Part of Some Grand Design
By: RavenHeart101
Summary: They're stranded in an airport on Christmas Eve. And they could use a little Christmas magic.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. The song "I Guess it's Christmas Time" belongs to N'Sync.
A: N – Merry Christmas Plainers! -hugs-
"It's coming down really hard here, mom." Blaine said through his phone, staring dejectedly out the frost covered window. The ground was covered in white fluffy snow and more was falling down from the sky. There were barely any lights that he could see besides the ones from the tall buildings in New York. "No one's flying out." He leaned against the glass, the cold making his hair stand up on his arms. A green hat was placed carefully over his curls and his jacket was snug around his shoulders, a scarf covering his neck. His nose and cheeks were red from the ten minutes he had spent outside trying to get to his car before turning around and giving up.
He was stranded. In an airport.
And it was Christmas Eve.
Well if this wasn't some Lifetime Movie plot, Blaine had no idea what he had been watching with Tina the night before.
Now all he needed was a handsome stranger to be stuck here with him and he could call it a day. "Yeah, I'll call you as soon as I figure something out." Blaine assured his mother before hanging up and letting out an almost sad sigh. He should have left with Kurt and Rachel the day before, but, then again, he wasn't entirely sure if they were okay since this storm picked up. He sure hoped they were. He contemplated giving them a call for a moment before shaking his head and stuffing his phone in his pocket. He didn't want to risk Kurt's new boyfriend answering the phone. That guy already hated Blaine enough.
He shook himself out of his stupor and wandered back over to his bags, falling into his seat and leaning forward to fish the book he brought out of his bag. He knew there was no way he was going to be getting out of here anytime soon. Not when his car was stuck under five feet of snow and no one was even risking being out in the storm.
"Blaine?" A cautious voice asked somewhere to his right and Blaine's head shot up, his book falling from his hands as his eyes fell on a familiar figure. Dressed in a dark blue dress and a red jacket with a matching red hat and boots and Blaine couldn't help the laugh.
"Marley!" He stood up as she basically ran towards him, her arms flying around his neck and hugging him tightly. She pulled back with a laugh and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, sitting down next to him. "What are you doing here? You're not done with school yet!"
She laughed again and twirled a curl that had fallen from under his hat with her fingers. "My mom and I are touring some colleges out here. Oh! And Jake came along." She nodded over at her boyfriend of two years as he stood at the coffee vendor's with her mother. Her mother looked wonderful – still big, but happy and healthy. And Jake had grown up a lot. Not that Blaine didn't see him every year when he visited Ohio but it was still a surprise. "Brittany and Sam are somewhere around here." She bit her lip and scanned the airport before shrugging and sitting back in her chair.
They were silent for a moment and Blaine figured he must be a sight. Not as attractive as he used to be. Blaine had let himself go a bit when he came to college. Gone were the bowties and the hair gel. He kept his hair short so he didn't have to worry about curls but his roommate had forbidden the use of any hair gel around him. He still dressed nice but not to the same caliber that he used to at McKinley. Now he was back to the outfits he used to wear on lounging days at Dalton. He was comfortable in a way he had never been in Ohio. "So…" He cleared his throat and looked back over at her, his eyes crinkling some at the corners. "How's McKinley? Any juicy new gossip?"
"No." Marley chuckled. "I think we're all destined to live out the drama in repeats after all of you." He laughed himself, remembering the many updates he got from Marley about the insanity within the club. About how their new girl was pregnant and about Unique's campaign for Senior Class President.
"But you guys won Sectionals." Blaine pointed out with a small quirk of his lips.
"But we won Sectionals!" Marley threw her hands up in excitement. "Oh! And what is this I hear about you going to London next year?"
"Study abroad." Blaine shrugged. "I'm so excited to go. My roommate and I are both going, actually."
"I'm not going to be able to see you all year though!" Marley exclaimed. It was a bit odd to most people, actually, how close Blaine and Marley had gotten during his senior year at McKinley. But she was his closest friend in the same way Tina and Wes were.
"There's always Skype." Blaine pointed out. "And I'll be home for Christmas so…." He sighed and grabbed her hand and squeezing it for a moment before letting it fall back into her lap. "I'll coach you guys all through your vocal exercises through skype before competitions."
"Oh you better." Marley threatened lightly. "If Finn tries to tell me how to sing one more time I might stab him with a music stand."
Oh Finn, their lovable co-Glee director for whenever Mister Schue decided he had better things to do than run Glee. Which was apparently every other week now.
"That never happened with us." Blaine pointed out with exaggerated wide eyes. "You should so do it. Add a spice of your own drama to the picture."
"Oh my god I should."
They traded a look before bursting out laughing, a few people turning around to look at them. Yes, it just so happened that they were stranded in an airport that was full of grumps because they couldn't fly out or get to their cars any time soon.
Actually, If Blaine hadn't run into Marley here he probably would be one of those grumps too.
Either that or he would have sat in his seat, cramped and reading until his flight was finally called to board.
"Blaine!" Their laughter died off with the arrival of Marley's mother and Jake, the boy reaching down to give Blaine a large hug before settling down behind Marley and curling his hand around her waist. "I thought you'd be in Ohio already."
"My flight was delayed." He supplied, standing up and giving his seat to Marley's mother. "And I can't make it back to my car."
They all turned to look out the window, letting out a collective wince before turning back to each other. "Sam and Brittany are over there." Jake gestured to the two of them huddled on the floor near the door, staring at something on Sam's phone. "And I think Puck said that he was here too."
Blaine raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Why the party?"
"College tours." Jake supplied with a shrug. "My mom couldn't make it and Puck said that I should have someone with me so… he offered to come up himself." And was that a small blush to his cheeks? Blaine smirked and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning his hip against the back of the chair Mrs. Rose was sitting in.
"That's unusually sweet of him." Jake opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Blaine's rather loud squeak when an arm grabbed him around his waist and pulled him up in the air before planting his feet back onto the ground.
"What was that, hobbit?" The group laughed, all except Blaine, whose cheeks were painted in a red blush and who punched Puck's shoulder in retaliation. Punched him rather hard, as a matter of fact, and that only seemed to make everyone else laugh harder. "What was that for?"
"For scaring me you jerk." Blaine rolled his eyes before leaning up on his tip-toes and giving Puck a tight hug after his pout.
The two of them had an odd relationship, now that he stopped to think about it. Puck and him had never been really close when they were in school together, but now they texted almost every day and they skyped more than Blaine had ever skyped with Kurt or Cooper. Blaine genuinely enjoyed spending time with Puck and it wasn't for long that the other man was out of his thoughts. Sometimes Blaine could even swear that his relationship with Puck had turned dangerously intimate.
They pulled away from each other after a moment too long, Puck's hands hovering over his waist for a moment before falling back to his sides and rubbing at his neck. "Oh my god!" Marley suddenly brightened, jumping up from her chair and nearly whacking Jake in the face with her hand. "Do you have your guitar?" She pointed at Puck and gave Jake a pointed look, the both of them trading looks before nodding slowly.
"Of course?" Puck dropped his hand onto Blaine's shoulder. Blaine straightened, sharing a confused look with Mrs. Rose before turning back to Marley.
"You know what I'm thinking of." She stared at Blaine, urging him to understand what she was insinuating.
"You don't mean….?"
"Yes."
"Here?"
"Where else!"
Blaine looked at them and then out at the people around them. It had been three hours since they had been told that they would be stuck here until the storm ended. There was a group of children huddled by the vending machines and plenty of older people either conversing or sitting grumpily in their seats. It was a rather dismal place for the day before Christmas.
A small smile twitched at his lips. His life seemed to have moved onto a Hallmark movie instead of Lifetime. "Let's do it." She let out a happy laugh and jumped on the spot for a moment. "Grab your guitar Puckermans. Let's spread some cheer." He winked at them and stood up, cracking his back and grabbing Puck's guitar and strumming a few chords lightly when the other man made no motion to move from where he had been standing.
"Excuse me!" Except it seemed that Puck had jumped to attention, standing on a chair and clapping his hands over his mouth to project his voice. "Since it is Christmas Eve and y'all look so sad some friends and I decided that we're going to put on a little sing a long."
There was a general murmur through the other people, many of them looking disgruntled instead of happy. But the noise quieted down some before picking up again and Marley looked a little put out.
"Feel the magic in the air." Blaine started singing, loud and with enough talent to grab a few people's attention. "Christmas is all around." Marley wandered over to him and stood next to him, her hand settling onto his shoulder.
"Something about his special time of year. A blanket of snow falls, down from the sky. Voices of angels, open our hearts so we can open our arms." The group of children fell silent, wandering over to sit in front of them.
"And we'll all join hands." Jake took up the next line, standing near an elderly woman and startling a smile from her. "To celebrate the goodness."
"That shines inside of everyone." Puck fitted his voice into Jake's the two of them harmonizing perfectly. "It must have been a part of some grand design."
"Guess it's Christmas time." The whole group of them sang together, like they had never done before in Glee and suddenly it was nearly silent in their airport terminal. The frowns on the faces of the grumpy people started to let up, leaving only smiles. Blaine was pretty sure he saw a few people mouthing along to the words.
Marley and him shared a secret smile before turning back to their audience.
By the time the song was done Marley ended up with Jake and Blaine ended up with Puck. Sam and Brittany had joined in, their arms wrapped around each other. Blaine wasn't sure what the two of them were – more unsure about their relationship than he was about his own – but they seemed happy enough so he wasn't going to say anything. Puck pulled him down into a bow as their audience clapped.
They played a bunch more songs, coaxing people from their "audience" to sing along and the children to even dance with them.
In the middle of Jingle Bell Rock Blaine's eyes met Puck's from where the two of them were dancing with some children and his heart started to pound against his rib cage.
It was weird how much his brain just stopped and then started up again yelling at him to take action. It was weird how it was that one look – that one look that they had traded so many times before – that made his breath stutter and his brain to almost short circuit.
He nearly dropped the little girl he was twirling before catching her and sharing a laugh before putting her on the ground and clapping with everyone else when Sam finished with a flourish.
Puck jerked his head towards the outside and Blaine nodded slowly, the two of them picking their way through the people that were singing and dancing happily and grabbing their jackets before slipping outside. They stuck a piece of wood in between the door to keep it open before Blaine turned to look at Puck, his breath wooshing from his lungs once more. Puck stood over him, a piece of green mistletoe hanging from his glove covered finger tips and his eyes sparkling. "Mistletoe." He pointed out with an obnoxious wag of his eyebrows.
"You're kidding." Blaine stated dryly, trying to keep his lips from twitching up in a smile at how utterly ridiculous – and yet romantic – this whole thing was.
Snow twinkled down around them, the glow from inside the airport enough to light up each other and a small area around them. The group inside had moved onto a version of "Oh Holy Night" and the music was nothing more than a simple soft, background soundtrack. Puck's eyes lost a bit of their shine before he smiled again. "Just a small kiss. You know the rules, Blaine."
"I'm not kissing you." Even though he wanted to. He wanted to so much.
Puck's hand fell down back to his side and he frowned, staring at Blaine for a moment before looking down at his shoes and kicking at the snow around his feet. "You know…." He furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm sorry if I got the wrong idea." Puck glanced up at him again before turning back towards the door.
Blaine stopped him just as his hand closed around the handle. His brain wasn't working right and Blaine wasn't entirely sure what it was that he was doing but he tugged Puck closer to him and leaned up on his tip-toes and planted a kiss square on his lips.
When Puck kissed back it was almost as though time had stopped and they weren't standing outside in the cold snow.
Puck's watch beeped and they pulled away from each other slowly, Puck glancing down at it before leaning in once more. "Merry Christmas."
A smile tugged at Blaine's lips and he gave into it, wrapping his arms around Puck's shoulders and kissing him again. "Merry Christmas."
And from then on, each Christmas, the two of them would stay up until midnight and then share a kiss under the mistletoe that Puck made sure to carry around in his pocket. Sometimes it was in the snow, other times it was inside in front of the fire. And other times it was right before bed or outside when there was no snow on the ground. But they always did it.
"Get to bed, sweetie." Blaine patted the little girl on the head, and kissed her cheek, smoothing down her dark hair.
"So you and papa got together on Christmas?" Natalie asked in wonder and Blaine couldn't help the small blush to his cheeks.
"Yup." He nuzzled their noses together, pulling a tiny giggle from her throat before pushing her back down under her covers. "Now go to bed so Santa can come."
"Love you daddy."
"Love you too, baby girl." Blaine closed the door behind him, the light from her nightlight seeping under the door. He padded down the hall and into the nursery, leaning against the doorway at the image he was greeted with. Puck cuddled their baby boy to his chest, singing to him softly and watching as the little boy's blue eyes fluttered shut.
Blue like Cooper's. Just like Natalie's eyes were brown like Puck's.
Blaine wandered into the room and curled his arm around Puck's waist, leaning his head against his unoccupied shoulder and staring at their little boy in wonder. Little Riley let out a tiny yawn and cuddled farther into Puck's shoulder, curling a fist around the finger Blaine had run down his soft cheek.
Puck's watch beeped and he looked down at Blaine, smiling before kissing him gently. "Merry Christmas." He whispered against his lips.
"Merry Christmas."
A: N - I hope you guys have a WONDERFUL holiday. Whether you celebrate Christmas or nothing.