With a deafening thud, Kurt felt himself being thrown against his locker - he could feel how the air was smashed out of his lungs, how the lock was pressing painfully against his back, how his limbs were going numb. He didn't try to fight it but instead let himself slide down slowly, wishing that whoever it was that had pushed him would just walk on and leave him to it, when he heard voices overhead.

"Hey! Dude, that's not cool!"

Finn. Finn? It sounded like Finn. It was hard to be sure, though, his head was pounding and he was scared of opening his eyes, scared of what he might see.

"Seems like you've been living with the fairy too long, Hudson - what, is he your boyfriend now?"

"He's my FRIEND, and I won't let you push him around like this, Karofsky."

Kurt winced as he heard the burly jock roar with laughter.

"Wooo... I'm scared now. Who you're gonna bring for that, ha? Or are you going to report me?"

"It would be our word against yours, Karofsky," Finn sounded surprisingly calm, "and you have a history of being suspended for bullying - I'm sure coach Beiste wouldn't appreciate a member of her football team being involved in that kind of thing. Again."

Oh for the love of everything, Kurt thought vaguely, please let me have misunderstood that. Please let that not be Finn threatening Karofsky.

"You wouldn't."

It was said defiantly, but Kurt could hear it - that little streak of doubt underneath. He guessed Finn might have heard it too, because there was no doubt whatsoever in his reply.

"Watch me."

Silence and then footsteps, quickly stomping away, and a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey... Kurt... Kurt, are you okay?"

Kurt smiled - he forced himself to smile, finally opening his eyes, and allowed Finn to help him sit in a somewhat more comfortable position.

"I'm... I'll be fine, Finn. Thanks, though."

He saw Finn look at him worriedly, and despite everything it warmed his heart. It was still Finn, after all, and although he was long over his crush, Kurt would always have a soft spot for the clumsy, good-hearted quarterback.

"Hey... our parents may have broken up but you're still a brother to me," Finn said, "I told you that. I promised Burt I wouldn't let anything happening to you, and I intend to keep that promise. I got your back, ok? Me, and everyone else in Glee club. You know that, right?"

"I know," Kurt replied, heaving a sigh, "I know. It was the first time this week, though, I swear."

Actually, it was the second time, but Kurt was not about to spill that to anyone. Things h�d changed for the better, after all, at McKinley High. The Glee jocks were rarely seen together anymore, opting to each stay close to one of the more vulnerable members instead, hoping it would have a deterring effect on the bullies. It seemed to work, and although Kurt was still being shoved against the lockers or thrown in a dumpster from time to time, it was now a weekly occurrence rather than a daily one. There had been help from an unsuspected side as well - although coach Sylvester would never admit she was doing it to help Kurt, her ban on slushies (she claimed the high sugar content had caused her Cheerios to be hyperactive and unconcentrated, causing them to lose Regionals) had effectively reduced the amount of laundry Kurt was doing on a weekly basis fivefold. As a result, complaining about something futile as being shoved twice in a single week seemed nothing less than ungrateful to Kurt.

"Good... that's good... I mean, it's not good it happened but... "

Finn seemed to realize he was about to lose himself in rambles again, because he quickly stood up, reaching out a hand to Kurt.

"Come on, let's go, I'll walk you to your next class, ok?"

Kurt nodded and took the hand gratefully, letting himself be pulled up. He took a moment to readjust his clothes and check for any damage -one button had been torn from his jacket, but that seemed to be the worst of it, fortunately- before he reached out for his bag, slinging it over his shoulder as he started walking along his former step-brother.

"Finn, is Carole home today or will you be alone?" he asked, glancing sideways. "Because I'd like to come over some time, if that's okay."

"Eh... dude... ," Finn seemed suddenly nervous, eyes darting between Kurt and the floor as they kept walking, and Kurt could see how the boy had to fight not to increase the distance between them. He frowned.

"What?"

"Well... it's just... I mean, I'm glad to help out, I mean, if Karofsky is bothering you, and all, but I... well... it doesn't mean that... you know... I'm not... and I promise, I'm like, cool with it, really, it's nothing like that! You have to believe me - because, I mean, it's cool, you being... you know... and all that, but I... I don't-"

"Finn!" Kurt rolled his eyes as he watched the jock stutter away. It was endearing, really, but he didn't have time for this. "I'm not asking because I want you home alone - I'm not trying to seduce you. I'm asking because I need to talk to your mom, that is, if she's not working tonight?"

The relief on Finn's face couldn't have been more apparent, and his standard lopsided smile took over.

"Oh. Yeah, sure. I mean, no, she's not working. So, yeah, you can... come over... if you like. Anytime. Like... you know..."

"Thanks Finn," Kurt smiled, coming to a halt in front of his History class room, "I'll see you tonight, then."

"Yeah. See you."

That night, Kurt rang the bell of the Hudson home.

"Kurt! Come in! Finn told me you were going to stop by tonight! How are you? How's your dad? Is he recovering well?"

Kurt smiled as he entered the house and took off his coat, all the while patiently letting Carole bombard him with questions. As he followed her to the living room, he tried to answer as many as he could - yes, he was fine, really and so was his dad, thanks for asking and yes, he was almost fully recovered now, so if she wanted to visit him some time, he was sure his dad would appreciate?

"That is very sweet of you to say, Kurt," Carole said, a blush appearing on her cheek, "thanks, maybe I will."

Kurt smiled back at her, glad to find they fell back into the conversation easily. He had gotten along great with Mrs. Anderson, their common interest in fashion and cooking providing a never-ending source of conversation topics, but she had been more like an older friend, a mentor, almost. With Carole things were different, and Kurt could honestly say she was the closest he'd ever let anyone come to be a mother figure to him. It was something Carole was very much aware of and didn't take lightly, and Kurt appreciated her all the more for it.

"So Finn said you wanted to ask me something?"

Carole sat down into one of the couches, gesturing at Kurt to take a seat himself, too. He gladly accepted the invite, taking a breath before he started.

"I have a favor to ask you. You work at the Lima Memorial Hospital, right?"

He briefly told her about Nicky, and Blaine, leaving out the unnecessary, personal details, but iterating how close the two brothers had been, and how they had lost contact.

"We know he was taken to the Memorial Hospital. Now, I'm not asking you to tell me what injuries he had or to break any confidentiality policy or anything like that, or even to give me his social security number. Although it would be convenient."

He raised his hand when he saw Carole wanting to protest.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding... . But if you... if you could just take a look at his discharge papers, and tell us what address it says? If we want to know where he is now, we need to know where he went when he left the hospital, so we can reconstruct everything. It would be such a great help."

"You know I can't do that, Kurt," Carole said, softly. "You know I can't just look through a patient's file and take out information. I'm a nurse, people trust me."

"Just the address, Carole - you wouldn't even really tell us where he is, he probably went to a temporary facility or a foster home or something like that and he won't even be there anymore now. We'll figure it out from there but we... we just need to be able to start somewhere. Blaine hasn't seen Nicky in almost two years, he doesn't even know for sure if he's still alive. So please?"

Kurt looked at her pleadingly, and when he saw her glance down, he knew he'd won.

"I'll see what I can do," Carole said, lifting a finger at Kurt when she saw him bouncing up and down, his hands clasped together. "I'm not promising anything though!"

But Kurt didn't mind.

"That's ok, alright! Great! You'll try! That's all I'm asking!"

He beamed at Carole, who couldn't help but smile back - he was as close a son to her as she was a mother to him, after all.

"Have you tried the adoption agencies?" Kurt asked.

He had figured that, while they were waiting for Carole's sneak investigation, they could at least try to get a head start on how to proceed if that particular lead didn't work out. And thus he was now lying flat on his stomach on Blaine's bed, trying to make a list of what they had already tried and where they could possibly find more information on Nicky. Blaine was sitting behind him with his laptop, calling upon the Internet Gods for any piece of information that could help them out.

"Isn't that a bit of a stretch?" Blaine replied. "And which agency should I check? There seem to be a gazillion of them, and I don't know if they even work together with the CWA."

"We'll have to figure that out, then," Kurt said, making a note. "Have you checked Facebook? MySpace?"

Blaine looked skeptical.

"He's only ten, I don't think he'd be on there, would he?"

"Well, it's worth a try, right?" Kurt glanced over his shoulder. "The simplest approach is always the best, or what was it?"

"If you're referring to Occam's razor, that would be 'the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one'. But I get your point."

Blaine drew up a new window, typing in the address and hitting enter. As he waited for the page to load, however, he sighed, looking up at Kurt. There was something else, something besides Nicky's current whereabouts, that had been plaguing him all evening.

"Kurt?" he asked tentatively, waiting for the other boy to turn around before he continued. "Can I ask you why you are even doing this?"

"Doing what?" Kurt feigned innocence, returning to his papers.

"This," Blaine gestured at his bed which had papers and pictures all over it, "trying to find a boy you've never even met."

For a moment, he was scared he'd overstepped some invisible boundary he hadn't been aware of, because for a good minute Kurt remained focussed on the papers in front of him, the only movement coming from the pencil in his hand, ticking nervously against the note block.

"Because he's important to you," he finally said, turning on his side to look at Blaine. "Because I know how it feels like to lose someone. I'll never get my mom back, but you... you could find Nicky again. And it's fun to do, really."

"And... ?" Blaine asked, feeling instinctively there was more to it than Kurt let on.

"And... it gives me an excuse to hang out with you," Kurt finally admitted, a blush creeping on his cheeks as he quickly turned around again.

"Hey," Blaine frowned, pulling Kurt's leg to grab his attention, "you don't need an excuse to hang out with me, you know that, right?"

"I know," Kurt glanced at him. "I know. It's just..."

"What? It's just what?"

Blaine frowned - surely Kurt didn't think they couldn't hang out because they didn't go to the same school anymore, or no longer lived under the same roof? To be fair, ever since he found out about Kurt's feelings, Blaine h�d tried to put a bit more space between the both of them: taking more care in what he talked about, cutting down on the touching, definitely cutting down on the teasing... . It had been difficult, a lot more difficult than Blaine had anticipated, actually, but he had persisted: he didn't want to make things harder on Kurt than strictly necessary. Was it possibly that he had overdone it, though? Had he pushed it too far?

"It's just you've been acting differently," Kurt said, pushing himself up. He was facing Blaine, but pointedly ignored the other boy's gaze. "Ever since I transferred back, ever since New Year's really, you've been more... distant. And I just... I just wondered if maybe I did something wrong, or said something that-"

"No, of course not! Kurt, why would you even think that?"

Blaine put his laptop aside, scooting towards Kurt.

"It was nothing you said, okay?"

It was meant to be reassuring, but clearly Kurt was on edge because he picked up on it - that slight, barely noticeable emphasis on the "you".

"Nothing I said?" he asked, looking up, confused. "Then who-"

"No one, Kurt, no one," Blaine said quickly - too quickly. He cursed inwardly, angry because he had promised himself he wouldn't ever let Kurt find out about this. He looked at Kurt, pleading, asking him with his eyes to leave the matter alone. "It's not important."

But the damage had been done, and Blaine knew Kurt wouldn't let it go that easily.

"Was it one of the Warblers? Someone from Glee Club? Rachel, Finn, Merce-"

And although Blaine tried to fight it, he couldn't help but look away at the mention of the name.

Kurt's voice caught in his throat, racking his brain. Mercedes. When did she even see Blaine? What could she have told him that would've made him change his behavior so blatantly?

Oh.

Blaine could see the realization hit Kurt, and he moved towards the other boy.

"Kurt! It's... nothing, ok? I mean it's not nothing, of course, but..."

But it was no use. Kurt scrambled backwards, panting, looking up at Blaine in horror.

"Oh my. Oh God. Oh no. Oh God no, she told you."

"She didn't tell me anything, Kurt, I swear," Blaine scooted further towards Kurt, but the boy only moved further back, still looking horrified. "She didn't tell me anything, she just... dropped a hint and I figured it out from there."

But Kurt barely even seemed to hear him.

"Oh God, you must think I'm pathetic - falling in love with my brother. Again. You must think I was such a creep. Oh God."

Kurt was breathing so fast now that Blaine feared he might start to hyperventilate at any moment and he took advantage of Kurt's momentary shock to move forward and take Kurt's face in his hands.

"Kurt. Kurt, look at me. Look at me!"

He waited until he was sure he had the other boy's full attention before he spoke again.

"Kurt, listen to me. You're not pathetic. I don't think you're a creep."

"You don't?" Kurt sounded incredulous but seemed to calm down a bit nevertheless.

Blaine smiled reassuringly.

"I don't. If anything, I find it sweet, endearing, and a huge compliment. So will you calm down? Please?"

Kurt froze for a second before he nodded slowly, and Blaine carefully removed his hands from the other boy's face, falling back into his place. Suddenly, Kurt seemed to remember something.

"You were sitting next to her on New Year's, during my song. You walked out."

He looked up at Blaine, the fear returned in his eyes as if he was fully expecting Blaine to say he had walked out because he was revolted by the idea of Kurt being in love with him.

"I just needed some fresh air," Blaine tried to explain, "I'm such an ignorant fool sometimes and I just... it was just unexpected, okay? Just... unexpected. Nothing bad. Okay?"

Another small nod, and then Kurt actually started smiling.

"You know, I remember thinking, does he really have to go to the bathroom now? He hasn't left the room for the whole evening, and now that I'm here on stage..."

"... showing off?" Blaine offered helpfully, grinning slightly.

"... singing." Kurt finished his sentence, shooting Blaine an indignant look. "I was singing."

But Blaine shook his head, his grin widening at the memory.

"You were showing off."

"Was not!"

The indignation on Kurt's face was quickly turning into a full-on death glare, but Blaine had seen it once too often to still be impressed.

"Was too," he said teasingly, "you were showing off. You were trying to impress me."

He poked playfully at Kurt's side, and the other boy jerked away.

"I was not... Blaine!"

But Blaine didn't listen, slowly intensifying his attack on Kurt's sides, tickling him wherever he had the chance.

"Blaine - Blaine stop! How old are you even - BLAINE!"

Kurt's arms flailed widely, desperate for something to grab, to fight back with, when his fingers finally closed around a nearby cushion. Without a moment's hesitation, he blindly whacked it at Blaine.

"Aauw!" Blaine grasped at his head, glaring. "That hurt!"

"Should've thought of that before you started tickl- aaargh!"

Before he even knew what was happening, Kurt found himself once again under attack, and despite his struggle he was soon overpowered, pinned down on the bed with Blaine hovering over him. His foster was apparently stronger than he looked, because he seemed to have no problem keeping the taller boy down.

"Admit it," Blaine panted over his head, "admit you were trying to impress me."

"No!" Kurt wriggled, trying to escape Blaine's strong grip, but it was no use.

"Admit it!"

"Never! I- oh damn," Kurt grumbled as he felt himself being pushed down, the papers below him crackling. "All right! All right. Fine. I may have - possibly - in a completely unconscious way, mind you - put some effort into broadcasting my talents as best as I could."

He looked at Blaine defiantly. "That's all you're gonna get."

"Good enough," Blaine grinned, as he rolled off of him and off the bed. Kurt felt a shiver running down his spine at the loss of contact and quickly scrambled up, trying to hide his sudden discomfort.

"Mercedes is gonna pay for this," he muttered, glancing at Blaine who was now tracing his hand through his hair, a victorious grin painted on his face. "And so are you."

"I'm looking forward, little brother," Blaine winked at him, not in the least bit impressed. "I'm looking forward."