Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.

Chapter four

Kurt liked the days where he ended up staying home and had nothing to do.

He'd sit on his bed, curled up with a blanket if the weather was cold enough for one, and either read or, if he was in the mood, draw, with classical music playing lightly in the background. His dad would go to the garage, and he'd have the entire house to himself. While he hated the reason he chose to stay home (either he was exhausted or just not feeling well), he loved the peaceful feeling he got to spend the day in.

Those days reminded him of his mom, and when she would glide through the house on a spring morning and sing. She'd have a smile on her face, and if she felt the urge, she'd bake something sweet. After she'd died, Kurt had tried to keep her tradition of baking sweet things alive on calm days, so, often his dad came home to cakes, cookies or brownies and had to eat them (although Kurt was pretty sure that his dad didn't mind in the least).

Today, though, he didn't feel up to cooking anything. At the moment, he was lying out on his bed, Mozart playing in the background, and he was thinking.

About Blaine.

About how geeky he was at times.

About hot cute he was...

Sighing, Kurt rolled over onto his side. Don't go down that path, Kurt. Nothing is going to happen. Plus, Blaine probably likes someone else...

God, it was hard to think that.

The previous day, Kurt had asked him if he wanted to hang out, and Blaine's immediate response was, I'm sorry. I have plans already with someone else.

Feeling slightly angry with himself (of course Blaine would have plans with someone else. He had a life. He was probably really popular at his school. Just because he didn't have a boyfriend didn't mean he didn't date), Kurt responded with, Oh, it's fine. I hope you have fun.

Oh, I will. I've been waiting for this for a long time. I'm so excited to hang out with him.

And that settled it. Blaine liked someone else.

Okay, Kurt could handle that. It wasn't like he was able to have a long term relationship anyway.

Sighing, Kurt rolled over so that he was on his stomach, then gathered his pillow in his arms. Now today was looking gloomy, even though it was beautiful outside. "So, Kurt. What are you going to do to make this day better...?"

His first thought was to go and visit his mom, but as he was putting on his knee high boots he stopped, then thought of the pond that Blaine had taken him to. The ducks should still be there, and he'd enjoyed feeding them and watching them fight over the crumbs. Smiling, he went downstairs and opened the pantry, before grabbing the half loaf and heading out the door.

He was told that slow exercise was something that he should be doing more often, so, after taking one longing look at his baby, he walked down the driveway and headed in the direction of the pond. He estimated that it was about a twenty minute walk if he walked normal, and it was a nice day, so a longer walk wouldn't be bad.

He passed children out with their parents, and couples ditching school along the way. He saw elderly couples out for a stroll, young women shopping, and men hanging out, some even sitting on top of their cars. Everywhere around him people were laughing, and Kurt couldn't find it in himself to be mad at them.

While during one of his many hospital visits, Kurt had met another boy his age with the same heart problem as him. His name, as he'd introduced himself, had been Tony, and he'd been angry. While Kurt had moments of sadness, and times where he would wonder why and cry, he'd never been angry. Tony, while out on a small walk around the hospital, had been glaring at those walking around happily, the ones getting discharged and he'd glare and mumble and say that they didn't understand life and that they shouldn't be so happy.

All Kurt could do when he looked at them was envy them for being able to live.

During those days in the hospital he listened to music, and when his dad forgot to bring his iPod over, all he had was the steady beeping of the heart monitor machine. It was a constant beat, and if he closed his eyes, he could come up with some sort of tune, and when that happened, for a while he could forget that he was in a hospital with a faulty heart.

When he could no longer pretend the monitor was music, he'd ask for paper and pens and he'd sketch. He didn't think he was that good, but the nurses said he had amazing talent. Sometimes, if they were on a break they'd pose for him, and he'd draw a quick doodle of them and give it to them as gifts.

He'd normally only be in the hospital for a day or two, but while in the hospital, time seemed to go by incredibly slow.

"Today feels like one of those hospital days..." He muttered to himself as he made his way over to the one bench that he and Blaine had sat on.

The ducks were wandering around the pond aimlessly, some poking at the ground in search of food. Kurt smiled at them, then took out the loaf of bread. He tore off a small part and tossed it at the nearest duck. It landed on the ground right in front of it, and it stared at if for a while, its head cocked to the side, as if it was expecting the bread crumb to jump up again.

When the duck decided that the bread crumb was safe to eat, it pecked at it, ate it quickly, then looked around quickly. When it didn't find anything, it sat down with a small squawk and didn't move. Kurt couldn't help but let out a small laugh. Picking off another piece of bread, he tossed it at the duck. When the crumb bounced into the eyesight of the duck, it jerked its head back, then looked up at the sky, as if saying thank you before eating the crumb quickly.

I'm having way too much fun with this, Kurt thought as he tossed bread crumb after brad crumb at the duck. Eventually, after five more crumbs, the duck seemed to realize that the crumbs were coming from Kurt, and it waddled over to him, then sat down right in front of him, looking up at Kurt hopefully.

"You know, you're not as cute up close," Kurt said, tossing another piece.

The duck just quaked again before eating the crumb. He was about to toss another one when his phone rang. He put the loaf down next to him, then pulled his phone out. He heard a quack from the duck and he turned to stare at it. "What? I'll only be a second."

The duck cocked its head.

Kurt rolled his eyes then answered his phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, Kurt! How are you?"

Kurt's heart rate sped up involuntarily. "Oh, hi, Blaine. I'm good. How are you doing?"

"I'm good, actually. I was just calling you to see if you were busy?"

Kurt frowned. "No, I'm not. Why?"

He heard Blaine sigh. "I felt bad for kind of blowing you off yesterday, so I wanted to make it up to you by surprising you at your house, but no one was home."

Kurt could practically hear Blaine's pout. "I'm at the pond, feeding the ducks."

As soon as he mentioned the word duck he heard a quack from his right and turned to see the duck he'd been feeding sitting beside him on the bench. "What the-"

"What is it?"

Kurt exhaled, then let out a laugh as the duck lowered its head and began to eat the bread on the bench. "I think I may have made a duck like me too much."

"How so?"

"Well, it's sitting by me on the bench."

"How'd it get there?"

"I have no idea."

Blaine laughed. "Well, I hope it stays there so that I can see it for myself."

Kurt frowned. "Wait, are you in Lima?"

"I did say that no one was at your house, didn't I?"

Oh, he had.

"Oh..."

"I see the duck was distracting you?"

"Maybe just a little."

Not really... It was the fact that you had called me randomly like that.

"Well, I should be there in five minutes, give or take the traffic contingent. See you soon."

"Bye."

He hung up, then glanced down at the duck. "What do you think?" He asked. "Do you think that I'm getting my hopes up by thinking that there's a small chance he could like me some day?"

The duck laid its head down and let out a small quack.

Kurt sighed. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

He sat there in silence, waiting, and five minutes later he felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up to see Blaine smiling down at him.

"Hey," he said, turning back to look at the pond.

"Hi," Blaine replied, looking past him at the duck. "You weren't lying, huh?"

"Nope."

Blaine leaned over slightly, his hands in his coat pocket. "He's cute. Have you named him yet?"

Kurt glanced up at him, staring at him as if he had two heads. "No, I haven't..."

Blaine bent down so he was squatting and stared intently at the duck. "What about... Hezekiah?"

Kurt sighed. "You're not going to be swayed in this, are you?"

"Nope! Not in the least!"

"Fine, fine. Hezekiah is is."

Blaine beamed up at him. "Great!" He sat down next to Kurt (on the other side of Hezekiah), then inhaled loudly. "So, do you feel like doing anything fun tonight?"

Kurt shrugged. In all honesty, he'd planned on finishing his homework, maybe emailing Mercedes to see if she had her part of their project finished, and then going to bed. But the way Blaine had asked the question made him think that maybe Blaine had something in mind. "Sure, but I don't really think I have any fun games or anything..."

He and his dad didn't really have any fun boardgames at his house. They normally worked on cars together, or watched CSI reruns (Kurt was a secret fan of those murder shows). He didn't think that Blaine would be into those kinds of things, so he didn't know what they could do.

Blaine smirked. "Well, Rent is being performed at the local theater close to Dalton, and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me a few of the Warbler guys?"

Blaine had barely finished the sentence before had let out a loud, "Yes!" that caused Hezekiah to quack and hop off the bench. Hezekiah waddled over to the pond, turned around and gave them a loud quack, then headed on into the water.

Both Kurt and Blaine laughed. "So," Blaine said, turning his attention back to Kurt. "I'll take that as a yes?"

He nodded quickly. "What time does it start?"

Blaine glanced down at his watch. "Well, with the two hour drive there, if we leave soon we'll make it in time."

Kurt looked down at himself. "Oh, god. I look horrible! I need to change!"

Blaine caught his arm as he stood up. "Nope, no time to change! And you look fine. Trust me."

Kurt shook his head. "No, I don't. I-"

"Look just perfect, and plus. You'll be sitting in a dark theater room. No one is going to be looking at you and saying, 'oh, look at that boy right there. Do you see how his outfit isn't Rent material?"

He was raising an eyebrow, and Kurt sighed. "Fine, but I do have to let my dad know where I'm going, okay?"

Blaine shrugged and stood up. "Sounds fine to me."

It took a lot of persuading, but Kurt finally got his dad to let him go to the play, and the entire ride to Westerville he was smiling and listening to Blaine sing songs at the top of his lungs. Kurt told Blaine about the small costume battle he would be participating with Rachel for the sake of the Glee club's next performance outfit, and in return Blaine told him about Dalton, and about the two friends of his that Kurt would be meeting, Wes and David. "I think that you'll like them," Blaine said, turning into a neighborhood that was full of large houses.

"What are we doing here?"

"I'm picking Wes and David up here."

"Oh..."

"Don't worry," Blaine said, trying and failing to not smirk. "You'll like them and they'll like you."

Kurt fidgeted, trying to not think about how the whole talk sounded very much like the talk people in relationships gave to each other when meeting the others' friends and family. He twisted his hands together in his lap and looked out the window, worrying on his lower lip.

They pulled into a driveway to a rather large house. Kurt was only able to stare up at it in awe. "Wow..."

Blaine laughed. "Yeah, Wes' family is in engineering and they own some stalks and stuff like that." He then frowned. "Where are they?"

He placed his hands on the horn then held it down until an Asian boy stuck his head out of one of the windows by the front door. "Cool it, Anderson! We'll be out in a second!"

Blaine let the horn go for a second longer before he took his hand off. Kurt glanced around the neighborhood cautiously. "Are we going to get kicked out of the neighborhood by the police or something?"

Blaine laughed at him, and Kurt frowned, feeling the urge to slap him. "No, we're not. They're not that uptight in places like these."

Kurt was going to ask him another question when the front door of the house opened and two boys walked out; the Asian boy and a black boy. Kurt watched them, trying to figure out who was who as they got into the car. Blaine put his hand behind the head rest and the black boy slapped his hand.

"Thanks for picking us up, Blaine."

"Yes, thank you, Warbler Blaine," the Asian boy said curtly. "My mother was most displeased with your needless honking to get David and I to come out."

Oh, so he was Wes.

David sighed. "Wes, your mom wasn't that mad. In fact, she was laughing."

Wes did not sound any less mad when he replied with, "It doesn't matter if she was laughing or not! Blaine did it to deliberately annoy me and- He's laughing. He's laughing!"

And Blaine was.

They'd pulled out of the driveway and were pulling out onto the main road, and already Kurt was feeling very left out and out of the loop. Maybe he shouldn't have said yes, even if the play was Rent.

"So, guys, this is Kurt. Kurt, these guys are Wes and David," Blaine said, pointing to the boys in the back seats with this right hand, his eyes never leaving the road.

David stuck a hand over Kurt's headrest. "Hello, Kurt. It's nice to meet you."

Kurt twisted awkwardly and shook David's hand with his right. "Nice to meet you as well."

David, who had unbuckled himself and leaned forward to actually see Kurt, pointed a thumb back at Wes. "That's Wes. He's kind of uptight."

"I am not uptight!"

Kurt grinned. "I see."

"Hey!"

Wes and David, as it turned out, were very interesting to hang out with. In fact, Kurt rather liked them. Throughout the entire performance of Rent, he found himself talking to all three of them, and Kurt did not do that. At all. It was Rent for crying out loud, but the other two boys brought him into the conversation like he'd been friends with them his entire life.

He couldn't lie. It felt amazing to be included.

They'd planned on stopping for ice cream after the show, but Kurt told them that he'd have to leave then in order to get back home before eleven. "But you guys go on and get ice cream. I'll just call a taxi or some-"

A hand landing on his lips cut him off rather quickly.

"Uh, do you really think that you're taking a cabback?" Blaine asked, eyes wide. "I drove you here, I'm going to take you home."

Kurt shook his head. "But Blaine," he said, taking Blaine's (soft) hand off of his mouth. "That'll make it a four hour drive for you, and I know that you have school in the morning and I can't keep you out that late."

Blaine sighed, then looked over at David and Wes, eyebrow raised. "Guys?"

David punched the air. "Mini Ohio road trip! I happen to like road trips. They can be very stimulating," he said, winking at Blaine. Blaine glared at him.

Wes sighed. "Sure... Why not? I got all of my homework for the week finished anyway, and my mom thinks I need to get out more."

Blaine smiled at Kurt, then shrugged his shoulders. "Well, there you go!

Kurt frowned and began to worry on his lip again. "Are you sure?"

The answer he received was his arm being grabbed, and he found himself being dragged out to Blaine's car and shoved into the front seat.

"Okay..." he muttered, slouching in the seat and sighing.

Blaine, David and Wes climbed into the car, all three of them grinning. "So, if I go a little bit fast on the highway, I can get you home in under two hours. Deal?"

Kurt sighed. "Fine, deal."

"Great!"

Kurt didn't talk for most of the ride back, thinking about Blaine and his relationships with Wes and David. They were so close, and even though he'd felt like a part of their group during most of the night, he knew that he wasn't.

And it hurt.

He hated that it hurt, because it shouldn't.

"Kurt!"

He blinked and turned to Blaine, who was reaching out with his right hand to turn up the radio. "What is it?"

Blaine was grinning. "Sing this song with me! It's my favorite."

Kurt toned in on the song. It was Katy Perry's Teenage Dream. "Um... I'm good."

"Oh, Kurt, please?"

"Blaine, really. I don't have that good of a voice."

"Please?"

Wes groaned. "Just sing it with him, Kurt. He won't stop whining until you sing with him."

Kurt sighed. He hadn't really sang anything in a year; the last time he'd really sang he'd collapsed, and since then he'd been too scared to really let himself sing again.

He froze.

He was too scared to sing.

He furrowed his brow and bit his lip. He'd told himself the last time that he was in the hospital that he wasn't going to let his illness live his life for him. He wasn't going to let it get the best of him. Gripping his hands together tightly, he smiled up at Blaine and said, "Sure, why not. Just don't say that I didn't warn you about my voice."

Blaine laughed. "I doubt that." He turned the radio up and began to sing. "You make me, feel like I"m living a teenage dream, the way you turn me on..." He stopped, then turned to Kurt, a hopeful look on his face.

Taking a deep breath, Kurt sang the next line that came on. "My heart stops, when you look at me. Just one touch, now baby I believe, this is real. So take a chance, and don't ever look back, don't ever look back."

Blaine now had a insanely large smile on his face as he joined back in; without him knowing, David and Wes had started singing as well.

Halfway through the song, it hit him:

He was singing.

He felt sort of alive, the kind where he forgot everything else except the song lyrics, the music, and those singing with him. Without knowing it, he started dancing along with the music, and he didn't stop when he felt himself getting breathless. He kept singing, trying not to cry because of how happy he was. He was singing again.

When the song ended, he was having some trouble breathing, but he found that he didn't care. He'd just sang, with Blaine, and he was so happy his face hurt because of the smile he had. Blaine was laughing, and Kurt found himself laughing along.

"And you said you had a bad voice!"

David leaned forward again and slapped his shoulder. "You have an amazing voice, Kurt."

"I have to say that I agree. You are quite the talented countertenor," Wes said, his tone all business, but Kurt could heart he small smile on his face.

Kurt blushed, shrugging. "I never did think that I had a good voice. I thought that it sounded...girly."

Blaine winked at him, and Kurt felt the blush turn a deeper red color. "I think that it fits you perfectly."

Kurt smiled softly. "Thanks..."

He sang with them the entire ride home, and when he was waving goodbye at his porch, he still had a big smile on his face.

His dad was waiting for him in the living room when he entered his house. He was reading a book and he didn't look up with Kurt sat down beside him. "How was it?"

"I... I had a blast, actually."

"You sound shocked."

Kurt shrugged. "I kind of am. They included me in every conversation and made me feel like part of the group." He took a deep breath. "I sang in the car on the ride home..."

That made Burt put the book down. "Are you serious?"

Kurt nodded. "Yes... I had fun doing it, too."

His dad put a hand on his shoulder. "And do you feel okay?"

Kurt nodded again. "Yeah, actually. I'm slightly breathless, but that's because I was having fun. I mean, I'm not going to be singing all day now, but... I think I'm sort of getting over the scare I had."

The look and his dad's face made him want to cry. "God, Kurt..."

Kurt lifted a hand and put it on his dad's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Burt shook his head, still smiling that sad smile. "Yeah, I will be." He took a deep breath. "You look tired," he said softly.

"Yeah, it was a long, but fun, day."

"You should head on to bed, then."

Kurt stood up, gave his father a hug, then began to make his way to his room.

"Kurt?"

He stopped and turned back to his dad. "Yeah?"

Burt was smiling, looking a bit happier. "This Blaine kid, he's good for you."

Kurt flushed. "I... I think so too..."

And as he crawled into his bed after doing his moisturizing routine, he couldn't help but think that Blaine was possibly the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Author's notes: Here be chapter four!

I do hope that you all enjoyed it (and there's even Wes and David. I tried to keep them as close to canon as I could. I hope that I succeeded). And for those who have read my fic All Summer Long, I have decided to make it a multi-chapter story about Kurt and Blaine's entire summer (and all of their ~exploring). I want to get most of it written before I upload the next chapter though, so it's going to stay "complete" until then.

Well, let me know what you thought about this chapter!

(and I'm totally pimping my friend out right now, but if you guys like Inception Arthur/Eames fics, check out OneWhoSitsWithTheTurtles. She's pretty much a goddess when it comes to A/E Inception fics. Like, fo'real.)

Anyway, I'm going to... Ew. I have chores. THAT'S A HORRIBLE THING, YOU GUYS. I HATE CHORES. THEY SUCK. AND IT'S LATE. WHY DO I HAVE TO DO CHORES? I WANT TO BE SLEEPING. ...or eating cake, but I'd like to be eating cake all of the time so... *shrugs*

Love,

UO