"I never thought I'd say this but I actually missed being in school." Kurt said that Wednesday morning when Blaine met him by his locker.

"It missed you too, seriously. School was boring without you." Blaine pouted.

"Hm, well it was only two days."

"A torturous two days," Blaine added. "I said that I'd meet Rachel so I'll see you at lunch?"

"Yup." Kurt replied before Blaine kissed him quickly and then set on his way to find Rachel.

Kurt grabbed his books, slammed the metal door shut and was about to make his way to English when he felt his whole body being shoved harshly into the lockers behind him. He felt a cadaverous ache in his back as he slowly slid down the cool metal doors, his eyes clenching shut in pain. By the time he reopened his eyes, whoever had pushed him had already gone. Kurt pulled himself off the floor and blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall before dragging himself to class.

"Hey." Quinn greeted as Kurt slumped into his respective seat.

"Hey." Kurt mumbled, opening his book and busying himself by pretending to read while tears continued to sting his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Quinn asked.

"Fine." Kurt lied, not making eye contact with Quinn and hoping she would just stop talking.

"O-Kay." Quinn finished and decided that it would be best to leave the blue eyed boy alone. They sat in an uncomfortable silence for the duration of the lesson before the bell finally sounded and Kurt grabbed his book and left the classroom as quickly as he could. Much to Kurt's luck, Blaine was running late and wasn't waiting outside his classroom as per usual. Instead of waiting for Blaine like he usually would, he ran off to the bathroom where, once inside, he broke down in tears.

Blaine managed to make it to Kurt's classroom while the students were still filing out, but Kurt wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Quinn!" Blaine called when he saw the blonde teen leaving the classroom. "Hey, have you seen Kurt?" He asked when she turned around to face him.

"I thought he'd be waiting out here for you. He was acting really weird in class and when the bell went off he just ran out of the room, I thought he would have come to you." She explained.

"I haven't seen him since this morning."

"Well if I see him I'll tell him you're looking for him."

"Okay, thanks." Blaine said before going to see if he could find Kurt.

Unfortunately, Blaine didn't see Kurt again until Glee practise that day, which was quite surprising seeing as the younger teen had been seemingly avoiding everyone all day. Kurt quietly took a seat in the back row next to Blaine, who was completely occupied with the bruise he could see forming on Kurt's left cheek.

"Are you okay?" Blaine asked worriedly, taking in the way Kurt's eyes were slightly red and he seemed to be trying to make himself as small as possible in the plastic chair. Kurt just nodded in response, not making eye contact with anyone or anything in particular, just staring into space. Blaine really needed to talk to Kurt, he could tell something was wrong but he couldn't do it here. "Do you wanna come over and watch a movie after school?" Blaine asked, praying that his boyfriend would agree.

"Sure." Kurt answered, still not making eye contact. Blaine could see the teen was trying to pull himself away from everyone and it made a sick feeling settle in his stomach.

"What do you wanna watch?" Blaine asked tentatively.

"Anything's fine." Kurt replied, sitting on Blaine's sofa, pulling his knees up to his chin and wrapping his arms around himself. Blaine, not really in the mood to actually watch a movie, grabbed a random DVD and put it in the TV. They ended up watching The Lion King.

"Kurt, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He mumbled in response.

"No you're not," Blaine said, taking a deep breath. "You're pulling away from everyone, Kurt," Blaine could see Kurt wrapping his arms even tighter around himself, almost defensively. "Kurt, why do you have a bruise on your cheek?"

"What are you talking about?" Kurt asked, finally looking at Blaine.

"I'm talking about," Blaine started, brushing his thumb gently over the bruise on the younger teens face and eliciting a sharp hiss from Kurt. "That. Did someone hit you?" He asked as Kurt remained silent. "Kurt! Why didn't you tell me?" Blaine exclaimed.

"Because it doesn't matter, I'm fine." Kurt said, but Blaine could see the tears that were beginning to form in his eyes.

"No you're not Kurt. You're pushing me away, you're pushing everyone away. When you came into Glee club today I could tell that you'd been crying and you've been avoiding everybody since lunchtime," Kurt was really crying now and it absolutely broke Blaine's heart. He pulled the younger teen towards him and began to card his fingers through the soft brown hair on his head as he felt Kurt relax into his arms. "I'm sorry, that was a little unfair. Just please don't push me away Kurt."

"I'm sorry." Kurt cried, burying his head in Blaine's chest.

"It's okay. Please tell me what happened?" Kurt sat up slightly, grateful for the arm that Blaine kept around him as he wiped at his eyes in an attempt to stop the tears from flowing.

"After you left to meet Rachel this morning I was about to go to English but someone came and pushed me into the lockers, I didn't see who it was though," Kurt paused, wiping at the tears that were still trickling down his pale cheeks. "I went to English anyway and Quinn kept asking if I was okay but I basically ignored her for the whole lesson. When the bell went off I ran into the bathroom and started crying," Blaine instinctively pulled his boyfriend closer when he heard him say that. "I heard someone coming in so I hid in one of the stalls but whoever it was must have heard me or seen me go into the bathroom and they followed me into the stall and-" Kurt's voice broke off and all that came out was heartbreaking sobs that made Blaine pull him as close as physically possible until Kurt's head was resting on his chest. Blaine continued to pull his fingers gently through Kurt's hair, knowing that it always helped to calm the teen down, as he cuddled his boyfriend impossibly closer.

"Sh, it's okay. I've got you," Blaine whispered into Kurt's hair where he was peppering repetitive kisses.

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you Blaine." Kurt sobbed into the older teen's shirt.

"It's okay," Blaine promised. After a few minutes, Kurt's sobs began to subside and he pulled back a little bit so that he could look at Blaine. "Are you okay?" Blaine asked, bringing his hand up to gently caress Kurt's cheek.

"No," Kurt shook his head. "I'm not okay, Blaine. I'm scared to go into school tomorrow. I've never felt so unsafe before."

"Hey," Blaine said gently, taking Kurt's hand into his and using his free hand to wipe at the cold tears that were still running down his boyfriends face. "I promise I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you."

"You can't promise that Blaine. You can't be with me every second of the day."

"No, but you have other friends that care about you."

"Please don't tell them, Blaine." Kurt cried, shaking his head.

"Kurt I want you to feel safe, and I don't want you to get hurt again. The only way that's going to happen is if you always have people looking out for you."

"Okay," Kurt sighed. "Just please don't give them all of the details."

"I won't," Blaine promise, kissing Kurt gently before lying horizontally against the back of the sofa, facing the TV, and opening his arms for Kurt. "Come here." He said, and Kurt mimicked his position, sinking back into Blaine's arms as the older teen wrapped them gently around him.

"Thank you," Kurt sniffled, as the last of his tears dripped down his cheeks. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Hey, what happened to Kurt's cheek?" Rachel whispered while they were in Glee club the next day. Kurt was sitting only a few seats away with Quinn, and Rachel didn't want him to overhear her.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about that," Blaine whispered back, turning to face his best friend. "Somebody's been picking on Kurt and I promised him I wouldn't tell you all of the details but I obviously can't be his bodyguard all the time so could you keep an eye on him please? And ask the others to do the same without being very specific?"

"Yeah of course, is he okay though?" Rachel asked in concern.

"Yeah, I think so." Blaine replied truthfully.

"I thought he was acting a little weird yesterday in Glee."

"He was kind of shutting people out. I don't think he wanted anyone to know but luckily I know him well enough to know when something is wrong."

"You're a good boyfriend," Rachel teased, nudging him in the ribcage with her elbow. "You love him, don't you?" She asked as Blaine took a deep breath before nodding.

"Yes." He breathed out.

"Have you told him?"

"I can't," Blaine whispered, shaking his head. "We've been dating for like two weeks and if he's not there yet I don't wanna scare him away or make him feel obligated to say it back."

"I doubt you'd scare him away, and how do you know that he isn't there yet?"

"I don't, but I can't risk losing him." Blaine said shakily before Mr Schuester began to start the Glee club meeting.

"Did you tell Quinn?" Blaine asked, wrapping his arms around Kurt's waist from behind after Glee that afternoon.

"Yeah, did you tell Rachel?" Kurt replied, sinking into Blaine's arms slightly.

"Yup. She said that she'll ask the others to look out for you but she won't tell them why."

"Thank you." Kurt sighed, turning around to wrap his arms around Blaine's neck and pull him into a hug.

"Kurt, I'll do anything to keep you safe." Blaine promised as Kurt pressed their lips together softly before pulling back to look Blaine in the eyes.

"I love you." Kurt said, leaning his forehead against Blaine's.

"You do?" Blaine asked incredulously as Kurt nodded in response. "I love you too," Blaine smiled. "I wanted to tell you but I wasn't sure if you were on the same page yet and I didn't want to scare you away."

"I'm not that easy to get rid of, Anderson." Kurt teased.

"Good," Blaine said, kissing Kurt once again. "I see you're feeling better anyway. How's the bruise?"

"I am, because of you," Kurt pointed out. "And it hurts, but it should go in a few days."

"I'm sorry that I couldn't do anything to prevent it."

"It's not your fault. I could have come to you and told you what happened but instead I ran off crying and got hit in the face,"

"Kurt." Blaine said sadly.

"It doesn't matter anyway, because you're preventing lots more possible bruises."

"We should probably get going. We've been standing in the middle of the hallway holding each other and having a rather emotional conversation for like ten minutes now." Blaine laughed.

"Can we go to yours? I don't really feel like going home."

"Sure, we can watch the movie that we completely missed yesterday because of your crying fit." Blaine teased.

"Shut up," Kurt laughed, rolling his eyes. "You're awful."

"But you love me anyway." Blaine replied smugly, smiling at Kurt like a five year old on Christmas morning.

"I do. And I'll love you even more if you hurry up and get me out of this hell hole that we've been stuck in for about 8 hours."

"Okay, let's go." Blaine laughed, grabbing Kurt's hand and running out of the school building towards his car with him.