On Broken Wings I'm Falling: The gleeks want to use their wings in their choreography for Nationals, but Blaine doesn't want any of them to see his destroyed wings. Cue the blangsty flashback.

Enjoy!

00

Blaine's breath caught in his throat as he and Kurt entered the auditorium for rehearsal to find everyone already in costume…with their wings free. And it wasn't that Blaine hadn't seen their wings before, he'd seen everyone's either in real life or in pictures. Apparently when the New Directions got drunk, wings were the biggest turn on. So taking off their shirts and letting their wings free was a frequent part of weekend parties for this group.

What made Blaine panic was the fact their wings were clearly going to be a part of their Nationals costumes.

"Blaine," From the sound of Kurt's voice, he'd clearly made the same connection. "Blaine I'll talk to Mr. Shue-"

"No, then they'll know." Blaine said, breath quickening.

"They'll know if you have to show your wings-"

"I just won't perform."

Kurt blanched at that. "Wha—Blaine, you have the solo."

"I'll give it to you. You can do it."

"First of all, it's not my key. Second of all I don't want it. It's yours-"

"Not if I give it up. Not if I don't take part in Nationals. Not if I quit glee. I'll quit glee. Yeah, I'll-"

"Blaine, breathe!" Kurt said, quickly taking his boyfriend by the shoulders. "Seriously, take a breath…there you go. Ok, look. Just sit tight, I'll go talk to Shue, ok?" Blaine nodded like a bobble head, trying to catch his breath, before he watched Kurt run off to find their choir director.

"Blaine!" The teen jumped as his name was called. "Dude, come put on your costume!" Blaine glanced back to the auditorium doors where Kurt had disappeared and then back up to his friends on the stage. "C'mon, dude!"

With shaking legs and without a word Blaine walked down the steps of the auditorium and then climbed up onto the stage. The costumes for both boys and girls seemed to be plain white shirts and black pants.

Just put on the clothes, you don't have to let your wings out, he rationalized. Without looking at anyone he quickly stepped backstage and threw on his outfit. Once dressed, he reached behind his back, touching the wing slits hesitantly. This is a bad idea. This is not good.

Without a word Blaine walked back out to his friends. "There you are! C'mon, let us see those wings of yours, B!" Artie said eagerly, his wings flapping slightly in his excitement.

"What?" Blaine asked breathlessly as he numbly shook his head, "N-no. No, your wings take up enough room for the both of us, Artie." He tried to joke, even if it was a little lame.

"C'mon, gel-head." Santana said, turning her attention from where she'd been neatening Brittany's feathers. "We were just saying how we've never seen your wings. Show us those flappers!"

"You guys have seen them." Blaine quickly lied, "You were all just too drunk to remember."

"Warbler, that is a lie." Puck said, "I don't get drunk. And I don't remember your wings ever coming out."

"Why is it such a big deal to you guys?" Blaine asked, laughing awkwardly and stepping towards the stairs on the stage.

"Why is it to you?" Brittany asked, her voice not challenging in any way but just curious. She's more intuitive than people give her credit for, Blaine thought to himself, annoyed with her (for the first time) for it.

"I-" Blaine didn't get the chance to stumble over his words for another second as the doors to the auditorium opened and Kurt and Mr. Shue walked in.

All attention turned to the two as their choir director spoke, "Change of plans guys. Looks like we won't be working our wings into the choreography." He said, glancing to Blaine as he said it. Despite the look of sympathy – or was it pity? – in the teacher's eye, Blaine still shrank back, embarrassed that someone else now knew about his hideous wings.

"Wait, what?" Rachel demanded, landing on the stage with a hard thump as her wings abruptly stopped pumping. "But I already had some choreography worked out!"

"I know, I'm sorry." Will said, clearly apologetic, "But something's been brought to my attention so we can't-"

"What did you say to him, Kurt?" Rachel demanded, to which Blaine flinched but Kurt merely raised an eyebrow.

"Who says it was me?" He asked, voice low with apathy.

"You were just talking to him!"

"I also just said hello to a lunch lady, will tomorrow's lunch menu be my fault as well?"

"Seriously dude," Finn said, stepping in front of his girlfriend so she didn't launch herself at Kurt. "You were always the one who pushed for wing choreography, what happened?"

Kurt shrugged, still playing his apathy well. "Things change."

"Lady face, come on!" Santana whined, actually whined. "We've all wanted this for so long! And New York finally has a stage large enough to do it! Why would you ruin it?"

"Yeah, dude, seriously." Puck said, crossing his arms. "This is bull."

Kurt still had a look of indifference on his face but Blaine couldn't take the attacks on his boyfriend anymore. "Guys, stop it. It wasn't his fault." He spoke quietly, but all attention was immediately on him. "I asked him to talk to Mr. Shue."

"What?" Rachel snapped, turning from Kurt to Blaine. "Is that why you won't show us your wings? Jesus, Blaine, what is it? Are they small or something? We don't care! Everyone knows how bogus that rumor is about the size of a guys wings being correlated with the size of his-" Finn slapped his hand over Rachel's mouth at that, earning a sigh of relief from the others.

But soon attention was back on Blaine.

"It—it's not that-" Blaine said, taking another step back, his whole body hot in embarrassment.

"Blaine." Kurt said quickly, stepping to the edge of the stage. "You don't have to explain anything to them."

It seemed to be clicking for most of the gleeks that something serious was going on as their looks of anger melted away to ones of confusion.

But Rachel held onto her anger quite easily.

"Yes he does!" She cried, pushing Finn's hand away. Several of the others took a step back, away from her, as if to say they were no longer on board. Kurt's eyes narrowed in anger, while Blaine looked back and forth between the two, unsure of what to do. "Now we need to redo costumes and rethink choreography! Hell, why not just change our set list while we're at it!"

"Rachel, you're being a little dramatic." Mr. Shue said placatingly.

"No, I'm not! We've been asking to use wing choreography since we started this club and now we're finally getting it and we have to change our mind because Blaine's a little insecure about the size of his wings?"

"It's not the size." Blaine whispered. He was quiet, almost not even audible.

"What?" Rachel snapped, spinning back around to face Blaine.

"I said it's not the size…of my wings…" Blaine shifted from foot to foot, arm reaching back again to touch the wing holes in his shirt. "I—my wings-"

"Blaine." Kurt whispered, quickly climbing up onto the stage, "Blaine you don't have to-"

"It's ok." Blaine whispered, looking up at Kurt, eyes welling up a little. At the sight Rachel's anger seemed to deflate a little, her wings shrinking back as she realized she'd crossed a line somewhere.

"I—I don't know how many of you know w-why I transferred to Dalton," Blaine started slowly, quietly, "But I—there was an incident…at a dance at my old school."

00

"Oh my God, Blaine that was incredible!" Blaine laughed outright as Alex jumped and did a little spin in the air, his flapping wings displaying his excitement.

"That was!" Blaine agreed, laughing, "The patio was beautiful!" Alex landed, turning to Blaine and taking his hand. He twirled Blaine, dipping him dramatically, to which Blaine laughed outright. "Alex!"

"What? You don't like it when I dip you?" As he said it he dipped Blaine even farther, the freshman let out a squeal of a laugh before straightening himself up. The two laughed for a moment, before the giggles awkwardly died out as they made eye contact. Quickly looking away, Blaine let out another single laugh while Alex looked up to the sky.

"What if we went for a stroll in the nighttime sky?" The gray-winged sophomore suddenly asked, looking from the sky and back to his date.

Blaine blushed at the way Alex looked at him, quickly turning his attention to the sky. "You know minors can't be out flying at this time of night." He said, still chuckling awkwardly.

"But what if we just flew away together? Away from this place?" Blaine blinked, Alex was being completely serious. "Away from the bullies and homophobes…to some place more accepting. More fun."

Blaine blinked again, unsure of what to say for a minute, before stumbling out, "W-we can't do that. What about our families? Not to mention your dad will be here any minute."

Alex looked back up at the sky regretfully for a minute before sighing. "Yeah, I guess."

Blaine bit his lip, the mood had clearly been killed. "Alex, I-"

"I thought you pretty boys would have been smart enough to have gotten out of here by now." Blaine spun around at the voice. Behind him stood three seniors, they were big enough on their own but each had wide, large wings that were out and flared, ready to intimidate.

"What?" Blaine asked breathlessly, unable to come up with anything else to say.

"You little faggots thought you could come here together and get away with it?" The one snarled, taking a threatening step forward. Blaine took a step back, wings curling around him.

"We weren't hurting anybody." Alex said quickly, almost challengingly. Blaine's hands began to shake.

"You shut your fucking mouth, fruitcake." The tallest one, Blaine thought his name was Troy, snarled. "You don't get to talk to me that way. You don't get to talk to me at all." He took another threatening step forward, fists rising.

Behind him Blaine could hear the swooshing sound of Alex taking flight, and Blaine quickly followed suit. Pumping his wings he pushed off the ground, only making it about four feet up when he felt rough hands grip his wings and tug hard.

Blaine screamed in pain and surprise as his wings were forcefully pulled back, throwing him violently to the ground. His head slammed hard into the concrete as he felt someone step on his right wing, putting all their weight on it so he couldn't get away. Blaine screamed as hands began to rip at his feathers, tugging them out by the handful.

"Alex!" Blaine screamed beggingly, opening his eyes (when had he closed them?) to see Alex still up in the air…but he was flying away. "ALEX!" The sophomore didn't even look back. "ALEX–!" Blaine words cut off for another agonized scream as pain exploded in his left wing. As the sound of ripping flesh filled the night, Blaine's world went dark.

00

"…w-when I woke up I…I had half a wing, and my other one wasn't much better. They had—they had actually ripped my left wing in half. And the right—it was broken in a few place, and my feathers never did grow back in some spots." Blaine glanced behind him to see he'd freed his wings at some point in the story. The right one flapped uselessly, his left one merely twitching. Humiliation filled him as he realized how repulsive he must look to his friends. His wings began to curl around him at the thought. "I—these wings—this is why I didn't want to show you." His words were whispered, hardly audible, but everyone heard him.

"Blaine I—I'm so sorry-" Rachel said awkwardly, breathlessly. "I was so wrong-"

"Maybe next time think before you freak out, princess." Kurt snarled, surprising his best friend with his malice.

"Guys," Blaine said quickly, his voice still quiet. "Don't—don't fight. I just won't—I won't perform. You can do the song without me-"

"We're not doing the song without you." Tina said as if that was the stupidest thing she had ever heard.

"Yeah, man." Sam agreed, "We go on with you or not at all."

"But—my wings-"

"They're beautiful." Everyone stopped as Brittany spoke. "I've never seen a color like that."

"Stunning." Mercedes agreed with a nod.

Tears welled up in Blaine's eyes at their lack of disgust, "But I—I can't fly-" He could a look of heartbreak crossing most of their faces at his admission.

"We don't need wing choreography." Quinn said with a shrug, retracting her own wings, the others following suit. "This is a singing competition after all. Resorting to fancy choreography is a cheap trick."

Rachel, suddenly back on track, nodded in agreement. "Quinn's right! Our voices are as stunning as your feathers. We don't need our wings to get the judges' attention when we have our talent!"

Blaine looked across his friends, tears welling up in his eyes. "I—I don't know what to say." He whispered. "No one—no one's ever called my wings beautiful since the attack. And I—you guys-" Blaine looked away, choking on a sob. "I don't know what to say." He repeated.

"You don't have to say anything, B." Santana's voice was soft. Blaine glanced up to see her stood before him, eyes earnest. Kurt was now at his side too, taking his hand. "You're one of us. Nothing's gonna change that."

Without another word, the normally nasty cheerio wrapped her arms around Blaine, encircling him and his wings in her arms. Soon the others followed suit, piling into the hug, pulling Blaine and each other close.

"Thank you." Blaine whispered, deep within the hug, pressing his cheek against Kurt's shoulder. "I—you guys don't know how much this means to me."

"Like Santana said, boy." Puck started as everyone pulled back, "You're one of us now. It's gonna take more than some pretty wings and a sad story to escape."

Blaine laughed outright, hiccupping as his body tired to decide between laughing and crying. "Thank you." He whispered, glancing from his friends back to his wings which, for the first time in two years, were flapping in pride. "Just…thank you."