The transition back to Dalton was uneasy for Kurt, due to his nightmares. He was still hiding it from Nick, which he knew was potentially a stupid idea but he couldn't help it. It wasn't that he didn't trust Nick, he did, he just wasn't comfortable with anyone other than Blaine and his dad knowing about it – at that particular moment in time anyway.

He was still on strangely good terms with Blaine; the nineteen year old being a huge comfort for Kurt whenever he had a nightmare. He was sort of surprised at how okay Blaine was with talking Kurt to sleep at ridiculous times in the morning, even if he had college the next day. Despite how confused Kurt was at Blaine's willingness, he was more than thankful that he had Blaine or he'd probably be an even bigger mess than he already was.

The nightmares were getting slightly better for Kurt. He was having them less and less as time progressed, but he was still having enough to completely alter his usually happy personality. He'd been questioned a million times by Nick, Jeff and the rest of the Warblers as to why he didn't seem himself lately, and it was becoming harder and harder to come up with good reasons without telling them everything.

“Kurt,” Nick said, shaking the sixteen year old as he started to fall asleep on his friend's shoulder.

“Huh- what-“ Kurt mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

“You almost fell asleep on me for the twentieth time,” Nick laughed. “And while I'm sure I'm a fabulous pillow, your bed is literally two meters away.”

“But- but…studying…”

“Kurt, you don't need to study any more. You didn't even need to study to begin with, you knew everything we need to know for the test. Now go to bed, you're so tired you can't even form a real sentence.”

“M'fine,” Kurt muttered in reply, leaning his head against Nick's shoulder again.

“I'm about two seconds away from carrying you over there. Please go to bed. Trust me, you need it.” Nick said, nudging Kurt in the side to get him to wake up a little bit.

“Fine,” Kurt said as he stretched and yawned before getting off of Nick's bed and making his way to his own bed. “Night.” He said into the pillow before all but jumping out of bed and running into the bathroom, leaving Nick to stare after him confusedly.

Once Kurt had taken his medicine, he awkwardly made his way back into the bedroom and climbed into his bed again. He prayed that he wouldn't have a nightmare as he knew Nick was going to be awake for quite a while studying. Nonetheless, Kurt closed his eyes and eventually drifted to sleep.

Kurt awoke with a start, sitting up in his bed breathless with tears streaming down his face. As always, sobbing ensued seconds later as he struggled to breathe.

“Kurt?” Nick asked when he heard Kurt sit up in bed, immediately rushing to the crying sixteen year old. “Hey, what's wrong?” He asked. The only reply he got was Kurt crying harder as he curled himself into a little ball. “Please talk to me, you're scaring me.”

So Kurt got out the only word that he could, “B-Bl-Blaine.”

Nick swallowed around the lump that suddenly appeared in his throat and called Blaine, wondering if he would even answer at two in the morning. Surprisingly, Blaine picked up straight away.

“Nick?” Blaine croaked, sounding like he'd just woken up.

“I think Kurt had a nightmare,” Nick began, cutting right to the chase. “He's shaking and crying and he's really scaring me. He said your name though so I just assumed I should call you.”

“Give him the phone, please.”

“But-“

“Just give him the phone, Nick!” Blaine exclaimed.

Hesitantly, Nick handed the phone to Kurt, who clutched it to his ear and began sobbing harder. “B-Blaine.” Kurt cried, gripping the phone harder.

Nick couldn't hear what Blaine was saying but he could see that Kurt began visibly relaxing at whatever it was. He was unsure why, but Nick's heart panged in his chest at the prospect of Blaine being able to help Kurt but him being unable to help at all.

Slowly, Kurt's breathing returned to normal and his sobbing stopped. Kurt shakily handed the phone over to Nick, who noticed that he was still in a call to Blaine so he put the phone to his ear.

“Hello?” Nick said confusedly.

“Hey, um I was just wondering if it's okay if Kurt keeps your phone with him? I usually like, talk him to sleep whenever he has a nightmare but I didn't just wanna do it without your permission…”

“Uh yeah, that's fine.”

“Thank you. And I'm sorry about snapping at you before.”

“It's fine, I know you were just worried about him.” Nick replied, instinctively reaching out to comb his fingers through Kurt's hair, smiling slightly when the still shaking boy leaned into his hand.

“Yeah well, I still shouldn't have snapped so I'm sorry.”

“It's okay,” Nick laughed. “Okay, I'm gonna give you back to Kurt now.”

Nick reluctantly went back to his bed after giving the phone to Kurt, still incredibly worried about his friend. He was, however, glad that Blaine had managed to calm him down. One thing that did confuse him was that Blaine had told him that whenever Kurt had a nightmare he would talk him to sleep, and Kurt didn't have nightmares that frequently…did he?

The next morning, Kurt was still fast asleep so Nick began silently getting ready for school. Eventually, it got a little too late and Nick knew that Kurt would be late for class if he didn't wake him up so he knelt on the floor beside his bed and gently shook his arm, being careful not to startle him after last night.

Kurt slowly woke up, his eyes blinking open to look at Nick with sleepy, bright blue eyes.

“Hey,” Nick smiled. “Class starts in about an hour, I knew if I didn't wake you up soon then you'd be late.”

“Okay,” Kurt replied as Nick got off the floor and made to walk away, only to be stopped by Kurt's hand in his, pulling him back. “Thank you, for last night.”

“It's fine,” Nick shrugged.

“I wanna talk to you about it,” Kurt replied, biting his lip in a sort of…adorable way. “And I feel like if I don't do it now then I'm never gonna get it out.”

“Okay…” Nick said, sitting on the edge of Kurt's bed.

“Okay so…When I was little, after my mum died, I started getting these really bad nightmares every night. They went away after a while but they started coming back around a month ago so my dad took me to the doctors and now I have medicine that I have to take every night before bed – that's why I randomly jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom last night – and they're starting to go away but I still have them sometimes.”

“Hey,” Nick said softly, running his thumb over Kurt's hand where he was still holding it as his friend slowly raised his gaze from the bed cover. “It's okay.”

“I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, I was just scared to tell anyone about it.”

“Come here, you big dummy,” Nick replied, opening his arms out and enveloping Kurt in a hug as he tried to ignore the random fluttering in his stomach. “I won't tell anyone, I promise. And I'm not judging you, it's not your fault you have to deal with this. Losing your mum at eight is…I can't even imagine what that must've felt like, it's actually understandable.”

“Thank you.” Kurt whispered into Nick's shoulder.

“I have an idea…” Nick said, pulling back with a smirk.

“Nick…”

“Go get dressed, but ditch the uniform.”

“What-“

“Go!” Nick laughed. “And don't come out until I tell you it's safe, I need to get changed.”

“I don't trust you but fine…” Kurt replied, grabbing some clothes and making his way into the bathroom to get changed.

When both boys were changed into regular, every day clothes, Nick grabbed Kurt's hand and dragged him out of their dorm room. Once they had successfully snuck out – Kurt had no idea how they managed that – Nick led Kurt to…actually Kurt had no idea where. They were surrounded by nothing but grass.

“Um…I feel like you brought me out here to murder me but I'd like to think I know you well enough to know that's not what you're planning on doing.”

“I didn't bring you here to murder you,” Nick laughed. “I just thought you could do with a day of not going to school and this was kind of the first place that popped into my head.”

“Well, seeing as you're not going to kill me…” Kurt teased, sitting on the floor next to a laughing Nick and picking at the grass. “This reminds me of a date I had with Blaine, except it was a different park and we were in much different positions than this.”

“Ew, okay, I do not need to hear about that thank you,” Nick replied, throwing grass at Kurt's face and trying to stop his heart from frantically pounding against his chest.

“I can't believe you made me skip school though.”

“Oh like you've never skipped school before.”

“I haven't!” Kurt defended. “I did once, but it was with good reason.”

“And what was that reason?” Nick asked teasingly with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, let's see…I was cornered in the bathroom and pinned against the wall where I got punched in the face and the stomach, resulting in a ridiculously long nose bleed. Blaine found me and I was really shaken up so he took me to this tiny park near my old school and we sat on the swings for a while.” Kurt explained, looking at Nick through squinted eyes due to the sun that decided to appear out of nowhere.

“Oh…I-“

“Nick Duval, don't you dare tell me you're sorry,” Kurt teased. “I'm fine, aren't I?”

“Yeah, but-“

“Nope.”

“But I-“

“Nope.”

“You don't even know what I was going to say!” Nick exclaimed with a laugh.

“I don't care, I'm not gonna let you make this day sad.”

“Fine, let's talk about something happy then,” Nick suggested.

“Like what?” Kurt laughed.

“I don't know, what's happy? Um…rainbows…puppies,”

“I'm not having a conversation with you about rainbows or puppies.” Kurt laughed, swatting Nick playfully in the arm.

“Well, I could just…you know…chase you around the field,” Nick wondered mischievously.

“You could what!?”

“You have a five second head start,”

“Nick –“

“Five,”

“What're you –“

“Four,”

“I swear to god –“

“Three,”

“I am not –“

“Two,”

“Don't you dare –“

“ONE!” Nick exclaimed, jumping to his feet and chasing after a screaming Kurt.

“Nick!” Kurt screeched as Nick continued to chase the chestnut haired teen.

“You're faster than you look!” Nick shouted breathlessly.

“I feel like I should be insulted!”

“Shut up!” Nick laughed, running a little faster as Kurt let out a little yelp and tried to get further away from his friend.

Eventually, Nick caught up with Kurt and tackled him onto the ground, leaving them a pile of laughing teenage boy on the floor. Nick moved slightly and suddenly he was staring directly into Kurt's eyes below him, the other boy still laughing despite Nick's serious expression.

“Kurt, I –“ Nick was cut off by the sound of Kurt's phone ringing in his pocket. He awkwardly pulled it out seeing as Nick apparently didn't want to move, and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Kurt!” Jeff all but shouted down the phone. “Where are you? Have you seen Nick?”

“Jeff wants to know if I've seen his boyfriend…” Kurt said, handing the phone to Nick.

“Jeff?” Nick said, climbing off of Kurt and suddenly feeling extremely guilty.

“Where the hell are you!?” Jeff exclaimed. “You didn't show up to class so I went to your dorm and neither you or Kurt were there, do you have any idea how worried I was about you!?”

“Woah, hey, calm down. I'm fine.”

“You could have told me you weren't going to be in school at all! Where even were you?”

“I'm with Kurt, I'll explain later. But I'm fine, I promise. I'm sorry if I scared you.”

“I really wish you were here right now so that I could slap you.” Jeff sighed, eliciting a laugh from Nick.

“You couldn't slap me even if you wanted to,” Nick pointed out. “You couldn't hurt a fly.”

“True…”

“I'll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay…I love you.”

Nick swallowed around the lump in his throat before letting out a little, “I love you too.”

Once the call was over, Nick handed the phone back to a now sitting Kurt and let himself fall backwards against the grass with a groan.

“Is he mad at you?” Kurt asked, fiddling with his phone in his hands.

“Yup…I think I scared him because he couldn't find me,” Nick explained before groaning again and covering his face with his hands. “I'm a horrible boyfriend.”

“No you're not.” Kurt argued.

“Yes I am.”

“Why are you a horrible boyfriend?” Kurt asked.

“Because I –“ Nick began, his heart pounding in his chest, only to be cut off again by the noise of Kurt's phone “Seriously? He laughed. “How many phone calls do you generally get when you're in school?”

Kurt shrugged. “Not my fault I'm popular,” He teased. “I'm kidding, it's Blaine…Hey!”

“Hey,” Blaine laughed. “Someone's cheery.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Nope, it actually kind of answers my question anyway.”

“Let me guess, ‘how are you? You scared me last night'?” Kurt guessed.

“Well…I wasn't going to phrase it exactly like that but yeah…”

“I'm fine,” Kurt laughed. “Nick made me skip school then chased me around a field, how could I not be fine after that?” He asked, looking directly at the other sixteen year old who poked his tongue out at Kurt in reply.

“Well, I'm just glad you're okay,” Blaine laughed.

“Thank you.”

“Okay, I've gotta go, I have class starting soon so I'll speak to you later.”

“Okie dokie,” Kurt replied, ending the call.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot,”

“Why do you and Blaine never say bye to each other?”

“It's sort of…” Kurt began, taking a deep breath. “When he left for New York, I was a sobbing mess and he went to say goodbye but I didn't think I could handle it so I told him not to and when I broke up with him I nearly said goodbye to him and he stopped me so yeah…I think we're both kind of just scared to say it in a way, like it could just break everything or something.”

“Oh,” Was all Nick could manage and oh, that lump in his throat was back.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” Nick said with a smile, squinting in the sun.

The two boys made their way back to school just after school ended as that was the time that people were coming in and out, which made it a lot easier to sneak back in. Once they were back, Nick made his way to Jeff's dorm to apologise again while Kurt called Blaine.

Later on in the evening, Kurt, Jeff and Nick went out to eat – it was Nick's way of apologising to Jeff, who insisted that Kurt came as he'd be by himself if he didn't. Their dinner was…well, a disaster. It was for Nick anyway, who realised half way through their meal that he'd been staring at Kurt pretty much the whole time instead of his boyfriend.

He sort of felt like he was going crazy when he realised that he'd spent all of his time listening intently to Kurt's adorable, high pitched laugh instead of the actual conversation that was happening around him. He didn't even understand how he hadn't noticed that he'd been trying to figure out what shade of blue Kurt's eyes were instead of contributing more in their conversation.

One thing that did add up, however, was why Nick had been getting a fluttery stomach all day. He…oh, he had a crush on Kurt.

“Um, I'll be back in a minute.” Nick announced, letting go of Jeff's hand and making his way into the bathroom where he proceeded to splash water on his face.

You're being stupid, Nick thought to himself, you don't like Kurt, not in that way. You love Jeff…but Kurt does have really pretty eyes and – no. Stop, stop, stop! Stop thinking about Kurt, you're with Jeff and you love Jeff…Jeff, Jeff, Jeff…but it's not your fault if you have feelings for Kurt…”ARGH!” Nick exclaimed, running his finger through his hair frustratedly.

“Nick?” Kurt said, opening the door to the boys' bathroom and stepping inside to find Nick pacing the small space. “Um…are you okay?”

“I love Jeff!” Nick shouted as he spun around to face Kurt.

“Uh…yeah…I know that…”

“Sorry,” Nick breathed. “That wasn't actually supposed to come out of my mouth.”

“It's fine,” Kurt laughed. “Seriously though, are you okay? We're both worried about you.”

“Yeah,” Nick replied, trying not to overthink the fact that Kurt was worried about him. “Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.”

“Then can we please go back to the table? I left your boyfriend by himself and I'm pretty sure he thinks you drowned or something even though I don't know how that would happen…”

Nick knew that Kurt was still talking but he didn't hear any actual words being formed as he glared into Kurt's eyes, trying to keep his breathing under control.

“-ick? Nick!” Kurt exclaimed, snapping his fingers in front his friends face.

“What?”

“You're actually going crazy,” Kurt laughed. “Come on, let's go.”

That night, Nick tossed and turned in his bed, feeling guilty for liking someone else when he had boyfriend and being completely confused about why he even liked Kurt like that. It wasn't that he wasn't attractive, because he clearly was. He was also extremely funny and absolutely adorable and – shut up Nick!

Nick was brought out of his thoughts by a loud scream coming from the bed on the other side of his and Kurt's small dorm room. He immediately got up and rushed over to Kurt's bed, instinctively wrapping his arms around the other teen. Much to Nick's surprise, Kurt turned around in his embrace and buried his face in Nick's chest, clawing at his shirt as he searched for comfort in the only thing he had.

“Do you want me to call Blaine?” Nick asked softly, receiving a shake from Kurt's head.

“Puh-please don't l-leave me.” Kurt cried, allowing Nick to hug him tighter and stroke his arm soothingly.

“Shh, I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere.” Nick whispered, resting his chin on the top of Kurt's head.

When Nick awoke the next morning, he confusedly realised that he wasn't in his own bed. He tried to get up when he realised there was something clinging to his side, and suddenly the previous night came flooding back to him.

He tried to get up a few more times but when Nick figured out that Kurt wasn't going to budge, he gave up and let the sixteen year old snuggle up to him. He looked down at his friend and smiled softly.

Kurt was lying with his head smooshed between Nick's chest and arm, his hand gripping onto his friend's shirt. He was making little snuffling noises and every now and then he would snuggle further into the comfort of his best friend.

At the adorable sight of Kurt asleep, Nick gave up on trying to ignore his feelings. It wasn't like he was shouting from the rooftops how he felt about Kurt, he was just…admiring him…from a distance. There was no harm in that right? That way he wouldn't hurt Jeff and he wouldn't have to try and squash what he was feeling.

When Kurt woke up and blinked up at Nick with sleepy blue eyes, he realised that yeah…there was no way he was going to be able to ignore his feelings for Kurt.