Chapter 5: Blame

Blaine carried Kurt all the way from he had found him. Blaine cradled Kurt like a baby; he couldn't help smiling down at boy he had once loved. No matter how dire the situation, it was hard to deny how special Blaine felt as he held Kurt's sleeping form against his chest; he could feel Kurt's regular heartbeat. It was the most beautiful feeling he had felt for a very long time.

Blaine carried Kurt all the way to his apartment. It was a struggle to open the door while keeping hold of him but Blaine managed. He carried Kurt to his bed.

"Oh Kurt; who could do this to you?" he murmured to himself. Blaine fetched a clean cloth, wetted it and began to wipe Kurt's face. He was careful around the bruised are of Kurt's face, he also didn't want to wake him. He wasn't sure what to do about the back of Kurt's head, so he decided that could be sorted out in the morning.

Blaine carefully took Kurt's jacket off and hung it up for him. He looked at what Kurt was wearing, skinny jeans and a tight fitted top. It wasn't exactly what you could sleep in but removing any other clothes would just be perverted. Blaine sighed and ran his hand through Kurt's brown locks. They were still just as soft as they had always been despite what must have been years of hairspray. Blaine had never worked out he did it.

Blaine carefully lifted Kurt so he could get at the covers underneath him. Blaine carefully tucked the bed clothes around Kurt, careful not to make it too tight.

"Good night Kurt," he whispered. Blaine headed to the sitting room and grabbed the spare blanket from the closet. Looks like I'll be on the sofa tonight he thought to himself.

Blaine didn't sleep well that night. The sofa wasn't really big enough to pass as a bed and every time he rolled over he nearly fell off it. But mainly Blaine was worried about Kurt. He had a pretty shrewd idea of who might have done it but he was scared to admit this to himself. That would mean admitting that the boy who had had really liked and dated for a few months had just attacked Kurt. How could Jayden do that? Blaine had told him their break-up had nothing to do with Kurt.

Blaine sighed. Tonight had taught him a lot. Firstly, never trust a man whose personality changes quicker than his clothes and also that Kurt really did have things bad. If Trixie and her cronies were anything to go on Kurt really couldn't be very happy. But Blaine decided he would be there for Kurt, he would not act upon his love for the adorable boy; no he would be the supportive friend. It would be hard but he could do that for Kurt. Tomorrow he would cheer Kurt up, make sure his head felt ok and be sure that Kurt knew that Blaine would be there for him.

Kurt woke up. His head felt terrible, it was like he'd just done twenty-seven rounds with the world's strongest man.

"Are you awake, Kurt?" the voice was gentle and so quiet Kurt could only just hear.

"Umm… yeah…" Kurt's voice sounded strange even to Kurt. His words were garbled from sleep, but his voice was also rough and slightly strange from the last night's head injury.

"Here I'll bring your breakfast in. You'll feel better when you've eaten something."

Kurt recognised this voice but, in the delirium of sleep, couldn't quite put a name to it. "Who are you? Where am I?"

"It's Blaine see?" Blaine came up to Kurt and held his hand. Kurt looked up to see the gentle face smiling down at him. "I brought you here last night. You sort of passed out on me and you did kind of agree to it and I couldn't just leave you on the sidewalk."

Kurt smiled back, "Thank-you, I… I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there."

"It's no problem, I'll be back in a sec; I'm just going to get you something to eat."

Kurt sighed and leaned back into the soft sheets in Blaine's bed. Blaine was so good to him it was so hard not to fall again for the dapper young man. He smiled slightly to himself, no matter how hard he tried he could never regret meeting up with Blaine again. Maybe it was the reason he had bruises to the front and back of his head and had passed out on the sidewalk, but he didn't have many friends right now. Hell, Kurt didn't have any friends which were in the same country as him. So he'd take it. Maybe it might not help in the long-run, but he'd been thinking about the long-run for too many years now. It was about time he looked for some short-term relief.

"What are you so happy about?" Blaine gave Kurt an easy smile. Unlike many of the smiles Kurt had seen over the past five years this one reached his eyes and made his whole face light up… not that Kurt fancied Blaine or anything… probably… maybe.

"Just, I dunno… I kinda feel good… as weird as that must sound considering the circumstances." Kurt gave a shy smile, his eyes shining slightly.

Blaine laid down a tray with toast, tea, muffins, cereal and pancakes on. Kurt stared incredulously.

"How did you cook all of this so fast? I can't eat all of this; it'll all go to my hips! All this from the boy who could burn water when we first met!"

Blaine laughed. "Firstly I woke up early, secondly you can take a break from your diet once in a while without ruining your figure and thirdly, I took cookery classes when I moved to England. There was no one else to cook for me so I decided that I'd better learn."

Kurt smiled, "Well I still won't be able to eat all of this on my own… I guess you'd better stay and help."

The two men ate cheerfully that morning, they chatted about clothes and fashion, musicals and stage shows. It was all going pretty well until there was a knock at the door. They were making so much progress. It was weird after all the years and yet they could still talk to each other like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"I'll go get that," Blaine said; already pissed at the person the other side of the door for ruining the good time he was having with Kurt.

"Jayden?" Blaine said surprised at the sight of his ex-boyfriend.

"Hey Blaine, I was just wondering how you're getting on. How is Kurt by the way?"

Realisation hit Blaine like a missile. This was the man who had attacked Kurt; the man who had practically left him for dead on the sidewalk. He couldn't let him get away with it!

"Jayden, I am sick of your games. You have five seconds to leave here before I call the police!" Blaine practically growled the words at Jayden, who looked a little taken aback by the ferocity in Blaine's voice.

"Blaine? Who is it? What's going on?" Kurt made his way up to the stand-off looking at Jayden and Blaine in turn. "You attacked me." It wasn't a question or accusation, Kurt was merely stating it as fact.

Jayden looked from Kurt to Blaine and back again. How did that happen? Jayden pushed his way past Blaine and walked into the bedroom, surveying the bed they had been enjoying breakfast together in.

"Oh… I see how it is!" Jayden was smirking now. He looked almost wild as his eyes took in the scene in front of him. From the way he was looking at it you would have thought there had been a dead body lying on the bed. "Blaine gets to play the knight in shining armour and safe the beautiful Princess Kurt from the evil wizard. I get it." He looked at Kurt with scorn. "You know he doesn't love you, I bet he hardly even likes you! I thought he loved me, and then he just dropped me. And you know what?" Jayden walked right up to Kurt, who flinched back. Blaine took a protective stance in front of Kurt.

Jayden ignored Blaine and looked straight at Kurt. "He'll do the same to you."

"I don't have to listen to you anymore, get out, Jayden, now!" Blaine walked up to Jayden. What did he ever see in him? Jayden stared back.

"What is it Blaine scared I'll scare off Kurt! Don't you think he deserves to see what will happen when you get bored of him?" Jayden's eyes were mocking. He was taunting Blaine. Blaine, who had started the meeting so calmly, was now fighting with himself with all the energy e had not to punch Jayden in the face.

Kurt just stared open-mouthed. His eyes were wide as he took in the scene unravelling in front of him.

"Listen to me Kurt," Jayden said, turning his attention back to the slim brunette, who was practically cowering in the corner. "You can do better than this. As much as I hate to say it, you really could. Blaine was my everything. Then he just left me; one day he just told me he wanted to break-up and expected me to take it. You were just having breakfast with him weren't you? Yeah, we did that too, he made me feel so special; I believed that we would be together forever, ha! Fat chance! No, Blaine just was to use you and leave you!"

"That's not true! Believe me Kurt, this guy is unstable. He hit you in the face last night. He's not trustworthy."

Kurt looked from one to the other. He wanted desperately to believe Blaine and move on, but he was also very much aware of the painful circumstances of how they broke up five years ago. Kurt was torn.

"You know I'm right," Jayden started up again, "you've dated Blaine before. You've had the same thing happen to you. Are you really so stupid to believe that the same thing wouldn't happen again! Well it does, so just go Kurt, move on with your life."

Then it happened. Blaine snapped. He leaned forward and punch Jayden square in the face.

The room fell silent. Kurt stared at Blaine; kind, gentle Blaine. Blaine had punched a man in the face. Kurt had hated Blaine often during their five years of separation; it was always easier to blame Blaine. But Kurt had never thought Blaine could become the bullies he had helped Kurt to defeat. Kurt looked at Blaine, really looked. But now all he saw was a bully from his old school. He saw Karofsky in Blaine, and it terrified him.

Kurt jumped slightly, grabbed his jacket and ran out of the apartment. He hailed a cab the moment he was outside. He could hear Blaine calling after him: "Kurt comeback, I'm sorry I didn't mean it" the sentence was repeated so many times it became a rhythm that faded out as the taxi made its way around the ring roads. Kurt still had no idea where he was going, away from Blaine, only that much was certain.

Blaine walked slowly up the stair to get back into his flat. He found Jayden sitting neatly on the bed, Kurt's bed.

"Well, that's him out of the way for you. Now we can focus on us."

It took all of Blaine's strength not to kill Jayden right there and then; as it was he yelled a torrent of abuse at his ex.

When Blaine was done he physically grabbed Jayden and quite literally threw him out of the apartment.

Blaine sat back down on the bed and cried. It had all been going so well and now this! Kurt had been opening up to him before Jayden got here. It was easy for Blaine to blame Jayden; blaming Jayden made it none of Blaine's fault. Blaming Jayden made him innocent of any wrong doing. But most of all blaming Jayden made it Jayden that had driven Kurt away. Blaine just couldn't deal with the fact that he, Blaine, had just sent away the most important thing in his life. Yes, blaming Jayden would be easy, but blaming himself may be more productive.

Kurt sighed as he took out his phone in the back on a London cab. He found Blaine's number. His finger hovered over the delete button.