them seem to be willing to leave until Kurt declares them done and the envelopes are sealed and stamped. Kurt’s family is out with Finn, comforting him and possibly arranging things so that Finn can ship out to Basic Training in a few days (and that’s some that Blaine cannot believe at all. Finn Hudson has joined the Army. It still boggles his mind).

“My mom gave me my college fund,” Santana announces while Kurt is working on the first application. “So I’m going to have money to live on while I’m in New York.”

“Santana, that’s amazing.” Blaine is overjoyed for her.

“My dad told me this morning that my mom’s case was denied,” Dave speaks up. Kurt’s pen stops moving and they all look at him. “Her petition was denied. The court ruled that she had no grounds because I’m in active therapy, I’ve kept my grades up, I’m taking my medication and I’ve managed to land a scholarship for next year at OSU.”

“I’m so happy for you,” Kurt murmurs.

“My dad says he’s taking her to talk to my therapist next week.” He shrugs. “Maybe she’ll realize that this is just who I am.”

“I hope so,” Kurt says. Blaine wonders what his life would be like if his parents were more accepting. It’s not that they don’t love him – he knows they just wish he was straight.

“I can’t believe school is over,” Kurt says, twirling the pen between his fingers. “We’re still going to keep meeting like this, aren’t we?”

“I want to,” Blaine enthuses. “For as long as everyone is here.” He pauses, an idea springing to mind. “In fact, let’s make a promise, right here, right now.” He makes sure he has all their attention. “That whenever one of us needs something, the rest of us drop whatever we’re doing to help.”

Blaine puts his hand in the middle of the table, palm up. “Who’s in?”

Kurt’s hand is the first one to cover his. Then Brittany’s. Santana’s next. Then Dave. Sebastian rolls his eyes and mumbles something about them not being five years old under his breath before placing his hand top.

“No matter what,” Kurt searches all their gazes, going around the table. “We’re here for each other. Life is too hard to go at it alone.”

“We’re not going to have a secret handshake, are we?” Sebastian asks disdainfully.

“Okay, that’s just ridiculous,” Santana huffs. “I refuse to do anything that lame.”

Kurt picks his pen back up and continues writing on his application, humming under his breath. As the rest of them laugh and joke around him, Blaine can’t help but just stop and take the moment in.

The future is uncertain - Blaine knows this. He also knows that next year he might be lonely, but no matter how lonely he is, no matter what the next year might bring, he knows one other thing.

He’ll never be alone.

“Blaine?” Santana gets his attention as they get back to work.

“Hmmm?”

“You’re totally doing some kind of lame ass, cheesy narration for this fabulous Kodak moment in your head, aren’t you?” she asks.

“And if I am?” he counters

She grins and he finds himself smiling back.

Sure, they might be a ragtag group made up of conflicting personalities, but Blaine wouldn’t have it any other way.

*

Summer had passed, with a slow simmering heat that led to lazy days and lots of time spent with friends. New Directions was slowly splintering off – some to their new lives, others simply on vacation. Blaine knew the end was drawing near, so when Sebastian called and suggested the six of them get together, he’d jumped at the chance.

“A tattoo parlor?” Kurt says, his nose wrinkled up in distaste. Blaine is holding his hand tightly, standing with the rest of their group. Sebastian had called everyone together for a “meeting,” something he’d never done, so everyone had agreed to go without knowing where he was taking them.

“Yep,” Sebastian says. “I’m getting a tattoo.”

“I’m not going in there.” Kurt shakes his head. “I’ll get hepatitis or something.”

“Kurt,” Blaine replies, almost admonishing him.

“Your loss,” Sebastian tells him. “You can wait out here by yourself while we all go in.”

Kurt huffs out a sigh, and the six of them head for the door. Kurt is practically draped on Blaine as they head inside, in an attempt not to touch anything. Blaine’s not going to complain – it’s been awhile since they’ve been this close in public.

There’s a girl behind the counter when they go in. Blaine’s too busy dealing with Kurt to hear what Sebastian says to her, but does hear her tell Sebastian to take his time and pick out what he wants.

“You don’t even know what you want?” Blaine asks, turning to him in surprise.

“I have a couple of thoughts, but I wanted to take one last look around,” he explains. Blaine can’t help but think that that’s smart, given that Sebastian could feasibly have the tattoo his entire life.

“If you’re at a loss for ideas, Hummel and I have some thoughts about what you could get and where you could put it,” Santana tells Sebastian, grinning mischievously. Kurt chokes out a laugh, his face flushing red.

“I don’t want to know, do I?” Sebastian asks.

“Let’s just say we were still angry with you about Blaine’s eye,” Santana says a little too sweetly. Blaine watches her and Kurt exchange another laugh. He knows how upset Kurt was about what happened to him (hell, he was angry too), so it’s hard to say what the two of them had discussed while he was home recovering.

“We should all get one,” Brittany pipes up, starting around at all the designs on the walls.

Blaine whips his head around at the same time as everyone else to stare at her.

“What?” he asks gently.

“Tattoos,” Brittany answers. “We should all get one because we’re a club. It could be our thing,” she explains.

“I’m down.” Santana grins. “I’ve always wanted one.”

“Matching tattoos?” Sebastian glanced around at them. “Isn’t that so 90’s?”

“I’d do it, I guess,” Dave agrees.

“Okay, I’m not getting anyone’s names anywhere on my body,” Sebastian protests.

“Not even mine?” Dave wants to know. Blaine thinks he’s serious for a moment and then Dave laughs. Sebastian’s face is priceless, the perfect amount of shock and terror wrapped up in one expression. “I’m kidding,” he finally says, and Sebastian glares when the rest of them laugh at him. He pulls Dave in for a hard kiss.

“You better be.”

Brittany points to the wall. “Not names,” she suggests. “Just one letter.” Blaine sees that she’s pointing at the letter ‘U’ on the wall.

“What do you say, ladies?” Santana turns to them. “Are you in?”

“Never going to happen, right Blaine?” Kurt answers for him.

“Well…” Blaine sort of shuffles back, pulling away from Kurt a little to look him in the face. He’s not sure why he wants to do this. Maybe it’s because this is the first time he feels like he truly belongs somewhere – as himself. Not as Blaine, the dapper Dalton boy, or Blaine, the geeky gay kid who got beaten up. He’s just… Blaine. And he wants something that symbolizes that feeling he gets when the six of them are together.

“Blaine,” Kurt hisses. “You realize this is permanent. You’d be inking something onto your skin.”

“I know that,” Blaine says. “Don’t you want something you can keep with you to remind of us all being together? I mean, when you’re in New York, I know I’ll look down at it remember today and this summer and last spring, and…”

“I get it,” Kurt stops him. “I won’t do it, but I can’t stop you if you decide you want one.”

“You’re seriously not going to get one?” Santana wants to know, coming over to them. “Way to be a spoil sport.”

“Hey, leave him alone,” Blaine nearly snaps. “It’s his body; he gets to decide what he wants to do with it.”

“Fine,” she mutters, flouncing back to Brittany.

“Are we decided?” The girl is back, looking at them expectantly.

“Yes,” Sebastian replies. “The five of us,” he gestures to everyone but Kurt, “would like to get a letter ‘U’ tattoo.”

She leads them into the back room, and pats the chair. “Who’s first?”

Sebastian is, and Blaine watches as he gets into the chair, pulling his shirt off over his head, revealing his bare chest. Kurt has averted his eyes, but Blaine sees Dave staring at Sebastian out of the corner of his eye.

“Where do you want it, hot stuff?” the girl asks. Sebastian points to his right pec and the girl gets to work after messing with her equipment for a moment. Blaine loses track of time. They tell jokes and stories, the girl (Miranda) chiming in with some crazy tattoo stories. Dave gets his tattoo on his bicep, Santana on her hip (which gets some raised eyebrows, especially from Sebastian, who’d stared the entire time she’d had waist of her skirt lowered).
Brittany was in the chair when Kurt started asking questions. Miranda answered them while worked, filling him how tattoos were done.

“And see, I’m doing hers in white – she’s pretty pale, so it’ll be harder to see,” Miranda explains, gesturing to where she was working on Brittany’s ankle.

“If Coach Sylvester sees it, she’ll slap me with a chicken breast,” Brittany tells them. Blaine’s not sure if she’s just being herself or if she’s telling the truth. It was too hard to tell with Brittany (and Coach Sylvester).

Blaine could see that Kurt was re-thinking it. The others were in love with their tattoos, and Blaine knew he’d love his – he had a feeling that Kurt didn’t want to be left out.

Finally, it was Blaine’s turn to hop up in the chair. He turns his left wrist over and holds it out. “I’d like it around here,” he points. Miranda nods and sets to work. It stings and Blaine searches for Kurt to hold his hand.

“Why on your wrist?” Kurt asks him softly.

“Because I can cover it up if I want – with my watch or a wrist band, or my sleeves.” Kurt nods, seemingly lost in thought. Blaine can practically see the wheels turning in Kurt’s head and he smiles.

Blaine’s the only one not surprised when Kurt announces his intention to get one after Blaine’s done.

He’s very specific in his instructions – he wants it to be white, and small and easily hide-able.

“You ashamed of us, Hummel?” Santana teases,

“I’m permanently altering my body because of you guys,” Kurt replies. “I think that speaks for itself.”

Miranda gives them all final instructions once Kurt’s is done and once they pay her, they stand around looking at each other.

“Coffee?” Blaine suggests with a smile. The rest of them readily agree and head out. Kurt takes his hand again, and Blaine nearly winces when Kurt unthinkingly brushes up against his tattoo. He doesn’t mind though, because like he’d said – it was a reminder.

These people would be there for him the rest of his life.