A/N: Okay folks! Here's another one. I know that (again) it is much overdue and long awaited, but it's here! I am sorry to say that the story will be coming to a close soon. No, I don't have a planned chapter amount, nor do I know exactly how I am going to wrap it up, but my little Kurt and Blaine will fly on their own soon. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story from the daily postings to the almost never postings. It means so much that you enjoy the story. A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO BACS01! I don't know if this chapter would have happened without you. As always, I hope you enjoy!

Ch 21 (Friday 13)

It was twenty after six when Kurt reached up and pushed back the curly mop of hair on Blaine's forehead with his palm. He gave him cautious smile and then proceeded to brush his thumbs along Blaine's cheeks, before tracing the tear tracks with the lightest touch of his finger. Blaine felt the corners of his lips tug into a barely there smile.

"I miss my mom." Blaine said, choking on the words because here he was crying and complaining about missing his mother, when she was just at the other end of Lima. Kurt had lost everything.

"I know," Kurt said, pulling Blaine's head into his chest and letting him cry. "Me too," he whispered into Blaine's ear, only causing Blaine's body to wrack with sobs as Kurt held him. He tilted his head to press a kiss into the top of Blaine's mop of hair.

"You should go home tonight," Kurt said softly into the top of Blaine's head, as his lips lingered there.

He barely registered Blaine shaking his head, no.

"Dad will be home here tonight. He will watch after Emma. Don't pretend that's not why you're here. I know you're taking care of me, but it's much easier for you to take care of Emma than me right now too."

"That's not the only reason I'm here, Kurt."

"Blaine, things are finally somewhat okay at home for you. You said that you and Rachel made up. I'm sure your mom misses you just as much as you miss her, and you said that you and your dad will just go back to ignoring each other. You can go home."

"I don't want to." Blaine tried to say more forcefully, having trouble with the knot in his throat.

"Okay, Blaine" Kurt said smoothing his hair once again and kissing his friends forehead.

Blaine sighed. Kurt had taken his struggle to get the words out to mean that he didn't want to talk about it. One of the things that he loved about Kurt was that he didn't push people to talk when they didn't want to. That was not the case now. He had so much that he wanted to say.

He wriggled himself out of Kurt's arms and propped himself up on the head board of Emma's bed. He let his gaze fall on Kurt and held it until he mimicked Blaine's actions.

"The reason I don't want to leave is…" Blaine's phone began to vibrate on Emma's bed stand showing Rachel's picture. It was only 6:40, his sister had just gotten up. He reached across Kurt and grabbed his phone.

"Rach? What's up?"

"Boxes!" Rachel cried. "Boxes everywhere!"

"Rachel, calm down, what are you talking about?"

All he was answered with were heaving deep breaths.

"Rachel, please breath. Slow breaths. That's my girl," he said supportively as he heard the panic start to recede from her breathing.

"I got up, and went to go downstairs for my glass of water, and there are boxes everywhere, Blaine. She must have packed them up in the middle of the night. She's leaving."

"What do you mean she's leaving?" Blaine demanded, ignoring Rachel's cries for the moment.

"Mom must be leaving Dad."

"No, no, no… I just talked to her last night. She was reading and asked me when I was coming home. Why would she leave if she wanted to know when I was coming back?"

"What did you say to her?" Rachel snapped.

"I… I told her that I didn't want to come home… This is my fault…"

Blaine's self deprecation snapped Rachel out of her own self pity. "No Blaine Anderson," she said forcefully. "This is not your fault. Not in any way. This was coming one way or another. We've seen for so long that they're not happy with each other. Some things can't be fixed. Don't blame yourself. And it's not like she's running away from us, it's just him."

Blaine's mind forced itself into panic mode once again. "Who are you going to live with?" he blurted out.

"I… I don't know," Rachel admitted. "I hadn't thought about it. I just panicked. Of course you have the level logical head," she said with a small strained laugh. "I guess… I guess it depends on where mom moves to. I don't really want to leave McKinley. I mean I guess it also depends on …" she trailed off. Blaine knew that she was about to say, him. Part of her decision rested on where he was going to live.

Of course he was going to live with his mother. He was done doing things just to please other people. He loved Rachel with every bone in his body, but he wasn't going to sacrifice his happiness for anymore. He needed to be happy for himself for a change. That was the reason he was about to tell Kurt why he was staying. He was staying because he was actually happy with them, and he wasn't going to go home and be unhappy.

"I'm going with mom." Blaine stated without thinking about it. He looked at Kurt forlornly. "It doesn't matter where she goes. I'm moving with her."

"Okay." Rachel said soft sniffle. "Well, I have to get ready for school. I've already missed out on valuable prep time, and now I'm a mess. I'll see you there?"

"Yeah," Blaine confirmed, he would be in school. "Love you, Morning Glory."

"Love you too, Nightingale." Blaine could almost hear her smile cut through her tears.

Blaine shut his phone and reached over Kurt again, replacing it on the table.

"My mom's moving out." He clarified in shock, although he was sure Kurt had gotten the gist of the conversation.

"Are you okay?" Kurt asked, reaching out to lay a hand on Blaine's arm.

"Yeah," Blaine said slowly. "I think so."

"Okay," Kurt whispered, not sure if he believed his friend or not.

Blaine looked Kurt in the eyes. "I'm going with her, Kurt. Wherever she goes, I'm going with her."

"I know," Kurt said, staring back.

"Kurt, I… Before I was going to tell you that I want to stay here because I'm happy here. Being here with you and Emma, even Quinn and Puck, and especially your dad makes me happier than I have been in a long time. And I'm done thinking about other people. Oh gosh, that sounded way too selfish. Of course I think about other people, you and Emma are all I've thought about for the past few days. What I mean to say is I'm not going to let other people get in the way of my happiness, and I'm happy with you. I am so happy with you; I can't even begin to believe how happy I am with you. I just said 'happy' about a billion times, but what I'm really trying to say is… I… I love you, Kurt."

Kurt sucked in a breath at Blaine's admission.

"I mean, I know, believe me I know, that we haven't known each other that long, but I just I feel so different when I'm around you. You've helped me through so much and I care about you more than I've ever cared for anyone. And it's okay if you don't feel the same way, I just needed you to know that I love you."

Kurt stared at him for a moment, taking in his features. "I think I love you too, Blaine. It's hard for me… I've been keeping everyone at such a distance that it was hard for me to let you in, but I'm so glad that I did. You are an amazing person, Blaine Anderson. How you managed to fall in love with a screw up like me, I'm not sure, but I'm so happy that you did."

"You're not a screw up, Kurt. Remember, I know how amazing you are too."

Kurt smiled and leaned in. A shy smile crept onto Blaine's lips as well, before they met Kurt's in a soft and gentle kiss. As it ended their foreheads came together.

"Thank you. You have no idea how much it means to me that you don't think of me like the rest of the world does."

"I love you, Kurt. I could never think that."

Kurt didn't think his smile could get any wider than Blaine's at that point, but after hearing those words again he was sure it had. He leaned in and kissed Blaine again and when they pulled away the smiles on their faces made it apparent that they were meant to be together.

"We should get ready for school." Kurt groaned, trying to be the responsible figure that he was supposed to be.

"Yeah," Blaine agreed half heartedly. "We should."

!

Kurt moved himself gingerly toward his room to start getting ready as Blaine walked farther down the hall to Burt's room to wake Emma.

"Come on, kiddo, time to wake up." Blaine said, gently nudging the girl that he had come to love like a sister.

She rolled over and threw her arm over her eyes, clearly not ready to wake up.

"Up and at 'em. The sooner you get to school, the sooner the day will be over, and you'll see your dad.

Emma groaned. "No. School starts and ends at the same time every day. It won't be over any sooner just because I get there sooner."

"No," Blaine agreed, pulling her arm away from her face and using it to start prying her out of bed. "But, it will seem like the day is going faster. Then, before you know it you'll be home and Kurt and I will be making supper, you're dad will be home and we'll all go watch Puck play football and Quinn cheer. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

"Sure," Emma groaned.

Blaine tried not smirk at the girl. She sounded the way he felt. His parents were separating. And just when he had finally confessed his love for Kurt his mom was moving out, maybe away from Lima. Blain plastered a smile on his face. He knew she was going through a tough time. This time two years ago, her mother was laying in a hospital bed in a coma. The memory of her sorrowful playing flooded his mind. No wonder she was so tired, she had been up all night putting her feelings into music.

"I think it sounds like a great time!" he over exaggerated. "Now let's get a move on little miss!" He yanked the covers off of her. "Up, shower, dressed, downstairs." He announced before leaving the room to get himself ready for the day.

!

Blaine found Rachel as soon as they got to school. He brushed off Santana and Brittany, who tried to loop their arms in his and wrapped them around his sister instead. He felt the fabric of his shoulder dampen.

"Everything's going to be okay, Rach" he assured her, smoothing her hair with his hand. "Don't worry about it. We're still a family."

The pressure of Rachel's forehead told her brother that she was nodding. She pulled her face away from Blaine's shoulder.

"No matter what, you and I will always be a family. I love you Blainey."

"I love you too, sis."

As they went to turn and walk toward Rachel's first class they came face to face with Kurt. He looked down at his boots and bit the corner of his lip before looking up at the twins, and then directly at Rachel.

"I know we haven't always been on the best of terms but, I'm really sorry about your parents. I… I know what it's like to only to get to live with one and it sucks. I wish you didn't have to go through that too."

"It's a bit different." Rachel whispered, thinking of the circumstances.

"I know," Kurt conceded, "but…" He didn't get to finish because Rachel was giving him a hug and pain was radiating throughout his ribcage. "Ahhhhhh! Rachel!" He yelled, trying to push the overly emotional girl off of him.

She stepped back suddenly, shooting her hands to her mouth in realization of her mistake. "I'm sorry!" She reached a hand out to him and he stepped back as quickly as his body would allow. "I'm so sorry! It's just, we've never really talked before and I know that I've been harsh on you and I just… I'm sorry. I'm a hugger! And you spend so much time with Blaine, and he adores you Kurt, he really does…"

"Rachel!" Blaine hissed. "Shut. It. Now. Please." He forced through gritted teeth.

"It's okay," Kurt interjected. "I already know. Trust me, I'm quite fond of him as well." He reached his hand toward Blaine's and smiled as the softer hand clasped his.

"See, told you it would work out." Rachel squealed, beaming, and patting her brother on the cheek. "And, don't clench your jaw, little brother. You're going to get TMJ," she chided before side stepping the pair and walking away.

"Geeze," Blaine let out. "Just give her something to fuss over and she's fine."

Kurt's smiled widened as he laughed. "You guys make some pair, let me tell you. Little brother." He joked, pinching Blaine's cheek.

"Two minutes!" Blaine threw his hands up in exasperation. "She is two minutes older than me!"