I found myself wondering how Kurt came to have the photo of Blaine when they'd just met, so I went back to fill in more of the conversation at Dalton Academy. Just a sweet little 'Klaine' moment. (This surprised me, because I didn't even think I was shipping them!)

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"Confront him! Call him out. I ran, Kurt. I didn't stand up. I let bullies chase me away, and it is something I really, really regret."

Kurt studied his face for several moments as the passionate words rang through the silence, then he said, "I did that once already." Kurt stared down at the lid of his coffee cup with lost, tired eyes. "Stood up to them, I mean. At the end of last year, I told them off and said that I was proud to be different. That it was the best thing about me. I even dared them to hit me if that was the only way they could deal with me. They would have done it too, if it weren't for a timely intervention from my fellow glee-clubbers. They thought the bullying had to do with how much the jocks hate Glee, and I never told them otherwise."

"Why not?"

He smirked humorlessly. "Because it felt a lot better than pointing out the fact that I'm an outsider even among outcasts." Kurt sighed. "Just the same, here I am, three months into a new school year with the situation even worse than before."

"You said you stood up to them," Blaine repeated, the gentle note of understanding in his voice bringing Kurt's eyes back up to his face. He realized now why the other boy had seemed so shocked yesterday upon learning that the Warblers were considered cool. Apparently at McKinley, loving to sing was just one more mark against him. "There's more than just one devoted Neanderthal on your case, I take it?"

Kurt took a deep breath as if trying to gather his strength, but his shoulders sagged anyway. "The one I was talking about, Karofsky; has a best friend who's just as much of a problem. Most of the jocks at my school don't like me. They're all convinced that I'm trying to use my evil gay voodoo to get into their pants or something."

Blaine smiled a bit at his sarcastic jibe, glad to see a little fire in Kurt's eyes. "Been there, too."

He nodded, relaxing a tiny bit at the reminder. "None of the others actually do much, outside of pulling an occasional childish prank. Karofsky and his friend are a different story. When they're together, it's just double the trouble for me, and no one does anything to help." Kurt shook his head, a lonely expression filling his eyes. "My friends don't even notice what's happening anymore, and I don't want to sound like a whiny broken record, constantly complaining about it. It's almost like seeing me get pushed around and taunted by homophobic slurs has become just such a common part of the day, that nobody has any reason to care."

Kurt stopped talking when his voice cracked. He lifted his latte, trying to pretend it was only because he had a dry throat, but his hand was shaking so badly that liquid slopped out of the sipping hole, a couple of drops striking his pale gray tweed suit-scarf and causing him to gasp in alarm.

"Here, it's okay. Let me help you," Blaine said, quickly moving closer and dabbing a napkin against the tiny spill, blotting the droplets up before they could soak into the fine material.

Kurt's eyes shut, his lips pressing tight together as the simple words and kindly action hit him. He put his cup down and laced his fingers together to try and hide their trembling.

Blaine's heart went out to him. No one should be that devastated by a simple offer of help. Instinct made him completely disregard the polite distance he had been keeping with this near-stranger and scoot closer, gripping Kurt's shoulder with one hand and covering his shaking hands with the other. "This has been going on for a long time, hasn't it?" he asked quietly.

Kurt nodded jerkily. Eyelids fluttered open, revealing blue eyes shimmering with tears. "Lately, it's been so much worse. The second of my two tormentors has been out sick all week, and you'd think that would have given me a break. Instead, Karofsky just keeps pushing me, literally, until sometimes I feel sure that I'm just going to break. If this goes on much longer, I will break."

There was deep shame in his eyes and Blaine squeezed his hands harder, using both of his own to try and emphasize how sincerely he meant it when he replied, "It's okay, Kurt. It's not your fault. Nobody can go it alone forever. Nobody." Kurt met his eyes and Blaine smiled encouragingly at him. "Like I said, I ran away from my problems. I did break, and I do regret that. At least you had the guts to fight back. Against two of them, no less! That already puts you a big step ahead in this particular game, because now they know you're not afraid of them."

"Yes, I am," he said, shaking his head. "I try to act like it doesn't bother me but sometimes I'm so terrified that it's all I can do not to fall apart. Maybe it shows a little and that's why Karofsky is so hell bent on making me miserable."

"I wouldn't doubt it," he agreed. "There's nothing a bully likes better than to feel that he's beaten his victim into submission. Some kind of sick power trip, I guess. That's why I think you need to get this guy alone and stand up to him. Convince him that he's wrong to keep pushing you. If all he wants is a victim, just prove that you aren't willing to be one for him anymore. Without the support of his buddy, I think he'll probably back down."

Kurt looked doubtful. "That's the part that worries me. What if he doesn't back down? Or what if I have the opportunity but I just can't bring myself to confront him? Blaine, I'm honestly not sure I have that kind of strength anymore."

The pleading in his eyes tugged at Blaine's heart. Kurt was so beautiful and so vulnerable that it made him want to gather him close and kiss all of that pain and misery away. The realization of that shocked him. He was not the type of person to dive head-first into a relationship with a guy he had known for a grand total of one hour, spread over two days!

Yet . . . something in Kurt called out to him, drawing forth sympathy and the deep understanding of having been in exactly the same position. Kurt needed a friend right now; a support system. This was not the time to make a romantic gesture that would probably terrify the poor kid and do absolutely nothing to solve his very real problem. Especially since instinct told Blaine that, ironically, the only reason Kurt was allowing him to see that damnably attractive vulnerability was because he was an outsider and therefore safe to confide in.

He took a deep breath. Needing to lighten the mood a little, he smiled. "Have you ever seen "The Wizard of Oz"?"

Confused incredulity replaced the pain in Kurt's eyes so quickly that Blaine nearly laughed.

"Of course," he said, his wary tone implying that he thought Blaine just might be messing with him. "Who hasn't?"

Blaine's smile got bigger as he quoted, "What makes the Hottentots so hot? What puts the Ape in apricot? What have you got that I ain't got?"

A little smile tipped Kurt's mouth at the slight alteration of the final line. "Courage?"

"You can say that again!" He winked, surprising a few notes of warm, genuine laughter out of Kurt.

"Are you trying to tell me that backing off and letting Karofsky get away with this crap will make me a coward?" Kurt asked quietly, the smile fading into a somewhat affronted expression. "Because, excuse me, but that sounds slightly hypocritical considering what you just told me about choosing to leave your old school and come here!"

"I'm not calling you a coward," he assured Kurt, deciding that admitting that he did feel like a coward much of the time would be counter-productive. "I'm just saying that if you found the courage to stand up for yourself once, then, like the Lion in the movie, you've had it inside of you all along and you deserve a chance to show this idiot that he didn't drive it out of you with his pushing and threatening and petty, ignorant insults. You're an incredibly strong person, Kurt. We've only just met and I can already tell that about you. You can do this thing. I believe in you."

Kurt drew himself up straighter, a rosy pink brightening his cheeks. His eyes all but glowed with a sense of renewed pride at those words. It made Blaine feel a little awed that he could bring such an expression to his eyes.

Suddenly, a hint of doubt darkened Kurt's features again. "That sounds good, but what if I get all the way back to McKinley and discover that you're wrong? It's not like you can present me with a magical boy-scout medal to remember my courage by."

Blaine laughed. "No, I'm afraid not, but maybe I have something just as good."

"What?" he asked curiously.

"Wait right here a minute," he said, rising from his chair. Kurt nodded, a little smile brightening his face as Blaine added, "Don't move, I'll be right back."

He left the little café attached to the Junior Commons and hurried toward the stairs leading to his room. Kurt needed a symbol, just something to hold onto when he needed a reminder that life went on outside the walls of his high school, and that someone out here cared.

Dalton students had just received the finished prints of their annual school photographs last week. He had already sent the larger prints to his family and distributed most of the wallets to friends here at school, but he did still have two 5x7" prints unclaimed.

He paused in the act of pulling one of the leftovers out of the desk in his room. Would it be terribly forward to give a boy he had just met a photo of himself, however kindly meant? What if Kurt read more than friendship into his intentions?

A fluttering feeling deep inside answered that question for him. He suspected that he would feel just fine about it if Kurt chose to see the gesture as more than just friendly. Blaine blushed at the realization. God, he was acting like a sappy fairy-tale character, wishing for love at first sight. That was crazy; there was no such thing!

Then he thought back to the boy in the café with the sad, luminous, blue-green eyes, perfect porcelain skin and facial expressions that could be easily read by a blind man. He remembered Kurt's clumsy but endearing attempt at spying in his guess-work uniform, and his timid request to talk when he had unexpectedly reappeared today after the final class bell, scared that he would get beat up for intruding a second time, but determined to get his questions answered.

Maybe it wasn't so crazy, after all.

With a nod, Blaine grabbed the photo and raced back to the café, hoping hard that Kurt would not have used the opportunity of being alone to escape back to Lima. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw him sitting at the table, waiting patiently.

"Here," he said breathlessly, throwing himself into his original seat.

Kurt accepted the offering, a delighted smile brightening his eyes and pressing two dimples into his cheeks when he realized what he had been given. Blaine's heart fluttered again at the sight. Oh, yeah, he was definitely a goner.

"It's not a boy-scout medal, but maybe you can look at that and find the strength to keep on fighting, knowing that I'm in your corner."

"Did you just use a sports metaphor to describe me?" Kurt asked, a laugh breaking free. "I'll have to tell my dad. He'll never believe it!"

Blaine laughed too, a warm feeling overtaking him as Kurt pulled back the lapel of his odd little coat-scarf and tucked the photograph into a previously unseen shirt pocket, right over his heart.

"Thank you, Blaine," he said softly. "This will help me more than you know."

"If you ever need to talk, feel free to call me," he offered, surprising himself again. Pulling a pen out of his breast pocket, he wrote his number on a fresh napkin and handed it over. "Whenever you need me, Kurt. I mean it."

The other boy nearly glowed with happiness. Pulling out his cell, Kurt quickly added the contact, then dialed the new number. Blaine pulled his ringing phone out of his pants pocket. "In case you need to return the favor," Kurt told him, smiling a little shyly as he added, "Any time."

A bell rang, interrupting the moment. Reluctantly, Blaine said, "That's the chore bell. Everyone here helps out with things like cafeteria duty and I'm scheduled to work the dinner shift tonight. I have to go."

Kurt rose and held out his hand, formally shaking Blaine's. "Thank you," he said sincerely. "For everything."

For caring; the silent words hung in the air between them.

Blaine squeezed his hand, reluctant to let him go. "Good luck, tomorrow. Let me know it goes?"

"I will," he agreed firmly. "Goodbye, Blaine."

"Goodbye, Kurt," Blaine replied, smiling into his eyes. "I'll see you soon."

He could have meant the Sectionals competition in three weeks, but he really didn't.

"I'll see you soon," Kurt repeated, the words quiet but filled with promise.

The finely-dressed boy turned, gathered his possessions and left the café, while Blaine stood and watched him go.

He should have been hurrying to get to his chore shift but he did not move. He was glad he had not when Kurt looked over his shoulder just before rounding the corner that would take him out of sight, and smiled at him.

Blaine sighed, telling himself that the sound did not scream 'love-sick puppy' and grinned as he went to report for duty.

And if anyone wondered why the Junior lead of the Dalton Academy Warblers felt moved to whistle a jaunty rendition of, "We're Off To See the Wizard," all the way through dinner prep, they did not bother to ask.