Chapter Three

Blaine sat nervously on the sidelines, a tentative smile playing on his lips as he drank in his surroundings. The music was loud, the people were even louder, but the real, honest joy was something else entirely… There was dancing, singing, laughing, drinking – all mixed up in a cacophony of colour and life, clashing and colliding in sprays of brilliance and pockets of light.

And Kurt glowed all the brighter for it. Up in Blaine's world, Kurt had handled himself perfectly, with a cool aloofness and confident demeanour, as if he had been born to it. But down here… down here, he was radiant. Kurt's high laugh carried easily over the raucous crowd, helping to put Blaine slightly more at ease.

He couldn't help but feel like everyone was staring at him, though…

The music dulled to a point, and the dancers broke. Kurt bowed elegantly to the little girl he had been twirling expertly across the boards, and practically skipped over to where Blaine was sitting. Blaine watched in growing terror and awe (mostly terror) as Kurt bent slightly at the waist, and offered Blaine his hand, his face aglow with a cheeky smile, "Well? You can't sit there all night! Will you dance with me or not?"

Blaine just shook his head dumbly, "You cannot be serious. Kurt… Kurt, no!" Blaine protested, even as Kurt was dragging him to his feet with a firm grip, pulling him up.

Blaine's heart pounded in his chest as the drums began to beat once more, the vibrations tearing through him as the reality of what Kurt was making him do seized his mind. But then Kurt's arms stubbornly pulled him closer, and they slotted into the press of people, "You can't dance standing half a mile away from me!"

"I can't dance with you! I…I don't know the steps!"

Kurt laughed sweetly, seeing right through Blaine's protests, "No one will care, Blaine! Besides, neither do I – just go with it!"

And then Blaine was spinning, being pulled at breath-stealing pace by the thrumming music and Kurt's guiding hands. As Blaine began to let the music wash over him, he started to relax. The steps became easier, and he realised just how much people weren't staring at them. At least, not in that way. Because why would they? They were just two young men, dancing to a jig amidst a crowd of people.

Just two friends. Of course.

Kurt's hair caught in the cabin lights, shining with flecks of gold, while his ocean eyes never left Blaine's face once.

Just friends.

They span, they danced, they caught the attention in all the right ways of the people around them; light footed and young. Blaine couldn't comprehend just how graceful Kurt was on his feet. He was stunning to watch.

Blaine stumbled to the side as the music gave pause, narrowly avoiding the massive crushing feet of Kurt's rather less co-ordinated brother. He snagged a drink from the table, and drank it from nearly full, pausing only when he realised how Kurt and Finn were staring at him incredulously. "What?" Blaine smirked playfully, "A first class boy can't down a pint?"

Kurt shook his head, looping his arm around Blaine, "Oooh, no. I have no doubts in your ability to drink. It's the consequences I'm thinking of…"

Finn grimaced, "I told you this would end badly, Kurt."

Blaine wasn't really sure what Finn was talking about, so he simply ignored the absurdly tall man.

Three more pints and two victorious arm wrestles later against the shocked Puck, and Blaine could categorically say, as he grasped Kurt's hand and swept him into yet another dance, that it was the best night of his life.

Blaine sat out on the private promenade of his family's suites, humming a tune absently as he made small notations in his pocket book.

A hand slammed against the wall an inch from his ear, and Blaine's head span, still rather delicate from slightly too much alcohol. "Oops, I'm sorry, Blaine. Did I startle you? Or perhaps you are still feeling the effects of your frivolities with the unwashed masses last night?" Sebastian loomed over Blaine, looking completely unremorseful.

Blaine squirmed out of his chair, stumbling slightly as he got to his feet, "What I do with my evenings is none of your concern. What did you do, have me followed?"

Sebastian shook his head, smiling coldly at the younger man, "Oh, Blaine. When will you get it through that pretty little head of yours? Everything you do is my concern. I'm here to make sure you toe the line, little brother." In a flash, Sebastian had darted forwards, using his considerable height advantage to smash Blaine into the table, his hands fisted tightly at his collar, "While you are on this ship, you will obey and respect me, is that clear? You will play your part, or I will make you."

Blaine's heart beat wildly in his chest as Sebastian's words chilled him to the core. He couldn't move, and not just because Sebastian held him down. He was frozen. There was something in Sebastian's eyes that truly scared him.

Sebastian took Blaine's lack of response as an agreement, and nodded, pulling himself up and brushing himself off casually as if nothing had happened, "Good. I expect to see you at dinner."

Blaine's legs felt like jelly, and his stomach felt sick, not helped any from the headache he had awoken with. He slid to the floor, dazed. Unsure of how long he sat there, it was the sharp tap of heels on wood that drew Blaine's attention. He watched with dull eyes as his mother walked up to him and hitched her skirts up, bending to pick up the tiny bound book from the deck where it had fallen, a few feet away from Blaine.

She stood, placing the little book down on the table with a pointed snap of leather on wood. "You need to stop this, Blaine. You are not a child anymore."

"You say that as if I am unaware, Mother." Blaine replied listlessly.

He listened as she sighed in frustration, sitting down on the chair next to him, her skirts brushing Blaine's knee. Her voice dropped, barely audible over the hum of the engines and rush of the waves, "Have you any comprehension of what you are risking, behaving as you are? What kind of shame it would bring down upon your family, were people to even start thinking that you..?"

Blaine flinched at her words and self-serving tone, "I will do my duty, Mother, don't you worry about that."

"See that you do, Blaine. And maybe then I might be able to overlook some of your numerous sins." She rose, twisting a finger for a moment on the cover of the little pocketbook, as if she intended to take it with her, but then thought better of it. "You will thank me one day. You will see that I know what is best for you. And you will do me this one courtesy, and not see that boy again. "

Blaine just nodded, his brief spark of life from the previous night already snuffed out.

Kurt jiggled his foot nervously, waiting for his moment as he stood against a lifeboat in a poor disguise. He had been trying to see Blaine all day without success, unable to get the vibrant man out of his mind. Seeing his chance, he darted forward, snatching Blaine by the elbow and hauling him into the deserted ship gymnasium. He felt Blaine's breath quicken against him, "Kurt! What are you doing?"

Kurt just shrugged helplessly, "I had to see you… I needed to talk to you." Kurt felt his words stick in his throat, because, God, he was in too deep now, and what if he had been completely mistaken? What if the idea of thinking of Kurt as anything other than a friend hadn't even crossed his mind?

Blaine bit his lip, his amber eyes searching Kurt's unwavering gaze, "We can't do this, Kurt… We can't, and please don't ask me to…"

"Why?" Kurt asked, grasping Blaine's arms.

"Because it's wrong!" Blaine snapped back, "I'm engaged!"

"Now say it like you mean it." Kurt refuted.

Blaine let his head fall, breaking eye contact, because he couldn't do what Kurt asked of him. Instead, he murmured brokenly, "Please Kurt. Let me go."

Kurt's grip only grew stronger, "No. You jump, I jump, remember?" Blaine flinched at the reminder of the night they met, "I can't just walk away from you, Blaine. Not knowing I'd regret it for the rest of my life. Not knowing what it'll do to you if I let you go – if I just walk away and give you back to your family. You're kind Blaine, and full of a gentleness that will only become twisted and bitter as you grow old to find yourself trapped in a life you weren't born to lead, in a marriage that suffocates you, that forces you to live a lie. That's not who you are, Blaine."

"Kurt…"

"I'm not an idiot!" Kurt cut across him, determined to say his piece, "I know how the world works, and I know what it is to ask you to embrace a life that society says is wrong. But all I see now is a beautiful man who was born into a life he doesn't want to lead. They've got you trapped, Blaine."

Blaine's eyes darted rapidly as they took in every detail of Kurt's resolute expression, until he gently removed Kurt's hands from him, "I don't need you to save me, Kurt."

Kurt just shrugged, "What if I need you to save me?"

Blaine's movements stuttered, but at the last moment broke, as he pulled away, his voice cracking, "I have to go. Don't find me again."

In a blink, Kurt was standing along, a lead weight settling low in his chest.

Blaine felt like he was swimming through oil, drowning as the oppressive atmosphere tried to pull him under. Inane conversation and false smiles surrounded him, bombarding the blank façade he tried to maintain. Everything just seemed so infected, so fake. A poisonous tableau of what his life has amounted to, and what his life was to be until the day he died.

"Boys, calm yourselves! Honestly, Jonathan, set an example for your brother!"

"Yes, nanny, sorry nanny." The taller of the two boys replied contritely, capturing his much smaller brother around the waist to stop him from shooting off.

"Straighten your ties. You know how much it upsets your mother to see you like that." The nanny huffed exasperatedly, shaking her head as she turned away.

As soon as her back was turned, Blaine watched with a pain in his chest as the older of the two straightened the little one's tie gently, before promptly making a mess of his own, pulling a silly face that set the younger boy into a fit of giggles.

And Blaine knew that he couldn't do it. He couldn't do what they wanted, because the only person whose opinion he had ever truly cared about was gone, and Blaine knew that Cooper would hate the idea of a miserable life.

He had to find Kurt.

"I changed my mind."

Kurt jerked out of his thoughts, turning away from the ship's prow to look at the nervous young man standing a little way away, twisting his hands in front of him. A grin that Kurt could not control broke onto his face, and he had to take a moment to marvel at how this boy was really standing on front of him; tailored suit, slicked black hair and a shy smile.

"I'm sorry about earlier, I just-"

Kurt cut Blaine off with a finger to his own lips, effectively cutting off the panicked rambles before Blaine could get on a roll. Instead, he requested, "Take my hand." For a moment it looked like Blaine would protest, but then the tension seemed to bleed away as they stood, the only lone souls on the prowdeck, bathed in the setting sun. And as Blaine finally took that last leapt of faith and placed his hand in Kurt's, the world truly became just them, "Now, close your eyes."

It was a testament to Blaine's trusting and open nature that he did exactly as Kurt asked, letting the taller of the pair lead him forward. He didn't even frown when Kurt instructed him to take a step up onto the first rung, guiding his body into the position that it clearly needed to be in. Eyes still closed, Blaine couldn't stop himself from murmuring, "We'll cause quite the stir if we're seen…"

"Nonsense." Kurt breathed, "We're just two silhouettes against the sky to them. Two figures enjoying the view. Do you trust me?"

"I trust you." Blaine's reply was so sure, it blew Kurt away.

He made sure Blaine was steady, resting a hand gently on his waist, before whispering, "Open your eyes."

Kurt knew the precise moment when Blaine obeyed, because the shiver and stolen breath that ran through the body against him were unmistakable. "Kurt…" Blaine's voice was filled with awe and unbridled joy, "We're flying…"

Kurt just smiled, entwining his fingers about Blaine's own, resting his chin on the other boy's shoulder, humming a soft tune as the pair of them watched the splashes of reds and golds spray the sky with colour, staining the sea with a stunning shimmering fire, broken only by the first few pinpricks of white as stars began to peek out in veins of indigo.

And then Blaine twisted in his arms, an intense look in his eyes as he studied Kurt's face, "There you are." He breathed the words with a quiet wonder that made Kurt's brow twitch in question, "I've been looking for you forever…"

Blaine's whisper punched at Kurt's chest, and he was barely given a second's pause before Blaine had closed the last few inches, capturing Kurt's lips in a soul-stealing kiss that only the stars were witness.

It was their first sunset together, wrapped up in a joy that could be neither described nor measured.

It was also Titanic's last.

To Be Continued…