When Kurt woke up, the first thing he saw was a canopy of trees. He looked left to see Puck poking at a fire. “Blaine?” He asked into the darkness.

Immediately after he spoke Blaine came into his line of sight, looking relieved and a bit dishevelled. His curly hair was sticking out in all directions, like he had been tugging on it, and his jacket was discarded.

“Oh, you’re awake. Thank god. I thought you had left us. You’ve been out for hours Kurt and we-“

“You.” Puck interjected.

“I was so worried. Can we not do that again please? I would really like for you-“

“Blaine…” Kurt tried to speak, but Blaine kept talking.

“-To stay alive. And well. And you. Because we already lost you twice. You came back, but you were gone and everyone-“

“Blaine!”

“-Missed you so much and just… don’t leave us, okay Kurt? Because we all need you and-“

“Hatter!” Kurt shouted, and Blaine finally stopped talking.

“Sorry. I… sorry.”

“It’s fine. But what do you mean I’ve been out for hours?”

“You’ve been out cold since we left the castle.” Puck said. “It was kind of unnerving. And boy is he annoying when he’s worried.”

“I am not!”

“You wouldn’t shut up!” Puck sighed, before putting on a higher voice; obviously trying to imitate Blaine. “Ooh, what if Kurt doesn’t wake up? What if he’s gone forever this time? I never got to tell him that I-“

Blaine ran over and slapped a hand over the mohawked man’s mouth. “Okay, you can shut up now.” There was a pause and then Blaine squealed and jumped a foot away from Puck, holding his hand away from him like it was poisonous. “You licked me!”

“Keep your hands off, Hatter.”

“He licked me!” Blaine said to Kurt, who burst into a fit of giggles. “It’s not funny, that was gross! I don’t even want to think about where that tongue has been.”

“Watch it, hobbit.”

Blaine pouted and walked away, sitting down as far away from the fire as he could and pulled his knees to his chest. Kurt couldn’t help but think that he looked like a little boy who just lost his puppy.

He stood up, albeit a bit shakily, and walked over to Blaine. He crouched down next to him. “Hi.”

There was a grunt in response, and Blaine still wouldn’t let Kurt catch his eye.

“I’m sorry for worrying you.”

He looked up now; his hazel eyes staring straight into Kurt’s. “Don’t apologize for something you can’t control.”

Kurt was taken aback by the harshness of Blaine’s voice. “S-sorry.” Kurt whispered before walking away. He told Puck he was going for a walk and ignored his warnings to stay near the fire.

“Smooth move.” Puck said from the fire, “Now he’s run off.”

“Oh piss off.”

“You know, your moods are really annoying.”

“What moods?”

“Oh c’mon, Hatter. It’s like your emotions are switches; one has to go off for another to go on. The changes are drastic and you obviously don’t think before you speak.”

Blaine frowned, “I didn’t even realize…”

“Well Kurt did. All he was trying to do was make you feel better and instead you just snap at him. Do you not have a heart?”

“I… I was just…”

“You were just being selfish.”

“I suppose I was. Shit, I messed up didn’t I?” Blaine stood up and made his way over to the fire, but instead of sitting he passed back and forth, knowing on his thumb nail all the while.

“Ya think?”

“How do I fix it?” Blaine asked, stopping in front of Puck, “C’mon, you’re the ‘stud’ of Wonderland, how do I fix it?”

Puck shrugged, “Go after him.”

Kurt made his way through the woods, not sure where he was going but knowing that he really, really didn’t want to be around Blaine at that moment. Tears were stinging at his eyes, and Kurt felt pathetic. He was crying over nothing. Like a stupid child. He rubbed at his eyes angrily as he hurried his pace; trying to get as far away from the stupid Hatter as he could.

Kurt was too preoccupied with his vicious thoughts to notice the tree root that was sticking up from the ground at an awkward angle. When he got to it, his foot hooked underneath, sending him flying forward. Kurt barely caught himself on his hands, and his head still hit the hard forest ground. He let out a grunt of pain before pushing himself onto his knees.

His head was throbbing and his hands stung, but he was more worried about the dozens of sets of eyes that were now peering at him from the darkness. Kurt let out a loud scream and he distantly heard his name being called. A cat walked out of trees and Kurt screamed again at the smile on its face. The smile reached from ear-to-ear and Kurt could see every pointed tooth in the cat’s mouth. He started to panic as the creature got closer, and he tried to back up only to run into a tree.

When he tried to step away from the tree his sweater caught onto the branches. Or he thought it did. When Kurt tried to pull free, the branches of the tree tightened around his biceps. Kurt screamed again. He was crying again, but this time from fear. The eyes were still watching and the cat was still approaching, but every time he tried to pull himself free the branch would dig into his arm hard enough to draw blood. Kurt was terrified.

Just when he was starting to loose hope Blaine burst through the trees that he had come through, he was panting and he was sweating. “Kurt!”

“Hatter!” Kurt exclaimed, immediately feeling safer.

“Let go of him, you stupid tree!” Blaine exclaimed as he tried to pry the branches away from Kurt, resulting in them digging deeper into his skin and another branch throwing Blaine away. The cat moved away from Kurt and started making its way to Blaine.

“Blaine!” Kurt screeched. Blaine’s head snapped to the cat and his eyes went wide as he scrambled to his feet.

“Shit.” His eyes darted around in search of something, anything, to defend himself with. He saw a stick off to his left, near Kurt’s foot, but he wasn’t sure if he could reach it before the cat realized. The damn creatures were smarter than they appeared.

Kurt saw Blaine’s line of vision and smiled. He stretched his leg out, once again grateful for being blessed with long legs, and kicked the stick in Blaine’s direction. When it landed not a foot away from Blaine’s arm, Kurt let out a sound of triumph.

Blaine drove towards the stick and managed to get a good grip on it, but before he could take a hit at the cat it pounced, sinking its teeth into his left arm. Blaine let out a cry of pain, and he heard Kurt scream his name, but the serum in the cat’s teeth was already sinking into his veins. Blaine knew he was running out of time.

Mustering up all the strength he could, Blaine swung at the cat and hit it in the stomach, sending it flying off his arm and into the trees on the far side of the small clearing. Blaine knew this was his only opportunity, so he ran to where Kurt was still struggling with the tree and started whacking at the branches. After a minute it gave in and Kurt fell to a heap on the ground.

“Kurt,” Blaine said, grabbing at his arm. When Kurt winced Blaine dropped it and instead reached for his hand. “Kurt, we gotta go before it comes back.”

Kurt nodded and Blaine started tugging him through the forest, trying to put as much distance between them and the clearing as possible. As they ran the trees reached for them, but aside from a few scratches they made it back to the campfire.

“So did you get him back, loverbo-“ Puck froze when he caught sight of the pair. “Shit, what happened?”

“Dimma cat.” Blaine grunted and led Kurt to the fire, immediately going to check out his arms. But his vision was already blurring, and Puck’s voice sounded far away. Before he knew what was happening, Blaine found himself lying on the ground. His vision went out again and when he opened his eyes he saw Kurt’s face. Blaine smiled and tried to reach for him, only to find himself unable. He felt like he should panic; he wanted to panic, but he felt too peaceful.

“Blaine?” Kurt asked, shaking his shoulder, “Blaine! Hatter!” When there still wasn’t a response, Kurt slapped him, trying to wake him up. But Blaine closed his eyes and let out a sigh. Kurt tried to shake his shoulder again, scream his name, pound on his chest, but nothing was working. Blaine wasn’t opening his eyes.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and flinched, but it was only Puck. “Kurt, Kurt stop. You have to move now so I can look at him.”

Kurt shook his head, “No, no I have to stay with him.”

“Well can you at lease move away from his left arm so I can get a good look?”

Kurt bit his lip but nodded and moved over to Blaine’s right side, grabbing his limp hand and squeezing like his life depended on it. He watched nervously as Puck examined Blaine’s arm, frown growing with each passing minute. “What is it? What- what the fuck was the thing that bit him?”

“It was a Dimma cat.” Puck said, closing his eyes and letting Blaine’s arm fall back to the ground. He made his way over to the fire and started poking at it, adding more wood to make it brighter.

“What is that?”

“It’s a ‘Dark cat’. You saw its teeth, right?” Kurt nodded, “Well every single one of them is filled with venom that will kill you if it isn’t treated straight away.”

“Y-you can treat it, though. Right?”

“I can try.” Puck bit his lip as he took in Kurt; he was sobbing and his eyes and nose were a puffy red, his hair was a mess and his sweater was torn in the arms. Puck could see blood through the tares and knew that he would have to make sure to treat them too. He searched around the woods, looking for the Ziland plant; the only plant that would help Blaine right now. He searched along the ground, grinning when he saw steaming grey goo seeping out at one spot. He was close, and that was so incredibly relieving.

Sure enough no more than ten paces later he found the plant. He looked it over and took it the bright purple stem, pink leaves and dark blue veins running along it. It was definitely the right plant.

Puck jogged back to their makeshift camp and his heart broke slightly at the sight of Kurt, ear pressed to Blaine’s chest as his tears soaked the man’s shirt.

“It’s okay Kurt,” Puck said softly as he approached, “It’s alright. He’s going to be okay.”

Kurt gazed up at him, his blue eyes wide and shining with tears, though there was a bit of hope in them now. “Promise?”

“Yeah, I’ve just got to mush this up, stick it over the fire for a moment and then pour it over the wound. He’ll be fine.”

Kurt bit his lip and looked down at Blaine. Puck walked away to start making the solvent, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Kurt lightly touch Blaine’s cheek before leaning down to press a kiss to it. Puck smiled and got to work.

In just under an hour, the solvent was ready. Puck made his way over to Blaine kneeled down next to him. He placed the bowl down and reached for the cloth that he had shredded from his uniform; placing it next to the bowl. He took one of the pieces of cloth and drenched it in the liquid. He made sure that none dripped off as he moved it over to Blaine’s arm and placed it on the wound. He did the same with four more pieces before taking the last, long piece and wrapping it around Blaine’s arm to hold everything in place.

“Now we just wait.” He told Kurt. The boy nodded, but still held Blaine’s hand tightly in his own. “I should clean your wounds too, Kurt.”

His eyes never left Blaine as he responded, “No I-I’m fine.”

“Kurt,” Puck said more sternly, “I’m cleaning your wounds. No arguments. Blaine is going to be fine.”

Kurt looked more than a bit reluctant, but he nodded once and stood up. Puck led them to the fire.

“Okay, take off your sweater.”

“I… can’t you clean it without me doing that?”

“No, Kurt.” Puck sighed, “I’m not gay, and I’m not going to rape you.”

“It’s not that. I just… I’m not comfortable with doing that.”

“Kurt, I don’t care what you look like under your clothes. I want to treat your wound so Blaine doesn’t murder me when he wakes up.”

“Fine.” Kurt grumbled as he took of his sweater. Puck raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“I don’t see why you’re so self-conscious; you’ve got some muscle on you, kid.” He saw Kurt sputter slightly, but he ignored it as he got to work on cleaning the wounds.

“I… Puck?” Kurt asked quietly.

“Yeah?”

“What do you do if you… like someone… but you shouldn’t?”

Puck raised an eyebrow, “Why shouldn’t you like Blaine?”

“I don’t like Blaine,” Kurt said a bit too quickly. He must have realized too, as a blush spread across his cheeks. “And because, even if I don’t think I’m dreaming anymore, I know I have to leave at some point.”

“It’s okay to be worried Kurt, but you shouldn’t hide how you feel around him.” Kurt smiled, amazed at how insightful that was of Puck, but his smiled faded when he continued, “It’s annoying for the rest of us. We have to deal with you two being completely smitten with each other, but not doing anything about. The sexual frustration between you two is almost painful.”

“I hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

“Yeah, I think I do.” Kurt winced when Puck poured something over the freshly-cleaned gashes on his arm. “Ow! What was that?”

“It’s so it doesn’t get infected. Geez, you’re such a baby.”

“Oh go away.”

“Nah, I think I’m good.” Puck smirked, “I’m starting to like hanging around you guys.”

“Oh joy.”