“Come on. I’ll buy you lunch.” Blaine says with a sad smile, patting Kurt on the shoulder. They walk together down the stairs, towards the cafeteria, and Kurt can’t help but smile just a little bit. Yeah, all of this shit with Karofsky is really depressing him, but at least he has Blaine. He may still be getting bullied, but now he has someone who truly understands what he’s going through.
Blaine steals a glance at Kurt. He sees the pain in Kurt’s eyes. He sees all the emotions Kurt is hiding behind that small smile. Oh, how he wishes he could make all the hurt disappear.

They get to the doors of the cafeteria and Blaine stops. He grabs Kurt’s arm and pulls him right past the doors, and down the hall.

“Forget lunch, let’s go for a drive. You need to get out of this school for a while.” Blaine smiles, putting his hand in Kurt’s. He pulls him out the front doors and towards his car in the student parking lot.

“What? But I have class and-”

“Forget class; let’s just get out of here for a while. It’ll be fun. And fun is just what you need right about now.”

“But, what- where are we going? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there aren’t a lot of ‘fun’ places in here in Lima.”

“Oh I’ve noticed, believe me. But I’m sure we can find something to do.” Blaine unlocks the doors, and being the gentlemen he is, opens the passenger side for Kurt, motioning for him to enter.

Kurt hesitates for a moment, looking back at the school. His dad wouldn’t want him to skip... But he really isn’t in the mood to suffer through the rest of the day at that hell hole. Blaine’s right, he needs to escape for a while. Even if it’s only for an hour or two.

Once Kurt is seated, Blaine closes the door, and walks over to the driver’s side.

They pull out of the parking lot and drive down the street in a comfortable silence. Kurt stares out the window at the passing scenery, and Blaine stares at the road ahead.
Where are they going? Maybe he should pick somewhere. Kurt was right though, there isn’t really anywhere to go. But they can’t just drive aimlessly forever.
Or can they? Hmm. Yeah, sure they can.

Blaine picks up a CD, puts it into the player. He skips a few tracks, smirks at Kurt, and starts singing along as the song starts to play.

“YOU’RE ON THE PHONE WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND SHE’S UPSET. SHE’S GOING OFF ABOUT SOMETHING THAT YOU SAID. CAUSE SHE DOESN’T GET YOUR HUMOR LIKE IIIIII DOOOOOOOO.” Blaine sings, or more accurately, screams. He doesn’t seem to be paying attention to how he sounds; he’s just making noise for the sake of making noise.

“Really Blaine? Taylor Swift?” Kurt laughs and watches as Blaine starts adding dance moves to the song.

“Come one Kurt, let your hair down! Sing with me!”
Kurt smiles and reluctantly jumps into the chorus with Blaine.

“IF YOU COULD SEE THAT I’M THE ONE THAT UNDERSTANDS YOU, BEEN THERE ALL ALONG AND WHY CAN’T YOU SEEEEEEEEE. YOU BELONG WITH MEEEEEEE.”

As they sing Kurt feels his worries slowly dissolve. They roll down the windows, letting the cool autumn breeze enter the car. They haven’t even been driving for long, but Kurt already feels a lot better. He feels happier. He feels... free. In this moment, there are no bullies. Karofsky doesn’t exist. Nothing exists.

Only Kurt, Blaine, and the wide open road.

xXx

They drive for an hour, just talking, laughing and singing, when Blaine decides to ask about a destination.

“I told you there were no fun places here!” Kurt laughs watching as Blaine mindlessly makes another left turn.

“Well... Let’s just park somewhere. I need to stretch my legs. Too much sitting.” Blaine pulls into the first parking lot he sees and parks the car.
“Wal-mart. Nice choice.” Kurt laughs when Blaine finally realises where they are.

“Awesome! I love this place! Come on Kurt, let’s go shopping!!”

Kurt’s jaw drops.

“Do you seriously expect me to shop at a store like this? Have you even met me? I would never be caught dead in this place!”

Blaine laughs loudly and opens his door, motioning for Kurt to do the same. “We’re not going to buy you a new wardrobe or anything, don’t worry. Let’s just buy some food, I’m starving!”

Kurt glares at Blaine, but hops out anyways. They walk into the store and Blaine immediately runs off to get a cart. Kurt follows, staring at the shelves of discount products. He smiles shyly as a worker greets him to the store. That must be a horrible job, Kurt thinks as he catches up to Blaine.

“So what’re you hungry for Kurt?” Blaine asks making his way to the shelves full of snacks you would find in a fourth graders lunch box.

“I could honestly care less at the moment. I’m not very hungry anyways. I had a big breakfast.” Kurt replies, with a lazy wave of his hand. “I’ll eat whatever you pick.”

“Fruit Gushers it is!” Blaine replies happily, picking up three different boxes of Fruit Gushers and dumping them in the cart. “Oh and we should get some Gold Fish as well,”

Kurt laughs as Blaine runs down the aisle to get the other snacks, pushing the cart to catch up to his friend. Blaine puts the boxes into the corner of the cart and then hops in, seating himself to face Kurt.
“Blaine, what the hell are you doing?” Kurt tries, and fails, to hide a giggle.

“I haven’t ridden in one of these bad boys in forever. I’ve missed it a lot actually. Come on Kurt! Let’s go get juice boxes! There’s some in the next aisle over.”
“You know, for a rich preppy private school boy, you really know your way around this place.” Kurt replies with a smirk.

“What can I say? I love Wal-mart! Great quality items, at low, low prices!” Blaine flashes a smile worthy of a cheap commercial and Kurt shakes his head in a mix of embarrassment and amusement.

After picking out three different kinds of juice, Kurt decides they have enough food. It’s not the healthiest lunch in the world, but Blaine seems pleased with their choices. As Kurt pushes Blaine and the cart through the store, he can’t help but stare at the pile of cheap fabric Wal-lmart calls a clothing section.

“Ugh. Is that what they call clothing here? Tsk tsk.” Kurt crosses his arms in disappointment walking up to the cheap sweaters, and ten dollar jeans the store has on display. Blaine hops out of the cart and picks a sweater of the nearest rack.

“Oh come on Kurt, it’s not that bad!”

Kurt stares at Blaine sceptically, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay well... Maybe it’s not up to your standard, but really, it’s a pretty nice sweater.” Blaine laughs at the way Kurt just stares at him. “Fine, fine you’ve made your point. Let’s go.” Blaine turns on his heel and begins pushing the cart towards the checkout.

Kurt lets his eyes scan over the poorly designed t-shirts once more, comparing them to his own. Hah, like any of this stuff would even compare to Kurt’s clothes. I mean, just look at this cardigan. It’s so- I mean, it’s- It’s stupid! Well... Hmm. It’s actually not all that bad. It’s actually kind of nice. This shade of blue would look cool against his black skinny jeans. And if he wears the white v-neck he owns with it, it would look really nice.
No. He can’t get carried away here, he could never afford-

Wait. This is Wal-mart. Not one of the high end shops he usually browses. He checks the price tag, and- Six bucks? Wow.

Blaine notices Kurt isn’t standing next to him, and turns back to search for him. Blaine’s eyes find Kurt quickly. Kurt always did stand out in a crowd. What’s he doing back there? Is he actually considering buying that? But, Kurt would never do that! Didn’t he just say he wouldn’t be caught dead in a store like this? Blaine smirks and turns the cart around, making his way back to Kurt.

“What’cha dooooiiinnn?” Blaine asks Kurt innocently. Kurt blushes and quickly hides the cardigan in the pile of rumpled up t-shirts in front of him.

“What? Me? Nothing. No, I wasn’t doing anything. Hah, why- why would you think I was doing anything!”

“It really is a nice cardigan, isn’t it Kurt?” Blaine smiles smugly.

“I guess it- It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen. I mean, compared to the rest of this junk, it’s-” Kurt looks up to see Blaine giggling. “Oh shut up. It’s nice, but I-It’s not something I would buy. Come on, let’s go.”
Kurt turns and walks away quickly, embarrassed that he would even be remotely interested in something from Wal-mart of all places.

Blaine picks up the cardigan Kurt was looking at. It really is quite nice. Maybe he should buy it for Kurt. It would really make his eyes stand out...Yeah, Kurt’s eyes would looks really nice against this shade of blue. Hell, Kurt’s eyes look great all the time. Kurt’s eyes are perfect. Kurt is perfect actually. Yeah, Kurt really was perfect in Blaine’s opinion...

Blaine shakes his head to bring himself back to reality, and follows after Kurt, with the article of clothing held tightly in his hand.

Sometimes being ‘just friends’ with Kurt Hummel was the most difficult thing in the world.

xXx

Kurt and Blaine are seated on the hood of Blaine’s car. They’re parked in a random field on the outskirts of town, in the shade of a tall tree. Usually Kurt hated living in Ohio, but it really was quite beautiful. The sun was peeking out from behind a couple of fluffy white clouds.

The leaves of the tree were falling all around them, floating in the chilly autumn breeze, covering the ground with beautiful browns, yellows, and reds. The only noises besides the rustle of branches, and chirping of birds, was Blaine chewing loudly on the fish shaped crackers they’d bought earlier.

Kurt just sat there, hugging his knees against his chest, cheek resting against them, as he and admired his friend.
His strong jaw line. His dark slicked back hair. His beautiful, mesmerising eyes. Kurt swears, Blaine has the most beautiful eyes in the whole world. Kurt traces every part of Blaine’s face. Taking his time to take in every little detail. He stops on Blaine’s perfect, light pink lips. They look so cute when he’s chewing like that. Kurt wonders what it would be like to kiss those lips. To have them as his own. To have all of Blaine for his own. Kurt would gladly let Blaine have all of him, if he would get all of Blaine in return...

“...Why are you staring at me? Is there something on my face? Kurt? Kurt can you hear me?” Blaine waves a hand in front of Kurt’s face and smiles.

Kurt jumps a little in surprise as he’s thrown back into reality.

“Oh, yeah sorry, I was just... spacing out a bit.” Kurt blushes when he thinks of how creepy he must seem. He was just staring at Blaine... Who does that?! Come on Kurt, get it together.

Blaine just smiles one of those ‘don’t worry about it’ kind of simles. He stands, picking up the trash they let fall to the ground, and putting it into a plastic bag to throw away later.

“Hey Blaine?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

Blaine stops moving and looks at Kurt. He looks... happy. He loves when Kurt is Happy. “I told you didn’t have to thank me, I’m the one that wanted all of this crap, so I paid for it. As for that cardigan, I knew there was no chance in hell you would ‘waste’ your money at a Wal-mart, and I could tell you wanted it so-”

“Blaine shut up, that’s not what I’m thanking you for.” Kurt laughs, as a confused expression forms on Blaine’s face. “I meant, thanks. For... Well, for everything. Thank you for confronting Karofsky with me-”

“Well, what are friends for-”

Kurt holds up a hand to shut Blaine up.

Blaine smiles and allows Kurt to continue.

“Thank you for... for being my friend. Thank you for listening to me complain about everything, from ignorant bullies, to expensive scarves. Thank you for... today. Thank you for pulling me away from school. I mean, if you hadn’t I would be at home right now, sulking over what a miserable day I had... You really cheered me up. When we were sitting on the stairs at McKinley, I thought I was going to be depressed for weeks. But, singing with you in the car, shopping at Wal-mart, and just... Just sitting here. With you. It’s really pulled me out of that depression. I just... Thank you, Blaine.”

Blaine smiles as Kurt finishes his speech and stares at him. He stares deep into Kurt’s crystal blue eyes and feels his heart swell with pride. He can see the happiness behind those eyes, and he knows he’s the one that gave Kurt that happiness.

Blaine sets aside the bag full of trash and walks to stand in front of his friend. He grabs Kurt’s hands and pulls him off the car to stand in front of him.

“You never have to thank me for being your friend.” Blaine says quietly.

Kurt smiles and lets a tear fall down his cheek. Blaine wipes it away gently with his thumb, and pulls Kurt into a warm hug, wrapping his arms lovingly around the taller boys neck.

Kurt just stands there, frozen in shock. Blaine was hugging him. This feels... right. He wraps his arms around Blaine’s slender waste, closing his eyes, and nuzzling his nose into Blaine’s neck, breathing in the scent that was so uniquely Blaine.