A/N: I know this is super short. Writing on the original, much longer, chapter thirteen – which is now chapter fourteen and hopefully very soon finished and to come – I realized it feels so right to publish this part separately, yes this short, really, because I think it is a really important point for Kurt and Blaine in this story and it is just this really amazing moment between them, to me, which I want to stand on its own. Hope you agree and love.
Tears Stained
Chapter Thirteen: Catching Up To Do
Kurt's whole expression had gone alert with fear as his eyes had kept darting back and forth between Carole and Burt, begging for … he himself had not known what.
The last time Burt remembers having seen this look on his boy's face had been when … 'I had given him the sex talk,' Burt thinks shaking his head, a smile playing on his lips as the two boys in the hospital bed continue to sleep, molded into each other's warmth completely.
This morning, sitting back down next to Kurt, who had had his eyes pinned firmly to the table before him, Blaine had, at first, only allowed their sides to touch tenderly, trying to avoid startling his boyfriend any further slipping back into the booth right next to him.
After a moment more had passed, cupping Kurt's left cheek gently – knowing Kurt hardly ever can resist leaning into the touch so loving, so openly encouraging, much more than questioning – Blaine had carefully coaxed Kurt into looking over, right at him.
And then Blaine had seen it all … clear for the first time since the attack, all Kurt had been feeling, fighting, for days now – the pain, the fear, the dread and desperation, all Kurt had fought to hold back, hold in, away from Blaine, not to deceive him in any way but to help, in the hope of helping '…me' somehow.
And Blaine lightly shaking his head had said, "Kurt, this is about both of us. This is us, not me or you, … us."
"I'm so sorry," Kurt had choked out, "I did'nt try to hide anything from you, I just, I didn't want you to worry more than you already do. Especially not today. There's enough happening already. I wanted you not to hurt more. I don't want you to hurt."
With the last sentence tears of utter exhaustion had begun to run over Kurt's still moving lips, settling into a, to Blaine, heartbreaking tremble.
Blaine's hand, without hesitation, had wandered from cheek to lips and, thumb tracing Kurt's lips, had brushed the tears away softly. "No, I know. What do you think why I threw myself in front of you, Kurt."
Blaine's lips gently brushing against Kurt's had a moment later offered comfort, taken, eased away, the last sting of salt, and replaced it with the sweet taste of cinnamon and sugar still clinging to Blaine's lips.