Kurt Hummel was in the middle of writing a particularly difficult Calculus test when his phone began vibrating. Kurt paused, and then continued to work as the vibrating subsided; he figured it was just Blaine, texting him because he was bored during his free period. No more than 15 seconds later, however, Kurt’s phone was vibrating again, this time louder than the last. Kurt looked up from his test and surveyed the room, sighing in relief when no one noticed the noise. He silently willed the phone to stop, but unlike the last time, it continued to vibrate, the sound becoming louder and louder. Kurt started to panic, his face starting to flush.

Kurt feigned absorption trying to ignore the continuous buzzing in his pocket. He quickly looked around the room, yet again, but yet again, no one seemed to notice. Picking up his pencil, Kurt tried to focus on the algorithms on his page. Still, the vibrations from his phone felt stronger and the sound was growing louder.  Kurt became increasingly panicked; sweat was starting to pool at his temples. He was convinced he was going to get caught. Suddenly, a bright white light filled his vision, blinding him. He shut his eyes quickly, trying to block the light--

“MR. HUMMEL!”

Kurt jumps, his heart racing. When Kurt opened his eyes, they instantly water, his pupils attempting to adjust to the sudden burst of light. As Kurt comes to, he realizes he wasn’t sitting in a classroom. He is actually lying on his stomach, buried in the pillows on his bed and covered by his duvet. The bright light is coming from Kurt’s iPhone, awkwardly pressed against his cheek. He must have fallen asleep during his goodnight conversation with Blaine. Kurt blinks a few times, trying to adjust himself to his surroundings. Kurt’s phone was still flashing and vibrating next to his head. He squints at the screen willing the blurred lines to focus.

Kurt yawns, pushing himself up on his elbows. Still a little groggy from being woken up so abruptly, he slowly realizes that the light from the phone isn’t dimming and the background picture isn’t the picture of him and Blaine (the one they took six tries to take because Kurt decided he wanted a new background picture with his new boyfriend. Out of the many outtakes, Kurt decided on the one with his eyes closed, his smile bright and Blaine’s lips pressed to his cheek).No, the picture that is currently flashing is a goofy shot of Blaine blowing a kiss to the screen.

Kurt was applying the second step to his moisturizing routine when his vanity began to vibrate. Kurt glanced over at his iPhone next to him on the vanity and burst out laughing. Instead of his normal background, the picture that popped up was a picture of Blaine with his lips pursed in a kiss. Kurt quickly wiped his hands on the towel next to him and swiped his finger across the bottom of the screen to accept the incoming call from his boyfriend.

“What did you do?” Kurt said, laughing.

“Is this a trick question…?” said Blaine, slowly.

“Nice photo Blaine, although, I have absolutely no idea where it could have come from”.

“Oh! That. Yeah, well, I may have abducted your phone when you were knee deep in designer clothing, trying to decide what to wear for dinner with my parents.”

“So you decided to take silly pictures on my phone?”

“I was bored, okay? Plus, it’s not like you take my opinions on your clothing choices seriously. Besides, you look good in everything.”

 “That’s a lie Blaine and you know it.”

“What is this nonsense you speak of Mr. Hummel? I swear on my book collection you look gorgeous in everything.”

Kurt blushes and he feels that familiar swooping feeling in his stomach that he gets every time Blaine compliments him.

“Besides, I just wanted to make sure you knew when I was calling. What better notification than a picture of my face?”

“Yes, your silly, silly face. You’re a goober”.

“But you love me.”

Kurt sighs.

“I do.”

“I love you too”.

Kurt focuses his eyes on the photo, “Blaine  calling” flashing at the bottom of the screen. Kurt blinks and before he can get his hands working, the picture disappears. The call hit voicemail. Grumbling, Kurt grabs his iPhone and unlocks it, seeing 5 missed calls. Kurt frowns. Five missed calls at 1am? His heart starts to beat faster as he begins to panic. What if there was an emergency? Kurt taps the missed calls icon and sees Blaine’s name five times in a row.

Suddenly, Blaine’s goofy face flashes again on the screen, the phone vibrating in his hand. Kurt quickly answers it.

“Blaine?” Kurt clears his throat, his voice raspy with sleep.

“K-kurt? Oh thank god.” Blaine’s voice sounds weak and broken.

Kurt sits up so fast he almost falls back onto the pillows with the head rush.

“Blaine, honey? Are you okay? What happened? What’s the matter?”

“C-can you come over?”

“Blaine, it’s pretty late. You know I have to wake up early to help my Dad at the Garage tomorrow, right? Did you watch a scary movie before bed? I know you don’t like staying home alone, but I don’t think my Dad will love the idea of me driving to your house in the middle of the night”.

Blaine’s parents left to go to a conference in New York for the weekend and Blaine was deemed responsible enough to stay home alone while his parents were gone.

“No, Kurt, it’s not that.” Blaine lets out a sob. “I’m really sick Kurt, I don’t know what to do.”

Kurt’s heart sinks.

“I’ve been throwing up for the past 15 minutes; I can’t even leave the bathroom Kurt. I don’t know what to do. My mom usually takes care of me when I’m sick. I’m scared Kurt.” Blaine voice is thick with tears.

“Okay, okay. I’m going to go wake up my Dad and Carole and then as soon as they say yes I am going to hop straight in my car and go to the drugstore and you get some things that will make you feel better, okay Blaine?”

“O-okay”, Blaine sniffles. “Kurt, I’m going to….”

The sound of retching fills Kurt’s ears. He winces.

“Oh, god, Kurt, did you hear that? I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, baby, I’m going to wake up my parents right now, okay? Stay on the phone, it’ll just take a minute.”

Kurt untangles himself from his duvet and stumbles out of bed. Opening his door, he pads quietly towards his parent’s room. He hesitates to knock, hating to wake up his parents, but he knows he need to go take care of Blaine and he can’t exactly just leave in the middle of the night and not tell anyone. He knows that Carole will be able to give him some good advice as well. Not only is she a nurse, but she’s taken care of Finn all her life. God knows that boy must have caught many a bout of food poisoning with all the crap he puts in his body. Kurt doesn’t know much about taking care of sick people. He’s never done it, besides taking care of his Dad after his heart attack. This is a completely different situation. Kurt can hear Blaine sniffling on the other side of the phone.

Kurt knocks on the door before quietly opening it.

“Dad? Carole?” Kurt whispers into the darkness of the room. He can hear his father quietly snoring from his side of the bed.

“Kurt, sweetie? What’s the matter?” Thankfully Carole is a light sleeper. She turns on her lamp as Kurt approaches her. The light flooding the room and the movement of Carole in the bed is enough to wake Burt.

Burt sits up from the pillows with a grunt. “Scooter? What’s going on?”

“I’m sorry to wake you guys up, but it’s Blaine. He’s really sick, throwing up. His parents are out of town. He’s scared and he has no one to take care of him. I need to go see him, please, Dad?”

“Of course it’s okay Kurt, he needs you. Just make sure you drive carefully and call me when you get there okay? We’ll wait up for your call.”

“Thanks Dad.” Kurt raises the phone to his ear. “Blaine, I’ll be there soon okay? Just hold on,” Kurt says into the phone.

“Kay.” Blaine sniffles.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” He hangs up.

Kurt turns to leave, but Carole stops him.

“Honey, before you go to Blaine’s house, you should probably go to the drug store and pick up some Gatorade and some Gravol, maybe some Imodium too if it’s a stomach bug. Make sure he stays hydrated no matter what, okay? Especially since he’s been throwing up. Grab the thermometer out of the bathroom cabinet and take his temperature. If it’s over 100 degrees, keep checking his temperature every hour or so. If it doesn’t go down, call us, okay Kurt?”

“Okay, thanks, Carole. I’ll make sure to let you know how he is.”

Kurt hurries to his room and throws on his Dalton Academy Warbler’s sweatshirt (an article of clothing he may or may not have borrowed from Blaine before he transferred back to McKinley) over his worn Hummel’s Tires and Lube t-shirt, changes into some Yoga pants and slips on some flip flops. He grabs his wallet, keys and phone before running out the front door and hurrying to his car. By the time Kurt reaches the closest drugstore and buys several bottles of Gatorade, a box of Gravol (Extra-Strength) and a box of Imodium (handing this over to the cashier was about as awkward as could be expected) and is heading over to Blaine’s, it’s been over half an hour since Kurt received Blaine’s call. At a red light, Kurt calls Blaine to make sure he’s okay.

Blaine answers on the first ring. “Kurt?”

“Blaine, honey, I’ll be there in five minutes. How are you holding up?”

Blaine just groans into the phone.

“Not so well. Kurt, there’s a key hidden under the ugly garden gnome next to the front door. I won’t be able to make it downstairs to let you in.”

Kurt clucks his tongue, “Is that really safe Blaine, especially when your parents are out of town?”

“Kurt, honestly, I’m not really concerned about that right now.”

“Right, right, okay. I’m pulling in. I’ll be right there”.

Kurt hangs up, grabs his bag of supplies and gets out of the car. Locking his car door on the way, he walks quickly to the gnome, lifts it and grabs the shiny key  he finds underneath.

“So unsafe…” Kurt murmurs underneath his breath. He quickly unlocks the door and enters the house, making sure to lock the door behind him and runs up the stairs to Blaine’s bedroom. The room is dark, but the glow from his ensuite bathroom is enough to ensure that Kurt doesn’t trip over anything on his way to his ailing boyfriend.

“Blaine…” Kurt calls out as he makes his way to the bathroom. He stops in the doorway. Blaine is shirtless and lying on the cool tile floor next to the toilet. Sweat covers his back and chest. His face is pale except for a flush high on his cheekbones, soft brown curls are plastered to his forehead and eyes closed. Kurt takes a deep breath. His heart aches to see his boyfriend looking like this, clearly so sick he can barely leave the bathroom. Blaine blearily opens his eyes. Kurt can see the flecks of burst blood vessels from the pressure of throwing up so hard.

Kurt quickly drops his bag of supplies and rushes to Blaine’s side. He crouches down next to Blaine and gathering him in his arms. Blaine wraps his arms around Kurt tightly, tucking his head in the space between his neck and his shoulder and Kurt knows he’s crying because suddenly Blaine is shaking and his neck is damp. Kurt hugs Blaine tighter and tries to fight the burning feeling behind his eyes. He needs to be strong for Blaine, but just seeing him like this is breaking his heart.

After a few minutes, Blaine stops crying and lifts his head from Kurt’s shoulder.

“K-kurt, I’m sorry for just breaking down on you like that,” Blaine says sheepishly, eyes down. “I don’t really know what’s come over me I--”

Kurt interrupts him by placing a finger over Blaine’s lips. He tugs Blaine closer into his side and whispers softly in his ear.

“Listen to me, Blaine Anderson, it’s okay to be vulnerable sometimes. Do you know how many times I wish I had someone to come take care of me when I was sick after my mom died? I missed her so much and all I wanted was my mom when I was really sick, just like you do right now. You know my Dad isn’t really touchy feely. He never really knew what to do anyway, but at least he was there. I can’t even imagine how scared you were being alone when you were so sick. I wish I would have woken up earlier but I was having the weirdest dream…Anyway, I’m glad you called me. Let’s get you feeling a little better, okay?” Kurt kisses Blaine lightly on the forehead and wipes a stray tear from his cheek.

Blaine smiles sheepishly.

“I love you, Kurt. I don’t know what I’d do without you”.

“Well, let’s not find out, shall we?” Kurt says with a wink. “Okay, so first thing’s first. How many times did you throw up?”

“Um, maybe 6? I was just kind of dry-heaving by the time you got here” Blaine says, scrunching his nose. “I’m feeling a little better though. My stomach still hurts a lot and I feel really weak, but I don’t feel like I’m going to throw up anymore”.

Kurt smiles, “Good, I’m glad, you’re feeling a little better. But I talked to Carole before I came over here and she said I should take your temperature to make sure you don’t have a fever.”

Kurt lets go of Blaine and grabs the thermometer out of the bag. He cleans it with one of the alcohol wipes he grabbed from the medicine cabinet at home, and instructs Blaine to stick it under his tongue.

“Be a good patient and keep the thermometer in your mouth until it beeps”, Kurt instructs sternly.

Blaine laughs around the thermometer.

“I mean it Blaine!”

When the thermometer beeps, Blaine takes the thermometer out of his mouth and reads off the screen, squinting.

“I think it says 110 degrees!”

Kurt whips around from where he was standing.

“WHAT? Let me see that!”

Kurt grabs the thermometer from Blaine and reads 100 degrees, significantly lower than the result Blaine read off the screen.

“Blaine, it says 100 degrees. You’re not wearing your contacts are you?”

“Oh, right. No. I’m not.” Blaine grins up at Kurt.

“You are such a goofball Blaine, honestly. You had me worried. You still have a fever, so I’ll have to check your temperature again in a while. You’re probably dehydrated too. Do you think you can drink some Gatorade? Or do you just want to stick with water right now?”

“I think I’ll just stick with water for now, I don’t want to take any chances.”

Kurt kisses Blaine’s forehead.  “I’ll go downstairs and get you a big glass of water from the fridge”. He pauses on his way out the door. “Are you okay to get back into bed? Do you want to take a shower maybe? I mean, you were covered in sweat when I got here, and you’re still feeling warm.” Kurt looks over at Blaine, concerned.

Blaine’s heart sings. Seeing Kurt looking at him like that, his eyes full of worry, just makes Blaine want to kiss him and hold him forever. Blaine never would have thought he would find someone that would love him enough to come and take care of him in the middle of the night, other than his mom.

“I think I’ll have a quick shower. Maybe it will make me feel a little better”.

Kurt smiles, “Okay, I’ll be waiting for you out here. Just call out if you need me okay?”

Blaine steppes closer to Kurt and kisses him lightly on the lips.

“Okay.”

While Blaine was in the shower, Kurt fetched a cold glass of water for his boyfriend and throws his boyfriend’s dirty pyjamas and his bed sheets into the washing machine.  He busies himself putting fresh sheets on the bed, fluffing Blaine’s pillows and setting out two Gravol for Blaine to take once he was out of the shower. Hopefully they would help settle his stomach and help him to sleep.

Kurt has just gotten off the phone with his Dad and Carole when Blaine steps out of the bathroom. Some of the colour has returned to Blaine’s face. His eyes look a little clearer and he doesn’t seem so tense.

“Feeling better?”

“A little, thank you.”

“Come on, get under the covers”, says Kurt, patting the bed. “Take these two pills and try and drink this water. Just go slow okay?”

Blaine slides under the covers on his bed and breathes in the scent of fresh laundry detergent and the warm, sweet, spicy scent that is Kurt. He instantly relaxes into his pillows on the bed and follows Kurt’s instructions. Kurt is flitting around the room, organizing and straightening the mess that was induced from Blaine’s repeated running into the bathroom. It’s making Blaine a little dizzy.

“Hey”, says Blaine softly, “Aren’t you going to come join me?”

Kurt stops and smiles. He tugs off his (Blaine’s) sweatshirt, turns the light off in the bathroom and crawls into bed next to Blaine. Blaine’s arms immediately wrap around Kurt, his head lying on Kurt’s chest.

Blaine sighs contentedly, “You would make a great nurse, you know?”

“Nonsense Blaine, I can’t be a nurse, a fashion designer AND a star on Broadway. Plus, I think that nurses aren’t really allowed to cuddle with their patients, it’s kind of against the rules. I’m really only here for the cuddling, I hope you know”.

“Oh, sure, sure, whatever you say. By the way, you can keep my sweatshirt if you want”.

“Nah, I think we should share it.”

“Why?”

“Because I only took it because it smelled like you and I was hoping it wouldn’t make me miss you so much when I transferred back to McKinley. If I keep it forever, it won’t smell like you anymore. That’s why we need to share.”

“You’re adorable.”

“Shut up Blaine.”

“Does kissing you count as shutting up?”

“Maybe.”

Blaine untangles himself from Kurt’s arms and scoots himself up so he was eye level with Kurt. Even though the room was dark, Blaine notices that Kurt’s eyes almost look clear in the darkness in the room.

 “You’re beautiful, Kurt.”

“You can’t even see me Blaine.”

“I don’t need to be able to see you to know that you’re beautiful. Thanks for taking care of me. I really appreciate it.”

Blaine leans in and presses his lips to Kurt’s in a firm kiss. With hands placed on the sides of Kurt’s face and he can feel the flush emanating from his cheeks. After a few minutes of slow and languid kisses, Blaine pulls away.

“Of course Blaine, I know you would do the same for me,” Kurt says, a little breathless.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Go to sleep now Blaine, you’re sick and you need your rest”.

“Only if you come with me.”

Kurt hums.