fic: Solar Winds (50/?), Part 6/6(!)
When he comes back to himself, he’s lying on the ground, hearing the wonderful sound of that particular kind of pained groaning that is more of a complaint to the world than any kind of urgent exclamation of agony. He’s feeling a little achey himself, but he can deal for the moment.
He slowly picks himself up, spitting greens out of his mouth, looking around him for the source of the groans and spotting exactly no one.
“Okay, everybody,” Kurt says blearily. “Roll call and status report. Finn?”
“I have twigs in all of my places,” he whines, stumbling out of a bush.
“Good,” Kurt says, smiling at him. “Mercedes?”
“Six out of ten. Work on that landing,” she says, picking herself up from behind a pile of rocks that probably used to be a single large rock before it met her. She dusts herself off, and makes a face as something twinges.
“Will do,” Kurt replies. “Artie?”
“Oh, no, I can’t feel my legs,” he deadpans, sprawled across a tree branch.
“Noted,” Kurt grins. “Rachel?”
“I flew…” she says deliriously, swinging back and forth in a small tangle of vines. “The air embraced me, and for a single wonderful second, I soared with the grace of a bison!”
“…good for you,” Kurt says lightly. “Blaine?”
No response.
His heart sinks an inch or so. “Blaine? Can you hear me?”
“Unnnnnhhh…” he moans.
Kurt turns around to see him limp and hanging upside down from a tree branch. His eyes are closed.
“Blaine!” Kurt shouts, running-okay, ow, limping-over as fast as he can. “Blaine, are you alright?” He stops just in front of the dangling Prince, who hasn’t acknowledged him. “Blaine! Speak to me! Say some-”
Striking like the sneakiest of koala snakes, Blaine waits until Kurt is close enough before striking. He swings up and kisses him on the nose, opening his eyes and grinning like a fiend.
“…you!” Kurt hisses, punching him in the ribs.
“Ow!” Blaine laughs. “What? I wanted to surprise you!”
The Avatar can’t contain his grin. “Well, you did. Let me return the favor!”
And with just as little warning, he yanks Blaine out of the tree, slamming him on the ground.
“Owwwwwww,” Blaine complains, clutching at his stomach.
Kurt immediately feels remorseful. “Oh my La, are you okay? I didn’t exacerbate your inju-”
And then Blaine sweeps his feet out from under him, landing Kurt on his back.
“Oh, that is it!” Kurt growls, turning on his side to glare at Blaine. “You are so going… down…”
He trails off, because Blaine is now laying on his side mere inches from Kurt, still grinning from ear to ear, but with something… different about his expression. There’s a light shining in his eyes that Kurt has never seen before, and he’s staring at Kurt like he’s the only thing in the world.
“So…” Blaine says. “About what I… err… said… up there on the bridge…”
“What about it?” Kurt asks, breath just slightly bated.
“Did you… get the message?” Blaine asks, actually looking a little nervous and making Kurt want to roll his eyes and slug him and hug him and kiss him senseless.
“I think I got the general idea,” Kurt says airily. “But… I was a little unclear on the specifics.”
“Oh?” Blaine says.
“Yes,” Kurt says playfully. “I think you should… clarify a few things.”
“Ah,” Blaine says, leaning in a little closer. “Well… in that case… let me elaborate.”
And Blaine kisses him again.
Kurt likes the second account much better.
It’s much more… detailed.
Blaine’s lips are slow and strong, his kiss both hungry and patient, like a man who wants to savor his meal to spite his hunger. His hands are such a perfect blend of gentle force that they practically feel like a massage on Kurt’s back, pressing into him, caressing him, squeezing him and melting the tension from his body. Blaine is so physical, so hungry for touch that kissing him is practically a full-body workout.
And Kurt can actually kiss him back now. He is the picture of the tides as Blaine moves against him, pulling and letting the Prince push, and then pushing right back, claiming Blaine’s tongue and manipulating his mouth in ways he’s always dreamed of but never had the chance to put into practice. His own hands smooth over the bare skin on the Prince’s back, tracing the outline of the scar and moving on like it’s just another feature of Blaine, no more or less significant that his strong arms, his lean legs, his strong chin, his gorgeous, hazel eyes…
A squeal high enough to shatter glass forces the two of them to come up for air, and they break their kiss (with a marvelous, wet smooch that Kurt wants to hear more often), and find that they have an audience.
Rachel cups her hands over her mouth and looks like she wants to bounce to the moon.
Mercedes looks amused at how red they are suddenly turning.
Artie waggles his eyebrows and gives him two thumbs up.
Finn looks like he is incredibly happy for his brother and seriously wishing he was not watching this. And yet, he turns not away.
“Ummm… hi?” Blaine says, turning bright red.
“Are we interrupting something?” Mercedes asks lightly.
Kurt thinks about it for a second. “Oh, I don’t kno-YES!”
He stands up and slams his hands into the ground, causing a large slab of earth to sprout between them and the peanut gallery.
“I guess they want a little privacy,” Mercedes says lasciviously.
“Oh my gosh,” Rachel says. “That was the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. I just want to jump in the middle and cuddle them both.”
“I don’t think they’d like that,” Finn says carefully.
“Get it, son!” Artie says. “TAP THAT ASS-”
“Oh my La, if you all don’t shut up and go away, I’m pulling out the fire!” Kurt says from behind the wall.
He does not hear any more commentary, though he does hear a few titters and giggles as they exit.
“Now,” Kurt says, turning back to Blaine. “Shall we pick up where we left off?”
Blaine stands up and walks towards him, a contemplative look on his face. “Hmmm… I seem to have lost my place,” he says with a smile. “Better start from the beginning.”
He presses Kurt against the wall.
And Kurt discovers Blaine Anderson is one hill of an eloquent speaker when he puts his mind to it.
~~~
And the sun sets in the Fire Nation. The sunlight leaves each of them miles from where they started that day, in every sense.
In the dark interior of a boxcar, two assassins stew in their failure, and contemplate their life choices…
Puck wakes up gasping and flailing like a fucking lunatic. She kind of wishes she could see him flopping around, because she’s pretty sure it’s hilarious.
It gets old fast, though. “Puck, chill!” Santana says.
The other assassin’s panic subsides, leaving only heavy breathing. “I’m not dead…” he says.
“No,” Santana sighs. “They crammed us in a boxcar. They’re probably miles away by now.”
Puck just breathes for a few seconds. “Fuck,” he says finally. She hears him slip from the pile of feedbags and start to grope around the place.
“The door is to your left,” she says.
More groping.
“No, your other left.”
Shuffle, shuffle.
“My left.”
Clang.
“Getting warmer…”
Clank, clank, clank.
“Punch there.”
The door is blasted clean off the car at the end of Puck’s fist, and he looks so relieved to see the outside world that Santana almost feels bad for him.
“Get over here and untie me,” she orders.
Puck nods, blinks, and nods again, jogging over to help her out of the ropes (HER ropes) that bind her.
His hands shake as he fumbles with the knots.
“Fuck,” he curses.
Santana shakes her head. “Damn,” she says. “They really did a number on you, didn’t they?”
The armored assassin finally gets the knots on her hands undone. He doesn’t answer, just walks back over to the door, leaving her to untie her feet.
“Are you gonna be okay?” she asks, watching him as he looks at his hand, flexing it a few times. “Do you need to, like, lie down or something?”
“I thought I was dead,” Puck says.
That’s when it hits her. The last thing he probably remembers is that little shit choking him out. Combine that with waking up in a dark, smelly, silent box, and you’ve got a pretty good recipe for a panic attack.
“Shit,” Santana says sympathetically.
“My entire fucking life flashed in front of my eyes,” Puck says. “And it sucked.”
She finishes undoing the rope and walks up beside him. He looks at her, and his eyes are so fucking lost that Santana actually does kind of feel bad for him. “You wanna… I don’t know… talk, or something?”
She’s got a few things she’d kind of like to get off her chest, too. And it’s not like she has anybody else to talk with.
Puck crosses his arms and looks away. “No,” he scoffs, jumping down from the unmoving car and stalking off.
She crosses her own arms. “Good,” she spits at his back, jumping down to follow him. “Me neither.”
“I’m gonna crush those losers,” Puck says emphatically as he goes. “Especially the smug little earth-prick.” He’s silent for a few seconds, before he adds. “I’m not weak.” She doesn’t know who he’s trying to convince, but she’s pretty sure he fails.
She nods anyway, even though he can’t see it. “I’ve got a reason to hate all of them now,” she says, mentally counting off her various humiliations over the evening, ending with Brittany’s heartbroken face, flying away from her.
“Oh, yeah,” Santana says quietly. “They’re gonna pay…”
~~~
Two forlorn airbenders soar over the sea on the back of their bison, their minds on those they left behind…
“You’re sad,” Brittany says.
“No, I’m not,” Jesse says flatly, scrubbing his face to make sure there are no tear tracks left.
“Yes you are,” Brittany says. “You’re totally crying. And you only cry when you’re sad, or when you hear the story of The Little Bison That Could. And Mr. Duck hasn’t told that one since his brother died in the war.”
“I’m fine, Brittany,” Jesse insists, staring mournfully into the horizon, framing his boundless grief and mourning for his lost love in the fading purples and pinks of the evening sky.
“If it makes you feel better,” Brittany says quietly, leaning forward. “I’m sad, too.”
Jesse looks back at her, skeptically. “What do you have to be sad about?”
“I had to leave people I really liked,” Brittany says. “And I didn’t even get to meet Kurt.”
Jesse nods in sympathy. “Perhaps it is the destiny of we airbenders never to be truly attached to anything, so that we may float freely in the winds…”
Brittany rolls over on her back and looks at the sky. “I don’t think so. I don’t think we can control who we attach to. We’re like those little spiky balls in briar patches. Sometimes people walk through us and we get stuck on their pants.”
The other airbender nods. “Oh, what I wouldn’t give to once again be stuck on Rachel’s pants… how could I have been so stupid?” he asks. “I just… I just wanted to make leaving her home easier. I thought… if she hated her parents… maybe she wouldn’t miss them. And she wouldn’t be sad… I don’t know.”
“It’s okay,” Brittany says. “You’ll see her again one day.”
“I can only hope,” Jesse sighs.
They fly in silence for a few more moments, before a thought occurs to Jesse.
“…if you didn’t meet Kurt, then how do you know his name?” he asks.
Brittany shrugs. “Sometimes, things happen to me out-of-order,” she says by way of explanation.
The other airbender tilts his head at her. He wants to inquire further, but something tells him that’s the only explanation he’s going to get, so he accepts it. His thoughts turn again to Rachel…
…and the woman who ordered him to find her…
~~~
A third airbender lets her thoughts fly into the winds, wondering where they will take her, while a waterbender does his best to keep her from getting carried away…
Rachel looks up at the heavens as she sits primly on a rock, holding the scroll canister in her hands and tracing the back of the Sun Warrior tablet. After their crash, it took them a couple of minutes to realize the tablet was missing. Fortunately, they found it lodged in the home of an extremely irate beaver squirrel after a few minutes of searching, and it now rests safe with her again.
“Hey,” Finn says.
Rachel looks over at him and graces him with a small smile.
“So, uhhh…” he says, scratching the back of his neck. “A lot of… stuff… happened just now, and… well… I mean, not just now, cause some of it happened a few minutes ago, although, a few minutes seems like a lot of time, ‘cause a lot of stuff can happen in a few minutes, but… I mean… it’s a lot, don’t you think?”
She grins at his rambling. “Yes, it’s quite a lot, I agree,” she says, turning back to look up at the sky. “There are so many things… so many things I want to know. Who is she, really? Did she choose to give me up, or was Jesse telling the truth? Is she really a… a conqueror? Some kind of bloodthirsty warlord? Is that what’s inside of me?” She puts a hand on her heart. “Is that who I’m expected to become?”
“Hey,” Finn says, gently. “That doesn’t matter.”
She gives him a warning glare.
He quickly backpedals. “No, I mean, it does matter, it matters a lot it’s just… it doesn’t mean what you think it means,” he says quietly. “My uhhh… my dad was a great warrior. He pretty much won an entire war for the Northern Water Tribe. He was an awesome waterbender, and I’m… not.”
“Oh, psh,” Rachel says. “Of course you are.”
“No, I’m really not,” Finn says, with a slight grimace.
“You just need… more practice,” Rachel says simply.
Finn shakes his head. “What I’m trying to say is… you’re you. Like, the same way that I’m me. We’re not our parents. It doesn’t matter what they do. We’re our own people. We have our own destiny, you know?”
Rachel is flabbergasted. She can’t help the expression on her face, staring at him like he’s got purple pentapi stuck to his head.
“What?” Finn asks. “Did I say something dumb again? I mean, I know I kind of-”
“You said just the right thing,” Rachel says, jumping down off the rock and hugging him for all he’s worth. “Thank you, Finn.”
He squeezes her back. “No problem. So… I guess you’re kind of stuck with us for now, huh?”
“I don’t want to impose,” she says graciously, “but… at the same time, it would be ridiculous for me not to travel with you, considering that you’re going to the Air Temples next and that is exactly where I need to be. Plus, I have an airbending scroll that I can barter with. I’m sure Kurt would love to get a head-start on his fourth element, and I can give him that.”
“He’s gonna be stoked to learn airbending,” Finn says. “Even if it’s just a little.”
“As will I,” Rachel says, adopting her dramatic voice. “I will venture bravely into the mountains, reach to the heavens with hungry hands and claim my destiny, my legacy, my heritage. And… I will do it on my own terms,” she adds, with a nudge to Finn. “Because no matter who my mother turns out to be, her life is not mine. I am my own person.”
Finn grins and nudges her back. “And you’re amazing, just the way you are.”
The heaviness of Jesse, and his ill-timed revelations are lifted from her, and Rachel steps lightly as she walks with Finn towards the others.
Finn, on the other hand, feels just a little heavier. He’s glad he convinced Rachel that her parents’ actions didn’t matter.
He just wishes everyone was so easily convinced…
~~~
Two earthbenders are left alone with their thoughts. One relishes the chance to stop and sort herself out-the other fears his thoughts, and the stillness that brings them to bear…
Mercedes decides to take a moment to meditate after all the madness that went down just now. She centers herself on the ground, connects with the earth and lets the solid, stable element ground her flailing mind. Facing death isn’t always as easy as she makes it look, and as the unofficial group caretaker, she’s got a lot to deal with.
Blaine’s got his fire back. That’s gonna change things for him, and that’s not even counting what’s going on between him and Kurt. That’s gonna change things for everybody.
Rachel’s an airbender, apparently, and is now stuck with them. When Mercedes wished for female companionship, this really wasn’t what she had in mind, but it could be worse, she supposes. Rachel has her moments, and Mercedes more or less likes the girl. They’ll probably grow closer as time goes by.
If not, Mercedes can always threaten to bury her when she won’t shut up.
Speaking of Rachel, Finn is over the moon for her, which is just a whole other can of beans. Call her crazy, but she doesn’t feel like touching that boarcupine with a twenty-foot pole.
And Artie…
She shakes her head, and opens her eyes. Speak of the badgermole…
“Hey,” Artie says quietly, sliding up to her. “Everybody kind of… went off to do their own thing. I was wondering where you were.”
“Just taking a little quiet time,” Mercedes says. “Gotta air out my head and put it back on straight.”
He chuckles. “That was some crazy-ass shit, you ain’t lyin’,” he says.
He’s silent for a little bit after that.
“Did you want something?” she asks.
He looks uncharacteristically nervous when he looks up at her. “You… you believe me, right? That I wasn’t trying to kill him?”
Mercedes stares at him for a long moment, watching him as he shifts back and forth, looking sick. He’s definitely nervous about something, but it strikes her as ‘does she think I’m crazy?’ nerves, not ‘does she know I’m lying?’ It takes her a few seconds to decide, but decide she does. “I believe you,” she says at last.
His smile is a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” he says. “I… I really appreciate that.” He clears his throat, looking around. “We should probably get going soon, but… I’ll, uhh, let you get back to your meditating.”
As he starts to slide away from her, Mercedes voices one more thought. “Do you?” she asks.
He turns around. “Do I what?”
“Do you believe yourself when you say that?” she asks.
He seems to think for just a second. And then he scoffs, throwing out his hands to wave her off. “Of course,” he says. “Why would I say something that I don’t believe?”
He slides off before she can reply.
Bluster, bravado, casual dismissal. Oh, yeah. That time, he was afraid she would see through him.
“I have no idea,” she says quietly, more to herself than anyone else. That boy is a mystery to everyone, including himself.
“Know yourself,” Grandma Jones always told her. “You are the foundation, and if you don’t know the foundation you’re building on, you’re just asking for disaster.”
She’s never been too hard on Artie, but now she’s starting to worry. Because if her grandma is right (and she usually is), that boy is heading for disaster as sure as the world turns, and the only question is who is gonna get hurt in the inevitable collapse…
~~~
A proud warrior watches her escaped enemy, cursing her own weakness in letting him go…
Quinn stands on top of the collapsed archway, grinding her teeth under pursed lips as she stares through her spyglass at the beach down below. Two figures, each with a small flame in his hand, stand side by side like tiny candles.
They survived.
She hears footsteps behind her, knowing immediately that it’s her Chi-Ryus. “We have no time to lose,” Quinn says. “They’re across the fjord. We have to get down there, and-”
“Captain,” the dark-haired Chi-Ryu says, stepping forward nervously. “Permission to speak freely?”
Quinn gives her an odd look. They’ve never done this before. “Granted. What is it?”
“We were just talking, actually,” she says, indicated the red-haired Chi-Ryu, “and while we understand that time is of the essence… we think it’s best if you stopped for tonight.”
“You’re hurt and exhausted from the Agni Kai,” the red-head chimes in. “You should rest, so you’re at your best the next time you face them.”
The Captain’s teeth clench even harder. How dare they tell her to ignore her mission! Don’t they understand how important this is?
“We’re… worried about you,” the dark-haired girl says quietly.
This catches her off guard. Quinn unclenches her teeth and stares at the Chi-Ryus, looking for any sign of falsehood.
She finds none.
This is unexpected. This requires careful thought.
“You are right,” Quinn says after a few moments, maintaining the air of command, but taking a little of the edge off. “A sword must be sharpened after battle, or the blunted blade will not cut. We will regroup with the others and take a brief moment to recover, before we resume the chase. Any questions?” she asks.
“No, Captain!” the Chi-Ryus nod.
“Then you are dismissed,” she says, waving them off.
They start to leave, and without even really thinking about it, she adds, “and… thank you, for your perspective.”
The girls nod at her, before marching off.
Quinn takes another look through her spyglass at the figures below. He calls himself a Prince, completely unaware of how wrong it is. “There shouldn’t be a Fire Prince,” Quinn says quietly.
And if she does her job, there won’t be.
It’s as simple as that.
She watches the candles burn for just a few seconds more, and finally forces herself to collapse the spyglass, turn around, and walk away.
There is no need to rush things. She has time.
They can’t outrun her forever…
~~~
And the Avatar and the Fire Prince stand beside each other and find something to burn for…
Blaine stands on the shore, a dark shape against the rapidly darkening horizon, a small flame cupped in his hands to protect it from the wind.
Kurt walks up beside him and simply stands there, just happy to be near him.
The Prince looks lovingly at the flame in his hands. “It’s amazing,” he breathes. “You don’t realize what you have until it’s gone. And even then, you don’t quite realize how much you miss it until it’s back again.”
The Avatar lets out a little ‘hmm’ of agreement, and bends up a flame of his own, holding it near his center just as Blaine is. “I’m glad to see you burning again.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you, you know,” Blaine says softly.
“I still don’t understand,” Kurt says. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You didn’t have to,” Blaine says with a sweet smile. “Fire wants,” he explains. “And for so long… after what happened… I was afraid to want anything. What you want can be denied. What you love can be lost. And I just… it hurt so much… I couldn’t imagine hurting like that again. I was afraid.”
Kurt nods. “I’m sorry,” he says quietly.
“Don’t be,” Blaine says. “You’re the main thing that helped me realize what I was missing. There are… some things in this world that are worth hurting for. Worth fighting for. And for me… you are one of them. Quite possibly the biggest one.”
Much like room with a fire inside, Kurt finds that Blaine has sucked the oxygen right out of him.
“You amaze me, Kurt,” the Prince says with a soft smile. “You move me, and it’s… it’s effortless. You don’t have to think about it or even try, really. It just happens naturally. You move, and I move with you. I’m just another element in your hands. A part of your world. And I’m honored to be so close to you.”
Kurt is speechless. “Blaine… that’s… I…” He smiles. “Thank you. I can safely say that is the best compliment anyone has ever given me.”
Blaine smiles, and they stand there together for a while, watching as the last vestiges of sunlight fade from the horizon, keeping their flames close to their hearts all the while.
Then, without warning, Blaine puts his flame out. He steps behind him, wraps his arms around Kurt, and places his hands beneath the Avatar’s, cupping the little fire that burns at his center just as lovingly as he would his own.
It brightens immensely.
And suddenly, there are two flames burning as one.
Kurt can feel the difference between them, how the two energies intertwine and shift and dance together, expressions of a single element. So alike, and so different, separate, yet part of a whole greater than either part.
Blaine hooks his chin over Kurt’s shoulder, and they just… are. For a wondrous moment more intimate than Kurt can voice, the two of them burn as one.
“Come on, boys!” Mercedes says. “We’ve got to get a move on.”
“I guess that’s our cue to leave,” Blaine says.
“And yet, you aren’t going anywhere,” Kurt observes.
“Too comfy. Too warm,” Blaine says, actually nuzzling him. “Can we walk like this?”
“Probably not a good idea,” Kurt says, feeling bereft as he steps away from Blaine and extinguishes the flame. “But… I think we can try a compromise.”
Kurt holds out his hand.
Blaine smiles like he’s gotten double Solstice presents, and takes it, lacing their fingers together.
Hand-in-hand, they walk off to join the others.
~~~
It’s far from a happy ending. The Avatar knows they have work to do-finding Sam, decoding the mystery of the Solar Winds and Sue’s ultimate goal, not to mention learning airbending and eventually saving the world.
But as he walks away from that beach, the warmth inside of him could power a hundred suns. And he feels, for quite possibly the first time ever, that he might be up to the task.
That maybe he can save them all.
So, no, it isn’t an ending.
Not for him, not for any of them…
…but it’s a start.
END OF ACT 2
A/N: Yes, folks, it finally happened! :D And it only took FIFTY CHAPTERS! XD Thank you so much for your patience thusfar. I’ve worked hard on this, and your support is what makes it all worthwhile. The story is far from over: Act 3 features tons of juicy backstory, more Sue (you know you love her), plenty of action and intrigue, some truly awesome surprises, and a finale that will blow your mind.
In the meantime, I’m taking a short break for about a week so that those who are so inclined may catch up on their reading/reviewing. Even if you’re just posting to say you’re reading the story, I’d love to hear from you. ;) Thank you all so much! You’ve gotten me this far-I hope to have you onboard for the rest of the trip!