Breakfast was, in a single word, tense. The two adult men seemed reluctant to say anything other than "pass the butter, please," Rachel was MIA, and Blaine continued to brood, stabbing at his eggs a bit more violently than necessary. He was anything but warm, angry for something that neither of the men could have controlled, or even did. But they had been there in his dream, and in his dream…well…

Hiram cleared his throat quietly and addressed his son. At the sound of his name, Blaine looked up, expression wary and distrusting. Hiram looked like he was about to lose his nerve, but he continued anyway. "I got a call this morning – the brown suit we ordered for you is ready." LeRoy shot him a look and Hiram ignored it. "I'm going to go pick it up today and thought I would see if you might want to join me. You know – get out of the house for a bit."

For a moment, Blaine said nothing, his eyes darted quickly between his father's – Hiram's – irises and finally, he asked, "Just you and me?" He didn't seem particularly happy about it.

"Well, no – I'm sure LeRoy would come along, too. Right, LeRoy?" Blaine's face fell further, but Hiram added quickly, "And Rachel. I'm sure she'd be up for a trip to the mall. We could all go!" Hiram sounded far more enthusiastic than he'd intended, but he smiled hopefully at Blaine and then LeRoy.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to do," LeRoy interjected without so much as a glance in Hiram's direction. His husband was quick to adopt a serious expression and agree.

"Oh, yes, of course. Absolutely," said Hiram with a solemn nod. "You can stay home if you prefer."

Blaine's eyebrow twitched at the word 'home'. He licked his lips. They seemed like they were genuine, like they really just wanted to take a trip to the mall. It might not be so bad. And maybe he could get away and walk around by himself for a bit. It couldn't hurt, really, right? His heart, though, was hammering hard in his chest as he braced himself to accept the invitation. "Yeah, ok. Sure. Why not," he said in a rapid, flat tone. "Can I be excused?"

Hiram smiled brightly, but quickly frowned. "But you didn't even finish…"

LeRoy stopped him with a hand on his arm and cut in with his own response, "Yes, you can go. Thank you for asking."

Blaine looked between the two of them as they shared a silent conversation, then nodded, stood, and left the table. His heart was beating so fast it was starting to physically hurt. He knew the rush of adrenaline as soon as it hit him, the aftereffects of doing something that terrified him out of his wits. What am I doing?

Blaine half-expected Rachel to flake. Instead, she pouted the entire way to the mall. She hadn't been allowed to invite Finn and seemed to hate the idea of spending time without her big, hulking boyfriend. Blaine, though, was too busy memorizing the trees outside his window to really pay her much attention. If anything, he was glad to not be spending time with the football player.

The car pulled into the parking lot and the very first thing that Blaine noticed was that it was far busier than the last time they had come. With a click, he undid his seatbelt, then exited the car. He buried his hands in his pockets and waited for the Berrys to lead the way. The whole way into the building, Blaine hung back, maintaining distance from the Berrys, whether consciously or not. Rachel was whining about something and Blaine was ignoring her, but Hiram, clearly tired of listening to his daughter's tantrum, told her, "Rachel, why don't you and Blaine go walk around for a bit, hm?" The suggestion came with the first bit of annoyance Blaine had ever heard from the man, and that alone was shock enough to keep him from protesting much.

The men had already made it halfway down the hall before Blaine recovered. "Well?" Rachel was saying huffily. Blaine had no idea what the question had been.

"Well what?"

But before Rachel could answer, he cut her off. "Nevermind," he said with a shake of his head. "Why don't you just go do whatever you want to do. I'll catch you later." He half expected Rachel to protest, to tell him that no, my dads told us to stay together! or something equally as lame. To his surprise, though, when he looked at Rachel, she seemed surprised, and almost relieved, and with a small nod, just said, "yeah, sure, fine. I'll see you back here in an hour."

She took off down the left corridor and Blaine watched her go for a minute. Then, unsure of whether he should continue straight or to the right, he played a silent game of 'eeny-meeny-miney-mo' and headed right.

"Blaine."

The teen started and turned around quickly, pressing his back against the jangling rack of clothes he'd been combing through. The first thing he saw was a set of bright white teeth, and then he saw the hair. And then the hands, that raised up in mock surrender.

"Woah there, didn't mean to scare you. I was just surprised to see you back so soon. Not returning anything, I hope?"

Blaine's own hazel eyes widened as the taller man's gaze bored into him. He swallowed thickly. "N-no. No," he said, and let out a nervous laugh. "Just – browsing."

Jeremiah – that was his name – made a show of looking around. "I didn't see your dads anywhere. You here by yourself?" He smiled his silky smile. Blaine's eyes travelled along the older man's chiseled jaw. He nodded in response.

Jeremiah's smile widened. "That's a shame. Good looking guy like you shouldn't have to shop alone." Blaine realized he was staring at Jeremiah's lips and forced his eyes up to meet the older man's. That turned out to be a bad idea, though, because as soon as their eyes met, Blaine felt his cheeks heat and flush.

As Hiram and LeRoy approached the food court, the first thing they noticed was Rachel looking at her watch and tapping her foot impatiently. The second thing they noticed was that Blaine was nowhere to be found. "Hey sweetheart," greeted Hiram. Rachel started, her eyes widening like they did whenever she'd done something wrong.

"Dads! Hey," she replied.

Hiram reached for the back of her head and planted a loud, smacking kiss on her temple. She smiled softly, then moved to accept the hug LeRoy offered. "Did you have a good time?" she asked deflectively.

LeRoy smiled serenely at her. "Rachel, where's Blaine?"

LeRoy raised his gaze just enough to see Hiram watching their daughter expectantly. Breathing deeply, the man forced his nerves to remain at bay. You don't know something's happened. You don't know that anything's wrong.

Rachel, though, was left sputtering. She scoffed. "I – just – well, he – I mean…"

"I'm right here."

LeRoy turned around to face the dark-haired teen. Relieved, he smiled. "Great. Ready to go?"

There was something off about it all, he knew – something about the way that Rachel seemed relieved and then smiled smugly – something about the way that Blaine seemed far less hostile now, but at the same time, far more distracted. There was something his kids were not telling him, and with a glance at Hiram, he could tell that his husband saw it, too.

Maybe we should let it be, suggested Hiram's eyes.

I guess you're right.

That night, Rachel stood outside the door to den – or rather, to Blaine's bedroom – wringing her hands nervously. The day at the mall had passed without incident, and without anyone seeing her, luckily, but Rachel was worried about her imposter-brother's presence screwing up something far more important to her.

She glanced over her shoulder and took a bracing breath, then raised a hand and rapped smartly on the door. There was a long beat of silence, then the sound of a creaking mattress and footsteps approaching the door. The door pulled open and Blaine appeared, clearly dressed for bed in a plain white undershirt and gray sweatpants, his expression twisted into one of confusion.

Rachel smoothed her skirt and cleared her throat. "Hello, Blaine," she greeted him formally. "I have something I'd like to discuss with you if we could just…" She gestured towards the room, obviously hinting that she wanted to be invited in. Blaine didn't move though. Instead he stood there in the doorway, his brows knitted together in question. Rachel squirmed under his stare, but just as she opened her mouth to say something snippy, he backed away, holding the door open for her to enter. Admittedly surprised by the sudden, though silent, invitation, Rachel closed her mouth, her lips pressing into a thin line, and entered the newly converted room for the very first time.

The girl looked around her, actually sort of surprised by how well the room had turned out. It was simple, but tasteful, the walls papered in a blue pinstripe pattern. Her fathers hadn't told her what they were doing, having wanted Blaine to have the first look at the room instead of her. Rachel had just caught sight of the new, untouched laptop on the desk when she heard the door shut behind her and jumped slightly. Whipping around, she saw Blaine watching her suspiciously as he crossed to his bed, giving her a wide berth as he did. She forced herself to relax and dropped into the desk chair across from him. Again she smoothed her skirt unnecessarily.

Blaine waited, and Rachel tried to find the words that she had so carefully chosen…and rehearsed. Again she cleared her throat. She'd had a perfectly logical proposition planned perfectly, right down to Blaine's easy acceptance. But now that she was here…

"I've been thinking, Blaine, with school starting Monday and all, and I really think it's best – for you – if we – you know – keep this whole sibling thing to ourselves." The words tumbled out quickly. Her eyes avoided his as her cheeks started to flush. He stared at her.

After a moment of silence, the girl stopped wringing her hands and gripped the sides of the desk chair, bracing herself. She heaved a breath and looked at him. The lack of reaction only tugged at the anger and resentment that had settled in her core. What was he waiting for? For her to beg? "I have a reputation," she told him more forcefully, "People expect things from me. Everyone knows I'm going to go on to be a great Broadway star, and if they know you're related to me, you'll have a lot of them expecting the same sort of thing from you.. I mean, there's no one at McKinley even halfway as talented as me so all the teachers and students are going to expect you to be a great performer or something and it'll just be a disappointment to find out you aren't."

Still, nothing from him. "It isn't like my friends will want anything to do with you anyway," she snapped, "You'd just embarrass yourself by trying to compete with me."

Blaine glared at her. Her own brows furrowed deeply. Her words were spiteful. She was angry, but more than that, she was scared. She didn't want things to change. She didn't want Blaine screwing up her life at McKinley like he'd screwed up her life at home. She had friends now. Sort of..., she admitted ruefully to herself. But having him around, with his big city background and tragic past, there wasn't any question in her mind that everyone would like him best.

Well, everyone except Finn, she reminded herself, and though she felt a little better knowing at least her brother couldn't steal her boyfriend, he'd done a damn good job of taking her parents' attention away. They paid more attention than him than her, and Rachel wasn't reassured by the fact that she had gotten all of their attention when she was younger where Blaine had none – not when the boy had so effectively stolen what used to be something that belonged to only her: her fathers' love.

"You are such…," Blaine began, but what she was, he never said. Instead, he just shook his head and let out a disgusted scoff. "Don't worry, Princess, I won't tell anyone your dirty little secret and embarrass you with my existence. I'd rather not let people know I'm related to such a stupid, selfish bitch."

Rachel gasped, offended. "I'm just trying to look out for your best interest here, Blaine," she snapped defensively and gestured to herself.

Blaine crossed his arms over his chest and stood. Rachel stood, too, and crossed her arms to match Blaine's. As short as he was, he was still taller than her by nearly a whole head. "Yeah, right. Tell it to someone who cares," he practically spat. "Or don't – whatever's best for your reputation. You should leave."

That was the last straw for her. This was her house. Those were her parents. And this boy had no business ordering her around her own home. "This is my house you know. You're just an uninvited guest here."

Blaine flushed pink, but his reply came out with such venom Rachel had to assume he was reddening with anger rather than embarrassment. "If we're supposed to not be siblings, let's start now, then, and since I don't let random strangers hang out in my room, you can get the hell out."

Angry as she was, Rachel knew her cue to leave and took it. She didn't want to spend another second in that room, and part of her was afraid that Finn was right, that Blaine might try to physically attack her if she gave him half the chance. Looking resolutely ahead of her, Rachel marched across the room to the door, threw it open, and left without another word to Blaine.

A/N: Thank you to all of you who have followed and favorited and commented on my story to encourage me to update. I really appreciate that you enjoy and believe in this story. I can't make a promise about the next time that I'll update, but I have already started on the next chapter, so I'm hoping it will be soon. My job, though, is very time-intensive, and sometimes, after working a 60-hour week, I just don't have any brain power left for writing!

For those who feel inclined to drop me a review, I'm especially curious to know what you think of the scene with Jeremiah. It was short, I know, but I'm trying to portray certain aspects of the character that I have in my head without giving away too much or going into too much detail, so I'm curious to know your reaction to him or any thoughts you have about the Jeremiah I'm portraying. Thanks in advance, everyone!