Kurt and Blaine’s favorite game to play was pretend. Blaine because he got to be someone exciting and brave; Kurt because he got to have all the luxuries in the world. When they played house, Kurt always had a mansion with a big walk-in closet and tall windows that let all the sunlight in. When they played jungle adventure, Blaine always got to be the guide of the group – comprised of himself, Kurt, and a few dolls in a wagon – and defended them from all sorts of dangerous wild animals. And when they played castles and knights, Blaine always went on the perilous journeys to rescue the princess while Kurt sat on his prince’s throne in his enormous enchanted castle.

That is, until they decided to tweak the game just a bit.

*

“I’ll save you, Prince Kurt!” Blaine shouted, holding his stick-turned-sword high above his head, up to the clear blue sky.

Kurt’s eyes popped open.
“I can’t hear you, Blaine. I’m sleeping,” he reminded him. He was laying stiff as a board on one of the cushioned lounge chairs on the patio, while Blaine held tight to the rope of the tire swing he was standing on top of.

He jumped down after Kurt spoke, though, his shoulders slumped and his sword-turned-stick back down at his side.

“I know but knights are supposed to say stuff like that,” he said with a scowl. Blaine didn’t like breaking character and he’d been doing so good today and then Kurt had to go and mess it all up.

“Well, it’s silly to say it if I can’t hear it,” Kurt replied primly, squirming on the chair like he was trying to lay straighter than he already was.

Blaine sighed loudly. “Look. I came all this way-” He pointed at the sandbox not very far from the spot Kurt claimed as the tower he’d been locked away in. “-to save you. I beat up a dragon just for you, and this is how you thank me?”

Kurt giggled into his hand before snapping his arm back down to his side. He closed his eyes.

“Fine. Carry on, Knight Blaine.”

Instead of doing the big tumble-roll into the tower’s chamber and fighting off the evil witch like he’d imagined doing before, Blaine marched across the yard, his stick dragging the ground behind him. When he got next to Kurt, his shadow falling over his face, he watched his friend try and fail spectacularly at appearing asleep. His eyelids twitched like he could barely keep them closed, his lips like it took all he had not to smile or laugh, and he kept wiggling around like he'd eaten too much sugar.

Blaine nudged Kurt’s side with his knee.

“Wake up,” he said, void of any emotion.

Kurt stopped moving, then. He kept his eyes closed, but his smile fell flat.

“That,” he told Blaine in a disapproving voice, “is definitely not how you wake someone up when they’re cursed.”

Blaine rolled his eyes. “Well then, how do you, Mr Fairytale Expert?”

A smile grew slowly on Kurt’s face, and it made Blaine nervous for some reason.

“You kiss them,” Kurt answered.

Blaine dropped his stick.

“What?” he squeaked as he spiraled into a panic. Kissing is a pretty big deal (apparently, so he’s heard) and this was just too much to be sprung on him at eleven in the morning.

“Yep!” Kurt said brightly. “Right on the lips. Then you live with them happily ever after, forever and ever.” Kurt tilted his head, looking thoughtful. “Haven’t you ever seen Sleeping Beauty? Or Snow White? That’s, like, all those movies’re about.”

“No, I haven’t,” Blaine mumbled, looking at the ants scurrying about on the pavement below. The witches in those movies scared the crap out of him when he was little, especially when Cooper told him one of them turned into a dragon and the other killed people with apples, Blaine's favorite food up until that point. Even though he was older now, he didn’t feel very inclined to watch them.

“Hmm. I like The Aristocats better anyway,” Kurt said with a shrug before he started to whine, “Now, c’mon, wake me up! I’m hungry and it’s almost lunch time.”

“Okay, but,” Blaine said, biting his lip. “Forever and ever?”

Kurt nodded. “That’s how the story goes.”

“I dunno if I’m ready for that kind of commitment,” he said, his hands wringing the hem of his shirt. Blaine was already living with his parents and Cooper forever and ever, and even they got on his nerves him sometimes. He couldn’t imagine living with someone not family forever and ever, even someone he was best friends with like Kurt.

“Oh, you’re just trying to be silly now. It’s make believe, just pretend, like we always do.”

“I’ve never had to kiss anyone before,” Blaine said, thinking back to all the other times he rescued a princess, which was usually a doll or a person he made up in his head, instead of Kurt, who was real and alive and could play back. It felt weird now, that he thought this would be easier.

“Well, that’s because you weren’t doing it right,” Kurt replied. He peeked an eye open just a sliver. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. It’ll wrinkle up your shirt.”

Dropping his hands to his side, he looked down at his friend’s face, then at his lips for a split second before his eyes darted back to Kurt’s closed ones.

“Okay,” Blaine said to himself under his breathe. “Just do it.”

“Yeah,” Kurt teased, grinning, as Blaine knelt down. He laid one clammy palm on Kurt’s shoulder to balance himself and then leaned over him, watching as Kurt stayed impressively still for how much he’d been moving about before. Other than the tiny upturn of his lips, Blaine would really believe Kurt was sleeping.

It wasn’t until Blaine put his mouth on Kurt’s that he realized he really didn’t know what he was doing. He stayed there for a moment, his eyes trying to watch Kurt even though it was hard to see with their faces smushed together. He felt like there had to be more to it than this, and the longer nothing happened, the more certain he felt that he’d messed it up somehow.

But then he felt Kurt’s lips start to curl into a big smile, and when he started to laugh, Blaine jerked away. He stared in awe as Kurt opened his eyes, his cheeks a light shade of pink and a look of pure happiness on his face.

“You did it,” Kurt said softly, and Blaine couldn’t help but smile too.