Sectionals were just over a week away and the songs and singers had yet to be decided. Blaine appeared to be the only one in the club who was remotely worried about this fact. He was complaining about this too Kurt one evening as they sat in his trailer not working on their project. Kurt just shook his head and wrote out the story of their first sectionals.

You don’t panic after you’ve won under those circumstances. He finished.

“Wow Glee club is one drama after another isn’t it?” Blaine commented. He was always hearing crazy past stories from the club. Kurt nodded his head. “Do you miss them?” Blaine asked. Kurt thought for a second before nodding again. “They miss you too,” Blaine said before changing the subject, knowing that pushing this with Kurt wouldn’t help.

The pair were sat on the sofa close together. They were currently turned towards each other; the notebook lay on Kurt’s knee between them. They were both silent, Blaine had completely forgotten how to speak when he’d looked up at Kurt. Kurt’s long pale fingers lifted and brushed softly over Blaine’s cheek, making his eyes flicker closed. “Kurt,” he breathed out, resting his own finger tips on the back of Kurt’s unconsciously moving closer to Kurt. The door opened and the spell broke. Kurt dropped his hands and shifted away slightly, turning to look at Harriet who had walked in.

She smiled in greeting at the two boys, placing take-out bags from the diner on the table. Like a shot, Blaine was at the table pulling food from the bags. He turned to Kurt, who was standing slightly back, looking wide-eyed at the bags.

“Do you like this kind of food?” he asks worried Kurt wouldn’t eat it, after all he always seemed to eat rabbit food. Kurt nodded slowly, seating himself at the table as Harriet reappears from her room dressed in lounge clothes. The three of them sit around the tiny table and dig into the fried chicken and chips that she had bought back. Blaine was surprised to see Kurt savour the food; he figured Kurt didn’t allow himself to eat like this very often.   

When he wasn’t looking at Kurt, Blaine was sneaking glances at his mother who had an expression like a cat that got the cream. Eventually the curiosity got too much for Blaine and he slammed his hand down on the table, a little harder than necessary, making Kurt jump. Harriet raised an eyebrow at Blaine’s erratic behaviour.

“Sorry,” he mumbled before carrying on, “what happened, anyway, that’s got you so smiley?” he questioned.

“Am I not allowed to happy?” Harriet asked.

“Of course you are but avoiding the question won’t work on me and you know it,” Blaine replied with a grin. Harriet laughed.

“You are definitely my son,” she said fondly. “I have a date, if you must know.”

“Seriously? Who?” Blaine asked excitedly. He’d never been happy when his Mom dated when he was a kid but now he just wanted her to be happy. He wasn’t hypocritical enough to be in love with the boy next to him while denying his mother her chance at love.

“His name is Joshua Parker, he’s a paramedic who comes into the diner a lot. Anyway he asked me to dinner on Friday.”

“That’s great. Oh, Kurt could come round that day to help you get ready. He’s very clothes savvy,” Blaine said, any excuse to spend more time with Kurt. The pair turned to Kurt whose eyes had lit up like he’d received and early birthday present. He nodded, a small smile playing on his face like he didn’t want to smile but couldn’t help it. Blaine grinned back at him, when he first met Kurt he never smiled but he was starting to more and more.

After dinner Harriet retreated to her room and the boys put a movie on Blaine’s laptop. Kurt, stretched across the sofa, Blaine sitting in front of it, the laptop placed on a dining room chair. By the time the credits rolled Kurt was fast asleep. Quietly as he could Blaine cleared the laptop and chair away. Gently he laid a blanket over Kurt’s sleeping form, unable to stop himself brushing a light kiss just under his hair line.

Blaine knocked softly on his Mom’s bedroom door, pushing the door open when she called out.

“Hey,” he whispered, “Kurt fell asleep so I’m going to text Finn to let them know where he is,” Blaine told her.

“Ok, where is he?”

“My bed.”

“Where are you going to sleep?”

“Well I was hoping I could steal an extra blanket and pillow from your bed and I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“Will you be ok? You have school tomorrow.”

“I’ll be fine.”

*

Blaine woke suddenly when he heard a voice. He blinked blearily trying to register the odd angle he saw the room in before he realised he was on the floor. The voice cried out again, sounding in pain, it wasn’t one Blaine recognised. His eyes snapped to his bed, taking in Kurt’s curled up form, his face scrunched in agony as he called for his father. Blaine’s heart broke at the sight of tears streaming down Kurt’s cheeks. He thrashed slightly clearly caught in some terrible nightmare.

It was the realisation that finally caused Blaine to scramble over to Kurt, shaking him awake. Kurt jolted awake, his watery blue eyes focusing on Blaine.

“Blaine,” he gasped out, throwing his arms around the other boy and burying his head in Blaine’s neck. Moving to sit on the edge of the bed, Blaine hugged Kurt, rubbing his back and rocking slightly as he whispered to him.

“I’m here, I’ve got you, you’re ok, I’m here.”

Blaine looked up as he saw his Mom move into the kitchen, filling the kettle to boil water for, Blaine assumed, camomile tea. He remembered his mother giving him that when he had nightmares as a child. By the time the tea was made Kurt had calmed slightly, though his head was still buried in Kurt’s neck. Harriet gently placed hand on his shoulder and he lifted his head to accept the drink. Gently she brushed Kurt’s hair back from his head, the hairspray having long since given up the fight to hold it in place.

“You ok?” she asked gently. Kurt nodded, sitting up straighter, though still leaning in to Blaine slightly.

“We’ll be ok now Mom, go back to sleep,” Blaine said quietly, keeping an arm wrapped around Kurt’s back.

*

In glee club the next day Blaine still couldn’t get the Kurt’s voice out of his head. It had been slightly rough with lack of use but it was soft and full of pain. He completely ignored the discussion about sectionals that was going on, in favour of pondering his best friend.

“Ok, what’s got you so distracted?” Mercedes asked at the end of the meeting. She had become one of Blaine’s closest friends in the club, seemingly determined to stick close to him and glean information about Kurt’s wellbeing from him.

“Huh?” Blaine looked up at the diva standing in front of him.

“You haven’t paid any attention to a single thing since you walked into the room, what’s up?”

“Kurt stayed last night,” Blaine began only to be interrupted by Santana, who leant over his shoulder making him jump.

“Ooh did the pretty ponies lose their v-cards?” she asked. Blaine choked both at Santana’s commented and the fact that it had gained the attention of the entire club.

“What? No! Kurt fell asleep on the couch,” no need to mention it was also his bed, “and I didn’t want to wake him so I left him there. Nothing of that sort happened.”

“Boring,” Santana replied, losing interest, as did half the club. Once most had filtered out leaving Blaine with Mercedes, Rachel and Finn, he carried on.

“He had a nightmare but he was talking,” Blaine said, giving them all a meaningful look.

“Don’t get your hopes up Dude, he does that,” Finn said.

“But he said my name when he was awake too,” Blaine replied.

“Sometimes he does,” Finn shrugged.

“People are pretty vulnerable when they just wake up,” Mercedes said softly, “he probably speaks before he realises that he doesn’t talk.”

Blaine sighed, his eyes downcast.

“He sounded like he was in so much pain, he was calling for his Dad.”

“There was a time he’d have those nightmares every night. I think he was on sleeping pills at one point. Now it’s only every so often,” Finn explained.

“I don’t really care that he doesn’t talk but now I really want to hear him speak again, I want to hear him sing,” Blaine sighed, dropping his head backwards.

“Well there are videos of competitions,” Rachel said.

“Which he never had a solo in,” Mercedes added, shooting a pointed glare at Rachel, who huffed in reply. “Wait, there’s a recording on youtube of when the two of us were cheerios.”

“Kurt was a cheerleader?” Blaine asked, shocked, he hadn’t seen that coming.

*

Friday evening found the two boys in Harriet’s bedroom. Kurt was considering which of the three dresses she had was most suitable while Blaine was sitting against the headboard reading a rather battered copy of The Hobbit. Harriet was sitting on the corner of the bed with a robe wrapped around her waiting for Kurt to make his decision.

Eventually Kurt passed a mid-length, fitted black dress to her and she dashed into the bathroom to change into it. Once she returned to the room, Kurt carefully pointed out make-up that would look natural and elegant and while she applied it he twisted her hair up into a clip. Finally he picked out the perfect accessories and passed her nice coat to her.

“Right, I better go. Josh is picking me up from the diner and I still need to walk there,” Harriet said, checking her purse to make sure she had everything she needed.

Kurt shook his head grabbing his car keys and waving them slightly.

“Kurt’s offering you a lift,” Blaine said, his head still buried in his book. Harriet playfully hit him around the head.

“Yes thank you,” she said, because the intention had been obvious. Kurt was good at communicating with out words. Harriet smiled at Kurt. “A lift would be lovely,” Harriet replied and soon all three were in the car, Blaine sitting in the back having finally abandoned his book.

Once they arrived, Harriet left the car with a quick thank you and a good luck from her son. Blaine then climbed into the front seat of the car, stopping Kurt as he reached for the gear stick to take the car out of neutral.

“Wait, I want to see this guy,” Blaine said, watching his mother as she greeted a man outside of the diner. He moved into the light, spilling out from the still lit windows. He had short dirty blond hair and a handsome face.

“I approve,” Blaine commented and looked back just in time to see Kurt roll his eyes and nod. Blaine laughed and gestured for Kurt to take them back to the trailer.

*

Harriet came home to find Blaine curled up on the sofa asleep; he’d obviously tried to stay awake as he was still dressed and there was no blanket covering him. Gently she shook him awake.

Blaine grumbled as he woke up but when he saw his mother beside him he suddenly remembered why he’d tried to stay awake.

“How’d it go?” he asked, groggily.

“It went really well, there’s going to be a second date.”

“That’s great Mom,” Blaine replied, hugging her tightly. “You’re happy right?”

“Very happy. What about you?”

“Of course, I don’t have a problem with you dating you know that.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

“I meant with Kurt, you like him right?” Blaine fish mouthed at that comment.

“How did you know?” he asked shocked.

“You’re kind of obvious, love.”

“Yeah I like him, but I don’t think he thinks of me that way. I’m happy being his friend though.”

“My baby, getting so mature,” Harriet commented, kissing Blaine’s forehead. “Now go change and get to bed, Sectionals tomorrow.”

“Yeah, it is. You’re coming right?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Harriet replied.