The first day wasn't so bad.� Well...the first full day.� The day it happened, he spent most of the evening in an emergency room with a towel clamped over his eye while Kurt alternated between holding his hand, stroking his hair, and reading him the closed-captioning on the muted tv, then went home and passed out on a combination of painkillers that seemed like they would take down a guy twice Finn's size.

But the first full day off wasn't so awful.� It was like a weekend - he slept in, he lounged around his bedroom with his iPod, so by the time Kurt came over with People and US Weekly he was just starting to hit bored but by the time Kurt left he was ready to go to sleep.

But by 10:30 on� the second day, he was so sick of everything he was allowed to do.

It wasn't like the last time he'd been home from school, when he'd gotten the flu and spent most of the day curled up in a ball and hoping he would die.� He felt okay, for the most part.� The painkillers were strong enough to keep his eye from stinging too badly but didn't make him loopy, so he didn't feel like he needed to stay in bed, but he couldn't really do anything.� He couldn't dance around, the doctor had told him to keep his reading and computer use to a minimum as long as one eye was covered because it would be hard on his good eye, there was nothing worth listening to on television, he didn't think playing piano when he couldn't see his right hand very well was a good idea, and the next several weeks stretched before him with not much at all to help him stay occupied.

Kurt wouldn't even text him blow-by-blow updates like he used to - he thought the glow from the phone would wear the good eye out even faster, and he had a stack of studies he wouldn't let Blaine read that apparently said so, so Blaine resorted to spending a lot of time watching Netflix in the family room and staring at his watch, waiting for 3:46 to roll around so Kurt could show up with their afternoon coffee and a bag full of pop culture to discuss.

When the doorbell rang midway through the Jacksons biopic, Blaine looked up quickly.� Everyone he knew was in school, save his parents who were definitely at work.� Did people still sell things door-to-door? He didn't think so, but he wasn't sure who else it could be.� The chime sounded again, and he hit pause, padding to the door.� His heart quickened as he saw a familiar baseball cap and sleeveless vest, and he fumbled with the deadbolt for a moment before unlocking it, tugging open the door.� "Is Kurt okay?"

Mr. Hummel chuckled, shaking his head like he thought it was a weird first question but was used to it. "Hi to you, too."

"Is he-...I mean. What are you doing here?"

"He's fine.� That was his first question, too."� He held up a bag from that burger place between here and the school where Finn stopped sometimes on his way over and added, "Thought you probably didn't feel like cooking, and I didn't know if your parents left anything..."

They hadn't; Blaine was sure it wouldn't have occurred to them.� He hadn't really thought about what he wanted yet, but now that Mr. Hummel mentioned it... He smiled and stepped back to hold open the door.� "That sounds great.� Thank you," he said genuinely.

"How's the eye?" Mr. Hummel asked as he stepped into the front hall.� He held out the bag, and Blaine was very happy he grabbed it successfully on the first try.� It wasn't nearly as hard to operate with only one eye as he expected, when he thought about how important having two working eyes was to depth perception, but it was just enough of a difference to throw him off when he tried to move too quickly.�

"Scratched," Blaine replied with a very faint smile.

"Still hurt?"

"A little, they gave me something..."

"Mostly just bored?" he surmised, glancing past Blaine at the tv, where Billy Dee Williams' paused face took up most of the large screen.

"Yeah - they're doing Michael Jackson this week, so I thought...and Netflix doesn't have 'This is It.'"� He wasn't uncomfortable making smalltalk with his boyfriend's dad - Mr. Hummel was pretty great...and liked him more than his own parents liked Kurt - that was for sure.� But it was still strange that his boyfriend's dad had come over to bring him lunch on his second day home from school.� "Is everything okay?� Thank you for lunch, but...why are you...?"

"His NYADA letter came."

Blaine's eyes widened.� They'd been waiting for that letter for weeks.� Either looking for it or avoiding it had become kind of an afternoon ritual, depending on Kurt's mood and general optimism about the future.� When things were good, when he felt like he had a future and he couldn't wait to get the great news, they swung by his house immediately after their afternoon coffee before retreating to Blaine's house with a better sound system and less supervision; when Kurt insisted he wasn't going to get in anyway, that the future was never going to be any kinder to him than the past had, that if even Rachel hadn't gotten her letter yet then his was never going to come until they'd accepted every single person and not him...on those days, they drove straight to Blaine's and cuddled a little closer on the couch as they watched musicals.� There had been a lot more of those kind of days lately, especially as time went on with no word, and now Blaine wasn't sure what the visit meant.�

Was Mr. Hummel here because he wanted to share good news with someone else who would understand what it meant to a person they both loved?� Or was he here because Kurt was going to need a lot more cuddling and reassurance that the world wasn't over just because a few people didn't appreciate him?

He knew without a doubt that Kurt was talented enough to be a star.� If the admissions officials at NYADA could see even a quarter of what he saw, they would have to admit Kurt.� But what if his boyfriend was right about the way the world saw him?� What if they only saw what was on paper - or, worse yet, what Beiste and Artie and Ms. Pillsbury had seen?�

The more he thought about it, the more worried he was.� Mr. Hummel didn't come over to bring him lunch and tell him good news.� If it was good news, Kurt would be the one telling him.� So the real question was whether Kurt already knew, or if this was preemptive.�

"Does he know?"� If Kurt knew, he should be there.� He should be at school- was Kurt still at school?� He doubted Mr. Hummel had just left him in the car, and Kurt was stronger than that.� Kurt wasn't the kind who would go home early if he didn't get it.� But he would need people - he would try to shut them out and shut down, curl into himself and paste on a faint wry smile and...be like last year.� Kurt would need him as soon as he knew, and it was all Sebastian's fault he wasn't with his boyfriend right now.

He hadn't gotten angry at the boy the day it happened, nor when he'd found out he needed surgery, nor all morning when he had constantly brushed up against things he wasn't allowed to do because of the state of his eye.� But the idea that his boyfriend might need him and he was stuck away from him was almost too much to forgive.

"Yeah."� A smile, just that little hint of a thing Mr. Hummel did with his jaw kind of tight, but Blaine had figured out sometime around April that was a good thing instead of a begrudging one.� "Don't worry - he knows I came to tell you the good news, I'm not stealing his thunder."

The good news.

The good news.

"He's a finalist?" Blaine blurted out, and Mr. Hummel beamed in a way Blaine had never seen before - not when he won the election, not when he raved about Kurt's first competition solo, not even in the wedding pictures Kurt showed him the day after the ceremony.� This was different.� This was huge.

This was Kurt's entire life.� This was everything his boyfriend had been wanting since he was little, everything he had fought for so hard.� "What did he say?� What did he-...God, I can't believe I wasn't there."� He wanted to see that face light up, that grin- he loved when Kurt smiled, and he hadn't seen very much of it lately.� He loved when Kurt was excited about something, he could illuminate Manhattan with his energy when things were right, and he should have been able to be there.� To get his boyfriend flowers and present them to him with a song in his honour - in front of everyone, because it was exactly the kind of romantic spectacle Kurt would love.� A giant 'screw you' to every person who tried to beat him down and a triumphant charge into the future.� He was so unspeakably, undeniably proud of his boyfriend and he wanted everyone in the world to know that.

"You'll see him after school.� Believe me, I'm pretty sure he's still gonna be excited about it." Mr. Hummel almost laughed, still beaming with pride, and Blaine had half a mind to ask him to drive them both back over to the school so he could give his boyfriend the world's biggest congratulatory hug.�

But Mr. Hummel was right...Kurt would still be excited when he got there in a few hours.� He would be excited about it all week, Blaine knew that - and a well he should be.

"I know you're the only reason he sent it in."� The statement seemed to come out of nowhere, snapping Blaine from his thought as he imagined the way Kurt's eyes - those gorgeous eyes - went wide for a second, then he started smiling so widely that they started to squint a little, and he got teary and flushed pink and couldn't stop laughing or grinning.� He tilted his head a little, looking at Mr. Hummel with confusion, but he added, "He thought he wasn't gonna get it, and I know he almost didn't try.� And I know it's 'cause of you he did."

Blaine blinked, not sure where that had come from, and quickly corrected, "No.� It's his dream, I just encouraged it."

"He was down on himself about everything this fall, and I thought I was gonna have to send it in after he went to bed or something, but you got him to do it on his own.� You made sure he didn't give up, no matter how hard people around here beat him down."

Blaine smiled faintly - it was nice that Mr. Hummel thought that well of him, but he couldn't take credit for the strength of the best person he knew.� "I didn't do anything but make sure he knew there were people rooting for him.� He's always been able to handle the rest."� Because it's true.� Kurt could handle the bullies at McKinley as long as he knew someone believed in him.� He could take care of himself when he went back as long as someone had his back - for however illegitimate the reasons.� He could be stronger than anyone would ever guess.

...but now he wouldn't have to anymore.� Now Kurt could just be happy and wouldn't need anyone to reassure him or buck him up or remind him how much worse he'd been through.� He wouldn't need anyone to step between him and slushies anymore because he would be exactly where he wanted to be.� He couldn't imagine a better feeling than that.

Except being able to share it with Kurt as soon as school ended.

"Yeah, he's pretty great that way," Mr. Hummel replied with a look Blaine couldn't quite read, but there was pride in there - that much he was sure of.� "I gotta get back to the shop.� Take it easy, kid."� He clapped Blaine's shoulder and pointed at the patch-covered eye, then departed with a smile that said everything was good now.� That bullies or no bullies, whatever the result of the student elections, no matter how many people stared or insulted or vandalized...this made everything worth it.� It was better than good now - it was fantastic.

Blaine couldn't help but agree.