nothing rhymes with 'circus'. chapter 11.
Title: Nothing Rhymes with Circus. Chapter 10.
Author: xonthefloor
Pairing: Dave Karofsky/Kurt Hummel.
Rating: PG for this chapter.
Warnings: Ella Greggs.
Beta: None. I'm sorry for all the bad grammar you'll find :(
Word Count: 115oo this chapter.
Genre: Supernatural/Superpowers/Romance/Angst/Drama.
Disclaimer: Pfht, if I owned Glee, Blaine wouldn't be on it.
Summary: Dave is just a humble young man whose only expectation from life is having somewhere to sleep at night. Everything changes when he's invited to join a very unique travelling circus where he'll meet a group of very peculiar people, discovering that he's not what you could call a regular guy.
A/N: This is a complete AU and time fic, that takes place in the late 30s. I’m trying to be as accurate as I can with things the way they were back then, but I apologize if something is not exactly the way it was back in the late 30s. Also, you'll notice that this is unbetaed, so I apologize in advance. English is not my first language. Any offers? I have to warn that the later chapters are quite long, since I can't never manage to write short chapters.
A/N: I’m happy to tell you that we have a new beta (Ella Greggs, you’re the world to me right now!), who’s also beta’ing the previous chapters of this fic, and also the previous chapters of About Trees and Empty Forests.
Chapter 11
Dave hardly sleeps during the night and when he wakes up in the wee hours of the morning, Kurt is still unconscious. He’s unsure how Kurt will react when he wakes up in a strange place, in a strange city. It’s more than likely Kurt's reaction will be far from good.
Kurt will have to wake up at some point, though, and remain awake, since Dave can’t really walk around, carrying a sleepy Kurt all over the country. Still, he doesn’t even want to imagine how it’s going to be traveling around with Kurt wide awake.
Something as simple as booking a hotel room could be quite difficult with what Dave assumes will be a beyond distraught Kurt.
The sun is barely rising, and Dave decides to take a quick shower - amazed that he has a shower so handy - and leave Pratt while Kurt is still asleep. They are only about two hours from the circus camp, and this city could be the first place the Dalton guys look when they don't find Kurt there.
In the middle of getting dressed, he suddenly sits down on the edge of the bed, holding his head in his hands, because worry overwhelms him when he thinks about his friends. He shakes his head quickly, though, because right now he must keep Kurt safe and that means that they have to leave before Kurt wakes up.
Kurt will probably make some kind of scene if he wakes up in public, surrounded by people, and they can’t raise suspicions since they are not far enough from the Dalton people, or so Dave assumes.
Dave opens the door of their room, peeking outside, and there’s no one around, so he hurries to put all their bags in his truck, leaving the passenger door open. Seconds later, Dave leaves the room with Kurt in his arms, placing him in his seat, and hurries to the reception, which is as deserted as the streets. Not really knowing what to do, Dave just leaves the room key on the counter.
Luckily, Kurt remains asleep, but then Dave wonders how many pills the boy took. He continues sleeping peacefully for the next two hours. When he finally starts to stir, Dave’s heart almost stops.
He realizes his eyes are more fixed on Kurt than on the road and what’s even worse is that they’re in Wichita now; it’s still early in the morning so the streets are not crowded, but that doesn’t make it any better. He’s very well aware of how Kurt’s life is; Kurt is used to seeing open fields when they camp and the cars and trailers of his friends at a far distance. Dave doesn’t even know when Kurt last saw streets, tall buildings and lots of people walking around.
He parks his truck on the side of some road - he’s not really paying attention to the route and he’s never been in Wichita before, either, so it’s not like it matters where he is.
He looks only at Kurt, who now starts moving slowly.
“Kurt?” Dave calls to him softly, not wanting to startle the kid. “Hey, Kurt?”
Kurt sighs deeply and almost comfortably, blinking slowly a couple of times. Then he goes completely still with his eyes fixed on the road in front of him. Dave stays silent and within seconds Kurt starts breathing erratically, obviously freaking out.
“Hey, it’s alright,” Dave tries to calm him down, but the boy flinches when he hears Dave's voice and finally turns around to see him.
Kurt’s staring at him with wide eyes, gasping, and Dave notices that the kid is holding on to the seat so hard his knuckles are bloodless white. “David?” Kurt whispers, sounding as terrified as he looks. “We- what-”
A car passes next to them. The driver blows the horn at another car crossing the intersection and Kurt literally jumps in his seat, completely startled. Some ladies on the sidewalk pass by them and their chatting makes Kurt jump again, and he suddenly starts struggling like he’s trying to get out of the car and escape from everything. The boy is desperately seeking the knob to open the door, and that can’t be any good.
“Kurt, Kurt!” Dave calls, launching himself at the boy and holding him tight and still. “It’s alright, I know we’re out in the open but nothing’s going to happen to you.”
Kurt clings to Dave, burying his face in Dave’s chest. “It’s too much. David, I’m scared. The future,” Kurt gasps, almost sobbing. “Make it go away.”
Dave frowns. “You’re not seeing any future now, right?”
The boy shakes his head. “But I might. Look at this place! I don’t want to be here! It’s too much! Too dangerous! Please, David!”
Dave's not sure what Kurt wants from him, or how he can help Kurt; he can’t make their surroundings just vanish and he’s not going to put Kurt to sleep yet again. It can’t be healthy for Kurt to be constantly drugged.
“Listen, I can drive us away from here,” Dave offers, feeling anxious. He needs to make Kurt feel better and he certainly doesn't have a lot of options. “To a quieter place. You won’t see any future, I’m here next to you.”
Kurt doesn’t look up, keeping his face buried in Dave’s chest, avoiding the sight of the city and the open streets. “I’m scared.”
Dave tries to push Kurt away so he can look at him, and he almost has to fight the guy since Kurt doesn’t seem willing to detach himself from Dave. “Kurt, look at me,” Dave commands and finally pushes the boy away just a few inches.
But Kurt’s frightened eyes are roaming everywhere else, his attention being drawn by every little thing around them. Dave puts his hands on each side of Kurt’s face, on his temples, blocking his view so the boy can only look at what’s in front of him, namely Dave.
“Look at me,” Dave repeats, feeling how Kurt is tugging his shirt tightly.
“Why are we here?” Kurt inquires with eyes filled with tears and a broken voice.
“I’ll explain to you later, but now I’ll get us out of here,” Dave replies, since he has a lot to explain and he won’t be able to say much while Kurt’s in this shaken state.
“Is this now?”
Dave frowns, not understanding what Kurt means. “Now what?”
Kurt’s eyes rove around, as if he was pointing out their surroundings to Dave . “The present.”
Dave swallows hard. “Yes. This is the present.”
Kurt nods quietly. “I don’t want to see it,” he says, choking back a sob. “I don’t like seeing it.”
“Let me drive us away from here, alright? You need to give me some room so I can drive,” he adds, since Kurt’s not moving over.
The boy looks even more frightened, if that’s possible. “If I let you go, the future will get me.”
“I’m right here, Kurt, next to you. Nothing’s going to happen,” Dave assures him, wishing that Kurt would accept the fact that he can block people standing much further away than the distance that’s between the two of them right now.
With a lot of effort, Dave manages to move Kurt away so he can start the car; Kurt ends up curled onto a ball on his seat, with his head bent over, eyes shut tight to avoid seeing anything, and holding Dave’s shirt with one hand - his injured hand. Dave notices that there’s blood in his shirt and on Kurt’s hand.
The wound on the boy’s hand must have opened again because of all the clutching Kurt did, and Dave can’t really change the bandages now. Kurt’s so tense and distressed that he doesn’t seem aware of the blood or any pain.
So Dave starts the car and immediately Kurt starts hyperventilating again, scared of all the sounds he’s hearing. Dave gives up; he turns around to reach for his bag, startling Kurt all over again.
“Where are you going?” Kurt asks, terrified. “Don’t go! Please don’t leave me-”
“Easy, Kurt, easy. I’m not going anywhere, I’m just getting my bag,” Dave cuts him off, taking his bag from the backseat. “I won’t give you a pill but-”
“You have my pills? Oh, thank God!” Kurt breathes out, obviously relieved.
“I'm not letting you sleep through the whole day,” he says and Kurt’s face falls. “I’ll drive us away and find a hotel where we can stay for a couple days.”
“But-”
“I can’t carry your sleeping body around,” he explains, hoping he can reason with Kurt. “Not in public.”
Kurt looks devastated. “What about chloroform? Just a bit? Please, David. The effect doesn’t last as long as with the pills if I don’t use much. You can wake me up if you shake me hard.”
Dave actually hates that one even more, since he remembers that at some point Kurt ended up in the hospital for overdosing. Still, Kurt knows better about his own drugs than Dave, so he looks inside the bag and in the process sees a first aid kit in there as well. William must have packed it, since Dave had completely forgotten about Kurt’s injured hand and he kind of needs to dress his wound soon.
But he takes the brown bottle out of the bag first and Kurt holds it as if it’s pure gold.
“Oh, God, yes,” Kurt whispers, showing a relieved smile, as Dave takes an old cloth from the glove compartment and hands it to Kurt.
The boy immediately opens the bottle with shaky hands, still ignoring his bloody hand, and pours just a little of the colorless liquid on the fabric, then gives the bottle back to Dave. Then Kurt brings the cloth to his nose, inhaling deeply, and he instantly starts fainting in his seat.
Dave sighs, not pleased in the slightest. He decides to change the bandage on Kurt’s hand right now and then get the hell out of there. The cut has opened again, so he cleans it and wraps the bandages tight enough to stop the bleeding. Having no place to dispose of them, he drops the blood stained bandages in the backseat and drives on.
As he drives away from Wichita, Dave starts thinking hard. It’s been not even one full day since they left the circus, but Dave has to figure out something because he doesn’t know how long they’ll be on the run. William told him not to stay in the same place for long, to stay in hotels, and to call some woman named Emma as often as they could. Kurt can’t be knocked out all the time, particularly if the main goal of running away is to pass unnoticed. Dave needs to have some kind of plan.
He drives for around an hour, and finds himself on a pretty deserted road when he sees a gas station in the distance. He decides to make a quick stop, since his tank is almost empty. Kurt’s asleep, so he might as well use the time to his advantage.
Dave parks his car right next to the gas pump; the station looks pretty much like the one he used to work at, but bigger and cleaner. There’s a blind man, sitting by the door with a tin cup in his hand; he’s wearing dark glasses and his white cane is resting against the wall by his side. Dave passes by him, walking inside the store.
A young boy of fifteen or sixteen greets him. “Hello, sir.”
Lord, Dave’s only twenty-four and he suddenly feels old. “Hello. I was…” he trails off as his eyes fall upon a phone booth in one corner. He blinks. “I need some gas, and… Does the phone work?”
“Yes, sir. You need me to fill your tank?”
“Oh, no I can do it, no worries,” Dave replies, since, Jesus, he knows how to fill a tank! “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“I’m not from around here and I was wondering… is there any city or town nearby?”
The boy nods eagerly. “You have Topeka just an hour from here, just follow route 335 North. Or there's Wichita, but I'm guessing that's where you’re coming from.”
Dave offers the boy a polite smile and nods. Topeka sounds good; as far as he knows, it’s a big place and they could stay there for a couple of days. He leaves the store and proceeds to fill the tank; he stares at the old blind man and a possibly good idea hits his brain.
He looks at Kurt, who’s fast asleep, and he knows how hard it will be for the boy to deal with being out in the world. Dave has seen it repeatedly, and he still remembers how frightened Kurt looked when he saw his friends crowding into his trailer, or today when he saw all the people in the streets, the buildings and the cars.
Dave also remembers when Kurt had his visions of the Dalton boys; Dave managed to calm him down, just a bit, by covering his eyes so the boy wouldn’t have such a frightening view in front of him.
Dave finishes filling his tank, and gets the wallet and the notepad from his bag. He returns to the store and tells the boy he’s going to use the phone; the boy nods, and Dave stands in the booth, craning his neck so he can still see the car clearly.
Without taking his eyes off Kurt, Dave dials the number William wrote for him, and after a few rings, he hears the voice of what sounds like a young lady.
“Pillsbury residence.”
“Er.. Good morning,” he greets, not knowing what to say. “My name is David; William gave-”
“Oh, David! It’s so good to hear from you!” she exclaims, surprising him. Does she know him? “I was dead worried. How is Kurt? Are you both alright?”
Dave has no idea who the hell this lady is, but she seems to know about them both. At the same time, there are people hunting them, so Dave's not sure if he should trust a stranger.
“Um… I’m sorry; I don’t want to be rude but… who are you?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Didn’t William tell you I’m a… friend. I know pretty much everything about you all; Will always talks about you guys and how... extraordinary you are. So you don’t have to worry, all your secrets are safe with me.”
Dave feels a bit more relaxed; she must be one of them. “Kurt’s… just sleeping; he woke up in the city and got pretty upset. I haven't told him what went down, yet, he's been way too stressed.”
“Poor thing.”
“Do you know about the others? If they are alright?” Dave can’t help asking, and he immediately stops breathing, expecting the worse.
“They are all safe,” she tells him and a wave of relief washes over him.
“Oh, thank God.”
“Yes. Santana showed up here early in the morning to let me know. They all split up, but she checked on everyone,” Emma explains. “Her gift is pretty handy at times like these, I guess. They’re all worried about you two, so I’m glad I’ll be able to give them good news.”
Dave nods, even if she can’t see him. “So they’re all safe, right?”
“They managed to run away before the Dalton people got to the camp,” she tells him. “William stayed nearby, though, hiding in the woods with Artie, Noah, Brittany and Lily. It’s hard to pass unnoticed when you are towing a tiger’s cage. They saw them arriving, the Dalton guys were pretty upset to find a deserted camp. William and his group are heading here now, so they can hide Lily here. I guess they’ll arrive in a few days. I’ve got news from all the other kids and they’re alright.”
“Good. That’s good.”
“Except Sebastian,” she says with a sad voice and Dave’s stomach flips.
“What? What happened to him?”
Emma sighs on the other end of the line. “I think he decided to join the Dalton gang; you know, because of Blaine. They all split up very fast into small groups and it was messy at first. It wasn’t until Santana started checking on the guys that she realized that Sebastian wasn’t with any of them. He must have stayed behind.”
Dave runs his hand over his face; he can’t believe this. “Shit.”
“It was always a possibility; Sebastian and Blaine… well, you know.”
“Yeah, I guess. It doesn’t make it any better, though,” Dave says, and he wonders if he should tell Kurt about this. He doesn’t want to upset Kurt more and he doesn’t know how close Kurt and Sebastian were.
But at least none of them are hurt and that’s what matters most.
“We think the Dalton people are still around, looking for you all. They split up as well, or so Will believes, trying to track the New Directions groups. You need to be careful, David.”
“I’m heading to Topeka now; we’ll get a room and stay there for a couple of days so I can explain what happened to Kurt and see if I can… I don’t know, figure some way for him to be less scared.”
“That’s good. Topeka is a large city; try to lay low and call me as soon as you can. I’ll give you news about the others, and I will give them news about you.”
“Alright. Nice talking to you,” he says truthfully, since even if he doesn’t know her, it’s like talking to someone from the circus, and for a little while he doesn’t feel so alone.
“You too. Take care, and I’ll be waiting for your next call.”
“Bye, Emma.”
“Bye, David.”
He hangs up. His friends are safe and that’s a huge relief; Dave wasn’t aware of how distressed he was, worrying about his friends, until now, when he feels like he can breathe in peace again. He feels like he just got rid of a heavy rock that was pressing on his chest.
It’s terrible what happened with Sebastian, and he can’t understand how Sebastian could choose to leave with people who planned to hurt them, but at the same time, he can’t really be mad at him. His friends have mentioned on multiple occasions how close Blaine and Sebastian were, and how wretched Sebastian was when Blaine left.
It’s obvious now that Sebastian could never get over the guy, and that he must love Blaine tremendously if he decided to join the Dalton boys because of him.
Dave walks to the counter and pays for the gas. “What’s with the old man by the door?”
“He’s Mister Balk,” the boy tells him. “My neighbor. He’s alright. Since he became blind and lost his job, he comes here asking for change to help his daughters. It's a tough break in this economy.”
Dave nods. “Yeah. Have a good day.”
“You too, sir.”
When Dave leaves the store, the blind old man is still there, sitting on a stool by the door. His white cane is resting against the wall. Dave feels horrible for what he’s about to do, but he needs to keep Kurt safe. To achieve that, Dave has to at least figure out a way to disguise Kurt’s ‘craziness’ from people.
The old man seems to realize that he’s not alone. “Can you spare some change?” he asks politely.
“Sure, here” he says, placing a ten dollar bill in the old man’s hand.
The blind man looks suddenly surprised, probably because he usually only gets a few coins. “A dollar, sir?” he asks.
Dave moves in closer, trying not to make a sound, and silently picks up the white cane. “It’s a ten.”
“A ten? Oh, sir! You’re very generous! Are you sure?”
Dave hides the white cane behind his back, just in case the boy comes out and sees him stealing it from an old blind man. “I’m sure. Have a nice day.”
“Thank you so much, sir!”
Dave sees the old man put the ten bucks in one of his pockets with a huge smile on his face. Ten dollars is a lot of money nowadays, so Dave hopes that will compensate the man for the loss of his cane and any trouble he has replacing it.
Dave gets back in his truck and starts the engine, feeling relieved now that he has what could be a good plan. He drives just for half an hour, and parks the truck on the side of the road. Kurt has been sleeping for almost two hours, and Dave decides that he’s not going to drive into another large city with a passed out Kurt.
He waits ten minutes and then he gets tired of waiting for Kurt to wake up, so he starts shaking him gently. “Kurt? Kurt, c’mon, wake up,” he says in a firm voice.
Kurt was right about the chloroform, since he quickly starts stirring and he blinks lazily, like he’s trying to focus. He looks quite drowsy, so Dave gives him a couple of minutes to come back to himself and when Kurt does, it’s just like it was a couple of hours ago: the boy jumps in place and starts hyperventilating again.
Dave rolls his eyes; this is going to be a very long trip.
He holds the boy, trying to comfort him. “It’s alright; it’s an open space, I know, but no one’s around, see? We're alone.”
Kurt nods, but he doesn’t look any more relaxed. Once again, the guy is pressed to Dave’s chest and Dave has to admit that he’s getting used to having no personal space when Kurt’s around.
“Where are we?” Kurt finally asks.
“We’re still in Kansas, heading to Topeka. I’ll explain everything to you later, but we should find a room soon and we can stay there for a couple of days.”
“Why are we here? What happened? Where is everyone?”
“Everyone’s fine, you don’t have to worry about that. As for us, William asked me to get you safely away,” Dave explains quietly. “The Dalton boys are looking for us.” Kurt’s breathing starts picking up again. “We’re going to be alright, but I need you to do something for me.”
“What?”
“You’re not going to like this,” Dave mumbles under his breath, staring at the road and hoping that no cars pass by. Kurt is doing a remarkable job, since in the last couple of minutes the kid hasn’t jumped in place once. “We’ll have to stay in crowded cities, and William said we have to keep a low profile since those guys are after us.”
“Oh, God,” Kurt whispers, sounding broken. “I won’t be able to-”
“We can do it,” Dave assures him. “Remember when I brought you back to your trailer the day you ran into the open? What you saw scared you, and I covered your eyes so you wouldn't be so scared?”
Kurt nods. “But you can’t cover my eyes all time, David; that’s not low profile. I don’t want to be around people… I won’t be able to not go crazy.”
“I have an idea how we can disguise it.” It’s incredibly weird to maintain a conversation with a boy who has his face buried in your chest, but at least they’re talking and Kurt’s getting most of the things he’s saying. “Now, I’ve got a white cane and we can cover your eyes with bandages-”
“You’re making me a blind man?” Kurt inquires, not sounding very thrilled.
Dave rolls his eyes. “Better a blind guy than a guy who’s afraid because he sees the future, Kurt. No one’s going to ask anything beyond how you got blinded, no one would be so rude. Even if the Dalton people are around, they don’t know I exist and William said they don’t know what you look like, except for Jesse and Blaine. So we’d be just a guy leading a blind guy; I could say you’re my brother.”
Kurt stays silent for several seconds. “I don’t think that will be enough. I don’t think I can help being frightened by the sounds of… people and cars and stuff, David.”
“I’ll be there with you. And because you’ll be blind, you can hold onto me if you need to and no one will think it's anything weird,” he says, since that’s something Dave was worried about.
Kurt always seems afraid to let go of him. It’s not like he and Kurt are… anything romantic, and Dave has kind of gotten used to it., But one guy holding another guy in public would definitely draw attention. If they played the blind guy act, though, it would be just fine.
“You won’t leave me, right?”
“I’d never leave you,” Dave tells him honestly. “I’m here to look after you. I’m not going to leave you alone, especially not in public. You have to trust me.”
“Alright.”
Dave smiles. They are making progress and he's feeling a little more optimistic about their future. “You have to change your clothes first. You’re still on your pajamas, and we can’t walk into a hotel with you looking like that. I’ve got clothes from Artie for you.”
Now Kurt looks up, meeting Dave’s eyes. The boy is frowning. “Artie’s clothes?” he asks, almost upset. “Why? What about my clothes?”
Seriously, has Kurt ever been in public? Dave’s aware that due to his gift, Kurt has spent most of his life almost isolated from the world, but didn’t the boy notice that no man wears the things he does? Kurt might not see men in general, but the guys in the circus spend a lot of time with Kurt and none of them dresses anything like the boy. Dave actually likes the way Kurt dresses a lot, but it's just not appropriate outside the circus.
“They're a bit flashy, Kurt,” Dave tells him, trying not to hurt his feelings. “William said that if you wore your clothes, you’d have a lot of people staring at you.”
Kurt sighs, nodding. Dave takes the bag from the backseat and hands it to Kurt, who’s finally giving him some space. The boy puts a pair of brown pants over his pajama bottoms and a coat over his pajama top. Then he pulls on some socks and ankle boots and looks down at himself, completely devastated.
“I look horrible,” he says, and Dave quivers a smile. He likes seeing a more relaxed Kurt, and he wonders if he’ll be able to see a normal Kurt; the Kurt that his friends get to see.
“You’re just fine. Now turn around, I’ll cover your eyes.”
Kurt nods again, and it seems like this is something that Kurt’s fine with; as soon as Dave starts wrapping the bandages around Kurt’s head, covering his eyes, the kid seems to relax a bit.
“It would be great if we had dark glasses, but for now, if anyone asks, you’re newly blind,” Dave tells him. “That will explain the bandages.”
“Alright.”
“I’m going to start the car now, so don’t be startled,” David says, considering it best to explain everything carefully to Kurt, so nothing will catch him off guard. “I’ll let you know when we get to Topeka; there’s probably going to be a lot of noise, it’s not even noon yet, so there will be plenty of people.”
He sees Kurt swallow hard and his brows knit together above the bandages; it’s obvious that the boy is already suffering in anticipation. Kurt says nothing, though, so Dave starts the engine and Kurt leans against the seat at his side and rests a hand on Dave’s thigh.
Dave stays still when he feels Kurt’s hand there, looking down at it.
He doesn’t mind Kurt always touching him, in fact, by now he's getting used to it. Dave believes it’s his way of making sure that Dave is right there with him. It doesn’t make much sense, though; after all, who would be driving the car if Dave wasn’t there? Yet it seems that Kurt doesn’t let himself take anything for granted, so Dave doesn’t push the boy away.
It's funny - because of all the mess, the escaping, the Dalton people and Kurt’s stress, Dave had completely forgotten about how attractive he finds Kurt, in spite of the boy's messy personal situation. But now Kurt's hand is on his thigh. Dave determines he won’t get aroused by Kurt touching him there.
Instead, he takes a deep breath and starts driving towards Topeka.
Kurt remains silent, but only until they reach the outskirts of the city and he can hear traffic sounds getting louder and more frequent. Then the boy curls up into a ball, covering one of his ears with one hand and tightening his grip on Dave’s thigh with the other. Dave decides to find a hotel quickly so he can get Kurt away from the street noise, but he doesn’t stop to ask for directions since that would probably distress the boy even more.
Dave drives randomly up and down the streets of Topeka; he didn’t travel much before joining the circus, at least not far enough to know his way around the Midwest. Plus, all the traveling he did with the circus was just to small towns and villages, so it doesn’t compare with places like Topeka, Wichita, or any of the other big cities they're supposed to hide in.
He’s sure he must be driving around in circles until he finally spots what seems to be a very large hotel in the distance.
“I think I found a place to stay,” Dave announces, driving in the direction of the big building.
“I don’t want to get out,” Kurt tells him with a small voice.
“We don't have much of a choice. But look on the bright side; we won’t have to go outside for the next two or three days,” he says, trying to convince Kurt. “More or less. We’ll have to buy food at some point.”
Kurt groans. “David…”
“I know, I know. Let’s find a room where we can be more comfortable and figure this out together,” he says, feeling in a hurry. Just like he predicted, the city is noisy and Kurt has been breathing erratically for the past fifteen minutes; his fingers are pressing quite painfully into Dave’s thigh, so Dave is eager to get Kurt inside as soon as he can.
As they get closer to the big building, Dave believes it’s going to be somewhat expensive. It’s not a motel like the last time, but a proper building. Still, this place looks like it has a couple dozen rooms, so lots of guests, and William and the guys told him the Dalton people wouldn’t try to do anything to them in public.
Dave guesses that this is the kind of hotel they should look for from now and on, instead of motels.
He also notices, as he’s looking for a place to park, that there are several stores right near the building, so if they need something, they won’t have to go far.
“I’m parking the car now,” Dave lets Kurt know. “We’ll pick up our bags, and we’ll get out of the car. We’re not far from the entrance, so it won’t take us long to get there.”
Shaking and almost sobbing, Kurt only says, “David.”
But Dave parks his truck and then he turns to face Kurt. “You can do it; I know you can. I’ll be here, right next to you. It’s going to be scary, but it will be just a few minutes, just until we get in the room. After that, we won’t leave the room if you don’t want us to.”
“We’ll have walls?”
Dave frowns at the obvious question. “Er... yes? Rooms come with walls.”
Kurt swallows hard, and Dave believes he’s trying to gather his courage. The kid says nothing for a few seconds, then holds his head high. “Alright, let’s do this. But we have to be quick, I won’t-”
“You’ve got it,” Dave says with a wide smile on his face, already getting their stuff from the back seat. “We’ll be super fast, I promise. You take this,” he hands Kurt the white cane. “And you’ll carry this bag. I’ll get the rest.”
He hangs the sailor bag on Kurt’s shoulder and grabs the other stuff. He realizes that Kurt's going to have to let him go to get out of the car, and he stays still for a second, analyzing the situation. Normal people would get out of the car and meet on the sidewalk, but neither of them is normal, Kurt even less so. They’d be apart for a few seconds, but it’s the first time Kurt’s doing something like this and Dave doesn't want to stress Kurt any more than he has to.
“Now you’ll grab my hand, and I’ll step out,” Dave extends his hand, and Kurt snatches it quickly. Dave highly doubts Kurt will be able to handle having his eyes covered in a crowded city without being able to feel where Dave is all the time. “You climb over my seat, alright?”
He sees Kurt frown at first, but then he says, “Oh,” and nods.
Dave helps Kurt out of the truck. As soon as Kurt’s feet touch the pavement, he quickly presses himself against Dave, holding onto him as if otherwise he'd fall off a cliff.
“It’s alright, Kurt. You’re going to be fine,” Dave whispers to his ear. The sound of the passing cars only makes Kurt tremble more and Dave holds him tight. “Why don’t we get going? The faster we go, the faster you’ll have walls.”
Kurt nods, and locks an arm around Dave’s. “Just don’t let me go.”
“I won’t.”
Dave starts leading the way to the hotel’s entrance, carefully, since even if they’re only pretending Kurt is blind, the guy can’t actually see where he’s going. Almost instinctively, Kurt uses the cane to feel along the ground beneath his feet and while it’s a shame they have to do this, Dave considers it adds verisimilitude to their act.
“We’re just a few feet away,” Dave tells Kurt, who keeps flinching every time he feels or hears someone walking by.
It doesn’t take long to get inside the building; Kurt seems a little relieved at not being on the street, but not very much. The reception is large and very fancy, at least it seems that way to Dave, who has never been in a place like this, but he doesn’t take much time to admire his surroundings.
“Heading to the counter,” Dave whispers to Kurt. “There’s just one lady and a bellboy.”
Kurt nods again, but he still tightens his grip around Dave’s arm, and stands a little behind Dave when the receptionist greets them. Dave feels Kurt’s forehead pressed into the back of his shoulder, the boy is obviously trying to hide himself.
“Welcome to the Jayhawk Hotel, my name is Mindy. What can I do for you?”
The girl eyes Kurt, but it's a pitying look, which is a good sign: she’s buying that Kurt’s supposedly blind, rather than a circus freak.
“Good afternoon to you, too,” Dave replies politely. He’s definitely feeling very good about their plan. “We need a room for a couple of days.”
“We have some double bed rooms available. Would you like the upper stories or something closer to the streets?”
“I really don’t mind.”
“Something high up,” Kurt interrupts them.
The girl stays still for a few seconds and then nods. “Ninth floor alright? The room faces the back of the building, so it's quieter.” Dave nods. “Well, let me get your names down here. The room is $3.65 per night.”
“We’ll stay for two nights,” Dave tells her and she nods again.
Mindy nods, grabbing a big book and a pen. Dave realizes he will have to give fake names and he does his best to come up with something. “Name please?”
“Cameron,” Dave says right away, since his old boss’s name is the first one that comes to mind. “John and Mike Cameron.” He makes a mental note to remember those names, at least as long as they’re in Topeka.
Mindy looks up. “Oh, you’re related?”
“Brothers.”
She smiles at him and looks sympathetically at Kurt again. The girl bends over, inviting Dave to do the same. “Is he alright?” she whispers to him, sounding concerned, and he gets that she’s talking about Kurt’s supposed blindness.
Dave pulls a sad face. “It happened recently; he’s just getting used to it and it’s a bit scary for him,” he lies.
“Poor thing.”
Dave nods, pressing his lips. “We’re on our way to our parents in Chicago. He really needs them now.”
It’s almost like Mindy is seeing suffering puppies, she suddenly looks sadder than he does and straightens back up. “Well, you sign here,” she pushes the book forwards, pointing to where Dave has to sign. “That will be $7.30.”
Dave pays the receptionist, who hands to him the keys for room 910. The young bellboy asks them to follow him and leads them to an elevator. Dave has used elevators just a couple of times, long ago, but he has no clue what Kurt’s life was like before he started seeing people’s future. He hopes the elevator won’t be too scary for him.
“We’re getting into an elevator.”
Kurt’s arm tightens again around Dave’s arm. “I’ve never been in one.”
The bellboy laughs. “Trust me, it’s nothing. You'll hardly even know we're moving.”
Dave keeps on walking slowly, making sure Kurt doesn't trip over anything. Kurt takes hesitant steps, taping the floor with the white cane, and the bellboy, like the receptionist, watches the supposedly recently blinded young boy with pitying eyes. It seems their charade is working very well.
The ride in the elevator is not as traumatic for Kurt as Dave thought it would be, probably because being in an elevator - at least this one - is just standing still; Kurt seems more scared of the strange bellboy standing next to him.
Luckily for them both, they reach the ninth floor quickly and the bellboy leaves them alone once they get to room 910. Dave hardly has time to tip the bellboy for carrying their bags before Kurt practically drags him inside and slams the door shut. Kurt’s breathing quickly again, frantically pulling the bandages down to uncover his eyes.
“Thank God,” Kurt whispers with his eyes filled with tears and Dave feels bad for him. He can’t even imagine how much tension Kurt must have been bottling up.
So Dave wraps his arms around Kurt, trying to comfort him. “See? We made it; you made it. I told you you could do it.”
Kurt lets out a relieved sigh and releases Dave so he can rest his back against the wall. Dave's not sure what Kurt 's thing about walls is, but if they relax him, Dave’s fine with it. He places all the bags on the bed and sits down. The room looks as nice as the rest of the hotel. It’s tidy and cozy and, more importantly, it’s quiet; they’re on the ninth floor, so there’s no noises coming from the streets and Dave realizes why Kurt asked for a room in a high up floor.
Hopefully, Kurt will be comfortable in here.
Kurt steps closer to the bed, sitting close to Dave; then he lies down, running his hand over Dave’s back in the process. “Thank you for helping me through this. I know I’m not the easiest person to be around.”
Dave looks down at him, and it’s almost painful. He has seen Kurt distressed in repeated occasions, but those times don't compare to this. For a start, Kurt looks weird in Artie’s clothes; not because they don’t fit but because they don’t look right on him. The bandages that were covering his eyes are now around his neck, his hair is disheveled and his eyes show a new level of distress.
“It’s not your fault,” Dave tells him quietly. “I can’t even imagine how hard this is for you.”
It looks like Kurt’s making a great effort not to burst into tears. Dave starts explaining to him what happened the night they ran away, the stops Dave made, when he saw the Dalton people in Greensburg and the night they spend in Pratt.
“You said everyone else is fine. How do you know?”
“William told me to call a woman named Emma,” he says, and Kurt’s lips twitch in a smile. “I did when I stopped for gas. You were passed out from the chloroform. She said that Santana told her they’re all safe. You know her?”
Kurt sighs, deeply and almost sadly. “Like I know most people. She lives in Maine. The circus went there a couple of times and she visited our camp, but I never met her personally. I used to see her a lot in William’s future. Now I mostly see her in Santana’s future.”
“Who is she?”
Kurt smiles, almost giggling, and Dave’s heart warms since he has never seen Kurt smile like this. Clearly, Kurt is slowly calming down; he’s relaxing in bed, there are no sounds of cars or people, and there are walls surrounding them which ease the boy.
“She’s sort of William’s girlfriend,” Kurt informs him and Dave arches an eyebrow.
There are plenty more urgent things to talk about, like what they are going to do later, when they’re going to buy food, and mostly the travel plans that they have to make, which will involve Kurt being around people more often than they’d like. All those things are more important than William’s romantic life. Yet Kurt had been through a lot today, and Dave’s sure that this moment of relaxation won’t last long. Talking about this Emma woman seems to be interesting or amusing to Kurt; maybe it makes Kurt feel more connected to his absent friends in the circus, so Dave listens to him carefully.
“Sort of?”
“William doesn’t talk much about it. He pretty much devotes his life to us; Emma has her own life in Maine, and he doesn’t dare ask her to come with us. So it’s like, they love each other, but don’t say it because they can’t be together.”
Dave frowns, since that’s a pretty sad story.
“But the guys tease William all time,” Kurt continues, smiling, “saying he should ask her already. From what I feel, William is very much in love with Emma, and he doesn’t want her to change her life completely for him. But I think Emma is waiting for William to ask her that.”
Dave frowns again, not getting what Kurt is saying. “What do you mean, 'from what you feel'?”
Kurt stares at him puzzled, like he’s wondering why his words are not being understood. “I feel his love for her, when he talks to her on the phone. Or sometimes when he thinks about her while he's doing something else.”
It takes Dave a few seconds to catch on. “You mean when you see William’s future and he’s talking to her, you can feel stuff?”
Kurt nods. “When I’m caught off guard and the visions strike me hard, usually yes, I can feel what… the people in my visions are feeling. I almost become the person whose future I'm seeing.”
Finn told Dave that sometimes Kurt acts out the future as he’s seeing it. But Dave has never seen Kurt having visions, since he cancels Kurt's ability when he’s around. Still, he didn’t know that Kurt could also get feelings from them.
“Wow.”
Kurt chuckles, clearly not happy about it. “Anyway, she’s been around since forever, or at least since I joined the circus. I saw her in some of the other guy’s futures when we were in Maine; they all got to know her. Now it’s just Santana and William.”
“Emma said Santana was at her place,” Dave tells Kurt, laying on his side since his neck is starting to ache from looking down at the boy.
“Well, Santana is our mailman,” Kurt tells him, as if it's something obvious, and Dave finds himself again smack up against something he didn’t know. “Or mail woman, to be more precise.”
“How come?”
Dave is aware that the guys write letters to their families, the ones that are in touch with them, anyway, but he never gave much thought to how they manage to receive mail when they’re always moving from place to place.
“We use the regular post office to send letters, but all the replies arrive at Emma’s place. When there’s mail, she lets William know and Santana has been at her house, so she just shows up there, in the basement to make sure no one sees her, to pick up the letters.”
Dave nods, impressed; he feels kind of silly, because he’s been in the circus for some months and there are still so many things that he doesn’t know and never even thought to ask about. On the other hand, maybe he'll have a chance to get some much-needed information from Kurt while they're on the road.
They talk a bit more and Dave avoids the topic of the Dalton people, or that Sebastian has joined them, or their running away, or anything else that might distress Kurt. Dave brings out the bag with food, and neither of them discuss what they’re going to eat tomorrow, since what they have now is enough for today.
Kurt gets agitated again when Dave gets up to use the bathroom, and Dave has to take him by the hand and actually show him the bathroom and point out there’s no way Dave can leave that way, since there are no windows in there and even if there were, they're on the ninth floor.
It’s a bit frustrating for Dave, having to explain yet again that he won't leave Kurt, since he wouldn’t even consider doing such a thing on the first place. But he knows this whole situation must be pretty hard for Kurt and it's too much to expect the boy to put himself in Dave's shoes, so he tries to be patient.
When he sees the bathroom, Kurt realizes he really needs to use it as well and Dave lets him go first, always talking to him through the door so Kurt will know for certain that Dave hasn’t left him alone.
Dave feels really exhausted by the time the sun starts to set, and they both decide to go to bed. Much to Dave’s surprise, Kurt doesn’t ask for his pills, so Dave assumes the boy is feeling equally tired and doesn't need to take anything to help him to sleep.
Dave leaves the bathroom light on and the door slightly ajar, so they won’t be in complete darkness once the sun goes down; that way all night Kurt will be able to see that Dave’s still right there.
He doesn’t know how many people are staying at the hotel, or if there are any people besides them on the ninth floor, but he’s sure the Dalton people won’t be able to kidnap Kurt from here; they wouldn't be able to carry the boy out without people seeing. And like him and Kurt, the Dalton guys must also pass unnoticed. When Dave rests his head on the pillow, he sighs, relaxed, because despite all the tension of their second day on the run, he managed to keep Kurt safe.
He quickly falls asleep.
Sometime later, Dave wakes up drowsily. The room is dark, except for the light coming from the bathroom, and it's dead silent, but Dave quickly realizes that Kurt is not in his bed. He’s about to panic and probably die of a heart attack, when he feels Kurt’s warm hand squeezing his.
“Kurt?”
He props himself up on an elbow, only to find Kurt sitting in the floor next to his bed with his arm resting on the mattress, holding Dave's hand. Kurt looks up with eyes full of guilt.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
Dave shakes his head. “You didn’t. What are you doing?”
“I… I’m scared. I can’t sleep,” Kurt says, his voice sounding pained. “Every time I close my eyes, I have to force myself to open them just to make sure you’re still here.”
Dave is as tired and sleepy as he is resigned to Kurt’s irrational fear. He understands why Kurt’s so scared, but the reality is that Dave can’t possibly abandon the room in a matter of seconds, let alone do it without making enough noise to let Kurt know he’s doing such a thing.
He sighs. “Do you want to lay down here with me?
“What?”
Dave really wants to go back to sleep, and honestly, that's the only reason he's inviting Kurt into his bed. Dave's aware that once he’s wide awake, he’ll feel uncomfortable about sharing the bed with Kurt, a boy he finds incredibly attractive but who’s so broken and disturbed that Dave can’t have him.
But Dave is here to keep Kurt safe, and right now he’s only thinking about a way to make him get some sleep.
“It’s a single bed, you’ll be constantly aware that I’m right next to you since we won’t have much room.”
Kurt goes silent for several seconds and Dave lays back on the mattress. Well, he tried. Despite the circus being open to homosexuality, it seems Kurt is uncomfortable sharing a bed with another guy.
“You won’t mind?”
Dave scoots over, pulling Kurt by his hand and the boy lays down next to him. Kurt seems a bit tense at first, but once Dave pulls the covers over them both, he feels Kurt’s body easing.
Kurt wraps his hands around Dave's arm.
“I’m sorry for this, David.”
Dave only yawns. “You don’t have to worry, alright? Try to get some sleep; it’s been a long day.”
Kurt nods and even though Dave is bone tired, he forces himself to remain awake until Kurt falls asleep first. Fortunately, just a few minutes go by until he hears Kurt breathing steadily, and his hands loosen around Dave’s arm.
Finally, Dave lets himself sleep in peace.
Author: xonthefloor
Pairing: Dave Karofsky/Kurt Hummel.
Rating: PG for this chapter.
Warnings: Ella Greggs.
Beta: None. I'm sorry for all the bad grammar you'll find :(
Word Count: 115oo this chapter.
Genre: Supernatural/Superpowers/Romance/Angst/Drama.
Disclaimer: Pfht, if I owned Glee, Blaine wouldn't be on it.
Summary: Dave is just a humble young man whose only expectation from life is having somewhere to sleep at night. Everything changes when he's invited to join a very unique travelling circus where he'll meet a group of very peculiar people, discovering that he's not what you could call a regular guy.
A/N: This is a complete AU and time fic, that takes place in the late 30s. I’m trying to be as accurate as I can with things the way they were back then, but I apologize if something is not exactly the way it was back in the late 30s. Also, you'll notice that this is unbetaed, so I apologize in advance. English is not my first language. Any offers? I have to warn that the later chapters are quite long, since I can't never manage to write short chapters.
A/N: I’m happy to tell you that we have a new beta (Ella Greggs, you’re the world to me right now!), who’s also beta’ing the previous chapters of this fic, and also the previous chapters of About Trees and Empty Forests.
Chapter 11
Dave hardly sleeps during the night and when he wakes up in the wee hours of the morning, Kurt is still unconscious. He’s unsure how Kurt will react when he wakes up in a strange place, in a strange city. It’s more than likely Kurt's reaction will be far from good.
Kurt will have to wake up at some point, though, and remain awake, since Dave can’t really walk around, carrying a sleepy Kurt all over the country. Still, he doesn’t even want to imagine how it’s going to be traveling around with Kurt wide awake.
Something as simple as booking a hotel room could be quite difficult with what Dave assumes will be a beyond distraught Kurt.
The sun is barely rising, and Dave decides to take a quick shower - amazed that he has a shower so handy - and leave Pratt while Kurt is still asleep. They are only about two hours from the circus camp, and this city could be the first place the Dalton guys look when they don't find Kurt there.
In the middle of getting dressed, he suddenly sits down on the edge of the bed, holding his head in his hands, because worry overwhelms him when he thinks about his friends. He shakes his head quickly, though, because right now he must keep Kurt safe and that means that they have to leave before Kurt wakes up.
Kurt will probably make some kind of scene if he wakes up in public, surrounded by people, and they can’t raise suspicions since they are not far enough from the Dalton people, or so Dave assumes.
Dave opens the door of their room, peeking outside, and there’s no one around, so he hurries to put all their bags in his truck, leaving the passenger door open. Seconds later, Dave leaves the room with Kurt in his arms, placing him in his seat, and hurries to the reception, which is as deserted as the streets. Not really knowing what to do, Dave just leaves the room key on the counter.
Luckily, Kurt remains asleep, but then Dave wonders how many pills the boy took. He continues sleeping peacefully for the next two hours. When he finally starts to stir, Dave’s heart almost stops.
He realizes his eyes are more fixed on Kurt than on the road and what’s even worse is that they’re in Wichita now; it’s still early in the morning so the streets are not crowded, but that doesn’t make it any better. He’s very well aware of how Kurt’s life is; Kurt is used to seeing open fields when they camp and the cars and trailers of his friends at a far distance. Dave doesn’t even know when Kurt last saw streets, tall buildings and lots of people walking around.
He parks his truck on the side of some road - he’s not really paying attention to the route and he’s never been in Wichita before, either, so it’s not like it matters where he is.
He looks only at Kurt, who now starts moving slowly.
“Kurt?” Dave calls to him softly, not wanting to startle the kid. “Hey, Kurt?”
Kurt sighs deeply and almost comfortably, blinking slowly a couple of times. Then he goes completely still with his eyes fixed on the road in front of him. Dave stays silent and within seconds Kurt starts breathing erratically, obviously freaking out.
“Hey, it’s alright,” Dave tries to calm him down, but the boy flinches when he hears Dave's voice and finally turns around to see him.
Kurt’s staring at him with wide eyes, gasping, and Dave notices that the kid is holding on to the seat so hard his knuckles are bloodless white. “David?” Kurt whispers, sounding as terrified as he looks. “We- what-”
A car passes next to them. The driver blows the horn at another car crossing the intersection and Kurt literally jumps in his seat, completely startled. Some ladies on the sidewalk pass by them and their chatting makes Kurt jump again, and he suddenly starts struggling like he’s trying to get out of the car and escape from everything. The boy is desperately seeking the knob to open the door, and that can’t be any good.
“Kurt, Kurt!” Dave calls, launching himself at the boy and holding him tight and still. “It’s alright, I know we’re out in the open but nothing’s going to happen to you.”
Kurt clings to Dave, burying his face in Dave’s chest. “It’s too much. David, I’m scared. The future,” Kurt gasps, almost sobbing. “Make it go away.”
Dave frowns. “You’re not seeing any future now, right?”
The boy shakes his head. “But I might. Look at this place! I don’t want to be here! It’s too much! Too dangerous! Please, David!”
Dave's not sure what Kurt wants from him, or how he can help Kurt; he can’t make their surroundings just vanish and he’s not going to put Kurt to sleep yet again. It can’t be healthy for Kurt to be constantly drugged.
“Listen, I can drive us away from here,” Dave offers, feeling anxious. He needs to make Kurt feel better and he certainly doesn't have a lot of options. “To a quieter place. You won’t see any future, I’m here next to you.”
Kurt doesn’t look up, keeping his face buried in Dave’s chest, avoiding the sight of the city and the open streets. “I’m scared.”
Dave tries to push Kurt away so he can look at him, and he almost has to fight the guy since Kurt doesn’t seem willing to detach himself from Dave. “Kurt, look at me,” Dave commands and finally pushes the boy away just a few inches.
But Kurt’s frightened eyes are roaming everywhere else, his attention being drawn by every little thing around them. Dave puts his hands on each side of Kurt’s face, on his temples, blocking his view so the boy can only look at what’s in front of him, namely Dave.
“Look at me,” Dave repeats, feeling how Kurt is tugging his shirt tightly.
“Why are we here?” Kurt inquires with eyes filled with tears and a broken voice.
“I’ll explain to you later, but now I’ll get us out of here,” Dave replies, since he has a lot to explain and he won’t be able to say much while Kurt’s in this shaken state.
“Is this now?”
Dave frowns, not understanding what Kurt means. “Now what?”
Kurt’s eyes rove around, as if he was pointing out their surroundings to Dave . “The present.”
Dave swallows hard. “Yes. This is the present.”
Kurt nods quietly. “I don’t want to see it,” he says, choking back a sob. “I don’t like seeing it.”
“Let me drive us away from here, alright? You need to give me some room so I can drive,” he adds, since Kurt’s not moving over.
The boy looks even more frightened, if that’s possible. “If I let you go, the future will get me.”
“I’m right here, Kurt, next to you. Nothing’s going to happen,” Dave assures him, wishing that Kurt would accept the fact that he can block people standing much further away than the distance that’s between the two of them right now.
With a lot of effort, Dave manages to move Kurt away so he can start the car; Kurt ends up curled onto a ball on his seat, with his head bent over, eyes shut tight to avoid seeing anything, and holding Dave’s shirt with one hand - his injured hand. Dave notices that there’s blood in his shirt and on Kurt’s hand.
The wound on the boy’s hand must have opened again because of all the clutching Kurt did, and Dave can’t really change the bandages now. Kurt’s so tense and distressed that he doesn’t seem aware of the blood or any pain.
So Dave starts the car and immediately Kurt starts hyperventilating again, scared of all the sounds he’s hearing. Dave gives up; he turns around to reach for his bag, startling Kurt all over again.
“Where are you going?” Kurt asks, terrified. “Don’t go! Please don’t leave me-”
“Easy, Kurt, easy. I’m not going anywhere, I’m just getting my bag,” Dave cuts him off, taking his bag from the backseat. “I won’t give you a pill but-”
“You have my pills? Oh, thank God!” Kurt breathes out, obviously relieved.
“I'm not letting you sleep through the whole day,” he says and Kurt’s face falls. “I’ll drive us away and find a hotel where we can stay for a couple days.”
“But-”
“I can’t carry your sleeping body around,” he explains, hoping he can reason with Kurt. “Not in public.”
Kurt looks devastated. “What about chloroform? Just a bit? Please, David. The effect doesn’t last as long as with the pills if I don’t use much. You can wake me up if you shake me hard.”
Dave actually hates that one even more, since he remembers that at some point Kurt ended up in the hospital for overdosing. Still, Kurt knows better about his own drugs than Dave, so he looks inside the bag and in the process sees a first aid kit in there as well. William must have packed it, since Dave had completely forgotten about Kurt’s injured hand and he kind of needs to dress his wound soon.
But he takes the brown bottle out of the bag first and Kurt holds it as if it’s pure gold.
“Oh, God, yes,” Kurt whispers, showing a relieved smile, as Dave takes an old cloth from the glove compartment and hands it to Kurt.
The boy immediately opens the bottle with shaky hands, still ignoring his bloody hand, and pours just a little of the colorless liquid on the fabric, then gives the bottle back to Dave. Then Kurt brings the cloth to his nose, inhaling deeply, and he instantly starts fainting in his seat.
Dave sighs, not pleased in the slightest. He decides to change the bandage on Kurt’s hand right now and then get the hell out of there. The cut has opened again, so he cleans it and wraps the bandages tight enough to stop the bleeding. Having no place to dispose of them, he drops the blood stained bandages in the backseat and drives on.
As he drives away from Wichita, Dave starts thinking hard. It’s been not even one full day since they left the circus, but Dave has to figure out something because he doesn’t know how long they’ll be on the run. William told him not to stay in the same place for long, to stay in hotels, and to call some woman named Emma as often as they could. Kurt can’t be knocked out all the time, particularly if the main goal of running away is to pass unnoticed. Dave needs to have some kind of plan.
He drives for around an hour, and finds himself on a pretty deserted road when he sees a gas station in the distance. He decides to make a quick stop, since his tank is almost empty. Kurt’s asleep, so he might as well use the time to his advantage.
Dave parks his car right next to the gas pump; the station looks pretty much like the one he used to work at, but bigger and cleaner. There’s a blind man, sitting by the door with a tin cup in his hand; he’s wearing dark glasses and his white cane is resting against the wall by his side. Dave passes by him, walking inside the store.
A young boy of fifteen or sixteen greets him. “Hello, sir.”
Lord, Dave’s only twenty-four and he suddenly feels old. “Hello. I was…” he trails off as his eyes fall upon a phone booth in one corner. He blinks. “I need some gas, and… Does the phone work?”
“Yes, sir. You need me to fill your tank?”
“Oh, no I can do it, no worries,” Dave replies, since, Jesus, he knows how to fill a tank! “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“I’m not from around here and I was wondering… is there any city or town nearby?”
The boy nods eagerly. “You have Topeka just an hour from here, just follow route 335 North. Or there's Wichita, but I'm guessing that's where you’re coming from.”
Dave offers the boy a polite smile and nods. Topeka sounds good; as far as he knows, it’s a big place and they could stay there for a couple of days. He leaves the store and proceeds to fill the tank; he stares at the old blind man and a possibly good idea hits his brain.
He looks at Kurt, who’s fast asleep, and he knows how hard it will be for the boy to deal with being out in the world. Dave has seen it repeatedly, and he still remembers how frightened Kurt looked when he saw his friends crowding into his trailer, or today when he saw all the people in the streets, the buildings and the cars.
Dave also remembers when Kurt had his visions of the Dalton boys; Dave managed to calm him down, just a bit, by covering his eyes so the boy wouldn’t have such a frightening view in front of him.
Dave finishes filling his tank, and gets the wallet and the notepad from his bag. He returns to the store and tells the boy he’s going to use the phone; the boy nods, and Dave stands in the booth, craning his neck so he can still see the car clearly.
Without taking his eyes off Kurt, Dave dials the number William wrote for him, and after a few rings, he hears the voice of what sounds like a young lady.
“Pillsbury residence.”
“Er.. Good morning,” he greets, not knowing what to say. “My name is David; William gave-”
“Oh, David! It’s so good to hear from you!” she exclaims, surprising him. Does she know him? “I was dead worried. How is Kurt? Are you both alright?”
Dave has no idea who the hell this lady is, but she seems to know about them both. At the same time, there are people hunting them, so Dave's not sure if he should trust a stranger.
“Um… I’m sorry; I don’t want to be rude but… who are you?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Didn’t William tell you I’m a… friend. I know pretty much everything about you all; Will always talks about you guys and how... extraordinary you are. So you don’t have to worry, all your secrets are safe with me.”
Dave feels a bit more relaxed; she must be one of them. “Kurt’s… just sleeping; he woke up in the city and got pretty upset. I haven't told him what went down, yet, he's been way too stressed.”
“Poor thing.”
“Do you know about the others? If they are alright?” Dave can’t help asking, and he immediately stops breathing, expecting the worse.
“They are all safe,” she tells him and a wave of relief washes over him.
“Oh, thank God.”
“Yes. Santana showed up here early in the morning to let me know. They all split up, but she checked on everyone,” Emma explains. “Her gift is pretty handy at times like these, I guess. They’re all worried about you two, so I’m glad I’ll be able to give them good news.”
Dave nods, even if she can’t see him. “So they’re all safe, right?”
“They managed to run away before the Dalton people got to the camp,” she tells him. “William stayed nearby, though, hiding in the woods with Artie, Noah, Brittany and Lily. It’s hard to pass unnoticed when you are towing a tiger’s cage. They saw them arriving, the Dalton guys were pretty upset to find a deserted camp. William and his group are heading here now, so they can hide Lily here. I guess they’ll arrive in a few days. I’ve got news from all the other kids and they’re alright.”
“Good. That’s good.”
“Except Sebastian,” she says with a sad voice and Dave’s stomach flips.
“What? What happened to him?”
Emma sighs on the other end of the line. “I think he decided to join the Dalton gang; you know, because of Blaine. They all split up very fast into small groups and it was messy at first. It wasn’t until Santana started checking on the guys that she realized that Sebastian wasn’t with any of them. He must have stayed behind.”
Dave runs his hand over his face; he can’t believe this. “Shit.”
“It was always a possibility; Sebastian and Blaine… well, you know.”
“Yeah, I guess. It doesn’t make it any better, though,” Dave says, and he wonders if he should tell Kurt about this. He doesn’t want to upset Kurt more and he doesn’t know how close Kurt and Sebastian were.
But at least none of them are hurt and that’s what matters most.
“We think the Dalton people are still around, looking for you all. They split up as well, or so Will believes, trying to track the New Directions groups. You need to be careful, David.”
“I’m heading to Topeka now; we’ll get a room and stay there for a couple of days so I can explain what happened to Kurt and see if I can… I don’t know, figure some way for him to be less scared.”
“That’s good. Topeka is a large city; try to lay low and call me as soon as you can. I’ll give you news about the others, and I will give them news about you.”
“Alright. Nice talking to you,” he says truthfully, since even if he doesn’t know her, it’s like talking to someone from the circus, and for a little while he doesn’t feel so alone.
“You too. Take care, and I’ll be waiting for your next call.”
“Bye, Emma.”
“Bye, David.”
He hangs up. His friends are safe and that’s a huge relief; Dave wasn’t aware of how distressed he was, worrying about his friends, until now, when he feels like he can breathe in peace again. He feels like he just got rid of a heavy rock that was pressing on his chest.
It’s terrible what happened with Sebastian, and he can’t understand how Sebastian could choose to leave with people who planned to hurt them, but at the same time, he can’t really be mad at him. His friends have mentioned on multiple occasions how close Blaine and Sebastian were, and how wretched Sebastian was when Blaine left.
It’s obvious now that Sebastian could never get over the guy, and that he must love Blaine tremendously if he decided to join the Dalton boys because of him.
Dave walks to the counter and pays for the gas. “What’s with the old man by the door?”
“He’s Mister Balk,” the boy tells him. “My neighbor. He’s alright. Since he became blind and lost his job, he comes here asking for change to help his daughters. It's a tough break in this economy.”
Dave nods. “Yeah. Have a good day.”
“You too, sir.”
When Dave leaves the store, the blind old man is still there, sitting on a stool by the door. His white cane is resting against the wall. Dave feels horrible for what he’s about to do, but he needs to keep Kurt safe. To achieve that, Dave has to at least figure out a way to disguise Kurt’s ‘craziness’ from people.
The old man seems to realize that he’s not alone. “Can you spare some change?” he asks politely.
“Sure, here” he says, placing a ten dollar bill in the old man’s hand.
The blind man looks suddenly surprised, probably because he usually only gets a few coins. “A dollar, sir?” he asks.
Dave moves in closer, trying not to make a sound, and silently picks up the white cane. “It’s a ten.”
“A ten? Oh, sir! You’re very generous! Are you sure?”
Dave hides the white cane behind his back, just in case the boy comes out and sees him stealing it from an old blind man. “I’m sure. Have a nice day.”
“Thank you so much, sir!”
Dave sees the old man put the ten bucks in one of his pockets with a huge smile on his face. Ten dollars is a lot of money nowadays, so Dave hopes that will compensate the man for the loss of his cane and any trouble he has replacing it.
Dave gets back in his truck and starts the engine, feeling relieved now that he has what could be a good plan. He drives just for half an hour, and parks the truck on the side of the road. Kurt has been sleeping for almost two hours, and Dave decides that he’s not going to drive into another large city with a passed out Kurt.
He waits ten minutes and then he gets tired of waiting for Kurt to wake up, so he starts shaking him gently. “Kurt? Kurt, c’mon, wake up,” he says in a firm voice.
Kurt was right about the chloroform, since he quickly starts stirring and he blinks lazily, like he’s trying to focus. He looks quite drowsy, so Dave gives him a couple of minutes to come back to himself and when Kurt does, it’s just like it was a couple of hours ago: the boy jumps in place and starts hyperventilating again.
Dave rolls his eyes; this is going to be a very long trip.
He holds the boy, trying to comfort him. “It’s alright; it’s an open space, I know, but no one’s around, see? We're alone.”
Kurt nods, but he doesn’t look any more relaxed. Once again, the guy is pressed to Dave’s chest and Dave has to admit that he’s getting used to having no personal space when Kurt’s around.
“Where are we?” Kurt finally asks.
“We’re still in Kansas, heading to Topeka. I’ll explain everything to you later, but we should find a room soon and we can stay there for a couple of days.”
“Why are we here? What happened? Where is everyone?”
“Everyone’s fine, you don’t have to worry about that. As for us, William asked me to get you safely away,” Dave explains quietly. “The Dalton boys are looking for us.” Kurt’s breathing starts picking up again. “We’re going to be alright, but I need you to do something for me.”
“What?”
“You’re not going to like this,” Dave mumbles under his breath, staring at the road and hoping that no cars pass by. Kurt is doing a remarkable job, since in the last couple of minutes the kid hasn’t jumped in place once. “We’ll have to stay in crowded cities, and William said we have to keep a low profile since those guys are after us.”
“Oh, God,” Kurt whispers, sounding broken. “I won’t be able to-”
“We can do it,” Dave assures him. “Remember when I brought you back to your trailer the day you ran into the open? What you saw scared you, and I covered your eyes so you wouldn't be so scared?”
Kurt nods. “But you can’t cover my eyes all time, David; that’s not low profile. I don’t want to be around people… I won’t be able to not go crazy.”
“I have an idea how we can disguise it.” It’s incredibly weird to maintain a conversation with a boy who has his face buried in your chest, but at least they’re talking and Kurt’s getting most of the things he’s saying. “Now, I’ve got a white cane and we can cover your eyes with bandages-”
“You’re making me a blind man?” Kurt inquires, not sounding very thrilled.
Dave rolls his eyes. “Better a blind guy than a guy who’s afraid because he sees the future, Kurt. No one’s going to ask anything beyond how you got blinded, no one would be so rude. Even if the Dalton people are around, they don’t know I exist and William said they don’t know what you look like, except for Jesse and Blaine. So we’d be just a guy leading a blind guy; I could say you’re my brother.”
Kurt stays silent for several seconds. “I don’t think that will be enough. I don’t think I can help being frightened by the sounds of… people and cars and stuff, David.”
“I’ll be there with you. And because you’ll be blind, you can hold onto me if you need to and no one will think it's anything weird,” he says, since that’s something Dave was worried about.
Kurt always seems afraid to let go of him. It’s not like he and Kurt are… anything romantic, and Dave has kind of gotten used to it., But one guy holding another guy in public would definitely draw attention. If they played the blind guy act, though, it would be just fine.
“You won’t leave me, right?”
“I’d never leave you,” Dave tells him honestly. “I’m here to look after you. I’m not going to leave you alone, especially not in public. You have to trust me.”
“Alright.”
Dave smiles. They are making progress and he's feeling a little more optimistic about their future. “You have to change your clothes first. You’re still on your pajamas, and we can’t walk into a hotel with you looking like that. I’ve got clothes from Artie for you.”
Now Kurt looks up, meeting Dave’s eyes. The boy is frowning. “Artie’s clothes?” he asks, almost upset. “Why? What about my clothes?”
Seriously, has Kurt ever been in public? Dave’s aware that due to his gift, Kurt has spent most of his life almost isolated from the world, but didn’t the boy notice that no man wears the things he does? Kurt might not see men in general, but the guys in the circus spend a lot of time with Kurt and none of them dresses anything like the boy. Dave actually likes the way Kurt dresses a lot, but it's just not appropriate outside the circus.
“They're a bit flashy, Kurt,” Dave tells him, trying not to hurt his feelings. “William said that if you wore your clothes, you’d have a lot of people staring at you.”
Kurt sighs, nodding. Dave takes the bag from the backseat and hands it to Kurt, who’s finally giving him some space. The boy puts a pair of brown pants over his pajama bottoms and a coat over his pajama top. Then he pulls on some socks and ankle boots and looks down at himself, completely devastated.
“I look horrible,” he says, and Dave quivers a smile. He likes seeing a more relaxed Kurt, and he wonders if he’ll be able to see a normal Kurt; the Kurt that his friends get to see.
“You’re just fine. Now turn around, I’ll cover your eyes.”
Kurt nods again, and it seems like this is something that Kurt’s fine with; as soon as Dave starts wrapping the bandages around Kurt’s head, covering his eyes, the kid seems to relax a bit.
“It would be great if we had dark glasses, but for now, if anyone asks, you’re newly blind,” Dave tells him. “That will explain the bandages.”
“Alright.”
“I’m going to start the car now, so don’t be startled,” David says, considering it best to explain everything carefully to Kurt, so nothing will catch him off guard. “I’ll let you know when we get to Topeka; there’s probably going to be a lot of noise, it’s not even noon yet, so there will be plenty of people.”
He sees Kurt swallow hard and his brows knit together above the bandages; it’s obvious that the boy is already suffering in anticipation. Kurt says nothing, though, so Dave starts the engine and Kurt leans against the seat at his side and rests a hand on Dave’s thigh.
Dave stays still when he feels Kurt’s hand there, looking down at it.
He doesn’t mind Kurt always touching him, in fact, by now he's getting used to it. Dave believes it’s his way of making sure that Dave is right there with him. It doesn’t make much sense, though; after all, who would be driving the car if Dave wasn’t there? Yet it seems that Kurt doesn’t let himself take anything for granted, so Dave doesn’t push the boy away.
It's funny - because of all the mess, the escaping, the Dalton people and Kurt’s stress, Dave had completely forgotten about how attractive he finds Kurt, in spite of the boy's messy personal situation. But now Kurt's hand is on his thigh. Dave determines he won’t get aroused by Kurt touching him there.
Instead, he takes a deep breath and starts driving towards Topeka.
Kurt remains silent, but only until they reach the outskirts of the city and he can hear traffic sounds getting louder and more frequent. Then the boy curls up into a ball, covering one of his ears with one hand and tightening his grip on Dave’s thigh with the other. Dave decides to find a hotel quickly so he can get Kurt away from the street noise, but he doesn’t stop to ask for directions since that would probably distress the boy even more.
Dave drives randomly up and down the streets of Topeka; he didn’t travel much before joining the circus, at least not far enough to know his way around the Midwest. Plus, all the traveling he did with the circus was just to small towns and villages, so it doesn’t compare with places like Topeka, Wichita, or any of the other big cities they're supposed to hide in.
He’s sure he must be driving around in circles until he finally spots what seems to be a very large hotel in the distance.
“I think I found a place to stay,” Dave announces, driving in the direction of the big building.
“I don’t want to get out,” Kurt tells him with a small voice.
“We don't have much of a choice. But look on the bright side; we won’t have to go outside for the next two or three days,” he says, trying to convince Kurt. “More or less. We’ll have to buy food at some point.”
Kurt groans. “David…”
“I know, I know. Let’s find a room where we can be more comfortable and figure this out together,” he says, feeling in a hurry. Just like he predicted, the city is noisy and Kurt has been breathing erratically for the past fifteen minutes; his fingers are pressing quite painfully into Dave’s thigh, so Dave is eager to get Kurt inside as soon as he can.
As they get closer to the big building, Dave believes it’s going to be somewhat expensive. It’s not a motel like the last time, but a proper building. Still, this place looks like it has a couple dozen rooms, so lots of guests, and William and the guys told him the Dalton people wouldn’t try to do anything to them in public.
Dave guesses that this is the kind of hotel they should look for from now and on, instead of motels.
He also notices, as he’s looking for a place to park, that there are several stores right near the building, so if they need something, they won’t have to go far.
“I’m parking the car now,” Dave lets Kurt know. “We’ll pick up our bags, and we’ll get out of the car. We’re not far from the entrance, so it won’t take us long to get there.”
Shaking and almost sobbing, Kurt only says, “David.”
But Dave parks his truck and then he turns to face Kurt. “You can do it; I know you can. I’ll be here, right next to you. It’s going to be scary, but it will be just a few minutes, just until we get in the room. After that, we won’t leave the room if you don’t want us to.”
“We’ll have walls?”
Dave frowns at the obvious question. “Er... yes? Rooms come with walls.”
Kurt swallows hard, and Dave believes he’s trying to gather his courage. The kid says nothing for a few seconds, then holds his head high. “Alright, let’s do this. But we have to be quick, I won’t-”
“You’ve got it,” Dave says with a wide smile on his face, already getting their stuff from the back seat. “We’ll be super fast, I promise. You take this,” he hands Kurt the white cane. “And you’ll carry this bag. I’ll get the rest.”
He hangs the sailor bag on Kurt’s shoulder and grabs the other stuff. He realizes that Kurt's going to have to let him go to get out of the car, and he stays still for a second, analyzing the situation. Normal people would get out of the car and meet on the sidewalk, but neither of them is normal, Kurt even less so. They’d be apart for a few seconds, but it’s the first time Kurt’s doing something like this and Dave doesn't want to stress Kurt any more than he has to.
“Now you’ll grab my hand, and I’ll step out,” Dave extends his hand, and Kurt snatches it quickly. Dave highly doubts Kurt will be able to handle having his eyes covered in a crowded city without being able to feel where Dave is all the time. “You climb over my seat, alright?”
He sees Kurt frown at first, but then he says, “Oh,” and nods.
Dave helps Kurt out of the truck. As soon as Kurt’s feet touch the pavement, he quickly presses himself against Dave, holding onto him as if otherwise he'd fall off a cliff.
“It’s alright, Kurt. You’re going to be fine,” Dave whispers to his ear. The sound of the passing cars only makes Kurt tremble more and Dave holds him tight. “Why don’t we get going? The faster we go, the faster you’ll have walls.”
Kurt nods, and locks an arm around Dave’s. “Just don’t let me go.”
“I won’t.”
Dave starts leading the way to the hotel’s entrance, carefully, since even if they’re only pretending Kurt is blind, the guy can’t actually see where he’s going. Almost instinctively, Kurt uses the cane to feel along the ground beneath his feet and while it’s a shame they have to do this, Dave considers it adds verisimilitude to their act.
“We’re just a few feet away,” Dave tells Kurt, who keeps flinching every time he feels or hears someone walking by.
It doesn’t take long to get inside the building; Kurt seems a little relieved at not being on the street, but not very much. The reception is large and very fancy, at least it seems that way to Dave, who has never been in a place like this, but he doesn’t take much time to admire his surroundings.
“Heading to the counter,” Dave whispers to Kurt. “There’s just one lady and a bellboy.”
Kurt nods again, but he still tightens his grip around Dave’s arm, and stands a little behind Dave when the receptionist greets them. Dave feels Kurt’s forehead pressed into the back of his shoulder, the boy is obviously trying to hide himself.
“Welcome to the Jayhawk Hotel, my name is Mindy. What can I do for you?”
The girl eyes Kurt, but it's a pitying look, which is a good sign: she’s buying that Kurt’s supposedly blind, rather than a circus freak.
“Good afternoon to you, too,” Dave replies politely. He’s definitely feeling very good about their plan. “We need a room for a couple of days.”
“We have some double bed rooms available. Would you like the upper stories or something closer to the streets?”
“I really don’t mind.”
“Something high up,” Kurt interrupts them.
The girl stays still for a few seconds and then nods. “Ninth floor alright? The room faces the back of the building, so it's quieter.” Dave nods. “Well, let me get your names down here. The room is $3.65 per night.”
“We’ll stay for two nights,” Dave tells her and she nods again.
Mindy nods, grabbing a big book and a pen. Dave realizes he will have to give fake names and he does his best to come up with something. “Name please?”
“Cameron,” Dave says right away, since his old boss’s name is the first one that comes to mind. “John and Mike Cameron.” He makes a mental note to remember those names, at least as long as they’re in Topeka.
Mindy looks up. “Oh, you’re related?”
“Brothers.”
She smiles at him and looks sympathetically at Kurt again. The girl bends over, inviting Dave to do the same. “Is he alright?” she whispers to him, sounding concerned, and he gets that she’s talking about Kurt’s supposed blindness.
Dave pulls a sad face. “It happened recently; he’s just getting used to it and it’s a bit scary for him,” he lies.
“Poor thing.”
Dave nods, pressing his lips. “We’re on our way to our parents in Chicago. He really needs them now.”
It’s almost like Mindy is seeing suffering puppies, she suddenly looks sadder than he does and straightens back up. “Well, you sign here,” she pushes the book forwards, pointing to where Dave has to sign. “That will be $7.30.”
Dave pays the receptionist, who hands to him the keys for room 910. The young bellboy asks them to follow him and leads them to an elevator. Dave has used elevators just a couple of times, long ago, but he has no clue what Kurt’s life was like before he started seeing people’s future. He hopes the elevator won’t be too scary for him.
“We’re getting into an elevator.”
Kurt’s arm tightens again around Dave’s arm. “I’ve never been in one.”
The bellboy laughs. “Trust me, it’s nothing. You'll hardly even know we're moving.”
Dave keeps on walking slowly, making sure Kurt doesn't trip over anything. Kurt takes hesitant steps, taping the floor with the white cane, and the bellboy, like the receptionist, watches the supposedly recently blinded young boy with pitying eyes. It seems their charade is working very well.
The ride in the elevator is not as traumatic for Kurt as Dave thought it would be, probably because being in an elevator - at least this one - is just standing still; Kurt seems more scared of the strange bellboy standing next to him.
Luckily for them both, they reach the ninth floor quickly and the bellboy leaves them alone once they get to room 910. Dave hardly has time to tip the bellboy for carrying their bags before Kurt practically drags him inside and slams the door shut. Kurt’s breathing quickly again, frantically pulling the bandages down to uncover his eyes.
“Thank God,” Kurt whispers with his eyes filled with tears and Dave feels bad for him. He can’t even imagine how much tension Kurt must have been bottling up.
So Dave wraps his arms around Kurt, trying to comfort him. “See? We made it; you made it. I told you you could do it.”
Kurt lets out a relieved sigh and releases Dave so he can rest his back against the wall. Dave's not sure what Kurt 's thing about walls is, but if they relax him, Dave’s fine with it. He places all the bags on the bed and sits down. The room looks as nice as the rest of the hotel. It’s tidy and cozy and, more importantly, it’s quiet; they’re on the ninth floor, so there’s no noises coming from the streets and Dave realizes why Kurt asked for a room in a high up floor.
Hopefully, Kurt will be comfortable in here.
Kurt steps closer to the bed, sitting close to Dave; then he lies down, running his hand over Dave’s back in the process. “Thank you for helping me through this. I know I’m not the easiest person to be around.”
Dave looks down at him, and it’s almost painful. He has seen Kurt distressed in repeated occasions, but those times don't compare to this. For a start, Kurt looks weird in Artie’s clothes; not because they don’t fit but because they don’t look right on him. The bandages that were covering his eyes are now around his neck, his hair is disheveled and his eyes show a new level of distress.
“It’s not your fault,” Dave tells him quietly. “I can’t even imagine how hard this is for you.”
It looks like Kurt’s making a great effort not to burst into tears. Dave starts explaining to him what happened the night they ran away, the stops Dave made, when he saw the Dalton people in Greensburg and the night they spend in Pratt.
“You said everyone else is fine. How do you know?”
“William told me to call a woman named Emma,” he says, and Kurt’s lips twitch in a smile. “I did when I stopped for gas. You were passed out from the chloroform. She said that Santana told her they’re all safe. You know her?”
Kurt sighs, deeply and almost sadly. “Like I know most people. She lives in Maine. The circus went there a couple of times and she visited our camp, but I never met her personally. I used to see her a lot in William’s future. Now I mostly see her in Santana’s future.”
“Who is she?”
Kurt smiles, almost giggling, and Dave’s heart warms since he has never seen Kurt smile like this. Clearly, Kurt is slowly calming down; he’s relaxing in bed, there are no sounds of cars or people, and there are walls surrounding them which ease the boy.
“She’s sort of William’s girlfriend,” Kurt informs him and Dave arches an eyebrow.
There are plenty more urgent things to talk about, like what they are going to do later, when they’re going to buy food, and mostly the travel plans that they have to make, which will involve Kurt being around people more often than they’d like. All those things are more important than William’s romantic life. Yet Kurt had been through a lot today, and Dave’s sure that this moment of relaxation won’t last long. Talking about this Emma woman seems to be interesting or amusing to Kurt; maybe it makes Kurt feel more connected to his absent friends in the circus, so Dave listens to him carefully.
“Sort of?”
“William doesn’t talk much about it. He pretty much devotes his life to us; Emma has her own life in Maine, and he doesn’t dare ask her to come with us. So it’s like, they love each other, but don’t say it because they can’t be together.”
Dave frowns, since that’s a pretty sad story.
“But the guys tease William all time,” Kurt continues, smiling, “saying he should ask her already. From what I feel, William is very much in love with Emma, and he doesn’t want her to change her life completely for him. But I think Emma is waiting for William to ask her that.”
Dave frowns again, not getting what Kurt is saying. “What do you mean, 'from what you feel'?”
Kurt stares at him puzzled, like he’s wondering why his words are not being understood. “I feel his love for her, when he talks to her on the phone. Or sometimes when he thinks about her while he's doing something else.”
It takes Dave a few seconds to catch on. “You mean when you see William’s future and he’s talking to her, you can feel stuff?”
Kurt nods. “When I’m caught off guard and the visions strike me hard, usually yes, I can feel what… the people in my visions are feeling. I almost become the person whose future I'm seeing.”
Finn told Dave that sometimes Kurt acts out the future as he’s seeing it. But Dave has never seen Kurt having visions, since he cancels Kurt's ability when he’s around. Still, he didn’t know that Kurt could also get feelings from them.
“Wow.”
Kurt chuckles, clearly not happy about it. “Anyway, she’s been around since forever, or at least since I joined the circus. I saw her in some of the other guy’s futures when we were in Maine; they all got to know her. Now it’s just Santana and William.”
“Emma said Santana was at her place,” Dave tells Kurt, laying on his side since his neck is starting to ache from looking down at the boy.
“Well, Santana is our mailman,” Kurt tells him, as if it's something obvious, and Dave finds himself again smack up against something he didn’t know. “Or mail woman, to be more precise.”
“How come?”
Dave is aware that the guys write letters to their families, the ones that are in touch with them, anyway, but he never gave much thought to how they manage to receive mail when they’re always moving from place to place.
“We use the regular post office to send letters, but all the replies arrive at Emma’s place. When there’s mail, she lets William know and Santana has been at her house, so she just shows up there, in the basement to make sure no one sees her, to pick up the letters.”
Dave nods, impressed; he feels kind of silly, because he’s been in the circus for some months and there are still so many things that he doesn’t know and never even thought to ask about. On the other hand, maybe he'll have a chance to get some much-needed information from Kurt while they're on the road.
They talk a bit more and Dave avoids the topic of the Dalton people, or that Sebastian has joined them, or their running away, or anything else that might distress Kurt. Dave brings out the bag with food, and neither of them discuss what they’re going to eat tomorrow, since what they have now is enough for today.
Kurt gets agitated again when Dave gets up to use the bathroom, and Dave has to take him by the hand and actually show him the bathroom and point out there’s no way Dave can leave that way, since there are no windows in there and even if there were, they're on the ninth floor.
It’s a bit frustrating for Dave, having to explain yet again that he won't leave Kurt, since he wouldn’t even consider doing such a thing on the first place. But he knows this whole situation must be pretty hard for Kurt and it's too much to expect the boy to put himself in Dave's shoes, so he tries to be patient.
When he sees the bathroom, Kurt realizes he really needs to use it as well and Dave lets him go first, always talking to him through the door so Kurt will know for certain that Dave hasn’t left him alone.
Dave feels really exhausted by the time the sun starts to set, and they both decide to go to bed. Much to Dave’s surprise, Kurt doesn’t ask for his pills, so Dave assumes the boy is feeling equally tired and doesn't need to take anything to help him to sleep.
Dave leaves the bathroom light on and the door slightly ajar, so they won’t be in complete darkness once the sun goes down; that way all night Kurt will be able to see that Dave’s still right there.
He doesn’t know how many people are staying at the hotel, or if there are any people besides them on the ninth floor, but he’s sure the Dalton people won’t be able to kidnap Kurt from here; they wouldn't be able to carry the boy out without people seeing. And like him and Kurt, the Dalton guys must also pass unnoticed. When Dave rests his head on the pillow, he sighs, relaxed, because despite all the tension of their second day on the run, he managed to keep Kurt safe.
He quickly falls asleep.
Sometime later, Dave wakes up drowsily. The room is dark, except for the light coming from the bathroom, and it's dead silent, but Dave quickly realizes that Kurt is not in his bed. He’s about to panic and probably die of a heart attack, when he feels Kurt’s warm hand squeezing his.
“Kurt?”
He props himself up on an elbow, only to find Kurt sitting in the floor next to his bed with his arm resting on the mattress, holding Dave's hand. Kurt looks up with eyes full of guilt.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
Dave shakes his head. “You didn’t. What are you doing?”
“I… I’m scared. I can’t sleep,” Kurt says, his voice sounding pained. “Every time I close my eyes, I have to force myself to open them just to make sure you’re still here.”
Dave is as tired and sleepy as he is resigned to Kurt’s irrational fear. He understands why Kurt’s so scared, but the reality is that Dave can’t possibly abandon the room in a matter of seconds, let alone do it without making enough noise to let Kurt know he’s doing such a thing.
He sighs. “Do you want to lay down here with me?
“What?”
Dave really wants to go back to sleep, and honestly, that's the only reason he's inviting Kurt into his bed. Dave's aware that once he’s wide awake, he’ll feel uncomfortable about sharing the bed with Kurt, a boy he finds incredibly attractive but who’s so broken and disturbed that Dave can’t have him.
But Dave is here to keep Kurt safe, and right now he’s only thinking about a way to make him get some sleep.
“It’s a single bed, you’ll be constantly aware that I’m right next to you since we won’t have much room.”
Kurt goes silent for several seconds and Dave lays back on the mattress. Well, he tried. Despite the circus being open to homosexuality, it seems Kurt is uncomfortable sharing a bed with another guy.
“You won’t mind?”
Dave scoots over, pulling Kurt by his hand and the boy lays down next to him. Kurt seems a bit tense at first, but once Dave pulls the covers over them both, he feels Kurt’s body easing.
Kurt wraps his hands around Dave's arm.
“I’m sorry for this, David.”
Dave only yawns. “You don’t have to worry, alright? Try to get some sleep; it’s been a long day.”
Kurt nods and even though Dave is bone tired, he forces himself to remain awake until Kurt falls asleep first. Fortunately, just a few minutes go by until he hears Kurt breathing steadily, and his hands loosen around Dave’s arm.
Finally, Dave lets himself sleep in peace.