Chapter 55: Countdown

Kurt sat bolstered against pillows, in what he had come to think of as 'their' bed. Coffee in hand, he worked his way through the online registration for his first semester classes at Parsons. Nigel was watching a Dr. Who marathon in the living room. Kurt had tried, but really, he just couldn't take the Daleks seriously. How terrifying could something that looked like a salt shaker be?

The classes sounded good, Parsons sounded good. New York sounded even better. He would be incoherent with excitement, if just one element was different; a 5'9", dark-haired, green-eyed element. He was supposed to go home Labour Day weekend, pack up for school, and spend some time with his dad and Carole. He couldn't do it. He just couldn't leave Nigel before he absolutely had to. He had to talk to his dad, not going to be pretty! He closed his laptop, with an impatient snap. Dior! He never thought that all his dreams coming true would feel like this!

"Couldn't get the classes you wanted?" Nigel stood in the bedroom doorway.

"No, I'm registered." Kurt smiled, but his eyes didn't. "Good to go."

Nigel crossed to the bed, and sat beside Kurt, pulling the younger man in against his chest. "So, what's the problem?"

"Dad expects me home for Labour Day weekend." Kurt's fingers played with the soft cotton of Nigel's T. "He wants to see me before I leave for New York."

Nigel rubbed comforting circles on Kurt's back. "That's not unreasonable. He hasn't seen you all summer."

"Yeah." Kurt nodded. "I know." He pulled himself out of Nigel's arms, and sat facing him. "I'm going to tell him I'm not coming. They can send my stuff, and I'll fly from here to New York. That way we can have our last weekend together."

"Or…" Nigel took Kurt's wrist, tracing the pulse point with gentle fingers. "I can come home with you … "

"Yes!" Kurt pounced on his boyfriend, dropping kisses everywhere. "Yes, and yes, and yes." His hands on Nigel's shoulders, he pulled back enough to look into green eyes. "This is perfect!"

Nigel had to smile, Kurt's grin was infectious. "We'll fly home Friday night. While you're packing, and saying goodbye to your friends, I'll check in with my parents, and Claire and the kids. Monday, we can go to the airport together. You'll fly to New York, and I'll come back to Boston." Nigel reached for Kurt's laptop. "We should probably book our flights."

Kurt moved the laptop aside. "Just as soon as I do this." He straddled Nigel, leaning over and nipping into his boyfriend's neck.

Nigel grinned, his arms roaming down Kurt's back, and palming his ass. "Do what?"

Kurt looked down, crystal eyes laughing. "You."


As much as Kurt wanted New York and everything that went with it, he also wanted time to stop so that he never had to leave Boston, and Nigel. Real life however, did not fall prey to a science fiction plot device. He did not become entrapped in a time warp, and the summer did come to an end.

Thursday night, their last night, found Kurt packing once again. Nigel sat against the headboard, and watched as Kurt took his stuff out of the walk-in closet and folded everything into the open suitcase on the bed. Nigel watched as his closet once again became only his. He took his glasses off, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was absolutely not crying. The empty shelves and hangers, visible through the open closet door, were the most depressing thing he had ever seen in his life. But he was not crying.

Kurt zipped the suitcase closed, and rolled it over to stand next to the doorway. "Done." He sounded almost as depressed as Nigel felt. "I'll pack the toiletries in the morning." He walked back to the bed and sat on the edge, next to Nigel's legs.

Nigel leaned over and opened the drawer in the night table. "You forgot these."

Kurt looked at the black blindfold, and silk restraints. "I'm not taking them."

Nigel shook his head. "Kurt we talked about this. I told you I want you to be a freshman." Nigel reached out and took Kurt's hand. "Free to experience everything that interests you."

Kurt shut the drawer. "And I told you that no one sees this side of me, no one but you." He held up his hand as Nigel started to protest. "Whatever ends up happening this year, I'm telling you now, this…" Kurt touched Nigel's cuff. "…this is ours." Kurt held Nigel's eyes. "And only ours."

Nigel nodded, linking his fingers with Kurt's. "Okay."

Kurt searched his boyfriend's eyes. "Okay." He nodded. He moved up the bed, to sit against the headboard beside Nigel, their shoulders touching. He slipped his hand into Nigel's, thumb brushing over his boyfriend's knuckles. "Have you thought this through, Nigel? This 'consider myself free' thing? I've been thinking about it a lot, trying to visualize how this would work."

"What do you mean?"

Kurt moved to sit cross-legged, facing Nigel. "It's a few months from now, I'm lonely and horny and I hook up with someone. Do you want to know?"

Nigel recoiled in horror. "God, no!"

"Think about it, Nigel. We'll be in contact everyday..." Kurt stopped talking as a thought occurred to him. "We will be in contact, right? Skype, texting, email?"

"Of course!" Nigel sounded shocked at any other possibility.

Kurt nodded, satisfied. "Okay, we'll be talking, and you'll be wondering every day, if I'm with someone else."

"No, I wouldn't." Nigel's denial sounded hallow even to his own ears.

"Nigel, you're sending me to New York, and telling me to consider myself free." Kurt locked eyes with his boyfriend. "Of course, you're going to wonder."

Nigel's sheepish smile was an acknowledgement. "Yeah, I guess."

"I don't want you wondering. Lying here at night thinking I'm with someone else." Kurt took Nigel's hands in his own. "So, if it happens, and that's a very big if, Nigel, I'll tell you." Kurt shrugged. "I don't plan on it happening, I don't think it will happen but, you know, shit happens!" Kurt smiled, as he played with Nigel's fingers. "I certainly never expected to fuck a man I barely knew in the dressing room of my favourite store."

Nigel laughed, and turned his hands in Kurt's, tugging Kurt in for a kiss. "That worked out pretty well."

Kurt smiled, and rubbed his thumb over Nigel's bottom lip. "It did." Crystal eyes promised green. "I'm not looking to replace what we have. No one in New York is you." Kurt put his hand on Nigel's chest, pushed his lover down, onto his back, and straddled him. "No worrying about who I'm with or what I'm doing, because if I ever hook up with anyone I'll tell you, agreed?"

Nigel reached up to push Kurt's hair back off his face. "Agreed."

Kurt leaned over Nigel, taking his wrists and pinning them to the bed, either side of his head. "And just so we're clear, you are not free. You do not have my permission to do anything with anyone. You're mine and you're going to stay mine. I am not going to be fair about this."

When Kurt held him like this, Nigel had trouble thinking. Kurt's possession was total; it seeped through his skin, and controlled the very beat of his heart. "I'm yours."

"Yes." Kurt pressed on Nigel's wrists, as a sign to leave them there, and then released them. He ran his hands down Nigel's sides, and slipped them under the waist band of Nigel's shorts. He held his hips, thumbs tracing the skin. "If you forget that you belong to me, if for any reason, you share what's mine…" Kurt ghosted his fingers over Nigel's khaki covered cock. "…you will tell me." Kurt waited for an answer. "Nigel?"

"Yes." Nigel shifted his wrists on the bed, but he didn't move them. "If I cheat on you, I'll tell you."

Kurt talked as he picked up first one wrist, and then the other, pressing his lips to each pulse point. "I will be hurt. I will be furious. I will make you fucking miserable until you convince me that I can trust you again."

Threading his fingers through Nigel's, he pressed his boyfriend's hands back against the mattress, and ate into Nigel's mouth, claiming what was his. Nigel moaned, and sealed his body to Kurt's.

Kurt broke the kiss, and promised Nigel. "But I won't let you go, not ever." He touched Nigel's cheek, and jaw. "I am yours until the day you tell me you don't want me."

The light started in Nigel's eyes, and poured into his smile. "Forever then."