Rise Above The Ashes

Chapter 2

6 months later….

"Finn!" The shout had Finn whirling around in the McKinley High corridor, sheet paper flying all over as he beamed at Kurt and Santana, the latina rolling her eyes and muttering about the 'clumsy oaf' even as Kurt barrelled into his brothers arms. "I missed you Finn."

"I missed you too Kurt," Finn beamed, happy to see Kurt for the first time in four months, "It's been far too long."

Kurt laughed softly, bending down to start collecting in some of Finn's papers and pinching Santana's ankle until she bent down to help him, glaring at the brothers. "Yeah, you should've come back to New York after Christmas Finn."

"No thanks. I don't need to hear what Gigantor and Berry get up to," Santana smirked, cackling as Finn snatched the papers from her grasp. "Just give me warning and I'll be out of there. Do you know how much of a nightmare Christmas was after you and Berry decided to try again?" Kurt shuddered slightly; silently agreeing with Santana and thankful that he at least had his Dad and Carole's hotel room to escape to.

"Well Rachel broke up with me again in February Santana, you know that."

"Thank the Lord for small mercies."

"Santana," Kurt scolded, throwing the girl a filthy look and shaking his head. "So where is everyone? I really want to see one of your Glee club lessons Finn."

Finn fidgeted nervously, trying not to look too closely at his brother. "Erm Kurt, quite a few things have changed around here in the last 6 months, I mean you haven't been back to Lima since Grease."

"Yeah Finn for good reason," Kurt snapped, glaring at his older brother, Santana snorting and shaking her head at Finn's assumed gormlessness.

Finn sighed, running a hand through his messy hair, "That may be so but Kurt, just don't expect things to be the same."

Tilting his head Kurt watched Finn in confusion. "What's going on Finn?"

Finn stuttered, mouth opening and closing and eyes roaming the hallway as he failed to find the right words to tell Kurt just how much McKinley had changed in six seemingly short months.

The sound of hard plastic wheels along the tile floor startled both young men and they glanced up as a skateboard headed their way. The boy riding it paid them no attention as he watched the direction from which he had come, large, purple headphones clamped firmly over his ears, black leather jacket flying behind him. Watching him closely, Finn groaned internally, praying to a god he wasn't sure he believed in that he would simply pay no heed to the three figures standing in the empty hallway and roll straight past them.

Rolling to a stop, Blaine looked up and smirked slightly at Finn, "Finn I need you to tell dad I won't be home until later again."

Finn groaned, "Dammit Blaine! Detention again?"

Blaine shrugged, brushing long curls out of his eyes, industrial piercing glinting in the light when he turned his head slightly. "Mr Trenton deserved it, the guy's a tool, but yeah I have to go tell Sue I can't make Cheerio's practice so there's a chance I won't actually make it home alive tonight." Blaine's smirk grew as he let his eyes roam over a gaping Kurt and a curious Santana. "Well look what the cat dragged in."

"BLAINE ANDERSON!" A voice roared and the quartet turned to see an enraged Mr Trenton storming down the corridor.

Wincing the curly haired boy shrugged and shot Kurt one last smirk. "Well gotta roll. See you around Kurt." Shooting the finger at the teacher marching towards them, he took off up the corridor heading straight for Sue's office.

"What the hell just happened?" Kurt stammered, eyes wide.

"Meet the new Blaine," Finn shook his head, feeling for Mr Trenton as the man stalked past them, dripping with red slushie. Blaine was right though, in the eyes of the student body and many of their teachers, the fifty year old probably did deserve it.

Santana snickered softly, "I like the new hobbit. He's got some guts." Ignoring the death glares from Kurt and Blaine she slinked off in the direction of the choir room, hoping to find Brittany there.

Kurt turned back to Finn, staring his brother down. "Finn, what the hell is going on?" He asked through gritted teeth, "I need to know everything."

"Well I guess it all started when he dethroned Kitty? I mean the two of them are best friends pretty much, but it's a weird friendship it's like they fight all the time but they'd kill fo…"

"Finn!" Kurt yelled, cutting his brother off in the middle of his sentence. "Stop rambling."

Finn slunk down against a locker, surprised when Kurt joined him on the floor moments later. "I mean Blaine hasn't been the same since his parents deaths but the big change in school was dethroning Kitty definitely."

"Wait, what? What happened to his parents?"

Finn just shook his head, "Let me keep going Kurt and I'll answer any questions after." Kurt turned to stare at the floor, a dazed expression flooding his face. "Well since then, all hell's kind of broken loose with Blaine. Unless he's in Cheerio's practice, which he'd never miss in a million years, he's usually getting into shit. The only reason he's yet to be expelled is Sue's leverage I think, she has a massive soft spot for him now."

Kurt watched Finn closely, "This all happened around October didn't it?"

"Yeah, we found out like six weeks after the car accident when we found him practically freezing to death on that back road from Westerville he showed us. In the hospital he declared he'd never be hurt again and within a week, this was the new Blaine. He's an asshole, but nobody gets to him anymore. At least not that he lets anyone see." Finn smiled sadly, patting Kurt's knee gently when he pulled them up to his chest.

"Fuck," Kurt muttered, his head slamming into his knees when a wave of nausea passed through his body.

Finn's eyebrows shot up in surprise, well used to Blaine cursing by this point, but still finding it weird to hear Kurt cuss.

Kurt's head suddenly snapped up, eyes wide as he stared at Finn, anguish flashing through the blue oceans. "Wait what happened to Vesper? And oh God Shadow? That dumb mutt would never survive without somebody around."

"Burt went back to Blaine's house the night we found him and they were still there. It turned out that Blaine had been managing to get away to feed them everyday." Finn sighed, smiling slightly when he thought about the fat ginger and white cat and the crazy dog that had become an inevitable part of the family when Blaine had come to live with them. "The Hudson-Hummel household is now home to a cat who hates me and a dog who is the canine version of Sam."

Kurt snorted, shaking his head with a soft laugh. "Vessie couldn't hate anyone or anything. That cat thinks he's a lap dog, and he's damn loyal too."

"I might have accidentally stood on his tail and then got into an argument with Blaine the first night he moved in."

"That'll do it. Like I said loyalty to Blaine comes first."

Finn chuckled, rolling his shoulders out on the red lockers, "No kidding. It's good to have you back Kurt."

"I'd say it's good to be back, but a) it's Ohio, and b) I'm still trying to work out what fresh hell I've stepped into with my ex-boyfriend living at the house and God knows what else I've missed. I'm just glad that Santana and I made McKinley our first stop not home or that would've been a mind trip." Kurt eyed Finn up closely, "You look good Finn, teaching suits you."

"You too little brother," Finn beamed, standing and pulling Kurt to his feet, "And maybe you can get our Blaine back over the summer. I'm fairly sure now all he actually cares about are Vesper and Shadow, just about everything else means little to him now."

"We'll see about that," Kurt sighed, looking up as a smug Blaine hit on a junior basketball player at the end of the hall. Shooting Kurt a wink, Blaine grabbed the boys' hand and pulled him from the school. Kurt clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he watched Blaine pull the boy towards the bleachers.

"You can go," Blaine sneered at the basketball player of choice, Xander he thought he was called.

The blonde haired boy looked stunned, "Wait, but I thought?"

"I really don't give a damn what you thought, get out of my sight." Blaine sniggered softly, pulling a cigarette out from behind his ear and lighting up, blowing the smoke at Xander, "Seriously shoo, you're not even anything resembling my type."

"You don't have a type Anderson, you'll screw anything with two legs!"

Blaine snorted and quirked an eyebrow, playing with his tongue stud as he eyed up and down the tall basketball player, "Who said two legs was a requirement?" Throwing one more scathing look at the athlete, he turned on his heel and stomped under the bleachers, throwing the cigarette down the moment he was out of sight and stomping on it with his well-worn black converse. "Those things are fucking awful," He muttered shaking his head and playing with his tongue stud again, tapping it against his teeth in a soothing rhythm.

"For all that is holy and good in this world will you stop that," A voice groaned, Kitty sitting up on the grotty, once grey couch with stuffing coming out of the seams so that she was now in full view, glaring at the boy that had just invaded her space. "My head is pounding and I will hurt you Cupcake, make no mistake about that!"

Blaine chuckled, dropping onto the seat beside her and allowing her to sprawl across him, one of her hands automatically pushing the bracelets up his left arm to trace the puzzle piece tattoo that adorned his wrist.

"What did you get up to last night Kitkat?"

"Nothing, Mom and Bill were arguing all night again so I got no sleep and you were in the morning practice, you know the hell that was. I'm sure Sue's trying to kill us," Kitty yawned, burrowing into Blaine's chest, "You smell like an ashtray."

"All part of the rep," Blaine sighed, carding his fingers through her hair.

"Yeah, yeah, McKinley's top bitch yada yada yada."

"And don't you forget it," Blaine smirked concern building when she yawned again, eyes fluttering sleepily. "You still got shit at mine?"

"If by shit you mean clothes and make-up then yes Cupcake I do. No one would ever believe you were once a fancy prep school boy. Do you think Burt will mind me crashing?"

"I wasn't really going to give you a choice in that anyway, you were always coming home with me tonight," Blaine sighed, "I'll pick you up back here after detention?"

Kitty laughed, eyes twinkling mischievously, "Thanks for taking the fall for that, once more and I'm off the team."

Blaine shrugged, "Guy's a perv. He deserved every bit of that slushie and besides I technically did throw it."

"Only because you snatched it from me! And yeah, here sounds good, I'm napping. Sue cancelled afternoon practice because you're not going to be there again Superstar."

"That's just because I'm awesome," Blaine chuckled flipping his skateboard to the ground and rolling the wheels experimentally. "Kurt's home."

"Seriously?!" Kitty shrieked, sitting bolt upright to glare at Blaine, "And you didn't think to mention that as I don't know the first damn thing you bothered me with?"

"It is not a big deal," Blaine growled, tongue piercing tapping rapidly against his teeth.

"Uhhuh and I'm the queen of England," Kitty grinned, "Damn I can't wait for the fireworks in the Hummel household tonight."

Blaine squeezed her quickly, pinching her side affectionately before standing up again. "Well, we all know who's going to win in that scenario don't we?" Raising an eyebrow at a snickering Kitty, he waved once and took off from under the bleachers, still pissed that Sue was making him serve the two hour detention in its full.