Locked Cars and Bad Weather

Kurt groaned as he felt the first droplets of water. This was not good. After three years, he'd finally managed to save enough money to buy a crappy car, knowing he was talented enough to fix it himself. Unfortunately, he wanted to surprise his dad and do it at home. Which meant traveling in a crappy car for a long distance. And of course that lead to it breaking down less than ten miles outside of Lima.

At least he knew exactly what the problem was. But he didn't have the tools to fix it. He'd already called a tow truck, but had been unable to pull himself away from the engine. Hoping a last minute idea would come to him for a temporary fix. Nothing ever came.

Except the rain. And now he couldn't get into his car. He still had cloth seats, which meant if they got too wet then the car would smell funny for the rest of its life. He refused to let that happen. So he closed the hood and huddled on the passenger side, away from the road. This trip was not turning out very well.

Dave was happy to be going back home. After a taking a year at the community college he'd finally gotten into Cornell on a partial scholarship. So after two years of working constantly, he finally got a week off to visit his dad.

He was so close to home, cursing the rain for slowing him down, when he saw the figure and the car by the side of the road. He'd pass by, except he was pretty sure he knew who it was. He'd spent too much time obsessing over that man in the past to not know.

Letting out a sigh, he pulled over, wondering if he could help. They may not have talked since graduation, but there wasn't really bad blood between them any more.

"Kurt?" he called through the rain, the slam of his door catching the man's attention.

Kurt turned, clearly surprised. "David! What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," said Dave. "Why aren't you waiting in your car?"

"Wet seats do not a good smell make," said Kurt. "I just got this car, I'm not going to make it smell."

Dave shook his head, letting a small grin take over his features. Leave it to Kurt to stand in the rain for a reason like that. "Well, at least come wait in my car. I have leather seats."

Kurt didn't even think about it. He was already walking towards Dave's car before the offer was completely out of his mouth. He tugged on the passenger side handle and looked at Dave. "Locked?"

"Habit," Dave shrugged.

Then he tried his own door. Which was also locked. He moved to grab his keys from his pocket when his eyes caught something shining in his cup holder. "You've got to be shitting me," he mumbled… staring at his keys inside his car. Looking up at Kurt he gave the man an apologetic look. "Think your tow truck would be able to open my car?"

Kurt sighed. "Probably."

Dave walked around, leaning next to Kurt on the safer side of the car. "Sorry. It's just habit. I never leave my keys in my car in New York. But I do at home. I guess I'm close enough to Lima to get back to that."

"It's a terrible habit," Kurt mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "At least I'm already soaked."

They stood in silence for a few minutes before Kurt spoke again. "You live in New York?"

That sparked a ten-minute conversation that revealed to Kurt the kind of friendship they could have had if he'd tried harder to act on his promise. Random texts, while apparently appreciated, do not a friendship make.

"The truck shouldn't be too much longer now," said Kurt, immediately following the comment with a sneeze.

"You okay?" asked Dave. "How long were you in the rain before I got here?"

Kurt shrugged, suddenly noticing that his shivers were getting stronger. "I didn't think it was that long."

Without thinking about it, Dave pulled Kurt into a hug. "Well, you look freezing," Dave said, rubbing his arms up and down Kurt's back in an attempt to warm him up. Then he froze, realizing what he was doing. "God, Kurt, I'm sorry," he said, starting to pull away, only to be stopped by Kurt's hands fisting in his shirt.

"You're warm," Kurt mumbled, returning to his spot in Dave's arms.

Letting out a surprised huff, Dave relaxed again, both of them falling into a comfortable silence.

Barely five minutes later the truck pulled up. Five minutes and a twenty-dollar bill later, Dave and Kurt were sitting in the warmth of Dave's car as the mechanic connected Kurt's vehicle to the truck.

They'd already decided that the car would be taken to Hummel's Tire and Lube and Kurt would go there in a few hours after he'd gotten dried off and warmed up. But Kurt refused to leave until he saw that his car was safely on the road.

As they drove into town, Dave made sure his heat was up all the way and blasting on Kurt who was already sniffling.

"Who's house should we go to first?" Dave asked.

"I really wanted to surprise Dad and Carole," Kurt said. "Mind if we go over to yours? Maybe I can dry my clothes there, go pick up my car and then go home."

"Sounds good to me."

"I can't believe you didn't think to get a change of clothes from your car?" said Dave, standing outside his bathroom door. Kurt was inside, changing into some clothes of Dave's.

"Shut up," said Kurt. "Any clothes I pulled out would have gotten wet in the transfer anyways."

He emerged a moment later wearing one of Dave's oversized sweatshirts and a pair of his mom's old yoga pants that got left behind when she moved out.

"What?" asked Kurt, running his hands self-consciously through his hair, he'd been horrified to discover that neither Dave nor his Dad had a hairdryer.

Dave hadn't even realized he was staring and didn't think before blurting out what was apparently on his mind. "Only you could make an oversized sweatshirt look hot."

Red immediately flooded Kurt's face. "Thank you… I think."

Clearing his throat, Dave turned and led the way to the laundry room, watching in only a little bit of surprise as Kurt tossed his clothes into the dryer and not place them on the available hangers.

"Just because you have a boyfriend doesn't mean you can't accept compliments from other guys," Dave said, watching as Kurt worked.

The slim man paused, glancing over his shoulder before continuing. "I don't have a boyfriend," he said.

Dave wanted to ask what happened to Blaine but decided against it. "Wanna watch a movie?"

Kurt grinned, nodding his head a little. "That'd be nice."

Two years later, Dave groaned inwardly as he felt the first droplet hit his face.

"Come on, Dave," whined Kurt, "It's starting to rain."

"I know, I know," nodded Dave, patting his pockets and hoping he heard the jingle of his keys. Panicking a little, he thought through exactly what he'd done when they got to the restaurant. He'd turned off the car, set the keys down to pick it up and then put them in his right jacket pocket…

Dave froze when he felt the little box in his coat. He'd been so worried of screwing up at dinner that he'd decided to wait until they were in a more private place. He couldn't decide if this was all a good thing or a bad thing. The combination of Kurt's quiet sigh and the sudden down pouring of rain told him he'd sort of lucked out.

"I'll call Bob," said Kurt.

Apparently Dave hadn't told the whole truth about never leaving his keys in the car while in New York, because he seemed to do it every time he was with Kurt. They'd become pretty good friends with the local tire shop owner.

A few moments later they leaned against the car to wait for Bob, Dave fingering the box nervously. Finally, he decided that he wanted to ask before Bob got there and pulled out the velveteen box.

Not wanting to give Kurt any chance at jumping to conclusions or mock him, he fell gracefully to one knee and revealed the now open box to his boyfriend. "Kurt, will you marry me?"

Kurt stared in surprise. A look that was matched by Dave when he heard the initial reply.

"I don't know if I should be mad about my suite getting ruined or if I should commend you for the nearly impossible planning."

"What are you talking about?" asked Dave, slowly getting back to his feet.

"You proposed on our second anniversary? In the rain? Next to the very car that brought us back together?"

Dave glanced at the car, the newly and completely refurbished one that Kurt had let him drive as an anniversary gift. "Okay, so I didn't plan all of it. I kinda lucked out on the last parts."

"Well good," said Kurt, plucking the ring from Dave's hand. "And yes, David," he said, "I will marry you."

They were still in the celebratory lip lock when Bob pulled up. He just got out of his car and smiled at them. When Kurt pulled away, blushing, Bob made quick work of the locks and turned back to them. "You read the inscription yet?" he asked.

Kurt raised an eyebrow, surprised that their "car-unlocker" knew more about all this than he did. Carefully, only a little afraid of dropping the ring in the rain, he took the loop of metal from its box and squinted his eyes to read the inscription.

Yours, Rain Or Shine

The End