“Oh yeah! OH YEAH! Oh yea-aah!”

Kurt is watching Blaine with a bemused look on his face.

Blaine turns red again. Why does he always feel nervous when Kurt looks at him?

“Could you… maybe turn around?” Blaine requests, which only makes Kurt laugh.

“Blaine. We’re better off finding a ride!” he says through his laughter.

Thanks to some miracle, Kurt and Blaine found their abandoned carriage in the woods, and Blaine had the idea to infuse it with Royal magic in order to turn it into a self-driving carriage. Going to the north of the kingdom by foot is madness, after all.

But Blaine’s been spelling the carriage for an hour, to no avail.

“I can do this!”

“Sure,” Kurt says, “Once more with feeling.”

“OH YEAH!” Blaine sings again, which only makes Kurt cackle.

“Gosh, I love this, Blaine! The fact that the Royal spell is ‘Oh yeah’ is one of the great absurdities of this series.”

“It’s not an absurdity!” Blaine argues back, “It has a long history of the Royal family and its Royal bird-”

“Yes, yes, Warbler calls. I know, darling, I’ve read all about it. That’s why I love it.”

“Oh yeah!” Blaine tries again.

“Blaine, please, even Cooper who was honing the All Power had to travel by cart of mount. Or foot. I don’t know if you can pull this off.”

But Blaine wants to do this. He thinks about how much he wants to help Kurt. That’s what the Royal is power is all about after all. It’s intent. There’s no fancy spellwork or chants or magic instruments. An ‘Oh yeah’ helps, but even that isn’t always needed. As a Royal, Blaine on paper has the power to will things into existence. He wants to shrink his potion set, then he can. He wants to put on fire, then he can. Of course, there’s limits to this. Only Cooper’s power seems limitless, since he has the All Power, but Blaine can do enough.

He’s just never had a reason to want big things like this, since he lives a simple life.

But now he really, really wants to have this carriage move. He tries it again, with feeling, as Kurt said.

“Oh yeah!”

And to Kurt and Blaine’s surprise, the carriage starts to shake.

Did Blaine did it?

Kurt and Blaine look at each other and there’s an unspoken agreement to try it out. Kurt puts their supplies in the luggage part and the two of them enter the carriage.

“I want to go up north,” Blaine says to the air and the carriage slowly begins to ride.

“Holy shit,” Kurt mutters with wide eyes.

“Holy shit indeed. I think,” Blaine says, equally stunned. He hopes that this holy shit conveys that.

The two ride in silence, both afraid to speak, as if that were to break the spell, but after a couple of minutes Blaine looks outside of the window of the door and he sees they are back on the paths. It worked. It really did work!

“How did you do that?” Kurt asks, still flabbergasted.

“I… don’t know.”

Blaine genuinely doesn’t. It didn’t feel like he did anything special. He just used magic as usual. Was he always capable of this, or is this a wholly new development.

“Maybe it just never occurred to Cooper to spell a carriage, because again, holy shit,” Kurt says.

“What is this holy shit you speak of?” Blaine asks.

Kurt shakes his head.

“Never mind that! Blaine, this is amazing! Were you always this great with magic?”

“Wouldn’t you know from your books?”

“I told you before that you’re not really in it. Sorry about that.”

Right. Yes. Blaine plays no role in The Cooper Chronicles. It felt a bit weird to hear before, but now that Blaine’s had the actual first book in his hands, it feels even weirder. He truly was insignificant in his brother’s story.

And Blaine tries to remind himself that it’s fine, that he’s always liked it that way, and that Cooper can be the Chosen One, but if Blaine’s life was written for a purpose then what was that purpose? What was the point of him? Does he only exist because this B.D. Dalton chose to do so on a whim?

Blaine pushes all of that away and he focuses on the fact that he’s real. He’s a living and breathing person, sitting in a self-driving carriage with Kurt besides him. He’s real. Daltonia is real. To him.

So Blaine answers Kurt’s question and tells him that Blaine never was too powerful, but that he also never had a reason to use a lot of magic before.

“Thank you, Blaine. Truly.”

“For what?”

“For helping me,” Kurt says and he reaches for Blaine’s hand. Blaine lets him, and Kurt gives Blaine’s hand a supportive squeeze. “I’m glad you are as motivated as me. You could’ve stayed in your tower, but you’re here with me to help.”

“You’re welcome,” Blaine says and he feels warm. Praise is nice. He gets why Cooper lives on it.

Together they ride in a comfortable silence.

They don’t know where they’re heading, apart from up north. It’s a long road, so they make a stop to visit a smaller town in the kingdom to stay overnight.

Blaine parks the carriage outside of the town’s walls, since the sight of a self-driving carriage would baffle the townsfolk, and they walk.

“Aren’t you afraid to get recognised?” Kurt asks.

Blaine shrugs. He has no clue. He’s not wearing his Royal prince outfits, or any of the Royal jewellery. He’s dressed as a commoner and his hair is unkept. He usually doesn’t leave Castle Town unless it’s for Royal business, so he’s never been to another part of the kingdom looking like this.

Maybe people will recognise him, but he’s no Cooper. He doesn’t even look like Cooper, since he looks more like his mother.

He and Kurt enter the town to find the nearest inn, so they can spend the night here. The innkeeper is very happy to see them, since they don’t get a lot of tourists.

“A room for two?” she asks.

“Yes,” Kurt answers.

“That will be 100 credits,” she says and Kurt turns to Blaine.

Blaine takes out his card and holds it against the payment machine on the counter. Kurt watches it with a curious look.

“The room will be made ready. You can leave your luggage here!” the innkeeper says after the payment has been completed.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Blaine says and he and Kurt bow three times.

They decide to have dinner at a local tavern and Blaine really likes that no one seems to recognise him.

Kurt orders a local delicacy.

“I have always wanted to try this!” he says.

“You don’t have fondlate in your world?” Blaine asks.

Kurt shakes his head.

“Not really. You can buy ‘fondlate’ at The Cooper Chronicle’s theme park, but it’s just cheap chocolate. This is the real deal!”

Blaine assumes a theme park is another thing from Kurt’s world. They chat happily about their upcoming travels, ignoring the more pressing and depressing parts. Blaine pays for their meal and Kurt says he feels a bit bad about having Blaine pay for everything, but Blaine is a Royal. He has enough credits.

“It’s so cool that Daltonia already had contactless payment in the 90s! It’s up and coming on Earth,” Kurt sighs dreamingly after Blaine’s paid.

“Then how do you pay on your world?”

On their way to the inn, Kurt briefly explains that a money type called dollars is put on a debit card, and that you pay by putting it in a device. Or you have paper notes. Blaine knows Daltonia once had paper notes.

The innkeeper tells them the room is ready and the luggage’s already been brought there, so Kurt and Blaine get the electronic key and bid her goodnight before going to their room.

But when the door opens, Kurt and Blaine immediately realise that the innkeeper must’ve misunderstood.

There’s only one bed!