Klaine Advent 2018 Day 24: Yoke

Own dimension: The end

The words ‘The End’ are still spinning around them. Even though they’ve been through this for over twenty times, they still aren’t used to it. Kurt holds Blaine’s hand and he waits for them to get separated, but it never comes.

The words start to thin and slowly, they disappear.

Kurt and Blaine are still awake, and they’re still holding each other’s hand. Most importantly, they’re in the loft. The loft is spotless, there are familiar magazines on the coffee table, and the door is open. They’re back home and it’s as if they’ve never left. To them, they’ve been gone for a month, but it’s as if those days never existed.

They’re home.

Kurt pulls Blaine into a hug and they laugh and cheer. They did it. They survived the book, they managed to find each other in every dimension, and they’re home! They stand in the loft for a few minutes, just holding each other.

Sure, they’ve had their fun, but it’s so good to finally be back.

Suddenly, Kurt’s eyes widen. “I have a shift at Spotlight!”

Oh right, they left before Kurt could go to his shift, and since it looks like no time has passed, he still has to work.

Blaine prepares himself for the disappointment, but then Kurt smiles and says: “I quit. I go to work, but when I get home, I’m never going back.”

“Yeah?” Blaine says and he smiles as well.

“I realised a couple of dimensions ago that asking my dad for help isn’t the end of the world and that I should set my pride aside,” Kurt says, “I quit.”

Blaine’s smile widens. “Things are going to change, aren’t they?”

Kurt nods. “Definitely. If this journey has taught us one thing it’s that changes are coming.”

They can’t wait to see them.

The next day, Kurt wakes up feeling peaceful. He’s quit his job in the most extravagant way ever (by singing!) and Blaine’s lying next to him. Kurt has an evening class and Blaine has a day off for self-study, so they can sleep in.

But after a while, Kurt shakes Blaine awake.

“… mmm, what?”

Kurt leans in to kiss Blaine’s cheek. “Put on some pants, sweetheart. We have to go somewhere.”

“Five more minutes. We can do this now.”

Kurt smiles at the sight of Blaine pulling the sheets over his head. “Five more, but then we have to go.”

After ten, not five, minutes, Blaine properly wakes up. They get dressed and have breakfast before heading out. Blaine leads the way.

After a relatively short journey, they’re in front of the antique shop, and Blaine opens the heavy door. As expected, Gilbert is inside. He’s going through some of the books that are up for sale. When Gilbert hears the door opening, he looks over his shoulder, and he smiles warmly.

“Mr. Hummel, Mr. Anderson, welcome! I have been expecting you.”

Gilbert puts away some books and then he gives Kurt and Blaine his full attention.

Kurt and Blaine look at each other. They’ve rehearsed countless of messages of gratitude on the way to the shop, but now they’re both lost for words. It’s almost impossible to explain how they feel. The feelings of gratitude and happiness are inexplicable and they are both completely lost.

A simple thank you won’t do.

Gilbert raises an eyebrow, but it looks like he knows what they’re trying to say. He decides to put them out of their misery by saying: “So, you two did it then? You two survived the book, like I expected you to. Congratulations, you truly love each other.”

Kurt and Blaine once again look at each other and they smile.

“You said that if we’d be able to survive the book, we’d be able to survive everything,” Blaine says.

Gilbert nods enthusiastically. “Yes, and I knew the moment you walked into this shop that this book needed to be yours.”

Kurt is a bit surprised. “Oh, so you don’t want it back?” He opens his bag and he retrieves the book. “We came here with the intention of thanking you and returning the book.”

“Oh heaven’s no!” Gilbert backs away and laughs at the idea, “I gave this book to you, and you filled its pages with your memories of these dimensions. It’s definitely yours to keep.”

They had hoped for this, so Kurt doesn’t fight it. He holds the book close to his chest.

“These dimensions… did you create them?” Blaine asks.

“No,” both Gilbert and Kurt say at the same time.

Blaine’s gaze moves from Kurt to Gilbert and back to Kurt. “… what?”

“I already explained it to Kurt, but I didn’t make these dimensions. They simply put exist without my interference. There are too many dimensions out there!”

Kurt’s eyes widen. “There’s more?”

Gilbert nods in agreement. “Yes, there are an infinite amount of dimensions in this universe. I gave you the key to twenty-one of them. I couldn’t really choose the twenty-one dimensions myself, but I made sure they were all known to you to make it easier for you.”

Blaine frowns and Kurt tilts his head in confusion.

“Eh. No.”

Gilbert looks at Blaine in shock.

“No?” Gilbert asks.

“No,” Blaine says again.

“Yeah, some of these dimensions were completely unknown to us,” Kurt agrees, “Like the Carry On dimension.”

“The Good Place,” Blaine says, “I mean, even if I did know, Janet constantly asking me to murder her would still freak me out, I suppose. But I didn’t know, so her constantly asking me to murder her was really creepy.”

“And the Check, Please! one. Although Blaine had heard of it, but we didn’t exactly know of it.”

“Oh, and I am pretty sure that this San Myshuno is from a future expansion pack of The Sims 4,” Blaine adds.

Gilbert looks absolutely baffled. He scratches his chin and he’s in thought.

“Hmmm, I could swear you two were both fan of The Good Place and Carry On and Check, Please! and The Sims 4: City Living,” Gilbert says, “Sure, I know The Good Place has only just gotten very popular, but you should know of it by now.”

Blaine’s frown deepens. “Mr. Gilbert, what year is it?”

Gilbert looks up. “Well, I think I started out in December 2018, but I have the feeling that it is March 2019 by now.”

“… that doesn’t make any sense?” Kurt says. By now you’d think that he’s gotten used to weird things happening, but what is Gilbert talking about?

Gilbert chuckles. “Oh look at good ole me. I sound like Johnson.”

“Johnson?” Blaine asks.

“Oh, Kurt met him in the Check, Please! dimension. What a nice fella,” Gilbert answers happily, but then he shakes his head. Then he slaps himself on the forehead, which startles Kurt and Blaine. “It isn’t 2018 or 2019, is it?”

Kurt and Blaine exchange a look. Kurt sighs.

“Uh, no. It’s 2014, and only one day has passed in this dimension, not four months,” Kurt answers.

Gilbert once again slaps himself on the forehead.

“Oh, daft old me. I could’ve sworn it’s 2019 by now,” he says, “And Kurt, you’re right about only one day having passed! Gosh, the human linearity of time is such a weird concept for me, I’m sorry, it’s as if all years get yoked together at one point. My perception of time must be some kind of Jeremy Bearimy to you.”

Kurt and Blaine have given up by now. There are some things they’ll never know, and well, that’s okay then.

Gilbert continues rambling.

“Oh no! I accidentally sent you to things from your future! My, my, my, now I am really glad you ended up in Sinnoh instead of Galar when you travelled to the Pokémon dimension. Or now I don’t have to feel bad for not sending you to the Stardew Valley dimension. Oh, and also the-”

Blaine motions towards Gilbert to calm down. “Gilbert, maybe, uhm, not spoil future media, or whatever these things are, for us?”

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry,” Gilbert says, “I let myself go for a second.”

The three of them laugh at the absurdity of this entire situation. It looks like Kurt and Blaine were right. They really got transported to settings of future media. Or at least, media that take place in their future, since time works different in the universe as a whole.

Wow. This is insane.

“But all those dimensions… were they real?” Kurt asks when the laughter dies down.

“Of course they were,” Gilbert says, as if it’s obvious.

“So, alternate dimensions really do exist?”

“You’ve seen 21 of them and you’re still doubting whether alternate dimensions exist?”

Kurt turns a bit red from embarrassment. “Look, it’s been a weird couple of days.”

“As you pointed out, it’s only been less than one day from my perspective,” Gilbert tells Kurt.

But that was not the real reason behind the question. “No, I mean, if those alternate dimensions are real, then the Kurts and Blaines from those dimensions are real as well. What happened to them? We left some of them in a different setting.”

“Yes, and some of the other people in the dimensions were aware of the dimension hopping, or they saw us disappearing,” Blaine adds.

Gilbert motions towards the book and Kurt hands it over. Gilbert opens the book to the first dimension, namely the space dimension. “Seeing is believing,” he says and the images of the McKinley Air Craft crest and the Dalton Space Shuttle emblem start to glow.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, this book manages to amaze you.

The two glowing images merge into one and they project something in the air. You can see the Kurt and Blaine from the space dimension in the projection, holding hands, and they’re surrounded by their crews.

“It takes a while, but Kurt and Blaine manage to bring peace to the universe by uniting the McKinley Air Craft fleet and the Dalton Space Shuttle fleet. Yes, Santana saw you disappear, but she won’t remember. Only the people from the superhero dimension remember, and Janet and Adam from The Good Place remember. All the Kurts and Blaines return to where you’ve left them, so they’re together. They can’t really recall you two interfering with their lives, but you push them closer in every dimension until they eventually fall in love.”

Kurt and Blaine stare at each other in awe. They made sure that all versions of them are together.

Gilbert shows them some more stories.

Kurt and Blaine are helping rebuild the post-apocalyptic world, Kurt and Blaine open their first joint art show about love at Gilbert’s Art Studio, Nightbird and Porcelain are still kicking ass, Kurt and Blaine have run away from the kingdoms and they now live together in the woods, Kurt and Blaine are directing a fashion show, Burt Hummel officiates their wedding in what looks like the White House… so many stories flash before their eyes.

Gilbert closes the book and he gives it back to Blaine. “All versions of you are happy, thanks to you. I highly recommend seeing all the stories, but I suppose we don’t have much time now.”

“What do you mean?” Blaine asks.

Gilbert smiles and there’s a hint of sadness when he says: “My time here is done, gentlemen.”

“Again, what do you mean?”

But Gilbert shakes his head. He offers them both a cup of tea and he asks them about their adventures. Kurt and Blaine have a lot of stories to tell, so they can fill hours, but they both realise that something is going on. Gilbert doesn’t talk about it.

After trading stories for two hours, it’s time for Kurt and Blaine to go home. It’s getting dark. They say their goodbyes and they walk back to the loft, hand in hand.

They get their answer the next day.

Kurt and Blaine are standing in front of what used to be the antique shop. All traces of Gilbert or the antique shop are gone, as if they never existed.

They should be spooked out. After all, this sounds like it comes straight from a mystery or paranormal novel.

But they’re just sad.

Blaine rests his head on Kurt’s shoulder and together they look at the empty building. It might look weird to the people around them, but this is New York. People see weird stuff all the time, so two men staring sadly at an empty building isn’t that bad.

This shop and this man have helped them more than they could’ve ever imagined, and now they’re both gone.

“Let’s go home,” Kurt says after a while. It’s no use dwelling over the loss of the shop.

Back at the loft, Kurt and Blaine open the book again. By now they know what has happened to all the other Kurts and Blaines, namely that they all got their happy endings. Gilbert and the shop might’ve disappeared, but they will forever have these memories and these stories.

The book has a special place in their bookshelf, next to the Sinnoh Region Guide Book and Blaine’s extra limited edition of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Blaine’s knife from the apocalypse hangs mounted on their wall, next to the framed list of art books, and next to another frame that holds both the business card from the Casbah Gallery and the Arts Quarter flyer. The photo’s on Blaine’s phone of San Myshuno have been printed. The Sinnoh map is hidden in the Sinnoh Region Guide Book. The weird MySims trophy is standing in their living room.

Kurt and Blaine will never forget these dimensions. They will never forget what they’ve seen and done.

They reminisce on the dimensions every now and then, but they move forward together. Changes happen. Some are relatively small, like Kurt reconnecting with Matt, to big ones like therapy and learning how to communicate better. All changes are good changes, though.

After all, they survived these dimensions. Now it’s time to live their best lives in their own dimension.

“As if in every lifetime you and I have lived, we’ve chosen to come back and find each other and fall in love all over again, over and over for all of eternity. And I just feel so lucky that I found you so soon in this lifetime because all I want to do, all I’ve ever wanted to do is spend my life loving you.”