AN: I made a mistake saying Kurt's room was upstairs. I went back and fixed it (on ff.net), so basically Kurt's parents moved him to the basement after he came out and thought it was a punishment, but Kurt actually likes being far away from them in the house.

Chapter 6: Dinner Surprise

Kurt

When Kurt got home from the disastrous day at school he rushed to his bathroom and scrubbed his teeth for a good five minutes before putting his dirty clothes into the washer. After putting his backpack on his bed, he went back upstairs to check everything was in order before his parents came home from wherever they were at the moment.

On the kitchen table was a note for him, written in his mom's neat handwriting telling him they were at a friend's house in Dayton and wouldn't be back till the next morning. She also told him that the house better be spotless by the time they came back and that he wasn't to go anywhere.

Kurt knew they had no way to check up on him, unless they neighbors were spying for them, as he didn't have a cellphone and their landline had been disconnected the day after Blaine had moved.

He checked under the note to see if they had left him any money, but wasn't surprised that they hadn't. The fridge was in the same sorry state it had been in this morning, but now the last of the frozen dinners were gone as well, and the only thing in the fridge now was beer and tequila.

Kurt didn't mind cleaning the house, because he liked things clean and if he didn't do it they would live in a disgusting mess, but his stomach was grumbling when he finished vacuuming the floor and wiping down the kitchen counters. He was glad now for the food Blaine had given him, because it looked like he would have to go hungry for another day as he had no money left in his room.

The nice neighbor had unfortunately died a few years back and with her, Kurt's only source of income. He wished he could get a real after school job, but maybe it was good that he wasn't allowed because it would probably suck even more, if he earned money and had to give it to his parents.

Hoping his homework would distract him from his empty stomach he went back downstairs and pulled his books from his backpack. He worked steadily for the next two hours, dealing with math equations, an essay for his English class, and reading a few chapters for biology and history, before he went upstairs to get a glass of water before he'd start on his French homework.

French was his favorite subject and he was pretty much fluent in it by now, because he hoped that knowing a foreign language would help him later in life.

He stacked the already finished homework on his desk, before turning back to his bed looking for his French book. It wasn't on his bed, and tipping his backpack over didn't bring it to light either. Kurt knelt down to look under his bed, hoping it had just fallen off, because he needed to do his homework. He couldn't afford to not turn it in, not even once, because one thing he knew all too well – bad grades equaled a beating.

Blaine must have put it into his own bag he realized and for a moment he hated Blaine for causing this problem. He had no way of contacting Blaine because he didn't have a phone and didn't have Blaine's number either. He cursed himself for throwing out the piece of paper with Blaine's address on it, but even if he knew it, it would take him over an hour to walk to the stadium, as he didn't have a car, driver's license or money for the bus.

He was screwed.

Blaine

When Blaine got home from football practice he couldn't wait to jump into the shower. He didn't feel comfortable showering in the locker room with his teammates, especially after seeing what they did to other students.

He washed the rest of the gel out of his hair, glad he wasn't using the ridiculous amount he had at Dalton anymore. He had felt like he belonged, with his curly haired neatly gelled down, and styled like the rest of the boys', but now that he was a McKinley, he was fine wearing it mostly au-naturel. It saved him a lot of money and he didn't have to constantly wash his pillow because he lay down before washing his hair.

He was humming, working on his arrangement for Glee, when he stepped out of the shower and quickly got dressed in comfortable black jeans and a Dalton hoody before going over to his messenger bag and emptying onto his bed after taking out his laptop. He put his laptop onto his desk, before turning back to the mess on his bed, where he noticed a second French book next to his own – Kurt's Blaine realized.

He didn't know much yet about new Kurt, but he knew Kurt took school very seriously and would probably freak if he had to do his homework before class for once. It also gave him a good excuse to stop by Kurt's house, and maybe meet his scary mom again. He hadn't packed Kurt's book on purpose, but now that the idea was planted in his head, he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before. Not the book stealing, but the just showing up at Kurt's doorstep with some flimsy excuse.

Blaine stuffed the book back into his bag and walked downstairs, where his dad was watching 'Top Gear' in the living room.

"Hey dad, do you still remember the Anderson's address?" he asked his dad, hoping that Kurt hadn't moved in the past seven years. The neighborhood where he had picked Kurt up, had felt familiar but he couldn't be sure.

"He forgot to tell you or are you just going over there?" his dad asked, eyebrows raised and Blaine blushed. "I accidentally took one of his books and know he'll want it back. I don't have his phone number either, so I thought I just drive by and give it back."

His dad still smiled at him knowingly, but Blaine had no idea why he did. He didn't have the time to think about his dad's weird behavior. "Do you remember it or not?"

"Let's say it's a good thing that we old people still do things the old ways," his dad chuckled before going to the room in the back, designed as his office, but used just for storage. Moments later, he returned with a black address book and begin flipping through the pages.

When he found the right entry, he ripped off a piece of paper from the day old newspaper and scribbled down something before handing it to Blaine.

"Thanks dad, you're the best," Blaine told his dad, after reading the address. It sounded familiar and Blaine jumped into his car, typed the address into his GPS, and drove over to Lima Heights. Buildings were smaller here, and the color was peeling off most of them, but Blaine wasn't really surprised Kurt lived in that neighborhood.

As a child he hadn't noticed a lot of things, and they had spent most of their time together in Blaine's house, which had been in another part of town as well.

The house the GPS sent him to was small, but the moment he put the car in park in front of it, his memories came back. Looking up to Kurt's room where the light was on, and his mom telling him Kurt wasn't home. It definitely was the right house, but no cars were in the driveway this time, and so Blaine hoped someone was home and the house still belonged to the Anderson's.

He rang the doorbell and when nothing happened at first he rang it again, not willing to give up so easily. He was about to ring the bell for the third time when the door was yanked open, and Blaine came face to face with frantic looking Kurt.

"I don't want to buy anything, now go away," he said before he realized who he was talking to and his eyes widened. "Blaine," he stuttered, pulling on the hem of his oversized t-shirt. The sweat pants he was wearing looked like they had been in his possession for years, but Blaine again, ignored Kurt's awful clothes and just smiled at him.

"What are you doing here?" Kurt asked, his body blocking the entrance to the house and Blaine could tell he wasn't really welcome, though he didn't understand why. Had Kurt company?

"I saw that I packed your French book as well as mine, and thought you might want it back," he told Kurt, making no move to actually hand it over. Kurt's eyes were looking left and right before he finally stepped aside and let Blaine pass.

He didn't remember much about Kurt's house, just that he never felt at home there. It was clean now, but it still didn't give off a very homey vibe. The furniture was sparse and worn down, cigarette burns were all over the couch and empty beer bottles lined the walls in the living room. There were no pictures up on the wall and the color was peeling inside as well. He had never consciously thought about it before but now that it was right in front off him, he couldn't ignore it any longer. Kurt was poor, plain and simple.

Kurt wore clothes that didn't fit him, because he probably couldn't afford new ones and he was awfully skinny, probably because his family couldn't always afford food. It also explained his pride, not wanting to accept handouts, but Blaine was dead set on helping Kurt out as much as he could, without treating him like a charity chase. All he had to do was get Kurt to open up to him, so he could figure out what he needed.

Piece of cake, right?

Kurt

Kurt was wallowing in self-pity when the doorbell rang the first time, and he really wasn't in the mood to deal with some door to door salesman at the moment, so he just ignored it. Whoever was at the door though didn't give up, and so Kurt rolled off his bed, and walked back upstairs to the front door, yanking it open and telling the salesman to fuck off.

The moment he realized that it wasn't in fact a salesman but Blaine, his eyes widened and he froze for a moment, because this couldn't be happening, Blaine couldn't be here. The house was clean, but he still didn't want grown-up Blaine inside it. But then again, he also didn't want him at his doorstep because what if the neighbors saw Blaine and told his parents.

His mom would be convinced they were doing something they definitely weren't doing and he would be in a whole lot of trouble. Yeah, better get Blaine inside before the neighbors could see him, Kurt thought as he reluctantly stepped aside to let Blaine into the house.

He trailed after him, as Blaine looked around, feeling embarrassed by his living situation. "Do you want a glass of water? I don't think we have anything else at home apart from beer, but you can have one if you want," he offered. Blaine shook his head. "Me and beer haven't been the bestest of friends since the last party with the Warblers?"

Kurt looked at Blaine quizzically. Blaine was partying with birds? Blaine must have sensed his confusion because he quickly elaborated. "The Warblers was the name of the a cappella group at my old school – Dalton Academy." Kurt swallowed, because Dalton was the school he would escape to if he had any money. He couldn't believe Blaine would just give it up for McKinley.

"Why'd you leave?" he asked Blaine as he got two glasses of water from the kitchen.

"My dad had a heart attack earlier this year and when he was finally feeling better he lost his job. He told me I could board at Dalton while he moved to Lima and took over the auto shop on W. Elm, but I couldn't let him do that for me. I went to Dalton for two years and that cost enough already," Blaine recounted and Kurt realized that there were a lot of things he didn't know about Blaine either.

The Hummels had never been rich either, so he assumed something must have happened to Blaine to get Burt to send Blaine Dalton. "He is okay now though, right?" Kurt asked. He wasn't ready to talk about the past with Blaine because he was dreading the inevitable what happened question, but he needed to know Burt was okay.

Blaine nodded before sitting down on the living room couch, careful not to sit down on any stains, causing Kurt's face to color in embarrassment yet again. Just as he sat down on the other end of the couch, his treacherous stomach growled in front of Blaine, the second time that day, and Kurt wanted nothing more than bury his head in his hands until Blaine left and vowed never to talk to him again.

"Have you eaten yet? I could totally go for pizza right now. I'm just the kicker but they made me do a full training today," Blaine offered but Kurt didn't want him to buy him food yet again.

"My parents are out of town and must have forgotten to leave me some money. I was just going to cook something later," he said, hoping Blaine would get the hint and leave but Blaine just gave him this charming smile of his and pulled out his phone.

"Pizza it is. You might be able to wait a bit longer, but I'm starving," he said before ordering a family size pizza with four different toppings and telling the delivery service Kurt's address. Blaine mentioning he was starving made Kurt feel guilty for a moment because he'd been eating Blaine's food all day, but then he reminded himself that Blaine had given up his food voluntarily.

"Do you maybe want to do the French homework with me, while we are waiting for the pizza?" Kurt asked shyly, because being alone with Blaine still made him nervous. It made him want to spill his guts to Blaine, and therefore, as much as he liked Blaine's company, it was company he shouldn't keep, if he wanted to keep things from Blaine.

Blaine just smiled and handed him back his book, and before Kurt could react, Blaine was sitting directly next to him, leaning in close to be able to read the book as well. Kurt tried to keep control of his breathing as he inhaled Blaine's smell, and to calm his rapidly beating heart before he made a fool out of himself in front of Blaine.

Yes, getting closer to Blaine was definitely a bad idea.

Blaine

Blaine had felt Kurt tense when he leaned in closer to be able to read the book as well, and he tried to put some distance between them so he wouldn't scare Kurt off, but it was like he was drawn to the other boy. They finished in record time, Blaine just copying whatever Kurt was saying in the end because he had a hard time concentrating.

The pizza hadn't arrived yet and so Blaine stretched his hands over his head as he looked around once more. "Don't I get a tour," he joked. "It's been a while."

He saw Kurt tense yet again, but he still nodded and got up from the ratty old couch.

"Um, so yeah. Living room and kitchen," Kurt said, pointing awkwardly, before leading Blaine to a door leading to the basement. "Uh, Kurt. Why are we going to the basement?" he asked because if they were in a horror movie, now would be the time to scream, don't go down there, run for your life.

"I live down here," Kurt said as if a kid living in the basement wasn't a big deal. At least down here he would have more space than he had had upstairs. Kurt's bedroom had been tiny, and the one time Blaine had slept over, the night his mom had died, they had barely managed to fit a mattress next to the bed.

The walls in the basement were gray, and Blaine thought that with a little color Kurt could have an awesome room down here. Under a small window stood a table, on which and next to which, Kurt's used books were stacked neatly. He didn't have a bookshelf or any other furniture aside from a broken dresser and small bed with worn down looking sheets. There were no posters on the wall, no pictures of family or friends, no CD player or TV, and he hadn't seen a computer anywhere in the house either.

"Where do you type your assignments?" Blaine blurted out and Kurt's face turned red again and Blaine hated that he made Kurt feel like he had to be embarrassed about the way his family was living.

"I'm allowed to use a school computer during homeroom if no other students are using them. If not I have to hand them in handwritten which sucks, because the teachers always take away points and I can't afford to have anything other than As."

Blaine was surprised to get such an honest answer but immediately regretted asking when he caught Kurt's expression. He didn't like the way Kurt said he had to have As and he was starting to get a really bad feeling about Kurt's situation. His parents sounded super strict – with Kurt having to come home right after school and putting so much pressure on Kurt to have good grades. He hoped they were just doing it so Kurt could have a better future and life than they had.

"You can always borrow my laptop if you need to type up an assignment," Blaine offered but unsurprisingly, Kurt immediately shook his head. "It's fine. Most of the time I can do it at school and I really don't mind getting out of homeroom. I wish they were doing it alphabetically because even Azizmo would be better company than Karofsky."

Kurt stopped in his tracks, but Blaine already knew what his teammates were doing to Kurt. What he hadn't been aware of was that some of them were apparently worse than others.

"I'm really sorry about them, you know. I wish there was something I could do," he said knowing that platitudes weren't helping Kurt but he had nothing else to offer at the moment. Maybe he could swing by Kurt's house again the next morning and drive him to school, so the bullies couldn't throw him into the dumpsters. He couldn't just sit back and let others torment Kurt now that he was aware of what was happening.

"Thanks Blaine, it's nice of you to care. People usually pretend it isn't happening or just don't care," Kurt said sounding so defeated, Blaine wanted nothing more than pull him into his arms and hug the shit out of his so to speak but he wasn't sure Kurt would let him, and he didn't want to destroy the bit of trust he had earned so far.

And as for the computer situation, he would just have to find a way to help Kurt out, if he liked it or not.

Kurt

Kurt was on edge most of the evening but it got easier the longer Blaine stayed in the house. He was surprised the other boy hadn't run away screaming so far, but couldn't keep the small smile off his face when they sat down together on the living room couch to eat their pizza.

Blaine kept telling him stories of his misadventures with the Warblers, about missing his friends who had graduated already and those who were still in Westerville and Kurt was listening with rapt attention, wishing he could have gone to a school like that as well. He was glad though that Blaine's life seemed to have turned out okay after his mom had died, but it still hurt that Blaine had forgotten about him so easily and had had no problem replacing Kurt with newer and shinier friends immediately, just like his mom had told him.

He wanted to ask Blaine about that, but he was afraid of the answer even though he was sure Blaine would sugarcoat it.

So he just enjoyed the company, mostly keeping his mouth shut and letting Blaine talk. Kurt envied Blaine's future boyfriend because Blaine was seemingly perfect. He was good looking, smart and funny, had an amazing voice and cared enough about others to risk his own reputation. It was everything Kurt wanted in a boyfriend but would never have as long as he was stuck in Lima, because guys like Blaine were never interested in guys like Kurt. No, guys like Kurt got guys like Karofsky if they wanted them or not.

He was glad Blaine was willing to spend time in his company, even if it was just as friends – and was that what they were or were heading? – even though he still didn't get why the other boy even bothered to try to befriend Kurt, when Kurt clearly was not the type of friend a popular kid like Blaine should have or even want to have.

But he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and so he kept his mouth shut and enjoyed the best afternoon he had had in ages. Blaine's company made him forget about the horrible morning he had had and he wished he could spend all afternoons with Blaine, just like they had done when they were kids.

Up next: A musical message

As for looks: For Kurt think of Laryngitis, only Kurt is even paler, skinnier and as tall as he is now. For Blaine think of Blame it on the Alcohol, less gel, pants that actually cover his legs, no bow ties but still a bit preppy looking. (I'm not a fan of Blaine's post Dalton Wardrobe or hair style - so he doesn't look like that in this story)