A/N I'm ALIIIVE (and also incredibly apologetic!) I have an explaination, but I'll save it 'till the end. this story is on hiatus, but I will finish it eventually, although updates will be sporadic at best...

Disclaimer: I am not even going to get into how much I DO NOT own Glee Right now...

"Blaine? Are you in here?" Kurt asked, walking into the boys toilets. He had seen Blaine get teased moments ago, and before he could do anything, his friend had run off, tears in his eyes, leaving the other boys laughing and scoffing behind him. Kurt quickly ran after him, and had followed him here. There was a slight sniffling coming from the farthest stall from the door, and Kurt pushed gently on the door, which swung open, having not been locked.

Blaine stood facing away from the door, tissues pressed to his face, and his shoulders shaking. His hair was coming loose from the gel that usually encased it. Kurt put his hand on his shoulder, and suddenly Blaine turned around, and was hugging him tighter than ever before.

"Kurt... I... "Blaine sobbed into his shoulder.

"Shh, it's okay, Blaine. Let it out." He soothed. "What did they say this time?"

It was a while before Blaine answered, when his sobs had subsided enough under the comforting to allow him to speak. He moved away from Kurt and sat on the closed toilet seat. He took a deep breath before speaking slowly, as though each word was a struggle.

"They... It was more of the usual really, I just... I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't stand there and hear them tease me about being... That... Not now." Kurt nodded and reached out for his hand.

"Blaine. You are ten times better than any of those idiots, okay? Remember that. Nothing they say can ever affect you. They know nothing about you. Why is now any different to before? They were saying the same things about us in third grade, why is it suddenly hurting you so much more? You can tell me anything, Blaine, you know that right?"

Blaine sighed and closed his eyes. "I just... I have been thinking and... I think that they might be right." He replied, resignedly.

"Right? About what? Blaine, you can't say that. You are a good person and they are not justified in anything they say to you... Blaine, is this about your parents..? Did they do anyth-"

Blaine cut him off before he could finish his sentence. "No, Kurt, it's nothing like that... It's just, what if I am... If I think I might really be... you know..." He looked imploringly up at Kurt through his eyelashes, as though begging him not to make him say it. Kurt said nothing, however.

"Kurt, I think I might... Like boys. You know, the way I'm s'posed to like girls." His eyes barely left his toes through this whole speech, and he seemed to be so interested in the details of the stray piece of toilet paper on the floor, that he didn't notice Kurt's expression. The friendly reassurance that he wasn't going anywhere. All he felt was the arm circling his shoulders, and Kurt holding him close and whispering that it was okay. They stayed like that until the end of recess, and Blaine wiped his face, re-applying his hair gel before going back to class when the bell rang.

That night, their parents had to go to the studio for interviews of their own, and the two boys spent the night at Cooper's apartment on the other side of town.

The interviews for that year came sooner than expected. It was the first time that Burt was unable to accompany them to the interviews, and he had organised for Hiram and Leroy to collect Kurt. Blaine's parents decided they would rather show and interest in their son than let him get into the car with "those people". The shock was evident on the faces of all involved, but disguised least in Blaine's, who seemed to have never had his parents bring him anywhere before.

He only wished they had come to this decision out of love for him, rather than for their hatred of what they didn't realise were people like him.

The car ride was awkward, to say the least. It was strange, Blaine thought. When he was younger he had never realised how dysfunctional his family was. He knew that he got hurt a lot, but it was only when he was bad, so that was normal, right? Sure, when he started spending time at the Hummel's, he noticed differences. He always preferred it there, but he knew that when his family had guests over, they never hurt him, and always acted nice to him, even when he was bad. He always just assumed that the Hummels were like that too. Every family was, right? It was only recently that he had realised that maybe his family wasn't "normal". After all, no-one else's parents ran their eldest son away from home the day he turned sixteen. No-one else refused to bring their youngest son to activities, making him walk by themselves in the pouring rain, unless of course the alternative was having him in the car with a – gasp- gay couple.

The arrival of the Anderson parents in the waiting area was like a massive, trumpet-playing, ballet-dancing elephant in the room. As soon as they got in the door, all eyes were on them. Quinn's father seemed to be some sort of business acquaintance of Mr. Anderson, and they got into a – very stiff – conversation regarding office space or something of the sort. They ignored everyone else in the room. Blaine immediately made his way over to the corner where Kurt and the girls were talking about some TV show or other, and joined in with them. Kurt gave him an odd look, but said nothing, and Blaine was grateful.

Kurt worried slightly when he saw Blaine being ushered into Eric's room for his interview. Sure he came across as much friendlier than Judy, but Kurt knew from experience that he was definitely much blunter when it came to his interviewing technique. He hope Blaine would be able to speak to him with his parents so nearby.

Walking into Judy's interview area, Kurt once again took a seat in the cushy armchair, realising suddenly that it didn't seem quite as enormous as it had, even last year. He flicked through a magazine, sketching some of the styles he liked in it, and humming to himself until his interview began.

"So, Kurt. You told me last year you wanted to be a performer, yes? How is that going for you...?"

Blaine sat quietly in the now-familiar surroundings. He casually flicked through a book he had picked up and was fighting the urge to pick at the guitar, or fiddle with the piano. God only knew what would happen if his parents heard. He supposed it wouldn't matter. They would probably just think it was Kurt, and spend the night lecturing him on how he was a bad influence. He was actually relieved when Eric sat up and started asking him about school. Anything was welcome today that would distract him from his parents. Or so he thought.

He began rambling aimlessly about how he was starting to improve in math class, and how he still attended choir practice for extra credit (that's what he used as an excuse, anyway...) Eric asked him a few very simple questions to catch up with Blaine, before he said something that caught him off guard. "So Blaine, you're twelve now, right? You gotta tell me... Do you have a girlfriend yet?" Blaine spluttered. How could he answer that without giving away what he was?

Kurt spoke for about ten minutes flat about how he had performed in the school talent show, and had come this close to first place. He held his thumb and forefinger up to indicate just how close it had been. Judy mocked being shocked that he hadn't won, but he replied, with a solemn expression, that if Rachel Berry wanted to win something, she almost definitely will. He didn't mention how the judges had docked marks from him for singing what they claimed had been a "girl's song". He didn't mind, though. Blaine had cheered for him- and so had Burt- and that was all that really mattered in the end, wasn't it?

When asked about school, Kurt quickly reeled off the well-rehearsed speech about grades and his friends, a variation of which he gave every time his father asked him how it had gone. There was a lot Kurt never said; now he thought about it. How he always got teased because of his high voice, even though there was only one boy whose voice had broken in the group who bullied him. How he had people shout comments about what he wore almost every day. How Noah- He refused to call him by the nickname he had made for himself a few weeks ago- had taken to calling him "fairy boy" around the playground. But most off all - what he absolutely never mentioned - was that in some small way he was glad for these things. Because if they were aiming these insults at him, that meant the attention was not on Blaine. Blaine would not have to face his parents about this issue anytime soon. Not if Kurt had anything to do with it.

Blaine stuttered something about not really liking many of the girls in school in that way, hoping that Eric would leave it there and ask him something different. Apparently, though, luck was not on Blaine Anderson's side today.

"Oh come on now Blaine! Surely there's gotta be one girl! How about Quinn? You two seem to be pretty close, eh? I bet loads of girls have a crush on you these days, with that cute little face of yours, eh?" Blaine immediately went beetroot red, which Eric took as confirmation. No matter how much he tried to protest that he most certainly did not like Quinn as anything more than a friend, Eric wouldn't let up on the subject.

"Well if you really don't like Quinn like that, there has to be someone. Or if there isn't anyone right now, what kind of girl do you think you'd like? Who knows, maybe you could get yourself a little girlfriend from the show!" Be exclaimed, a strange gleam in his eye as he monitored Blaine's reaction.

Blaine's mind was racing. He thought he would just have to make up a crush on someone to get Eric off his back. He wracked his mind trying to think of which of his female friends he could say, and then warn them before the show aired. He settled on Rachel, because he knew that she wouldn't be too angry, and if he ended up having to explain why he was making up a crush, she would probably understand. Her dads were gay, so she wouldn't bully him for coming out to her right? He hoped so...

He realised that he had been silent for too long, and most of the production crew were staring at him curiously. Eric was apparently the only one who hadn't noticed his inner turmoil and even the cameraman was shooting a warning glance to the presenter. Blaine panicked. He drew the words to the tip of his tongue, and prepared to say "Fine. I like Rachel. Can we move on!?" When he opened his mouth, however. That was not what came out. He didn't even realise he had said it, until he heard it echoing from one of the microphones in his own voice. "I don't like Quinn! I don't like any girls! I'm gay, okay!"

The entire room was dead silent after that, aside from the faint sound of the electrical equipment. Blaine himself had gone deathly pale, with tears streaking down his face. He was trembling and seemed incapable of saying anything else.

Eric was the first to leave the interview room that day, and later on, in the editing room, Judy felt that had she not known better, she would have sworn he wore a smug smile all the way through playing Blaine's interview recording, as he insisted that the clip was put into the final edit.

Blaine's parent's didn't even acknowledge his shaken appearance, or question the cause - past giving him a clip round the ear when they got home for "Showing them up in public". They were home by the time Kurt got out of his interview.

My excuse: I was writing this chapter a week or two after I last updated (I know..) but somehow half of it got deleted.. I got frustrated and completely lost inspiration. Then I was in a show and had rehearsals twice a week. Between that and school I had no time to write. The Show ended before Christmas, and I only just caught up with school work a few weeks ago. I'm on Easter break this week and next week, so i'm planning on writing as much as possible. However I may only be able to get one chapter of each of my stories done, and I am really sorry. So here is me telling you that this story is NOT abandoned, merely slow... Thank you all for your patience. I really don't deserve it.

Please leave me a review with what you think! My twitter and tumblr are on my profile page if you wish to contact me in another way :)

~Sorcha