tagging @whatstheproblembaby though I know this wasn’t her request because she knows I’ve GOT to take things that could be sweet to dark places and we’re never over our Sebastian rage feelings
Everything is red. It’s red and wet and Blaine is shaking under Kurt’s hands, curled up in a little ball on the dirty concrete.Â
The sound of Blaine screaming in pain now rings in Kurt’s ears, the New Directions gathered around them but uncharacteristically quiet in their stunned confusion. The Warblers have already scattered like – like cockroaches, Kurt thinks venomously, his fury that they would do something like this to someone they – someone they used to love, someone they followed like lemmings, igniting his temper as he fights to stay collected.
What can he do? How can he help him? How can he stop this pain?
Blaine needs him steady. He needs his anchor. And so, Kurt lets his brain run wild with mindless vermin analogies for his former show choir and focuses on swallowing his fear instead.Â
“Blaine? Baby? Can you look at me?”
Blaine whimpers in response, his face turning up towards Kurt just a little before he curls up again.
What was in that slushie? “Blaine, please, tell me what’s wrong, is it burning?”Â
“N-nnno – in my eye,” he cries, still pressing his hands to his face.Â
Kurt’s heart thumps uncomfortably. Having something stuck in Blaine’s eye is probably the worst possible scenario for whatever just happened with that slushie. Getting an eyelash in one can wreck your day, let alone chunky chemicals and artificial sugar. “Listen to me, don’t rub it in, just – can you move your hand away for me?”
Blaine’s already breathing hard, but he sniffles and takes an even deeper breath when he lets Kurt hold his trembling hands. He can open the left one a little, showing Kurt that it is red and irritated, but since the right one can’t open at all, that one seems to be the problem.
Kurt can see how hard he’s crying. “Oh… Blaine, you’ll be okay, we’re gonna… we’re gonna get help, we… Shit…” Kurt drops his chin to his chest, squeezing Blaine’s hands to comfort himself more than Blaine in that moment.
This is worse than expected. This is Blaine’s eye. Eyes are delicate, eyes are hair-trigger sensitive, the slightest injury could–Â
“I’ll call,” Quinn says, the clunky heels of her boots echoing in the parking garage as she approaches. “Where’s his phone?”Â
“Front pocket,” Kurt answers, keeping hold of Blaine’s hands. His voice has gone shaky, all attempted steadiness lost as the reality of the injury sets in. “Call his mom, we’re not far from the hospital, we can just drive, right?”
“Right.” Quinn kneels on the ground right next to them with no regard to her knees and skirt being in the syrup. She quickly scrolls through Blaine’s phone and selects a contact, pressing it to her ear with an inscrutable expression on her face. Her other hand goes to Kurt’s back and stays there.Â
“Thank you,” Kurt whispers to her, leaning down to kiss Blaine’s cheek while Quinn makes the call.Â
“Kurt, I’m sorry,” Blaine says, still wincing in pain. “This whole thing was my idea, I told them we were doing Michael, it’s my–”
“It’s not. It’s not your fault. Sebastian did this. The Warblers did this. We’ve got you, okay? I’m here.”Â
Blaine tries to open the other eye for a moment before quickly clamping it shut again. His body seems to relax a little as he squeezes Kurt’s hands and says, “Yeah.”
That “yeah” sounds like so many different things to Kurt’s ears. Blaine is blaming himself. Blaine is angry. Blaine is in excruciating pain that he can currently do nothing about.
But it also means that Blaine understands what Kurt is doing to help. Even if he’s a traitor to the New Directions, he at least has Kurt.Â
Kurt knows his friends. He knows they don’t really see Blaine that way, not after this. And when he finally registers the calming pressure of Quinn’s arm against his back as she wraps it around his shoulders, he knows that they will help him. They will help him help Blaine.
Sebastian has no idea what’s coming for him.Â
