Kurt sat comfortably in the middle section of the auditorium. In spite of the spat he'd just had with Blaine, he couldn't deny his excitement about seeing the Warblers perform. It was rough, having to transfer back to McKinley (read: away from Blaine). He'd had great friends to come back to, though. Surprisingly this included one Rachel Berry, who was presently seated to his right. It was a total shock to Kurt on his first day back when the first person to attack him with a hug had been his former rival. Since then they'd hung out at least a few times a weep. At Kurt had a sneaking suspicion that this had a little to do with her pining for Finn, but that was just his natural cynicism. About a month after returning he got the shock of his life when Rachel tearily confided in him that she didn't want to hang out at the Hummel-Hudson house but she still really wanted to be friends with Kurt. He understood how that felt and from then on they either went to Rachel's house (her dads loved Kurt) or out somewhere fun.

Thinking about that specific feeling brought back Kurt's memory of how he could relate to Rachel about it. Why had Blaine decided to sing 'Baby It's Cold Outside' with him like that if he didn't mean it at all? Not that Kurt expected Blaine to return his feelings (it was laughable to think that such a perfect guy might feel anything for him), but it just made things so difficult. When Kurt told Blaine about having to leave Dalton he decided it was also the time to divulge his feelings.

"Blaine, I have a crush on you," Kurt blurted out as soon as the other boys had left. "Oh, great, not only did I just admit that, but I had to sound like a seventh grader while doing it," Kurt managed to squeak out as an addendum.

"Kurt, I don't…I'm not really sure what to say to that," the usually composed Blaine stuttered, looking rather amusingly like a deer in headlights. Or, rather, it would have been amusing in almost any other situation. But not this one. Kurt took a deep breath and looked remarkably composed.

"Blaine, it's fine. I'm leaving after this semester. Which means tomorrow. You're totally off the hook. I just thought I'd tell you how I feel. And I don't want you to feel guilty or anything. You've been a blessing," Kurt replied with a sadly lopsided half-smile before leaving the room.

The next morning Blaine got a text: So so so sorry. Wish I'd had the 'courage' to just shut up about it. But it's hard when you like someone as much as I've liked you. See you at regionals.

Kurt had already left. He bid farewell to most of his friends, but suggested they let Blaine sleep. He was almost impossible to wake up anyway.

Now, sitting next to Rachel, he reflected on just how terrible he had been to leave things with Blaine like that. Of course that would have its repercussions. It made him squirm to think about the encounter he'd just had with Blaine…

"KURT," shouted an all too familiar voice, laced with an edge of spite that Kurt had never heard in it before. A hand clamped down on his shoulder as he and the rest of the New Directions were walking into the auditorium to find their seats.

"Oh…hi, Blaine," Kurt said nervously.

"Can we talk? Now?"

"Um. Sure. Rachel, will you go save me a seat?" Kurt asked. A suspicious Rachel obliged. Blaine, hand still squeezing Kurt's shoulder, steered him into an empty classroom.

"What do you want to talk about?" Kurt asked, feigning curiousity. Taking in the other boy's face he saw that Blaine looked mad. In fact, that was an understatement. He looked furious.

" HOW COULD YOU DO THAT, KURT?" Blaine roared.

"I don't-" Kurt began, genuinely frightened.

"I can't believe you. How could you be that cruel? You just left! You didn't even say 'bye'! I thought we were friends! You-" So that's what this is about. Suddenly Kurt's mad, too.

"HOW COULD YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?" This stopped Blaine in his tracks. "You were me once, Blaine. I thought it would be a nice change to have a crush on a gay guy for once, but that just made it…so much worse, when I realized it wasn't going to happen. This time I know for sure that it's me you don't like, not boys in general. It hurts, Blaine!" And with that Kurt exited the room to find his seat. At least he was able to keep the tears from falling, for once.

Back in the present, Kurt's thoughts were interrupted by the emcee making an announcement.

"The Dalton Academy Warblers have made a last minute change to their set list. We apologize for the misprint in your programs"

Blaine couldn't believe how dumb he was. He had a 3.8 GPA, he got an almost perfect score on his SAT, but he could honestly say, in that moment, that he was the most idiotic person on the planet. He was sitting on a chair in the classroom that was reserved as the warm-up area for the groups to warm up in before they went onstage. How could he be that horrible to Kurt? He was right, Blaine was him once. He knew the kind of hurt he had been talking about. He also knew it was completely irrational because of course he liked Kurt. He like him a lot. He sighed and, resting his elbows on his knees, pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, trying to-? What? Force himself back in time to prevent himself from being such a jackass? That didn't seem likely.

"Dude – what's up with you?" A finger poked him. Looking up, Blaine saw that it was Wes.

"Oh…nothing. Never mind."

"You are the worst liar I know, Blaine. Come on, I'm your best friend. Out with it."

"Fine," Blaine heaved a huge sigh and proceeded to regale Wes with all the details of his outrageous stupidity.

"Uh huh. Uh huh. You know how we're gonna fix this, don't you?" Wes asked with an excited glint in his eye.

"Uh. No, actually. Hence the moping."

"Wow you really are an idiot, you know that?" Wes says, smiling even wider than before.

"Trust me, man. I know."

"Since it looks like you genuinely have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, I'll spell it out for you. You sweep the boy off your feet every time you sing. And right now, guess what we have! A stage, you, and a cute guy who you want to apologize to and who isn't allowed to leave the auditorium!"

"Uh. One problem. Serenading Kurt with 'Magical Mystery Tour' and 'Let it Be', neither of which I have a solo in, is probably not going to say "I'm sorry".

"Which is why we're obviously not singing those songs." Seeing Blaine's skeptical yet hopeless face Wes adds more seriously, "I'm sure the other guys will agree, Blaine. We all like Kurt. And even though you didn't really say anything, we all knew that you really liked him. We got your back, buddy." Blaine was overcome with the urge to hug Wes, but he held back. Blaine wasn't a big hugger.

"So, um, which…which songs?"

"So glad you asked, because I've already handpicked the perfect two from our repertoire…"

Kurt was…uncomfortable. He felt really bad for blowing up at Blaine like that. Blaine really had every right to be angry. Kurt hadn't even said goodbye. It was even crueler of him to ignore all of Blaine's calls, texts, and Facebook messages. Kurt just didn't want to deal with it, which was, in retrospect, just about the most selfish thing he'd ever done in his life. But it wasn't like he could just ask for forgiveness. Blaine probably didn't even care that much. He was probably just pissed and now that he's yelled it's out of his system, Kurt thought. Yeah. After all, they'd only known each other for a few months. How attached could someone like Blaine possibly have gotten? Anyway, The Warblers' set was about to start. He'd have time to mope around later.

Blaine was nervous. And it definitely wasn't because he cared about winning the competition. It was more because…well, he was about to confess his romantic feelings for Kurt in front of an entire auditorium full of people…in song. It was such a stupid idea. Kurt would never go for it. He could do so much better than Blaine. The number of boys at Dalton who has talked about how cute and smart and funny Kurt was...There would be someone worthy. This was the worst idea ever. Blaine was going to kill Wes later.

The curtain began to rise. There was nothing he could do.

I am in misery
There ain't nobody who can comfort me
Why won't you answer me?
The silence is slowly killing me

Boy you real got me bad
You really got me now
Now I'm gonna get you back
I'm gonna get you back

Blaine's eyes were blazing. He was singing to Kurt, for Kurt. His eyes didn't leave Kurt's, and Kurt felt utterly helpless in their gaze. He'd been sung to before, but…not like this. Never like this. Kurt wasn't even aware of Rachel trying to get his attention.

Not that I didn't care, it's that I didn't know
It's not what I didn't feel, it's what I didn't show

Wow. Kurt could hardly believe this was even happening. Blaine was blatantly serenading him, possibly even telling Kurt, as well as everyone else in the auditorium, that he liked him. At the very Blaine missed Kurt. He really did. Even if it was his friend Kurt who Blaine missed, that was still something. He cared. And he wasn't angry, he was sorry. The realization made Kurt's stomach hurt. How could he ever have been such an asshole to this amazing guy? When the song was over Kurt applauded politely, not sure what the proper reaction should be.

"Kurt! KURT!" Rachel was whispering shrilly, squeezing his hand.

"OW! What?"

"Um, are you gonna tell me what that was?" Mercedes asked from the seat behind him.

"What do you mean?" Kurt asked innocently, still watching Blaine as the Warblers got into place for their second song.

"Dude, he was totally staring at you the whole time," said Finn, who peeked out from Rachel's other side.

"Kurt, what's actually going on with Blaine?" Rachel whispered. "I haven't asked, but I've been wondering. You haven't talked about him at all since coming back…"

"Later, Rachel," said Kurt, giving her hand a squeeze.

Blaine's heart was felt like it was going to pound right out of his chest. Kurt's eyes hadn't left his throughout the entire number, which gave him a little bit of hope, but he also hadn't applauded very hard afterwards. Maybe he didn't know Blaine was singing for him? No, that would be impossible. Blaine was pretty sure everyone knew that he was singing to Kurt.

"Hey man, you ready?" David asked with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's do this," Blaine said with a small smile. This might be his last chance to make Kurt understand how he felt.

I guess you were lost when I met you
Still there were tears in your eyes
So out of trust and I knew
No more than mysteries and lies

There you were, wild and free
Reaching out like you needed me
A helping hand to make it right
I am holding you all through the night

I'll be the one
Who will make all your sorrows undone
I'll be the light
When you feel like there's nowhere to run
I'll be the one...

I can't be any more honest than that, Blaine thought to himself as he sang. Somehow that thought gave him, well, courage. It was probably a little bit too much courage, actually. He had decided early on that the performance would have to have some kind of exciting end. So he decided he would jump off the stage and go right up to Kurt to deliver the last verse. Why not? It was spontaneous and would definitely get him noticed, something he would always regret telling Kurt not to do. Unfortunately, Blaine was forgetting that he did have faults, one of which was being extremely uncoordinated. In his excitement he misjudged the distance and landed all wrong. He ended up pitching forward, right into a (luckily) empty chair. Ouch. Luckily it didn't look too bad, as he learned afterward. He wasn't down. He got right up, not missing a beat, and kept going. The show must go on, right?

That was the single most amazing experience Kurt Hummell had ever had. Hands down. Well, other than Blaine being a huge klutz, which resulted in a bleeding eyebrow but no other visible damage. Kurt had been so worried when he fell, but Blaine got right back up. And kept going. Walking. Singing. To Kurt. At Kurt. And then there he was. He picked up Kurt's hand as he belted out the last "I'll be the one".

When he finished, the audience exploded with applause. Neither boy was listening, though. Pulling Kurt up gently by the hand he was already holding, Blaine was disinterested in everything except the beautiful face right in front of him. When they were eye-level he reached for Kurt's other hand, his eyes never leaving the younger boy's face.

"I really really like you, Kurt," he whispered.

"You do?" replied Kurt, completely breathless.

"I do," said Blaine. He reached up to touch Kurt's cheek and the younger boy closed his eyes. When he opened them there was a new, determined edge in them. He only had a moment to wonder what Kurt was thinking before his lips were on Blaine's. At the same time the boy's left hand made it's way to Blaine's hip, his right to his neck. It was Blaine's turn to be breathless.

When they finally broke off the kiss, out of sheer necessity to breathe, they noticed that everyone was still applauding, but it was no longer for The Warblers. Both boys began to blush.

May or may not expand. I have an additional chapter or two in mind, but I'm not sure if I'll publish them or not. What say you? Comments are most welcome.