Chapter Five

"Jesus!" Finn swore as he jumped from his bunk, his bare feet slapping into shallow water that snapped at his toes with an icy bite. He grabbed his boots, throwing open his cabin door to a panicked ruckus, seeing Puck not far down the corridor, pulling a thin sweater of his head, "Come on!" Puck called to Finn, "I'm not sticking around to find out what's going on!"

Finn nodded, "I'm not gonna argue." He looked about himself for a second, while still keeping pace with Puck, "But I need to find my brother!"

Puck shook his head, "Haven't seen him all day, and he wasn't around this evening." He clapped a firm hand on Finn's broad shoulder, his eyes holding a steely resolve, "Don't worry, we'll find him. But let's get up and out first!"

Kurt's stomach squirmed. He knew this was a bad idea, but he wasn't going to deny Blaine's request that they go and find his mother before heading down below to collect Finn. Blaine just wanted to make sure that she was okay, and let her know what had happened.

But still, Kurt couldn't quell the horrible churning sensation deep in his chest that had gripping him ever since he heard the bell.

Something was very, very wrong.

His fingertips brushed at Blaine's purposefully as they strode side by side down the first class corridor towards Blaine's suite.

"Well, look who finally showed their faces." Lovejoy, Sebastian's valet, rounded the corner, falling into step with them, his hand gripping Blaine's elbow tightly in a way that made Kurt's fists clench. Blaine was not their property. "Your brother has been very worried."

"Really?" Blaine replied mildly, shaking his elbow free, "Because I'm pretty sure that somewhere up above Cooper is laughing himself silly at the run around we just gave you."

Kurt smirked, but it quickly dropped from his face as they entered Blaine's rooms, not only to see Sebastian, but also serious looking crewmen. Blaine frowned, "What is going on here?"

"Ah. Finally." Sebastian looked up with a disdainful look.

"Is this the man, sir?" The officer of the crew looked between the pair.

"Yes. That's him." There was a look in Smythe's eyes that Kurt really didn't like, and his feelings were only amplified as two men yanked him aside, securing his arms.

"Hey! Get off me!"

"Kurt!" Blaine yelled in shocked protest, before turning to the other man, "Seb, what are they doing?"

"This is for your own good Blaine." Sebastian nodded to Lovejoy, who stepped up behind Blaine, grasping him around the chest and bodily dragging him towards the other room.

Realising what was happening, Blaine began to kick and yell, struggling against the much larger man, "No! Get off me! Kurt!"

Kurt strained against his own captors, "Blaine! Blaine, it'll be okay, I promise!" The door slammed, shutting Blaine off from Kurt's view.

Sebastian barely flinched as the drama unfolded, a satisfied air about him as he simply stared coldly at Kurt, carefully enunciating his words, "You can take that foul creature away now. I don't want him anywhere near my brother in law, and if I hear of but one rumour of what has transpired here in regards to Mr Anderson's part, I will destroy you all."

Kurt just shook his head furiously, "And what the hell is it that I'm supposed to have done?"

"You attempted to corrupt Blaine into your perverted lifestyle. When we dock, I will have you arrested for this. And I assure you, prison is not kind to artists such as you."

Kurt's mouth fell open, and he couldn't believe how his life was falling apart. "This won't work!"

Sebastian lurched forwards, seizing at Kurt's shirt, bringing their faces close enough that his hissed words were only audible to Kurt, "It already has. I always get what I want in the end. You have lost him."

And then realisation hit Kurt with the same impact as the iceberg on the hull. "Oh my God," Kurt breathed, barely a whisper, "You love him…"

While the words were left unheard by everyone but their target, Sebastian still pulled back and delivered a solid punch to Kurt's gut. As Kurt doubled over in pain, eyes watering, the men began to pull him away.

When the door finally slammed behind the crewmen, effectively cutting off Kurt's renewed shouts, Sebastian straightened, taking a brief moment to push a few loosened strands of hair from his face, before setting his jaw and striding forcefully into Blaine's bedroom. He gave a sharp nod to Lovejoy, dismissing him to make sure Hummel was detained effectively, and waited until they were alone.

He was pleased to see Blaine standing mute and still in the centre of the room, clearly having heard every word of the charges levied against Kurt. He shook his head, "You can't do this…"

There was a beat, and a silence, before Sebastian broke it with a resounding smack, backhanding Blaine heavily across the cheek, enough to make his head snap back, "Maybe you should have thought about that before you posed for that piece of 'art', you stupid little whore! Have you any comprehension of what this could do if it got out?"

"You found the drawing…" Blaine choked, wrapping his arms around his middle unconsciously, desperately wishing they were Kurt's.

Sebastian's eyes burned, and in that moment Blaine was honestly scared, but then the doors banged open, "Sorry to disturb you, sirs, but the Captain has ordered everyone on deck. Please put on your life jackets and wrap up warm."

"Can't you see we're busy?" Sebastian snapped, "Leave us be!"

"I can't do that, sir." The steward replied resolutely, "Captain's orders. May I suggest a hat and coat?"

Sebastian scowled, but complied. Blaine just followed the instructions numbly; unable to process what was happening. They found Blaine's mother easily in the grand foyer, and Blaine had to tune out everything. He couldn't listen to their petty words, his mother's irritated monologue especially turning his stomach.

His eyes caught on Mr Andrews, and felt a jerk in his heart. This man was perhaps the only other person around who looked as shell shocked and grim as Blaine felt. He sidled away from Sebastian, and caught the man's arm gently, "Mr Andrews?" The man turned, and smiled tiredly down at the young man he had grown accustomed to sitting with at dinner, their soft-spoken manners and honest opinions gelling easily. "I…I saw the iceburg... and I see it in your eyes. Please tell me the truth."

The man's face contorted, and he stepped down, gently taking Blaine's hands in an overly familiar gesture of kindness. His soft Irish brogue stuttered slightly as he replied quietly, "The ship will sink."

Blaine's stomach lurched, "You're certain?"

He nodded, "In a couple of hours, all this will be at the bottom of the Atlantic. Please, tell only who you must. I don't want to be responsible for causing a panic. But… don't wait. Get to a boat." Blaine stared at the older man as the chill hands around his own tightened, "You remember what I told you about the boats?"

And Blaine did; only earlier that day, before Kurt had found him, Blaine had been debating with Mr Andrews over the ethics of the lacking ratio of lifeboats to passengers. Realisation swept over him in a wave, and his eyes skimmed in disbelief over the crowd of oblivious passengers, "I won't take a place of another, but I thank you for your advice."

Mr Andrews shook his head, clasping a hand to Blaine's cheek, "You are hardly more than a boy in my eyes, and for that, I only ask that you try, if just for my piece of mind."

Blaine swallowed thickly, nodding as Mr Andrews walked away.

It wasn't long before they were up on deck, and lifeboats were beginning to be pulled into order, "Women and children, women and children first please! Orderly fashion, now, thank you!"

"This is absurd!" One woman scoffed to Blaine's right, not budging as she looked upon the boats disdainfully. "I haven't even had time to sent Alice to fetch my jewellery."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll recover!" Another woman cut over her shrewdly, her voice easily more powerful and commanding that some of the sailors, "Now why don't you sit that pert little behind of yours into that boat?"

Blaine had to smile despite himself, as Miss Sylvester stood not far away, directly women into the boats. "Let us be seated according to class?" Blaine twisted, staring incredulously at his mother's words. She turned to him, oblivious, "I hope it's not too crowded…"

"Oh Mother… Shut up!" She stared at him as Blaine grasped her arms, his voice taking on a forcefulness she was unused to coming from her own son, "Don't you understand? The water is freezing and there aren't enough boats. Half the people on this ship are going to die!"

"Not the better half…" Sebastian muttered. Blaine stared at him, his stomach sick as his mind was unable to dispel his memories of the night before, when he had danced with so many happy, shining souls.

His disgust was broken into as Miss Sylvester targeted Blaine's mother next, "Come on Ruth, get in the boat!"

"Go, Mother." Blaine muttered, not meeting her eyes.

"Blaine…" Her voice was odd, "Promise me you'll find a boat."

Blaine's eyes snapped up, his eyes fixed coolly and certainly on his mother from where she now sat in the lifeboat, "Women and children first. I believe third class is particularly full."

"Blaine! Blaine, no!"

The boat jerked slightly, and Blaine felt a comforting hand brush briefly against his arm for a moment, before Miss Sylvester walked down the deck to usher more idiot first class women into their awaiting boats. "Goodbye, Mother."

Blaine twisted on his heel, and stalked purposefully away, ignoring his mother's cries behind him. Sebastian caught hold of him, halting him in his tracks, "Where are you going?" Blaine's eyes told him all he needed to know, "To him? To be a whore to a gutter rat?"

Blaine shrugged, "I'd rather be his whore, than be related to you, even by marriage." Sebastian's grip slackened slightly in disbelief, and Blaine took his opportunity, escaping at a run.

Kurt tried to steady his breathing. He had been left alone, handcuffed to a pipe in the office of the Master at Arms. The water line had long risen past the porthole at Kurt's head, and he was sure he would scream himself hoarse, "Help! Can anyone hear me? Help!"

There was a rushing sound, and Kurt swore as water began creeping into the room at an alarming rate. He banged his handcuffs on the pipe even louder, wild panic gripping him as he wrenched at the solid iron, trying to pull it off the wall.

Water kept rising, biting cold, and Kurt tried to hum to himself in a poor attempt to keep his mind of his situation, and of his last memory of Blaine, being dragged away.

Speaking of Blaine…

The cold must have started to get to him, because he could have sworn…

No. He wasn't imagining it, "Blaine? Blaine! I'm in here! I'm in here!"

The door pushed against the rising water, and Blaine splashed in, "Kurt! Kurt, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have let them take you! I'm sorry!" Blaine waded towards Kurt, punctuating his apologies with desperate kisses as soon as he reached him.

"It's okay, it's okay Blaine. We're gonna be okay…" Kurt grinned in disbelief, taking in Blaine's uncharacteristic dishevelled appearance, "You need to get me out of these; you need to find a spare key, Blaine. Lovejoy took it with him, but it was little and silver-"

Blaine nodded, leaping to the task, cold fingers tearing at the cabinet of key sets, "These are all brass!"

"Try the drawers!"

Blaine turned the office upside down in record time, and yet still the water kept rising. "It's not here!"

Kurt swallowed down his intense urge to shiver, and kept his voice steady, "Blaine. Blaine, look at me. You need to go and find help, now. It'll be alright."

Blaine stared at Kurt, fear clear in his eyes, before he waded over and pulled Kurt into a searing kiss that dispelled some of the cold, "I'll be right back."

Weighted by his heavy, water soaked coat, Blaine began to make his way back up the flooding corridor, desperate to find someone, anyone…

He made it up onto the deck above, shivering violently, but determined. He would not let Kurt drown down there… His breathing came to him in short, sharp gasps as he searched, but the few terrified people he did bang into were just as scared and useless as he was.

The lights in the corridor stuttered, plunging Blaine into an inky darkness. In the pitch, Blaine's terror took hold, and he couldn't control his breathing. Oh God… he couldn't do this…Kurt was going to die and it would all be his fault! Tears stung at his eyes as an utter hopelessness seized him-

And warming glow spread along the corridor once more as the lighting recovered, dispelling Blaine's momentary panic, and highlighting his solution. He dived forwards, smashing the glass case to an axe meant in case of fire, and ran back down the corridor to Kurt.

He jolted to a halt at the top of the stairs, the water now so much higher that it had been. Logically, his brain reminded him just how cold that water was, and just how much he didn't want to get back into it.

Blaine ignored his thoughts, leaping down the steps. He dropped the axe to one side for a moment, shrugging off the encumbering coat that would hinder his swimming. A violet shudder ran up his body as his waistcoat and shirt barely kept against the freezing temperatures.

He surged into the water, axe aloft, pulling himself along. The current caught at his legs, but he pushed onwards, tumbling into the room where Kurt waited, "Will this do?"

Kurt could clearly read just how close Blaine was to falling apart, because he somehow pulled a confident grin onto his face, "That's perfect!" He shifted, pulling the chain of the handcuffs taut. "You just need a clean strike, right between them. You can do this!"

Blaine wavered uncertainly, and Kurt nodded encouragingly, "Why don't you try a few practice swings?"

That was perhaps a bad idea, because as the axe thunked heavily into the wood panelling, Blaine's poor aim was revealed, "Kurt…I…"

Kurt cut across him before Blaine's doubts could grow worse, "That's enough practice. Come on, Blaine, just one swing, I trust you. Come on, are you a boxer or not?" He pulled a smile onto his face, hoping the reminder of one of Blaine's favourite hobbies would calm him somewhat.

"Boxers don't wield axes, Kurt." Blaine shot back through gritted teeth, trying to quell the shivers that wracked his body as he hefted the axe, bringing it down in a solid swing-

Kurt didn't feel any pain, and he let out a shout of joy, throwing his now free arms around Blaine's neck, "You did it! I knew you could!"

Blaine grinned in relief, helping Kurt hop down into the water. The taller boy hissed in shock at the temperature, but was steadied by Blaine's arm winding tight around his waist, "Come on, let's find your brother and get out of here!"

To Be Continued…