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!

"I never… never expected him to turn on me like that."

Blaine's voice was small and unfamiliar to Kurt. He was still leaning against the window, his forehead against the cool glass, gazing down at the empty courtyard. Just seeing him so broken made Kurt want to slaughter someone. Usually Kurt Hummel was able to control his emotions, but when it came down to situations such as this (one's that really shook him to the core), he always felt like fighting back- whether it be with words or actions.

This time his words took over.

"Josh never deserved a friend like you, Blaine. For him to allow that piece of shit Leonard to hurt you like that, I hope karma came back and bit him in the ass tenfold, over and over and over again. If only I could get my hands on that guy, I'd-"

He stopped when he noticed Blaine's hazel eyes go glassy. The moonlight streaming in through the window sparkled in the older boy's tear-filled orbs.

"Blaine?"

The shorter boy turned away from the window then and walked over to his bed, sitting down on it. He put his head into his hands and a soft, somewhat stifled sob came out as his shoulders shook. Kurt followed him over to the bed and wrapped his arms around the muscular boy, pulling him into his arms.

"Fuck Joshua. Fuck him and all the others."

His voice really didn't sound like him then. Kurt usually didn't curse unless he was seriously angry and at the amount of cursing he had done that evening alone, he knew he must've been incredibly pissed. Biting his lip, he pulled Blaine closed to his chest and allowed the curly-headed teen to rest his face against him.

"You never deserved that, Blaine. You never deserved any of that."

The rest of Blaine's freshman year of high school went just as crappy as he expected it to be.

Joshua and Julia became THE power couple of the school. The track star and the hot cheerleader- a story out of a dramatic high school tv show. Just the sight of them made Blaine want to hurl (and sometimes he did). Ever since that fateful day in the school courtyard, Blaine nor Josh had spoken a word to one another. Leonard was Josh's main man now so whenever Blaine saw Josh in the halls, he went the other direction because he knew that wherever his former crush was, his tormentor would not be far behind.

Despite the fact that Blaine spent the rest of the year being picked on by Leonard and his goons, he was still able to keep up with his school work and all his extra curricular activities. Most people were shocked that he was doing so well, especially since it was a daily occurrence to see him pushed or smacked around in the halls of the school. However, Blaine took everything with a grain of salt and pushed forward.

He wasn't going to allow people to bully him out of school.

And that's why, on the very last day of the school year, he snuck into his house, past his parents, and went upstairs to bandage up yet another bruise he received earlier that day as an 'end of school celebration' present. He didn't want his parents to know that the bullying still went on, so like every other 'normal' day, he came home and went straight to the bathroom to tend to any fresh wounds he may have gotten throughout the day.

For his end of year 'present', Leonard had come up behind him as he was walking down Stairwell B to his Algebra class. He didn't even realize Leonard was behind him until he felt a hard fist smash into the middle of his back. The abrupt force sent him forward and his body tumbled down the stairs. On the way down, he accidentally bumped a few other people and they shouted at him.

"Watch out, asshole!"

"God, man. Just take us all out!"

"Way to go, Brokeback!"

Once he landed at the bottom of the stairwell, he tried to gather up all his books and papers that had spilled from his hands. Other students continued to file on by and as Blaine grabbed his math book off of the ground, he saw Leonard walk by with Josh, both of them chuckling to themselves.

It broke his heart.

"Are you okay?"

A voice startled him and Blaine looked up, catching the eye of a gruff looking older man. It was his literature teacher, Mr. Brown. The teacher's dark eyes were narrowed as he looked Blaine up and down. Blaine knew the older man didn't like him and he had heard through the grapevine that the man was a homophobe, but nonetheless, Blaine was still able to keep a good grade in his class. It shocked him that the man was a homophobe and still gave him good grades, but he never questioned it, afraid that he'd offend Mr. Brown and would then start flunking his class.

Mr. Brown took another look at Blaine and then he started back up the stairs, "Be more careful next time, Anderson. You could really hurt yourself."

Blaine sighed as the older teacher disappeared up the steps. He gathered up the rest of his things and went on his way to math class. He was going to be late, but it didn't matter. He took his sweet old time, especially since the middle of his spine hurt like hell and it was hard to walk without wincing in pain.

Throughout the rest of the day, Blaine fought with the pain in his back. Once he got off his bus and limped into his house, he was truly able to see the extent of the damage that Leonard had dealt onto him. He took off his shirt and stood in his bathroom, staring at the fading bruises that covered his bare torso.

There was a bruise under his collar bone from where Leonard had shoved him into a locker, a bruise on his hip where Riley (another jock) punched him in the side while they were walking through the hallway, and there were numerous bruises all over his arms from where Leonard and the other guys would grab at him and slam him into doors or walls.

This last, newest bruise however stung horribly. Blaine turned around and stared at his back in the mirror. There in the middle of his back was a greenish purple mark. It was large (around the size of Leonard's fist) and it was swollen. Blaine placed his hand on it and winced as his body flinched in response to the touch.

He was gonna need some ice.

Quietly, he slipped his shirt back on and tip-toed to the kitchen, filling up a plastic sandwich baggie with a handful of ice. In the process of applying it to his back, his mother entered the room with an empty shot glass. The two of them met eyes: dark brown to hazel, and her eyes softened immediately after she took a quick glance towards Blaine's ice laden hands.

"What happened, baby?"

He stared at her, instantly scared that she was going to fret and tell his father. He knew that nothing good could come out of speaking with his dad, especially after that fateful night a few months ago when his dad came out and called him a faggot. He hadn't spoken to either of his parents since he heard them out in the hall that night, so at that moment, standing in front of his mother, he was terrified.

"Blaine, darling. Let me see your back."

His voice came out low and hard, "No."

Maria Anderson was shocked to hear her son's voice so guarded. It sounded nothing like him, but then again, she hadn't really spoken to him since he was attacked a few months prior. She had wanted to talk to him so many times, but couldn't think of anything to say to him. Plus, after her heated discussion with her husband about their son's sexuality, she was afraid. Afraid that what her husband said was true: that their beloved son might be gay.

She stared at her small son then and watched as he tried to skirt around her and go back to his room. He had spent a lot of time up there over the last few months, even taking his meals up there (if he ate at all). She could see the dark circles under his eyes and the way his cheeks looked sunken in. He was suffering.

"Baby, please. Let mommy see."

He whispered again, "No."

Finally, Maria had enough. She set her empty glass down in the sink and marched up to Blaine, taking the ice pack from his hands. It shocked her how easy it was to wretch the pack out of his grip and it shocked her even worse to feel how thin he had gotten. She tugged the long-sleeved white track tee from his slender frame and gasped out loud at what she saw.

"Oh Jesus! Blaine! Who did this to you?"

Tears filled her eyes as she stared down at her thin son. His eyes were guarded and his jaw was square. He wasn't going to answer her. She ran her hands over the light bruises that were all over his body. The tears started to fall.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why do you care?" Blaine's voice was tense and angry. When Maria looked at him, she saw the fire that burned behind his eyes. She knew what that look was for and honestly, she couldn't blame him. She had failed him as a mother. He had to have been getting picked on everyday in order to have all these bruises and not once did she notice. Not once.

"I care, Blaine. I really do."

"No, you don't." He pulled away from her then and grabbed his shirt from off of the floor. The sudden movement of bending over made his spine scream out in pain and he hissed, immediately regretting the action.

"Your back! OH MY GOD!"

His mother's hands were all over his bruised spine then. He whimpered in pain as she ran a hand over the raised knot on his back. "Who did this?" She was demanding now.

"I fell. That's all."

Blaine was a terrible liar. As soon as the words escaped his mouth, he knew his mom wouldn't believe him. His voice had taken on another octave and it had broken, obviously proving that he was lying through his teeth… that and that he was about to burst into tears. God, his back hurt him so bad.

"It was that Leonard boy, wasn't it? I'm calling the school!"

Blaine jumped, "Mom, NO! School is over! You can't call them now! They can't do anything. Summer is here. I'll be home. No one will mess with me. I'll be safe…"

He highly doubted he'd be safe, to be honest. Some nights, he would get instant messages from random people and they would spew homophobic slurs at him and tell him to go jump off of a bridge… things like that. He stopped chatting online then. Then he deleted his Myspace page as well as his Facebook when things got worse and more people started to say things. The only thing he used his computer for was to compose music or to watch videos. That was all.

Sighing, he placed the ice pack back onto his throbbing spine and pushed past his mom. "I'm going to lay down. I'm tired."

His mother stood in the kitchen with his track shirt in her hands. She didn't fight him when he squeezed by, she didn't follow him upstairs when he left, and she didn't pick up the phone and call the school to complain like she originally wanted to. She did, however, curl up on herself and burst into tears in the kitchen, sobbing for her son and sobbing for her family. Everything was falling apart.

As she sat in the kitchen and cried, her cellphone rang.

Slowly, Maria lifted herself off of the floor and picked up the phone, which was plugged into the wall next to the refrigerator. "Hello?"

"Maria, darling, it's William."

She sniffled, "Yes, honey. I know."

"Are you crying?"

Mrs. Anderson bit her lip and quickly scanned her brain for a little white lie to use on her husband. One entered quickly and she threw it out, "I'm just cutting onions for dinner. You know how onions make you cry and all?"

"Well, put the onion into the freezer first before you slice it. It'll make the fumes not as strong." Her husband offered a simple suggestion before continuing, "Also, can you set the table tonight for three more people other than you, me, and Blaine?"

Maria sighed at hearing her son's name come out of her husband's mouth. He hadn't spoken of Blaine very much at all since he flipped out on her in the hallway that night.

"Why do I need to set the table for six? Blaine doesn't eat with us, remember?"

Mr. Anderson huffed into the phone, "Well, he'll be eating with us tonight, Maria. I've invited Gary and Charlene over tonight."

Maria perked up a bit at hearing who was coming over, "Oh really? Are they bringing-"

She didn't have a chance to finished her question, as her husband spoke over her, "Yes, I asked them to bring Josh as well. I know Blaine will be very excited to see him."

"Okay, I'll get started then."

The two hung up and Maria wiped her eyes. She had to get started on dinner soon. Blaine's best friend Joshua was coming over and she knew that if anyone could get Blaine out of his funk, it would have to be Joshua.

A/N: Thanks to all of you who have reviewed. Whenever I get reviews, I get really excited and then I get excited enough to write. So umm, thanks again! Also, I hate being mean to Blaine. I would just like to snuggle him to my bosom and smother him with kisses. I feel so bad for picking on him, but it's essential to his story, methinks. Anyways, thanks for reading! Next chapter should be up soon… maybe, unless some family drama blows up over the weekend and I get hauled off to jail for beating people up… and that's all I have to say about that! :-D