Kurt followed blindly after Jeff, Nick and Santana. Britt was walking with him and holding his hand tightly.

“I really missed you, Kurtsie,” She pointed out, “Even though I’m sure they’d all lie and say they didn’t, I know that everyone else missed you, too.”

Kurt smiled at her and tightened his grip on her hand. “I missed you guys, as well.”

“Then why did you stop coming? Hatter waited for you every day. Why did you leave us?”

Kurt felt his heart break at the pleading tone in Brittney’s voice. He’d never heard anyone sound so sad… or so childlike then she did in that moment. “I’m sorry, Britt. I just… everyone has to grow up, right? When we reach a certain age you have to forget your imaginary friends.”

Brittney stopped dead, causing his arm to be pulled back. He noticed that the three in front of them had stopped too. Jeff and Nick hung their heads and their shoulders fell; even Santana looked upset. Kurt realized that that was not the right thing to say to her.

“But we’re not imaginary, right Santana?”

The Latina turned around and smiled softly at Brittney. She took two large strides and pulled the girl into her arms, rubbing soothing circles on her arm. “No sweetie, you’re not.” She whispered, though she was glaring at Kurt the whole time. “Nice one, Lady Face.”

“You just can’t accept us anymore, can you?” Jeff said quietly. He and Nick still had their backs to him.

“I don’t know how to. When I was little… it was dreams. Or I thought it was… or… I don’t know!” Kurt sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know how this… how you guys—how Blaine could be real.”

“Well we are.” Nick said sadly.

“And the only way this is going to work is if you believe that.” Jeff said.

“Look, I want all of this to be real. You don’t know how badly I longed to come here when I was little. You don’t know how much I love you all. I don’t have anyone in my “real” life. Well, I’ve got Mercedes but… When I was little I was happy when I was here. I didn’t feel like a freak because I’m gay. You guys accepted me without question and it’s just… too good to be true. I don’t know how such wonderful people can even exist.” Kurt wrapped his arms around his waist and hung his head. “I’m not used to being liked or accepted; this just seems like the ideal place for me to make up.”

Suddenly, he was being hugged by Brittney. “Kurtsie we are real. We accept you and we love you because you’re our friend.”

“I’m sorry.” Kurt whispered while trying to hold back his tears. “I’m sorry, I must seem so pathetic.”

Jeff and Nick walked over and pulled him into their arms. “You’re not. You’re just... confused.”

“Lets keep walking, okay? We need to get to the castle before dark if our plan is going to work.” Santana was trying to look menacing, but she had the faintest hint of a smile on her lips, and her eyes were soft.

Kurt nodded and grabbed Brittney’s hand again as they started back up on their path like nothing had happened.

“It hasn’t changed.” Kurt observed when they reached the moat of the castle, the outer wall blocking their view of the gardens that Kurt knew were there. The castle itself towered over them, its dark shadow adding to the already tense air.

            “Are the flowers still being painted red?” Kurt asked out of no where. Jeff and Nick snorted and Santana rolled her eyes.

“That issue was resolved. No more gardeners made that mistake, though it didn’t stop them from getting their heads hacked off.”

Kurt shuttered at the thought. He remembered how vicious the Queen was to her subjects, and then there was her poor fiancé. He was a bit thick to say the least. Obviously clueless to what was truly going on. Kurt still suspected the Queen had some sort of spell over him, the way he drooled over her and followed her every wish. How the Red Queen and the White Queen came from the same family would always be a mystery to Kurt. Wait, the White Queen!

“What happened to Rachel?” Kurt asked as they set up camp in the trees to wait for it to get dark.

Jeff and Nick’s faces fell and Britt looked like she was on the verge of tears. It was Santana who finally answered. Her voice was like venom, with the amount of hatred she put in it. “She was foolish and fell for the Knave. He was working for the Red Queen still and led the poor girl on. They’ve trapped her in the Barren Lands.”

“Why would she trust Jesse?” Kurt shook his head glumly. “We have to help her. As soon as we find Hatter we have to get her back. No one will be happy until it’s the White Queen on the thrown again.”

“Remember when we were friends with Quinny, ‘Tana?” Brittney asked out of no where.

“Yeah, Britt. I do. Back when she thought she was with child.” Santana snorted, “What a pathetic attempt at gaining sympathy. Too bad her stomach never grew.”

“Wait… what?”

“Oh, that was while you were gone Kurtsie.” Jeff said simply.

“Poor Finn though.” Nick said with a shrug.

“He deserves so much better than her.”

“Yeah, she’s a cheating bitch.”

Kurt was a bit shocked to hear Jeff and Nick talking so rudely about someone, even if that someone deserved every word of it. He continued to listen silently to their conversation as he followed them along; just trying to catch up on everything he’d missed. Apparently Quinn had cheated on Finn with someone named Puck, who was dating Rachel who cheated on him with Finn. Kurt felt like he was back in high school.

“Guys? Hate to interrupt this little… nostalgia trip, but we really need to get going. We have to find Blaine, get him out of the castle, get to Rachel, save her and somehow get rid of the Queen Bitch.”

“For once, I agree with fairy.” Santana said with a grimace. “But how do you plan on getting in? Even if you do look different enough that they wont recognize you, you can’t just waltz in.”

“I… er…” Kurt realized that he had no idea what he was going to do, and that frightened him. He was so used to his scheduled, normal, uneventful and completely unsurprising life in New York. Not knowing what was lurking around the corner was frightening, and not knowing if Blaine would be okay… Kurt’s heart clenched painfully at the simple thought of loosing him.

“Well, we could…” Jeff trailed off, obviously unsure as well.

They sat in silence for a good five minutes before Brittney spoke up. “Why doesn’t he just go down to a small size again? Then he can crawl under one of the holes in the wall. We can throw his clothes and a piece of mushroom over for when he gets to the other side.”

Everyone stared at Brittney for a minute, shocked at the girl’s suggestion. The only suggestion. And it would work.

“Brittney, that’s brilliant.” Jeff said.

“Where did that even come from?” Nick asked.

“I’m smart. You guys just don’t bother to listen to me.”

Ten minutes later found Kurt on the other side of the wall. Jeff, Nick, Santana and Brittney were all waiting eagerly near the gates of the castle, knowing that when I did find Blaine, it would end in us simply running. There would be no stealthy escapes. My plan was simply to find him and go.

Once he was dressed again and ready to go, he tried to blend in. Kurt held his head high as he walked and made sure to seem like he belonged. He nodded at the cards and noblemen he passed as if he did so everyday, and succeeded on getting into the castle before he realized he had no idea where Blaine would be. Kurt assumed he was being held in the dungeons, but how did he get there? And how was he supposed to get in when he got there?

“Looking for something?” Kurt jumped at the sound of a male voice. He spun on his heals to find himself face-to-face with a mo-hawked boy.

Kurt tried to keep his voice steady and superior as he spoke, “I’m just headed to the dungeons. I have some business regarding the Hatter.”

The man looked at him sceptically for a moment, and Kurt felt his heartbeat quicken. He was about to screw it all and just run when the man spoke again. “Would you like an escort, sir?”

Kurt nodded and took the arm that was offered to him. He briefly wondered who the man was, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. It didn’t matter; he was being led to Blaine.

Just as they were rounding another corner, another guard appeared. Kurt recognized him immediately as one of the harsher ‘cards’; Karofsky.

“Who’s this, Puckerman? Got a boy toy?” He asked, barking with laughter.

“No, I’m escorting him to the dungeons. Now get out of my way Karofsky.”

“This guy, the dungeons? He’s too much of a girl to hurt a fly. What they hell’d he do to end up down there?”

“Not like that, dipshit. He’s got business down there with one of the prisoners.”

“Oh, got a crush does he?”

“Just fuck off, okay?” Puck said, stepping slightly in front of Kurt, “Go suck up to the Queen or something.”

Karofsky grimaced, but spun on his heel and turned, Kurt let out a breath of air he didn’t know he was holding. “Thank you, er…”

“Noah Puckerman.”

“Thank you, Noah.”

“For what?” Puck asked, and Kurt remembered that he wasn’t supposed to know who that was; he wasn’t supposed to have been here before.

“Just… er, for not letting him make fun of me.” Kurt squeaked out, his voice getting higher as he spoke.

“No problem, Kurt.”

Kurt stopped dead. “How do you know my name? I didn’t tell you my name.”

“You’ve been here before.” Puck shrugged.

Kurt immediately moved into a defensive position.

“Relax; I’m not taking you to the Queen. Bitch deserves whatever comes to her.” Kurt looked at him sceptically. “I’m sure you heard of the baby scare? Yeah, she blamed that shit on me. Finn nearly chopped my head off.”

“Why do you continue to fight for her, then?” Kurt asked.

“Well, I’m not really helping her right now, am I?” He raised an eyebrow, obviously referring to the fact he was leading Kurt straight to Blaine, and Kurt was suddenly sure that Puck would help him get Blaine out, too.

“Plus, Blaine’s not in the dungeon. The Queen knew that you’d be asked for help and moved him so that we could catch you when you inevitably came to save him.”

“Wait, how did she know I’d come?”

“She knows how you feel about each other.”

“Feel about each other? Blaine and I are just friends.” Kurt sputtered, though the blush that painted his cheeks told Puck otherwise.

“Whatever, we should probably get moving.”

“Y-yeah, okay.”

Puck led Kurt up through the castle’s multiple winding staircases. After a while Kurt assumed that Blaine was being kept in one of the four towers in the castle, and by the amount of stairs they were going up it seemed to be the tallest of the four. Nothing was said between the two aside from Puck telling Kurt to stop, or go into a closet to avoid being seen.

When the finally reached the top Kurt found a single blue door. Puck didn’t have to tell him that this was it, he knew; he could feel it. Kurt placed a hand on the gold doorknob, but froze before he could turn it. What would he find on the other side of that door? Would it be the Blaine that he knew, or would it be some hollow shell of a person, driven insane by the amount of time he had to wait in this tower?

Kurt suddenly felt terrible about how long it took him to return. What if he was too late?

“Kurt, you need to go now.” Puck whispered.

Kurt closed his eyes and took a deep breath, pushing the door open. He opened his eyes slowly and they immediately landed on Blaine, sitting on a stool near the tiny window and looking more or less the same as he was before; if not a bit more mature and handsome.

Blaine was looking at him too, and Kurt could see the emotions pass over him; from shock, to confusion, to realization and then finally disbelief. “…Kurt?”

The sound of his voice snapped Kurt out of his thoughts; he threw himself forward and into Blaine’s arms. The feel of his strong arms tightening around Kurt’s waist was so wonderful, so familiar that Kurt started to cry. He didn’t quite understand why, but he did. He didn’t cry quietly, either. He just let everything out, sobbing into Blaine’s shoulder.

“Ssh, Kurt, it’s okay.” Blaine whispered into his ear as he stroked his hair.

“B-Blaine, I—Oh my god, I missed you so much.”

“You too, Kurt. I missed you, too.”

“And then everyone started… they started telling me that you were in danger and… oh god, I thought something terrible had happened and now…”

“I’m okay, I’m fine. It’s okay.” Blaine said, still trying to calm him, “Please don’t cry, Kurt. I don’t like it when you cry.”

There was a cough from the doorway, and then Kurt was being pushed behind Blaine, who looked ready to fight. “No! No, Blaine, Noah helped me find you. He’s good.”

Blaine seemed to relax a bit, but he continued to glare. “Kurt, you guys gotta go. When word gets out you’ve gone to find Blaine, which knowing Karofsky it already is getting out, you don’t have a lot of time.”

Kurt nodded and turned to Blaine, biting his lip. When Blaine held out his hand, Kurt took it gratefully. It was time to run.