“Blaine Devon Anderberry!  You get your carcass right here right now young man!”

Blaine grimaced and opened his eyes.  What was going on?  Why did he hear his mother?

“If I have to come drag you from your room there will be penance to pay!”

Oh… because she was out in the living room apparently by the sounds of things.  

He sat up in bed and, without bothering to throw anything on over his undershirt and boxers, dragged his way out to greet his mother, who had apparently, at some point, entered his home unannounced only to yell at him for god knows what - because there was a list, he was sure.

When he did make his appearance, a letter was tossed at him too fast for him to see where it had come from or for him to react to grab it.  Lucky for him, his mother was all too happy to tell him what it contained.

“You didn't register for your fall classes!  They reimbursed me the tuition!  Care to explain yourself?”

She was fuming, hands on her hips and eyes ablaze.  In moments like this it was not hard to see where Rachel got her fire from.  

He shrugged and leaned down to pick up the letter, holding it back out to her even though she didn't move her hands from where they were situated.  “Explain yourself mister.”

“There's no point in me going… I'm wasting your money and dad's… I don't know what I'm doing there.”

“You don't get to decide if you're wasting our money.  You need an education and you're better off in school discovering what you want to do with your life than waiting tables or stocking shelves.”

Another shrug, “Don't you think that's up to me to decide?”

“Look mister.  I don't know what's gotten into you.  I get that Kurt dumped you and you feel like crap - but it's gone on long enough don't you think?  You're not doing anyone favours, least of all yourself by spending your days in bed and that music room in your underwear that CLEARLY needs a wash.”

He looked down at himself.  Sure there were a few… well… a lot of stains… but who was around to care?

“Your sister has been frantic trying to get you back into the real world son.  It's the most I've seen her care for anything aside from her career, and you just snub her by sleeping all day and tinkering on the piano at night so she can't even sleep.”

He rolled his eyes.  Sure, Rachel had been nagging at him incessantly, but it wasn't like she was innocent either.  Blaine did have to hold a pillow over his ears every time her and Wes went and “got loud” in their own room, and he avoided the day because he had come across them being all cute and cuddly on the couch one too many times.  

“Don't you roll your eyes at me son.  Your dad and I pay your bills.  You will get off your ass and get back to being a respectable young adult.”

Blaine sighed and turned in place, moving to walk back to his room.  “Then kick me out.  I don't really care.”

“Blaine Devon Anderberry - you get your butt back here right now… so help me!”

“Yeah.  Whatever.”

“Did you just…. did you just WHATEVER me son?!”

Oh shit.  Here it came.

His mother raced down the hall after him and flew in front of him before he could get into the safety of his all too cozy bed.  

“Now look here mister.  I don't care if a rabid monkey chewed off your leg and the store only had pink prosthetics - you DO NOT talk to me like that.  I am your mother!”

Blaine just gawked for a minute, jaw hanging slightly unhinged as he tried to process the warped image his mother had used on him before snapping back, “Then make me feel better instead of making me feel guilty!”

Now she gawked, “Blaine!  It has been almost two months!  You need to get on with your life, whatever that may be.  You can not just hide in your room like a child because you don't like what happened!”

“I don't WANT to get on with my life MOTHER.  My life only felt like I was living when HE was with me.”

She rolled his eyes at him, and he felt like he was missing out on some universal bit of sarcasm.  “Please Blaine.  Your life can't just be about one thing only.  Yes, Kurt is and was wonderful, but he can't be the only thing in your life.  No wonder you're floundering.”

“Oh please mother.”  He spat, “Enlighten me, since I'm clearly so inept.”

She sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, patting the space beside her which Blaine sat on with a huff.

“Son, if a table only has one leg and that leg is knocked out from under it - what happens?”

“It falls.”

“Right…. what about a table with four or more legs?”

Blaine shrugged, “It wobbles I guess.”  Was there a point to this?

“Son… if you only build your life on one leg, you end up like this.  The more things you have to hold you up… family, friends, work, hobbies, love, charity… whatever they may be… the stronger you stand.”

“Oh good… well let me just go to the corner store and go grab some of those things!” Blaine said with a roll of his eyes.  She had a point, but it didn't do him a fat lot of good in this moment.

“Son…”  She sighed and set a hand on his thigh, “I know you miss him… but if you really want him back in your life, you need to have a life to offer him… and then some.”

“I don't know how mom…”  Blaine dropped his face into his palms.  “I want to know how… I get that I need to do something… but I don't know what… or even how….”  Eyes full of tears now, he looked back up at his mother, “My heart aches so much it feels like the only way to remedy the pain is to dig it out with something blunt… like a spoon… I'm not saying I'm going to, but that's what it feels like.  I'll look at the piano sometimes and it's like I don't know what it's there for or what to do with it… like I've forgotten how to play…”

“Oh… sweetie…”  She scooted up to him and wrapped her arms snugly around him, letting him rest his face against her shoulder and sob for a moment. “We're going to get through this baby boy… I'll stay on the couch and between me, Rachel, and Wes… we'll help you come back to us.”

That was it.  No longer did Blaine have any time to himself anymore, like he did when Wes and Rachel were out for the day at work or school.  Now his mother, taking a sabbatical from work, stayed with him during the day.  Between them all they made him wake up in the morning, shower, get dressed, shave, do laundry, and yes, even go to school.  Because his mother was a bulldog when it came to her kids, the university allowed Blaine to register for classes late after she “spoke” with them, however, she did let him take a reduced course load for this semester.

“Take anything you want son.. just take something.”

Thinking of Kurt, he enrolled in some music classes and actually found them therapeutic to be in.  Music really was calming to him in a way nothing else had ever been, and it couldn't dump him either so he felt safe with it.

And yes, he did start to feel a little more normal.  It wasn't that he didn't still want Kurt back in his life, or that he didn't miss him, but he started to feel less like an insignificant speck in the universe and more like a person with conscious again.

“You should record that man.”  Wes noted one day as he stepped into the music room to find Blaine scratching notes on a paper as he wrote out a song.

“No one would listen to it…” Blaine hummed, absently recording some notes down and then trying them out on the guitar in his hands.

“I bet Kurt would.”

Blaine sighed and looked over at his friend in the doorway, “And just HOW would I get it to him?”

“Oh Blaine… I would like to introduce you to the 21st century….”  Wes snickered and walked over to Blaine's open laptop, “Where you can self publish books and films and even music to your heart's content.”

“But… what would I even….”  Blaine's mind was motoring… if he could… would it matter?

“You're the music man Blaine… I just tell you if it sucks or not.  Tell you what - I'll help you out and you do everyone a favour and read this….”

Blaine looked over at the screen, eyeing the e-book his friend was pulling up, “The Idiot's Guide to Parenting…. really Wes?”

“You want him back don't you?  Preferably before your balls drop below your knees?”

Blaine sighed, looked down at his guitar, over at Wes, and back to the screen.  Was it worth it?