Kurt who was splayed out on his bed staring at two shirts he'd hung up by the closet door, lifted an eyebrow in question. Blaine waved his hand at him.

"Why not? Your brother's home for once, Blaine, what's going on?"

"I, um, I'm going to a fundraiser with Kurt at his old school." The moment he said it, Blaine regretted it. He could see in his mind, the way his mother pursed her lips.

"Oh," she said, her tone cold, "well, I guess that takes precedence over your family."

Blaine sighed. "It's important to me, mom, they're my friends and they asked me to come and I just want to support them. I meant no dinner tonight. I could come this weekend."

There was a long moment, before his mother said, "fine." After a moment's pause she added, "Blaine, I hope you know that I understand how important spending time with your friends is after all you've been through, but it is also unhealthy to be so attached to this Kurt."

He could have said it then, over the phone, just said the words and hung up. He wouldn't have to deal with her reaction until he saw her next. He didn't.

"He's my best friend," Blaine said instead. "I'll see you this weekend."

"Love you."

"Love you too, mom."

"Which one?" Kurt asked.

To Blaine both shirts looked exactly the same, but he knew better than to tell Kurt that. Instead he shrugged, "you're better at choosing than I am, but I have to say that it doesn't matter in the least, you look good in anything."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "It's like you think flattery will get you places."

Blaine perched himself next to Kurt on the bed and placed a hand on Kurt's back before he leaned towards him and whispered into his ear, "it will when we both know it's true."

Kurt shivered and turned to capture Blaine's face in his hands and kiss him. Blaine fell into Kurt with a grunt, kissing the other boy back as he got himself into a better position. He just had, when Kurt pushed him away and got off the bed.

"Told you so," Blaine called after Kurt.

Kurt laughed. He grabbed both shirts and walked into his closet without saying a word. When he returned he was dressed and ready to go. Mr. Hummel just told them to be careful on their way and turned back to his TV program, when they were leaving and Blaine wondered if his parents would act that way, ever, if he brought Kurt home and finally introduced him as he deserved to be introduced.

"You didn't have to come with me," Kurt told him while they were in his car.

Blaine reached for his hand. "I wanted to. I think…I think my mom suspects something's going on. I don't know how to tell them yet, but giving them hints like this, it's a start. I…I'm going to tell Everett though."

Kurt nodded.

When they got to McKinley, there was a longing look on Kurt's face that told Blaine just what he needed to know. Kurt missed McKinley, his friends, his glee club. He'd been seeing slowly how much more Kurt spoke about New Directions and not just because they were going to Nationals. He missed his friends.

Watching him with them later, after their night of neglect had come to an end, Blaine decided that he wouldn't put up a fuss when Kurt eventually decided to transfer back, but he would worry and he would do his best to make sure Kurt was safe there.

"Kurt's transferring back to McKinley," Blaine said into his phone.

The sound of Everett moving things around was heard and then, Everett answered, "I'm sorry, Blaine. Does that…is it over man?"

Blaine didn't hear the words at first before he violently shook his head even though his brother wasn't able to see him. "No. What makes you say that? It's not too far away. No, Kurt and I can make it through this, I just, I'm going to miss him."

"Alright, then," Everett said, "why are you calling me then?"

"Well, I wanted to know what you thought about me telling mom and dad. I haven't yet and it's been a little over a month now and it's like every time I'm over there I'm just holding this big thing inside me."

Everett sighed. "Blaine, if you want to tell them, then tell them…just, don't get your hopes up that they'll be all excited for you. That's not…"

"I know," Blaine said interrupting him, "I just…I think mom knows, but of course she hasn't asked me, because we just never talk about anything ever. It's so weird going to Kurt's house…conversation just flows. Sometimes I think they know me better than mom and dad do."

Everett laughed but didn't say anything and Blaine heard him moving more things.

"Listen, Blaine, I lost something, and I should really go find it, because it won't end well if I don't find it…so, um, talk to you later? Just go with your gut and never expect too much from them."

Blaine sighed and nodded to himself. "Yeah, alright."

Blaine slipped his phone into his pocket and walked from where he'd been standing by the window, back to the common room where the rest of the Warblers were celebrating their latest off-campus performance.

"There you are," Kurt said, reaching his hand out for Blaine's from where he sat.

Taking the hand, Blaine grinned and brought it up to his lips. Someone behind him made a cooing sound that needed to be questioned on its validity on being a real expression at their adorableness or mocking them. He dropped to the seat next to Kurt.

"What happened while I was gone?" he asked Kurt.

"Much of the same as before. David ordered pizza though, should get here soon." He poked Blaine's stomach, "so there you go, we are feeding you."

Blaine laughed and leaned closer into Kurt, letting his head rest against his neck, body tucked into him. "I'm going to miss this," he whispered.

Kurt nodded. "Me too." He closed his eyes.

Blaine breathed Kurt in. He knew they'd make it work. They would do everything they could to not mess their relationship up, but still the time apart was bound to do something to them.

Someone knocked on the door and David and Wes got up.

"Is there somewhere I can set these down?" A familiar voice asked.

Kurt frowned and looked towards the door, gasping when he saw Sam. Sam saw him as well and paused halfway into the room, still holding a pile of pizza boxes. David grabbed some of them from him and Wes the rest, before he returned to pay him.

"Sam," Kurt said, "what are you…"

Sam took the money from Wes and counted it and began to count the change. Wes shook his head. "Keep it."

Blaine moved to let Kurt get up when he motioned for him to, and he followed Sam out to the hall. Blaine remained behind. He'd met the boy twice and he hadn't really talked to him farther than to introduce himself so he didn't dare go out even though he was curious about Kurt's reaction to Sam.

"Who is…" one Warbler began.

"He's one of those New Directions kids, isn't he?" Thad asked.

Blaine nodded.

The next question came from Jeff, "is he gay?"

Nick shot him a look.

"What?" Jeff asked with a shrug of his shoulders, "did you see his hair?"

"I don't think so," Blaine said and got up to help Wes and David with the pizza. "I think he was dating one of the cheerleaders last I heard, or maybe he's not anymore…"

Blaine didn't like thinking about the romantic involvements of any of Kurt's friends, because it was like a game of musical chairs and he had no idea if he could even begin to follow how it had all gone down.

When Kurt returned he was frowning, but it was a frown that quickly left his face as he sat down again. Blaine watched him, but he didn't once look like something was wrong.

- - -

"You okay man?" David asked as they got into his car.

Blaine shrugged. "It's what he wanted. I'm not going to say I'm not worried about what might happen, but he belongs here with them and I know I won't be seeing him as often but we'll work it out."

David nodded, "if anyone can it's the two of you."

Watching Kurt surrounded by his friends and happy to be back had been both heartbreaking and pleasing. Kurt had never looked more happy, more sure about himself than when he was with them. He knew the Warblers would always have a place in his heart, but New Directions was Kurt's family, and Kurt was finally home. The thought of not seeing him every day killed him, and he didn't know how he was going to deal with it once it really hit home what it meant, but he needed to be happy for Kurt.

"You know some of the other guys thought it was just about him wanting to go to Nationals," David said, "but seeing him with them really made it clear how much he'd missed them."

Blaine nodded. He had promised Mercedes to stick around a while longer, but after Kurt's whispered reassurance, "I'll never say goodbye to you" and the way he turned to his friends, he'd decided it was better to just head back to Dalton.

He didn't need to be a distraction for Kurt from re-acclimating himself to New Directions and McKinley. He also didn't want to have Kurt ignore him in order to be with his old friends.

"How was his bully dealt with anyway?"

Blaine shrugged. He really didn't know. Kurt had said something about Santana and Karofsky dating and some anti-bullying club. Blaine knew Kurt hadn't given him the whole story, but with his father in the room, Blaine had understood and just accepted what he gave him.

"I don't really know, but he's been dealt with apparently. How long do you think I should wait until I text him?"

David shrugged. "No idea. Ask Wes, he somehow has managed to keep a steady girlfriend for two years. No idea how he does it."

Blaine laughed, "it's because she isn't real. I keep telling you, he made her up. None of us have met her, ever."

"Because she's at a school in Washington and the only time they see each other is the summer when they meet up halfway in her hometown."

Blaine shrugged at David. "I still stand that Wes has a fake girlfriend and that he's secretly in love with the gavel."

By the time they got back to Dalton, Blaine was happily surprised to find four texts from Kurt and one from Mercedes.

You should have stuck around, boy, it took him two periods to start talking about how much he misses you. -M

Miss you, already. - Kurt

When am I filling you in on all the ND drama? - Kurt

I miss holding your hand between classes. - Kurt

All the stuff they're teaching me here I've already taken at Dalton…so, bored! -Kurt

Blaine smiled to himself and quickly composed a reply, promising Kurt that he would see him soon and commiserating on his boredom.

David patted him on the back as they walked to their dorms, "It'll work out, man. This is Kurt we're talking about. He'll have a calendar set up and color coded with each of your schedules by the end of the day with date, skype, and phone time all worked out."

Blaine laughed and didn't want to tell David that Kurt had already sort of made them one though it was still tentative considering he didn't know what days New Directions held practices anymore. He did blush.

By the time a week had gone by without seeing Kurt, Blaine was ready to just ignore all of his assignments and responsibilities and drive to Lima if only to catch a glimpse of Kurt. When their first date night finally came around, Blaine found himself picking out an appropriate outfit to wear to meet Kurt for dinner.

He'd just gotten through an intense five minutes of staring into his mirror to figure out if his silver stripped fedora would work with his outfit and manage to hide how not having Kurt around had distracted Blaine enough that he forgot to buy gel, when his phone rang.

"Hey," he said, "I'm just heading out now. Should be there just in time. Is something wrong?"

"It's good I caught you," Kurt said, "I can't make it tonight, Blaine. I'm so sorry. But tomorrow, definitely. I just have to help out a friend tonight. Is that alright?"

He sank into his bed, taking the fedora off his head and dropping it to the floor. "I guess. Yeah, sure. Tomorrow. I'll just work on my paper tonight and make Wes move the meeting or something"

"Are you okay?" Kurt asked and Blaine could practically picture him frowning.

"I was just looking forward to tonight, Kurt. I haven't seen you in a week, and I just…I miss you, so much. But tomorrow. Just one more day."

Kurt hesitated before he answered, "I could…we could still do tonight. I can put this off until tomorrow…"

"No. I…tomorrow works. Same time?"

"Yeah. I'll call you later, alright. I have to get back to practice."

"Sure."

He heard Kurt hang up on him and dropped himself back onto the bed. He'd really been looking forward to seeing his boyfriend again. It had to have something important though, to have made Kurt cancel on him. He wished he had focused long enough to ask.

- - -

Blaine hadn't laid in his living room, sprawled out on the floor, watching T.V. since he was still living at home and going to public school. That was when he and his brother used to hang out on the days they could and watch old movies together. But when he'd gone home after a long day of school, only because the drive from his house to Kurt's was forty five minutes shorter than the one from Dalton, and entered the living room, the memories had come flashing back and he'd wanted nothing more than to get in that position again and watch something like Breakfast at Tiffany's. This was how his mother found him when she got home.

"Blaine, what are you doing?" Irene asked, "that carpet hasn't been properly cleaned since the grape juice incident last summer."

He rolled onto his back so as to not strain his neck. "I was remembering how Everett and I used to watch TV like this back before I went to Dalton." He pushed off the floor to a sitting position, "but I have to say, it was way more comfortable back then."

She shook her head. "No, it wasn't, Blaine, you just…don't you remember how much your elbows hurt afterwards and your back?"

Blaine didn't. He shrugged.

"What are you doing home, anyway, I thought you were staying at Dalton again this weekend."

"Just figured I'd come home this weekend. I mean, I won't be here most of tomorrow, but I was missing home I guess."

She smiled fondly at him. "Well, I'm dead tired so I'm going to head upstairs and get changed. We can order in tonight unless you're willing to cook, before you get on one of those couches, I expect you to change your clothes."

Blaine rolled his eyes good naturedly, especially when she wrinkled her nose at him and then turned back to the TV for a while longer before he pushed off the floor and ran up to his room to get changed. He heard her humming from the other room and for a long moment just stood by his door, remembering a time when he and his mother had sung together. That's where his love of singing had started, even if he hadn't dared go out for something like Glee club in his old school. He hadn't even wanted to join the Warblers at first. He didn't regret it now, of course.

He didn't know why he was so focused on the past, on the times before he told his family he was gay. No. He did know. It was Kurt. He was tired of hiding that he had a boyfriend, that he was finally happy. But he knew it would change everything again. To actually admit that he was acting on his inherent gayness, to bring it up in conversation again and make it clearer still that it wasn't some sort of phase, he knew it wouldn't go over well.

"Sweetheart, where are the take out menus?" Irene called from somewhere in the hall.

Blaine threw his dirty uniform into the laundry hamper. "No idea," he called, grabbing his blinking phone off the bedside table where he'd placed it earlier.

There was a text from Finn and another one from Rachel. He opened Finn's first because his boyfriend's step-brother never texted him unless it had something to do with Kurt, and Rachel was probably trying to get him to agree to something he'd later regret.

Instead, what he found was a picture of Kurt and Sam, standing close to each other outside of a Motel room. There was nothing more to the text and Blaine wondered for a moment if Finn had forgotten to text him some sort of explanation. He frowned at the picture.

He opened Rachel's text next, before figuring out how he was supposed to reply to Finn, or if he should just call Kurt and keep the middle man out.

We didn't know if we should tell you. Kurt is our friend too, but you deserved to know. Kurt's keeping mum about it and refuses to admit anything is going on. -Rachel

Blaine began to laugh. He'd heard about the rumor drama going on at McKinley when he'd seen Kurt earlier in the week and he'd explained how Finn and Rachel kept accusing both him and Quinn of cheating with Sam. The picture did add a certain something to it that made Blaine worry a little, but still, he knew Kurt would never cheat on him. Kurt had assured him that the reason he was visiting Sam at a Motel of all places was purely selfless.

Guys, he isn't cheating on me. I know why he was there that night. Just leave Kurt alone.

He texted both Finn and Rachel, hoping that it would keep everything at bay and then for a moment wondered if he should also text Kurt.

"What's going on, Blaine?" His mother pushed his door open, holding the menus.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, nothing. You found the menus."

Irene nodded absentmindedly. "What are you feeling up for tonight? I'm not even going to bother asking your father, you know how indecisive he is."

Blaine shrugged again. "Doesn't really matter to me, mom."

She nodded and pursed her lips as she went through the different take out menus they'd collected. "I didn't ask, but what are you doing tomorrow?"

Blaine hesitated before he answered, "I'm hanging out with Kurt."

"Oh."

He wanted to tell her, to just say that he had a date. He wanted to tell her that Kurt was his boyfriend, that the younger boy meant the world to him. He knew it didn't really matter, but he couldn't help but let it bother him.

"You spend a lot of time with Kurt, even now he's transferred back to his old school," she said and opened one of the tri-folded menus, her eyes trained on a spot on the menu, not moving.

"He's my best friend," Blaine said and walked to stand next to her. "Portuguese?"

"I was thinking an order of Chicken," she said, "with that rice they have and maybe the salad. A side order of fries?"

Blaine nodded. "Sounds good."

She gathered the other menus to take with her as she pulled out her cell phone to order and paused at his door. "You should invite him over. He's…he seems to be important to you, I'd like to see him again."

For a moment Blaine hesitated, but then he nodded.

"Maybe tomorrow night if you're not doing anything really important."

"Sure." The moment he said it, he wanted to take it back. How would his parents react to Kurt when they had him with them for longer than a few minutes.

"Wonderful." His mother clapped her hands and suddenly Blaine knew that he couldn't cancel. This was what he needed.