A/N- I realize Lexi's story is really kind of sad... but sometimes sad things happen to people. I really hope you guys don't dislike this chapter. -gah selfconsiousness! - ALSO, the title for this kind of sad chapter is a reference to something Lex says...

btw, a lot of people put disclaimers on their stories and all i have to say is this: If I owned Glee [or Eureka or Pirates or Warehouse or LGW or anything else I write stories for], would I be writing fanfiction?

Two: Silly Things

Blaine was sitting next to Kurt in the basement of the Hummel-Hudson house. He couldn't believe it. Two years before, they hadn't known each other. Now here he was, with Kurt's arm around him and Kurt's cousin and her best friend sitting on the floor at their feet. Blaine had been completely surprised when he'd found out that Kurt was related to Lexi. It was painfully obvious when they were next to each other – there was a definite family resemblance. They had the same skin tone and almost the same hair colour. But separately, a person probably wouldn't recognize that they were related. He decided to tell Kurt this. "I can't believe you and Al are cousins. I mean, I know that you are, but it's so crazy to me. I've known Al for 4 years now, but if you guys hadn't told me you were related, I never would have guessed."

"I can't believe Lexi knew you and didn't even think to tell me you existed! A guy who's the same age as us and a talented performer and gay? She could've introduced us! We would've been good friends so much sooner," Kurt replied.

"It never occurred to me, Lou-Lou," Lexi said from the floor. Kurt jumped, as if he'd forgotten that she was there. She was still patiently working on her sewing project. It wasn't yet anything Blaine could identify. Danny was sitting next to her, reading Through the Looking glass. Every time there was a flash of lightning or a crack of thunder, she would grab his hand and he would say something to calm her down – especially after she realized that Finn was out somewhere, possibly driving.

It occurred to Blaine that he hadn't even noticed when they moved to the floor. It didn't really matter to him where they were sitting. He moved closer to Kurt. Kurt exclaimed, "Blaine, if you move any closer to me, you'll be sitting on me!"

"Awww," Lexi said automatically.

From behind his book, Danny said, "Blaine, please don't sit on Kurt. You'd probably break his legs."

"I don't weigh that much," Blaine protested.

Danny looked up. "I'm sure you don't, but Kurt seems so fragile. It'd be like sitting on a china doll or a glass ornament."

Kurt looked skeptically down at Danny, who shrugged and returned his eyes to his book. "Blainie," he said, "How many times have you been stuck with Lexi during thunderstorms?"

"I don't even know anymore. There was one year at camp where it rained almost the whole time. Lexi and I were almost always together that summer, but she didn't talk too much. Sometimes it was almost like she wasn't there."

Kurt nodded. "Sometimes she disappears when she's scared," he said. "Blaine, why don't you tell another story about camp? When you were talking about meeting Lex and Dan was probably the calmest and happiest you've looked all afternoon."

"First storm I ever spent with Ali and Danny," Blaine stated, "was about two days after I met them. I was sitting in the corner of the room and reading my script…"

Lexi was across the room, clinging to Danny's hand and jumping visibly every time there was even a hint of thunder. This intrigued Blaine; she was clearly scared of storms. He'd never met anybody quite like this girl. Looking back, Blaine almost saw it as a prediction of crazy to come that he recognized this so early – at that time, he'd hardly even spent any time with her. Blaine was watching her, not exactly on purpose, and she glanced over at him and tipped her head over to the side, as if she'd sensed someone looking at her.

Kurt interrupted the story, saying, "Blaine, if I may ask, why were you staring at my cousin? Sweetie, that's a little weird."

"You know how sometimes you're staring into space and then, poof, there's a person there? It was kind of like that, only I was a little more aware that she and Danny were there," explained Blaine. "Now zip it and let me tell the story."

Lexi pointed to Blaine and said something to Danny. They walked over to him and Lexi sat down on the floor next to him. "Hi Blaine," she said quietly. "You're sitting by yourself." Blaine nodded. "Do you not like thunderstorms? When we first heard thunder, you ran over here to sit in the corner." Blaine nodded again. "I don't really like storms, either. See, when I was little – well, I was six – Danny and I were out of town at an audition with Dan's mom and my parents were at home. They were driving home from a party in a really bad storm and the car slid off the road and hit a big tree." She paused. "My mom died in the crash and my dad died in the hospital later. Ever since, I've been terrified that I'd lose someone else in a storm or crash…" She trailed off.

Blaine finally spoke. "That makes the reason I hate storms seem really childish and stupid."

"I didn't mean to make you think that," Lexi apologized.

"It's alright," Blaine said. He explained his story about his friend's cousin getting hit by lightning. Lexi giggled. "What?" asked Blaine self consciously. He'd never really explained his fear of storms to anyone.

"I was just thinking about all those silly things that people used to tell me to explain storms," Lexi giggled. "Like that thunder was just angels bowling." He laughed a little bit, too.

There was a crack of thunder. Blaine jumped a little bit, but this time Lexi stayed still. "It's alright, Blaine." She said quietly. "Nothing can hurt us while we're inside." Danny looked at her questioningly.

"She said something else, then, but I don't remember what it was," Blaine said to Kurt. That wasn't actually true. He remembered very clearly that she had turned to her best friend and said, "I can be brave for other people." A girl who had a much more rational and legitimate reason to be scared of thunderstorms than he did had stayed calm so that he would feel safe. Blaine continued, "The storm cleared up not long after that."

"That's a sweet story, Blaine. Now I understand why you and Lex are so close," Kurt replied. Blaine nodded and then put his head on Kurt's shoulder.