"So."

Kurt sighed, looking at Blaine who was sat next to him nervously, and back to his Dad who had spoken, "So what?"

"What are we going to do? Sky's long gone. Luckily Kate was able to convince him not to spill about you two."

"Convince?" Kurt questioned.

"Okay, scare," Burt admitted, "But that still leaves you without a husband and the governors are waiting."

"Um...I'm sorry Sir but why am I here?" Blaine piped in, still gripping Kurt's hand tightly under the table.

"You're a part of this too now, you deserve to know what's going on," Burt explained, "And holding hands isn't going to change my mind about speaking to the governors. You don't understand what they're capable of."

Blaine blushed, pulling his hand out of Kurt's hold and put it on the table in plain sight of the King.

"Well I'm not marrying anyone that isn't Blaine."

"Kurt..."

"No! I'm not ready to be married anyway, let alone a complete stranger. Blaine is no less important than me or you and the rule is stupid and unfair. "

"That may be true, but it doesn't change it."

"You're the King, why don't you change it?"

"Kurt, I can't have anyone else hurt...please?"

Kurt had never seen his Dad beg before. It scared him.

"I won't let anyone get hurt."

"You can't promise that," The King shook his head, "And I'm not prepared to risk it."

Kurt collapsed heavily against the table, "Dad. Help me."

Knock, knock

Burt looked up with a confused frown, "Hello?"

The Slave that Kurt remembered was called Carol walked in carrying a tray and a bright smile, "Hi Sir," She giggled, which seemed almost unnatural for women of her age, "I brought you guys something...Hey Blaine."

"Err...Hey," Blaine bit his lip, throwing Kurt a confused expression.

"That's not your job,"Kurt pointed out, just as confused as Blaine.

Burt all but glared at his son as Carol blushed and put down a tray of coffee and cookies, "Don't be so rude."

"I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just pointing it out, " Kurt replied, "Thank you Carol, it was very thoughtful."

"No problem," She turned to the King, "Will I see you later Sir?"

Burt turned violently red and nodded.

Carol threw him, a smile before she left.

Leaving the room in complete silence until Kurt spoke.

"Why will you see her later?"

"Never you mind," Burt looked at his son pointedly, "You have bigger things to worry about. "

Kurt narrowed his eyes, "Please tell me that Blaine and I weren't that obvious."

Burt coughed and looked down at the desk, "I have no idea what you're talking about...Can we just work out what you're doing now?"

Kurt sat back in his seat, "Okay, you're going to say no but I haven't been able to get it out of my head since you first told me about...everything."

Burt tilted his head to the side, "What?"

Kurt cleared his throat, "You won't let the governors find out about myself and Blaine because you're worried we'll get hurt...but what if we had the whole kingdom behind us? They couldn't kill off everyone, and we might even be able to...you know, over run them. Make a fresh start without them and with the King really in charge."

"How would we do that?" Blaine asked, chewing his bottom lip.

"They're horrible people. If the kingdom knew...what they'd done...then they'd be against them before Winters over," Kurt replied. He hated winter, but he was unable to pretend it wasn't happening. He had put on an extra warm sweater this morning but he still felt a slight chill.

"That might work," Blaine realized, shocked after feeling trapped for so long.

"Or they could be scared stiff and refuse to do anything that might upset them," Burt pointed out, turning the sinking feeling in the Slaves stomach as heavy as ever.

"Yes, there's a chance this won't work, like most things. But there's also a chance it will work and things will change for the better. Isn't being King all about taking chances?" Kurt asked, "For the better of the people?"

Burt blinked at his son before looking at the desk, the coffee long forgotten and going cold between them, "Yeah, that's right. "

"We're probably going to have to do most of this by ourselves."

Blaine looked up from his history book where he was sat at Kurt's desk, the Prince was sat on the floor by the window looking out over the garden. He looked so deep in thought, as he had looked for the last two hours he'd been sitting there, that at first Blaine thought that he'd imagined the words coming from his lips; but then he spoke again.

"He didn't even technically say yes."

Blaine was lost. His mind was still filled with what he'd been reading, the history of the kingdom. He'd just got around half way through the best bit, the ten year war between the Goblins and fairys for the Kingdom that took place over a hundreds years ago. Blaine loved history, he soaked it up as eagerly as parched roots in the first rainfall of summer, it was exciting and unpredictable. But best of all it was true! The images his mind came up with really happened and Blaine was fascinated.

"Who didn't?" Blaine asked, being catapulted one hundred years back to the present day in a space of a few seconds. Sometimes he felt like he was born in the wrong era and hated traveling back to current.

"My Dad," The Prince was still looking out at the garden, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders for warmth.

"Oh, about...well its kind of a rebellion," Blaine folded down the page of his book neatly before closing it.

"Hmm," Kurt hummed agreement, still not looking away from the view of the window.

Blaine stood up and moved to sit down on the floor beside the Prince, "Do you think that it's going to work?"

Kurt finally looked up and shrugged, "I don't know," he replied quietly.

"Do you have any ideas?"

Kurt chewed his bottom lip, "I'm gonna need your help."

The Slave nodded, "Of course."

"You're a lot more low profile than me so you're going to be the one to spread it...as far as possible. I think we should start small though, go down to the market and tell as many of the shop owners as possible, they love to gossip so it'll spread pretty quickly. If anyone asks you you can a say I sent you there to buy some things for me....Could you do that for me?"

"No problem."

"I hate leaving it all to you I just can't really stroll into the center of town and...."

"It's fine. I want this to work as much as you do. I'll do whatever it takes."

Kurt let out a breath, "Thank you."

A soft silence followed.

"Hey Kurt?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm really proud of you, and your Dad is to, even if he's too scared to show it."

Blaine tried to ignore the jittery nerves that were rolling around his limbs the next day as he made the walk into town. Kurt had offered to organize a horse to take him, but he protested that he'd prefer to walk. It was just over a mile, and he was grateful for the time to gather his thoughts and work out a plan of what he was going to say. He arrived in town at precisely ten o'clock, the day was cold even though the sky was blue and the sun was shining, struggling to warm the icy air. The little stalls were all out in full swing and Blaine heard them before he saw them, the low natter of voices slowly growing louder as he grew closer until there were an overwhelming amount of people trying to bargain the best price of fruits, vegetables, clothing, livestock and baked goods; clouds of white mist tumbling from buyers and sellers mouths into the winter air.

The sight worried him a little bit, it was way too loud to have a conversation with anyone and this wasn't something that he could really stand up and yell about. Yet he was determined not to leave without fulfilling his goal.

"Blaine?"

The voice coming from the crowd was unsure, but Blaine recognized it straight away, pushing through a few people with apologies to get to a familiar stall.

"Oh my God, it is you! Blaine Anderson."

"Hey Dan, how are you?" He asked, smiling at the old man behind the stall. Blaine's previous owner had often sent him down to the market to pick up supplies, Dan had always put a few extra apples in his bundle when he saw the poor nine year old starving in the cold. Dan always said he would have brought Blaine from his owner if he wasn't so old and if he had the money to spare. He was old when Blaine was nine, now that he was well into his teens, Dan was ancient. Apparently he'd been extremely good looking when he was younger and a bit of a ladies man, and his deep green eyes supported the hypothesis. But Blaine found it impossible to picture him as anything but the loveable old man that probably saved his life more than once with a few bruised apples.

"I'm great, haven't seen you for....well ages, I thought you were...," the old man paused, looking him up and down, "It's great to see you, fancy an apple?"

"Sure," he pulled several gold coins from his pocket and placed them in front of Dan, "Keep the change," he smiled, picking a bright red apple that was shining at him in the winter sun.

Dan stared at the coins in disbelief, "What...how did...are those real?"

"Yep," Blaine smiled softly.

Dan looked at him up and down again, noticing his clean appearance, healthy weight and expensive clothes, "Where have you been for the last ten months?"

"The Palace, I'm the Prince's personal slave, " Blaine told him, trying desperately hard not to sound like he was boasting although it was hard not to. Seeing Dan here made him realize how far he'd come.

Dan just blinked at him for a while until Blaine felt uncomfortable and gave a choked laugh.

"Look Dan, I need to tell you about something, and I need you to spread it all around the market, by order of the Prince. Every stall owner, every customer. Do you understand that?"

Dan tilted his head to the side, "What's going on Blaine?"

Blaine looked left, he looked right, before leaning in close to his old friend.

"Blaine?"

The Slave jumped, he'd barley walked through the doors of the palace before Kurt was stood in front of him.

"Oh, you're all wet," The Prince frowned, reaching forward and catching a water droplet from Blaine's curls.

"It started raining when I was walking back," Blaine explained, taking off his wet shoes and outerwear.

"I told you to take a horse."

"It's only a bit," he defended, "And I don't mind the rain, it's calming."

"It ruins my hair," Kurt screwed up his nose.

Blaine laughed and reached up to ruffle Kurt's hair, "You don't need rain for that to happen. "

"Blaine," Kurt complained, rolling his eyes before they became more downcast, "How did it go?"

"Okay I think, only time will tell," Blaine cupped Kurt's cheek and pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose, "Don't worry too much, okay?"

A gruff cough broke the boys apart, both with blushing cheeks.

"Dad, please," Kurt complained.

Burt narrowed his eyes, "You're reckless, anyone could see."

"I thought we were alone," The young Prince protested.

"That's the point, you never know who's lurking in the shadows."

"Dad that's just plain creepy," Kurt whined.

"We'll be more careful Sir," Blaine reassured him.

Burt nodded before he coughed again, kicked his boots against the floor, and turned to walk away.

He paused.

"I'm glad it went okay," The King smiled over his shoulder.