Darren walked out of Kurt's room, jumping when the countertenor slamed the door violently behind him. He sighed and ran his fingers through his messy hair.

"Dammit", he cursed under his breath, approaching the door, "Kurt ?", he knocked once, softly, "Kurt, please, hear me out..."

He bit his lips.

"Please, Kurt, you have to understand -"

"Understand ?", Kurt's voice came from the other side of the door, "Losing a parent is one of the worse things anyone could experience, and you want me to understand why you didn't prevent this from happening to Sam ?"

Darren squeezed his eyes shut, leaning against the wall.

"Okay, no, not understand... but it... it wouldn't have changed anything, Kurt, there was nothing the doctors could do, and at least Sam got to spend his last moments with her completely normally, happily even -"

"He didn't get to say goodbye. Just like I didn't get to say goodbye to my mother. I wish... I wish someone had told me when it would happen, so I could at least have that."

Darren repressed a sob, wanting nothing more than to go inside the room and comfort Kurt.

"Just, please, go away... no need to act like a couple when there's no one around. We'll leave in an hour. Be ready or I won't wait for you."

Darren nodded before remembering that Kurt couldn't see him.

"I'm sorry, Kurt. I really am."

Kurt didn't answer. The only sounds coming from the room where muffled sobs. Darren took a deep breath and headed for the kitchen, pouring himself some coffee.

He hadn't wished to be back in his body that bad since the moment he realized what had happened after the accident. Actually, just a minute with Chris would've sufficed – for the present situation, that is, because seriously, all the time in the world would not be enough to learn everything there is to learn from Chris – since he knew Kurt by heart and would've been able to tell exactly what Darren had to do. Maybe if he fell asleep...

Dammit, the dream !

Darren almost knocked down a chair on his hurry to go back to Kurt's room. He paused once he had reached the door, rapping his fingers against the wood hesitantly.

"Kurt ?"

Darren moved closer, but didn't hear any noise inside.

"There's something I need to tell you... I, ehm... I had a dream, and it... wasn't a dream, actually...", he paused, "I talked to Blaine..."

The moment he said Blaine's name, he heard quick footsteps and the door opened, revealing a red-eyed Kurt, his expression blank. He looked positively terrifying... and also hot, but no, no I did not just think that.

"What ? And you just... forgot to mention it ?"

"I'm sorry... I only forgot because of all that's been going on -"

"Less apologizing, more explaining. What do you mean you talked to Blaine ?"

Darren was relieved to see Kurt looked at him with a little less anger than before. Well... maybe ?

"... right, I need to check something first."

He walked towards 'his' side of the bed, grabbing Blaine's backpack, taking out the copy of Harry Potter.

"Hey, careful with that, Blaine loves this book more than anything -"

"- I know, it's signed. He told me."

Darren turned the pages straight to the 394th. There, in the corner, was the drawing of a werewolf.

"Why are you laughing ?", Kurt asked, moving closer

"It's nervous. It was really him. Oh my God, this is wonderful. It was really Blaine, I didn't dream about him... look, he told me to check on this exact page, because you had drawn a werewolf on it !"

Kurt looked at the page and smiled sadly.

"Yeah, I remember that... how can you be sure that it's not Blaine's... I don't know, something in his body, a part of his mind that's still there, that tricked you ?"

"I can't, but I sure hope not... he told me something else though, and by tomorrow we'll be completely sure."

Kurt sat down on his bed.

"Is he okay ?"

"He seemed all right. He misses you."

Kurt smiled to himself.

"So how do I get him back ?", he asked

"It's a little complicated – but basically, we have to do something that threatens our lives simultaneously. Like jumping off a cliff or..."

"Or another car accident. But that would be too dangerous ! Imagine if one of you dies, what happens ? Does one of you get stuck in the wrong world... forever ?"

"I guess so..."

Kurt shivered at the thought and Darren sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder – but the younger boy pulled away immediately.

"Don't. I'm only talking to you right now because I want Blaine back."

Darren bit his lip.

"You should go take a shower, we'll be leaving once you're ready."

Kurt's voice was cold and made Darren wish he could turn into a mouse and hide in a hole.

"So I told Darren we'd figured a way to switch back. And he... he had a lot of rather dangerous ideas."

"He always does...", Chris said fondly, "I can't count how many bruises I've had because of one of his crazy plans."

Chris smiled, repressing a yawn, which made Blaine realize that it was still the middle of the night, and that even the black coffee wasn't enough to keep them fully awake through the whole day.

"We should probably go back to sleep... we have a lot of thinking to do tomorrow. I mean, later today."

Chris chuckled.

"What ?", Blaine asked, confused

"Darren does that too. Thinking of a day as the 24 hours that pass between two midnights."

Blaine frowned.

"Isn't it how you count days ?"

"For me a day is... the time in-between sleeping periods. Whether it's from noon to four in the morning, or... you know, more decent times."

"So, in that logic... what is right now ?"

"... intermission ?"

Blaine giggled and got up, putting their two mugs in the dishwasher.

"Okay, if you say so... but anyways, it's time to go back to bed !"

Chris nodded and followed Blaine back to the bedroom, quickly taking off his pants before laying down on the bed.

"I should come crash here more often, seriously, Darren's mattress is a hundred times more comfortable than mine."

Blaine smirked, his back to Chris. It's so ON ! Oh God, I wish I could stay just to see them happen...

"You never go watch movies at your place ?"

"Sometimes... but I don't know, Darren's got more DVDs than I do. And a bigger fridge. But... I'm a better cook. So, yeah, it depends."

Blaine smiled and sat down on the bed.

"We always hang out at Kurt's place. Except when we know for sure my folks won't be there."

Chris sat up against the headboard.

"You mean they're not very... accepting ?"

"My mum doesn't care. It's not as if she was... okay with it or anything, she just... doesn't care. When I told my parents about me and Kurt, my dad almost choked on his food, but didn't say anything. He didn't even look at me. And my mother... she asked me to hand her the salt."

Thinking back on it, it could've been much, much worse. He'd never had a boyfriend before, and it wasn't as if he had talked about his former crushes to his parents, since anything even remotely related to his sexuality was never brought up at home. Which meant he had had absolutely no idea of what there reactions would be.

"Oh", Chris said, before patting the empty space beside him in a silent invitation, "And how do they... act around Kurt ?"

Blaine moved to sit against the headboard, bringing his knees close to him, repressing a snort.

"Oddly enough, as much as we try to avoid contact, my mother is very nice to him whenever they run into each other by accident. She likes him a lot. She's an interior designer, and they once spent an hour discussing the pros and cons of the different shades of grey. She just never makes a mention of us being together. But she's not denying it either. My dad, on the other hand, refers to him as 'your friend'. You should've seen his face when he came back home once and Kurt was fixing something on my car... it was priceless. At first he thought it was some kind of joke, so he tried to test him and asked very specific questions about the engine. Kurt was... he was truly wonderful. He answered each and every one of them with a big bright smile on his face."

Chris smiled.

"Yeah, I can see him do just that. Oh, and that makes me think – how did Burt react ? Threatened you with his shotgun ?"

It was Blaine's turn to smile.

"No, he didn't. Finn did, but Burt was a lot nicer. Actually, the announce was... unplanned."

His smile grew wider at the memory.

"Come on, tell me !", Chris said, excited as 'usual' to find out more about Kurt's life, "We didn't get to see it on screen !"

"We were... in Kurt's bedroom, with Finn and Puck. At that point of the conversation, we had started talking about sports, and at first Kurt tried to keep up, but since he fell asleep after the two first minutes of most of the games this season, he just curled up on my side, all cuddly and all. We were so caught up in the conversation that we didn't even hear Burt and Carole coming back home. And of course, Carole opened the door, to ask if Puck and I were staying for dinner, at the exact same moment Kurt had chosen to kiss me... oh my God, I thought I was going to die. We blushed so hard, and Puck and Finn were laughing like idiots. Carole asked if she could talk to us in private so we left the room, and she... she hugged us, she was so happy I thought she was going to cry. She said it was about time, and when we told her it had been a month already she reprimanded Kurt for not telling her sooner."

Chris was smiling brightly, eyes shining.

"Then we... well, we were in the corridor outside of Kurt's room, you know... and Burt came upstairs, and when he saw the three of us talking together and Carole almost crying, he asked what was happening. I hadn't been that stressed since my audition for the Warblers."

His eyes widened at the memory.

"Kurt took my hand, and it took all I had to stay there, smiling and dapper and all and not to run away with him. He said 'Dad, I have something to tell you. Blaine and I, we're together.' and it made me feel so proud, it felt just... I don't know, it felt just right. The smile on my face wasn't fake anymore. Burt simply sighed, he gave us the usual 'Be careful' speech, told us to respect each other and... be prepared for the crap we might get everyday. He also shook my hand, and... well, I thought he was going to try and crush my bones or something, but he didn't, it was just a normal handshake, and he was smiling at me. Kurt was shocked, he told me he was expecting some anger or something. Burt said that it was not exactly a surprise, and that, like Carole, he wished we hadn't waited so long to tell them."

He took a deep breath as Chris wrapped his arm around his shoulders.

"I wish... I wish my parent were like that. I thought, maybe, in a perfect world... they'd be happy for me... or the complete opposite, that they would, like, forbid me to see him... but no, nothing."

Chris sighed. Blaine turned his head and looked at him.

"Is... how did your parents react to your coming-out ?"

"They're very accepting and very supportive of me. They said they suspected it. And yeah, it doesn't make a difference to them whether I prefer to be with boys or with girls, they just want me to be happy with whomever I wanna be."

Then it hit Blaine.

"So... where are you from exactly ? Wait – how old are you ? Did you go to college ? Do you have like, brothers and sisters ? Do you go back home often ?"

Blaine couldn't stop the flow of questions that escaped his lips once he realized he knew nothing about Chris' personal life. The actor smiled and Blaine hoped that he would not give him just the 'interview answers'.

"I come from Clovis, in Cali. Not a very big city, but it's... a nice looking place. The inhabitants weren't exactly nice to me. At all. That was before I became a star, that is", he snorted, then shook his head, "Oh, and I'm turning 21 next May."

Blaine's eyes widened.

"I'm... surprised, Darren's 24, Cory's 29, the others look so much older than their... characters... in my world... Wait, doesn't that make you, like, the youngest ?"

"... it does. The worst part being that I still can't drink alcohol. So when everyone hangs out, in a club or a bar, I'm often rejected. Or I sit alone with my Diet Coke. I love my Diet Coke."

Blaine smiled sympathetically. It was hard to believe that Chris was that young. He seemed much more down to earth than any other twenty-year-olds Blaine knew – and his cousin was majoring in biology in Harvard, total buzzkill – much more mature too. Actually, if it wasn't for his physical appearance or his taste for awesome sci-fi t-shirts, he would've sworn Chris was older than Darren.

"Must be weird for you then... I mean you thought you were done with high school, and just when it's over... bam, three more years."

"Yeah, well... in some ways Kurt has it better than I did. Though in others... it's much, much worse."

Blaine looked back to Chris, whose eyes remained glued to his hands. So... his portrayal of a bullied Kurt was not completely improvised, then. And the look on his face when we watched that Whatever Kissed - no ? - episode... I was right.

"I've received so many fanmails telling me that I was helping them go through their own bullying, some even stood up to their bullies... I don't mind sharing my story with those people. What I truly hate is when the journalists try to turn me into that helpless victim – yes, high school was Hell for me, more than it is for most people. No, I didn't cut myself or tried to commit suicide. Yes, I have found myself crying alone in my room, but never for more than a minute."

"... what do you mean ?"

"Whenever I felt like crying because of what the others did to me, when it was just not bearable anymore... I only allowed myself to cry for one single minute. High school is just a small part of your life. You get through, then it's over, and you can chose to never think about it again. It's not some permanent illness. I'm not a fool, I knew I'll find myself confronted to other bullies later in life, but never something as bad as high school. Some people are faced with much harder fates. Put things into perspective, and you'll always find yourself in a better situation, believe me."

Blaine realized he was crying when the tears fell down from his cheeks to his knees, the wet sensation tickling him. Chris was so strong.

How he wished he could've done the same thing...

How he wished he was as strong as Kurt, going back to where he'd been persecuted.

Walking the corridors like a damn prince.

"They can't touch us, or what we have", had Kurt said. It was true.

"When I said Kurt has it better than I did – I mean by that... he's not alone. He's got so many people he can rely on. In high school, I barely had any friends."

Blaine snorted. He knew the situation.

"At some point, in the last month before I left for Dalton, no one dared talking to me in public. No one but those who were already part of the outcast. Goths, especially. I still have those Evanescence CDs somewhere."

Chris giggled.

"In the prom episode, we saw you... telling Kurt about the... the Sadie Hawkins dance... that friend you went to the dance with, what happened to him ?"

"His parents moved out of town shortly after that. His father was a college teacher, he got a job in San Francisco."

Both boys smiled. They knew very well what that meant for him.

"We lost touch, though. It's a shame, he was nice."

Chris shrugged.

"Maybe you'll find each other again some day."

"I hope so, I'm sure he'd get along with Kurt super well !"

Chris smiled widely, and Blaine noticed the dimple forming on his left cheek. He also noticed the way his eyes shone a breathtaking shade of blue. He quickly turned around to turn off the light, hoping Chris hadn't seen his expression.

It was a bad idea. Blaine was tired, both physically and now emotionally, and the dark didn't allow him to notice how slightly older than Kurt Chris looked. Right now he just looked... beautiful.

Chris was about to move and lay down but Blaine had reached out to cup his face, the tip of his fingers caressing his hairline.

"... B-Blaine, what are you..."

Chris was frozen to the spot.

"Blaine ?"

Chris grabbed the other boy's wrist softly.

"...Blaine, I'm not Kurt."

Blaine snapped out of his reverie.

"I-I know. It's just... we're in the dark and... you're beautiful. Truly beautiful."

Chris gently moved Blaine's hand away from his flushed face – his skin was so pale that even in the dark Blaine had noticed he was blushing – and squeezed it.

"It's okay, Blaine. You're gonna go back, don't worry."

Blaine bit his lower lip to try and keep himself from crying but when Chris wrapped his arms around him and just let himself go, too tired to fight his emotions. Chris laid them both down, with Blaine's head on his chest, caressing his hair gently as he hummed wordless songs, and they fell asleep that way.

Darren almost felt like doing a happy dance when he exited Kurt's car in front of the hospital. The ride had been the most awful twenty minutes of his life. Kurt was ignoring him wonderfully, sending angry glances in his way every now and then.

Darren had given up trying to talk to him after Kurt had turned on the radio, volume to the maximum.

"Okay, so try and... be Blaine. Just, please, don't talk if you don't need to."

Darren nodded, showing he had understood and he held out his good hand for Kurt to take. The younger boy seemed to hesitate for a short moment but he took it anyway, rolling his eyes.

"I thought we said we were supposed to look credible..."

"And I thought I told you to only speak when it's necessary ?"

Darren shivered because of the strong feeling of d�j� vu. When Chris was mad at someone – which didn't happen often – he used the exact same tone, the one that held the meaning of "Are you seriously talking to me ? Bitch, get the hell out !" or something equally snappy. Chris had never addressed Darren that way, fortunately for him.

They reached the main desk and asked where the Evans family was staying. The secretary gave them the instructions to reach the waiting room and Darren wasn't even done saying "thank you" that Kurt was already pulling him along forcefully.

"Hurry up !"

Darren repressed his need to sigh and just followed the countertenor to a spacious room with an enormous window. The room was filled with sofas and armchairs of all sizes. Most of New Directions was already there, Sam crying silently on Mercedes' shoulder, who had both of her arms wrapped around him. Finn was visibly explaining the situation to a weeping Brittany, who was nodding frenetically. Puck was sitting on Sam's other side and was caressing his back slowly, whispering in his ear. Mike and Tina were sitting on the floor, arms intertwined.

Kurt squeezed Darren's hand strongly. It was call for help, not another attempt at hurting him. Darren looked at Kurt, whose eyes were closed tightly, and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, having whispered a soft "can I ?", to which the younger boy had just nodded.

Sam looked up when he heard them arrive and got on his feet.

"I'm very sorry for your loss", Darren managed to get out,

Sam just nodded and whispered a faint "thank you, Blaine", holding on Darren's hand for a long moment. Kurt finally opened his eyes again, letting a few tears fall free, and literally threw his arms around Sam's neck, the slightly taller boy hugging him back just as tightly.

"It's gonna be okay", Kurt whispered, his voice broken, "I promise you it's gonna be okay."

Sam pulled back and nodded.

"Thank you..."

Kurt blinked once in a silent response. Santana and Quinn joined the group at that very moment and Kurt moved out of the way so they could come closer and hug Sam. Darren reached in his back pocket and handed Kurt a tissue, who looked at him as if he was some kind of magician.

This allowed Darren to lead Kurt to the sofa on which Finn was sitting – now alone, since Brittany had got up to join Santana. He sat down first, leaving enough room between himself and Finn for Kurt. The countertenor hesitated before mouthing "screw that" and sitting on Darren's lap, resting his head on the older man's shoulder. Darren loosely wrapped his arms around Kurt, resisting the urge to kiss his temple.

Finally Artie and Lauren joined the group within the following minutes. A nurse brought Sam's little sister and little brother, who went straight to Kurt, both kissing his cheek once before running towards Quinn, hugging her.

The two teenagers had been the firsts to know about Sam's mother's condition, and therefore had spent a lot of time at Sam's house, either babysitting, helping him cleaning the place, or cooking, while his dad was at the hospital.

They all remained silent for long minutes, long enough for Sam's siblings to fall asleep on Quinn. The blonde girl carried them both to a sofa so that they could lay more comfortably. Artie asked Sam what the doctor had said, before saying that it was surprising they hadn't spotted the symptoms -Darren only heard "arrhythmia" and "loss of color from her face" before he stopped listening – and then Sam took a deep breath and told them about the events of the previous night.

He told them how his mum had sort of felt her end was near and had wanted to see her children again, but didn't want them to know she would be gone by the next morning. The doctors had discussed it with Sam's father, who had agreed.

"I guess it was better that way", Sam said, his voice rough, "She managed to have it be a proper goodbye without us understanding. And... at least my last memory of her is a h-happy one..."

He smiled sadly before burying his face in Mercedes' shoulder again, sobbing. Kurt tightened his grip on Darren's shirt. And the older boy realized what Sam's words meant for Kurt and him.

"I'm sorry", the countertenor whispered, "God, Darren I'm so, so sorry, I should've trusted -"

Darren hushed him by placing a finger on his lips.

"Shhh, Kurt, please, there's nothing to apologize for. I couldn't have known, you couldn't have known. Neither of us was wrong, nor right."

"But I-I yelled at you and..."

"Tttt ! Kurt, forget about it okay ? It's over now. I'm not mad at you, I promise. Now is not the day to worry about such... futilities."

Kurt nodded and kissed Darren's cheek, which made him blush. Kurt moved so that their foreheads were touching.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Kurt."

Darren froze when – probably out of habit – the countertenor let his lips on his in an extremely chaste way. They both started to deepen the kiss before parting abruptly. Luckily no one noticed.

They whispered "sorry" at the same time for what felt like the millionth time that day. Darren bit his lips in embarrassment.

Blaine woke up to an empty bed and the smell of coffee in the air. He started to move his legs but froze mid-movement. Oh, crap. Apparently the effects of his rather... erotic dream were showing on his body. His cursed under his breath once more and tried to think of all the things he found unattractive, but his brain was not helping and the image of Kurt, naked, spread out on his bed was printed on his retina.

If Chris was in the living-room, then Blaine could run to the bathroom and take care of his problem safely. If Chris was in the kitchen, he had to do it right there, and this was a lot more risqu�, also considering he'd be coming in his underwear, which was one of the things he hated the most.

He got up and reached the door. He refrained a scream of victory when he looked through the keyhole and saw Chris far away, sitting on the sofa, writing something on his iPad. He ninja-opened the bedroom's door and hurried to the bathroom, quickly locking himself in. He took a second to breathe before pulling his boxers down and starting to jerk himself off.

"Blaine ? Are you awake ?"

Crap. Concentrate, come on.

"I'm in the bathroom !", he managed,

"Okay... coffee's ready by the way, and I brought some stuff from the bakery on the street, mmh-mmmh, my God, those croissants taste soooo good !"

Without knowing it, Chris had just helped Blaine take care of himself a little faster, thanks to that absolutely obscene moan – which would sound normal to anyone not sporting a hard-on that was reacting to that particular voice... Blaine had to bite his lips to remain silent once he reached climax.

He was out of the room a few seconds later, hands clean and his boxers back on. He went back to the room to grab some jeans – because he didn't know what Chris was wearing – and sighed in relief once he sat down on the sofa, picking a fresh mug of coffee and a croissant from the coffee table.

Judging from the not-naughty look Chris gave him, he probably hadn't move or spoken in a suggestive way during the night.

"We're going to go to the set today, to make sure everything is ready for tomorrow."

"I'm still not sure about the plan, Chris... what if it doesn't work ?"

"It will work – how else do you think Kurt could've ended up with a pair of Star Wars socks under his bed, uh ?"