The Transiency of Love: Part 1
Title: The Transience of Love
Author: Koinaka
Rating: PG 13
Pairing(s)/Character(s):Kurt, Sam, Dean, Bobby, Castiel, mentions of other characters as needed.
Genre: Supernatural!Crossover, AU
Spoilers: set post season 3, so everything aired, set between season 3 and 4 for Supernatural, so pretty much everything there too.
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Ryan Murphy and Eric Kripke respectively.
Summary: Kurt was trying to get through the summer. Sam was trying to forget. Neither of them expected to fall in love.
Warning(s): AU/crossover
Word Count: Around 1600 words for this part.
Written for this prompt @ here.
The Transience of Love
By Koinaka
Please let me forget
all those sweet smiles
all of the passion
all of the heat, the peace, the pain
all those blue skies
where your words were my freedom
-Don't, Jewel
Chapter One: How it Begins
By the end of his first week back in Lima, Kurt was sure that the summer between his freshman and sophomore year in college was going to be the longest summer of his life. After the whirlwind that was New York City, the slow pace of Lima was enough to frustrate him to tears most days. If given a choice, he wouldn't have come home at all, but unfortunately, he didn't have the funds to spend the summer in the city-even with Rachel's fathers paying the majority of their rent-thanks to the insane amount of money he had spent on clothing over the past year. Instead he was stuck working at his dad's shop and spending far more time than he would like with Finn and Puck.
All in all, it was shaping up to be a miserable summer.
The first time he thought that the summer might not be all that bad was on a Friday. Unlike most people, Kurt hated Fridays. Friday was one of his dad's days off which meant that he wasn't there to act as a distraction for Finn. It also meant that Kurt had to close up the shop by himself.
It started off like the previous two Fridays that he'd spent at work. He was counting down the minutes until closing time-exactly twelve-and flipping through the newest issue of Vogue. It had been ridiculously slow all day-even slower than usual-which meant that the majority of his time had been spent entertaining Finn, who was also working there part-time, and texting catty comments to Rachel about the people that came into the shop. After a year spent in extremely close proximity-their apartment was roughly the size of his dad's entire living room-the two had shifted from frenemies to best friends with only minimal bloodshed.
When he heard the door open, he didn't even bother to look up assuming that it was just Finn-yet again. Since it was so close to the end of the day, everyone else had already gone home except for him and Finn. He had tried to send Finn home earlier, but he just kept coming back-the first time because he'd accidentally locked himself out of the house and the second time he'd shown up with Puck in tow mumbling something about checking the oil in Puck's truck.
"I swear to God, Finn, I don't care if you change the entire football team's oil, as long as you are finished in the next twelve minutes," he said as he started a game of Angry Birds. Eleven minutes and counting.
There was a long pause, and then a voice that was definitely not Finn said, "Um…"
Surprised and more than a little embarrassed, he dropped his phone on the counter and looked up to greet the customer. "Sorry," he said. "I thought you were someone else. How can I help you?"
The first thing he noticed about the customer in front of him was that he was ridiculously tall, as in taller than Finn tall. The second thing he noticed was that he was incredibly, incredibly, incredibly attractive with shaggy brown hair and green eyes.
"I know you are about to close up, but I was hoping you could take a look at my car."
Kurt chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. He wasn't exactly dressed to work on a car, but the guy looked so hopeful that he just couldn't say no. Cursing his weakness for tall boys with puppy dog eyes, he nodded. "Sure. I'll just go let the door up and you can pull it in."
The guy's face lit up. "Thanks… I-just thanks. I'm Sam, by the way."
"Kurt, and it's no problem, really. You're saving me from having to spend time with my step-brother and his friends, so I should be the one thanking you."
The car in question, a 1967 Chevy Impala, was a beauty. Kurt made an appreciative noise as he took in the pristine condition the car was in. His dad had talked about restoring an old Impala last summer, before he went away to school, but there hadn't been time. Not that it made a difference, anyway, because having a car in the city was way more hassle than it was worth. But seeing this car made him wish that they had because while Kurt loved his Navigator, they really didn't make cars like this anymore.
"I'm not really sure what's wrong with it," Sam confessed as Kurt popped the hood. "It might be nothing, but the check engine light came on, so I thought I should get it checked out before I left town. I'm on a road trip," he added hastily at Kurt's inquiring look.
Ten minutes and one diagnostic test later, Sam's car was ready to go-after Kurt had added more transmission fluid and oil. During that time, Kurt discovered that Sam really knew shockingly little about cars.
"I can show you how to check these things for yourself. It's always more cost efficient, with an older car, if you can do some of the work yourself, you know, especially if you're going to be on the road."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wanted to kick himself. What had possessed him to offer to help a practical stranger-even if the stranger in question was extremely attractive?
"Sorry," he said when Sam didn't respond after a minute. "I'm sure you have much better things to do than to hang around here letting me play with your car."
Sam paused, a strange look flitting across his face, before he shook his head, cutting off Kurt's protests. "No, no, it's okay. It's just… my brother used to say the same thing. About the car," he clarified. "He tried to teach me some stuff before he died, but…. I can't really remember any of it." He took a deep breath. "So, yeah, that would be great. Thanks."
Sam turned out to be a very quick learner so it hadn't taken too long to show him a few things that would be helpful on the road. They spent the next two hours on the tiny couch in his dad's office talking. Only Kurt seemed to be the one doing most of the talking. Not for lack of trying on his part, but whenever he tried to get Sam to talk about himself, he was always able to direct the conversation elsewhere. He thought it was a bit strange, but assumed it was just because Sam was shy, so instead of talking Sam mostly just listened while Kurt talked about his first year in New York and his family.
They probably would have stayed like that for hours if the alarm company hadn't called to see why they hadn't set the alarm yet. They continued talking as Kurt hurried through his closing duties, and when they were finished, they talked for a few more minutes outside. They both seemed more than a little reluctant to say goodbye-Sam in particular-but eventually Kurt's stomach began to protest rather loudly.
"I should go," he said finally, even though everything in him wanted to stay because he knew that there was a very large chance he would never see Sam again once he did. One of the very few things he had managed to learn about Sam was that he was on a weird sort of road trip with no destination or end in sight. He seemed to just drift from one place to the next.
He knew that it was ridiculous-and completely insane-because they didn't know each other, not really, but the idea of never seeing Sam again made his entire chest ache.
Instead of climbing into his car, though, Sam took a step towards Kurt. He reached out as if to touch him but then stopped, his arm dropping to his side. They stared at each other for several long seconds.
If Kurt hadn't known that there was no such thing as love at first sight-he used to think there was but that was before the train wreck that was his relationship with Blaine-he would have thought that was what he was feeling at that moment-kind of nauseous and scared but somehow still excited like he was waiting for the drop at the top of a huge roller coaster-was love.
"Dinner," Sam blurted out. He sighed and ran his hands through his already messy hair. "I mean, can I buy you dinner?"
Kurt studied Sam for a moment. He wasn't the best at deciphering signals-he had a trail of almost-but-not-quite relationships to prove that-but there was something about the way Sam was looking at him, about how he had been looking at him ever since he walked into the shop that made Kurt think that maybe-just maybe-he wasn't imagining an attraction where there wasn't one.
But he had to be sure because he knew that he couldn't handle another Blaine situation.
"Are you asking me out?" He tried to go for coy, but his voice wavered ever so slightly and ruined the effect.
There was a pause where Kurt thought that maybe he had misread the entire situation again, but then Sam let out a shaky breath and nodded. "Yeah, I am."
Sam sounded exactly like he felt: completely terrified and excited all at once.
"Then I accept."