Warnings: there are actually no warnings for this chapter :O

Chapter Four: The First Step

Kurt crossed off Day 5 of the Absence.

His father hadn't called or left any voice messages on the house phone. Kurt had checked every hour for the past four days. On Day 2 he had been depressed that his father hadn't come home to see the hard work he had put into the apartment. He had worked from 8am to 8pm and only when he had gone to sleep did he think about Sam and going out to play. He had refurnished to the best of his abilities. By Day 3, in the middle of the night while he was sleeping, he woke up because he had heard Andy's bedroom door open and close. He had rushed outside to see if his father was back but encountered no one. Kurt tried to keep awake the rest of the night but ended up falling asleep anyways.

When he awoke on Day 4 he checked his father's room and closet and noticed that several pieces of clothing had gone missing. Andy had come home that night and left just as swiftly. Kurt's body had felt like dead weight as he sat on Andy's bed and counted his failures. His father probably didn't think the apartment was nice enough to come back too. He didn't make Kurt aware of his presence because he knew Kurt would ask him what he thought and he wouldn't want to upset the 16-year-old with repulsive comments. He had fallen into such a state of despair that he was able to ignore the protests of his stomach, skipping breakfast and lunch and overlook the itch of not having a shower.

But then the phone rang and his body somehow found the energy to run to the phone in the living room and answer on the second ring.

"Hello?" he answered breathlessly.

"Hey kiddo," the warm voice of his father said. Kurt instantly felt relieved.

"Dad, where are you?" he asked.

"I'm doing some…work at the moment. I'll be home in a couple of days. You be good, okay?"

Kurt frowned that the conversation was finished so soon. "Will you call to-"

"I have to go now," his dad said and on the other end Kurt heard a spark of feminine laughter and a low growl. "By the way I love what you did with the place."

"Thanks," Kurt said into the dial tone. He hung up the phone but somehow the compliment didn't reach through to him. He had imagined the first phone call conversation to be so much more different where Andy would ask him how he was going and what he was doing to pass the time and explain why he was gone for so many days and why he couldn't get into contact. Then he would spend five minutes praising Kurt on what he did with the place and tell him that he was the best son in the world. Then he would assure Kurt that he would be home very soon, even by the next day, and it would keep Kurt going with a bright smile and a light heart for however long his dad needed to get back home.

The compliment would have to do, though. Kurt thought for a second that his father would have known that the compliment was just enough to keep Kurt happy for a day or two but he brushed off the idea. Andy would have given the compliment because he meant it, not to keep Kurt's wandering thoughts some company while he was away doing God-knows-what.

On Day 5 he started criticizing his work. Maybe he didn't receive much commendation because he didn't try hard enough. He stood in the center again and turned slowly in a clockwise direction. The couches were mauve green and the curtains cream, the carpet was dingy and flaking so he replaced it with a brown tufted one he found in a box in the laundry room. There were only enough cream curtains in the cupboard to put in the living room so he matched the curtains in the dining room with the carpet as best as he could and placed a rectangular, bright yellow and white polka dot frieze carpet under the dining room table which added a fantastic splash of color. For the kitchen he found a Saxony carpet decorated with fruits. There was no need to place an outdoor carpet in front the door because the last one they had been stolen.

He inspected the area and tried to think of ways to make it even better. Then suddenly his body just gave up on him. He felt ridiculously drained, like if he was working for weeks, non-stop. His stomach grumbled so he went to make a cheese sandwich. There was no electricity so he tried to eat out the cheese first because it was the fastest to spoil. He didn't know what to do with the eggs so he left them there. The mayonnaise would take 2 – 3 days so he ate sausages with ketchup and mayo too.

He had forgotten about the boy until Day 10 when he was just lying there on the couch, sick of cheese and sausages and so lazy that he could barely move his fingers. He was bored out of his mind. There was no TV, no fans; he couldn't even boil some rice. He had hand-washed the clothes until his fingers were raw and his nails had turned soft and split. The apartment was spiff and clean. His father didn't call and there were no visitors, unless the men who came knocking at his door were considered visitors.

The first time someone knocked Kurt had naively opened the door, thinking it was the landlord and prepared with an excuse as to why the rent wasn't paid yet. A tall, lanky old man stood on the other side of the door with crooked glasses and in a suit and tie. He even had a briefcase in his hand. He had looked down at Kurt with the same piggy eyes that all his customers had.

"Hello. Is your father home?" the man asked. Kurt shook his head. "Can I come in?" He shook his head again. "Why not?" Kurt slammed the door in his face and locked it.

From then on he checked the peephole before opening the door to anyone. The landlord didn't come but there were several other men, up to five men a day. Sometimes they knocked for five minutes, sometimes for a half hour and some of them talked to him. They said that they knew he was in there alone, his father wouldn't be back for a long time and other chiding remarks that made him lock himself in his bedroom and only come out to bathe and eat. They tried to persuade him by saying things like his father sent them to take care of him but Kurt knew better than that. The second lesson his father taught him was to never speak to strangers unless Andy approved of them. Andy would have called and told him he was having customers. Kurt firmly held onto that belief and kept ignoring the jarring comments and the banging down of the front door. Eventually he shifted a chair to the door and propped it up under the doorknob. Just in case.

Sam came across his mind when there were no men that morning. It took a great deal of persuasion to get him to even walk to the backdoor. He gave himself a motivational speech before clambering down the stairs and walking around the side to the mailbox.

There were children with their messy faces and bruised knees. Their faces were unfamiliar. Kurt remembered that it had been several days since the last he talked to Sam. With the attention span of an 8-year old, Kurt was assured that Sam would have forgotten about him the day after when Kurt didn't come out. He studied each of their faces from afar while trying to convince himself that Sam wasn't there and he should just go back inside and do nothing. But then one of the kids broke away from their game of Tag and came to the fence. From across the street Kurt could make out the grin across Sam's face.

"Come on!" he shouted over to Kurt. Kurt took a hesitant step forward.

"My dad might be home soon," he shouted over and for the first time noticed that his voice wasn't as deeper than the kid as he expected.

"It's only for a little while," Sam called back. "Do you like to play Hide-and-Seek?"

Kurt nodded then ran across the street. Up close the play park was a lot larger and the children taller. Sam called out to his other friends and to Kurt's horror the other children stopped playing and ran over to the fence. They stood there with judging eyes while Sam introduced him.

"What are you waiting for?" a girl with ponytails called out.

"Um.."

"How old are you?" another one asked.

"What school do you go too?"

Then Sam's voice cut through. "Questions are for later. Come on, Kurt." He pushed his hand through the fence and Kurt took it. A devilish grin broke across Sam's face. "You're it!" Then all the other kids ran to the opposite side of the park and Kurt just stood there in a stupor. But then he remembered they were playing Tag and he realized Sam had fooled him into believing that they were playing Hide-and-Seek so he could tag Kurt. He was drunk on happiness as he chased after them.

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