Blaine smoothed down the corner of the tablecloth and stood back to admire his handiwork.
The table looked perfect. He'd brought out the good china, lit candles, and finished it all off with a small vase of poinsettias, like they'd had at Dalton the one Christmas he and Kurt had spent there together.
This night was going to be perfect. It was the last one he and Kurt would have alone before the rest of the Hudson-Hummel clan arrived tomorrow, Christmas Eve, to spend the holidays with Kurt and Blaine.
Sometimes Blaine couldn't believe he'd been living in New York for five years. He'd gone from being a scared freshman, desperately missing the boyfriend he'd left behind in Ohio, to top-of-his-class journalism major, to NYU graduate, to magazine intern, to magazine employee.
And through it all, Kurt had been there.
Blaine ran his fingers over the photograph they kept stuck to the refrigerator: the two of them in their Dalton uniforms the first Christmas after they'd met, before they'd properly got together, but already long after their feelings for each other had settled in.
He gazed at their impossibly young faces, reached into his pocket to make sure the ring box was still safely there, and smiled.
Blaine had decided about a month ago that he wanted to marry Kurt. Sure, they'd talked about it before - when they were still in high school in that first flush of love, naïvely certain they were destined to be together forever; when Kurt had followed Blaine to New York after high school, to study at F.I.T., and they'd been a little smug that they'd survived a year of a long distance relationship when everyone had told them it wouldn't work out; and just this past summer, when they moved into this apartment together, with its tiny kitchen and cramped living area, that they loved anyway because it was theirs.
But he'd actually decided once and for all that he wanted to marry Kurt at Thanksgiving. They'd both been too busy to fly back to Ohio – Kurt had landed an amazing job designing the costumes for a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Blaine knew he still had to prove himself at the magazine and couldn't afford to take the time off – but they'd managed a couple of hours to have Thanksgiving dinner with some of Blaine's old college friends.
Somehow the conversation had turned to relationships and his friends had been half laughing, half marvelling at the fact he and Kurt were high school sweethearts and still going.
"So if you guys got together in high school, how long has it actually been now?" one of them had asked.
"Nearly seven years."
"Uh-oh, seven year itch coming up!"
They'd all laughed and joked, and Kurt and Blaine had laughed along with them, but on the way home Kurt brought it up again.
"You're not feeling... itchy, are you?" he'd asked, fiddling with the cuff of Blaine's overcoat.
"Are you crazy? I love you more now than I ever have." He had drawn Kurt into his arms. "I love you more and more every single day, Kurt. I don't ever want this to end."
It was only once he'd said the words that he realised how true they were.
This was going to be perfect. Kurt was due to arrive home any minute now. They would eat (Coq au Vin, Blaine's speciality), then Blaine would get down on one knee and... say the words. He'd considered doing something really clichéd, like putting the ring in the dessert, but Kurt rarely ate dessert and somehow hiding the ring in chicken didn't have the same romantic ring to it.
It had taken weeks of searching online and traipsing through the city's jewellers but he was pretty sure he'd found the perfect ring. It was a thick platinum band, elegant but masculine, with three tiny black diamonds etched into the centre.
The butterflies in his stomach started dancing the tango when there was a sudden pounding at the door.
What the hell?
Had Kurt forgotten his keys? Surely they couldn't have a visitor? Who the hell would be visiting them now? Blaine sat quietly at the table, deciding he would ignore whoever it was and hope they went away before Kurt got back.
"Kurt? Blaine? Are you guys there? Kuuuuuuurt?"
Oh. There was no mistaking that voice. And there was no way she would go away without a fight.
"Rachel?" he said, opening the door.
He didn't even manage to get it all the way open before Rachel barged past him, into the apartment.
"Thank God you're here." She turned to face him and Blaine saw how red her eyes and nose were. It was cold outside, sure, but... "Jeff just broke up with me," she said. Her voice cracked at the end of the sentence as fresh tears flooded her eyes.
"Oh."
"He said I was shrill and controlling."
"Um."
"We've been dating for seven months! It's taken him seven months to realise I'm shrill and controlling?"
"What a jerk."
"I was supposed to be spending Christmas with his family but he said he didn't want his mom to have to meet me."
Blaine winced. He liked Rachel Berry, he really did, but she had the worst timing of anyone ever.
Rachel and Kurt had been too competitive in high school to ever really be as close friends as they could have been (Rachel's tears and impromptu performance of For Good when she found out Kurt was going back to McKinley and taking Blaine with him notwithstanding), but New York had changed that. With Kurt studying fashion and Rachel at the Tisch School of the Arts, they were no longer in competition, and with Rachel not knowing anyone in the city and Kurt having a cool boyfriend who'd already been living there for a year, she had latched onto them. Sure, Blaine had had to referee a few screaming diva-offs over the years, but he was pretty sure Kurt was he closest thing Rachel had to a best friend.
"What are you going to do?" Blaine said, hoping he sounded more sympathetic than impatient. "Are you heading back to Lima for Christmas? Do you need a lift to the airport?"
That just brought on a fresh round of tears.
"My dads are in Aruba. I have nowhere to go."
"Oh," he said, again.
He awkwardly reached across the table to pat her hand at the exact moment the door opened and Kurt fell into the apartment.
"Rachel?" he said, rushing over to her without even saying hello to Blaine. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"
Blaine fiddled with the poinsettias while Rachel gasped out the story.
"What an asshole!" Kurt said, wrapping his arms around her. "See, I told you he wasn't good enough for you."
"I know. And I know I didn't see him as a long term prospect and, okay, I probably would have broken up with him anyway once the weather started getting warmer and I didn't get so cold at night, but... it's Christmas Eve in five hours and I have nowhere to go and no-one to be with!"
As Rachel turned her shimmery dark eyes on the two of them, Blaine gritted his teeth.
"Nonsense," Kurt said. "You can come to us for Christmas Day. There'll be plenty of food to go around – and I'm sure my dad and Finn will be more than happy to give you their vegetables in exchange for extra meat."
"Finn?"
"Yep, the Hudson-Hummel clan are due to arrive in about eleven hours," Blaine said.
"It's the first time we've had them for Christmas so I'm a little nervous."
"Oh, is that why you're cooking?" Rachel asked.
"No, we're-" Kurt looked around and seemed to notice the table and candles for the first time. "Did you cook?" he asked, turning quizzical eyes on Blaine.
"Yeah... it's just a chicken thing. Nothing fancy. Just thought it'd be nice to have a quiet dinner, just the two of us, before the invasion."
Kurt beamed at him. "I tell you what – Rachel, how about I go downstairs and get some vegan ice cream for you, and we can all sit and watch West Side Story to remind you how much worse your love life could be. Does that sound like fun?"
Rachel threw her arms around Kurt and sobbed some more.
"That sounds perfect," Blaine muttered.
Two and a half hours later, Natalie Wood was tearfully brandishing a gun, their dirty plates were stacked in the kitchen, the candles had been forgotten, and Rachel was curled up in their armchair, clutching her bloated stomach and groaning in pain.
"You didn't have to eat the whole tub," Kurt said, laughing.
"My boyfriend broke up with me mere hours before Christmas Eve, of course I had to eat the whole tub. Just because you found your soulmate at sixteen doesn't mean you should forget the etiquette of heartbreak, Kurt."
Blaine gave an exaggerated stretch-and-yawn. He didn't want to be callous but he really hoped Rachel would take the hint and go back to her own apartment. The mood had totally been broken and there was no way he could propose to Kurt tonight, but at least getting a little alone time would be nice.
So of course that was the moment when a hammering of fists on their door made them all jump and, for the second time that night, a familiar voice made Blaine's heart sink.
"Let us in! Unless you're naked. Get dressed first."
"Oh, Finn, shush, I'm sure they're not naked."
Kurt scrambled off the couch and sprinted to the door.
"Dad!" he exclaimed, throwing the door open, then throwing his arms around his father.
Burt laughed in delight as he returned the hug, almost lifting Kurt off his feet as, behind him, Finn and Carole bundled into the apartment.
"What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here until tomorrow!"
"Well, I wanted to surprise you."
"He wanted to see the look on your face right now," Finn said, grinning.
"Oh, Dad, I've missed you so much," Kurt said, enveloping his dad into another embrace.
"I've missed you too, Kurt."
"Blaine, sweetie," Carole said, walking further into the apartment, "come here and give me a hug."
Blaine allowed himself to be jostled between the three members of Kurt's family (he only managed a half hug with Burt because Kurt was still plastered to his side) before Finn suddenly got an even more dumbstruck look on his face than he usually had.
"Rachel?"
"Hi, Finn."
She was standing up now, stomach ache apparently forgotten.
"What are you doing here?"
"Kurt and Blaine have kindly been acting as my shoulders to cry on tonight."
"Cry? Why?"
"Because I was supposed to be spending Christmas in North Haven with my boyfriend's family but he broke up with me about three hours ago."
"Ouch. Do you think he just didn't want to have to buy you a present and he's going to try and get you back after new year?"
"I- didn't even think of that."
"Anyway," Kurt cut in, "Rachel is going to be joining us for Christmas dinner."
"I thought you were Jewish?" Burt said.
"I am, but I celebrate Christmas as the secular holiday it's undeniably become. I'm assuming Christmas à la Kurt won't involve saying grace or singing religious hymns?"
"No. Although I do think O, Come All Ye Faithful in Latin is very pretty. And it makes me think of Beaches."
"Adeste fideles..." Rachel began.
"Laeti triumphantes..."
"Venite, venite, in Bethlehem..."
Blaine forced a smile as he watched them waltz into the kitchen together, trailed by a bemused looking Finn.
Okay, so, alone time probably wasn't going to happen tonight.
The next morning, Blaine awoke early and immediately started devising a new plan. All he had to do was get Kurt alone, somewhere romantic. Well, that shouldn't be too hard. New York looked beautiful covered in snow, it was Christmas Eve, Kurt was already in a good mood from his dad's early arrival... Blaine could easily find an excuse to get him out of the apartment for an hour, drag him down to Central Park, and get down on one knee. They'd probably have an audience. Kurt would love that. Maybe they'd even get a round of applause.
Rachel had finally left at around one am. Burt had insisted Finn walk her home then, when Finn had pointed out he didn't know where Rachel lived and that he would probably get lost on the way back (even though it was only five blocks), Blaine had volunteered. Rachel had babbled about Jeff's incompatibility with her the whole walk back, then she'd tried to invite Blaine in for cocoa to say thank you, then she'd promised to stop by early the next day to chip in with whatever pre-Christmas preparations still needed doing.
Kurt and his family had all been in bed, asleep, by the time Blaine got back, so Blaine had just crawled in beside Kurt, wrapped his arms around him, and imagined the look on his face when he heard the words...
It would be much better this way. Christmas Eve was a more memorable date anyway, and they could go straight back home afterwards, smiling and laughing, to share the news with Kurt's family. Yeah, this would be perfect.
Finn, who was sleeping on a cot in the living room, woke up when Blaine turned the coffee machine on and the rest of the family soon followed as Blaine began laying things out for breakfast.
When Kurt woke up, he padded straight over to Blaine, pressed a sleepy kiss to the back of his neck, then stood with his hand resting on Blaine's hip. From the corner of his eye, Blaine caught Burt smiling at them – not a forced, false smile, like his mom still got when she saw him holding hands with Kurt, but a smile of genuine happiness and contentment.
Suddenly, Blaine wanted to scream out loud right there in kitchen how much he wanted to marry Kurt, how much he wanted his family to be their family. He wanted them to be Mr and Mr Anderson-Hummel so much he was nearly bursting with it.
But he composed himself. He steadied his breathing and said in his best cool-and-casual voice:
"Honey, we have a couple of last minute things we need to get."
"We do? I thought we had everything."
"Um..." Damn, Blaine hadn't thought that far ahead.
"You definitely got the cranberries, right?" Kurt said, peeling himself away from Blaine to check the refrigerator.
"Vegan stuff!" Blaine suddenly blurted. "For Rachel. We should get her some vegan stuff. You know, just a little nut roast so she can have something with her vegetables."
"That's so thoughtful of you," Carole said.
"Yeah, it's a good idea," Kurt said. "I don't think it really needs two of us though. We have a lot to do around here. Why don't you go out and I'll get started on everything here."
"We can help," Carole said. "We invaded your home early, the least we can do is pitch in."
God bless Carole Hudson-Hummel and her impeccable manners.
"That would be great," Blaine said, at exactly the same moment that Kurt said, "Oh, you don't have to do anything."
"Honey, you go get dressed," Blaine said, ushering Kurt towards their bedroom door before he could say anything else, "and I will set up out here."
He'd just managed to shut the door when there was a knock and a cheerful, "Hello!" from outside.
"Rachel," Blaine said, as she breezed in, hair and make-up immaculate, no sign of yesterday's heartbreak on her face. She was wearing an impossibly short lilac miniskirt with a fluffy yellow and pink sweater that reminded Blaine of a weird cake he'd had in London when he was twelve.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to help, I said I would be."
Okay, this was fine. Rachel wanted to pitch in, she could pitch in. Their guests could do the hard work while they went out and bought nut roast and got engaged. This. Would. Be. Fine.
They actually made it to the door. Once Kurt was dressed, Blaine had hissed in his ear not to tell Rachel where they were going so they could surprise her tomorrow. Carole and Rachel were poring over a gingerbread recipe, Burt was keeping watch over a pot of cranberries and Finn...
"Hey guys, do you mind if I come with you?"
"Why?" Blaine said, a little more harshly than he'd intended.
"I just..." Finn lowered his voice and bent down. "I kinda feel weird being around Rachel."
"Why?" Blaine said. "There's no animosity between you two."
Finn looked to Kurt, confused.
"He means you and Rachel get on fine. Which I thought you did too. I wouldn't have invited her if I knew you'd have a problem with it."
"No, there's no problem. I just... feel weird around her."
Kurt frowned and slung his arm through Finn's, then pulled his stepbrother to the door.
"See everyone later," he called out, as Blaine trudged through the door after them.
He paused as Kurt and Finn started walking down the stairs, and reached into his pocket. His fingers found the ring box, still nestled in there, and wrapped around it determinedly.
It took nineteen minutes to find a microwaveable nut roast and sixty-eight minutes before Finn would explain what he meant by 'feeling weird' around Rachel.
"You'll think I'm being dumb," he said, when Kurt pressed him.
"How is that different from any other day?"
"Maybe it's just 'cause of the shock of seeing her."
"Maybe what is 'cause of the shock?"
"And knowing she's single. That must be it - the shock and the singleness, they're confusing me and making me think I feel things that I haven't felt since I was in high school."
"Wait..." Kurt said. "Do you mean feelings for Rachel?"
Finn nodded.
"You still have feelings for Rachel?"
"No! I don't even think about Rachel anymore!"
"But seeing her last night - that rekindled the flame of passion?"
Finn frowned.
"It made you want her again?" Blaine translated.
"Maybe. I guess. Yeah... yeah, it did."
Kurt squealed. People turned to stare at him.
"This is amazing! This is so, so awesome! You and Rachel are going to get back together!"
"Kurt, sweetie," Blaine said, in as even a voice as he could manage, "Rachel is on the rebound, this is not a good time to start matchmaking."
"Does it count as rebound if she never loved Jeff in the first place and Finn got there first anyway?"
"Yes!"
"Dude, we're not getting back together," Finn said. "She lives in New York, I live in Ohio." He took a deep breath. "I just gotta go back to your apartment and get on with Christmas and ignore the butterflies she gives me, and how awesome her legs look in that skirt, and how her hair smells of raspberries. You know, I think she still uses the same shampoo."
"Oh my god, it is my Christmas mission to see you two reunited," Kurt said. He turned to Blaine. "Can you imagine? Finchel together again! Wouldn't that make this the most romantic Christmas ever?"
It was past lunchtime before the three of them got back to the apartment. Carole appeared to have taken over the kitchen and they now had a full bowl of cranberry sauce cooling on the side, gingerbread in the oven, and all the vegetables chopped and peeled and ready for cooking tomorrow.
Blaine might have been annoyed at his proposal plans being sent off track but he still had the grace to feel sheepish when he saw how much she'd done and vowed she wasn't to lift a finger tomorrow.
Kurt was still giddy with excitement at the thought of Finn and Rachel having a Christmas affair and couldn't be dissuaded from thinking it was a wonderful idea to matchmake them.
Burt decreed that as it was after noon they were allowed to crack open the alcohol. Kurt didn't even have time to look reproachful before Burt said:
"It's Christmas, shut up. I'll get back to looking after my heart on December twenty-sixth. Anyway, red wine is supposed to be good for your heart. I saw it on TV."
"You're drinking beer."
"I'm sure it's got some of the same stuff in it. Now come here, and have a drink with your dad!"
The day wore on, the alcohol flowed, and Blaine supposed it was inevitable that having four ex-members of McKinley High's glee club in the same room would lead to reminiscing.
"Do you remember the first song you two ever sang together?" Kurt said.
Finn smiled. "Yeah, Don't Stop Believin'. Why did we ever give Mr Schue the idea to do Journey?"
"No, it was You're The One That I Want, remember? It was mediocre at best but it was a step up from the abominable we'd been before that." He gave Finn and Rachel a faint smile. "And it was all thanks to you two."
"Okay, who are you and what have you done with my son?"
Kurt ignored his father. "It was your chemistry. It was right there from the moment you first performed together. Do you remember?" He sidled closer to Finn. "I got chills! They're multiplying..."
"And I'm losing contro-oool!" He motioned to Finn to join in with him. "'Cause the power you're supplying, it's electrifying!"
Rachel, of course, needed no encouragement to pick up her cue.
"You'd better shape up, 'cause I need a man
And my heart is set on you!" she sang, wiggling over to Finn.
"You'd better shape up, you'd better understand,
To my heart I must be true..."
"Nothing left, nothing left for me to do!"
Their living room was tiny and Finn still couldn't dance, but that didn't stop him from twirling Rachel around as they sang.
"You're the one that I want!
You are the one I want - ooh, ooh, ooh
Honey!
The one that I want!
You are the one I want - ooh, ooh, ooh
The one I need,
Oh yes indeed!"
Kurt pulled Blaine to his feet, Carole pushed Burt off the couch, and they all danced around, in their couples, Burt and Carole doing a jerky almost-waltz, Finn spinning Rachel around the living room as they sang, while Blaine just wrapped his arms around Kurt.
"Part of your nefarious plan?" he whispered right into Kurt's ear.
Kurt grinned. "Look at them."
I love you, Blaine thought. And I'm going to marry you.
By the time they'd made it through the entire back catalogue of New Directions' competition performances, Blaine had formulated a new plan in his head. He wasn't going to be able to get Kurt alone today, that was for sure, but they would definitely be alone tonight, in their room. He would have to feign tiredness and encourage everyone to have an early night, then make sure he got in the bathroom before Kurt so he could set up a couple of candles in their room while Kurt was in the shower.
Sure, it wasn't a private candlelit dinner, or a snow-covered Central Park, but their room, where they shared a bed, just the two of them, was the perfect place for a proposal. Then they could have newly-engaged sex, fall asleep wrapped around each other, and then share the news with their family (their family) on Christmas morning.
Perfect.
From across the room, Blaine heard a shriek of protest and looked up to see Kurt trying to wrestle his glass away from Burt.
"You're my dad, you're not supposed to get me drunk!"
"It's only your third glass, Kurt. Anyway, it's Christmas."
"But alcohol is very bad for the complexion."
"So blame me if you get a zit," Burt said, passing his son a very large glass of red wine.
Kurt giggled and took a huge gulp.
Oh, crap.
Kurt passed out in the first ten minutes of It's A Wonderful Life, long before anyone else was ready to go to bed. Burt had to help Blaine carry him to the bedroom before staggering back to Carole. Blaine knew Finn and Rachel were still out in the living room, working their way through another bottle of wine. He didn't care. Finn could walk her home tonight and he could damn well find his own way back.
Blaine stood with his back pressed to the door, listening to the sounds of Burt lumbering in the bathroom, as he stared at Kurt's still form on the bed. His mouth was hanging open and he was drooling on the pillowcase.
Sighing, Blaine knelt down and started peeling off Kurt's shoes and socks.
Rachel was still there when Blaine awoke on Christmas morning. She was curled up on the cot that had been set up for Finn, while Finn was stretched out on the couch.
Blaine stood in the kitchen and stared at them for a moment. It looked like they'd pushed the cot right up to the couch and the backs of their hands were pressed together. Blaine might have thought they looked cute if he wasn't so annoyed.
"Well, Kurt, looks like your plan worked," he whispered.
He tried to keep a happy face on as everyone else woke up and cries of, ''Happy Christmas!" flew around the apartment but the truth was, Blaine was pissed. He had so wanted to wake up this Christmas morning as Blaine Anderson, fiancé of Kurt Hummel. He'd wanted to hold Kurt's hand at the dinner table and run his fingertips over the ring.
He had retrieved the ring box when he woke up and put it in his robe pocket. He kept wrapping his hands around it, needing to feel the comforting weight of it so he would know this proposal idea was real and not some crazy dream he'd had.
He vaguely wondered if he would have time to wrap up the ring box and put it under the tree before anyone started opening presents. Or maybe he should just wait until New Year's Eve to propose. Or maybe he should just accept the universe was trying to tell him this was a bad idea.
"Blaine. Blaine. Blaine!"
He jumped, suddenly remembering that was his name.
Kurt was standing in front of him, hair still sleep-ruffled, a quizzical look on his face.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing," Blaine said.
"You've been staring at the wall for about five minutes."
"I'm fine." He knew he was being petulant. He didn't care.
"Is this because I got a little drunk last night? I'm sorry, okay, but I haven't seen my dad for six months, we were just enjoying ourselves."
"Yeah, it's a real hoot having them here," he muttered.
"Excuse me?" Kurt's voice was suddenly ice. "Do you have some kind of problem with my family?"
"Of course not."
"Then what did you mean by that?"
"Nothing! We're out of coffee."
"Screw the coffee, I want to know what's got you so pissed."
The words tumbled out before he could stop himself.
"I'm pissed, Kurt, because I've been trying to propose to you for two days and everyone else in this apartment has been stopping me from doing it!"
"You've- what?"
As the sound of blood rushing in his head subsided, Blaine slowly became aware they had an audience. Carole and Finn were trying to make it look like they weren't listening; Burt and Rachel were blatantly staring.
Blaine swallowed. "I've been trying to propose. To you. That's why I made dinner the other night. I thought it was going to be our last chance to be alone before Christmas."
"Uh."
Blaine smiled. It wasn't often he could make Kurt go monosyllabic outside the bedroom.
"I had a whole speech prepared, too. I was going to start off by saying that you changed my life the moment you walked in to it. You showed me how to be myself again. Then I was going to tell you that you're my best friend and I don't want to think about what my life would be like without you in it. Then I was going to talk about kissing you and stuff, but there's more people listening to this than I thought there would be, so I won't go into that.
"Really it was all just build-up to me doing this..."
He got down on one knee. From somewhere behind him he heard a gasp that sounded like Rachel.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring box. With shaking fingers, he cracked it open and couldn't help but smile when Kurt's jaw slackened.
"Kurt Hummel... will you marry me?"
There was a silence of six people holding their breath.
"Hell, yeah!"
Kurt threw his arms around Blaine's shoulders and Blaine felt himself being pulled to his feet, then off the floor entirely as Kurt picked him up and spun him in a half-turn.
The sound of whoops and applause broke through Blaine's haze of bliss as he turned to see Kurt's family - his family - their family, beaming and clapping.
Blaine plucked the ring from the box and slid it onto Kurt's finger.
"Perfect fit," Kurt said.
"Yeah, we are."
Then he looked at Kurt, his fiancé, his eyes shining, his cheeks flushed, looking more beautiful than Blaine thought he had ever seen him.
He breathed deep and smiled.
"Happy Christmas, Kurt."
Disclaimer: Glee doesn't belong to me. At all. It's Fox and Ryan Murphy's. No copyright infringement intended.