One night, as a fragile sobbing became louder than the sound of the gentle drumming of rain on the roof, Blaine woke up. He knew this whimper so well. He had been a bit scared as he had heard it for the first time, weeks ago. But now, since he had heard it so often, almost every night, he was used to it.
"Kurt?", he whispered, looking into the dark room. He couldn't see any contours, since it was such a dark and rainy night. Blaine stood up and groped his way along the wall, until he felt the other bed.
"What's wrong?", he asked, but the sobbing just continued, without explaining itself. Slowly, Blaine gripped the blankets, lifted them up and crawled under them.
"Did you have a bad dream again?"
Kurt didn't say anything, he just gripped Blaine's shirt and pulled himself closer to his best friend. This one winced, as he felt the cold and trembling body.
"You're cold as ice," he whispered and began to stroke Kurt's back, trying to warm and soothe him at the same time. Since meeting each other, they had been friends. When Kurt came to the orphanage, he was so shy and sad and Blaine didn't know why, but he felt miserable, by looking at him, when he seems to be so heartbroken. That's why Blaine started to talk to him, he was the only one who talked to Kurt. The others never wanted to let him play with them, they made fun of him, because he was new there. Because he had lost his mother and most of them never had something like a mother. Blaine always tried to stand up for his new friend, so they started to segregate Blaine too. Blaine was used to this kind of treatment, since he had been in so many different orphanages and had lots of enemies there. He never had a mum or a dad and for his eight years, he was very mature ... and maybe a bit too thoughtful as you should be as a child.
"I miss her," Kurt started with a wobbly voice and Blaine hugged him even more. Kurt wasn't a child who talked a lot. Although they were friends, he barely talked to Blaine, but they played and sometimes Kurt would read something to Blaine, out of his favourite book. A book of fairytales. Then Kurt would change his character. He always sounded so happy when he read those stories and after finishing one of them, he always said: 'My mum used to read that to me' and then his eyes became sad again.
"I know," Blaine responded.
"What's going on there? Is Baby crying again?", a loud voice asked in the dark room. There were plenty beds, but Blaine knew the voice.
"Shut up, Thomas! We all know that you're just jealous that he lost something you never had!"
Kurt stopped trembling and crying. He was too scared to move, or even to breathe, especially, when someone turned on the light.
"What is going on?", Mrs. Peters asked and looked around. With a cold gaze, she stared at Blaine, who swallowed. It is forbidden to share a bed with someone, he knew that, but he always crawled to Kurt, when this one was crying. Unfortunately, this night, she catched them. Holding her cold gaze, Blaine stood slowly up, and went into his own bed, while the others had woken up and stared at him.
Kurt brushed his tears away and sat up.
"I was crying and he tried to-"
"I saw what he was trying to," Mrs. Peters interrupted Kurt and walked to Blaine's bed. Kurt's heart skipped a beat, or two beats, or it stopped beating. He felt even more horrible, then a few moments ago.
"You all know that we won't tolerate sodomy."
Kurt knitted his brows. Although, he was nine years old, he had no idea what this woman was aiming at. He was just lying in bed with his best friend. Why was she speaking of sodomy?
"I'm sorry," Blaine mumbled, knowing that there was nothing to feel sorry about. But he said sorry and hoped to escape the punishment.
"Bend over your bed, and you guys watch!", she yelled into the room and Kurt started shaking again. Blaine took a deep breath, stood up and bent over his bed, with his face to Kurt. He gave him a wink and held his hand in front of his eyes, symbolizing, that Kurt shouldn't watch. Then, he turned his face to the side and gripped the blankets, when the woman gripped his pajama pants and pulled them down.
Suddenly, Kurt realized that she held a bamboo stick in her hands and without any warning, she started to hit Blaine's butt again and again, letting the poor boy cry out in pain.
"STOP IT!", Kurt screamed and jumped up. Tears ran down his face and his hands were clenched to fists. Mrs. Peters looked at him in wonder and stopped hitting Blaine.
"I-it's okay, Kurt," this one stuttered without looking up. "Ju-ust go into bed again."
"He just tried to cheer me up," he said, while Mrs. Peters approached to him. The other boys looked at each other and asked themselves whether Kurt was mad or brave.
"He didn't do anything wrong, I don't understand why-"
With a loud bang, she hit his face so hard, that he fell onto the ground and the world got dark.
Life continued, somehow, and every time when Kurt was crying, Blaine crawled into his bed. The other boys never said something mean to them again and when Mrs. Peters once asked one of them, whether Blaine had been in Kurt's bed once more, they said 'no'. Kurt didn't know why, but they let them both play with them again. They stopped being mean, but although Kurt and Blaine liked their new role, they spent the most time together. And sometime, Kurt started telling him about his mum and how she died in that car accident, and that he had an aunt, who was very nice, but she couldn't look after him. And Blaine told him, that he never had a family.
"May I be your family?", Kurt asked and Blaine just pulled him close and hugged him.
"Yes, Kurt. We are family."
One night, Blaine just went into Kurt's bed, without that Kurt had cried.
"What do you want?", Kurt asked, but snuggled up against him, without waiting for his response.
"I like you," a voice whispered and Kurt smiled into the darkness.
"I like you, too."
"We'll be best friends forever, am I right?"
"Yes," Kurt said, trying to understand why his heart was beating so loud. "Forever."
After saying that, Kurt felt something warm and soft on his forehead.
"I kissed you."
Kurt laughed.
"I felt it."
They became silent and just before Kurt was falling asleep, Blaine said something really weird.
"When I'm an adult, I'm gonna marry you."
"What?", Kurt laughed, but when he got that Blaine has been serious, he sighed.
"That's silly. We're two boys ..."
"You said you like me-"
"I do."
"Then, I see no problem."
Blaine wrapped his arms around Kurt and they fall asleep. Luckily, someone woke them up, the next morning, so that Blaine could jump into his own bed, before Mrs. Peters came.
The saddest day of his whole life (after the death of his mum) was the day Blaine left. On the one hand, Kurt was so sad, knowing how much he will miss his best friend, but on the other hand, he felt so happy for him, because he finally found a family and a place where he could find some love and be happy.
"I'm not going! I don't want to leave you!"
"Don't be stupid!", Kurt said and stroked Blaine's curls, trying to hold back his tears. "You can visit me and write me."
"You could come with us ..."
"You heard how they said, that they only want one child."
Blaine lowered his head. He was 13 years old now and couldn't understand why he should go with a strange family, just to find his own corner of the sky. He has wished to find a family, for so long, but then he found Kurt and he became his family. Kurt became his sky.
"I'm not going.", he said again and shook his head. They were standing in the bathroom and Kurt slowly looked around, to see whether they are alone. Then, he kissed Blaine onto his forehead and smiled as Blaine looked to him, with watery eyes.
"I kissed you," Kurt said, smiling and after hearing that, Blaine just had to grip his hands and kiss Kurt on his lips.
Kurt took a deep breath and pulled his hands away, looking to the ground, with a confused expression.
"Go, Blaine. Be happy," he meant and turned away.
"I'm gonna pick you up, to marry you some day. And I will write you-"
"We're two boys, Blaine. We won't get married and I don't want you to write me. Just forget me."
Blaine's lips started to quiver and tears flooded his eyes. He couldn't understand why Kurt had been so harsh. He couldn't understand why he had to go. He couldn't understand why Mrs. Peters never wanted them to sleep in the same bed. All he understood in this moment was, that he couldn't survive one day or one night, without Kurt next to his side.
"Here you are! It's time," Mrs. Peters suddenly said, gripped Blaine's arm and pulled him out of the bathroom.
"I'm gonna write you, every day," he repeated himself.
He hoped for Kurt to turn around, but he didn't. He hoped for Kurt to come out of the building to wave at him, when he leaved, like every other boy did. Nervously, he sat on the backseat of the car and looked at the house, when the car started to drive away. He couldn't wave at them, he couldn't move, he just asked himself, where Kurt had been and why he didn't come to wave. All he could do was crying for the next couple of weeks.
Blaine wrote Kurt. A letter a day, at the beginning. But he started to feel more and more frustrated, when he didn't get any response. Then, he wrote a letter each week, each month and later each year. One day, he thought about that he could just ask his new parents (whose were very nice to him) whether they could visit the orphanage, to see Kurt. But then, he remembered what Kurt said, and how angry he seemed to be, when they met the last time, so he refused to come back to say sorry. He thought, Kurt should say sorry and dear god, at least answer one letter! So Blaine grew up quickly and became a very moody teen.
Kurt waited for a letter. He waited every day of the year. But he never got one. Never. He thought that Blaine may have forgotten him, in his new life, with new friends. And of course, Kurt was happy for him, but it was a sad kind of happy. He missed Blaine and started crying at night again. He stared hating himself again, started doing self-harm. The other teens, were still kind to him, but he never saw them as 'friends'. He barely spoke to them, he hadn't anybody to tell his bad dreams, his longings or fears. Kurt turned into his old self again until that day, when Mrs. Peters died and a new woman suddenly stood in the hallway.
"Which one of you is Kurt?", she asked and Kurt raised his hand. "Here," she said and handed him a package over. "That old, mean Lady hid letters which belong to you."
Kurt stared at them with wide eyes.
"I heard what was going on here and I guess Mrs. Peters has been crazy. I want us to be open and a family as long as every one of you will find their own."
Kurt ran upstairs and started reading all the letters. His heart beat faster, as he saw the date of the first one. Blaine sent him the first letter four years ago.
With watery eyes, Kurt made the decision to write back.
His 'parents' saw Blaine never as happy, as when they gave him a letter from a boy from the orphanage. Blaine laughed and cried and smiled for the rest of the day.
I miss you more than words can say. I'm crying every night and it feels even worse, than in those days. I miss mum AND you. Sorry, for telling you the things I did in the bathroom! Sorry.
I love you.
K.
That was Blaine's favourite part. He read it again and again and started to write Kurt regularly, happy every week, when Kurt's letter reached him.
Kurt was extremely nervous and looked at himself in the mirror. He couldn't believe it. Two weeks, after he had sent Blaine the first letter, a family came and took Kurt with them. They gave him everything. A dog, a big room, books, clothes, and most of all – they gave him love. And they wanted him to go to this nice private school, Dalton.
It was his first day and he walked down the beautiful stairs. Everything felt so unreal. He lived like a poor child, almost his whole life and now – the world seemed to be open. He couldn't wait to tell Blaine the news. The bell rang and he had no clue where he had to go, so he decided to ask a random stranger for the way.
"Excuse me," he said and a guy with dark brown, almost black curly hair stopped and turned around, looking up to him, still standing on the stairs.
Both of them weren't able to speak. They just looked at each other, scrutinizing each other, until Blaine laughed out loud, walked to him and hugged him.
"You found me," he said breathless and inhaled Kurt's scent. This one couldn't respond to the touch. He knew that Blaine also went to a private school, but he had no idea ... All he could say was: "I wasn't looking for you."
"But you found me, nonetheless," Blaine said, smiled and ended the hug.
Kurt didn't know why he saw a little boy in front of him. The boy, he had seen, nine years ago when his mum had died and he had to go into that cold house. He saw the boy, which had been standing in front of him and smiled at him, when he arrived. He saw the boy, who stroked his back so many times and crawled into his bed, trying to soothe him. He saw the boy, he fell in love with. Now, there is just a different body in front of him, but all he can see are these warm hazelnut brown eyes, which look at him, like they had never seen something more beautiful than him.
"You finally found someone? That's so beautiful! I am so happy for you! You look so handsome in that blazer ... I was so happy, when you finally wrote back," Blaine started, took Kurt's hand and pulled him after him. "And gosh, can you believe it? It's like destiny, that he meet again, don't you think?"
"Well, I-"
"And I won't leave you again," he meant, kept standing and looked to Kurt.
"Blaine w-would you ... release my hand ... please?"
Blaine stared at Kurt's flushed cheeks and had to smirk about it. Somehow, something changed between them, he still felt so close to Kurt, but it was different. He felt a bit ashamed by holding his hand, ashamed by looking Kurt all over, ashamed by feeling the urge to kiss him.
"I won't release your hand," he meant forceful and took his other one, too.
"They stare at us ..."
"I don't care!"
"Blaine!"
"Kurt!"
Kurt shook his head and laughed.
"You haven't changed," Kurt mumbles. "You're still a child."
"To the contrary. I'm an adult now."
Kurt swallowed hard and dropped his head, feeling how his body felt suddenly much more warmer.
"I hope you remember what I said about what I'm gonna do when I'm an adult."
Hesitantly, Kurt nodded his head and when he looked up again, he realized Blaine's watery eyes and squeezed his hands a bit more.
"I missed you so much," he muttered. "Every day, every night. Always."
"I missed you, too," Kurt whispered and bent to Blaine, to hug him. He wanted to say so much more, but he didn't know what, since words didn't seem to be enough to express his feels, so he just ended the embrace, looked into Blaine's eyes for a moment and could feel the love in them. He smiled then, and kissed Blaine fondly.
After the kiss, he said: "I kissed you."
Blaine blinked back his tears and laughed. "I felt that."
"We're still two guys," Kurt remarked, scanning the ground.
"You know what? I don't care about that! I tried to forget you ... Really. I had plenty girlfriends, I always thought about you and I'm gonna die when you don't want to marry me."
"Well, I think marriage is maybe a step too far .. uhm ... we could start with dating?"
Blaine smiled and started to pull Kurt after him again, towards the classrooms, that they won't be late.
"Okay, so boyfriend, my dear, how could you dare to grow taller than me?"
Kurt just laughed, and stepped closer to Blaine, whispering into his ear.
"I love you."
He heard Blaine's beautiful laugh and they arrived to the classroom, when Blaine turned around to him.
"You better do. That would be helpful, when we're married."
Kurt rolled his eyes, but laughed and smiled at Blaine, liking the thought of that.
