A/N: Another multi-chapter fic from the Lannister stables! Set in my personal Klaine-verse in which (for the uninitiated) Kurt and Blaine are married, living in New York, and parents to two adopted kids, Valerie (elder) and Drake (younger). You read the summary up top, now on with the tale!
"Drake!"
"What?"
"Would you come down please? Your Dad and I need to talk to you."
"Am I in trouble?"
Silence.
"Should you be?"
"Uh... no? Not that I can remember..."
"Then you're probably not. Now come down!"
Ten-year old Drake Hummel-Anderson descended slowly down the stairs, his brain working at lightning speed, trying to determine all possibilities that would involve both his fathers needing to speak to him alone.
None of them were good.
Kurt stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs, his arms folded across his chest, looking serious, but not unnaturally so.
For the life of him, Drake couldn't figure out what he had done wrong in the past week that he hadn't already been chastened for. He cast his mind back two weeks. Three. The past month. Nope. All accounted for. Brow furrowed with worry, he walked into the living room ahead of his father, wondering if they had finally managed to gain some remarkable insight into the future and this might be some sort of pre-emptive intervention for trouble he hadn't even committed yet.
Blaine was lounging on the couch when he entered with Kurt, but turned with an easy smile. Well, that was a good sign. Atleast one of his dads was smiling. Gingerly, he accepted a seat on the edge of the coffee table facing them, his gaze swivelling from one face to the other.
"Ok, you guys. You're seriously freaking me out here. What's this about? Why are you talking to me alone if I'm not in trouble?"
Blaine pretended to look hurt.
"What? We can't have father-son conversations any more without you being in trouble?"
Drake raised his eyebrows sceptically.
"Uhhh... both of you?"
Kurt sighed and leaned forward.
"Drake, for the last time, you're not in trouble. Not this time. but we do have something we need to talk to you about."
Suddenly something clicked behind the young boy's hazel eyes.
"Wait... is this because I called you 'Kurt' the other day instead of Daddy?" he queried frantically.
"Look, Dad, I didn't mean to offend you! I'm ten now! I can't call you 'Daddy' anymore! That's only for babies! And girls."
Kurt's crystal blue eyes registered his frank surprise at the topic brought up.
"N-no, Drake. We've already talked about that. It's cool if you want to call us both Dad now. We-we understand. You can refer to us by our names when you're talking to other people. No, that's not why we called you here."
He paused, searching his son's worried eyes and then he took his hands in his.
Drake stiffened. Now he knew something was up.
Blaine also edged forward in his seat.
"Drake, I just want to let you know that no matter what you're about to hear, we're here for you. Nothing changes between us, ok, buddy?"
A dry cold feeling was creeping up Drake's throat. The suspense created by his fathers was getting almost too much to bear. He wished they would just blurt it out, whatever it was, and get it over with.
He saw the two of them exchange a brief glance and Blaine gave Kurt an imperceptible nod. Kurt took a deep breath, licking his own dry lips once before he made the life-changing announcement. Drake wished he could shut his eyes, but they were rivetted onto his father's face. Kurt squeezed his hands and then said as gently as possible,
"Drake, your dad and I, you know we love you very much, right?"
Drake was almost too terrified now to nod. He managed only a slightly jerky movement of the head.
"Drake, buddy, we felt that you're now old enough to understand a few important things and that it's time you were told where you came to us from. You see, we're not your biological parents. You're an adopted child, Drake."
The world seemed to stop spinning in the eternal heartbeat it took for Kurt's words to sink in.
Drake's eyelids fell and lifted once more, but in that very blink, it seemed to him his parents had changed. Everything had changed. Things weren't what they had been even a moment ago. He looked down at Kurt's hands still grasping his own and suddenly they looked like the hands of a stranger. He wrenched them away, shrinking back in horror.
"What?"
It came out only as strangled gasp.
Both Kurt and Blaine's eyes widened in dismay at his reaction. Blaine reached out to grip his shoulders, but Drake shook him off violently and despite being prepared for this, his son's rejection still stung.
"Drake, honey... I know it's a lot to take in, so I want you to think before you react, ok? We're going to be here for you. We'll always be here for you. Remember what I said? This doesn't change anything between us. We still love you-"
"Are you crazy?!"
Drake jumped to his feet, his eyes filling fast as he looked at the two of them wildly.
"This changes everything between us!"
Kurt's heart dropped when he heard this.
"Who were they?"
Drake looked at them challengingly.
"My real parents. Who were they? Are they alive?"
Kurt felt Blaine's hand grope for his and sensed it trembling. He squeezed back as reassuringly as he could. They would have to face this as a team.
"Drake, sit down. There's still a whole story to tell and you need to hear it through to the end."
Kurt was internally very proud of himself for being able to sound firm without his voice quavering.
Drake controlled himself mightily to keep the tears in his eyes from spilling, but finally sat rigidly back down, clamping his hands on his knees.
Kurt forced himself to look him steadily in the eyes as he began with the longest tale he had ever told in his life.
"Drake, before I tell you anything, I want you to understand something once and for all. You are our son. No matter what, ok? We adopted you right after you were born. We have raised you and loved you and we still love you. Just as much as we always have. You are a part of this family. A very important part. Never forget that."
He drew in a breath.
"Ok. Well, here goes. Your mom-"
"Mom?! Wait... I have a... mom?!"
This time Drake couldn't hold it in anymore. His lip trembled and two tears rolled down his cheeks.
In an instant Blaine had him gathered in his arms and even though he struggled in his grip, he refused to let go. Finally, Drake stopped resisting and leaned back against him, dragging his sleeve over his eyes and returning his attention to Kurt.
Kurt lifted his eyes to Blaine's for a second, as if to gather reassurance, and then resumed once more.
"Drake, to make a baby, you need a man and a woman. Two men or two women alone can't conceive a child. That's why your Dad and I can't ever have a baby."
Drake's brow furrowed.
"Why can't you just make one with a woman then?"
Kurt smiled wryly.
"Well, to do that, we'd have to love a woman instead of each other. But your Dad and I can't do that. We love each other too much to share ourselves with a woman."
Drake still looked slightly confused, but didn't question this further. Kurt let out a thankful sigh. Sex and sexual preferences were things he would rather deal with in an entirely separate conversation!
"But we did want kids. We'd already been married for a number of years and we really wanted to start a family. So we opted for adoption."
Blaine brought his lips closer to Drake's ears.
"You wanna know something cool, buddy? Val and you have the same mommy!"
Drake nearly twisted his neck spinning around to face his father.
"Wait, Val? She- she's adopted too?"
Kurt and Blaine both nodded.
"Of course."
"And- and we both came from the same place?"
Blaine looked to Kurt for help with this one and he directed Drake's attention to himself.
"Drake, sweetheart, your birth mother loved two separate men at different points in her life. One of them gave her your sister, and the other one gave her you. So, yes, your sister and you share a mother, but you have separate biological fathers."
Drake's eyes dripped a couple of tears again, but this time he bit his lip and nodded for him to continue.
Kurt edged closer to Blaine and Drake, trying to establish eye contact with his son who kept shying away.
"Trouble was, both the times she had a baby, your mother was far too young to take care of it. That's why she put you two up for adoption. She was still in school at the time and couldn't handle the pressures and responsibilities that came with having a child to take care of. But she wanted you to go to a good home. That's why she chose us."
Drake bent his head and absent-mindedly fiddled with Blaine's jeans.
"She didn't want us?" he mumbled so quietly that Kurt nearly failed to hear him.
"Why of course she wanted you, sweetheart! But she knew she wouldn't be able to take care of you properly. She didn't have money, or a job. She was still in school, still a teenager! So when she saw how much we wanted a baby, she told us that since we wanted you as much as she did but we were in a better position to care for you, she would give you to us."
"How old was she?" Drake enquired again.
Kurt tried to recall.
"She must have been about seventeen when she had your sister, Drake... so she was twenty when she had you."
Drake scowled faintly.
"Twenty's old!"
Blaine chuckled and ruffled his hair affectionately.
"Hope you don't feel that way when you're twenty, buddy!"
Kurt paused, having reached a lull in his story. He debated which way to go next, hoping for a cue from his boy.
Drake sat still, pondering over all he'd just learned, his mind trying desperately to reassemble the world as he'd known it less than an hour ago.
"Val was born before me, right?"
"That's right."
"When did you adopt her?"
"Well, your mother had gone to the adoption agency soon after she'd found out that she would be having a baby and after meeting with other couples who'd also signed up for adoption, she met with us. She had the final say as to which couple would be getting the baby, and she liked us so much, it didn't take her long to tell us we were going to be daddies.
"Naturally, we were over the moon! This was something we'd hoped and dreamed of for so long and had been waiting for very nervously!"
Blaine's eyes twinkled.
"Your dad bought up almost the entire baby store after we heard that Collette had chosen us."
Drake's head snapped up.
"Collette?"
Blaine smiled down at him.
"Your mother's name is Collette. Collette van Wilder."
"Your mother and we remained in touch constantly. We took her to see the doctor whenever she had to go and we were there when your sister was finally born."
Kurt couldn't help the nostalgic smile that spread across his face as he remembered the day he'd seen his daughter for the first time.
"Were you there for me too?"
The question came softly, hesitantly.
Blaine tightened his arms about his son.
"Of course we were, sport! We heard you as soon as you came bawling into the world!"
Kurt exchanged a look with Blaine. He knew he was trying to keep the mood light, but could also sense his anxiety to make this as easy as possible on their son. He heaved a sigh and decided to plunge right in to the next and most difficult part of the story.
"You-uh... came as a bit of a surprise to us, son."
Drake's eyes sought his out.
"Wh-whaddya mean... surprise?"
Kurt let out a breath.
"Let's just say we weren't exactly expecting to get so lucky twice."
Drake's expression reflected his confusion, so Kurt decided it would be best to be straightforward about the whole thing, completely ignoring the warning glares being shot at him from Blaine.
"After we got your sister, Drake, we weren't looking to adopt any more kids. At least for the time being. Both your dad and I were busy, we had hectic schedules, and Val took up all the time we had to spare. We didn't think we were ready for more. But fate works in mysterious ways, you know. I really believe you were destined to come to us. Because one fine day I get a call from your mother informing me she's having another baby but that the adoptive parents this time have bailed on her and she's wondering whether we've been thinking of adding to our family. She begged me to consider and come over to the hospital to atleast meet you before we made a final decision saying that if she couldn't find anyone to take the baby, she'd have to put it in a State children's shelter since there was no way her family would allow her to keep it! I won't lie to you, Drake, I was scared! I only waited for your dad to come home to tell him about the phone call and then he was the one who convinced me we should take up the offer and before we knew it, we were in a cab heading for the hospital."
Kurt paused here, waiting for a reaction from his son, but the boy's face was inscrutable, just the deep embers of a glowing fire hidden deep within the recesses of his eyes. He cleared his throat and decided to continue.
"Collette and the people from the agency who knew us from before vouched for us so we could take you home that very night, before the paperwork had been finalized. We knew, the second we laid eyes on you, how badly we wanted you, scared or not. Val was so excited when she heard she was getting a baby brother. You were like her Christmas present come early!"
Kurt was trying to be upbeat and encouraging, but the consistent lack of reaction unnerved him. Even Blaine was looking down at Drake with a puzzled frown on his brows.
Finally, Drake stood up, a little unsteadily, but avoided eye-contact with either of them.
"Is that the story then?" he asked.
Kurt looked at Blaine and then nodded.
"Pretty much, unless you have any questions. Anything at all."
Drake appeared to be thinking for a while.
"May I go to my room now? I want some time alone to think."
He enunciated his wishes very clearly.
Perplexed, Kurt nodded.
"Of- of course, son. We'll be right here if you want to talk-"
Before he could finish, Drake scampered off, bounding noisily up the stairs and slamming the door of his room.
Kurt let out a long slow breath and turned to his husband.
"Well. That didn't quite go as planned."
Blaine was looking at him with a curious expression on his face.
"You thought it was going to be easy turning a ten-year old's life upside down?"
"Val had taken it far better."
"That's because Val is a different person, Kurt! You can't equate them!"
Kurt frowned.
"What's up with you? You were hardly talking back there."
Blaine looked him straight in the eyes.
"Because you went off-script, Kurt. I couldn't even tell whether we were on the same page."
He crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"I thought we decided on telling him the absolute truth, Kurt. So how come you didn't tell him the whole story?"
T.B.C...
