A/N: So this one is a little longer, and yes by a little I mean really long. :) Feedback is alway welcomed!

Chapter 2

"Honey, are you okay?"

Angela Anderson asked from the kitchen as Blaine turned the TV on. He had been extremely quiet ever since he got back from the mine, she didn't blame him. She remembered how much Blaine closed himself up when things were getting bad, she still pictured a little boy with curly hair hiding in the darkness of his closet a few hours before his brother's first reaping, or how hard it had been for him to start working at the mine because he had always hated darkness. It was like he built these huge walls around himself that didn't allow entrance to anyone, not even her. And those were the days she missed Cooper the most, Angela loved Blaine with all his heart, but in days like these she didn't know what to do, Blaine didn't talk, he barely ate and the way he just looked down all the time with not even a tiny smile on his face, was almost unbearable. But Cooper had always had something more, something special that gained Blaine's confidence, and when darkness seemed to consume Blaine, his brother had always been able to peek through the barrier that divided him from everyone else. He knew how to get to him, he knew how to get Blaine back to them.

But Cooper was gone and Angela missed him every day, every hour something reminded her of him, and it broke his heart the she had just lost one son and the pain she felt had drawn her further and further from Blaine. It wasn't fair for him, Blaine deserved someone to care about him all the time, someone to understand him and to reach a hand to show him he wasn't alone, but she couldn't do that, because he had Cooper's eyes and the same smile and the way he scrunched his nose when he was mad, he reminded her of Cooper and Angela just couldn't take that. But she could at least try. Try to reach Blaine herself, try to be a mother to him, even if she felt like dying inside.

The food was long forgotten over the kitchen table, with long steps Angela reached the living room. Blaine was already there, sitting across the room in front of the TV, his hazel eyes fixated on the screen . The images displaying were terrifying. A 14 year old girl was being called as a tribute from district 10 along with a 17 year old boy, both of their faces were pale and they were staring to the crowd as if the answer for this hell was hiding between the sea of people.

"That's just cruel" she muttered softly taking a seat next to Blaine, he didn't even hear his mom entering the living room and even her soft voice startled him.

As though as he had pretended to be in front of Kurt, he was just as terrified as him , even the tiniest sound made him extremely nervous. No matter how hard he kept focusing on other things he still felt the need to run away, to run as fast and as far as he could and disappear. It had been at least three months since the last time he had felt like this. It had been after meeting Kurt at the fence, both were finished with the work of the day and after hiding twice of the peacekeepers guarding the border, they were sitting under a tree watching as the sun disappeared on the horizon when Kurt had gathered the courage to tell him he had requested a tessera. Kurt had kept his face calmed and he even pulled up a fake smile with the excuse of being happy because after his father´s heart attack he needed more food and giving it to him was enough to make Kurt feel okay about the whole situation. A tesserae meant receiving the right to collect grains and oil rations once a month for a year, it would have been a reason to be happy for Kurt if it didn't also mean that his name was going to be added one more time to the reaping. He had only remained silent and smiled at Kurt. The spent at least one more hour together before leaving to their respective homes, well, at least Kurt was going home, Blaine was just going to an almost empty house where her mother would be cooking the little food they had left, his father would still be in the mine because of his double turn and he would just get to his room and try to get some sleep before his mind drifted to thinking about Kurt and his family and Cooper of course because he could already feel the barrier he was building around him, a barrier to keep himself from getting attached to people, to keep his mother and father out of reach, because they didn't have the time to think about his problems, it was enough with them keeping Blaine under a roof, he didn't want anything more from them, and now he also needed to keep Kurt away, because he was too good, and since day one he had stomped inside Blaine's life with his beautiful smile and his gorgeous and earnest blue eyes, and even thought Blaine couldn't stand the idea of letting Kurt go, he had to, he couldn't get close to him and then see him leave, just like Cooper, because losing Cooper had been his own fault, and now he didn't have his brother anymore, no one was there to reach out and try to get him. He was alone and things were better that way.

Blaine shook his head and tried to empty his mind from all the memories. But it was almost impossible, he could see it, Kurt's name twice inside those glass balls, he could picture a hand picking his name and calling it out loud for the whole town to hear, he even saw Kurt's face and it killed him, because there was nothing he could do to protect him.

As the tributes from district ten were escorted inside a building the scene changed. The camera was focused on a tall woman in front a massive amount of people, most of them kids, inside a roped-off area. The title under the image read "District 11-Reaping".

Blaine took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"It's going to be okay darling" her mother whispered grabbing his hand and Blaine had almost forgotten she was there.

Blaine felt his heart clenching, he knew her mother was trying to comfort him, but even with her soft hand clutching his he didn't allow himself to believe. Believing was for naïve people, and Blaine couldn't believe anymore.

Kurt Hummel had always been really proud of himself, of the way he managed to hide his fears and avoid any kind of human interaction that could risk his plan of "don't let people in". Year by year he kept becoming better and better at pretending everything was okay, he had even learned some new tricks like smiling every now and then so his dad didn't notice how quiet he got when someone tried to approach him, or talking a lot while having dinner so neither his father, nor Carole made any kind of questions, It was smart, and easy, and Kurt had become so used to it that sometimes it even felt normal. The fake smiles felt almost real and the talking with Carole and Finn felt almost like a real family. But no matter how much Kurt tried to believe that maybe happiness for him was possible, deep inside him he knew it was stupid to believe in things like that, it was not true, he was just acting, because his dad didn't need any more problems, no one did, and he was just one boy whose problems and doubts weren't important.

"This is scary as shit" a voice said quietly next to Kurt. He looked up and found his step brother looking at him intently.

"Yeah, it is" Kurt whispered softly. He usually talked a lot with Finn, not as a trick, but as a real conversation. He was the only one that really understood the fear of being standing between all those kids waiting for a name to be picked and praying for it not to be theirs. He and Carole had arrived to their life out of nowhere, one day his father had gone to work and the next one this huge 17 year old appeared at the doorstep with a short brunet woman smiling from ear to ear, from that point on everything was just some kind of sappy love comedy. But Kurt was grateful, he couldn't imagine his life without Finn or Carole anymore, they were now his family and even though he didn't believe in happiness for him, he did believe in happiness for others, and Carole made his father happy, so that was enough for him.

"Welcome everybody" a voice announced. All the kids around Kurt, including Finn stood straight, their eyes fixated on the glass balls in front of them.

Here we go. Kurt whispered to himself.

The Capitol sponsor gave a ten minutes speech that almost caused Kurt to fall asleep, then spent five more minutes explaining the instructions for the reaping and finally reached the part where she picked the names.

"And the female tribute from district eleven is…" the old lady with blonde, voluminous hair said while grabbing one of the white pieces of paper from one of the glass balls, slowly she opened it and sing sang the name excitedly " Mercedes Jones!"

The rest of the girls in the crowd exhaled a relieved sigh and hugged each other in joy, all except one, a short girl, with dark chocolate skin and curly hair picked up by a head band, she was looking down, her arms on each side of her body. With tiny steps she reached the front of the town square and stood next to the sponsor, her eyes still looking to the floor.

The lady continued almost ignoring how the girl next to her started sobbing quietly. Her thin pale hand grabbed a piece of paper. Kurt's breath hitched, he knew it was stupid to be nervous about having his name twice inside those glass balls, there were guys with even more chances of getting picked, but he still felt his head spinning. "And the male tribute is…"

The following words barely reached Kurt's ears, everything was muffled by the noise of other kids around him sighing in relieve and the voices inside his own head made it even harder to understand what had just happened, maybe he had just heard wrong, maybe he was just dreaming and everything was a cruel nightmare. "Kurt Hummel"

Kurt hear his name as a whisper, his whole body shivered when the tall capitol woman repeated his name loudly. But Kurt couldn't move, it seemed as if his feet had been glued to the floor. Finn was still standing next to him, his hands covering his face, and suddenly he looks so small and scared, and Kurt didn't know why.

"I'm not letting you go" Finn mumbled weakly, his voice trembling.

"Finn-"

But before his step brother could cut him off, two strong pair of arms grabbed him by each arm dragging him down to the front of the multitude, Finn followed them shouting and trying to reach the soldiers with the white uniforms, but it was useless.

"Let him go!" Finn exclaimed hysterically "He is my brother…please, I'll go for him!"

Those words took Kurt's breath away. Had Finn just offered himself, for him?

"What?" the blonde woman that was still standing in front of the crowd said, the words taking her by surprise as well "Are you volunteering for him?"

"Yes, I am!"

"No he is not!" Kurt interrupted "Finn, listen" he tried to talk calmly while fighting the soldiers grip "My dad, he can't do this alone okay? Please, I need you to be here for him, and your mom, they both need you, more than they need me!" It hurt Kurt to listen himself say that, but there was no lie on what he had just said. "Please Finn!"

Finn looked down, Kurt knew him well enough to notice how much this was hurting him, he saw it on the way he bit his lower lip and the way his hands were forming fists on each side of his body "Okay. I promise little brother" he whispered.

Kurt smiled a bitter smile and let the peacekeepers lead him back to the front of the town square. It felt like walking to a death sentence, and after all that's what the games were, Kurt knew deep down inside that he wouldn't come back, but he still faked a smile as he reached the podium and faced the cameras, he pretended to be okay for his dad, for Carole and Finn, and especially for the boy watching him through a screen a few miles from there, the same boy who promised Kurt everything was going to be okay. Kurt smiled for him, for Blaine, because now it was his turn to let him know he was going to be okay, even though he knew it was a lie.