I want to thank everybody who has read this story and commented on it, I really appreciate it! This is the last chapter, but don't fret: there'll be an epiloge and it'll be the epitome of fluffiness, I promise :D I hope you enjoy this last chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.

x Janneke

C H A P T E R S I X

'Your father and I are getting a divorce.'

Blaine stared at his mother. He'd warily endured the shouting match that had ensued when he'd entered the house after saying goodbye to Kurt and his family, going up to his room when his father was done telling him he was a lousy son once again. Then, he'd listened to his parents fight some more, because apparently they hadn't done that enough before he'd arrived. And now his mother was sitting next to him on his bed, her eyes red and her hands slightly shaking, telling him something he'd wanted to hear for years.

'So,' Blaine mused, 'that means we're moving, right?' A seed of hope had been planted in his heart. His dad would probably want to keep the house, because they'd moved here because of his job. He would obviously go and live with his mother, so that meant he would get to leave his high school and start all over at someplace new.

His mother nodded silently. 'I'll start looking for a job and we'll be out of here as soon as we can.'

'Good.'

Blaine felt his mother's eyes on him, but he didn't return her gaze. He knew she was wondering whether he was okay, and he wished he could tell her that he was, but he was sure he'd start crying the moment he'd open his mouth. He didn't even know exactly why he felt like crying. Probably just a reaction to too much emotions in too short a timespan.

His mother stood up. 'I'm going to talk to your father to arrange some things,' she said.

Blaine's head snapped up. 'Please don't yell. Please. Just… talk. Okay?' If he'd hear his parents shout at each other one more time, he'd snap.

His mother nodded and left the room. She closed the door behind her and Blaine lowered himself into his pillows. If only Kurt could've stayed.

When Blaine came downstairs to get breakfast the next morning, he found his mother sitting with her head in her hands, elbows on the table. He frowned. It was Saturday. His mother usually worked on Saturdays. He walked over to the fridge and his mother looked up.

'Good morning,' she said. Blaine noticed the phone lying on the table with her, accompanied by the newspaper and a couple of other documents.

'Good morning,' he replied, fixing himself some breakfast. 'No work today?'

'I just quit my job.'

Blaine turned around. 'Already?' He cleared his throat, aware that his voice had just gone up in pitch. His mother chuckled a little sadly.

'Yes. I figured if we're going to get out of here, we might as well do it soon. I only need to decide where we're going. And that's where you come in. Do you have Kurt's parent's telephone number?'

Blaine frowned, confused by this question. Was it just him or were the two subjects in no way connected? Maybe his brain was still half asleep. 'What?'

'I want to talk to Carole. I remember you telling me she used to be a single mother. I need some advice.'

Blaine shook his head to get rid of the last remnants of sleep. 'I don't have it but I could text Kurt,' he said, still a little confused. By now, the hint of a mad idea had formed in his brain. An idea he couldn't possibly say out loud, ever. But what if… No. He took a determined bite of his toast and got out his phone.

A knock on the door.

'Honey?'

'Come in,' Blaine said absently, pondering a difficult Calculus problem.

His mother entered the room, lingering a little by the door. Blaine looked up. 'What's up?'

'I just got off the phone with Carole.' There was something in her eyes that made Blaine sit up from lying on his stomach. He narrowed his eyes.

'And?'

She was practically giggling now. Blaine raised his eyebrows. Whatever Carole had told his mother, it must've been something really good. Blaine shook his head slowly as something clicked in his brain. Something really good…

'No way,' he mumbled, as his mother ran towards him and practically hugged the air out of his lungs. 'No way.'

'We're moving to Lima!' his mother said, and he could hear the smile in her voice. She didn't let go as she explained that Carole had told her all about Lima and McKinley and the trip to Cedar Creek. 'And she told me she knew a small, cheap place near the city centre and we can move in right away! Can you believe it?'

'I can't believe it!'

'Right?' Blaine said. It took everything in his power not to choke up just thinking about it. 'I'm going to go to the same school as you. We're going to be able to see each other every single day. You could come over to my place and I can come over to your place… It's going to be amazing.' He heard Kurt swallow at the other end of the line. 'Are you okay?'

'Of course I'm okay,' Kurt replied, but his voice was a little higher than ususal. He inhaled noisily. 'Why shouldn't I be okay?' He swallowed again and cleared his throat. 'You understand that I'm going to have to help you pack, obviously. I saw the suitcase you'd taken with you to Cedar Creek and let me tell you – that was not conveniently packed. Not convenient at all.'

Blaine chuckled. 'Thanks. My mom told me she wanted to move out as soon as we can so I think we'll be packing next weekend.'

'I'll be there. At least, as long as my dad'll drive me. I'm sure he'll want to help as well, though.'

'That would be great, I'm sure my mom will appreciate it.'

'I still can't believe it!'

The house had been exceptionally quiet that week. Blaine's father had avoided the place as much as possible, spending more and more hours at the office. It almost felt like he had moved out, as opposed to Blaine and his mother leaving him. But once you got past the front door, there was a whole different scenario playing out. Labelled half-packed boxes were littering the floor in every room and Blaine's mother was commenting on stuff she'd wanted to get rid of since forever every other minute.

'I should've thrown this out years ago,' when she took down a particularly ugly painting.

'Where did we get this? It's hideous!' as she examined a small statue of a silver Cupid.

'Your father can have this, his sister gave it to us,' after putting a book called 'Arranging your garden gnomes' back on the shelf.

Every day when Blaine got home from school, he'd find the house a little emptier. Slowly but surely his mother was putting half of everything the house contained in boxes, leaving he other half for his father. They had agreed to leave the furniture – Blaine's father would help pay for the furniture they'd buy when they'd get settled in Lima. Blaine was fine with all of this but had insisted on taking his bed with him.

Blaine had been counting down the days for a week, and finally, it was Saturday again. His father was at the office once again, and his mother was rummaging around in the shed as Blaine ran downstairs to answer the door.

Burt and Kurt both grinned at him. Blaine let them in.

'I'm so glad you could come,' Blaine said after hugging Kurt. 'My mom's in the shed,' he told Burt, 'I think she's looking for some more boxes to use.'

'I figured you might need some more, so we brought some with us,' Burt said. 'I'll go tell her.'

Blaine stared at Burt as he left through the back door to find Blaine's mother. 'That's amazing.' He looked at Kurt. 'You guys are amazing.'

'I know,' Kurt said with a dismissive hand gesture and a smile. 'Let's go pack up your stuff!'

They were sitting on the floor, a few boxes filled with books and magazines between them.

'You have to decide what you want to take with you and what you want to throw out,' Kurt told Blaine.

'But I want to take all of it with me,' Blaine said, eyes wide.

'This is all junk!' Kurt exclaimed. 'Look, I'm sure you'll never read…' – he felt around in one of the boxes for a while – 'this ever again.' He held up a tattered copy of a magazine on model trains. 'It's dated 1996! Don't you people ever throw anything away?'

Blaine chuckled. 'Not really. It's probably a good thing you're here, I'd just taken all this rubbish with me.'

Kurt looked at Blaine for a few seconds.

'What?' Blaine said, catching Kurt's gaze. Kurt just shook his head a little.

'You're adorable.'

Blaine felt himself go pink. Kurt started laughing.

'You're blushing! I can't believe it, you're actually blushing.'

Blaine rolled his eyes. 'I can't help it, you're –'

He couldn't finish his sentence as Kurt had reached over the boxes and kissed him. He grabbed onto Kurt's head, burying is fingers in those perfectly sculpted locks, as if he was afraid he'd fall if Kurt would pull away. His stomach was doing all sorts of weird things but he wasn't paying attention. They were in his room and Kurt was kissing him. Nothing else mattered. Not even a pair of eerily familiar-sounding shoes coming up the stairs.

The door swung open and Kurt and Blaine broke apart, staring at the tall figure in the doorway. Blaine stood up immediately, as if he was ordered to. His father's eyes were wide, conveying shock and, most terrifyingly, rage.

'Abomination!' he yelled. 'Sodomites!'

Blaine heard Kurt splutter something in disbelief and indignation, but Blaine shook his head at him. 'Don't. I need to handle this myself.' He turned back and faced his father, who stood fuming in front of him, looking like he'd just run a marathon.

'Father, this is Kurt. He is my boyfriend.' He took a deep breath. 'I know you don't approve of us, but you have to know that you don't have the right to judge us. You and mom weren't exactly a good example of a nice, straight marriage.'

His father had gone quite red in the face, alarmingly so. Blaine was afraid he might actually hit him. He heard other footsteps running up stairs and he saw Burt and his mother appear behind his father. They evidently wanted to get his father out of there, but Blaine told them the same thing he told Kurt. He had to deal with this himself. His father didn't even turn around. His eyes were on Blaine and Blaine alone. He seemed to struggle to find the right words for his anger. Then, he seemed to calm down a little and Blaine actually felt a tiny spark of hope. Had a direct confrontation been the key? Was his father going to walk away without a word, or even better, would he apologize?

When his breathing had gone back to normal and he wasn't as red anymore, his father opened his mouth.

'You are not my son.'

For a second, Blaine felt as though his heart had dropped out of his chest. His father could've hit him in the face and it wouldn't've hurt this much. But it was only a second. He felt a warm hand slip into his and knew Kurt was standing next to him. He saw his father's eyes flutter from Blaine to Kurt and back again, and for the tiniest fragment of a second, Blaine thought he saw something remarkably close to fear. And in that moment, Blaine knew he had to say it, for his father's sake but also to be able to leave this house in peace. He had to mean it, too. But for some reason, it wasn't very hard to find the right words. Maybe it was knowing that he'd never had to see him again, or maybe he just really felt this way.

'I forgive you.' He swallowed hard. 'I know you hate me and don't want me as your son and you're glad to get rid of me, but I forgive you. I forgive you for everything you did to me, because I pity you. You don't understand what love is, whatever form it may take. You just don't recognize it. And for that, I pity you with whole my heart, so I can't do anything else than just forgive you.'

He let go of Kurt, walked towards his father and stood in front of him for a few seconds, half expecting him to either hug him or hit him, but he just stood there. He just looked at him with an expression that Blaine was never able to define. After a few seconds, his presence got too much to bear for Blaine and Blaine left the room. He walked past his mother and Burt, walked down the stairs and went outside. He sat down beneath the tree next to his window and stared at his father's car, determined not to go back into the house until that car was far gone.

The car turned a sharp left and with a screeching of tires it disappeared. Blaine heard the sounds but they didn't quite register. He was still in the middle of processing what had happened. He did notice that it had gotten quite a bit warmer outside.

'Do you want some lunch?' a voice asked. He looked up. Kurt was peeking around the corner, stepping out hesitantly. 'We made eggs.'

Blaine shook his head. 'Thanks.'

'Can I sit with you?'

Blaine smiled a little. 'Of course.'

Kurt sat down next to him, pressing his shoulder into Blaine's. 'Are you okay?'

'He's gone, isn't he?' Blaine sighed. He felt Kurt's head nod against his shoulder. 'Then I'm fine.' They were quiet for a while. 'It had to come to this, eventually. I knew it had. But that doesn't mean it wasn't sad or horrible or terrifying.'

'I know,' Kurt said, softly. 'I know.'

They sat like that for a while. Then, Kurt's stomach made a sound that made it quite clear it needed the eggs. They both giggled.

'You want to come inside?' Kurt asked. 'I have to warn you though, your mother and my father were both singing your praises and bashing on your dad pretty much continuously while we were fixing lunch.'

Blaine got up and held out his hand for Kurt. 'I think I'm going to be fine. I feel oddly… relieved.'

Kurt took Blaine's hand and got up, using the upwards movement to throw his arms around Blaine's neck. He kissed him softly. 'Let's go get some eggs.'