Kurt Hummel sat at his desk, focusing intently on his Calculus homework. He squinted in the low light from his desk lamp. His head was beginning to throb from the combination of his nearly broken lamp and the steady pitter-patter of rain against his window. He jumped at the sound of his cell phone suddenly ringing. Picking it up, he flicked it on to see his boyfriend’s name shining up at him. “Hey there,” he said, closing his textbook and settling himself on the bed. Conversations with Blaine tended to take a while, and he had already resigned himself to not getting much more homework done.

“Hi,” Blaine said. There was a pause as he cleared his throat. “Could you maybe, um, come over here?” He cleared his throat again and added,

“Please?” His voice seemed to be shaking.

“Well, I guess, but it’s-“ Kurt stole a glance at the clock “-ten-thirty.”

“Just, please?” Kurt heard something on the other end that sounded like a car going by.

“Are you outside?” Kurt asked, astounded. “Blaine, it’s raining! Hard!”

“I’ll explain when you get here.” And with that he promptly hung up, without so much as a goodbye. Which was odd, because they usually spent a good 5 minutes on the ‘no-you-hang-up-first’ routine.

There had been one instance, before Kurt had even transferred to Dalton, where Blaine had admitted (almost shyly?) that he didn’t want to hang up. This prompted Kurt to say the same thing, which launched them into a five-minute discussion about how exactly to hang up at the same time. Their suggestions got more ridiculous by the minute, until Blaine finally chuckled and said they were acting like an old married couple. This caused Kurt to blush furiously and hang up so quickly that Blaine questioned him about it the next day. (“Um…my phone died!”)

He took the stairs two at a time, stopping only to grab a coat (and then stopping again to get another for Blaine, just in case). When his dad asked where he was going, he just called, “I’ll be back in a few!”

After the first three calls, Kurt wisely turned off his phone. He had to restrain himself from rushing to Blaine’s house at top speed. Getting a ticket wouldn’t help him at all in this situation.

When he pulled into the driveway, he saw at once that his suspicion had been correct. Blaine was sitting on the doorstep in nothing but a tee-shirt and sweatpants, both of which were now completely soaked. Opening the umbrella that he kept in his car at all times, Kurt rushed over to him and draped the coat over his shoulders before sitting down next to him.

“Thanks,” Blaine murmured, shoving his hands into the pockets.

“What happened?” Kurt said. He shifted the umbrella so that it covered both of them as Blaine squirmed slightly, licking his lips and trying to figure out what to say.

“My dad and I…” he started, choosing each word carefully. “Kind of got into…a little, uh…disagreement.” Only then did Kurt notice the slowly purpling mark over Blaine’s right eye. With mounting horror, he cast a more critical eye over him and discovered that Blaine was covered in little cuts and bruises.

“Oh my god,” Kurt whispered, his voice barely audible over the pouring rain. “He didn’t…I mean…”he trailed off, unable to put what he was thinking into words. Blaine saw where he was looking and realization dawned on his face.

“Oh no, no! He didn’t-no.” Blaine shook his head emphatically. “No, I um…” He smiled sheepishly. “I actually kind of…fell down the stairs.” Kurt giggled, but it was soon cut short when he saw the smile slip off Blaine’s face, only to be replaced by the same blank, lost look that he’d been wearing before.

“But he…kicked you out?” Blaine bit his lip.

“Well, sort of. I kind of…kicked myself out.” When Kurt’s only reaction was to raise his eyebrows, Blaine continued.

“He said some stuff…I got mad…kinda stormed out.” He sighed and slouched lower. “Don’t really think he’s gonna let me back in though.”

“Well, you can always stay with us,” Kurt offered.

“Really?”

“Of course. I mean, Dad’ll probably be a little irritated at first, but he can’t exactly turn you away.”

“I-thank you, Kurt.” He just shrugged.

“It’s nothing much.” They sat together for another moment or two, before Kurt stood up and held out his hand. “Come on. You’ll catch a cold if you
stay out here any longer.” Blaine took the proffered hand and allowed himself to be tugged to his feet.

During the ride back to Kurt’s house, neither of them said a word. Kurt decided to let Blaine sort out his thoughts, although he kept a tight grip on his hand the entire way back.

When he pulled into the garage, his dad was there immediately.

“Kurt, what the hell’s goin’ on here? I mean, I understand you need your freedom and everything, but you can’t just run off at 10:30 at night and not tell me where you’re goin’! You shoulda at least-“

He stopped short as Blaine got out of the passenger seat. Keeping his voice quiet and his eyes cast downwards, he said, “Hello, Mr. Hummel.”

Burt’s expression immediately softened as he said, “How many times have I told ya, kid? Call me Burt.” Blaine only nodded, still not looking up. Burt gave his son a questioning glance.

“Blaine kind of got kicked out,” Kurt murmured. “He and his dad got in a fight. I’m not sure of the details.” Burt nodded once, then looked over to where Blaine was standing scuffing his toe against the garage floor.

“Hey, kid,” he said. Blaine finally looked up.

“Yes, sir?”

“Feel free to stay as long as you want.”

“Oh, I…thank you, sir.”

“And call me Burt!” he called after them as they made their way into the living room.

There they found Carole, sitting on the couch with her arms wrapped around herself.

“Kurt, what’s going on? You just left and-oh.” She, too, stopped as she saw Blaine enter the room behind Kurt.

“I’ll explain later,” Kurt said quickly, rushing Blaine up the stairs into his room. When he noticed how much Blaine was shivering, he sighed, and said, “Okay. Go shower first, then tell me what happened.” Teeth chattering too much to say anything, Blaine merely nodded. He took the pajamas that Kurt had dug out for him (they were an old pair, so they were slightly small for him, but they’d probably fit on Blaine) and shuffled off to the bathroom.

Kurt slowly sank down onto the bed, rubbing at his eyes. It had been an eventful evening, no doubt, but the worst was yet to come.
Just then, Burt poked his head into the room. “Hey buddy. Blaine doing all right?”

“He’s in the shower. “

“Ah. And did you…uh…”

“I haven’t gotten the full story out of him yet. It might take a while.”

“Okay. Just as long as you know what you’re doing.” Kurt smiled and laughed lightly.

“I think I know how to handle my boyfriend.”

“Alright. Just, you know. Making sure.” With that, he backed out of the room.

And just in time, too; for not a second later, Blaine emerged from the bathroom, clad in Kurt’s rolled-up pajama pants and a Dalton sweater that he’d left there one day and forgotten to take home.

“Well don’t you look handsome,” Kurt joked. Blaine’s mouth twitched into a
halfhearted smile before fading back into his former deadpan. Kurt was really starting to get worried, because Blaine’s default facial expression was generally a smile.

“Blaine. What happened with you and your dad?” He was looking everywhere except at Kurt.

“It’s-it’s nothing.”

“It’s gotta be something if you kicked yourself out of the house.”

“I said it’s nothing!” Blaine snapped. Kurt remained silent, and Blaine turned around, suddenly horrified. “Kurt. I didn’t mean to…I just…”

“It’s fine. Just come here.” He scooted over to make room for Blaine on the bed next to him. Blaine walked over as if forcing himself to make every step. As soon as he had settled down, Kurt reached over and intertwined their fingers.

“Just tell me what happened,” he said soothingly.

“I really-“ Blaine took a deep breath and started over. “I don’t want to talk about it. Not right now.”

“Putting it off won’t make it any easier.”

“I know, I know,” he said, getting irritated again. “I just-“ he broke off with a sigh.

“At least tell me what you were fighting about,” Kurt said gently. After a couple seconds of lip-chewing, he answered with a single word.

“You.”

“What?” Out of any possible answers, this one was definitely the least expected.

“My dad and I-were fighting-about you.” Once he had finally forced himself to say it, he seemed to relax a little bit. He looked over at Kurt and, seeing his shocked face, let out a laugh. “Wait, no, let me explain.”

His voice tightened again as he launched into his story.

“I was…I was telling my dad about you, and how we planned to, um, go out together, you know?” Kurt nodded, never taking his eyes off the boy beside him. “And he just, um, kept calling you ‘a friend.’ And I mean he does it all the time but it just…just irritated me today, so I snapped and told him that you’re my boyfriend.” He pressed his eyes closed for a second, then opened them and smiled gently at Kurt. “And he-he just ignored me, as usual. So I just, I dunno, I just got mad. I yelled at him.” He closed his eyes and took another deep breath. “And all he said was, ‘you’ll get through this phase eventually.’ Or something. And so I just…I just screamed that I loved you. And then I just…walked out.”

He took a deep, shuddering breath and squeezed his eyes shut again. For a couple minutes, neither of them moved. Neither of them spoke. Kurt was struck dumb by Blaine’s story.

He finally composed himself enough to say, “Oh my god, Blaine. You didn’t…you didn’t have to…”

Blaine just shrugged, his eyes still shut tightly and his lips still pressed together. Kurt racked his brain for something else to say, but no words came. Instead, he just wrapped his arms tightly around Blaine’s shoulders and held him to his chest. Blaine instantly relaxed into the embrace, tucking his face into the crook of Kurt’s neck and snaking his arms around his waist. Kurt gently trailed his fingers up and down Blaine’s back, tracing patterns into his skin through the soft cotton of his tee-shirt.

“We should probably go to bed,” Blaine mumbled.

“Yeah,” Kurt whispered back. But they didn’t break apart until Burt came up the stairs and knocked on the door.

“All right boys, time for bed. Blaine, you can sleep on the couch. And no funny business.”

Kurt laughed lightly, and for the first time all night, Blaine joined in wholeheartedly.

Once Burt had left the room, Kurt stood up and stretched. “Just let me get changed and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

“But your dad said-“

“He just said ‘no funny business.’ That’s pretty ambiguous, don’t you think?” Blaine grinned, and the smile actually reached his eyes.

“I love you.” Kurt kissed him on the forehead.

“I love you too.”

When he emerged from the bathroom and went down the stairs, he found Blaine sitting rigidly upright, his hands clasped in his lap. Kurt smiled fondly and sat down next to him.

“Hey there.”

“Hi,” Blaine responded. Without warning, Kurt swung his legs up onto the couch, leaning back against the pillow that had been placed there.

“C’mere,” he said, opening his arms. Blaine smiled and lay down, once again nuzzling Kurt’s neck. Kurt draped one arm across Blaine’s back and let the other dangle over the side of the couch.

Blaine cuddled closer and curled his fingers around Kurt’s.

“Thanks,” he muttered. Kurt just pressed a kiss to his temple and closed his eyes, allowing sleep to take over.

And that was how Burt found them, fifteen minutes later.

He didn’t have the heart to tell them to move.