Someone seems to be on a roll (it's about fucking time)

Word had spread about Blaine's eviction off the Gryffindor Quidditch team and tryouts for the position of the new Gryffindor seeker were being held that afternoon; Wes Montgomery, the Gryffindor captain, being the over-organised control freak that he is, obviously did not want to let any time go to waste before his team started practicing again for their next match.

Blaine frowned at the sign-up sheet and ignored the dull ache in his chest. He wondered what student would be chosen to take his place to lead Gryffindor to victory. Would they be as loved by the Gryffindors as Blaine was?

Was, He thought bitterly.

Ever since the big game between the two rival houses, Blaine had been avoided like the plague; the only form of communication being hateful glares and judgemental looks given to him by the rest of his house, and even by some of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. The first few times he had tried to explain in desperation to them that he was sorry and that he didn't mean to lose the game to the Slytherins, but now, after his attempts had been ignored and dismissed every time he tried, he just turned away and pretended not to notice them or the way his throat closed up slightly at every glower.

On the other hand, the Slytherins had become more 'interactive' with him, congratulating him on the game and on his 'brilliant presentation on how to not ride a broomstick', and patting him on the back, maybe a little too forceful that necessary.

Speaking of Slytherins, Kurt was now out of the Infirmary and was recovering from his few bruises he'd obtained when he'd fallen, or so Blaine had heard. He had distanced himself from the taller boy ever since he had agreed to become friends with the Gryffindor three days ago, giving Blaine time to secure his plans before he made any more moves.

He knew that there was no way that he would be able to 'woo' the boy within a matter of days; it would take time for Kurt to trust him and relax around him for him to even start thinking about getting the boy to fall for him. He would have to develop this so-called 'friendship' further; move from acquaintances to actual inside-jokes, sleepovers-every-weekend friends.

Blaine took one last look at the long list of names before him, and spun on his heel, heading towards the Great Hall for breakfast, certain that he'd have to sit alone. Again.

"Hey, Lady Hummel."

A pair of toned, tanned arms wrapped themselves from behind him as he tucked into his breakfast at the long Slytherin table: scrambled eggs on toast.

"Good morning, Santana." He rolled his eyes but couldn't hide the fond twinkle in them.

Santana slid into the seat on his right; she was wearing a white uniform shirt (the shirt being unbuttoned by one button too many, showing off slightly more than necessary) and a pair of black trousers, with her robe draped carelessly over the seat next to her, effectively preventing anyone else from sitting on her other side.

A bowl appeared in front of her and she tipped some of the diced watermelon into it, spearing her fork into a piece.

"How are you liking being treated like royalty?" She asked, wryly, popping the watermelon piece into her mouth.

So maybe 'royalty' was exaggerating a bit, but it wasn't far off. Ever since the game three days ago, Kurt had gained a fair amount of respect from the rest of the Slytherins and some them had gone as far to even start a 'Kurt Hummel Appreciation' club, which Kurt had already grown fed up of; apparently, being surrounded by an obsessive group of 12 and 13 year olds whilst being bound to a hospital bed wasn't a great situation to be in.

"I'm not been treated like royalty, Santana," he sighed, "And it's not all that great, you know. It was just one game."

Santana arched one of her eyebrows at his response.

"What's up with you lately? You're acting differently," She pointed her fork at him, "You know, the normal and sane Kurt Hummel would be loving all this attention.

She was right, Kurt couldn't deny that. As much as he refused to admit it aloud, Kurt loved attention. Whether he was having a conversation with a small group of friends, or playing a Quidditch game in front of the entire school, he loved to be the centre of focus. This was the 'usual' Kurt Hummel; now, the thrill of the spotlight seemed dull and pointless.

The conversation with Blaine in the Infirmary had sparked a change in him; rethinking his relationship with the Gryffindor had effectively caused him to reconsider his views on other things, like his popularity, for example. Was it really that important? He had one year left at this place and then he'd be out in the real world where his insignificant high school popularity would mean nothing. What was the point of bothering with something so trivial if it was going to last?

He sighed again; his fork clattered gently against his plate as he put it down. Kurt stared off into the distance, trying to form his loud thoughts into coherent sentences.

"I… I don't know. I just. It doesn't seem to matter anymore to me, you know?"

Kurt turned to face her and was met with a look of sheer confusion.

"It's like," He shifted in his seat as he explained, "You're popular, right?"

"Duh."

"Well, that's in here. Inside these stone walls."

"And?..." She prompted.

"Well what happens when you're outside of this place? Are you popular then? What about when you're no longer here on a daily basis? What will happen to your popularity then? It will be non-existent."

Her face did not change; still confused.

"What I'm saying is that, after next year, you won't be adored, or feared, by everyone. You'll just be another person in the outside world, the same as everyone else. So what's the point of worrying about inconsequential things? We should be focusing on our future, when we get out of this place."

There was at least a ten second pause after Kurt's passionate speech, where both of them sat in silence.

"Jesus Chris, Hummel. You sure know how to make a girl feel depressed."

Santana pushed her bowl away from her and swung her legs around to stand up; Kurt let out a small disappointed sigh. Not surprisingly, his message hadn't gotten through to her.

"I'm off to find me certain Hufflepuff." She smirked and gave him a wink, before walking away from the table, hips swaying with each step, "Later, Lady lips!"

Kurt rolled his eyes at her. Sometimes Santana could be a little dense when it came to responsibility and talking about serious matters; it must be fun to think of life as one continuous game. He quickly realised that until a few days ago, this had been how he'd seen things.

Maybe a person could change in such a small amount of time, he mused. Not only thinking about himself anymore.

His eyes scanned the room full of students around him, some laughing loudly with their friends whilst some were still trying to shake themselves from sleep; his eyes reached their target.

Anderson sat alone on the end of the Gryffindor table nearest to the door. He had been avoided by at least a three seat radius, some Gryffindors even choosing to stand by their seated friends, others sitting on their friend's lap, rather than being near the boy. Kurt tried to dismiss the small twinge of guilt that ran through him at the thought. He blamed himself slightly for Blaine's misfortune of being abandoned by the rest of his house; it led him to wonder whether he would be in the same position had the Gryffindor grabbed the snitch instead. The least he could for the boy was to make him feel less lonely. He had agreed to try to be civil to him, had he not?

Kurt hesitated for a moment before he grabbed his satchel off the floor and folded his robe over his arm. He then stood up slowly, took a deep breath, please don't let this be a bad idea, before striding away from the Slytherin table quickly, not giving himself a chance to back out.

This was a bad idea, Blaine thought to himself as he sat alone, again, at the end of the long table. Having a long night's rest had not only recharged the other Gryffindors' bodies, but their hated for him also. He was currently being sneered at by a scrawny first year, who probably had no idea why he was angry at Blaine; he'd just joined in his fellow Gryffindors, not wanting to be the odd one out. Blaine glared back dangerously at him and the boy's eyes widened and he quickly diverted his attention back to his friends' Chudley Canons conversation.

The remaining milk, from his cereal, in his bowl swirled round with every turn of his spoon, echoing the whirlwind of ache in his chest. He smiled bitterly to himself at the thought.

He had never felt so lonely in his life, not even when he'd received a stink-hex from Hummel in the third grade and his friends had, apologetically, avoided him for a whole week. But alas, this time there was no stink-hex as an excuse, only his failure to lead his team to victory.

Blaine sighed to himself, this plan better be worth it.

The click of shoes against the floor near to him made him look up quickly to see who or what had dared to approach him.

"Hello, Hob…" a small cough, "Blaine."

An odd sense of appreciation ran through Blaine at Kurt's obvious efforts not to insult him. The taller boy stood, shifting from one foot to the other with his satchel over his shoulder and his robe grasped in a tight grip between both of his hands, eyes darting around the room nervously. It was then that Blaine noticed the utter silence that had settled over the Great Hall. Blaine chanced a glance at the other students; each and every one of them had turned to face the couple. The small boy, who been glaring before now sat, shocked, with his mouth open comically. Blaine would have laughed had it been under different circumstances.

It was as if he had flipped a switch in them, as soon as they realised that he was staring back at them, they chatter started up again in a much-too-enthusiastic manner.

He felt a swish of air next to him before he realised Kurt had slid into the seat next to him.

"Shocking the student body to silence again, eh?" Kurt let out a small, strained laugh.

Blaine shook himself and let out a small laugh of his own. "Yeah, I hate seeing them bored."

He smiled at the taller boy's answering grin and the warmth that was seeping into his grey-blue eyes, reminding himself that he was only happy because Kurt was eating out of the palm of his hand.

"So… how are things?"

Blaine knew that Kurt had obviously heard about him being kicked off the Quidditch team and being treated like a pariah by the rest of his house, had the fact that he was sitting alone at breakfast not given it away, so he knew that this was only asked either because the boy truly cared or that he wanted to fill the awkward silence that had started to settle between them. Blaine was counting on the latter.

"Things are…" He grimaced slightly, "Things could be better, I suppose."

Blaine let out a humourless laugh. Kurt didn't reply; he nodded weakly, staring down at his hands that were still clutching onto the robe on his lap. This was unexpected behaviour for the Slytherin, who never usually came across as nervous or to let up any chance to have his say.

The shorter boy cleared his throat and continued, "Anyway, how are you? Have you recovered?"

"Yes. Yes, I have, thanks," Kurt shrugged nonchalantly, "Just a few bruises here and there, but aside from that I'm perfect."

Kurt gave a little grin.

There's the Kurt Hummel I know, Blaine thought wryly.

"Oh, that's goo-"

"Listen, Blaine."

Blaine stopped at the interruption and turned his head sideways to face Kurt fully. The other boy's face was drawn into a slight frown, his brow furrowing, and his glasz eyes held a trace of guilt.

"I'm really..." He stopped a took a deep breath, releasing it shakily, "I'm really sorry about what's happened. No one deserves this, not even you." He added with a short laugh, referring back to their previous dislike for one another.

Blaine didn't reply so Kurt continued.

"What I'm trying to say is that if you need anyone to talk to… I said I'd try to be fri…"

Kurt was getting frustrated with himself. Why couldn't he just tell Blaine that he was there for him if he needed anyone? Maybe because it was so out of character for him. Maybe because it scared him so much at the thought of him being there for Blaine. At the thought of him wanting to be there for Blaine. Things were changing so quickly and Kurt was having a hard time trying to catch up with them; he was struggling to get a handle on his new, not feelings, no, his new views on things?

Maybe agreeing to be friends with Blaine too soon was a bad idea.

"Kurt."

He looked up, meeting warm, hazel eyes.

"I think I know what you're trying to say, and I really do appreciate it, Kurt. Thank you."

The genuine smile on Blaine's face released a wave of tension in him that he didn't know he had, allowing him to relax slightly and smile.

"It's no problem."

They chatted amiably for another half an hour, both finding out that they had much more in common with each other than they had initially expected: both boys enjoyed watching and singing along to many muggle musicals (though it pained Kurt to admit it) including The Sound of Music, Singing in the Rain, and Wicked (Kurt declaring that he could hit the high F in Defying Gravity easily).

The students surrounding them took turns to glance at them before murmuring to those around them about how strange a sight it was to see a lion and a snake getting along.

Hi! So I wasn't supposed to post the next chapter until next week but I finished it today so I thought 'why the hell not?' . I'm quite busy next week (college, work, family stuff) so I may not be able to get out a chapter next week; it might have to be the week after, I'm sorry to say :( Anyway, thank you so much if you're still reading this fic, despite me being an asshole and messing you all around with what happened last year (I'm never going to forgive myself for that 'hiatus') I'm also actually really getting into writing this fic now that I have more ideas. Please please feel free to review (please) if you want. All suggestions on how I could improve this fic for you are most welcome :) Also, thank you so much to everyone who has followed and favorited the story recently!Finally, please feel free to follow my tumblr for updates on the progress of the story and for new chapter releases: .com Thanks again :D x