Brotherly Love

Kurt could feel Blaine's eyes on him. They'd been there all night, as Kurt propped his feet up on the coffee table and half-listened to the news while catching up on sketches of a new collection for work. He'd left the television on for Blaine and chosen to work in the living room instead of his office in case Blaine wanted the company, and - he admitted it to himself reluctantly - because he wanted to watch Blaine's behavior. However, the TV might as well have been off for all the entertainment it was providing Blaine. His eyes hadn't moved from Kurt since they'd come in, and he was so on edge that Kurt couldn't help feeling anxious as well.

Finally Kurt sighed, put the last stoke in the sportswear design he'd created, and said without taking his gaze from the page, "What is it, Blaine?"

"Nothing!" Blaine's instant response would have revealed that it was clearly not nothing even if that hadn't already been apparent, and Kurt bit his lip, trying not to laugh.

"Okay."

"You don't believe me."

"Okay," Kurt said, the laughter audible in his voice now.

"It's nothing," Blaine insisted. Kurt flipped through his papers slowly, Blaine's discomfort almost tangible in the room. Sure enough, a moment later he remarked, "You keep saying 'okay.'"

"Is it not?"

"Oh, come on," Blaine said loudly, reaching out to take the sketches from Kurt, his demeanor forceful, but still glancing up at the last moment as if for permission. Kurt inclined his head slightly, and Blaine set the designs on the coffee table and turned to look at Kurt, their eyes meeting honestly for the first time that night. "Stop pretending everything's fine. You've got to have questions."

"I do," Kurt admitted.

"Well? What's the hold up?"

"It's not a big deal for me to let you stay here until you get you stuff together. I don't need answers."

"You wouldn't let a total stranger stay here." Blaine was leaning back against the couch, clearly trying to seem at ease, but his eyes were guarded.

"You're not a stranger, Blaine."

Blaine grimaced. "I kind of am. No," - he continued before Kurt could protest - "think about it. We haven't talked in years. We weren't always strangers, but we were when I showed up the other night. So why? Why'd you let me in?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do. Tell me. It's not fair to either of us if you don't tell me."

"Because when you're here, everything's like it was!" Kurt blurted out, unable to stop himself. "Everything is just… right. You know what I mean. You've felt it, too."

"But it's not right," Blaine insisted.

"And this is why I didn't want to answer why."

"No - listen to me." Blaine waited until Kurt looked at him and then continued, "None of this can be like it was. We're not in high school, and we can't keep pretending that everything is okay when it's not. We tried that and it obviously didn't work. I'm not interested in trying it again."

"Do you want to go back to arguing instead?" Kurt asked, sarcasm ringing through his voice.

"At least I understood why we were arguing," Blaine shrugged.

Kurt raised his eyebrows. "But you don't understand why we're being civil."

"Honestly? No, I don't."

"I care about you, Blaine," Kurt sighed, fighting the urge to roll his eyes at the fact that this was something Blaine had to hear, that he didn't just know it the way Kurt knew Blaine cared. "Isn't that reason enough?"

"You broke up with me."

This time Kurt couldn't help the slight widening of his eyes in disbelief that, after all of it, Blaine still went back to that. "That doesn't mean I-" Kurt faltered, struggling to find the right words. "Just because I broke up with you," Kurt finally explained slowly, "doesn't mean you don't still matter to me."

"Really." It wasn't a question, and Kurt shrugged, uncomfortable now, unable to tell whether Blaine was being passive-aggressive, or genuinely calm.

"Why else would you be here?"

"I don't know, Blaine said, rubbing his right hand over the knuckles of his left hand thoughtfully. "Maybe because high school was easy and effortless, and you want it back? We're acting the way we used to."

"How's that?"

"Ignoring the problems because we don't feel like dealing with the hard stuff until it's too late and right in our face." Blaine cocked his head and gave a withering glare at the innocently confused expression on Kurt's face. "Don't act like you don't know what I mean. We never even talked about what would happen once you left for college. It's no wonder we couldn't stay together."

"We talked," Kurt protested, frowning.

"About audition music. And Madam Tibideaux. And Broadway. We didn't talk about what we'd do. We didn't really try to make it work."

"I tried!" Kurt exclaimed, indignant now.

Blaine arched an eyebrow. "If we'd been trying, then your phone call wouldn't have come out of the blue," he said, as if the pain of rejection had been just yesterday. "I'd have known there was a problem."

"There wasn't a problem. It just wasn't… what either of us wanted."

Blaine didn't bother pausing to resent being spoken for like that. "People don't just leave working relationships."

"Okay, then why did you leave Sebastian?" Kurt asked, a challenge in his voice.

"He cheated on me," Blaine said, his response without hesitation but his voice hardening. "But you already know that from Sebastian."

"Cheated how?" Kurt asked, careful to keep his tone friendly, conversational, far flung from the interrogation that, under their living circumstances, it might quickly morph into.

"I don't know, Kurt, how many different kinds of cheating are there?" Blaine scoffed, and Kurt couldn't help but smile as he realized the slight absurdity of his own question. "You probably wouldn't call it that, anyway," Blaine added thoughtfully. He looked over at Kurt, who was visibly struggling to contain his curiosity, and let out a short chuckle. "Go ahead, I know you're dying to ask, and this is what I wanted, after all."

"What happened?"

"Sebastian lost interest and moved onto my brother."

"Cooper?" Kurt nearly shouted.

Blaine snorted, half in scorn and half in laughter. "My reaction exactly."

"But… he's…" Kurt stammered.

"Straight. I know. Having disinterested objects of his affections has never stopped Sebastian in the past."

"He's your brother," Kurt added ineffectually, stressing the last word.

"Yeah, and there's that." Blaine conceded, the humor leaving his face. "Sebastian knows no boundaries." There was a pause, and Blaine's face softened. "One of the things I used to love about him," he murmured. A moment later, Blaine seemed to realize what he'd just admitted, and his head snapped up to stare, wide-eyed and half panicking, at Kurt.

Blaine could have sworn that he heard a sharp intake of breath from Kurt, but if it had been there, Kurt recovered his passivity smoothly. "'Spontaneous and fun,' right?" Kurt asked, smiling sadly as he echoed words Blaine had said to him at Scandals.

"You could call it that."

There was a long pause during which both men averted their eyes, each permitting themselves to become lost in their own minds, and Kurt broke the silence first, sighing and saying quietly, "I'm sorry." Blaine glanced over, a question in his eyes, and Kurt elaborated, "About Sebastian, and Cooper." Kurt bit his lip and averted his eyes and mumbled the next two words so softly that they wouldn't have been intelligible if Blaine hadn't already known what was coming, "And us."

Blaine nodded, looking away so that Kurt wouldn't have to. "So am I."

A/N: I'm so sorry that this update took so long in coming! I've been distracted with writing for the White Collar fandom. But thankfully at least Glee makes us all used to ridiculously long hiatuses anyway, and I'm hoping that the new developments in this chapter made up for the wait. You guys were incredibly amazing with reviews for the last chapter, thank you so much! I love hearing everything you have to say.