Quinn and Brittany, his new step sisters were both very blond and very beautiful and Kurt officially met them the morning after the wedding when they arrived in a carriage with all of their belongings. He and Carole had cleaned out two of the guest rooms for the two girls the day before, but when they were shown the rooms they neither thanked he or Carole, or looked particularly pleased. But they said nothing. It gave Kurt hope that maybe they wouldn’t be horrible to have around.

Their mother, Lady Terry, was quiet and she moved around the house without saying a word but looking and examining everything. Kurt hadn’t liked how she eyed the few things of value that his father hadn’t sold because they were his mother’s. But when her stuff had all been put in the bedroom she would share with his father, she had locked herself in the room. Not once did she speak a word.

Most of his mom’s stuff had been moved into one of the servant’s rooms and Kurt had made sure that the room was locked. The key he’d given to Carole for safe keeping. A few trinkets he’d kept for his own and he had them in his room as mementos to her. Still, though, he hated the idea of Lady Terry taking her place in the house and putting her things where his mother’s had gone.

He sneaked away when everything had calmed down some and only told Carole where he was going. He then walked towards the palace to meet Blaine and tried to keep a leisurely pace even though he wanted to run there.

The prince was already waiting for him when he approached. He was leaning against a white fence, but he stepped off when he saw Kurt. Kurt was glad to see that he was out of costume and wearing his usual clean clothes, with his sword at his side.

“Hello,” he said. Kurt grinned and repeated the greeting. For a small moment the two of them stood awkwardly.

“Come on,” Blaine said and motioned towards the stable behind him. “Riding has always managed to take things off my mind and it might help you too.”

The last time that Kurt had ridden a horse had been years before and he’d done so with his mother when they were visiting the elves while his father traded. It had been a nice trip, but of course it had ended badly when someone from their party had jokingly ordered him to go into the woods and Kurt had of course done it. His mother had been furious, but could do nothing to stop his father from yelling at him for sneaking away and not telling anyone. Sometimes Kurt wished his father knew about the curse too, but his mother had forbidden him from telling anyone and that included him.

“Have you ridden before?”

“When I was much younger,” Kurt replied. After that trip, he hadn’t ridden a horse again. There hadn’t been a reason to.

“It’s easy,” Blaine said, “I’ll let you have Margaret, she’s very gentle and well trained – one of my favorites.”

Blaine of course had his own horse, a white majestic stallion named Pavarotti. He neighed when they walked in and Blaine immediately reached up to rub his head. Kurt had seen the horse before, when the prince went hunting with his father and the knights or when they visited the neighboring kingdom, Carmel, and Queen Shelby and her son Jesse. They’d be going there again soon.

They saddled the horses and Blaine helped Kurt get on Margaret who was a little smaller than Pavarotti and a chestnut colored horse. Then they were off at a trot. Blaine led them away from the castle towards the wooded area and the river. Their horses walked next to each other and the ride was everything that Kurt had wanted. It took him right out of his head and his worries.

The trees kept the sun from shining on them, so it wasn’t hot and the birds and sounds of the river were peaceful. Kurt could understand how Blaine would find riding his horse calming. They also got to talk again.

“I’ve been hearing stories about you for years now,” Blaine admitted. “Your cook loves talking about you and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen.”

“Oh,” Kurt said, “what do you know?”

“I know you’re sometimes clumsy, and that you’ve dressed up like your mother once to help out a friend. I also know that you’re like me.”

Kurt felt his face warm up. He’d never felt that he was naturally clumsy because most instances when he had been was when he was trying to resist the curse. The time he’d broken all those dishes at Tina’s house for instance had been because he was told to run after the dog. He’d run into the cook and she’d dropped all the dishes she was holding and then bumped into a table where the rest of them sat and they had fallen too. Her mother had later paid for new ones.

Dressing up as his mother had been yet another order, but that one had been done willingly and it was Carole who was doing the ordering. Carole and his mother had ordered him around a lot. Mostly for your own good orders that mothers always wanted their children to do, or chore orders that he would have tried to ignore and not do otherwise. But they had never abused their power. Kurt’s greatest fear was that one day someone would discover it and use that power against him to order him to do something horrible.

But there was no breaking the curse. At least, that’s what Carole always told him. “A fairy has to remove it, sweets,” she’d said, “and fairies never take back their gifts, they would be offended of you to even ask.”

Kurt had never met a fairy before. The fairy at the wedding the night before had disappeared almost as soon as Kurt had hid and Kurt still didn’t know what kind of gift she’d given his father and his new wife. But nothing seemed to be wrong yet.

“I’m like you?” Kurt asked.

Blaine nodded. He seemed shy all of a sudden and Kurt was thrown by that because so far Blaine had seemed like he couldn’t be afraid of saying anything. Somehow this was important enough for him to be worried about Kurt’s reaction to it.

“Yes. Um, your mom said you weren’t interested in maidens like you’re supposed to be interested in them.”

Kurt understood at once. He was a little upset about his mother sharing something so private like that, and at the same time amazed because he never would have expected that the prince would share that with him.

“I’ve never told anyone,” Blaine said, “just your mother. She told me it was perfectly okay. I don’t think my dad will really understand – I don’t think I can marry another man if I want to have an heir.” He peeked over at Kurt, then, “you can marry anyone.”

It wasn’t true. Kurt couldn’t marry anyone. His mother had never said it, but Kurt knew the kind of liability that he was to anyone that was associated with him with his curse. Suddenly he hated that Blaine had told him he too was only interested in men because – and Kurt hadn’t even been considering this – he had a chance with Blaine to be more than just friends and even though Kurt had never thought it’d be possible he mourned that nothing could actually happen between them.

“My mother used to say that she knew when all I wanted was to wear her heels when I was three. I think my dad knows too.”

Blaine grinned and they looked at each other. All his worries banished with one look from Blaine.

“It still won’t be easy for me,” Kurt said, “you know not a lot of people will accept it. And there’s not many of us.”

Blaine bent his head, still smiling. “We found each other,” he said.

Kurt couldn’t help but smile back.