Apparently Finn had fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew he was staring at the ceiling with the distinct, thick taste of sleep in his mouth and covered in a blanket he hadn't remembered putting on.
He sat up a little too quickly, the room spinning for a second before he took focus on the dark shape of Kurt's bed. He stood up, only really noticing the blanket fell off when he felt cold again. He shrugged it off and sluggishly made his way up the stairs, wanting one thing and one thing only; Food.
God he was hungry.
And they had left over pizza. Awesome.

Finn should've picked it up, even if he was half asleep and hardly even registering where he was, he should've picked it up. I mean, why else would the lights be on, softly dimmed no less, and the door to the lounge room closed at all hours in the morning?
But, he was only thinking of food and stopping the growling of his stomach when he shoved the left over pepperoni slices in the microwave and crunched a few buttons.
He half listened to the soft hum of the microwave but was more focused on how strange the light looked, half blurred by his tiredness.
Why was there a light on so late? There wasn't normally. Finn hadn't turned it on.
He blinked slowly.
Oh, what was that noise?
It was coming from the lounge room.
Finn drifted over to the doors and pressed an ear against them, listening as hard as he could through the cloud of sleep that hadn't seemed to have left yet.
He could hear the soft murmurs of voices he couldn't recognise on the TV, but he heard something else, something that was probably not as soft as it sounded hiding under the voices.
Someone was crying, it was a distinct sound Finn had heard far too much lately.
For a second he was wondering who it was, slowly Finn could feel the clogs in his head turning.

Kurt.

Before Finn knew it he slammed the doors open, with more force than intended, and as he watched a very startled Kurt stare at him he felt himself spring to life, all thoughts of going back to sleep drenched by... tears.
Kurt's jaw shook as he looked up to the taller teen "F-Finn?"
Finn felt something drop as he saw how wet Kurt's cheeks and how puffy and red his eyes were.
He suddenly felt an eerie kind of coldness, way too cold for July, especially in Ohio, creep down into his gut.
The first thing he thought of was that night; that stupid, stupid night where he redefined the words 'douche' and 'bag'.

Gaga, KISS, blankets, lamps, privacy partitions, one very angry Burt and poor Kurt, shot down as soon as he tried to defend Finn and stop what he'd seen coming.
Finn shuddered in the doorway, his large frame shaking.

Even after Finn had managed to put his guilt to rest for a while after stopping those assholes Azimio and Karofsky from bashing Kurt in a very Gaga-esque manor that he was sure made Kurt proud, it all came back a hundred times worse when he heard Kurt cry himself to sleep that night.
Then the next, and the next, and the next.
Eventually it stopped, and things seemed like they were normal, but there was a painful distance between the two of them that even left Finn biting back tears sometimes.

"...alright, Finn?" Kurt's voice brought him back to the present, the boy's, now wiped, eyes staring up at his own.
"Oh... Sorry, Kurt... Whatd'ya say?" Finn's mouth twitched oddly as he tried to smile, albeit sheepishly, but his mouth just wouldn't work at 3AM.
Kurt pushed out a strained but patient sigh and his stare fell back to the TV.
"I said, Finn, that you need to go back to sleep. To put this as kindly as I can, you look like a peahen threw up on you."
Finn looked to the wall then back to Kurt, his eyebrows raised in a blank kind of confusion.
"A...peahen?"
Kurt nodded, his eyes still focused on the TV.
"Female peacocks. The drab ones."
Finn just chuckled one of his awkward chuckles and smiled along, because drab was probably a good thing, right?
"Well uh..." Finn stared, getting choked up when Kurt looked to him.
"Yes?"
"I don't want to sleep...I... can't sleep more..." He grumbled.
Finn must've sounded stupid, or childish, or whiney or something, because for some reason Kurt chuckled.
"And why not Finn?" Kurt said, sounding oddly amused.
"...'cause I saw you crying..." He mumbled, eyes glued on his thick grey socks.
Finn dared to look up, and cursed mentally as all amusement seemed to have been sucked out of Kurt's face like he was attacked by some kind of happiness vacuum.
It wasn't like the happiness vacuum made him look sad, but more... guarded.
Kurt looked back to the TV before speaking again.
"Just go Finn... I heard the microwave a while ago... Eat and go back to sleep."
Finn squeezed his eyes shut, wondering whether or not he could –no, should cross this line, then opened them again, looking decisively determined as he took two steps over to the couch –as that was all it took for the frankenteen to sweep half the room– and sat down next to the soprano.
"But..I don't want to leave you... You're still... s-sad about that... right?"

Kurt blinked, and then tears just started flowing.

"Whoa, K-Kurt, dude," Finn rested his hand on Kurt's back, retracting it as soon as Kurt let out a shaky sob. "I...I'm sorry man I..." Finn looked away. What was he meant to say?
I'm sorry for being such a damn homophobe and taking shit out on you, I hope we can be BFF now?
Finn shook his head.
"No..." Kurt choked out as he wiped his eyes, still looking at the TV.
"Not... Not that." He sniffed, took a deep breath and tried to regain his posture.
Finn opened his mouth, about to ask a question, but was just silenced when Kurt pointed half-heartedly to the TV he'd been so interested in.
The screen was paused on a close up of shockingly beautiful woman, a smile stretched over her face. She had big eyes that were holding the most unique shade of blue, or was it green? Her eyelashes were long and brought her eyes out in a way Finn had only seen on a few girls.
Her face was rounded and soft, it had no sharp edges or bones, and she was terribly pale, but noting that the background was full of buildings, colourful green trees and footpaths covered in piles of snow, she might have just been cold.
Her hair was long and dark, framing her face; giving her a soft kind of beauty.
She had a grey beanie on lopsidedly, and was dressed in one of those black puffy ski jackets people wear in winter.
Finn blinked a few times, and then turned to Kurt, whose eyes were still focused on the woman's.
"Who's...?" Finn asked, but Kurt cut him off.
"Sofia." A strange kind of accent Finn hadn't heard Kurt use before clung to the name.
"That was my mother's name. Sofia."
"...Oh." Was all Finn could say. Even if he'd gone silent, things we're piecing together in his head now.
"Everyone just called her Sophie though." Kurt said with a dreamy smile, wiping away a fresh tear, nostalgia getting the better of him.
Staring at Kurt, the first thing to blubber out of Finn's mouth was "C-Can I watch it?"
Finn didn't know what he was expecting, whether it was a slap in the face or one of those Kurtish glares that made him feel 10 inches tall, the thing he was not expecting was Kurt to stare at him, then just nod.
Finn leaned back further into the couch and Kurt followed suit, pulling up his legs so he was in the foetal position.
Finn made sure he did not notice how small Kurt looked, tangling his arms around his legs, and how fragile and vulnerable he looked with his tear stained cheeks and puffy eyes.
He pressed the rewind button, the blues, blacks, greens and whites from an obviously very Christmassy morning zooming back in a blur.
Kurt stopped it, mumbling a quiet "It doesn't go for very long..." before hitting play.

A small boy ran through the snow, his red boots coming in and out of the piles of white, round face beaming with joy.
"Kurt!" The woman from before –Kurt's mother, Sofia– scooped the red-jacket-clad boy into her arms, twirling him around.
The camera shook as a low laugh came from a face he couldn't see, the camera man – Burt, Finn guessed– walked around in the snow, crunch crunch crunch, to get a good view on the scene.
She pulled the boys face next to hers so their cheeks were touching as the camera zoomed in, black hair against brown hair, their eyes in the same bright, bluey-green hue.
"Say hi to Daddy, Kurt" Sofia said in her thick German accent, staring at her son with something that could only be described as love.
"Hi Daddy!" Kurt waved a small gloved hand frantically to the camera, and Finn felt his own laugh mimic Sofia's.
Sofia stepped away from the camera, still holding her son as she sat on the snow-laced brick wall behind her.
Kurt shifted into his mother's lap and played with her hair.
"I always thought her hair was pretty, you know..." Kurt, present day Kurt, said, pausing the video.
Finn looked away from the screen once again to Kurt, to see that eerie sadness Kurt so often had around him when he spoke of his mother.
"I was really sad when she started losing it... I remember one day I was just playing with it like I always did and a big clump fell out, right into my hand... Mummy–" Kurt looked slightly flustered for a moment. "M-Mum...-"
"...I-I don't care what you call her." Finn cut in. He didn't mean to cut in, but he hated seeing Kurt have to drop a term of endearment for something as small as well... seeming childish.
"I still call my Dad Daddy sometimes... even if I never knew him. Like... sometimes when I can't sleep I just lie there and talk to him... Ask him how he is up there..."
For the first time that night Kurt tore his eyes away from the screen and smiled.
"Mm. I know... I've heard, you know." Kurt saw how uncomfortable Finn looked, so, much to his chagrin he averted his eyes from the football players.
"Well..." He looked back to the screen and continued his story.
"She...She cried. Then I cried too, because I thought I hurt her." Kurt's smile turned sour.
"Then she started getting all these wigs and I hated it... Blonde was never her colour..."
Finn squeezed Kurt's shoulder, then dropped his hand to his side.
"...I get it."
Kurt nodded a small nod.
"I know..."
They shared a brief, awkward moment of silence before Kurt pressed play.
"Now, Kurten, what do you want for Christmas?" She looked down to her son and he looked up at her, cheeks rosy.
"I...I want to be a..." baby Kurt's little eyebrows knitted together and he pouted in the cutest way Finn had ever seen.
Wait, Kurt? Cute? Wait... this was baby Kurt, so that was ok right?
R-Right...
"P..Puh... Pwincess!"
Sofia laughed and so did Burt, albeit awkwardly, behind the camera.
"Is that so?"
She turned Kurt around and lifted him up, kissing his nose.
"Mein kleiner Sohn Kurt ist schöner als jede Prinzessin." Sofia said in a language Finn didn't recognise, hugging her son again.

Kurt laughed humourlessly beside him.
"Nein, du warst schön, Mutter..." He mumbled.
Finn stared at the boy beside him, wide eyed.
"Whoa... Did you just... get what she was saying?" Ok, Finn kind of blurted that out in a moment that seemed really, really private and serious, but... wow...
"Hm?" Kurt turned to him. "Oh, yes. My mother was German... I... knew little bits and pieces of the language before she...- "Kurt cleared his throat."-died, but only joined classes after the... incident. As a small tribute to her and our heritage, I suppose..." Somewhere through that sentence Kurt's eyes had travelled back to the screen as mother and son twirled in the snow.

Burt cleared his throat behind the camera."Soph, battery's almost dead." The pair stopped, swaying from stopping so quickly.
"Oh!" Sofia lifted her son into her arms and hurried up to the camera.
"Ready, baby?" Kurt nodded, full of energy.
"Fröhliche Weihnachten!" They said in unison, Kurt's words a little jumbled, but still audible, waving bye to the camera as the video stopped.

The video had stopped; it had stopped for a while now. Kurt had turned the TV off entirely, actually, and the two of them were sitting there in silence.
"Hey, Kurt? What was it you guys were saying?" Finn's raspy voice sounds through the silence.
"... Well, Merry Christmas of course. Did you miss the umpteen ghastly decorated trees in the background, Finn?" Kurt says, that usual –though dulled for Finn's sake– scepticism on his tongue.
Though that was news to Finn...
What? Give him some credit!
I mean it was in a different language, how was he meant to know? Even if there were Christmas trees, maybe it was different in Germany – wait, were they even in Germany in the clip? Well, that was beside the point...
Though that was news to Finn, it wasn't the answer he wanted.
"I..I mean before. When she... picked you up and stuff. And.. What did you say before in German? Y'know... present time?" Finn's eyes were glued to Kurt's, waiting for an answer.
"B-Before..." Kurt began; an unnatural stammer in his voice as he noticed the intensity of Finn's gaze. Why was he being so serious over something as minuscule as a few German words tossed around in memories?
"Before, after I said I wanted to be a... Princess –" Kurt smiled a small smile, half embarrassed, half nostalgic "–she said I was more beautiful than any princess."
"..Oh." Finn said again, though he wanted to say much more he couldn't really think of words to describe it.
The thing was, the first thought to come in to his head was 'yeah, he is.'; maybe that shocked him speechless.
"Th...Then what did you say...?" Finn finally choked out after another round of silence.
"She was always the beautiful one... that's what I said, Finn."
Silence was coming again. It stayed for a while, until they didn't mind the silence any more.

Finn didn't know how long it took, but eventually he felt sleep pulling him down.
He was biting, licking and eating away at his already chapped lips for what felt like hours, until he felt a small pulse of life in his hand, he slowly, cautiously wrapped it over Kurt's small, long, fragile fingers, his hand feeling cool in his own.
"I... thought she was... right..." was the last thing to be said out of clumsy Finn Hudson's lips, before sleep pulled them both down into its depths.

Carole finally gave in to Burt's groaning for bacon and eggs, and even settled to bring it to him in bed.
Carole sighed, shaking her head with a soft grin.
Something about that man made her feel like the complete love struck teenager she was when she met Finn's Dad, and she had to say she was loving the feeling, despite how much being in a relationship with Burt was almost like raising a second son at times.
"The light's are on?" Carole questioned to no one in particular, walking down the hallway she spied the open lounge room doors and popped her curler-filled head in to have a look.
The next thing she knew she was dragging Burt behind her, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
"Look, honey!" Carole squealed in an excited, hushed whisper.
"Ugh?" Burt rubbed his groggy eyes and yawned, then, it wasn't only Carole with tears in her eyes.
There they were, Kurt's head lying on Finn's shoulder, Finn's arm wrapped loosely around Kurt's small form, pulling him close. Finn's prized football jacket draped over the both of them like a blanket.
Burt sniffed and wiped an eye, smiling awkwardly and hugging the tear-filled Carole beside him.
He so chivalrously decided bacon and eggs could wait, and they left their sons in peace.

Finn really needed to learn how to remember when he fell asleep, because once again he found himself waking up with no memory of actually falling asleep in the first place.
Though he had no idea what time it was, he was oddly comfortable with his arm draped around someone–Kurt, if slow, low processing memory served correct– and he realised his football jacket made a pretty awesome blanket.
He moved his heavy head to meet the stunning eyes of his gleemate.
They blinked, both flushed, and looked away.
"G-Good Morning, Finn..." Kurt said quietly.
" M..Mornin'.. Kurt." Finn tried to sound as happy as he could, but he couldn't shake that stupid uncertainty off.
Kurt made a small noise, a squeak, that even Finn could tell was slightly pained, and reluctantly pushed his body away from Finn's incredibly comforting warmth.
Only to be pulled back again, a little too hard, another squeak coming from the soprano.
"S...Sorry..." Finn choked.
"I... you're.. just... w-warm." He grinned that awkward grin he wanted to pull off all last night, gaining one of Kurt's pink-faced smiles.

Neither of them knew how long they'd just laid there, and Finn had no idea in hell how he'd started absentmindedly playing with Kurt's hair, enjoying listening to the sound of his slick, smooth breaths.
"Hey Kurt?"
"Y-Yeah?"
"That German sounded really cool last night. Can you say something else so I can listen?"
Kurt laughed and nodded.
"Ich liebe dich."
Finn smiled.
"...Awesome."
Now all he had to do was find a good German to English dictionary.