Pavarotti, as Kurt had decided to call his new plant, was a bit of a conundrum. Kurt was rather proud at how talented he was with plants. He had inherited his mother's natural talent with them and he could make almost anything grow.

Pavarotti refused to do so. Kurt had tried nearly everything he could think of. He'd watered him in varying amounts. He'd given him different types of light. He'd kept him cool then warm but nothing was working. He'd tried every vitamin and soil he had and the plant refused to perk up.

Kurt was at an utter loss.

"What you doing, Kurt?" Burt was standing in the doorway behind Kurt, his cap off so he could scratch his head. Kurt just shrugged and turned back to Pavarotti, frowning.

"Trying to figure out what this little fellow needs." Kurt could hear Burt step up behind him and he peered over his shoulder at the exotic plant.

"What is that?"

"No idea. Mercedes got it for me from California. She knows I love strange plants. I'm calling it Pavarotti."

Burt smiled and patted Kurt's back. "Well, don't worry about it, kiddo. You'll get him healthy." He studied the plant for a moment, and then flashed Kurt a tired smile. "Why don't you bring it down to the shop tomorrow? You can keep an eye on it that way."

Kurt sighed and nodded his head. "Yeah, I think I will. Maybe it'll like the smell of oil. I can at least show it to Blaine that way."

"Have you told him yet?" Burt asked gently, turning fully towards Kurt. Kurt shook his head, his chest tightening. He didn't want to think, or talk, about the shop closing. He did need to tell Blaine though, he was his best friend and he depended on the money from the shop. He would need to know he'd need to start looking for another job.

"No, dad."

"Kurt-"

"I know," Kurt snapped and then flinched when Burt's eyes narrowed. "Sorry, I'll tell him."

"Tomorrow."

"Yes, sir."

Burt clapped him on the back again and walked back out of his bedroom. Kurt turned to Pavarotti who wilted a little more.

"I don't suppose you could tell Blaine, could you?"

Its leaves just fell off.

-o-o-o-

"What is that?" Blaine put his wrench set up and grinned at Kurt as he set Pavarotti down.

"I have no idea." Kurt answered cheerily. Pavarotti had perked up a bit in the night and no longer looked quite so much like death warmed over.

"It looks like a piranha plant." Blaine mused, bending over the plant so he could see it more clearly. Kurt beamed.

"That's what I thought."

"Kurt?" He couldn't help the way his entire body tensed up at his dad's voice. He knew what he was going to ask, and he didn't want to tell Blaine yet. He was probably being called into his office to be berated for not having told him yet.

"Blaine, you too. I've got something to tell y'all." Blaine looked at Kurt with worried eyes, no doubt noticing the way his entire body was tensing.

"Uh, yeah, dad. Be there in a second!"

Okay, so maybe he didn't know what his dad wanted. Still, it couldn't be good, could it?

"Are we in trouble?" Blaine questioned as they headed towards Burt's office.

"I don't think so." Kurt hesitated before adding. "I'm sure it'll be alright." Blaine gave him a sad smile and held the door open for Kurt. Kurt sometimes wondered if he even realized he did things like that. He seemed to have gentleman so deeply ingrained that he didn't even think about it.

Burt motioned for them to both sit down in front of his desk. They did so with a quick glance at each other. Kurt ached.

"Kurt, Blaine." Burt sighed and removed his hat, rubbing his head before looking back at them. "I have some bad news." Blaine visibly tensed in his chair and Kurt's stomach dropped. He didn't want to hear this again. He didn't want the shop to shut down.

They couldn't have the shop shut down. It was his dad's favorite thing. It had always been there, as long as Kurt could remember. He could hardly comprehend the idea of it shutting down, let alone actually accept that.

"Look, I'm just going to give it to y'all straight. Y'all are adults, and you deserve to know the truth. The shop is shutting down. I don't think we'll make it for much longer than a week."

Neither Kurt nor Blaine said anything. Kurt couldn't and Blaine looked as if he was going to faint. Kurt tried working his mouth, trying desperately to say something, anything, but he couldn't make a sound.

The front bell rang, alerting them to the fact that someone had just come into the shop.

Burt sighed heavily and stood. "Let's see who it is and we'll discuss the store later." Blaine nodded and Kurt stood, following his dad out of his office, Blaine right behind him.

"Are you Mr. Hummel? Do you own this tire shop?"

Burt nodded and held his hand out. "Burt, ma'am."

"I'm Mrs. Jameson and that is the most interesting plant I've ever seen." She indicated Pavarotti who was sitting in the front window. "I didn't even know this store existed over here. Do you have change for a hundred?"

"A-what? A hundred? No." Kurt doubted they had change for a twenty.

"Oh, well then, I'll simply have to have a hundred dollars' worth of tires."

Blaine was blinking in shock while Burt's eyes went huge. Neither one of them made any move forward and Mrs. Jameson was holding the bill out with a frown.

"Of course, I'll take your order!" Kurt cringed internally at how shrill his voice came out. He swallowed and tried again. "If you'll just follow me I can get your tires." He gingerly took the bill from her hand and gave it to his father. "Make sure it's real." He whispered, a giddy grin already lifting his lips. Blaine was beginning to grin in an almost comical manner.

Kurt turned back to the customer and tried to tame his smile a little as he led her to the tires she wanted. He filled the order and helped her put the tires in her SUV before going back to the front of the shop, where there was a line of people waiting to be serviced. Blaine, Burt, and even Finn, were already assisting customers as well.

Kurt nearly let his jaw drop in shock. His eyes shot to Pavarotti and his grin returned.

Things were most definitely looking up.

-o-o-o-

"Two thousand dollars!" Burt dropped the stack of bills on the table and looked at Blaine who hastily scribbled that number down on his notepad. There were four piles of bills, one in front of each of them. They'd never had to split the days earnings up before just so they could count them.

"So, with my thousand, Kurt's thousand three hundred and eighty two, and, how much Finn?"

"Thousand seven hundred and twenty eight." Finn murmured. He was staring at the stacks of money and his eyes had glazed over in shock.

"So, carry the one, and oh my god."

"What? How much?" Blaine looked up from his ledger and blinked unbelievingly. "It's six thousand one hundred and ten dollars."

"In one day?" Finn looked at the money again, his mouth dropping open. Burt stood up and scooped the money up, reaching for the cash box.

"Kurt, I don't care what you have to do. Get that plant healthy. I'm going to drop this off at the bank."

Kurt nodded and watched his dad leave the tire shop.

"Dude, I've never seen that much money in my life." Finn was grinning, a dopey look on his face. "I just held a thousand dollars."

Kurt couldn't help but grin as well. "I know, imagine the pieces I could have gotten with that." Blaine snorted and shook his head, an excited smile on his face as well.

"I'm going to go tell mom. Blaine, you're staying for dinner, right?"

"Uhh, I can't. Seb wants to go to a movie." Kurt frowned but managed to mask it before Blaine noticed.

"Alright, but dude, you're coming over tomorrow. We're celebrating this." With that, Finn stood up and left the shop.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" Kurt asked. He started straightening papers up so he wouldn't have to look at Blaine. He didn't want him to see the jealousy that would be in his eyes.

"Yeah," Kurt didn't miss the sad tone in Blaine's voice and it caused him to look up. Blaine was standing with his hands in his pockets and a frown on his face.

"Are you alright?"

"What?" He blinked, seeming as if he was trying to pull himself out of a stupor. "Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Just tired or something."

Kurt didn't believe him for a moment. "How long until your date?" Hey, he actually managed to keep his voice from dipping with hate on that word. That was definite progress for Kurt.

Blaine glanced at the clock on the wall before looking at Kurt again. "About a half hour, why?"

"I have a song I want you to hear."

"Cool." Blaine leaned against the desk while Kurt pulled his ipod and headphones out. He offered one to Blaine and then picked the song he was thinking about recently.

Wake up kids

We've got the dreamers disease

Age 14 we got you down on your knees

So polite, you're busy still saying please

Frienemies

Who when

you're down ain't your friend

Kurt tilted his ipod so he could see Blaine's face with out staring creeply at him. He wanted him to really listen to the lyrics. It was a lot of what he wanted to tell his best friend but just couldn't.

But when the night is falling

You cannot find the light,

If you feel your dreams are dying

Hold tight

You've got the music in you

Don't let go

You've got the music in you

One dance left

This world is gonna pull through

Don't give up

You've got a reason to live

Can't forget

We only get what we give

Blaine's face had gone completely blank but his eyes were overly bright. They always turned that way when he was trying extremely hard to hold his emotions in.

This whole damn world can fall apart

You'll be OK, follow your heart

You're in harms way I'm right behind

Now say you're mine

Kurt swallowed thickly and had to look away. His own emotions were beginning to show through.

Don't let go

You've got the music in you

Don't give up

You've got the music in you

You've got the music in you

Blaine didn't say anything right away. He just took the ear bud out and handed it back to Kurt. HE wound the headphones around his ipod then thrust it back in his pocket, fidgeting with the fabric there.

"So, what did you think?"

"New Radicals?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

"It's really good." He swallowed and looked away before thrusting his hands back in his pocket. "I, uh, I gotta go, Kurt. See you tomorrow."

Blaine stood up and walked towards the exit, a little more quickly than he normally would.

"Blaine?" Kurt sat up, clutching the desk a little desperately. Blaine paused and turned his head towards Kurt but didn't fully face him.

"Yeah?" His voice sounded a little choked.

"Don't… Don't ever let anyone hurt you? Okay? You… You're too special for that." Blaine didn't make a reply he just pulled the door open and slipped out into the night.

That did not go well.

Kurt grabbed Pavarotti and went inside, trying to keep his tears from flooding his eyes. He set his plant on his bed and wiped furiously at his eyes before turning and kicking out at his trash can. It knocked into his dresser and caused a glass to fall off of it and onto the floor where it promptly shattered quite dramatically.

"Great." Kurt muttered darkly before calling out that everything was okay so that Carole wouldn't worry.

He bent down to scoop the broken bits of glass up and got a shard caught on his finger.

"Gaga!" He yelped, straightening up and bringing the injured digit to his face so he could examine it. He was about to pull the glass out when he heard a strange noise. It was almost like something was sucking.

He turned on his heel to see Pavarotti at full attention, it's head bent towards Kurt and it's… well… mouth, opened.

Kurt's eyes shot to his hand then back to the plant. He knew some species of plant ate bugs. Did the plant sense his blood and think that was what was going on?

Well, it was worth a try, right? He brought his hand nearer the plant to see how it reacted and it lunged at his finger, sucking the entire digit into its mouth.

Kurt yelped.