The storms are raging on the rolling sea,

And on the highway of regret.

The winds of change are blowing wild and free.

You ain't seen nothing like me yet.

            Christian had disappeared almost as soon as he entered, leaving Kurt and Blaine alone in the little kitchenette to freak out together. And only an hour later, Kurt had also left, calling it a night for the both of them, pressing a warm, loving kiss to Blaine's lips, wishing him sweet dreams, and slipping out the door.

            But now it was a new morning and he was panicking. Christian still hadn't come home, nor answered any of Blaine's texts, and he didn't want to pester Kurt again. There was only one thing he could really do, and it wasn't easy. He was going to have to get a hold of his mother.

            Blaine slid down the wall to sit on the bathroom floor, a position he saw himself in a lot more times than not as he twisted his cell phone in his fingers. He had to do this; it wasn't something that was just going to go away.

            Blaine pulled up his call log, thumb hovering over that one persistent unknown number before pressing down gingerly, as if the lightest tap was going to shatter the screen. It rang three times.

            “Hello?” Her voice made him both want to cry and laugh because this was his mother for God sake.

            “I'd introduce myself but you already know who it is so uh – hi, I guess.” She went silent and Blaine sucked in a breath that felt like it rattled through his whole body. He could do this; he was promising himself that he would do this.

            “I didn't think I'd hear from you again.” Kylie sounded so fragile and human that he almost regretted yelling at her the other day. Almost.

            Blaine paused, teeth pressing into his lower lip. “I really want to fix things.” Just saying the words out loud felt so good that he wanted to cry because it was true. He really wanted to fix this with her; he missed his mother.

            There was a breath on the other end, quickly followed by what sounded like a sniff. “Really? After everything I've done to you?” If she was anything like him (she must have been, because he definitely didn't get his traits from his father) she'd been awake all night beating herself up over the things she didn't even know happened. She probably hated herself just as much as he did for walking out.

            Blaine sucked in a slow breath, squeezing his eyes shut and leaning the back of his head against the wall. “Yeah.” A gasping sob echoed through the phone and he curled his other hand into a fist, nails digging into his palm to stave off his own tears. “We should meet for coffee. Can we? I think we need to have a serious talk.”

            More sniffles and the rustling of fabric. “Yeah, yeah. Yes. Yeah.” She was probably nodding her head as well; something that Blaine did while he was talking on the phone because he forgot the other person couldn't see him. His suspicions were confirmed when she gave a wet chuckle at herself.

            Blaine rubbed his hand over his face, pressing the pads of his fingers against his eyes briefly before leaning his cheek into his palm. “There's a cute little café by the park called Counter Culture, we could meet there?”

            “That sounds perfect.” Another shaky breath. “What time?”

            Blaine didn't even know what time it was then, but he assumed it was probably close to noon. “Is around three okay?”

            “Three sounds good, yeah.”

            They had given their curt little goodbyes, fumbling through them and promising to meet in what actually turned out to be two hours before hanging up. And now Blaine was sitting in that corner table that he and Kurt sat at mostly because it made him feel safe. Although it was just with his mother so there shouldn't be a problem but maybe if he sat in Kurt's seat, he would feel stronger; like he could actually do this.

            Kylie walked in at exactly three o'clock, how she managed that was unknown to Blaine. Eyes that were the exact same shade as his drifted around the little shop before finally landing on Blaine's. She gave him a hopeful, if weak smile as she strode across the space between them almost carefully.

            She stopped, fingers clenched around the strap of the bag that hung over her shoulder that was probably supposed to be a purse but instead just looked like a baby satchel. “Hi.”

            Blaine offered her a little smile. “Hi.” This was going to be awkward and probably painful but they were going to get through this. She inched toward him nervously, pulling out the chair opposite him and dropping into it. She definitely changed her tune from the other day. “I guess we need to talk, right?”

            Kylie just nodded her head, resting her bag in her lap and folding her hands on top of the table. “Blaine, honey, I'm so sorr—“

            He held up a hand, cutting her off. “Don't apologize. I understand why you left.”

            “No, there's more. I didn't just leave because he was... abusive.” Blaine froze; truth time. “There was also someone else. Your father was never the nicest man; very strictly religious, hard rules. He was... straight, to say the least.” Blaine leaned back in his seat, eyeing her hunched form carefully. “There was someone else,” she blurted, eyes trained intently on the table top. And that was definitely the last thing he expected, partially because he never remembered anything about her sneaking out of the house or just mysteriously missing. Or maybe he did remember and just blocked it out because it didn't make sense.

            Blaine let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. “You were cheating on him?” He snorted, burying his face in his palms and trying to smother his laughter because this wasn't funny at all. Except it was because his straight edge father had a wife who hated him long before she left and that just made his life a little bit better. Anything that pitted the world against his father.

            She made a face at him. “Yeah, why is that so funny? It's horrible.”

            “It's funny because we both hate him.” Blaine carefully raised his eyes to meet his mother and gave her a slow smile. This was the way things were supposed to be; they were supposed to have a good laugh at the expense of his father and it was supposed to feel good. And God, did it ever. “It's funny because he's a horrible person and you left because of more reasons. You didn't just leave because he hurt you, you left because you loved someone else. You didn't think he was going to hurt me.” And then his laughter turned into tears and Blaine couldn't stop crying. “You didn't know.”

            Kylie got up out of her seat, rushing around the table to drag Blaine into her arms. “I didn't know. I never would have left if I had.”

            “I thought you hated me. I thought you hated me and wanted to leave me by myself with him to teach me a lesson for something I didn't know I'd done.” He wrapped his arms around his mother's waist, dragging her closer and just crying; something he felt like he did a lot of as of recently.

            Kylie's fingers threaded through his loose hair, cradling his head against her neck as she sunk to her knees beside him. “Oh, my sweet boy, I never wanted to hurt you. I never meant for any of this to happen. If I'd have known what he'd do to you, I never would have left. I'd rather get hurt than you.”

            Everything slowly started coming together and began to feel right again.

            Four hours later and Blaine was curled up on his sofa, under a thick blanket and twirling his phone in his fingers. His head hurt from all the crying he'd been doing, his toes were a little bit numb from the cold that seemed to find him no matter where he went, and his cheeks ached from all the smiling he'd been doing. But he'd figured things out with his mother; they made a promise to get coffee together at least once a week and catch up on each other's lives; she also promised to have a chat with Cooper.

            Blaine hit the call key beside Kurt's name. It rang twice before the cheery, bell-like tone of his boyfriend sounded through the speaker. “Hello, handsome.” And if Blaine were still in high school, he'd be squealing like a thirteen year old girl. Screw high school; he was trying not to scream regardless.

            “Hi,” he whispered, worried that if he spoke too loud he would suffer a voice crack he'd never hear the end of.

            “How did the date with your mom go?” Kurt was speaking in that careful, gentle tone that he did when he was worried he was going to push too far.

            “I forgave her.” Blaine bit his bottom lip, sandwiching his phone between his ear and shoulder as he twisted his fingers together in his lap. “She told me a lot of stuff that I didn't know about and it made everything fit together and I forgave her, Kurt.” He let out a laugh, trying not to groan as it made his head throb.

            “I'm so glad that you could.”

            “Me too.”