Doppelganger

Kurt watched Sebastian walk away and he tried to remind himself that Sebastian meant nothing to Blaine. Still, though, despite all the insults he’d tried to throw at him, Sebastian had somehow known just where to hit him. He looked down at the application.

“Hey,” Blaine said and his hand covered his, “what’s wrong?”

“Am I going to be stuck working here next year, Blaine? What if I don’t get into NYADA? What do I do then?”

Blaine picked his hand up from the table to really grasp it. “You applied to other places,” he said, “and even if it’s not NYADA, you’ll still be amazing anywhere you go.”

Kurt let his eyes close and he nodded.

“What did Sebastian say to you?”

Kurt shrugged his shoulders, “does it matter?”

“Kurt…”

He shook his head and Blaine sighed and picked up his cup of coffee. Kurt knew that Sebastian meant nothing. He knew that Blaine would never cheat on him. He knew that there was nothing Sebastian could do that would take Blaine from him. But knowing all of that, it wasn’t enough to quell the worry that he really wasn’t enough for Blaine and that he wouldn’t succeed.

“I don’t think I’m going to hand this in,” Kurt said and ripped the application for work at the Lima Bean in half and then into quarters.

“What…why?”

Kurt started gathering his things, “because I’m half convinced that Sebastian lives here or something and I don’t want to deal with that – I’ll just pick up a few shifts at the shop. Now that dad won the election Finn might need the extra pair of hands anyway.”

He threw out his mostly empty cup of coffee, followed by the application he’d just ripped and then picked up the strap of his bag to put over his shoulder.

“I was looking forward to your employee discount,” Blaine said.

Kurt couldn’t help but let out a chortle of laughter, “you’re all about the discounts you might get from your romantic dalliances, aren’t you?”

Blaine hung his head as he too gathered his things. “I thought we weren’t going to bring that up again.”

“Sorry, love, you walked into it.”

They walked out to the car and Kurt got into the driver’s side, handing Blaine his bag to throw in the back seat.

“Yours or mine?” Kurt asked.

Blaine shrugged.

“Mine then,” Kurt said, “Finn and Rachel invited me to come along to get Sam but I declined, because I have no idea how that’s supposed to help other than adding another person that can sing to our team – but the point is we have the house to ourselves.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“I liked Sam,” Blaine said, “the few times I got to meet him.”

Kurt nodded. Sam was a nice guy, he’d been accepting of him from the moment they’d met and even though Kurt was still bitter that Mercedes hadn’t told him anything about her fling with Sam that past summer, he did like the blond.

“He’s cool. I think he’s moving in with us, though, if Finn and Rachel can convince him to come back. We have the room – sort of – and dad and Carole are practically going to be living in DC soon.”

When they got to his house, Blaine grabbed both of their bags and Kurt rolled his eyes as he walked after him to open the door. His dad and Carole were actually in DC just then, dealing with the aftermath of being elected – they’d been invited to a few dinners and Carole had decided they needed to start apartment hunting early anyway. It’d be just a month or so before he was actually in office and then everything was really going to change in their family dynamics. Kurt wasn’t looking forward to having to stop Finn and Puck from throwing some sort of party at their house.

He and Blaine headed up to his room and Blaine immediately put on music, a playlist full of songs they both loved. He sat down on Kurt’s bed to take off his shoes and Kurt just watched him because no matter what Sebastian said, this was his and one day he and Blaine would have their own house with a bedroom that they could call theirs decorated to fit both their tastes and it would just be routine to retire together and do their nightly routine together before they fell into their bed and wrapped in each other fell into sleep.

“What are you thinking about?” Blaine asked and was standing in front of Kurt.

“The future,” Kurt admitted, “us.”

“That right?”

Kurt nodded. His arms wrapped around Blaine’s waist. “I think I’m realizing that it won’t matter what dreams I accomplish if I don’t have you.”

Then they were kissing and the music playing in the background with a softly crooning voice made it all the more peaceful and right and when they fell into Kurt’s bed giggling Kurt knew that this was going to be forever and Sebastian would never get between them and neither would anyone else.

- - -

What Rory loved most about being in the past was being able to watch his parents and seeing them and the love that they would never lose for each other. He tried not to think about the tragedy that would befall them in his time and there was a part of him that was still convinced he could stop it somehow – he’d come this far after all.

With sectionals on the horizon glee had become more tense than ever and he couldn’t really blame anyone. Aunt Rachel had been banned from competing and Finn as much as he was trying to keep everything together was failing miserably and it really didn’t help that he wasn’t letting his papa get any kind of word in with his suggestions.

Then suddenly Sam Evans showed up and Rory couldn’t believe it and he couldn’t even hide his excitement when he walked through the door.

“Sam Evans,” his dad said, “he used to go here last year but moved because of some family issues in the summer.”

Rory knew who Sam was and he actually hadn’t thought about getting to meet Sam in the past like this, but there he was strumming his guitar and singing the most ridiculous song ever and Rory could only smile because Sam had always been more relaxed about music than anyone else he knew. He’d gone to follow Mr. Shuester’s steps, becoming a teacher and although Rory had never been his student, he knew that Sam had always been good with kids.

With the return of Sam, some of the tension that had been present for so long had started to leave and Rory was free to focus on the whole issue with the time machine.

At home, Brittany was under strict instructions to not talk to him at all.

“She won’t know the difference between what she can tell you and what she can’t,” Santana had said, her eyes looking at him in that calculating way that she always did. Rory feared that soon she’d realize who he looked she much like.

But Brittany was back to work and Rory had seen her talking to her cat a few times about the time machine and even her mom. Mrs. Pierce had humored her daughter and even tried to offer some tips. Rory could see how Brittany had been allowed to have such an unique perspective of the world.

They were doing a dance rehearsal and the two band members that were going to be joining them so they’d had enough members – Rory had no idea how Finn and Puck had convinced them – looked like they would rather be anywhere but there. He was starting to sympathize with them because there was no point to having some sort of dance routine if they didn’t even have songs yet.

There had been suggestions of course, and Rachel had tried to stop at their rehearsals multiple times with her ideas, but they were getting nowhere and Sectionals were in just a few days. Rory didn’t see the fight between Sam and his papa coming – no one did – and when he stormed out angry as anything they all stood around for a while shocked and not even his dad made a move to follow him.

Sam was the first to speak, “was it something I did? I didn’t think he’d be…”

Kurt shook his head, “don’t worry about it, Sam, it’s been a little hard for him lately.”

“I’ll go talk to him,” Finn offered.

Rory watched as his dad bit down on his lip as if he wanted to protest and go instead, but then he nodded his head, “you better not make any more trouble, Finn Hudson.”

After Finn left they all kind of gravitated to seats except for Mike and Sam who began working out their dance moves with Mr. Shuester who incidentally had said nothing about Blaine.

Rory sat down next to Kurt. “They’ll be okay,” he tried.

“I hope so,” Kurt said, “I don’t really think he’s angry at Sam. It’s Finn, really. He’s so frustrated being sort of new here and having Finn pretty much rebuke any and all of his suggestions and he’s said time and time again he doesn’t want me to talk to Finn and I guess it’s just coming to a head.”

“Finn’s a good guy,” Rory said.

“I know.”

They got up when Mike called them over again and they started working on their dance moves. It was ironic that the person that would probably need the most help getting them down wasn’t there.

He and his dad danced side by side and Rory couldn’t help but let the tension roll off his shoulders when he made a wrong step and Kurt was there correcting him almost at once because for some reason Kurt seemed to actually get the moves.

“We had booty camp earlier this year,” Kurt told him, “before Rachel kicked us off the stage for taking up time from practice for the musical, and I’ve been getting a bit better at all of this.”

When Rory almost tripped over his own feet, he was almost surprised when his dad had taken him by the shoulders to stop him. It was like old times – well, like the future technically – and Rory wanted to just be able to grin up at his dad and see that smile that was meant just for him.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” his dad said.

Blaine and Finn returned a bit later and Blaine looked in a far better mood than before and then everything was coming together because his papa and uncle had always made a good team.

- - -

Sugar knew they were going to lose. She knew because she’d seen the photo albums and yearbooks that proved the New Directions the winners of not only this competition but their Regional competition as well. She also knew that her moms would rejoin the New Directions. Still, she practiced hard and tried to really nail their choreography and the harmonies.

There was no doubt in her mind that she was horrible at the whole showbiz thing. It wasn’t for her, and Sugar had never been interested in it from the start and all of this was not turning her towards it.

Rory was different. He had always been the little performer and she knew how much his dads had loved seeing him take after them.

“You’re getting better, Sugar,” Shelby said.

It was weird having Shelby around because she looked so much like what an older Rachel Berry would look like. They weren’t identical of course, but the resemblance and relationship between them was uncanny.

She smiled a little and thanked her and then watched as Mercedes brought out the dresses they’d be using for the competition. They were pretty, she had to admit, but still not to her taste. Nothing in this time was.

Brittany across the room was teaching the cheerios that were joining them last minute the choreography and Sugar wanted nothing more than to go over there and just wrap her arms around her and be safe in her arms. She couldn’t though. Santana would kill her for one, and for another it would confuse her mom. So, instead she just watched and hoped that her longing expression wasn’t obvious.

The night of the competition, they got ready together and Santana actually helped Sugar with her hair and having her mami’s hands doing the kind of work they’d done when she was little and hopeless with her hair had made everything all the much harder because she had to keep herself from grinning like an idiot.

“You have to keep your voice in check tonight, Sugar,” Santana told her, “we can’t lose because of you.”

Sugar nodded.

“Do we…”

“What?”

“Win?”

Sugar stared at her. “I can’t tell you that.”

Santana rolled her eyes. “You can. You’re just choosing not to.”

Her mami walked away, then, going to where Mercedes was seated with Brittany and Sugar closed her eyes. She couldn’t wait until she was back home and everything was back to normal.

Shelby called them over and after a quick pep talk and some agreement that they would let the New Directions join their team if they lost, they went to the choir room where the other team had been getting themselves together.

There was something going on with Shelby, Puck, and Quinn and Sugar really just didn’t even care. Rory seemed to, but Sugar just wanted to ignore what was happening in the past and move on and go back to her present and these people’s futures. Rory didn’t seem to think that way. But then, Rory had become their friends, he’d been embraced into their fold and his parents actually liked him and looked after him. She tried not to be bitter about it.

“Good luck.”

Sugar smiled at Rory, “you too. We both know who wins.”

- - -

The first time Blaine saw Kurt and Rory dressed the same way was during the mash up they’ve done a few weeks back, but somehow he’d been so focused on the insanity that was his hair that night and the fake mustache that Finn had forced on them that he hadn’t focused on it. But seeing them standing together right before they left the choir room to the auditorium almost made him gasp because suddenly it was like he was seeing two of Kurt.

They didn’t look exactly the same, there was no way they could, but they were so similar that Blaine would have thought they were related. When he approached them, he wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders.

“You two could be twins,” he said with a grin.

Kurt cocked an eyebrow at him, looking surprised.

“No, seriously, look at each other.”

Rory’s reaction was different. He was stiff and his eyes wide in a panicked manner as if that conclusion was the one thing he didn’t want drawn from this scenario. Blaine had no idea what to do, or how to even take that reaction, so he stared back until Rory schooled his expression into something else entirely. Blaine frowned at him. He was hiding something.

“Rory,” Kurt said, “I think Blaine has a point.” He moved from Blaine to stand in front of Rory.

Blaine kept his eyes on Rory and watched him closer than he had before and it was only now that he was realizing that Rory was acting, pretending to be okay when he was freaking out. But the thing that really got him was just how easily the way he was acting was Kurt.

“I don’t know,” Rory said, “I guess we look a little bit alike.”

Blaine watched at Kurt fixed Rory’s hair and he couldn’t help but wonder just how much more alike they would look like if Rory grew his hair and styled it like Kurt did.

“You don’t have my nose,” Kurt told Rory, “and I don’t think you have my eyes either, but I have to admit that you could be my fraternal twin brother. You’re not, are you? Because I’m far too old to have to deal with a Parent Trap type of deal here.”

Kurt always knew how to make light of certain moments. He couldn’t help but grin.

“Nope,” Rory said, “I’m definitely not your brother.”

He wasn’t lying, but the way he spoke told him that he found it funny and not just because it was, but because he knew something else.

Blaine was called over by Finn, then, who was helping the two band members and trying to make sure they didn’t go and mess up their chances at winning. He tried giving them his own advice, but kept glancing back towards Kurt and Rory who were both smiling a bit more as they talked.

When they got out to the auditorium a while later, it was already full and one quick look around told him his parents hadn’t bothered again. And of course, his brother was in L.A. so he couldn’t expect him to be around for one of his competitions. On the upside, he did spot Burt and Carole and he pointed them out to Kurt while they filed into their seats.

They were seated far enough from Rory who’d been pulled into a conversation with Mike that Blaine felt comfortable enough to talk about him.

“He’s hiding something,” he told Rory, “I don’t know what it is, but did you see his face when I mentioned you two looked alike? It was like…it was like he already knew all about it and he just hadn’t expected us to catch on. There’s something he isn’t telling us and I’m starting to think a lot of it has been suspicious.”

Kurt shook his head. “Blaine, you’ve got to be joking. Rory’s harmless. So he was a little freaked out by you telling him he looks like me? Big deal.”

Blaine grabbed his hand. “I’m not saying he’s here to hurt you or me or anyone in New Directions, I just don’t know if he’s been telling us the entire truth about himself and I want to know why. If he’s in trouble or if he needs help then I want to be there for him.”

Kurt bestowed a smile on him and leaned over to quickly kiss his cheek. Their judges were being announced and they turned around to look at who they’d have to impress for this competition.

By the time they were on stage, Blaine knew that it was entirely possible that they were going to lose. It had been an inspired idea to turn to Michael Jackson for song numbers and Blaine was proud of what he and Finn had been able to accomplish on that front, he was also happy to have Finn as a friend again.

It was still a bit awkward of course, but Finn was making an effort and he was Kurt’s brother and all in all Blaine did want to have a good relationship with Finn. He’d apologized to Sam earlier too and tried to explain it wasn’t really his fault. He’d even gone on to admit that the whole body roll thing might be to their advantage.

Standing on the stage later, after they’d been called back was a nerve wracking moment. He hadn’t known Santana or Brittany, or Mercedes, for as long as everyone else had, but he knew it was going to be hard if they won or lost and he could see it on everyone’s faces. Of course he wanted to win, of course he wanted the New Directions to go on to Regionals and it’d be well deserved and there was no doubt that they would let the girls join back up – The Troubletones were practically an extension of them anyway. But he knew there’d be hurt feelings and a whole lot of mess after it was all said and done and Blaine hated when things went that way.

So, after The Unitards were given third place, he glanced in their direction and he braced himself for what would come next. And then, suddenly it was chaos around him and he too was joining in. There were hugs and his friend were jumping up and down around him and Kurt and Rory were hugging and he was joining in too and for a moment everything seemed right and perfect. Then, the trophy was there and everyone was reaching out to touch it and when he glanced back at the girls they stood heads bowed with shock and disappointment clear to him. They had thought they were going to win.

- - -

Rory was still panicking about Blaine noticing how much he and Kurt looked alike. During the week they’d been doing mash offs against The Troubletones Mike and Tina had mentioned it to him, but not Kurt and he’d brushed it off and hoped no one noticed. Mike had gone on to mention something about genetics that Rory hadn’t understood but the subject had been dropped.

Rory had feared Santana would mention it, but she’d been distracted by that point by Finn’s big mouth and luckily the guess had never come. He would never have expected his papa to catch on.

They hadn’t brought it back up and Rory decided to make more of an effort to not dress like Kurt unless it was necessary for glee. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen once Regionals came about if he was still stuck in the past.

The glee meeting that followed their win at Sectionals took place in the auditorium and for a while everyone just drifted around the room chitchatting. Rory for one sat down and moments later was joined by Blaine.

“Hey,” he said, “how did you like your first competition with New Directions?”

“New to you too though, isn’t it, Warbler boy?” Puck said before Rory could respond and he sat down with them.

Puck had been a bit down since they’d heard that Shelby Corcoran would be leaving now that The Troubletones had lost and there was no point in keeping another show choir around. Rory didn’t like thinking about the whole mess between him and Shelby if he could help it, but he still felt sort of bad for Puck.

“Well, yes,” Blaine said, “but I think it’s different for Rory coming from another country – I’ve been a part of this.”

It actually wasn’t all that different. Rory didn’t tell them that. Blaine was probably asking himself enough questions about him without Rory adding more.

When Rachel arrived they started to sing the song that Mr. Shue had handed them lyrics to earlier when they were in the choir room and it was as their voices blended together and different people just took over a line here or there that Rory realized that despite everything that had gone on in the past few weeks these teenagers did love each other and they were all amazingly talented.

Brittany, Santana, Mercedes, and Sugar showed up halfway through the song and as they too joined in, singing in harmony while they were pulled into their group, Rory began to realize something else. They were a family. They were this amazing group of kids that would grow up to do amazing things in the world even if they were scattered around and if some of them lost touch. But, right then at this moment they were all a family and he, Rory, fit right in with them.

He sang and swayed next to his papa, and he smiled at his dad from across the room, and he hugged his aunt Brittany, and when aunt Santana looked in his direction he smiled. Since arriving in the past, he had not felt closer to having his family with him than he did in that moment. But he knew it wouldn’t last longer than just this split moment, because when Rory faced reality it would tell him that he wasn’t in his time, and that his papa was dead, and that he had to make sure that Sugar didn’t mess something up because he really didn’t like the interested look in Artie’s eyes.