Klaine Advent 2018 Day 17: Quantity

Dimension fifteen: Life swap

It’s been a while since Blaine was this weirded out about the dimension hopping. After seeing 14 other dimensions, Blaine’s sort of gotten used to the dimension hopping. Gone are the days of worry and confusion.

Okay, confusion still happens, since Blaine’s always confused when he has to figure out where he is, but he’s no longer really worried about him and Kurt having to find each other, the book, and two objects. Been there, done that. It always works out.

So yeah, it’s really been a while since Blaine was this weirded out. It doesn’t happen every day that you wake up in a world where everyone thinks you're Kurt Hummel.

Blaine knows he’s in a dimension where their lives have swapped, but he’d expected something different. He’d expected to wake up in Kurt’s body, but that didn’t happen. He’s still Blaine, but everyone else just thinks he’s Kurt, so they call him Kurt. He’s living Kurt’s life. He’d also expected Kurt to be lying next to him. After all, they only swapped lives.

But in this life swapped dimension, Kurt and Blaine don’t know each other.

Apart from, well, Blaine being Kurt, the life of this Kurt is similar to Kurt’s. There are only some slight changes. Kurt Hummel lives in New York with Rachel Berry and Santana Lopez, so Rachel and Santana haven’t moved out. Kurt is a NYADA student, but he focuses more on scriptwriting than acting. Kurt has a part-time job at the Spotlight Diner, but Rachel and Santana work in a coffee shop.

And Kurt is single.

Blaine (or Kurt, this is confusing) is nowhere to be seen. There are no photo’s of the two of them on the wall. Blaine (or Kurt) isn’t in his phone contacts.

Kurt and Blaine once again don’t know each other. It really weirds Blaine out.

Blaine (or Kurt, really, this is confusing) has a crazy busy life. Blaine wants to look for Kurt, but he can’t. They’re in the middle of a school week, so Blaine makes himself go to NYADA. He doesn’t run into Kurt there. Maybe it’s because the Kurt from this dimension follows more scriptwriting courses.

Back home, he wants to start his search, but then he sees that he has a shift at the Spotlight Diner. He doesn’t want to mess up Kurt’s (or Blaine’s?) life in this dimension, so he goes to work as well.

Once again, there’s been a small change. Günther doesn’t own the Spotlight Diner. A man named Gilbert does. Gilbert is not at the diner, so Blaine can’t see him, but there's once again is a mysterious man named Gilbert. He writes it down in the Sinnoh Region Guide Book during his break.

By the time his shift ends, it’s gone dark and Blaine’s tired, moody and annoyed.

Like Kurt is on most days.

On his way back to the loft, Blaine starts to realise that Kurt’s really this busy. Blaine’s fairly busy as well. After all, they’re both full-time students, but Blaine doesn’t have an additional job. Okay, he sometimes gives piano lessons to snooty kids of New Yorkers, but it’s not the same as dealing with annoying customers in an overcrowded diner.

And to think that Kurt originally planned on continuing his internship at Vogue on the side.

Wow. Kurt’s done a lot.

After going through this day, Blaine can understand why Kurt’s cranky. It still doesn’t really excuse him snapping and picking fights over the smallest things, but it sure explains it.

Blaine had never thought about it.

When he comes home, Rachel’s sitting on the couch with an iPad.

“Busy day, Kurt?” she asks.

“Oh Rach, you have no idea.”

Blaine needed that good night of sleep. After all, it’s a new day and it’s a new day of NYADA. Luckily, he doesn’t have many classes this day. To make it even better, he has no shift at the Spotlight Diner, so he can fully devote his time to finding Kurt. He’s already asked around at school and some people recognise the name Blaine Anderson, but they never really know him or where to find him.

There have been subtle changes to Kurt’s (or Blaine’s) life in this dimension, so Blaine guesses that his life (or Kurt’s) has been changed in some ways as well. This makes it more difficult to find Kurt than originally anticipated. Blaine can go to his usual spots, but there's a chance that Kurt won’t be there.

He’s already looked Kurt (or Blaine) up on Facebook and Kurt’s face appeared next to Blaine's name, but the Blaine from this dimension is as inactive on Facebook as Blaine himself.

Blaine spends the rest of the day looking for Kurt or the book, but he has no such luck. It’s his life, it shouldn’t be this hard.

Another day passes like this.

When he gets back to the loft, Santana and Dani are on the couch. Dani’s appearance surprises Blaine.

“You look moody,” Santana says when she sees him, “Or do you just want to get laid?”

“Both,” Blaine answers.

Santana whistles. “You’re still holding out for your one true love, Kurt? Or do you want to bend the rules for now and hit the club with us?”

Blaine considers it. Maybe there’s a slight chance that Kurt will be there.

But he’s very tired after walking through the city, going from familiar spot to familiar spot, for an entire day. He just wishes it could be easier.

“Can’t we help you find your true love?” Dani suggests. It doesn’t look like she has an ulterior motive, and Blaine realises he’s really missed Dani. He knows the Dani from his dimension has a new girlfriend, but maybe Blaine should reach out.

“Does the name Blaine Anderson ring a bell?”

But Dani shakes her head and Santana laughs.

“You’ve got someone?” she says, “Hummel, what are you waiting for? Go get him!”

“Oh, I wish I could,” Blaine sighs sadly.

It’s the third day in this dimension. He hopes he won’t have to stay for another night. He doesn’t want to beat the record. He’s spent three days in the Pokémon dimension and now he’s going to start his third day in this dimension. It’s about quality, not quantity, but so far he hasn’t enjoyed his stay in this dimension.

Kurt’s life is hard.

It’s the weekend, so there will be no classes. He does have a shift, though.

So in the afternoon, he goes back to work. His colleagues greet him and Blaine says hi, but he doesn’t know anyone here now that Rachel and Santana work somewhere else.

It’s a slow day, so when Blaine hears the bell above the door signalling that new people have entered, he doesn’t really bother to look up.

But just as he wants to bring the dirty dishes back to the kitchen, he sees Kurt and The Warblers entering the Spotlight Diner.

Blaine knows he should feel relieved, but he’s just gaping at Kurt. Then Blaine starts laughing. Kurt looks absolutely ridiculous, dressed as Blaine. Kurt wears a brightly coloured polo with a striped bowtie, red pants that don’t cover his ankles, boat shoes, and no socks.

Sure, Blaine likes this fashion style -after all, it’s his- but it doesn’t suit Kurt at all. Just like Kurt’s style doesn’t suit Blaine. Blaine’s been dressing as Kurt for the past few days and he looks weird.

Blaine’s laughter reaches Kurt. Kurt looks up and he seems relieved. The other Warblers start whispering.

They sit down in Blaine’s section. Blaine quickly drops the dishes in the dishwasher section and he hurries back inside. He can hear The Warblers talk.

“Oh, look at his face!” David laughs.

“Cute Waiter finally looked at you, Blaine,” Wes says.

“Are you finally gonna make a move, dude?” Nick says as well, “You’ve been dragging us to this diner for ages and we’re kinda over it. Just talk to him.”

Blaine smiles. The Kurt (or Blaine, this is still weird) from this dimension has an unrequited crush on him. Or is it unrequited? Maybe the Blaine (or, well, Kurt) hasn’t noticed him, like Wes suggested.

Blaine takes a deep breath. After all, they aren’t supposed to know each other. He takes out his note block and he approaches the table.

“Good afternoon, welcome to the Spotlight Diner. My name is Bl-Kurt-” Kurt tries to hide his smile at the mishap “- and I will be your waiter today.”

The Warblers all place their orders, putting Kurt last.

Kurt turns red, but then he says: “I’d like to order one date with you.”

“Yes!” Blaine says, too eagerly. The other Warblers hoot and cheer, and other people are looking at them, but Blaine doesn’t care.

Kurt turns even redder, but he also looks really happy. “I’m Blaine.”

“Kurt,” Blaine says and the two of them really try their hardest not to laugh. This whole situation is ridiculous.

“So,” Wes says after some silence, “That date?”

“I get off at seven,” Blaine says. It’s a long wait, but he knows Kurt will be there.

Kurt and the other Warblers leave after two hours, but Kurt promises he’ll be back at seven. Blaine knows it’s true.

The rest of the shift is uneventful, but Blaine doesn’t care. He’s incredibly happy and his colleagues notice the happy mood he’s in. Blaine’s even sung some happy songs on the piano. After all, he’s a singing waiter.

At seven, he spots Kurt outside. Not only that, but he’s also holding the book.

Blaine leaves as soon as possible.

“Hi,” he says as he opens the door to go outside.

“Hi,” Kurt says back and he holds up the book, “Guess what I found while killing some time?”

“Where’d you find it?” Blaine asks in amazement.

“The library,” Kurt answers, “Are you ready to go?”

Blaine hasn’t even considered the library, but that’s because he gets a really bad feeling every time he passes the New York Public Library. He’s walked past it several times, and it reminds him of all the people who’ve died in there because Blaine couldn’t save them.

He knows it’s a different New York Public Library in a different dimension, but he thinks he’ll never be able to set a foot in whatever version of that library.

Good thing Kurt can still do it.

They walk to the loft and they share their crazy stories.

“Right, so, you live together with Wes,” Kurt says, “Or technically I do. I don’t know, this is weird. You actually major in dance at NYADA so I got some great calves in this dimension. But uhm, you graduated from Dalton, so that’s why we don’t know each other.”

“Your life is crazy busy, Kurt!”

Kurt snorts. “Oh I know. When we get back home, I’m trying to cut myself some slack.”

Blaine knows that Kurt has put a lot of thought in that decision, so he drops the subject. Instead, he starts talking about all the weird stuff he’s seen at NYADA as someone who majors in script writing.

They get home and they have the loft to themselves, since Rachel and Santana are at work.

Kurt puts the book on the coffee table and he flips it to the right page. He laughs when he sees the two outlines of shapes.

“What is it?” Blaine asks.

Kurt holds up the book. It clearly needs an ascot and a bowtie. Kurt immediately unties his bowtie. Blaine’s wearing his Spotlight Diner outfit, but he has worn ascots in the past few days. He’s worn a light blue one the most, so he takes it out of his closet and he puts it on the page as well.

It’s time to finally leave. It’s been too long.

Both Kurt and Blaine are shocked when not one, or two, or three, but four new words start appearing, and they’re also strangely specific.

“Fashion designer and model?” Kurt reads out loud.

“Sounds fun.”