Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or any of these characters… if I did, Karofsky wouldn't exist anymore, Jesse wouldn't have been such an asshole (albeit one I believe legitimately fell for Rachel), and there would be a LOT more Blaine.

A/n: So I really don't have anything to say here today…

Everyone had thought that going to the competition would help Blaine by making him happy – seeing his friends, getting to spend time out with other people, keeping his mind off everything that had gone on in the past several weeks. But it wasn't difficult to see that he was even more depressed and withdrawn when the boys got home, and Burt and Carole were even more concerned.

"He's upset about something. I don't want to push him to talk if he isn't ready, but I feel like we need to make sure that he's okay…" Burt began. He stopped as he heard someone walking into the kitchen. They didn't want Blaine to overhear them talking about him, but the man was thankful to see that it was his son instead. "Hey, Kurt."

"I know you're talking about it, so I'm going to make this easy for you – Blaine ran into his dad at the competition. That's why he's upset. I don't have any details, but that conversation didn't go well." Burt sighed, shaking his head. He knew that was a bad thing – Blaine hadn't ever met the man before, and Burt hadn't been all that impressed with Mr. Anderson's manners.

"Thank you, Kurt."

"How much do you know about Blaine's dad?" Kurt asked. Burt shrugged, sighing. He'd wondered how long it would be before someone started to question him about Blaine's father.

"His wife's in politics… that's why he never claimed Blaine…"

"She's a senator. Jeanette Anderson," Kurt replied. Burt nodded, making a mental note to look the woman up the next time he was on the computer. He wanted to make sure he knew as much as possible about the situation so that he wouldn't be caught off guard again.

"I'm guessing that was part of what he found out at the competition," Carole replied.

"She was one of the judges. And Blaine's dad was there with her… he recognized his face from that day at the house." Burt nodded, sighing again.

"I guess we should go talk to him now, see if we can figure out where his head is," Burt replied, standing up.

"If you're planning on going upstairs to talk to me, you don't have to do that." Burt turned towards the door, smiling at Blaine. He wondered how long the boy had been standing there, but he knew better than to ask. "I know you were talking about me. What do you want to know?" The boy leaned back against the wall as he spoke, not actually looking at anyone. He looked uncomfortable and even more tired than he had the night before, which didn't make much sense given the fact that he had just woken up.

"Why don't we go into the living room? It'll be more comfortable…" Burt put a hand on the boy's shoulder and led him into the other room, steering him towards the couch and motioning for him to sit down. Blaine chose one of the chairs, and Burt and Carole sat on the couch so that they were facing him. "Blaine… we just want to make sure that you're alright. Kurt told us you ran into your dad yesterday."

Burt watched Blaine's face as the boy processed what he'd just said. "I don't know that I want to have anything to do with him. I… I know I can't stay here forever. But I just… I'm not ready to accept him into my life just yet. I don't know that I can…"

"Sweetie, you can stay with us for as long as you want. There's no rush."

"Carole's right. You're welcome to be part of this family for as long as you want. We agreed to be your legal guardians for a reason," Burt added. "Kurt really cares about you. We all do." Burt watched the curly haired boy closely, waiting to see if there was anything else that he really needed to say to help the boy.

"I think I just want to go back to bed, to be honest. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night…" Blaine began.

"Alright, sweetie. Go ahead." Burt and Carole watched silently as Blaine ascended the stairs, waiting until he was out of hearing range before they spoke again. "I'm worried. He's clearly upset about what happened yesterday afternoon…"

"There's nothing we can do until he's ready to talk about it. For now, we just wait for him to be ready to talk, and in the meantime we keep an eye on him. The boys can drive back and forth to school for another week or so, give Blaine some more time," Burt replied.

"Are we sure we want to send him to school on Monday?"

"We can't keep him home forever, Carole… he's already getting pretty far behind, and if he thinks he can handle it I don't see why we shouldn't let him at least try to get back into the swing of things."

"We can't force him to get better, Burt…"

"We aren't forcing him. It's up to Blaine whether or not he wants to go to school on Monday. But we can't keep him home much longer… the school is already bending the rules because of the situation, but he's only supposed to be allowed to miss two weeks a year." Burt leaned over and pressed a kiss against his wife's cheek. "We just need to give him some more time… he'll get over this in his own time. He just needs our support."

"And if he doesn't get over it in his own time?" Carole asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We can figure things out as we go… we aren't exactly prepared for this any more than he was. And this whole situation with his dad… I don't think anyone knows how to deal with something like that, no matter how prepared they are for anything else."

Kurt hadn't expected for someone to knock on his door at four in the morning. His family knew better than to interrupt his beauty sleep for anything less than a natural disaster or fire. But given everything that had happened lately, he automatically knew who it was. So he wiped the sleep from his eyes as he stood up, walking over and opening the door to let Blaine come in. "Having trouble sleeping?" Kurt asked. Blaine nodded silently, moving into the room as Kurt made way for him. "Do you want to talk?"

"I just don't want to be alone right now." Kurt closed the door and nodded, putting a hand on Blaine's back and leading him over to the bed. "Can I… can I just stay here for a little while? Please?"

"Of course… you can stay as long as you want. I'll deal with my dad if need be. The worst-case scenario is another sex talk, and I'm pretty sure I can handle that." Kurt turned around and put a hand on Blaine's back. "Go ahead and lie down. I'll let you choose which side of the bed you want."

Blaine did as he was told, curling up under the covers of Kurt's bed. He was on his left side, his broken arm still in the sling that he hadn't taken off for some reason. Kurt lay down next to Blaine, turning so that he was facing the other boy and could take his good hand. He twined their fingers together, smiling at Blaine through the darkness. "Do you need anything?"

"Just for you to stay here with me. I… I'm afraid to be alone again." Kurt just nodded, bringing the boy's good hand up to his face and pressing a kiss against the back of it. "I have siblings, Kurt. Four half-brothers and a half-sister. I have a whole family that I've never even met…"

"Blaine…"

"He doesn't want me to have anything to do with them. Not until I'm eighteen. My youngest brother will be thirteen before I ever get a chance to meet him. One of my brothers is six months younger than I am… and I can't even meet the older ones yet. There's nothing I can do to change that…" Kurt watched the other boy closely. "I hate feeling this way… so out of control."

"I wish there was something I could do… some way to help you," Kurt replied. He leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss against the tip of Blaine's nose. He wrapped his arms around Blaine as best he could.

Kurt was a little surprised when Blaine leaned in and pressed a soft kiss against his lips. "Please just kiss me. Hold me. Be here… I can't be alone right now."

"I can do that." Kurt moved a little closer, making sure that he had as much physical contact with the older boy as possible. He also pressed another kiss against the older boy's lips, doing his best to fulfill Blaine's requests. "What else can I do for you? Do you want me to sing for you?"

"I'd like that…"

Kurt thought for a moment before he started singing softly. It was the first song that popped into his head, and he hoped that Blaine would fall asleep by the end of the first chorus because it wasn't really good as a lullaby after that.

"Don't go to bed now love, I think it's too early
And we both need a little time to ourselves
If the clock tells me that it's four in the morning
I'll give it hell

"Cause I've been trying way to long
To try and be the perfect song
When our hearts are heavy burdens
We shouldn't have to bear alone

"So goodnight moon and goodnight you
When you're all that I think about
All that I dream about
How'd I ever breathe without

"A goodnight kiss from goodnight you
The kind of hope they all talk about
The kind of feeling we sing about
Sit in our bedrooms and read aloud
Like a passage from Goodnight Moon…"

Kurt trailed off as he realized that Blaine had fallen asleep in his arms. He wasn't going to continue singing the song if the boy wasn't listening. Eventually Kurt fell asleep as well, still cuddling close to the older boy.

The next morning, Kurt was thankful for his alarm clock because it meant that no one else in the house saw the two of them laying there, their arms wrapped around one another in a tight embrace. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with what they were doing – they had only slept in the same bed, with all of their clothes on. And while waking up at the same time would have been awkward – they were both boys, after all, and they both often woke up in the same… predicament – neither of the boys had anything to be ashamed of. So he turned off his phone alarm quickly and carefully disentangled himself from Blaine's arms without waking him.

"Kurt, do you want to…" Kurt turned around from his place at his vanity table to smile at Carole, who stood in the doorway. He watched as she raised an eyebrow and nodded toward the bed. "Is that Blaine?"

"He couldn't sleep last night… he didn't want to be alone." Kurt watched as Carole nodded.

"Do you want pancakes or waffles for breakfast?" she asked.

"Blueberry pancakes? Blaine loves blueberries." Kurt smiled at Carole as she nodded and started to leave the room. "Thanks, Carole."

"No problem, sweetie… come on down when you're ready. Breakfast should be done within an hour or so. And let him sleep, while he can…" Kurt nodded before he turned back to his mirror to finish his morning skincare routine.

Kurt simply sat there for a while when he was finished, wondering whether or not Blaine would wake up before breakfast. He couldn't sit there forever, though, and eventually he stood up and started out the door to go downstairs.

"Please don't leave me…" Kurt almost didn't hear the whispered words from the bed. He turned around slowly, glancing at Blaine. The boy's eyes were closed, but he had moved and Kurt assumed that he was at least partially awake.

"I was just going to go downstairs and get something to eat. Are you hungry?" Kurt watched as the boy nodded, his eyes staying open and his head never leaving the pillow. "Are you ready to get up?" Kurt smiled as Blaine slowly shook his head to indicate that he didn't want to move. "Well you can't have breakfast in my bed. And Carole's making blueberry pancakes."

Kurt smiled as Blaine's eyes instantly opened at the thought of his favorite pancakes. "Think I could get some help up?" Kurt hurried to the boy's side, gently hauling him into a sitting position before he pressed a kiss against Blaine's forehead. Kurt couldn't help but smile when Blaine stood up and wrapped his good arm around Kurt's waist.

"We should go downstairs… breakfast is probably already getting cold. And Finn is like a human garbage disposal, so if we don't get there soon there may not be any breakfast left to eat."

Monday had come far too fast for anyone in the Hummel-Hudson household's liking. Finn just generally hated Mondays, of course, because it meant that he had to go back to school after two days off. But on this particular Monday, Burt, Carole, and Kurt were a little more worried about Blaine than any of their usual Monday concerns. The boy had gotten up on time and gotten dressed and ready as well as he could without help, but he had barely opened his mouth other than what was necessary to brush his teeth.

"Let me help you with your tie…" Kurt reached up and started in on the Windsor knot for Blaine. The tie was a requirement for Dalton students, and Blaine had to wear it whether he could tie it himself or not. Kurt watched the older boy's blank stare as he fixed the knot carefully, adjusting the tie so that it would hang straight under the blazer that Blaine couldn't completely wear properly. They would at least excuse him for that.

"Are you sure you're ready to go back to school today, Blaine?" Kurt glanced over at Carole as she asked the question, smiling slightly as he realized that he wasn't the only person questioning whether or not Blaine should really be going back to school.

"I can't afford to miss any more… it's going to take me forever to finish all of the makeup work I already have."

"Just don't forget that you have some extra time. You don't have to finish everything immediately," Carole reminded him as the boys sat down at the breakfast table.

"I know… I'd just rather get it all over with, you know? I hate being behind…" Kurt reached out and put a hand on top of Blaine's injured one. They finished breakfast in silence, both boys hurrying a bit because they knew that they had to leave for school soon.

"We'll be home by dinner… there's no Warblers rehearsal this week. The council decided to give us some time off since we don't have to prepare for Nationals." Kurt watched Blaine for a moment before they both stood up and grabbed their bags to go to school.

The boys were silent for most of the ride to school, and Kurt knew that Blaine fell asleep at some point along the way from the soft snores that he heard coming from the opposite side of the vehicle. Kurt had almost expected as much, given how little Blaine had been sleeping. Kurt only knew that because Blaine had ended up in his bedroom more than once at some ridiculously early hour because he couldn't sleep while he was alone.

Kurt pulled his car into a parking spot in the student lot a good twenty minutes or so before they had to be in class. While he had planned to just turn the car off and let Blaine sleep as long as possible, the moment the vehicle stopped running Blaine's eyes started to blink open.

"Go back to sleep… we have fifteen minutes before we need to head inside."

"I should be in there doing schoolwork, not sleeping in your car.

"What good is it going to do you to go in there and make yourself even more tired? You'll get more done when you aren't so exhausted."

"I'm not exhausted."

"You fell asleep on the drive from Lima… while we were listening to Lady Gaga, I might add. If that isn't a definition of exhaustion, I don't know what is." Kurt turned in his seat so that he was facing Blaine. "Don't lie to me, please. I know that you aren't sleeping very much. That you're forcing yourself to eat because you don't want us to say anything to you about the fact that you aren't eating enough. Just tell me, okay? Tell me the truth when I ask how you're doing. Don't pretend that I don't see through you."

"Why do you care so much? Why do you make so much of an effort, when I'm just a mess?"

"Because I'm your best friend," Kurt began. "Because I really care about you. And if there was something I could do to make this all hurt less for you, I would do it in a heartbeat."

"I thought that all of the kissing meant that we were something more than just best friends…"

"Are you really in a position to be talking about dating?" Kurt asked. He reached out and put a hand on top of the cast that encased Blaine's left hand. "You need to take care of yourself. I don't want you to get hurt, but that's exactly what is going to happen if we push things."

"You keep saying that."

"And I'll keep saying it until it doesn't apply any more or you stop trying to push things to go faster than you're really ready for them to go."

"I wish you would stop trying to act like you're responsible for taking care of me. I'm almost seventeen… I can do a lot more to take care of myself than you seem to believe." Kurt watched as Blaine got out of the vehicle and started into the building by himself. He sighed before getting out of the car and following the older boy's lead.

As much as Kurt loved Blaine, dealing with the curly-haired boy's depression and the dramatic mood swings was really starting to grate on his nerves.

Blaine walked into the house a few steps ahead of Kurt, thankful that the school day was over. He'd survived his first full day back at school, but not without being completely exhausted by trying to keep up with the pace of Dalton after several weeks of being away.

"I just want to go lay down for a while… I can't believe the amount of homework I have to add to the pile of makeup work already."

"I'm sure you can afford to take a nap…" Kurt began.

"When am I supposed to have time for that? I have at least two hours of homework just from today, and if I don't do another two I'll never catch up."

"You'll get more work done if you're rested." Blaine sighed, shaking his head.

"I can't afford it…" Blaine began, dropping his bag into a chair at the dining room table and pulling out his homework to get started.

"You're studying down here?"

"I'm more likely to stay awake down here. More noise…" Blaine began. He smiled as Kurt sat down on the opposite side of the table and started pulling out his own homework. While he might be a bit of a distraction, having Kurt in the room would make it easier to stay awake. Especially given the fact that the countertenor would most likely start to sing at some point. Blaine loved to hear Kurt sing.

The two boys sat there in silence for a while, broken only by the occasional humming noise coming from Kurt. Blaine never really recognized any of the songs the boy came out with, but he still liked to hear it. Blaine couldn't help but smile slightly as he worked.

"You look happy." Blaine glanced up from his French homework for a moment as Kurt commented on the expression on his face.

"I like hearing you sing. Or hum." Blaine went back to his chemistry homework as he spoke, knowing that he didn't have any time to waste.

"That explains why you asked me to sing you to sleep the other night…" Blaine looked up again, raising an eyebrow. "You came into my room Sunday morning because you were having trouble sleeping. You asked me to sing to you." Blaine nodded, still not remembering the event Kurt was talking about.

"I don't remember that…"

"You passed out pretty quickly after I started singing. You've been really tired lately."

"Because I haven't really been sleeping." Blaine looked back down and started on the next problem on his chemistry homework before Kurt could make another comment. It wasn't that Blaine didn't want to talk to Kurt. If he had a choice, he would rather spend his time after school just relaxing and having a conversation with the younger boy over a cup of coffee like they used to. But he didn't feel like he had the time to do anything other than work on his homework and take care of the essential parts of life.

"It'll get better…"

"It has to… otherwise I'm going to pass out in class or something like that."

The two boys continued to sit there in silence for a while longer, until Kurt started actually singing.

"There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy."

"There's nothing you can make that can't be made
Now one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy," Blaine added, smiling slightly as he worked.

"All you need is love," Kurt replied.

"All you need is love."

"All you need is love, love, love is all you need." Blaine looked up as he heard a third voice joining them, smiling as he realized that it was Carole. "Don't let me interrupt you boys… I love that song."

"I'm actually done with my homework… do you need some help with dinner?" Blaine sighed and went back to his own work as Kurt got up and went into the kitchen with his stepmother. He wished that he could be done already; Blaine hadn't ever really understood how Kurt could breeze through the work at Dalton once the boy had gotten caught up back before Christmas. Their grades were similar, but Kurt just seemed to catch onto things a lot faster than Blaine did.

It wasn't until he felt someone pulling the chemistry textbook from underneath his head that Blaine realized he'd fallen asleep at the table. Even the sound of Carole and Kurt chatting as they cooked dinner hadn't been enough to keep him awake. "Huh?"

"It's almost dinnertime, sweetie. Why don't you go wash your hands and get ready to eat," Carole replied, closing the book as Blaine sat up and moving it and his notebook and pencil from the table.

"I need to finish…"

"You can finish your homework after dinner. Right now you need to get up and go get ready to eat so that Finn can finish setting the table." Blaine did as he was told. He knew that he was going to get harassed about not eating if he didn't, and Blaine was really getting sick of everyone constantly watching him and monitoring every little thing he did to make sure that he was okay.

It took Blaine all of five minutes to get ready for dinner; washing his hands wasn't exactly easy with a cast covering most of his left arm. It was one of the many "simple" tasks that became pretty much impossible with a broken arm, and he had to change how he did just about everything about how he got ready.

Blaine made his way down the stairs slowly, holding onto the handrail tightly. He didn't want to fall again; the last thing he needed was to spend more time in the hospital because he was clumsy. He sat down at his usual spot at the table, smiling across at Finn who had already started filling his plate from the various serving dishes in the center of the table.

"We're not waiting for Burt… he had a customer come in at the last minute with an emergency, so he's going to be a little late tonight," Carole commented, motioning for Blaine to follow Finn's lead as she and Kurt walked out of the kitchen with all of their drinks.

The meal was pretty much silent. Finn was shoveling food down faster than Blaine had ever thought possible – the football player had to go back to school for additional rehearsals in preparation for Nationals. Blaine didn't have much to say because he also needed to hurry through the meal, although he wasn't eating as quickly as the other boy. And Kurt and Carole didn't try that hard to keep up a conversation because it was just the two of them even trying.

Blaine ate as much as he could; he knew that it wasn't smart to force down food, but he was really getting sick of the pointed glances and the constant reminders that he needed to eat more or sleep more or do whatever it was that Kurt and his family were worried about at that particular moment. Blaine wasn't the best actor in the world, but he could pull it off well enough to keep anyone from asking questions.

"Blaine, sweetie, do you want seconds?" Blaine shook his head as he took a sip of his water after taking the last bite from his plate.

"No, thank you. I think I'm just going to go upstairs and try to finish my homework… I still have a lot that I need to do tonight."

"Are you sure you don't want to at least have some dessert? We have ice cream…" Carole began.

"I'm full. May I be excused?"

"Of course, sweetie." Blaine got up from the table and picked up his bag from where Finn had put it when he'd been setting the table.

Getting back to work wasn't as easy as Blaine had thought it would be. He knew where he'd left off, of course; it was fairly obvious given the fact that he'd been working on chemistry problems rather than something like the books he was supposed to be reading for his English class. He'd been unlucky enough to leave during one book and to return during another, meaning that he had to work on reading them both simultaneously so that he wouldn't miss something important. But despite the fact that he knew where he was supposed to be, Blaine couldn't seem to get his head around the problems he was supposed to be working on. So instead, he settled on working on reading the English assignment for the next day until he could get his head wrapped around chemistry again.

"Need some homework help?" Blaine glanced up from his book, a little annoyed to be interrupted when he was on the last page of the assignment. But he smiled at Kurt anyway, shaking his head slightly.

"Nah… I'm almost done with what's due tomorrow. I just have to finish this chapter and a couple of problems from chemistry. Then I get to work on some more of the makeup work." Blaine smiled and rolled his eyes.

"You sound so excited…"

"It would be nice to get a break, you know? I know it's only the first night, but I feel like I'm doing nothing but schoolwork today. I know I'm going to get burnt out if I keep this up, but I don't have a choice…" Blaine began.

"You don't have to do it every day… they'll give you all the time you need to get caught up. And you can cut back a little on the weekdays if you do some work on the weekends."

"When am I supposed to find time on the weekends? Saturdays we have to go to Reynoldsburg and work on cleaning out my mom's house, and I spend Sundays sleeping because the only time I can actually fall asleep seems to be around four in the morning when everyone else in this time zone has already been asleep for at least three or four hours." Blaine closed his eyes.

"Do you want me to at least come sit in here with you so that you don't have to be alone? I can grab a magazine or something… I'll even sing to you again if you want." Blaine smiled.

"I would like the company…"

"You finish your reading… I'll be back in like, two seconds." Blaine shook his head and went back to his book. Sometimes he wondered why Kurt put up with so much from him and was still sticking around.

It took less than a minute for Blaine to finish the chapter, but Kurt was already sitting on the other side of his bed with a copy of Vogue by the time he closed it and put it away. Blaine smiled at the younger boy as he pulled his chemistry book back out of his bag and went back to tackling the last few problems on his assignment.