A/N: This is to be a series of one-shots that aren't necessarily in order. They will deal with Blaine's past, his relationship with Kurt, and his friendship with the ND boys. Will take place in season 2, over the summer after season 2, and into a fictional season 3 that includes Sam, (since I started this before I learned he wouldn't be coming back and was too lazy to change it). See Author's Note at the end for more details!

This is rated simply for mentioned violence and boy kisses. Rating may go up with later chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. :(

Sept. 14, 2011

The sight of Beiste yelling nonsense, meant as encouragement, in Azimio's face as he struggled to complete his twentieth rep of the 150lb barbell was not at all uncommon. Beiste pushed her boys hard. She worked hard to coach them and she expected them to work just as hard to keep up with her plays on the field.

This was a normal final period in Weight Training 200 at McKinley High School.

When Ken Tanaka had been the football coach and physical education instructor, this class had been particularly lax. Guys would sign up for it because it was a convenient way to avoid a less-cool elective, like Fine Arts, French, or Glee. They'd laze around the weight room, occasionally pumping the heaviest weight they could see and slamming it down loudly when they were done as if to validate their presence there, or something more. Coach Tanaka had never been inclined to give the boys any guidance or instruction in the weight room and would leave them to themselves while he ate a power bar on a bench while reading 'Men's Fit' magazine, his expansive belly straining against the elastic of his too-small shorts.

That whole lazy mentality had quickly been done away with the moment Coach Shannon Beiste took over his job. Because of the years of lax training thanks to Coach Tanaka, many of the boys had become complacent and needed a stern hand or word of encouragement in order to ensure they maintained Beiste's standards. It didn't matter to her if you were on the football team or not. If you were in her class, you worked you butt off. No exceptions. This was already her second year as a teacher at McKinley, and the boys were beginning to fall into the rhythm of her methods, so she didn't have to push them nearly as hard as she'd had to the previous year.

Still, there were very few boys that she trusted to work that hard on their own, and those specific boys were all working out together at the mirrored end of the gym.

Finn was on his back, bench pressing a solid 130lbs. Puck hovered by his head, spotting him and catching his breath from his own bench press moments previous. Mike and Sam were doing planks on the mat; it was their third rep and they were going for four minutes. Artie had his own space facing the mirror. He was lifting dumbbells, something he'd been working on since he'd joined the football team the previous year. If the 30lb weight was any indication, he was making good progress. Blaine was beside Artie, balancing on an inverted bosu ball. He was doing squats with dumbells, lifting them in front of him with straight arms as he squatted down, and lowering them as he stood up. His legs shook from the extra effort unstable surface demanded.

Most of the other boys in the class preferred straight forward exercises that engaged the larger muscles: pecs, biceps, abdominals, etc, because they were easier to show off to girls. Sam and Blaine seemed to be the only two in the class who ever paid attention to Beiste stressing the importance of exercises like the one Blaine was doing now, because of how it engaged all sorts of tiny muscles that helped with balance, something very important for any type of athlete, without which, an athlete could become seriously injured.

Blaine was so invested in finishing his set that his mind was blocking out the grunts of exertion coming from Sam and Mike on the floor. Seven more to go.

Artie was unconsciously making orgasm faces into the mirror, getting more extravagant the closer he came to completing his set.

Six.

Sam's body was shaking like a self-contained earthquake. Puck was rolling his eyes at Finn's efforts to lift the bar for the last time.

Five.

Finn yelled in triumph when the barbell clacked back into place on the stand above his head. His arms dropped bonelessly to his sides.

Four.

Mike's breath came quickly, eyes glued to the stopwatch between him and Sam as it counted down their last few seconds.

Three.

With groans of triumph, Sam and Mike collapsed simultaneously onto the floor just as Artie moaned in satisfaction and let his barbells come to a rest in his lap.

Two.

Artie's head dropped to the back of his chair, blowing steadying breaths between chapped lips.

One.

All the sounds and smells of a sweaty gym assaulted Blaine as he returned to himself, coming out of his meditative workout state. He stumbled carefully off of the bosu ball and tried to centre himself, concentrating on staying standing on legs that shook with adrenalin. He dropped his weights next to him and knelt to massage his left knee, which was stiffening up from the exercise. It was awkward to massage around the knee brace, but he'd had plenty of practice. When his breathing was closer to normal and he could stretch his leg out without feeling the familiar twinge of pain, he set about clearing away his weights and bosu ball.

"Oh my god," Finn moaned. "That's the most reps I've ever done with that. I can't move."

Sam finally dragged himself off of the ground and picked up his towel, swiping his sweaty forehead with it. "That's awesome, dude. I'd high-five you but I don't think you can manage it right now."

Finn tried to lift his arm to give Sam a rude gesture, but Sam was right, and it just flopped back down uselessly beside him.

Without a word, Puck grabbed Artie's weights and returned them to the weight rack.

The boys passed around each others water bottles and took a small break between exercises. For a moment they gulped cool water in silence, and, despite their complaints, enjoyed the satisfying throbbing of hard-worked muscles.

As soon as he'd had his fill, Blaine placed his water bottle to the side and turned to the full-wall mirror. Sam was already there checking his abs, as if to see if the effort he'd put into his planks had started to pay off yet. Blaine joined his cause. He turned to his side to view his profile reflection, trying to assess whether he needed to do more gluteus exercises. Beside him, Sam cursed.

"Damn it, guys. Why'd you let me eat that bag of Doritos at lunch?" Blaine rolled his eyes at Sam's unfortunate self-hatred. He had the best abs in the school, second only to Mike Chang's dance abs of heaven. Blaine shifted to try and get a better view of his butt – the lighting in here was terrible.

"So do you guys think we can beat Carmell at the opening game next Friday?" Artie asked the group. "Apparently they've got a pretty boss team this year."

"Screw that, man," Finn replied. He'd finally managed to sit up on his bench, but still had made no effort towards his water bottle. "Beiste was only warming up with us last year. Now she's bearing down. I feel like we could win every game this season, the way things in practice have been going."

"I only saw the championship game last year," Blaine supplied. "And even though it was pretty messy to begin with, by the second half it was one of the most technically impressive high school games I've ever seen. I can't wait to see you guys with a fully prepared team this time."

"Remind me again why you're not on the team?" Mike asked. "You obviously really get how it works. It was thanks to you that we were able to play that championship game anyways, so why not play?"

Blaine sighed and a regretful smile ghosted over his lips. "I'd really love to," he said. "I mean, I played rugby my first year at Dalton, but I had to stop because of my knee," he'd picked up his own towel while talking and wiped the cooling sweat from the back of his neck. He indicated his left knee with his other hand, and continued. "But football's entirely different. It would be way too easy for me to get jostled on the field, and then it would get injured again, probably worse this time. And besides," he shrugged, trying to lighten the mood, "I'm way too small to play football."

"What's the big deal?" Puck asked, "Artie plays. And so did Kurt and he was way smaller than you –"

Blaine choked on his water.

"Kurt played football?"

Finn laughed. "Sure, beginning of the season two years ago. That was before we had the Beiste. He was a kicker. Helped us win the only game we won that season."

"I can't even imagine..." Blaine trailed off, trying and failing to do just that.

"He had us do the Single Ladies dance on the field to distract the other team."

"Oh." Well, now he could imagine things a little too well. "I need to sit down."

Finn smirked and scooted over on his bench to give Blaine room. Blaine left his towel on his lap and poured the cold water from his water bottle down the back of his neck.

"Anderson! No spilling water in the weight room!"

Blaine jumped at Beiste's gruff yell.

"Sorry, coach." He quickly toweled off the back of his neck. Puck smirked.

"Looks like you'll have to wait until after class for your cold shower, Anderson." Blaine glared at him, but then it flickered and his gaze fell.

"I gotta ask you guys something," he said. The others sensed the shift in his tone and abandoned their preparation for their next sets.

"What's up, man?" Asked Finn. He leaned in closer, unable to help the feeling that Blaine was about to tell them a big secret. Blaine glanced at them all, then shifted to look around at the guys near them. It was a small weight room.

"Actually," he said, "can we go somewhere else for this?"

Finn clapped him on the shoulder and stood up to tell Beiste that they were going to go run laps outside.

Blaine followed the others out the gym doors. They all blinked at the change in lighting. It was the first week back at school, but global warming was in full effect and summery weather persisted. The sun assaulted their corneas as they stepped away from the dim lighting of the weight room.

The boys decided to run one lap around the track just in case Beiste stuck her head out the doors to monitor them. They knew she trusted them, so she wouldn't look out more than once. When the lap was finished they jogged over to the bleachers and took seats on the bottom benches, pretending to stretch. They stretched in silence for a little bit. The guys kept glancing at Blaine, waiting for him to start. Finally Blaine took a deep breath and jumped right into it.

"Kurt told me that even before he was a Cheerio he worked out on his own," Blaine said. The boys stared at him in surprise and gave each other uncertain looks around Blaine, who didn't notice. "He said he was getting harassed too much in the locker room to bother with the school class. I guess I'm kind of worried about that."

Finn's brow scrunched in confusion. "But, you've never been scared of others. You and Kurt told us about confronting Karofsky after you two met. He's like, twice your size and he pushed you into the wall and Kurt said you kept your composure the whole time."

Blaine chuckled at the memory. Kurt had been so brave, pushing Karofsky off him like that, especially after what he'd done to him. Blaine didn't think that he'd have the same bravery as Kurt in his position, to get so close to someone who'd assaulted him.

"Maybe I looked calm on the outside," Blaine said, "but the truth is I was frozen. I went into my survival defence mode. I had my hands up in surrender so I wouldn't provoke him further."

There was a moment of silence while the boys digested this, trying to discern the meaning. Out of nowhere, it was Puck who put the pieces together. Blaine's fear of the locker room, fear in a physical encounter; it all added up to one thing.

"You were attacked," Puck said, staring at Blaine with a kind of morbid fascination. "A hate crime."

Blaine flinched at the words but nodded. "Some of you know how reluctant I was to go with Kurt to Prom last year. It was because of a previous bad experience at a school dance."

"I thought Dalton had a no-bullying policy. And it's an all-guys school, so how...?" Sam voiced everyone's confusion.

"Not at Dalton," Blaine sighed, "at my school before Dalton. I used to go to Carmel High, and –"

"Say what?" Artie cried.

Blaine laughed. "Oh yeah, Kurt told me about the Jesse St. James thing. And the egg incident. That might actually make this easier to explain. If you can imagine a show choir attacking a rival glee club's star with eggs, then it isn't a stretch of the imagination to see how that school could foster enough hate to beat up two gay guys after a school dance, is it?" The circle was stunned into silence, trying to comprehend this.

"Anyways," Blaine rubbed his forehead self-consciously, "I'm back at a public school now, and things like that are just rushing back to me. I thought I'd made my peace with those things, but clearly not. Also, the locker room is where something happened between Kurt and Karofsky, so I think I'm cross-associating the two, and I'm getting all confused in my head –" He was cut off by a shuddering sob that wrenched his whole body.

"Dude, slow down," Finn said carefully. Sam reached out and rubbed soothing circles on Blaine's back. Blaine was shaking, but tried to take deep breaths to calm himself, fighting down the dry heaves.

"I'm sorry," he said, wiping invisible tears from his eyes, "I don't know why I'm freaking out like this. I know this isn't Carmel, and I know that Karofsky has changed, and I know things never got physically violent here, but for some reason I can't stop myself from picturing it all coming together."

The group all took tentative looks at Blaine's knee. There was a jagged white scare that circled the kneecap, mostly hidden under his black knee brace.

"Is that how you hurt your knee?"

Blaine started at Artie's comment.

"What?"

Artie pointed to the knee in question and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh," Blaine sighed and rubbed his kneecap. "No, actually. That was different. That was after the dance thing." Quieter, "it's the reason I left Carmel."

Everyone stared.

"You stayed," Sam whispered. "Even after being attacked at Carmel, you stayed?"

Blaine nodded. "It actually wasn't guys from school who beat us up," he explained, having gotten himself better under control. "They were just walking by. College guys home for the summer, probably. They saw us and decided to 'set us straight,' pun intended. Going back to that parking lot a week later was nerve-wracking, but once I got past that it was fine. Rumours had gotten out, and kids at school knew what had happened. Things got more physical after that. Seeing adults do that to us without any consequences somehow told them that it was okay to do the same. It was after things escalated from there that I transferred."

"You're really brave for staying," Mike said. Blaine's heart clenched guiltily at the sincerity of Mike's words.

"If you say so," Blaine mumbled.

"Those guys are sick," Puck said. "I mean, I only beat up guys within a few years of me. You can't beat up someone that much younger than you. Sick."

Sam was nodding. "Seriously, Blaine," he said, "you know those guys were probably just scared right? Prejudice is just ignorance." Blaine almost laughed at Sam's wording.

"And that's exactly why I'm such a hypocrite," he sighed. "I know how it works, but it's harder when you're so close to the situation."

Mike glanced up from his watch. "Sorry about the timing, guys, but we should be heading back. Beiste will be telling us to hit the showers any minute."

"I'm okay, now," Blaine said in response to the uncertain looks the guys were giving him. "Thanks for listening, guys. I know my fear is mostly in my head. Things are better here. I can deal with everything else." He stood up and the others followed slowly after him.

"Blaine, wait," Finn called. Blaine turned and faced them. Finn clapped a brotherly hand on his shoulder. "At Carmel, you may not have had anyone there to stick up for you, but here we've got your back. No one's going to mess with you in the locker room, or anywhere else, got that? We won't let what happened before happen again."

Blaine was blinking through tears, but he nodded at Finn's words.

By the time they returned to the gym Blaine was under control again, all traces of their conversation banished from his face. He headed straight for the locker room, and the other boys followed him in, figuring it was a close enough time to go in anyways. Also, they meant what they said and didn't want to leave Blaine alone in there. Through the door they heard Beiste blow a whistle that signalled the end of the period. Blaine and Finn were coming out of the showers as the rest of the class rushed in.

Finn was scanning the room as discretely as possible. He'd watched as Blaine'd manoeuvred his way through the crowd of boys to get to their bench. He'd kept his eyes up and on the walls or lockers, and had been careful to not so much as brush against anyone, which didn't seem like it was too difficult because the others were careful to keep out of Blaine's way, though they didn't say anything to him.

They reached their bags without incident and Finn turned away from Blaine to start getting dressed. He pulled his boxers on under his towel, then took it off to finish drying his hair. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Blaine reach for his shirt and pull it over his shoulders, before putting his briefs on under his towel same as Finn.

Finn frowned. Why had Blaine put the shirt on first? Blaine had a great body, Finn thought in a totally platonic way, so he couldn't be ashamed of it.

Blaine dropped his towel and pulled on his jeans as Puck joined them at the bench.

"Going for a new fashion statement there, Blainey?" he asked, lounging against the lockers. Blaine looked down and saw he'd put the shirt on inside out.

He blushed and laughed. "Whoops, guess I wasn't paying attention." He turned so his back was to the lockers before pulling it off, turning it right side out, and putting it back on again.

"Thanks, Puck. I'd have never heard the end of it if Kurt had seen that." He pulled a vest on over top of his right-way-out shirt.

"Gotta look out for my bro," Puck replied, fist bumping Blaine.

The bell rang and Finn shoved this gym bag into his locker before leaving the room. He walked out into the hallway, pausing for a minute to remember which way his locker was. He hated that they changed lockers every year. It was always really embarrassing when he was struggling with a lock only for a terrified freshman to show up and ask as politely as possible if they could help him with something. It would take a moment before Finn realized that he was trying to get into a locker that wasn't his, and he'd use the freshman's fear of his upperclassman status to grunt and just walk away without any further embarrassment on his part.

Down the hallway he saw Kurt standing at his locker, trading books for his next class. Someone brushed by Finn then, with a quick "sorry, Finn" and hurried up to Kurt. Blaine snuck up behind Kurt before wrapping his arms around his boyfriend's waist and kissing him quickly on the ear. Kurt giggled and turned away from his locker to meet Blaine. He reached up a hand and played with Blaine's still wet hair. Blaine said something to him, to which Kurt started and stared with horror at Blaine while Blaine just laughed at him. Kurt's cheeks were blushing rapidly and he slapped Blaine on the shoulder and pouted, though it did nothing to stop Blaine's laughter.

Neither of the boys noticed the sideways looks being shot at the two as students passed them in the halls.

Finn wanted to laugh at Blaine's stupidity. Here he was, PDA-ing with Kurt all over the hallway while 20 minutes ago he'd been near tears and telling them how he was afraid of attacks. It seemed to Finn that Blaine didn't have much to worry about. Their school was safer this year, the Bullywhips were still in full effect. But the real difference here was Kurt. Kurt made Blaine stronger, the same way that Blaine had made Kurt stronger when they'd met almost a year ago. More so Finn thought than Blaine even realized. Finn watched as Blaine held Kurt's books for him while he closed his locker. They reached for each others' hands simultaneously, and walked off down the hall together to their next class.

Kurt closed the door quickly after them before pulling Blaine to him for their real first kiss of the day. Blaine laughed against Kurt's mouth, but Kurt was persistent, and Blaine quickly got drawn into the kiss. He moaned as Kurt steered him into the living room. The backs of his knees knocked against the edge off the couch and the tumbled backwards, Kurt falling on top. Kurt pulled at Blaine's vest and Blaine worked quickly to undo it, twisting his shoulders to shimmy out of it as fast as possible.

"Why are you wearing something complicated today?" Kurt mumbled against Blaine's lips. "The football team is only having a short practice, Finn could be home any time." Kurt shifted his hips against Blaine's thigh to emphasize the gravity of the situation. Blaine groaned and threw his head back. Kurt wasted no time in attacking the new target. He tugged at Blaine's shirt and pulled it over his head before Blaine could even form the thought of protesting, then he was back at his neck, licking his way down to Blaine's shoulder.

"Kurt, hold on, stop," Blaine panted. Kurt whimpered but pulled away. He sat back and looked curiously at Blaine, who shifted back so he was sitting up too. He crossed his arms protectively over his chest and looked down at the floor.

Confusion coursed over Kurt's face, and his eyes searched Blaine's for clues as to what he'd done wrong, but Blaine avoided his gaze. Kurt's eyes trailed down Blaine's face, down his neck, and to his shoulders. That's when he saw them, standing our starkly against Blaine's naturally tanned skin.

"Is it them?" he asked tentatively. He reached out a hesitant hand to brush over them, but didn't touch. His fingers hovered over the smattering of white marks.

Blaine snapped out of his daze and looked at Kurt. Kurt leaned over Blaine again, moving slowly, gently. He brought his lips down to Blaine's shoulder and rained tender kisses upon the tiny, jagged scars.

Blaine sobbed. "Don't do that, Kurt, please. Don't look at them."

"You're beautiful," Kurt said between kisses. There were so many marks, but he would get to them all. "You're brave. You're strong."

"You're wrong," Blaine said. He shivered with each kiss bestowed upon his shame. Kisses he didn't deserve. Words he didn't deserve. He tried to imagine that it was enough to heal his wounds. If only

"You didn't run away." Kiss. "You're not a coward." Kiss. "You're smart." Kiss. "I love you." Kurt shifted to reach the scars he knew must be on Blaine's other should as well, and continued.

"I'm a lie," Blaine whispered. Kurt didn't stop, refuting Blaine's words with his kisses. "I ran away, Kurt. I let them win."

"You had no choice," Kurt kissed. "You did everything you could. If you'd stayed, you would be here for me to kiss right now." Kurt finished the ones on Blaine's front and stood up from the couch. "Lay down on your stomach," he said.

Blaine tried to protest, but Kurt gave him a look he couldn't argue with, and rolled over onto his stomach. Kurt climbed on top of Blaine to straddle his thighs. A galaxy of white littered Blaine's upper back. He leaned down and worked in silence. For a time the only sound in the room was the soft smooch of Kurt's lips on Blaine's skin. Blaine was tense beneath Kurt's lips. He flinched at the first contact, but slowly relaxed under Kurt's loving ministrations.

"What got you into this mood?" Kurt asked finally, planting a final kiss. He sat back and rubbed his tingling lips (he was going to need some serious lip chap after that), but kept Blaine down, rubbing his shoulders to keep him relaxed. "Usually you're not bothered by me seeing them."

Blaine sighed into his pillowed arms. "I was nervous about the locker room today after weight training. You know, because of what Karofsky did to you in there, and honestly, my own fears of public school. I ended up telling the guys all of it, and –"

"All of it?" Kurt asked, incredulous. His hands stopped massaging Blaine's shoulders.

"Well, not all of it," Blaine said, twisting beneath Kurt so he could look at him properly. "You know how long it took me to tell you. I'm not ready to tell anyone else. But they asked about my leg, and I told them it was the reason I transferred. But that's it."

Kurt hummed and sat back at bit, but not too much so as to put unnecessary pressure on Blaine's knees.

"So you've been thinking about this all day?" he asked. He brought his hand to Blaine's face and stroked his cheek. He could feel the gentle scratch of Blaine's five o'clock shadow graze the pad of his finger.

Blaine nodded and turned his face into Kurt's comforting touch.

"I wish I could be stronger, Kurt. I wish I could get past this. You deserve someone so much stronger than me." Kurt was shaking his head before Blaine even finished his sentence.

"I love you," Kurt emphasized. "Even though you're sometimes stupid enough to think that there was some way you could have survived at that school of yours. You freaked out today, you weren't even at your old public school. That's not to say you're weak," Kurt rushed when he saw Blaine beginning to shut down. He grabbed Blaine's sagging shoulders and forced him to look at him. "Blaine, you saved me, literally saved me, when no one else was even looking my way. I may not believe in God, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason. You had to leave Carmel. You had to go to Dalton. Because you had to be there to save me. Now, I don't know how, but I'm going to save you."

Blaine smiled through stressed eyes and leaned forward for a kiss which Kurt gave without hesitation.

"I don't deserve you," he whispered, so quiet Kurt was sure he wasn't meant to hear it. Blaine snuggled into Kurt's neck as Kurt frowned sadly at his boyfriend. Blaine could be so strong for others, but fell apart when it came to himself. Kurt didn't know how, but he would show Blaine that he was wrong.

This was their senior year. As Coach Sylvester had once said, high school was a dry run for the rest of their lives. They weren't at Dalton anymore, and they couldn't hide behind those safe walls. This was the struggle they would face; their hill to climb. Kurt remembered telling Mr. Schuester once that it was 'his hill to climb alone.' But he'd faced his demons since then, and come out realizing that he wasn't alone. It was him and Blaine together. Somehow, he had to get Blaine to realize that too.

Kurt leaned over the edge of the couch and picked up Blaine's shirt from the floor. Blaine reached out to take it, but Kurt pulled it out of his reach. "Ah, ah, ah. If you think that I'm going to let you wear a wrinkly shirt in my house then you are sadly mistaken, mister." Kurt pulled an afghan off the back of the couch and draped it over Blaine's naked shoulders. "I'm going to iron this for you, and then we are going to snuggle on the couch and watch Tangled until Finn gets home and demands food of us. When I drive you home and kiss you goodnight on your doorstep, I will tell you that I love you, and you will say the same back, and neither of us will be thinking about how much we do or do not deserve said love. Got it?"

Blaine smiled and stood up from the couch. "Thank you, Kurt," he said, moving to surround him in a warm hug, afghan and all. "I don't know what I'd do without you." Kurt smiled into Blaine's neck and hugged him back, putting as much love and emotion into the embrace as possible.

When Finn came home 20 minutes later the iron was still cooling on the ironing board. Blaine was wrapped around Kurt, a blanket thrown over their joined bodies. They were both asleep with a movie still playing. When Finn saw the Disney movie on the screen his good mood faded. From what he'd seen at their locker today, he'd thought Blaine was feeling better about his situation. But seeing a Disney princess on the TV told him that things would not be solved that simply. Something was wrong, and it ran deeper than what Blaine had told the guys on the bleachers. Finn didn't want to butt in where he wasn't wanted, but he hoped that Blaine had sense enough to go to Kurt if he really needed help. For now though, he left the couple to their much needed nap, and shuffled quietly into the kitchen to make a sandwich.

A/N: Like it? Hate it? Constructive criticism only please!

By the way, what Kurt and Blaine are talking about at his locker is Blaine telling Kurt that he found out he played football. In my head, Blaine already knows Kurt was a cheerleader. Kurt would be proud of that. But I think he would be embarassed about being a football player, or at least about the circumstances that lead up to that point, thus his reaction to Blaine telling him he knows. Why are they so adorable?

Also, please let me know how the sexy-ish-ness on the couch was! That is the closest I've yet come to writing smut, and I was grinning in bewilderment the whole time I was writing it. But like so many things with Kurt and Blaine, it just seemed to write itself. They make things too easy for me. ;)