He was overtired, his whole body ached. He rubbed his forehead and looked again at the cards in his hand. Kurt's handwriting brought a smile to his lips, he could look at it and picture his lovely fingers curled around the pen…no, this is not learning French.

But when he read the words he could hear Kurt pronouncing them for him, see the way his mouth formed the words. He willed himself to pull it together; failing French, failing ANYTHING would be unacceptable. His father had made that very clear.

Minutes later he was making real progress when he heard throat clearing behind him in the common room. Expecting the cleaning lady, he looked up and found his boyfriend wearing a trench coat.

"Kurt, what are you doing here, it's like 1AM."

"I couldn't wait to show you the routine I worked out for Nationals." He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, actually writhing with joy.

Blaine crossed the room and ran his fingers on the lapel of Kurt's coat, "Is it raining?"

"No, I just needed to cover the costume so it would be a surprise. Let's go to your room, I need your iPod speaker."

"I don't know Kurt, it's really late and I have that French final so early tomorrow morning…"

Kurt wrapped his fingers around Blaine's tie and pulled him close. Blaine thought he was going to kiss him but instead he leaned into his ear and whispered hotly "Trust me when I tell you, you want to see what's under this coat." And then he turned on his heel and started toward the dorms. What could Blaine do but follow?

They climbed the stairs silently, fingers entwined. Kurt was no longer allowed in the dorms since returning to McKinley and the sneaking around added to the racing of Blaine's heart. Kurt reached Blaine's locked door first and whispered at it, "Aholohomora" then entered and turned on the lights with a word, "Lumos."

Kurt plugged his iPod into Blaine's speaker and motioned for Blaine to sit on his bed. "Do you remember how I told you about when I joined the football team to impress my dad?"

"Honey, everyone at every high school in the state knows about when you joined the football team and had the team dancing to Beyonce on the field. Do you have a football uniform on under there cause I'm not sure I can handle…"

But Kurt wasn't listening. He started the IPod and dramatically flung the trench coat away revealing an outfit that could only be described as painted on. Any thought of exhaustion was gone, and if there was one thing Blaine wasn't it was numb. Dumbstruck yes, numb, not hardly. Kurt wore black…jeans, but spandex, tighter than some people's skin and leaving exactly nothing to the imagination. He also had on a black leotard, a glittering vest and a thin leather tie. It was beyond belief but Blaine had no time to really concentrate on what Kurt was wearing because he immediately began gyrating to the music, thrusting and swiveling his hips. Kurt kept his eyes locked to Blaine's face, watching his reaction with satisfaction, feeling empowered. He mimed the words, exaggerating them, throwing in more tongue than was strictly necessary.

Any trace of baby penguin gone, there was a full blown sex riot in Blaine's room. He tried to watch Kurt's face but when he dropped to one knee and seductively walked his fingers up his own thigh before springing to his feet, turning around and shaking his ass like he'd been working a pole for years Blaine gave up the ghost. He leaned back on his pillows and palmed the growing need in his uniform pants.

By the time the song ended Kurt was glistening with sweat and clearly aroused, the spandex in his jeans stretched to limits probably not intended or recommended by the manufacturer. In the silence after the song both boys breathing was loud. Kurt took a moment to watch Blaine layed against his pillows, thighs wide, hand over his crotch, eyes shaded with lust. His voice was thick, "C'mere."

Kurt crawled on hands and knees across the bed and hovered over his boyfriend, smiling down at him, "You liked it then?"

"Shut up." Blaine pulled at the leather tie and brought Kurt's full weight down on top of him, pressing a hungry kiss first at his throat, then his lips. Kurt pulled his hips back and then slid himself along Blaine's thighs before grinding into him, pelvis to pelvis.

"You think that'll win at Nationals?" He teased.

"You're never doing that in front of another living soul."

Kurt laughed and pulled at Blaine's shirt, biting him hard on the shoulder. He kept on, even after Blaine tried to distract him. Kurt's leg was pressed in a horrible way into Blaine's and he just kept biting down hard at his clavicle and shoulder. The pain overtook any pleasure he was experiencing from the grinding Kurt continued below. He begged him to stop, to give him just a second, to shift his weight but Kurt was relentless.

"Please, he clearly needs more painkillers. Please help him." Kurt pled with the nurse.

"We need him to wake up, then we'll reassess."

Kurt turned to his bruised boyfriend, out of surgery, and thrashing on the bed in pain.

He ran his fingers though Blaine's sweat soaked hair, "Baby, please wake up. You're okay."

"GET…OFF…OF…ME" Blaine spat it at him, an angry command and Kurt back up, stung and surprised. Blaine blinked then winced, his throat horse from the tubes that had been so recently removed. "ow"

Kurt cautiously approached the bed and Blaine attempted to smile at him with dry and cracking lips, "I was dreaming about you." He lifted his hand to reach for Kurt's and frowned at the tangle of IV's hanging from it.

Kurt moved to the other side of the bed and took the hand free of lines, "Couldn't have been a very good dream, you yelled at me."

Even through obvious pain Blaine's eyes shone with the memory of Kurt in those pants. "It was incredible, we were in my bed at school and…"

"Uh, yeah, so your Mom is here." Kurt cut him off before he could say too much.

Mrs. Anderson was in a chair looking out the window, had been since Blaine went down to surgery. It was his third day in the hospital, they had had to wait for some swelling to go down before they could perform the surgery to reset Blaine's collarbone. Blaine cast a worried glance in his mother's direction, "Has she been…is she?"

"She's been quiet."

It was their shorthand, developed naturally over time. It avoided Blaine having to ask the embarrassing question of which version of his mother had shown up. There were two possibilities, both drunk. One was loud and obnoxious, the other quiet and mournful, both equally likely.

The first time Kurt met Blaine's family was at Dalton. The Warblers had performed at an Open House for high roller donors to the school. Mr. Anderson had loudly proclaimed that of course all this caterwauling was well and good but he certainly hoped his son put half as much effort into improving his GPA (a 3.82) as he did into singing "pop garbage".

Mrs. Anderson had giggled like a school girl at everything the principal said and then spent all of Blaine's solo running her foot up the man's calf. When introduced to the Warblers she took the opportunity to tell a number of them what "handsome boys" they were and rub against them suggestively until Mr. Anderson moved her to the other side of the room. When it was time for them to leave for the evening she kissed Jeff on the cheek, though dangerously close to the mouth and whispered that he was the best of the Warblers. It took him the better part of an hour to get her lipstick off his face.

Later that night when everyone was getting ready for bed Kurt went to return a sweater and found Blaine red eyed. He didn't want to pry but when Blaine confessed h is embarrassment at his parent's behavior he smiled sympathetically. He assured him that everyone had weirdness in their family and no one would see Blaine any differently because of this evening. Blaine thanked him and asked to be alone. "Okay, but if you need me you know where I live. And Blaine?"

"Yeah honey?"

"Jeff could do worse than your Mom."

He smiled, "Shut up."

Blaine changed his clothes and sat on his bed, heavy hearted. He had never really talked to anyone about his family. He avoided letting his friends meet them. He was more like his father than he cared to admit to himself, never talking honestly about his home life, always pretending that everything was an All American Picture of Perfection.

He thought about Kurt and his dad. The thing that made them so special was their honesty and acceptance. Blaine wanted that so badly in his life and he felt like he was getting there in his relationship with Kurt. He sighed and realized the only way to have that of relationship was to start with honesty.

Blaine padded, barefoot, in his sweats and tee shirt down the hall to Kurt's room and knocked. When Kurt opened the door Blaine remained in the hall, seeming unsure of himself than ever. "I know it's late, but I really need to talk."

Kurt stepped in to the hall and put an arm around his boyfriend's waist, ushering him inside. He grabbed an afghan from his bed and sat on the Papasan chair, motioning for Blaine to join him. They had sat here before when they couldn't sleep, watching the rain, or the snow out the window. Blaine chose to be "little spoon" tonight, curling into Kurt with his back to him, looking at the moon. Kurt draped the blanket over them, wrapped his arms around Blaine's torso and waited.

"I've never really talked to anyone about what growing up was like for me. There's a lot of shame when you have a perfectionist father and an alcoholic mother."

He had never said the word out loud before, not in relation to his mother. Saying it made it more real and he felt guilt for putting the label on her.

"I knew she didn't act like other people's mothers, she'd show up at school too early, or forget to pick me up at all. She was too loud in restaurants, too affectionate with me in public. The fighting, he would be so mean to her, trying to force her to just be normal. She'd cry and cry and tell him she's stop if he'd stop cheating on her all over town. All of it taught me to stay in the shadows and not make trouble, not make noise. Dad would be terrifying if I caused a further scene; Mom would latch on and drag me into her drama whether that meant crying to me about how Dad didn't love us or acting all over happy and trying to make everything a party. So I stayed quiet and hidden. I didn't really try to hide her though, until one day when I was 8. I brought a friend home from school. She knew it was happening, knew how excited I was to have someone to come and spend time with. I was a pretty lonely kid." Blaine swallowed hard, " I tried to prepare her. Dad was going to be out of town so I thought if he wasn't around to scare her she'd stay normal and I let her know, 'my friend is coming. Try to just make cookies and then let us play okay?' But when we came in she called us from the kitchen. She was dancing a Charleston in a blouse and nothing on from the waist down. She insisted we dance with her."

His eyes were far away, a tear fell down his cheek. Kurt tightened his hold and kissed his shoulder, "'I'm sorry."

"After that I avoided making friends at all. I didn't want anyone to ask about my family, wonder why I didn't bring anyone home, have sleepovers, any of that. My father tried to make me join sports, got angry that I wouldn't 'act like the other boys'. When I was 12 mom fell, hit her head on the table in the hall, we were in the emergency room getting her stitched up and he looked me square in the eyes and said, 'The way you are it's no wonder your mother drinks." Now he gave in to everything he had been carrying alone in his heart for so long, he collapsed into tears, turning into Kurt's chest and allowed himself to be rocked. Kurt kissed his hair, and whispered words of love and support until Blaine's breathing went from gulping to steady, and he was finally spent and asleep.

When the sun assaulted Kurt's eyes hours later, he gently kissed Blaine awake. Embarrassed Blaine stretched away from Kurt and avoided his gaze heading for the door, making excuses about needing to get showered for class. Kurt reached for his hand and pulled him back, "Thank you. What you shared with me last night was heartbreaking and I'm sorry that you've been so alone but I want you to know you're not alone now. I will always be here for you, nothing will scare me away. You're strength is amazing."

Blaine kissed him softly, "I couldn't have said those things to anyone but you. I don't know what I would have done last night if I didn't have you."

"You will always have me. I promise you Blaine, I will never leave your side."

Back in the hospital Kurt could see from Blaine's expression his mind was wandering to a dark place as he watched his mother, motionless but for her quiet mumbling. He smiled and whispered, "I don't think she's paying attention to us, tell me about this dream."