When Kurt finally bid goodbye to Rachel and Mercedes over an hour later, he hurried home, racing through Lima to the cul-de-sac on the outskirts, only just barely keeping to the speed limits. As soon as he let himself into the house, he went into the kitchen and gathered a selection of food and drinks for Blaine, carrying them upstairs and into the attic.

He spent the rest of the day in the attic with Blaine, only leaving to make dinner since he knew Finn would soon be arriving home. He and Blaine didn't say much during the time they spent together; he mostly just sat reading while Kurt worked on his homework, but it didn't matter that they sat on opposite ends of the attic in silence. It wasn't strange. Kurt just wanted Blaine to get used to being in the company of other people again and he knew the other boy appreciated it without him having to say so.

Finn arrived home from Puck's house while Kurt was in the middle of making dinner. He shuffled up to the stove and peered into the pans of spaghetti and sauce.

"I know I eat a lot, but that's a bit much even for me," he observed, reaching for the spoon in the pan of sauce.

Kurt slapped his hand away. "Why is everyone being so perceptive today?" he demanded of no one in particular. "Usually I can go days with people barely talking to me and now everyone is suddenly questioning everything I do." He pushed at Finn's arm until the taller boy moved, feeling annoyed and a little bit panicky - what if someone found out about Blaine? What if people started to get too suspicious and he would no longer be able to visit him in the attic? He knew Blaine had been living up there for some time managing perfectly well by himself, but now that Kurt knew he was up there he couldn't rest knowing that the boy thought no one cared about him, thought he was just invisible.

Finn held up his hands in surrender and backed slowly away from Kurt. "Sorry, man, I was just wondering."

Knowing he would just snap again, Kurt chose not to reply and instead silently finished cooking the dinner before serving up portions for himself and Finn, leaving the rest in the pans to take up to Blaine later.

When Kurt set Finn's food down in front of him, his step-brother opened his mouth to say something, his eyes on the remaining food. Kurt sighed. "Just eat your dinner, Finn."

They ate in silence, Finn occasionally lifting his gaze from his plate to glance curiously between the food on the stove and Kurt, who pointedly ignored him. When they were finished and Kurt started to clear up, Finn hovered uncertainly by the kitchen table.

"Um..." Finn fidgeted with a wooden spoon on the counter.

Kurt sighed again. "Just go play your video games or something; I'll clear up."

"Yo- You sure?" Finn asked, looking hopeful, but not making a move to leave the kitchen; he obviously felt like he should be doing something to help seeing as it was just the two of them here.

Dredging up his remaining patience, Kurt sent Finn an encouraging smile. "Positive." He just wanted Finn to go shut himself in his room and become deeply absorbed in his virtual reality so he could go and bring Blaine his food.

Finn didn't need telling again; he shot off upstairs, leaving Kurt to hurry through tidying up the kitchen and washing the dishes. He loaded Blaine's food onto a plate and put it onto a tray along with a drink and some cutlery and carried it upstairs. He tiptoed unnecessarily passed Finn's closed door, through which muffled booms and yells could be heard, before knocking on the door at the end of the hallway and entering the attic space, calling out a greeting to Blaine.

Blaine looked up from the book he was pouring over, the small crease between his eyebrows smoothing out when he saw Kurt. "Hi," he said quietly.

Kurt smiled widely at him as his heart gave a leap of happiness. To most people this would seem such a trivial thing to get so happy about, but it was a big deal to him: this was the first time Blaine had greeted him. It showed that the other boy was becoming more comfortable around him and maybe, hopefully, on his way to trusting him.

"I've brought you some spaghetti for dinner," Kurt told him, setting the tray down on a box. He then moved away, knowing Blaine got nervous when he was too close to him. He sat down in his usual spot with his back against a crate and watched Blaine close his book and walk over to the food, settling down on the floor by the box it rested on.

"Thank you," he said, meeting Kurt's gaze for a fleeting second before lowering his eyes to the tray in front of him, picking up his cutlery, and starting to eat.

Kurt shifted slightly on the hard floor. "You're very welcome." He sat in contemplative silence for a few minutes as Blaine ate, thinking about how both Mercedes and Finn had noticed him behaving differently because of Blaine. "People were being very perceptive today," he told Blaine. "Mercedes noticed I was acting off when we had coffee this morning and Finn made a comment about the amount of food I made for dinner. I think he knew I was up to something."

There was a clattering sound and Kurt looked over in the direction it had come from. Blaine was staring at him with fear on his face, his hand still outstretched over his plate but his fork now resting on the edge of the plate, clearly having fallen from his grasp.

It took Kurt a couple of seconds to understand what had caused this reaction in Blaine. "Oh, no, Blaine, you don't have to worry," he assured him hastily. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone about you and I won't break that promise. I'm good at deflecting, I had to be when I- I wasn't always completely honest with my dad, so I've had plenty of practice. I don't like lying to my family, but I'll do it for you."

Blaine watched him apprehensively for a moment longer, before nodding and picking up his fork again, the sincerity in Kurt's words seeming to have convinced him that Kurt wouldn't tell anyone.

There was another long silence as Blaine finished eating. Kurt - cursing himself for being so careless with what he said to Blaine - picked at the leg of his jeans, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't make Blaine fear for his safety. He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't notice that Blaine was standing in front of him until the other boy cleared his throat.

"Um..." Blaine looked nervous again and his cheeks were stained pink. He held out a book to Kurt. "Th- This is yours, I borrowed it a few days ago," he stammered in a low voice, his gaze fixed on the book in his hands, avoiding Kurt's eyes.

Kurt glanced down and saw it was one of his English textbooks - he hadn't even noticed it was gone. "Oh." He reached out and accepted the book. "So- So, you're-" He broke off; he needed to choose his words carefully. "This explains why some of my books have gone missing for a few days at a time."

Blaine had stepped back when Kurt took the book from him. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I tried to read them as quickly as I could."

Kurt smiled reassuringly at him, though he wasn't sure Blaine was even looking at him. "Hey, no, it's fine," he told him hastily. He looked down at the book's glossy cover. "Why do you want to read them?" he asked gently.

"I want to try and keep up with my education and this is the best way I can do that. I used to get top grades before-" He snapped his mouth shut suddenly, darting a frightened glance at Kurt.

Ignoring his burning curiosity about Blaine's past, Kurt smiled at him. "I can help you with that. You can borrow my textbooks any time you want and I can show you the work I've been doing at school. If there's anything else like this that I can help you with don't be afraid to let me know, ok?"

Blaine nodded, his body still hunched protectively after his earlier slip-up. Kurt wanted desperately to be able to approach the smaller boy and wrap his arms around him in a comforting hug or even just place a hand on his arm in reassurance, but he couldn't, Blaine was always so careful to never get too close to him and Kurt didn't want to push him too much, not when everything was going so well, not when Blaine was starting to open up to him.

"It's ok," he said instead. "It's ok," he repeated in a softer voice.

Blaine's skittish gaze met his again and this time he held it for a long moment, until the anxiety faded and calm replaced it. He nodded.

Checking the time on his phone, Kurt got to his feet. "I'd better go back downstairs before Finn notices I'm gone, but I'll be back up with breakfast tomorrow morning, ok?" At another nod from Blaine, he smiled and crossed the attic to collect the tray of dirty dishes. He turned back to Blaine just as he reached the top of the stairs; the other boy was still watching him. "Sleep well," he said gently.

"I'm going over to Rachel's, she wants to do a duet in Glee on Monday to show Mr. Schue that we deserve one for Sectionals and we need to practice."

Kurt spun away from the stove where he was making pancakes for breakfast as a treat for Blaine to see a somewhat grumpy and unenthusiastic Finn standing in the doorway with his car keys in his hand.

Finn's face scrunched up in confusion. "I must be doing something wrong because she keeps getting annoyed at me..."

Turning back to his pancakes to hide his joy that Finn would be out of the house for most of the day - Rachel's practice sessions always dragged on for hours - Kurt made a sympathetic noise. "That girl is insane," he commented, trying to sound appropriately nonchalant. "Do you want breakfast before you go?" he asked, expertly flipping a pancake.

Finn shot a longing look at the frying pan and the stack of pancakes on the plate on the counter. "Can't," he groaned, "Rachel wants me over now and she said she'd made breakfast for me." He sounded completely unenthusiastic at the thought and Kurt hid a smirk - whatever Rachel had made was bound to be considered too healthy and unappetizing by Finn.

"Alright, well, I'll see you when you get back. Good luck with Rachel." He slid another finished pancake on top of the stack on the plate and poured more batter into the pan.

"Yeah, see ya." With one last wistful glance at the pancakes, Finn left, the front door thudding shut behind him.

Kurt hummed to himself as he finished making the pancakes, turned off the stove, and placed the food onto a tray along with two steaming mugs of coffee. He had decided to eat breakfast with Blaine this morning and that was now made all the more easier by Finn leaving.

He was still humming softly as he knocked on the attic door and let himself into what he was starting to think of as Blaine's room, like he was actually lodging here instead of hiding out there in secret.

"Morning!" Kurt greeted him brightly, smiling at the curly-haired boy straightening the blanket on his bed.

Blaine gave him a small, shy smile. "Morning, Kurt."

Beaming at him, Kurt set the breakfast tray down on the usual box Blaine used as a dining table.

"I thought I'd eat breakfast up here with you," Kurt told him as he picked up a plate and served himself a few pancakes and some fresh fruit. He paused in the midst of drizzling maple syrup over his breakfast. "I hope that's ok," he added.

Blaine nodded, hesitated, and then cleared his throat. "It's fine, I- I like the company." He ducked his head slightly.

Kurt's heart was so light he felt like it should be floating up out of him like a balloon caught in a breeze. "Well, help yourself. There's coffee there for you as well." He quickly added milk to his own coffee and grabbed the mug before moving away from the tray and sitting down in his usual spot with his back against a crate, smiling as he watched Blaine pile some food onto his plate. "Take as much as you want," he urged him. "Anything you don't eat will just go to waste."

Blaine nodded and hesitantly put a couple more pancakes and fruit onto his plate, before pouring on some syrup. He carried both his plate and coffee over to the nearby wall and sat down with his back against it, setting his mug down on the floor beside him.

"Did you sleep well last night?" Kurt asked him as he speared a strawberry piece on his fork. "Did that blanket I gave you help?"

Blaine's eyes drifted to his bed as he chewed a mouthful of blueberries. "It did," he replied quietly.

Smiling, Kurt nodded. "I'm glad; it must have been uncomfortable sleeping on the floor."

"Yeah, I used to get so many bruises, and back pain has always been a problem."

It was the longest sentence Kurt had ever heard Blaine speak, and though it was still spoken in a voice barely above a whisper, it was a huge step forward. Kurt stared across the attic at him for a moment, watching him sip at his coffee, until he realised what he was doing and dropped his gaze back to his plate, smiling down at his pancakes.

It was only a minute or so later that Kurt found himself watching Blaine again through his lowered lashes. It just made him so unbelievably happy to see Blaine looking happy and relaxed, so different from the terrified boy he had discovered two nights ago. He felt a strange, though not unpleasant, squeezing in his stomach at the sight of Blaine finishing off his fruit, saving his pancakes until last. There was another fluttering squeeze in his stomach when Blaine delicately cut off a small piece of syrup-drenched pancake and popped it in his mouth, a smile playing about the corners of his mouth as he chewed slowly, savouring the mouthful. Kurt had definitely made the right decision by making them.

When they had both finished eating - Blaine having taken his time over his pancakes - Kurt moved to stack their dirty dishes on the tray and was surprised when Blaine stood to help him: usually he would set his dishes to the side and keep his distance.

"Thank you for making breakfast," he said once everything was on the tray. He still looked a little wary as he met Kurt's gaze and he was still standing out of reaching distance - most likely on purpose - but it was another huge improvement.

Kurt lifted his shoulders in a small shrug. "It was nothing."

"No, it wasn't," Blaine insisted, shaking his head. "Y- You put time and effort and thought into it - you thought about me." He looked stunned at the idea, like he couldn't imagine why anyone would do such a thing and Kurt's heart, which had been swelling with happiness, ached.

"You don't know how big of a deal that is to me," Blaine continued quietly. "H- How much it means to me." He paused and lowered his gaze to the floor. "I haven't had anyone care about me like this in years," he mumbled.

Even though that was the most Blaine had ever revealed about himself, Kurt felt none of the earlier happiness about gaining his trust. Instead, he just felt heartache and a fierce anger at the world. What had Blaine done to deserve this? Just how long had he been on his own, feeling unloved and lonely? Where was his family? And did this sweet, polite boy really have no friends? Kurt wanted to hug Blaine so badly, to pull him into his arms and comfort him and protect him from the world that had treated him so unfairly, that his arms actually twitched towards him before he held himself in check.

He opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to decide how to best respond. "I'm sorry it's been that way for you," he said eventually. "But I really did mean it when I said I wanted to help you. I don't want you to be lonely, hungry, cold, or uncared for anymore." He cringed a little at his words; they seemed such an inadequate response to what Blaine had just revealed, but he couldn't think of anything else to say to comfort him and assure him that the world and its people weren't all bad.

He didn't need to say anything else; Blaine was looking up at him with troubled, watery eyes that, for the first time since Kurt had known him, held a spark of hope. It broke Kurt's heart all over again.

"Thank you," Blaine whispered, his voice thick with unshed tears.

Feeling tears prick in his own eyes, Kurt simply smiled at him. He didn't know whether it was the sincerity of his words, his unbroken promise to not tell anyone about Blaine, bringing food and a blanket to him and offering to help with his education, or a combination of it all that had ignited Blaine's hope. All that mattered was that it was there, and Kurt would make every effort to make sure it never faded.

Standing uncertainly in the attic doorway, Blaine nibbled apprehensively on his bottom lip. "I don't know, Kurt..." He darted another uncertain glance over Kurt's shoulder at the deserted hallway beyond.

Smiling patiently at him, Kurt readjusted his grip on the breakfast tray. "I swear it will be fine. My dad and Carole won't be back until this evening and Rachel won't let Finn leave until she's completely satisfied with their duet, which won't be for hours, trust me."

Swallowing, Blaine stepped through the door to join Kurt in the hallway. He jumped slightly when Kurt closed the attic door behind him. Although he had come down into the rest of the house every day while Kurt and his family had been out, it was different being here with Kurt. He was used to rushing through a set routine and returning to the attic as quickly as he could; he didn't know what to expect now that he was with Kurt.

"I'm going to tidy this away," Kurt told him, raising the tray up slightly. "You can rinse that out in my bathroom." He nodded at the bowl in Blaine's hands that served as his sink. "You can use the shower in there as well."

Blaine started to protest. "Kurt, I-"

"I insist," Kurt said firmly. "You can't tell me you like washing out of a plastic bowl."

Knowing there was no point in arguing, Blaine gave in. He really did want to have a shower - it had been months since he'd had a proper one - but he felt a bit uncomfortable accepting all of this from Kurt. He was doing so much for him. And there was no way Blaine could ever repay him.

Seeing his resolve collapse, Kurt led the way through his bedroom and opened the door to his bathroom. "Towels are there," he said, pointing. "You can use any of the shampoos or body washes." He made to leave the room, but seemed to remember something and dumped the tray on a dresser before rummaging through the drawers. He pressed a bundle of neatly folded clothes into Blaine's arms. "You can change into this when you're done."

"But-"

Shaking his head at him, Kurt picked the tray up again. "I'll wash your clothes," he said, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Come downstairs when you're finished. Take as long as you want." With one last smile he left the room.

The shower was heaven: a rushing stream of hot water massaging his back and shoulders; he could have stood under it for hours. He eyed the row of bottles in the shower for several minutes before he built up the nerve to actually use them. He almost moaned at how good it felt to wash his hair properly with hot water and shampoo that smelled both sweet and spicy. He took his time washing it out of his curls, before selecting a body wash and finishing his shower, turning off the water with some reluctance.

Kurt had given him a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt to wear. The sweatpants were comically large on him; the bottoms of the legs pooled around his feet so he looked like a child in oversized pyjamas. The t-shirt fit a little better, but it still stretched across his chest and was too long for his body. It felt strange wearing them, not because the sizing was a little off, but because they were Kurt's and his scent clung to the fabric, a cloud of it enveloping him when he pulled the shirt on over his head. He chastised himself when he inhaled deeply - the scent that filled his nostrils was both comforting and nerve-tingling.

Scooping up his own clothes from where he had discarded them on the floor, he headed downstairs, walking lightly on his feet to make as little noise as possible - a habit ingrained into him from weeks of trying to keep his presence a secret.

Kurt was rummaging through a cupboard when Blaine entered the kitchen, but he spun around when Blaine cleared his throat to announce his presence. His eyes were bright as they took in Blaine's damp hair, shower-flushed skin, and ill-fitting outfit.

"How was your shower?" he asked, holding out a hand for Blaine's clothes.

Handing the bundle over, Blaine gave him a small smile. There was something about Kurt that made him smile even after months of never grinning. "It was great; thanks for letting me use your bathroom."

Kurt waved his thanks aside. "You're allowed to take a shower any time you come down here, ok?" He held up Blaine's clothes. "I'll just go put these in the wash."

Blaine watched the taller boy walk away, a strange feeling washing over him. He really liked Kurt. It was probably stupid of him; they had only known each other a few days and it would be so easy for Kurt to give him up and have him thrown out. And yet, he'd had plenty of opportunity to do so since he had first found Blaine two nights ago, and if he was going to tell someone he would have done it by now. Every minute he spent with Kurt he found himself liking and trusting the other boy more.

Kurt smiled at him as he re-entered the kitchen and that was when Blaine knew he wanted to tell Kurt everything, wanted to share a bit of himself with him and let him understand why he was living up in an attic all by himself. He wanted to have someone he could confide in and spend time talking about anything and everything. He wanted a friend.