Rolling back over to face the centre of the bed, he met the deep blue eyes he saw right before he fell asleep.

“Kurt,” Blaine whispered brokenly.

“I’m still here” Kurt reassured, kissing his cheek lightly and rubbing the pad of his thumb over his cheekbone.

“I’m sorry” Blaine said, closing his eyes tight and then meeting Kurt’s gaze again.

“I just can’t figure out why you didn’t tell me.”

“He made me swear.”

“I think our promises to each other mean more, don’t you?” Kurt said sharply, sitting up. Blaine sighed under his breath. Why did Kurt have to be like this?

“You don’t understand-”

“Do you realise how many times you’ve said that since I’ve been back Blaine?”

“You won’t listen to me!” Blaine rose his voice, his anger building up inside. Tears began to fall and he turned to put his head into his pillow. Kurt left the room without looking back at the man helplessly crying into the bedding.

--------------------------------------------

“Rach can you get that?” Finn shouted from the living room.

“Okay.” Rachel replied walking towards the front door.

She opened it wide and smiled at the unexpected visitor.

“Nathan!” She exclaimed, pulling him in for a hug.

“Hey Rachel. Is Finn here?”

“Yeah, go straight through” she said, pointing towards the living room.

“Thanks sweetie.” He answered.

Rachel followed Nathan into the living room and he sat
down in the armchair next to the sofa.

“Hey man”

“Nathan! What’s up?”

“I came over to see how Blaine was. I know that sounds stupid considering he doesn’t live here, but I know Kurt’s back and I didn’t want to impose really.”

Rachel nodded, even though she wasn’t exactly in the conversation, she still felt involved.

Finn shook his head and bit his lip. “I don’t know what to tell you dude. Blaine phoned Rach last night crying, saying that Kurt was yelling at him and wanted him to leave him because of something…” Finn’s mind wandered and Rachel overtook the conversation.

“He was saying that Kurt was angry Blaine never told him.”

Nathan sat up defensively. “What?” he spat.

“I know, I know” Rachel said calmly. “But think about it…Kurt’s been going months thinking Blaine’s been cheating on him and getting drunk every night and coming home and being unable to be at all intimate with him….and then all this comes out and Kurt feels betrayed. They’ve been together since they were 16 and Kurt feels lonely…can you blame him?”

Nathan didn’t loosen up. “Yes Rachel. I can. Blaine has been repeatedly abused and threatened and had his family threatened-”

“WHAT?” Rachel yelled.

“Nothing.” Nathan realised his slip of too much information and stood. “I should go.” He left.

Nathan got into his car and drove straight to Kurt and Blaine’s apartment. He’d been there enough times over the past couple of weeks to know the route off hand. He pulled up into a parking space and locked the door before walking up the three flights of stairs. He reached door number 35 and knocked hard twice.

He heard footsteps and then Kurt clicked the door open.

“Can I help you?”

Nathan couldn’t help but notice how agitated Kurt looked, but he wasn’t in the particular mood for caring right now.

“Can we talk?” Nathan asked nicely, he thought.

“Not right now Nathan. I’m busy.”

Nathan didn’t move. “Please? It’s important.”

Kurt sighed. “Fine, come in.”

Nathan nodded and stepped in as Kurt shut the door heavily behind him. “

“Is Blaine around?” Nathan asked, gazing around the room, eyes focusing on the sofa where he’d gotten so used to seeing Blaine heal.

“He’s in the bedroom. He’s not really in the mood for visitors though Nathan.” Kurt persisted, crossing his hands over his chest.

“Can we speak honestly for a few minutes? Man to man?”

Kurt nodded but he kept his lips pursed together.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“Excuse me?!”

Nathan narrowed his eyes, seeing straight through Kurt’s ‘bitch stare’.

“Your boyfriend has been raped. Multiple times. Drugged. Abused in so many ways and you yell at him for not being honest with you?!” His voice was loud, Blaine could probably hear every word but he didn’t care. He needed Kurt to understand him.

“You don’t know what’s going on here Nathan. I think it best if you left.”

“Kurt. I think you need to know something.” Nathan said his voice lowering.

“What?” Kurt reluctantly replied.

“When Blaine was in the hospital, before he fully woke up, he came round a few times. He would mumble things about you, about how he was sorry and then other times he’d mutter on about how disgusting he felt and how scared he was. But there was one time, when it was just me there, Rachel and Finn had gone home, and he started mumbling louder than I’d ever heard him do it. He was saying that he didn’t want you hurt.”

“I don’t know why you’re telling me this.” Kurt’s eyes were glassy, Nathan noticed as Kurt licked his lips, regaining his composure.

“He didn’t want you hurt by Tony. He was saying things like ‘Please, not Kurt. Tony please, not Kurt. Please.’ and at first, I thought that yeah, he probably just didn’t want you to find out because he was scared, right?” Nathan looked pointedly at Kurt. Kurt nodded. “Wrong. He came round a little more, and he started answering my questions…just simple ones like how he was, but he wasn’t completely all there. So I asked him what he meant. I asked him what he was scared about.”

Kurt gulped and Nathan continued.

“He said he was scared because Tony had threatened to kill you if Blaine told a soul.” Nathan didn’t speak another word. He seated himself at the table and didn’t remove his gaze from Kurt.

“I-I-He-” Kurt stuttered. Nathan let him find his words.
“He could still have come to me. We could have gone to the police before Tony even got a chance to breathe the air near him again.”

Nathan was shocked; he didn’t see Kurt avoiding that point at all.

Nathan’s hands balled into fists at his sides. He was so angry. How could Kurt sit there, and blame all of this on Blaine?! The person who had been too scared to come to his boyfriend of so many years and speak to. The person who put his relationship in jeopardy because he didn’t want Kurt to be hurt.

“How dare you!” Nathan yelled as he stood up. “That man was told that the love of his life would be killed and you expect him to just ignore that!”

“Stop talking like you know him better than me! If you care about him so much why the fuck aren’t you dating him?!”

“I don’t love him. Not like that. And even if I did, he would never, ever love anyone more than you. I think sometimes you forget how much you mean to him. How much he’d do to protect you.”

Nathan left.

Kurt sighed loudly and stormed back into his bedroom, seeing Blaine sitting bold upright against the headboard, face blank with panic. Kurt climbed onto the bed and knelt beside Blaine.

“Is it true?” Kurt demanded.

Blaine didn’t move.

“Is it true, Blaine?” Kurt pushed harder.

Blaine nodded slowly and Kurt lowered himself down to rest his should on the headboard next to Blaine. A tear rolled down Kurt’s cheek and he reached his hand out to stroke at Blaine’s cheekbone like he did earlier that day. Blaine cowered away a little, Kurt noticed.

“Please don’t be scared of me. Please.” he cried brokenly.

“You don’t want me.” Blaine whispered blankly.

Kurt reached out again but Blaine pushed his hand away.

“Please don’t.” he whispered again.