Chapter 19

December 9, 2012

By the time Burt came back from the drugstore Blaine began trashing in Kurt's bed with the worried teenager changing cold compresses every few minutes and trying to calm him down unsuccessfully. Hearing his father coming back was a great relief but instead of running to get the medicine Kurt stayed by the slave's side since he knew that the man would go straight upstairs.

He was right and in no time Burt was coming into his son's bedroom. "How is he?" he asked without preamble.

"He has a fever and it's not going down," the boy said, clearly close to hysteria. "Tell me you have something good."

"You can't get much without a doctor's prescription... I couldn't get antibiotics obviously but I got Aspirin, Advil, Tylenol," Burt listed while taking boxes out of the small bag he had in his hand. "And I bought some ointment for the bruises. Oh, and also I got this Theraflu drink. The lady behind the counter said it was good for cold and flu."

"Better than nothing," Kurt concluded after taking a look at the boxes of various medicines. "The difficult part is going to be getting Blaine to take them. It will be difficult to wake him up."

"We won't know unless we try," Burt shared a piece of wisdom. "This boy needs a bath and pretty soon."

"He can't take a bath until he gets better."

"He has all that bacteria on him and it's probably eating him alive. And the room smells like old man's rotting underwear," Burt puckered his nose.

"How do you know what old man's rotting underwear smell like?" Kurt teased his dad painfully aware how right the man was.

"Haha, very funny. I'm serious, we need to get him cleaned. What about a sponge bath? Just to clean him up a little," Burt shrugged and sat down on the bed. "Damn, from so close he looks really bad."

"I know... Okay, I'll try to wake him up. Bring some water for the pills, okay?" Kurt asked his dad and began opening the boxes of medicine.

Burt went downstairs to get a glass of warm water and when he came back, Kurt was already shaking Blaine, trying to get him wake up. "Blaine? Blaine, wake up. I need you to wake up, okay?"

At the firm words the boy stirred in his sleep and Kurt knew he was getting to him. "Keep talking," Burt encouraged him.

"Blaine, please, wake up," Kurt instead but instead of shaking the boy's shoulder, he began to caress his cheek. "Open your eyes."

The boy's eyes fluttered and Kurt could see bits of honey-coloured eyes. "Nghn," Blaine made an indistinct sound and opened his eyes a little bit wider.

"Here you go," Kurt praised him. "Do you know who I am? Can you recognise me?"

Blaine stared at the source of the noise and gave him a dopey smile. "An...gel..." he managed before a coughing fit began and the boy doubled over.

Kurt together with his dad helped Blaine to sit up and Kurt offered the boy the pills. "Here, take them, okay?"

The slave boy reached for the pills but didn't quite make it to the target because he only bumped into Kurt's hand and the pills fell on the duvet.

"Oopsy," Blaine smiled widely and tried to pick up the pills.

"Let me help you," Kurt offered and collected the pills. "Open your mouth."

Blaine did as asked and Kurt put the pills one by one in the boy's mouth with Burt helping him to drink water.

"Did you swallow them alright, kid?" Burt asked and Blaine gave him a few slow nods. "Maybe he should go back to sleep?"

Kurt nodded, watching the other boy dozing off while sitting with their support. "Yeah," he said and they lowered Blaine onto his back. "Get some rest."

"Um hum," the slave boy acknowledged his words and in a matter of seconds he was out cold again.

The teen took his time to properly tuck him in. "I'll make him that flu drink when he is right in his head," he said.

"Which will be soon," Burt said with confidence. "He somehow survived last winter, right? I bet this is nothing to him."

"I highly doubt that."

"Fine, maybe not 'nothing' but he is strong. He can't not be after what he's been through."

Kurt frowned at his dad. "You don't know what he's been through."

"Not difficult to guess though," the man said. "Now, I will bring you a bucket of warm water and a sponge."

"Me? I'm supposed to give him a bath?" Kurt asked, his eyes big. "No, it was your idea!"

"I'm so not doing that," Burt shook his head. "I'm not a paedophile."

"So you want your gay son to touch a sleeping boy's naked body with a sponge? It somehow sounds like bad porn to me."

"What if he wakes up? Imagine yourself in his place. You wake up in an unfamiliar place, lying in bed only in your underwear being touched by a thirty-something old man."

"You are forty six," Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Tomayto, tomahto. The thing is that he will freak out if he wakes up to me rubbing him. We don't want another episode of Prison Break."

"His plan of escape wasn't that elaborate," Kurt snorted. "Fine, I will do it. But if he wakes up he will freak out anyway, either it's me or you."

Burt stood up with a smirk. "Yeah, because angels are very scary."

"Shut up," the boy frowned but still couldn't help but smile.

"I'll come back in a few," Burt said and left the room.

While his dad was away to bring a bucket Kurt went to his bathroom to look for a new sponge. Luckily he had bought a set of three sponges when they arrived to Lima so he had a nice green sponge for Blaine. He came back into his bedroom to find the boy sleeping peacefully for once.

"I brought kitchen gloves for you too," Burt said once he came back. "You know, because he is quite dirty..."

"I still don't think it's a good idea. I don't want him to be exposed to the cold air again."

Burt glared at him. "Have you been out of your room lately? It's like coming into a sauna. I wonder how you two haven't melted yet."

"I guess it is warm in here..."

"So, have fun with your bath and I'll get going now," Burt said and quickly retreated out of the room leaving no time for Kurt to argue.

The boy sighed and wet the sponge in the warm water. He squeezed it to get the excess water out and brought it to Blaine's face. He carefully cleaned the dirt off his face, making a mental note to offer the slave a shave once he got better.

When Kurt was satisfied with the boy's face, he lowered the duvet and started cleaning the slave's bruised chest and arms. Everything went fine until he began working on the boy's belly, which gave Blaine a certain reaction. The teenager closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to compose himself.

At least his blood flow is getting better...

He didn't spend too much time working on the belly and covered Blaine's upper body with the duvet after drying him with a towel. He changed the dirty water with clean one before starting with the boy's legs, trying hard not to think of the boner that the sleeping boy was sporting.

When the front side of the slave's legs was as clean as it could be Kurt dried them and put the towel aside. Not allowing his eyes to go to any dangerous zones the teenager took the duvet off and gently turned Blaine onto his front, yet again surprised just how light the boy was. He had to make sure Blaine ate something next time he woke up. Otherwise no medicine would help him get better.

Since it seemed that Blaine wasn't comfortable lying on the front, Kurt quickly cleaned the back side of his body and rolled him back into his former position. The water was dirty again even though he changed it three times overall. He didn't want to think of the last time Blaine had a proper shower or a bath. It must have been ages ago.

When the slave boy was safely tucked in bed and Kurt was washing the bucket, Burt came back into the room with something in his hands. "Hey, Kurt, I found your old teddy bear... well, a part of it in the car. Want to explain what happened?"

The boy came out of his bathroom and sat down on the bed next to Blaine. "I gave it to him. I thought he would appreciate having something to hold at night you know? Whoever did this to Blaine, ripped off Mr. Honey's head. I only found the body part since Blaine was holding it when we found him. Noah said he would look for the head. He is actually at the factory right now looking for Blaine's belongings."

Burt nodded with understanding. "So you don't want me to throw it away?" he asked and Kurt shook his head. "Okay, I will put it on the washing machine so you can wash it whenever you want to."

"Thanks."

"Now, tell me what Noah is planning to do about Carole's son," Burt demanded, sitting down on Kurt's chair.

"Oh, I wanted to talk to you about that as well," the boy said, ignoring the direct question. "Could you come back earlier from work tomorrow to stay with Blaine?"

"Why?" Burt asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Noah invited a few friends over to brainstorm on the revenge plan."

"No."

"What?"

"You are not doing anything to that boy," Burt deadpanned. "I won't let a bunch of teenagers go after him driven by anger. So no, you can't go to Noah's and I won't come back from work early. That's final."

Kurt was taken aback. "You said we would think of a way to get back at Finn!"

"I didn't say that, you just heard what you wanted to hear," Burt said patiently. "What is going to happen is that I'm going to talk to Carole and see what she thinks of slavery. If she is against it I will tell her that her son beat up a slave and let her punish her son in any way she sees fit."

"She can't know that we have Blaine! We don't know if she's trustworthy."

"I know. That's why I will tell her about the first time. It was Finn, who beat up Blaine for that jacket, right?" Burt asked, not sure if he remembered correctly.

Kurt nodded. "Rachel told him to do that but it doesn't change the fact that Finn did it."

"Okay then. Let the adults deal with this, otherwise you may get in a lot of trouble," Burt said and stood up. "I'll go make some chicken soup. We need to feed this living skeleton. By the way, have you changed the bandage on his wrist today?"

"Oh, I forgot," Kurt gasped. "I'll do it now."

Burt nodded and left. Once his dad was out of the room the boy grabbed his phone and sent a quick message to Noah.

Kurt: Change of plans. Bring your friends to my place tomorrow. My dad can't know anything.

Noah: ok

Noah: found the head and blaines stuff

Noah: coming back

Kurt deleted the messages just in case and looked over at Blaine, who had a little frown on his face. His dad may be right and they may get into trouble but he didn't care. All he knew was that he couldn't let Finn get away with simply getting grounded for a week or two for what he had done. Not to mention that he would go unpunished if Carole was pro-slavery. Finn deserved so much more and they were the only ones who could do anything about it.