There were no birthday celebrations when you were in service and the only indication you ever got that you had increased in age was a statement from the officials along with one of the quarterly wings statements. It was this way in which Kurt knew he went from eleven to twelve, from twelve to thirteen, and from thirteen to fourteen.

Fourteen was the age at which the officials actually came to visit.  Kurt was asked if hed be interested in fast tracking his years of service by doing any one of the following: medical testing, drug testing, sex work, radiation cleanup, or sewage treatment.  To each of them, Kurt answered no, and while he stayed at the factory, he saw many of the kids he had started with leave as they were processed for fast tracking, Sam, Santana, and Noah included.  

But it wasnt his yearly letter by which Kurt counted time with, it was the summers.  Every summer he and Blaine would reunite and spend their summers just in one anothers company.  Sometimes Kurt would be taller and sometimes it would be Blaine.  Every year Kurt would go from pale, pasty white to lightly browned and freckled while Blaine stayed that same shade of tan throughout.  Blaine would regale Kurt with stories from the school year and Kurt would come up with fantasy stories of his own in leiu of having anything new to tell Blaine.  Between the summers, Kurt found himself called up to work in the offices more and more, and it was clear to everyone that he was favoured by Boss Anderson because of the relationship he shared with his son.  No one spited him for it though.  It was just the way things were.  Boss Anderson had taken a chance on Kurt and it had paid off for them all.

It was the summer of Kurt being fourteen though that everything began to change.  For starters, he figured out those quarterly statements he got.  SS102, one of the female supervisors, came into the main room and tossed her letter into the air, yelling with triumph about being freed and leaving all "you losers behind".  Someone got her letter and was able to start translating it, seeing where the date was that a person was currently scheduled to be freed was assuming they were working in the same position.  That translation spread through the staff and Kurt was happy to discover that he was on track to be freed at seventeen.  For most of the kids, it was the date of their nineteenth birthday, indicating that their family had huge debt and they would be getting out at the mandatory age for youth, but in Kurts case, there was no need to fast track.

The next thing that changed was Blaine.  When he saw him come through the doors it was like his old friend was moving in slow motion and Kurt couldnt quite figure out why he was holding his breath as he watched him.  Blaine had grown as usual, but didnt look like a boy anymore.  Somewhere between this summer and the last Blaine had made the leap from boy to man, and Kurt was very aware in that instant that he was gay.  Not just a little bit either.  He was gold star, 100%, gay.  He had to calm the blush in his cheeks and avert his eyes, which had been staring, at the slow motion walk of Blaine towards him.

“Kurt!”

“Blaine… hey… hi!”  He looked back at Blaine, just to make sure he hadn't been dreaming, and, sure enough, time seemed to slow down once again.  He would have to suffer through the awkwardness because there was no way he could just ignore Blaine while he tried to figure out this sudden change in his body temperature or why there seemed to be invisible birds singing around him.

“Man!  You're like… you're taller than me again!”  Blaine laughed, and Kurt laughed along with him, unsure of what else he could do to ease the sudden ache in his belly.

They walked together, up towards the stairs and Blaine paused, looking over the main room and tilting his head to one side, “Is it just me or are there less people working here now?”

Kurt shook his head, “No.  They haven't been replacing the people who leave over the past six months or so…. we've been told it's because of the expansion.”

“Expansion?”  Blaine looked back at Kurt who shrugged.  Really, the only reason he knew that was because of what he had heard in the offices.  People who were on the floor all the time probably knew a lot less.

“Ah well… come on.  I have SO much to tell you!”  Blaine said brightly and they skipped off towards the old room where Blaine did in fact spend the better part of their first hour reunited telling Kurt all about the drama in school - how everyone was dating now, or broken up, or dating someone else without someone knowing, how evil his teachers were, and how insane the friends he had in school were.  Kurt just listened to all of it, pretending that he was Blaine and that was his life.  Imagining what he would say or do in Blaine's shoes and what part of the drama he'd play into.

It didn't take long before they were falling over one another, laughing until their stomachs ached and they had to gasp for breath.  Blaine would relate a funny story, and Kurt would ask a question that made them both stop and think and then laugh about how hilarious the situation really was that the question had to be asked.  

“Oh man!  I missed you Kurt!”  Blaine said, wiping a tear from his eye.

“Really?  Still?”  Kurt beamed, looking at his old friend with maybe just a little more than the usual fondness.

“Of course you dummy.  You're the only one I really feel like I can be totally myself with.”

It gave Kurt no shortage of pride to hear that, something he carried inside him for the next week as they played and talked and laughed together as if they had never been parted.

Then one day Blaine come in looking pale and sick.

“Are you okay?”  Kurt asked for the tenth time that morning as they sat watching a series that Blaine had insisted was “the best thing ever!”.

Blaine sighed, paused the movie with the remote and looked over at Kurt steadily.  “My parents found out last night…”

Kurt squinted a little, head tipping just off to the side.  Was he supposed to know what they found out about?

“That I'm gay Kurt.”

“Oh.”

OH.  

Blaine had never said it to Kurt, and Kurt assumed in the past week that he had been reading too much into the passive little statements Blaine had made around him.  Things like “Do you think that celebrity man is hot”, and “I would totally date him”, and “There's this boy at school that always winks at me.” Kurt had all dismissed as his heart trying to take too much of a leap, but now, now he knew Blaine was trying to tell him something without actually telling him.

He played it off casually.

“I take it that it didn't go too well…”

Blaine shook his head.  “My mom is the old school traditional sort.  She figures I have the devil in me.  My dad was okay… but… he said he was sad he'd never have grandkids…”

“What about your older brother?”  Kurt had only heard about Cooper from Blaine, never seen him since he was a decade older.

Blaine shook his head, “I think they've already given up on him settling down.  The only way they'd get grandkids out of him is if he accidentally knocked up some girl.”

Kurt set a hand gently on Blaine's shoulder, “I'm sorry.  You know… I don't mind right?”

Blaine made a one breath chuckle followed by a nod.  “I know Kurt.  Thanks.”

“They're not going to ship you off to some Jesus camp or something are they?”

Blaine shook his head, “No.  But mom is taking a business trip early now… I think to avoid me and sort out her own feelings.  Dad just seems sad about it.  I wish I could change.”

“Don't you dare.”  Kurt huffed, crawling himself around so he was sitting in front of Blaine and able to look him dead in the eyes, “You never change Blaine.  I kind of like you the way you are.”

Blaine's eyes jumped up, catching onto Kurt's and a smile formed on his face that gave him dimples that Kurt had decided just in the past week were adorable.  “Alright… just because you… Kurt…. don't want me to change, I won't.”

Aside from that little hiccup, the summer went as well as it always had.  Kurt got his tan and freckles, and Blaine let his curls loose most days when they were adventuring outside.  The only difference of course was that Kurt spent more time admiring Blaine where he used to be more focused on the play at hand, and his distraction followed him right into the evenings when he spent his nights daydreaming about going to school with Blaine and being able to hold his hand and be his boyfriend.

He had never spent more time in the bathroom as he did during that summer.

His distraction though meant that Kurt didn't notice that other things were happening until it was too late.  He didn't notice the constant reduction in staff on the main floor, the frantic behaviour of the bosses in the office, or even the reduction in his food portions every day.  It wasn't until he finally saw that Blaine looked sad whenever he mentioned his dad or passed his dad in the hall that Kurt realized something was up.

“They're going to close this factory.”  Blaine finally admitted to Kurt at the end of summer, choking back a sob and looking at Kurt with big worried eyes.  

Kurt had no words.  This had been his home for four years now, and if he didn't have this place, he wouldn't have Blaine in his summers.   He may have had only three years left of service, but without anything to look forward to aside from reuniting with his dad, he didn't know how he'd survive.  

The boys held each other and cried freely, Blaine trying to tell Kurt he was trying to get his dad to transfer Kurt to another close factory so they could still see one another and Kurt babbling nonsense that didn't even make sense in his head.  

They had to be peeled apart that day, and the next day Kurt saw the officers come for him as he came out of the boy's dorm.  After crying his eyes out the day before, he had no more fight in him, and held out his hands to have the cable ties attached to his hands with the tag that would determine where he would exist next.  Above him, he could hear Blaine calling down to him, struggling against his dad who was holding him back, away from Kurt, and away from the fact that this was a part of a Dent's life.

Kurt didn't look back as he was led off.