hey hey hey! Another chapter! And I own nothing but my OCs! All rights go to those who deserve them!

Chris was silent on the way to Kurt's house, not because he didn't know what to say, but because he wasn't sure what to expect when they got there. Obviously Kurt's dad didn't treat Kurt the way his own father treated him, but that in itself was a little strange for Chris. The only other family he spent much time with was Amber's, and while her dad never hurt them, he was still very intimidating.

"You okay…?" He glanced over to Kurt, who was glancing out of the corner of his eyes at Chris periodically as he drove.

Chris nodded his head, watching Kurt curiously. "Yea... I'm just… I was just talking to Amber- a friend from Iowa- about what happened with my dad, and with you after school." Kurt nodded his head, frowning curiously.

"You mean about how you were slushied?" He asked as he pulled into a driveway of a decent looking house, it wasn't extravagant by any means, but it was decidedly nicer than his own house. Chris shrugged, glad that he had his hood up so that Kurt couldn't see his blushing cheeks. He was talking more of the hair washing and how he maybe might have a tiny little crush on the other boy, but he wasn't going to tell him to his face or anything.

As they walked through the doors of the nice little house they were greeted by Kurt's dad, who gave him an odd look but otherwise was friendly enough. Kurt led him downstairs to the basement and he had to bite back a laugh, they both had bedrooms in their basements! He grinned to Kurt but calmed himself down when he noticed that his friend was just staring at the floor. "You… okay Kurt…?"

Kurt glanced up and nodded, before motioning for Chris to sit next to him on the bed, which Chris tried not to think too much about. "Chris… those bruises… when did that happen?"

Chris scowled as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well… yesterday…" He paused as he pulled his hoodie off, hissing as his ribs all but screamed at him. "Damn!"

He cleared his throat and grinned sheepishly at Kurt as the other boy stared at his bruises, he bit his lip. "Dad… he isn't a bad guy… really. The other night he and mom were fighting, that's why I didn't sleep… and then yesterday… he was yelling at me 'cause I'm not the son that he wanted…." He looked down and poked experimentally at his ribs, suddenly very self-conscious that he was just in his jeans in front of Kurt. He licked his lips nervously, avoiding his friend's eyes. "My dad… doesn't particularly like when I wear eyeliner, and that I would rather sing than play football, but he never really forbid it or anything. Anyway, when we moved here he was promised a really good job at the factory, it's really the only reason we are here, he was supposed to be a manager or something, but when we got here he ended up back on the assembly line, since then he has always been in these.. moods."

It seemed that Kurt was done holding back, or he had lost the battle to stay quiet. "That is still no reason to do that to you! My dad wasn't exactly thrilled when I told him I was gay, but I know he would never react that way! Chris… you have to tell someone! Mr. Schue even!"

Chris shook his head. "No!" He took a deep breath to calm himself. "I just… I am going to tell someone, but not the teachers."

Kurt frowned, tilting his head. "Why not the teachers? They can help you!"

Chris laughed humorlessly as he watched his friend carefully. "Kurt… I tried that back in Iowa, I tried to tell them how my dad treated my mom and I, but when they called her to talk to her about it she convinced them that I was a liar and just trying to get attention. If I tell anyone, it has to be the police; they will have to listen to me, especially since I have these bruises to prove it."

Kurt nodded, though he still looked royally pissed off. "Okay… do, do you think my dad could help?" He looked over to Chris and placed a hand on his shoulder, the other boy mentally was only able to focus on the feel of the warm hand against his skin.

After a moment or two of silence Chris cleared his throat, biting his lip. "I… don't know… could he?"

Kurt nodded slowly. "Yea… he can make sure you get to talk to the police, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind letting you stay here for a while until things get settled at your place..."

Chris shrugged, jumping when there was a knock to the basement room door. Kurt yelled for his dad to wait a second before looking to Chris. "If you want to tell him, now is your chance." Chris bit his lip, but nodded his head, standing up from Kurt's bed and moving to cross his arms over his chest as best as he could without putting himself in too much pain.

When Kurt opened the door his dad looked over his shoulder and when he noticed that Chris had no shirt on the tensed up, noticing that reaction Chris tensed as well, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to tell Mr. Hummel after all…

It seemed that just as that thought had passed his mind Burt had noticed his bruises. There seemed to be a visible change in the man, though he still looked rather angry. "What happened to you? Huh kid?"

Kurt cleared his throat and, after seeing Chris looking at him almost pleadingly started explaining all that he knew to his dad, careful to make sure that his father knew who had done this to his friend.

"So that is why you were determined that he stay over?" Burt looked over to Kurt before approaching Chris slowly, frowning as he watched the boy reflexively take a step back. "Have you gotten those ribs checked out yet?"

Chris looked down, shaking his head. "No sir." He glanced at Kurt who was currently giving him an encouraging look. He turned back to Burt. "I haven't done anything about them, but a friend of mine back in Iowa seems to think that one or two might be broken."

Burt nodded for a moment before turning to Kurt. "Can you get him one of your button up shirts that will be easy for him to get on? Then the both of you can meet me upstairs so we can go into the police station." He turns to Chris quickly, narrowing his eyes. "You are planning on telling the cops, right kid?"

Chris nodded his head; moving one of his hands to run his fingers though his hair. "Yes Sir, its part why I agreed to tell you… So I didn't back out."

Burt waved one of his hands in the air distractedly. "None of that 'Sir' business, call me Burt, okay?" Chris nodded with a small smile. "Right, I'll see you upstairs in a few minutes then." With that the older man headed up the stairs and left the two teens alone.

Kurt was already in his closet and searching through the shirts hanging up when Chris moved to stand just in the door way of the good sized walk in closet. When Kurt turned to give him the shirt he jumped slightly at finding his friend there so suddenly, but grinned anyway as he held up the shirt, it was silver and had swirling black –slightly sparkling- designs all over it. Chris grinned, carefully grabbing the shirt, pulling on his shoulders but leaving the buttons undone for now. He bit his lip as he watched his friend try to subtly watch him. He knew that he was good looking, he wasn't being conceited; Amber had gotten him trained enough so that he at least knew that. He took an experimental step towards his friend, mentally jumping for joy as he noticed his friend's eyes. The pupils were dilated, indicating that his friend could very well be as interested in him as he was in his friend.

He took that moment to really look at his friend, and for all that he noticed it could very well have been the first time that he saw Kurt Hummel. His hair was, as always, perfectly styled in a way that seemed to just scream Kurt. His face was… beautiful, and as he slowly raised a hand to tentatively run the back of his fingers over Kurt's cheek, very soft. His eyes were the thing that seemed to draw him in the most though, other than his lips (that was another story altogether), they were the most beautiful color he had ever seen…. At first he wanted to say that they were just blue, but at a closer glance, and he suddenly realized how very close he was, there was a bit of green mixed in there as well.

Kurt seemed to be unsure of what to do with his hands; they were flitting between nearly resting on Chris' shoulders, and resting at his sides. Chris, feeling decidedly bold all of a sudden, used the hand that wasn't touching Kurt's face to bring one of his friend's hands to rest on his shoulder. Kurt's breath seemed to hitch then, and that only seemed to draw Chris' eyes to Kurt's lips. He licked his own lips slowly as he started inching his head closer to Kurt's. They were less than an inch apart when they jumped apart at the sudden noise of a door opening, their cheeks burning as Chris started to slowly button up his shirt.

Burt was standing in the doorway of Kurt's room and had a small smirk playing on his lips as he watched them. He wasn't sure what he thought about the whole thing, and they had never said anything about Chris being gay so he couldn't be absolutely sure, but with as quiet as it was before he opened the door and their red faces now he would have sworn that they were doing something that they shouldn't. On one hand Kurt was his little boy, no matter how old he was, and the idea of him… having a boyfriend terrified him. On the other hand he knew that as wild looking his new friend was he seemed to be a genuinely good kid, and with the news that he was being abused by his own father it made it all the more difficult for Burt to not like him. He decided that, for now at least, he would just wait and see where things go from here, though he would definitely have to talk to Kurt very soon about the dangers that hormonal teenaged boys posed.

Kurt was standing by the door with a rather red face and looking anywhere but at either of the two occupants of the room while Chris was finishing the final buttons on his shirt. And wasn't that a concept, the very attractive –if slightly intimidating- new boy that he had been building a tentative friendship with was wearing his shirt. He shivered as he thought about other situations that particular event could happen in again, but he shook his head, not wanting to think more on that with his father in the room.

Chris had just turned to face the others and ran a hand over his face, suddenly very tired. "I'm ready when you are… I guess."

Burt's eyes seemed to soften, he nodded. "You are doing the right thing you know, getting yourself out of a situation like that takes a lot of bravery."

Chris nodded slowly, his eyes cast down. "Yea... just... my mom… she's going to get into trouble with all of this too, isn't she?" Burt frowned, to be honest he wasn't sure, but as he ushered the boys up the stairs he started thinking. Maybe he could get the old storage room cleaned out and have Kurt help set it up so that Chris could stay with them…. He knew that with an accusation as severe as child abuse the boy would be taken away from his family, but maybe he could avoid leaving the few friends that he had been able to make so far by staying with the Hummels? If it weren't for the fact that he suspected that the boys had feelings for each other he would have had them share a room, but he did not want to deal with that quite yet…

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Chris was very, very exhausted. He had told his story, starting back when they lived in Iowa, for what felt like the hundredth time. A children's service worker was off talking to the police and Burt, Kurt had fallen asleep in one of the waiting areas; and Chris was just sitting with his head resting on his folded arms. He was currently in one of the conference rooms, waiting to hear what was going to happen to him. He had overheard one of the officers say that they would have to check things out at his house before and permanent decisions were made, but the big question everyone was waiting on was where he was going to stay until everything was either verified or found out.

They didn't seem to doubt him about the origins of the bruises; the only thing they seemed to be wary on was the fact that the teachers in his old school had dismissed him so easily. That though was cleared up really quick when Burt cut in and told them that his mother, probably scared of what would happen to both herself and her son, had stepped in and somehow managed to talk them down.

He was nearly asleep himself when the door was opened once more revealing the social worker assigned to his case and a few officers. "Hello there Chris! I bet this has been an awfully long night for you, huh?"

Chris did his very best not to scowl and bash his head into the table from her overly sweet voice. She seemed to be under the influence that he was a small child that needed coddled. He didn't quite trust his voice right then so he simply nodded as he rubbed at his face in an attempt to keep him awake.

"Well this shouldn't take too much longer sweetie." She opened a folder and shifted through a few of the papers before looking up at him once more. "Now, the people you came in here with today, that boy is a friend of yours from school right?"

Once more Chris nodded, and sensing more questions he took a deep breath, wincing immediately after due to his aching ribs. He scowled when he noticed the pitying looks of the officers and the cloyingly sweet woman whose name kept escaping him. "Yes, Kurt and I are in Glee club together. After school I was stopped by a few… jocks and had the thrilling excitement of a slushy thrown at me." He noticed the officers frowning at this, but they didn't look to be too concerned so he paid them no mind. "Kurt has had this happen before so he offered to help me get washed up and even let me borrow a clean shirt to wear home. I had actually forgotten about my bruises for a while, so when I took my shirt off to change he noticed them and started freaking out and asking what happened." He smiled a bit at that, it was nice that his friend genuinely seemed to care about his well-being, probably one of the reasons behind his rapidly building crush. "I ran away from him and headed straight home to call another friend of mine, she seemed insistent that I tell someone so when I got off the phone with her I sent a text to Kurt asking if we could meet at a park that was close by my house." He paused, knowing that he probably didn't have to tell them all of this, but it was kind of nice, if a bit annoying at the same time.

"Anyway when he met me there I told him everything, don't know why really, but it was nice, to tell someone." He decided that he was going to play this up a bit, he had an idea of why they were asking about the Hummels and he couldn't say that he disagreed with the thought of being able to stay with them for a while. "Kurt insisted that I get away from my house and stay at his, and after we had been there for a little while his dad came down and we- well Kurt told him, I couldn't bring myself to just then. Mr. Hummel, well Burt, made sure that I knew we were heading here, I don't think he liked the idea of a friend of his son's not feeling safe at his own house."

The social worker seemed to believe every word, which is a good thing, considering it was all true. She cleared her throat, smiling softly at him. "Well, I for one am very happy that you have made such a good friend in the Hummel boy, and I'm glad that you also seem to be comfortable with Burt, considering everything." She winced as if she thought she made a very bad social snafu –and she may have, if he were more prone to emotional breakdowns and crying like a five year old. "Well… It's just that Mr. Hummel has offered that you stay with him and his son until everything gets all sorted out, would you like that at all Mr. Brandt?"

Chris paused for a moment, to make it appear as if he were thinking when he had in fact already decided whole heartedly that he would agree. He nodded a short while later, a small smile playing across his lips. "Yes Ma'am, I think I would like that very much!"

She gave him a grin, as if she were conspiring with him. "Great news then!" She turned to one of the officers, handing him one of the papers from her folder. "Okay, can you give these to Burt Hummel and have him fill these out?" The officer nodded and left the room, she turned and watched him for a moment. "Now, as soon as he gets those papers filled out you guys can head on home, I already took the liberty of getting you a doctor's appointment for those bruises, just to make sure that nothing more serious is wrong, okay?"

Chris nodded, but furrowed his brows. "I'll have to miss school, won't I?"

She nodded with a small smile. "Yes, you will, but hey, I bet that doesn't sound so bad does it? No school!" She cheered, smiling like a complete loon.

He shrugged. "I suppose, though I'll miss Glee club, and I'll have to find a way to get my assignments…." He sighed; maybe he could get Kurt to pick his homework up for him.

Okay people! A few things I would like to point out to you! I know that my chapters are rather short, but I promise I am trying to make them longer! One more thing! I know next to nothing about the process behind becoming a foster parent and the whole thing with getting children away from abusive parents, so if I get anything wrong in here let us just assume that this is a non-magical Au world where my word is law… or a magical AU world where my word is law and no one in the story knows about magic. One more thing! Please, please review!