Kurt and Blaine walked through the parking lot, bypassing their cars and heading for the street that lead further into town. They were quiet at first, until Kurt spoke up. “You like living in Lima?”

Kurt had already asked that, Blaine remembered. In the long drive when they’d first met. It seemed longer ago than it actually was. Blaine wondered whether Kurt remembered asking before. “Yeah, I do,” he answered. “It’s close to home, but…it’s a smaller town, which is nice. More homey.”

Kurt frowned slightly. “So, you wanted to live in a small town?” he asked.

Blaine shrugged. “I dunno. I wasn’t looking for that specifically when I chose to move here, but I like it now.”

Kurt looked away, seeming to contemplate that. Blaine attempted to get his attention back. “What about you? Did you like living here?”

Kurt laughed. “Hardly. Maybe if I hadn’t been treated so awfully I would have been able to appreciate the small Midwestern town charm. But I basically just focused on getting out of here and into my future from middle school on.”

“And now you’ve found your future?”

Kurt glanced over at Blaine, meeting his eyes. “Yeah,” he said. “I think I have. More or less.”

Blaine looked down at the gravel under his feet. They were walking along the shoulder of the road; there was no sidewalk on this stretch. He wondered momentarily what it would be like to just know that he was in the right place, that his future was upon him. He usually felt like he was perpetually waiting for his life to actually happen.

“That must be nice,” Blaine mumbled.

“It’s wonderful. For the most part.” Kurt replied. “It can also be absolutely terrifying, realizing that this is it, what you’ve been waiting for. It’s not as easy as the movies make it seem. You have to work and there are dull parts to it, too. But I always feel like I’m finally doing what I’m supposed to be doing with my life.”

Blaine nodded. They’d reached town, and Kurt turned down a side street. Blaine wondered where they were going, but didn’t bother asking. He had other things on his mind. “How did you survive?” he asked Kurt. “I mean, before you were able to get out of here?”

Kurt slowed his gait slightly so that they were walking shoulder to shoulder. They were close enough that Blaine could feel the slight heat Kurt radiated on the chilly day. “Well,” Kurt said. “It was a combination of things. A supportive family, a pretty kick-ass attitude, some great friends…and my high school glee club.”

Blaine chuckled. “Really?”

Kurt nodded, completely unashamed. “Yep. Glee was…well, it was insane. I hated almost everyone in that room at one point or another. But overall…we were always there for eachother. Even though there were cheerleaders and football players and nerds and goths and divas and exchange students and religious freaks in there, all together at once…we all accepted eachother for who we were, regardless of popularity and reputation and whatever. It was kind of a miracle. Not to mention we got to sing some great songs. Music, too, helped me get through everything.”

“Wow,” Blaine said, his mind racing over everything that Kurt had said. “That’s…crazy. I’ve never heard of anything like it. High school always seemed to be about, well, separation. Cliques. Popularity.”

Kurt sighed. “It mostly was. But Glee was sort of an escape from it. It was a nice break from everything. Not that it didn’t have drama in of itself.”

They turned another corner then, Kurt still wordlessly directing their path. “Where are we going?” Blaine asked.

Kurt shrugged. “I don’t know. The park? It’s close.”

Blaine hadn’t been to any of Lima’s local parks. He’d never really had any reason. “Okay.”

Within another minute, Blaine could see a playground in the distance. It was cold outside but all the walking had him feeling slightly warm; he was looking forward to sitting down for a break.

Kurt opened the gate to the park and they walked in. It was deserted-perhaps too cold for any children to be out playing. There was a small, grassy field to their left and a playground to their right. They sat down together on a bench facing to swings.

“I used to come here a lot,” Kurt said, suddenly. “My mom…she would take me, when I was really little.”

Blaine glanced up at Kurt, who was staring at the playground, expressionless. Blaine hesitated. With anyone else, he never would have thought about asking-invading their privacy, bringing up painful memories-but with Kurt, he felt comfortable enough to proceed, as crazy as that was. “Will you tell me about her, Kurt?” he asked. “You told me about your dad and stepmom, but not your mother.”

Kurt took a deep breath. His nose was slightly pink from the cold. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “She…her name was Elizabeth. She was beautiful, and caring, and sweet. She loved to sing…she would sing to me a lot, and we’d sing together. She died when I was eight. I never really got old enough to…to know her as a person, beyond just being my mom.”

Blaine stared at Kurt. He sounded like he’d said these words before, they were ever-so-slightly rehearsed, but he still meant every one of them.

“I’m sorry, Kurt.” Blaine said quietly, earnestly.

Kurt nodded. “I know. Thank you.”

Blaine looked over at the playground, the colorful metal turning this way and that, monkey bars and steps and slides. Blaine considered for a moment. “Kurt…can I tell you something?”

“Yes.”

Blaine inhaled the cold air. He considered what he was doing, telling a near-stranger something so private. But he couldn’t stop himself now-Kurt brought it out in him. It seemed only fair to tell him, after hearing about his deceased mom. But even without that…Blaine thought that he would want to say it anyway. Kurt seemed like he would understand, somehow, perhaps even better than the few people he’d ever shared it with. “You know how I said I don’t have any siblings?”

“…yes.”

“Well, I mean, I don’t. And I never have. But…my parents, they had a son, before me. He was born seven years before I was. He, um, he died, when he was five. In a car accident. My mom was driving and he’d managed to undo his carseat buckle in the back seat, and they were hit by a truck at a T-intersection…my mom broke a few bones, but she was mostly fine. He was dead.”

Blaine didn’t look at Kurt, instead staring straight ahead. He’d only heard the story once, and had only retold it a handful of times. It still made him uneasy, saying the words out loud. “His name was Cooper. I…I never knew him. I wasn’t born for another year and a half.”

As Blaine stared forward, his eyes fixed on some distant point, he felt Kurt’s hand on his shoulder. He turned towards Kurt.

“I’m sorry, Blaine.”

Blaine shook his head. Kurt’s hand still lay comfortingly on his jacket. “It’s not-I mean, I didn’t even know him. It’s hard to miss him.”

Kurt shrugged. “It doesn’t matter whether you knew him or not,” he said simply. Then he let his hand slide off of Blaine.

Blaine knew that Kurt was right, though. Whether or not Blaine was capable of missing Cooper(it’s hard to decide whether you miss someone you never met, or if you just long for the idea of them), his untimely death still affected Blaine in a multitude of ways. It caused Blaine to grow up in a house filled with photos of a little boy he’d never meet. So much potential had ended in that car crash…potential that Blaine now felt he had to live up to, so that Cooper’s life hadn’t been a waste. So that the Andersons would still have a worthwhile child to offer the world. He had to make his parents proud enough for two-him, and his brother who he’d never met.

The pressure was on from the moment Blaine was born.

“Thank you, Kurt.” Blaine told him. He really was grateful. Grateful that Kurt seemed to somehow understand, if not all of it, than a portion of it. That was all Blaine ever wanted. To be able to show a portion of himself and have it not be analyzed, or appraised, or compared, but simply accepted.

“No, Blaine.” Kurt replied. “Thank you.”

He was so sincere.