A/N: Little starting note, let's all pretend that Kurt and Blaine didn't leave their young daughters at home unattended for an extended period of time last chapter, shall we? I'm sixteen guys, my parenting skills are not the greatest. Anyways, you guys all rock for the immense words of kindness I got from the last chapter, and the whole story in general. It makes writing a million times easier, trust me. And may we take a moment to celebrate the fact that this story now has over 150 followers? –insert confetti cannon here- Anyways, without further ado, here we come full circle, the final chapter of Coincidence. Disclaimer: I own an iTouch, an apple cinnamon scented candle, and a jacket that reminds me of Dean Winchester, but I do not own Glee.
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Chapter 13: Monday, January 13th, 2025
Kurt was, for lack of a better term, a complete wreck. His nails were nearly bitten down to the quick, his soft chestnut hair disheveled and sticking in all directions wildly, his pajamas twisted and rumpled from tossing and turning as he had desperately battled for sleep, his pale slender fingers skittish and restless as they moved from carding anxiously through his hair to lifting his mug filled with lukewarm coffee to his pink lips that were slightly swollen from gnawing at them nervously. There were dark bags beneath Kurt's eyes. His eyes that were typically a bright and vivacious oceanic blue, now a dull and jaded stormy grey as they focused on the luminous laptop screen that was almost blinding in contrast to the pitch black living room.
He was barely blinking, barely breathing, his eyes transfixed on his email inbox and waiting for a little '1' to appear beside it, a little tiny '1' that could potentially change everything. He had no idea how long he had been sitting there, watching and waiting, but it had felt like he could start sprouting roots at any second.
"Baby?" a quiet voice asked sluggishly, startling Kurt and yanking him out of his trance as if it had been a scream instead of a soft whisper. He turned and found Blaine standing in the hall with messy dark curls, illuminated by the laptop screen as he rubbed sleep from his eyes with a wide yawn. He looked like a small child who had just woken up from a nightmare and had gone seeking comfort from his parents. "What're ya still doin' up? It's really late."
"It's not that late, is it?" Kurt asked, but he answered his own question as his eyes flickered to the clock in the corner of the screen and saw it was just past 5:00am. "Apparently it is," he sighed as his shoulders slumped. He would have to get the girls ready for school in less than two hours, leaving him practically no time for sleep. Then again, it wasn't as if he was going to be able to get much rest regardless. The previous few nights had been rough, filled with anxiety-induced nightmares that resulted in Kurt waking up with a racing heart and cold sweat soaked pajamas.
Blaine hummed as he shuffled over and snuggled up beside Kurt, wrapping his arms around Kurt's waist and tucking his nose into his neck. Kurt couldn't help but smile, a bit of his trepidation ebbing away. He absolutely adored how ridiculously cuddly Blaine got when he was tired. "Mmm, so whatcha doin'?" Blaine asked, peering down at Kurt's laptop.
"Waiting to see if I got a callback from Singing in the Rain," Kurt sighed as he reached up and lazily stroked his fingers through Blaine's curls. It was funny how Blaine could make him relax with simply his presence.
Blaine chuckled, his warm breath tickling Kurt's neck. "Sweetheart, they're not going to send you an email at 5am. That's just silly," he said. Kurt could practically sense him rolling his eyes fondly.
"But it's now technically Monday, and they were supposed to email me by Friday." He sighed heavily. "They're probably not going to email me at all," he murmured. Kurt realized how despondent his voice sounded, and apparently Blaine did as well as he pulled back and looked at Kurt with compassionate honey eyes.
"What makes you think they're not going to email you?" he questioned gently, as if he already knew the answer but wanted to hear it out loud from Kurt.
"Because I'm not good enough, isn't that obvious?" Kurt asked with a scoff, setting his laptop on the coffee table and pulling out of Blaine's grasp. The small dose of respite from Kurt's concerns that Blaine had offered was gone now, replaced with the familiar feeling of restlessness, fear, self-depreciation, hopelessness, and bitterness that had built a home in Kurt's mind, chipping away at his sanity from the sheer emotional weight of it all.
"And what makes you think you're not good enough?" Blaine asked with that same tone, and Kurt found that he didn't like that tone at all. To him it sounded superior, like a kindergarten teacher trying to prompt the answer to a math problem from one of her students.
"Because I'm never good enough, don't you get that?" Kurt asked bitterly with a fierce glare, shaking his head. "I've never been good enough for those people, and I never will be. I'm never good enough for anyone. I told you that when you first told me about the God damn production. I told you that they always shoot me down, but did you listen to me? No, of course not! Instead you just filled my head with these stupid ass false hopes that maybe this time things were different, that maybe this time I'd be able to show them my 'true potential'. But here's a newsflash for you, Blaine, I don't have potential, and if you would have just left the situation alone I wouldn't be here right now getting gray hairs about this shit," he snapped in a harsh whisper, keeping his voice low to avoid waking up the girls. He knew he was only taking his frustrations out on Blaine, but it was just so much easier. It was easier to be irrationally angry at someone else for once than to do what he had become so accustomed to doing, blaming himself; getting irrationally angry at himself for allowing himself to be set up for disappointment, getting irrationally angry at himself for putting himself back in the situation that he had fallen into countless times before. He felt like the naïve nineteen year old boy who had dove headfirst into the real world outside of the protective bubble of glee club all those years ago with nothing but big dreams and high hopes, only to be crushed under the cruel reality that sometimes your best just isn't good enough.
Kurt hadn't noticed how much space he had put between himself and Blaine until he found Blaine filling that space, taking Kurt's hands in his and appearing completely unfazed by the outburst. It was almost as if he had been expecting it, which honestly, Kurt didn't doubt that he did. As cliché as it sounded, and regardless of the fact that they had only known each other for three short months, Blaine really did know Kurt better than he knew himself. He tried tugging his hands away, his sweltering anger towards Blaine and the entire situation still flaring, but Blaine kept a firm grip as he stared into Kurt's eyes until the older man looked back.
"It's different now, Kurt," he said, earning a scoff from Kurt, but he shook his head. "No, listen to me. I know for a fact that things are different now. Tell me, how did it feel when you used to audition in college? Or when you last auditioned? What did it feel like?"
Kurt scoffed again and rolled his eyes, still trying to tug his hands away, but Blaine's grip remained. Kurt glared at him again, but decided to play along. "Exactly how it does right now: stressful, hopeless, pointless, terrifying, a million other things." He shook his head with a sigh, his anger now replaced with the familiar combination he had just listed. "I feel like I'm walking a tightrope and if I fall there's not going to be a net to catch me and my body is just going to smack against the concrete, and then it'll all be over."
Blaine nodded slowly, his honey eyes soft with understanding and compassion. "That's what's different, Kurt, you have a net now," he said softly as he gave Kurt's hands a tiny squeeze. A small smile pulled at his lips as Kurt's brow furrowed with puzzlement. "I'm your net, Kurt, and I'm always going to be your net. If something goes wrong, if you fall, I'm going to be here ready to catch you. I'm going to be here ready to remind you that you are more than good enough, and that those people are batshit crazy if they don't think you're right for their shows." His smile widened as his eyes began to shine and shimmer with sincerity and pride. "You're strong, Kurt. You're so very strong and I wasn't lying when I told you you can do anything. You can do anything, I know you can, you just have to have faith in yourself. You have more potential than you can possibly imagine, and God, Kurt, you're going to go so far," he laughed, shaking his head as his smile became that all-out toothy grin that Kurt loved so much. "You're going to do Broadway, movies, anything you want, and I'm going to be by your side every step of the way to cheer you on.
"This?" He gestured to the laptop screen. "This is just a stepping stone in your career. If you don't get this, which I have no doubt in my mind you will, it doesn't even matter, Kurt. This doesn't determine your future. That one little email doesn't determine who you are or what your worth as a person is. You're going to have a million more opportunities, and one day the world is going to see just what a phenomenal person you truly are, and you're going to be so big. This one little show is nothing compared to what you're going to accomplish, Kurt." He rubbed his thumbs over the back of Kurt's palms, a gesture that he knew comforted him, as his smile softened. "Now would you please just stop worrying about this?" he asked gently.
Any remaining space that Kurt had placed between them before was gone in an instant as he abruptly invaded that space, cupping Blaine's face in his palms and surging forward to smash his lips against Blaine's firmly. A startled grunt emitted from the back of Blaine's throat at the suddenness of the action, but he hummed contently as his body melted under the contact. After a moment, Kurt pulled back slowly, watching Blaine as his eyelids fluttered open to reveal large molten gold orbs filled with love and wonder. A small grateful smile formed on Kurt's lips as the pad of his thumb stroked across the top of Blaine's cheekbone.
It shouldn't have been that simple; it should have taken much more than a tiny motivational speech to expel Kurt's anxiety and concerns. He should have been infuriatingly stubborn, shot down everything Blaine was saying, stood his ground, but he didn't. He should have been surprised by all of this, all of those things were by definition the Kurt Hummel way, but in a sudden burst of clarity Kurt realized that he wasn't surprised at all, and the cause of this all traced back to one source.
Blaine. It was all because of Blaine. He had a way of altering Kurt's reality and changing his perspective on life with something as simple as a soothing river of gentle flowing words. It wasn't just what Blaine was saying that made Kurt's worries seem to ebb away and the heavy weight on his shoulders to lessen, but the look in his eyes as he said it. Blaine's expressive eyes never failed to convey everything the curly haired man was feeling; and the raw emotion in them as he had spoken only added fuel to the flames of hope that had begun to blaze in Kurt's heart from his words alone. It was easy to see that Blaine wholeheartedly believed every word that poured from his lips, and Kurt couldn't help but believe them as well. It wasn't as if what Blaine was proposing was ludicrous in the first place. Without Kurt's unease tainting his perception, he realized that Blaine was right, things were different. He wasn't alone like he was before, and he wasn't going to hit to concrete, and it was all because he had Blaine.
He smiled softly, still stroking his thumb over Blaine's cheek, and Blaine smiled his dazzling smile right back as if he could hear every one of Kurt's thoughts. Blaine, the man who had claimed Kurt's trust and his heart faster than he had ever thought possible. Blaine, his motivator, his counselor, his partner, his best friend, his love, the sun to his moon. The fact that they had met by chance only three months prior, a mere coincidence, was almost humorous to think. Kurt had been merely floating aimlessly through life before that moment, never spending too much time dwelling on the future or the past and simply floating through each day in a monotonous routine. But then there was Blaine, his beautiful Blaine, with that bright sunshine-y grin and big caring eyes, and he took Kurt by the hand and showed him that life could be beautiful and joyful. Life didn't just involve a present, but also a past and future, and if you had someone by your side while you faced them these aspects of life weren't nearly as intimidating as they seemed. On the contrary, coming to terms with his past and future only made days a bit more enjoyable for Kurt. Scents seemed a little bit sweeter, sounds seemed a bit more musical, and colors seemed a bit brighter.
Therefore, with this thought in mind, Kurt lost all sense of apprehension towards his future. His destination remained indefinite, as it was supposed to be, but as Kurt gazed into the eyes of the man he loved he realized that the destination wasn't important. As cliché as it sounded, it was the journey that mattered the most. It was the good times and the bad times, the times he would fail and the times he would succeed, the times he would laugh and the times he would cry, those were the important aspects of life that he would focus on, because he would never be alone when he went through those times. He'd have Blaine, Stephanie, and Rachael by his side, and in the end things would always turn out alright as long as he had them.
"Thank you," he whispered after what felt like years of being lost in his own thoughts. He wanted to thank Blaine for everything he had done for him, every single little moment. He wanted to thank Blaine for changing his and Stephanie's lives for the better. He wanted to thank Blaine for loving him. He wanted to thank Blaine for sewing together those last shattered fragments of Kurt's heart that had never completely healed. He wanted to thank Blaine for a million other things, but as Blaine reached up and gently stroked his calloused fingers through Kurt's soft chestnut hair with a ghost of a smile on his pink lips, Kurt remembered that thanking Blaine for all of these things was completely unnecessary, because Blaine already knew.
"I love you so much, Kurt. Never forget that, okay?" Blaine asked in a whisper, his fingers falling from Kurt's hair to his shoulder and squeezing lightly. Kurt wanted to laugh at such a ridiculous request since forgetting would have been physically impossible, but instead he closed the space between them and captured Blaine's lips in a soft kiss.
"Never," he murmured into Blaine's mouth, Blaine sighing through his nose in response as if he had honestly had doubts of Kurt's answer. They continued kissing sweetly for a moment, getting lost in the taste and presence of the other as if it were their first kiss all over again. Smiles broke out across their faces as they pulled back slightly, foreheads still touching.
"Let's get to bed now, okay? I have trouble sleeping when you're not there," Blaine said, causing the butterflies in Kurt's stomach to stir ever so slightly in adoration.
"Okay," Kurt murmured, pressing a last gentle peck to Blaine's lips before leaning over and closing his laptop, not even noticing the tiny '1' that had appeared next to his inbox.
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A/N: God I just, I just need a second here guys, because I don't know about any of you but I can't believe this is over. This one little one-shot that I never even dreamed of getting people to actually read, now a 13 chapter almost 50k word fic with over 150 followers. I know I say it all the time, but really, thank you all for everything. All of your support and love and kind words and just, thank you. I love you all, and I'm really sad/excited to start working on the epilogue. It's going to be much shorter than this, but definitely joyful. I'm hoping I'll get a few laughs from you guys as well! As always, stay tuned, and stay wonderful.