“Pl…please…” Blaine whimpered, trapped in sleep, tossing left and right, kicking out with his feet as if he was trying to run after someone. “Pl…please…listen…please…” He raised his arms, lifting the blankets off his body, reaching out to grab hold, but his hands always closed on air. The people Blaine begged to weren't listening. They didn't listen. They stopped listening the moment Blaine came out.

The people in Blaine's dreams – his mom and his dad – turned their backs on him and stopped listening, stopped loving, stopped treating him like their son.

That didn't mean that no one was listening. Kurt listened. From the moment the first mumbled plea slipped past Blaine's lips, Kurt pulled himself awake to lay by Blaine's side and listen to every word. Kurt listened and he remembered everything about those terrible nightmares – the sound of pain and desperation in Blaine's voice, his adolescent tone, the way his face crumbled when his regressed self realized that his parents weren't coming back, that they weren't willing to accept him.

These nightmares were rare – actually, almost non-existent now that Blaine had Kurt and his new family in his life – but sometimes they returned, and Blaine was powerless to fight them.

Before he had Kurt, Blaine drank the nightmares away.

Kurt stayed awake and waited, watching with tears in his eyes, until Blaine stopped struggling, stopped kicking – when he surrendered to the grief and started to break down. Kurt took his comforter and wrapped it around Blaine's body, sneaking it underneath him and tucking the ends around him like a cocoon – pulling it tight to make him feel swaddled and safe. And then Kurt held him in his arms, enveloped him in his warmth and his care, surrounded him in the tremendous love and respect he had for his beautiful lover, his amazingly strong and compassionate sub.

“It's alright, Blaine,” Kurt whispered in a calm and even voice to settle Blaine's quiet cries. “It's going to be alright. I'm with you and I love you. You never have to beg for love again.”