AN: Hi Guys! Okay, not quite Friday but not too long after. Sorry about the wait! I got called out right as I was getting ready to finish and post last night….sigh. Anyway this chapter is brief, but I already have the next one ready to go (It ended up making more sense to split the chapter up with this first part), so I'll be posting the next one in a few minutes too. Please excuse spelling and grammar errors, they are unintentional!

And I've got all weekend to write so I might have the next chapter up sooner. Friday/Saturday at the latest.

Thank you for all the reviews and favorites and just everything. I appreciate all feedback! You guys are the greatest. Hope you have a good weekend.

Disclaimer: I do not own glee.

21. Confrontation

Kurt was walking down the hallway with his head down, trying to ignore the looks that his friends would give him whenever he passed them in the hall.

"Come on Kurt you missed Glee practice. You never miss Glee. Where were you?" Sam had asked.

He just shook his head quietly and said he hadn't been feeling well.

"You were at Dalton with your boys, right?" Santana teased him between classes.

He rolled his eyes at her, but stayed silent.

"Kurt, you're okay, right? Nothing bad happened?" Mercedes asked anxiously as they walked to their lockers before lunch.

He looked over at her and really wished he felt like he could tell her what had happened. How Karofsky had … come after him and his subsequent breakdown and how Blaine and Wes and even David had taken care of him, and how his feelings for Blaine were just that much stronger and it was tearing him apart because he hated being friends with someone he was attracted to, someone he felt was unattainable. He wanted to tell her that he was tired, so very tired, of being bullied. It was like being the record in a record player that was stuck on a loop. He felt okay, he felt good, he felt really really bad- repeat.

"No," he said, offering her what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

She didn't look one hundred percent convinced, but was easily distracted when he told her about the sale at their favorite shoe store.

When they rounded the corner toward their lockers, Kurt nearly tripped over his own feet because there, leaning up against his locker, was Blaine. Blaine was here, in his uniform, and he was staring down at his phone in deep concentration and hadn't noticed them. He couldn't stop the nervous blush that crept up his cheeks.

"Hey!" Mercedes said to him excitedly. "Is that…?"

"Yeah," he said weakly.

What was Blaine doing here? He considered, for reasons he really couldn't explain, just turning around and running in the other direction. Blaine shouldn't be here at McKinley. It wasn't safe, it was hell, and Kurt didn't like mixing the two worlds. Also it was just Blaine. Which normally wouldn't bother him, but all of a sudden his palms are sweaty and his tongue is dry and it feels like his heart is going to jump out of his chest, and he just doesn't know what to do with these feelings. But before he can do anything, Mercedes has called out to Blaine.

"Blaine! I didn't know you were coming!"

Blaine looked up and his eyes brightened, and he tucked his phone away.

"I thought I'd come surprise Kurt. I missed him and I thought we could do lunch. You're welcome to join us? "

He paused for a moment, smile still on his face and looked over at Kurt, "That is, of course, if you'd like to come to lunch with me. I sort of just assumed. Sorry."

"Don't be ridiculous," Kurt said softly. "Of course I'll have lunch with you."

"Great!" he said happily, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

Kurt looked over at Mercedes and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Oh no, no it's okay. I'm actually planning to stage a TOT war today at lunch. Probably best you aren't here anyway. Sue Sylvester will rue the day that she ever banned my tots," she said with a maniacal giggle.

Kurt blinked at her, "O-kay. Just… you know, don't do anything bad enough to make her kill you. I need my best friend alive to help me study for the Physics test next week."

She stuck her tongue out and turned away, merging into Tina's and Mike's group as they walked toward the lunchroom.

"Tot war?" Blaine asked, eyebrows raised high.

Kurt sighed.

"People in this school… really love their tots. The cheerleading coach has taken over as principal briefly, and has banned tater tots in order to create a healthier lunch. It's not going well. Mercedes is… unnaturally obsessed. I think she's projecting her issues onto this situation."

"Well, I can't say I quite follow, but… okay. So, umm Kurt I have something to ask you."

Kurt tensed. Oh god, what would Blaine have to ask him? What if it was something bad? What if he'd made Blaine mad or… or what if Wes had told Blaine about his feelings? No, surely Wes wouldn't do something like that.

Blaine made a soothing sound and reached out to pat him on the shoulder.

"Hey, don't look so worried. I just… I am here for lunch, but I also wondered, um, if maybe you'd like me to confront Karofsky with you? I mean, just to tell him to back off and that we could help him or find him someone to help him because this is such a hard thing to deal with. And I just…I mean I don't want to help him, because he hurt you. I really just want to pound his face in, because how could anyone hurt someone so sweet and beautiful? But… you and I have both been through this kind of bullying and he's obviously confused and scared. So, maybe you don't want to, and you have every right to say no, but at the very least we could talk to him and tell him to back off."

Kurt was staring at Blaine with wide eyes. He could see how conflicted Blaine was, and how hard he was trying to convince himself to the right thing. Had the situation been different, he might have laughed at the warring looks of anger and empathy on the boy's face. How could Blaine be real? He was perhaps the nicest, most noble person that Kurt had ever met.

"You would do that for me?"

Blaine rolled his eyes at him.

"Duh, don't be a dummy. Of course I would. I've got your back- always have and always will."

Kurt blinked rapidly, trying not to cry. What in the world had he done to deserve a second chance with Blaine? He was not going to waste it.

"Okay," he said finally. "Okay, let's go talk to Karofsky. He's in second lunch and it's still passing period so we might be able to catch him before he gets to class."

Blaine gave him a small smile and nodded, gripping his elbow.

"It's going to be fine, Kurt. He's never going to hurt you while I'm around. We'll figure this out."

He nodded, silently. Now that he'd agreed his stomach was a tight ball of nerves. He led the way to where he thought Karofsky might be in silence.

And then he saw him on the steps in the courtyard.

"There he is," he mumbled stiffly.

Blaine's posture straightened and all of a sudden he looked composed and strong and Kurt felt a little bit better. At least Blaine had control of his emotions. Kurt was a nervous wreck. What if Karofsky beat them up? Or worse, what if he got his jock friends together and came after him when Blaine was gone?

"I got your back," Blaine reminded as they made their way up the steps.

"Excuse me," Blaine called politely.

Karofsky finally saw them and stopped short, a sneer coming up on his face.

"Hey, lady boys."

Kurt swallowed tightly, gripping his shoulder strap until his fingers were tingling numbly.

"This your boyfriend Kurt?"

Kurt narrowed his eyes and looked over at Karofsky. He'd never called him by his first name before, and he was suddenly very wary of the spark of what could only be jealousy in the other boy's eyes. Oh god.

Whether Blaine saw it or not, he ignored it and continued on.

"Kurt and I would like to talk to you about something," Blaine said, tonelessly.

"Oh yeah?" Karofsky asked, the sneer back in full force. "Well, too bad. I have to go to class."

He pushed through them, hand out and shoving Kurt into the rail.

A soft pained gasp left his lips, and before he knew what was happening there was a flurry of motion and Blaine had somehow managed to get between them and had decked their larger antagonist hard enough to send him stumbling.

People were beginning to notice what was going on, but as was the usual theme of the school, no one said anything and most of them continued walking or stood around whispering to each other.

Blaine was still up in Karofsky's face and was whispering to him furiously.

"Kurt told me what you did, how you kissed him against his will, and if it was my choice I'd have reported your ass to the police for assault. But for Kurt's sake, I'm here trying to help you."

Karofsky let out a growl not unlike a wounded bear, and shoved Blaine back and into the nearby chain link fence.

"You don't know anything, and you do not want to mess with me."

Kurt didn't know how he'd found the strength to move, but suddenly he was between them and forcefully shoving the boy back.

"You have to stop this!" he nearly shrieked. "Please, just stop."

And then Karofsky was staring at Kurt, surprised and… longing? Kurt squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to make sense of it.

There were a few moments of silence where you could have heard them all breathing, as they all stared at each other. The spell was broken, though, as Sue Sylvester appeared out of nowhere and jerked the three boys away from each other.

"Karofsky! Detention for a month. You know the rules, no fighting on school grounds. Get to class, now!"

Kurt was staring at her in wide-eyed surprised as she then rounded on him.

"And you," she growled at Blaine. "Get off of school grounds. You have five minutes or I'll have you escorted off personally."

"But coach, it was Karofsky-" he tried to defend Blaine, but she was having none of it.

"Hummel, you'll have detention too. I want you in my office right after school Understand?"

He swallowed, eyes dropping to the ground, before nodding.

"Now get out of my sight," she demanded.

It had been a long time since he'd seen her that furious, and Kurt wondered what she was going to do to him after school.

"Kurt, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Blaine murmured in horror as she walked away. "I didn't mean for this to get out of hand and I'm just really-"

"Sorry," Kurt finished for him, rolling his eyes and trying to pull himself together. "Don't be sorry. Blaine… what you just did, no one has ever done for me before."

And suddenly he was feeling sad and upset and confused about Karofsky and relieved that Blaine had been there. The weight of it all made him sink down onto the stone steps and sagged.

"Oh Kurt, hey," Blaine caught his attention, expression strained and worried. "It's okay, we're going to figure this out and it's going to be fine. I'm so sorry that you have to deal with this every day. But I'm going to make sure that you don't have to deal with this alone anymore."

And now Blaine was on the steps next to him, tears in his eyes.

Kurt blinked and realized he was crying too. He couldn't do this here, and he certainly would not let Blaine feel guilty for being the best friend he could ever ask for.

"Let's," he rasped tiredly, "Let's go get that lunch you promised me."

Blaine gave him a half-hearted smile and nodded.

"Right, okay. I'll buy."