"I want to go on record as saying this plan completely and totally blows." Leah announced as she threw a pen across the room. With a sigh she fell back against the cushion of her chair, covering her eyes with her hands. They had been at this all day and still there wasn't any plan that she would even remotely consider good coming together.

"No argument here." Matt closed his own eyes, shaking his head. "How is it possible every member of our family sucks?"

"There's probably some third or fourth cousin three times removed who might be cool." Leah reasoned. "But unfortunately we don't know who the hell they are."

Looking over the pieces of paper strewn over her third-hand coffee table, all she could see was the reasons she felt a migraine was coming later tonight. She had skipped every class she had today and what did they have to show for it? A whole pile of nothing. There wasn't a single solution they could find to keep Matt in Lima or close enough to their parents to try to work things out. After the first five phone calls ended in frustration, they had both decided calling further members of their extended family wouldn't yield much results. Apparently, the family consensus on both sides was their parents were "handling it" and no one wanted to "interfere". She had offered to take some time off from school and play mediator but Matt had immediately vetoed that plan.

"I think we're down to our two last resorts." Leah admitted with a sigh. "Either you move in with me and I get myself named your guardian…"

"Lee, we'd kill each other."

"Or we talk emancipation. And I love you Matty but I don't think you're ready to be responsible for everything yet. You still burn soup."

"So do you." Matt retorted.

"But I at least don't turn my laundry pink." Leah argued back with a grin.

"Once. That happened once." Matt groaned. "And I was twelve. Let it go already."

"I can't if we're going to talk about this seriously." Leah leaned forward and grabbed Matt's hand. "I don't want you to leave Lima. You know that. The last thing I want is on top of everything else is to have to leave your friends, football, and glee. "

"But you also think I need someone to help me with stuff." Matt finished for her with a small smile. "We've been over this. A few times."

"Not really. We keep skipping this option to find something else. We're out of something else. We have to talk about this. I know it's not perfect and we probably will drive each other crazy in a matter of days, but I think you moving in with me is our best option at this point. At least you'd be with family and there's the chance…."

"No." Matt shook his head. "Mom and Dad might change their mind? I know you mean well Lee but I can't make this decision based on something they may or may never do. Right now you're the only family I need."

"I'm going to remind you that you said that the next time you get mad at me." Leah said lightly, trying to keep the sob out of her voice. "But what about Steven and Gabriel? I know they're annoying pests but that's an age thing. They're just kids. It's not their fault Mom and Dad are, well, Mom and Dad."

Matt rolled her point around in his mind. His brothers were just kids and he really didn't want to put them in the middle like this. It wasn't fair to them. Of course nothing about this situation was exactly fair, he reminded himself. "You don't think me moving in with you won't put them in the middle?" he asked Leah. "And if Mom and Dad cut you off for taking me in, neither one of us will actually have a relationship with them for awhile at least."

"I know." Leah admitted with a sigh. "This is why every plan we've come up with sucks."

"No argument here." Matt agreed. Hearing a knock sound on the door, he let out a low chuckle. "I thought you said that pizza place always shows an hour after you order. It's been twenty minutes."

"They don't show up." Leah answered, confusion washed over her features. "It's why we ordered from them so we'd actually be hungry when they finally showed."

"Maybe you called the wrong spot?"

Looking out the peephole, Leah smiled as she turned to look at her brother. "Or maybe this is just my week for random visitors."

"What?" Matt questioned as she opened her door.

"Twinkle Toes. You found us." Leah greeted Mike happily with a hug as Matt remained on the couch, blinking in disbelief as his best friend waved at him from the hallway.

"Yeah and I felt like an idiot that it took me this long to figure it out." Mike shook his head as he entered into the apartment. Glancing at the scattered papers, Mike shook his head as he went to sit next to Matt. "Dude, for a guy who doesn't talk in public, you sure know how to make a statement."

"I think you two need to talk." Leah announced as she grabbed her purse from its usual spot next to the door. "So I'm going to go out and grab some extra supplies. Mike I'm assuming you're going to eat with us right?"

"Yeah. I sorta skipped lunch."Mike admitted with a smile.

"Super. Starved teenage boy. I guess I'm buying the entire junk food aisle then." Leah faux-huffed as she rolled her eyes. "No porn and no calling those lonely hearts numbers while I'm gone."

As Leah left, closing the door behind her, Matt wondered what exactly he was supposed to say to Mike. Mike wasn't an idiot. If he had shown up here, he had to know something had happened. And knowing Mike he at least tried to go by his house first. What exactly did Mike know and what did he actually have to tell his best friend?

Mike reached out and picked up one of the sheet s of paper, scanning it quickly. "Living with your Aunt Jennifer? Isn't she the one who smells like cat litter?"

"Yeah. That was one of the main reasons we said no to that plan." Matt said softly. "Mike…."

"I must say this is not nearly as colorful as Rachel's chart. Although that was probably more terrifying than these options."

"Rachel's chart? Why did Rachel have a chart?" Matt shook his head, shooting Mike a look of confusion.

"Because the only explanation everyone could come up after hearing Jacob's story is your parents kicked you out. Well, after seeing how freaked out Kurt was it was the only explanation. And seeing these seem to be lists of every relative you have and reasons why living with them would suck, looks we were right." Mike said simply.

"Jacob's story? You're going to have to back up like twenty pages here. What the hell are you even talking about?"

"Ok. Kurt freaked out because you weren't in school and I didn't know where you were. He said something happened after he left your house that day. I assumed you had actually told your mother finally you're gay but apparently you're bigger on actions than words."

"Wait a second." Matt held up his hand. "What do you mean you assumed I came out to my mother? "

"Matt. I know. I know about you being gay. I've known since last year."

"You…you….you knew? Since last year?" Matt sputtered. All this time he had felt like crap for keeping something from his best friend and Mike had known since last year? How had he known? Had anyone else been able to tell?

"Yeah. " Mike shrugged. "I figured it out on my own. And relax. I think only someone who knows you as well as I do would have been able to figure it out. I just got to thinking about it one day and it seemed strange that we had the exact same taste in women. Plus you would always do that weird hand shaking thing you do when you get nervous when the talk turned to girls."

"I do not do a weird hand shaking thing."

"Oh you so do." Mike argued. "Anyway the idea that maybe you were gay came to me and it seemed to make sense. I figured you'd tell me eventually and that was cool. Which is why I thought you were hanging out with Kurt in the first place. Didn't figure he was actually your type."

Matt could feel the blush take up residence on his cheeks. He wasn't about to get into that conversation with Mike just yet. "I wanted to tell you. I just didn't know how."

"I get it." Mike assured him with his trademark lopsided smile. "We're cool. You're still my boy. I'll just be able to stop fake suggesting you date Santana all the time."

"Ok so you knew." Matt let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. "Now how does this all fit with Jacob having a story and Rachel making a chart?"

"I'm going to ask you this once." Mike took a deep breath. "Did your mom and brothers catch you making out with Kurt? Is that why you here with Leah and not at home?"

Matt blinked in shock. Whatever question he had been expecting Mike to ask him that was last on his list. "How….how did you…."

"I'll take that as a yes." Mike nodded. "No one can figure it out right now but somehow Jacob Ben Israel knows all about it. He's run his mouth all over the school and it's on the front page of his blog."

"Fuck." Matt swore, rubbing his thumb into his palm to keep from crying. "So everyone knows. "

"Yeah. Everyone." Mike agreed softly. "Including Sam."

"Sam?"

"It seems Jacob got to Sam before Kurt could talk to him." Mike said softly. "Doesn't sound like it was a happy discussion."

"Shit." Matt leaned back against the couch and stared up at the ceiling. "This was not my plan dude."

"Well I had hoped that was the case." Mike laughed. "Because otherwise, you suck worse at plans than Kurt does."

"So to recap, the entire school knows I'm gay. And I've drug Sam into my mess and ruined his relationship."

"To be fair, I think Kurt is taking the blame on that one." Mike interrupted.

"And thanks to the first item, everyone knows I was kicked out of my house. And somehow that led to Rachel making a chart?"

"A color-coded chart." Mike corrected. "Let's be specific."

"Oh yes. Let's be specific. A color-coded chart." Matt shook his head. When exactly did this become his life? Oh that's right. The second he decided telling Kurt he was gay was way too complicated and he decided to make out with him instead. How could he have forgotten that? "Maybe I should move in with Leah in that case. Starting over would be easier than facing the entire school."

"First off, I don't think half the school knows exactly who you are. Judging by the looks I was getting today, I think most thought I was you." Mike pointed out. "Secondly, you and Leah would kill each other in like five minutes."

"It's not like I have a whole ton of other options at this point." Matt sighed, gesturing to the papers spread out in front of them. "We've been out this all day and moving in with Leah is the only option left."

"There is another option."

"Changing my name and joining the circus involves way too many legal hoops."

"No." Mike twisted himself so he was looking directly at Matt. "You can stay with me."

Quirking an eyebrow up at Mike, Matt scanned his best friend's face for the usual signs Mike was joking around. Nothing. There wasn't the slightest hint of a smile or even a trace of amusement in Mike's eyes. Sitting up straighter, Matt looked Mike in the eyes. "You're serious."

"Completely. It's why it took me so long to get here. I figured you were here at lunch. Then I went to see my mom and explain things to her. "Mike looked down at his watch. "She and my dad are probably clearing all the junk out of the spare room as we speak. My mom's even volunteered to go over and get your stuff from your room, but between you and me, I think she just wants to tell your parents off."

"Your parents are cool with this? All of this?"

"Come on. You know my mom loves you. You're part of the family dude." Mike squeezed Matt's shoulder. "Besides, if you think the rest of glee club is going to let you move away? You have gone crazier than Rachel right before Sectionals."

"I…I don't know what to say." Matt admitted. He had never felt so overwhelmed in his life. He and Mike had often referred to each other as brothers over the years, but he had never expected Mike to do this. Especially considering his own family wasn't willing to do even half this much for him, save Leah of course.

"Say we're leaving after we eat. " Mike patted his stomach. "I am starving and I assume Leah's buying."

"I have to talk to Leah first."

"Then we talk while we eat." Mike decided. "And then, you're following me home."

Home. Matt closed his eyes in disbelief. He may actually have a way to go back home.