Prompt: "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." By FicDirectory

Characters: Blaine and…

Word Count: 813

Date: January 30, 2013

Author's Note: I had hoped that a prompt soon would allow me to write the storyline I think should have happened during the Sadie Hawkins dance, but didn't. I kinda hijacked this one, but it worked and it gave me the missing piece to the story I had been planning. I'm nervous about it, so I hope you all like it.

I don't know how to love him
What to do, how to move him
He's a man, he's just a man
And I've had so many men before
In very many ways.

He's just one more.

Blaine smiled as she performed. He'd always enjoyed her singing, though she wasn't offered the chance nearly as often as she should be. In a lot of ways she reminded him of his favorite New Directions singer, which of course he thought was fabulous. He admired her a lot. He admired her ability to be herself, be strong, and to keep fighting even when the going got tough. He admired her ability to stand up here and sing for the chance to take a boy to the Sadie Hawkins dance.

He wouldn't be as brave. He planned not to go at all. It wasn't just that he missed Kurt, though he did, and it wasn't that he feared Sadie Hawkins dances. He'd gotten over that a long time ago after the multitude of Dalton-Crawford soirees during his two years at the private school. It's just that he missed the romance of it, the joy of dancing cheek to cheek with someone you loved, or at least liked, and right now he had no one that he could do that with.

So when she approached him and asked, Blaine would you go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me, his first reaction was shock.

"Oh wow, Unique, I'm, um, I'm really flattered you would ask me. But um…" He looked around, uncomfortably. He didn't want to hurt her. Her courage was inspiring. How could he possibly say no, and yet, how was it possibly fair of him to say yes? Her eyes were hopeful, longing. He knew Unique didn't ask as friends. This was real for her and as much as he admired her, he just couldn't do that. "No…no thank you…I'm sorry."

Her face fell, and she backed away, embarrassment filling her cheeks, and she ran out of the room.

The rest of the Glee club stared at him, some sympathetically, some furious at the choice he'd made, and he quickly gathered his bag and ran off after her. She wasn't hard to find, crying softly in the auditorium.

"Unique please, let me explain," he said sliding into the seat next to her.

"You don't have to Blaine, I understand," she muttered. "I'm a freak, why on earth would you possibly want to go with me?"

"Look at me," Blaine urged softly and she raised her eyes, glistening with tears. "You are not a freak. Look at the people you spend the most time with – Marley, Kitty, Tina, Britt and Sugar? You are the most normal of all of them," Blaine said with a sweet smile, then he took her hand. "That's not why I said no."

"Then why did you?" she asked wiping her eyes.

"Because you deserve to go with someone who likes you, in that way," Blaine said. "And believe me, I know that's not easy to do here at McKinley, but I don't want you settling for me just because I may be the one guy at this school who is okay with you as you are. There are others out there, people who will love you for exactly who you are."

"And what's that?" Unique asked sadly.

Blaine grinned, admiring her so much. "You are a fierce, powerful, strong woman, Unique. And I think that you are awesome, but," Blaine hesitated, blushing slightly, "it's kinda not my thing."

"I'm too much woman for you?" Unique chuckled, the bitter sweetness of it all not lost on her. Blaine laughed with her and nodded. "What if we just went as friends?"

Blaine's smile faded and he looked at her seriously. "The rest of the school won't see it that way," he reminded her. "They may have come a long way since crowning Kurt Prom Queen, but I'm not sure they've come that far."

"And you don't want any trouble at the Sadie Hawkins dance," Unique said matter-of-factly. "Tina told me what you've been through. I understand not wanting that again."

Blaine searched his heart for what to do. Unique had stood up to every bully in this school and the slushies had stopped. She'd performed in public and nothing had happened. He knew that going to the dance with her was just asking for whispers behind his back, but he was used to that, wasn't he? He'd always prided himself on being a role model. What would it say about him if he chose to back down now, when his friend really needed him.

"Unique, I'd love to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with you as friends," he finally said.

"You would?" she asked, her eyes widening in shock.

"Yes," Blaine committed to himself as much as to Unique. "Yes, I would."

Author's Note:

I don't usually ask for reviews for Between Friends, but I'd really love to know your thoughts about this. I tried very hard to be as respectful as possible and I wish the show had had the courage to write this instead of me, but for whatever reason they chose not to. So I thought I would. Please review.