Glee-Fic: Zephyr's Breath, Chapter Twenty (Finn/Kurt)
Title: Zephyr's Breath
Author: AoiTsukikage
Rating: R overall
Characters/Pairing: Finn/Kurt, minor Blaine/Sam
Chapter: 20/21
Word Count: 2635
Spoilers: Let's say everything to be safe :)
Summary/Warnings: Kurt Hummel is the captain of a feared pirate ship, the Zephyr's Breath, but everything changes when he finds a young man who is the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Also, for this chapter, character death (?).
Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own these characters, no matter how sad that makes me. I do, however, promise to return them when I'm done with them. :)
Zephyr's Breath
Chapter Twenty
“The Crimson Hawk.”
“Hawk? You’re quite fond of birds, aren’t you?” Kurt asked, utterly good-natured, and Wes shook his head.
“I’d love to name her after the Canary but, as we all saw, canaries do not fare well against ravens. Hawks, however, are one of the few birds that can kill a raven and live to tell the tale, so perhaps naming her after such a fierce bird will ensure us victory. It cannot hurt, in any case,” Wes had to shrug and Kurt eventually nodded.
“I think it is a fine name. And she is a fine ship.”
“She surely is. Thank you for all of your help,” Wes turned to Kurt and shook his hand and Kurt smiled at him.
“Of course. Anything to bring the Raven down is a big advantage to have. But we must make sail if we wish to find her soon,” he added and Wes agreed, walking away to command his own crew to ready the new ship for her first voyage.
Kurt just hoped it wouldn’t be her last.
000
“Gunpowder?” Puck asked, shocked, and Jesse nodded and crumpled up a piece of paper before setting it aside. “You know this how?”
“The Raven sets fire to every ship she pillages, so her hold must be full of the stuff. Ships, especially traveling ships like the one Finn was on, don’t carry it as a rule so it had to have come from somewhere. I’m guessing the entire hold is full of gunpowder, so get one of us in there to light a fuse and,” he spread his hands, his meaning perfectly clear.
“I’d like to take the ship if we could, but then again having Goolsby to turn in would be just as acceptable. And it would be ironic if she were to meet the same fate as the ships she takes, would it not?” Kurt pondered this for a few moments before nodding, his mind apparently made up. “Okay. We try to take the ship. If we can’t, we blow her to high Heaven. All we need is for somebody to sneak in, lay a line of gunpowder, light it, and get out before she blows.”
“Who’s going to do that, though?” Quinn asked, and Kurt could see how tightly her arm was linked with Puck’s. Yes, so many of them had loved ones on the boat, and there was a good chance at least some of them would not make it out of this next battle alive.
“I will,” Finn’s voice cut through the silence and Kurt closed his eyes as if in pain, shaking his head.
“You’ll not.”
“I will,” Finn said, his tone firm. “The Raven’s crew aren’t ignorant and chances are they’ll recognize most of you if you try to sneak on board, even in battle. I’m new so they may not…”
“Technically Lauren’s the newest…” Puck started and gulped when the girl glared at him. “Alright. No. Finn definitely is.”
“Finn, you are not going to…” Kurt started but Blaine took his hand, leaning in close.
“Kurt, he cannot become a liability. You know this. If you start showing him special treatment…”
“I know,” Kurt laced his fingers with Blaine’s, squeezing his hand gently. “I know, but…”
“Yes,” Blaine said quietly, holding Kurt with one arm. “You know I understand.”
“Right,” Kurt let himself lean against his first mate before straightening up and looking at Finn. “Right, then. Finn, that’s going to be your responsibility.”
“Of course. I won’t let you down, Captain,” Finn promised.
“I know you won’t. The rest of us, let’s concentrate on finding that black ship.”
“Aye!” the crew called as a whole and scattered, Jesse taking up his customary spot in the crow’s nest as Kurt went to the rail to hail the Hawk, needing to tell Wes what they’d worked out.
000
“Tomorrow,” Finn whispered in his ear, breath hot against Kurt’s sea-damp skin, and Kurt reached to take the other man’s hand in his own and lace their fingers, holding him close. They’d run into a merchant vessel who had somehow escaped the Raven’s wrath but who had told them the general direction the black ship was headed, and with the speed both the Zephyr and the Hawk could attain they would most likely catch up by morning.
And, if nothing else they had the wind at their backs and the element of surprise: nobody was foolish enough to confront the Midnight Raven, after all. “Tomorrow,” Kurt repeated, feeling his throat close. That sense of impending doom he’d felt before Finn had gotten poisoned was back, stronger, but he wasn’t sure it was actually a premonition or if he was just plain scared.
It could have been either, at this point.
“We’ll be alright,” Finn said quietly. “We will.”
Kurt didn’t answer, staring into the darkened cabin, and he felt Finn’s hand slide around his hip, meaning more than clear.
“Would you like to…”
And oh, Kurt would like to. Would like to get lost in the feel of Finn, his slick skin and deep brown eyes, lost in the movement, of knowing Finn was inside him and that nobody, in that moment, could hurt him, but…
“No,” he said gently, blinking, feeling tears pool at the corners of his eyes. “I fear I’m still sore from last night.”
“Just this, then?” Finn’s hand slid to gently cup him through his breeches, bolder every time, and Kurt shivered and pushed it away.
“No,” he choked out, the words barely forming.
He heard a sigh and rustle behind him, Finn disentangling their joined hands before slipping out of the bed, and Kurt glanced at him curiously. “Where are you…”
“To the cabin,” Finn picked up his shirt, the muscles in his back shifting in the light as he straightened to put it on. God, he was beautiful.
“But…”
“If you want to be alone, I understand,” Finn assured him. “I bear you no ill will for it.”
“I don’t want to be alone,” Kurt protested; petulant, child-like, and Finn stopped half-way through buttoning his shirt and turned back.
“What do you want, Kurt? I’m trying, but I’m a little out to sea here.”
Kurt smiled at the obvious attempt at levity but he beckoned Finn back, sitting and unbuttoning what Finn had just done before sliding the shirt off altogether. “I want you. But not like that. I want to…” he cut off, staring at the ground, cursing his sudden inability to articulate his thoughts.
But Finn, bless him, understood…somehow….and crawled back in before rolling Kurt to face him, taking his face in his hands and kissing him gently but surely. Kurt slid his arms around Finn’s body, caressing the skin under his fingertips, and tried to memorize the feel of the other man as if this were the last night they’d spend together.
“You need to sleep, Kurt,” Finn murmured into his hair. “You’ll be of no use to anybody without it.”
“I want this to last,” Kurt breathes against Finn’s lips, licking at them until they parted and Finn let him in once more. “I want…”
“We’ll have plenty of time to make it last after tomorrow,” Finn vowed, taking Kurt’s hand and placing it on his chest over his heart. “You feel that?”
“Yes.”
“That’s going to keep beating. It’s not going to stop,” he said, his eyes wide and honest, and Kurt kissed him again because he couldn’t think of anything else to do. “I love you, Kurt Hummel, and I plan on loving you for many years to come.”
“I love you, too,” Kurt tightened their embrace, their bodies touching at nearly every point, and Kurt thought absently that if Finn wanted to fall asleep while still inside of him he wouldn’t protest too heartily.
Anything to bring them closer, because as morning drew near, his fear only grew.
000
“Black ship off the starboard bow!” Jesse yelled at about mid-morning, standing up in the crow’s nest with the wind whipping his hair, and Kurt took a deep breath and tried to find his center, steeling himself for the impending confrontation. “What are your orders, Captain?”
“Let the Hawk chase her and engage her,” Kurt replied, speaking to the crew as a whole. “When she’s distracted we’ll come around the other side and give Finn a chance to board, hopefully taking Goolsby captive in the process.”
“You know Sylvester’s behind the whole operation, right?” Santana raised an eyebrow and Kurt glanced at her. “Brittany and I asked around at your father’s. Apparently she gives them money for every ship they destroy.”
“So, worse than pirates. Much worse than pirates,” Tina shivered. “Why would anybody do that?”
“Greed. Power. Sylvester’s untouchable but the same cannot be said of her cronies, and it’s time they learned that,” Kurt nodded as the ship drew closer. “Are we all prepared for this?”
He looked around and saw that his crew looked scared, but determined, and Kurt knew it would kill him to lose any of them.
They truly were a family.
He met Blaine’s eyes and saw the way his first mate’s gaze flickered to Sam before looking back, and he just hoped that neither he nor Blaine would have to give their lover’s body to the sea once this was finished.
“Go,” Kurt mouthed and Blaine nodded gratefully, walking to Sam and letting the golden-haired man pull him into a tight embrace, and Kurt looked away to give them a moment of privacy, feeling Finn’s hands on his hips as the taller man pressed against him from behind.
“We’ll all be fine, Kurt.”
Kurt didn’t answer but he leaned into Finn’s embrace, taking comfort from the other man’s strength.
He would need it in the battle to come.
000
Finn was distracted.
He had the gunpowder and a lantern that stayed as far away as possible, but as he strode across the deck of the Raven and tried not to pay much attention to the battle raging on around him, his eye kept being drawn to Kurt.
Because Kurt was beautiful in battle, spinning his swords and shifting his feet in a way that looked more like a dance than a style of fighting.
A dance of death, Finn knew, because the crimson staining the twin blades and coating the deck wasn’t anything to be laughed at, as Finn saw Kurt spin both the swords at once and plunge them backward, straight through a man’s chest, he once again saw the man he’d been afraid of.
The feared pirate captain, one of the terrors of the Spanish Main, and certainly not the man Finn had held in his arms and made love to only a mere two days before.
But he couldn’t watch Kurt, as captivating as the man was, and he moved quickly past and pulled the door open to the hold, trusting the light to guide him down the darkened stairway. He heard a loud, shrill whistle from above and knew that was the signal for Kurt to get everybody off of the deck and as far away as he could, and Finn just hoped he’d have enough time to light the fuse and get out before it was too late.
He set the lantern down, hands shaking a little, and began to spread the gunpowder so it met up with the barrels. Once the line was to the door he picked up the lantern, prepared to drop it and run, but unfortunately only half of that idea worked as, when he turned to bolt up the stairs, the remaining members of the Raven’s crew were waiting for him.
Or, two of them were, but that was enough for his meagre swordsmanship skills.
He drew his sword and tried to emulate Kurt the best he could, panic and the need to escape giving him extra strength, but his foot skidded on the slick deck and he felt the point of one of the enemy pirate’s swords pierce his shoulder, the pain overwhelming as he slashed out wildly, catching the other man across the chest and knocking him back into the rail.
He elbowed the other pirate aside and looked for the Zephyr but she was already far out to sea, leaving him no choice but to swim, and with a wounded arm the prospect wasn’t pleasant.
He had one foot on the rail, preparing to jump, when a pair of arms caught him around the middle and sent him crashing back to the deck, and he bodily shoved the other man away and got to his feet, reaching for the rail as the fuse ran out and the world exploded around him.
000
“We have to go back!”
“Kurt!” Blaine had him around the middle, trying to hold on to the squirming man as he reached for the railing. “We have to get out of here!”
“No! We have to go back! He’s…”
“You’re injured!” Blaine said firmly. “You can’t look for him.”
“I can’t leave him!” Kurt all but shrieked, thrashing, and he finally quieted and slumped in Blaine’s arms, the rather ugly wound on his leg bleeding freely and staining the deck below them. “I can’t…Blaine…”
“I know, love,” Blaine said softly, stroking Kurt’s hair back. “I know. We can wait until nightfall, but then we must move on.”
They had managed to capture Goolsby and a couple others, and they were currently being held on the Crimson Hawk as the Zephyr wasn’t truly equipped to carry prisoners.
Regardless, they needed to get them back to Port Royal and end the black ship’s reign of terror once and for all.
“Blaine,” Kurt whispered again, eyes slipping closed, and Blaine kissed his forehead and lowered him to the deck. “I…I love him…”
“I know. Finnegan’s strong. He’ll be fine,” Blaine promised, seeing the blood loss and the exhaustion catch up with Kurt as the captain finally slumped to the deck, unconscious.
“Do you think he made it?” Sam asked, kneeling beside them, and Blaine turned his face into his lover’s shoulder and shook his head. “That’s what I suspected.”
“God, I hope I’m wrong,” Blaine’s words were muffled by Sam’s shirt as the other man held him tightly, both of them rejoicing in knowing that they still had each other but their hearts were breaking for Kurt.
000
“Captain, we have to move on,” Sam’s voice was quiet in the stillness as Kurt turned from the rail, his leg bandaged up and wearing a shirt that was too big to be his own, and the other man’s heart broke even more.
“I know,” Kurt whispered. “Bring the crew up on deck.”
“As you command,” Sam moved away quietly, calling the others, and Kurt buried his nose in the collar of the shirt and inhaled deeply.
Once they were all assembled he took a deep breath and turned away from the railing, the shirt hanging too-large around his frame as he cleared his throat.
“It’s over. The Midnight Raven has been destroyed and all ships can come and go freely through these waters once more. As soon as we deliver Captain Goolsby to the authorities in Port Royal things will go back to the way we were and we can sail without fear again. We…” he stopped, covering his mouth with his hand and taking a shuddery breath before continuing. “We will leave here tonight. I fear the…the body cannot be recovered and…and it is better to press forward than to look back. So come. Let’s make sail for Port Royal,” he blinked, unable to hold it together any longer, and dropped to his knees, face buried in his hands.
And, for the first time in front of anybody other than Blaine, his father, or…God help him, Finn…Kurt Hummel cried.
All Chapters
Notes:
1. I blame this entirely on watching too many clips of old things Cory was in where his character died (I can think of three off the top of my head). Also too many clips of Cory shirtless. God, he is gorgeous.
2. That aside, please don’t hate me too much. There’s still an epilogue to come.