When he felt empty, he sat down on the ground for a moment to catch his breath. He didn’t notice Santana walk up behind him, but she was holding out her hand for him, her eyes looked slightly puffy. Kurt let her pull him to his feet and hugged her close.

“I never thought they would treat them like this”, he whispered. He may have been to a couple of slave markets before, but his father must have found some way to shield him from this kind of misery.

“What happened to him?” Santana asked, looking back at the car.

“I don’t know”, Kurt answered honestly, he took a deep breath. “Come on, I don’t want to leave them alone.” He unlocked the trunk and opened the boot lid. The two slaves sat in the exact same position they had been left in earlier.

“Are we at your home now, Mistress?” The blonde girl asked Santana. Santana smiled softly at her and shook her head. Kurt handed her the Swiss army knife he had brought along specifically for this purpose.

“No, we’ll just cut off that rope and get you more comfortable, okay?” The blonde nodded and stuck out her hands and feet towards Santana to grant her easy access to her bound limbs.

“Good girl!” Santana praised her. She cut through the rope, careful not to hurt the girl.

The boy had been observing the scene in front of him warily, but at the praise Santana gave the girl he carefully extended his feet and arms a little as if to test if the same reaction would be extended to him. While Santana had been caught up in talking to her slave Kurt had been observing him carefully and took the knife from Santana.

“Well done.” He said, placing a careful hand on the boy’s tightly bound wrists. “Now I need you to hold still so I won’t accidentally hurt you, alright?” The boy nodded, but his mouth was set in a tense line as if he was waiting for Kurt to cut his wrists. The rope gave easily enough and Kurt untangled the rest of it from the boy’s wrists.

“Very good.” He contemplated what to say next for a moment as he tenderly placed a hand above the boy’s bound ankles.

“Thank you, Master.”

Kurt looked up startled, making the boy shrink back in fear.

“My name is Kurt, there’s no need to call me Master.” He assured the boy as he cut the rope around his ankles. “What’s your name?”

The boy looked confused for a moment, but promptly answered.

“Blaine, Sir.” Kurt shook his head, trying to smile in a reassuring way.

“There’s no need to call me Sir either, Blaine, just Kurt will be fine.”

“I’m Brittany!” came a cheery voice from their left. The girl seemed to have gotten over her fear rather quickly and was looking rather happy as Santana wrapped her up in one of the blankets Kurt kept on his back seat.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Brittany. I’m Kurt.” He replied, smiling at her, which seemed to make her even happier. He nodded to the front of the car as an indicator that Santana should go ahead and take Brittany to sit in the backseat, leaving him and Blaine in an illusion of privacy.

Kurt reached for the second blanket and unfolded it, careful not to startle the slave.

“Here, you must be freezing.” He said and held the blanket out for the almost naked boy to take. The boy… Blaine, shook his head violently making Kurt retract his arms in surprise.

“Please, Sir, I’m filthy, I don’t want to damage your property, this blanket is too nice, I don’t want to dirty it. Please.” He was begging now and Kurt swallowed hard; Blaine thought he would be punished for getting a little dirt on a blanket.

Kurt’s slightly prolonged silence made Blaine panic, he leapt out of the car and onto his knees, face contorting in pain as he landed in front of Kurt’s feet. “Please, I’m sorry, I’m so grateful you saved me, I’m sorry you had to waste money on something as useless as me. Please, I don’t know how to repay you, I…”

“No,” Kurt cut him off and the other boy fell silent immediately.

Kurt crouched down making Blaine shrink further to the ground in an effort to lower himself beneath Kurt’s level, just as every slave was taught to do when in the presence of their master.

“Blaine, please try to look at me,” Kurt said. Blaine’s eyes shot up immediately. “Thank you”, Kurt said calmly. “I want you to listen to me, please.” Blaine nodded, his eyes wide with fear.

“You don’t have to repay me, I bought you because I had to…I wanted to help you and I will, if you’ll let me. I know you’re scared, and you don’t know me so you don’t have any reason to trust me, but I still want to tell you that I won’t hurt you. I’d like you to sit back down in the trunk for now and take the blanket, because it’s cold out here, but I won’t be mad if you really don’t want it.”

Blaine looked bewildered as Kurt held out the blanket once more, but then gingerly reached out for it with one hand. Kurt could see his hand shaking and wasn’t sure whether it was from the cold or from fear.

Kurt frowned as the other boy tried to lift his arms far enough to wrap the blanket around himself and failed, hissing in pain. He walked around him to take a look at his back. He gasped at the angry red welts that were scattered all over his back. How had he not seen them before?

He quickly wrapped the blanket around Blaine’s shoulders. This would just be another note on the long list of things that had to be treated. He closed his eyes in dread as he realized something.

“Santana?” Kurt called to the front of the car, startling the slave boy.

“Yeah?”

“Do you mind if I make a phone call before we leave?”

“It’s fine, go ahead!” Santana called back.

“Would you get up and sit with me?” He asked Blaine gently. Blaine was on his feet before Kurt had even finished the question. Kurt guided him to sit on the edge of the trunk’s platform with his feet dangling down before sitting down next to him, leaving about a foot between them, so as not to crowd Blaine.

“I have to call my dad”, Kurt explained, unlocking his cell phone screen. The other boy nodded, his gaze lowered again, this time to the blanket. Blaine was running his fingers over a small section at the edge of the blanket in wonder, as if he couldn’t believe he was allowed to touch something so soft.

Kurt took a deep breath before hitting the dial button and holding the phone to his ear.

“Hello?”, a slightly gruff voice answered from the other end. The volume setting on his phone wasn’t set very high, but Kurt was sure that Blaine would be able to hear almost everything.

“Dad,… hi!” Kurt’s voice almost broke, he was so relieved to hear his father’s voice.

“What’s wrong, buddy?” Burt asked sounding instantly concerned. “Are you hurt?”

“No, no don’t worry, I’m okay. I just…”

“Spit it out Kurt, you’re scaring me, tell me what’s wrong.”

“I bought a slave. I had to! They were gonna kill him!” Kurt blurted out.

A sigh from the other end and a light rustling noise told Kurt that his father had taken his cap off to massage his scalp. “I just knew this would happen, I knew the moment you told me you were going to the market with that girl Santana.”

“What? How?” Kurt was frowning in confusion, still waiting for an outburst that wouldn’t come.

Burt sighed again “You’re just like your mother, that’s how, buddy. Is he or she hurt?”

Kurt looked over to Blaine and tried to list all his injuries in his head. He couldn’t remember all of them and probably didn’t even know about many more.

“He’s really hurt”, he whispered.

 “Bring him home, kiddo, I’ll call the doctor and ask him if he can come by and look at him later, alright?”

Kurt sobbed in relief “Thank you, dad.”

“Now you listen to me, Kurt, you sound really upset, I don’t want you driving like this. Santana has a license, right?” Kurt made an affirming sound. “Okay good, you let her drive you and that kid here and I’ll take her home from here, alright?”

“Yeah,” Kurt nodded, wiping at his cheeks, “I will, we’ll be home in 10 minutes or so.”

“Good, I’ll see you then. Take care.”

“I love you, dad.”

“You too, buddy!”

Kurt took a deep breath as he hung up, he turned towards Blaine again. The other boy had stopped running his fingers over the blanket and was looking quietly at his feet.

“Come on,” he sighed, standing up. “Let’s go get in the car.” Blaine nodded and pulled his knees up to his chest, leaning back against the back of the trunk.

“Oh, erm… no, Blaine, I want you to sit in the car, okay?” Kurt explained.

“I’m sorry.” Blaine didn’t hesitate to get out of the trunk for a second, but he looked a little confused at Kurt’s request.

He started swaying precariously after taking a step towards the car door. Kurt reached out to steady him by his upper arm, which made Blaine freeze for a second, but with Kurt’s support he made it to the backseat where Kurt sat him down next to Brittany.

Brittany immediately reached out and helped him put on his seatbelt. Kurt couldn’t help but notice that Blaine didn’t flinch when Brittany touched him, he was grateful for that.

“Santana?” He asked the girl who was still standing next to Brittany’s open car door. “Do you mind driving us home? My dad will take you and Brittany to your house.”

“Sure,” Santana said, giving Brittany’s cheek one last affectionate stroke before she closed the back door and opened the one at the driver’s seat. Kurt handed her the keys and sank into the passenger’s seat with a sigh. He was so glad his dad was going to help him.

He looked back at Blaine through the side mirror as they drove.  Brittany seemed to have taken a shine to him and was whispering softly to him. Kurt couldn’t make out much of what she said and he didn’t really want to eavesdrop on them, but whatever she was saying seemed to relax Blaine a little.

When Santana parked the car in front of the Hudson- Hummel residence, the front door swung open to reveal a worried looking Burt Hummel, who rushed out to pull his son into a hug. Santana told Brittany to stay in her seat as she got out of the car and joined father and son on the front lawn.

Kurt let go of his father reluctantly just to find his arms full of Santana. “Thank you, Kurt, take good care of him!”

“Don’t worry, it’ll just give you premature wrinkles”, he answered, earning himself a giggle. Santana released him and got into the vacated passenger’s seat.

Kurt opened the door next to Blaine’s seat. The other boy had been watching them, no doubt, but his gaze was now lowered respectfully once more. Kurt carefully guided him out of the car by his upper arm once more.

“Blaine”, Kurt addressed him softly “This is my dad.” Blaine looked up for a brief moment at Burt before looking down again. Kurt was pretty sure that his hand on Blaine’s arm was the only thing keeping Blaine from dropping to his knees in front of Burt. “It’s an honor to meet you, Sir!” He said instead.

“It’s good to meet you too, kid, I’m glad you’re here.” Burt said in a warm tone. He smiled at his dad gratefully.

“Why don’t you help him get cleaned up a little while I drive Santana and her new friend home?” Burt suggested. Kurt nodded and watched his dad climb into the driver’s seat. He quickly guided Blaine into the house, suddenly painfully aware that the boy wasn’t wearing any shoes; Blaine had to be freezing. Kurt closed the front door behind them, glad to escape from the cruel world outside.

As soon as he released his careful grip on Blaine’s arm the slave boy dropped to his hands and knees , the blanket falling off his back.

“What … what are you doing?” Kurt asked, he could see the muscles in Blaine’s bony back stiffen at the question. He didn’t need to see the dread in Blaine’s face to know that the other boy thought he had done something wrong.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to walk inside.” Blaine said, his voice shaky.

“Oh, yes, absolutely”, Kurt said. He hadn’t even considered that some slave owners might insist on something so ridiculous. He squatted down next to Blaine. “Of course you can walk, you don’t ever have to crawl or kneel here, okay?” He offered his hands to help Blaine to his feet again, but Blaine just looked at them uncomprehendingly before struggling to his feet again.

“Come to the bathroom with me, I’ll draw a bath.” Kurt said leading the boy by his side to the bathroom. He wasn’t touching him, but he let his hands hover over Blaine’s arms in case he had to catch him. Blaine stumbled after only two steps. Kurt caught him easily, not only since he had almost expected it, but also because Blaine was so light. He almost had to drag the other boy into the bathroom since all of his strength seemed to have left him. At the close proximity Kurt suddenly became aware of the other boy’s overpowering smell, he mustn’t have been in contact with water for days, if not weeks.

Inside the bathroom he sat Blaine down on a chair. He picked a very mild bubble bath that he hoped wouldn’t aggravate the whipping marks and Blaine’s other injuries and proceeded to fill the bath with warm water.

The bath didn’t foam as much as most bubble baths did, but he hoped the bubbles would give Blaine some privacy since Kurt didn’t plan to leave him alone in the bathroom. The other boy looked as though he might faint at any second and Kurt really didn’t want to return to a corpse floating in his tub.

Once he was satisfied with the temperature and volume he walked over to Blaine, helping him to his feet. “Come on, your bath is ready.”

Blaine looked bewildered. “This is for me?” He asked as Kurt helped him walk towards the tub.

Kurt nodded. They stopped in front of the tub. “You might want to take that off,” Kurt suggested, pointing at the dirty boxers. Blaine pulled them down and let them drop to the floor without a moment’s hesitation. Kurt made a mental note to watch his tone in the future, since everything he had suggested to the other boy so far had been taken as a direct order.

He helped Blaine step into the tub, keeping him from slipping on the wet surface and carefully set him down, watching him closely to see if the soapy water was hurting him. All he saw was amazement as the water covered the boy to his neck.

“Is the temperature alright? It’s not too hot, is it? Do you want out?”, Kurt asked in a panic, ready to pull Blaine out if the water was hurting him, but the slave boy shook his head violently.

“No, it’s just”, he let out a quiet sob “I’m sorry, I just… it’s warm.” Blaine said as if there had been some mistake. He hid his face in his wet hands.

“Of course it is, it’s a bath”, Kurt said frowning.

“I haven’t been allowed warm water since I was 12”, Blaine whispered looking up at Kurt with tearful eyes. “Thank you!”

Kurt closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again and putting a smile on his face “Well you can have as much of it as you want now.” He promised, his tone coming out far too cheery, but Blaine’s eyes lit up like a little kids on Christmas morning. Kurt reached into a cupboard for a new bath sponge. He squeezed shower gel on it and set down on the edge of the tub, handing it to Blaine. The boy practically leeched on to it and enthusiastically started scrubbing at his chest as though he wanted to make the most of the sponge as long as he had access to it.

“We’re in no hurry”, Kurt assured him “you have all the time you want.” His word’s only slowed the other boy down marginally as he scrubbed at his arms, neck and face.

Kurt wandered if maybe he should give him more privacy, it wasn’t as though he got a kick out of watching the other boy though, he was just worried. He let his eyes wander around the room as Blaine busied himself cleaning his legs and other parts Kurt didn’t want to think about at this moment.

When Blaine’s rapid movement’s ceased, he allowed himself to look back into the tub. The water had turned a murky brownish grey color and Blaine was currently struggling to reach his back. Kurt assumed the pain from the welts on his back was preventing him from bending his arms enough.

“How about we pour some new water and I’ll help you with your back?” Kurt offered, startling Blaine. The slave looked down at the water and nodded. Kurt reached to the other end of the tub and turned the wheel that opened the drain before turning on the water faucet again. New warm water poured into the tub, mixing with the dirty water. After two minutes or so the water looked mostly clear again. Blaine handed him the sponge that he had wrung out carefully so Kurt wouldn’t have to touch his dirty sponge.

“Lean forward a little, please?”

Blaine obeyed immediately, leaning forward onto his up-pulled knees, exposing his entire back.

Kurt laid a steadying hand on Blaine’s shoulder and started by dragging the sponge over the back of  his neck gently and slowly worked his way down his back and shoulders. Most of the blood and grime had been flushed away by Blaine’s prolonged stay in the tub, but Kurt rinsed the remaining dirt away gently. He could feel Blaine gradually relax under his ministrations.

When he was done he rinsed out the sponge once more and laid it down on the edge of the tub.

“Now all that’s left is your hair, why don’t you lean back and get it wet so I can work some shampoo in?”, Kurt suggested. Blaine delayed the execution of this request longer than he ever had with anything Kurt had asked so far, but finally lowered his head into the water.

Kurt didn’t miss the way he held on to the edges of the tub with both hands so hard his knuckles turned white. He poured a generous amount of shampoo on his hand when Blaine sat back up.

“Tilt your head back for me, please. I don’t want to get any shampoo in your eyes.” Blaine did as he was told, looking wary.

With a deep breath, Kurt started running his fingers over the other boy’s scalp, trying not to pull at the knots in his hair. After a little while shampoo foam turned the same brownish grey as the bathwater had earlier. Kurt sighed.

“When was the last time you had a bath or shower?” He asked Blaine, not entirely sure whether or not he really wanted to hear the answer.

“I’m not sure, what day is it?” Blaine asked carefully.

“The 29th.” Kurt told him.

Blaine swallowed hard “Almost three weeks ago, Si.. Kurt.” He caught himself and flinched at his slip up. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s no problem at all.” Kurt assured him.

“Now, I need you to lean back so your hair is in the water. I’ll rinse it out for you.”

Blaine did as he was told, but just as Kurt reached for his hair in the water, he panicked.

“Please NO!” He yelped, losing his grip on the edge of the tub, his body slipping from the bottom of the tub, causing him to fall backwards.

It was all Kurt could do to place his hand between the back of Blaine’s head and the tub’s wall to keep Blaine from hitting it. He couldn’t prevent the boy’s face from slipping under the surface though. Blaine’s limbs flailed in his panic, splashing water everywhere. Kurt grabbed a hold on him under his arms and pulled him out over the water’s surface. He kept his hold to prevent Blaine from slipping under again, while the other boy was still panicking.

“Shh, you’re okay, I’ve got you.” He dabbed Blaine’s face with towel using one hand and kept him in a sitting position with his other arm, all the while mumbling what he hoped to be comforting reassurances. The soapy water had to sting in his eyes, because after a few deep breaths Blaine took a hold of the towel and rubbed at his eyes and face furiously.

“I’m sorry.” He cried.

“It’s okay, you were just scared, I understand.” Kurt rubbed Blaine’s upper arm in an attempt to sooth him.

“Did you get the shampoo out of your eyes?” He asked to distract Blaine from his obvious fear.

Blaine nodded, handing the towel back to Kurt.

Kurt reached for the shower head and held it out for Blaine to inspect. “How about we try and rinse your hair with this? All you have to do is tilt your head back, I promise I won’t hurt you, okay?”

The boy in the tub eyed the showerhead carefully and gave his nod of consent. “Good.” Kurt said, smiling in a way he hoped was reassuring.

Blaine tilted his head back and allowed Kurt to run the warm water over his head.

“Do you mind if we try this again? I’d like to put some conditioner in your hair, that way it’ll be easier to comb it later, but we don’t have to do that if you’re still too shaken.” Kurt hoped he had phrased this in a way that actually let Blaine know he could pick between the two options. Blaine nodded, although it was tentative at best.

This time it was easier to drag his fingers through Blaine’s curly hair and Kurt made a bigger effort to massage the other boy’s skull in a pleasant way. He seemed to be succeeding, if the small sigh that escaped Blaine’s lips was any indicator. When he was done, he reached for the showerhead once more.

“Tilt your head back for me again, please?” Kurt asked and Blaine looked over his shoulder to make sure Kurt was actually planning to use the showerhead.

Kurt kept a hand on his forehead to prevent the soapy water to wash into Blaine’s eyes and then moved on to gently rinsing the rest of the conditioner out of Blaine’s hair.

“There you go, all cleaned up. You did very well, thank you!” He praised after he had finished. “Now let’s get you out of this tub. The water has to be getting cold by now.”

Blaine let Kurt help him step out of the shower and allowed himself to be wrapped up in a fluffy white bathrobe before Kurt sat him back onto the chair he had occupied earlier.

“Wait here for a moment. I’ll go and find some clothes for you.” Kurt told him.

“Clothes?”, Blaine whispered to himself.

His eyes widened almost comically when Kurt came back with warm looking flannel pajamas for him a minute later.

Kurt put the clothes down on the sink and looked Blaine over. The boy’s hair still needed combing and his beard, which was at least a few days old really needed proper trimming, but he wasn’t sure if he should propose either. Combing the messy tangled curls would probably hurt and his cheeks already looked as if his beard had been shaved imprecisely with a blunt razor, which it probably had been. He really didn’t want to cause the slave any more pain than he was probably in already.  Blaine had looked up slightly when he had put the clothes down, his eyes were fixed on them and he looked so hopeful.

“My dad just got back”, Kurt told him. “He called Doctor Holland, she’ll be here to examine you soon.” Blaine’s eyes shot up, Kurt could tell he was confused. “She’s really nice, I promise. “ Blaine was looking at the floor again. “Thank you, Ma… Si… Kurt”, he flinched, looking longingly at the clothes.

“How about you put …” Kurt was about to suggest putting on the pajamas, when his eyes caught on Blaine’s legs that had been left exposed by the robe from the knees down. 

“Can I have a look at your knees?” He asked. Blaine immediately raised the bathrobe’s hem to the middle of his thighs. Kurt knelt down on the tiles in front of him to have a closer look.

The area above both of Blaine’s knees was swollen to a frightening size. Kurt frowned, looking up at Blaine. “How long have they been like this?” Kurt asked.

Blaine shook his head “I don’t know. A while, I don’t know what’s wrong with them, I’m scared, I’m sorry!” Kurt could see tears threatening to spill down the other boy’s cheeks.

“Do they hurt?” He asked, because they sure looked painful. Blaine nodded.

“Okay, don’t worry. I’m sure it’s nothing. We’ll ask the doctor to have a look at them, alright?” There was another nod from the slave boy.

“Now, how about you put on your pajamas, we’ll get you some clothes of your own soon, but for now I hope you’re okay with borrowing mine.” Blaine’s eyes widened. 

“Yours?” He asked disbelievingly.

“Yes, I promised they’ve been freshly washed and pressed”, Kurt said trying to sound nonchalant.

Blaine looked puzzled but reached for the warm, soft pajama shirt anyway. Kurt turned his back and busied himself looking for something in the cupboard. When Kurt turned back around, toothbrush in hand, Blaine had managed to put on his pajamas and fold the robe neatly. He looked so small in the blue plaid clothes that Kurt wanted to wrap him up in a blanket and give him cookies and milk.

“Here”, he held the new toothbrush out for Blaine to take. Blaine just stared at it. “You know how to use this right?” Kurt asked uncertainly.

“This toothbrush… it’s for me?” Blaine asked cautiously.

“Erm… yeah, it’s yours” Kurt said hesitantly “here, let’s put your name on it?” He opened the mirrored cupboard above the sink and pulled out a sharpie that the Hummel-Hudson’s used for exactly this purpose. He wrote “BLAINE” on the handle and held it out for Blaine to read.

“How’s that?” Kurt asked, smiling at Blaine’s blissful expression as he took the brush from Kurt.

“Thank you!” Blaine gasped, holding the brush as if it was made of glass.

Kurt decided not to ask why this was so precious to Blaine. He vaguely remembered one of his father’s slaves telling him that his traders had only given him a small paper cup of mouthwash a day, because running water was too expensive to acquire for slaves of a travelling market. He handed Blaine the toothpaste when the other boy was about to shove the brush in his mouth with only water on it and stepped away to give Blaine a little privacy.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. “Kurt?”

Kurt opened the door to let his father in. Blaine ceased brushing his teeth and seemed unsure of what to do. “Keep going, kid.” Burt told him, Blaine did.

“Doctor Holland’s here, she’s waiting in the kitchen.” Burt said. “You two join us when you’re done?”

Kurt looked back over his shoulder to see how Blaine was doing. “We’ll be out in a minute, dad.”

Burt nodded approvingly and closed the bathroom door behind him as he left.