2

Another twenty minutes later, Blaine finally pulled his white Subaru Outback into the Dalton guest parking lot. His anger had pretty much dissipated into just his usual annoyance with his ex. He knew that Sebastian loved their son, but he just didn't understand why he had to be such a goddamn douchebag sometimes. He was really trying not to let the interaction bother him, though. He practically never got to see his friends anymore, and he wanted to take advantage of this rare opportunity and have fun with someone other than a toddler.

Before getting out of the car, he took a moment to gather his wallet, phone, and sheet music from the passenger's seat. As he did, he glanced in his rearview mirror and a sudden pang of sadness to hit him when he saw Ollie's empty car seat.

He sighed, giving in to the familiar feeling of separation anxiety. Every time Sebastian took Oliver for a weekend, Blaine could hardly stand how much he missed his son. He always felt like he was missing out on chunks of his boy's life. Granted, they were never more than just a couple days long and God knew that Sebastian missed far more time with their son than he did, but still, Blaine sometimes couldn't stand the thought that Ollie was playing and talking and growing somewhere without him. Even though he'd given birth eighteen months ago, it still felt like his baby was a part of him, an extension of himself, and it hurt to be separated.

Blaine took several calming breaths, reminding himself that Ollie would be snuggled into his chest again on Sunday evening and that wasn't that far away. After another minute of psyching himself up for his friends, Blaine left the car and approached the frost- and ivy-covered brick fortress that was Dewey Hall, his former residence at Dalton.

He reached out to pull open the door of the side entrance of the building, but jumped back with a yelp when the door suddenly flew open from the inside.

"There you are!" Wes's irritated voice barked. "Do you know what time it is, Blaine?!" he continued, grabbing the startled boy's wrist and yanking him forward. "We were supposed to go on almost an hour ago! The people are getting restless! There's talk of mutiny!"

Sure enough, as the distressed head Warbler dragged him down the hallway toward the spiral staircase that led up to the dorm rooms, Blaine could hear the muffled chanting coming from the Senior Commons room at the far end of the hall. Warblers! Warblers! Warblers! He smiled at the slow mantra, remembering how worked up the student body always got for the show choir's performances.

"It's nice to see you too, Wes," he teased as they ascended the stairs. Blaine took a nostalgic moment to recall how often he used to walk this route to his room when he still attended Dalton. As they passed the second floor landing, his eyes glanced over a rectangular spot on the wall where the paint was slightly paler than the surrounding area. There was an immediate sinking feeling in his stomach when he remembered how he and Sebastian had knocked down the plaque that had once hung there during a rather heated make-out session.

"Save the niceties for later, man. I need you ready to go in the Senior Commons ASAP. I think they might start rioting soon," Wes responded. "I hope you've gotten enough practice by yourself, because now there's no time to run through it and we're gonna have to run it dry."

Blaine suddenly felt his first wave of nervousness come over him at the statement. "I, uh, yeah. It should be fine," he replied, trying to convince himself more so than the other boy.

They stopped when they reached Wes and David's room in the middle of the third floor hallway, where all the senior rooms were. Wes wrenched the door open and threw his friend inside. Blaine stumbled slightly before catching himself on Wes's desk.

"Drop your stuff, fix your hair, and then get your ass downstairs."

"Alright, alright!" said Blaine.

Wes finally smiled as he turned to leave. "It'll be good to see you in the Dalton colors again, man."

Blaine smiled back. "It's great to be back, Wes."

"We've missed you," Wes added, still smiling. "See you down there."

Blaine nodded warmly to his friend before he closed the door and left him alone to gather himself.

He wasted no time in shedding his winter coat and hat and then re-sculpting his hair into the dapper side-part do that was customary for Warbler performances.

After a final smooth-over to make sure his blazer didn't have any wrinkles, Blaine left the room and headed back toward the spiral staircase. There were still a few stragglers left in the halls that kept filing past him as he went, clearly hurrying on their way to the Senior Commons room. Blaine took a deep breath as he walked. It really had been a long time since he'd preformed anything in front of a crowd, and this was not a performance he wanted to screw up.

The entire student body of Dalton looked forward to the Warbler Valentine's party every year. It was a tradition that went back fifty years. There was obviously a lot of pressure on them to make not only the party a hit, but also their performance. After all, if the event stopped being anything short of a wild success, there was no way that the faculty would continue to simply turn the other cheek toward the fact that their students and their invited dates overtook Dewey Hall every year in order to cause a little mayhem. But the Dalton tradition was one that placed a lot of trust and responsibility on the students, and so the rule with the Valentine's bash had always been that as long as no people or property got hurt, it would continue to be the one event a year that was chaperone-free.

Blaine certainly didn't want to be the one to suck it up so bad that the students actually would riot and therefore put an end to the tradition. He didn't even go there. But this was his passion. Performing was what he loved the most in the world other than his son. So he'd be damned if he didn't give it his all.

He turned onto the staircase and started down it with his heart pounding in his ears. He sincerely hoped he'd been able to go over his part of the a capella number enough times that afternoon not to cause distress on that level.

A few more boys rushed past Blaine in their haste to get to the room where the chanting seemed to be getting louder and louder. He instinctively reached for the pocket-watch in his pocket, as was his nervous habit. He was concentrating on reading the time on the small, golden device as he neared the bottom of the stairs.

He never did find out what time it was, though. Because suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder. And suddenly he found himself drowning in a pair of the bluest eyes he'd ever seen.

"Excuse me," the eyes said in a melodic voice.

No, Blaine thought. Eyes don't have voices. Look away. Look at the rest of his face. Blaine allowed his gaze to move away from the dazzling eyes and rest on the rest of the figure who had tapped his shoulder. He found himself looking at a tall, lean, well-coiffed teen with pale skin and sharp features. Gorgeous, was Blaine's first thought, and he immediately felt the heat rise in his cheeks.

"Umm, hi. Can I ask you a question? I'm new here," the boy said. "Like literally brand new. My dad just finished helping me unload all my stuff in my room," he added in an uneasy ramble.

Blaine took a moment to note that this newcomer was dressed in a stylish black jacket and leg-hugging khakis. The outfit looked good, but it definitely didn't fit in at Dalton. Any student who had been there longer than a day would know that even on the weekends, like it was now, Dalton students still wore their uniforms on school grounds. It was a community pride thing.

Blaine smiled at him and extended his hand, hoping a friendly demeanor would put the boy more at ease. Even though he didn't officially attend Dalton anymore, there was no reason he couldn't be welcoming to new students. "My name is Blaine," he stated, trying to pour on the charm.

Blue Eyes returned the smile, already seeming to loosen up. "Kurt," he said, accepting the handshake. "So, what exactly is going on? I was unpacking and then I heard everybody rushing through the halls."

"The Warblers," Blaine replied with a grin. "Every year they throw this awesome Valentine's party in the Senior Commons. It's un-chaperoned and everyone's invited. The kick-off performance is about to start," he explained. "The Warblers tend to draw a crowd."

He narrowed his eyes skeptically. "So, wait. The Glee Club here is kind of cool?"

"The Warblers are like rock stars," Blaine stated matter-of-factly.

Another small smile crept onto his face and Blaine couldn't help but notice how cute it was.

"Come on," he found himself saying, "I know a short-cut." Before he knew what he was doing, Blaine had reached for the new boy's hand and was pulling him into the painted corridor that ran alongside the main hallway. If he thought his heart was pounding hard before, it was nothing compared to how hard it was beating now.

They rounded the corner into the packed Senior Commons and Blaine reluctantly dropped the boy's hand. He gave some knowing nods to some of the Warblers who lit up when they saw him, and then turned back to the newcomer. The boy looked around at all the uniformed guys in the room in a kind of awe, blue eyes wide and even a little scared looking.

"Woah," the melodic voice said, "I stick out like a sore thumb."

Blaine found himself smiling hugely at the comment. I bet you'd stick out anywhere; you're stunning.

"Well next time, don't forget your jacket, new kid." Blaine reached out boldly and straightened the lapel of the boy's black coat. "You'll fit right in," he assured him with a wink, his confidence surprising himself.

The boy gave him a thankful look and relaxed his shoulders a bit.

"Now, if you'll excuse me…" Blaine said as he stepped away from him. He turned to the group of gathering Warblers behind him, all smiling widely and gratefully at him.

Blaine took a deep breath. All of a sudden—and he had no idea why—but in that moment, the only thing he found himself able to care about was impressing the blue-eyed stranger. Kurt, he thought to himself, remembering the name the boy had said on the stairs. Well, Kurt, this one's for you.

Wes nodded to him ever so slightly. It was his cue to start. It was now or never.

"Before you met me, I was alright," Blaine began the song tentatively. The rest of the Warblers' voices filled in behind his and the song began to build on itself. "But things were kind of heavy. You brought me to life." When he turned back to face the room of eager Dalton students and their dates, his eyes found Kurt's black coat at once and he felt a confident smile grew on his face. "Now every February, you'll be my Valentine. Valentine."

Blaine was now front and center of the formation of singing boys and he immediately fell into a simple side step pattern to match the beat of the song like they used to do, which, thankfully, the rest of the boys followed. "Let's go all the way tonight. No regrets. Just love." His eyes locked on Kurt's and couldn't seem to pull them away. "We can dance until we die. You and I, we'll be young forever. You make me feel like I'm living a teenage dream, the way you turn me on."

As he belted out the refrain, it became clear to Blaine that he really was singing the song directly to Kurt, but try as he might, he just couldn't get himself to look away. He'd even throw in a spin move every now and then as the song went on, but his eyes would still find Kurt's again like it was the most natural thing in the world. "I can't sleep. Let's run away and don't ever look back, don't ever look back." How did this boy already have him so entranced?

By the time they were halfway through the song, the energy in the room was palpable. Blaine laid into every single note with everything he had and the Warblers continued to back him up perfectly. Blaine could tell he was dominating the performance. It was probably his best one to date. He'd almost forgotten the thrill of energizing a whole room, the sensation of goosebumps that would flood over his whole body when he could see them reacting to him. This time though, all it took was the warmth in Kurt's eyes and his downright radiantsmile to make Blaine feel like he could explode from the amount of performance adrenaline pumping through him.

"Let you put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans, be your teenage dream tonight." The last note escaped Blaine's lips and the Warblers fell silent behind him.

"Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!" he called out.

The crowd immediately went ballistic in a roar of wild cheering. Blaine was finally broken out of his trance on the clapping, wide-eyed Kurt when about six pairs of Warblers' hands seized him from behind at once. In the next instant, he was drowning in sea of hugs and high fives from his former schoolmates.

An hour later found Blaine, Jeff, Thad, Wes, and David gathered in the middle of the bustling party in the Senior Commons, laughing hysterically at the anecdote Wes was telling about their new calculus teacher at Dalton. Red solo cups (all placed on coasters, mind you) containing a blend of whatever contraband liquors the Dalton boys could smuggle into the dorms littered the coffee table and all around them people were dancing and talking as the music from Wes's laptop pounded through the speakers.

Neither Blaine nor his close friends were big drinkers, so no one was drunk to the point of impairment, but the light buzz from the mystery concoction was certainly taking effect. Amidst the stories and laughter and warm bubbly feeling from the drinks that had commenced as soon as the performance finished, Blaine had almost completely forgotten about the new student. Almost.

He still found himself glancing around the room every so often to see what they boy was up to. He saw him making some small talk with a few people a while ago, but now Blaine didn't see him anywhere. He craned his neck a bit and scoured the room for him harder, but he still didn't spot the black coat anywhere. He found himself feeling irrationally disappointed that Kurt had apparently left the party.

But then he made himself shake it off and direct his attention back to Wes as he spoke. He came here to hang out with his old friends after all. Not to pine after some person he'd never met and would probably never even see again anyway. He missed his friends, and he loved to take advantage these occasions to catch up with everyone and hear the latest goings on at Dalton.

"You look good, Blaine," David commented, turning the conversation toward him. "What have you been doing with yourself?"

Blaine smiled at the compliment. He didn't receive many. "Thanks. I actually started boxing. I convinced my mom to watch Ollie for a while in the evenings when she gets home from work so I can go to the gym. It's basically my only escape from the house most days."

"It's working for you, man," said Jeff. "The fencing team is missing you though. I mean, we all knew Dalton took a hit when you ended up leaving the same year that Seb graduated, but we really suck now, dude. We all wish you could come back and redeem us."

Blaine chuckled, briefly reminiscing his two years on the varsity fencing team. It was always a bittersweet thing to think about, as was the Warblers. These were the places he'd thrived in and loved. But it was also through these activities that he and met and been wooed by Sebastian, the charming, popular upperclassman who seemed to have the entire school wrapped around his finger.

"Well, I'm not sure how much help I'd be now. I don't think I've touched a sabre since before I was pregnant. Now my expertise are pureeing organic baby food and playing peek-a-boo until I'm blue in the face."

The other boys all laughed.

"How is Ollie doing? I bet he's getting huge now," Wes commented. "I haven't seen him since before Christmas."

Blaine couldn't help the smile that came over his face. It was the same proud grin he always got when someone asked about Oliver. "He is huge! Well, it seems like it to me, anyways. He seems bigger every day."

David chuckled. "Yeah, well, let's be honest. How huge could your kid possibly get? Like, five-one, five-two?" he joked.

Blaine tossed a throw pillow at him. "I'm not that short! I finally broke five-seven this year, for your information. And Sebastian's like six-two, so Ollie should be fine."

"Whatever you need to believe man," David said through a laugh. He always did love teasing Blaine about his height. Of course, that was mostly back when Blaine was several inches shorter than he was now.

Blaine just sighed good-naturedly. "Anyways, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," he eyed David up and down before he continued, "Ollie's great. He's recently started climbing everything in sight, so the baby gates have become pretty much ineffective. You also have to be really careful about what you say around him now because he understands everything and will repeat it. He's talking way above the norm for kids his age and now he's even started to pick up French from the Smythes."

"Wow," Wes said, "Sounds like you have quite the little prodigy on your hands."

"Well, of course, Wes. Would you expect anything less from the offspring of the Golden Boy?" David joked, referencing the old nickname Blaine had been given by the Warblers.

His friends chuckled again.

"So, how're things with Seb?" Jeff asked then, raising a curious eyebrow. The rest of the boys all leaned in a bit closer at the question, obviously all wondering the same thing.

The smile dropped from Blaine's face. Obviously, he knew this question would be coming.

During Blaine's time at Dalton, he and Sebastian had been the school's power couple. The two boys were always the main topic of gossip at the school, and dating the older Warbler had sky-rocketed Blaine's popularity to the point that by the beginning of his sophomore year, he was the first sophomore to ever be nominated for homecoming court. Of course he ultimately lost the vote to his green-eyed, charismatic, senior boyfriend. Later that year when the word spread that he was pregnant, Blaine's popularity and the fascination with his relationship with Sebastian only increased. Apparently they were still hot gossip, enrollment status be damned.

"Sebastian is just… Sebastian," he said, humoring his friends' curiosity, although he knew their concern for him went beyond high school chatter. "We're not together, even though I think my dad might sell a freakin'kidney to get us together at this point. I don't even know what Seb thinks, actually. He seems to share our parents' delusion that we should get married, but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why. He hooks up with other guys at OSU all the time. And then today, when we were handing Ollie off, he made some comment about us having more kids… It was weird. We can't even have a five-minute conversation without it turning into a huge argument, so I don't know why he thinks we could be husbands."

As if on cue, Blaine's phone vibrated in his pocket.

"Speak of the devil," he said, picking up the phone and opening the new picture message.

A smile immediately lit his face when he saw his son beaming back at him, clad in a pair of yellow swim trunks and yellow arm floaties to match. Then his eyes trailed down to the message typed beneath the photo:

We got here fine. He wanted in the pool right away. Say hello to Oliver Smythe, future backstroke Olympian. – Seb

"Oh, I know that smile," said David. "Dopey grin and all sparkly eyed. That can only mean one thing. Baby picture. Let's see it."

"You know me well," Blaine conceded. Then he passed the iPhone around to his friends who all took turns ooh-ing and aww-ing at what seemed like a sweet, well-meaning text from father to father.

Blaine knew better though. He knew that Sebastian was not the casual cute photo sharer. If Blaine had learned anything about his ex over the past three years, it was that there was always a deeper motive behind everything Sebastian did. Understanding Sebastian Smythe meant understanding how to read between the lines. And Blaine read what was between the lines of this message loud and clear.

To him, this photo screamed, "See? Swimsuit and floaties. I can take care of him just as well as you can, so don't underestimate my parenting skills again."

Blaine shook his head slightly as his friends gushed over the seemingly sweet photo. He felt like a weight had suddenly been placed on his chest. He hated that Sebastian felt the need to make everything seem like some kind of competition between them. Like he always needed to one-up Blaine for some reason. He didn't understand the need for all the passive-aggressive bullshit. What was the prize to be won? Didn't they both just want Oliver to be happy?

"Blaine," Thad's voice broke him out of his contemplative trance. "You have the cutest baby in North America."

He smirked at the comment. "Just North America? Please, Thad. This kid is easily the cutest in the world."

"I have a question, though," Jeff said as he passed the phone to Wes. "Why is Ollie's last name just Smythe? Why not Anderson-Smythe or vise versa?"

"Actually, my dad insisted," Blaine explained matter-of-factly. "He says hyphenated last names are for hippies. So we just made Anderson his middle name."

"Well, why couldn't his last name just be Anderson, though?"

Blaine raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think the all-powerful Smythes would have let that happen? Ollie is second in line behind Sebastian for inheriting the entire Smythe fortune. You think they'd chance the indignity of their money going to some bastard child not named Smythe?"

"No. Good point."

"Do you have to take Seb's name too when you guys get married?"

"We're not getting married, Jeff."

"Well, if you guys got married, you'd get Seb's money if he kicked it instead of Ollie, right? So you'd need to be a Smythe too."

"Why are we talking about this? Do you guys have a hit out on Sebastian or something?"

His friends all laughed. "No, man. It's just… your guys' parents…"

"Our parents, my mom excluded, like to live in their own little world. And apparently it's one where Sebastian and I are actually totally in love despite the fact that we basically can't stand to be around each other."

"You know, most people like to work that kind of kink out of their relationship before they reproduce."

"Shut up, Jeff."

More laughing.

Wes handed Blaine his phone back just in time for it to vibrate again with another message:

Also, in regards to your whiplash comment, I seem to remember a time when you liked my driving. In fact, I recall getting a rather… enthusiastic reaction out of you after doing doughnuts in the Dalton faculty parking lot. Ring any bells? ;) – Seb

He frowned at the screen. Unfortunately, Blaine recalled exactly the incident to which Sebastian was referring. It was on the night of the first day of school back from Christmas break in his sophomore year and Sebastian's senior year. Blaine now knew that he was already around six weeks pregnant by then, but at the time he was still oblivious.

The two had snuck off campus in Sebastian's Porsche to catch a late movie, and had arrived back at Dalton well after the dorms had been locked for the night. Blaine had already arranged for Wes to let them back in, but Sebastian didn't want to make things that easy.

"We'll just give the security guards a little distraction, and that'll make it all the easier for us to get back in unnoticed," Sebastian had said as they pulled into the forbidden, ice-coated faculty lot around midnight.

"Seb, I don't know. Why chance it?" Blaine had asked, incredulous once again of his boyfriend's danger streak.

Sebastian stopped the car, put it in park, and turned to face his boyfriend. "Bee," he said, "You gotta take some unnecessary risks now and then. It's what keeps you young." The mischievous glint sparkled brightly in his green eyes.

"But we're already young," Blaine said, starting to mirror the older boy's roguish grin.

"And I want to stay that way as long as possible. Life's gonna come at us fast after high school, and I have no intention of letting it beat my youth out of me. These are the times we're gonna want to remember."

Blaine nodded in response. He was sort of hypnotized by the words pouring out of Sebastian's mouth. He had this way of making even the worst ideas sound wise.

"So what are you going to remember? Hmm?" Sebastian continued. "Following the rules and being a good little boy? Or starting a little mayhem with your dreamy boyfriend?"

Blaine just shook his head, sill smiling. "What is this power you have over me?" he asked.

Sebastian's confident smirk grew. "You love me," he answered simply.

Blaine chuckled. "Guilty."

Sebastian drew in closer. "Trust me, Bee," he whispered.

Blaine could feel the older boy's breath ghost across his lips and he shivered from the pure excitement now rushing through him. He closed his eyes and closed the remaining distance between them, sealing their lips in a heated kiss.

They broke apart a moment later. Sebastian leaned back into the driver's seat, looking satisfied and confident as ever.

"I trust you," Blaine said without another moment's hesitation.

And with that, Sebastian sped out into the middle of the lot. The boys laughed and screamed as Sebastian threw the car into countless screeching circles and wide, flying arcs around the icy pavement with "Naïve" by the Kooks blasting from the stereo the whole time.

Ten minutes later, the security guards cursed and scratched their heads in confusion as they stared out over the formerly very noisy, but now vacant faculty lot. Blaine and Sebastian had escaped over to the safety of Sebastian's assigned student space, where they had ended up in the back seat of the Porsche, lying tangled together until the early hours of the morning.

Now, over two years and a baby later, sitting in the Dalton Senior Commons, Blaine shook the memory from his head and typed out a calm reply to Sebastian's text:

All I recall is two stupid, naïve boys making really terrible decisions. Ollie should be in bed soon. FaceTime? – Blaine

FaceTiming before bed had become routine for whenever Sebastian had Ollie for a weekend. Blaine knew Sebastian wasn't too fond of the idea, but after one disastrous Saturday night when the Smythes' phone service went down and they couldn't do it and Ollie balled his eyes out all night long over missing his Daddy, Sebastian had conceded to making it happen.

"Hey guys," Blaine said when he tucked his phone back into his pocket. "Sebastian's gonna call me in a few minutes so I can FaceTime with Ollie. So, I'm gonna go upstairs for a while."

His friends nodded their understanding and then he stood to make his way to the doorway of the crowded, noisy room. He narrowly missed being run over by two stumbling, hiccupping boys in blazers. Wes was up and corralling them in the next second, rattling off some chastisement about Dalton honor and dignity. Blaine chuckled as he left the room.

Ten minutes later, Blaine was sitting on Wes's bed and holding his iPhone out in front of him so he was in view of the camera. He could clearly see Oliver on the other end of the call, snuggled soundly on Sebastian's lap in a pair of blue footie pajamas.

"Are you having fun with Papa?" Blaine asked his son, unable to hold back a smile at how darn cute the little boy was.

"Dada, hay-uh!" the toddler said, pointing a finger straight at him through the camera.

"What's that, Ollie?" Blaine asked, legitimately confused.

"Hair," Sebastian's voice clarified. "He's pointing to your hair. He probably thinks it looks weird all gelled like that."

"Oh," Blaine suppressed a laugh. He supposed this probably was the first time Oliver had seen his regularly wild hair quite this sculpted. "Hey Ollie, did you go swimming?" he asked.

Ollie smiled. "Sim!" he affirmed, clapping his hands twice.

Blaine exaggerated a surprised gasp. "You did?! What else did you do with Papa?"

The boy's smile grew and took on what was perhaps a hint of his Papa's mischievousness. Then, as if to answer Blaine's question, he immediately stood up in Sebastian's lap and proceeded to climb over the top of his other father's shoulder, gripping a handful Sebastian's meticulously combed brown hair to pull himself up.

"Ollie!" Sebastian said, surprise evident in his voice, "Where do you think you're going?" The camera shook violently and the picture blurred as Sebastian tried to gather the climbing boy back into his arms. Blaine could hear Ollie's shrieks of enjoyment at the game.

A smile twitched at his mouth. He immediately recognized this game. This was a new one Ollie had initiated in the past month or so: climb all over whoever's closest like they're a personal jungle gym. Then the familiar sinking feeling returned. He really didn't want to be jealous that his baby was climbing all over Sebastian right then instead of all over him, that it was Sebastian who was playing with him and tickling him and making him laugh, but he couldn't help it.

And then, all at once, he missed his baby so much that he felt like he could cry. In that moment, Blaine could care less that he had a roomful of his best friends waiting for him downstairs. He could care less that he'd just delivered the best performance of his life. He just wanted his son in his arms again.

"…Ollie, clam down," Sebastian's voice registered once again. "You need to calm down for bed, okay?" The camera finally stopped moving and settled on Ollie now cuddled into Sebastian's side.

"You played Jungle Gym with Papa, Buddy?" Blaine asked, trying to mask some of his sadness.

The curly haired toddler just giggled impishly and then inserted his thumb into his grinning mouth.

"Okay, it's time to say goodnight now. It'd bedtime," Sebastian stated, sounding slightly bored. Then his face entered the frame of the camera as he leaned down closer to where Ollie's head was resting on his bicep.

"Say bye to Daddy!" he said cheerfully to the little boy. "Dites au revoir!"

"Or-va!" Ollie repeated to the best of his ability.

Blaine just smiled sadly, doing his best to remind himself that he would talk to Ollie again tomorrow night.

"Au revoir, Ollie. Je t'aime," he responded, using his limited French knowledge.

"Luh you!" Ollie squeaked, making Blaine's heart melt a little.

"Night, Blaine," Sebastian said briskly. "Try not to make any more 'really terrible decisions' tonight."

Blaine rolled his eyes at the reference to his earlier text. Sebastian really couldn't seem to leave anything alone. Then the camera shifted abruptly as Sebastian withdrew it from his filming angle.

"Kiss him goodnight for me!" Blaine tried to shout before Sebastian could hang up the call, but there was no response and the line went dead.

He let out an exasperated groan and let himself fall back on Wes's bed. He was doing his best not to let the tears pushing at his eyes fall. He tried to think of anything else other than the burning ache in his arms where he felt like Ollie should be. He knew he was doing exactly what his mother had told him not to; he was sitting and letting himself wallow in his baby blues rather than taking advantage of the fact that he had a whole un-chaperoned dorm full of teenage shenanigans at his disposal. But he didn't get why he couldn't bring himself to care.

The fact remained that he was still young and healthy and vibrant, so why couldn't he act like it? His Postpartum Depression had let up a few months ago and he thought he really had been doing better lately. Maybe he wasn't out of the woods yet. Or maybe all this parents/Sebastian/I-miss-my-baby crap pushing down on him would just never let him get back up.

After a long time, he wasn't sure how long, (and after a few tears had managed to break through the dam) Blaine finally managed to settle his thoughts on something other than the cavernous feeling of loneliness in his chest. He hummed the chorus to "Teenage Dream" over and over again and just tried to block out everything else and recall the notes in his mind as images of deep blue eyes flitted across his consciousness.

Then another melody began to interrupt his Katy Perry haze. It was something he hadn't heard before… something melodic and maybe even a little ballad-esque. He couldn't quite make out the words, but it sounded like it was close.

Blaine opened his eyes, raised his head and listened for a moment. The music was coming from behind the wall directly to his right. Someone was playing it next door.

At long last, he made himself sit back up. He got up from the bed and went into the hallway.

Blaine didn't think anybody else was left on the whole floor with the party going on downstairs. And this song certainly was not the typical heavy bass music usually blared out on weekends on a floor full of high school boys, so who would be up here alone just playing music like that?

He turned the corner into the hallway and the volume immediately increased as the song built up and trickled out of the room next door.

"While our blood's still young… It's so young, it runs…"

He moved toward it and paused when he reached the door. It was open just the tiniest crack, and he tried to peer through the small opening to see if he could recognize who was inside.

The room's occupant was seated at his desk on the opposite said of the room, concentrated on his computer screen and facing away from the door. Blaine could only make out the back of this person's head and shoulders, but he already caught himself biting back a laugh at the way the boy swiveled in his chair and nodded his head to the song.

Blaine leaned even a little bit closer to the open crack in the doorway. He just wanted to see if he could get a slightly better view into the intriguing room.

But of course, his foot clumsily made contact with the bottom of the door, nudging it open and causing the ancient hinges to creak like a cat in distress. Blaine gasped in surprise and instantly tried to step back, but the damage had been done. The figure whipped around in his desk chair, and before he could back out of the now open doorway, blue eyes were locked on him.

Kurt stared at him from his desk. His facial expression seemed caught somewhere between terror and intrigue.

The music trickled on: "…Our rights, our wrongs… A moment of… A moment of…"

And standing there, drowning in that sea of blue, all Blaine could think was that this might be his new favorite song.