Hide Your Love Away

7

Kurt was running out of ways to comfort his boyfriend. He hated this. He just felt so utterly useless. For the whole car ride home, everything he tried to do to help had proven useless. Kurt wanted nothing more than to just scoop Blaine up and kiss away his worries. At one point, Blaine had started hyperventilating, fretting about what he was going to do with his possessions. Blaine didn't own his own car. His father owned his car and paid for his phone bill. Blaine had never had a job - how the hell was he meant to live his own life without his father's disposable income? Blaine had nothing. Not even savings that he could access - it all needed to be done with his father's permission.

Terrified, Kurt watched on as Blaine spiralled, pulling over as soon as he could. Wordlessly, Blaine practically flew out of the car, flinging himself onto the grass, knees first, slowly pushing his hands into the ground, and tugging gently at the grass. Blaine hung his head and just let himself breathe. This was something he had taught himself to do from a very young age. It was the only way he could keep himself centred - to feel the ground beneath him; solid and unmoving. It helped to know that something was static. There was something he could trust. Being reserved for a specific kind of panic attack, Kurt had never seen Blaine do this before, as the stockier boy usually managed to keep a cool head. Kurt watched over him, listening to his shaky breath become slower and steadier. He observed, completely intrigued as his boyfriend fisted through the grass and tugged. Kurt somewhat recognised this from Blaine's past problem-solving. Only, in an effort to force himself to use his head, he would tug at his own hair, pushing his hands through softly at first, grabbing near the root and firmly pulling upwards, as if he could grab the idea and pull it from his brain.

Once Kurt deemed the breathing of his other half steady enough, he cautiously approached him, hand outstretched, and began rubbing soothing circles on his back. Startled from the lack of warning, Blaine flinched ever so slightly, yet still remained unmoved. Kurt took this as his cue to keep going. They couldn't stay here long - it was a pretty dodgy place to pull over.

"Blaine, baby, I know that you're scared. I know. But we have to go," he muttered in a silky, soothing voice. Upon seeing no change, Kurt glided his hands from Blaine's back, across his shoulders, down his arms, settling atop Blaine's hands, gripping them gently. Keeping him close, he pulled Blaine back so he was sitting on his knees, keeping his hands on his boyfriend's and manipulating them so Blaine was almost hugging himself and Kurt. "It's okay, baby. I've got you." Kurt pulled them both to standing and gently ushered Blaine back to the car. Blaine had calmed down alright. But he now sat there shell-shocked, with no emotion spread across his face. Kurt sighed, grabbing his seat belt and buckling him in. After sorting himself, they continued the short journey left to Kurt's house.

After gently removing the now extremely clingy Blaine from himself, Kurt deposited him on the couch in the living room. Blaine fussed a bit, but Kurt softly kissed his head, whispering "I'll be right back," into it.

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaadd?!" He called out into the house.

"YES KURT?"

Kurt rushed to his father's bedroom door, revealing a very confused Burt Hummel. "Dad, I need to talk to you." Burt raised an eyebrow and Kurt dragged him down to the kitchen. Burt complained the whole way about leaving his room, much like a grumpy teenager, Kurt biting back about him being hungry and craving an apple. Burt didn't understand this. Who craves an apple?

Burt protested some more, and when Kurt got to the kitchen he decided that he would have to put his foot down. "Dad, this is really important." For the first time, Burt properly looked at his son's face. He looked like he'd aged overnight.

"Jesus, Kurt, what's happened? You look like hell!"

"I'm too tired for this." He sighed. "Dad, can Blaine live with us?"