Yeah, blurring the lines between fact and fiction just a tiny bit in a part of this chapter… well not really blurring lines, as much as borrowing some facts from a real person and giving them to a fictional character who blurrily is, in that fictional character's original form, played by the actor (and songwriter) from whom the facts roughly stem... Ah, you'll see. It's only in one paragraph: the explanation of the background of the song. Since it's fan fiction about a fictional character, it's so far removed much like a photocopy of a copy of a copy, that it somehow works out OK I think. More like a nod to the works of art from the real people who inspire the fan fiction in the first place.

(Main Disclaimer copied at top of each chapter to be safe: I do not own Glee and I absolutely do not have anything to do with the Darren Criss songs "Not Alone" and "Categories" as mentioned within this story.)

Chapter 2: An Anthem

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like maybe you've written an anthem or two yourself."

"Why do you say that?" Blaine took up the tray of lunch debris to return their dishes to the kitchen.

"Well, when I asked what your idea of an anthem is, you didn't give a bunch of examples of songs I would know from Broadway and the radio; you went into a deconstruction on components of a song, the way a songwriter or composer would."

Blaine merely shrugged as Kurt followed him to the front of the cafeteria to put their tray on the conveyor belt back to the kitchen.

Kurt decided to push a little further. "So… what are these songs of yours that could be considered anthems, Blaine? You can tell me!" He nudged Blaine's arm with his elbow and gave him a super-cute puppy-dog look that wasn't seen, for which he ended up being grateful. Aargh don't be so stupid Kurt, people who are Just Friends don't give each other cutesy looks. Can I at least TRY to be cool?

Thankfully oblivious, but not to imply that he was at all immune to Kurt's always-without-even-trying super-cute (well, gorgeous) looks, Blaine answered, "I actually don't know if anyone writes a song intending for it to be an anthem. Well, I mean of course they do sometimes, like A.R. Rahman writing a new National Anthem for India and things like that. But the kinds of anthems we're talking about, to fit the theme for Regionals, are songs that were just written as songs and then took on a meaning to people that became like an anthem for some ideal or group or way of thinking or so forth. They become like an anthem solely because of the reaction of the listeners, not at the direction of the writers."

"OK, now I know you have to know this from experience with one or more of your songs. I can tell." Kurt stopped right in the middle of the hallway to make an impact. "So please tell me and I won't think you're being immodest or anything. What song that you wrote became like an anthem to someone else? I'm not moving until you tell me."

Blaine could only laugh at Kurt's seriousness. "Alright, come on and I'll play it for you."

On the weekends, pretty much the only person in the Main Entrance Hall reception area for most of the day was the receptionist herself. She answered the phone, which rarely rang on weekends, and read novels and did her nails and wrote personal emails and shopped online to pass the time.

Perhaps about once every couple hours she greeted a visitor or two, usually parents stopping by to pick someone up, and they were used to walking right past her on their way to the student dorms (not that they didn't stop to greet her, just that they knew by now her efficiency and that they did not need to wait until after she finished calling the student's room before they proceeded toward the dorms) so she was delighted for the interruption as she saw the two boys approaching her in the middle of the day.

"Charlotte, how is your Sunday treating you?" Kurt asked.

Putting down her novel, she smiled at two of her favorite students and asked how they were doing.

Blaine warmed her heart with his dazzling and truly genuine smile as he asked, "Will it bother you if we play the piano in the reception hall?"

"Oh my goodness, why would it bother me? I'll even turn off my radio in the hopes that I'll be able to hear it a little bit all the way out here!"

With a warm laugh, Blaine thanked her and threw an arm over Kurt's shoulders to head off to the hall.

Charlotte had to stop herself from giggling out loud with happiness at the fact that all the boys feel so comfortable around her that they will do things like throw their arm around a boyfriend (oh are these two boyfriends now?) in front of her. Ah, the world is a good place at times like this. At that thought, a tear almost came to her eye. In fact, a couple may have.

She actually did turn off her radio in case she could hear the sound of that piano wafting out from the reception hall, which was always regrettably empty between actual functions and receptions.

As he sat down at the piano, with Kurt joining him on the piano bench not remembering to worry about how close to his crush he ended up settling, Blaine exposited, "I wrote this song for a songwriting contest actually. It was just a song. I mean I really liked the way it turned out. There was certainly a lot of heart behind it when I wrote it. But… what happened was that some of my friends liked the song so much they used it in a production, and tons of people took the song and the lyrics to heart from that and said it gave them strength in hard times and so forth, and then I played it at a fundraiser for a 24-hour suicide prevention hotline, and some people mentioned that it felt like I had given the song to that community as kind of an anthem for that night and that cause. So, what I'm saying is that it wasn't written to be any kind of anthem, but people kind of felt it that way, so I guess it is an anthem now. To some people at least."

Kurt gave him a stern look. "Blaine, it sounds like you're being too modest about this. If people say it's an anthem, then it is. Don't play it down. Now I absolutely have to hear this song."

The great oak doors at the main entrance swung open in such a way that Charlotte almost expected the voice of the Great Wizard of Oz to announce the entrance of this girl walking with such grandeur and with such an enormous presence it was almost a shock to see how slight she actually was in stature when she made her way closer to the reception desk.

Rachel's first words were, "I would like to be announced as a visitor to Kurt Hummel, please."

Sincerely not knowing whether to be offended by this directness or amused by it, Charlotte gave a friendly smile and dialed Kurt's room number before remembering that she had only minutes earlier seen him walking off with Blaine toward the reception hall directly across the lobby.

"I've been alone,
Surrounded by darkness,
I've seen how heartless,
The world can be."

A smooth and velvety voice was wafting across the marble and oak space and Rachel's attention was suddenly on nothing else.

Charlotte began to ask Rachel if she could give her name so that she could locate Kurt and let him know she is waiting for him, but Rachel seemed not to hear her at all.

"I've seen you crying,
You felt like it's hopeless,
I'll always do my best,
To make you see..."

[[*A/N – please get the song on iTunes or check it out online, as Darren Criss is the last artist in the world whose work and copyright I would want to infringe upon! Therefore I'll try not to type in too much of his lyrics here. "Not Alone" by Darren Criss. Thanks!]]

Rising to make her way to the reception hall to let Kurt know he had a visitor, Charlotte asked Rachel again, "Would you like to sit in the lounge while I let Kurt know that you're here?" as Rachel was already gravitating toward the hall.

"Baby you're not alone,
'Cause you're here with me,"

It seemed there was no catching Rachel's attention after several attempts of "Miss?" "Miss would you like to sit…" "Ah, whatever." So Charlotte picked up her novel and sat back down, enjoying the sound of the piano and the lovely voice accompanying it, figuring this girl was harmless and the boys were in the reception hall after all and perfectly capable of receiving a guest therein on their own.

"And nothing's ever gonna bring us down,
'Cause nothing can keep me from loving you,
And you know it's true,
It don't matter what'll come to be,
Our love is all we need to make it through."

Since Rachel was in the habit of wearing ballet slipper style shoes, it was not difficult to slip into the back of the hall without disturbing the boys at the piano. She chose a chair near the entrance and sat transfixed at this voice and these lyrics and the soul-altering composition of this song.

By the time the lyrics came to the point of the singer emphasizing how much this love in turn gives him the same strength, with, "All I need is to look in your eyes, And I realize, Baby I'm not alone, 'Cause you're here with me," the tears welling in Rachel's eyes broke free with a blink and she did nothing to wipe them from her cheeks as she continued to listen.

Across the way, Charlotte's eyes were again at risk of tears as she got the meaning of this song for those two boys, coming of age in a world not as welcoming as she wished it would be.

"And nothing's ever gonna take us down,
'Cause nothing can keep me from loving you,
And you know it's true,
It don't matter what'll come to be,
Our love is all we need to make it through."

As Blaine brought the song gradually through closing repeats and hums, Kurt felt his heart tearing in two wanting so badly to kiss this man he was so in love with more and more each day especially after hearing what his heart can create in a song like this, but being forced to come up with a way to praise this song as a completely platonic friend would. Oh how I am living through this I do not know.

He didn't end up having to figure this out, as Rachel made it to the piano even as the last note was still reverberating from the baby grand.

"Did. You. Write. That.?"

Both boys startled instantly at the unexpected sudden presence of another person. "Rachel!" Kurt sounded almost angered at first, but it was only from shock. He recovered quickly and rose to greet her with a hug. "What brings you all the way to Dalton?"

A/N:

Edits, grumbles, warnings, criticisms, ideas? Love 'em, all of them! Whatever you're thinking! Thanks!