Chapter 3

14 February 2011

To Kurt's delight, all of New Directions and the Warblers made it to his lonely hearts club dinner. He'd been worried that the notice had been too short and the idea too lame but even the couples turned out. He'd checked everyone's relationship status on Facebook so he wasn't surprised by any of the pairings. Sam and Quinn were the most logical given that he was the star quarterback and she was the head cheerleader. Finn and Rachel were there despite the fact that Rachel must have had more romantic plans in mind. He was disappointed to see that Mercedes was single in this timeline. He'd set her up with Anthony Rashad in the previous line when she'd complained about Blaine taking up all of his time. Apparently, that had never happened in this one.

The Warblers serenaded the crowd and then fanned out to mingle with the kids from McKinley. Kurt and Blaine sat across from Mercedes chatting for a little while when Dave slipped into the seat next to Mercedes.

"Hi, I'm Dave," he said with a smile.

"Mercedes," she replied.

"I'm not flirting," he said defensively.

"I didn't say you were," she said with a laugh.

"I have a girlfriend," he added hastily. "I would never cheat on her."

"Alrighty then. I'm glad we got that settled."

"I just wanted to be clear that I'm just being friendly."

"Mercedes, why don't I introduce you to the rest of the Warblers?" Kurt offered, standing up.

"That sounds great."

Many of the boys were swarmed around Santana and Brittany.

"So here's how it works," Santana was saying as Kurt and Mercedes approached. "Brits and I will choose two of you and let you take us on a double date. If we like how you treat us, we'll make out in front of you."

"I want the dark haired one," insisted Brittany. "I think the blond one is my brother. I'm not supposed to date relatives."

"I'm pretty sure we're not related. I think I would have noticed that," objected Aaron.

"Guys, I'd like to introduce my friend Mercedes to everyone. This is Wes, Flint, Trent, Jon, Aaron, Matt, Steven, and Nelson."

"Hi, guys," said Mercedes shyly.

"You know guys, there are other people here besides Brittany and Santana. Maybe you could mingle a little instead of...well whatever it is you're doing here. Come on Mercedes, let's go say hi to Nick and Jeff."

Jon peeled off from the crowd and followed them saying, "Hi, I'm Jon in case my name got lost in the crowd. I remember you from Sectionals."

"Hey, you! Beatbox guy, Brits and I aren't done with you yet," objected Santana.

Jon waved and shrugged as he followed Mercedes and Kurt.

"Well, his loss. You," she said pointing to Trent. "No fatties. You can go."

Kurt introduced Mercedes to Nick and Jeff who were sitting together talking about some geeky thing as usual. Brock was engrossed in a conversation with Sunshine but Kurt stopped by anyway. He hadn't meant for the dinner to be a dating opportunity but the Warblers seemed to be taking it that way. He left Mercedes and Jon when they decided to join Sunshine and Brock at their table.

Several of the Warblers were rapping in a cluster with Artie. Kurt was glad to see him having a good time. Puck was hitting on one of the waitresses. Typical Puck behavior. He had her backed against the wall but she seemed to be enjoying it so Kurt didn't stop to say anything. As he made his way toward Blaine, he saw Thad sitting alone looking forlorn so he stopped to say hi.

"Hi, Thad. Why are you sitting all alone? I didn't mean for you to take the lonely in lonely hearts club so literally. Come sit with Blaine, Dave, and me."

"No thanks, Kurt. I don't need your brand of sarcasm today."

"I wasn't being sarcastic. I meant it."

"Yeah, of course. Because that's exactly what I want to do on Valentine's day. Sit with my ex-boyfriend just days after helping him serenade some other guy. At least he got rejected; that almost made it worth it."

Thad was Blaine's ex-boyfriend? That's new.

Blaine-3 (as Kurt had started to think of the Blaine in the previous timeline) had told Kurt about a boyfriend he'd had at Dalton in his sophomore year but he had not dated Thad. Kurt was sure of that.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be insensitive. I just thought..."

"That I was over him? I should be. It's ancient history and I see him every day. But it's also Valentine's Day so...Well, it was a bad idea to come. Thanks for inviting me, Kurt, but I'm just going to go if you don't mind."

Kurt headed back toward Blaine. As he arrived, Rachel and Finn were standing by the table.

"At last, I've met someone who can keep up with me vocally. We should do a duet!" she was saying as Kurt came in earshot.

"What about me?" asked Finn pitifully.

"You do well enough Finn but your wheelhouse is a bit limited. Even you must admit that."

She grabbed Blaine's hand and dragged him toward the stage. "I think I just found my new duet partner!" she yelled.

They did a rousing version Guilty (a la Barbara Streisand and Andy Gibb). Finn looked so jealous that Rachel sang a solo for him. Of course, that was just an excuse because when didn't Rachel want to sing a solo? That sparked a diva off between Mercedes, Rachel, and Sunshine which might have gone on all night except for Nick. He interrupted them with a smoopy Valentine's message for Jeff.

"As most of you know, this unbelievably handsome blond Warbler, Jeff, is my boyfriend. We've been together now for two years and I'd like to celebrate by singing this song I wrote for him. OK, I'll admit I only wrote the lyrics. I had a little help with the music. But Jeff this is for you."

The song that followed was appropriately sappy and specific. Nick wasn't a particularly brilliant lyricist but his heart was in it.

05 March 2011

Kurt put the wedding together in record time. The ceremony was beautiful with Burt and Carol saying their own vows. The Warblers and New Directions sang together and even Mr Shue got a solo. Kurt sang I Could Have Danced All Night as his father and new stepmother took the floor for their first dance.

When he finished singing, New Directions took the stage to sing Somebody to Love. Kurt stood by the dance floor watching the couples dance.

"Excuse me, can I have this dance?"

"Blaine! Of course." They stepped out on the dance floor and Blaine took the lead. Unfortunately, Burt noticed the two boys dancing and scowled at them. Well, more like gave Blaine a warning look. He didn't think his innocent little boy was ready for a boyfriend.

"You're a really good dancer," Kurt commented with a blush as Blaine swung him around.

"Thanks. It's easy with you as a partner."

The song ended and the boys had to join the Warblers to sing the next number. As the night wore on, the guests got drunker, videos and pictures were taken, and it was a success all around.

"I had a great time, Kurt," Blaine said as he was leaving. "Thanks for including us at your parents' wedding. It was beautiful."

"Of course, I had to have the Warblers here. And you." Kurt hugged Blaine tight and when he pulled away he stared at Blaine's lips, wondering if the boy was ever going to kiss him. Blaine-4 was more impulsive, a little wilder, and even somewhat inappropriate at times but he showed no more interest in moving out of the friend zone than Blaine-3 had. Kurt wasn't ready to give up. He was completely in love with Blaine. He didn't care about the little differences between the Blaines in each timeline. He had spent time getting to know him all over again and was pleased to discover that he was the essentially the same. The differences were intriguing but not fundamental. They had the same boyfriend for their sophomore year but Blaine-4 had also dated Thad so Kurt reckoned that having had two boyfriends made Blaine-4 a little more adventurous.

"Well, goodnight, Kurt. I'll see you on Monday at Dalton."

"Sure, see you Monday."

Burt and Carol came to say their goodbyes for the night. Carol hugged both Finn and Kurt before saying, "We're off to our honeymoon, you boys be good. Promise?"

"I'll keep an eye on Finn," promised Kurt.

"I'm sorry it's only one night, sweetheart..."

"Oh don't even start. We have each other. I don't need some fancy vacation," Carol giggled excitedly.

"OK, kiddo. No parties or craziness - you hear me? I'm trusting you to act appropriately."

As soon as the couple left, Finn turned to Kurt and said, "Dude, I need you to do me a huge favor."

Kurt just rolled his eyes and sighed. This couldn't be good. Finn took this as a signal to continue.

"You got to go back to your dorm tonight. Rachel's gonna spend the night with me."

"Finn! Are you insane? What if you get caught?"

"You got to be my ally, dude. You just get back in the morning and tell our parents that everything was cool and Rachel totally didn't spend the night."

"Do you mean alibi?"

"What?"

"Never mind. I think the best way to make sure they don't think Rachel spent the night would be for me to not mention it at all."

"Oh, yeah. Good thinking. So are we cool? You'll do it?"

"OK, fine. But tell me that you are at least prepared."

"Totally, I've been waiting forever."

"No, I mean protection. Condoms?"

"No, dude. We don't need them. We're both virgins and you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex. It's like a law of physics or something."

"Finn, that isn't true. It would ruin Rachel's life if you got her pregnant. Go buy some condoms. Or get some from Puck."

"If I do, you'll cover for us?"

"Yes, I'll drive all the way back to Westerville tonight, come back in the morning, and if anyone asks, Rachel didn't spend the night."

"Thanks, Dude!" Finn scooped Kurt up in a bear hug, picking him up off the floor before setting him down again.

06 March 2011

"Are you guys decent?" Kurt called as he walked in the front door with his hands over his eyes. "You'd better not be having sex in the living room!" He peeked through his fingers and was relieved to see that there was no Finn or Rachel in sight.

He headed downstairs to the basement bedroom that he shared with Finn when he was home. Rachel was draped across Finn's sleeping form but at least they were both under the covers so Kurt didn't have to know if they were naked or not.

"Wake up - check out is 11:00 so Dad and Carol are going to be home soon."

"Kurt?" Rachel sat up rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Kurt turned around before he could see anything.

"Just a wake up call. I'm going upstairs now before I'm scarred for life. I'd invite you for breakfast, Rachel, but it's nearly noon and you'd better get out of here soon."

"Oh God, thanks, Kurt. You're a life saver," called Rachel as she hastily got dressed. "Finn. Finn," she hissed. "Get up!"

"Why? I don't have to go anywhere."

"Finn Hudson, I just gave you the precious gift of my virginity so you'd better get your ass out of that bed and kiss me goodbye. Also, check your relationship calendar, you need to take me out three times this week and buy me at least one present."

"Is that some kind of we just had sex rule?"

"Yes, Finn, it is."

"OK."

Finn and Kurt were sitting at the kitchen table innocently eating toast when Burt and Carol arrived.

"Hey, Kiddo. Looks like you didn't have a wild party last night or if you did at least you cleaned up. So either way, good going there. Finn, can you let us have some alone time here? I need to talk to Kurt."

After Finn and Carol left, Kurt asked, "Dad? What's going on?"

"I've been dreading this son. Putting it off frankly, but after seeing you dancing like that with that Blaine kid, we need to talk about...stuff. It's time that you and I had The Talk."

"No, absolutely not. We do NOT need to have the talk. Blaine and I are just friends and I don't want to hear about that stuff. I'm not ready so you don't need to worry about it. Besides, it's not like I can get pregnant so you don't need to worry about me."

"Hey, you think this is easy for me? OK, believe me, I wanna do this even less than you do. This is gonna suck for both of us. But we're gonna get through it together and we're gonna both be better men for it. Now, I have no idea how gay sex works, Kurt. I don't know what two men do and I don't want to know. I'm trying but I'm not ready to handle that."

"So we have nothing to talk about; I'll just go to my room." Kurt attempted to flee. He was so embarrassed that he would have looked for another line except that last time he'd jumped entirely too far. It had turned out well and frankly he didn't want to lose this one over a little embarrassment.

"Hey, sit down. We're just getting started. You can figure out the mechanics later. It's mostly just instinct anyway. At least for men and women it is. Maybe it's different for two guys. Just don't use porn as your example - that isn't how it's supposed to be in the real world."

"I don't watch those movies," mumbled Kurt turning beet red.

"Now for most guys sex is just this thing we always want to do. You know it's fun, feels great but we're not really thinking too much about, you know, how it makes us feel on the inside. Or how the other person feels about it."

"Not me, Dad. I just want romance. I don't want to think about that other stuff."

"Well, that will change eventually. You're growing up, Kurt. I hate to admit it but I see how you look at Blaine. You say that you're just friends..."

"We are. He doesn't think of me like that."

"Did he say that?"

"Yes. In exactly those words."

"He wouldn't have said that if you weren't looking for more. Am I right?"

"Yeah, maybe I'd like to be more than just friends. But that doesn't mean I want to..."

"OK, so you're not ready now. That's good, you're too young. But Kurt, when you're ready, I want you to be able to do whatever you want to. When you're ready, you gotta know that it means something. It's doing something to you, to your heart, to your self-esteem, even though it feels like you're just having a good time... Don't throw yourself around like you're nothing, because you matter, Kurt. Do you understand me?"

"Is that it?" Kurt asked mortified.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Kurt walk toward the door, turned and said, "Thanks for trying, Dad." He wasn't any more enlightened after the talk than before but he appreciated the effort.

"I'll...I'll try to find you some more informative stuff about being safe and all later. I'm not real comfortable talking about that stuff with you but you deserve to know. OK?"

"Thanks."

Burt made good on his promise, leaving Kurt some pamphlets in his room with a note later in the week. Burt hadn't dared to look inside them but he'd done more than his own father had and he figured they covered the important things. The parts no one had ever explained to him when he was having sex with all the cheerleaders in his heyday as a star football player.

14 March 2011

"This meeting of the Warblers will come to order," intoned Wes with a bang of his gavel. "Dave, please start with the first item on the agenda."

"The first item on the agenda is song selection. The council, after great deliberation, has decided that we're going to sing "Raise Your Glass." It's a perfect anthem for us and it's a good upbeat song that is sure to rouse the audience while we sing it."

The Warblers murmured their approval because it is a good choice. Blaine looked excited at the prospect.

"Mr. Chairman, may I have the floor?" asked Blaine.

"Yes, Warbler Blaine, what do you want to discuss? We still need to decide on our opening number."

"Since we are doing Raise Your Glass - great choice by the way- Which is an anthem to...well getting our freak on...I'd like to bring up the idea of perhaps changing up our look as well since..."

The Warblers erupted in chaos requiring Wes to bring down his gavel particularly hard and in rapid succession.

"We always perform in formal uniform so I can't imagine what Blaine is going on about. Is he going to suggest that we wear our informal sweater vests instead? Why don't we just sing in the nude?" objected Dave over the chaos.

"Warblers, I am merely suggesting that instead of wearing blue ties with red piping, we wear jackets with red ties and blue piping for the competition."

The chaos returned and Wes had another round of gavel abuse. When the room finally quieted, he said firmly, "There will be no changes in our uniforms for the Regional performances. I'm shocked Warbler Blaine that you'd even suggest such a blatant break with tradition. Moving on to our opening number. Dave if you will."

Kurt's eyes drooped as he tried to stay awake during the proceedings. The council decided everything so he didn't understand the purpose of these meetings. Blaine was going to sing lead in one of the many identical Katy Perry, Pink, or Beyonce numbers he favored. What difference did it make? He looked over at Pavarotti flitting about in his cage oblivious to the human nonsense around him. It must be nice.

Kurt snapped out of his daydream as he heard Thad say sarcastically, "Why don't you just tell us what you want to sing, Blaine?"

He'd missed something he was sure but he doubted that it was important.

"Teenage Dream. I want to sing Teenage Dream for our opening number. It's a crowd pleaser and it's well rehearsed. There's no doubt that we'll win if we go with Teenaged Dream for the opening and move right into Raise Your Glass. It's all about the mood and getting goosebumps and making the audience feel it. It's a lock with this combination."

"All those in favor of singing Katy Perry's Teenage Dream for our opening number, raise your hand," ordered Wes.

Kurt raised his hand unenthusiastically. He'd been down since his talk with his father and receiving pamphlets made it worse. The dirty disgusting things described in them had repulsed him but at the same time strangely titillated him. It made his lack of romance even worse for some reason. Piled on top of his lack of progress romantically was the Warblers attitude toward Blaine. Even Thad, who was full of personal resentment toward him, still kissed his ass professionally. No one was ever going to get another solo in this group.

"Motion carried," declared Wes with a bang of his gavel. "Warblers dismissed."

16 March 2011

Kurt sat alone in the coffee room outside of the library. He was trying to study and it was one his favorite place because, like everywhere at Dalton, is was spacious and beautiful but it afforded him a unique view of Dalton boys as they passed through to class, or the dining hall, or the dorms. It was great for people watching or timeline viewing. He looked around for anything interesting mainly out of boredom. There wasn't much variation close by. Different boys wondered by but mostly Kurt was sitting here alone doing just what he was doing.

Then he saw Blaine. He had no idea how far the line was but he could see it as clear as the ones right next to him. Something about Blaine made his vision of timelines clearer. Like his very presence brought a whole universe into focus for him. Blaine was sitting next to him leaning in as if...it couldn't be true. He crossed over and arrived just in time to feel Blaine's lips on his.

Blaine was kissing him. His lips were soft and warm and they moved just so...perfectly. It wasn't anything like what he'd experienced before. Instinctively, he reached up and placed his palm on the side of Blaine's face trying to move him closer. When Blaine pulled away away, Kurt was breathless and stunned.

Blaine turned away, blushing and said with a slight chuckle, "Um..we should practice."

"I thought we were," replied Kurt breathlessly because he had no idea what they were supposed to be practicing but he desperately hoped it was kissing. It worked because Blaine moved in for another kiss. This time Kurt was ready and moved to meet him. He whimpered a little at the feel of Blaine's tongue on his lips and before he could think about what he was doing he darted his own tongue into Blaine's mouth. They were panting again when they parted just staring into each other's eyes for a moment before Blaine stood and looked down at the table. Kurt followed his gaze to the pile of glass jewels that he'd apparently been glueing to something.

"Do you need help finishing Pavarotti's casket?"

"Pavarotti's dead?"

"I guess I should be flattered that my kissing made you forget for a second."

Had he said that aloud? He hadn't meant to. Kurt was used to losing pets when he jumped. It wasn't really a good idea to get too attached. They weren't usually dead so much as not the same. They might have the same name but they were often not really the same animal. He'd stuck mostly to gerbils and hamsters growing up because the personality differences weren't important in the little rodents.

"Oh, well. I'm done, really. He loved shiny things but I think it's decorated enough now."

"Good, because we really need to learn our duet. Regionals is only days away and we haven't even run through it once. We need to be perfect."

"Our duet!" Kurt said with wonder. "Of course, we need to work on that."

"I'm glad you like my choice. Candles is going to be beautiful with your voice."

"Candles? Yeah, it's in my wheelhouse all right. Let me put all of this away and we'll go to the music room to practice." He blushed because now all he could think of was kissing when he said that word. Blaine blushed too and chuckled.

"Yeah, this time we really are going to practice singing." But when he pulled Kurt to his feet they were in each other's arms before he was barely standing. They sank into each other sighing as they kissed again. Hands exploring backs, hips pressing against each other, it got more than a little heated before they reluctantly parted.

"We have to stop doing that," Kurt insisted.

"Why?"

"Duet. We have to sing our duet."

"Oh, yeah. That. OK. To the music room."

They made it through the entire song one time before falling on the couch kissing for about ten minutes. Kurt put his forehead against Blaine's and whispered, "Courage. We can sing the duet one more time. I know we can."

"Yeah, we can do it," he replied before nibbling on Kurt's lower lip. It was right there! Looking swollen and pouty. He just couldn't help himself.

"Blaine! Focus. We want to win. We can kiss later, OK?"

"OK," Blaine agreed reluctantly.

They rehearsed the song four times total between rounds of making out. Kurt thought it was a fair ratio. After all, they both had good voices and ears for music. They didn't need much practice and Regionals was days away. Kurt should have been appalled at his lack of ambition but he was a little dizzy from all the kissing.

Kurt was in Blaine's lap straddling him as they kissed. Blaine's hands traveled down Kurt's back and rested boldly on his ass. Kurt ground into Blaine reflexively and groaned at the sensation.

Blaine pulled back with a gasp and exclaimed, "Sorry, we should...we should take a break... cool down."

"Why?" Kurt whined Then he realized why. Oh. He got off of Blaine's lap and sat beside him blushing furiously. Blaine was hard and Kurt was hard and they'd been...rubbing against each other. He hadn't even realized it. It had just felt so good.

"Kurt, we should talk."

"Talking is overrated. You should be kissing me now," he insisted, leaning in to capture Blaine's lips. Blaine pushed him away after a few seconds.

"No, we should talk. I just went for it because I'm not very good at expressing myself with words but I want to know...I'm wondering...well..."

"Blaine, what are you trying to say?"

"Will you be my boyfriend?"

"I thought we already were. I mean, we've been...you know."

"Yeah, but I didn't know what that meant to you. I'm so happy Kurt. I've never been anyone's boyfriend, as you know, and I just hope I'm better at it than I've been at being your friend. I know I've messed up a lot in our relationship and I just..."

"Too much talking," interrupted Kurt as he pulled Blaine close. "You're much better at expressing yourself like this," he said with a smile.

Blaine-5 had never had a boyfriend before? Kurt had only known him for a few hours but he could tell already that this Blaine was much shyer, more vulnerable than any of the others that he'd known. There was something a little fragile about him. Kurt could hardly believe that he'd found him.

"You should probably head home soon. It's getting late."

That was a strange way to put it since Kurt lived right upstairs. Maybe Blaine was referring to himself and confused his words. Kurt was a little addled himself.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

"I think I need some time to regroup and pull myself together. Would you mind if I didn't walk with you like a usually do? I'm just going to sit here for a while."

They reluctantly parted and Kurt headed upstairs to his room. When he got to his door, he couldn't find his keycard.

"Are you lost Kurt? Where's Blaine?" asked Jeff. Kurt hadn't heard Jeff and Nick approach as he was looking for his missing keycard.

"He's downstairs."

"So why aren't you two together?" asked Nick. "I know! Were you planning on surprising him by hiding in his room? Isn't it a little early in the relationship for that?"

Blaine lived in the dorm. The fog in Kurt's brain was beginning to lift and he started to wonder how far he'd jumped. Blaine had this affect on him. He was like a magnet drawing Kurt further than he meant to go.

"It's never to early for that," retorted Jeff with a smirk.

"Get you're mind out of the gutter, baby. Not everyone is as... um... fast as you are."

"Me? You were right there..."

Nick elbowed his boyfriend and said, "TMI. Kurt doesn't need the sordid details of our love life."

"How did you guys even know that Blaine and I are boyfriends? He just asked me less than an hour ago."

"The Warblers are a gossipy bunch. You've been making out all day, Kurt. Everyone knows. There's video," explained Nick

"You didn't!"

"Not me personally," denied Nick. "Don't worry. We're all happy for you. This is what we expected when we voted for the duet. It was practically a proposal."

"I want to sing the duet with Kurt," Jeff said with his best Blaine impression. It was accurate.

Kurt's phone rang; it was his dad.

"If you'll excuse me? I have to take this." The two boys headed back to their own room, hand in hand.

"Dad?"

"Kurt, I was just wondering where you are."

"Still at Dalton, Dad."

"Well, if you haven't even left yet, I won't have Carol hold dinner for you. Why are you so late?"

His dad was expecting him home tonight.

"Sorry, I'll head out now. I have a duet at Regional's, Dad, so I had to practice. I only have a few days to get ready."

"OK. I'll expect you home in ninety minutes."

"Sure thing. I'm heading to my car now."

The fact that his dad had mentioned Carol was good news. He seriously needed to get online and figure out how far he'd jumped but it would have to wait until tomorrow, apparently. If he couldn't find his keycard, he'd have to get maintenance to make him another. That was the disadvantage of not having a roommate.

Kurt found Blaine where he'd left him.

"You're still here?" Blaine asked with a puzzled look.

"Yeah, I just wanted to say goodnight before I go."

They said their goodnights with a few more kisses then Kurt headed to Lima hoping all was still well with his family.