Chapter Seven

"Sir! Sir, help us! Help us, please!" A steward had come running down the corridor, not drawn by their cries, but still, there.

He took one glance at them, and for a stomach dropping moment, Kurt thought he was going to leave them to drown. But then he turned, doubt warring in his face before he delved into his pocket, "Oh, bloody hell!"

He fumbled with the keys as Blaine gasped in relief, "Thank you!"

Water rose fast around them, flooding out onto the deck above, rapidly filling the corridors. "Ah, bugger!" The steward swore, his frozen fingers fumbling, unable to get the keys to co-operate. The lights flashed ominously with violent sparks, and the keys slipped. His eyes widened in horror, before he looked up at the trapped pair, "I… I dropped the keys. I'm sorry!"

Kurt and Blaine watched in horror as he fled, leaving them alone in the rising flood, "No! No, wait!"

Gritting his teeth, Kurt plunged under the water, terrifying the wits out of Blaine when he didn't emerge immediately, "Kurt!"

Kurt surfaced gasping, trying to draw air into his frozen body, keys clutched in his hands, "Which key?"

Blaine shook his head, "I-I don't know! That one!"

Water pulled at them, and they knew they would only have one chance for this to work. "Come on…come on…" Kurt muttered under his breath, desperately willing for them to get out. It couldn't end like this, drowning, trapped like rats.

"Kurt…" Blaine prodded, half subconsciously, "Kurt, come on."

"I can't find…" Kurt trailed off, the water reaching his chin. Blaine spluttered as the waters threatened to overwhelm him. He clawed at the bars to wrench himself above the waterline again. They were practically in darkness as lights failed all around them.

"Kurt!" True fear threaded Blaine's cry, and his head disappeared from view as Kurt finally clicked the key in the lock. He hauled open the gates enough for them to squeeze through, grabbing at a resurfacing Blaine and swimming with him to the next staircase before the water finally hit the ceiling.

They didn't even wait to take a breath, Kurt pushing Blaine up the stairs, forcing his brain to work against the cold, "Keep going up!"

Walls and fixtures became more decadent as they ascended, finally reaching the smoking room, blindly running up the increasing slope as the ship began to tilt even more. Someone was standing, unmoving at the fireplace, but Kurt paid them no heed.

That was until Blaine stopped, "Mr Andrews?"

The man turned, far too calm, looking desolate for the world around them, "Blaine…"

Blaine swallowed, tentatively taking a step towards him, "Won't you even make a try for it?"

Kurt pulled at his arm as the older man shook his head, "I'm sorry I couldn't build you a better ship…"

Gritting his teeth, Kurt made to bodily pull the unmoving Blaine out of the room, "It's going down fast. Blaine, we need to go. Now."

Blaine looked between the two, torn and confused, unable to understand how Mr Andrews could just give up without a fight. Still, he nodded, until the older man started to move, picking up the lifejacket laid over a seat, "Here, take this with you. Good luck, Blaine. Both of you…"

A lump lodged in Blaine's throat, and he threw his arms around the kind, gentle man; a man a hundred times braver than Blaine knew his own father would have been, were he on this ship. "Thank you…"

They broke out onto the deck to screams and gunshots, completely oblivious that one of the victims had been Puck. In the wrong place, in the wrong time, pushed forward into a panicked officer's sight. At the same time, Finn realised just how much trouble he was in. He said a prayer in his head, willing Puck's soul to make it safely away from this hell on earth, while at the same time fumbling with the ties on his bloodied lifejacket. He knew he wouldn't get on one of the boats now.

He was going to have to swim for it, and hope to God that he made it. Briefly, his thoughts turned to his brother, and the young aristocrat who had clearly stolen Kurt's heart.

He hoped they weren't still on board...

"We need to move to the back of the ship!" Kurt yelled to Blaine over the screams as the gradient of the deck kept increasing, Titanic's prow going under.

Blaine nodded, jaw set with determination, following Kurt as they began to wind through the surging crowd, worming their way into any gap they could find, clambering over rigging and rails in an attempt to get to the back of the ship. They pushed up a narrow set of steps to the end deck, held up by a desperately praying man. Kurt's anger surged. He had not given up yet, dammit! "You wanna walk to that valley of death a little faster, buddy?"

The deck got steeper, many people sliding back as the aft of the ship actually rose from the water below. Kurt lurched one last step, grasping onto the rails, keeping a solid arm on Blaine, hauling him up close behind. Blaine swallowed, trying to blot out the terror and panic about them. So many people still left on board. Young women, probably his own age, and children, dressed in well-worn clothes.

A wall of denial hit him full force as he finally reached saturation point with what was happening to them. Waves of an eerie calm flooded his body, coupled with a strange clarity. "Kurt." Fear was gone from his voice, despite the tears threatening to fall from his eyes, "Kurt, this is where we first met…"

Kurt smiled disbelievingly, unable to stop his lips from mirroring Blaine's strange happy thankfulness. Neither of them blamed the other for ending up where they were right now, because they could not imagine being apart. He pressed a kiss onto Blaine, holding him close.

This time, no one paid them any heed.

The ship continued to tip, more and more people began to plummet, a few even trying their luck over the end of the ship. Blaine fixed his hands either side of Kurt, pressing him against the rails, hooking his legs, "Don't let go…" he murmured.

Kurt nodded, glad to be close to Blaine, even as the world fell apart around them.

The lights died, plunging them all into darkness to desperate screams and pleas to anyone who would listen. Their cries carried to all those safe on the lifeboats, like Blaine's mother and Miss Sylvester; even Sebastian, who had ruthlessly forced his way onto one of the last boats. The less fortunate, those like Finn who were frantically trying to swim away to avoid being caught in the suction, were no less deaf to the terror of those still on board. Unlike some, he had made it quite far, his decision to not try for the last lifeboats saving his life.

A thunderous crunching split the air, so loud that it even drowned out the screams. Both Kurt and Blaine had their backs to the sinking ship, and so didn't see the giant cracks rend through the middle, iron splitting and bending like balsa wood against the force of pressure.

The aft of the ship split free, and plummeted back to the ocean with a splash of tidal proportions. Without even barely a minute's pause, the process began to happen all over again, the weight of the flooded front half pulling the rest of the ship under. Blaine readjusted his grip, but his frozen fingers would barely co-operate, and they were tipping fast.

"We need to move!" He yelled at Kurt, already clambering up and over, hauling himself up with the rigging. Kurt's feet slipped on the deck as the floor beneath him reached nearly vertical, looking up to see Blaine crouched on the rails above him in a complete role reversal of how they first met, "Give me your hand!"

Kurt gladly complied, letting Blaine help him up and over to lie against the rails. Their new position afforded them a horrifying view of struggling people and a sheer drop, "What's happening?"

There was a chilling creak, and the Titanic seemed to hold in place, simply hovering at a vertical incline. "I don't know!"

People began to drop, their grips failing them. Some were fortunate, impacting bulkheads on the way down, giving them a swift, oblivious end.

And then the Titanic began to sink its final stretch.

Kurt's muscles bunched ready, pulling himself up to a crouch, "This is it!"

Blaine really wished Kurt hadn't said that, because it only served to bring his terror back full force. "Oh God…"

Kurt grabbed onto his hand tightly, his eyes determined and confident, "The ship is going to suck us down. Take a deep breath, when I say."

"I can't do this…" The words tumbled straight from Blaine's brain to his lips, the encroaching water bringing back the memories of Cooper's death to a pinnacle. Memories that, until this point, he had managed to push down deep.

"Yes you can, Blaine! When we hit the water, I need you to kick for the surface, and keep kicking. Do not let go of my hand!"

Kurt watched desperately, needing a sign from Blaine that he had taken the instructions in. Finally, there was a jerky nod, "Okay…"

"We can do this, Blaine." Kurt yelled, "We're gonna make it! Trust me!"

Blaine's hand clutched onto his hand in a bone crushing grip that brought some feeling back into Kurt's frozen extremities, "I trust you."

There was barely any of the ship left above the surface by now, freezing water rushing angrily towards them. Kurt's yell cut through it all like a knife into Blaine, "Now!"

Blaine took a deep, gasping breath in tandem with Kurt, who at the very last minute levered himself to stand. The water swallowed them whole, and Kurt kicked off the ship harshly, giving himself some momentum and dragging Blaine with him, aided by the lifejacket Blaine wore.

The current was impossibly strong, the ship's suction clawing at their bodies. Blaine kicked desperately, so numb he could barely feel Kurt's hand in his. Direction had no meaning, thought had no purchase.

The stabbing cold threatened to overwhelm Blaine entirely, but then a terror punched through his consciousness before it could.

Kurt's hand was gone.

Desperate and alone, Blaine struggled to the surface, letting the buoyancy in his lifejacket tell him which way was up as the suction lessened. His limbs flailed in no discernible rhythm, but still he somehow managed to break the surface.

The haunting calm of the water below was erased instantly by screams of terror in a writhing sea of people. He couldn't see Kurt. Where was Kurt? No, no, no, nonono- "Kurt! Kurt!"

His cries mixed in with the cacophony rising up to the night around them. Something pulled on his shoulder, and he turned, hoping it was Kurt, only to be pushed under by a great hulk of a man, blind and desperate in his fear. Blaine kicked him frantically in the shins, dislodging him for a second, "Let go! Let me g-mrgh!" Blaine's words were cut off as he was pushed under again, water rushing in his ears and past his lips.

Suddenly the pressure was gone, and he was hauled up coughing, frozen air refusing to enter his lungs. "Blaine!"

"Kurt!" Blaine's vision was completely filled with those beautiful ocean eyes, the confident fire in them not yet snuffed out.

"Blaine, I need you to swim for me! Come on, swim!" Kurt began to cut sure strokes through the water, pulling Blaine with him. If Blaine had been more coherent, he might have protested, might have denied his ability.

As it was, Blaine's brain was so numb that he just let Kurt guide him. They splashed and struggled, trying desperately to make it away from the immediate crush of drowning people as more broke the surface against the suction.

Blaine genuinely had no concept of time. He had no idea how long Kurt determinedly pulled him along, swimming strongly despite the below freezing waters. The people thinned out, and then Blaine found himself being pulled to an ornate floating door, ripped from its hinges and bobbing gently, "Get on Blaine!"

He didn't argue, again letting his body just follow Kurt's commands automatically. So cold. How was it possible to be this cold? Vaguely, he noticed Kurt trying to get on the door after him, but it tipped violently, unable to keep horizontal with the badly balanced weight, "Kurt…" Blaine mumbled, exhausted, cold and confused.

Kurt didn't reply, just shoving Blaine more onto the door, "We can't both get on… It's okay. I can swim, remember?"

There was a false confidence in Kurt's voice that resonated slightly in Blaine, waking him up from his stupor. His words tumbled out thick and muddled, "But I've got a lifejacket…"

Kurt pulled a fake smile, his pale skin tinged a translucent blue. He brought his elbows up to rest on the door, shoulders hunched, his hands clasped tightly about Blaine's as he let their foreheads fall together, "You will stay on that door, Blaine."

Blaine shook his head as a whistle began to scream through the air, a struggling sailor yelling hoarsely, "Return the boats!"

"See? The boats are coming back! I won't be in here much longer." Kurt stumbled over his words, both from the cold, and a seeping doubt.

Blaine shook his head again, more violently this time, "You know who're on those boats as well as I do! I will not lie up here while you freeze! I am not better than you, Kurt, just because I was born to a different family!" His words gathered momentum and force as he started to shuffle towards the edge of the door.

"Blaine, don't you dare!" Kurt snapped shrilly, "I swear, if you-"

"Kurt!" Another voice cut over the chaotic blur, and Kurt twisted in the water to see one of the few people in the water swimming towards the site of the sinking.

Kurt blinked in disbelief, "Finn? Finn! Oh my god, you made it!"

Finn swam a couple of last strong strokes, hooking himself onto the door next to Blaine's shoulder, "You doubted me?"

"Whose blood is that, Finn?" Blaine stuttered quietly, his eyes drawn to the red stained seeped deep into the lifejacket's fabric.

Kurt's eyes widened, "Oh my god, Finn! Are you okay? What-"

"Puck. He got shot." Finn replied grimly, "It was stupid… pointless. He could've made it…"

"What part of this isn't pointless?" Blaine murmured.

Finn seemed to finally take in the immediate scene around him, from Blaine's huddled, shivering form on the broken door, to Kurt's clenched jaw as he attempted to still his shaking. Finn shook his head, clearing his brain slightly as the cold continued to bite, before he let go of the door. Roughly, his large arms wrapped around Kurt, eliciting a cry of shock that woke both boys up. Blaine blinked dazedly. His argument with Kurt had been briefly forgotten as his sluggish brain struggled to grasp new thoughts, but now it returned full force.

Realising what Finn was doing, Blaine shifted all his weight to the opposite end of the door as the large boy physically heaved Kurt onto the makeshift raft. Finn's lifejacket kept him above water until he managed to situate his brother next to Blaine, squeezed against his side, "Finn! What the hell? What about you?" Kurt squawked.

Finn shrugged clumsily as he paddled back to the end of the door, taking Kurt's old place at their heads, "I wouldn't fit." His tone was matter of fact, his eyes brokering no argument as he stared Kurt down.

Blaine, for his part, was too exhausted to think beyond the reality of Kurt's body pressed against his own. His head dropped to the wood with a slight thud, his limbs threading their way into contact with Kurt, seeking body heat that wasn't there. Kurt stared at Finn, and a silent conversation passed between the two brothers. Finally Kurt nodded jerkily, reaching one arm around a shivering Blaine, pulling the smaller boy into his chest, while taking his brother's hand in the other.

They would wait it out together.

Blaine's voice mumbled into Kurt's shirt, dislodged a few ice crystals from his curls as he turned his head, "It's getting quiet…"

Kurt tightened his arm reflexively about Blaine's violently shaking body, not doing much better himself. His teeth chattered as he helplessly sought for words. Finn moved in the water, "They'll be coming back soon, Blaine. It won't be much longer."

Kurt had forgotten how good his brother was at false optimism and denial. His shifted Blaine slightly, jolting him, "Stay awake for me Blaine. You can't fall asleep yet."

"M'w..ke…" Blaine slurred, curling tighter into Kurt.

Kurt shakily kissed the top of his ice encrusted hair, "I know." He placated tenderly, "Just checking."

Kurt looked up to see Finn watching them. "I'm glad you met him…"

Kurt smiled bitterly, his happiness at his brother's honest words tempered by their situation, "For however little it lasted…"

Finn frowned, his grip on Kurt's hand suddenly painful, "Don't, Kurt. You're going to survive this. Both of you!" His words grew more forceful to combat Kurt's pitying look, as he clearly believing Finn to be deluded, "You are gonna grow old together. You're gonna live till the world accepts you and who you are. You are gonna marry Blaine one day, and you're gonna see your dreams come true. I know you, Kurt, and you are gonna make it!"

As speeches go, it was pretty poorly structured, but Finn's passion more than made up for it. Kurt shook with a particularly violent tremor, "Finn…I'm so sorry I got you into this…"

Finn shook his head determinedly, "You winning those tickets was fate. I know you don't believe in that… but you would never have met Blaine! You might have been miserable forever! And if you hadn't persuaded me to go to Europe with you in the first place, I'd have never have met Rachel…"

"But now you might never see her again…"

"Kurt…" Finn pulled at Kurt's hand until his brother looked up, "No regrets. Promise me you won't give up. No matter what happens. No matter what people try to throw at you. Promise me you'll live, and see Mom and Dad again, and keep loving Blaine. Promise me!"

And Kurt could do nothing but promise.

The night had, if it was even possible, grown colder. Silence had fallen a long time ago, voices growing silent, one by one as they succumbed to the freezing water. The only sound now was Kurt's soft voice, gliding softly over the mirror-sheen expanse of water in a gentle, raspy melody.

Kurt lay on his back, staring up at the brilliant sprays of stars as they glittered in the darkness, one hand above his head still tightly grasped in Finn's grip. Blaine was coiled tightly across Kurt's chest, holding onto Kurt's arm where he kept his hold about Blaine's waist. They had stopped shivering a while ago, the cold leeching deep into their bones.

Something glimmered against the water out of the corner of Kurt's eye. Something warmer in colour than the cold silver of starlight. He blinked as it happened again, the muscles on his face twitching in a shadow of a frown. He turned his head, and had to stare at the sight for a long while before anything started to process.

A boat.

A boat had come back for them.

Kurt's brain began to work faster then, and he forced his body to move, somehow dredging up an energy from some last ditch survival instinct. He turned to Blaine and Finn, and the sight of them nearly stopped his heart. They were practically blue, covered in ice crystals that made morbid statues of their bodies, "Blaine..." Kurt's voice didn't make it above a whisper, and even that was painful.

Blaine didn't respond. Kurt shook at Finn's dead weight of a hand, but still, there was no movement from the pair. More forcefully, desperately, Kurt used his free arm to shake Blaine, his stomach lurching when Blaine's head just lolled like a rag-doll, completely unresponsive. "Blaine...Finn… wake up, there's a boat…" Still no reaction. Kurt wanted to scream in their faces, he wanted to yell and shout, because they could not be dead! A painful sob tore through Kurt, "Wake up! Wake up! Finn, Blaine… Wake up! Please wake up…"

The lifeboat continued to drift away from them, sending mocking ripples skittering across the water in ribbons of yellow light.

The men Kurt loved remained still, human ice sculptures floating on the sea.

To Be Continued…