A/N: Thank you for all your kind words. When my real life gets stressful, as it did this past week, your reviews and alerts make me smile. I'm so sorry I kept you waiting for this update, hopefully you'll find it was worth waiting for. Enjoy! xoxo


Kurt stood alone on McKinley's stage. For the first time in a long time, he felt ready to face his life again. He had only been gone a week, but when he and Mercedes entered the auditorium together, his friends in Glee club had all come rushing over to welcome him back, as if he'd been gone for months. Kurt had embraced each one of them with an openness he hadn't shown them in months, feeling freer than ever before, now that the bullying was over. And maybe that's truly where their reaction stemmed from, because in a lot of ways that mattered, the real Kurt had been hiding for far too long.

As the first notes of Lady Gaga's Born This Way began to pulse through his body, Kurt promised himself he wouldn't hide anymore. He saw Santana and Karofsky seated together at the back of the auditorium, still unsure how stable their little pact was, but not willing to give into the worry. In more ways than Kurt could comprehend this moment felt like his true coming out party.

And minutes later, when Mercedes and Tina opened Kurt's jacket to reveal his Likes Boys t-shirt, Kurt only had one boy on his mind. He knew this was the performance he wanted him to see. His pulse quickened at the thought of posting it on his tumblr for Blaine, and really, all his followers to witness. That was certainly one way to ensure he couldn't hide any longer.


newyorkbound asked: Blaine, My friend Santana struck some sort of deal with the devil (there's a reason I sometimes "accidentally" call her Satan) and Karofsky has swore he will leave me alone! I really don't believe this will last forever, but for now, I'm rejoicing and planning to participate a lot more at school while I can. So, with that being said, I've posted a video for you. You wanted to see me sing! I think this is the performance I'm most proud of, and it only just happened today. Kurt :)

Kurt uploaded the video and bounced around his room anxiously waiting for Blaine's reaction.

Before Blaine even responded, Kurt saw the post, warbleringthrulife reblogged your video: "Born This Way" performed by New Directions, on his dashboard. Two minutes later he had a new message in his inbox.

warbleringthrulife answered you: Kurt, I'm speechless. I already reblogged it, I hope you don't mind. I just needed to share that with all my followers. Now let me ramble on for a moment about how amazing, courageous, inspiring, talented, beautiful (and a million other adjectives I can't think of right now) you were in that video. In fact, your entire Glee club looks like a force to be reckoned with. I'm not sure The Warblers are ready to face you at Nationals, because I'm certain that's where you're going to end up. I know performing isn't your life long goal, but I really hope you find a way to keep it in your life, you looked like you were born to be on that stage ;) Blaine

Kurt finished reading Blaine's message and was very glad he was alone, as he wiped at the tears slowly falling down his face. He didn't know what kind of reaction he'd been expecting from Blaine, but he was certain he hadn't anticipated this. He read through the message another dozen times, searching for a word he had misunderstood, a thought that could be interpreted a different way. He never found one. All he found was words of flattery and adoration from a boy he admired. A boy who managed to use his words to reach across hundreds of miles and tighten his grip on Kurt's heart.

Kurt couldn't decide how to respond. So he scrolled through his blog while he tried to reign in his emotions and fit words to them.

A few minutes later his curiosity overrode any sentimental response he'd hoped to send.

newyorkbound asked: Blaine, Your reaction to the video was amazing. Thank you! Just a quick question though - how many followers do you have on tumblr? Kurt :)

Blaine's response was almost instantaneous.

warbleringthrulife answered you: Are you free to Skype?

Kurt opened Skype and logged in. A minute later he received an incoming call from Blaine.

The second his face appeared on the screen Blaine was in full rambling mode. "Shit, Kurt. I'm so so sorry. Sometimes I forget how many of them there are. I haven't been posting as much lately," he paused and blushed. Oh, Kurt thought to himself, maybe I'm the reason for that.

"Its okay, Blaine." Kurt replied calmly. "I was only asking because my follower count is suddenly climbing and the video already has 527 notes, which is triple the number of followers I had and about 500 more notes than anything I've ever posted has had before."

"Well that's because it's amazing. But also probably because I have a couple thousand followers," Blaine replied sheepishly.

"You...what?" Kurt was sure he must have misheard Blaine, because how does anyone get thousands of followers on tumblr?

"I know. It's crazy to me too. Honestly though, they're not here for me. Awhile back, before Cooper was cast in Magic Mike, he had lots of smaller Broadway roles and I used to post candid pictures of him. As he got more popular, fans would find my posts and start following me." Blaine shrugged his shoulders, he was used to the tumblr riots that Cooper could cause.

Kurt smiled shyly and clicked around on his computer for a few seconds. "Do you mean photos like this one?" Kurt asked as he shared his screen with Blaine for a second and right in the middle was a picture of Cooper looking dapper on a kickass motorcycle.

"Yep, that was one of them." Blaine grinned at Kurt. "And why, may I ask do you have that picture?"

Blaine's tone was light but Kurt didn't miss the way Blaine had curled in on himself ever so slightly, or the way that his gaze dropped downward and he couldn't quite meet Kurt's eyes.

"Let's just say that I was a huge fanboy of Cooper Anderson's until I learned that there was another Anderson I liked even more." Kurt blurted out, before he could think too much about it and change his mind. After seeing Blaine's reaction to Kurt's crush on Cooper, he needed Blaine to know that Cooper meant nothing to him. "And you know that I had no idea you were Cooper's little brother when we started talking, right?" Blaine nodded.

"This is about you and me." Kurt said confidently.

"You don't know how happy it makes me to hear that." Blaine replied softly.

But Kurt did know. He knew it in the way his eyes were now golden and his posture was open again. He knew it in the way Blaine's cheeks pinked ever so slightly and in the lilt of his voice when he was happy. He knew it because slowly but surely, and despite the distance between them, he was beginning to know Blaine.


"KURT!" The sound of Rachel's irate voice filled his ears and everyone else's who happened to be unlucky enough to be standing near his locker the next day before his lunch period.

"Hello to you too, Rachel." He smiled sweetly, as she glared at him, unsure as to what was going on.

"Don't you 'hello Rachel' me. I want to know how a video of us performing Born this Way ended up on tumblr with over 600 notes?" Rachel looked at him expectantly.

"And why would you think I'd know anything about that?" Kurt feigned indifference. It wasn't that his relationship with Blaine was a secret, it was just that Mercedes, to his surprise, hadn't told anyone else about it. So he hadn't either. He figured the gossip-free days for him and Blaine were about to come to a dramatic end.

"Oh I don't know, perhaps because the tag at the bottom of the video reads, 'Check out my amazing friend Kurt and his talented Glee club.' My friend Harmony, you remember her, right?" Rachel inquired, as if she was asking a question, but didn't pause long enough for an actual answer. "She and I met at a performing arts camp when we were 5. We stay in touch over email and she sent me the link, after she saw the video and wondered if the Kurt mentioned in the tag was my Kurt. She also wanted to know why my Kurt was being reblogged by Cooper Anderson's baby brother."

At some point during Rachel's rant, and Kurt really could not have told you when, Tina and Mercedes had arrived at his locker as well. They were smart enough to stay out of Rachel's tunnel vision of wrath, so she had barely paused upon their arrival.

"So, my Kurt, is there something you want to tell me about you and Blaine Anderson?" Rachel's voice softened a little as Kurt involuntarily blushed at the mention of Blaine's name and she was fairly certain he wasn't going to keep pretending he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Blaine and I are close friends," Kurt offered as an answer, but he knew he wasn't going to get off that easily. Tina and Mercedes stepped forward and stood beside Rachel, who was now wearing her tell me more before I bitch you out again face. Kurt sighed and reached back into his locker. As he dug around for his English notebook from that morning's class, he provided more details. "He lives in New York City, with Cooper actually. We met online when the bullying was really bad with Karofsky. Blaine messaged me some words of support and we started talking. We text and Skype a fair bit now." His hand closed around the notebook and with a soft sigh, he pulled it out and opened it to the last page. He turned it around and showed the page to his closest girl friends. Drawn in red ink was a heart with an arrow and written inside were the words Blaine + Kurt.

Mercedes was the first to respond with a sympathetic, "Oh, Boo."


A/N: If you're following along on tumblr (and I love every one of you who is showing that much enthusiasm for this story), the posts are on their blogs. I've also tagged everything with "fic: tumbled upon" so you can just track that tag if you want instead. Thank you again for reading. I'd really love to hear what you thought :)