This is it! The last chapter. I hope I've done this story justice, I just hate endings. I dont have anyone to share my stories with (non-fanfic stories) so to find this little space on the internet where people want to read my shit, it's something special and it means so much.
So this is it. The final chapter...
Sam dropped Captain Beiste and raced to Blaine's side, he pulled the trident from Blaine's leg and aimed it as Mr Anderson who was fast approaching.
"Stay back!" Sam screamed, standing over Blaine who was trying to get to his feet. Mr Anderson pulled out a pistol, cocked it and aimed.
"No!" Blaine screamed trying to stand, attempting to push Sam out of his father's aim. Then Mr Anderson's eyes widened in terror. A hollering war cry sounded behind them. The sound was deafening. Charging towards them was an entire pod of sealions. The herd of beasts rampaged forward, some as large as Blaine and with a burliness that made Captain Beiste look like a baby sea turtle.
"Gettem fam!" Mercedes hollered in a language that sounded more like a foghorn. She was racing down the hill towards the crew, complete with a hermit crab in her hair that was hanging on for dear life. Behind her Santana was being pulled along by Brittany. Where was Burt?
Mr Anderson gawked. Sam turned around. Captain Beiste was too pre-occupied with getting Blaine to his feet to care. This did not work very well, and Finn had to haul his captain back to their feet.
"Artie, run!" Finn commanded, although a poor choice of words the boy got the message and charged into the deafening war cry that bounced before them.
"Run!" Blaine screamed, using his one good leg to try to stand, then fall again screaming. The sealions were surrounding them now, honking all around them and for anyone that has been charged by a sealion, it was enough to stop Mr Anderson in his tracks. The crowed that had escaped the crustacean invasion were now racing as far away from the sealions as possible.
Sam hauled Blaine into his arms and Captain Beiste snatched the trident from Sam and used it as a walking stick. The crew raced down the hills, towards the town and the docks.
"He's losing blood!" Sam called, his arms drenched in Blaine's blood, a thick trail was following them. Anyone that dared to get in their way was met with a siren's threatening smile of sharp teeth. They followed Captain Beiste who seemed to know the way.
"That damn fool better be here!" The Captain called, searching the line of ships. "Come on! Of course, he has to dock furthest away!" The captain growled. Blaine was losing conciseness, and fast. He was dead weight in Sam's arms.
"William, you better let us aboard!" Captain Beiste called to no one in particular. The ship Beiste was referring to was small, in fact, it was only a little bigger than Pucks, but it was the only ship they had.
"Captain!" Mike raced towards them. "So glad you escaped, is this everyone? This looks like everyone. Oh, ship! Blaine!" Mike's eyes met Blaine's state.
"Dude you can't take him on the ship, he needs a doctor."
"There you are, Santana, Brittany, Mercedes!" Burt was huffing and puffing.
"GET ON THE DAMN SHIP!" Captain Beiste commanded. "Burt, here's your trident. makes a good walking stick." Artie was already being hoisted up by Wes and Finn followed, not wanting to disappoint his captain. Santana, Brittany and Mercedes followed, hoisting Captain Beiste aboard.
"Blaine." Burt gasped, seeing the kid in such a state. He gripped his trident, feeling utterly powerless to do anything. He had promised Kurt that he would keep Blaine safe.
"Thief!" a bellowing voice screamed from the edge of the jetty. "Stop this thief!" it was Mr Anderson. He had his pistol trained at the three of them, Blaine dying in Sam's arms, Burt standing there, trident in hand. How could a father be so heartless, how could they possibly do this to their own son, to Kurt, just a boy with fins!
When that pistol was drawn and aimed at Blaine, Burt did not think. He could not think. He threw his trident. He threw it with the rage he felt for his son, for the hurt Blaine had suffered, for his wife who had lost her life at the hands of humans. The trident pieced through Mr Anderson's chest before that gun could shoot out a single bullet.
"Get Blaine on the ship!" Burt commanded horrified at what he had done. He saw the scene as if he was floating above it, but he felt like his body was about to sing to the bottom of the ocean.
"Dad?" Cooper looked just as horrified as he ran to his father who was bleeding from his chest, the trident had formed deep punctures and the man was gaping like a fish out of water.
"I'm sorry." Burt breathed to Cooper, but Cooper didn't hear, he knelt beside his dying father, his hands waving around, unsure what to do.
"Burt!" Sam begged for help getting Blaine aboard. Burt turned and left, hauling Blaine aboard. The kid was ghostly pale. Burt did not say a word. He watched as the pirates worked to stave the bleeding. Stripping the boy down to his undergarments, finding the puncture wound the trident had caused and stuffing the hollows with cotton before wrapping Blaine's leg tight to hold it all together. The boy was barely conscious, and Burt doubted he was even aware of what had happened.
"I can't bare to tell him." Burt muttered, slumped against the mast. The ship was racing through the water fast- what it lacked in size it made up for in speed. Everyone around them was racing around trying to escape before the Dalton fleet followed.
"I would have done the same." Captain Beiste groaned as they made their way to the floor beside Burt. "Nobody harms my crew and gets away with it. Pirates law."
"I don't understand." Burt sighed, watching Blaine breath gently on the deck. They had decided to keep up in the sunlight, in the hopes the fresh air would wake him. Sam was by his side, talking to him, propping his head up with a rolled-up sail. He was a loyal friend. Blaine was lucky to have him around. "How can someone be so…" Burt twisted his lips. He was not a man of many words. Captain Beiste grunted too, neither were they.
"I hear yah." The Captain said. "and you can either spend the rest of your life tryin' to work it out, or worryin' about it, or you can try and do some good."
"Your right. Maybe I could help make a difference."
"No, I mean, you can do some good by telling us where we are going." Captain Beiste rose to their peg legs again. "William may own a ship but he aint a very good pirate. An impeccable ship though, his lady friend cleans it twice a week. Spotless." The Captain admired the waxy sheen on the wood.
"You will need to tell him though, what happened."
"I know." Burt said.
"Kurt, can you stop swimming in circles, you are making me dizzy." Quinn said, cradling her newborn while she perched herself upon a reef rock. Kurt was racing in circles around the stray rock while Puck was making some adjustments to the ship. he was parked up alongside the reef rock. Quin had to get off that boat, the rocking had been too much. Her face was flushed with exhaustion as she was bouncing her baby in her arms.
"I can't." Kurt said. "I can't stop moving. If I stop then I start thinking."
"Can you at least circle the rock the other way."
"Fine." Kurt turned his tail and began to circle Quinn counter clockwise.
"Dudes!" Puck called, spying something on the horizon. "They're here!"
Kurt's heart raced faster than it ever had before. nothing could stop him from getting to that ship. nothing except.
"Not so fast Mother-of-Pearl." Sue. What the hell was Sue doing here? Kurt turned around to find the sea witch floating towards them. He stayed by the rock, one eye on Sue and the other on the boat racing towards them.
"What are you doing here?" Quinn screamed and clutched her baby tighter. Sue rolled her eyes.
"I can't miss out on the last chapter, now can I?" Sue said as if it had been the most obvious thing in the world. Sue slithered up upon the rock, too close for Quinn's liking.
"So, does it have fins?"
"No." Quinn said defensively.
"But you will have yours back soon." Sue tried to peak at Quinn's toes to see if she still had any. Quinn ruffled her dress down to hide whatever was underneath them.
"Boy or girl?" Sue asked, a little softer, as if she actually cared.
"Girl." Quinn replied.
"Name?"
"I've named her after Kurt."
"What?" Kurt cried. "You can't call her Kurt."
"Don't be silly, Kurt." Quinn giggled. "Didn't you tell me once that your middle name was Elizabeth?"
"After my mother, yes." It wasn't exactly official; Kurt had given himself that middle name after his mother's death.
"So, her name is Beth." Quinn smiled then looked down at her kid sadly. Kurt was sure he was imagining it but was there a hint of tail fin under her dresses.
"Glad to see Mother-of-pearl made it back in one piece too." Sue said. "After what your father sacrificed to get you back."
"What are you talking about?"
"Your father gave me power over the reef. Temporarily of course. Until he comes back, which seems to be any second now."
The ship narrowly missed crashing into the reef rock and Puck's ship. Kurt launched himself up the sides of the wood, achieving nothing but battering himself up against the wood.
"Kurt!" Burt called, throwing a rope down for his son to haul himself up with his arms.
"Blaine!" Kurt screamed as the rope began to drag upwards. "Blaine!" Kurt didn't stop screaming, waiting for that familiar smiling face of curls to reach over the edge and haul him into his arms. But there was no Blaine, just his father, his father hauled him into the ship. Kurt flopped to the deck, not caring that he could not stand. He must have looked pathetic, pulling himself across the deck.
"Blaine! Blaine, what happened?" Kurt found Blaine in the centre of the deck. Sam was right by his side.
"Kurt."
"Is he alive?" Kurt lay himself down right beside Blaine searching for the cause of his unconsciousness. Blaine looked paler than he was.
"He was stabbed." Sam explained. "His father threw the trident at him and caught him in the leg. Lost a lot of blood."
"Too much blood." They jumped at the sound behind them. It was Sue, standing up on her tentacles and always in the way.
"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.
"Your bandages are soaked through. What's his pulse rate?"
Sam grabbed Blaine's wrist. "I can barely feel anything."
"Blaine!" Kurt screamed, shaking the boy as if that would help. When that did nothing, Kurt nudged his face into Blaine's. It felt cold and clammy.
"What can we do?" Burt asked. "Sue, you have to do something."
"I can't fashion new legs out of nothing."
"Give him my fins." Kurt cried. "I heard, I heard from a pirate that witches could do that sort of thing."
"You are asking for a lot. A great sacrifice is going to be needed to power such magic."
"Just take my fins already!" Kurt screamed, as if it were as easy as changing pants.
"Kurt, stop!" Burt bellowed. "You keep your fins." Burt strode towards Sue, who folded her arms as Burt approached.
"You have my tail already." Burt said, looking confused as to where his tail actually was. "You have my trident and if you save this kids life you can have my entire reef forever." Burt would do anything for his son. He would do anything to make up for what he had done to Blaine.
Sue thought for a moment, only for a moment, because that deal was too good to refuse. Burt's entire reef.
"You'll be human." Sue warned. "forever, I can't just go taking Blaine's fins back. There are some magics that aren't reversable and injury magic is one of them."
"I know. I don't care." If there was no reef to call home, then maybe home wasn't underwater anyway. "Hurry and save the god-damned kid!"
Without hesitation Sue swept Burt and Blaine up in her many tentacles and hauled them both over the ship and deep into the water.
Kurt was not far behind.
Blaine lay lifeless on the rocks of Sue's underwater cavern. The walls were glowing with luminescent algae and the water was throbbing with electric blue jellyfish. Somewhere in the water were Kitty and Becky, sliding through the water, gathering whatever Sue demanded of them.
"How does this work?" Burt asked, watching Kurt cradle Blaine in his lap.
"Shut up, I'm busy." Sue replied, a vial in each tentacle, dabbling this and that into a seashell. "I don't have time to explain the intricacies of sea magic. Just drink this." Sue shoved a seashell to Burt, then she shoved another seashell full of luminescent liquid to Kurt. "Give this to your boy toy. Just shove it down his throat, I'm sure he's used to that."
Kurt ignored the comment, took that cup, tilted Blaine's head up, parted his cold lips. Burt skulled his.
"What now?" he asked watching how his son waited for the glowing liquid to trickle down before he tipped the last drops from the shell. Kurt's scales had lost just about all their colour out of fear. Burt suddenly felt weak on his human feet and wobbled towards the cave wall for support.
They all waited for something to happen. Nothing did.
"Nothing is happening!" Kurt screamed, shaking Blaine in his arms, then cradled him tighter to his chest, then rubbed the boy's chest, kissing him, trying to breath some air into him. Kurt kissed those cold lips and pushed those wet curls from Blaine's forehead. "I never got to sing to you." Kurt whispered to Blaine. He kissed Blaine again, waiting for those lips to move against his. He remembered their first kiss; the way Blaine sang to him in the little rocky boat. They way Blaine had asked nothing of him and given him more than he could imagine.
As he thought of Blaine and only of Blaine, the song began to form on his lips. He sang so softly he wasn't even sure he was singing out loud. But the echo of the cave made sure his notes were heard. Kurt sang his song, just for Blaine, nobody else mattered in that cave. He sang louder and louder, the echoes harmonising with his new notes. He sang and gripped Blaine so tightly he did not realise what was happening.
Blaine's body began to change, his neck split with gills and his trousers split and ripped away from his body as black scales began to form from his hips. They were oily scales, just like Burt's had been, only this tail was a little different, the blood from his wound had congealed into bright red piping down either side of his tail.
"That was beautiful." Blaine breathed, startling Kurt as he finished singing. Blaine opened his eyes, blinking up through blurry vision to the sweet face full of tears. His entire body ached, and he had no clue where he was, but he didn't care. That voice was all he needed.
"Your alive!" Kurt gasped. Blaine didn't have time to say that Kurt was stating the obvious- their lips were locked. They were pressed so tight neither could move those lips over one another. Kurt had hauled Blaine into his arms, gripped the back of his head. Their noses nudged one another; their eyelashes brushed across their cheeks. Blaine brushed his lips across Kurt's salty cheeks, kissing up each tear.
"Blaine." Kurt breathed. His lips brushed against Blaine's hear, then down his neck.
"Oh my god!" Blaine gasped. His neck felt like it was bubbling with electricity- it sent shivers down his neck and into the pit of his stomach. "What the? What is that?" Blaine pressed a hand to his neck, feeling the strange yet familiar ridges along his neck. Then he looked down at the rest of his body.
"I see why you like me kissing you there so much." Blaine giggled, letting the shiver settle. He stared at his legs, or rather fins. His face changed, the smile faded.
"Are you mad? About this?" Kurt's chest clenched, only thinking now if this is something Blaine would have wanted.
"If course not." Blaine replied, trying to move his tail. Everything underneath his hips ached and throbbed. He reached down to touch his scales, they were soft and burning hot.
"You were dying." Kurt explained.
"How?" Blaine's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"You've got my tail." They both turned, forgetting Burt was there.
"Lord Hummel!" Blaine addressed, forgetting he had fins and trying to stand.
"Hah, kid, it's just Burt, remember?" Burt hobbled his way towards the edge of the rocks, wondering how the hell he was going to get back to the surface. "I haven't heard that song in a very long time." he said more to himself, then turned to Blaine, "Blaine how much do you remember of today?"
Blaine thought for a moment, sitting up and blinking hard as if he would see the events play behind his eyes.
"I remember there were sealions."
"Your father tried to kill you." Burt put it bluntly because he was sure there was no other way to say it.
"Dad!" Kurt warned, hugging Blaine tight as if that would soften the blow. Burt lowered himself to his knees.
"Kid, we did everything we could to get you out of there but there is something you should know."
"What happened? Is it Cooper? Sam? Mercedes?"
"No kid, they are all safe. Your father… he was shot." Burt said. His voice choked before eh could say anything else. Maybe Blaine didn't have to know. He watched the boy's expression carefully. He couldn't quite tell what Blaine was feeling. "I'm sorry Blaine." Blaine looked down, he looked away, he closed his eyes. He opened and closed his mouth, and without even realising he was doing it, he was flaring his gills.
"Its ah, its alright." Blaine said. He wasn't sure if it was alright or not. Blaine wasn't sure what he was feeling. It was this strange emptiness where he should feel sad but instead, he felt sad because he did not feel much at all.
"Take your time kid." Burt said, unsure if he should say anything more. He decided not to. the kid had already been through so much.
"Dad what are you going to do now?" Kurt asked.
"Not very much unless this sea witch takes me up to the surface." Burt gestured to Sue. "It seems like falling for humans runs in the family." He gave a wink. Kurt looked confused. Was his mother? Was Burt?
"Sue take me to the surface." Burt demanded before Kurt could ask.
"Wait, Dad." Kurt slipped Blaine out of his arms and wrapped his arms around his father as he lowered himself into the water.
"You'll see me around kid, don't you worry. We have an entire flock of sealions to make sure we don't drift apart."
"You'll be safe, wont you dad, on the surface?"
"Course I will." Burt chuckled. "Make sure that kid takes good care of my fins. I like the red scales along the sides."
"Hurry up." Sue interrupted. "I hate drawn out endings. Can you kids get the hell out of my lair so I can send the geriatric to his retirement village on dry land."
"Aren't you the same age?" Blaine asked.
"I refuse to answer that question. Now get out!" Sue swiped a tentacle along the rocks and pushed Blaine and Kurt into the water and took Burt back up to the surface.
"Breathing is not that hard." Kurt laughed as he watched Blaine hold his breath underwater for the fourth time. They were swimming far away from the reef, far away to a place only Kurt knew.
"I can't help it." Blaine's words where swarmed with bubbles. He needed to learn how to control his lungs and his gills.
"Just don't overthink it." Kurt tugged him forward through the water, watching how Blaine's tail shimmered in the streaming light, how his body moved, a little jolted but beautiful none the less. There was something exciting about this, the two swimming hand in hand into the great big ocean.
"It's hard not to considering I was human yesterday."
"This may help." Kurt swished in front of Blaine and tied him up in a kiss, spurting water and tongue into his mouth. With a spare hand he gently brushed the side of Blaine's gills and the sensation made the boy gasp in the water and across the delicate filaments of his neck.
Kurt drew back with a cheeky grin. Blaine looked both dazed and proud of himself at the same time.
"I don't know if I will ever get used to how gills feel."
"I hope you never do when you give me a look like that." Kurt pulled them both to the surface, the water began to lighten, and Blaine noticed they were surrounded by a large ring of rocks.
"I like coming here." Kurt said as they broke the surface of the water. Surrounding them was a high rocky crescent shaped rock and in the centre of the protected bay with the smallest of beaches. They swam as close to shore as possible and let themselves float in the shallow waters.
"What do you like about it?" Blaine asked.
"It feels safe." Kurt replied, floating with the waves. Blaine stretched out his aching fins. It took a heck of a lot of energy to swim and his tail was aching. "and the acoustics are good." Kurt added.
"Kurt, when your father said he hadn't heard that song in a long time, that was your mother's song, wasn't it?"
"Yes." Kurt had not realised what his father had meant about his voice until that day. It made him feel whole, as if he had made some unbreakable vow to Blaine, a giving of something that promised the world.
"Will you sing it for me again?" Blaine asked, rolling in the shallows to slide a little closer to Kurt. He had not forgotten exactly where to touch him in his mer-person form to illicit the most spectacular faces. He trailed a teasing hand across his hip bones, where his scales began. Kurt couldn't help but let out the most delicious groan.
"Maybe." Kurt replied coyly, arching his body feel more than just Blaine's fingers. "Right after I show you exactly how good it can feel to be a merman." Kurt pounced upon Blaine and latched his lips gently to Blaine's neck and hummed his tunes across Blaine's gills as he sucked and lapped and licked up Blaine's throat, his ear and his lips. Blaine took Kurt's kisses with the gentle waves that crashed around them, salt and seafoam.
And the two boys began their adventure together.
EPILOGUE
"Are you sure I can't just swim to the next island." Burt growled, feeling the seasickness take hold. The winds were particularly bad today and the usually pristine water was grey.
"Don't be stupid, you have legs now." Captain Beiste laughed. "Which is more than I can say for myself. Yah reckon the sea witch can give me a pair of her tentacles?"
"I hope Rachel is there." Finn said for the fourteenth time in an hour. The entire crew rolled their eyes.
"This place if very far from the reef." Burt warned. He knew how cautious Rachel was.
"Yeah, but I gave her directions." Finn had written them down on a piece of paper and everything before realising that plan was certainly not going to work.
"Are you sure you want her there, Bro?" Sam asked. "You'll have to introduce her to your mother."
"Your mother!" Burt growled, looking Finn up and down. The kid could not have been older than eighteen. "You have a mother? I thought you were a crew of misfits and orphans! What kind of mother sends her child out to become a pirate!" Burt flung his hands into the air, then clutched his stomach as another wave hit the side of the boat. "I will be having words with her!"
"Well, you better get those words in order, because we're here now!"
Thankyou so much for those who have favourited and followed and written reviews. They mean so much to me. I really want to hear what you think and what you guys want to read more of. Do you prefer longer stories? One shots? I am open for story suggestions and ideas (yes I know I have to finish 'a different sort of sport' still) The thing I love most about Fanfiction is that you will never know what you will find. With every story we are reinventing these character and keeping them alive in all sorts of shapes and forms. So write away right away!