A/N: Hello everyone! Thanks for returning to read, and sorry about the wait for this chapter! I meant to get it out a few days ago but the HP7pt2 premier reduced me to a blubbering mess that was unable to proofread. But anyways, here you go!
Enjoy!
Summer, 629 A.D.; Lima, Algania
"And you want to go…on a tour of the countryside…to make contact with the Alganian citizens?" Queen Vivienne leveled a suspicious gaze at Kurt as he stood in front of her with an agenda-less expression.
"That's right," he replied calmly. His hands were linked in front of his body and he stood ramrod straight, at attention.
The queen raised an elegant, perfectly arched brow. Kurt knew that she was suspicious; they were alone, and he was hardly ever this serious with her, even when they were surrounded by other courtiers. "You never seemed to have the desire to do such a thing before."
Kurt already knew what he was going to say. He and Blaine had scripted everything out earlier that day. "I've been thinking a lot since I got back from Lithuania," he said on cue. "War makes you see things from a different point of view." Technically, he wasn't even lying. Kurt really did have an interest in going on a tour of the countryside. He just had an agenda to be filled, and a more immediate interest that demanded his attention first. "Especially one that…well." Kurt cleared his throat and looked at his aunt briefly before looking away. Especially one that wasn't founded. He saw the queen's face sober immediately. Kurt knew how his aunt felt about her son's war.
"Well then," she said slowly. "I think it's a wonderful idea. I do, of course, hate to see you leave again so soon. However, judging by the stories you told me the night you got back, you are quite good with the people of the country. I think that a trip among them, to get to understand them, might be just the thing both of you need. You've never been outside of Lima, have you, Kurt?"
"Except the path we traveled on the road north to Vilnius," Kurt said, "no, I haven't."
Queen Vivienne adopted a kind, excited smile. "Then of course you have my permission to go," she said with a nod of her head. "I only wish that David was here. He could do with getting to know his own people." She paused and Kurt got the sinking feeling that she was about to say something treasonous. He was immensely glad that they were alone at the moment, but he couldn't shake the feeling that one day his aunt would say something that would land her in too much trouble to get out of. "Sometimes, I wish my son were more like you, dear." She folded her hands in her lap and didn't look up at her nephew.
Kurt was struck dumb for several moments. "Dave is a very…fierce king," he said finally, choosing his words carefully. "We had fully conquered Lithuania in less than a year. If someone had told me we would do such a thing before it had actually happened, I'd have labeled them insane."
"Ah, Kurt," his aunt said with a shake of her head. "Fierce and good are hardly ever synonyms, and you know it."
The nineteen year old prince hardly knew how to respond to that, so he simply bowed his head, murmured another thank you, and began to back toward the door.
"One moment." The queen's voice was sharp and when Kurt looked up, he saw that her eyes were glinting with an unidentifiable emotion; it could have been anything from indulgence to severity. "Just the other day, Blaine Anderson of Westerville asked my permission to take a brief leave from the royal court to visit his father and hometown." Kurt's stomach swooped unpleasantly, though his face remained impassive. "Knowing what it was like to have a child fighting in a war, I immediately acquiesced." She paused, intelligent eyes still scrutinizing him with that unreadable emotion. "Since you have never been out of the capital city, let alone by yourself, I believe it would be wise for you to have a guard, don't you?"
Kurt was silent for a moment as his mouth gaped like a fish out of water. He was half convinced that she was asking him a trick question, but he quickly regained his mindset. "Y…yes?"
His aunt's face regained its usual smile once more. She appeared to be satisfied with his answer. "Good. Seeing as this is your first journey of the sort, you'll go as far as Westerville. If it proceeds well and you are able to extend the royal hand to the people in the towns along the way, you can travel in other directions on other trips. Blaine will accompany you to Westerville." Her eyes twinkled. "I have the utmost faith in him and I believe he is more than capable for the job. Besides, I have seen how deeply your friendship runs."
Kurt froze completely, his eyes wide. Surely she couldn't mean…but of course his aunt must have simply been speaking in an offhand manner. She couldn't know how deeply their "friendship" really extended…could she? If he was judging by her twinkling eyes alone he would have said that she might. But she appeared so relaxed, and her speech had been given so lightly and casually that it couldn't be possible.
The young prince barely refrained from heaving a sigh. So she didn't know…it was for the best. Kurt tried to suffocate the little – or not so little – piece of himself that would have been relieved if he had been able to talk freely of his forbidden passion with his kind, gentle aunt. It was a treacherous part of his mind, one that would likely get him in trouble one day if he couldn't keep it in check.
"That…seems perfectly manageable," Kurt finally struggled to get out.
"Wonderful!" Queen Vivienne exclaimed, turning her attention back to the stack of papers she had been occupied with before Kurt interrupted her in her study. "You may leave whenever you wish, though I would think it wise to be in Westerville before the winter sets in."
"I couldn't agree more," Kurt said, barely able to contain his glee. He could hardly believe that everything had worked out so perfectly; Blaine's plan had gone off without a single bump in the road so far. It had not only worked, as a matter of fact, but his aunt had even assisted their plans – Kurt was still left to ponder whether she knew what she had done or not.
"Thank you, Aunt Vivienne," Kurt turned for the door but paused in its frame. Instead of exiting, he ran back to his aunt's desk, hugged her tightly, and kissed her cheek.
"Oh and Kurt?" She didn't look up from her papers as she spoke but Kurt would have sworn that he saw the corner of her lips tipping up in an even wider smile. "Do feel free to stay as long as you desire. Lord knows you need a vacation."
"You're what?" Sam asked, shock written across his features as Kurt flitted about his room, stuffing things into a travel bag.
"Going on a sort of tour," Kurt repeated, "to visit people in the country. I should be back in a few months."
Sam looked suspicious. "Really? That's…that's it?"
Kurt's cheeks flamed and he turned his face away from Sam as he shoved warm tunics and cloaks into his bag – he fully intended on spending the winter at Westerville. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Sam didn't immediately answer but Kurt could feel him move closer. "You know that you can tell me anything," Sam said quietly, laying a hand on Kurt's shoulder. "Anything at all, you just have to say it."
"Sam," Kurt whispered, pausing in his packing. He reached up his hand to lay it over his friend's. "I…I – yes, that's it. It's about time I did such a thing."
Kurt could hear Sam sigh in disappointment, and the blonde withdrew his hand rapidly. "I thought you might have trusted me," Sam said sadly. "I thought that our friendship meant something to you. I thought that I was worth more to you than a bunch of shallow avoidances of a truth which I have already aided you towards…but I guess I was wrong."
"Sam," Kurt protested hotly as Sam began to walk away. He was leaving almost immediately with Blaine; he didn't have time to repair this argument with someone being as unmanageable as Kurt thought Sam to be.
"Don't bother," Sam shot back at him, opening the door with more force than necessary. "I wouldn't want you to tire yourself out by thinking of another excuse to give. I'm sure you have a lot to do." He stepped through the door and hesitated, as if he had ran into someone outside, and then glanced back at Kurt sharply. "Much more important things to do; I'll just lie to Mercedes and tell her you said goodbye then."
Kurt stared after Sam in shock as the blonde walked past Blaine, who he had bumped into when he opened the door. Blaine looked out after Sam's retreating figure with concern. "Is Sam alright?" Blaine asked. "He sounded…strange."
"Goodness knows," Kurt said, returning to tossing things in his bag, with more force now. "I'm sure I could think of a million things wrong at the moment."
"Are you being exactly fair to him?" Blaine asked, raising a questioning, triangular brow.
"As fair as he deserves," Kurt grumbled.
Blaine made a sound of protest and approached Kurt, wrapping his arms around the taller boy's waist and holding him against his chest. "Blaine," Kurt protested, wriggling in his grasp. "The door's open; someone might see."
"Mmm, I don't care," Blaine mumbled, pressing hot lips to Kurt's soft expanse of neck.
"Blaine," Kurt said with more urgency, twisting out of Blaine's grasp and looking at him sternly. "You would care if someone walked by; you're just being silly."
"You're right, of course," Blaine conceded, running a hand through his curls. "But I hardly think it can be considered my fault that I can't keep my hands off of you. It's taken – what? – more than ten years for this to happen. I need to make up for lost time." Kurt's stern gaze faded into a dreamy smile. "Are you ready to go?"
"Just about," Kurt said, pulling the strings and cinching down the crimp on his last bag. He grabbed his bags and turned to face Blaine, who had backed away a few feet. "Do you…I mean, you still think that this will work out?"
Blaine reached out and brushed Kurt's hand with his fingertips gently before drawing his hand away quickly. "I'm positive," he vowed. "Anyway, all I want is to be with you without jumping at shadows – at least for a while, until we figure this out. Come on, our horses are all ready to go, and my things are already with them."
Kurt smiled and nodded, following Blaine out of the room. Suddenly, he cried out in exclamation and ran back to his room, babbling about something he'd forgotten. A moment later he emerged from his room again, rubbing his golden coronet against the edge of his tunic to give it a bit of a shine. "I need to look as official as I can in traveling clothes," he said, perching the crown on his head. "People need to know who I am, that's what this is supposed to be about…at least, what everyone else thinks it's supposed to be about."
Blaine looked concerned as they reached their horses, waiting at the outer gate. "You don't think that's dangerous?" Blaine asked, picking up a piece of armor from where it rested and sliding it on.
Kurt reached out to help him with the hard-to-reach buckles. "What do you mean?"
"I would think that the gold sitting on your head would make it a perfect target for thieves," Blaine said worriedly, shifting into a protective mode.
"Well, that's why I have you," Kurt said, patting the last piece of armor as he strapped it to Blaine. "At any rate, I'm not completely inept; I can defend myself, too." He'd asked the servant who saddled his horse to attach his bow and quiver of arrows to the saddle.
Blaine made a dissatisfied noise but swung onto his horse with surprising ease for someone who was outfitted in so much heavy armor. Kurt merely shook his head. He and Blaine had fought in a war, and now he was worrying about him in their own country? If any danger did arise, Blaine would then see just how well Kurt could defend himself.
Late Summer, 629 A.D.; the countryside on the outskirts of Westerville, Algania
They made quick time during travel, but stopped often to visit the people in the towns they passed. Kurt was amazed by the variety of people he met along the way. He found that he was more than happy to listen to what they had to say, be it complaints or compliments. Many people requested stories about their so-called glamorous life at court, and Kurt and Blaine entertained them for hours upon hours with comical court tales.
When they neared Westerville, they had been traveling for a fortnight. The distance was far from great, but the two young men had been happy to stay in towns for more than a day, depending on the interest of their hosts.
"Westerville is the next town," Blaine informed Kurt as night fell two weeks into their travel. "But we won't make it there for a while. It would be better if we stopped here and camped out tonight before continuing in the morning."
"Fine by me," Kurt said as they approached the clearing they would set up in. He hopped off of his horse and began to root around in his saddlebag for a blanket they could spread on the ground; it was warm enough that they didn't need a tent. "Besides, we still have all of that food the people in Marysville gave us. It would probably just go to waste if we didn't eat it before we got to…Blaine?" Kurt paused in his action, the large blanket held tightly in his grasp. "What are you doing?"
Blaine had gotten off of his horse only to stumble his way toward Kurt and bury his nose in the soft hairs at the base of Kurt's head. "Mmm, you smell nice."
"You know that isn't true," Kurt said, walking forward to spread out the blanket a few feet away from where they would start the fire. "I smell like dirt and sweat and horses, and I'm sure that it isn't too appealing."
"It's appealing," Blaine said with a smirk.
Kurt blushed and sat down gingerly on the blanket he'd laid out. "Blaine?"
"Yes?"
"We can't eat if someone doesn't start the fire," Kurt said with a chuckle. "It's definitely your turn, somehow you conned me into doing it the last three times."
"Oh, right!" Blaine exclaimed, clamoring to start the fire. "I wouldn't want my elegant prince going hungry, now would I?"
"I can go without eating," Kurt said, smirking as he stretched out on the blanket and looked up at the rapidly darkening sky. "You, on the other hand, turn into a complete bear."
"That's…beside the point," Blaine said shiftily, making Kurt burst out in giggles. The countertenor rolled over on his side and tucked up his legs to his chest as he watched Blaine start the fire. "What?" Blaine asked self-consciously. "Did I say something? Do I have something on my face?"
"No," Kurt said quickly. "I'm just looking. You know, we've never been on a road this deserted."
"Technically we're not on the road anymore," Blaine pointed out. "We left it to spend the night."
"You know what I mean. We're not in a town, there aren't any other people." Kurt grinned at Blaine angelically.
"Yes?" Blaine prompted, though he had a feeling that he knew where Kurt was going with his train of thought.
Kurt shrugged and rolled onto his back again – the stars were now visible and they were shining brightly, as Kurt had never seen them in the city. "I thought now that people aren't watching us…I don't know…we don't have to be as careful as we did in the towns."
"If by careful you mean doing nothing at all," Blaine said with a chuckle. "Then I suppose you're right." He caught Kurt's gaze out of the corner of his eye and smiled slowly. "What, does this mean that you aren't hungry anymore?"
"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Kurt said playfully.
A moment later, Blaine had surged toward Kurt, sitting so that Kurt was stretched out before him and could rest his head in the knight's lap. "Wouldn't you?" Blaine asked softly as he bent over to kiss Kurt upside down. Not a moment had passed before their kiss grew deeper and Kurt twisted around in a sitting position to gain greater leverage as his mouth worked against Blaine's.
"No," Kurt responded breathlessly, kissing Blaine strongly in between words. "I would say…the only thing…I'm hungry for…is…you."
"Mmm," Blaine mumbled as their lips crashed together again. Kurt inched forward and wrapped his legs around Blaine's waist as he sat in his lap. He slung his arms around Blaine's neck and kissed him slowly and sweetly, drawing out the motions with a torturous slowness that soon had Blaine softly moaning his name and almost begging him to take more assertive action.
Responding to Blaine's plea, Kurt shifted and fell backward, grabbing onto the loose fabric of Blaine's shirt and pulling him back with him. The shorter boy pressed him into the ground and hastily reached up a hand to fiddle awkwardly with the ties of Kurt's light tunic.
Kurt reached up and gently pushed Blaine's trembling hand away so he could take care of the ties himself. "Flustered?" Kurt asked with a chuckle as Blaine momentarily leaned up and afforded Kurt a view of his red cheeks.
"It's been too long since we've done this…any of this," Blaine said in a breathy whisper, leaning his forehead against Kurt's as the taller boy conquered the tunic laces. Blaine's hand slipped down to the bottom hemline and he slid the tunic over Kurt's head, taking the thin shirt with it. His hands immediately returned to run over the pale skin of Kurt's chest and abdomen.
Abruptly, Blaine moved his head away from Kurt's, causing the taller boy to lazily open his eyes. Blaine was looking down at him with a small smile, his curls framed by moonlight. "What?" Kurt said, returning his smile and reaching up a hand to brush it through Blaine's curls, which he had always had trouble resisting the urge to touch.
"You're beautiful," Blaine said simply, leaning on Kurt's chest. "So beautiful that I almost can't decide whether I want to keep kissing you, or if I'd rather just look at you."
"Almost?" Kurt asked with a mischievous grin, hands lingering at the base of Blaine's shirt.
"Mhmm," Blaine murmured, pressing his lips to Kurt's again in an answer. "Almost." Still smiling, Kurt lifted the shirt over Blaine's head so that when Blaine next leaned down, their bare chests pressed together. The contact made Kurt shiver in spite of the warm temperature, and he felt an excited, forbidden thrill travel down his spine.
They met with more urgency, the tension from weeks of bottled tension coming out all at once. Kurt momentarily thought that the front of his pants must have been getting tighter before he realized that it wasn't the pants at all; as he shifted his hips under Blaine, he felt that he wasn't the only one who was affected by the sudden heat to their kisses.
Blaine seemed to be thinking along the same lines because he let out a breathless gasp and pulled back so Kurt could see the hungry, lustful darkness in his eyes. It was a look that Kurt could only resist for a moment because in the next, one hand was on the back of Blaine's neck, drawing the kiss deeper, and the other was wrapped around his torso, pulling their bodies closer together as if even bare skin was too thick of a barrier. One of his legs snaked up to wrap around Blaine's waist and he pushed upward with his hips so that he moved against Blaine, making the shorter boy elicit a long, deep-throated moan.
"Kurt," he mumbled, hand drifting to the waist of the other boy's pants. "Can I…?"
"Yes," Kurt said immediately, moving his lips down the side of Blaine's neck as they left a trail of soft kisses. His fingers hooked around the waist of Kurt's pants and Blaine pulled them down low over one hipbone. With careful slowness, his lips trailed over Kurt's skin in a series of hot breaths and kisses. They traveled down his stomach until they reached the sensitive skin along the line of Kurt's hip, where Blaine's tongue began to move in intricate patterns and swirls.
Kurt tried to get air to his lungs but every new touch from Blaine knocked the breath out of him all over again. He could feel his mind slipping away to a place of blissful ecstasy, but he snapped back to reality as he felt Blaine slide his pants off the rest of the way, leaving Kurt there in nothing but his own skin.
He was suddenly very cognizant that Blaine still had half of his clothes on, and a paranoid part of Kurt's mind thought that Blaine would be repulsed and leave him right then and there. But a moment later, he felt soft fingers tracing their way up the sides of his outer thigh and he suddenly heard a whisper in his ear. "Have I told you that you're perfect?" Blaine whispered, his lips tickling Kurt's ear.
Kurt smiled in relief. "I think you used the word beautiful," he said breathlessly, "but I'll take it."
"Well, it's worth repeating," Blaine said. "You're perfect and beautiful, and every other positive word that I could ever think of." He leaned down to kiss Kurt slowly, drawing out the motions and using both hands to cup Kurt's face as his tongue begged entry. After a few more minutes of carrying on in such a fashion, Blaine spoke again: "Kurt…how…how could we…?"
Kurt made an indistinct noise, his own fingers pulling down on the waist of Blaine's breeches and tugging them ever lower down his hips while the other buried itself in Blaine's curls as he lightly kissed the other boy's earlobe. After a brief moment of struggle, Blaine rolled off of Kurt.
When his side pressed against him again, Kurt could feel the bare skin of Blaine's body pressed against his. For the first time in quite a few minutes, Kurt's eyes fluttered open. He leaned on his side, facing Blaine as the other boy faced him. "What do you mean?" he muttered as his mouth turned to leaving fluttering kisses down the length of Blaine's chest, working ever lower.
Blaine gasped when Kurt's mouth brushed against his nipple, and he let out a ragged groan as he nipped at his defined hipbone. "You know what I mean," he struggled to say in between breathless gasps. Kurt merely mumbled something and shifted so that Blaine was on his back. The prince's lips were still working their way downward, passing the thin trail of hair that meant he would have been lower down than the line of clothes.
Kurt could feel a pulsing need building up inside of him; he needed to be with Blaine, he needed some way to release it. He wanted Blaine so badly that it was almost a physical pain, one that he didn't know how to eradicate. He hesitated and his blue eyes flicked up to Blaine's amber ones, which were wide and searching.
Both of them were breathing in shallow gasps, which grew shallower as Kurt's eyes traveled away from Blaine's face and downward. Kurt felt his breath hitch as he looked at Blaine and he had to bite down on his lip harshly for something to distract from the almost all-consuming need that was coursing through him. His eyes went back to Blaine's face before he voiced his question. "Should…should I…?" Kurt saw Blaine's eyes watching his tongue as it flicked out to wet his lips, and his own swollen lips parted slightly.
But the lustful look in his face was over almost as soon as it came, to be replaced by a hesitant, unsure expression. "I…I don't know," Blaine confessed, for what felt to Kurt like the millionth time. "I don't want to do anything wrong."
Suddenly frustrated, Kurt rolled off of Blaine quickly and heaved himself into a sitting position. For a long, silent moment, he was angry at Blaine for not knowing; surely someone had to know more than he did, why couldn't that person have been Blaine? But a moment later the mood had passed and Kurt was ashamed that it had come at all, though the feeling of general frustration and dissatisfaction still lingered. They were both still young, Kurt reminded himself. They were only nineteen and they were both generally inexperienced in intimate matters, let alone those with another man. He shouldn't expect Blaine to know any more than he did, which was precisely nothing.
"What went wrong?" Blaine asked softly, reaching up to touch Kurt's shoulder gently.
"Everything," Kurt said harshly, standing up with his back facing Blaine. "A key doesn't do anything to another key besides bump against it uselessly. It needs to have a lock to do be able to do anything, and neither of us has got one of those, have we?"
"But…there has to be some way…that we can made this work," Blaine mused hopefully.
Kurt sighed tiredly and shook his head. He stood, grabbing his own breeches. "I'll be right back," he grumbled. He was still feeling overly pent up. He had heard running water when they'd arrived, he could take care of his problem there.
When he returned, Blaine appeared to have gone through the same trials as Kurt, for he was clothed in his breeches once more and he laid face up to the sky, with arms crossed against his chest.
Gently, Kurt sat next to him. Now that he was calmer, he regretted snapping at the knight. "I'm sorry," Kurt apologized, hand traveling to cup Blaine's cheek. Blaine turned away from his touch. "I was frustrated; can you say that you were anything but that, too?"
"No," Blaine said flatly.
"But you said that there has to be some way," Kurt said, lying down and curling up against Blaine's side in spite of his cold reception. "We'll find it, whatever it is. I want to be with you, no one else. I don't care if we can't…do things the same way. I don't care if it isn't easy. I just want you, no matter how difficult it is for us." Kurt paused, wondering if he would regret these words come the morning. With resolve, he decided that he wouldn't. "I love you," he whispered. "I love you and I'd do anything for you, anything at all."
Blaine was silent for so long that Kurt thought that he must have gone to sleep. But just when Kurt himself felt like he was beginning to fade into sleep, Blaine finally responded. Kurt felt Blaine turn so that his head rested on Kurt's shoulder and his arm could snake around Kurt's waist. "I love you, too," he whispered waveringly. "It scares me…but I do love you, so much. I've always loved you."
Kurt squeezed Blaine tighter to let him know that he had heard, but he couldn't find a voice with which to say anything. Not five minutes later, Kurt felt asleep with a smile on his face.
A/N: Yay, there we go! :D I've been waiting to use that lock and key line since The Way You Look At Me, so I'm glad I could fit it in! I'd love to hear what everyone thinks of the story so far, or of Kurt and Blaine's tender situation, so drop me a word! :D As always, thanks so much for reading! :3
