Kurt caught his breath as he leaned against Blaine's door, his face flushed and red. Sam looked at him with curiosity spreading across his face. "What? Did you catch him in the middle of something embarrassing...?"

At that moment, Blaine could be heard groaning. Groaning all so sweetly and Kurt hid his face in his hands.

"Yup. Definitely caught in something embarrassing." Sam added nonchalantly and continued pacing the hall back and forth as he patrolled.

"No... no. Sam. He was just in the bathtub was all." Kurt was fully red now and his hands gestured madly as he tried to make his mind think chaste thoughts.

More groaning from the inside of the room and Sam shook his head, "If you say so. Doesn't sound like any boring ol' bath I've had... at least not one that was taken alone."

Kurt added a groan of his own at the thought and shook his head, standing himself up and walking down the hall towards the stairs. "Whatever. Just do your job and I better not hear the troops talking about this with raunchy, unconfirmed, additions."

Sam laughed behind him and continued the patrol. Kurt went down the stairs and headed to the engineering station set up by the exit. "How's it going Artie?"

The boy in the chair that had been modified to have wheels looked back to Kurt, "Well we'll be able to take the gold, jewels, and other rich additions off most of the furniture with no problem. It's really only the stuff that was embedded into the wall, ceiling, and floors, when the palace was built that will be a problem."

Artie had been tasked with getting as much of the value out of the palace as possible so it could be used to buy food and supplies from other empires to help support Westerville and the Hummel Army.

"I trust in your abilities. Do what you can. Take a break when you need to. We'll be here for a bit so don't push yourself." Kurt nodded and Artie returned the gesture and looked back at some plans in front of him.

Kurt continued to table after table, checking on the progress of different groups with different tasks.

He was in the midst of looking over a list of the food supplies found in the palace when Burt interrupted him. "Can I speak with you son?"

Kurt nodded and passed the list back to the organizing brigadier, turning to his father.

"Let's walk" Burt said and led the way outside into the courtyard.

Kurt tagged alongside his father, waiting for the inevitable talk he knew was coming ever since he had informed his father that Blaine was gay.

"So... this prince... I know you usually take care of training new leaders and helping them transition, but I don't think you should be in charge of this one." Burt began, purposely looking ahead as he walked and not looking at Kurt.

Kurt shook his head, having expected as much. "I disagree. I'm the one who usually does it, as you say, and I know the most about preparing someone for the role."

Burt nodded and kept pace, "I just don't want you to get... involved..."

Despite Kurt having expecting this talk, the rush of blood to his ears was immediate and Kurt snapped, "Because he's gay? Because you don't think I can handle that?! Believe me dad, the last thing I'm about to do is bed the son of the man who was responsible for mom's death!"

Burt flinched and at that point stopped, turning to put his hands on Kurt's shoulders. "I don't want you to get hurt. I know we're fought for a long time and you feel that now that we've succeeded, you might be able to let your guard down and let someone in, but I don't want it to be the first man you come across in this time."

Kurt looked down, the anger subsiding and being replaced with the guilt of worrying his father, who obviously knew him so well. He had been letting his guard down today. The thought of retirement had washed over him and in liberating this city, he had felt liberated himself.

"I understand. I have a job to do dad and you know I'm the best person for it. I won't let you down and I will keep my guard up until we find a little farmstead to retire to."

Burt pulled his son into a hug which Kurt eagerly returned. "I look forward to that time. Just remember, even though the battle is over, we still have to fight to really liberate this empire. But now it's a fight of words and wisdom and I really need you for that."

Kurt and Burt took a moment then to enjoy the closeness and then separated. Kurt knew what needed to be done.

He knocked this time before entering and when Blaine asked him to come in after he announced himself, Kurt opened the door, the damned cat running and winding himself in and out of his feet.

Kurt grumbled, and instead of reaching down to pick up the cat like he felt inclined to, he stepped over to the bed where Blaine was sitting, a book set in his lap which he must have been reading until Kurt had interrupted.

Kurt handed him a set of papers, "This will be your schedule starting tomorrow. I need to assess your skills and fill in weaknesses. You're the candidate now. After speaking to the nobility, no one else wants the job in case your father decides to show up again."

Blaine blinked in surprise and slowly took the stack of papers offered, looking down at them, "If my father did return and found a nobel in his throne, they would be killed along with their family..."

Kurt nodded, "Yes. I was told as much. Therefore, you're the most reasonable person for the job, though I will have you know there's protesting about that too."

Blaine looked back up from the paper at Kurt in surprise, "But I'm royalty. You can't protest my lineage..."

Kurt smirked. Despite the gentle and naive nature of Blaine, he had obviously been led to believe that his blood was still purer than the rest of society's. "They can, and they probably will. Your father didn't exactly charm the citizens of Westerville and many of them are not in favour of any Anderson's being in power."

Blaine simply nodded and looked back at the stack of paper, "I don't understand why you need to check my skill sets honestly... I'm probably the best educated person left in Westerville and regardless of what the people may think, I'm still a prince and best suited for the role."

Kurt crossed his arms over his chest. "Look. Let me try to explain this simply. We have liberated the people of Westerville from a tyrant - your father. We are not going to blindly put someone else into the role of king without first making sure they will take care of the people as the people deserve to be taken care of. If you don't adhere to the schedule I've given you, I will, somehow, find someone else and you will be relegated to commoner, which I somehow doubt you want."

Blaine flinched and once again nodded to Kurt, setting the stack of papers beside him on the bed. "I... I don't know if I fully understand, but I will do as you ask."

"And make sure you dress appropriately tomorrow. You'll have noticed the first thing on the itinerary is a tour of Westerville. Since you haven't been out of the castle before, you need to realise that not everywhere is as clean as the palace, so dress yourself down. Especially since we'll be touring incognito."

Blaine furrowed his brow and looked from the schedule beside him and then up to Kurt, "Why would we travel without people know who we are? Don't we want them to know me if I'm going to lead them?"

Kurt shook his head, "No. You need to see how your people are without them worried about a prince being around. People act differently when those in authority are around. Let that be your first lesson."

All the while this conversation had been occurring, Cat had been winding between and against Kurt's legs. He had been doing his best to ignore it and then snapped at Blaine, "Would you please control your pet?"

Blaine tensed and reached down to pull Cat up into his arms. "I'm sorry... I don't understand why Cat likes you so much."

Kurt sighed, realising that his efforts to remain tense were actually causing him to be irritable. Reaching into a pouch on his belt he pulled out a few leaves of catmint. "This is probably why..." He put a leaf on the bed and Cat forcibly pulled out of Blaine's arms and began nibbling on the leaf.

Blaine's brow again furrowed in what was quickly becoming one of Kurt's favourite expressions of confusion he had ever seen on anyone. "It's Catmint. I use it in a tea to help with headaches and sleep. It's also something of an aphrodisiac for felines."

Cat purred as if to add credence to Kurt's information.

Blaine reached out to pet Cat while the feline rubbed its head into the leaf. "Thank you. Here I just thought Cat just wanted to leave me like everyone else."

Kurt's heart cracked and he swallowed in an attempt to keep himself cool. How could anyone not want this beautiful boy. "No... just the leaves..."

Kurt needed to escape and turned to leave when Blaine called at his back, "Kurt..."

Kurt stopped, but didn't turn or speak, not wanting to let Blaine see how much he had already cracked at his stony facade with that simple statement.

Blaine stood up behind him and set a hand very gently on Kurt's shoulder, "Um... well I was hoping we could have dinner."

Kurt's breath caught.

"You know. I just need to know what's going on. My whole life has changed in a day and I thought maybe you could help me understand why."

Of course. Of course. An innocent and purposeful dinner, that was it.

Kurt nodded without looking back at Blaine, pulling himself out from Blaine's hand and walking toward the door. "My room then. At dusk. I still have things to take care of before I can eat."

He immediately went into his room despite Sam's questioning look in the hallway and closed the door behind him. He was going to need to do something in order to not get lustful at dinner, and for the next few weeks of training, in order to make sure he got his job done and his dad off his back.

Kurt started going through the things he had stacked up on a bedside table. Sweet Violet, Devil's Claw, Milk Thistle - no, those wouldn't help. Black Cohosh - why did he even have that herb? Cinnamon - no, that was the opposite of what he needed. Skullcap! That was exactly what he needed.

Kurt made himself a tea with the purple petals and sat back in a chair beside the bed as he sipped the bitter concoction. Thank goodness he had befriended Quinn and learned the tricks of herbs. Better yet that he kept himself supplied so he didn't always have to go to her when he had a stomach ache or headache. He had never taken skullcap before, but Quinn had told him about it's used and he had kept some he had found growing in the lands of a previous campaign.

If he had made the tea right, it will reduce his blood flow just a bit, to make it difficult for him to become aroused. Apparently it was also good for rabies, which was why he had originally decided to keep it just in case anyone received a bite from a rabid animal.

Once the vile concoction had been downed, Kurt went into the hall and called for Sam who came over to him.

"I'll watch his door for a bit if you'll tell the kitchen staff that he and I will be having dinner in my room at sunset. I figure you might want to grab a snack. Please tell them nothing with cinnamon, cantauba, goatweed, or cowhage."

Sam nodded and walked off, and Kurt hoped that he didn't know what those herbs were for. That would be truly embarrassing. But he didn't want to take an herb in his supper that would counteract the skullcap. Admittedly, he wasn't sure if all those herbs could be used in cooking or even if they were native to the area.

Kurt paced the hall up and down. He couldn't believe how naive Blaine was. Sure he appeared kind and intelligent, but his interactions and experience was limited. He obviously had no clue about how the other half lived, and above all else, he was the son of a murderer. Did evil run in family lines? Kurt hoped not. Not only for Blaine's sake, but for his own. If Blaine couldn't be trained to lead, then they'd be here longer looking for a replacement and Kurt wanted his retirement. He wanted to be a local performer in some small community, or even a tailor. Something far away and very different from what he was used to.

His stomach grumbled. Either he was hungry or the skullcap was not sitting well. Either way, he had about an hour for it to take effect before dinner. Please let it work.