Everything was dark. He didn't know where he was or what was happening to him, just that it was dark. His mind began to recover and he slowly became aware of other things bit-by-bit like a sheet being pulled off a painting, sections of scenery gradually coming into view until the whole image was revealed. The first thing he noticed was a loud ringing in his ears, as if he was recovering from being near a loud explosion; then he became aware of the position of his body, which was slumped against a cold, hard surface. His breath sawed out of him in short, gasping pants as he willed the darkness to recede so he could see again. He could feel his whole body quivering; he did not know whether he was shivering due to the cold sweat that covered him, collecting on his arms and face, or if the shaking was due to the weakness in his muscles.

Everything was still in darkness. He strained his eyes, willing something to come into focus - anything. He was becoming more aware of his surroundings now, the cool tiles beneath him - he must have fallen to the bathroom floor, but he didn't remember it happening - and he guessed the smooth surface he was propped up against was the side of the bath. The back of his head stung slightly. He must have hit it when he fell.

He didn't know how much longer he stayed there, fighting against the darkness with increasing panic building inside him the longer the blackness prevailed - it could have been merely seconds or it could have been minutes - but suddenly there were hands on him, he could feel them trembling against the skin of his forehead and arms.

The loud ringing in his ears began to ease and he could hear another sound, fading in and out like a radio slipping in and out of tune. He gasped out another breath, his body trembling uncontrollably, and suddenly he could hear properly again and the sound was identifiable as a panicked voice.

"Blaine, can you hear me? Blaine..."

He could hear the pounding of his racing heart, and his panting breath. His ears were still ringing slightly...

"Blaine," the voice sobbed.

There was a dull burning at the back of his head, he could feel the cold sweat on his arms and face, and everything was still dark...

"Please, Blaine, please..."

He wanted to respond to the voice - it sounded so frantic and terrified - but he couldn't speak, couldn't do anything but fight the darkness, will his blindness to lift...

"Answer the phone, dammit! Come on, Charlie..."

The complete darkness was suddenly interrupted. He could make out an outline that was gradually becoming sharper as if he were slowly approaching a distant light source. He fought harder, mentally pushing at the blackness, forcing it away. He blinked and the darkness lightened.

"Blaine..."

He blinked again; he could almost see something...

"Come round, Blaine please..."

Another blink; he could just make out the pale tiled floor - and was that the sink?

"Please..."

Kurt.

He knew that voice; he recognised the feeling of those hands on his skin. It was Kurt.

He fought harder, straining his mind and his eyes. He blinked again.

He was slumped on the bathroom floor against the side of the bath. Kurt was on his knees next to him, his face pale, panicked, and streaked with tears. His eyes were wide and filled with tears and worry, his hair was hanging messily over his forehead, and his hands were clutching desperately at one of Blaine's.

"Kurt..." Blaine whispered, still shaking and feeling a little confused.

"Oh, thank God!" More tears poured down Kurt's face as he bent over Blaine, their heads close together. "Please don't ever do that to me again."

Now that the darkness was gone, Blaine seemed to be recovering quickly. The ringing had almost faded, his heart rate slowed, the air was no longer leaving his lungs in shallow gasps, and the trembling lessened. "I think I fainted," he said, his voice weak and a little shaky.

Kurt straightened up. "You did." He shuffled closer to the bath so he was level with Blaine's head. "I think you may have hit your head, I heard a thump - no, don't move!" He placed a hand on Blaine's chest when he moved to lean forward and sit up straight. "Let me check it."

Kurt's hands were gentle as he tilted Blaine's head slightly so he could see the back of it. There was a muffled gasp. "Y- You've cut the back of your head on the edge of the bath," Kurt told him shakily. "There's a bit of blood." His fingers lightly moved his hair aside, ghosting over his scalp. "I don't think it's a deep cut, but it will need to be cleaned before I can tell if you need stitches." His hand dropped from Blaine's head and his eyes ran over him anxiously. "Do you think you can move if I help you?"

Blaine nodded and Kurt slid an arm around his back, under his shoulders, and another around his waist.

"Slowly," Kurt advised him.

Blaine staggered carefully to his feet, leaning heavily against Kurt. Kurt kicked the door open fully and guided him through to the bed where he sat him down.

Kurt peered into his eyes. "Are you ok? You don't feel dizzy again, do you?"

Blaine shook his head. "No, I'm fine."

Stroking back the curls that were stuck to his forehead with sweat, Kurt nodded, biting down on his lip as he surveyed Blaine's condition. "I'm going to get some antiseptic to clean your head with."

Blaine closed his eyes whilst Kurt began to rummage around in his bags for the small first aid kit he carried around when on tour in case he accidentally cut himself or got a blister. He still felt weak and he could quite happily have lain down and slept, but he resisted the urge and instead tried to slow his breathing. He opened his eyes when he heard Kurt's footsteps.

His boyfriend climbed onto the bed and sat down behind him. Blaine heard him opening a bottle and a plastic packet.

"This might sting a bit," Kurt warned as he gently parted aside the curls on the back of Blaine's head.

Sure enough, Blaine felt a light stinging where Kurt was lightly wiping with a piece of antiseptic-soaked cotton wool.

"The cut is fairly long," Kurt said after a short silence of cleaning his head, "but it isn't very deep. I don't think you'll need stitches or anything." He stopped cleaning the cut and ran his fingers through the curls at Blaine's neck. "How are you feeling?" he asked softly.

Blaine's eyelids were drooping slightly from the feeling of Kurt's fingers in his hair. "Better, still a little weak and shaky, but better as time passes."

"That's good." His hand stilled. "Wait," he said urgently, seeming to have been struck by a sudden thought, "I didn't check for a concussion or anything. Do you know what day it is? Where we are? You don't feel sick, do you?" Kurt's voice got higher and more frantic with each successive question.

"It's Sunday, we are in a hotel in LA, and no, I don't feel sick." He swivelled round to face his boyfriend who was sitting cross-legged on the bed behind him, his eyes still wide with worry and his fingers nervously fiddling with the cotton wool he had just used to clean Blaine's cut. "I'm fine, Kurt," he assured him.

Setting the cotton wool aside, Kurt uncrossed his legs and slid closer to him. He pressed a light kiss to Blaine's lips.

"I'm not going to break, Kurt, I'm not made of glass."

"I know," Kurt said and he kissed Blaine again, less gently this time, "you just really scared me."

"I'm sorry," Blaine whispered.

Kurt rested his forehead against Blaine's, his blue eyes, flecked and swirled with greens and greys, gazed down into Blaine's; blue meeting hazel. "You have nothing to apologise for," he said softly. "You just need to look after yourself better. I know you've barely been sleeping or eating and I know you've been trying to hide that from me so I wouldn't worry, but look what happened today because of that. You were lucky, you could have hit your head harder and what if I hadn't been here? Nobody would have known anything had happened for hours." He raised his right hand and cupped Blaine's face with it. Blaine leant in to the touch.

"I'm going to go and get you something to eat and some water and you're going to promise me that you will never overwork and push yourself to this point again, ok?"

"Ok," Blaine murmured.

Kurt pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "Good." He let his hand slip slowly from Blaine's face and then he climbed off the bed, crossing the room to the mini-fridge. He rummaged around inside it for a moment before emerging with a bottle of water and a handful of granola bars. He padded back over to the bed, unscrewing the cap on the bottle. He sat down beside Blaine and handed him the water.

"Thanks," Blaine said, accepting the bottle and taking a long swallow of water.

Kurt got to his feet again and Blaine made a noise of protest, his free hand reaching out and grabbing Kurt's wrist. "Don't leave me," he pleaded.

Kurt rubbed the hand around his wrist soothingly. "I'm not going to, I just need to call Charlie and let him know what happened. I couldn't reach him earlier." He picked up Blaine's cell phone from where it had been tossed on the bed earlier.

Blaine loosened his hold on Kurt's wrist. "Tell him not to panic and that I don't need to see a doctor."

Kurt glanced up from the phone and frowned at him. "He'll probably insist that you see one and I think it's a good idea that you do. You hit your head, Blaine."

Sighing, Blaine dropped his hand. "Fine, but can the doctor wait until later?"

"We'll see." Kurt dialled Charlie's number and pressed the phone to his ear, absently reaching out a hand and running his fingers through Blaine's curls. Blaine hummed his appreciation.

"Charlie, it's Kurt."

Blaine could hear the faint murmuring of Charlie's voice on the other end of the line.

"I'm fine," Kurt said, "but, Blaine-" He hesitated for half a second. "Blaine passed out and hit his head a short while ago," he said more firmly, apparently having decided to just get to the point.

More buzzing of Charlie's voice, the tone coming across as worried even from the little Blaine could hear.

"Yes, that was why-" Kurt began, but broke off when Charlie spoke again. His hand was still stroking Blaine's hair and despite the worried tenor of Charlie's voice and the aftermath of fainting and hitting his head, Blaine found himself relaxing.

"No, he's fine," Kurt assured Charlie, "I cleaned the cut on his head, it isn't deep and he says he feels ok." A pause in which Charlie spoke. "That's probably best. He says he doesn't want to see a doctor until later if he can."

Blaine let his eyes close as Kurt's fingers wound deeper into his hair, his fingernails lightly scratching his scalp.

"Ok, yeah, I will. Thanks, Charlie."

There was the sound of the phone being tossed on the bed and Kurt's hand was withdrawn from his head. He opened his eyes and bit back a whine of protest just as Kurt sat down beside him.

"Charlie said you have to see a doctor this afternoon - he'll text you the time - and he's going to cancel the radio show interview you were supposed to do today." Kurt picked up one of the granola bars from the small pile beside him and handed it to Blaine. "Eat this; you need some food in you."

He accepted the bar from him and ripped the wrapper open. "I could have still done that interview," he grumbled.

Kurt shook his head at him as he took a bite of the bar. "Honey, you need to rest. Look what happened to you because you've been working too hard. You need today off to sleep and have some time to just do nothing."

Blaine finished the granola bar and started on another. He ate it in silence whilst Kurt lightly traced abstract patterns along the back of his left hand and up along his forearm. He swallowed the last mouthful of his third bar and then said, "You don't have to hang around in here all day, you can go out shopping or something, I'll be fine by myself."

Kurt's hand stilled. "Don't be stupid," he said, his eyes meeting Blaine's. "I'm staying here with you."

When Blaine was done eating, Kurt scooped up all the empty wrappers and tossed them in the trash. "Do you want to take a nap?" he asked, standing in front of Blaine. "You must still be tired."

Blaine nodded and took hold of Kurt's outstretched hands. His boyfriend pulled him to his feet and led him up to the head of the bed before letting go of him so he could crawl under the blankets. "Join me?" Blaine stretched out a hand.

With a smile, Kurt slid in beside him, reaching out and pulling Blaine against him before Blaine had to move. Blaine curled up beside him, wrapping his arms around Kurt's slim waist and resting his head on his chest. One of Kurt's hands began stroking the curls back from Blaine's forehead and Blaine sighed contently.

"I love your hair," Kurt murmured after a minute or so, his fingers now running lightly through his hair, curls slipping between his fingers.

Blaine just hummed in response; too close to sleep to respond in any other way. He hugged Kurt a little tighter and let one of his legs slip in-between Kurt's. He thought he heard Kurt murmur something else, but sleep had him by then and he tumbled down into its cloudy depths.

When Kurt woke he was warm and comfortable and the last thing he felt like doing was moving, but from the strength and quantity of light filtering through the curtains into the room, he guessed it was mid-afternoon. A quick glance at the glowing red numbers of the digital alarm clock on the small wooden bedside cabinet confirmed that it was just after half past two.

Moving slowly so as not to disturb Blaine - who was still hugging his waist, though his head had tilted slightly so that his breath hit Kurt's neck in warm, gentle caresses - he fumbled for Blaine's phone which lay a little further down the bed where he had tossed it earlier. His fingers brushed the metal and plastic edge of the phone and he stretched a little further to reach it. Blaine mumbled indistinctly in his sleep and tightened his hold on Kurt. With a small huff of effort, Kurt grasped the phone and slid his hand back across the sheets to his chest and, after positioning the phone off to the side so he wasn't disturbing Blaine any, he checked to see if Charlie had texted about Blaine seeing a doctor yet.

There was a text; a doctor was coming to see Blaine at three thirty. Dropping the phone, he laid his hand on Blaine's head and lazily played with his hair. His boyfriend mumbled again and nuzzled against Kurt's collarbone. Kurt figured Blaine could sleep a little longer before he had to get up to see the doctor. Besides, Kurt couldn't bear to wake him, not with Blaine looking so peaceful and relaxed - the most relaxed Kurt had seen him look in weeks. So instead, Kurt laid there stroking and trailing his fingers through Blaine's dark curls and thinking about nothing in particular.

When the clock by the bed read quarter past three, Kurt pressed a kiss to Blaine's forehead and said quietly, "Time to wake up, honey."

Blaine just mumbled into his neck, his nose brushing the curve of Kurt's throat.

He smoothed a hand over Blaine's forehead, brushing the curls back from his head. "Nap time's over, Blaine."

The mumblings were louder this time, though no more coherent, and Blaine clutched at his waist, shifting a little so he could bury his head in the crook of Kurt's neck.

"Blaine..." Kurt said a little louder in a sing-song voice.

More muttering, but Kurt knew Blaine was awake now. "What was that?" he asked, looking down at the mess of curls by his shoulder.

Blaine lifted his head slightly. "Comfy, don't want to move." His voice was rough with sleep.

Kurt smiled fondly down at him. "I know, honey, but there's a doctor coming to check you over in ten minutes and you need to be awake for that."

"Yes, awake, but not out of bed," Blaine pointed out. "So I can just stay here." He nuzzled back against Kurt's neck.

Kurt pushed at his shoulder. "You could, but I can't and I'd appreciate being able to get dressed before they come." He shoved at Blaine's shoulder again and this time his boyfriend let go of him and flopped down on his back with a loud groan of protest. Kurt slid out of bed and grabbed the clothes he had worn yesterday which were folded neatly on the chair pulled up to the small writing desk. He didn't like wearing the same outfit two days in a row, but he had no choice today. He crossed the room to the bathroom and had almost reached it when Blaine spoke.

"Well, this is no fun," he complained and Kurt glanced over his shoulder to see him sitting up and pushing the blankets back. With a smile, Kurt stepped into the bathroom, carefully averting his eyes from the bath.

When he emerged from the bathroom just over five minutes later - a record for him - he found Blaine had pulled on jeans and a t-shirt and was sitting on the bed eating a bag of chips.

"Want some?" he asked, holding the bag out to Kurt. "You must be hungry."

Kurt shook his head. "I'm fine; I'll order room service later."

Blaine tried to tempt him with chips a few more times, but still ended up finishing the bag himself as Kurt turned down all his offers. Blaine tossed the crumpled bag in the trash and then got to his feet. "I need to gel my hair."

Kurt grabbed his wrist, holding him back. "Your hair's fine, Blaine, and besides, it's only the doctor, you don't need to style your hair for them, and-" there was a knock at the door and Kurt shot a smile at his boyfriend- "you don't have time."

Kurt went to answer the door, leaving Blaine grumbling under his breath about something to do with Medusa. He waited out in the hallway while the doctor saw Blaine. He only had to wait around ten minutes and then the doctor was emerging from the room, giving Kurt a swift smile and a nod, before setting off down the corridor towards the bank of elevators. Kurt entered the room again to find Blaine sitting on the bed on the phone to who he presumed was Charlie. He waited until Blaine had hung up before asking what the doctor had said.

"I passed out because I was exhausted and hadn't eaten enough so my blood sugar was low. The cut on my head doesn't need any treatment," Blaine informed him. Seeing the look on Kurt's face, he said gently, "I'm fine, Kurt."

Kurt took his boyfriend's hand and gave it a brief squeeze. "Ok, but you need to eat a proper meal. What do you want from room service?"

"Whatever you're having."

Kurt scanned the menu. "I'll get you a burger or something; you've lost a bit of weight."

"Whatever, just hurry up and order it so you can come cuddle with me again."

Kurt picked up the phone. "A bit demanding, aren't we?" he observed.

"I hit my head this morning, I think I have the right to be," Blaine responded.

Kurt quickly placed the order for their food and then turned to face his boyfriend, who held out his arms, his eyes large and his lower lip jutting out in a pout.

"Didn't you cuddle with me enough this morning?" He tried to keep the same teasing tone to his voice, but it was hard with Blaine looking at him like that. He took a step closer to the bed and Blaine jumped forward, grabbing him round the waist and pulling him down on top of him on the bed, laughing at Kurt's squeak.

Blaine looked up at him and Kurt could feel Blaine's heart pounding in his chest. "Nope," Blaine grinned, pulling Kurt down to kiss him.