Blaine looked at him expectantly and Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Well, it turns out that a Blaine Anderson definitely used to exist and that yes he used to live here," said Kurt, flinging himself onto his bed, too tired to even remember his self-set rule about shoes and bedding.

"And that would mean that I'm...?" Blaine prompted, giving Kurt an adorable hopeful look.

"I still don't know, Blaine," said Kurt, propping himself on his arm to better see him. "I mean I really don't believe in the supernatural. At all. So at the moment I'm going with the notion that you're a very detailed hallucination brought on by extreme lack of sleep and new, unfamiliar surroundings."

"Okay, well then I guess I'm just going to have to learn to be patient when it comes to you," Blaine said, in a voice that sounded like it was straining not to sound annoyed. "You did call me 'Blaine', though. I guess that's progress."

"Well someone's in a little mood," said Kurt, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, for someone who said he wants a friend, you're sure not making it easy to try."

"You want to be friends with me?" said Blaine in a tone that clearly said he didn't believe a word Kurt was saying. "Is it even possible to be friends with someone you think lives in your head?"

"I don't know," said Kurt. "I'm tired and nothing really makes sense at the moment. I guess if you're a part of my subconscious, it's my mind's cry to love myself more or something."

Blaine scoffed but Kurt ignored him and continued with what he was trying to say.

"But - and I can't believe I'm saying this - but if you are real, then you deserve a friend. Everyone does."

The words seemed to change something in the atmosphere. It was suddenly as if a dark cloud had lifted and things became a little clearer for both of them.

"So no matter what you believe, you're going to be my friend?" Blaine asked softly, his eyes wide and searching.

"Yes," Kurt eventually said with a small smile. "No matter what - be you the imaginary friend I never had as a child or... you know..."

"A ghost?" asked Blaine with a small, teasing smile. "Can't you bring yourself to say it?"

"N-no," said Kurt. "It's not that. I just... I..."

"You can't say ghost!" Blaine chuckled. Although the context of it annoyed Kurt a little, he realised how much he enjoyed the sound.

"Blaine, I'm tired," said Kurt mock-miserably. "You can't laugh at me when I'm tired."

"You should sleep for a while," said Blaine with a soft smile. "I'll disappear."

"And you're not going to watch me?" Kurt asked, yawning as he kicked off his shoes and hugged a pillow closer to himself.

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Blaine with a grin.

"Exactly, because ghosts don't sleep," he whispered, before drifting off, too tired to realise what he had just admitted.

"Good morning, sleepy-head!" said Blaine a few hours later as Kurt tentatively blinked himself awake. He rubbed his eyes before chastising himself for doing so. It was terrible for his skin.

"What year is it?" he asked blearily as he slowly sat up on his bed.

"Tis the year of our Lord, 2011," said Blaine in a pompous voice. "And you're adorable when you first wake up. Just by the way."

Kurt glared at him, knowing full well he looked like a gremlin that was fed after midnight.

"I thought you weren't going to watch me sleep," said Kurt, accusingly.

"I said I would disappear," he said with a grin. "I never gave you a time frame."

"I can't believe I'm actually considering making friends with you," Kurt said, shaking his head. He turned on his bedside lamp, stretched and crossed his room to find his schoolbag to show Blaine the information he had uncovered about him.

If Kurt's nightmares were the true account of what really happened (and while there was no evidence for it, it felt too real to be ignored), then the media had been fed a lie. Nearly every article that Kurt had uncovered detailed how Robert Anderson's son had been mentally ill and attacked him. How he had only been acting in self-defense. How he had been given a two year sentence and had gotten off early for good behavior.

Part of him felt obligated to share the information with Blaine and anther part of him - the part that already kind of considered him his friend - wanted to protect him from this horrible warping of the truth.

"So did you learn anything that made your skin crawl?" asked Blaine curiously. "I'm assuming not because you still deem me friendable."

"Well..." said Kurt and Blaine's eyes widened. He sat down on the edge of the bed, looking so worried that Kurt wanted nothing more than to reach out and rub his shoulder reassuringly.

"'Well'?" He said. "That doesn't sound great, Kurt."

"It's nothing to do with who you are. Well, not really. Okay maybe a little, but very indirectly."

"You're not making any sense," said Blaine seriously and Kurt took a breath to calm himself.

"Okay, your father sort of told everyone that you had a mental issue and you attacked him, so what he did to you was self-defense." Kurt looked at Blaine apologetically, preparing himself for shock or sadness or some kind of negative emotion. He wasn't prepared for the mirthless smirk that settled on Blaine's features.

"Oh so you've heard the greatest story since 'The Odyssey' have you?" he said, rolling his eyes.

"Wow, okay. Firstly - you read ancient Greek poetry? I'm impressed. We'll get back to that. Secondly, I can't believe that anyone would think you had a mental disorder. All the articles said that you were an exemplary student and you were involved in a whole load of extra-curriculars. Now all of a sudden you have a mental problem?"

"Well, my dad was telling everyone that I was playing for the home team, so I guess it wasn't that far-fetched to a lot of people," said Blaine bitterly.

"But being gay isn't a mental disorder," said Kurt indignantly.

"No, but you forget that this was Lima Ohio in the '50s, Kurt. It was a different time. And I know that things haven't changed so much around here, but it's not half as bad as it used to be."

"Well yeah, but still... It's so unfair what happened to you."

Kurt whispered the last part, hardly believing what he was actually saying by it. He didn't know when it had happened (probably around the time that Blaine had looked so nonchalant about the fact that his father had concocted a complete lie to get himself out of trouble), but Kurt couldn't help but think of Blaine as his own person. There was no way that his own imagination was able to come up with a story that real with emotion that strong. He didn't even know what it felt like to have a homophobic father.

No, Blaine was definitely something to himself and though it freaked Kurt out to admit it, the only thing that would allow him to process this way was if he were a ghost.

"It's overwhelming when you first learn about it. Trust me I was so mad - I'm still so mad - that I literally just want to hurt him," said Blaine fiercely and Kurt felt a tremor run down his spine. For a moment he glimpsed how ugly things could really get. "But you learn to deal with it."

Kurt longed to reach out and hold his hand. To tell him that he was going to try to understand. To tell him he was planning to be a great friend. But the sight of the rest of his room through the boy in front of him stopped him from doing so. He couldn't even pretend he knew what he was going through.

Instead he did the only thing he knew that could possibly help Blaine at all.

"Ghost," he said softly.

"What did you just say?" asked Blaine with huge eyes, completely taken aback.

"You're a ghost, Blaine. I... believe you," he said with a smile and Blaine beamed back.

"You do know that if I could, I would be hugging your brains out right now, right?" asked Blaine with a grin and Kurt smiled.

"You know that I would do the same, right?" he asked, drawing bashful grin from Blaine.

"Well, you're almost pale enough to be one anyway," said Blaine with a chuckle and Kurt blushed furiously, glaring at him with fake offense.

"One more quip like that and I'm calling an exorcist. Like it or not," he said snidely and Blaine laughed.

Kurt decided that he needed to hear more of that and soon.