Invisible Illness: Chapter 3
Media: (Fic)
Title: Invisible Illness Chapter 3
Rating: PG-13 (for now)
Spoilers (if any): None
Warnings (if any): Explicit descriptions of pain.
Word Count: 4200+
Summary: Kurt finally gets to spend some quality time with Blaine, but something happens that crashes their happy times down to the ground.
Author's Note: This is a therapy fic. I'm writing this as a way to cope with the struggles that come with Invisible Illnesses, both having one myself, and living with a family member with multiple ones. If at any time the characters in this story seem to have struggles so far out there, that it all seems made up, please keep in mind that these are the struggles of those living with Invisible Illnesses every day, and none of them are made up.
Invisible Illnesses expected to turn up in this story: Chronic Migraines, Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, and Diabetes. Others may make appearances, but these you can be sure will show up.The next day Kurt woke around 9am to find that his head was still aching. Though right now it’s just the pain of a normal headache. The sun that’s shining in through the slits of the his curtains isn’t making him want to hide under the covers, and the sound of him and his father watching sports downstairs and the random screaming doesn’t make him want to wear earplugs all day. He’s no longer nauseous and isn’t stumbling around trying to regain his balance so all in all…he can handle a little pain. It’s not like he’s never had to deal with pain before in his life. He had to deal with quite a bit when he was at McKinley. Dumpster tosses, locker slams and one harrowing experience where he was lifted by the bullies and thrown down the hallway in a game of “loser bowling.” Luckily the Neanderthals only got away with that game once before one of the teachers noticed and put a stop to it.
As Kurt went downstairs he smelled the telltale sign of the turkey bacon Carole would cook every Saturday morning. Turkey bacon, the only type of bacon Kurt would allow in the house after his father’s heart attack back in October. He could also smell pancakes. Something about that combination smelled wonderful and he was quite eager to make his way downstairs to eat. “Hi Carole.” He says as he walks into the kitchen, smiling appreciatively as he takes in the aroma of the other pieces of food that was spread out in front of him. Including the bacon and pancakes, there were bagels, assorted fruit and an entire jug of sugar-free syrup.
“Good morning, Kurt. How are you feeling?” Kurt see-sawed his hand out a little bit.
“Ehh. I’m doing better than I was yesterday, but my head still hurts a bit. But I can deal with the pain of a headache. It’s everything else that made life miserable yesterday.” Carole nodded.
“I know what you mean. For a while there I would get frequent migraines.”
“Really?” Kurt looked interested.
“Mhm. They’re more prevalent in women than they are in men. Something about the hormones or whatever. Seems you’re one of the unlucky ones.” Carole joked.
“Haven’t I always?” Kurt deadpanned. Carole let out a soft chuckle.
“You hungry?”
“Famished.” Kurt went over towards the cabinets to pull out a plate and began loading it up with some of the fruit on the counter.
“Here,” she said, placing two pancakes on his plate. “They were for Finn, but he’s already had 4.” She rolled her eyes and Kurt’s mouth dropped.
“I honestly don’t understand how he eats so much and doesn’t look like a whale.”
“He’s a special one.” Kurt had to agree with that depiction of his step-brother and dug into the pancakes, moaning appreciatively when he ate the first bite.
“Oh my, these are delicious Carole.”
“Why thank you, Kurt.” she said a bit louder than was probably normal. “At least someone,” she nodded her head towards the living room, “appreciates this breakfast that I‘ve been slaving over for the past hour.” ‘Ahh…’ Kurt understood. Finn was being his usual jerky self and not appreciating his mother cooking him breakfast. Typical, actually.
“Of course, Carole.” Kurt played along, speaking in a louder volume. “I’d never dream of being unappreciative.” Just then Finn walked into the kitchen and saw Kurt eating.
“Hey mom, where are those other pancakes?” Kurt had never face palmed so hard in his life.
“They’re coming Finn.” Carole sighed exasperatedly. “Since you already had four, I decided to give Kurt these instead.” Finn grumbled, glaring at Kurt for stealing his pancakes away and then walked back into the kitchen. “I swear… I taught that boy manners when he was younger.” Carole muttered to no one in particular.
“He’s a teenage boy, who spends the majority of his time playing Halo, cursing at the TV whenever he’s killed. He forgot manners a long time ago.” Carole nodded.
“Sadly.” Carole shook her head. “So what are you planning on doing today?” She asked Kurt, he shrugged.
“Dunno.” He hadn’t made any plans with anyone for today, which was unusual for him. “The girls are all busy, and Blaine and I usually decide if and what we’re going to do on Saturday, on Friday. But clearly that didn’t happen yesterday.” He rolled his eyes.
“Oh, that reminds me. You should probably go make sure your phone is on. He said he’d call today. Not that it’s really a shock. I’ve seen the cell phone bill.” Kurt blushes. It’s true. Him and Blaine, even before they were dating, rarely went a day without calling each other on the phone. Even rarer was more than a few hours (between 7am and 1am) without a text.
“I’ve got it in my pocket. It’s rarely not on.” He smiled. “If we do anything, we’ll probably go see a movie, go to the mall, you know? Otherwise…I’ll probably get a jumpstart on the massive pile of projects and studying that I’ve been neglecting all week.” He shook his head, as if to clear it. “I love being at Dalton, but the course load is so much heavier than McKinley. No wonder there’s no bullying problem at Dalton. There’s so much work, that there’s no time to even think about harassing someone.” Kurt joked.
“I wish all schools were like that. Schools need to focus more on academics, instead of athletics. Athletics won’t get a majority of students far in real life.”
“I know what you mean. I was on two teams at McKinley besides Glee, one of them never would have gotten me a scholarship to any college in the country. The other had such an importance placed around the team that if you missed so much as one practice, you were practically killed.”
“Much too much of a focus.”
“Precisely.” It was this moment that Kurt felt the telltale sign that his phone was buzzing. He fished it out of his pocket to see that Blaine was calling. Smiling, he pressed answer. “Hey Blaine.”
“Hey, how are you feeling?” Kurt could hear the smile in Blaine’s voice, and it made Kurt happy, to know that Blaine was smiling like a goofball, probably laying on his bed in his bedroom, on top of his blue and gold bedspread that he had just made.
“I’m feeling pretty well actually. I think it had something to do with having such an amazing nurse taking care of me yesterday.” Carole heard this and chuckled. Kurt blushed and slipped out of the seat he was sitting in and walked into the other room, where neither Carole, Finn or Burt would be able to hear.
“Oh really? Was he pretty?” Blaine asked, playing along with the unspoken game.
“Gorgeous. Sadly though, didn’t get to spend much quality time with him while I was resting. I would have loved to be able to make out with him for a bit. He was unbelievably hot, you know.”
“Was he?”
“Oh yes. It would have been amazing to just lay on my bed all afternoon, slowly taking his shirt off, and kissing up and down his torso while teasing him to the point of no return. But sadly…never got that far.” Kurt dramatically sighed.
“Well then, I’m gonna have to meet him some day. See what competition I have to face.”
“Oh you already have Blaine,” Kurt reminded him. “I’m sure you remember him. Tall, skinny, Asian…goes by the name of Wes?” Kurt wished he could have seen Blaine’s face at that moment, it sure would have been priceless.
“Oh, now that’s just mean.” Kurt cackled.
“Aww, is Blainey-bear upset?” Kurt giggled as Blaine huffed.
“We had such a good thing going…and now you wanna go and ruin it with thoughts of Wes. How can you do this to me?” Blaine joked.
“Okay, okay. Enough with the Wes jokes. You know there’s no one I want to make out with besides you.”
“I know.” Kurt could hear the smile return to Blaine’s voice. “So, since we didn’t actually get to do much yesterday, I was wondering if you wanted to…oh I don’t know….go to the mall today? Maybe see a movie, go to lunch?”
“Why Blaine Anderson, are you asking me out on a date?” Kurt feigned shock. Kurt loved it when Blaine tried to be romantic. He wasn’t always the best at it, but he tried. That’s all that Kurt could really ask for.
“Absolutely not. It’s just lunch and a movie. If we happen to make out for an hour afterwards than so be it.” Kurt’s heart fell after he heard that line.
“Miss Congeniality, really Blaine, really? Did you have to quote a Sandra Bullock movie? Did you even see how she looked before Michael Caine got his hands on her?”
“It’s a movie about taking a woman who dresses like a complete dog, giving her a makeover, and turning her into something amazing. How do you not love that movie?” Kurt shuddered.
“Because I have taste?” It’s honestly weird how much Kurt hates that movie. Though it’s probably because Sandra Bullock reminds him (in appearance) of his mom quite a bit more than anything.
“Uh-huh, sure. So what do you say? Pick you up at noon? We’ll hit the mall, see if anything is worth seeing? If not we’ll spend the day shopping? You know you want to.” Blaine teased.
“Blaine, you had me at ‘spend the day shopping.’” Kurt smiled, and waited a few seconds before saying anything else. “Actually you had me at ‘go to the mall today?’ but I couldn’t be that easy to get, now could I?”
“Would be disappointed if you did. Now go start getting ready. I know you. If you don’t start soon, I’ll get there, and you’ll still be getting dressed.”
“Ha ha, very funny. I was actually in the middle of eating, so I think I’ll finish that first.”
“Love you Kurt, see you in a little while.”
“Love you too, and I will be ready by noon.” The two boys hung up and Kurt walked back into the kitchen to see his pancakes sitting there…all mushy from the syrup and cold from sitting there for the past 10 minutes. Clearly Carole had anticipated this because she quickly lifted up the partially eaten plate, and put down another plate with a fresh pancake on it.
“Here, a fresh one.”
“Thanks Carole, you’re the best!” Kurt went about eating, and mentally preparing what he was going to wear that day.
By the time they got to the mall that day, Kurt had not only gotten completely ready by the time Blaine got to his house, but had been waiting in the middle of the living room while Burt and Finn were watching some…sports game that Kurt couldn’t quite figure out. He had knew it wasn’t football, and it didn’t look like basketball, but he didn’t honestly care either way so he let it go. Kurt and Blaine were busy walking through the mall to get towards the movie theater when they spotted Mercedes and Tina outside Hot Topic. “Mercedes!” Kurt yelled out. “Tina!” The two girls whipped their heads around and saw their best-male friend and his boyfriend coming up to them.
“Hey Kurt, hey Blaine. Where are you two off to?” Tina asked.
“We were on our way to see what movies were playing.” Kurt offered.
“Wanna join us?” Blaine asked. Tina and Mercedes looked at each other and shook their head.
“Oh no. We already looked. Nothing but blood, guts, gore and kid movies at the theater today. It sucks.” Mercedes told them.
“Well that blows.” Kurt replied. “Now what are we gonna do?”
“What we always do when we come to the mall?” Blaine asked. “You drag me from store to store, searching for ‘just the right top’ that you only ever find after we’ve been on our feet for 5 hours. Then after those 5 hours we finally go down to the food court where you refuse to get anything but a salad while I get something that actually tastes good. You eat your salad, and I pretend to not notice when you eat half of my fries.” Kurt blushed and playfully slapped his boyfriend’s shoulder.
“Hush you.”
“Whatever you say, dear.” Blaine played up the ‘doting boyfriend’ card a little bit, painting on the fake smile of boyfriends everywhere and the overenthusiastic agreement. However he did this as he put his arms around Kurt’s waist and pulled him closer to him, his head resting perfectly on Kurt’s shoulder. Mercedes and Tina just rolled their eyes at the public displays of affection.
“Enough, you two are so sickening that its going to give me a cavity.” Mercedes complained.
“Then isn’t a good thing that your dad is a dentist?” Kurt shot back. The two of them just collapsed into giggles.
Over the next few hours the four of them went from shop to shop, window shopping, and actual shopping. Trying to figure out what they could afford, and what they couldn’t. Blaine, being Blaine Anderson, didn’t really have any problems in the affording things department, decided to take mental notes of what each of them wanted to get, but couldn’t afford so he knew what to get them for their upcoming birthdays. Kurt especially. Blaine hated that his boyfriend kept feeling like crap lately, and on his birthday, he definitely wanted Kurt to feel amazing. If buying him a few special gifts, on top of the other things he had planned would get that result, he’d do it in a heartbeat.
It was nearly 6 o’clock and Mercedes and Tina had left them about an hour ago, being picked up by Tina’s father, so it left Blaine and Kurt alone. Neither of them wanted this day to end, and Kurt was feeling fabulous. His headache from this morning had disappeared by the time Blaine had picked him up and it hadn’t reared its ugly head again. The two of them were in high spirits, and had decided to check out a little eatery near the food court, but wasn’t quite food court material. It was sit down and romantic, but not over the top.
After they sat down they both looked at the menus, and decided to do a dual order and share. Kurt would get the Chicken Alfredo, and Blaine would get a steak. Kurt never allowed steak to enter into the Hudmel household. But he wasn’t a masochist either. He loved steak, and on the rare occasion he’d let himself have one. Neither of them could decide between the two, so they felt they could get the best of both worlds, “without the cheesy Miley Cyrus reference.” Kurt muttered under his breath.
“Today has been amazing.” Blaine revealed, smiling as he did so. Nodding, Kurt agreed.
“It was. Much better than yesterday at any rate.”
“Having your tooth pulled, is just about the only thing that rates lower than yesterday.” Blaine quipped and Kurt slightly shook his head and sighed. “What? You’d rather have your tooth pulled out?”
“Actually? Yes.” Kurt shrugged. “Yesterday sucked, so bad. Nothing worked to get rid of the migraine. Absolutely nothing. At least when you have a tooth pulled, you get Novocain, or laughing gas. All I got was ineffective advil, and sleep.”
“I see what you mean, but are migraines really that bad? I mean, I know they hurt like hell, but you’ve dealt with pain before. Are they truly, honestly that bad?” Kurt nodded.
“Let me put it like this. Imagine someone took this knife…” he picked up the serrated knife that came with the steak they ordered earlier. “…and jammed it into the side of your head, right around…here.” He took his finger and placed it on Blaine’s head in the exact same place that had been killing him the day before. “Now not only is the knife still sticking out of your head, but suddenly the room around you starts to spin, because you’re losing blood. You’re dizzy and the dizziness makes you nauseous. But not only that…the light in the room starts to weigh on you. It seems to get brighter and brighter, even though the wattage on the bulb stays the same. The sounds around you get increasingly loud and make you wish you were wearing ear plugs all the time. Now imagine all that at the same time. Imagine not being able to get rid of it. Imagine trying to sleep through it, and it not going away.”
“Wow, they’re really that bad?” Kurt nodded.
“That’s how bad it was yesterday. What’s worse is that… you can’t cry over it. You can’t cry over the physical pain that you’re feeling because it makes the pain and the symptoms worse. It makes your head pound worse, it makes the nausea worse and increases everything tenfold. I learned that the hard way. Last week I started to cry through the migraine…and I shouldn’t have. I felt so horribly that I broke down and started to cry…like literally sobbing. It made things so much worse that had I had access to a railroad spike I’d have shoved it into my head, because then at least there’d be a reason for it to hurt so much, you know?” But of course Blaine didn’t know. He tried to understand, but he never had any migraines before. The worst he had was a small headache when he was 14 when he stressed himself out too hard with bullies. But it was nothing compared to what Kurt’s been dealing with.
“Nothing helps?” Kurt shook his head.
“I’ve only had two, and I’ve only tried two things. Sleep and Advil. Clearly sleep works, and Advil does squat. I think I need to try another pain reliever, see if that helps.”
“I’ve heard that Excedrin helps migraines. You see those commercials for them all the time on TV, that it really works for migraines.” Blaine offered.
“I might try that. Sort of hoping though, that I don’t get any more.” Blaine slid closer to Kurt on the bench they had been sitting on and put his arm around Blaine’s shoulder and pulled him closer, while kissing the side of his head.
“Me too Kurt, me too.”
About 10 minutes later they paid for their food (or Blaine paid for their food and Kurt got annoyed that Blaine grabbed the check quicker than Kurt could even see it was down) and continued wandering around the mall. They wandered near an arcade that had music blasting from the speakers in every corner of the room. It was incredibly loud, and Kurt could feel the volume of the music in his head. “Blaine, let’s get out of here.” he asked desperately. “The music is too loud.” Normally Blaine would have teased him at not being able to deal with the loudness of the music, but after their conversation in the restaurant, and the look on Kurt’s face, Blaine knew something bad was about to happen.
Throughout the entire ride home, Kurt didn’t say a word. For a guy who could barely keep his speech under 100 words a minute, it was quite a sight to see. He was holding his head in his hands, and trying not to move too much, for fear of increasing the nausea that was slowly starting to consume him.
As Kurt and Blaine walked into the Hudmel household and Kurt had been holding his head, red blotches covering his face. It was clear that Kurt was angry and likely had been trying to hold back tears and sobs, but no one could quite tell why he was in such a state. Burt was the first to notice something was wrong. “Oh my, Kurt, what’s wrong?” He asked. Kurt just shook his head and went straight towards the first floor bathroom, intent on searching it for any Excedrin the family may have on hand, and to splash some water on his face in hopes of calming himself down. Burt just turned to look at Blaine with a death glare, but Blaine just shook his head.
“I think he has another migraine.” Both Blaine and Burt sighed.
“What happened this time?” Carole asked, who was coming into the foyer from the living room, worry scattered all over her face.
“I’m not completely sure.” Blaine responded. “We just finished having dinner and were walking around the mall. We walked by the arcade and there was excessively loud music blaring out of the speakers; Kurt asked if we could leave. I think it started to mess with his head a little bit. Then as we were walking to the car, someone’s alarm went off and it didn’t stop until we were already on our way back here. I had turned the radio off, but stupid me, forgot to turn my cellphone on vibrate and an extremely loud Katy Perry started to blare throughout the car when Wes called me. I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak. It was about then that I noticed he was tearing and trying desperately not to cry.” All three of them had identical looks of pity on their face. “I just wish I had thought to turn my phone off…”
“Oh Blaine, its not your fault.” Carole told him, putting her arm around him, trying to comfort the poor boy even just a little. “Your cell phone going off may have made it worse, but trust me, if he had a migraine brewing, no amount of silence was going to keep it at bay. Once it gets on a roll, it’s going to keep coming. Don’t beat yourself up, it’s not your fault.
“Of course its not Blaine.” Kurt reassured him, as he came out of the bathroom, walking over towards his boyfriend to pull him into a hug. “These things are not your fault. I sorta wish they were someone’s fault, then at least I could blame someone for them. Right now though, I’m just blaming Mother Nature. Because that’s the only thing I can blame.” Blaine nodded, returning the hug. Kurt turned to Carole and his father and asked “Do either of you have any Excedrin? Advil’s just not working for me anymore, and I want to see if anything else will help with these things.”
“I think I have a couple in my purse, hold on.” Carole went to search her purse for the illusive pills while Burt just looked Kurt up and down.
“How bad is it, Kurt?” He asked, unsure of how the answer will make him feel.
“Nothing I can’t handle.” Carole came back into the room with two Excedrin’s for her step-son, and a glass of water. He took them immediately and downed the entire glass of water. “Thanks Carole.”
“Why don’t you go on upstairs? Get some rest? Try and ward off the worst of the migraine?” Carole suggested. Kurt nodded, grabbed Blaine’s hand and dragged him up the stairs before Carole or Burt could object. After they were already out of sigh though, Carole remarked “That…wasn’t… what I meant.”
The two were lying on Kurt’s bed, Blaine the big spoon, Kurt the little, just trying to spend the last amount of time together as they could, before Burt kicked Blaine out for the night. The door was open, because as much as Blaine wanted some actual privacy with Kurt, he wasn’t stupid enough to risk Burt’s wrath, even if Kurt’s migraine would lessen the severity. “You feeling any better?” Kurt just shook his head, and Blaine could see the tears leaking out of his eyes once again. “Hey, it’s alright. I know it hurts, but it’s going to get better. Try and sleep.” He said as he kissed Kurt’s temple. Blaine pulled his Kurt closer to him, and snuggling in, giving Kurt the smallest amount of comfort he could.
“I hate this, Blaine.” Kurt whispered. Blaine tightened his grip on Kurt’s torso and whispered back.
“I know, I know you do.”
“Why is this happening to me?” Blaine didn’t know the answer. It wasn’t something he was an expert in. Ask him why bullies were harassing you, and he could expertly tell you how to confront them, and what to do. Ask him why people were so mean and cruel, and he could be the most kindhearted and gentle person that you’d need at the time. But ask him why his boyfriend was in the worst physical pain he’d ever felt before, and Blaine was at a loss.
“I don’t know Kurt, I honestly don’t know.” There they stayed. It wasn’t for another hour that Burt came around to check on his son, and push Blaine out the door, but the sight he saw was not what he was expecting. He had expected his son to be lying on his bed, and Blaine to be sitting there, the two of them talking about the latest issue of Rogue, or whatever magazine it was Kurt worshiped, but it wasn’t. He came across both boys, curled up next to each other, fully clothed, sleeping. Just sleeping. Though if he were to ask anyone to guess which one had the smile and which one had the grimace on his face, no one would ever be able to guess.
Burt decided to leave them be, and call the Andersons, to let them know that Blaine was safe, and likely not going to be returning home that night.
Master list for all my fics
Chapter 2 Chapter 4
Title: Invisible Illness Chapter 3
Rating: PG-13 (for now)
Spoilers (if any): None
Warnings (if any): Explicit descriptions of pain.
Word Count: 4200+
Summary: Kurt finally gets to spend some quality time with Blaine, but something happens that crashes their happy times down to the ground.
Author's Note: This is a therapy fic. I'm writing this as a way to cope with the struggles that come with Invisible Illnesses, both having one myself, and living with a family member with multiple ones. If at any time the characters in this story seem to have struggles so far out there, that it all seems made up, please keep in mind that these are the struggles of those living with Invisible Illnesses every day, and none of them are made up.
Invisible Illnesses expected to turn up in this story: Chronic Migraines, Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, and Diabetes. Others may make appearances, but these you can be sure will show up.The next day Kurt woke around 9am to find that his head was still aching. Though right now it’s just the pain of a normal headache. The sun that’s shining in through the slits of the his curtains isn’t making him want to hide under the covers, and the sound of him and his father watching sports downstairs and the random screaming doesn’t make him want to wear earplugs all day. He’s no longer nauseous and isn’t stumbling around trying to regain his balance so all in all…he can handle a little pain. It’s not like he’s never had to deal with pain before in his life. He had to deal with quite a bit when he was at McKinley. Dumpster tosses, locker slams and one harrowing experience where he was lifted by the bullies and thrown down the hallway in a game of “loser bowling.” Luckily the Neanderthals only got away with that game once before one of the teachers noticed and put a stop to it.
As Kurt went downstairs he smelled the telltale sign of the turkey bacon Carole would cook every Saturday morning. Turkey bacon, the only type of bacon Kurt would allow in the house after his father’s heart attack back in October. He could also smell pancakes. Something about that combination smelled wonderful and he was quite eager to make his way downstairs to eat. “Hi Carole.” He says as he walks into the kitchen, smiling appreciatively as he takes in the aroma of the other pieces of food that was spread out in front of him. Including the bacon and pancakes, there were bagels, assorted fruit and an entire jug of sugar-free syrup.
“Good morning, Kurt. How are you feeling?” Kurt see-sawed his hand out a little bit.
“Ehh. I’m doing better than I was yesterday, but my head still hurts a bit. But I can deal with the pain of a headache. It’s everything else that made life miserable yesterday.” Carole nodded.
“I know what you mean. For a while there I would get frequent migraines.”
“Really?” Kurt looked interested.
“Mhm. They’re more prevalent in women than they are in men. Something about the hormones or whatever. Seems you’re one of the unlucky ones.” Carole joked.
“Haven’t I always?” Kurt deadpanned. Carole let out a soft chuckle.
“You hungry?”
“Famished.” Kurt went over towards the cabinets to pull out a plate and began loading it up with some of the fruit on the counter.
“Here,” she said, placing two pancakes on his plate. “They were for Finn, but he’s already had 4.” She rolled her eyes and Kurt’s mouth dropped.
“I honestly don’t understand how he eats so much and doesn’t look like a whale.”
“He’s a special one.” Kurt had to agree with that depiction of his step-brother and dug into the pancakes, moaning appreciatively when he ate the first bite.
“Oh my, these are delicious Carole.”
“Why thank you, Kurt.” she said a bit louder than was probably normal. “At least someone,” she nodded her head towards the living room, “appreciates this breakfast that I‘ve been slaving over for the past hour.” ‘Ahh…’ Kurt understood. Finn was being his usual jerky self and not appreciating his mother cooking him breakfast. Typical, actually.
“Of course, Carole.” Kurt played along, speaking in a louder volume. “I’d never dream of being unappreciative.” Just then Finn walked into the kitchen and saw Kurt eating.
“Hey mom, where are those other pancakes?” Kurt had never face palmed so hard in his life.
“They’re coming Finn.” Carole sighed exasperatedly. “Since you already had four, I decided to give Kurt these instead.” Finn grumbled, glaring at Kurt for stealing his pancakes away and then walked back into the kitchen. “I swear… I taught that boy manners when he was younger.” Carole muttered to no one in particular.
“He’s a teenage boy, who spends the majority of his time playing Halo, cursing at the TV whenever he’s killed. He forgot manners a long time ago.” Carole nodded.
“Sadly.” Carole shook her head. “So what are you planning on doing today?” She asked Kurt, he shrugged.
“Dunno.” He hadn’t made any plans with anyone for today, which was unusual for him. “The girls are all busy, and Blaine and I usually decide if and what we’re going to do on Saturday, on Friday. But clearly that didn’t happen yesterday.” He rolled his eyes.
“Oh, that reminds me. You should probably go make sure your phone is on. He said he’d call today. Not that it’s really a shock. I’ve seen the cell phone bill.” Kurt blushes. It’s true. Him and Blaine, even before they were dating, rarely went a day without calling each other on the phone. Even rarer was more than a few hours (between 7am and 1am) without a text.
“I’ve got it in my pocket. It’s rarely not on.” He smiled. “If we do anything, we’ll probably go see a movie, go to the mall, you know? Otherwise…I’ll probably get a jumpstart on the massive pile of projects and studying that I’ve been neglecting all week.” He shook his head, as if to clear it. “I love being at Dalton, but the course load is so much heavier than McKinley. No wonder there’s no bullying problem at Dalton. There’s so much work, that there’s no time to even think about harassing someone.” Kurt joked.
“I wish all schools were like that. Schools need to focus more on academics, instead of athletics. Athletics won’t get a majority of students far in real life.”
“I know what you mean. I was on two teams at McKinley besides Glee, one of them never would have gotten me a scholarship to any college in the country. The other had such an importance placed around the team that if you missed so much as one practice, you were practically killed.”
“Much too much of a focus.”
“Precisely.” It was this moment that Kurt felt the telltale sign that his phone was buzzing. He fished it out of his pocket to see that Blaine was calling. Smiling, he pressed answer. “Hey Blaine.”
“Hey, how are you feeling?” Kurt could hear the smile in Blaine’s voice, and it made Kurt happy, to know that Blaine was smiling like a goofball, probably laying on his bed in his bedroom, on top of his blue and gold bedspread that he had just made.
“I’m feeling pretty well actually. I think it had something to do with having such an amazing nurse taking care of me yesterday.” Carole heard this and chuckled. Kurt blushed and slipped out of the seat he was sitting in and walked into the other room, where neither Carole, Finn or Burt would be able to hear.
“Oh really? Was he pretty?” Blaine asked, playing along with the unspoken game.
“Gorgeous. Sadly though, didn’t get to spend much quality time with him while I was resting. I would have loved to be able to make out with him for a bit. He was unbelievably hot, you know.”
“Was he?”
“Oh yes. It would have been amazing to just lay on my bed all afternoon, slowly taking his shirt off, and kissing up and down his torso while teasing him to the point of no return. But sadly…never got that far.” Kurt dramatically sighed.
“Well then, I’m gonna have to meet him some day. See what competition I have to face.”
“Oh you already have Blaine,” Kurt reminded him. “I’m sure you remember him. Tall, skinny, Asian…goes by the name of Wes?” Kurt wished he could have seen Blaine’s face at that moment, it sure would have been priceless.
“Oh, now that’s just mean.” Kurt cackled.
“Aww, is Blainey-bear upset?” Kurt giggled as Blaine huffed.
“We had such a good thing going…and now you wanna go and ruin it with thoughts of Wes. How can you do this to me?” Blaine joked.
“Okay, okay. Enough with the Wes jokes. You know there’s no one I want to make out with besides you.”
“I know.” Kurt could hear the smile return to Blaine’s voice. “So, since we didn’t actually get to do much yesterday, I was wondering if you wanted to…oh I don’t know….go to the mall today? Maybe see a movie, go to lunch?”
“Why Blaine Anderson, are you asking me out on a date?” Kurt feigned shock. Kurt loved it when Blaine tried to be romantic. He wasn’t always the best at it, but he tried. That’s all that Kurt could really ask for.
“Absolutely not. It’s just lunch and a movie. If we happen to make out for an hour afterwards than so be it.” Kurt’s heart fell after he heard that line.
“Miss Congeniality, really Blaine, really? Did you have to quote a Sandra Bullock movie? Did you even see how she looked before Michael Caine got his hands on her?”
“It’s a movie about taking a woman who dresses like a complete dog, giving her a makeover, and turning her into something amazing. How do you not love that movie?” Kurt shuddered.
“Because I have taste?” It’s honestly weird how much Kurt hates that movie. Though it’s probably because Sandra Bullock reminds him (in appearance) of his mom quite a bit more than anything.
“Uh-huh, sure. So what do you say? Pick you up at noon? We’ll hit the mall, see if anything is worth seeing? If not we’ll spend the day shopping? You know you want to.” Blaine teased.
“Blaine, you had me at ‘spend the day shopping.’” Kurt smiled, and waited a few seconds before saying anything else. “Actually you had me at ‘go to the mall today?’ but I couldn’t be that easy to get, now could I?”
“Would be disappointed if you did. Now go start getting ready. I know you. If you don’t start soon, I’ll get there, and you’ll still be getting dressed.”
“Ha ha, very funny. I was actually in the middle of eating, so I think I’ll finish that first.”
“Love you Kurt, see you in a little while.”
“Love you too, and I will be ready by noon.” The two boys hung up and Kurt walked back into the kitchen to see his pancakes sitting there…all mushy from the syrup and cold from sitting there for the past 10 minutes. Clearly Carole had anticipated this because she quickly lifted up the partially eaten plate, and put down another plate with a fresh pancake on it.
“Here, a fresh one.”
“Thanks Carole, you’re the best!” Kurt went about eating, and mentally preparing what he was going to wear that day.
By the time they got to the mall that day, Kurt had not only gotten completely ready by the time Blaine got to his house, but had been waiting in the middle of the living room while Burt and Finn were watching some…sports game that Kurt couldn’t quite figure out. He had knew it wasn’t football, and it didn’t look like basketball, but he didn’t honestly care either way so he let it go. Kurt and Blaine were busy walking through the mall to get towards the movie theater when they spotted Mercedes and Tina outside Hot Topic. “Mercedes!” Kurt yelled out. “Tina!” The two girls whipped their heads around and saw their best-male friend and his boyfriend coming up to them.
“Hey Kurt, hey Blaine. Where are you two off to?” Tina asked.
“We were on our way to see what movies were playing.” Kurt offered.
“Wanna join us?” Blaine asked. Tina and Mercedes looked at each other and shook their head.
“Oh no. We already looked. Nothing but blood, guts, gore and kid movies at the theater today. It sucks.” Mercedes told them.
“Well that blows.” Kurt replied. “Now what are we gonna do?”
“What we always do when we come to the mall?” Blaine asked. “You drag me from store to store, searching for ‘just the right top’ that you only ever find after we’ve been on our feet for 5 hours. Then after those 5 hours we finally go down to the food court where you refuse to get anything but a salad while I get something that actually tastes good. You eat your salad, and I pretend to not notice when you eat half of my fries.” Kurt blushed and playfully slapped his boyfriend’s shoulder.
“Hush you.”
“Whatever you say, dear.” Blaine played up the ‘doting boyfriend’ card a little bit, painting on the fake smile of boyfriends everywhere and the overenthusiastic agreement. However he did this as he put his arms around Kurt’s waist and pulled him closer to him, his head resting perfectly on Kurt’s shoulder. Mercedes and Tina just rolled their eyes at the public displays of affection.
“Enough, you two are so sickening that its going to give me a cavity.” Mercedes complained.
“Then isn’t a good thing that your dad is a dentist?” Kurt shot back. The two of them just collapsed into giggles.
Over the next few hours the four of them went from shop to shop, window shopping, and actual shopping. Trying to figure out what they could afford, and what they couldn’t. Blaine, being Blaine Anderson, didn’t really have any problems in the affording things department, decided to take mental notes of what each of them wanted to get, but couldn’t afford so he knew what to get them for their upcoming birthdays. Kurt especially. Blaine hated that his boyfriend kept feeling like crap lately, and on his birthday, he definitely wanted Kurt to feel amazing. If buying him a few special gifts, on top of the other things he had planned would get that result, he’d do it in a heartbeat.
It was nearly 6 o’clock and Mercedes and Tina had left them about an hour ago, being picked up by Tina’s father, so it left Blaine and Kurt alone. Neither of them wanted this day to end, and Kurt was feeling fabulous. His headache from this morning had disappeared by the time Blaine had picked him up and it hadn’t reared its ugly head again. The two of them were in high spirits, and had decided to check out a little eatery near the food court, but wasn’t quite food court material. It was sit down and romantic, but not over the top.
After they sat down they both looked at the menus, and decided to do a dual order and share. Kurt would get the Chicken Alfredo, and Blaine would get a steak. Kurt never allowed steak to enter into the Hudmel household. But he wasn’t a masochist either. He loved steak, and on the rare occasion he’d let himself have one. Neither of them could decide between the two, so they felt they could get the best of both worlds, “without the cheesy Miley Cyrus reference.” Kurt muttered under his breath.
“Today has been amazing.” Blaine revealed, smiling as he did so. Nodding, Kurt agreed.
“It was. Much better than yesterday at any rate.”
“Having your tooth pulled, is just about the only thing that rates lower than yesterday.” Blaine quipped and Kurt slightly shook his head and sighed. “What? You’d rather have your tooth pulled out?”
“Actually? Yes.” Kurt shrugged. “Yesterday sucked, so bad. Nothing worked to get rid of the migraine. Absolutely nothing. At least when you have a tooth pulled, you get Novocain, or laughing gas. All I got was ineffective advil, and sleep.”
“I see what you mean, but are migraines really that bad? I mean, I know they hurt like hell, but you’ve dealt with pain before. Are they truly, honestly that bad?” Kurt nodded.
“Let me put it like this. Imagine someone took this knife…” he picked up the serrated knife that came with the steak they ordered earlier. “…and jammed it into the side of your head, right around…here.” He took his finger and placed it on Blaine’s head in the exact same place that had been killing him the day before. “Now not only is the knife still sticking out of your head, but suddenly the room around you starts to spin, because you’re losing blood. You’re dizzy and the dizziness makes you nauseous. But not only that…the light in the room starts to weigh on you. It seems to get brighter and brighter, even though the wattage on the bulb stays the same. The sounds around you get increasingly loud and make you wish you were wearing ear plugs all the time. Now imagine all that at the same time. Imagine not being able to get rid of it. Imagine trying to sleep through it, and it not going away.”
“Wow, they’re really that bad?” Kurt nodded.
“That’s how bad it was yesterday. What’s worse is that… you can’t cry over it. You can’t cry over the physical pain that you’re feeling because it makes the pain and the symptoms worse. It makes your head pound worse, it makes the nausea worse and increases everything tenfold. I learned that the hard way. Last week I started to cry through the migraine…and I shouldn’t have. I felt so horribly that I broke down and started to cry…like literally sobbing. It made things so much worse that had I had access to a railroad spike I’d have shoved it into my head, because then at least there’d be a reason for it to hurt so much, you know?” But of course Blaine didn’t know. He tried to understand, but he never had any migraines before. The worst he had was a small headache when he was 14 when he stressed himself out too hard with bullies. But it was nothing compared to what Kurt’s been dealing with.
“Nothing helps?” Kurt shook his head.
“I’ve only had two, and I’ve only tried two things. Sleep and Advil. Clearly sleep works, and Advil does squat. I think I need to try another pain reliever, see if that helps.”
“I’ve heard that Excedrin helps migraines. You see those commercials for them all the time on TV, that it really works for migraines.” Blaine offered.
“I might try that. Sort of hoping though, that I don’t get any more.” Blaine slid closer to Kurt on the bench they had been sitting on and put his arm around Blaine’s shoulder and pulled him closer, while kissing the side of his head.
“Me too Kurt, me too.”
About 10 minutes later they paid for their food (or Blaine paid for their food and Kurt got annoyed that Blaine grabbed the check quicker than Kurt could even see it was down) and continued wandering around the mall. They wandered near an arcade that had music blasting from the speakers in every corner of the room. It was incredibly loud, and Kurt could feel the volume of the music in his head. “Blaine, let’s get out of here.” he asked desperately. “The music is too loud.” Normally Blaine would have teased him at not being able to deal with the loudness of the music, but after their conversation in the restaurant, and the look on Kurt’s face, Blaine knew something bad was about to happen.
Throughout the entire ride home, Kurt didn’t say a word. For a guy who could barely keep his speech under 100 words a minute, it was quite a sight to see. He was holding his head in his hands, and trying not to move too much, for fear of increasing the nausea that was slowly starting to consume him.
As Kurt and Blaine walked into the Hudmel household and Kurt had been holding his head, red blotches covering his face. It was clear that Kurt was angry and likely had been trying to hold back tears and sobs, but no one could quite tell why he was in such a state. Burt was the first to notice something was wrong. “Oh my, Kurt, what’s wrong?” He asked. Kurt just shook his head and went straight towards the first floor bathroom, intent on searching it for any Excedrin the family may have on hand, and to splash some water on his face in hopes of calming himself down. Burt just turned to look at Blaine with a death glare, but Blaine just shook his head.
“I think he has another migraine.” Both Blaine and Burt sighed.
“What happened this time?” Carole asked, who was coming into the foyer from the living room, worry scattered all over her face.
“I’m not completely sure.” Blaine responded. “We just finished having dinner and were walking around the mall. We walked by the arcade and there was excessively loud music blaring out of the speakers; Kurt asked if we could leave. I think it started to mess with his head a little bit. Then as we were walking to the car, someone’s alarm went off and it didn’t stop until we were already on our way back here. I had turned the radio off, but stupid me, forgot to turn my cellphone on vibrate and an extremely loud Katy Perry started to blare throughout the car when Wes called me. I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak. It was about then that I noticed he was tearing and trying desperately not to cry.” All three of them had identical looks of pity on their face. “I just wish I had thought to turn my phone off…”
“Oh Blaine, its not your fault.” Carole told him, putting her arm around him, trying to comfort the poor boy even just a little. “Your cell phone going off may have made it worse, but trust me, if he had a migraine brewing, no amount of silence was going to keep it at bay. Once it gets on a roll, it’s going to keep coming. Don’t beat yourself up, it’s not your fault.
“Of course its not Blaine.” Kurt reassured him, as he came out of the bathroom, walking over towards his boyfriend to pull him into a hug. “These things are not your fault. I sorta wish they were someone’s fault, then at least I could blame someone for them. Right now though, I’m just blaming Mother Nature. Because that’s the only thing I can blame.” Blaine nodded, returning the hug. Kurt turned to Carole and his father and asked “Do either of you have any Excedrin? Advil’s just not working for me anymore, and I want to see if anything else will help with these things.”
“I think I have a couple in my purse, hold on.” Carole went to search her purse for the illusive pills while Burt just looked Kurt up and down.
“How bad is it, Kurt?” He asked, unsure of how the answer will make him feel.
“Nothing I can’t handle.” Carole came back into the room with two Excedrin’s for her step-son, and a glass of water. He took them immediately and downed the entire glass of water. “Thanks Carole.”
“Why don’t you go on upstairs? Get some rest? Try and ward off the worst of the migraine?” Carole suggested. Kurt nodded, grabbed Blaine’s hand and dragged him up the stairs before Carole or Burt could object. After they were already out of sigh though, Carole remarked “That…wasn’t… what I meant.”
The two were lying on Kurt’s bed, Blaine the big spoon, Kurt the little, just trying to spend the last amount of time together as they could, before Burt kicked Blaine out for the night. The door was open, because as much as Blaine wanted some actual privacy with Kurt, he wasn’t stupid enough to risk Burt’s wrath, even if Kurt’s migraine would lessen the severity. “You feeling any better?” Kurt just shook his head, and Blaine could see the tears leaking out of his eyes once again. “Hey, it’s alright. I know it hurts, but it’s going to get better. Try and sleep.” He said as he kissed Kurt’s temple. Blaine pulled his Kurt closer to him, and snuggling in, giving Kurt the smallest amount of comfort he could.
“I hate this, Blaine.” Kurt whispered. Blaine tightened his grip on Kurt’s torso and whispered back.
“I know, I know you do.”
“Why is this happening to me?” Blaine didn’t know the answer. It wasn’t something he was an expert in. Ask him why bullies were harassing you, and he could expertly tell you how to confront them, and what to do. Ask him why people were so mean and cruel, and he could be the most kindhearted and gentle person that you’d need at the time. But ask him why his boyfriend was in the worst physical pain he’d ever felt before, and Blaine was at a loss.
“I don’t know Kurt, I honestly don’t know.” There they stayed. It wasn’t for another hour that Burt came around to check on his son, and push Blaine out the door, but the sight he saw was not what he was expecting. He had expected his son to be lying on his bed, and Blaine to be sitting there, the two of them talking about the latest issue of Rogue, or whatever magazine it was Kurt worshiped, but it wasn’t. He came across both boys, curled up next to each other, fully clothed, sleeping. Just sleeping. Though if he were to ask anyone to guess which one had the smile and which one had the grimace on his face, no one would ever be able to guess.
Burt decided to leave them be, and call the Andersons, to let them know that Blaine was safe, and likely not going to be returning home that night.
Master list for all my fics
Chapter 2 Chapter 4