Chapter 21

Kurt blinked a few times, trying to figure out where he was. Everything was blurred and grayish. The smell was familiar and sickening, so he tightened his lips and wrinkled his nose. What was it that smelt like this?

Oh, right. Hospitals.

‘Kurt?,’ a small voice somewhere to his right said.

He squinted, following the voice with his eyes. His vision was beginning to clear, but he still could only make out spots of colour.

‘Blaine?,’ he asked coarsely. His head was pounding, and there was a pulsating soreness in his jaw, when he moved the muscles in his face.

‘How are you feeling?,’ Blaine asked tenderly.

Kurt swallowed, trying to gather his thoughts and frowning. Why was he even here? A vague sequence of memories went through his mind.

Goldie… Karofsky… Screaming… Anger… Pain… Nothing more.

‘What do you think?,’ he mumbled. ‘Like shit.’

A corner of Blaine’s mouth twitched up. That answer was a good sign.

‘You’ve got a concussion, so that’s probably an accurate description.’

‘Are you fine?,’ Kurt asked. He could swear there was something odd about the colour of the left side of Blaine’s face, but with the blurry vision and semi-darkness, he couldn’t be sure if it wasn’t just shadow.

Blaine winced; he’d been deprived of an icepack for no longer than five minutes, but he could already feel the pain returning to his face.

‘Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bruise.’ He’d rather focus on his friend’s condition, than his own. He had unwillingly let the doctors examine him, but apart from the enormous contusion and the knuckles of his right hand being a little sore, nothing was wrong with him. He’d known this much without anybody telling him. He knew the feeling of being in a bad shape; this was far from it.

Kurt knitted his brows; he was right then.

‘It’s on your face, isn’t it?,’ he asked.

That threw Blaine off guard. It took up almost half of his face, how could Kurt not notice?

‘Yeah, it is… Can’t you see it?’ A tone of panic snuck into his voice.

Kurt grimaced. ‘Not very clearly. That’s from the concussion, right?’

‘I guess it could be.’ Blaine calmed down a little; he’d still drop by the doctors’ lounge to ask about that later.

‘Does it hurt?,’ Kurt said quietly.

Blaine shook his head. Crap, even that was painful.

‘A little. Nothing serious, though.’

They fell silent for a moment. Kurt was running through the pieces of memories he had from earlier – how much earlier exactly? – wondering what happened when he’d blacked out. And then there was another fear growing inside him.

‘Does my Dad know?,’ he asked in a small voice. He couldn’t stop the thoughts running in the most terrifying direction; he couldn’t bear the thought of being the reason behind another heart attack.

‘They called him. He’s going to be here soon,’ Blaine said soothingly.

‘And how… How exactly did it happen?,’ Kurt asked, knowing answering could be tough for Blaine and wincing. ‘You don’t really have to give me details, just…’

‘You want to know, I get it.’ Blaine sighed, as he retrieved from his memory the speech he had prepared as he was sitting waiting for Kurt to regain consciousness. ‘When you… fell, Goldie jumped at him and tried to bite him, but he kicked her on the side…’

‘What?!’ Kurt sat up abruptly, making his head spin and ache even more, and he almost threw up.

‘Hey, hey, lie down,’ Blaine said softly, helping his friend back onto his pillow. ‘She’s gonna be fine. Aileen took her to a vet, and she’s just a little sore and whiny.’

Kurt nodded, but the idea of attacking the dog was appalling to him. For a moment he felt worse for Goldie than he did for himself or Blaine. She was such a kind creature, she didn’t deserve to suffer at all.

‘So what happened next?,’ he asked.

‘I punched him. Twice,’ Blaine said, his stomach clenching unpleasantly. He was conflicted about what he’d done; he wasn’t a violent person, not at all, and still the feeling of getting revenge was strangely satisfying. ‘And then he punched me.’

It was silent again for a moment, and Kurt began to feel around the edge of his bed, trying to find Blaine’s hand. He didn’t have to see his friend’s face clearly to know he wasn’t in a good shape, at least emotionally. Kurt didn’t really care what happened to Karofsky, or if he was brought to the hospital along with them. All that mattered was that Blaine defended him, despite all the horrible experiences he’d had, even though he hated to hurt anyone, he still stood up for him, for the both of them.

‘Thank you,’ Kurt said quietly, when he finally found Blaine’s hand and squeezed it gently.

‘What for?’

If he felt any better, Kurt would have rolled his eyes at Blaine, and they both knew it.

‘For doing something you hated to do for me. And for Goldie. She can’t thank you, so I guess I can thank you for her.’

Blaine felt his mouth forming the faintest shadow of a smile and ignored the sore in his face.

‘You’re welcome.’

They sat like that for a while in silence, with Kurt’s right hand over Blaine’s left. It was evening, and the hospital was growing quiet, giving them the peace they needed after the events of the evening. Kurt had to be monitored for the next twenty four hours and a nurse would stick a head in from time to time. At first, before Kurt woke up, they had tried to kick Blaine out, as the visiting hours had just ended and he wasn’t family, but gave up when he wouldn’t budge. It was good for someone to be by Kurt’s bedside, just in case, anyway, so they let it slide.

‘Do you think you could stay here?,’ Kurt broke the silence. If he ever felt he needed Blaine next to him, it was now.

‘Yes.’

Without another word, Kurt moved to the edge of the bed, making room for Blaine to lie down. Once their faces were inches from each other, Kurt could finally see his friend clearly.

‘Ouch, that’s really nasty,’ he said, studying Blaine’s black eye; the bruise stretched all the way from his temple, virtually circled his eye, and reached his jaw line.

Blaine grimaced slightly; he began to wonder what Kurt would say when he sees the large purple stain on his own face.

‘It’s not that bad.’ He shrugged dismissively and attempted a smile. ‘I’ll live.’

Kurt smiled sadly in response.

‘I know. We’re strong and we’ll live.’

Blaine took a moment to think about what Kurt had said. The last twelve months had been a mixture of the greatest happiness he’d ever known, and a few of the most painful experiences of his life. Before he’d met Kurt, he’d been through hell already, but he had been forced to deal with it alone. And even though he’d practically lost his parents and had to go through the bullying he’d thought was past him, he had never felt stronger or more prepared for whatever shit life could throw his way now. Or maybe, at long last, the bad things would end? If not for those, he could say he really was happy.

‘You know what?’

‘Hm?’ Kurt looked into his friend’s eyes.

‘I think you’re right.’ Blaine smiled. ‘We are strong. And we will live. And here an idea: maybe we’ll even get to be happy.’

‘I’d like that.’