"Kurt."

Silence.

"Kurt. I know you're awake. Pull the blanket off your head."

Blaine paused, and Kurt slowly peeled the fluffy throw away from his face. It wasn't pretty; Kurt's eyes were red and watery, his cheeks flush with fever, and his normally perfect and beautifully styled hair was everywhere.

The worst part was the cough that echoed through the Hudson-Hummel living room, even making Blaine grimace when he heard it. It sounded painful.

"Why are you here?" Kurt croaked, threatening to cover his head back up. "I'm so gross."

Blaine grabbed Kurt's ice-cold hand before he could hide himself again. "I let myself in. Your dad called and asked me to check on you. He thought you were going to try and meet Mercedes and Rachel to plan for Sectionals, and he wanted me to make sure you didn't. You weren't answering your phone, so he told me where the spare key was."

Kurt's eyes widened, and he sat up, rubbing his eyes. "I-I forgot all about them. I was going to get ready, but I think I dozed off…"

Blaine sat on the couch next to his sick boyfriend. "I'll let your dad know you're still here, but you're not in good shape, it seems like. Do you want to go up to bed? I can make you something to eat, if you feel like it?"

Blaine's concern wasn't unwarranted. After dealing with a nasty, hacking cough all week, Kurt's dad took him down to an urgent care clinic, showing pneumonia in both of his lungs. Kurt had felt fine up until then, but as his fever climbed higher, he felt worse and worse. His dad and Carole had taken Finn on a college visit they weren't able to reschedule, so that left Kurt home alone and sick on fall break.

Kurt collapsed against Blaine's shoulder, clearly exhausted. Blaine knew Kurt hated every minute of being sick, so he couldn't just leave him miserable on the couch.

"Let's go upstairs," Blaine coaxed, rubbing the back of Kurt's head. "Are you congested? Some tea might help."

"I'm a little thirsty," Kurt confessed, traipsing up the steps and sinking into his mattress. "And I'm cold." Blaine pulled the covers around him and tried to give his boyfriend a kiss.

"You're burning up," he said, worry beginning to creep in. He stroked Kurt's hair away from his forehead and tried his best to help him get comfortable, despite his awful chills.

"I'm gonna go back to sleep," Kurt murmured in between coughing fits. "You can leave…"

Blaine squeezed Kurt's shoulder, trying to get him to sit up a bit. "Not yet, babe. Keep your eyes open, I'll be right back."

Blaine left Kurt to his own devices, and hustled back downstairs, hearing the coughs reverberate through the empty house. He rummaged through the kitchen, almost positive that Kurt hadn't fed himself at all. Blaine hated seeing him so weak, and just wanted to help as much as he could.

He wound up fixing Kurt oatmeal and toast, since it was still early enough in the morning for some breakfast. Burt had told him where Kurt's antibiotics were, and asked Blaine to make sure Kurt didn't skip the dose. It wasn't much, but hopefully that would get him feeling a little better.

Surprisingly, Kurt didn't put up a fight, and took his medicine with no qualms. Blaine was still a little concerned that Kurt wouldn't eat much, but he didn't say anything.

Truthfully, Blaine was happy to stay with Kurt all day. Even though Kurt seemed to only want to sleep, Blaine made sure he was hydrated, caught up on his medicine, and somewhat comfortable, even with his high fever. Kurt kept trying to make him go home, since he was convinced Blaine didn't want to be around him, which led to Kurt shedding some tears.

"Don't cry," Blaine shushed, after Kurt had had one particularly violent coughing attack, leaving him wheezing under his breath and embarrassed. Blaine tried his best- offering Kurt water, rubbing his back, even turning on some hot shower water so the steam would hopefully clear up his congestion.

"I'm gross," Kurt repeated, again trying to hide his face from Blaine. "You're waiting around on me like a nurse. My dad only asked you to check on me, so you don't need to stay."

Blaine squeezed Kurt a little tighter, his heart hurting for his sick boyfriend. Even despite how awful he sounded, Blaine thought no less of him, and still thought Kurt looked incredibly handsome, a hard feat to pull off when having pneumonia.

"Stop," Blaine said, looking Kurt in the eyes. "I'm not going anywhere, not until your parents are back. Okay? I want you to feel better, Kurt. Let me take care of you. You're not a burden and there's nothing I'd rather do today. I'm telling the truth, babe. Will you let me help you feel better?"

A pause, and Kurt finally nodded. Blaine smiled, and handed Kurt his abandoned oatmeal bowl again. "Good. Can you try to eat more? Do you want me to set up your breathing machine?"

Kurt frowned, halfway through a bite of oatmeal. The doctor had ordered Kurt a small machine for breathing treatments when he needed them, and it looked like the thought of actually having to use it was not a good idea.

"I can breathe," he protested, sounding unconvincing as he paused to cough more. Blaine didn't buy it, but he didn't bring it up again.

After finishing his breakfast and taking a long, hot shower, it seemed as if Kurt was a little better off, more settled and coughing less, so Blaine set up Kurt's laptop on his bed, and they settled down for some movies that Blaine hoped would ultimately lead to a nice nap.

He settled behind Kurt so they could see the screen, both of them laying on their sides.

"Don't fight it if you're tired," Blaine urged, seeing Kurt struggling to keep his eyes open in the screen's reflection.

Apparently, Kurt didn't need to be told twice, because after the opening credits had barely finished, his eyes were closed and he snored lightly, his back pressed to Blaine's chest.

Blaine reached over and shut the computer; no point in trying to watch the movie by himself. He draped his arm around Kurt's waist, not wanting to wake him, and breathed in the smell of his shampoo. Blaine closed his own eyes but didn't fall asleep, content to just listen to the sound of Kurt's breathing all afternoon.

Author's Notes:

Hi, I promise I'm not disappearing again! I got a prompt of Kurt with pneumonia and this was surprisingly hard to write, since I'm still chomping away at my newest multi-chapter story (see two chapters ago for more info). Fun fact though, in 2015 I had pneumonia and didn't catch it for three weeks because I felt so normal. Kurt's case... not quite the same.

Anyways, I wanted to finish up and get this on here today because it's Glee's 10 year anniversary. Pretty crazy to think about, the show premiered when I was in fifth grade (year six for my friends abroad (when I was in New Zealand last year this greatly confused me)) and now I'm an adult. Not gonna lie, that is really weird.

ANYWAYS. That was a tangent. Tomorrow I'm going to be finding out if I need to have surgery, which may impact my posting schedule. I took a look around my Tumblr and realized the link to my askbox was broken, SO if you have a prompt for me, head to gleeklaine01 and leave that for me, so I will hopefully not take a week to update again! Much love.