“Are you sure you want to go to school today, Bud?”

      “It’s been two days, I would’ve gone yesterday, but you wouldn’t let me. I’m perfectly fine and I don’t want to miss any more school work,” Kurt said as he picked up his bag after his early morning breakfast.

      “Alright, fine. Just be careful,” Burt said as he grabbed his car keys. Kurt followed him out to the car and hopped in. He tried not to think about the fact that his dad wouldn’t let him drive since the incident, even if he was licensed.

      “And you took your medicine?” his father checked.

      “Yes, Dad.”

      “Alright.”

      The ride to McKinley was short and Kurt was glad for it, he hated how worried his father got.

      “Call me if something happens,” Burt said.

      Stepping out of the truck and onto the pavement Kurt nodded and mumbled an ‘I love you’ before heading inside. He kept his head down as he walked through the halls, hoping no one would bother him.

      “Kurt!”

      Spoke too soon, Kurt thought bitterly. Turning with a sigh he waited for Rachel to bound up to him.

      “Where have you been?” Rachel stage whispered.

      “At home. Resting.”

      “Blaine wouldn’t tell me anything when I asked and he just came home and locked himself up in his room. What happened between you two? I didn’t even know you knew each other?” Rachel asked quickly.

      “Of course we know each other, he’s your brother, Rachel,” Kurt said dryly.

      “You know what I meant! And stop avoiding the question!” She said quickly.

      “No offense, Rachel, but it’s not really any of your business. It’s between Blaine and I and I’d appreciate it if you respected that,” Kurt said.

      Rachel bit her lip before nodding, “sure,” she said quietly. “Come on, let’s go to class.”

      Kurt was too thankful by Rachel’s quick response to find it suspicious.

***

      By third period Kurt knew something was off.

      He’d expected the jocks and Karofsky to be after him just the same as they always were, but it was as if the hallways were strangely empty. He hadn’t seen a red jacket all morning and it was setting his teeth on edge.

      Kurt could only think of two possible reasons for the sudden absence of jocks; either they all got lost on their way to school that morning or some one was behind their mysterious disappearance.

      He tracked Blaine down during lunch period.

      Rather than going and sitting in the loud cafeteria where Rachel would be sending him worried glances every five seconds he told her he was going to the bathroom, but quickly found himself heading out to the football field.

      Blaine was leaning against the bleachers, rolling a rock around with his foot.

      “If this is your misguided way of trying to apologize to me, you might as well go home because it’s not working,” Kurt called as he made his way closer.

      Blaine startled and looked up at Kurt quickly before ducking his head and turning his body slightly to the side, the left side of his face getting hidden in shadows. “Sorry?” he asked in confusion.

      “I haven’t seen a jock all day.”

      The young delinquent only shrugged in response and stared at the ground determinedly.

      “I know you’ve had something to do with that,” Kurt said.

      His eyes didn’t leave the spot on the ground.

      “Are you just going to ignore me now?” Kurt asked. “Am I hurting your reputation too much?” he asked bitingly.

      Blaine didn’t respond.

      “Great, now I get the silent treatment?” Huffing, Kurt shook his head. “Whatever, Blaine.” He turned on his heel and marched back to the school. If Blaine didn’t want to associate with him anymore, then fine. He didn’t need Blaine.

      Noah Puckerman slowly made his way out his hiding spot around the corner of the bleachers and made his way back to Blaine’s side.

      “He really hates your guts now,” Puck said.

      Blaine finally lifted his head, the sunlight brightening the side of his face and showing off the dark purple and black bruises that covered his eye, temple and cheek.

      “I don’t blame him.”

      “What’dya call me out here for?” Puck asked.

      “I need your help.” Blaine stuffed his hands in his pockets.

      “What kind of help?” Puck asked with a raised eyebrow.

      “I need to get rid of Karofsky.”

***

      For the rest of the week, Kurt didn’t get an ounce of trouble from any of the jocks. They glared at him if he passed in the hallway, but they didn’t come after him or even say anything hurtful.

      It wasn’t until Blaine finally showed up in the class they shared together a couple days later that he knew why they didn’t come around anymore.

      He was already seated when Blaine slunk into the class and sat beside him without a word.

      Kurt glanced in Blaine’s direction before gasping and doing a double take.

      “What the hell happened to your face?” Kurt asked.

      Flinching slightly at how loud Kurt was he looked at Kurt for the first time in almost a week. He didn’t answer Kurt’s question, waiting for it to sink in.

      “Did Karofsky do that you?” Kurt asked, finally lowering his voice so that he didn’t interrupt the class. The bruises were fading slightly to a sickly yellow and the swelling around his eye had subsided, but it still looked pretty bad.

      Blaine shrugged and leaned back in his chair. “Is this still a misguided attempt at apologizing?” was all Blaine asked.

      It made Kurt feel slightly guilty, but he quickly brushed away the feeling. Blaine couldn’t just disregard what he’d done so easily. “I’m still mad at you. You’re an idiot. You shouldn’t have gotten yourself hurt like that, it doesn’t help anyone.”

      “It helps you.”

      Kurt sucked in a sharp breath and his hand clenched around the pen in his hand. “It won’t last though. Soon enough they’ll get over what ever threat you made and they’ll come after me again. What you did only staved off the inevitable.”

      “Have any of them come after you?” Blaine asked.

      “No, not yet.”

      “Then it was worth it.”

      Closing his eyes for a moment Kurt had to refocus his thoughts. It wasn’t fair for Blaine to say things like that, things that made him miss him.

      “I’m mad at you.”

      “So you’ve said,” Blaine said. He leaned over to Kurt, “Look, Kurt, I’m sorry for what I did. It wasn’t fair to you. I was being the asshole that I am, and I apologize.” Blaine glanced around the students sitting in front of them before continuing, “I don’t really have friends or people that I care about besides Rachel and my dads and I know people here at school couldn’t give a shit about me either… I don’t know what I’m doing here,” Blaine admitted quietly. “You’re the first person I’ve been friends with in a really, really long time.”

      Kurt processed the words slowly, seeing the sincerity of Blaine’s words in his eyes. He nodded after a second, “I forgive you.”

      Blaine visibly relaxed, “thank you.”

      “If you do something like this again, Blaine,” Kurt started to threaten.

      “I won’t, I promise.”

      Kurt hummed, “don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

      Blaine was silent and after a pause they both turned forward and tried to focus on the lesson.

***

      After that, things went back to normal for the most part. Blaine stayed at Kurt’s side for as long as he could during the day, holding off the jocks with meaningful glares. Kurt tried his best to ignore the fact that his friend was basically acting as his bodyguard.

      Kurt’s dad watched over him like a hawk and he knew if one day he came home with bruises on him that looked like Blaine’s Burt would probably burn the whole school down.

      Glee club kept rehearsing and doing assignments and slowly, Kurt started to feel a little bit better.

      Therapy sessions were even going pretty well. Henry didn’t pressure him into reliving any more memories and with the jocks keeping their distance it almost felt like he could live a normal life for once.

      He knew the grace period with the jocks was limited and he tried his best to enjoy it while he could. Blaine seemed convinced that the jocks would keep their distance indefinitely, but Kurt knew better.

      It was just a matter of time.

***

      “Are you going to the winter dance next week?” Rachel asked, pleading with her eyes for Kurt to go.

      Rolling his eyes, Kurt tried to think of a way to tell her no nicely.

      “Oh, come on, Kurt, you have to go! Everyone’s going! Mr. Schue is probably going to be able to get glee club to perform at the dance so you have to go!”

      “I don’t know, Rachel. It all sounds pretty tacky,” Kurt said as they walked past another poster advertising the dance with the words ‘a night you’ll never forget’ plastered over it in big, loopy letters.

      “It’s part of the high school experience! If you don’t go you’ll regret it, you know you will.”

      “Let me think about it,” Kurt said elusively.

In truth, he actually did want to go the dance. He thrived for the fancy clothes, bad punch and dancing. It was exactly the kind of the positive experience he’d always wanted to have before graduating high school. If he was being honest, he was only holding back because he wanted to know what Blaine thought about going to the dance. But of course it’s not like he wouldn’t just not go if Blaine didn’t. Or at least… he didn’t’ think he wouldn’t.

He got the chance to ask Blaine later that day after glee club rehearsal. Blaine was walking Kurt out to the parking lot to wait for his dad when he broached the subject.

“So the winter dance is coming up,” he started.

“Oh, please don’t tell me you’re going,” Blaine said, eyes wide.

“Well… I was thinking about it.” Not quite the response he’d wanted.

“But they’re so tacky!” Blaine whined making Kurt smile as he realized how similar their thought process was.

“Isn’t that part of the fun? It’s a high school experience that’s supposed to be tacky and cliché,” Kurt said. He took a deep breath before asking quickly, “Go with me?”

Blaine had opened his mouth to say something when Kurt snuck in that question really quickly. Blaine blinked before closing his mouth.

“Like as a date,” Kurt clarified before he could chicken out.

The silence stretched on and just as Kurt was about to take back everything he’d said-

“Sure.”

“Really?” Kurt asked, a grin spreading across his lips.

“Yeah.” Blaine smiled back. Kurt looked so wonderful when he smiled. “It’s a date.”

“A date,” Kurt echoed, blushing lightly, his smile turning shy which made him look, in Blaine’s opinion, even more beautiful.