Epilogue

May 2020

By Order of The Crown of America, The Royal Family of Virginia

The Palace announces that His Majesty King Blaine Devon James of Virginia has become engaged to Mr. Kurt Elijah Hummel of Lima, Ohio. The nuptials will take in the Palace Rose Gardens on September 5th in the presence of family and friends of the couple. For press accreditation for the royal wedding please contact press secretary Emma Pillsbury. Be advised though that His Majesty and his fiancé plan an intimate ceremony so only a limited number of press will be admitted.

“It sounds so impersonal when you read it like this,” Kurt frowns, his head resting on Blaine’s naked chest as he reads their announcement on his iPad, his engagement ring catching the rays of light making their way through the cracks in the hastily drawn curtains. After Blaine’s proposal the previous night, they’d stumbled into bed together, drunk on love and expensive champagne. He’d come home to his Upper Westside apartment after another grueling rehearsal for his newest show, a new musical about a young man who returns home for the funeral of his childhood best friend for the first time in ten years after having run away from home at age 16, which leads to dealing with a past he’d thought he’d left behind a long time ago. Blaine was there, the dinning room table lit with candles and laden with an assortment of sushi from Kurt’s favorite Japanese restaurant. Blaine’s guards were outside his front door and in the guest room, so they had the illusion of being alone, and when the King went down on one knee after a delicious dinner, Kurt had cried ‘yes’ before Blaine had even asked the question. Luckily, Blaine was asking to marry him and moments later, a beautiful silver ring was on his finger and the King popped a bottle of champagne. They celebrated their engagement then and there with plenty of champagne after Blaine texted Sue and Emma that Kurt had said yes and that the Palace could release their engagement announcement.

That night, Kurt didn’t care that they were loud and that Blaine’s guards could probably hear them while he rode the King’s dick, his bed squeaking and their moans producing a cacophony of sound in Kurt’s small bedroom. He’d come with Blaine’s name on his lips and the King had chanted his like a prayer before he had followed. Kurt had the presence of mind to clean them up with a wet washcloth before they went to sleep, so this morning they can just relax in bed and watch the internet explode without having to leave the bed because they are sticky and disgusting.

“Since our wedding will be televised it can’t be too intimate either,” Blaine apologizes, but Kurt knows this. After all, he’s been dating Blaine for nearly four year now - one year with the Crown Prince and three years with the King.

“I know, I know. No personalized wedding vows, no exuberant kissing and no crying if at all possible,” he recites Sue’s instructions.

He’s got a long list of dos and don’ts for all parts of his life including future engagement, wedding and children - like he’ll get one personal guard when he’s married, but if he’ll be out with Blaine’s children he’ll get extra security. But only with children that are biologically Blaine’s. If they have a child that’s biologically Kurt’s, he won’t get extra security because that child isn’t a potential heir. Blaine’s been working on a law that would style Cooper’s children Lady and Lord and would award the same title to Kurt’s child if he can get parliament on board which is unlikely at the moment though since Prime Minister Grey was reelected in 2017 for another four years.

“If you’d like, we could exchange our own vows in private after the ceremony,” Blaine suggests and Kurt lifts his head from the King’s chest to kiss him softly.

“I’d love that.”

He knows that the wedding will be planned by a wedding planner who has experience with royal weddings even though theirs will be quite different since it will be the first official royal wedding not taking place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. They are only getting married civilly since the bishops are refusing to make an exception for the King and marry them in Church because they don’t want to set a precedent and a church wedding would entitle Kurt to a royal title. Kurt doesn’t need a title, but it would put him on more equal footing with Blaine if he got styled Earl which is customary for non titled men properly marrying into the immediate royal family. 

So they will be married in the Palace Gardens instead of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, by a justice of the peace instead of by the archbishop, which Kurt doesn’t mind at all, because they attended the church wedding of Sam and Mercedes the previous year and all the prayers and promises to the church weren’t his cup of tea anyway. He’d have done it for Blaine if they could have had a ‘proper’ royal wedding because perception is important to Blaine and Kurt knows he’s not 100% happy about not getting married in Church. 

A trade agreement with Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, which had been ready to be signed when Blaine took the throne, had been abruptly withdrawn and many middle Eastern Kingdoms had withdrawn their ambassadors in protest after the videos of Kurt and Blaine kissing on stage ended up on the evening news. On the upside, Blaine had bolstered relationships with European nations weary of America because of its conservatism and it’s clinging to capital punishment which had been abolished in all European King- and Queendoms in the last century. Blaine hadn’t been able to abolish the death penalty yet because he didn’t have enough support in parliament, but many foreign kingdoms saw an openly gay man as the reigning monarch of America as a sign that the United States were becoming more liberal and would place greater emphasis on civil rights for all its citizens and commit less human rights violations than under King Richard and his predecessors.

They stay in bed till noon and after another round of celebratory sex in the shower, Liam drives them upstate so they can go riding together at the club which has become their Sunday tradition. For Kurt’s twenty-fifth birthday the previous year, Blaine had surprised him with a beautiful chestnut Hanoverian named Allegro so he wouldn’t have to ride the school horses anymore. Since he could only ride Allegro once a week himself, he had arranged it with a center for troubled youths in the neighboring village that during the week, the teenagers could come to the club where they would learn how to care for and ride Allegro.

But Sundays are reserved for Kurt and the King, Blaine riding his black Arabian Calypso followed by Puck and Sam on horses, and Jake and Ryder on foot, walking Blaine’s Golden Retrievers Harry and Sally. Kurt’s not exactly a dog person but when Blaine called him all excited about a year ago about the two Golden Retriever puppies up for sale, he couldn’t say no, especially because he was touched that Blaine asked him first since the dogs would be living in the Palace and Kurt wouldn’t have much interaction with them until he moved in in the distant future.

“We’ll get you a cat once you’ve moved in, one of those short hair breeds, and then we’ll just have to teach it to stay away from the historic furniture,” Blaine had said after Kurt told him to buy the puppies.

Remembering the conversation, he turns to Blaine, very comfortable in the saddle after four years on horseback.

“Am I still getting that cat, when I move in? Because nothing against Harry and Sally but I want a pet I can cuddle with when my husband is busy ruling the Kingdom,” he says with a grin as his mouth forms the word husband.

“You can have as many cats as you like Kurt,” Blaine smiles back at him. “All I care about is that soon we will finally be allowed to live together.”

Kurt moved to his own apartment the previous year after his Broadway run as ‘Puck’ was followed by a short stint on a musical comedy about a group of Juilliard students. The show was short lived - cancelled after only one season - but Kurt’s performance was routinely praised and it earned him enough money so he could rent a small two bedroom apartment in Manhattan in a building with a doorman. Blaine spent the night from time to time after another resident posted Kurt’s address on Twitter - and was promptly asked to move out by building management - since the paparazzi already knew where he lived anyway. Since every time Blaine spends the night, an article about it appears in the papers, he’s really looking forward to living with the King. Obviously not just because of the press, but not having the media report on them every time they spend the night together will be a huge plus. 

“Race you back,” Blaine challenges when the sun sets in the distance and Kurt leans forward in his saddle because he knows what it does to Blaine when he wins. It’s probably why he wins so many races, when Kurt’s been riding for four years and Blaine since he was four years old.

September 2020

“Nervous?” his dad asks when Kurt reties his bowtie again. Since Blaine is going to wear his royal uniform, Kurt has opted for a traditional black suit, white dress shirt and black bowtie. He kicked out his stylist a few minutes earlier when he insisted the tie was already perfect because it clearly isn’t.

“No, Dad, why would I be nervous? I’m only marrying the King of one of the most important countries in the world,” Kurt snarks, his hands shaking as he tries to tie the stupid thing again.

When his dad pushes his hands away, Kurt doesn’t fight him and lets his dad tie his tie. 

“You’ve been with him four years, have accompanied him to events for three and survived his family when he took you to his great grandmother’s funeral in March.”

“That was all Queen Ruth. Apparently, I won her over when I stood up to Blaine’s mom when she said I couldn’t see him during the Christmas holidays. The way Blaine tells it, his grandma doesn’t like his mom very much, because she thinks her only son could have made a better match.”

“But you’re a commoner too,” his dad points out.

“It’s not about that,” Kurt grins, feeling much better already now that his dad’s distracting him. “He could have married a beggar if it was a beggar with personality,” he imitates Queen Ruth causing his dad to burst out laughing. 

“And so the cycles continues. Blaine’s mother doesn’t get along with her mother-in-law and you and Sarah don’t get along with yours.”

“That’s not our fault,” Kurt protests. “It’s not Sarah’s fault that she’s not a rich princess and it’s not my fault I’m neither rich nor a princess.”

“Yeah, like I said, the cycle continues - she thinks you aren’t good enough for her sons - which is absolute bullshit if you ask me.”

“Dad, language,” Kurt admonishes automatically because you never know who might be listening and he doesn’t need in article in the papers about the King’s blue collar father-in-law who swears like a sailor.

His family made the papers after the royal engagement was announced, interest in his dad and Carole skyrocketing once if became clear that Kurt was actually going to marry the King. When Crown Prince Richard had married Pamela Anderson, he’d married the sole heiress of a steel empire, but King Blaine’s future father-in-law is only a mechanic. Or at least, that’s how the papers depict Burt Hummel, the fact that Kurt’s dad has his own business and was involved in local politics until recently, usually only a footnote. But the media has been nicer to Kurt since a reporter wrote an article about the poor boy who lost his mom when he was still so young and had to practically raise himself because his father spent all his time with cars. Usually, unless it’s actual lies the press is reporting, Kurt just lets them do their thing and doesn’t comment, but when an overzealous reporter hunted down the family of the woman who had hit his mother’s car and tried to get her daughter, who goes to college in New York now, to agree to an interview, Kurt drew a line and called Santana. 

Santana works at a PR company that Sue recommended when she told Kurt to get his own people because she didn’t want there to be a conflict of interest when what was best for the King wasn’t necessarily best for Kurt, and she worked for the Palace first and foremost. He and Santana had made up after his brush with death and so he didn’t protest when the firm assigned Santana to do Kurt’s PR. Who is fantastic at her job. When Kurt’s show tanked, she got a quote from one of the studio execs, unwittingly going on record saying they would have pulled the plug after the first couple of episodes if Kurt’s performance hadn’t been so highly praised and he hadn’t had such a vocal fanbase. Kurt hadn’t been too sad when the show was cancelled because the premise of the show and the pilot script had been so much better than the storylines his character got from the second episode onward. The producers had lured him in with talks of a strong gay character who wouldn’t be just a glorified sidekick and who would have interesting storylines which wouldn’t just focus on his character’s sexuality. The pilot script had seemed to deliver on those promises and he had signed on after successful screen tests in front of studio executives and multiple auditions. It all went downhill after the first episode, but Santana made sure that if people talked about the show, they talked about how talented Kurt was and how he was doing such a good job with the material he was given.

“Yes, sir,” Burt jokes and steps back to inspect his handiwork.

The bowtie is a little crooked, but Kurt leaves it as it is because his dad tied it for him and that counts for more than having a perfectly tied bowtie on his wedding day.  

It’s a beautiful day in early September. With an expected high in the low nineties, Kurt’s grateful for the gazebo set up in the rose garden under which he and Blaine will be married by the mayor of New York, Arthur - please call me Artie - Abrams in less than thirty minutes. He is getting dressed in the east wing of the Palace, his room - Cooper and Blaine’s playroom growing up - overlooking the garden and Kurt watches as the rows upon rows of white chairs decorated with bows in cobalt blue start to fill with their guests and the media.

The camera team filming the ceremony had done a run through the previous day with two stand ins while Kurt had watched from the window, thinking, ‘I wish we could do that’ when the two men under the gazebo kissed passionately. 

The front rows are reserved for family and friends, the royal family and Blaine’s friends on the right and Kurt’s family and friends on the left, then members of parliament and Prime Minister Grey - albeit reluctantly - and the reigning monarchs of Mexico and Canada and France, England, Italy and Spain before members of staff they both view as part of their family, like Sue and Emma, Puck and his girlfriend Doctor Fabray, Sam and Mercedes, Mike and Matt and Jake and Ryder. And then there are the reporters and photographers in addition to the film team broadcasting their wedding live to every household in the country that wants to see it. Emma’s admitted fifty reporters from respected American newspapers and fifty from publications from around the world with good credentials. Kurt’s seen the press accreditations and even Chandler Kiel has someone managed to get on the list. With a guest list of five hundred - including press - his wedding isn’t what he would consider intimate and small but apparently in terms of royal weddings, it’s super intimate because they are only admitting five hundred people. Five hundred people who have to go through security to even get onto Palace grounds, but their wedding obviously is a high risk event and Kurt does feel better knowing that there’s no chance of violent rightwing homophobes getting anywhere near him and Blaine. There’s nothing they can do about the ‘pro family’ protesters that show up at every event they attend together, but during his wedding, he does not want to hear people scream that he’s an abomination and will rot in hell together with the King. He’s learned to ignore the urge to shout back and show them the error of their ways, but sometimes it is hard to bite his tongue and just keep smiling for the cameras. He had perfected his show smile while he was on TV because with the material he had been given all he could do was fake smile when he had to promote the show.

A knock on the door startles him out of his revelry and Kate, the assistant wedding planner, pokes her head through the door.

“Ready to head downstairs, Kurt? Elliott and Wes are already in place.”

Kurt steps in front of the large mirror one last time and spins for the stylist who came back in with Kate. He’s wearing a small amount of makeup for the cameras but unlike Blaine, he’s used to it since he wears makeup almost daily. When everyone is satisfied with his appearance, Kurt and his dad follow Kate and Kurt’s new personal guard Lauren Zizzes downstairs. Kurt’s asked for a guard you wouldn’t immediately finger as a guard and what’s even better - he and Zizzes get along splendidly. Apparently, she briefly dated Puck a few years ago when they both started their training, but she had dumped him because he wasn’t man enough for her. She’s shown him pictures of her current boyfriend and Kurt’s eyebrows had shot up because the man looks like he could benchpress a car.

The members of his wedding party, Rachel, Santana and Dani are waiting in a sitting room closest to the rose garden with Kurt’s best man Elliott, Blaine’s best man Wes and Blaine’s groomsmen David, Nick and Jeff. They have decided that he and Blaine will walk down the aisle together, Kurt escorted by his dad and Blaine by Cooper and Kurt’s eyes light up when the doors behind him are opened again and Blaine and Cooper step into the room, both looking incredibly handsome in their royal uniforms. With Cooper is his ten year old step-daughter Lucy wearing a beautiful creme colored dress. Thirteen year old Billy decided he is too old to be their ring bearer but Lucy is very excited to be a flower girl again, swinging her basket containing the rose petals in her right hand.

“We are ready,” Joel, the wedding planner, comes in through the doors leading out into the gardens. “The Queens and Mrs. Hummel Hudson are seated and the string quartet will begin playing as soon as I give them the go ahead. Everyone ready in here too?”

As I’ll ever be, Kurt thinks while he nods.

And then Joel leaves and moments later the opening notes of Pachelbel’s Canon float through the open door and Lucy is the first to walk outside to scatter her pedals down the aisle. Rachel and David, Santana and Jeff and Dani and Nick follow before Elliott and Wes walk down the aisle together. And then it’s just Kurt, his dad, Blaine and Cooper that are left and Blaine mouthes ‘I love You’ at him before they too step outside onto a small terrace. Stairs are leading down into the garden from both sides of the terrace and while Kurt and his dad take the left, Blaine and Cooper take the right, all reuniting on the cobalt blue carpet that marks their aisle. 

Mayor Abrams is already under the large wooden gazebo, a wedding present from a famous New York sculptor, flanked left and right by the groomsmen and maids. His dad hugs him tightly before Kurt links hands with Blaine and takes the few steps up into the gazebo together with his future husband before coming to rest next to their wedding parties facing each other.

“Welcome,” Artie Abrams greets the guests. “As mayor of the great city of New York it is my honor to officiate the wedding of Kurt Hummel and His Majesty King Blaine today in this beautiful rose garden which was commissioned nearly two hundred years ago by Queen Rosalinde, the wife of one of King Blaine’s ancestors, King Francis. I would also like to welcome Queen Amelie of Canada and King Antonio of Mexico who are here today as special guests of His Majesty. Welcome to all the visitors who have flown in from Europe to be part of Kurt and King Blaine’s special day. My wife and I have met the happy couple a few years ago at a fundraiser Kathrine had organized and on the way home she turned to me and said, ‘I’d be surprised if they didn’t marry within five years. They seem to be so in love.’ We came to know them as charitable and kind people who were trying to make a relationship work against all odds and I am very happy to be here today to celebrate how far they have come as a couple. Before we move on to the vows and the exchanging of the rings, His Majesty has asked that I read this excerpt from Plato’s Symposium. So I will.

Love is our best friend, our helper, and the healer of the ills that prevent us from being

happy.

To understand the power of love, we must understand that our original human nature was

not like it is now, but different. Human beings each had two sets of arms, two sets of legs,

and two faces looking in opposite directions. There were three sexes then: one comprised

of two men called the children of the Sun, one made of two women called the children of

the Earth, and a third made of a man and a woman, called the children of the Moon. Due

to the power and might of these original humans, the Gods began to

fear that their reign might be threatened. They sought for a way to end the humans’ insolence without destroying them.

It was at this point that Zeus divided the humans in half. Each of us when separated,

having one side only, is but the indenture of a person, and we are always looking for our

other half. Those whose original nature lies with the children of the Sun are men who are

drawn to other men, those from the children of the Earth are women who love other

women, and those from the children of the Moon are men and women drawn to one

another. And when one of us meets our other half, we are lost in an amazement of love

and friendship and intimacy, and would not be out of the other's sight even for a moment.

We pass our whole lives together, desiring that we should be melted into one, to spend

our lives as one person instead of two, and so that after our death there will be one

departed soul instead of two; this is the very expression of our ancient need. And the

reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and

pursuit of the whole is called Love.

“For Kurt and King Blaine, it began with a chance encounter. It could have been a fleeting moment, but fate had other plans and thrust them back together just when they were about to part ways, possibly for good. Fate seemed to know they were each other’s missing halves and brought them back together whenever things got hard, and I assume - not having had the experience myself - that it isn’t always easy to date a King.”

Kurt laughs along with the non royal guests because all those trials and tribulations they have faced as a couple seem insignificant now that he’s about to be married. He’s also not surprised that Blaine has chosen this reading because while Blaine doesn’t believe in the God the church teaches about, his fiancé believes in fate; believes that there’s a reason why things happen. That’s why he was never as mad at Santana as Kurt was, because Blaine believed there was a reason why he’d met Kurt and by extension Santana that night.

“But they persevered and are here today to share their love with all of you and to become a family in the eyes of the law. So lets get the formalities out of the way, shall we? Are you Kurt Elijah Hummel free, lawfully, to marry His Majesty King Blaine Devon James of Virginia.”

Kurt takes a step closer to Blaine so they can hold hands.

“I am.”

“And is His Majesty King Blaine Devon James of Virginia free, lawfully, to marry Mr. Kurt Elijah Hummel?”

“I am,” Blaine smiles at him like Kurt’s his sun and his moon and his stars.

With a nod from Mayor Abrams Kurt accepts Blaine’s ring from Elliott and holds Blaine’s right hand with his as he says his wedding vows.

“I, Kurt Elijah Hummel, take you, Blaine Devon James of Virginia, to be my wedded husband. I give you this ring as a sign of our love, trust and marriage. I promise to care for you above all others, to give you my love, friendship and support, and to respect and cherish you throughout our life together.”

It’s hard not to lean in and kiss Blaine as he slides the ring on his ring finger. Then Blaine takes Kurt’s ring from Wes and holds Kurt’s hand.

“I, Blaine Devon James of Virginia, take you, Kurt Elijah Hummel, to be my wedded husband.  I give you this ring as a sign of our love, trust and marriage. I promise to care for you above all others, to give you my love, friendship and support, and to respect and cherish you throughout our life together.”

“Then by the power vested in me by the state of New York, I pronounce His Majesty King Blaine and Mr. Kurt Hummel legally married in the eyes of the law.”

He and Blaine step forward to sign their marriage certificate followed by their witnesses Elliott and Wes and then just like that they are married. 

They have a short honeymoon in Paris planned, since Kurt’s never been and Queen Michelle had extended an invitation to them to stay at Versailles with the Queen and her husband when they come to France. While they are gone, Kurt’s belongings will be moved to the Palace, his lease expiring at the end of the months, and once they are back, he and Blaine will start their life together at the Palace.

They don’t kiss after Mayor Abrams’ pronouncement since it’s tradition that the newly married royal couple shares it’s first kiss on the balcony of the Palace that looks out onto 85th street where all of Blaine’s subjects who’ve come out to see them can witness it. It will be the first time Kurt’s allowed onto the balcony and he dares a glance at Queen Pamela. Mindful of the cameras, she’s smiling at them, looking to everyone else like a mother who’s incredibly happy for her son. Kurt hasn’t been offered yet to call her by her first name unlike Queen Ruth who told him at her mother’s funeral to call her Ruth because he was basically family already. But Blaine’s mother he still has to address as Your Highness and it would very much surprise him if that changes anytime soon since she still insists on calling him Mr. Hummel.

Instead of a kiss, Blaine squeezes his hand briefly, a wide smile on his face, and Kurt’s sure he’s wearing an identical one, he’s smiling so brightly.

They pose for pictures next: one with Mayor Abrams, one with just Lucy, one with Cooper’s whole family, one with Kurt’s dad, one with Kurt’s dad and Carole, one with Kurt’s extended family, one with Queen Pamela, one with Blaine’s extended family and one of Kurt, Blaine and both their families on the terrace above the rose garden. Then Kurt and Blaine are whisked away through the Palace for their first appearance in public as a married couple and as soon as they are inside and out of sight, Blaine stops them, tells Joel to give them a moment and then he dips Kurt only to follow him down for a truly epic kiss that has Kurt gasping for air when Blaine pulls him upright again.

“I couldn’t wait,” Blaine rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, a gesture Kurt’s very familiar with these days, happening whenever Blaine forgets himself for a moment before he realizes he’s not acting very ‘kingly’ as Kurt likes to call it.

Well, Kurt can’t have that and he links his hands with Blaine’s, rubbing his thumb over Blaine’s wedding band as he leans in for a soft kiss.

“I’m glad you didn’t.”

Unfortunately, Joel clears his throat then because everyone’s waiting for them and Kurt reluctantly disentangles himself from his husband. Zizzes, who’s following behind with a pair of guards for Blaine’s protection Kurt doesn’t know, gives him a thumbs up and Kurt blushes predictably. 

It’s only thanks to his experiences on stage that he doesn’t freak out when they are outside the balcony and can hear the cheering from the crowd outside.

“His Majesty King Blaine and husband Mr. Kurt Hummel,” they are announced and when they step outside, the noise is deafening. 

If there are any protesters, their fans drown them out and Kurt copies Blaine when he waves at the crowd before Blaine puts his left hand on Kurt’s cheek, the ring cool against it, and leans in for a short and chaste kiss, much too short for Kurt’s taste, but the no PDA rule in public still applies even though they are married now and after this short wedding kiss they’re not supposed to do it again in public - or depending on who you asked, at all.

By the time they get back into the rose garden, the chairs have been cleared away and were exchanged for tables set for a formal dinner and Kurt finds his dad in conversation with Queen Ruth of all people, while Blaine’s mom observes them with a sour expression on her face. The press had to leave after the ceremony but Kurt thinks she should at least pretend to be happy for them while they still have company.

“Kurt, I was just asking your father if he knew a place where I could get a 1947 Rolls Royce fixed.”

His dad looks decidedly out of place in his three piece suit and without his ever present baseball cap talking to the King’s grandmother who was a Princess of Mississippi before her marriage to King Edward.

“I’m sure he’d like to have a go at it himself if you let him,” Kurt winks and his dad actually blushes.

“Yes Your Majesty,” Burt says, apparently having forgotten everything that Kurt taught him about titles, because there’s only one majesty and that’s Kurt’s husband.

“Call me Ruth,” the Queen offers. “We’re all family now.”

Carole’s with Cooper’s family, gushing over Lucy’s dress who’s preening under the attention and as much as Kurt would like to join them, he knows that the proper thing  to do is to go and talk to his mother-in-law first.

“Your Highness,” he says politely when he and Blaine reach her and Blaine’s mom accepts a glass of champagne Blaine’s brought over for her.

“Kurt,” she says curtly probably since they are in close proximity to Queen Amelie who called Kurt by his first name when he and Blaine greeted her on the way over. “That was different than what I expected. Very short.”

“We were advised to keep it short and not too personal since it was televised.”

“That sounds like sensible advice. I remember what a nuisance the cameras were during my wedding to your father,” Queen Pamela says, forgetting for a moment that they don’t do this - talk like normal people. “How was I supposed to enjoy it if I had to be mindful of the way I looked every moment of it.”

“You’ll learn to ignore the cameras if you’re faced with them as much as I am. That was the biggest adjustment for me when I moved from theater to TV - learning to ignore the cameras,” Kurt says.

“Yes, I heard your TV program was cancelled. I’m sorry.” If she is, she doesn’t sound too sorry.

“Actually, I was quite relieved when it was cancelled. I wasn’t too happy on the show and had been asked if I wanted to workshop a new musical.”

“So you plan to keep doing it even now? Blaine will need to have an heir soon.”

Kurt stops himself before he quips that work won’t be a problem because he won’t actually get pregnant.

“We figured we’ll cross that bridge when our first child is born. My show is premiering in a few weeks, so I can perform in it for a least a year before I’ll take time off for our child.”

“Have you already started the process?” Queen Ruth joins them. “My maid looked up how it works on the Internet.”

Blaine shares a look with him. They have started the process in the sense of tasking an agency with finding an egg donor that looks like she could be Kurt’s sister because Blaine wants their child to look like it’s related to both of them. But they haven’t actually made plans yet when to have their first child. Their only timeline is some time in the next two years once they’ve found an egg donor for the two children they plan to have with Blaine’s sperm.

“We’ve talked to an agency that is known for its discretion. They handled a lot of celebrity surrogacies in the last few years so I’m sure they’ll find the right surrogate for us as well,” Blaine tells his grandmother what they are willing to share with people at the moment.

They have another appointment with the agency director, a Paris Geller, when they come back from their honeymoon to look at potential egg donors and talk about when they want to start the process but until then, Kurt wants to enjoy his wedding day and honeymoon in the city of love, because he still isn’t sure if he’s ready for a baby any time soon since he’s only twenty-six. But he’s talked to his dad about it who told him he was scared shitless as well before Kurt was born and everything changed once he held him in his arms. Hopefully it will be the same for him and he won’t be so scared anymore when they actually have a baby. Blaine and Cooper were both raised mostly by nannies and later their tutors but Kurt doesn’t want that for his children. When they have children he wants him and Blaine to raise them on their own and only work with a nanny when they have to go out at night. It shouldn’t be a problem even if Kurt keeps performing because then he can look after the kid during the day and Blaine can take over when Kurt heads to the theater on days he doesn’t have to fly to Washington to vote on bills in parliament. 

“It doesn’t sound right to make a baby like that,” Queen Pamela wrinkles her nose in distaste.

“if you’d rather not have any grandkids biologically related to you,” Kurt says before he can stop himself. “Cooper’s not interested in having more kids, so Blaine’s your only chance.”

“Cooper’s still young, he doesn’t know what he wants yet,” Blaine’s mom shakes her head. “He’ll probably want kids in a few years.”

“He’s already got kids, Mom,” Blaine reminds Queen Pamela, keeping his voice down because no one is supposed to know about the animosities within the royal family. “You could go over to Cooper and Sarah right now and properly meet them because they’re not going anywhere. Cooper will continue bringing his family to family events just like I will include Kurt from now on because maybe in a year or so we’ll have our own family.”

Which reminds Kurt. “I hope you’re not moving out of the Palace because of me. I’m sure it’s big enough for all of us to live together.”

Not that he actually wants to live with his mother-in-law but he also doesn’t want people to think she’s moving out because he and Blaine told her to.

“Well, like you said. You might have your own family soon.”

Joel saves them then by informing them that the caterers are ready to serve dinner. They’d decided that if the weather was still nice they wanted to have the whole wedding outside, ceremony, dinner and party because Kurt had seen pictures from a Palace garden party and had fallen in love with idea. Luckily, Joel had approved too. 

Palace chef Tim has whipped up a ten course dinner served service à la russe and Kurt devours an oyster when the hors d’oeuvre are being served since he hasn’t eaten since breakfast, his stomach in knots before the wedding. Thankfully, he has Blaine as a buffer between him and Queen Pamela, focusing on his dad and Carole instead who keep looking at the international royalty present with wide eyes. The string quartet keeps playing softly while they eat and when the final plate is cleared, Blaine leads Kurt out onto the dance floor for their first dance. Wes and Elliott have given them their best men speeches the day before because they were not appropriate for a public setting and since King Richard is dead, Joel thought it best to forgo the father of the groom speeches as well. 

They share their first dance to an acoustic version of All of Me played by the string quartet hired from the New York Philharmonic and Kurt forgets the rest of the world for a moment when Blaine sings along into his ear as they slow dance. Much too soon the song is over and Kurt bows to Queen Pamela before offering her his hand while Blaine leads Carole out onto the dance floor while the musicians start Johann Strauss Jr.’s Emperor’s Waltz. As Kurt dances a traditional waltz with his mother-in-law he tells her quietly, “I’ll make him happy, I promise you.”

“It’s still not right. A King needs a Queen by his side,” Queen Pamela replies with a pleasant smile on her face.

“That ship’s sailed though. I’m all you’ll get and even if he breaks up with me in the future, he won’t replace me with a wife. I think the sooner you accept that, the sooner we can be an actual family. Blaine would never keep your grandchildren from you, but when we have kids, I want them to feel loved by all their grandparents. I don’t want them to feel like you only tolerate them to keep up appearances.”

They dance past Blaine and Carole and it’s such a striking difference; Carole laughing at something Blaine must have said and Blaine smiling brightly at her. Queen Pamela must see it too because there’s a wistful expression on her face.

“Blaine said you don’t get along too well with your mother-in-law and I don’t want that. Carole adores Blaine and I would like to be on good terms with my own mother-in-law. I don’t want to dread family Christmases, but look forward to seeing everyone.”

He’ll have to wait to find out if he’s getting through to Blaine’s mom because the song ends and he and Blaine switch dance partners.

“Your husband is so lovely, Kurt,” Carole beams when Kurt leads her through another waltz. “I’m sure your mom would have loved him.” 

“I’d like to think so too,” Kurt smiles softly.

According to his dad, his parents had known he likes boys since he was very young, so his mom probably wouldn’t have had a problem with a son-in-law. More likely she would have teased him a lot, since when he was younger, he said he wanted to marry a prince one day.

Blaine and his mom seem to be in deep conversation as they dance together, and Kurt wonders if she’s chastising her son for telling Kurt about her issues with Ruth or if maybe Kurt got through to her and she’ll be less hostile from now on. 

Once everyone joins them on the dance floor, Kurt dances with Rachel, Santana, Dani, Elliott and his dad, gravitating back to Blaine after each dance though. His husband is working his way through the Queens in attendance, but he too reserves every other dance for Kurt. The makeshift dance floor is decorated with white garlands and when the sun goes down they are lit up casting a soft glow over the dancer. Torches have been spread out over the rest of the rose garden, lighting the way between the banquet and the dance floor.

It’s nearly ten when two men in a catering uniform wheel out a four feet tall vanilla sponge cake, layered with dark chocolate mousse and consisting of nine tiers all covered in vanilla fondant. Each tier is decorated with a variety of roses, calla lilies, orchids and Blaine’s family crest. There’s no way he can ever tell his dad that their wedding cake cost nearly forty thousand dollars, when his dad had to lay off a mechanic recently because business is down. He himself has only paid for his suit, his family’s flights and their accommodations because the Palace has a separate budget for things like royal weddings, funerals and coronations and Kurt was quite relieved when he found out that Blaine’s coronation and coronation ball was even more expensive than their wedding which comes out at nearly five million dollars.

Following tradition, they cut the cake together and feed each other a piece of it before the cake is taken away again so it can be cut into proper portions for their guests. While everyone is busy with eating cake, they finally find a moment to sneak off, but not into the Palace but toward the stables, one of Blaine’s favorite places in the Palace gardens.

“Hi,” Blaine smiles, when they’re finally, blessedly, alone - or as alone as they can be with their guards hovering close by. 

Choosing to ignore them, Kurt leans in to kiss his husband softly.

“Kurt, I, I just wanted you to know that by marrying me today, you’ve made me the happiest man in the Kingdom,” the King says when the kiss ends. “I’m so glad that I met you even if I didn’t see it that way when we first did. You made me see what my life could be like if I just fought for it and how much happier a life not lived in secret would make me. I’m the luckiest man because my best friend agreed to marry me.” Then he leans in to whisper into Kurt’s ear. “It also doesn’t hurt that the sex is fantastic,” he adds with a wink and Kurt feels his cheeks heat up though he doesn’t disagree. 

Whatever their problems were in the past, the bedroom was never one of them.

“There was never another answer since you stole my heart,” Kurt assures his husband. “You know I don’t care about titles or living in the Palace, so I would have married you even if you were nothing more than a penniless sitar player. I fell hopelessly in love with you and even when I tried to move on so I could lead a simpler life, my heart wouldn’t let me since it knew who it belonged to. I…”

Whatever he wanted to add gets cut short by Blaine putting both hands on his cheeks and leaning in for a deep kiss, licking into Kurt’s mouth and sucking on his tongue until Kurt feels light-headed and grabs the King’s shoulders for support, because even after four years together, Blaine’s kisses still make him weak in the knees. 

“I wish I could take you upstairs right now,” Blaine says huskily.

“Later,” Kurt promises. “If we’re not too drunk.”

“That’s never stopped us before,” Blaine grins before he lets go off Kurt with a sigh, straightens Kurt’s tie and holds out his hand for Kurt to take because they can’t be gone too long before people will start to talk.

The Palace has arranged a fireworks display for midnight and Kurt sways in Blaine’s arms as they watch the sky light up all around them in celebration of their marriage while Elton John performs Your Song, one of Kurt’s favorite songs.  He’s under no illusion that everyone in the country will be happy for them, or will accept a King married to another man. Many have blamed King Blaine for soaring oil prices after a number of middle eastern kingdoms stopped selling their oil to America following Blaine’s ascension to the throne, but Kurt tries to see the upside - that the government was forced to invest more in renewable energy until Saudi Arabia caved when it realized it couldn’t boycott a big market like the US if it wanted to make a profit. It’s not safe for Blaine - and now Kurt too - to travel to certain regions in the world though where he would be arrested and at best only imprisoned even though he is the King of America. So no Caribbean honeymoon for them and no invitations to their wedding were issued to countries that criminalize homosexuality.

It’s nearly five in the morning when the last guests - his and Blaine’s friends - stumble off to bed and Kurt has to lean heavily on Blaine too as they make their way upstairs to the King’s quarters and Kurt’s new home. When he asks the King for help with his pants he’s not doing it to try to be sexy but because the button refuses to cooperate. Maybe he shouldn’t have had those last four glasses of Champagne, he thinks while Blaine, who seems much more sober even though they had pretty much the same amount of drinks, frees him from his pants. And then stays on his knees in front of Kurt, but Kurt has to sit down on the bed, because the room is spinning, and there’s no way way he’ll be able to stay upright if Blaine does what Kurt thinks he’s about to do.

“No,” Blaine whines. “Don’t fall asleep on me now. You promised me ‘later’.”

“I’m tired,” Kurt yawns but it turns into a moan quickly when Blaine’s wet and warm mouth engulfs him. “Jesus, Blaine. Give a guy some warning.”

Blaine pulls off long enough to ask, “want me to stop?” and to grin at Kurt triumphantly when Kurt shakes his head. 

Blaine, the bastard, knows all too well that Kurt would never say no to a blow job from his talented boyfriend, who’s his husband now which somehow makes it even better. But if they’re going to have a proper wedding night, he doesn’t just want Blaine to blow him before he passes out, so he tugs his husband’s curls to get his attention, but Blaine just moans, weakening Kurt’s resolve to do some work tonight as well.

“Blaine, stop it,” he groans, “you’re gonna make me come.”

“I thought that was the whole point. Have I been doing it wrong all those years?” Blaine teases him, looking up at Kurt through his ridiculously long lashes which always drives Kurt crazy.

Blaine’s much too coherent and dressed for Kurt’s taste so he grabs his husband by the collar of his uniform jacket, already unbuttoned because of all the dancing they’ve been doing, and yanks him up, making him stumble and fall on top of Kurt with an ‘oof’.

“Off,” Kurt paws at the jacket and thankfully his husband gets with the program quickly and strips off his uniform until he’s gloriously naked.

“You’re my husband,” Kurt smiles, because how is this his life? How is he married to this gorgeous man who for some reason chose Kurt too. 

He can feel Blaine’s erection against his hip, but the expression on his husband’s face is soft and relaxed.

“And you are mine. How did I get so lucky?”

“You haven’t gotten lucky yet,” Kurt giggles at his own joke, because ‘get lucky’, get it?

Blaine’s answer is to fully cover Kurt’s body with his and then kiss him deep and dirty before leaving a trail of hickeys from Kurt’s left collarbone all the way down to his right hip bone which has Kurt twisting in the sheets and willing himself not to come just from this. 

“Fuck, Blaine,” he gasps when Blaine takes his dick into his mouth again and then he’s a goner,  because Blaine knows how to drive him crazy.

“Do you still want me to fuck you, or are you going to fall asleep?” Blaine’s mouth is suddenly back next to Kurt’s ear and he nods sleepily because he had wedding night plans that definitely included his husband making love to him.

“I’m awake,” he promises but he must doze off right away because the next time he opens his eyes, it’s morning and his head is pounding, like it had the first morning he met Blaine. Only, he’s pretty sure he fell asleep before they had sex unless Blaine cleaned up the evidence before he went to bed as well and his husband wasn’t that sober. Blaine’s curled up next to him, his curls lose in places where Kurt grabbed them the night before if he remembers it right and as much as he’d like to continue what they started, he has to deal with the pounding in his head and the queasiness of his stomach first. Briefly he wonders, if you can do the walk of shame in your own home as he forces his aching body out of bed and puts on one of the fluffy white robes, praying that it won’t be Puck and Sam back on duty but some nameless guards he doesn’t have to see again after today.

It’s neither. “You look like shit,” Zizzes tells him, “but at least you had some fun last night.” 

Kurt pulls the robe tighter around his body when she stares at a sliver of exposed flesh that Blaine probably marked with the way his guard is grinning.

“Get me some Aspirin before I fire you,” he snarks but even though he hasn’t known her long, he’s sure she knows he doesn’t really mean it.

“Anything else?” Zizzes asks innocently. “Some cover up or a light scarf.”

What did Blaine do to him? They are scheduled to give an interview later today - their very first one - and Kurt can’t look like his husband tried to eat him, especially because it’s taken this long for Sue and Blaine’s advisers to agree to let him give an interview about his relationship with Kurt. A recent poll showed that 67% of people in the Kingdom don’t understand how Blaine can be an openly gay King and secure the line of succession to the throne, so Blaine’s told Sue he wants to give an interview together with Kurt after the wedding to explain things to his subjects and assure them that they are going to start a family soon. And then after the interview, a private jet will be waiting to take them to Paris for their honeymoon.

“Just the pills,” he tells her as he rubs his temple. “Put them on the coffee table when you have them, I’m going to check the damage.”

Blaine doesn’t stir when Kurt walks past their kingsize bed into the walk in closet and drops his robe in front of the floor length mirror, but he does sit up with a start when Kurt yells loudly, “holy shit, Blaine,” because his neck looks like he spent the night with a vampire and when did that even happen?

“Don’t yell,” Blaine rasps, clutching his own head as his eyes dart around the room until he finds Kurt. “Ow.”

“Zizzes’ getting us some Aspirin,” Kurt tells his husband as he holds up a turtleneck sweater in front of him wondering if anyone would believe him if he said, turtlenecks in summer are the new height of fashion. 

He’ll probably have to call the woman who did his makeup yesterday instead and hope she can work a miracle with the part of his neck that won’t be covered by his shirt collar.

Blaine’s eyes widen in shock when he sees what he did to Kurt, but it’s quickly replaced by a smug expression, like he’s trying to say, ‘look, I did a thing’ like a pubescent boy.

“Sue’s going to kill you if she sees those,” Kurt points at his neck as he climbs back into bed and rest his aching head on Blaine’s smooth chest. Zizzes will let them know when she’s back with the pills.

“Shit, I totally forgot about the interview,” Blaine groans and brushes his thumb over one of the bruises on Kurt’s neck. “I thought I’d keep you in bed all day and then whisk you off to the airport when it’s already dark and no one would see.”

The intercom in the bedroom crackles to life and Kurt calls out a thank you for Zizzes. He waits another moment before he stumbles out of bed and into their living room where he finds a pack of Ibuprofen sitting on the coffee table as instructed. After filling two glasses of water in the bathroom he hands two pills to Blaine before swallowing the meds as well. Thankfully, he manages to fall back asleep not long after, and when he wakes up next, it’s already three in the afternoon and Blaine’s singing in the shower, clearly feeling better as well.

Carla, the makeup artist, arrives an hour later and Kurt lets her work on his neck while the camera team sets up in the library for the interview. Sue’s picked a journalist who’s interviewed everyone from Johnny Depp to the Pope and she and Santana will supervise to make sure he and Blaine are only asked pre-approved questions. It’s one of those days when Kurt’s not allowed to pick his own clothes, his stylist having come up with an outfit for him and Blaine together with Sue and Santana for maximum impact. They are supposed to look approachable and apparently, a lot of Kurt’s clothes scream the opposite, while the jeans and t-shirts laid out for them are supposed to make them look like totally normal people.

Christine, their interviewer, is already sitting in an armchair opposite the couch when Kurt and Blaine walk into the room holding hands, and Blaine shakes her hand after telling her to please not curtsey before they take a seat opposite her.

CM: First of all, thank you for having me here today. I’ll try not to keep you too long so you can leave for your honeymoon. Are you allowed to say where you are going?”

KB: We’ve had invitations from quite a few European monarchs and we’ve taken one of them up on the offer, but that’s all I can say. Otherwise, I’ll get in trouble with the head of Palace security.

KH: He wouldn’t even tell me at first, but eventually I got it out of him. I think at this point it’s no secret anymore that I like clothes and I can’t go on my honeymoon if I don’t know what to pack for. 

KB: It’s our honeymoon Kurt, you’re not supposed to pack any clothes.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to delete this part,” Sue interrupts. “You can’t say that on TV, Your Majesty.”

Blaine rolls his eyes but complies and his next answer is much tamer.

KB: It’s a good thing we’re flying private because otherwise Kurt’s luggage fees would probably cost more than the whole flight.

CM: You are an excellent pilot yourself, Your Majesty, and I heard you often take Kurt flying. Why not fly him yourself?

KB: Blaine’s just fine.

“Your Majesty,” Sue interrupts again, uncharacteristically formal in the presence of the camera team.

“What?” Blaine challenges her. “The whole point of this interview is to make us look like normal people. That’s not gonna happen if I’m called Your Majesty the whole time.”

“Fine,” Sue says but it’s clear she isn’t too happy. “Please repeat the question.” 

CM: You are an excellent pilot yourself, Your Majesty, and I heard you often take Kurt flying. Why not fly him yourself?

KB: Please call me Blaine. It always makes me feel weird when people call me Your Majesty and then turn around and call Kurt Kurt. But to answer your question. Unfortunately, my license only allows me to fly royal aircraft and I couldn’t land one of my planes in a foreign Kingdom. It would be seen as an act of war and as much as I love Kurt, I wouldn’t start a war over him.

KH: You wouldn’t? You wound me. Maybe I should marry a King who would.

CM: Kurt, you had no idea Blaine would be King one day when you met. What was it like for you when you first started dating?

KH: I think pretty much everyone knows how we met but contrary to what people have been saying, I really didn’t know who he was when we met. He didn’t look like he did in his pictures and when I found out who he was, I freaked. And then we talked - a lot. Because we couldn’t just part ways and forget we ever met. My picture was everywhere. So we talked and decided to see if there was more between us than just physical attraction. And then we decided to date. He was only second in line to the throne then and I never considered that this might change. Neither did he. But then his father died and suddenly he was the Crown Prince and the rules changed. He couldn’t just publicly date me because he was the heir to the throne and back then, if anything had happened to Cooper, Blaine could have only carried on his family’s line if he married a woman and had children with her.

KB: I was very lucky that Cooper changed the laws for me. People aren’t wrong when they are calling the law ‘Blaine’s law’ because he did it for me. He not only made it possible for all married same sex couples in the Kingdom to adopt and have access to reproductive medicine, he got a law through parliament that allowed me all those things as well. Suddenly, I could marry the person I loved and have a family with them.

CM: There’s some confusion about that, because royal law stated only two royals could create heirs to the throne. Since you married civilly, Kurt has not been granted a title and still, when you have children, they will be your legal heirs. How does that work?

KB: What my brother did was sign it into law that only one person in the couple had to be royal. So if a King and Queen couldn’t conceive they could hire a surrogate or use a sperm donor and the child would still be considered of royal blood. The new law states that this rule applies to any married couple and since Kurt and I are married in the eyes of the law, when we have children that are biologically mine, they will be considered legal heirs to the throne. 

CM: But not children that are biologically Kurt’s?

KB: Unfortunately no. Because he does not have a title, any children that are biologically his won’t be carrying a title either.

CM: But I heard you are working to change that.

KB: In the past, when a non titled man married a princess he was styled ‘Earl’ and their children styled Lord and Lady. So I’d like to introduce a law that would style Cooper’s adopted children in that way and if we have children that are biologically Kurt’s, I would like the same to apply to them. But I don’t have the support for it in parliament at the moment.

CM: Is that something important for you, Kurt, having a title?

KH: It’s not. Some things would be easier if I had a title, but I always wanted to be on stage. That’s all that mattered to me. I liked the guy I met before I knew he was Prince Blaine and it was his title that made me hesitant to date him. I would have preferred to date a regular guy because dating Blaine meant following a lot of rules. Like a lot.

CM: You seemed to have followed them well. I know the press has been looking for a scandal since the Palace confirmed your relationship but you gave them nothing.

KB: I wouldn’t say nothing. It was just harder for them to come up with a scandal when the way Kurt and I met was so scandalous. Or rather, it was scandalous because I got caught. 

CM: Would you have kept seeing Kurt if there hadn’t been the video that outed you as gay? You were engaged to Princess Charlotte of Spain at the time.

KB: Honest answer - no. I liked him, but I couldn’t risk it. No one was supposed to know I’m gay because back then it seemed impossible to me to be openly gay and second in line to the throne. Charlotte didn’t know and she knows how truly sorry I am about hurting her. I introduced her to her husband because I felt horrible about the whole affair. Luckily she liked him too. 

CM: People have bee speculating for years, if your father King Richard would have approved your relationship with Kurt.

Out of sight, Kurt squeezes Blaine’s hand because he knows Blaine will have to lie. He’s agreed to the question but only to put the rumors to bed.

KB: My father didn’t know and while we talked in broad terms what my revelation meant for the Crown, I never found out how he personally felt about it. It’s one of my biggest regrets that we didn’t have the time to have an honest discussion about it. 

CM: Was he surprised?

KB: Yes.

CM: And your mother?

KB: She came to my wedding. She wouldn’t have if she didn’t approve.

CM: We’ve talked about the two of you starting a family. Anything you want to tell America about that.

KB: If Kurt and I are lucky, we’ll have a child within the next two years.

January 2022

By Order of The Crown of America, The Royal Family of Virginia

The Palace announces the birth of Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess Alexandra Elisabeth Sophia of Virginia, born December 29th at 3.09 AM at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City. The Princess was released from hospital to his Majesty King Blaine and Mr. Kurt Hummel on New Year’s Eve and now resides with the royal couple at the Palace. 

His daughter is asleep in Kurt’s arms as he looks at the picture released with the announcement. The Palace photographer took it right after they came home with Alexandra from the hospital, the future Queen held in Blaine’s arms as they sat close together on the main living room couch, the fire place roaring behind them - a direct replica of all royal baby announcements since the invention of photography. Even Blaine’s mother had flown in from Paris ,where she moved to following Kurt and Blaine’s wedding, as soon as Blaine had called her about the birth of her granddaughter. Burt and Carole beat her though, arriving in New York before Alexandra was even born because Kurt had called them the moment their surrogate went into labor. The agency they had hired, had managed to find an egg donor that looked like she could be related to Kurt - they checked and she’s not - and thankfully the donor had ticked the anonymous donation box, meaning she wouldn’t be told if or by whom her eggs would be used. They couldn’t have used her eggs otherwise, because who ever ended up as the ‘biological mother’ could never find out she was biologically related to the future Queen or King of America. Blaine had purchase all eggs the woman had donated so no one else would be related to the royal children. They thought it was the safe thing to do especially because they were the first royal couple to have children through surrogacy and couldn’t ask anyone for advice.

Alexandra looks like she could be his when he compares her to his own baby pictures. Not that it matters to him, but he knows his dad isn’t too happy that Kurt can’t be the biological father of their children - at least not until they’ve had at least two with Blaine’s sperm.

At a soft knock on the door to the nursery they’ve set up in the ‘Queen’s bedroom’ opposite their own, Kurt looks up and smiles at Cooper.

“Come in,” he tells his bother-in-law who walks into the room quietly followed by Sarah and the kids. 

Cooper’s been performing a one man show in Las Vegas since September after a string of cameos in films and TV shows. He’s much more successful as an entertainer though, because Cooper’s show revolves around his life as a former King and people always want to hear more about the royal family. Blaine himself isn’t supposed to give interviews - the one exception being the interview they gave right after their wedding - and when Kurt does he only ever answers questions concerning his career but never his relationship with the King. Cooper, however, is pretty free in what he can say these days. He still had to send his script to the Palace for approval because there are some things the public isn’t supposed to ever find out, but Blaine let him keep most things in the show since it was mostly about Cooper anyway and only had a few anecdotes about the royal family in it. Cooper’s been doing the show the last couple of days, so he and his family have only flown out today to see the newest member of the royal family.

“Blaine’s in Washington,” Kurt tells Cooper as he reluctantly hands his daughter over to her uncle while Sarah, Billy and Lucy crowd around him.

Kurt’s relinquished his role to his understudy a few weeks ago, but he has agreed to return for a few performances every months because he isn’t ready to fully let go just yet either and Blaine’s agreed to watch Alexandra on those nights.

“Mom said she’s yours,” Lucy frowns, “but you and uncle Blaine are both boys so how did you have her?”

At nearly twelve, Lucy knows all about where babies come from but apparently no one has explained surrogacy to her yet. 

“Don’t be stupid,” Billy rolls his eyes. “They paid a woman to have her for them because they aren’t allowed to adopt.”

“I’m not stupid,” Lucy hisses and Alexandra stirs in Cooper’s arms.

“Kids, settle down or we’ll have to wait outside,” Sarah admonishes Lucy and Billy. “I’m sure uncle Kurt hasn’t been getting much sleep and would prefer it if the baby didn’t wake up.”

Kurt gives her a grateful smile. He’s actually been sleeping with Alexandra in the ‘Queen’s bedroom’ the past few days with the baby monitor turned off, because Blaine had important meetings and needed his sleep more than Kurt.

“Has my mother seen her yet?” Cooper asks and Kurt nods.

“She arrived from Paris the day we took her home from the hospital. After Blaine showed her the paternity test she even picked her up and told Blaine to take a few pictures so she could email them to your grandparents. She’s already gone back though.”

Queen Pamela is always nice to Cooper’s wife and kids these days, but Kurt knows it’s only because Cooper’s threatened her with telling the press that his mother hates his wife and adopted step-children. There’s no way, Sue wouldn’t have stopped such an interview from ever seeing the light of day, but Pamela has been much nicer to them all since, even buying presents for Lucy and Billy for Christmas the previous year - the first they all celebrated together at the Palace. After Blaine recorded his Christmas speech and the traditional dinner with Palace staff, he and Blaine had hosted a family dinner for Cooper, Sarah, Lucy, Billy, Sarah’s parents, Queens Pamela and Ruth and Carole and Kurt’s dad and Blaine and Cooper had only run upstairs to their balcony once while their mother was at the Palace. Kurt’s not a fan of Blaine’s occasional smoking, but as long as it’s only the occasional cigarette and he’s not doing it anywhere near their daughter, he won’t tell Blaine he can’t do it. Just like Blaine doesn’t say anything when Kurt spends hours watching The Real Housewives of New Jersey or similar programs and buys things from a trashy home shopping channel they don’t need and can’t have delivered to the Palace anyway so the packages have been piling up at Richmond House.

“I’m surprised she even came since she was just here for Christmas when this little cutie was supposed to arrive.”

The doctors had calculated a Christmas baby and so the holidays were spent clutching their phones in case their surrogate went into labor while the King recorded his Christmas speech and Kurt was cooking dinner with Carole because they’d started a new tradition the previous year of giving the whole Palace staff Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. They couldn’t give the guards time off because Blaine wasn’t allowed to go anywhere without guards - not even from his office on the second floor to their apartment on the third - but everyone else from the kitchen staff to the butler was sent home after the staff dinner and Kurt and Carole took over the massive Palace kitchen. The Andersons on the Queen’s side had looked at them like they were crazy, used to a certain lifestyle, but Kurt had enjoyed spending some time with his stepmom and preparing a meal together which he hadn’t done since he spent a few days in Ohio before his wedding.

‘I’m surprised she didn’t accuse Alexandra of arriving late on purpose,” Kurt jokes as he watches anxiously as Sarah helps Lucy hold her cousin for the first time.

‘Did she bring her ‘friend’?” Cooper ask and Kurt shrugs. 

‘If he came to New York with her she didn’t tell us. Blaine keeps telling her that we want to meet him, but apparently she doesn’t think it’s proper to bring him to America even though she’s been a widow for nearly six years.”

“She’s not even sixty yet - no one would blame her if she remarried,” Cooper agrees. “Well, as long as he isn’t a divorcee,” Cooper grimaces because Sarah’s not allowed to be Alexandra’s godmother because she’s a remarried divorcee. 

Kurt would prefer it if his kids weren’t baptized at all but he agreed to it long ago and if he has to do it, he would have loved to have Cooper and Sarah as godparents. But the bishops have said no and Rachel can’t be godmother either because she’s Jewish. So they’ve settled on   Wes and his wife Carmen as another set of godparents because the Church wouldn’t accept Kurt’s other female friends either because they’re all openly gay.

“Blaine thinks she doesn’t want to tell us about him because he’s younger,” Kurt says, happy to have someone to gossip with.

He does get along a little better with Queen Pamela these days, but she still treats him like any day Blaine could dump him for a woman, making him call her by her title still and making sure they are never alone together.

“If you’re that curious, just look him up on Facebook,” Billy rolls his eyes and all grown ups gape at the fifteen year old. “What?” Billy shrugs. “She asked me to help her set it up when she was here for Coops birthday in the summer.”

“Mom’s on Facebook?” Cooper exclaims loudly and Alexandra starts screaming in Lucy’s arms.

Kurt quickly takes her from the eleven year old and holds her against his chest, hoping to calm her quickly because she isn’t due for her next bottle for another two hours. Thankfully, their surrogate has agreed to pump milk for them for six months so they can feed Alexandra breast milk instead of formula, but obviously, she still has to get it from a bottle. Kurt sings her a song from his show which is the furthest thing from a lullaby, but it’s been working much better than any lullabies so far and he doesn’t really care what he sings as long as it calms her down.

Alexandra finally falls back asleep when Blaine returns from Washington, where he’s been meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss a new pipeline the government wants to build on land belonging to the Navajos which Blaine has been vetoing vehemently.

“How did it go?” he asks after Blaine first kisses the top of Alexandra’s head and then the corner of Kurt’s mouth.

“It was a pretty close vote but I managed to convince a few members of Grey’s party that we should keep looking for another location and not decide anything before we haven’t received all environmental studies.”

Even though Blaine hadn’t caused ‘the oil crisis of 2017’ on purpose it had made him the darling of the green party and had earned him many fans who supported renewable energies over oil and coal. His husband had lost the vote over the pipeline though, but he vowed to make sure it would only be built after environmental studies were conducted and they could come to an agreement with the landowners on whose land they would build the pipeline connecting Alaska to the West Coast.

“That’s good,” Kurt tells him before he carefully hands Alexandra over to Blaine.

The little Crown Princess snuggles closer to her daddy’s chest but doesn’t wake up again and Kurt wonders if it would be impolite to tell Blaine to take the baby and Cooper’s family downstairs so he can catch up on some sleep. Thankfully, Blaine notices how tired he is before he has to say anything and asks Lucy and Billy if they want to take Harry and Sally out for a walk in the Palace Gardens before dinner. Kurt watches the kids run off before Blaine, Cooper and Sarah follow at a more leisurely pace, Alexandra safe in Blaine’s arms, before he heads into his and Blaine’s bedroom and face-plants onto their bed, nearly squashing McQueen in the process who’s somehow managed to sneak into the bedroom again. McQueen’s one of two British shorthair silver tabbies, Blaine’s given him for their first wedding anniversary in September and though they’ve been trying to keep the two seven months old cats out of the bedrooms they always seem to find their way back into his and Blaine’s bed. Predictably, Coco isn’t far either, climbing on Kurt’s back only moments later where she curls up and falls back asleep. Kurt barely notices McQueen joining his sister before he’s out like a light too.

March 2022

There have been new rules since Alexandra was born. If Kurt’s out on his own he only has to have Zizzes with him. But if he takes the Crown Princess off Palace grounds, he needs extra security so his daughter - or as the government sees it, the King’s daughter and heir apparent to the throne - is protected. Kurt’s not a fan of Hunter Clarrington but according to Palace chief of security Shannon Beiste he has experience protecting the children of celebrities and as long as he does his job well, how Kurt feels about him is irrelevant. 

Rachel and Jesse have invited him over for cake and coffee to tell him some news, which Kurt expects will be Rachel announcing her own pregnancy.  So he bundles up Alexandra and calls Palace security to let them know he is going out with his daughter so they can send for Hunter. There shouldn’t be any problem since the paparazzi rarely follow his car these day - the novelty having worn off - at least as long as they don’t suspect that he has the Crown Princess with him, which has happened a few times so far, because Kurt doesn’t like being cooped up in the Palace when Blaine’s busy with work and he refuses to get a babysitter every time he wants to go into the city. 

Hunter’s already waiting next to the car when Kurt walks outside followed by Zizzes who’s carrying Alexandra’s car seat while Kurt carries her secured to his chest by a baby sling.

“Your Highness,” Hunter greets the sleeping baby, before he nods in Kurt’s direction. “Mr. Hummel.”

Kurt’s told him multiple times to just call him Kurt and that it’s really not necessary to address the baby by her title because he doesn’t want her to grow up thinking she’s better than everyone else, but so far Hunter’s refused to listen to him. He probably would if Kurt had a royal title himself, but that’s never going to happen, not when the Church still has so much influence. He’ll have to tell Blaine to talk to Hunter about it, because he really can’t keep calling a baby Your Highness.

Kurt usually drives himself because Blaine’s inherited quite a few fancy cars from his father, but when he’s out with his daughter he usually relies on one of the drivers they have on staff. Therefore, he doesn’t have to look for parking when they get to Rachel and Jesse’s midtown apartment and by the time the few people out on the street have realized who’s getting out of the car, Kurt and his entourage have already made it into the building. 

Rachel had gotten the chance to play Eliza Schuyler in Chicago and had only returned to New York recently. Unfortunately, Kurt had missed her wedding a few months ago because he’d gone with Blaine on a tour of the territories belonging to America and a tropical storm had grounded his flight. By the time he finally made it to New York, the party was nearly over, but fortunately, Rachel had forgiven him quickly since he hadn’t missed the ceremony on purpose.

“She’s so cute, Kurt,” Rachel coos while Jesse takes Hunter’s and Zizzes’ coats and tells them to make themselves at home, used now to the fact that Kurt can’t visit them on his own anymore. “Are you sure she isn’t yours?”

“Oh trust me, we’re sure. The government pretty much forced Blaine to take a paternity test when she was born to prove she is a legitimate heir and I wasn’t anywhere near the clinic when she was conceived.”

“Any plans for number two?” Rachel asks but Kurt can tell she wants to tell him her news first.

“What about you Rach? I hope your news isn’t that you’re leaving town again for a year.”

“Actually,” Rachel beams. “Our kids will grow up together. We’re having a girl in August.”

Kurt pulls her into a one armed hug, careful not to wake Alexandra who’s back in her sling.

“That’s amazing. Congrats you two.”

“We though it’s the right time because Rachel’s engagement just ended and my contract runs out in June and I won’t start rehearsal for Wicked until January,” Jesse says with a big smile on his face as he stares at the baby sleeping against Kurt’s chest. 

“Would you like to hold her?” Kurt asks and glares at Hunter when he frowns, because he’s Alexandra’s father too and no guard will tell him who can or can’t hold his daughter.

He carefully removes her from the sling and smiles when she blinks her blue eyes open. Luckily, she doesn’t start crying when he transfers her into Jesse’s arms. Jesse hadn’t seen her yet, unlike Rachel who he had invited to the Palace shortly after Alexandra was born. They manage a good half hour with Rachel and Jesse alternately holding her before she demands Kurt’s attention and Kurt prepares a bottle for her in Rachel’s kitchen. Afterward, she sleeps through the rest of Kurt’s visit, and Kurt pretends to see what Rachel’s pointing at when she hands him a framed ultrasound image of her unborn daughter. But to be fair, he never really saw what Blaine pretended to see when they got the first ultrasound pictures of Alexandra either.

“We’ll have to throw you a shower,” he tells her when it’s time for him to head home. “I’ll talk to Blaine, see if we can’t have it at the Palace since we have all this space we never use.”

Kurt usually spends all his time on the third floor or in the gardens because the second feels like a museum and the first is off limits since Blaine decided to open the Palace for tours year round after his coronation. They’ve been donating a lot of the extra income, but mostly Blaine’s been using it for repairs and to pay for Kurt’s security before they got married so the royal family isn’t costing tax payers any extra money. 

His driver drops them off at the back entrance even though the last tour’s ended an hour ago by the time Kurt returns home and Kurt smiles when he sees Blaine’s driver Liam take off his cap because that means that not only is his husband back from Washington, he also doesn’t have plans to go out again tonight if he’s already dismissed his driver. Blaine never got his driver’s license because he isn’t allowed to drive himself on public roads anyway and he doesn’t need one to drive on the estates owned by the royal family, though Kurt knows he still hates it that he can’t do simple things like drive the two of them upstate to the club because sometimes it’s nice to go out for a proper ride even though Allegro and Calypso moved to the Palace stables after the wedding.

He finds Blaine in his office signing papers but when he sees Kurt, he puts his pen down and pushes himself out of his chair so he can greet them properly.

“Do you have to finish this tonight or can you join me for dinner? Tim can have it ready in thirty minutes,” Kurt tells Blaine after kissing his husband hello.  

“No, it can wait,” Blaine says, “and if you think Alexandra will sleep through the next thirty minutes, I’d love it if you joined me in the shower. I only just got back and I wanted to finish this before you came home.”

Their daughter has a knack for keeping them from having sex. It’s as if she has a sixth sense for it, because as soon as clothes come off, she starts crying and won’t quiet until either Kurt and Blaine have sung her back to sleep. But not today, Kurt decides, because he has a secret weapon. After extracting Alexandra from the sling he calls for Puck.

“Yes your quasi highness,” Puck mock salutes him and Kurt holds out the baby to him.

“I’ve heard through the grapevine aka Palace gossip that Quinn’s pregnant, so here’s your chance to practice. She’s been fed and I changed her into a new diaper before we came home, so in case she starts crying just sing to her or ask Sam to help you. Under no circumstances will you come into our room for the next thirty minutes unless you drop her, which you won’t do because I’ll kill you if you drop her.”

He doesn’t give Puck a chance to protest, knowing his daughter is perfectly safe with the guards especially because Sam’s with Puck and Sam’s wife Mercedes recently gave birth to baby number two. Instead he grabs the King’s hand and drags him toward the stairs because they don’t have much time and he wants to make the little time they get alone together count.

August 2023

By Order of The Crown of America, The Royal Family of Virginia

The Palace announces the birth of His Royal Highness The Prince James Charles Francis of Virginia, born August 3rd at 7.29 PM at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City. The Prince was released from hospital to his Majesty King Blaine and Mr. Kurt Hummel on August 4th and now resides with the royal couple and sister Crown Princess Alexandra at the Palace. 

It’s not easy to get Alexandra to sit still on Kurt’s lap while Blaine holds Jamie for the pictures announcing the addition to their family, but at nineteen months old the concept of being still is foreign to her. She’s learned to walk by holding onto Harry or Sally and as soon as she could move without help, McQueen and Coco learned to fear her because no matter how often he and Blaine told her to be nice to the cats and not pull their tails, she never listened. She only recently stopped doing in when Coco had enough and scratched Alexandra’s pudgy cheek. His daughter screamed so loudly, half of the royal guards stationed at the Palace came running and Kurt was glad their son hadn’t been born yet because he could still give his daughter his undivided attention. After ascertaining that it really was just as scratch that didn’t even require a band aid, he assured the guards that no, no one was murdering the Crown Princess and that she definitely had earned that scratch with the way she’d been treating the cats. Alexandra wouldn’t start crying though until Blaine came and sang to her which made Kurt roll his eyes because since he spent the most time with her he was always the one who had to tell her no while Blaine got to be the fun daddy. 

“With the next one, I want to be the good cop,” Kurt told him later that night when Alexandra was asleep in her bedroom and they were in bed together. And Blaine had promised to spend some time with her one on one before their son was born so Kurt wasn’t the only one who raised their daughter.

Since they used eggs from the same donor again, Jamie’s the spitting image of Alexandra when she was born, blue eyes and dark hair, but straight instead of the curls already framing Alexandra’s face and held back by two bows in cobalt blue, the family color. She’s wearing a creamed colored knee-length dress with cream buckle shoes, while he and Blaine are both dressed in light summer suits. Jamie is wrapped in a cream colored blanket sporting the royal crest and while Kurt tries to get Alexandra to sit still for a few minutes, Blaine tries to get Jamie to keep his eyes open for the pictures. Harry and Sally lying by their feet complete the idyllic picture that’s supposed to show Blaine’s subjects how perfectly normal their family is even though the King’s raising a family with another man. 

A man who dares to occasionally work away from the home even after the birth of the heirs. It’s always kind of ironic when people complain about him performing now that they have kids, but at the same time saying Kurt shouldn’t be let anywhere near Princess Alexandra because technically she’s only King Blaine’s anyway and maybe if she were raised by the King and a female nanny not too much damage would be done to the future Queen. It’s because of people like that, who call two men raising a child together a crime and a danger to the child, that Kurt will get even more security if goes anywhere with both kids, though he knows that Alexandra’s security is more important to ‘the Palace’ because she’s the heir apparent and Jamie ‘only’ second in line to the throne since the law that had prioritized male children over females in the line of succession had been abolished by King Richard in 2010 following pressure from the government since all King- and Queendoms in Europe had already abolished it.

Finally, the photographer is done and Kurt lets Alexandra wriggle off his lap though he frowns when she throws herself on top of Harry in the beautiful dress Kurt had bought her just for the pictures.

“Should we go for a walk before my mother gets here?” Blaine asks once the photographer has left. 

It’s a beautiful and hot day and maybe they could even go for a boat ride on the lake, Kurt muses.

“If you change her into something she can get dirty,” he tells the King because he has no plans to do it all on his own again with baby number two.

Blaine wants them to have a third child with Kurt’s sperm but as much as he knows that his dad would like a grandchild that’s biologically Kurt’s even though he loves Alexandra very much, he’s told Blaine he would only agree to a third child if Blaine would pitch in more with their son.

“When I said I didn’t want our kids to be raised by nannies and tutors, I didn’t mean I wanted them raised by just one parent,” he told Blaine a few weeks ago when Blaine forwarded him an email from the agency that said that they found a donor who looked like a long lost relative of Blaine’s. Again they checked and she wasn’t. 

“What can she get dirty?” Blaine asks and Kurt knows they would be quicker if he took her upstairs and changed her, but he wants Blaine to do it.

“Her play clothes are in the left wardrobe. Just pick any dress that’s in there and a hat so she won’t get sunburned.”

While Blaine takes Alexandra upstairs, Kurt puts another layer of sunscreen on Jamie and puts his light summer hat back on his head. They’ll have to head outside through the rose garden, because they’ve opened parts of the park to the public as part of the Palace tour and it would require way too much security if they went out through the main terrace on the first floor where they’d for sure run into a tour group.

Blaine looks frazzled and a few curls have come lose when he returns, Alexandra now wearing a yellow polka dot dress, matching hat and another pair of buckle shoes. It’s one of the dressed Kurt’s bought at H&M for every day use because as much as he loves fashion, even he thinks it’s too much to dress a toddler in designer clothes on a daily basis. They get a lot of beautiful dresses from designers hoping to boast that they are dressing the future Queen, but Kurt’s sent them all back because he’s been earning good money the last few years and prefers to buy his own and his kids clothes himself.

To get downstairs, they take one of the many hidden staircases built at a time when servants weren’t supposed to be seen while they catered to the monarch’s every whim and step through a door disguised by flowery tapestry in the sitting room next to the rose garden. Their staff is under instruction to call Kurt’s cell when Queen Pamela arrives, but until then Kurt watches with a smile on his face as Alexandra toddles along next to the dogs while holding Blaine’s hand and Jamie’s sound asleep in Kurt’s arms.

February 2026

“How does the baby get in there?” four year old Alexandra asks, pointing at their surrogate’s rounded stomach.

Blaine was supposed to meet them at the clinic so they could find out the sex of the baby together but after a bomb threat the DC airport was evacuated and Blaine denied access to the plane he flew back and forth between New York and Washington until the emergency services gave the all clear. If it wasn’t for that, Kurt would be pissed that Blaine’s not here to help him with this.

Because how does he explain this? He can’t give her the usual when a mommy and daddy love each other very much spiel because she doesn’t have a mommy and what if explaining the process opens a whole different can of worms? Because so far she hasn’t asked why a woman is having her new brother or sister in her stomach when she has two fathers but no mother. And there’s no way he can tell her he’ll explain when she’s older. That still works with Jamie who’s two and a half, but Alexandra doesn’t accept that answer anymore. So, he’ll just have to tell her the truth then, Kurt resigns himself to it.

“You know how I told you that some kids have two mommies, some have two daddies and some have a mommy and a daddy?” he asks her and gives Serena a grateful smile when she distracts Jamie with a picture book while he explains. Alexandra nods.

“Well, only a mommy and a daddy can have a baby without help, so when two daddies love each other very much, they ask a nice woman like Serena for help and then she carries a baby in her tummy for them because they can’t do it themselves.”

“Why not?” Alexandra frowns and stares at his stomach as if it would tell her why the new baby isn’t in there.

“Because boys can’t have babies. You know how Jamie looks a little bit different than you?” she nods again. “Well, boys are a little different inside their tummies too and because of that, they can’t have a baby in their tummy. Only girls can. And today we’ll find out if you’re getting a brother or sister with this machine,” he points at the ultrasound machine, “because we can look into Serena’s tummy with it.”

“How long until it comes out?”

“It still has to grow a bit more but in summer the baby will be big enough and then it will want to meet you, okay?” When Alexandra nods, Kurt leaves her with Serena for a moment since Hunter’s in the room too so he can fetch the doctor.

His phone rings after he’s told the nurse that they are ready now, and he accepts the Facetime call as soon as he’s back in the exam room.

“Daddy,” Alexandra yells when she sees who’s calling and Kurt hands her the phone because she’s obviously missed her father while he was gone the last couple of days.

He catches Jamie right before he tries to push his sister aside so he can talk to Blaine too and Kurt silently thanks Blaine when he tells their daughter to move the phone a bit so he can see her brother too. When the doctor steps into the room, Kurt takes the phone from her though, after Blaine promises that he will tuck her in tonight and read her two stories.

“I think they’ll let me fly back soon, because they haven’t found anything yet and it might just have been another fake threat,” Blaine says and Kurt frowns because this isn’t the first time someone called in a bomb threat when the King was in Washington.

“They checked your plane too, right? Alexandra’s too young to be Queen,” he adds with a wink then because he doesn’t want Blaine to know how worried he actually is. If he weren’t, he would be much more pissed that Blaine’s missing another appointment when he had been the one who’d pushed for another baby even though they’d already secured Blaine’s line.

To be fair though, Blaine had worked hard to make more time for the kids after Jamie was born but Kurt had still wanted to wait a bit longer for baby number three, especially when he got offered a role in a film musical last year and with a new baby at home, six weeks of rehearsal and sixteen weeks of filming wouldn’t have been doable without hiring a full-time nanny. 

It had involved a lot of arguing with the government and Blaine threatening to hire private security if parliament thought the royal guards couldn’t handle Alexandra’s security, but in the end they had relented and had let Kurt and Blaine enroll her in a private preschool when she was three. The school was popular with celebrities and multimillionaires because it had experience with families whose children needed extra security and had actually been recommended to him by one of his costars from his TV show. 

Kurt took Jamie with him on days he had to be on set the whole day, and asked his guards to watch his son when he was filming a scene, and on days he wasn’t required till late or only till about noon, Blaine cleared his schedule for the remainder of the day so he could watch their eighteen months old. This way they made it work while Kurt filmed the movie. After it wrapped, he gave Blaine the go ahead for baby number three and went to the clinic to provide a sperm sample. It was good timing too, because by the time the baby is born, Jamie will join Alexandra in preschool for half days like his sister, so Kurt doesn’t have to take care of two preschoolers in addition to a baby while Blaine works. 

It’s not that he doesn’t love his children, but Blaine’s a busy man and during the week it usually falls to Kurt to take care of the children which is incredibly exhausting at times. Weekends are usually reserved for family though, unless they invite their friends’ kids over for playdates. Now that the kids are older it usually frees them up for some grownup talk too while the kids play in the Palace gardens or in Alexandra’s and Jamie’s playroom under the watchful eyes of the guards. Thankfully, Rachel and Jesse’s daughter Barbra mostly gets along with his and Blaine’s daughter and Wes and Carmen’s girl Eva who’s Jamie’s age usually plays with their son.

“Yes, they checked, don’t worry Kurt. I wouldn’t actually do anything that would put me in danger, especially not now when we’re having another baby,” Blaine says quietly while the doctor explains to Alexandra what she’s doing.

“I know,” Kurt replies softly. “And I wish I could just ignore those threats because I’m sure that’s what the people responsible want, that we live in constant fear. But I can’t, because I know there’s a reason why we can’t go anywhere without security when there are people who actually want us dead. Probably not because they think you are a bad king, but just because we love each other and have a family together. What if one day it’s not an empty threat and someone really tries to blow you up?”

Blaine doesn’t get to answer - and what can he say in response anyway - because the doctor asks Alexandra what she would like.

“Would you rather have a sister or a brother?”

“I can choose?” Alexandra’s eyes light up.

“Sorry, honey, no choosing,” Kurt tells her and Alexandra pouts for a moment before she turns back to the doctor.

“I want a sister. If it’s another brother please take him back and exchange him.”

The doctor laughs and turns to Kurt and Blaine on the phone.

“I guess you are lucky then. It’s a healthy baby girl.”

July 2026

By Order of The Crown of America, The Royal Family of Virginia

The Palace announces the birth of The Lady Lilian Grace Marie Hummel of Ohio, born July 15th at 1.51 PM at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City. The baby was released from hospital to his Majesty King Blaine and Mr. Kurt Hummel on July 16th and now resides with the royal couple and older siblings Crown Princess Alexandra and Prince James at the Palace.

Since the election of Prime Minister Christina Cohen-Chang, Blaine’s had an easier time getting changes to royal law approved by parliament. The liberal party had won the parliamentary election the previous year and with Tina, as the PM liked to be called, Blaine now has an ally in Washington. He still didn’t get the necessary votes he would have needed to grant already born non royal children a title, but Tina helped him get approval for a law that would protect the children of royals who have children with divorcees and in same sex marriages, the children who are biological related to the non royal partner. The necessary papers were signed just in time, six weeks before Lilly was born, because Blaine never wanted his children to be treated differently just because of biology. It’s different with Alexandra. She’ll always be treated a little differently,  because she’s the heir apparent and will be Queen when Blaine dies or abdicates for her when he’s old and grey. There are no rules against it, but in the last four hundred years, no King or Queen has ever abdicated in America so they could watch their son or daughter ascend the throne. It was Kurt who said, ‘I never want to see her as Queen if it means you’ll be dead and I’ll be left behind without you’, and made Blaine research the laws, because who knew, maybe you could only abdicate for brothers and the like and not your own children. What he found though was a law that stated that the King should relinquish his hold over the Kingdom when not in possession of all his faculties any longer, which Blaine interpreted as permission to abdicate for Alexandra when he was old. Most monarchs had died young in the past, so they never even got to the point where they were too old to reign, but Blaine was determined to outlive his father and grandfather who both died young too.

Lilly yaws against his chest and blinks her eyes open. She’s got chestnut colored hair like Kurt and hazel eyes like Blaine with the cutest button nose. Kurt’s helped wrap her up in her baby sling before he went out to pick up Alexandra and Jamie from preschool, saying there was no reason Blaine couldn’t work while watching the baby when she was going to sleep for another hour at least. And since he promised to help out more after Jamie was born, Blaine didn’t protest.

He’s come to like it though, reading through papers while his son and now daughter sleep against his chest. Also, Kurt’s been asked to workshop another musical and Blaine knows he wants to say yes and only hasn’t yet because they just had a baby. But if Blaine can prove that he can do this - watch the older kids when they come home from preschool and take care of the baby - then Kurt can say yes to what sounds like another dream role and Blaine’s always been Kurt’s biggest fan apart from Burt.

Parliament is out for the summer anyway and on days Blaine has to go to Washington come fall, he’s sure he’ll find someone at the Palace willing to watch the baby since they’ve never had a problem this far. Well, mostly because Kurt will pretty much force Puck and Sam to babysit when he’s horny because this way, the kids are looked after and the guards can’t hover outside their quarters.

Basically, it’s their own fault though that they need constant security even inside the Palace, because if they didn’t allow visitors when they are home they could probably reduce security a bit. But neither of them wants to lose the extra income because the popularity of the royal family has soared since Blaine abolished royal tax, a tax that had forced every earner in the Kingdom to pay a percentage of their income to the royal family so they could pay for extra security for big events and things like coronations, funerals and weddings.

Lilly yawns adorably again, but otherwise she seems content for the moment. They’ve scheduled the photographer for the weekend, a little later than normal, but Jamie fell on the playground and they wanted to wait for the scratches on his face to heal before they took the family foto for the press.

Blaine looks up when there’s a soft knock on the door and Puck pokes his head in.

“Palace security just called. Your mom’s on her way in and wants to meet you in the library.”

Blaine takes a deep breath and gets out of his office chair, careful not to jostle Lilly too much. He can’t be angry with his mother for coming so late, because he thought she wouldn’t come at all when she heard Lilly is biologically Kurt’s. But she’s called a few days ago to announce she would be visiting the city with Pierre, her current and age appropriate boyfriend, and would like to visit Blaine and his family. She didn’t specifically mention the baby, but he’d emailed her a picture of the newborn only minutes after she was born so she must know that there’s five of them now.

When he gets to the library, his mother is already waiting, but she’s alone.

“Where’s Pierre?” he asks after dutifully kissing her cheek. “You know you are welcome to bring him here.”

“It wouldn’t be proper,” his mother says simply before she inspects the baby in Blaine’s arms. “She looks a bit like you. Is she really not yours?”

“She is mine, but not the way you mean it. You’d know if she were because then she’d be a princess.”

“I was surprised to see your announcement. I thought Kurt’s children wouldn’t get titles.”

“I changed the law,” Blaine informs her. “All three of them are my children and they should be treated as such. And she wouldn’t be if her name was ‘only’ Lilly Hummel. It happens with Kurt all the time too. If I hadn’t put my foot down, the old government would have taken away Kurt’s personal guard after Jamie was born because now that I had two heirs, he wasn’t needed anymore and who cared if something happened to the commoner who was married to the King.”

He’s pretty sure Prime Minister Grey would have preferred it if he hadn’t needed to follow common law and could have just had children without getting married first. 

“Your father would have never done that, change royal law for his own personal gain,” his mother frowns though her expression softens when Lilly rubs her eyes with her tiny fists.

“There weren’t any laws that kept him from marrying the person he loved and from having a family with that person,” Blaine points out. “But you’re right if you think he never would have changed the laws for me. I’ve accepted a long time ago that he rather would have seen me in a miserable marriage with a woman or alone for the rest of my life than allow me to marry the man that I love. And without his permission, I wouldn’t have been allowed to.”

“That sounds like you are happy he’s dead,” his mother says with a frown on her face and Blaine wants to deny it but he can’t, not when there’s some truth in what she’s saying.

“I’m sorry you lost him,” he settles on, “but I’m not going to pretend that my life didn’t change for the better after his death. I have an amazing husband, three beautiful children and in the last poll only 37% said I shouldn’t have ascended the throne because of my sexuality. That’s 10% less than when I was coronated.” 

He probably has to thank the children for that, because no one could withstand Alexandra’s charms when he and Kurt took her to an orphanage last Christmas and tasked her with handing out presents to kids less fortunate than her and Jamie. The pictures of the four year old Crown Princess kneeling down next to a two year old girl and handing her a doll while Blaine was watching her with Jamie on one arm and the other slung around Kurt’s shoulder, ended up on all the front pages. Kurt was doing interviews for his film at that point and all interviewers wanted to talk about, were Kurt and Blaine’s lovely children. As always, they didn’t tell anyone but immediate family about the new  baby until it was born, because they were afraid some overzealous reporter might find out who there surrogate was and put her and the unborn child in danger. So Kurt dodged all questions about whether they had plans for another child after Alexandra was recorded saying she wanted another baby to play with for Christmas.

“I’ve tried to put myself into your shoes,” his mother says out of the blue. “And I don’t fault you if you’re not morning your father. I resented your grandfather too, because he told me the first time we met that I would never get to marry his only son, even if he had to change back the laws so royals could only marry other royals. I don’t know how Richard got him to change his mind, but Edward was barely civil to me even when we lived in the Palace together and when he died, I didn’t shed a single tear,” his mother confesses and Blaine tries to remember his grandfather’s funeral but he can’t because it happened such a long time ago now. All he remembers is being afraid of his grandfather the King, because he was of the opinion children should be seen not heard and whenever he thought he and Cooper were being too loud, he’d scream at them and threaten them with sending them away for school when Blaine wasn’t even six years old. If his mother was unhappy living in the Palace when King Edward was still alive, she hid it well, because he never would have guessed if she didn’t just tell him.

“It won’t be like this with my kids,” Blaine says because they tell them every night how much they love them and obviously, they will be free to marry whoever they like. Well not some raging homophobe or an abolitionist, but it wouldn’t matter to him and Kurt if their kids married men or women, royals or non royals, or rich or poor people as long as they are happy.

“Where is Alexandra? I brought her a dress from Paris for James’ birthday party.”

“Kurt’s picking the kids up from preschool because they’ve both been acting a little jealous since Lilly was born. But they should be back any minute now.”

“I still can’t believe government gave you permission to send them to school in New York. They wouldn’t let us when you and Cooper were young,” his mom says, sounding impressed to Blaine’s surprise.

“I didn’t want our children to be taught at the Palace because I hated it,” Blaine confesses. “I didn’t have any friends because all the people in my life were much older and Cooper was never very interested in me.”

“And this school you are sending them to is safe?” his mom asks when he gets a text from Kurt.

Just heard your mom’s here. Is it safe to come up? - Kurt

“You wouldn’t think it’s a school from the outside because of all the securities guarding the property,” Blaine says while he texts Kurt back.

She was asking about Alexandra, so I guess so. We’re in the library - Blaine

“What I worry though is what to do when the kids are older. If possible, we don’t want to send them away for boarding school but if they go to school in New York, Alexandra will never be able to go anywhere without a guard and I don’t want her to grow up like that. But I guess, Kurt and I will cross that bridge when we get there. She’s not even five so we still have time before we have to make a decision.”

“I can’t believe you’ve been with him for ten years,” his mother shakes her head in disbelief. “I was so sure it would be nothing more than a phase.”

“We’ve been married six years and have three children. I really hope you don’t think that anymore,” Blaine says sharply and to his surprise his mother shakes her head. She’s full of surprises today.

“No. He and the children clearly are your family like your father, you and Cooper were my family. And I’m sorry it took me so long to see it.” 

His mother is staring at the wall above Blaine’s head, but this is big, so he leans forward and kisses her cheek.

“Thank you.”

They are interrupted by a loud squeal of ‘grandma’ from Alexandra who comes barreling into the room, followed a bit more slowly by Kurt, Jamie and the dogs who must have followed Kurt in from the gardens. Lilly stirs, but again she doesn’t start crying and Blaine shakes his head when Kurt asks if he should take her.

“Did you bring me something?” Alexandra asks from her new perch on his mom’s lap while Jamie climbs onto the couch next to her.

“What kind of grandma would I be if I didn’t,” his mom says and points at a bag beside her feet.

While the kids fight over who gets to look into the bag first, Kurt crosses over to Blaine and kisses him hello, disapproving King mom be damned before pressing a kiss to Lilly’s baby soft cheek.

“I was telling Blaine that she’s very sweet, your little girl,” Queen Pamela surprises him and Kurt beams.

“They all are,” he says with a smile on his face even though sometimes their kids can be a nightmare because they won’t listen to either Kurt or Blaine and act a little too entitled for Kurt’s taste, but they are not stupid, they already understand that they are different than other little boys and girls and that not everyone lives in a palace even if they don’t know yet who their fathers are.

“Did you have a good trip, Your Highness?” Kurt asks his mother-in-law politely while Alexandra unwraps a book about different horse breeds and Jamie a farm animal puzzle.

“You know what, Kurt,” the Queen holds out her hand for Kurt to shake. “I think it’s high time you called me Pam.”

Lilly choses this historic moment to start crying and it ends with Kurt and Blaine both staring at Blaine’s mom in shock when she takes Lilly from Blaine and starts shushing her softly.

“What?” the queen asks when she catches them staring. “Can’t I hold my granddaughter?”

There are tears in Blaine’s eyes when he wraps his mom and his daughter up in his arms.

“Of course you can,” the King hiccups. “I just never thought I’d hear you say this.”

Not wanting to be left out, Alexandra and Jamie push into the hug as well and when Blaine holds out his hand for him, Kurt only hesitates a moment before he joins the unlikely group hug because for years his mother-in-law was a royal pain in the ass.

“You know, Pam, if you want to make it up to us, you could babysit Alexandra and Jamie next months for Blaine and my anniversary. Your son’s been promising me to take me to London and get me a private tour of Buckingham Palace for years now and maybe if we had someone to watch the kids, he would finally deliver,” Kurt extends an olive branch to his mother-in-law because he spent ten years under her disapproving glare and he’d love to bury the hatchet before the kids are old enough to notice that papa and grandma don’t get along.

“I would like that,” Pam smiles before she rubs the back of her neck sheepishly which is such as Blaine gesture. “I’d also love it if you would all come to Paris in the spring. Pierre has asked me to marry him and I agreed since I made him wait long enough. I know I shouldn’t ask because this will be his third marriage and both his ex-wives are still alive but I’d like my family there, your family and Cooper’s.”

Kurt can’t stop himself and laughs out loud. “Don’t worry Pam, the non traditional royal couple has no problem attending your church disapproved wedding.”

Blaine joins his laughter and after a moment Pam laughs too because it’s absurd that first Blaine and now his mom nearly chose to spend their lives unhappy just to please a bunch of old guys in ugly robes. Since he has to attend church with Blaine once a week he’s seriously considered asking the bishops if he could redesign their outfits, but somehow he knew it wouldn’t go over well.

“So yes, His Majesty King Blaine and Mr. Kurt Hummel,” he imitates how they are usually announced, “would love to defy expectations once more and come to your wedding.”

Alexandra suddenly looks up at them with wide eyes.

“You’re a King, Daddy? Like in Lion King?”

Blaine looks at Kurt pleadingly but Kurt shakes his head, because he had to explain surrogacy to her.

“Sorry, Your Majesty,” he teases, “this one’s yours.”

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px 'Lucida Grande'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #551a8b; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #0000ee}

THE END