"Have you ever been camping?" Blaine asked into the thin air.

Kurt did a double take before answering the question. "Yeah, my dad goes fishing a lot. Hygiene aside, it's not terrible. What about you?"

"Yeah. I'm a Boy Scout and the Warbler's have annual camping trips, where we spend time in nature making fires, swimming, and, of course, singing."

"That sounds pretty cool."

"When it's not a hazard to anyone's health."

"Explain?"

"Let's just say that some of the Warbler's are kind of pyromaniacs and last year Thad accidentally set Wes' arm on fire. We had to take him to the emergency room. He was okay, of course, but…"

"Ouch." Kurt said as Blaine nodded in response and a comfortable silence fell over the car.

The chestnut haired boy had forgotten how comfortable he got with a car engine purring and the swirl-crunch-swirl noise the tires made below him.

Out of the silence, Blain spoke. "Yeah, my hair hates the humidity when I spent that much time outside and it frizzes to like twice it's normal size." Blaine chuckled.

Kurt playfully winced. "I sympathize."

"It's awful. At least I wasn't wearing my glasses- then I would have looked even worse."

Kurt cocked his head sideways. "I imagine you looking something like Harry Potter."

Blaine kept his eyes on the road and tried not to smile too hard. His rose- colored cheeks gave him away, though.

"At first, I felt physically dirty not being able to shower everyday, but at the original hospital, they had a rewards system and hot showers were one of the rewards. I used to religiously use all these beauty products, but aside from shower things, I'm not allowed to wear anything at Green Meadows. At first it sucked not having all the latest fashions and my beauty products, but after the initial shock, it wasn't too bad… I don't mind much anymore." Kurt confessed, not really sure where the words coming out of his mouth were coming from.

Blaine nodded, as Kurt looked down at his feet and nervously thumb wrestled. Kurt scolded himself for sharing such intimate thoughts with a person outside of a hospital or Green Meadows, but he noted how relieved he felt once he said it.

Blaine nodded, focusing on the road, as an excuse to not reply- he wasn't sure what to say and he didn't want to say anything 'wrong'.

Kurt looked out the window again and noticed that they were passing the Lima Walmart on the outskirts of the town.

The car slowed as they approached a red stoplight and Blaine turned to look at Kurt in the eye. "Is it… weird being here again?" the raven- haired boy asked.

"Nerve-racking." Kurt confessed.

The word said it all.

"The light turned green." Kurt notified Blaine, whose eyes whipped back to the road.

Finally, the car pulled into the coffee shop parking lot. The two boys stepped out of the car and headed towards the entrance and as they walked, they stepped closer and closer together. Their shoulders brushed as they arrived at the door. Blaine quickly grabbed the door and opened it for Kurt.

Kurt blushed as the smell of decent coffee over-powered his senses.

"This smells so fucking good." Kurt confessed, as he took a deep breath and allowed the aroma of coffee to fill his lungs.

Blaine nodded, even though he couldn't comprehend how long Kurt had gone without specialty coffee and without seeing the outside world.

Blaine stepped up to the counter and the barista look at him. "Your regular, Blaine?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you, Lyn... Also, whatever he wants." Blaine signaled to Kurt.

Kurt shot Blaine a nervous look and Blaine nodded his head with a smile.

"I'll have a medium, not-fat mocha, please." Kurt looked at the barista, who he vaguely recognized, and he wondered if she did as well. Looking at the blank expression on her face, he assumed that she did not and the chestnut- haired boy sighed with relief.

The barista handed Blaine his drink and the raven-haired boy took a large, quick sip.

"What's your usual drink?" Kurt asked curiously.

"Medium drip… Well, it was a late, then my coffee addiction became rather expensive, and…"

"Even though you're a prep school boy?" Kurt asked, as the barista handed the chestnut- haired boy his coffee and he said his thanks.

"My parents can afford private school for me and family vacations wherever in the US and Europe every few years, but money is not bottomless and I am expected to have a summer job. They expect me to quote pull my weight unquote." Blaine explained.

It was Kurt's turn to nod, but not fully understand.

Blaine walked over to a table, his usual, though Kurt did not know it, and sat down. Kurt followed and took a seat across from his new friend.

"So tell me about your family." Kurt said and took a long sip of his coffee. He let out a moan of appreciation as his mouth watered- he didn't realize how much he missed his non-fat mochas.

"My parents divorced and both re-married. I have a little sister, Bonnie, on my mom's side. She is the most adorable thing ever."

"Sorry about your parents."

"Don't be." Blaine shrugged. "After the nasty divorce when I was eleven, I don't want to see them together ever again." Blaine chuckled dryly. "What about you?" Blaine asked cautiously and curiously.

"My mom died when I was young. Then, my dad remarried this woman named Carol who he met through me, because I go to school with her son, Finn. It's been hard, because Finn loves sports, cars, and girls, and I imagine that is the kind of son that Bur—my dad would want. I mean, I'm gay, I like fashion, beauty products, and I'm not a fan of most sports—it hasn't been easy on either of us."

"Last summer, my dad has us rebuild this old car together. He said that it was so we could have quality time together since I spent so much time at mom's during the school year, but I think that it was just an attempt to 'straighten' me out." Blaine winced.

Kurt reached his hand across the table and put it on Blaine's. He noted the warmth of Blaine's hand and remembered how much he liked comforting bodily contact that the hospital had policies against. "That's got to be hard."

Blaine looked up wearily as he whispered a, "Thanks."

"My dad has never held it against me that I'm gay—I think that it's more that were completely different people. Then, he met Carol and Finn, and it feels like he replaced me and my mom—how could he just forget about her like that?" Kurt could feel his heart pounding from his chest, to his head, to his fingers."

This time, Blaine took his hand and put it on top of Kurt's. "It's not the same, but when my parents both re-married, I thought that they had betrayed the other and betrayed me. Before Bonnie was born, I thought that my mom was replacing me with this new family. Then, this little wide- eyed girl grabbed my finger and wouldn't let go, and she showed me something about innocence and love."

"It sounds like Bonnie is the apple of your eye."

"She is." Blaine laughed. "I like to play Disney covers for her, too, but not when Sal is around—he's been known to make snide comments about it being 'faggish'."

Kurt winced. "People's ignorance never ceases to amaze me."

"Me either."

Kurt took the last sip of his coffee and looked back down.

"You ready to go?" Blaine asked.

Kurt shrugged, as Blaine stood up and tucked in his chair. Kurt did the same and followed Blaine out of the cafe.

"Is there anywhere else that you would want to go?" Blaine asked.

Kurt shook his head, "No- and even if there were- I don't think that I could handle it. I don't think that anyone back at school or home could, either. I'd just be that 'gay kid that went crazy' and not once would they look at themselves and see that they are too and that they are part of the reason that I broke down. I mean, I have a predisposition because of genetics and physiological factors, but still…" Kurt faded out.

"When- when these guys beat the shit out of me and my date after this dance- I thought that I was going to go crazy. At first, I blamed it on the delirium because of all the painkillers that I was on, but then I started having nightmares about it and symptoms of PTSD... I don't know how I handled it."

Kurt looked over at Blaine. "How did you handle it?"

Blaine shrugged. "Therapy and medicine played a huge factor, but honestly, Dalton saved me."

"They don't beat you up there?" Kurt asked, his eyes wide and slightly in shock.

"They have a strict anti-bullying policy and I joined the Warblers, who are kind of like rockstars." Blaine kept his eyes on the road as he drove.

"That's… really cool." Kurt took in everything that Blaine said. Blaine's words gave Kurt hope and Kurt realized that maybe he and Blaine were more similar than either of them could have thought.

Blaine took his hand that wasn't on the steering wheel and took Kurt's hand in his. "Remember that you are courageous for battling everything that you have, remember that you are not your disorder, and always remember to have courage." Blaine smiled at Kurt, who couldn't help but smile back.

Blaine pulled up to the gate, handed the guard his ID, and offered his name and purpose of visit before being let through. He drove down a long driveway and stopped at a parking lot. The two boys got out and walked shoulder to shoulder into Green Meadows.

They walked through the lobby, where Blaine signed in, and then made their way back upstairs.

They arrived to chaos.

"Have you seen Jason McConnally?" A nurse asked Kurt.

Kurt shook his head. "No, I just got back, sorry."

Kurt turned his head to see a frail blonde sitting cross-legged on a sofa, looking at nothing and everything.

"Hey, Lily." Kurt looked at his friend.

"Hi Kurt."

"Can you tell me what's going on?"

"Yeah, Jason McConnally went missing. They have been looking for him for the past three hours. I don't think that they will find him."

Kurt shook his head, "Me neither."

"People disappear and you guys accept it just like that?" The raven- haired boy asked in disbelief.

"It happens. People leave. Sometimes they escape; sometimes they get transferred; sometimes someone comes and takes them away. Usually, you never see the people who you meet in here again. So they tell us. Rarely, you do. It just happens." Kurt looked Blaine dead in the eye.

Blaine didn't know what to say. He had never experienced something like this before. Of course, he supposed, neither had Kurt or Lily before they came to Green Meadows Psychiatric Hospital.