Jeff

Later that night

                Jeff smiled when his ears picked up on the soft and distant humming coming from the bathroom. Kurt had been in there for at least a good 10 minutes and Jeff didn’t think he was going to come out for at least another 10. He didn’t mind though. When the Dean had called him into his office a couple of days ago to tell him Kurt would be his new roommate, Jeff basically had to bite his tongue to control his happiness. Kurt was such a great guy and he always enjoyed seeing him at the different Warbler gatherings. He tried to get Blaine to invite him along more often, but Blaine always said that Kurt was busy rehearsing with New Directions, or helping his dad out. Westerville was quite far away from Lima, so Jeff understood the difficulty. Blaine usually made it out to Lima to visit his parents more often than Kurt made it out to Westerville to see his boyfriend.

                He didn’t know what it was about Kurt, but Jeff just really liked him. Kurt was so shy when he had first met him, gripping onto Blaine’s hand like a vice. But he warmed up eventually and started to kick everyone’s asses in Mario Kart. Jeff had a vague idea where Kurt was coming from. While Jeff wasn’t quite sure about his sexuality yet, he had been teased and harassed for the last couple of years of elementary school. Jeff had started to bleach his blonde hair even blonder and cut it to resemble this male model he had seen on TV one time. He was an avid soccer player, but he also enjoyed singing and performing in the school musicals. When it came time to graduate, his parents suggested moving to Dalton for high school and Jeff accepted without another thought. It was hard to meet new people, because you just automatically assumed they would be like everyone else who pushed you around at school. Thankfully Kurt warmed up quickly to the Warblers and he eventually became an honorary member of the group.

                While he was sure that Kurt had it much worse at McKinley, Jeff knew that Dalton would be a safe place for Kurt. There was an energy surrounding the school that immediately put anyone who was anxious or scared at ease. Dalton would be a hard adjustment for him at first; the uniforms, especially. He knew that first hand. Jeff, like Kurt, was keen on keeping up with the latest fashion trends. Wearing a uniform had been depressing at first, but later on he appreciated the fact that he really didn’t need to think about what he was going to wear every day for school. While he wasn’t one to read those silly fashion magazines he knew Kurt and Blaine liked to read together, he did like to scour the consignment shops around Westerville and Columbus for any hidden pieces.

                I’ll have to bring Kurt once he’s settled. I’m sure he’ll love it, he thought, smiling to himself.

                Kurt continued to hum in the bathroom as Jeff got ready for bed. He changed out of his skinny jeans and cardigan into loose, worn thin, flannel pajama pants and an old Ohio State t-shirt that his older brother brought home for him a couple of years ago. He un-tucked the comforter and folded it at the end of the mattress and ditched most of the pillows resting against the headboard. He grabbed his laptop off of his desk and booted it up, hoping to watch a movie before he went to sleep. He slipped on his black-framed glasses and started to look through one of his most favourite websites to see if he could find a new movie to watch.

                After he had finally decided on a movie, Kurt had emerged from the bathroom before he could start it.

                “Hey, Kurt, I was just about to watch a movie. Do you want to join me?”

                Kurt stood in the doorway of the bathroom looking adorably sleepy. He was wearing a set of plum coloured pajamas and his cheeks were flushed. His hair was ruffled on his forehead and he yawned widely before replying.

                “Thank you for the offer Jeff, but I think I might just go to bed. Today’s been pretty exhausting.”

                “Yeah, no kidding,” said Jeff.

                After Kurt’s family had left, Blaine had brought him to the common room. Most of the Warblers and some other people who lived in the dorm were hanging out, playing video games or watching TV. Blaine had led Kurt into the room and everyone had excitedly greeted him, unaware that he had transferred (but thinking that he had come to visit Blaine for the weekend). When Kurt had explained that he transferred to Dalton, half the room went up in an uproar and most of the guys were fighting over who go to hug Kurt first.

                Wes had practically keeled over from the thought of potentially having a countertenor join the Warblers and Kurt made sure to ensure Wes was sitting down when he told him that he planned to audition. Blaine caught it on tape. Jeff was pretty sure Wes turned a couple shade of red at the prospect. All through dinner and the rest of the night, Kurt was asked incessant questions about why he transferred. Kurt tried to answer vaguely throughout the night, but Jeff could tell it was breaking him down, little by little. Jeff knew the whole story between Kurt and Karofsky, because Kurt had shared it with him the night they had found out they would be roommates.  He also told Jeff that he wasn’t ready to tell everyone the full story and Jeff promised that he wouldn’t speak a word of it without Kurt’s permission. Kurt had finally decided that he had had enough at 10 o’clock, and Jeff decided to follow him up to their room (but he made sure to give Kurt and Blaine some time to themselves  before he went up).

                “Will you be okay to fall asleep if I watch my movie with my headphones on and the lights off? If not, I can’t go to sleep too, no big deal,” Jeff asked.

                “No! I mean, no…you can watch your movie, it’ll be fine,” said Kurt, stammering a little.

                Jeff looked at Kurt strangely, as if to say, “What’s going on?”

                Kurt sighed and sat on his bed. “It’s weird,” he said.

                “What is?”

                “Every time I’ve gone to a sleep-over, or shared a room with someone, I get this weird anxiety about sleeping. It’s like this weird feeling that the other person has fallen asleep and you’re the only one awake and you keep thinking about it and suddenly it’s the middle of the night because you’re somewhere different and you can’t fall asleep. I hate the feeling of knowing I’m the only one awake in a room full of sleeping people and I get all anxious because I know I’ll be exhausted and I convince myself I won’t sleep all night. It’s kind of horrible, really. I’m just really bad about falling asleep in weird places and when I know that everyone else falls asleep so quickly, I get really paranoid. It takes me a while to fall asleep in the first place; add a strange place and some other people and it gets even worse. The only time it doesn’t happen is when I’m with Blaine.”

                “That happened to me all the time when I was a kid and everyone had massive sleepovers for their birthdays,” said Jeff. “Everyone snored or made weird noises when they slept and the floor was always hard. I hated it. I was kind of like that when I got to Dalton too, but I got over it pretty quickly. My roommate never snored or anything and apparently I don’t either. So you should be okay, man. But I’ll stay awake until you fall asleep, promise.”

                Kurt’s eyes shined at Jeff’s promise. “You’d do that for me?”

                “Of course, Kurt, anything to make you feel comfortable.” Jeff noticed Kurt’s shoulders visibly slump in relief.

                “Thanks, Jeff. I really appreciate it.”

                Jeff climbed out of bed and walked over to Kurt’s side of the room. “Come on, we need to hug.”

                “What?” asked Kurt, laughing at Jeff’s goofy expression.

                “Kurt! We need to hug. As roommates having their first emotional conversation. Come on!” he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

                Kurt stood up and shook his head. He walked into Jeff’s open arms and squeezed his midsection briefly. Jeff did the same. After a quick moment they let go of the hug, Kurt blushing a little.

                “Feel even better now?” Jeff asked.

                Kurt nodded and smiled gratefully. He started to peel back the covers on his bed while Jeff made it back to his own. Before long, Kurt and Jeff were both settled into their respective beds with the lamps flicked off. The blueish light of the screen lit up Jeff’s face and Kurt cuddled into the pillows on his bed, facing away from the glow of the light.

                “Night, Jeff!” Kurt called out faintly from his side of the room.

                “Night, Kurt.”

                He could hear the sound of heavy footsteps pounding the pavement behind him. He didn’t know where he was, or where he was going, but he kept repeating over and over in his mind. Run. Blaine. Keep running. Find Blaine. Blaine? Where was Blaine? Kurt turned a corner, skimming the bare skin of his arm on the rough edges of the brick wall. The scratches on his arm stung; he hissed in pain but he kept running.

                He ran through twisting hallways, past doors that he knew were locked. He wanted to hide from the person chasing him, but he knew he needed to find Blaine. His lungs were burning, but he didn’t stop until he found the gym locker room. In the back of his mind he knew this is where he was supposed to be. He flew through the swinging door and ran into the room, glancing back and forth through the open space to see if he could find his boyfriend.

                There seemed to be hundreds of rows of lockers and they seemed to be connected in a maze-type structure.

                Blaine! Blaine where are you? He called out. His voice was becoming more and more frantic as he ran through the interconnecting maze of lockers. He had to find Blaine, he had to. He didn’t know what was going to happen if he didn’t, but somehow in the back of his mind he knew something really bad would happen.

                After for what seem like an hour, Kurt turned a random corner and saw Blaine, or…at least what he thought was Blaine. The boy in the corner was blindfolded. His arms and legs were bound together with thick ropes. His clothing was tattered and covered in…Is that blood? Holy shit its blood! His arms and legs were covered in bleeding scratches and bruises. The gag keeping the boy’s mouth forced open was also stained with blood. The boy’s dark curls were matted and knotted, looking a mess.

                Blaine! He shouted desperately. A deep groan resounded from the boy, acknowledging his identity.

 Kurt ran over to the boy and sank down harshly to his knees to start working on the knots binding the blindfold and mouth gag. He was able to remove the knots with ease and Blaine’s brilliant eyes were peering up at him in confusion. Kurt removed the gag and started to work out the knots tying Blaine’s limbs together while frantically asking if Blaine was alright.

                “Who are you?” asked Blaine with a hoarse voice.

                Kurt looked up from picking apart the knots at Blaine’s wrists, “Blaine, its Kurt. Your boyfriend. You don’t remember me?”

                Blaine just shook his head. “Where are we? What happened?”

                “I don’t know, Blaine. I don’t know. What did he do to you? Did he give you something? Did he hit your head?”

                “I don’t know,” said Blaine. “Should I? I don’t know what’s going on? I feel like I should know who you are, but I don’t.” Blaine’s voice became more and more panicked and Kurt could see the tears sparking up in his eyes.

                “Blaine, Blaine. It’s okay. I’ve got you now. I’ll finish untying and we’ll run okay? We’ll run and get help before—”

                Rough hands grabbed Kurt’s shoulders from behind and Kurt let out a terrified scream.

                “Tsk, tsk Hummel. Didn’t anyone tell you that you aren’t supposed to untie the prey?”

                Kurt wiggled, trying to get away from his captor. The captor has wrapped his thick, beefy arms around Kurt’s torso and squeezed tightly.

                “The prey?” asked Kurt, terrified. “What do you mean?”

                “I’m done with him now, Hummel. All I wanted was you. I have you now. He’ll be disposed of properly.”

                “What? NO! NO! You can’t do this! BLAINE! BLAINE!” Kurt yelled out. His captor lifted him up and slung him over one of his shoulders.

                “It’s too late, Hummel. But it’s alright; I’ll take care of you now.”

                “NO! NO! NO! Please!” he cried out desperately, kicking his legs out. His captor simply held on to him more tightly.

                Kurt wanted to keep screaming, kicking, something, to escape. He was being squeezed tighter with every scream or sob he let out. His ribs and lungs were aching and he was so tired of fighting.

                “I can’t, I can’t. Please, let me go. Please,” he sobbed.

                “That’s enough out of you Hummel!” His captor flung him onto the hard concrete. Kurt barely registered the pain because suddenly cracked, dry lips were pressing forcefully against his own. He couldn’t breathe. His captor was holding him down and sucking away his breath. He was struggling, wishing for someone to help.

                “Kurt!” a familiar voice called out. “Kurt! Open your eyes, Kurt!”

                Had Blaine escaped and come to rescue him?”

                “Open your eyes, Kurt. Come on!”

                Kurt opened his eyes slowly, expecting to see his boyfriend’s hazel eyes. Instead, he was met with the warm brown eyes of…Jeff? Kurt jumped in surprised and shuffled away from Jeff, who was leaning over him.

                “Kurt, are you okay?” Kurt took in his surroundings. Instead of lying on a hard, concrete floor, he was in his bed. A small lamp filled his dorm room with warm light. He blinked and realized he was breathing heavily.

                “It was a dream,” he murmured. “Right? It was a dream?” he asked Jeff. Jeff sat down next to Kurt on the bed and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

                “Of course it was a dream, Kurt. Are you sure you’re okay? You’re shaking.”

                “Oh god, Jeff. It was so horrible and Blaine was tied up and I couldn’t save him and he grabbed me and I couldn’t breathe and he was kissing me…” Kurt burst into tears as he recalled the nightmare, thoroughly frightening Jeff, who wasn’t the best person to deal with tears.

                “It was just a dream, Kurt. It’s okay. It never happened. Blaine’s fine. He’s right down the hall,” Jeff rambled, trying to soothe his friend. He rubbed his hands up and down Kurt’s arms to try and stop the shaking, but Kurt continued to cry, evidently terrified from the nightmare he just had.

                Jeff felt completely helpless. Kurt was a complete mess in front of him and he had no idea how to comfort him.

                “Jeff, are you sure Blaine’s okay?” Kurt asked in a small voice.

                “Of course he is, buddy. He’s been down the hall in his room all night. Nothing bad could have happened to him there, or I’m sure Nick would have busted in here, absolutely freaking out. How about we go down there? It’s not that late. I’m sure Blaine and Nick are still awake.”

                Kurt nodded meekly and quickly rubbed his eyes on the sleeves of his pajamas.

                Jeff grabbed the lanyard with his keycard on it and reached out a hand to Kurt to help tug him out of bed. Kurt stood shakily, and sniffled.

                “It’s okay, man. We’ll go see Blaine and everything will be okay.”

                Not bother to put on shoes or socks, Jeff and Kurt left their room and began to walk down the hall.

Blaine

                It was a little after midnight and Blaine was contemplating whether he should watch another few episodes of The Big Bang Theory or just go to bed. It had been a long, emotional day today, helping Kurt move into his dorm room. He was tired, but Nick was still wide awake across the room. Blaine had difficulty falling asleep sometimes when Nick stayed up later than he did, because Nick had a tendency to mumble underneath his breath and laugh out loud when watching a movie or television show, even if he knew his roommate was trying to sleep. He wasn’t sleepy enough to fall asleep right away, so he decided to watch another episode and then force Nick to go to bed so he could get some sleep.

                Blaine turned up the volume a little on his headphones and bopped his head along to the theme music as the beginning of the episode, mouthing along to the lyrics. He was absorbed immediately into the episode and didn’t hear the loud knock on the door. He didn’t notice Nick getting up from his bed to answer the door. He didn’t even notice that Nick was having a conversation with someone in the doorway, or notice that Nick was calling his name.

                In his frustration, Nick grabbed a pillow off of his bed and pitched it across the room, smacking Blaine in the face.

                Blaine jumped as the pillow hit him, tugging his earphones out in the process.

                “Nick, what the hell?” he spluttered.

                “Blaine,” Nick said, seriously, tilting his head towards the doorway.

                Blaine’s heart sunk when he saw Jeff and Kurt standing in the doorway. Kurt looked small in his oversized pajamas. His cheeks were flushed and his hair was sticking up in various directions. His lips were significantly paler than normal and his eyes were puffy and red-rimmed. He was shaking and he looked absolutely terrified. Blaine quickly closed his laptop and leapt out of bed.

                Blaine rushed over to Kurt and rubbed his hands up and down Kurt’s arms. “Kurt? Sweetheart what happened?”

                Instead of responding, Kurt launched himself into Blaine’s arms. Blaine wrapped his arms around Kurt’s torso carefully. Kurt’s shoulders were shaking and Blaine knew he was crying, but he didn’t know why. He shot a questioning look over to Jeff, who mouthed, “Nightmare”. Blaine nodded and hugged Kurt tighter.

                “Blaine, oh my god it was horrible. I had this dream where you were tied up and I had to find you. You were beaten and bleeding and you didn’t even remember me when I found you. And then he found me and dragged me away. He threw me on the ground and then he was kissing me and I couldn’t breathe. It was horrible, it was so horrible!” Kurt sobbed.

                “Okay, okay. Shh, shh, shh. I’ve got you now. You’re okay. It wasn’t real,” Blaine soothed.

                “I know it wasn’t real, Blaine. For god sakes, it was just terrifying. I thought I lost you,” said Kurt, detaching himself from the embrace and wiping his eyes.

                Blaine looked at him worriedly. “You know I would never do that, Kurt. Not by choice. Never.”

                “I know, I know. I wouldn’t either. I would never leave you behind.” Kurt leaned in to press a light kiss to Blaine’s lips. Blaine’s palms cupped Kurt’s damp cheeks. He wiped away the stray tears gently with his thumbs and kissed his boyfriend once again.

                “Can I sleep here tonight?” Kurt asked quietly.

                “Of course you can!” said Blaine, tugging Kurt into a hug. “Looks like Nick might be staying in your room tonight, anyways. He’s gone.”

                “I guess I scared him away,” said Kurt, laughing a little under his breath.

                “Hmmm, I don’t think so. Maybe if you were bitching him out about song choice for the Warblers, but not this,” said Blaine. “Nick is very understanding of these kinds of things, Kurt. He used to comfort me all of the time when I had nightmares. He still does, on the rare occasion that I have one.”

                “Mmm, it strengthened your bromance, didn’t it?”

                “Damn straight it did, Hummel.” Blaine winked and kissed Kurt on the cheek. “Come on, let’s get into bed.”

                “Is this okay, though? Are we going to get in trouble?” asked Kurt.

                “No, don’t worry about that right now, Kurt. We’re fine.”

                Blaine un-tucked the covers from the bed and threw most of the unnecessary pillows on the floor. He arranged two pillows in the middle of the bed, and left one laying along the wall, vertically.

                “Okay, go on. You go first,” said Blaine.

                “Blaine, I don’t really like sleeping against the wall,” said Kurt, looking disdainfully towards the bed.

                “You won’t be against, the wall. The pillow will protect you. Plus, I’m pretty sure we’ll be cuddling all night, so it’s not like you’ll be close to the wall. Unless you don’t want to cuddle?” said Blaine, raising an eyebrow.

                Kurt laughed. “Don’t give me that look, I’m going.”

                Kurt climbed under the covers and Blaine followed him. It took a few second of wiggling around before Kurt found a comfortable position. His head was resting right underneath Blaine’s chin, his palm lying over Blaine’s heart. Blaine had an arm wrapped around Kurt’s back.

                “Comfy?” Blaine whispered. He felt Kurt press a kiss to his chest and felt him nod. “Good.”

                “Blaine…?”

                “Yeah, babe?”

                “What if they don’t go away?” Kurt whispered.

                “They will, eventually.”

                Kurt whimpered. “I want them to go away now.”

                “I know, baby. I know,” Blaine ran his fingers through Kurt’s hair. “It won’t happen right away, but I think I know of a way to help. We can talk about it tomorrow, okay?”

                “Okay,” Kurt mumbled. “Thank you.”

                “Anything for you, my love. Now, go to sleep and have sweet dreams, okay?”

                “Okay.”