A/N: Most of this chapter is from Finn's point of view, in honour of Cory's passing, and Finn's soon-to-be disappearance from the show. Whatever happens, remember that Finn Hudson will live on in our hearts and in our stories. And Cory - thank you for everything you brought to the show, and to the world. xxx

Don't Keep Your Distance: Discoveries

Finn was in a really, really good mood.

He'd gone over to Rachel's house the previous day, and after some pretty awesome making out, Rachel had announced that he looked tired and offered to sing him to sleep.

He had been pretty tired, and he loved it when Rachel sang him to sleep.

The problem was, Rachel had fallen asleep too, and they'd slept way past Finn's curfew.

Finn was sure that he'd be grounded. He knew that his mom was working the night shift at the hospital, but Burt always enforced Carole's rules. However, when Finn got home after midnight, all the lights were off, and Burt seemed to have gone to bed.

Finn knew that Burt would never have gone to bed if he'd been aware that Finn had broken his curfew. He must have been really distracted, or tired enough that he'd gone to bed early.

So yeah, he was pretty pleased to have dodged that bullet.

He'd also slept enough at Rachel's house that he'd been able to stay up all night playing CoD, which Kurt would murder him for if he knew, but if there was any time to stay up all night eating Doritos, drinking energy drinks and playing video games, it was when you were young – right?

So it was now 6am, and Finn was standing in the kitchen, eating leftover pasta for breakfast and feeling buzzed from all the sugar he'd consumed in the past 6 hours.

Suddenly, Finn heard the sound of Kurt's high-pitched giggling coming down the stairs. Finn stuffed his mouth full of pasta and quickly shoved the container back into the fridge before Kurt could catch him. He heard the sound of two pairs of footsteps enter the living room, and Blaine's voice whispered something. Kurt giggled again, and there was a weird shuffling, and heavy breathing.

Finn frowned. Kurt and Blaine were up to something – otherwise, there'd be no reason for both of them to be downstairs this early, whispering and giggling. Not that the giggling was particularly unusual. They tended to do it a lot, usually when they were together. Finn figured that they were probably telling jokes that he didn't understand. He didn't understand half of the things Kurt said, most of the time. Kurt talked about fashion a lot, and people Finn had never heard of. But sometimes Kurt would listen to Finn talk about Rachel or football, and Finn liked that. He also really liked the warm milk Kurt made him. It was never as good when he tried to make it himself.

Finn kind of wished that Kurt would join the football team again. He was really good, and Finn thought it would be good for the team to be around someone different. They might learn to be more accepting and understanding of other people - like what happened to Finn when he joined Glee club. Finn was really glad that he had joined Glee club. If he hadn't joined he wouldn't have any real friends, or a girlfriend, or a step-dad and a brother. Well…maybe two brothers, if Blaine counted.

Finn liked Blaine a lot. He bought him a car. And he always made Finn sandwiches when he made his own, and sometimes they'd play video games together. He even answered all of Finn's questions about Rachel, and for a gay guy, he seemed to know a lot about girls. His romantic advice had helped Finn get a lot of action, so…yeah, he was like a super-cool, super-rich, super-short older brother. Even though Finn was kinda jealous that Kurt seemed to like Blaine more than him. Ever since Blaine came back, Kurt hung out with Blaine all the time. He still hung out with Finn, but Finn knew that he and Kurt didn't have the same closeness that Kurt and Blaine had. It kind of stung.

The giggling in the living room seemed to have stopped, and Finn wondered for a moment if Kurt and Blaine had gone back upstairs. But…no, they were still there – he could hear faint whispering, and a soft shuffling sound. Finn frowned, and walked over to the doorway that connected the kitchen and the living room.

"Hey, what are you guys – WHOA! OH MY GOD!"

Finn stumbled backwards, away from the shocked faces of Kurt and Blaine, who had been…kissing! On the mouth!

Kurt scrambled up from where he had been straddling Blaine's lap on the couch. "Finn!" He gasped. "I…we didn't think you'd be up this early."

"I was hungry," Finn whined. "But now I'm regretting eating that pasta because I think I might puke."

"FINN! I was saving that pasta for lunch -"

"SO NOT THE POINT HERE, KURT!" Finn exclaimed, flailing his arms about widely and attempting to avoid eye contact with Blaine, who was standing in the background, looking nervous and embarrassed.

"You two were kissing," Finn said, gesturing between Kurt and Blaine. "Like, kissing kissing. What the hell, guys? Isn't that like, insects?"

Kurt blinked at him. "Finn," he said slowly, "do you mean incest?"

"Yeah, that," Finn said. "Because you two are like…brothers."

"We are not brothers," Kurt said, glaring at Finn icily. Oh, man. Kurt was scary when he glared.

"Okay, okay, you're not brothers!" Finn amended quickly. "Even though you're both kind of my brothers. Which means you're like brothers twice-removed, or something." He frowned. "I'm confused."

Kurt sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.

"That's not right, is it?" Finn asked.

"No," Kurt mumbled into his hand. "Not quite. How about you think of me as your brother, and Blaine as your sort of…pseudo-brother in law?"

Finn's eyes widened. "You're married?!"

"What? No! I said pseudo. We're just dating. Well, there haven't been any dates yet, but we're…together. Not married."

"Oh," Finn said, and grinned. "That's good, dude, because you're not allowed to get married unless I'm the best man."

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and Finn frowned again, turning to Blaine. "Does Burt know that you two are together? Because no offense man, but you're kinda old. He might freak."

"Hey!" Blaine protested. "I'm not that old. That lady at the movies thought I was younger than you."

"That's because you're short, and you were wearing a Gollum mask," Finn said, snickering. "She asked you if you wanted a child ticket."

Blaine pouted as Finn and Kurt chuckled. "Man, it's cool," Finn said, walking over to Blaine and clapping him on the back. "That you're dating Kurt, I mean. You're a really cool pseudo-brother in law."

Blaine smiled brightly. "Thank you, Finn. It means a lot to me that you would trust me with Kurt, even after…everything."

"Dude, you've been nothing but awesome since you got here," Finn said with a shrug. "Of course I trust you. But seriously, how are you going to tell Burt about this?" He grinned with sudden glee. "Can I tell him?"

"He already knows," Kurt said with a flippant shrug. "We told him last night."

"What? Damn!" Finn exclaimed, with an irritated huff. "I missed it? That sucks dude, what happened?"

"He took it really well," Kurt said. "And he didn't accuse either of us of incest."

Finn grinned. "Sorry 'bout that."

Kurt glared, but it wasn't scary this time, and Finn reached out to ruffle his hair. And, whoops, there was the scary glare again.

Finn's face lit up. "Oh my god, can I tell my mom?"

Kurt groaned.

Rachel cornered Finn after second period.

"Hey, babe," she said with a too-innocent smile, her voice strategically casual. "What's going on with Kurt? He won't tell me anything about his mystery friend 'Blaine' and why he had to rush out of school yesterday. And he keeps smiling and zoning out during class."

"Umm," Finn said, his heart rate picking up. He was notoriously bad at lying, especially to Rachel. "I don't know?"

Rachel frowned. "Don't lie to me, Finn Hudson."

"Umm," Finn said, his palms beginning to sweat, "Blaine is…his boyfriend? Yeah, that makes sense. I mean – um – Blaine is a boy. Who Kurt is sort-of dating. That's – yeah."

Rachel's eyes lit up immediately, and she smiled brightly. "I knew it! A boyfriend! This makes so much sense…but why didn't he tell me about him?" She frowned. "He knows I have two gay dads, I wouldn't have a problem with him having a boyfriend. None of us Glee kids would mind. Why is he keeping this a secret? It doesn't make any sense…"

Rachel was doing that thing where she talked at him rather than to him. Finn didn't mind it usually, because it meant he didn't have to listen to everything she said, but right now he was beginning to worry that he'd made a big mistake.

"Blaine doesn't go to this school!" He blurted. "And he's not out yet. So Kurt doesn't want anyone to know. You can't tell anybody." He paused. "Also, don't ask Kurt about it. He's really protective of Blaine and he'd get mad that I told you."

Rachel's face softened in understanding. "Oh, no," she said. "Poor Blaine. If he's having trouble coming out, maybe he could talk to my dads?"

"No!" Finn exclaimed. "That's…no. Seriously, Rachel, nobody can know about him."

Rachel pouted, and Finn turned away from her quickly, determined to keep his resolve. "Nope, that's not working on me this time. Blaine's been talking to Burt. He'll be fine."

Rachel sighed melodramatically. "Fine," she said, "but just know that I don't approve of all this secrecy. In fact, I find it highly suspect that my best friend and my boyfriend felt the need to keep me in the dark about this, despite the fact that I have proven myself to be a loyal and trustworthy person who would never stoop so low as to spread idle gossip."

"I'm sure Kurt will say something eventually," Finn said, in an attempt to soothe Rachel, whose face was scrunched up in frustration and hurt. "Just give him time to figure this whole thing out, okay? This is his first relationship, and it's kind of a complicated situation. He's got a lot to deal with right now."

Rachel's face softened, and she pushed herself onto her tip-toes to kiss Finn on the cheek. "You're a good brother, Finn," she whispered. Finn grinned.

When Kurt and Finn arrived home after school, they were immediately enveloped by the smell of freshly-baked cookies. Finn moaned as he dumped his bag by the door and wandered into the kitchen.

Blaine was in there with Finn's mom. The kitchen bench was cluttered with ingredients and mixing bowls, and two trays of chocolate chip cookies were cooling by the stove. Blaine was scraping raw cookie mixture from a bowl with a spoon, and he grinned when he caught sight of Kurt and Finn.

"Hey," he said with a grin, skipping over to Kurt and grabbing him by the waist. He placed a quick kiss on Kurt's lips, and Kurt's eyes widened along with Finn's, as they synchronously turned to look at Carole.

Carole smirked at Kurt and Blaine knowingly, her eyes twinkling happily. "You two are absolutely adorable," she cooed, and Finn's jaw dropped. "Don't think you're getting out of helping me clean up though, Blaine."

Blaine grinned. "Yes, ma'am," he said, coming back around the kitchen bench and allowing Carole to pinch him on the cheek fondly.

Finn whined. "You said I could tell her!"

Blaine laughed, shrugging helplessly. "Sorry, man," he said. "She knew."

"How?" Kurt asked, turning to Carole. "How could you possibly …did my dad tell you?"

Carole chuckled as she began to put the baking ingredients back in the cupboard. "Your dad is at work, he didn't tell me anything, sweetie," she said. "Sometimes it's easier for an outsider to see what's going on between two people than it is for those people themselves. From my perspective, you were both rather obvious. You boys didn't see the way that you stared at each other when the other's back was turned. Neither of you ever seemed to notice the way that you both laughed slightly louder and freer in each other's presence." She smiled fondly, and beckoned Kurt towards her. He was quickly enveloped in a tight hug.

"I'm really glad that you both figured it out," she said as she squeezed Kurt tightly. "We've already seen the proof that you two are good for each other."

"Well, now I feel dumb for not noticing sooner," Finn mumbled around a mouthful of cookie.

Carole snorted. "Of course you didn't notice, dear. You're not the most observant person in the world. I, on the other hand, am fully aware of the fact that you missed curfew last night and then proceeded to spend all night playing video games and eating junk food." She plucked the half eaten cookie out of Finn's hand.

"On second thought, Blaine, I think Finn can clean up this mess," Carole said, eating the remaining half of Finn's cookie with an evil smile. Finn groaned and grabbed a dishcloth while his traitorous mother linked her arms with Kurt and Blaine's, and lead them into the living room.

"Rachel, are you sure this is a good idea?" Mercedes asked, hesitating on the doorstep. "Maybe he just wants to be left alone."

"Finn said that Kurt's had a lot to deal with recently," Rachel said, hitching her unnecessarily large night bag higher onto her shoulder. "He's been keeping to himself a lot; we've all noticed. How long has it been since we've had a girl's night in?"

Mercedes frowned. "True," she said, "but don't you think we should have called first?"

"No," Rachel said with certainty. "Kurt likes surprises. And it's Friday night. I want to hang out with my best friends." She pouted dramatically, and Mercedes sighed.

"Fine," she conceded. "But if Kurt gets annoyed at us, you're taking the rap."

"Deal." Rachel reached up to ring the doorbell.

After a few moments, the door was flung open to reveal a surprised, pyjama-clad Finn. Rachel smiled brightly. "Hey, babe," she said. "Mercedes and I are here for a sleepover!"

"Not with you, sorry to disappoint," Mercedes said, pushing past Finn to get inside.

"We're here for Kurt," Rachel explained, and stood on her tip-toes to whisper in Finn's ear. "Don't worry," she said, "I haven't said anything about you-know-who. I know how to keep a secret."

Finn gawped at Rachel, and noticed that Mercedes was beginning to make her way upstairs, pillow in hand.

"Wait!" Finn exclaimed, halting Mercedes in her tracks. "You can't come in here," he said, lowering his voice. "Kurt's…Kurt's not here! He's…at Blaine's."

Rachel frowned. "No, he isn't," she said. "The lights are on his room and his car's in the driveway. I can hear him laughing from here."

Sure enough, Finn heard a faint trace of high-pitched laughter echoing down from upstairs. Shit.

"Fine, okay, he's not at Blaine's, but he doesn't want to see you guys, okay?" Finn said, getting more and more flustered by the second. "You need to leave. Seriously. Now is really not a good time."

Suddenly Finn felt himself jerked around by a strong pair of hands, and he was face-to-face with Mercedes' murderous glare. "If something is wrong with my Boo," she said, "you had best tell me right the hell now, Finn Hudson, or so help me, I will tell your mother about that time that you and Puck took photos of each other dry-humping a -"

"WHOA!" Finn exclaimed, holding his hands up in surrender. "That's not – no! That's not necessary. Kurt's okay, I promise, I just – I should get Burt! Yeah, I'm gonna go get Burt. He'll explain everything. Don't move."

Finn turned on his heel and rushed off down the hall.

Rachel and Mercedes turned to each other. "Something's going on," Rachel said.

"I don't like it."

"Are we going to Kurt's room?"

"You bet your ass we are."

The girls bolted for the stairs at the same time, sprinting as fast as they could before Finn returned and started acting weird again. They burst through Kurt's door without bothering to knock, stumbling into his room and coming to an immediate halt.

"Holy sweet lord in heaven," Mercedes whispered.

There was a man sitting in Kurt's bed. A man who was decidedly not Kurt, a man whose face Mercedes was intimately familiar with, and whose signature golden-hazel eyes were currently trained on her and Rachel in wide-eyed shock.

Rachel let out a shrill scream behind Mercedes, which was also the moment when Finn and Burt came bursting into the room, and Kurt rushed out of the ensuite in a flurry, still donning a mint-green facial mask. His mouth dropped open in shock when he caught sight of Mercedes and Rachel, and his eyes flitted over to the bed in panic.

"Kurt," Mercedes said, her voice surprisingly calm even to her own ears, "why is Blaine Anderson in your bed?"