AN: Happy September! I'd originally intended not to be finished with enough to post until about halfway through this month, but a sudden stroke of writing inspiration just hit me today, so instead of doing my summer work that's due tomorrow (ermm...today, now, since it's past midnight...), I wrote up a little somethin' somethin' ;)
Hope you enjoy :) Leave a review if you like it, they make my heart go wheee :D
(Oh, and Glee belongs to Ryan Murphy and FOX and all that xD)
There's something just so exciting and profound about standing at the edge of a cliff, feeling the cool breeze as it meets your skin, listening to the rustle of trees in the distance and the whistle of the wind when it passes your ears. It makes you feel like you're at the top of the world, just looking down on everyone and everything, feeling as if everything is just so...insignificant. It's like all your troubles are beneath you and all that matters is you and the soundtrack the nature around you has provided.
Those sorts of thoughts are precisely why Kurt Hummel loved the tall ledge just off of the Warbler campsite. He stood a foot from the edge and spread his arms wide, letting his blazer catch the breeze and watching as his normally-pristine striped tie fluttered in midair. He even forgot that the wind ruins his carefully-styled brown hair every time, he was so caught up in the powerful ambiance.
"I knew I'd find you here."
Kurt flinched at the interruption to his privacy and consciously took a step backwards in his surprise, so as to not fall off the edge of the cliff and into the raging river a long ways below.
"Thanks for breaking the mood, Blaine. I was really feeling quite empowered until you showed up." Kurt smirked, turning to his best friend leaning against a large rock near the entrance to the secluded location. He felt the familiar nervous tingling in his stomach he'd been recently getting when Blaine was around, but he pushed it aside as he always did.
"Mmhmm...empowered, you say?" Blaine cocked his head to the side. "I thought you looked sort of like a flying squirrel trying to catch the wind." Kurt sent Blaine back a glare in response, to which Blaine simply chuckled.
"You better watch that pretty head of yours in our next sparring session," Kurt jokingly warned as he approached. "You never know when my staff might just 'accidentally' give you a black eye."
Blaine continued to laugh. "And what exactly makes you think you'll actually be able to land that hit?"
"You did not just question my abilities with a weapon." Kurt said while employing what most considered to be his "bitch, please" face, narrowing his blue eyes ever-so-slightly while raising an eyebrow. He took a few more steps towards Blaine, looking down at his hazel eyes through a few wisps of his mop of dark, curly hair.
"Or did I?" Blaine quipped in response, still smiling and raising his triangular eyebrows as he tilted his head back to compensate for the few inches Kurt had over him.
By now, Kurt couldn't help but realize that his face was only a few centimeters away from Blaine's and that he could almost feel his breath on his face. If he were to just lean in and close the distance...
"So, Blaine Warbler," Kurt suddenly said, backing up about a foot as he shook himself out of his Blaine-induced trance, "what compelled your lovely interruption of my profound moment here?"
"Oh, right!" Blaine replied, seeming as if he had just been shaken out of a trance as well. "Wes and David sent me to find you. Apparently they want to do a bit of last-minute sparring before we all go back home."
"That's right. We leave the camp in a few days." Kurt realized. He and Blaine had been training to become Warblers, Dalton soldiers for the royal family, for almost two years. Since they'd left their hometown of Lima, they hadn't been back to visit once, so finally going back was a huge deal for the both of them.
"Yeah..." Blaine stared up to the partly cloudy sky, deep in thought for about a minute.
"Earth to Blaine!" Kurt said as he waved a hand in front of Blaine's glazed-over eyes. Blaine scrunched his eyes shut and shook his head in response while murmuring an apology.
"We'd better get back to Wes and David before they get impatient." Blaine suggested once Kurt had gotten his attention back.
Kurt nodded in agreement and the two made their way to the two large rocks lining the pathway back to the campsite.
"Yeah, and you'll get a taste of my skills with weaponry once you get a staff to the face."
Kurt and Blaine headed to their tent in the middle of the Warbler campsite, where, after throwing open the canvas flaps working as a door, they found their two sparring partners. One, an Asian boy named Wes with short-cut hair, stood concentrated in the center of the room swinging a wooden sword in complex patterns. The other, David, dark-skinned with an almost completely clean-shaven head, lay on one of four beds lined up against the far side of the large tent, twirling a small and thin tree twig between his fingers.
"It's about time you two showed up." said the Asian boy as he stopped his carefully-practiced movements. He placed the end of the sword on the tarp floor and leaned on it casually, smirking at Kurt and Blaine.
"A few more minutes and we would have assumed you were out having sex or something." the black boy added, smiling. Kurt and Blaine simultaneously blushed and took a small step away from each other. Wes took the opportunity to smack his dark-skinned friend upside the head with his wooden sword, staring him down.
"Very funny, David." Kurt rolled his eyes, trying to brush off the comment. He and Blaine awkwardly glanced around the room in silence for a few moments.
"Anyway!" Wes suddenly interjected a little too loudly in an obvious attempt to cut the tension. "We should head out before it gets dark. We've only got so much time, you know."
"Agreed, Wes." Blaine finally spoke up. "We just have to grab our stuff first."
David jumped up off of his bed while Blaine and Kurt went to their respective beds to retrieve their training weapons. Kurt's bed was neatly made and his entire living area was organized, so it took him all of two seconds to pick up the long wooden staff leaning against the wall and turn to Wes and David. Blaine, on the other hand, needed a bit more time.
"I could've sworn I had it around here..." Blaine muttered, throwing blankets and clothes from the floor onto his unmade bed. His three friends all sigh. Blaine had always been the least organized out of the four of them.
"And this is precisely why I keep telling you to clean!" Kurt said impatiently as Blaine searches beneath his bed. "The four of us have spent almost two whole years training together, and yet you still haven't made your organizational habits any better!"
"Aha!" Blaine shouted triumphantly, pulling two wooden training swords slightly smaller than Wes's out from beneath a stray pillowcase. He ran up to his three friends by the entrance, filled with energy. "Let's go!"
A short walk brought Kurt, Blaine, Wes and David to a small clearing just off the edge of the campsite where they typically trained during their days off. Most other Warblers-in-training thought them crazy for continuing their practice during their rare time off, but it was just something they all enjoyed doing and were used to. Kurt and Blaine had grown up with intensive martial arts training from Kurt's father and Wes and David had both had Warblers for parents, so it only made sense that they'd be so used to the constant vigorous training.
"I take it we're doing the usual today?" Wes asked once they'd settled into the clearing, swinging his wooden sword in a figure eight.
"Me and you on Kurt and Blaine?" David reiterated as he lifted up his weapon of choice, a large two-handed wooden sword.
"And as usual, we're going to win." Kurt said, twirling his staff in front of him.
"A touch of the opponents weapon means you're done." Blaine stated as he smiled at his and Kurt's opponents, holding his two swords in his unique underhand position.
"Okay, then. Ready? Three, two, one...GO!" Wes shouted, dashing towards Kurt.
Kurt quickly reacted to Wes's sudden advance with the skill of a well-trained martial artist. He gracefully sidestepped to the right, avoiding Wes's hasty swing at his left shoulder. In a split second,he spun around and swept at Wes's calves with the end of his staff. Wes swiftly blocked Kurt's swing with the tip of his sword and deflected it, stunning Kurt for a split second as he regained his balance.
A few feet away, Blaine and David were also locked in combat, David making strategic swings with his heavier sword as Blaine deflected each approach with swings of his own. While blocking one of David's weaker horizontal attacks with one of his swords, Blaine quickly swung the other at David's midsection, hoping to land a hit for an easy victory. David, however, wasn't one to go down so easily, and dodged Blaine's sword by digging his own into the ground and pushing off backwards.
"Didn't think you'd win that easily, did you?" David taunted, pulling himself back into his starting stance.
"A guy can hope." Blaine chuckled before lunging at David for another attack.
Meanwhile, the match between Kurt and Wes continued to rage on, as Kurt barely dodged a stab at his chest by his opponent. In the split second he jumped back, Kurt noticed that he wasn't to far from where David was blocking a few of Blaine's blows. Acting quickly, he sprinted to David and thrust his staff at the small of his back, landing a successful hit before Wes was able to stop him.
"Fuck!" shouted David at the contact before he walked away from his three still-sparring friends. Kurt and Blaine then began to gang up on Wes, but a slip in Blaine's footing put his shoulder directly in the range of Wes's sword. Wes tapped him briskly and lightly, then brought all his attention back to Kurt.
"Dammit..." Blaine muttered under his breath, making his way to stand next to David.
"Just you and me, Kurtie-kins" Wes panted as he and Kurt had a stand-off, circling as their weapons were pointed at one another.
"It appears so." Kurt breathed in response. "And if you ever call me that again, you'll have hell to pay."
The two merely stared each other down for a few moments, then Kurt rushed forward to swing his staff.
The two boys on the sidelines loudly cheered for their sparring partners.
"Come on, Kurt!"
"Whoop his ass, Wes!"
The sounds of the weapons clashing filled the air, both Kurt and Wes moving at only precisely the correct moments to block the others' advances. After what seemed like an eternity of blocking and dodging from the both of them, Kurt finally found an opening and landed a hit on Wes's right thigh.
"VICTORY!" Blaine yelled from the sidelines, straight into a cringing David's ear.
"God, Blaine." David clutched his ear and slapped Blaine on the shoulder. "If that didn't make me deaf, I don't know what will."
"Ahh, you know I went easy on you guys." Wes stated as he walked to join Blaine and David, still panting from his final movements against Kurt.
"Yes, if you were going easy on us, then I'm straight as an arrow." Kurt mocked, spinning his staff at his side. David and Blaine laughed in response as Wes blushed and muttered to himself.
"I take it someone wants a rematch." Blaine observed, poking Wes in the shoulder with his sword. Wes silently waved the sword away and turned his back, instigating more laughter from his three friends.
"Wait, guys." David suddenly became serious and whipped his head in the direction of the deep woods.
Kurt squinted in the direction David was looking. "What is-"
"Shhh!" David hissed, putting his index finger to his mouth. He walked over to the edge of the clearing, as if listening closely to something. A few seconds passed before he gestured for the other three to join him.
As Kurt stepped closer to David, he could vaguely make out voices coming from the direction of the deep woods. He wasn't close enough to distinguish what they were saying, however, so he stepped a bit farther into the woods and hid behind a large berry bush. The others quickly followed and kneeled beside him.
"All I'm saying is, I'm not sure if today's the right time!"
"And who are you to say that it isn't?"
"Oh, no, Prince Dustin, I didn't mean it like that at all, I just-"
"Silence, Jesse. We will execute the ambush tonight, as I had originally intended."
Kurt gasped and exchanged a glance with the other three boys. It seemed to be that the men talking were none other than Captain Jesse, the overseer of the entire Warbler campground, and Prince Dustin, the notoriously malicious and twisted son of King Solomon Goolsby.
"Did he just say Prince Dustin?" David mouthed incredulously. Kurt nodded and held up a finger for him to wait as he continued to listen in on the faraway conversation.
"...and I'll gather the soldiers immediately, sir."
"You are dismissed. I'll meet you at our predetermined meeting place after the plan is finished, correct?"
"Of course, sir. Once everyone has been evacuated."
"And remember: McKinley must be blamed for the attack. Spread the word."
The boys remained silent for a few minutes until the retreating footsteps faded, leaving only the sounds of rustling trees.
"What the hell was that?" Wes finally voiced, the four still unmoving from their hiding place behind the berry bush.
"I think...I think they're planning some sort of attack." David said slowly, still processing the bits of the conversation he'd just overheard. "But who are they ambushing?"
"Well, they can't possibly pull off an attack on McKinley today." Kurt pointed out, visualizing a map of Ohio in his head. "Even with our close location to the border, gathering and mobilizing the troops alone would take at least a few hours, and it's almost evening." Kurt directed everyone's attention to the setting sun in the distance.
"Even if they could, why would they blame McKinley? I know there's been some dispute over the whole 'peace treaty' thing, but you can't resolve that by saying a country's ambushed itself. It'd only spark investigation, not to mention it'd be extremely inconvenient." Blaine wondered, scratching his head.
"The peace treaty hasn't even been signed by Dalton yet, so we might as well just attack them if we want to. There's no need to cover it up." Wes added as the boys all contemplated the situation.
"But we can't just attack, Wes." Kurt stated. "There are so many Dalton advocates for the peace treaty to end the petty McKinley-Dalton disputes over the border that it would have to be McKinley that starts the..." Kurt trailed off, his eyes widening in realization.
"No, they can't..." David whispered.
"Guys...I think we're going to get ambushed tonight." Kurt whispered urgently. "By our own men."
The four Warblers-in-training sprinted through the trees, dodging branches and jumping over roots and rocks as they cleared the distance to the campsite in record time.
"We have to tell the others!" Blaine panted once they reached the first tent. Everything around the campsite seemed to be calm as usual, with a few soldiers starting up campfires as the sun began to set.
"Blaine and I can get the tents on the left, and you guys can get the ones on the right. We'll meet in the center!" Kurt commanded, grasping Blaine's hand and starting to run, but not before he was stopped by a hand grasping the back of his uniform.
"Kurt..." Wes started solemnly, clutching the fabric of Kurt's jacket. "I think it's too late."
A burst of fire from the other end of the campsite lit up the already-pink sky, accompanied by several shouts and screams. Within an instant, the entire camp went into a frenzy, soldiers running in a panic as they tried to gather their possessions before running from the flames. Several men sprinted by the four boys, not giving the campsite a second glance as they ran into the forest.
"We have to get out of here." David said just before another burst of flame rose from a faraway tent.
"No, I have to get back to the tent!" Kurt yelled, trying to speak over the loud sounds of the soldiers as they frantically escaped the burning campsite. Kurt tried to run forward, but was unable to as Wes's hand never let go of his uniform.
"There's no time!" Wes yelled, pulling Kurt back to the forest to follow the many soldiers running past them.
"But my staff!" Kurt screamed, breaking free of Wes's grasp and turning to him. "It was my last gift from my father! I have to go back and get it!"
"Wes, you and David run into the forest! I'll go with Kurt and we'll meet you wherever everyone ends up going, okay?" Blaine reasoned loudly, before earning a nod from both Wes and David.
"Fine. But both of you," Wes said, his voice just barely heard, "Be safe, alright?"
"We will, I promise." Kurt replied, starting to pull Blaine towards the tents.
"We'll see you later!" David yelled before he and Wes ran off into the trees with the rest of the Warblers-in-training.
Kurt hesitated for a second and looked past Blaine to see that Wes and David were no longer in sight.
"Let's go." Kurt loudly declared, pulling Blaine into the chaos of the camp.
Their tent was located near the middle of the campsite, only a few tents west of the Captain's tent in the very center. The two boys swerved through throngs of evacuating boys and men, all of whom were headed southward, towards the forest. They passed by scenes of fighting soldiers, men dressed in all black against boys clad in Warbler blazers. A few Warblers-in-training lay on the ground, groaning and bloodied or not moving at all. Kurt almost stopped to help one with a broken leg, but was pulled along by Blaine, reminded that at that moment, his own life was all that mattered.
"The ND! They've ambushed us!" A soldier groaned from the ground beside a tent.
"It's McKinley!" Another soldier yelled as he ran past. Kurt and Blaine gave each other a knowing look as they continued to run.
Finally after what seemed to be the longest sprint Kurt had ever taken, he and Blaine reached their tent and dashed inside. Luckily, the fires spread from the north end of the campsite around to the east end, so their tent hadn't been damaged at all. Kurt ran to his bed and swiftly pulled a long black staff out from underneath the bed frame. He took a moment to run his hand down the intricately carved patterns and sharp metal ends before sliding it into a lightweight, yet sturdy wooden case that was then attached to his back using leather straps. He met Blaine back by the entrance, who had his own metal twin swords tucked into their holsters on both sides of his hips.
"You weren't the only one who wanted his weapons, you know." Blaine smirked, before he grabbed Kurt's hand once again and pulled him back out into the chaos.
At this point, almost all of the other soldiers had either evacuated the premises or had been wounded fighting, leaving a relatively silent campground. The sun was still setting, as the ambush didn't take all that long, but Kurt felt as if something else was amiss.
"Look, they've stopped setting the tents on fire." Blaine observed, pointing to the east end of the camp. It was true, Kurt noticed, as the flames seemed to be dying down over the burning tents.
"It seems everything went according to plan, Prince Dustin."
Kurt pulled Blaine behind a nearby crate and crouched down as the voice approached.
"It's perfect, isn't it? Now they'll all run off to wherever it is they're going and spread the news of an ambush by McKinley. Upon hearing this, there's no way any of those government fools will ever sign that pitiful peace treaty."
Kurt peeked out over the crate to see six men walking beside a tent, perfectly calm. One brunette he recognized immediately as Captain Jesse St. James, who was talking to a black-haired man Kurt assumed to be Prince Dustin. The other four men looked to be fully-trained Warblers, standing as if they were bodyguards to the other two men.
"But they'll never know it was actually us, will they...Hey! You over there!" Jesse's plotting was suddenly interrupted by his own yelling, pointing directly to Kurt and Blaine's hiding spot behind the crate. Kurt ducked down as quickly as possible, but not before the four Warblers hoisted him and Blaine up and out into the open.
"Shit..." Kurt muttered as he and Blaine are led out in front of Jesse and Dustin. They'd been caught.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Dustin asked, a cruel smile upon his features. Kurt had only heard of Prince Dustin's menacing features and personality before this encounter, and he'd already confirmed every horrible story he'd heard about him. The man's few words sounded as if they were laced with poison, and every feature of his face appeared to be pointed and dangerous, from his spiky black hair to his fang-like teeth. His body was tall and muscular, so large that Kurt wondered if the prince was even human. In short, Kurt had never been more terrified of any man in his life, and he'd only said less than ten words to him. "A couple of little Warblers, perhaps knowing a little more than they ought to?"
Kurt swore he saw Dustin's tongue dart out over his teeth as if he were a snake, hungry for prey.
"N-No sir-"
"That'll be Prince Dustin to you, hobbit." Dustin interrupted, cutting off Blaine's stammering.
"No, Prince Dustin," Blaine began, his voice shaking with fear, "We just wanted to go back to our tent to get some of our things. To save them from the McKinley ambush."
"Ahh, McKinley you say? I think you and I both know that you're lying." Dustin snickered, taking a step closer to the two struggling boys. "What do you say we save you from the...misery of knowing too much?"
Kurt's pounding heart caught in his throat as he watched Dustin unsheathe a large two-handed sword from his belt, smiling cruelly.
"Prince Dustin, I don't think you have to-"
"SILENCE, JESSE!" Dustin pointed the tip of his sword to Jesse's throat, who cowered in fear. "We don't want word getting out about this, do we? And to prevent that, we must dispose of these two properly..."
Kurt took the split second of opportunity to make a bold, crazy and adrenaline-fueled escape from the Warblers holding him. Using his arms to help propel him, he jumped up off the ground and kicked both the men in the groin, causing both to double over in pain. Hearing two more groans from his right, Kurt saw that Blaine had done the same, and since the Warblers never bothered to take away their weapons, they immediately turned and made a break for it.
"You fools! Don't let them get away!" Dustin shouted at the fallen Warblers as their captives sprinted away.
Kurt and Blaine swerved through the tents in the opposite direction of Dustin and Jesse, not really knowing which way they were running. They threw crates and supplies behind them to block their trail, with Kurt even collapsing a tent or two on the way with the blunt end of his unsheathed staff. The footsteps following them faded farther and farther away, and it wasn't until the two began to run up a familiar incline that they finally realized which direction they were running in.
The two boys stopped, the wind whistling as it blew by them, the sun finally finished setting and the darkness and starlight settling in.
"Of all the places we had to run to, of course we end of here." Kurt gasped incredulously, looking over the edge of the cliff into the river below.
"Well, it looks like we have no choice, do we?" Blaine asked, joining Kurt as he looked down at the rushing water.
"No way, Blaine. We are not jumping into the river. The current's too strong! We'll never make it!" Kurt practically yelled, taking a step back from the edge.
"Kurt. We don't have any time. Any second now, Dustin and Jesse and their goons are going to find us. It's either we jump or we die here, Kurt!" Blaine took Kurt's shoulders and shook him as he yelled in panic.
"What if we don't make it, Blaine?" Kurt turned away and leaned against the rock near the cliff's entrance, looking at the ground.
"Well, at least we have a chance of making it!" Blaine cried out with exasperation. "Kurt, don't be an idiot, okay? We'll make it, we'll be fine, and we'll go back to Lima and see 'Cedes again, alright?"
At the mention of Mercedes, his and Blaine's childhood best friend, Kurt made up his mind.
"Fine, Blaine. I'll jump. But what if we end up in different places? What if we're not together?"
Kurt heard distant voices approaching the cliff side and the sound of running soldiers.
"Well, then, let's make a pact. If somehow we get separated," Blaine drew out one of his swords and made his way to the large stone, "We'll meet back up at this spot. That way, we'll be reunited." Blaine gently pulled Kurt off of the rock and struck it with his sword, creating a gash on its smooth face.
"Promise, Kurt?" Blaine asked, putting away his sword.
After a moment of contemplation, Kurt pulled his staff out from its wooden casing and struck the stone in the opposite direction, creating an "X".
"I promise, Blaine." Kurt whispered, placing the staff back into its casing.
The voices in the distance grew louder, as if they'd approach the cliff any second.
Kurt and Blaine linked hands and walked to the edge of the cliff. They looked at one another, and Kurt stared straight into Blaine's beautiful hazel eyes for what may have been the last time. Then he did something he never even imagined he would ever do.
Kurt suddenly wrapped his free hand around the back of Blaine's head and kissed him, the impulsive connection full of fear and desperation, but mixed with just as much passion and longing.
"There they are! On the cliff!"
Kurt didn't even have time to process his sudden actions before he and Blaine's lips separated and the two leaped of the edge of the cliff and into the raging waters below.