Blaine insisted, as they walked, that nothing interesting happened to him while Kurt was gone, but Kurt refused to let the subject drop, convinced that Blaine was hiding something. After a few hours with no luck, Kurt finally sighed heavily and batted his eyelashes before pleading quietly.

It was a useful trick he'd have to remember.

 Blaine informed him that while Puck had shown up, Brittany had managed to convince him not to tell Quinn where he was, and they'd neglected to tell him what he was doing. The less people knew about what was happening, the better their chances of success. As it was, having Brittany know was a fairly large risk as it was. While she would never willingly get in the way of someone being near their soulmate, she wasn't always the brightest and might accidentally let it slip to someone.

Puck, however, would've told Quinn right away. While he was fairly loyal to Brittany, he was actually terrified of Quinn enough to tell her whatever he knew, and resentful enough at being his father's least favorite to try and get any sort of favor he could get. Even if it meant selling out Apollo.

Blaine explained that he'd had a sort of rivalry with Athena, who they called Rachel, that was… shared with everyone, actually. Being Zeus's obvious favorite had never sat well with any of them for different reasons. Terri, especially, despised her for being born by Zeus alone, and that her children weren't the favorites. Puck, Blaine, Quinn and occasionally Artie had the strongest rivalry though.

Being goddess of wisdom and strategy put her at odds with Blaine and Puck for their roles as knowledge and war, much to Blaine's confusion (“I never cared! The two things are similar, of course, but they're not the same thing. She doesn't see it that way, and thinks I'm trying to take over her territory or something. But when she decided that crafts were far superior to music, it was war!”), while Puck was resentful that Zeus listened to her advice over his in war council. Quinn just hated her. There wasn't a specific reason that Blaine knew of, though that didn't necessarily mean anything, as Quinn wasn't known for talking to Blaine about things unless she was lecturing him.

Artie, for the most part, wasn't really sure how he got mixed up into it, and for the most part stayed out of Rachel's way even when she was sure he was trying to undermine her.

 Blaine amused Kurt with stories of how, on the few occasions when Rachel didn't get her way, she tried to threaten to leave Olympus. The plan backfired, however, when other than Zeus, no one had tried to stop her. She'd had to come back the next week when it became obvious that nobody was going to come after her. They'd all been lectured by Schue, of course, for their treatment of her. While the words he'd used were “supportive of your fellow gods”, what he'd meant was “more subservient to Rachel” and the lesson hadn't exactly gone over well. Despite this, she'd actually tried the same move three more times before she gave up.

Apparently being wise wasn't as important as being best.  

This lead to another round of stories of various things that the other gods had done that were amusing, causing Kurt to laugh so hard his stomach began to hurt. Blaine didn't seem to care that he was in pain, because he just grinned and told another story. Kurt couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed so hard, and tried to ignore the little voice that told him that it was before his mom died. He was determined to enjoy his good mood.

While he still wasn't entirely sure how he felt about the soulmate situation, he had to admit that the whole thing made sense now that he wasn't actively trying to not notice it. The problem was that even though he knew that he was going to love Blaine, and that everyone seemed to think he should, he just… didn't. When he had actually looked at him when they were reunited (as short as the separation had been), he was able to admit to himself that he really did miss Blaine, and was thrilled enough to see him that it overshadowed the anger he'd felt for being kept in the dark about the circumstances of his mother's pregnancy.

But even if he didn't love Blaine (yet, a voice kept reminding him. It sounded like Brittany and he was starting to hate it. But you will), he was still his best friend. And with the very real possibility that his dad might not live much longer if they didn't succeed, Blaine was well on his way to being the most important person in Kurt's life.

Which wasn't an entirely happy thought.

What happened when they got back from the Underworld? As much as Blaine said he was willing to continue meeting Kurt in secret, Kurt still wasn't sure if that was practical or safe. He had been secretly worried that agreeing to that would just lead to the day when Blaine had stopped visiting because he'd found a different pretty mortal to occupy his time for a little while, one without the risk of punishment for proximity, but the theory seemed less likely now that he knew more. The problem was that while he would have been upset if Blaine had stopped caring about him, he would have been safe in doing so. Now there wasn't much of a time limit, so there would be constant danger.

Some of his thoughts must have showed on his face (or Blaine just noticed that he wasn't laughing at whatever story he'd just finished), because Blaine grabbed his hand and asked if he was okay. He wasn't sure how to answer the question, so he instead asked for another story about an Amazonian Queen called Sue who was apparently slightly unhinged, but made for great stories.

Blaine still looked worried, but launched into another tale, and Kurt forced himself to pay strict attention.

~

Dinner was an exciting an affair. And not in an altogether pleasant way.

Kurt had actually begged to eat anything other than boar, and Blaine had agreed as long as Kurt gathered firewood. Accepting this agreement, he'd set out into the woods surrounding them in search of decent sized pieces of fallen logs that weren't completely rotten or soaked. His search was not going well, and he wondered if Blaine was just better at it than he was, or if there weren't as many options here as they'd had in the past.

It had taken awhile, but he finally managed to get a good sized arm load to bring back, when he realized he must have gotten turned around somewhere, because he wasn't entirely sure where he was. Sighing to himself, he picked a path that he was fairly certain he recognized, and walked for a few minutes before he decided that it was the wrong one. Luckily for him, he tripped over something in the path and sent his armload flying. While he grumbled through picking everything up, he realized that there was another path not too far from where he was, and miraculously, was the one he needed.

Rather pleased with himself, and only slightly later than what he should have been (Blaine would forgive him. He could probably set the forest on fire, and Blaine would still forgive him), he returned triumphantly to his campsite and froze.

There was a woman standing in front of Blaine with a look on her face that promised pain. The two were standing at an angle to Kurt, so while neither could see him, he could make out both of their faces. Blaine looked nervous, though he was smiling and at least trying to hide it, while gesturing at the surrounding area in a way that Kurt assumed was supposed to be reassuring.

The woman, however, did not look reassured. Her light hair was pulled back away from her face and her eyes glowed silver in the fading sunlight, matching the same glow that surrounded her entire body. On her back was strapped an identical quiver to the one that Blaine had, though the bow she was carrying was smaller and made from a different colored wood that was much thicker.

From his vantage point, Kurt couldn't hear what the two were saying, but he realized when Blaine said something stupid because suddenly the bow was pointed at his face, the metal of the arrowhead glinting. Without meaning to, and certainly without thinking, Kurt dropped the armload of firewood for the second time that night.

The distraction, thankfully, was enough to get the weapon out of Blaine's face. The downside was that it was now aimed at Kurt. Oddly enough, Kurt saw recognition flash across the goddess's face before her face turned red and the silver aura around her flashed.

“Apollo. Tell me that this is a figment of my imagination.”

“It is!” Blaine said, voice filled with forced cheer. “You're hallucinating. Probably got too close to some plants you shouldn't have and—”

The arrow was pointed at his face again, and he stopped talking.

The entire world seemed to click into place for Kurt. Blaine wasn't his soulmate because he could make him laugh for hours, or because he did everything he could (and a lot of things he shouldn't) to make Kurt happier. It wasn't because Blaine looked at him like he was the greatest thing in the entire universe, or that Blaine snored slightly in his sleep and Kurt found it adorable rather than annoying.

They were soulmates because rather than running in the opposite direction to get away from a murderous goddess, Kurt stepped closer and tried to get her attention, and by extension her weapon, on him rather than Blaine.

“Please don't hurt him,” he said, his voice loud even if it was shaking.

Artemis (because who else could it possibly be?) answered him without moving, “I promise you, mortal, the death I'm planning for him will be much neater than the one our darling father will have planned for him.” The glare that she had pointed out at her brother intensified, so Kurt assumed that she'd stopped paying attention to him. He wasn't sure what he should do with her inattentiveness, but he could start planning something at least.

“What were you thinking? Running off like that without a word?! I looked everywhere for you, half convinced you'd been kidnapped or worse and find you here with him! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”

Kurt took a deep breath to gather what courage he had. For better or worse, the twins were going to spend an eternity together, and that meant they had to eventually forgive each other for anything, but only if they had the time to do so. All he really had to do was distract her from killing Blaine in the next few minutes and everything would be fine… eventually.

“It was my fault.” Kurt was rather proud of himself for managing to say anything without his voice cracking, a feeling that intensified when Artemis relaxed her grip on her bow and turned her head slightly to actually look at him. “I asked him to help with this,” he continued, trying to ignore the looks Blaine was shooting him. “He didn't want to, kept saying no, but he's… I'm his—his soulmate. So he did it anyway. Please don't hurt him.” The last sentence was said in a rush of breath, because it turned out that having the full attention of a murderous goddess of hunting was actually a lot more terrifying than what he had bargained for.

“I would greatly appreciate it if you would stop trying to die for other people,” Blaine said loudly, teeth clenched, as Artemis trained her bow on him instead.

“What do you mean he's helping you?” Quinn's voice was dangerous, and suddenly Kurt wasn't sure if the truth would help him or make everything worse. Even given what his life had been up until that week, he wasn't sure he'd ever really understood what it was like to have someone look at you and want nothing more to see you painfully killed. While the bullies that had plagued him had seemed like they really had hated him, the look on Artemis's face was calling all of that into question.

She was beautiful, of course, all the gods he'd met were, but her face held such a careful expression of calculated dislike that it finally clicked in his brain what Blaine had told him about the gods not really caring about mortals. Artemis saw him as less than nothing. He was an animal who was going to get her little brother in trouble and she'd gladly slaughter him the same way they had killed that boar. Maybe even exactly like that, because he was sure she'd get more enjoyment out of turning him into something else so she could track and then kill him once he'd been a bit more entertaining.

“He wanted to move somewhere else,” Blaine was saying, but Kurt couldn't quite hear him properly, like his voice was coming from much farther away. It was as if the fear he felt while staring at Quinn was a physical barrier keeping him separate. “I told him I'd help him pick one! That's it. Then I was going to- to leave. And not see him. Just like you wanted.”

“You're still a horrible liar, brother mine. Now. Kurt. What is he helping you with?”

“My dad's sick… he was going to take me to the Underworld to beg for his soul.”

The air in the campground seemed to both vanish and drop a few degrees. Kurt wasn't sure how that was possible, but thought it might be something to do with the way Artemis's entire body suddenly flashed much brighter. He had to close his eyes to stop them from burning at the sudden bright silvery light.

“Have you learned nothing?!” she was shouting, and when Kurt cracked his eye open he saw she was rounding on her brother again. Luckily she seemed to have forgotten about the rather deadly weapon she was holding in her rage. “Do you not remember Hippolytus at all? Did you think this was going to end well?!”

“That was different!” Blaine insisted. “I'm not taking someone away from Sebastian behind his back, I'm helping someone make a case to not take someone who isn't dead yet.”

“Father isn't going to care about technicalities! If it wasn't for mother convincing him you would've been sent to Tartarus! That was your one warning, and you're doing it again? Asclepius died for that, do you understand me? Your son.”

“Yes, I remember that but—”

“Now you're doing the same thing again with a mortal who you have been told several times to stay away from!” Artemis was now screaming in his face, but unlike Kurt, Blaine seemed unimpressed by the display of anger. His own face was starting to turn red with suppressed anger and… well, styx, so was the rest of him. Hopefully any other god who noticed Blaine suddenly appearing back in their… senses or however it worked, would also be able to tell that he was with Artemis and that they were both furious and just stay out of it.

“He is my soulmate! Do you really think I would just… just leave him like that?!”

“What does it matter? If he dies you'll just find him again!”

There was a sudden silence in the clearing. Kurt didn't dare to breathe (and Artemis and Apollo didn't actually need to in their godly forms), and there was an unnatural stillness all around them.

When Blaine finally did speak his voice was quiet and flat, “Orion wasn't your soulmate. He wasn't your anything and you still refuse to let go of what happened. And you're going to stand there and tell me that I'm being unreasonable for keeping mine safe?”

Quinn had her bow raised again, but Blaine gestured towards himself, obviously no longer mortal, and let out a vicious sounding laugh. “That won't kill me and you know it.”

“It'll certainly kill him,” she responded, nodding in Kurt's direction.

“Aphrodite will take my side in the war that would cause. Ares will follow her. Poseidon and Hephaestus like him.” Kurt felt oddly numb. He wasn't sure if he should be more afraid of the direct threat to his life or shocked that it would actually start a war. Blaine was possibly exaggerating, but the look on Quinn's face said that she was taking the threat seriously.

“Zeus would reward me for it, and Hera—”

“Kurt isn't married, Hera wouldn't care. She hates both of us enough she'd stay out of it.”

“Athena would—”

“Athena hates you more than Hera does!”

“She'd still agree that what you did was wrong!”

“Mom and I would never forgive you.”

“You're actually going to hide behind mommy?” she asked dismissively.

“Why wouldn't I? She's the only person you've ever loved, and even then it's not much.”

“Orion—”

“If you're threatening Kurt in front of me, and then not understanding why I'm reacting this way then clearly he meant as little to you as I do!”

There was another tense silence, neither sibling willing to back down from the fight that was clearly going too far. The auras around them were flashing so brightly that Kurt was afraid to draw their attention and try to mediate. He actually wasn't sure where to start.

“Orion loved me,” Artemis eventually said, the words practically hissed. “Kurt is using you to save his father. And he's spent most of his life hating the both of us.”

“Orion was using you so he could try for immortality.”

“And did it ever occur to you that I would have enjoyed that? He could have been with me forever and actually liked me, something you'll never have.”

“Did you forget that not ten minutes ago he tried to put himself in between us? He was actually willing to put his life in danger to try and save me, and you're delusional if you think Orion would've done that for you!”

“Orion wouldn't have had the chance because he never would have put me in a position where I could be killed so easily!”

Blaine yelled something back in response, but Kurt couldn't hear it over the sudden rushing in his ears. She was right. Since they had been traveling together, Blaine had been attacked by a boar, got into an argument with a war god, and then threatened to start a war with his own twin, all things that shouldn't have happened, and were because he was with Kurt. He turned off his immortality just to go on a hopeless mission because he was that willing to do whatever Kurt wanted because he was that in love with him, even though Kurt hadn't returned the feelings.

When they started, Kurt actually thought that the worst case scenario was that Hades would just say no, Burt wouldn't live, and there was a real chance that Kurt wouldn't be able to leave either. He was okay with playing those odds. But now? Hades could get so annoyed about Apollo interfering that he could tell Zeus everything, and Zeus actually would not have a problem with sending Apollo to Tartarus. And if Hades did refuse to let him leave? Blaine had just said that it would be seen as an act of war, though there was a chance he'd respect Hades decision over Quinn's, but it was a slim chance.

What was wrong with him? Was he really willing to let Blaine actually start a war because of him? They might not think of the Trojan war as a big deal, but they also didn't seem to care about how many mortals died in it. Kurt was willing to do anything in his power to save his dad, but that didn't mean he should have forced Blaine into this as well.

Blaine had told him from the very beginning that his plan to save his father's life was very, very unlikely to work and he should just have made his goodbyes. He hadn't listened, how could he?, but he hadn't cared about the consequences then.

“I'm so sorry,” he whispered. Despite the fact that the twins were once again yelling in each other's faces, they both apparently heard him and stopped mid-argument to stare. “Blaine, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have made you do this, it's stupid and you even said it probably wasn't going to work, but I made you do it anyway and—”

Blaine was suddenly in front of him, still glowing faintly, but more Blaine than Apollo, and he grabbed Kurt's face, touching his forehead to his. “Hey, hey calm down. Where's this coming from?”

“She's right, that boar could've killed you and it would've been my fault! And you were talking about a war and I am so not worth that—”

“No, hey. No. We talked about that. You're worth more than anything, remember?”

“That's your twin and she was going to kill you because of me! And getting sent to Tartarus? I can't do that to you!”

“Kurt, breathe, listen to me. That's not going to happen, okay? We'll be fine, and we'll save your dad, and you can go back to your life, nothing's going to happen.”

Kurt tried to shake his head and protest, but Blaine held his face steady so he couldn't and continued to mutter reassurances. They weren't working, though. All Kurt could think was that none of this was going to work anyway, and why should he keep trying? He was putting Blaine in almost constant danger, and what was the point of that? Blaine was his soulmate, he couldn't—Blaine was his soulmate. “Trying to save my dad like this is heroic, right?” Kurt asked. Blaine froze as if he knew where this line of questioning was going, so Kurt continued without an answer. “So if- if I… if I did die while I'm doing this, then… then I'll get a hero's death, right?”

It was Blaine's turn to shake his head frantically, an odd sensation because their foreheads were still pressed together, “No, no, you don't get to talk like that, no.”

“Artie said that—”

“I don't care what he said, there is no way in Erebus that we're going to even discuss—”

“But you could find me again,” Kurt interrupted. “And I wouldn't be off limits and it wouldn't get you in so much trouble. She could… she could shoot me right now, and you could find me soon and Schue wouldn't send you to Tartarus for being near me.”

“I don't care, I love you now, you can't leave me.”

Kurt felt the sob form in his throat, but forced it back down. “You would love the next me too, and I won't have as many issues. You'll be happier with- with him.”

“Are you even listening to yourself? This is crazy,” Blaine had tears in his eyes and was blinking them back rapidly. “You're not dying and you're not going to make me watch it happen, do you understand? You can't do that to me.”

“Blaine, it'll be fine—”

Blaine took a step away from him, dropping his arms to his sides and Kurt instantly missed the contact. “What about your dad? You're just going to let Hades have him?”

“You said it yourself! This was an extremely slim chance, and he—dad might be dead already.”

“I'm going to the Underworld,” Blaine said firmly.

Kurt wiped at his traitorous eyes, he was trying to avoid crying about this. “If you go without me then it counts as you interfering outside jurisdiction rather than just… giving me a tour.”

“Then come with me. I'll need you to ask for your dad's life or Sebastian won't believe me when I say I'm not doing this for myself. You know him better than anyone, if anyone's going to be able to convince Sebastian, it's you.”

Kurt wrapped his arms around his stomach in an attempt to comfort himself. Blaine had to know how difficult this was for him, why was he trying to make him feel so guilty about it. “It's not… it's not as simple as it was when we started. I couldn't handle it if something happened to you and it was my fault.”

Blaine let out another humorless laugh, this one more bitter than vicious. “I don't understand. You don't even love me. He's your whole world and you're just going to let him die because my sister is even less pleasant than Stheno!”

Kurt heard Artemis make a noise of protest and was actually surprised that she was still there. He didn't think she'd leave, not when he was offering her a free chance to kill him, but he'd actually forgotten that she existed. Blaine sent her a glare, but otherwise ignored her. He started walking along the path that lead away from the clearing they were standing in, apparently willing to continue this walk even the sun had well and truly set by now.

“You… Blaine.”

“No! I get it. You would rather die than finish this quest with me. It's fine. Clearly you think all of this is all a waste of time and energy. And hey!” he turned back to face Kurt, spreading his arms out in a gesture of surrender. “I have spent years waiting for you, why should another lifetime make a difference now?” he turned back around, and Kurt scrambled for something to say. Artemis beat him to it.

“You might not come back,” she said. “You can only come back three times; we have no way of knowing if you're not on your third try.”

Kurt stared at her in shock for a few moments, having trouble believing that she'd actually try to talk him out of this. Blaine had stopped walking, but his aura was flickering around him rapidly, like the possibility hadn't occurred to him before. “Blaine, let's talk about this,” Kurt pleaded.

“I'm not going to talk about this. At all. You do not get to die on me. No.”

“It's going to happen anyway,” Kurt whispered back. While Orion apparently had the option to try for immortality, Kurt knew that Zeus would never allow the same thing to happen to him.

“Years from now!” Blaine yelled back, and Kurt flinched. Typically speaking, Blaine tried to keep his temper under control while talking to him. “Not because you decided to give up and my loving big sister shot you.”

“I'm trying to get to the Underworld, do you really think I have years left anyway? Sebastian probably won't help us anyway, and he really might not let me leave. I could still get into Elysium, but if we keep doing this, you're risking Tartarus.”

“I don't know what else I can do to convince you that I am more than willing to risk that for you.”

“I don't want you to!” Kurt yelled, starting to lose his temper now. “I don't want you sent there and I certainly don't want you starting a war if something happened to me! Blaine, that's your family. You're with them for eternity.”

“I would rather spend it with you! They don't mean half as much as you do!” Artemis made another noise of disapproval, but Kurt ignored her.

“You still could, just a different me.”

“I don't want a different you!”

“I don't want you getting sent to the darkest part of the Underworld forever!”

“Why does it matter? You barely even like me!”

“Stop being a moron, do you really think I would give up on my father for you if I wasn't in love with you?”

Blaine looked more pained by the confession than anything. “Then why would you do this to me?”

Artemis stepped in, “I'm not shooting him, Apollo. Now get dinner ready, I think we have a lot to talk about.”