People on Tumblr were pointing out the parallels between Kurt staring out the choir room window and Blaine/Nightbird climbing in that window, so I just had to write this. Bullying/derogatory language at one point, if that triggers you!

"Do it again!" Kurt urged. "C'mon, one more time, Blaine!"

Blaine sighed dramatically, but his sparkling eyes gave away his amusement. "Fiiiiiine," he said. "But if we get caught, I'm telling our parents this was all your fault." He held his arms open, and Kurt eagerly walked into his embrace, reaching up and wrapping his arms around Blaine's shoulders as Blaine put his own around Kurt's waist. "Ready?"

"Uh huh!" Kurt said, tucking his face into Blaine's neck and bending his knees along with Blaine.

"Three...two...one...blast off!" Blaine said, full of fourteen-year-old excitement, and he jumped fifteen feet off the ground. Kurt screamed his excitement into Blaine's neck, and Blaine laughed giddly as he suspended them in midair.

"What are you gonna do to get your adrenaline fix when I go off to Dalton, huh?" Blaine teased as Kurt lifted his head up again. "You're such a junkie, Kurt."

"Maybe I'll fix up that motorcycle Dad has lying around in the garage," Kurt said, plans already whirring around in his head. "That won't be quite as fun as my superhero best friend shooting us into the sky whenever I want, but it might come close."

"I'm not a superhero yet," Blaine said, starting a slow descent. "That's what Dalton's for."

"It sucks that the closest superhero school is two hours away," Kurt said as his feet touched the ground and he (somewhat reluctantly) left Blaine's embrace. "What am I gonna do in high school without my best friend?"

"Hey, there's still a chance I could come back for at least our senior year, and probably even our junior year," Blaine said, smiling encouragingly at Kurt. Kurt couldn't hold in a return grin. "It all depends on how quick I catch on to all the super-stuff."

"You'd better study every spare minute you have, Blaine Anderson, because I am not willing to graduate without you," Kurt said, glaring playfully at his best friend. "I'll flunk a grade if I have to."

"You're not going to have to flunk a grade, Kurt," Blaine said with an amused roll of his eyes. "You know I could never leave you – you're my best friend."

"And you promise you're not gonna find anyone you like better than me at superhero school?" Kurt asked, staring down at his shoes, unable to look Blaine in the eye. Suddenly, an outstretched pinky came into view and Kurt looked back up at Blaine's face.

"I, Blaine Anderson, pinky-promise that I will not find a better friend than Kurt Hummel when I'm at Dalton, and that I'll definitely be back by our senior year of high school, if not before," Blaine said, smiling yet solemn. Kurt wrapped his pinky around Blaine's, accepting the promise.

"You know you can never break this promise now, right?" Kurt teased. "And just to be sure, I'm gonna-" he cut off there, screwing up his courage, and leaned up onto his tiptoes just slightly to kiss Blaine on the cheek. "There. Now I've sealed it with a kiss, too."

Blaine looked like he'd accidentally landed on top of an electric fence again. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could speak, Kurt heard his dad and Blaine's mom yelling to them that it was time for Blaine to go.

"Good luck at Dalton, B," Kurt said. "I know you're gonna be the best superhero there ever was."

"And you're gonna take McKinley High by storm, Kurt," Blaine said, extending his hand to Kurt. They walked back to their parents holding hands like they always did, both reluctant to let go as they reached their respective cars.

It had been almost two years. Two awful, boring, torture-filled years since Kurt had lost his best friend to that stupid superhero school. They'd started off writing every week, but at the end of his first semester, Blaine had written that the headmaster was forbidding them from talking to anyone in "the outside world" who wasn't immediate family. It was supposed to make the students rely on their fellow heroes more, but Kurt suspected it was also supposed to foster some elitism among the heroes.

Kurt moved on as best he could, joining the glee club and the Cheerios, but he couldn't shake the feeling that a big piece of his life was missing. He even found himself staring out the windows of the choir room sometimes before rehearsal started, searching for the familiar shine of Blaine's hair gel in the sunlight.

"White boy, what are you doing?" Mercedes asked him one day.

"What?" he asked, breaking out of his trance. "Oh, I thought I saw a ghost." He shrugged his shoulders lamely after that, knowing it wasn't a great excuse. He couldn't just tell everyone about Blaine – that was a major breach of both the best friend and the superhero code. Even if he hadn't gotten to talk to Blaine in years, he wasn't going to sell him out like that.

"It was probably your reflection, pasty gay," Santana quipped from her seat practically on Brittany's lap in the corner.

"Or it could be the spirit of whatever poor girl you murdered to obtain your undeserved spot on the Cheerios, Satan," Kurt fired back. Fortunately, Mr. Schue came in and started rehearsal then, leaving the choir room free of bloodshed for a record-setting four days.

As Kurt was leaving school that day, a cluster of football players surrounded him, knocking him off-balance.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here," Azimio snickered, crossing his arms over his chest. "An unattended fairy boy."

"And you know what fairies do?" Karofsky said. "Fly."

"How astute," Kurt said, incapable of letting a remark as stupid as that go unchecked. "Next you'll be telling me that dragons breath fire, too. Are you reading fairy tales in remedial English this we- agh!" He couldn't finish his retort as Azimio and Karofsky grabbed his arms and lifted him off the ground, carrying him outside and over to the dumpsters, their cronies shielding him from view. Kurt was struggling the whole way, but he wasn't quite strong enough to break their grips.

"Ready to fly, Tinker Bell?" Azimio asked once they were in front of the dumpsters.

"Am I ever," a voice came from above. Kurt looked up, startled, to see a figure in black flying towards them, cape streaming in the breeze and mask obscuring most of his face.

"Who the fuck are you?" Karofsky asked, looking angry and just a little bit afraid.

"Language," the boy chastised, wagging a finger in disapproval. "But since you asked, I'm Nightbird, the nocturnal avenger."

"That's the stupidest fucking name I've ever heard," Azimio said. "What are you gonna do, sing us to death?"

"Not exactly," Nightbird responded. Instead of bantering more, he darted lower in the air and clipped Azimio hard in the cheek, causing him to stumble back and let go of Kurt's arm before running away in terror. Kurt fell to the ground as Karofsky dropped his other arm to go after Nightbird, but he had already flown back out of reach before Karofsky could get to him. Kurt quickly picked himself up off the ground.

"Come down here and receive your pummeling like a man!" Karofsky yelled, the veins in his neck bulging. "Make it a fair fight!"

"I didn't see you giving Kurt a fair fight a minute ago," Nightbird said, and Kurt's eyebrows shot up in shock. This guy knew his name? He narrowed his eyes and tried to focus on the features that were visible behind the other boy's mask, noting bright, familiar hazel eyes. "Why should I do the same for you?"

Karofsky growled in rage, obviously searching for a way to force Nightbird out of the sky. Kurt took his chance then, pivoting on his left foot and swinging his right hard at Karofsky's junk. Karofsky sank to his knees and howled in pain, and Nightbird swooped in then to grab Kurt in his arms and fly them to safety.

Once they reached the parking lot of the Lima Bean, Nightbird landed carefully and set Kurt back on his feet. Kurt immediately grabbed the boy in a tight hug.

"The nocturnal avenger? Really, Blaine?" he asked, choking back a mix of laughter and tears. "I thought you went to some prestigious superhero school."

"We draw our names out of a hat!" Blaine said, returning Kurt's fierce embrace. "It was that or the dark feather."

"Okay, yeah, stick with nocturnal avenger," Kurt said, stepping back to get his first proper look at Blaine. "Oh my God, am I taller than you now?"

"What?!" Blaine said, looking dumbstruck. "No, of course not. I was always taller!"

Kurt placed his hand on top of his hair and extended it out over Blaine to see a solid two- or three-inch gap between it and Blaine's head. "Yes!" he crowed. "I'm finally taller than you!"

"It just figures," Blaine grumbled. "I finally become a real superhero, only to find out my best friend finally hit his growth spurt."

"Wait, what?" Kurt said. "You're a real superhero now? Like, you're done at Dalton?"

"Like I'm done at Dalton," Blaine confirmed, smiling. "I was going to fly over and surprise you, but that didn't really turned out like I'd pictured. Who were those assholes, Kurt?"

"The ringleaders of the 'Make Kurt's Life Hell' squad," Kurt said angrily. "It's been a rough two years without you, B."

Blaine pulled Kurt in for another hug. "Hey, I kept my promise, didn't I? I told you I was gonna be back."

"There were two parts to that promise," Kurt reminded him. "You didn't make another best friend at Dalton, did you?"

"No one like you, Kurt. I've never been able to find someone quite like you," Blaine said, voice softening.

"There's no one like you, either, Blaine," Kurt said. "Not that I've really bothered to look."

"You know, when you sealed my promise with a kiss, I didn't get the chance to respond to you," Blaine said, breaking their hug. "I was going to tell you that- I really liked you, Kurt." Blaine's voice broke mid-sentence. "I still do."

"I think me kissing you a couple years ago should be proof enough that I liked you, too, Blaine," Kurt said, smiling. "I've never stopped."

"So-" Blaine started, but Kurt cut him off.

"And I think it's traditional for the superhero to receive a kiss after saving the day, am I right?" Kurt asked, smiling flirtatiously. "And Blaine 'Nightbird' Anderson has always been a traditional man, if memory serves. Sooo-" Kurt broke off there and leaned down to plant a solid kiss on Blaine's lips.

"I think I'm going to have to place you under arrest, Kurt Hummel," Blaine said woozily as the kiss broke. "Because you've definitely stolen my heart."

Kurt groaned at that terrible joke. "Do you use that line on all the boys you save?"

"I've only ever had to save one boy in particular," Blaine said. "And from the looks of that kick, you probably could've gotten yourself out of that situation without my help."

"It was nice doing it as a team," Kurt said with a smile. "Think you need a sidekick, Nightbird?"

"No, I think I'm good there," Blaine said, returning Kurt's toothy grin. "But I could use a boyfriend." Blaine winked at that.

"Sign me up," Kurt said, and he linked his arm in Blaine's, pulling them toward the door of the coffee shop. They had a lot of catching up (and hopefully more kissing) to do.