It had been getting later and later as the two friends finished up their drinks as well as their conversation. Elliot planned to head off soon as he had an early start the next morning, travelling to meet another friend en route back to New York. As they stood to leave, Kurt let his eyes search the room to check on Blaine. It had been a while since he had seen him on the dance floor.
"Looking for your toy boy?" Elliot joked.
Kurt couldn't stop the eye roll as he repeated for what felt like the hundredth time that night, "he's my brother's best friend and I know what the guys in here can get like. And I don't know the friends he's with. I'm just looking out for him."
He wasn't sure at this point if he was trying to convince Elliot or himself. He had a slight buzz going but even he could tell he was being overly defensive. Kurt couldn't help it though as he had seen the boy accept a few more drinks throughout the night and dreaded the thought of someone taking advantage of him.
"Well, his friend is still here so he can't be far." Elliot pointed out the tall lanky boy that had been with Blaine earlier. He was all over an older guy at the bar, practically gyrating in the other male's lap as the pair made out. Kurt felt sick at the idea of Blaine acting the same way in some dark corner with God knows who. His eyes began looking around frantically but still came up with no sign of Blaine.
"I better check he's okay." Kurt declared, picking up his jacket and folding it over his arm.
"No problem, I'm going to head off but we'll catch up next week when Dani is free. Are you coming out for New Years? You know you're more than welcome to bring someone along."
"Very funny," Kurt deadpanned. He wasn't in the mood when he had this nagging feeling that Blaine needed saving from some perverted closet case that had come to get himself off in the dirty bathroom stall with some unexperienced kid that wasn't in the position to be making smart choices.
"Just go," Elliot said, pushing Kurt in the direction of the dance floor as he headed towards the exit.
Kurt instantly makes his way through the crowd of people still moving around to the beat of some electronic dance music that was playing. He was so convinced that he would find who he was looking for in the bathrooms that he nearly walked straight past Blaine who was over by the pool tables with a few other boys that looked to be around the same age. It was at the very last second that his eye caught sight of the boy being held up by the pool cue he was desperately leaning on as his body swayed and his eyes kept drooping shut.
Kurt was flooded with relief that his oddly specific premonition had not come true, but still couldn't bring himself to leave Blaine here with the state he was in.
As he reached the boys side, he placed a hand on Blaine's arm to get his attention. As soon as Blaine saw him, he smiled and hummed, "mmm."
"Hey, I'm heading out now. Do you want to share a cab?" Kurt offered.
"Sure." Blaine's voice came out clear and steady compared to his actions as he nearly toppled forwards in his attempt to nod to his head.
The boy closest to Blaine reached out to help catch him even though Kurt already had him, holding him up with his hands on either arm.
"I'm good," Blaine said, making a show of standing up as straight as possible as he turned toward his two friends.
"Can you let Sebastian know I've left?"
"Sure we can, but…"
The boy that had reached for Blaine before still hadn't let go of his arm and even though he didn't finish what he was going to say, Kurt understood what was being left unspoken. It provided some comfort to Kurt that Blaine's new friends had the sense to question who was trying to whisk him off into the night.
Meeting their weary glances, Kurt introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Kurt Hummel, Finn's brother."
As suspected, they must have previously met Finn as both friends instantly warmed up to him and introduced themselves. Kurt made small talk for a few minutes before he felt Blaine's head heavily fall onto his shoulder.
"I should get him out of here." Kurt confirmed, shaking Blaine's shoulder to wake him up.
"Let him know we'll call him tomorrow." David said as Kurt put his arm around Blaine before started to guide the half asleep boy out of the club.
Kurt heard, but chose to ignore, the loud shout of 'get some Anderson' as they went past the bar area.
Once outside, Kurt sat Blaine on a bench not far from the entrance before calling a cab company to come pick them up. The cold air roused Blaine slightly out of his drunken stupor and his mind was now running a mile a minute over the situation he found himself in. He was ecstatic to be able to have the chance to spend more time with Kurt, but even more so by the fact that Kurt being here meant he had not gone home with his date.
Both were quiet until the car pulled up in front of them. They climbed inside, which Blaine managed to miraculously do on his own, as Kurt recited his address to the driver before sitting back next to Blaine.
The look of pure confusion was obvious when Kurt glanced over so he clarified by asking, "I assume you can't exactly head home given your current state?"
Blaine looked down sheepishly at his hands, knowing Kurt was correct.
"I was supposed to be sleeping over at Sebastian's."
By process of elimination, Kurt took this to be the name of the guy that had practically been giving a lap dance over at the bar. Just thinking about him made Kurt's blood boil and in his own mind it justified his actions of safely escorting Blaine home.
"He didn't look like he intended to stay in his own bed tonight." The scathing comment slipped from Kurt lips before he could stop it.
Blaine didn't respond as from everything he knew about Sebastian in the short time they had known each other, he wouldn't have been that surprised if what Kurt said turned out to be right. He hadn't actually thought about what he would have done if Kurt hadn't shown up. Then again, if Kurt hadn't been there then he would be nowhere near this drunk in the first place so probably could have just gone home.
As the car turned onto the freeway, Blaine mulled over the idea of his friend hooking up with someone he had just met. He knew it happened but it had never been something he had ever thought about that realistically as it wasn't part of his world.
"You said earlier about guys at that club," Blaine started. He left the sentence hanging as he tried to formulate the best way to continue but Kurt got the gist of what he was trying to say, saving him the trouble.
"That's not a conversation for tonight."
"Oh," was all Blaine could muster up in response. Kurt could practically feel the other boy pouting without even having to turn to look at him to confirm his suspicions.
Realising he had been quite blunt Kurt spoke up again.
"It's not a secret or anything, and nothing as bad as you are probably imaging. If you really want to know, I can tell you, but not right now."
Feeling content with that answer, Blaine tried to come up with something else to keep Kurt talking. Hearing the soft voice helped to ground him and confirm that this was real. It was the one part of his dreams that could never quite live up to the real thing for some reason.
As his mind wandered through subjects that he couldn't possibly bring it, his suddenly found himself grappling for a topic of conversation before too much time had passed and they fell into silence again. He didn't really want to know the answer but he thought asking Kurt about his date classed a safe topic to get the other boy opening up to him. What he hadn't anticipated was the biting tone at which he asked him.
Kurt had not corrected Blaine earlier with the notion that maybe it was better to let the younger boy believe he was on a date in order to keep some distance between the two of them. That barrier of separation in his mind had mostly been for his own sake as he had truly believed that there was nothing left of the confused feelings Blaine once held towards himself. The snarky remark however had Kurt replying in kind.
"Elliot is just a friend who happens to also be gay. Should I assume that you are dating all your new friends?"
"Funny you should say that as I only met them because Sebastian tried hitting on me." Blaine let out a quiet laugh at the memory. He had found the attempt so hilarious as Sebastian was over the top in everything he did and Blaine had not be prepared for the blatant show of affection. Wes and David had practically rolled on the floor at the idea of innocent and naïve Blaine with their over confident class mate.
"He was not happy at being shot down. Apparently that doesn't happen very often."
Kurt tried to hold back his feeling of relief knowing that Blaine didn't even contemplate the other boy's offer. It would have only ended badly and of course he wouldn't wish that on anyone.
"Is there anyone else?" Blaine asked tentatively after a moment of hesitation. As much as he seemed to have sobered up somewhat during the cab ride, there was still enough alcohol running through his system that let his thoughts slip out without thinking them through beforehand.
Kurt didn't have it in himself to make up any kind of lie even when he knew they were starting to tread on dangerous ground.
"No. Not since Adam." He confirmed.
Silence fell over them once more and the atmosphere remained tense. Kurt just wanted to get home already so he could out some physical distance between them. He relaxed slightly after a few minutes passed and Blaine had yet to follow up with any questions.
Kurt sat back and his eyes slide shut. He let his tiredness wash over his mind and had started drifting slightly between dreams and reality when Blaine's voice brought him back to earth with a crash.
"Do you think… I mean, if I were older…"
The younger boy's confidence faltered and before he managed to finish asking the question Kurt interrupted him.
"Don't Blaine, please."
Kurt wasn't one to beg but he could feel the other boy trying to pull open the lid on all the feelings he had worked so hard on shutting away.
"It's just a what if. I know it can't happen, you made that clear."
"I don't deal in hypotheticals. It's a waste of time." It was something Kurt had programmed into himself early on when he had struggled with his own infatuation. If he had ever let himself wonder down the path of imagining all the possibilities that he could never have, it would have easily driven him insane. It was best to kept any notion of any other than friendship with Blaine tightly locked away from the outside world, as well as, and more importantly, his own internal thoughts.
"Am I that hard to love?" Blaine's voice cracked over the words and Kurt watched as his whole body curled in on himself, barely holding in loud sobs.
Kurt had been so adamant that any possible relationship was best avoided for both their sake's that he had never stopped to think about the possible repercussions that a rejection could have on the poor boy.
Blaine had a lot of pent up frustrations stemming from his home life and Kurt instantly knew that the conversation had morphed into being about more than just their relationship. Kurt understood that the question wasn't aimed solely at him but it didn't stop the guilt. This was about all Blaine's relationships with his family, with most of his team mates, and also with Kurt. He had suffered so much but near Kurt his smile had never wavered before.
Could it be that all his efforts of pushing Blaine away in the hope of not breaking him had been in vain as he had managed to do so anyway?
Kurt moved as close as his seatbelt would allow and wrapped his arms around tightly around the huddled figure in front of him.
"You must know that I love you." Kurt should have been more surprised at how easily the words fell from his lips. Rather than allow himself to think about the implications of his admission, he continued to try and come up with the words to provide some comfort to Blaine. He needed to fix the unintentional damage he had already caused. He needed Blaine to know that, even if Kurt had to reject him in this instance, his family would always be there for him.
"You spend so much time at our house that even my Dad thinks of you as one of his own. Every week when he calls he gives me updates on the whole family and you are always included, without fail."
Blaine had buried his face in Kurt's neck when he had turned into the hug. The cries subsided until only small sniffles could be heard coming from against the fabric of Kurt's coat.
As the car made the last turn before they would finally reach their destination, Blaine sat up, wiped his eyes and took a deep breath.
"I love your family, I really do. I appreciate all their love and affection as god knows I don't get anything near the same from my own flesh and blood. But, Kurt, with you it's different. Please tell me it's different. Please don't tell me you see me like a brother."