Fic: The Time Machine (20/?)
Title: The Time Machine
Genre: Romance, Humor, Fantasy
Pairing: Klaine, Brittana, Rory/?
Rating: PG - PG 13
Spoilers: none.
Disclaimer: : I own nothing...and do not claim to.
Summary: In a moment of what could be called absolutely brilliance or stupidity, Rory Hummel-Anderson decided that the only way to get his Papa back was to go back in time and stall him, or stop him from getting into the car at all. The only problem is, his Aunt's time machine is still just a prototype and he can't even specify a time. But Rory uses it anyway and suddenly he's back in 2011 and he has to pretend to be an exchange student while he waits for Aunt Brittany to build the time machine again and get back home. In the meanwhile he gets to know his parents as teenagers and even help their relationship along when they hit a bump in the road.
Chapter Twenty
The Last Part
Kurt thought it was kind of crazy, but he went along with it and stood behind the camera while Cooper prepared himself. Blaine was still in his sweats from some sort of dance practice he was having with Mike and Brittany, but he didn’t look a bit tired. Instead, he was kind of excitedly jumping around. He reminded Kurt of Blaine’s dog.
They actually didn’t take too long to get the video done, and Kurt was glad to see the brothers actually getting along. Cooper was still a bit ridiculous and he was slowly getting over his good looks, though mostly because past that, there really wasn’t a whole lot there. Plus, Cooper had insulted his wardrobe choices and that still stung so, Kurt was ready to just take him on as a brother-in-law when the time came. Every time he looked at Blaine though, he was reminded that they weren’t going to have the forever they had always imagined.
Cooper was collapsed on the ground kind of wriggling around and Kurt tried not to laugh because he didn’t want the camera to catch any of it. Cooper twitched and then lay still for a while. Kurt watched Blaine walk over and nudge him with his foot, only for Cooper to grab his legs and bring him down with him with a loud thump.
“Ow!”
“Sorry!”
Blaine laughed and then the brothers were rolling around on the floor. Kurt couldn’t deny that they made a very nice picture. He kept the camera focused on them. When they got tired the two of them just lay on the floor. Kurt turned off the camera and turned to the two boys.
“Lunch?” he asked.
“Uh, sure,” Cooper said, “but a quick one and nothing fattening. I have to keep my figure, you know.”
Kurt rolled his eyes and nodded. Blaine dusted himself off.
“I’m going to get changed,” he told them, “but yeah, sure.”
“I’m glad the two of you are talking again,” Kurt said once Blaine had left, “I think he needed that.”
Cooper nodded. “Should I give you the big brother talk or something?” Cooper asked, “I don’t think anyone else has…”
“The Warblers covered it when we first started dating,” Kurt said, stopping him.
Cooper looked uncomfortable, but then he nodded and added, “Just don’t hurt him.”
Kurt’s phone rang before he could respond.
“Go ahead,” Cooper said and waved his hand. He walked towards the camera and Kurt heard it turn on.
“Hello?” he said into the phone.
“Hey, dad,” Rory said, “Sugar and I are with Britt and Santana and it’s practically finished. There’s a couple of more parts that are needed and Sugar actually knows a little bit about this because she was always going with her mom to get things. Anyway, I don’t know what it is exactly, but Sugar remembers what it looks like. Brittany’s going to get one of them later this week, but we looked it up and the other one is only sold in two places. In California and New York.”
Kurt didn’t know what to say. He was happy that the machine was being worked on, and he wanted Rory to be able to go home, but he was worried about what Rory would find in the future, and worried that it had been changed completely or that he wouldn’t find Blaine there.
“Who’s going to get the part?” He asked.
“Sugar insists she can go on her own,” Rory said, “so I’m thinking of going with her.”
“What if someone else goes? Blaine or I could-”
“No,” Rory said, “Sugar and I can. New York isn’t that far. We’ll take a train and we’ll be really careful. We won’t leave until tomorrow or the day after.”
He and Blaine had agreed not to tell Rory about the chaos theory and what it might all entail, but he was starting to think that maybe he should follow Santana’s advice and talk to Rory about everything. After all, if they went to New York, what were the chances that they could go and mess a whole bunch of other things. Somehow, he knew that Rory was going to be stubborn about it and not listen.
“Anyway,” Rory said, “I figured I’d fill you guys in. How’s Uncle Coop?”
“Good. He and Blaine are getting along. It’s kind of too bad he’s leaving later today.”
Rory kept him on the phone a while longer, long enough for Blaine to return fully dressed and for Cooper to have watched his audition tape a couple of times.
“This is brilliant,” he said when Kurt got off the phone, “thank you, both of you.”
They went out to eat and Kurt could admit to being a little charmed by the English accent that Cooper pulled out for their waiter. Blaine just rolled his eyes.
“So what time’s your flight again?” Blaine asked halfway through the meal.
“You’re very eager to get rid of me,” Cooper said, “I have two more hours to hang out with you too. Actually one, I should get back home to say goodbye to mom and dad.”
Although the whole Transformers thing wasn’t going to work out, Cooper did have another commercial lined up. It was something for a shampoo commercial for a brand that Kurt had never heard of. He was excited for Cooper anyway. Hollywood was a hard place to be and harder still if there was a delusion as to one’s abilities.
Kurt waited until after they dropped Cooper back off at Blaine’s house and were back at his own to tell him about the developments with Rory. Since being able to talk to Santana about the whole issue with Blaine, it had gotten just a little bit easier to talk to Blaine about anything Rory related, but there was still this feeling right in the pit of his stomach that refused to disappear. It made him stiff and nervous and shaky all at once and nothing he did could extinguish it.
“So, it’s almost complete then,” Blaine said, “just two more parts. Wow.”
“Yeah. I’m just a little worried about the changes they may have made…the changes that could still be made…”
They had been sitting back against the headboard on Kurt’s bed, sides pressed together, but Blaine was suddenly hauling Kurt into him so that Kurt was rested against him instead of his pillows. Blaine felt nicer under him anyway.
“I was thinking about all of this,” Blaine said, “and I think we have to stop worrying about it. If they changed something, then they changed something. For us the future will be whatever we make it and I know that nothing will keep me from getting married to you and having Rory, so maybe this is just a way of telling us that not everything is set in stone. That anything could happen and it’s our choices making it happen. We’ll deal with the future as it comes and maybe it won’t be an exact replica of what Rory came from, but who’s to say that isn’t better?”
Kurt wanted to cry. He couldn’t speak. How could Blaine just say the one thing that Kurt was hoping for most in the world and that any change Rory made would be to save Blaine in the future. He buried his face in the crook of Blaine’s neck and placed a kiss on the skin in front of him. Blaine hummed. Kurt smiled against his neck and just sighed. Could everything turn out for the better?
- - -
Rory hugged his dad. “We’ll be okay,” he said as he was pulling back, “I’ve lived in-”
Kurt stared at him. “New York,” he said, “we live in New York.”
Rory opened his mouth and shook his head. “Cannot confirm or deny.” He couldn’t believe he’d so easily let that out even though it really wasn’t that big of a detail considering that it was his dad’s dream to be in New York.
Kurt just grinned. “Well, it’s different now I’d think so take care of yourself and Sugar. Getting that part is important, but not as important as the two of you. Alright?”
The time machine was ready to be completed. So, ready that Rory could already see himself back at home. He was still worried about his papa and the very big possibility that Rory wouldn’t be able to save him, but for the moment he had to focus on getting the part. Sugar who was waiting a little farther down on the platform had told him to stop thinking about it, but there was no way he could.
“We’ll be fine,” Rory assured him again, “I’ll call when we get there and text updates.”
They were going to take a train. Sugar had figured everything out and this was the fastest way other than taking a plane and they definitely couldn’t do that when they technically hadn’t been born yet.
“We should actually get on,” Rory said.
“Right,” Kurt nodded, “be careful.”
He approached Sugar and she turned to wave at Kurt before they headed towards the train. They managed to find good seats and both leaned towards the window to wave at Kurt. It was another ten minutes before they were on their way and his dad stood there with a conflicted look on his face.
Rory didn’t know what to think about his dad’s behavior lately. He and Santana kept talking to each other and whatever it was that they were discussing wasn’t something they seemed to want to share with everyone else and that included both Rory and Blaine.
“What do you think they’re hiding?” Rory asked.
Sugar shrugged. “I still don’t think it’s anything important,” she said, “but you know, I can’t help but think back to how I came here.”
“What about it?”
Sugar sunk back into her seat. “Well, they sent me. Mami and your dad sent me and told me not to talk to you. Specifically knew how to sent me so I would be here weeks before you and with the instruction to watch you and not interfere in anything. And I know we sort of went against that when you approached me and everything, but you know, I did stay away for a while.”
Rory hadn’t thought about that since Sugar had first told him when he’d decided he needed to talk to her all those months back, and now he didn’t know what it meant, because how could they let him come back if they knew it was going to happen, and how could they let his papa die. But maybe they didn’t know that. Rory had only told his grandpa. Maybe he had to tell his dad too and they could stop it.
The thought had crossed his mind before and he’d decided it was too much of a burden to drop on them, but maybe it really wasn’t.
“So you think they let me go on purpose,” Rory said, “and then they sent you also on purpose.”
Sugar nodded. “If they remembered everything we’re doing now, and seeing as your parents know. Well, maybe we were meant to come back here.”
“To save my papa,” Rory said.
Sugar just shrugged. After that she took out her phone and sat back on her seat giggling every once in a while when she received a text.
“We picked the very best week to miss school,” Sugar said a half hour into their trip, “they’re doing disco. Everyone except for Blaine and Mike are miserable.”
Of course his papa was into it. He shook his head.
“Figures.”
Sugar kept texting and Rory just pressed his face against the window, staring out at the trees and bushes they passed. It was an eighteen hour trip and he wished he had at least picked out a book or something else to entertain him because Sugar was definitely not going to.
-
The whole disco week thing turned out to be about the future. The future of Santana, Mercedes, and Finn to be more specific and Blaine didn’t think it was a good lesson at all, but after his first few weeks at McKinley he’d stopped questioning how the teachers there handled their students and classrooms.
“I can’t believe you helped bring this along,” Kurt said after they left the choir room, “or that you didn’t come see Rory off this morning because you were practicing for your little number earlier.”
Blaine just rolled his eyes. “I know you liked it.”
Kurt shook his head, but he was smiling. “The dance moves. Fine. Do you want to know what happened to me today?”
“What?”
They walked to Kurt’s locker. “I was talking to Mercedes earlier when this guy came strutting towards us. And I have to tell you this because for about two minutes I was pretty convinced that he was from the future and Mercedes was his mom. This whole time-travel being possible thing is going to make me wonder about everyone.”
Blaine couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, Kurt.”
Blaine listened as Kurt kept talking about Wade and all the issues that he’d come to see him and Mercedes about.
“Anyway,” Kurt said, “he was a nice kid. I kind of feel bad for leaving him with Jesse and Vocal Adrenaline.”
They left the school in their separate cars because Blaine had gotten there much earlier than Kurt to practice for his number and Kurt had had to drop off Sugar and Rory to catch their train into New York. They had left pretty early, but Kurt had still had to skip his first class and had just managed to make it to watch Blaine perform with Brittany and Mike.
That afternoon he hung out with Kurt and for once they didn’t talk about the whole time travel thing. Instead, Kurt brought up NYADA and it was the first time since he’d become a finalist that he was bringing it up.
“I’ve been so focused on Rory and everything that I haven’t even thought about my audition piece,” he said, “and I know we don’t even know when it’s going to be, but I should have been preparing. Rachel probably is.”
Blaine was excited and happy that Kurt might get into the school of his dreams, but it was a bit bittersweet when he thought about Kurt being in New York and him stuck in Lima for another year. He was going to miss him like crazy and Blaine had stopped himself from really thinking about being apart from him and had been so preoccupied with other things that he hadn’t thought about how much it was going to hurt to not be able to see him every day. But it was going to work out. He and Kurt would get married and they were going to have Rory. Blaine tried not to think about the fact that technically this future wasn’t a sure thing.
Blaine didn’t hear about Rory until the next day when Kurt told him he’d called and that they were fine.
“He’s been texting, but not too often. They’re trying to find the place and checked into a hotel and they won’t be back for a few more days.”
There was a lot of talk of the future going on around him and Blaine couldn’t really stand it. All the seniors were all so excited to leave and in comparison, Blaine was stuck there with no way out for another year and with Kurt most likely in New York.
-
“My moms made a sex tape,” Sugar said and Rory thought for a moment that he hadn’t heard her right.
They were standing in the middle of grand central station trying to figure out where they were boarding their train home and Rory couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “What?” he asked.
Sugar nodded. “Tina just texted. Apparently it’s all over the web. My mom uploaded it for some reason. I cannot believe they would…ahhh!”
Rory would have found it hilarious if he wasn’t also a little disgusted. They were his aunts after all and thinking about their having sex made him want to bleach his brain. He knew it had to be worse for Sugar, but at least neither of her moms had asked her for advice on when to go all the way like his dad had to him and Rory still couldn’t shudder when he thought about that.
“You know, if you had asked me who out of the glee club right now would have one I really would have said Puck…but your moms come close. Why is it on the web?”
“My mom put it up,” Sugar said and groaned, “something about the week’s lesson. I don’t know. All I know is that I’m not going to be able to look at them when we get back.”
“We’ll be home soon enough,” Rory said, “just a few more weeks at the most and you can forget all about this.”
Sugar cringed. “Do you think they have others in the future? Oh god, oh god…I can’t think about this anymore. Let’s find that train.”
Sugar was quiet as they got on, and she immediately closed her eyes and claimed she was going to sleep. Rory left her to it. Instead he pulled out his own phone to update his dad.
He sent a text telling them they were on their way back and received one back almost at once with his dad letting him know that he’d pick them up even though it was going to be pretty late when they arrived.
Sugar did fall asleep eventually and that left Rory to read the book he’d picked up in an old bookstore he’d dragged Sugar into after they’d gone and bought the part from the very obscure shop in Union Square. Sugar had retaliated by dragging him into a couple of clothing stores.
Many hours later he was dozing off over the book and Sugar was waking up.
“It’s going to be years before I get over this,” she groaned at him, “years, Rory.”
When the train finally came to a stop it was very late and Rory wished he had actually let himself sleep on their way back. Instead he’d finished reading the book. They got up, stretched and gathered their things. As soon as they were out there, he spotted his dad and papa.
They had gotten out of his dad’s car and were both holding thermos that probably held coffee.
“We got it!” Rory cried when they were closer to them. He hugged each of them and then they got into the car with Sugar still bemoaning the existence of the sex tape.
“Santana’s pretty broken up about it,” Kurt told them, “I don’t think she intended it to go online, but Brittany only thought she was helping. It’s been a weird week.”
-
“She was fantastic,” Kurt told Blaine.
“Yeah? And no one said anything about how she was dressed?”
Kurt shook his head. “Obviously Unique’s teammates knew and Jesse was throwing a fit, but no one in the audience realized that she wasn’t a girl. I’m a little worried about Nationals. She was kind of amazing so Jesse’s definitely going to use that to their advantage.”
Kurt parked in his usual spot and the two of them got out. They hadn’t gotten that much sleep the night before with having to go pick up Sugar and Rory around four in the morning, but Kurt had promised that he would be in school to see Finn’s performance.
Rory and Sugar on the other hand were taking another day out of school to rest up after their trip. They were going to try and work on the time machine later that day though and Kurt was a little worried about everything again, especially now that they literally only had this last part to add to it. Brittany had already gotten the other part and had even gone and added it in. It didn’t help that Kurt still had no idea how he was going to prevent Blaine’s death.
By the time school was over, Kurt was ready to crawl back into his bed and just fall into deep slumber, so he let Blaine drive his car because for some reason he was far more awake.
“I told Rory we’d meet later,” Kurt told him, “can we just go sleep at my house?”
Blaine nodded. “Sure. I’m tired too.”
They both climbed right into Kurt’s bed when they got to his house and promptly fell asleep. Kurt woke up a few hours later, still tired, when his phone started to ring. It was Rachel.
“Kurt,” she said, “I just got an e-mail from NYADA. Have you checked? You probably got one too. They’ve scheduled our auditions. Oh my god, this is all really real, isn’t it? Have you picked a song? I was thinking about just doing-”
Kurt stopped listening. How much time did he have to prepare? Why hadn’t he been working on this already? This was all he wanted, he had to get into that school.
“-we’re going to have to practice, practice, practice. I’m so excited! Kurt, can you believe it? Do you have anything going on today? We can start picking out a song for you to sing and give each other pointers.”
Blaine hadn’t woken up when the phone rang, but he did when Kurt shifted out of his arms to sit up properly.
“What?” He asked drowsily, “Kurt? Come back.”
“Busy today, Rachel, but we can talk about it soon, alright?”
“Oh, of course,” Rachel said, “I’m just so excited. Can you believe this is actually happening?”
“Sort of. I’ll talk to you later.”
He hung up on her before she could go on for much longer and turned to Blaine who was blinking awake and staring up at him. His hair had gotten a bit messy from their nap and in his crumpled clothes because apparently they had both been too tired to even bother changing, he looked absolutely adorable.
“Was that Rory?”
Kurt shook his head. “Rachel. NYADA set a date for our auditions. I don’t even want to look at the e-mail yet, but I guess they have to be somewhat soon. I haven’t even picked a song but…”
“But you’ll be fine,” Blaine finished and then proceeded to pull him down so he was lying down on the bed again.
They faced each other, foreheads touching.
The phone chose that moment to ring again.
Kurt grabbed it on the third ring. This time it was Rory.
“Hey,” he said.
“I know we were going to wait to work on it later, but Sugar and I couldn’t wait and Brittany was inspired. Anyway, I just figured you’d want to know. It’s…it’s finished. We think it works. I mean, we turned it on so it must work. I think maybe I’m going home.”
Genre: Romance, Humor, Fantasy
Pairing: Klaine, Brittana, Rory/?
Rating: PG - PG 13
Spoilers: none.
Disclaimer: : I own nothing...and do not claim to.
Summary: In a moment of what could be called absolutely brilliance or stupidity, Rory Hummel-Anderson decided that the only way to get his Papa back was to go back in time and stall him, or stop him from getting into the car at all. The only problem is, his Aunt's time machine is still just a prototype and he can't even specify a time. But Rory uses it anyway and suddenly he's back in 2011 and he has to pretend to be an exchange student while he waits for Aunt Brittany to build the time machine again and get back home. In the meanwhile he gets to know his parents as teenagers and even help their relationship along when they hit a bump in the road.
Chapter Twenty
The Last Part
Kurt thought it was kind of crazy, but he went along with it and stood behind the camera while Cooper prepared himself. Blaine was still in his sweats from some sort of dance practice he was having with Mike and Brittany, but he didn’t look a bit tired. Instead, he was kind of excitedly jumping around. He reminded Kurt of Blaine’s dog.
They actually didn’t take too long to get the video done, and Kurt was glad to see the brothers actually getting along. Cooper was still a bit ridiculous and he was slowly getting over his good looks, though mostly because past that, there really wasn’t a whole lot there. Plus, Cooper had insulted his wardrobe choices and that still stung so, Kurt was ready to just take him on as a brother-in-law when the time came. Every time he looked at Blaine though, he was reminded that they weren’t going to have the forever they had always imagined.
Cooper was collapsed on the ground kind of wriggling around and Kurt tried not to laugh because he didn’t want the camera to catch any of it. Cooper twitched and then lay still for a while. Kurt watched Blaine walk over and nudge him with his foot, only for Cooper to grab his legs and bring him down with him with a loud thump.
“Ow!”
“Sorry!”
Blaine laughed and then the brothers were rolling around on the floor. Kurt couldn’t deny that they made a very nice picture. He kept the camera focused on them. When they got tired the two of them just lay on the floor. Kurt turned off the camera and turned to the two boys.
“Lunch?” he asked.
“Uh, sure,” Cooper said, “but a quick one and nothing fattening. I have to keep my figure, you know.”
Kurt rolled his eyes and nodded. Blaine dusted himself off.
“I’m going to get changed,” he told them, “but yeah, sure.”
“I’m glad the two of you are talking again,” Kurt said once Blaine had left, “I think he needed that.”
Cooper nodded. “Should I give you the big brother talk or something?” Cooper asked, “I don’t think anyone else has…”
“The Warblers covered it when we first started dating,” Kurt said, stopping him.
Cooper looked uncomfortable, but then he nodded and added, “Just don’t hurt him.”
Kurt’s phone rang before he could respond.
“Go ahead,” Cooper said and waved his hand. He walked towards the camera and Kurt heard it turn on.
“Hello?” he said into the phone.
“Hey, dad,” Rory said, “Sugar and I are with Britt and Santana and it’s practically finished. There’s a couple of more parts that are needed and Sugar actually knows a little bit about this because she was always going with her mom to get things. Anyway, I don’t know what it is exactly, but Sugar remembers what it looks like. Brittany’s going to get one of them later this week, but we looked it up and the other one is only sold in two places. In California and New York.”
Kurt didn’t know what to say. He was happy that the machine was being worked on, and he wanted Rory to be able to go home, but he was worried about what Rory would find in the future, and worried that it had been changed completely or that he wouldn’t find Blaine there.
“Who’s going to get the part?” He asked.
“Sugar insists she can go on her own,” Rory said, “so I’m thinking of going with her.”
“What if someone else goes? Blaine or I could-”
“No,” Rory said, “Sugar and I can. New York isn’t that far. We’ll take a train and we’ll be really careful. We won’t leave until tomorrow or the day after.”
He and Blaine had agreed not to tell Rory about the chaos theory and what it might all entail, but he was starting to think that maybe he should follow Santana’s advice and talk to Rory about everything. After all, if they went to New York, what were the chances that they could go and mess a whole bunch of other things. Somehow, he knew that Rory was going to be stubborn about it and not listen.
“Anyway,” Rory said, “I figured I’d fill you guys in. How’s Uncle Coop?”
“Good. He and Blaine are getting along. It’s kind of too bad he’s leaving later today.”
Rory kept him on the phone a while longer, long enough for Blaine to return fully dressed and for Cooper to have watched his audition tape a couple of times.
“This is brilliant,” he said when Kurt got off the phone, “thank you, both of you.”
They went out to eat and Kurt could admit to being a little charmed by the English accent that Cooper pulled out for their waiter. Blaine just rolled his eyes.
“So what time’s your flight again?” Blaine asked halfway through the meal.
“You’re very eager to get rid of me,” Cooper said, “I have two more hours to hang out with you too. Actually one, I should get back home to say goodbye to mom and dad.”
Although the whole Transformers thing wasn’t going to work out, Cooper did have another commercial lined up. It was something for a shampoo commercial for a brand that Kurt had never heard of. He was excited for Cooper anyway. Hollywood was a hard place to be and harder still if there was a delusion as to one’s abilities.
Kurt waited until after they dropped Cooper back off at Blaine’s house and were back at his own to tell him about the developments with Rory. Since being able to talk to Santana about the whole issue with Blaine, it had gotten just a little bit easier to talk to Blaine about anything Rory related, but there was still this feeling right in the pit of his stomach that refused to disappear. It made him stiff and nervous and shaky all at once and nothing he did could extinguish it.
“So, it’s almost complete then,” Blaine said, “just two more parts. Wow.”
“Yeah. I’m just a little worried about the changes they may have made…the changes that could still be made…”
They had been sitting back against the headboard on Kurt’s bed, sides pressed together, but Blaine was suddenly hauling Kurt into him so that Kurt was rested against him instead of his pillows. Blaine felt nicer under him anyway.
“I was thinking about all of this,” Blaine said, “and I think we have to stop worrying about it. If they changed something, then they changed something. For us the future will be whatever we make it and I know that nothing will keep me from getting married to you and having Rory, so maybe this is just a way of telling us that not everything is set in stone. That anything could happen and it’s our choices making it happen. We’ll deal with the future as it comes and maybe it won’t be an exact replica of what Rory came from, but who’s to say that isn’t better?”
Kurt wanted to cry. He couldn’t speak. How could Blaine just say the one thing that Kurt was hoping for most in the world and that any change Rory made would be to save Blaine in the future. He buried his face in the crook of Blaine’s neck and placed a kiss on the skin in front of him. Blaine hummed. Kurt smiled against his neck and just sighed. Could everything turn out for the better?
- - -
Rory hugged his dad. “We’ll be okay,” he said as he was pulling back, “I’ve lived in-”
Kurt stared at him. “New York,” he said, “we live in New York.”
Rory opened his mouth and shook his head. “Cannot confirm or deny.” He couldn’t believe he’d so easily let that out even though it really wasn’t that big of a detail considering that it was his dad’s dream to be in New York.
Kurt just grinned. “Well, it’s different now I’d think so take care of yourself and Sugar. Getting that part is important, but not as important as the two of you. Alright?”
The time machine was ready to be completed. So, ready that Rory could already see himself back at home. He was still worried about his papa and the very big possibility that Rory wouldn’t be able to save him, but for the moment he had to focus on getting the part. Sugar who was waiting a little farther down on the platform had told him to stop thinking about it, but there was no way he could.
“We’ll be fine,” Rory assured him again, “I’ll call when we get there and text updates.”
They were going to take a train. Sugar had figured everything out and this was the fastest way other than taking a plane and they definitely couldn’t do that when they technically hadn’t been born yet.
“We should actually get on,” Rory said.
“Right,” Kurt nodded, “be careful.”
He approached Sugar and she turned to wave at Kurt before they headed towards the train. They managed to find good seats and both leaned towards the window to wave at Kurt. It was another ten minutes before they were on their way and his dad stood there with a conflicted look on his face.
Rory didn’t know what to think about his dad’s behavior lately. He and Santana kept talking to each other and whatever it was that they were discussing wasn’t something they seemed to want to share with everyone else and that included both Rory and Blaine.
“What do you think they’re hiding?” Rory asked.
Sugar shrugged. “I still don’t think it’s anything important,” she said, “but you know, I can’t help but think back to how I came here.”
“What about it?”
Sugar sunk back into her seat. “Well, they sent me. Mami and your dad sent me and told me not to talk to you. Specifically knew how to sent me so I would be here weeks before you and with the instruction to watch you and not interfere in anything. And I know we sort of went against that when you approached me and everything, but you know, I did stay away for a while.”
Rory hadn’t thought about that since Sugar had first told him when he’d decided he needed to talk to her all those months back, and now he didn’t know what it meant, because how could they let him come back if they knew it was going to happen, and how could they let his papa die. But maybe they didn’t know that. Rory had only told his grandpa. Maybe he had to tell his dad too and they could stop it.
The thought had crossed his mind before and he’d decided it was too much of a burden to drop on them, but maybe it really wasn’t.
“So you think they let me go on purpose,” Rory said, “and then they sent you also on purpose.”
Sugar nodded. “If they remembered everything we’re doing now, and seeing as your parents know. Well, maybe we were meant to come back here.”
“To save my papa,” Rory said.
Sugar just shrugged. After that she took out her phone and sat back on her seat giggling every once in a while when she received a text.
“We picked the very best week to miss school,” Sugar said a half hour into their trip, “they’re doing disco. Everyone except for Blaine and Mike are miserable.”
Of course his papa was into it. He shook his head.
“Figures.”
Sugar kept texting and Rory just pressed his face against the window, staring out at the trees and bushes they passed. It was an eighteen hour trip and he wished he had at least picked out a book or something else to entertain him because Sugar was definitely not going to.
-
The whole disco week thing turned out to be about the future. The future of Santana, Mercedes, and Finn to be more specific and Blaine didn’t think it was a good lesson at all, but after his first few weeks at McKinley he’d stopped questioning how the teachers there handled their students and classrooms.
“I can’t believe you helped bring this along,” Kurt said after they left the choir room, “or that you didn’t come see Rory off this morning because you were practicing for your little number earlier.”
Blaine just rolled his eyes. “I know you liked it.”
Kurt shook his head, but he was smiling. “The dance moves. Fine. Do you want to know what happened to me today?”
“What?”
They walked to Kurt’s locker. “I was talking to Mercedes earlier when this guy came strutting towards us. And I have to tell you this because for about two minutes I was pretty convinced that he was from the future and Mercedes was his mom. This whole time-travel being possible thing is going to make me wonder about everyone.”
Blaine couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, Kurt.”
Blaine listened as Kurt kept talking about Wade and all the issues that he’d come to see him and Mercedes about.
“Anyway,” Kurt said, “he was a nice kid. I kind of feel bad for leaving him with Jesse and Vocal Adrenaline.”
They left the school in their separate cars because Blaine had gotten there much earlier than Kurt to practice for his number and Kurt had had to drop off Sugar and Rory to catch their train into New York. They had left pretty early, but Kurt had still had to skip his first class and had just managed to make it to watch Blaine perform with Brittany and Mike.
That afternoon he hung out with Kurt and for once they didn’t talk about the whole time travel thing. Instead, Kurt brought up NYADA and it was the first time since he’d become a finalist that he was bringing it up.
“I’ve been so focused on Rory and everything that I haven’t even thought about my audition piece,” he said, “and I know we don’t even know when it’s going to be, but I should have been preparing. Rachel probably is.”
Blaine was excited and happy that Kurt might get into the school of his dreams, but it was a bit bittersweet when he thought about Kurt being in New York and him stuck in Lima for another year. He was going to miss him like crazy and Blaine had stopped himself from really thinking about being apart from him and had been so preoccupied with other things that he hadn’t thought about how much it was going to hurt to not be able to see him every day. But it was going to work out. He and Kurt would get married and they were going to have Rory. Blaine tried not to think about the fact that technically this future wasn’t a sure thing.
Blaine didn’t hear about Rory until the next day when Kurt told him he’d called and that they were fine.
“He’s been texting, but not too often. They’re trying to find the place and checked into a hotel and they won’t be back for a few more days.”
There was a lot of talk of the future going on around him and Blaine couldn’t really stand it. All the seniors were all so excited to leave and in comparison, Blaine was stuck there with no way out for another year and with Kurt most likely in New York.
-
“My moms made a sex tape,” Sugar said and Rory thought for a moment that he hadn’t heard her right.
They were standing in the middle of grand central station trying to figure out where they were boarding their train home and Rory couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “What?” he asked.
Sugar nodded. “Tina just texted. Apparently it’s all over the web. My mom uploaded it for some reason. I cannot believe they would…ahhh!”
Rory would have found it hilarious if he wasn’t also a little disgusted. They were his aunts after all and thinking about their having sex made him want to bleach his brain. He knew it had to be worse for Sugar, but at least neither of her moms had asked her for advice on when to go all the way like his dad had to him and Rory still couldn’t shudder when he thought about that.
“You know, if you had asked me who out of the glee club right now would have one I really would have said Puck…but your moms come close. Why is it on the web?”
“My mom put it up,” Sugar said and groaned, “something about the week’s lesson. I don’t know. All I know is that I’m not going to be able to look at them when we get back.”
“We’ll be home soon enough,” Rory said, “just a few more weeks at the most and you can forget all about this.”
Sugar cringed. “Do you think they have others in the future? Oh god, oh god…I can’t think about this anymore. Let’s find that train.”
Sugar was quiet as they got on, and she immediately closed her eyes and claimed she was going to sleep. Rory left her to it. Instead he pulled out his own phone to update his dad.
He sent a text telling them they were on their way back and received one back almost at once with his dad letting him know that he’d pick them up even though it was going to be pretty late when they arrived.
Sugar did fall asleep eventually and that left Rory to read the book he’d picked up in an old bookstore he’d dragged Sugar into after they’d gone and bought the part from the very obscure shop in Union Square. Sugar had retaliated by dragging him into a couple of clothing stores.
Many hours later he was dozing off over the book and Sugar was waking up.
“It’s going to be years before I get over this,” she groaned at him, “years, Rory.”
When the train finally came to a stop it was very late and Rory wished he had actually let himself sleep on their way back. Instead he’d finished reading the book. They got up, stretched and gathered their things. As soon as they were out there, he spotted his dad and papa.
They had gotten out of his dad’s car and were both holding thermos that probably held coffee.
“We got it!” Rory cried when they were closer to them. He hugged each of them and then they got into the car with Sugar still bemoaning the existence of the sex tape.
“Santana’s pretty broken up about it,” Kurt told them, “I don’t think she intended it to go online, but Brittany only thought she was helping. It’s been a weird week.”
-
“She was fantastic,” Kurt told Blaine.
“Yeah? And no one said anything about how she was dressed?”
Kurt shook his head. “Obviously Unique’s teammates knew and Jesse was throwing a fit, but no one in the audience realized that she wasn’t a girl. I’m a little worried about Nationals. She was kind of amazing so Jesse’s definitely going to use that to their advantage.”
Kurt parked in his usual spot and the two of them got out. They hadn’t gotten that much sleep the night before with having to go pick up Sugar and Rory around four in the morning, but Kurt had promised that he would be in school to see Finn’s performance.
Rory and Sugar on the other hand were taking another day out of school to rest up after their trip. They were going to try and work on the time machine later that day though and Kurt was a little worried about everything again, especially now that they literally only had this last part to add to it. Brittany had already gotten the other part and had even gone and added it in. It didn’t help that Kurt still had no idea how he was going to prevent Blaine’s death.
By the time school was over, Kurt was ready to crawl back into his bed and just fall into deep slumber, so he let Blaine drive his car because for some reason he was far more awake.
“I told Rory we’d meet later,” Kurt told him, “can we just go sleep at my house?”
Blaine nodded. “Sure. I’m tired too.”
They both climbed right into Kurt’s bed when they got to his house and promptly fell asleep. Kurt woke up a few hours later, still tired, when his phone started to ring. It was Rachel.
“Kurt,” she said, “I just got an e-mail from NYADA. Have you checked? You probably got one too. They’ve scheduled our auditions. Oh my god, this is all really real, isn’t it? Have you picked a song? I was thinking about just doing-”
Kurt stopped listening. How much time did he have to prepare? Why hadn’t he been working on this already? This was all he wanted, he had to get into that school.
“-we’re going to have to practice, practice, practice. I’m so excited! Kurt, can you believe it? Do you have anything going on today? We can start picking out a song for you to sing and give each other pointers.”
Blaine hadn’t woken up when the phone rang, but he did when Kurt shifted out of his arms to sit up properly.
“What?” He asked drowsily, “Kurt? Come back.”
“Busy today, Rachel, but we can talk about it soon, alright?”
“Oh, of course,” Rachel said, “I’m just so excited. Can you believe this is actually happening?”
“Sort of. I’ll talk to you later.”
He hung up on her before she could go on for much longer and turned to Blaine who was blinking awake and staring up at him. His hair had gotten a bit messy from their nap and in his crumpled clothes because apparently they had both been too tired to even bother changing, he looked absolutely adorable.
“Was that Rory?”
Kurt shook his head. “Rachel. NYADA set a date for our auditions. I don’t even want to look at the e-mail yet, but I guess they have to be somewhat soon. I haven’t even picked a song but…”
“But you’ll be fine,” Blaine finished and then proceeded to pull him down so he was lying down on the bed again.
They faced each other, foreheads touching.
The phone chose that moment to ring again.
Kurt grabbed it on the third ring. This time it was Rory.
“Hey,” he said.
“I know we were going to wait to work on it later, but Sugar and I couldn’t wait and Brittany was inspired. Anyway, I just figured you’d want to know. It’s…it’s finished. We think it works. I mean, we turned it on so it must work. I think maybe I’m going home.”