Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

The house was very quiet when Burt Hummel came home from work, it was a Friday, which meant that he was an hour earlier than normal, so he decided that Kurt must have stayed at school to study, or gone to a friend's house. He checked his phone, Kurt always messaged him when he was changing his plans. He didn't have any new messages. The seconds ticked by and Burt got slowly more and more worried, in a town like Ohio, who knows what could have happened to his son. His openly gay, fashion-centered son. He took out his son's school file, searching through it desperately for the necessary sheet. School trips. Parent's night. Parking rules. Teacher contact sheet. Burt scrambled to his feet, taking the contact sheet with him and searching for his cell phone, he turned the sheet and started to type in the numbers, before touching the call button.

The ringing seemed to last forever and Burt cursed each tone, stuffing the sheets back into the file as a voice at the other end picked up. "Hello?" it said, crackling a little with the poor quality.

"Hi, is this Will Schuester?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"Burt Hummel, I'm Kurt's dad."

"Ah yes...is everything okay? Kurt's not in any kind of trouble is he?" the man sounded worried and Burt appreciated the fact that he actually cared, his son's description of him seemed accurate.

"Kurt hasn't come home yet and I was wondering if you have any idea why?" Silence. Burt's eyebrow quirked and he tried not to assume the worst, but it was hard. "Mr Schuester?"

"Are there any teachers that Kurt said he specifically liked?" his voice sounded urgent and Burt tried to force himself to think back.

"Just you and some English teacher, Mr Knight or something?"

"Mr Knightly?"

"That's the one."

"I'll call him and get him to help look, if I drive around town then I'll get him to search the school. I'll call the kids as well, see if they know where he is. Mr Hummel, could you stay at home in case he comes home?" Burt couldn't bear the idea that other people would be out searching for his son, whilst he was stuck in the house.

"No, I can't stay here knowing he could be out there somewhere. Could you get one of the kid's parents to come here?"

"Erm, there's Finn Hudson's Mom? She's a nurse and her boy seems pretty protective over Kurt, I'm sure they'd be happy to help. I can give you the number, if you want to call her?"

"That would be great, thanks," he said, glad the teacher hadn't protested against his wish to look for Kurt himself. He ripped a piece of paper off the bottom of some note on the table and started to scramble down the number. "I'll call her now...and Will, thank you."

"It's okay, Mr Hummel, I care about your son and I want to make sure he's safe."

"Call me if you find anything."

"I will." Burt hung up and started his second call of the night.

The traffic light turned red and Adam Knightly groaned, he was already late from work and it didn't help that he had to pick up James too, it felt like he was never going to get home. He could almost feel the ton of marking he had weighing down the back of his car. His phone began to buzz in his pocket and he took it out, looking at the screen. "Who is it?" asked James, peering over to glance at the screen.

"Will,"

"What does he want?"

"I don't know I haven't answered it yet," he pressed 'accept' and put the phone to his ear, just as the light turned green.

"What are you doing, you're driving!" James protested, but Adam just rolled his eyes.

"Hi, Will?" he said in askance.

"Hey Adam, where are you?"

"Heading home in the car with James, what's up?" there was a slight pause and Adam used it concentrate on his driving.

"You couldn't go back to school could you?" he asked tentatively, the other man tried not to groan.

"Why?"

"Kurt's gone missing and I was wondering if you could search the school for him, we haven't called the police yet, we want to check he's not just at a friend's house or something first. I thought you were a good choice because, well you know why," Adam couldn't believe what he was hearing, he knew what the school was like and he hoped to God the boy was just at a friend's, because some of the alternative possibilities weren't so nice. He had reversed into a drive and turned around before he even knew what he was doing."So can you go?"

"I'm already on my way." He hung up and accelerated, it wouldn't take him long to get to McKinley. A bewildered James stared at him.

"Where the hell are we going?" he asked.

"You know the boy I told you about?" he asked and James paused, thinking.

"The gay one?"

"...he's gone missing."

Burt was pacing by the door, flipping his phone in his hands when the door bell went. He pulled open the door letting in a dark haired woman and her awkwardly tall son. "Hi, I'm Carole and this is Finn," she said, indicating the boy.

"Thank you so much for doing this, call me if he comes here and I'll call you if I hear anything from the others," he said, throwing her the key and taking his own car keys out, pausing slightly to look at her.

"It's fine, go find him!" with that Burt shut the door and ran to his car, jumping in and starting up the engine. Although he wasn't completely sure where he was going to go, or that he wanted to find what he was looking for. His fingers kept brushing over his phone, occasionally his desperation left him thinking that he had felt it vibrate and yet when he searched the screen there was nothing.

Adam pulled into the school parking lot, parking roughly across three spaces. The car had hardly stopped before he was throwing open the door and slamming it shut, James ran after him to the doors, where Adam was now banging his fists against it, growling at the locked doors.

"There's got to be a back way? A fire escape with a push and lock door, maybe?" asked James, tentatively and Adam nodded, running around to the side door and trying to push that instead.

"Fat lot of good that did," he groaned, impatience and worry etched into every word. James took out his credit card and slipped it between the two doors, after a small click the doors swung open. Adam flung his arms around James and kissed him, briefly but passionately.

"I knew there was a reason I married you."

"...I love you, too," answered James, rolling his eyes.

Adam grabbed his hand, pulling him through the dark corridors, peeking through each classroom door desperately. He couldn't see Kurt anywhere. He sighed, rubbing his eyes in frustration. "Where does he spend a lot of time? Where would he hide?" asked James, trying his best to probe his husband into some kind of realization.

"Maybe the choir room, he's in Glee...I see him a lot in the library, too."

"So how about we check those places? Which one's closer?" Adam indicated a door up ahead, displaying an embellishment of the words 'The Library'. James squeezed his hand and the two of them slowly made their way towards the door, pulling it open, stepping in and flicking on the light.

"Kurt?" the teacher asked, letting James' hand go so they could wander separately between the rows of limited books.

"Adam? Adam, over here," called James, his voice higher than regular. Adam ran towards his husband's voice, stopping dead when he saw what he'd been called to. Kurt lay on the floor, surrounded by books, face worn and tear streaked, eyes closed in sleep. His chest rose and fell slowly, occasionally catching with a small whimper.

"Kurt?" Adam said gently, shaking the shoulder of his student. "Kurt wake up." The boy's eyes began to flicker and then filled with tears.

"Mr Knightly?" he whispered, his voice cracked and rough.

"Yeah, It's me Kurt," he reassured the boy. "Are you okay? Did anyone hurt you?" Kurt shook his head, opening his mouth but seeming unable to find the words to speak.

"What happened?" his teacher begged and Kurt looked up at him properly, deciding to try his best to explain, but still unable to get the words out. Adam looked down, grasping the boy's hand reassuringly and sitting next to him.

"You know, when I was a kid, I was even dorkier than I am now," he started and Kurt chuckled. "I never fit in with anyone, people looked down on me and thought I was disgusting or a loser. I spent way too many years caring what they thought, or how they acted. Then I left secondary school and I realized, that as much as it seems like the be all and end all of life, it's not. I got a scholarship to Columbia, moved to New York and met someone," he looked up at James and smiled. "I met the most wonderful person anyone could ever know, and I got married. I mean it might not be recognized even where we now live, but, hey, maybe some day."

"You're...gay?" Kurt asked, he'd assumed previously that his married teacher was straight, but knowing that someone like him had made it through reassured him.

"Yep," said Adam, jovially, his other hand gripping onto his husband's once more. "This is James."

Kurt looked up at the love between the two men and then, suddenly, he was talking, telling his teacher everything and the man just listened. Listened and understood. Kurt was in tears by the end, as were the two men.
"You know there's nothing we can do, right?" asked Adam and Kurt nodded. "It's your word against theirs and no one's going to want to believe you, so they'll ignore it."
"Life always has it's rough patches, as cliche as it may sound, but as long as you remember what you have and learn to appreciate that, then life all of a sudden looks brighter. There's this song that we like to sing together when one of us feels a bit rubbish, I don't know if that might help, Adam told me you were in Glee," said James, shrugging. Kurt's eyebrows were almost up to his hairline.
"Wait, you sing?" he asked his teacher, curiously. Adam grinned, sheepishly.
"I guess."
"Pfft."
"Shush you." Kurt couldn't help smiling at how adorable the two were.
"You do the melody, I'll do the harmony," said James, and Adam nodded.

I wish you out of the woods
And into a picture with me
I wish you over the moon
Come out of the question and be

Kurt was enthralled by the two men, their voices blended beautifully together. His teacher's voice was incredible, although unusual, it was somewhat very English sounding.

If this is gonna run 'round in my head
I might as well be dreaming
Run 'round in my head

I roller coaster for you
Time out of mind must be heavenly
It's all enchanted and wild
Just like my heart said it was gonna be

Adam's eyes couldn't leave his husband's, they were chocolate brown, surrounded by tanned skin and dark brown hair; he was so beautiful. As the sang they smiled, this was their thing and they were sharing it with a boy who reminded them of their younger selves, represented their struggle.

If this is gonna run 'round in my head
I might as well be dreaming
Run 'round in my head

I wish you out of the woods
And into the picture with me
I wish you over the moon
Come out of the question and be

If this is gonna run 'round in my head
I might as well be dreaming
Run 'round in my head

Kurt began to join in, his soft, high voice providing another layer to the song.

If this is gonna run 'round in my head
I might as well be dreaming
Run 'round in my head
I might as well be dreaming
Run 'round in my head
I might as well be dreaming
Run 'round in my head

If this is gonna run 'round in my head
I might as well be dreaming
Run 'round in my head

They finished and began to grin, but Kurt's smile quickly faded when he thought of his father. "I don't want my dad to know," he said, his voice and face determined. "We could just tell him that I was doing some extra work and I fell asleep. Please?" Adam and James shared a look before nodding.

"Okay," answered Adam, after a minute. "But we should probably call him now, he's going to be out of his mind with worry." The boy nodded and his teacher took out a cell phone and started to tap and press on it's touch screen surface.

"Hi, Mr Hummel? It's Adam Knightly, Kurt's English teacher. We found Kurt-"

"Is he okay?"

"He's absolutely fine, Mr Hummel. I'll pass you over to him to talk and then we'll drive him to your house."

"Before you go, Adam."

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"It's okay, sir, glad I could help." Adam passed the phone over to Kurt, who talked as they made their way out to the car park.

"Hi Dad," he said, noting down his address on a piece of paper and giving it to James.

"Kurt, thank God you're okay. What happened?" Kurt thought then about just telling him everything, but he knew he couldn't. Nothing could be done, there was no point stressing his Dad out about it too.

"I'm so, so sorry. I decided to go and research a project for Glee, but I fell asleep on the desk. Mr Knightly came in with his husband-"

"Wait, that Adam guy is gay?" Kurt heard his teacher chuckled a little as he got into the front seat of the car and Kurt made a mental note that the man could hear what was being said on the phone.

"Yes," he answered cautiously, praying he wouldn't say anything embarrassing.

"Well he seems like a nice guy, so I'm glad you have such a good role model, especially one who proves that you can find love and get married one day, where's he from?" Kurt could see Mr Knightly welling up a little in the front as they drew closer and closer to Kurt's house.

"He's English, but he moved here from New York, where he got married," the two men shared a glance, grinning at one another.

"That's great, Kurt. Now are you nearly home?"

"We'll just be a minute or so."

Blaine watched from his seat on his bedroom window seat as two cars pulled up, he sighed as the moonlight gleamed against the coiffed, brown hair of his next door neighbor. Blaine had dressed himself in a pair of pajama bottoms a vest and a hooded top, which were all slightly too big for him, he pressed the top to his face, breathing in the scent. They were Kurt's clothes that he'd left there and Blaine could never bear to return, they still smelled like Kurt and he was comforted by the familiarity. He couldn't believe what he'd put Kurt through, he knew he'd been protecting him in the ultimate, but there had to have been some other way. He pushed his hair back, stressed.

Blaine felt a lump form in his throat as Burt launched himself at his son, enveloping him in a hug, he noticed Mr Knightly and another man stood near by. They were holding hands, quite obviously in love. Blaine wished he had what they had, but even if Kurt did love him back, his father was a whole other matter. His eyes were drawn back to Kurt, laughing but still hurting. Blaine had done that too him. Those stunning blue eyes flicked up to his window, catching Blaine's for a second. Tears began to trickle down Blaine's face, he once again put his head into the top and took a deep breath in. Kurt's face switched to confusion, tilting adorably and scrunching slightly at the nose and eyebrows. Blaine shook his head, he couldn't do this, how was he supposed to keep pretending when he was giving in so much now? He took one last look at the boy he loved and left the window sill.

Kurt watched Blaine walk away, feeling the crack in his heart spread just that little bit more. But he was sure of what he'd seen. Blaine had been wearing his pajamas, Blaine has sniffed his pajamas. He'd looked hopeless, as if everything was crashing down on him and there was no where left to hide. Kurt sighed, he wished it could be like it used to be, when they got upset and then they sat in bed, watched movies and fell asleep in each others arms, under a blanket covered in popcorn. But no, everything had changed and he didn't know what he'd done wrong.

A car pulled into the Anderson drive and the group turned, Burt's arm instantly fell around Kurt, protectively. Carole had come out, as had Finn, and the boy took his position around Kurt's other side, eyes narrowed. Adam, James and Carole, picked up on the change in the atmosphere, converging around Kurt, as a small, dark haired man stepped out of the car. Mr Anderson surveyed the scene, smirking and raising his eyebrow slightly, before walking to his own house.

"Let's go inside," said Burt, face wrinkled in disgust.

Blaine heard the front door shut and sighed, waiting for the hell that ensued. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and took it out curiously, it was Kurt. He opened it before he even had time to consider what it would do to his motivation to keep ignoring the boy, then began to smile.

Kurt Hummel:

You can keep the pajamas, if you like.