Blaine's feelings for Kurt definitely didn't disappear all at once, but suddenly they didn't seem quite so heavy and overbearing anymore. Being in love with Kurt felt like this huge weight on his chest, constantly reminding him how in love he was. His love for Kurt was so strong that it hurt. But one day, while at glee rehearsal, he realized that it didn't feel that way anymore. As sad as he remained about the breakup, it was different now. He wasn't spending hours every day staring at his phone and wishing for Kurt to text him back or call him.

Moving on from the breakup took place in phases. At first, Blaine wouldn't leave his room. Eventually, he started coming out for meals and school when that long weekend finally ended. Soon after that was when Grease began and he started spending more time with Sebastian and slowly, everything started to feel like it would be okay again. A week after Grease closed, Blaine had only sent Kurt one text, and it wasn't even for the purpose of begging him to listen.

Thank you for coming to opening night. I know I've been texting and calling a lot, but I know I should just give you some space. Let me know if you want to talk. I promise I'll be here :) -Blaine

He sent the text hoping for some semblance of temporary closure. He didn't want to feel like there were words left unsaid, and he figured if he at least stopped texting so often, maybe he would be able to stop thinking about Kurt all the time. Blaine eventually realized he was being irrational expecting that Kurt would only text him back if he was reaching out every single day.

Sebastian was helping him realize a lot of those little things, but the nice part was that sometimes Sebastian didn't have to say anything at all. Just being around him helped Blaine to notice the ways he messed up his relationship with Kurt and the series of events that ultimately caused their breakup. He was also helping Blaine to see that he couldn't do anything more than he was already doing, that if Kurt wanted to get back together, he would eventually let Blaine know.

Soon enough, Blaine wasn't thinking of Kurt all day every day and instead, he was spending his time with his friends. Sam and Blaine hung out at least once every weekend. Every other day, Blaine met up with Tina to study since they were in most of the same classes. As for Sebastian, they met almost daily at the Lima Bean. It became one of the best parts of his daily routine.

The only problem with the new arrangement was that Blaine couldn't stop thinking about the Warblers' problems with Hunter. He continued to try to help Sebastian with it, but sectionals was getting closer and they still didn't have a good solution. It wasn't until the Sunday before sectionals that Sebastian really started to panic. "I'm not like this. I don't freak out over stuff like this. You're a bad influence on me," Sebastian insisted, taking a long sip of his coffee.

Blaine scoffed. "I'm the bad influence? If I wasn't helping you out with this, there's a pretty good chance you'd be preparing to take steroids to win a show choir competition right now."

"You don't know that," Sebastian rolled his eyes.

Blaine almost reacted but his attention was forced away from Sebastian and onto something more important. "Wait, I found something...there's no way this is real."

"What is it?" Sebastian looked up instantly at Blaine's revelation.

Blaine took a while to answer, but it wasn't as easy as he thought to understand the image he was seeing. "I think...I think this is Hunter's graduation picture. That's him, right?" He turned his laptop around so that Sebastian could see the image. It was blurry, but it was definitely Hunter Clarington.

"No way," Sebastian mumbled in disbelief. "How the hell…"

"I don't know how he would have gotten the paperwork necessary to prove he's still in high school, but this says class of 2011 which means he graduated two years ago. He should not be at Dalton right now," Blaine explained skimming the article attached to the image he discovered. "I wonder if the Dalton faculty know about this."

Sebastian shook his head. "Of course they don't. They would never let a kid in that poses that much of a risk to their reputation. He's definitely faking it."

Blaine's expression was blank as he tried to think of what this could mean for the Warblers' ability to compete at sectionals. "What do you want to do?"

Sebastian stared at the wall of the Lima Bean for a moment, seemingly unsure of how he wanted to answer Blaine's question. "I guess I'll meet with the headmaster to tell him the truth about Hunter. I just hope this all gets figured out before we need to have our finalized roster for sectionals. We'll need a replacement for Hunter."

"Let me know what's going to happen immediately when you're done talking to him, okay?" Blaine requested. Even if the Warblers were technically his competition now, he still didn't want to see his friends do drugs just to have a chance of beating the New Directions. He wanted a fair and honest competition.

As expected, Sebastian texted Blaine the next day with an update on the situation with Hunter. He was sitting in the choir room waiting for glee rehearsal to begin when he received the message.

The Headmaster is meeting with Hunter first thing tomorrow morning, so we'll have official word after that. -Sebastian

A smile spread across Blaine's cheeks as he read the message. He knew Hunter wouldn't be able to get away with faking his age for much longer now that he and Sebastian knew the truth.

Perfect :) -Blaine

Sam and Tina sat in the seats closest to Blaine in the choir room and rehearsal began a few moments later when Finn walked in. "Alright, good news. I have our setlist for sectionals. The theme is 'foreigner', so we're opening with Gangnam Style. Tina, how would you like the solo?"

Tina's eyes widened as Finn said her name. "Finally! This never happens!" Tina exclaimed. "But you do know that I don't speak Korean, right?"

Finn gave Tina an extremely unconvincing nod before he continued naming off the songs for the rest of the setlist. It should have told Blaine a lot that his first instinct was to text Sebastian and tell him about Finn's awful ideas, but he ignored the instinct and brushed it off. He felt guilty about it, but most of his thoughts that day in glee club revolved around what would happen with the Warblers. A lot of his friends from Dalton were seniors and he was concerned about them for a number of reasons.

It wasn't until that Tuesday afternoon that Blaine's worries reached a new level. He waited at the Lima Bean for Sebastian for thirty minutes and was starting to worry he wouldn't show up, so he sent a text to make sure.

Hey, is everything okay? Did something happen with the headmaster? -Blaine

He was already a little disappointed when he didn't hear from Sebastian all day leading up to their coffee plans, but this just added to that confusion. Since they planned the whole coup against Hunter together, Baine assumed he would be the first person that Sebastian would share any news with. Not hearing anything could only mean two things: either Sebastian was mad at him for convincing him to confront the problem or something went horribly wrong in the meeting with the headmaster and Sebastian was still figuring out how to deal with it. Somehow, Blaine found himself hoping for the former. At least he could fix it if Sebastian was mad, but if something was wrong for the Warblers, he knew he wouldn't be able to help.

After almost an hour of no response, Blaine decided to get up and get another coffee. He was using the time to work on homework, which is what he would've been doing with Sebastian anyway. He wasn't necessarily mad about Sebastian being so late, but he was freaking out a little given the circumstances. It wasn't until he sat down with his new coffee that Sebastian found the seat across from him and started to take off his coat and scarf.

Blaine tried to read his facial expression, but he couldn't figure out what was going on until Sebastian started explaining. "I'm sorry I didn't text, but I was just in a last-minute meeting with the headmaster."

"Wait why? Didn't Hunter meet with him today?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes and practically slammed his scarf on the table. "Yeah, apparently there were some 'surprises' in his meeting with the headmaster this morning."

"What kind of surprises?" Blaine asked, suddenly concerned as Sebastian's anger kept escalating. He slid his coffee toward Sebastian when he realized how much more he needed it.

As Sebastian took a sip of Blaine's coffee, he was clearly trying to calm himself down. He didn't want to make a scene in the Lima Bean, but something was definitely wrong. "That fucking rat told him about the steroids. And of course, now Hunter gets to look like some sort of hero who turned in the Warblers for doing something wrong. And guess who he said was behind it all?"

"No way, did you tell him that's bullshit? That it was Hunter's idea?"

"Yeah, of course I did, but by then it just looked like I was trying to find a scapegoat. So now, I'm the one who's in trouble for all of the drug stuff and all of the Warblers are getting their blood tested." His hands were in fists as he picked up his phone and started typing. "Sorry, it's a text from Jeff."

The story shocked Blaine. He couldn't believe this somehow backfired and now Sebastian was in trouble. "Oh my god, I'm sorry, I never expected that to happen."

"Yeah, well, if any of them test positive, they're not gonna get to compete at sectionals and I know for a fact at least half the Warblers will. At best, we'll have seven guys and at worst, we'll only have three." He was fuming. His face was red with rage as he stared at Blaine.

Blaine was speechless. He had no idea what Sebastian could do to fix this mess. "Have you spoken to the Warblers?"

"Yeah, I called an emergency meeting after talking with the headmaster and that's how I found out how many of them think they'll fail the drug test. Four of them couldn't make it to the meeting so I don't know what kind of numbers I'm working with. Everyone is freaking out and Jeff won't stop texting me. It's not like I can train nine new guys to sing acapella in the next two days; the competition is on Thursday. Plus, Hunter had a solo, so we're going to have to rearrange our entire setlist. And even then, that's dependent on me not getting expelled," Sebastian fumed. He was almost yelling and people in the Lima Bean were starting to turn to look at them.

"Sebastian, I'm so…"

"Would you stop? You apologizing isn't going to fix any of this. You don't have to pretend to feel sorry for me; I know you're thrilled the New Directions don't have any competition anymore," he snapped, rolling his eyes as he looked away from Blaine.

Blaine's eyebrows furrowed at Sebastian's reaction. "I'm not happy about this. I've been trying to help you this whole time. Why are you yelling at me?"

"Because, Blaine, no one ever would have found out if you didn't convince me to find dirt on Hunter to get him in trouble," Sebastian looked conflicted, as if he didn't want to be yelling at Blaine but he didn't have anything else to put his anger into.

The other boy frowned at Sebastian's reaction. "I know you don't mean that. You're just angry at the situation and you're taking it out on me."

"Yeah, of course I'm fucking angry. It's my senior year and I'm being forced to forfeit the competition. Now that you all lost most of your star power, you're like the only one left in New Directions with any talent. We were a shoo-in for sectionals and all of the show choir blogs said with McKinley out of the way, the Warblers were the best team in the Midwest. Not to mention my dad is gonna disown me when he finds out he has to buy me out of an expulsion for the second time in two years. So yeah, this fucking sucks," Sebastian leaned back in his chair, glaring at Blaine.

Blaine had no idea what he could say that would make the situation better. He knew their friendship had always been complicated since they were part of rival show choirs, but never anticipated Sebastian exploding like this. He always went with the flow and took his losses well. He might have been a master of pre-game shit talk, but he wasn't a sore loser.

Once again, Sebastian's head was in his phone, frantically texting back one of the Warblers. Before Blaine could think of something to respond with, Sebastian's phone started ringing and he picked it up. "What do you want?" He tried to figure out who was on the other line, but it was unclear. "I told you I was figuring it out." Maybe Jeff? "I'm at the Lima Bean. And no, there's no way. We need to just call the board and tell them we're pulling out of the competition."

Blaine felt horrible. Thinking about the Warblers' season ending after sectionals made him feel sick. He hated what this had come to. And Sebastian might be getting expelled? It was all too much to process. He stood up and walked to the bathroom in an attempt to distract himself from the chaos of his conversation with Sebastian, hoping Sebastian would cool off by the time he returned. He really didn't like Sebastian blaming him for this whole thing, especially since things were finally good between them again.

When he returned to the table, Sebastian was no longer on the phone and looked deep in thought about something. "I'm sorry for yelling," he said with an eye roll. "I'm just really fucking pissed at Hunter and this whole situation is frustrating. I think I'm gonna go and see if I can work anything out with Nick and Jeff, maybe salvage my spot at Dalton. And I think I need some space. I'll see you later." Before Blaine could respond, Sebastian stood up and was out the door of the Lima Bean.

Blaine stared after him, no longer angry but worried instead. He wanted to be supportive, but he knew he wouldn't be able to get through to Sebastian when he was like this. He figured it would be best to let him be while he sorted things out with the rest of the Warblers.

Although he contemplated telling Sam and Tina the news, he decided he would wait for the Warblers' forfeit to be official. After all, he was still hoping Sebastian could figure something out. It wasn't until the morning of Thanksgiving, the day of the competition, that the New Directions found out.

"Blaine, did you see the show choir blogs?" Tina asked when she ran into the choir room for their final rehearsal. "The Warblers are pulling out of sectionals, something about a drug scandal."

Sam followed closely behind Tina. "Did you know about this? Is Sebastian involved?"

"No… I mean, yes… well, sort of," Blaine replied, realizing how difficult it would be to lie to his friends. "No, Sebastian isn't involved. He's actually sort of the reason why the headmaster found out. But yeah, I did know about it. Sebastian told me and I helped him try to get the guy who was behind it all punished. Clearly, it backfired and now the Warblers can't compete."

Tina looked thrilled. Her eyes widened as she practically jumped out of her chair and pulled Blaine into a hug. "This is fantastic! There's no way we'll lose sectionals now!"

Blaine's expression was much less excited. "Dude what's wrong?" Sam asked when he noticed the look on Blaine's face.

"I feel bad. So many of them are seniors and they used to be my friends. Sebastian is devastated," Blaine explained, hoping his friends would understand.

Unfortunately, Tina didn't. "What are you talking about? This is good news."

Before Blaine reacted to Tina, Artie rolled up and parked his wheelchair next to them. "Clearly, once a Warbler always a Warbler. Blaine, whose side are you on?"

"I'm obviously with you guys, but am I not allowed to be a little bit upset that my friends don't even get to compete at sectionals?" Blaine asked. He was starting to feel offended at his friends' accusations.

Luckily, Finn walked in just in time. "Everyone needs to stop harassing Blaine. This has nothing to do with him or even us. We still have to beat the Rosedale Mennonites and we should still perform the best we can. It's important for us to look good to the judges and get practice for regionals. Keep in mind that half of you have never been to a show choir competition before so it's important to gain some experience."

"Thanks, Finn," Blaine smiled. He sent a quick text to Sebastian before they started rehearsal.

I just heard it's official. I'm sorry about how all of this went down. Please just let me know that you're okay. Let me know if there's anything I can do. -Blaine

He didn't expect to get a response, so he continued the rest of their dress rehearsal for the performance normally without worrying too much about what Sebastian was thinking. He knew he would be devastated, but he didn't want to force him to talk about it if he wasn't ready.

By six that night, the New Directions were getting ready to head to the auditorium for the Mennonites' performance. Blaine noticed Marley still sitting in the back of the choir room after everyone else had started to leave which he found a little odd, so he stayed back for a moment to check in with her. "Hey, are you okay?"

She looked up as if she was shocked someone was talking to her. "What? Oh, I'm just nervous."

"Don't be. Without the Warblers here, it'll be a piece of cake. We could beat these kids in our sleep." Blaine playfully nudged her arm and reached his hand out for her to take.

Marley nodded and took Blaine's hand, but she still looked a little sick. "Is there something else going on?"

"No, I'm… I'm fine," Marley insisted as she followed Blaine to the auditorium.

As everyone was getting ready to go onstage to perform, Blaine decided he would let Santana know what was going on with Marley. Since she was assigned as Marley's mentor for the week, he figured she might be able to get through to her. He noticed Finn and Santana take Marley aside before the performance to calm her nerves.

They had ten minutes until showtime when Blaine pulled his phone out of his pocket to see if Sebastian ever texted him back. He sighed, deciding he would try to give him a call after the performance to see if there was anything he could do. He knew the New Directions would want to celebrate that night after the show, but he figured he could skip it if he needed to be there for his friend.

Suddenly, Blaine's phone started ringing in his hand and he looked down immediately, hoping it would be Sebastian. To Blaine's surprise, the name on the caller I.D. read "Kurt Hummel", the last person Blaine was expecting to get a call from. His heart was beating so fast as he stood up and rushed off to his secret place in the auditorium to take the call. "Hello?" He asked, his voice sounding shocked.

At first, Blaine could only hear Kurt's steady breathing and the sounds of honking horns on the other line. Then, Kurt finally said, "Hey, can you hear me? It's kind of loud out here."

Blaine, still in shock, had no idea what to say. "Um… yeah, yeah I can hear you."

"Have you guys performed yet?" Kurt asked.

"Um, no. Not yet." After Blaine's response, he could only hear background noise on the other line. He decided he needed to be the one to break it this time. "Look, Kurt, I just want you to know that no matter…"

"Just let me talk for a second," Kurt interrupted. "Look, you've said you're sorry a million times. And…" There was another moment of silence before Kurt continued. "I believe you. And I'm trying to forgive you, but…" He paused again, clearly having a hard time with telling Blaine how he felt. "I'm just not there yet. But it's Thanksgiving and it's sectionals and…" His voice was starting to sound choked up as he spoke to Blaine. "I miss you like crazy. And I can't stand not talking to you even though I'm mad at you because you're still my best friend."

Blaine was crying as his emotions started to take over. He didn't know how to feel about this sudden phone call. He was overwhelmed with all of the things he was feeling about the Warblers and Sebastian and Kurt all at the same time and this made all of those emotions explode. "You're mine, too." He couldn't seem to find more words than that.

For a while, neither boy said anything at all. Blaine was shocked when Kurt spoke again. "At Christmas, we need to have a mature heart-to-heart. And maybe if it's cold enough, we can go ice skating on the Auglaize River and get hot chocolate. Anywhere but the Lima Bean because when I was working there, I saw a mouse."

Blaine let out a broken laugh at the thought. "So we're gonna see each other at Christmas?" He asked, suddenly more confused than he was excited. He was afraid of what could happen when Kurt came back and he felt like now he had more to think about than just whether or not he loved Kurt. He didn't want to lose his friends again. All of the drama with the Warblers opened his eyes to how horrible he felt when he isolated himself from all of them, Sebastian included. He didn't want to get back together with Kurt and immediately abandon all of them again before he even had a chance to make things right with the Warblers.

"Yeah," Kurt responded.

Blaine was silent for another moment, trying to think of a way to continue the conversation. The noise that signaled they had five minutes until the New Directions needed to be onstage. The show circle usually began at three minutes until showtime, so Blaine knew he needed to end the call soon.

Just as he was about to speak, Kurt interrupted his thoughts. "Well don't let any of those hideous Warblers win, alright?"

Blaine's eyes widened as he realized Kurt didn't know about the drama with the Warblers. He didn't have time to explain everything right now, and he didn't want to jeopardize his progress with Kurt by bringing up Sebastian, so he tried to think of a good way to explain what happened. "Oh, the Warblers actually aren't competing."

"What? Why?"

Blaine hesitated, still worried about saying the wrong thing. "It's kind of a long story. There's some information on the show choir blogs and if you want, I can fill you in later. I have to go perform but thank you for calling."

At first, Blaine was met with silence. He hoped Kurt wouldn't pick up on his feelings about the Warblers. "Oh, well, I'll talk to Finn about it tonight after the show. Break a leg." Kurt responded. Something about his tone seemed to change, but Blaine couldn't quite figure out why. "Happy Thanksgiving."

"Happy Thanksgiving," Blaine replied, still confused about Kurt's sudden mood shift. He hung up a moment later and walked back to the rest of the New Directions while he wiped the tears away from his eyes. Before the show circle, he checked his phone one last time to see if Sebastian had texted, and then he tossed it to the side before going on stage.

Marley looked much better after her conversation with Finn and Santana and after hearing from Kurt, Blaine felt a lot better about the performance as well. The show circle seemed to motivate everyone, and they performed the best they possibly could, even if Finn's setlist was horrible. When the performance was finally over, the New Directions rushed out of the auditorium and into the choir room to wait for the results. "When we win, everyone is coming over to my place to party! Burt and Carole are getting pizzas and we're gonna do karaoke and stuff, it'll be awesome," Sam announced to everyone. "Blaine, you have to come this time. I need my best bro in order for it to be a real party."

"Yeah, of course I'll be there," Blaine agreed. He kept glancing at his phone hoping that Sebastian would text him, but he still hadn't heard anything. He was about to text him again when the results came in and it was time for the New Directions to go back on stage. He once again left his phone in the choir room while he followed his friends back into the auditorium.

"And in first place from McKinley High School the New Directions!"

Everyone started jumping around and hugging each other. The look on Finn's face was priceless as he accepted the trophy and held it up for everyone to see. Blaine hugged him first and then turned to Sam and Tina to embrace his closest friends in a group hug. He never doubted that they could beat the Mennonites, but something about winning without Kurt felt more rewarding, even if the competition wasn't that amazing. He finally felt as if the New Directions were his family, not the friends that were only nice to him because he was dating Kurt. Winning made him feel like he finally belonged at McKinley. It brought back memories of championships long before he ever met Kurt. And he liked that feeling a lot.

It wasn't long after the New Directions walked off the stage that Blaine remembered what the Warblers were going through. Luckily, he returned to the choir room to find a text from Sebastian, even if it wasn't the text he was hoping for.

Congratulations. I know you probably have a victory party to attend, but if you don't, I could really use a friend. -Sebastian

Blaine smiled at Sebastian's honesty and was about to text back when he noticed another message from Sebastian come through.

Sorry, that was stupid, you need to be with your friends. Go have fun. -Sebastian

He frowned when he read the follow up text. It seemed like Sebastian was finally ready to confide in him and stop taking his anger out on him, but now he was backtracking. He knew Sebastian wasn't in a good place if he was desperate enough to reach out and say he needed support, so Blaine knew what he had to do. "Hey, Sam, I don't think I can come over tonight."

"What? Why? You skipped the opening night cast party; you can't skip this, too."

Sam looked upset and Blaine didn't blame him, but he knew he needed to be there for Sebastian. After all, the New Directions would have more victory parties, but the Warblers wouldn't. "I promise I'll make it up to you."

It was never very hard to get Sam's forgiveness for anything. He was by far the most understanding person Blaine had ever met. "Okay, but are you still going Black Friday shopping with me tomorrow? I really want that new video game and I remember that you said you wanted to pick out some new clothes without Kurt."

"Yeah, for sure. I'll text you in the morning and we can figure it out," Blaine agreed. Sam gave him a fist bump before running off to the parking lot with Brittany. As Blaine sat down in his car, he finally typed out a response to Sebastian.

I'm coming over. Are you at your parents' house or Dalton? -Blaine

You really don't need to come. I shouldn't have texted. -Sebastian

Blaine rolled his eyes as he read Sebastian's text. He should have known that if he texted Blaine saying he wanted him to be there, he would be there as fast as he could. Sebastian said it himself: Blaine is an "incredible friend".

Shut up, I'm coming. Where are you? -Blaine

That's what he said ;) -Sebastian

Of course. Sebastian never missed an opportunity for a dirty joke no matter how serious the situation was.

Sorry I had to. And since you can't let it go, I'm at Dalton. But seriously, don't come. -Sebastian

That was all Blaine needed to put his car in drive and begin the hour-long drive to Dalton.