The tour ended and Kurt returned to his apartment, having one night alone at home before Leah would return from her parents' house. As much fun as he had had on the Highlands tour, he was pleased to be back in his own home, to have his own bed, and his own bathroom. He treated himself to a bubble bath before crawling into bed that evening and staying there until midday.

Leah had come in earlier that morning and had gotten to unpacking her suitcase already, meaning that by the time Kurt got up she was cooking in the kitchen, singing to herself softly. "Morning! Or um, afternoon, now! How was the tour?" She greeted him, before he wiggled between her and her cooking to hug her and say hello properly.

"It was good, really good. Lima was great, to spend time with my family and stuff," Kurt said, being very careful to tiptoe around the Blaine subject, "But I am so sick of the first two episodes of the season that I cannot wait to get back on set tomorrow and give them more footage to work with."

"Episode three airs next week," Leah reminded him, "that gives you a little bit of flexibility."

"And episode three is the Elliot story," Kurt commented, "So Charlotte will have me set to do about a million different interviews."

"Probably. Now sit down and have something to eat." Kurt sat at the counter and sipped at the coffee Leah had placed in front of him, insisting he could wait the twenty minutes for whatever she was cooking to finish and that no, he didn't need toast or cereal or fruit or anything else first. As much as he hated to admit it, the last two weeks had felt almost lonely without Leah around to pester him into eating all the time, to go and relax. He had made an effort to enjoy the tour for himself, but Leah always did such a good job of it at home that he never needed to think about it.

Kurt had the day to recharge before the whole cast was back on set to continue filming the day after. He didn't have a lot to do, and figured he should take the day just to relax as he was supposed to. There wasn't much he could do, because Leah had decided to keep him under house arrest and force relaxation on him. It hadn't been the worst decision, because it had meant that they had curled up on the couch and watched Moulin Rouge again.

He texted Blaine to let him know that he had gotten home fine- he didn't think Blaine would worry, but it was worth making the effort. Made it back to NY in one piece. Skype session later in the week, maybe?

Name your time and I'll be online and waiting.

Kurt didn't reply to Blaine's text for some time because he had gotten so swept up the world of the musical that he hadn't noticed his phone buzz. He kept meaning to respond after that, but it seemed to be taking a backseat. Blaine hadn't sent him any more texts, and he figured once he found a time that worked he would let Blaine know.

Kurt was on set every day that week, filming a variety of scenes, having scenes rewritten and filming them again. It got to 7 o'clock on Friday and the directors decided to call it a night. The cast all hung around a little longer collecting their coats and such, chatting eagerly about what they would do that evening. After having been on tour with four of the others for two weeks it was feeling a little odd not to see each other in the evenings and go out to eat together, and so a bunch of them planned to go out.

Cassidy chose a place and invited them all, before quickly going back on what she said. "Kurt!" She said, as though it had only just dawned on her that he was there, "It's a twenty-one plus club. Sorry. We can go somewhere else, if you want..." Kurt shook his head.

"No, it's fine. You can go without me. I have other plans, anyway." Kurt said with a shrug. It wasn't often a problem that he was one of the youngest cast members. When they all reached their twenty-firsts they had teased him for not drinking at any events, but that had gotten old for them pretty quickly and they had decided to just let Kurt drink with them occasionally. He wasn't the youngest on set- the kids playing the freshmen were all fifteen or sixteen- but when all Elliot's friends were being played by older cast members it only made sense that they were the ones that Kurt had befriended. At nineteen, he was one of the cast members who were actually closest in age to their characters. Cassidy's character, Meghan, was seventeen, whereas Cassidy herself would be twenty-three soon. It did hurt a little bit that he got excluded like that. Instead of going out to eat with the younger cast members, most of whom were planning on just going home anyway, he headed back to his apartment with Leah.

"You have other plans?" Leah asked as they got into the car, "That's the first I've heard about them."

"Just to watch TV, maybe call my dad. The usual." He replied, shrugging.

"Well The Bachelor is on tonight. We haven't watched it for a couple of weeks. I hope that blonde one's still around..." Leah said, mostly making small talk now. When they got back to the apartment Kurt sloped off to his bedroom, saying he was just going to make some calls. It was the truth; just he wasn't planning on calling his dad.

Blaine had gone to school every day since he had returned to Westerville and Kurt had continued on the tour. He had spent as much time as he could away from his house, meaning he was at Wes's a lot. Marie didn't mind, because she knew how much easier it would be for Blaine to let him and Phillip avoid each other for awhile and come to terms with everything for themselves in the meantime. She knew Phillip would probably choose to forget what he was even mad about in the first place, pretend he didn't have any problems with it and hope the "issue" resolved itself.

Marie cornered Blaine in the kitchen one evening as he had snuck down to get a drink, no doubt planning on going back up to his bedroom with it. He always claimed to have homework to do, but she wasn't so sure. She had never found out where he had gotten to two weeks earlier after he had fought with Phillip, but she had let it pass. He wasn't murdered or anything, so wherever he had gone he had been safe.

"Blaine!" She said, and nearly made Blaine drop his drink, "I didn't mean to scare you, sorry. I just feel like I haven't seen you in forever. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, mom. Can I go now?" Blaine said. He made a move to step around Marie and head upstairs, but she blocked him. She had fought hard for two seconds to talk to him, and she wasn't going to give it up that easily.

"How's school?" She said, trying to make conversation. Blaine didn't seem to want to respond.

"Fine, I have some homework to do, if you wouldn't mind me leaving..." he tried to step around her another time. Again, she blocked his path.

"And how's Wes? And Sky? And um, your other friends?"

"They're fine too."

"Oh, right..." There was a moment of silence. Marie didn't know what to say, and Blaine didn't particularly mind.

"Is dad over himself yet?" Blaine said, as he realised Marie wasn't moving to let him pass yet and she didn't have anything in mind to continue their conversation.

"Well, no, is the short answer... but he won't rip into you- if you're done avoiding each other, that is." Marie said. She had been trying her hardest to maintain her relationships with the main men in her life on both sides of the argument, but a middle ground was hard to keep. She wanted to support Blaine, but she could understand to some extent where Phillip was coming from. She still wasn't sure whether that came from being married for so long or because deep down she was sharing some of the same view.

"Whatever. I'm going to go and finish my homework, maybe talk to Olivia or something." Blaine said, trying to shrug off the conversation and step around Marie again. Once more, she intercepted.

"Olivia? Olivia Harris? I always liked her!" She said, as though she had never expressed her opinion of the girl before.

"Yeah, I met up with her a couple of weeks ago." Blaine said. It hadn't been a life altering event and he didn't think he needed to share every second of it with his mom.

"How is she? You didn't just see her because you found out she was dying, right?" she checked.

"No, she's in remission. She's living in Lima now." He explained.

"Oh, and you were in Lima? Why on earth were you in Lima?" She didn't mean to sound suspicious, but she couldn't help but wonder why Blaine had been there.

"You know sometimes the Warblers like to head over there. I just ran into her." Blaine lied, having planned for the question to come up some time. Marie seemed to accept the answer.

"Of course, silly me... you should invite her over on Wednesday. We can have dinner and then you can take her to support group! Wouldn't that be nice?"

"I'll ask her, if you let me go upstairs already."

"Sure, Blaine. Sure. You know I love you, okay? I'll always love you, Blaine." She said, reaching up to kiss him on the cheek. She didn't wait for his response, bustling out of the kitchen to return to whatever it was she had been doing.

Blaine got back upstairs in time to hear the familiar tune of Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter, which he had set as a custom ringtone, appropriately for the contact on his phone that was saved as Hedwig. He realised then that this was the first time he had heard the tune for that reason- they would actually talk on the phone. They had talked in person and they had texted each other, but they were yet to have a phone conversation.

"Hey," Blaine said on answering, "How's it to be home?"

"Great," Kurt said on the other side of the phone, "And hello, Blaine. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, Kurt. You don't need to check up on me about that stuff, really. I'm avoiding my dad, he's avoiding me, and it's all fine." Blaine said.

"You're avoiding each other?" Blaine could practically hear Kurt frowning. He figured it might be a longer conversation than he originally thought, and sat down on his bed.

"Yeah. My mum wants us all to have dinner on Wednesday, and that would be the first time I'll have been in the same room as him for more than thirty seconds in weeks."

"But you were saying she has it under control to some extent, right? So as long as she's there, you should be okay. He won't get violent or anything, will he?" Kurt checked. He was worrying about Blaine. He respected Blaine's right to make decisions about whether or not to avoid his dad, but he couldn't help but want to look out for him.

"No. He isn't physical with his anger like that. He'll yell a lot, and he'll be in denial for a really long time, but he would never hit anyone unless he got hit first. I think. This hasn't really happened before. The closest we've come is when Cooper told my parents he wanted to be an actor." Blaine said.

"And what happened then?"

"He yelled a lot. He pretended the problem didn't exist and hoped it would go away. And then there's this lifetime of disappointment stacked up every time he tells someone his son is a-" Blaine paused to sigh dramatically, as his dad seemed so fond of doing, "an actor."

"And you think that will be how it is for you?"

Blaine laughed a little bit. "Oh yeah," he said sarcastically, "because 'My son is a fag' has just the same ring to it. I think it may well be the same, with that constant disappointment. But he won't be telling anyone I'm gay."

Kurt sighed. "Blaine, there's something you need to do for me," he said, "lie down; close your eyes- whatever. However you imagine the best." Blaine followed Kurt's prompt and lay down on his bed. "Are you comfy?" Blaine nodded before he remembered that Kurt couldn't actually see him.

"Yes," he said.

"Good. Now I want you to imagine what you're probably looking at as a best case scenario with your dad. Years from now, he's at a party or something. He gets asked about his sons- he says that his son Cooper is- dramatic sigh included, if you like- an actor. When asked about his younger son, he explains that he is living out of state and that he is recently a father. Now, it's one of your dad's long time colleagues, heard a lot about you and Cooper over the years. They ask why you haven't been back in town to visit with your wife. Your dad informs them that you don't actually have a wife. The colleague is getting all ready to frown upon you for having children out of wedlock, before he explains that, in fact, you are married. To another man. He had no complaints to say about your life at all- your child is healthy, you live somewhere nice, you're making a decent salary, he likes your partner. Because after years of homophobic thinking and hoping you would change your mind, he realised there were things a lot worse that could have happened. He could have lost you entirely, but you stuck around when it got hard for him. You made an effort, and it paid off." The line was quiet for a moment.

"That sounds nice." Blaine said, after he was done processing what Kurt had just made him visualise.

"It's best case scenario, like I said. Things might not be that ideal. It might take your dad awhile to come around and accept it all properly, but you do need to put in some effort, too. If you don't try to change his mind it could be made up that way forever." Kurt advised. There were a couple of people whose minds he wished he had tried harder to change, but that was all in the past.

"I guess so," Blaine said, "but I don't think there will be much discussion about it. My parents aren't the sort to try and put me in anti-gay therapy or anything, so that's a start. Oh, and my mom stopped me just before to tell me that she would always love me. I think she's sorted it all out for herself."

"That's good," Kurt said, "you need your mom, Blaine- your dad, too. You said your family wasn't very good at support, but maybe you can find a way to change that. Start small and work your way up."

"I know," Blaine agreed, "my mom did suggest I invited Olivia over, so I'm going to owe her big time for sitting through dinner with my parents."

"So she would be in?"

"You met her. My family might not be good at support, but my friends are." Blaine said. Olivia wasn't the sort of person to turn down a dinner invite from anyone.

"I'll assume that I was that included in that. I'm just a phone call away if you need me, okay? If it gets really bad I'll come to you or I'll fly you to me. Whatever. I'll be here, Blaine." Kurt was completely honest in that offer. Blaine was one of his best friends now, and he knew that he had to be there for him, even if they lived in different states.

"Thanks, Kurt. It means the world to me to know that." Blaine said with total sincerity.

"What are friends for? So we'll Skype sometime soon, yeah? Tomorrow night or something?" Kurt suggested.

"Sure. Just text me ten minutes before." Blaine agreed.

"Deal. I'll see you then."

"You too." Kurt hung up the phone after a couple of seconds of comfortable silence. Blaine stayed there on his bed for awhile longer, letting the feeling that he only got from being around Kurt linger.

After a few minutes of lying there in silence, he figured he should text Olivia at the very least, seeing as he told his mom he would invite her. I was told to invite you over for dinner on Wednesday. Please be there and make it more bearable?

She replied almost instantaneously. Sure, B. I would do anything- even sit through dinner with your parents- for you.

Blaine really wasn't alone through any of this.

Kurt had met up with several other sick teenagers through the Wish Factory. He had passed the memo on to Charlotte to avoid booking any visits for the two days he was close enough to his family- the days he was in Westerville and Lima, pretending he was having no contact with Blaine- but while on tour he was able to meet up with some of the kids who weren't well enough to travel. To say that those visits were an eye-opener was an understatement. On top of the few visits he had had while in Ohio and Michigan he had managed a couple of Skype sessions, although they always felt a little more removed. There was something much less personal about meeting via the internet.

To begin with Kurt had wanted to keep the charity work as just that. He had wanted to be totally professional. He had only taken the offer of charity work to begin with as a publicity stunt, but after that first meeting with Blaine, he realised that he actually enjoyed it- and that it was okay for him to have enjoyed it.

Kurt couldn't help but feel like he was cheating on Blaine every time he met with another sick teenager at Carefree. That was where he had met the boy who had so quickly become his best friend. It was their place now. He had tried to find other places, but Leah, Charlotte and the representatives from the Wish Factory were all against him on that. They didn't see the point in switching places when Carefree was so ideal. The conversation was never as lively as it was with Blaine. All of them seemed to lack a spark. Everyone else was living up to the impossibly high bar that Blaine had set, and no one was getting along with him in quite the same way. Everyone was so keen on idolising him, but Blaine, he had made him seem like a regular person, joking around and only asking a few questions that were even related to any of his work. The meetings came and went, but none were like the first.

Wes and Blaine huddled in Blaine's living room in sleeping bags, somewhere after midnight, in the middle of a late night gaming session. No matter how much progress they were making on Born Rivals, even if it wasn't the only game they played, it was taking a really long time to get through story mode. The storyline seemed to be far more complex, have way more plot twists, than any of the others in the series, not that either boy particularly minded. They were staying up so late on this occasion because they were stuck on an underwater level. There was no sane explanation for the water level, but it was nearly impossible to beat. One minute you're in the wonderfully medieval world of Prince Julio and his companions, travelling in more of an adventure style, but then they have to get through a water level? There was no easy way to explain that to anyone. Maybe it would be made clear later on, but at that moment it was all a bit foggy.

Blaine woke up on the couch, having spread out and seemingly kicked Wes off in the night, as he was now lying on the floor. It didn't look particularly comfy. He couldn't remember when they had fallen asleep, but his controller was mysteriously removed from his hands and the game system was on, although the TV was off. He suspected his mom had been in since she had woken up and had been responsible for the semi-pack up. The empty energy drink cans and Doritos packets were removed, and there was a note in their place on the coffee table in his mom's neat script.

Morning honey! There are waffles and bacon keeping warm in the oven. Help yourself. Please finish tidying your things! And remember to take your meds. Could you do your dishes too please? I'll be back later in the afternoon, going to see your grandma this morning. See you then. P.S. get that assignment finished!

Blaine was used to notes of the sort, reminding him to do things he was already intending on doing. There were periods when both of them were so busy that they communicated solely through notes like this, and it usually meant there were supplementary notes to alert the other that there was a note in the first place. Sure enough, after Blaine had carefully stepped over Wes and headed to the kitchen he found another two notes, one on the fridge and the other on the bench, each simply saying see note on coffee table. He got out some plates and helped himself to the breakfast food as his mother had suggested, making sure there would be enough for Wes to have some.

He took his food back out the living room and sat on the couch, eating and waiting for Wes to wake up. Eventually he did, grumbling about how he had ended up on the floor, before reacting to Blaine's food and hurrying to the kitchen, returning shortly after with his plate piled high with waffles and bacon. He seemed to forget his discomfort easily and finished his food before Blaine did, although Blaine had had a decent head start. With both finished, they took their dishes to the kitchen, but didn't wash them yet.

"Can you get me a glass of water?" Blaine asked Wes, "I'm just going to run upstairs and get my cancer drugs." Wes nodded and got to finding Blaine a clean glass. He re-entered the kitchen with small plastic container, holding a few pills he was intending on taking. He thanked Wes for the glass of water and started working his way through his medication cocktail as Wes handed him each pill individually, although Blaine could have done that himself.

"What are all these for?" Wes asked, inspecting each as Blaine took them from him.

"A variety of stuff. I can never remember. They're always trying to work out what dosages are working best, which I really need to take and which I shouldn't be taking anymore. They change it every time I go for a check up. I'm just constantly a guinea pig, running tests to save myself."

Wes picked up a small blue pill and passed it to Blaine. "Do you know what this is for?" Wes said, "Because it looks an awful lot like something that isn't cancer related."

Blaine rolled his eyes and took the pill from him and swallowing it. "No clue," he said, "but it isn't Viagra. I know that's what it looks like, but that would just be impractical."

Wes chuckled. "I guess you're right. It wouldn't really make sense..." he passed Blaine another. "Do you know what this one is?"

Blaine shrugged. "I think it's an anti-depressant. I don't know."

"They give you those?"

"Yeah, and I think they're doing their job. I haven't really ever felt depressed."

"Good." Wes said. The pills all gone, Blaine finished his glass of water. He put the plastic box on the counter by the sink, thinking it could probably do with a wash by now. "So what are you doing later in the week?" Wes added.

"I have to have dinner with my parents on Wednesday before support group, but they let me invite Olivia so it should be bearable."

"Olivia?"

"Haven't you met her?" Blaine asked, sure they had all met up some time or another, "Olivia Harris. My other best friend, the bisexual one with leukaemia. Ring any bells?"

"Nope, don't think so."

"Oh well, anyway, mom said I should invite her and it means I won't be facing dad alone."

"Right then. Anything else?"

"I don't know, I'll probably Skype with-" Blaine stopped himself from finishing that sentence the way he wanted to, With Kurt, "my cousin." He temporarily forgot he wasn't supposed to mention that he was having any kind of contact with Kurt, even though he had become one of his closest friends. Since Kurt had left Lima for the rest of the tour all Blaine had wanted to do was be with him again, to be able to hug him, to have Kurt kiss his cheek or forehead in an affectionate but not romantic way. It was odd to think that only Kurt's family, Olivia, maybe the other Highlands cast members, and potentially Sky, if she had filled the blanks by herself, knew they had even been communicating since that first meeting. Since he had had exclusive access at the tour event some more people knew that they had seen each other since, but no one really knew the full extent of their friendship.

Wes didn't seem to think there was anything odd or out of place with the way Blaine had stumbled over his sentence- or if he did, he was nice enough not to mention it. He shrugged it off.

There was no reason to be suspicious of who Blaine was or wasn't going to Skype after all, was there?