They walked quietly back to their dorm, careful not to wake anyone up as they were well past curfew. They were just walked up the stairs when Blaine heard sniffling. At first he looked at Kurt, but he was smiling. So Blaine halted and turned around, spotting someone walking through the hallway towards them, dressed in scruffy pyjamas.
“Blaine?” Kurt turned around, spotting Blaine looking the other way. “What’re you do- oh.” Kurt had followed Blaine’s line of sight, and saw the boy, who had frozen at the sound of Kurt’s voice.
“Nick?” Blaine asked, stepping down one step, curiously.
The boy looked up panicked. His eyes were read and his face was blotchy; he’d clearly just been crying…
“Are you okay?” Blaine took another step down.
“I’m fine.” Nick said, his voice showing he clearly wasn’t. He started walking again up the stairs and jumped away when Blaine tried to put a hand on his shoulder. He walked stiffly up the remaining steps and ignoring them.
Kurt and Blaine stared after him curiously, wondering what was wrong with Nick.
“Do you think he’s okay?” Kurt asked quietly.
“No. In the three years I’ve known him, he’s never cried. Not even when he and Jeff weren’t speaking for two weeks.” Blaine said, meeting Kurt’s eyes. Kurt frowned, looking back to where Nick disappeared. “Come on. I’ll talk to him on Monday or something. I’m taking you to Lima tomorrow.”
Kurt nodded and they started ascending the stairs again, the silence a little more awkward than it had been before.
~X~
“Is there anything you want to do today?” Blaine asked once they were in Kurt’s room the next day. They were alone in the house because Burt had gone to the garage, Carole was shopping, and Finn had gone to Puck’s without a word to either of them. He’d been avoiding Kurt since the incident at McKinley, and Kurt refused to talk to him, but he glared at him whenever he was in the room.
“Urgh. Can we just watch a movie?” He asked hopefully.
“Sure. Up here or downstairs?” Blaine returned, moving over to Kurt’s movies.
“Downstairs. The TV’s bigger.” Blaine laughed.
“What movie?” He asked, crouching and scanning through the stacks of movies.
“Anything Disney. I’m in a happy mood today.” Blaine smiled happily and took The Little Mermaid from the top of the Disney pile and stood back up, motioning for Kurt to lead the way. Kurt smiled and grabbed a blanket from the end of his bed before going out the room, Blaine following behind him.
Kurt snuggled himself into the couch while Blaine popped in the DVD and switched on the TV. He waited for the main menu to pop up so he could press play before strolling over to Kurt.
Kurt smiled and lifted the blanket, asking Blaine to join him. They snuggled together under the blanket and watched.
Blaine liked snuggling with Kurt. They’d never really done this, and it felt nice.
It was halfway through ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’, which Blaine was singing along to, when there was a loud knock at the door. Kurt groaned at looked at Blaine, pouting. The boy chuckled and manoeuvred out of the blanket and Kurt’s arms. He then stood and walked from the room with a quick smile at Kurt.
He opened the door, the smile fading the second he saw who was behind it.
“Is Kurt home?” Blaine raised an eyebrow.
“Mercedes, I’m pretty I wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t…” He strained his eyes to try and listen to the other room. He heard the music stopped, meaning Kurt had probably paused the movie, and was listening to them.
“Oh. Urm… can I speak to him?” She asked quietly, her eyes pleading.
“I don’t think he wants to see anyone right now…” Blaine said, his eyes glancing at the side to make sure Kurt wasn’t there. He was sure he wasn’t going to come out, but he didn’t know what Mercedes would say if he did.
“Please, Blaine. I want to know he’s okay.”
“He’s fine, Mercedes.” Mercedes struggled for words for a minute, her face screwing up in thought before she spoke again.
“I miss him, Blaine. And I feel bad for not doing anything for him when he was at McKinley. Please, I… I want to apologize for not being there.” Blaine turned his head to see Kurt standing near him, out of sight of Mercedes.
He searched Kurt’s face, looking for a signal, seeing if he should let Mercedes in or not. Kurt’s face stayed blank, and then he shook his head lightly, a frown on his features. And Blaine turned back to Mercedes, who hadn’t noticed who he was looking at.
“I think you should go…” He said quietly. Mercedes frowned, but nodded and turned to leave, but stopped when she heard Blaine’s voice again. “Mercedes?” She turned her head, looking back at him sadly. “I’m sure he’ll forgive you one day. He’s just got a lot to deal with right now.” She nodded and smiled slightly. She then walked off. Blaine sighed and then closed the door and turning to Kurt.
“You’re too nice.” He said, smiling sadly.
“I try.” Blaine replied, walking forwards and giving Kurt a hug. “You’re going to have talk to some of them sometime.” Kurt’s head fell against his shoulder.
“Not yet.”
“Not yet.” Blaine agreed.
They then went back to watching The Little Mermaid and they both fell asleep on the couch, leaning heavily on each other, limbs tangled and covered in the pale blue blanket.
~X~
When Burt came home, he found the boys sleeping soundly on the couch, the TV playing a DVD menu over and over again.
Kurt just looked so peaceful, as did Blaine. Burt wasn’t going to disturb them, so he switched off the TV and quietly walked out, shutting the door behind him.
Carole came home soon after and started packing away the groceries before starting to make dinner. Burt sat in the kitchen with her, talking about their day.
The dinner was nearly ready when Finn arrived, immediately drawn to the smell of the food. And he engaged in their conversation, smiling brightly.
Burt decided it was time to wake up Kurt and Blaine, just as Carole was dishing out the dinner. He walked into the other room, smiling at the two sleeping boys. He crept over to couch and started to shake them lightly.
“Wha-?” Blaine was the first to wake, blinking and yawning. He saw Burt and sat up. “Crap. How long have we been sleeping?” He asked, rubbing his eyes.
“I don’t know. But dinner’s ready. I didn’t want to wake you guys, especially since Kurt looked so peaceful.” Blaine looked at his side. Yeah, Kurt did look pretty peaceful. Blaine smiled and nudged the boy slightly himself.
“Go away.” He mumbled, not opening his eyes or moving. Blaine chuckled at him.
“Dinners ready, Kurt.”
Kurt shot up almost immediately.
“What!?” Burt laughed, and patted his son the shoulder.
“Come on kiddo. You’ve slept most of the day, time to get up.” Burt smiled at Kurt’s frown before stepping back into the kitchen.
“As if we slept all day.” Kurt groaned as soon as they were alone. Blaine laughed and ran a hand through his untamed curls. Kurt had dragged him from their room before he could put gel on, and he didn’t have any here, so he would look the same tomorrow.
Blaine was going to say something about him deserving the sleep because they didn’t really sleep enough last night. But he decided not to bring up that particular nightmare. It had been bad last night. Kurt had been sweating and shaking and he felt like he’d been sitting in a freezer. And when he awoke screaming, he hadn’t noticed Blaine trying to calm him down. It was like he was awake, but still stuck in the dream. It hurt Blaine when he realized what he was doing wasn’t working anymore.
Kurt hadn’t eventually calmed down, collapsing into Blaine’s arms and sobbing loudly. Blaine’s phone had also exploded with texts from a lot of his friends, asking if Kurt was okay.
So it wasn’t exactly a good idea to bring it up…
“Don’t worry about it Kurt. Come on, let’s get some dinner.” Blaine stood and held his hand out to Kurt. Kurt smiled faintly and took it, and Blaine pulled him up, and they walked to the kitchen, silently taking seats at the table.
Carole placed plates in front of them, and then they thanked her. They all sat silently while Kurt barely touched his dinner and glared at Finn. After about 5 minutes of this, Finn had had enough.
“Dude, stop it. I’ve said sorry!” He said angrily and slammed down his cutlery. Blaine watched, wide eyed, as Kurt sneered back at him.
“Sorry isn’t going to make everyone forget, Finn.”
“Now boys-” Burt started.
“They aren’t going to tell anyone!” Finn yelled, ignoring Burt.
“I didn’t want them to know anyway! They should’ve never found out!” Kurt yelled back, gripping his knife and fork tightly.
“I didn’t mean to-”
“That just shows how stupid I was to trust you!” Kurt snapped. Finn’s jaw dropped, looking hurt. He stood angrily, and pushed his chair away and stormed out of the room without another word, surprisingly.
“Kurt, did you really need to-”
“Yes.” Kurt said, before standing up himself and leaving the room as well.
Blaine sat awkwardly, pursing his lips, unsure what to do. He wanted to go after Kurt, comfort him. But he’d feel rude if he just upped and left the table.
After a few more minutes Carole spoke up.
“Blaine, you can go after Kurt.” Blaine nodded and got up immediately, mumbling thank you for the dinner as he left the room, going straight to Kurt’s room, opening the door quietly.
Kurt was on the bed, his face in his pillow.
“Kurt?” Blaine said softly, shutting the door and creeping towards Kurt’s bed. “Are you okay?”
“No.” His voice was muffled, but Blaine heard him loud and clear. He sighed and clambered onto the bed, laying down besides Kurt. Kurt sniffled and turned, snuggling up into Blaine’s chest, crying silently.
~X~
Blaine pulled up outside Dalton, switching off the engine and getting out, Kurt following his actions. They walked in silence, Blaine linking his hand with Kurt’s in an attempt to comfort him, smiling when Kurt did.
They walked inside and halted when they saw a brown haired boy rushing towards them.
Nick.
He looked scared as he stopped in front of them, panting from running.
“Nick, are you okay?”
“Blaine. How’d you know?” Nick asked, eyes not stopping as they searched Blaine’s face.
“How did I know what?”
Nick bit his lip and looked around to make sure they were alone. What he said next shocked Blaine and Kurt into silence.
“How did you know you were gay?”