Blaine was laughing at a joke David had told. It was nowhere near his usual genuine laugh, he hadn't even heard most of the joke, but laughing just for the sake of it made him feel somewhat better. They'd just finished watching The Hipsters perform, they were great and Blaine applauded the fact that even at their age they never gave up and continued to perform. He honestly found their determination inspiring. But that was just Blaine.

The group of boys stood in the lobby waiting for the next group, Blaine's sister's group, to perform. The continuous speeches on stage and the unnecessary amount of intervals was really just a way to make the show last longer.

"Have you seen him anywhere?" Thad whispered to David whilst Wes occupied Blaine in a conversation about the show.

"I don't even know what the guy looks like!" David hissed back though that didn't stop him scanning the crowds for anyone who looked like they might be a Kurt.

"We have to cheer Blaine up somehow. He's so depressed he even found that group of old folks entertaining," Thad said dejectedly, looking over to his friend at a loss.

"No…I think that's just Blaine, he's impressed by anything," David commented "But yeah, he still hasn't been himself at all."

A sudden tapping on his shoulder alerted David to the presence of the large, fierce looking girl with a face that screamed 'I'm on a mission, don't you dare stand in my way'

"Can I help you?" he asked uncertainly.

"You're here with Blaine right?" she stated, rather than asked, nodding her head in the direction of Blaine. The two nodded in unison, an inexplicable sense of fear and dread creeping through their veins due to the bold girl before them.

"Good. My boy Kurt needs to talk to him and he needs to talk to him alone, so if you boys wouldn't mind coming with me to give them a little privacy…" David and Thad shared a knowing glance.

"Wes!" Thad called. Once he'd gotten the other boy's attention, he gestured for him to join them with a jerk of his head. Blaine followed behind, looking confused.

"Mercedes! What are you…?" a brown haired boy breathed, huffing in exertion as he had clearly just chased after her through the lobby and pausing when he noticed their company.

"And that is our cue to leave! See you Blaine!" Thad said in a far too optimistic tone, grabbing Wes and David and making a hasty departure, Mercedes following not far behind.

"…What?" Blaine asked in confusion, eyebrows knotting as he watched his friends abandon him. That was when he first spotted Kurt standing before him, looking paralyzed.

"Hi…" Kurt said in a small, breathy voice, eyes looking everywhere but at Blaine face. He took in the dark shirt he was wearing, impressed that he would wear a tie to such an event. A burgundy tie which matched his own shirt so well he cursed himself for thinking it, for thinking that he and Blaine fit together as easily as a perfectly coordinated outfit.

Blaine's chest froze, he'd tried everything, though unsuccessfully, to try and get Kurt out of his mind all week and then suddenly there he was, standing right before him.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded in a much harsher tone than he intended. There was a slight pause then,

"I…I'm performing, remember?"

"I meant what are you doing here talking to me?" Blaine scowled and yeah, that time he did intend to be harsh. The Warblers had been on his back all week about his performance, he just wanted to get over Kurt and make things go back to normal. He needed to forget about him, but when Kurt finally met his gaze with an expression of utter hurt, one that he'd seen plenty of times before but for the first time had actually caused, he regretted saying what he did.

"Do you really think just shoving them together is going to make them fix things?" Wes asked Mercedes as the four gathered together, trying to get the best view of Kurt and Blaine.

"We can only hope," she replied "But I have had it up to here with his moping, I just need him to have something good in his life for once."

"Tell me about it!" David said, rolling his eyes. "I mean Blaine usually keeps himself relatively together, but sharing a dorm with him is torture. That guy just has way too many pent up feelings."

"We need him to able to perform for our own sectionals competition next week," Wes supplied, earning him some questionable looks from the others. "And…you know, his feelings that matter and everything," he said, shifting himself slightly to get a better view.

"This would be so much simpler if we actually knew what was wrong between them anyway," Thad said, sighing.

"You mean you don't know…?" Mercedes asked slowly as the boys looked at her in bewilderment.

"You do know?" Thad exclaimed.

Kurt felt his heart clench as any ounce of hope he had left of winning Blaine back was shattered into a thousand pieces and scattered throughout the overly crowded lobby.

"I'm sorry," Kurt said in a small voice. "I shouldn't have lied to you. But…there isn't exactly a perfect moment when you can admit to something like that," he attempted a laugh but it came out as a sort of strangled choke. Blaine said nothing though Kurt considered it a victory that he hadn't left yet. "I don't want you out of my life, this past week has been so much harder knowing what…what things could be like, knowing what it was like to be…normal." He sighed, steadying his breathe, willing Blaine to say something, anything. "I just…what we, I mean…this is."

Kurt found himself floundering; he had no idea what he was doing, what he was saying. The hours he'd spent the night before going over what he would say was clearly a waste of time. Instead of making coherent speech, he just resorted to opening and closing his mouth at a loss.

The obnoxious overhead announcer declared that the next part of the show would begin shortly and Kurt cursed his lack of ability to talk.

"I have to go," Blaine said quietly, making his way back over to his friends. Kurt hung his head in defeat.

Shortly after Blaine left, Mercedes caught up to him and put an arm over his shoulder. Just from the look on his face she could tell that things hadn't gone well.

"Hey, it's okay," she said softly. "What…what did you say?" So Kurt retold the very brief encounter they had had not moments ago.

"He hates me," he finished a look of pure defeat painted across his face which Mercedes wanted nothing more than to erase.

"Come on, he didn't say that…" she tried to encourage him

"Mercedes, please…I'm sick of the false hope and the 'what-ifs' let's just leave it," he sighed and Mercedes simply held him tighter.

"Guys Mr Schue wants a group meeting in the green room, wants to talk to us about 'being a team' or something," Rachel said in a monotone, suddenly appearing beside them.

"You go ahead," Kurt said, sniffling slightly. "I think I'm going to watch the Crawford girls perform." Both Mercedes and Rachel raised their brows in shock. "What?" he asked innocently. "The majority of them may have been awful to me but I like to think of Catherine as my friend at least." And with that he made his way to the auditorium where yet another guest was making a speech on stage. Mercedes and Rachel shared a weary look but decided to let him go.

Kurt decided to watch from the door, he couldn't go back to his seat, Blaine would be too close and with the rest of the New Directions in the green room thus not occupying the seats, he would be sure to see him. He glanced at the row of empty seats for a split second, determined not to look at Blaine, before entirely dedicating his concentration to the stage.

"You're a dumbass," David stated as Blaine met up with them again just as he was about to berate them for leaving him like that as and they made their way back into the auditorium. Blaine sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead.

"What did I do now?" he asked in an irritated voice, clearly not in the mood.

"All that whining you did? 'Oh I love Kirsty, no I'm in love with Kurt I'm so confused someone help me!'" David mocked Blaine's voice, though it sounded nothing like him in the slightest, Blaine just scowled in response. "So Kurt is Kirsty and you just push him away completely? In what world does that make sense? Sounds to me like a win/win situation here!" Blaine glared at him awkwardly, unsure whether he should be angry or just confused.

"How do you even know that?" he asked. He'd refrained from telling David the whole story because in all honesty he found the whole thing a little mortifying. He'd only told his sister to warn her about Kurt being a spy.

"That doesn't matter," Wes said, waving away Blaine's question like it was nothing. "What matters is that you go and make up with Kurt, accept his apology and go back to being Happy Blaine again!"

"Yeah!" Thad agreed "We miss Happy Blaine!"

"Guys, it's not that simple…" He paused "have you really noticed my mood that much?" he asked a little nervously as they took their seats.

"Blaine, Warblers rehearsal this past week has pretty much been a huge spiralling pit of angst because of you. You're our lead singer and we need you. Not only to win sectionals but to inspire the rest of the group and encourage them to be the best they can. We elected you to lead because of your optimistic charm and…we just want the old you back," Wes begged softly and Blaine was a little touched.

"I…I'm sorry guys, I didn't mean for this to affect you at all, I'll try and keep things to myself," he said, smiling sadly, lowering his voice as someone on stage had begun talking.

"No," David said affectionately. "We don't want you to bottle everything up, we're your friends and we want to help."

"So we're telling you in the friendliest way possible, that you are currently being a dumbass." Thad grinned, punching Blaine playfully on the arm. Blaine was speechless. He knew his friends cared for him but he'd never actually realized that they really were there for him. He'd spent so long isolated from his peers at his old school that he'd started to think that a friend just meant someone who wouldn't judge and ridicule him, someone who wouldn't beat him up for simply being himself. He was wrong of course.

"Thad's right," David said, interrupting his train of thought. "You need to talk to Kurt."

"Like I said, it's not that simple," Blaine said sadly as a woman on stage droned on about some sort of charity though he was only half paying attention. "Besides, there's nothing I can do about it at the moment," he deflected, nodding towards the stage despite the sturdy looks he earned from his friends however they dropped it and sat back in their seats. The sound of the back door to the auditorium closing loudly alerted his attention and he instinctively turned his head to the back of the hall to find the source of the noise. There, at the door, stood Kurt looking morosely towards the stage. Blaine trained his eyes on him for several seconds before breaking the contact and focusing back to the stage, releasing a breath he was unaware of holding.

He didn't notice how good the lighting made his skin look and he definitely didn't wonder how he could look so sad yet so beautiful at the same time.

He cleared his throat in the hopes that the action may also clear his head, though, needless to say, it was unsuccessful.

All of the harsh and hurtful things he had said both in Kurt's room and moments ago in the lobby reiterated themselves in his mind. The words were shouted back at him, screamed to be noticed. Blaine shook his head, he shouldn't feel so guilty, he was the one who was wronged…right?

The woman on stage wrapped up her speech and introduced his sister's group.

"I'll be right back," he whispered, rising to his feet as the curtain began to rise.

"Wait, what about Catherine?" Wes asked

"Don't worry, I'll still be listening." He winked and with that he was off, hurriedly sprinting down the stalls.

Kurt smiled as he recognized the tune as Everybody by Ingrid Michaelson. It was the same song they had rehearsed (and over-rehearsed) all week when Kurt was with them. He swayed softly and tapped his foot, mapping out the choreography he had branded into his brain perfectly as they did it. Patricia stepped to the front as she was singing lead and Kurt mouthed the lyrics softly.

We have fallen down again tonight
In this world it's hard to get it right
Try to make your heart feel like a glove
What it needs is love, love, love

"You seem to know what you're doing," A voice so soft that Kurt would have been sure he imagined it if he didn't see the owner appear beside his side at the very same instant. His mouth hung open at a loss for words, unsure whether the other boy was there to mock him or not.

"Blaine…" Kurt whispered since it was the only coherent thing that was left in his head

"I'm sorry," he said, looking down, "I should have given you a chance to explain yourself and accepted your apology instead of just getting angry," Kurt let out a shaky breath in reply, closing his mouth slowly only to reopen it again. "What's with the fish impression?" Blaine laughed softly though it was clear he was just as nervous.

"I'm just…confused," Kurt admitted, knitting his eyebrows together hesitantly.

"Why is it we never seem to be able to do this right?" Blaine asked earnestly. The sound of the girls singing made it difficult to hear, giving Kurt a reason to stand closer to Blaine.

Everybody, everybody wants to love
Everybody, everybody wants to be loved
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

"There just always seems to be something in the way and it…started to feel like we weren't supposed to be together for a reason," he sighed, looking over at Kurt with those sad eyes that just mad him melt. Kurt couldn't hold the gaze for long for fear of his legs giving out.

"Don't tell me you believe in fate?" he asked, trying to sound amused though just coming across as frightened. Blaine still smiled however which gave him a little confidence.

Everybody, everybody wants to love
Everybody, everybody wants to be loved
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

"Maybe," he said grinning, "Maybe it was fate that we were sitting in the same row earlier, maybe our outfit coordination was decided by some almighty being," he smiled, gesturing towards his own tie and Kurt's shirt and Kurt couldn't stop the huge, bashful grin erupting on his lips because he noticed that too? "Or maybe it was just my friends meddling, I honestly have no idea," Kurt actually felt himself chuckle out loud as his smile remained a seemingly permanent addition to his face. "I just…felt like it was too hard, like…being in a relationship shouldn't be this difficult, you know?" Blaine said, instantly grounding them back to reality.

"Maybe we just needed to get all of the bad stuff out of the way first?" Kurt suggested and Blaine seemed to consider this before beaming back at him.

Happy is the heart that still feels pain
Darkness drains and light will come again
Swing open up your chest and let it in
Just let the love, love, love begin

"So it's clean sailing from here on?" Blaine asked hopefully. Kurt tore his gaze away from the stage to look at him, his breathing completely halted. Blaine wanted to…he was still interested?

"You…if you still…want to…I mean," Kurt stumbled brokenly, eyes wide with hope that he wouldn't have dared let himself feel moments ago. A warm grip suddenly enveloped his hand, tentative fingers slipping in between his own trembling ones.

oh everybody knows the love
Everybody holds the love
Everybody falls for love

Everybody feels the love
Everybody steals the love,
everybody heals with love
Oh, oh, oh, oh, just let the love, love, love begin

"I still want to," Blaine whispered warmly as he shuffled closer, hands still interlinked. Kurt didn't trust himself to speak so instead focused his eyes on their tangled fingers, the corners of his mouth reaching his eyes for the first time in a while. "I'm so sorry," Blaine whispered again in Kurt's ear and Kurt couldn't help but register how close they were.

"Stop apologizing!" Kurt laughed softly, sniffing slightly. "You didn't do anything wrong. I was awful to you, I shouldn't have lied to you and gotten angry at you for stupid things that were my fault anyway," he said shamefully. The chorus of the girls continued yet both had ceased paying attention to the music.

"I shouldn't have abandoned you," Blaine argued simply "Not with…everything you've been going through."

Kurt's entire body went stiff, his hand significantly tightening its hold on Blaine's, why did he have to bring that up now? "Kurt, are you okay?" Blaine asked, noticing the change, brows furrowing in concern as he searched the other's face, finding only anguish and a very evident trace of fear. "Has Karofsky hurt you again? Kurt?"

"It's nothing," Kurt eventually replied, avoiding meeting Blaine's searching gaze, because there he was, lying again.

"Kurt please…" Blaine begged softly, squeezing his hand back for comfort. Kurt sighed, squeezing his eyes tight to stop the tears from gathering, he really didn't want to cry now, not when everything had been going so perfectly. The girls finished their song and broke into the next, filling the silence between them with inappropriately happy music. After a while, Kurt finally spoke.

"He…He said if I told anyone, he would….He'd kill me," he said, barely above a whisper, he felt Blaine's hand tense around his own.

"Oh my God…do you think he's actually serious?" Blaine asked incredulously.

"I don't know, and I really don't feel like testing him."

"Kurt…if you'd just called me and told me, I'd have been right there for you in a second." Kurt didn't know whether to believe this or not, but it was a nice thought.

"I don't…really want to talk about it right now," he admitted shyly. Blaine said nothing, instead he nodded gently before pulling Kurt into a protective embrace. At first Kurt tensed before he realized what was happening and felt himself melt to fit perfectly into Blaine's mould. They stood, breathing in the scent of each other and relishing in the intimacy of everything.

"I've missed you," Blaine admitted.

"Me too."

"And I'm sorry." Kurt wrapped his own arms around Blaine, completing the embrace, nuzzling into Blaine's neck slightly because he'd missed this so much.

"Me too." He felt Blaine pull back, worried that he'd said something wrong a brief spell of panic rushed through him but the look on Blaine's face cleared any and all doubts he had in an instant. He was smiling softly, lips parted just a fraction. The look in his eyes was so intense Kurt couldn't hold it for longer than a second and instead focused his eyes lower, to his lips. Blaine's lips that were moving closer and…oh. He closed his eyes in anticipation, feeling the warm breath of the other boy against his mouth until the soft brush of his lips against his own. It went no further than that as suddenly the door right beside them crashed open, causing them both to jump. There stood Rachel, looking slightly irritated.

"Kurt, there you are, come on, we're on in like two minutes," she demanded, not even taking notice of Blaine or the tender moment she had just interrupted. If looks could kill, then Rachel Berry would certainly be a corpse by now as the glare that Kurt threw her way was enough to take down an elephant. He looked to Blaine apologetically.

"Go," he said encouragingly, gently pushing Kurt towards the door. "And good luck!" he said smiling.

"Thanks," Kurt breathed before allowing Rachel to drag him away as Blaine made his way back to his seat to catch the last song performed by The Crawford Cantata.

"Mingling with the enemy again I see," Rachel said accusingly as she hurried them back to the green room.

"Oh give it a rest Rachel, he's not the enemy," he sighed.

"We could very well be performing against The Warblers at Regionals if we both win Sectionals," she explained impatiently however Kurt couldn't find it in himself to be angry because Blaine wasn't mad at him. Blaine wanted him. Blaine almost kissed him.

They met up with the rest of The New Directions in the green room and the moment Mercedes saw him, she threw her arms around him.

"You've got that smile," she said, leaning back to face him. "The same smile you had when you first met a certain someone." Kurt grinned at her surreptitiously, raising his eyebrows slightly and producing a squeal from the girl as she wrapped her arms around him once more. "Aaaahh! I can't believe it! I'm so happy for you Boo!" Kurt laughed in response as she squeezed all of the air out of him, he wouldn't have believed it himself if hadn't been there. "Now that you've won back your man, it's time for us to win this competition!" she exclaimed happily and Kurt wondered where she'd gotten such a burst of confidence from. It was then that he realized the rest of New Directions didn't look like they were being sent to their deaths either; they actually looked optimistic, positive.

That must have been one hell of a pep talk he thought to himself as they exited the green room to make their way to the stage, Sam and Quinn going in the opposite direction to make their entrance at the back of the hall. Backstage, Kurt saw the Crawford girls exiting the stage animatedly, jumping and clapping each other confidently. The fear he had always felt around them had entirely dissipated, they may be brutal during rehearsals and may not all like each other but they all wanted the same thing and seeing them so excited after performing made Kurt realize this. These weren't the same girls who had brutally sabotaged their opposition two years ago and it was unfair to judge them just for going to the same school.

"Hey!" he greeted cheerfully as he jogged over to Catherine. "You were great," he said earnestly.

"Kurt! You were watching?" she exclaimed, hugging him briefly.

"Of course! I always support my friends," he said, hugging her back. "And thank you," he said as they broke apart, "for being so nice to me and…helping me with Blaine despite what I what I did to you and your club." He could see her eyes light up at the mention of Blaine.

"So you talked to him?" she asked eagerly, Kurt nodded in response.

"Yeah," he said, "we talked things out."

"Kurt! Get your ass over here!" he heard Santana holler.

"I've gotta go," he sighed.

"Break a leg!" she said smiling and Kurt couldn't help but return it.

"Thanks!" He waved before making his way back to his own group. They made their formation and for the first time Kurt actually felt nervous for the competition. He'd spent all of the previous week fretting about Blaine that he completely neglected the main reason for his being there that day. He went over his parts hastily in his mind, he didn't have an awful lot to remember, it wasn't like he was the lead. But still, Blaine was out there, he'd be watching and would probably be focused mainly on him…

He heard Sam start with the time of my life and had to physically remind himself how to breathe. As soon as they got to the front of the auditorium, the curtain would rise.

"You're happy," David commented as Blaine took his seat back with his friends. He said nothing and directed his unwavering smile towards the stage as his sister's performance was coming to a close.

"I think I can say mission accomplished boys," Wes said and held both hands out for Thad and David on either side of him to high five.

"Shut up!" Blaine said with a laugh, he really owed everything to his friends but he'd never admit that to them.

Blaine kept his eyes trained on the stage as The New Directions were introduced, he'd never seen Kurt perform and had suddenly found himself eager to do so. It came as a slight shock when he heard a male start singing from the back of the hall, he turned his head, along with most of the audience to find a blond boy singing the first lines of the time of my life. A girl, equally as blonde, joined him shortly after, entering from the other door. They sang to each other across the audience from the two aisles and Blaine smiled, he was a sucker for romantic duets. They made it to the stage just as the huge red velvet curtain was raised and Blaine immediately scanned the group for Kurt. It didn't take long to spot him, dancing and singing backup, he looked happy on stage, all of the worry and fear he'd seen on him turned completely invisible when he was performing. It was nothing short of astonishing.

"Blaine's in love!" David said in a sing-song voice, poking his friend's cheek playfully. Blaine slapped his hand away and attempted a glare but the permanent grin on his face made the gesture somewhat ineffective.

"You're never going to leave me alone, are you?" he asked in a resigned voice.

"Nope!"

"Never!"

"Not a chance," came a unanimous chorus from David, Wes and Thad respectively.

"I love you guys," Blaine admitted, refocusing his attention back to the stage where…woah…okay Kurt was shimmying.

They finished Time of my life and went straight into Valerie. Blaine smiled and nodded his head to the beat, though he was a little disappointed that Kurt was apparently not singing solo. Hearing his voice was definitely prioritized, highlighted and underlined on his mental to-do-list,

The performance was spectacular and Blaine had to keep reminding himself that he was there to cheer on his sister. The two dancers were both comical and very technical, doing flips and spins that the warblers, though quite experienced, would not be able to pull off. Blaine simply couldn't keep the grin off of his face throughout the performance, they really were good.

Eventually, their set list came to a close and Blaine was the first on his feet for a standing ovation.

sdjkfhosjalfhdjkglhkds so close to the end now guys, so close!
..