Kurt was a jittery wreck for the entire car ride. It was two hours of tapping fingers and bouncing knees. Before they'd left, Blaine had made breakfast, which Kurt happily ate a lot of. Blaine let Kurt shower first, they boy having told him that he might take a while. He wasn't lying. It was an hour before the bathroom door opened and Blaine could finally get ready. Kurt was borrowing some of Blaine's clothes, they weren't exactly the same size but he managed to find something.

Blaine stopped in his tracks when he emerged from his room half an hour later. Kurt was curled up on the couch where Blaine often sat. He was watching reruns of Project Runway, head resting on his arm. Kurt looked up at Blaine when he heard him approaching him. Blaine cleared his throat. "You, uh, ready to go?" A small smile appeared on Kurt's lips and he nodded, uncurling himself, turning off the TV and standing.

They were just a few miles from Kurt's house. "I feel like I'm gonna be sick." They were the first words Kurt had spoken throughout the car ride. Blaine reached across the center console and wrapped his fingers around Kurt's that were tapping on his thigh. "It's going to be okay. No one is going to be mad or angry, I promise." They pulled in the driveway of the Hummel house a few minutes later.

Kurt climbed out of the black car slowly, legs shaking, hell, his whole body was shaking. Blaine walked around the front of the car and took his hand, squeezing it gently. Kurt moved in close behind Blaine. The feeling of exposure that he'd frequently had before everything that had happened was coming back full force and it was like his brain thought if he got close enough to Blaine, no one would see him.

Blaine looked at Kurt before reaching out and ringing the doorbell. In the probably twenty seconds it took to hear footsteps and the door to open, Kurt held his breath.

"G'Morning Blai- Kurt..." Hearing his father's voice broke something in Kurt. Whatever had been making him scared and guarded was torn down as he dropped Blaine's hand and flew into his dad's arms. Father and son stood just inside the open door for several minutes, hugging and crying into each other's shoulders.

When the three men made it fully into the house, they sat down, not at the table, but in the living room. Burt kept asking his son if there was anything he needed and Kurt finally gave in and asked for a glass of water. Burt returned from the kitchen, handed Kurt the glass and sat down next to his son, draping his arm over his shoulder. It was weird for Blaine to sit so far from Kurt. For several reasons they'd spent the last couple of weeks very close in proximity to each other and they hadn't really stopped touching, even if it was just holding hands, since they'd woken up a few hours earlier.

"So whose going to tell me what happened? I'm so happy you're home Bud but you've been missing. How did you end up with Blaine? Where were you?" Kurt and Blaine looked at each other, a silent conversation passing between them. Blaine started speaking.

"Kurt found me last night, he assures me he wasn't kidnapped."

"You weren't? Then-" Burt interjected.

"I ran away." Kurt took over for Blaine, deciding he should tell his father himself. "Something happened at school. I- I don't want to talk about it yet, not right now, but I had to get out. I didn't mean to leave you alone, Dad, I just couldn't be here anymore." Tears had began to build up in Kurt's eyes again. "That night when I was in my room, something snapped, I left at the same time I usually do for school. I went to Columbus. I saw you on the news and then a few days later I saw Blaine. I was scared to come back, to tell you I ran. That's why I waited so long to contact Blaine."

"I would have brought him back last night," Blaine said, "but he wasn't, he wasn't in a very good state and I was coming over today anyway." Burt nodded his understanding. He pulled his son into his arms again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Burt didn't miss the way Blaine and his son stayed close to each other throughout the following days. As much as Burt wanted to simply enjoy his son's return, there were legal things that needed to be taken care of. The three men went down to the police station to call off the missing persons report later the same day Kurt returned. The police had asked Kurt to give a testimony of what had caused him to run away but Blaine made it so he had a few days to just be home before he had to deal with the process that would follow.

It was at Burt's request that Blaine had taken up a temporary residence at the Hummel household. He'd spent the first night on the couch just because they had been at the police station late and he'd been invited to stay for dinner. Burt had woken up to see his son and Blaine asleep on the couch, Kurt's head on Blaine's shoulder and Blaine's head on top of Kurt's. He'd heard them up late talking quietly, when he found himself unable to sleep. He was headed to Kurt's room to check on him, passing the stairs when he'd heard them. That was when he decided the he should get Blaine to stick around for a while. The young man and his son seemed to have a connection, how it had developed in only one night, Burt couldn't understand but he had his son back, and for some reason Blaine made him happy.

One day while Burt was working, Kurt and Blaine sat in the house and discussed what would happen. It was a serious conversation, one that had been skimmed over at the station that first day back when Blaine had asked the officers to delay Kurt giving his statement. Kurt decided he would give his statement about the rape and press charges on Karofsky.

Later that night Blaine excused himself to the store so the Kurt could tell the rest of the story to his dad. When he returned, there were tear stained faces and, in Burt's face, a growing anger in his eyes, masked only by the hurt he felt for his son. The next day, they went to police.

Blaine and Burt were standing outside the small room where Kurt was. Kurt had asked to go by himself, even though both older men thought it would be better if someone was with him. Maybe it was because he'd gone over the statement so many time's since Kurt had first told him sitting on his pillow in his bedroom what seemed like ages ago, Blaine felt like it was taking forever.

"You hurt my kid, Blaine, and I'll break you." Blaine looked up from his bouncing knee, startled by Burt's statement.

"I don't, I wouldn't-" he stuttered. Burt just looked at him pointedly before moving his gaze up and behind Blaine. Kurt and the officer that took his statement had come out of the office and were talking by the door. When Blaine turned to follow Burt's gaze he found Kurt looking at him with tired eyes that lit up a bit when they connected with Blaine's. Burt clapped his shoulder when he stood up and walked over to Kurt.

They went back to the house and Kurt made dinner. Blaine realized just how much he'd missed when Kurt couldn't cook and why he insisted that he would if could have. He was a phenomenal cook. They ate and talked, all three of them as if they were old friends.

After a movie when they'd finished eating, Kurt headed up to his room to get ready for bed. The phone rang a few minutes after Kurt disappeared up the stairs. Blaine had been going threw his messages, his father let him know that he was practically fired after his week long absence and Santana, who he'd been in touch with, but hadn't told the whole story to was setting up a lunch date for when he would return to Columbus.

"Who called?" Kurt asked from the bottom of the stairs where he had reappeared. Blaine looked up from his phone and shrugged, genuinely not knowing. Both boys turned their attention to the kitchen where they could just hear the end of a conversation and Burt hanging up before he too appeared in the living room. He walked right up to his son, a smile growing on his face all the while.

"They got him, down at the station, Karofsky's been arrested." Burt pulled his son into his arms tightly and held on for long time. After releasing him, Burt turned to Blaine and pulled him into a hug as well. Blaine looked over the man's shoulder at a beaming Kurt. When Burt let go of him, he went straight to the younger boy and pulled him into a similarly tight embrace before loosening his arms and backing away enough to see Kurt's face.

"Everything is going to be okay." Without really considering it, he looked into Kurt's eyes before tilting up his head up and pressing a soft kiss to his lips. It took no more than a second for Kurt to kiss him back.

~ THE END ~