AN: Post series Kurt/Juna vignettes written for the #KisekiValentines2021 challenge on AO3 (wave to K'Arthur now!) They're not in chronological order, but then again you'd probably figure that out pretty quick :P


May my heart always be open

He forgets how light of a sleeper she can be, sometimes.

"Ugh… Kurt?" Juna murmurs, staring up at him with tired, half-lidded eyes, doubtlessly wondering what was possessing him to be awake at the crack of dawn.

"Juna," he greets, careful to keep his voice barely above a whisper. "Feel free to go back to sleep. It's rather early."

"Took the words right out of my mouth," she grumbles, gingerly adjusting the thick cocoon of fabric that enshrouds her. "What are you doing up at – uh, what time is it, anyway?"

He flicks a quick glance at the clock. "6:30."

"In the morning?!" and he can't help but snicker when she groans and buries her face into the pillow.

"I know, it's remarkable how quickly the day can fly by."

"Too early for sarcasm, Vander. Besides, you didn't answer my question."

He raises an eyebrow. "I'm going to go train, just like I always do at this hour. I'm surprised you've forgotten, it's the same routine I had at Thors… and even longer before that, come to think of it."

She pauses, her nose scrunching in thought as gears that had been stuck slowly start to grind and come to life. "Oh. Right. Guess it just hits different this time. I mean, at Thors I would just see you coming back from training instead of getting my beauty sleep interrupted when you left, so…"

"I'm very sorry," Kurt apologizes, the corners of his mouth turning upwards at the petulant note he hears.

"Liar." She sits up and wraps her arms around him, lazily resting her forehead against his shoulder with a hum of contentment. "Don't suppose you'd be up for playing hooky? It's still cold and you're really comfy."

"You also have an entire bed's worth of blankets to use without the need to steal them away from anyone. I'm sure you'll survive."

"I-I don't steal the blankets!" she protests indignantly, letting him go to clutch said blankets tighter in her futile attempt to assert her innocence.

"I beg to differ, but we can leave the matter of your blatant thievery for later." He ignores her pout and climbs to his feet, a flash of concern briefly flitting its away across his face as he carefully brushes a wayward lock of hair away from her forehead. "Now, get some more rest. You were up quite late, remember?"

"Dunno how I'm supposed to forget an exciting evening of filling out stacks of paperwork, but it's not like it was gonna take care of itself," she mumbles, flopping back down and letting herself relax into the mattress. "Oh, don't look like that. We all have to pull all-nighters once in a while. Comes with the territory."

He nods, accepting the point. "I suppose. I'll see you in a couple of hours?"

"Mm-hmm." Juna closes her eyes and tugs the blankets tighter, falling back asleep within seconds. Kurt can only shake his head fondly before he takes his leave moments later, departing as quickly as he can before the sound of her peaceful breathing changes his mind and compels him to stay here (where he belongs, beside her).


It occasionally slips his mind that they don't always do things the same way.

"… I'm sorry, you wanna run that by me again?" Juna asks (demands, really) and the foreboding weight in her voice is more than enough to tell Kurt that he's done something wrong.

"I said that I generally don't bother with a list for grocery shopping," he answers with a shrug, his keen eyes taking note of the way her fingers start drumming an unsettling rhythm on the countertop. "I never have. It was rare that I ever needed to buy more than a couple of items and I always took it as a method to keep my memory sharp. Perhaps it wasn't as rigorous as retaining chess openings, but every little bit helped."

She mutters something rude under her breath and starts massaging her temples, somehow managing to not grit her teeth. "Okay. Leaving that training obsession of yours aside, 'cause if I don't we're gonna be here all day long – how the hell do you think you can shop for groceries properly without making a list? Like I get that you have a great memory and all, but what if you do end up forgetting something? And how can you plan budgets for the trips where you actually end up having to buy more than a few things?"

Kurt blinks, blissfully ignorant. "Budgets?"

Her eyes widen at the same time her jaw drops and he realizes far too late he's put his foot in his mouth yet again. Twice in the span of a minute is surely a record that even Instructor Rean has to tip his hat to, isn't it?

"H-How have you never had to – " she chokes out, only barely catching herself at the last moment with a few deep breaths and a resigned sigh, fixing him with a flat-eyed stare that he remembers all too well. "Right. Vander. Stupid question."

He grins just a little at her agitation. She takes the high road and ignores it. They've both come a long way.

"Hmm. It sounds to me as though you're well versed in this," he quips, walking over to grab a notepad and a pen. If nothing else, he's learned to recognize a battle that can't be won. "Well, I always welcome the opportunity to learn a new skill and who better to apprentice under than a master of their craft?"

He's well aware that this is more than a little shameless. Many peace offerings worth their salt are.

Still, it works.

"Ha! Master, huh? In that case, sit back and watch, Kurt," she declares, holding her head high when she takes both pad and pen with an exaggerated flourish. "By the time I'm through, you're gonna wonder how you ever did it your way to start with."

"In all fairness, my way was quite effective for me up until now. Credit where credit is due, please."

"Yeah, yeah. Now, eyes open and mouth closed. Class is officially in session and Instructor Crawford has some life skills to hand out."


He's not at all accustomed to being taken care of.

"Yeah, no. You've definitely got a fever, and that means zero training." She frowns down at him, her hand still resting on his forehead. "Seriously, how did you think you were in any shape to swing your swords around for a couple of hours? You look like death warmed over."

Truly, whoever coined the adage about honesty being the best policy had never met Juna Crawford.

"Thank you for your… candor, I suppose." He gamely tries to prop himself up on his elbows, but the waves of pain that assault his temples mercilessly curtail his efforts before they can bear fruit.

"Hey," she murmurs, gently grasping his shoulders and ushering him back down with a shake of her head. "Knock it off, okay? You need rest, Kurt. Like a lot of it."

Kurt stares up at her in disbelief, not entirely sure if Juna's grasped the underlying enormity of what she's just said. "Surely you don't expect me to remain idle in bed all day long?" he asks, the very idea anathema to everything he stands for.

She flashes him a bright grin. "That's exactly what I want you to do! No wonder you ranked so highly on our exams with a brain like that, huh?"

Before he can collect himself and properly voice his outrage, she sighs and rests her hand on his arm, her amusement making way for concern.

"Look. I know this sucks, and I totally get that you haven't taken a day off for anything in – uh, ever, probably – but this is different. You're sick, Kurt. This isn't you being lazy, like you're blowing off your commitments to go read a book. Or play chess. Or go read a book and then play chess."

"… I do more for leisure than just those things."

She rolls her eyes skyward before patting his cheek thrice, and he honestly isn't sure who's having their patience tested more.

"Yeah, sure you do. Seriously though, a day or two of resting isn't exactly the end of the world. I mean, you must've been sick before! How do you not know the drill?"

"Of course I've been sick before, but those other times I was generally left to my own devices," he answers, noting Juna's look of surprise. "My parents had their own commitments to take care of and I wasn't about to let myself be coddled if I didn't need to be."

She frowns again, and somehow the worry he sees is able to overcome even his fierce, unrelenting pride. "There's nothing wrong with letting someone help if you're sick or hurt, y'know. I mean, if our positions were flipped you'd be lecturing me nonstop about staying hydrated and not exerting myself. Don't even try to tell me you wouldn't."

Her words have an undeniable ring of truth to them that pierces him to the core and he finds himself shifting uncomfortably beneath the blankets, averting his tired eyes while apparently deciding that the clock on the wall is far more interesting a sight.

"Uh huh. Thought so," Juna says, and to her credit she doesn't sound nearly as smug as she could have. "Now, hang around here and relax while I go make you some soup. It'll be worth the wait, believe me!"

Kurt's played this game long enough to know checkmate when he sees it, and he drops his head to resign with grace.

"Your cooking always is."

She smiles warmly at him before she turns to leave, and the last thing he sees before his heavy eyelids close is her shadowed figure standing in the doorway, her lips mouthing something and yes; him too.

He sleeps a dreamless sleep.


She's influenced him more than either of them know.

It never ceases to amaze Kurt just how naturally comfortable Juna is with people. While being raised in a noble household meant that he was all too familiar with the language of polite small talk (which involves using copious amounts of flowery verbiage to say absolutely nothing at all), that doesn't hold a candle to the way Juna simply connected with others, seemingly without effort or conscious thought.

They'd been out for an afternoon walk when an eager child had accidentally run smack into her, much to his mother's mortification and his own clear distress. Neither had lasted long, however, when she laughed and picked the sniffling toddler up, settling him down and distracting both of them with a barrage of 'There we go! He's a tough little guy, isn't?' and 'So, are you two from around here?' and 'Oh, you'll love that place! We've been there a bunch of times and the food's always amazing!'

Before long, they're laughing like old friends while the boy yawns deeply and nestles himself in Juna's arms for a nap, apparently feeling comfortable enough to doze off right then and there. Juna, for her part, simply glances down, smiles, and adjusts her grip so that his head was resting against her shoulder, her hand gently patting his back as she rocks back and forth; experience in action.

Kurt can't pull his eyes away, utterly entranced by what he was witnessing. It all looks so simple, so easy, so… right.

He swallows hard as his mind starts to fill with what-ifs, and it's all he can do to snap himself back to attention when Juna passes the still sleeping boy back to his mother, a fond expression on her face all the while.

"I should really get going while he's still asleep, but it was very nice talking with you! I do hope our paths cross once again, and in the meantime I'll be sure to tell my husband all about the wonderful young woman we met today, and her – erm…"

"Fiance," Juna finishes with a grin, her cheeks the color of her hair.

"Is that right? Well, congratulations then," she says warmly, breaking into a wide smile of her own. "And may the blessings of the Goddess be with you both, now and into all of the days to come."

"Thank you very much," Kurt says, nodding his head gratefully at the kind words, and they both raise their hands in farewell and watch as the pair blend and vanish into the wave of people along the city streets.

Kurt can vaguely register her saying something as they walk along but he wouldn't have been able to recall what it was had his life depended on it, her words being dulled by the blood roaring in his ears. All he can focus on is the picture of a humming Juna cradling an infant, rocking back and forth just as she had been, and the idea that it could be the future (their future) is enough to make his head spin.

"… so, what do you think?" he finally hears, and the answer recklessly spills from his mouth like flowing lava; a sign, no doubt, that their longstanding association has left its mark on him in more ways than one.

"You're going to be a wonderful mother someday," and Kurt freezes at the same time Juna squeaks. He's not sure he's ever heard her squeak before, to be honest. It was something that he'd have probably found quite amusing if he wasn't too busy being utterly horrified at what he'd let slip.

"I-I - you - how does - I was asking you what you were thinking for dinner -" she stammers, her fading blush now coming back in full force, and Kurt now understands what it's like to want the ground to swallow you whole.

Damn it.

"I apologize. I spoke out of turn," Kurt manages as the bottom falls out from under his stomach, wondering just how long it's going to be before he can even think of living this down. "Please, forget that I - "

"Do you mean it?"

Her question makes his next words viciously seize and knot in his throat, almost choking him. Undeterred, Juna steps closer and grasps his hands with hers, threading their fingers together, and asks again.

"Do you mean it?" she repeats, hesitant and nervous but facing the challenge head-on regardless, just like she always does.

There's a lull in the late afternoon traffic, leaving them alone. The world around them blinks out of focus, and now there is only her.

He can't lie. He won't lie. Not about this.

"Of course I do. The way you are… how can I not?"

Her body stills. The sunlight glints off the silver clip in her hair.

"… You too," Juna whispers, her palms coming up to cradle his face, her thumb running across his jaw. "Er, not the mom thing, because wouldn't make any sense, but - ugh, you know what I mean…!"

Kurt almost bursts out laughing but succeeds in restraining himself; given the situation, it would hardly be appropriate. Granted, closing the gap to kiss her instead really isn't much better but given how she might react if he doesn't - well, a concession to decorum is by far the lesser crime.

She smiles against his lips, breathing 'I love you' before she moves to kiss him again, and though the thought of what's to come is still enough to overwhelm him it's also something that he rather looks forward to getting used to. It's not a foreign concept to him by any means.

After all, this is hardly the first time she's thrown his world off balance and if he privately hopes it isn't the last… well, that's no one's concern but his own, isn't it?


may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile

- E.E Cummings