Chapter 20

December 9, 2012

Not long after Kurt and Burt's conversation the door bell rang and the teenager, who was doing homework in his room, heard his dad talking to Puck. Moments later the other boy came into the room without knocking.

"How is our Blainers?" he asked, dropping a dirty bag on the floor.

Kurt turned around to face him. "Better after he took some pills. He's started to sweat not long ago so it's a good sign," the boy explained.

Puck nodded and sat down on the bed. "I found his bag hidden upstairs. It took me a while so no surprise Hudson didn't steal or destroy anything. Blainey is not stupid."

"And the teddy bear?" Kurt asked as he couldn't see the missing part of the toy.

"Found it in the room where we found Blaine and put it in the bag," Puck gestured towards the bag with his head. "I was trying to imagine what could have happened and I have no clue. His torn clothes were in one of the smallest rooms where he was probably sleeping or just sitting when Hudson came after him but it doesn't explain how the toy ended up with Blaine in that big room."

"Maybe Finn wanted to make fun of him," Kurt spat out in disgust. He could imagine the tall teen teasing the slave boy and threatening to rip off his head just like the toy's.

"That's sick... We have to come up with a good plan," the other boy said with a frown. "What happened with papa Hummel?"

Kurt sighed heavily. "He thinks it's enough to rat out Finn to his mom and let her deal with it," he said rolling his eyes. "As if that's enough for almost killing someone."

"We will just have to be more careful. Are you still okay with several people coming over tomorrow around four?"

"Yes but they will have to leave before my dad comes back home from work, otherwise he is going to be suspicious since I don't have that many friends," Kurt grimaced. "Actually, I have none since the Rachel and Mercedes incident."

"Oh, please, they weren't your friends to start with," Puck snorted.

"Fine, you are right. I can't believe I put up with them for that long," the boy said with a head shake.

"At least they didn't manage to convert you."

"Never."

"Good to know," Puck said and looked at his friend. "I think he is waking up."

Kurt looked over at Blaine to find that Puck was right. The slave was moving under the duvet and soon one hand made its way to his face and rubbed his eyes violently. He tried to clear his throat but instead he started coughing.

"Hey, Blainers," Puck announced about his presence to the boy, his voice gentle as he tried not to startle him like earlier. "How are you feeling?"

"H- hot," he managed and opened his eyes. "You look funny..."

Puck smiled at the boy, obviously happy to see him not freaking out. "Why is that so?"

"You have," cough, "the weirdest hair," another cough, "I've ever seen."

Kurt snorted and approached the bed. He took the thermometer from the nightstand and gave it to Puck. "Check his temperature and I'll go make him some flu drink."

"Will do," the boy said and took the thermometer. "Open your cocksucking mouth for me, Blainers."

"You said 'cock'," the slave boy giggled but complied without arguing.

Kurt saw Puck putting the thermometer in Blaine's mouth and left the room, sure that the ill boy was in good hands. Only when he got to the kitchen did he remembered that the Theraflu powder was still upstairs. He made his way back but before he entered the room he overheard Blaine talking to Puck.

"–angel sitting by my side," the slave was talking dreamily. "He left now but maybe he will come back? Everyone leaves me, I don't want him to leave me too... Do you think he will come back?"

At that Kurt entered his bedroom and saw Blaine's eyes widen comically.

"He is back! My angel is back!"

Puck looked at Kurt and then back at Blaine. "He is... Um, you know, he is your guardian angel and he is here to make you feel better," the boy explained as if he was talking to a five-year-old. "So you have to help him help you."

"How do I do that?" Blaine frowned.

Before Puck could answer Kurt cut in. "By both of you doing what I say," he said and grabbed the medicine. "Why aren't you taking Blaine's temperature?"

"He started talking and I thought he might chew the thermometer," Puck defended himself.

"I have to do everything by myself..." Kurt said and took the thermometer from the bed where it was lying. "Blaine, could you open your mouth and keep this in until it beeps?"

Blaine looked at him with adoration in his eyes and nodded.

"Thank you," Kurt said to him softly and turned to Puck. "Make sure you do it right this time."

"Bossy," the other boy mumbled as Kurt left the room.

Kurt went to the kitchen, finally ready to make the hot drink and his dad followed him shortly.

"You should get something to eat," he said when he saw what his son was doing. "This whole situation is quite a good diet, right?"

Kurt made an affirmative noise in the back of his throat. "I'm not hungry."

Burt sat down on a chair as Kurt poured the hot water in a mug. "Take a seat, son," the man said and Kurt sat in front of him. "All jokes aside, how are you dealing with this?"

"I'm... fine? I think I still haven't processed what is happening so I'm okay. You know me, while there is something I can do I'll be fine. Once Blaine is better it will all dawn on me and then I will have to face the consequences."

Burt nodded, trying hard to find the right words. "We need to decide what we are going to do. I know you feel sorry for that boy and I do too but you need to know it's going to be difficult and quite dangerous. I need to know that you know what we are getting ourselves into. I'm afraid that you might be romanticizing this situation like it was from one of your novels so you have to understand that this is not a love story. It's real life with its obstacles. Are you sure you are ready for this?"

"Of course I am," Kurt hurried to reassure his dad. "What else would we do?"

"We could wait until he is better and then take him somewhere safe," Burt suggested.

"No! We can't leave him on his own. I want him to stay," Kurt pleaded his dad. "We have a guest room that he could take. He is polite and friendly, I'm sure he won't cause any problems."

"I need you to be one hundred percent sure. When he is right in his mind, I will offer him to stay and after that it will only be up to him if he wants to leave because the offer is permanent. If you get angry at him or something, you won't be able to come to me and ask me to throw him out."

"Who do you think you are talking to?" Kurt asked, a bit hurt by his dad's idea of him being so bratty. "I would never throw him out. I know it will cost to support and feed another person but I'm totally in if you are sure that you want Blaine to stay with us."

"Now I am," the man said. "The tea will get cold."

Kurt nodded and stood up with the mug in his hands. "Um, dad? How are you doing?"

"Don't worry about me," the man said with a smile.

"Just know that if you want to talk about it, you can always come to me."

Burt snorted. "Stop pretending to be grandma Hummel."

"I'll stop when you stop being a child," Kurt joked. "But seriously, just because you are an adult doesn't mean that you don't have feelings. You know how bad it is to bottle things up so, um, yeah, this is a two way friendship, okay?"

"Go play a nurse, I'll make some chicken soup," the man said still smiling and Kurt knew that his message was received. "Do you think Blaine will be up for it?"

Kurt shrugged. "I don't know but honestly even if he doesn't want to eat, I will make him have some of it because it's probably been days since the last time he had any food. If we want him to get better he needs to eat."

"Okay, I will make some straight away. Ask Noah if he wants some soup as well."

Kurt nodded and left the room. On his way he checked the temperature of the mug and it seemed that Blaine would be able to drink it straight away. Given how quickly the boy got tired and fell asleep the previous times it was important to get him to drink it before he fell asleep again.

When Kurt got closer to his bedroom he heard voices from inside the room and he felt relieved to find that Blaine didn't fall asleep after all. He opened the door and saw the slave boy sitting in the bed with the duvet tucked around him while Puck showed him some magic tricks with cards.

"Wow..." Blaine looked at a card which Puck had just pulled from under his ear. "It's amazing!"

"Uhum, he is magical," Kurt snorted and extended the mug to Blaine. "I'd like you to drink this. It's very delicious and it will make you feel better."

"Okay," the slave nodded enthusiastically and freed his hands from the duvet. He took the mug from Kurt and took a tentative sip.

His friends watched him grimace as the drink hit his taste buds. "Is it bad?" Kurt asked as he had never tried the drink before.

Blaine shook his head. "Nothing is bad when it comes from you."

Puck snorted and covered it with a fake cough as Kurt gave him a stern look. "Angels make everything better, right, Blainers?"

"They do," Blaine agreed and blew some cold air into the mug.

"Are you two hungry? My dad is making some chicken soup."

"Chickens make funny noises," Blaine giggled to himself. "My butt is hot."

As soon as the words left the boy's mouth Puck began to laugh wholeheartedly while Kurt tried his best not to make fun of the boy.

"It is," Blaine whined with big eyes and confusion in his face.

"I'll go check if papa Hummel needs any help," Puck said and left the room free to laugh as hard as he wanted without upsetting his friend.

"Do you want the electric blanket off?" Kurt offered as he didn't want Blaine to feel any discomfort. "I think you should be fine without it from now on."

"Really? Because my butt doesn't feel right," the curly-head boy gave him a sad look.

Kurt nodded with an encouraging smile. "Of course. If anything else feels wrong just let me know, okay?"

Blaine nodded and took a big sip of the drink. "There is one more thing... It feels really bad to sleep alone, I'm scared."

"What are you scared of?" Kurt asked as he turned off the blanket.

The boy shrugged. "I don't know. I'm afraid that someone may hurt me while I sleep. I feel unsafe," he finished and his cheeks flushed pink. "But you are my guardian angel, right? You can help me?"

Kurt wasn't sure what kind of help it would be so before he agreed to anything he had to ask first. "How do you think I could help you?" he asked and saw Blaine lower his eyes. The boy mumbled something that Kurt couldn't understand. "What was that?"

"Could you, maybe... hold me while I sleep?" he asked shyly.

"I–" Kurt began not sure what to say. He had already held Blaine while he slept and now with clothes on it wouldn't be as bad so he decided to put the boy at ease. "Of course, sure, I will. Just tell me when you start feeling sleepy."

"I am sleepy now," the slave boy said and quickly finished what was left in the mug. "Can we sleep?"

Kurt smiled fondly at how adorable the boy looked and took the mug from his hands. "Of course," he said and placed the mug on the nightstand. "Scoot over."

Blaine did as asked and made room in the bed for Kurt. He pulled the blanket up to help the other boy lie down next to him and made sure that he was well covered. Only then Blaine slid down the bed so he was lying on his side and tried to see what position would be the best for his angel to hold him.

"You could put your head on my chest?" Kurt offered and saw the boy's eyes light up. "I see you like the idea. Okay, come here."

Blaine gently lowered his head on Kurt's chest, threw his arm around his waist, and released a content sigh. "Comfy," he uttered.

"Sleep well," the boy whispered. "You are safe with me, nobody is going to hurt you. I won't let them."

"Will you be here when I wake up?" the slave asked and yawned.

"I will, I promise."

"Okay..." Blaine said and closed his eyes.

Not long after that his breathing even out and Kurt began to feel way too hot under the blanket with Blaine's warm body pressed to him. Despite his own discomfort he was glad that by something this simple he could help the boy feel safe.

Moments later Kurt heard footsteps from the corridor and Puck entered the room. He stood in the doorway a bit shocked at the sight until his signature smirk appeared on his face.

"Shut up," Kurt whispered angrily.

"I didn't say a word," Puck said in his defence and sat down on the chair. "Your dad didn't need any help so I came to keep you company."

"How nice of you," the boy rolled his eyes. "By the way, did you manage to take his temperature?"

"Oh, yeah, it was one hundred one. Is that good?"

Kurt nodded. "Not perfect but much better than what it was earlier. He is slowly getting better," the boy said and unconsciously ran his fingers through Blaine's greasy hair.

"How about we entertain ourselves?" Puck asked out of nowhere and lifted the bag he had brought.

"Do you think it's okay?" Kurt asked unsure. "It's private, don't you think?"

"What if there is something edible in there? It would start rotting and–"

"Fine, let's do it," the boy whispered in agreement as he didn't fancy a strong rotting smell in his room.

Puck opened the bag and took out the first item. "A plastic box," he said and Kurt recognised the box where he had put the cookies from his first home economics class in McKinley, "a t-shirt, a pair of dirty underwear, one dirty sock, um, what's here?"

Kurt leaned a little bit to get a better look and Puck, who had noticed the move, brought the item closer. "A locket? Try to open it."

Puck struggled a little but soon the locket was open and something fell out of it. "It's some old guitar pick," he said after inspection.

"Does the locket have any photos?" Kurt asked and Puck looked inside.

"It does," he said and gave the piece of jewellery to Kurt, whose one hand was free.

He looked inside the locket to find the photos of two kids. One of them couldn't have been older than twelve years old while the other one must have been two years old. They both had dark hair and identical smiles. If it wasn't for the different eye colour Kurt would have thought that it was the same boy in different years. Obviously, they were brothers.

"Do you think it's Blaine's brothers?" Kurt asked, realising that he was holding something priceless for the boy.

"Either that or he's one of them," Puck said and took a better look. "The little one has Blaine's eyes."

"How do you think he managed to save it during slavery?" Kurt asked astounded. He didn't know that the slaves were allowed to own something.

"He must have hidden it well?" Puck guessed. "But in the training centres they are very thorough with their searches. If he had had it when he was sent to the training centre, this locket would have been taken away from him."

Kurt didn't say anything to that. There was no use contemplating various ways of how Blaine could have saved this locket and maybe in the future, if he was lucky enough, the boy would tell them by himself.

Puck's phone beeped and before he could pull out another item from the bag he checked his phone. "Shit, I have to go," he cursed. "You can finish looking through his bag without me. I'll see you tomorrow at four."

"Okay. Bye," Kurt said and watched the other boy leave.

When the door closed he looked down at the locket again. Could it be that the boy in the photo, smiling brightly at the camera, was the same boy who was sleeping on his chest because he was too scared to sleep alone? It all seemed like a cruel joke to him.