It was Santana who cried first out of their group.  They had been intercepted by a patrol as they walked towards the town and brought first to the clinic to be checked out.  There Santana was reunited with Brittany, still being cared for by the medics.  Santana fell to her knees when she saw Brittany, wrapping her arms around Brittany's waist and hanging onto her.  Great choking sobs fell from her mouth and against Brittany as Santana let out whatever stress she had been carrying inside of her for the months she had been gone.  

“Santana….?”  Brittany had asked, eyes looking over Santana as if she was part of some dream she was in.  It took her a few minutes of Santana telling her how much she loved her, how she'd never leave her again, and how much she missed her for Brittany to snap out of her trance and drop to her own knees where she embraced back Santana and cried out in happiness.

That was only the beginning though.

There was more happy tears as families were reunited.  Sam with Mercedes and the girls, Jeff with his Warbler brothers, Karofsky with his kind-of-sister Kitty and honorary nephew Isaac and niece Gwen.  There were also plenty of sad tears as the survivors confirmed the worst to the community  - most of those that had left were dead now, killed by the Others.  Everytime someone came by to hear what they had dreaded there was always that horrible choking sob that made Blaine hold Kurt's hand just a little bit tighter as they sat together on a clinic bed while Mike and Carole took turns checking them over and tending to their mess of wounds.

“You're lucky neither of you got infected with gashes like those.”  Carole tutted before wiping a tear away from her eye and rushing off to take care of Azimio's heartbroken girlfriend who was hugging Karofsky tightly, spilling big tears and heavy sobs against his chest.

“Was it really luck?”  Mike whispered, glancing between Blaine and Kurt as he slipped on a fresh pair of gloves.

Both of them nodded.  As far as Blaine was concerned it was luck that they had figured out how to get out of the shackles, luck that Kurt figured out how to protect them, luck that they had found medical supplies.  

“That healing thing… that was a one time gift from my mother.”  Kurt murmured.  Blaine had a silent moment as he realized that he hadn't been following what Mike was suggesting.  Mike had thought that maybe Kurt had some kind of healing ability after he had risen from the dead years ago.  An ability he had somehow put to use to protect himself from getting infected.  

“Well… all these cuts and gashes… and Blaine's haphazard stitch job… you're making up now for all the scars you lost.”

Kurt just nodded and for the first time that day squeezed Blaine's hand.  Whether it was a quiet thanks for the work he had done taking care of Kurt's wounds, or as a silent show of relief that Mike hadn't pushed when it came to knowing more about the way Kurt had healed a few years earlier - it didn't matter.  Blaine could finally feel Kurt's tension deplete through their connected hands and it was worth whatever reason there was for it.

“Blaine.  You'll probably notice that you'll have lost some degrees of flexibility in your arm.  I can't tell for sure since the scarring is covering it up now, but it looks like the slice might have gone through some tendon.  Won't be able to confirm how bad it is until everything is completely mended.”

Blaine nodded, looking down at his arm.  The scar looked like his skin had bubbled up over the surface of his skin with bits of stitching sticking out here and there.  It certainly wasn't one of those “cool” scars that seemed to make someone look manlier or tougher.  If anything, it was grotesque.  The slice had been clean when it had been made, but now it was anything but clean - healing up in jagged stripes that was as far as straight as a line could be.

“Now open wide…”  

Blaine obediently opened his mouth so Mike could shine a flashlight in and check over his teeth and down his throat.  He assumed nothing of note was discovered because Mike stepped over and directed Kurt to do the same a minute later.

“You have a really badly cracked molar Kurt….”  Mike murmured with a shake of his head.

“‘ah ‘ow.” Kurt responded with his mouth still open to Mike's flashlight.  He knew, Blaine translated in his head, shaking it in disbelief.

“Why didn't you tell me?”

Kurt didn't respond until Mike was out of his face and digging through drawers in the room.  “Because there was nothing you'd be able to do about it.”

“But it has to hurt….”

“It does.”

“I could have given you more painkillers….”

“We might have needed them for someone else.”

Blaine sighed and hung his head a little.  He didn't know why he expected less out of Kurt.  Kurt could have an arm sliced off and hanging by the bone and would still insist that a hundred people with a small scratch had more important health concerns than he did.  

“Okay…” Mike interrupted, signifying his emergence from the supply drawers.  Blaine felt his stomach stiffen and turn in on itself.  Mike had in one hand a pair of pliers and in the other a set of surgical scissors.  “Blaine, can you help me with this or should I call in Carole?”

“He'll help.”  Kurt answered, turning his body so that he could lay back on the bed and open his mouth up.

“What about…. anesthetic?  Or something…?”  Blaine uttered, sliding off the side of the bed and walking around it to Kurt's other side.

“Don't have any.”  Mike replied plainly, shining the flashlight into Kurt's open mouth again.  “Haven't for awhile.”

“‘i's ‘ine.” Kurt insisted.  Blaine just shook his head once again.  Sure.  He would tough it out while his tooth was getting yanked out now but Blaine would be the one who'd have to deal with him later.

“Just, keep him held down if you could Blaine.  I know Kurt's tough, but the body sometimes reacts on its own.”

Blaine nodded and gently drew an over over Kurt's torso, locking eyes with his man.  Kurt's eyes shone up at him, silently supporting him.   With anyone else, Blaine would have been the one trying to soothe, but when it came to Kurt, Blaine was the one who worried and fretted.  It was pure irony that Kurt was the one about to get a tooth pulled but Blaine was the one that needed to be calmed.

He couldn't look when Mike put the scissors in, but couldn't avoid the sound of the gum being snipped, like a stack of papers all being cut at once with a pair of too dull scissors.  Nor could he help but keep Kurt's freshly retensed body from jerking up against his arm which was quickly joined by his other arm to keep Kurt back against the bed.

“It's okay angel.  It's okay.”

Between whatever pain he was experiencing and the term of endearment, Blaine ended up on the receiving end of daggers shooting out of Kurt's eyes.  

Gum cut, the pliers were put into Kurt's mouth next, and Mike was good about working quickly so Kurt didn't end up choking on his own blood or having to wait in dread of what would happen next.  There were a few pops, a crack, and the absence of Kurt breathing as he held his breath through the extraction, and then Mike set down three very bloodied chunks of tooth down in a small metal pan beside the bed.

“Sit up.  Spit.”  Mike directed next, holding a bowl out in front of Kurt who did exactly as ordered, filling the bowl up with so much saliva and blood that Blaine had to turn around lest he add his own puke to that mixture.

No one would have ever had guessed Blaine had spent the past few years delivering calves, castrating dogs, and otherwise working on animals much the same as Mike worked on humans based on how he reacted to his lover being hurt.  For anything else his stomach was a rock.  For Kurt, it was mush.

“Rinse your mouth out.”  Blaine heard Mike say next, followed by the telltale sound of someone drinking water and swishing it around in their mouth before spitting it all back up.

“Open.”

Blaine knew the process.  He had done it on a kid before that had lost a tooth after falling out of a tree.  Kurt was having gauze shoved in the side of his mouth until the gum was able to clot up and heal on its own.  

“Okay.  Aside from that, and follow-up to remove the stitches you put in Blaine, you two are free to go.”

Blaine nodded, looking back then at Kurt who had one cheek puffed out like a chipmunk and a look of pure irritation on his otherwise pretty angular features.  Blaine couldn't stand dental work being done on him, so he could only imagine how much Kurt hated it since he wasn't a touchy-feely person to begin with.

“Given all the questions going around, Santana promised the townspeople that there would be a meeting tomorrow on the hill so that all questions could be answered.”  Mike noted as they left.  

Kurt didn't respond, and Blaine just nodded, eager to get his husband back to their home.  Fifteen minutes of walking seemed like nothing now after going through days of it.

“S'weird wif'ou ‘uddin' ‘ere.” Kurt mumbled around his gauze as they reached their home.

Blaine nodded in agreement.  It definitely was weird to not have Pudding come by to greet them as they returned.  She stayed outside for the most part, but always said hello.  Now there was no one.  

They stayed in the doorway for a moment once Blaine opened it for Kurt.  It was doubly weird, seeing this place that was their own after being away from it for so long.  Everything else had changed, yet this place looked the same as it always had.  Blaine wasn't sure what he expected.  It wasn't like the tornado hit this place, or that people they knew died in here.  They hadn't fought in here, nor had they searched through this place to find what scraps they could to keep going.  

“‘un'na ‘ap.”  Kurt grunted finally, walking to their room.  A room they didn't have to claim for their own for only one night before they moved onto the next place.  It was their room with their clothes and their furnishings.  

“Can I nap with you?”

Blaine was given a look that either was ‘are you for real?' or ‘why are you even asking me that?' by Kurt.  Thankfully things were made clear with a simple “‘ure.”

Clothes were dropped to the floor, and their bed, still made from the day Kurt must have left to go after Blaine, had the blanket drawn back so they could slip in.  Blaine insisted on making sure Kurt had two pillows propping him up so any bleeding in his mouth didn't pool in his throat, and then wrapped an arm around Kurt's waist.  It didn't take him more than a minute to fall asleep.

There was only the occasional shuffling through the rest of the day and into the night as they slept.  Both their bodies needed the rest to heal, and since they had nowhere else to go or be, there was no need to get up save to relieve themselves and to change the blood soaked gauze in Kurt's mouth.  Throughout it all, Blaine stayed affixed to Kurt in some way, usually with an arm slung around him or beneath him, but always with him.

Morning was quiet.  They both awoke and after changing the damned gauze once again, they washed one another with boiled water from Kurt's stores below the floorboards.  He even had a piece of soap which they used up to get all the dredges of dirt and stale sweat off of them that had accumulated during their trek across the once-Canadian wilderness.  

“You're just all muscle…”  Blaine muttered as he swiped the wet rag up and down Kurt's naked back.  “I mean… you always have been… but it never ceases to amaze me.”

“‘Mm..”  was Kurt's initial response before adding on, “‘o aw' ‘oo.”

“I'm not all muscle… I've always had this little pouch on my gut that masquerades as abs…”  Blaine retorted with a snort.  “You though… you're all hard lines and tone.  You'd have made a killing as a model if the Tides never happened.”

Silence was his response, a response he was all too used to and alright with.  Kurt never forced a response unless he absolutely had to, and with the packing in his mouth, Blaine couldn't fault him for holding his tongue.  Add to that that Kurt never liked “what ifs” and Blaine was hardly surprised by the coolness he got.

They dressed in familiar, fresh clothing.  Blaine saw Kurt take the token from his old clothing and stick in into the pocket of his new clothing like he had with every change of clothing they had made on the way home.  He wasn't going to ask though.  Not yet.  

Then they joined with their friends on the walk towards the hill for the meeting.  Santana had Eugene in her arms, who had already grown so much in the month he'd be gone.  She gushed over him, cooed down to him, and Brittany just smiled her way as if she hadn't spent the first couple months of her son's life despising him.  It was amazing how much of a recovery she seemed to have made overnight with Santana back, and almost worth all the pain and death surrounding the rescue.  Almost.

Mercedes and Sam walked close to them too.  Clearly his wife was already on top of Sam based on the fact that he was shaved, washed, and dressed with a girl in both arms as Mercedes babbled on about all that he had missed and that she was never letting him go off on any more adventures.

The Warbler's yelled over from where they walked as a pack, waving towards Blaine who waved back.  Jeff was at the center, talking animatedly as his cohorts listened to him.  He was definitely enjoying being the center of attention as he spoke animatedly, hands gesturing around as he was reenacting some part of their quest with great vigor.

“Hey Blaine.  Kurt.”  Trent greeted them as they caught up with the pair, Isaac holding his dad's hand while Kitty had Gwen on her hip.  “Good to see you both back.”

“Thanks man.  Survived without us well enough though I see.”

Trent chuckled at that while Kitty made a derisive snort.  “Could say that, but better to have you around I think.  Plus we were taking care of Eugene while you two were gone.  Glad to be down one kid for the moment.”

“For the moment.”  Kitty repeated, smugness in her tone.

“What does that mean?'  Blaine questioned, eyebrows drawing skyward.

“‘der ‘eg'ant a'ain.”  Kurt said plainly, eliciting a chuckle and a nod from both Trent and Kitty.

“Again?!  Gwen is only a year old!”  Blaine said as if he were protesting the fact.  How Kurt knew was beyond him, but Kurt always seemed to have a sixth sense about those things.

“She's closer to two than she is to one now Blaine, and it's not like I can keep my hands off a wife like Kitty after all.”  Trent responded with a wink.

“Me-yow.” Kitty said, winking towards her husband.

“Good god…”  Blaine shook his head.  “Kurt and I will be the only childless ones in the whole community at this rate.”

“And good thing for it.  Someone needs to babysit when the rest of us need a break.”  

It felt good to be back around friends.  There was a normality to it.  The stress they had worn like capes for the past month seemed to shed away slowly with each normal exchange and predictable path they took.  

Most of the town was gathered on the hill as the survivors of the journey went to sit up at front.  Santana let Brittany take Eugene as she stood up, telling everyone about being captured by the Others.  How more community members were taken.  How they were looking for something but no one could understand them.  How they slaughtered more than half the group and brought those that lived above the surface of the water.  How Kurt had shown up, been captured himself, and beaten.  Then she told them that the Others had been drawn away by something unknown and the group had managed to escape and return home.  Not a word about Kurt's powers, nor his ability to understand the language of the Others.  Nothing was said either about how people were selected to be killed in the original group of captives.  It made Kurt look like the rest of them.  It gave him the cloak of being normal.

Aside from sobbing resulting from the description of the deaths of their friends, the group bought it too.  Santana had given them enough without giving them it all, and clearly it was such an overwhelming amount of information that they all left peaceably, not asking for any clarifications or any other pressing questions.  They just accepted it.

“Thank you Santana…” Blaine said after most had left and they were talking quietly amongst themselves.

“I don't mind doing the talking.”

“You know what I mean.”

Home again, changing the gauze again, and then shaving one another.  Kurt had grown a little bit of fuzz but it was nothing compared to the mountain man's worth of beard that had accumulated on Blaine that had to be trimmed before a razor could be taken to it.

“We should nap after this.”

“‘e ‘us' ‘oke uh'” Kurt grumbled, trying to focus on de-furring Blaine.

“I know we just woke up… but we need it.  Don't tell me we don't.  Besides, they'll expect us to start work again before you know it and I'm quite happy to use this time as a vacation.”

He got an eyeroll in return, though Kurt did lead him off to the bed when he was shaved and crawled in beside him for a nap.  Blaine let his mind do a victory dance before falling asleep.

That was the course of their next few days.  Wake, relax with one another, visit with friends, nap, take a walk, nap, have supper, visit with friends again, and then go to bed.  

It was four days after their return when Blaine woke up to something unexpected, but certainly not unwelcome.

“Oh…. Kurt….”  He half-gasped, looking down through his lashes with sleep glossed eyes at his lover trailing kisses over his abdomen and to his already alert and eagerly pulsing cock which had clearly been awoken before the rest of him.

“Shh….”

Kurt has Blaine's cock in one hand, the other hand lubed and rubbing against the entrance to his too-long chaste ass.  Now that Kurt knew Blaine was awake he increased the tempo of everything - the stroke of his hand, the press of his kisses, and the massage of lubed fingers against his dusty, dark pucker.  Blaine could only vaguely recall the last time they made love, and didn't even know when the last time he bottomed was.  It's the one thing where Kurt truly gives up all his dominance, the only time he ever relinquishes all control to Blaine, so Blaine never questions Kurt's preference for bottoming even if Blaine wished he could do it a little more.  

It seems that today was his lucky day though.  

Kurt's long finger pressed up and into him, making Blaine burn from within.  He tensed automatically, then forced his body to relax knowing the sting would wear away into pleasure the looser he became.  One finger becomes two, then the two begin to scissor him out and stretch away the burn while Kurt gently licked and lapped over the length of his cock.  Blaine knew it would be too much to hope that Kurt will take him into his mouth though.  They're past the days of gauzing, but there's still healing to be done in Kurt's mouth.

Blaine writhed on the bed, fingers grabbing and clutching the sheet on either side.  It's Kurt doing all the work, but Blaine is sweating with little beads of sweat rolling off either side of his forehead and into his curls.  

He feels his mouth opening, but doesn't seem to hear his words until after they've passed out of his mouth.  “Please, please angel… more.”  

Fingers are pulled out, leaving his hole gaping as his ass muscles grab at the air trying to figure out why it's been left vacant.  It doesn't have to wonder for long though as Kurt's cock is lined up to it and then makes a slow slide into him until he's wonderfully, overwhelmingly full, stretched beyond what he once thought was possible, and so utterly blissful.

“You know I don't like being called that.”

Kurt pulls back and thrusts back into Blaine again, making them both moan in unison before Blaine can return playful barb.

“No.  You love it.”

What was slow becomes faster as Blaine stretches and Kurt starts to break into a frantic pace.  It's been too long for both of them and Blaine didn't want to push Kurt until he was ready, but now it seems like he waited too long the way Kurt is gasping and groaning in tandem while he snaps his hips forward with each half breath.  He knows where to find Blaine's prostate and makes good use of the knowledge, rubbing his girth over the spot with each thrust until Blaine is a shuddering, weakened mess below him and crying out incoherently as his stomach is coated in his own white spunk.

Kurt comes a minute later, buried right up inside of Blaine and collapsing on top of Blaine and into the already drying goo on his belly.  Both of them just pant and work to keep their heartbeats inside their ribs though, and Blaine coils his arms around Kurt and holds him close.  It's another few minutes then before he can find it within himself to lean forward and gently kiss the top of Kurt's head, murmuring that they'd better clean themselves up before all the sweat and cum dry on them.

“I do like angel.”  Kurt admits when they're washing each other over, looking away as if he's ashamed of the fact.

“I know.”  

“I just don't think I am.”

“You are though.”  Blaine says with a shake of his head, wincing as he plucks off a hard piece of cum off his stomach and ends up pulling a hair out with it.

“I'm not.  In fact I'm officially twenty five percent demon.”

Blaine sighs.  He has a feeling he'll be having this conversation until they're old and gray, so he decides to hold firm and make clear what is truth for him.  “Whatever you are to others or even yourself, you'll always be an angel to me.”