A Moment In Time
A/N: This is the sequel to A Feeling I Can't Hide, which you should probably read first. If you prefer not to, the prologue is a quick overview that will give you an idea of the story.
Blaine and Kurt had returned to 2011 from where Kurt had summoned him in 1876, with the power he'd harnessed from a bolt of lightning. Now Kurt was the one lost out of his own time, trying to find his way in Blaine's confusing world, with the help of the boy he loved.
Prologue - A New Beginning
Kurt woke, tangled in the covers, fighting his way up past an arm wrapped around him, hot and sweaty from having Blaine sleeping all over him. A startled glance around the room recalled the unlikely events of this afternoon. Oh yes, they were here in Blaine's house, a hundred and thirty five years after they had climbed to the top of the hill behind Mercy and Anita's house and been struck by a bolt of lightning, conjured up by…oh my lord, him.
The impossible really had happened. He had left his father and everyone else he loved behind, willing to do whatever it took to get Blaine safely home, and now he was here with him in the future, ready or not. He would have to learn how to fit in to this bewildering world evolved far beyond anything he had imagined.
Lord, he felt like he was hugging a woodstove in this overheated bedroom, sweltering under the decorator sheets and matching spread, as if it was the middle of winter instead of a mild June day…or maybe it was early evening, by now. It was hard to tell the time with the rain still pattering on the window obscured by coordinated textured side drapes and matching sheers. He thought fleetingly of the plain blue curtains he'd always had in his own bedroom, faming the window looking out over corn fields beyond their yard. Still, having Blaine this close was a comfort, his proximity the only familiar thing around him.
A little more than two weeks ago he'd somehow drawn Blaine back to his own era of 1876, when they'd both been struck by lightning and lived through it. He had no idea at first that Blaine's unexpected appearance was in any way connected to his strange dreams of standing high on a hillside, naked in the wind and rain, his arms raised in a petition for someone to love. The fact that Blaine was another boy, kept him from understanding that his heartfelt plea had actually been answered.
He'd naturally been bewildered at first, when Blaine insisted that he had been transported from the future. He'd assumed Blaine was suffering delusions after barely surviving being hit by lightning. But until he could help him find his way home, the demands of hospitality meant that Blaine would have to share Kurt's bed.
Over the next two weeks, spent entirely in each other's company, Kurt got to know Blaine much better, finding they had an immediate affinity. He'd never had anyone he felt so close to before. Even his best friend Mercy and he couldn't share everything, since they were so different. He learned a lot about himself too, like why he felt so different from every other boy in the small rural town of Lima, Ohio. That it wasn't just because he appreciated the finer things in life, that most of the other boys didn't care about.
Blaine was funny and sweet, and casually admitted he was attracted to Kurt, like it shouldn't really matter much. He was careful not to trespass any of his personal boundaries, and treated being homosexual as if it was just normal. Kurt gradually recognized that he was attracted to Blaine too, realizing he had subconsciously suppressed any sexual feelings at all before then, preferring to not feel anything, than risk disappointing his beloved widowed father in any way.
He and Blaine had gradually shared their feelings, talking quietly in the dark, in his bed at night. The nameless yearning inside him grew stronger every day, until Kurt finally worked up enough courage to kiss Blaine. His heart had nearly exploded inside him with the revelation that this was what he needed to continue breathing, to live each day with joy and wonder with Blaine, instead of merely existing in a grey world that he didn't fit into. Despite their efforts, their growing attraction to each other was soon apparent to everyone who knew them.
It frightened Kurt that Blaine kept forgetting how dangerous this time was for people like them. If their relationship was discovered it could be fatal, in a small rural community that already mocked Kurt simply because he was interested in music, wore nice clothes and had fine manners. They would do far worse to them if they decided they were one of those damned souls who preferred those of their own sex, thinking they were better off dead, than sinning. But with every day that passed, the growing love they shared was becoming more and more difficult to hide.
Anita Jones, the Hummel's housekeeper and Kurt's proxy mother for the last ten years, had once been a slave. She dabbled in herbal cures and medicines, but she had inherited something more than her family's long tradition of healing. She had also inherited a fifth sense held by some of the women in her family, an ability to perceive disturbances in people,though she mostly used it to decide how to best treat them. It was what told her how badly Kurt needed her when she had first come to work for his father, but she never once guessed how much power he could control himself, drawn from nature's wind and rain, culminating in a million volt blast of lightning, more powerful than anything else known to man.
Kurt begged Anita for help to send Blaine back where he would be safe again, so she was the one who had sent out a plea for assistance to the alliance of those that dealt in things beyond the realm of science. Until they knew for sure if they could get Blaine back home, she also made them promise to not follow through on their attraction. She didn't want Kurt left broken hearted if Blaine went home again.
Then someone had answered her call. The Cajun spiritualist who arrived on an Ohio riverboat, had been little more than a paltry illusionist, but he'd known enough to guess that Kurt was the one who had brought Blaine there, and the only one who might be able to return him home. He also declared that since the time Kurt had accidentally called Blaine back to his time, they'd grown too strong a link to each other to risk Blaine's return alone. Their only hope was for Kurt to go with Blaine, to a time where the danger of being discovered as homosexual wasn't so deadly. They'd all stood on a hillside and watched Kurt conjure up another storm, until a strike from the roiling clouds transported them back to 2011.
Now it was Blaine's turn to take care of Kurt, starting with giving him a place to rest after regaining consciousness in the pouring rain, drained and too weak to stand. He'd wakened some distance away from the lawn of a heritage home in Lima they had both focused on returning to. Kurt had overlooked that he'd never been close to Harkness House, so his mental image of the house was farther away than Blaine's.
A nearby teenaged girl had seen Kurt weakly struggling to regain his feet in the rain, and kindly came to his rescue. He'd gotten a further jolt, when he looked up at her face. Mercedes looked so eerily like Mercy, with her warm heart shining in her kind brown eyes, that he had felt comforted by her immediately. She found Blaine for him, the panicking boy desperately searching for his boyfriend a short distance away, and led him back to be reunited with Kurt.
Mercedes watched Blaine clutch Kurt to his chest, both of them sagging to the ground with relief. In spite of her disappointment at her realization they were gay, she offered to drive them both to Blaine's house, and even helped him take Kurt inside, but they weren't in the clear yet. Blaine's mother was rather surprised to meet the three damp teens in her front hall, when Blaine had just left home an hour or two before to see a movie with friends. Blaine explained that Kurt had fainted and there was no one at home to look after him, with his mother long dead and his father…out of reach.
She had no reason to suspect Blaine of hiding anything. She only wanted to comfort the wan-looking boy her son had brought home with him, with her hand drawn to his soft damp hair, after he was settled in their guest room. She made sure Kurt changed into some of Blaine's warm dry clothes, dispensed some Advil for his headache, then dispatched Blaine and his friend downstairs to make him something warm to eat while she tucked him into her guest bed. Kurt insisted that he just needed some sleep, so she felt confident enough to leave for her weekly bridge game, after cautioning Blaine to call her if his friend seemed worse. When Blaine and Mercedes went back upstairs with some warm soup, they found Kurt already sunk in a deep sleep, his exhausted body no longer able to cope.
Mercedes curiosity was aroused. It was obvious Blaine's mother had never even met his boyfriend before today. True, Kurt was pretty new in town, or she would have already heard about him somewhere already, but then how did they even meet? It was easy to tell that those two were nuts about each other, which was too bad, because when she'd first found him, Kurt had given her such an intense stare, she'd thought he might have been into her too.
But oh my God, Mercedes had watched a movie a couple weeks ago that just broke her heart about a gay kid who committed suicide after he'd been left abandoned by his friends and family, and been bullied beyond bearing. She'd cried her eyes out and pledged to herself that would never happen to anyone she knew, so she was going to support them, to help them come out to Blaine's parents, if they didn't know he had a boyfriend. She made sure to exchange her number with Blaine's, to follow up with them very soon. Sneaking around behind your parents' back was no way to handle it, even if they might have a good reason. Maybe she could get her friends to help her see them through this; Rachel kept bragging she had two dads, didn't she?
Once Blaine saw their new friend and rescuing angel Mercedes out, he set his alarm to wake him in an hour or two, and then gratefully climbed into bed to hold his boyfriend safe in his arms, exhausted from a long day and an even more memorable night.
The the evening before their return, they had been told to make love by the Cajun spiritualist who was trying to get Blaine back home. The man had believed that having them linked as closely as possible, before they attempted the transfer, would increase their chances of arriving together. On the other hand, if this attempt at time travel didn't work, it might very well be their last night alive, so he intended they should have a last chance to enjoy it.
He had drugged them both into discarding their inhibitions, to get them past their first-time nerves. The drug quickly wore off, but by then they'd left their virginity behind, and they had spent the rest of the night shyly learning how to pleasure each other. Blaine was so grateful he was able to share his first experience with sex with the boy he loved. Kurt had put all his trust in Blaine, his heart, his body and his future were his now.
The next day, to everyone's surprise, he and Blaine actually did travel to the future, with the help of a bolt of lightning. Okay, to be honest, Kurt knew he would have had to leave his home town of Lima and move to a bigger city to find …others, like himself. He would have needed to learn how to live in a whole different world there too, when he eventually figured out what meeting Blaine had made clear to him within days.
Blaine assured him that where he came from, being homosexual…gay, wasn't the threat of a death sentence it was in Kurt's time. Love shared between two people of the same sex was acknowledged as their right by law, accepted in the major cities, with even marriage an option in many states. True, they still suffered from bullying and bigotry, but they were headed toward complete equality someday.
Kurt had been reborn in a new century, and this was the first day of the rest of his life. He would have to learn almost a whole new language, and decipher the baffling way things worked here, but he still had his agile brain, he could adapt. There was a lot to learn, but he would manage, because he had Blaine to help him. He could hardly believe that it had been less than twelve hours since they had woken in each other's arms in Anita's bed, back when he had lived a boring life in a small rural town.
He relaxed again instinctively when he inhaled Blaine's familiar scent from his warm body wrapped around him, and felt him breathing against him. His exhaustion dragged him back under within a few minutes, feeling safe and content with Blaine in the here and now. They could deal with living in the future later.
Chapter 1
Blaine woke an hour later, grateful to find he was still in his own house, and not in some dream that had faded away back to the Ohio of the past. Kurt had gotten him back home again, and best of all, he was right here beside him. He stretched his cramped body, peeling his sweaty arm off of Kurt, who sleepily blinked himself awake too. He smiled slowly at Blaine and softly whispered "hi", as he leaned his forehead against Blaine's.
Blaine tugged him closer and answered with a nuzzled touch of his nose beside Kurt's, his arm tightening around his waist. "Hi, honey. I couldn't help climbing into bed with you. You looked so warm and inviting, and I was so wiped out too. God, I am so incredibly relieved we made it back here together, Kurt. I promise I'll do my best to look after you. Are you feeling a little better now?"
Kurt nodded, his hand squeezing Blaine's shoulder, cozy in their warm nest under the covers. "Yes, I feel much better. The headache is still there, but I don't feel nearly so weak anymore. It was very nice to wake up and find you here. Is your mother really all right with us…like this?" Kurt couldn't believe times had changed so much, to where one's parents would accept their sons sleeping in the same bed as their lovers, and with another boy, no less.
Blaine scrunched up his nose, and shook his head regretfully. "Nah. I bet she'd freak out if she saw us in bed together like this, but she went out and she's not due back for a couple more hours. How about we clean up a bit before my dad gets home in an hour or so? Come on, I have a surprise to show you." Blaine's eyes twinkled as he smiled, delighted to show Kurt some of the advantages of living in an age of convenience. He flipped back the covers of his bed and stood up, with his hand extended to Kurt. Kurt took his hand trustingly. He was going to have to learn how to get by here, so he might as well start now.
As Kurt clambered over the bed to join Blaine, he noticed a hickey peeking from the neck of his t-shirt that recalled some of the passion they'd shared, only the night before. He found it nearly impossible to believe he'd done that to Blaine, and thoroughly enjoyed making love with him, both giving and receiving. His enthusiasm in making Blaine explode over and over confirmed beyond any lingering doubt that he was gay. But last night felt like it was only a dream now, an improbable over-heated dream that happened ages ago. It was ages ago, even if it was only last night. Was that why it didn't feel like it had been him?
And now, the tables had turned. Now Kurt was in Blaine's natural environment, totally dependent on him to keep him from panicking at how strange everything was. Blaine saw his boyfriend colour with a blush and hesitate, when he stared at him, and realized he would have to back off again, and let Kurt get acclimated, before he could expect him to be comfortable with his newly discovered sexual orientation.
It had taken Blaine a couple of years to get comfortable with the idea of being gay ('comfortable with' was probably overstating it; it was more like accepting something that many people considered a major defect. Now Blaine was convinced being gay was just another version of normal, like his crazy hair) Kurt was still pretty new to the idea so it wasn't surprisingly, considering when he was born, that he had sort of Victorian ideas about sex in general. He intended to give him time to adjust, even if it killed him. He loved Kurt too much to push him if he wasn't comfortable with getting physical.
It wouldn't be easy to behave as if he had no idea what it would be like to be with him, because the night he'd spent making love with Kurt had been more amazing than any other experience in his short life. He didn't know enough adjectives to describe how exquisite his boyfriend was. But for now, Blaine was going to settle for showing Kurt all the wonderful things that made this era worth the risk of leaving everything he knew, to bring him here with him.
And he was starting Kurt's education with the sybaritic joys of nearly endless hot water in his bathroom. Bathing in Kurt's time meant the whole morning's work for both of them to have a bath, hauling out the metal tub from the shed in the back and putting it in the kitchen, bringing in the water from the pump and building the fire to heat it, pouring it into the tub and then dipping it out again to clean up afterward. Kurt humoured Blaine when he wanted a bath every other day, but he was aware that was far more often than most people bathed. He just knew Kurt was going to love his bathroom.
Blaine excitedly led him to his ensuite bathroom and swung open the door to show him the room, wondering what he would think. It wasn't like a spa or anything, but it was still pretty nice, with narrow strips of charcoal tiles to about five feet from the light grey floor and a pale robin's egg blue on the walls above that. His aqua and grey towels were thick and fluffy, and big enough to nearly cover him from head to toe. He didn't have a bathtub, but the slate tiled shower had glass doors with a geometric pattern etched into the glass and it was big enough for two to share. Kurt stood in the doorway and stared at all the shiny surfaces and gleaming tile, trying to deduce the purpose of each of the fixtures.
Blaine started the shower and then rummaged in the vanity for a new toothbrush for Kurt while he stood with his fingers outstretched to feel the warm water raining down, mesmerized at the water endlessly pouring down in the shower, quickly steaming up the room. Blaine started the vent fan, so they didn't fog up too badly and then without warning, dropped his shorts, startling Kurt again. Blaine could tell from his sudden blush and averted eyes that Kurt had regained some of his shyness, even though they had very thoroughly explored each other the night before. Blaine smiled at him encouragingly. "Come on, Kurt. You won't believe how great this shower feels." He fine-tuned the water temperature and stepped in, leaning out encouragingly to beckon his boyfriend, with a hopeful quirk of his mouth.
Kurt braced himself with a deep inhalation, then a self-consciously took off his flannel sleep pants and T-shirt, ignoring the blush colouring his face and his shoulders. His reluctance to disrobe was silly after he and Blaine had already seen each other naked, but he couldn't help himself, after a lifetime of modesty. He folded his clothes carefully, then cautiously stepped in beside Blaine, standing with his body faced toward the spray, and put his hands into the rainfall of warm water to cup it in wonder.
Blaine grinned happily, pleased at his boyfriend's delight. "God Kurt, you'll soon see why I missed my shower so much. I'm going to wash my hair first and then I'll wash yours, okay?" Blaine poured a dab of the amazing Avis smoothing shampoo his mother paid fifty dollars for, onto his hand. The stuff did wonders for his curls, reducing the frizz and fluff to a manageable level.
He closed his eyes as he worked up some lather, relaxing as he worked his fingers into his scalp. Man, this felt absolutely incredible after two weeks without a decent soak. He stepped under the water to rinse and cleared the water from his eyes. He opened them to see Kurt staring at him, his eyes narrowed at Blaine's groans of enjoyment.
Blaine gently massaged some shampoo into Kurt's hair next and watched him close his eyes in relaxed pleasure. He seemed to really quite like having Blaine massage his hair, though he noticed he kept his body turned away from him. Getting it out of Kurt's hair again was unexpectedly difficult, because he didn't like the water getting on his face, spluttering and gasping like he was going to drown. He finally inhaled a huge breath of air and puffed out his cheeks as if he was going underwater and then stood under the spray, while Blaine chuckled at him in amusement as he smoothed his hair back for him.
Then Blaine gently scrubbed his body with his body wash, before he did Kurt's, with his eyes closed in pleasure as Blaine rubbed his skin. Watching his boyfriend luxuriate in the scents and sensations was exactly the reaction he had hoped for, his expression reminding him of other pleasurable sensations they'd shared.
Blaine knew Kurt needed some space for a while, but not coming on to him when he was all sweet-smelling, rosy and soft in the shower was much more difficult than he had foreseen. He forced himself leave the shower first to grab a towel to pass to Kurt, trying not to obviously ogle him as he dried his lean lithe body. He tried very hard not to think of all the things he wanted to do with Kurt, guessing from his own time travel experience how strange everything must feel for him.
Kurt sent him a grateful smile at his restraint and felt his heart swell because his boyfriend understood his hesitation. Everything was so…strange. Their eyes connected and they shared a moment of understanding. For a few seconds, Kurt forgot they were naked together, and just remembered how much Blaine loved him. He tried to relax, and trust Blaine and follow his example.
When they were dry, Blaine squirted a line of toothpaste on his toothbrush, and told him to brush while he shaved, then had to stop Kurt from sucking the minty fresh gel toothpaste off the brush again. Kurt absently scrubbed his teeth, fascinated as he watched Blaine spread the shave gel on his face, preparing to shave with his four-bladed razor. Kurt made Blaine emit an embarrassingly girlish giggle when he darted in to draw a curly moustache in the lather, before he scraped it all off to reveal his soft smooth face.
He offered his cheek to Kurt to feel how smooth it was and they sort of just stared at each other for a bit, distracted by their closeness, with one of Kurt's hands gently cupped on his cheek, with his thumb drifting across his lips. They both remembered doing the same thing when Mercy had shaved Blaine in Kurt's kitchen the first time, the attraction between them even stronger now. Blaine backed off first, turning away to pat on his soothing aftershave, before he got himself into trouble, while Kurt turned away to focus on styling his hair in the mirror, with another blush on his cheeks. He could read what Blaine would like to do in his eyes, and he…was very grateful that Blaine understood his uncertainty.
Blaine offered to share some of his skin moisturizer with Kurt afterward, then watched him spread it over most of his body with fascination, before Kurt noticed that Blaine had just done his face and neck. Blaine leaned in for a quick kiss and whispered that he was welcome to soften and smooth his body as much as he wanted. Kurt gave him a shy smile, but he put the bottle back, feeling awkward.
He was about to don his flannel pants again when Blaine told him not to bother. Kurt's eyes flashed to him nervously… until Blaine added that they were about to explore his closet for something to wear. Blaine was very glad that he hadn't given in to temptation, when he saw Kurt's relief. Kurt wrapped his towel around his waist the same way Blaine had, quickly learning the trick of how to secure it.
"How in the world can you even wear all of this, Blaine? I bet you have more clothes in your closet than my father's store sells in a couple of months!" Kurt was fingering all the shirts and checking out the pants folded over hangers, with as much stunned delight as if he had died and gone to heaven. He pulled out a plain white shirt and a pair of black pants and held them up against himself in the full length mirror hung on the back of the closet door, with his eyes shining eagerly.
Blaine watched him fondly, incredibly pleased to see Kurt dive into his closet with such abandon. They weren't surprised to see that most of Blaine's pants were too short for Kurt, but he found a couple that he usually rolled up into cuffs that would do for Kurt's long lean legs.
"Kurt, all those beautiful colours and you pick black and white? Branch out a little, babe! You would look fantastic in green or blue, or this pink or maybe this mustard colour. Try them on, so I can see." Blaine pulled out a bunch of hangers in each hand, pleased beyond belief to dress his boyfriend in his own clothes. Kurt happily took the hangers out of his hand.
Blaine put on a pair of black boxers, before he tossed a pair at Kurt, chuckling when they landed on his shoulder, then ducked when Kurt threw them back at him. Once Blaine returned them again more politely and said they were his to wear, he watched him slip on the smooth stretchy fabric. Oh my god, Blaine couldn't help admiring how they clung to Kurt's body. He rolled his eyes at him and whistled, and let the fact that he was tempted to tackle Kurt onto his bed and kiss the hell out of him show on his face.
Kurt blushed, but turned away from him a bit to pull on a pair of pants, plainly not interested in fooling around. Okay, I get it, hon. Blaine sighed understandingly, deciding to let Kurt decide when they got together again like that. He didn't want to come off like acting like a perv that didn't love him. "Kurt, I can still tell you when you look amazing, can't I?" Kurt's shy smile was his reward, as he nodded gratefully and relaxed again.
Half an hour later, Kurt had decided zippers were the best invention ever! The bed was covered with heaps of all the clothes he had tried on, but he ended up wearing the white shirt and black pants, with a plain black vest added on top. He explained to an exasperated Blaine that he would need to work his way up to brightly coloured short sleeves and clingy fabrics, after wearing sober colours and cotton for all of his life. Blaine agreed gracefully, since those black skinnys he was wearing were doing some awesomely fierce things for Kurt's ass, even if he'd covered everything else up. Those pants fit well on Blaine if he folded the cuffs up a bit, but since Kurt was just a smidgen bigger, they were snugged up to his body, like a warm hug. Hmmmhmm. He politely told Kurt he looked very, very nice and saw his face pink with pleasure this time.
They were in the kitchen, with Kurt innocently sitting on a kitchen stool at the breakfast counter, while Blaine fixed them a couple of microwaved burritos, when his father came home from work, entering the rear of the home from the garage. "Oh, hello, Blaine. How was your day?"
He asked his son the question perfunctorily, without waiting for the perfunctory answer, as he set down his keys and picked up his briefcase again, about to leave the room. At the last moment he noticed the boy with his son was someone he'd never seen around there before. Blaine usually had friends…plural, with him, not a friend, singular. Hmmm. Could this be a new development on the 'gay' announcement he'd made a couple months ago?
"My day was fine, Dad." Blaine answered him briefly, and hoped his father would go to his office and leave them alone, but just like his mother, his father took an interest in his new friend.
"Hello. I don't believe we've met?" He glanced at Blaine and waited expectantly for the introduction. Blaine glanced at Kurt, braced himself and dove in head first.
"Dad, um, this is my boyfriend … Kurt Hummel. Kurt, this is Edward Anderson, my father." Blaine put an arm around Kurt's shoulder, to show his father that he wasn't going to pretend Kurt was just his buddy. Kurt froze up, his eyes gone wide with dread and his body tensed, then glanced at Blaine with alarm shouted from every frozen muscle. His eyes were clearly accusing him "why would you say that, the first time we meet?" Blaine's father's smile dropped off his face for a second, then reappeared looking like a pale ghost of itself.
"Oh. I…see. Well, um …it's very nice to meet you, Kurt." Ed's voice sounded too polite to be genuine. He leaned over the counter to shake hands, mostly by habit from the office, doing his best to try to sound sincere and welcoming, even if he was cringing inside. He'd known the day was fast approaching when his son would bring home a boyfriend, but he was caught off guard anyway, with no prior warning at all that Blaine had met anyone special.
He'd told himself he was going to take Blaine's orientation all in stride when he'd made that life changing announcement few months ago. God, he didn't consider himself a homophobe, but man, meeting Blaine's boyfriend was tougher to do than he'd thought. The boy wasn't at all what he was expecting though. He'd assumed his undersized, sensitive, curly headed entertainer son would come home with some big hairy biker dude or something, instead of this pale delicate-looking boy.
Kurt was nearly as small as Blaine, and was almost as pretty as a girl. Huh. Maybe his kid wasn't as prissy as he'd thought. Then he'd been shocked to feel a firm callused grip instead of a limp damp one, when they shook hands, so at least this boy seemed to have done more than sing and dance around, like Blaine did. Ed made his apologies and then quickly escaped, too uncomfortable to make polite conversation. He was confused about whether his son was supposed to be the girl in this relationship or if his new …god, it felt so weird to say this, his son's boyfriend was.
Kurt and Blaine looked at each other, both of them wishing Blaine's father was more like Kurt's, but neither voiced the thought. They ate their snack, with Kurt first suspiciously investigating the contents of his burrito. Blaine told him to close his eyes and just eat it, because it tasted a lot better than it looked. Kurt quirked a smile to him, closed his eyes to bite off a hunk and chewed gamely. It filled his hollow stomach, though he would never have chosen to eat something that looked like that. He imagined this was only the first of many new culinary experiences.
When they were done eating, Blaine deposited their dirty dishes into a box under the counter, apparently placed there for the purpose. While he tidied and poured them some milk, Kurt explored the huge array of cupboards curiously, trying to divine the purpose of what he found. The Anderson home seemed well enough equipped to serve as a hotel, instead of catering to just three people. He saw several mysterious shiny metal and black objects with black cords hanging out of them in a cabinet, whose function he was puzzled by though one of them must be used for a beverage since it had a glass pot with a handle inserted in it.
The array of food in the cabinets was astounding, all of it packaged with bright informative pictures, though most of it seemed to be puffed, or low-salt, or fat reduced. Surely that must affect the flavour? The big ice box was another education. Even the raw vegetables were prepackaged and preportioned in soft clear packaging and, oh my gosh, how many bottles of sauce did one family need? There were at least ten bottles of something labelled salad dressing, but confusingly no cream to make dressing with. There were three kinds of marinades, smooth red stuff called tomato ketchup which was disturbingly brighter red than any tomato he'd ever seen and looked nothing like the delicious spiced tomato catsup Anita made every summer. There was another red sauce called salsa that appeared to have chunks of actual vegetables in it, labelled 'hot', though it was definitely cold to the touch. There were bottles of brown sauce, black sauce, green sauce; an endless array of sauces, probably to disguise the sterile flavour of the packaged food.
He saw a container of vanilla mocha flavoured coffee whitener, which again made no mention of any actual cream in it, and another box of something called soy milk. What in heaven's name might that be? Did they have 'new and improved' kinds of cows too? Maybe they didn't even have cows here, since everything seemed to have been paved over and built upon, with no grass in sight, except for an artificial looking carpet of intense green in front of each house on the street.
The other side of the fridge was even more mystifying, stacked with box upon box of frost whitened packages, most of them appearing to be prepared foods in colourful packages. How did they produce the wintery cold in there? Kurt closed the door, overwhelmed with questions, knowing the explanation of how things worked here was too much to absorb all at once.
He noticed Blaine flip a switch over the sink while he washed his hands and watched light flood the area from a bright white point. He hadn't noticed until now that the light followed them everywhere, without reference to the sun or lamplight. Those buttons beside every doorway appeared to control the lighting. Surely such bright light would produce heat and burn the house down? He looked around, seeing light fixtures everywhere, so apparently they had figured that problem out. Kurt sighed to himself, feeling incredibly out of his element. He'd had no idea how entirely different Blaine's time was, beyond the social differences. No wonder Blaine had seemed aghast to discover he had jumped more than a century back in time.
They heard a distant rumbling again, which Kurt assumed was another thunder storm, but the rising garage door signaled to Blaine that his mother was home again. He glanced at Kurt nervously, apparently more worried about his mother's reaction than his father's to having his boyfriend suddenly appear in his home. Kurt decided to keep silent when she entered the house, before he betrayed his vast ignorance, unless propriety demanded he speak. He'd never have guessed that Blaine's parents would be the cause of this much anxiety in his boyfriend, since his own father had only ever made him feel safe and loved.
Blaine's mother smiled at Kurt in the kitchen, correctly assuming he was feeling better. He saw her glance that noted he was wearing Blaine's clothes, probably because his were still soaked. "I'm glad you're feeling better dear, but you still look rather pale. Would you like to stay here tonight? I'm reluctant to have you spend the night alone, when you've been ill. Have you fainted before?"
"No, I'm usually quite healthy. Thank you, ma'am. I'm sorry to be such a bother to you. It seems all the Andersons are very kind, and gracious." Kurt shared a shy smile, charming Mrs. Anderson. She wondered how Blaine had met this boy, since she didn't recall him ever mentioning Kurt before. Something about the way her son hovered close to him made her wonder how well Blaine knew him. Kurt was not the most masculine of boys, she hadn't failed to notice, and seemed far more quietly composed and mature than Blaine's usual crowd of raucous school friends.
She fought off the urge to keep them under her watchful eye. If they were…well, interested in each other that way, she wanted Blaine to feel she accepted his orientation, even if it was difficult for her at first. She wanted to stay involved in Blaine's life, so that was what she had to do. She leaned against the counter top, trying to look relaxed and made polite conversation.
"You're not a bother at all, Kurt. Are you a Dalton boy too, or where did you two meet?" The slight pause, and the conferring glance from both boys after the question meant the answer wasn't as simple as it should be. Hmm.
Blaine stuttered out an explanation of sorts, looking all sorts of uncomfortable. Why should their meeting be something to be nervous about?
"Um. No...we… um, Kurt just moved to Lima recently. We met when we both got caught in the rain and … we sort of clicked immediately."
They quickly smiled at each other with the sort of soft smile she'd never seen Blaine give a friend before, confirming her hunch that there was something going on between them.
"Kurt was feeling really crappy, so we came back here instead of going to the movie with Jeff and Nick."
She could see that Blaine was hovering over Kurt protectively. She suddenly realized a boyfriend would one day permanently take her son away from her, just as all children eventually left their parents. She had always wanted more children but Blaine was the only pregnancy she managed to carry to term. Her stepson, Cooper had long been grown up and gone, eight years older than Blaine. She'd hoped that she could keep Blaine to herself longer before he found someone to love.
Both boys noticed her sudden discomfort, but weren't sure what to do about it. "We just had a snack mom, so we're going back upstairs now. I told the guys we would meet them for dinner, so we won't be here for supper. Can I take the car, so we don't get soaked in the rain?" Blaine smiled his most winning smile, hoping his mother had forgotten he was supposed to be suspended from using it. His heart leapt when she immediately nodded yes, but he was a little premature in his celebration.
"Oh, wait! I'm sorry. You'll have to check with your father for permission to use the car. Perhaps your friends could pick you up instead." She smiled apologetically at them, relieved they weren't planning to spend the evening alone in Blaine's room. Entertaining a boy alone in his room was something she would have to think about. How would she ever know for sure that they were boyfriends, if Blaine didn't tell her?
Blaine's father predictably kyboshed him taking the car, repressively telling Blaine that just because it was raining out didn't mean his punishment had changed. Blaine had to call Nick and ask him to come pick them up instead. Nick said it was no problem, and he would be there in a few minutes. Blaine let Kurt pick out a jacket from among the six or seven in the front hall closet and was pleased to see he picked out the blue one that would set off his eyes, the one Blaine would have picked out for him himself. He leaned to whisper how nice it looked on him and was rewarded with another shy blush. If he didn't already know how confident Kurt had been during their night of passion, he might have assumed that sweet shy boy was all there was. As it was, he found his shyness cute as hell.
Kurt was suddenly startled half out of his wits when Blaine suddenly bellowed to no one in particular. "Nick's here. See ya later, guys." He took Kurt's hand and quickly towed him out to where a sleek black vehicle waited. Kurt thought the vehicle looked like a stallion, compared to the workhorse vehicle that Mercedes had driven. Nick was driving his mother's new Audi sedan, while Mercedes had been driving an elderly beige Toyota Highlander SUV. Blaine sckooched over on the back seat to make room for Kurt, and solicitously showed him how to work the restraining system to hold him in place. Now that Kurt thought about it, it seemed somewhat ominous, if such a thing was necessary for one's safety. He thought all these 'cars' went much too fast. How did everyone know how to avoid each other at those insane speeds?
The two boys in the front seat said a polite hello to Kurt when Blaine introduced Kurt to them as his new boyfriend. Kurt noted neither boy seemed to resent his intrusion into their group, as they exchanged cordial hellos. He could feel himself relax a bit, when they began to talk nonchalantly about where to eat. It seemed most of their favourite options were eliminated when Blaine said he wanted to stay in the car so they could talk privately. Jeff glanced at Nick, wondering what that meant, then glanced at the boy Blaine seemed to have suddenly found somewhere, warily listening to them talk. He seemed awfully shy compared to Blaine's outgoing friendly vibe, and he wondered where he'd met him. He looked sort of pale to Jeff, but hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and he definitely wasn't gay, or else he would have jumped his best friend Nick ages ago. It sucked so much that he couldn't find a girl he liked as much as he liked hanging out with Nick and Blaine. It suddenly occurred to him that Blaine was lucky he didn't need to worry about that.
They pulled into a Wendy's drive through, perusing the menu board briefly, before Nick pulled up to some nondescript shrubbery with a large colourful sign in the centre. Kurt was looking around curiously at the establishment they had chosen. Were they going to follow this laneway to a doorway? Nick and Jeff inexplicably announced their choices to the sign, and then Blaine leaned into the front seat to state his order. He glanced briefly back to Kurt and, without consulting him, told the sign he wanted a grilled chicken sandwich with fries and a Coke, going completely on instinct.
In all the time Blaine had eaten with the Hummels, Kurt had seldom eaten a slab of meat, usually preferring soups or stews instead. Kurt was grateful to not to have to decipher the menu, with its pictures of extremely similar circular puffs of bread rolls with meat between the layers. Just the fact that there was a place that gave you food to eat in your vehicle, after you spoke to someone hidden in the shrubs was still boggling his mind, another inexplicable discovery here in the future.
They snaked behind other cars in a procession up to a window on the side of the building. Nick passed over the cash they each contributed and in return received a bag emitting intriguing smells and a tray holding four huge waxed cups from a girl who served customers from a window. He passed the tray to Jeff, who put two of the drinks in the front seat's cup holders before he passed back the tray to Blaine. Nick excavated in the bag to remove some of the contents, then passed it back to them.
Nick pulled the vehicle into a parking spot near the back of the lot and turned the engine off, though the music continued to play in the background, Kurt suddenly noticed. Where was it coming from? It seemed to be surrounding them? His curious staring around the car was interrupted by Blaine passing him a warm bundle wrapped in foil. He watched him set a bundle of what looked like square pencils in the empty slot of the cup holder. Then he unwrapped a couple of tubular white sticks to put in their drinks, before he unwrapped his own sandwich to take a hearty bite, dripping colourful sauces into the foil on his lap, and groaned in enjoyment. He rolled his eyes with pleasure, then nodded his chin to Kurt, encouraging him to try his.
Kurt carefully opened the wrapper on his steaming hot bundle curiously to examine it. Inside he found what unmistakably seemed to be a chicken breast, with a white sauce of some sort, a slice of tomato and some finely shredded lettuce between two soft circular pieces of bread roll. He took a tentative bite, astounded by the flavours deliciously melding in his mouth. "Mnnn" he moaned in answer to Blaine's inquiring glance, making him grin. Blaine offered Kurt a bite of his burger to taste, oozing with all sorts of brightly coloured sauces and piled high with bacon and cheese and vegetables. Kurt shook his head, inexplicably delighted that his boyfriend knew him well enough to know he would prefer something plainer than that…ugh, dripping messy concoction.
Kurt chewed his sandwich absently, noting the other cars holding people also partaking of their evening meal in their vehicles. He could see that inside the garishly lit establishment, small tables also held groups of people eating. The sound of chewing and the slurp of icy drinks was all the sound there was for a while. Kurt tried the drink, finding it icy cold but muchsweeter than he would prefer. A plain glass of water would have been more refreshing.
Within moments Jeff balled the empty wrapper of his sandwich up and accurately tossed it over the seat into the bag that sat gaping open on the floor, when Kurt was only a couple of bites into his meal, then picked up his carton of golden twigs and popped one into his mouth, chewing twice before he swallowed it.
"So what's the mystery Blaine? Are you going to tell us where you met Kurt? It's no big deal to us, if you have a boyfriend now, unless you're going to dump us. You gotta share Blaine with us, Kurt. We had him first." Jeff said to him teasingly. Nick nodded his emphatic agreement, though his mouth was still full of burger, keeping him from talking.
Blaine swallowed his last bite of sandwich and answered as he crumpled the wrapper in the same ritual Jeff had observed. "Yeah. I'll tell you how we met, but first you have to promise to keep it on the down-low. If it gets out I don't know what would happen to us… well, to Kurt. Do I have your pinky pledge?" Blaine held up a hand with his little finger extended toward them, making Kurt stare at him. Was he truly serious? Surely, this must be less childish than it seemed.
Asking for the Warbler pledge simply meant this was serious stuff, and not to be treated lightly, so both boys understood when they hooked their finger to Blaine's that he had more to tell them than the fact that he had a boyfriend. Blaine glanced at Kurt, then quickly told them the story of what had happened while he'd been out walking earlier that day, though it had been more than two weeks for them, since the blast from the heavens that had sent him hurtling to Kurt.
After the first few minutes, they suspected that Blaine was pulling their leg. Seriously, dude? Time travel? Getting hit by lightning twice and not only living through it, but travelling through time with it? Nick and Jeff glanced at each other and waited for the punch line they figured was coming …but he held their eyes in all seriousness and it never did. Blaine went on to explain how it felt to come back, surviving what felt like having all their atoms disassembled and reassembled elsewhere.
"So Kurt is here now, without a family or any place to stay, entirely because he loves me. Everything is new and confusing for him. At least I had some idea of what to expect back then from watching movies, and going to museums and stuff. Imagine what you would feel like if you went that far into the future and everything was just so different. I'm hoping I can count on your help to get him settled in here. My mother and father are going to lose their minds if he stays at our house longer than tonight. I already came clean and told them we're together, since we have a lousy track record at hiding how we feel about each other. I figure it's better that way, than them thinking I'm trying to hide it."
Nick and Jeff glanced at each other. Blaine really seemed to be serious, though they both sort of still expected a joking admission that it was all a convoluted hoax. But they were Dalton brothers, so of course whatever Blaine asked of them, they would help him with. Jeff shrugged and said. "Hey, you know that we're there for you, man, no matter what. Right? Kurt, you can come over to my house tomorrow, if you need a place to hang out. I don't think my parents would care if we had 'a sleepover party, and maybe tomorrow night you can stay at Nick's." Jeff seemed far more comfortable than Kurt was, with the idea of him being his houseguest.
Was Blaine going to leave him at a complete stranger's house? Kurt murmured his thanks politely, but he was unable to keep from hoping that Blaine would be there too. He was feeling very much out of his comfort zone.
"Thanks guys. I really appreciate it." Blaine smiled at Kurt, feeling this was going to work out, with the support of his best friends. He could tell that Kurt was feeling uncomfortable, but once he got to know Nick and Jeff better he was sure they would all be good friends. At least if Kurt had somewhere else to stay he might be able to delay the inevitable fall out from his parents, when he asked if his boyfriend could stay over.
Kurt sternly told himself he was not a child. He should not need Blaine to protect him from his friends. They seemed perfectly decent young men, convivial and pleasant even though Blaine had told them they were boyfriends. He had always faced difficult situations head on, standing up straight and courageous. He knew he was quite able to stand alone…but, he would just far prefer to stand with Blaine at his side.
Nick smiled Kurt reassuringly. "Kurt, do you want to go to my house for a while and we'll figure some things out? You're going to need some ID and things, and maybe some of my stuff will fit you better than most of Blaine's stuff. I imagine you weren't able to bring much with you, right?" Nick was always the thoughtful one, the first to understand how ill prepared Kurt was. He had very nice brown eyes, Kurt couldn't help noticing with a small twinge of guilt.
They all went to Nick's house, Kurt briefly meeting his parents and his two little sisters before they went upstairs to his room. The children appeared to be playing with two disturbingly adult-looking dolls they called Barbies on the floor, while their parents were complacently absorbed in their entertainment on the wall panel. They'd all known Blaine and Jeff for years and the new boy seemed quieter than either of them. The sound of music drifted down the stairs shortly afterward, as usual when the boys were all together. No one gave them a second thought.
Blaine towed Kurt to Nick's bed and sprawled across the bottom of it on his front, with Kurt seated delicately beside him, while Nick sat at his desk and started his computer. Kurt was distracted by Jeff, who had found a brown oval ball and was tossing it in the air and catching it absently.
"So Kurt, when is your birthday? I think I can scan my driver's licence and edit it to your name, but we'll need a picture of you. Wait, stand here…" Nick grabbed both of Kurt's forearms and gently shifted Kurt to stand against a section of his plain beige wall "now hold still a minute." Kurt heard a clicking sound and then Nick smiled, looking at his phone before he showed him an image of himself, looking slightly baffled. "Okay, I've got it. Now I'll send it to my computer and ….voila. We edit this stuff then… Hey Kurt, what should we use for your address?"
Kurt recited his address, as simply Grand Avenue, Lima. There was a period of attentive silence while they all watched Nick tap at the flat panel with letters, an image somehow appearing of his identification on the glowing window in front of him. Then, he clicked a little device and another machine whirred to life and a piece of paper magically popped out with a new version of his identification that matched Kurt. It only needed lamination to pass for a fair copy of his license.
Incredible! Kurt was astounded. Blaine's friends were master forgers!
Blaine and Jeff slapped each other's raised hands and then Nick's, apparently in congratulation at their success. Jeff held his hand out to Kurt encouragingly, and waited until he followed suit and slapped it lightly. They all seemed surprised that he picked up the greeting so quickly, which somewhat miffed Kurt. Interacting with people was easy. It was all the strange machines they seemed to have now, that worried Kurt. Blaine suddenly grabbed him and kissed him impulsively, which surprised the heck out of Kurt. It felt so strange to have Blaine display affection toward him in front of other people.
Neither of the other boys reacted to it though, so he relaxed again. It felt wonderful that they didn't seem to care that they were two boys who loved each other, and it started a warm glow inside that felt very, very nice. What ever happened from here on in, just having achieved that much made it worth the risk of coming here. Everything else, he would figure out eventually.
Nick generously let him go through his closet too, to choose a couple pairs of pants and some shirts to wear from his extensive closet. It felt mortifying to Kurt to rely on others for his necessities, and tried not to feel like a charity case, but he had to admit he needed more than just one or two outfits. Blaine told him people here changed their clothes every day, which was new to Kurt. He assured Nick he would return them in pristine condition as soon as he could, but Nick just shrugged and said he had lots of clothes, and would hardly miss these. Blaine bumped Kurt's shoulder, seeing his discomfort. "He really doesn't mind, Kurt." He whispered. Maybe not, but Kurt did. Apparently he'd had to leave his pride behind in 1876 too.
They were on their way back to Blaine's house when Kurt saw it. He grabbed Blaine's sleeve and pointed, speechless with surprise. Blaine peered out the window and saw it too and turned to him to grin delightedly. The building said 'Hummel's Tire and Lube Shop", plain as day. It must have always been there, but Blaine had never taken notice of it before. Was the person who owned it a relative of Kurt's? A descendent of …well, who? Blaine glanced at Kurt, both of them reaching the same deduction. How could this Hummel be related to Kurt when he had been Burt's only son?
Unless, after he left … maybe his father and Mrs. Hudson had married, and they had more children. Mercy had assured Kurt it was a possibility he might have to deal with, if they married. He fervently prayed that his father had started a new family after he had lost Kurt and not spent the rest of his life alone, wondering if they'd made it. We did Dad, we made it.
Blaine whispered that they would check it out at their earliest opportunity, so Kurt decided to hope for the best. On their way home, they passed a Wells Fargo Bank, another descendant of Lima's past. Blaine wondered if Burt had ever done what he suggested and put some money in there for Kurt to find, if he made it here. They could check that out tomorrow too, if Nick didn't mind driving him around some more. He said he didn't mind, insisting doing this beat the hell out of another round of video games. They all agreed to meet tomorrow morning around ten.
Blaine led Kurt inside his house, which seemed to require pushing buttons on a panel, when they were inside. Kurt followed him, overwhelmed with too many questions to wonder anything anymore. He was bone-tired again, and found himself looking forward to that insanely over-stuffed comfortable bed in the guest room. Imagine having a whole room outfitted just in case of guests!
Blaine's father hardly acknowledged their return, intent on a flickering panel on the wall though his mother hovered nervously over them, showing Kurt upstairs, asking solicitously if there was anything else he might need. She exuded discomfort, seeming to be worried about something. Oh… of course. She was probably worried because no doubt, now that she realized they were boyfriends, she was uncomfortable about them sleeping in the same house. Kurt told himself that his father would have reacted the same way, if he'd known they shared a mutual attraction earlier.
Blaine quickly wished Kurt and his mother goodnight at his bedroom door, giving Kurt a smile and then abandoned Kurt with her, feeling very alone in a strange new place. Blaine felt far too distant, now that he was used to his constant company. This was an abrupt reversal of his time, where they could relax at home and had to be wary only beyond its walls. Here they had to behave like polite friends under Blaine's parent's eyes, and out there, Blaine's friends didn't seem to mind if they kissed or hugged.
Mrs. Anderson flitted around the room for a few more minutes, before she left, reassured once more that he was comfortable. Kurt was quite comfortable, except he was lonely without Blaine. Kurt had grown accustomed to sleeping tangled together. He changed back to his sleeping apparel and went to the washroom to wash up and brush his teeth again. It was sort of pointless having minty fresh breath if he was going to sleep alone, he decided with a wistful sigh.
He was turning back the covers when Blaine silently opened the door, his finger to his lips, signing for silence, apparently returned to give Kurt a proper good night kiss this time. Kurt understood then that he'd left him because it was too dangerous for them to risk antagonizing Blaine's parents, especially since Blaine's mother was keeping a particularly close eye on them. Blaine left again shortly after, leaving Kurt even lonelier, saying he would see him in the morning. In fact, Kurt only missed Blaine for about two minutes, before he dropped into a solid unbroken night's sleep, hardly stirring until the sun was up.