Kurt was bought back from his literature induced reverie by Finn poking insistently at his shoulder. He hadn’t even heard him enter the room.

“Dude, mom’s been calling you for ages, dinner’s ready”

“I’m not really hungry” he said quietly, not looking up from his book. It was the same one Blaine had picked up that time he stayed. It had been his parents that time too.

“Oh…well shall I tell them that r-“

“No” he breathed “I’m coming” he placed the book aside and shuffled after Finn. His seat was waiting for him, right beside his father, as it always had been. No matter what.

“There you are” Carole said chirpily “I wanted your help with something but I figured you were listening to music so I let you be. Dig in!” he fell down into it and picked up his fork, pushing his rice around the plate uselessly.

“You okay kid?” his father said around a mouthful of peppers “you’re quiet”

“Fine” he said tiredly “I’m fine” he tacked on a small smile for good measure.

There was silence for another ten minutes

“Are you sure you’re okay Kurt?” his father spoke up again. Kurt placed his knife and fork over the half eaten meal on his plate “you’re never this quiet”

“May I be excused please? I don’t feel very well” he watched his father glance in Carole’s direction and then nod.

“Okay, but Carole’s made this strudel-“

“I’m not hungry but thank you” he said shortly and pushed himself up, making his way to his room quickly before falling face down on his bed.

Kurt had been through various rough patches in his life. Losing his mother, coming to terms with his own sexuality and then the fallout from that. The mental stuff, Elwy, Karofsky…what separated them were brief instances in which he felt fairly okay in himself. Weeks or months or even years when the road would level out and he’d find time to breathe.

Right now he felt like he was being squeezed tight by an iron vice.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t experienced this before, the prejudice and the ignorance that came from that. Being verbally shot at by his boyfriend’s father however…that was something entirely different. It hit with a different sort of velocity; the kind that knocked you breathless and stunned before leaving you hurt and confused. It wasn’t something he could just let roll off his back; it wasn’t something he could brush under the rug. He couldn’t escape this because if he wanted to be with Blaine, his parent’s came with it.

Then why was it that he felt so damn conflicted?

The word fag echoed around his head, not quite penetrating his tough exterior but doing enough damage to make him want to curl into a ball and never see the light of day again. He’d considered calling Blaine, knowing it would be idiotic to drive back over there but something held him back. He didn’t know what was going on and what a call might do. But he worried; he worried as if his own life depended on it because he knew what Blaine’s father was capable of. Or at least he had a very strong idea.

Which was why he was almost trembling with anticipation to see Blaine safe and well the following day.  

A soft knock came from the direction of the door and Kurt shimmied up into a sitting position as his father stepped into the room.

“Hey bud, just wanted to make sure you were okay” Kurt smiled and wiped quickly at his cheeks.

“I’m fine, no need to worry” he said, maybe a little shakily.

“Hey, I’m smarter than you give me credit for you know, especially when it comes to my own kid. You gonna tell me or do I have to call Blaine?”

“Don’t!” he said quickly “erm I mean, you don’t have to. Please don’t”

“Kurt if this is something to do with him-“

“It’s not. Not him specifically anyway” his father shot him a confused look, closed the door behind him and pulled the desk chair over the side of his bed

“Okay now you gotta spill” Kurt opened his mouth and closed it again. He glanced towards the book on his nightstand and sighed.

“It’s nothing…really. Just, some stuff his dad said. They’re not like you guys towards…him”

“You mean for being…?”

“For being gay yes” he confirmed, nodding. His father sighed in response and clasped his hands in front of him.

“Well I’m sorry to hear that, he’s a nice kid” Kurt couldn’t help the slight smile

“You like him?” he asked curiously. His father shrugged

“When you were younger I never thought you’d ever smile like you do with him. I mean of course you’ve been okay and meeting Elwy helped but you’ve been happier since meeting him.” Kurt chuckled

“Yeah, I know what you mean” he’s everything. “I just wish he had a dad like you” his father’s expression hardened

“Am I going to hear what has you so upset or…?” Kurt bit his bottom lip and scratched awkwardly at the back of his neck. When the silence stretched Burt sighed and pushed himself up. “I’ll let it slide, for now, but sort it out alright? I don’t want to get involved” he nodded and dodged his father’s hand as it came to ruffle his hair. “You know you could humour me at least once, I can’t reach to ruffle Finn’s” he shook his head and left the room, allowing Kurt to fall back onto his bed and pick up his book again.

He flicked through it, stopping at various poems until his heart did a funny jolt in his chest and he paused to read one through fully.

“And I waterd it in fears

Night & morning with my tears:

And I sunned it with smiled,

And with soft deceitful wiles.”

He let the book fall against his chest, brow furrowed. He’d gotten out of that something a touch different to its intention. The poem itself, Kurt thought, was about enemies and foes of the literal human form but the verse could be taken as anything you oppose – even yourself. Or your fear.

He thought about Blaine, and about Elwy. He thought about their fears and the way they smiled when Kurt knew deep down a crack was stretching inside their chests. The way they laughed when their minds buzzed with uncertainty or doubt. The way Kurt’s heart dropped every time he realised he couldn’t do anything about it. But he had to; he had to find a way to make things better, for them both. They were it for him, his two most important people outside of family. He thought about the future and the past and everything that was the present.

But mostly, he thought about Blaine.

 He woke the next day before sunrise, rising to shower hours before he even had to hit snooze on his alarm clock. He was too awake and too worried to get back to sleep and the hot water was soothing. He made a breakfast of fresh fruit and porridge and then sat by the patio doors and watched the sun creep lazily up into the sky. As soon as he heard movement upstairs he wrote out a note explaining that he was leaving early and whizzed out the door without a glance backwards.

He drove as fast as the limit would let him, maybe speeding through a couple of ambers and eventually reached an empty parking lot and a desolate Mckinley. He pulled up into his usual space and stepped out; resolving to spend the morning in the choir room until he knew Blaine would be waiting by his locker. He shouldered his bag and strode quickly towards his destination. When he reached it however, he stopped dead, shocked at the person half lying across two seats at the back of the room.

He stepped over, dropping his bag and crouching below his face before rubbing gently at his temple. His head jerked a little underneath his hand

“Hey, Blaine it’s okay, wake up it’s me” the boy shifted a bit and then without warning shot up into a sitting position, waving his arm around madly. Kurt fell backwards onto his ass, eyes wide. Blaine took a moment to recognise him but when he did his frame relaxed and he reached out

“God Kurt don’t…I’m sorry…What are you doing here?” Kurt pushed himself into a seat and brushed off his jeans.

“I think the correct question would be what are you doing here?” Blaine rubbed his eyes tiredly.

“Woke up early, figured I’d come in.” he shrugged. Kurt watched his face in concern, noticing the dark circles under his eyes and the way he sat unnaturally straight. “What about you?”

“The same actually” he swallowed and lowered his voice “I couldn’t stop thinking about you yesterday, about what happened. I was waiting for you to call” Blaine flinched a little

“Oh, I’m sorry. About all of that. I…I didn’t expect him to be home. I didn’t want you to see that”

“No kidding” Kurt said under his breath “is you…was he okay with you? After I left?”

“Erm yeah, yeah he was…a bit angry but he was fine” he distracted himself by fussing at his bag, making Kurt a little more than suspicious. “It’s Cooper’s first day today” he said, quickly changing the subject. Kurt’s brow tightened even further

“Yeah, right, is he looking forward to it?” he asked, not wanting to push too hard.

“I guess so” he shrugged and then flinched again. Reaching up to rub at his shoulder softly.

“Hey are you sure you’re okay? You know you can tell me” Blaine turned his head and flashed one of those chest crack smiles and then seeing that it wasn’t doing to the job he intended he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Kurt’s. Kurt did mean to just let it happen, not to sink into it because there was something more to this and kissing him wasn’t going to help but then Blaine’s hand was resting gently on his knee and his mouth was open and he didn’t care that they were sat in the middle of a public school, he lost himself. In Blaine. In his smell and touch and taste. He let Blaine’s hand wander up his thigh to his hip and moved his own to rest on the side of his neck, gripping onto the muscle to ground himself. Blaine pushed forward a little, making Kurt grab a hold a little tighter to balance himself and the reaction wasn’t at all what he expected. Blaine gasped and pulled back, eyes blinking as he moved his shoulder from beneath Kurt’s grip.

“Shoot” he muttered, stretching his neck to the side. Kurt sat stock still

“I-I’m s-sorry” he stuttered, confused and taken aback “did I…I don’t-”

“I wasn’t...ah…it wasn’t you Kurt…ow shit” he started to rotate his shoulder, wincing as he did so. Kurt licked his lips.

“Can I…? Maybe I can help” Blaine’s eyes shot open and he glanced towards the door. He was fighting with himself, Kurt could tell. This wasn’t some Californian romcom where every hidden truth came pouring out of their mouths after a few weeks of knowing each other. Blaine could easily just walk out. And yet if he had felt what Kurt had felt all this time, that there was no need to run from this, from them…maybe this wasn’t going to be as difficult as he anticipated.

“I…okay” he finally said, resigned. He turned his body and allowed Kurt to pull down the neck of his shirt.

His breath caught instantly somewhere in his throat and suddenly he was blinded, blinking away tears.

“B-blaine” he whispered “what did he…did he do… Blaine…”

The bruises had blossomed quickly, darker lines here and there but the entire top of his back tinged a pale purple, radiating heat. Kurt touched lightly, tracing one of the lines until Blaine jerked

“Sorry!” he said instantly, getting a hold of his voice “Blaine why didn’t you…I don’t understand” he shifted his shoulder and turned back to Kurt, adjusting his shirt.

“I didn’t want to worry you” he murmured, not meeting his eyes. His voice was low, steady, calm “that’s why I wanted you to leave. I thought he might do the same to you”

Kurt sucked in a breath, torn between fully fledged adoration of Blaine’s bravery and also anger at him just pushing him out like that.

“Blaine I could have helped you! Does Cooper know? He doesn’t, does he?” Blaine shook his head.

“And he can’t know Kurt, if he did we’d end up getting into a hell of a lot of trouble and I don’t want that. I just want to get through this year without any trouble” he said calmly, placating.

“And what about when I’m not here huh? When nobody knows about this stuff?”

“I’ll deal, like I always have”

 Kurt sat back against the seat and stared around the room. This was too much for so early in the morning. “I think I’m going to be sick” he muttered, closing his eyes against the sudden nausea he felt building in his stomach.

“Kurt?” Blaine asked tentatively, reaching for his hand. He held it tightly, letting Blaine ground him as he got a hold of his senses again. Once it passed he turned back, a steely determination fuelling his voice

“You have to tell someone. I can’t help you enough you need to tell someone-“

“Kurt…” Blaine groaned

“No! If you’ve got some form of Stockholm syndrome that stops you from seeing what he’s doing to you…“

“Kurt no what do-“

“…I’m not strong enough for this Blaine!” he said loudly, snapping Blaine’s mouth shut for him. He turned to look him in the eye “I can’t hold everyone together. Not you and Elwy. Not both of you. I need you both, and I want to be there for you both but I can’t do everything. I need you to meet me halfway Blaine. I need it.” he gripped his hand in an effort to get across how important this was. Blaine sat and looked at him for a minute before nodding slowly.

“O-okay. Okay. You don’t have to. We’ll sort it out” Kurt relaxed into a breath, leaning forward to rest his head on Blaine’s chest.

“I know I’m going to lose Elwy at some point, even if we do eventually get him back. I can’t live without the both of you. I need you Blaine”

“Shhh okay” Blaine said, stroking his back. “It’s okay”

“But it’s not” Kurt breathed, sitting straight again “is it? Look at us, both barely pulling through. Do you ever stop to think that this wasn’t a good idea?” the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Blaine pulled back slightly, lips moving wordlessly “I just mean” he rushed, trying to save the situation “I mean before we knew so much about each other. Now, I don’t have any doubts” Do I? No, no I don’t.

“Oh” Blaine said “okay. Right” they fell into silence, hands still clasped. Kurt was about to suggest they go get ready for class when a chattering admin came almost skipping into the room followed by-

“Cooper!” Blaine exclaimed. The admin stopped talking and looked between the two

“Blaine, hey! What’re you doing here so early?”

“Woke up early. So did Kurt”

“Oh yeah, Kurt, hi!” he waved briefly and then looked away, the tips of his cheeks flushing the palest pink. Kurt swallowed and did the same. He wondered if he’d ever be able to look Cooper in the eye after what he’d walked in one. “Mrs Connelly here was just giving me a tour. Thank you, I think I got it from here” he shot her a wink and she flounced out of the room, looking a little off balance.

“Have you got like an office and stuff? Can I see it?” Blaine asked enthusiastically, surprising Kurt a little but then again if his father had turned up here he’d try his best to look and act like normal. He’d only glimpsed it in short spurts but Blaine was the bright and bubbly brother. That’s how Cooper saw him and that’s how it would stay. Blaine was quite the dedicated actor.

“This is McKinley Blaine, not Dalton. The arts aren’t exactly all the rage here” Cooper replied, rolling his eyes “I actually have to chill here apparently until your Glee dude shows up so he can familiarise me with the theatre-y stuff.”

“You’re not going to speak like that when you teach right?” Blaine commented lightly. Cooper rolled his eyes

“Have faith little bro, I can be quite the professional when I need to be. Bu now, I just gotta chill here with you guys until…” he glanced at his watch “…okay looks like we’ll be here for a while.” Kurt chewed his lips, knowing what a labour it was going to be to sit and act as if they hadn’t just been having a heated and passionate discussion. Cooper was observant, it would come up eventually.

“Oh” Kurt said “well I can show you the auditorium and stuff now if you want? I know it all pretty well and then you can get Mr. Schue to show you the specifics this afternoon? He has no lessons. I know because he always turns up to Glee on a Monday with a fresh cup of coffee and-“ he looked up to see both Anderson brothers staring at him blankly. He swallowed “Follow me”

He took Blaine’s hand in the corridor, knowing for now that it was safe to do so. Cooper walked behind them, looking into various rooms as they passed.

“This place is huge” Cooper spoke from behind them. Kurt turned with a smile

“You get used to it” his eyes caught Blaine’s face on their way back round. He looked distant. Kurt squeezed his hand.

“Earth to Blaine?” He joked, nudging his shoulder for good measure

“Huh?” his head snapped up. Kurt sent him a ‘you okay?’ face to which Blaine replied with a ‘later’ nod of the head.

They’d known each other a month and they were already acting like an old married couple.

They entered the auditorium from the back, walking down towards the stage.

“Well here we are. Enjoy.” He let Cooper skip ahead and pulled Blaine down into a seat at the back of the Stalls.

“Are you really okay?” he asked as soon as Cooper was preoccupied enough not to listen. Blaine had his gaze set on a light fixture above him. He shrugged.

“A little…unsettled. I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep this up with Cooper around like, all the time” He chucked humourlessly and rubbed his eye.

Kurt thought, worrying his lip between his teeth. His eyes were drawn back to Blaine’s face; the dark circles under his eyes, the dryness of his lips.

“How much sleep have you been getting?” He murmured, switching a glance over to their companion who was still happily mapping the place out from upstage.

“A bit. Not as much as got at yours but enough to keep me going I just…” He stretched out his neck and turned to look at Kurt “I don’t want every conversation we have to be about this. It’s all we seem to talk about”

“I know” Kurt said slowly “but we can’t pretend we’re not both struggling. I want to help you Blaine”

“And I want to help you. And Elwy, if I can. But if we spend all of our time and energy on that we’re going to lose out on all the good moments like…” Blaine lowered his voice another notch “our date in the meadow” Kurt smiled and dipped his head, cheeks lighting up.

 “Okay, okay maybe you’re right. Why don’t we…go out. Again. Just the two of us. We could go to Breadstix or something.”

“Are you asking me on a date Kurt Hummel?” Blaine teased. He giggled in response, heart lifting at the warm smile spreading across his boyfriend’s cheeks.

“That depends on whether you’re going to say yes or not” he said, equally as teasing. Blaine rolled his eyes

“And what are you going to do if I say no?”

“Well there is a whole manner of things I could or could not do” he whispered, moving into his personal space

“Is that right?” Blaine breathed. Their lips were millimetres apart when Blaine’s brother spoke from two rows in front of them

“Alright, break it up lovebirds. I am of now officially a teacher here and I say no macking in the auditorium. Especially in front of me. I don’t need those images.” Blaine dropped his head to Kurt’s shoulder and then turned to glare at Cooper. Kurt sucked his lips into his mouth and brushed himself off to stand.

“Of course Mr. Anderson, we’ll be on our way now” he held out his hand to Blaine and pulled him from the auditorium, seeing Cooper send a thumbs up in Blaine’s direction as they exited into the hallway. The school was finally beginning to fill up.

“So” Blaine sighed, pulling them off to the side “This date”

“How about we make it a full day date” Kurt said in a rush “We could go get coffee and hit the mall. Lunch and maybe a movie and then you can come to mine for dinner. And we won’t speak a word about any of the stuff that’s going on with us.” Blaine’s lips twitched

“That sounds…like a brilliant idea” he answered brightly. Kurt clapped his hands.

“Okay yay, erm I’ll double check with my dad tonight but I can’t see him saying no”

“I’ll tell my mom I’ve got some shopping to do, she won’t mind.”

Kurt’s face fell.

“Of course” he said a little sadly. Blaine tipped his head to the side, frowning

“I’m sorry. It’s just…easier, for now. Until things are a little more solid with them. I promise we’ll sort it out but until then…I don’t want to give any reason for him to hurt you” Kurt nodded and squeezed Blaine’s hands “But we aren’t going to speak about that. I am going to look forward to my date with my beautiful boyfriend. Have a nice day!” he pulled Kurt around as he made for his locker, blowing him a kiss as soon as they dropped hands. Kurt held back the grin and shook his head in disbelief.

Yes, Kurt Hummel would have a nice day. 

Elwy Williams was not having a good day.

For one, he’d fallen asleep at his computer desk the night before, meaning he woke up in the early hours of the morning with terrific backache and a dry patch of skin where he’d drooled disgustingly onto his hand. Then he’d missed his alarm and woken achy and shattered to Brandon having already left and no way to get to school. He’d had to walk meaning he barely made it in for his first lesson and then had to run home at lunch because he’d forgotten his gym stuff. He was blown out before the afternoon class even started.

When he did finally make it in fro lunch he found Blaine and Kurt sa too close together, whispering quietly while they exchanged meaningful looks. He took a seat, watched them for less than a minute and faceplanted the table.

“What’s up sugarplum?” Kurt asked happily from his place across from him. Elwy propped his chin on an arm and glared at them both.

“Not that I’m not glad you two are a thing now or whatever but in the name of the Falcon could you two knock it off with the lovebird thing. You’re like a honeymooning couple or something”

At his words, Blaine sat a little straighter and exchanged a concerned glance with Kurt who merely shrugged and turned back to his sandwich.

It was infuriating.

“Oh my god seriously” Elwy pushed himself up again, hands laid out flat on the table. This was starting to get a tad annoying “You two have known each other for like a month and you can talk with looks.”

“It’s skill”

“It’s sickening. Most couples can be married for years and never have that sort of synchronicity. It’s alien I swear”

“Actually” Blaine started “Caskett could talk through looks in about the same timeframe”

“Oh I know right?” Kurt agreed “Those two have each other’s names written across their souls I swear”

Elwy watched the conversation progress with a mixture of disgust and intrigue. Who the fuck are Caskett?

When it finally reached ‘I much prefer Kate’s hair season 2” he pushed himself up abruptly, waved and left the room, making a beeline for the locker room before he could be dragged into another one of their Vogue comparison conversations.

It surprised him, his weird aversion to Kurt’s hobbies since he’d returned. He’d always been able to stand it before hand, normally nodding and agreeing and adding in a relevant comment here and there. Now though, it was like every mention of fashion or Grey’s Anatomy put him on edge.

He changed slowly, settling down on a bench once e was done. It only hit him then how much he really wasn’t in the mood for this right now. When the locker room exploded with action, he made his way outside and waited for further instruction.

Luckily, his teachers had been warned about possible volatile behaviour from him so they mostly let him get on with whatever; lifting, running. Today it was the latter. He did an uncountable number of laps and settled for a cool down circuit, walking with a water bottle in one hand and a towel over his shoulder. He’d run himself dry, sweat making his shirt cling to his chest and back so uncomfortably he wanted to rip it from the seams. Then the anger came back, the anger that had been making odd appearances in odd circumstances all weekend. It was irrational and he couldn’t put it down with a cause but it filled his like a medicational dose of adrenaline and had his legs itching to be used He was about to pick up pace for the last two hundred metres when a pair of hands shoved him forcefully to his knees, sending tiny explosions of pain across his knee caps and up his thighs. A singular laugh went up and he gritted his teeth as he clambered back to his feet, turning to glare at the source of the shove.

“What the fuck Puckerman?”

“I’m sorry, what was that? I can’t understand. I don’t speak whatever language you’re speaking” he sneered. Elwy rolled his eyes and turned to continue walking. There was no point rising to the bait. He was to sore to anyway. “Hey!” Puck called, a few paces behind him. Elwy stopped again, turning on the spot with his fist clenched. The one that wasn’t wrapped around the water bottle. “I wasn’t done talking to you. You think you can just pop back into everyone’s lives like some kind of magical leprechaun?”

“I’m Welsh you idiot, not Irish”

“Whatever. Point is I don’t like it. Everyone around here thinks you’re this big softy and I don’t know what’s going on with you but you sure as hell better understand I’m not going to let you screw up anything anyone has going on here”

Elwy groaned and rolled his eyes, realisation tugging at the corners of his lips.

“God you’re so predictable and you can sure as hell hold a grudge. An unfounded one at that. Jesus” he shook his head and turned back around. Puck grabbed his arm after he’d taken less than two steps. He span and twisted out of his grasp, shoving him in the chest “get your hands off me. Feel free to think what you want about what happened freshman year, but Kurt, Mercedes and I all know the truth”

“You think everyone will believe you over me? I’ve been to juvie you dork. People are scared of me” he spat, shoving a thumb into his own chest

“Yeah okay, you tell yourself that. Because I most definitely, am not. Your head is just as big as your record” he reached down to pick up his discarded towel before moving off again.

He actually made it ten metres before Puck’s foot punched into the bottom of his back.

He lurched forward, trying his best to roll off to the side and prevent scratching up his knees again. Puck was on him in a second, straddling his stomach and pulling his arm back for the first punch. It hit him full force, knocking his head back into the grass and disorientated him for a moment. A second blow swiped across his cheek, sending speckles of blood from his bleeding nose across the side of his face. He anticipated a third but then Puck was being lifted off him and coach Beiste was crouching next to him, brushing the hair out of his face and removing his wonky glasses. He felt an arm underneath his back and moaned as he was pulled to his feet. He smiled.

“See you later Puck!” he sputtered as he was half dragged across the field into the locker room. He was shoved down onto a bench against the lockers and seconds later Sam was wiping at his face with a damp shirt.

“Dude, what did you even say to him?”

Elwy flinched as Sam mopped him up, apologising every now and again. He shrugged

“I don’t know, we have history, a complete misunderstanding. I was the Luke to his Han and there was a girl, imagine her as Leia and-“

“I get it. You don’t have to explain; ‘Leia! Leia is my sister!” Elwy burst out laughing, clapping his thigh

“Oh man that was brill. Where have you been all my life?”

“In a cupboard under some stairs. That’s-“

“Starkid, yeah. Well well well Sam Evans, who knew such a nerd, was lurking right underneath my nose.” Sam shrugged and fell down next to him

“I guess I spent so much time here surrounded by ignorance of the sheer awesomeness of everything that is fandom that I just stopped looking.”

Elwy grinned, flinching as little a pain lanced through his cheek “Have no fear, your salvation is here” Sam chuckled and let his head fall back against the lockers.

There was a short stretch of comfortable silence.

“So are you actually going to explain what happened between you and Puck then or?”

“Oh. That” he dabbed a little at his cheek, feeling the swelling grow. “He was dating this girl but he messed her up and she was upset. I walked her home one night because she was going through a rough time of it and I knew how that felt. Anyway, he followed us and for some reason thought she was getting off with me which I of course denied” he took a deep breath and let it out as he continued to speak “he threw a punch and instead of him, she defended me which only fuelled the fire. Kurt appeared then, with Mercedes, and they broke it up. He just got the wrong end of the stick. Held a grudge I guess.”

“Jeez” Sam breathed into the silence.

“Eh. He hasn’t changed much” Elwy commented, nodding slightly “not that I expected him to. He said he’d been to juvie?”

“Oh yeah. I actually came after that happened but apparently he drove a car into an ATM”

Elwy let out a low whistle.

“Well then. I mean I know-“ he jumped when the phone in his pocket vibrated. “Hey, excuse me a sec” he frowned at the caller, not recognising the number. It was British. His heart jumped into his throat

“Hello?” he said uncertainly as he answered, swallowing hard against the sudden dryness of his throat.

“Hi, is this Elwy? I wanted to make sure, It’s Mr. Jones”

“M-Mr. Jones, yeah it’s Elwy, what is it? Is Lily okay?” he pushed himself up, jogging around to his locker and fumbling to get it open

“She’s…something happened, they don’t know what it is yet but she wanted me to call you.”

He froze, hand stilling on his clothes. “w-what do you mean they don’t know what it is?”

“She was in for a check up a couple of days ago and she was fine but she…she collapsed in class and they brought her-“

“Wait what? Why was she in school?” he croaked, voice growing in pitch and volume “she said she wasn’t in school!” Sam stepped around the corner and shot him a confused glance. He shook his head and started to pull out his clothes, switching his phone to speaker and pressing his finger to his lips in Sam’s direction. He nodded but looked just as confused. Elwy began to change, not bothering to shower. He could hardly hear Lily’s father over the frantic beating of his heart.

“She’s been going in half days three days a week, said she was too bored to stay at home. It was driving her crazy Elwy. I just…I figured you should know”

“But I don’t even…” he rubbed a hand over his face, wincing as he remembered the swiftly blossoming bruise “I was skyping with her last night. She was fine, happy and cheerful”

“Cheerful? She hasn’t been like that with us for a while. Something to do with the medication she was on. They put her on a mild anti depressant just to deal with everything. She’s been grumpy and angry all month”

“H-has she been anywhere over the last couple of days? Away from home I mean?” he could feel his hands beginning to shake with the suspicion building in his mind. He just hoped…he hoped…

“She...was actually. She went to stay at her grandmothers in Rhyl over the weekend. Why do you think-“

“Go to her room, check her meds” he shoved his locker door shut and picked up the phone again, flicking it off speaker. “Could I call you back? I need to get home and check some things”

“Sure, I’ll call her sister and get her to check everything that we have home. Do you think she’s…not been taking them?”

Elwy stilled again, closing his eyes. When he spoke he was hardly in control of his voice

“I sincerely hope not, but I…she’s like that.”

“I…okay. Speak to you later”

“Hwyl” he hung up and rubbed a hand across his face again, not even noticing the pain anymore? “I gotta get home” he breathed, moving around the locker room collecting his things.

“Are you kidding, your face is like a freaking…I don’t…you can’t drive like that man”

“I didn’t drive here anyway”

“You can’t walk all the way-“

Well can you drive me?!” he snapped “you heard half of that conversation. I don’t know you well Sam but my girlfriend could be dying right now and I am here, thousands of miles away. I need to get home. Can you get me there?” he was breathing heavily, hands balled at his sides. He forced himself to relax and slung his bag over his shoulder “I’m really not in the mood to argue Sam, can you or not?”

Sam watched him, apparently a little taken aback. Elwy rolled his eyes and turned for the door. But Sam stepped after him, grabbing the handle ahead of him

“Okay” he said quietly “Alright, I’ll drive.”

“Thank you” Elwy sighed, closing his eyes for a flash longer than a blink.

They made it halfway across the lot when Puck came barrelling out, stamping his way towards them with death in his eyes. 

“You!” he grunted

Elwy threw his hands up in frustration. “You can piss right off; I am not in the mood.”

“Yeah dude seriously lay off this is stupid” Sam said, stepping between them

“You weren’t even there Evans”

“I didn’t have to be. He’s good guy, just leave him alone”

Elwy went to move around him and he began to breathe heavily through his nose when Puck stepped with him.

“Puckerman, I broke the nose of the last person who got in the way of me so I would move your arse out of the way before I do the same to you”

He laughed.

Elwy bashed him straight in the face.

He reeled backwards, falling hard on the floor. Sam let out an almost laugh and then patted him on the back, pushing him forward.

“You’re gonna get it bad for doing that man” he murmured, gesturing towards Puck who was trying to stagger himself straight.

“Well I don’t give a fuck” he muttered “Where’s your car?”