Many Winged Escape - part two

[epicjazzjands]

Artist: the lovely littlenim

Author: epicjazzjands/panahemataylor
Rating: (art: g) PG
Word Count: 14765
Warnings (if any): none
Summary: Blaine Anderson was of normal height for his people. He was four inches tall and proud of every single inch.


..................................................

Over the next two days, Blaine spent almost every moment with Kurt, getting to know the person he'd be flying with. Since the Delivery Run was of utter importance, it required two Runners to deliver it. “Just in case one of them betrays their... I don't know, sense of duty or something,” Kurt had said one day was as they walked along the dirt path by the palace, heading towards one of the small ponds nearby.

“David didn't tell me that,” Blaine replied. “He told me I would have a partner because I had never done a Delivery before, and that this job is high up on the importance scale.”

“That is true, but normally these jobs do require two Runners. I normally don't do these kinds of Deliveries. I do ones that only take a day or too, but then again, I'm not usually this far from home.” Kurt told him as they sat next to the pond. Kurt was eating a berry, lying down on his back with another hand in the air to block the sunlight from his eyes.

“How come you're far from home?” Blaine asked, leaning back on his elbows as he watched a few children run giggling from their parents.

“No real reason, just wanted to get away from my family and the duty asked of me.”

Blaine nodded. “I know what you mean. I'm to be married off, for political reasons, I guess. Something about keeping the bond between McKinley and Dalton.”

Kurt turned his head to the side and stared up at him, his left hand still shielding the sun from his eyes. “Oh really? So you're him then...”

Blaine blinked. “What?”

Kurt shook his head. “Oh, nothing, just mumbling to myself. Come on, Blaine Anderson,” he said, standing up and holding out his hand for Blaine to take. “I want to introduce you to Lincoln, my bird.”

Blaine grinned and took Kurt's hand and together the two of them walked over to where the birds were kept. Once they arrived, Kurt tapped a stable-boy's shoulder gently. “Could I get Lincoln out please?” The boy nodded and left, Kurt uttering a soft, “Thank you,” as he did so.

Blaine had been around Delivery birds before; they weren't bigger than the normal flying birds that lived with the people, but they were stronger and able to take on the weather that would probably appear during the Delivery. While Pav was built for speed, the Delivery birds were built for endurance. Lincoln was roughly the same size as Pav, Blaine noticed as Kurt took the reigns from the boy and lead the bird out into the open.

“Is he comfortable around other people?” Blaine asked, keeping a safe distance away from the bird as Lincoln stretched his wings. Kurt bent his legs slightly, one hand on the reigns and another above his head as Lincoln began to flap lazily, laughing loudly; Blaine realized that he rather loved Kurt's laughter.

Kurt grinned and nodded. “Yes, he loves other people - Lincoln!” He called out as Lincoln took two large steps and shoved his face into Blaine's.

Blaine blinked, staring back into the large black eyes. “Hello,” he said.

Lincoln let out a chirp before he turned and hopped back over to Kurt. Kurt sent Blaine an apologetic grin. “I'm sorry, he's riled up; I haven't given him free reign while flying in a while.”

Blaine waved his hand. “It's okay, you should. I have a few things I need to pack for the trip anyway.”

Kurt frowned. “Are you sure?” he asked, ignoring the way that Lincoln's head was butting into his arm, trying to get his attention. “I can wait a few hours to take him flying.”

Blaine grinned at him. “Oh yeah, I should get ready, pack some things for Pav and all of that. We leave in two days, right?”

“Yeah, the skies have been clear lately, and I'd like to leave as soon as possible.” Kurt bit his lip, thinking, and Blaine was a few seconds away from saying goodbye when he spoke up again. “Let's meet up tomorrow and go over the route we'll be taking, as well as the supplies, just to make sure we've gotten everything.”

“That sounds good. What time would you like to meet?”

“How about after dinner?”

Blaine agreed, then said goodbye to Kurt so he could go home and pack for the Delivery Run.

Don't fall in love, Blaine, he remembered as he walked home.

That's going to be a little more difficult than I thought...

..

Flying during a Delivery was different then just going for a fly for fun. Blaine was laying a little low on Pav, keeping his bird at a medium flying pace, so that Pav wouldn't get tired out quickly. “Since Pav isn't trained to fly long distances, we'll have to go at a pace slower than normal. It'll just make it take an extra day or two,” Kurt had said once they were in the air, having left their goodbye party (which had consisted of Wes, David, and Thad) a few minutes earlier. Kurt was wearing a ribbon around his neck, simple breaches and a soft looking tunic, a sword strapped to his waist (“In case there's a swarm of bugs that we run into. I tell you, bees and moths are brutal.”).

“We'll get through this, Blaine,” Kurt had said once Blaine had admitted how terrified he was. “We're partners until the very end.”

“The very end?”

“The very end.”

Letting out a sigh, Blaine tilted in his saddle, causing Pav to tilt closer to where Kurt was flying on Lincoln. “Do you think it was a bad idea to go on the Delivery with Pav?”

Kurt turned a bit in the saddle, leaning his upper body over a bit so that he didn't have to shout as much. “Well, I don't think it was wise, because it looks like Pav hasn't done a lot of long distance flying, but you're not close to any of the spare Delivery birds, and these trips require trust.” Kurt grinned down at Lincoln, using one of his free hands to run over the feathers close to Lincoln's head. Lincoln let out a happy chirp and Blaine grinned.

“You two have been together for a while, huh?”

“Yup, I got paired with Lincoln when I was ten, and we've been together ever since.”

Blaine leaned forward against Pav, a soft smile on his face as he watched Kurt. The sun was landing just perfectly, accenting the highlights in Kurt's hair, and Kurt had a nice smile on his face, one that made Blaine think of how nice Kurt's lips were. He knew that he probably shouldn't have been thinking thoughts like that, but he had to admit. Kurt was gorgeous.

They were quiet for most of the beginning of the flight, only sharing a few words here and there, but throughout those first few hours, Blaine noticed that Kurt was constantly looking up at the sky, his eyebrows furrowing, and biting his lower lip. “Is something wrong?” he eventually called out, and Kurt shook his head.

“No, not really. I guess I'm just being paranoid,” Kurt said with a laugh, finally turning his head from the sky and shooting Blaine a blinding grin. “Nothing to worry about, really.” And then they went back to silent flying.

There wasn't much to talk between the two, seeing as Pav and Lincoln didn't fly close to each other, and Blaine kept his eyes on the scenery down below him, as well as the scenery in front. He'd never really been this far out of Dalton while up in the sky, and while he'd traveled by foot to other lands, but nothing compared to being up in the sky and seeing everything below him. God, it's all so beautiful.

Later, once they'd landed for the night and had dinner (having spent lunch in the saddle), Blaine moved close to Kurt, watching as Kurt blew on the fire he'd just started; Blaine hunched close to the fire, holding his hands out to warm them up. Kurt moved to sit on the ground, letting out a sigh as he stretched his back and groaning as it cracked. Blaine tried to not look for too long, but Kurt's groan of delight would be forever ingrained in his memory. It had been such a good groan.

“So,” Blaine said, hoping to start up a conversation. “I know that you said it was nothing to really worry about, but I was wondering why you felt worried today?” He moved away from the fire and sat closer to Kurt, bringing his knees up and leaning his forearms against them.

Kurt shrugged, leaning back against the rock behind him. “I'm just being paranoid; I've never had a Delivery start off as smooth as this one did. The weather was too nice, and sometimes that's a bad sign. I guess I'm just waiting for something terrible to happen.”

Blaine dropped his knees to the ground and then moved, laying down on his back and looking up at Kurt from over his shoulder. It was slightly uncomfortable, but his back was sore from sitting up all day and it felt much better to be lying down than sitting up. “What kind of horrible things? Like getting attacked or...?”

Kurt let out a laugh and shook his head. “No attacks, silly, unless you consider running into a swarm of insects being attacked. I'm just talking about swarms, lightning and thunder storms, horrible weather - the usual stuff. Those are what usually happens to me when I go on Delivery runs, and I'm really surprised that today's flight went so well.”

“Well,” Blaine said, adjusting his shoulders and glancing up at the sky. “Let's hope that tomorrow goes just as well as today, and then the same for the day after tomorrow. It'll be boring, but not dangerous.”

“Ooh,” he heard Kurt say, and then the next thing he knew Kurt was moving to lay down next to him, and when he turned his head to look at his friend, Kurt was grinning at him, both of his arms underneath his head as he stared at Blaine. “Sometimes the dangerous Deliveries are the most fun.” At the incredulous look Blaine gave him, Kurt laughed again. “I don't mean the life threatening ones, I mean the ones where there's some adventure, excitement, not really knowing what's going to hit you.” Kurt shifted and moved closer, and Blaine turned over onto his side fully, placing his head in his hand as his elbow dug into the dirt below him. “I think that it's so fun, but I have to admit, I was absolutely terrified of getting my first assignment.”

Blaine nodded. “Yeah, me too. I mean, it's going to be my only assignment, but I was still rather nervous.”

Kurt grinned and moved a bit closer. “Mine was a simple Delivery; I was to travel to Carmel and deliver a simple letter. The skies were supposed to be clear for the two days it took to get there. I don't know why I was so scared, because I'd flown to Carmel before while training, but for some reason this felt different, because it was all official.”

Blaine frowned, then reached over and wiped a piece of dirt off of Kurt's forehead. At Kurt's stare, he flushed, and then pulled his hand back. “Sorry, it was just there so...”

“You don't need to apologize, Blaine. Thank you.” The smile that Kurt gave him did not help his blush go away. “Hey... if it's not too much to ask, you are the Blaine Anderson, right?”

Blaine blinked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

“I mean the one who is engaged to the Prince of McKinley.”

Blaine let out a sigh, but nodded. “Yeah, part of that peace contract or something.”

Kurt hummed. “I never really learned what that contract said.”

Blaine shrugged. “Something along the lines of Blaine Anderson will marry a Prince of McKinley, and our treaty will continue.”

“Ah, I see... Well,” Kurt suddenly said, rolling his body away from Blaine and reaching for the blanket he'd laid out on his pack. “We should get some rest. You're going to be really sore in the morning, and I can tell you're tired.”

Blaine shot up. “Wait! What about your first Delivery story? I was looking forward to hearing it.”

Kurt put his hand out behind him, his hand moving up and down before he pulled it back underneath his blanket. “It'll be a story for another night.”

Blaine frowned, then crawled over on his knees until he was leaning over Kurt, staring down at his friends calm face, his hands hovering over Kurt's body,“Will you please tell me the rest of your story? I'm bored and I don't think I'm ready to sleep yet.”

It must have been the teasing tone of his voice, because Kurt's eyes shot open and his head jerked around to stare up at Blaine. “No, no, Blaine, don - ”

Blaine's hands shot down, immediately going for Kurt's stomach, where he knew that Kurt was insanely ticklish. Kurt's laughter filled the air, Blaine's own joining it not too long after. Kurt rolled, trying to get away from Blaine's fingers, but he was laughing so hard that he didn't move much and only resulted in pulling Blaine down on top of himself. He didn't let up on his tickling, though, causing Kurt to attempt to curl in on himself, which ended up making it so that Blaine's hand got caught in between Kurt's thigh and stomach.

“Ow, ow!”

Blaine stopped his tickling, his eyes watering as Kurt uncurled and allowed him to pull his hand free. There was a red, angry looking indent on his skin, and he glanced down and saw that his hand had been trapped between Kurt's buckle. Kurt sat up and took Blaine's hand in his own, staring down at the mark. “I'm sorry,” he said, looking up into Blaine's face. “I didn't mean to hurt you.”

Blaine shrugged. “It's okay; it was kind of my fault anyway. No big deal.”

Kurt grinned, then leaned over and gave Blaine a quick hug. “That was fun. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.”

“You should laugh like that more often. I think your laugh is great,” Blaine said as they pulled away, then turned and reached for his blanket. He laid down, dragging it over himself and curling up underneath it.

Kurt blushed. “Thank you.”

They went to sleep after that, both listening to the crickets chirping at the night sky. Blaine fell asleep after Kurt, and he took a few minutes just staring at his friend, his eyelids having trouble staying up. I like you, Kurt, his mind said at one point, and Blaine rolled that thought over for a moment. Yes, he did like Kurt. In what way was still the confusing part.

..

Kurt had been right about the too nice weather possibly being a bad sign. Not even two hours into their flight the next day, the wind picked up, pushing them back, knocking them out of the air, and tossing them around in the sky. They lost half of their food that morning, and spent a good four hours on the ground searching for whatever they could manage to save. After they'd found a good quarter of their lost food, Kurt sighed and ran a hand through his hair, before suggesting that they scavenge for more food.

“This won't last us the full trip, and trust me, you get hungry on these trips.”

Two hours later, even though he'd eaten five hours previously, Blaine had a hand clamped over his stomach as he followed Kurt through the leaves, his eyes flittering back and forth, looking for berries, nuts, or whatever else he could see on the ground. His legs were throbbing, sore from being in the saddle the day before, and they were protesting with every step that Blaine took. He wanted to keep moving, but he wasn't sure how long he could continue walking. Eventually, though, he had to speak up.

“We've been looking for food for a rather long time, Kurt,” Blaine called out as he pushed aside the plant leaf so that he could see Kurt in front of him finally. He opened his mouth to say something else, then noticed how Kurt's body was tense and slowed down his walk. Once he was up next to Kurt, he leaned in and whispered, “What is it? Is something out there?”

Kurt whipped his head around and Blaine jumped back half a step, looking into the smiling face of his friend. “Have you ever gone fishing, Blaine?”

Blaine had never gone fishing before. In fact, Blaine had never even heard of it. Fishing, as it turned out, consisted of Kurt having ribbon wrapped around his chest and waist, the end of the ribbon held tight in Blaine's hands and Kurt wadded into the pond that they'd decided to fish in. “Are you sure about this?” Blaine called out, and Kurt waved at him from over his shoulder, his hand held out with a “thumbs up” signal, indicating that he was okay and also that Blaine needed to be quiet.

Fish were hard to catch, he'd heard from some people in his town; most were large, slippery, and were completely capable of pulling someone down into the water. Blaine exhaled and tightened his grip on the ribbon, wrapping it around his hands once more, watching as Kurt moved further into the water. Kurt's head ducked down, close to the water as he listened; Blaine watched him silently, his hands tight on the ribbon. A few seconds later, Kurt dove forward into the water. For a while all Blaine had to go on was the sound of the water settling once more, and then there was a tug on the ribbon in his hands and he was jerked forward.

With a yell, he dug his heels into the ground, yanking back on the ribbon and watching as Kurt shot out of the water, holding tight to a large fish. The fish flapped around, pulling Kurt with it in every direction it went, and both of them fell back down into the water; Blaine felt himself being jerked forward again, and he yelled out, “KURT!” as he dug his heels into the ground yet again, tightening his jaw with determination: Kurt had asked him to make sure he got back to shore with the fish, and he would do his best to make sure that it happened.

It became a tug of war game, with the fish swimming and jerking desperately in one direction, and Blaine tugging in the other, Kurt holding on with the best of his ability. Blaine's strength started draining quicker and quicker with each tug, and just when Blaine thought that they wouldn't be able to catch this fish, the tugging on the line stopped. Energy suddenly surging through his body, Blaine began to pull Kurt back in. By the time Kurt and the fish were on dry land, the fish flopping around slowly, Blaine was panting; Kurt took a few steps closer to Blaine, but then flopped down on the ground. Blaine felt tempted to join him, and so he did.

Kurt grinned up at his as soon as he sat down. “I'll cut the fish in a few minutes. I just... I just need to gather my breath, and then I'll take care of it.”

Blaine exhaled, and then held out his fist for Kurt to bump. “That was amazing,” he exclaimed once he'd caught his breath.

Kurt jerked from his sudden claim. “R-really?”

Blaine lay down and turned his head to face Kurt's. “Completely! That's got to take a whole lot of strength, and the way you held onto that fish was awesome.”

Kurt grinned through the blush that was forming on his face. “I could say the same about you. I know that you're tired, but you held onto that ribbon like your life depended on it. I'd have to say that that was pretty awesome.”

Blaine shrugged, a blush of his own growing on his face. “Well, your life was depending on me, so I had to do the best that I could.”

Kurt sat up, Blaine following, and then pulled Blaine into a hug. “Thank you,” he whispered. Blaine closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, the smell of Kurt surrounding him. Oh god, this is bad, he thought as he pulled Kurt closer to him. I think I'm -

“I should... I should probably go and cut up that fish, huh?” Kurt asked, but he didn't pull away from the hug. In fact, he seemed to tighten his grip around Blaine and lean more into him.

“Yeah, you probably should. Can I help? I'd like to learn.”

Kurt finally did pull away. “Sure you can! Here, let me grab my spare knife...” Kurt stood up and fumbled around in his pockets, looking for his knife. “Oh,” he said after a second. “I think that I left it in the big pack on Lincoln. Hold on one second.” Kurt brought his fingers to his lips, then let out a high pitched whistle.

Blaine frowned. “Is that for them to hear where you are?”

Kurt nodded, his eyes checking the sky for their birds. “Yeah. Pav should understand it too, so he'll be along as well.”

And Kurt was right; a few minutes later, both birds were flying towards them, chirping madly. They landed next to their partners, Lincoln moving his head to look at the fish, and Pav bending down to chirp loudly in Blaine's ear. Blaine let out a groan as the chirp vibrated in his ear, and he reached up with a hand to clap it over his ear. “I'm okay, Pav, really,” he said, running his free hand through the feathers on Pav's head. Pav chirped, and then hopped over to where the fish lay dead on the ground. He pecked at it, and then pulled his head back in the way that he did before he was going to eat something.

“Pav, NO!” Blaine shouted, and Pav let out a screech, flapping his wings before he hopped away, and if looks could kill, Blaine was sure that the glare in Pav's eyes would have slayed him on the spot. “I'll feed you in a minute, okay?” he said, chuckling as Kurt returned to the fish holding two knives. “I'm sorry about Pav,” he said as he took the knife that Kurt offered him.

“No problem,” Kurt replied as he kneeled down next to the fish, holding his knife in both hands. “It took me a while to train Lincoln to not eat the fish that I caught. Okay,” he breathed, looking up at Blaine. “Ready to learn how to gut a fish?”

Blaine nodded and joined Kurt next to the fish, and for the next hour, he learned how to gut, chop up, and store a freshly caught fish. He also learned that no matter what he was covered in, Kurt would always be gorgeous looking.

He wasn't entirely sure how to deal with that new knowledge, but he welcomed it with open arms. You're moving into dangerous territory, Blaine, he thought as he helped load the fish into their food packs. You're getting married soon, you can't fall for him.

“There we go,” Kurt was saying, playing with a piece of ribbon that he'd cut off of the longer one they'd used for rope. “That will most definitely make up for the food that we lost earlier. Eating fish every day might get really boring, but at least we won't starve.” He clapped his hands together, and then motioned for Blaine to come closer to him. “So,” he said, fiddling with the ribbon.

“So.”

Kurt grinned, then leaned forward and tied the ribbon around Blaine's neck, turning the piece into a rather nice bow. Blaine glanced down at it, his eyebrows raised. “What's this for?”

“It's a thank you present,” Kurt said happily, his hands tugging on the bow slightly so that the extra ribbon ends were even. “I'd noticed that you'd lost a button holding the top of your shirt closed, and I know how cold it gets at night, so I figured this would help keep it closed.”

“Wow, thank you, Kurt! I hadn't even noticed that the button was missing.” Blaine reached down and held up one of the ends of the ribbon. “This is really nice.”

He thought that maybe he'd get a hug from Kurt, but instead Kurt surprised him, leaning in more and pressing a kiss to Blaine's forehead. Blaine could feel the blush immediately rising in his cheeks, and when Kurt pulled away, Blaine saw that he wasn't faring any better, the blush standing out more against his skin. “Uh... W-we should probably get moving,” Kurt said, waving his arms wildly at their birds. “Package to Deliver,” and he pointed to the package that was tied to Pav's saddle.

“R-right. We should get on that.”

They stared at each other for a few more seconds before each turning away and climbing into their saddles, blushes still firmly in place.

..

The weather seemed to clear up after that random wind storm they'd been through, and for the rest of the week, they saw clear skies, no wind or bugs, and their flights were never interrupted. Kurt had been right about the fish being enough food to make up for the food they'd lost, and they spent their nights eating over the campfire, talking and learning more about each other, singing silly songs, and falling for each other, falling really hard.

At least, Blaine was falling really hard for Kurt, and fast.

He spent most of his time flying daydreaming about Kurt, about what could happen and could be; about what couldn't happen and what couldn't be. I wish I could stop this, he thought one day, keeping Pav a little behind of Lincoln so that he could watch Kurt without being caught. Nothing will ever happen between us. I'm getting married, and Kurt and I could never -

“Blaine, watch out!”

Kurt's yell caused Blaine to snap out of his thoughts, just in time for him to see the tree branch he'd been steering Pav straight into. Crying out, he yanked back on Pav's reigns, causing his bird to give a distressing chirp as he was forced back and to the left.

He wasn't quick enough, and Pav grazed the branch; he let out a pained chirp, his wing curling into his body, and the next thing Blaine knew, they were falling towards the ground, Kurt screaming at them from above.

They landed with a thud, the impact sending Blaine from the saddle; he bounced, then rolled a bit before he came to at a stop with a grunt. “Oh god,” he groaned, moving a hand to his throbbing head. To his left he could hear Pav chirping in pain, and he immediately stood to go see if his bird was okay, but once he stood, everything became dizzy and he wobbled on his feet, the world spinning.

“Whoa, easy there, Tiger. You fell quite the distance.”

He felt Kurt's hands on his shoulders, steadying him, and he leaned back and allowed himself to get reacquainted with standing steady. “Thank you,” he muttered to Kurt. “I need to - I need to make sure that Pav is okay.”

Pav was lying on the ground, chirping lowly every few seconds, and the first thing that Blaine noticed was that Pav's wing looked... wrong.

Kurt moved over and knelt down next to Pav. “Do you think his wing is okay?” Kurt asked, his hand running over the feathers right above Pav's wing as the bird laid his head on the ground. “The feathers are all ruffled and he still doesn't look too good.”

Blaine ran a hand through his hair and he moved to take a better look at the way Pav was holding his wing; the angle was odd, but he wasn't high enough to see if it was just the feathers making the way the wing was held look different. Glancing around he spotted a rather large rock and headed over to it. He climbed up, struggling a little once he got closer to the top and then twisted around so that he was on his hands and knees, one hand coming up to shield his eyes from the sun so that he could see properly.

“Yeah, the way he's holding it doesn't look right from up here,” he yelled down to Kurt, who was still rubbing Pav's back gently. “I think he may have hit it pretty badly when we slammed into that tree.” He nibbled on his lower lip, knowing that Pav's hurt wing would slow down their delivery to the land of McKinley, but he couldn't just make Pav fly the rest of the way; he just couldn't. He bit his lower lip, sitting up and laying his hands on his hips as he thought. Gripping the rock, he moved his body down and slid, his feet catching the ground gently as he reached the bottom. He walked over to Kurt, and then bent down next to him and Pav, who was still chirping weakly. “I should have taken Thad's advice,” he said harshly. “Pav isn't trained to fly in this kind of weather.”

Kurt reached out with a hand and placed it on Blaine's shoulder. “It'll be okay, Blaine. It's not too badly injured, now that I look at it, and I think that with a good night's rest he'll be up to flying in the morning.”

Blaine exhaled in relief. “Are you sure?”

Kurt nodded. “I've seen this happen more than once, so yes, I am sure.”

Reaching out, Blaine pulled Kurt into a hug, his lips finding Kurt's hairline, pressing a kiss there. “Thank you,” he whispered before he pulled away and moved over to Pav's head, whispering gently to his bird. Kurt stared at him, his hand slowly moving up to his hairline; slowly a small grin formed before he stood up and moved over to his own bird to get the camping equipment out so he could set up camp for the night.

Come morning, though, it was very obvious that Pav was not able to fly with Blaine on him. They tried, but Pav struggled way too much, and in the end, they transferred a few of the lighter packs that Lincoln had been carrying over to Pav, Blaine taking a spot right behind Kurt on Lincoln's saddle. Pav would follow behind them, and even with the pack he seemed to be able to fly fine. Sharing a saddle with Kurt wasn't comfortable, but it worked, and Blaine had to admit that he secretly enjoyed being pressed up that close to Kurt.

Hey, don't fall in love with him, he remembered to tell himself.

Kurt turned his head around, flying goggles in place, and gave Blaine a beaming grin. “Ready?”

… too late.

continue to part three...