Kurt was avoiding him. That was the only conclusion that Blaine could come to. After Kurt had gone into the music room, they'd spent a while messing around with the keyboard and piano, Kurt stating that he'd never missed a lesson as a child, and Blaine had even played him some guitar. They practiced their duet again, Kurt's voice sounding as beautiful as always, but there was something off about him. Then Kurt had left and had avoided Blaine ever since. He had busied himself with work in English, avoided eye contact with Blaine in history, turned up late to glee so Blaine couldn't talk to him and ignored the texts Blaine had sent him asking if he was okay. It was the exact thing that Blaine hadn't wanted to happen.

When Monday came around again, Blaine decided he had to talk to Kurt. Sure they hadn't even been friends for a week, but Blaine worried about Kurt. His theories of what was wrong were playing on his mind and he hated it. The situation seemed so familiar to him and he worried that if he didn't help soon, it would be too late.

He got to English, determined that he would talk to Kurt. He sat down at his desk, books, paper and pen ready so that he didn't have to go through his bag and waste any time that he might have talking to Kurt. And then he waited. He waited as other students piled into the classroom. He waited as the teacher entered. He waited as the lesson began. He waited and waited, but Kurt didn't show. Blaine groaned in frustration when the bell went, signalling the end of the class. That meant he wasn't going to get to talk to Kurt that lesson. That also meant the only time he knew he'd see Kurt, if Kurt was at school, was during glee and that wasn't until the very end of the day.

At lunch, Blaine's worries were building up, so he decided to call Kurt. He had to know that he was okay. The first time he rang, Kurt didn't answer, but the second time he picked up after a few rings.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Kurt? Hi! Where are you?"

"I'm at home, Blaine. Why?"

"I was just worried when you didn't show up to lesson. Why are you at home?"

"Oh, I'm sick. And you don't have to worry about me. I'm fine, honestly," Kurt assured him.

"Well, can I come see you after school?" Blaine asked.

"N-no, I'm fine. I don't want you to catch anything. Honestly, don't worry about me," Kurt quickly excused.

"I'll be fine. Anyway, I need to give you some notes from English. We got a lot of information and I wouldn't want you to miss it. I've already photocopied my notes for you," said Blaine. "And there's no point in going to glee because Mr Schue said we're just practicing our duets and I can hardly practice without you, can I?"

"I, erm, I guess you're right. Erm, come after school then. My dad will be home so he'll let you in. I'll text you my address," Kurt said.

"Okay. I'll see you after school then," Blaine said, grinning even though he knew Kurt couldn't see him.

"Bye, Blaine," said Kurt before hanging up. Blaine continued to grin to himself. He was going to get to talk to Kurt. Finally, after worrying for so long about him. He knew sooner or later he'd have to confront Kurt and he thought maybe sooner was a safer bet.

Blaine was practically buzzing as he reached Kurt's address. He clutched his bag tightly on his shoulder, locked his car and hopped up the steps to the front door. He pressed the bell and began tapping his finger against his leg in anticipation. A few moments passed by and the door swung open revealing a man in a baseball cap. He wasn't much taller than Blaine, but he was broader and he had an air of protection about him.

"You Blaine?" he asked and Blaine nodded.

"Yes. Mr Hummel, I assume?" Blaine asked in reply.

"That's me, kid, but call me Burt," Burt said, a smile tweaking his lips.

"It's good to meet you, Burt," said Blaine.

"You too, kid. Kurt's in his room, downstairs," Burt said, pointing to the door leading to the basement and stepping out of the way for Blaine to get by. Blaine stepped in, toeing off his shoe and smiling at Burt in thanks before heading to the door he was directed to. He rapped three times and, once Kurt had invited him in, he opened the door and stepped down the stairs.

Kurt wasn't facing Blaine as he entered. He was sat at his desk, tapping away at his laptop. Blaine took the opportunity to look around Kurt's room. It was very white; white floors, white walls, white sofa, white hanging chair, white Egyptian cotton sheets. It was bright, especially for a basement room, and extremely stylish. It was definitely what he'd imagined Kurt's room would be like. He turned his attention back on Kurt who still hadn't turned. He assumed that Kurt hadn't noticed him entering so he cleared his throat lightly. Kurt still didn't turn around but he did mutter, "Blaine?"

"Yeah, it's me," Blaine answered, stepping down the final few steps. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Kurt said. Blaine cocked his head in confusion as Kurt didn't turn, just slammed down the lid to his laptop.

"Are you sure? Do you not want to see me or something?"

"No ... i-it's not that. J-just don't freak okay? I can e-explain," Kurt stammered. Blaine narrowed his eyes, feeling more confused. Until Kurt turned around.

"K-Kurt," was all Blaine could utter, rushing to Kurt's side to get a closer look. Kurt looked different. His hair wasn't style and strands fell over his forehead and the top of his eyebrows. He was dressed in what appeared to be lounge clothes, an over sized grey shirt and leggings. His face and skin was flawless as always. Well, flawless with the exception of his right eye. His right eye which was black and swollen.

"I know, it's horrible. I was going to cover it with concealer, but the swelling was awful this morning and I've been laying with a cool rag on it all day to get it to go down so that I can go into school tomorrow," Kurt said, his eyes focusing on his lap.

"What happened?" asked Blaine, dreading the answer.

"Oh, it was a complete accident. Alex threw my phone to me last night and I have terrible coordination so I didn't catch it in time and it hit me," Kurt explained. For good measure, he repeated, "Complete accident."

Blaine narrowed his eyes at Kurt. "An accident? That's had to be a hard throw to have that effect. You couldn't get an injury like that with just a gentle toss," he argued.

"H-he was kind of angry and threw it quite hard, but he d-didn't mean to hit m-me. Honestly. He wouldn't stop apologising, even though it wasn't really his fault" Kurt insisted.

"Kurt. You know you can tell me the truth," said Blaine, resting a hand on Kurt's shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

"I am," Kurt whispered, still not meeting Blaine's eye.

"If you can tell me the truth then tell me why you've been avoiding me all week," Blaine requested.

"I haven't," said Kurt, determinedly.

"Yes, you have Kurt. We haven't spoken since you left mine. We seemed to be getting on so well. What did I do wrong?"

"No, you didn't do anything wrong, I promise," Kurt insisted, finally meeting Blaine's eye. "Really, you've done nothing. Would it be cheesy to say 'it's not you, it's me?'"

"That would be extremely cheesy," Blaine chuckled. He sighed and pressed his lips together tightly before saying, "Please talk to me Kurt. Tell me what's wrong. I've worried about you."

"I'm honestly fine. I've just needed a bit of time to myself recently," Kurt excused.

"Well, can you promise me something?"

"What?"

"Can you promise me that if you need anyone or anything, anything at all, you'll come to me? No matter how little or silly or embarrassing. I hate that I've not spoken to you in ages and I hate the thought of you being worried or embarrassed about telling me things. I know you probably have a lot of people you can go to, but if you feel like you don't then come to me. Okay?"

Kurt contemplated his proposition, biting his lip delicately, before giving a nervous nod. "Okay," he whispered.

"Promise?" asked Blaine.

"Promise," Kurt confirmed.

"Great. Now, what do you say we give our duet one last practice before I go home?" Blaine suggested. Kurt smiled and nodded again and went to find his lyrics sheet. Blaine wanted Kurt to trust him, so he didn't want to push him into talking about things he didn't want to talk about, but he still wanted to help Kurt. The rest of the night, he couldn't take his gaze of Kurt's bruised eye.