DISCLAIMER: I do not own Glee, nor am I associated with it or RIB. I don't own anything - there we go.

Don't Run Away

By: xSlythStratasfaction

Warning: Spoilers for Season 4 - an AU of 4x07 on. Basically a 'what if' Blaine transferred back to Dalton like he was planning instead of being talked out of it like Sam was able to do in the actual episode.

TRIGGER WARNING: Suicidal thoughts are mentioned. Also self-harm.

Kurt looked up, watching the door to Blaine's dorm room creak open slowly. Sebastian quietly slipped into the room, shutting the door behind him as he locked eyes with Kurt.

"He's asleep?"

"Yeah, he's pretty exhausted." Kurt whispered as he ran his fingers along Blaine's scalp, his other hand resting on Blaine's chest, feeling the soft, fluttering beat of Blaine's heart as the boy below him slept peacefully. Tear tracks stained both of their faces and the evidence of their explosive reunion was scattered all over the place. Blaine's blazer and tie were lying on the floor, Kurt's shoes were discarded in the middle of the room, and a bunch of stuff from Blaine's desk littered their area rug.

"What happened?"

"He had a bit of a breakdown," Kurt said softly. Sebastian watched as the other boy stared down at Blaine's calm, sleeping face. "I've never seen him like this... ever."

"It's not the first time he's had one of those, to be honest."

"What you do mean?"

Sebastian just shrugged, slipping his jacket off and tossing it on his bed. He walked over to the closet and reached inside, grabbing out what looked like a garment bag. He carried the bag over to his bed, unzipped it, and pulled out a rough, stiff looking Dalton blazer. "This is Blaine's," he mumbled, holding the uniform out for Kurt to see. Kurt stared at the jacket in horror; it was completely destroyed. Buttons were popped off, a few still hanging by a thread; the cuffs of the sleeves were shredded as if someone's fingernails kept scraping the material over and over and over again.

Sebastian held the blazer out further and Kurt shrank back when a strange smell wafted into his face.

"What is that?"

"Blaine had a moment when he first got here. This was the result."

::

Sebastian groaned bitterly when he stepped into his dorm room and heard the shower running in the adjoining bathroom.

"Hurry up in there, killer!" He called out as he shed his sweaty t-shirt and tossed it into the hamper. He dropped his lacrosse team bag on the floor and dug through it, smiling when he found a still full bottle of gatorade at the bottom. "Come on, Blaine! I need to shower!" Taking a swig of his drink, he leaned against the bathroom door, listening closely to see if he could hear Blaine singing in the tub. However, all he heard was absolute silence, minus the sound of the water running.

That wasn't unusual though. Blaine hadn't sang a single note outside of Warbler rehearsal since he first came back to Dalton a few weeks prior. Sectionals was coming up in a couple of days, so one could say that Blaine was resting his voice for the competition, but Sebastian knew better: Blaine just wasn't his usual self anymore.

Grumbling in annoyance, Sebastian plopped down on the floor and sprawled out, not caring whether or not he got grass or dirt on the rug. He decided to channel surf while he waited for Blaine to get out of the bathroom and ended up settling on a re-run episode of some trashy reality show; seconds later, he dozed off...

Only to reawaken when his cellphone beeped.

"Ugh, shit," he muttered, lazily dragging himself across the floor to his bag, pulling the cellphone out to see who was bothering him. The second he laid his eyes on the phone, his heart plummeted.

Blaine's not answering his phone. Is he with you? It was from Jeff.

Sebastian turned back to the bathroom door and shivered in fear, skin crawling as he noted that the shower was still running... more than a half an hour after he got back from practice.

"Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck! Fucking shit!"

He ran over to the door, grabbing at the handle with all the strength he could muster and pulled.

It didn't budge.

"No! Fuck, god damnit! Blaine?! Can you hear me? Open this door!" He pulled and pulled, his arms aching from the strain of how much force he was putting into yanking on that damn door knob. He jerked backward, steadying his feet against the floor as he hauled back again, the door barely budging. "Blaine! Blaine?! Damnit!"

He burst forward, slamming against the door with a thud and cried out when his shoulder smashed against the wood. "Oww, fuck!" He stepped back and rattled the door knob, shaking it as much as he could even though his hands were going numb from all the work they were doing. Panicking, he stepped away, running over to his desk to grab up a paper clip to distort into some sort of makeshift key. He then grabbed one of his credit cards and rushed back to the door, trying everything he possibly could to jimmy the thing open and get into the bathroom. The paperclip idea failed tremendously and Sebastian threw it across the room in anger. "Shit!"

The credit card was his last hope. Pushing it into the small space between the wall and the door, he yelled in relief when the lock popped and the door fell open.

"Yes! Finally!" He pushed the door open farther and called out, "...Blaine?"

The bathroom was oddly cold, causing a chill to seep up Sebastian's spine as he ran over to the closed shower curtain. He pulled the curtain away, not giving two shits whether or not Blaine was stark naked, and gasped at the sight before him.

Blaine sat on his knees at the bottom of the tub, completely clothed from head to toe in his Dalton uniform. His head was bowed and his arms were limp at his sides as ice cold water beat down on him.

"Oh Jesus," Sebastian choked out, his eyes watering when he noticed Blaine's eyes were still open, yet completely unfocused. He stepped into the shower, shutting the water (oh god, he had been in there long enough for the hot water to turn icy) off first before he wrapped his arms around Blaine and hefted him out of the shower to sit on the bath mat. "Fuck, Blaine, you're freezing!"

Blaine barely moved, his eyes slowly blinking open and shut as he lay limp in Sebastian's arms. His uniform was soaked and dripping water everywhere, all over Sebastian and the floor. Sebastian shivered underneath Blaine's heavy form.

"We need to get you out of these wet clothes."

He unwrapped his arms from Blaine's waist and went to unbutton the blazer, only to find the buttons completely gone, a few still attached to the coat by a thread or two. Not bothering to question why Blaine's jacket was so messed up, he slipped the drenched garment off of Blaine's shoulders and threw it into the tub, moving onto Blaine's white button down shirt next. He was able to remove the majority of his friend's clothing before the other boy finally responded, his hands coming up to hover in front of his face. Sebastian frowned when he noticed the blood underneath Blaine's nails, as well as how red the boy's fingertips were.

"Blaine, what did you do? God..." He slipped an arm underneath Blaine's legs and pulled him up from the floor, carrying the shivering boy into their bedroom. He set Blaine down on his bed before running over to Blaine's dresser. Grabbing a pile of clothes, Sebastian went back to where his friend lay dormant, Blaine's dark eyes heavy lidded and deadened. "I promise I won't look," he said softly as he tugged Blaine's boxer-briefs off. Keeping his eyes on Blaine's face, Sebastian did his best to dress Blaine up as well and as warmly as he could, barely smiling in relief when he finally got Blaine into some warm pajamas. Once Blaine was dressed, he went back to dressing himself before he picked up Blaine's tired form and put him into his own bed.

Blaine still shook violently and despite the off look in his eyes, tears ran down his nose and splashed onto his pants.

"God, Anderson," Sebastian murmured as he slipped in behind his friend and tugged him down to rest against his chest. "What happened to you?" He ran a hand over Blaine's damp curls and felt his own tears finally escape as the boy against him gasped and shuddered in a fit of sadness.

Both boys laid in bed for hours, crying off and on, but neither spoke – Blaine for god knows what reason and Sebastian because he was fucking terrified of what might come out of his mouth that could be the trigger to push Blaine over the edge... because something was terribly wrong, if that day's events proved anything.

::

"So that's his blazer from that day."

"Yeah. I forgot it was in the tub and the next morning when I finally got out of bed, it was still in there. I didn't know what to do with it; I didn't want to throw it out just in case Blaine still needed it, but then I thought I'd keep it just... just in case Blaine needed help one day and I'd need to tell that story to someone."

"Like me?"

"Like you."

"...what else happened the day after?"

"Well, I woke up and Blaine was in my bed, just staring at me. He must've woken up sometime before I did and swapped beds." Sebastian stared at Blaine for a second before he continued. "He was so out of it and it freaked me out. I got up to get him a drink of water and when I turned back around, he was picking at my blanket with his fingernails. His hands were bleeding again and I ended up having to drag him into the bathroom to clean him up."

"Jesus..."

"Tell me about it. I liked that blanket!"

Kurt glared and stared back down at Blaine's slumbering form, his ex's mouth slightly open as he breathed in shakily. "I just want him to get better. I hate that he's like this."

"You still love him."

"I think I always will. I hate what he did. I hate what happened and for a while, I thought I hated him... but I never did; I couldn't. I was so angry though. When he first told me, I thought it was you that he had been with and he kept on saying that the guy he was with wasn't important and that it didn't matter, but it did. Or at least it did to me because I never thought that would happen to us, you know?"

"Hmm, he wouldn't ever budge when I tried to flirt with him. To be honest, I was incredibly shocked when I heard you two broke up because he cheated. Not to say that I imagined you to cheat, Hummel, but Blaine wouldn't even get with me when I tried to get him last year... and I'm hot."

Kurt scoffed and rolled his eyes at Sebastian's never ending brashness, "You're delusional." He ran his fingers over Blaine's strong jawline and sighed, "I wish I could go back in time and fix this."

"Funny you would say that." Sebastian mused sadly, "If you're planning to time travel, you'd probably have to go back a lot farther than the last few months, Kurt. Just sayin'."

Kurt just sat still, not muttering a word. He couldn't... because he knew Sebastian was right.

::

Kurt stayed for a couple of hours before he had to leave; Dalton's visitor policy demanded that non-student overnight visits were only allowed on weekends and since it was only Thursday, Kurt had to go.

He slipped out of Blaine and Sebastian's room and shut the door carefully behind him, his eyes catching a few random boys' as they watched him cautiously. Among the group of staring people included some of Kurt's old Warbler friends, the very same ones who he shut out following Blaine's eye injury despite the fact that some of those very same guys joined him onstage against Sebastian almost a year ago.

"What are you staring at?" He hissed, glaring daggers at Nick and Jeff, who were both standing in their own doorway watching him.

Nick rolled his eyes and grabbed Jeff's arm, tugging him back into their room as he mumbled to himself. Meanwhile, the rest of the watchful group went on their way and left Kurt standing alone, his entire being on edge as he stared down the familiar hallway of the dormitory. Long ago, he had hung out with those very same guys, wearing that same damn uniform, chatting about the most random stuff while he longingly stared at Blaine. Long ago, he was still finding himself, trying to figure out who he was while he was slowly, but surely falling head over heels in love with his best friend.

The very same best friend who was lying in bed on the other side of that door, a broken shell of the boy he used to be.

Kurt wiped away a few tears that gathered at the corner of his eyes and walked on down the hall, his eyes sweeping over the expanse of holiday decorations that filled the way. Blaine and Sebastian's room had been bare when it came to Christmas décor, but it seemed like everyone else on their floor was in the holiday spirit, still beaming from the Warblers' win at Sectionals.

He wondered if New Directions was faring any better.

Shivering, Kurt stepped out of the residential hall and out into the snowy, chilled air. He tightened his coat around his thin form and made his way to his dad's car, hands gripping the thick fabric. He could feel the pull of the coat against his cool fingertips, the way the scratchy fabric felt as his fingernails were pressed tight against it.

Blaine had ruined his fingers doing something just like this, overly gripping his clothing until his skin rubbed away and bled.

God, Blaine was hurting so bad and Kurt couldn't figure out for the life of him how he could ease the pain without making things more complicated. He wanted to help him, wanted Blaine to get the help he deserved, the help he needed... but he wasn't sure how. Sebastian had tried his best as well to get Blaine to talk to someone, but it hadn't worked. Kurt tried to get Blaine to open up a little bit after Blaine's initial collapse into his arms, but by the time they had done their screaming and crying, Blaine was too exhausted (both physically and mentally) to even do anything except rest against Kurt's body and sleep.

And for that, Kurt was slightly grateful. It looked like Blaine hadn't slept properly in weeks.

He was thinner, his skin paler, making the dark circles beneath his eyes stand out just a little more. However, to a random person, someone who didn't know Blaine that well, they'd probably think he was just fine. But Kurt, on the other hand, knew Blaine much better than that. He knew what Blaine's normal, healthy skintone was like. He knew what Blaine felt like beneath his fingers, the way his muscles felt underneath his palms, the way Blaine was tiny, yet so fit. Kurt knew and he knew that Blaine was struggling... and he was going to help him.

Sliding into the car, Kurt pulled his cellphone from his pocket and texted Sebastian, waiting patiently in the parking lot as the car warmed up.

To Sebastian:
Promise me you'll watch over him tonight. I'll be back tomorrow as soon as I can get here.

From Sebastian:
I told you I'd watch him. Calm down. I'll keep an eye on him.

Kurt tossed his phone into the passenger seat, his thoughts only on Blaine as he made the trek back to Lima. His mind raced over the things he witnessed that afternoon, as well as over the story Sebastian had told him.

But most of all, his stomach ached over the last thing Sebastian had said to him as he was pulling the blankets over Blaine's sleeping form.

"I think what scared me the most that day was how weird it felt that he was so quiet. I knew he was feeling bad and I knew something was up, but that day when I got back from practice and got that text and found out he was still in the shower, I knew something was wrong and it was like I was hearing about Dave Karofsky all over again. And I- I don't want that to happen to Blaine. I don't want Blaine to do what Dave did, you know? Not if I can try to stop him... or help him.

I just want Blaine to get better."

He wasn't the only one.

A/N: I hope this chapter was okay. Let me know what you thought! Also, thanks for all your reviews and support. I really appreciate it!