It was the first day of spring break when Blaine showed up at his house, looking completely broken, with only a large backpack slung over his left shoulder. He wore a simple white v-neck and jeans (it was one of the few times Kurt got to see him out of uniform) and the tear tracks still drying on his face evidenced that he had been crying on the way over. He looked up at Kurt, heartbreak in his eyes and a weak smile on his face, as he asked a question his friend had not been expecting to hear.

“Hey, Kurt. I – um… Do you think I could maybe… Is it possible I could stay here for a little while? I’ll sleep on the floor or whatever, I just… I don’t really have any where else to go.”

Kurt nodded, concern in his eyes as he ushered him into the house. “Of course, yeah. I’ll have to talk to my dad when he gets home from the garage, but we’ll make room for you if we have to, I promise.” There was a pause – it wasn’t an awkward silence, but filled with unspoken words between the two boys. “You don’t need to tell me until you’re ready, you know. Why you’re here.”

“Thank you.” Blaine looked down at his hands, biting his lip. It was easy to see that he wanted to talk about it, but – “I don’t think I’m ready at this moment, but… I will tell you. Right now, it’s just… It’s hard to think about.”

Looking around for a moment, Kurt made a decision. “In the meantime, why don’t we put your stuff in my room in the basement? Then we can just watch a movie until my dad gets home – I think Carole went shopping – and McKinley has a different spring break, so Finn will be home after Glee practice.” He offered a grin to his friend as he ushered him downstairs, trying to make him actually smile. “If there’s any mess down here, it’s Finn’s – not mine. We’re supposed to be moving soon, but Dad and Carole haven’t found a suitable house yet.”

Blaine managed a laugh at the mention of Finn’s messy habits, but it was a little harsh and clearly not sincere. “Of course. I – I really hate to be any trouble to you guys, though – I mean if I stay here I’d hate to take up any more room when you and Finn already have to share. Maybe I could just sleep on the couch out in your living room?”

“Don’t be silly.” Kurt took Blaine’s bag and set it next to his bed, gingerly moving some of Finn’s dirty clothes out the way with his foot. “You’re a guest here. Finn or I will sleep on the couch – maybe we can switch off or something. We’ll figure it out. Spring break’s not that long.”

“I suppose that’s true.” A more awkward silence fell, and just as Kurt was about to suggest the two head back upstairs, he was wrapped in an unexpected hug. “Thank you so much, Kurt,” Blaine whispered against the juncture between his neck and shoulder. “I just wish I could tell you how grateful I am.”

“Hey, hey.” He brought an arm around Blaine’s waist, using his other hand to gently stroke between the other boy’s shoulder blades. “It’s not a problem. At all. After everything you’ve helped me with, this is the least I can do.” He gave his friend one last squeeze before leaning back and looking him in the eyes. “I’m going to go ahead and go call my dad, okay? I’ll let him know that you’re here, and let him think things over while he’s still at work. He probably shouldn’t come home and just find you here – I don’t want to give him a shock or anything since he’s been sick.”

Glassy-eyed, Blaine nodded at him, and followed him upstairs, settling himself in the living room. In the meantime, Kurt headed into the kitchen and grabbed the phone.

“Hummel’s Garage, what can I do for ya?”

“Hey, Dad.”

“Hey, Kurt. Is everything okay?”

Kurt glanced into the living room and sighed a little. “For me, yes, everything is fine. But… Blaine got kicked out of his house. He showed up here a little while ago with nothing but a backpack and the clothes he was wearing, and he says he doesn’t have anywhere else to go.” He could practically hear his father take off his hat and run a hand over his head, like he always did whenever he needed a moment to take everything in.

“Look, Kurt-“

“I know it’s weird, Dad. I know it’s especially weird because he’s gay, too, and you probably wouldn’t want some random friend-who’s-a-girl of Finn’s staying at the house. But I’m his friend, and he means a lot to me, and I don’t think I would be a very good friend if I didn’t at least try to get him a place to stay, right? You were there when he helped me move into Dalton, and –“

“Kurt. You’re acting like I hate the kid. Give me a minute, okay?” Burt sighed into the phone. “Actually, scratch that, got another customer. Just, keep him there, okay? When I get home we can all talk a little and figure out arrangements. If he can’t stay with us, though, we’ll get him a hotel room or find him somewhere else, because I know how much you care about him and he seems like a good kid. Okay?”

Biting his lip, Kurt nodded to himself before he replied. “Okay. Just – don’t push him to tell you why he was kicked out. He hasn’t even been able to tell me yet. I know he will when he’s comfortable-“

“I love you son, and I’ll talk to you when we get home. Don’t worry too much.”

And then the only sound left in Kurt’s ear was a dial-tone. He let his head fall back, knocking it lightly against the kitchen wall. He was hoping to be able to give Blaine a definite answer when he spoke to him again. But, beggars can’t be choosers.
He peeked around the corner into the living room and saw Blaine sitting on the couch, just staring at the television – he appeared to be watching Jersey Shore, and Kurt hoped that meant he wasn’t actually paying attention. Before sitting down next to his friend on the couch, Kurt placed a hand on his shoulder, clearly startling him out of his thoughts.

“God, Kurt, you scared the hell out of me.”

Well, that was… Odd. Blaine had never cursed in front of him before; unless he counted the fact that he said ‘pissed’ the first time they met - which Kurt didn’t, really. “Sorry.” He took his seat then, and couldn’t suppress a smile as Blaine leaned against him, letting Kurt’s arm snake around his shoulders. While he absolutely despised the fact that Blaine was this upset, it was nice to experience a reversal of their usual situation – to have Blaine leaning on him for once, and needing his support.

“…Why are we watching Jersey Shore?”

“I was going to ask you that- you’re the one with the remote.”

Blaine just shook his head a little, pressing his face into Kurt’s shoulder with a groan and handing him the remote. “I’m no longer worthy. Just take it.”

The taller boy laughed a little, taking the remote and giving Blaine’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I think I still have Singin’ in the Rain in the DVD player. Feel like a sing-a-long?”

Lifting his head up, Blaine smiled gently, but genuinely, for the first time that day. “Have I ever told you that you’re absolutely amazing?”

Kurt couldn’t help but blush a little. “Well, not today.”
---
Carole was the first to get home, and she was introduced to Blaine for the first time – but she smiled knowingly at Kurt almost the entire time, leaving him blushing for minutes after. Finn arrived after that, saying a quick hello to both of them before grabbing a snack from the kitchen and heading down to the basement to get on his laptop, shouting something about an online Call of Duty tournament with Puck. Finally, Burt came home and nodded at Kurt and Blaine on the couch, also giving Blaine’s hand a quick shake.

“Why don’t you boys come with me for a minute, and we’ll talk about arrangements?”

Blaine grabbed onto Kurt’s hand tightly, and he let Kurt lead him to follow his dad. When Blaine was upset, he was even more touchy than usual – grabbing onto his friend like he was drowning and Kurt was a floating buoy. Not knowing what else he could do, Kurt just embraced the touches and tried to be something solid for Blaine, even though he was so used to being the one needing something, or really someone, solid.

“Alright,” Burt started, ushering the boys into hallway, away from Carole. “Blaine, I’m not gonna sit here and interrogate you or anything, and if you don’t wanna talk about why you’re here, you don’t have to. I think, though, that I have a sneaking suspicion as to why you are here, and with that suspicion, and my gut instinct, I’m gonna tell you that you can stay here.” Kurt squeezed Blaine’s hand and looked over at him with a smile. Blaine seemed a little dazed, but tried to smile back at him. “I have one condition though, you two. I don’t care where anyone sleeps; I don’t care about what you do, because I trust both of you. Do not give me a reason to stop trusting you. Either of you. I think you know what I mean.”

Kurt blushed a little, and his brow furrowed. “Dad, we’re not even –“

“I’m not trying to imply anything, Kurt. I’m just telling both of you. Don’t give me a reason not to trust you, and Blaine is welcome to stay here as long as he needs to. Give me any suspicions that I should stop trusting you, and we’ll help you find a new place to stay.” Burt directed the last part of his sentence to Blaine, and the young man managed a smile that had almost all of its usual charm.

He nodded. “Yes, sir. I understand completely.”

Burt nodded and opened the door back into the living room. “Then I think Carole oughta have dinner ready pretty soon, and family dinner’s pretty important around here.”

Blaine smiled and nodded again as he and Kurt went back into the living room, hands still clasped. “Your dad is kind of amazing,” he commented with another genuine smile.

Grinning, Kurt sat down on the couch and pulled Blaine down with him, and he almost landed in Kurt’s lap, but ended up pressed against to him from shoulder to thigh. Kurt shivered a little at the contact, but managed to keep himself under control. “Yeah, he really is. I know how lucky I am to have him – which made it that much harder when I almost lost him.” He looked down at that, willing himself not to think about it.

“Well, he seems to be doing great. You must take really good care of him, huh?” And just like that… Blaine always knew just what to say. He also hadn’t moved away from Kurt at all, even though the two of them were squished together on barely over one couch cushion, and Blaine had almost the entire couch so that he could have scooted away if he wanted to. Kurt resisted the urge to giggle like a teenage girl – there was no way he was going to act like some giddy schoolgirl.

He did laugh a little. But it was not a giggle.

“Alright, boys! Dinner’s ready!” Carole called from the kitchen.

“Should we go get -?”

At that exact moment, Finn came bounding up the stairs, and it sounded like he was taking them two at a time. He flung open the door and started walking casually walking towards the kitchen. “Awesome. Food.”

Kurt just rolled his eyes and tugged Blaine up with him, towards the dining table.
---
Dinner went well, and not unsurprisingly. With Blaine getting closer to his usual charming self, he had no trouble holding his own at the dinner table. Even Finn seemed to like him, since Blaine liked college football or whatever, and Kurt enjoyed just watching him interact with his family, pretending that he was introducing Blaine to his family as his boyfriend – not just his friend from Dalton who had to stay with them just because.

And yes, it hurt a little that Blaine still hadn’t told him why he had to be there. Obviously he had been kicked out of his house – but why? Bad grades? Drugs or some actual misdemeanor? What kind of sick, twisted people didn’t appreciate having Blaine for a son when he seemed like every parent’s wet dream? Well, okay, maybe that phrase was a crude exaggeration, but Kurt was kind of progressively more pissed the more that he thought about it. So, after Finn demanded that Blaine take his bed, because he and Kurt could sleep in the next day, and sleep was awesome -

“Also, the couch is really, super comfortable.”

“Are you sure? I’m more than willing to sleep on the couch – I probably won’t sleep much anyhow, and it is your room.” Oh, Blaine. Ever the gentleman.

“Totally sure, man. You guys can just go ahead downstairs and watch Moulin Rouge or something – Kurt wanted to watch it the other night, and we couldn’t finish it because I fell asleep.”

“If you’re -“

Kurt just pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, grabbing Blaine’s hand and practically pulling him down the stairs. “We�don’t have to watch Moulin Rouge – but what Finn said is true. Of course, I’m not particularly in the mood for it now, because I’m actually pretty happy, and if we watch it, I will cry. I am not ashamed of that fact.”

Blaine let go of his hand, smiling as he went over to his backpack and pulled out some pajamas and basic toiletries. “I would totally cry, too. Probably not the best plan. Allow me to go freshen up, and I’ll be right back.”

Smiling a little, Kurt nodded at him as he sat down on his bed. Allow me to go freshen up. Blaine was just too silly and wonderful for his own damn good. Kurt took his own pajamas out of his closet and changed quickly while he could hear the water running in the bathroom, trying not to think about the fact that Blaine was getting undressed in the room attached to his room… And apparently trying not to think about just led to more thinking about it. But then, Kurt remembered what he meant to do while he had Blaine alone down here. He needed to know why Blaine was here – why he got kicked out of his house. And, whether or not there was a legitimate reason for Kurt to not go to Blaine’s house and kick every person that lived there in the face.

Kurt sat down on his bed and once Blaine was done, he threw his backpack and loose clothes onto Finn’s bed and joined Kurt on his. “So. What are we doing?”

Inappropriate thoughts, aside. “Well, you still don’t have to if you don’t want to…” Kurt bit his lip. “But I was wondering if you could tell me why you’re here?”

Blaine sighed and nodded. “Right. You deserve to know – I’ll just… I’m going to keep this short and simple, okay? Because I’m happy I’m here, and you seem happy I’m here, and so does your family, and I don’t want to ruin that. I can assume you realized I got kicked out of my house – I didn’t just run away.” Kurt nodded. Blaine took his hand again, squeezing it tightly. “Is this okay?” he whispered. He was blushing, and something made it different from all of the other times that they had held hands. Kurt nodded again, squeezing his hand back and running his thumb over Blaine’s knuckles.

“Well…” Blaine started up again, taking a deep breath. “Kurt, when I say things about you being braver than me… It’s because it’s true.”

“Blaine –“

“No. When I ran away from my old school, I didn’t just run away from my bullies. I ran from my family, too. They – they had a sneaking suspicion that I was gay, and they kept throwing potential future wives at me, and I couldn’t handle it any more. They figured it would look great if I went to a school like Dalton – I didn’t even tell them about the bullying, and they sent me there because it would look good.” He ran his free hand through his hair, which appeared to be a little damp – he must have washed some of the gel out of it while he was in the bathroom. “After I met you, and I gave you all that advice about courage… I realized I needed to take my own damn advice. I promised myself that I would actually come out to my parents when I went home again. So, I did. And they kicked me out. Pretty unceremoniously actually.”

At that, Kurt let go out Blaine’s hand, suddenly drawing his arms around himself. “It’s all my fault. Oh, God, Blaine, I’m so sorry.”

Blaine smiled gently at him, scooting over to him and pulling him into his arms. “Sure, it’s your fault, but letting me stay here is way past making it up to me. And it’s so much better here at your house now I’m officially out of the closet at home, too – I feel like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. Not to mention that staying here with your family feels way more like home than the tense environment with my family, me still pretending to be straight, would have.”

“Why are you so wonderful?” Kurt groaned into Blaine’s chest, blushing as he realized what he had said.

Laughing genuinely for the first time that day, Blaine pulled Kurt down with him as he lay back on the bed. “Seriously, though,” he said after a moment, as his laughter died. “Thank you.”

“You’re more than welcome.” Kurt resituated himself in Blaine’s arms. “I kind of want to punch your family, though. I feel like I should say that.”

Smiling again, Blaine gave him a kiss on the cheek. Kurt froze a little, blushing bright red. “My hero.”
---
The two of them had talked for a while before falling asleep, still cuddled together on Kurt’s bed. When Kurt woke up in Blaine’s arms, he smiled to himself, and he knew that whether they ended up together, or just stayed the close friends they were now, Kurt would always be there for Blaine – and as Blaine had already proven, he would always be there for Kurt. They could always run to each other.