A/N: It feels good to be back :) Just a small warning for this chapter, there is a tiny bit of risque material in this chapter. Tiny bit. Thanks for reading!
I don't own Glee.
The only thing Kurt was aware of was the pound of footsteps falling on the forest ground and the even heavier thud of blood pulsing in his ears. Everything had happened so quickly; the click of the gun, the whiz of the arrow over his head, the awful gurgling sound coming from the man as he dropped his gun to the ground.
"Grab it!" Scott had shouted at Kurt, still as frozen as he had been when he first heard the man with the gun behind him. "Grab it!" he shouted again, this time louder and with more urgency, but almost immediately he was at Kurt's side, scooping up the loaded gun and yanking Kurt by the arm, startling him out of his trance.
And now they were running. The footfalls that had been following them, and the accompanying shouts and random gunfires were growing farther and farther away. The fact that they were quick and light on their feet not only made them perfect for the assignment of lookout, but also, as Kurt was growing to understand, made them the ideal candidates to outrun the enemy, if such an unfortunate event should arise.
By the time Scott slowed to a stop, Kurt was out of breath, but desperate to keep running. In fact, he did try to keep running, but Scott stopped him, grabbing his hand as he tried to pass. Kurt was shocked at how warm Scott's hand felt around his own cold and clammy one.
"I think we're good," he panted to Kurt, scanning the forest around him. Kurt knew right away what he was doing. He was looking for the perfect tree to climb. And then, as if to confirm what Kurt was already suspecting, he added, "We need to get off the ground for a bit just to make sure."
Kurt nodded, gulping in as much fresh air as he possibly could. He was tired, but he knew the adrenaline coursing through his veins would at least be enough to get him in the tree. Within moments, Scott located one and to Kurt's surprise, he stood by it as if to offer Kurt a boost.
"Come on, Kurt," he coaxed gently, but with a slight edge. They were exactly home free yet. Finally, Kurt moved towards him and accepted the boost he offered. His muscles shouted weakly at him as he shimmied his way up to a tall, well concealed branch. He was turning around to look down and ask Scott which tree he'd picked out for himself when he was startled to see Scott close on his heels. Apparently they were sharing a tree. For some reason, this both comforted and distressed him.
"Are you okay?" Scott asked him in a whisper once they were both settled in the tree. "You kind of froze back there."
Kurt's face reddened as he could feel Scott staring at him intently. They were facing each other, having settled on a split in the trunk about thirty feet off of the ground.
"Yeah," Kurt answered with a tight smile. "Sorry about that, I guess I just-"
"No worries," Scott smiled back, waiving his hand casually as if Kurt had simply bumped into him on accident. As if he hadn't just shot an arrow precisely through the man with the gun's throat, shooting with so much forced that the arrowhead pierced the man's spinal cord. "I know it got rough back there. That hasn't happened in a long time."
"I guess I'm lucky then," Kurt answered sarcastically. His old snarky defense mechanism was kicking in.
Scott looked away, choosing to drop the subject, at least for the time being. He scanned the forest floor and they were both silent as they listened for the men who were following them after the brief altercation.
"I think we lost them," Scott finally announced. "But we have to follow protocol."
"What's protocol?" Kurt asked, feeling stupid. Had they covered this in the meetings before the mission? If they had, Kurt couldn't remember.
"We spend the rest of the night up here and leave tomorrow night. Just to make sure we aren't being followed."
"And if we are being followed?" Kurt asked, although he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.
"Then at least the group will be back to New Lima safe," Scott answered, a bit of pride evident in his voice. It was clear to Kurt that Scott not only took his job seriously, but truly enjoyed the thrill of what he did. Kurt hoped he would get there at some point, but at the moment, he just felt like he was going to hurl.
"Hey," Scott said gently, looking back at Kurt in that same way that made him blush before. "This gets better, okay? It gets easier, I promise."
"You killed that guy," Kurt finally mumbled. "You reacted in a split second and just...killed him."
"He had a gun to your head, Kurt," Scott answered defensively, not appreciating the accusatory lilt in Kurt's voice.
"I just...I don't know if I'll ever be comfortable killing someone like that, that's all."
This time when Kurt looked away uncomfortably, Scott didn't give him the benefit of reciprocation.
"Well if you want to be on this team, you better get comfortable with the idea," he said, sounding angrier with every word. "And the sooner, the better."
They were silent for a long time after that. Eventually, Scott instructed Kurt to get some sleep while he kept a look out. A few hours later, they switched roles and Kurt split his time between keeping a look out and contemplating the sleeping man in front of him.
It was nearly noon at this point and Kurt watched as the shadows of the leaves above them shaded Scott's face in intricate designs that changed with every soft gust of wind. The way the filtered light hit his face reminded Kurt of the stained glass windows from his grandmother's church when he was a little boy. It wasn't until Scott was stirring awake that Kurt realized that he had been contemplating how beautiful his skin looked while he slept.
"Rise and shine," Kurt said with a tiny smile, testing the tense waters from their earlier interaction. He wanted to apologize, to clear the air. After he had the time to process everything that had happened, he felt terrible about what he'd said to Scott. Scott had saved his life after all, and for some reason, Kurt had seen it fit to practically accuse him of being a sociopath for it.
"Hey," Scott mumbled, stretching his limbs the best he could in the confined space without kicking Kurt in front of him. "Has it been clear?"
"Crystal," Kurt responded. "Listen, I owe you an apology for earlier. I was really out of line with what I said, and…I should be thanking you for what you did, so thank you."
Scott didn't say anything at first, which made Kurt feel uneasy. He once again looked away while Scott stared directly at him. Finally he leaned back against the trunk and took a deep breath.
"Don't worry about it," he said casually. "I know this is all new to you. I'd be surprised if you didn't have that reaction, honestly."
"So, do you think we can just forget about the whole thing?" Kurt ventured nervously.
This time, Scott didn't make him wait. "I suppose we could," he answered lightly with a wide grin.
After that, their conversation moved freely and before they knew it, it was dark again and they could start their journey. They'd spent the entire day and into the evening getting to know each other more, so by the time they were carefully climbing down the tree, Kurt was certain he knew just about every detail of Scott's life. He'd been pretty open with Scott about himself as well, save a few details. He felt stupid when he asked Scott what his fertility status was, forgetting that Scott and his family had escaped their community several years before he would have been tested. It did, however, give Kurt the opportunity to explain the system to Scott, who'd seemed very interested in finding out how the whole process worked.
"So Blaine is your boyfriend, right?" Scott had asked as the sun started to go down.
"Yeah," Kurt answered quickly. For some reason, talking about Blaine with Scott made him uncomfortable. "What about you, do you have a girlfriend?"
Kurt was startled and embarrassed when Scott started to laugh. "Girlfriend? No, I'm, I'm definitely gay."
"Oh," Kurt responded lamely, not knowing what else to say.
"It's actually part of the reason we fled our community so quickly," Scott continued casually. "My parents knew, and they were worried that I would be punished somehow by our Officials. Our community was pretty strict compared to some of the others I've seen. Hell, we've been on some missions where the Officials pretty much swung the gates open for the escapees to leave."
Kurt was flabbergasted by this tidbit of information. He'd assumed they were all like Columbus.
"I guess mine was on the worse end," he said and Scott, after hearing Kurt describe it, nodded in agreement.
"We better head out," Scott announced shortly after, putting an abrupt end to their conversation. He began climbing down the tree first, and when Kurt got near the bottom, he was surprised to feel Scott's strong hands around his waist, helping him to float down to the ground. Kurt spun around to thank him, expecting his grip to release, but it didn't and Kurt found himself practically nose to nose with him.
"Thanks," Kurt said, slightly out of breath from the climb down. He opened his mouth to speak, feeling like he needed to say something to the man standing so close in front of him, but before he could get anything out, Scott quickly pressed his lips to his.
The kiss elicited a small whimper of surprise from Kurt, and upon hearing it, Scott immediately dropped his hands from Kurt's waist and backed off.
"Christ, I am so sorry," he apologized quickly, putting his hands out in front of him. "I don't know what the hell I was thinking, you have a boyfriend and that was completely out of line and—"
Kurt knew it was wrong, but in the moment, he didn't care. Interrupting Scott's embarrassed apology, Kurt rushed toward him and swept Scott's lips up with his own. Scott immediately began kissing back, and what had started off as a stolen, closed-mouth kiss turned into a heated make out session.
Their hands went everywhere, urgent to explore one another. It wasn't long before Scott pushed Kurt up against the tree they'd called home the night before, grinding against him with complete abandon.
As Kurt moaned almost obscenely loudly, especially considering the dangers of their surroundings, a small amount of guilt began creeping into the back of his mind. It wasn't until Scott reached for Kurt's zipper, brushing his hand intentionally against Kurt's almost painfully hard erection, that he finally had the wherewithal to stop him.
"No," he said breathlessly, and Scott, to his credit, backed off at once. "No, I'm sorry. This is…I shouldn't be doing this. I'm with Blaine."
Scott nodded, as if admitting a truth he'd known all along but didn't want to acknowledge until he was forced too.
"Yeah, I'm sorry," Scott mumbled. "That was really out of line. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Kurt assured him, although he knew for himself it wasn't. "I just…need a few moments. Do you mind?"
"No, no, not at all," Scott answered awkwardly, knowing that he needed a few moments to himself to calm down as well. "Just let me know when you're ready and we'll, you know, we'll leave. Okay then, I'll just…I'll just be over here."
If he didn't have so much else on his mind, Kurt probably would have been embarrassed for Scott for the way he babbled on. But he was too busy trying to figure out how he was going to explain all this to Blaine. Or if he was going to explain it at all. Blaine was probably sick to his stomach with worry by this point already, since the entire group save two members should have arrived back at New Lima by then. That fact only made Kurt feel guiltier.
Shaking his head while at the same time trying to get the rest of his body to stop trembling, Kurt made a decision that he hoped Scott would go along with and that he hoped wouldn't come back to bite him.
Blaine wouldn't find out about what happened because neither Kurt nor Scott was going to tell him. After all, it had been a one-time mistake that wouldn't be repeated and telling him would definitely cause more damage than good.
What Blaine didn't know couldn't hurt him. And Kurt would do anything to keep from hurting Blaine even more than he had.