The stern voice came from Mr. Anderson. Kurt examined his slobber-covered finger, where tiny bite marks were visible. Blaine's father took the two year-old out of his arms and he sat back down at the kitchen bar. Blaine himself sat next to him, reading another book and trying not to laugh.

“I'm sorry, Kurt,” Mr. Anderson continued. “She's growing in new teeth again.” He handed Addison a teething toy, which she immediately chomped down on.

“No, it's alright. I understand,” Kurt replied. He wiped his finger off on Blaine's T-shirt, who smacked his hand away in protest.

The pair finished their dinners and made their way up to Blaine's tree house. It had changed over the years, crayons and building blocks slowly being replaced by stolen copies of Vogue and hand-held game consoles. Kurt and Blaine sat themselves down at the small table in the center of the room and prepared a game of Egyptian Ratscrew.

They played the game over and over, and when the sun finally set, they moved over to the bean bags in the corner. Getting comfortable, they looked out the window of the tree house, where they could see stars starting to appear in the sky, one by one. Blaine was as relaxed as ever. Kurt, on the other hand, was growing more and more tense by the second.

“Kurt?” His head snapped up. “I can hear you thinking.”

“Sorry,” Kurt mumbled, looking down at his hands. Blaine turned in his beanbag, facing the other boy.

“What's wrong?”

Oh, god, Blaine could read him like a book. Kurt's heart was pounding. He did not want to have this conversation. But he knew he had to. Kurt hated keeping this to himself and there was no one Kurt trusted more than Blaine.

“Me too,” Kurt said to his hands.

“What?” Blaine asked, bewildered.

“I-I think I'm gay, too,” Kurt elaborated, looking at his friend worriedly. Blaine took a moment to process this.

“Really?” he asked. Kurt just nodded.

“Huh. Okay.”

Okay.

Okay.

Kurt had never been so grateful of the little world in all of his life. Blaine wasn't upset, and he wasn't making a big deal out of it. Relief washed over Kurt like water down a waterfall. He relaxed back into his beanbag, looking out at the rapidly appearing stars.

Suddenly, Blaine stood up.

“Let's climb onto the roof,” he suggested. Kurt looked at him like he was nuts.

“Uhm... How about no? I'd rather not break my neck tonight.”

“Oh, come on, Kurt! Where's your sense of adventure?” And with that, Blaine, climbed right out the window and on top of the roof.

“Blaine!” Kurt yelled. “Get down!”

A curly head appeared upside-down in the window, a huge, goofy grin adorning his face.

“You can see so many more stars up here!” he exclaimed, disappearing again.

Kurt huffed, stood up, and made his way over to the window. He put his feet on the sill, standing up onto it and turning around, gripping the roof for support. Then he made the mistake of looking down.

Holy crap, the ground was a long ways away. Suddenly frozen with his eyes glued to the ground, Kurt managed a panicked, “Uh... Blaine?”

“Yeah?” Blaine popped up from over the roof, taking in Kurt's frightened expression and immediately offering his hand.

Kurt took it quickly and let his friend pull him up over the edge.

“Ohmygod I can't ever do that again,” Kurt babbled, scrambling to the center of the square roof, where he felt safest. “That was the scariest thing ever, remind me to never, ever—”

“Kurt.”

The rambling ceased and Kurt looked at Blaine, pointing up. Kurt looked at the sky and gasped. He could see more stars than he imagined there being. Blaine laid down on his back, hands under his head, and Kurt slowly joined him.

“That's the Milky Way,” Blaine said, pointing out a faint luminous band that Kurt would have guessed were clouds. “And there's Pegasus, and Perseus...” Blaine continued to astound Kurt with his fast knowledge of the constellations, telling him myths and legends for each one, and how they're supposed to relate to horoscopes.

“I never knew you knew so much about astronomy,” Kurt said. Blaine shrugged.

“Just bored on the internet one afternoon.”

They stayed there for a few minutes, still stargazing. They just had one more month of middle school left, and then they were moving on to high school. Kurt was a little frightened by the prospect, but he knew that with Blaine by his side, he'd be okay with anything.

“Hey, you know what?” Blaine asked, and Kurt hummed his recognition. “We should go to Farewell, Freshmen together.”

Kurt's eyebrows knitted together. Farewell, Freshmen was a dance that the school threw for the eighth graders who were leaving for high school.

“You mean, like, together?” Kurt asked a little awkwardly.

“I-I mean if you want, but I just thought that—”

“Sure, Blaine. I'll go to Farewell, Freshmen with you,” Kurt teased.

XOXOX

When Blaine's mom found out, she basically had a field day, pretty much demanding that Kurt come over to watch Addison with Blaine so that she could design and create them wonderful little semi-formal outfits to wear to the dance. She didn't know that they were going together, because they decided to tell their parents that they were just going as friends.

Kurt didn't mind though. It was kind of thrilling to keep the secret from their parents.

XOXOX

The dance itself went swimmingly, for the most part. Blaine's mother drove them to the school in their impeccably tailored suits. Both were gray, but Blaine wore a navy blue shirt whereas Kurt's was red.

They had a lot of fun, hanging out with Rachel and Mercedes and a few other kids from their classes, eating bad snacks and dancing to bad music. Throughout the night, a few slow dances came on, and Kurt and Blaine stood on the sidelines awkwardly, waiting at the three minutes ticked by before rejoining the others.

It wasn't until they were leaving when things took a turn for the worst.

The pair were waiting for Kurt's dad to arrive to pick them up, where Blaine would spend the night at their house. They weren't bothering anyone, simply keeping to themselves, talking and laughing at one of the picnic tables out in the courtyard.

“I'm serious!” Blaine was saying. “That squirrel was actually laughing at me!”

Kurt wiped his eyes, which were tearing up from laughing so hard.

“Blaine, there's no way that a—”

“Hey!”

Both boys looked up at the voice, finding Azimio Adams leaning over them.

“Can we help you?” Blaine asked the boy, and Kurt was shocked at how calm he sounded. Azimio had been the largest cause of their bullying to date. When Kurt had become aware of his presence, his whole body had tensed and fear wracked through his veins.

“Sure, you can help me. Help me by not showing your faggy faces at these dances and ruining my night.”

Kurt flinched. He hadn't been called a fag since he'd had that horrible teacher in the fifth grade. He didn't have much time to worry about it though, because as soon as the words came out of his mouth, Azimio's fist had connected with Blaine's eye.

Everything happened very quickly after that.

Kurt screamed for Blaine, trying to reach him, but he was held back by an unseen force and thrown down into the picnic table. His forehead collided with the corner of the wood, and his head whipped back, causing him to fall to the ground. He opened his eyes in time to see another one of his tormentor's foot come down onto his stomach. He curled in on himself, gasping in pain.

Meanwhile, Blaine could taste blood in his mouth. His teeth had cut the inside of his cheek when he'd been punched, and now he was on his stomach, the heavy weight of a shoe on his spine. Blaine opened his eyes, and managed to make eye contact with Kurt. The boy had a large cut on his forehead and he was clutching at his stomach.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, everything stopped. The weight was lifted off of Blaine's back, and he could hear shouting going on around them.

XOXOX

A month later, Kurt was sitting on his living room couch, laughing through America's Got Talent and avoiding the July heat. The bruise on his forehead had faded, and the entire fight was now just a bad memory.

The doorbell rang, and Kurt jumped up, calling an “I've got it!” to his dad who was in the kitchen. Glancing through the peephole, Kurt could see Blaine standing on his front porch. Pleasantly surprised, Kurt pulled the door open with a smile.

The smile quickly faded, however, when Kurt saw the tears rimming his best friends eyes.

“Blaine?” the smaller boy asked. “What's wrong?”

“They're making me transfer,” Blaine said brokenly. “We're moving away.”