Actually, the only reason he didn't groan was because he had the intelligence to see who it was before reacting. And luckily he did. His groan turned into a corrected posture, a light grin, and him taking a seat yet again with his hands folded neatly on his lap. But, even though he was giving off the appearance of being chill and totally non-threatening, inside he was cursing every swear word known to man over and over again. And he didn't want to be doing that out loud in front of this man. For, even thought they'd never formally met, Blaine had seen this man with Kurt while he was unpacking his dorm stuff from his car. The affectionate hug had given away that it was his dad then, and the give away this time was how he strode up to the bed with the most worried expression on his face that Blaine had ever seen in his life.

"Kurt, are you alright?" Kurt's dad asked. Well, more like demanded. "Hell, of course something happens when I'm out of town. The second Carol called me I was out on the road. I got here as fast as I could. What'd the doctors say? Any lasting damage?"

Kurt shook his head and took a deep breath, placing a calming hand over his fathers.

"I'm fine, Dad," Kurt assured him. "My arm will heal in a few weeks, bruises will fade, concussion's mostly gone. They want me to stay to make sure that my throat's going to be alright, but I'll be blasting the Wicked soundtrack and singing along to it in the garage in no time. Besides, friends have been in and out all day."

It was then that Kurt's dad finally noticed Blaine. The man gave him a scrutinizing look which, while it made Blaine feel a little uncomfortable, he didn't let phase his 'Must. Impress. This. Man.' appearance. Instead he stood up and offered the man his hand.

"Blaine Anderson," he said politely. "I go to school with Kurt. I'm in the Warblers with him."

The man grabbed his hand and shook it firmly.

"Burt," he replied as he released Blaine's hand , adding to Kurt, "Is this they guy you—"

"Yes Dad, this is him," Kurt interrupted a little loudly. "And before you get any ideas, we're just friends. Besides, Puck and Rachel both gave him a talk already."

"And Mercedes," Blaine added with a cheeky grin. Kurt just groaned a sigh and dragged his hand down his face, mumbling sarcastically, "Of course she did."

Burt still gave Blaine a look that made him think that the man wouldn't be satisfied until he got a say in it. A part of Blaine wanted to tell him to wait until he and Kurt were actually dating, but the other part of him said that it might not have been the brightest idea.

"Fine," Burt relented. "But he knows that if he or any other of his bird friends hurt you he'll have me to answer to. And if him or anyone else at that school gives you any trouble you tell me. And not months after it happens!"

Kurt rolled his eyes, but turned his head away. Looked like Burt was still a little annoyed at Kurt for keeping him in the dark about the whole Karofsky issue. It made Blaine feel a little bit guilty. After all, he had known. He should have ignored Kurt's pleas and told his father anyway. But he wasn't going to remind him of that now. Instead he said,

"Don't worry, Mr. Hummel. Kurt is a valued member of Dalton and it's glee club. If anyone did bother him there are 15 guys ready for back-up."

Kurt scoffed. "Will you two stop it. I'm not some fragile China doll. I can handle most things on my own. Just because I can sound like a girl when I sing doesn't mean I am one."

Burt scowled and looked like he was about to ague, so Kurt added quickly, "But if things get too much for me to handle on my own then I'll call you."

Blaine didn't think that this was very convincing. After all, last time he didn't go to his dad. Even when things were bad he still tried to hide it. Hell, the only way Burt found out was because he saw it for himself. And even then he still didn't know everything! Blaine figured that he only said it to appease his father. Which didn't look like it was working.

"Are you sure about that, Kurt?" Burt asked. "You didn't even tell me you were in the hospital! Carol called me after Finn called her!"

Blaine suddenly felt like he really shouldn't be listening in on this. Maybe this would be an opportune time to go find David and Wes…

He slowly rose out of his seat, attempting to not look as awkward as he felt. He mumbled, "I'm just gonna go—"

Kurt's casted hand suddenly shot out and weakly grabbed his hand (which made the injured boy wince and hiss quietly). Blaine's stomach clenched and he froze for a moment before trying to free himself from Kurt's grasp. Which, in theory would have been painstakingly simple. However every time he tried to slide his hand out it would jostle Kurt's fingers and, in turn, his arm. Which made him cringe every single time. So Blaine could spare himself the discomfort of listening to their fight and hurt Kurt, or he could suck it up and try not to pay attention. In the end, he chose to spare Kurt the pain and just sit and wait it out.

"That was because I didn't need you freaking out!" Kurt snapped back to his father. "You would have heard me sounding all scratchy and hurt and only heard heard the word 'hospital' before—"

"Before what?" Burt interrupted. "Before I freaked out so badly that I had another heart attack?"

Kurt didn't reply, but he ducked his head and looked away. Burt seemed to soften a little. He grabbed Kurt's other hand.

"Kurt," he said slowly. "I'm fine. Thanks to you and Carol I'm better, and thanks to that rabbit diet you two put me on I'm getting healthier. I know that you're worried but you need to understand that I'm not a Chine doll either. It'll take more than a heart attack to break me. You are my son. I am supposed to worry about you."

Kurt didn't say anything, but Blaine glanced up and saw his eyes water. He returned his eyes to the floor like they were ever since Kurt grabbed him, but he squeezed the other boy's fingers in an attempt to comfort him. If he hadn't felt like an intruder before then he most definitely knew he was one now.

"I just don't want you to leave," Kurt finally mumbled. Blaine didn't see the expression on Burt's face, but if it was anything like the sad quivering of his own heart then it must have been soul wrenching.

"I will always be here for you," Burt said, his voice almost like a plea.

They sat in silence for Blaine didn't know how long. For Kurt and Burt it was probably comforting. But Blaine was thinking that this was probably one of the most awkward days of his life. Yes he was moved by Burt's utter dedication to his son, but he still should not have heard any of that. It was family stuff. Personal.

Finally Burt told his son that he was going to go and talk to the doctor before squeezing his hand once more and leaving. Blaine offered the man a curt nod and hoped that he would take the tension with him. Unfortunately, he didn't. Blaine glanced up at Kurt to see him focusing on the edge of the mattress, his eyes still watery. But there were no tears. Blaine squeezed his hand again. Time to pull some (hopefully) comforting friend/mentor stuff.

"He's kind of right, you know," Blaine murmured, causing Kurt to whip around to face him. "You're right too, of course, in that you don't need people treating you like you're helpless. But isn't that what you're doing to him? You're afraid to let him know your problems because you're afraid he'll stress himself into being sick again. You're dad doesn't seem like he's blind. He obviously knows when things are wrong. And that's probably more stressful to him than if you'd tell him what was happening. The problem is the both of you are so strong, but neither of you realizes it."

Kurt didn't say anything at first. Then:

"How can you take his side and still be right?"

Blaine shrugged. "Maybe because he had a point?"

Kurt pursed his lips. "Can't you just be one of those guys who just smiles and nods to everything I say?"

"You can't always get what you want," Blaine said solemnly, patting Kurt's casted arm. "But, if you try sometimes, you get what you need."

Kurt gave a watery scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You did not just quote The Rolling Stones at me."

Blaine put on a look of surprise. "You know The Rolling Stones?" He asked incredulously. Well, it was more poke fun than serious, but what the heck. Anything to get Kurt out of this depressed mood. "I thought you only sang show tunes?"

Kurt gave an equally non-serious scowl. "Seriously Blaine. Just because I like musicals doesn't mean that they're all I ever listen to." He grinned mischievously, wiping the watery build up from his eyes and adding, "And besides, we did You Can't Always Get What You Want at Sectionals last year."

Blaine's eyebrows raised. "Seriously?"

Kurt nodded. "Yeah. Coach Sylvester—you know, the Cheerio coach?— she leaked our set list to the competition so we had to come up with new songs on the spot. Well, Finn did, really. We had Rachel sing a ballad, which was a really good rendition of Don't Rain On My Parade, we did Somebody To Love, which we did at our Open House, and we put that Stones' song together." Kurt chuckled. Blaine couldn't help but smile along "It was amazing. Especially since we won with it. You should have seen it…"

Kurt paused.

"Why didn't you see it, anyway? I mean, we didn't compete against the Warbler's last year…"

Blaine shrugged and explained, "There's nine glee clubs in the area. They split us up randomly into three groups of three. Then the three—well, in this year's case, four— winning teams go to Regionals. And the winner of that goes to Nationals. We never competed because Vocal Adrenaline beat us out at Sectionals."

Kurt blinked and breathed a "huh". Blaine took a moment to examine Kurt. The little non-depressing banter seemed to have worked. Once Kurt had gotten rid of the water in his eyes it didn't come back. He wasn't frowning anymore, but unfortunately he wasn't smiling either. Which was okay. Blaine grinned.

"Sooooo…"

Blaine opened his mouth to continue on his road to asking Kurt out, but was interrupted by the door slamming open, yet again. He felt an unhealthy combination of annoyance, frustration, and anger blossom in his chest.

Seriously, what the fuck? Five minutes was all he needed. Just five freaking minutes to bring up the texts yet again. Five minutes to pick up where they had left off. Five minutes so that he could finally ask Kurt out.

But no. Finn just had to come back with Kurt's salad at that particular moment. And Puck just had to have seen Wes and David sitting somewhere that wasn't within their direct vision of Blaine. And that idiot jock just had to have dragged the both of them up here by the ear while growling threats at them while the two victims tried to stammer a defense.

He'd been trying to do this for too long now. It should not be this hard to ask a guy out. Even with his 'casual conversation' plans it shouldn't have been this hard! Well, it was time that he put his foot down.

"Alright, that's it!" Blaine shouted. He pointed accusingly at the crowd near the door. "You. Don't talk."

Puck glared and opened his mouth to say something, but apparently Blaine's 'Try Me' look was pretty good. The football player pursed his lips and folded his arms across his chest. Blaine huffed and turned to Kurt, who looked wide-eyed and confused, if not a little startled by the outburst

"I give up," he said dryly. "I've been trying to do this my way and not just be so abrupt about this. You know, sort of ease it into the conversation. But apparently our friends don't agree." He shot them a look. "So I'm just going to have to say it.

"Kurt, like you. I've been attracted to you since you stopped me in the halls all those months ago and I started to like you pretty much the moment we had an actual conversation. But I knew about how your old school went so I decided to sit back. Drop a few hints here and there. But wait till you were comfortable.

"I figured you were now. You stopped freaking out every time one of the athletes looked at you, you started to talk to people, and you went to spend a weekend with your friends and didn't worry once about anything bad happening. I was planning on doing this when you got back to Dalton, but with this whole hospital thing and me thinking you were seriously injured I figure that there's no time like the present."

He paused to take a breath and change his tone to something a little less frustrated and a little more honest.

"Kurt Hummel, would you like to go on a date with me? And no, I don't mean a lunch date, or a coffee date, or a study date that friends go on all the time. I'm talking about me and you going out to dinner and seeing Les Mis at the community theatre. Then I'll walk you to your doorstep, we'll have an awkward good-bye moment, and then I'll kiss you and ask you to be my boyfriend."

Silence.

Blaine inhaled deeply. Ohboy. Here we go. Judgment Day has finally come.

Kurt just stared at him for a moment, mouth slightly agape and eyes still wide (if anything, they were a little wider). A sudden fear gripped at Blaine's gut. What if he said no? What if he didn't really like Blaine in that way? What if he really saw him as just a mentor? What if all of those moments Blaine thought where Kurt being nervous around him wasn't because he liked him, but because he was uncomfortable and was too nice to tell him to back off a little? What if Kurt really had meant all of those times today when he said that they were 'just friends'? What if that was him trying to give Blaine the hint? What if—

"Kurt, what are you doing?"

The countertenor had pulled his phone out again, a pinkish tinge to his cheeks.

"I'm texting back my friends," He said quietly. Oh great, Blaine thought. He's probably sending them something along the lines of 'lol, not a chance in-'

"I'm telling them that Blaine isn't my boyfriend."

His heart sunk. His shoulders sagged. He clasped his hands behind his back. He actually felt his grin fall off of his face and smack on the floor.

"Right," Blaine sighed, knowing that he probably should have been trying to not show how disappointed he was.

"But," Kurt continued with a wry grin, "they should congratulate me again after my date on Saturday."

FIN

PS- I've never broken anything *knocks on wood*. Therefore I don't really know if moving your fingers with a broken arm really hurts. But since your fingers and your arms are closely related I was thinking so. If not, then shhhhhhh...