"You're thinking about having sex with him right now."

Blaine looked over at Puck and raised an eyebrow.

"It's kind of a talent of mine. It's not officially recognized in the registry of powers, but I think that's just because they're a little threatened by it. Married officials especially, because they're probably worried that I'll know when their lifemates are thinking about nailing me. Which, I'll be honest, is often. Not that I can blame them."

Puck's cocky smile had made an appearance and was turned up to full blast.

"That's why I don't think Kurt's really Spiral," he continued. "Before he and Firae got married, Firae was practically executing people in his sleep, he wanted it so bad. And Kurt didn't have a clue. His legs were sewn up so tight he...uh...you probably don't really want to hear this, huh?"

"Actually, the idea of Kurt not having sex with Firae is a perfectly acceptable topic of conversation. Please continue."

"You were totally thinking about boning him though, weren't you?"

Blaine sighed.

"Yes."

Puck studied him for a moment.

"He and Firae aren't doing it, you know."

Blaine tried not to let his head snap up and his eyes widen with hope.

Tried and failed.

Puck smirked.

"How do you...uh...are you sure?"

Puck laughed. "Am I sure? I can smell sex a mile away, friend. Besides, Firae is being an asshole. Which only happens when his isn't getting filled, if you know what I mean."

"Puck? Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Has anyone ever told you that you are absolutely disgusting?"

Puck laughed. "You humans are such fucking prudes. But yes."

Blaine almost smiled.

"Seriously though, friend, Kurt's been...weird since he got back."

"What do you mean, weird?"

"Well, he isn't acting all flirty with Firae, which I suspect is probably because you've got him cockwhipped, but still – it's weird. It's like...well, before he was always so bored by politics, and he'd get all dramatic and sigh a lot when Firae wanted to talk about policy stuff, but now it seems like all he wants to talk to Firae about."

"Yes, well, I imagine his experiences over the past five years could have changed his priorities a bit."

"I guess...I just...I wonder..."

Blaine furrowed his brows and looked back up at Puck, not even realizing that he'd allowed his head and shoulders to droop once again.

Blaine was sitting on the edge of the bed in his cell. Puck was sitting at one of the two chairs around the small table in the center of the room. Other than the table, the room held a small cabinet containing small comforts such as extra blankets, thin, soft robes, and materials to shave, wash and clean his teeth with. The room also held two features that Blaine was endlessly fascinated with, and he could almost distract himself from thinking about Kurt when he toyed with them.

The first feature was a shallow bowl of water that came out of the wall level with Blaine's waist. The bowl held a drain that connected to a pipe that disappeared into the wall, and there was also a spout. If Blaine touched one rock, cold water would come out. If he touched the other, hot water would come. And if he touched the rock in the center, warm water would come. Puck told him it was the water-bearers, those Sidhe who possessed both the power to summon water and the power to compel, who allowed the Sidhe access to water on command in their own homes.

It was like nothing Blaine had ever seen before. It was beyond even the tubs filled from hot springs that he had experienced at inns in Villalu. The water was completely and utterly under his control.

Or rather, it was under the water-bearers' control. But they allowed him to feel as he were the one with the power to make the water come forth.

The second feature that continually fascinated Blaine was thanks to the light-keepers, who possessed both compulsion and the ability to manipulate fire. There was a dial made of wood on the wall next to Blaine's bed. When he turned it very slightly, four oil-lamps mounted on the walls burst into very small flames, like that of a candle. The more he turned the dial, the larger the flames became.

Blaine was idly fiddling with the dial while he listened to Puck talk about Kurt and Firae.

"It just seems like Kurt is trying to influence Firae politically."

Blaine shrugged. "He probably is. Like I said, I'm sure his experiences have-"

"No, no, I get that, Blaine. And I get that Kurt is madly in love with you and would rather sit in his room and sigh because of it than actually get it on with a very willing partner, which is something I am not cursed to understand, but I get it. He'll marry Firae even though he'd rather be with you because he had to experience some real shit over in Villalu and if he becomes King he'll be just as powerful as Firae and he can do something about it. We both know all that, so let's not fuck around and pretend it's not happening, all right?"

Blaine looked over at Puck, turning the lamps off in favor of the sunlight streaming through the windows.

"I don't know, Puck. I don't know how Kurt really feels about me."

Puck rolled his eyes. "Will you shut the fuck up about that? You and Kurt are ridiculous, okay? Don't be an idiot. What I'm saying is, he seems to be trying to influence Firae politically now. Before marrying him. Maybe even without marrying him. I wouldn't give up just yet, Blaine."

Blaine realized that he had been holding his breath. He let it out slowly.

"Are you saying...I don't think...I mean, Kurt hasn't even come to visit me yet, and it's been three days. I know he won't let Firae kill me, but I don't know. I figured maybe he was feeling really conflicted, and-"

"Oh, he's feeling conflicted all right," Puck cut in. "But it isn't about how he feels about you. It's about what he should do. It's about what his options are. Also, I think Firae has been intentionally keeping Kurt as busy as possible so he can't find time to come and see you. But today, Firae has an important meeting with some delegates from the High Midlands. And Kurt's my friend. He tells me things."

"Um, such as?"

"Such as the fact that he's coming to see you this afternoon. So I think you should give yourself a shave and then let me take you to the community baths, because you are frankly starting to stink, and you don't want to kill Kurt's boner for you."

Blaine didn't even give Puck a disgusted look at his choice of language. He was still trapped in the first part of the statement.

He's coming to see you this afternoon.

Kurt was coming to see him. Kurt was actually coming to see him.

Blaine ran to the mirror and flinched slightly at his own reflection.

"Puck," Blaine said desperately, "I look like hell."

"Yes you do," Puck agreed. "Which is why I suggested that you bathe."

Blaine began taking things out of the cabinet next to the stone bowl with the water spout.

"What should I use? What does this do? Can I shave with this?"

Blaine held up a bottle of slightly rose-tinted fluid.

"Um, I would not recommend shaving with that, Blaine."

"Why not?"

"It's oil of-" and when Puck said the name, Blaine felt himself blush. Puck had spoken the name of the red flower that he and Kurt used together. "I don't know what the Villaluan name for it is."

"I'm...not sure there is one. But I know what it is, yes."

Puck's face spread into a filthy smile. "Yeah, I'll just bet you do. Well, that's here for you to use...even if Kurt won't bone you right now, you can take care of your own needs, right? But yeah, shaving with it is probably a bad idea. Here, if you use this powder, you can mix it with water and it makes a kind of foamy paste..."

Puck familiarized Blaine with all of the products, and then graciously changed Blaine's bedding and set a simmering pot of something fresh and sweet-smelling on top of the cabinet while Blaine shaved. After shaving, Puck brought Blaine out of his cell for the first time since he had set foot in Cloudlen.

"I'm just saying, Firae, that it might be a good idea if I started attending some of these meetings with you," Kurt stated casually as the two took a morning stroll through the gardens of the Great Hall.

Firae chuckled. "You never cared about politics before," he said for what felt like the eight-hundredth time.

"Yes, I know. And now I do," Kurt snapped.

Firae's smile faltered. "It's just...strange to try and get used to," he said. "Before, you always said that I could worry about affairs of state and you would worry about keeping our home filled with music and flowers."

Kurt sighed. "There's more to life than music and flowers, Firae. I wish I could have learned that in a different way."

Firae squeezed his hand. "Me too," he said softly.

Kurt squeezed back. "Firae, if you still want me to be your other King..."

"Of course I do," Firae said without hesitation.

"Well, wouldn't it make sense for me to familiarize myself with what a King does? I'm not the sort to just host luncheons and plan concerts anymore, Firae. And if that means I'm no longer the sort of man you want to be with..."

"Kurt," Firae said gently, "stop." He tugged on Kurt's hand to still him.

"You are exactly the sort of man I want to marry. You are the only sort of man I want to marry. But Kurt...affairs of state, they...what I mean to say is, you..."

Kurt glared at him. "Are you trying to say that I'm not clever enough to participate in the running of the Queendom?"

"No. I am not trying to say that at all. I...all right, Kurt, I am going to be honest with you. You never paid much attention to your history or social policy classes, and you never paid very much attention to current events outside of which flowers and perfumes were in fashion, and don't look at me like that, because you know what I'm saying is true."

"You're saying I'm too frivolous to participate in the running of the Queendom."

"I'm saying I'd feel more comfortable with finding you a tutor before you delve into the sort of complex and delicate matters that affect hundreds of thousands of lives, Kurt."

Kurt sighed, stroking a petal on the tall orange flower beside him with his thumb.

"How long will that take?" he asked.

"Are you in some sort of hurry?" Firae asked in a teasing tone.

"Well...yes. Sort of." Firae arched an eyebrow at him. "It's the non-interference doctrine, Firae. It's...it's the slavery in Villalu, and the mess at the border, and-"

"It's an immutable doctrine, Kurt."

Kurt scoffed. "So-called immutable doctrines have been overturned before, Firae."

"Such as?"

Kurt scowled at him.

"Let's find you a good tutor, and then we can come back to this discussion, all right?"

Kurt smiled slightly. "All right. But I get to choose my tutor."

Firae laughed. "You are such a spoiled brat!"

"You don't know the half of it," Kurt replied with a smirk, "because there is only one tutor that is good enough for me to accept."

Firae shrugged. "Fine. Whoever you want, Kurt."

"Thank you. There is someone I'll be needing you to pardon from exile."

Firae gaped at him.

"I told you you didn't know the half of it," Kurt said with a laugh, as he strode back toward the Great Hall.

The baths of Cloudlen were like nothing Blaine had ever seen.

It had taken he and Puck about twenty minutes to walk to them, Blaine losing the thread of Puck's constant monologue fairly often but never finding it difficult to disguise his daydreaming; Puck's discussion topics never strayed far from sex, drunkenness, or Puck's own prowess at everything he touched, his two favorite subjects included.

Cloudlen was beautiful.

There were houses that reminded Blaine of the plant-mounds in S'aufa, but these seemed larger and more complex. There were also homes built into the enormous stems of flower-trees, and even a couple of small rock caves.

The most impressive structure by far, however, was the Great Hall. Six enormous flower-trees anchored the Hall, their canopies of translucent white petals joining together into one mass against the vivid blue sky. Each trunklike stem comprised a tower , and between the trees were innumerable vines, laced together tightly to form the hall itself. The flowers that dotted these vines were of every color Blaine had ever seen, and some that he never had. The vines grew to just below the canopy of white petals, suggesting at least three floors within the Hall itself.

Blaine desperately wanted to see the inside of the Hall as well. Partly out of a pure sense of curiosity and wonder, but also to secure proof that Kurt was, indeed, staying in his own room rather with Firae as Puck had claimed.

But all thoughts of the hall fled from his mind when Blaine caught his first true glimpse of the baths.

He had seen them off in the distance, obscured by foliage, from his cell in the tower, but he hadn't realized what it was that he was seeing.

As he and Puck reached the crest of a large hill a ways before the baths, Blaine froze, gasping in wonder. Puck chuckled. "Beautiful, aren't they?"

They were.

From their vantage point atop the hill, Blaine could see the baths in their entirety. To his right, there was another large hill, the crown of it almost entirely taken up by an enormous crater in the ground. The crater was filled to the brim with sparkling water the color of Kurt's eyes. On the left-hand side of the crater, several rivulets and small waterfalls veered off, traveling down the hill and pausing to feed smaller pools of the same sparkling water, before continuing on their path. The gentle slope of the hillside was dotted with too many small pools for Blaine to count. After leveling off, the streams re-joined and ended in a second enormous crater full of gleaming, fresh water.

After gazing for a moment, Blaine noticed something about some of the figures he saw frolicking in the pools.

Some Sidhe were using the streams to float downward, from stream to stream. And some, in other streams, seemed to be floating upward.

"Puck...how..."

Puck laughed again, taken with Blaine's overwhelming awe at the scene before them.

"The water-bearers, Blaine. We probably have the most talent east of the Western Midlands. Our baths are world-renowned."

"Not in Villalu," Blaine muttered, bitter that he had spent his life in such a harsh, bland place.

"Well, Villalu isn't really the world, Blaine. It's more like..."

"More like someplace you all would rather not think about."

"Exactly," Puck responded brightly. "Now come on, let's get wet, bitch!"

Blaine tried not to snort with laughter. He would have to find out who exactly had taught Puck to speak Villaluan. He wondered if Puck really understood what he was saying half the time.

Gazing after Puck as he scurried across the rocks in their path, Blaine considered.

Perhaps it was possible that Puck didn't really understand what he was saying. But if so, it was probably just because he hadn't managed to learn anything more crass or offensive, and was just making do with what he had.

The baths were lovely. They were even prettier up close than from the hilltop, and the smell of flowers scented the air heavily. Blaine saw bushes of the same puffy white flowers that had made a sort of soap for Kurt and himself in the stream at the shrine.

Several Sidhe were walking about, naked and unselfconscious beneath the midday sun. Blaine couldn't help but blush slightly and try to avert his eyes. He fidgeted with his own clothing before quickly pulling his tunic over his head.

"Hey, Blaine!" Blaine looked up without thinking, horrified to see Puck bounding toward him completely naked, his cock bouncing with each footfall. Blaine looked away, crimson.

"Oh Gods, Blaine, just strip already. You're acting like a virgin at Beltane."

Blaine was about to ask what Beltane was when Puck leaned in a little too close.

"Okay, look. Chances are, a lot of these ladies are going to think you're the most adorable thing they've ever laid eyes on. This is your chance to convince me to give you and Kurt a little alone time later today. So just look for red bracelets, all right?"

Blaine blinked. "Red bracelets?"

Puck held up his wrist. Blaine supposed he had noticed the bracelet before, but he hadn't paid it much attention. It was simply three small red gems threaded into braided twine. "It's...uh...an indicator of relationship status? You guys have something like this, don't you?"

"We have wedding rings," Blaine ventured with a shrug. "To signify marriage. It's usually only the women that wear them, though."

"Then how do the ladies know whether or not a man is available?"

Blaine shrugged. "Villaluan society involves a lot of...navigating for women."

Puck snorted. "No thank you. This pretty little bracelet has gotten me more action than your tiny human mind could handle, friend."

"What does it mean exactly? That you've committed yourself to a life of random, anonymous sex?"

Puck laughed heartily. "More or less. Without the commitment part. We of the red bracelet avoid commitment in all forms, even to the red bracelet itself."

Blaine wanted to ask what the other indicators of relationship status were, but he realized that they could just as easily be having this very conversation in the water. Without giving himself a chance to think it through, Blaine quickly untied his boots and peeled off his trousers and undershorts.

The water was slightly warm, and clear as mountain air. There were small creatures flitting about beneath the surface, including what looked to Blaine like aquatic pixies, but none seemed to be the biting kind. The crater was carpeted with soft white sand.

And Puck was right. Before they could get into a discussion of the relationship signifiers in eastern Sidhe society, Blaine found himself enveloped in a crowd of cooing young Sidhe, both male and female, as well as some whose gender Blaine was unable to pinpoint.

Most of his admirers couldn't speak a word of Villaluan, giving Puck the opportunity to translate.

"I wish it were still legal to keep pets," Puck translated for a honey-haired woman, "you are the cutest thing I've ever seen." Puck finished with a wink.

Blaine scowled. "Tell her I'm very glad that keeping pets is illegal, and if she's so nostalgic for slavery, she'd probably just love living in Villalu."

"That answer doesn't inspire me to give you time alone with Kurt, Blaine."

"Fine," Blaine ground out. He smiled, placing a hand on Puck's shoulder and winking at the honey-haired Sidhe. "Tell her whatever you want to impress her, Puck," Blaine said in a cheerful voice, looking at the woman. "But could you please just ask all of them to stop touching my ears? It's making me feel a little cheap."

"If you have to feel a little cheap so I can feel a lot cheap, so be it, friend," Puck said, steering Blaine slightly to the right. "Now, straight ahead, brown hair, brown eyes. See her? Go let her play with your ears. I'll be right over to chuckle and good-naturedly scold you."

"Like I'm a dog?" Blaine demanded, deeply offended.

"I don't even know what that is."

"Dogs are kept as pets."

"Oh. Then, no. Not like a dog."

"I don't mean pet in the sense that you probably think I do. There is no...mind control, or...or sex or anything. They're just simpler creatures than us and we train them and keep them as companions..."

Puck continued to look confused.

"Kind of like...grimchins?" Blaine guessed.

"Oh. Then, yes. Go be like a house grimchin with cute ears. Do dogs have cute ears?"

"Um, actually, yes. Most of the time."

"A dog it is, then. Go be a dog."

"I think I might have preferred Brec," Blaine muttered, as he went over to let yet another woman with a red bracelet play with his ears.

The things he would endure for a bit of time alone with Kurt.

When Puck finally brought Blaine back to his cell, Kurt was waiting for them.

Blaine was pleased that he had brought a change of clothes with him to the baths, and was now looking reasonably fresh and presentable and as fetching as he could manage without turning himself into a burgundy-eyed Sidhe King.

"Hi," Blaine said softly, as Puck unlocked the door to his room to let the three of them in.

"Hi," Kurt returned with a smile.

"All right, then," Puck said, glancing between the two of them, unsure if either man heard him over the intensity of the gaze they shared.

"So, I'm going to go have a little visit with the lovely young woman you introduced me to at the baths, Blaine."

"Mmmmm." Blaine didn't so much as roll his eyes or snarkily inquire as to which young woman Puck was referring.

"And...you both know that if Firae finds out I left the two of you alone..."

"Uh huh," Kurt responded dreamily.

"Kurt!" Puck grabbed his arm and pulled him around to look at him.

"Puck, stop manhandling me!" Kurt huffed, pulling his arm free. "Yes, I heard you. Thank you for doing this, I will make sure that Firae doesn't find out, and now I would like you to please go away."

"All right. I'll be back a little before Kiiz's shift," Puck mumbled, referring to one of Blaine's two other guards.

"The gods will be singing your tale across generations," Kurt responded absently, waving Puck away with his hand.

As soon as the sound of Puck's footsteps had receded a bit, Blaine flat-out launched himself at Kurt. Kurt caught him in his arms without a second's hesitation, and then somehow they were kissing with feverish desperation, Kurt already steering them toward the bed.

"Kurt," Blaine breathed, as Kurt's lips moved to his neck. "Kurt, I...do you...I don't know if...oh, God, Kurt..."

The backs of Blaine's knees bumped against the edge of the bed and they tumbled onto it, tangling together completely.

Blaine was lost. He was so lost, he didn't know if he could ever find his way out of the beautiful haze that was the sight and scent and feel of Kurt, real and solid in his arms. But he had to try. He knew he had to try.

Because Blaine knew exactly what Kurt was to him. But he had come to realize that he didn't know what he was to Kurt at all.

With a magnitude of focus and self-discipline that would have stunned his instructors at the Academy, Blaine pushed Kurt off of him, his palms flat against his chest to keep him an arm's length away. Kurt's eyes were wild with equal parts lust, shock and confusion.

"Kurt," Blaine said evenly, forcing himself to breathe normally. "We can't just...I need to know what's going on. Between us and...and you and Firae."

Kurt's eyes flickered, and Blaine's heart sank when he saw the familiar retreat. Iron gates crashing behind the gorgeous pools of blue, locking him up tight, rendering those expressive eyes utterly and completely unreadable.

"Blaine, I told you...from the very start, I told you that it was complicated. I told you that I couldn't stay with you. I just...what do you want from me?"

"You're asking me that again?" Blaine responded softly, his voice bruised with pain. He dropped his hands from Kurt's chest and moved into a sitting position, scooting backward until his back was flush against the curved wall.

Kurt bit his lip to keep it from shaking. Back at that very first clearing, after Blaine had passed out from riding so hard to get Kurt away from Dronyen's palace, Kurt had asked him that. There had been no trust, no reason for Kurt to believe that Blaine wasn't simply another human man who wanted him for one twisted purpose or another. At the time it hadn't occurred to Kurt that Blaine might want only to help him. And to love him.

And now? Now Blaine was essentially asking Kurt what he wanted, and Kurt was shutting him out and denying him the trust he had so undeniably earned. He was acting like Blaine was the one that owed him an explanation, as if Blaine hadn't spent the past three days in a cell without any communication from Kurt after watching Kurt walk away from him, hand-in-hand with his former fiance.

Kurt winced in the face of his own selfishness.

"I'm sorry," Kurt said with a sigh, reaching for Blaine's hand and flinching when Blaine drew it back from him.

"Blaine, please."

Blaine clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, taking a moment to breathe before responding.

"Please what?" He finally whispered, opening his eyes to look at Kurt.

"Please what, Kurt? Please just shut up and while away the hours in this fucking tree trunk while you traipse around making wedding plans and stopping in to see me every now and then when you want to get laid?"

"Blaine!"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Blaine very nearly roared.

"Because I didn't...I didn't want to ruin everything! I just wanted to be with you while...while I could."

"So you were doing it for yourself, without regard to how it would make me feel."

"Blaine, no. I...I told you it couldn't last! When I told you that I love you, I also told you that it didn't change anything. I tried not to tell you at all, but you just pushed and pushed..."

"All right. So I pushed. But I just..."

Blaine trailed off, and a thick blanket of silence fell across them. They didn't look at one another. Neither could bear it.

"Kurt," Blaine finally said gently, all traces of anger gone from his voice. "When we were together in Villalu, even though you knew that you were coming back here, you were mine, weren't you? Completely?"

"Yes," Kurt whispered.

"And now?"

Kurt wiped a tear from his cheek. "I don't know."

"But...is there even a chance, Kurt? Even the tiniest chance that we could still be together?"

"Blaine...I'm sorry. But I don't even know that. I don't think...I can't see how...I just don't know, Blaine."

Blaine nodded, fighting back his own tears.

"Okay. When you do know, Kurt, let me know. But in the meantime...if I'm going to be stuck here, I do want you to visit, all right? But just...just to talk. I won't share you with him, Kurt. I love you so much it's physically painful sometimes, but I can't share you because that would probably kill me."

Kurt nodded silently and stood up to leave. When he reached the doorway he paused to look at Blaine. Blaine continued to avoid looking him in the eye.

"I understand," Kurt said. "And I...I never wanted to hurt you. But I think you're right, and I have been selfish. Because even though I didn't want to hurt you, I knew that I would. And I gave myself to you anyway, because I wanted it. Because I wanted you. I'm just...I'm so sorry, Blaine."

"It was worth it," Blaine murmured. "Even if this is how it ends, it was worth it to be with you, Kurt."

Kurt swallowed. "Of course it was worth it. It was more than worth it. I don't think I'll ever stop loving you, Blaine."

Blaine finally looked up and met Kurt's eyes. They only held the gaze for a few seconds before it became far too painful to endure.

And then, feeling like he was held together by the most frail and delicate threads imaginable, Kurt left, closing the cell door firmly behind him before allowing himself to completely fall apart.