Note: Yes, Joe/Kurt. That means an incest warning. Any flames will be ignored or picked apart for grammatical errors. I usually find that flamers leave several.

Anyway, I know that this pairing has a few fans, so, well, this one's for you. :)

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It's pretty lonely, up here in the middle of nowhere. Kurt thinks it's starting to warp him, being away from all (normal) humanity.

That happens, doesn't it? Aren't there stories about mountain men who live alone for years and start going insane and muttering to themselves all the time?

Guys in prison, who never thought they'd do it, but after twenty years without a woman, that pretty curly-haired boy, still eighteen and soft, starts looking pretty good?

That, he maintains, is the only reason he's starting to think these things.

The only reason that he blushed when Joe, on a particularly hot day last week, stripped off his shirt and kept right on working, until his chest and back and arms gleamed with sweat.

The only reason he stuck around to talk a while when he found Joe out behind their tiny cabin in that old tin wash bin, up to his waist in warm, soapy water, and didn't look away despite his blush when Joe stood up to get a towel.

The only reason he didn't pull away when Joe kissed him.

His brother, for crying out loud.

But there's only so long he can lie to himself and say it's just because they're both lonely, because he's not an idiot, and he knows Joe isn't either. There are plenty of girls around here, and most of them are pretty cute, for hick-town hill-folk.

Gwen, for one smoking-hot example. She's got Bob, but that shouldn't stop him from looking. Especially since she seems to like guys looking at her body, or she probably wouldn't walk around in a bra all day.

Or Katie, the cute girl at the Café who's crazy about Joe.

Okay, not Katie; Kurt can't stand that little brat, especially when she shows up and chatters at Joe for hours at a time. He wonders why the hell Joe puts up with it, never mind why he looks like he's having fun.

But there's Lyla. She's gorgeous, in a refined, ladylike, sugary kind of way. Hell, he even asked him to teach her about growing flowers, just to get his mind off parts of his brother it shouldn't be on. And now, he loves gardening, but he likes Lyla at best.

Even those girls up at Clove Villa. The dark-haired rich girl is pretty, especially when she sends him a tiny glimmer of a smile when he's up looking for herbs. And he suspects that her little blue-haired maid would go from cute to stunning if she'd let her hair down and lose the glasses.

Sometimes, Kurt wonders if Joe agonizes like this over being more than brothers when on one's looking. Somehow, he doesn't think so.

Once, after a night lying awake wondering if he's a sicko, he thought snidely that Joe wasn't smart enough to think about things like this, and when he turned over to watch the younger boy sleeping, lips beautiful as a girls and curved up into a smile, he spent the rest of the night awake feeling like a jerk.

Joe's not dumb; he's probably smarter than most of the people around here. Definitely smarter than Kurt.

He's just innocent, and that's why it never occurs to him that he might be a bad person for loving someone.

Sometimes, Kurt kind of wishes he could be innocent like that, too. Like when he was a kid, and he loved Joe like a brother and a best friend and a cute little girl that he's gonna marry someday all in one.

And maybe, if Joe will help him, he'll be able to get that back.

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End Notes: And that's that. I hope I managed to do the pairing justice.