A/N: I'm not overly happy with this, but I promised myself I was gonna start writing more (even though no one reads stuff on here anymore) so I gave it my best. Spoilers for 5.05, so don't read if you haven't seen it yet!
Warnings: mentions of Finn. Title is from "Make You Feel My Love" by Bob Dylan (aaaand cue tears)
"Rachel, are you in the shower yet? I need to get my hairspray or I'm gonna be late."
Kurt knocks quickly on the door, holding his ear up close. He frowns when there's no reply—the shower isn't running yet, but he knows she stepped in there a few minutes ago.
There's no lock on the door—Santana had promised that her next paycheck would go towards one after the burst in on Kurt when he was less than clothed the week before—so Kurt turns the handle slowly, pushing the door slightly. "Rachel? I'm coming in. Are you alright?"
He pokes his head around the door, hand by his face in case he needs to cover his eyes quickly. Rachel's there, naked except for her underwear, turned with her left side facing the mirror. She doesn't look up as he steps in, focusing on something on her side that Kurt can't quite make out. "Hey, are you—"
Rachel looks up then, glancing at him in the mirror, and she rubs her thumb over a mark on her rib. Kurt squints, steps into the room and his eyes widen as he recognizes the black ink.
"You lied! You said you didn't go through with it!"
Rachel takes a deep breath and Kurt realizes for the first time that she's crying, eyes red and puffy and cheeks streaked with tears. He feels a stab of guilt for not noticing straight away and he's about to hold his arms out for a hug when she turns around and moves her thumb. Kurt frowns and then his face goes lax as he reads the word etched into her skin.
Four simple letters. A name. Finn.
"Oh, honey," Kurt whispers, and he's holding his arms out as Rachel stumbles forward and falls into them, presses her face into the curve of his neck and lets out one gut-wrenching heart-clenching sob. Kurt wraps one arm around her waist and cups the back of her head with his other hand, rubs his thumb soothing over the skin of her hip and breathes a sigh into the side of her hair. Tears spring in his eyes when she inhales, shakes, and lets it out on a few sobs, one after the other, cutting into Kurt's heart like gunshot wounds. He hushes her softly, rocks them back and forth and presses his lips to her hair, her temple, leaning back against the doorframe when her shaking weight becomes too much.
Kurt's heart aches. Aches for his stepbrother, aches for Rachel, aches for all the times he'd so easily taken for granted that were now gone, lost, simple memories that seemed to fade more and more every time Kurt tried to conjure them back. He bites his lip, does his best to swallow his own sob as his breath hitches and a tear slips hot and wet down his cheek. He moves his hand to her back, rubs over the bumps of her spine that had become so much more prominent in the last month, and cradles her closer to his chest.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" he whispers, voice wobbling, and it's a few seconds before she shakes her head. She steps back, shaky on her feet, and Kurt moves his hands to her shoulders to steady her. She sniffs and glances down, then back up, tries a smile and ends up squeezing her eyes shut as a new wave of tears brim and fall down her cheeks. Kurt thumbs them away, brushes a hand over her hair and waits for the next wave of sobs to pass before he speaks.
"How about you go get dressed, I'll boycott school and we can lay in my bed and watch movies on my computer all day?"
Rachel takes a shaky breath and nods, wipes the back of her hand across her shining cheek before patting Kurt's hand on her shoulder and leaving the room. Kurt presses his lips together, suppresses another sob and switches the bathroom light off, pulling the door shut behind him.