Day 1 (continued)

Walking down the corridor, his bag left in Dr. Pillsbury’s office, Kurt felt like an innocent man walking the green mile. Except a person who walked towards his execution chamber knew what would happen to him. For what he knew, he might end up like a victim of Ice Truck Killer.

Doing his best to stay positive he tried to convince himself that a small amount of blood would be enough for them and he could go. He forced himself to think that it would be just like one of his annual blood donations. But the men on each of his side were telling a different story. Not that they talked, but their existence itself was unnerving.

One of the men, Dave if Kurt wasn’t mistaken, pushed him into the elevator once it arrived and the door opened. Kurt rubbed his upper arm but stopped himself from snapping at the man who was almost twice his size and whose colleague was probably the tallest man Kurt had ever seen.

Once the door closed Kurt looked up to see which floor they were going to. He was surprised to find out that it was the top floor. As far as he knew, PAG corp. told everyone that the top five floors were still not furnished. Maybe they would take him into an empty room and drain him.

The elevator quickly went up and in no time the door opened to reveal the sight of a lab with glass walls across the corridor. Everything looked just like the lower floors except, he noticed, the equipment was the most up-to-date. He could swear that the newest version of the robot ‘Adam’ was finished only last week and it still wasn’t on the market. That is, if the article wasn’t lying.

“This way,” the other man – Finn – pulled Kurt by his upper arm.

Kurt was about to say that he knew how to walk but he glanced at the man’s gun and all his courage disappeared.

“Kurt! Hey, hi,” Kurt heard a familiar voice once they rounded the corner. “I told you I would see you later today and I was right!”

Kurt frowned. “You did, but you forgot to mention that I would be your lab rat.”

For some reason Kurt found himself braver. He blamed it on Blaine’s warm hazel eyes that looked slightly bigger through his thick glasses. His looks just screamed harmless.

“Oh, Kurt, you are not a rat…You are my lab human,” he smiled widely, his eyes shining brightly.

“That totally makes me feel better,” Kurt murmured, eyeing his ‘bodyguards’.

“Good to hear that, Kurt,” Blaine said oblivious to Kurt’s sarcasm. “You are really brave. If I were you I would be scared shitless. And your hands aren’t even shaking anymore. I call that progress.”

At that moment Dave cleared his throat and made Blaine look up at him.

“We should get going,” he smiled at Kurt. “If you don’t mind, I would like to take some blood first so I can start working and then we will get you settled.”

“Settled? What do you mean settled?” Kurt panicked even more if that was possible.

Blaine shrugged. “We can’t really let you go because you know a bit too much and we need fresh blood for the experiments. So we have kind of an apartment for you.”

Kurt stopped walking. “What? Please, I promise I won’t tell anyone! I don’t know anything and who would believe me anyway? I could come every day or twice a day and give some blood just please, please don’t lock me in here….”

From the look on Blaine’s face he could tell that even though the man felt sorry for him, the pleading wouldn’t get him anywhere. In that case, Kurt decided to not make his life easy.

Blaine, apparently, either had a secret ability to read minds or was good at reading people. “If you don’t cooperate, I will have to sedate you and I would hate to do that. Now, come here, I will show you where I work.”

Kurt bit his lower lip and followed, Finn and Dave behind him. Blaine led them to the furthest corner and scanned his card to get into the lab. Kurt couldn’t help but gape at the things around him.

“Holy shit, is this ADEGO-400?” he gasped.

“Yes, but we are getting the newest version next week,” Blaine said and started getting ready for the procedure. “Sit down, Kurt.”

Kurt wanted to argue but he didn’t want to be sedated so he sat down slowly. “Do you think ADEGO-500 is much better than this version?”

Blaine looked at him confused. “We aren’t getting 500. That one is rubbish. We are getting the 600.”

Kurt frowned. “But the 500 was released last month. They haven’t even started working on the next version.”

The other man found it amusing because he snorted in the most adorable way. “The world is half a year behind. Welcome to the future.”

In any other situation Kurt would have been excited. He was in a lab with a handsome scientist; the lab that had equipment that most people didn’t know existed. If only he was an intern or an assistant… Heck, even being a janitor, who cleaned the floor, would be better.

“Okay, unfortunately, even though we have the newest equipment, we are still drawing blood the old way. Sorry about that,” Blaine said and started preparing Kurt’s arm.

Kurt flinched when he saw the needle coming closer to his arm.

“I promise I’ll be gentle, Kurt,” the other man said, “but if you keep moving I will end up hurting you.”

“I don’t like needles,” he said and closed his eyes. “That’s going to be a problem, isn’t it?”

“I will give you a candy after I’m done, okay?” Blaine offered.

Kurt opened his eyes and glared at the man in front of him. “Oh yeah, of course, my fear is all gone now!”

“Really? That’s great!” Blaine smiled widely. “To be honest, I didn’t think it would work. When I was a kid my doctor used to do that but it was still scary. But now I thought she must have said that for a reason so I tried it on you. I should send her a thank you card maybe…”

One of Kurt’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you joking or are you just crazy?”

“You are right; it’s a bit too much. She probably doesn’t even remember me. What a great woman though…”

“I’m starting getting worried about you competency,” Kurt frowned, not sure anymore if the man was pretending to be crazy or it came naturally to him.

Blaine smiled even wider if possible. “Yet you didn’t feel the moment the needle entered your vein.”

Kurt quickly looked down to see that Blaine wasn’t lying – he was already extracting his blood and the vial was half full.

“All done,” the scientist announced after a few moments. “You did great, Kurt. But I have to admit I lied to you. I’m really sorry but I don’t have any candies at the moment. But I will bring some tomorrow morning, okay?”

“I’m getting two after the next time,” he said and it hit him – he was going to stay there for a while. With no way to contact anyone, locked in a room and let out only to serve as a blood bag. He felt like throwing up.

While Kurt was having an emotional moment with himself, Blaine took a drop of his blood from the vial and placed it under the microscope.

“Wow, your blood is really fascinating,” he said after a moment of setting the microscope correctly. “I have only seen your old sample and even though it was amazing, it doesn’t compare to this. It feels like Christmas came earlier this year.”

“Good to know you are enjoying this, Mr. Cullen.”

“My last name is Anderson, remember? Do you have problems with your memory? It may have something to do with your condition. I will actually give you a questionnaire to fill in tomorrow.”

Kurt didn’t say anything. He tried not to think about giving wrong information just in case Blaine could actually read minds.

“If you don’t mind, Kurt, I won’t join you for the walk to your new temporary home. I really want to start my work.”

“What if I mind?” Kurt smirked.

Blaine raised his head from the microscope. “Then I will go with you,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Kurt’s eyes widened a little as he wasn’t expecting such answer. “No, the sooner you begin, the sooner you will find out how to create that medicine of yours and I will be free.”

“Yeah, about that… What I told you earlier is not exactly what I do,” he said guiltily. “I tell that to everyone because I can’t really tell anyone that there are people with special blood and I’m trying to find out how we could use it.”

“People? There are more?” Kurt asked quickly.

“Of course.”

“You can take them instead of me!”

“We need to find them first. We were lucky you had blood tests done. Without them we wouldn’t have found you,” Blaine said and wrote something down. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I really need to do some work. Unless you want me to go with you.”

Kurt frowned but remained seated. “How does that work? Why did my doctor contacted you?”

“She is one of many doctors in the States that the PAG corp. has a hold on. They are paid for contacting us about patients with abnormalities.”

“So suddenly I’m not normal?” Kurt asked angrily, rising from his seat. “Go do your work; I don’t want to be around you more than necessary.”

“Okay,” Blaine smiled. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Without another word Kurt turned around and walked towards Finn and Dave, who had opened the door already.

“Let us know when you want him to come again,” Finn mumbled and the three men left.

The place they were going to must have been on the same floor because they passed both elevator and the stairs. Kurt tried to memorise where they were going in case he manages to escape the men. Unfortunately for him, they safely reached the place.

Dave scanned his card and the doors opened revealing, from what Kurt could see, a nicely furnished apartment. He had to admit that the place looked better than his own.

With a hard push from Finn, Kurt went into the apartment. He turned around to face the closing door and soon he was alone. At least it was what he thought.

“Hey, roomie,” he heard and nearly jumped out of his skin. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Kurt swallowed audibly and turned around. There was a man, probably his age, in front of him. He was quite handsome even though his mohawk was slightly weird. Nonetheless, it suit him.

“Name is Puck,” the man said with his hands in his pockets, not bothering to offer a handshake.

“Kurt,” the man managed. “So you live here?”

Puck nodded. “It’s been three weeks.”

“There is no way out, is there?” Kurt asked and went further into the apartment, looking around.

“I don’t know. I never looked for one,” the other man shrugged and walking into the living room. Kurt followed quickly and saw him sitting down on the couch. “Make yourself at home. After all, you will be living here for a while.”

“What do you mean you never looked for a way out? You have been here for three weeks; you could have though of something.”

“First of all, sit down, Kurt,” Puck said patiently and waited for the young man to sit down on the armchair. “Second of all, I’m perfectly happy here. I have no family or close friends, my pool cleaning business went bankrupt, I got kicked out of my apartment because I couldn’t afford the rent. PAG corp. found me after I donated blood for money. So my life sucked and here I have a roof over my head, three meals a day, hot water in the shower, a comfortable bed... And it’s all for a few drops of blood a day, which my body produces anyway. It’s a win-win situation.”

“I have family and friends. I have a life,” Kurt snapped. “I’m sorry for what happened in your life and I’m glad you are happy here but I can’t stay! I have lectures to attend for fuck’s sake. Aren’t you enough for them?”

“Anderson is getting a little greedy,” Puck grimaced. “He says he needs more blood for some tests he wants to run and I can’t replenish blood quickly enough. You should have seen how ecstatic he was when that red-haired chick told him about you.”

“I bet he was,” Kurt snorted.

“Don’t be harsh on him. He is a good guy, who is only doing his job. If it wasn’t him it could be someone rude and you would still be in the same position just with someone, who didn’t give a shit about you.”

Kurt sighed. “Well, I guess Blaine was nice…”

“And he is hot. That helps as well.”

“Are you gay?” Kurt asked casually.

Puck laughed. “No, but I can appreciate a nice body when I see one. Though he needs to lose those glasses.”

Kurt smiled. “I think he looks adorable with them,” the words left his mouth before he could stop himself.

There was a smirk on Puck’s face but he didn’t have time to respond because that moment the door opened and someone walked in. Kurt ran out of the room to see who it was and Puck slowly followed him.

Kurt was surprised to see the janitor from earlier but this time he had a trolley with food.

“Hey, man,” Puck said, “The dinner smells good. Tell the ladies I say thanks.”

“Will do,” the janitor answered.

“How come you bring the food?” Kurt asked.

The janitor narrowed his eyes. “Do you think I’m incapable of doing something else than cleaning?”

Kurt shook his head. “That’s not what I meant,” he defended himself.

“I’m watching you, newbie,” the man said, pointing his two fingers at his eyes and then at Kurt. “Talk to you later, Puck.”

“Later, dude,” Puck said and pushed the trolley into the living room as the janitor left.

Kurt followed, suddenly feeling hungry. “How did you manage to get into his good books?”

Puck started distributing the food into two plates. “The first time we talked I told him about my pool cleaning business. I guess he could relate to me – two men cleaning after other people’s mess.”

Kurt nodded slowly and took the plate that Puck offered to him. “At least the food seems nice.”

The two men spent their evening arguing over what to watch on TV as their tastes were as different as they could be. It wasn’t until half past ten that someone entered the apartment again.

“Kurt?” Blaine’s voice filled the place and Kurt went to see what was going on.

“What do you want?” he asked eyeing the man.

Blaine smiled sheepishly. “I was leaving and I saw the vending machine. I remembered my promise and I thought that maybe you still don’t feel well after I drew your blood so I brought you this,” he said and handed Kurt a candy bar.

“Um, thank you,” Kurt said softly. It was a nice gesture after all and he could spare one snarky comment this time.

“You’re very welcome. I promise, tomorrow I will give you one right after the procedure, okay?” Blaine asked and Kurt nodded. “So I will be heading home then. Good night, Kurt.”

“Good night.”

With a tired smile Blaine left and Kurt went back to the room to see Puck with a knowing smirk.

“So, you and Anderson, huh?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Of course.”

“I will go to bed. Maybe when I wake up I will find out it was just a bad dream,” Kurt said and went towards the bedroom that was his now. “Good night.”

“Sleep tight, Kurtie,” Puck waved and changed the channel.

A few hours later Kurt was still wide awake, thinking of all the things he should have done differently in order to avoid getting in the mess he was in. His last thought before falling asleep though was how lucky Blaine was to be able to go home to sleep.

Little did he know that Blaine never made it home that night.