FIC: No Day But Today Update
Series: No Day But Today
Title: Deference
Summary: Kurt and his entourage get more information about the United Peoples on their base, and the people come to a decision about their future.
The city had disappeared into the distance. Faded away. And suddenly, their small world exploded.
Kurt blinked at the vast expanse of the ocean. His heart raced witlessly in his chest.
“Funny to see the world look so normal from above, isn’t it?” General Hadrian said.
“Not really,” Kurt replied. “I’ve never actually been in a plane before.”
“Really?” The shock in his voice was almost amusing.
“I’m just a small town girl, general,” Kurt replied, dryly, his gaze still glued to the ocean’s horizon. “Livin’ in a lonely world.”
Hadrian raised a brow and studied Kurt. He’d periodically given him that look, uncertain what to make of this young man who claimed to be king of the boat people. “You’re something else,” he stated after a long moment.
“Is that why you wanted me alone? To see exactly what I am? The others weren’t overjoyed for me to fly by myself. They weren’t entirely supportive of even letting you know that I’m the leader.”
“I’ve gathered as much. I can see the younger two as your body guards, and the old man, Forest, tactics, yes?”
“Forest isn’t that old. He’s my dad’s age. He’s not really tactics; he’s just... smart. Andre is our vet, though. He’s good with tactics as any of us.”
“So young,” the General murmured. “Amazing that your people were able to be so effective.”
Kurt scrunched up his nose and leaned in as though confiding in the man. “When I tell you that life moves fast out here, you have to believe me. We’re a community. The only thing slowing us down is our own limitations. No need to wait for that perfect future moment. We can only be sure of the day we’re living.”
“That wasn’t what I was wondering about.”
“I know what you were wondering about.” Kurt crossed his legs at the knee and looked out the window once more.
“Your group took out the Wastelanders.”
“They’d attacked us a couple of times. Or tried. When they abducted me, that was the last straw.” Kurt declined to tell this man the rest of the story.
What they’d done to him while he’d been captive. How he’d escaped, despite his injuries, and then set off all their ammunitions, leaving all but a few stragglers who’d been outside the compound to burn, burn, burn.
“You’ll find few arguing on their behalf. When our soldiers set down in that area four years back, they killed every last one... Eventually.”
“That’s how they are. Were.” Kurt drew in a slow breath.
The image of their last leader’s greasy face pressing close to his own popped into Kurt’s mind, along with the feeling of a sharp blade pressed to his neck and a hard cock against his thigh.
“Are you alright, son?”
“Better than I have any right to be.” Kurt hugged his elbows and arched a brow sharply. “How far is this base? I’d like to be home to put my little girl to bed.”
“Not far. When we take you back to the capitol, it’ll be a bit of a trip.” Hadrian started looking at Kurt that way again. Possibly at the ‘little girl’ comment. “Let us take the lead, when we contact the prime minister, won’t you?”
“Us?”
“Military.”
Kurt lifted his chin and sucked in his cheeks.
“Does that hurt your pride?”
“It makes me wonder how much you’re going to be looking out for our interests.” Kurt narrowed his eyes. “And I wonder how you never found us before.”
“We don’t generally scan the coast for signs of civilization. Our concerns are more along the lines of quelling immediate threats to the union. Brazen lunatics, caches of nuclear weapons-”
“Bioengineered toxic gas that causes the brain to explode.”
Hadrian looked at him sharply.
“For example. A lot of dangers out there.” Kurt pinched his lips together. “So how big is this union? What about other countries?”
“The borders have changed. The United Peoples come from the UK, Europe and parts of Africa. The island was the easiest to clear, so that area is somewhat populated, and we have some areas in Europe.” Hadrian looked off to the side and nodded. “We have several hundred thousand in all.”
Kurt’s brows shot up. “I-I can’t believe that. That many people. Alive.”
He swallowed. Fear tingled along his skin for the first time in a long time.
“It’s not much. The eastern hold in Neo Tokyo has fewer, though their numbers may be bolstered when they can muster up the strength to seek out survivors in Asia.” He looked to Kurt. “We would have helped them, but our resources haven’t allowed for it yet.”
Kurt wasn’t going to argue with the man’s priorities. No one was going to find survivors if they weren’t looking for them. “Will we be going into any of those densely populated areas? What do you plan to do with our people?”
“That will be up to the prime minister and senate. If we’re lucky, we could take your settlement and give you homes on the island. I’m sure our media would be delighted to hear your stories.”
“And if we’d prefer to stay in our city?”
Hadrian frowned down at him. “Why ever would you want to do that? In the UP you would have comfort, medical care. You would be safe from the infected.”
“That’s what they said about the refugee centers,” Kurt replied in a flat, quiet voice.
Hadrian said nothing for a moment. “Let us take the lead. This will be the first they’ve heard of you, but it won’t be the final discussion.”
Kurt turned his head to look out at the water again. He could see the base out in the ocean. It had to have been placed there to keep an eye on North America.
“What caused this? Do you know?” Kurt asked suddenly. “I mean all of this. The first outbreak in the midwest?”
“No one stepped forward to take responsibility. There were a few groups suspected, of course, but none definitively charged with the crimes. As far as we know, it was at first simply a terrorist attack on America, maybe even domestic terrorism given the locations targeted. A few planes infected, sent to inland areas. But it couldn’t be contained.” Hadrian’s thick brows furrowed. “I’d imagine whoever is responsible has long paid for their crimes.”
“Not enough,” Kurt pronounced, letting venom drip from his words. “Never enough.”
The general was looking at him again, but Kurt focused his gaze on the fast approaching military base.
***
The four sat on cots in the medical bay, awaiting a pronouncement from the medical staff. This was the first stop once they’d touched down. Just a blur of the facility and then into the infirmary.
Kurt bowed his head over and pinched the bridge of his nose. This would be what it was like for all of their members, every single one. And for those who had suffered during processing back in Toronto, it would not be a pretty transition. He wondered if he could prepare them somehow.
Blaine in particular would not enjoy being shuffled through a medical facility.
“Are you all right?” a young man asked.
“I’m fine.”
“We don’t have the kind of medical scanning equipment to give you a better check up, but-”
“There’s nothing wrong with me, kid.”
Kurt looked up at him and realized that the man who he was mentally slotting as ‘kid’ had to be nearing his thirties. Forest chuckled just out of his line of vision. Santana bobbed her head from side to side, smirking wickedly.
“You’re annoying,” she said. “We’re fine.”
A tall woman came by, looking at her chart. “Are you? Could I get a look at that eye?”
Kurt creased his brow slightly and stilled his breathing. She looked up, thick, black curls bobbing around her face.
He missed Pippa.
“No,” he said.
She tilted her head to the side. “We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to help.”
“We’ve all heard that one before,” Andre scoffed. But he gave her a charming smile and winked.
She leaned forward and blinked at him in disbelief.
“Ignore him. It’s hard to be a straight man in a boatopolis full of married women and queers,” Santana said.
That caused the woman to laugh. She put her hand on her hip and looked at Andre. “I’m Lieutenant Crowley. We’re trying to scan you blood work as quickly as possible so that you lot can have a look around the base before we the soldiers have their little meeting with the Prime Minister and the senate.”
Andre nodded.
“Do you suppose your people could be persuaded to allow a check up?” she asked.
Andre puffed his cheeks out and blew air through his lips. “I’ve no friggin’ idea.” He touched his fist to his chest and threw a peace sign. “Hey, my people. You want a check-”
“Shut up.” Santana glared at him. He just chuckled.
Crowley raised a brow curiously. Suddenly, Andre, Santana, and Forest were all looking at Kurt. Kurt stared at the floor and shrugged.
“It’s up to you. They probably have better medical treatment here than we’ve been able to get since Mama Chang died.”
“You should let them look at your eye,” Forest said.
Kurt had to turn his head sharply to give Forest a sufficiently exasperated look.
“I know the Wastelanders didn’t do it any favors. You’ve been favoring your right side for some time now.”
“That was over a year ago,” Kurt said.
“If there’s anythin’ to be done about it,” Forest said with a shrug, “you’re a better shot with two eyes than one.”
Kurt sighed, then took off his glasses and looked at Crowley.
“What happened?” She stepped over to one of the cabinets and started looking for supplies.
“I got some walker juice in it, and the medical team decided to try to clean it in a moving vehicle while I was hallucinating from the vaccine,” Kurt said with a bitter smile. “It was scratched, and they did minor surgery on it.”
She turned and frowned until the sentence made sense, then returned to what she’d been doing.
“Then not so long ago... I was... beaten. I don’t know what caused it to start to lose vision again. I don’t remember enough.” Kurt wasn’t interested in telling the whole story in front of people who had to listen to his orders every day. Though Santana was leaning forward intently.
“I’m sorry to hear that. It’s rough out there.” Crowley returned with a small flashlight.
“It’s hell,” Kurt said flatly.
She drew in a slow breath, then pulled up a stool in front of him and shone the light into his eye. “This may hurt.”
“I’m used to it.” His eye flinched.
“What’s wrong?” Santana asked.
“A corneal abrasion. Some scarring... That would obscure your vision. I can’t tell... Well, we’ll have better optical equipment back at the capitol. They’ll be able to have a surgery to keep you from losing more visual acuity... They could also probably do a transplant, if and when an extra cornea is available,” Crowley said. “But they wouldn’t offer such a thing until after you’d obtained citizenship for a least a year.”
“That’s fine.”
Crowley sat back. “You don’t trust us. What do you think we’re going to do with you?”
Kurt leaned back onto his palms. “I haven’t decided yet. When was the last time you took in a group of survivors?”
“The base?”
“No. The United Peoples.”
“Some have been taken in... not that many groups since the government formed. So several years, at least. But what does it matter?”
Kurt scanned her face. A soldier entered the room, nodded to Crowley, then turned to Andre.
“Sir, General Hadrian has gotten word from Prime Minister Delphit. He will assemble the senate and contact us in three hours.”
“Whadda ya expect me to do about it?” Andre asked.
The soldier opened his mouth to speak, then closed in and looked to Crowley.
“Don’t look at me.”
“I... That’s Hadrian’s message,” he said with a nod. He turned and left the infirmary.
“I must be looking extra authoritative today,” Andre said jauntily. He and Santana exchanged a knowing glance.
Crowley smiled softly. She continued to check over the others carefully, but didn’t again attempt to press Kurt for conversation. She seemed more interest in chatting with Andre.
And unlike most of the others who had approached them, it seemed to be less out of deference than of interest.
Santana raised a brow and smirked at Kurt.
***
In some ways, Blaine was glad that he’d taken a step back once they’d built the city. Kurt seemed to think of him as the second in command, and of course that was because in their little family, he was Kurt’s second, always there for their peanut. Blaine knew better though. The people respected him, but they didn’t look to him as a leader. Sort of funny, because for all the little things, he was seen as a community organizer... not unlike how easily he’d slipped into an unofficial leadership role with the Warblers back in the day. But acting as frontman for some teenage boys for a couple of hours every week wasn’t the same as running a small country. Not at all.
He was glad to have Kurt’s faith in him. And Blaine directed what he had towards their family, but he had no inclination to take over anything, unless circumstances got so dire that there were no leaders to be had anywhere. When the Wastelanders had kidnapped Kurt, people hadn’t been able to count on Blaine. He knew that, and they remembered that. He’d been distraught, and lost, and trying to hold on if only for his little girl who had spent many hours crying for her daddy. And even when he was at his best, and Kurt was around, he knew there was something lurking beneath his consciousness, a threat to keeping the sane person his baby girl depended on most.
Thus, now that Kurt and the others had gone off to talk with the leaders of this military group, the people looked once again to the older Hummel. They were approaching Burt for news. He didn’t have any, of course, but he knew how to lead a meeting, and calm folks down.
“Where’s daddy?” Pippa pleaded, tugging on Blaine’s pant leg.
Blaine lifted her up and carried her across the deck. “I told you, sweetie. He’s off talking to some people who might have a new place for us to live.”
“I don’t wanna live anywhere else. I like it at home,” she said with a pout.
“I know.” He rubbed her back and spotted Nick tending the garden. “Let’s go say hi to Uncle Nick, hm?”
Pippa looked over her shoulder, her curls bouncing with every step.
“Hey!” Nick grinned up at them. “How’s our princess?”
“Uncle Nick, have you seen daddy?” she asked.
Blaine sighed. He really wished Kurt hadn’t left this time. At the same time, however... he completely believed Kurt would be coming back. Or rather, he knew that he would, even if it was something he shouldn’t be able to know.
“No, sweetpea.” Nick stood and brushed his hands off on his pants. “I haven’t seen him since he went off with the soldiermens, but you know my memory.” He knocked on the side of his head. “Let’s look.”
Blaine smiled and let Nick pick her up and run around the boat, looking in corners and around the garden and under blankets. Soon he had her giggling again.
He came back, breathless. “Sorry. Didn’t see him. He’ll probably be back in a few days.”
“Okay.” Pippa looked down.
“Thank you,” Blaine mouthed.
Nick set her down and petted her curls. “He’ll be back, Pip. Don’t worry.”
“He was gone a really long tiiiime,” she replied, looking up.
Of course, she was still scared from the last time he’d disappeared.
“Honey.” Blaine crouched down in front of her and rubbed her back. “Your daddy is coming back. I know this for a fact. Remember when I told everyone there would be a storm a few years ago, and we were able to move the city enough to avoid it?”
“Because papa had a dream,” she said, curling her fingers around her shirt.
“Right. Papa had a dream. And I had a dream last night, so I know that your daddy is gonna come back, and we’re all gonna go somewhere else to live, and we’ll be safe for years. I know.” He hugged her and rocked her from side to side. “Papa wouldn’t lie to you. Daddy’s gonna be okay.”
Pippa nodded and put her hands on the sides of his face. She liked to feel it when he grew whiskers. He kissed her nose, and she giggled.
He rose and saw Nick staring at him seriously. He leaned his head forward and whispered, “Did you really dream that?”
Blaine nodded, and Nick’s eyes went round. Blaine pressed a finger to his lips as he took Pippa’s hand. There was a chance Nick wouldn’t remember what he’d been told. His ability to commit new information to memory had remained inconsistent, but Blaine didn’t want people talking about a move until it was closer to reality.
So community organizer Blaine did his rounds, taking his little girl with him. The people saw her, skipping along and now calm, and they became likewise. Meanwhile, Blaine’s chest ached as he thought about Kurt out there in the unknown. Being sure that he would come back didn’t mean he couldn’t come back to him damaged.
Blaine stood in the doorway and his eyes went immediately to their bed where Kurt lay, shirt hanging loose from his body. His neck was stitched up and covered with fresh gauze, as was part of his chest. Kurt stared at the ceiling, like he could see the sky through it. His right eye was still nearly swollen closed, though, and his glasses were off, sitting idle on the nightstand.
The purple and blue on the side of his lips highlighted his slack lips like a colored gloss. Blaine went to his side. Kurt barely responded, until Blaine touched his fingertips, and then he revived, imploring Blaine with one bright blue eye.
“Never again,” Blaine promised. He couldn’t promise, but he promised. He kissed the least bruised side of Kurt’s mouth and rose to straddle Kurt’s body, touching him so, so carefully.
His mind was filled with the image of their daughter’s tears, first when Kurt had disappeared, then when he had returned looking like a fresh walker. Utterly battered, beaten, and burned by the sun, good eye wild and angry. But walkers didn’t come out to the Western Wave anymore.
Blaine’s fingers ghosted over Kurt’s cheek, his thumb caressed the apple, he brushed his lips over Kurt’s. No words were exchanged as they slowly reacquainted themselves, slow and gentle touches. Then Blaine’s hands moved down to slip off Kurt’s pants. He needed to be closer.
“No!” Kurt suddenly pulled back, forcefully enough to cause Blaine to reach out, trying to steady him. “No, no.”
Blaine stared in confusion at Kurt’s shaking head. His shaking shoulders.
“No,” he whispered once more.
“I heard. Kurt, it’s okay. I love you. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.”
Kurt head hung for a moment. Blaine remained frozen, mentally reading all the words that were unspoken between those no’s. His cheeks grew wet.
When Kurt had come back to them that morning, so bedraggled, so bloodied, Blaine had barely recognized him. But there he’d been. A raw, frightening creature speeding towards the city in a motorboat. Several had rush to the edge of the city, pointing their weapons in defense against whatever it was.
But it was Kurt. He’d come back to them. They’d searched for him for days without a clue where to go. They’d even sent people out to the Lucky Farmers for information with no results.
He’d slowed his boat when he got closer, not flinching in the slightest at the weapons threatening him. Then looked up, his hair falling away from his abused face, and gave a little wave.
Blaine thought about asking what had happened. Kurt lifted his eye briefly, then curled over onto his side and was still.
“Can we just... Could you...” Kurt rasped, thanks to the injury at his throat. “Just hold me?”
Blaine moved slowly to comply, wrapping his arms gently around his wounded husband, kissing the back of his neck carefully, and hoping Kurt could find some peace.
“Whatever happened,” he whispered some time later, into the silence and Kurt’s deep breathing. “I still love you.”
He almost jumped as Kurt spoke again.
“I killed them. I killed them all.”
“Papa?”
Blaine squeezed Pippa’s little hand. “C’mon, peanut. Let’s get you to school.”
***
Santana followed close by Kurt’s side. Forest and Andre flanked them, as Hadrain and his officers showed them around the facility. It wasn’t interesting. What was interesting was how the men, and increasingly Hadrian himself who knew better, kept addressing Andre out of all of them.
Once Andre corrected a soldier, saying that he was not the leader at all. They then turned to Forest. Santana smiled and nudged Kurt’s shoulder. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. As per usual when the people around them failed to notice him, Kurt took the opportunity to take in every detail of their surroundings.
It was clear that the soldiers had never seen outsiders before. The way they looked at Santana also told her that they didn’t see much tail out this way, either.
After the tour, they were directed to a large room with a round table and sat around it as all the members began speaking about the prospects of a new settlement, and what steps could be taken to ensure the safety of the civilians if these refugees were taken in.
Their group was markedly quiet during these discussions, but Santana knew that they were all listening carefully, and she was mentally cataloging details about each of the officers.
After some time, a call came in from the Prime Minister, and they could see both him and a number of men and women surrounding him. He was an older man, which seemed strange to Santana these days, who had a long face and a prominent nose and snow white hair combed over to the side. His mustache and beard were the same color, though trimmed short. Staring at him, she noticed the yellow on his fingers, and presumed him to be a smoker. Stupid, in times when you could die from so many other things, and maybe not get the medical care you needed. Then again, maybe he could. Though not fat, they all seemed well fed enough. All with rosy cheeks, those who had white people complexions, and no teeth lost from malnutrition. The soldiers had seemed healthy, but the senate and Prime Minister were leading easy lives.
Santana grew anxious for the first time as the Prime Minister began speaking to the military men about what to do about this newly found group, and one of the senate members spoke to voice the opinion that all North American survivors should be put down as a matter of course.
“The lot of them are just mad, General. They’ve gone feral. There’s not much use to be had out of them,” the man said.
Santana felt her muscles tightening and was about to leap up to tell this suit to go fuck himself when Kurt’s large hand was covering her own. His eyes remained on the screen, but the message was clearly received.
“That is completely barbaric, Oswald,” a large man with a deep voice and deep African accent said.
“Every survivor they’ve found out that way has been ruthless and dangerous,” Oswald argued.
“You were of the same position about my people,” the second man said, “and you were likewise wrong. We cannot simple go about killing all the living. Our numbers are not great enough to do so, especially now. Our clear goal should be to find a means of integrating this group in with our own.”
A broad-faced redhead raised her hand cautiously. “Ngugi, I agree with you, in principle. But we can’t just drop them down in the bleedin’ city. They’ve been out there in the wild for too long. Your settlement had only just formed, protecting itself from the hordes, and dealing with the lack of resources to properly vaccinate. But the Americas are different, yeah? They’ve been gone to us for years. Those people are wild.”
“This group may have had something to do with the destruction of the eastern pack that took out our people,” Hadrian offered. “Prime Minister, I think that they have similar fears to us.”
“Of course, we are not going to blow this group up. That is absolutely ridiculous,” the Prime Minister boomed. “Hadrian. You reported already that they don’t have nuclear capacity.”
“No, sir. Their weapons are entirely suited to defending their city from anyone who might try to attack them. They are a number of families, and children. I can’t believe they would come after us. They are much different from the others we’ve found, and it seems extremely unlikely that they would bother to develop a weapon of mass destruction.”
Santana suddenly felt herself missing Tianna.
“Then I see no reason not to proceed with an integration plan,” the Prime Minister replied.
“Prime Minister, I am responsible for these people,” Kurt said suddenly, in a voice both clear and quite low for him.
Hadrian looked at him sharply, but Kurt didn’t turn his head from the screen. He was staring down the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister was now staring back. Clearly, he didn’t know what to make of this child speaking to him.
Santana crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. Andre mimicked her posture. Forest just watched, calmly.
“Before we move forward in any discussions of relocating our people from our city which has kept us safe for four years, I will need to see layouts of your cities, the precautions being taken at the borders, and what your plans are for escape during the event of invasion by the infected or, potentially, living hostiles,” Kurt stated firmly, with one brow raised. The officers around the table grew uneasy, but though some seemed annoyed, a few were listening closely. They’d seen pictures of their city, and probably had taken in the precautions their people had laid in place to keep them safe.
“Do you have appropriate security structures in place?” Kurt continued. “Enough tactical coverage for your inhabited areas? A 100% vaccinated population? Scientists working on alternative means of defense and other tests to see what will happen years down the road to the infected and the vaccinated? Do you have any psychics on hand who can see when danger that you cannot handle is coming towards your population?”
The Prime Minister tilted his head to the side, and his lips curved slightly. “Psychics?”
“We have that,” Santana interrupted.
“Well,” Andre said looking at her. “Just the one guy, but he’s never been wrong.”
“And you have a psychic, and scientists working on all the aforementioned items?” the
Prime Minister prodded.
“They may have information on who created the neuro gas found in Canada,” Hadrian said cautiously.
Santana looked at Kurt anxiously.
“That wasn’t supposed to be released,” Kurt said. “And yes, we have her.” He leaned forward. “The base where she was staying was attacked, and the man they left behind panicked and released the gas. We took her into our group. Accidents happen. We’re sorry if that caused you to lose people.”
The Prime Minister’s eyes bore into Kurt as he took a long pause, weighing that information. “We would very much like to meet the woman who could create something like that.”
“We would like to join you,” Kurt said with a measured cheerfulness. “But we need some reassurance.” Kurt narrowed his eyes slowly. “We stopped looking to be rescued a long time ago, Prime Minister. So we learned to rely on ourselves.”
“You’re saying that your people would prefer to remain living... in a boat.”
Oswald seemed to be holding back laughter.
“It’s not just a boat,” Santana objected.
Forest touched her shoulder. “It’s a haven we created for ourselves. An’ it may not be the most permanent of places, but nothing so far has been so permanent. Even what you’ve got... everything’s temporary. I think what we really need is some more dialogue about what it would mean for us to join you.”
“We have no secrets... Mr...?”
“I’m Forest Jackson,” he replied with a nod. “This one here with the squeaky voice-”
Kurt looked at him with a raised brow and half a smile.
“Has led us through thick and thin. Kurt Hummel. He looks young, I know, but you know, or y’should, how seasoned soldiers are at that age. Got the face of a baby and a soul of an old man,” Forest said.
“Hm.” The Prime Minister rubbed his fingers over his lips. “We need to discuss this further. General Hadrian. Give them whatever information you have available.”
When the feed cut out, Hadrian looked to them like he’d bit a lemon.
“Oh, don’t give me that,” Santana said. “You people approached us, landed on our turf uninvited, and are making all of these decisions without even asking what we want. We’re not stranded baby animals. We didn’t ask for your help.”
“We have the power here,” Hadrian said gruffly.
“Yeah. You got some. But we’ve got things you want,” Andre said. “We’ve got the genius behind the neuro gas, we’ve got a group that’s survived in ways they never thought possible, and we’ve got him.”
He pointed to Kurt.
“I’d be a little more comfortable if the old man had actually looked like he respected our leader when he was raisin’ some really serious points.”
“That’s not important-” Kurt began to say, lifting a hand.
“It’s gonna be important if we’re going to get our people to willingly go anywhere,” Santana snapped, still eyeing Hadrian. “Or, y’know, if you want our little genius, who happens to be Kurt’s sister-in-law and my girlfriend, to trust you in any way.”
Hadrian crossed his arms.
“Why don’t we all settle down and have a look at those files the Prime Minister mentioned,” Forest suggested.
“That sounds like a good plan.” Kurt nodded. He’d folded his hands in front of him and kept his gaze straight ahead. That, and the furrow in his brow, told Santana that his brain was at work.
Which was good, because so was hers. They would have to meet up later to confer with each other and Forest.
***
There was a crowd forming around the jets as they let Kurt, Santana, Andre, and Forest climb back down to the city. Kurt took a deep breath, trying to gather himself, and let Forest direct everyone to gather in the commons boat.
The tension began to diminish as the jets flew away. Kurt was grateful, above all, that the United Peoples had promised them time to talk this over with their people, but he suspected, and Santana did as well, they were unlikely to be left in peace. For all their bravado and claims of power, when they’d gone to the quarters set up for them, Santana rattled off a list of details that suggested the United Peoples were pretty well off, or their upper strata were. But clearly, they had their own problems. Problems they might want the Western Wave to fix for them.
“We have a lot of matters to discuss,” Kurt began as he saw Finn and Van entering with their brood.
“Daddy!”
Kurt was momentarily disoriented seeing Pippa sprinting toward him. Blaine came strolling behind her, a warm smile on his lips, his eyes twinkling with excitement.
He should be smiling. Kurt should be smiling right now, to see his family, to hold his daughter who he’d been missing desperately, as he usually did if he had to be separated from her for any length of time.
Shifting between Daddy and The General would have been easier if this was a stage performance. But it was his life.
Luckily, the people liked to see Kurt scoop his daughter into his arms, so he did and gave her a tight hug. This was not the time or place for children, this discussion. They didn’t need to hear some of the details he was about to give.
“Did you and Papa do anything fun while I was gone?” Kurt asked in a chirrupy voice.
“We made up another song! And I played pirates with Chris and Noah, and um...” She twisted her fingers, grinning down at him from where he held her aloft. “Um, I drew some pictures, and practiced with Van.”
‘Practice’ was training. Age appropriate training for their little ones to develop good hand-eye coordinate for when it came time to learn how to shoot and kill.
“That sounds great, sweetheart.” He kissed both of her cheeks. “Look, this meeting is going to be for the adults.” He ran his fingers through her curls. “Okay, sweetheart? Let’s get you set up with your cousins and friends.”
“I can look out for them,” Saffire offered.
Her training had been a little more intense. Starting with Santana, but eventually, each of their best fighters had a hand in her training. And now, the little scrap of a terrified girl he had met when Pippa was still cooking, had grown into a strong, tall bud of a woman.
A young woman who knew well that you only left the young ones with someone who had the capacity to protect them.
She reached for Pippa, who drew in a big breath and pushed her lips out, clinging to Kurt.
“Peanut, just for a little while, okay?” Kurt said gently. The twins had already circled around Saffire’s long legs. “Just a little while longer.”
“Noooo, pleaaaaase,” she wailed.
Kurt let out a sigh. Blaine slipped his arms around her.
“I’ll come with you, baby,” he offered.
“No, we need you here,” Kurt urged.
Blaine looked to him with a frown.
“If this could wait...” he explained.
Blaine nodded and turned toward Saffire, who had now taken baby Burt and had the others around her. “Let’s get you guys settled in another room, huh?” He rubbed Pippa’s back and let her huff.
Kurt mouthed a thank you to them both and leaned against the stage at the front of the ship’s ballroom. Their community meeting area. And though his father approached, Kurt waited to speak until Blaine had returned and everyone had settled.
Then he spoke. He told about the base, the General’s interest in how they’d dealt with the Wastelanders, the meeting with the Prime Minister, and the intel sharing afterward. Their numbers, their resources, and their defenses.
“They weren’t upfront about everything,” Forest added as Kurt paused from the long debriefing.
“They don’t seem like they get along well with others,” Santana added. “Survivor groups are a threat in their minds. They think of us like... wild animals. They don’t respect Kurt as our leader. And reading between the lines, they’re not all vaccinated. They weaseled around this point too much for it to not to be an issue.”
“So they could have an outbreak at any time,” Van said.
“Sounds like we’re in better shape than them,” Burt said bluntly.
“They have more security, in some ways,” Kurt replied. “Not that we haven’t done well so far, but...”
There was some anxious murmuring among the people.
“So that’s it? We’re moving?” Finn asked. “Just getting the idea out there. Is that where we’re heading?”
The people grew quiet, listening for Kurt’s answer. He flickered his eyes over to Santana.
“Maybe. They don’t spend a lot of their resources looking out this way. It might be possible to slip out of their grasp.”
“The Lucky Farmers?” Nick asked. Rafe leaned against him, looking between his face and the front of the room.
“Maybe. But we only have a week. They may be watching us. It’s a risk to try to get away,” Kurt stated, crossing his arms and rolling his tongue around in his cheek.
“Sounds like it would be a risk to go with them!” Rafe said. Murmurs returned. “What? If they haven’t vaccinated everyone, why should we join them until they get their shit together?”
Carol chuckled, followed by a few others.
Kurt nodded slowly. “This is a big decision. For all of us. I put these details to you so you can all understand what we’re up against. All things being equal, it would be best if we all went together, wherever we go. Like anything other choice we’ve made, we don’t have any certainty about which path will allow us safety and good quality of life. I mean, Axel did not think that we were ever going to make it out here.”
A few soft laughs.
“We can’t know the right choice. But we have to make one.”
Kurt quieted, letting people talk amongst themselves for a little bit. This was a big change, but not one that they hadn’t expected him to come back with, and he was fairly sure they would go with whatever decision he made.
He was less than inclined to join these people. The more he learned about them, the less faith he had that their people would ever be treated equally.
“I’ll give you some time to speak your minds,” Kurt said. “As is, I’m thinking we should move in-land, see if we can clear out a new home for ourselves. We could settle in nearer to the Lucky Farmers, disappear off the UP’s radar. They said they don’t sweep this area often, and they definitely don’t sweep it closely.”
He motioned forward to the crowd. The faces of their community looked back at him, some frightened, some pensive, and some strangely calm. He supposed they trusted their move would go well. They were nothing if not a hardy little group.
“We should go,” Blaine’s voice said firmly over the murmurs. He looked Kurt in the eye seriously.
All eyes went to Blaine, and Kurt moved to take his hand.
“You think so?”
“I...” Blaine looked down, then to Kurt, then to the people. “I had a dream the night you left with General Hadrian.”
The room went silent.
“This isn’t a matter of survival. If we go with them, we’ll survive. We’ll be settled into predesignated housing. It’ll be different. We’ve been out of civilization for years, and it will be strange going to live on some other group’s terms. We’ll have to adjust again.”
“We are, however, fabulous at that,” Rafe said. “Probably better than other survivors out this way.”
“That’s why there aren’t that many,” Nick added.
“We’ll live there peacefully for a few years, at least,” Blaine continued. He took a breath. “We survive. Either way. We might lose some more here, especially if we get sick. There, they won’t kill us. Even if they turn, they won’t turn us. But if we don’t go...” He took a squeezed Kurt’s hand tightly. “This is the end. Not for us, but for people. We’ll die off eventually. Their settlement won’t last. I know that for sure. I knew, in the dream...”
He paused a long moment, then lifted his head and spoke in a slow, deliberate voice: “They aren’t the ones who are gonna be saving us.”
***
Santana moved her fingers over the back of Tianna’s neck. Her girl turned her head, causing a curl of pink to fall into her eyes. No one dyed wild streaks into their hair anymore. No one wore glitter, or jewelry and shirts meant for children. But Tianna did. She remained remarkably unchanged over the years, and there was something so powerful in that. She’d killed. Many, in fact. Some by accident, like with the gas, and many for her own survival. Sometimes, Santana had gathered, she’d used her benign exterior as a weapon in itself. Who would think much of a little girl wearing pigtails and sparkles?
Only someone destined to survive Tianna.
When Santana had met her, she’d only just begun grieving Brittany, and she’d grieved, much, much longer than Brittany would have wanted her to. But Santana couldn’t force her heart to recover, not for years.
What she and Tianna had came about slowly. It had snuck up on Santana. They started by composing songs together, and Tianna listening to her stories, and complaints. They helped train Saffire together and come up with training exercises for Pippa, too. Bringing up their little ones.
Eventually Tianna started spilling about her own life as the fuck-up middle child of the Perfect Andersons, and that had taken just long enough for Santana to realize she was listening more than telling. But the funny thing was that Santana was quite sure that the “fuck-up” of the family was certainly the strongest and the brightest. Tianna was, very literally, frighteningly brilliant.
“What? Did I miss something?”
They’d only been sharing quarters for about a month, though they’d spent the night in one another’s boats often enough before moving that people knew where to look for the other. Santana dipped her head to kiss Tianna’s forehead and caress the whips of hair spilling from her hastily done pigtails.
Then she took her hand, and began to give her all of the details about their trip. Kurt had told Santana bluntly that he wasn’t willing to risk Tianna’s brains out there on missions, so she never went scouting, but they had plenty for her to do here, to keep her busy, and to create better and better defenses in conjunction with a few of their ex military citizens. All the same, Santana had argued back that Tianna should be kept in the loop on everything they knew.
So she began to unload all the details she’d been noticing the entire trip, while Tianna listened.
“They think of us the way the Lucky Farmers did, at first,” Tianna mused, when Santana stopped speaking.
“How’s that? You think their general has a crush on Kurt, the way Axel did?”
“He probably still does, but no. I meant... They think of us as helpless kids, maybe as dangerous, but the fact remains that they have gaps in their security. Kurt showed me some of the documents that they gave him to look over.” She shrugged. “People may have needed to hear Blaine ‘foreseeing’ it to believe, but we didn’t really need a vision to know that together, our group has successfully survived every challenge, even if it was at a cost. And we’ve improved the survival chances of every group we came into contact with that was friendly.”
Santana nodded, slowly.
“What is it? You don’t like this idea, but you’ve not given me any reason to think we’re in danger.”
“Not we. You.” Santana slipped her arms around Tianna’s tiny waist. “I think they want to figure out how you used the blue gas. I think they want to use it as a weapon.”
“Well, wouldn’t that be a wise decision, strategically,” Tianna muttered.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“I created it. Did they ask for it?” She looked over her shoulder at Santana.
“They asked a lot about the details of what happened. Kurt pretty much told them that they wouldn’t get your name unless they decided to work with us and we trusted them.”
“I’m a bargaining chip?” Tianna pushed her lower lip out and frowned. “The gas didn’t even work right. I mean, it wasn’t supposed to remain lethal for as long as it did.”
“That’s a small problem, if it actually does the killing it’s supposed to.”
“Maybe.”
Santana kissed her temple. “Just don’t go spilling who you are to anyone, okay? Not until we’re sure what they want you for. I overheard some talk about moving us to the capitol after ‘quarantine.’ Isn’t that the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard? They’re the ones who don’t have 100% vaccination, but we’re being quarantined.”
“That probably has more to do with keeping an eye on us and watching our behaviors, than about the spread of disease,” Tianna said.
“If they take you somewhere crazy to work on mad science, I want to go with you.”
Tianna giggled. “Okay, sure. You can come on the mad science field trips. Make sure I don’t create anything else that could destroy what’s left of the world.”
***
Blaine watched Kurt cradling Pippa and singing to her. The lines of his body seemed softer, his voice high and sweet. Her stress of the last few days evaporated with his attention.
If this move gave Kurt the freedom to just be Daddy more often, Blaine would be grateful. Though frankly, he suspected that at first it would be the opposite, and then...
Bumblebee?
He waited until Kurt’s song was over, and he could see Pippa’s body moving ever so slightly as she breathed in and out, deep in slumber.
Blaine crept back in. He’d given her his kisses first, then let Kurt have some alone time with his girl. Now he slipped to her other side and cuddled up close enough to pull her body over his lap and snuggle against Kurt. She didn’t wake. Kurt smiled at him and gave him a kiss.
“This could mean an almost normal life for her,” Kurt said very quietly, petting her soft curls.
Blaine looked up.
“They have schools. People. People not struggling every moment to survive. She could make a life. Grow up. Have dreams beyond just surviving.”
Blaine nodded, though he wasn’t sure if Kurt could see him.
“I’m a little frightened of the idea... All those people. Trusting outsiders with our children’s survival,” Kurt admitted.
“It’ll work, Kurt.” Blaine frowned slightly, unsure if he should make the pitch to Kurt again. Then he remember something. A detail that he hadn’t wanted to share with the whole group. “That wasn’t all I dreamed.”
Kurt’s eyes were on him in a second, almost alarmed.
“It was good. The way dreams work... When you’re in them, you know things. That’s how I know about the place we’re going. I know that you felt safe there, and we made choices because you decided we would be fine.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you,” Kurt muttered. “I do. You’ve always been right. It’s these people. They’re political in a way we’re not. I don’t trust them.”
“You’ll trust something. When the time comes... Maybe in a year, or so...” Blaine struggled to find the words. It just wasn’t fair to have this knowledge and not share it with Kurt. He moved his hand over to Kurt’s flat abdomen and thought about their cramped apartment, the fleur-de-lis on the walls....
Kurt met his eye before he could speak, having intuited his meaning before the words came to him. And there was nothing but sternness and panic there.
“Are you sure?” Kurt looked down, touching Pippa’s shoulder to be sure he hadn’t disturbed her sleep with the severity of his tone. “Blaine, are you sure this was a real vision?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t tell you, if it was just a dream. You said a second ago that you believed me. What changed?”
“It’s just... This sounds less like a warning and more like what we want to happen.”
We want. The words released the stress from Blaine’s shoulders. For a moment, Kurt’s intensity had seemed as though he had changed his mind about another child.
“I don’t know, either. But it’s what I saw. And she was healthy. You looked healthy. Contented. Not afraid at all,” Blaine explained. “So I know, when the time comes, it’ll be because your fears have been settled, and you’ve decided this place is safe for us to have another child while protecting the one we have.”
Kurt’s face remained conflicted, but he leaned forward to give Blaine another kiss anyway. He sighed and let his head rest against the wall. Blaine draped against him. For a little while there was silence, or as much silence against the sound of the ocean they ever had.
As Blaine watched Kurt’s face, which looked down at Pippa every once and a while, it slowly grew less stern, and more wistful. His hand curled over his stomach, fingers pulling on the fabric of his shirt, as he thought about the possibility.
Blaine reached over and touched his hand. Kurt looked at him, seeming almost apologetic, but Blaine just smiled, kissed him, and rested his head on Kurt’s shoulder.
“We’ll be here for you, when you’re ready,” Blaine whispered.
“I want it, Blaine. I do. But I have an entire culture of people to look out for right now. And I’m... I’m not a man without blood on his hands. I don’t know when I’d be capable-”
“Notice how I’m not putting pressure on you, or a timeline. When you’re ready will be the right time. Let this be the one thing you don’t have to worry about.”
“But something to look forward to.” Kurt sighed and squeezed Blaine’s hand.
Title: Deference
Summary: Kurt and his entourage get more information about the United Peoples on their base, and the people come to a decision about their future.
The city had disappeared into the distance. Faded away. And suddenly, their small world exploded.
Kurt blinked at the vast expanse of the ocean. His heart raced witlessly in his chest.
“Funny to see the world look so normal from above, isn’t it?” General Hadrian said.
“Not really,” Kurt replied. “I’ve never actually been in a plane before.”
“Really?” The shock in his voice was almost amusing.
“I’m just a small town girl, general,” Kurt replied, dryly, his gaze still glued to the ocean’s horizon. “Livin’ in a lonely world.”
Hadrian raised a brow and studied Kurt. He’d periodically given him that look, uncertain what to make of this young man who claimed to be king of the boat people. “You’re something else,” he stated after a long moment.
“Is that why you wanted me alone? To see exactly what I am? The others weren’t overjoyed for me to fly by myself. They weren’t entirely supportive of even letting you know that I’m the leader.”
“I’ve gathered as much. I can see the younger two as your body guards, and the old man, Forest, tactics, yes?”
“Forest isn’t that old. He’s my dad’s age. He’s not really tactics; he’s just... smart. Andre is our vet, though. He’s good with tactics as any of us.”
“So young,” the General murmured. “Amazing that your people were able to be so effective.”
Kurt scrunched up his nose and leaned in as though confiding in the man. “When I tell you that life moves fast out here, you have to believe me. We’re a community. The only thing slowing us down is our own limitations. No need to wait for that perfect future moment. We can only be sure of the day we’re living.”
“That wasn’t what I was wondering about.”
“I know what you were wondering about.” Kurt crossed his legs at the knee and looked out the window once more.
“Your group took out the Wastelanders.”
“They’d attacked us a couple of times. Or tried. When they abducted me, that was the last straw.” Kurt declined to tell this man the rest of the story.
What they’d done to him while he’d been captive. How he’d escaped, despite his injuries, and then set off all their ammunitions, leaving all but a few stragglers who’d been outside the compound to burn, burn, burn.
“You’ll find few arguing on their behalf. When our soldiers set down in that area four years back, they killed every last one... Eventually.”
“That’s how they are. Were.” Kurt drew in a slow breath.
The image of their last leader’s greasy face pressing close to his own popped into Kurt’s mind, along with the feeling of a sharp blade pressed to his neck and a hard cock against his thigh.
“Are you alright, son?”
“Better than I have any right to be.” Kurt hugged his elbows and arched a brow sharply. “How far is this base? I’d like to be home to put my little girl to bed.”
“Not far. When we take you back to the capitol, it’ll be a bit of a trip.” Hadrian started looking at Kurt that way again. Possibly at the ‘little girl’ comment. “Let us take the lead, when we contact the prime minister, won’t you?”
“Us?”
“Military.”
Kurt lifted his chin and sucked in his cheeks.
“Does that hurt your pride?”
“It makes me wonder how much you’re going to be looking out for our interests.” Kurt narrowed his eyes. “And I wonder how you never found us before.”
“We don’t generally scan the coast for signs of civilization. Our concerns are more along the lines of quelling immediate threats to the union. Brazen lunatics, caches of nuclear weapons-”
“Bioengineered toxic gas that causes the brain to explode.”
Hadrian looked at him sharply.
“For example. A lot of dangers out there.” Kurt pinched his lips together. “So how big is this union? What about other countries?”
“The borders have changed. The United Peoples come from the UK, Europe and parts of Africa. The island was the easiest to clear, so that area is somewhat populated, and we have some areas in Europe.” Hadrian looked off to the side and nodded. “We have several hundred thousand in all.”
Kurt’s brows shot up. “I-I can’t believe that. That many people. Alive.”
He swallowed. Fear tingled along his skin for the first time in a long time.
“It’s not much. The eastern hold in Neo Tokyo has fewer, though their numbers may be bolstered when they can muster up the strength to seek out survivors in Asia.” He looked to Kurt. “We would have helped them, but our resources haven’t allowed for it yet.”
Kurt wasn’t going to argue with the man’s priorities. No one was going to find survivors if they weren’t looking for them. “Will we be going into any of those densely populated areas? What do you plan to do with our people?”
“That will be up to the prime minister and senate. If we’re lucky, we could take your settlement and give you homes on the island. I’m sure our media would be delighted to hear your stories.”
“And if we’d prefer to stay in our city?”
Hadrian frowned down at him. “Why ever would you want to do that? In the UP you would have comfort, medical care. You would be safe from the infected.”
“That’s what they said about the refugee centers,” Kurt replied in a flat, quiet voice.
Hadrian said nothing for a moment. “Let us take the lead. This will be the first they’ve heard of you, but it won’t be the final discussion.”
Kurt turned his head to look out at the water again. He could see the base out in the ocean. It had to have been placed there to keep an eye on North America.
“What caused this? Do you know?” Kurt asked suddenly. “I mean all of this. The first outbreak in the midwest?”
“No one stepped forward to take responsibility. There were a few groups suspected, of course, but none definitively charged with the crimes. As far as we know, it was at first simply a terrorist attack on America, maybe even domestic terrorism given the locations targeted. A few planes infected, sent to inland areas. But it couldn’t be contained.” Hadrian’s thick brows furrowed. “I’d imagine whoever is responsible has long paid for their crimes.”
“Not enough,” Kurt pronounced, letting venom drip from his words. “Never enough.”
The general was looking at him again, but Kurt focused his gaze on the fast approaching military base.
***
The four sat on cots in the medical bay, awaiting a pronouncement from the medical staff. This was the first stop once they’d touched down. Just a blur of the facility and then into the infirmary.
Kurt bowed his head over and pinched the bridge of his nose. This would be what it was like for all of their members, every single one. And for those who had suffered during processing back in Toronto, it would not be a pretty transition. He wondered if he could prepare them somehow.
Blaine in particular would not enjoy being shuffled through a medical facility.
“Are you all right?” a young man asked.
“I’m fine.”
“We don’t have the kind of medical scanning equipment to give you a better check up, but-”
“There’s nothing wrong with me, kid.”
Kurt looked up at him and realized that the man who he was mentally slotting as ‘kid’ had to be nearing his thirties. Forest chuckled just out of his line of vision. Santana bobbed her head from side to side, smirking wickedly.
“You’re annoying,” she said. “We’re fine.”
A tall woman came by, looking at her chart. “Are you? Could I get a look at that eye?”
Kurt creased his brow slightly and stilled his breathing. She looked up, thick, black curls bobbing around her face.
He missed Pippa.
“No,” he said.
She tilted her head to the side. “We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to help.”
“We’ve all heard that one before,” Andre scoffed. But he gave her a charming smile and winked.
She leaned forward and blinked at him in disbelief.
“Ignore him. It’s hard to be a straight man in a boatopolis full of married women and queers,” Santana said.
That caused the woman to laugh. She put her hand on her hip and looked at Andre. “I’m Lieutenant Crowley. We’re trying to scan you blood work as quickly as possible so that you lot can have a look around the base before we the soldiers have their little meeting with the Prime Minister and the senate.”
Andre nodded.
“Do you suppose your people could be persuaded to allow a check up?” she asked.
Andre puffed his cheeks out and blew air through his lips. “I’ve no friggin’ idea.” He touched his fist to his chest and threw a peace sign. “Hey, my people. You want a check-”
“Shut up.” Santana glared at him. He just chuckled.
Crowley raised a brow curiously. Suddenly, Andre, Santana, and Forest were all looking at Kurt. Kurt stared at the floor and shrugged.
“It’s up to you. They probably have better medical treatment here than we’ve been able to get since Mama Chang died.”
“You should let them look at your eye,” Forest said.
Kurt had to turn his head sharply to give Forest a sufficiently exasperated look.
“I know the Wastelanders didn’t do it any favors. You’ve been favoring your right side for some time now.”
“That was over a year ago,” Kurt said.
“If there’s anythin’ to be done about it,” Forest said with a shrug, “you’re a better shot with two eyes than one.”
Kurt sighed, then took off his glasses and looked at Crowley.
“What happened?” She stepped over to one of the cabinets and started looking for supplies.
“I got some walker juice in it, and the medical team decided to try to clean it in a moving vehicle while I was hallucinating from the vaccine,” Kurt said with a bitter smile. “It was scratched, and they did minor surgery on it.”
She turned and frowned until the sentence made sense, then returned to what she’d been doing.
“Then not so long ago... I was... beaten. I don’t know what caused it to start to lose vision again. I don’t remember enough.” Kurt wasn’t interested in telling the whole story in front of people who had to listen to his orders every day. Though Santana was leaning forward intently.
“I’m sorry to hear that. It’s rough out there.” Crowley returned with a small flashlight.
“It’s hell,” Kurt said flatly.
She drew in a slow breath, then pulled up a stool in front of him and shone the light into his eye. “This may hurt.”
“I’m used to it.” His eye flinched.
“What’s wrong?” Santana asked.
“A corneal abrasion. Some scarring... That would obscure your vision. I can’t tell... Well, we’ll have better optical equipment back at the capitol. They’ll be able to have a surgery to keep you from losing more visual acuity... They could also probably do a transplant, if and when an extra cornea is available,” Crowley said. “But they wouldn’t offer such a thing until after you’d obtained citizenship for a least a year.”
“That’s fine.”
Crowley sat back. “You don’t trust us. What do you think we’re going to do with you?”
Kurt leaned back onto his palms. “I haven’t decided yet. When was the last time you took in a group of survivors?”
“The base?”
“No. The United Peoples.”
“Some have been taken in... not that many groups since the government formed. So several years, at least. But what does it matter?”
Kurt scanned her face. A soldier entered the room, nodded to Crowley, then turned to Andre.
“Sir, General Hadrian has gotten word from Prime Minister Delphit. He will assemble the senate and contact us in three hours.”
“Whadda ya expect me to do about it?” Andre asked.
The soldier opened his mouth to speak, then closed in and looked to Crowley.
“Don’t look at me.”
“I... That’s Hadrian’s message,” he said with a nod. He turned and left the infirmary.
“I must be looking extra authoritative today,” Andre said jauntily. He and Santana exchanged a knowing glance.
Crowley smiled softly. She continued to check over the others carefully, but didn’t again attempt to press Kurt for conversation. She seemed more interest in chatting with Andre.
And unlike most of the others who had approached them, it seemed to be less out of deference than of interest.
Santana raised a brow and smirked at Kurt.
***
In some ways, Blaine was glad that he’d taken a step back once they’d built the city. Kurt seemed to think of him as the second in command, and of course that was because in their little family, he was Kurt’s second, always there for their peanut. Blaine knew better though. The people respected him, but they didn’t look to him as a leader. Sort of funny, because for all the little things, he was seen as a community organizer... not unlike how easily he’d slipped into an unofficial leadership role with the Warblers back in the day. But acting as frontman for some teenage boys for a couple of hours every week wasn’t the same as running a small country. Not at all.
He was glad to have Kurt’s faith in him. And Blaine directed what he had towards their family, but he had no inclination to take over anything, unless circumstances got so dire that there were no leaders to be had anywhere. When the Wastelanders had kidnapped Kurt, people hadn’t been able to count on Blaine. He knew that, and they remembered that. He’d been distraught, and lost, and trying to hold on if only for his little girl who had spent many hours crying for her daddy. And even when he was at his best, and Kurt was around, he knew there was something lurking beneath his consciousness, a threat to keeping the sane person his baby girl depended on most.
Thus, now that Kurt and the others had gone off to talk with the leaders of this military group, the people looked once again to the older Hummel. They were approaching Burt for news. He didn’t have any, of course, but he knew how to lead a meeting, and calm folks down.
“Where’s daddy?” Pippa pleaded, tugging on Blaine’s pant leg.
Blaine lifted her up and carried her across the deck. “I told you, sweetie. He’s off talking to some people who might have a new place for us to live.”
“I don’t wanna live anywhere else. I like it at home,” she said with a pout.
“I know.” He rubbed her back and spotted Nick tending the garden. “Let’s go say hi to Uncle Nick, hm?”
Pippa looked over her shoulder, her curls bouncing with every step.
“Hey!” Nick grinned up at them. “How’s our princess?”
“Uncle Nick, have you seen daddy?” she asked.
Blaine sighed. He really wished Kurt hadn’t left this time. At the same time, however... he completely believed Kurt would be coming back. Or rather, he knew that he would, even if it was something he shouldn’t be able to know.
“No, sweetpea.” Nick stood and brushed his hands off on his pants. “I haven’t seen him since he went off with the soldiermens, but you know my memory.” He knocked on the side of his head. “Let’s look.”
Blaine smiled and let Nick pick her up and run around the boat, looking in corners and around the garden and under blankets. Soon he had her giggling again.
He came back, breathless. “Sorry. Didn’t see him. He’ll probably be back in a few days.”
“Okay.” Pippa looked down.
“Thank you,” Blaine mouthed.
Nick set her down and petted her curls. “He’ll be back, Pip. Don’t worry.”
“He was gone a really long tiiiime,” she replied, looking up.
Of course, she was still scared from the last time he’d disappeared.
“Honey.” Blaine crouched down in front of her and rubbed her back. “Your daddy is coming back. I know this for a fact. Remember when I told everyone there would be a storm a few years ago, and we were able to move the city enough to avoid it?”
“Because papa had a dream,” she said, curling her fingers around her shirt.
“Right. Papa had a dream. And I had a dream last night, so I know that your daddy is gonna come back, and we’re all gonna go somewhere else to live, and we’ll be safe for years. I know.” He hugged her and rocked her from side to side. “Papa wouldn’t lie to you. Daddy’s gonna be okay.”
Pippa nodded and put her hands on the sides of his face. She liked to feel it when he grew whiskers. He kissed her nose, and she giggled.
He rose and saw Nick staring at him seriously. He leaned his head forward and whispered, “Did you really dream that?”
Blaine nodded, and Nick’s eyes went round. Blaine pressed a finger to his lips as he took Pippa’s hand. There was a chance Nick wouldn’t remember what he’d been told. His ability to commit new information to memory had remained inconsistent, but Blaine didn’t want people talking about a move until it was closer to reality.
So community organizer Blaine did his rounds, taking his little girl with him. The people saw her, skipping along and now calm, and they became likewise. Meanwhile, Blaine’s chest ached as he thought about Kurt out there in the unknown. Being sure that he would come back didn’t mean he couldn’t come back to him damaged.
Blaine stood in the doorway and his eyes went immediately to their bed where Kurt lay, shirt hanging loose from his body. His neck was stitched up and covered with fresh gauze, as was part of his chest. Kurt stared at the ceiling, like he could see the sky through it. His right eye was still nearly swollen closed, though, and his glasses were off, sitting idle on the nightstand.
The purple and blue on the side of his lips highlighted his slack lips like a colored gloss. Blaine went to his side. Kurt barely responded, until Blaine touched his fingertips, and then he revived, imploring Blaine with one bright blue eye.
“Never again,” Blaine promised. He couldn’t promise, but he promised. He kissed the least bruised side of Kurt’s mouth and rose to straddle Kurt’s body, touching him so, so carefully.
His mind was filled with the image of their daughter’s tears, first when Kurt had disappeared, then when he had returned looking like a fresh walker. Utterly battered, beaten, and burned by the sun, good eye wild and angry. But walkers didn’t come out to the Western Wave anymore.
Blaine’s fingers ghosted over Kurt’s cheek, his thumb caressed the apple, he brushed his lips over Kurt’s. No words were exchanged as they slowly reacquainted themselves, slow and gentle touches. Then Blaine’s hands moved down to slip off Kurt’s pants. He needed to be closer.
“No!” Kurt suddenly pulled back, forcefully enough to cause Blaine to reach out, trying to steady him. “No, no.”
Blaine stared in confusion at Kurt’s shaking head. His shaking shoulders.
“No,” he whispered once more.
“I heard. Kurt, it’s okay. I love you. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.”
Kurt head hung for a moment. Blaine remained frozen, mentally reading all the words that were unspoken between those no’s. His cheeks grew wet.
When Kurt had come back to them that morning, so bedraggled, so bloodied, Blaine had barely recognized him. But there he’d been. A raw, frightening creature speeding towards the city in a motorboat. Several had rush to the edge of the city, pointing their weapons in defense against whatever it was.
But it was Kurt. He’d come back to them. They’d searched for him for days without a clue where to go. They’d even sent people out to the Lucky Farmers for information with no results.
He’d slowed his boat when he got closer, not flinching in the slightest at the weapons threatening him. Then looked up, his hair falling away from his abused face, and gave a little wave.
Blaine thought about asking what had happened. Kurt lifted his eye briefly, then curled over onto his side and was still.
“Can we just... Could you...” Kurt rasped, thanks to the injury at his throat. “Just hold me?”
Blaine moved slowly to comply, wrapping his arms gently around his wounded husband, kissing the back of his neck carefully, and hoping Kurt could find some peace.
“Whatever happened,” he whispered some time later, into the silence and Kurt’s deep breathing. “I still love you.”
He almost jumped as Kurt spoke again.
“I killed them. I killed them all.”
“Papa?”
Blaine squeezed Pippa’s little hand. “C’mon, peanut. Let’s get you to school.”
***
Santana followed close by Kurt’s side. Forest and Andre flanked them, as Hadrain and his officers showed them around the facility. It wasn’t interesting. What was interesting was how the men, and increasingly Hadrian himself who knew better, kept addressing Andre out of all of them.
Once Andre corrected a soldier, saying that he was not the leader at all. They then turned to Forest. Santana smiled and nudged Kurt’s shoulder. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. As per usual when the people around them failed to notice him, Kurt took the opportunity to take in every detail of their surroundings.
It was clear that the soldiers had never seen outsiders before. The way they looked at Santana also told her that they didn’t see much tail out this way, either.
After the tour, they were directed to a large room with a round table and sat around it as all the members began speaking about the prospects of a new settlement, and what steps could be taken to ensure the safety of the civilians if these refugees were taken in.
Their group was markedly quiet during these discussions, but Santana knew that they were all listening carefully, and she was mentally cataloging details about each of the officers.
After some time, a call came in from the Prime Minister, and they could see both him and a number of men and women surrounding him. He was an older man, which seemed strange to Santana these days, who had a long face and a prominent nose and snow white hair combed over to the side. His mustache and beard were the same color, though trimmed short. Staring at him, she noticed the yellow on his fingers, and presumed him to be a smoker. Stupid, in times when you could die from so many other things, and maybe not get the medical care you needed. Then again, maybe he could. Though not fat, they all seemed well fed enough. All with rosy cheeks, those who had white people complexions, and no teeth lost from malnutrition. The soldiers had seemed healthy, but the senate and Prime Minister were leading easy lives.
Santana grew anxious for the first time as the Prime Minister began speaking to the military men about what to do about this newly found group, and one of the senate members spoke to voice the opinion that all North American survivors should be put down as a matter of course.
“The lot of them are just mad, General. They’ve gone feral. There’s not much use to be had out of them,” the man said.
Santana felt her muscles tightening and was about to leap up to tell this suit to go fuck himself when Kurt’s large hand was covering her own. His eyes remained on the screen, but the message was clearly received.
“That is completely barbaric, Oswald,” a large man with a deep voice and deep African accent said.
“Every survivor they’ve found out that way has been ruthless and dangerous,” Oswald argued.
“You were of the same position about my people,” the second man said, “and you were likewise wrong. We cannot simple go about killing all the living. Our numbers are not great enough to do so, especially now. Our clear goal should be to find a means of integrating this group in with our own.”
A broad-faced redhead raised her hand cautiously. “Ngugi, I agree with you, in principle. But we can’t just drop them down in the bleedin’ city. They’ve been out there in the wild for too long. Your settlement had only just formed, protecting itself from the hordes, and dealing with the lack of resources to properly vaccinate. But the Americas are different, yeah? They’ve been gone to us for years. Those people are wild.”
“This group may have had something to do with the destruction of the eastern pack that took out our people,” Hadrian offered. “Prime Minister, I think that they have similar fears to us.”
“Of course, we are not going to blow this group up. That is absolutely ridiculous,” the Prime Minister boomed. “Hadrian. You reported already that they don’t have nuclear capacity.”
“No, sir. Their weapons are entirely suited to defending their city from anyone who might try to attack them. They are a number of families, and children. I can’t believe they would come after us. They are much different from the others we’ve found, and it seems extremely unlikely that they would bother to develop a weapon of mass destruction.”
Santana suddenly felt herself missing Tianna.
“Then I see no reason not to proceed with an integration plan,” the Prime Minister replied.
“Prime Minister, I am responsible for these people,” Kurt said suddenly, in a voice both clear and quite low for him.
Hadrian looked at him sharply, but Kurt didn’t turn his head from the screen. He was staring down the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister was now staring back. Clearly, he didn’t know what to make of this child speaking to him.
Santana crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. Andre mimicked her posture. Forest just watched, calmly.
“Before we move forward in any discussions of relocating our people from our city which has kept us safe for four years, I will need to see layouts of your cities, the precautions being taken at the borders, and what your plans are for escape during the event of invasion by the infected or, potentially, living hostiles,” Kurt stated firmly, with one brow raised. The officers around the table grew uneasy, but though some seemed annoyed, a few were listening closely. They’d seen pictures of their city, and probably had taken in the precautions their people had laid in place to keep them safe.
“Do you have appropriate security structures in place?” Kurt continued. “Enough tactical coverage for your inhabited areas? A 100% vaccinated population? Scientists working on alternative means of defense and other tests to see what will happen years down the road to the infected and the vaccinated? Do you have any psychics on hand who can see when danger that you cannot handle is coming towards your population?”
The Prime Minister tilted his head to the side, and his lips curved slightly. “Psychics?”
“We have that,” Santana interrupted.
“Well,” Andre said looking at her. “Just the one guy, but he’s never been wrong.”
“And you have a psychic, and scientists working on all the aforementioned items?” the
Prime Minister prodded.
“They may have information on who created the neuro gas found in Canada,” Hadrian said cautiously.
Santana looked at Kurt anxiously.
“That wasn’t supposed to be released,” Kurt said. “And yes, we have her.” He leaned forward. “The base where she was staying was attacked, and the man they left behind panicked and released the gas. We took her into our group. Accidents happen. We’re sorry if that caused you to lose people.”
The Prime Minister’s eyes bore into Kurt as he took a long pause, weighing that information. “We would very much like to meet the woman who could create something like that.”
“We would like to join you,” Kurt said with a measured cheerfulness. “But we need some reassurance.” Kurt narrowed his eyes slowly. “We stopped looking to be rescued a long time ago, Prime Minister. So we learned to rely on ourselves.”
“You’re saying that your people would prefer to remain living... in a boat.”
Oswald seemed to be holding back laughter.
“It’s not just a boat,” Santana objected.
Forest touched her shoulder. “It’s a haven we created for ourselves. An’ it may not be the most permanent of places, but nothing so far has been so permanent. Even what you’ve got... everything’s temporary. I think what we really need is some more dialogue about what it would mean for us to join you.”
“We have no secrets... Mr...?”
“I’m Forest Jackson,” he replied with a nod. “This one here with the squeaky voice-”
Kurt looked at him with a raised brow and half a smile.
“Has led us through thick and thin. Kurt Hummel. He looks young, I know, but you know, or y’should, how seasoned soldiers are at that age. Got the face of a baby and a soul of an old man,” Forest said.
“Hm.” The Prime Minister rubbed his fingers over his lips. “We need to discuss this further. General Hadrian. Give them whatever information you have available.”
When the feed cut out, Hadrian looked to them like he’d bit a lemon.
“Oh, don’t give me that,” Santana said. “You people approached us, landed on our turf uninvited, and are making all of these decisions without even asking what we want. We’re not stranded baby animals. We didn’t ask for your help.”
“We have the power here,” Hadrian said gruffly.
“Yeah. You got some. But we’ve got things you want,” Andre said. “We’ve got the genius behind the neuro gas, we’ve got a group that’s survived in ways they never thought possible, and we’ve got him.”
He pointed to Kurt.
“I’d be a little more comfortable if the old man had actually looked like he respected our leader when he was raisin’ some really serious points.”
“That’s not important-” Kurt began to say, lifting a hand.
“It’s gonna be important if we’re going to get our people to willingly go anywhere,” Santana snapped, still eyeing Hadrian. “Or, y’know, if you want our little genius, who happens to be Kurt’s sister-in-law and my girlfriend, to trust you in any way.”
Hadrian crossed his arms.
“Why don’t we all settle down and have a look at those files the Prime Minister mentioned,” Forest suggested.
“That sounds like a good plan.” Kurt nodded. He’d folded his hands in front of him and kept his gaze straight ahead. That, and the furrow in his brow, told Santana that his brain was at work.
Which was good, because so was hers. They would have to meet up later to confer with each other and Forest.
***
There was a crowd forming around the jets as they let Kurt, Santana, Andre, and Forest climb back down to the city. Kurt took a deep breath, trying to gather himself, and let Forest direct everyone to gather in the commons boat.
The tension began to diminish as the jets flew away. Kurt was grateful, above all, that the United Peoples had promised them time to talk this over with their people, but he suspected, and Santana did as well, they were unlikely to be left in peace. For all their bravado and claims of power, when they’d gone to the quarters set up for them, Santana rattled off a list of details that suggested the United Peoples were pretty well off, or their upper strata were. But clearly, they had their own problems. Problems they might want the Western Wave to fix for them.
“We have a lot of matters to discuss,” Kurt began as he saw Finn and Van entering with their brood.
“Daddy!”
Kurt was momentarily disoriented seeing Pippa sprinting toward him. Blaine came strolling behind her, a warm smile on his lips, his eyes twinkling with excitement.
He should be smiling. Kurt should be smiling right now, to see his family, to hold his daughter who he’d been missing desperately, as he usually did if he had to be separated from her for any length of time.
Shifting between Daddy and The General would have been easier if this was a stage performance. But it was his life.
Luckily, the people liked to see Kurt scoop his daughter into his arms, so he did and gave her a tight hug. This was not the time or place for children, this discussion. They didn’t need to hear some of the details he was about to give.
“Did you and Papa do anything fun while I was gone?” Kurt asked in a chirrupy voice.
“We made up another song! And I played pirates with Chris and Noah, and um...” She twisted her fingers, grinning down at him from where he held her aloft. “Um, I drew some pictures, and practiced with Van.”
‘Practice’ was training. Age appropriate training for their little ones to develop good hand-eye coordinate for when it came time to learn how to shoot and kill.
“That sounds great, sweetheart.” He kissed both of her cheeks. “Look, this meeting is going to be for the adults.” He ran his fingers through her curls. “Okay, sweetheart? Let’s get you set up with your cousins and friends.”
“I can look out for them,” Saffire offered.
Her training had been a little more intense. Starting with Santana, but eventually, each of their best fighters had a hand in her training. And now, the little scrap of a terrified girl he had met when Pippa was still cooking, had grown into a strong, tall bud of a woman.
A young woman who knew well that you only left the young ones with someone who had the capacity to protect them.
She reached for Pippa, who drew in a big breath and pushed her lips out, clinging to Kurt.
“Peanut, just for a little while, okay?” Kurt said gently. The twins had already circled around Saffire’s long legs. “Just a little while longer.”
“Noooo, pleaaaaase,” she wailed.
Kurt let out a sigh. Blaine slipped his arms around her.
“I’ll come with you, baby,” he offered.
“No, we need you here,” Kurt urged.
Blaine looked to him with a frown.
“If this could wait...” he explained.
Blaine nodded and turned toward Saffire, who had now taken baby Burt and had the others around her. “Let’s get you guys settled in another room, huh?” He rubbed Pippa’s back and let her huff.
Kurt mouthed a thank you to them both and leaned against the stage at the front of the ship’s ballroom. Their community meeting area. And though his father approached, Kurt waited to speak until Blaine had returned and everyone had settled.
Then he spoke. He told about the base, the General’s interest in how they’d dealt with the Wastelanders, the meeting with the Prime Minister, and the intel sharing afterward. Their numbers, their resources, and their defenses.
“They weren’t upfront about everything,” Forest added as Kurt paused from the long debriefing.
“They don’t seem like they get along well with others,” Santana added. “Survivor groups are a threat in their minds. They think of us like... wild animals. They don’t respect Kurt as our leader. And reading between the lines, they’re not all vaccinated. They weaseled around this point too much for it to not to be an issue.”
“So they could have an outbreak at any time,” Van said.
“Sounds like we’re in better shape than them,” Burt said bluntly.
“They have more security, in some ways,” Kurt replied. “Not that we haven’t done well so far, but...”
There was some anxious murmuring among the people.
“So that’s it? We’re moving?” Finn asked. “Just getting the idea out there. Is that where we’re heading?”
The people grew quiet, listening for Kurt’s answer. He flickered his eyes over to Santana.
“Maybe. They don’t spend a lot of their resources looking out this way. It might be possible to slip out of their grasp.”
“The Lucky Farmers?” Nick asked. Rafe leaned against him, looking between his face and the front of the room.
“Maybe. But we only have a week. They may be watching us. It’s a risk to try to get away,” Kurt stated, crossing his arms and rolling his tongue around in his cheek.
“Sounds like it would be a risk to go with them!” Rafe said. Murmurs returned. “What? If they haven’t vaccinated everyone, why should we join them until they get their shit together?”
Carol chuckled, followed by a few others.
Kurt nodded slowly. “This is a big decision. For all of us. I put these details to you so you can all understand what we’re up against. All things being equal, it would be best if we all went together, wherever we go. Like anything other choice we’ve made, we don’t have any certainty about which path will allow us safety and good quality of life. I mean, Axel did not think that we were ever going to make it out here.”
A few soft laughs.
“We can’t know the right choice. But we have to make one.”
Kurt quieted, letting people talk amongst themselves for a little bit. This was a big change, but not one that they hadn’t expected him to come back with, and he was fairly sure they would go with whatever decision he made.
He was less than inclined to join these people. The more he learned about them, the less faith he had that their people would ever be treated equally.
“I’ll give you some time to speak your minds,” Kurt said. “As is, I’m thinking we should move in-land, see if we can clear out a new home for ourselves. We could settle in nearer to the Lucky Farmers, disappear off the UP’s radar. They said they don’t sweep this area often, and they definitely don’t sweep it closely.”
He motioned forward to the crowd. The faces of their community looked back at him, some frightened, some pensive, and some strangely calm. He supposed they trusted their move would go well. They were nothing if not a hardy little group.
“We should go,” Blaine’s voice said firmly over the murmurs. He looked Kurt in the eye seriously.
All eyes went to Blaine, and Kurt moved to take his hand.
“You think so?”
“I...” Blaine looked down, then to Kurt, then to the people. “I had a dream the night you left with General Hadrian.”
The room went silent.
“This isn’t a matter of survival. If we go with them, we’ll survive. We’ll be settled into predesignated housing. It’ll be different. We’ve been out of civilization for years, and it will be strange going to live on some other group’s terms. We’ll have to adjust again.”
“We are, however, fabulous at that,” Rafe said. “Probably better than other survivors out this way.”
“That’s why there aren’t that many,” Nick added.
“We’ll live there peacefully for a few years, at least,” Blaine continued. He took a breath. “We survive. Either way. We might lose some more here, especially if we get sick. There, they won’t kill us. Even if they turn, they won’t turn us. But if we don’t go...” He took a squeezed Kurt’s hand tightly. “This is the end. Not for us, but for people. We’ll die off eventually. Their settlement won’t last. I know that for sure. I knew, in the dream...”
He paused a long moment, then lifted his head and spoke in a slow, deliberate voice: “They aren’t the ones who are gonna be saving us.”
***
Santana moved her fingers over the back of Tianna’s neck. Her girl turned her head, causing a curl of pink to fall into her eyes. No one dyed wild streaks into their hair anymore. No one wore glitter, or jewelry and shirts meant for children. But Tianna did. She remained remarkably unchanged over the years, and there was something so powerful in that. She’d killed. Many, in fact. Some by accident, like with the gas, and many for her own survival. Sometimes, Santana had gathered, she’d used her benign exterior as a weapon in itself. Who would think much of a little girl wearing pigtails and sparkles?
Only someone destined to survive Tianna.
When Santana had met her, she’d only just begun grieving Brittany, and she’d grieved, much, much longer than Brittany would have wanted her to. But Santana couldn’t force her heart to recover, not for years.
What she and Tianna had came about slowly. It had snuck up on Santana. They started by composing songs together, and Tianna listening to her stories, and complaints. They helped train Saffire together and come up with training exercises for Pippa, too. Bringing up their little ones.
Eventually Tianna started spilling about her own life as the fuck-up middle child of the Perfect Andersons, and that had taken just long enough for Santana to realize she was listening more than telling. But the funny thing was that Santana was quite sure that the “fuck-up” of the family was certainly the strongest and the brightest. Tianna was, very literally, frighteningly brilliant.
“What? Did I miss something?”
They’d only been sharing quarters for about a month, though they’d spent the night in one another’s boats often enough before moving that people knew where to look for the other. Santana dipped her head to kiss Tianna’s forehead and caress the whips of hair spilling from her hastily done pigtails.
Then she took her hand, and began to give her all of the details about their trip. Kurt had told Santana bluntly that he wasn’t willing to risk Tianna’s brains out there on missions, so she never went scouting, but they had plenty for her to do here, to keep her busy, and to create better and better defenses in conjunction with a few of their ex military citizens. All the same, Santana had argued back that Tianna should be kept in the loop on everything they knew.
So she began to unload all the details she’d been noticing the entire trip, while Tianna listened.
“They think of us the way the Lucky Farmers did, at first,” Tianna mused, when Santana stopped speaking.
“How’s that? You think their general has a crush on Kurt, the way Axel did?”
“He probably still does, but no. I meant... They think of us as helpless kids, maybe as dangerous, but the fact remains that they have gaps in their security. Kurt showed me some of the documents that they gave him to look over.” She shrugged. “People may have needed to hear Blaine ‘foreseeing’ it to believe, but we didn’t really need a vision to know that together, our group has successfully survived every challenge, even if it was at a cost. And we’ve improved the survival chances of every group we came into contact with that was friendly.”
Santana nodded, slowly.
“What is it? You don’t like this idea, but you’ve not given me any reason to think we’re in danger.”
“Not we. You.” Santana slipped her arms around Tianna’s tiny waist. “I think they want to figure out how you used the blue gas. I think they want to use it as a weapon.”
“Well, wouldn’t that be a wise decision, strategically,” Tianna muttered.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“I created it. Did they ask for it?” She looked over her shoulder at Santana.
“They asked a lot about the details of what happened. Kurt pretty much told them that they wouldn’t get your name unless they decided to work with us and we trusted them.”
“I’m a bargaining chip?” Tianna pushed her lower lip out and frowned. “The gas didn’t even work right. I mean, it wasn’t supposed to remain lethal for as long as it did.”
“That’s a small problem, if it actually does the killing it’s supposed to.”
“Maybe.”
Santana kissed her temple. “Just don’t go spilling who you are to anyone, okay? Not until we’re sure what they want you for. I overheard some talk about moving us to the capitol after ‘quarantine.’ Isn’t that the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard? They’re the ones who don’t have 100% vaccination, but we’re being quarantined.”
“That probably has more to do with keeping an eye on us and watching our behaviors, than about the spread of disease,” Tianna said.
“If they take you somewhere crazy to work on mad science, I want to go with you.”
Tianna giggled. “Okay, sure. You can come on the mad science field trips. Make sure I don’t create anything else that could destroy what’s left of the world.”
***
Blaine watched Kurt cradling Pippa and singing to her. The lines of his body seemed softer, his voice high and sweet. Her stress of the last few days evaporated with his attention.
If this move gave Kurt the freedom to just be Daddy more often, Blaine would be grateful. Though frankly, he suspected that at first it would be the opposite, and then...
Bumblebee?
He waited until Kurt’s song was over, and he could see Pippa’s body moving ever so slightly as she breathed in and out, deep in slumber.
Blaine crept back in. He’d given her his kisses first, then let Kurt have some alone time with his girl. Now he slipped to her other side and cuddled up close enough to pull her body over his lap and snuggle against Kurt. She didn’t wake. Kurt smiled at him and gave him a kiss.
“This could mean an almost normal life for her,” Kurt said very quietly, petting her soft curls.
Blaine looked up.
“They have schools. People. People not struggling every moment to survive. She could make a life. Grow up. Have dreams beyond just surviving.”
Blaine nodded, though he wasn’t sure if Kurt could see him.
“I’m a little frightened of the idea... All those people. Trusting outsiders with our children’s survival,” Kurt admitted.
“It’ll work, Kurt.” Blaine frowned slightly, unsure if he should make the pitch to Kurt again. Then he remember something. A detail that he hadn’t wanted to share with the whole group. “That wasn’t all I dreamed.”
Kurt’s eyes were on him in a second, almost alarmed.
“It was good. The way dreams work... When you’re in them, you know things. That’s how I know about the place we’re going. I know that you felt safe there, and we made choices because you decided we would be fine.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you,” Kurt muttered. “I do. You’ve always been right. It’s these people. They’re political in a way we’re not. I don’t trust them.”
“You’ll trust something. When the time comes... Maybe in a year, or so...” Blaine struggled to find the words. It just wasn’t fair to have this knowledge and not share it with Kurt. He moved his hand over to Kurt’s flat abdomen and thought about their cramped apartment, the fleur-de-lis on the walls....
Kurt met his eye before he could speak, having intuited his meaning before the words came to him. And there was nothing but sternness and panic there.
“Are you sure?” Kurt looked down, touching Pippa’s shoulder to be sure he hadn’t disturbed her sleep with the severity of his tone. “Blaine, are you sure this was a real vision?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t tell you, if it was just a dream. You said a second ago that you believed me. What changed?”
“It’s just... This sounds less like a warning and more like what we want to happen.”
We want. The words released the stress from Blaine’s shoulders. For a moment, Kurt’s intensity had seemed as though he had changed his mind about another child.
“I don’t know, either. But it’s what I saw. And she was healthy. You looked healthy. Contented. Not afraid at all,” Blaine explained. “So I know, when the time comes, it’ll be because your fears have been settled, and you’ve decided this place is safe for us to have another child while protecting the one we have.”
Kurt’s face remained conflicted, but he leaned forward to give Blaine another kiss anyway. He sighed and let his head rest against the wall. Blaine draped against him. For a little while there was silence, or as much silence against the sound of the ocean they ever had.
As Blaine watched Kurt’s face, which looked down at Pippa every once and a while, it slowly grew less stern, and more wistful. His hand curled over his stomach, fingers pulling on the fabric of his shirt, as he thought about the possibility.
Blaine reached over and touched his hand. Kurt looked at him, seeming almost apologetic, but Blaine just smiled, kissed him, and rested his head on Kurt’s shoulder.
“We’ll be here for you, when you’re ready,” Blaine whispered.
“I want it, Blaine. I do. But I have an entire culture of people to look out for right now. And I’m... I’m not a man without blood on his hands. I don’t know when I’d be capable-”
“Notice how I’m not putting pressure on you, or a timeline. When you’re ready will be the right time. Let this be the one thing you don’t have to worry about.”
“But something to look forward to.” Kurt sighed and squeezed Blaine’s hand.