“So you and…”

“Rachel.” Kurt says, and he can almost feel Blaine trying not to smile through the receiver.

“Ah.” Blaine’s voice is slight-static, but it still sounds gorgeously soft. Rachel’s tugging on his arm urgently-quiet, so Kurt looks down to see her staring down the hallway and back-stepping as quickly as she can, and so he follows her eyes and his heart jumps up to his throat.

Get out of here, they’ll see you and then everyone knows what happens next.

“I’ll see you soon, okay?” Kurt says quietly, a little breathless, as he begins back-stepping as well – they both make it about three feet before Rachel yelps, jumps back towards Kurt, flattens them both against the lockers with a too-loud bang and Kurt makes the mistake of glancing behind himself and seeing another great hulking figure lingering there, eyes glinting against the growing darkness.

The figure lets out a low whistle, but it’s far too loud to go unnoticed; the sounds carries down the hallway, and the small group of people that Kurt had wanted to so desperately avoid perk up.

Kurt grabs Rachel’s hand, tries to tug her away from the lockers, to get away from whatever’s about to happen and he almost thinks he can before he feels the solid press of a cold, metal circle on the side of his head.

“Oh my god, are you-” Rachel starts, frightened-high and-

“-shut up, you little bitch.” The jock says, low and leering, before glancing down the corridor and gesturing for the rest of the group to move closer.

Kurt huffs out a small breath – the gun isn’t even that cold, but it’s making Kurt’s spine shudder like he’s just been frozen to death and re-awoken – and gathers up what little courage he can find before he lets his trembling voice escape.

“You wouldn’t actually use that-”

The sound of the gunshot slaps through Kurt’s eardrums, smacks through his entire body as he drops his phone and he flinches away before realizing that he hasn’t been hit, glances over to Rachel and freezes because she’s not moving except for shallow breaths that sound far too familiar and wide, shock-watery eyes and a slow-growing patch of darkness seeping through her cardigan.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

The jock pulls away the gun as Rachel manages to shudder out a breath, obviously trying not to move too much as she pushes all of her weight onto the lockers and squeezes her eyes shut. Seeing the phone still clearly illuminating itself on the floor, he makes eye contact with Kurt and aims the gun at him as one of the others picks it up.

“Try me.”

The phone call hangs up, suddenly, and the corridor is launched into nothing but dim, dark air and hurried breaths.

*

The dial tone sounds, and Blaine blinks into the dim air; a brain-splittingly desperate scream muffles through the brick before him, and he doesn’t have a body.

The doors hold for less than a second once Blaine is pushing on them, chains snapping from the pressure alone, glass splintering into little cracks as the doors slam into their respective walls. A moment passes, and Blazer appears in the arch of the doorway, skin glowing from the wildfire spreading through his veins and skin and bones, glowing from the very core of his being around the black of his costume.

Let’s go.

*

“Rachel? Rachel, everything’s going to be fine, I promise.” Kurt whispers, somewhat-comfortingly, eyes still locked with the gun-holder. “Just stay awake, okay?”

Rachel gives the slightest of nods, clutching at her forearm as tears coat her cheeks, breathing in fast, shallow huffs, almost-hyperventilating.

A screech of shoes sliding along the floor echoes through the hallway, and Kurt glances over to see one of the guys staring shell-shocked at Rachel, hand over his mouth and slightly shaking.

“Pete – y-you actually shot-”

“-no names, remember?” Pete hisses, glaring at the other guy. “She’ll be fine.”

“Fine? She’s been shot!” Kurt says, a little louder than before, slight-anger burning under his veins. “I know you might not have thought this out as much as you should have, but we need to get her to a hospital-”

“-do you wanna need a hospital too, huh?”

That didn’t really make any sense.

Kurt shuts his mouth.

“Pete, she looks really-”

“-I said, shut up!” Pete half-yells, finally pointing the gun away from Kurt and waving it in the general direction of the others. “I’m the one in charge here, alright? I say what happens.”

You say what happens- you know what, I’m not even gonna go there.

“We don’t want any trouble, okay? We just-”

“-good.” Pete smiles. “Because we’re not gonna have any.”

Kurt pauses, swallows nervously. “What do you mean?”

The gun waves back towards him, and Kurt’s brain just stops. Rachel’s almost fully on the floor next to him, the top of her cardigan coated in wetness.

Pete chuckles. “Get in the closet.”

Kurt freezes.

No, no no no.

“No.” He whispers, as hard as he can, glaring at Pete, and then his arm is being clutched at and dragged forward and his stomach is lurching the same way and no fuck not again please no and-

“Get off him!”

*

“Fine? She’s been shot!”

Blaine spins around at the noise, however quiet it is, and tries to quiet his breathing so he can follow it – if this situation is as bad as it seems to be; if Rachel’s really been shot, then he needs to pick up the pace.

“We don’t want any trouble, okay? We just-”

“-good.” A moment passes, and Blaine tries to run as quietly as he can towards the voices. “Because we’re not gonna have any.”

I swear to god, if you touch him-

He rounds the corner, sees some guy pulling a struggling Kurt towards the janitors closet and gives up on holding himself back.

“Get off him!”

The gun’s in his hands within a second, thin air the next but it’s nowhere near enough so he grabs the back of the gun-holder’s head, smashes it into a locker with unnecessary force and the body crumples to the floor and the other guys are sprinting away as fast as they can, not looking back, and Blazer is a second away from crushing their heads in too before he hears a sharp, air-piercing scream that sobers away almost all the rage. He turns, skits back over and drops to his knees next to a ghostly-white Rachel.

Kurt’s hands are fretting around the air above her, obviously unsure of what to do, but then he glances to the side and sees the fully black-cloaked, glowing figure and freezes. Blaine tries not to look at his face too much.

“W-who are you?” Kurt sounds firm, assuring, but Blaine knows that voice and he knows that Kurt is actually terrified. He lets himself look.

“I’m – I’m Blazer.”

A moment passes, and Kurt looks more confused than Blaine has ever seen him in the last four years.

“You’re – okay, that’s just sick, you asshole.” Kurt spits, suddenly, and Blaine can’t do much more but gape. “It’s one thing to make a crappy video and let it run viral, but even some superhero fanatic should know that getting somebody shot is going way too far.”

And the anger’s back, if only a little.

“I – you – okay, it’s really insulting that you actually think I’d want this to happen-”

“-why else would you magically be at the scene of the crime, hmm?” Kurt prompts, trying to lift Rachel’s good shoulder so she can sit up. “It’s insulting to think that I’m stupid enough to believe that you’re a superhero, that this was all a coincidence-”

“-that’s because it is!” Blazer half-growls.. “How the fuck do you think I’m glowing?”

“Special lighting, materials, glow-in-the-dark paint-”

“Oh, for god’s sake-” Blazer hisses, bends down and carefully picks up Rachel in one fell swoop, lets her curl into his chest. Glares at Kurt. “Explain away that.”

Kurt stumbles over his words for a second as he picks himself up, glaring back just as hard. “So what, you lift.” He says, somewhat-mockingly. “That doesn’t mean you’re anything special.”

Blaine breathes in slow, sighs at his toes. “We can stand here arguing all night, or we can get Rachel to a hospital.” He says, voice a little stiffer than intended. “Your choice.”

Kurt only manages to glare for a second longer before he lets himself look at Rachel.

“Fine.”

*

“And you’re sure she’ll be fine?”

A moment passes, and Blaine really wishes he could punch a wall without prompting any more questions.

“Yes, yes, okay. Goodnight, Mister Berry.”

Kurt hangs up his phone, and Blaine doesn’t think he’s ever been in such an awkward silence.

“So. Um.” Kurt clears his throat. “On the off chance that you’re actually a superhero, then I’d like to say thank you.”

Blaine opens his mouth-

“And goodnight.”

Kurt starts to walk off into the darkness, and Blaine’s spine itches like a flea-ridden hound.

“Whoa, whoa!” He says, skitting across the gravel until he’s in front of Kurt, holds up his hands in mock-surrender before dropping them to his sides. “You really think I’m letting you walk home alone?”

“I can take care of myself, you know.” Kurt says, all-defiant. “I’m eighteen.”

“You’re an unarmed gay man in the middle of Homophobia, Ohio.” Blaine says, before he can stop himself, and he does revel a little in the look on Kurt’s face as he splutters.

“I – I’m fine.” He glares. “I’ll be fine. Goodnight, Blazer.”

“What do you have against me?”

And all the playful-lightness is gone from the air within the moment. Kurt’s shoulders tense, and he lets out a long, low breath before answering.

“I’ve got nothing against you.” He says quietly, hands-in-pockets, before turning to walk away. Blaine catches up in a heartbeat.

“Then why do you-”

“-I – I’m not a very…trusting person.” Kurt sighs. “And I have no reason to trust you, but I have a heap of reasons not to.”

Blaine stops himself, lets his mind process for a bit before he replies.

“Can I tell you something?”

Kurt hesitates, nods.

“I guess I’m kind of like you – not trusting people and all. My family didn’t really help with that.” He says, rolling his steps to distract himself somewhat. “And I was alone for so, so long, and I had absolutely no-one – but then…” He trails off.

“Hmm?” Kurt prompts, trying to sound uninterested, and Blaine smiles to himself.

“Let’s just say I took a…leap of faith, a chance; I took a shitload of chances, to be honest.”

“And how’d that work out, Mister Fahrenheit?”

Blaine actually laughs out loud at that, picking up his step a little.

“It was all a bit of a shock, to be honest – but then the aftereffects of what happened caught up with me, and now – I have friends, superpowers, and I get to walk home a lovely person such as yourself.”

Kurt snorts. “You’re humouring me.”

“I’m being honest, sweetheart.”

Kurt opens his mouth in a mock-gape, somewhat-scandalized, and gasps dramatically. “I felt that burn to my core, good sir.”

“I guess that’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit, huh?”