Kurt was happier than he'd been in a long time. He had the most amazing best friend in the world and he was gradually starting to speak again, even if Blaine was the only person who heard him. He was starting to open up to his dad more and would spend a lot more time watching TV with him or helping him cook dinner and he'd become closer with Carole and Finn, too.

Burt had noticed that Kurt was starting to become happier and more open, it was hard not to notice really as the change was extremely obvious. He was glad, however, that the change was happening as it meant that he was starting to get his little boy back. Burt could tell that it was because Kurt had become friends with Blaine that he'd started to become happier and for that Burt was extremely thankful towards Blaine. He wondered if Blaine even realised how much he'd help Kurt; how much progress Kurt had made since he'd become friends with the hazel eyed teen.

So yeah, Kurt was a lot happier. That was until one small incident brought everything crashing down.

The day started out completely normal. Kurt got up, got ready for school and met Blaine for coffee before the two of them made their way to school. It wasn't until second period – which happened to be Kurt's free period – when Kurt got cornered by a group of jocks and he realised he probably wasn't going to be okay.

He couldn't call for help, he couldn't scream for a teacher, all he could do was curl himself up on the floor and cry silently while the jocks did whatever they pleased to him. Apparently that wasn't good enough, however, as he was yanked off of the floor and hit some more for being “too quiet.”

You'd think that bullies would want their victim to be quiet, so as not to be caught, but apparently these ones wanted a challenge, which Kurt was not giving them; which Kurt couldn't give them.

“Hey! Leave him alone!” Kurt heard, and only once he was being pulled into a familiar embrace did Kurt realise that Blaine was the one who stopped them.

Kurt gripped onto his friends shoulders with shaky hands and finally, finally allowed his sobs to take over his body. He clung onto Blaine with everything he had in him while the curly haired teen tried to calm him down, rubbing his back soothingly.

“Kurt, you're shaking like crazy,” Blaine commented, carding his fingers through his best friend's hair while Kurt cried into his shoulder. “Okay, I'm taking you back to my house. There's no one home and you're really not in the best condition to be in school right now.” He said, easing the sixteen year old off the floor and leading him out of the school and into his car.

Only once they arrived at Blaine's house did he comprehend how much damage they'd actually done to Kurt. He had been covering his face slightly up until then, but Blaine could clearly see the bruises starting to appear on his friend's face and the swollen, slightly bloody lip he had. He had a dark bruise forming just under his eye that looked particularly painful and his whole face was stained with tear tracks.

“Kurt,” Blaine said sadly as he sat opposite his best friend on the sofa in his living room. “I'll be back in one second.” He said before running into the kitchen and getting some ice.

When he returned, he sat opposite Kurt once again and wrapped the ice in a towel before holding it gently to Kurt's lip and smoothing back his now flat hair with his free hand while Kurt let out shaky breaths.

A lone tear made its way down Kurt's cheek at the initial sting of the ice being applied to his lip, but he scrunched his eyes shut and got through it.

“Are you okay?” Blaine asked, removing the ice and setting it on the table next to the sofa.

Kurt shrugged, his lip quivering as more tears fell from his eyes. Blaine sighed sadly, enveloping his best friend in a hug as Kurt wiped frantically at his eyes.

An unknown amount of time passed before Kurt's breathing slowed again. Blaine was now lying against the arm of the sofa with Kurt's head on his chest while he carded his fingers gently through his soft brown hair, calming him down more than he realised.

Kurt had never felt safer than he did in that one moment, crazily enough, and as much as he wished he could tell Blaine that, he couldn't. He tried. He'd opened his mouth to tell Blaine exactly what he was feeling in that moment but nothing came out. Bullying was one of the reasons that he'd stopped talking in the first place, and it'd managed to silence him once again. The most frustrating thing about that, however, was that he wasn't even being bulled about his voice this time. There wasn't a reason he was being bullied this time, it was just bullies being…well, bullies.

Blaine took the chestnut haired teen home a few hours later and explained to Burt what had happened. Burt was angry, to say the least, but just told Blaine to take Kurt up to bed and stay with him until he fell asleep.

Once Kurt was asleep, Blaine pressed a kiss to his forehead and made his way downstairs, where he found Burt.

“I just wanted to say thank you for helping him. I know that he's always been bullied – not this bad but he's still been bullied – and he wouldn't talk to me, or even let me in so he's never had anyone that was there for him through it but now he has you so thank you.”

“I honestly don't get why he's never had any friends,” Blaine shrugged. “I mean, I know people don't get the whole ‘not talking' thing but he's actually really nice.”

“Yeah well, society isn't very open minded. You get judged for stuff that has no effect on your personality whatsoever,” Burt replied. “Anyway you should probably get going.”

“Yeah,” Blaine laughed. “Goodnight Mr Hummel.”

“Burt,” Burt corrected with a laugh.

“Burt.”