This story starts with a crash. It's not the most interesting of beginnings, but if you asked, Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson wouldn't care about how interesting or not their story's beginning was.
This story starts at the beginning of an end.
It is the result of a chain of events that could have been broken, but in a world where voices are never heard, even the most fragile chain can remain intact.
This story starts with twenty one year old Brian Oaks and his celebration with a small group of college friends.
This story starts with Brian Oaks stumbling to his car and driving away with his last laugh bubbling up inside.
This story starts with a crash.
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It’s not the most interesting beginning, but it’s the only one this story has.
Besides, if asked, Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson wouldn’t give a damn about how striking the beginning of their new story is.
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Kurt wakes first.
He opens his eyes to a blinding white light, and for a moment he thinks to himself, I’m dead.
It’s the realization that he’s awake that sends that thought tumbling out of Kurt’s mind. He almost breathes a sigh of relief, but as soon as he allows himself to waken fully, the pain returns, cutting off the relief. His eyes widen and he opens his mouth in a scream.
“You’ll be okay, son,” one of them says, placing a mask over his face.
He’s still screaming when he falls asleep.
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Blaine wakes second.
He keeps his eyes closed as the black slowly lifts and his senses return. There is pain, but there is also immediate relief in the form of a drug, slowly pumping its way through his body. The youth opens his eyes when the black is gone.
The doctor leaning over him grins and places on hand on his shoulder.
“Welcome,” the doctor says, and before Blaine can ask what he’s being welcomed to, there is a mask placed over his face.
He’s still protesting the mask when he falls asleep.
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For both of the boys, time probably passes quickly.
They would know more about how quick it passes, but no one mentions time in the strange hospitals with the smiling doctors and the bright white lights.
Oh, time still exists. They can feel it gently pulling them along; it’s simply the measurement of time that is absent in the sterile halls.
After a few days with the smiling doctors, the boys forget about calculating seconds and minutes and hours. They forget about measurements of time, and they simply lean back and relax as it passes.
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There are no charts in the hospital, Kurt notices.
There’s also new hustle and bustle. It’s as if everything is under control, and no one has any need to worry.
He enjoys it in the hospital and sometimes, when the lights are off and silver light leaks in from outside, he wonders if he can stay here forever.
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Blaine never wonders if he can stay forever.
He asks his doctors every time they enter the room if he can leave. He asks with hesitation, as if they would be irritated, but they never are. They simply smile and tell him that they are waiting.
What for, Blaine is not sure. He doesn’t ask. He just leans back and stares out the window and imagines being out there once more.
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“Are you Kurt Hummel?”
Kurt looks over at the woman standing in the entrance to his room. She looks different from the doctors; she’s dressed in white like them, but there is something about her that is off. She’s staring at him expectantly, waiting for an answer, so he doesn’t take long to ponder what is wrong with her.
“Yes, I am. I think,” he adds, because he’s suddenly aware of the fact that he doesn’t know.
The woman smiles, “You are,” she tells him before entering the room, “I have come to tell you that you are free to go.”
Kurt stares at her for a few moments before he frowns, “Doesn’t somebody need to sign something for me, so I can leave?”
“Who is there to sign for you?”
The answer is on the tip of his tongue (“My fa-”) but then he forgets.
“Oh.”
The woman’s smile grows and she holds out one hand, “Come, Kurt.”
When he leaves the hospital, only one doctor seems to notice. The rest just carry on going from room to room.
Kurt doesn’t give them much thought.
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The same woman comes to Blaine.
“What’s wrong with you?” Blaine asks her when they’re exiting the hospital.
“Nothing is wrong with me,” the woman says with a laugh like those wind chimes…Blaine frowns. He doesn’t know whose wind chimes to compare the woman’s laugh to anymore. The owner of the wind chimes is there, somewhere in his mind, but the name is locked behind a great metal door, and no matter how much he tries, he can’t break through. So, finally, he stops trying and simply asks another question.
“Where am I going?”
The woman looks at him and her eyes widen, “You don’t know?”
“No…”
“You’re going wherever you’d like.”
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Time passes.
Outside of the hospital, where the sun shines and the rain pours and a sort of life carries on, time passes.
Even if no one bothers to measure it.
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The coffee shop has become Blaine’s favorite place to go. He doesn’t know why, but somewhere behind that door there is something beating, waiting to escape. He has a feeling that if it does, he’ll know why he goes to the coffee shop every day, but he doesn’t bother to try and open the door anymore. He’s a dreamer, and he knows plenty of ‘impossible’ things are simply impossible for the times, but this is one of those things that he knows he simply cannot make happen.
He’s waiting in line for his coffee when someone steps up behind him, and it’s odd, because he’s always last in line.
Blaine looks over his shoulder at the boy behind him.
Blue eyes stare back into his own and the pale boy’s mouth turns down in the slightest frown.
“Don’t I know you?”
He takes in the boy’s features (brown hair, lean, beautiful).
“No…no, I’m don’t think so,” Blaine says at last and then he smiles, reaches out with one hand, “I’m Blaine, though. Blaine Anderson.”
The other boy smiles and takes his hand, “Kurt Hummel.”
It’s his turn to order now, and Blaine lets go of Kurt’s hand slowly, as if some part of him is begging him not to.
“Perhaps I’ll see you around again, Kurt?” Blaine says as he turns around to order.
“Perhaps.”
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Blaine Anderson and Kurt Hummel never do meet again.
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Heaven is simply a place for second beginnings.
A place where happiness is found where one never thought to look before.
The whole operation would be disturbed if Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson ever met again. So, they don’t.
But they're happy either way.
So, please, don’t be upset about it.