Monday at school was no better than the week before. Kurt didnt even want to show up, but he didnt want to give the jocks the satisfaction, either. He needed to show Karofsky that he was untouchable. Between a stolen kiss and a death threat, Kurt wasnt thrilled at the prospect of seeing him.

The rest of the social on Friday night had been uneventful, but the talk that Darcy had had with Nightbird had helped a lot. He had chosen to take the advice to heart and remember that he had a whole crew of heroes to back him up and a town that never wanted him to leave. He wished that Blaine was there to offer him words of support through the day, to remind him about the heroes and keep him focussing on how the LARP that night would go, this week at Hadleys house.

His phone buzzed at the end of his first class for the day.

Blaine A. You can be a hero yourself, Kurt.

Blaine A. Courage.

Kurt didnt know how to reply, but he didnt think that Blaine needed a response. Kurt just smiled down at his phone, happy with how one tiny word could change so much.

It only took a few hours before Karofsky stopped helping Kurt feel like he was untouchable and started to attack him again. He seemed to have amped it up since the kiss, clearly trying to assert his heterosexuality for his jock friends. "Hey, fairy!" he called, and Kurt just kept walking down the stairs to get to his class in the rapidly clearing hallway, "you like to spend time on your knees, right?" Karofsky taunted. The hair on the back of Kurts neck began to rise as he felt someone walk up behind him. There was a hand on his back and a shove, and then everything went black.

Kurt didnt even remember what had happened when he woke up in the nurses office with his dad standing over him, shaking his arm lightly.

"Kurt?" Burt asked gently, "You awake, buddy? The nurse says that I can take you home so long as you can stand up."

Kurt lifted his arm to rub his eye and winced at the shooting pain through it. "mwake," he grumbled, "I wanna go home now."

"The nurse said you had a pretty nasty fall. Youre lucky not to have broken anything, but you hit your head, bud, completely blacked out. You might be a little concussed." Kurt sat up slowly and shakily got to his feet, looking around the room. Finn was sitting in a chair and looked petrified. "You can go back to class now, Finn. Kurts up and hell be fine." Kurt wasnt sure he believed that, but he was willing to pretend.

"Thanks for your help," the nurse said to Finn.

"What did he do?" Kurt asked. He really had no understanding of what had happened between Karofskys hand on his back and him waking up in the nurses office. He wanted to blame the concussion for that, but having fainted altogether really didnt help at all.

"His friend Noah found you during class and the boys carried you in here, since you were out. We decided not to ask what Noah was doing out of class."

"Well, it doesnt take much to guess when its Puckerman," Kurt said.

"Not the point," Burt said, "he helped out, okay? Now lets get you home."

Kurt fell asleep as soon as got into his bed. He felt awful in every aspect of the word. He was dizzy, he couldnt look at his phone for his eyes being light sensitive, and he couldnt concentrate on anything. Every time he tried to do anything he found himself tuning out and completely forgetting the small details of everything going on. He wanted to vomit. To make everything worse, his whole body ached. He was a bit fuzzy on the details of the fall, which everyone told him was normal for a minor head injury, but he knew one thing- that he didnt fall at all. He was pushed.

Carole brought dinner up to his room and he thanked her for it, before realising that dinner time probably meant he had missed the LARP session and he hadnt even told anyone that he wasnt going to be there. He hoped he wasnt screwing up the plots too much by not being there.

When he finally braved squinting at his phone again, he had a handful of texts from various members of the roleplay.

Blaine A. Are you coming tonight?

Blaine A. Looks like Nightbird is getting stood up tonight. Dont worry about it or anything, I hope youre okay?

Marley R. Are you avoiding us or something?

Luke G. Hey man, we missed you tonight. I take it that it was sudden, since no one knows where you are. Just let us know youre okay, Kurt. Unless you arent. Then let us know how to fix it.

Hadley G. B says ur ignrn hm. U rnt tho r u?

Erica L. Everyone is all worried about you all of a sudden but I told them you were probably fine and to stop worrying. Give me a call and Ill let you know what went down tonight when youre ready.

He wasnt sure how to react to the messages, and decided that Ericas was the most rational and that he would definitely need to call her as soon as he had texted the one person who was arguably more important.

Kurt H. Sorry Blaine, it was a big day and I slept through the session. I doubt my dad would have let me go anyway :/ reschedule that date that Nightbird got stood up for?

Erica answered on the second ring. "Kurt! Nice to hear from you."

"Hey, Erica. Sorry that I missed the session. Everythings fine, nothing to worry about."

"Okay, thats great. Did you just get like, twenty-four hour flu, or...?" she asked.

"Um, no, I fell down some stairs and have been asleep for the last few hours, but nothing serious. Ill be back playing on Wednesday, promise." He didnt think he sounded very convincing, and Erica certainly didnt sound like she believed it either.

"Alright, well, Ill let you go sleep some more or whatever. Ill let everyone know that youre okay. Nothing interesting happened; I put off the major plot until you were there. Darcy is kind of important."

"Can you just mention that Im not ignoring anyone and it just hurts to look at my phone too much?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah, sure, Ill pass that on. Do you want me to tell them that you fell?" Erica sounded concerned, but Kurt was glad that she gave him the option.

"Oh, no. I dont want to give them any reason to worry about me."

"Okay, Kurt. Get better. Well see you soon." They said their goodbyes and Kurt hung up to see that a text had come through.

Blaine A. Yeah, of course :) get some rest, Kurt.

He was asleep just about as soon as he finished his dinner.

Burt refused to let Kurt go to school the next day so that he could recover. He found himself on strict bed rest even without either of his parents there during the day to enforce it, simply because he found that every time he moved he had balance issues. It took him much longer than he was proud of to think about turning down the brightness on his phone, but once it was sufficiently dulled he was able to use it without any hassles.

He started by sending a text to Tina and Mercedes, versions of the same thing- telling them that he wasnt at school because he wasnt feeling very well, but not to visit. They agreed to organise people from his classes to inform him of the homework.

Kurt realised very soon that being stuck in bed all day was boring. He had nothing to do and no one to entertain him, and he couldnt very well get up to collect anything without living in fear that he would fall over or drop something. Carole had brought him water bottles and food to last him the day so he didnt have to make it any further than his desk to get lunch or snacks, and the bathroom was close enough that he didnt worry about it too much. He did have his phone though, and he thought that it could be enough.

Kurt H. Are you in class?

Blaine A. Yeah, arent you?

Kurt H. ...and youre going to risk texting me?

Blaine A. Indeed, but you didnt answer my question.

Kurt H. Im not. Im at home on strict recovery.

Blaine A. I hope you feel better soon :) need entertaining, then?

Kurt H. Yes! Not to distract you from your studies, or anything.

Blaine A. Its fine, it isnt like its an important class and its nearly over.

Kurt grinned to himself. It wasnt every day that the guy you had complete and utter crush on wanted to text you so much that he put you before his classes. Or at least, it wasnt every day that it happened to him. Come to think of it, most guys he knew would take any distraction from their school work. Blaine was at Dalton and surely they were stricter about phones in class than at McKinley.

Kurt H. I wont even ask.

Blaine A. Nick and Jeff are in this class too, they can fill me in later.

Kurt H. Do they do ANYTHING without being together?

Blaine A. Not really. Theyre kind of a package deal.

Kurt had noticed that they seemed permanently joined at the hip. Apparently it was a wide spread thing and wasnt confined to the roleplay.

Kurt H. Are they like, a thing?

He wasnt sure if that was something he was really meant to ask. Luke had given him numbers on the gay characters versus the gay players, and he couldnt work out exactly where the overlap was.

Blaine A. In an officially official way, no. But theyre really close and neither of them likes to talk about sexualities.

Kurt H. And you predict...?

Blaine A. Theyre going to date in the future, but the times not right yet.

Blaine A. Ooh, class is over! Home time :D

Kurt H. So I can stop worrying about distracting you?

Blaine A. You have no faith in my attention span.

Kurt H. Because youre like a puppy personified. You know, judging from all the times youve actually stuck around long enough to hang out.

Blaine A. My parents keep me on a short leash.

Kurt H. Ah, I see.

Blaine A. I messed up, that wasnt an intentional puppy pun.

Blaine A. Unless you like puns.

Blaine A. I know youre on bed rest, but are you up to visitors?

Kurt H. Not that Ive told anyone.

Blaine A. Im on my way to Lima now, so it was just a thought.

Blaine wanted to visit him. He was never going to stop that boy from seeing him, not now and not ever.

Blaine A. Also, sorry if I take a long time to respond, Ethans a chatterer and he has sing-alongable music tastes.

Kurt H. Oh? What business do you have in Lima?

Kurt H. And its fine, my short term memorys still not great and I have to keep rereading your texts to remember where I was going with this.

Blaine A. Ethan always drives me over on Tuesdays after school. Hes there for Leo while Im there for Hadley.

Oh. He drove all the way over to Lima to see Hadley weekly outside of the roleplay. Maybe they really were a couple. With everything that had been going on with Nightbird and Darcy, Kurt had let himself hope that Blaine was gay, since Nightbird was so openly out and proud about it. It wasnt an assumption he should have made, especially with what Luke had told him. He decided to change the topic.

Kurt H. Leo and Ethan are cute together.

Blaine A. Yeah, we like to call them Lethan. They have been together for so long now that they may as well be one person.

Kurt H. Theyre as joined at the hip as Nick and Jeff.

Blaine A. Niff :3

Kurt H. Do you do this with every couple you encounter? Also, who is "we"?

Blaine A. ...Maybe? I like portmanteaus. Ive never had one for Luke and Erica. Hadley and I, mostly, but she calls them "ship names".

There he was with the Hadley talk again.

Kurt H. I like Ericuke. Except Lerica probably flows nicer.

Kurt H. Wait no, Lurica.

Blaine A. Lurica it is. Theyre a bit better at being their own people.

Kurt H. What about Nightbird and Darcy?

Blaine A. Hmmm... Darcebird.

Kurt H. Nightarcy?

Blaine A. Okay, I like that one better. No fair, youre too good.

Kurt H. Im sorry, its a talent I didnt know I had.

Blaine A. Aww, embrace it!

Blaine A. Kurt, I need to go now, Hadley needs my full attention, more than school.

Kurt H. Its fine, I might take a nap or something.

Blaine A. Kurt, are you okay?

Kurt H. Totally.

Blaine A. Now answer it honestly.

Kurt H. Im not so great.

Blaine A. I really need to go now, but call me in about twenty minutes to talk about that, okay?

Kurt H. Thank you.

Exactly twenty-one minutes later, Kurt called Blaine, feeling like he could actually survive a conversation about the stairs encounter. He hadnt managed to tell his dad that he was pushed yet, or even that Karofsky had threatened him the way he had the week before. Burt knew about the bullying, but he didnt know that it had ever gotten quite as bad as it had.

The phone rang, and rang, and rang.

Finally, after dialling for a second time, the phone was answered. "Hello?" spoke a voice, far more feminine and high pitched than Blaines smooth voice.

"Um, hi? Is Blaine there?" Kurt asked. It was a reasonable question, considering that it was Blaines phone that he had called.

"He went to the bathroom. Can I help you?"

"...Who am I talking to?"

"This is Hadley," the voice , of course it was. They were close enough to answer each others phones.

"Can you tell Blaine that Kurt called when he get back? I mean, he asked me to call him now..."

"Why would you call him?" she snapped. Kurt had always thought that Hadley was such a sweet young girl, but this side to her was entirely different and he didnt know what to think. She was incredibly defensive.

"He asked me to, like I said. We were going to talk about some stuff," Kurt said, trying to give her reason enough to stop without saying Im concussed because I was pushed down some stairs by a closeted jock yesterday, which he hadnt really told anyone and he was sure that she wouldnt understand it.

"Stuff? The kind of stuff you cant tell me about, huh?"

"Yeah, its quite personal and doesnt really concern you."

"But hes my boyfriend!" And there it was. Every suspicion that Kurt had was seemingly confirmed in one sentence. "Hadley, is that my phone?" Kurt heard Blaine say in the background before the line went dead. Kurt felt like crying.

Blaine called back less than five minutes later. Kurt waited a couple of rings before answering, so that he didnt seem too eager. "Kurt?" Blaine said with his voice full of concern. It made Kurt feel calm almost immediately.

"Yeah, hi," he said, "I didnt mean to interrupt anything with Hadley..."

"She told you we were dating." Blaine sighed.

"She did."

"We arent dating." Kurt wasnt sure how to respond. "Hey Kurt, Im done here now, are you up for a visitor?"

"Um, yeah, sure. Youll have to let yourself in though; I cant really get downstairs by myself. I dont think that Finns here yet otherwise I would ask him to do it."

"Okay, I can manage that. Ill just call Ethan to say Im at yours instead of Hadleys, and then Ill be right over." They said their momentary goodbyes and Kurt put his phone down and started counting items in his room again.

True to his word, about fifteen minutes later there was a knock on the front door followed by the soft click of it opening. "Kurt?" Blaine called out.

"Upstairs, first door on the left," Kurt called back, and then waited as he heard the sound of Blaines footsteps on the stairs. He knocked softly on Kurts bedroom door too before he stepped inside. "Hey," Kurt said, suddenly remembering that he hadnt done his hair all day. Why couldnt that have been what he did while Blaine was on his way over?

"Hey, Kurt. We have a lot to talk about now, dont we?" Blaine said with an uneasy laugh, pulling Kurts desk chair up to the side of the bed. Kurt sat up against the headboard a little more.

"Where do we start?"

Blaine took a deep breath. "What happened at school yesterday, Kurt?"

"If you want yesterday to make sense we need to back up a bit."

"Ive got time."

It was Kurts turn to inhale. "I have been bullied well, my entire high school experience, even before I came out. The jocks were so damn sure that I was gay that they would yell at me from across the hallways. I got tossed into dumpsters by guys who are now my friends, took slushies before everyone else did."

"Slushies?" Blaine asked.

"Its a thing at my school, where you get an ice cold drink with too much food colouring thrown in your face- not nice. I swear they are kept a lot colder at McKinley than anywhere else. Ive been keeping a spare change of clothes in my locker for a long time."

Blaine nodded, not as though he understood but to show that he was listening and trying to get it. "And who is everyone else?"

"Im getting there- theyre the Glee club. We ended up right at the bottom of the food chain. Glee club geek and the only out kid in the whole school? Shark bait. But its not just the jocks, you see, because I somehow was landed with my own personal tormentor. This jock- Karofsky- he slams me into lockers almost daily, yells homophobic slurs whenever he passes me. Yesterday he pushed me down some stairs, thus the concussion."

"Wow."

"Yeah. One of the footballers in Glee found me passed out and he and Finn carried me to the nurses office."

"Who is Finn, anyway? Is he your... boyfriend?" Blaine asked, almost timidly. Kurt laughed.

"Oh god, no. Hes my step-brother. I did have a huge crush on him, but it passed when our parents started getting closer."

"So do you have a boyfriend, then? Someone who would get all jealous about you roleplaying one half of Nightarcy?"

Kurt shook his head. "Ive never really dated anyone."

"Yeah, me neither. Especially not Hadley. I had a talk to her about that."

"Did she really think you were dating?" Kurt asked.

"I dont think so. She can just be a bit dramatic and got caught up in the moment, Id say." Blaine shrugged.

"So if you arent dating, why do you come all the way to Lima to hang out with her?"

"Im paid to," Blaine said. Kurt looked at him in confusion. "I tutor her. She has dyscalculia and needs a bit of a push in the right direction, so I help her out with her math once a week. Thats all."

"I did think that she was a bit young for you," Kurt said. Blaine laughed.

"And female. I thought you knew that I was gay, Kurt."

"You just... seem really straight? Like, too good to be true."

Blaine raised an eyebrow at Kurt. "And Nightbird wanting to be the first openly gay superhero didnt tip you off?"

"Luke told me that including me there are four gay roleplayers and four gay characters but that the overlap wasnt perfect." He could feel himself blushing a bit, but he tried not to talk himself down with his reasoning. Surely Blaine would understand where he was coming from.

"Ah, thats because we have Leo and Ethan as players, but only Hawkbeak and not Carlton as characters. The last is character is Nicks, Drew slash Dovetail. But as I was saying earlier, theres an undisclosed sexuality there."

"Oh, okay." A moment of silence hung between them, but it wasnt uncomfortable.

"Do you want to talk some more about the bullying? Have you told the school?" Blaine asked.

"We told them a while ago and they didnt do anything. Things with Karofsky have gotten worse recently, though. They might listen again."

"Have you told your parents yet? That you were pushed?" Kurt shook his head.

"I dont know how much worse it would get if I told people."

Blaine sighed and made sure to look intently at Kurt. "You cant just keep it quiet, Kurt, otherwise you wont ever get justice. Thats what I did. I ran."

"You were bullied?"

Blaine took a deep breath again. "It was the Sadie Hawkins dance at my school- my first school, not Dalton- back in my freshman year."

"Arent you a sophomore?"

"Right, my first freshman year, I should have clarified. Anyway, there was this dance at my school, and I had just come out and it had all gone fine. I asked my friend, who was the only other gay kid I knew. Sometimes I think that given a bit more time we could have been something more, but we never quite made it that far. It was after the dance, and we were waiting outside the school for his dad to come and pick us up. Out of nowhere these three huge guys, must have been seniors, they just... attacked us. I was tiny back then, hadnt quite made a growth spurt yet, and I was on the ground in moments. But they just kept kicking me, and I was crying, and..." Blaine paused, and Kurt reached out to take his hand, pat his shoulder, anything. Blaine shook his head, as though he were coming back to reality. "I dont remember what happened next, but I was in hospital for a long time- so long that when I transferred to Dalton the dean suggested that I would benefit from repeating the year, and thats what I did. Dalton is my safe space, and I guess I get used to conforming there, but I needed that. I still do, a lot."

"Thank you, Blaine," Kurt whispered.

"Can I hug you, Kurt?" Blaine asked. Kurt nodded, and Blaine sat down next to Kurt on the bed and wrapped his arms around him, and Kurt did his best to reciprocate. For someone who had been almost a stranger just a few hours earlier, Kurt felt incredibly comfortable with Blaine, and their conversation had helped him so much.