A.N.: Hello again!
It's funny how I keep promising that things will move faster in the next chapter when, in actuality, things are just going slower because I keep trying to add more detail to what I'm writing.
On the bright side, we FINALLY get to the end of Day 1 at The Fort right here, and this is an HONEST-TO-GOODNESS PROMISE that next chapter will contain more than a few hours of a day. In fact it might even *gasp!* contain more than one day of events!
So, yeah. I'm sorry that these chapters go so slowly. It'll all most definitely be speeding up soon, though.
P.S. So, I've begun to use Tumblr a lot lately, and the community and fandom on there is absolutely fabulous. So if you're on Tumblr and you want to follow me (I honestly only reblog stuff, since I'm technologically impaired and can't figure out how to work the stupid website the majority of the time) or you want me to follow you, just put your Tumblr in if you leave a review or find some way to give it to me.
Mine's PossibleImpossibility (dot) tumblr (dot) com. So, yeah.
I just love Tumblr so much.
I mean, today and yesterday, especially. Can you say SEX RIOT? :D
Sorry for the long A.N. You can get to reading now xD (perhaps leave a wonderful review whether you love it, hate it or think it's just meh? :P)
Oh, yeahhh...and the stuff in italics? That's flashback. Hope it doesn't annoy anyone...
Oh, and I don't own Glee :/ (but I do own my excessive amount of OC's...)
"Holy...Kurt?"
Blaine's expression resembled that of a stray deer thrown in front of a speeding carriage.
"So you do know this guy!" Kurt felt Jeff's piercing gaze on him as he spoke.
Kurt couldn't bring himself to answer. All he could focus on was the curly-haired boy in front of him. Kurt broke his gaze from Blaine's eyes to examine his tattered and mud-streaked Dalton uniform and his slouched posture exemplifying his exhaustion. The mere sight of him left Kurt speechless, his heart pounding through his head and all his thoughts going into overload.
"Hello? Kurt!" Somehow as Kurt was staring, Jeff had made his way over to the frozen former Warbler and had grabbed his shoulders, shaking him back into focus.
Kurt still didn't take his eyes off of his childhood friend, but did manage to find his voice again. "Blaine," he repeated, taking a deep breath, "Where...What are you doing here?"
"I came to find you." Blaine responded simply, still panting from his hard struggle against Nick and Frederick, both of whom still had hold of his arms.
"Okay, I'm sorry to interrupt this apparently touching moment, but you still haven't answered me." Kurt finally turned his attention to Jeff, who was still angry but seemed to be calming down.
"Ummm...this is Blaine," Kurt began, now avoiding Blaine's gaze so he could continue speaking without distraction. "He was a Warbler with me when we...when we were ambushed."
Kurt saw the three ND soldiers' eyes light up with realization.
"So I'm guessing this is the guy you mentioned before," Nick said, giving Blaine a once-over and relaxing his grip on his arm.
"Wait, you were talking about me?" Blaine asked, causing Kurt to do nothing but blush and look down at his feet.
"Yeah, but I-"
"Okay, we can have this happy little reunion later," Jeff interrupted, still leaning on the edge of the desk. "But first, the two of you have a bit of explaining to do."
The next hour or so consisted of a very nervous Blaine and an extremely flustered Kurt sitting side by side, answering questions after questions that Nick and Jeff asked. Frederick had left the room to calm all the ND soldiers down, as they had all heard the yelling and gone into a panic.
It started out with the two ND commanders asking for Blaine's story about what had happened during the ambush. After a reassuring look from Kurt that the imposing soldiers in front of them were to be trusted, he told them the same story that Kurt had. Jeff and Nick rarely interrupted the repeated story, only making thoughtful hums every now and then while writing everything down in paper pads they had retrieved from a drawer in the large desk.
"So, you were forced to jump into the river as well?" Nick asked Blaine as he was reaching the end of his tale.
"Yes, sir," Blaine nodded, his eyes flickering to Kurt for a split second before a blush began to creep up his face. This tiny gesture made Kurt worry more than he should've. Why was Blaine blushing? Was it because he remembered what had happened just before they jumped? He was probably just complicating Blaine's small action.
"So now that we have your story settled, which seems to be exactly the same as what Kurt told us earlier today, it's time for the important question," Jeff placed his pen and pad of paper down on the desk and folded his hands together. "How the hell did you get into The Fort?"
"Oh, well...to tell you the truth, I just climbed in through a window on the first floor." Blaine replied, looking down at his hands as he twiddled his thumbs in his lap.
"Climbed through a...?" Jeff began in disbelief, before his face turned almost comically serious as his voice switched into monotone. "Did it, by any chance, happen to lead into a storage room full of provisions?"
Blaine raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I think so. But I didn't take anything, I swear!"
Kurt jumped at a sudden loud bang, only to see that the noise had been made from Nick's forehead colliding with the wood of the desk. At the same time, Jeff slowly rotated his neck to glare at the back of the brunette's now-horizontal head.
"And this is what happens, Nick, when you try to feed the 'woodland creatures' outside The Fort." Jeff said in an almost deathly calm voice. Nick responded by muttering an incomprehensible sentence into the desk. Kurt couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the sight, sharing an amused look with Blaine, who also seemed to find the two ND commanders somewhat entertaining.
"I think we have all the information we need now." Nick gulped after finally parting his forehead from the top of the desk. Jeff continued his murderous gaze in Nick's direction, but waved his hand toward Kurt and Blaine as if to say, "you're dismissed."
Slowly and carefully, the two former Warblers backed out of the room, gingerly closing the office door once they were out in the hallway. Just as the door clicked shut, a yell burst out from the office.
"ARE YOU A FUCKING IDIOT, NICK? YOU COULD'VE GOTTEN US ALL KILLED! LEAVING A WINDOW OPEN ON THE FIRST FLOOR DURING A TIME OF CRISIS, IN A CURRENTLY UNGUARDED LOCATION, NO LESS!"
Kurt and Blaine shared another glance before bursting out into uncontrollable laughter. Kurt honestly didn't know why they were laughing so hard, as both of them had ended up captives of the men who they'd once known as their enemies and neither of them really had any plan of escape. Still, the mannerisms of the ND commanders were hilarious enough to entertain them both to tears, to the point where they were sitting side-by-side on the wooden wall just beside the office's entrance.
It took until that moment for it all to really sink in for Kurt. Blaine was with him, he wasn't dead and he had come to try and rescue him. All in the course of an hour or so, Kurt had regained one of the most precious things he was so convinced that he had lost forever.
Before he realized that he was doing, Kurt nearly tackled his best friend into a bone-crushing hug, both of them still sitting and laughing like small children.
"I'm so happy you're alive." Kurt muttered into Blaine's curly mass of black hair, silently inhaling the scent that he didn't realize he'd missed so much until that moment.
Kurt felt Blaine's arms squeeze around him, wrapping around the small of his back.
"Same goes for you." Blaine replied into Kurt's neck, causing goosebumps to form on the skin where Kurt felt his breath.
"Oh, there you two are."
The two boys released their embrace and turned their heads to the interrupting voice, which belonged to none other than Frederick, dressed in his ND uniform,but almost every inch of him, arms, legs and even most of his face, was covered in white flour.
Kurt pushed himself to stand, raising an eyebrow at the powder-covered man in front of him.
"The yelling caused a bit of commotion in the kitchens, and when I went down to check...well, let's just say the guys who work in there like to have a bit too much fun sometimes." Frederick laughed, answering Kurt's silent question while attempting to brush a bit of the flour off of his uniform. He then turned to Blaine, who was still seated in the floor, leaning against the wall with a tired expression on his face. He extended a hand. "And you must be Blaine. I never really got to formally introduce myself. I'm Frederick, head of what you could call housekeeping around here."
Blaine accepted the hand and shook, returning Frederick's almost-permanent smile. "Pleasure to meet you. Especially when you don't have my arm in a death grip."
"I can tell you'll be a fun one to have around." Frederick laughed once again, just as a black mop of hair came running around a corner and straight to the talking trio.
"Sir, Rose has requested your assistance in one of the storage rooms downstairs." Kyle told Frederick before giving Blaine a questioning glance from beneath his long bangs.
"Will do. I'll be right there once I bring these two back down to the cells." Frederick responded. Kyle nodded, but he didn't move, instead continuing his stare at Blaine, who was staring into space, not noticing Kyle at all.
"Right. Kyle, this is Blaine. Blaine, Kyle." Frederick introduced, realizing Kyle's curiosity. "Blaine's the guy who snuck in just a few hours ago and who causeed all the commotion. Now he's our new prisoner."
Kyle nodded and turned his attention back to Frederick. "I'll meet you in storage room three," was all he said before turning and walking back down the stairwell.
"Not a very sociable guy, is he?" Blaine practically mumbled to himself, but just loud enough for Kurt to hear him.
"From what I've learned today, he's a bit of a cryptic guy." Kurt extended a hand down to Blaine to help him up. Blaine accepted it and pulled himself to a standing position, letting his and Kurt's hands stay clasped together for a few more seconds then necessary before letting go.
"I guess this is my cue to lock you two up again." Frederick sighed, pulling his keys out from his back pocket. "Come on, down to the basement we go."
"Wait, Kurt, you what?"
Blaine and Kurt sat laughing on the bed of the cell Kurt had been put in earlier that day, both sitting cross-legged and facing one another. When Frederick had brought them down to the cells, he figured the two would want to talk, so he let them stay in the same room and had left a few spare blankets and a pillow so one of them could sleep on the floor. For that, Kurt was extremely grateful, as he and Blaine really did have some things to talk about concerning the night before.
Wow, the ambush had really only been a day before? It seemed like ages had passed since they'd been at the Warbler campsite.
"Please, don't judge! I was so tired, I couldn't think straight!"
"So you thought that walking all the way back to Dalton, where we'd just been almost killed by the prince himself, mind you, with only the clothes on your back was a good idea?"
"I assure you, if you'd woken up on the side of a river..."
"I'd just like to point out that I have actually experienced that very feeling."
"Oh, right."
The boys continued to laugh, Kurt admiring Blaine every second he smiled. He stared at the way his eyes crinkled when he laughed, his broad, contagious smile, the few dark curls that fell in front of his forehead. The two had been talking for what felt like only fifteen minutes or so, but Kurt knew it'd been longer. They'd talked about a variety of topics, from the events of Kurt's day to random memories from their childhood to their wondering if Wes and David were alright (to which they both agreed that they were probably just fine). Unfortunately for Kurt, neither of them had yet brought up the kiss the night before. Every time Kurt thought of talking about it, he'd see how happy Blaine was and how he didn't want to make the conversation awkward when both of them were enjoying themselves so much.
"So, wait. You have yet to tell me what happened to you all day today," Kurt examined. "You know my whole story, my amazingly eventful day. How did you get here?"
Blaine leaned his chin in the palms of his hands. "Well, let's see...it started out when I woke up beside the river, just like you had."
"Mommy, Daddy! There's a man over here! And he's all wet!"
Blaine opened his eyes slowly, only to find a small red-haired, brown-eyed girl staring down at him.
"He's awake, too! Mommy, Daddy! Come look!" the girl yelled, turning her head to the distance.
Blaine heard several footsteps upon rocks before two more figures came into his line of vision. One, a woman, had long, red hair just like her daughter, and a gentle-looking face with blue eyes. The other, a very tall man, had short-cropped brown hair and the same deep brown eyes as the little girl.
"Oh, dear." The woman kneeled down on the ground, placing a hand on Blaine's forehead. The hand was warm, causing Blaine to notcie that he was shivering from the cold of the river water. "Are you alright, sweetie? Can you stand up?"
"I think so, ma'am." Blaine barely croaked out, slowly pushing himself up to a sitting position. He felt a few tender bruises on his legs as he moved, but it wasn't so painful as to hinder his movement.
"Are you gonna be okay?" The little redhead asked, now kneeling next to her mother.
"Now, now Kaya. We don't want to overwhelm him." The girl's father gently said.
Blaine pushed off with his arms to stand up, wavering only a little as he gained his balance on his feel. Suddenly, a wave of dizziness overwhelmed him, causing his knees to buckle beneath him.
"Take it easy, now." The woman and her husband each took one of Blaine's arms, holding him up so he wouldn't collapse to the rocky ground.
"Thank you, ma'am." Blaine said, steadying himself until he could stand without the extra support from the kind couple.
"You can call me Dianna, sweetie." The woman, Dianna, responded as she gently let go of Blaine's arm. The man let go of the other as well.
"Thank you, Dianna." Blaine smiled at the kind woman. He then took a few slow and experimental steps forward, finding that he was capable of walking without falling to the ground.
"Yay! You can walk!" The little girl - Kaya, the man had called her - exclaimed, jumping up and down happily. "Are you gonna come home with us, Mister...Mister..."
"Blaine," Blaine finished, grinning. Kaya appeared to be no more than six years old, and she was just so adorable the Blaine couldn't help but smile.
"So are you coming home with us, Mister Blaine?"
"Well, that's up to your parents, but I don't think they'll want a stranger like me staying with you for a while. I'll just be a burden." Blaine said truthfully. It was absurd that this family would actually care for him, him being a random boy washed up on the side of a river, in a Dalton Warbler uniform, no less.
"But you're not a stranger! You're Blaine!" Kaya argued, crossing her arms over her chest. "He can stay with us, right, Mommy and Daddy?"
Blaine turned to the two chuckling parents.
"Of course he can, Kaya." Dianna smiled. Blaine couldn't believe it. This family was actually going to help him, despite only having known him for less than an hour?
"No, it's okay, I really couldn't." Blaine protested.
"We just ask that you let us give you something to eat and dry off your clothes. You'll catch cold if you wear those for too long." Dianna politely said, right as Kaya ran up to hug her leg, still jumping up and down with excitement. "And besides, we don't want to disappoint Kaya, do we?" she added with a wink. Blaine knew he couldn't resist the kind offer, especially since he didn't want to dishearten the little girl.
"Fine, but only because Kaya asked," Blaine laughed when Kaya looked up and beamed at him, just before detaching herself from her mother to hug his leg as well.
"They just took you in, no question?" Kurt asked incredulously, interrupting Blaine's story.
"I know, right? I couldn't believe it either," Blaine shook his head. "This family...I just couldn't believe their hospitality."
Kurt throught back to when he'd woken up by the river. Like Blaine, he's been found and taken in almost immediately, regardless of where he'd come from. Sure, in Kurt's case he'd been a prisoner, but he was still treated kindly and given food and clothing. If someone had woken up by a river in Dalton, odds were that people would just walk by, not giving them a second glance. If they were an ND soldier, they would've thrown them back into the river if anything.
"So, you were found by that family," Kurt began, scratching his head, "But how did you end up here?"
"That comes next." And so Blaine continued his tale.
Blaine sat in the kitchen of the family - the last name of which turned out to be Terry, as inscribed on their front door - with a steaming cup of tea in his hand. He wore a set of clothes he'd borrowed from the father, whose name he learned to be Mark, as his were hanging out back on a clothesline. Blaine sat with Mark, both of them sipping from their mugs quietly. Just a few minutes after the four had arrived at the house, which was located in the middle of a small town called Austein, Dianna and Kaya had set off to the market to buy some food for brunch (they'd found Blaine at an early hour in the morning), leaving Blaine and Mark alone in the small, yet cozy house.
As they sipped their tea, Mark finally asked Blaine where he'd come from and how he ended up washed up by the river. Blaine was surprised none of the family had asked him that question earlier by the river or on the way to the house, and he answered truthfully, figuring Mark deserved the honest story after going to so much trouble to care for him and help him out. Mark took the whole story relatively calmly, making comments here and there, especially when Blaine mentioned finding out that the ambush had been the work of Prince Dustin. Just as Blaine finished his story, he and Mark were interrupted by a loud knock on the front door.
"Excuse me, Blaine, that's probably one of Dianna's customers. She's a tailor, you see, and we have a few people coming over today to pick some things up." Mark stood up from the table and went to answer the door.
"It's no problem at all." Blaine said as Mark opened the door to reveal a short, stocky, rosy-cheeked man.
"Sebastian! How nice to see you!" Mark welcomed the man with a firm handshake. "You're welcome to come in while I fetch your things from the back."
"Nice to see you as well, Mark." Sebastian replied in a low, gruff voice, before looking to Blaine who was still sitting at the kitchen table. "And who might this be? I haven't seen you around these parts before."
"I-"
"This is Blaine, a...cousin of mine." Mark interrupted Blaine, giving him a pointed look that told him not to tell Sebastian his actual identity.
Blaine rose and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you, sir."
Sebastian accepted the handshake with a large, slightly sweaty hand. "I didn't know you had another cousin, Mark! I've stopped by during many of your family reunions and never have I seen this young man before!"
"That's because I've been...studying at Crawford for the past few years." Blaine covered quickly. "I just graduated this past year and I was in the area, so I wanted to come and visit Mark."
Blaine glanced down the hall and saw Mark give him and thumbs-up before he disappeared into a room to retrieve Sebastian's things.
"Oh ho ho! Crawford, you say! You must be quite the intelligent young man!" Sebastian gave Blaine a rough pat on the shoulder, to which Blaine forced a smile. He was immediately reminded of his home during holidays, when his fairly large and suffocating Aunt Mayzie would do just the same thing. "What are you studying there, young lad?"
"Military strategy." Blaine immediately answered, remembering one of his old neighbors who had gone to school for that very major.
"So you're here to visit the McKinley military camp, I presume?" Sebastian asked, to which Blaine responded with a tentative nod.
"Well, just between you and me," Sebastian brought his voice down to a whisper, "that place is a bit of a wreck. I've visited once or twice - my son is in the army, see - and everything is simply chaotic. There's not much organization, in my opinion. If you want to go visit a high-quality military base, it's worth a trip to Carmel. That's where I was born and raised, and that Sue Sylvester woman is absolutely brilliant. I mean, I heard just today that the ND found one of those Dalton Warblers washed up by a river, and what did they do? They took him in! If I were them, I would've thrown him back into the river! Dalton scum."
Blaine froze at Sebastian's last sentence. Luckily, that was the moment at which Mark finally returned to the main living area with a large pile of clothes and a bill written on the top.
"Once I heard that the ND had found a Warbler by the river, I knew I had to check it out. I mean, there couldn't have been really any other Warblers floating around in the river, right? I knew it was you, so right after Sebastian left, I grabbed my clothes from out back, and told Mark that I was leaving." Blaine finished.
"Wait, you didn't even say goodbye to Dianna and Kaya?" Kurt questioned.
"Well, I tried to leave, but Mark insisted I stay and eat some food first, so I waited for the girls to get back, practically shoved my brunch down my throat, and ran out the door." Blaine said, "But I promised the three of them that I'd be back soon. I guess I didn't take into account the possibility that I might actually get caught."
"And you didn't tell them where you were going?"
Blaine looked down at his feet shamefully.
"I take that as a no." Kurt reached a hand out to hold Blaine's shoulder comfortingly.
"I just feel so bad," Blaine buried his face in his hands. "I ran away and I didn't even tell them where I was going. I mean, I only actually knew them for a few hours, but I still felt like..."
"You felt close to them, I get it." Kurt moved closer to Blaine, positioning the two of them so that his arm was around both of Blaine's shoulders. Kurt's heart then began to beat faster. Kurt figured that to Blaine, their position was simply a friendly gesture. But to Kurt, it was tinged with intimacy, reminding him of that subject that seemed to be taboo for the entirety of their conversation. Was it finally the moment to bring it up? It was better then than never. Kurt took a deep breath in and-
"Kurt, this is kind of random, but...about last night. On the cliff." Blaine placed his hands back in his lap and looked to Kurt, their eyes meeting. Kurt sawe a certain intensity in Blaine's eyes he hadn't seen before...well, at least not before the moment right before they'd jumped off the cliff. Kurt was torn between feelings of relief that Blaine brought it up first and anxiousness and anticipation for what he had to say.
"What about it?" Kurt could feel his voice shaking. His heart felt as if it were about to jump out of his chest any second.
"I...well, you..." Blaine's voice also sounded tentative and restrained, until it fell to just above a whisper. "You...k-kissed me."
"Yeah..." Kurt answered, scolding himself internally for not being able to form any better answer.
"Why, Kurt?" Blaine asked, his voice still low and barely comprehensible.
"Because...I wanted to, Blaine." Kurt replied simply, looking down at the floor. He felt his eyes begin to water, urging himself not to cry, even though this was it. This was the moment when Blaine told Kurt that even though he was gay, he just didn't like Kurt in that way. That he only saw him as a friend, a best friend nonetheless. Then Kurt would end up heartbroken, and their friendship would never go back to the way it was ever again. Kurt went to lift his hand to wipe his eyes before the tears fell, when he realized it was still wrapped around Blaine's shoulders. Kurt slowly began to slide his arm out from around his friend, but his movement was stopped by a warm, calloused hand's grip around his wrist.
Blaine continued to hold Kurt's wrist, and placed his free hand beneath Kurt's trembling chin, tilting Kurt's head up to look at him. "Hey, now. What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?" Kurt sobbed, ripping his wrist from Blaine's grasp and sliding off the bed, standing on the cold stone floor in the dim lamplight. "I kissed you, Blaine! I kissed my best friend since childhood, fully well knowing that he doesn't have any feelings for me, and he probably never will!"
"Kurt, I-"
"No, Blaine, save your pity! I don't deserve it!" The tears were flowing freely from Kurt's eyes, his whole body trembling and his hand curled up into tight fists at the sides of his body.
Blaine slid off the edge of the bed and walked over to Kurt, gingerly placing a hand on Kurt's shoulder. Kurt's first instinct was the flinch away, but the feel of Blaine's hand on him was so comforting, so warm, that he stood still, small sobs still escaping his body.
"Kurt..." Blaine whispered.
"What, Blaine?" Kurt replied, his voice clipped and soft and tinged with sadness.
Kurt looked up to meet Blaine's eyes, just as Blaine's hand trailed a gentle path from his shoulder to his jawbone, stroking the pale and smooth skin and causing Kurt to close his eyes. The touch put him in a temporary trance, which was only broken when he felt Blaine's warm breath on his lips.
"Who said you were the only one who wanted to?" Blaine whispered, his lips barely grazing Kurt's as he spoke, just before closing the distance.
A pleasant warmth filled Kurt's body as his lips met Blaine's. There was nothing rough about the kiss, nothing urgent like the one on the cliff side. Kurt sighed, moving against Blaine's tender lips before the two parted, leaning their foreheads against one another. This feeling was simply perfection, as if nothing else in the world existed anymore. It was just Kurt and Blaine, and in that moment, that was all that mattered.