Notes: I wasn't going to add anything to this chapter but HUGE THANK YOU to pinefir on AO3 for making a fanmix for Book One! I am so so unbelievably thrilled and I've been freaking out to my best friend and my sister about it. If you want to listen to it (and you SHOULD, because it's SO RUTTING WONDERFUL), the link is on my profile.
third interlude
Blaine hurt.
That hadn't happened in a while, actual, physical pain. It lingered in his joints, his muscles, his tendons and ligaments. It lingered so that even his bones ached.
Was Kurt okay? He had been fine the last time Blaine saw him (which had been . . . it had been . . . how long?), energy and strength as impressive and wonderful as usual, even as he comforted and cuddled with Blaine himself who had been lethargic and weak.
He was still like that now. Lethargic. Weak. Pathetic.
Blaine Anderson, you're pathetic. Can't even wake up from a coma.
No.
So pathetic. Kurt's too good for you. That's why he left.
Kurt hadn't wanted to leave. Kurt would be back. Kurt had promised him, and when they'd been parted before he'd looked so scared. And there was mutual attraction, wasn't there? Blaine hadn't had a lot of practice at flirting and he'd never been anyone's boyfriend and he'd never even gone on a date but they'd talked about it, hadn't they? What they would be if they were in the real world?
Maybe he was just humouring you.
No, no, no. No, Kurt wasn't like that. Kurt was the most compassionate person Blaine had ever met. He liked Blaine. He was going to come back for Blaine. He was going to get Blaine out of here.
Wherever here was.
Were his eyes open or closed? It seemed to make no difference. All darkness was the same.
You can't escape from the darkness. Just give in, Blaine Anderson. Stop fighting and give in to the dark.
Except Kurt was coming for him. Blaine just had to wait because soon - one day very soon - Kurt would come back and find Blaine and take him away back to the real world, and then they could be together for real.
How long had he been here already? Had it been hours, days, weeks, months? Kurt wasn't indomitable, and he had his dad's remarriage and moving and Glee and bullying to worry about - how long would it take for him to give up?
How long will it take for him to forget?
Kurt wouldn't forget. Kurt kept a journal, and he'd said Blaine was his best friend. The best best friend he'd ever had. No one could just forget that.
A noise. Or was Blaine just imagining things, finally going mad in the isolation of who-knew-how-long in the absence of light?
No, it was real. Sometimes Blaine realised he was hearing himself cry. Sometimes he might have just been breathing. Sometimes he thought he could hear his heartbeat.
"Kurt?" he breathed out, and his entire being felt heavier from the effort. There was no response. Blaine forced his eyes open. Or did he? There was still only the complete absence of light.
Give in to the dark, Blaine Anderson.
Blaine missed the sun.
Give in to me.