"Hey dude," Finn said as he approached Kurt in the nearly empty hallway.

"Finn, don't call me 'dude'." Kurt mumbled as he kept walking towards the front entrance of the school where his father had texted him to meet him 'immediately'. "What are you doing? Shouldn't you be in class?"

Finn shrugged, "Well, I got a text from your dad saying to meet him out front 'immediately', so I ditched out of math."

Kurt kept walking, getting suspicious at the mutually received text. His father and Finn's mom had been going strong since they met and Kurt really enjoyed having Carole around. Finn was fine to have around as well, even if they hadn't really taken the time to hang out.

Kurt pushed open the front door to the school and saw his dad and Carole standing out front grinning like idiots. Kurt plastered on a smile and walked down the steps, Finn hot on his tail.

"Hey dad, hi Carole. What's going on?" Kurt asked, though he had an inkling.

"HE PROPOSED! HE PROPOSED!" Carole shouted, thrusting her hand in Kurt's face.

Kurt couldn't help but join in her giddiness, readily offering his congratulations. He met his father's gaze as Burt hugged Finn and saw the question burning in his father's eyes. Kurt nodded his approval, that yes it was wonderful he'd proposed to Carole. Kurt couldn't think of a better match for his father. Suddenly, Kurt found himself with an armful of Finn.

"Dude, we're going to be brothers! I always wanted a little brother!"

Kurt rolled his eyes and gracefully stepped out of Finn's embrace, "Finn, I'm older than you."

"What?" Finn asked as though Kurt's statement had nothing to do with anything he'd just said.

Kurt shook his head, "Nothing, yes I'm excited as well." Kurt turned to his dad and Carole, "Can I help plan the wedding? I could go for a good project right now."

Carole reached out and squeezed his hand, "I wouldn't ask anyone else, sweetheart."

Kurt hugged her tightly, "Oh, this will be so fun!"

XXXX

Kurt's excitement was short lived as he was slushied on his way to lunch following the class period after his father and Carole's announcement. He silently wondered whether or not Finn could get the guys to lay off him, but didn't want to abuse his newfound brotherly status.

Kurt ate his lunch in silence, ignoring all of his friends' inquiries as to whether or not he was alright. He could feel eyes on him and turned halfway around to see Karofsky staring at him across the room, a smirk in place on his face. Kurt shuddered and turned around again, trying to hold himself together. It wasn't that Karofsky had been extra hostile towards him, just the usual slushies and shoves; it was the lingering glares and the old promises that shined in his eyes that got to Kurt. He knew what Karofsky was capable of and didn't want to find out what would happen if Karofsky felt threatened.

Kurt closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his hands bracketing his lunch tray. All of the sudden, a warm hand closed over his right one. Kurt squeezed his eyes tightly and tried to bring himself back to the halls of Dalton, back to a time when it was okay to be holding Blaine's hand.

"Kurt, I know you don't want to talk, but just remember to breathe. You're so strong. Please don't let them get to you." Blaine whispered for only Kurt to hear.

Kurt took a steadying breath and squeezed Blaine's hand in acknowledgement before removing his hand from the grasp. His heart felt lighter knowing Blaine was seated next to him and cared about him. He still couldn't bring himself to have the all-important discussion with Blaine, but knowing he was still there was enough for the moment.


Blaine walked down the hall with his head held high and a bright smile on his face. He refused to let anyone know he'd just washed slushie out of his neatly gelled hair. It was the sixth week of school and he felt like he got far less harassment than he'd anticipated. He got a slushie shower on 'Glee Loser Thursday', but other than that, and the occasional remark about his clothing, it was radio silence from the jocks.

Kurt, on the other hand, was being bullied more than Blaine had ever seen directed at a single person. Even his old public school hadn't been that bad prior to Sadie Hawkins. It was ridiculous. Blaine even complained on Kurt's behalf to one of the teachers and got the whole 'well, I didn't see anything Mr. Anderson, but thanks for bringing it to my attention' speech. He wished there was something he could do, or at least get Kurt to talk to him again, but they only spoke when it was mandatory for an in-class assignment. Admittedly, Kurt had seemed to relax around Blaine more and more with each passing day. Not to mention Kurt kept shooting him concerned looks that showed he knew something was off with Blaine.

Indeed, there was something off. His parents kept to their word and he spent the previous weekend with his father. He'd had to miss the first two weekends of his father's time due to business trips his father had to take. The weekend had done him in. He loved his father and his father wasn't a bad guy, they just didn't have anything in common. It had been clear before the new arrangement, but suffering through a weekend of long, awkward silences where both parties were trying to find something to say before simply turning on a football game on the television was miserable. On top of that, while his father never directly said he disapproved of Blaine's sexuality he'd certainly not held back on telling Blaine about his coworker's daughter who'd recently asked about him before suggesting Blaine ask her to dinner while he was in town. It was the worst weekend Blaine had had in a long time. Even the weeks he'd spent with his father over the summer weren't so bad because he'd been able to spend most of his time with the Warblers that lived nearby, usually only getting home in time to go to bed, sometimes not even going home at all until the following evening. Blaine crossed his fingers that he and his father could find something in common to enjoy; otherwise they'd both continue hating their time together. It saddened Blaine that he and his father couldn't get along like he and his mother did. He wanted a good relationship with him, he just couldn't find one.

XXXX

Blaine walked into the choir room one afternoon and found Kurt and Finn in the front of the room waiting for everyone else to enter. 'Odd combination, but okay' Blaine thought to himself. He watched as Kurt placed his hand on Finn's forearm and said something quietly for only Finn to hear. Finn laughed and nodded, before patting Kurt on the shoulder. Kurt's smile reached his eyes for the first time since Blaine had seen him after transferring to Mckinley. Heat bubbled in Blaine's stomach as he watched them interact. Blaine knew Finn was straight and dating Rachel (as was clearly exemplified in a duet sang by the duo while Rachel shot a shit eating grin at Quinn), but the jealousy still bubbled up inside of him. Why wouldn't Kurt talk to Blaine? Why wouldn't he smile at Blaine? Why wouldn't he whisper to Blaine?

Blaine frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, looking down to his feet. Kurt and Finn had barely interacted before. It was common knowledge that their parents were dating, but the two of them didn't seem to acknowledge each other much other than that. What had changed?

"Okay guys! Kurt and Finn have the floor and then we'll get rehearsing for Sectionals!" Mr. Schuester said as Puck finally strolled into the room.

"Thanks Mr. Schue." Finn said, "So, Kurt and I have an announcement. We-"

"Are dating and pregnant." Puck shot out from his seat next to Santana, earning a snicker from several others and a soft protest from Mr. Schuester.

Blaine glared at Puck at the thought of the duo dating.

"Noah, please." Kurt said with an eye roll, "No. Our parents are engaged!"

Kurt's bright smile and happy clapping warmed Blaine's heart as several girls squealed and the boys shouted their congratulations. Blaine smiled as well, seeing Kurt happy made Blaine happy. Not to mention how excited Blaine was for Burt, he was a good man and deserved happiness.

"Anyway, we were hoping we could have the New Directions perform as the wedding band. Would you guys be up for it?" Kurt asked as Finn nodded eagerly by his side.

Everyone immediately agreed and Mr. Schue said they could set up pairs and groups to sing after they finished Sectionals the following weekend as they needed to buckle down and focus.

'Pairs...Duets...Dancing...Maybe I could get this to work for me...for us.'


They'd won Sectionals, obviously. It had been held earlier than usual due to being an election year and the auditoriums would be needed to hold debates. There had been the slightly awkward, yet very sweet reunion between Burt and Kurt with Blaine and Mrs. Anderson. Kurt was glad to see Mrs. Anderson again; she'd always been very kind to him. He'd wondered where Mr. Anderson had been, considering he'd usually tried to make it to the events, even if he wasn't exactly into the whole 'show choir thing'. Unfortunately, their reunion had to be cut short when Finn bounded over saying Carole had found Rachel's dads and they were ready to leave for dinner.

XXXX

The following Monday, Kurt found himself and Finn in front of the Glee Club once again. They were arranging a setlist for the wedding, which was set for the first weekend of December. Their parents had wanted something simple and soon. Kurt was struggling to plan everything he wanted for this dream wedding in so little time, but respected their wishes nonetheless.

"Okay, so looks like we need a duet or solo next because we have two group numbers in a row. Who wants to go?" Kurt said before looking up to his friends' eager faces.

He'd been surprised at how willing and excited the club seemed to be about performing for his father's wedding. Even Mr. Schue had offered to sing at the reception; he had even agreed not to rap.

Kurt felt his heart leap as Blaine rose his hand, half-standing in restraint of holding back from his old Warbler ways of standing before speaking.

"Okay, B-Blaine, um, a solo?" Kurt said as he wrote Blaine's name next in order.

"No." Blaine's calm voice drifted out, "I want to sing a duet with you, Kurt."

Kurt's heart stopped in his chest and his pen slipped out of his grasp. He looked up to meet Blaine's gaze. The bright honey-hazel eyes bore into him, begging him to agree. The rest of his features were held in a calm manner to the outside world, but Kurt could see the unease and fear. Fear that Kurt would reject him. Kurt swallowed past the lump in his throat and nodded, bending over to pick up his pen once again. When he looked up again he saw hope shining in Blaine's eyes.

"Okay. That sounds," Kurt cleared his throat as his emotions pulled inside of him as flashbacks of many duets with Blaine in their old days fluttered around in his mind, "That sounds great."

Blaine's smile could have lit up Times Square, "Great."

Kurt nodded and kept hold of Blaine's gaze. A million butterflies took up residence in his stomach and Kurt couldn't help the smile that began tugging at his mouth. It seemed like the world around them disappeared, it was only the two of them staring at one another. Kurt noticed that Blaine had parted his hair on the opposite side than usual. He noticed the way his shoulders and chest filled out his button down more than they had before. He noticed the slight twitch of Blaine's mouth that he never commented on but secretly loved. He noticed Blaine. Kurt had been trying hard (though partially unsuccessfully) to avoid really focusing on him, only speaking to him when necessary and not taking the time to truly look at him since that second day of school when he'd strutted in with Warbler Blaine in place. Now that Kurt really noticed him, he realized how stupid he'd been to ignore him for so long. They'd been in the same school for two months and Kurt had been avoiding Blaine.

'Why have I been so stupid? Obviously we can't date, we're not there anymore, but we could be friends. Right? Yeah, get to know him again. He's here and perfect and has been waiting patiently for you. Talk to him. Also...find out why Warbler Blaine is always present. What's going on with him? Why is he here? Take the time to know him again. He took the time to give you space, now give him what he's been waiting for. Talk to him!'

"Okay, uh, more songs?" Finn said, breaking Kurt's thoughts, "Sam and Santana want to sing together after you and Blaine."

Kurt nodded and wrote the information down. They had a month and a half to pull their songs together for the wedding; Kurt had a month and a half of rehearsing with Blaine and getting to know him once again. He had a month and a half of excuses for getting his best friend back.


"I'm sorry, you did what?" David asked as the Warblers stared at Blaine in half-shock, half-amusement.

Blaine shrugged, "I asked to sing a duet with him. He agreed, which I kind of wasn't expecting, but am thrilled with." Blaine could feel the blush on his cheeks, but couldn't bring himself to care.

"Aww, good for you, Blaine, standing up for what you want, circa freshman year!" Nick teased and everyone laughed at the memory when Blaine had stood up in the middle of the Warbler meeting claiming he and Kurt would be singing a duet at their upcoming competition and there'd be no arguing the matter.

"Yeah, well some trends were meant to be repeated." Blaine said with a wink, earning another round of laughter.

He'd missed his friends since the summer. Everyone had been so busy they hadn't been able to meet up and Blaine was glad to be back in their presence again, even though it took him driving all the way out to campus after school.

"Well, well. Nobody told me the finest piece of ass I ever had was back on campus for a visit."

Blaine sighed as he turned around in his seat to see Sebastian, "Hey Seb, want to join us?"

Sebastian smirked, "Nah, got lacrosse, but maybe I'll catch you later and we can celebrate your visit." He shrugged his eyebrows and turned to walk away, hips swaying as he went.

Blaine bit his lip as his heart rate sped up in his chest and turned back to the group. They immediately fell back into easy conversation, but Blaine's mind was reeling. He felt guilty for the way his stomach filled with energy at Sebastian's suggestion, especially when he was this close to getting Kurt back. He shook his head to clear the suggestion out of his mind.

XXXX

After several hours, only Jeff, Nick and Blaine remained at their table.

"So, Kurt mentioned something about leaving a couple spaces for 'Nick and Jeff' to be added into the mix for the setlist during rehearsal the other day. I'm glad you guys are coming to the wedding, it'll be nice to have you there." Blaine commented.

Both of his friends smiled back at him.

"We'll be glad to see you and Kurt back in action again." Nick replied.

Blaine sighed, "Hopefully. At least you'll see us duet. I mean...I felt like once we'd agreed on this duet something happened. He just...stared at me. It was like he noticed me for the first time. Since then we've been talking more. I mean, it's only been two days, and everything we talk about is trivial, but I feel like he's really trying. I hope this means we can get back to us."

"Me too, Blaine, me too." Jeff said with a pat to his hand.


Kurt hummed to himself as he flipped through a book of sheet music filled of duets. Blaine hadn't been able to meet that afternoon due to prior plans with the Warblers, so Kurt went to the music store to find some options for them to work on.

"Oh. My. God! Please tell me where you found those McQueen boots! I have been searching forever for those!" A chipper voice squealed behind Kurt.

He turned around to find a short, blonde boy with bright green eyes and impeccable fashion staring at him. Kurt smiled and looked down to his feet.

"Ah, online auction. One of those great 2 am auctions that you get the alert for at 1:59 am." Kurt replied, ignoring the fluttering of his stomach as the boy studied him up and down.

"Well, lucky you. Everything you're wearing is perfect. You should be a model." The boy said, taking a step forward and holding out his hand as he spoke, "I'm Chandler."

Kurt shook the boy's hand, "Hello Chandler, I'm Kurt."

The boy nodded his acknowledgement, "What are you looking at?"

The duo spent the better part of an hour discussing music, musicals and their Broadway ambitions, as well as their backup plans for if those ambitions don't come to fruition. Kurt spent the whole time with a smile on his face and feeling much happier than he had in a really long time; arguably since he and Blaine broke up. The many compliments thrown at Kurt made him blush and the easy conversation made him want to stick by Chandler a little longer.

"Well, I must be going. I should probably let you get back to picking wedding music." Chandler said.

Kurt nodded, "Okay. It was good to meet you, though."

"You too, Kurt." Chandler seemed to debate for a moment, "So, do you think I could get your number? Maybe we could go out sometime."

Kurt stared at him in shock. 'Did that really just happen? Well...he is sweet, cute and easy to get along with. Why not?'

"Sure."


A/N: I don't own Glee nor its characters. Yay! I wrote an update for this one! It has been sooo long since I wrote for this so I'm very pleased that anything came out. If you're following along on Tumblr, then you know I'm without computer at the moment, so while I'm handwriting a lot for both this and FY, updates might be a bit...random for a while depending on when I can get my hands on a computer. I'm hoping to stay on track but just FYI. I hope y'all enjoyed it! Let me know what you thought! Also, in case you're not following on FY, I'm now on AO3! Same username and story titles. Go check it out! :)