“Ja… j’ai… j’ai un chat dans…”

“Come on, Blaine, you know this. It’s not that hard.”

“J’ai un chat dans… mon… pantalon.”

“Blaine…”

“What?”

“I don’t know what you were trying to say, but I’m fairly certain you do not have a cat in your pants.”

“… How do you know?”

“I think it would be pretty obvious.”

“Not if it were a really small cat.”

“Blaine…”

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and Kurt was sitting on Blaine’s bed, trying to teach him French, and so far, failing miserably. Because no matter what Blaine said, cats do not generally try to hide in people’s pants. Blaine sighed and let his head drop into the book in front of him.

“Kuuuuurt…,” he whined, “It’s too haaaaaard….”

“I’m sorry Blaine, but I’m not getting you off until you learn French well enough to pass your test tomorrow.”

Blaine blushed and glared at his boyfriend. “That is NOT what I meant!”

“Oh, I know,” Kurt replied. “But you’re really cute when you’re flustered. And besides, I bet it’s true now, isn’t it?” He laughed as Blaine’s face went even redder.

“What do I need to know French for anyway?” Blaine asked.

“Speaking in other languages is romantic. I’d love to talk to you in French, but you wouldn’t understand me.”

“Say something in French right now then.”

“Je t’aime, mon petit chou.”

Blaine smiled. “Je t’aime trop, Kurt,” he replied. “Wait… what does ‘mon petit chou’ mean?”

Kurt grinned at him. “It means ‘my little cabbage’”

“Cabbage??”

“It is a term of endearment, Blaine!”

“Well, fine then. I love you too, my little zucchini.”

“Zucchini?”  Kurt asked, raising his eyes at Blaine.

“Well, you used cabbage! I couldn’t go with some boring vegetable like a carrot, or a tomato.”

“Technically, a tomato is a fruit.”

“Technically, so is a zucchini.”

Kurt laughed, and pulled his boyfriend in for a kiss. Just as their lips met, Blaine’s bedroom door flew open with a bang, revealing a furious-looking Jim Anderson. Blaine jumped and pushed away from Kurt, glancing nervously between his boyfriend and his father.

“D-dad…” he stuttered. “You’re home… e-early…”

His father shot Blaine a look, making Blaine cower on his bed. “I want to see you in my office. Now.” Jim ordered, then turned to Kurt. “You.”

“Yes?” Kurt answered nervously.

“Get out of my house.”

“Dad!” Blaine protested, but his father just shot him another glare before turning and walking out the door, leaving the boys still sitting on Blaine’s bed, staring wide-eyed after him. Blaine turned to Kurt, meaning to apologize, but Kurt stopped him before he could even start.

“No. Don’t worry about it. I should be heading home anyway, I have to make dinner tonight.” Kurt tried to brush it off, but Blaine could tell that the encounter had hurt him. Kurt’s eyes were slightly downcast, trying not to meet Blaine’s, but Blaine put a hand under his chin, forcing his boyfriend to look at him.

“No Kurt, it’s not OK. My dad is an ignorant asshole, and I have half a mind to stay up here and make out with you until he comes back in, demanding to know where I am.”

Kurt chuckled a bit at that, but as tempting as the offer was, he didn’t want to push their luck. “No,” he sighed. “You need to go down there and talk to him. The last thing we want is to make things worse.” He stood up and held out a hand to help Blaine off the bed. Together they walked downstairs and paused at the door to say goodbye. “Call me later?” Kurt asked.

“Of course,” Blaine replied. Kurt turned to open the door, but Blaine pulled him in for another kiss before he left. He heard his father come up behind him and clear his throat, but he couldn’t resist holding the kiss out for a couple seconds longer. Finally they broke apart, and Kurt left, whispering “Good luck” as he walked out the door.

Blaine sighed and turned to face his father, but he had already walked away, so he headed through a doorway to the right and into his dad’s office. Jim was already sitting down behind the desk as if this was a formal business meeting, and not a chat with his son. He was apparently engrossed in some paper on his desk that he was reading and making notes on, but Blaine knew better. He was just trying to draw out Blaine’s discomfort, trying to show him who was in charge. Blaine made a move to sit down in the chair in front of the desk, but his father stopped him, simply saying “No,” before looking back at the paper.

Blaine stood there awkwardly for about a minute while his father read and made notes. When he finally looked up at his son, his gaze was calm, yet there was a glint of anger in his eyes that made Blaine nervous. When he spoke, it was as if he was speaking to a disobedient five-year-old. “I came home early today, hoping to spend a bit of quality time with my son. I thought we could work on the car in the garage.”

He actually sounded disappointed, but Blaine had to struggle to stop himself from rolling his eyes. His father didn’t care about spending “quality time” with him. Each time they went to work on that car, it was an excuse for his dad to start talking about girls with him, mentioning the “pretty, blond one” two doors down, or “that skinny girl who always has a tan”. But before he could say anything, his father continued: “And yet, I walk in to find you making out with some fag in my own house.”

Blaine winced at the word. “Don’t call him that!”

“What? A fag?” Jim responded. “Why not? It’s what he is, isn’t it? It’s what you are. Just a couple of filthy faggots bringing your abomination into my house.” His voice was cold, unflinching as he beat down his son, but Blaine refused to listen to him. He was sick of taking all of his father’s homophobic crap. Sick of feeling like a kicked puppy every time he had a conversation with his dad. Sick of having to hide himself in his own home.

“I don’t care what you say, dad. You can hate me all you want, but I love Kurt and nothing’s going to change that.”

Jim Anderson sighed, still looking furious. “You don’t love him, Blaine. I’ve tried to get through to you over and over again. You’re just confused. You’re going through a phase. You think you love him, but deluding yourself isn’t going to help you-”

“I DON’T NEED HELP!” Blaine snapped. “It’s NOT a phase! I love Kurt, and you can accept it or not, but I refuse to listen to this any longer!” He turned, about to storm out, but once again, his dad stopped him.

“I AM NOT FINISHED!” Blaine turned slowly, glaring at his father, who was now standing over the desk, looking dangerously angry. “Homosexuality is a sin, and you WILL NOT spread that filth in my home. This house belongs to God!”

“Fine, I’ll just go fuck Kurt at his place then.”

The room went silent as Blaine’s words sunk in. Blaine turned, about to leave again, fearing he had crossed some line. But before he could take a step, Jim reached forward, grabbed his son’s wrist hard enough to cut off the circulation and, spinning him around, slapped him hard across the face. Blaine stumbled back a few feet, his hand jumping up to press against the left side of his face, where the force of the blow had hit.  He glanced up at his dad in shock. They had fought many times before, but never had his dad hit him.

Jim was breathing heavily, looking slightly surprised at what he had just done, but his face showed no remorse. “You will stop seeing that boy immediately.” He said, voice cold and unforgiving.

“I can’t, dad, we go to school together.”

“You will not talk to him at school. You will not sit near him. And you will certainly not bring him home with you.”

“But dad…” Blaine protested.

“Or you can get out. Your choice.”

“Wh-what?”

“You heard me. Break up with him or get out. Now go.”

Blaine walked slowly backwards, still holding his hand to his face, as his father turned back to whatever pressing business he had been writing before. As soon as he got through the door, he ran back upstairs and into his room, locking the door behind him. Blaine collapsed on his bed, shoving the abandoned French homework off the edge as his whole body shook with sobs.

He couldn’t believe what had just happened. His dad wouldn’t really kick him out, would he? Blaine tried to tell himself it wasn’t true, but he knew better. His dad didn’t care about him. He hadn’t cared since the day Blaine came out to him. He didn’t want Blaine, he wanted a perfect, straight son. And if Blaine wouldn’t be that, then he was nothing but a disappointment in his dad’s eyes.

But he couldn’t break up with Kurt. Kurt was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Maybe at first Blaine had tried to act as a mentor of sorts, preaching “Courage” and encouraging him to stand up for himself. He tried to help Kurt do everything that he had never had the balls to do himself. And then Kurt took his words and acted on them. Blaine watched as Kurt stood up to Karofsky even when it made things worse. He saw Kurt be beaten down time and time again, and then return to McKinley even after all the crap the school had put him through. Kurt even tried to help Karofsky after everything the guy had done to him. Kurt was the strongest, bravest, most compassionate person Blaine had ever met. And Kurt may say that Blaine helped him do all that, but in reality, it was Kurt who saved him. The past year had made Blaine happier than he had ever been before, and there was no way he could lose that.

But what was he supposed to do? He had nowhere to go, no other family to take him in, and he certainly couldn’t beg one of his friends to take him in.

Blaine was shocked out of his thoughts by a little beeping sound going off inside his pocket. He fished his phone out to find a new text from Kurt:

How’d it go? Are you ok?? <3

Blaine smiled for a second at his boyfriend’s concern, but the grin dropped off his face quickly. He had no choice.  Blaine shoved the phone off his bed before rolling over again and crying himself to sleep.

__________

Kurt finished dinner quickly, then ran to his room to wait for Blaine to call. It had taken him almost an hour to drive home, so by the time he collapsed on his bed, staring at his phone, he had left Blaine’s house almost two hours previously. Kurt knew Blaine would wait to call him to make sure he wasn’t intruding on dinner, but after another half an hour, Kurt was tired of waiting and getting worried. If Blaine hadn’t called yet, it probably meant things didn’t go well, and he wasn’t in the mood to talk. Not wanting to force Blaine into a conversation, he sent him a quick text. Short, to the point, but enough to show that he was worried.

Kurt never got a reply that night.

__________

The next morning, Kurt walked into school and headed straight to his locker as usual. Blaine always met him there in the mornings, if he wasn’t waiting there already. Kurt had shown up rather early in his need to talk to Blaine about what had happened last night, but after twenty minutes, Blaine still had not shown up. Finally, Kurt was forced to leave when the bell rang for first period. Since Blaine was only a junior, they didn’t have any classes together, but Kurt would see him in lunch and talk to him then.

But Blaine never showed up for lunch. Kurt sat at their usual table, along with some of the other members of Glee club. Rachel was trying to tell him something about her plans for New York, and Tina was talking about some date she went on with Mike, but Kurt tuned them all out. He searched the cafeteria for his boyfriend the entire period, but saw no sign of him. With only a few minutes left in the period, Kurt decided to take action, cutting Rachel off in the middle of a rant about New York apartment prices.

“Hey, have any of you seen Blaine today?”

“Blaine?” Rachel asked. “No, I don’t have any classes with him, why?”

“It’s just… his dad came home early yesterday and found us kissing. He looked really mad. And then he said he needed to talk to Blaine and he kicked me out…”

Kurt had the attention of the whole table now. Some of his friends gave him looks of pity, and other looked angry, like they were going to hunt down Jim Anderson that second. “And I haven’t seen him all day, even though he always comes and finds me in the morning, and I’m just… worried about him.”

Surprisingly, Tina was the first to speak up. “Well, I saw him third period. We have history together. He seemed okay to me, except he was wearing make-up, which was weird. And-” she hesitated, unsure if she should continue. Kurt gave her a look encouraging her to go on, and she sighed. “His sleeve slipped at one point, and he had this weird bruise around his wrist. I noticed it because it was kind of dark, but I figured there were plenty of ways he could’ve gotten it.”

“Wanky!” Santana shouted. “What exactly were you two up to last night, Hummel?? Got a pair of handcuffs or something??”

“Shut up, Santana,” Rachel interrupted. “Clearly this is not something to joke about. It sounds to me like Blaine’s dad hurt him!”

Kurt heard nothing after Tina told him about the bruises. He felt anger boiling up in his stomach at whatever Blaine’s father had said or done to him, and vowed to find Blaine and talk to him by the end of the day.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. Kurt combed the hallways, looking for Blaine between every class for the rest of the day, but only caught sight of him once. He shouted his name and tried to run after him, but by the time he managed to fight his way through the crowd coming in the opposite direction, Blaine had disappeared. By the end of the day, Kurt was forced to give up, and drove home disappointed and depressed.

That night, Kurt tried calling Blaine, but he didn’t pick up. He called again, but Blaine didn’t answer, so he left a message. After eight unanswered calls and about twenty texts, Kurt was forced to accept that Blaine was ignoring him. He tried to sleep, but instead laid in bed, staring at the ceiling for hours, trying to ignore the growing pain in his gut at his boyfriend's withdrawal.

__________

Blaine was tired of avoiding Kurt and it had only been one day. He missed seeing his face, missed his voice, his smile. He had been looking over his shoulder all day, dodging down hallways whenever he caught a glimpse of his boyfriend. One time, Kurt had spotted him and called after him. It had taken all his willpower not to turn around and run into his arms. And then he kept calling him. Blaine wanted to pick the phone up so badly, but he knew he couldn’t risk it.

Even so, it was torturing him to deny himself the one thing that made him happier than he had ever been. If Kurt kept trying to talk to him, he knew his resolve would crack soon. So he decided to confront Kurt first. He had to make it clear to him that this could not continue.

He waited next to Kurt’s locker on Tuesday morning like he did every other day. It only took about 30 seconds or so for Kurt to show up, he knew his schedule so well. When Blaine saw the huge smile that broke across Kurt’s face, he almost turned and ran. He couldn’t do this. Not now, not ever. But he had no choice. Blaine had planned out everything he was going to say in his head the night before. It would hurt, yes, but Kurt would get over it soon enough. He would move on, even if Blaine never would. And maybe, someday, when Blaine was no longer under the control of his father, he could beg Kurt to take him back.

Blaine didn’t even realize Kurt was talking to him until his hand waved in front of his face. He blinked. “What?”

“I said, what happened to you yesterday? I was worried…” Kurt trailed off, a look of deep concern on his face.

Blaine took a deep breath, steeling himself for what had to be said. “I just needed some time alone, ok? You keep trying to spend every second with me, and I’m tired of it.” His voice was harsh and angry. He tried to make his eyes hard too, imagining that he was looking at his father with this kind of anger, and not the boy he was hopelessly in love with.

“Oh,” Kurt replied, looking hurt. “I- I’m sorry… I just… wanted to know what happened with your dad…” His voice trailed off, uncertain.

“Never mind that,” Blaine replied, brushing off Kurt’s concerns. “He just suggested that maybe we’re spending a bit too much time together.” Blaine paused before striking the blow. “And honestly, I agree with him.”

“Wait… What?”

“You’re stifling me Kurt. We see each other first thing in the morning, then between every class in the hallways, then at lunch, then glee club. And we go home together and spend time at one of our houses. And then sometimes we go out after all that! There’s no separation!” Blaine knew he has exaggerating. With him living almost an hour away, there was no way that kind of 24/7 togetherness would even be possible. But as long as it he made Kurt good and angry with him…

“What are you saying?” Kurt asked hesitantly, afraid of the answer.

“Kurt, I think… I think we need a break.”

“A b-break?” Kurt stuttered. “No! Blaine, look, if this is about your dad-”

“It has nothing to do with my dad!” Blaine lied, almost shouting in his sudden panic. He took a couple deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down. “I just think… maybe… we’d be better off… alone. For now.”

The expression on Kurt’s face made Blaine’s resolve waver for a moment. He looked absolutely crushed. His eyes stared at the ground, determinately not looking at Blaine as they started to fill with tears. His mouth kept moving, but nothing was coming out, and he shook his head, trying to deny what he was hearing. He looked up at Blaine then, opening his mouth to say something, when the look in his eyes hit Blaine like a bag of rocks. They were filled with utter devastation, and Blaine knew he couldn’t take one more second of it.

“I’ll see you in glee club,” he muttered, before turning around and pushing through the crowd of curious onlookers he hadn’t noticed had gathered.

Blaine heard Kurt calling after him, desperately crying out his name, but he didn't look back.

__________