"Come on, Hummel! You can do better than that," Blaine growled as Kurt was punching against his upheld palms. He watched the boy follow the hits with his eyes, focusing on putting as much strength as he could into every beat.

The soft cotton was smoothing itself around Kurt's arms, hugging his biceps tightly like it wanted to break from the pressure of the tensed muscles.

"I'm doing the best I can," Kurt panted as he paused and wiped the sweat off his forehead with the sleeve of his blouse.

He was angry. Kurt always got angry at Blaine when they were at the gym. Because he told him he didn't do good enough. When they were at the gym Blaine wasn't his boyfriend; Blaine was his trainer, his coach. He didn't let back when Kurt started going tired or complained that he would rather go home or go shopping. Whenever they were at the gym Blaine would Kurt over his limits, and Blaine knew that while they were at it Kurt was pissed and annoyed, but it was for his own good and he appreciated it once they were done.

"Your best isn't good enough, then! I can hardly feel you hitting me!" Blaine spat out and kicked a jump rope lying on the floor. The force had the rope hit the wall, the plastic handles rattling as they made contact with the white concrete.

"I can't do it any harder, Blaine! If I try I'm gonna break something," Kurt complained and winced as a duo of girls in neon-colored clothes stopped stretching out and stared at them from a little afar.

"Of course you won't break something. I'm not letting you quit, Hummel!" Blaine groaned retook his position, his gloved hands held to his shoulder Kurt to have a proper angle to hit them.

"Stop calling me that!" Kurt snapped and returned to his own position as Blaine had directed him to.

Left-right-left-right. Straight-straight-uppercut-hook.

Blaine did his best to keep Kurt moving, making sure he would know how to hit right, even if he was faced with a moving target. The problem was that Kurt quickly grew bored and his punches went weak. Naturally Blaine knew he wouldn't exactly go bored if he was in a situation where he needed to defend himself, but if he got in a situation like that at a time that was tired he needed to be able to quickly find that place of strength enough to kick the jerk's ass.

"You're not moving your hips enough!" Blaine said, almost yelled. Oh yes, he was watching Kurt's hips closely. He didn't have enough swing of his hips in his uppercut and it hurt his result. It simply didn't give him enough weight on the contact between his fist and Blaine's palm.

"Fuck this. Get down and plank for me. I'll tell you when you're done. I'm gonna go clean this up," Blaine sighed and started taking off his own gloves.

"You can't be serious," Kurt said, his face a glistening mask of sweat and disbelief, and his voice almost whiney from his lungs working overload.

"But I am! Your performance today has been pathetic," Blaine snarled and dragged Kurt's gloves roughly off his hands.

With a resentful glare Kurt dropped to his knees and palms on the mat next to where they had been working and did as he was told. At least he kept his abdomens tensed and his neck in a straight line from his spine. Apparently he did listen sometimes.

Blaine started putting the props back to the shelves. Some of the guys on the treadmills were watching him, but he didn't care. All he had eyes for was Kurt and how he had reached the point where he was struggling to keep on his hands and not clasp against the mat.

His hair was moist and sweat was covering his pale skin. The position made his pants smooth closely around his firm buttocks and Blaine had to remind himself to get a grip. Kurt's cheeks were flaming and a drop of sweat fell to the mat under him. He was locking his elbows now, his back shivering to arch out of the tension, so Blaine took a few steps closer.

"You can get up now, Hummel. Let's go home and shower," Blaine said and threw a towel at Kurt before he even had a chance to register what Blaine was saying. The white fabric hit Kurt's back and he fell on his belly, his cheek resting wet on the floor under him.

As he got to his feet Blaine shoved a protein shake into his hand and stared intensely at him while he drank it. Blaine always made sure Kurt drank his protein to the last drop – no calories – straight after practice. This wasn't about Kurt growing muscle tissue enough to burst out of his shirts; this was about Kurt gaining strength enough to be the threat rather than the victim, and there was no chance he could do that if he didn't get his protein.

As always they returned to the locker room where Blaine found out their bag. They changed their shoes and Blaine packed down their gloves. Kurt put on a hoodie over his shirt. Then they left the gym without exchanging a word.

They drove to Blaine's apartment in silence and Kurt went to shower the moment they entered the apartment. While Kurt showered Blaine put their gym clothes in the washing machine and walked around naked until Kurt was done. As soon as Kurt appeared with a towel tugged safely around him Blaine walked straight past him and into the shower, neither of them acknowledging the other's presence.

It wasn't until Blaine was finished in the shower and he pulled the curtain aside to find Kurt waiting for him they returned to being a couple. Kurt was in his underwear and had a tired smile on his face.

"Is that gonna take all afternoon? I was hoping to convince you to nap and make out with me before I have to go home," Kurt said softly, his voice bearing clear witness of how tired he was.

"Oh sweet doll-face, I can come with you now if you don't mind me getting you a little wet," Blaine smirked and started drying himself off. He let himself swell in the way Kurt was watching him, paying a little closer attention to areas he usually didn't pay anymore attention to than other places on his body.

He loved teasing Kurt that way, but when the boy started seeming impatient in front of him he caved in and hang the towel on the rack on the wall. He pulled on a fresh pair of boxers that Kurt threw at him and followed his boyfriend to the bedroom.

"Come here and kiss me, you silly airhead," Kurt smiled sleepy.

He was already on the bed and positioned to Blaine's favorite way to lie when they were napping in the middle of the day. Kurt was lying perfectly on his side, waiting for Blaine to come join him so they could be pressed as closely together and kiss until their jaws and lips were too lazy to move.

Blaine grinned and crawled over Kurt to fall down on his side with his one leg still casually swung over Kurt's hip. Blaine's boxers and skin was damp and his hair left stains on the pillow as he clasped his body against Kurt's, and he could feel his cock go half-hard and twitch from the feeling of Kurt's crotch against his own.

The way Kurt licked dozy into his mouth always had his belly clenching together in need. He knew just exactly what that tongue could do to his cock, and sometimes, when Kurt was licking around his balls he wished that he would lick lower, over his asshole. It still wasn't time, though. But soon.

Kurt's fingers were sleepy as they caressed his cheek while their lips moved together. Blaine could feel that he was moving in that hazy way he always did when he was trying to stay awake but was right on the brink of falling asleep.

Apparently he knew Kurt much better than he thought. All the tiny things about him. Like, when he still had closed eyes in the morning and hummed lightly, it meant that he was awake but wanted to cuddle – or that he had a certain routine to go through when he was getting ready to go out. Or when they were arguing and Blaine made a sarcastic joke Kurt would pretend to be even more angry, but the way the corners of his mouth twitched meant that he was amused. Or if Kurt came straight after school and fell directly into Blaine's arms it meant that he had a rough day and just wanted Blaine to cuddle him. Blaine knew it all.

"How are things with school? The jocks still aren't harassing you anymore?" Blaine asked and dragged Kurt in to have him curl up against his chest.

"What?... Yeah, it's fine. They just stare at me and call me things in the halls. It's no big deal -" Kurt muttered and busied himself with the line of hair under Blaine's bellybutton. Another thing Blaine had noticed that Kurt had a habit of; running his fingers over the arrow of coarse hair leading towards his pelvis. Blaine suspected it was because Kurt didn't have such a line, but he had also noticed it became more intense in situations where he wanted to avoid Blaine's attention.

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" Blaine retorted, shocked that Kurt had kept something like that from him.

"Because it doesn't mean anything. I'm used to people whispering about me. Everyone does it. It's always been like that. The only difference is that the jocks says their insults to me instead of when they think I won't hear," Kurt shrugged and ran his fingertips up and down the middle of Blaine's chest.

"Kurt! You have to tell me stuff like that!" Blaine exclaimed sharply.

"I don't want to tell you stuff like that, Blaine. You'll just fuss and overboard with your drama. It's high school, everyone gossips," Kurt groaned and clasped his palm flat down on Blaine's chest.

"I just -"

"I know, I know... You just wanna protect me, and I'm happy that you wanna do that, but -" Kurt snapped, but trailed off.

"Can we just nap, please?" He asked and faked a yawn. He slipped down to lie next to Blaine instead of resting his head on his chest and pretended he was too sleepy to do anything else.

"Whatever. Sleep all the fuck you want," Blaine grunted and made himself more comfortable so he could drift into sleep.

xXx

Next day on work was chaotic. A client had gotten themselves into a verbal fist fight with a supplier and they were now refusing to work together. Next to that one of Blaine's colleagues had been misquoted in a big magazine and was now trying to hold together her client-list.

He didn't get off until 11.30 and he was too exhausted to do anything when he came home. He went straight to take a shower and allowed himself to soak up the hot streams massaging his tensions away.

Once he was done he headed straight to bed. He twisted and turned, but no matter what he couldn't fall asleep. He kicked off the comforter but pulled it back on, he switched sides to lie on, flipped his pillow, but nothing worked. It wasn't until he was lying with his face almost shoved into Kurt's pillow that he gave up.

He got out of bed and headed for the kitchen. He made himself a cup of tea and returned to sit on the couch. He picked up his phone and considered calling Kurt, but turned on the TV instead.

For a moment he watched some sitcom, but he wasn't really paying attention. He kept shooting gazes to his phone. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't sleep when he was so damn tired, but it seemed like nothing helped.

Before he knew it the phone was ringing like crazy, for ages. He was just about to hang up when it was finally answered.

"Blaine? What – do you have any idea what time it is?" Kurt mumbled dissatisfied from the other end of the line. His voice was thick with sleep and Blaine imagined how he would rub the heel of his hand against his eye.

"Sorry. I just – I couldn't sleep, and the smell of you was there and..." He groaned, his palm hiding his face, and realized how idiotic he sounded.

"What? What are you talking about?" Kurt grunted annoyed and a fumbling of fabrics filled the phone before it all went quiet again.

"I couldn't sleep, and I tried sleeping with your pillow instead of mine, and I realized I hadn't talked to you for two days, besides stupid texts, but I missed your voice, and it was all I could think about," Blaine choked out and knew that he had to hang up soon because he was making a complete fool of himself.

Kurt was silent in his end of the conversation. For a moment Blaine considered that maybe he had fallen back asleep when he heard a thick noise.

"Blaine – you can't... you can't call in the middle of the night saying stuff like that. I only have two weeks left of school before summer break, and I need to get right on my tests," Kurt yawned and Blaine felt guilty.

"Tests? You have tests these days?" He spat out, feeling like he had missed something crucial.

"Yes, Blaine. I've told you a thousand times," Kurt snapped at him. Blaine could sense in his tone that he was rolling his eyes at him, but not in the cute way – the way he did it whenever Blaine did something really stupid that made Kurt grit his teeth and ball his fists.

"Shit. I forgot," Blaine apologized, trying to dig out from his memory when Kurt could have been telling him about those tests.

"Just go to bed and sleep. We'll talk later," Kurt bit at him and Blaine didn't even get to wish him a good night before Kurt had hung up.

Blaine stayed on the couch for a moment, staring at the phone in his hand. Kurt had replaced his usual stock photo as background with a picture of he had taken of the two of them together an evening Blaine had been watching the news while Kurt should have been doing his homework, but he was too bored to bother.

Now there was nothing left for him to do than drag himself back to bed where he could mush his face against Kurt's pillow and do his best to forget that Kurt was less than pleased with him at the moment.

xXx

It was Monday night and Blaine was finishing up dinner. Work had been a long and teeth-pulling affair, so he settled for making something simple. All he wanted to do was watch brain-numbing reality TV and drink an entire bottle of wine by himself.

"I talked to Sebastian earlier. He's going crazy from living home, but he and Cooper are keeping up their therapy," Blaine told as he opened the wine, shooting a glance at Kurt behind him.

"Hmm... that's great," Kurt mumbled as he chewed on a pencil, not looking up from his notes.

After Sebastian and Marilyn had left Blaine's place they had moved in with Sebastian's parents as a temporarily solution. It had taken a lot of Sebastian to convince Cooper to try out therapy, but in eventually he had agreed to give it a shot. They had now been to four sessions over two weeks.

"I thought you hated Sebastian, but it seems like whatever you talked to him about helped," Blaine continued, filling two plates as he talked and received grunts from Kurt. He was sitting at Blaine's dining table with his books and notes spread over every free surface in the room.

When Blaine had come home from work Kurt had been there, already deep in revising for his tests. He had excused that he had needed to get out of the house because his brother was playing video-games loudly in the room next to his, and in the living room his dad was watching sports, so he had figured Blaine's place would be quiet while Blaine was at work so he could get some time to put all energy into his homework.

Of course Blaine had been surprised but happy to see him. He did his best to leave him alone, but it was hard when Kurt was in the apartment. He constantly wanted to grab him hard and hold him close for kisses and touching.

"Oh – I got myself out of a trip to LA next month. I would have been away for two weeks if I hadn't avoided it. I hate stupid LA," Blaine chatted, but he still didn't get anymore than a few groans and grunts from Kurt.

"I'm working from home Thursday so we can go boxing. I'll pick you up from school and we can go at it for a few hours," Blaine said as he put a plate of food in front of Kurt. When Blaine sat down with his own plate of food Kurt scowled up at him.

"I can't," he huffed and returned his attention to the open laptop in front of him.

"Why not?" Blaine asked with a raised eyebrow. He poked the sliced cabbage and carrots on his plate, but took a mouthful of chicken instead. Kurt hadn't touched his food, not even paid it a glance.

"Because, Blaine – I have to study. I can't just take off a few hours to punch irrationally at some bag that will never hit me back anyway. It's pointless – this is actually important," Kurt snapped.

"What the hell, Kurt?" Blaine spat out and let his cutlery drop to his plate with a lot of noise filling the kitchen.

As if he had been on fire Kurt shot to his feet. He slammed his laptop shut and started frantically gathering his books and papers. It only took Blaine a fraction of a second before he was next to Kurt with a hand on his wrist trying to stop him, but Kurt shook him off.

"I think I'm just gonna take a break and see you again after my tests," Kurt declared as he shoved his books into his satchel.

Without thinking Blaine grabbed Kurt's shoulders hard and pushed his satchel away, forcing Kurt to face him.

"What the fuck are you saying? Do you want a break? From us?" Blaine demanded. He wasn't sure that was what Kurt had meant, but he would rather ask than be in the dark.

"No, Blaine. I need a break from you. To focus on my tests."

Kurt wrestled himself out of Blaine's hands and started packing away his computer. Blaine was watching him, but didn't move a muscle.

"Fine. I guess you'll let me know when you wanna see me again," he shrugged. What else was he supposed to do? He hated when he didn't see Kurt, but he couldn't exactly force Kurt into spending time with him.

"And... I don't wanna do that stupid boxing anymore, so just... go to the gym alone, alright?" Kurt choked out as he closed his bag.

"What? Burt, Kurt -" Blaine started, but was stopped by Kurt turning his back on him and walking out of the kitchen. In a heartbeat Blaine had smoothed around him and was cutting off his way to the front door.

"Blaine, let me out. I have to go home and study," Kurt said, jaw clenched and gritted teeth.

"I'm not letting you go like this. What the hell is your problem?" Blaine growled and didn't care that he had raised his voice.

"My problem, Blaine, is that you don't give a rat's ass. I've told you so many times that I need to study for these tests. I can't have you wake me up in the middle of the night because you can't sleep. I thought I could have some peace and quiet to revise here but you can't even let me have that because all you wanna do is train that ridiculous boxing. But I quit! I'm not setting foot in that gym again," Kurt snapped, his voice weirdly quivering like Blaine hadn't heard it before.

"I'm sorry if I've forgotten about your tests. But you're smart, it's not like you're gonna flunk or anything. And that ridiculous boxing thing is something I do with you to protect you! So you can protect you. I thought you were having fun," Blaine retorted, suddenly feeling anger bubble around inside of him.

"Are you stupid? I hate it! I hate it so much!" Kurt spat out at him and out of nowhere his eyes were teary.

Shit. I am not letting him emotionally manipulate me like this.

"You hate it? Then why the hell haven't you said something," Blaine snarled, reminding himself not to look directly at Kurt's tears.

"Because I couldn't get myself to do it. I hate you when we're at the gym. You become so scary and bossy. I hate it when you give me punishments in the form of push-ups, or tell me to run faster. I hate it when you stare at me like I'm some lazy chunk of meat," Kurt cried, sobs getting caught in his throat.

Now it was definitely impossible to avoid looking at the tears on his face.

"Why didn't you tell me, Kurt? I'm just... trying to help you," Blaine said and shrugged, not knowing what else to do.

His voice was soft and careful now. He wasn't blocking the door anymore, more so shrunken in front of it as he watched Kurt clinging to his satchel in a tiny frame in front of him.

Kurt gave into the sobs and hid his face in his hands. He looked small and exhausted as he was shaking with the thrusts of his crying. His crying became more violently and Blaine had nothing to do but stare at him.

"Doll-face. Goddamit," Blaine sighed and took a step closer to put his arms around his crying boyfriend, but Kurt pushed him away.

"Don't you 'Doll-face' me. You're such an asshole sometimes. And if you ever just call me by my last name again we are over!" Kurt warned, his voice less than threatening as it came out in broken thrusts of thick crying.

"Would you calm down so we can talk about this?" Blaine retorted, back to being frustrated.

"No. I'm gonna go home. I need a break. Bye," Kurt sniffled and dried his eyes as he walked around Blaine, disappearing into the hall and slamming the door after him.