The silence surprisingly doesn't seem to bother him, it's almost comfortable, like an old retired couple who don't need to talk. Well maybe that's because they're so old they can't hear each other but that's beside the point. In all the years Dave Karofsky and Kurt Hummel have ever been in the same room, let alone sharing the same breathing space, things have never been what you could call quiet. There's always yelling, slurs, carefully worded comebacks, and the sound of Kurt's bones and flesh coming in contact with some hard surface. The floor, a desk, a locker, or dumpster. He could get use to the quiet, especially if it meant him walking away with a few less bruises.

He was cherishing this silence, basking in it. Treating it as if it were made of glass and even the slightest touch would crack the surface and it would all come tumbling down.

"What happened to your lip?" He ruins it, the glass has shattered, the moment ruined. Great job, Dave! He almost doesn't answer the question. What is he suppose to say? 'My lip? Oh you're so called friends seem to enjoy torturing me almost as much as you Dave. And if I didn't know any better I'd think that they were gonna try to stick their tongues down my throat too.' His inner bitch is working overdrive today.

"The flying monkeys. They want my ruby slippers." It leaves his mouth without even a second thought. Judging by the look on Dave's face, a mix between confusion and amusement, he either thinks Kurt lost one two many marbles from repeated slams into unforgiving surfaces or that Kurt was just this odd like that guy from the Ben Affleck movie where the dudes autistic or something... well come to think of it pretty much any Ben Affleck film. Dave just shakes his head, Kurt doesn't think he even wants to know about all the crazy going on in the noggin of one Kurt Elizabeth Hummel.

"Aren't you suppose to be at Glee practice?" Oh so we're asking question are we David? Well two can play at that game.

"Aren't you suppose to be at hockey practice?" An unidentifiable look graces the jocks round face but its gone in a instant, before Kurt can even begin to dissect and store it away for later reference. Dave takes a long moment before his message comes from a tightly clenched jaw.

"Didn't feel like going today. Your turn." Back to him. He takes a deep breath and decide to throw caution to the wind and lay it all out on the table.

"No one would notice if I were there." He whispers so softly Dave has to lean closer to catch it. "No one seems to care anymore. My life is hell and no one cares." He voice cracks and tears drip their way down his clear alabaster face. He doesn't dare look toward Dave, afraid of what he'll find. He doesn't need his pity, he doesn't want it. He wants... he doesn't quite know what he wants from Dave but not his pity.

"Every day I walk down those halls, every day and it's like I'm invisible. No, that's not right." He shakes his head. "Not invisible. I wish I were invisible. I walk down those halls with a red target painted on my back only I can't see it, but everyone else can. And my friends," he chuckles darkly, "I don't think I can call them that anymore. And it hurts. Because more the anything, more then the taunts and the locker slamming and slushies, I'm just so afraid of being alone."

"What about-"

"Mercedes?" Dave nods. "She has Quinn. She doesn't need me anymore." It's the first time he's said the words out loud and he chest aches, when had she stopped needing him? When had she slipped through his well manicured fingers? He dared a look in the other boy's direction, he was staring at the wall, and looked as if he wanted to say something but was holding his tongue for Kurt's sake.

For the first time since Kurt's known Karofsky, he actually looks at the other boy. Actually sees him. His eyes are dull and shoulders heavy with a previously unknown weight he's been carrying around. His face is round, boy-ish even. His lips.. he's not even gonna go there right now. Here he is spilling his guts to the kid who's made it his sole mission to make Kurt feel about two feet tall his entire high school career, trying to lay one on the guy would only make a messy situation messier... and hotter.

"What's the real reason you didn't go to hockey practice?" He doesn't know why but he has the feeling he could ask Dave anything at this moment and get an answer. The face he's been shamelessly staring at and memorizing for the last few minutes, swivels to face his. Brown eyes meet gray and the world stops spinning for only a moment. Kurt's body warms from head to toe, he feels flushed but honestly he couldn't give a damn. Cause looking in the eyes of Dave Karofsky set his world aflame and he hoped this fire that burned with such intensity would never be extinguished.

"You." It takes a moment for Kurt to realize he's getting an answer to his question. Me? What was the suppose to mean? He doesn't even try to keep the confused look from gracing his features. "I...
I couldn't let you walk away without..." He stops, why the hell did he stop. Keep going! Finish!

"Without what?"

"...An explanation." It's clearly not what he was going to say but Kurt's not gonna push because as much as he'd like to hear the other boy spew declarations of love and other sentiment of that sort, he really did want an explanation. For the kiss, for the bullying, for this very moment right here. He wanted the missing puzzle piece that would make all of this fall into place.

The seconds drag on as Dave fidgets nervously beside him. He opens his mouth only to snap it shut, repeating the process to make him look like a gaping fish when it hits Kurt that Dave's not ready for this. Not comfortable enough at this place, this hellhole. The place where both their lives have been so screwed up that they were both holding pieces of themselves together with duct tape. And while one Burt Hummel might consider duct tape a fix all solution it wouldn't work for the young teens.

He needs to take them both away from this place. Somewhere safe, somewhere where it never mattered who was gay, straight, fat, thin. To fix the damage of their teen years they needed to go back to their childhood.

Decision made Kurt shot to his feet and whipped around to face the shell shocked boy still with his leg splayed out in front of him. He was obviously shocked to say the least. Kurt reaches out his hand, which the larger boy hesitantly takes and hauls him with much effort to his feet.

"Come with me?" He whispers and it comes out a question. He still has Dave's hand in his and gives it a tight squeeze, hope that the small act alone will convey just how much he needs the other boy to come with him.

He takes the small smile he receives in return as a yes and together hand in hand the two boys walk the now empty halls of McKinley and it just feels so right.

A/N: So can anyone guess where Kurt'll take him? Thank you so much to all who have review and story-alerted (is that even a word?) So kiddies let me just say that I have big plans for this story, big big plans. Including some hurt!Kurt and protective!Dave.

So once again the song this fic is name after, Nothing as It Seemed by Katie Prior. It's amazing! And in my head it's Dave's theme song. Hopefully this link works but if it doesn't I'll try again next chapter.
Link

And oh, Chapter three is done and ready and will be posted sometime tomorrow!