AN: Thanks to Jwmelmoth for the beta:)

Kurt opened the door to the apartment and put the mail on the table before he started to hang up his coat and gloves. It was late april, and the spring had just started to turn warm enough to take out his thinner coats. He started making a cup of tea and dug out some crackers to hold him over until dinner, and he leaned on the counter while he waited. He had just come back from his therapist, a woman he saw once a month. After his conversation with his dad over Christmas, he had realized there was a lot of issues with his relationship with Blaine as well as from his high school career that had been left to fester. After he had returned to New York, he had contacted Dr. Laurel on a recommendation from one of his colleagues at Vogue, and she helped him work with a lot of his feelings of inadequacy. For now, he was keeping it quiet, though he had told Hunter when he had been to Ohio for sectionals a couple of weeks ago.

Kurt started going through the mail, and found a familiar letter, with the old address crossed out, and his written above it. He knew what it was. It was the gift card he had bought Mr. Schue and Mis. Pillsbury as a wedding gift. They had sent out invitations ten days before the date, and they wanted it on Valentine's day, which happened to be a Thursday, something that was impossible for Kurt.

The reality was that he couldn't afford to go home to stay only one day, and he couldn't afford to lose more than one day of classes.

He had sent the gift card for a house&home store he knew they had in Lima, and wished them the best. Then, of course, Finn had kissed the bride, and the whole thing had been cancelled. So now he was getting the gift back.

It was a strange feeling, but after talking to Hunter a few days ago, he had realized that he was the happiest he could ever remember being. He was doing great at school, he had great friends in The Apples, he had a great boyfriend, a job he enjoyed, and he was getting help with his issues. Blaine's persistent calls were annoying, and Rachel was on and off the best and worst friend, but those were small annoyances and he refused to let them ruin his days.

His classes really were going great. He loved all of them, and he was working hard, so the teachers all liked him. Going to dancing class, he had been slightly scared after Rachel's tales. But other than harmless name calling, Cassandra July was a good teacher. After a month, she had taken each of them aside for a few minutes to let them know what they particularly needed to work on. Kurt had been told he needed to improve his strength, which he was aware of and working on. She had also given him praise for working hard and already visibly improving.

After that, Kurt realized that July's frustration was simply that; Rachel wasn't working on it and wasn't improving. Rachel had this way of being, where she expected to just always be the best, and she didn't see a reason to try to be better. It seemed she was using NYADA as a stepping stone, not as the school it was. Kurt had heard endless tirades about vocal teachers who 'just didn't see her starpower'. It was always everyone else who was wrong, never her. Being asked to sing at the Winter Showcase hadn't exactly helped.

Most days, Kurt was dead on his feet. He gave everything he had in his classes, sung with The Apples and worked as much at Vogue as he could. When he had been offered the place at NYADA, Madame Tibedeaux had had a lengthy discussion with him. She offered to defer until the fall and let him join with the next class then. But Kurt hadn't wanted to wait, and he never regretted that choice. But that meant extra classes and several theory classes over the summer to catch up.

Though he missed Hunter, he was in many ways glad that they didn't live closer right now. His daily life was filled to the brim already, and trying to fit in more time with his boyfriend seemed impossible. Once the semester was over, and he had caught up with the others, he would have much more time.

A noise behind him made him turn around, and he sighed when he realized what it was. It was Blaine, calling for the umpteenth time. Kurt had answered the first time, but when he realized that he only called to complain about 1. Kurt's boyfriend, 2. That people didn't give him his 'due' credit and 3. Kurt's boyfriend, Kurt ended the conversation with some strongly worded language, and started ignoring the calls. He was getting close to blocking Blaine's number entirely, particularly after what Hunter had told him the other day.

It was something that had happened just after the whole drug thing had calmed down. Blaine had shown up at Dalton one day and thrown himself into the numbers the Warblers were rehearsing, as he was wont to do.

The Warblers were half way through rehearsals and practicing a song with Jeff in the lead. Hunter didn't know why the so-called council hadn't used him before, but from what he had understood from the others, they seemed to have had a hard on for Blaine. Jeff was doing an excellent job, and everyone else was hitting their cues and notes. They were mostly practicing the dancing right now, so everyone was focused on where to move and what to do, which is why they didn't notice it at first when the side door opened, and someone joined in the song. They did notice, however, when the same someone tried to take over the lead from Jeff.

One by one, the whole group stopped, looking at Blaine, who was making a fool out of himself up front, trying to drag the song forward.

"What are you doing here?"

Hunter walked through the group until he stood in front of the shorter boy, who had stopped singing by now.

"Oh, I just wanted to sing with you guys, for old times' sake. Once a Warbler, always a Warbler, right?"

Blaine was bouncing up and down where he stood, as if constantly dancing to a song in his head.

"It's been almost two years since you went to school here. There are only four people left who went to school with you, so there are no old times. And you really think you would get to keep using 'always a Warbler' after accusing us of doing drugs?"

The boys had slowly gathered together behind Hunter, looking like the preppiest backup ever.

"Oh, come on, no hard feelings, right? Our Glee club got cancelled, we just wanted a chance to fight a little more. And no harm done, you were all clean anyways."

Hunter looked at Blaine incredulously, and he could hear snarky comments of "are you kidding me?" and "what the hell?" coming from behind him.

"Well, unfortunately for you, that's not quite how it works. So, unless you have a real reason for being here, get out."

Blaine sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You should really try not to take yourself so seriously. But I am here for a reason," he perked up at once, and a big smile filled his face. "I want your help. I want to convince Kurt, my soulmate, to take me back, and I wanted you guys to be my singing backup, along with New Directions."

Hunter blinked a few times in confusion, trying to process what he had just heard. The room filled with disbelieving and confused sounds from the rest of the group. Sebastian, standing next to Hunter, exchanged a confused glance with him. By now, the whole group knew that Kurt was Hunter's boyfriend in New York, and several of them looked very confused.

"Excuse me? You want our help to convince a boy you cheated on to take you back?"

"I know you don't know him, but it's not like he is going to find anyone else that wants him like I do, and I just need your help to make him see that. And the reason we broke up is just as much his fault, so really, he has no reason to not take me back."

Blaine gave a little laugh, almost as if he thought they were all 'on the same team'. The group behind Hunter seemed to grow even more confused and Sebastian let out a harsh laugh and a mumbled "are you kidding me?"

Hunter could feel his temper rising and bit the inside of his cheek. He was about to answer, when Sebastian took a step forward.

"First of all, after backstabbing this group the way you did, you can forget us ever helping you out. Second, I know Kurt, and let me tell you that a guy like Kurt in New York will have men trailing after him if he wished, begging him for their number. Now get the fuck out, before I call campus security."

Blaine opened his mouth to say something more, but with Sebastian and Hunter glowering at him and the group of boys behind them, he seemed to take the hint. With quick steps, he walked out of the same door he had come in, looking behind him as he went.

The door closed with a thud, and the room broke out in chaos. Hunter was silently counting in is head, and Sebastian was swearing up a storm next to him. After a few minutes, Hunter managed to calm himself down and called for silence.

"First, for those confused, yes, he was talking about my boyfriend. They used to date, but he doesn't know that we are dating. Second, I need to know, Jeff, Nick, Elliot or Marcus, you guys went to school with both Kurt and Blaine, does any of you know much of their relationship?"

Jeff walked towards Hunter, nodding. "I do, I was Kurt's roommate."

To the disappointment of the rest of the room, Hunter drew Jeff off to the side, Sebastian following them.

"Was it always like that? Or did that come later?"

Jeff sighed as he looked around them, before answering in a low voice.

"It... it wasn't like that, no. But it wasn't good. Thing is, Kurt came here beaten down, he came here to protect himself from a seriously bad bully who had threatened to kill him."

"What?" Hunter barked in surprise.

"I don't know much about it, but I know it was solved in the end. Anyways, Blaine took him under his wing a bit, helped him out, tried being his support. Kurt had a crush on him from the start, but Blaine was oblivious and didn't see it, or at least pretended he didn't. At one point, it seemed like Kurt had finally got to a point of giving up on it, and that's when Blaine suddenly realized that he wanted Kurt after all. Everything after that has been one small thing after another. I'm not going to go into detail, but Blaine was very controlling, kept trying to tone Kurt down. "

Jeff drew a hand through his hair, sighed and looked around them.

"He did that a lot before they got together too. I know he said several things that made Kurt doubt himself. It wasn't all bad, but the overall tone of the relationship seemed to be that Kurt belonged to Blaine. As Kurt was in a bad place at the time, he just allowed Blaine to take control, and I think that by the time things got easier for Kurt, Blaine kept him in that box of control. Kurt didn't have any confidence in himself, and when I suggested him leaving Blaine, he just said he didn't think he'd find anyone to love him like that again.

"I know it's taken Kurt months to build himself up again, particularly after Blaine cheated, but he seems to have finally gotten there these last few weeks.

"So to answer your question, no, it wasn't as bad as that, but it wasn't good either."

"Hey, Finn. Do you know when Kurt is flying in for the wedding?"

Blaine was dancing on his toes, looking up at Finn after everyone else had left the choir room. After a meeting with the school and the parents, the glee club still met, and Finn was still in charge.

Finn tightened his jaw in annoyance for a second. After the way Blaine had treated Kurt the last six months, Finn wasn't all to happy to be one-on-one with him anymore.

"He's not."

Finn packed up the last of his notes.

Blaine faltered in his shifting and looked at Finn in shock.

"What? But... why not?"

"It's on a Thursday, he can't just take the day off and fly down for a day. He can't afford to come only for one day, but he can't take more than that off either, so he's not coming."

"But... Rachel said she was coming. If she can, then Kurt could too."

"Rachel's dads are paying for the ticket, and Kurt works a lot more than her to catch up with the class. Besides, that's her choice. Staying in New York is his."

"But I had this whole plan, I was thinking New Directions could be my backup singers, and I would serenade him. There is no way he wouldn't take me back then. Can't you try and persuade him?"

Finn stopped what he was doing with a sigh and looked at the younger boy.

"I'm not going to do that. Mostly because he doesn't want to, but I also happen to know that he has met someone. So let it go Blaine. You screwed up, and it sucks, but that's how it is."

With that, Finn left the choir room with long strides, barely catching the sounds of Blaine whining.