Chapter 8

"Good practice everyone!" Wes said with a rare compliment. "You all may go."

Blaine was positively beaming at a job well done and the exertion they didn't always manage to get out of a practice in Glee. It wasn't possible to actually run hard and sing at the same time, no matter what anyone said. Some really cool acrobatics and moves were possible but most professionals usually stopped, gather breath then belted. There was some form of singing that could be done while moving quickly but it wasn't show choir. Broadway style was able to be far reaching to the back of the audience without vocal aids.

Granted though, these days all the teams had microphones and so didn't have to belt quite as strongly to be heard. More nuanced voices could be heard a lot clearer now too without straining the quality or grit they were looking to achieve. Yet more minor issues were also able to be heard.

It's why most show choirs had their leads in front or in back belting their hearts out while everyone else around them did their tricks and hard dance moves. It kept them from compromising their breath control because they weren't trying to split it to do two things at once. The other singers could do a lot of their harmonizing without being affected by the dance moves they were doing a lot of times too.

Kurt was breathing a pretty hard and Blaine put a hand on his back in concern. "Are you ok?"

Kurt waved him away with a hand and forced himself to stand upright and take in a lung full of air. He pulled it in like a dying man reaching for his last breath, his last moment. His face contorted into pain and he was wheezing a little and struggling to get air into his lungs.

Blaine was guilty of it, but he never fully understood why people bent over when exhausted and trying to catch their breath. It only restricted just how much air you could get into your lungs. Though he supposed most people were used to have their core compressed and so it hurt more to stand up straight, especially if they were cramping up.

"Kurt." Blaine obviously did not believe him. "Do you need to sit?" His eyes were racking over his form, as if he could see the injury or strain with something akin to x-ray eyes or it would light up red and he'd have a clear spot to treat. Of course nothing manifested.

"No, no." He was still wheezing a little and doing a little bit of a walk around, trying to force that good clean oxygen to all parts of his body. "Just over did it." He didn't sound too good but then again, he always sounded rough. "Out of shape and practice."

"Come on, let's get outside, it's at least got an abundance of not recently recycled air." He was surprised the closed in room wasn't weighing heavily with carbon dioxide with all the bodies trying to use up what oxygen was in there. He had also never understood why they didn't open a window for these kinds of practices. They were a bunch of guys doing physical activity, if nothing else it reeked in there. "It'll smell better too."

He got a smile out of Kurt and a brisk nod.

They were an acapella group and so it wasn't as paramount for them to have a lot of dance moves and tricks but they liked to throw a few in there for the audience. Their focus was the singing and the harmony but it never hurt to have a little unexpected groove to emphasis what they were singing. It had to be a balance between the two.

Other teams relied on music or the dancing to move them ahead. They stood out as different, as an all male group that didn't need all the rest of it, just what they had inside of themselves, their voices.

A lot of teams were going bigger, bolder, showier than ever and it was hard to compete with that on their level. Not every team could afford confetti guns or light shows. So they paired it all back, made it simple and for that they stood out. To have a member on their team that could not sing was a big step out of the norm for them. It was a risk but one they were willing to take.

Kurt was just not yet ready for Regionals. He'd been coddled the last few months and with good reason. It did make it however to the point that he couldn't keep up with the rest of them. They went hard at practice to make it look easy and effortless on stage. They would have every move, ever finger in the right place at the right time seamlessly and without hesitation.

Blaine wouldn't be the one to broach it with him. That would be the council's job. Blaine was just worried for his new friend, both to get the breathing back to normal and probably his heart rate along with it, and for how he'd react to the council's decision. There were still a few more weeks, maybe he'd be up to par with the rest of them by then. Blaine didn't know Kurt well enough though to know if he would be capable of something like that.

Without Kurt, they could close the ranks and fill in the gaps easily, especially the earlier they made the decision. However, without Kurt, Blaine wondered if Sebastian would stay. He was doing much better since he came back in with Kurt in tow, but some of the love of the stage had died in his eyes. Blaine knew his friend too well not to have caught that much. Sebastian was only there because Kurt wanted him to be. Kurt's presence kept him there.

If they asked Kurt to step out of the competition while he'd worked so hard already – it was a risk they would be taking then too. A big one, because Sebastian was sometimes a wild card. If the judges knew Kurt's story, where he'd been and had to fight back from. How the Warblers had taken him in to help fix his broken wing. Perhaps the judges would be a little more lenient, caught by the story and giving his missteps a pass while the rest were so good. Maybe if they could get him to improve further, then the judges would be impressed by how far he'd come and give them the story advantage, not having to overlook anything.

He knew Wes was thinking about asking Kurt if they could put it into their blurb. They all got to say something about their schools at every competition. The story advantage had worked for schools in the past. The school for the deaf and hearing impaired had passed Regionals a couple of years ago based on that alone. It hadn't worked a second year, but it had given them a trophy they could be proud of, sort of. They just couldn't hear how bad they were for hearing abled bodies. The theory was nice but Blaine would have preferred just having them do sign-language. It was gorgeous to watch, even more so when you could read what they were signing. It was a feat of itself though that they could sing as well as they had and that was nice too. It was all about the love of singing, no matter the talent, that was the most important.

Blaine already knew how Kurt would react to that request. He would be furious and might just leave their Glee club on his own accord. Sebastian again was a wild card with whether or not he'd follow. Blaine was pretty sure he'd be the one leaving if Kurt agreed to letting them put that in there. He didn't want that for Kurt, didn't want to put Kurt through yet another major thing if he could help it. He'd tried asking Wes not to go that route but he was determined to at least ask before removing Kurt from the team for the next competition. He could always be put back on if they went through to Sectionals but only stay there if he could catch up to the rest.

It was going to be a big deal, another large event in Kurt's life no matter which way the axe swung. Blaine wanted to shield Kurt from it. He wanted to warn Kurt but that would just be causing him unnecessary pain before it absolutely had to happen. So instead, he just dealt with what he could, and that was help get his breathing back in order.

"Do you want me to help you with the steps and timing? We could practice after classes when we don't have Glee. Or after Glee too."

"I'm really just out of shape and practice." Kurt said again, wheezing through every word but it was a full sentence and Blaine heard every single sound. Kurt pressed a hand to his chest. "Who am I kidding? My lungs will never be the same, never be able to cope." He sounded wretched and Blaine feared for tears to appear at any moment. Blaine was not any better with seeing someone cry than any guy, even though he cried his fair share.

"Do you want, maybe, to go to our dorm room?" It was more private there and they could talk more freely. Kurt could also recover without anyone else seeing them. "It's not the outdoors but it still smells better than the choir room does right now. I can even open a window."

Kurt shook his head. "No, no, I'll be be fine. Just give me a minute to round up all my errant emotions." His tone was joking and he did sound slightly better.

Except now a thought had entered Blaine's brain that hadn't been there before. "You haven't even seen the dorm room yet, have you? Come on, I'll give you a tour, if you'd like?"

Kurt looked at Blaine all of a sudden with really old, really weary eyes that had probably seen too much in their lifetime to trust. He didn't know if Blaine was trustworthy and it hurt. Blaine knew they hadn't known each other long. They'd never really spent time alone just the two of them and Kurt had some damaging situations in the past, but Blaine thought he'd at least proven he could be trustworthy. At the very least be given trust until he broken it after everything he'd done. He'd thought he'd earned it.

Perhaps though, it was just the thought of going up to a dorm room, a bedroom alone with a boy that gave Kurt pause. Had Blaine asked him to go shopping or a coffee shop alone, the hesitation would probably not have been there. Blaine supposed he hadn't been subtle in his interest in Kurt. He'd mellowed out in how ferociously he advertised it, but it was still there, still for Kurt to see if he chose to do so. He'd also kind of offered it out of the blue.

"It's your room too." Blaine hip-checked him. "And it's shared with two other guys who come in and out of it all the time." He knew he was perhaps trying too hard but he wanted Kurt to see it, wanted him to know what he was missing out on. He wanted to see Kurt in it, among all their things. He was their roommate and he'd never even stepped foot into it before. He wanted to see Kurt in his, Blaine's, room, where he'd done things with boys before.

How could he ever be fully a Dalton student if he didn't even step into his boarding room at a boarding school? It was always going to sit there between them as a divide. Kurt was not a full Dalton student. Was he a full friend of those at Dalton? Other than the meals and Glee, he didn't do anything with the rest of them. They hadn't even text each other and Blaine was determined to change all that.

No, they couldn't meet up with Kurt outside of Dalton (with a few exceptions), but they could be friends in all ways. "It'll be fine, you'll like it." He didn't go so far as to say trust me. Even after he'd said the words he had he felt a little like a creeper. "Sorry, your choice, I don't mean to pressure you."

"Ok, let's go see our room." Kurt was trying to extend an olive branch. He knew he'd hurt Blaine. Blaine was trying not to think like that but the way he said it had Blaine imagining all sorts of other things. He somehow hid his blush and guided Kurt toward the dorm rooms and squashed him imagination.

He gave commentary along the way, sharing different tidbits than David had as they passed different buildings and parts of the grounds. Blaine thought his knowledge drops were far more accurate and entertaining and pertinent to Dalton's history. He didn't touch Kurt, knew that would be a line too far to cross right then for both of them. Kurt had gone beyond his initial doubt to show that he trusted Blaine and followed him up to the dorm room.

There was a moment of wavering at the entrance to the room after Blaine opened the door outward into the hall.

"Interesting safety measure." Kurt said eying the door "It's a lot easier to kick a door in than pull it open." The hall was quite large between their room and the one across and most students walked in the center to avoid doors opening into their path. Kurt pushed on the door but it only went slightly further than perpendicular to the frame. It was a good solid door too. "What happens if there's an emergency?"

"All of the staff have a ghost key but most boys leave the doors unlocked." Blaine hadn't even had to unlock it, he just opened it for Kurt. "Can't put anything in front of the door either to keep people from coming in if it opens outward." Kurt supposed he made a very good point and you couldn't keep people in with something blocking the door either without someone moving it out of the way eventually. Yet people would probably find a way to do so or at least slow someone down if they really wanted to on either side of the door.

"Nobody locks doors around here? Really?" Kurt took a deep breath before he stepped in and let it out quickly when he saw the interior. It wasn't what he was expecting and now he was glad he'd seen it, he wouldn't have known what he was missing out on otherwise. He hadn't even given it two seconds of thought, the dorm rooms. He'd thought they'd be boring boxes with twin beds.

"If you have something you really want locked up, there are compartments in the foot chests that you have the sole key to." Blaine explained. "This one is your bed, if you ever need it." He gestured to the one closest to the door. They all had their own wall with slightly different layouts. Kurt had the door to the hallway along his wall, the wall to his left had another door which he assumed was the bathroom. The other two walls had windows from hip height to the ceiling across the entire wall and bent around the corner to the next. Between his wall and the one to the left the corner had a fireplace. It wasn't overly large but it was enough to put off significant heat if they needed it.

"Are they all like this?" Kurt placed hand on the ornate features carved into the woodwork. Except for the corner with the windows, there were exposed beams of wood going up each corner and meeting in the center overhead. It was light and open yet wooden and masculine. Light and airy but grounded at the same time. It ticked so many different styles at once but was cohesive.

So many boys had stood where he stood, touched what he touched. It made him feel like his story was very small in the grand scheme of things. Others probably took it for granted.

Blaine shut the door as he answered, Kurt only flinched slightly. "Similar, last year we didn't have a corner room so only one wall of windows but it's actually rarer not to have a corner than not. There's only six rooms to a floor." Generally four boys to a room, so each floor had twenty-four boys. It was a lot and not that many at the same time.

"Oh, that's kind of nice." Yet there were still four boys in a room... Kurt wrapped his arms around himself trying to imagine it. He had only shared an entire basement with Finn (and Puck on occasion) for about a year. He'd had sleepovers with more girls than that but he'd never spent that much time with boys or had that many around while he slept. He was already vulnerable, but he'd be completely so when unconscious.

He eyed the four beds, all in a circle, feet toward the center of the room. There was plenty of space between them but all of a sudden it just felt too close, claustrophobic even though the room was huge and open with windows. The walls were getting closer, the air was thinning... his breath was hitching, struggling to go through the proper channels in the right way. He imagined it getting stuck on every part of his lungs and throat that were still not smooth and flat

"Kurt?" Blaine's voice cut through the chaos of his thoughts and emotions. Blaine's hand further anchored him to the present as it wrapped around his elbow lightly. "Let me show you your area?" Did Blaine see? Did he notice? Kurt still wasn't sure as Blaine guided him into the room further. He opened the wardrobe and pointed out the extra uniform and products provided by Dalton if he was ever in need of a shower or a change of clothes. After their practice today, Kurt might have taken him up on it had he known earlier or felt comfortable doing so quite so soon.

He showed him the two sets of towels and extra sheets and blankets in the chest at the foot of the bed, also the compartments he spoke about. Some were quite large and some were smaller, in case it was a small item that he didn't want to lose at the bottom of a larger cavity.

The desk was small and simple but Blaine showed him that it wasn't completely as it appeared. There were some small compartments for hiding things but since all the desks were the same, most people just stored pens or other items there. These desks weren't intended to do lengthy studying at, they were encouraging students to use the common rooms or the vast library at their disposal.

Blaine pushed down on the bed a few times and laughed when he saw Kurt looking at him and it. "They're surprisingly comfortable." They were twin beds. "Your sheets might need to go for a wash before you use this bed though, it got set up before your first day but has been just sitting here since. There's a bit of dust on the top layer. If you want, you can sit on my bed."

"Oh, no, that's ok. I should probably head to the parking lot." Kurt looked around the room again, if he had to spend the night sometime, there were far worse accommodations he could be staying in. "Thanks for showing this to me, Blaine." He doubted he'd be back any time soon but it made him feel better about it in the future. It wouldn't be a complete unknown and he wouldn't have built it up so much in his mind. He was also glad that he hadn't been expected to walk through that door on the first day. He'd have probably had a panic attack. His dad might have had a heart attack.

As it was, Blaine had grounded him and kept him from having one today. It also served to remind him that he knew his roommates. He trusted his roommates and what's more, he liked them. If he had to spend the night, it would be ok.

"Your dad's not picking you up for another 20 minutes, have a seat." Blaine insisted. "I was going to show you that video of the ice storm in Norway, remember?"

"Oh, right." He glanced at his watch and nodded, he had plenty of time. He reached for the chair at the desk and Blaine waved him off.

"The bed's comfortable, the chair's got a lot of books on it." Kurt looked down and sure enough it did and it was not the most comfortable of looking chairs, made entirely of wood. Yet sometimes wood and metal without a cushion were incredibly comfortable. Still, he didn't want to disrupt whatever system Blaine had going for the books.

"The room usually looks this nice?" Kurt asked as he carefully took a seat on the bed, he sat as close to the edge as he could without falling off of it.

Blaine jumped onto the bed next to him and leaned back against the headboard, throwing his feet onto the blanket as he practically stretched out with his shoes on. "Come here." He dragged Kurt over to his side and kept his arm wrapped around Kurt as he started the video. "Yeah, it's kind of David's thing, he likes an orderly room. This is about as orderly as it gets though. He gets annoyed at my books being everywhere but if it's on my side of the room, he doesn't get to say too much. I've found him picking them up before though and making my bed."

"Oh." Kurt glanced around again, Blaine was warm at his side and the arm wrapped around him was pretty comforting. "Sebastian?"

"He's pretty neat and organized, somehow." Blaine shook his head, thoughts Kurt couldn't follow amusing him. "Or he just shoves it all into his wardrobe, not wanting to deal with David." Kurt bet on the second one, Sebastian just seemed too nonchalant to be all that concerned about keeping a picked up room and seemed less confrontational on something like this, more confrontational on other issues or situations. So he would just hide it rather than be either tidy or fight David on it by keeping it out. "Oh look, here's the part I was telling you about!"

Kurt looked back at the screen he was supposed to be paying attention to and he couldn't help but laugh. It was sadly terrible for whoever owned those vehicles but the bumper car effect in super slow mode was entertaining.

Kurt usually hated when they blew cars up on screen because he and his dad actually did bond over cars. He's spent most of his life fixing them so it was hard to watch the actions that destroyed them. Maintenance and prevention of damage were more his preferences. Still, this was humorous.

"Want me to play that part again?" Blaine asked.

"Sure." Kurt settled into his side, not feeling uncomfortable at all like this. It was kind of nice.

They probably watched it three more times when David and Sebastian walked in. They werre talking and laughing about something and both stopped dead when they saw Blaine and Kurt curled up on Blaine's bed. Watching it for another time, both snickering at it happened the exact same way it had each time before. Kurt was just about to suggest looking for another video but the presence of the other boys reminded him that he'd been there for awhile.

"Oh shoot, what time is it?" He looked at his watch and pulled away. "I've got to go, thanks Blaine! Bye guys!" He scooped up his bag and ran from the room and across campus to meet up with his dad. There were already two texts on his phone letting Kurt know he was there, and then asking where Kurt was.

David carefully shut the door behind Kurt's whirlwind out of their room. Sebastian spun to Blaine who was mourning the loss of his bed partner, he'd been warm and comfortable. "What the hell, Blaine?" Sebastian didn't typically yell but his voice was raised a bit more than usual.

"What? I was just showing Kurt our dorm room and a video we'd talked about earlier today." Blaine didn't see anything wrong with what happened.

"You had to show him that video here?" Sebastian asked deadly calm now.

"No, but we were here and I figured why not enjoy it in comfort?" Blaine supposed he could have walked Kurt to the steps and waited with him there but it was getting cold. Too cold to just be sitting out there without the proper preparations.

"I can't believe you, Blaine! He's got a boyfriend!" David called him out on it.

"Yeah, one he never talks about." Blaine shook his head. "Besides, doesn't matter, we weren't doing anything."

"Just snuggled up together in your bed." Sebastian's words sounded far too jealous to his own ears but apparently Blaine didn't catch it.

"God! I can't believe what I'm hearing! I'm not Sebastian Relations-are-dumb Smythe! I didn't push him for anything, we just laid here and watched a video clip! We're friends and around here even straight guy friends lay next to each or on each other." Blaine glared at the two of them. "Neither of you have ever been caught up against another guy without it meaning sex was on the brain?"

David and Sebastian both paused and glanced at each other, the group had dog-piled more than once and individuals in this room were certainly guilty of it. Even Sebastian the other day had Kurt on his lap. It hadn't been sexual, at least at first and had happened near organically. Sebastian had hoped it meant something but he supposed he was just looking for something that wasn't there. Kurt had never given any indication that he was romantically or sexually interested in any of the guys here and never flirted back. He hadn't given any indicators that he even noticed the flirting directed towards him, just that they were both big flirts, especially Sebastian.

They agreed with Blaine and apologized for jumping to conclusions.

Blaine's quickly shot words in anger though had them all thinking that night. Why hadn't Kurt ever talked about his boyfriend?

Thad had brought it up at one point. Others talked about those they were dating, leaving room for Kurt to talk about his own. To be fair, they knew very little about the family other than those they'd seen. They needed to start doing a better job of asking Kurt.

Kurt wasn't there the next day though, and he had to miss out on the next two Glee practices. David caught sight of a silver circle one time when Kurt put his tablet away, needing the written form to communicate less and less. David frowned as he realized exactly what it was. Why did Kurt now need an inhaler? He'd never seen it used before. Was it new or had he just never seen it? What would cause Kurt to need it's help? David had too many questions and he tried to squash them down. He'd already invaded Kurt's privacy too much as it were.

EAN: So, rewatching Glee, I wouldn't give Mercedes full lead either in West Side Story. Not for the BS reasons they came up with but because she just proved that she couldn't be a team player who would learn her parts, show up on time and would give up and walk away when others are counting on her. Granted, she had good points in some things but the same people who were on the team that you just left are going to be your costars/director. Also, she said it herself, she's a park and bark and she's going to be in a play with a lot of moving and dance choreo... not exactly a good candidate there then goes and proves both by storming out and turning it down. Maybe Rachel should have been cast as understudy though rather than co-lead.

I think Kurt would have given something very vital to be given that same chance. Kurt being Krupke... no it has no singing or dancing and is totally implausible except that he's funny and a character with a name and several scenes. Unfortunately, he gets made fun of in the role which isn't a stretch from real life (or, Glee life, I mean). :(

There are also like 5 people on that list. Kurt should have been Tony and Blaine Bernardo or something. So much better of a set up of tension between the actors for a later scene... better than what they'd showed.