TW: mentioning of bruising due to domestic violence

Chapter 4 - Forgiven

The drive to the cafe was surprisingly calm, with Kurt singing along softly to whatever song was on the radio and Dave simply tapping his fingers to the beat. At one point, Dave started to sing along before he noticed Kurt watching him and got embarrassed.

"You're really good."

"Huh?"

"At singing." Kurt said honestly, "You have a really nice voice Dave."

"T-thank you." Dave felt the color rush to his face and immediately turned to look out the window.

The rest of the drive finished out the same way it had started, although Kurt was singing a bit louder this time. When they finally pulled up to the restaurant Dave began to feel uneasy, but he couldn't narrow down exactly what the cause of it was. Was it because he was on a date that totally wasn't a date with Kurt or the nagging part of his brain that screamed at him that this was wrong, that he was going to get "caught" and his life would be ruined, Dave couldn't tell. Nevertheless, Dave hopped out the car when they arrived and hurried to hold the door open for Kurt.

"Thank you." Dave would swear he saw Kurt blush just then or maybe his mind truly was cruel enough to lead him on in this way. He shook his head in reply and followed the smaller boy to the hostess stand.

Once they were sitting, Dave suddenly realized he had no idea what to talk about with Kurt. Last night felt different, it felt so easy and this, this felt borderline suffocating. Thankfully, Kurt was the one to break the silence.

"Can I ask you something Dave?" Uh oh, good conversations never start like this.

"Yeah, anything."

"Why…" Kurt hesitated as if he was pondering how to phrase his question. "Why were you so mean to me before?" Dave didn't have to ask to understand what 'before' meant.

He took a big gulp of his water before answering, afraid this was the last conversation him and Kurt would ever have. "I don't have a 'good' reason for it… but to be completely honest with you Kurt, I was jealous of you, I still am.." Well this had Kurt's interest.

"Jealous?" What could the jock possibly be jealous of Kurt for?

"Y-yeah.. It's just, you're not afraid to be exactly who you are. You wear your crazy outfits and sing your heart out at every chance and you don't give a damn what anyone has to say about it. You don't water yourself down for others and I.. I really admire that about you Kurt. But it also pissed me off for a very long time, because I'm not as strong as you in that regard. I'm really sorry for all the awful things I did and said to you Kurt, truly, I am." Dave was shocked when he finally looked up to find the other boy with tears running down his face, and before he could even comment on them, Kurt wiped them away.

For nearly a minute neither boy said anything, and Dave was preparing himself for whatever it was Kurt was going to say.

"I forgive you." Well Dave definitely wasn't prepared for that. There was so much raw emotion in that one sentence and Dave knew without a shadow of a doubt that Kurt meant it.

Before Dave could come up with something to say, his mind was completely blank at this point, the waitress came back to get their orders and he was beyond grateful for the distraction.

The two ate in silence and Kurt could tell that Dave was being bothered by something. He'd barely made any eye contact with him and he could feel him tapping his foot under the table.

"What's wrong Dave?" Kurt was looking straight into his eyes, demanding attention, and Dave shuffled uncomfortably in his seat before sighing.

"Who hurts you Kurt? I can tell that something happened last night, your face looks like shit… no offence!" Hmm, I mean he had a point, he definitely did look like shit and makeup can only cover up so much, especially in the well lit cafe. But, did he want to tell the other boy? His old bully being concerned about someone hurting him confused Kurt, but he also knew that it shouldn't. He was well aware how Dave felt about him, but could he actually help Kurt?

"It's.. not important."

"Like hell it isn't!" Kurt flinched when Dave raised his voice and the jock felt like absolute shit. "I'm sorry.. I shouldn't have said that like that. But, Kurt, you don't deserve this and whoever the hell is doing this to you seriously needs to be locked up." Kurt didn't know why but he felt like he needed to defend Blaine.

"It's not like that Dave, you don't understand. It's just.. He gets upset easily and I know that -"

"Kurt… There's nothing that you could do that would make you deserve this. I know you're not ready to tell me who he is, but I need you to know that what he's doing to you is not your fault." How could he make him see that this wasn't right? That no matter what he said or did, he didn't deserve to be abused like this.

Kurt wasn't entirely sure what to do right now. A part of him was screaming to tell Dave. He knew that the bigger boy could protect him, but he didn't want to use him in that way. And he didn't want to drag Dave into his mess when he was still coming to terms with his sexuality. For a split second, Kurt wondered what it would be like if Dave was his boyfriend instead of Blaine. It was a foolish dream, even though he forgave Dave, doesn't mean everyone in his life did, or ever would. His dad would probably go to jail if he ever brought Dave home and Finn would no doubt start shit with the jock.

Kurt sighed and pushed his plate away from him, he'd barely ate more than half of his meal but he wasn't hungry anymore in the slightest.

"Let's get out of here."

AUthor's Note: Hey y'all! This chapter is a little shorter but we needed some in person dialogue between Dave and Kurt before the weekends up. It's really hard for me to take things slow im starting to realize LOL. Soooo don't bet on Kurt and Blaine still being an item by Chapter 10, thats all imma say :D As always, please let me know what you think of this chapter :)