"Wow, this place is insane..." Kurt was walking through Quincy Market, his father still at the hospital. He found a bouquet of fake flowers and decided to buy it for Blaine. He attached a hand-made wire grasshopper to one of the flowers and chuckled to himself.

Kurt got bumped and pushed in many directions. He bought a few vintage bow ties for Blaine, a "comfort shawl" for his aunt, a baseball cap for his father, a gold "Diva" necklace for Mercedes, and a couple vintage clothing items for himself. He laughed at himself when he bought a hot pink vest with rhinestones from a gentle old woman for Mr. Schuester. He bought a blue button for Rachel that said, "I have two gay dads," with a gold star on it. It seemed to be made for her, but he didn't question that because the stand was covered in buttons and you'd have to be pretty creative to think of one that didn't exist. He thought of buying something for Finn, but he decided against it because he seemed to be iffy around Kurt as it was.

The many stands at Quincy Market seemed to be closing in on him. The people seemed to bump into him more and more as his brain wrapped itself around over and over. The only person he couldn't stop thinking of was Blaine. The thought of talking to him again drove him insane.

When he returned to the hospital with a muffin, he headed to Blaine's bed. He popped the rest of the muffin in his mouth. Mrs. Anderson was awake when Kurt arrived, but he didn't notice as he set the vase on Blaine's table.

"I thought I saw you here a few months ago, Kurt."

"Mrs. Anderson?"

"So you are Kurt!" She smiled wearily.  "I've missed you so much, honey." Emily hugged Kurt with tears in her eyes. "Blaine's not the same without you around or to speak to. How did you come here?"

"My aunt's here. Don't apologize, it's fine," he added at the sight of Mrs. Anderson's mouth slowly opening., "I didn't know her and my dad didn't really either, honestly."

"That's too bad. Have a seat, please," She pulled out a chair and Kurt sat down. "Kevin should be here, but... you know how he is with business."

"Still hasn't changed, huh?" The scar on Kurt's back from the night of the fall seemed to tingle at the mention of Kevin. Blaine's hair had been washed, his face still extremely swollen.

"How'd you recognize Blaine, Kurt? His face is basically purple and he still had gel in his hair."

"I saw his eyebrows," Kurt chuckled. "I've never seen any like them before. Even so, once I noticed you asleep on the chair I knew it was him. You haven't aged at all," he added, with a slight lie. Her once dark curls now had the slightest hint of gray and her face was starting to crinkle a bit, from what Kurt doubted were smiles.

"Thank you, always the gentleman," she giggled. "You always used to compliment me."

"Mrs. Anderson," Kurt muttered quietly, "I don't want to intrude too much, but..."

"Why is Blaine here?" She cut him off.

"Yeah."

"Well, Blaine came out to us about five months ago, Kurt. He went to a dance with a friend of his, Gabe," she gestured to an empty, clean bed. "He was released the day before you arrived. A boy beat him up, then his friends joined in. Blaine doesn't know that there was more than one, though. The doctor said he was out cold at least ten minutes before the rest of the ‘gang' arrived." Emily made her fingers into fake quotations at the word ‘gang.' "Thank you for coming, Kurt. Blaine will appreciate the gift."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Mrs. Anderson. I should get back to my dad. Before I go though, can you give this note and these bow ties to Blaine?"

"Yeah, of course. Thank you honey." She hugged him one for time.

"No problem, it was nice seeing you. Oh," he turned back around, "One more thing. Is Blaine staying at his school?"

"I don't know, Kurt. They say they don't want to wake him up for at least a month. We're going to send him to a private school. I'll tell him to get in touch with you, okay?"

"Alright, thank you Mrs. Anderson. Bye," he waved gently and rushed off to his father without looking back. Blaine was no longer the twelve year old boy who had been so obviously in love with him long ago.

"Hey, Dad."

"You smell... familiar."

"I am your son," Kurt chuckled nervously.

Burt sniffed the air, "No, Kurt. You smell like... Blaine."

"You know what Blaine smelled like?"

"I do. I recognize his mother's perfume."

"You must be imagining it, Dad," Kurt put the ball cap on his father's head and set the shawl next to his motionless aunt. "How's she doing?"

"They're taking the life support off; I just wanted to wait for you. I'm sorry we had to spend two months here; I know doing school work in an ICU isn't fun. I'm proud of you for keeping up your grades." Burt thanked Kurt for the cap and motioned the doctor over, who grimly unplugged a simple cord. He pulled the hat off and rubbed his head as the last few beeps escaped Margret's monitor. The final beep went off and Kurt patted his dad's back.

"Amazing how a single cord can make a person's life... or death, isn't it?" was all Burt said.

Kurt just nodded slowly.

"Let's go, Kurt. She wanted to be cremated and to be put in her church. There won't be a funeral, we'll fly back tomorrow." Burt led Kurt away without looking back. Near the Anderson's area, Mrs. Anderson was deeply involved in her Bible, but didn't seem to be reading it. She was distant.

Then, the beeping started. It was loud and it was clearly coming from Blaine's machine. They rushed Mrs. Anderson away and closed the curtain around Blaine.

"Mom?" A sore voice came from behind the curtain after the beeping subsided.

When the curtains opened, Blaine smelled the faintest scent of someone he loved, and he didn't mean his mother. He caught a glimpse of the blue-eyed boy rushing out, he'd obviously noticed the commotion.

"Kurt?"

Kurt rushed out of the hospital. He made sure his dad hadn't heard Blaine's plead for his name.

-

Back in Lima, Kurt logged onto his laptop. He had the computer auto-set to log onto the video chatting software as soon as he logged on. His password was still ‘eyebrows.' It had been that on his other computer, too. Blaine had made it for him and he didn't have the heart to change it.

Suddenly, there was a beep that he hadn't heard in a long time, the signal of a new motto being made by a friend.

Happy to be home. Thanks for prayers, I thank God for bringing me through this. I don't know what the future holds... :(

Kurt decided, against his better judgment, to make a motto. Blaine's little blob was green, making it known that he was online.

Just sort of glad I didn't have to go through a funeral service. That seems selfish, doesn't it? I didn't even know her though, so...

-send-

God, did he just do that? Why on earth would he do something like that? Now Blaine would know he was online, despite the fact that he was on invisible and he wouldn't be able to tell whether-

Shit.

He hadn't set the computer to always be on invisible.

Chat Call From: Blaine Anderson. Video Option? No.

Kurt freaked out. He clicked -decline- and logged off. He decided that all of his want to talk to Blaine was gone. A call and a text came on his phone, but he ignored it and called Rachel.

Hi! Thanks for the-

Remember Blaine?

God, you don't give me any time to speak. But yeah, maybe. I think I asked him to be my boyfriend when we were really little and he gave me this look. Always knew that kid was gay. Didn't he have the weird eyebrows?

Yeah, that one.

You two were like best friends, right?

Yeah and then sometimes it was more than that. Well when I went to Boston I saw him in the hospital after getting beat up. He woke up just as I was leaving. He called my name.

And...?

I ran.

Why would you do that?

I don't know. I'd sent him a text and left him a voicemail. I sent him a note. He called me on the computer a few minutes ago, then sent me a text and left me a voicemail.

What'd you do?

Deleted all of it without looking. Didn't answer the call. I was wrong to try and get in touch with him. He's been on that video chat software thing all this time, leaving mottos. I'm his only contact on there, too.

KURT!

What?

You're an idiot sometimes, I swear. He's still in love with you. Did you love him?

I don't know.

Feel your face right now.

Why?

Do it.

Holy shit, it's warm.

Yup, you did. And judging by that, you still do. I gotta go, Kurt. Talk to him! Bye.

Bye Rachel.

Kurt sighed and hung up the phone. She was so difficult sometimes.

-

In Boston, Blaine was crying as he packed up everything. Kurt had tried to connect to him and then changed his mind? It was all too much. Even though it was the end of summer, he still felt the burn from earlier that year. He was going back to Ohio, to Westerville, only an hour away from where they used to live, but he wasn't going to go back. It was too painful for him.

"Dalton Academy?" Kevin scoffed. "That's a male school."

"Yes," Emily faked this statement, "And then he'll get sick of boys and he won't be gay anymore. That's why we're sending him."

"Oh, right."

Blaine said goodbye to his parents and boarded the plane. When he arrived at Dalton, he felt so welcome. He even joined the Warblers. However, he had to retake his sophomore year because of all he'd missed. Good thing he'd always been sort of young for his grade because now he's just right.

"Hi, Blaine. My name's Sebastian. Let's fuck."