Blaine approached the war table nervously, finding it surrounded by Kurt, Finn, Noah, Puck, and a couple soldiers he didn't know. The hall was bustling more so than usual and everyone seemed on edge.

"Where's Burt?" he asked as he came to the table. Kurt looked up at him and then looked back down at a new map laid out on top of the geographical map. It looked like a mess of random lines.

Finn turned to Blaine, "He had a heart attack last night. He's recovering. Kurt's in charge."

Blaine felt like he received a punch to the gut and choked out a feeble, "S-sorry. I didn't know."

"Yeah well, it's been a wonderful night of surprises for us all." Noah pitched in and put a hand on the paper everyone was examining, "This look familiar?"

Blaine shook his head because it honestly didn't.
Mercedes came up beside him and went right past his comfort zone as she went nose to nose with him. Blaine tried to hold his ground, but was so tired and feeling so defeated that he didn't know how long he could stay in place.

"Look here you curly haired munchkin. I lost two friends in that maze last night and you're honestly telling me that you have no idea what it is?"

"No Mercedes he actually doesn't." Kurt's voice snapped and the woman pulled back, though kept an angry stare on Blaine.

"Those are the maps we have made, so far, of the tunnels under the castle. When we talked to Emily last night she told us that your family has been hiding right under us the entire time. She described the exit she came through when she was shipped out in trade and we found it. We don't actually know if our troops are lost in there, or dead, because it's an awful maze with all sorts of booby traps."

Blaine looked down at the paper and followed all the interwoven lines. He trembled a little and sunk into the chair beside him at the table. "I'm so sorry... I was never privy to the information... I always thought they were just a short little set of passages for quick access. I didn't know they were this extensive."

Finn tapped at one of the random connections on the paper, "We're going to send squad six in and have them disperse in a star formation. We should be able to find out more that way."

Rachel and Finn began talking about the strategy for fully mapping the labyrinth below and Noah and Mercedes started talking about it as well. Blaine remained silent and watched Kurt. The last night had been awful. He hadn't slept and became sick with worry. He was convinced that Emily was going to have him incriminated with something after her outburst. He thought he would be executed, and it wouldn't be the worst of it. He thought his sister hated him, and he thought Kurt did too. He still wasn't sure if Kurt didn't hate him. Blaine had been a total fool. He had never thought of the passages as anything more than an escape route and it made so much sense for his father to camp in them. There would be no better place to launch an attack then from below.

He was still lost in thought when Kurt's eyes caught his own and they found themselves looking at one another, unspoken questions between them. Blaine hoped Kurt would see the hope in his eyes now.

When he thought of sparring with Kurt before today, he thought of it in a playful, amorous manner. This morning had been rough and completely unromantic. Kurt had used sparring to make sure Blaine couldn't focus on controlling his expressions in order to make him completely honest and he knew it. It didn't matter though, Blaine would have been honest anyhow. All he had to hide was that he was an idiot - and it wasn't a secret anymore either. But wait...

Blaine looked at Kurt and snapped, "There's a drop point."

Everyone stopped speaking and looked at Blaine, who tried to scan over the map, "I'm not sure where it drops on here... but it's in my father's room. Cooper showed it to me. It drops into the passages somewhere."

"Show us." Kurt said coolly.

After showing them the drop point with the loose brick in his father's room, Blaine returned to his room where he spent the rest of the day. He tried to read but couldn't focus. He instead found himself looking out the window and watching the movements of people below. Blaine could have napped, he certainly needed it, but his mind was still a flurry of activity and thoughts, most unwelcome.

As the sky turned from blue to orange to black, he remained in place, no longer really looking at anything in particular, but looking past it.

He heard the door open behind him and then close. He didn't look up. He didn't need to. Kurt smelled of lilacs and mint.

"Can we have dinner together please?"

Blaine turned and looked to Kurt. Kurt held a tray in his hand filled with random foods from the kitchen. Blaine hadn't eaten at all today and his stomach gave him away with a loud growl.

"Alright." He went to sit at the table. He still felt defeated, and not because Kurt had beaten him in swordfighting in the morning.

Kurt set the tray down but didn't go to sit across from him. He went around the table and crouched in front of Blaine, now looking up into his eyes "Please forgive me..."

Blaine took in a shaky breath and moved a hand out to run down Kurt's cheek, "You didn't do anything... I should have known. I should have told you about them."

Kurt rested his cheek against Blaine's hand and exhaled softly, "No. Not for that. For not trusting you."

Blaine moved his other hand out and ran the fingers of that hand over Kurt's soft straight locks of hair. "Can we just put it all past us? It's been a really awful night and day and now that you're here... all I want to do is be close to you."

Kurt shut his eyes and nodded, "I can agree to that."

Blaine ran his fingers in and out of Kurt's hair, "How's your dad?"

With that, Kurt lost all composure and burst into tears. Blaine dropped from the chair and knelt on the floor, wrapping his arms around Kurt and rubbing his back. Kurt became unwound, sobbing with great heaves into Blaine's chest. "It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay." Blaine repeated over and over, rocking Kurt gently and laying soft kisses to the top of his head.

When Kurt had spent all of his tears, his chest trembled and he burrowed as much as he could into Blaine's arms, "It's not going to be okay. I can't run an army. I can't solve this. I can't imagine my life without my dad."

"It will, you are, and you can." Blaine took Kurt's chin in his hand and tipped his head back so that Kurt was looking up at him, "Your dad will be fine. He wouldn't leave you behind like this."

"You can't know that..." Kurt's voice was cracking as he spoke and even though he had used up his sobs, tears still were streaking down his face.

Blaine brushed the tears away with his thumb. "I'll help you. I know you probably don't want my help given that I'm clearly a fool when it comes to the real world, but I won't let you deal with this alone."

Kurt sniffled and then meekly asked, "Am I too gross right now to be kissed?"

Blaine smiled and suddenly all was right with the world again. Kurt's face was red and splotchy, sticky with tears and probably some snot too, but he looked beautiful to Blaine. He pressed his lips to Kurt's gently and after a moment pulled back away to breathe.

Kurt let out a deep exhale and rested his head on Blaine's shoulder. "Before his heart attack, we were talking about you..."

Blaine flinched, "It couldn't have been good..."

Kurt rubbed his fingers along the small of Blaine's back, "Actually, he suggested that if you were really just as naive as you've been proven to be today, then I should just let myself fall for you."

Blaine suddenly loved Burt. No wonder that man inspired his troops so well. "Well I guess I'm the luckiest fool alive then."

Kurt sniffled. "Just don't forget it."

Blaine let out a small chuckle and pressed another kiss to the top of Kurt's head.

Kurt pushed himself away after that and went to the wash basin, leaving Blaine knelt on the floor. "I've probably already stayed too long. We still haven't figured out those passages and we can't let them get the edge on us with them."

Blaine stood up and walked over to Kurt as he washed his face off. "You need to rest. You were up all night..."

Kurt shook his head and looked sadly at Blaine, "I would love to stay and have a relaxing dinner with you and maybe even suggest that you, Cat, and I all cuddle in the bed where we might happen to fall asleep together... but when you're a leader, you don't live for yourself."

Blaine frowned and nodded, "Then I'll stay up with you."

Kurt put a hand on top of Blaine's and squeezed gently. "There's going to be those who are still suspicious of you despite my efforts to put them at ease. I need you to sleep so you can be your usual charming self tomorrow and convince them of your good nature."

Blaine tugged Kurt's hand and Kurt along with it, meeting their lips together, which resulted in the most erotic whimper out of Kurt. "Please..."

"For you. Anything and the world." Blaine replied once the kiss was broken.

Kurt left, taking a danish with him from the ignored tray of food. Blaine had a quiet and brief supper, then curled up in his bed with Cat who had been especially antisocial in the past day and now seemed to want to make up for it.

That night, Blaine had good dreams.