Swipe left. Swipe right. And left again.

His mother’s dresser is cleaned up and it’s time for Kurt to get out of bed. Blaine’s still asleep, but Kurt can already start on breakfast. Before he leaves the bedroom, he looks back to see Blaine turning around in his sleep. They’ve been sleeping in the same bed for a while now and Kurt’s surprised by how comfortable it is to have Blaine lying next to him. After all, Blaine is kind of a stranger.

Well, not really, but Kurt just can’t remember him.

Kurt sighs and he moves to the kitchen. Kurt woke up feeling cheery and he decided to do something for Blaine. Over the past week and a half, Blaine’s been nothing but kind and patient with Kurt and Kurt wants to make something nice for him. Besides, Blaine is his boyfriend. It’s still new and they don’t really talk about where there relationship stands, but it feels proper to make a special breakfast.

Kurt has no idea what Blaine likes for breakfast, but Blaine’s given Kurt his phone back, since Blaine also started to realise that it was getting crazy to keep the outside world away, so Kurt uses it to look up recipes.

Kurt doesn’t have his Springo yet, because Blaine wants to explain that first.

His phone is slimmer and larger and Kurt can unlock his phone with his thumbprint or with facial recognition. It kind of freaks him out, since it comes straight from a sci-fi horror, but he’s also amazed by it. Blaine’s put the Wi-Fi back on, but he did delete social media from Kurt’s phone, like Firmspring and Sha-Bash. He’s also disabled messaging apps. Kurt doesn’t know much about his online presence, but he’s grateful nonetheless. He knows he can re-install them, but he won’t. Honestly, Kurt doesn’t mind, especially now that he knows that he’s quite famous. According to Blaine, Kurt’s social media has been blowing up with questions from Broadway fans.

Google is no longer a thing in 2027, but there’s a brand new, highly-advanced online search machine that happily supplies Kurt with lots of recipes for breakfast. He soon finds a recipe for scrambled eggs with tomatoes and feta cheese. Of course, Springo Co. owns the search machine that Kurt’s used. Kurt has the slight feeling that Springo Co. has replaced Google and therefore contributed to its demise.

Kurt still needs to familiarise himself with the content of each cupboard, so it takes him a while to get everything ready. He wants this to be perfect. Not only is this to thank Blaine, but Kurt also wants to talk to him. Again, Kurt has no idea where they stand. They like each other’s company and they share the bed, but Blaine’s been a bit distant.

Even now, Kurt feels like Blaine’s a stranger to him. He only knows his last name and that he’s a musician. Kurt can’t really explain it, but he likes being around Blaine. His presence feels comforting in some way. Maybe it’s a residue of Kurt’s lost memories, but who knows. This does mean that he’d like to know him better.

Kurt sings underneath his breath while he’s cooking. “Holding to the ground/As the ground keeps shifting/Trying to keep sane/As the rules keep changing.” He’s had this song stuck in his head for a while. It’s from an old musical from the 90s called Falsettos, although Kurt found out that it had been revived in 2016.

“Keeping up my head/As my heart falls out of sight/Everything will be all right/Everything will be all right,” Kurt continues to sing quietly. Luckily, the plot of the show does not apply to Kurt’s life, but these lyrics seem appropriate with the current situation.

Kurt’s in the midst of making scrambled eggs when Blaine comes in. He’s very sleepy and he has a huge bed head. Kurt thinks it’s adorable, although he won’t tell Blaine. Or maybe he will. Again, where do they stand? Kurt understands Blaine’s desire to give Kurt space, but it’s almost been two weeks and Kurt truly doesn’t know him.

“Morning, love,” Blaine says lazily.

The ‘love’ stings, but Kurt lets it slide. Blaine’s obviously half-awake.

“Good morning. I looked up some breakfast ideas on my phone.”

Blaine yawns and says: “Ah, did Lizzie recommend them?”

Kurt raises an eyebrow. Maybe Blaine’s too sleep deprived to remember the memory loss. “I don’t know any Lizzie, sorry.”

Blaine has a funny look on his face. “She’s on the kitchen counter, Kurt.”

Kurt looks around in confusion. Has he been missing a roaming cat for two weeks? That is very unlikely. Blaine laughs when he sees Kurt looking around.

“Hey Lizzie?” he yells out and to Kurt yelps in shock when his phone lights up.

“Good morning, Blaine,” an automated female voice says. It’s coming from Kurt’s phone.

“What time is it?” Blaine asks and he yawns again. He’s really sleepy.

“It is 9am on August 14^th 2027,” the phone replies in monotone.

“Thanks Lizzie. All is well,” Blaine says and the light of the phone’s screen dims.

Kurt is looking at his large, flat phone in shock. “What the hell is that?”

“That’s your AI, Kurt. Haven’t you met her yet? You named her after your mother.”

Blaine doesn’t see the shocked and disturbed look on Kurt’s face as he moves past him to make coffee. The thought of coffee seems to wake him up.

“Her? It’s a phone, Blaine.”

Blaine looks over his shoulder to face Kurt and he rolls his eyes. “Alright. It. People just tend to refer to their AI’s with pronouns like her, him or them, based on the AI’s voice setting. Female voices have always been the most used, so people often give their AI’s female names to match Siri or Alexa. You surely must’ve heard of Apple’s Siri, right? I don’t remember exactly when Alexa became big, but if I remember, Siri was already released in 2012. I think she was the first mainstream virtual assistant.”

Kurt does know Siri. It was all in the news a while ago. Apple had released this voice recognition software for the iPhones. At least, that is all that Kurt knows.

“Virtual assistants?”

But Blaine is lost in thought. “Oh man, remember Google Assistant? So glad we never got one for our home now that Google is dead.”

“Blaine, what – or who – is Lizzie? Is she the virtual assistant of Samsung? Are these virtual assistants everywhere now?” Kurt turns down the electric cooking plate and he goes to find some plates. By now, he’s mostly familiar with that part the kitchen. Only the cupboards are still confusing, since every nook or cranny is stuffed.

Blaine takes a big gulp from his coffee and he blinks a couple of time. After two weeks, Kurt now knows that Blaine’s waking up.

“No, love, Bixby is the virtual assistant of Samsung, but we don’t use that. We use our own personal AI’s,” Blaine hands Kurt another cup of coffee and together, they move to the dining area of their apartment.

“Why, what is wrong with Bibyx? Byby? Bixby?”

This isn’t the kind of conversation that Kurt had anticipated, but now he’s intrigued. So much has changed in fifteen years and all these technological changes sound kind of disturbing.

“It makes us feel more comfortable to have our own personal AI’s. AI’s like Cortana, Siri or Alexa are all owned by big companies, namely Windows, Apple and Amazon and they’re everywhere. Okay, Cortana has been discontinued on iOS and Android, but she’s still prevalent. There have been privacy issues in the past, so a market for personal AI’s was upcoming a couple of years ago. Companies that create personal AI’s have to sign a contract, stating that the moment the sale is finalised, they no longer own any part of the AI. They can still be approached for technological support, but Lizzie is 100% yours and you own all the data that she collects. We decided to invest in our AI’s when we finally were able to afford it.”

“You have one as well?”

Blaine nods and then marvels about the eggs. Kurt’s happy that he likes it.

“Then what is yours called?”

“Mimi.”

“And why?”

“I’ve always wanted to have a dog and from a very young age, I wanted to call her Mimi. Well, I don’t have a dog, I have a phone. She’s also connected to my Springo.”

Kurt looks at Blaine’s bare wrist. He barely wears his Springo watch, but Blaine’s explained to him that Springo’s are more useful outside the apartment. The two of them haven’t really left the apartment that often and during the rare moments, Kurt’s mostly gone rogue. He knows that his thirty-four years old self is probably comfortable with this current state of the world, but nineteen years old Kurt isn’t. It’s all too new and futuristic.

Blaine has a knowing look on his face. “It’s a lot to take in, huh?”

Kurt nods slowly. “I wanted to talk to you about something else, but it feels kind of weird after this information dump.”

Blaine takes a sip of his coffee. “It’s fine. You can talk to me if something’s troubling you.”

Well, if that’s the case, then it’s best to just say it.

“Are we dating?” Kurt blurts out and Blaine almost chokes in his coffee.

After a small coughing fit, all Blaine can say is: “Uhm.”

“Like, don’t get me wrong or anything, because you have been nothing but kind, but I don’t even know you and I have no idea what our current relationship status is and I kind of want some clarity.”

Blaine’s silent for a while and Kurt starts to worry that he’s scared Blaine off. He’s about to apologise when Blaine starts talking.

“I’m so so-”

“Do you want to be?” Blaine asks.

“Do I want to be what?”

“Dating,” Blaine clarifies and he looks nervous.

“Yes!” Kurt answers instinctively and Blaine looks up in shock. Kurt can feel himself turn red. Oh God, this is the first guy Kurt’s ever really liked and now he’s looking like an idiot.

But then the shock on Blaine’s face turns into hope.

“You do?” he asks hopefully.

“I do, truly, but-” Blaine’s face falls immediately, “-I don’t know you. Don’t get me wrong. You’re hot and I like being with you and I have no problems holding your hand or sleeping next to you, but I don’t know you. You don’t talk about yourself at all. In the past days, I’ve only heard you talk about me and when you do talk about yourself, it’s in a relation to us. I know things about us. I know that we love living in New York. I know that we both enjoy musicals. I even know that we dislike heavy metal. Where’s the me, myself and I? I like you, and I’d like to date you, but first, I’d like to know you.”

Blaine looks conflicted. “Then, why are you sure that you want to be with me?”

Kurt wishes he could explain it as well. He knows that he feels completely at ease around Blaine. He knows that he wants to follow wherever Blaine goes. He knows that Blaine loves him and that Kurt can trust him.

There’s an instinctive pull towards Blaine. Maybe it really is a strange version of déjà vu, as if his consciousness remembers loving him, but that his mind and body haven’t caught up yet. Maybe Blaine is just that amazing.

Kurt has no idea. All he knows is that being with Blaine makes sense and right now, most things don’t make sense.

“I just do,” Kurt replies.

Blaine nods and he looks down. Kurt wishes he knew what Blaine was thinking. Blaine can so easily understand him, and Kurt assumes that thirty-four years old Kurt fully understands Blaine, but he’s not there yet. Blaine being so distant is not helping.

“Why don’t I know you? Like, right now, tell me something about yourself.”

Blaine looks like a deer caught in headlines.

“I, uhm, I…” he trails off, so Kurt decides to help him out.

“Do you have siblings?” Kurt asks. They have to start somewhere, so let’s start somewhere easy.

Unfortunately, Blaine has an uneasy look on his face. “Yes, one brother. He’s older.”

“And do you like him?”

“Well, uhm, yeah. We’re- we talk every now and then and in the spring-” Blaine immediately cuts himself off and he doesn’t talk about anything else.

“We’ll come back to him later,” Kurt says quickly. The awkwardness is almost palpable. “How are your parents?”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Kurt raises an eyebrow. Asking Blaine questions is like pulling out teeth.

“Uhm, my mom is currently in the Philippines. I told you that she’s born there. Dad is in Ohio. It’s- yeah. That’s it.”

“Ohio? Oh yeah, you’re from Columbus!”

“Yes.”

Okay, apparently his family is a sore subject, so Kurt asks: “What is your favourite musical?”

Blaine’s face changes from a conflicted expression into an unreadable expression, but he answers: “Hadestown.”

“Why?”

Silence.

“It’s good.”

Blaine doesn’t elaborate much more and Kurt throws his hands in the air. He’s giving up. If every conversation is going to be this excoriating, then maybe Kurt shouldn’t bother at all.

Kurt gets up to bring the empty plates back to the kitchen and Blaine starts to protest, but Kurt doesn’t listen.

Kurt ignores Blaine for now. He cleans his mother’s dresser again and when he’s in the bathroom, he feels the strange urge to tap his nose three times, so he does. Blaine is holed up in the office and Kurt can hear music coming from the office, but doesn’t care to join him. Besides, Blaine doesn’t want him there.

Instead, he experiments with his AI Lizzie and he watches some more movies on Netflix. After all, he has a lot of movies to catch up on.

Later that evening, Kurt’s still on the couch and he’s watching this weird romantic comedy when he hears the door opening. Kurt pointedly looks away, but Blaine sits next to him.

The two of them watch the movie, although Kurt’s mind is on Blaine. He sneaks some glances and he sees how Blaine’s staring at the screen. Well, Kurt isn’t going to make the first move.

Blaine opens his mouth to say something. What he says is very unexpected.

“In my sophomore year, I serenaded a random guy who worked at the GAP and I got him fired.”

Kurt can’t help it. He wants to be mad at Blaine, but he snorts.

Kurt sneaks another glance and Blaine is still staring at the screen, but the corner of his lips are curled up.

“I am afraid of vampires, since my brother dressed up as Dracula when we were little,” he then says and Kurt snorts again.

Kurt tries not to laugh out loud, but the image of a small Blaine, hiding from his brother behind someone’s legs, is hilarious.

“My alma matter is Dalton Academy. A private boarding school known for prestigious education and weed.”

“I stabbed myself in the eye with mascara.”

“The first song I’ve ever written is about a tuna salad sandwich. I was six.”

“I got kicked out of my high school’s soccer team for singing at inappropriate times.”

“I used to wear a lot of hairgel, but I toned it down after I accidentally put cement in my hair. Don’t ask how I did that.”

“There are a lot of videos of me dancing on furniture. There are also a lot of videos of me falling of furniture.”

“I have approximately 69 bowties. Yes, that number is on purpose.”

“I almost broke my ankle while trying on my friend’s heels.”

Blaine keeps telling Kurt random, funny facts about himself and after a lot of them, Kurt can’t supress his laughter any longer. He hasn’t laughed this loudly in a days. His ribcage hurts as he wheezes and Blaine also burst out laughing.

When they calm down, they look at each other, and another fit of giggles and hoots bursts out.

After a while, the laughter dies down. By now, Blaine’s leaning against Kurt. The stupid movie is still playing in the background, but no one pays attention.

“Thank you for telling me all of that,” Kurt says earnestly. It’s not the deep personal information that he’d hoped for, but it’s something and it is so Blaine.

“I’m sorry for this morning,” Blaine says softly, “I just- I don’t really like myself, so I don’t want to talk about myself.”

Kurt leans away and Blaine sits up. “You don’t like yourself?”

Blaine looks sad. “I’m- well, I’m starting to like myself now, but there’s a lot of shit that went down and I don’t want to scare you off.”

“I’ve been dating you for eight years, Blaine,” Kurt says pointedly, “I can hardly imagine future me being with someone I dislike. If I can like you the first time around, I can definitely do it a second time. You just said so yourself: you like yourself a lot better now. I told you, I want to be with you, but please let me know you.”

“Well, there’s also this time where I almost choked on liquorice during one of our first dates,” Blaine says casually and Kurt laughs again. This guy is ridiculous.

Blaine cups Kurt’s chin and he waits for Kurt to push him away, but Kurt doesn’t. “I love you, Kurt. You don’t have to say it back. If you want to be with me, despite everything, then let’s do it. I can’t promise that I will open up immediately, but I love you so much and for you, I’d do everything.”

“Can I kiss you?”

Blaine nods eagerly.

This isn’t Kurt’s first kiss. That was taken from him in his junior year in high school, and Blaine probably knows that story, but nevertheless, to Kurt, this is the first one that counts.

Blaine leans in to kiss him and it’s the best first true kiss ever.