Blaine had spent the last hour staring at his boyfriend's profile. It was easy to pretend from this position that Kurt's face wasn't marred by an angry bruise under his other eye. Blaine could try to imagine that they were just waking up together like any number of times they had fallen asleep; however, try as he might he couldn't shake the knowledge that his boyfriend had been damaged, both physically and emotionally by some cowardly prick.

The very thought made his blood boil and try as he might to relax and doze with Kurt until he woke, sleep had eluded him.

Kurt had moved very little in the time since he drifted off to sleep. The grip on Blaine's hand hadn't eased any but his overall body had relaxed and his breathing gentled.

Watching Kurt's face Blaine could make out the tracks left by the tears that had flowed so persistently only a short time ago; he could see the glistening of his damp eye lashes as they lay thickly against his pale cheeks as he slept and regardless of the bruise that he knew was there he marvelled at how beautiful his boyfriend truly was.

Gently pulling his hand from Kurt's; Blaine rolled smoothly to the side of the bed and slipped his feet out from the comforter and onto the floor, slowly standing he turned and pulled the comforter back across the sleeping figure. Unable to resist, he gently pushed the hair back off of Kurt's forehead and ghosted a kiss across his warm skin.

Straightening he placed both hands against the small of his back and stretched, groaning quietly as his muscles protested. Padding almost silently across to his bathroom Blaine switched on the light and closed the door with a click.

Kurt watched Blaine from under lowered lashes, he watched the muscles in Blaine's arms flex as he stretched and he watched as he disappeared into his bathroom. Tentatively Kurt allowed his eyes to open fully and take in his surroundings. Yep, he was in Blaine's room, nothing new there they practically lived in each other's rooms anyway. Cursing he realised that he was still in his clothes, one of Kurt's pet peeves was not changing before sleep and although this had been an impromptu rest he shuddered at the very thought of the creases that would be strewn across his shirt by now. Realisation caught up quickly however when he remembered how he came to be there in the first place, remembering that his jeans were surely ripped across the knee he groaned loudly into the pillow, wincing as his hand caught against the fabric below.

Sitting up and swinging his legs out of the bed Kurt studied his hands where they fell on his lap; they were grazed and hellishly sore, small streaks of blood crossed his pale palms and tiny beads of grit were still imbedded into the skin. Turning them in assessment he confirmed his earlier thoughts in relation to his ripped jeans as he noticed several white threads sticking up from the material under his hands, they were indeed torn across the knee in several places; there would be no saving them.

"Babe" came a gentle prompt from across the room, "are you okay?"

Turning his head Kurt gazed into the concerned honey eyes of his boyfriend.

"Yeah" he whispered in response looking back to his hands.

Blaine moved quietly across the room coming to a stop before his boyfriend, kneeling down he looked up into Kurt's clear blue eyes and took both of his hands gently in his own.

"Blaine... I..." started Kurt.

"Let's get you cleaned up a bit shall we" Blaine said gently looking over Kurt's hands with concern.

"Blaine..."

"Kurt, it doesn't matter okay" Blaine sighed, "let's just get you cleaned up yeah?"

"Blaine, it does matter" whispered Kurt, "I'm so sorry" tears spilling down his cheeks again, "I'm sorry for not being strong enough, I'm sorry for not coming to you first and I'm sorry that you had to find out the way you did, I'm so, so sorry" he sobbed.

"Hey, now, stop that" gasped Blaine cupping Kurt's face with both hands and wiping the tears away with the pads of his thumbs as he stared into Kurt's watery eyes.

"You have nothing to apologise for, do you hear me? Nothing."

"Not even telling Jeff what happened before I told you?" sniffed Kurt meekly meeting Blaine's eyes.

"Well maybe that" smiled Blaine, all notions of resentment gone in the face of his tear stained boyfriend, "but you can make that up to me later if you feel really bad about it" he pouted with his puppy dog eyes.

Laughing through a sob Kurt looked lovingly into his boyfriends eyes, his hand reaching up to grasp Blaine's wrist softly.

Closing his eyes he leaned into Blaine's hand and sighed briefly in contentment.

"Look let's get you sorted out and then you can tell me or not, whatever you want."

"Okay" Kurt nodded and smiled.

Perched on the side of Blaine's tub Kurt timidly dipped his hands into the warm water that Blaine had run into the sink, grimacing as the water met the scratches he screwed up his eyes and concentrated on breathing.

The feeling of his hand being gently taken from the water made Kurt open his eyes and stare at his boyfriend who was tenderly dousing his palm with cupfuls of the water, allowing it to run over the scratches and wash away the grit. No words were said but the affection was almost overwhelming for Kurt as he watched Blaine methodically tend to his wound. Once clean, Blaine carefully patted Kurt's hands dry and applied an antiseptic cream gently to them, feeling the sting Kurt took a sharp intake of breath and met his eyes with Blaine's who had snapped up to meet his in concern.

"Thank you."

Blaine smiled in return and led Kurt back out into the main room and back to the bed.

Scooting back towards the headboard he gestured for Kurt to join him. Snuggling beside his boyfriend Kurt rested his head against Blaine's chest and snaked his arm around his waist, pulling himself closer. In turn, Blaine stretched his arm around Kurt's shoulder, pulling him closer and placing a soft kiss to the top of his head as he simultaneously inhaled the scent of his hair.

After several hushed minutes with nothing but the sound of their breathing Kurt broke the silence.

"So, Jeff told you?"

"Kurt, don't be made at Jeff" said Blaine, "He really didn't have much choice in the matter, we kind of made it impossible for him not to tell us" he added.

"I'm not mad."

Blaine stoked Kurt's arm reassuringly waiting for him to continue. After several more silent minutes Kurt began again.

"So, I went to the mall to meet Mercedes" Kurt spoke into Blaine's chest, "but she cancelled."

"Okay"

"Yeah, so I went back to the car and that's where he was" breathed Kurt, "he said I shouldn't have come back and he grabbed my wrist and dragged me beind the car and just went to work" he said matter of factly.

"It's really no worse than he's done before" added Kurt in a flat voice, "so please don't worry."

"Don't worry, are you kidding me right now?" asked Blaine incredulously tilting his head to look at Kurt's face, "Seriously, Kurt, you're asking me to not worry."

"Blaine" Kurt sighed, "at the end of the day it's just a black eye and a few bruises, they'll fade just like all the others, it's just something that happens every now and again."

"I'll kill him" Blaine stated, his voice cold and devoid of emotion.

"Blaine" warned Kurt twisting his face up to look at his boyfriend.

"No, Kurt. Just no. I swear to god if I see him I will fuck him up."

"That's not what I want" whispered Kurt.

"How is that even possible" questioned Blaine, "how can you not want bad things to happen to him babe, he deserves everything that's coming to him and more and I hope to god that I'm there to see it happen."

"It won't make it right" Kurt mumbled.

"I know babe" Blaine sighed relaxing again, "I just hate to see you like this, how dare he put his hands on you. How dare he mark you, frighten you."

"I know sweetheart but can we just forget it now. Please?" Kurt asked.

"Well, what about your car Kurt do you want to forget about that too?" questioned Blaine in a stronger tone, "You saw what happened to it and don't tell me it didn't terrify you because both Wes and David will tell you different."

Kurt was silent but tensed immediately. He had almost forgotten about the car, forgotten the complete feeling of dread that had engulfed him when he realised what was scratched in the paintwork and what damage had been done to the tyres. Snapping back into reality Kurt felt Blaine's arm tighten around his shoulder again.

"Look Kurt, I'm sorry, I know you probably don't want to talk about this but this is serious. Dave came onto school grounds, Kurt, if he can do that he can do anything, we have to tell someone."

"No" Kurt stated.

"What?"

"I said no" said Kurt straightening up, "we don't even know if it was him."

"Oh, come on Kurt" said Blaine also straightening up, his hand dropping from Kurt's shoulder to the bed, "Of course it was him, who else would it be? He beat you up and then came here and trashed your car, why can't you accept that."

"You don't know it was him" babbled Kurt, scrabbling to get off the bed, "you don't know, you don't know".

"Hey, hey, babe calm down" Blaine pleaded crawling after Kurt and grabbing his wrist as he attempted to get off the bed.

Kurt yelped pulling his hand protectively against his chest.

"Oh, god Kurt I'm so sorry" said Blaine quickly recoiling his hand and watching his shaking boyfriend, "are you okay?" he asked nervously.

"I can't believe it was him" Kurt replied almost silently speaking to the comforter.

"What's that?" asked Blaine crawling slowly toward him trying to gain eye contact.

"I won't believe it was him" Kurt repeated.

"Why?"

"Because if I believe its him then I have to realise that I'm not safe here and if it's not safe here Blaine then where am I safe, huh? Where could I possibly go where he can't touch me? I feel like he haunts me. I can't go home because he finds me and if I believe he was here then I'll never feel safe again, this is my happy place Blaine, this is you and me, this is somewhere he couldn't touch me and you want me to believe he was here, that he did that to my car. Well I'm sorry but I can't, I won't."

"Kurt, I'm sorry, I understand really I do but you know it was him, you know he was here and who else would it be? You have to accept it. I know you don't want to but you do."

"No" Kurt replied shaking his head wrapping his arms tightly around his waist, "It wasn't him, it wasn't."

"Well Kurt, it was someone" interjected Blaine harshly throwing his hands in the air, "regardless of whether you accept it was Dave or not, someone did that to your car and someone wrote those words. Someone came into your happy place, our place, and violated it and we have to do something."

Large tears dripped from Kurt's chin as he tilted his head to meet Blaine's blazing glare which immediately softened at the sight of his boyfriend's watery eyes.

"I'm so scared" he whispered.

"Oh baby I know" breathed Blaine wrapping Kurt in a strong embrace and bringing him down to lie beside him again, "but I promise you, he will never get close to you again" he whispered into Kurt's hair as he place a kiss to the top of his head.

"You can't promise me that" Kurt replied quietly.

"Kurt. I do. I promise you, right here, right now, that he WILL NEVER touch you again. Do you understand baby, never."

Kurt tightened his hold on Blaine and pulled him closer, he knew it was a promise Blaine couldn't keep but for now he was happy to accept the reassurance and feeling of comfort Blaine's words offered.