Author's Note: Hi all! So this is my first Glee fanfiction, and actually the first thing I've posted on this site in a LONG TIME, but I hope everyone will give it a chance and enjoy. This story is un-BETA'd, but I trust my editing skills so nothing too drastic should be wrong with it in that sense. Also, I'm Canadian, so I will be using Canadian spelling, and phrases (if you see something that you don't recognise).

This story takes place in Season 2 (duh) after 'Furt' and before 'Special Education.' Kurt has transferred to Dalton, but is living at home. The story will be multi-chapter, though I can't predict exactly how long yet, so it may include info from later episodes, though I don't plan of sticking strictly to the episodic timeline of events.

For now the story is rated K+ because of mild language, though it may go up in the future depending on how far I take it, still not quite sure, but for now it's safe, so don't worry kids!

This story is also pre-Klaine, as will be obviouse when you get to that part, so that means lots of unrequited and sameless, but oblivious flirting. You have been warned. More info at the end of the fic. Enjoy!

Summary: Ever since Kurt left McKinley for Dalton, he has been feeling guilty over his descision to do so. Unknown to him, New Directions is feeling just as guilty that Kurt might be thinking they blame him for having to leave. In an attempt to show him their love, the Glee club plans a suprise slumber party for Kurt - on the same night that Kurt invites Blane over to his house for the first time! When New Directions is involved, can things go according to plan?

EDIT: OMG so I totally forgot a disclaimer. I don't own Glee oTL. Nor do I own Shakespeare's Sonnett 29. -that's the other part of this edit, decided to add the sonnett to the very end. It doesn't change the story, but I thought it might make it more interesting, and I think this context makes for an interesting read for the poem. Thanks!

Monday at McKinley High was going normally, or, as normally as events ever progress at that high school. Regardless, the day had been uneventful, something Puck was slightly disappointed by when the end of it neared. That is, as it usually was, until it was time for Glee club.

Puck was the last member to walk into the music room, and thus only caught the tail end of the discussion.

"... at the Hudmel house after practice on Friday." All of New Directions was gathered around the front row of chairs listening to Rachel ramble about something.

"What's this?" he called out, making his presence known to the group. New Directions turned to him as he continued to speak.

"Finn, you actually having a party? You said your mom would never allow it, and Kurt's dad don't look like someone even I want to cross."

Rachel rolled her eyes at him and took it upon herself to fill him in on the situation before anyone else could say anything. "It's not a party, Noah, and don't you dare try to turn it into one! We have been talking," she indicated the rest of New Directions with a flourish, "and have decided that our team could really use a boost in solidarity before Sectionals. Thus, we are going to be having a team-building sleepover this Friday at Finn and Kurt's new house." She beamed around her in a way that made the others feel guilty for agreeing to this plan.

"A slumber party? Really?" asked Puck, "how old are you all? Six?"

"Lord Tubbington is six, should I invite him, Rachel?"

Rachel shook her head at Brittany.

"Come on you guys, this is going to be fun!" Put in Mercedes, who was obviously on-board with the plan and, Puck suspected, a co-conspirator in its creation. "We've been having a lot of team issues lately, and if we want to win at Sectionals then we have to be a team about it. Do you want what happened last year to happen this year too? We can't fall apart."

"Yeah," chimed in Tina, "Plus it means we can all see Kurt again."

Tina's face fell as soon as the sentence left her mouth. Her hands flew to her lips, but there was no pulling those words back in. The choir room fell silent, each member contemplating the sad and abrupt departure of their friend.

"Guys, we can't let what happened with Kurt get us down."

It was Finn who said this, and he walked to the front of the class to better address the group.

"I know it's been hard this past week without him here," he continued, "and I know we all miss him. Even me, and I live with the guy!" He laughed a bit, but it came out more hollow than intended. He seemed to shake it off however, and pushed through with what he wanted to say. "I don't know how much any of you guys have talked to Kurt over the last week, but if you haven't then take in from me." He looked around the room, into the faces of each of all his friends, trying to be as sincere as possible. "He's been happier this past week. I guess Dalton is good for him, and he won't shut up about missing us, which is kind of annoying – but nice – at the same time. I guess what I'm trying to say is: Kurt wouldn't want us to be falling apart at a time like this. I know our group kind of operates like a contained explosion most of the time, but things have been getting less controlled since Kurt left, and if he knew that, then he would feel guilty because he'd think it was his fault."

"He is kind of self-centred," Puck threw in.

Rachel glared at him. "No more than myself," she huffed in Kurt's defence. The rest of the group shared a glace behind her back that expressed clearly how this wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"We need to do this guys, if not for ourselves and for this team, then for Kurt," Finn finished. Rachel was beaming at him with pride, and he smiled back at her with a kind of bemused expression on his face, like he had no idea where that whole speech had come from, With the way Rachel was looking at him though, he was very glad that it had.

Mercedes and Tina were whispering excitedly to each other, then they turned to the rest of the group.

"You guys!" Mercedes started, "this is perfect! Why don't we make this slumber party into a sort of surprise party for Kurt?"

"Um, why do we want to surprise him?" Asked a confused Sam, "it's not his birthday, is it?"

"No! Of course not, that would be too obvious," Mercedes said, rolling her eyes. "We can just use the bonding time to show Kurt how much we miss him and still love him even though he'll be competing against us at Sectionals. I've been almost non-stop texting him since his transfer, and no matter how many times I tell him that there was nothing he could have done to stay at McKinley if he wasn't safe, he still feels like he's betrayed us."

"Now I'm confused too," Puck said, things were developing too quickly for him to keep them straight. "I thought the point of the sleep over was to develop our own team spirit. Shouldn't that mean not including Hummel in this since he's, you know, not on the team anymore?"

Rachel gasped at this notion, and was prepared to call the whole thing off for what she would term 'the safety of the team,' when Mercedes cut her off.

"Oh Hell to the no!" She cried, glaring at Rachel's already open mouth. "Don't you even go there, white girl. I know you miss him just as much as the rest of us. This is a team bonding thing, and how can you all act like Kurt hasn't been an invested part of this team since day one? He was here before even you were, Puckerman," she said, rounding on Puck, who threw up his hands in surrender.

"Hey, don't get mad at me! I'm just trying to figure out the priorities here!"

"Kurt is our friend. He may no longer be a member of New Directions, but do you really think that he'll be gone forever?" Mercedes looked around herself and was almost shocked at the blank stares her words were receiving. "Hell, no! We are going to get Kurt back here someday. Until then, we have to show Kurt that we are still his friends and that he will always be a part of this team." The emotion in her voice surprised even her and she could feel a prickling at the back of her eyes that she hadn't at all anticipated when she'd started speaking. She took a shaky breath to try to calm herself down. Quinn's arms were instantly around her shoulders, confronting her. It took a moment for Mercedes to realize that she wasn't the only one near tears. Quinn's shoulders were also shaking softly with carefully restrained emotion, and many of the other members of New Directions were rubbing discretely at their own reddening eyes.

Aside from the self conscious shuffling and sniffling, the group was quiet for a few moments.

"It's settled then," someone said, and the whole group turned to Rachel. She was holding hands tightly with Finn, her jaw set in a familiar picture of determination. "The New Directions Surprise Party for Solidarity and To-Show-Kurt-He-Is-Our-Friend-But-That-We-Will-Also-Kick-His-Butt-At-Sectionals-Regardless, is official."

Mr. Schuester came into the room then and the students' impromptu meeting broke up. Glee practice went slowly that day, as everyone's minds were on the upcoming party, excitedly planning what they might wear or bring, contemplating party games, and, Puck at least, figuring out just what the best way would be to sneak in some booze to spike the punch. Needless to say, it was going to be a long four days until Friday.

Mercedes approached Finn after rehearsal to talk to him about the finer points of the plan. She knew that Finn cared about Kurt a lot, but at this moment she could not think of a worse person to be Kurt's step brother. Finn was almost worse than Rachel at keeping secrets.

"Umm, hi?" Finn said, when he realized Mercedes had been staring at him for two whole minutes, trying to get his attention.

"You better listen to this, white boy," she said. "This has to be a surprise party."

"Yeah, isn't that the point?" Finn was very confused about what Mercedes was trying to get across here.

"Finn, I'm going to be honest with you. You are a terrible secret keeper. You have to promise me that you won't say anything to Kurt about this. If we are going to pull this off to the proper effect, he can't know."

Finn huffed, uncomfortable with the third-degree he was being subjected to.

"Okay, Mercedes, I promise I will do my best. Even if it means not talking to him at all."

"Don't go that far!" Mercedes admonished. Finn felt like he couldn't win with this girl. How did Kurt deal with her?

"You can't alienate him either. Just try to act normal around him, and avoid the subject of New Directions altogether, okay?"

"Okay, okay, I will," Finn assured her. She opened her mouth to say something more to him, but Finn quickly cut her off.

"I think I hear Rachel calling me," he told her weakly, then all but sprinted out of the choir room.

Walking down the hall, Finn tried to think seriously about how he was going to approach this. He was almost caught up with Rachel at the front of the school when he realised that, if they were doing this on Friday that meant that he was going to have to somehow convince Burt to let them out of their weekly family dinners.

Although Burt and his mom had only been married a week, Finn and his mother had been to many of the Hummel's family dinners when the couple's dating had reached a more serious stage. Finn groaned when he realized that this week's dinner was going to be the first one after the marriage, which would only make his chances of pulling this off that much slimmer. Maybe as soon as he brought up how important this plan was for Kurt's happiness, Burt would agree. Finn smiled as he thought about the strong father-son relationship that Kurt had with Burt, something Finn would always envy and, as well as he got along with Burt, knew he would never quite get. If be brought up how Kurt was struggling, maybe that would pull the conversation in his favour. With a vague plan in mind, he hurried along the deserted hall to meet his girlfriend, excitement, and a bit of dread, building in his stomach for what he had to accomplish when he got home.

Kurt sighed as the final bell before lunch rang, and slowly gathered his things together. When he looked up he was not surprised to see that Blaine was already at the doorway to his classroom, and making his way over to Kurt's desk. Kurt flushed and ducked his head to try to get himself under control. It was the Thursday of his second week at Dalton, and yet Blaine still insisted on meeting Kurt after each of his classes and dutifully walking him to the next one. Kurt refused to get his hopes up over the implications of such an action, and resigned himself to believing that Blaine simply did this because his dapper, responsible nature would allow him to do nothing less for the poor, scared boy he had found and was now nursing back to health; Kurt was disappointedly sure that that was the way Blaine saw it.

"What's with the forlorn look? American History isn't that boring is it? At least you're not taking Canadian Studies," Blaine joked.

Kurt whipped his head up from stuffing heavy books into his bag, almost giving himself whiplash, not having realized that Blaine had reached his desk so quickly. Blaine just stood there, an easy smile gracing his smooth face.

"It's nothing," Kurt said, trying to get over the happy shock that always ran through him when Blaine was near him. Before he could go on, however, another sigh escaped his lips. Blaine raised a tick eyebrow at him and looked like he was trying to stifle his laughter, but losing badly.

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine," he said. The two were walking out o the classroom now and following the majority of the school population towards the cafeteria for lunch.

"It's Finn, and Mercedes," Kurt confessed. "Neither of them has talked to me much this week, and I guess I'm feeling a little left out." A quiet look overcame his previously smiling features, and Blaine looked at him with concern, but let Kurt continue.

"I mean, I know Dalton is far from Lima, and it's not realistic to think that we'd be spending the same amount of time together as before, but it's only been a week since I transferred and it already feels like they're forgetting about me."

Blaine contemplated these words as he grabbed two lunch trays from the stack and handed one to Kurt.

"How do you mean they're forgetting about you? I thought you texted them all the time, and you see Finn every night."

"It's true," Kurt agreed, "but it feels like Finn has been avoiding me at home, especially this past week, and whenever I talk to Mercedes I feel like there's something big she's not telling me."

"You can tell she's keeping a secret from you just from her texts?" Blaine asked, he sounded impressed.

Kurt rolled his eyes in response and reached for the salad fork. "We're best friends Blaine, I know when that diva is keeping secrets."

Blaine laughed. They continued down the line, paid for their food then found a small table together by the large windows at the far end of the lunch hall.

Blaine watched Kurt carefully as he stabbed his salad in frustration, mutilating it more so than actually eating it. Blaine smiled sadly and reached his hand across the table to rest it soothingly over Kurt's. Kurt stilled instantly and looked up at Blaine.

"I know making this change has been really tough on you, Kurt, but I hope you're not thinking that you've done wrong by your friends by coming here. You weren't safe. You had no choice. These people are your friends, so I'm sure they understand that."

Kurt took a deep breath and wondered at how Blaine always seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. Was he that transparent? Blaine squeezed his hand in a platonic, reassuring way, Kurt told himself, and removed it to start in on his own meal. Kurt continued to stab his salad. He started to talk again, meaning to change the subject to something more optimistic than his own self-pity, but instead found himself spewing all his concerns out to Blaine.

"There was nothing more anyone could have done for me at McKinley," Kurt conceded. "But with Sectionals coming up next week it really does feel like I've betrayed them in a critical moment. New Directions isn't like the Warblers, Blaine, we – I mean they – have barely enough members to even be able to qualify to compete! And now that I'm gone, they have less than a week to find a new member, and New Directions definitely isn't a 'rock star' group so no one's going to be lining up to take the open spot so what if now they have to forfeit and it'll be all my fault and –"

Kurt was cut off by a grape bouncing off his forehead. He flinched in surprise and stared round-eyed at Blaine, who this time was not even trying to conceal his laughter at Kurt's reaction.

"You're face," he gasped. It was all Blaine could manage before he buried his face behind a large hand, wiping away tears, shoulders shaking with loud laughter.

Kurt tired to be angry, but somewhere on the way to scowling it seemed his mouth forgot how to perform that function and he was grinning without knowing why. Blaine saw this and his face lit up in triumph. Kurt blushed at the sight, 'smiling Blaine' was quickly becoming his favourite image ever. Before he knew what was happening, he too burst out laughing with the other boy.

It was a good six minutes before either boy could look the other in the face again without losing their straight face and breaking down into giggles.

Finally Blaine got himself under control enough to start eating his pasta, which by now was already going cold. He was about to apologise to Kurt about the grape-to-the-facce, though he sincerely doubted that the younger boy had minded the minor food fight so much, when he was beaten to the punch.

"Thanks for that," Kurt said.

Blaine raised his eyebrows is surprise, and Kurt continued.

"Though I am usually very picky about what is allowed to come in contact with my face, I really needed that."

"Good," Blaine replied, happy to see a smiling Kurt, rather than the mopey one that had been slumping around all morning. "Next time you're depressed I'll remember that grapes are the proper remedy."

He winked at Kurt to seal the deal, and Kurt bit his lip at the gesture, though Blaine didn't seem to notice.

"I mean it," Kurt said, turning back to his food as well. "It's actually been a really long time since I've had a good laugh like that. I know I said before that Mercedes is my best friend – and she is!" He insisted when Blaine gave him a confused look, "it's just that this whole year we haven't been as close as we were last year. I can't say why exactly. Maybe it was because of the bullying, or something, but there just haven't been a lot of moments recently where I've hung out with a good friend and felt so carefree."

The moment the sentence left Kurt's lips he wished he could take it back. He'd just called Blaine a good friend. They'd only known each other for a little over three weeks! What if Blaine took it the wrong way? Now he probably thought that Kurt was some clingy little boy who would throw himself at anyone who showed even the mildest of interest in him, and wouldn't want to be friends with someone who became so quickly emotionally attached? Or worse, what if Blaine only saw himself as a mentor to Kurt? What if the idea of friendship had never even entered his mind?

But through the haze of his panicking, Kurt eventually realized that Blaine was not staring warily at him or looking uncomfortable in any way. In fact, Blaine was smiling at him with that same magnetic grin that dazzled him no matter how many times he saw it.

"I'm glad, Kurt," Blaine said. "It's good to see you so happy. A smile suits you much better than a frown." Blaine was trying to say all this without sounding too ecstatic. Kurt had just called him 'a good friend!' That meant that Kurt valued him beyond the mentoring relationship Blaine had been struggling to keep platonic. Mentally, he was doing back flips.

"And you know what they say about frowning," he went on. He leaned over the middle of the table and gestured for Kurt to do the same. Confused, he did, and suddenly their faces were very close together. Blaine leaned in and placed his mouth next to Kurt's ear, and Kurt fought to keep his shiver as unnoticeable as possible.

"Frowning causes wrinkles," Blaine whispered slowly. Then he was leaning back and giving Kurt that frustrating grin that constantly threw Kurt into loops of confusion and questions about where exactly he stood with the other boy. But Kurt brushed this aside quickly and snorted condescendingly to hide his emotional turmoil.

"If you think that I, Kurt Hummel, will ever get wrinkles, then you clearly underestimate me, Blaine Anderson." He stated haughtily.

Blaine laughed again and was about to respond when the end-of-lunch bell interrupted him.

Kurt gasped and stared down in horror at his mutilated, but decidedly uneaten salad, and began to cram as much of it into his mouth at once. After the warning bell, they only had five minutes to get to their first afternoon class, and Kurt would be damned if he was going to be late for a class in only his first two weeks of attendance, but he couldn't learn on an empty stomach either.

"Come on," Blaine said, getting up from his seat and tugging his messenger bag over his shoulder, "you're going to be late for French, and I need to talk to you on the way about something, because I'll be leaving school early so I won't be seeing you 'till tomorrow."

Kurt looked up at him, and the decision to stop stuffing his face in front of his crush wasn't really a decision at all, he just dropped his fork and stood up faster than was probably necessary. He wanted to ask what Blaine was doing that he had to get out of school early, which must also mean he was missing Warbler's practice later, but his desire to hear what Blaine wanted to talk about was greater.

"Okay," Kurt said, "ready."

They hurried their trays over to the dirty dishes rack, and took off down the hall, heading towards the language corridor.

"I'm sorry you're feeling bad about your friends," Blaine started seriously, returning to their previous conversation, "but I know that you know that you leaving wasn't at all your fault." He made sure to make eye contact with Kurt as he said this, and Kurt nodded slowly to show this was true, but not knowing where Blaine was going with this.

"So," said Blaine, "I think we need to come up with a way for you to talk to your friends about this, so that they know how you are feeling. You have some really good friends, Kurt, and I know you know how lucky you are, so I would hate for you to lose those relationships because of a miscommunication."

They had reached the AP French room, but Kurt didn't enter and the two stood to the side of the doors to keep talking while Kurt's classmates hurried into the room behind them.

"Why don't you come over tomorrow?" Kurt asked, before he could think.

Blaine looked at him, surprised. "I'd love to Kurt," he grinned, "but I thought that you had family dinners on Fridays, and I know how important they are for you. I don't want to intrude."

"It's true that since this week will be the first family dinner where we're all officially a family," Kurt said, smiling when thinking about his dad's happiness, "but we eat early, and you can come over after. We can brainstorm, and put in a movie when we run out of ideas." Kurt self-consciously turned that offer over in his mind, worried that it sounded too close to an invitation for a date.

Blaine was fighting really hard to keep his expression as neutral as possible. Because there was no way that Kurt had meant it the way his brain wanted to take it. Kurt just needed help with handling his friends, and he was asking Blaine for help because Blaine had offered. That was the summary of the current situation.

"I can do that," Blaine said, "but only if it's really okay with your parents. And I'll bring along some of my favourite Disney movies too. You haven't lived until you've heard me sing along to 'Friend Like Me.'" He winked at Kurt again, and then the final bell rang, telling him that he should be in class by now.

"Shit," he cursed. The science wing was at the opposite end of the school than the language hall was.

"I gotta run," he said to Kurt. He started walking backwards down the hall, trying to get to class but talk to Kurt at the same time. "Text me later if your dad says okay, or you know, if he doesn't, or for anything. See you tomorrow!" He turned and sprinted off to his class.

Kurt wanted to keep leaning against the wall and admire the way Blaine's blazer swung as he ran, but the door to his French room was closing and he rushed into the room before it could close. He hastily got to his desk and pulled out his notes in preparation for class, but during the entire lecture he was fighting to keep his concentration on the language of love. Blaine was going to come over to his house. It may not be for the reasons he dreamed, but it was a start. Thinking of those reasons, Kurt was back to signing forlornly. His friends and his family were really all he had. He knew that they didn't blame him for what had resulted from Karofsky's bullying, but still, the neglect this past week did make him wonder.

The teacher was calling on the students now to answer questions, and Kurt tried to shake off his introspective thoughts and pay attention. He could worry about his friends tomorrow with Blaine, but right now, he told himself, his concerns needed to be limited to figuring out how to accurately translate Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 from English to French.

Kurt sighed, for the last time, he tells himself, and turned to the poem to start the assignment:

When, in disgrace with fortune and man's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state

And trouble deaf heaven with by bootless cries

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,

Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;

For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings

Than then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Tada! lol. So I don't really know where exaclty this story came from. When I started out, I had a completely different direction in mind, but then it got away from me and I ended up with this. Keep reading to see what comes out of Finn's talk with Burt, and will this party be a precurser to the Rachel-Berry-House-Party-Trainwreck-Extravaganza? (Which, remember, in this instance hasn't actually happened yet).

Don't know if I picked Sonnet 29 for any particular reason, though it is one of my favorite Shakespeare Sonnets. Read it if you're interested; I think you can apply it to Kurt's situation. Agree? Disagree?

I hope everyone liked. It was hard to get into writing New Directions, they're such a crazy group. I feel kinda emberassed that the Kurt/Blaine part of this fic is so ridiculously longer than teh New Directions bit. I honestly didn't intend it to be like that, but when those two flirt it just never ends, so there was really nothing I could do *eyeroll*. Anyways I hope I kept everyhone in-character enough, I'm especially worried about Kurt, since I feel like he came across a little too awestruck with Blaine all the time, but hopefully I can expand on that in later chapters.

Review to let me know what you think! I love feedback more than cookie dough. ;)