"Challenge"

Summary: Inspired by BPOTD #921, "Blaine is diagnosed with ALS and does the ice bucket challenge, even though in a wheelchair."

A/N: I did some research on the life expectancy for ALS patients, and there really is no way to make this even the slightest bit fluffy. Buuuut, it is a Blangst prompt, so that's why. Also, I strayed from the prompt just a tiny bit. Hope you don't mind.

"You don't have to do this," Kurt said gently, clearly worried. "You can just make a video telling your story like that one guy did. Remember the video we watched? It got, like, eight thousand views? You can still spread the word."

Blaine just smiled, wiggling his fingers so Kurt would take his hand. "I'll be fine, Kurt. I've seen a bunch of people do it and it hasn't made it worse. Besides, I was nominated."

"But what if it does get worse?" Kurt pressed with the distress evident in his eyes. "I… I'm already planning on losing you too soon. I don't want it to happen any sooner."

"Kurt," Blaine said softly, attempting to squeeze his hand. Kurt squeezed back. "Listen to me. I'm gonna be around for a while. I know this wheelchair makes it look really bad, but I'm doing fine as of now. We have time." He saw tears in Kurt's eyes and he frowned. "Come here," he pleaded, nodding to his lap. Kurt sat across his inactive legs and buried his face in Blaine's neck as Blaine wrapped his good arm around Kurt's back. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

Although Blaine wasn't worried about his choice to accept the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, he was worried about Kurt. And he was a lot more terrified than he ever let on. His doctor had told them that he was a rare case. Since his diagnosis four years ago, the disease had progressed fairly slowly, disabling his limbs one by one and only slightly affecting his speech at times. But the truth was that he had no idea how long he had to live, and he was scared. He could live another year, another six years, or maybe another month. He just didn't know.

But he knew that Kurt was just as terrified of losing him. So, he pretended to be brave. He told Kurt to have courage when, really, he was talking to both of them.

"If you really don't want me to do the challenge, then I won't," Blaine offered, rubbing Kurt's back.

Kurt sniffled and Blaine felt even worse. "I'd feel better if we didn't take any chances," he admitted in a small voice.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay," Blaine promised. "We'll just use your idea and I'll share my story."

Kurt pulled back to look at him, adoration filling his eyes. "Thank you," he said before grabbing Blaine's face and kissing him. "Thank you so much."

"Of course," Blaine smiled, kissing back happily. "So, let's get the video camera?"

"In a minute," Kurt murmured, smiling and kissing Blaine again. He stood up and moved to push Blaine's wheelchair into their bedroom, picking him up and laying him down on the bed. Crawling on top of his fiancé, he started kissing across his collarbone and Blaine inhaled sharply, reaching up with his good hand to clutch the back of Kurt's shirt. "Shh," Kurt soothed. "Relax, honey."

Before Kurt could get Blaine's pants undone, he heard his fiancé gasp in pain and he immediately stopped, looking up to see what was wrong. "Blaine?" Blaine whimpered and Kurt noticed that his right shoulder was twitching violently. He was clutching the sheets with the fingers on his bad arm and clutching Kurt's shirt with the fingers of his good arm—although, Kurt wasn't sure it was going to be his good arm much longer. "Blaine, honey, what's wrong?"

Blaine grunted in answer, clutching tighter to Kurt. His shoulder stopped twitching after a few more seconds and then the weight of Blaine's arm was pulling Kurt's shirt off to the side as his fingers continued to cling to the fabric. Blaine let out a breath and Kurt frowned, reaching up to stroke his fiancé's cheek gently. "Oh, honey… Not again."

A few tears dripped down the side of Blaine's face and he squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't move either of his arms. The only reason his right arm was still up was because his fingers were tangled tightly in the fabric of Kurt's t-shirt. The same thing had happened a few months ago with his left arm, but he'd thought he might have a little more time to use his one good arm before it succumbed to the disease.

"It's fine," Blaine gritted out, turning his face away as Kurt moved to kneel at his side. His fingers were still holding on to Kurt's shirt, using every bit of his strength. "It's fine."

Kurt tried to gently pry Blaine's fingers from his shirt, to no avail. "Blaine," he said softly. "You can let go now. It's okay."

"It's not okay!" Blaine shouted, turning to face him, angry tears streaming down his cheeks. Kurt flinched. Blaine opened his mouth to say something else but then his face fell and he frowned. "I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. I just… I—"

"I know," Kurt nodded. "You're frustrated. I am, too. But we can't keep taking it out on each other. We have to help each other through this." He paused. "And I'm going to start by taking the Ice Bucket Challenge."

"Kurt, you don't have to—"

"Yes, I do," Kurt said. "You're going to tell them your story and I'm going to do the challenge. We're in this together, Blaine."

Blaine bit his lip then nodded. "Help me into my chair."

Kurt smiled, doing just that. Kurt grabbed his phone to take the video, rolling Blaine's chair into their backyard and propping his phone up so it could record without either of them holding it.

They had a bucket of ice water and they were ready to go. They started the video with a close-up of Blaine, ready to tell his story.

He talked about his diagnosis, about each time one of his arms or legs gave out, and about how long he was expected to live. He talked about his supportive family, and how he was the first in his family to have the disease. Then he talked about Kurt, his reason for wanting to last as long as possible despite of his disease. He talked about all of it. And he cried—a lot.

Then Kurt entered the shot and Blaine smiled at him. He was holding the bucket in front of him, looking at the camera.

"I'm Kurt Hummel and I was nominated by… myself," he said. "My fiancé is more important to me than anything and I will continue to support him through every struggle he faces. I know what it's like to lose someone I love and it's going to hurt like Hell to do it again," he said, his voice cracking. He cleared his throat, composing myself. "But I plan to make the most of the time we have, and I want everyone to know how important it is to donate to this cause. Don't let more loved ones die because we can't find funds for a cure."

Blaine was smiling up at him the whole time, and then Kurt lifted the bucket and drenched himself, gasping as the cold registered all over his skin. He cursed under his breath and Blaine laughed, grinning at his fiancé. "I love you so much," he said.

Kurt spit out water and turned to Blaine with a smile. "You'd better, because I did this for you," he said teasingly before bending down to kiss him, smiling into it. Blaine laughed and broke the kiss after a few seconds.

"The camera," he pointed out. "They don't need to see this," he said with a coy smile.

Kurt smirked and went to turn the camera off. Before he did, he winked at the camera and said, "Remember to donate."

A/N: Kind of a dumb ending, I know, but it did end up being a little fluffy.

Review please! :)