Pieces of a dragon puzzle Chapter 8

[venetianstar]

Title: Pieces of a dragon puzzle

Rating: R/NC-17

Pairings: Klaine, mentioned Niff, Fuinn&Finchel (both according to S2), Britanna, Barole

Spoilers: None

Warnings: cursing/colorful language from time to time, horny teenagers, in some parts mild dub-con, sex (does one even warn for that?)

Word Count: about 6,500 this chapter, so far appr. 51,300 in total.

A/N: Here's the next chapter folks! I'm sorry it's taking a bit longer these days to update, I hope I haven't lost too much of your interest? But here's to some very promising times with the Dalton boys <3

Also, maybe the biggest news, this story has now a tumblr blog where you can follow all the updates and can ask me any questions about the story or verse you'd like to :-) it's dragonpuzzle.tumblr.com

Summary: Kurt had really only planned to spy on the Warblers. But instead he was found out by a creepy Asian, got stuck with a heavy stone which turned out not be a stone at all and now he had a flying lizard at home who was at risk of burning down his entire wardrobe with every fiery sneeze. Dragon!Blaine/Kurt

So far:

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7



Blaine practiced from then on. Every evening, instead of watching TV or snuggling, Kurt would sit at least an hour on his bed, sometimes reading the latest Vogue, watching Blaine. The fourth evening gave them quite a scare as Blaine somehow managed to glamour one wing, but not the other. Kurt freaked out at first, thinking something had gone terribly wrong. He started screaming at Blaine, causing Carole to run in, until Blaine had been able to explain that this could happen and was normal. It just meant that he didn't have the ability to hide both wings yet, but he was progressing.

Blaine's hidden wing looked like a flesh colored tattoo with tiny bumps in the skin of his back where the bones of the wings laid underneath. Though he'd never openly admit to more, Kurt found it, at the very least, intriguing. He begged Blaine in the night not to expand his wing again until he had explored every teeny tiny bump on Blaine's back caused by the hidden wing with his fingertips. Blaine complained after a while about the goose bumps he was getting from Kurt's icy hands, so Kurt took to smoothing his fingers over the scales on the sides of Blaine's neck instead. Apparently, while they only felt like, well, scales to Kurt, for Blaine the touches felt wonderful. And if that had led to some heated make out sessions, well, they had kept their pants on.

The progress of wing-hiding slowed down for about a week; Blaine always managed to hide his left wing, but never the right one. Only at the end of March did Blaine finally managed to camouflage both of them and Kurt took only two seconds time before messaging Wes to ask him to meet them, a heavy Blaine hanging over his shoulder, urging him to just tell Wes, so he could finallyhide his scales too and get out of the house.

As much as Blaine liked the evenings with the Hudmel family and the weekends spent cuddling (and kissing) with Kurt, he was aware of how often Kurt told his friends he couldn't go out with them, and how Finn would find excuses to keep others from coming to their house. Blaine just really wanted to at least appear normal from the outside, so he and Kurt could go out like every teenage couple and finally meet Kurt's and Finn's friends. Even though Kurt had never said anything outright, Blaine saw the longing looks when Finn went on dates with his current girlfriend (Quinn) to watch a movie or go to a restaurant. Blaine had only seen dates in movies, but he wanted to have that experience with Kurt, too. Because as nice as it was to cook together, Burt and Carole were always hovering nearby and the kitchen wasn't the most romantic place. And he kind of really missed Wes and David and Nick too.

Thus, on Saturday morning, Blaine was shuffling from foot to foot, making it almost impossible for Kurt to drape a scarf around Blaine's neck and drag the beanie down low to hide all of the scales. They were supposed to meet Wes at Dalton Academy in roughly two hours and though Kurt doubted anyone would have the chance to look close enough at Blaine to get a glimpse of the scales, he wasn't taking any chances.

Blaine squeaked with surprise when the car started rolling and even though Kurt had laughed at the indignant noise (and Blaine had pouted), Kurt realized how little Blaine had really experienced so far in his life. It made Kurt feel a little creepy, maybe taking advantage of Blaine, when Blaine had never had the chance to really experience life and other possibilities.

Somehow Blaine had to have felt Kurt's insecurity, because right then, he had taken Kurt's hand in his, squeezed it reassuringly, and not let it go for the entire ride, except when Kurt had to make a turn. As they pulled up to the looming building of Dalton Academy and Blaine stared at the school, intrigued.

They got out of the car and went up to the double doors marking the entrance. It was eerily quiet. There was only one other car parked in the parking lot and no students could be heard or seen on the grounds. Kurt wondered where all the boarding students were, as the sun was shining and it was already quite warm for early spring.

Kurt stood in front of the door, inspecting the room numbers written above the single door bells, realizing he had no idea which room was Wes' and how they were supposed to find him. Just as Kurt was about to just ring the bell next to his hand (in a complete Rachel Berry-manner, but he wasn't about to disclose that), a voice sounded from the opposite direction, calling Blaine's name and as Kurt and Blaine turned they could see a faint figure of a boy with blonde hair in a Dalton uniform running towards them.

Kurt looked questioningly at Blaine, hoping Blaine would recognize the boy (as Kurt was sure he was part of the Warblers, but he didn't know him) but Blaine also only shrugged. So they waited until the boy stood in front of them, Kurt suddenly recognizing him as the boy who had led the Warblers on the song when Kurt had gone to Dalton Academy to spy.

"Blaine? And I presume Kurt?" the blonde boy smiled. Kurt nodded, seeing out of the corner of his eyes, how Blaine seemed to blink at the boy, sniffing in the air? "Great! My name's Jeff, and Wes and the others are all on the other side of the building." Jeff pointed to where he had come from, Kurt now seeing how vast the building stretched over the grounds; he couldn't even see the end of the main wing. "Come on, we'd better get going, as we are only waiting for you two now."

Jeff turned and, with a fast walking space, went back the way he came. Blaine, without any words, hurried after him and before Kurt realized, he stood alone on the stairs of the entrance still wondering who else Jeff had meant or what Jeff was even doing with Wes and David. Huffing at how Blaine had just left without waiting for him, he jogged after the two boys, who were already some yards in front of him.

After walking for about 10 minutes they finally reached the back of the school, Jeff going on and on about the building and its history. To Kurt, the boy seemed quite energetic and reminded him a bit of a toned-down version of Rachel.

The grounds behind the school were even bigger than those in front. Kurt could make out a gigantic meadow, big trees sprawled across it, connecting to the sports grounds of the school and, on the other side, trailing off into the beginning of woods. To the left side of the sports ground was a little building which Jeff led them to.

From the outside it looked like a sports shed, but when Kurt and Blaine finally entered, there was no equipment whatsoever, only one big, empty room, except for the few chairs and pillows on the ground. The lights were off, but the inside was still bright thanks to the sun shining into the building through the windows. Wes and David were sitting on two of the chairs, talking to each other. Jeff closed the door behind them and the sound made Wes and David looked up.

"Kurt!" Wes exclaimed happily, standing up and then suddenly his eyes zeroed in on Blaine.

Blaine shuffled under Wes' stare, his eyes looking down. "Hi…" he murmured shyly, wringing his hands in front of him.

For a moment Kurt was astonished how unlike himself Blaine acted, all timid and shy. But only a few seconds later, after Wes had shouted "Blaine!" with enthusiasm no one would have expected from the uptight looking boy, Blaine grinned widely and had literally thrown himself into Wes' arms, hugging him tightly and Wes hugging back. Wes laughed. "Jeez, Blaine you've grown so much since I've last seen you! And you are handsome!"

Blaine snorted into Wes' shoulder and Kurt had to bite his lip, to prevent the laughter from escaping as he saw how Wes had flinched for a moment there, discreetly checking his blazer after Blaine had loosened his hold on Wes. "The last time you "saw" me was when I was still in an egg." Blaine huffed. "So of course I've grown."

"But it would seem like you haven't gained any more weight since I last picked you up. Not that that would even be possible, you were the heaviest egg I ever had to deal with!" David grinned, before hugging Blaine, too.

Wes lunged into a thousand questions, all directed at Blaine and the three of them seemed quite occupied. Wes asked questions about Blaine's wings and balancing, so Kurt tuned them out, realizing he wouldn't understand anything. It was only then that he became aware of a tiny figure sitting on the chair next to the ones Wes and David had been in.

Curiously he approached the chair, until he could make out a scaly figure lying on it, with scales of dark ruby red and deep blues that were almost black. Golden eyes stared curiously back at him. The dragon cocked its head questioningly at Kurt as a quiet gasp escaped him, realizing how beautifulthis dragon was. It was around the size of a cat, but whereas Blaine had been a chubby dragon at the time, this creature was sleek and slim, showing off long limbs and tiny muscles beneath leathery skin. At Kurt's noise, everyone had turned to find out why Kurt had gasped, and Blaine had squeaked when he had noticed the dragon.

"Nick!" Blaine had exclaimed and had rushed over, taking the dragon into his arms and hugging it tightly to his chest. The dragon squeaked joyfully and started licking Blaine's face enthusiastically.

"I almost forgot how you two haven't even seen each other yet." Wes smiled behind Kurt, watching the two younger dragons as Blaine cooed at Nick who snarled back playfully.

"Is he the one from the other egg?" Kurt heard himself wonder aloud.

"Yes, he's actually my partner." Jeff answered with a smile. Kurt turned to Jeff, who was looking sappily at the dragon in Blaine's arms.

"But Nick hatched a few weeks later than Blaine, so he's not yet ready to start with training. He can't even turn into a human yet." David threw in.

"So, we should break up your happy reunion now," Wes said loudly as he stepped forward up to Blaine, "-and start with the training, okay Blaine? I'm pretty sure you want to get the hang out of how to charm your scales so no one can see them if you don't want them to. And I want to make sure you are secure in hiding your wings, we wouldn't want you to just lose control in a crowd and suddenly sport dragon wings. And, let's not forget this, after we've managed those steps, I want you to turn into dragon and human form back and forth within seconds. And we need to practice flying."

Blaine looked confusedly at Wes. "What? But why do I need to learn to fly? I can fly!"

Wes smiled good-naturedly. "Maybe you could fly when you were still a small dragon, but don't forget, the whole time you're a human, your dragon form still grows. And your adult form won't know how to fly without me showing you, as you have a much bigger weight to lift into the air."

Blaine pouted but didn't say anything.

"Come on, how about we go to the other end of the room, so I can instruct you in peace without this pesky flying rat annoying us." Wes grinned and took Blaine's arm to guide him away from the commotion. Nick hissed at Wes and jumped out of Blaine's arms to fly into Jeff's lap, who had sat down next to Kurt on a pillow on the ground.

"Yeah, Nick's known to annoy everyone he can." Jeff smiled as he petted Nick's head. "He just loves to breathe fire so close to our hair, all of the boys are incredibly scared he'll set one of us on fire. He's generally quite a pest and very brazen." Nick huffed and snapped at Jeff's hand. "But it's true!" Jeff laughed. Kurt stared at the dragon absolutely fascinated by its beauty, ignoring its angry, scrunched up face and hissing.

"So, how was Blaine when he was still a dragon? Was he easy to handle or did he chew holes into half your boot collection, too?" David asked Kurt. Kurt startled as all three of them stared expectedly at him.

Looking over to where Wes and a shirtless Blaine were standing on the other side of the room, Kurt shook his head, telling them how well-behaved Blaine had been all the time (well, most of the time). Blaine's muscles flexed as Wes prodded the wings hidden on his back with sharp fingers, and Kurt actually realized his boyfriend was half naked with the sun shining on his skin and that he should be staring at Blaine instead of the glittering scales of the tiny dragon lying on the pillows between him and Jeff.

The meetings continued every Saturday. Kurt and Blaine would get up early in the morning, while Burt and Finn were still sleeping. Occasionally Carole would join them at the breakfast table if she hadn't had a night shift the night before. Then the two of them would drive out to Westerville, only coming back in the evening when the sun was already down, Blaine utterly exhausted from often trying too hard.

While Wes would practice with Blaine, Kurt would sit with David, Nick and Jeff, talking about their week and progress of the dragons. Kurt was soon able to witness how annoying Nick could behave, but he still couldn't stave off his fascination with the dragon's beauty.

At the end of the second week Blaine was able to glamour his scales and could hide his wings confidently and fast. Wes then surmised it was time to start on trying to transform fluently between the human form and dragon form. When they had started that chapter of "dragon survival training" (how Kurt termed it in his head) Blaine and Kurt had both come home tired and spent the whole of Sunday in Kurt's room, Blaine whining about the green and blue bruises he'd given himself when he tried to transform and kept losing his balance. Kurt cuddled him and kissed the bruises better until Finn walked in on Kurt licking Blaine's elbow (he had had a very blue bruise there) and promptly balked, running out of the room.

Everything was going perfectly, or so Kurt had thought, when he sat in the kitchen on Monday morning with Finn, eating breakfast. Blaine was still sleeping upstairs.

By Monday afternoon his view had changed drastically.

"So, who's Blaine?" Rachel casually asked just after glee club, as she leaned against the locker next to Kurt, locking her gaze with Kurt's.

Kurt froze as his eyes almost sprang out of his head as he stared at Rachel, not daring to move an inch. His thoughts were racing, not making any sense or capable of stringing together an eluding answer."Why do you know Blaine?" Kurt hissed then, looking around the hallway, making sure they were alone.

Rachel's eyebrows rose. "Ooooh, so there really is a Blaine! And Finn told me. So-" Rachel grabbed Kurt's arm, dragging him along the hallway to the parking lot. "-who is he? Is he your boyfriend? Because Finn was complaining about catching you two making out on the weekend! Is he handsome? Where'd you find him? And why, pray tell, did you never tell me about him?" Rachel rattled on, finally shoving Kurt against his car, as Rachel stood in front of him, hands on her hips, shooting arrows at him with her eyes.

Kurt gulped. Besides being scared a tiny bit of Rachel (she was looking really mad), he wished he could wring his hands around Finn's neck. Seeing no way to escape, he told her.

One version of the truth, that is.

Yes, Blaine was his boyfriend and yes, Finn had caught them making out on Sunday. Rachel eyes lit up at this information and she squealed before hugging Kurt and congratulating him. He told her they had met went spying on the Warblers in November at Dalton. He left out the bit about Blaine being a dragon and instead telling her he was a student there they had been meeting on and off since, before they officially became boyfriends in March.

Rachel had then insisted on meeting him, then ensured it by telling every single member of New Directions by the next day, so Kurt had been attacked by half of the glee club Tuesday afternoon. Some screamed at him for having hidden his boyfriend from them (Mercedes and Tina), others congratulating him with rude remarks thrown in (Santana and Puck), and some smiling and telling him they were happy for him (Quinn and Sam). Brittany only asked him if Blaine had still scales or if he had already gotten rid of them.

Santana's quirked eyebrow and confused look at Brittany's question had prompted Kurt to just say that Blaine could hide them, hoping Santana wouldn't ask Brittany for any more insight as Kurt had gotten the impression that Santana might be the only one (aside from Brittany) to realize what Blaine really was, if she dug deep enough.

So they had held a little meet-up at Rachel's home at the end of the week, all ND members meeting Blaine and Blaine happy to make new friends and finally getting out of the house. Though he and Kurt had gone shopping at the mall a few times already, and also to the cinema, so far their outings had been few and far in between. Blaine and Brittany struck up a friendship right away as Brittany took him aside and told him about her attic dragon, and Kurt was thankful he'd schooled Blaine not to confirm being a dragon to Brittany.

Rachel brought out the alcohol after some strong encouragement (force) by Puck. Kurt and Finn didn't have anything, but Blaine wouldn't let himself be deterred from drinking cup after cup. Kurt was scared shitless that Blaine would start spilling all their secrets until Kurt realized Blaine wasn't getting drunk, no matter how much alcohol he consumed. Blaine was happy, dapper and jumpy but no more than at home on his really happy days (and those had been far more frequent in the last few weeks). At first Kurt had thought Blaine wasn't drinking alcoholic beverages, but one sip from Blaine's cup told him Blaine was most definitely drinking the strong stuff. Rachel, in a drunken stupor, managed to convince Blaine that all of them had to go on a double date the next time she had a boyfriend again, an idea Blaine had taken to enthusiastically.

After midnight only three people were still standing - Finn and Kurt, sober as when they'd arrived, and Blaine, who was just the same, but smelled like a bar. They left their friends to sleep it off, after making sure they all had a more or less comfortable place to sleep, and drove home. They snuck into the house without waking Burt or Carole and Kurt forced Blaine to take a shower and brush his teeth before being allowed to sleep in the same bed. Blaine stank and Kurt didn't want to have their whole room smell like a beer plant.

Saturday morning, Kurt could have sworn he didn't have a boyfriend with him in the kitchen but a very petulant toddler. They had gotten out of bed like every Saturday, Blaine maybe a bit more grumpy and sleepy than normal, but Blaine was always grumpy and reluctant to get out of bed when he had to wake up early. At breakfast Blaine only told Kurt that he wasn't hungry after Kurt had already prepared the pancakes. A bit irritated, but not saying anything, Kurt had shoved them into the fridge for when Finn finally got up, which might very well not be before lunch time.

Confused, Kurt had sat down with his yoghurt and organic cereal mix while Blaine slowly sipped at his tea, which Kurt had insisted on. Blaine couldn't train with Wes the whole day if he had a completely empty stomach. When Blaine wasn't looking his way Kurt hastily stashed a few granola bars into his satchel.

While Blaine normally started talking enthusiastically as soon as they had sat down at the table, this morning it was almost uncomfortably quiet. Blaine stared into his cup with a sour expression and only grumbled in answer to Kurt's sentences or questions.

The bomb dropped a few minutes later as Kurt was guiding a spoon full of yoghurt to his mouth. "I don't want to go to Dalton today," Blaine had thrown into the room.

Kurt's spoon clattered onto the table as he lost his grip on it, spewing yoghurt mixed with cereal across the tabletop, his mouth falling open. "What?" Kurt asked dumbfounded.

Blaine fidgeted in his seat, not looking up from the table. "I don't want to go."

Kurt was sure his ears were clogged. "But…we go every Saturday? The others are waiting for us." Kurt tried to persuade.

Blaine only pursed his lips, drawing patterns on his cups with his fingers.

Kurt huffed. "Blaine, seriously. You just started to transform. Wes told you it might be exhausting in the beginning, but I think you are great at it already. You'll manage it in no time!"

"It's not about transforming. I just don't want to go." Blaine's muttered answer, already with a hint of anger hidden behind it, made Kurt snap his mouth shut for a minute. Blaine was behaving completely childish and wasn't even telling him the real reason he didn't want to go.

"Fine, then spend the day with Finn and eat all the greasy pizza you can. I will go alone and just tell the others you couldn't be bothered to show up. Maybe I'll cheer on Nick to finally transform into a human if you don't care enough to go." Kurt snapped angrily. Not waiting for an answer, he dumped his breakfast into the sink, grabbed his satchel and stormed out to his car, leaving Blaine in the kitchen. If Blaine was capable of acting stupid, he could do the same.

Kurt knew it had probably been the wrong action to take, and god, did they just have their first fight? He balked a bit at the thought. But they were already late and he had been looking forward to today's training. Kurt had hoped Wes would declare Blaine fit in transformation and that maybe they could start with flyingand Kurt had been so dying to see Blaine fly.

Just as Kurt closed the car door and started the engine, the passenger door opened and Blaine plopped into the seat next to Kurt, not sparing him one glance, facing straight forward in a surly stare. Kurt started the car without a word and they drove to Dalton in silence.

As soon as they arrived at Dalton, Blaine jumped out of the car, loudly slamming the door closed behind him, before Kurt had even turned the car off. Kurt stared open-mouthed at the retreating back of his dragon, who stormed off to the backyard of Dalton without waiting for Kurt. He clenched his jaw, feeling anger rise at Blaine's behavior.

As Kurt walked in the same direction Blaine had headed, he wondered how the quarrel had escalated so quickly. It somehow reminded him of the time Kurt had run off every time Blaine had sought his presence. He huffed as he finally reached the equipment house, determined to not let his mood show and to fix things up with Blaine as soon as possible. He didn't want the Great Suffering 2.0.

As he walked inside, Blaine was already with Wes on the other side of the room, apparently practicing. Sighing, Kurt walked over to Jeff, who had Nick sitting in his lap, before he sat down in a chair between Jeff and David.

"What is up with Blaine storming in here alone? You two always arrived together and Blaine had looked like he had eaten a lemon for breakfast. What happened?" David asked.

Kurt sighed before telling them he had no idea what had happened. "Blaine didn't want to come here this morning. He denied it was because of the training, but didn't tell my why. So I maybe snapped at him, told him I'd go alone, but he still got in the car with me. Haven't spoken since then and he just stormed off without me."

Jeff whistled. "Wow, so you guys had a fight? I'd never assumed you two could ever deny each other a request."

"Yeah, well we actually had a time where we didn't speak to each other for weeks and I was a real bitch to Blaine." Kurt said, trying to blink away the burning in his eyes.

"Damn, I'm sorry," Jeff said as David silently laid a hand on Kurt's leg to offer his sympathy.

"I'll talk to him at home this evening." Kurt told them, wishing to drop the topic for now.

Around lunch Wes came over to them, Blaine flying after him in his dragon form and landing on a pillow next to Nick, who was snoring loudly.

"So, I'll just go and get some snacks for all of us. Blaine's progressing just fine, I think we might be able to start flying next week." Wes smiled, as he dumped Blaine's clothes on the floor. Blaine snorted and laid down on the pillow.

Wes vanished and Jeff and David were talking, so Kurt slipped out of the chair down to the floor, sitting next to Blaine, who side eyed Kurt as he sat down next to him, but didn't move otherwise.

"So, are we maybe ok again?" Kurt whispered.

Blaine growled. Kurt heart ached as he realized Blaine had just really growledat him.

David got up to help Wes with the snacks, and Jeff sat down and scooped Nick into his lap. The dragon woke with a startled noise, but when realizing it was only Jeff, settled down again. Kurt smiled longingly at them, wishing for things with Blaine to be okay again. He hated sitting next to Blaine without touching him.

Suddenly Kurt felt a sharp pain in his right hand and he hissed, ripping his hand away from the ground.

As he looked down, his hand was bleeding from bite marks and Blaine sat exactly where his hand had been just seconds before, hissing at him with bloodied teeth. Kurt could feel tears welling up in his eyes for good this time, as he stared at the puncture wounds on his hand, not believing Blaine could have bitten him. He sniffed as the tears slipped out of his eyes, hearing Jeff gasp as the boy saw what had happened and dimly seeing Blaine fly off into a corner in the back of the room.

"Oh god. Let me look, I can't believe it. Blaine!" Jeff shouted, affronted, to where Blaine had crouched himself into a corner, curled up in a ball, watching them with distrusting slit eyes.

Jeff took Kurt's hand into his own, inspecting the wound, as Kurt stared numbly, letting his hand and arm be manhandled any way Jeff wanted to. When Wes and David came back, Jeff told them what had happened, the both of them exchanging a sharp look, before pulling Kurt off the ground and out of the house.

They went to the nurse with him, telling her a stray cat had bitten Kurt. She tutted, but patched him up, so Kurt was sporting a white bandage around his hand when they returned to Jeff, Nick and Blaine.

Wes went over to Blaine, still in the corner, crouching down in front of him, and talked to him in a low voice that
Kurt couldn't hear from where he sat on the other side of the room. Jeff exclaimed how he couldn't believe that Blaine had bitten Kurt, telling Nick he better never dare to bite him in any way. Nick gave an affronted noise, before cuddling against Jeff, looking at him with big yellow eyes.

Kurt had to look away then, jealousy at their relationship and bitter memories of when Blaine had looked at him like this flaring through him. Blaine hissing could be heard, Wes bellowing "Don't you dare!" and then a shriek as Wes pinned Blaine to the ground with his hand.

Kurt's breath hitched as he heard Blaine's frightened shriek. Wes was sternly looking at Blaine, hissing words at him, before he released him and stormed over to Kurt and the other boys. Met with questioning and anxious looks Wes calmly said, "He snapped and tried to bite me, too. Just let him brood there for the rest of the day. I told him what I think about his behavior."

Wes turned to Kurt specifically. "Just stay away from him for the remaining time here today. He should behave himself later, but for now let him suffer."

Kurt looked dumbly at Wes, before glancing over at Blaine who had sat up on shivering legs, then curled himself into a ball again, facing the wall. His heart ached to go over and comfort his miserable bundle of scales, but he knew it wouldn't do any good right then.

So, he sat and listened to Wes, David and Jeff discussing school work, Dalton teachers, Nick and answered questions they asked him about his own school. When the sun went down, Kurt felt he had gotten to know these boys better in one afternoon than in all the weeks beforehand, and he actually felt marginally better. The bite still ached when he flexed his hand, but it was nothing he couldn't deal with.

Finally, Wes walked over to Blaine again, placing Blaine's clothes next to him and poking him. Blaine had uncurled and Kurt's heart stumbled when he saw dried tear tracks on the dragon's face. Wes gently rubbed them away before ordering him to change and go home with Kurt. "And remember what I told you." With one last stern look at Blaine, Wes turned and said goodbye to Kurt and took the others with him.

A rustling sound was heard, Kurt battling the instinct to turn and look, instead waiting until Blaine had changed into his clothes again. When he was done, Blaine stood at the entrance and Kurt wordlessly walked over, shut the door behind them and walked to the car beside Blaine.

Kurt kept subtly glancing at Blaine out of the corner of his eyes. He looked bad - his posture was covered and he almost seemed to shrink into himself. His eyes were sunken and red rimmed. The corners of his mouth were stiff and a stark contrast to his bleary, light golden eyes, which were glassy. His beautiful curls resembled more of disgruntled mop, almost passing for a stray poodle, which hadn't seen a bath in years.

Kurt bit the side of his lip, trying to refrain from addressing Blaine before they were in the car. He didn't know what would happen when they got to talk, but he didn't want any kind of scene directly under the windows of the Dalton students, which they were passing beneath.

They both silently opened their respective car doors and got in. Kurt could see the shiver in Blaine's hands as he quietly tried to fasten the seatbelt. Blaine didn't succeed, Kurt watching as his effort got more frantic. Kurt couldn't see Blaine's face, but when a suppressed sob wretched itself from Blaine's throat Kurt stilled Blaine's hands by lying his hand on top of them. He ducked his head, trying to catch Blaine's eyes, only barely suppressing the gasp he wanted to make, when he saw Blaine was crying earnestly.

Blaine's eyes were locked on the bandage on Kurt's hand, which rested atop his own. He had a pained expression in his eyes and was gulping too loud for Kurt not to hear he was suppressing sobs. All the while, Kurt could feel tears dropping down, wetting his bandage.

"Blaine…" Kurt breathed sadly, his hurt hand squeezing Blaine's hands.

Blaine's whole body started shaking then, his cries breaking free, sobbing loudly in the car. "I'm so sorry!" Blaine cried as snot run down his nose. He wretched a hand free and tried to wipe it away.

Kurt bit his lip. "It's okay, if you're sorry for the bite." Kurt smiled sadly. "But…can you at least tell me what is going on and why you bit me? I wasn't even touching you then…" Kurt murmured sadly, suddenly unsure, looking out the windshield.

Blaine choked, his nose clogging up as he tried to speak. "I hate that you like Nick that much, okay?!" he exclaimed loudly.

"What?" Kurt whipped his head to look at Blaine surprised, as it all bubbled out of Blaine.

"When you first saw Nick, you were all over him! You never gushed about me as much when you saw me. And when I trained with Wes, you'd always sit back there with Jeff and…and Nick and completely ignore me! You talk and laugh with them, and stare at Nick and never oncespare a glance at how I am doing!"

Anger and disappointment spread across Blaine's expression. He ripped his hand away from Kurt's grip, protectively wrapping his arms around himself. Kurt felt the color drain from his face, dread fast trickling into him.

"And two weeks ago? I asked Wes about the day when you got me and know what?" Blaine hissed. "He told me you didn't want me." His voice cracked as resignation laced it. "You…didn't want me. You wanted Nick. Yes, I'm not as pretty as Nick. I'm not blue and fierce red, I'm just…what? Ugly?" Kurt cringed.

"Wes didn't tell me exactly what you said, but I can just imagine it very well. I'm probably so incredibly dull to you. I thought you cared about me. God, I thought you liked me, so that maybe, just maybe, one day you'd agree to be my mate. But as soon as you saw another dragon I was the third wheel instead. Do you know how that makes me feel?

"And you know what? I counted the days from when I hatched, with your breakdown and the day Wes told me you took me with you." Blaine inhaled a lungful of air as he tried to go on, but another sob escaped instead. Kurt opened his mouth, to say something, trying to stop Blaine before all this became too much to handle for them. But Blaine held up a hand, collecting himself.

"It doesn't match up." Blaine whispered resigned, his eyes boring into Kurt's soul. "There's a time gap of about three weeks from when you took me and I first became aware of you. I thought I had only slept for, like, maybe the car ride before you took me into your arms, or maybe a few days tops, but three weeks? What did you do with me in that time?"

Kurt felt miserable like never in life before, his stomach seemingly eating itself at the accusation. God, he'd let Blaine lay in the freaking bottom of his car for weeks, completely unsafe, not caring one wee bit about him.

"You just keep messing up. After all those weeks, I had thought that I finally would never have to feel this goddamn awful again, but apparently it's always possible to feel even worse. And god, I tried to get drunk at the party, just to drown it all, and it didn't even work!" Blaine sobbed.

Kurt tried to keep his own tears in check, but in the end the waterworks won out and he joined Blaine in the ugly crying, all the anger and frustration from the morning and the bite having evaporated. Instead Kurt was rapidly blaming himself in a thousand ways. If anyone had looked into the dark car, Kurt and Blaine would have made quite a sight.

Kurt felt like the biggest ass. How could he not have seen what his behavior had (yet again) done to Blaine and shouldn't he have realized how his fawning over Nick would be perceived by once-burned Blaine?

Sadly, ignorance and endless self-conceit were things he shared with Rachel and right now they'd given him a situation he didn't know how to make better. Least of all, how to make Blaine feel any better. He had done all that Blaine accused him of, and Blaine was so broken hearted already without even knowing about lying in the car for weeks. Kurt just couldn't add this to the ugly truth. He felt so inadequate for such a gentle and loving being as Blaine.

But Kurt knew, that however miserable he felt, this couldn't be about him and his feelings (and there were multiple) - he had to show Blaine that he was in love with him somehow, didn't care for Nick one bit, and hope for any form of forgiveness.

He also knew, that talking now would make him incapable of driving them home. So he clamped down on all his feelings, swallowed and said, "I'm going to drive us home, because if I start talking right now, I don't think we'll be able to get away from here tonight. Just…for now? Please know I'm sorry for everything I've done." Kurt's tongue felt like lead in his mouth, as he turned on the car, tried to ignore the sniffing and shifting of Blaine next to him, and drove.

...tbc