"Well aren't you a pretty one?" The man slurred. Kurt leaned away slightly and fanned a hand in front of his mouth, wrinkling his nose at the smell.

"Thank you." He said and turned pointedly away to except his bottled water from the bartender. He was rapidly starting to think this had been a bad idea, a fact only enhanced a moment later when a hot heavy hand groped his ass. He gave an undignified yell and whirled around. The drunk again, grinning at him and raising his glass in a sloppy toast.

"You are finneee" He giggled. Kurt rolled his eyes and snatched up his bag, his mind made up.

"I would appreciate it if you kept your hands to yourself." He said coldly, and started making his way towards the door. A gay bar in Ohio, he should have known better. He definitely could have waited to go to New York to try this.

Those hands were on his ass again, then one on his waist and the guy was breathing in his ear.

"Come on sweetthiiing, I just want a little fun, aren't you pretty." Kurt started slapping the hands away,

"Get your hands off of me! I most certainly will not be having fun with you!" Now the guy had grabbed his arm, and his grip was stronger than Kurt had expected, his other hand was wandering somewhere Kurt most definitely did not want it to.

"Boy! You are feisty sugar!" He crowed as Kurt thrashed,

"Stop it! Don't you dare-"

"Hey! Get off of him!" A second later the guy was being ripped off of him and he was pulled back into a set of big strong arms.

"Fuck off man!" spat the voice above him, and Kurt's eyes flicked behind him, hoping desperately that he wasn't out of the frying pan into the fire. What he saw instead shocked him so much he forgot to speak. Dave however was still talking, as was the drunk.

"Hey, what's your problem dude, it's a free country!" Sneered the drunk. Dave Karofsky's eyes blazed, and for once Kurt was relieved to see that utterly bowl loosening expression that Dave made when he was angry.

"It's my problem when you got your hands on my boyfriend!" He said, taking a step forward in such a threatening manner that the drunk took a step back and said,

"Jeez, sorry man, whatever." Then with a dirty look at the pair of them he wandered away into the crowd.

"Ok." Dave turned to Kurt "Let's start with where is your real boy, and what the hell are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" Kurt shot back. Dave's face crinkled into a pained expression.

"I wanted to- I wanted- you know what screw this! Forget you ever saw me!" he growled and spun away.

"Dave!" Kurt grabbed his arm "Stop! What is it? Come on, where have you been! I haven't seen you in months!"

"I had kind of a shitty summer." Dave growled, and yanked his arm away.

"David…" Kurt said sadly "Come on, talk to me. Please?" he watched as Dave froze on 'please' his shoulders tensing. Then he turned back around and sighed.

"Can we not have this conversation in here?" Kurt nodded.

"Sure, I was thinking of getting out anyway. Shall we?" he gave a significant glance to where the drunk from earlier was leaning by the door. Dave cracked a small, almost sincere smile and offered his arm and Kurt wrapped himself around it in classic couple's fashion, unable to help but notice that Dave's arms were strong and well shaped. In a voice that was a little loud but still normal and carried nicely Dave said,

"You ready to get out of here sweetheart?" and Kurt replied in the same tone,

"Let's go home Davey." looking sweetly up at his faux boyfriend. With that they strolled out the door into the surprisingly crisp November night. As they walked across the parking lot Kurt shivered and wrapped his scarf a little tighter, above him Dave sighed deeply and pulled them to a stop, shucking out of his big coat and holding it out to Kurt.

"Here, you have like no fat to keep you warm." Kurt took it surprised and slipped into it, his shivers ceasing as he was enveloped by the big coat which was still warm from Dave's body. It swam on him, covering most of his hands and wrapping him around with warmth and a masculine smell that Kurt associated with Old Spice products.

"Thank you." He said a little stunned.

"No problem" Was Dave's monosyllable response.

"Can we talk now?" asked Kurt hugging the coat around him.

"You first, mine's a long story. Where's pretty boy?" Kurt frowned, clearly upset.

"We had a big fight. He got the lead in West Side Story over me."

"What? He got Tony? That's crap! You sing awesome!"

"You know West Side Story?" Kurt glanced up in time to see him blush.

"My little sister loves it, I've had to watch it like twenty million times." He explained.

"Oh." He tried not to smile just a little. "How old is your sister?"

"10. Her name is Emily."

"Hmm." said Kurt "I'd love to meet her some time." He gave Dave a friendly smile, but Dave didn't reply. Kurt thought he might have smiled though.

"So…your turn, where have you been?"

"Here, climb in for a sec. You might want to sit down for this." Dave opened the door to a red truck and Kurt pulled himself up into the passenger seat, Dave closing the door behind him and getting in the driver's side. Kurt looked at him expectantly when he said nothing in the first minute, and he sighed and put his hands on his knees.

"After prom, I really hit rock bottom. I tried to kill myself, but my dad came home early and stopped me." Kurt had put his hands to his mouth. "My Dad basically held me prisoner for a week and a half until I confessed why I'd been so messed up. He was pretty shocked but he was a lot more supportive then I would have guessed. My mom though, she's a hard core church go-er. She flipped shit, I've never seen them fight so much. At the end of the summer we moved across town and they got divorced. Emily stays with her most of the time." He scuffed an arm across his eyes and Kurt whispered,

"Dave…" Putting a hand on his arm.

"My own mom started asking me how I could do that, that I was going to hell. Messed me up good."His voice cracked slightly but he cleared his throat and continued "Me and my dad went on a vacation together, a long get away from everything. Went camping the rest of the summer and got back like a month ago. Next week I was planning to go back to school, fight the second battle."

"The second battle?"

"Come out to the school. I have only like half a year left and I'll be damned if I spend it just like my other 3 years."

"Oh David! Are you serious?" Kurt beamed a smile at him.

"What the hell. I can take half a year by myself, make friends in college."

"Wait what?"

"You don't think the dudes are gonna just pat me on the back do you? Kurt, they're never going to speak to me again." Kurt gave him a furious expression,

"And you think I wouldn't be your friend?" He demanded "You think I'm NOT your friend already?"

"Kurt-"

"No. Don't you dare get like that on me! We will be friends dammit! Don't you even TRY to talk me out of it."

"Wasn't going to." Dave said holding up his hands "And thanks, you have no idea what that means to me."

"Do you have a plan?" Kurt sat back again.

"I'm going to tell 'Tana to spread the word. Then when people ask I'll just tell them it's true. I was here to kind of see if I could make being gay worth my while."

"Wow. I hardly believe it." He turned to smile at Dave "I'm really proud of you David."

"Thanks Kurt." He gave a shaky laugh "Shit I'm nervous."

"It's going to be ok. Remember, you'll always have support in me, and in the glee club too I'm sure, if you talked to them."

"I'll keep it in mind." Kurt looked at his phone.

"I have to get home. See you tomorrow?" Dave's mouth twitched up at the corner.

"See you tomorrow Kurt."