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!

"…Blaine?"

The hand that was squeezing the smaller teen's shoulder moved upward and slowly pried the pillow from his iron grip.

Josh sat before him, his blue eyes staring down at Blaine sadly. He looked absolutely wretched; his hair had grown out and was hanging shaggily around his face. Stubble formed on his usually baby's bottom smooth jaw line and he had dark circles under his eyes. He looked just as bad as Blaine did and from what the other boy could tell, he was probably faring pretty badly emotionally as well.

"Just go, Josh. Please. I don't want to do this anymore."

"Can't I just talk to you? Just for a little bit?" Josh's voice was soft and scratchy, as if he was on the border of bursting into tears.

Blaine could barely see his face due to the blurriness of his tear filled eyes, but he knew something was going on within Josh. Why in the world would the boy be so close to him after all that shit that had went down just weeks ago? Why was he here? Why did he want to talk?

As his mind raced, Blaine felt himself pulling away. First his body started to push itself backwards against the headboard of his bed. Then his legs threw themselves over the side of the bed and pulled himself across the room towards his private bathroom. It was like he didn't have any control of his body. His fight or flight senses had taken over and they had obviously chosen flight.

He ran into the bathroom, tears streaming down his cheeks, and he slammed the door shut quickly, locking it from behind.

"Blaine, please! Hear me out! Blaine!"

He could hear Josh's cries. The other boy started to pound on the door frantically, his voice raising as he begged and pleaded with his ex-friend to open the bathroom door and let him in. Blaine wasn't about to budge though. Not now, not after all this.

Images raced through his mind of the things Josh had done over the last few months. From when he first allowed Leonard to punch him in the head to the night Josh had outed him to everyone at the dinner table, he just couldn't accept any form of apology from the guy now. He didn't want to get hurt again.

His last hospital stay had cemented the fact that he and Josh were over with. They couldn't be friends if Joshua couldn't be trusted and the fact that the boy had brought both Julia and Leonard with him to the hospital only proved that Josh didn't give two shits about Blaine's well-being. He could have easily came alone or even with his parents, without his lackeys in attendance. But instead he chose to bring with him the one person that had tortured Blaine for years, the one who had pushed Blaine to the point of breaking.

And that just couldn't be forgiven.

With a strangled cry, Blaine tucked himself up into a ball and rocked back and forth against the bathroom wall. It was pitch black in the room as he hadn't bothered to turn the lights on before he fled into the room, but he could see the soft light coming in from underneath the door. Josh was still out there…

And he was crying.

"Blaine, please. I'm so sorry. Please listen to me."

Hours had passed and Blaine was still locked up in his bathroom.

Josh had sat outside of the door for a few hours, sometimes crying and sometimes shouting. He pounded on the door so much that Blaine was afraid it was going to give way and the other boy would be able to get in. For a while, Blaine had even held his body flush against the door, hoping that it wouldn't completely fall off the hinges during Josh's beat downs. Luckily though, the door held and after a while, Josh gave up and resigned to just sitting up against the door.

He still begged for Blaine to let him in though, but the smaller teen didn't budge.

Things grew tired after a while. Blaine could hear Josh yawning in his room and every once in a while, he yawned as well. He was hoping Josh would just get up and leave soon because he was wanting to crawl into his bed, curl up in the covers, and cry himself to sleep. However, plans changed and Josh was still sitting outside the bathroom door. So, grumbling in annoyance, Blaine stood up from his post by the bathroom door and grabbed a couple of towels out of his linen cabinet. He threw two large beach towels down onto the floor and laid down on them. The coolness of the tiled floor came up through the makeshift bed, but it wasn't enough to make Blaine want to leave the bathroom.

He laid on the floor for another hour before finally drifting off to sleep…

There was a soft rustling outside the door.

The curly haired boy laying on the floor opened his eyes and sat up, stretching his aching body as he stood up from the floor. He looked around the dark room, immediately registering it as his bathroom, and the events from before flashed through his mind as he remembered why he was in his bathroom in the first place.

Slowly, he crept towards the door and leaned against it, listening closely to figure out what in the world the commotion was in his bedroom.

As he pressed his ear to the door, he heard someone breathing up against the other side. "Who's there?" He called softly, hoping it was anyone but Josh.

"It's your mom, Blaine. Please come out."

Blaine closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the door. He started to wonder if his mom was trying to trick him to come out of the bathroom so that Josh could ambush him. With a soft sigh, he questioned, "Is Josh still here?"

"No, sweetie. I sent him home a while ago."

"Do you swear? Do you swear on your life… on the Bible?" He didn't really want to bring religion up into the conversation because he remembered what happened the last time Christianity got thrown into the mix, but he just had to ask. He knew his mother would get serious if he mentioned the Bible.

"I would never swear on the holy book, Blaine. You know that."

"Then are you lying to me, mother? Is he still here?" Blaine pressed himself against the door to see if he could hear any soft whispering between his mom and anyone else; he heard nothing.

"I give you my word, Blaine. He is not here. Please come out."

Blaine whimpered, "I don't believe you. You let him in even after what he did to me. You betrayed me, mom. I don't know if I can trust you anymore…"

He heard his mother sigh from the other side of the door, "He wanted to apologize to you, sweetie. He came here while you were out running and he looked so sad and wanted to come in. I couldn't just leave him out there. He's just a young, confused kid. These feelings you have for him just scared him, that's all."

Blaine tensed upon hearing his mother defend the guy who had tore him apart emotionally. "I'm a young, confused kid as well! You think these feelings of mine aren't scary? I'm terrified, mom! Terrified!" He started to cry again. "Everyone wants to hurt me. No one cares if I'm getting the shit beaten out of me! My own parents think I'm an abomination! …I don't know what to do anymore!"

His mother started to cry as well; he felt her body lean up against the door. "Oh sweetheart, I know this is hard for you, but you need to understand that it's just as difficult for everyone else. We're all struggling here-"

He tuned her out then. She just didn't understand. She didn't get it that their lack of support was killing him. She didn't understand that by letting Josh come back, she was opening up that nasty can of worms that he thought he would've at least been rid of until school started up again. His parents were breaking him down… slowly but surely.

And Blaine didn't know what to do.

"Mom, please leave. I need to be alone."

A resigned sigh came from the other side of the door, "Fine. But if you need to talk, your father and I will be downstairs." And then, after a few moments of quiet, she left.

Blaine waited a few minutes before he slipped out of his bedroom; he cautiously tip-toed out and poked his head around the room, looking for any sign of Josh or his parents. Luckily, there was no one around. Quietly, he crept up to his bedroom door and shut it behind him. Then he threw himself onto his bed.

It was just after midnight and the entire Josh ordeal had really only lasted several hours, but Blaine was exhausted, emotionally and physically. He curled up into his pillows and allowed himself a few good sobs before he finally slipped into a dreamless sleep.

"I really don't want to ask this because I think I may know the answer, but did Josh ever come back?"

Blaine looked up at Kurt's question and saw the anger burning behind his friend's eyes. When Kurt was angry, Blaine noticed that his eyes flashed different hues of color. One moment they were a brilliant blue, then a stormy grey, followed by a pale green. At that time, they were cloudy and dark… like thunderstorm clouds. Just the intenseness behind the stare caused Blaine's breath to hitch in his throat.

Kurt's getting angry… for me.

In fact, the more Blaine thought about it, that night Kurt had went through a lot of emotions in his honor. He saw the boy cry for him, watched him feel sad for him, and saw him feel anguish when Blaine told him of the physical abuse he had suffered at the hands of his bullies. It was like, at that very moment, that the two of them were becoming closer. He was letting Kurt in… and that just wasn't something he did. His heart was much too fragile to let just anyone in; you had to be special to get Blaine to open up to you… and here he was, letting Kurt in.

That's because Kurt is special… very special.

A blush spread across Blaine's cheeks as he felt his heart skip a beat or two. Was he really starting to feel more for Kurt? Or was he just feeling this because Kurt was being a good friend and he was glad that he had someone to talk to? Immediately, his mind started a mental war with his heart as he debated on whether or not he was starting to like Kurt back…

Do I really like him like that?

No, he's just a friend. I'm his mentor. We're just friends.

He likes me like that. He has since forever.

We're just friends. He's just being a good friend by listening to me.

I'm just his mentor. Nothing more.

"Blaine?"

He snapped out of his thoughts quickly, settling for the last quip that his mind left him, and gazed at the boy sitting across from him.

"Sorry, I zoned out a bit. What did you ask?"

Kurt smirked and laid down on the bed, stretching his long limbs out before finding a comfortable position laying on his stomach. He laid his head on his hand and smiled sweetly at Blaine. "I was asking if Josh ever came back to your house after that ordeal?"

Blaine bit his lip in thought before responding, "No. I didn't see him alone for the rest of the summer. I saw him at track practice and all, but he never came back by my house."

"Good."

"Why good?" Blaine asked curiously.

"Because he didn't deserve your attentions nor did he deserve to be in your presence in general after he pulled all of that rubbish." Kurt spoke this matter-of-factly as he watched the hazel eyed boy sitting across from him. "I hope he spent all summer getting ulcers from worrying due to what he did to you."

Upon hearing this, Blaine started to laugh. "You're evil."

Kurt grinned back at him, "This guy better hope I never meet him. I'd be like Mercedes and cut a bitch." When he saw Blaine shoot him an incredulous look, Kurt continued, "I'm not even kidding."

And the two boys started laughing once more.

A/N: Wow, I'm dying right now. By dying, I mean, my brain cells are falling out of my head. I am having the hardest time updating. I can't get anything done with people interrupting me, asking me questions, and pestering me… and I have no where else to go! I wish I had my own little island where I could just sit and write and be left alone, but nope, not gonna happen! So anyways, I apologize if this chapter sucked. I had all these ideas in my head and then people decided to bother me all day and I lost a bit of the gusto I had to write and couldn't get it back! So sorry once more! Also, thanks to my reviewers on the last chapter! You guys give me writing mojo! :D