“You’re an early bird” Kurt started at the sound of the voice and dropped the spoon he was using with a clang. He turned around and came face to face with Blaine looking at him with a sleepy smile on his face. He looked different than he had the night before, his hair was wild and slept on and there were lines on his face, imprints from his pillows and bed sheets. He was also shirtless. Very shirtless. So shirtless Kurt could clearly see the smattering of dark curly hair that spread from his chest to his stomach stopping before the V outline of his hips.
Kurt blushed furiously when he made eye contact with Blaine again realising that not only had he been staring at his body for a good minute or so but he also hadn’t said anything yet. Gathering his thoughts quickly and composing himself Kurt turned back around to continue making his coffee.

“Well between your sister drooling all over the bed and Mercede’s snoring in my ear it doesn’t make for a very pleasant sleep. I’m also not the kind of person to waste the day in bed.” he finished preparing his coffee and took a seat at the kitchen table, looking up at Blaine as he sipped it.

He started making himself one, using the spoon Kurt already used, licking the milky foam off and stirring his own coffee with it.
“Sounds like a scary way to wake up.” He turned around and leant against the kitchen counter, slowly sipping his coffee, looking at Kurt.

Kurt nodded his head as he reached his arms up to stretch absent-mindedly unaware of the pair of eyes fixed on him until he heard a sharp intake of breath. He looked up instantly and saw Blaine’s eyes open wide staring at Kurt’s upper arm, he followed the gaze and saw the deep purple and blue bruise that covered a majority of Kurt’s shoulder and arm.

“Kurt..” Blaine whispered his name, abandoning his coffee on the bench top; he came and sat next to Kurt at the table, his eyes searching into Kurt’s own. Folding his arms Kurt cast his eyes downward.

“Accidently got into a fight with someones locker, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” he said the sentence light heartedly but he knew Blaine could see through the lie. He looked at Blaine as though challenging him to press the matter further, but he didn’t, he just sighed slightly and sat back in his seat surveying Kurt thoughtfully.

They were silent for a moment, Kurt thought back to the day before when Karofsky had shoved him particularly hard into his locker. He usually wouldn’t have bruised so hard but the door was open and he’s hit the corner, it had even punctured the skin. Kurt’s pale skin was however easily bruised so the blue and purple had covered a large part of his shoulder almost instantly.

“What’s his name?”

Kurt looked up startled, Blaine wasn’t looking at Kurt now, instead he was looking straight in front of him, his teeth clenched and eyes fixed on something non-existent.

“Who’s name..?”

“The Neanderthal who obviously put that bruise there, you have fingerprints on your other shoulder Kurt.”

Surprised Kurt lifted his left shoulder up slightly and saw the red mark that showed four fingers and a large thumb sprawled across it, it wasn’t too noticeable, but it was definitely there. Kurt instantly felt sick, his skin still showed the place where Karofsky had touched him, he felt like taking a thousand showers to try and wash off the finger marks he knew wouldn’t fade for days.

“Kurt..?” Blaine was looking at him now, not with a pitiful look on his face like Kurt was expecting, instead he looked worried, and there was another look, something Kurt couldn’t figure out.

“He, it, it’s complicated.” Kurt muttered, wringing his hands together and casting his eyes downwards.

“It’s not. What does he call you? Fag? Or isn’t he smart enough to string two words together so he just pushes you instead?” Blaine made the horrible words sound almost sweet, even with his voice full of unmistakable disgust.

“He calls me Lady, mostly, sometimes fag. But yes he usually doesn’t say much, just pushes me. Or slushies me.” Kurt sighed. He didn’t know why he was telling Blaine this; he had hardly spoken to anyone at school about what had been happening, or his father for that matter, the one person he could always trust, no matter what. He felt like he couldn’t. That even if he did they wouldn’t understand or believe him, so he kept his mouth closed and took it, took whatever Karofsky threw at him. He was strong he could do it alone.

Except he couldn’t. It was breaking him, piece by piece. Every slushy that was thrown in his face, every time his shoulder came into contact with a locker, it was all slowly tearing him down. And then Blaine was sitting there, his face so full of concern after meeting Kurt for all of ten minutes in total, and he seemed so genuinely worried about Kurt. It made Kurt want to tell him, tell him all the horrible things he’d been through this year, with his father getting sick and Karofsky and the rest of the football players and how he just felt like even though he was surrounded by people that he was just so alone at school it was all he could do not to just scream and run and just never stop.

He didn’t realise that he’d started crying until he felt Blaine’s hand over his, warm and comforting.

“It sucks.” Blaine said. It wasn’t something to try and help Kurt, it was just simply a statement. Recognising that what Kurt going through just simply sucked.

“It, it happened to me. At my old school, before Dalton. It’s the reason Rachel moved to McKinley, the reason I moved to Dalton. I got bullied all the time and it, really pissed me off.” his eyes flashed angrily as he said the last part and the hand not covering Kurt balled into a fist.

“So I ran. I ran to Dalton. The way I see it Kurt, you have a choice. You can take the easy way and run like I did, let them think they’ve won. Or, you can stay. Stay at McKinley, stand up to the bullies, let them know that they aren’t going to change you and that you’re not going anywhere.” he stared into Kurt’s eyes, an almost pleading look filling them.

“If you’re coming to McKinley you’ll be in the same position as me Blaine” Kurt whispered it, his eyes filled with tears.

“I know and it scares me I’m not going to lie. But, maybe I need to, need to finally stand up to those bullies and stop running.” he let go of Kurt’s hand and stood up, smiling encouragingly at him. “We can do it together, that was we won’t be alone” he whispered the last part into his ear, and then left the kitchen with a final squeeze of Kurt’s shoulder.

Kurt should have felt overwhelmingly emotional and burst into tears by that point, but instead he let out a shaky breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and stood up too. He felt like a tiny part of the weight that had constantly been pressing into him had been lifted off of his shoulders, he wouldn’t let fear rule his life, not anymore. He also liked the idea of being able to go through it with Blaine, being able to go through it with anyone when only 24 hours earlier he’d felt so completely and utterly alone.

He walked to Rachel’s bedroom door and found a post-it note stuck to it with one word written on it:

Courage.

He smiled to himself, sticking the note into his pocket, he decided then and there that things would get better, he would make them.