It turned out that the palace was just as impressive up close as it had been from afar. The closer they came, the more awed Kurt became. He'd read about the Charming Palace time and time again, heard about it from his parents and uncle, his grandmother and great-grandmother. But no amount of wordy descriptions could have prepared him for the sheer beauty of the smooth, porcelain-like material or the homey feel of the elegant, bright houses around it that were finally coming into view. Kurt had never thought he'd feel any desire to live in a wooden house covered in ivy but the sight in front of him was severely tempting.

By the time Blaine had gently pushed him past the guards, a soft smile on his gorgeous face as he studied Kurt's awed expression and the way he took everything in with curious, wandering eyes, Kurt had almost forgotten what had brought him here. He caught sight of the golden doors he knew led to the ballroom as Blaine ushered him up a set of stairs, feeling a pang of longing in his chest. That was the one room he'd wished he could visit and see with his own eyes more than anything every time he had read or heard Cinderella's story. He had pictured it in his mind so many times he wasn't even sure if he should take a look at the real thing, scared that it might not meet his expectations. Soon enough he was distracted by the plush red carpet his feet were sinking in and the abundance of family portraits of all Charming dynasties covering the walls though and didn't spend another thought on the haunting ballroom for now.

Blaine just let him stare without comment, guiding him into a cozy-looking room dominated by a fireplace so huge that Kurt couldn't help but gape at it. The furniture was so close to the dancing flames he was wondering for a minute why it hadn't caught fire just yet, until he noticed the servant standing in the corner, keeping a careful eye on everything. He smiled when he saw Blaine entering, raising his eyebrow barely noticeably at Kurt's presence.

"James, as you can see we have an unexpected guest. He's had a very tough journey and it'd be really polite of you if you could spare some of your time to bring us some tea and maybe a piece of cake," Blaine said, smiling back and ushering Kurt over to a seat close enough to the fire to warm him up thoroughly but not so close he felt like he was being roasted.

"Of course, Your Majesty. I trust you'll be looking out for the fire in the meantime?" James bowed slightly but rose back up with a wink. The polite tone and formal wording seemed to be more of a habit than a requirement or an indicator of their relationship with each other.

"Naturally. It would be most unfortunate if the palace were to burn down in your absence and it would be my fault."

Chuckling to himself, James left them on their own to fulfill Blaine's wish. As soon as he was out of the door, Kurt turned back to Blaine, eyes wide. "Your Majesty? You didn't really mention that when you introduced yourself. Should I have addressed you differently?"

"Well, I did mention that I'm a heir to the Charming Dynasty, didn't I?" Blaine chuckled, trying to sound nonchalant but Kurt could see the first traces of red appearing on his cheeks. "And I think after everything you told me it would be a touch too formal for you to address me by my official title, so don't worry about that."

"And what, exactly, would your official title be?"

"Prince of the Red Riding Hood Kingdom and nephew to the King of the Charming Kingdom, which is the reason for my presence at the palace."

"Oh God, I should probably-" Kurt almost fell over his own feet in his haste to get out of the chair he'd been sitting in and curtsy.

"Goodness, no, that's not necessary at all!" Blaine jumped out of his seat as well, gently pulling Kurt upright again and making him sit back down. "It's just a title, no need to make such a fuss about it. I'm sure it wouldn't even mean all that much in your world, from what you've told me."

"Actually, 'Prince' is still a very important title where I come from, though maybe not to the same extent," Kurt mumbled, obediently sinking back into his comfortable seat, thinking it better not to anger the prince by arguing further.

"Either way, I don't want you to feel like you can't just talk to me because of it, Kurt. You're a guest in this palace and while respect will be expected from you, just like from anyone else, nobody is going to ask you to curtsy for them or to address them with their full title."

"I- It's just- I've never met anyone royal before."

"Don't worry, you're doing just fine," Blaine laughed and he didn't look upset in the least, so Kurt relaxed back into the soft cushions of his chair, enjoying the warmth of the fire and the way it lulled him into letting go of the nervous energy that had had him buzzing ever since he'd stormed after Karofsky. For a while, they just sat there in companionable silence. With anyone else, Kurt might have called it awkward but somehow it wasn't, not with Blaine. There was some kind of connection between them Kurt couldn't honestly say he completely understood, but he was not about to question it. Maybe it was just that Blaine was one of the very few people he'd met that weren't family and still treated him decently or that he'd admitted to being gay as well.

Kurt had always had his suspicions of at least a good handful of students who might also lean towards their own gender, but none of them had ever taken the step and outed themselves to the school. He couldn't reproach them, it was basically social suicide in their high school. If he'd had the choice, he'd probably have tried to stay under the radar as well. But since everyone just happily assumed away and he'd been a target of ridicule ever since he'd admitted to his love for reading in elementary school, anyway, he'd decided early on to just own it. If they wanted to bring him down to feel better about their meaningless lives and nonexistent plans for the future? They might as well do it for all he was because he was done hiding parts of himself away in sophomore year. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction of handing them the power to suppress his real personality just so their small brains wouldn't be offended by someone who didn't share their interests and inclinations.

"You're being so silent," Blaine interrupted him after their tea and cake had arrived and he'd politely shooed James out of the room with a pleading look and an apologetic smile. "And you've been biting your lip all that time, so I'm just going to assume you weren't lost in happy thoughts."

"Not really, no," Kurt chuckled, not surprised when it came out more bitter than he'd intended it to. Blaine just looked at him, brow furrowed in concern before he slowly and very deliberately put his cup back down on the saucer.

"I don't mean to pry, feel free to tell me off if you don't want to talk about it," he began, eyes fixed on Kurt's and oh so beautifully earnest and kind. "But would you mind telling me more about your world? I've always been curious about what else is out there, outside of the boundaries of our lands and kingdoms. I want to better understand what you've told me earlier. And, most importantly, I want to know how this world managed to treat someone as bright and shining as you so unkindly."

Kurt couldn't help but blush at the compliment, praying in vain that Blaine wouldn't notice the pink in his cheeks. "That's very kind of you, but you don't have to say that. I'm not shining. Not yet." He smiled at all the plans he'd made for the future, the ones that would hopefully come true soon when he found his way back and was finally free to leave his oppressing home town. "But whatever you want to know, just ask. I'll do my best to satisfy your curiosity."

What Kurt hadn't expected was the flood of questions that followed this statement. Blaine wanted to know literally everything. How their society worked, how many countries there were, who was governing them, means of travel and communication and their hows and whys. He wanted to know about the education Kurt had received and how representative it was of what most children and adolescents in his world received. He wanted to know about the role of royalty and the currency and economy, about wars and hunger and diseases and human rights.

Somehow Blaine even managed to weave questions about Kurt's family and friends into the sometimes very arbitrary succession of topics. He asked about Kurt's plans for the future once he thought he'd understood the basic workings of his world and Kurt felt his breath catch in his throat when Blaine looked just as fascinated and interested in anything Kurt had to say about himself and his admittedly rather boring life (so far) than he did in the complicated workings of the globalized, modern day society he'd described.

Kurt was well aware that he sometimes got a little absorbed in his explanations, that he gesticulated too dramatically, spoke too high-pitched or too quickly, jumped from thought to thought. Even his own family had often had to tell him to slow down and take a deep breath and his uncle Connor had never been afraid to not-so-subtly switch the topic when Kurt's descriptions got out of hand. He often lost people at some point in conversation, but Blaine just sat there and listened and looked so very attentive, like he was absorbing every word, like anything Kurt had to say was the single most interesting fact he'd ever come across. In all honesty, it was almost more unsettling than someone just plainly interrupting him and Kurt had no idea how to deal with it.

He'd talked so much that the tea was long gone and the stars were shining bright from where he could see them, his mouth feeling parched and like it was filled with cotton when he finally stopped. Even his arms started to feel tired from all the gesticulating he'd done, the images he'd tried to draw into the air for Blaine as he explained. For someone who'd grown up knowing nothing else it was really difficult to describe things that, for him, were almost as natural as breathing to someone who'd never seen anything like it, or even close to it. How did you explain the workings of a television or a computer to someone who had a hard time imagining electricity? By the time Blaine's endless curiosity was satisfied enough for the day Kurt was almost exhausted from just sitting around in a comfortable chair by a warm fire and talking to someone with that person really listening for the first time in quite a while.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry, Kurt!" Blaine gasped as he took a look out of the window, looking like he only now noticed how late it had gotten and how long they'd been talking. Or rather, how long he'd asked questions and Kurt had answered them extensively. "I shouldn't have kept you up with my nagging questions for so long after the day you had. Excuse my inconsideration, I promise I'll make it up to you tomorrow. You can ask me all the questions you'd like then, if you want to."

"I'd like that," Kurt said quietly, a shy smile tugging at his lips as he looked over at Blaine and their gazes locked. It took him a while to notice that someone else had entered the room, even though he was facing the door. Assuming it would be James asking if they wanted to leave for their chambers now, Kurt only spared the door a quick glance out of the corner of his eye, until there was a flash of what was clearly the finest silk he'd ever seen in his line of vision. His eyes shot up to fully take in who had interrupted them- and his breath hitched in his throat, a loud, echoing gasp escaping him as his heart stuttered in his chest.

Standing in the doorway was no one else than his favorite fairytale princess, his friend and companion of lonely, misunderstood childhood and sometimes adolescent days, the one story that would always leave him feel warm and at home no matter how many times he'd read it. He probably should have figured out that it wasn't unlikely to come across her here since he was in the Charming Palace, after all, but somehow the thought had never occurred to him. It was only when Blaine was right next to him, his warm hand wrapped around Kurt's arm and his worried voice sounding a little distant in his ears although he was standing so close, that the thought occurred to Kurt that it might be a bit counterproductive and moreover undignified to suffocate in front of Queen Cinderella of all people.

"Blaine, my dear. Who's your guest?" she asked, smiling at Kurt and well, maybe starting to breathe again wasn't quite as easy as he'd thought it was.

"Aunt Ella, that's Kurt. He... somewhat involuntarily ended up here? I was just taking a walk in the gardens when I saw him literally fall from heaven, so of course I tried to catch him. He told me what had happened and how he'd come here, so I offered him to accompany me into the castle so he could warm up and eat and drink something to help with the shock. I think we lost track of time, we've been talking for so long. I'm sorry I missed dinner."

"It's fine, Blaine," she chuckled, sending another smile Kurt's way, an elegant brow raised. "He fell from the sky, you said?"

"Yes, he did. Well, you see, Kurt's... out of this world. Quite literally and in every sense of the word." Blaine grinned at Kurt, briefly tightening the loose grip on his arm.

"Out of this world, so." In a whirl of rustling, shimmering silk she strode over to them, delicately sitting down on Blaine's recently vacated seat and looking at them both expectantly, expression still friendly and inviting but a lot more intrigued now. "Kurt, you wouldn't happen to know a certain pair of siblings named Alex and Connor, would you?"

"I-" Kurt was distracted for a moment by the flickering light of the flames reflected by Cinderella's hair, trying to process the fact that she seemed to know his mother and uncle for some reason he couldn't quite fathom. "Yes. Yes. But how do you know them?"

"They came here, much like you did from what I've heard, quite a while ago. Actually, you remind me a lot of them, though they were much younger when they came here."

"So it was all true," Kurt breathed, eyes wide, unable to grasp the concept in his mind. All the stories he'd heard, about twins falling into a book when they were just kids? All those adventures, they'd actually been real? And they'd happened to his mother and uncle? He felt like he was less than a second away from hyperventilating and collapsing into his chair, in true drama fashion. How was this his life? He was just Kurt Hummel, the boy everyone mocked and loved to torture, son of a bookstore owner and a successful lawyer. If his parents had gone on adventures in the fairytale world, shouldn't his own life have been a little more adventurous as well? A little more exciting? Though he supposed falling through a magic book that was a family heirloom and chatting with Cinderella and an actual Prince Charming was at least a step in the right direction.

It was Cinderella's quiet laughter that shook him out of his scrambled thoughts. "I knew you looked familiar. Somehow, I don't have the impression you're Connor's son. Am I right?"

"Yes, yes you are," Kurt choked out, still a little breathless from this last revelation. "Alex is my mother."

"Did they ever tell you what happened here?"

"Yes, they did. But they didn't tell me it happened to them. They just... told it like a... like a fairytale," Kurt said, chuckling at the irony behind the words. Cinderella and Blaine smiled at him, seeming to get the joke as well.

"What happened to them when they got back? How are they?" So Kurt told her, trying to keep this conversation shorter than the one he'd led with Blaine because the events of the day caught up with him at last and he felt like he was two seconds away from falling asleep on his childhood idol. Only Blaine's warm, reassuring hand kept him grounded in the waking world long enough for James to bring them another tea that thankfully helped him wake up a bit again.

"But how do I get back home now?" Kurt wondered aloud after taking his last sip, setting the expensive porcelain back down on the saucer carefully. They'd been drinking in pensive silence until then. "Do I really need to set out and collect all those objects?"

"I fear that won't be an option, Kurt," Cinderella sighed, setting her cup down as well. "As far as I know, the Wishing Spell can only be used twice."

"But how will I get home then? I can't just stay here forever, everyone at home will be worried sick!"

"Well, my best guess is that you'll have to return the same way your mother and her brother did. You'll have to find the Fairy Godmother and ask her to take you back."

"It shouldn't be too difficult to convince her," Blaine threw in, gently squeezing Kurt's shoulder where he was still standing next to him. "I'm sure she'll gladly help you."

Cinderella nodded. "The difficult part will be finding her, I fear."

"Is she even here right now?" Kurt asked, feeling the panic rise back to the surface. "What if she's at the other end of the world and doesn't come back here for weeks?"

"Even is she isn't here, shouldn't the Fairy Council be able to contact her somehow?" Blaine inquired, eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm not sure if it works like that. But I think visiting the Fairy Kingdom might be your best shot."

"I could accompany Kurt," Blaine offered, deliberately avoiding his aunt's eyes. Before any of them could react to his statement, the door opened again and once more, Kurt's breath caught in his throat. The man entering looked so much like Blaine Kurt didn't even have to ask to know who it was. He seemed to have literally just stumbled out of the pages of Kurt's favorite fairytale, or maybe the screen of a Disney movie.

"I've heard we have a guest. Why did no one invite me to join your cozy little round?" he asked, eyebrow quirked but smiling in a way that made it clear that he wasn't really upset.

"I'm sorry, Dad, I guess we didn't think of it. This is Kurt," Blaine offered him a warm smile before he turned to face his father again.

"He's Alex's son," Cinderella threw in.

"Alex as in Alex and Connor?"

"The very same."

Kurt could actually see the king's eyes light up at that bit of information. He squirmed a bit in his seat when their gaze turned on him, feeling like he was being examined under a magnifying glass.

"Dad, stop it, you're making him uncomfortable," Blaine whispered, rolling his eyes at his father.

"I'm sure he'll survive." With a few long strides, the king had crossed the distance between them and held out his hand for Kurt to shake. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Kurt. Just call me Charlie. And may I say, you look quite a bit like your mother."

"Ch- Charlie? Charlie Charming, as in Froggy? I've heard so much about you, I've always wanted to meet you!" Kurt cried out, eagerly taking the offered hand. He was almost vibrating in his seat with nervous energy, way past the point of caring that he was behaving like a screaming fangirl. He couldn't even remember how he'd held back from doing the exact same thing when Cinderella had first walked into the room.

"The very same," Charlie laughed, good-naturedly shaking Kurt's hand and acting as if he didn't notice Kurt's wide-eyed staring. "I hope you only heard good things."

"The very best, in fact," Kurt chuckled, forcing himself to let go off the hand gripped in his after what was probably a little longer than what was deemed appropriate.

"Glad to hear it. So I figure Alex and Connor are fine?" And so Kurt slipped into another retelling of his mother's and uncle's lives, but this time around he didn't mind the minutes passing by at all. After all, the company just kept getting better and better, so it was more than worth the little sacrifice. Charlie looked determined by the time Kurt had finished his story with how he'd ended up here (he might or might not have edited out the parts where Karofsky forced a kiss on him, though; that was not information he needed to share with everyone around him).

"Yes, I guess it would be best if you set out for the Fairy Kingdom as quickly as you can. You should rest tonight and I'll let the servants know to prepare everything for your departure tomorrow. Blaine, I think it'll be a good idea if you accompany Kurt, though I'll have to talk it through with your mother."

"Do you really think that's necessary, Dad?" Blaine asked, suddenly shifting nervously on his feet where he was still standing next to Kurt. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I just-"

"Blaine Devon Charming," Charlie said, voice low and arms crossed threateningly over his chest. The only hints betraying his somber appearance were the quirked eyebrow and the beginning of a grin tugging at his lips. "Are you asking me to lie to your mother?"

"No! Just... Omit the truth for a while? Please, Dad, you know she'd want to come along and you know how she is. She wouldn't leave Kurt alone for a minute and I don't think that's what he needs right now."

"Well... I'm sure she's already gone to bed for the night. How about I don't wake her to ask her tonight and you leave early tomorrow?" Charlie winked at his son, shooting Kurt a playful smirk.

"That sounds like a deal to me," Blaine laughed, quickly shaking his father's hand in a business-like manner. Kurt watched their interaction raptly, only then realizing that the perfect, kind-hearted, painfully gorgeous prince he'd spent all evening and most of the night talking to was not only related to Cinderella on some level, but also the son of his favorite fairytale prince. He definitely knew what he'd be asking Blaine about tomorrow now.

It was silent for a while after their chuckles had ceased, the quiet only broken by a loud yawn from Kurt, who hid his face behind his hands in embarrassment once it registered what he'd just done - and, most importantly, who he'd done it in front of.

"Looks like our guest really should be led to his chamber," Charlie laughed, waving over one of the servants and giving him directions Kurt barely could bring himself to listen to. Stumbling a little when he got out of his seat, he simply followed the woman after having said his goodbyes to the royal family, not even really taking the time to admire his room before he let himself fall face-first into the soft, heavenly bed. Now that he finally had a comfortable place to rest, exhaustion rolled over him in waves, pulling him under hard enough that he didn't even care that he was falling asleep fully clothed (he hadn't even removed his shoes!) and without any semblance of a skin care routine or even brushing his teeth. He just surrendered himself to sleep, hoping this wouldn't just turn out to be a really weird, vivid dream in the morning.

Because it was by far the most exciting and terrifying thing that had happened to him so far in his life and even if that made him more than just a bit crazy, he felt like he needed it badly. He was aware of the dangers lurking everywhere, the obstacles on his way home, but he didn't really care in face of the thrum of life in his veins, screaming for the adventure. Kurt Hummel was ready to face whatever this world would throw at him, just as he'd always held his ground in his own. And with that reassuring thought, he finally let go and just let his body catch up on much-needed sleep.