After Today, Forever Begins

“Do you find me graceful yet?” Kurt side-glances his boyfriend, Jasper, as he attempts to glide across the linoleum floor. The hot New York sun is unforgivable in the afternoon as its beams shine all over the capsule-sized apartment they’re currently viewing. Kurt continues to prance from corner to corner, taking his time to count in his head before leaping. It only took him two leaps to get from one end to another, but he feels a sense of childish accomplishment when he does them.

Jasper sighs, his finger coming away with dust when he wipes down the kitchen counter, “No, you look like Kermit the Frog trying to keel over himself. Stop that,”

Kurt sticks his tongue out in reply but Jasper doesn’t catch it as his eyes pass over the suspiciously shiny kitchen equipment. He’s fairly sure Steve, the landlord hastily wiped down with Lysol before they went in. “Honey, I don’t think this is the place,”

The two fresh graduates are looking for a new place after their dorm kicked them out the second graduation ended. Jasper’s mom was kind enough to house them while they look for a new place, but it is kind of awkward to even attempt to have sex when they know Jasper’s sweet Filipino mother is snoring two doors away. Armed with Kurt’s graduation check and student loans that they will no doubt be paying for the rest of their life, the pair bunkered down and looked through every classified ad in the newspaper as well as barely verified online ads, and in one memorable low point, sifted through even incredibly vague social media threads. The current apartment they’re looking at was a find from a friend of a friend, who knew the couple was becoming desperate.

“Jazz, the rent of this apartment is daylight robbery compared to all the other places we’ve looked at. We will be passing up a somewhat great deal if we don’t stick to this one.” Kurt points out as he now starts leapfrogging from one end of the room to another.

“Okay, the pros are very good pros,” Jasper concedes and counts, “It’s close to my work, it’s somewhat close to your work, and we’re surrounded by bodegas and bagel stores that can feed us when we’re too lazy to cook,”

“The wifi is bearable and there’s a tiny balcony where we can somewhat see Central Park,” Kurt adds, pointing at the windows.

“But there’s so much work we’ll need to do, from the closet-sized bedroom to the bathroom stuck in the 1950s!” Jasper said, scratching his forehead and sighing. “We don’t even know if the shower works,”

Kurt skips his way to the bathroom and opens the light. “Well, you weren’t kidding when you said it’s stuck in the 50s,” He leans over, carefully staying by the door as he opens the shower. He holds his hand opens as he waits for confirmation. Warm water pours out suddenly before becoming ice-cold on his fingertips. “It’s a drama queen, but anything’s better than living with Tita Ella for another month. I love her, but I can’t have another night with a ten-minute groping session underneath the sheets like we’re teenagers dealing with Catholic guilt,” he shouts to Jasper who was still in the kitchen, now inspecting the cabinets.

Jasper snorted, “Yeah, sure. You say that now, but when the hot water suddenly stops in the shower, which one of us is going to be bawling his eyes out saying his precious hair routine is unsalvageable?” He turns to face Kurt at the right time as he playfully launches himself towards him and Jasper barely holds on to the counter in surprise. He adjusts his grip and carefully hugs him in a bear-like hold, tucking an errant lock of Kurt’s blonde hair under his ear. Kurt rewards him with a soft kiss before leaning back with an amused glare.

"We just have different shower routines! Besides, what you lack is an imagination,” he shrugs out of Jasper’s arms and takes his hand. He leads him to the doorway. “From this angle, the apartment looks…”

“Drafty,” Jasper completes, shrugging his shoulders. “Another word that comes to mind is moldy.” They both look up and stare at the yellowing ceiling. Kurt shakes his head and frames his hands on his boyfriend’s face. Jasper's surprised brown eyes meet blue and Kurt smiles.

He leans in close enough to see the soft black eyelashes and says conspiratorially, “I have three letters for you: DIY! I have performed artistic miracles as a creative director and coincidentally, it is kind of my adult job, now that I’m going to be working for that magazine.”

Jasper lurches away and starts shaking his head, “Kurt, no. Absolutely not. Honey. It’s going to take more than peel-on wallpaper to make this apartment habitable. Look at the state of the walls!” He gestures at the barely-white walls with traces of the previous owner still intact.

"Hear me out, we can put a couch by that wall," Kurt says pointing, "And a nice television on the opposite wall to watch movies in,"

"A welcome mat..."

"New light fixtures and some gray bedsheets..."

"Yellow plates and silver cutlery..."

Kurt takes the time to tour his boyfriend the apartment, pointing out all the things they would change. They end up back in the living room, with Jasper looking less unsure but not totally in. "Honey, any place we get is probably going to have some downsides, it's the reality of two broke people," Kurt ends comfortingly to his boyfriend.

“I know I'm being difficult about the apartment-hunting, but… I want to make sure that the first place we get to live together is… you know,” Jasper trails off, his face flushing in deep pink, and looks at everywhere but Kurt.

Kurt reaches out for Jasper’s hand and leads them to the middle of the open-concept apartment, which in New York lingo means the kitchen and the living room is in some sort of limbo with each other. “Jazz, we’ve been looking for months. Literal months,” Kurt said with a telling look to his boyfriend. He steps into Jasper’s open arms and says, “I want to live with you. At this point, I would be fine living anywhere in the entire New York state as long as it’s with you.”

A knock surprised the couple apart before Jasper reaches for Kurt’s hand. Steve, the apartment’s landlord steps inside and asks, “Well, boys? What’s the final verdict?”

Jasper and Kurt share a knowing look. Jasper leans forward to kiss Kurt on the cheek and replies, “So, theoretically, how fast can we move in?”