Blaine sighed and took one last sweeping look around the dorm room. His Dalton uniform lay folded neatly on the bed. Everything else, including his vast Katy Perry collection, was packed, rather haphazardly, into the large suitcase that stood beside him. He remembered the first day he'd arrived here; frightened, downtrodden and alone, unable to be himself, for fear of more cruel words and pain. He remembered the shock at realising that there were other openly gay kids at Dalton, and that they were accepted and valued rather than abused and ostracised as Blaine had been. This place had truly saved him and leaving now was far harder than he ever believed it could be. He felt tears sting his eyes and he made no effort to fight them back because here, he knew, no-one would judge him for it.
His tear-filled eyes drifted to the bedside table, where the last item, yet to be packed still stood. There, right there, was the reason that he was doing this. The reason he was leaving his place of safety. He smiled through his tears as he looked at the photograph, taken on what had surprisingly turned out to be one of the happiest days of Blaine's life. His own face grinned up at him from the photo, his arms wrapped around the taller boy who wore a crown. His boyfriend. Blaine marvelled at those two words, at how they made him feel, even now after almost 6 months together. Dalton had been his safe place, the place where he had been happy. It was where he had met Kurt, where he had fallen in love with him. But McKinley was where Kurt truly belonged and Blaine could not stand to spend any more time apart from him. He did not need Dalton anymore. Kurt was his safe place now. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He removed it and read the message displayed on the screen: "Courage Blaine". Smiling, Blaine closed the door behind him and walked out of Dalton for the last time.