Don't Keep Your Distance: Promises

"There's a famous singer dude on our couch."

If Blaine wasn't feeling so incredibly shitty, he would probably have laughed at that reaction. Instead he just plastered a fake, half-hearted smile on his face, and waved. "Hi," he said. "I'm Blaine."

"Yeah, I know," Finn replied, still staring at Blaine. "What are you doing our couch? Did I win some sort of contest?" His face lit up. "Dude, do I get free tickets to your concert or something? 'Cos my girlfriend Rachel loves you." He paused for a moment before narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "Don't even think about making a move on her, though. I'm not afraid of punching a celebrity."

Blaine stared at the boy incredulously while Burt coughed in an attempt to stifle his laugher. "No, there's no contest," Blaine said, "but I'm sure I can get you some concert tickets once I'm back in action. And you definitelydon't need to worry about me making a move on your girlfriend."

Finn grinned widely. "Cool," he said. This time, Blaine's mouth twitched in a real almost-smile.

"I know this whole situation must be quite…startling, Finn," Burt said, "but, Blaine is actually an old friend."

Finn gawped. "No way!" He said. "I knew you were from Lima but dude, that's awesome." He turned back to Burt. "How come you never told me that you know Blaine Anderson? If the kids at school knew about this I'd be the most popular guy in school again for sure."

"We wanted to keep this private, Finn," Burt said. "The situation is delicate, and nobody can know about this. I mean it – you can't tell anybody that Blaine's staying here, or even that we know him. Not even Rachel."

Finn's eyes widened. "He's staying with us?"

"Yes."

"Blaine Anderson is staying with us."

"Ain't that what I just said?"

"And I can't tell anyone?"

"No."

"Not even Rachel?"

"Especially not Rachel."

Finn let out a long, drawn-out groan. "This sucks balls," he muttered. "I'm going to go make a sandwich." Blaine chuckled as Finn headed in the direction of the kitchen.

As soon as Finn left the room, the phone rang. Burt jumped out of his seat quickly to answer it. "Hello?" He said, and then sighed in relief.

"Hi, Kurt." Blaine sat up straighter on the couch, staring at Burt, trying to read the expression on his face. "Kurt, calm down, please…" Burt said, his brow furrowing. "Look, I'm sorry, I misjudged the situation…yes, I know, I should have warned you. I thought you'd be happy…" Burt suddenly held the phone away from his ear, wincing, and Blaine could hear Kurt's high-pitched yelling through the receiver from across the room, although he couldn't make out what the boy was saying.

"Bud, I get that you're upset, but yell at me again and I'll confiscate your Navigator!" Burt shouted, phone still held at arm's length. The yelling immediately ceased, and Burt brought the phone back to his ear. "Jesus, Kurt, you nearly deafened me…Apology accepted. Where are you?...Okay. Okay. I'll see you later, bud…bye."

Burt hung up the phone and sighed, and Blaine stared at him expectantly.

"Kurt's…pretty upset," Burt said. Blaine winced.

"Try not to worry yourself too much, he'll come around. He said he just needed some time to himself, and he'll be back late tonight." Blaine nodded, swallowing nervously.

"Hey Blaine, you wanna play Call of Duty?" Finn asked, returning from the kitchen with a plate full of sandwiches.

Blaine blinked at the boy in surprise. "Yeah, okay," he said. He figured he could use the distraction.

Much to Blaine's surprise, playing video games with Finn was actually pretty fun – and despite the fact that he hadn't played since he was a teenager, he didn't do too badly.

He and Finn talked while they played, and Blaine found Finn to be a genuinely nice guy, if not a little dim. Finn seemed to have already gotten over the shock of having a celebrity staying in his house, and it took him less than an hour to start readily addressing Blaine as 'dude' and treating him more like a friend than a famous singer, or a strange intruder. Blaine found it extraordinarily refreshing. Another thing he liked about Finn was that if he was curious about something, he asked about it directly rather than skirting around the issue like most people did. It made it easier for Blaine to explain how he knew Burt and Kurt, and gave him the opportunity to explain how he was trying to sober up and get his life back on track. Finn was very understanding, and Blaine was eternally grateful for that.

At 7pm, Burt knocked on the door and told them that dinner was ready. When Blaine followed Finn into the dining room, he was met with the smell of roast chicken, and he saw a very pretty middle-aged woman placing a dish of mashed potatoes in the middle of the table. She looked up when Blaine entered, and smiled brightly.

"You must be Blaine," she said, walking up to him and immediately pulling him into a warm hug. "It's so nice to finally meet you. I'm Carole."

Blaine smiled when she pulled away. He hadn't even spent 30 seconds in her presence, yet he liked her already. She exuded an aura of warmth and caring, and Blaine found himself wishing that his mother could have been more like her. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Carole," he said.

"Well, aren't you a charmer," Carole teased playfully, ushering him towards the table. "Sit down, have some food. You must be hungry."

Blaine actually wasn't hungry at all – the emotional turmoil of the day coupled with the lack of alcohol had left his stomach feeling like it could barely contain itself let alone anything else. He didn't want to be impolite, however, so when everyone else had helped themselves to some food, he took a (much smaller) portion for himself and began chewing slowly. Surprisingly, his stomach actually felt settled by the food, and he ate some more. It was delicious. He couldn't remember the last time that he'd eaten a home-cooked meal.

Throughout dinner, the Hummels made small-talk about their day. Blaine learned that Finn was in Glee club at McKinley, and Carole was a nurse at Lima Memorial. Burt still owned Hummel Tires and Lube, and Blaine was pleased to hear that business was booming.

After dinner, everyone retired to the living room to watch a movie together.

"You seen Inception, Blaine?" Burt asked.

"Umm…" Blaine said, shuffling awkwardly, "I think I did, but I don't remember it."

"Dude, what do you mean, you don't remember?" Finn asked, stuffing his mouth full of microwave popcorn despite the fact that they had just finished dinner.

"I don't remember a lot of the last 6 years," Blaine said softly. The atmosphere in the room changed immediately, tension filling the air.

Blaine's face was burning with shame, and he startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Carole smiling at him reassuringly. "It's a good movie," she said. "I think you'll like it."

Blaine smiled, and tried to thank her silently with his eyes. She gave a tiny nod to show that she understood.

She was right, the movie was very good. Finn left pretty soon, complaining that the movie was too confusing. As soon as the movie finished, Carole started yawning. "Burt, I think I'm going to go to bed," she said. "I'm exhausted."

"I might as well turn in, too," he said. "I gotta be at shop really early tomorrow, I got orders to fill and I'm way behind."

"I'll meet you upstairs. Goodnight, Blaine," Carole said, heading towards the staircase.

"Goodnight, Carole," Blaine called in response.

Burt turned to him. "You stayin' up?"

Blaine nodded. "I'm not really tired just yet, I think I'll just watch TV for a couple more hours."

"You're gonna wait up for Kurt, aren't you?"

Blaine gulped. "I…I think I should at least make sure he's okay."

"Alright. If he's not back by midnight, please come and wake me up."

"Of course."

Burt ruffled Blaine's hair affectionately and headed upstairs. Blaine turned down the volume on the TV and continued to watch the screen, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

After what felt decades, Blaine heard the sound of shuffling outside the door. He quickly shot up out of his seat and took a couple of steps forward, prepared to do some serious grovelling.

The door opened. Kurt stepped inside, and he immediately spotted Blaine standing awkwardly in the entranceway. His eyes immediately narrowed into an icy glare, but not before Blaine noticed that they were swollen and red-rimmed from crying. Blaine felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. He'd always had a very strong sense of protectiveness over Kurt, and he hated seeing the boy upset.

Blaine took a deep breath. "Hi," he said softly, preparing himself for Kurt's reaction. He expected that Kurt might ignore him, or yell at him, or even hit him – but he didn't. He just stared at Blaine, his eyes flickering across Blaine's face as if re-learning his features.

After a long moment, Kurt responded, his voice soft and hoarse. "Hi."

Blaine breathed a sigh of relief. "Before you say anything, Kurt, I just want you to know that I am so, so sorry for everything. I never meant to hurt you. I know an apology probably doesn't mean a lot at this point, but -"

"- Blaine, stop," Kurt said, cutting him off. Blaine shut up immediately. Kurt sighed. "I'm really tired, Blaine. Can we please have this conversation tomorrow?"

Blaine nodded, mentally chastising himself for being so insensitive. "Yeah. Yeah, of course," he said. "That's fine. Absolutely."

Kurt blinked at Blaine, staring at him intently. He began chewing on his bottom lip, and Blaine tilted his head inquisitively – he knew all about Kurt's bottom-lip-chew. When he chewed his bottom lip it meant he was having some kind of internal debate with himself. When he was younger he would do it every time he had to pick out a Disney movie for them to watch, or when he had to choose between new shoes or a new scarf, or when he was shy about asking Blaine if he could sit in his lap. It had been cute and endearing when Kurt was a child, but Kurt wasn't a child anymore. Blaine watched as Kurt nibbled on his soft pink lower lip, and he felt himself growing hot. He realised that he had started unconsciously chewing on his own lip in response. He stopped immediately, feeling himself blush slightly. He stared down at the floor, hoping that Kurt hadn't noticed him staring. I think the lack of alcohol is making me loopy, he thought to himself.

Kurt seemed to have reached some sort of decision, because the next moment, he was taking a hesitant step forward. "Blaine," he said, "I'm going to do something now. But I want you to know that this in no way means that you are forgiven, or that we are friends, or even that we will ever be friends again." Blaine gulped nervously before nodding, completely unsure as to what Kurt was going to do.

Kurt stepped forward again until he and Blaine were standing directly in front of each other, and then he reached out and wrapped his arms around Blaine, pulling him into a tight hug. Blaine's eyes widened in shock, and his body tensed for a short moment before he realised that Kurt was hugging him and he completely melted. He tightened his arms around Kurt, pulling the boy snug against his chest. The soft scent of vanilla and honey filled his nostrils. He felt Kurt's body shudder before the boy buried his face in Blaine's hair, letting out a soft sob. Blaine wasn't sure if it was him or Kurt who was trembling. Kurt continued to sob in Blaine's arms, fisting his hands in the back of Blaine's shirt, clinging to him as if he were a life-line. Blaine was more than happy to be that life-line. I'm never going to let you go ever again, he thought to himself.

Blaine wasn't sure how long they stood there for, but when Kurt finally loosened his arms from around Blaine's middle and stepped away, Blaine immediately missed the warmth and wanted nothing more than to pull him right back.

Kurt wiped the tears from his eyes and it was only then that Blaine became aware of the wetness on his own cheeks. He wiped them as quickly and discreetly as possible.

Kurt was still breathing heavily from the force of his sobs, and he now had his arms folded across his chest defensively, as if shielding himself. "I'm going to go to bed now," Kurt said.

"Okay," Blaine responded, his voice soft and breathless.

"Please come down for breakfast at 9 tomorrow so that we can talk before I go to meet my friends."

"Okay."

"Don't use all the hot water in the morning."

"Okay."

"And Blaine? I want you to promise me something."

"Anything."

Kurt stared right into Blaine's eyes, and Blaine shivered with the intensity of his gaze. "I want you to promise me that you will never drink another drop of alcohol ever again."

Blaine inhaled sharply. This was a huge promise. This was not a promise to be made lightly. This was a promise that he did not know if he could keep.

"Yes," he said.

"I want you to say it, Blaine."

"Kurt, I promise that I will never drink another drop of alcohol ever again." He meant it.

Kurt nodded stiffly. "Good," he said as he began ascending the stairs. "Goodnight, Blaine."

"Goodnight, Kurt."