Kurt mostly ignored the man bobbing along in the air beside him as he wandered calmly back home, excepting of course for the fraction of his concentration which was maintaining the hex. The prince had seemed to take it upon himself to remove the title 'charming' from his name, and was currently cursing black and blue. However, he hadn't asked any questions, and Kurt didn't feel like giving him answers, so he amused himself by allowing the net holding him to bounce none-too-gently along the ground every so often. The man's dog pottered along beside Kurt quite happily, something which he imagined would be infuriating to the prince. Animals tended to like Kurt – his magick meant they understood each other well, and the dog was a gentle soul.

Finally, about half a mile from the house, the prince suddenly went quiet, and stopped thrashing about. He seemed to have gotten a hang of the hex, too – Kurt wondered mildy if the man had some sorcery in him, and if he did, exactly how his darling brother would repond to that. The prince was sitting, cross-legged, as he was dragged.

Kurt snorted softly and rolled his eyes when he looked at his face – he had the most ridiculous face Kurt had ever seen. It was so pretty, so expressive, with a strong jaw and a wide mouth, and these huge hunter-killed-Bambi's-mama golden eyes.

He had freaking ringlets. Ringlets. Even Avery, all of five years old, didn't have ringlets.

'Who are you?'

Shit. Kurt tried to keep quiet, but it had been a direct question, and he felt faint the longer he kept quiet. Finally, he said the least incriminating truth he could manage, 'I'm the Witch of the Woods.'

'Aren't witches supposed to be women?'

'No. Shut your mouth, Shadow Prince, or have it shut for you.'

Now, why did that bring up a strange mental image of grabbing a handful of dark curls and using his own tongue and teeth to silence the other man? Kurt glanced at him again, wondering once more if he was more than just a pretty idiot warrior, and might be casting some sort of curse.

The prince's huge amber eyes were still wide with fear and... was that curiousity?

'What are you going to do to me?'

Damned if he didn't keep asking him questions. Kurt had never understood why he couldn't lie, but Avery couldn't either; it seemed to be a trait of their kind, but it was a secret jealously kept. There was no way this fool boy – man, he looked only to be a fraction younger than Kurt himself – knew what he was doing.

'I'm going to take you to my home, where I will keep you safe and sound until this has all blown over.' He shot his best evil look at the prince, who didn't look so scared now, more desperately confused. 'If you curse like you've been, in my home, I will hex you silent and tie you up.'

'You're not going to tie me up, anyway?'

It wasn't a direct question, but it was easy to answer. 'You've heard of me. Why would I bother? Ropes will be the least of the things keeping you there.'

To his surprise, the prince chuckled. 'Sure of yourself, aren't you? You know, I've never met a witch. Not even the one my brother keeps.'

'You wouldn't have.' Kurt dropped the spell, and the prince's body slammed into the ground. Kurt stood over him, one foot pressed to his chest, and had to fight the impulse to press down and break a rib. 'I knew Eledda. She was a good woman, a sweet woman, and what your brother has done to her... I don't suppose you even know, do you? I suppose you just lounge around practicing your swordplay and never once question if it's right that she's kept like a mistreated pet in your brother's court.'

The man blanched, the sight of it a little strange on warm golden skin. 'I thought... I thought she lived somewhere, that he visited her when he needed her.'

'Yes, she does. In your dungeons. It must be nice for you, little shadowy prince, to never have to question anything in this world.'

The man's face suddenly hardened, and in a moment, Kurt understood that he had underestimated the golden prince, and had forgotten to enchant him.

In a second, the prince had him on his back, his body pressing along Kurt's, one elbow at his neck. Before Kurt could curse him into next Tuesday, the man lowered his lips to his ear and said,

'Blaine. My name is Blaine, and you do not get to insult me for thinking the best of people. I've had a lot of reasons in my life not to, but in the end... people are good. They have to be, or there's nothing worth fighting for, nothing worth saving.' He loosened his grip on Kurt, and looked so lost Kurt wanted, inexplicably, to stroke a curl away from his face the way he would Avery. 'I don't know my brother very well. He's not easy to know. But he's all I have.'

Kurt raised an eyebrow at him, perfectly at ease lying on his back on the forest floor with a beautiful prince pinning him there. 'Maybe you deserve better, Prince Blaine.'

'Whats your name?' Kurt had already realised that Blaine seemed a little absent minded, because none of the cruel boys who had used to torture Kurt back home would ever have released their hold on him in a clinch. Blaine was now just lying on top of him, seemingly having forgotten that this was not how normal people communicated. 'I mean... you're not just called Witch, are you?'

'No, I'm not. My name is Kurt.' He made a decision on the spur of the moment, not particularly keen on having an aggressive prisoner at home with his daughter for a week, and offered Blaine a smile. 'Viscount Kurtis Hummel, for all the good it did me. Now let me up, you weigh a tonne.'

He did, and offered Kurt a hand, pulling him to his feet when he took it. He was... strong.

'Kurt, where is my fiancée?'

Aaaand... shit. Kurt had cast the spell, pulling all of Blaine's limbs tight against his sides, pressing him back against the trunk of a tree, before he had time to react. Blaine swore furiously and glared at him.

Kurt glared right back, hating the force rising in the back of his throat, forcing him to answer. 'Not your fiancée, Shadow Prince. Your big brother is a cruel, fascist son of a bitch, but you still love and defend him. My big brother is an idiotic, romantic little boy trapped in a bloody huge body, and I love and defend him.' He took a step closer, tried not to notice how warm the prince was in the cold forest air, invaded the other man's body space the way his father had taught him, to make him feel like he wasn't worth respecting. Another cruel lesson he wouldn't be passing on to Avery. 'Rachael is not your fiancée. She's now my sister.'

The torrent of abuse that sounded so ridiculous coming from such a pretty mouth was silenced with a spell, and Kurt felt strangely bereft of Blaine's company as he walked him the extra mile home.

He'd heard the words, and they'd registered, but as he was forced into silence and dragged the rest of the way to the witch's home, he started to think.

If Kurt's brother was older, that might make him heir to whatever land had given the witch the title 'Viscount.' If their father still lived, then it was again likely that the witch's brother served at court, as a knight.

Rachael, the beauty, the future queen, the Songbird Princess, had married a fucking knight?

Maybe he looked like Kurt. Blaine regarded the slim, strong man speculatively. He could probably understand the attraction, but he didn't understand it. She'd thrown everything away, the chance for alliance, the chance of having a partner and a husband who knew politcs and could support her. Hell, depending on how Cooper took this, she might have started a war.

'She was scared of you, you know.' Kurt didn't look at him as he spoke,and Blaine mourned the loss of the brief smile he'd been gifted while pinning him to the ground. He blinked, re-thinking that sentence, and decided he needed some sleep. 'She didn't want you to come after her. Just in case you were thinking maybe your heart is broken, I can tell you with a certain amount of certainty that it isn't. I don't know why she was scared of you, despite being as strong as you are you're about as threatening as a little girl.' He seemed to consider this, because he added, 'you're considerably less threatening than the one you're about to meet, anyway.'

They rose over a ridge, and Kurt pushed aside a hanging curtain of ivy to show a hole in suddenly dense woodland. Through it, they were immediately outside of a welcoming-looking little cottage with a collection of broken cauldrons and a stable outside.

It felt as if they passed through a particularly... thick patch of air and then it was clear and cold and fresh again, and Blaine realised there was no way he'd get out of here without Kurt letting him.

Just as this alarming thought hit him, the spell keeping him motionless and airbourne disappeared, and he hit the ground, knocking the air out of him.

As he tried to sit up, he looked up and saw Kurt give him a weary look. 'No cursing, remember? At least for a little while – I'll explain all of this to you when she's not around.'

She? The unvoiced question was immediately answered when Blaine got to his feet and was immediately shoved out of the way by a little girl with straight brown hair and pale skin, who latched herself on to Kurt's legs.

As Blaine watched, confused, Kurt swept her up into his arms and pressed a kiss to her forehead, as she sighed with pleasure and settled in against him. The only thought he could seem to push past his oxygen-deprived brain was: he has a child. She looks just like him. She will have a mother, and they'll all be this happy little family.

The thought was strangely depressing, and he didn't know why. The little girl looked at him, and as soon as she met his gaze, her bright blue eyes blinked shut and when they opened again, they were perfect mirrors of his own hazel.

'Oh, gods,' he managed, but she just smiled a completely disarming, beautiful smile and turned.

'Papa! Look, I have gold eyes! Are they right?'

Kurt met Blaine's gaze over her head, and without any words being exchanged, the following conversation took place,

yes, she's like me.

I wasn't expecting you to be a father.

You were expecting me to be a murderous sorcerer.

She's beautiful. Kurt's facial expression softened, and he gave a little half-smile. Blaine knew he'd understood the tiny tilt of his head towards the little girl, the smile he'd given her.

And wasn't that strange? That he'd known this man for all of two hours – all of which he'd been a prisoner – and they seemed to understand each other perfectly.

She turned back to him, and beamed. It was very strange, seeing his own eyes shining out of her face. 'I'm Avery,' she said, offering a small hand, which he took and kissed, making her chuckle deep in the back of her throat.

'A pleasure, milady. I am Prince Blaine.'

'Were you good when I was away?'

She rolled her eyes. 'Yes, Papa.' Avery caught sight of Wilder, that traitorous dog who already seemed to love Kurt better than Blaine, and squealed, wriggling in her father's arms until he put her down and she could throw herself at Wilder.

'He's good with children, don't worry.'

'I'm not. You saw her eyes; nothing can hurt my daughter unless she lets it.' Kurt smiled down at her, then glanced at Blaine. His face wasn't like Blaine's, expressive and unable to lie – he hid everything, but Blaine thought he saw worry there. He hadn't reacted well to the news that Rachael had married someone else – his whole life-will-be-better-now plan had gone down the tubes pretty quickly – but he hoped Kurt knew that he wouldn't hurt a little girl.

'No one knows about her,' Kurt said mildly. 'And no one will. There's a reason we live out here, and it's in no small part due to your brother's never-ending work to make our people into criminals.'

Blaine tried not to flinch, not to show how much the idea that Cooper would punish a little girl for the way she'd been born hurt, but he knew that he didn't manage it by the way Kurt's facial expression softened. Awkwardly, the taller man touched Blaine's shoulder, offering some sort of comfort.

'You really don't know him at all, do you?'

'That's why I wanted to marry Rachael.' Fuck it, Kurt seemed to be able to read him any way, there was no point hiding anything. And if he was truthful, it was possible Kurt would let him go sooner. 'I wanted a family who knew me, and loved me, the way I am. Not all that much to ask for.' He glanced at Kurt. 'Am I going to get to meet her mother?'

'Doubtful. She was one of the last of the Morrigans.'

Blaine couldn't help but gape at Kurt, who seemed amused. 'The... the Bloody Priestesses?'

'Hmm... yes, I suppose, though she always hated that.'

'They didn't kill her for marrying you?' it was out before he could think, and he realised as he said it that if it was true it was possibly the saddest thing he'd ever heard. The Morrigan did not marry, did not have children, did not love – they were born, and other Morrigan predicted their birth.

Kurt looked at him curiously. 'You really don't know much about the world, do you, Your Highness?' He was quiet for a moment, then seemed to make a decision. 'She was the last of her people in this kingdom, and she was lonely. She thought that if she had a child, it would be like her... she begged me to help her have a baby. We weren't in love, so she didn't feel it denied her oath, and I was young and stupid and hating my family. I never thought I'd wind up raising a baby alone, but she died and it was immediately obvious that Avery wasn't Morrigan – she was a witch, like me.'

Blaine wondered how long it had been since Kurt had had anyone but a little girl to talk to – he seemed a private person, and yet as they watched Avery play with Wilder, he seemed to want to tell Blaine everything, to share his wonder at Avery.

'I was so relieved,' he breathed, running a hand through his light brown hair. 'I mean... look at her. You saw it, as soon as you saw her, didn't you? I wasn't making that up?'

'I saw it.' Blaine couldn't help but grin. 'She's so perfect. It's like she's lit up from within.'

Kurt's smile was wide – it scrunched up his whole face, and Blaine's heart felt a little sore.

'I don't know what I would have done if she'd been like her mother. The Morrigan find and take back their own... I would have run with her, I suppose. I'd do anything to keep her safe.'

'I wish you didn't have to.'

Kurt looked at him, all of the tension gone from his body. 'I'm still going to have to keep you here. Fynn and Rachael need time to sort this all out, and you could ruin that. I made a promise.'

'I understand.' And he did, he really did. Now that all of the fire was gone from him, all of his righteous need to save the princess, he didn't have anywhere to go or anything to do. Why not stay here with the handsome witch and his little girl? No one would ask anything of him here. No one would expect him to be anything. 'Fynn. Is that your brother?'

'Step-brother. Didn't matter to my father, though – he still made Fynn heir to the land he owns.' Kurt smiled, looking a little dazed, and Blaine wondered if he understood why he was baring his soul like this. 'He married Fynn's mother just to get the son he'd always wanted. It hurt at the time, but not anymore – after all, I got Fynn from it, and now that I have Avery I know that there was something wrong with that man. No matter how Avery turns out, no matter who she loves or what she does, I will always love and support her. The fact that he couldn't do that with me means there was something wrong with him, not with me.'

There was nothing wrong with me. Blaine's own childhood blurred behind his eyelids, and more recently, all of the things he was supposed to be and do and say... all of the things he couldn't, because they didn't feel right, because he was doing them to please people who were cruel and selfish. There was nothing wrong with me.

'It's a strange thought, when you have it for the first time, isn't it?' Blaine realised that the witch – Kurt – was watching him with a gentle smile that made Blaine's stomach tighten and flutter. 'That all you need, to be the person you are and not who they want you to be, is just have courage.'

And when he turned and walked away, Blaine did what suddenly seemed as natural and right as breathing.

He followed.

I'm so sorry it's taken so long – I'm in the middle of my exams, and this is un-betaed and the product of sleep-deprivation, so don't hate me if it's got mistakes! Some geniuses already spotted some earlier and told me which MAKES ME LOVE THEM MORE because you read it that closely? Just in case you haven't twigged, this is a true AU world... in it, Kurt is the strong one, the one who knows how to be himself without fear, and his father wasn't supportive the way flawless Burt is. Smut and more fluff to come, promise!

All the love in the world,

Willows xxx