Kurt heard the screaming and the clash of swords as he was walking back to his room. He drew his sword and ran, not knowing what he was about to face or who. Voices both familiar and unfamiliar were yelling at one another. He could hear Jake yell to hold someone down and Finn cry out for support.

He followed the voices which led him into Blaine's room and fear shot through him. Jake was holding down a man whose face with bleeding from parallel scratches running across it, who was flailing under him trying to escape. Finn was toe to toe with another man, swords slashing at one another. And Blaine, dear Blaine, was a bloody, swollen mess on the bed. He was just lying there and Kurt felt panic run through him as he thought the worst. Blaine was dead.

Kurt let out a scream and lunged forward with his own sword at the man Finn was fighting who was barely able to counter the attack with his sword. Finn took advantage of the block and shoved himself forward into the open space left by the counter and the man fell to the floor.

Kurt wasted no time and jumped on top of the man, throwing his sword away and grabbing the man by the collar, "WHO ARE YOU?! WHY DID YOU DO THIS?!"

A laugh escaped Blaine's assailant, "A message from the king. This is what will happen to you all if you stay here."

Fury overtook Kurt and his mind went foggy as he slammed the man's head back onto the floor and starting laying punches to his face. Finn had to pull him off and have several soldiers hold him at bar who had answered the call for support.

Kurt crumpled to the floor and began sobbing as soon as his senses came back to him and as Mercedes knelt down beside him and reached over to draw him to her, he pulled away, "No... no.." She knelt there for a moment, having retracted her hand and then stood up and just stayed and watched over him.

The room had filled up with troops and medics, escorting the infiltrators away and tending to Blaine. Burt had been called at some point and consulted with Quinn for a moment before finding Kurt sobbing still, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall.

"Kurt... Kurt..." His dad went to pull him into a hug, which Burt had to force because Kurt tried again to pull away. When he found himself trapped in his dad's arms he continued to sob and just let his limbs go limp.

"It's not fair... what happened? Why did they kill him?" Kurt had to force the words up with his choked sobs.

"Son. He's alive. Quinn's having him taken to the infirmary so she can treat him, but he's alive." Burt kept a firm grip around Kurt, cradling him and allowing him to cover his shoulder in tears.

Kurt's heart did a flip and he choked back the sob that was about to escape, "What?" He lifted a hand to rub off his eyes, "There was so much blood and he wasn't moving and... and..."

"Kurt. He's alive. Go to him. I'll deal with what happened here. You take care of him." Burt patted his son's back and helped him stand up.

Kurt nodded and did as his father asked, the quickest face washing he had ever had. He noted as he washed his face that his knuckles were bruised and bloody and he wondered the extent of the damage to the intruder that he had committed.

He ran to the infirmary for second time in the time he had been here, ignoring everything else around him. Nothing else mattered right now and all he could do was hope Blaine stayed with him. At least long enough for him to hear what Kurt needed to say.

He didn't know what bed Blaine was assigned to, but he didn't have to know. One bed near to the entry was surrounded by medics, some of whom were rushing to the bed to get supplies or from the bed to take things away. Kurt saw that one of them had cut off Blaine's clothing, or at least what he thought was his clothing as it was bloodied all to hell. He saw ropes and tape also being discarded and realized that Blaine hadn't even had the opportunity to fight back. He felt the rage rise in him.

Carole came up to him and gently pushed him back a few steps from where he was trying to get a better look and determine how he could get to Blaine. "Sweetie. The only way you can help him right now is to just stay back and let us do our job."

Kurt whimpered and tried to speak but Carole piped up again.

"I know all you want to do right now is be with him, but we won't be able to help him if you're taking up space we need to work. I will let you know what's going on and when you can come see him."

Kurt's shoulders sagged and his eyes darted past Carole to the drama unfolding behind her, all centered on Blaine. His heart ached at the thought of being away from Blaine's side right now, but he let his head take over for the moment and navigate his body to a cot a little ways away to sit and wait.

And he waited, watching at Quinn yelling and ordering her people about. He watched as the rags they discarded became less bloody and casting materials were brought to supply. The longer he waited, the more hope he had, and the more he worried as well.

He had spent more time in this infirmary this past month than he had ever spent in an infirmary over the course of his lifetime altogether. If he had his way then he would have Quinn move the infirmary somewhere else or just have it reduced to a skeleton infirmary until the army left. This place seemed to attract his pain and while he wouldn't call himself superstitious, he would not discredit the idea of bad luck either.

Kurt waited for about an hour, shifting in position, having a difficult time staying still and calm. He was grateful when Noah came over and sat beside him.

"Hey man. Your dad wanted me to let you know what happened..."

Kurt nodded to Noah, happy for the distraction and eager for information about where to direct his anger.

"The men were from the king's elite guard. Some of the Warblers came and identified them. They're both alive but the one guy was attacked by Blaine's cat and is going to have some serious scars, and the other guy's face is totally purple and he'll have a hard time chewing since you beat a lot of his teeth out of him. Holy hell man... I never knew you had it in you..."

Kurt looked down at his hands and flexed his fingers in and out, revelling a little in the pain that went through his bruised joints. It was a good pain because it allowed him to enact some revenge for Blaine.

"Anyhow... there was a door in Blaine's wardrobe. Not the usual door - that was there. But a hidden door in the back. Finn's leading a team into the space behind but it looks like it leads into those passages. Burt's willing to bed that Blaine didn't know about it given how much stuff was blocking it. Anyhow, they managed to push through that stuff and tie up Blaine, and well... you saw the rest. They used some ether on him to keep him out while they tied him up. We found it in the room."

Kurt kept flexing his fingers and nodded in acknowledgement as Noah spoke, letting him continue without interruption.

"If it wasn't for Blaine's cat they could have killed him and we'd have been none the wiser. Jake heard a hiss and a scream and went to investigate. They were damned quiet about what they were doing to him."

Kurt murmured, "Cat is getting a medal from me if Blaine gets through this..."

Noah laughed but stopped when he saw that Kurt wasn't laughing along with him. He shifted uncomfortably and stood up, "Anyhow... we'll let you know what else we find. Let us know too if you need anything."

Kurt nodded and just stared towards the bed where Blaine lay. There were only a couple people working on Blaine now, Quinn one of them. He glanced around for Carole and saw that she was approaching him with a fresh cup of coffee.

"Here sweetie." She held it to him and he took it, but didn't drink, looking expectantly at Carole.

"He's stable. A couple ribs were broken and his face is pretty banged up. They used some metal knuckles on him or something when they were hitting his ribs because he's cut up there. That's what all the blood was from, but it wasn't too deep and easily stopped. He's going to be fine Kurt."

Kurt let out a sigh of relief he didn't know he had been holding in. "Thank you Carole..."

Carole patted his thigh gently. "Once Quinn is done, you're allowed to go see him. He's still out, but I know you'll want to still be there."

Kurt nodded and looked back to the bed to watch for Quinn to leave. Carole patted his back and then got up to tend to the other patients who had been ignored while she was helping with Blaine.

Not much longer Quinn stepped away from the bed, caught Kurt's eye and waved him over. He shot over and was about to go past Quinn when she put a hand out to stop him. "Wait one second."

Kurt stopped in his tracks and looked at Quinn impatiently.

"Be gentle when you kiss him. His face is all bruised up and it will hurt."

Kurt gawked for a moment and Quinn smiled sweetly and stepped away with an all too mischievous grin across her face. Kurt knew then that it wasn't going to be as bad as he feared if Quinn could joke about it.

Blaine lay still in the bed and Quinn was right, his face was a mess of bruising, and all swollen too. Kurt swallowed nervously and went to sit at the side of the bed, looking down over Blaine. Blaine had a blanket over the lower half of his body, but his torso was exposed insomuch as it was wrapped in a cast. His hands lay at his side and had rope burns around the wrists. And his face, his gorgeous face, all purple and blue and puffy.

Tears came to Kurt's eyes once again and he took Blaine's hand gently in his own. "I'm sorry I left you there alone. I'll never leave you alone again..."

The implication of what Kurt had just said came to him after the words came out. He felt his heart swell and continued.
"I mean... I'll stay. I'll figure it out, but I don't think I could survive being away from you, even if it means having to deal with that Sue Sylvester all the time. I'm going to want some better clothes tailored though if I'm going to be hosting balls and leading parades and all that... but I'll stay."

Blaine continued laying there still and Kurt continued to speak to him despite it, finding himself calmed by being able to get it all out.

"You'll still have to figure out the whole heir to the throne thing since I can't help you with that... but I don't really want to think about that. Honestly the whole idea of female anatomy scares the hell out of me. Don't tell Santana though because I wouldn't put it past her to flash me just for her own amusement."

"And I will need to leave now and then to visit my dad wherever he ends up. We can figure that out later of course. Now that you've seen Westerville, you should travel a bit with me... maybe not in the beginning. You need to get the city into order. But once things are settled you can take a break and we can go somewhere."

"Also... I didn't want to tell you this before, but I'm not really a cat person. I've always wanted a dog. I don't know what you'll think about that, but I also want to let you know that even though I'm not a cat person, I officially love Cat. I think we should make Cat a member of the royal guard. Is it weird that I don't know if Cat is a boy or a girl yet?"

Kurt continued rambling on like that until he felt Blaine's hand squeeze his back accompanied by a murmur.
"Damn it Kurt. Would you just be quiet already?"

Kurt jumped in spot and stood up, not letting go of Blaine's hand. "You're awake! How do you feel?"

Blaine squinted a little and Kurt realized that he couldn't fully open his eyes with the swelling, "Like you're going to ensure I go deaf before I'm king."

Kurt laughed and leaned down on instinct to kiss Blaine, but stopped before he reached his lips recalling Quinn's reminder. "You know... I love you."

Blaine lifted his free hand up and placed it on the back of Kurt's head, "Well I obviously love you too." and Kurt's head was pressed forward by Blaine's hand so the kiss happened whether Quinn liked it or not.

When they separated, Kurt had to wipe tears from his eyes. He sat back down in the chair and smiled at Blaine like a giddy little school boy.

"So... tell me again about how you're going to stay with me."

And Kurt was caught.