Yes, it's late, but, well...Agh, I have no excuse. It's late, and I'm very very sorry. :(

HOWEVER: I do want to express my appreciation for the reviews I got last chapter; I love the fact that you love Avril. I, of course, love her very much; if I didn't I wouldn't keep writing about her...

IN THIS CHAPTER: Avril's constant hanging out with the Warblers is explained (in part); Rachel is annoying-as per usual-; and there is some beautiful brother-sister like wonderfulness between Blaine and Avril.

ENJOY!

...Oh yeah, don't own Glee. Warbler spin off show and all that...*sobs*

"Why have you asked us to meet you here? We need to be preparing for Sectionals." Rachel's words were met by withering glances from the other occupants of the choir room, and Avril merely rolled her eyes, ignoring the short brunette as she turned her attention to the other New Directions.

"Look, the majority of you don't know me that well, so I get if you're reluctant to listen to me at first. But this is important, and when your real teacher gets back I'm going to be gone, so this needs to be addressed now." The glee club members all exchanged looks, before Tina spoke up, still gripping Mike's hand.

"Shouldn't Kurt and Mercedes be here?" Avril shook her head before Tina even finished speaking, crossing her arms over her chest.

"If I wanted them here I would have arranged for this to be during lunch or whatever, but as it stands I specifically chose this particular time because I knew they would be busy; besides which this is mainly about Kurt, so his being here would make this difficult to discuss with his pride." The New Directions all looked at each other, before Finn nodded for Avril to go on.

"The bullying situation has worsened; even just over the last few days it's obvious that things are getting harder for him. I can't be here all the time, which is why I'm enlisting your help. I want you guys to watch Kurt; make sure things don't get even worse than they already are. And if they do, I need you to call me. If you try and get involved, it's likely you'll get hurt, or expelled, or whatever. I don't officially go here, so that's one problem easily averted; besides which, you know, I can easily kick any bully's ass." She shrugged with the end of the sentence, while the New Directions frowned at her.

"Are you serious? Have you seen the size of Karofsky?" It was Finn who spoke up, ignoring the frown he earned from his girlfriend; but Sam was the one who answered him.

"No, Avril's right; she'll be fine." Quinn, sat to his right, frowned at him, but Avril just smiled briefly before turning back to the club.

"You guys don't have to trust me, or understand my motives for wanting to help Kurt; but what you need to realise, is that I'm not going to sit back and let an ignorant Neanderthal make his life hell. I care about Kurt for reasons most of you probably wouldn't understand if I explained them to you; and I know all of you care about him too. So I need your help." The New Directions all looked at each other-with the exception of Sam, who was watching her with something like understanding-before Artie wheeled forwards in his chair, holding out a hand for her to shake.

"We'll do what we can." He offered simply; and Avril grinned, before shaking his hand warmly, and giggling in surprise when Brittany ran forwards and tackled her with a hug.

Blaine let out a groan of frustration, rolling over onto his back and staring up at the ceiling with a frown. He'd been tossing and turning for over two and a half hours now, but nothing seemed to be working; his brain just wouldn't shut up.

He couldn't even decipher what he had to think about; he didn't have any exams for at least another two weeks, and then they were just mocks; Sectionals was still three weeks away, and they'd already perfected one of their two numbers; Avril hadn't beaten anyone up yet; Kurt was doing okay...

Blaine frowned to himself as he thought about his last point.

Sure, Kurt hadn't said that anything was wrong the last time they'd spoken; but it wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out that he had been hiding something. Their conversation had lacked Kurt's usual enthusiasm, and Blaine had made more than one dorky comment which usually would have warranted some kind of scathing comment from the other boy-only for Kurt to completely ignore it, and either laugh half-heartedly, or change the subject.

Blaine sighed softly to himself, and ran his hands over his face before sitting up, absent-mindedly reaching for his phone and scrolling through his contacts. He hovered over Kurt's number for a moment, chewing on his bottom lip, before turning his phone off and setting it back on his bedside table, flopping back amongst his pillows and preparing for another hour of fruitlessly trying to get some sleep; only for someone to lightly knock on his bedroom door. He let out a disparaging groan, before getting to his feet and padding over to the door, opening it a crack and preparing himself to tell Wes or David-which ever had decided to attempt to enlist him in one of their midnight LAN parties-only to blink in surprise at the messy cascade of white-blonde curls which met his eyes.

"Avril?" He asked, confused; she'd been staying in an empty Dorm room at the other end of the hall until her mother returned from Paris so she could move back into her house. The girl smiled sleepily at him, rubbing at one of her eyes with a fist while her other hand clutched a stuffed white rabbit plush toy with most of its fur missing.

"Hey Blaine." She offered sleepily, and ruffled some of her curls. Blaine looked her over briefly-noting with amusement her miss-matched knee high socks and neon-pink slipper boots, coupled with pyjama shorts and a too-big t-shirt with a television on the front and the declaration 'I eat brains!'-before opening his door further, and gesturing for her to enter. She smiled gratefully up at him, before walking in and dropping onto the end of his bed, crossing her legs and leaning back against the wall. Blaine watched her get comfortable for a moment, before shutting his door and moving to sit on the bed himself, flipping on the desk lamp sat on his bed side table before he leant back against the head-board.

"Nightmares?" He asked softly; and Avril glanced at him, her eyes looking darker with the shadows beneath them, before nodding, and hugging her rabbit to her chest.

"New ones." She mumbled, and absent-mindedly tugged on her left ear, a habit she'd had since she'd been a child. Blaine sighed softly as he watched her, before shifting over to the edge of his bed and patting the space beside him, next to the wall.

"Get over here." He breathed, and she smiled sheepishly before crawling into the spot provided and snuggling against his side, pressing her face to his shoulder. Blaine smiled briefly at her, before wrapping an arm around her shoulders and lightly rubbing her back.

"You want to talk about it?" He asked, lightly pressing his cheek to the top of her head. She sighed softly, before shaking her head lightly.

"You'll think it's stupid." She mumbled, and Blaine chuckled softly.

"Well, so long as it's not the one about you being chased by that cake again..." Avril tilted her head to scowl up at him.

"Hey, that was one time; at it was only because Wes had dared me to eat the whole thing without throwing up." Blaine grinned down at her.

"Which will teach you to ever play Truth or Dare with Wes as long as you live." He stated smugly, laughing when she flicked him on the nose, before ducking back down to hide her growing blush. There was a moment of companionable silence between them, before Avril spoke again, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"Why did you never let me stop your bullies, Blaine?" The boy sighed softly at her words, using his free hand to rub at the back of his neck, before pulling her closer to him and wrapping his arms around her in a soft hug.

"I suppose you won't believe the old excuse of my wanting you not to get hurt?" He offered weakly, and Avril's returning look was reminiscent of the expression Blaine was growing to understand to be Kurt's 'bitch-please' look. He let out a humourless chuckle, before staring absently at the door.

"However much you scoff and give me those looks, Avril, part of my reasoning was because I didn't want you getting hurt. But I guess...I kinda felt like I had to fight my own battles. That letting you solve all my problems wouldn't actually solve anything; that it would just make things worse." Avril was silent for a moment, but then she sighed softly, and fidgeted against Blaine's side.

"You're stupid." She mumbled sleepily, and Blaine smiled at her words, before slipping down his pillows so they were both laying flat, and pulling his sheets up over them. Avril sighed contentedly, clutching her rabbit close to her chest, and shut her eyes, smiling when Blaine switched off the light.

Blaine was just about ready to fall asleep when Avril started to talk again, her voice soft and monotonous with exhaustion.

"I keep seeing that moment in the locker room, when Karofsky kisses Kurt; but he doesn't leave, and Kurt can't stop him, but then it's not Kurt, it's you, Blaine. But I can't do anything, because there's a pane of glass across the doorway. I keep trying to break it, but nothing works, and you look so scared, like before you came to Dalton, and there's nothing I can do about it-" Blaine cut her off by dropping a soft kiss to the top of her head.

"I'm right here, Avril. I'm fine. Everything will be okay." Avril hiccupped softly, sleepily wiping at her cheeks, which were wet with tears, before pressing her face to his shoulder.

"Love you, Blaine." She mumbled. Blaine smiled, before his eyes slid closed.

"Love you too, Avril."

So, chickens, that is the end of the Substitute! Next up; FURT. Which will have...like, no ND. Sorry, but I could see no way to change that episode for them at ALL. It will be all Avril/Blaine/Warblery goodness. :)

Review!

...pwease? :3