I was just so depressed that my last chapter didn't get very many (A.K.A. only 1) comments that I couldn't write the next chapter. Actually, I was just lazy and had school work and stuff. I finished this a while ago but had no computer access (as I said on my most recent oneshot- you should read them I hear they are good. I would like to hear that from more people though, if they would be so kind as to leave a review). I am sorry it's late but hopefully it is sufficiently long/good enough to merit the wait. I would like confirmation of denial on whether it is good enough in the form of little things called

REVIEWS

if you all would be so kind as to write some for me. I like them.

Anyway... back to the story. Please enjoy.

Kurt looked at the doorway in alarm. The door was cracked open, not shut like he had thought, and someone had clearly been listening to his and Blaine's conversation. Well… it was more of a one-sided thing on his part than a conversation, but still.

That someone had just let out a frightened sob that Kurt immediately recognized, having heard its brethren multiple times before. Luce was the only one who could have made that sound, and he was the last person Kurt wanted to have listened in on the story he just told. Kurt was glad Luce hadn't killed him for telling another person about his problem yet, but he was freaking out, and that was possibly even scarier than him being angry. Actually, the time Kurt had seen him angry had ended in him freaking out and breaking down and crying, so maybe Kurt had just skipped a step?

Either way, Kurt knew he had to do something quickly before Luce ran away somewhere or locked himself in his room blaring Tokio Hotel or something similar. He commented, "Crap!" to no one in particular, though Blaine was probably the only one who heard as Luce was rather occupied by crying.

Kurt swiftly opened the door. Sure enough, Luce was curled up with his arms around his legs hugging them close to his body as he buried his face in them, trembling. As soon as he picked up his head a little and saw Kurt, he looked as though he was about to bolt down the hallway. Kurt dragged him inside Blaine's room, a little unintentionally roughly, and sat him down on Blaine's bed. Blaine was all but invisible to him as he wrapped his arms tightly around Luce.

"He's going to kill me now, isn't he?" Luce asked in a quivering, irrational voice without looking at Kurt.

"No he is not. I won't let him. I did this so he could never touch you again," Kurt could feel Luce relaxing in his arms at his words. He only needed him calm so he could explain to him what he wanted him to do. Luce looked up at him, eyes still fearful but at least lucid. Tear tracks ran down his face and drops of water were still slipping past his lower eyelashes onto Kurt's blazer which was already covered in blood.

"Your face," Luce said almost mournfully, as he reached out to gently touch Kurt's bruised eyes and swollen nose, "I can't believe you would… For me…"

Kurt had an idea to play on this guilt- anything to get Luce to talk, "Yes I did this for you, but it will all have been for nothing if you don't tell anyone what he does to you. Children who have been abused are more likely to abuse their own children, so it's likely your grandfather abused your father when he was younger. I will not let you return to the house with your mother who did nothing to help you and that man, who will probably be furious that his son was sent to jail," Kurt cringed a little inwardly, half-expecting Luce to be taken over by fear again as he said this. His friend seemed to have strengthened his resolve, though, and he barely even flinched.

"I assure you he will go to jail- I'll make Blaine here hire me the best lawyer possible if I have to, to make that happen," Kurt sent a little wink at the useless-feeling Blaine standing off to the side, unsure of what to do. He had no idea how much faster this made Blaine's heart beat, even done with a broken nose.

"Do you have anyone who you would want to take custody of you?" He asked Luce in a quiet voice.

"My aunt!" he replied, brightening a little, "She's really smart and cool and she tried to stop my dad once, but then he…" Luce's sudden brightness shrunk visibly,"… he hit her."

"Well, we'll see what we can do. Are you going to come with me when I talk to the police and tell them what your father has been doing?"

Luce steeled his jaw in determination before replying, "Yes," in a voice that didn't shake at all.

Kurt heard siren noises in the distance.

Blaine was caught up staring at Kurt and not sure what he should be doing. He felt very out of place in Kurt and Luce's moment they appeared to be having. He just stood there wondering how many more enchanting, lovable sides Kurt could show him.

First had been an adorable nervousness, the day he had come to spy on the Warblers. That same day had shown Blaine Kurt's breathtaking smile, and also his heartrending tearful face, which was exquisite as well. He had seen so many faces since then, since Kurt had moved to Dalton. He kept his eyes on Kurt as much as possible without the other boy noticing, ever since he had first met him.

He knew the little nuances of Kurt's behavior- the way he bit his lower lip when he was thinking or the way he pouted just a little when someone didn't agree with him. He bit his mechanical pencils when he was having a bad day, and ran his hand through his hair when he was excited, messing up his attempts at perfectly pristine locks that he worked towards each morning.

He had seen Kurt sad, confused, nervous, happy, terrified, overcome, and just about every other emotion he had heard of. Blaine knew more about the boy's actions than almost anyone else, yet he failed to see the reasoning behind those actions and misunderstood things that should have been clear to him. Rose tinted vision drastically warped the things Blaine saw through it.

And though he had watched Kurt for so long and thought he knew all of his expressions, Kurt kept surprising Blaine. Just today, he had seen three new sides to the person he loved that he had completely not expected. The manic-excited, determined look Kurt had shown him for the first time this morning had scared him, but had led to two of the most beautiful faces Blaine had seen yet.

While not outwardly beautiful, quite the opposite, the strong loyalty and willingness to sacrifice himself for his friends had struck Blaine harder than Cupid's arrow had the moment he saw Kurt's awful spying attempt. Now, however, was and even lovelier face. The strong caring and devotion in Kurt's eyes and his tenderness towards the boy he was hugging reminded Blaine of a father. Not that he had ever experienced his own father's arms around him in that manner- Blaine's family wasn't a touchy- feely one. Still, he was almost jealous of the children Kurt might adopt or use a surrogate to have in the future, as much as he was jealous of Luce right now. Kurt was so caring that he would be a wonderful father.

Oh to be wrapped in those arms, Blaine daydreamed before Kurt startled him by the mention of his name. He nodded, eager to appease after the floating feeling the daydream had left him with. He wasn't sure what he had just agreed to, but in the mood he was in he would gladly do it. The wink that went along with it made his heart speed up to at least five times its normal rate and had a smattering of pink, hopefully unnoticed by the otherwise occupied Kurt, spreading across his cheeks.

Luce had just agreed to tell the police about the horrible- Blaine ground his teeth together in anger – thing that had been done to him, when the first hint of sirens could be heard in the distance. Kurt got that slightly crazy look in his eyes again, phase two of his mission was about to commence, and dragged both Blaine and Kurt downstairs and outside.

Luce was incredibly nervous. He knew he was lucky school was still in session and the teachers wouldn't let their children leave their classes just to see what the siren was about, but there were a few people looking out the windows of their dorm rooms and the students that had classes at the front of the school were looking out those windows as well. He felt sort of like a bug under a microscope as the police began their questioning.

Kurt, on the other hand, oozed confidence even with the crowd. If he was nervous or scared or anything else included in the muddle of emotions Luce was feeling at the moment, he didn't show it.

Luce tried to absorb some of the confidence, and stood a little straighter.

Kurt adopted a teary face. It wasn't that he was acting; it was more like he was calling on emotions he had repressed earlier. The talk with the police had cumulated in Luce's father being taken away in handcuffs. The news crew arrived just in time to film it.

The news crew also talked to both Kurt and Luce about what happened. It went wonderfully, Kurt's only regret being that he had to make his first television appearance in such hideous condition.

Blaine drove him and Luce to the nearest doctor's office, where his broken nose was treated and Luce's bruises and scars were looked at. He was overjoyed at the news that his nose would definitely heal straight.

They returned to the dorm and their respective rooms, where Kurt finally got to change out of his blood-splattered blazer (He would send it to the dry cleaners tomorrow) and put on something more fashionable and comfortable.

Yes, the mission was going wonderfully. At least he thought it was. Kurt was about to settle down and relax with his nightly skin care routine when he spotted his phone, buzzing rapidly with calls and texts, and discovered an unexpected hindrance in his plan.

Burt Hummel was sitting close to Carole on the couch in their living room while Finn sat on his dad's old chair fiddling with his iPod and not paying attention.

They were watching the news. Well, Carole was while Burt waited anxiously to change the channel, afraid that he would miss a game he wanted to see. He zoned out for several minutes until Carole gasped beside him and tugged at his arm. Finn looked up at his mother's outburst as well.

It took Burt a second to make sense of what he was seeing. Was a famous person Carole liked on the news or something? But no, it looked like an injured person.

The navy, red-trimmed jackets of the two boys looked surprisingly familiar, as did the face of one, but the actual identities didn't register. Mostly because that couldn't possibly be his son on the news with a big black eye, holding hands with the boy who reluctantly lifted up the edge of his shirt to display fading bruises and cuts together with scars. It couldn't be his son, who was at a private school with a zero-tolerance policy against harassment. It only finally registered when the reporter introduced the two as Kurt Hummel and Lucian Dalton.

He finally realized it was indeed his son and he paid immediate attention to the news as he never had before to find out why he had blood and bruises all over his face and was now on the news. He didn't even wait until the part where the reporter asked if the two boys were boyfriends before storming out of the room to make two calls- a concerned one to his son and a livid one to the school he was attending.

Blaine watched the questioning and the interview with increasing discomfort. It was supposed to be gone by now, he wasn't supposed to feel this. Kurt's explanation had made it obvious, as obvious as it had been before his jealous mind twisted certain situations around, that he and Lucian were just friends.

So why did he feel anger at the sight of their linked hands? Was it because he hadn't held Kurt's hand since that first day when he came to spy on the Warblers, yet Lucian was able to freely? Was it because he felt that Lucian was closer to Kurt in just days than Blaine had gotten in the months since he met the beautiful, glasz-eyed boy? Was it because he thought he would be trapped in the role of mentor and aid forever, without the options of lover or even friend? He didn't know but he still felt it despite his best efforts at burying the fury in his heart.

His teeth and stomach clenched when the reporter asked if Kurt and Lucian were boyfriends and said that they would make a cute couple. He wasn't relieved in the least when Kurt answered "No" because it was immediately followed by a "because we both like other people."

Who? The word filled his mind. The small part of it that wasn't filled with the echoing question ran through lists of people it could be, all more handsome and jock-like than he was, while his heart was busy being depressed at its ever-lowering chances of happiness. The only thing that could make it happy was Kurt.

It filled his mind all through the trip to the hospital and back, and continued after he left Kurt and Luce to go their own respective ways.

He shut himself in his room, once again despising his own weakness; despising the control his emotions had over him.

Dave Karofsky was sitting in his small living room his parents. His dad hadn't truly looked at him for months since that day in the office when he was expelled. His mother was more in approval of his actions- she hated homos more than he pretended he did.

His mother was in the other room commenting loudly on how the boys on the TV were disgusting and deserved to be hit for being gay when Dave walked in to put his plate in the sink. He started at the sight on the screen- it was Kurt, covered in blood and holding hands with a boy he didn't know. He stayed in the kitchen to hear the rest of the story.

His lips tingled as he remembered the kiss. He wanted to do it even more now that he had once, and just the sight of Kurt even with his face like that made his breathing heavier.

As he listened to the TV, he was filled with remorse. He was the one who had driven Kurt out of McKinley, him and no one else. He was the reason Kurt was at that school and therefore the reason he was in that state.

He wanted to be the one that Kurt loved and cherished, but he also wanted the comfort of his home and his mother. He knew that he couldn't have both, and chose to twist his feelings into a form of homophobia and hurt the one he loved instead of caring for him. It had been a challenge back then, but the other people's attitudes at school had made him chose that way. After seeing this, he wondered if it would have been better to go with the other option.

But… Kurt said that he wasn't his type. It would have been hopeless for David anyway. He tuned out his mother's homophobic ranting and buried his concern as he walked back into the other room.

Dad

Mercedes

Finn

Dad

Quinn

Dad

Rachel

Dad

Dad

Mercedes

Puck

Sam

Dad

Mr. Schue

Dad

The list of callers went on and on. He didn't even want to look at the number of texts- his inbox had filled a while ago and he would get the others, however many they might be, later after he had deleted the first batch.

He was about to call his father back when the room suddenly spun. His injury and exhaustion were taking their toll. He just about passed out on the bed without even pulling the covers down, much less calling someone.

The next weeks passed in a fast-paced blaze of court trips- Kurt was a witness for the arrest of Luce's father. The Dean, now the ex-Dean, was put in jail for a significant amount of time, though Kurt suspected it would have been longer if money hadn't changed hands somewhere in the system.

Luce was put in the care of his aunt who also took over the position of Dean, putting her PhD in education to good use, and looked happier than ever. Kurt realized the other smiles Luce had given him were just a little fake, and that his real smile was even more charming than all his others (Much like Kurt's own, though he didn't realize it). He was slightly suspicious of the aunt even though Luce adored her, but when he saw the genuine love in her eyes as she looked at him, his worries vanished.

He was also busy calling back all of the concerned people who had called him that night when he fell asleep. Many of them actually came to visit, with varying degrees of worry on their faces.

His dad had been the worst- once he heard that Kurt had planned to get punched, he drove right over and proceeded to berate Kurt in person, over the phone not being enough. On the upside, Burt was quite taken by Luce and invited him to the Hudson-Hummel household anytime. Kurt was not sure Luce would take him up on this offer, though, seeing as how he had just witnessed him yelling at Kurt for half an hour at the top of his lungs, but was happy his dad liked his friend.

All through the halls of Dalton, the people who had previously ignored him now all wanted to talk to him. The story of how he had confronted the old Dean had gotten around to even those without TVs in their rooms and apparently he was somewhat of a hero. Which made it significantly harder for him to get to classes on time and pay attention once he was there. Luckily, the teachers had the same mentality as the students about the whole situation and cut him quite a bit of slack, though the homework was still overwhelming.

The next thing he knew, it was February.