Blaine was having the worst day ever. That was not an exaggeration, in any way shape or form.

“You’re exaggerating.”

Blaine raised his head from his own crossed arms. Kurt looked down at his beautiful boyfriend, his face mixed with semi-sympathetic amusement and loving pity. They were sitting together on Blaine’s bed. They had been for several hours. Kurt had invited himself over to Blaine’s for a very explicit purpose.

He needed to tell his boyfriend that he almost cheated on him…

No, that’s an exaggeration. Kurt didn’t almost do anything. He just had a healthy problem with boys thinking he was kissable and trying to kiss him.

Within a week of each other, two boys had entered Blaine and Kurt’s lives. Lucca Doe was a sophomore at Dalton Academy who had joined the Warblers with an impressive rendition of Nylon’s “Me and the Boys” and then suggested the Warblers perform Travie McCoy’s “I Need You”, a song that couldn’t have fit the Warblers any better if it had been a Destiny’s Child medley… and the Warblers were serious Destiny’s Child fanboys. Blaine’s suggestion of performing “Say My Name” had been dwarfed by how excited Lucca got the boys about a new sound for the Warblers. With Thad and Wes graduated and David his only ally on the new council, David who had always maintained the ability to say no to Blaine (the monster), Blaine found himself out voted.

“Kurt, I’m not exaggerating when I say that the song would have been the greatest performance the Warblers ever had. It would literally move people to tears.”

Blaine reached out and grabbed his boyfriend, pulling him to lie down next to him. They were both on their stomachs, Kurt’s head turned to keep his eyes on Blaine’s face. Blaine burrowed his nose in his pillow.

“You know, not everyone wants to shed tears when they listen to an all-boys a cappella glee club.” Kurt responded playfully.

“When was the last time a performance left you wet? Think about it? I’m positive you’ll remember it better than other performance.”

Blaine hit the nail on the head. The last performance that mattered to him had literally left him soaked. Ben Park had transferred to McKinley after his previous school, James Polk High in North Lima, had been closed by the board of education for low enrollment and high asbestos. Ben was cute and nice and mostly gay and a really good singer. So good in fact, that when Mr. Schue announced duets as that week’s assignments, Mercedes and Brittany literally fought to sing with him.

But Ben choose to sing with Kurt. He choose the song “Fireflies” and choose that Kurt and he practice in an empty classroom.

It was very “The History of Quam”.

Appropriately, it ended with the interference of Finn.

Kurt had been sitting innocently on the teacher’s desk after their last scheduled practice before their performance when Ben revealed his romantic interest in Kurt, forcing the cherub beauty to blush furiously as his only defense mechanism. Reading Kurt’s blush as “go, yes, go” Ben had leaned in for a kiss.

Finn’s hand had never found a fire alarm faster in his entire life. He had been looking for his brother for a ride home after practice and had only by luck stumbled upon Ben’s intention. The only reason why he didn’t barge in and handle it like a big brother (excluding the fact that Kurt was actually older than him) was because Finn was learning to use his actions more than his words. He was a senior and a man of action and men of action pulled fire alarms, knowing that his brother would flee the room in a heartbeat if he thought he risked getting his couture sprayed by the sprinkler system.

It was common knowledge that Lima’s water was heavy in lead and lead stained silk, like a boss.

Kurt remembered the resulting, super awkward conversation with his brother after the entire incident that afternoon… or rather, he remembered Finn calling himself the Conductor on the Klaine Train, responsible for keeping it on the tracks, because something like that was too ridiculous to let go of… but he also knew Finn was right and that he needed to tell Blaine what happened.

Blaine snuggled closer to Kurt, his fingers playing along the shell of Kurt’s ear. Kurt had a hard time remembering which way was up when Blaine touched him like that, let alone what had brought him to Blaine’s bed that afternoon.

Blaine pouted, perfectly as always. “I'm not ready for my run in the spotlight to be over... I'm too pretty and short to stand in the background... I could get lost!”

Kurt laughed gently. “Yes, I know it’s your last year to shine in high school, but after high school is college and I'm sure one of the many hospitality schools you apply to will have an all-male a cappella group cutely named Here Comes Treble or the Noteables or... the Shirley Tempos.”

“ Those sound too absurd not to be real…and awesome… While I’m sure notoriety in the collegiate a cappella circuit is probably exactly what’s in store for me, I want my senior year to be about me. Last year kind of gave me that expectation. Last year was a very good year…”

Kurt sat up quickly, catching Blaine’s double meaning. He smiled with all his teeth. That was Blaine’s favorite smile. Blaine knew Kurt was going to tell him something light-heartedly condescending and helpful.

“You're such a boy-Berry. It's not necessarily all or nothing when it comes to the spotlight. Spreading the limelight has never hurt anyone… Why don't you propose duel leads? You did it with me.”

Blaine sat up as well. His green eyes were dancing with mischief. “Kurt Hudmel, are you suggesting I sing flirty duets with another boy?”

Kurt rolled his eyes, scooting a slight fraction of an inch away from Blaine. He turned his back to him, in a move Santana had dubbed “Throwing Shoulder like a Victorian Slut”, it worked perfectly because his boat neck sweater had bared his shoulder forcing Blaine’s focus to the small patch that he was foolishly not currently worshiped with his kisses. “I said nothing about flirty, Blaine. I'm just saying if you can sing duets with me, you can sing duets with anyone.”

Blaine pouted, dropping his head onto Kurt’s shoulder. Closer. “What if I only want to sing duets with you?”

Kurt looked down at Blaine who looked up expectantly. Kurt shook his head. “It’s a good thing I'm not lactose intolerant, because that was covered in cheese.”

“You love my cheese!” Blaine waggled his eyebrows.

“A man needs more than cheese to survive.” Kurt replied, glad his boyfriend’s mood had lifted.

“What if I served it up with beef cake… and plenty of sugar!”

Kurt barely had time to squeak before Blaine tackled him to the bed. They spent the next hour kissing and giggling, sharing bad jokes and forgetting anything serious to talk about…
---

Rachel sat at Finn’s desk, half hearing Finn talk and completely not listening. They really didn’t spend a lot of time at Finn’s house, but when they did, Rachel monopolized the internet connection. Since the train wreck extravaganza, Finn had become an expert in hiding his web history, so he was much more comfortable with Rachel being on his computer. He really didn’t have anything to worry about, because nothing in his search history was even close to the web addresses Rachel typically frequented: Julliard and Stella Adler. He had seen Rachel on two occasions sit for hours without blinking as she stared through performance videos. Finn could see another coming along, so he did the only thing he could think of to distract her from plotting her future with him in the negligible background.

Finn reached beside his bed and pulled out his guitar.

Rachel’s head picked up immediately.

Finn could see that Rachel was appropriately hypnotized. He put his hands and voice on autopilot, letting him think about what he has doing and why.

I’m not gonna lie, this is really weird. My girlfriend’s name is Rachel and I’m singing a song about a girl named Delilah and normally that would throw any girl into world of crazy I’d never want to visit, but I have to risk it. Rachel’s been really far away since we came back from Nationals. The only way I can get her to look at me the way she used to is to serenade her with songs about New York or at least contain the words New York. Luckily there are a lot of them; Frank Sinatra made a career off of them… I just need them to keep my girlfriend in love with me. I really want this year to be my best ever – having Rachel, winning another football championship, and taking Nationals this year are my huge goals this year… oh and getting into a good state college. That last one would be awesome.

Looking in her eyes, it was obvious to him why he loved her. She was beautiful, usually had the best of intentions (though pretty terrible judgment), and dreamed bigger than her body. That must sound easy because she was tiny, but Finn knew that Rachel was going places and was glad to hold onto her for as long as she let him.

Rachel was smiling. Finn totally felt he was winning the war for Rachel’s attention. Finn finished the last few chords before putting his guitar down.

“That was lovely, Finn.” Rachel said.

Finn smiled back. Rachel picked up her bag and promptly stood. “I need to use the bathroom.”

She was out the room before Finn had time to react.

Rachel let out a sigh after she closed the door behind her. That was a lie. She thought. Well, not a complete lie. I do need a mirror to check my make-up, but there’s no way I’m going to use the one in Finn’s bathroom. I need Kurt’s cosmetic kit, which he’d totally understand and appreciate me using… it also provides me with a valid excuse for entering his room without previously being invited… skin quality trumps social protocol every time with Kurt.

Rachel pushed open the door to Kurt’s room without knocking. She doesn’t know what she was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t Kurt sitting on his floor, giving Blaine a hickey on his neck.

Rachel gasped, nothing particularly that Kurt had heard her enter, but hadn’t moved his head from Blaine’s neck. “What are you doing?”

Blaine smiled with all of his teeth. “He’s giving me a hickey.”

Kurt pulled back then, looking his boyfriend in the face, clearly displeased. “It’s not a hickey. It’s an epic love poem written on your neck in a very tiny space with my tongue.”

Blaine crinkled his nose, enjoying Kurt’s playful mood. “I know, you’ve been signing your name for the last two minutes.”

Rachel smiled. “That’s what Noah does to Zizes.”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “And you’ve ruined necking for me. Way to go.”

Rachel looked appropriately admonished. “Sorry”

Blaine stood up quickly. “I’m gonna go look at this in the mirror. It’s my first hickey! Sorry, epic skin poem.”

Rachel and Kurt watched the excited teen prance into Kurt’s bathroom, making full use of Kurt’s cosmetic mirror. Kurt turned a finely-shaped raised eyebrow to Rachel. “What do you want? I hope it’s not another chance to audition for Pip, Pip, Hurray, because I already told you that while your vocal prowess is stunning, you’re not fabulous enough to be Pippa, Princess Kate or Posh Spice. Princess Eugenie is still available.”

“The one with the ridiculous hat?” Rachel nearly squealed.

Kurt rolled his eyes. “They’re called fascinators and the fact you didn’t know that shows me you’re just not ready for my masterpiece.”

“Whatever… I need to talk to you… It’s Finn.” Rachel pushed out.

“It’s always about Finn… I can’t believe you chased off my boyfriend to talk about yours.” Kurt said, standing up.

Rachel took a few steps into the room. Kurt rarely let anyone into his room. Rachel always assumed his room was subject to vampire protocol, if you weren’t invited, you weren’t allowed in, and always half expected to be expelled violently from the room at Kurt’s whim.

“I don’t know why that’s so unbelievable,” Rachel finally said, “that sounds exactly like something I’d do. But that’s not important. I need you to look over this to make sure its sneak proof.”

Rachel reached into her bag and pulled out spiral bound document, approximately eighty pages in length. Kurt extended a hand to take it, reading the title as Blaine returned to the main room, his shirt was still unbuttoned, clearly proud of Kurt’s penmanship.

“What is it?” Blaine asked.

“A Short-Term Cooperative Agreement?” Kurt read. The document was heavy and outside of the first two pages, was loaded with text.

Rachel nodded, gripping the strap of her bag like a lifeline. “I’ve decided to protect myself from the pain and eventual emotional devastation that will come from permanently terminating my torrid high school love affair with Finn. While the pain will allow me to access a deeper talent that will translate into four Emmy’s, sixteen Grammy’s, three Oscars and two Tony’s…”

Blaine nodded his approval. “Ambitious.”

Kurt raised an eyebrow. “That’s one more of each than Barbra Streisand has won…”

Rachel plowed through, ignoring Kurt’s skepticism. “I’m worried about Finn. I mean I love him so I need to protect him.”

“From your love?”

Rachel nodded vigorously, stepping closer to Kurt’s bed. She’d never touched one-thousand thread count sheets; she realized the drama of the moment justified her using every luxurious prop at her disposal. “Yes. Our star-crossed love is one for the ages, like Romeo and Juliet, Jack and Rose, Kelly Kapowski and Zack Morris. They’ll write songs about it.”

“Who is they?”

“Kurt, focus. Can you read the contract and see if I missed anything. I laid out all the expectations for maintaining a relationship for the full course of the school year: all the roles and responsibilities and rights I have to terminate the relationship should Finn violate any of them.”

Kurt became aware of how close Rachel was to sitting on his bed. He did not want. “Didn’t Finn terminate your relationship both times you broke up?”

Rachel paused in her decent to his bed, her frustration stronger than her curiosity. “You’re no help. I need to find someone with a clearly established relationship with an unequal power balance.”

Kurt smirked. “Zizes doesn’t come back from wrestling camp until Thursday.”

“Drat.” Rachel’s hair flapped gracefully as she stormed out the room.

Blaine smiled, shaking his head at Kurt and Rachel’s antics. “It must be hard being Rachel.”

“I’d say it’s harder being in relationship with Rachel. Can you believe this?” Kurt fingered through the heavy document.

“It’s totally unbelievable.” Blaine responded.

Kurt dropped the tome on his desk, knowing Rachel would be back for it later, but determined to give it a quick markup before giving it back. He was nothing if not helpful. Kurt smiled at Blaine, letting his fingers trace the hickey he had given him. “We don’t need a Short-Term Cooperative Agreement, do we, Blaine?”

“Of course not, beautiful. We’re so endgame.”
--

Finn’s face couldn’t mask his confusion.

“Rachel, I don’t understand.”

“Which part?”

“I think all of it.” Finn admitted.

They were in Finn’s room again, having not seen each other since Monday. Normally they both would have taken issue with that, but Rachel had been plotting and Finn had been dominating in Mario Kart so neither of them had reason to complain. Finn was fanning through the Kurt Hummel edited “Short Term Cooperative Agreement”. There were clauses and sections and sub-sections and what he called sub-sub-sections, but knew there was a real term for them.

“Look Finn, we both want our senior year to be amazing. I created this document to insure that happens.”

“But a Love Contract?”

“It’s not a Love Contract. That sounds dirty.”

It hadn’t been lost on Finn during his initial skim that the section entitled sex contained only one clause: reading simply “No.” with a small addendum that Rachel would continue to be a part of the celibacy club because it was important to her and that she had only quit one club in her entire high school career, two would show a lack of stick-to-itiveness and that just wouldn’t due if she really wanted to get into Julliard…

Which she totally did.

“I’m supposed to do all these things to keep you from dumping me?”

“Finn, don’t think about is preventing me from terminating our relationship, think of it as a guarantee that when we win Nationals it will be as the New Directions power couple. Isn’t that what you want?”

“Of course… but it should be easier than having a Love Contract. The section on our dates is thirty pages long and includes how much I have to tip and how much flirting I can do with the waitress to get free refills…”

“If it’s anything other than none, it’s a typo.”

Finn frowned and placed the document back on his desk. He didn’t like where this was going, at all. Rachel could see his discomfort with what was happening. She put her hand on his lap and made sure she had his eyes.

“Don’t let yourself get bogged down in the details. I’ll help you through it if you get confused.”

“I’m already confused, Rachel. You think we need this? I mean, you love me and I love you… isn’t that enough?”

“We loved each other in junior year and we spent half of it apart. I don’t want to do that again. This will help both of us, Finn. We only have this last year to be together. I don’t want to waste it if we come to something ambiguous like what color suit you wear to Prom or proper response protocol if another young ing�nue joins Glee with her eyes on you and my mantle as lead.”

“That’s not going to happen this year.”

“I’ve deleted all the Lima crack houses from my Google maps, I can’t send any more of them away.” Rachel responded.

“No, I mean, nothing is going to come between us. I promise. No girl, no guy.”

Rachel handed Finn a pen. “Then sign. I’ll sign too and we don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Finn flipped the contract to the last page and signed it. Rachel punctuated her signature with a gold star, turning to smile at Finn.

“What now?” Finn asked.

“I need to tell you something. Something that will change our lives and our relationship forever.”

“Should I read the contract first or have you already book marked it for how I should help you?”

“You can quickly peruse Article 3: Supporting My Ego while I prepare myself for unleashing this devastating news upon you.” Rachel took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for the physical undertaking that revealing her secret to Finn would do to her.

Finn wasted no time in flipping the document open, though he knew intuitively that he wouldn’t be able to read anything helpful before Rachel told him how he was supposed to respond.

“Finn, my… dads… are going to have another baby.”

Finn’s face lit up at the announcement. “That’s awesome!”

Rachel’s horrified expression told him immediately that he had really, really needed to read his Love Contracts before he signed them.
--

Kurt was looking at his computer screen the same way Kurt imagined Puck looked at himself in a mirror: completely in love with what he was seeing.

Though it had been some weeks, Blaine was still having a problem with Lucca and had to face the indignity of auditioning for a solo. He was singing to Kurt through Skype to get his last minute notes.

Blaine had said he wanted to sing the Cary Brothers’ song with the Warblers because it was simple and pure. Kurt suspected it was because Blaine was romantic and wanted his boyfriend to fall in just a little bit more with him.

It was totally working.

Kurt had never wished to be at Dalton then at that moment. It was like meeting Blaine on the stairs all over again. Blaine’s signing was changing the rate of his heart beat.

Blaine finished the song a million years before Kurt was ready for him to stop.

“What did you think?” Blaine asked.

“Can’t talk, literally a pile of Kurt. Call back in an hour after I’ve congealed.” Kurt responded.

“Melty…” Blaine repeated contemplating, “That might work. Lucca is doing JC Chasez’s “Blowing Me Up With Her Love”, I’ve heard the arrangement. It’s awesome. I’m worried.”

“You’re awesome. You’re more than awesome. If the Warblers don’t give you the solo, I will drive to Cambridge, pick up Thad, then fly to Montreal, where my command of French will astound, and grab Wes and the three of us will overthrow the council as a special alumni force and make you the Warbler King again.”

“You know, the Warbler King is the nickname for the council’s gavel.” Blaine responded, his mood instantly lifting.

“Is that where I keep getting that from? I called you that in a dream last week.” Kurt stated off-handedly.

Blaine’s smile lit up the smile. “What kind of dream?” He asked coyly.

Kurt smiled knowingly. “Good luck, Blaine. Text me when you get the results.”

“I love you.”

“That’s the most truthful thing anyone’s ever said.” Kurt responded.

Blaine laughed.

“I love you too and good luck.”

Kurt had barely shut down his computer when Finn barged into his room. There were a series of things wrong with that particular situation, but the most obvious of those was Finn’s distress.

“Finn, what’s wrong?”

“Rachel. It’s Rachel.”

“What about Rachel?” Kurt asked, still concerned but no longer worried.

“She’s mad at me and I think she’s going to break up with me.”

And suddenly the thing most wrong with the situation was Finn’s sheer inability to not be in Kurt’s room.

“So, it’s Tuesday again, already? Well, thanks for the alarm, but my Jonas Brother’s calendar works just fine.”

Finn’s brow furrowed. “You have a Jonas Brothers calendar?”

Kurt rolled his eyes before standing up and started shooing Finn out of his room. “I did, but it was inane, so I threw it out, much like I’m doing you.”

Finn was large and difficult to move. Kurt was not pleased. He folded his arms over his stripped frock covered chest.

“Come on, Kurt. We’re brothers; brothers help each other out with girl issues.”

“Finn, do you really think I’m the person to ask about girlfriend problems? The only girlfriend I’ve had was Brittany, which puts my experience on par with every person at McKinley…”

Finn would not be deterred. “But you’re super cool with the girls. You’re an honorary member of the XX chromosome league.”

Kurt’s elegant brown arched toward his hairline with inquisition. “Finn, how do you know about the league?”

Finn shrugged. “Santana has like, zero volume control during your slumber parties. The guys asked me to spy on the last one and I didn’t have to do anything.”

“And we’re officially having sleepovers in Lima Heights from now on.” Kurt made another attempt at forcibly exiting Finn from his room.

“Wait, wait, wait. That doesn’t help my problem.”

Kurt gave up on pushing his larger brother out of his room. He dusted off his sleeve, feeling particularly boss.”I can’t help you, Finn. I’ve got 99 problems, but Rachel Berry’s romantic crazy isn’t one.”

“Please, bro. I’d help you with your Blaine problems.” Finn pleaded desperately.

“But my Blaine problems would be reasonable. Because Blaine and I are reasonable people… we don’t create love contracts and we don’t enter relationships with people who create love contracts.”

Finn huffed, turning his body to watch Kurt move to gather a few magazines and replace them on his desk. “Yeah, I’m sure Blaine was totally reasonable about Ben having a crush on you when you told him that he tried to kiss you.”

This was not met with a pithy rejoinder.

It was met with capital S silence.

Finn’s face lit up with stunned realization. “You haven’t told him! You’re keeping secrets! You’re just as bad as me! You’re a hypnotist!”

Kurt rolled his eyes, caught between shame for being caught and sheer disbelief in Finn’s lack of understanding of how the English language worked. “It’s a hypocrite and I’m not. I plan to tell him. He’s just really stressed out with the new upstart Lucca trying to steal his senior spot light. He doesn’t need me piling on another young hot antagonist flirtin’ with his man, right now.”

Finn nodded his head and smiled. “But until you tell him… you’re going to need to prevent me from telling him.”

Kurt tilted his head. “Finn Hudmel, are you blackmailing me?”

Finn’s smile broadened. “You’re impressed, aren’t you?”

“I feel like a pageant mom: I shouldn’t feel proud about this, but I really do.”
---

Instead of waiting patiently for Blaine’s text on how auditions went, Kurt drove to Rachel’s house and forced himself, first, into her bedroom then, second, into her closet. He started from the left hand side, pulling out aesthetically offensive articles of clothing and leaving the passable items.

It goes without saying that most of Rachel’s wardrobe was finding a new home on her floor. Rachel herself sat on her bed, patiently waiting for Kurt to tell her why he was there and why now of all times was he destroying her esteem when any previous point in history would have been better. Eventually, after Kurt shuddered upon discovering her lederhosen, she realized that Kurt was perfectly willing to spend his afternoon throwing out her clothes in silence.

“I guess Finn told you what happened.” Rachel finally said.

Kurt made a non-committing sound. He evaluated a blouse before reaching back into the discard pile for a t-shirt and layering the contrasting styles on top of each other. He turned the new ensemble to Rachel’s attention. “These can only be worn together from now on. You’ll consult me on what color of Bermuda short to wear with it.”

“I don’t own shorts.” Rachel responded.

Kurt gave an exasperated sigh before tossing the newly made creation into the discard pile. He turned his attention to Rachel. “And no, Finn didn’t tell me why I’m here exactly, only that the two of you and your quote unquote relationship have problems that apparently only I can solve…”

“It’s not my fault Finn doesn’t understand.” Rachel responded.

“Understanding isn’t Finn’s strong suit, but we let him eat at the table to real people anyways… You knew before this latest tiff that this was Finn’s flaw. It can’t be a surprise and you know you all have your own flaws. I even my own flaws. Blaine can't wear orange.”

Rachel busied herself in arranging the necklaces on her nightstand, hoping to hide most of them from Kurt’s discarding mood. “How is that your flaw?”

“I don't always call him on it, I've allowed myself to be seen with him wearing orange twice and I didn't shame him publicly. That's what love does to people. We traverse the peaks and trenches of being in a relationship.” Kurt thinks to sit down on the pile of clothes he’s sentenced to donation. It was certainly high enough.

“While my relationship with Finn is currently in a trench, the climb we have to take to will make the peak even more impressive.”

“So you don’t intend to break up with him?”

“Maybe? He was being really insensitive, but it really wasn’t his fault because he had no experience in this sort of thing, and the Short Term Cooperative Agreement doesn’t lay out how he’s supposed to respond in this situation because even I didn’t see this travesty coming about, but as a three time Rachel Berry boyfriend he should understand how I think, but then again I’m so emotionally deep that it would be difficult for him to navigate my emotional landscape…”

“You're going somewhere other than crazy town with this I hope?” Kurt interrupted.

Rachel huffed. Kurt was the right person to talk to this about... even if he was being snippy. “My problem with Finn has close to nothing to do with Finn and has everything to do with my brother...”

Kurt’s eyebrow ticked. “Brother?”

“Or sister, I don't know. I don't know if there's going to be one or more… What if they're boy-girl quadruplets that are masters of Jazz-Tap and put on stunningly synchronized choreography that could be achieved by twin-telepathy?”

“You know that's not a real thing right? Also that you don't have siblings.”

“My dads are thinking about it...”

Kurt flopped gracefully onto the clothes pile on the floor. He clapped his hands excitedly. “Rachel, that's amazing! You said you wanted siblings. It really came across in that song you wrote...”

“You read ‘Only Child’?”

“Finn told me you wrote a song about headbands and I thought it might be a good inspiration for ‘The Fascinating Fascinators of England’ in the second act of Pip Pip Hurray! and I may or may not have read every line of it... “

“What did you think?” Rachel asked sheepishly.

“It wasn't a good song, but it was honest...”

“I have to admit... the idea of siblings is very different than actually having them in your life... stealing your thunder.”

“Rachel, I can wax poetic about how unique your particular thunder is and how no one will ever take that from you, but I've been doing a cleanse that’s draining me so it’s really difficult to sympathize with other people's problems... and I just don't want to.” Rachel frowned, Kurt pressed on. “Change is hard; it was hard getting the Hudsons into my life after it had been just my dad and me for so long. Those two have no appreciation for coriander.”

The reason Rachel had endured Kurt’s criticism of her clothing and the risk of him actually going through with giving them to goodwill was because of this moment. Kurt would be the only person who understood what this meant. Rachel turned her body to face Kurt. It was so rarely she got to look down at him. “But when your mom died, your dad didn't think to immediately replace her.”

Kurt’s brows pinched together, giving her a look reserved for the terminally stupid. “You do see how those things are opposite right? And it’s not about replacing you. Things will change but not the way your parents feel about you.”

“Nothing changed when the star quarterback became your big brother?” Rachel asked.

“No. There's generally less food in the house and all what Finn calls ‘the good stuff’ is stocked on higher shelves to keep me from getting to them as if I've never heard of a step ladder... but Carole and Finn have been great additions to the Hummel clan.”

Rachel folded then unfolded her arms. “You call her Carole.”

“That's her name.” Kurt responded.

“Not mom.” Rachel clarified.

“My mom's name is Penny.” Kurt responded.

Rachel leaped up then, taking a large stride toward the still seated Kurt. “See?!” She shouted expectantly. “That's what I mean! Right there! The divide exists!”

Kurt stood up then. He took special effort to dust the back of his pants thoroughly. He knew his clothes couldn’t catch bad taste, but it was not worth the risk. “The ‘divide’ exists because I have memories of my mom and they're great. That's why, not because I don't love Carole dearly. Finn and Carole never met the first Mrs. Hummel so I keep her in our lives to make up for it. And your siblings, no matter how many there are will never know what it’s like not to have an amazingly talented and caring big sister to look up to. They'll have to look up to you, for the first two years they're guaranteed to be shorter than you... after that... who knows.”

Rachel wasn’t pacified. She knew she was being silly, but she couldn’t help feeling what she felt. Her feelings had always been deep and irrational, but they were hers and she would always cling to them. Even in her smallest voice. “What if they don't appreciate the arts?” She asked honestly.

Kurt tried not to roll his eyes, but he knew the effort would cause him to pass out. “Rachel, you have a monument to Sutton Foster in your bathroom.”

“Just the downstairs one, my bathroom is lined with in cast promotions of Priscilla Queen of the Damned and Chicago. My dads' alternate between Oliver Stone's Alexander screen grabs and Titanic.” Seeing Kurt’s confused face, Rachel plowed through with an explanation. “Historically my dad's have had difficulty processing Indian cuisine; they keep their bathrooms like that so their gas pains aren't the only disasters in the room.”

“And we’ve hit the last stop on the TMI train, so I think it’s time for me to get off.”

“Wait,” Rachel took a step toward Kurt, blocking him from her door. “You didn’t really help me.”

“I wasn’t trying to help you, I was trying to help Finn, but your particular brand of extra strength crazy is beyond my skills.”

Rachel pouted, truly disappointed that Kurt was giving up on her.

“Rachel… If your dads are anything like my dad, then being dads is the best thing that ever happened to them. They thrive on it. You want your dads to be happy, right?”

“Of course I do, Kurt. I love them.”

“I know you do. And you know that they love you too… so much that they’re willing to risk striking gold a second time with you…” Kurt paused, he was trying to help, but could see that Rachel really needed him; somehow this was the crisis of the end of her childhood. “Rachel, you can say what very few children of gay adults can say… your dads love you so much that they want to give you additional players in the story of your life. Think of any siblings that come into your life as understudies... tiny, inherently less talented understudies... “

Rachel smiled. “Thank you for saying they'd be less talented than me. I really appreciate it.”

Kurt smiled. “Rachel, regardless of who is in the wings hoping you actually break a leg, you're the star in your life... and the show must go on.”

Kurt gripped Rachel by the shoulders and sat her down in front of her vanity. He found the hair brush she sang into when feeling melancholy, but optimistic, careful not to confuse it with her Bette Midler tribute brush or her awakening sexual liberation brush. Rachel looked back at him in confusion.

“I’m not going anywhere, Rachel. Go ahead and sing your song.”

Rachel took a deep breath, looking back into her mirror. With one hand firmly around her makeshift microphone, she leaned over to her cassette player and pressed play.

The dramatic strings lead in the supporting drums and chimes. Everything but the music faded behind Rachel. If nothing else, she always had music.

Rachel no longer saw herself in her room. She saw herself watching her dads, preparing to add another Berry to the family tree. She saw how happy they were and it broke her heart… not because she wasn’t there, but because she couldn’t see herself happy for them.

Rachel’s head shot up when she heard Kurt’s voice join hers. Normally she hated sneak attack duets, but they did sound great together.

Kurt dropped a hand onto Rachel’s shoulder, just before she stood up and felt her soul engulf the song and she took the solo back, feeling a relief she hadn’t felt since her dads had told her the news.

Rachel could see it then. She could see her with her dads looking through the adoption materials. She could see them being happy planning the rest of their lives as a four piece or more.

Kurt crossed his legs at the knee, dropping his arms into his lap. He could feel it. He could feel Rachel’s heart change with the music. He had expected a medley of Carrie Underwood, recordings from Oklahoma and the application of the Bette Midler brush before Rachel pulled herself out of her funk.

Rachel pulled herself back from the song. She was smiling and crying, a mix of the tears she always shed when she cried and a pleasant addition of the mature tears that came with growing up. She dabbed them away before turning back to her friend.

“Thanks, Kurt. I really needed that.”

Kurt smiled. “You’re welcome, Rachel. I take it I can tell Finn that he still has a girlfriend?”

Rachel smiled. “Yes, you can tell your brother that he’s very lucky to have you and that he should study pages 18 through 37 in the agreement for proper use of third party intervention. You’re actually second on the list of approved go-betweens…”

“Uh-huh…” Before Kurt could put a ribbon on the important life lesson he had gifted to Rachel, his phone buzzed.

It was Blaine.

Kurt’s stomach fell out after he realized he’d missed several texts from Blaine. The news wasn’t good.

The reign is over… there’s a new Warbler King… don’t want to talk about it. --Blaine

Kurt pouted. Rachel frowned.

“Something wrong, Kurt?” She asked.

“It’s Blaine… he didn’t get the solo… I need to console him. Can I borrow your Survivor Song brush? I feel like Blaine’s going to want to sing it out in between binges of strawberry cheesecake ice cream and reruns of the Wizards of Waverly Place.” Kurt pulled his bag to his shoulder. “I’m in for a night of torture.”

“I suggest you lead with the Ben incident, pitch it in there like a joke and let him work out his frustration on upstarts making moves on what’s his.”

Kurt paused in his exit. His body didn’t turn when he swiveled his head to address her. “You knew about Ben almost kissing me?”

Rachel nodded and smiled, clearly proud of herself. “Finn told me. He’s terrible at keeping secrets.”

“But you managed to?”

“You’re not the only one who looks out for the well being of other people’s relationships.” She returned with a toothy smile.

Kurt shook his head and exited. Rachel sat down on her bed, barely having a moment to spread her hand over her comforter before Kurt returned to her room.

“Just in case you were wondering, I’m serious.” He said, pointing to the pile of clothes on the floor. “Either goodwill or a children’s charity, but they’ve got to go… but not to a blind kids’ charity… that’s just cruel.”

Kurt was barely out of the room for a second time before Rachel peeled backwards with laughter.