Chapter 4

16 March 2011

When Kurt pulled up to the house, he knew something was off. He was used to things being off - his entire existence consisted of dealing with things not being the way they were before so he pushed his unease aside. He'd talked to his father and he had Blaine; he could handle losing anything else. His unease came back when his key didn't work. Kurt hit panic mode when the door opened and a strange man said, "Can I help you son?"

"Burt Hummel?" he said hopefully.

"Oh," the man said as understanding lit his eyes. "He doesn't live here any more. I bought this house from him in December. I'm afraid I don't have a forwarding address. Sorry. Good luck though. Try the phone book, he's probably listed."

"Thank you, sir," Kurt managed, sounding calmer than he felt. In all of his years of jumping, their address had never changed. Not even when his mother had died. He went back to his car and sat a while racking his brain for a way to get home when he had no idea where he lived. He couldn't call his dad and ask for an address. Then his eyes landed on the GPS. Of course, he just needed to find the last time he'd driven from home to Dalton or the other way around.

He'd driven from Lima to Westerville just this morning. Combined with the way Nick and Jeff were acting and his lack of a Dalton keycard, that meant he was still commuting instead of living in the dorm. That and the house sale put the split in November or December. Why would Dad sell the house? Kurt set the course in the GPS and started home. He'd adjust. He always did. He drove up to the new house and was relieved when his key opened the door. His dad and Finn were sitting on the couch watching a game.

"There you are kiddo. I was starting to worry a little."

"I got caught up talking to Nick and Jeff before I left."

"Do you want something to eat? Carol put some leftovers in the fridge before she left for her shift."

That was good news. Kurt noticed the wedding ring on his father's hand and smiled. He could handle losing the house. It was just a house. His dad was still married to Carol. Finn was here. This was a good line.

"No thanks, I'm really tired. In fact, with all the extra practice, I was wondering if you would mind if I stayed at Dalton tomorrow night? Nick and Jeff have offered to let me stay in their room. You remember meeting them don't you?" Kurt just hoped that was true.

"No actually, but you know who I do remember? Blaine. You know him, right?"

"Of course I know Blaine, Dad," Kurt answered before realizing that his dad was being sarcastic. Kurt was tired and disorientated so he wasn't catching on as quickly as he usually did.

"Yeah, I know you do. The same Blaine that I found drunk, asleep in your bed not long ago. I don't trust that kid. And you are not spending the night in the same dorm as him. Period. That kid takes inappropriate behavior to whole new levels, Kurt. I know he's your friend but I'm not buying this whole I'll sleep in Nick and Jeff's room act. Is there something you're not telling me about you and Blaine?"

"No sir. We were working on our duet. You'll see us sing it on Saturday."

"Alright. Sorry, just out of the blue you want to start sleeping over at the dorm and I get a little suspicious after the way Blaine..."

"What?"

"Nothing just the way he got drunk and crashed in your bed. That still don't sit well with me."

"I'm going to my room if that's OK."

"What about my warm milk?" whined Finn.

"Warm milk, Finn?"

"What? It's delicious. You always bring me warm milk. I really like our pre-bedtime chats."

"Tomorrow night, I promise. It's just been a really long day."

Kurt blindly chose a direction and found stairs going upward. He wandered around until he found the room that was clearly his. It wasn't that hard. His was the one that was neat and orderly. He was relieved to find that he had his own bathroom. He hated sharing with Finn when he was home because the boy was just plain disgusting.

Kurt sat at his computer perusing Facebook. Finn and Quinn were together in this universe. He found a video labeled 'drunk Blaine' and clicked on it. Wow. Drunk Blaine is hot. Kurt pushed aside his inclination to explore the now and went to one of his milestones to try and determine where the split was. Regionals, one year ago. He clicked on the link. It was different. Very different. His eyes focused on Quinn. A very pregnant Quinn. Wow, that meant the split was at least a year ago. No, that wasn't right. It had to be at least a year and nine months ago. Kurt paused a moment to collect his thoughts. He'd pinpointed the last jump to about seven months. This one was three times that. Somehow, Blaine had this affect on him. He was used to jumping daily - just small jump to avoid dumpster dives or slushies - but his control had been fine before he met Blaine.

And yet...Burt was married to Carol. Blaine was his boyfriend. The gains overrode his good sense to be worried. He promised himself that this was it. The perfect line and there just wasn't any reason to ever jump again. He went to bed believing it.

19 March 2011

The rest of the week went as well as could be expected. Kurt and Blaine spent more time kissing then singing. At least, when they were supposed to be working on their duet together. On stage, Kurt had trouble remembering that they weren't alone and shouldn't just start making out. He was pretty sure no one in the audience missed the sexual tension. When the Warblers lost to New Directions, Kurt wasn't even tempted slightly to jump. He didn't even look because his boyfriend was beside him and he wasn't going to risk losing him. Kurt still wanted to win. There was no doubt about that but he didn't want to lose at the same time. He completely ignored his promise to himself to never jump again and decided to think about new strategies to jump without losing Blaine. He was sure that he could do it. He just needed to get creative with his anchors.

They buried Pavarotti later in the day after the Warblers finished grousing over the loss. Blaine picked a spot under a tree on the Dalton grounds that seemed perfect and Kurt agreed that Pavarotti would have loved it. They said their goodbyes to the little bird and Blaine tried to comfort Kurt over the loss at Regionals, even making a joke about singing at the Gap.

"Yeah, I just really, really wanted to win," Kurt answered as he put the rose on Pavarotti's grave.

"You did win. So did I. We got each other out of all of this. That beats a lousy trophy don't you think?"

Kurt smiled at how sweet and sentimental Blaine was. Blaine extended his hand and Kurt took it with a smile. They walked in silence back to Blaine's dorm room. His roommate had already left for spring break so they had the place to themselves. Most of the dorm was empty, in fact. The place would be closed for the break but Blaine didn't need to go home just yet.

Blaine thought Kurt had been to his room many times. They'd spent hours there just talking and looking through fashion magazines. Sometimes they'd study or sing. Kurt didn't remember any of that but he was good at faking it when it came to memories. He just took his cues from others.

"Do you mind if I get out of this uniform?" Blaine asked as soon as they were in the door.

"No, not at all," Kurt said with a smile. He wondered if Blaine was going to undress in front of him but to his disappointment, he slipped into the bathroom to change. Kurt took the opportunity to look around Blaine's dorm room. He had spend hours hanging out with Blaine-3 and 4 in the Dalton common areas and at either the Coffee Bean or the Lima Bean but this was an unprecedented intimate look into his life. They had been too busy with Warblers practice the past few days to just hang out like this. The room was small for two boys. There was just enough room for two twin beds, two desks, and a mini frig. Kurt looked in the frig out of curiosity. It was stocked with diet coke, presumably for Kurt. Also, cans of iced cinnamon flavored coffee. No food, but that wasn't surprising. There were snacks available in the dining room even after hours. Kurt took a diet coke and popped the can as he looked at Blaine's desk. It was neatly laid out with books lining the shelf above it.

"Hey," said Blaine coming up behind him. Kurt set the diet coke down and turned to wrap his arms around his boyfriend. He leaned down to capture Blaine's lips in a soft kiss. Kurt couldn't get enough kissing. He thought is was the best thing he'd ever discovered and he couldn't imagine why they'd ever be doing anything else.

Kurt whined in frustration when Blaine pulled away. He held Kurt's hand in his and pulled him over to the bed. Blaine was wearing his Dalton hoodie and a loose pair of faded jeans. He settled down on his side on the bed and patted the place next to him.

"Let's talk; we haven't had a chance to talk much since...you know, since we became boyfriends."

Kurt kicked off his shoes, hung his blazer carefully on the back of a chair and situated himself in bed across from his boyfriend. He reached up and ran his thumb along Blaine's jaw and whispered in a low voice, "Wouldn't you rather not talk for a while?"

"Oh Kurt," Blaine moaned. He couldn't resist pulling Kurt close to him. Blaine buried his head into Kurt's neck and just breathed in his scent. "You are so hot, " he mumbled into Kurt's soft skin. "How did I miss that all this time?"

"I don't know. You just weren't paying attention, apparently," Kurt snarked with more confidence than he felt. He didn't actually feel that sexy.

"Kurt, I'm so sorry it took me so long to see that I wanted to be with you. I should have known when you told me how you felt after the Gap Attack. Well, you didn't actually tell me how you felt but I got the picture from what you said. I was just so embarrassed by my behavior with Jeremiah and I didn't want to mess up our friendship. I was too afraid to take a chance."

"But you did and it was worth the wait."

"I had a best friend when I was at my old school. We'd been best friends since the sixth grade when we came out to each other and I thought we might be more than friends. I screwed up, Kurt. I made a huge mistake and he got really hurt by my actions. When I met you, you were just this sexy guy from another school but once we became close, I was afraid to think of you like that. I know that I act like I'm out and proud but it's just an act, Kurt. I'm just a teenage boy who doesn't know what I'm doing."

"It's OK. Me too. I didn't come out until last year and it was really hard. I can't imagine telling everyone so young the way you did."

"My dad wasn't nearly so understanding as yours was. He really wants me to be straight. He used to try to make me straight but he's finally given up."

"That's horrible. Trying to change you? How could he think that would work?"

"He's not a bad person; he just imagined a different son than I turned out to be. I'm his only son and I have three older sisters so he had high hopes."

"What happened to your best friend? Do you still keep in touch?"

Blaine's eyes clouded with hurt and regret. Kurt saw a sadness he hadn't seen in the other Blaines. He thought whatever caused it explained everything about this Blaine and he wanted to know what it was. Blaine-5 was clearly just as rich but somehow the air of privilege was missing from him. It was as if he didn't take the same things for granted.

"No. We don't talk anymore. Not since I came to Dalton," Blaine said flatly.

Kurt kissed away the uncomfortable silence. They made out until they were breathless and hard against each other. Blaine was the one to pull away as always. He rolled over on his back and sighed.

"So what will you be doing during the break? Can you come see me in Westerville?"

"I'll be filling in at my dad's shop three days next week. It's kind of a tradition. I could see you on Tuesday or Thursday. Of course, we can go out after hours. No homework or curfew so we could stay out late all week if you want to."

"Will you come have dinner with my family tomorrow night? I'd really like to introduce you."

"Would your dad be OK with that?"

"He's out of town. But you'll meet my mom and my sisters."

"OK. It's a date."

"Have I mentioned how glad I am that we found each other?" Blaine asked as he brushed a stray hair from Kurt's forehead.

"Yeah, a bunch but don't stop," Kurt answered softly. He had an overwhelming urge to tell Blaine that he loved him but he knew it was too soon. He'd been in love with this boy - well not exactly this boy - since November but they'd only been boyfriends for a few days.

Kurt's heart raced as he realized that he could. He could say anything to Blaine and then switch lines if it didn't go well. The heady power the thought gave him was overwhelming. He just needed to have better control. He didn't need to stop jumping to have everything; he needed to get better at controlling it. He needed better anchors and a way to be certain of a line before he jumped to it.

Later that night in his own room, Kurt decided to test his control. He'd used his ability countless times successfully to avoid things he didn't want to experience. He'd never tried to stay within a set of lines with a common split before. Sometimes it was obvious but other times, he just chose the line where the slushie hit someone else without thinking about what led to the difference. He just depended on the vague feel of close versus far to keep from losing too much.

Kurt sat in front of his vanity and took out his dice. They hadn't been here when he'd arrived a few days ago. He tried not to think about the implications of that. Instead, he just bought new ones. He rolled the first die and didn't look at it. Instead, he focused on the six universes that appeared when the die came to a stop. He held on to them, refusing to choose which one he was in at first. It was like he was in all six at the same time but he couldn't stay like that for long. He settled into one. He looked down. Two. He kept track of the other five. Trying to see only those and not anything further away. He chose one of them and looked down. Five. He did it again. This time the die was resting with a one displayed. Technically, he should be able to get back to the one with a two in no more than three more tries but it took him seven.

He was exhausted from the effort but triumphant. He'd never made it back to a line before. Not that he could be sure of. It was a ridiculously trivial difference between the lines and he'd only hung on to them for a few minutes but he was still pleased with himself. He rolled again. Four. He held on to the other five lines again as he rolled the second die. Thirty-six lines were harder to control but somehow he did. He rolled the third die and as two hundred and sixteen lines burst into his perception he lost them as his head exploded with a sharp shooting pain.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds and when he opened them the pain was gone. When he looked for lines, he couldn't tell them apart. There seemed to be an infinite number where he was just sitting here exactly where he was but he had no idea which one originated with his dice experiment. It was too complicated. He'd created 1296 just since he'd started with the first roll.

Kurt wasn't deterred though. He figured that he just needed more practice and maybe a better way of keeping track of his anchors. He put his experimenting aside and got ready for bed. Tomorrow he was going to meet Blaine's family!

20 March 2011

Kurt followed the directions to Blaine's house which was in a gated neighborhood outside of Westerville. He wondered why Blaine lived at Dalton when he'd have such a short commute to his house. The house was huge. A mansion, really. Kurt already knew that the Andersons were rich but the sight of the house really brought it home. Blaine's father was a hedge fund manager who had created his company with money he'd inherited from his real estate tycoon father.

"Hi, you must be Kurt. Come on in. I'm Blaine's mother."

"Please to meet you Mrs. Anderson."

"Oh, no need to be so formal. You can all me Linda. Come on, I'll take you to Blaine. How was your drive? You didn't get lost did you?"

"No, ma'am, I have GPS. Plus, Blaine's directions were perfect."

Kurt looked around as they walked. The home was spectacular. Marble floors. Classic furniture that was obviously expensive but not overly ornate.

"Oh, thank you. I really can't take credit though. I have no sense of style at all. I hired a decorator when we moved in. The place is really much too big now that the girls are rarely home but one must keep up appearances," she joked.

Kurt hesitated but she was laughing so he laughed too. As they walked along he heard Blaine's voice singing the familiar words of Katy Perry's Teenage Dream with...someone. Kurt walked in to see Blaine dancing and singing with a little boy, no more than six he guessed. The little boy enthusiastically belted out the words as he matched Blaine's dance step for step.

Kurt clapped for the duo when they reached their flamboyant finish.

"Hi, Kurt," his boyfriend called with a grin on his face. He scooped up the little boy and brought him over. "Say hi to my nephew, Carson. Carson, this is Kurt. He's my boyfriend," Blaine finished proudly. Carson shyly buried his head on Blaine's chest. "He's a little shy," explained Blaine.

"So are you boys hungry? Anything I should know, Kurt? We're having chicken parmesan but it that's a problem, I can fix something else for you."

"No, ma'am. That sounds wonderful."

"Dinner will be ready in about an hour. I'll leave you to it then," she declared as she turned and left.

No sooner had she disappear than a young dark haired woman arrived. The resemblance to Blaine was striking.

"There's my baby," she said holding her arms out for Carson. "You must be Kurt," she said as she held a sleepy Carson to her. "I'm Blaine's sister, Brianna," she said holding her hand out for him to shake. He took it and shook her hand firmly. "And you've met Carson already. It's good to finally meet the famous Kurt Hummel. Blaine has told us so much about you."

"Don't believe it," he joked. "I'm really quite nice."

She laughed and said, "I'm sure you are, to have charmed my brother so. I need to put Caleb down for a nap. I'll see you at dinner?" She didn't wait for an answer and scurried out the door with the half asleep boy.

"So," said Blaine nervously. "You've met half of my family. What do you think so far?"

"They seem very nice. This house is impressive. I mean, wow, you could fit all of Dalton in this place."

"Yeah, it's kind of crazy. Isn't it? My family are just like everyone else, though. I swear, they aren't crazy eccentrics."

"It's OK to be rich, Blaine. You don't have to be embarrassed."

"Come on, I'll give you a tour while we're waiting for dinner. You'll meet my other two sisters at dinner. Brianna is the oldest. She's a lawyer so watch out. She can get a little intense if you fall into the trap of arguing with her so just don't. Agree with everything she says and you'll be fine."

Blaine gave Kurt a tour that included his fabulous bedroom that was about twice as big as his dorm room and had it's own luxurious full bathroom. Once they were in Blaine's bedroom, Kurt smirked and pulled Blaine close.

"We're in your bedroom," he said seductively.

"We are," agreed Blaine with a smile. He loved this new flirty Kurt. Every since they'd kissed earlier this week, Kurt seemed down right sultry. Their lips met for a hungry kiss. When they parted, Kurt ran his lips along Blaine's jaw and down to his neck. He took a soft piece of skin between his lips and sucked softly, at first, eliciting a moan from Blaine. Blaine pulled Kurt tighter moaning, "Oh Kurt, that feels...amazing. You should stop or it will leave a mark."

Kurt just made an excited noise and sucked harder. A mark on Blaine was just perfect. Absolutely perfect. Kurt pull away and inspected his handiwork. He ran his thumb across the purplish irregular shape on Blaine's neck and whispered, "Perfect. Just perfect."

Blaine smiled. "Are you marking your territory? I should be offended but it's kind of hot."

Kurt smile triumphantly. It will be there for days.

"We should head downstairs now," insisted Blaine.

As they walked out of the room and down the hall they were greeted by another young woman with a striking resemblance to Blaine. A little younger than Brianna, she introduced herself to Kurt as Jordan.

"It's good to meet you Kurt. How's my baby brother treating you?"

Kurt mumbled something noncommittal and looked at the nearest lines. He focused on the mark on Blaine's neck. There. He and Blaine - Blaine with the hickey clearly marking him as the right one - were standing in the same place but Jordan was just rounding the corner down the hall. Something had delayed her just a few seconds. Kurt didn't care what. He jumped just because he could. For no other reason and it was empowering.

Kurt smiled as Jordan introduced herself a second time. The three of them headed down to the dining room together. As Kurt stared a the mark he left on Blaine's neck, he wanted to reach over and touch it. You're mine and I can't lose you.

At dinner, Kurt met Blaine's youngest sister, Skylar. She was a college student at Ohio State. Jordan was a graduate student at Vanderbilt and they were both home for spring break. They all made small talk during dinner and Kurt really liked Blaine's family. They were smart, funny, and very accepting of Kurt. There was no hint that they didn't approve of Blaine having a boyfriend.

At the end of the evening, Kurt and Blaine stood by Kurt's car, alternating between talking, saying goodnight, and making out. They'd said good night about six times so far.

"Blaine, I really liked your mom and sisters. Do you think they liked me?"

"They loved you. I knew they would. How could they not? You're adorable."

"Why isn't your dad here?"

"He's in New York, on business."

"Is he the reason that you live at Dalton? I've been wondering because it's such a short commute for you."

"Yeah. Before I transferred to Dalton, he said some things to me and we had a falling out. He tries but it's just too hard for us to live together. It's too painful for both of us. I'm just not the son that he'd hoped for and I never will be. I've tried. We've both tried but there are some things that are hard to unsay. No matter how sorry you are after."

"I'm sorry, Blaine. I know I'm lucky to have the dad I have. Maybe eventually things will be different between the two of you."

"Thanks."

They held each other for some time saying nothing before Kurt finally said goodnight for real and drove home.