Some angst in this chapter. But yay! We have a hero!
"That was an amazing movie!" Kurt gushed, as he and Blaine walked through the lobby, avoiding a big pile of popcorn that had been spilled by a precocious, rambunctious toddler.
"Yeah, not bad…" Blaine replied, a huge grin on his face when Kurt turned to look at him disbelievingly.
"What? Please tell me you're kidding. Blaine? Please?" Kurt whined, earning himself a loud giggle from the other boy.
"All right, it was the culmination of a generation, okay? It was fantastic." Blaine grinned at the boy he loved, wrapping his hand around said boy's wrist, and tugging him into the arcade nearby. Feeding a twenty-dollar bill into the token machine, he collected his tokens, passed Kurt a handful, and started hunting down his favourite game.
"Dang, they've moved all the games around," Blaine muttered, as Kurt followed along behind, smiling.
Blaine turned a corner, and spotted the machine he was looking for. It was surrounded by a group of high school jocks, and he almost missed the soft gasp that came from behind him.
Blaine turned to look at Kurt, who had turned pale, and was shaking gently. Blaine looked back at the group surrounding the machine, and sidled closer to Kurt to talk to him.
"Is that them?" He asked in a low voice. He really didn't need to see the sharp nod that Kurt gave him, as an unidentifiable rage flared up, coursing through his veins. He balled his fists, and took a step towards the group.
Kurt gasped again, and latched onto one of Blaine's arms, holding him back. The group hadn't even noticed the drama going on right behind them.
"Blaine, don't!" Kurt hissed softly. "Even if you weren't outnumbered, which you are, I wouldn't want you to get blacklisted from the arcade just because of me…" Blaine turned to Kurt, his eyes flat with suppressed fury.
"It would be worth it to me, Kurt, just to see those, those assholes, get what they deserve!" Blaine's voice cracked on the last word, his voice practically sobbing with unbridled anger.
Tears began slipping down Kurt's cheeks, and damn it, why couldn't he stop bloody well crying every damn time he thought of what happened?
Blaine took in his crying boyfriend, and the rage seeped out of him. It was slow, because there was a lot of fury stored up, but he managed to calm himself, for Kurt.
"All right, Kurt. I know you don't want me fighting with them, so let's… let's just go, okay?" He tangled his hand with Kurt's, shoving the tokens back into his pocket for another day.
Kurt's bullies, however, had spotted them, and were making their predatory way over to the boys, cutting them off before they could leave.
"Well, well," One of the bullies, a mean looking brown-haired boy named Jacob commented. "Lookie what we have here, boys…" And he proceeded to laugh like a hyena at what he seemed to think was a very funny situation.
The rest of the Neanderthals laughed too; clearly, they knew they outnumbered Kurt and Blaine, and they were like lions, playing with their food before devouring it.
"So, Hummel, I see you've found yourself a little gay playmate," said the ringleader, Aaron. Blaine tightened his hold on Kurt's hand, trying to offer support while wondering how the hell they were supposed to make it through this.
All the boys around them laughed, their evil cackling drawing the attention of one of the theatre staff.
"Are you guys okay?" The tall, gangly young man asked Kurt, who simply shook his head violently.
"Get out of here, freak," Aaron sneered at the young man, whose nametag read "Jesse". The young man didn't back down, though, and walked purposefully over to where Kurt and Blaine stood. Glaring at the bullies, he gently prodded Kurt and Blaine to start moving towards the door.
"What did I say, you fucking freak?" Aaron screamed at Jesse, as the tall young man walked past him. "What are you, one of those fucking gays too?" He inclined his head toward Kurt and Blaine.
Jesse shook his head, not in denial, but in frustration. Aaron decided he'd had enough, even with this little faggot, they still outnumbered Hummel and his fairy boy almost two to one. Reaching out, he grabbed a hold of Jesse's elbow, spinning him around and punching him in the mouth.
The rest of the theatre lobby went completely silent, as the patrons stared on in shock. Jesse, however, simply placed a hand to his split lip, and looked at the blood coating his fingertips.
Aaron was, to be honest, a little shocked. Usually his punches were enough to knock someone else out, or at least have them on the floor, bawling like a baby. That Jesse was still standing was somewhat of a conundrum, as he had never needed to use more than one punch before.
Jesse's voice was deadly quiet.
"Get out. If you or your friends ever come back in here, I'll have you arrested." He looked at Kurt and Blaine, who were just as shocked as the rest of the patrons who had gathered around.
Aaron looked around at his friends, laughed a little uncomfortably, and said, "You're just a worker here. You don't have the authority to ban me and my friends!" His friends laughed too, but just as uncomfortably as Aaron had.
Then, because Aaron was feeling powerful, and he needed to do something to impress his friends and keep them on his side, he reached out and tried to tweak Jesse's nose, hard.
But Aaron never even came close enough to try, as Jesse's hand snaked out, flipping Aaron's arm around, and twisting it behind his back and up, almost as far as his shoulder blade.
"Ooowwww!" Aaron wailed, his bravado dropped suddenly with the wrenching pain that filled his arm and back. "Help me, guys!" He shouted to his friends.
Jacob ran forward at Jesse, thinking to pull this psycho off his best friend. But by the time Jacob got to Jesse, none other than Kurt Hummel, the little freaky gay kid had tripped him. "Shit," Jacob swore, as his knees crashed into the concrete floor, and the pain shot up his legs and back.
One or two of the other guys started forward, clearly tentative about rescuing their leader.
"Come on, dammit! This hurts!" Aaron yelled, willing his buddies to help him out. Jesse just held Aaron there; Aaron's head and shoulders bent over as Jesse yanked his arm up and back even harder. Yelping loudly, Aaron watched as three of his guys backtracked, leaving him with only Jacob and the two guys who were already advancing. It was starting to seem like a fair fight, which Aaron really wasn't fond of. But he was still sure he could take on three little pansies, if this damn freak would ever let him go.
"Stop," Kurt called out; raising his voice up very loud to be heard over the mutterings of Aaron, the ramblings of the patrons who ringed the fight area, and the bells, whistles and clangs of the arcade games.
Everyone looked at him. Kurt was suddenly the focus of every eye in the room.
"That's enough!" Kurt stated, one hand on his hip, and his head cocked to the side. "I've had it with your bullying, dammit!" He stalked up to Aaron, who was still being held by Jesse. His hand raised as though to strike, and Aaron flinched.
Kurt's eyes softened as he took in the cowering boy before him. He looked around at the other boys, at the patrons around them, and at his boyfriend, Blaine. Blaine's eyes were on him, and courage and pride radiated from those eyes. Taking that courage, he lowered his hand until it rested against Aaron's chest, one finger prodding into the other boy's breastbone.
"You, Aaron, will stop harassing me and my friends." He lifted his pointer finger to the other boys in Aaron's gang. "You, gentlemen, will also stop harassing us. If I ever find out you've harassed anyone else, I WILL take my story to the police. Not only will I go to the police, but I'll go to the newspapers as well. You'll be shunned by every forward thinking person in this town, and don't think I won't do it," Kurt's voice lowered menacingly. "Because you have finally pissed me off enough that I will do ANYTHING at this point to get it to stop. Do I make myself perfectly clear?" And Kurt's eyes glared at each remaining boy, until a confirming nod was received.
Releasing Aaron, Jesse watched in stony silence until all four boys were at the doors, and then called out, "You're still banned. Don't even think about coming back here. Ever!" He turned to the crowd of patrons, who burst into spontaneous applause and cheering. Kurt couldn't decide if they were clapping because of him, or Jesse, or the sheer entertainment value of the confrontation.
Waving the crowd away, Jesse walked over to Kurt and Blaine, his eyes twinkling as he watched them compose themselves.
"You guys okay?" He asked softly, his eyes raking over both Kurt and Blaine. Kurt had started shaking as soon as he had finished his little speech, and Blaine was doing his best to calm him down.
"I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Kurt muttered quietly to Jesse. "Those were some guys who… well, let's just say I hope they stick to their promise and don't harass anyone else."
"Seems like you've had a run in with them before," Jesse replied, just as softly, as he pushed up the sleeve on Kurt's shirt, revealing the purple and yellow bruise that was slowly fading away. "And don't worry about me," Jesse chuckled softly. "I can most certainly take care of myself. I've been studying martial arts since I was seven, and I'm currently a Black Belt in four separate styles of fighting." Blaine's eyes widened, and Kurt gave a soft gasp.
"So, how would you boys like an escort to your car?"