This idea has been in my head, just floating back there, since I re-watched Never Been Kissed about a month ago. But it got too pressing and I had to get it written, even though I said I wouldn't take on any more stories right now. So I wrote it in one hit before work and I'm posting it straight away without any editing because I just want to get it out there now.

Basically, we saw Kurt in the locker room, then we see him and Blaine arriving at McKinley as Kurt's next scene. Somewhere in there, Kurt has to tell Blaine what's happened. Somehow I don't think it was a great conversation.

M for language. I try not to swear in my other stories but this is a much darker theme and… well, they're teenagers. It happens.

"Blaine?"

Heaving a sigh, Blaine glanced irritably towards the door. "Wes, if you're calling another practice for Teenage Dream, consider me out. I don't care if you give my solo to Jeff, I'm not -"

"No, Blaine, this is serious."

Blaine paused, dropping his pen and swiveling around properly, suddenly realizing how tense Wes looked. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Wes gestured for Blaine to follow and he did, quickly crossing the room and closing the door behind him. "That kid who came and spied on us, Kurt?" Blaine nodded. "Yeah, he's just shown up in the foyer, white as a sheet, and all he can say is that he needs to talk to you. David's keeping everybody away from him at the moment but he looks like he's gonna pass out or something."

It only took a second for Blaine to realize the seriousness of what was going on and then he was breaking into a run, not caring whether Wes was keeping up or not. He descended the stairs to the foyer three at a time, already honing in on where David was standing in front of a chair that looked like it had been hastily pulled into the room. David stepped aside as Blaine approached, slowing to a walk before kneeling in front of the boy sitting in the chair. "Kurt?" Kurt appeared to give no sign of having heard Blaine and he tried again. "Hey, Kurt, it's Blaine. What - what's going on?"

Kurt finally looked up, his eyes glassy and Blaine had to stifle a gasp at the absolute terror reflected in them. "He snapped," Kurt whispered.

Oh shit. Karofsky.

"Come on," Blaine said quickly, standing up. "Come with me, we'll find somewhere more private to talk, okay?" It took a few more tries to coax Kurt out of his seat and Blaine resisted the urge to take his arm, knowing that it probably wouldn't go down well if Kurt had been assaulted in some way. Instead he hovered close to his side as he led him towards one of the common rooms which David had thankfully already cleared for them. He urged Kurt into a seat before sitting next to him and trying to catch his eye. "Can you tell me what happened?"

There was a few long minutes of silence and Blaine simply waited, letting Kurt take as long as he needed. "I - I don't know if I can," Kurt finally whispered, his voice so broken that it tugged at Blaine's heart.

"I know it's difficult but, Kurt, I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to know what happened, what he did to you and if I need to get you any medical attention." That was really Blaine's first priority considering Kurt looked like he was going to go into shock, but the idea of more people showing up was probably a bad one right now. Kurt needed to feel as safe as he could before he was going to talk about what was wrong.

Thankfully Kurt shook his head. "No, he didn't… he didn't hit me or anything."

Blaine nodded reassuringly. "If you can tell me what happened, I'll do the best I can to help you, okay? I just need to know what he did."

More silence, and Blaine did his best to scrutinize Kurt out of the corner of his eye, checking for any bruises. Regardless of what Kurt had said, there was still the chance that he was downplaying his bullying - Blaine knew that one firsthand after all. Satisfied that Kurt was physically okay, he waited, hoping that Kurt could bring himself to talk.

But when Kurt did talk, it wasn't what Blaine had expected to hear.

"He's in the closet, Blaine." Blaine blinked a couple of times, resisting the urge to interrupt and ask what Kurt meant. His homophobic bully was actually gay? "He - he somewhat came out to me… I think I pushed him too far and he… he just snapped."

There were a few more minutes of silence and finally Blaine had to ask. "What did he do to you, Kurt?"

"He kissed me," Kurt spat out as quickly as possible, so fast that Blaine was sure he had heard it wrong. But judging by the way Kurt curled into himself after saying that, his breath coming out in short, frightened bursts, Blaine knew it was the truth. Which meant Kurt had just been sexually assaulted.

Oh my god.

Blaine had no idea what to do. All of his bullying had been straight emotional or physical - clear hatred because of what he was, out of their own ignorance and probable fear of who they thought Blaine was. But this… this was a whole new level and Blaine couldn't offer a single word of advice or comfort that wasn't going to be meaningless. He couldn't offer anything, all he could do was wait until Kurt could pull himself together.

Finally Kurt straightened up again, taking a couple of deep breaths and running his hands over his face. Blaine was about to speak, to try and offer Kurt something, when Kurt's expression suddenly changed, twisted into something hateful.

"I took your advice," came out, sharp and bitter. "I had courage, I confronted him, I called him out. All of those things that you said would help, Blaine. And look where it landed me! God, what is wrong with you? How could you tell me to do that?"

Again, all Blaine could do was stay silent because it was true. If Blaine had had any idea of the source of the bullying, there was no way he would have told Kurt to stand up to the boy. A hot pit of guilt pooled in his stomach and he resisted the urge to cry, trying to work out what he could do to fix this. An apology would never be enough, it would never get back what had been taken from Kurt.

But Kurt was already looking up, eyes wide. "Shit, I didn't mean that, Blaine. I'm so sorry, this isn't your fault, oh god, please don't hate me -"

"Kurt," Blaine finally said, shaking his head urgently. "It's okay, I promise. You have every right to be mad at me right now."

And then all of the anger was gone, leaving a broken shell of a human behind. "It's not you I want to be angry at though," Kurt said. "And I can't even be angry at him. Hurt, yes. Humiliated beyond belief, terrified to have to go back and be in the same school as him, yes. But I can't be angry because… he's hurting too. He's struggling." Blaine was honestly amazed at how quickly Kurt seemed to have come to terms with it all, before his face crumpled completely. "But how could he do this to me?"

Kurt began to sob and Blaine shut his eyes, struggling against the onslaught of empathy, flashbacks and just plain sadness at what was going on. Nobody deserved to have that happen to them, especially not Kurt who had already been through so much, and probably more than Blaine knew about too. Nobody had the right to break another human being, no matter their reason, and someone had broken Kurt today.

And Blaine couldn't do anything about it, because Kurt was right. Karofsky was struggling too and Blaine couldn't go and hurt him for it, no matter how much his instincts were screaming at him that he had to defend Kurt, had to protect him. All he could do was try and teach Kurt the lessons he'd had to learn when he was stuck at Westerville High with no hope left. "It's going to end one day, Kurt."

Catching his breath, Kurt looked up and Blaine smiled as reassuringly as he could. "I know it hurts now and I wish it didn't. But it will end, and you'll come through it as the stronger person." Blaine shifted, turning to face Kurt the best he could. "I'm not naive enough to say that you'll be glad this happened to you because you probably won't. But you're learning about humanity today, you're learning that there are some ugly people out there, but amidst those are some who are just confused and lost."

"It doesn't excuse his actions though," Kurt murmured quietly.

"Definitely not," Blaine agreed. "Nothing excuses terrorizing someone like that, treating them like they're worse than you. And I just hope that some day he'll realize that too, Kurt. Maybe you'll be the one to teach him, somewhere down the track."

Kurt shrugged. "Right now I just don't want to ever go back there."

Blaine furiously racked his brain for something he could actually do to try and help Kurt. His initial thought was getting Kurt out of McKinley, but that wasn't going to happen easily. Obviously reporting Karofsky was up to Kurt and Blaine could tell by his nature that Kurt wasn't planning on doing that. So the next best thing would be trying to get Karofsky to accept himself. "Hey, how about I come out there tomorrow and we try talking to him?"

"Because talking did so much good last time," Kurt said bitterly before immediately turning apologetic. "Sorry, I didn't -"

"It's okay." Blaine understood, after all. "But the fact is, Kurt, right now you're stuck with him. You have to go back to McKinley, you have to be in the same school as him and you have to be able to walk through the corridors and know that you're going to see him, you're going to know what he did to you. And I want you to know that you can face him if you need to, not that I'm recommending you make a habit of it," he added hastily.

Kurt snorted. "I don't plan on it," he said, his voice still laced with anger. Blaine stayed silent, realizing Kurt's emotions were going to change a lot until he started coming to terms with what had happened. Finally, Kurt spoke again, his voice softer. "I'd appreciate that. I don't think I want to tell anybody else what's happened and… and you sort of get it."

"Sort of," Blaine agreed. "Kurt… you're not alone, okay? You're going through some stuff that nobody else can understand and it sucks, but you aren't alone, ever. I'm only ever a drive or a phone call away and I want you to make that call if something else happens, if you're feeling threatened, if you just need to talk, whatever."

He wasn't sure whether the words had really gotten through - after all, it had taken Blaine a long time to realize he could let others in. But Kurt still nodded, staring down at his hands and Blaine allowed himself a smile because maybe Kurt was going to be okay. After all, Kurt was a lot stronger than Blaine, he knew that already. He preached courage but Kurt just lived it.

"Come on," he said softly, gently touching his elbow to Kurt's and trying to ignore the slight flinch he received in response. That was only natural, and one day it would be gone too. "Let's go get some coffee."