Blaine turned away from the barista with a half-hearted smile and headed over to the table Kurt was saving for them. It wasn't crowded, but it felt less awkward than standing together in line. The teen set the "grande" nonfat mocha in front of Kurt and settled down with a plain medium drip. Maybe he shouldn't have let Burt's assessment that "super-frappa-latte's" weren't coffee affect his ordering choice, but it made him feel like more of a man to drink something from this place that even Burt Hummel would approve of.

He popped the cap off and gently blew across the surface of the coffee. He lifted his eyes, only to see Kurt looking at him with a strange expression. He lowered his coffee cup. "What?" he asked.

Kurt squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. As if that could undo the fact that he'd been staring. "Nothing; nothing, it's just – I really can't believe you're Rachel's brother," he admitted, his tone dropping a bit in volume.

Blaine felt a strange pang in his chest. Like he was disappointed that Kurt had not said – not said what? He didn't know what he was hoping for, but he supposed it didn't matter. He frowned. "I can't believe you're Rachel's friend," he retorted. Then, he cringed. "Sorry, that was rude," Blaine said to him, shaking his head at his own lack of impulse control. "You can be friends with whoever you want. It's just. She's so – so…"

Blaine spun his hand, looking for the right word. Kurt, in a surprisingly dry tone, supplied a few. "Annoying. Self-centered. Insufferable."

Blaine raised his eyebrows, surprised that those descriptors could come from a self-proclaimed "friend" of his sis – of Rachel's.

Kurt turned his gaze away and shrugged a shoulder. "She's not so bad if you get to know her. If you can learn to just look past all her really annoying qualities." Kurt lifted his cup to his lips. As he lowered it, a mischievous smirk formed on his lips. "Did you know she once sent a foreign exchange student to a crack house so she would miss her audition for the Glee club, just because she was a better singer than Rachel?"

Blaine's eyes widened and his jaw slackened. "No! Are you serious?" And from that point on, Kurt had Blaine hanging on his every word.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, ba-da, eight. Again. Ready, and, one, two, three, four, five, six – Finn, you're turning the wrong way," said Mike patiently. He was in full instructor mode now. It was a good thing he really loved what he was doing or he might have actually gotten frustrated over Finn's left feet. He smiled over at Finn, who was huffing loudly and sweating profusely.

Finn put his hands on his hips and cursed. "I need a break."

Mike chuckled. "All right – fine, take five – but no more than that."

For his own part, Mike never rested. He spent the breaks working through the rest of the choreography. Counting under his breath, he ran through the first steps, and then hummed a bit and tried out a move or two, only to start again, to check for flow. He was totally in his zone – in the place where everything in the world felt right, where all the bullshit fell away. He didn't notice Sam's approach until the blond teen was practically on top of him. Mike jumped, but caught himself. "Oh, hey, Sam, what's up."

Sam looked over his shoulder and slid his hands in his pockets. He seemed to hesitate. "Yeah, so, uh, I just noticed Kurt never made it. And he kind of skipped out on us Friday and the Wednesday before that. And before I ask the other guys, I was just wondering if, uh – if you'd called him? You know, to let him know about the practices."

Mike's eyebrows jumped. "I, uh – no. No. I didn't. But I mean – I'm sure he's just busy or something. And Kurt's a quick study. I'm sure he can pick up the steps before the performance."

Sam dragged his teeth across his top lip and just nodded. "Thanks." Mike watched as Sam headed over to the other guys, then after a moment, he followed. Mike never had anything against Kurt, but they weren't exactly friends either. Kurt hung out with the girls in Glee Club mostly, including Tina. And Mike hung out with Tina. A lot. But he and Kurt never really hung out together outside of Glee Club. It would have just been, well, weird. Still, he didn't like the idea that Kurt had possibly never gotten word – that they might be having a rehearsal behind his back. Even if Mike didn't totally get why, Shue had insisted Kurt join the boys' team, so they were stuck with him, and he with them, and fair was fair.

Blaine was nearly falling sideways in his seat. Kurt's impersonations of Rachel had him laughing so hard he had to hold his stomach to keep his side from splitting. Kurt looked on with an amused smile. "God – what a – what a bitch," Blaine managed to comment as his laughs stuttered away.

He reached a hand up to wipe the tears in his eye. Kurt's smile turned sad. "Yeah, but she has good qualities, too. In her way," he said, then paused. "A few weeks ago we had an assignment in Glee Club. Duets."

"You actually get 'assignments' in Glee Club?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Yes. Mr. Schuster seems to think that musical homework is the best way to prepare for competitions," he said with clear derision in his voice. "Meanwhile, every other show choir in the nation is busy perfecting their routines that were already decided on months in advance."

Blaine pulled a face. Kurt played with his now empty cup, picking it up with the tips of his fingers and letting it drop again. "Anyway," Kurt continued, "The assignment was duets. And I had a partner – for a while – but then that sort of fell through…"

"So what happened?" Blaine prompted. He had his arms folded, his elbows and forearms resting on the table and he was leaning in – hanging on Kurt's every word. Kurt looked up, realized he'd gotten mentally sidetracked with thoughts of Sam.

"Oh, um, I – I did a duet myself," Kurt explained. The corner of his mouth lifted into a rueful smile. "Le Hot Jazz from Victor/Victoria. You probably haven't heard of it. But afterward, Rachel asked me to do a duet with her. She was kind of the only person who did," he admitted with a slight blush. "It was really cool of her to do that. We, uh, we sang the brilliant and iconic 1963 mash-up Get Happy and Happy Days are Here Again. It, of course, was amazing." He indicated to himself while wearing a proud smirk. "And I, of course, sang Judy Garland's part."

Blaine's eyes lit up. "Oh my God I love Judy Garland," he gushed suddenly. "The Wizard of Oz was like, my favourite movie of all time when I was younger," he told Kurt with a light laugh.

Kurt's own eyes widened at that. "Really?" Kurt couldn't think of a single straight guy that loved musicals, or at least none that would have admitted it. But he caught himself before he blurted out anything too embarrassing. He smiled at Blaine. "I mean – The Wizard of Oz was okay, but the Sound of Music is so much better."

Blaine scoffed. He actually scoffed. "Dream on." Blaine took a long sip of his coffee, then pulled out a beat-up flip phone. He pressed the side-button, then looked up at Kurt. "We should head back. My ride will be at the tire shop soon."

Kurt nodded and smiled, trying to keep his rising confusion from clouding his head.

By the time the boys pulled up, Blaine's fathers had already arrived to pick him up. What he hadn't told the boys was that he'd run the idea of coffee by the Berrys first, just in case, and they'd agreed – it would be good if Blaine could make some friends. Especially friends who knew what he was going through, losing his mom and all.

"Hey-ey! There they are!" Burt exclaimed with a wide grin as he walked over to greet his approaching son with a pat on the arm. Both Hiram and LeRoy followed closely behind. "How was the Lima Bean?" he asked. He noticed Blaine looked a little more nervous and tightlipped than before he'd left, kind of like he was when he'd first arrived with the Berrys – before he'd actually relaxed. Blaine cast a furtive glance at the Berrys and Burt glanced at them as well.

To Burt's relief, a smiling LeRoy chimed in, "I hear the cappuccino's to die for –best in town."

Hiram swatted his husband playfully on the chest. "Oh come on, LeRoy – it isn't as if there's anywhere to compare them to. Unless you count that diner down on Main. Which I don't."

Kurt chuckled a little at that, and Burt was glad to hear his son laugh. Blaine just tucked his hands in his pockets, though his lip did give a slight twitch. "It was good," Kurt confirmed. "Same as always. And it wasn't too crowded so we could actually hear each other."

"Oh yeah? What'd you guys talk about?" Burt eyed his son, but he realized as soon as Kurt averted his eyes, that he was not going to get an actual answer.

The boy shrugged, "This and that. School stuff."

Burt couldn't help but notice the glance the boys exchanged, however brief.

Hiram and LeRoy, though, seemed not to have noticed. "Well, we should be going. Thanks again, Burt," LeRoy said.

Burt nodded curtly. "Anytime. And I mean that," he grunted. He turned his sights on Blaine. "Not that I'm encouraging you to get grounded again, mind. You stay out of trouble, kid, ok?" Blaine held his gaze with a heavy intensity, and he nodded like he understood it as an order – an order he would follow. That was good enough for now.

Later that night, Kurt was setting the table for dinner when Burt came into the kitchen and leaned up against the door frame. "You ok, Kiddo?" he asked. Kurt jumped, and put a hand to his chest.

"Dad, you scared me! Hasn't anyone ever told you not to sneak up on people like that?" he asked, his voice sounding even more high pitched than usual.

Burt chuckled, apparently amused. Kurt huffed and shot a glare at him before crouching to pick up the silverware he'd dropped. "I wasn't sneaking," he defended, his arms held up in surrender. "But listen, Kurt, I need to talk to you."

Burt made his way across the kitchen. And Kurt stood up slowly his eyes wide. "What about?" Please don't let it be your heart, please don't let it be your heart…

And as if Burt could read his mind (Kurt had long ago come to suspect he could), Burt told him, "It's nothing to do with me. Take a seat, Kurt."

Burt lowered himself into his usual chair and waited for Kurt to settle himself daintily across from him. But Kurt wasn't feeling any relief from the anxiety. If it was nothing to do with his Dad, then there was only one other person this could be about, and the insane idea that his dad had somehow found out about the assault and knew filled him with an almost panic-inducing dread. He swallowed dryly. "S-so – wh-what do you want to talk about?"

"I just wanted to check in, you know, after your coffee – hang-out – thing. Whatever you wanna call it. I just wanna make sure you're ok since I kinda sorta sprung it on you to take him there, but after spendin' all day with the kid, I thought, and Hiram agreed, that spending some time with someone who knows what he's going through would, you know, do 'im some good."

Burt went silent and looked at Kurt expectantly. Kurt was sure he was waiting for some acknowledgment, some response. But Kurt felt nothing but confusion. What Blaine was going through? What was Blaine going through that Kurt would know anything about? With deeply furrowed brows, Kurt shook his head. "I – I don't think I follow – how would I have any idea about what he's going through?"

Burt's brow furrowed even deeper than his son's. "Come on, Kurt – I know it's not exactly the same, but you're both pretty much in the same boat."

Same boat? He had no idea what his dad was talking about. The only "boat" he saw himself in was the one where he was gay and bullied – could Blaine be gay? If so, why hadn't he said anything? Or maybe his dad thought being gay was kind of like being in the same boat as someone living with 2 gay dads? But that didn't make any sense... "Dad," he said shaking his head. "What boat?"

"He didn't tell you why he came to Lima?"

"No, he – we didn't really talk about it. Why?"

"Oh," was all Burt said in response. Kurt's dad pulled off his hat and scratched the back of his head in that way he did when he was trying to work out a problem. He fitted his hat back on his head. "Well, I guess in that case, I'll let you go back to what you were doing."

Kurt's eyebrows flew upwards as Burt moved to get up. "What? No, Dad – you can't just tease me like that. What's Blaine supposed to have told me?"

Burt just patted his son on the shoulder. "I'm sure he'll tell you when he's ready."

Kurt frowned. Assuming Rachel doesn't tell me first, he thought to himself. He didn't like when his dad got all noble on him - especially when Burt knew something Kurt didn't. He would just have to corner Rachel Monday about it all.