Chapter 43

January 9, 2013

Kurt sat nervously on the couch in-between Blaine and his dad. The officers were in front of them looking through Blaine's ownership documents that Burt had brought to the men. Karofsky was right next to them frowning at the papers.

"They must be fake," the jock said sending daggers to Kurt with his eyes. "I know that this slave is a stray. They forged the papers."

"Blaine is legally ours, we bought him back in November right after we moved back to the States," Burt said calmly. Kurt knew it was taking a lot from the man to remain calm but the knowledge of their innocence was helping a lot. "I will not stand empty accusations in my own house."

"I'm sorry, Sir," Officer White said and put the documents onto the coffee table. "The papers seem alright but we can't be sure without a proper investigation. I will ask you to come with us."

Kurt's jaw dropped at the words and he looked at his dad with utter shock. Burt had an unreadable expression on his face and it only worried his son more.

"For how long?" Burt asked slowly.

"Until the investigation is closed and we can go from there," the same officer explained. "Is there any adult that could take care of your son in the meantime?"

"You can't take my dad!" Kurt exclaimed. "We didn't do anything wrong. We bought Blaine from his owner and just because this... this... guy is telling you lies... You can't seriously believe him over us when we showed you the documents."

"Kurt–"

"No, dad," the boy shook his head. "It's unfair. You can investigate without taking my dad away. Why do you need to lock him up for this?"

"It's what the protocol says," the other officer said.

The teen snorted. "Does the protocol also say that relatives get special treatment? Because I can't see why he should be here," he said pointing at Dave.

"My nephew is here because he needed to identify the slave to make sure we don't make any mistakes," Officer Karofsky said. "It has nothing to do with special treatment whatsoever."

"How can I be sure that you are unbiased when this has something to do with your nephew, officer?" Burt asked. "From what I've heard this guy has some problems with my son. How do you know he isn't doing this out of spite?"

Officer White was the first to speak. "We investigate all cases we hear of. Now, will you go willingly with us, Mr. Hummel?"

Kurt grabbed his dad's hand. "No, you can't do this," he said, fear audible in his voice. He saw Dave smirking at him.

"Excuse me?" a timid voice came from the doorway and only then Kurt remembered his friends.

When the officers came over they asked to speak in privacy and all the kids, except for Kurt and Blaine, left the living room. Kurt thought they might have left altogether but apparently they hadn't.

"Yes, Miss..."

"Rachel Berry, officer," the girl spoke with a bit more confidence and came into the living room. "If I may I can testify that Kurt really bought this slave. You see, last year I was looking to buy a slave for myself and Kurt was going to do the same. We were looking online together and I bought one in the end but Kurt said it was too expensive for him so he looked for a second-hand slave. And that's how he found this one."

"And I have a proof that this slave has been here for a while," Lauren said coming into the view, others following her. She gave Officer White a piece of paper. "This is a permission signed by Kurt Hummel that allows me to take this slave to my parents' house several times a week for training. It's dated back in December."

The officers looked at the paper sceptically. "I need to see your signature, kid," Officer Karofsky said and gave Kurt his notebook and a pen.

The teen looked at the items nervously, then at Lauren, who gave him a short nod, and put his signature on the paper. The officers compared the two, Kurt's heart speeding up dangerously.

"Seems alright," Officer White concluded much to Kurt's surprise. "What kind of training is it?"

"Physical training like boxing and such," Lauren explained.

"And why would you need to train a slave?" Officer Karofsky asked eyeing Kurt curiously.

"Isn't it obvious?" Rachel asked rhetorically when she saw Kurt struggling to come up with a plausible answer.

"No, it's not," Dave interrupted. "This is some bullshit."

"It's perfectly reasonable for Kurt to desire a better looking slave," Rachel explained as if she hadn't heard the jock's words. "You see, when you are buying a second-hand thing you don't have many options. Look at this slave, does he look attractive to you? No. He is too skinny and lacks abs. Hence, some exercising. Boxing lessons are probably the cheapest so that's why Kurt chose them. Personally I would give my slave some exercising DVDs but this thing over here can't be trusted with technology."

"Okay, but this still doesn't prove anything," Officer White said, obviously getting impatient.

"Then why don't you just call the chick they bought Blaine from?" Puck asked in an equally impatient voice. "Ask her these things and be done with it."

The officers shared a look and Officer White shrugged. "Fine, we can do it now," he said and picked up his phone.

"Put it on speaker," Officer Karofsky said when his colleague dialled the number found on the papers.

Two rings later Cassandra's voice filled the room.

"Cassandra July-Anderson speaking."

"Hello, Mrs July-Anderson. This is Officer White speaking. I'd like to talk about slave MK34-28-6L," he purposefully misread from the document.

"Um, I've never heard of such slave," the woman replied. "The only slave I ever owned was MK34-29-6L. Also known as Blaine Anderson."

"Oh yeah, right, sorry about my mistake," the man said. "Can you tell me about this slave's whereabouts?"

"I'm not sure, really. I haven't seen him for a while now, ever since I sold him."

"Do you remember the name of the person who bought it?"

"Burt... Hu... Hughey maybe? I can't remember."

"Could have it been Hummel?"

"Possible. I don't know. What's the purpose of this call?"

"It came to our attention that this slave might have come into Mr Hummel's possession illegally. Do you remember when you sold it?"

"I'm not sure. It was definitely before Christmas because I used the money I got to buy my son a present... Maybe beginning of December? Or the end of November, I don't know. I'm sure you can see the date on the papers. Honestly, officer, I sold that slave to get rid of my problems not to get into new ones."

"I'm sorry, Mrs July-Anderson, I won't bother you any longer," the officer said. "Thank you for your cooperation."

"Of course. Have a nice day," Cassandra said and ended the call.

"I guess there is nothing else for us to do here," Officer Karofsky said looking at his colleague.

"I can't believe you are buying this!" Dave yelled at his uncle. "They are all lying, you should investigate some more."

"We did everything we had to, even though we were supposed to do it in the station," Officer White said somewhat accusingly. "You must have made a mistake, kid."

"Sir, may I speak?" Blaine asked looking at Kurt, his head downcast respectfully.

Kurt looked at him confused before catching up with what he was trying to do. "You may," words left his mouth unwillingly.

"Officers, could you, please, tell me what happens to a person, who threatens another person's life?" Blaine asked looking warily at the men in front of him.

"That's a serious crime," Officer Karofsky said looking at the slave curiously. "Anything you want to tell us?"

Blaine shook his head instantly. "No, Sir, but my Master might want to," he said and Kurt's mouth fell open.

"I... no, I mean, Blaine must have..."

"What's going on, Kurt?" Burt asked sternly.

"Nothing, dad-"

"Please, Master, forgive me but I have to," Blaine looked at Kurt pleadingly and then at the officers. "My Master's life was threatened by this boy over here. Master still has his texts."

"I–" Dave choked as all eyes set on him. That was when all hell broke loose.

Many curses and threats later Officer White dragged Dave out of the house and into their car. Officer Karofsky lingered a bit longer. The man looked at Blaine and then at Kurt.

"You take a good care of him, alright, young man?"

Kurt gaped at him not knowing what to say. Before he could come up with anything the officer gave the slave a friendly nod, apologised for wasting their time and left with a promise to inform Burt about the proceedings with his nephew's case.

Burt and kids stayed silent after that as nobody knew where to start. It wasn't until Rachel spoke up that the silence was broken.

"Blaine, what I said about you earlier–"

"Thank you for saying all those things," the slave boy interrupted her.

"Just for the record, I don't think you are ugly or anything," the girl continued. "You are quite handsome actually."

"If it wasn't for you, kids, I would have been taken to the station and I preferred staying for pizza," Burt laughed even though some tension was audible in his voice.

"Which leads to my question," Kurt said frowning at Lauren. "My signature... how?"

"Mike's idea, Lauren's text, Puck's forgery, my paper," Tina explained. "And Rachel said it would be believable. Since, you know, she knows more about slaves than any of us."

The doorbell rang again before anyone could say anything else. "If it's not pizza this time I'm not letting this person in," Kurt laughed and went to open the door. It was pizza after all.

***

After the kids left Burt and the boys cleaned up the dishes and tidied the kitchen. The man kept chatting with Blaine about various things to keep their minds off things while Kurt didn't participate much in the conversation. They didn't talk about what had happened earlier since nobody wanted to go there. It was like they all silently agreed to keep that talk for the next day until they were ready for it.

No matter how hard they tried to pretend everything was normal, they couldn't completely ignore the issue since it affected them all and mostly Kurt. It was like his mind was somewhere else and even though it worried Blaine the boy decided to talk to him later when they were in private. He just didn't think Burt was needed there when he approached Kurt with the question that had been nagging him ever since the officers left.

It didn't take long for the trio to clean up and soon Burt retreated to his bedroom since he was tired and the boys went to Kurt's bedroom. Blaine wasn't sure if the other boy wanted him there but he was willing to take the risk.

"Kurt, are you angry at me?" he asked, his voice small, showing just how scared he was that he might have just lost something he had been dreaming of having for a long time.

"What? Why are you asking me that?" Kurt asked obviously confused as he moved to the bathroom.

Blaine sighed. "I'll wait for you to come out because I want to talk to you eye to eye," he said and sat down on the edge of Kurt's bed.

Seconds later a sound of running water filled the room and Kurt came out of the bathroom with some unlit scented candles in his hands.

"So, um, why do you think I'm angry with you?" he asked.

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"I don't know, I just get this vibe from you... It's just that you haven't talked to me much this afternoon, you know, since the police left," Blaine explained with a shrug. "I know you are probably emotionally exhausted after the whole ordeal and it's probably selfish to make this about me and ask you... Um, I'll just go with it... Are you angry I forced you to tell everyone about Dave's threat?"

"Oh..." Kurt mouthed. He set the candles on the table and sat down next to Blaine. "No, I'm not angry. At least not anymore. I didn't like that I didn't have time to actually make my own decision what to do with this situation but I know why you did it so no, I'm not angry. I'm not too happy about it but I know that you did what you thought was best for me. So, well, thank you for that."

Blaine nodded thoughtfully but didn't relax. "Then what did I do wrong? Because there must be a reason why you gave me a cold shoulder..."

Kurt thought for a moment before answering. "It wasn't meant to come off as a 'cold shoulder'... I'm just... you can say I was lost in my thoughts? The conversation between you and my dad didn't interest me so my thoughts consumed me."

"What were you thinking about?" Blaine eyed Kurt carefully.

"Various things... You, mostly," he responded but didn't elaborate, probably hoping to get out of the conversation easily.

But Blaine wasn't having any of that. "It must have been some heavy thoughts..."

Kurt nodded and took his hand. "I was thinking about the way you were when you talked about Dave. I mean, you were so slave-like in front of the officers and it reminded me of how you used to be... I'm just really proud of you, okay?" Kurt said with tears in his eyes. "And I don't want to see you like that ever again... Because you are mine and I can order you to not be a slave. So please, wherever you are, whomever with, just be yourself, okay?"

Blaine's head hung in disappointment for a mere second. Of course Kurt was thinking about him even after everything he had gone through himself. The slave had hoped that the boy would forget everyone else and just care for himself for once. It wasn't healthy how he ignored his own problems and focused on someone else. He piled it under the things he would have to talk to Kurt eventually but now wasn't the right time.

"I... yeah, just... Kurt, you know well enough that I don't like acting like a slave either but there are situations when it's easier to pretend. It would have looked suspicious if we had been too friendly today."

"You are probably right. It still doesn't change the fact that I hated seeing you like that," he shrugged.

"I get it," Blaine said slowly, "at least I think I do. I promise it won't happen often, only when it's absolutely necessary, okay?"

"Okay," Kurt gave him a small smile. "Karofsky's uncle, he was weird in the end," he said out of nowhere, as if he had been suppressing that thought for a while.

Blaine nodded at the statement. He had thought the exact same thing. "I think it was him who 'anonymously' ratted out Karofskys when I lived with them," he shared his assumption. "It's the only explanation. That's how I ended up leaving their house safely without being taken away. Not to mention that he recognised me, that's for sure... The other one must be new in Lima if he hadn't recognised me."

"Rachel hadn't recognised you either when she first saw you."

"She did next time when she got a better look. The first time she didn't take a good look, there was no time for that," Blaine argued.

"True," Kurt murmured and lay back on his bed ending the topic there.

"How do you feel knowing that Dave will most likely go to juvie?" Blaine spoke carefully, hoping to not cause his boyfriend more negative emotions but too worried not to ask. They would have a proper conversation later but before he went to bed he needed to know that Kurt would be able to sleep at night.

"I'm not sure. Safer maybe? But he may also tell his friends to hunt me down so I don't know."

Blaine lay on his side next to Kurt and wrapped his arm safely around the boy. "You have Puck to protect you. And Lauren. And Rachel is louder than anyone else I have ever met. You have friends now so you'll be alright even if Dave arranges something, which I doubt he will. And if someone gives you hell, I will lock you in the basement, wrap you in some blankets, hug you very tightly and never let you go," he finished with a smile and gave Kurt a peck on his lips.

"Can you still do that even if nobody picks on me?" Kurt asked half-jokingly.

"I'd do anything just so I could have you all to myself," Blaine winked at him playfully and saw a blush spread over Kurt's pale face as the boy relaxed slightly. "You are so beautiful..."

They were about to kiss again when Burt burst into the room with his eyes covered by his hand. "Please, cover your indecency, boys, I need to have a word with you," he announced with a teasing tone, trying to look as if everything was normal. Even though it was too forced, the boys went with it.

"We are decent, dad," Kurt said with an eye roll and sat up. "What do you want to talk to us about?"

"I just talked to Cassandra," Burt explained and lowered his hand.

"What did she say?" Blaine asked getting up on his elbows.

"I called her to explain what that call earlier was about. I didn't want to keep her in the dark," the man said. "She also wanted to ask about you, Blaine, visiting Mini Coop on Saturday like you promised him. She wanted to know if you would like to spend the night."

"Yes, I'd love that," Blaine beamed at the offer before looking at Kurt. "Can I?"

"Blaine," Kurt looked angrily at his boyfriend.

"Just joking," the slave boy laughed. "Yes, Burt, it would be great if I could spend the night."

"And you, Kurt?"

"Me?"

"Apparently Cassandra told Coop that one day Blaine will bring other cool uncles to visit him and the boy doesn't shut up about it so Cassie decided to invite you three for a sleepover with her son."

"I really can't wait to meet Cooper... Wait, you said three?" Kurt asked confused before the only other possible 'uncle' came into his mind. "A sleepover with Noah? Yay!" he finished with no enthusiasm at all.

"Come on, it will be fun, you'll see," Blaine said with a wide grin on his face. "Please, say yes."

Kurt needed this, he decided. He had seen so much negativity in the world in the last few weeks that it would be good for him to spend some time with a loving, innocent child. It could be the first step in the process of him getting back on his feet.

"Of course I'll say yes," Kurt assured him with a smile. "Nothing will stop me from seeing your closest family. But you will have to go shopping with me because I refuse to go without any presents for the kid."

Blaine opened his mouth to say something and then it hit him – he could go out with Kurt freely now. Kurt was his official owner and nobody could take him away from him anymore. He didn't have to hide in the house anymore.

"Yeah, I'll go with you," he said in the end.

The smile that appeared on Kurt's face told him that they would be okay. There were many issues to solve and many emotional wounds to heal but in that moment Blaine felt most hopeful. Because Kurt was strong enough to get better. And Blaine would be by his side every step of the way.