AN: I apologize for the super late update! There were several causes of the delay that I will refrain from going into, but everything should be relatively normal now! You can expect another update by Sunday at the latest. It's a bit late here, so I apologize for any grammatical errors I didn't catch.

This chapter kind of snuck itself in here, so the next chapter will feature the mash up instead of this one. This chapter is a bit shorter than I intended, but the next chapter is ready to go minus some editing- so it might be up even sooner than I think.

Thanks you for all the wonderful reviews, favorites and alerts! You all are wonderful! Again, I'm sorry for keeping everyone waiting.

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.

17. Breakfast apologies

The morning following Kurt's most recent run-in with the jocks happened to be a Saturday and Kurt was glad. It meant that he could sleep in and not have to deal with anyone all day long if he didn't want to. He was sorely tempted to just stay in bed, curled beneath the fluffy warmth of his comforter and pretending he lived in a giant ball of fuzz in which there were no bad guys, no friends with cruel words and no need to move a muscle. It would just be Kurt, and he would just exist and be happy and lazy and anything else he wanted. He would call it Kurt's Land of Blah.

Unfortunately his stomach had different plans and proclaimed that food would be more necessary than sleep. So maybe Kurt would just go grab a box of crackers or something and then just climb back into bed and not wake up until Sunday.

Sadly, it became apparent as soon as he made it down the stairs and began walking toward the kitchen that nothing was going to go to plan today.

It was the fire alarm that was the real indicator. He started to panic because no one was supposed to be in the house. Carole was at work, Finn was supposed to be out with Rachel, and his dad was at the shop. So who the hell was in his house?

He spent a few moments torn about whether to call someone or to just run into the kitchen and put out whatever was causing the alarm.

As he got closer he could hear muffled voices.

"Jesus B! How did you burn the biscuits? There's like no way that should even be possible…"

"Hey! I didn't do anything!"

"What the actual fuck?" Kurt demanded from the doorway, eyebrows knit together, arms tucked self consciously into the folds of the over-sized McKinley Football t-shirt he'd stolen from Finn.

Blaine and Wes were standing in what he would later call the ruins of his kitchen. Blaine was next to the charred remains of a pan of biscuits and had a light dusting of flower covering the front of the checkered apron her was wearing.. It was in his hair and on his clothes and fingers- basically just everywhere. Wes has faired a little bit better because the flour was limited to a few handprint-like shapes on his jeans where he'd tried to rub them clean.

If he weren't so confused it would have been funny.

They were looking at him like naughty kids who'd had their hands caught in the cookie jar..

Okay, so it was actually pretty funny.

He laughed, and really he couldn't help it. They were just standing there looking like deer caught in the proverbial headlights and he had no idea what the hell they were doing here at all, and he thought they were mad at him and weren't they not speaking?

The laughter was almost hysterical as he had to lean against the door-frame to hold himself up. When he finally had it under control, all that remained were small bouts of nervous giggles, and he found that they were looking a bit dumbstruck.

An awkward silence reigned, and they just stared at each other. It almost felt like a staring contest to Kurt- like if he closed his eyes they might disappear. He didn't want that. He really really didn't. He was bone tired and he just wanted them to stop being angry and he wanted to stop being angry and hurt and upset with them because he just needed on thing in his life to be stable right now.

He finally had to blink and was nearly knocked over when he reopened them as he was practically tackled by Blaine.

"I'm sorry, Kurt. I'm sorry, sorry, sorry."

He couldn't see his face, but he was sure it was his least favorite. The one where Blaine looked like a wounded puppy who'd done something wrong and was just hoping you would stay and not abandon him.

Blaine was hugging him tightly, arms fitted around his spine and squeezing tight. Kurt was so shocked that he couldn't force his body to relax, and remained rigid in his arms.

"Wha?" he tried to ask.

"I'm the worst person in the world. I am the scum of the earth, and I should have never said that to you no matter how angry I was."

Kurt swallowed thickly as he felt tears spring to his eyes.

They were here to apologize to him? It blew him away because he had not even considered that they might come to him first.

Blaine eventually pulled away and looked up at Kurt, eyes wide and serious, one lip tucked between his teeth nervously. He shot a look at Wes and saw the other boy leaning up against the counter, also intently watching Kurt.

"I…I think that's a bit extreme. But," he stuttered nervously. "I don't even- … why did you say it? Do you really think that?"

You're no better than those bullies at your school right now.

"No! Oh god, Kurt, of course not. I was just really mad, and I have a problem with lashing out, you know that."

No one said anything for a few seconds following Blaine's admission and he just didn't know what to say. What would have prompted them to come here today after almost five days of absolute silence? And what gave them the right to ruin Kurt's big apology scheme? He had worked hard on it, damn it.

"I don't really know what to say here, guys. I wish it was as simple as saying 'I'm sorry' and moving on to the next stepping-stone. You did say it, and I did lie to you. We all did things that were hurtful to the others, and up until I saw you trying to burn down my kitchen, I was sure that it would be me apologizing and trying to make things work. I don't know what that says about us as friends, or me or how my life has changed- but… all of a sudden I just don't know how to feel."

Blaine's face looked like it was at war with itself- a tired hopefulness working to usurp the annoyance he surely felt at Kurt's dismissal of his heartfelt apology.

"David told us about yesterday," Wes said, speaking finally.

Kurt wasn't sure what to think about this eiher. He hadn't exactly sworn David to secrecy, but perhaps he should have.

"So… what? You felt sorry for me?"

"Stop being an idiot, Kurt," Blaine snapped, and then his shoulders sagged and he deflated again. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that either. He told us what happened and we were terrified, because do you know what the first thing he said was? He just walks right in to our study session and says 'Kurt was in an accident today.' and he just sounded really upset. That was his leading line, and I didn't even stop to think why David would even know that or what it could entail. All I heard was that you were hurt and I was terrified."

Blaine swallowed, and his eyes were trained on Kurt, searching his face for some sort of understanding.

Kurt wanted to reach out to him.

"He clarified, and said you were okay, but it really freaked us out," Wes said, clearing his throat slightly. "I know that we've been grade-A dicks to you since we found out about your spying on us, and I'm sorry. It's one of those things that I just don't know how to explain. I like control, and I hate feeling like something is going wrong and the fact that it was someone I really trust to always have my back… it just hurt. I lashed out too. I'm sorry. When David said that to us, it was just like something clicked. The only thing that mattered was that you were okay, and nothing as stupid as glee club was more important than that."

Kurt felt tears prickling at his eyes, and he furiously tried to swipe them away.

"I'm sorry too. About the spying."

"I'm still not one hundred percent happy about it," Blaine said forlornly, looking down at his hands, "but Wes is right. It doesn't matter. I think we can just move past it, if you're okay with that. Maybe make an agreement not to let glee club come between us."

"I'm in," Wes said, looking over at Kurt with a hopeful smile.

Kurt's head felt a bit fuzzy, but he smiled finally.

"Yeah, okay. I'm okay with that too."

He wasn't sure if things were just supposed to go back to normal now, whatever normal was, or if they figured it out one step at a time, or even what the next step was. It was that awkward moment that always followed a fight, where everyone was just waiting for someone to set the mood.

It was Blaine who set their mood, of course it was. He reached back and jerked Wes forward by the sleeve of his button-up and grabbed Kurt with his other hand to drag them in until he was practically strangling them both in what Kurt assumed was a hug. He was holding them close like they were a pair of his favorite teddy bears and it was as though he were physically drawing comfort from them.

Kurt smiled and leaned into the warmth, for once knowingly feeding Blaine's hugging addiction.

"Blaine," Wes said after a minute with a long suffered sigh.

Blaine just shifted and just squeezed tighter, and Kurt might have enjoyed it had it not hurt.

Kurt tensed as Blaine unknowingly pressed into one of the bruised parts of his back.

"Ah," he gasped sharply, trying to hold it back and failing.

Blaine let go immediately eyes wide.

"A-are you okay? Oh god, did I hurt you?"

Kurt swallowed thickly and shook his head, "No, no- it's not you. I just… you know, am pretty sore from being uh shoved around yesterday."

"God, where did they hurt you? Let me see," Blaine demanded, reaching around to pat at Kurt's shoulder and find just where it hurt.

"Ouch!" Kurt squeaked. "Stop, stop –stop!"

"Well, come on, show us. Shirt off."

Kurt's eyes widened slightly and he shot a panicked look at Wes. Wes gave him an unimpressed look in return.

Nervously, Kurt tugged at the edges of the t-shirt and pulled it up over his head so that he stood before his friends with just his shorts on and a pair of calf high socks.

"Oh my god," Blaine gasped, surging forward to take a closer look.

The fact that Blaine was expending so much energy on examining his naked chest made Kurt blush a little. It wasn't that they hadn't seen each other shirtless before, they spent many a summer at the swimming pool in order to stave off the heat, and yet- this was different. All of a sudden those strange feelings and urges that Kurt felt whenever Blaine was around these days came surging back to the surface, despite his previous anger.

He really wished he didn't feel this way. He had been hoping that maybe their fight and his hurt might make it easier, but instead it felt more intense. It was uncomfortable, and he didn't know what to do about it.

"Assholes!" Wes growled, interrupting his thoughts. "If I ever seen any of these jerks I'm going to-"

"Tear them down with your superior wit and intellect?"

"No," Wes said with a roll of his eyes. "Not all of us can be pacifists. I was going to say: beat the crap out of them."

Kurt was silent for a moment.

"You'd…beat someone up for me?" he asked softly.

He didn't know why, and thought it was probably inappropriate, but this thought warmed him. Despite their fight and the ensuing anger and awkwardness, his friends were willing to rise to his defense no matter what.

"Oh ye with the horrible memory," Blaine teased, nudging Kurt slightly with a shoulder.

This reminded Kurt once again that he was essentially half-naked, and he quickly struggled to pull on his shirt.

"Don't you remember when we beat up Greg Parker for tripping you in third grade?"

Kurt laughed, head back and eyes scrunched tightly closed. "Oh, I do remember that. My heroes!"

Blaine smiled back at him.

"Oh hey," Wes said catching their attention. "Kurt! We made you breakfast. We were going to bring it up to you in your room, but someone woke up and ruined our plans."

Kurt figured they were pretty even, because the two Warblers had ruined his apology plans too.

"Yes," he agreed, "and as we have learned often over the years- Blaine shouldn't be allowed near the kitchen. Those biscuits are black."

"I only put them in for 14 minutes! It's what the package said," Blaine muttered indignantly. "Forget the biscuits. Look, even better!"

Blaine shoved a plate in his face and Kurt stared down at it with wide eyes.

"Really?" he asked in teasing surprise. "You made me a pancake with blueberries for a smile, banana slices for eyes, and a gum drop nose? And you made eggs and wrote 'Sorry' on them with Catchup? You really went all out."

"You love it," Wes said with a smirk.

Kurt couldn't hide the smile that almost felt etched into his skin. This was what he'd missed over the last years- and this was why they were meant to be friends. True friends, the ones that often end up being a persons closest friends, are the ones who are willing to look past arguments and faults because in the long run they matter less than just being with the person.

Kurt had lots of friends. He had dear, sweet, loyal Mercedes; bright and bubbly Britney; Finn, Sam, and Puck; loud and determined Rachel- but none of them compared to the strength and bond he maintained with these two boys. And even if his feelings were complicated, and even if things changed (if he changed) he knew he could count on them to be there.

He decided then, as he watched them bicker over who came up with the idea for pancakes, that even they had already essentially resolved things, he would still carryout the apology plan he'd orchestrated with David and the girls. It was going to be good.