Blaine had been having a perfectly good dream.  Something about being in a city and seeing a movie like nothing had ever happened, like the Others had never arrived, and then he was pulled out of it.

Not that he minded the way he was pulled from it.

His eyes fluttered open and he glanced down to confirm that he was really waking up the way he thought he was, and, sure enough, there was Kurt, nestled between his legs and bobbing his head up and down over Blaine's already awake cock.

Well, this had to be the best way to wake up ever.

He moaned, alerting Kurt to his consciousness, and arched his hips up.  Never in all their years together had Kurt ever gone down on him first thing in the morning.  Given the limited sanitation they had out here, it was a wonder Kurt went down on Blaine at all.  No matter how hard Blaine tried to keep himself clean there, he always felt like it wasn't good enough and was sure that after a hard day of work he had to reek down there.  Add to that how he was naturally furry, and, well, Kurt doing this to him was like the ultimate declaration of unconditional love.

“Oh…. angel….”  

He saw Kurt's eyes snap up to meet his own, never stopping his movements, watching Blaine's response to what he was doing to him.  Each lick, each press of his lips, it was all purposeful.  Kurt was doing it all to see Blaine's reaction.

And react he did.  Blaine had always been sensitive, and he'd had so many wet dreams about waking up this way that it heightened the sensations.  He was a moaning, writhing mess within moments of waking, and Kurt was relentless, sucking him like he had been poisoned and the antidote would come out of Blaine's dick.

Which it did, not a minute later.  He didn't have the chance to warn Kurt, who took it all in stride, and Blaine mentally thanked whatever gods might exist for endowing Kurt with a strong gag reflex because his lover drank it all down before releasing Blaine's cock with a lewd pop of his lips and crawling up the bed to lay beside him.

“I… I should…. you….”  Blaine was too dizzy and taken aback to form a coherent sentence, though Kurt seemed to understand.

“It's okay.  I was…. taking care of that too.”

Blaine's eyes rolled to the side to look at Kurt, blue eyes twinkling and cheeks flushing bashfully.  Then he glanced down the length of Kurt's body where his cock hung limp and Kurt was wiping the remnants of his own release on the sheet behind him.  The thought of Kurt jerking himself off while blowing Blaine made Blaine groan in sheer delight.

Blaine rolled onto his side, facing Kurt, and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him tightly against him, chest to chest.  There were no words, no actions, that could explain just how much he felt for Kurt in that moment.  All Blaine could do was hope that by letting Kurt feel how intensely his heart was beating that it could somehow convey to Kurt just how much he loved him.

Usually when Blaine held Kurt in the mornings like this, it would only take a minute or two before Kurt pulled away, citing the need to get breakfast ready or wash up or do any number of things that allowed him to be free and mobile.  Blaine had long ago accepted that Kurt was never terribly comfortable just laying down and being.  He had to be doing something to feel alright with himself.

But this morning he stayed, pulling Blaine's body just as close to his own as Blaine was trying to do with his.  He stayed, and he held fast.

“What's wrong?”

Kurt shook his head where it rested against Blaine's shoulder.  “Nothing.”

“Don't… -”

“Nothing's wrong.”

Blaine sighed, and despite knowing better, he just continued to hold onto Kurt for as long as he'd let him.  It would do no good to argue if Kurt wasn't going to be forthcoming.  

The boils that they had seen on the twins had spread and seemed to affect the young and the elderly worst of all. Blaine and the medics had treated a steady stream of affected for the past week.  They were nasty little things, causing fevers and aches, and they were disgusting to tend to.  Half the time Blaine had to pop them to allow the infection to drain, and then wrap them up to prevent reinfection.  For the most part, that had stemmed the spread of something that wasn't supposed to be contagious according to all the medical textbooks they had.

The twins were better now at least, treated early enough and tended to religiously enough for the boils they had suffered to clear up over the course of a couple days.  The worst part of it though was that the boils, if large enough, would leave scars.  This was particularly upsetting for a couple young ladies who had them on their faces.  Upsetting, but not the end of the world.

At least not to Blaine or the other medics anyhow.  After everything else that had happened, the boils had seemed to cement the notion that they were in an apocalyptic time for many.  The priest had never been busier, and according to Kitty, people who had never attended church before were now in its doors every day, hoping to make up for lost time as they anticipated the end times.

“It's ridiculous.”  Blaine grumbled with a shake of his head as he inventoried their rapidly depleting stock of gauze.

Mike shrugged, “It's a lot of coincidence, sure.  I don't think there's anything religious about it… but it does seem a little too… convenient.”

“What does that mean?”

Again Mike shrugged in that offhand way he did, “What if it's the Others trying to scare us?”

“What would be the point?”  Blaine huffed, closing the door to the cupboard and handing the inventory clipboard over to Mike who arched a brow as he read it over.  “They can't get in.  Why scare us?”

“Maybe to force us out.  If we keep going at the rate we have been, we won't have supplies to speak of and we'll either have to survive without them or go on risky runs to get them… where they could get to us.”

Blaine sighed.  That seemed feasible.  Gauze was one thing, something they could manufacture or find a replacement for.  What they couldn't do without though was the drugs they relied on to numb patients for procedures, the painkillers to help people though, and, in a couple extreme cases, the anti-psychotics that kept individuals functioning enough to be contributing citizens.  

“There are still places in our safety radius we could go to search for things….”

“All those places have been torn apart by now Blaine… there's not a stitch of anything usable from them at this point.  We need to look at Kitty's horticulture closer I think… see if we can't replace some of what we're using with things we could grow…”

“With what water Mike?  The crops aren't even growing right now… we have no water to spare on cultivating plants for our experimental purposes….”

Another shrug.  “Sacrifices have to be made.”

“Sacrifices have already been made.”

“Guys!  Guys!  Storm clouds!  Rain clouds!”

Both Mike and Blaine looked up as Kitty, wide again around her hips as her latest pregnancy was showing, burst in pointing excitedly outside with both hands.  It took them no less than a second to follow her back out where they stared in wonder at the distant dark clouds that seemed to be moving towards them.  Down the street, every other member of the community was stopping and looking as well, some cheered to the advancing weather system, while others began to cry and wail.

“This is good!”

“Not if you know about the biblical plagues Blaine…”

Blaine looked over at Kitty, who quickly filled him in.

“Those people who think that end times are coming believe that the next plague will be some kind of horrendous fire and hail storm…”

“Oh…”

So this would be what would decide once and for all if what the community had been suffering was merely terrible coincidences or some message from a god he didn't believe in.

He left the clinic immediately, rushing to home where he reunited with Kurt, watching the same clouds roll in that everyone else had been from the center of a dismantled engine on the ground.

“Blaine…”

They clutched each other's hands, watching steadily, holding their breaths as the darkness moved closer, clouds rolling in grey waves towards the community torturously slow.  Could clouds really rain down fire?  Scientifically it didn't make any sense at all.  Clouds were masses of liquid or frozen water.  But, science wasn't very good at explaining how boils had been spreading, why frogs had bounced through in hoards, or why the Others were capable of magic.

“Inside Blaine.”

Kurt led him into the house without waiting for a response.  Blaine was sure it was because Kurt would have preferred the safety of watching from one of the windows, but he found himself instead led to their bed where Kurt made short work of his own clothing before stripping a dumbfounded Blaine of his own.

“Why…. what?”

“If this is the end, I'm not watching it come to me.  I want to die doing something I enjoy.”

Blaine couldn't dig up a reason to argue with that, letting Kurt once again take the lead and drowning in Kurt's body as the crackle of thunder was heard and the wind hit against the house, whistling through any cracks it could find.  All of it just accented the pulsing of his body against Kurt's though, making everything seem more intense, more real than it already was.  

They held onto one another afterwards, breath coming in short, choking pants, and listened to the sky as it snapped overhead.  Kurt clutched onto Blaine so tightly that Blaine was forced to consider that Kurt might actually be buying into the fear of the end, and was scared himself.  Even now though, Blaine wasn't worried.  Nervous, yes.  Anxious, yes.  But he wasn't concerned about some silly old story about how some god had punished a group for enslaving another group.  It didn't make any sense in the context of what the community was about.  They had neither enslaved anyone nor were the enslaved.  At best it was Other trickery.  Trickery he would not fall for.

Neither he nor Kurt could ignore the sound of banging against the house though.  Together they got up, slipped on boxers, and held hands as they crept out of the bedroom and into the main room where there was a window they could look out of.

“Hail…” Kurt murmured, eyes wide as he stared at the thick, white pellets shooting against the side of the house and all over the ground.

“See… no fire.  Crazy religious nuts.”  Blaine chuckled, almost breaking into a laugh.  Maybe he had been a little bit worried after all.

“Yeah… and it'll melt into water…. we should put out some buckets and bins to collect it in.”  Kurt added on excitedly, rushing into their storage to grab all the pots they had.

Heading outside was rough, and Blaine was pelted with a few balls of hail that was sure to leave him with bruises as he and Kurt set out the pots.  It would be worth it though, even to just have a thorough wash with what came of the hail.  Maybe they were getting a bit of a break after all, even if it meant that the house would need some repairs where some larger gobs of hail had hit it hard enough to crack the wood.

Kurt laughed too.

Blaine hadn't heard it in awhile, so he just smiled and listened to the sweet sound, squeezing Kurt's hand gently as they watched the hail bounce off the ground and house.  It went on for hours like that, until the ground was a white, clumpy mess and they had to push furniture up against holes that were made in the walls while avoiding the holes made in the ceiling.  They had wood to fix it up with though.  The source of water would be worth it.

Not everyone in the community agreed.  Once the hail passed, and Blaine was able to return to the community in his winter boots, he found that more people were seeing the hail storm was further confirmation of their doom rather than the salvation they had been waiting for.  Instead of collecting the balls of hail which could be be stored for water, people instead flocked to the church where an impromptu prayer service began, leaving the few who had sense outside trying to get as much hail into water barrels before it melted and soaked into the dirt.  

Blaine and Mike shirked their medic duties to collect the water, casting wary glances towards the choruses that rang out from inside the church periodically with shakes of their heads.  They didn't need to tell one another that they thought that madness was spreading, even if it wasn't one of the prescribed plagues.

At home Kurt had done much the same, using every bowl and pot and bucket and pail he could find to collect the hail in where it melted.  When Blaine returned home that evening, he was met with the sight of his lover stripped down, pots of water boiling over the fire pit, and washing himself thoroughly.

“Gorgeous…”

Kurt snickered and held a sponge out to Blaine.  “You too.”

Blaine complied with no argument, washing up as Kurt trimmed their hair and then shaved Blaine's beard off.  It had been a long while since he had felt so clean, and he was even more impressed to find that Kurt had used some of the water while he was gone to wash their sheets and blankets.

“God… luxury…”  Blaine moaned as he nestled into the fresh smelling bed.

That earned him another little laugh from Kurt who crawled in beside him.  “Is it?”

“Now that you're here… yup.”

“Sap.”

Whatever prompted it - his words or the gift from the sky, Kurt again initiated sex.  Blaine was sure he had never had sex this much in a week before.  His dick ached and he wished he was younger, able to spring to attention and come easily like he had been able to when he was young with only his hand to deal with it.  Kurt seemed insatiable, and Blaine wasn't planning to complain about it, but he was confused as to why Kurt seemed so intent on draining every last ounce of semen from him.  

“How many theoretical plagues are there left?” Kurt asked the next day to Kitty, one of the few religious people in town who actually seemed to think that all the others were overreacting.

“Three.  Locusts, darkness….”

She got quiet after that and swallowed as she glanced to Isaac, who was holding Eugene under Santana's careful watch.

“Death of the firstborn…”

“Don't worry.”  Kurt hummed, following her gaze and setting a hand on her shoulder.  “It won't happen.  Everyone will be fine.”

“I hope so… I mean, I've read the stuff where scientists have tried to account for what might have caused those plagues back in biblical times.  They said firstborns probably died because they were exposed to illness by being given priority on food and that after the locusts and the livestock deaths… but… what if…”

Trent clasped his hand on Kitty's other shoulder.  “Won't happen sweetie.  We won't let it.”

The morose tone of the conversation became too much for Blaine, so he handled it in the best way he knew how.  Grabbing a blanket and covering it over himself, he crawled into the center of the floor and declared himself “The blob!” with a playful growl.  It was a game he had played ever since Isaac could toddle on two feet and one that earned him a shriek of appreciation from the little boy and a laugh from everyone else who watched as Isaac and Gwen worked together to try and wrestle down “the blob”.  Even Whitney and Aretha helped, batting at Blaine's arms and gurgling joyfully.  He couldn't be a dad, but he could at least be the fun uncle.

The best part was having the blanket pulled off his face long enough to catch a glimpse of Kurt watching the scene, smiling the biggest and brightest smile Blaine had ever seen on his face.  Gorgeous didn't even begin to describe it.

The sex they had that night was insane, and by morning Blaine wondered if his ass, Kurt's ass, or either of their cocks would ever recover.  The sheets were no longer fresh and clean to say the least.

“So.  I hear locusts have been considered a delicacy in some parts of the world.”  Blaine joked as he limped into the clinic.

Mike just shook his head and rolled his eyes while Carole wagged a finger his way.  “You need to joke less about that sort of thing Blaine.  You don't have a firstborn son to worry about.”

It was a scolding he deserved, but wasn't expecting.  He uttered a weak “sorry” to Carole and clamped his mouth shut.  He had forgotten she was a mother and hopeful one-day grandmother.  Finn was everything to her, and even the slightest of threats against his well being inflamed her.  

“You shouldn't have said something like that around her.”  Kurt said with a shake of his head later in the day as Blaine recounted the incident.

“I know that now…” Blaine lamented with a sigh, curling up against Kurt on the couch.

Their conversation was interrupted by buzzing, and instead of being surprised at this point, Kurt and Blaine just looked at one another before standing up and looking out the now cracked window.  

Brown and yellow clouds passed by, distorting their view of anything beyond.  Beside him Blaine heard Kurt gag at the sight, and then again when a rogue locust hit the window leaving a gooey, yellow mess in its wake.  They were headed towards the crops, and Blaine's stomach dropped as he realized that there was now too many coincidences to ignore.  He had to accept that there was more at play here than a shitty summer.

“What the hell do they want from us?!”  Blaine snapped, turning away from the window and flinging his hands up into the air.

“...who?”

“The Others!  There's no other way this could be happening… one thing after another…. they can't get through your forcefield or whatever it is so they send in these… these…. omens… plagues…. whatever you want to call them.  What the hell do they hope to accomplish?”

Kurt's hands found their way onto Blaine's back and Blaine melted back against them, allowing himself to be wrapped by by Kurt's arms.  It was there that he felt the most secure, and the rage that had been bubbling up dissipated.

“They… they just want to show their power.”  Kurt said quietly once Blaine was calm and snug in his hold.

“Well they have… they did it over a decade ago when they killed off our families and everything we knew.  Did they think we needed a reminder?”

Kurt didn't respond to the question, meant to be rhetorical anyhow, and just brushed his fingers through Blaine's hair as both men kept their eyes averted from the window and the swarms passing their home with the intent to destroy what little had managed to grow that year.  There was no point in going out to try and hold them off.  They had nothing to fight something like that with.

“Two more left… darkness and death..”  Blaine murmured when the buzzing had died down and the cloud of bugs could only be seen in the distance where they were no doubt consuming what small amount of crops the community had.

“It won't come to that Blaine.” Kurt assured him, lifting a floorboard and pulling out a small tin that Blaine knew contained the coffee beans Kurt was saving.

“How do you know that Kurt?  Really?  How?  Because now I'm actually starting to freak out…. Isaac… Eugene… firstborn sons… and what if it's not contained to just the boys?  What about the twins?  What about Beth?  What about so many others around here?”  Blaine ranted as he watched Kurt grind the beans down using a rolling pin before dumping them into a pot of water he had set to boil.

“I won't let anyone die Blaine.”

So calm, so cool, so… sure of things.  Blaine just shook his head as he watched Kurt make his coffee, a special and too rare treat.  How could he know?  Blaine had been so sure everyone else had been wrong about the plagues, and now he was considering going to that damned church and confessing his sins.. or whatever the hell they did there.  He needed some kind of real affirmation that everything would be okay.  

“How do you think they'll cause darkness?”

Kurt shook his head, handing Blaine a mug of coffee.  “Not sure.  Guess we'll see.”

“How can you be so okay with this?  You love those kids almost as much, if not more, than their parents Kurt… why aren't you more worried?”  Blaine asked finally, just holding the mug as he looked over at his husband.

Kurt looked over the rim of his mug as he sipped, regarding Blaine quietly before pulling the mug away from his lips.  “Because I have the power to make everything okay.”

His eyebrows jumped up, and Blaine continued to stare at Kurt, though now with unadulterated shock.  “What?”

“I can fix all this.”

“Wh-... How?”

Kurt shook his head once again, looking down into the brown liquid and bringing the mug back to his lips after whispering, “Just… I promise… I'll tell you in the morning.  Please let me enjoy tonight.”

Blaine gawked for a moment, then looked out the window, through the cracks from the hail and the smeared goo from the locusts and drank his coffee, wondering just how Kurt could make all of what had gone on alright.  If he even had that power… why didn't he use it before?  Why didn't he stop people from getting hurt or letting the livestock die?  Why now?  Why at the last minute?  This wasn't one of those bloody “cut the wire” scenes from a cop movie after all.  This was their lives.  They didn't need to wait until the last minute and let all the stress and fear accumulate to draw out the tension from an audience.

Kurt led the way into the bedroom once they had finished off his coffee, and at first Blaine thought about refusing the sex he knew was going to happen because he was sure his cock was getting chapped and the heat that came with the end of summer made every unnecessary movement completely exhausting.  But then Kurt got naked in front of him, and any hope of Blaine being reasonable and saying no went out the proverbial window.  His husband might questionable timing when it came to being so constantly horny, but he was too beautiful to refuse.  

Kurt held him that night, and again Blaine thought to push him away, already hot and sticky from the sex coupled with the summer heat.  He didn't though.  It was rare enough that Kurt initiated sex, let alone initiated post-coitus cuddles.  Blaine would take this moment and store it away in his memory for nights when Kurt was insistent on hogging the blankets on the other side of the bed.  

They slept in the next morning, and Blaine grumbled as Kurt nudged him awake, trying to pull Kurt against him in his sleepy stupor before the words Kurt was trying to wake him with finally registered.

“Blaine… the sun didn't rise.”

That's what it looked like at first anyhow.  Further inspection and use of Jeff's telescope and scientific mind though confirmed that the sun was still functional.  What was the problem was a thick cloud cover that had come in during the night and didn't move, blocking out the sun and keeping everything dark.

Blaine just took Kurt's hand and squeezed as he watched Kitty try not to cry as she held Isaac tightly to her and watched Santana fail in trying not to cry as she did the same with Eugene.

“Angel….”

“Yeah… I know… it's time.”

Kurt's voice was mournful as he said it, and Blaine followed him back to their home where Kurt pulled the bronze coin out from the drawer he had it stashed in, looking it over under the light from a lantern.

“That's going to save the kids?”

Kurt nodded, not looking back to Blaine.  “In a manner of speaking…”

Blaine sat on the bed aside Kurt, setting a hand on Kurt's back and looking down at the simple looking coin that was being turned over and over in Kurt's hands.  “Please don't tell me it means you have to sacrifice your own life Kurt… you've been acting so… off lately… I.. don't think…”

“It won't kill me Blaine.”

Blaine breathed out a sigh of relief.  The thought had only just come to him, but it was enough to make him tremble to consider.  He wasn't sure he could choose between the love of his life and the kids.

Kurt stood, Blaine following his lead, and walked to the main room where he dropped the coin into a pot of water that had been sitting beside the firepit waiting to be used.  There was a small spark of light which caused Blaine to jump back a step in surprise, and then a beam that stretched out over the pot and illuminated the figure of a man.

“You've made your point.”  Kurt said plainly as Blaine squinted, letting his eyes adjust to light until he managed to recognize the figure in the light.

The white-eyed Other.

There was foreign babbling.  The kind Blaine had hoped he'd never have to hear again.  Quickly he stepped up beside Kurt, tense and ready to fight if the figure in the light decided to make a move against his lover.

“How can I know you're telling the truth?”  Kurt said in response to the Other, who didn't even respond to Blaine's presence beside Kurt.

More babbling.  Blaine looked from the figure in the light to Kurt, who didn't look back but reached down to squeeze his hand.

“No killing.  No harm.  They all need to be left alone and free to live out their lives.”

Blaine squeezed back, wishing he could at least understand what the white-eyed Other was saying so he could know what was going on.  

Their front door opened, revealing Kitty, Trent, Santana, Brittany, Jeff, and the rest of those that lived close to them, with Trent announcing them by way of saying “Hey!  We saw a bright light in here and wanted to make sure there wasn't a fire and -” before snapping his jaws together and staring at the sight of the Other in the light.

“What the fuck!?” Santana growled, reaching for the short sword in her belt.  

Both Blaine and Kurt lifted a hand up to Santana, though Kurt never looked away from the Other he was conversing with.  

“He's going to stop all of this.”  Blaine explained to the group flooding into his home, grateful for some purpose besides waiting beside Kurt to fix things.  “He's telling them to stop.”

“Why didn't he do that before then?!” Santana snarled, stalking towards the light ahead of everyone else who hung back by the door in a trance.

The white-eyed one uttered another string of nonsense and Kurt nodded to it, ignoring Santana and everyone else in the room as he looked to Blaine.  “I love you.”

Blaine blinked, drawn back to Kurt and letting those words that had always been felt but never said sink in.  “I… love you too angel…”

Kurt leaned in, pressing his lips to Blaine's who took a shuddering breath as the truth of what was happening pounded into his skull, sending his heart beating against his ribs and his legs quavering.

“Wait… wait… Kurt… You're not.  You said -”

Kurt nodded as he pulled back.  “I won't die from this deal.  Neither will you or anyone else here.”

Blaine choked on his breath, reaching to wrap his arms around Kurt in one last hurried attempt to hold him, “But, but…”

“I love you.”

There was a blink.  A flash.  A shock of purple light that blinded Blaine for a moment and when he could see again, Kurt was no longer in his arms and there was no more light illuminating the house.  

He rushed around, stumbling over his own feet as he cried out Kurt's name and looked in the bedroom and then raced outside, pushing past the shocked silent makeshift family he had created for himself.  Maybe Kurt would be outside.  Maybe this was just some horrible trick.

But outside there was nothing either.  In every direction he turned Blaine saw nothing, at least nothing that was Kurt.  Above, the clouds were parting and crackling with thunder, the sound mocking him and the state he had found himself in.

Kurt had given himself up for their wellbeing.

And he had left Blaine there without him.

His knees hit to the ground as his legs finally gave out, and Blaine looked up at the sky which broke above him, releasing the rain that had been kept from them for so long.  It soaked Blaine quickly, and he didn't move, letting it wash over him until he was chilled to the bone with his clothing plastered against him.  He could hear people cheering from within the town, but he couldn't celebrate with them.  

All the rain was good for was washing the tears off his face.