Two days later, Blaine woke up in Kurt's bedroom. Burt and Carole had forced him to come to their house late the night before for a good night's sleep and Kurt had even given Blaine puppy eyes to get him to go. Blaine didn't like leaving Kurt at all, but he did need to work on the paper that he would be emailing in to his Literature professor. He also needed to check his school syllabi to see when he absolutely had to be back although he was pretty sure his grades were good enough that he'd still have gotten adecent grade even if he skipped a test. Unless you counted Chemistry, but whoever did good in a class like that anyway?

Blaine rubbed his eyes and looked around the room, not ready to move his head from the pillow because it smelled like Kurt. He touched the sheets slowly, remembering when Kurt had picked them out over the summer. The Hudson-Hummel's had bought a new house and Kurt had gotten to redecorate his room. Kurt had been so excited and dragged Blaine to several malls and home stores until he found the "perfect" this and the "perfect" that. Blaine couldn't complain though because he loved spending time with Kurt, no matter what they were doing.

The bedroom door opened and Finn stepped in. "Hey, dude. I wanted to see if you were awake. Kurt's being moved into a different room today and Mom wanted me to give you the number before I forgot because they don't have cell phone service right now. It's 251B."

"I'm up." Blaine hoisted himself up, mentally taking note of the number.

"Nice laptop." Finn said, looking down at his Macbook Pro.

"It's alright," Blaine stood and stretched. "Is he up? And okay? Finn, you reek of smoke."

"Damnit. I eventook a shower." He groaned. "Mom said that he went to sleep five minutes after you left, and woke up long enough for them to switch his rooms. She said to get anything you needed to get done. We'll leave whenever you're ready."

Right. His car was at the hospital. Still parked crooked in the same spot it had been five days ago. Or was it four? Blaine couldn't be sure. "Give me ten minutes to shower and five minutes to check something."

"Dude, it's like 9 in the morning. He probably won't be awake until 3:00. But if you're really ready in fifteen minutes, we'll go." Finn left, shaking his head and muttering something along the lines of, "I don't know why he wants to stare at him while he sleeps anyway."

Finn didn't really get it. He'd visited Kurt, sure, and he felt bad for the boy, but he didn't understand that Kurt was emotionally unstable. He'd been attacked by three grown men for being gay. He also knew that Kurt was injured but, because he didn't spend as much time around him, Finn didn't know the true extent of the injuries. He'd had his lung punctured and operated on. The fluid in his lung wasn't clearing the way they thought it would, and Kurt had been running an off and on fever for the past eighteen hours. Kurt needed someone there, even if he wasn't awake. He needed someone to sit by him and hold his hand, that way when he did wake up and need someone, all he'd have to do is look up and help would be there.

After taking the fastest shower known to man, Blaine sat at Kurt's desk with his laptop. It was Tuesday. He'd left Friday in the morning. He didn't have any Monday classes, so he had really only missed Friday and Tuesday so far. The literature papers were always emailed into the professor, so he had no worries there as long as he found time to work on the paper and send it in. The following Thursday night, at 8:00 PM, he had a chemistry test and the next morning he had an Intro to Psychology exam. The psych test would be easy enough but chemistry… Well, he was going to fail that one anyway. Blaine figured that gave him about nine or ten days to stay in Lima. He would drive back down for his two tests and drive back up the following day. He shut his laptop and put it into his bag, looking around Kurt's room. Was there anything Kurt would want? He hadn't mentioned anything, but soon he was bound to start getting bored of watching Wizards of Waverly Place reruns with Burt. Blaine was sure sick of it, now that he thought about it.

He sat, going through some of Kurt's movies and deciding which ones to take. The Sound of Music was of course a must and if Blaine had showed up with movies that did not include that one, it was very likely Kurt would break up with him for sheer stupidity. He'd at least crack a snippy joke about it, and his blue eyes would light up as he laughed.

No. Kurt couldn't laugh because of his lung. And he'd really been too tired and weak to be his usual snippy self so he'd probably just have said thank you and watched whatever Blaine brought without complaint. It was kind of unsettling, really. Blaine took a deep breath—Kurt couldn't do that right now either, he thought— and peered at the DVDs but not really seeing them anymore. Random flashes of big men pushing Kurt into poles and hitting him constantly flashed into his head. He could only imagine that college junior walking up to him in that alley, screaming for her boyfriend to call 911, and crouching down next to an unconscious Kurt. Apparently Kurt had come to for a few seconds, long enough to give the girl Burt's phone number. Would that girl come to visit Kurt? She'd been clearly upset, or at least that was what the police had told Burt. Blaine wanted to thank her. Most people, even if they saw a body, would have simply walked past and not gotten involved. If she hadn't gone to check on him, Kurt could have died. Died.

What if Blaine was here, waiting to attend Kurt's funeral?

Stop that. Kurt's going to be fine.

No, not really. When Kurt was off the heavy duty painkillers, he'd probably start acting differently. Things would become real. When it came time for Kurt to leave the hospital, it would probably get even worse. He'd get anxiety—worse anxiety and Kurt could get pretty anxious on his own. Blaine didn't like to think how Kurt would handle it when he had to return to Kentucky. He and Burt had already had a discussion about it. There were still two months until Thanksgiving Break, which he would now spend exclusively with Kurt's family (not that he wanted to spend it with his own anyway), and after that another four weeks until winter break. Blaine still didn't know where he'd be staying then. How would Kurt handle those weeks without Blaine by his side?

In all honestly, maybe Blaine should have spent a little less time with Kurt so he could adjust to it. But that was not going to happen. Blaine hadn't wanted to spend one night away from his boyfriend. To be honest, Kurt probably handled it better than he had. Blaine had spent the first four hours laying down but not sleeping, unable to get comfortable and trying to keep the images of Kurt being attacked out of his head.

Stop. Don't start thinking about it again. Just get a few more movies and go see Kurt.

He sighed and returned to the DVD collection, trying to decide which ones his boyfriend would enjoy the most. After gathering what he deemed were enough DVDs to keep them preoccupied for a long time, he placed them neatly in his bag and then went to find Finn.

He had a boyfriend to get back to.

...

"Hey there."

Kurt really was being spoiled by seeing Blaine every time he woke up, but it didn't stop the smile that slowly slid across his sleepy and bruised face later that same day. "Hi."

Blaine leaned over, kissing him on the lips very gently so as not to hurt him. Kurt's lip was still split and looked pretty painful.

"I have a surprise for you." Blaine said cheerfully as Kurt pulled away.

"Does it have anything to do with me being moved to a room with a better color scheme?" Kurt frowned, looking around the red and brown room. Lima Memorial really needed to look into interior decorating.

Blaine laughed, and this one didn't sound forced.

That's good, Kurt thought before Blaine began to speak. I must look better than I did before.

"This room isn't all that bad. Don't give me that look, just because I'm not as picky as you."

"I'm not picky. You don't have good taste. Brown and red? What compelled them to do this? And the green chairs are horren—" Kurt trailed off as the door opened. As strongly as he felt about the room, he felt like he shouldn't complain in front of the doctors and nurses that could spit in his food or "accidentally" give him the wrong medicine dosage.

"Hi, Kurt. How are you feeling?" Kurt's doctor for the day, a fairly large man with red hair and watery blue eyes, came into the room and gave a cheerful smile. He was way too cheerful for someone who saw sick and injured people all day, every day. Kurt shifted uncomfortably, feeling uneasy. "Are you in pain?"

"Yes." Kurt said, voice sounding much quieter than it had been moments before. Blaine reached forward and grabbed his hand, sensing the tension.

"I'm going to check you over and see how you're healing. I want you to roll onto your side so I can listen to your breathing. Your brother can help if you need him to."

This man really is an idiot, isn't he? Kurt thought, but nodded.

Blaine stepped forward, very unsure of what he was doing. Was it really wise to lay him on his side after a surgery? Wouldn't that hurt him? He placed his hands on Kurt's shoulders and the doctor placed his hands on Kurt's waist. Kurt visibly stiffened, but his eyes met Blaine's and Blaine smiled at him. He tried to reassure Kurt silently—He wasn't going to let anyone hurt him, not as long as Blaine was there. He was safe.

"We're going to take this really slow, Kurt. Alright? If it hurts too much you need to let me know." The doctor said as they turned him, the doctor guiding him more than Blaine.

"How much is too much?" Kurt asked, gritting his teeth. It was definitely hurting a lot more than it had been two minutes ago. He wanted to go back to lying down under his blankets. That was definitely more pleasant than what he was feeling now. Besides, he really wanted to know what Blaine's surprise was.

"You'll know… There, hold his shoulders just like that. Good job, Kurt." There was rustling as the man put his stethoscope on. "Okay, we're going to start with small breaths and then we'll try to work our way up."

Kurt took a small breath, seeing dots dance in front of his eyes again. He winced as he felt his lungs expanding with the breath. He took deeper breaths whenever his doctor instructed him to, each one hurting more than the last. Blaine kept eye contact with him the entire time, and any time Kurt's attention would go elsewhere he would whisper to him until Kurt was looking at him again. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, Blaine eased him very slowly and gently back into his laying position on his back, whispering that he'd done a wonderful job.

Kurt relaxed against his pillows gratefully and closed his eyes. His chest felt like someone was standing on it and jumping up and down, but the pain was slowly starting to subside with each breath he took. He made sure to take very small ones though, not wanting to push his luck.

Blaine brushed back some of Kurt's hair, looking in his blue eyes. "Are you okay?"

Kurt opened his mouth to say "yes" but he couldn't get the word to form. He didn't feel okay, to be honest. He'd felt better yesterday. He really and truly had. He was glad he'd sent Blaine home to sleep because Blaine looked like he felt loads better than yesterday. But Kurt hadn't slept the whole time like Carole had told Finn. He pretended to be asleep, listening to Carole and Burt talking about how Blaine would eventually have to go back to UK, even if they had to make him. How he couldn't throw his college away "just to keep Kurt company" because Kurt "really didn't need him here." Kurt did need Blaine here, though, as selfish as it was. He knew Blaine would have to go back eventually.

He didn't want Blaine to throw away college for him. Still, Kurt had never felt more alone than when he heard his parents discussing that Blaine would have to go back to Kentucky. It was like his heart had shattered into tiny pieces, like he couldn't breathe. Blaine going back to school was not something Kurt had let himself think about. He wanted Blaine there, with him. No. He didn't want Blaine there. He needed Blaine there.

"Kurt, talk to me." Blaine leaned in closer and pressed a kiss to Kurt's cheek. "What's wrong?"

Kurt shrugged and then winced. He couldn't even shrug. He couldn't do something as simple as shrug. It wasn't fair. He hadn't done anything to deserve this. He was just walking to his car and this is what happened.

"Kurt, Kurt, no. Don't cry, sweetheart. No. Shh. You know the doctor said it's bad for your lung."

"I don't care." Kurt gasped out through sobs.

"Please don't do this when I can't hold you." Blaine pleaded, visibly upset. "You don't know what it does to my heart."

That only made him cry more, because he really didn't deserve someone as nice as Blaine. Blaine should have been with someone better. With someone who wasn't so flamboyant that he got beat up for walking to his car. With someone who was more attractive, had a better smile. The only thing Kurt had going for him was his hair. And even that probably looked awful right now.

"Kurt, no. Don't. Calm down. Calm down." Blaine ran his calloused hand up and down Kurt's arm. "Shh, shh. It's okay. It's okay."

"Not okay." Kurt sobbed. "It's not going to be okay. Ever."

"Oh, Kurt." Blaine half sat on the edge of the bed and draped an arm over him, the most he could do without hurting the boy. "Look at me, please."

Kurt looked the other way, knowing he was being immature. His mind was telling him to calm down. That he was really being rather unreasonable and that worrying Blaine wouldn't do anything but make him feel guilty later on. Part of him liked the attention he was getting, but a bigger part of him really needed to be held and comforted. What if Blaine didn't come back after he left for UK? What if he decided Kurt was too much of a baby?

The sobs got even harder and it began to feel like everything was closing in on him. He knew he should stop but he couldn't make himself. What if Blaine really left him? For good?

"Kurt, you've got to stop! You're going to hurt yourself!" There was desperation in Blaine's voice, and that was enough to put a stopper in Kurt's sobs. Tears still streamed down his pale face and the occasional sob did escape, but apart from that the room became eerily silent. Blaine uttered a relieved sigh, his hand very quickly and repeatedly running through Kurt's chestnut colored hair. Blaine was nervous, Kurt could tell.

Kurt took tiny breaths and each one hurt more than it should. Had he re-hurt himself? He could feel Blaine's eyes on him and the guilt set in, prompting a fresh batch of tears. He was such a baby. It was embarrassing.

"Kurt, if you talk you'll feel better." Blaine tried to coax Kurt into talking about why he was upset, hishazel eyes full of concern.

Kurt shook his head, not meeting Blaine's eyes.

"Please?"

Kurt shook his head again.

"Fine, you big meanie." Blaine's head rested against Kurt's, and Kurt knew he wasn't being serious.

The uneasiness in the room slowly faded, leaving an almost nice moment in its wake. Both boys sat close together in a comfortable silence, fingers laced tightly together. There was the occasional sniffle from Kurt, but those were silenced with Blaine kissing his forehead or hairline. The fingers on Blaine's free hand trailed up and down Kurt's arm in a soothing way, and it almost lulled the younger boy to sleep.

"What was the surprise?" Kurt hoarsely asked about ten minutes later, mainly to stop himself from dozing off. He could only imagine how awful it was for Blaine to be stuck in Lima with someone in a hospital that slept all day. He remembered how he had felt himself when his father was in the hospital after his heart attack.

Blaine, who had begun humming softly in Kurt's ear, sat up straight. He had slouched down into an awkward half lying position moments before, with one leg on the bed, and one leg on the floor. "I figured you were probably getting a little bored so I brought this."

Kurt watched him go to his bag and pull out a laptop. Kurt was a little confused, as he really couldn't move enough to properly use a laptop. Then Blaine began pulling out several different DVDs and placing them on the bed side table on top of his laptop. "I wasn't sure what all you'd want. I got the Sound of Music, Rent, something I've never even heard of, Gypsy. The Wizard of Oz too, because it's always a must see."

Kurt outstretched his hand quickly, without even thinking about it, but was surprised when it didn't hurt as much as he thought it would. Blaine handed the DVD to him, taking his seat back on the side of the bed. He was still digging through his bag, putting various DVDs on the other pile. Kurt looked at him, feeling himself smile a bit.

"I take it we're watching Wizard of Oz first but I would totally love to watch Maurice second. I haven't seen it yet."

Kurt let out a gasp. "You brought My Own Private Idaho. I forgot we even owned this! River Phoenix is beyond gorgeous." His mood was very quickly changing, and he knew that the medicine he was on was probably a big factor in that. He still felt sad deep down, but he pushed it away. He wanted to have some nice quality time with Blaine now that he felt good enough to sit. He could worry about being upset later.

"Are you kidding, Kurt? Keanu Reeves is ten times cuter than River Phoenix in that movie. And he has an accent." Blaine argued.

"What else have you got in there?" Kurt slowly eased himself up more, so he could look. "How many movies did you bring, Blaine? There's like ten more still in there!"

Blaine waved his hand and tugged the remaining movies out, making a nice stack. "You know how indecisive I can be when it comes to entertainment. I was tempted to bring your entire series of Friends too, but didn't want to sacrifice any of these." Kurt rested his head on Blaine's shoulder, letting out a small sniffle. Since he was leaning up, Blaine reached his hand back behind Kurt and stroked his back gently. "Does it hurt?"

"Feels good." Kurt mumbled, his eyes closing as he felt the fingers against his bare skin. His lips parted slightly, prompting Blaine to lean over and press a kiss to his mouth. Kurt kissed back gently, slowly raising his hand to touch Blaine's face.

"Good." Blaine mumbled into his lips, continuing to stroke his boyfriend's back. Eventually he pulled away from the kiss, but didn't move his hand. "We can watch it in a little bit."

Kurt nodded into his shoulder, sniffling again. "Blaine?" His voice came out a whisper, and he felt childish again. He didn't want to ruin the moment. It had become such a nice one. But he couldn't help it. He knew it was wrong for him to guilt Blaine. He knew it was incredibly unfair. Blaine had done so much for him this past week and to ask for anything else was cruel. But he couldn't help it.

"Yeah?" Blaine looked down at Kurt as best as he could without moving the boy.

"Don't leave me. Don't go back to Kentucky." Kurt sniffed, looking at Blaine with big blue eyes. He leaned his forehead against Blaine's. "Please."

Blaine was silent, his breath caught in his throat and his heart in his stomach. His mouth opened a few times, but no words came out. He was in shock. That was the last thing he expected to come out of Kurt's mouth and, knowing he didn't have to be back for at least nine days, he hadn't even been thinking about it. Nothing had been farther from his mind then Kentucky.

"Please." Kurt scooted closer. "Please. I need you here and I've never asked you for anything and I know i-it's childish but I really w-w-want you here, Blaine."

"Kurt… I have two exams at the end of next week and finals in December." That wasn't what he wanted to say, but Blaine's mind wasn't functioning properly. He wouldn't have been surprised if he'd said something about flying elephants, to be honest.

Kurt began to cry, his face screwing up. "I don't want to be here all alone. I w-want you with m-me. You'll t-t-take care of me."

"All alone? Your dad and Carole are here. They can take care of you." No! That wasn't what he meant to say either! Why was this stuff just spilling out of his mouth? Blaine was not good when put on the spot like this.

"I need you here. I-I'll do anything, Blaine." Tears streamed down Kurt's face. "Please."

Blaine's arms wrapped around Kurt, the first hug they'd had since he'd last left for Kentucky. He was very, very careful not to get anywhere near his bandages and barely touched him, but nonetheless he wrapped his arms around Kurt and kissed the top of his head. Before he even knew what he was going to say, the words were out of his mouth. "I'm not going anywhere, Kurt. I won't go back."

Kurt's scraped hand clenched his shirt tightly, hisbruised knuckles making Blaine cringe. Kurt let out a sob into Blaine's chest, and then another, and then three more.

"Shh, I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving, honey. It's going to be okay." Blaine could hear the angry phone call from his mother and his father's cussing in the background about how they never should have sent him to "that gay school." He could just imagine his grandmother's shame when she went into the store or office and someone asked her how Blaine liked UK and she replied, "Oh, he dropped out." It didn't matter though. Not then, at least.

He knew he should have made some compromise with Kurt. He should have promised to only go down for tests. But college… he didn't care what people said. At least in his classes you couldn't not go to class, just show up for tests, and still get good grades. He should have told him, "I'm sorry, Kurt. My parents paid for it. I have to go." But what had his parents ever done for him? His dad spent half his life constantly trying to make him straight—rebuilding cars with him, sending him to religious camps "to cure him" five summers in a row. Five! His mother was no better because she let his father do it. The only reason they agreed to let him go to Dalton, he was convinced, was so that "his condition" didn't hurt his grandmother's campaign for mayor.

Kurt was still sobbing into his chest, clutching his t-shirt so tightly that one of the scrapes on his hand had begun to bleed again. "Thank you, thank you." He cried over and over. "Thank you s-so much, Blaine. Thank you."

"No, don't thank me." Blaine whispered, his stomach in knots. "Hush now and lay back."

Kurt was not having that. He scooted closer, winced a bit, and then resolved to pull Blaine down to him. His arms wrapped around Blaine's neck and all Blaine could think was that Kurt was going to hurt himself but he couldn't bring himself to move out of the smaller boy's grasp. "Thank you, Blaine." Kurt was still crying, but now he was whispering into Blaine's ear instead of sobbing into his chest. Blaine could feel the tears on Kurt's wet cheek.

The door opened and both boys looked up. Burt stood in the doorway, looking very uncomfortable and confused. He mouthed wordlessly, and Kurt buried his face in Blaine's neck and started to cry again.

"What's going on? Did something happen?" Burt found his voice, and spoke urgently and in a gruff voice. "Kurt, what's wrong?"

Kurt merely shook his head, tugging Blaine even closer. Blaine was pulled down at an odd angle, hurting his back and straining his neck. He didn't have the heart to move though, especially when it had been so long since he'd been so close to his boyfriend.

"Shh, shh." Blaine whispered, eyes meeting Burt's. Burt mouthed 'What?' but Blaine couldn't answer, because he was too busy whispering soothingly to Kurt and he didn't know what he'd say anyway. Things were not going as planned, despite the talk he and Burt had had the night before when Burt had told Blaine he would have to get thick skin and not get upset when Kurt got angry at him for going back to school.

No, the talk yesterday had been entirely pointless, because Blaine simply couldn't leave Kurt. The discussion had been a particularly long one in which Burt had told him how, after Kurt's tenth birthday, Kurt had refused to talk to him for a whole night because he wouldn't buy a red velvet cake with roses painted on it because it was "too girly." There had also been the time that the local theater put on The Sound of Music and Burt wouldn't let Kurt go with his aunt because he didn't want to see his sister. Kurt had kept his stony silence up for that one until Burt had promised to buy him a new wardrobe and to let him go see Rent at midnight upon its release. His son had been eleven or twelve at the time, but he'd have rather sit through that musical movie at midnight than live in a silent house for another day. Kurt was the queen of throwing fits, and he knew how to work people to get his way.

It seemed to take an eternity for Kurt to wear himself out and fall limp in Blaine's arms. Blaine eased him down carefully and positioned him comfortably against the pillows, thankful for the opportunity to sit up straight. Instead of looking up at Burt, he straightened Kurt's blanket and began to stack the DVDs in alphabetical order. He found himself intimidated by his boyfriend's father and he childishly wished that he could just disappear. The idea of Burt confronting him about anything scared the crap out of Blaine, to be honest.

"I want to know what's going on." Burt finally said. "So why don't you stop organizing those movies and talk to me?"

Blaine nodded and got off of the bed, moving to sit in one of the seats. This wasn't going to go well. He didn't want Burt to be mad at him, and more especially he didn't want him mad at Kurt. He had to stop acting like a kid and stalling. He took a deep breath and said, "Kurt… has asked me to stay in Ohio."

"And what did you tell him?" Burt asked slowly.

Blaine sat up straighter, making eye contact with the man. "I told him I would stay."

It was hard to read Burt's face. For a second it looked like he was relieved, then angry, then maybe happy, and then angry again? Then Burt sighed. "Why would you do that, Blaine? You've got to finish school."

"You're going to need someone to take care of Kurt when he's out of the hospital." Blaine said very quickly, thinking off of the top of his head. He was incredibly nervous and surprised his words were coming out in a coherent way, but he needed to make Burt understand his reasoning—the reasoning he wasn't quite sure of himself yet. "You've got the garage and Carole's got work. Finn's in his first semester at OSU—."

"And you are in your first semester at UK." Burt cut in. "College isn't some part time job that you can just throw away."

Blaine rose his hands up, as if in self-defense. "First, I'm not throwing anything away. I can always go back to school next year. Second, who exactly do you think will take care of him when you and Carole are at work? Theoretically Finn could live at home and watch him when you're not at work but, and I'm sorry to say this, I don't think Finn could quite handle it. I had to show him how to use your microwave last night. Third, I'm not going to leave Kurt alone like this. He needs someone here for him."

"That is why he has his family."

"Yeah well he's my family." The words were out before he could take them back. He hadn't known they were coming and even his own eyes widened.

Burt coughed a bit and looked away, to Kurt, and then sighed. "We'll come up with some kind of compromise. You go back for your exams, stay with us over winter break."

"What part of he's going to need to be taken care of do you not understand?" This was not going well. Blaine was becoming frustrated with his boyfriend's father and saying things he would never say under normal circumstances. "He's going to get out of here in maybe less than a week and you can't tell me you're prepared to just drop work at the garage to care for him full time. Carole works full days as a receptionist. Neither of you can just put your jobs on hold. I can go back to school next year. It's not that big of a deal."

Burt rubbed his temple, looking at Kurt. "It is a big deal, kid. College is important. How do you expect to ever be able to support yourself without it?"

"I'll get a night job. And get an apartment close by. I've got some money saved up until I can find a job. I can start applying right now. Online applications." Blaine was still talking incredibly fast, coming up with answers off the top of his head. He gestured to his laptop on the bedside table. The more he talked about it, though, he become surer that he was doing the right thing.

"Hold on now, hold on." Burt held his own hands up this time and began pacing. He sighed several times, would stop mid step, only to start pacing again and then repeat the process. "It wasn't right of Kurt to ask this of you."

Blaine moved to open his mouth, but Burt cut him off.

"Let me finish, kid. It wasn't right. I sure as hell don't think you should just drop school at the drop of a hat because it's important and it's expensive… if Kurt did something like this, I would be furious."

Great, pull the parent card. Blaine swallowed a bit.

Burt stopped directly in front of Blaine, making eye contact. "Do you realize what kind of message you're sending, dropping out of school to take care of Kurt?"

"Taking a break." Blaine corrected, somewhat nervously. He fidgeted a bit under Burt's gaze. "And I don't intend to send out any messages. All I want to do is be here for him."

"You're not even nineteen yet, kid. This isn't your responsibility. It's mine and his stepmother's job to take care of him. Your job is to finish school and get into graduate school and become something. The same as Kurt's job will be once he finishes high school."

"I'm not a child! Sir—." Blaine started, but was cut off mid-sentence again.

"Next semester I want you to take classes at the community college. Take them online or whatever, but take them. You take the classes and you can—you can stay with us. You won't need to worry about a job or money."

Blaine listened to the man very carefully, maintaining eye contact to show he was serious about this.

"This thing you're doing here though… it's serious. Serious as a heart attack, and I know about those. You make a commitment like this to Kurt, you drop everything to come to him… that stands for something, you see? That's a grown up decision. One that you need to be sure you're ready to make. You can't, for lack of better words, half-ass things with my son. Do you understand? If you are willing to leave school to care for him, you need to be willing to stay with him. For a very, very long time. Big decisions like this can't be made lightly because Kurt's got a big heart. And big hearts like that, when they get broken, they're hard to fix. You see what I'm saying?"

Blaine felt very tense, as if his every move was being watched. He scratched his knee as he nodded. Burt's looks made him incredibly nervous. "Sir… I love Kurt. If I didn't think we had a chance at being together forever, then I wouldn't be doing this. He is all I think about in Kentucky. Why do you think I drive almost four hours every weekend I possibly can to see him, even if it's only for a few hours? It's because I want to be with him. I don't have any intentions to… Uh… half-ass things with him. I intend to go back to school—back to the university—next fall. A-and yeah, I'll take community college classes next semester. I want to get a job and… and support him one day."

Burt nodded, a blank expression on his face. What were you supposed to say when your son's eighteen year old boyfriend said something you expected to hear when you son was twenty-five, twenty-six?

"I want to be here for him. I can always go back to school, sir. Right now he needs me."

"Fine." Burt nodded. "I'll talk to Carole tonight and see how she feels about this when she gets here." His hand reached out and patted Blaine's shoulder, and then he spoke quietly. "You're a good kid. I feel better about this whole thing, knowing Kurt's in good hands. I hate that I have to run to work to get stuff squared away at the garage… but…" He didn't finish his sentence. He gave Blaine's shoulder a big squeeze and then headed out the door for a walk.

Blaine let out a huge sigh and rubbed his face. "Why do I feel like I just asked for permission to marry Kurt?" he wondered aloud, then wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans. If just talking about leaving school to care for Kurt was that hard, he didn't even want to think how hard it would be when he finally did ask for permission to propose to Kurt. Every word he had said was true, though. He really did want to be able to support Kurt one day.

Kurt was a bright person and Blaine knew he would be more than capable enough to support himself, but Blaine wanted to deserve to be with someone as special as Kurt. Having the opportunity to live alone with Kurt, to support him, to put dinner on the table… is that what straight men thought about their girlfriends?

Blaine leaned over, running his finger along Kurt's open palm. Kurt's fingers flexed and his hand moved closer to the touch. He gripped his hand tightly, trying to push away the sudden dread he began to feel. He wasn't so much dreading that he had essentially confessed his undying love for Kurt to his father. Or even that he was dropping out—no, taking a break— from school. He liked UK and he had met several great people; he definitely would not protest going back next fall when Kurt was better. The students were nice, the professors were lazy but nice enough as well.

What he dreaded was when his parents found out. He hadn't talked to his father since he was fifteen and rarely talked to his mother. His father hadn't even wanted to pay for Blaine to go to college but Blaine's grandmother had forced him to. While she didn't approve of Blaine's "ways," Blaine was still her son's child and that meant her son had to care for Blaine. She had gone to great lengths to cover up Blaine's "ways" during her election, though, and Blaine still felt animosity towards her even if it was because of her that he was able to go to UK. His mother… His mother just made him sick to his stomach. She always called and sent cheerful text messages. Blaine never really answered them. She told him it was okay that he was gay, that it was "just an illness like depression or cancer." But she "loved him anyway, because he was her son." It made Blaine sick every time he thought about her because she put on such a front about caring for her son, how Blaine's father should treat him better. Yet she let Blaine be sent to that gay camp five years in a row.

Five summers he had to listen to some crackpot minister reading from the bible about sins and what happened to sinners. Five summers he had to sleep in a room with three other gay teenagers and to be honest, Blaine was probably the only one there who hadn't fooled around with everyone he met. Not until he hit fifteen and became angrier and that's when he began "acting out" his pain by having sex. Lots and lots of sex with lots and lots of people he hardly knew. Just because he was there, stuck in that place—and it really was a terrible place. He faced countless weeks hearing how he would go to hell if he didn't change his "ways." The last few weeks of his fourth summer there, when he was fifteen, were not the best moments of his life and he was lucky he hadn't contracted any STDs.

But that call. He knew it was coming. That call from his mother, sobbing and asking why he was such a disappointment. Or would his father break his stony silence and call? Well that would go awesomely, wouldn't it? Maybe they'd have his grandmother call. Or maybe they'd just empty his bank account and never say anything to him again. That, realistically, was very likely to happen. His father would be of the opinion that the money was "owed to him."

"Yeah, I've got to go get a new bank account." Blaine muttered quietly to himself. His father would do exactly that. It wouldn't matter that the money was Blaine's. Blaine was gay, but he wasn't gay enough to go out and sing and dance in front of people at theme parks because he thought it was enjoyable. He enjoyed singing and dancing, but he just felt silly when he performed in front of theme parks like that. The girls were usually all into it but him… Not so much. Either way, that money was his. He had earned it on his own and he didn't want his father touching it.

There were also several other things he knew he would have to do too, but he had no clue where to even begin. He knew he'd have to do something about withdrawing at UK and he was pretty sure he'd missed the deadline for withdrawing and receiving more than half of his money back, but that didn't really bother him all that much.

How did he get out of a lease for his apartment? Hell, how was he going to get the things in his apartment and where would he put them? The actual emptying of his apartment would take two trips, despite having a bigger car. When he'd moved down, Kurt had followed him down with a load so Blaine wouldn't have to make two trips. That wasn't exactly an option right now. So he would likely be driving to and from Kentucky twice in one day.

At least, he thought, Burt had offered to let him stay with them. That was going to be so awkward though. Would he stay in Kurt's room? No, surely not. Finn's, because Finn lived on campus? That would just be weird to stay in Kurt's straight stepbrother's room. Blaine suddenly felt like he was almost 29 instead of almost 19. He was not looking forward to this. Not at all.

It's for Kurt.