"Your brother's cute."

Blaine spun around and lost his footing toppling over and hitting the ground hard. He winched as hit his elbow against the door.

"Oh my gosh! I keep doing that!" Kurt rushed forward and knelt down in front of Blaine, hands hovering over him. "Are you okay?"

Blaine stared at him wide-eyed and nodded.

"I don't mean to scare you. Really. I just... I just want to talk to you. Are you okay?" Kurt looked at Blaine, eyes big and blue and lovely.

Blaine nodded again.

"Are you ever going to say anything to me?" Kurt asked with a little smirk.

Blaine gulped and then slowly held out his hand, "I'm Blaine." he said, doing his best to keep his voice from shaking.

Kurt glanced at his hand momentarily before a wide smile spread across his face. He didn't take Blaine's hand but instead clasped his own in front of himself excitedly. "I'm Kurt!"

"I know who you are." Blaine answered letting his hand drop and feeling a little steadier. He stood to his feet and braced himself against the wall. His legs still felt a little wobbly. He was talking to a ghostafter all.

A ghost of someone he'd seen killed. A ghost that lived in his house. Blaine watched Kurt rise to his feet as well. A ghost that was absolutely stunning.

Kurt was wearing dark jeans, that fit him perfectly, a dark gray vest that made him look slim and tall, over a crisp white henley with its sleeves rolled up showing off his amazing biceps. To finish it off he wore a broach with several small keys dangling from it.

While Blaine could appreciate his impeccable clothing, what he really couldn't keep his eyes away from was Kurt's face. Light skin with a soft speckling of freckles, perfectly swept up hair framing his face, high cheek bones, stunning blue green-eyes and lovely pink lips that had Blaine leaning forwards slightly.

"Are you alright?" Kurt asked, and Blaine realized he'd been staring.

"What?"

"Are you okay? You look a little flushed and I don't want you to pass out or anything."

Blaine stood for a moment unmoving before he came back to himself, "Yeah. Yes. Fine. I guess... considering."

"Considering that you're talking to a ghost?"

Blaine smiled, "Well, at least you know. And I don't have to convince you, or explain why I'm freaking out a little."

"Oh I know." Kurt sighed, "And actually you are doing remarkably wellnotfreaking out. The last people I talked to kind of high-tailed it out of here."

"Yeah, I heard about that." Blaine said and started walking towards the living room. Was he actually feeling comfortable talking to a ghost? Maybe, but he still needed to sit down.

Kurt followed him into the next room, luckily not walking through any walls or doing something that would have been equally disturbing. .

"Plus, you seem like a nice ghost," Blaine said sitting down on the couch, his legs still a little unsteady."A friendly one. Like Casper."

Kurt smiled, "That's funny because people use to call me Casper."

At Blaine's confused look Kurt gestured to his face, "The pale skin? That and Porcelain." Kurt glanced down at the newspaper articles still littered over the coffee table. "You've been doing your research."

Blaine who'd been staring at Kurt again, quickly gathered the papers and put them back in the folder, "Sorry about that." He said as the words, ' throttled to death' caught his eye.

Kurt's hand rubbed lightly against his pale throat, "It's not like it's something I don't already know." he said looking pensive.

Blaine's heart clenched in his chest, he realized he didn't like Kurt looking sad. He wanted to do something to bring the smile back to his face.

Blaine patted the couch cushion next to him and nodded Kurt towards it. Kurt looked at him indecisively for a moment before sitting down next to him, nervously straightening his brooch.

"Actually you are strangely okay with this, with me, that is." Kurt said, "I've been too nervous to talk to you, I didn't want someone else to move out... and I... I didn't want to mess this up." Kurt stoped his fidiling and looked at Blaine, "Why are you so calm right now?"

Blaine didn't have and answer for that. It wasn't that Blaine wasn't afraid, it was just that he wasn't afraid of Kurt. He didn't know why, or how to explain it. Instead he smiled and said, "I have no idea. Maybe I am in shock and will have a breakdown latter."

Kurt's face paled and he looked at Blaine seriously, "Please don't."

Blaine laughed a little, "I'm joking."

Kurt nodded, but didn't seem convinced. Blaine was desperate to break the tension in the room and to get Kurt to smile again, "So wait. You think Cooper is cute?"

Kurt who had started nervously twisting his fingers together, looked up at him and laughed. Blaine thought it might be the best sound he'd ever heard.

"Yes. Sorry, but he is cute. He reminds me of this guy who use to be in these commercials when I was in highschool. That guy was hot."

"Free Credit Rating Dot Com. Slash savings!" Blaine sang out and smiled. "That's my big brother Cooper alright. I use to be incredibly jealous of him and those stupid commercials."

Kurt's eyes widened and then he clapped his hands together and laughed, "I can't believe a celebrity was in my house!"

Blaine smiled, ignoring the awkward 'my house' comment, just happy to see Kurt's mood lighten.

"And you sang that jingle really well Blaine, you have a great voice." Kurt continued, a slight color rising to his cheeks. "I saw all the instruments upstairs in the bed... in your music room." A slight shiver when through Kurt, but he keep going, "Are you a musician?"

"Yeah, that's why I moved to California. I am composing some music for a movie. It's not a big deal, but I really love it." Blaine thought it was strange how not strange it was to talk to Kurt. It felt easy and relaxed.

If he had ever imagined talking to a ghost, normal conversations about his brother or his music wasn't something he would have thought to put high on the topic list. But it wasn't like there was "How To Talk To Ghost For Dummies" book, so he just went with it.

Kurt was excited about Blaine's music, assuring him it was a big deal and asking all kinds of questions about where he was from ("I can not believe we are both from Ohio!", which was news to Blaine since it hadn't come up in any of the articles), his job and where he went to college.

When Blaine mentioned New York, Kurt bounced up and down in his seat. "I love New York. I always planned on moving there after Highschool, but Seb didn't want..." Kurt didn't finish the thought, but instead glanced nervously upstairs.

Blaine hated to bring it up, but fear was settling in his stomach, cold and heavy, he had to ask, "Is he up there?"

Kurt looked back at him. "Excuse me?"

"Is Sebastian," Blaine grimaced when he said his name, "Is he up there?"

Kurt shook his head and answered quietly, "No. He isn't. He's not here. Thank god."

"So does he... just come back at night?" Blaine really didn't want to talk about what happened here at night, but even though he felt so at ease with Kurt, his skin prickled at the thought of Sebastian walking around his home.

"No." Kurt said resolutely, "He isn't here. He's gone. He's been gone for years."

"But-"

"He's gone." Kurt said with a look of determination on his face, "You don't have to worry about him. And I... I just don't want to talk about him. Please."

Hearing Kurt say please made Blaine's stomach roll uncomfortably. Kurt's face had a hard edge to it, but his eyes looked sad, like he was about to cry.

"I'm sorry Kurt. We won't talk about it." Blaine said and moved his hand to lay in on top of Kurt's, but instead it just went right through him. Blaine stared at his hand dumbly before looking back up at Kurt. He had a small wistful smile on his lips and was wiping at his eyes catching any tears before they fell.

Kurt took a deep breath and then put on a fake smile, "Tell me more about living in New York." he said.

So Blaine did. Blaine told him about the best places he'd found for coffee, about how he loved long walks in Central Park and how he was going to miss the snow in the winter. They talked for hours settling comfortly on the couch and facing each other.

They talked about music and Broadway and crazy people on the subway. Blaine kept talking and listening to Kurt gush about the things he loved until the smile on Kurt's face was real again. A smile made Blaine feel at home.

After a while Kurt stood up and glanced around the room nervously. "I have to go now."

Blaine stood up too and was surprised to see how late it was. They'd been talking for hours. "Go where?" Blaine asked.

"Just go." Kurt shrugged and dug his hands into his pockets, looking down at his feet. "Thank you Blaine."

"Thanks for what?"

"Talking to me. It has been so long." Kurt took in a shaky breath, "Too long since I've had someone to talk to."

"I enjoyed talking to you Kurt." Blaine said taking a small step towards him.

Kurt looked up with a sweet smile on his lips, his eyes wide with hope. "I'll talk to you again latter?"

"You will?" Blaine asked, surprised that he felt so relived. "Good! I mean. Yes, great. Good."

Kurt laughed and shook his head a little as if in disbelief, before turning and walking out of the room. When Blaine reached the hallway Kurt was gone.

That night Blaine was able to fall asleep thinking of Kurt's smile and voice and sweet laugh. Sometime after one o'clock however, Blaine woke up. He could smell roses in the air.

His stomach tightened, but he made himself get out of bed and walk down the hall. He could hear familiar sounds coming from the music rooms. Creaking and pleas and swearing.

Blaine peeked open the door and saw the candles and the fire in the fireplace and the antique four-post bed in the middle of the room. Sebastian was rocking back and forth and Kurt's was kicking and scrambling to get free as he let out a garbled cry of fear.

Blaine slammed the door closed again and ran back to his room. Closing and locking his door before he threw himself back on the bed trembling until he heard the gunshot ring out. Blaine, who until he'd moved into this house didn't cry often, cried bitterly into his pillow. He always ran from things. He felt like he'd let Kurt down. He felt like a coward.