The door to Blaine’s room was open when Kurt barged in.

The smell of vomit hit him, making his stomach turn.

There was no light in the room other than what fell in from the corridor and Kurt squinted in an attempt to make out Blaine. Failing to see the other boy he turned on the light.

Blaine wasn’t in his bed, but he obviously had been when he got sick for there was a large pile of vomit on the wooden floor in front of the bed at head level.

Kurt’s heart sank. He looked around frantically for Blaine. He opened the closet doors and was about to drop to the floor to check under the bed when Finn caught up with him.

“I got him to the bathroom when I heard him puke.” He said.

“What the hell did you give him, Finn?” Kurt snapped. From the two ladles full of soup Blaine had had there should have never been such a large amount of sick.

Finn was looking at the floor and whispered “The leftover wraps from dinner.”

“You idiot!” Kurt yelled, sprinting for the bathroom.

Blaine was kneeling in front of the toilet bowl, holding his stomach miserably. He looked up when Kurt joined him in the bathroom. His face was wet with tears and Kurt could see him shaking.

“I’m so sorry, Master!” Blaine sobbed.

“Oh Blaine…” Kurt whispered softly, dropping down onto the tiled floor next to the other boy, causing Blaine to flinch. He didn’t know what to do. “Are you done for now or do you think you’ll be sick again?” He asked.

“I don’t know”, Blaine snivelled “I’m sorry!”

“No, no don’t be. Come on, lean against me, we can’t have that much pressure on your knees!” Ignoring the way Blaine’s body was shaking at his every touch, he pulled the boy sideways against his chest, effectively pulling him off his knees. The left side of Blaine’s face was resting on his right shoulder. Kurt leaned back a little so he himself could lean against the cold tiles of the bathroom wall.

“Please punish me as you see fit.” Blaine whispered. “I apologize for disobeying and for soiling your property.” Kurt could feel tears soaking through the pajamas fabric at his shoulder.

Kurt closed his eyes, stroking the other boys arm slightly in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. “It’s not your fault.” He assured him. “I’m not gonna punish you, not for this. Not ever.”

“You said not to eat any more.” Blaine whispered still tense against his chest. “Master Finn said it was okay, I’m sorry. I should have listened to my owner, not to anyone else. I’m sorry. It was so good, I shouldn’t have… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry.” Kurt looked over his shoulder to see Finn awkwardly standing in the bathroom door. “I didn’t know it was gonna make you sick, I just … you’re so skinny… I didn’t know.”

“I told you he couldn’t tolerate this type of food, so did your mom!” Kurt pointed out, speaking much softer than he had before, so he wouldn’t scare Blaine any more than he already did.

“I thought you were just being dramatic.” Finn admitted, his shoulders hunched.

Kurt was about to reply when Blaine started struggling against his hold, he released him. Blaine barely managed to bend over the toilet before being sick again, hardly expelling anything from his stomach.

Cringing in sympathy Kurt watched him dry heave over the bowl. When Blaine was done he practically collapsed back towards Kurt, who reached out just in time to pull Blaine back against him.

“I’m sorry”, Blaine and Finn said at the exact same time. Kurt watched Blaine’s eyes close in exhaustion. Kurt glared up at Finn who had slowly inched closer and was now hovering over the two boys on the floor.

“How can I make it better?” He asked.

“You can’t.” Kurt said pointedly.

“Kurt, please, let me help! There’s gotta be something I can do.” The desperate tone in Finn’s voice made Kurt look at him, really look at him, for the first time this evening.  He looked crushed.

Kurt sighed, looking down at the boy, who was still tense against his chest as if he expected Kurt to hit him or push him away at any moment. “Get a washcloth and run warm water over it, then wring it out and give it to me.”

Looking back down at the boy in his arms, Kurt couldn’t help but notice the dark shadows under his eyes. He looked so tired. Blaine’s eyes shot open when Finn’s form blocked out the bathroom light that had been falling on him. He went rigid in Kurt’s grasp.

“Thank you, Finn.” Kurt said calmly, taking the wash cloth from his brother. It was warm and soft in his left hand. “Why don’t you clean up the mess in Blaine’s room?” Finn looked relieved at being given another task to do and practically ran out of the room.

Blaine relaxed, but only marginally. He eyed the wash cloth with confusion and when he dared look up at his owner, Kurt could tell that he was still terrified.                         

“How about we clean you up a little?” Kurt suggested nodding towards the wash cloth in his hand.

Slowly he brought it closer to Blaine’s face until it was softly resting against his right cheek, before he started running it over his face carefully, cleaning away the layer of sweat, tears and other evidence of his being sick.

He could feel Blaine relax under his ministrations, closing his eyes again with a soft sigh.

“I’m so sorry this happened.” Kurt whispered softly “I was hoping that nothing would hurt you any more now that you’re here with us.” He finished cleaning up Blaine’s face, discarding the wash cloth on the floor he started running his dry hand through Blaine’s still messy curls.

“I should have explained better. Finn didn’t know you were gonna be sick and I bet you were hungry, so of course you ate what he gave you. It wasn’t your fault. You don’t have to be afraid.”

Blaine took a deep shuddering breath, tension draining from his muscles. Kurt knew he had to be saying the right things, so he kept talking.

“Your stomach doesn’t know how to deal with normal amounts of food yet, so we can’t give you too much right now. We’ll start again with soup tomorrow and some other things that should be easy for you to deal with, and then we’ll slowly add new things and make your portions bigger. I promise I won’t make you go hungry. There will always be food for you.”

Blaine’s eyes were closed but a teardrop still escaped him, travelling down his cheek, Kurt tightened his grip on the boy ever so slightly.

“It’s gonna be okay, you’ll be strong and healthy in no time.” Kurt promised. He stopped running his fingers through the other boys hair for a moment. “Are you feeling any better? Does your stomach hurt?” Blaine nodded, looking up at Kurt. “It’s better now, I don’t think I’ll be sick again now.”

“I brought you some water.” Finn returned to the bathroom, carrying two cups. He handed one to Kurt, to give to Blaine and took the other one to the sink.

Kurt held the cup close to Blaine’s mouth. “Small sips, okay? I don’t want you to get sick again.” Blaine nodded, taking a sip from the cup, before leaning back against Kurt. Finn handed him another cup “It’s mouthwash,” he explained.

Kurt smiled when Blaine reached for the cup, eagerly swirling the liquid in his mouth before spitting it back into the cup, which Kurt then handed back to Finn.

The bathroom was silent while Kurt had Blaine take another few sips of water over a couple of minutes. When it had become clear that nothing bad was going to happen to him, Blaine had gone slack against Kurt’s shoulder. Kurt was about to ask Blaine if he thought he could walk back to his room when Finn whispered “Dude, I think he fell asleep.”

He was right.

“I’ll get him back to bed,” Kurt said “can you bring the water cup and open the doors?”

“Are you sure you can carry him by yourself?” Finn asked uncertainly.

“Of course I can, he hardly weighs a thing.” Kurt assured his brother, placing his arms in position under Blaine’s knees and back, before carefully standing up and lifting the other boy off the floor with him, safely cradled against his chest.

He was going to bring Blaine back to the guest room, but the room now smelled of disinfectant and other cleaning supplies. The smell was thick enough to make Kurt’s nose wrinkle in disdain, so he wouldn’t risk having it make Blaine sick again.

Instead Kurt backed out of the room and headed up the stairs, a confused Finn trailing behind him.

He carefully placed Blaine in his own bed, the covers were still thrown back from his abrupt departure earlier and for the second time that night, he tucked Blaine in.

“Put the cup on the bedside table, I’ll go tell dad what’s going on.” Kurt knew better than to let his father find a slave in his bed the next morning, no matter how innocent a reason he had for it.

Before he left the room he placed his trash can next to the bed. 

“Watch him for a minute.” He instructed Finn in a whisper before heading to their parent’s room.

When he returned two minutes later with his dads sleepy approval he found Finn in the same position he left him, watching over Blaine’s sleeping form on the bed.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Finn asked.

“I hope so.” Kurt said.

Kurt sent Finn back to bed and took a seat in his arm chair on the other side of the bed. 

He was tired, but he couldn’t crawl into bed with Blaine, it would terrify him in the morning and he couldn’t do that to the poor boy.

He couldn’t sleep on the couch in the living room either for fear that Blaine might be sick again, might need him, choke on his own vomit, or wake up not knowing where he was and fearing punishment.

No, Kurt would sit vigil on his bedside, no matter how dramatic it may be.

He had to make sure he was alright.