"Wha's wrong?" Kurt mumbled, his voice high and slurred from sleep.

"It's, um…" while Steven searched for how to say whatever it was he was thinking, Kurt forced himself upright. He scrubbed his eyes and resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight, because once he woke up, it was relatively impossible for him to get back to sleep.

"It's Blaine."

Kurt froze.

And then snapped into overdrive.

"What's wrong with him? Is he hurt? Is he sick? Is he sleepwalking again?"

Steven chuckled despite the situation.

"No, no, it's nothing like that." He turned serious again. Kurt could see his brow furrowing by the light of his alarm clock. "It's just, um…I think you should see. Just…follow me."

Kurt threw off the covers and padded out of the room after Steven, although the escort was entirely unnecessary. He was fairly sure he could've found his way to Blaine's room in his sleep.

Steven stood aside as Kurt cracked the door open and looked into the room. The curtains were closed, and the only light came from the alarm clock perched on the nightstand, which now read 1:37. It cast an artificial green glow over the room, making the shadows emerge in odd and unexpected places, giving them the appearance of tall, thin figures looming in every corner of the room, ever-so slightly changing form with every breath taken.

Their non-existent fingers reached toward a twisted lump on one of the beds, stretching forward but never quite reaching.

Blaine was lying curled up in a tight ball, with the covers tangled around his legs. Normally, Kurt wouldn't find this in the least bit out of place. (He'd woken up many a night to untangle himself from the sheets before he died of asphyxiation while Blaine dozed peacefully beside him, half his body dangling off the bed) Except for the fact that this time, he was thrashing about wildly, arms and legs flying out as if trying to hit an invisible person in front of him. His eyes were shut tight as was humanly possible, and he was muttering a stream of nonsense, the words coming out high and breathy.

"NolemmegopleasedondoanythingpleaseleamealoneIdidndoanything..."

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Kurt kneeled down and grasped Blaine's shoulder.

"Blaine. Blaine, honey, wake up."

This didn't elicit much of a reaction; in fact, Blaine did quite the opposite. He turned over and threw Kurt's hand off of his shoulder. The nonsense words turned to pained whimpers.

"Blaine, please, you have to wake up, come on, just wake up."

Finally, Blaine's eyes cracked open. Still disoriented, he rolled over, trying to figure out where he was.

"Please, just leave me alone, I didn't do anything, I swear!"

Kurt's chest constricted as Blaine squeezed his eyes shut and curled up even tighter.

"Ssh, Blaine, calm down, it's just me."

Still trembling, Blaine slowly opened his eyes once more.

"K-kurt?" He merely nodded

Blaine sat up slowly, staring at Kurt the entire time, as if looking away would cause him to suddenly vanish, leaving him alone in the darkened room with no one but the shadows to keep him company.

Kurt gently brushed a stray lock of hair from Blaine's forehead.

"You all right?" He asked softly. Blaine didn't say anything; he took a deep, shuddering breath.

And then he launched himself forward and flung his arms around Kurt's neck, trembling more than ever. Kurt was slightly taken aback, but he righted himself quickly and wrapped his arms around Blaine's back.

"Ssh, it's okay, you're safe, you're fine, calm down, it's okay…" Kurt kept muttering into Blaine's ear, rubbing his back in an attempt to get him to stop shivering so much.

"I'm sorry," Blaine whimpered. "I'm so sorry. There were too many of them, and I couldn't fight back, and I'm sorry."

Kurt pulled back slightly, keeping his hands around Blaine's waist and ignoring how tightly Blaine was holding on to his shoulders.

"Don't be sorry," he murmured. Blaine nodded, biting his lip so hard that Kurt was fairly sure it drew blood. Without a word, Kurt tugged him back into his chest and just held him, rubbing his back and occasionally whispering comforting nonsense into his ear. Finally, it seemed like he had stopped shaking, and his breathing was back to normal.

At that moment, Steven walked into the room, more than slightly nervous, and clutching a glass of water.

"Hey, uh, Blaine. You, um, feeling better?"

Kurt nodded and Blaine took the glass, taking a slow sip and refusing to look at either Steven or Kurt.

Deciding that leaving Blaine on his own was probably not the best idea tonight, Kurt fished his room key out of his pocket and pressed it into Steven's palm.

"You can sleep in my bed tonight," Kurt whispered. "I think I'll just stay here, if you don't mind."

"Oh, okay, cool. I mean, yeah. Awesome." Steven scratched his head awkwardly, and then shuffled out of the room without another word.

Blaine still refused to look up. He was staring down into his glass of water as though he wanted nothing more than to dive in and drown in it. Kurt placed one of his hands over one of Blaine's, and bent down so as to try and look him in the eye.

"Blaine?" he whispered gently, as if he were talking to an extremely shy animal that would flee at the first sudden movement.

"I'm sorry," he said again. Kurt sighed and said, "I told you, you don't have to be sor-"

"No, I mean, sorry for dragging you here and waking you up and…" he trailed off, but Kurt also knew that he was bound to say something else, so he waited.

"It's always the same dream." Blaine's voice had become lower, and softer, and suddenly he wasn't so much looking at the water as he was looking through it, back through time to when the world had been much darker and to when he thought it wasn't ever going to get better.

"They're chasing me. And no matter where I run, it doesn't…doesn't matter. They find me. And I can't…I can't do anything…b-because if I stop, th-then…" he trailed off, shutting his eyes and breathing deeply before speaking again.

"It was just…worse tonight. I don't know why." He shrugged in a way that was supposed to be nonchalant, and gently placed the water on his bedside table.

For the first time in his life, Kurt was speechless. He opened his mouth and tried to say something, but then shut it on the realization that no words could possibly ever hope to unravel everything that had happened to Blaine.

So he wrapped his arms back around Blaine's shoulders and squeezed him tightly, hoping to say everything that words couldn't.

"Kurt?"

"Mm?"

"Can you…I mean, would you, maybe, stay with me? Please?"

Kurt pulled back and kissed his forehead. "Honey, you didn't even have to ask."

There was a moment of silence, that both of them hoped would never end.

"'M tired, Kurt." He laughed softly.

"Then go to sleep."

"What if they come back?" Kurt's blood turned cold at just how small and helpless Blaine sounded with just that one question.

"They won't," Kurt said fiercely. He let his voice become softer. "I won't let them, okay?"

"Okay."

They lay down together, and Kurt clutched Blaine as tightly as he could. Even when his breathing had evened out, and he had relaxed, Kurt still held onto him as tightly as possible.

"They won't get you, I promise."

He was not going to lose Blaine again.