"Irene?"

Blaine and his father spoke at the same time.

She shook her head. "No. I can't do this again. I…I have to clean the kitchen." She picked up the small glass bowls the chocolate mousse had been served in and walked out of the room.

Blaine got up ready to follow, but he didn't let go of Kurt's hand, pulling him up with him.

"Blaine, should I be present for this?" Kurt asked, looking unsure.

Blaine couldn't let go of Kurt. He couldn't just walk into the kitchen without Kurt at his side. Kurt seemed to sense that because he squeezed Blaine's hand back. His father came forward.

"Maybe it'd be best if I talked to your mother for now?"

Blaine didn't know what to say. He didn't know what he wanted. No. He did. He had to talk to his mother. He needed to know for sure, once and for all, why she couldn't accept him and Kurt because for a moment it seemed as if she had. He didn't let go of Kurt's hand, bringing him along as he walked to the kitchen. Kurt followed without a word. Behind them he heard his father behind them as well.

Irene was moving around the kitchen putting things away. She stopped when she saw Blaine and Kurt, resting her hands on the island and leaning forward a bit.

"Why can't you accept me or who I chose to love?" Blaine asked, his voice coming out low and close to cracking. He couldn't look straight at her. "You've admitted to liking Kurt but the moment I mention being together with him in that way he's not longer okay…" he wanted to continue on, but stopped because Kurt shook his head at him, gripping his hand tighter.

It was then, Blaine realized his mother was crying. Kurt brought out a handkerchief from somewhere and he handed it to her. She thanked Kurt and wiped at her tears.

"You don't understand what it's like, Blaine," she said, still crying a bit, but her voice steady, "and you won't…not until you have to rush to the hospital because another parent has to call you about your child being in the emergency room." She wiped at her eyes and shook her head slowly. "Every day I'm afraid for you. I can't stand the idea that you could be subjected to that hate again. At Prom, any time you're outside of Dalton…I couldn't bear it if I let you go and something absolutely terrible happens to you."

Blaine didn't know what to say. This is why she didn't want him to go to Prom. His own reasons for not wanting to go to Prom. He should have seen this coming. Of course his mother would have those concerns.

She stepped around the island towards him. "I am not going to say I do not wish you were straight, but, Blaine, only because your life would be easier if you were."

Blaine wanted to argue, but he stopped himself.

"But seeing the two of you," she said, "you've been happier and happier…I can't deny you this, I can't tell you you can't be with Kurt, but, Sweetheart, I wouldn't be able to stand it if I had to run off the hospital again and it was more than just a broken wrist. I don't want either of you hurt."

Blaine stood still, not knowing what to do. Kurt pushed him forward, though and he fell into his mother, arms wrapping around her. She hugged him back tightly and Blaine couldn't remember the last time she had ever hugged him like this, crushing him to her as if she was afraid that he would disappear at any moment.

He didn't know what to say. How to tell her that he had to go to Prom, and that he loved her, and how much her acceptance meant to him.

When she finally let him go, Blaine went back to Kurt. Kurt smiled at him and reached up to wipe the tears Blaine hadn't realized he'd let fall. His hand lingered on Blaine's face for a moment.

"It won't be the same, mom, not this time," Blaine told her when he could finally speak, turning away from Kurt, "I need to go to Prom with Kurt. I need to face everything I've been running from."

Drew moved towards her and took her hands. "Blaine's right, Irene."

She whimpered. "I can't…I won't be able to…"

The impact that the events of the Sadie Hawkins dance had had on his parents had never been something that Blaine had been bothered with. He remembered his mother hovering over him for the weeks afterwards, but also the look of disappointment and disapproval that she'd had. He remembered his father trying his best to somehow find the culprits who'd hurt him and James but failing.

And then one day they'd told him he was going to Dalton. For a long time he'd been convinced it was just them trying to get rid of the problem in a way that really did remove it completely from their lives, but slowly he'd come to realize that they'd done it for him.

"Mom," he began, although he didn't know what he was supposed to say.

"Mrs. Anderson," Kurt ventured, "I hope I'm not out of line for saying anything, but from the moment I met Blaine he had been beating himself up for running away. He hasn't told me everything that happened at his old school, but I know that it still hurts him to not have fought back and this…this is his chance to start fighting back."

Irene looked like she wanted to say something, argue back and protest that Blaine hadn't run away. Kurt continued.

"Dalton is a wonderful school and I loved my time there," he said, "but it also gives you a sense of false security. Out there, in the real world, we'll always have to deal with the homophobes, the uninformed, and it'll be hard, but there is nothing that can be done to stop it. But facing life straight on, just dealing with it is the best thing to do."

His mom looked at Kurt in surprise, staring at him with a strange expression on her face that Blaine thought could be resignation. Because Kurt was right. He couldn't keep running for the rest of his life. Not from something like a school dance and definitely not when it came to even bigger stuff later on.

"You'll, you'll have to take precautions and I expect a call every half hour, and I don't want either of you alone away from your friends."

- - -

"Mom, is it alright if I stayed over at Kurt's tonight? You can talk to his dad if you want, just, can I?"

His mom didn't say anything, and Blaine who wanted to get back to Kurt quickly, tapped his foot impatiently as he leaned against the wall outside of Kurt's room.

"I'd like to talk to him, yes. But, before I do, Blaine why?"

He didn't want to tell her. Yes, he'd sort of come to expect that something would happen, but he hadn't considered this at all. Maybe a few teasing words, something about Kurt's kilt which hadn't even brought forth all the ignorance and hate that had been felt that night.

"Kurt was…" he trailed off, not knowing if he could say it out loud.

"You said…Blaine, you said everything was going fine, that you had some interesting pictures for us. What's going on, Blaine? Are you okay? Is Kurt okay?

Blaine hadn't wanted to tell them earlier when in the aftermath they'd been having too much fun to really care about the crown on Kurt's head, but the moment they left the gym and walked out to Blaine's car and the fa�ade Kurt had been playing up fell, he knew there was no way he was leaving Kurt.

"Can we go home?" Kurt had asked in a small meek voice that wasn't Kurt at all.

Into the phone he denied that they were hurt. "Nothing physical, mom," he said to stop her from pestering them, "it's just that they named Kurt Prom Queen." He rushed the words out.

"What?" his mom asked, her voice incredulous.

"Yeah, it was terrible. He got really upset about it, he's sort of upset about it still, but, mom, you should have seen him. After, he got himself together he just got up there and just got his crown and owned it."

He was so proud of Kurt, so impressed by his boyfriend. Kurt was amazing, and Blaine couldn't believe that the other boy was his.

"You can stay over if you want, just let me talk to his dad. I'm glad you had a good night, Blaine, despite all this Prom Queen nonsense. I love you, Sweetheart."

"Love you too, mom."

He found Burt in the living room with Finn who was still in his Prom attire and handed over his phone. "My mom wants to talk to you."

Burt nodded and got up with the phone, walking out of hearing of the TV that Finn was staring at blankly.

"Is it…am I a bad brother because all I can worry about right now is that Quinn is going to be so pissed about this? I mean, I care about Kurt and that just shouldn't have happened, but you know, Quinn, she's scary."

Blaine laughed. He liked Finn.

"I don't think it's bad, Finn, although I have to say that you shouldn't be scared of your girlfriend."

Finn looked thoughtful for a moment. "I was sort of scared of Rachel too, I think," he said with a frown.

Blaine shook his head at him. "Maybe you could take some time away from girls and…"

Finn cut him off, shaking his head. "No," he said, "one, I wouldn't do that to Kurt, and two, I'm not gay dude."

Blaine began to laugh and it was then Kurt appeared, in his pajamas patting his face with a towel. He looked better already. "What's going on?" he asked.

Blaine couldn't stop laughing. He pulled Kurt towards him as he calmed himself down. Finn was still staring at him with a shocked, confused look.

"I was suggesting to Finn that maybe he should try being single and I think he thought I was hitting on him," Blaine told Kurt and looked back at where Mr. Hummel was still talking to his mother.

Finn frowned but nodded a moment later. "Oh," he said and turned back to the TV, "you could have just said that, dude."

Kurt wrinkled his nose at Finn. "Why are you still in your tux? You do realize that's a rental, right, Finn?"

Finn shrugged.

Blaine could see a stain on Finn's elbow and decided not to point it out to either Kurt or Finn even if it was a distraction. Kurt rolled his eyes at his brother anyway and turned to Blaine, "bathroom's all yours. I felt out one of Finn's shirts and my pajama bottoms for you."

Blaine nodded and pressed a kiss to Kurt's cheek before he walked around him towards the bathroom, looking back once to see that Burt was still talking into his phone.

Later after he'd washed the gel out of his hair and changed into the clothes that Kurt had left out, and rolling up the pants once so he didn't trip over them, he found Kurt in his room, just sitting at the head of his bed.

"Dad said you can sleep in here as long as you take the inflatable mattress and the door is left open."

After the small moment of weakness in the car earlier, Kurt had gone back to his usual self, but Blaine knew that below the surface there was something there waiting to break because this had affected Kurt. He'd been so sure that nothing would go wrong because of how he really wasn't bullied at school anymore, and as glad as Blaine was that the prank hadn't gone farther than just naming him Prom Queen, he knew Kurt still had to be humiliated.

"It's okay to be upset about it," he told Kurt, "but it's interesting, isn't it, that they went to such lengths to even ruin their Prom, to give you this coveted title. And it is your name that will be in the yearbook with your picture and when you become this famous star on Broadway or a famous designer and everyone knows your name they can look back and be ashamed."

Blaine had walked to sit on the edge of Kurt's bed as he spoke, but as soon as he was done, Kurt said nothing and pulled him further onto the bed to hover over him for a moment before Kurt grasped his cheeks gently and pulled his face down so he could kiss him.

- - -

The week Kurt was gone for Nationals was the same week as finals at Dalton. Wes said it was a good thing because it meant less distractions for him, and David agreed without knowing what he was agreeing to as he tried to walk and read at the same time, a feat only possible because Wes steered him away from the other students or walls.

His parents held the same opinion as Wes. The amount of texts that he and Kurt exchanged every hour since he was gone, however, made both arguments futile, because Blaine couldn't do anything unless he was checking his phone every few minutes to make sure he wasn't missing anything from Kurt's adventure in New York.

Somehow, he managed to take each of his finals with a small dose of nervousness due to all the information he was sure he hadn't managed to retain when daydreams of what his and Kurt's life would be like in the future after they got that apartment they dreamed of in New York kept popping in between texts from Kurt about all the places he wanted to show Blaine.

During his weekly dinner with his parents and his brother who'd come home for a few weeks, Irene had taken his phone away during dinner, and refused to give it back to him until after he'd helped her clean up in the kitchen. In that time Kurt had sent him twenty texts.

"If that ain't love I don't know what is," Everett said, humming as he walked by him, snorting at the multiple paged text that Blaine was writing to Kurt.

He glanced up at his brother with a roll of his eyes.

"Well, finish up," Everett said, "can't have Kurt worry that you haven't texted him back yet. I can't even imagine what you'd be like if we didn't have this technology."

When Blaine finished texting Kurt, his brother raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

"What?" Blaine asked.

"So, is it love?"

The feeling had been lingering in his mind for a while, growing in his chest every time he saw Kurt. Being away from Kurt even for so short a time as a week made the feelings grow. He'd always known he loved Kurt, even if it had taken a long time for him to realize that that love was more than just the kind he held for his friends.

When he saw Kurt again, it was at the Lima Bean. Kurt had been back since the previous night, but Blaine had given him time to rest and spend with his family before he asked Kurt on a coffee date.

"I have to tell you everything," Kurt said, "I know I mentioned a lot over text and skype, but still there's so much I didn't cover…"

Watching Kurt excited and happy to have gotten so many experiences made Blaine feel like he was floating. He wanted Kurt to look like this all the time. Kurt hadn't really filled him in on the competition itself although he'd mentioned they'd gotten twelfth place.

Yet, he didn't seem upset about it. Instead he was looking at the bigger picture. Yes, they hadn't won, but they'd gone to New York and he'd sung on the Wicked stage, and done other wonderful things that Blaine wasn't even listening to the details of anymore.

Kurt looking beautiful and perfect in every way was blowing him away. His maturity and acceptance of losing, so easily. He tipped his head into his hand, still reeling from a few simple facts: he wanted to watch Kurt like this for the rest of his life, he could just sit and watch Kurt without anyone to ask permission from, Kurt for some reason wanted him.

The words left him before he could stop them, "I love you."

A sharp inhale.

"I love you too."

- - -

2 months later

Blaine remembered a day, months before, when he'd entered his house with a smile that refused to leave his lips. He remembered wanting to explain his giddiness and not being able to. Now, he walked into his house with a resigned expression and nervousness hidden just under the surface.

"Blaine, Sweetheart, I thought you were staying at the Hummels for dinner," his mom said. She was reading in the living room and was turned to look at him.

"I thought I'd come home," he said.

She stood up, frowning at him, and set down her book on the seat she'd vacated. "What happened, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said but then took a deep breath and hastened to add, "I don't know if you're going to like this. No, I'm sure you won't like this, but you just have to hear me out alright."

Irene frowned at him, not knowing what to say.

"Just, do you remember right before Prom, how Kurt told you I regretted just running to Dalton?"

Irene's eyes narrowed on him and then she shook her head. "No," she said, "we won't speak about this."

Blaine gaped at her. For the past months he thought they had gotten better. Even Everett admitted that somehow their parents had gotten better, been more understanding, even when Everett told them that he didn't want to use their grandmother's engagement ring because Bea and he wanted to tattoo their fingers instead.

"Not. Not until your father gets home," Irene amended.

Blaine nodded.

He hadn't talked to anyone about this yet, but it had been a thought that kept growing and growing in his mind since Prom. What had really cinched it was Wes and David telling him that they didn't think he was council material. He'd worried about that, letting them down, but somehow they had known.

"You're more of the front man," David had explained, "you're not organized at all, and really even with your occasional good idea, you're too soft to really be able to bang a gavel like Wes."

When his father got home, he recognized the look in his wife's eyes at once and then turned to Blaine who had pulled out his own reading, a draft of the first scene of "Pip Pip Hooray" that he was looking over for Kurt.

"What is it now?" He asked.

And Blaine began to explain, mounting pro upon pro against the obvious cons.

He finished with, "I want to head off to college next year with the idea that I won't run away from the ignorant. I can face my demons. This isn't about seeing Kurt more, even if that is a part of it, being there for him, but it is about being able to be as strong as him. I want to transfer to McKinley."

The End