Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, obviously. However, I do love it very much, and I like playing with RIB's characters. This was inspired by posts by anderhummelstan and naomiraven on Tumblr.
A/n: So this came from a post on Tumblr by anderhummelstan about a headcanon that the attack from Blaine's old school left him with some mild brain damage – primarily affecting his ability to use his hands. Naomiraven wrote a drabble based on that, and they both inspired this.
Blaine couldn't always control it. His hands would start to shake slightly, and then he would lose his ability to grip anything. Whatever he was holding would hit the floor, and it would be hours before he could clean up the mess he made. So far he had been lucky; it had never happened at school, or at least not in front of anyone else, and Blaine had been able to cover it up in front of everyone outside of school.
Except Kurt. And now, Kurt's family was going to find out thanks to the broken glass of soda that was currently sitting at Blaine's feet.
"I-I'm sorry…" Blaine shoved his hands in his pockets quickly, trying to keep anyone from noticing the way his hands were shaking.
"It's okay… I'll get it. Don't move yet, I don't want you to step on the glass," Kurt replied, hurrying off into the kitchen to get some paper towels and a broom to clean up the mess, plus a pair of thick gloves to keep himself from getting cut. Blaine closed his eyes, trying to ignore the fact that his boyfriend's entire family had just seen a glass completely slip out of his hand for no reason.
"Blaine, sweetie, are you okay?" Blaine nodded as Carole pulled him back slightly, away from the shards of broken glass.
"I… I thought I had a better grip on it…" Blaine began.
"Don't worry about it, kid. It's not like it was crystal or anything," Burt replied, interrupting Blaine before he could finish his sentence. "You sure you're okay? You're shaking…" Blaine shook his head. He loved Kurt's family too much to lie.
"I… I was attacked. At my old school, freshman year." Blaine looked up as Kurt walked back into the room, stopping to listen instead of going to clean it up. Kurt already knew the whole story; he'd learned it in pieces over several months, but he did at least know the story.
"Blaine…" Blaine shook his head, sighing.
"It's okay. I should tell them." Blaine pulled his hands out of his pockets, holding them out so that Kurt's family could see the tremors. "I was in a coma for a week. When I woke up, my motor skills were shot to hell… I couldn't even move my fingers on my own. They can teach you how to do things again, but they can't make brain damage go away…" Blaine could feel the way Carole stiffened next to him, even though he couldn't see her face.
"Dude…" Finn began. Blaine didn't miss the look Burt gave the football player that shut him up quickly.
"I'm usually okay. I just… I have to focus more when I get tired, and it's hard…"
"Why don't you just sit down? I can get another glass for you." Blaine shook his head, moving back to his seat at the table as Kurt started to get the mess cleaned up with Carole helping him. He couldn't even grip the utensils to eat or pick up his food with his fingers, so sitting at the table was pretty much pointless. But Blaine didn't want to be rude and disappear on the family. He couldn't drive home in his current condition, not that he wanted to. Since his parents had separated the year before it was just Blaine and his dad at home, and Blaine's father wasn't exactly the most helpful person when things got bad.
Blaine hated the silence, the way Kurt's family seemed to just not know how to deal with their newfound knowledge. He smiled slightly as Kurt finally came back to the table and sat down next to him, gently squeezing one of Blaine's hands under the table. Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes, with everyone but Blaine continuing to eat.
"Dude, if you aren't going to finish your chicken, can I have it?"
"Finn!" Blaine couldn't help but laugh as his boyfriend screeched at the football player. "He can't exactly hold a fork right now."
"Oh. Right."
"It's okay," Blaine replied, pushing his plate over towards his boyfriend's step-brother. "I was pretty much done anyway."
"I could help you…" Kurt began, but he stopped when Blaine turned towards him and raised an eyebrow. "Right… you hate that." Blaine closed his eyes as Kurt leaned in and pressed a kiss against his cheek.
"Blaine, if you need help…" Carole began.
"I don't. I might need a ride home, but I'm not an invalid. Really, I wasn't going to eat much more anyway." Blaine just sat there, watching the family eat for a few minutes until they all started cleaning up the dishes. Blaine didn't hear Carole whisper to Kurt to take Blaine upstairs for a while, to get him away from the kitchen so that he wouldn't have to feel that he was being rude by not volunteering to help.
Blaine collapsed across Kurt's bed, reaching out for his boyfriend to come join him. "Your dad's going to be annoyed if you have to ask him for help tonight, isn't he?"
"When is my dad not annoyed with me?" Blaine asked, leaning in to press a soft kiss against the tip of Kurt's nose as the taller boy lay down beside him.
"You didn't have to tell them…"
"They needed to know. I can't exactly hide something like this forever. Especially not now that your family has invited me to go on vacation with all of you this summer," Blaine replied.
"Do you want me to ask if you can stay here tonight? I hate to make you go home and deal with your dad…" Kurt began.
"I don't want you to have to take care of me, Kurt."
"I want to help you. And you had no problem with it after West Side Story when we went to your house instead of the cast party…" Blaine smiled slightly at the memory of that night; it had been kind of nice to have Kurt around all night, and since they had been home alone they hadn't had to worry about getting in trouble if anyone caught them with the door closed or something like that.
"That was different…"
"Because we had sex?" Kurt asked.
"Because it was just as much for you as it was for me that night."
"Because we had sex." Blaine sighed.
"Yes, because we had sex." Blaine watched in silence as Kurt picked up one of his hands, intertwining their fingers and gently moving Blaine's so that they were holding hands. "I hate it that you have to do that… that when I'm tired I can't even hold your hand without getting you to help me do it. I hate that at night I can't do the most basic things on my own because my hands won't cooperate."
"Blaine, I will never have a problem helping you. I love you, and I would love you even if I had to do everything for you."
"I still don't want you to feel like you have to do anything for me."
"I don't have to do it. I want to do things for you. I want to help you, because I love you," Kurt replied. Blaine closed his eyes, smiling slightly.
"I love you, too."
"Then let me ask Dad and Carole, and call your dad when they say yes."
"He won't care if I don't come home tonight. He only cares if I get in his way somehow," Blaine commented.
"All the more reason you should let me see if you can stay here tonight. We have an extra bed, extra toothbrushes, I can lend you some pajamas. And you know that my family would be more than happy to have you spend the night. I can help you finish your homework…" Blaine sighed, closing his eyes and then smiling slightly.
"I'd sort of forgotten about that part…"
"So we'll get things sorted out so that you can stay here tonight and we'll get everything finished."
"Okay. If your parents say it's okay, I'll stay. But I'm not letting you do my homework," Blaine replied.
"I'm not going to do it for you… I'm just going to help you. Write down your answers, that kind of thing. You know, take care of the part that you can't do for yourself at the moment."
"Thank you, Kurt."
"For what?"
"Everything."
