Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.
A/N: I think this is a bit raw in the writing. I hope you still love it though. Please let me know what you think.
Thank you.
Love, M
Families
Initially, there are doubts.
But still they soon, after a good night's sleep, decide, together, to not go there, in thoughts or in person.
Kurt has never had to get used to, and Blaine never appreciated, being ordered to do anything, especially not in such an authoritative tone of voice and by someone for whom Blaine, frankly, has lost respect a very long time ago already.
It is a mystery to both of them anyway, why suddenly they are, not invited, not ask, no, but, ordered to join Blaine's parents and grandparents for Christmas dinner, after years and years of not being acknowledged, at all, as a couple.
So Kurt and Blaine, in the following weeks, ignore and delete further reminders left on their answering machine by people practically strangers to them, and two days before Christmas go to the place that still feels like home to both of them, even after all these years of living on their own, together - home being with people who have nothing but loved them through and through all along for who they were, for who they are now.
Days of happiness and love shared with Burt, Carole, Finn and Rachel seem somewhat sadder this year to Kurt finding Blaine sitting staring off into space quite a bit.
Kurt knows Blaine is contemplating his parents' actions, still looking for sense in the mind games they play with everyone it has always seemed to Kurt, but especially with their children.
'Burt would never be so pretentious as to even try to write a book on the topic of raising a gay son,' too aware himself that there had been bumps and mistakes, many, along the way, but sometimes Blaine wishes Burt would, just so that he could hand his family a truly authoritative, up-to-date guide on at least trying to do right by your child.
As it is Blaine has not spoken to his family ever since he had moved out and gone to college. Except, of course, for the strange phone calls, like that last one, once every several years or so, with which it seems his parents still try to stake their claim on him.
They, the calls, used to be much more frequent in the first two years or so. Blaine could feel his happiness grow stronger and stronger the fewer those calls became – an upside, definitely. But there is a downside too, of course.
Blaine is not sure who or what he is ashamed off, but he can still feel it, some happier, lighter part of him being caged, gagged and bound, every time a call hits him.
And it is the hardest for Kurt to take a step back when it happens and let Blaine figure out how to breathe again all over, on his own. But they have learned it together, over the years, Blaine needs space and calm to focus back on himself, and then he needs Kurt, loads of Kurt, and like so many times before after calls from Blaine's parents the next weekends had all been spent together in bed, just the two of them, making sure they were all still there, both of them, wounded and shaken, but still themselves with each other.
Apart from hurt him, make him doubt himself, all those calls these days really do is keep Blaine wondering when his parents will realize that it is utterly too late to create any kind of positive bond between them, not that he thinks that's his parents goal at all, he cannot help but still wish it sometimes though when he has not heard from them in a very long time - for the next call to be that healing one making everything right between them.
But every time, as soon as he hears their voices, their words, he knows with them there is no hope.
His hope is Kurt, are Burt and Carole, Finn and Rachel, his family, the people he loves and who love him without asking for anything but his love in return, '…and they are so easy to love.' A thought that always comes to Blaine eventually after his parents' calls - has him crying still hours after he has hung up on them for something they had to say again, still after all the time Kurt and him have been together.
It is hard enough to hear his mother still refuse to use the name of the man he himself cannot imagine ever being without anymore. But when his father outright insults his soon to be husband it always ends in Blaine having to be the one seemingly impolite with a cold "Goodbye" and nothing more hanging up on him.
All Blaine wishes for these days is for them to finally stop trying to assert their authority over him.
At heart Blaine has long accepted that a lifetime is too short for his parents to come around or for good sense to assert itself. But 'It still hurts.' He fears it always will. And also Burt is undoubtedly more father to him than his own ever was, Carole his mother, even they cannot take away all the pain with their love, it sits too deep. And there are other things too that sit deep. Things he only talked to Kurt about first about two years into their relationship, dark things.
It had taken Blaine a long time to realize that brute force, that his parents have as long as he can remember displayed as the only technique to reach your personal goals, is not the only nor the best way.
His parents had never suggested boxing to Blaine, but he thinks they still played a part in him choosing a sport that requires a lot of that brute force to execute.
His drunk run in with Kurt that night at Scandals, now so many years ago had been a first wake up call to Blaine. He had never been as harsh as his parents but that night, even trying to push Kurt into doing anything, he had noticed it in himself consciously for the first time, those tendencies that went beyond displaying assertive behavior.
He had realized with shock that night that no matter what he had thought of himself up till then, growing up with the parents he had, there were, there are parts of them in him now that he has to face if he does not want them to ever take him over. And one thing he had been sure about that night already, walking to his parents' home in the dark, slowly sobering up 'I love Kurt too much to let that happen to us.'
Because loving Kurt with all he has, as Blaine had done then and does now, Blaine had had to grow to learn quickly in Kurt's senior year, means his actions have consequences for both of them, will have until the day they are not Kurt and Blaine anymore, which Blaine already knew back then he wants to never come.
Appreciation not assertion has been the key to their lasting love for almost a decade now. Sitting together with their family in the Hummels' home in Lima, Ohio, all cuddled up with each other on couches in the living room, Blaine, Carole at his right, Kurt to his left, Blaine has never felt more at home in his life.
"What are you thinking about, Love?" Kurt asks as he feels Blaine cuddle a little closer into his right.
"How happy I am that we are us," Blaine answers softly drawing an appreciative hum from all of their family.