Poison
Chapter 7
Carole comes back home from her trip, to see her sister and family, the next day.
She is as stunned then as Kurt is the next weekend, coming home to find Blaine cuddled up with Burt on the couch.
It is like something did get a crack that Monday, something that needed to be broken, and has been by now.
Blaine had not known, had by then long forgotten it was okay for him to feel like he had, wanting to be close, needing to be close to someone, apart from Kurt. It had been the holding back more than anything that had made him miserable.
Pushing away one part of yourself can sometimes be enough to completely collapse in on yourself.
Burt had been surprised still that Monday evening when - after turning on the TV after a while, and after both had had some reheated soup - Blaine had cuddled back into his side, whispered shyly, "Is that okay?" As he must have felt Burt tense a bit for a moment.
"It's fine, Kid. Perfectly fine."
"Thank you," Blaine had mumbled, tired, Burt could tell, and soon he had fallen asleep like that, soaking up Burt's body heat. Kurt's bed had felt cold all along without him there, and Blaine does not know who he gets it from, or maybe if his parents too once had it and then lost it, but ... he needs that, has as long as he can remember needed to be held close sometimes. Maybe now more than ever.
At six years old he had gotten, too, in a lot of fights with Cooper about it. Until Cooper had turned sixteen it had all been great. When Cooper was fifteen he had still had no problem with a five year old Blaine climbing into his bed with him, wanting to be held. They had been each other's rock in many ways. And to Blaine it had felt so safe being there at night and not all alone two rooms down the hall. He had not liked that at all, the dark shadows playing on his walls, while he lay there all alone.
"Is this weird?" Blaine cannot help but whisper to Burt the next evening when Carole finds them curled up like that on the couch and cannot help the surprised look she is giving them right then. Blaine is leaning heavily on Burt, his head resting on Burt's shoulder, the rest of the boy curled up under a warm, extra fluffy blanket. A blanket Kurt had gotten him out off the storage cupboard in the hall the last time he had been here, saying softly, "If you feel horrible ... this has always helped me."
And with Burt right there it actually does help.
It is weirder for Blaine to be cuddled up with Carole like that two days later. Burt gets held up at the shop and Carole keeps Blaine company. Blaine had been used to cuddling up with Cooper, their mom had never been an affectionate type, not as long as Blaine can remember back anyway.
So that evening he has trouble getting comfortable, and they end up just sitting sides touching in the end, mugs of hot tea in their hands.
"This okay?" Carole asks after a longer run of quiet between the two of them, the TV's sounds a low buzz in no more than the background.
"Yeah," Blaine answers after a moment's pause. "Thank you."
"As long as you're okay."
"I'm okay."
For now ... he really feels that way, like he can make it through the last weeks left.
And when Kurt visits again the next weekend Blaine really feels he has the worst behind him, and like the new life is just around the corner, a whole new everything.