“Are you fucking kidding me? Like really?”

“Well someone’s happy to see me.”

”Why’re you here?” muttered Kurt.

“I dunno. Maybe because this is the only gay bar in town?”

“Yeah well then what’re you doing here. With us?”

“Santana told me to come.” Kurt snapped his head around to glare at the girl.

 “Of course you did.” he grumbled when Santana grinned at him, then went back to carving up the table with his pocket knife.

“Oh don’t be so grumpy Kurtie. You’re happy to see me aren’t you?”

“I am? What gives you that idea? “

“Because in just a few seconds you're going to leave.”

“And that makes you think I'm happy to see you? I like your logic.”

“Oh come on. Have a soul.”

“Souls are overrated.” Kurt smiled, downed the last mouth of whatever it was he was drinking and walked up to a guy that to Blaine looked… really hot actually. The guy had a good taste in other guys, he had to give him that.

“You sure were right when you told me this was going to be fun.” he said, looking at Santana.

“I’m always right.” she replied, holding her head up proudly.

“But it’s getting a bit boring. I mean he never changes. It’s always the same reaction.”

“Just wait. He’ll lose it soon enough.”

“You better be there when he does, so I can use you like a shield or something.”

“Pussy.”

“Shut up.” Blaine rolled his eyes. “You know I thought he’d be easier to piss off. Like, seriously piss off at least. It’s taking longer than I’d expected.”

“Just wait.” Santana repeated. “He’s on good way.”

“And you wanted me to do this why again?”

“It’s fun. But I’ve done it so many times myself he’s gotten used to my ‘methods’. “

“You’re so fucked up.” Blaine shook his head.

“I'm not?”

“You are. And you’re not telling me everything.”

“I'm not?” she said again.

“No.”

“What am I not telling you then?”

“That’s sort of the point, what aren’t you telling me?”

“You’ll see.”

“See what? You’re telling me or I’m stopping this right now.”

“…Then stop.”

“Fuck you.” Blaine furrowed his eyebrows. Now he was curious.

“Come ooon, tell me!” he groaned and Santana grinned slyly.

“You wanna find out stuff about him right?”

“…Yes.” he admitted. It was weird, but ever since Puck’s party he’d been itching to find out more about the boy. He wasn’t really used to it and didn’t know what to do but just finding out as much about the Skank as he could.

Whish was a little harder than he’d expected, the gang didn’t seem to know too much about him and asking Kurt to his face really wasn’t an option. He was pretty sure it wouldn’t give anything anyway.

Santana had noticed his curiosity and suggested for Blaine to nag and bitch as much as possible until the other boy went insane. And, it sounded like a good way to spend his days to him. He’d thought it’d just be a matter of a day, maybe two, something like that, but apparently he’d been wrong. Blaine had been going on for more than a week now and it was starting to bore him. The things that made him carry on were the times when… things almost seemed like there was a possibility for the two to become something like friends. The first time that happened he’d been too hungover to be one hundred percent sure if it was actually real or if it was just, somehow, his headache screwing with him. But then it happened again and then again and a couple of more times. And Blaine actually… liked that version of Kurt Hummel. Still sharp on the remarks and bitchy comments everywhere, but still… tolerable. And… there was almost something about that Kurt that Blaine felt weirdly safe around. It was more than super fucked, but it was almost like he could identify with him in those moments. Like he could see some part of himself in the other boy when all of his walls weren’t up as strongly and forcefully shut everyone and everything out as usual.

It freaked him out. The fact that he’d found himself sort of liking someone like Kurt of all people –it was really weird, and hard for him to get into his head. But the boy had never been good at not acting on feeling, even though he had no idea in hell what he ‘felt’ towards the other teen, so deep down he knew he wouldn’t stop this whole interrogation thing or whatever you wanted to call it. He knew that he was probably going to start thinking about what Kurt was hiding under all those layers of ‘fuck off’ more than he wanted to in a not too far future. And he knew that he’d do anything to stop it from happening, the same way he knew there wasn’t a way.

  “Then you keep this up.”

“Whatever.” said Blaine, trying to hide the millions and millions of thoughts running through his head.

“Hey there sexy.” whispered a low voice in his hear and he snapped around, his hazel eyes big in… almost horror.

“What the fuck Sebastian!” he pushed the male as hard as he could from the angle he sat in. “You gotta stop doin’ that you freaking jerk.” he muttered when Sebastian juts grinned big at him.

“What’s up?” he asked, taking a seat as close to the shorter boy as possible.

“Nothin’ really.” Blaine said, looking around him. “You here alone?”

“Uh, yeah.” Sebastian said, a little weirdly, Blaine thought.

“Why? Where’s the DDB’s at?”

“The what?” Santana asked with a little snort and Blaine turned to her. He’d forgotten she was there.

“The ‘Dapper Dalton Boys’.” he answered.

“The what?” she repeated, giving him a look.

“It’s just something Blaine here has decided to call my friends at Dalton Academy, my school.”

“…Right.” she said, looking at Sebastian as if he was an alien.

“I’m Sebastian Smythe by the way.” he smiled. “And you are?”

“Out of here.” Santana groaned after making a gesture as if she was about to throw up.

“Wow. Charming.” Sebastian said as he looked after the girl.

“I know. She’s real sweetheart, isn’t she?”

“Good job finding new friends, Anderson.”

“I wouldn’t call her a friend –“

“Then what is she?”

“A… She’s just… the closest I have to a friend right now, I guess.”

“Ouch.” said the taller of the two, hand over his chest. “Thanks for that.”

“You’re so very welcome.” Blaine smiled.

 “So that’s all you’ve accomplished at that new public school of yours?”

“Don’t say ‘that public school’ like it’s a bad thing, Smythe, I’d choose McKinley over Dalton any day. I fucking hate that place.” he said, almost getting angry just by thinking about his old school. “And yes, she’s just about everything I’ve ‘accomplished’, whatever that means.”

“No boys?” Sebastian asked with a little wink.

“Are you kidding? The only other fag there besides me is Kurt, and he’s so out of the question.”

“Oh? And why’s that?”

“Why’s what?” asked a high pitched voice behind them and Sebastian turned around. From the guy’s voice he’d expected some kind of flamboyant little boy, so he was defiantly surprised when the guy standing behind them was about his height, hair dyed pink and if he wasn’t mistaken he wore a number of piercings. His clothes were way passed well-worn but still, weird enough, suited him. He wore a pair of knee-high boots that looked incredibly ridiculous in Sebastian’s eyes, and he knew exactly who the guy was.

“Oh so this is Kurt Hummel?” he asked with a little smirk.

“Uh-hu?” the guy asked, looking as bored as physically possible. “And you are?”

“I’m Sebastian, and probably one of the few guys in America you haven’t fucked.”

“I haven’t. ‘Cause your face makes me wanna barf.” Kurt smiled and Sebastian’s face fell slightly.

“So this boy is the only other rainbow person at McKinley.” he eyed Kurt again. “How are you still going there?” he asked, looking at Blaine with furrowed brows.

“Oh like Dalton would be better? Sure, just about everyone’s gay or ‘bi curious’ at least, but they’re all dapper and… boring.”

“Thank you. So I’m boring?”

“Yeah. You are.” Blaine nodded, then, “C’mere.” he said, waving his fingers to tell Sebastian to come closer. The brunette did as he was told, smiling just before their lips met.

 Kurt shifted slightly as Blaine and the pretty much completely unknown guy started to practically fuck with their clothes on just about a meter away from him. Sebastian, if he remembered correctly, ended up in Blaine's lap, which looked ridiculous. Blaine was after all about half the other teen’s height. Now and then he could see their tongues dance between their lips and it made Kurt… feel a little strange. It wasn’t like he’d never watched people make out before, it was pretty impossible when hanging with Santana and Brittany, and he’d had his share of threesomes. People kissing or whatever in front of him wasn’t new. At all. But there was still something that felt… strange, wrong almost, with what happened in front of him in that moment.

He furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to figure is own head out, then cleared his throat awkwardly before standing up. He walked over to the bar and sat down. Now all he had to do was to wait.

“Can I buy you a drink, hot stuff?” murmured a voice a couple of inches away from his ear and a smirk reached Kurt’s lips. Bingo. He turned around, already creating a little mental image of the owner of the voice. Let’s say he was disappointed when he saw who it was.

“What the fuck Anderson?” he groaned.

“Anderson? Look who’s a douchbag all of a sudden.”

“Get lost.”

“Oh but I am, and I just wondered if you could help me find the way.”

“Where?”

“To your heart.” Blaine said in an almost whisper, waving a hand in front of him like a bad poet. Kurt snorted.

“What happened to that guy you fucked?” he asked when he’d gotten a drink, which had been paid for by Blaine to his irritation. But he had alcohol, so it didn’t really bother him.

“You mean Sebastian? He went home.” Kurt raised an eyebrow. “Asshole school.” Blaine explained.

“He lives at his school?”

“Yeah, most of the time. It’s one of those fancy privet schools ya’ know.”

“And wait,” he shook his head, a mocking smile trying to break its way to his lips. “You went there?”

“…Yeah. Sucks, I know.” Blaine muttered, feeling how he once again almost liked the other’s company.

“That’s not my point. I mean you went there? You? With school uniforms and rules and –“

“I know, shut up. I hated it.”

“Why’d you leave then?”

“Are you kidding me? You practically just gave me the reasons.” Kurt nodded and Blaine prayed for all that’s good that he wouldn’t notice his lie. Or, part lie anyway.

Blaine hated it at Dalton Academy, yes. He hated the uniform and the rules and just about everyone he was forced to hang out with.

He hated that he had to be nice to everyone, hated that everyone was nice to him. Because he knew that more than a few of the guys hated him. He could see it, even when they were smiling and laughing with him.

He rarely lived at the school, but he was sometimes nearly forced to when his mother was hospitalized for a longer period of time. He got in trouble a lot for sneaking out when he did, too, not being able to stand the fancy rooms and furniture and all the overly dapper and nice people there.

He had a little group of friends, the guys that was the least boring. But Blaine still didn’t really like them, because even if they weren’t as boring and fake-nice as everyone else, they were still pretty bad. Or good, too good.

Sebastian Smythe was the exception, his buddy in crime if you will; they knew each other on a… different level. He knew about Blaine’s situation more deeply than the others and often came with him to Scandals. Thad and a couple of others sometimes came with too, but they were still different.

Blaine hated everything about Dalton Academy, but Marcie refused to let him transfer. He was a straight A student, even though you might not believe it, and the Blaine Anderson that existed when he was at the school were an all teachers favorite. Marcie refused to let her son transfer. Her parents gave her the money to pay what it cost for Blaine to go to Dalton. They were more than disappointed in what their daughter had become, and wanted to do everything in their power to keep their only grandchild from becoming the same thing.

But when Blaine became a victim of gay bashing they couldn’t say no to his demand to change schools. Of course the boy wasn’t that bothered by the beatings, he usually managed to fight back pretty well. But one night things got… serious and things had ended pretty bad for Blaine. Things had ended with a hospital bed and twelve stitches, a concussion and two broken ribs more precisely.

The abusers had been a gang of six guys, five of them from the school, two who Blaine had been close to actually call friends. They had just been better at the whole ‘acting like a saint’ thing than the others. He hadn’t been able to see through them and spot the hate that boiled up more and more for every passing day.

And so, after being stuck at Dalton for a little more than the semester out, the paper work was finally done; Blaine Anderson was finally a student at a normal, public, school. No school uniforms, no fake niceness, no strict ass rules. He could act however he pleased and he barely had to pay attention in class and still be able to stay up in all A’s.

He wasn’t bothered with the homophobia that existed at McKinley. It was mostly just lame football players that had nothing to do with their lives. He like that it someone had a problem with who he was, they sure didn’t hesitate in telling him so. They didn’t fake a smile towards him then follow him home and beat him unconscious and leave him to die. They acted out whenever they felt like it and the worse he’d had to face so far had been a punch to the gut, and that guy hadn’t left too healthy himself.

Of course things were different when it came to Kurt. That guy knew his way around beating people. They were pretty close to each other in ‘fighting skills’, both obviously having had to face enough violence aimed toward them for a lifetime.

  “Well. I’m bored.” Blaine sighed. “Goin’ home.” he said, having no idea what time it was.

Kurt did something that looked a little like he was shaking himself awake, standing up himself.

“That actually sounds like a good idea.” he nodded, mostly to himself. “This place’s really the same all the time. Sure I won’t miss anythin’.”

The two walked out of the dim building together, parting ways without goodbye’s as Kurt went to his pick-up and Blaine to his motorcycle. Only the shorter of them faced a little problem when he tried to start up his ‘baby’.

“Oh come on. What the fuck is the problem now?” he groaned when the engine wouldn’t react when he tried to start it up.

“Come on, come on, come one.” he repeated in a mantra, but it wouldn’t do anything. His baby wouldn’t move.

“And now how am I supposed to get home?” Blaine said to himself as he looked around him. An idea popped into his head and maybe it was completely ridiculous but he had no other options.

“Kurt!” he jelled, jogging over to the old car, hoping the driver wouldn’t just laugh in his face. 

“Listen,” he said before Kurt could say anything. “My bike won’t start and I really don’ feel like walkin’ home and leaving her here… You think you could maybe –drive us home? I can sit back with her if that’s a problem.” Blaine added quickly when he saw the ‘no’ written over the other boy’s face.

“Come on?” he pleaded.

“…Fine.” Kurt muttered, wrinkling his eyebrows slightly as if he was surprised by his own answer.

“Awesome! Thank you.” Blaine smiled faintly and jogged back to his motorbike, getting ready to lead it up on the pick up’s rear. Only there was no ramp to lead it on, he realized as soon as Kurt had backed the car closer to him. Now what?

“We’ll just have to lift it.” Kurt stated as he hopped out of the pick-up.

“Lift it?” he asked, a little amused by how easy the other made it sound. “Sure.”

“What? I’m sure we’ll be able to pull it off somehow if we do it together, right?”

“I guess.” He felt a little… happy at how easily Kurt said it, like of course they could work together. No problem. What was up with him?

  After a lot of groans, muscle work and cussing, the bike was finally where it should be. Blaine clapped his hands together and put one foot up on of the wheels to help himself get up on the rear too. He had said himself that he’d ride there if he had to. A hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“Don’t be a dumbass.” Kurt said. And for a second Blaine could’ve almost sworn he’d seen a little smile in his blue eyes. Blaine didn’t argue. Why would he? So instead he walked over and opened the door to the passenger seat.

“You sure?” he asked before he could stop himself.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kurt said with a little eye roll that made Blaine feel incredibly stupid.

What the heck was that? ‘Are you sure’? Like this was some kind of big step or something? What is with you?

  “So, where do you live?” Kurt asked and Blaine numbly gave him the right directions. His mind, though, were somewhere else. He didn’t know where it came from; it just felt like something wasn’t right, like something wasn’t at all as they should.

“Could you drive faster?”

“Nope.” He looked over at the driver. “What? It’s a freakin’ miracle she still even runs at all. So I'm not pushing her to go faster than needed.” he said and Blaine made a sound that came out sort of like a mix-up between a snort and a chuckle.

“What?”
“Nothing.”

Nothing. That was really it. It was nothing. But still he felt like it was something. Whatever ‘it’ was. He had no idea, just knew he liked it.

“Mom?” Blaine called. “Mom what are you doing?” He practically ran up the stairs when he heard the sound of crossed glass being moved around.

“Mom!” he threw open the door to his mother’s room and let out a sigh in relief.

“Blaine! Hi sweetheart!” smiled Mrs. Smythe and Blaine smiled back. Then his brain caught up to what happened and his smile faded.

“Wait what happened? And where’s mom?”

“Oh I'm so terribly sorry…” she sighed sadly.

Blaine nodded, heart sinking as he understood.

“You found her again?” he asked.

“No, actually. She called me.”

“She –?” his hazel eyes widened.

“Yeah, I was just as surprised as you.” Leila nodded.

“So she’s already at the hospital?”

“Yeah. Have been for a couple of hours.”

Blaine could nothing but nod numbly. It hadn’t been long since she got back out. Why did it have to happen again?

“But she’s better than last time.” Leila said with a genuine look on her round face. “Obviously since she actually called, and I think she’d be happy if you came to see her.”

“…Yeah.” Blaine mumbled. He wanted to really badly, but at the same time he wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole in the ground and never come up again.

“You want me to drive?”

“What? Oh no, don’t worry.” he said, waving his hand. “I’ll take my bike.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, of course.” the boy smiled at the woman. “You’ve done more than enough. But I'm home now, so don’t worry about cleaning up the rest, I can take care of it now.”

“Oh no.” Mrs. Smythe shook her head. “Don’t you worry about this, it’s nothing really.”

“I –fine, thank you.” he said, knowing that there was no idea to argue. Leila straightened her back and walked over to the boy she almost saw as a son, gave him a hug and kissed him on the cheek. Blaine hugged her back and with one last smile and a mouthed ‘thank you’, he turned and jogged down the stairs. The faster he could get to his mother the better.

   “On fucking time,” Kurt groaned as soon as he stepped outside. “Nice move just leaving me here without helping me with your bike.”

“Oh.” Blaine said.

“Oh?” the boy rolled his cyan eyes. “That’s all you gonna say? I’m fucking tired. Help me so I can get home already.”

“Yes ehm, ‘bout that…”

“What?” Kurt groaned.

“I’d… really need some more help if that’s okay?”

“More help?”

“Yes. I need to go to the hospital.”
“Why? ‘Cause you know, I'm pretty sure they can’t do anything about your ‘baby’.” Kurt smirked mockingly.

“That’s not it.” Blaine said, not smiling at all.

Kurt tilted his head a little to the side and Blaine hated the way his head thought he looked like a little puppy.

“Then what is it?” he asked, seeing how serious Blaine was being.

“Nothing. I just really need to go there.”

“Tell me or I'm not driving.” Blaine groaned.

Why Kurt? Why do you have to be so freaking stubborn now of all times?

“Fine. Then I’m finding another way.” He wouldn’t tell Kurt about… stuff. Especially not now.

“You jerk.” the teen sighed and rolled his eyes. “I don't know why but fuck it, I’ll drive.” Blaine turned around from where he’d started to walk back toward his house.

“Good. You know the way?”

“I think so.” Kurt shrugged and jumped back into the car.

Thank you Kurt. Blaine smiled to himself.

He felt how his palms got damper and damper against the steering wheel the closer they got to the hospital. He pretended like he didn’t quite know the way, like he’d only been there once or twice and there wasn’t really anything special about it.

But the fact was that Kurt was terrified.

He was terrified to go back to that place.

It’d been years since he’d last been there, he’d avoided it to all costs, and now he was going there voluntarily. Maybe there’d been something weird in his drink or something?

Kurt made a little sound when he saw the sign that told them to take a right to get to the hospital’s parking lot, as to say ‘oh, yeah, I guess we’re there then. I had no idea’.

 “Right.” Blaine said awkwardly once the car was parked.. “Well, thanks I guess.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Kurt managed, though he had troubles breathing.

After another five seconds of the two looking at each other in awkward silence, Blaine nodded and closed the door. He looked after him as he walked towards the big building, expecting him to walk to the main entrance, but to his surprise he didn’t. Instead he kept walking, and turned just in time to get to the entrance where Kurt had been sent once in his life. Where you went if you had something… mentally wrong with you. Or, in Kurt’s case, if the doctors thought you did.

But what was Blaine doing there, though?  Because he seemed… fairly ‘normal’. Okay maybe not normal since there weren’t really such a thing, but at least not screwed up enough to have to go there. But still, if he thought about it, Kurt didn’t really know anything about Blaine. Not more than his name, his looks, where he lived and a few other completely unnecessary things. Like what he liked in a guy and what kind of beer he liked best out of the ones Scandals had to offer.

He got a little curious actually. And Kurt and curiosity had never really been good friends. Just like Kurt and the building in front of him had never been good friends.

“Mommy why’s daddy crying?” asked the little boy.

“Don’t worry about it sweetheart.” answered his mother tensely.

“But I've never seen daddy cry before.” the kid went on stubbornly.

“I know, honey, I know.”

“Then what wrong?”

To this his mother took his little hand and walked him to the kitchen. She placed him on his chair and gave him a glass of milk. The boy grinned happily when she gave him a chocolate cookie.

“Thank you mommy, I love you!”

“I love you too, sweetie.” The smile on the woman’s red lips were loving, yet tense for what she was about to tell him.

“Are you really sure you want to know why daddy’s crying?”

“Mhm!” the young boy nodded his little head, mouth stuffed with milk and chocolate.

“Okay.” she sighed, forcing her lips to keep smiling. She straightened her posture and looked at her son. Her heart became heavy as she looked at him. He was so young and naïve, so happy. It wasn’t right that she’d have to tell him what she was about to tell him.

“Bobmy cob ob!” urged the child, mouth still full. “Teb me!” The woman laughed quietly and she took a final breath deep.

“You know grandma have been real sick lately, right?”

“Uh-hu.” he nodded, his brown hair jumping up and down as he did. “But she’s fine. She told me that when I visited her last week. She told me she was feeling better and that she couldn’t wait to get out of her bed to come to my birthday party next week.” the boy took a deep breath before going back to smiling big at his mother, his big cyan eyes sparkling brightly.

“I know.” she nodded, wishing with every fiber of her being that she didn’t have to tell her son the tragic news.

“Well, earlier today, when daddy was still working, he got a call from the hospital.” Her heart became heavier and heavier for every word leaving her full lips, and her son’s oblivious smile only made it harder to carry on.

“They told him that grandma never woke up this morning when she was supposed to take her medicines” The brunette looked at her son carefully, waiting for the big explosion. The old woman had always meant the world to her son, had always been able to make him smile even when he was the grumpiest.

But the reaction she got was worse than she’d expected.

“Oh mommy, don’t be silly! That’s no problem, granny’s a heavy sleeper, I'm sure that they just didn’t try to wake her hard enough!” the little boy waved his chubby hand, laughing one of the purest children’s laughter the woman had ever heard. She smiled sadly.

“…No.” she shook her head, doing her best not to break. Her mother in law had meant a lot to her too. “They did try hard enough, sweetie.”

“Then what’s the matter?” he tilted his round head to the side, making himself look like a puppy.

“Your grandmother is gone, honey.” she forced herself to say.

“…But… she said she was feeling better?” the boy said quietly after a moment of thinking it over.

“I know. I know. She did. But…”

“No but that’s not right! She was gonna come to my birthday party next week!” the boy protested.

“I know –“

“Then how?” he looked down at the little piece of cookie lying on the table in front of him.

“It’s not fair! It’s not fair mommy!” he yelled.

“I know it isn’t, sweetie, I know it isn’t.” She stood up and walked over to her son, lifting him up in her arms. She was expecting him to start crying as soon as she hugged him, but he remained silent, remained calm and still in her arms. The boy was still in shock, still didn’t believe it.

And who could blame him? He hadn’t even turned six yet.

Kurt shot up in his seat. Fuck. That memory had been way too clear for comfort.

“This is so not cool.” he mumbled to himself, grabbing onto his hair and pulling almost a little too hard. “This is so not cool.”

And it really wasn’t. Remembering was always painful. But remembering something as clear and as strong as he just had, that was beyond painful. It did something to him which was impossible to put into words, made him experience a kind of pain that was such a weird mixture of physical and psychological it was almost impossible for him to handle.

Though he didn’t have much time to think of this before yet another memory snaked its way into his head just before exploding so hard there was no chance to stop it.

 “Dad, where’s mom?” asked the boy, tugging at the man’s jacket arm. The man looked down at his son, eyes dimmed, a lost expression on his face.

“Don’t you worry about that, son.”

“But I wanna see her!” protested the boy. “And I wanna see my brothers!” he smiled brightly.

He’d just arrived at the hospital and was filled with so much excitement it could barely room in his little body.

“Where’s your aunt?” asked his father instead, completely ignoring his son’s happiness and excitement.

“She’s –here?” he said, turning around. “Or at least on her way here.”

The second his aunt had parked her car just outside the big building, he’d been out the car and hadn’t wasted a second. He’d run as fast as his legs could carry him through the hospital, almost getting dizzy by all the white walls and long corridors, to find his mom and dad. He couldn’t wait to meet his new siblings. The boy was so excited.

He was going to be a big brother! And not only to one baby, but to two. His mother had told him so a few months earlier. She was carrying twins. And a couple of weeks later he got new news; he was going to become a big brother to two little boys. He had never looked forward to anything more in his, barely, seven years of living.

“Kathryn!” said the man when he saw her walking towards them.

“Hi.” she said, and the boy looked up at her. She was completely different now. In the car there she’d been excited and smiled with him and answered all the questions she had an answer to. She’d been perfectly fine.  Or at least that’s what he thought. Because there was obviously something she wasn’t telling him. Now all of a sudden his aunt seemed… sad. Like she was barely keeping it together.

“How you holdin’ up Burt?” she asked her older brother after releasing him from a hug.

“Thank you for looking after Kurt this past week. Really appreciated.”

“Oh don’t mention it, I love having him in my home!” she smiled down at Kurt, but he couldn’t avoid noticing that a part of the smile seemed a little forced.

“What’s wrong Kat?” he asked worriedly. “Dad? What’s wrong? What’re you not telling me?”

“Kathryn. Can I to talk to you for a minute?” said the man quietly, once again ignoring his son completely. It made the boy feel uneasy. It wasn’t like his father to behave like this. Actually he hadn’t smiled even once since Kurt found him sitting on a chair in one of the endless corridors. And that made him feel nervous.

“Of course. Kurt, you can just wait here, right?”

“Yeah, sure.” the boy nodded, sitting down on the chair where he’d found his father minutes ago. Kathryn placed an arm around her brother’s broad shoulders and after a last faked smile towards Kurt they turned and walked. The seven-year-old looked as they walked away from him, but as they rounded the corner he got up and sneaked after them, stopping just before he rounded the same corner. He sat down and carefully looked around the wall and the second he did he wished he hadn’t.

His father was sitting on a chair, his head rested against the wall behind it. He held his cap tightly clasped in his hands and his breathing was heavy. His sister was crouching beside him, patting his arm slowly.

There was clearly something very wrong with the whole situation and Kurt wasn’t sure he wanted to know exactly what. Because there were a million different things that could be wrong. He was already having questions before he saw what he did now.

Why wasn’t he smiling? Why wasn’t he with his wife and new born children? Why wouldn’t he let Kurt meet them?

 “What was it that –“

“They don’t know exactly.” said his father. “She was already so weak and giving birth is always hard…” the woman nodded and Kurt could feel his stomach tightening. This sounded wrong. So wrong.

“But the twins are okay?”

The man’s normally robust posture slumped even more and he let out a broken sigh, shaking his head.

“What happened?”

“One of them…” He bent his body forward and buried his face in his hands. “He was already… he came out and he was already –“ his voice broke and Kathryn pulled him into another hug.

Meanwhile, Kurt was sitting behind the corner, hugging his knees, staring into the wall on the opposite side of the hospital corridor. He’d heard everything and he now knew way too much. He understood way more than he wanted to.

He shook his head and gripped his hair with his small hands.

No. No. This couldn’t be true. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t real was it? This was all a dream right? A really, really, bad nightmare, right? A really vivid dream, but still a dream right?

Because there was just no way that this was happening.

This was supposed to be the happiest day in Kurt’s life.

He was supposed to go to the hospital and finally see his siblings for the first time. He was supposed to laugh and smile with his parents as the newborn’s yawned and waved their tiny fist in the air. He was supposed to go home and he was supposed to live his life in bliss and take care of his brothers and learn everything he could for the future, for when he himself was going to become a parent.

This wasn’t supposed to happen! This was so wrong!

This… this wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.