A/N: Warnings for mental self-harm

"Blaine!"

So close. He was so close to being out the door and on his way to his car. Blaine closed his eyes and sighed through his nose. If only his Calculus book weren't so damn big, he would have been gone at least two minutes ago and not stuck at his locker, struggling to shove the offending book into his satchel. He opened his eyes, but couldn't bring himself to look up, even when Sam was standing next to him, slightly out of breath.

All of a sudden, Sam's phone was being shoved into Blaine's face. Blaine flinched but could see, even at such an obscenely close distance, that his most recent text to Sam was displayed on the phone. "Hey – can't make it tonight. Something came up."

"Something came up?" Sam questioned. "Dude, we've been planning tonight's X-Men marathon all week. You can't bail on me now."

Blaine finally dared to look up. Though his eyes wanted to stop on Sam's full lips, Blaine forced them upward to make eye contact. He felt guilty for having a crush on his very attractive, but very straight, best friend and thought that it was probably a good idea to skip the sleepover they had scheduled for that night. It wasn't that he couldn't control his urges when he was around Sam – Blaine knew he could never act on his crush, nor would he ever do that. Blaine was proud of his friendship with Sam and was incredibly grateful for it. It had been a rough school year thus far, to say the least, and he didn't want to risk ruining the one good thing he had going for him.

When Blaine cheated on Kurt and got dumped, Sam was the one who helped him through it. Well, maybe not through it (as Blaine was still deeply in love with Kurt), but Sam was definitely the one who tried to convince Blaine to stop punishing himself for his actions. It didn't take Blaine long to realize that without Sam, he would have completely turned on himself and likely would have ended up back at Dalton and in a much darker place.

Their friendship was unexpected, to say the least. Sam and Blaine knew each other for a couple years, but were never much more than acquaintances before Brittany practically forced Blaine to take Sam as his running mate in the Senior Class President election. The two had gotten into a shoving match the year before when Sam tried to incorporate some of his strip club dance moves into the New Directions' Sectionals routine. Though his words were laced with hypocrisy (having suggested the Warblers use sex appeal for their "Animal" performance the year prior), Blaine spat "Unlike you, I'm not for sale" at Sam before they lunged at each other, eyes filled with rage. Eventually they made up, but they still kept their distance. Blaine only agreed to have Sam as his running mate because he wanted to prove to Brittany that he could win regardless because he was a candidate for change. It turned out, though, that having Sam as his Vice President was the best move Blaine made all year. It allowed the two boys to spend some time together and actually get to know each other. Sam was a jock, but not homophobic in the slightest, and had an uncanny abilities to do amazing impersonations and befriend practically anyone and everyone he interacted with. Though he and Blaine came from completely different backgrounds, they bonded over love of comic book movies and became best friends. Sam even called them brothers.

And it was because of this close relationship that Blaine tried to get out of his plans with Sam for that night. While he was so looking forward to watching all four X-Men movies, Blaine was worried that his crush was going to make things awkward. He was a good actor, but it was getting increasingly hard to cover up his crush while spending hours upon hours sitting next to Sam on Sam's bed.

"I'm sorry, I just -" Blaine tried to make an excuse, but he was drawing a blank. "I just… can't." He looked at Sam with pleading eyes, silently begging his friend not to make him further explain himself.

Sam sunk back against the lockers next to Blaine, a disappointed look settling across his face. Blaine instantly felt bad, but for self-preservation purposes, he felt he was doing the right thing. "Man, Stacie and Stevie are going to be pissed. I sorta promised them that you were going to read them a bedtime story tonight. I guess I'll just tell them you'll do it another time."

Blaine's heart sank because he knew Sam wasn't saying that to try and guilt him into coming over. Ever since the first time Blaine went over to Sam's house, he had become a fourth Evans' child and another brother to Sam's younger brother and sister. Though the Evans family didn't have much, they were beyond welcoming. Blaine blushed during his first dinner at their house when Sam's mom made an offhand comment about how their family was "rich with love." Their hospitality and warm family atmosphere was a reality check for Blaine, who came from a privileged life of country clubs and trust funds. He loved spending time at the Evans house and thoroughly enjoyed reading Stevie and Stacie stories. In fact, it was often Blaine who begged "just one more" when it was ultimately time for them to turn off the lights.

"Well…" Blaine said, weighing how much he liked spending time with Sam and his family with the personal anguish he felt over this silly crush on his best friend. "I guess I could still come over. I mean, I had a thing… but I can probably do it tomorrow."

Sam's lips twisted into a crooked smile as his eyes lit up. "Ah, great, man. Awesome." He clapped Blaine on the back and then started walking away, but backwards so he was still facing Blaine. "Don't forget your copy of First Class. And a sleeping bag." He suddenly brought his fists up to his chest in an X pattern while making sound effects that Blaine assumed we supposed to be Wolverine's claws. "Magneto's right: there is a war coming. Are you sure you're on the right side?" Sam said in his best Wolverine voice before morphing back into his own. "See you at 6!"

A small chuckle escaped Blaine's throat while he shook his head and grinned toward the floor, unable to look at Sam because he was just too adorable and dorky for words in that moment.

…

Blaine pulled his car into Sam's driveway and put it in park. As he turned the key, he looked forlornly at the front door and wished he could turn his feelings off just as quickly. Grabbing his backpack and camping bag from the passenger seat, Blaine kicked his door shut with his foot before making his way up to the porch. The door swung open before he even had a chance to knock.

"BLAINE!" Stacie was practically hopping up and down at the sight of the older boy.

With a wide smile, Blaine greeted Sam's sister. "Hey Stace. How'd your spelling bee go today?"

"Great! I got third place," she replied as she grabbed Blaine's arm and dragged him over the threshold. "SAM!" she called up the steps. "YOUR BOYFRIEND IS HERE!"

Blaine blushed hard at Stacie's word usage and glanced up the steps to find Sam running down them, laughing and shaking his head at his sister. "Stacie, Stacie Stacie. Blaine's not my boyfriend, silly! I have a girlfriend. You know that!"

Stacie looked up at Sam and then Blaine. "But, he's a boy. And he's your friend. So that makes him your boyfriend."

Her logic was sound, so Sam couldn't argue. Instead, he smiled and shrugged his shoulders at Blaine (who was still beet red). "Well, boyfriend, are you ready to watch some X-Men?" Blaine nodded as reached over and grabbed Blaine's camping bag before yelling toward the kitchen. "Mom! Blaine's here and we're going to watch movies in my room!" As they ran up the steps, Blaine could hear her yell back that she heard her son.

Once in Sam's room, Blaine put his backpack in the same corner where he usually dumped his stuff when staying the night. The two boys had had numerous sleepovers by now and it became a routine. Sam would throw Blaine's camping bag on the floor and then pop in the agreed upon DVD. Blaine would drop his bag, unzip it and pull out bottles of flavored fizzy water he made with his Soda Stream before his drive over. Both boys would settle into their respective spots and without looking, Blaine would pass Sam his drink. They had their timing down to an exact science and it was familiar and comforting at the same time.

Except that night it wasn't.

Sam's fingers brushed against Blaine's as he passed over the soda bottle. He knew it was an accident, but that didn't stop a wave of sparks from flying up Blaine's arm. Cheeks flushed red; Blaine prayed that Sam wouldn't notice that he was acting weird. Sam was so focused on the movie, though, that it took him a solid half hour to realize Blaine wasn't responding to his impressions of the various mutants.

When he couldn't take it anymore, Sam grabbed the remote and paused the movie before turning to Blaine. "All right. Spill."

Blaine's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about, Sam?"

Sam looked Blaine dead in the eye and squinted a bit, as if he were trying really hard to see something, or read Blaine's mind. "Something's up with you. And you're like, trying so hard not to be obvious about it that you're being really obvious about it. So, spill."

Scoffing through his nose, Blaine tried to pull himself together and not let it show just how much Sam was so right in that moment. "I – "

"Come on, man," Sam started. "You know you can tell me anything." Blaine's body deflated a bit and Sam could tell his best friend was really struggling to hide something. "So what is it? I know you passed that math test. And you said that you and your dad made up after the fight you had. So what is it? It's something to do with Kurt, isn't it? Boy troubles, am I right?"

Blaine's eyes widened and he swallowed hard even though there was nothing in his mouth. Sam broke out into a shit-eating grin, proud of himself for correctly guessing Blaine's source of tension. "Sam, please…"

"I knew it! So, are you two back together or what?"

"Well, no, but…" Blaine shook his head, wishing he could just talk about this to someone other than Sam. "That's not it – I mean - look, can we just get back to the movie?" Blaine reached over to grab the remote, but stopped when Sam took hold of his arm.

"Look at me, Blaine," Sam asked firmly, but loudly. Blaine closed his eyes and took a moment before opening them again and looking over at Sam. The brown haired boy's eyes were glassy and plead for something that Sam couldn't figure out. "You need to just let it out, man. I can tell something is eating you up inside and if it's not about Kurt, then I don't know how to help you." He let go of Blaine's arm and both boys settled back against the headboard of Sam's bed.

Sam watched as Blaine closed his eyes again. He knew he had to wait for Blaine to say something and how that could sometimes take awhile. It took a few weeks, but they had come to inherently trust each other with their most intimate of secrets. Sam knew Blaine would listen to him about stuff he did with Brittany, so it was only fair that he listen to Blaine's guy stuff. In fact, Sam was the only person who knew the extent of how Blaine cheated on Kurt. He didn't pass judgment nor did he bat an eyelash when Blaine told him in explicit detail of what went down between he and Eli that horrible, horrible afternoon.

"I… like you," Blaine said slowly with his eyes still closed. It was so awkward to say, but as the words passed through his lips, he felt a huge weight lifted off his shoulders. He knew it was better to just be honest with Sam, even though he was sure it was going to drive them apart.

"Um, I like you too." Apparently Sam didn't quite get what Blaine was saying as he shrugged and shook his head. Blaine turned to look at his friend and his mouth just dropped, not believing he was going to have to say it again. "So, what's this boy trouble you're having?"

Blaine took a deep breath and held up a hand to his chest for emphasis. "I," he started, voice wavering as he struggles to keep looking Sam in the eye and not break down, "like… you." The admission sounded like a defeat this time and Blaine was left feeling vulnerable and unsure as he watched Sam actually process the information this time around. His eyes begged silently for forgiveness as much as they apologized for the epic awkwardness that just unfolded.

After a few seconds that felt like an eternity to Blaine, Sam cocked his head and said, "Oh."

Awkward silence filled the room making Blaine uncomfortable. Cheeks flushing pink, he turned away from his friend and went to stand up. "I should just – I'm gonna go. I shouldn't have told you. I'm sorry, I should –"

Blaine's ramble was cut short when Sam grabbed his arm to prevent him from moving any further from where he sat. "Hey." Blaine stilled, but couldn't look at Sam. "Hey." Sam shook his arm until Blaine finally turned around to look at him. "It's okay."

"No," Blaine said, eyes dropping to the duvet. "It's not."

"Blaine, look at me." Sam refused to continue until hazel eyes were locked on his. "It's okay. Really." Though he still felt incredibly awkward and out of place, Blaine knew Sam was telling the truth. The genuinely reassuring look in his eye was somewhat comforting to Blaine, but that didn't make him feel like any less of an idiot. He just told his best friend – his straight best friend – that he had a crush on him. That's mortifying any way you look at it. "You wanna… I dunno… talk about it?"

Blaine sighed. It was thoughtful questions like that that made it so easy to like Sam because it reminded him of Kurt. "Not really."

Sam wasn't fooled and could see Blaine was holding out on him. He didn't want to pry, but he was very willing to have this conversation with Blaine. He knew Blaine was into guys – he just thought the only guy Blaine was into was Kurt. Even though they weren't dating anymore, Kurt was the only guy that Blaine ever talked about at length. Like, he would make an offhand comment about an actor if they were watching a movie, but the only time Blaine ever went into any sort of detail over a dude was when he was going on about Kurt. Sam figured something must be up between Blaine and Kurt if Blaine suddenly liked him. "Wanna get back to the movie?"

Blaine's eyebrows shot up in surprise at how easily Sam dropped the whole thing. He watched as Sam settled back down onto his bed and unpaused the movie. Afraid to lie down on the bed like he normally did, Blaine situated himself in a seated position against the headboard and tried to focus on the movie, even though his mind was racing from his confession.

They made it through another twenty minutes of the movie before either of them made a sound. It was Sam who broke the silence. "I'm flattered, you know." Blaine watched as Sam grabbed his bottle of fizzy water off the floor and took a swig. After letting out a fairly loud belch and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Sam continued. "So, yeah."

"You're gross, Sam," Blaine exclaimed as he watched Sam chug more of his drink. But when Sam's lips disengaged themselves from the bottle opening with a loud, wet smack, Blaine's mind wandered for a fraction of a second to how plump Kurt's lips were after unlatching themselves from Blaine, until he quickly shook himself out of it.

Sam grinned. "Like what you see, Anderson?" He meant it as a joke, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized he took it too far and it made him winced. "Too soon?" The immediate reddening of Blaine's ears and the tightly clenched jaw was an indication to the affirmative. Sam instantly felt horrible. "I'm sorry, man."

Blaine shook his head, "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. Look, you can keep my copy of First Class for the weekend if you want, but I'm gonna just head home." He hopped off the bed before Sam could grab his arm again and picked up his backpack to dig out the movie for Sam.

"No, wait," Sam begged. "Please?" Blaine stopped what he was doing and looked at his friend, albeit with an impatient and embarrassed look on his face. Sam could tell Blaine just wanted to leave as fast as he could. He felt bad for making his friend feel worse about something that was really not a huge deal to him. In that moment, it all finally clicked for Sam. It didn't matter to him, but it mattered to Blaine. And by the painful look on his face, it mattered a lot to Blaine. "I'm an idiot. And if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine, but there's something I need to say to you, okay?"

Figuring the evening couldn't get any worse than it already was, Blaine gave up and dropped back onto the bed, placing his backpack on the floor in the process. He sat with his back flat against the headboard and drew his knees up to his chest. His arms involuntarily rose to hug his knees and he peered at Sam through lowered lashes. Giving a small nod to Sam, he waited for the other boy to start talking.

Sam took a deep breath, trying to collect his thoughts. Since he and Blaine became best friends, he never felt like he had to censor anything. Blaine was definitely smarter than Sam was and had a way better vocabulary, but he never used that against him. Sam didn't want to mess this up, though. He had to let Blaine know everything was completely okay between them.

"Look, you and me, we're like this team, right? You got my back and I got your back and I like hanging out with you…" Now look who was rambling. "And what you just told me doesn't matter to me." At those words, Blaine's shoulders dropped and Sam realized he said the wrong thing. "No wait - that came out wrong. I mean, everything you say to me matters, obviously, because you're my best friend. Hell, you're like another brother or something." He paused and searched for more words to try and make Blaine know that nothing was going to chance between them. "What I meant was that you having a crush on me, or whatever, doesn't make me want to stop being your friend." It was Sam's turn to look at Blaine, begging him to understand what he obviously wasn't able to put into coherent sentences. "Okay?"

Blaine blinked back tears and nodded his head probably more times than was necessary. He was hoping Sam would say something like that, but didn't expect to actually hear it. In the bottom of his heart, he knew nothing would ever come of his feelings for Sam. Sam was straight and Blaine knew that nothing he could do or say would change that, but yet he held onto those feelings as if they were a punishment.

The memories of what he did with Eli haunted Blaine daily. He knew he ruined things with Kurt. Even though Blaine wanted to distract himself from how much he missed the other boy, he still felt like he had to punish himself for what he did, so, he figured unrequited feelings for Sam were the perfect form of torture. To be so close to someone you liked and not be able to do a thing about it was just the kind of masochism Blaine felt he deserved. Subconsciously, he figured it was the easiest way to destroy himself if he conjured up more-than-just-friends feelings for Sam and purposefully drove himself to misery. Sam was attractive and a great guy, so it was easy for Blaine to allow himself to think he was falling for his friend. Blaine knew this was wasn't healthy, but he couldn't stop himself until now.

"I knew, you know," Blaine started, voice shaking. "I knew that it was pointless to have a crush on you because… because you would never feel the same way about me." He stared down at the blanket on top of the bed. Sam wanted to reach out and comfort his friend, but he knew he probably shouldn't because of how vulnerable Blaine was in that moment. He felt awful as he watched Blaine wrestle with his emotions. "I think… no, I know why I let myself like you like this." Blaine's eyebrows furrowed as his forehead sprouted angry lines. "It's just that… I really messed things up with Kurt. But I still love him, you know? And my heart – my heart it's just," he lifted his hand in front of his chest and made a motion or if it would somehow summon the word he was looking for, "it's so heavy. And I just have all these feelings. But I can't feel them for Kurt because I just – I'm just not allowed to feel that way about him anymore. Not after what I did." There were tears streaming down Blaine's face and dripping onto the blanket below.

Sam froze. He had seen Blaine upset before, but he never saw him cry. He didn't cry when he told Sam what happened with Eli. He didn't cry when he almost broke his wrist after being tripped in the mall by some homophobic asshole. Blaine didn't cry when his great grandfather passed away right after Christmas. But now here was Blaine - a sobbing mess on his bed and he didn't know what to do except slowly grab the tissue box off his nightstand and place it next to the other boy. "Here."

"Thanks," Blaine said through tears as he pulled a few tissues from the offered box and wiped his nose.

Sam ran a hand through his hair as he watched Blaine try to settle himself down. It was weird to see Blaine break down, but also somewhat a relief. Blaine was so uptight all the time and Sam often tried to get him to loosen up and just enjoy himself. But, since his breakup with Kurt, Sam noticed that Blaine would rarely allow himself to just be. When Blaine was considering transferring back to Dalton, Sam begged him to reconsider and stop punishing himself for the mistakes he made. Sam knew Blaine felt horrible for cheating, but he also knew Blaine was a good guy who would likely spend the rest of his life trying to repent for what he did.

Something wasn't making sense to Sam, though. He thought Blaine and Kurt were still on good terms and maybe even working things out. "I thought you told me that you and Kurt talked and that he told you he still loves you?"

"He loves me," Blaine admitted, "but he's not in love with me anymore."

Sam's eyebrows shot up as a potentially awkward thought came to his mind. He didn't want to say it, but he had to ask, "Wait… you're not in love with me, are you?"

"Ha!" Blaine couldn't help but let out a small laugh at his friend's question. "No. This is just a seriously misguided crush that I promise I will get over soon." The smile that had formed on his face quickly fell into a frown. "No… I'm still in love with Kurt. I'll always be in love with Kurt." He looked up at Sam apologetically. "I really should just go home. You don't have to listen to me… I don't even know what's going on with me right now. Seriously, I am horrible company."

Though the night was definitely not turning out how Sam thought it would, there was no way he was going to let Blaine go home or be by himself in the state he was in. "No way, man. You're staying here and we're going to talk about this." Blaine's eyebrows shot up at Sam's insistence that he stay. "Girls are always saying how they love sitting around with their friends and talkin' about feelings and stuff, so that's exactly what we're going to do."

"But we're not girls, Sam," Blaine said.

"No, but we're friends. Best friends. And best friends listen to other best friends," Sam pointed out. When Blaine started to roll his eyes, Sam asked, "If something happened with me and Brittany and I needed to talk about it, you'd listen, right?" Blaine nodded, as the answer was obvious. "Well, then let's do this, Anderson. Tell me about your feelings." Sam situated himself so he was sitting cross-legged while facing Blaine. He put both his elbows on his knees and rested his chin in the palms of his hands, eagerly awaiting anything Blaine was about to say.

Blaine chuckled as he shook his head, "You're ridiculous."

"And you're stalling. Come on, Blaine. Spill."

Blaine raised his eyebrows. "None of this leaves this room?" Sam nodded. Blaine took a deep breath and sighed upon exhaling. "Oh god, I can't believe we're doing this." He looked at Sam and shook his head. "I can't talk if you're going to look at me like that."

Sam quickly unfolded himself and flopped down, back first, onto the bed. "This better?"

The blond boy's shirt rode up, exposing his hipbones and the waistband of his boxer briefs. An hour ago, Blaine would have found himself fixating on this sight to torture himself, but all that was on his mind now was Kurt, so he just rolled his eyes and shuffled himself around so his back was resting against the headboard again.

"Where do I even start?" Blaine asked, directing his question more at himself than Sam.

Sam folded his hands on his stomach and stared at the ceiling. "Well… we're talking about feelings, right? So, how do you feel?"

Blaine closed his eyes and repeated Sam's question. "How do I feel? … How do I feel? I feel embarrassed." He let out a laugh that sounded more like a coping mechanism than anything remotely gleeful.

"Blaine." Sam snapped his head toward his friend and gave him a stern glare even though Blaine's eyes were still closed.

"Fine. I feel… lost. And angry. And sad… mostly sad, I guess." Blaine opened his eyes and looked at Sam, like he just had a revelation.

Sam nodded in encouragement. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Blaine said as he nodded to himself, leaning back against the headboard. "Kurt's out on a date tonight." Tears started forming in his eyes again, but he fought hard to hold them back. "That's the first time I've said that out loud." His chest heaved as his breathing got really labored. "Oh god." Blaine lost his fight with the tears and several quickly found their way down his cheeks and onto his lap.

Afraid Blaine was having a panic attack, Sam scrambled up from where he was laying down and scooted himself over so he was seated next to his best friend. After a moment's hesitation, Sam nudged Blaine forward a little and put a reassuring hand on his back. Though Blaine froze at the initial contact, he tried to make himself relax as Sam began to rub small circles into the tense muscles near his shoulder. "This okay?" Sam asked. He sighed with relief when Blaine nodded.

"I'm sorry," Blaine started took slower, deeper breaths to try and calm himself down again. "I just –," he sighed before restarting his sentence. "I knew he would move on, but I guess part of me wishes he wouldn't." He grabbed a tissue and wiped his nose before whispering to himself, "I'm so selfish."

Sam heard what Blaine said and stopped rubbing his back. Blaine assumed it was because Sam agreed, but it was really because Sam did not feel the same way about Blaine's actions. "Hey. Look at me," Sam demanded in a quiet, but firm voice. Blaine shifted his weight and peered over his shoulder to look toward his friend. "Stop beating yourself up. I mean, yeah, it's selfish to wish Kurt wouldn't see other guys, but you're allowed to feel that. Your feelings aren't any less important than his."

"But I cheated on him, Sam," Blaine countered. "I can't expect him to not go out with other people."

"True," Sam said, "But you're still allowed to wish he wouldn't." Sam sighed through his nose. "Look, you just told me you're still in love with him, right?" Blaine nodded. "Well, then I would be worried if you weren't being selfish about him going out on a date." He watched as Blaine processed what he just said. "Maybe he just needs to see that someone else is not the right person for him. I mean, you kinda already did that…" Sam realized what he just said and felt horrible, but justified. "Sorry."

Blaine buried his face in his hands. Though Sam's words stung, he was right.

Just then, the door to Sam's bedroom swung open and before Blaine could lift his head, he was being tackled by two smaller someones.

"BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINE!" Stacie shouted into his ear as she climbed on his back while he ducked to avoid the brunt of the volume.

It was quite a sight to see. Sam just laughed while he watched Stevie scramble into Blaine's lap and wrap his arms around Blaine's waist for a tight hug. "Sam promised you'd read us a bedtime story tonight. We like when you read 'em cuz you do the voices."

Blaine chuckled and genuinely grinned, quickly pulling himself together so the kids wouldn't notice that he had been crying. "I'm sure your brother does the voices much better than I do," he told Stevie, very matter-of-factually. Blaine looked over at Sam and gave him a meaningful look. "Your brother is pretty great, you know." He then focused his attention back on the kids. "You guys are lucky."

Sam smiled and peeled his sister off of Blaine's back. "Okay you guys. Blaine can't read you any stories until your teeth are brushed and you're tucked in. Okay?" He lowered a squirming Stacie until she could put her feet on the floor. "Now get outta here!" He playfully swatted Stacie on the butt and she squealed in faux discontent as she bolted out of the room. Turning back toward the bed, he saw Stevie was still situated in Blaine's lap. "You too, little man. Get." Sam motioned with his thumb toward the door. Stevie groaned but rolled himself out of Blaine's lap and onto the floor with an unceremonious thud. As Stevie trudged out the door, Sam shook his head. He loved his siblings and was so glad that they took a liking to Blaine.

"I can't do half the voices you can," Blaine exclaimed as he looked at the open door where the Evans children just exited.

"Yeah, well…" Sam started, but then stopped. "Are you okay? Like, are we okay?" He looked at Blaine with questioning eyes, but Blaine seemed to know what he was getting at.

"Yeah… I think so," Blaine said as he nodded slowly before he launched into an apology. "I am so, so sorry for ruining a perfectly good movie night."

Sam shook him off. "The night is young. We can still make it through a couple movies if you want."

A half a smile broke out across Blaine's face. "Yeah. That'd be great."

Stacie shouted from the bedroom down the hall, "BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINE! We're ready for stories now!"

Both boys smiled as Blaine scrunched his nose before he slid himself off of Sam's bed and stretched his arms over his head.

"Get to work, man," Sam remarked as Blaine made his way out the door. "Read the heck out of those stories."

Blaine chuckled, "Thanks Sam." He made it halfway down the hall before he turned around and looked Sam square in the eye. "Seriously, thank you. For everything."

Sam nodded in understanding and smiled to himself as Blaine turned around and headed toward Stacie and Stevie's room.