The game had started out normal. Blaine had been apprehensive since so many members of the hockey team were in his class, but he had Mike, and Puck, and even Finn in the class as well so he wasn’t horribly scared (even though Finn hadn’t been his biggest fan lately). Not to mention their teacher was two feet away, so nothing awful could happen to him right? Right.

They were playing soccer. Blaine enjoyed soccer. He was on his neighborhood team until he was 13 years old. He tried to play in high school but he got chased out pretty fast, and then at Dalton they were way more competitive than he was so he hadn’t played since grade school. But getting to play it in gym class seemed like it’d be fun.

Wrong.

The first time they knocked him down he thought it was an accident. It had been a simple shoulder bump that caught Blain off guard, no biggy. He picked himself right back up and kept on playing.

The second time was a little more painful. He slammed hard on his knees and someone stepped on one of his fingers as he tried to catch himself. It stung but again, no biggy, he picked himself up and kept on playing.

The third time he realized they were doing it on purpose. He got kicked in the back of the leg and went crashing to the ground. It was followed by an ‘I was aiming for the ball, move faggot’ before the guy who kicked him ran off to score a goal. That sort of tipped him off that the hockey team wasn’t just clumsy. Mike helped him up that time. He shouldn’t have been so surprised by being called that word. He was called it all the time in the hallways. He just couldn’t help the sting that came with it every time. But still, he shook it off and kept on playing.

He lost count of how many times he got knocked down after that.

It was towards the end of class that it happened. At that point his whole body was aching from the abuse. �The hockey players were determined to destroy him. He was pretty sure his legs were bruised and cut in a few places, his finger was turning purple in bruise, his knees shook from landing on them so many times, and he was pretty sure his hair had come un-gelled.

He was at his weakest, and they struck him down.

They came at him from both sides. The one guy who was running against Kurt in the presidential race – Rick? – came up on his left while a brown haired, looks-like-he’s-forty, mullet sporting hockey player came up on his right. Both towered over him and were about double his weight.

They crushed Blaine in between themselves like a sandwich before slamming him face-first to the ground. His nose broke his fall with a sickening crunch and on instinct he curled in on himself. He felt himself get kicked, and then he felt the soccer ball slam off the back of his head with painful force before flying to the other side of the gym with everyone chasing after it – none of his classmates bothered to see if the boy they’d all but trampled was ok. One of them did yell “Fucking faggot, get out of the way!” as they ran past him but at that point Blaine was curled in on himself so tightly his muscles were starting to ache.

“Hey!! Coach, did you see that?!” He heard Puck’s angry call as he felt someone kneel down beside him. The whistle was blown and coach Beiste’s angry voice echoed through the gym, screaming about rough play or something, but Blaine wasn’t really registering the voices around him.

All he could feel was feet kicking him. All he could hear was angry voices screaming in his head.

“You think you can just show up here with a boy, you disgusting little shit?”

“I never want to see your faggot face here again, you got that?”

“If I do we’re gonna fuck you up way worse than this.”

“This is a fucking tea party compared to what we’ll do to you, got it, faggot?”

“I will fucking kill you.”

A sob escaped Blaine’s throat. I’m going to die.

“Blaine?” Came Mike’s voice, bringing him back to reality. The Asian boy sounded kind of panicked. The ‘good friend’ part of Blaine wanted to flip over and tell Mike he as fine and not to worry…but every other part of Blaine told him not to move, to just sit there and try not to die. Blaine found himself groaning then, clutching his bleeding nose and refusing to uncurl from his ball. He was vaguely aware of coach yelling at the class to hit the showers, followed by two other people kneeling down beside him.

“Jesus Christ, Blaine, dude, don’t cry, it’s ok.” Finn? Since when do you care about me?

“Hobbit, c’mon man, look at us.” Puck?

Their voices were so gentle. They all sounded so scared that Blaine felt guilty not telling them he was fine. “Just…give me a second.” He found himself whimpering as a hiccup and a swallowed sob followed. You’re not in Westerville anymore, he told himself, you’re at McKinley. You’re fine. It was just gym class gone bad. It’s not Sadie Hawkins. You’re fine, Blaine. CALM DOWN.

“Anderson? Kid, are you ok?” Beiste’s gentle voice was coming from over him now too. He really needed to sit up and tell them he was fine or else they’d call the counselor and everyone would know he’s fucked up.

With a hitching breath Blaine rolled himself onto his back, blinking his eyes open to look up at four worried faces.

“I think I broke my nose.” Was all Blaine could get himself to say. Beiste just nodded placating and placed her hand gently on his back as he started to sit up.

“Um…ok. Boys, can you take him to the nurse? I’ve got to tend to those animals first. I’ll be there in a minute.” She sounded pissed. Blaine was glad he wasn’t on the receiving end of that.

“Yeah, of course.”

“No problem.”

Blaine felt himself being gently pulled to his feet. “Can you walk man?” Blaine didn’t say a word, he simply nodded. He couldn’t meet their eyes, not after he just sat on the floor in the fetal position sobbing in front of them.

“Woah there, man, are you sure?” Mike asked softly as Blaine stumbled. His back ached, his legs throbbed, his nose was on fire, and his head felt ready to explode. Not to mention he could hardly get any air in. His breath quickened as he started to panic, what is wrong with you?

“Blaine, man, calm down. Please.” It was Finn that time, he sounded really worried.

Blaine lowered his head, his chin hitting his chest, as another sob escaped him. “I’m sorry,” He whispered, tears flowing freely. “I just—I-”

“Don’t apologize, man, it’s cool.” Puck said, they all stood there awkwardly for a second as Blaine collected himself. When he glanced back up at his three classmates they all gave him half hearted reassuring smiles. “You want a piggy-back ride?” Puck joked and Blaine found himself smiling slightly at that.

“No…I think I can walk now.” Blaine said quietly and they all started to walk (or in Blaine’s case, limp. When did he start limping?) towards the nurse’s office, still clad in their gym outfits. The other three boys walked in a semi-circle around Blaine, as if ready to catch him if he toppled over.

“Those fuckers were really out to get you.” Puck said after a few moments of silence. “I was trying to get them before they got you but there was too many of them.” Blaine glanced up at Mike and Finn who were both nodding in agreement.

“Well thanks, guys. That’s really sweet.” He said, his voice still quiet. Their walk seemed to be going on forever. Blaine wasn’t sure if he was just walking slowly or if the nurse was just on the other side of the damn school. “I’m sorry I freaked out on you guys.” Blaine said quietly, after another awkward moment of silence. “I just have some…bad memories…”

There was a short pause, then Mike spoke, “I don’t know what you went through Blaine, but if whatever it was made you react like that I hope whoever did it gets in a fiery car crash.”

The other three boys turned and looked at Mike in shock, “Mike!” “Dude!” they cried, unsure of how else to react. That was not what any of them ever expected to hear out of the Asian boy.

“Oh like you don’t wish it.” Mike shot back. Blaine had never seen that side of Mike. And to see him react like that on account of Blaine…well it made his heart swell. He was finally making some friends here.

“If anyone gives you shit I want you to tell us, Blaine.” Finn said, “I know I’ve been an ass, but you’re my brother’s boyfriend. That means I need to protect you too, just like I protect him.”

“Yeah, someone bother’s you we’ll kick their ass, you just tell us who. You hear me?” Puck added.

Blaine glanced from teen to teen, tears welling up in his eyes again but for totally different reasons. “Thanks, guys.” He whispered, “You really do like me.” He joked.

“Of course we like you. Some of us just have jealousy issues.” Mike said, eyeing Finn.

“Hey, shut up! I just said I wanted to protect him!” Blaine found himself smiling behind his hand again.

After a moment he found himself thanking every God out there because they made it to the nurse’s office and he really just wanted to sit down. Mike led Blaine to a chair and sat him down as Finn and Puck explained the situation to the nurse. Mike mumbled something along the lines of ‘be right back’ and then disappeared out the door. Blaine really didn’t notice though because the walk there was catching up to him and he suddenly felt very light headed. Using the hand that wasn’t clutching his nose, he rested his elbow on his knee, held his forehead in his hand, and closed his eyes.

After a moment he heard Coach Beiste’s voice talking to the nurse, and when did she come in the office? He felt someone at his side and opened his eyes to see Finn and Puck standing over him, glancing nervously at him.

“Are you going to pass out?” Finn asked.

“I’ll try not to.” Blaine whispered, completely worn out. But his attention was drawn from Finn as a familiar voice floated into the room.

“…animals! They belong in a cage!” Blaine turned to the door just as Kurt ran in, Mike right on his heels. “Oh…Blaine.” Kurt whispered at the sight of his boyfriend. He fell into the seat beside him and carefully peeled back the hand clutching his nose. The boy gasped slightly at the sight before him. Pretty much the whole lower half of Blaine’s face was caked in bloody (the taste was making him nauseous). His nose was swollen and already dark purple. And the look in his eyes…well, there was no other term but ‘broken.’ �“Oh, honey.” Kurt said, his voice still quiet.

At the pure love in his boyfriend’s few words Blaine found himself tearing up again, the emotional exhaustion of the whole thing hitting him. “C’mere, baby.” Kurt whispered, pulling Blaine close, not seeming to care if the blood ruined his clothes as he lovingly cradled the back of his boyfriend’s throbbing head while he sobbed into his shoulder. Blaine wondered if Mike mentioned his freak out or if Kurt realized what Blaine had flashed back on but at this point he didn’t care. All he wanted was to cling to Kurt and never let go.

And right then, despite Mike, Puck, and Finn all comforting him and making him feel better he let himself cry, because you can never cry enough. After a minute he could hear Coach Beiste talking about taking him to the hospital. He could hear Finn offering to go get Blaine’s clothes and backpack. He could hear Kurt say he’d take Blaine.

He heard all these things, but still he didn’t pull back from Kurt because Kurt was his rock. Kurt had dealt with bullies for so long with such grace and courage. He knew about Blaine’s past and yet he still didn’t think he was weak, he just held Blaine and let him cry.

And that was all Blaine wanted to do at the moment.�