“I’m fine,” he said, his eyes unconsciously flicking back to his phone.

“You sure? You look like you’re waiting for the phone to get up and do the Macarena.” Kurt smiled softly at his dad.

“If it does, you’ll be the first to know.”

“Deal,” Burt said, but hesitated to leave. “But you will tell me?” Kurt knew what his dad meant; he wanted Kurt to tell him if there was anything wrong. Kurt raised his right hand.

“Scout’s honor,” he muttered and Burt seemed satisfied with this answer.

“Alright. Goodnight, Kurt.”

“Night.” He turned around in his chair and rested his chin on his hand and sighed as he watched the black screen on his phone. He really hoped everything was going okay with Blaine and his father. A few more minutes went by and Kurt felt his eyelids begin to droop. “Five more minutes,” Kurt told himself. “I’ll wait five more minutes and if he doesn’t say anything, then I’ll call it a night.”

The five minutes crawled by and Kurt regretfully walked away from his desk and got ready for bed. Once he was moisturized, brushed, and dressed down, he checked his phone one last time before climbing into bed. Still nothing. Kurt frowned slightly and closed his eyes, trying to tell himself it could be a good thing Blaine wasn’t txting him. Maybe they were having a long talk and his dad wanted to get to know his son more. Maybe Jim Anderson was finally paying attention to Blaine.

Kurt finally fell asleep, but was dragged out of his dreams early. He squinted his eyes as he opened them to a bright light illuminating his bedroom and his ringtone blared through the small room. Kurt got to his feet and trudged over to his desk and answered the phone with his eyes closed, wanting nothing more than to be back in the darkness. “Hello?” he mumbled tiredly.

“Kurt?” the voice on the other side made his heart sink.

“Blaine?” Kurt was suddenly very, very awake. “Blaine is everything okay?” Blaine’s voice sounded raw and gave Kurt the impression that he’d been crying.

“Yeah, I’m glad you answered. Um, I know it’s really late but-”

“What do you need?” God Kurt never wanted to hear Blaine like this ever again.

“Can I come in?”

“Can you…? Are you outside?”

“I’m sorry, I just needed somewhere to go and I wanted to see you and,” he took a deep ragged breath and Kurt ran down the stairs, not worrying about waking up the house as he rushed to the front door. “I know it’s late. I’m sorry. Look, you don’t- I can call Mike-” Kurt threw the door open and saw Blaine standing on his door step, his face screwed up in agony. His eyes were bright red and his cheeks were tear stained and his hair looked like it’d been pulled on and ran through many times.

Kurt didn’t waste another minute before pulling him into his arms and holding on as tight as possible.

Blaine seemed to fall apart in Kurt’s arms, not holding back the sobs that tore through his chest and Kurt forced himself to stay strong. He carefully closed the front door and lead Blaine up the stairs into his bedroom. Once safely inside Kurt pulled Blaine onto the bed with him and wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, holding him close to him and never wanting to let him go.

A few minutes later, a soft knock sounded on Kurt’s door and it opened a crack to reveal a very tall man. Finn poked his head inside and glanced at the boys on the bed. His brow furrowed at the chorusing cries and a second later he disappeared. Kurt held onto Blaine tighter and whispered things into his ear, things he knew had hollow meanings at the time, but he needed Blaine to know that he was there and wasn’t going anywhere. Soon, the door creaked open again and Finn reappeared, his hands filled with two glasses of water. He set them down on the nightstand next to Kurt. “Need anything else?” Finn asked softly and Kurt shook his head.

“Thank you, Finn,” he said and Finn nodded before leaving. Kurt had been apprehensive about having Finn as a brother at first, but the boy was proving to be the perfect man for the job.

It was a long while before Blaine’s sobs quieted down and ended in hiccups. Kurt reached over, grabbed one of the glasses, and pushed it into Blaine’s hand. He took it gratefully and downed the glass in a couple of gulps. Kurt began to reach for the other one, but Blaine shook his head. Blaine looked exhausted and Kurt knew he’d be having nightmares of that look for a long time. That and the one of Blaine outside his door.

Kurt gently pulled Blaine back down against his chest and Blaine complied without any complaint. He laid his head on Kurt’s chest and Kurt ran his fingers through the boy’s hair, softly massaging his scalp with his nails. Kurt’s room was suddenly bathed in light again as his phone went off. He looked over at his nightstand and saw that he had a new txt from Rachel. Kurt, is Blaine there? He quickly wrote back, saying that he was there and asking what happened. It’s too much to say over txt. Just, keep an eye on him? And thank you. Kurt sighed and was about to put his phone down when something caught his eye. His heart sank further, if that were even possible; he had four missed calls from Blaine starting back from an hour ago. Jesus, how long had Blaine been waiting out there?

“Sorry I just showed up,” Blaine began and Kurt shushed him.

“Don’t apologize, Blaine. You’re always welcome here.”

“I couldn’t stay there. I know he didn’t mean everything he said, but I just couldn’t stay there for another second.” Kurt waited for Blaine to say more, but the other boy was silent.

“What did he say?” Kurt asked softly. He heard Blaine swallow dryly.

“Do you want the long version, or condensed?”

“Whatever you feel more comfortable with. I want you to be able to tell me everything, but if you feel better shortening it, I’m okay with that.” Blaine tilted his head up and looked at Kurt with misty eyes. Kurt wet his lips, causing Blaine to glance down at them. The curly haired boy flipped over so he was lying on his stomach beside Kurt and resting his chin on Kurt’s chest.

“It all started when I got home and he was waiting for me in the living room.”

“Wait, he got off work early?” Blaine looked a little uneasy.

“Not exactly. When I left the Lima Bean earlier, I called Puck for a ride and he dragged me to one of his pool cleaning gigs. And as if cleaning a pool for an hour wasn’t bad enough, he made me wait while he slept with the woman whose house it was.” Kurt wanted to ask why Blaine had left in the first place, but he figured it was best to ask about that later.

“So how late were you?”

“About an hour. Once I walked through the front door he called me into the living room and told me to sit down. He started off by asking why I wasn’t at school when he came home earlier and I explained the whole slushy thing. This got him on a rant about how this wouldn’t have happened if I’d tried out for football like he’d wanted. He then began to blame the Glee club and how it wasn’t helping my problem at all.

“He started saying that my going to Dalton and joining the Warblers there had only manipulated my ‘young adolescent mind’ and ‘brainwashed me.’ He basically blamed those factors for my becoming gay. Then he started blaming Cooper for letting me stay there and for ‘blinding me from the truth.’ According to him, Coop stole me away from him and forced me into staying away from him, thus making me believe that to be gay was okay.” Kurt stared at Blaine in disbelieve. His father didn't actually think that’s what happened, did he? “I don’t think so,” Blaine said, and Kurt realized he’d voiced his thought. “I think it’s just what he wants me to believe.” Kurt shook his head softly.

“Did you say anything to him?”

“Oh I said plenty. I told him that singing was practically the only thing that kept me sane. Also how Cooper was more of a father than he ever was.” Kurt felt his eyes widen slightly as he gasped. “That one struck a nerve,” Blaine said and looked down. “He went on this long rant about how he always did everything he could for our family and how he supports me and loves me. And that’s when I told him that you were my boyfriend.” Kurt froze. Blaine had to have known his father would be less than pleased at that news.

“What did he say?” Blaine laughed humorlessly.

“He was very supportive,” Blaine said sarcastically. “What do you think he said, Kurt? He began to go off on how once again, I’ve been brainwashed and that he should’ve started taking me on weekend trips sooner. He then asked me- and this one really got to me, he asked me if my being gay was a cry for attention.” Blaine took a deep breath before continuing. “I told him no, I’m not gay because I want attention; I’m gay because I like cocks.”

“You did not say that,” Kurt began but the look on Blaine’s face said that yes, he said exactly that. “What did he do?”

“To be honest, I’m surprised he didn’t hit me. He didn’t look at me after that, though. His tone got calm, almost detached, and he told me that I was being disrespectful and that he wouldn’t allow me to stay under his roof if I continued to talk like that. So I left.”

“Blaine,” Kurt said softly and reached out to stroke his cheek. Blaine immediately leaned into the touch and closed his eyes.

“I just couldn’t do it, Kurt. You are so lucky you have Burt for a dad.” Kurt swallowed thickly. He really was the luckiest kid in the world, wasn’t he? Kurt closed the distance between them and placed a soft kiss on Blaine’s mouth, causing the other boy to sigh softly. When he pulled away, Blaine looked up at him as if in a daze. “I love you,” he said, and Kurt’s breath hitched. Did Blaine just say that he loved him? Surely he heard him wrong. But it definitely sounded like he said the ‘L’ word. God, did Blaine really love him? Was it even possible for anyone to love Kurt besides his family? Did he love Blaine back? All these thought flew through his mind in a matter of a second and finally an answer surfaced in his mind, making everything else fade away.

“I love you, too,” he heard himself say. And god the smile Blaine gave him was blinding. And Kurt was sure he was smiling like an idiot but he honestly didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore because Kurt was in love and for the first time that person loved him back. Absolutely nothing else mattered. Blaine slid up further on the bed and lay on his side beside Kurt who turned on his side as well. Blaine wrapped an arm around Kurt’s waist and pulled him against his chest and Kurt laced his hand with Blaine’s free one, letting them rest between their chests. Blaine lightly kissed Kurt’s nose before giving his hand a squeeze. Kurt smiled at the boy in the darkness and snuggled as close as he could get to him.

Kurt knew if he ever fell asleep that night, he would have the best damn sleep of his life.