Over the course of the previous week, Kurt had two more lessons with Blaine. After their first day together, they bonded over what happened that day. Karofsky kissing Kurt, Kurt opening up to him, Blaine suggesting to cook with him to make him feel better… (Kurt didn’t mention Karofsky by name for a few days after that, ignoring his existence as much as he could) and Kurt already felt closer to Blaine than to anyone who could be considered a teacher. So close that he almost couldn’t stand it.

Training with Blaine wasn’t like the sai swords lessons he took (for a short period of time) as a child. As much as he wanted to learn how to use and twirl sai swords, it came as a bit hard, at first. It wasn’t the physically challenging aspect of the training that was hard; working out regularly would improve his coordination and tone his muscles and would benefit his dance skills for show choir competitions and future auditions and it wasn’t like he hadn't had to do that kind of training before; he played kicker for the school’s football team and -though briefly- was a Cheerio in Sue’s dictatorial regime, thank you very much. It was simply the hormonally challenging part, though he would never admit it to himself, let alone to anyone else. If that’s what it was called, yes, Kurt felt an attraction when he watched Blaine work out, showing him moves and help him position by holding various parts of Kurt’s body or well, even when Blaine was just there.

Kurt couldn’t give any meaning to what was happening; he was sure he didn’t feel like this when he had a crush on Finn –there was something different this time- He didn’t understand, which left him frustrated more than anything else and of course not to mention that Blaine was 20 and looked like that, he surely had a boyfriend  so, he just decided to back off a little bit until his interest in Blaine somehow lessened.

---

Blaine, on the other hand, was happy to finally be doing something that he was getting paid for and actually be helping someone in the process (even though Kurt wouldn’t admit that he needed Blaine’s help).

Blaine never forgot how he got himself into practicing martial arts. When he came out, his parents weren’t understanding at all. They started off with denial, and when his dad finally saw that he couldn’t “fix” him, they just started to not acknowledge that their son was indeed gay. He knew that his brother had his back on this, but it didn’t help much as he was away at college and never home, so basically, Blaine stood alone.

A very short period of time later, the Sadie Hawkins dance happened. Blaine didn’t only get beaten up that night. The damage wasn’t only his broken ribs. He also lost all the respect he had for the sacred bond of family -especially for his parents who acted as if he was the guilty one when he got beaten up, and believed that he brought the attack upon himself. Blaine started to grow further apart from them every day, and his dad started to treat him as though he had the Spanish Flu, so they just gave him money and shelter instead of affection and set him free. After he transferred to Dalton, Blaine decided to put his money to good use by enrolling in boxing classes.

Things were different for Kurt; he was lucky to have a dad who was very understanding and loving, and he was fortunate to be taking lessons before anything more serious happened and left him damaged. Damaged like Blaine. He was going to help Kurt with this because he knew from experience that everyone needed people to hold on to.

With those thoughts in his head, Blaine climbed the stairs to Kurt’s room after school hours. He started to hear the sound of an acoustic guitar as he got closer to Kurt’s room. He didn’t recognize the melody at first but soon enough someone (Kurt?) started singing the words ‘When the dark of the night comes around, that's the time’.

Blaine, being a Top 40 kind of man, recognized what the song was as soon as the words started. He had never heard an acoustic version and he had to admit that Kurt’s voice flew with it amazingly. It was simply magical. He decided to slow his approach and just listen because even if he wanted to interrupt, he wasn’t sure if he could.

            ‘There's a place I know, if you're looking for a show. Where they go hardcore and there's glitter on the floor’.

Blaine had to hear more of this, and he really wanted to see this too. To his great fortune, Kurt’s door was cracked open a bit and he had his back facing the door so Blaine could choose a spot to watch from and just wait until Kurt was finished.

‘Lose your mind, lose it now. Lose your clothes in the crowd’.

It wasn’t like what he was doing was creepy or something. If anything, he was doing it out of sheer curiosity and the want to not interrupt.

‘Now we're getting so smashed, knocking over trash cans. Everybody breaking bottles it's a filthy hot mess’ 

Blaine was speechless. Hot mess indeed, he couldn’t help but think -instantly feeling guilty- as Kurt danced his way through the song. Well, if Blaine didn’t think dancing was enough of a workout before, he surely did now. And how Kurt practically moaned “Oh…” letting his voice turn breathy at the end of it while waving his body all through it, bubbling his butt when he sang the words ‘And they turn me on, when they take it off. When they take it off, everybody take it off’…

No. This was creepy and completely unethical. He should have been helping Kurt. Burt was paying him to help Kurt. Burt opened his house to him and trusted him and was so understanding and what if he passed by Kurt’s room right then and saw how Blaine was creepily watching his son dance?.. Just no.

Kurt took his hood off and was starting to strip out of his sweatshirt to reveal his red tanktop when Blaine finally decided to go into the room. He spotted Kurt’s iPod docked to a set of speakers and took the liberty of pausing the song. Kurt protested “No Dad, not this again -I’m not even in a unitard this ti-” and stopped in shock when he saw it was Blaine instead of Burt.

Blaine didn’t know how he was supposed to feel, he didn’t know how much Kurt could read from his face. Say something, he thought. Say anything before this evolves into staring. “Well, I’d like to learn about that unitard.” he blurted out. Great, Blaine, eloquent as always, fucking stupid is what you are.

Though apparently Kurt didn’t dwell on the sentence as much as Blaine did. “Well, my dad and I had a situation like this one last year when I was dancing to Single Ladies with a unit— No wait why am I even telling you this?” Blaine was unsure about what to say but thankfully, Kurt saved him the trouble. “Yeah, anyway, I didn’t know we were training today”.

“Yeah, I asked Burt for an extra class this week to work on the punchbag so that we can start next week with a little bit more focus.” Blaine explained Kurt. “That is of course, if you’re up for it too.” he added quickly.

“Well, you’re the Tim Gunn here” Kurt shrugged. “We’re going to train at your place?”

“Yeah, I thought so. I came here to pick you up.”

Kurt grabbed his bag –pre-packed with towels and extra clothes in case of slushie incidents at school– and muttered a quiet “Ready” and led the way down the stairs.

--

The ride to Blaine’s was mostly quiet, almost awkwardly quiet and even though it was a short drive, Blaine thought that the radio would be a good idea. Maybe he could get Kurt sing again? As he turned the radio on he heard Justin Bieber –an overly-played song despite the fact that it had no musical value whatsoever- and started to mindlessly search the other stations, slowing after each one to hear the song. He heard the original “-the animal comes alive, looking for something wild” being sang and he immediately turned the radio off, without risking a glance at Kurt -so quickly that he wasn’t even sure if the song had registered with Kurt yet. Then he thought about that last part of the song they have just heard and he couldn’t help himself when he suddenly burst into laughter. He contained himself and looked at Kurt apologetically, thinking this was getting out of hand and that he was going to embarrass both of them to death pretty soon. Kurt obviously didn’t think so. His confused look turned into a smile, which turned into a grin, which turned into laughter (which sounded like angels sighing to Blaine’s ears) and Blaine finally let himself go. He didn’t have to try too hard (like he mostly did in the past) when he was with Kurt and that wasn’t easy to find so Blaine thought maybe he’d really gain a friend out of this arrangement. Maybe his perky personality (which oftenly came as weird to other people) would be okay with Kurt. Maybe, just maybe, you won’t screw this up, he said to himself while they neared his driveway.

—

“So, we’re gonna work with your punches today,” Blaine explained cheerfully. “We covered most of the basics of core training at your place. Just remember to use what you’ve learned. You’ll just have to use your legs mostly, shift your weight, and it’ll be fine.” He thought for a second. “Oh, and we’re going to punch for three minutes then stop and rest for one. I’ll go first.” Blaine positioned himself in front of the punching bag, hoping he hadn't sounded too enthusiastic.

Three minutes later Blaine stepped aside so Kurt had room to start punching. He kind of looked like he had no idea what he was doing, but that was beside the point. Blaine just wanted to make Kurt try so he could see that he could do this.

Kurt threw a few punches at the bag. They were a little too stiff and sloppy – lacking technique – but they were still strong and full of potential.

“No, no. Just... Bend your knees like this…” he bended over to get Kurt’s knees into position. No funny thoughts, not a single one, no, null. He stood back up  “Now bend your arms from your elbows, your knuckles should be pointing to the air.” He moved up to Kurt’s arms and helped him to get into the right position. (Not that Kurt couldn’t do all of these on his own but he was just helping Kurt and saving them time, where was the harm in that?) Next up he wanted to make sure that Kurt’s fists were solid enough so he moved to his hands, slowly squeezing Kurt’s fists and adjusting them a little bit. His hands lingered on Kurt’s a bit longer than necessary, his eyes moved to Kurt’s from his hands and - did Kurt look flushed?

“Relax, Kurt,” Blaine managed to say. “Your arms should be as relaxed as possible. And hunch your shoulders down a bit.” He moved to Kurt’s back and pushed his shoulders down a bit. “Yep, you’re ready to go”.

Half an hour later, Kurt looked tired. Blaine was pleased; he thought this session has been really effective and worthwhile. He suggested that they go upstairs and eat so that Kurt could rest a little bit before they would start training again a little bit later.

“We can order something if you want?” Blaine suggested, hoping to cook with Kurt again; the last time they cooked together was really fun and he liked how it made him feel close to Kurt. Besides, he was wondering how Kurt was doing at school with his bullying problem so that he could understand if what they were doing in training was actually helpful or not.

“Actually, could we cook again if you have… stuff?” Kurt asked shyly and Blaine couldn’t help but grin.

They decided on Pasta with a good pesto sauce but this time, they didn’t cook in silence.

“So, tell me about yourself Blaine. What are you studying?” Kurt asked casually, as he put the pasta into a saucepan full of boiling water.

“Oh, I don’t” Blaine answered. “I mean, I was studying Law but I dropped it this semester. It would be the end of my second year if I’ve stayed,” he said, grating the Parmesan.

“Well, college wasn’t what I expected.” he added after seeing Kurt’s confused looks.

“So what are you doing now?” Kurt asked.

“Training you?” Blaine laughed. “No, but seriously, I came back to Lima to figure out what I want to do with my life. I didn’t want to study law in the first place - my parents kind of forced me to,” he explained bitterly.

Kurt smiled understandingly. “I don’t know what I want to do either. I mean yeah, singing’s in there somewhere. Obviously, I can’t not sing, but other than that…”

Oh, so there it is, the singing. Blaine took a mental note to have some music playing the next time they cooked together to see how their voices blended, already hoping that there would be a next time.

“So, what about… that Karofsky kid?” Blaine asked as they were eating, trying to sound casual rather than pushy, careful not to distress Kurt. Although against his efforts, Kurt’s face fell.

“The harassment only gets worse. And not only him, there are others too, although Karofsky’s still the worst.” He waved his hand like it was nothing but Blaine knew that he cared.

“Hey, don’t do that -don’t act like it’s nothing. It’s not. I can see that it’s affecting you, Kurt.”

“No, but really, he didn’t even try to pull something like that again. It’s only been tossing into the dumpsters, throwing slushies on me or pushing into lockers. Well, more than usual, but just that.” Blaine grimaced in sympathy. “Oh, although, Karofsky does look at me with more anger than usual. I didn’t know that was possible.” Kurt quickly added in a soft voice.

“Are you afraid of him, Kurt?” Blaine asked bluntly. He was as surprised with himself as much as Kurt was. Neither of them thought Blaine would ask this so openly. Blaine knew it wasn’t easy for a 17 year old kid who’s trying to stand up against being bullied to admit he was afraid. Kurt looked at Blaine in silence, a little bit puzzled.

“Do you feel like you're in danger, Kurt? You being safe in school is the most important thing -never forget that,” Blaine said sincerely. He cared about Kurt and it was important to get that message across.

“I…” Kurt struggled for words. “I do. I am.” His voice was hoarse and there were tears in his eyes, waiting to fall down. “I’m scared, Blaine.”

He didn’t cry. Blaine did everything in his power to not hug Kurt tightly, instead settling for wrapping one of his arms around Kurt's back reassuringly.

“Hey,” Blaine called softly, his voice more like a whisper. “Why don’t I come to pick you up from school on Monday and after that we can go to your place to train, and maybe I’ll pay this kid a visit while I’m there?” Please say yes, Kurt, please say yes.

Kurt opened his mouth but stopped and closed it without saying anything. After thinking about it for a couple of seconds he said, “Yeah, okay, why not?” Although he was obviously unsure and still scared, he was smiling.