Prompt: Tom Paris - "Courage doesn't mean that you don't have fear, it means that you've learned to overcome it." - 'Voyager'

I had never considered myself a coward. There wasn't much that scared me and I tended to do the things that my peers didn't want to do. I always thought that was what a leader did. Right now though, standing outside of Kurt's hospital room, I had never been so scared of doing something in my life. Never mind that I had just faced his father, Burt Hummel being one of the few things I would admit of being scared of. Right now, the idea of seeing Kurt terrified me.

With a shaking hand, I reached out and knocked on the door as I stepped into the doorway. Kurt was laying on the hospital bed, his arm with a cast on it propped up on a pillow. Along with a nasty looking bruise, the right side of his face was scrapped up.

"Come in," Kurt replied tentatively, not completely able to hide the surprise in his voice.

I took a hard swallow, trying hard to resist the urge to turn and run from the room. "I'm sorry, Kurt," I finally managed to get out in a shaky voice. "It was just supposed to be a harmless prank. We never meant for you to get hurt."

"It's not you fault I'm clumsy," Kurt replied.

I couldn't believe he was trying to shoulder the blame for what happened. He had never done anything warrant the way he was treated and yet he always held his head up high.

"No but it is my fault that you were in the position to get hurt," I told him. "I shouldn't have gone along with it. I should've stood up to the other guys and told them it was wrong but I was afraid to stand up to them so I guess I'm not as courageous as I'd like to think I am."

"Don't sell yourself short, Finn. You found the courage to come here and apologize and face my dad. Most kids run once they see him."

"I don't blame them. I was terrified to come here but I knew I had to. I owed you that much."

"So you faced your fear to do what was right. That sounds courageous to me. Especially seeing as I wouldn't have turned you in," Kurt replied.

"I can't understand why you wouldn't. I deserve it."

"Because you're the only person who has ever stood up for me at all. To me that counts for a lot."

I knew what he was referring to with that comment. The time I had said something to Puck when he had shoved Kurt into the lockers. That was the only time I had stood up for him though compared to how many failures to do so. I couldn't grasp why that one time would be so important but then I also didn't have to face what Kurt did daily. To me he was the courageous one. I made a silent promise to try to do better by him.