Title: Closing Time
Characters: Kurt, Puck, Other Canon Characters
Genre: Romance
Pairing: Puck/Kurt, Brittany/Artie
Warning: Un-betaed, Future!Fic
Rating: PG
Words Count: 2875
A/N: This story is a fill for 's prompt. I hope you like it :D The lyrics and the title are from Semisonic's song "Closing Time".
Summary: Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end
Closing Time
Time for you to go out to the places you will be from
So gather up your jackets, move it to the exits
I hope you have found a friend
Closing time
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end, yeah
When high school ends, it feels like a circle is finally closing. In high school you meet the friends that are most likely to be with you for the rest of your life, you meet your first real crush and important love and discover things about yourself that you didn't even know where there. After four years, you're someone new and you get the chance to tie the loose ends or find the courage to finally do something that you were always too scared to do.
That year, McKinley High' Senior year meant the coming full circle with those couples that had broken up, made up and mixed up through the last two years of school.
The last day before the Graduation Ceremony, saw the halls filled with the Glee Club's "it" couples.
After breaking up for a number of reasons (from Finn loosing his v-card to Santana because Rachel was with Jesse, to Rachel using Puck in order to get back at Finn), Rachel and Finn were finally together and they were pretty sure that this time it was going to last.
Brittany, after a brief time spent with Santana, was back with Artie and they were very much in love. They were probably the cutest couple in the whole school, she meant the world to Artie and she was in love for real for the first time in her life. They were happy together and treat each other as equals.
Tina and Mike were still together giving each other "Asian kisses" at every chance and in the fall, they were going to the same college together. They were starting a new life and they were doing it together.
Sam and Quinn had never last, they were too perfect together, too similar and the chemistry after a while faded away. After a year, the scene in the Astronomy class with Sam down on a knee holding a ring to Quinn, was nothing more than a distant memory. Now they were friends but had found love with other people.
Santana had gradually changed becoming a better person once she was out of the Cheerios. Without her uniform on, she was just another girl and she had learned to be less of a bitch. Of course, there were times when she and Rachel still fought, but the fights were infrequent. She was currently single but was on and off with one of the new generation of Cheerleaders.
Mercedes had finally took Anthony Rashad up on his offer to go take a coffee together and they were now happily together walking down the halls with Mercedes wearing his letterman jacket and their arms linked.
All was perfect that day, the guys and the girls were finally ready to leave the glorious years of the high school status quo and become the adults of tomorrow, leave Lima or stay in town and build their new lives. However, while they all walked down the halls exchanging hugs and good byes, someone was missing, or to be more specific, two people were missing.
Mercedes stopped next to Rachel frowning. "Where's Kurt?"
"I don't know. Puck is missing too."
Then the people standing in the halls started whispering and pointing towards the entrance of the school. Rachel, Mercedes, Finn and Anthony all looked towards the entrance and their eyes widened.
"It can't be," Mercedes said in astonishment.
Rachel nodded as if even though her eyes were still fixed on the couple making their way towards them, the fact that they were together was still impossible.
Puck had his arm slid around Kurt's shoulders keeping him close and Kurt's arm was around Puck's waist. They were looking at each other smiling and seemed unaware of the gazes following them down the halls, or at the very least, they simply didn't care.
When they reached their friends who were standing outside the choir room, they simply smiled at them.
"What... how... when..." Saying that Finn was confused was an understatement.
"We're together, we like each other a lot and we've been together since the start of the school year," Puck simply said answering to the half spoken questions of his best friend.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Mercedes asked right away.
Kurt shrugged still smiling brightly. "Because you would never have left us alone and we're happy together," he darted a quick glance at his boyfriend and then smiled wider. "I may even say that we're very much in love and we didn't need to hear how you thought that we could never be together or that it was impossible for it to work because he used to bully me and I used to hate him."
Rachel looked worriedly between Puck and Kurt before stepping closer to the last. "Kurt, I'm not sure that this is such a good idea. I mean..."
"What she means is that he's just using you," Mercedes cut in. "Puck doesn't believe in love."
Kurt sighed and shook his head sadly. "We hoped that if we waited long enough, you'd understand but it looks like that's not the case." He looked up at Puck and smiled again.
"I'd like for you not to talk about me as if you knew me," Puck said, turning to Mercedes. "I do believe in love."
"Please," a voice said from behind Puck and Kurt. They turned around to find Santana looking at them with a raised eyebrow and her arms crossed in front of her chest. "You're going to dump Hummel before Summer ends. It will never work. Your story is as doomed as Artie and Brittany's."
"I guess you were right," Kurt said defeated, turning to look at Puck.
"It's not going to last, Kurt," Finn said. "I know that it's hard to think about it, but it's the truth."
"Let's go. I'll buy you a slushie," Puck said, tightening his hold around Kurt's shoulders.
Kurt looked at his friends for a moment before nodding and following Puck away. He was sure that it was going to last. He had stopped listening to what other people thought a long time ago and he wasn't about to start again.
10 Years Later
The banner over the entrance to the gym was in the colors of the Titans. White letters over a red background announced, "Glee Club 10 Years Reunion" with black and white music notes all around. Kurt looked at the banner and smiled a little. So many things had changed since he had last seen the other members of the New Directions.
Once he had gone to the UCLA with his boyfriend, he had pretty much lost contact with everyone from McKinley with the obvious exception of Finn. He and Rachel had broken up in their sophomore year in college while Rachel was in New York and Finn at the Ohio State.
He could hear loud voices coming from inside the gym and twisting the ring around his ring-finger nervously, he walked inside.
He had wondered why they had decided to have the reunion inside the gym since they were only in thirteen but once he had stepped inside, he took in all the balloons, the stage put at the far end and all the tables scattered around giving to the place the look of Prom Night.
"Kurt?" someone asked. He turned around and found himself looking at a blond woman. He frowned for a moment before smiling brightly and hugging her.
"Brittany!"
"Oh my God, Kurt, I've missed you so much," she said, squeezing him tightly. She pulled back and looked at him up and down. "Boy, you look amazing."
Kurt looked at her noticing in that moment the little bump barely visible under the red babydoll top. "You look absolutely gorgeous. Who's the lucky man?"
"Oh the same one from high school. Artie." She turned around and called, "Artie! Come here honey."
Artie rolled his wheelchair over to them and smiled. The glasses were gone, but the hair and the clothes were still the same Kurt remembered. "Hey, Kurt." He extended a hand towards him.
"Artie. You look great."
"You too." Artie noticed the ring Kurt was wearing when they shook hands. "Oh, you've got someone special. Where is he?"
"Parking," he said, with exasperated fondness. "He's got a new car and thinks that parking miles away from other cars will prevent any damage."
Brittany got closer and linked her arm through Kurt's. "Is he someone rich?"
Kurt laughed. "Yeah, he's got a record label."
"And you have your own clothing line," Artie said. "Very impressive, Kurt."
"Thanks, Artie."
They walked over to where the other people were standing. Mercedes and Tina looked the same but without that glint that had always been in their eyes.
"Hey girls, how is it going?" he asked casually, glancing towards the door to see if his husband was arriving.
"Oh it could be better," Mercedes said embracing the boy for a moment before letting Tina do the same. "Anthony dumped me two years after graduation after he got me knocked up and I'm currently the single parent of a eight years old girl."
"Well, it's great that you have a daughter," Kurt said feeling a little guilty for having lost contact with his high school best friend when it looked like she could have used a friend. "I'm sorry that it didn't work out with Anthony." He turned his attention to Tina. "And you and Mike?" he asked tentatively.
Tina's smile faded and she gave a tired sigh. "We got married right after we graduated from college but," she shrugged, "We lost our love and passion for each other along the way and we're filling for a divorce. I guess, it's true that high school love doesn't last."
Kurt decided not to point out that Artie and Brittany were still together and that well, his high school boyfriend had become his husband. Speaking of which, he looked once again towards the entrance and sighed. "Where the hell did he go?"
"Kurt?" The man turned towards Mercedes. "Did you get married?"
Kurt couldn't stop the big smile that broke on his face. "I did. Four years ago, actually. We're living in Los Angeles."
"Oh wow," Tina said.
He smiled at both women before turning around to walk over to Quinn. If it wasn't for the fact that she wasn't the only blond in the club besides Brittany, he'd never recognize her. She was dressed in cheap clothes and had definitely gained weight in the last ten years.
"Quinn?" he asked tentatively approaching the woman from behind. When she turned around, away from Mike who simply waved at him before stepping as far away from Tina as he could, she tried to smile but there was a sadness deeply rooted in her eyes. "Hey."
"Kurt, our celebrity," she said a little bitterly. "How have you been?"
"Great. I..." he was cut off when an arm sneaked around his waist and he found himself pressed against a familiar chest. He smiled widely and looked up at his husband. "About time, Puckerman. Are we going to have to leave sooner just to get to your damn car before tomorrow?"
"Hey, it's new." Noah leaned down and kissed Kurt soundly before pulling back grinning. He looked up then, finally noticing that Quinn was staring at them gaping. "Fabray. How have you been?"
She was unable to form a coherent answer but simply stood there looking at the couple. Puck was still taller than Kurt and muscular and he still had his hair shaved, but had a relaxed expression and a light in his eyes that hadn't been there in high school. Kurt, on the other hand, had changed a lot, he still looked younger than his twenty nine years, but now he was builder, and that appearance of ice queen that he had back in their high school years, had been replaced with one of confidence.
"You're still together," she finally managed to say.
"Of course we are," Noah replied stepping away from Kurt. "I'm going to find something to eat, ok?" He walked away leaving his husband and his ex-girlfriend together.
"We actually tried to break up when we were in our first year of college. There were so many new people, so many things to do and we didn't want to hold each other back from all that, but we lasted a week and then I went to him and told him that we were making our relationship work and it didn't make any sense to break up just so we could be free. We decided to stay together for as long as we made each other happy and," he shrugged looking at his husband with love shining in his eyes. "We're still sickening in love with each other."
"Of all the couples from high school, I can't believe that the only two still together are you and Puck and Brittany and Artie."
"I know, we were the only one really believing in our relationships while you were all busy telling us that we couldn't last, that we were together for the wrong reasons..." he trailed off and looked straight at Quinn. "But we're happy, we're in love and maybe we were the less likely couples back in high school, but we changed into adults without losing sight of what we wanted. We grew up together instead of growing apart."
Quinn lowered his gaze gripping the glass of punch she was holding tightly. "I guess we were all wrong. You sound adult and wise."
"Children would do that to you. Listen," he looked back towards where Noah was laughing with Finn (who was the only one knowing about him and Kurt being married) and Mike and sighed. "We came here because we wanted to see how everyone was doing but while we're here, I wanted to let you know that Noah is seeing Beth on the weekends. Shelby never found a husband so when Noah asked her to get to know Beth, she agreed." He looked back at Quinn and smiled. "He's an amazing dad."
Quinn tried to swallow the lump forming in her throat. "That's... that's why you said that children made you wise?"
"Yes and because we actually have kids of our own."
They looked at each other for long minutes. She was the symbol of Puck's past more than Santana could ever be and Kurt was the symbol of Noah, of the man the mohawked kid from high school had grown up into. It was hard for Quinn to see Kurt being able to call Noah his husband when things between her and Puck hadn't work out even having a kid together.
Finally, when Noah came back and slid his hand into Kurt's, Quinn managed a small smile. "I guess I should say congratulations even though it's been years since you guys got married."
"It's always like the first day," Noah said handing a glass of punch to Kurt.
"Are you drinking too? Because if you are then I can't."
"Relax, babe, I'm not drinking anything alcoholic."
"Ok." Kurt took a sip from his glass before looking back at Quinn. "I guess we should go around to talk with the others. I still have to see Santana and Sam."
"Matt is here too. Finn managed to track him down."
"Great. We'll see you, Quinn," Noah said, tagging on the hand he was holding to get Kurt to follow him away.
"Did you know that they were all divorced or single or generally unhappy except for us and Artie and Brittany?" Kurt asked while they made their way over to where Finn and Mike were still laughing.
Noah shrugged. "I guess that after all, we were together for the right reasons contrary to public opinion." He grinned at his husband with that same self-pride that he once spotted while talking about pranks and generally being a bastard.
Kurt could only smile back at him.
High school had ended and they had come full circle, but from that ending, Kurt, Noah, Brittany and Artie, had been able to gain a new begging and whether people had cheered for them or thought the worst, they were still together, still growing up side by side day after day.