Kurt and Blaine's faces were identical shades of beetroot red as they both tried to plaster innocent, indignant expressions on their faces.

"Rachel, I promise, this spider was enormous," Kurt attempted lamely; "It was this big!" Kurt held out his hands about a foot apart, and Rachel raised her eyebrows, took an obvious peek at Blaine's crotch and shot him a cheeky, disbelieving look.

"Okay, fine! But it wasn't my fault at all!" Kurt confessed, as Blaine's mouth fell open with the embarrassment of being sold out.

"Traitor," he muttered to Kurt, "I won't forget this you know!"

Rachel laughed at them and got up to go to the kitchen. "Ice-cream, Blaine?" she winked, as she opened the freezer. Blaine shook his head violently, and Rachel laughed.

The boys had come over to Rachel's after school. Apparently she had wanted to invite them, but Blaine had been a little too hasty to hang up, and she hadn't managed to get out her invitation.

Blaine liked Rachel's house. It was a little creepy in places. That portrait of Rachel had definitely given him some nightmares after her party, but it was a really warm home, and there were photos of Rachel with her dads everywhere. There was a girl in a tutu holding a trophy while her dads kissed a cheek each. There was Rachel singing at some competition. It looked recent, but before Blaine knew her. She was wearing a gold dress and she was belting something out fiercely to the crowd. And there was an utterly beautiful photo of a tiny, red baby screaming like anything, while her dads who were wearing hospital scrubs, held her and cried like she was the most beautiful thing in the world.

Blaine had a sudden vision of Kurt and him holding a screaming infant and grinning ridiculously, and he hurried to force the vision away. That was strange. Where had that come from?

"My dads wanted you to stay for dinner if that's okay?" Rachel had a funny sound to her voice; like she was keeping a secret herself. Blaine decided to call her on it.

"Come on, Rachel, what are you bursting to tell us right now?" he was genuinely confused. Rachel was usually bubbly, but all day at school she'd been practically floating, and Blaine had noticed her paying him extra attention.

"You'll find out soon," she smiled at them mysteriously and that was all she would tell them. After a while, she put The Wizard of Oz on, because she knew neither of them would be able to talk while Judy was on the screen. They could take away your gay membership card for that.

Oscar and Christopher, Rachel's dads, came home at about six o'clock bearing armfuls of Chinese takeaway. Rachel ran straight to the door to help them, and Kurt and Blaine stood a little awkwardly to greet them, and tried to help with the food, but their hands were quickly swatted away good-humouredly.

Kurt liked Rachel's dads. Christopher was quite obviously Rachel's biological father, but Rachel shared so many traits with Oscar it was sometimes easy to forget that they hadn't both taken a part in her creation. Kurt remembered a birthday party when they must have been about six, and Oscar and Rachel had started singing the duet from Aladdin in their backyard, and Kurt had wanted to sing Princess Jasmine's part and had been crying. Christopher had taken Kurt up in his lap and they had sung quietly together until Kurt stopped crying and it was time for the nail painting.

Both men were very kind, and although they encouraged personal best, Kurt sometimes wondered if they had expected Rachel. She could only have been a handful growing up, and her diva-ness had only gotten worse as she had gotten older.

They set up the boxes of Chinese on the lounge room floor and indicated that everyone gather around. Sitting on the floor to eat was never one of Kurt's favourite things to do, but he didn't want to be rude, and Blaine had already flopped himself down comfortably.

"So Blaine," Christopher started after they had divvied up the Chinese, "Rachel told us you've been having some trouble at home?"

Blaine thought it was a strange question to start the get-to-know-you conversation off, but he complied, telling them about the situation. Oscar got especially angry when he came to the bit about his Dad's reaction, and both men gave each other meaningful glances. Rachel put her arm around Blaine while he was talking and Kurt leaned back a little to watch the scene. The men were watching Blaine with such compassion, and Rachel was comforting him. He seemed to fit easily into the family picture. And they were listening to him so intently and nodding in all the right places. Could they have come to the conclusion that Blaine could stay with them by themselves?

Or maybe… with the help of a certain diva? Kurt had a sudden swell of affection for Rachel. She hadn't just been ringing to ask them for dinner, Kurt realised, and he felt even guiltier for that disastrous phone call. He reached around behind Blaine, who was still talking, and he grabbed Rachel's hand. She looked at him and he silently mouthed "Thank you." Rachel's eyes flooded with tears, and she nodded, smiling.

"Well," Oscar took a deep breath and looked at Christopher who nodded, almost invisibly, "Blaine, it sounds like you really need some people around you who know a bit about what you're going through and are willing to support you, no matter what," Oscar's voice was breaking and Christopher suddenly had tears in his eyes. Blaine couldn't breathe. He suddenly knew what was coming and it was possibly the most genuinely kind thing anyone had ever done for him. Christopher continued, "We'd like to offer you our home, Blaine. You'll always find people who will care about you here, and Rachel's always felt lonely when we work till late. We totally understand if you don't feel comfortable here, or you have any questions, and we really want you to take a couple of days to think about this, but the offer will stand for as long as you need us," Christopher wrapped his arm around Oscar who was grinning at Blaine and Kurt.

"Yes." Blaine whispered.

"I want you to give it some time, honey," Christopher started, but Blaine interrupted him.

"No, I don't need time. I'd love to stay with you if you're sure you would like to have me. You guys are the kindest people, just the fact that you would offer me this, makes me so humble and thankful, and Rachel's such a great friend, I mean, if I can't stay with Kurt, I would have picked Rachel, I just didn't think it was an option," Blaine was babbling a bit as his eyes filled with tears. Kurt couldn't stand to see him crying, even if he seemed happy, and he wrapped his arms around him in a huge hug, reaching around behind to grab Rachel and pull her in.

Christopher and Oscar joined in on the hug, and Blaine felt overwhelmed by the amount of love he had around him at that moment. He felt so safe, and he kind of felt like Dorothy when she wakes up and realises that the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion were really her friends. He'd never expected to find such caring people, and to be honest, he'd kind of decided that Kurt's family had to be an anomaly; that no other family in the world could be as caring as that one. But here were the Berry's and they had barely known him, but they knew Kurt and trusted Rachel, and so they were willing to help him. And that was amazing.

Blaine started to wipe away his tears, and the first thing that came into his mind was something practical.

"I'll need to talk to Burt and Carole about this," he indicated towards Kurt as he spoke, but he directed the words to Christopher and Oscar, "But I'm sure they'll be happy. And I really don't have to impose on you that much, and if I'm ever a pain, just let me know, and I can find something else. I'll cook," He continued, as he frantically started to come up with ways to repay them (Kurt shook his head violently and mouthed "Don't let him cook!"with a terrified look on his face), and I'll vacuum, I'll walk the dog!" Blaine knew he was rambling and he thought biting his lip was probably the best way to shut himself up.

Rachel was laughing at him.

"Blaine, we barely ever cook, we order in. We have a lady who vacuums once a week. And we don't have a dog," she threw an arm around him happily.

"Let's get bunk beds!" she said excitedly.