Kurt searched ‘spider bites.’

He searched ‘inhumane powers from spider bites.’

He looked up ‘spider traits in humans.’

And then, once all of those had given him absolutely no answers, he searched ‘how to make your own real spider web.’

Every day, after Warblers’ rehearsal for the next week, Kurt would nod goodbye to Blaine and then scuttle off to his room, printing out papers and gathering all the necessary materials.

He watched videos, combining them and their materials, talking to some of the Dalton science Olympiads about how to hypothetically make spider web.

And somehow, he did it.� It had to be at least his sixth attempt, but once he shot it across the room and it firmly attached to the wall, he knew that he had done it.

And again, he waited until after midnight to try it out for real.

He had just opened his window, ski mask in hand and the web material in a wristband he made, when he heard a knock on his door.

Kurt froze and threw the mask behind his bed, throwing a jacket on over his shirt to cover his wristbands.

“Kurt?”

Shit. What was Blaine doing outside his room a good two hours past curfew?

“Are you awake?”

Kurt sighed and gently closed his window, walking over to his door and popping it open.� “Blaine,” he greeted, though he knew his voice was a little annoyed.

“Oh,” Blaine murmured.� “I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d be sleeping –”

“No, no I wasn’t,” Kurt assured him, because he hated seeing Blaine look so guilty about possibly interrupting his beauty sleep.� “I was just – working on a…project.”

Blaine nodded and scuffled his feet a little but didn’t say anything.

“Um, not to be rude,” Kurt asked, fingering his wristbands behind his back, “but it’s past midnight and you’re standing outside of my room not talking.”

“Right,” Blaine replied, his eyes still downcast.� “I just – I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”

Kurt internally groaned, because he really wanted to go try his new invention toy thing out, but he couldn’t because Blaine was standing outside his room, genuinely worried about him.

“Come in,” he sighed in defeat, opening the door wider and allowing Blaine to walk through.

Blaine perched himself on the edge of Kurt’s bed, glancing up at him before looking back down at his hands.

“Now,” Kurt said as he sat down in his desk chair.� “What’s this about?”

“Well, um,” Blaine started, “you – you’ve been…different the past week. Like your first few weeks here seemed fine, but now you’re just…you’re reacting to everything, you’re running out of rehearsal and locking yourself in your room…I’m worried, Kurt.� I’m worried that you aren’t taking care of yourself, or that this wasn’t the right decision for you, or that you aren’t handling it well, and I made a promise to your dad to watch out for you and I can’t do that if you don’t let me in –”

“Blaine,” Kurt stopped him, leaning over and placing a hand on Blaine’s knee to get him to stop talking and blaming himself.� “I’m fine,” he whispered, even though he knew that he really, really wasn’t.� After all, who would be fine if they were bitten by some kind of magic spider and were given spider-like powers?

“I just don’t understand,” Blaine said.� “I mean you almost attacked me the other day.� At first I thought I startled you and you had a flashback to McKinley, but then I remembered that you hadn’t done that in a few weeks and – I just don’t know what’s going on with you, but I feel like it’s my responsibility to know.”

Kurt sighed again and sat down next to Blaine.� He lifted up his hand and gently rubbed his temples, thinking about what he was going to say.

“I’m fine,” he eventually said.� “It’s just – there’s just a lot going on right now, and I’m still…working out how to handle all of it.”

Kurt really deserved an award for vagueness.

Blaine nodded but didn’t make any intention of moving.

“Look,” Kurt started again after it became clear Blaine wasn’t satisfied.� “I promise I’ll…I’ll try harder, okay? I don’t know why I’ve been acting like I have,” even though he actually really did, obviously, “but…I’m sorry I’m stressing you out.� You’re my friend, Blaine, and I don’t want to make things harder for you.”

“Harder for me?” Blaine whispered, his thick eyebrows creasing in confusion.� “Kurt you – you don’t make anything harder for me, you know that right? You sometimes – most of the time – you make things easier.”

Kurt sucked in a breath, messing with the wristband on his right hand again, which now seemed to be a constant reminder that he wasn’t the same person he had been a week ago, that he definitely wasn’t going to make Blaine’s life easier.

Kurt wrapped Blaine in a hug then, because friends could do that to each other.� “I’m really sorry,” he murmured into his shoulder.� “I’m trying, Blaine, I really am.� It’s just taking a little time, okay?”

Blaine nodded and sniffled, and oh god was he crying?

“Blaine, seriously,” Kurt whispered, wiping a tear off his face in a totally platonic way.� “I’m okay. It’s not your fault, all right? I’ve just got…personal issues right now, I guess.”

And god he wanted to tell him.� He wanted to just tell him everything, even just to have someone who could sympathize for him, who he could talk to about whatever the hell was happening to him.

Blaine nodded and squeezed Kurt back, because oh yeah, they were still hugging.� “I just care about you,” Blaine whispered as he pulled away.� “And if something happens to you, if you let yourself get sick or something, I’ll never forgive myself.”

“If something happens to me,” Kurt replied, thinking about how in a few minutes, after Blaine left, he was going to go shooting spider web out of his wristbands at buildings and swing around for an hour or so, “it won’t be your fault.”

Blaine gulped loudly, and Kurt got the overwhelming feeling of ‘spill the beans’ again.

…..

It was like that for another two weeks, Kurt having a few lapses of concentration and doing something completely spidery and impulsive, and then Blaine giving him concerned looks and beating himself up over it.

It wasn’t until his father intervened that he realized that he needed to try even harder than he already was.

“Blaine called,” he heard his father’s gruff voice over the phone.

“Dad –” Kurt started, but he was abruptly cut off.

“No, listen to me first,” Burt stated.� “You’re coming home.� You’ll still have your room there, but you’re going to live at home for a little while.� I don’t know what’s going on with you, but from what Blaine’s told me you aren’t acting like yourself.”

“Dad –”

“Kurt, this isn’t an argument, it’s me telling you what you’re going to do,” Burt grunted.� “The drive to Dalton is manageable, and I think it’s for the best.”

After they’d hung up, Kurt started to put his clothes into bags to take home.�

A few minutes passed before Kurt looked back up, startling a little when he saw Blaine leaning against the doorway, watching him.

Luckily, Kurt’s new reflexes didn’t do anything rash.� After having been a spider-human thing for almost two weeks, Kurt could safely say that he was getting better at controlling himself.� But that didn’t stop him from jumping at everything, or catching flies with only two fingers, or rushing to his room after rehearsal in order to try and gain more control of his new powers.

“Blaine,” Kurt greeted him in a harsh tone, even though he couldn’t actually be mad at the boy when he stood there looking all dejected and adorable.

“I’m sorry,” Blaine whispered even though he didn’t move.� “It’s just – I’m worried about you.”

Kurt sighed but nodded as he zipped his bag up.

“I just want what’s best for you, Kurt,” Blaine whispered.� “I just want you to be happy.”

“I’m not unhappy,” Kurt replied, giving Blaine a small smile that he knew was unconvincing.� “I’m just…”

Trying to figure out my spider abilities.

Learning how to climb buildings.

Spewing webs out of my wrist.

Performing acrobats on the roof.

“I’m just trying to deal with everything,” he eventually settled on.� “But I was getting better. You didn’t need to involve my dad.”

“But you’re still…different,” Blaine argued.� “You’re still not the you that I met.”

Kurt was silent after that, because he knew that it was true.

“It’s Friday,” Blaine said after a few moments of silence.� “How about I drive you home so he doesn’t have to come pick you up?”

Kurt sighed but nodded.� “Okay,” he said.� “Let me finish getting my spare uniform in my bag.”

…..

Once Kurt was out of Blaine’s car, he was surprised to see that Blaine got out as well.

“I’m just going to walk to the coffee shop around the corner,” he said with a shrug. “I could use some fresh air, anyway.”

Kurt nodded, noting that it was getting darker by the minute.

“It’s getting dark,” he said in response.� “Are you sure that’s a good idea.”

“I’m a big boy, Kurt,” Blaine said with a smile, “I can take care of myself.”

Kurt nodded but reluctantly let him go, telling him to text him once he was back in his car.

He walked into the house and up to his room, saying hello to Carole’s concerned greeting and ignoring the rumbles of Finn’s video games coming from the bedroom across the hall.

He glanced out the window fifteen minutes later, and he was pleased to find that the backyard was now perfectly hidden by the night.

Slipping on the dark red ski mask he made a few weeks ago, because red was a much better color on him than black was, Kurt slipped out his window and sat on the roof for a moment before leaping off and shooting a web at the nearby tree.

As he swung from tree to tree, house to house, Kurt was caught thinking of the problem that had been haunting him for the last week or so now.

He felt like he should be doing something productive with his new gifts, not just swinging through neighborhoods and scaling buildings for fun, and it bothered him that he hadn’t come up with anything yet.

He swung around a corner near his favorite coffee shop when he heard it.

“Stop fussing and it’ll hurt less,” he heard a gruff voice sneer.� “You little fag,” he heard it growl as he heard something thunk into what he presumed was the man’s stomach.� “You don’t deserve to live here.� You don’t deserve to live anywhere.”

And that’s when Kurt got a better view of the person the three large men were surrounding.

He was smaller than them, with curly black hair and piercing hazel eyes.

Dammit.

It was Blaine.

He swallowed the lump in his throat as he watched them creep even closer to him, throwing all his precautions to the wind and swinging down into the ally before pointing his web at them and shooting.

He watched as Blaine’s eyes widened at the sight of him, once again thanking himself for thinking of the idea to wear something over his head.

“Come on,” he said, not even bothering to change his voice because all he could think was how he needed to get Blaine out of there.� He shielded Blaine behind him before sufficiently tacking – webbing? – the three men to the wall, grabbing Blaine’s hand in his own, which were gloved due to the cold air of December.

He hoisted Blaine by the waist and swung him back to his car.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

Blaine looked shaken, his eyes wide as he stared at Kurt, no recognition in his face whatsoever.

Kurt was silently relieved.

“Thank you,” Blaine breathed after just staring for a few minutes.� “What’s – Who are you?”

Shit. Kurt hadn’t really thought about what he would do if someone asked who he was.

“I’m…um…I’m…” he paused before blurting the first thing that came to his mind, “Spiderman.”

And really, that’s what he came up with? Spiderman?

Blaine took another shuddery breath before nodding.� “Thank you, again,” he said, reaching out as if to touch Kurt but then lowering his hand after a moment.

“It’s…” Kurt paused again, almost not saying what he was about to say.� “It’s my job.”� But he said it anyway.

Because helping, no saving, Blaine had felt good.� And not just because it was Blaine.� It felt right.� He felt useful, like his new found powers weren’t going to waist anymore.

“Are you going to be okay to get home?” Kurt asked him, not so much as a hero anymore but as Kurt, Blaine’s concerned best friend.

“I’m – actually I’m going to see if my friend will let me stay the night,” he said, and Kurt tried to hide his panic because he was out here with Blaine while Blaine thought Kurt was inside asleep.� He noticed that Blaine’s hands were still shaking though, and he knew it was better if he didn’t drive all the way back to Dalton.

“Alright,” he said after a moment.� “Well I need to…go do…spidery…things…” Kurt trialed off, because what was he even supposed to say?� All he knew was that he needed to be in his room and in his bed and in his pajamas before Blaine got in there.

Blaine laughed a little but nodded and Kurt gave him a smile through his ski mask before shooting a web onto the nearest tree and shooting away.

He jumped into his window once he was sure Blaine was out of sight, a quickly throwing his pajamas on and covering himself up in his bed.

He heard his dad grumbling towards the door, muttering something about how it was too late for visitors.� He heard Blaine say something, his voice sounding shaken and then Burt letting him in and shutting the door.

He assumed Burt ushered him into the kitchen as Blaine told him what had happened, but Kurt couldn’t stay awake any longer to attempt and hear any more of their conversation.