"Babe. Hey babe you in there" shouted Nick as he tried in vain to rouse Jeff from his room. Leaning both hands on the door frame Nick brought his ear to the door in an attempt to hear any kind of noise from the other side.

Nothing.

Sure Jeff was a heavy sleeper but this was crazy. After the games night they had said their goodnights and arranged to meet at eight for breakfast and it was already eight thirty and Nick had seen no sign of his boyfriend.

Unexpectedly the door was pulled open and a definitely slept in Jeff poked his head out.

"Hey" said Jeff, somewhat distractedly. Running a hand through is ruffled hair and blinking his eyes.

"Hey babe" smiled Nick, "sleep in did we. Late night not agree with you?"

"What" spluttered Jeff suddenly looking guilty.

"The games night? You know it did finish kind of later than usual" smiled Nick.

"Oh. Yeah right, the games night" mumbled Jeff somewhat vaguely.

"You gonna let me in then babe?" grinned Nick as he placed his hand on Jeff's cheek. "I can help you get ready..." he winked, leaning in towards his boyfriend, trying to edge through the door.

"Ah, actually no" said Jeff, glancing over his shoulder and putting his hand on the door frame to bar Nick's progress, whilst discretely shutting the door a little more as he did so. "Why don't you head on down to breakfast and I'll catch you up in a few minutes?" he suggested.

"Oookay then" puzzled Nick. This was not the usual response he received from Jeff during an early morning wake up call. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yep, yep, absolutely fine Hun. Just need to get stuff sorted you know?" Jeff said as he attempted to close his door, "see you in a bit, love you."

And that was that Nick was stood in the corridor, staring at his boyfriend's door, "What the hell just happened" he thought as he set off down the corridor, feeling well and truly dismissed.

Jeff leant against the door and sighed, dropping his head back and closing his eyes. He hadn't exactly forgotten about his and Nick's breakfast date but he'd had precious little sleep and hadn't heard his alarm. In fact until Nick had banged on the door for what must've been at least the second time he hadn't even woken up. Sleep had not come easily for Jeff last night; after getting back to the room Kurt had disappeared into the shower for some time and afterwards hadn't been in much of a mood to talk so Jeff had settled him in his bed and Jeff had taken the couch. Lying awake in the darkness, wrapped in a comforter he had listened to Kurt's eventual even breathing, his mind not wanting to shut down. Thoughts had run around his head and no matter how dark the room or how much he'd tried to force sleep to come he had simply laid there staring into the dimness, wondering why his weekend had suddenly become so complicated.

Shaking his head Jeff glanced towards his bed; Kurt was still sleeping; a feat in itself considering the amount of noise Nick had made. Kurt was curled tightly in his comforter, his usually manicured hair flopping over his face; now that Jeff could see properly, the cut on Kurt's lip appeared to be superficial and his tear stained face was now clean and white again thanks to the late night shower, the bruise on his eye however was definitely visible, as were several bruises on his wrists.

Jeff pushed away from the door and made his way over to the bed; pulling his comforter from the couch he placed it gently over his friend whose only response was to snuffle closer into the pillows he was holding tightly to his face. Smiling gently Jeff watched him for a few seconds before scooping up a change of clothes from his dresser and heading into his bathroom to grab a shower.

Leaning back letting the hot water run down his face he pondered his situation.

One, he had, not in so many words, promised Kurt that he wouldn't tell Blaine about Dave. Two, he had to hide Kurt in his room for the next two days without anyone finding him and three, he now had to keep it from Nick as well. This he considered a major problem. He NEVER lied to Nick. Nick was his everything. Hell he probably already knew something was up from the way he was behaving earlier. Groaning Jeff ran his hands through his hair pushing the water down his back as he did so. Deciding to get breakfast out of the way first he continued quickly with his shower, once dry he stuck his head out of the bathroom and saw that Kurt was still yet to move. Grabbing a pen from his desk he scribbled a quick note and placed it in the corner of his mirror before quietly slipping out of the door and closing it quietly behind him.

Nick and Blaine were sat together in the kitchen area of the dorms; neither had taken much trouble over their breakfast choices, Blaine settling for black coffee and cereal while Nick had only managed the coffee.

"So, what are you up to this weekend seeing as Kurt's not here" asked Nick making small talk.

"Not sure really" spat Blaine through a mouthful of cereal "got to finish an assignment for chem but apart from that not much. What are you & Jeff up to? You wanna hang out or are you gonna be all hot and heavy?" he mocked.

"Yeah, well, not too sure about that" pondered Nick, "Jeff was a little odd this morning."

Blaine raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you know, odder than usual" smiled Nick, "he didn't invite me into his room this morning."

"Perhaps he's realised you're a vampire" smiled Blaine.

"Very funny" grinned Nick as he bumped Blaine's elbow knocking a spoonful of cereal onto the counter as Blaine brought it to his mouth.

With that, said boyfriend came through the doorway and glanced around eyes sparkling as they settled on Nick.

"Hey" he smiled.

"Hey yourself" smiled Nick as he stood and made his way over to Jeff.

"Sorry about earlier" Jeff mumbled into Nick's ear as he pulled him into a tight hug "wasn't really with it you know?

"Sure babe" smiled Nick "No worries, what do you want for breakfast?"

"Ah, nothing much, just gimmie some toast and I'll be set thanks."

It was then that Jeff glanced over Nick's shoulder and noticed Blaine sitting at the counter.

"Hey Jeff" smiled Blaine waving his spoon in Jeff's direction.

"Oh, yeah, hey" Jeff replied somewhat awkwardly, not really able to look him in the eye.

"You okay?" asked Blaine.

"Um, yeah, fine" mumbled Jeff, "You?" he added as an afterthought.

"Good thanks" Blaine replied with a confused frown.

"Great. That's great" stuttered Jeff as he turned to grab some water from the refrigerator.

Nick looked back and forth between them with a puzzled expression.

"Babe, you sure you're alright? Perhaps you should go back to bed. You seem a little, how shall I put it, strange?"

"Yeah, you're probably right, bit tired, need to sleep, probably feel better later" garbled Jeff as he backed towards the door desperate to get out of the room before he gave anything away.

"I'll, ah, just take this up to my room and see you guys a bit later then" he said taking the plate of toast from Nick as he edged out of the room, two bottles of water tucked under his arm.

Nick lowered his hand from where it had been holding the plate as he watched Jeff go somewhat in disbelief.

"Right, well looks like I'm at a lose end for a couple of hours at least if you wanna hang out" Nick said looking towards Blaine who was in turn looking at the doorway that Jeff had just exited.

"Yeah sure" said Blaine rising to place his dishes in the sink "you weren't kidding when you said he was odd this morning were you?"

"Well you know what, he's certainly not dull" smiled Nick.

Kurt woke slowly. He was warm, too warm really but it was strangely comforting. He ached. He knew why, but didn't want to think about it. He tried to stretch but decided against it when his muscles protested too much. Rubbing his eyes he winced as he noticed his wrist. It was definitely bruised. Never mind, he could cover that one easily. He touched his fingers to his eye and flinched slightly as he added pressure, yep, he didn't need to look in a mirror to know that that one was gonna be a little harder to conceal.

Sighing he pushed back the comforters and swung his legs out of bed. Placing his feet on the wooden floor he noticed his pyjamas falling over his feet, clearly too long to be his own. The t-shirt he was wearing was hanging off his shoulder exposing his skin. He pulled it straight and stood; thankfully his ankle appeared to have improved in the few hours he had been sleeping and he padded his way over to Jeff's mirror to evaluate the damage.

Bending down he peered at his face. Yep, his eye was bad. Worse than two days in hiding could conceal. He sighed as he carefully graced the pads of his fingers over the bruise; at least the swelling wasn't too bad. Perhaps he could try make up?

Looking up he saw Jeff's note, "Gone to meet Nick for breakfast, back in a bit, and will bring you something back. We need to talk. J."

Heaving a sigh, Kurt turned to the bathroom, hoping that a long hot shower would make everything go away.