AN- Sectionals came out so much longer than I had intended but I couldn't find a good place to cut it so you guys get a nice, supa long chapter full of awesome.

Enjoy!

Rachel suspects something is going down with Quinn and Finn and Puck.

Blaine feels really, really bad because she's right. And he wants to tell her because they're friends. Kurt manages to convince him that she can't know until after Sectionals. For the good of the team, he says.

But it's really hard to keep quiet when Rachel comes storming into glee club and begins talking about her 'ESP' and her suspicions and she actually sounds kind of crazy.

Blaine's eyes meet Kurt.

She's insane!

Yes, exactly, that's why we're not telling her.

But…she's my friend

Blaine, no!

In the end, Kurt has to drag Blaine from the room with the rest of them. Mercedes starts a phone conference call because they need to agree to keep this information from Rachel as long as possible.

"I'll lock her in my basement," Kurt offers.

Blaine looks at him. "Isn't that your room?"

Kurt ignores him as they continue talking to the rest of the club.

It's decided; Rachel cannot find out.

Ms. Pillsbury is their new glee club teacher.

And she's really sweet and super nice and asks them what songs they want to do for their set list.

Because they still need a ballad. And of course, Rachel volunteers to save them all. Until Mercedes speaks up and calls Rachel out on her diva behavior, then blows them all away with "And I Am Telling You"

Then Blaine and Kurt are walking down the hallway after glee and Blaine nudges Kurt and says with a smile, "So, that was pretty funny, huh? Mercedes calling Rachel a diva."

Kurt blinks at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Blaine says, "She's practically a diva herself. She is a diva herself."

"Why do you say it like it's a bad thing?"

And maybe Blaine should stop. Because Kurt's voice is kind of dangerous. But, hey, they've been trying to be honest with each other lately (except for the crush thing. Still haven't told him) so he keeps going.

"Well, it's kind of a little annoying. She accuses Rachel of being a star-hog, and she always accuses us of not doing songs that are more…soul. Like, we're her back-up or something. According to her, Rachel never wants to share the spotlight, but neither does Mercedes. It's funny."

Kurt nods. "You know she's my best friend right? So, talking trash about her to me is a bad thing."

"It's not trash talking, it's honesty."

"I've noticed you don't say anything bad about your precious Rachel. I get that you guys are like, joined at the hip now or whatever, but I think she's really influencing your opinion."

"No, Kurt, I've actually had this opinion for a while. Since she, you know, started hating me."

"And she hated you because of-" And Kurt stops. Because he doesn't want to keep bringing that up and holding it against Blaine.

Blaine does it for him. "Because of two summers ago." He nods. "It's nice to see that you're still hanging onto that."

"Look, I think we both need a cooling off time here."

"Sounds great," Blaine snaps.

They both walk away.

The next day in glee, Blaine walks in to see Finn and Puck beating the crap out of each other in the middle of the room.

"What the hell?" he shouts.

He catches Kurt's eye for answers, then remembers that they're kind of not talking so he turns to Rachel, whose eyes are glued to the floor.

Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury come in to break it up and it turns out Finn knows. That Quinn cheated on him with Puck and is carrying Puck's baby, not Finn's, and has been lying for months.

"How did you find out?"

"Obviously, Rachel told him," Kurt smarts. He glares at Blaine. "And I wonder how she found out."

"Maybe she wouldn't have known something was up if everyone hadn't been acting so weird. You know, after Mercedes told everyone," Blaine smarts right back.

"Oh?" Finn asks, looking really pissed. "You all knew? And no one told me? That's it. I'm done. With all of you."

He storms out.

Kurt turns to Blaine. "Great job."

They're kind of screwed.

Blaine catches up with Rachel after all is said and done. She looks really upset so he hugs her because hugs make everything better.

"Hey," he soothes, "It's okay. Finn deserved to know. You did the right thing."

"Well, I know that," Rachel says all affronted. "I just can't believe that he quit. What are we going to do for Sectionals?"

Blaine gives her a look.

"Okay, fine, yes I feel terrible that I caused such a big fight. But they were lying to him, Blaine! All this time, all Quinn's complaining and her using and he didn't deserve any of that."

"You…really like him, don't you?"

Rachel flushes. "That's beside the point, Blaine. I'm a terrible person."

"No, you're not," he says.

"I'm going to go apologize to Quinn," she whispers. Then stops because Mercedes and Kurt walk by and she notices that Kurt and Blaine do not look at each other at all.

"Oh- did I cause more inner-club problems?"

"Don't worry about it," Blaine says, smiling at her. "Why don't you go talk to Quinn and then I take you out for ice cream."

"But…but I'm a vegan, Blaine."

"We'll drive around until we find somewhere that sells vegan ice cream."

"In Ohio?"

"We'll drive a lot."

Kurt and Mercedes go to Kurt's house to celebrate Mercedes' upcoming solo at Sectionals with pizza and crappy movies.

"I'm so excited for this competition, Kurt! I cannot wait to wow that entire audience. I can just feel the standing ovation now."

Kurt nods listlessly. "You'll be great, 'Cedes."

"You okay, boo? You've been down since we got here. You've got to rejoice, Kurt! We're totally going to win."

"Without Finn? Mercedes, we need a twelfth member and if Ms. Pillsbury can't find one, we're not going."

"She'll find someone. It will all work out, because we have to go. It's what's right."

He forces a smile. "Yeah. So what movie are we going to watch?"

He turns on the DVD player and freezes, because RENT is in the DVD player.

"Ooh, or we could watch RENT. I'm always in the mood for-"

"No," and Kurt is on the floor, practically wrestling the movie away from the contraption. "We said crappy movies. That's what we're watching."

She observes him. "You're still fighting with Blaine."

Kurt shrugs one shoulder.

"Well, maybe that's a good thing, Kurt," she soothes. "You were never really sure that you could trust him and-"

"Mercedes," Kurt says softly. "Can we just watch a movie, please?"

"Yeah. Of course. Sure thing, boo."

Blaine never found a vegan ice cream parlor.

He and Rachel just kind of gave up and went back to Blaine's house. Whose parents were finally back to their stay-all-day-at-work jobs. They sink down on the couch and Blaine begins flipping through channels as Rachel panics next to him.

"So, we need another person, Blaine. If we don't have twelve people, we can't compete and there goes any efforts we put forth. We need Finn back but Finn hates us all and he won't even answer my phone calls and now I wish I hadn't told him and-"

"Rachel!"

She blinks. "Yes?"

"Just ask that Jacob kid who, is like, in love with you. The one who you gave panties to, so he wouldn't spill the beans about Quinn's pregnancy. He'll do anything, including swaying stupidly in the background, just to impress you."

"Hmm," Rachel ponders. "That is actually quite devious Blaine Anderson. I commend you."

He grins. "Thanks."

Rachel leans her head on his shoulder and sighs. "Blaine?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you. For not hating me like everyone else…and I don't mean just about what happened with Finn."

"Hey," Blaine squeezes her hand. "Don't. We're friends- deal with it."

She giggles. "Gladly."

Just then, the TV lands on some channel and Moulin Rouge!is playing and Rachel squeals because, she loves this movie and Blaine quickly changes the channel.

"What, Blaine, I-"

"Saw it at Kurt's," he mutters. "Don't want to watch."

It's Rachel's turn to squeeze his hand. "I'm sorry you two are fighting."

"I am too," Blaine whispers.

His father comes home later.

He walks into the living room and sees Blaine and Rachel curled up on the couch together. He stops in the doorway and raises his eyebrows.

"Hello, Rachel. What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Mr. Anderson!" Rachel beams sitting up. "It's a pleasure to see you again."

William nods. "Yes. It's getting late, I feel like you should be heading home."

"Oh, don't worry, my father is coming to pick me up. I felt bad about having Blaine drive me around all day, trying to make me feel better about the glee club mishap and-"

"What?" William looks at Blaine. "What about glee club?"

"Oh, there was a fight within the club that I might have inadvertently caused and-"

"Are you in glee club, Blaine?"

Rachel's eyes widen as she realizes she might have kind of messed up. She glances over her shoulder at Blaine, who's staring back at his father.

"We can talk about this later, dad. When Rachel goes home."

"Are you in glee club?"

"Dad-"

"Answer the question."

"Yes! Okay, yes I am. I've been in the club for a while now. I stopped going to celibacy club so I could be in glee. And, you know what dad? I love it. I love being in glee, I love singing and I might love it more than football. And we're going to Sectionals, dad. We're so good and we have a chance!"

William just stares. "You lied to me. All this time, you've been lying."

"Would you have accepted the truth?"

Blaine's father says nothing. He stares for a second longer, then turns on his heel and walks away.

"Blaine," Rachel says at once, "Blaine, I am so sorry, I didn't know that-"

"Don't worry about it," Blaine assures her. "He had to find out. We'll probably duke it out when you leave."

She still looks worried so he hugs her.

"C'mon. I'll wait with you outside for your dad."

Kurt is really quiet at dinner. Burt notices when he goes to put salt on his corn and Kurt doesn't say a word about his health or his heart. Just stares morosely at his steak.

"Er, you okay, son?"

Kurt makes some sort of noise that could be construed as a yes.

"Does it….does it have anything to do with that Blaine kid?"

Kurt sighs. "Yes, actually."

"Oh? Oh…is…are you two…"

"Dad, for the final time: I am not, was not, nor ever will be interested in dating Blaine. Just because there's a slight possibility that he's gay, it doesn't mean we need to date."

Burt nods; looking clearly relieved. "So, what happened?"

"He made a comment about Mercedes and I got defensive and then I made a comment about Rachel and he got defensive and then I made a comment about," Kurt pauses. No, he decides right there, he will never tell Burt about the party, "something else and now we haven't spoken in two days."

"Oh," Burt looks a little awkward but clears his throat and says all the same, "Friends fight all the time, son. But…you shouldn't let little arguments get so out of control that you just never talk to him again. You know?"

Kurt nods. "Yeah. Yeah, I know."

There's a pause in the conversation and Burt forces out his next words. "You know if you ever dated him, or anyone else," he adds quickly as Kurt opens his mouth, "I'd be okay with it."

"Thanks dad."

"Really. Even that, that one kid. That you think is straight. If he turned out to be gay and-"

"I got it dad," Kurt insists, bright red and burning a hole in the table with his eyes.

His father turns back to his food, looking a little red in the face himself. "Good…I love you."

Kurt smiles. "I love you too, dad."

After Rachel leaves, Blaine walks back inside the house. His father is sitting on the couch. Blaine almost wants to disappear into his room but instead, takes the seat next to him.

They sit in silence- Blaine is not going to be the first person to break it.

"Glee club?" His father finally asks.

"Glee club."

"You. You really like it?"

"Yes, dad."

"What about football?"

"I like that too. I can do more than one club, dad."

"But why glee?"

Blaine sighs. "Because I can be myself. I like to sing and dance. I'm good at it. And I've made friends there. People who like me for me and not for the fact that I wear a letterman's jacket."

William runs a hand over his eyes.

"You don't need to accept it," Blaine tells him. "But I'm not quitting. We're going to Sectionals. They need me."

"Don't let it get in the way of football," Williams tells him.

It's the closest thing to acceptance Blaine is going to get.

So they go to Sectionals.

They do manage to convince Jacob to come along and just stand in the background because Finn isn't showing up.

Blaine sits next to Rachel for the bus ride. He sort of regrets it when she doesn't stop talking about their set list or their choreography and he keeps wanting to catch Kurt's eye to make a comment.

(because, yes Rachel is his friend. But she's still insane)

But Kurt is sitting all the way in the back with Mercedes and Tina and determinedly not looking at him. They arrive and Ms. Pillsbury checks them in and they manage to get the third slot which makes everyone panic.

Rachel soothes them all with her story of her many auditions that she had in which she always went last.

"And how many of those parts did you actually get?" Kurt asks dryly.

Blaine almost laughs. He makes it come out like a cough but Kurt catches his eye for the first time in days. He almost smiles but Mercedes gets Kurt's attention and suddenly, he's looking at the back of Kurt's head.

They watch the reformed chicks go first. And, hey, look at that. They perform 'And I Am Telling You' then 'Proud Mary'

In wheel chairs.

They stole two of their songs and their choreography.

Everyone's jaws drop simultaneously because this is so not fair. They worked so hard and suffered for days in those wheelchairs and this school just comes along and steals their thunder? Before they even perform!

Not cool.

They all freak out in the green room. Mercedes looks like she's about to kill someone, Quinn is crying (pregnancy hormones) and Artie is rolling himself into the wall.

"This isn't fair," Kurt says quietly.

And Blaine jumps because Kurt said that to him and he knows he should respond with something clever but he has nothing to say except to agree with Kurt.

"Yeah."

"Blaine, I-"

They're interrupted as they go back out to watch the deaf kids perform.

They sing 'Don't Stop Believin'

Seriously. That's both schools. Stealing all their songs. Meaning- New Directions are going to look like a bunch of cheating cheaters.

Rachel commands their presence in the green room in the middle of the performance and while it's kind of rude, Blaine knows she's just really freaking out.

The claws come out.

Everyone is blaming Santana and Brittany for the leak and it turns out Brittany actually did give Coach Sylvester the set list but she didn't know what she was going to do with it and wow-

They are really, really screwed.

They need to redo their set lists. Mercedes surprises the hell out of Blaine when she declines to sing another ballad.

"You're the best we've got," she tells Rachel.

Kurt speaks up. "As much as it kills me to admit it, Rachel's our star."

Blaine catches her eye over Mercedes' shoulder and nods.

"Well, I do have something I've been working on since I was four."

"Then we have our ballad," Quinn says. "And we can close with 'Somebody to Love' it's a real crowd pleaser."

They still need one more song.

That's when Finn walks in.

So Finn arrives and basically saves all their asses with 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'

Kurt watches him turn his nose up at Puck and Quinn and walk over to Rachel and he can't help but think: Finn Hudson really is a knight in shining armor.

He joins the rest of New Directions as they try to figure out the choreography and he keeps glancing at Blaine, sort of willing him with his mind to look over at him.

Instead, he's forced to catch Blaine's arm as they all get ready to leave. Blaine looks at him. Kurt looks down. Lets go of Blaine's arm. Sighs.

"RENT came on," Kurt says. "And I couldn't even call you to come over and watch it."

"I caught Moulin Rouge! and I had to change the channel immediately."

"My dad caught onto the fact that I was miserable."

"Mine found out about glee club."

"How did that go?"

"Surprisingly okay," Blaine catches Kurt's eye. "I really missed you."

"I missed you too. I'm sorry for getting so offended."

"I'm sorry for what I said. I had no right."

"Remember how we said we were done fighting?"

Blaine laughs. "Yeah. What happened to that?"

"We just needed to go out with a bang. No more fighting."

"Especially not over stupid things that aren't losing our friendship over."

Kurt raises an eyebrow. "'Friendship'?"

"Yeah," and Blaine blinks. "Are-are we not friends?"

And Kurt thinks back to everything. Not the party, but the shopping trip and the coffee. And the cars and the Disney movies. And RENT and Moulin Rouge! And cannot believe he didn't realize it before.

"You know what. I think we are."

They smile at each other for the first time in days. Blaine opens his arms and tilts his head to the side. Kurt rolls his eyes but moves in and hugs him.

They don't notice Mercedes looking at them, frowning.

They kick ass at Sectionals.

Rachel blows everyone away with her 'Rain on My Parade' and then they all perform 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' and they actually pull it off.

'Somebody to Love' is a breeze and then they're just soaking in the applause and the standing ovations and maybe they really do have a chance to win this after all.

They sneak backstage when it is all said and done and eavesdrop outside the judge's room. Blaine stands next to Kurt.

"I swear, if we lose to a bunch of cheaters-"

"We'll kill all of them in their sleep?" Kurt offers.

Blaine grins. "That sounds about right"

And everyone is sort of staring at them after that.

"What?" Kurt asks.

"Did you two make up or something?" Rachel asks.

"We reached an understanding," Kurt says. "We're friends now."

"And you weren't before?" Artie asks.

"Apparently not," Blaine answers, raising his eyebrows at Kurt who just grins.

Ms. Hitchens shows up. She admits they cheated and she feels really bad about it and she vows to tell the judges exactly what she did.

It's too late; they're leaving the room and ready to announce the winners.

They all stand together on stage, hand-in-hand. It's nerve-wracking beyond belief and-

Here we go. The judge are about to announce it.

Deep breath.

"And the winner is…"

Mr Schue looks at them eagerly. And a little afraid because he has no idea what their answer could possibly be.

He's their instructor again- Coach Sylvester was discovered for the fraud she'd become.

And those might be real tears in Mr. Schue's eyes when Artie rolls forward with the first place trophy on his lap.

They celebrate by putting together a number ('My Life Would Suck Without You') and using a bunch of dances they'd done before. He seems to really like it which is why it's odd when he bolts out of the room the second it's over.

Everyone is too busy being happy to really notice.

Finn and Rachel leave together. Quinn watches them sadly but leaves with Puck (who has his arm wrapped around her shoulders). Tina rolls Artie out and Mercedes follows, the two girls talking loudly all the way down the hall. Mike leaves with Brittany and Santana.

Kurt and Blaine are the last ones left.

"We did it. We actually won Sectionals."

"Regionals, here we come!"

Kurt laughs and starts walking out the door.

"Why don't we get coffee to celebrate? And catch up because a lot can happen in two days and I have many things to tell you and I want deets about your conversation with your dad."

Blaine smiles. "That sounds perfect, Kurt."

AN- So, when I first started this story, I had a certain plan for Blaine's family. And then it changed- so that's why William's attitude might seem drastically different than Preggers. I tried to go with slow maturation and I totally hope I got that.

Also: Oh, Kurt. Not thinking you guys was friends when you's totally was.