A/N: I have the rest of the story planned out, but if there's anything specific you'd like to see them do (hopefully beach related), please tell me in the comments. Hope you enjoy, and as always, I do not own Glee. Or Darren Criss. Although I would very much like to.

They had spent the day at the beach with Katie and Anna. Kurt and Blaine were up in the loft after dinner. Blaine had been quiet all day, but he just said "I'm fine" when Kurt asked him what was wrong.

Finally, Kurt got tired of it. "Blaine. Come on. Tell me what's up. Maybe I can help."

"I miss them," Blaine said.

"Hmm?"

"I miss them," Blaine repeated.

"You miss your mom?" Kurt asked, sure he'd misheard.

"Yeah, I miss her." He paused. "I miss my dad too."

Kurt stared at Blaine in horror. "How can you miss him? He threw you out of the house!"

"He didn't actually throw me out."

"But he was going to…"

"He's still my dad, and I miss him."

Kurt was confused, to say the least.

"He doesn't care about you! Why should you miss him?"

Blaine flinched. "He does care. He just doesn't understand me."

Okay, admittedly that had not been the most tactful way of putting it. But from what Kurt had seen, it was a little more than Blaine's father not understanding him. He opened his mouth to disagree, but Blaine spoke first.

"Look, you've only seen him at his worst. He's not usually like that. He's not a bad person."

He thought of how his own father had reacted to the revelation of the fact that he was gay. "A good person wouldn't do that. My dad-"

"We can't all have perfect fathers!" Blaine said. "You think I don't wish my dad was like that? Of course I do. But he's what I've got. And he's not all bad. People aren't all good or all bad, Kurt. Everyone has some of both."

Kurt remembered his own hatred for Karofsky, and how it had changed into something like pity, and maybe even the beginnings of friendship.

"I know. It's just hard for me to believe, after seeing him like that."

"I know he loves me." Blaine gave a sad smile. "After those guys beat me up at the dance, he was so angry… He called everyone at the school, went to the school board, he tried everything he could to get them expelled. It didn't work. It was my word against theirs, and the school wasn't prepared to let the best players on the football team go, just because some kid had been half-murdered."

Kurt felt a stab of pain for the sad, lonely boy staring out of Blaine's eyes. He reached out and put a comforting arm around Blaine.

Blaine continued to speak. "So I know he cared. But he didn't want me to run away, even though they were still there. He wanted me to be strong."

Now Kurt understood the self-loathing in Blaine's voice when he talked about leaving his old school. It didn't really help to convince him that Blaine's dad was a decent father.

"It was my mom who said I should transfer to Dalton. She didn't want to see me hurt anymore. He was so disappointed." Blaine looked ashamed, and Kurt felt even angrier at Blaine's dad. What right did he have to put Blaine in danger?

"You did the right thing," he said. "If you'd been attacked again… you could have died, Blaine." Kurt was almost sick at the thought of Blaine not existing. "You'd be dead, and we'd never have met. You can't keep torturing yourself over transferring to Dalton. Besides, you're happier now, aren't you?"

Blaine gave a half-hearted smile. "Yeah. I have you."

When they'd first met, Blaine had seemed so confident. Kurt had found a mentor in him, and had become infatuated with the boy who had so much in common with him, but didn't appear to let any of it bother him. As time went on, though, he'd found out that deep down, his boyfriend was very insecure. He put on a front, and appeared perfect - to everyone but himself. And his father, apparently. But Kurt loved him despite, and even because of, the flaws he'd uncovered.

"So you don't have to worry." He took hold of Blaine's hand, and gave him a reassuring smile. "You'll be okay."