Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews. There are probably 3-4 chapters left.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The next day at school he can't stop grinning every time he thinks about Dave, and their gentle brush of lips. It had been… exactly what he wanted, and it feels like he's made this enormous step forward and hasn't even done anything. He knows it must show, because Mercedes grabs his arm and asks him what is up as soon as he stops by his locker. He doesn't want to tell her, but suspects she'll work on him all day and he really doesn't know if he can be bothered righting her off, especially if she decides she needs reinforcements in the form of Santana, Rachel and Tina.

"I… Dave kissed me last night. Just… it was really… perfect."

"Your therapy session last week helped that much?"

"Ah… no. I talked to my dad. And Dave. And… everything feels good. I trust him."

"Are you sure? Because he's a lot bigger than Blaine." The unspoken words, that he loved and trusted Blaine are there, hanging in the air, and he feels a little angry at her for even bringing it up. It's not like he hasn't thought about this thousands of times.

"Mercedes, I trust him. I'm not going to go over this with you. I've done that enough already okay? Dave isn't the same guy. I wouldn't be with him if he was," he says, repeating what his dad had told him.

"Okay, well, that's good enough for me… You know he'd have to take on the entire glee club if he ever hurts you right?"

He smiles tightly, because while she might say that everyone has forgotten what Blaine did already, but are still questioning Dave. Either way, he wants to look after himself and this week he's starting classes with Terence.

LSY

He walks into school and comes face-to-face with a life-size poster of himself. It's a horrible way to start the morning and his first instinct is to just rip it down. Instead he unpins it carefully and rolls it up, knowing the ripping and tearing might make him feel better, but giving in to his anger over something as mundane as a prom king promotional poster is ridiculous on several levels. He sees three more before he gets to his locker and he gives each of them the same treatment.

"Dude, you know they'll just put up two for every one you take down right?"

"Yeah well, they'll run out of room eventually. And money. I've got to hide these. Any ideas?"

Nate takes them with a grin, eyes widening before he turns and takes off down the hall. He turns to see Honey and Kara heading toward him, their eyes narrowed suspiciously and he grins disarmingly. Honey immediately smiles back, giving his arm a quick hug before looking around with a frown on her face.

"I would swear we put up like… five posters in this part of the school. We were starting to run low so had to put them up sparingly."

"You're not imagining it, we definitely put them up. I think we're being sabotaged."

Honey's eyes go wide, and he pretends to be concerned. He can see Kara is taking none of his shit and he hopes she isn't too angry, because they are putting in a lot of time and energy, despite his repeated protests that they're wasting their time. He hasn't touched the poster of Honey, and she looks good in them. Far better than him anyway.

"I think we're being sabotaged from the inside," Kara says, and he knows he's busted. "I have a good idea of who it is, and unless they want to feel my wrath, they'll stop," she states, giving him a glare for good measure and he sighs and then nods slightly. Honey doesn't seem to realize they're having a silent conversation, instead waving at some girl he recognizes from the drama club. He hopes she isn't doing it all for the popularity, although her and Kara seem pretty tight now, and Honey actually seems… happier.

He gets through the day, smiling occasionally at the surreal memory of his kiss with Kurt. He managed to hold off texting him until lunch, and settles for a quick and simple 'hope you're having a good day'. He gets one back, 'you too. Want to come around tonight?' He answers with an affirmative, although saying he has practice first and Kurt's 'look forward to seeing you' have him grinning the rest of the day.

LSY

"Sorry I'm late – Adam vomited everywhere, and when I say everywhere, I mean mainly on me. And the sofa. And Lily. So I cleaned everyone up. Which involved a second bath. Plus a shower for me… Yeah. Claire's exhausted so her and dad got takeout, so I had to wait for that and… yeah. Sorry I didn't text or anything, I didn't really have time."

He listens to Dave burbling, just smiling and feeling happy to see him and they didn't really set a time, just after dinner. He'd been tempted half-way through Dave's explanation to just lean forward and kiss him, see if that was an effective way of shutting him up, but not only did he feel like he isn't quite there yet, but also hearing Dave babble half-apologetically is adorable.

"It's not a problem. At all. Come in. Come on. Don't worry about your shoes. Seriously, my dad doesn't take his shoes off and yours have to be cleaner than his. Oh. Unless you have baby sick on them?"

"I wasn't wearing shoes when he threw up."

"Oh. Ew. Between your toes?"

"Yeah. Gross. So so gross. Ever stepped in warm custard?"

"Ew! No."

"Yeah well, that's what I imagine it would be like…"

He pulls a face and shakes his head, because he really doesn't want to imagine the sensation of warm squelchyness between his toes.

"Dave, that is so disgusting…"

"What's disgusting?" Finn asks, coming into the hall and he senses Dave tense slightly before relaxing again almost immediately and he shoots him a quick reassuring smile.

"Being vomited on. I can't recommend it."

"Who vomited on you? Kurt?"

"What! No! Why would you even think that?"

"Cause you threw up on Miss Pilsbury that one time."

"Oh my god Finn, that was like two years ago. Dave's baby brother was the culprit, not me." Finn grins, as if he's baiting him on purpose and he glares, knowing he's right. "We'll be in my room, I suggest you knock before entering."

He's glad that Finn looks a little freaked out, totally fair payback, and he pulls Dave along by the hand, smiling at him over his shoulder. He wants to ask Dave to come to the small singing show that McKinley and Carmel are having this weekend in preparation for Nationals, because apparently a little competition is healthy. He supposes it is, it's definitely made them band together a little more, be a bit more cohesive since their re-joining.

He settles himself on his bed, and Dave isn't as anywhere near as comfortable in his room as he is in Dave's, and he supposes he needs to spend more time here. He has no problem with that. He asks how school was and listens as Dave moans about Prom posters, still adamant that he's not going. He's fine with that, but he's actually started to want to go to his own senior prom, and he wants to go with Dave. But only if Dave wants to. He doesn't want to force him into going.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Of course."

"Now, I don't want you to think you have to, or feel that you have to, because I don't want to make you do anything that you aren't comfortable with, so please keep that in mind -"

"Kurt, just ask already. The worst is I can say no. Right? I can say no?"

"Of course! That's what I was trying to say!"

"And the question is?" Dave prompts, and he's grinning, like Kurt is amusing him and he pulls a face.

"Oh. Right. Well… I was wondering if you would go to prom with me."

He watches him carefully, sees his face shut down and he worries the corner of his bottom lip between his teeth. He can tell Dave's first and immediate response is hell no, but is holding back for simple deference to his feelings, because he's like that. He holds back a sigh, wishing he hadn't asked, hadn't put Dave in this awkward a position. By rights he shouldn't really want to go to prom either, but last year was… well, last year, and neither of them are in the same place now. Although he's probably pushing it to expect Dave to make such a giant leap like this.

"Wait. McKinley or Carmel?"

"McKinley. I know you don't want to go to the prom at Carmel. Well, I guess you probably don't want to go to either, I just thought… you can't be prom king at McKinley, because you don't go there anymore, and…" Do you want a nice prom? He keeps that to himself though, because it sounds wrong, manipulative like he can guilt Dave into going. He knows he could, but he doesn't want to make him go for a reason like that. Wants and needs Dave to make these steps of his own free will.

"Let me think about it?"

"Of course!" He agrees instantly, because he'd fully expected an outright no, so he smiles and leaves the topic, instead bringing up the concert which Dave agrees to attend far more readily.

LSY

On Sunday night he finds himself sitting with Burt and Carole, watching a bunch of schools perform, and he recognizes a few people from Carmel, obviously here to support Vocal Adrenaline. He knows his foot is tapping along to the beat and it's nice not to have to force himself to stop, with everyone else doing the same thing, some even on their feet and dancing. He lets himself enjoy it, relaxing and trying to not care about the glances he's getting sent his way from a guy two rows down und ten seats across. He's pretty sure it's Carl, but he isn't going to go and find out.

When it ends he follows Burt and Carole to the large hall where everyone is apparently gathered and waiting for the performers. He sees the McKinley glee club enter, splitting up to go to their separate families and he grins at Kurt as he approaches.

"So, what did you think?"

"I've always thought you had an amazing voice."

Kurt blushes at that and he feels his hand being squeezed. He squeezes back and grins as Finn talks, hyped up on the performance he guesses. He's not expecting the hand on his shoulder and he jumps a little, turning. Yeah. Carl. Awesome.

"Karofsky, thought it was you. You got a brother or sister performing tonight too?"

"Uh –" He wants to say boyfriend. That he's here supporting his boyfriend but the words stick in his throat.

"He's here seeing his old friends," Kurt supplies, and he hates that Kurt steps away, wants to pull him back to his side and just hold him there.

"So having weird friends isn't a new thing then. Figures."

He feels Kurt stiffen beside him, but he also senses Finn and Burt's attention shift, their conversation gone quiet, his stomach churns and he can taste acid burning in his mouth. Then suddenly he's surrounded by what feels like the entire McKinley glee club, Santana laughingly places a kiss on his cheek, winking at Kurt and giving Carl a quick up-down before sniffing dismissively. Fuck he loves her. Evans, Chang and Puckerman all slap his shoulder and greet him like he's an old friend, all of them giving Carl a quick look that clearly says he doesn't matter unless Dave says he does.

"These all your friends?"

"Uh –"

"Yeah. And who are you?" Hudson asks, and he feels him standing at his shoulder, an arm slung around Kurt like he just doesn't care what people think.

"This is Carl. We play, uh, football and hockey together." He was going to say that they play on the same teams, but given the current company that wouldn't have been the wisest choice of words. He's pretty sure they wouldn't all have been able to keep a straight face. Even as it is it looks like Puckerman has put it together and is ready to blurt something out before he shuts his mouth again.

"Huh. We used to play with Dave," Hudson states, arm waving to include everyone. "He's great at defense isn't he?"

"Uh, yeah. I guess. I play defense."

"Then you'd know," Hudson states, and Carl just looks dumbfounded, which isn't unusual, but he wonders if maybe his arrival at Carmel jostled Carl's position. Not that he's been directly hostile, but until he and Terence had become firm friends things had definitely been frosty.

"So uh, what are you doing here?"

"My sister is in VA, was forced to come. I'll uh, see you in school tomorrow."

He murmurs his agreement, and wonders if he'll get shit tomorrow for being at a glee-club inter-school concert. Probably not, given Vocal Adrenaline's reputation at Carmel, and he can probably rest easy with Kurt and Finn's quick thinking. The other's have surrounded them, all talking excitedly about Nationals and it feels weird, though it's hard not to get caught up in their excitement and enthusiasm. He catches Kurt's eye though and pulls a face, moving closer.

"I'm sorry I-"

"Shh. Dave. Shh. It's fine. Really. I don't care, I thought I did, but… I don't. You do what you need to. Just… stay safe okay?"

"The safest."

Kurt looks really worried and he shakes his head, reaching for his hand again, squeezing it reassuringly and refusing to let go.