Author Notes: Quick update! Woo! Didn't want to leave you all hanging. Though you probably won't thank me when you finish this... Thank you for your lovely words of encouragement, and cheerleading for Blaine!

Chapter Eleven

Blaine had forgotten, more than he had actually realised.

Dalton had saved him.

The Warblers had healed him.

Kurt had loved him.

And even the crushing pressure on his chest and the sharp pain in his back as he was thrown into metal lockers had not been that bad. Okay, so it was awful, but seriously, been there, done that, seen way worse, so try harder guys.

The sub-zero dousing by an absurdly blue, very sticky iced drink was less familiar. And pretty much stalled his brain for a few seconds because – cold! It sluggishly flowed over his head, trickling down his back and neck, dripping from his hair; so many unpleasant and definitely unwelcome sensations. But, amongst a detached sense of admiration for the glee club and their ability to deal with this on a regular basis, Blaine was still determined to keep it together, to hold his ground, and just ignore it. Because he knew he was better than this. Dalton had taught him that, and Kurt had affirmed it.

"Welcome to McKinley, bitch!" But with those precise words, and a huge meaty hand pressing down on his skull, mashing the blue ice further into his hair, Blaine's entire body and brain just tensed.

Amongst the cold, the embarrassment and the blue, that one thing shot through his head as a jagged glass shard.

"Watch where you're going, bitch!" Everyone. Just, everyone. All the time. McKinley had 'homo' and 'fairy' as its standby go-to words. Coleview had 'bitch'.

"Look what we've got here, boys – a cute little pair of bitches all dressed up for the ball!" Those Guys. From That Night.

"Well maybe if you weren't such a whiny bitch all the time, then they wouldn't crack down on us so hard!" Daniel. His date from That Night. The last time he saw him. The words that had made him feel worthless and wrong.

And tiredness, and loss, and just too much, and Blaine was done dealing with all this crap.

In the strangest, most detached way, before the mist of blind red anger flooded Blaine's nerves, the last thing he remembered thinking before all rational thought deserted him was, Wes is going to kill me for this…

Kurt's heart leapt into his throat at exactly the moment Blaine leapt at Azimo.

Azimo was so taken aback by such an unexpected reaction from the new kid that he actually slipped on the spilled blue slushy on the shiny linoleum, and crashed backwards with Blaine's rage-driven momentum.

His shock didn't last long.

And high school fights are never clean cut or stylish like in movies – especially not between a footballer and a music geek half his size.

The impact as Azimo skidded over and backwards threw Blaine off, and his elbow cracked painfully on the floor. His shoes slipped, and suddenly that was a good thing, because this hulk of a kid was at him, and he barely avoided a head on tackle.

And then he was kicking and punching at anything, trying to break Azmio's hold as the footballer wrenched him so hard with a brutal grip on his upper arm that set his shoulder nerves on fire and sling-shot him into the lockers on the other side of the hall.

Blaine's side impacted, and his knees buckled slightly as he felt every padlock, every metal edge. But adrenaline and unadulterated, liberating rage overrode every other feeling, and he lunged again.

It was all suffocating muscle and clawing and struggling and who cared how dirty he fought.

They both hit the floor in a messy tangle, Azimo's knee jerked up, and Blaine's head exploded in stars as his neck snapped back with a lucky blow to his lower jaw.

The world faded in and out. He became aware of shouting and screaming, and suddenly he was conscious of a weight of bodies and people beyond just him and Azimo.

And then someone much larger than Blaine was pulling him off the ground, one strong arm wrapped across his collarbone, while they used their other arm to firmly restrain him by securing a hold around his stomach and practically lifting him off his feet, forcibly dragging him away from the fight. They were yelling in his ear, but he just didn't care. He didn't care that he could see stars, that his back was screaming, and that he was still sticky and freezing. He struggled and wrenched, trying to get free.

But then the scene began to clear, and Blaine started to see more than just Azimo and blue slushy.

And two delicate hands were roughly taking hold of his face, and Azmio was completely obscured from his vision as Kurt was suddenly just there, his voice strong and sharp, "Blaine! Blaine, calm down! Stop it! Calm down!"

His breathing started to even out, and with every passing second, more parts of him began to hurt.

"Don't even think about it!" A cutting voice a little way away cracked through the rapidly quietening hallway. Kurt turned briefly to check what was going on behind him, and Blaine's viewpoint was briefly opened up to reveal Coach Sylvester staring down Azimo.

Kurt turned back to Blaine, and seemed to wait for second to make sure he had all of Blaine's attention, "You back?" His voice was gentler now, but there was still a tense edge to it.

He glanced over Blaine's shoulder, assumedly at whoever was restraining him, and Blaine felt the arms loosening to a hold more designed to keep him upright.

It was then he registered that the person holding him was a teacher. Blaine was pretty sure she was the football coach – Beiste, wasn't it?

Why was everyone so tall?

Adrenaline had deserted him, and the fury he had felt was less hot, and more of a dull angry buzz, giving way for his body to protest and slump.

And, wow, he only just realised just how many people had gathered.

Still, as pure silence fell and everyone waiting with baited breath to hear how the two coaches would react now order had been restored, Blaine unreservedly glared at Azimo, who scowled back, and he found that he really wasn't remorseful at all.

"Blaine!" Kurt's cry ripped from his throat in chock, because what the hell was his boyfriend doing?

Kurt watched in horror as Blaine and Azimo crashed to the ground, and the footballer's anger was palpable in the air.

His boyfriend was going to die.

Blaine was thrown into the lockers, and Kurt was running forwards, but before he could reach him and do, well something, anything, Kurt's arm was wrenched harshly backwards, and he found himself forcibly shoved into Tina by Mike. The dancer didn't even break his stride, and Kurt's head whipped painfully in time to see the tall boy pin Trent into the lockers before the other guy could get a swipe at Blaine where the he sagged for a second.

"Let go of me, Tina!" Kurt hissed with so much venom at his friend that she reflexively obeyed, but before he could actually do anything, the on looking students parted like the Red Sea with the thundering appearance of the McKinley football coach.

Coach Beiste waded in with little effort, bodily lifting a struggling Blaine away from Azimo, who was rapidly coming to his senses at the appearance of one of the few people at the school who could make his life a living hell if she so pleased.

"Enough! Dammit, kid, calm down!" Beiste had Blaine in a firm hold, but he wasn't co-operating.

Azimo scowled maliciously, rising to his feet as Blaine still struggled against Coach Beiste, trying to pull away. Kurt ran forward, forgetting about Azimo, and scrambled to get a firm hold on Blaine's face as he kicked back against Coach Beiste. Kurt leaned in close, his voice higher with panic, because Blaine had completely snapped, and Kurt had never seen him so blindly angry. He hadn't even known Blaine could get this angry, "Blaine! Blaine, calm down! Stop it! Calm down!"

Blaine's eyes cleared slightly, and his struggles became less pronounced.

"Don't even think about it!" Kurt broke his eye contact with Blaine for a second to see Coach Sylvester facing down Azimo, hand pushed on his chest as his back now pressed against the lockers.

She looked pissed.

"You back?" Kurt asked Blaine, desperately searching to pull some semblance of calm into his tone. There may have been a tiny nod, and there was definitely more of Blaine in those eyes now.

Coach Beiste looked torn between some seriously biblical anger, and a real deep worry for what the hell would possess a kid Blaine's size to try and take out one of the largest players for the McKinley Titans.

Blaine, for his part, was starting to shake slightly from the adrenaline come down, flitting between anger, horror and disbelief at what had just happened. What he had just done.

The arms that had restrained him loosened, and passed him off the Kurt, who immediately secured an incredibly strong hold around his waist and a numbing grip on his arm, as if his boyfriend was concerned he would just jump Azimo again.

Dimly, Blaine was aware that their audience had increased, as Tina's SOS to the other members of glee club finally brought the others to their location.

If it hadn't been for the situation, their expressions would have made Kurt laugh.

Coach Beiste stepped back, arms folded, looking between Blaine and Azimo, before, oddly, looking to Sue. The entire school knew of the plain hatred between those two, so that just made everything all the more unnerving.

"Porcelain." Coach Sylvester's voice sliced through the leaden atmosphere, and Kurt automatically looked at his old cheer coach, "Take Smurfette to the nurse." Kurt blinked once, took one look over Blaine's slightly bloody, slushy stained appearance, and just nodded quickly.

"Move along!" Beiste yelled at the gawking students who had stopped to watch the fight, "Or I'll have you all running track three hours after school every day for the rest of your academic lives!"

That got people moving pretty quickly.

But not before they caught Sue Sylvester looming nastily over Azimo, "No one makes for Porcelain – especially not when his back is turned. You. Will follow me. Now."

Because, although neither of the teachers said it, although neither of them acknowledged it, to pull Azimo up for the fight would also mean they would have to condemn Blaine.

It was a slippery slope for a fight that under any other circumstances, any other conditions, circumstances or participants, would have just been another Wednesday at McKinley.

But this fight had been loaded with a lot more. Loaded with a poison that neither teacher felt particularly equipped to deal head on with, publically in the halls.

But then Azimo had made a lunging step towards Kurt's turned back, and had basically sealed his position on Sue's Hate List of the Week.

Because Sue had a twisted form of honourable logic, and Kurt had helped her when her sister had died. She might not be able to repay the boy directly, but she knew what the kid's boyfriend was going through, and Azimo just point blank pissed her off.

Shannon Beiste had just seen the look in Blaine's eyes.

Kurt had led Blaine to the nurse's office in complete silence. They got more than a few looks on their way there – Blaine's appearance, Kurt's expression and the way he was holding onto his boyfriend were all pretty attention drawing factors.

The nurse checked Blaine over, and proclaimed him bruised but not too seriously hurt – she had seen worse come off the football field…just about. But as she finished up, "Did you want me to give your mom a call? Or your dad?"

It was such a simple question. And Blaine's head just throbbed, and he wanted to throw up, but not because of the pain. It was because he knew that was the first of many times people were going to ask him that question in innocent ignorance, and he just couldn't handle it, and he couldn't unstick his tongue to correct her.

Kurt rescued him, his voice slightly wavering despite his attempt to keep stoic, "He'll be fine."

The nurse looked dubious as Blaine remained silent and avoided her eyes. "Okay, but you stay here until your next class. If you feel sick, or dizzy, you let me know. You don't seem to have a concussion, but I want to be sure."

"I'll stay with him." Kurt's tone brokered no argument.

The nurse gave them one last look before disappearing and leaving them alone.

Silence hung dead.

A beat.

And then Kurt fully rounded on Blaine, and exploded, "What the hell, Blaine? Azimo? Seriously, Azimo? The guy's the size of a freaking freight train, and probably hits like one too! I should be scraping what's left of you off lockers right now! You can't just go and pull crap like that around here! He could have killed you! Do you not get that? Have you any idea how absolutely terrifying it was to see you in that hallway and know that there was nothing that I could do to help? To look at you and not actually trust that I would be able to calm you down?"

Kurt's voice had started off high and slightly fractured, but it gained volume and vindication rapidly, until Blaine could only stare up at Kurt as he ranted in his face, towering slightly over him where he stood and Blaine sat. Kurt gestured with his hands, he paced and yelled, tears gathering slightly in his shining eyes, but not falling.

Blaine didn't say a word. He just sat there, aching, bloody and sticky, his head fuzzy and his jaw throbbing, listening as his boyfriend completely tore into him.

Guilt coiled, and while he would never regret standing up to Azimo the way he had, he did regret what his actions had done to Kurt.

And then Kurt finally seemed to run out of steam, and his voice just dropped bitterly, but threaded with so much pleading love, "You have no idea how much you scared me, Blaine." And then, in a last ditch attempt to get some sort of reaction out of Blaine, who had just sat there in the most scarily numb and impassive way that anyone ever had when faced with one of Kurt's rants, the last words just tumbled from his lips, "God, Blaine, what would your dad have thought?"

Blaine actually physically flinched back at those words. His head reeled fractionally, and his hands clenched involuntarily.

Every fibre of Kurt's body froze in dread and instant regret, waiting for Blaine's reaction. And then Blaine's eyes broke contact with his for the first time since Kurt had started shouting, and his shoulders slumped. His fingers twisted in his lap, and then, still not looking up at Kurt, he just mumbled, "I'm sorry… I guess I wasn't thinking…"

There was an emotion in Blaine's voice that Kurt had never heard before. It was not one he could place, but he knew that it filled him with a sense of wrong. Blaine shouldn't have responded like that. "No… no, I'm so sorry Blaine, I didn't mean-"

Blaine raised his head, and smiled a smile that completely turned Kurt's stomach. Kurt remained completely wrong-footed as Blaine caught his hand and squeezed it, leaning up slightly to kiss Kurt lightly on the lips, "I promise I won't do anything like that again." His eyes were wrong. Blaine's eyes were so wrong right now, and Kurt did that, "You were right, and I'm glad you said something. You wouldn't be you if you didn't. Thank you for not tip-toeing around me… Do you think we could get out of here? Because I think the sugar is actually fusing with my skin… And I really don't want to be blue when we see the Warblers later…"

"S-sure…" Blaine never reacted like that to Kurt. Ever.

Wrong.

Kurt knew that he had finally slipped up in his stumbling attempt to look after Blaine in all of this horrible, morbid mess. Something had changed for the worse, just with that one last comment, and Kurt could almost believe that he could actually see Blaine pulling away from him at a rapid pace.

Blaine, for his part, had listened to everything that Kurt had said, and he had agreed. He was a mess. He had scared his boyfriend; he was an emotional wreck, a dysfunctional disaster who couldn't even cry.

So he did what he always did, what he hadn't had to do with Kurt for what seemed like forever, not since the very first time they met and Blaine had to pretend he knew what he was doing. He pulled on a smile; he buried the tangled mess that he was, to be dealt with later, when it wouldn't screw up Kurt's life.

He would not scare Kurt again. He had used him as enough of a crutch already, and look where that had got them.

As Blaine warmly took his boyfriend's hand, all Kurt could see was everything tiny good thing they had achieved together in the past hellish two weeks crumble away.

And he had no idea how to fix this, because Blaine was already pretending, and it was breaking Kurt's heart to watch.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: So...this chapter did not end how I expected/meant for it to end. Kurt just sort of kept talking until he put his foot in it.

Oops?