Title: Eternity (1/?)
Author: crazyauthoress
Fandom: Glee
Summary: Blaine stared at the dark lines against Kurt's pale skin and began to back away. "I can't... I can't do this," he whispered, raising his eyes to look into Kurt's. "I'm sorry, but I can't become him." With no further explanation, Blaine turned and fled from the room. Prequel to "A Choice to Make" and all the other oneshots of the Magic and Memories 'verse. This is what happened before Chris and Darren were born.
Rating: T
Warnings: AU, mentions of magical domestic violence, character death in later chapters, mutual scarring, self-injury, and magic. Lots and lots of magic.
Author's Note: This is the story behind Kurt and Blaine in the Klaine and CrissColfer oneshots I've been writing. Reading those first isn't necessary to understand this, however if you'd like to read them the order is "A Choice to Make", "A Conversation With Yourself", "Of Conversations and Scars", "Don't You" and "Forver". This story will answer any questions you had regarding Blaine, Kurt, and what happened to them before Darren and Chris.
Chapter One: The First Life part One
When Blaine was five, he was told he was going to attend Dalton Academy in the fall.
He blinked and cocked his head to the side, staring up at his mother and father with big eyes. "Why?" he asked, scuffing his feet on the carpet. "Is it because I'm a bad boy?"
His mother cooed at him and scooped him up into her arms. "Of course not, darling," she murmured, stroking his back gently. "You're a wonderful little boy, but your father and I-"
"You're too strong to be around this house," his father cut in brusquely, staring down at the small boy. "You throw a tantrum and half the house combusts into flames! It's not safe for your mother or your little brother and sister or I for you to be around. You need to learn control, young man, and the only way that will happen is if you go to Dalton."
Blaine whimpered and clung to his mother tightly. She always smelled like milk and baked goods, regardless of the perfume she wore every day. "I don't want to leave Mama," he said, his small fists wrinkling the neat blouse she wore. "Can you or Mama teach me, Fath-"
He stopped talking when a glass vase shattered inches away from him and his mother. She shrieked and covered Blaine's body with hers, but Blaine still felt some of the glass cut him. "Michael!" she gasped, pulling her face away from Blaine's curly hair to stare up at his father. "You could have hurt Blaine!"
Michael just glared at her. "Lea, we've been over this before," he snarled, causing Blaine to whimper and hide against his mother again. "You have the twins to watch and I have work. There's nobody to teach the brat control."
"Then hire a tutor," Lea said, holding Blaine tight to her chest. "By the Goddesses, he's only five! He doesn't belong at that place, not yet! You went there when you were thirteen, why can't he-"
"He's stronger than I am," Michael bellowed, oblivous to the way Lea and Blaine winced away from him. "You coddle him so much that you don't see it, but I do. He nearly destroyed half the house!"
Lea stood up, Blaine still cuddled close in her arms. "I don't care," she snapped and Blaine could feel her pulse begin to race from where his cheek was pressed against her neck. "I will not let you send my son away."
With that, she spun on her heel and walked away. Blaine peaked over her shoulder and saw the livid face of his father, biting back the whimper building in his throat. "I'll do everything I can to make sure you don't go there yet, Blaine," Lea promised as she carried him up to the nursery.
"I know, Mama," he murmured, resting his head against her shoulder. "I know."
Later that night, Blaine crept downstairs silently, wanting to ask his mother for a glass of milk to help him sleep. There was a crash from inside the kitchen and Blaine hurried toward it, hoping his mother wasn't hurt. He opened the door silently, his eyes widening at the scene before him.
His father was gripping his mother's wrists tightly, his hands glowing a dark brown as lines began to appear across her skin. She twisted and fought, trying to get away but Michael's grip was too strong for her. With every second he held her wrists, the lines darkened going from pale brown to the color of hot chocolate to a brown so dark it was almost black.
"Michael... you're hurting me! I can't take this much..." Lea gasped, struggling more against his hands.
Michael just moved closer, crowding her against the island in the middle of the kitchen and pinning her hands against marble surface. "You're supposed to take everything I give you," he snarled into her face. "No matter how much it is, you're supposed to sit there and take it. It's what you were made to do, after all."
Lea's face twisted and she swallowed. "Not if it's more than I can take," she whispered, her face going pale. "I..." she groaned deeply and her legs began to shake, brown eyes rolling back into her head.
"You listen to me," Michael snarled. "Blaine is going to Dalton Academy in the fall. He is going to learn how to control his magic and he is not going to step foot back into this house until he can control it. Do you understand?"
Lea didn't answer. Her knees gave out and she began to slump to the ground, but Michael just hauled her up by her wrists and pressed her against the island with more strength. "Do. You. Under. Stand?" he snarled and the glow of his hands darkened.
"Yes!" Lea shrieked, her body beginning to thrash. "Yes! Just please, stop!"
He dropped her wrists and took a step back, watching as she slumped to the ground. "Pathetic," he grunted, staring dispassionately at his wife. "You're every bit as pathetic as that runt you're trying so desperately to protect." With that, he turned on his heel and walked away.
As soon as his father was gone, Blaine bolted into the kitchen and ran to his mother. "Mama!" he cried, gently touching her cheeks.
Lea winced away from his touch and opened her eyes slowly. "Oh... my darling boy," she said softly, tears gathering in her eyes. "I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you. I'm so, so sorry."
She pulled him into her arms, holding his little body close to hers despite the painful tremors that ran up and down her spin. They sat that way for a long time and Blaine tried to understand what he had seen. When morning came, he still had no answer.
.-.-.-.
When Blaine was thirteen, he learned about mages and absorbers.
"Turn to page forty five and read the text there about absorbers," his teacher said, looking at them from over his glasses. "When you are done, answer the questions on the worksheet I have given you. There will be no need to talk."
Blaine flipped open his textbook, ignoring the way most of the boys groaned in irritation at the assignment. He tapped his pen against the notebook paper in front of him, turning to the desired page before freezing. The chapter title "The Bonds of Magic" was flanked by two people, one with glowing hands and the other with dark lines across their entire body except their face.
It had been eight years, but Blaine still recognized those marks.
With sweaty hands and a pounding heart, Blaine began to read the chapter.
Chapter Four: The Bonds of Magic
In our world, there is one magical bond that trumps the rest. This bond is the bond between a mage and an absorber. However, before this bond can be fully explained and understood, one must understand exactly what an absorber is.
When a mage reaches their magical maturity - normally between the ages of fifteen and eighteen - he is presented with an absorber. An absorber's sole purpose is to absorb magic from the mage, be it excess magic or magic the mage chooses to give to the absorber, and from there it can use the magic as if it were its own until the mage chooses to pull the magic back into his body. Once an absorber has collected magic, lines will appear on every surface of its flesh except for the face; this is the easiest way to distinguish an absorber from another human.
Unlike mages, their counterparts are not born but created. Regardless of its physical appearance, it is not human and can never become human. Typically, after its incubation and "birth" an absorber is sent to a family that will care for it until such a time it can be presented to its more powerful counterpart.
If a mage is born with a very high amount of power, it is encouraged that he is paired with an absorber of equal power. This is to make it easier on the mage, for if he cannot rely on it to hold as much magic as needed, it becomes a liability during duels and battles. A mage is encouraged to never push his absorber past its limit because if it is given too much, the absober's bones and organs will liquify inside its body before the rest of it follows suit. Once an absorber is dead, it is not unheard of for a mage to request a new one, althought such an event has never happened before.
Once both the mage and the absorber have reached adulthood, it is not uncommon for the mage to wed their absorber and procreate with them. Studies have shown that children born from a mage and his absorber are increasingly more powerful than the previous generation. Such children are also fully human, despite the absorber blood in their veins. These studies have also shown that absorbers are incapable of love and emotion except for the emotion its mage tells it to have.
Blaine slammed the book shut, the noise startlingly loud in the silence of the classroom. Every pair of eyes snapped to him and he sat there, his hands shaking as he stared at the textbook beneath his hand. "M-may I be excused, sir?" he stammered out. "I-I don't feel well." His teacher merely glared at him before nodding and Blaine threw his textbook and notebook into his bag before running out of the room, one hand clasped firmly over his mouth.
He barely made it into the boy's bathroom before he vomitted.
Sitting in front of the toilet, Blaine vomitted until nothing but stomach acid came up. His entire body shook and, unwillingly, the memory of his mother and father in the kitchen danced before his eyes. He'd known his father was a mage but he hadn't known that his mother had been his father's absorber, that she was nothing more than an object to him and the rest of their society.
He dry-heaved into the toilet, sweat beginning to slide down his forehead and nose. Now Blaine understood what had happened all those years ago, why those lines had appeared on his mother. His father had nearly killed her by pushing too much magic into her; he would have killed her if she hadn't agreed to send him to Dalton.
"It's my fault," Blaine whispered, tears beginning to slide down his cheeks. "It's all my fault."
Shutting the lid, he pressed his face into his hands and forced himself not to cry. "I'll never become like my father," he vowed to himself in the silent bathroom stall. "I'll never take an absorber."
The vow to never take an absorber he made at the age of thirteen broke four years later when he met Kurt Hummel.