Kurt kept a fairly regimented schedule over the course of the week. In the morning he would grab something from the kitchen and go check on his father, always ensuring the Quinn was doing everything she could to help him. He would then get the morning reports from all the generals and captains and plan out the objectives of the day before checking in with different assignment stations to see if they had any concerns or ideas. At lunch he took whatever was brought to him to eat and worked on writing letters to allies in nearby towns to appeal for troop support and offer trade for supplies. After lunch he was joined by Blaine and they would have formal meetings with nobles as well as citizens who wanted to bring their concerns to his attention. By supper he was again meeting with the generals and captains to determine how the day had gone and determine how they needed to alter strategy. By the time he got to his room, it was often well after dark.

He had become hooked on coffee. He had a cup of it on him at all times.

This evening he dragged himself into his room to find Blaine asleep in his bed. It looked as though he had been sitting up and reading a book waiting for Kurt to return and nodded off, the book resting on his chest with his hands still clutching it. Blaine had his head rested against the headboard and was making little snores. Kurt smiled and pulled off his boots as quietly as he could before crawling into the bed and very carefully pulling the book out of Blaine's hands. The Wager of Kings it read on the cover. Kurt set it on the nightstand, making a mental note to ask Blaine about its contents later.

Kurt crawled over Blaine so he was over top of him, but not in physical contact. He watched him breathe, every so often a little grunt and snort so delightfully escaping him. Kurt had insisted that Blaine get a regular sleep, if for no other reason than so Kurt had one less thing to worry about. He leaned down and brushed his lips against Blaine's after having taken time to capture the sight of him resting.

"Mmm..." Blaine pressed into the kiss and rumbled gently as he awoke.

"You looked so peaceful. I hate to wake you." Kurt said after pulling his head away.

Blaine dopily smiled up at Kurt, "Well that's the best way to wake up.." He wrapped his arms around Kurt and with an unexpected burst of energy, Blaine had rolled them both over so Blaine was now looking down at Kurt.

A small gasp escaped Kurt's lips, followed by a chuckle. "Come on now... I just want to sleep and you were taking up so much of the bed space."

Blaine murmured something incomprehensible as he moved his mouth in small kisses up Kurt's neck to the bottom of his ear, causing Kurt to moan and whimper as his body trembled without his consent.

"Blaine..." he gasped as Blaine nuzzled his neck and simultaneously nibbled his earlobe, "Please. Too much..."

Blaine huffed and rolled himself back off of Kurt. "Well you can't straddle me like that and wake me with a kiss and expect me to let that go."

Kurt chuckled and turned to rest his head on Blaine's chest where a hand was wrapped around him. "Were you waiting long?"

Blaine rubbed his hand up and down Kurt's black, "Since supper... but it's alright. I needed out of my room. Cat tore up a pillow while we were at meetings today."

Kurt laughed and then snuggled himself closer into Blaine, "You have the most ridiculous problems you know."

Blaine leaned his head over to press a kiss to Kurt's forehead, "I know. Now I want to hear about yours. Get them out so you can sleep."

Kurt sighed. Blaine had quickly become the one person Kurt could release the day's stress on and he found he needed that release in order to fall asleep. He hated having to burden Blaine with the problems, but Blaine already knew most, if not all, of what was going on. When Kurt was telling him it though, it was for the benefit of his own mindset, his own frustrations about the situation coming out. It was venting.

"Well with several more troops getting lost below, I couldn't risk losing anyone else. Noah and Finn think we should still be searching the passages... caverns more like it if you ask me... But I made the call today. We're keeping guards at all the entrances we know about and no one is going in. At least we'll know if they go out though..."

A hand brushed over Kurt's cheek and he shut his eyes, enjoying the contact. If Santana was here he would tell her that he had left his stick at the door.

"It's the right call. For all we know my father has them captured or worse. If he got those troops, he would do anything to get information out of them..." Blaine spoke softly and Kurt wondered, as he regularly did now, how he would have turned out if his father was the spawn of a demon and not the hero he did have.

"I can't believe how those men treated you today Blaine. It's as if they don't see you there..." Kurt was talking about how the nobles had ganged up on Blaine in a meeting earlier today, citing that even if he got the city out of ruins and fixed all the problems, there was no way they could ever trust him.

Kurt looked up at Blaine who was biting his lower lip gently. For as much as Blaine tried, he would have a lifetime of trying to prove himself to people because of his father. "Some of the nobles spoke to me later about hiring on some of our troops permanently to stay in the city and train new soldiers for Westerville."

Blaine seemed thankful for the change of topic, "That makes sense. Your troops are the best they've probably ever seen and some of your people might like to be able to stay in one place after all the fighting they've done and places they've been."

Kurt nodded against Blaine's chest, "I thought so too. I let my troops make their own decisions though. Some of them actually love the road and the fight."

"Do you?" Blaine asked quietly.

Kurt lifted a hand and began tracing it along Blaine's stomach lazily, "No. I never have."

"Then why have you been at it so long?"

Kurt sighed and let his hand rest on Blaine's hard belly, "For my dad. When my mother died, he wanted to fight to get the anger out of him. He kept at it because he was good at it and it gave him a purpose. I toughened up for him, to help him."

"But what about you? What do you want?"

Kurt thought for a moment. What he thought he had wanted didn't seem right anymore and what he felt he wanted couldn't be right. "I don't know."

Blaine asked, as he did every night, and Kurt felt himself bracing for it as it came out of his lips, "Do you think you could want to stay here with me?"

Another sigh expelled from Kurt and he lifted his head to look steadily at Blaine, "You're nothing if not persistent you know that?"

Blaine reached up and laid a hand on Kurt's cheek tenderly, "And you always deflect the question."

Kurt rested his head against Blaine's hand and keep his eyes on Blaine, "Please... let's just sleep. I need to get my rest and I need you to keep me warm."

Blaine nodded and slipped out from under Kurt to take off his own boots and belt before crawling back into the bed with Kurt.

"You know, when we met, I never would have figured that you were as much of a snuggle whore are you are." Blaine teased as he pulled a blanket up over them.

"When we met, I never would have figured I would ever let you in my bed." Kurt responded and pulled himself against Blaine who in turn wrapped his arms around him.

It didn't take long for Blaine to fall back asleep, if there was one thing Kurt had learned about him it was that Blaine could probably fall asleep in a thunderstorm, under the rain if he wanted to. They had taken to sleeping together in the past few days, but it had been completely chaste and fairly innocent, not including the stolen kisses and tender touches. Kurt was well aware that he had his guard down around Blaine, but still never spoke about anything that Blaine didn't know about, or wouldn't hear about anyhow. He trusted Blaine, but he knew that some individuals wouldn't trust Blaine with certain information so he never volunteered it around Blaine.

Besides, he never really wanted to linger on the drudgery of the day once he got the frustrations out of his system. More and more Kurt wanted to talk about the future, and about everything else besides the situation. The problem was is that he didn't know what kind of future he wanted and Blaine was making it increasingly difficult to decide.

He didn't want to fight anymore once this was done. He knew this with conviction. He couldn't keep doing it, keep pretending, keep everything pushed down inside him to be someone he didn't really like. But to stay with Blaine meant keeping up part of that facade, and as much as he wanted Blaine he knew it would wear him down him to keep up the image of a leader he had been trying to present. Besides, he had only known him for a few weeks. You couldn't base a lifetime off that right?

A knock came at the door, "Sir!"

Blaine whimpered his eyes opened blearily. Kurt sat himself up, "What is it? Finn is supposed to be covering all problems right now."

Jake opened the door and bowed lowly, "Sorry sir! I thought you'd want to know! Your dad is awake!"

Kurt nearly jumped out of the bed and without going for his boots was out the door, leaving Jake and Blaine behind him as he ran through the hall, down the stairs, and to the infirmary.

He had to grab the wall to make sure he turned with the speed he was going and nearly hit Quinn in the process. She just smiled and held a cup of fresh coffee out to him.

Kurt let a small pant out and took the cup, "Thank you." He moved at a much more decent speed to his dad's bed where Carole was there, talking to Burt and holding his hand.

Kurt set down his coffee on the stand beside the bed and sat on Burt's other side, taking his hand, "Oh dad."

Burt turned his head to look at Kurt and smiled weakly, "Hey son. I hear you've had a fun week."

Kurt let loose a little laugh and some tears escaped without his permission. "I was so worried..."

Carole stood up and gave Burt's hand a squeeze, "I'll be back." she whispered and left Kurt and his dad alone.

Burt squeezed Kurt's hand and Kurt noted that his grasp wasn't as strong as he was used to. "I'm fine son. Quinn says I'll be good as new with some rest and good food."

Blaine arrived and bowed his head to Burt, "I'm very glad to see you awake sir."

Burt looked down his bed at Blaine and Kurt gave his dad's hand a gentle squeeze.

"I'm glad to see you're not actually a traitor." Burt chuckled and Kurt and Blaine joined in.

"I'll leave you two to talk, but I wanted to let you know that I hope to see you out and around soon." Blaine smiled and as soon as he had arrived, had left.

Burt's eyebrows lifted and he looked to Kurt, "So should I start saying my goodbyes now?"

Kurt blinked, "What?! Dad you're fine. You just said so yourself."

Burt laughed and shook his head, "Oh no. That's not what I meant. If I have anything to say about it then the world will be stuck with Burt Hummel for a good long time yet. I meant saying goodbye to you. I saw how you looked at him when he came in. You're absolutely smitten."

Kurt shot his dad a steeled glance, "First of all... smitten is a word that sounds absolutely ridiculous out of your mouth. Secondly, yes I do like him... but I don't think I can stay here and play politics all the time. I have no idea how you do it."

"Lots and lots of coffee son..."