Everlasting

By: WeWalkFree

Disclaimer: I neither own Glee nor Tuck Everlasting.

Rating: Ratings will vary by chapter, but more than likely than not this story will reach NC-17.

Summary: “For some time passes slowly. An hour can seem an eternity. For other’s, there’s never enough. For the Hummel’s it didn’t exist.”

Author’s Note: This is based off of the Disney movie Tuck Everlasting. The italics (and summary), are a direct quote from the movie (as is some of the opening dialogue), and do not belong to me. Although this movie is based on Tuck Everlasting, it will have some major plot difference, and twist. Side note: This story starts in 1907; Blaine, Kurt, and Finn are all 17.

            For some time passes slowly. An hour can seem an eternity. For other’s, there’s never enough. For the Hummel’s it didn’t exist.

Time is like a wheel, turning and turning, never stopping. And the woods are the center, the hub of the wheel.

 It began the first week of summer; a strange a breathless time, when accident, or fate, brings lives together. When people are led to do things they’ve never done before. On this summer’s day, not so very long ago, the wheels set lives in motion, in mysterious ways. It set Carol Hummel-Hudson out on her wagon for the village of Lima to meet her two sons as she did once every ten years.

~ Lima, Ohio - 1907

            Carol Hummel-Hudson directed her wagon down the busy dirt road of Lima, coaxing her horse to gallop at a much faster than she is sure he would have liked. Her hat blew slightly off of her hair, which was pinned up in a tidy bun, as the wind pushed against it. For someone with more time than she usually knew what to do with, Carol was in a hurry today. For on this day, she would see her sons for the first time in a long time.

            The village marketplace was busy with people. People shopping, people doing business, people engaging in all sorts of conversation. She slowed her wagon down as to not run into any of the children that were playing ball in the street, or their parents that were chasing them. After finding a spot that was not as busy as the rest she queued her horse to stop and parked off to the side as much as possible.

            Not having been to a market in a long while Carol took her time looking around at all the spectacular items that were on display and for sale. She browsed countless knickknacks, housewares, and even spotted a typewriter. Carol had heard of typewriters, but never before had she seen one in person. After spending a good amount of time taking in the marketplace she sat down on the back of her wagon and cranked the handle on her music box, humming along with the tune.

            “Carol!” a lean boy with chestnut hair called to her as he ran across the road. A smile immediately appeared on her face, spreading all the way up to her eyes. She jumped off the back of her wagon and began running towards him with equal vigor. “Kurt!” she shouted, her voice alive with glee. Meeting halfway the grabbed each other in a hug, Kurt picking up his stepmother and spinning her around as her dress danced in the wind.

            “I missed you! What are you doing here?” Kurt exclaimed, still holding tight to Carol. Behind them another boy, stalky with darker hair, made his way up to them, a small smile playing on his face.

            “I couldn’t wait to see you, I missed you Kurt!” she explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She ran her hand up and down his arm as she looked him over, as if to make sure he were really there, that this wasn’t just some dream she was having, as if to make sure he was okay, even though she knew there was no way he possibly couldn’t be.

Kurt released his arms from his hold around Carol and began to search through the bag that was hanging over his shoulder. “I’ve got something for you!” Kurt said elatedly as he pulled out a small knickknack of the Eifel Tower and handed it to her.  “I got it in Paris, France! Carol you should have seen it! And the clothes are incredible; unlike any thing you’ve ever seen. Say you’ll go with me someday?” he continued ecstatically.

“Of course dear. I love it, thank you so much!” she replied, pulling him in for another firm hug before turning her attention to the other boy who not far off petting the horse on the wagon.          

“Finn,” the name came seamlessly, rolling off her tongue like it had a thousand times before. They walked slowly towards one another, wrapping their arms around each other lovingly when they finally met in the middle. “Ten years,” Carol whispered into her son’s chest as she held on to him. The words they exchanged were few, but the emotion they exchanged them with was infinite.

~

            “Blaine! Blaine!” a woman’s voice called from the distance, shouting for her son that was lying outside in the grass.

Blaine rolled to his side, sighing heavily. “I wonder what I did this time?” he asked aloud, though it was only to himself. He raised his voice as he shouted back to his mother, “Yes?” “Come inside this instant!” she replied agitatedly. Blaine stood up slowly, taking one last long look around his yard, and over the fence into the distance of the woods, before making his way reluctantly up into the confides of his house.

“Blaine!” his mother shouted sternly as he walked through the door. “Your clothes are a mess, go change at once, hurry before your father get’s home!” She grabbed a set of clothes that were resting on a couch in the sitting room and shoved them into his arms as she pushed him towards the hallway on his was to the wash room. “Put these on! Your father has a business party tonight, did you forget?” He had.

After Blaine had washed up, changed into the clothes that his mother had handed him, and tamed his curly hair as best he could, he made his way back into the sitting room where he knew his mother would be waiting anxiously for him. “Blaine, darling, you look lovely,” she stated offhandedly, “Now be a dear and go practice while I go change for this evening.”

            Blaine sat down at the piano and did as he was told, tapping on the keys and producing a melody that sounded as close to Mozart as anyone’s playing in Lafayette did. Blaine had never been reluctant in playing the piano; in fact he enjoyed it a great deal when he was younger. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy it still, because he did. It’s just that he often wished that instead of practicing nearly all of the time that he could be like all the other boy’s in town and go play ball in the streets.

For Blaine Anderson one thing was true, the heat of summer was not nearly as stifling as the formality of his life. With every passing day, the feeling grew stronger. He was coming closer to the end of something, and moving towards the beginning of something new.

Change was in the air. It was only a question of when.

After his mother had changed in one of her finest dresses, applied her rouge and lipstick, she made her way back into the sitting room to request Blaine’s accompaniment into the market to purchase last minute party supplies. The Anderson family was the only family in town to own an actual car, which most would be proud of, but Blaine instead of proud, was embarrassed. He didn’t like the attention that it drew to him. The other adolescents in town already thought Blaine an outcast, the car just added to reasons for them to think so.

Mrs. Anderson had her driver stop outside of a bakery in town, upon exiting the vehicle she turned towards Blaine with a stern look on her face and said “Don’t leave the car, I won’t be long. I mean it Blaine,” as she knew of her son’s great curiosity for all things outside of their home.

He gazed longingly out the side of the car at the boys playing ball. They watched him from where they were playing, and one boy braver than the rest, made his way up to the car and called Blaine out, “Afraid to get your feet dirty money-bags?” Needing no further taunting, Blaine stepped out of the car, and walked across the street to where the boys were playing at. It turned out Blaine was really good, much to everyone’s surprise, including his own.

Inside the bakery his mother heard Blaine’s name being cheered, and was equally as surprised, to look out the window and see her son running in the dirt with all the other boys of the town. She left the shop immediately, furious that her son was behaving like some Neanderthal. “Blaine! Car, now!” she hollered to him as she made her way back into the bakery to finalize her purchase and get home before Mr. Anderson.

~

            In a quite cabin deep within the forest the Hummel’s were having a party as well. Carol and Kurt were sitting together discussing the fashion of Paris, Kurt radiating with passion as he described in detail all the things he had seen first hand on his journey. Burt Hummel carried on in the discussion with his wife and son for some time, but couldn’t ignore the solemn way his stepson was looking, alone on the other side of the room.

            “It’s good to have you home. To have the family together again,” he said, as he sat down next to Finn, patting him on the shoulder reassuringly. “Well, don’t get used to it, I’m going to join the war, to get as far away from this place as I can, for good,” Finn replied, not making eye contact with the older man. Burt had known that Finn’s biological father had died in war, or at least that’s what Finn was brought up to believe, but he sensed that was only half of the reasoning behind Finn’s decision.

            Burt, knowing it would probably be best to leave it alone, pressed on anyways, “You think that will make anything better?” Instead of answering the question Finn changed the subject, to one that he thought needed more attention at the moment, but was just as hard to talk about. “Somebody’s on to us,” he said it simply, but everyone in the room turned their attention to him at once.

            “A man has been following us. Kurt and I. We lost him a few times, but he always finds us. I think he knows something, I’m sure of it. This man…he’s tracking us,” he carried on.

            “We lost him,” Kurt interjected.

            “Yeah, for now, but we lost him before, and he found us again,” Finn made his voice louder, trying to convey how big this was.

            Burt looked at Finn, the war suddenly forgotten, “It was only a matter of time…the forest is almost gone. I saw wheel tracks not far from here a few weeks ago. I didn’t want to mention it, as to frighten anyone without cause, but I have a feeling there’s going to be more. I don’t want any of you going into town,” he stated gravely. He looked at each member of his family in turn, making sure they understood the importance behind his words. “And if you see anyone get too close, you know what you have to do,” he finished on his way out of the cabin.

~

            Outside the Anderson house Blaine was running around trying to catch fireflies, enjoying the peace of the night after a hectic day. “You’re never going to catch one like that,” came a voice from behind him, belonging to a man wearing a blue suit. Startled Blaine turned around and walked over the fence where the man stood and inquired, “Do you know much about catching them?” The man laughed lightly and replied, “No, I prefer larger game, you could say. I suspect it’s the same principle though. The trick is becoming part of the scenery. You have to be patient, waiting for the right moment to strike,” and with that he held out his fist and caught a firefly.

            Blaine was unsure what to make of this strange man, he didn’t seem much older than himself, but there was something about him that was peculiar nonetheless. “Are you from around here?” Blaine figured it couldn’t hurt to ask; after all, this man was intruding on his property.

            “No, I’m just visiting. Sebastian, by the way,” he answered, holding out his hand for Blaine to shake. “Blaine,” replied the hazel-eyed boy as he offered his hand back.

            “So Blaine, how long have you lived here?” Sebastian asked curiously. Blaine, not thinking anything of the question, didn’t hesitate to reply. “Forever,” he said. “I’m looking for friends of mine,” Sebastian began, “perhaps you could help me find them?”

Blaine wasn’t sure what it was about this man, but he was quiet tired of talking to him. “My father practically built Lafayette, I’m sure he could help you,” Blaine offered. Sebastian made a face that was one of great disapproval. “Maybe, I like talking to you though,” he replied, and Blaine was sure he saw the older man wink at him when he did so.

“Blaine?” Mrs. Anderson called from behind them. He had never been as happy to see his mother, even if she was being overly protective again. “Blaine? Who are you speaking to?” she called as she carried on making her way to the fence where he son was talking to what appeared to be a man, one she had never seen at that.

“Hello mam, I’m very sorry to be a bother. Your charming son here told me you’ve lived here forever, I was just wondering if he could help me find my friends. Their last name is -” Sebastian started, but was cut off my Mrs. Anderson. “I don’t know everyone in the area, and even if I did I wouldn’t stand outside talking about it with strangers.”

“I’m sorry, I’ll be on my way. It was a pleasure meeting you Blaine,” Sebastian replied coolly as he made his way back towards the road, humming a strange tune as he went. Blaine had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last time he saw this strange man in the blue suit. Mrs. Anderson dragged her son back up to the house going on about senseless and unsafe Blaine could be.

The next morning Mr. Anderson woke his son up early and called him down to the sitting room to talk. Blaine suspected his mother had told him about last night’s events with the strange man, and probably about his playing ball in the marketplace earlier that day as well. When he reached the sitting room he saw his mother was also there, and it deepened his suspicions.

Blaine sat down on a large chair that was seated across from the couch that his parents sat on. It had been years since both his parents set him down to talk. Three years, to be exact. It was when they caught him looking at a boy in town a little too long, and they discovered his sexual preference. They talked to him about the bible and sin for hours the following day, then avoided the subject ever since.

“You need a proper education Blaine, if you’re ever going to be of use to society,” Mrs. Anderson started, brining Blaine back to the present.

            “You’re mother and I talked about this a great deal last night, and we think this is the best thing for you right now,” his father added.

            “Dalton Academy in Westerville is an excellent school. It will make you a fine gentleman. The way you have been behaving lately makes me worry about your future Blaine. This is what’s best for you, please understand that,” Mrs. Anderson stated, reaching across the table to place her hand on her son’s knee.

            Blaine had heard about Dalton Academy before. He knew the types of boys that went to schools like those, the type that turned out like his father. He wasn’t going to let himself  turn out like that. “I won’t go!” he shouted, and with that he ran outside, ignoring his parents calls to him.

            Blaine Anderson was to be sent nearly ninety miles away to be educated. But what his parents didn’t understand was he only wanted to step just outside his fence. So he did.

            Blaine ran as fast as he feet could carry him, until he was in the heart of the woods. He didn’t know how long he had run for, or whether his parents were following after him or not. All he knew was that he would not become his father.

            What in these quiet woods should be so forbidden? Blaine had always sensed a mystery waiting for him there. It was a place so entirely different from what he knew. So far away from his tight pruned world.

            When Blaine was sure that his parents had in fact not followed him he slowed down. He had no choice, as he was nearly out of breath, and at this point hadn’t a clue where he was at. Blaine had never been this far into the forest before. He had never really even been in the forest before; expect the outskirts when he was a boy.

            There was a splashing sound in the distance, and for a moment Blaine almost decided to turn around, but curiosity got the best of him. He treaded even more cautiously being careful not to brush up again the trees and make noise, as he moved closer to the sound.

            When he discovered the sound of the noise he saw a boy leaned over and washing his face in a spring. He watched him for a moment, enjoying the delicate way in which he moved. It wasn’t long, however, until the boy discovered his presence and stood up, looking rather alarmed. He watched as the boy looked around, as if searching to see if anyone else was nearby, slowly making his way up to where he stood. “How long have you been standing there?” asked the boy in a musical tone. Blaine had decided right then and there he had never heard anything quiet as beautiful in his life.