A/N: Okay kiddies, just because I know this isn't going to get a lot of attention (so I'll slip it in while everyone's watching the AMAs), but this is the fourth in the Dark Side 'verse, and it focuses on the eventual endgame in that 'verse that is Trent/Beats who still, btw, don't have a ship name that I like. This chapter is a little background on our favorite sunshiney round-faced Warbler, Trent. You know, how he and Blaine have been friends foreversies, and there's a special guest appearance by Cooper Anderson, but um. I really think you should give me a chance with this, because you might like it.

The Only Exception
or
The Sunshine and the Beat

Chapter One: Firsts.

Trent Nixon hadn't always been a Warbler, he hadn't always attended Dalton, in fact, he'd once upon a time attended Westerville High, where, as a freshman, he was the only out-and-proud kid at the school.

It was tough, and he tried not to let anything anyone said or did get to him.

It wasn't as though Trent and Blaine were best friends, or really anything more than vague acquaintances, but they had gone to the same school for most of their lives, and one day Blaine caught up with Trent in the hallway.

"Hey, Trent," Blaine said, quickening his pace to walk next to him.

"Hi…" Trent said, puzzled. Blaine had always been friendly and nice, but couldn't really ever recall having a conversation with him before. Well, maybe, like, in the first grade or something.

"Let's be friends, kay?" Blaine said.

"Okay," Trent shrugged.

It was as simple as that. They became friends, and spent a lot of time together.

"Blainey?" called a voice up the stairs to Blaine's room.

"Oh no," Blaine sighed. "It's Cooper."

"Your brother, Cooper?" Trent asked, excited. He knew from the pictures around Blaine's house that Blaine's brother was very attractive, like, actually, the sexiest man in North America.

"Yes, my brother," Blaine sighed. "I'm up here, Coop!"

"Hey, squirt," Cooper said, breaching the doorway. Let's go with Cooper being seven or eight years older than Blaine for the sake of this story since no one really knows. So he's 21, I guess? "Oh, am I interrupting something?" he asked, seeing Trent.

"No," Blaine frowned. "Just math homework. Coop, this is Trent, we go to school together. Trent, my brother, Cooper Anderson."

"Nice to meet you," Cooper said, flashing a winning smile that made Trent glad he was already sitting down. "I was going to get pizza, do you want some?"

"Sure," Blaine agreed.

"He's cute," Cooper whispered to Blaine as he left the room.

"Shut up," Blaine said.

"No, really, I think–" Cooper began, but Blaine never did find out what Cooper thought because Blaine had slammed the door in his face.

"Sorry about that," Blaine said, jumping back onto his bed. "Where were we?"

"Your brother is so cute," Trent sighed. Blaine rolled his eyes.

"Good, then you can have him," Blaine said.

"Don't you like him?" Trent asked.

"He's a little overwhelming sometimes," Blaine said. "Everyone always thinks he's the good-looking one, he's the talented one, he's not even going to college, he just sits around the house talking about how he's going to move to L.A. and he never will."

"Oh, come on, Blaine, he is really cute," Trent said. "But you're cute, too, I mean…" Trent blushed and looked back to his homework. Blaine would have laughed, but he wasn't in the mood. "Back to math."

"Back to math," Blaine agreed.

When their pizza came, Cooper brought it upstairs so they could chow on it. Their parents were gone as per usual.

"So, Blainey, guess what," Cooper said.

"What?" Blaine forced himself to ask.

"Your big brother is moving to LA next month," Cooper said. Blaine's jaw dropped open. "Buddy of mine is kicking his roommate out, said I can stay with him. How's that, me out in Los Angeles, starring in movies, getting recording contracts… When you're done with high school, you should totally come. We'd have so much fun, Blainey."

"Yeah, yeah," Blaine said.

"Oh, come on, you're not still thinking about going to college are you?" Cooper said, rolling his eyes. "It's a waste of time. Look at me."

"Yeah, look at you," Blaine shot back. "Thanks for the pizza, Coop, but Trent and I have homework to do."

"Okay, okay, jeez, no need to smother me with your happiness," Cooper said, leaving the pizza on Blaine's bed as he left.

"So far, I've got x equal to three and y equal to six, but every time I try to solve for z, I get a different number," Trent said, as Blaine banged his head on the wall. "I think I have one of the equations down wrong."

"I have x equal to four and y equal to negative three," Blaine said, looking at his page. "Are we on the same question?"

"I don't know, I'm on thirteen," Trent said.

"Oh, I finished that one," Blaine said. "I'm on fifteen now."

"Oh…" Trent said, getting up from the floor where he was laying on the carpet to look at Blaine's paper. "Oh, I do have it down wrong." He copied the problem down correctly and quickly solved it. "I can't believe they gave us this much homework to do on the first day back from vacation."

"Yeah… but still, better than having homework during vacation," Blaine said. "Those English essays were killer enough."

"Did you hear, they're planning a dance for Valentine's Day," Trent said.

"Yeah, a Sadie Hawkins," Blaine said. "Maggie was telling me about it. I don't know if I want to go."

"Maggie will probably ask you," Trent said.

"Oh, man, I hope not," Blaine said. "I already told her like eight times, I'm not interested." Trent laughed.

The day of the dance inched closer. Cooper left for California at the end of January, by the next week, he'd already called home with the news about an audition – some commercial for a credit report website.

"So, um, I don't know if you know this, but I'm gay," Blaine said to Trent one afternoon. They were in the living room at Blaine's house, eating popcorn and doing their history homework.

"Yeah, I know," Trent said with a shrug. "So?"

"I sort of came out at school today," Blaine said. "Everyone will know by morning." Trent shrugged again.

"Such is the life of high school," Trent said.

"Do you want to go to the dance with me? Just as friends," Blaine added quickly. "Unless… unless you don't want…"

"Sure," Trent agreed. "Just as friends."

And so they went, and they had a good time until they got beat up by those three guys and were taken to the emergency room. Trent's and Blaine's parents transferred them to Dalton immediately. Blaine got a triple dorm with Nick and Jeff – Trent was added to Beats and Thad's room.

"Hi," Trent said, setting his bag down in the entryway of the dorm room. "I… I'm new, I think this is my new room?"

"Hiya," said the tall one who'd opened the door. "Trent?"

"That's me," Trent said. "Trent Nixon."

"Awesome, I'm Beats," he introduced himself. "Well, that's what they call me. And this is Thad." Thad waved from on top of his bunk. The bed under his was empty, waiting for Trent to move in. "It'll be a bit cramped, sorry bout that."

"It's fine," Trent said. "I don't take up much room, really." Beats let Trent into the room, and Trent threw his bag onto the unoccupied bed, starting to unpack. "Why do they call you Beats?"

"Cuz I keep the beat," Beats said, showing off his beatbox awesomeness.

"But what's your real name?" Trent asked.

"Shh!" Thad said, quickly. "Don't insult him!"

Beats' real name, it seemed, was a very well-kept secret, even among the Warblers. There was a nameplate on the door, but it didn't say a real name, just 'Beats' and under that 'T. Harwood' and then 'T. Nixon'. Trent wondered who he'd paid off to get that nameplate. Thad said he'd had the nickname 'Beats' even before he'd become part of the Warblers, something that both Beats and Thad, as well as Blaine's new roommates Nick and Jeff were part of. Trent seemed eager – acapella show choir sounded awesome, but they were pretty exclusive, and joining during the school year was tough.

Trent talked to Blaine about it, told him how cool the Warblers were, and Trent found out that Nick and Jeff had been urging Blaine to join as well, and finally, they prevailed, Blaine and Trent joined.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, in Blaine and Niff's room:

"So, who do we like around here?" Blaine asked Jeff. Nick was at the library doing research for a project.

"Like?" Jeff asked. "I like everyone."

"No, like like," Blaine said. "There must be some guy here you think is cute." Blaine was, in all honesty, expecting Nick's name to come out of Jeff's mouth, but instead, Jeff said:

"Brian."

Blaine nodded, approvingly, knowing who Jeff was talking about.

"He's cute and we went out to eat once or twice, but he keeps asking me out, and I just don't know why he'd want to go out with me…"

"Are you kidding?" Blaine asked. "You're hot. And you're not like regular hot, you're really hot. Your hair alone is just wow. You want him, you go get him."

"Really?" Jeff asked.

"Definitely," Blaine said. "You've got it going on."

"I don't know…" Jeff said, uncertainly. "Going on?"

"Trust me," Blaine said.

So Jeff did. He and Brian became boyfriends, and it's a lovely story, it really is, but this particular story is about Trent.

It was right before summer break when it happened. Trent was packing his stuff, which had grown considerably from the one bag of stuff every time he'd gone home during the semester (which was enough, because he did live right there in Westerville), Thad was somewhere else, so it was just Trent, and Beats was laying on his bed, reading a book.

"We're gonna miss you next year," Trent said sadly to Beats.

"I'm only moving two doors down," Beats said. "It's too cramped in here with all of Thad's stupid princess dresses taking up all the closet space."

"True that," Trent agreed. "Won't be the same without you, though."

"You can come visit me any time you want," Beats said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, we can do all kinds of stuff," Beats continued. "I got this game for my Xbox you'd probably like, and there's like a million channels here, so we can watch the red carpet basically every other week. And we'll still see each other at breakfast and in classes and Warbler practice."

"Yeah, I guess so," Trent conceded.

"It's Richard, by the way."

"What is?" Trent asked, utterly perplexed by this random factoid.

"My name. Richard Daniel James."

"Oh," Trent said.

"No one else knows. Just you."

"Thanks." Trent packed a few more things into his giant duffel bag. "Why'd you tell me?"

"Cuz I kinda like you," Beats shrugged. "I think you're sweet, and reliable, and not bad to look at, if I may say so myself."

"Oh," Trent said. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh," Beats said. "Gosh, I liked you since you moved in, I was wondering when you were going to notice."

"I kinda liked you too," Trent said. "But I didn't know–"

"I swing both ways," Beats said. "For now."

"For now?" Trent asked.

"Until I decide to settle down, start a family, you know, when I'm like 26 or 42 or 17," Beats said.

"Oh," Trent laughed.

"So, Trent Nixon. Do you want to go out tonight?"

"Sure, where?" Trent asked.

"On a date," Beats clarified. "With me. Dinner and a movie."

"Sure," Trent said.

A/N: Bad, right? Yeah, leave me a review. I'll see what kind of feedback I get. I really hope you like this, because it is the cutest and most heartbreaking story I've ever written.

If you read A Thousand Years and, more importantly, the back half of Don't Break My Heart, you already know the story of Trent and Beats: They get together, they break up, maybe a hundred times. Do they have what it takes to make it? Will Trent make Beats the Only Exception to his decision against marriage?

Samantha. xoxo