This is based on the spoilers for episode 8 that were released yesterday. I've changed things slightly though, because this is what I'd like to see happen :) I've never wrote this pairing, but I'm a big supporter of Blam friendship, so this is my first attempt.

Let me know what you think x

Blaine could feel the frustration pulsing through his veins, yet he still continued to take out his aggression on the punch bag at the back of the gym. He knew that everyone had left a long time ago, he'd told Kurt that he was heading straight home. But the truth was, he didn't want to face Finn again, not while he was feeling this frustrated, he was scared that he'd say something that he'd probably regret and cause more drama in his life. He knew that Kurt probably wouldn't understand how Blaine had been feeling since the transfer to McKinley, how it had really effected him, how isolated he felt, how he missed Dalton every day, how he had to work ten times harder in glee just to gain some acceptance, and even then it didn't seem like it was enough. Sure, he'd probably feel guilty about Blaine's transfer, but maybe that wasn't enough, not anymore. Long story short, Blaine was miserable at McKinley, he had been for a while now, only no one seemed to notice. He couldn't help thinking back to how he had felt before he had transferred to Dalton halfway through his freshman year, sure it hadn't gotten that bad – yet. But Blaine could tell that it was only matter of time, he'd been kidding himself when he thought that everyone would accept him, they were Kurt's friends first and foremost. They kind of just put up with him for Kurt's sake. Rachel had made an effort with him, but their semi-friendship had been tainted by the on going feud between Kurt and Rachel over the Class president race, so Rachel had kept her distance, only speaking to Blaine during their rehearsals for West Side Story, then disappearing soon after. Even though Blaine longed for a friend of his own, he knew that he couldn't really rely on Rachel, not really because it would only jeopardise his only relationship he had at McKinley. Rachel was a sensitive subject where Kurt was concerned anyway, not only with the Class Elections hanging over their heads. Although they had been happily dating for the last eight months, Kurt still felt threatened by Rachel, as she was Blaine's only exception. The one girl that Blaine had questioned his sexually for, Blaine knew that it had terrified Kurt. So Blaine never really pushed for a friendship between himself and Rachel. It also didn't help that Rachel was dating Finn, someone who had seemed to have taken an instant disliking to him since the transfer. He let out a strangled cry as he continued to release the frustration from his body, this wasn't him, he usually tried so hard not to let things get him down, but he was tired of putting on the braze face, tired of smiling through the pain, tired of not showing how he really felt. He hadn't meant to start a fight with Sam, he just let his mask slip for a minute and struggled to regain his composure, he just wanted them to listen to him for once, he had a voice and he wanted to be heard, not just on the stage. He didn't care about being the star, not really. He'd phrased something the wrong way, and Sam had reacted, of course no one had jumped in to defend him, Blaine hadn't expected any different. He knew that Sam could probably crush him if he wanted to, but Blaine didn't care anymore. So when Mr Schuster had finally managed to separate the two of them, Blaine had retreated to gym and that's where he had stayed for the remainder of the day.

"I didn't think anyone else was still here," Blaine swung around quickly, jumping out of the way of the punch bag that was swinging back to hit him; he glared at Sam as he slowly walked through the locker room. Blaine grunted his response, and turned his back on Sam again, throwing an angry punch towards the now moving bag. He missed completely and hit the wall instead. He bit down on his lip to prevent him from crying out in pain; he clenched his teeth as his hand started to throb.

"There's some ice packs in that cupboard over there," Sam mumbled gesturing to the first aid cabinet just behind where Blaine was stood. Blaine nodded and quietly went to find one, hissing slightly as the pack made contact with his skin.

"I thought you'd gone home with the others," Blaine mumbled, sitting down at the opposite end of the bench from where Sam was standing.

"Coach had me run some extra drills, she says my spot's still open on the team, but I've got to work for it." Blaine nodded and hissed again as his hand continued to throb.

"You're not holding that right," Sam sighed, walking over to Blaine. He crouched down in front of him, elevating Blaine's hand slightly and holding the ice pack firmly against Blaine's hand.

"That should help," Sam stated, before standing up right and walking back over to his locker.

"Thanks," Blaine mumbled quietly, Sam shrugged as he pulled out a new t-shirt and swapped them over.

"I'm sorry for what I said," Sam paused and turned to face Blaine, "I was angry and I guess I just took it out on you," Sam stared at Blaine, really stared at him, and for the first time he saw something different than the overly enthusiastic former Warbler. Blaine looked – well for the lack of a better word – broken.

Sam wasn't a bad guy; he always tried to do best by people. But he'd been through so much, always being told that he wasn't good enough, being moved around to where his parents could find work, never really fitting in anywhere. Then he'd finally found somewhere he could call his home in Lima, at McKinley, he had friends there, friends that had accepted him when he was at his lowest. That's why he had reacted so badly when Blaine had stated that by using their male sex appeal to win they were simply selling themselves. Sam wasn't proud of what he had been doing before Finn and Rachel had found him and urged him to go back to McKinley with them. But he had done what he'd done as a way of supporting his family, helping them with money when they needed it the most. He didn't need someone from an obviously privileged background coming in and judging him for something that he already felt bad enough about.

"I guess I'm not totally innocent either," Sam shrugged, closing his locker, "Maybe we both overreacted?" he cautiously approached Blaine and held out his hand; Blaine lifted his eyes and shook it gingerly. Sam smiled and released Blaine's hand, picked up his gym bag and headed towards the door.

"See you around, dude," Sam opened the door slightly, but paused when he heard a quiet sob from behind him, he wasn't entirely sure what it was at first, so he waited, but sure enough he heard it again. He slowly closed the door and turned to face Blaine again.

"Dude, are you crying?" Blaine used his free hand to wipe his eyes, but Sam had already spotted his tears.

"Yeah, the gay guy cries, let's all have a laugh," Blaine snapped,

"I wasn't going to say that," Sam sighed, sitting gingerly next to Blaine on the bench, "What's really going on dude?" Blaine paused and found himself unable to meet Sam's eye, ashamed to admit his weakness, admit how low he was feeling.

"How do you do it," he asked quietly, "How do you come back and get them to just accept you like nothing's changed?"

"So this is all because I've come back," Sam frowned, watching Blaine as he remained still,

"No, it's not you," Blaine sighed, "It's just this place."

"You miss Dalton, don't you?" Blaine slowly turned to face Sam, not even Kurt had asked him that, yet here was Sam, someone he barely knew and he seemed to have picked up on it. He nodded slowly and lifted his eyes to meet Sam's, his eyelashes were wet because of his tears and Sam felt nothing but sympathy for him.

"What does Kurt say?" Sam asked quietly.

"He doesn't know," Blaine shrugged, "He's been really busy with class elections,"

"Dude, he'd want to know," Sam stated, Blaine let out a bitter laugh and shook his head.

"No he wouldn't," he shrugged, before letting out another bitter laugh, "You know I've been here since the beginning of the semester, and this is probably the first conversation I've had without being told to shut up, or sit down."

"Finn right?" Blaine stared at Sam, with a confused expression on his face, but his confusion only caused Sam to laugh quietly, "I went through the same thing last year," he explained, "Finn felt like I was some sort of threat, I don't know why, maybe it's something to do with Mr Schuster giving the leads at Sectional's to Quinn and I?"

"I thought your performance was quite good last year." Blaine smiled slightly, "You and Quinn sounded good together."

"Yeah, maybe," Sam shrugged, "Finn doesn't deal with competition well."

"Sounds like Kurt," he let out another laugh, knowing that talking about his boyfriend like this probably wasn't ideal, especially as he didn't really know Sam that well, but it felt so good to be able to talk to someone, anyone, about how he was really feeling, "You know, I don't even care about being the lead, I sing because it's fun. All I really want is to fit in, you know?" Sam nodded, he knew what it was how it felt to seek acceptance in a ready formed group, but New Directions had pretty much accepted him with open arms last year. Maybe it had something to do with his relationship with Quinn at the time? He still didn't know, but they were his friends, they had stuck together when everyone else had turned their backs on them. Then there was Blaine, the new guy, a position he had been in himself twelve months ago and Blaine still seemed to be sitting on the outside looking in.

"You know I went to Dalton a few weeks ago, it just felt so good to be back there, back with all my friends. They've already found my replacement for lead vocalist, but it didn't even bother me that much, it was just good to be back there, back with people who didn't judge me,"

"Dude, if McKinley is getting you down so much, why are you still here?" Sam asked, Blaine flexed his hand again and let out a quiet hiss, the pain was subsiding considerably now, he shrugged slightly and glanced at Sam again.

"Because I love Kurt," he shrugged, "So even though I miss Dalton everyday, McKinley is where I know I should be," Sam nodded again, he was beginning to think that perhaps they were more alike than they had initially realised. He noticed how the tension had deflated from Blaine's body, instead of sitting upright; he was slumped at the end of the bench, his eyes flickering between Sam's and the floor.

"Santana left because of me, you know?" Blaine mumbled, "I was only trying to cheer everyone up, they were all so depressed over Mercedes leaving, but I guess I was the one who pushed her out."

"Dude, Santana would have left anyway, she's selfish," Sam shrugged, Blaine's eyes locked with his searching for an explanation, "We dated briefly last year, she's only interested on what she can get out of a situation. It wasn't your fault."

Blaine nodded gratefully, but Sam could tell that he didn't really believe him. He was completely broken, a shadow of his former self.

"You're a good guy Sam," Blaine sighed, "I really am sorry for what I said, I just wanted someone to listen to me for once. Thanks for listening to me drone on like this."

"Look dude, I know it's hard sometimes. McKinley isn't like any other school I've ever been to, but you'll get through it." Sam smiled and tried to lighten the mood slightly, awkwardly squeezing Blaine's shoulder, "But don't let it build up until you can't control it anymore. I still think you should talk to Kurt, but if you can't do that, then I don't mind listening."

"You don't have to pity me Sam," Blaine shrugged and Sam moved his hand from his shoulder,

"I'm not pitying you," Sam stated, "We're teammates now, so we're kind of friends by default, or something like that." He stood up again and picked up his gym bag once more and headed towards the door.

"Thanks Sam," he heard Blaine call, Sam smiled and turned around to face him.

"No problem, and as for the others, I'm sure they'll come around. I hear Rachel is already one of your biggest fans, didn't she suggest you sing 'Last Friday Night' for Sectionals?" Blaine laughed quietly and nodded, "See, they just take time getting used to new people, it's like watching one of those shows on the discovery channel." Blaine laughed again and watched as Sam pulled the door open, shouting a 'Later dude' before walking out in the hallway, leaving Blaine alone once more.

He smiled as he returned the used ice pack to the first cabinet and felt at ease once more, sure it was still going to take some effort, but at least he didn't feel so alone here anymore. Sam seemed to understand him in a way that everyone else had failed to. Maybe he just understood what it was like to be the new kid? Blaine wasn't sure but it just felt so good knowing that he at least had a friend to call his own now. Maybe he wasn't ready to talk to Kurt about how he was really feeling, but having Sam fighting his corner would certainly help him.