The Ship of Dreams – Chapter 1
Author notes: Hello everyone, and thanks to everyone who read/commented/favorited my first little attempt at fan fiction. It's hard out there for a Kadam shipper, isn't it? Many seem to think that Adam will be gone by the end of season 4, and I'm starting to think they're right. Adam barely gets any screentime. I've seen many comments from depressed Kadam shippers online, and who can blame them? I was pleased to hear Kurt would be getting a new love interest, but I never expected to like him as much as I do. That's why I'm so disappointed he might be gone so soon. So that's why I decided to write this fic: because (1) every pairing should have their own Titanic AU fic, and (2) I wanted to give Kurt a happy ending with Adam for myself and anyone else who might want that. Ah, but Titanic has a tragic ending, you say? Not in this fic, it doesn't – I'm going for a happy ending, and I'm telling you now just in case the thought of reading something depressing might turn you off. Hope you enjoy!
Warnings: Mentions of character death, some language, sex and (possible) further character deaths in future chapters. Also some OOC-ness mostly in Sebastian, who's been given Cal's role – I kind of like Sebastian, and even though he can be a bastard sometimes I don't think he's nearly as big a bastard as Cal, but someone had to take that role and I decided on Sebastian.
"So this is the Ship of Dreams...?" Kurt Hummel thought to himself, eyeing the brand new liner Titanic with a slight curl of distaste playing about his lips. To be sure, the ship was an impressive sight, and under different circumstances he might have been as thrilled as everyone else at taking part of her maiden voyage. But, taking in consideration that he and his stepsister Quinn were on their way to their doom, the beautiful ship, for a its luxury, seemed little more than a floating prison. He looked at Quinn, who seemed in as low spirits as himself.
"I'm surprised they didn't bring us here in shackles," he whispered to her.
"It will be alright," she said, squeezing his hand. But he could tell she didn't quite believe her own words. Judy Fabray-Hummel, Quinn's mother and Kurt's stepmother, stepped up beside them, grabbing Quinn's arm.
"Oh, Quinnie, doesn't it look magnificent?"
Turning her head away from her mother towards Kurt, Quinn mouthed her mother's words with exaggerated facial expressions and rolled her eyes, making Kurt smile for the first time in days. The smile quickly vanished as Quinn's fiancée, Sebastian Smythe stepped up beside him.
"What do you think?" he asked, smiling that superior smirk which seemed to be the only way he knew how to smile. Kurt couldn't remember a single instance where he had seen a sincere smile on Sebastian's face. Kurt plastered an equally insincere smile on his own face.
"I really don't see what all the fuss is about, Sebastian. Do you, Quinn?"
"Not especially. Seems like any other ship to me."
"You two are hard to please," Sebastian said, his smirk deepening.
"Please don't mind them, mr Smythe," mrs Fabray-Hummel said, waving her hand dismissively. "They enjoy teasing and trying my patience."
"Let's move aboard, shall we? Perhaps they will have something more admiring to say once they've seen the inside of the ship. Hunter, have the porters tend to the luggage and the safe!" Sebastian barked at his manservant. Kurt flinched as Sebastian's hand briefly slid down the small of his back as the company moved to board the ship, walking past the third class passengers who were in the process of being inspected for lice. The crew greeted them as they came aboard, but Kurt barely heard them, his own voice screaming hopelessly inside his head:
"How will I ever survive this?!"
At the same time as Kurt and his family was boarding the Titanic, in a small bar close by a very different company were gathered. Four men were seated around a table, smoke from cigars and cigarettes thick in the air around them. They were all intensely staring at the playing cards in their hands, occasionally taking a swig from their glasses.
"You bloody idiot! You're gonna lose our tickets!" one of the men growled in Swedish to his companion, who promptly told him to shut up. The other two young men at the table were equally tense. Or, at least one of them were.
"Adam," Noah Puckerman – Puck to his friends - hissed at his companion. "Are you out of your goddamn mind? You realize you've bet everything we have?"
Smiling, Adam turned to him and whispered mischievously:
"Puck, when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose."
Puck shook his head with a frown and muttered something inaudible as Adam dealt new cards to the players. He took one for himself, not single muscle in his face betraying the possible outcome of the hand.
"Gentlemen, the time has come. Let's find out whose life has changed, shall we?"
Everyone seemed to take a deep breath.
"Puck?" Adam turned to his friend, who tossed his cards on the table.
"Nothing," Adam stated.
"Yeah, nothing!" Puck growled.
Ignoring him, Adam turned to the next man.
"Olaf?"
The man revealed his hand.
"Nothing there either. Sven...?"
The third man on the table placed his cards on the table.
"Two pair."
Adam squirmed in his seat, turning to Puck.
"I'm really sorry, Puck..."
"Yeah?! Not as sorry as you're gonna be when I'm done with you, you motherf..."
"I'm sorry..." Adam interrupted him, "...because you're gonna have to disappoint that barmaid you promised to meet tonight since we will be on our way to America! Full house, lads!"
Adam tossed his cards on the table, laughing with glee. Puck stared at the cards in stunned silence for about five seconds, then leapt to his feet, hugging Adam and laughing while the other two men began fighting.
"I'm going home! Adam, you magnificent bastard, I'm going home!"
"Right you are, Puck, you're going home!" Adam hugged Puck back. "America, here we come!"
"Then you'd better hurry, lads," the barkeep cut in, pointing at the clock on the wall behind him, "because the Titanic is leaving in exactly five minutes!"
"Shit!" Adam and Puck said, then grabbed the money and the tickets from the table and rushed off as fast as their legs would carry them.
"This is it, Puck, my friend!" Adam yelled as they ran "Our luck is starting to change!"
"You are crazy as hell, but I'll never doubt you again! I can't wait to get back home! I can't remember the last time I saw my family. My little sister must be all grown up by now!"
"If you want to see them you'd better hurry up! Remember, I've got the tickets!" Adam laughed. They reached the Titanic just as a crew member was ready to close the door.
"Hold it, we're passengers!" Adam yelled.
The man peered suspiciously at them.
"Have you two had your lice inspection?"
"Of course! We're Americans, pal! Would an American have lice?" Adam said haughtily in an American accent while Puck struggled to hold back laughter.
The man allowed them to board.
Giggling, they made their way to the deck where a great deal of the passengers were gathered, waving to the people below. Adam and Puck joined in, waving and smiling.
"Goodbye! I'll never forget you" they shouted to no one in particular as the ship slowly began to put distance between itself and the dock, steadily heading out towards the sea.
When they had left the port, Adam and Puck went off in search of their cabin. Once located, they introduced themselves to the other two men already there, who seemed somewhat bewildered by their presence. Adam deduced from their low mutterings in Swedish that they had been expecting Sven and Olaf, as he heard Sven's name mentioned.
"Sven's loss is my gain," he thought contentedly, stretching out on the bottom bunk since Puck had already claimed the top one.
"Hey, Adam..?"
"Yeah?"
"It's a shame I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to that barmaid before we left. I liked her."
"Me too. What was her name again?"
"Lauren."
"That's right. I would have liked to draw her. Very spirited woman."
"Yeah. I like a fiery dame."
"Well, Lauren the fiery barmaid might be beyond your reach, but there's bound to be at least one more dame of her caliber somewhere on this ship, so let's hope you find her."
"Yeah. Let's hope that."
A moment of silence passed, then Puck spoke again:
"Adam?"
"I hope there's a fiery guy somewhere on this ship for you."
"Thank you, Puck," Adam smiled. "That'd be nice."
While Adam and Puck were resting in their cabin, Kurt was making himself busy in his personal suite. If this place was going to be his temporary prison, then he at least wanted to make it somewhat tolerable. Therefore, he had had some favorite paintings of his brought from their luggage, and was in the process of finding the proper spots for them around the room. A derisive snort signaled that Sebastian had entered the room.
"Not those again? Must you insist on dragging them with you wherever we go? They're hardly worth the effort."
"Since I, unlike you, have some actual taste in art – and in general – I am of a completely different opinion," Kurt said without looking at Sebastian. "They're absolutely extraordinary."
"What's the name of the artist's who painted this one, sir?" a servant inquired.
"Picasso, I think. Mark my words Sebastian, these works will be milestones in the history of art."
"Hardly," Sebastian sneered. "Even at their cheap price I still think they were a waste of money. However, if they please you, then by all means hold on to them."
Ignoring Sebastian, Kurt took another painting and moved it into the bedroom. Kurt could never stand to look at Sebastian one minute more than necessary. He might be Quinn's fiancée in name, but in actuality their engagement was all a front, a part of Sebastian's little "arrangement" with Kurt's stepmother.
Kurt had lost his mother at a very young age. It had been a very trying time for him and his father, Burt. Taking a deep breath, Kurt forced back a few tears. He could never think of his father without feeling a sharp pain in his chest. The two of them had moved past their loss, Burt raising his little boy on his own, supporting him through thick and thin and giving him unconditional love. When Kurt was fourteen, Burt had at a social function been introduced to the widow Judy Fabray and had been quite taken with her, and since Kurt had struck up a friendship with her daughter Quinn, Burt made the rather hasty decision of getting remarried to the widow. As it was, he came to regret the decision, for it turned out he had next to nothing in common with Judy, and their marriage was less than blissful. Two years ago, when Kurt was seventeen, Burt had passed away when his heart gave out.
Kurt had been heartbroken when he lost his father. The pain was excruciating. But he had survived that too, like his mother's death, mostly thanks to the loving care he received from Quinn, and the following eighteen months had been spent in relative peace, even though he got along even worse with his stepmother than his father had. And then along came Sebastian Smythe.
The Smythe family was the wealthiest family in their circle of acquaintance. Sebastian was their only son, and Kurt had taken an instant dislike to the other young man the moment they were introduced. He found Sebastian rude, snide and self-centered. The only thing they seemed to have in common were their secret attraction to other men rather than women. However, that fact didn't lessen Kurt's dislike for Sebastian the slightest. Sebastian, on the other hand felt quite differently towards Kurt. After some initial teasing, he had begun to make repeated sexual advances towards Kurt. When those kept getting rejected, his attraction to Kurt seemed to grow into an obsession. He wanted Kurt. And the Smythes always got what they wanted.
Some research uncovered that mrs Fabray-Hummel's finances were in a sorry state. And that was all Sebastian needed to know. He approached her with a proposal: he would marry Quinn and thereby making sure that both she and her mother would be set for life (not to mention that they would be included in one of the most well-respected families there was). After a few months' "honeymoon" in town, Quinn and her mother would be installed in the Smythe's countryside residence, while Kurt remained with him in New York with the excuse of assisting Sebastian in managing the family business, but in reality be nothing more than his kept lover. Judy had agreed to the arrangement immediately.
Kurt almost wished he had given in to Sebastian, rather than being forced to endure the loss of not only his own freedom, but also Quinn's. He had thought many times of running away, but every time he did he thought of Quinn. Her kindness to him following his father's death had probably saved his life. If he ran, what little there was left of his father's money would run out, and Quinn and her mother would be impoverished, and would have to struggle greatly to get by. Sebastian had promised to be generous to the ladies, and even though Quinn would be forced to enter a loveless marriage, Sebastian had promised to finance tuition for Quinn at a women's college, something she had always dreamed of. Sebastian knew how much Kurt cared for his stepsister, and he had certainly used that knowledge to his advantage.
Kurt was trapped, and he could see no way out.
So that's the first chapter. I know the backstory to Sebastian's engagement to Quinn is horribly contrived, but the idea sort of stuck with me and now I can't seem to let it go. If you would like to leave a comment and tell me what you think about the story so far along with any suggestions you may have, that would be very much appreciated. If you in that case would also like to answer the following questions that I'm sort of stuck on, that would be great:
Should I include Blaine at all in the story? If so, what "part" should he play?
Should Sebastian still give Kurt the Heart of the Ocean-necklace, or is that way too ridiculous? If so, what gift should Sebastian give Kurt as a symbol of how he's now (in Sebastian's mind) Sebastian's property? Any suggestions? Proper credit will be given, of course.
That's all, folks. I will try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible. Next chapter I have planned on the meeting between our boys. Also, there will be an introduction of my version of the Unsinkable Molly Brown. Can you guess who it is?