Blaine's side still felt numb as he climbed out of the car. The doctor had injected something into him, and cut the lump out with a scalpel. Simple as that. Practically painless.

But his insides still ached.

He checked his phone again, and let out a sigh at the lack of messages.

"Don't worry, Blaine," his mom said as she unlocked the front door. "It's still early. He just needs time to get used to the idea."

Blaine nodded, but still seemed distracted. Kurt wasn't normally like this, he was usually so calm and mature. Blaine couldn't stop thinking that he must've really shaken Kurt up. He headed straight to his room to take a nap, hoping that when he woke up there would be good news. He opened the door, dropped his bag, and put his phone on the desk before looking up.

And there he was. With a small, sad smile, his head tilted to the side, standing in front of the bed. A bouquet in his hands, his hair a mess, wearing the same clothes as yesterday. Very unusual for him, but he was here. He was back.

"Kurt," Blaine whispered, overcome with relief. He rushed forward and pulled Kurt into a tight embrace. Kurt returned the gesture. He'd been waiting for almost half an hour, biting his nails, trying to think, to organise his thoughts, but it hadn't felt the same until right now. Now Blaine was back it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from Kurt's shoulders, and now he was free to concentrate, to slow the voices in his mind. He noticed the pressure of Blaine's hands on his back, the way Blaine smelt, the way he turned his face into Kurt's neck.

"I'm so sorry," he said, his voice coming out slightly warped by the lump in his throat.

"Oh, I don't care," Blaine replied, a grin splitting his face as he gave Kurt a gentle squeeze. "I'm just glad you're back."

Kurt laughed weakly, sniffed back tears and pulled away just enough to look at Blaine. "How did your hospital appointment go?"

"Fine," Blaine shook his head, still grinning. "Just fine. It's out, they took it out. We'll know for sure I'm clear in a few days."

Kurt couldn't believe it. It was all over so quickly, he'd barely had time to notice. He wondered how much of that was down to not remembering the previous night and his smile slipped off his face.

"What's wrong?"

"I… I have to be honest with you. About where I was last night."

Blaine sensed all kinds of things in Kurt's voice. Regret. Shame. But honesty, too. He stepped back, retracting his arms from around Kurt, convinced that something bad had happened. It had to be something bad, something big, or Kurt wouldn't bother to bring it up. Not now, at least.

Kurt clasped his hands together in front of him, eyes down, unable to bring himself to look at Blaine now Sebastian was all he could think about. "When I left here, I was all over the place. I wasn't thinking straight, and I ended up… I ended up going to Scandals. And… Sebastian was there." Blaine was looking at Kurt like he'd already assumed the worst, so Kurt finished quickly, the words tumbling over each other. "And I was too drunk to drive so he let me sleep at his house and he was on the sofa and nothinghappenedBlaineIpromise."

Silence. Blaine swallowed, his jaw clenching. "Sebastian?"

"Blaine-" Kurt stepped forward, reaching out.

"That bastard." He turned and headed down the stairs, Kurt following close behind.

"Blaine. Blaine, please, nothing happened, you don't-"

"That doesn't mean he didn't try anything." Blaine grabbed his keys and stormed outside. "Where does he live? I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind." He pulled himself into the driver's seat of his mom's car, but Kurt wouldn't let him close the door.

"He didn't do anything, he doesn't matter. He's nothing."

"Where does he live?" Blaine repeated, yelling this time, his face turning red, nostrils slightly flared.

"Blaine, stop it, you're scaring me."

"And you scared me!" Blaine shouted, then deflated suddenly when Kurt recoiled. He leant his head back, breathed out deeply, all traces of anger gone from his face. "I didn't know what to think. He knows how strongly I care about you, he would've known I'd be going out of my mind worrying. You were upset, and with reason. I'm not mad at you. But he had the time and sense to tuck you in but not to call me and tell me where you were? Fuck," Blaine hit the wheel hard, setting off the horn.

"Honey?" Kurt placed his hand on Blaine's forearm. "He stopped me getting into bigger trouble. If he wasn't there I might have tried driving home and that would have ended much worse." They looked at each other and Kurt smiled. He'd left out the point that Sebastian was the only reason Kurt had been able to drink at all, but Blaine didn't need to know that. There had been enough honesty in the last couple of days. "I have to go," he said regretfully. "I'm grounded. Dad's really pissed at me. Well, partly he's pissed at me, partly at the cops. Apparently they're completely useless. Who would've guessed?"

Blaine laughed once and hung his head, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Come here," Kurt said as he smiled and opened his arms.