When Blaine knocked on the Hummel's door the next day, he was surprised that it opened to a large man wearing a flannel shirt. "Um, hi, I'm here to work on a project with Kurt," Blaine stammered, looking at his feet.

"C'mon in, kid, you must be Blaine." Blaine looked up, shifting his bag to his other hand so he could give a proper handshake.

"Burt Hummel. It's nice to meet ya. Kurt hasn't stopped talking about you all weekend." Blaine managed a weak smile as he entered the house, putting down the bag to take off his jacket. Burt raised an eyebrow at the large duffel until Blaine explained, "Oh, that's my video camera and some clothes Kurt suggested I bring over. For the project, I mean!" Blaine reddened but Burt just shook his head and replied, "Don't let him get too crazy on you. He tends to go a little overboard on stuff like this."

"I think it's already too late," Blaine answered quietly, surprising a chuckle out of Kurt's dad.

"Good luck then," Burt answered, slapping his hand on Blaine's shoulder. "Let me know if you kids need anything." Blaine just nodded, this time giving the man a genuine smile, before grabbing the handles of the bag again and dragging it down the stairs.

Kurt was sitting on his bed reading over the notebook, and smiled up at Blaine as he entered the room. "I hope my dad didn't scare you off!" Kurt joked.

"He just warned me not to let you go too crazy with our project. I told him it might be too late," Blaine kidded, as he put his bag on the couch and began to unpack the supplies. After a few moments of silence, he looked up to see his partner staring down at the carpet with a frown on his face. Blaine scrunched his forehead in confusion and then mentally smacked himself.

"Kurt, that was a joke! I think our project is gonna be awesome and I'm so glad I ended up with you as a partner." Kurt looked back up at Blaine, inspecting his face for sincerity. Apparently he found it, as the frown disappeared and he exhaled loudly.

"I think I'll save my judgment on you as a partner until I've heard you sing," he responded with a smirk; Blaine's worry disappeared as Kurt's usual attitude returned. "But first, we should work on our costumes," he continued, walking over to his closet and opening the doors.

As he turned around, Blaine couldn't help but observe that Kurt's pants were much tighter than anything he'd worn before. He was also wearing an off-the-shoulder sweater in lieu of his normal simple button down or polo shirt. And then Blaine noticed the clothes hanging in front of Kurt in the closet; if Blaine thought today's outfit was unusual, it was nothing compared to some of the items in there, from buckles and bow ties, to bondage gear and even a beret.

"Why don't you ever wear those clothes?" Blaine blurted out without thinking. Kurt turned to look at him in surprise, opened his mouth, and closed it again when no words came out. He paused for a moment before saying carefully, "I used to, but I uh… eventually decided it wasn't worth the effort to put together complicated outfits for school every day." The boy shrugged and returned his focus back to the wardrobe, the only difference being the added tension in his shoulders.

Kurt grabbed a silky blue button down and walked back across the room, explaining, "Okay, so this is the shirt I'll be wearing. I made a great vest for you that will complement my outfit – without matching, of course, because we are sworn enemies, after all. And then we'll both have coordinating bandanas, too. Did you bring the clothes I asked?" Blaine just nodded and gestured to the open duffle bag, thoughts caught on how well that shirt matched with his partner's eyes. Kurt dug through the bag, commenting to himself on each item, before settling on a shirt that would apparently be sufficient.

Once Kurt was satisfied with their costumes, the two boys sat shoulder to shoulder on the couch and read over the script for their short skit to introduce the song. Kurt giggled at Blaine's failed Spanish pronunciations, and Blaine, in turn, laughed at Kurt's attempts to sound tough as he threatened the opposing gang member. After they both felt comfortable with the dialogue, Kurt said, "Alright, let me find our lines for the song and you can grab my iPod so we can listen to the original version a few times."

Blaine got up to comply with that order, returning to the couch after a moment. Kurt was still flipping through the notebook, so Blaine put his feet up and began scrolling through the mp3 player in search of their song. "Wow, you have a lot of musicals on here!" he commented, after passing what had to be the tenth Broadway soundtrack.

"Yeah, I, uh, really like musicals," Kurt responded casually. "That's why I was so excited when you suggested one of my favorites; honestly, I'm still a little upset that you thought of it before I did! Although, I don't know many other guys who would have agreed with the idea, anyways," he continued bitterly.

"Rent is actually my favorite," Blaine offered, watching Kurt nod in fervent agreement. "We were going to perform one of their songs in chorus at my old school – I was actually going to audition for a solo before I, um, decided to transfer." He looked down at his hands as he finished speaking; with everything that had happened after the dance, he almost forgot how excited he had been to sing that song. Just another thing to add to the list of causalities from Huntsville, he thought bitterly.

"Wicked is my favorite," Kurt said after a moment. "Rachel and I battled over 'Defying Gravity' earlier in the year, but in the end, she got the solo." Tension was thick in the air as both boys stared around the room, lost in unhappy memories.

"So I've been meaning to ask you," Kurt began with a cautious tone, and Blaine automatically shrunk back into the couch. "Why did you come to McKinley? Huntsville isn't exactly right next door."

Blaine sighed silently in relief; this question he knew how to answer. "Well, it was one of the only public schools around here to accept a student from another district, especially so late in the year. My dad really wanted me to go to this private school in Westerville, but it's pretty expensive and I didn't really want to be surrounded by stuck-up guys in blazers every day. I guess their a capella group is really good, though." And the zero-tolerance policy was very tempting, added Blaine to himself. He swallowed thickly before awkwardly suggesting, "So should we just run through the song?"

Kurt nodded and placed the altered lyrics in his lap as he began to sing. Blaine's jaw dropped at the other boy's voice; it was higher than he expected, but incredibly beautiful. He was so enchanted that he actually missed his entrance. Kurt faltered and looked over at Blaine. He seemed as if he was about to reprimand his duet partner, but instead he blushed as he caught Blaine's gaze and cleared his throat. Blaine snapped out of his trance and then it was his turn to blush.

"I'm sorry, but you just have such an amazing voice! I've never heard that range from a guy before- and I mean that in a good way!" he added as he saw Kurt grimace. "If you sing like that, I don't understand how you didn't get that Wicked solo." He expected Kurt to smile, but instead the frown only deepened.

"It was complicated," he answered, looking over at the door. He glanced back at Blaine and paused for a moment before leaning in and saying, "Thank you for saying that though. I actually plan on going to New York after graduation – it's my dream to be on Broadway."

"Well, let's get you some more practice then!" Blaine answered with a smile. "I promise I'll sing my part correctly this time."

"You better, or I'm trading you in for a new partner," Kurt replied with a corresponding grin.

They had just finished running through the song for the third time when Kurt's phone rang from his nightstand. "Sorry, let me grab that – it's Brit." He scurried over to his bed and answered the phone, saying, "Hi Boo, what's up? Uh huh. Okay. No, I'm in New York City in the 1950's in the middle of a gang war," he continued sarcastically, rolling his eyes as Blaine muffled his laughter behind his hand. "No, Brit that – no, of course I'm not really in a gang, I just – it was a joke, Boo, I – Alright, I'm sorry. I'll talk to you later." He ended the call with a huff and not-so-gently returned the phone to the table. He paused for a few seconds with his hand over his face, before walking back to Blaine with a fake smile on his face.

"So, where were we? Should we go through the song once more before we start recording? You brought your camera, right?"

Blaine nodded before quietly asking, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," his partner answered, just as quietly. "At least I will be once the Sharks beat the Jets with a loud, theatrical number," he continued, voice a little stronger as he plopped back down on the couch, even closer to Blaine than he was before. Blaine held his breath as Kurt actually rested his head on Blaine's shoulder, peering down at the lyrics again. His heart beating impossibly fast, Blaine leaned into his partner and tried to focus on his verses, although he kept zoning in on every spot that their bodies were touching. Kurt wasn't usually this tactile, but if it made him feel better after that fight with his girlfriend, Blaine certainly didn't mind.

Kurt did seem to cheer up as they practiced the duet a few more times before changing into their costumes and attempting to record the video. It wasn't long before both boys were laughing again, exaggerating their dance moves and trying to fight with fake swords. By early evening, the video camera had been completely abandoned in favor of chasing each other around the room, belting out West Side Story songs at random.

When Burt came down to check on all the noise, he found his son red-faced and doubled over laughing, wearing a lopsided bandana in his uncharacteristically messy hair, as Blaine stood on the back of the couch and attempted to stab the other boy with his plastic dagger. Burt cleared his throat and both boys froze immediately; Blaine's eyes were comically wide as he dropped his weapon and slowly got down off the furniture. "I can see you boys are workin' very hard on your project," Burt said with a raised eyebrow, "but it's gettin' kinda late and you both have school tomorrow."

"Uh, yes, Mr. Hummel, sorry, sir, I'll be leaving soon, um, as soon as we clean up..."Blaine stuttered, looking around at the scattered props and notebook paper littering the room. Burt smiled as he replied, "No need to call me sir, kid. It was nice having you here this weekend." With that, Burt walked back up the stairs, but not before he heard his son and his new friend collapse on the couch in a fit of giggles.