A/N: Sorry for the long update time, but shit went down, and I wasn't writing. Anyway, two short chapters equal one normal one so that's what I have for you! Follow, favourite and review please! I will give my firstborn to reviewers (I go with the Solomon method of distributing a single baby)
Chapter Eleven: Needing Normalcy
When they rematerialized they were outside an inn, in the village. Rachel handed Jem some money, to pay for a room for the next couple of days. It would be unwise to try to cross the border as they were. They all slept fitfully, dreams riddled with mysterious faces, and odd sayings, and the next morning they were all dying to leave the small room. Rachel and Brittany had to stay behind, for fear of being recognised, but Rachel gave them each a pouch of money which she seemed to pull out of thin air. When asked, she said that, being Queen, she had access to the Vault of Hearts and could take money any time.
On leaving the inn, they were each told what they needed to get. Kurt was to buy make-up, to cover Rachel's birthmark, and brown dye, for Brittany's hair. It was easy, the shop was close, and he was back quickly. Santana offered to do Brittany's hair, and Kurt went to cover Rachel's face up.
The make-up wasn't nearly as nice as it was at home, but that was to be expected. Rachel pulled her hair back, and her slathered it around her eye. He began smoothing it out, as Rachel spoke.
"Do you ever miss it?" she asked. "Your home?" Kurts face fell.
"Yes. All the time." He replies.
"Will you go back?" she asked. "When we win?"
"I don't know." Said Kurt, truthfully. "I miss my friends. My dad." Rachel looked up at him.
"Tell me about them?" She requested.
"I couldn't say 'no' to a Queen." Replied Kurt, playfully. "Mercedes. She's so strong, all the time. And she's funny. She's in Glee Club with me, which is like a singing group, and she as an amazing voice. And Tina in really nice, but a bit insane. She gets obsessed with things. She went through this vampire phase where-"
"Who would want to be a Vampyre?" asked Rachel, shocked. Vampire's existed here. Nothing would surprise Kurt anymore.
"I don't know. But she wore all black for a year, and our principal was terrified of her. God, Figgins is a weird man." Rachel smirked.
"He was scared because he knew better." She said. "We banished Elijah Figgins about five years ago for dealing cursed objects. He's had a bunch of Vampyres after him ever since he left. I'm pretty sure he owes them a cursed necklace of sorts." Kurt laughed.
"A lot of the people in your world have been here, Kurt." Said Rachel. "This is not an uncommon place for stragglers. Generally they do not return to your world, though. Do you have any siblings?"
"I have a stepbrother and he's super protective. He'd go on a rampage if he ever found out about half the things I've done here." Kurt paused for a moment, concentrating on Rachel's face.
"What about you? What was life like for you?" he asked, curious. Rachel smiled.
"Growing up in a massive castle with four sisters… where to begin? Well, unlike Ella and Lilly, she's the Queen of Diamonds, I liked to hang about the seedy parts of the kingdom. I would come home smelling of tobacco and with an amazing tale of adventure. I used to play with the thieves and run with the wildlings. Until I was about ten, I used to go barefoot everywhere and the nurse would meet me at the gate to bandage my feet." Kurt laughed.
"Tell me about playing with thieves?" Rachel obliged, eyes lighting up.
"When I was about seven I met a boy called Audin. He was my age and the best pickpocket in the kingdom. He taught me all I know." She added with a cheeky wink.
"Audin and I were best friends. We always hung out together. One day when we were eleven, I think, we were picking pockets, as you do when hanging about with a thief, and we got caught. Well… he got caught. I was too good." She sounded smug as she said the last part, with a sort of underlying proud feeling that she knew she shouldn't be having. "I got him out, of course." The Queen of Hearts took up a high pitched voice. "Mummy, he didn't do anything wrong! The mean old man gave him the diamonds, and when he turned around he turned him in for thieving! He never liked poor Aljin! He said he was going to get him and he did! Mummy please don't take his hands! Hel never be able to get money then!" Rachel's features lit up as she started laughing. "We never used his actual name in front of people. Anyway, he got out and left the city and I found a new friend. Her name was Quinn. She was wild! Quinn was so manipulative. She was the perfect little girl in the public eye, but at night, while people were sleeping, they called her the Red Blade. Needless to say she was an assassin. I knew, of course, she was a sell sword, a killer, but I didn't really care. I was never fussy over the deaths she caused, and there was a kind of beauty to it. She taught me to fight and use weapons, and then… well… she taught me other things."
"RACHEL BERRY, WHAT ARE YOU INSINUATING?" Exclaimed Kurt.
"Quinn and I dated for a long time, K. Of course we had a bit of fun. Any way I turned fifteen and had to leave. Quinn offered to come with me, but my mother would have killed me if I showed up to my new kingdom with a criminal as my girlfriend."
They continued chatting about their lives well into the night, and Kurt realised missed it; the girl talk. He missed gossiping about nothing, and laughing at outfits. Wandering around the room singing songs that neither of them knew, and just having fun. Suddenly Kurt realised that he didn't actually know how long he had been here. He tried to remember, but it was almost as if time wasn't linear. The pale boy's face fell as he thought back to when he first got there and his deadline.
"Rach… when is the next blue moon?" he said slowly. Rachel's face went morbid as well, a she remembered Hunters words.
"I- Four weeks."
