Once they stepped outside, Blaine tugged Kurt into a secluded alcove. He wrapped his arms around Kurt's waist and pressed his lips to Kurt's. Kurt wound his arms around Blaine's neck and kissed him back, then he just held Blaine for a long moment, reveling in the feel of him in his arms.

Finally, Kurt said, “Im not sure this is right.”

Blaine gave him a quizzical look.

Kurt explained, “Our first time, it wasn't like this. You were a virgin, but so was I. But I'm not now. I've mapped every inch of your body with my hands, my lips, my tongue. The first time is scary, but, for us, it was also so sweet, because we were both discovering something new together. You should do this with New Kurt, not me.  Its not that I dont want to.  Believe me, honey, I do, but I also want this to be right for you.”

Kurt expected Blaine to argue with him, but instead, he smiled and asked, “What was it like that first time?”

“Ive told you this already, Blaine. It was sweet. It was wonderful. It was amazing.”

Blaine put a hand to the side of Kurt's face, “Be a little more objective. How was it really? I mean, compare how it was—maybe not even the first time, but the first few times—to how it is now…with you and, uh, Old Blaine.”

“You can't compare them. Theres no comparison.  We know each other now. We recognize every cue. It's as if we share the same body, in some ways…that we know each other as well as we know ourselves.” Kurt took a breath, “Also, I love you more. I didn't know that could happen. When I fell in love with you in high school, I couldn't imagine loving anyone more than I loved you, but it turns out that every day I've known you I've fallen deeper in love. I loved you so much when I was sixteen, but it's not half as much as I love you now.”

“Don't you think I deserve that?”

Now it was Kurt's turn to give Blaine a quizzical look.

“Don't you think I deserve to have the kind of love that grows and grows?”

“Yes, of course I do.  But you should have that with New Kurt.”

“I probably will--I hope I will--but here's the thing, Kurt. You've been worried the whole time about what governs the universe. Is it agency or is it fate? Does it matter what we do, or are we destined to be together? It's both. We make choices, and those choices have consequences, but there are some things that we can probably never change, and there are other things that we can influence tremendously. I don't know how or why, but it's what I believe. Maybe we're fated to be together, and maybe the choices we make—the big choices, not the inconsequential ones—can also change things: carelessness that leads to pregnancy or disease, suicide, killing rage. What I know—what I feel—is that this is a crossroad. If you put us together, irrevocably, then you and I are sealed. If you leave it to your other self, then you're taking a chance. If you believe in us, then let's force Fate's hand. What do you say?”

Kurt just looked at Blaine for a long time. Then he said, “Why are we still standing here?”

Afterward, Kurt reveled in how different tonight was from anything he had ever before experienced with Blaine.

When Kurt and Blaine had made love the first time when they were both teenagers—both the first time they granted their hands visas to travel south of the Equator and, later, the first time that Blaine was inside Kurt—Kurt had looked to Blaine to take the lead. Even though they were both inexperienced, it was Blaine who had done the research, looked at the websites, acquired the necessary supplies. It was Blaine who entered into Kurt, not knowing until later that they would fall into a pattern of lovemaking where Kurt typically, and more naturally, topped.

On this night, it was Kurt who took the lead, initiating Blaine in the physical ritual of bonding in love. Kurt had taken Blaine back to his house where, indeed, Burt and Carole had gone to Washington, DC, and Finn had gone to Rachel's house.

After going to Kurt's room and turning on some music, Kurt had slowly undressed Blaine, subtracting layers inch by inch, looking into his eyes and feeling him tremble beneath his fingers. When they finally laid down on the bed, Kurt kissed Blaine so tenderly, brushing his hair back with his hands as he hovered over his young lover.

As Kurt kissed down Blaine's neck and chest, and his hands trailed down the inside of Blaine's thighs, Blaine cried out in wonder at the feeling. Then, after what seemed like hours of exploration, of soft kisses and harder ones, of small bites and sucking bruises into skin, Kurt began to ghost his fingers softly around Blaine's entrance, causing Blaine to both moan and squirm away a little.

Kurt paused with his body hovering over Blaine's in order to pull open the beside drawer, which he soon discovered contained dental floss, expensive hand lotion, and a paperback but not much else.

At the dismayed look on Kurt's face, Blaine chuckled softly and said, “In my jacket pocket.”

That took a second or two to sink in, and then Kurt rose off of Blaine to retrieve his jacket where, indeed, condoms and lube were found in an inside pocket. “You're quite the Boy Scout,” Kurt murmured.

“Always prepared,” smiled Blaine.

Kurt kissed Blaine again and stroked him a few times back to full hardness, and, wow, Blaine at this age could cut glass with that thing; Kurt had forgotten. Then Kurt opened the lube and liberally coated his fingers.

“Will it hurt?” Blaine asked with a trembling voice.

“Not with my fingers—it will be weird at first, but I'll go slow—but later, yeah, a little. Let me know, and we'll give you a break. If you can relax at that point, the pain should go away. You get used to it; you'll start to like it. It's part of the deal, and it's exciting. But, yeah, at first it's kind of scary.”

“Okay,” Blaine exhaled, looking a bit like a man going to his own execution.

“Oh, honey,” Kurt brought Blaine into a sweet embrace. “We don't have to do this.  Not ever.”

“No, I want to…just…be gentle.”

And Kurt was gentle, of course he was. Infinitely so. Blaine was soon writhing and arching under him, and Kurt couldn't believe the warmth, the tightness, the joy.

When they both finally came undone, shattering in each other's arms, Blaine collapsed, and with a murmured, “I love you,” he soon fell asleep in Kurt's arms, but Kurt stayed awake, staring at Blaine in wonder. This Blaine was a Blaine that perhaps Kurt had never known, but he was still Blaine, and Kurt felt infinitely grateful that he had the opportunity to love yet another facet of this beautiful, warm, generous, and talented man.

As Kurt lay in bed and thought with gratitude about the miracle that was his life, he knew he couldn't trust one more day to fate. Time travel had taught him about the preciousness of being with the ones you love, and his own learned experience taught him that some people are stripped from you all too quickly.

Kurt eased out of bed, careful not to disturb Blaine. He moved to a desk on the far side of the room, and he was grateful that there was just enough light from the moon streaming through the window to see. Pulling out a small memo pad, he wrote two notes.

On the first, he wrote:

In every lifetime, I will find a way to love you. –Kurt

He pulled that memo page from the pad and slipped it into the pocket of Blaine's jacket.

On the second note he wrote:

Dear Finn:

Sometimes things happen in our lives that allow us a glimpse into the past, and sometimes we also get a glimpse of our future. For whatever reason, the universe has allowed me to see your future, and because you are my brother and because I love you, I am sending you this warning. Most of us make a lot of mistakes in our lives—the kind of mistakes that, when we look back, we're not sure how we survived them. For whatever reason, you aren't allowed this opportunity. While others have made mistake after mistake after mistake, you made one mistake, and that mistake killed you far too young. I don't think it's right for me to give you too many details of what I know. Let me just say that you have always been a man who does the right thing. If you always do what is right, you can change your fate. Please remember that, because more people than you know love you, and if you die, we will all grieve you for a lifetime.

Love, your brother Kurt

On silent feet, Kurt slipped out of his room, down the hall, and to Finn's room. Because Finn was at Rachel's he didn't bother to knock. He turned the knob and pushed the door open. He smiled at how cold the room was.  Finn loved to sleep in the frigid cold, so he kept his window cracked just a little, even in the winter.  It was a strange habit, but it was something about Finn that Kurt remembered fondly.  Again, Kurt was grateful for the light from the full moon. He laid the note on Finn's desk, slipped back out of the room and closed the door.

Kurt tiptoed back into his own room, lifted the covers on his side of the bed, slipped in, and pulled Blaine back toward him. Blaine murmured something in his sleep as he cuddled into Kurt's arms, and Kurt kissed his messy head and whispered, “I love you,” before drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

The act of opening and closing the door to Finn's room created a vacuum that pulled the note from the desk and through the open window. From there, the breeze blew the note across the yard and into the gutter, where the morning street sweeping truck pushed it into the gutter.