Kurt always found it strange how he could drive while his mind was in a million other places. All he had to do was keep the car between the lines, and before he started driving he thought that must have taken concentration, but the last thing Kurt was thinking about was a steering wheel and peeling lines of paint.

Kurt's mind was on that picture burned into his retinas, like looking onto the sun, of Blaine's parents. Kurt saw clearly Blaine's mother standing indifferently in the doorway, his father fuming on the lawn. The only moment Blaine's mother seamed in anyway perturbed by the events, the only reason, it seemed, for her anger was when Blaine had spoken harshly to his father. Obviously she cared too much for her husband, but not one bit for her perfect, flawless son.

Kurt was starting to get worked up again, so he played Blaine's comforting words in his head to help meditate himself.

'But we have each other, don't we?'

Even though they had said I love you to each other, even though Blaine's letters made it clear that he valued Kurt, he sometimes doubted Blaine was there for him. It wasn't because he mistrusted Blaine, or because of any of Blaine's, for lack of a better word, "flaws", but because of his own silly paranoia.

'That's me' thought Kurt. 'Always the paranoid one. Always the one digging to deep into the mundane and memorizing every detail in detection of a danger that I am stubbornly convinced is inevitable.'

Kurt looked over at Blaine. He was gazing out the side door window with a dazed look on his face, the corners of his mouth twitched up in a content smile. Kurt didn't know whether to think Blaine was the cutest thing on the face of the planet, or mentally insane.

"Why are you happy?" said Kurt in a shocked voice without thinking. Kurt took his eyes off the road again to see Blaine looking slightly affronted by Kurt's words, so he hastily added, "I mean I'm glad you are of course, I just, well it's an odd time to be happy don't you think?"

"Why?" said Blaine with another slight smile.

Kurt gaped at the road, wishing he could glare at Blaine more thoroughly without crashing the car. "Seriously? Not only have you not eaten for days, but you basically just fought your way out of your own house while being yelled at by your lunatic father, and watched me throw a mega fit. I don't see the smiles and unicorns in that."

Blaine thought for a moment, and then said, choosing his words carefully, "I just… like being part of something. We're part of something, Kurt. Back there in my room, all alone with my books and my journal and my mind, I was going crazy. I felt so alone, I was like… in this… haze of loneliness, and just a few minutes ago I realized that though were a million miles apart, –not you and me, I mean other kids going through what we, what I am going through.- were still all united by our burdens. I know it sounds strange, maybe even cheesy, but it feels nice. I like it. It reminds me of a Plato quote. I'm sure you don't care about Plato, but… yah." Blaine finished, somewhat lamely. He blushed sheepishly at his long, thought out speech and the thick silence that fallowed it.

"What's the quote?" Kurt said quietly, his face soft.

Shocked, Blaine said, "Oh, well if you really want to know…" Blaine shuffled for a moment in his duffle bag, looking through his favorite books which he had thrown in hastily before leaving his room. He extracted "the republic" by Plato.

As Blaine flipped through the pages, Kurt looked over and saw that the book was well- used, hand written words littering the pages surfaces with notes and highlights.

Blaine found that page he was looking for that had the corner bent, and read-

"The men of the cave would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes."

Kurt knew he had intelligence, but he didn't think he could understand that right away, especially while driving.

"And you get what that means?" said Kurt, hoping from some sort of explanation.

"Of course!" Blaine said, and Kurt was startled to hear a definite passion in his voice. "It means that sometimes when things get better, or as you get older, you lose your innocence, which can make childhood and darkness… different. Like… they could never be the same. I don't know, I just love Plato."

Blaine paused, obviously not wanting to bore Kurt, or maybe scare him off with his literate nerdiness, and added irrelevantly with a cough, "I'm starving."

"Oh! God, when my dad hears you haven't eaten in, how long? We're going to have to hold him back from chasing you're parents down. I made the. Most. Fabulous. Lasagna last night, you have to try it."

Kurt was practically jumping with excitement at the prospect of Blaine trying his food by the time they pulled into the driveway, and Blaine thought it was absurd how people could find anything cuter or more wonderful than Kurt Hummel.

At that moment, Blaine had not one thought for his parents, and he was quite glad to stay in that blissful ignorance for as long as possible.

They made their way into the house to find Burt waiting anxiously on the couch. Kurt had hurriedly told him that he had to go pick Blaine up from his lunatic parents and ran out the door without a backwards glance. Burt was not about to wait any longer for a good explanation.

At the sight of the two boys entering the living room, Burt stood up and said to Kurt, "What the hell is going on? You leave here without as much as a goodbye and come back with your boyfriend and looking as though you've been crying? What the hell?"

Kurt looked exhausted as he said, "dad, Blaine's parents were treating him horribly, he hasn't even eaten in two days."

Burt looked at Blaine, his face softening. "They weren't letting you eat?"

Blaine blushed slightly. "Well I mean, I could have if I wanted to, but…I mean…" he felt badgered. He felt as though he had to explain himself for not wanting to be around his parents, and even though Burt had asked him one simple question, he felt unable to answer it without making a fool out of himself.

"He didn't want to face his parents, dad." Supplied Kurt, taking Blaine's hand. He looked over at Kurt and gave a grateful smile.

Burt studied the two boys for a second, and then said "well we can talk about it after Blaine gets something to eat." And he led the two boys into the kitchen.

A lengthy argument between Burt and Kurt ensued on whether Kurt should use the microwave or the oven to heat the lasagna, Burt thinking it was ridiculous to waste so much time preheating the oven and then warming the food.

"Why don't we just make him eat Stouffers!" said Kurt grumpily, but ended up giving in and placing a square of his homemade lasagna in the microwave resentfully.

After they were all sat around the table that was placed in the kitchen, Blaine biting at his food self consciously, Burt spoke up.

"Blaine, I need to know, what are your parents doing to make you so uncomfortable around them?"

Blaine knew it was coming, but that didn't make it any easier.

"Well… uhm." Blaine started awkwardly, regretfully putting his fork down. "Ever since my parents found out I was- I mean I'm-" Blaine found himself unable to say the word "gay" out loud, his previous pride in being part of something seemingly evaporated. He could feel his heart rate quickening at the thought of saying the word out loud, and the fact that Kurt and his father were waiting expectantly for him to finish his sentence was not helping. Blaine felt as though he was about to have a panic attack, but then Kurt grabbed onto his hand on top of the table, and that gave him courage to go on. Blaine took a deep breath, then said shakily "ever since my parents found out I was… gay, they uhm, well they don't talk to anymore. They never say anything to me! It was like I had become some sort of… disgusting…thing, but then two nights ago my father yelled at me, he called Kurt- he called him a thing! So I yelled at my dad and locked myself in my room. I wasn't just going to let him talk about Kurt like that, and I'm sure he would have hit me again if I had-" Blaine was cut off by Burt, who looked stunned.

"Again?"

Blaine seemed to regret his words. Kurt tightened his grips on Blaine's hand, but Blaine did not speak, he just dropped his gaze his plate.

"Blaine…" Burt started tentatively, "is your father hitting you?"

"He's not… he's not hitting me… he just… hit me. It's only happened a couple times." Blaine still kept his eyes on his plate.

After a few long moments, Burt said slowly "Blaine, you know I can't just sit back and do nothing?"

"I know." Blaine said, and he found himself holding onto Kurt's hand like his own sanity that seemed so far away.