“I’m Kurt.”

“I’m Blaine.”

“Are you new?”

Of course he is. There’s a moving truck out front.

“Do you want to be my friend?”

Of course he does.

He’s lonely.

_

“What are you doing?” Blaine stands in Kurt’s yard with a football in his hands and a frown on his face.

“I’m having a tea party,” Kurt says. He looks up, and hesitates, before adding, “Do you want to join me?”

Blaine walks forward, and he’s afraid Blaine will steal something or hit him, and he shields his face. But nothing happens.

He peeks through his fingers.

Blaine is holding out a cup, smiling.

“Would you pour me some tea?”

_

Sometimes, at night, Kurt can hear shouting from Blaine’s house.

He asks Blaine about it, when they’re lying on their backs and watching the clouds.

“It’s nothing,” Blaine says before lifting one hand and pointing at a cloud, “That one looks like a bird.”

“Yeah…I guess.”

“Don’t you see?” Blaine asks, looking over at Kurt before he smiles and scoots closer. He keeps pointing up at the sky as he speaks, tracing the shape of the bird in the clouds. “Do you see it now?”

He doesn’t.

But Blaine has a knack for seeing things he doesn’t, so even though the bird is invisible to him, he smiles and nods and believes in what his friend says.

_

“Why do you have a black eye?” Kurt asks when Blaine comes to school late one day.

“I tripped,” Blaine tells him before tugging on his hand, “Come on, Kurt. Let’s go swing.”

“No. We can’t.”

Blaine frowns, “Why not?”

“The big kids swing. We don’t get to.”

“Oh…but don’t you want to swing?”

Blaine looks so confused. Kurt wonders if he’s stupid.

“Of course I do. The swings are my favorite. But we can’t.”

“Oh…okay then,” Blaine says, sitting down next to Kurt again.

The entire time they play marriage with Kurt’s Power Rangers (using Blaine’s ring for the married ranger to wear around its neck), Blaine won’t stop looking over at the big kids on the swings.

_

Kurt can’t find Blaine at the playground the next day.

It’s Santana that tells him where Blaine is. She’s laughing when she does.

“He tried to kick the big kids off the swings,” she tells him, “So Luke hit him. He’s in the nurse’s office.”

Kurt starts to run inside the school, but he stops long enough to look at Santana and glare.

“It’s not funny,” he tells her.

She keeps laughing.

But at least she’s laughing at him as he runs to the school, and not at Blaine.

_

“I just wanted to get the swings for you,” Blaine tells Kurt when they’re at Kurt’s house, watching television.

“You got hurt.”

“Yeah…not bad, though,” Blaine shifts and stares down at his feet.

“But still.”

“They shouldn’t be able to do that. Bully kids, I mean,” Blaine murmurs, “I just wanted to fix it.”

“You’re eight.”

“So?”

“You can’t fix things.”

Blaine looks up, frowns, “That’s stupid.”

“That’s what the grown ups say,” Kurt points out.

Blaine narrows his eyes.

“Then grown ups are stupid.”

_

“There’s a lot of cars at your house,” Blaine nudges Kurt as they’re walking home two weeks after the ‘swing incident’ (Blaine still has a cut on his face from it).

“That’s my grandma’s car…”

They both pause and stare for a few moments. It’s Blaine that breaks the silence.

“I’m gonna go to my house.”

“No, you were going to come and play.”

“Yeah, but,” Blaine shifts awkwardly. He’s always awkward when he has to fight. “Your grandma is over. I don’t wanna mess up family time. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

_

“Your mom…she…oh, buddy, I’m sorry. She died.”

Kurt tells his dad he’s lying.

“Buddy…”

“Leave me alone!” Kurt snaps, before running to his room. He waits until the grownups have gone back into the living room to climb out of his window.

He considers running away. To the park, maybe. He doesn’t want to stay with a liar.

He runs to Blaine’s house instead.

_

“Kurt…w-what’re you doing here?”

“I…I had to…my mom she…” Kurt looks away from Blaine. He’s going to start crying and he doesn’t want Blaine to see him cry. “My dad is being mean,” he whispers after a few moments.

“Blaine! Who is that?” Someone yells behind Blaine, and he can hear heavy footsteps.

Blaine’s eyes widen and he grabs Kurt’s arm.

“Come on,” he says, and then they’re running, and Kurt doesn’t know where they’re going, but he doesn’t care.

Besides, he’s running with Blaine.

And if Blaine took on the big kids just so they could swing, nothing bad is going to happen.

_

“Who was that?”

“Where?”

They’re at the playground, sitting on the swings. Blaine isn’t swinging, though. He’s just sitting there.

“At your house.”

“Oh. That was my dad.”

“Your dad sounds mean,” Kurt says honestly.

Blaine laughs, “He is.”

They’re quiet for a few moments and then Blaine looks over at Kurt.

“Why did you come to my house?”

_

Blaine goes to Kurt’s mom’s funeral.

Kurt tells him he doesn’t have to go, but Blaine just shrugs his shoulders and stares at his plate.

“She was nice to me, too,” he manages to say after a few minutes.

“Really?”

“Really,” Blaine looks up, “Besides, you’re my friend.”

“So?”

“So I have to go.”

“Why do you have to go?”

“Because…you’ll be sad. I have to be there, when you’re sad.”

Kurt snorts, “Says who?”

“Me.”

_

Kurt cries.

His dad cries.

Blaine holds both of their hands and he wants to cry, because he liked Kurt’s mom, but he doesn’t. Everyone else is sad, so he has to be big and strong and there.

_

They’re lying on their backs in Kurt’s yard.

“I miss my mom,” Kurt whispers into the silence.

Blaine looks over at him, “I know.”

“That’s all?”

“I can’t bring back the dead.”

“You said you could fix things.”

Blaine looks guilty.

Kurt lets him feel guilty.

It’s nice to see someone else hurt.

_

Kurt doesn’t go to school for a few weeks. He doesn’t see Blaine at all his first day back, until recess.

“I have a surprise for you,” Blaine says when he finds Kurt on the playground. He takes Kurt hand and smiles, “Come on. You’ll like it. But close your eyes, okay?”

Kurt doesn’t want to get a surprise. He wants to sit down and be sad and maybe talk to Blaine a little, but Blaine looks happy, so he closes his eyes and lets Blaine lead him.

_

“You can open your eyes now.”

He does.

He sees the swings.

They’re empty.

“What are you doing? We can’t swing. The big kids will be back,” Kurt says, turning to face Blaine.

Blaine shakes his head, “Nope.”

“What?”

“They won’t be back until tomorrow.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Oh, I do. Come on, let’s swing.”

_

They’re swinging higher and higher and Kurt is sure that, if he wanted to, he could reach out and bring some of the sky home to his father. He’s that close.

“How did you get the big kids to leave?” he asks Blaine when they match up again, and they’re flying back at the same time.

“I gave them my ring.”

Kurt gapes at Blaine.

“You love that ring!”

Blaine looks over, “It was just a ring.”

“But…you said it was the last thing your grandpa gave you.”

“It was just a ring,” Blaine repeats, firmly.

They swing in silence for a minute or two before Kurt whispers, “Thank you.”

“Don’t,” Blaine says, “Thank me,” he adds for clarification, “You’re my friend. And sometimes friends give up things, but that’s okay.”

_

Later on, when Kurt brings it up again, Blaine tells him, “I told you: it wasn’t a big deal. Besides, you’re cooler than some silly old ring anyway.”

“Really?”

“Really. Now come on. We have a tea party to throw.”