Monday at school was no better than the week before. Kurt didn't even want to show up, but he didn't want to give the jocks the satisfaction, either. He needed to show Karofsky that he was untouchable. Between a stolen kiss and a death threat, Kurt wasn't thrilled at the prospect of seeing him.

The rest of the social on Friday night had been uneventful, but the talk that Darcy had had with Nightbird had helped a lot. He had chosen to take the advice to heart and remember that he had a whole crew of heroes to back him up and a town that never wanted him to leave. He wished that Blaine was there to offer him words of support through the day, to remind him about the heroes and keep him focussing on how the LARP that night would go, this week at Hadley's house.

His phone buzzed at the end of his first class for the day.

Blaine A. You can be a hero yourself, Kurt.

Blaine A. Courage.

Kurt didn't know how to reply, but he didn't think that Blaine needed a response. Kurt just smiled down at his phone, happy with how one tiny word could change so much.

It only took a few hours before Karofsky stopped helping Kurt feel like he was untouchable and started to attack him again. He seemed to have amped it up since the kiss, clearly trying to assert his 'heterosexuality' for his jock friends. "Hey, fairy!" he called, and Kurt just kept walking down the stairs to get to his class in the rapidly clearing hallway, "you like to spend time on your knees, right?" Karofsky taunted. The hair on the back of Kurt's neck began to rise as he felt someone walk up behind him. There was a hand on his back and a shove, and then everything went black.

Kurt didn't even remember what had happened when he woke up in the nurse's office with his dad standing over him, shaking his arm lightly.

"Kurt?" Burt asked gently, "You awake, buddy? The nurse says that I can take you home so long as you can stand up."

Kurt lifted his arm to rub his eye and winced at the shooting pain through it. "'m'wake," he grumbled, "I wanna go home now."

"The nurse said you had a pretty nasty fall. You're lucky not to have broken anything, but you hit your head, bud, completely blacked out. You might be a little concussed." Kurt sat up slowly and shakily got to his feet, looking around the room. Finn was sitting in a chair and looked petrified. "You can go back to class now, Finn. Kurt's up and he'll be fine." Kurt wasn't sure he believed that, but he was willing to pretend.

"Thanks for your help," the nurse said to Finn.

"What did he do?" Kurt asked. He really had no understanding of what had happened between Karofsky's hand on his back and him waking up in the nurse's office. He wanted to blame the concussion for that, but having fainted altogether really didn't help at all.

"His friend Noah found you during class and the boys carried you in here, since you were out. We decided not to ask what Noah was doing out of class."

"Well, it doesn't take much to guess when it's Puckerman," Kurt said.

"Not the point," Burt said, "he helped out, okay? Now let's get you home."

Kurt fell asleep as soon as got into his bed. He felt awful in every aspect of the word. He was dizzy, he couldn't look at his phone for his eyes being light sensitive, and he couldn't concentrate on anything. Every time he tried to do anything he found himself tuning out and completely forgetting the small details of everything going on. He wanted to vomit. To make everything worse, his whole body ached. He was a bit fuzzy on the details of the fall, which everyone told him was normal for a minor head injury, but he knew one thing- that he didn't fall at all. He was pushed.

Carole brought dinner up to his room and he thanked her for it, before realising that dinner time probably meant he had missed the LARP session and he hadn't even told anyone that he wasn't going to be there. He hoped he wasn't screwing up the plots too much by not being there.

When he finally braved squinting at his phone again, he had a handful of texts from various members of the roleplay.

Blaine A. Are you coming tonight?

Blaine A. Looks like Nightbird is getting stood up tonight. Don't worry about it or anything, I hope you're okay?

Marley R. Are you avoiding us or something?

Luke G. Hey man, we missed you tonight. I take it that it was sudden, since no one knows where you are. Just let us know you're okay, Kurt. Unless you aren't. Then let us know how to fix it.

Hadley G. B says ur ignrn hm. U rnt tho r u?

Erica L. Everyone is all worried about you all of a sudden but I told them you were probably fine and to stop worrying. Give me a call and I'll let you know what went down tonight when you're ready.

He wasn't sure how to react to the messages, and decided that Erica's was the most rational and that he would definitely need to call her as soon as he had texted the one person who was arguably more important.

Kurt H. Sorry Blaine, it was a big day and I slept through the session. I doubt my dad would have let me go anyway :/ reschedule that date that Nightbird got stood up for?

Erica answered on the second ring. "Kurt! Nice to hear from you."

"Hey, Erica. Sorry that I missed the session. Everything's fine, nothing to worry about."

"Okay, that's great. Did you just get like, twenty-four hour flu, or...?" she asked.

"Um, no, I fell down some stairs and have been asleep for the last few hours, but nothing serious. I'll be back playing on Wednesday, promise." He didn't think he sounded very convincing, and Erica certainly didn't sound like she believed it either.

"Alright, well, I'll let you go sleep some more or whatever. I'll let everyone know that you're okay. Nothing interesting happened; I put off the major plot until you were there. Darcy is kind of important."

"Can you just mention that I'm not ignoring anyone and it just hurts to look at my phone too much?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah, sure, I'll pass that on. Do you want me to tell them that you fell?" Erica sounded concerned, but Kurt was glad that she gave him the option.

"Oh, no. I don't want to give them any reason to worry about me."

"Okay, Kurt. Get better. We'll see you soon." They said their goodbyes and Kurt hung up to see that a text had come through.

Blaine A. Yeah, of course :) get some rest, Kurt.

He was asleep just about as soon as he finished his dinner.

Burt refused to let Kurt go to school the next day so that he could recover. He found himself on strict bed rest even without either of his parents there during the day to enforce it, simply because he found that every time he moved he had balance issues. It took him much longer than he was proud of to think about turning down the brightness on his phone, but once it was sufficiently dulled he was able to use it without any hassles.

He started by sending a text to Tina and Mercedes, versions of the same thing- telling them that he wasn't at school because he wasn't feeling very well, but not to visit. They agreed to organise people from his classes to inform him of the homework.

Kurt realised very soon that being stuck in bed all day was boring. He had nothing to do and no one to entertain him, and he couldn't very well get up to collect anything without living in fear that he would fall over or drop something. Carole had brought him water bottles and food to last him the day so he didn't have to make it any further than his desk to get lunch or snacks, and the bathroom was close enough that he didn't worry about it too much. He did have his phone though, and he thought that it could be enough.

Kurt H. Are you in class?

Blaine A. Yeah, aren't you?

Kurt H. ...and you're going to risk texting me?

Blaine A. Indeed, but you didn't answer my question.

Kurt H. I'm not. I'm at home on strict recovery.

Blaine A. I hope you feel better soon :) need entertaining, then?

Kurt H. Yes! Not to distract you from your studies, or anything.

Blaine A. It's fine, it isn't like it's an important class and it's nearly over.

Kurt grinned to himself. It wasn't every day that the guy you had complete and utter crush on wanted to text you so much that he put you before his classes. Or at least, it wasn't every day that it happened to him. Come to think of it, most guys he knew would take any distraction from their school work. Blaine was at Dalton and surely they were stricter about phones in class than at McKinley.

Kurt H. I won't even ask.

Blaine A. Nick and Jeff are in this class too, they can fill me in later.

Kurt H. Do they do ANYTHING without being together?

Blaine A. Not really. They're kind of a package deal.

Kurt had noticed that they seemed permanently joined at the hip. Apparently it was a wide spread thing and wasn't confined to the roleplay.

Kurt H. Are they like, a thing?

He wasn't sure if that was something he was really meant to ask. Luke had given him numbers on the gay characters versus the gay players, and he couldn't work out exactly where the overlap was.

Blaine A. In an officially official way, no. But they're really close and neither of them likes to talk about sexualities.

Kurt H. And you predict...?

Blaine A. They're going to date in the future, but the time's not right yet.

Blaine A. Ooh, class is over! Home time :D

Kurt H. So I can stop worrying about distracting you?

Blaine A. You have no faith in my attention span.

Kurt H. Because you're like a puppy personified. You know, judging from all the times you've actually stuck around long enough to hang out.

Blaine A. My parents keep me on a short leash.

Kurt H. Ah, I see.

Blaine A. I messed up, that wasn't an intentional puppy pun.

Blaine A. Unless you like puns.

Blaine A. I know you're on bed rest, but are you up to visitors?

Kurt H. Not that I've told anyone.

Blaine A. I'm on my way to Lima now, so it was just a thought.

Blaine wanted to visit him. He was never going to stop that boy from seeing him, not now and not ever.

Blaine A. Also, sorry if I take a long time to respond, Ethan's a chatterer and he has sing-alongable music tastes.

Kurt H. Oh? What business do you have in Lima?

Kurt H. And it's fine, my short term memory's still not great and I have to keep rereading your texts to remember where I was going with this.

Blaine A. Ethan always drives me over on Tuesdays after school. He's there for Leo while I'm there for Hadley.

Oh. He drove all the way over to Lima to see Hadley weekly outside of the roleplay. Maybe they really were a couple. With everything that had been going on with Nightbird and Darcy, Kurt had let himself hope that Blaine was gay, since Nightbird was so openly out and proud about it. It wasn't an assumption he should have made, especially with what Luke had told him. He decided to change the topic.

Kurt H. Leo and Ethan are cute together.

Blaine A. Yeah, we like to call them Lethan. They have been together for so long now that they may as well be one person.

Kurt H. They're as joined at the hip as Nick and Jeff.

Blaine A. Niff :3

Kurt H. Do you do this with every couple you encounter? Also, who is "we"?

Blaine A. ...Maybe? I like portmanteaus. I've never had one for Luke and Erica. Hadley and I, mostly, but she calls them "ship names".

There he was with the Hadley talk again.

Kurt H. I like Ericuke. Except Lerica probably flows nicer.

Kurt H. Wait no, Lurica.

Blaine A. Lurica it is. They're a bit better at being their own people.

Kurt H. What about Nightbird and Darcy?

Blaine A. Hmmm... Darcebird.

Kurt H. Nightarcy?

Blaine A. Okay, I like that one better. No fair, you're too good.

Kurt H. I'm sorry, it's a talent I didn't know I had.

Blaine A. Aww, embrace it!

Blaine A. Kurt, I need to go now, Hadley needs my full attention, more than school.

Kurt H. It's fine, I might take a nap or something.

Blaine A. Kurt, are you okay?

Kurt H. Totally.

Blaine A. Now answer it honestly.

Kurt H. I'm not so great.

Blaine A. I really need to go now, but call me in about twenty minutes to talk about that, okay?

Kurt H. Thank you.

Exactly twenty-one minutes later, Kurt called Blaine, feeling like he could actually survive a conversation about the stairs encounter. He hadn't managed to tell his dad that he was pushed yet, or even that Karofsky had threatened him the way he had the week before. Burt knew about the bullying, but he didn't know that it had ever gotten quite as bad as it had.

The phone rang, and rang, and rang.

Finally, after dialling for a second time, the phone was answered. "Hello?" spoke a voice, far more feminine and high pitched than Blaine's smooth voice.

"Um, hi? Is Blaine there?" Kurt asked. It was a reasonable question, considering that it was Blaine's phone that he had called.

"He went to the bathroom. Can I help you?"

"...Who am I talking to?"

"This is Hadley," the voice , of course it was. They were close enough to answer each other's phones.

"Can you tell Blaine that Kurt called when he get back? I mean, he asked me to call him now..."

"Why would you call him?" she snapped. Kurt had always thought that Hadley was such a sweet young girl, but this side to her was entirely different and he didn't know what to think. She was incredibly defensive.

"He asked me to, like I said. We were going to talk about some stuff," Kurt said, trying to give her reason enough to stop without saying I'm concussed because I was pushed down some stairs by a closeted jock yesterday, which he hadn't really told anyone and he was sure that she wouldn't understand it.

"Stuff? The kind of stuff you can't tell me about, huh?"

"Yeah, it's quite personal and doesn't really concern you."

"But he's my boyfriend!" And there it was. Every suspicion that Kurt had was seemingly confirmed in one sentence. "Hadley, is that my phone?" Kurt heard Blaine say in the background before the line went dead. Kurt felt like crying.

Blaine called back less than five minutes later. Kurt waited a couple of rings before answering, so that he didn't seem too eager. "Kurt?" Blaine said with his voice full of concern. It made Kurt feel calm almost immediately.

"Yeah, hi," he said, "I didn't mean to interrupt anything with Hadley..."

"She told you we were dating." Blaine sighed.

"She did."

"We aren't dating." Kurt wasn't sure how to respond. "Hey Kurt, I'm done here now, are you up for a visitor?"

"Um, yeah, sure. You'll have to let yourself in though; I can't really get downstairs by myself. I don't think that Finn's here yet otherwise I would ask him to do it."

"Okay, I can manage that. I'll just call Ethan to say I'm at yours instead of Hadley's, and then I'll be right over." They said their momentary goodbyes and Kurt put his phone down and started counting items in his room again.

True to his word, about fifteen minutes later there was a knock on the front door followed by the soft click of it opening. "Kurt?" Blaine called out.

"Upstairs, first door on the left," Kurt called back, and then waited as he heard the sound of Blaine's footsteps on the stairs. He knocked softly on Kurt's bedroom door too before he stepped inside. "Hey," Kurt said, suddenly remembering that he hadn't done his hair all day. Why couldn't that have been what he did while Blaine was on his way over?

"Hey, Kurt. We have a lot to talk about now, don't we?" Blaine said with an uneasy laugh, pulling Kurt's desk chair up to the side of the bed. Kurt sat up against the headboard a little more.

"Where do we start?"

Blaine took a deep breath. "What happened at school yesterday, Kurt?"

"If you want yesterday to make sense we need to back up a bit."

"I've got time."

It was Kurt's turn to inhale. "I have been bullied well, my entire high school experience, even before I came out. The jocks were so damn sure that I was gay that they would yell at me from across the hallways. I got tossed into dumpsters by guys who are now my friends, took slushies before everyone else did."

"Slushies?" Blaine asked.

"It's a thing at my school, where you get an ice cold drink with too much food colouring thrown in your face- not nice. I swear they are kept a lot colder at McKinley than anywhere else. I've been keeping a spare change of clothes in my locker for a long time."

Blaine nodded, not as though he understood but to show that he was listening and trying to get it. "And who is everyone else?"

"I'm getting there- they're the Glee club. We ended up right at the bottom of the food chain. Glee club geek and the only out kid in the whole school? Shark bait. But it's not just the jocks, you see, because I somehow was landed with my own personal tormentor. This jock- Karofsky- he slams me into lockers almost daily, yells homophobic slurs whenever he passes me. Yesterday he pushed me down some stairs, thus the concussion."

"Wow."

"Yeah. One of the footballers in Glee found me passed out and he and Finn carried me to the nurse's office."

"Who is Finn, anyway? Is he your... boyfriend?" Blaine asked, almost timidly. Kurt laughed.

"Oh god, no. He's my step-brother. I did have a huge crush on him, but it passed when our parents started getting closer."

"So do you have a boyfriend, then? Someone who would get all jealous about you roleplaying one half of Nightarcy?"

Kurt shook his head. "I've never really dated anyone."

"Yeah, me neither. Especially not Hadley. I had a talk to her about that."

"Did she really think you were dating?" Kurt asked.

"I don't think so. She can just be a bit dramatic and got caught up in the moment, I'd say." Blaine shrugged.

"So if you aren't dating, why do you come all the way to Lima to hang out with her?"

"I'm paid to," Blaine said. Kurt looked at him in confusion. "I tutor her. She has dyscalculia and needs a bit of a push in the right direction, so I help her out with her math once a week. That's all."

"I did think that she was a bit young for you," Kurt said. Blaine laughed.

"And female. I thought you knew that I was gay, Kurt."

"You just... seem really straight? Like, too good to be true."

Blaine raised an eyebrow at Kurt. "And Nightbird wanting to be the first openly gay superhero didn't tip you off?"

"Luke told me that including me there are four gay roleplayers and four gay characters but that the overlap wasn't perfect." He could feel himself blushing a bit, but he tried not to talk himself down with his reasoning. Surely Blaine would understand where he was coming from.

"Ah, that's because we have Leo and Ethan as players, but only Hawkbeak and not Carlton as characters. The last is character is Nick's, Drew slash Dovetail. But as I was saying earlier, there's an undisclosed sexuality there."

"Oh, okay." A moment of silence hung between them, but it wasn't uncomfortable.

"Do you want to talk some more about the bullying? Have you told the school?" Blaine asked.

"We told them a while ago and they didn't do anything. Things with Karofsky have gotten worse recently, though. They might listen again."

"Have you told your parents yet? That you were pushed?" Kurt shook his head.

"I don't know how much worse it would get if I told people."

Blaine sighed and made sure to look intently at Kurt. "You can't just keep it quiet, Kurt, otherwise you won't ever get justice. That's what I did. I ran."

"You were bullied?"

Blaine took a deep breath again. "It was the Sadie Hawkins dance at my school- my first school, not Dalton- back in my freshman year."

"Aren't you a sophomore?"

"Right, my first freshman year, I should have clarified. Anyway, there was this dance at my school, and I had just come out and it had all gone fine. I asked my friend, who was the only other gay kid I knew. Sometimes I think that given a bit more time we could have been something more, but we never quite made it that far. It was after the dance, and we were waiting outside the school for his dad to come and pick us up. Out of nowhere these three huge guys, must have been seniors, they just... attacked us. I was tiny back then, hadn't quite made a growth spurt yet, and I was on the ground in moments. But they just kept kicking me, and I was crying, and..." Blaine paused, and Kurt reached out to take his hand, pat his shoulder, anything. Blaine shook his head, as though he were coming back to reality. "I don't remember what happened next, but I was in hospital for a long time- so long that when I transferred to Dalton the dean suggested that I would benefit from repeating the year, and that's what I did. Dalton is my safe space, and I guess I get used to conforming there, but I needed that. I still do, a lot."

"Thank you, Blaine," Kurt whispered.

"Can I hug you, Kurt?" Blaine asked. Kurt nodded, and Blaine sat down next to Kurt on the bed and wrapped his arms around him, and Kurt did his best to reciprocate. For someone who had been almost a stranger just a few hours earlier, Kurt felt incredibly comfortable with Blaine, and their conversation had helped him so much.

A/N: it would really make my day if you could take a moment to review :D This was kind of an important chapter for a couple of a reasons (sorry if you think there's a bit of LARP lack, the next chapter is important for that side of things ;) ).