When Kurt rings the bell, he feels like he’s going to puke from nerves. It’s a big honour to be asked, and Kurt knows that this is what Blaine wants, but he’s still nervous. He’s considering to leave when the door opens.

Blaine’s grandma has a welcoming smile. Kurt recognises her from the chocolate photo.

“Hi,” Kurt says, “I’m a-” Well, he can hardly call himself a friend, “I am here for Blaine.”

“Oh, yes, Blaine said that he had friends coming over.”

Blaine apparently doesn’t feel the same struggle.

“Come in! You can call me Bubs. It’s short for Jennifer.”

Bubs laughs as if she’s told a hilarious joke. Then she calls out for Blaine before turning back to Kurt.

“My Blaine has told me why you’re here. He’s had a difficult summer with everything that has happened and I am very proud of him.”

“So am I,” Kurt says earnestly.

Blaine comes downstairs and he smiles nervously when he sees Kurt.

“You’re here. Mercedes is already upstairs.”

Bubs shoves some chocolate in Kurt’s hands and she has a fond smile on her face. “It’s… Eddie, right?”

Kurt feels like he’s been slapped in the face. Blaine also looks white as a sheet. Turns out that Bubs doesn’t know what happened, but this also means that back when the catfishing was happening, Blaine spoke about Eddie with his grandmother. Kurt feels guilty all over, but he forces a smile.

“Uhm, no, it’s Kurt.”

Maybe he’s imagining things, but he could swear that Bubs’s face fell for a millisecond. She puts on a big smile and she turns to Blaine. To Kurt’s surprise, Blaine quickly says something in a language that he doesn’t recognise. Bubs nods and turns back to Kurt.

“Ah,” she says, “Well Kurt, welcome. I’ll leave you kids to it. I’m in the kitchen if you need me.”

Kurt follows Blaine upstairs. Kurt could ask the obvious question, but instead he asks: “What language were you speaking?”

“Bisaya. My mom is from the Philippines. My gran learned it when my dad started dating my mom.”

“You’re Filipino?”

“Half,” Blaine shrugs, “I guess it’s another thing I tried to hide. Huh, you should’ve seen Mercedes’s reaction.”

“I heard my name!” Mercedes yells from Blaine’s room. Blaine leads Kurt towards her. Mercedes and Kurt quickly hug. It’s time to talk.

By the time the story is done, Mercedes is visibly upset. She throws her arms around Blaine.

“I wish I could assuage this situation. I am so sorry that happened to you.”

“So am I,” Blaine says.

“Thanks for telling me,” Mercedes says, “And Kurt, thanks for not telling me.”

“I would never,” Kurt says.

“I know, babe,” Mercedes says.

She extends one of her arms towards him. She wants him to join the hug. Kurt stares at the arm with hesitance. He doesn’t feel like he should be part of this. Why is he even here? In the end, Blaine managed to get through the entire story by himself.

But Mercedes has a welcoming look on her face and even Blaine seems to wait for him, so Kurt hugs both Mercedes and Blaine tightly.

“Oh, boys… I wish the world were a better place.”

They sit in silence and Kurt also has to hold back his tears. The sheer emotion of the situation is too much. Mercedes holds them close and he’s so happy that she’s in his life.

“We need chocolate,” Mercedes says after a while and everyone laughs. They break apart so that people can wipe their tears and compose themselves. Mercedes gets up. “I’ll ask Bubs some more.”

“I have-”

Mercedes shoots Kurt a meaningful look and he understands what is happening.

“I-”

Mercedes gives the same look to Blaine. Then she leaves to look for Bubs.

Kurt and Blaine are sat alone in Blaine’s room.

Blaine fiddles with rug on the floor, but he does say: “She… knows that I miss you. I think this is her way of helping.”

“Oh,” Kurt says, but his mind focuses on the first part. Blaine misses him?

“Mercedes’s been nudging towards this since the summer,” Blaine’s still not looking at him, “She told me where you work. She convinced me to join glee. She suggested I’d ask you to be here, since she knew that I was nervous. She’s a great friend who just wants me to be happy.”

“She is.” Really, Blaine is so lucky to have Mercedes. She really is the friend that he needs. Not Kurt. Kurt still can’t get over his own guilt and shame. “And, I miss you too.”

“Yeah?” Blaine looks up in shock.

“Of course,” Kurt says, since it’s true, “You believe me when I told you our friendship was genuine, apart from the, you know-” Kurt waves his hand, “-catfishing thing.”

Blaine snorts. Another time that Kurt’s made Blaine laugh. Another win. Kurt’s counting them. He’d do anything to make Blaine laugh like that.

Blaine sighs, sounding sad. The euphoric moment is over. “Am I crazy to miss you, after everything that you’ve done? What you did was so fucked up.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know,” Blaine groans, “And I know I have forgiven you, and a part of me is still angry, but another part of me doesn’t want to be. And then that first part gets mad at the other part. God, I am fighting with myself over you, Kurt Hummel!”

“I’m sorr-”

“Stop, please!” Blaine begs. Kurt immediately shuts up. “Just… let me work this out, okay? Wait for me.”

Bubs insists on giving Kurt even more chocolate. She leads him to the kitchen and she hands Kurt a bar with salted caramel chocolate.

“My favourite,” she says with a wink.

Then, she looks around to see if they’re alone. Mercedes and Blaine are still laughing whilst watching the movie. Bubs leans closer.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Who are you to Blaine?”

“I- I-” Kurt stammers. He knows why Bubs is asking this. He saw the look on her face. His shoulders drop and he looks embarrassed when he says: “I don’t know.”

“My Blaine has mentioned a guy named Kurt several times before. He’s told me about how the attack on you made him realise that he’s, well, repressed might be the best word. But I also remember him having a different tone whilst talking about you.”

“I know.”

Bubs sigh. “I hope you can forgive him. It was his own misjudgement and unhappiness speaking. He’s working very hard on himself and I couldn’t be more proud.”

“Same.”

“Are you friends now?”

“I don’t know,” Kurt says again. There’s new hope after the earlier conversation with Blaine, but Kurt doesn’t wanna get his hopes up.

“Also, when Blaine said that he asked a friend to come over to help him talk to Mercedes, I thought he meant Eddie. You know Eddie?”

Kurt sucks in his breath.

“Vaguely,” he lies.

Bubs looks at him with suspicion written over her face. She’s a smart woman. She’s even learned an entire language for her daughter-in-law. Kurt slowly realises that Bubs asked him to get more chocolate so that she could interrogate him.

“Ah. I hope I get to see Eddie one day,” Bubs says, still staring at Kurt, “Blaine has talked so much about him. He’s a great friend, but I haven’t heard of Eddie in months. I guess I am a bit worried that they had a fight.”

Kurt nods. What else can he do?

“After all, Blaine is a very good person,” Bubs says pointedly, “He’s made his mistakes, but he’s done so much this past few weeks. He deserves to be loved by someone who knows him well.”

Bubs shoots him another look and Kurt tries not to sweat from nerves. What does Bubs know? What is she implying? Kurt doesn’t even know if he loves Blaine. Sure, there are feelings, but love? Can he ever get to there, when there’s all this guilt?

Instead of talking, Kurt nods again.

“I think I like you, Kurt, whoever you are,” Bubs says with a smile, as if the earlier tension never happened, “I’d like it to stay that way.”

The feeling is mutual. Kurt knows that Blaine doesn’t owe him anything, but just being here and talking to him makes Kurt feel hopeful again. Maybe they can start again. He really wants that. Hopefully, Blaine wants that too.