The Interview We Never Expected

by A-Simple-Rainbow

The final installment in the Is It Weird verse, all to do with family and parenthood.

1. Childhood

A belated happy holidays to all of you who have read this verse and stuck with it, now officially to its very end. I love this fic and all its parts, especially because of how you guys received it and made it feel so special. Please enjoy it! With this I bid my adieu to fanfiction!

(None of it would be possible without the support and help of notthetoothfairy, though - so, a huge thanks!)

-x-

Antonio Hummel And The Interview We Never Expected, in Vanity Fair

Antonio Hummel does not have the posture you'd expect of a screenwriting powerhouse, whose latest show has just been renewed for two more seasons after just half a season and is predicted to be this year's awards darling. For starters, he's early – when I arrive, expecting to have time to get my things ready and go over my interview plan one last time, he's already sitting at a back corner table, two mugs of steaming coffee in front of him. His smile is not instantaneous, but two minutes into our conversation I realize it has more to do with shyness than it does with the arrogance anyone could have expected.

He knows how to make himself invisible in a coffee shop, even in the type of LA neighborhood where most people probably should have recognized him, were he to give them any reason for a second glance. Instead, he fixes his glasses and lets his hand stay partially covering his face from stray eyes. It's a gesture that somehow looks natural to him. After all, as the son of one of the biggest pop stars in decades, he's probably practiced enough. I ask him about that, and he laughs.

"Well, my last name isn't Hummel because it's prettier or better sounding. If there was one thing about my dad's success he resented, it was our lack of anonymity."

I am aware that this is the type of conversation most reporters have wanted and tried to have with Hummel. I had come prepared to, like most of them, receive thinly veiled resistance to talk about his bigger than life father, the epitome of triple threat: actor, singer, musician Blaine Anderson.

Naturally, I push my luck.

"Was he right to worry? Did you feel like it shaped your childhood? Your life?"

I can see him deciding on his course of action. "Of course. There's nothing that shapes you more than your family. And my family was special in a lot of ways. That's just the most obvious one."

"You've never been comfortable talking about your family before, though."

"My dads fought for our privacy at every turn. And not just for me and my sister, but for themselves as well. Living with a constant spotlight on you, it's not very conducive to stability. You feel like you can't relax. Every step has to be calculated, pros and cons. That kind of pressure can easily break everything, and they were very dedicated not to let that happen."

Blaine lets his voice taper off on the last word, closes his eyes as the band behind him lets the notes dissolve in guitar strings and the beat come to one last hit, the song morphing into thunderous applause, screams, whistles. It hits him like it hasn't since the first tour he ever did. There are thousands of people watching him looking at him right now. The stage lights burn his skin and shine bright pink through his eyelids. His breath is gone for a second. Two seconds. Three. Four. Five. He opens his eyes, breathes in. The applause hasn't stopped, the faces haven't vanished.

He leans into the microphone.

"Thank you." His voice envelops the whole arena, volume multiplied beyond reason. "Thank you so much. It's been an honor to be with you tonight." He puts a hand to his chest, as people scream louder. "Thank you! Have a good night!" Louder still. "I'll see you next time!"

He pops his ear protections out as he walks his way out of the stage, almost crushed by the indescribable sound of a thousand cheers.

It doesn't stop as he enters the backstage area, catching Kurt, Tina and Allie in hugs. The haze hasn't dissipated either. Not quite. He moves as if he's somewhere other than reality. Allie is perched on his back, complaining about his gross sweat, and Kurt has kissed him and slipped his hand into Blaine's, but Blaine is not 100% there.

They get to the dressing room, and there's some more gushing from Allie, and Kurt and Tina are still fighting on whether or not she should've come with her nine-month pregnant belly. Blaine talks to them, does everything as expected, but it's as if he's watching it happen from outside of himself. Everyone in the room is acting normal. Normal.

Outside of himself, somewhere in this new parallel level of thought, existence, sensation, whatever it is, Blaine can only think this is not normal. How has this ever become normal?

"He needs a shower before the meets and greets." Kurt says.

"Yes! Yes, he does!" Allie agrees, taking Tina's mom and directing them out of the dressing room.

Kurt closes the door behind them laughing. He turns to Blaine, kissing him and playfully peeling the sweat soaked shirt off his stomach. Blaine laughs, and kisses him back. For a moment the axis aligns again. But the shirt glues back on when Kurt lets go, to cradle his face, and Blaine shifts deep into reality, the opposite direction from the haze before. Where he was looking from the outside, he's now too aware of every part of his physicality. The bustle outside his dressing room door. The lights in the dressing room. His clothes glued to his body, worth probably hundreds of dollars but just as wet as a cheap target shirt would.

"What're we doing?"

Kurt pulls back, half smirking, half frowning. "Well, you do have like ten minutes left before you have-"

"No, no.. I mean… deciding to have kids. What are we doing, Kurt? I…"

Kurt's face pales, and his smile vanishes. He doesn't speak.

"Is this… are we selfish?"

"What?" Kurt looks almost hurt. "Blaine, what are you talking about?"

"Are they gonna be happy? With us? Are we just… kidding ourselves? Am I delusional to think that I can… have that? That… That normal… part of life?"

A sigh of relief escapes Kurt, as he understands. Blaine can't help but feel simultaneously less alone, because Kurt knows what he's taking about, but also more, because Kurt just smiles like Blaine is being silly and there's nothing to it. "Bee… Sweetheart, there's never going to be a kid in the world luckier than the one that gets to have you as their dad."

"But I just… They're never going to have a normal life. No matter what I do. Even if I stopped now. And… can I stop? I… I should… I should! For them, I should. But… what if I can never give them that?"

"Who the fuck decides what's normal? When have we ever been normal? When have we ever wanted to be normal?"

Blaine feels himself slipping back to life. "I… I don't know. I just… I just played a song about how… how much I want that, and I played it to thousands of people, and that's my life. That's what I do. I… I'm going to bring someone who never asked for this into a circus, and I don't know. I feel like… like it's selfish. Just because I want it, I…"

"Blaine." Kurt puts both hands on Blaine's face and smiles softly; his eyes kind – pools of understanding. "There have been famous people since there were any people. There have been famous people having children, since just as long. It's not selfish. It's life. It's okay."

Blaine swallows, and tries not to look away from Kurt.

"It's okay." Kurt pulls his face back up when Blaine falters and averts his eyes. "It's okay. We're gonna be okay. Blaine. We're gonna be okay. Say it."

Blaine takes a deep breath. "We're gonna be okay."

"Yeah."

"We're gonna be good parents."

"We are." Kurt smiles, the most beautiful Blaine has seen him. "We're not gonna be perfect, but we're gonna be good. We've learnt from the best."

Blaine nods, pulls Kurt in close, envelops him in his arms and settles back.

"We got this." Kurt murmurs.

"We should adopt." Blaine says.

Kurt pulls back. He looks at Blaine for a moment, and his expression is hard to read.

"We should adopt. There are… it's not second best. It's not a consolation prize, it's… I want to do it. They need help and we want to give it, and I… I think we should adopt."

"Tina will be disappointed." Kurt says, but there's something to his voice.

"No, she won't."

Kurt laughs, "No she won't."

"She hates being pregnant."

Kurt grabs Blaine's hands and kisses both of them. "We should adopt."

"That is one thing that I didn't realize until I was much older. Until I was thinking about that kind need myself, as a parent. As a kid, I never really recognized how scared they were of making mistakes, mostly of letting things get out of control. Of hurting us with the lives they had outside of our home. Lives they couldn't always control. They weren't as old as most people in their generation were when they decided to take that plunge. To this day I don't know what made them do it so young, I mean, clearly biology was never going to be an issue, there was no timeline pressing, so I have to assume it was just a need to do it. But they were adamant to do it right."

Hummel's body language has completely changed. His hand has dropped from his face, he's gesticulating, leaning forward, his eyes lit with emotion. For a moment, I have a flashback to Blaine Anderson's interviews, and the expansive personality that up until now I assumed hadn't seeped one drip into Hummel.

"You weren't exactly a baby when they adopted you, were you? Did you know who they were, when you were adopted? Were you aware of the full scope of it?"

He stutters on this. He has to think about it. "I mean, it was shortly after his third album, which was pretty huge, so it was inescapable. I remember hearing his name, when the social service agent had first come talk to me about it. She didn't say it to me, but I overheard her talking to a colleague about it, and I do remember just kind of going off on an imaginary adventure of just having the best of everything, and a Porsche and Ferrari, and all sorts of fantasies a seven year old boy who's never held more than twenty bucks in his hand has. But I was fairly used to disappointment, and I'd learned to expect the worst, so I convinced myself it wasn't that Blaine Anderson. And that it wouldn't work out anyway. I'm pretty sure it wasn't until I was in their home, in that… you know – the type of home I'd only ever seen in movies, that I realized it really was him."

Kurt is pretty sure he's made a mistake. He doesn't know exactly what mistake, but he definitely made one.

He flips through the pages, goes back to the very beginning and checks everything on the illustrations to what he has in front of him. He squints his eyes. Pirate is looking at it like she knows what's wrong, but it's been almost a decade and Kurt still can't have conversations with her like Blaine can, so she keeps it to herself if she does.

"Fucking meow." Kurt mutters, and she plops down to the floor, stomach open for petting.

From across the apartment he hears the front door open.

"Marco?" Blaine's voice echoes.

"Polo!"

He flips the page to where he should be, and turns back to squinting. A rousing game of spot the differences, clearly.

"What the hell are you doing?" Blaine is leaning against the doorframe, looking mildly amused, but mostly frowning, his head tilted sideways as he takes in the sight of Kurt surrounded by long pieces of wood, and screws everywhere. "Are you trying to build an Ikea bed? Why is there even an Ikea bed in our house?"

"Hum…"

"We haven't even opened the Ikea website in like… well, pretty much since we started dating and you said I had way too much money to justify even considering Ikea to begin with." Blaine picks up the instructions, inspecting it distractedly. "You do know we have more money now…"

"I'm aware." Kurt rolls his eyes and goes back to sticking those little wooden thingies in all the holes they fit in.

"Okay." Blaine smiles, sitting down and taking the wooden board and the hammer out of Kurt's hands, and proceeding to undo all his work (to be fair, Blaine seems to be actually reading the instructions properly). "So. Let's try again. Why are you building an Ikea bed in our future child's bedroom, instead of hiring an interior decorator, like we did with pretty much the rest of the apartment?"

Blaine is clearly not angry. If anything he's amused, as he waits for Kurt to answer.

What Kurt says instead is, "We're kind of… very rich…"

"We are."

"Well. Not kind of. We're very rich."

"Yes, Kurt. We're very rich."

"I… I was… thinking that… that's a good thing. You know, that we're probably gonna be able to afford whatever we need to."

"Yes, most people would agree."

"Right? Because, like, with Alice, it was… it was hard. For Mike and Tina, mostly, but… you know, we were there, and they were spread thin for a little bit there, and it's a good thing it's not gonna happen with us."

"I think so, too."

"But then I was thinking, that… it was also kinda fun…?" Kurt shrugs, scrunches up his nose. Blaine mirrors him with a chuckle. "It was, wasn't it?"

"We all made the best of an unexpected situation."

"But it was fun." Kurt says. "Don't you miss it sometimes? Like… the day Mike and Tina bought the Ikea crib, and…"

"And I basically set it up by myself because neither of you knows how to read simple instructions."

"They are not simple."

"They are very simple, Kurt. Very simple."

"Blaine – it is part of pop culture how much everyone hates Ikea instructions. I am right. This is not a debate."

Blaine raises his hands in surrender. "Okay. Proceed with your explanation for why there is an Ikea bed in this bedroom."

"Right. So. Fun!"

"Fun?"

"Yes. Fun. It was fun, coming up with those solutions, and you know. I grew up… not rich. And sometimes I would want to change up my room, because I'm me and you know, and obviously I couldn't afford to just hire an interior decorator, who by the way is literally someone we're paying to hear all of my ideas and then just do that and not add anything whatsoever to those, so, hum, might as well keep that money,-"

"Kurt…"

"Tangent, sorry. So, I would wanna change things, and I couldn't afford, and sometimes my dad would… just kind of build me things, and that was fun. And there was something special about those things, because… because my dad made them. For me. With his bare hands."

"And that was fun."

"Yes. Exactly. So…"

"So… there's an Ikea bed in our future child's bedroom."

"I know it's idiotic, but I can't actually build one with my bare hands, even if we had the tools, but-"

"I get it." Blaine puts his hand on Kurt's knee and squeezes. "I get it, love."

"I just… don't want it to be everything we have to offer the kid." Kurt shrugs. "I don't want to coast on having the money to buy everything need or want. There has to be more, and… I just… I guess I needed to feel like there was."

Blaine looks at Kurt so sympathetically that it borders on condescending, but it's still nice. Kurt let's himself slump into Blaine's body.

"How many of these panic attacks are we gonna have, Bee?"

Blaine sucks in a breath, but he's chuckling. "I think, we're probably gonna have one every single day, love. At least I think we will, if we're doing it right. We care, and when you care you worry."

"We're gonna be okay."

"Kurt, there is so much more we can offer besides money. So much more. Whoever it is that ends up living this room, and sleeping on this bed, that I will put together for safety reasons, will need a lot more than things that money can buy." Blaine pulls Kurt to rest with his back to his chest, and circles his arms around his stomach. He kisses the top of Kurt's head. "And I can't think of anyone I'd trust more with that than you. Because you know how to take care of people, how to love them and be there. And that's it. And maybe you can't build a bed, but there's a lot of things you can do that are just as fun, and lasting, and special."

"I know… I think it's just the waiting… it's getting to me. I think maybe they don't… believe in us. Every day that goes by without a phone call, it just-"

The phone rings.

This interview is turning into something I could have only hope for in my wildest dreams. I'm almost afraid of pushing too far, so I tread carefully. "Do you know why they decided to adopt you and your sister? Were they looking for someone like you?"

"When you're in the system, you don't really celebrate birthdays. You can't grow up. The older you get, the less chances you have. We don't know what they were looking for, because they didn't know, either. They were very open to any kind of scenario. And like with any case, it was a stroke of luck. Right time and right place kind of thing. I'm pretty sure they were coming in to meet another kid – a baby, I think. And they just saw us. I was with my sister, and we were being pulled apart, because that's how it goes with foster homes, you can't always keep siblings together, and so we were kind of making a spectacle, I guess. And that's that. That was it."

I'm sensing it's gone too far and Hummel is going to change the subject, but then he's smiling. A fondness takes over his expression, and that's when I know we've settled into the interview he's avoided since his career started, decades ago. "That was it?"

"Well obviously, I didn't even know it that day. For all I knew they were just two people that passed by and I didn't stop to notice. But they did, and they knew what they had to do. And a day later I was being asked about it. I didn't actually care who they were, as long as they were letting me stay with my sister. I would have said yes to anyone."

"But you are glad that that's who you said yes to?"

Hummel grins. Once again, I recognize Blaine Anderson, and I have to remind myself they are not biologically related. "What do you think?"

I mention a few songs off the top of my head. An entire album about fatherhood and family, which changed a lot of things for Anderson's career. An album that took him from a musical sensation appealing to hordes of teenagers and young adults, and making him a household name with a kind of respect reserved for the songwriters one describes as artists instead of pop stars. I mention the songs about fears of inadequacy and potential failure. He sings lyrics to me, and though his voice is certainly not on par with Anderson's, or even his other father, fashion designer Kurt Hummel, the tenderness makes it special.

"We shouldn't even be talking about this." Blaine sighs into the phone.

"Hum, excuse me? Why would you not discuss this with your mother? They will be my grandchildren, Honey-Bee. I should be involved."

"No, I didn't mean it like that." Blaine rolls his eyes. "I just don't wanna jinx it. I feel like if we talk about it, like it's happening… it won't."

"Oh, I know, honey."

Blaine watches Kurt rearrange the couch cushions for the third time. He walks over and puts his hand softly on Kurt's back. "I should go, they'll be here any minute."

Kurt leans into Blaine, who kisses his cheek.

"Okay. Just call us as soon as the visit is over. I'm sure it'll be great, honey. Maria already loves you. And Antonio will come around as soon as he sees the-

The buzzer goes off. "Gotta go, mom. They're here. Bye, love you."

"Hey Blaine!"

He pauses, watching as Kurt picks up the receiver and tells the doorman to let the visitors up. "Yes?"

"Have fun." His mom says, "They're kids. They just want to have fun."

The chuckle does something to Blaine's breathing, and he suddenly feels much better. "Thanks, mom. I'll call you back."

"Bye, honey."

He hangs up the phone just as Kurt opens the front door.

The social services lady smiles, and says something, but Blaine's attention is all with the two kids standing slightly behind her. Antonio has his sister's hand in a death grip, like always, and, like always, Blaine's heart just completely splits open for them. He's on one knee before he can even process himself.

"Hey, guys! Thanks for coming out today!"

Maria beams at once. She hurries over – Antonio hesitantly letting go of her hand – and throws her slightly chubby arms over Blaine's shoulders. He hugs her back as enthusiastically as he can without crushing her and gets back to his feet, hoisting her over his hip. She giggles every time he does that.

He offers his fist out to Antonio, who bumps it reluctantly. Kurt finishes exchanging pleasantries with the social worker and turns towards the kids.

"Antonio, buddy!" He ruffles the boys hair, which is a rookie mistake but not unsalvageable. "What's up? Ready to have some fun?"

"I guess." Antonio shrugs and takes a timid step inside, while Kurt leans in for a good smooch on Maria's cheek.

"Okay, guys." Marcia smiles, she looks encouraging and enthusiastic which puts Blaine even further at ease. "I'm going to go now, and I'll be back at eight, but I'll be a phone call away if you need anything in the meantime."

"'Kay." Antonio nods. Blaine and Kurt exchange a happy look before they nod towards Marcia too.

"Have fun!" She waves them goodbye and turns back towards the elevator.

Kurt closes the door softly. "Well! Let's go inside! We're making pizza for lunch! How does that sound?"

Maria squeals excitedly.

"We're making the pizza? Why don't we just order it?"

Blaine can't help himself – he laughs. Antonio does not look amused. "Sorry, bud."

"We thought it would be fun to do them together." Kurt shrugs, saving the moment. "We have all kinds of ingredients, so everyone can make their own favorite pizza."

That's about when Antonio finally moves out of the entrance, and they all follow. The minute the boy steps into the open space area, his jaw drops.

"Wow!" Maria squeals right next to Blaine's ear. "Your house is huuuge!"

Blaine and Kurt try to telepathically debate what to say. Kurt ends up laughing. "It is kinda big, isn't it? And there's a second floor!" He chuckles, "I hope you guys don't get lost!"

"We'll draw you map." Blaine winks, as he walks over to the couch.

"I think it's super pretty."

He drops her gently on couch. "And how would you feel about living here?" He tries not to inflect his voice with too much intention. Still, he can see Antonio's head whipping towards them.

Maria buries herself into the couch. "Can I sleep on this couch?" She asks, and something about her tone sends a chill down Blaine's spine. He glances towards Kurt and knows he's not alone in the bad feeling.

"Honey, well, sure you can sleep on the couch if you want, but you'd have your own bedroom."

"Really?!" She beams. "What about Nio?"

Blaine glances towards the boy who is watching the conversation with intensity. Blaine keeps his gaze soft and his eyes locked on Antonio's. "You have your own room too, bud. They're ready for whenever you feel ready to come live with us."

Kurt and Blaine had debated on whether they should've prepared the rooms already, or wait until the process was further along and save themselves the potential heartache of taking it all back down if things fell through. But at the end of the day, they just couldn't help themselves.

"Do you want to go check them out?" Kurt offers with one of his best cheeky smiles.

"Yes!" Maria springs to her feet. Antonio walks over and takes her hand, without saying more than "'Kay."

If the kid just knew how much that simple gesture always gets to Blaine… He takes a deep breath and claps his hands together.

"Okay, let's go on a tour of the whole place then, shall we?"

They lead the kids through the first floor first – the gym, Blaine's mini-studio, Kurt's office, the kitchen, the guest's bathroom. The kids look like they're in absolute shock. Blaine wonders if they should've taken it slowly. That's when Pirate decides to show up from wherever she'd holed up for her nap. Maria looks the most excited she's looked, which is saying something. Even Antonio can't help but be pulled into the petting fest that evolves from there.

Ultimately Kurt has to intervene and explain that because she only has one eye she can't see well, and is afraid of heights, so Maria can't hold her. It's quite surprising how fast Maria understands, but she still tries to keep the cat close by for the rest of the house tour.

"The bedrooms are upstairs." Kurt points towards the staircase and lets the kids go on ahead of them.

Blaine takes the small reprieve to steal a kiss and grab his hand. "How're the nerves?" he whispers.

Kurt lets out a breathy laugh and gives him a meaningful look. The kids are already heading to the nearest door when they reach the landing. Maria opens the door and her jaw drops. Antonio peeks in over her head and Blaine can tell the moment when he realizes that's his room. They've kept it somewhat sane, with the type of room any 7 year old tends to appreciate. Well, okay, so the bed is double, but that's hardly going overboard.

"This is your room, dude." Blaine tells him, putting his hand on Antonio's shoulder – careful to do it slowly and softly. He squeezes and encourages him slightly to go inside.

The boy is silent the whole time he's looking around himself, taking everything in. He walks carefully over to where they'd put up a poster of the Boston Red Sox's. He looks at it like it confuses him.

"That's the one you told us you like, right?" Blaine kneels next to him.

Antonio looks at him. His eyes are wide, shocked. "Um… huh, yeah." He whispers. "You remembered?"

Blaine squeezes his hand. "Of course, Antonio."

"We remember everything." Kurt tells him. "We love spending time with you guys."

Antonio nods, but it's hard to tell if the words sunk in at all. After a moment he just turns back to look at the poster like he doesn't believe it's real.

"I don't think any parent goes into it sure of themselves. I'm pretty sure that album was on repeat on my iTunes when my wife was pregnant. Of course they weren't perfect parents. And that first year was predictably hard."

"Because of who they were, or was it just the adoption process, and everything like that?"

"It's a bit of a perfect storm, isn't it? You have a deeply flawed system that makes kids grow up much faster and not necessarily into happy and trustful people. I was scared they'd realize what a huge mistake they'd made, choosing us. I couldn't understand why us and I couldn't trust my luck, so every mistake I made I was wondering if that was what was going to change their minds. And then it got to the point where I would sort of push the boundaries a little bit, test the waters. It was easier with her for them, than it was with me. I was older, and jaded. But obviously not old enough to understand that the fears I was having, they were having, too."

"You didn't connect with your parents right away?"

"Of course not. Adoption isn't necessarily a fairytale, and especially not at the beginning. I'd gone through too much. I couldn't trust anything that seemed too good to be true."

This should come as a surprise to no one who has followed Hummel's career from the start. He got his name out there with a web series about a group home and its group therapy sessions. It went viral, very much on its own merit. The stories weren't just original and fresh, they were also deeply realistic and written from a highly personal point of view without becoming cynic or self-pitying. It became one of the biggest and most critically acclaimed web series, and gave him the first glimpse of a long career that's been comprised of more hits than misses.

"My sister wasn't quite as aware as I was, she was five. I'd just gotten to that tipping point of childhood, where fears go beyond the boogey man under your bed. Where you notice things in adults beyond nice and not nice. The nuances start filtering in, and there's no easy way of navigating jumping into a brand new family like that, without a few hesitations on both sides."

Kurt is in his office, door ajar so he can hear if any of the kids calls for him. He checks the time and quirks an eyebrow at realizing it's been a full hour since he's been summoned to settle some kind of dispute.

Alice is definitely not dealing well with not being a single child anymore, especially since Antonio and Maria's adoption became official. The last year and half has been peppered with many episodes that will surely be funny in time, but now just somewhat frustrating. But what's worse is how well she knows how to manipulate Antonio into doing dumb stuff, constantly daring or challenging him, doubting his courage or abilities. Every time the two get together, something is bound to go wrong.

Kurt is almost convinced today might be the first time nothing does when he hears the shriek.

He hops off the chair and jogs over to the living room, pausing only to flicker the lights in Blaine's studio. When he gets there, Alice is on the floor, clutching her elbow, Antonio towering over her.

"What's going on here?" He immediately goes over to Alice to check on her elbow. It seems to be a little rug burned.

"He pushed me!" Alice's eyes fill with tears at once.

"Nio?!" Kurt turns to him, trying not too sound completely accusatory – but it's a fine line and Kurt knows he didn't balance well when Antonio just crosses his arms over his chest and looks at Alice with a good level of anger. "Nio, what happened?"

"I told you! He pushed me!"

Maria looks between her brother and Alice like she can't decide who to focus on.

"I asked-"

Blaine pokes his head out of his studio just as the buzzer goes off.

Everyone pauses for a moment, there's a flicker of something in Alice's eyes. "Bee, can you get the door?"

Blaine eyes the scene with apprehension before he picks up the receiver. "Yes?"

Kurt turns back to Antonio. "Hon, why did you push Allie?"

He shrugs, looking away from Kurt. The frustration starts building up in Kurt's chest. It's always like this. He never engages. Kurt might very well think that Alice is not even close to the victim, but if he never cooperates and just lets her railroad him into these messes, then what is he supposed to do?

"Nio, come on, you n-"

"What the hell were you doing?" Blaine drops the receiver, turning to the three kids now looking especially sheepish. "Why is there a man downstairs telling the doorman that kids were dropping balls of wet toilet paper on his head?!"

Maria's face goes bright red and she takes the smallest of steps back. Still, despite the unease atmosphere of guilt in the air, none of them open their mouths.

"I asked you a question!" Blaine walks over. His tone is angry and commanding and Kurt can count on one hand the number of times he's heard Blaine use it. "Someone better start talking." He snaps his fingers, and Alice flinches.

She drops her eyes to the floor for a second before she looks back at Kurt, defiance dripping from her voice. "It was his idea."

Antonio doesn't look surprised. He scoffs and tightens his arms across his chest.

"I don't care whose idea it was." Blaine's neck is red. "Get up."

Alice looks absolutely betrayed, but she does as she's told.

"The three of you are going downstairs right now and personally apologize to that man." Blaine stomps over to the front door, pulling it open.

"But it was an accident. We were only-"

"No." Kurt interrupts her with finality. "No excuses. Right now. All of you."

Kurt watches as the three of them trail towards the door. He takes a deep, steadying breath and follows. As he passes by Blaine at the door, he takes his hand and squeezes. Blaine deflates visibly. They exchange a look that's half exasperated, half amused.

"Damn kids." Blaine mutters, before chuckling. Kurt shushes him discreetly.

They watch as the three of them diligently apologize to the man, who was allegedly an accidental victim of their competition to see who could throw the wet toilet paper balls far enough to stick on the closest building's wall. When the apology is over and done with – and Blaine has signed an autograph for the man's daughter – they head back upstairs. Blaine sits all of them down while Kurt texts Tina to let her know that Alice will need some disciplining later.

The finger pointing starts again. Alice is urging Maria to take her side, and Antonio has never looked more hurt. Kurt could beg him to just say something – anything – to help them understand things.

"Come on, Nio. Just tell us why you pushed Alice."

He shrugs.

"Because I saw that the sir was going to come knock on the door, and I told him he was going to tell you all about it and he got angry." Alice says. "Didn't he, Maria?"

Maria looks like a deer caught in headlights. Kurt wants to roll his eyes.

"Well," Blaine says softly. "Regardless of the motive, Nio, you can't push people. That's unacceptable. We can't tolerate that kind of behavior, kid."

"I knew it." He says, getting up and storming out.

"Hey! Where are you going?!"

"To my room! I'm grounded, right?!"

Kurt stands up to follow but Blaine takes his hand and shakes his head silently. "Later." Kurt doesn't feel like leaving it to later, but Blaine is probably right, no one ever settled arguments in the heat of the moment. Instead they go back to talking to the girls. It's really quite obvious what happened, and when Tina and Mike come back from little Ollie's doctor appointment, they get fully briefed. Tina and Mike are right about ready to pull out their own hair. "I swear to god, the only thing left is finding her with a pillow over Ollie's head."

"Don't even joke about that." Blaine gasps, but even he can't stop the chuckle.

"Hey… you know what you could try?" Kurt offers, opening his desk drawer.

Tina catches on at once. She holds out her hand for the contact card. "Might as well. I mean, it's been like two years now."

"She was every one's little star for a long time," Blaine reasons. "It's a tough transition, and a lot of things changed all at once. I promise that Dr. Henshaw is fantastic. I mean, a couple of months there and things will be significantly better."

Tina gives them a tight smile and a nod, but pockets the card.

Alice doesn't even make it past the front door before Tina is rattling off her punishment, while Mike cradles a sleeping Ollie and murmurs apologies over his shoulder.

Blaine closes the door and collapses against it. Kurt laughs and crowds him for a few kisses. "That was rough."

Kurt receives another kiss in reply, before he takes his hand and heads upstairs to check that Maria is still entertained in her own room, drawing.

"Ready?" He asks, holding his hand above Antonio's closed door. Kurt nods and Blaine knocks. They wait for five seconds before opening the door. Antonio is sitting on the window ledge, in true pre-teen angst. It amuses Kurt, but he keeps it down.

"Nio, we're gonna watch a movie, do you wanna join us?"

Even Kurt is surprised to hear those words. He thought they were going to have one of their frequent "You have to communicate and tell us things" chats. Antonio looks at Blaine like he's insane.

"You can totally choose. And we'll get some pizza or something. Yeah?"

Kurt can see the wheels turning in Antonio's head and it hurts to realize that their son still doesn't completely trust them, that he's still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Come on, if we let your sister choose we're just gonna end up watching Enchanted again, and I just can't…" Blaine shrugs, talking easily as if nothing's wrong.

Antonio considers his options carefully. "Can we get Chinese instead?"

"Deal."

They do end up watching Enchanted, and all because Antonio will never be able to say no to Maria. By the end of it she's dead asleep, Kurt carding his fingers gently through her wavy black hair. Next to him he can feel Antonio's tension. The boy is looking at the TV with too much intensity to actually be paying attention to Susan Sarandon's dragon form destroying the skyscraper. Kurt glances at Blaine and notices he's looking at Antonio as well. They exchange a look, and Blaine nods.

"Nio…" Blaine says, soft and slow.

The boy practically starts vibrating with anxiety, Kurt can virtually hear him thinking "here it comes again."

"We're sorry Alice keeps being… pushy and… unwelcoming towards you."

He looks at Blaine like he can't comprehend the words.

"So… I'm not grounded?"

"Of course you're grounded. You pushed her. Violence is never okay." Blaine smiles. "But kid, we're not blind. We know it was her idea. But we can't help you if you don't talk to us. If you don't tell us your side of things, what are we supposed to do, buddy?"

Antonio chews on his lip, and looks at his hands.

Kurt squeezes his shoulder. "You need to trust us. We will always be here for you. No matter what."

He glances up, and Kurt can see it happening. He nudges just a tad more.

"We're your dads. We're always on your side."

There! The moment Antonio chooses to give in. "She hit the man with the toilet paper." He mutters through an exhale as if surrendering. "And he looked up and saw us, and he started walking to the door, so she said she was going to say it was me, and that you were going to give me back, and that I was probably a thief or something bad anyway, because my real parents didn't want me, and it was all my fault that Maria was thrown out as well, because I was just so horrible they couldn't stand us, and that she knew you'd do the same, and that she'd hoped it would be soon, I just… I'm sorry. I got angry, and I pushed her."

"Antonio… honey, none of that is true." Blaine breathes, and Kurt knows he's having a hard time controlling his emotions. Kurt is too.

"But you love her! She's your favorite, and-"

"We love you, too!" Kurt says it so fiercely that Maria stirs. He gets himself back in check. "We don't have favorites, Nio – this is not a competition. Listen, she's our goddaughter, but you're our son. Okay? Nothing will ever change that. You're our son."

Antonio's chin trembles and he tries to wipe his first tear away as fast as it falls. "You always take her side."

"You never give us yours." Blaine pulls him close and kisses the top of his head. "We can't take your side if you don't tell us."

"You wouldn't believe me. No one ever does."

"We will."

"If you did you wouldn't keep letting her come over."

"Honey, I know you two aren't getting along well. And we know it's mostly because she's not nice or welcoming to you. But you just need to realize that she was the only one for a long time. A very long time. She got used to having everything her way, and now everything's changed for her too."

"She's just a brat."

"She's not just a brat. Sometimes she's a brat, yes, but please don't hate her just yet. Give her some time. She'll turn around. You'll see she can be pretty fun."

"See? You're still defending her! You don't care about the truth."

"We're not…" Blaine sighs, clearly at a loss for how to continue. "Nio. Of course we care about the truth. And we know you're telling us what really happened, and we're on your side. But unless you believe us too… We trust you. We really, really do. But that means nothing if you don't trust us back."

"What is she's right?"

"She's not." Blaine stresses. "She was saying that to get you angry."

"And she's going to be ground for that as well. Her behavior was not acceptable, either."

"You're not going to give us back?"

"That day in court, when we signed that paper. Remember? That meant forever. No matter what."

"Besides," Kurt scratches the back of Antonio's neck soothingly, "you may not have realized this, but your dad has never once broken a promise to me. Not once. And we won't either, to you. I promise."

"I guess."

"Okay." Kurt tries to maneuver himself so he's on Antonio's level, without waking Maria up, "Remember what Dr. Henshaw told you, right? You have to let us in. You have to believe us when we tell you we want you here. We're never going to give up on you, no matter what you do or say."

"I'm sorry." he mumbles.

"There's nothing to be sorry about, honey. This is okay. This is normal. These things take time." Kurt gives him a smile, tries to make it as reassuring as possible, but Antonio drops his eyes, more tears falling down.

"Do you want to watch another movie?" Blaine hooks a finger under his chin and makes him look up. Antonio shrugs. "That's not an answer." Blaine tells him, teasing him with a good smile. "Do you want to watch another movie? Just us three and maybe even some terrible-no good food that your dad never lets you eat after dinner?" Kurt shoots Blaine a half-glare, but then nods his consent when Antonio looks at him for confirmation.

"Yeah…"

"Well then, I'm going to put this little bug in bed, and this time you choose all by yourself." Kurt announces, grunting slightly and he stands up, Maria in his arms.

"I wanted to watch the Harry Potter ones. She never wants to see those. She's always scared."

"That is an excellent choice, my friend." Blaine grins, and then, without the hesitation that has come to characterize both Kurt and Blaine's interactions with Antonio, he pulls his son into his lap and wraps his arms around the boy. Kurt watches with his breath held, as Antonio tries to decide what to do, and then Kurt tries not to react visibly when the boy hugs Blaine back.

"I'll put the DVD in as soon as I'm back from depositing the bug." He offers, and is answered with the brightest smile on Blaine's face. As he takes the stairs slowly he keeps his ears trained on his two fellas.

"But keep in mind, it's not going to be as good as the book."

Antonio scoffs – Kurt didn't know he could scoff with humor. "Nothing could be as good as the book."

"You are my son."