For Him

Chapter 8- Home

Blaine couldn't sleep that night, knowing that Kurt wasn't in the next room over. It wasn't any different, really, without him there. Usually it was quiet in the apartment, Blaine in his bed and Kurt in his own, but there was something strange in the air. It felt too empty, too quiet, too bare without the other boy there, yet everything else was exactly the same.

Blaine sat on the couch, just waiting for Kurt to come home. He had to at some point, right? He made himself busy, organizing DVDs by those with the disc in it to those with missing discs. And then he reorganized it by genre. And then he decided it would have to do by reorganizing those alphabetically and by genre and by disc/no disc.

Eventually, it was one in the morning, and Blaine had no idea what had happened to his life. He stared at his fully organized DVD racks, vacuumed floor, folded pile of laundry, and stacks of sheet music that he'd just written, feeling nothing at all but worry and concern.

It was then that Blaine realized... Kurt wasn't coming home. Kurt wouldn't come home because he didn't want to, because it was better avoiding the problem than facing it.

"Fine!" Blaine said, standing up. "I'll just get him myself!"

Within 10 minutes, Blaine was slapped hard in the face with the smell of the bar that he knew all too well. Not because he went there to drink often, but because of Kurt. Usually, he was called to walk him back to the apartment by a concerned Phil, so that's mostly why he'd been in there.

"Hey," Blaine called, approaching the bartender. "Have you seen Kurt?"

Phil sighed, lifting up one arm and pointing to a corner. There was a bathroom door there, half open, and by the looks of it, the room was overfilled. Not to mention, there was a long line following, and barely anyone was actually enjoying their drinks in the seating area.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Blaine swore under his breath, forgetting to thank the man and proceeding towards the back.

He shoved through the people, not paying attention to the remarks that followed. One by one he picked them off, until he got to the main attraction: The stall of the one and only Kurt Hummel.

Blaine took a deep breath in, preparing himself for what was to come. He brought his fist up to knock on the door loudly, only so it would go above the noise coming from inside.

"It's Blaine." No answer. "Come on, Kurt." Nothing. "Kurt I swear if you don't come out soon-"

"Kurt isn't here right now. Please leave a message after the moan."

"Come on, we're going home."

"Fuck off! I'm busy!"

Blaine scoffed, nothing that was happening was funny. Nothing at all.

He could tell by the tone of Kurt's voice, and the way he could fully pronounce his words that he was sober. Well, maybe a sip or two, but not totally shit-faced like he usually was.

Somehow, that made the matters worse. Blaine knew that Kurt would remember all this later on, meaning he would feel ashamed and probably guilty about what happened in those bathroom stalls. Blaine couldn't yell at him either, he would never do that when Kurt was sober. Never.

~~~

Blaine waited outside the stall quietly, trying to block out the noises that his best friend- ew!- was making with some random guy- yuck- just feet away from him. He felt uncomfortable knowing this, and tried to focus on something else, perhaps the water marks on the ceiling from leakage or cockroaches in the corner.

The crack of the door snapped Blaine out of his  purposeful inattentive bubble. Out walked that random guy, limping, and putting his wallet into his back pocket.

Blaine jumped forward, blocking off the stall from the next one on line like a makeshift shield. He ignored the complaints as background noise, and stared right at Kurt, who sat on the closed lid of the toilet unaffected. He simply looked back, with a twinge of inconvenience in his eye.

"Let's go," Blaine said simply, grabbing the other man's arm and half-dragging him out of the room.

"I'm not done!" Kurt tried, pulling himself away from Blaine's grasp. It was no use. Although Blaine was shorter, he had more upper body strength, and Kurt was held in place tightly. "Leave me alone, asshole!"

Blaine looked over at Phil, flashing an embarrassed smile before leaving. Phil seemed like he understood, in the two seconds that they'd made eye contact.

Kurt stopped struggling as soon as the front doors were shut behind them. He sighed, walking along with Blaine in harmony uphill the empty street that lead to their apartment.

It was a cold night and Kurt, neither remembering nor caring enough to grab a coat on his way out, shivered against the wind. Blaine shrugged his own off, and even though the air slapped his body painfully as soon as it had left him, he kept it like that anyways.

He draped it over Kurt's shoulders, the man hugging it around himself gratefully.

"I'm sorry." Kurt said simply, keeping his head low.

Blaine decided it was best not to respond, just keep walking up the street in silence. He didn't even know what to say back. He was so disappointed, so hurt by what Kurt did. How he just left instead of talking. But God forbid
he dealt with his problems like a human being.

Blaine didn't pay attention when Kurt mumbled a small, "I think I'm gonna be sick..." and veered off by the entrance of an alleyway. He held his stomach with one arm, while the other supported him and held onto the brick wall. Kurt leaned forward, gagging and forcing what was inside to get out of his body, though it was not much.

"Woah, Kurt? What's wrong?" Blaine asked, finally snapping out of his daze and running up to Kurt. He brought up his hand, patting him on the back, and tracing circles in it with his fingertips.

Kurt stopped, leaving himself standing there with a hunched back and no breath. "Let's go... let's go home..."

Blake looked at him for a little while. He looked at the boy whose eyes refused to meet his, who was put in a bad position, who deserved better. Blaine felt pity for this boy as much as he knew he shouldn't.

"Let's go home," Blaine repeated tiredly, as he shuffled quietly against the cold wind currents.