Chapter One
Eve of the War

“Rise and shine, boys!” spoke Carole’s soothing, feminine voice as she knocked the door. Her quiet words were slightly interrupted by her loud bangs, meaning that only some of her speech could be perceived – however, the crashing sounds against the door did all the talking for her. Kurt and Blaine had to get up.

Kurt stirred slightly, bringing his head of the pillow, realising that he was in an awkward position, being trapped underneath Blaine’s arms. He smiled at his boyfriend who was still silently sleeping away as if there had been no interrupting to their relaxing morning. Kurt watched Blaine for a while – he watched his chest come up, and then flatten again, moving as slowly as his nose twitched with each breath that he took. This perfect synchronicity in his boyfriends sleepy breathes always impressed Kurt – he could have sworn that even his sleeping wasn’t so quiet, and didn’t look like it had been so well prepared. But, then again, Blaine had a lot more rehearsal time with his sleeping schedule than Kurt, who was definitely more of a morning person than his boyfriend. Once Kurt was done ogling the natural wonder of Blaine’s breathing pattern, he slowly crept his arm over to his shoulder and gave him a gentle poke; just enough for Blaine to wake slightly, but not enough to startle or hurt him. “Rise and shine, sleepy head…” Kurt spoke softly, almost mimicking the same tone as that of Carole – of course, without the chorus of loud bangs. He slowly stroked at his boyfriends hair as he woke, who gave him a wide smile in return of his gentle touch.

“Hey Kurt… what’s the time?” Blaine still had his eyes shut, fighting against the sticky sleepy-dust that was forcing his lids closed. Kurt rolled over onto his shoulders and grabbed his iPhone from the bedside cabinet, reading the number on the screen.

“Nine o’clock,” Kurt stated, “Don’t rush yourself, we’ve got plenty of time for breakfast.” Kurt then gave his still blinded boyfriend a subtle kiss on the lips, before rolling out of bed – just making it in time before Blaine could stop him. Fortunately for Kurt, however, Blaine had hardly the energy to him so he just rested his head back on the pillow, muttered a small grunt and seemed to fall right back to sleep. Kurt looked back and smiled, before grabbing a towel which was hung over his radiator and going to his en-suite bathroom to hop in the shower. He stripped himself of his Pyjamas, which to his horror, he discovered were slightly stained from last nights… session with Blaine. He gasped a bit at the white mark, suddenly blushing furiously. He chucked it in the corner of the bathroom, all the while telling himself that his dad and Carole were not allowed to see the garment that he had just dropped on the floor. He stepped underneath the shower, and turned a small knob that was built into the wall, until a small mark in the knob was parallel with an orange dot – this indicating that the water was hot, but not at such a temperature which would scald his precious, well cared for skin. He allowed the water to explode over his head, a powerful shower of hot droplets engulfing him in a mist of vapour and water. He let his fingers run through his hair, down his shoulders, relaxing his muscles which had suddenly tensed in shock at the realisation of the white stain on his PJ’s. He closed his eyes - his mind, body and soul being cradled into a cocoon of blissful peace – the only noise being the sound of running, trickling water and the few sighs that he would emit from his lips. When he was finished with his morning exfoliation regime, he washed the foamy lather off his face under the stream emitting from the shower, stepped out and turned the knob until the stream stopped and left only a trickle of water rolling down into the plughole.

He pulled a towel from the rack that was next to his shower and quickly wrapped his lower body, letting the carefully woven fibres embrace his tight abdomen, curving slightly at his hips and butt. He stepped out of the bathroom, leaving small, damp footprints on the cream coloured carpet. He walked over to the dresser, noticing on the way that Blaine had begun to stir, and began to thoroughly dry his hair and body. This, all in full eyeshot of Blaine – he was no longer timid about his boyfriend seeing him naked, after all, why should he? He’s seen him more than a few times in very provocative positions anyway. However, Blaine was always keen to give Kurt… ‘compliments’ on his body whenever he was drying off after his morning shower, and was sure that this morning was no exception.

“Have I ever told you that your ass looks great when it’s dripping with water?” Right on schedule, Kurt thought, before erupting in a deep shade of red. He then smirked to himself and decided to do something completely out of character – he bent over, giving Blaine a great view of his ‘assets’. When Kurt heard a slightly muffled moan, he grinned; even though he was turned away from his partner, he could imagine the look on his face. His jaw would be dropped, as it often was whenever he was in awe of Kurt’s body, the colour of his face would now match Kurt’s, and his eyes would have glazed over in a sort of hungry stare.  I am such a tease, Kurt thought, before erecting himself back to a normal standing position – the groan emitted from Blaine’s mouth suggesting quite a lot of displeasure.

“You are such a tease!” Blaine giggled a bit, his jaw still slightly dropped due to his reaction of the great view he had just had. Kurt simply turned around and continued to dry himself.

“You know it honey.”

Blaine was silenced by Kurt’s cheeky words and sudden exposition, both of which were a turn in a new, unexplored direction for his boyfriend. They shared a long, comfortable silence, as Blaine rested his head on the fluffy pillows and Kurt got dressed – nothing too fancy, considering it his impeccable, expensive fashion sense, just a pair of Topman skinny jeans which hugged his ass perfectly and a long-sleeved purple crewneck manufactured by Banana Republic. Once Kurt had finished with this he went on to his intricate morning moisturising regime, making sure to rub the product deep into the crevices of his nose and chin. He frowned slightly whenever he passed over an invisible bump or gap in his skin. While he had a fantastic complexion which was visually much, much more pleasing than any other guy of his age – gay or straight – he realised that it is near-impossible to have such a perfect skin complexion without the use of expensive, perhaps hazardous chemicals or even photoshop. Once he was finished with his moning routine, he got up and turned to his boyfriend who was still half-asleep but watching Kurt ever so intently.

“How do I look?” Kurt grinned – while he was definitely modest about the way he looked, he was still proud to see his boyfriend gain so much pleasure from his appearance.

“Hideous. You’re simply unbearable to look at.” Blaine stated in a sarcastic tone before erupting in a huge, cheeky grin, which was met by a roll of Kurt’s eyes and small smile which seemed to recognise – and love – Blaine’s cheeky, playful behaviour. He then began to walk over to his boyfriend, seemingly intently.

“Well, if I’m so hideous, Mr. Anderson…” Kurt grinned, “Then you obviously couldn’t bare to have any more sex with me. At all.” Blaine then looked at him, his huge grin suddenly becoming a faux-hurt frown.

“Come on, I didn’t say you were THAT hideous…” Blaine smiled, before kissing Kurt abruptly on the lips. Kurt just giggled a little bit, before sighing.

“Fiiine,” Kurt replied, “You’ve got me. Come on, let’s go upstairs and have some breakfast.”

“I thought you wouldn’t ask!” Blained erupted in a large grin, before rolling out of bed and hopping over to the shower.

“I’ll see you upstairs, don’t take too long honey!” Kurt said loudly as he walked up the stairs to his bedroom door. He opened it with a slight click, and was greeted by the sight of Carol walking down the hall with a large tray, seemingly towards his door.

“Oh, hey hun!” Carol spoke, in her usual soft, feminine, well spoke manner. “I made you and Blaine some breakfast, so I was just bringing it to you some breakfast in bed!” She grinned to Kurt, nodding towards the large plates of cooked breakfast – Kurt’s cream white plate adorned with trimmed bacon, poached eggs, wheat toast and low-sodium baked beans. This rather large breakfast looked tiny, however, compared to the second white plate on the tray, which was covered in bacon, sausages, fried eggs, hashed brown… Carole had really gone all out on his and Blaines’’ food, which really touched him. His eyes glazed over slightly as he gawped happily at Carole, stuttering for words.

“Oh, Carole, I really don’t know what to say… thank you,” he stuttered in an equally soft, feminine and well-spoken manner. Carole just laughed a bit at her stepson’s overly gracious actions, and smiled vibrantly at him.

“Oh, you know it’s no problem, it’s not the first time I’ve made you breakfast! Are you coming into the lounge to eat though? The tray’s kinda’ heavy and I’d like to put it down…” Kurt suddenly snapped his head up and realised that she was having a little bit of trouble carrying the heavy tray for such a long time.

“Oh, I’m sorry, of course! Yes, we’re eating in the lounge, let me get it for you-“Kurt then walked over to Carole and took the tray from her slowly, rebutting her repeated attempts of a protest. She just smiled at him as they walked to the lounge together, having a girl catchup talk – Blaine and Kurt had only arrived very late last night as their plane from JFK to Port Columbus was delayed, which combined with a two-hour drive to Lima from the airport meant that they only briefly had a chance to talk to Burt and Carole before going to bed to sleep. When they got into the lounge, a shirtless, half-asleep Finn was eating a bowl of cereal while watching the local news. Finn looked up to Kurt and smiled.

“Oh, hey bro!” Finn said tiredly with a spoonful of Lucky Charms crunching in his mouth, “Sorry we didn’t catch you last night, I got here after you and you were asleep so…” Kurt placed the tray he was carrying on the table and cut him off with some pretty erratic hand movements.

“Oh don’t worry that’s all well and good, but there’s a problem here.” Kurt looked at his brother confusingly, leading to his brother giving him a worried look.

“What is it? Want me to put a shirt on?”

Kurt stared back on him with genuine disgust and fear etched into the pores and wrinkles of his face. His arm rose slowly and dramatically to point at Finns head, which Kurt continued to stare at as if it was the worst spectacle he had ever seen.

“Your… your hair,” Kurt stuttered quietly, his voice higher pitched than usual. “Where- where’s your hair gone?” Kurt stared at Finn’s completely bald head, and at that moment wished that he could grab a wig, or a cap, or even a snapback (which he repeatedly suggested had raped fashion and glorified thugs) and slam it on top of his glistening dome. Finn began to laugh loudly at Kurt’s genuine worry, before shrugging it off.

“I thought something was actually bad! Nah, bro, it’s the army look, they had me razor off all my hair as soon as I stepped into Fort Benning.” To Kurt’s horror, Finn then stroked his hand over his head smiling. “Mom says I look more like dad now, isn’t that cool? And Puck said-“

“Oh god, I think I’m going to fall over.” Kurt stated abruptly, actually looking rather faint. He grabbed onto the arm of the couch and lowered himself to sit down.

“Just, give me a minute; I really need to get over this.” Kurt said, reluctantly smiling over to Finn, who replied with a grin and a simple “Whatever, bro…” before going back to eating his cereals. Kurt tried to take his mind off Finns suddenly bald head, and looked over to watch the TV, an activity that he ever so rarely partook in since he went to New York with Blaine.

“-have been repeated lightning strikes reported in South Korea, Ukraine, Cuba, Britain, France and Australia. It has been claimed, but not confirmed that EMP-like effects are being experienced around the radius of the strikes in Ukraine, however no such reports have come out of any of the other effected countries. An EMP, or Electro Magnetic Pulse, causes a temporary interruption with all electrical current within its field. There have been scattered reports that following the lightning strikes seismic activity occurred at the same level as that of an earthquake, measuring at 4.5 on-“

Kurt’s surprising intrigue in the news report was suddenly interrupted by the entrance of Blaine, wearing a Ben Sherman stripped Polo and some slim-fit Levi Strauss jeans. Surprisingly, he had no gel in his hair, apparently happy with having an ‘au naturale’ look, for the morning at least. He pulled Kurt up to his feet for a quick peck on the lips, who returned his affection with a smile.

“Morning, baby,” Blaine smiled back, before eyeing up the breakfast that was set out on the table. “You made me breakfast? Oh, Kurt… you shouldn’t have!” Kurt smiled to him, before pulling back and sitting back down on the couch.

“Actually, that’s Carole’s fantastic cooking. That woman…”

“Yep, she’s amazing.”

Finn looked up from his cereal, a bit surprised that Blaine still hadn’t noticed him sat next to Kurt. He finished his last spoonful of cereal, hesitated a bit, and then put on a large grin.

“Hey, Blaine!” Blaine looked up to him and smiled, an apologetic look suddenly appearing on his face.

“Oh, hi Finn! Sorry, I didn’t notice you, you’re kind of tucked away in the corner-“

 He suddenly stopped, his mouth dropping as much as it had at the sight of Kurt’s naked body. Kurt had to slap his hand over his mouth and muffle a laugh that he was sure threatened to completely ruin the atmosphere - Finn just stared back at him, a legitimately clueless look painted on his face, as if Kurt hadn’t previously looked just as shocked at Finn only five minutes ago. Blaine stuttered a few incomprehensible words before suddenly blurting out, with a shocked, almost distressed tone:

“Oh my god, Finn. Your hair.”