I know you're somewhere out there

Somewhere far away,

I want you back,

I want you back.

I bowed to the light applause of the Glee club, grinning widely. Mr. Shue clapped me on the back, sending me back to my seat.

"You did awesome," whispered Blaine, pulling my hand into his lap. I grinned and squeezed his hand. He squeezed back. We did this for a while; it actually got rather agressive.

"You sang that better than the planet did!" Brittany told me.

I was confused until Santana whispered, "Bruno Mars, gay boy." Oh... Yeah, I totally knew that.

"I do have a name," I hissed back to the cheerleader.

She smiled wickedly. "Yeah - it's 'gay boy.'"

I tried not to laugh as I grinned, and forced myself to watch our classmates perform their songs.

Predictably, Puck's song was about sex.

Well I wanna make love to you tonight

I can't wait till the morning has come

And I know now the time is just right

And straight into my arms you will run

And when you come my heart will be waiting

To make sure you're never alone

And every time I touch you, you just tremble inside

And I know how much you want me that you can't hide...

"Wanky!" Santana called, the moment it was over.

"That was really good, Puck," said Brittany incredulously. "You sang even better than that 'Bubble' guy."

They high fived. And then my phone rang.

I answered as I left the class, so Mr. Shue would understand. "Hello, dad? Is every thing okay?" The door clicked shut quietly behind me.

"Okay, yeah. Everything's okay."

"Then why'd you call me?" I leaned against the wall of the hallway, examining my nails.

"Oh! Just need to know... Do you have plans after school today?"

"No. I do have homework I need to do, though. Why?"

"What about Finn?"

I frowned. "I don't know. Phone him, maybe?"

"Just tell him to come home right after school, will you? You both need to."

"Okay, but why?"

"We, uh, have something to show you. Both of you. We want to, uh, introduce you guys together."

"Ooohkay. I'll tell him."

"Bye, Kurt."

"Bye, Dad."

I hung up. That was going to go down as second weirdest talk with his father - right after the gay sex talk. Shiver.

"Everything okay, Kurt?" Mr. Shue asked. He probably wasn't pleased with me just bailing on Rachel's performance of some obscure opera song. Please - I'd helped her practice it over Skype; I knew it as well, if not better, than she did.

"I think so," I told him. "Finn, we have to go home right after school."

Finn grumbled, "but I was going to stock up on snacks..." Snack shopping was the only kind of shopping Finn ever did, sadly. "Why?" he articulated properly. (Semi-properly).

"Dunno," I shrugged. "Dad didn't tell me; that's why we have to go there, Finn."

He shrugged. "Okay."

"Can we get back to the lesson, guys? Uh, who else is ready to sing?"

No one raised their hands, so Mr. Shue just let every one talk. A bit of pointless use of power there... "Everyone who didn't go today is going tomorrow!" he called over our chatter.

"We could go to Breadstix-" "-wonder what that call was-" "-but he's taking me to-" "the part is too low for me-" "-didn't you just tell-" "-can't pay for a movie ticket, you know-" "wanky song, Puckerman-" "-price was outrageous, for a tie, wasn't even-" "-coming to Columbus, we totally have to-" "-should sing something by-" BRRIIIINNGG!

The bell rang, and everyone directed their chatter out the door.

"Will you pick me up tomorrow?" I asked Blaine.

"Sure!" he said. "Usual time?"

"Mmhhmm. See you, then. I have to drag Finn home."

Blaine nodded. "I'd walk you out, but I need to talk to Mr. Shue about something."

"Oh, right." Blaine tightened his hand around mine one last time, and let go before I could squeeze back. He ran off to Mr. Shue, calling, "I win!"

I found Finn, and checked that he was following me. To his car, but still.

Our drive home was quiet. Meaning that we didn't really talk - of course it was plenty loud, as we rocked out to oldies. He actually tried not to head bang unless we were stuck behind a stoplight, for once. Usually he made less than no effort and the habit had made for more than one scary esperience in his car.

He parked on the street. Practically the moment we stopped the vehicle, Carol barreled of the house looking happy but nervous. She ignored our questions, insisting we should come in. Like we were waiting for her to invite us in; didn't we live here?

I was just about to ask what was going on, exactly, when I heard a cry from the kitchen.

"Mom," asked Finn, who was already halfway to the there (to grab gluttonous, saturated, oily, disgusting snacks, probably). "Is there a baby in there?"

Carole nodded awkwardly, and ushered me and her son into the kitchen. My dad was holding it, looking at it like it was a alien. He held a bottle in the baby's mouth and - oh god, he was going to choke it.

I snatched the child away. "You'll to suffocate him like that, dad," I explained. The little person couldn't be more than a couple months old. We weren't going to have him deep throating his milk bottle. 

Dad slowly, began to look less horrified. "Well, I guess it's good that one of us knows what they're doing, at least," he said gruffly.

"Who is he?" I asked Carole.

"You cousin," dad interjected. "Your Aunt Polly, and Uncle Gary... Car crash. We kind of inherited this little guy." We all peered at the child in my arms.

I understood immediately, and started cooing to the little guy. I was a real big brother! Not just a couple months older, as in Finn's case, but many years older than someone actually related to me in blood, who would be raised by the same parent...

Who he was almost made me laugh. His parents had pretty refused to acknowledge my existence. And now here was their kid, living in the same house as me. "We're going to be great friends, you and I," I whispered. Of course it was great that he wasn't going to get raised by those Dursely-ish people, but it was still kind of weird to think we only got him because they were dead.

"What's its name?" Finn asked.

"He's not an it, he's a he, Finn," I reprimanded. "But yeah, what's his name?"

"Vale," said Carole simply.

"Isn't that a word?" asked Finn. Yes.

I was surprised Finn even knew that word. "No," I whispered. "It's his name." A beautiful name.

My stepbrother grumbled, and then Vale let out a young little laugh.

"Where's he sleeping?" Finn asked. "We don't have an extra room."