Once a month, like clockwork, a social worker from Franklin County named Tamara came to their home to speak with him and his parents. She would spend an hour at most, asking questions about how he was doing in school and if he liked his therapist. He figured there was more to her job than that, but the visits mostly seemed perfunctory and useless on his end. He never got anything out of her brief visits to their home.

In January, she had the family all sit together at the coffee table in the living room as she called Laura on speaker phone. The two social workers then explained that they would be recommending to the judge in the next permanency hearing that legal custody be returned to his parents and the foster care case be closed.

Even though Tamara had been visiting since he'd returned, he hadn't realized that his own parents didn't have legal custody of him. It had never occurred to him.

"What do you all think about that?" Tamara asked. "Do you have any questions?"

"What would closing the case entail, for us? Do we need to sign any paperwork or fill out any forms?" Pam asked.

"No, nothing like that. Most of the work will be on our end of the equation," Laura said, voice tinny over the cell phone. "You will, however, be sent copies of the case plan and court information. We can call you to conduct the hearing virtually since you live in Ohio, but you are always welcome to come back to Sacramento if you'd prefer."

"When will that be?"

There was a faint shuffling of papers over the phone line. "Um… Thursday, April 5 at 11:15."

Pam and James exchanged a look. "Can we get back to you about that?"

"Of course," Laura said. "You don't have to make a decision until, let's say… End of March."

Laura hung up her end of the call soon after and Tamara continued with her usual questions. When he was alone with her in his room, though, he finally stopped giving the same answers.

"I guess… I just feel kinda cheated, you know?"

"How so?"

"Like, all this time I thought I was making progress, learning who I am and about my parents and stuff. And it turns out that it wasn't even real. Or, like, legal. Like, you guys could still look at us and say that we didn't make enough progress and even though you ripped me from Marilyn and threw me here you could still take me away again and make me learn another new life."

"Is that what you think the state having legal custody means?"

He scoffed. Obviously, that's why he just said that. "Well, what else would it mean?"

"It means that we wanted what was best for you. What would have happened if you hated everything about being an Anderson? We wanted to be a safety net in case that happened. Your parents have been the ones to make every decision with you since you came here. Laura and I have only been involved enough to make sure that you are comfortable and happy as a member of the family."

"Yeah, but… I was just starting to get used to being Blaine Anderson. To them being my mom and dad. And it just feels like the last couple months don't even count since it wasn't legal."

"Legal isn't the only thing that matters. In this case, it's possibly the least important part. The love that your parents have for you is what is important."

He sat down on the bed. "I guess it's just … I was just a little shocked to know that I'm not technically theirs yet. I want to be."

Learning to respond to a different name had been tough and calling his parents mom and dad still felt uncomfortable in his mouth, but by far the hardest day he'd had in a while came when he woke on the morning of February 8 and realized that there wouldn't be a funfetti cake waiting for him downstairs.

Names change all the time with marriages and divorces, people grow and move, but facts of life like birthdays are constant - for everyone else. But as he rolled out of bed and saw the date on his phone, he realized again just how different he was.

Today was supposed to be his seventeenth birthday. He'd been imagining some sort of bash since his 16th had fallen flat, wondering if 17 was the magic number that would let Marilyn give him freedom.

And in reality, it wasn't coming for another five and a half months.

His dad was reading the paper and his mom was doing a crossword at the dining room table when he came down to get his breakfast. Neither of them seemed to realize the importance of the day. But why should they? This was Peter Walker's birthday, it had nothing to do with Blaine Anderson.

Pam hugged him as he got in the car with his dad and wished him a good day, just like every morning. Yes, he was finally driving, but he was still only on his permit. He was months away from being eligible for his proper license.

It must have been obvious that his head was in the clouds, because he found himself called to the school counselor's office right before lunch. Instead of talking to her, however, he was left alone in her office and handed the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey there," Matt's warm voice said.

"Um, what's going on?"

"Well, I wanted to see how you're doing today."

At least Matt remembered. "Fine, I guess. I mean, it's not like today is actually a special day. It's just Wednesday."

"No, but it used to be a special day for you. How do you feel?"

"Weird, I guess." He paused for a moment, knowing there was something else. When he was with Matt, he felt like he could say anything, but it was different on the phone. "I just… I don't know. I know my parents hate what happened and don't like talking about my life before, but it feels like they're trying to erase everything about me that happened when I was gone."

"Have you talked to your parents about this?"

"No, it would kill them. I know it's not on purpose, but I just sometimes want to talk about stuff that happened before and I'd like it if someone who wasn't paid to talk to me remembered that up until six months ago this was my birthday."

"Your parents aren't mind-readers. I won't pretend to know why they don't talk about your life before, but they won't know that it hurts you unless you tell them."

He was muted after school and couldn't concentrate on his homework. He finally threw his books to the side after an hour and a half of getting nothing done, and picked up his laptop.

Last year, for his 16th, Sydney had forced him to watch Sixteen Candles. It wasn't his typical first-pick for a movie to watch, but Jake Ryan was certainly nice to look at and the story seemed especially prescient right now.

His mom knocked on the door when the movie was nearly finished. He hadn't even realized he was crying until he looked up at her and saw the concern cross her face. Then her eyes lit on the screen, where Molly Ringwald stood in her pink bridesmaid dress.

"Oh, I loved this movie," Pam said. "I made your dad take me to see it while I was pregnant with Cooper."

He wiped his face. "Cool. I - uh - I prefer The Breakfast Club." He was trying to draw her attention away from himself, from why he had just been crying at a movie where a girl's parents forget her birthday.

She grinned at that. "We rented that one when it came out on tape, and that's how Cooper learned the word 'fuck.' It took us a while to wean it out of his vocabulary."

He laughed, too, thinking about his brother as a toddler with a mouth like a sailor. It seemed like an incredibly charming, harmless childhood anecdote, and his heart ached as he realized there were so few of those about him. All stories of his childhood had been either fabricated by Marilyn or told sadly by parents who had only those memories to hold on to for so many years.

"Anyway," she continued, "dinner's just about ready. Ten minutes, okay?"

"I'll be right down," he said.

He had ten minutes to gather himself together, wash his face, and become the person they were expecting. You can do this, he thought, but lacked total confidence.

Pam walked down to the kitchen in deep thought. Blaine had seemed off all day, and while she certainly did think that Sixteen Candles was a good movie, it wasn't really a tear-jerker. Not unless it brought up memories of parents forgetting -

Oh.

She mentally began sifting through the piles of information they'd been given when Blaine first came home. The life he'd lived without them had been full and different. And "his" birthday had been different.

James was waiting for her in the kitchen, stirring the pot of sauce on the stove to keep it from burning.

"It was his birthday," she said quietly.

"Hm?"

"Before. With that woman. His birthday was February 8th. Today."

James froze. Pam had the opposite reaction and began rummaging through the cabinets until she found a box of Pillsbury cake mix and a tub of icing. She had the batter mixed up and poured into a cake pan within only a few minutes. James stayed frozen, watching his wife with quizzical eyes.

"You're making him a cake?"

"Well, what else should I do? It was his birthday!"

"But it isn't, not actually."

"That doesn't mean it's not an important day to him. May 14th wasn't anything important to us until 29 years ago. It's only important because we're putting meaning on it. There's obviously still some meaning there."

"When did you become so insightful?" James asked.

"I started reading those books Dr. Wolfe recommended."

James chuckled, and pulled Pam in for a hug. They pulled apart when they heard Blaine's footsteps on the stairs and began plating dinner, hoping that he wouldn't notice the cake in the oven until it was necessary.

Pam and James attempted to maintain normal conversations throughout dinner. They weren't entirely sure how to broach the topic of a former birthday, nor if they even should. Would it just upset him even more? Would it set back all the progress they'd made?

At the end of the meal, Pam gathered her courage and decided to bring it up. "Blaine, sweetie, your dad and I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Yeah?"

"We know ... we know things used to be different for you," Pam said. She felt entirely stupid saying that. It was the most plainly obvious statement. "And your dad and I know that today used to be - that it was your birthday when you were with that woman."

He looked up in surprise.

"We thought that even though it's not your birthday anymore, you might want to celebrate. Today was important to you for so long."

"I don't ... I mean, it's not…" He wasn't sure what he wanted to say. 'I don't want to make you uncomfortable'? 'It's not actually my birthday, it never was'? 'You don't have to humor this and keep remembering that awful thing that happened'? Nothing really fit, because, truthfully, even though it wasn't his actual birthday, he wanted some sort of acknowledgement. Isn't that what he'd told Matt earlier? And here it was, his parents were happy to do more than simply acknowledge today.

"You've had to completely uproot your life, and fit yourself into our family. And while you've always been a part of our family, even when you were gone, we know that you've had to make a lot of sacrifices. We don't want your happiness or comfort to ever be one of those sacrifices. So if you want to remember what today used to mean, we want to remember that with you. We want to know who you are, and who you are includes who you were then."

He looked down at the wood grain of the table, unable to properly articulate what he was feeling. It was something large, and warm, and light, and it was swelling up inside of him, almost too big to contain.

"I… uh," he stuttered, trying to fit the words around the big, unsayable feeling in his throat. "Thanks. That would be nice."

Pam got up to get the cake and James reached across the table, placing a firm hand atop his. "We're sorry that we made you feel like you had to hide part of yourself."

He nodded as a tear tracked down his cheek. He wasn't crying out of shame, or fear, or sorrow. He was crying because he felt, for the first time since this had all begun, that he was starting to figure out who he could be.

Sebastian had mostly left him alone at school since the party at Jeff's in December. Of course, he'd found excuses to eat lunch with Blaine and his friends on occasion or work together in their shared classes, but the oversight of friends and teachers kept his overt advances under control.

But as Valentine's Day approached, he almost wished that he hadn't taken such a hard stance against the other boy. They didn't really know each other. He'd mostly relied on rumors from Jeff and one bad, drunken experience. What if Sebastian was really a sweet, caring guy? What if the harsh exterior was just a facade to protect his heart? Blaine knew all about protecting himself from hurt, and right now he wanted connection.

His friends were all talking about dates with their girlfriends and the Warblers' Valentine's Day performance, and meanwhile he was thinking about how his one and only relationship had ended nearly a year ago and while familial love was nice, he wanted someone who would hold his hand and make him feel special and –

He was thinking about Sebastian.

Not Sebastian, specifically, but Sebastian was the only guy who had shown interest in him. What teenager doesn't want to feel special, wanted, loved?

In English class, Mr. Jackson asked the students to pair up to review their notes on last night's reading. In honor of Valentine's Day, they were doing a brief unit on Shakespeare's best romances and would be watching a film version of one of them, based on class votes. Everyone was excited for a class period spent watching movies and they enthusiastically engaged in debates over which plays they had enjoyed most in order to determine which movie they should watch.

When Sebastian caught his eye, he didn't even bother to try to look away or pair up with a different student. Instead, he gathered his notebook and walked over to Sebastian's desk.

"Hey Killer," Sebastian said in his usual suggestive tone.

Blaine rolled his eyes, but smiled slightly. "So, what did you think of last night's reading?"

"Is that really what you want to talk about?"

"It's the assignment, so yeah."

Now was Sebastian's turn to roll his eyes. "Romeo and Juliet is just plain stupid. I think everyone with half a brain cell realizes that."

He giggled. "You'd think. We read it back in ninth grade in Sacramento and there were a bunch of girls in my class who went on for weeks about how it was such a beautiful romance."

"I did say anyone with half a brain cell. Those girls sound like idiots."

"Not all of them. I think they were just distracted by the fact that Romeo was played by young Leo in the movie."

"Well that's understandable. Young Leo could get it."

Blaine nodded emphatically. "My friend Syd and I spent, like, a month of freshman year watching everything we could with him in it. We were obsessed."

"And which was your favorite?"

"Critters 3," he joked. Both boys burst out in laughter. "Of course it was Titanic. Who can resist Jack and Rose's romance?"

"I've actually never seen Titanic," Sebastian admitted. "I spent way too long assuming that it was a documentary or something and by the time I realized how wrong I was, I was too ashamed to admit I'd never seen it."

"It's still one of my favorites," he shared. He took a deep breath, wanting to be brave. "Maybe we could watch it together sometime?"

Sebastian almost looked shocked. "Are you coming on to me, Anderson?"

"Hey, you promise to behave like a gentleman and then we'll see."

They ended up exchanging numbers in the hallway after class, and soon he was getting suggestive texts from Sebastian at all hours. But when he saw the boy in school, Sebastian acted the perfect gentleman. He wondered which was the facade and which was the real thing.

They ended up making plans to watch the movie at his house one Friday night. When he admitted his plans to his friends at lunch, all looked dubious. Especially Jeff.

"You do remember him at my party, right?"

"He had been drinking. Plus, my parents are going to be there. He can't get away with much when the world's most overprotective parents are in the home."

Jeff still didn't look convinced. "Look, Blaine, Sebastian dates around. I hear that he's even a regular at the gay bar in town. Just… be careful, okay?"

He was planning to be careful. After Brian had turned out to be fame-hungry following the end of their relationship, he was always careful to look for ulterior motives in people around him. And while Sebastian had mentioned wanting to meet him since seeing the new reports, it never seemed like he wanted the notoriety associated with meeting him. Just his face.

His parents had agreed to not interfere, but still wanted to meet Sebastian when the other boy arrived at their home. Sebastian was a perfect gentleman, showing off his years of prep school training. Then they grabbed the sodas, pizzas, and popcorn, and headed off to the rec room in the basement.

They chatted for a bit before starting the movie, and while Blaine had anticipated an awkward tension to arrive with the expectation that this was – maybe – a date, it wasn't awkward at all. They spoke openly and easily and he found that he and Sebastian actually had a lot in common, beyond being gay and in the same high school. Despite his well-crafted exterior, Sebastian was just a normal kid, and was looking forward to watching the upcoming summer Olympics in London and thought about trying out for the school's lacrosse team and wished that show choir wasn't constantly relegated to "theatre nerd" territory and loved his AP government class because he thought he wanted to work in politics.

Conversation flowed easily, and was mostly dominated by Sebastian, because as much as he wanted to open up to someone, to maybe, finally, be able to share both Peter and Blaine, he couldn't. He held his tongue instead of sharing, but still smiled and fell into the warmth of the moment.

They finally started the movie, and he and Sebastian slowly migrated towards each other on the couch. Soon they were sitting shoulder to shoulder and he wondered if maybe this night would turn into something more.

He felt Sebastian's hand slip into his own, and he could tell that the other boy was just as caught up in the sweeping romance of the film as he was. Until, of course ...

"Wait, what?"

Rose had just freed Jack from his shackles and a sure-fire watery death and the two were attempting to escape the ship.

"What?" Blaine asked.

"I thought Leo died in the movie! But she just saved him, and they're making their escape. I'm so confused!"

"Just watch the movie," he said. He had been briefly removed from the drama, romance, and urgency of the film, but as Sebastian once again settled next to him, he was again overcome with the story.

But as the movie progressed, he found himself more and more distracted by Sebastian who was obviously no longer engrossed in the romance of Jack and Rose.

"This is the most nerve-wracking movie ever," Sebastian muttered during a brief lull. "He keeps almost dying and then not dying and now I can't focus on anything other than 'is this finally his time?'"

Sebastian was practically bouncing in his seat at this point, entirely removed from the plot and simply waiting for the inevitable death to occur.

"Calm down and enjoy the movie," he told him. "You're missing out on how amazing this is."

They sat in silence as the movie played in front of them, and as Rose awoke to realize that Jack had died, frozen in the water, Sebastian breathed out a quiet, "Finally."

He had to pause the movie at that. "Really? 'Finally?' Everyone else in the entire world is complaining about how there was totally room for Jack on the door, too, and all you have to say is 'Finally'?"

"Well," Sebastian said, "in my defense, he nearly died like ten other times. I knew it was coming."

He shook his head. "You make absolutely no sense."

"That's the point, I'm a man of mystery. You're supposed to find it alluring."

"Right now I'm thinking that you're a sociopath if you're not even crying at the end of the shortest, most tragic romance."

"I will say that it's far better than Romeo and Juliet. Maybe if I hadn't known Leo was going to die I would have liked it better?"

He shook his head. "Let's just finish the movie."

By the time they had finally finished the movie, it was close to Sebastian's 11 PM curfew. He walked Sebastian to his car and the two boys stood near it, drawing out the minutes as they tried to figure out who would make the next move.

Finally, Blaine leaned in towards Sebastian and muttered, "I had a good time tonight."

Sebastian leaned forward and closed the gap in a chaste kiss. "See you at school," he muttered, pulling back and getting into his car.

At school the Monday after his not-a-date movie date with Sebastian, he had no idea what to do. They had kissed, sure, but what did that mean, especially with Sebastian's reputation? Was it a one-off? Did he want it to be?

Luckily, he didn't have to figure out what to do, because Sebastian was waiting for him at the front entrance.

"Hey, killer," he said.

Blaine flushed, but decided to go along with it. "You're too much," he said, gently shoving Sebastian.

"Y'know, I can't help but feel like Friday night was cut unfairly short. What d'you say we try it again?"

He felt a fluttering in his stomach, much like he'd felt when he and Brian had first started dating. "I think that could be arranged," he said, trying to play it cool and be coy.

"Get a coffee with me after school?" Sebastian suggested.

"As long as I don't have to actually drink coffee, I'm in," he said.

"Someday soon the Dalton pressure is going to catch up to you, and you'll just wish you'd already built up your caffeine tolerance like the rest of us."

"Isn't that ideal? So I can rely on just one coffee while the rest of you have to constantly reup?"

"There you go, with your non-caffeinated logic."

Blaine grinned. The banter with Sebastian felt natural and good, kind of like with Sydney or Cooper, but there was something special to it as well. He was looking forward to getting to know more about the Sebastian who was underneath the thick armor that he presented to the rest of the school.

After the last bell of the day, he packed up his bag and made to head to the parking lot, where he and Sebastian had planned to meet. Nick caught up to him in the hallway, having left Mr. Hoffman's class only a few moments after Blaine had.

"Hey, can we talk?"

He was a little surprised. While he was good friends with Jeff and Trent, he and Nick had never spoken much on their own. Nick was nice, but he was still too self-conscious to put himself out there and go seeking out new friends.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"It's just ... I overheard Sebastian telling Jamie that you two are going out tonight and I just… Look, Jeff told me about how Seb was creeping on you at the Christmas party and told us that we might have to run interference. So I just wanted to, I don't know, make sure you're good?"

He was touched that Nick cared this much, but also a little frustrated that his friends apparently didn't think he could take care of himself and make his own decisions. "I'm good," he said, perhaps a bit colder than intended. "Look, I know all about Sebastian's reputation. But I think I'm the last person that should be judging others by the rumors about them."

Nick looked down, perhaps ashamed. "It's not that we think you can't make your own decisions. We just - I just… Sebastian is really charismatic. But he isn't always so considerate about other people."

He softened his tone before responding. He knew that Nick meant well, and that Sebastian's past actions – and his own response to them – all warranted this conversation. "Thanks, Nick. Really. But even if this is a mistake, I need to start being me again. You know?"

Nick nodded, though he could tell from the boy's eyes that he didn't really understand. But then again, who could? Who else had been ripped from their life like he was?

He met up with Sebastian in the school's front hall. Were people staring, or had Nick just made him paranoid?

"How were your classes?" he asked Sebastian.

"You're not really going to make me relive the unadulterated monotony that is high school physics, are you?" Sebastian joked.

"Okay, boring it is."

"Sorry," Sebastian said, and he even looked contrite. "I didn't mean to jump down your throat or anything. I just… I don't know. I don't do coffee dates."

"Me neither," he admitted. "Though that's mostly because I hate coffee."

Sebastian grinned, and Blaine thought he saw some of the tension leave the taller boy's shoulders.

"So if school's off the table, what do you propose we discuss this evening?" he asked in an overly-formal tone. He was rewarded with a short bark of laughter from Sebastian.

"How about the fact that you still haven't joined the Warblers?"

"Nope, gonna veto that one right now. Been there, done that."

"C'mon, I'm sure you're an amazing singer. Plus, you'd look so good on stage with us."

"Want to go back to discussing young Leo? Did you know he was in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? With young Johnny Depp too?"

"Your attempts to change the topic are entirely transparent, but you do know my weakness," Sebastian said. "Personally I preferred pretty-boy Johnny Depp to whatever weird shit he's been doing with Tim Burton."

"Same!"

The discussion of 90s icons lasted them the entire drive to the coffee shop. It was a cute place that Blaine had never been to before, but he instantly knew that he would become a regular. It felt homey.

He'd pegged Sebastian for an overly-complicated multi-part order, but the boy surprised him again by ordering a regular coffee with just a shot of coconut flavor to mix things up. He raised his eyebrow in question at the order.

"It's no kona, but it makes me feel like I'm back walking the beach at Waikiki and sometimes on a gray Ohio day, you just want to feel like you're in Hawaii," Sebastian said. "Here, try it."

Blain took a tentative sniff. The coconut mixed with the coffee did smell really nice. He took a small sip and quickly changed his estimation. No, that was still disgusting and bitter, it just happened to be aromatically disgusting and bitter.

"I think I'll stick with hot chocolate, thanks."

"Next time, I'll get a mocha. Maybe we can slowly work your way from cocoa to mocha and then to straight black coffee."

Blaine nearly choked on his sip of hot chocolate. "I'm happy with my cocoa, thanks."

He walked up to Sebastian in the hallway before classes started on a Friday morning and leaned against the locker next to his. "Hey."

"Ugh," Sebastian moaned from behind his locker door. "How are you so chipper this early?"

"Maybe if you removed your head from your locker, you'd see why," he said.

Sebastian moved faster than he would have thought possible. His eyes caught the coffee cup immediately, and flashed up to Blaine's face.

"Is that -"

"A medium coffee with cream, sugar, and a shot of coconut flavor."

"You are an angel," Sebastian said, grabbing for the coffee cup.

"Nuh-uh," he said, holding the coffee out of Sebastian's reach. "Aren't you going to thank me first?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes, but said in a very sweet voice, "Thank you, oh wonderful coffee-bringer."

He laughed. "Well, that was nice, but I was looking for something else." He leaned in, feeling bold but not caring.

"Oh," Sebastian said. He met Blaine's lips for a short kiss. As they pulled apart, he grabbed the coffee out of his hand and held it up to his nose. "Mmm," he said.

He rolled his eyes. "Should I leave you two alone?"

Sebastian took a deep drink of his coffee. "No, I think I'm finally ready for the day."

"Good," Blaine said. "So, do you have any plans tonight?"

"Mm, yeah, I'm going out to Scandals to greet the weekend with some debauchery. You?" Sebastian failed to notice the way his shoulders slumped, too engrossed in his coffee."

"Oh. I was… I'd just been thinking that we might go out or something. I didn't realize that you… I didn't know you were still doing that. Going there."

"Look," Sebastian said, pulling back from Blaine. "You know I think you're super hot. But… I'm just not a relationship guy. Now, if you told me that you just wanted to fool around all the time, I'd definitely be into that."

He froze. "Then... what has this been? C'mon, Seb, we've gone on dates, we made out in your car before curfew… You can't tell me it's nothing."

"Of course not. But I'm not looking for a boyfriend."

"So, what, you just want to be friends with benefits? That's crap, Sebastian."

"Why not? We'd both benefit! All of the fun stuff we've already been doing and none of the crap about getting hung up on other people."

"Well, maybe I want to know that the person I'm spending so much time with isn't thinking about other people while we're together. I'm not - I don't know, some floozy!"

Sebastian burst out laughing. "Floozy, really, Anderson? What is this, 1920?"

"You know what I mean," Blaine said, but the tension was starting to fade away, and he, too, began to giggle. Soon both boys were laughing uproariously, despite the heated discussion they'd just been having.

"Look," he finally said, "I like you, Sebastian. Despite what everyone says and what you try to make everyone believe, you're actually a really great guy. But you don't want a relationship and I don't want a casual thing. It might surprise you to learn that I have some pretty intense trust issues. So can we just be friends?"

"As long as you let me keep complimenting that ass, you've got a deal," Sebastian said with a devilish wink.

He rolled his eyes. "You're insufferable."

"And you love it!"

He leaned over and pecked Sebastian on the lips. "One last kiss just to seal the deal. Friends?"

"Friends," Sebastian agreed, grabbing Blaine's ass. "Friends who bring each other coffee still, right?"