DISCLAIMER: I do not own Glee, nor am I associated with it or Ryan Murphy. I am just an out-of-college daydreamer who sometimes gets into these writing funks and ends up tossing out a story after letting the idea sit in my brain for a few days!

Sometimes You Need More Than Courage

By: xSlythStratasfaction (formerly known as LadyStrata821)

Pairing: Kurt x Blaine (friendship only)

A/N: I decided to write this after having nothing but Klaine stuck in my mind for a week. I tried to go back and rewatch a lot of the scenes the two of them had together and then I started wondering about the mysterious Blaine and his past. That's when I thought of perhaps writing something about him (I'm pretty sure many others have done this as well; I haven't gotten around to reading many Klaine fics, so if this idea has been overdone, I apologize!). Anyways, Blaine's story will be a mix of stuff that I've seen a few of my own gay/lesbian friends go through. This story is dedicated to those friends. I hardly see or hear from any of them very much anymore, but I still think of them! This takes place between the episodes of SEXY and ORIGINAL SONG!

WARNING: There's some language in here that may be offensive!

"You really didn't need to haul yourself up in the bathroom, Blaine. I was only talking to my dad. You know him AND he likes you! No need to be so skiddish."

Kurt was sitting on the air mattress, his large cornflower blue eyes shimmering with mischief, staring back at Blaine. He looked rather amused that Blaine had tried to hide in the bathroom while he was on the phone. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Blaine nodded as he walked over to his mini-fridge. "I didn't want to interrupt your phone call. I know your dad has been trying to understand you better and I didn't want to impose by hovering over you or anything. I mean, I know you said he was wanting to have a sex talk with you and I didn't-" He rambled on.

"Blaine!"

The boy stopped in his tracks, suddenly embarrassed for his word vomit.

"Calm down!"

The older Warbler reached into the tiny fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. He mumbled quietly, "Sorry."

"It's alright," Kurt answered softly before he laid back on the firm mattress. Blaine asked him if he'd like anything to drink.

"Just a water, if you don't care."

Blaine brought the bottle to the other teen and then situated himself on the other side of the mattress. Uncapping his water, he took a couple of swigs and then sighed in refreshment. It was like being there with Kurt that very moment was making him parched and uncouth. He wasn't sure what was going on, but it really was messing with him.

In the meantime, Kurt watched the darker haired boy out of the corner of his eye. Just the way Blaine's throat moved with each swallow of water made his heart pound out of his chest. It was like there were 10,000 drummers beating on his heart with steel mallets. He wondered if Blaine could hear his heart thudding so ridiculously in the dead quiet of his room.

"Ummm… what did your dad say?"

The voice snapped Kurt out of his thoughts and he sat up on the bed, looking down at his socked feet. "Uh, he said that he understood why I decided to stay. I, umm, didn't tell him about the nightmare or anything. I just said I wasn't feeling very well and he understood after a while."

Blaine nodded.

"He wasn't upset that you were staying here… alone with me, was he?"

The emphasis on the word 'alone' was enough to make Kurt's heart explode within his chest. He could feel his skin growing unbearably hot, yet he felt horridly cold- scared almost.

"He knows me well enough to know I won't, erm… do anything. Plus, we're just friends and he knows that too, so uh…" He trailed off, feeling his ears turn completely red. He hoped Blaine didn't notice.

What I wouldn't give to be more than friends with you…

Blaine glanced over to Kurt, noticing that he had gone suddenly quiet, and spotted the redness of his skin. Usually Kurt was very cool and collected and it was rare to see him blush. Well, it was rare to him. The other Warblers frequently mentioned how beet red the newest Warbler turned during Blaine's solos during practice. Hell, David was very eager to point out how flushed Kurt looked one afternoon after Blaine had sang a couple of lines of Rod Stewart's 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?' In David's words, "It was like he was undressing you with his eyes!"

As awkward as that conversation with David had been at the time, Blaine started to notice the little things about Kurt that confirmed what the others were saying. Sure, Blaine already knew about Kurt's feelings towards him, but he didn't realize they were that serious. He would often catch Kurt's eye during Warbler meetings, finding the younger teen watching him curiously. Other times, he would purposely send Kurt a text during the meeting just to watch the expression of sheer delight spread across Kurt's nymph-like features. It was like the boy was completely head over heels in love with him or something…

…and that was something that absolutely terrified Blaine.

He wasn't scared that Kurt cared about him. He was just shocked that Kurt would like someone like him. In his own humble opinion, Blaine Anderson didn't find himself to be much of a catch. After the whole embarrassing incident with Jeremiah, he could barely face himself. He felt disgusting, stupid, and lame… just like the names the kids used to call him back during his public school days. To see that Kurt held such a distinct candle for him, Blaine felt like such a fake. He may have seemed like a knight in shining armor when Kurt first showed up at Dalton, broken down from the bullying and crumbling from being invisible, but now, he was just… there.

He didn't want Kurt to be in love with something he was not. And in his opinion, everything he was at that very moment was a lie. He wasn't that dapper, charismatic guy that wooed the ladies and wowed the crowds. He was just plain old Blaine Anderson: the hopeless romantic, wannabe singer/songwriter. He wasn't that knight, that savior that Kurt thought he was. He was a lover, not a fighter. He ran away from his problems. That's why he was here at Dalton right now. He couldn't fathom letting Kurt fall in love with someone as pathetic as himself, no way. Kurt deserved better.

Much better…

"Blaine, are you… alright?"

Kurt's soft voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he turned to find bright blue-eyes staring intently at him.

"You zoned out for a minute. Are you gonna be okay?" A hand reached out and grasped his, giving a reassuring squeeze, lingering for a moment.

Blaine nodded and looked down at the mattress he was sitting on, "I was just thinking…"

"About what?"

He looked back up at Kurt and saw what he thought looked like thousands of emotions running across the smaller boy's face. He looked curious, sad, thoughtful, concerned, scared, so on and so forth. It was kind of cute how much Kurt worried.

Blaine sighed and gently pulled his hand out of Kurt's grasp. "I was just thinking about how good I am at fooling people."

Kurt looked confused, "What? What do you mean by that?"

"People seem to think I'm this happy-go-lucky, perfect guy, Kurt. But I'm not. I'm just a fake." Blaine stared down at his hands, which were now resting on his knees. "It's all an act. I'm not tough. I'm not smart. I'm not-"

"Not gonna keep putting yourself down!" The hand that he had pulled out of Kurt's was grabbed once more and enveloped in a pair of smooth fingers. Kurt was staring at him with the most intense look he had ever seen on the small boy. "You are one of the bravest, if not the most brave, person I've ever known. I'm not gonna sit here and listen to you put yourself down, especially if you are only doing so to make me change my thoughts about you. I told you once Blaine. I care about you and you can talk to me all day about your short-comings and I won't give a rat's ass."

Blaine's eyes widened at the sound of annoyance in Kurt's voice. The lighter haired teen continued, "I like you the way you are. You are freaking amazing, Blaine. I wish you could see that too. What happened to the guy who lifted me up so much? If it weren't for you, I don't know where I'd be right now. Dead in a dumpster? Hanging upside down in a toilet? Crying in bed, eating myself obese from being depressed? I don't know, but I do know that if it weren't for you and you constantly telling me to have COURAGE, I probably wouldn't be here. It was ALL because of you, Blaine. Because of you."

There were tears in his eyes by then. It kind of hurt Blaine to see the pain he caused Kurt to go through. He opened his mouth to say something, but Kurt stopped him by leaning over the bed and pulling him into a tight squeeze.

"You are amazing, Blaine. Don't sell yourself short."

Blaine, now feeling his heart racing at a thousand beats per second, curled his arms around Kurt and held him as well. It felt good to be curled around Kurt like that, honestly. Before he even knew it, a few tears had leaked from his eyes and started down his cheeks. He really wasn't expecting Kurt to cause him to tear up, but here he was, locked in an embrace with one of his best friends, getting ready to cry.

"I can't do this. I can't."

"You can," Kurt breathed into his curly hair. "Tell me what's wrong, Blaine? Why are you so bent on making yourself seem worse than you are? Why?"

And Blaine just cried.

"Hey Josh."

A pair of blue eyes looked up from a book, "Oh hey Blaine!" There was that damn pearly white smile again. That same smile that caused Blaine's stomach to feel like there were a couple thousand raving butterflies having a party in his stomach. The black haired boy set his book down and patted the empty space next to him in the bleachers. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Blaine sighed. He had earlier asked Joshua, his crush, to meet him in the gym during lunch. Hardly anyone stayed in the gym during lunch, well minus a couple handfuls of students who coupled up and made out behind the bleachers. But, from what Blaine had seen, there wasn't anyone else in the gym except for him and Josh. Today, he wanted to talk to the older boy about his feelings… just to get them out there in the open. He wasn't going to press Josh or anything, but he was getting sick of being distracted. He wanted to know if Josh felt the same about him and if he didn't, then Blaine would just have to learn to move on.

He was scared to death to admit to Josh such a personal thing, but they had been best friends for years and Blaine trusted the boy to tell him the truth no matter what.

He bit his lip nervously and decided to just come out with it, "Josh, can I ask you something? I… I-"

"Sure, what is it?" Josh's blue eyes locked onto Blaine's hazel ones and the other boy's stomach flip-flopped.

Blaine opened his mouth to say something, but found himself closing it over and over again. His throat felt raw and sore, plus he was sure that his vocal cords had locked themselves up in fear. He tried over and over again to get the words to leave his mouth, but nothing came out. Josh's eyes were watching him intently, looking confused as to why Blaine wasn't saying one word to him.

"You okay, man? Is something wrong?"

"Nuh-nothing's wrong." Blaine blanched when he felt Josh's hand pat him on the back. His crush was increasingly close to him now; his hand resting on Blaine's shoulder.

"Tell me, Blaine." He paused, "Have the guys been picking on you again?"

Josh's out-of-the-blue question scared Blaine and he stared intently at the boy before him. Oh how the tables had been turned…

He honestly didn't know what to say. Just sitting there next to Josh, feeling the guy's strong hand on his shoulder, made him want to shudder in both fear and admiration. He leaned forward and looked down at his hands, which were resting on his knees. "They've been tame lately. I haven't had to hide any bruises from my parents in a few weeks."

Josh's usually bright face contorted into a deep frown. He looked utterly pissed for a moment before he turned back to Blaine and offered a slight smile. "I'm glad they aren't hounding you so much." The blue eyed boy reached down into his pants pocket and handed Blaine a folded up piece of paper.

"Just read this whenever you feel overwhelmed." He smiled and stood up, ready to leave the gym, but Blaine stopped him.

"Josh! Wait, please!"

The taller teen smiled and gave Blaine a slight wave before stepping off of the bleachers, "I wish I could stay and talk, but I'm supposed to meet Julia before lunch ends."

"Julia?"

"Yeah, Blaine. Remember Julia? Julia Delano? I've only been in love with her since FOREVER, man!" Josh's face brightened. "I'm thinking about asking her out today. Do you think I should go for it?"

Blaine's heart broke in what felt like a million pieces. He stared up at Josh's bright grin and gave his crush a fake smile in return. "I think you should go for it. I think Julia likes you too… and she's pretty hot." He lied.

Julia was indeed one of the most beautiful people in the school and there were rumors flying around that she may have feelings for a certain blue-eyed track star, but Blaine never knew that the very same blue-eyed track star had feelings for that girl in return. Sighing out of depression, he waved his hands at his crush, "Go on then. You'll miss her if you don't hurry. The bell is going to ring soon!"

Josh then beamed at Blaine offering a quick goodbye as he fled the gym, "Thanks man! Wish me luck!"

And then he was gone. Blaine felt the very familiar lump of hurt fill his throat and he curled his knees up to his chest. The tears flowed like they were nothing down his cheeks.

There went the boy he loved… out to get a girlfriend.

"He was your first crush, wasn't he?"

Blaine nodded into Kurt's chest, feeling the other boy's thin hands run up and down the length of his back. For a moment, the smooth hands stopped and rested on the small of his back, then as quick as they quit, he felt them move back up towards his upper back. Kurt's fingers slowly splayed on his broad shoulders and he felt the younger teen begin kneading the tense muscles gently.

"Did he actually get with that Julia girl?"

Kurt's question was pretty straightforward and for a moment, it made Blaine's heart ache. But Blaine knew that his friend was only curious as to what happened between him and Joshua, so he pushed aside the dull ache he felt in his chest and answered Kurt's question.

"Yes. They were still dating when I left…"

He felt Kurt's fingers squeeze at his shoulders again and he knew the gentle pressing was only to reassure him. With a sigh, he lifted his head from Kurt's chest and moved to lean on the blue-eyed boy's shoulder instead.

"It took me a long time to ever really get over Josh. He was my first love."

"You never really get over your first love," Kurt added as his fingers left the slumped shoulders he had been massaging and moved onto the curly, somewhat gelled locks of Blaine's hair. "You use too much gel."

Blaine laughed a bit, his hot breath on Kurt's exposed collar bone. The feeling of his breath on such an intimate area caused Kurt's body to shudder in response. Deep down, Kurt hoped that Blaine didn't feel how quickly his body trembled. Logic told him though that with the darker haired boy leaning against him so closely, he was bound to have felt the entire earthquake that went through Kurt's form. He blushed.

"Who was your first love?" Blaine's question was simple.

Mentally, Kurt thanked whomever was watching over him for allowing Blaine to ignore what ridiculous response his body just had. "My first love…" He ran his fingers through Blaine's hair once more, "It was, uh… well. I've had quite a few crushes in my lifetime. But I would have to say my first love was, umm… Finn."

Blaine's eyes snapped up to meet his at that very moment. The hazel orbs sparkled with what looked like complete humor.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?"

Kurt blushed and sat back on the bed, his eyes narrowing at Blaine. "Yes. Don't make fun of me! It was a silly crush I developed a couple of years ago. I'm over it now. Way, WAY over it."

"I would hope so," Blaine chimed. "He's basically your brother now!"

"Shut up."

"Well, it's the truth!" Blaine started to laugh, falling back against the mattress. His hands curled themselves around his sides as he chuckled at the beet red boy sitting across from him.

"Can we change the subject now? This is very embarrassing for me."

Blaine took in one last chuckle before catching his breath. He stared long and hard at the narrowed blue-eyes that watched him and smiled. "Sorry about that, Kurt. Got a little carried away."

"Obviously," Kurt sneered.

"What made you fall in love with Finn anyways? Wasn't he one of the football players who used to torment you back at McKinley… you know, before you guys became a family and all?"

Kurt laid back on the mattress and rested his hands behind his head, "Yeah, something like that. He didn't necessarily stop the other guys from tossing me into the dumpster until after he joined Glee club and got to know me a little better." He paused, then continued, "Even though he was one of my tormentors in the beginning, he did do little things that made me start to have feelings for him. He would let me take off my expensive stuff before the other guys threw me into the dumpster or he'd tell the guys not to shove me into my locker so hard… things like that."

"How caring."

Kurt rolled his eyes, "Shut up. Back then, after getting picked on all the time, those little things meant a lot to me."

"No, no. I get it. I really do." Blaine rolled onto his stomach and placed his hands underneath his chin. He stared straight ahead, across the room at the in-wall heater. "Josh was kind of like that…"

This revelation caused Kurt to raise a brow, "How so…?"

Blaine uncurled himself from the fetal position and stood up, stretching his aching limbs. He rubbed at his eyes viciously, hoping the redness and puffiness that had overtaken his face would disappear soon. He was supposed to be getting ready to head off to fifth period. Lunch was going to be ending soon and he had spent enough time in the gym, sulking because his crush Josh had just taken off to ask out that bitch Julia Delano.

Okay, so Julia Delano wasn't a bitch… but she was still stealing his man.

Blaine mentally chided himself for being so immature and rude and ran a hand through his curly hair. He had let it start growing out after Josh had told him that the girls thought his hair was super sexy. Deep down, Blaine had hoped that if he had girls clinging all over him all the time, then he might be able to survive his freshman year without any broken bones. However, that seemed to not be the case, as once his hair started to grow, even more taunts were directed at him. Things like 'fairy princess' and 'Shirley Temple' were thrown in his general direction daily. To be honest, Blaine was shocked that his tormentors even knew who Shirley Temple was… but he never questioned that to them verbally. He knew that if he fought back, he was screwed.

So he just stayed quiet…

With a groan of annoyance, Blaine leaned down and gathered up his books. He was hoping the rest of the day would speed by so that he could go home and have an even better cry over his non-existent love life. He deserved this cry, he thought. After all the stuff he went through daily about him being gay and what not, Blaine needed to have a good cry every once in a while. Usually he would wait until he got home from school (when his parents weren't home, of course), run himself a hot bath, and just lay in the tub and sob. It was very… err, comforting to say the least…

Grumbling, he walked towards the entrance of the gym and found himself walking straight into a rather large road block.

"Watch where you're going, homo!"

He hadn't been watching where he was going actually, so as soon as he heard the gruff, angry voice yell at him, he knew he was in trouble. It was the same guy who always picked on him: Leonard Addams. Blaine had very many run-ins with Leonard, including that day a year or so ago when Leonard pushed him into the asphalt on picture day.

He still had a few scars on his face, hands, and knees from the fall, too.

"Sorry Leonard," Blaine mumbled softly under his breath. "I should've been watching where I was going."

Leonard Addams stood a good 6 inches over him. Unfortunately for Blaine, he hadn't hit a growth spurt at all, so he was still rather small and lanky. Despite the fact that he ran track and did weight lifting, one could never tell that he was a 15 year old teenager. Most mistaked him for a 6th grader, 7th grader at the most… and Blaine's fellow classmates were always letting him know of his growth delinquencies.

"Where do you think you're going so soon, fairy boy?"

The tall, burly blonde's hands were now on his shoulders, squeezing hard. Blaine bit his lip and kept his eyes locked on his books, which were squeezed flush against his chest. Leonard shook him a bit, causing a few of the books to fall out of his grasp and hit the floor.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you, pipsqueak!"

He shoved Blaine backwards and the smaller boy hit the bottom row of bleachers, stumbling backwards onto the floor.

"Why are your eyes so red? Were you crying?"

Leonard's laughter filled the entire gym, leaving a creepy echo behind it. Blaine scrambled to stand up, suddenly feeling a horrid sense of dread fill the pit of his stomach. He wondered if anyone else was in the gym at that moment. He knew that there wasn't anyone there earlier when he and Joshua had been having their talk, but now he prayed that someone would walk in or pop up out of nowhere.

"I asked you if you were crying!"

Blaine looked up into Leonard's sea green eyes and gulped. The boy now towered over him, his hands bunched into meaty fists. He looked highly annoyed that Blaine hadn't given him an answer yet.

"No, I-I wasn't crying." Blaine scanned the gym again for any other form of life, hoping that someone would show up soon.

No one did.

He felt Leonard's grasp on the collar of his black polo shirt as the larger boy lifted him easily into the air. "You're lying, you stupid little piece of shit. Your face is all messed up and your eyes are red. You've been crying! AND I saw Josh just leave the gym! What did you do? Ask him on a date and he turned you down?"

Blaine bit his lip. He could taste just a little bit of copper from the amount of pressure he was putting on his lower lip.

"I thought so." Leonard's green eyes narrowed as he jerked Blaine's body towards his, "Josh isn't a FAG and neither is anyone else in this school, Anderson. No one wants to have butt sex with you! We don't want AIDS, homo!" He spat in Blaine's face as the words escaped his lips.

When the hot, smelly wetness that was Leonard's saliva hit him in the face, Blaine saw red. He yelled and jerked his body away from the harsh grip that the blonde boy had on him. "Fuck you!"

He was honestly shocked that the words had escaped his lips, but as soon as they did, he felt a little bit better about standing up to his bully.

He didn't feel so great though when he felt Leonard's hands shove him towards the ground. He didn't feel so great when he felt all of Leonard's weight on his chest as the bigger boy threw himself down on top of his chest.

And he definitely didn't feel so great when he felt Leonard's hard fist crash into his cheek…

A/N: One, I apologize if Blaine seemed OOC. However, not everyone can be all sunshine and rainbows and dapperness all the time, you know? So, at the moment, he's being just a little bit dark. Revealing one's hurtful past can do that to a person… Also, I know I didn't really get into why Josh to Blaine is somewhat like Finn was to Kurt, but I'll get to it soon enough in the next chapter, I promise! Anyways, sorry if this chapter seems jumbled. My sister is on Spring Break and I have the hardest time writing when I know people are hovering over me, wondering what I'm doing all the time. Hopefully I'll be able to put out another chapter very soon! Bear with me! Oh, and comments/reviews are very much appreciated! Thanks!