Disclaimer: They belong to RM and company, while I still have to work at two jobs to support myself – meaning I'm not making any money with this fic.
*g*l*e*e*
Love Your Smile – A BTSB Valentine's fic
The first time Noah's Nana had gushed about his Babka, Noah had been thirteen and kind of thought Nana had appreciated more the vodka he had used to baptize the chocolate filling (and that had gotten him the belting of a lifetime from his Ma for touching he liquor cabinet) than the cake itself, but when Becky had said there was no Babka like his (this one vodka free), Noah started believing he kind of had a good handle on cooking, which came in hand when you had a mother working double shifts at a hospital and a little sister that needed to eat healthily. That and Noah still got a kick of it when Uncle Aaron and Aunt Libbi all but licked their plates clean whenever Noah made his famous plum-spiced beef brisket for Hanukkah and Cousin Daniel looked like he would rip Noah's balls off and feed them to Nana's dogs if he could, the jealous fucker.
All in all, Noah knew when it was about cooking he was the shit and stuff, until Zizes happened and told him his cookies sucked. Fuck, he had only been seventeen then and her bitchiness wouldn't have hurt so much – because, really, what loser would like to be remembered in high school for his cooking skills? - if he hadn't baked the heart shaped cookies out of what he had believed a little over a decade ago was love. He and his high school squeeze still had a good laughter at his expense whenever he ran into Zizes, now a married mother of twin boys, when he was visiting Ma in Lima.
Truth was Noah was almost as good at cooking as he was at fucking, but since he got to feed Kurt his dick almost every night (and morning if they got lucky and Ben slept through his biological seven o'clock wake up call), Noah decided going back to homemade cookies would be a good gift for their first Valentine's together as a couple, officially speaking.
Hence Noah was currently standing at his kitchen counter with his hands deep in raw cookie dough, singing along one of the many play lists from their Glee club days, with his balls blue and his heart heavy for missing Kurt and Ben like crazy after two days without seeing them. A huge sacrifice, but one he had to make if he wanted to keep his gifts a surprise to his guys.
He had gotten the idea last week while making online arrangements to have Valentine's bouquets delivered to the three most important women in his life and had come across cookie bouquets of all sizes and shapes on the net. Ben's was resting on a baking sheet in the stove ready to be frosted. Noah had made them semi-sugar free so Kurt wouldn't give Noah much of a hard time when he presented his godson the blue pail bucket filled with confetti and the three truck-shaped cookies. As for Kurt's…
Lauren Zizes could keep laughing her oversized (and still great) ass off and Noah wouldn't give a damn; at 28 he could finally bake his cookies for someone out of real love, and he hoped Kurt would appreciate the cookies for what they represented. And since Noah was going to fuck any extra calories out of Kurt after they had settled the kiddo for the night, he didn't believe Kurt would have any reasons to complain about getting fat.
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Valentine's morning found Noah looking at Justine Lewis with his mouth hanging open and his eyes bugging out of their sockets, the box with the half a dozen daisy-shaped cookies he had made for her and her girls and another one filled with regular shaped cookies for his crew lying forgotten before him.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me!"
"Nope," Justine said, the red bands at the end of her braids brushing her face as she shook her head. "Their manager wants you there to take a look around the site. You should be glad they're considering the company for their renovation."
"Of course I am, but fuck, Juss, today is Valentine's! I've got a lot of plans, and driving to Toledo isn't part of them."
"Think with the upstairs head, boss. You'll have a better chance at landing the deal if you're there. Your boyfriend and his cute baby will still be there tomorrow. This deal may not."
Noah knew his assistant was right, but damn. On any other day driving to Toledo wouldn't have been a problem, and if they landed the deal, which he believed they would, the extra money would be a great bonus for everybody involved, but the hell. He had left Ben's and Kurt's gifts at home because all he had planned for today was getting the reports from his foreman and then spend the rest of the day catching up with paperwork. That would give him plenty of time to swing back home and take a shower before getting his gifts and overnight bag and head over to Kurt's to see his men, but now…
"Can't we push it for tomorrow? Damn it, Juss, I haven't seen my boys in two days."
"Sorry, boss, I tried, but the man is adamant. It's either today or we are afraid we won't be able to accommodate your company in our schedule," Juss said, thinning her voice and cutting two quotation marks in the air using her fingers to reproduce what this Mr. Whatever had said.
"Fuck," Noah said softly, hiding his face in his hands. Thank God they had been in the black since Centex had made EP Builders their unofficial branch in Ohio, so it wouldn't hurt their finances if they didn't land this deal, but they could definitely use this kind of free publicity in Toledo if they did. Noah had people like Justine depending on him to send their kids to a good school.
Hell, he shouldn't have considered the kids. He would do anything for Ben just like he would have done anything for Beth had he had the power to, so it was only fair to sacrifice the romantic fuck-fest he had dreamed of the last couple of nights and meet this Mr. Cooper for lunch in fucking Toledo.
"Okay, then; call the fucker and tell him I can be there at one. Think I have to drive back home and change? I wasn't expecting to meet with anyone today."
"If the boyfriend doesn't know you went to a meeting wearing these you'll be fine," she said, referring to the dark jeans and white shirt he was wearing. "Although this Mr. Cooper person sounded like he could very well be into leather," she added with a smirk that made her red lips seem even bigger as she tipped her nose toward the leather jacket he was wearing.
"That's his fucking problem. There's just one ass I'm interested in doing and it lives right here in Columbus."
"Really, Puck, with this so peculiar finesse of yours, you should be banned from gay-land," she said, snatching the boxes of cookies from his desk. "Kurt's so classy; I wonder why he puts up with you."
"Because I'm good," he said, swirling his tongue around his lips.
Juss rolled her eyes and headed for the door. "Your equipment better be as big as your ego to make the crudeness worth something."
"Hey, I've never had any complaints."
"If you say so," Juss laughed.
"Remind me again why I worked my ass off to bake these cookies for you," Noah shot back instead of throwing her ass on his desk and making her beg and moan her apologies to him, like he would have done a few years ago if Juss hadn't been married. Since Kurt he just hadn't been interested; his princess provided a helluva of a more satisfying workout.
Juss opened the door to his office and grinned at him, "Because I keep your paperwork in order. Want me to send Ramiro in?"
"Give me ten before you send the hubby in. Also I need someone to deliver Kurt's and Ben's presents for me, since I don't know if I'll be seeing them today. Can you see to that for me?"
"Sure, boss," she said softly; Noah hoped he hadn't sounded as pathetic as he was feeling or he would be catching hell from her when her sympathy for his misery was gone. "Anything else?"
"No, that will be all. Thanks, Juss," Noah said, reaching for his phone. It was almost 9:00 and on Mondays Kurt had his first period free to do whatever teachers did in their free periods. Noah was almost sure for Kurt it was drinking enough coffee to make him feel more like a human being and less like a bitchy banshee before he had to face his students without terrorizing them too much.
"Good morning, Noah," Kurt's mellowed voice greeted him after the third ring; Noah cursed that Cooper family up to its third generation.
"Morning, princess. I miss you."
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Noah found himself parking his car in Kurt's driveway almost twelve hours after their conversation in the morning. To his surprise Kurt hadn't ripped him a new one; instead he had assured Noah he understood work was important. Later, after the meeting, Kurt had called and asked Noah to meet him and Ben in the house so they could have a late dinner and that he would even try to keep Ben awake to see Noah. Or that Kurt and Ben could drive to Noah's house and meet him there. Noah rushed to assure him that no, he would meet Kurt and Ben like they had planned, after all it had been just two months since Kurt started sharing his bed with Noah without getting sick. Noah would do just about anything to make sure things between them kept progressing smoothly and nicely. So there he was, dead on his feet, knocking on the door before using the key Kurt had given him two months ago. Best Christmas gift ever.
Kurt was watching Finding Nemo in the living room with a sleeping Ben in his lap, Noah's Valentine's gifts for them resting on the coffee table. There was a missing truck, the yellow one, in the sand pail bucket Noah had arranged for Ben. As for Kurt's, the eight yellow smiling faces Noah had put around the one displaying the words 'Love your smile' in the best festive letters Noah could muster sat untouched, still in the clear cellophane he had used to wrap the blue box holding the cookie bouquet.
Noah kind of died a little then.
He would be catching hell in the morning from his crew because he was sure Juss had sent one of them to make the delivery, and Kurt hadn't even opened his fucking gift. And even worse, he seemed to have regressed to the fucking days when the idea of Noah in his house would make him go all anorexic and throw up until he was blue in the face. Noah knew because he had always been there for the cleaning up that would follow, even if Kurt wouldn't knowledge him until the next call, until the next fuck.
Please, God, he begged clutching the handle of his duffel, don't make him go back to that. I can't, I won't-
"Noah," Kurt said softly and with a smile so sweet Noah's heart ached.
He couldn't lose that, not again.
"Hey, princess; I'm here," he forced back a smile of his own. "Little guy couldn't stay up?"
"He tried, but it got too late." Kurt stood up and walked to Noah, Ben held firmly in his arms, and reluctantly said, "We missed you this past couple of days, Noah."
Noah got his breathing back on track, the relief he felt making him love Kurt even more, if possible. "I missed you guys, too, Kurt, so much."
They stayed in silence for seconds that lasted like minutes, until Ben sighed softly against his father's neck. Noah reached out and ran a finger along Ben' rosy cheek. The baby had his lips parted as he breathed even and deeply in sleep, his little lax fingers resting against the soft wool of his papa's sweater. Noah loved these two so much. So much he ached all over, and by God Noah didn't know what he would do if he ever lost them again.
"You brought your things," Kurt finally addressed his battered Nike gym bag.
"I wanted to buy us some time in the morning. This way I don't have to go back to my place and then rush to work. Is that okay?"
Kurt nodded in silence and brushed his lips against Ben's forehead. "Thanks for the cookies. We loved them."
Noah shrugged awkwardly, and really, this silence was starting to get on his nerves and, considering the way he was biting his lips, Kurt's too.
"Our gift for you is upstairs, in my bedroom. Help me putting Ben in bed and then we can get it."
"Cool."
He followed Kurt to Ben's room and did his best not to stare at Sam's picture by the dresser while he helped Kurt change Ben in his pajamas. Noah would pay his weight in gold to have his picture there too.
Finally, finally Noah followed Kurt to the master bedroom, mentally preparing himself to face the picture of Sam sitting next to the one of Kurt and Sam celebrating their wedding that Kurt still had on the dresser. Noah knew he was a bastard because up to a couple of months ago, this, the simple act of walking into Kurt's room and sharing his bed without being awake in the middle of the night by Kurt's whimpering had been part of his wildest dreams, so he couldn't really complain. But, well, yeah, it still hurt like a bitch.
Kurt switched on the light and stepped aside, making room for Noah to get in.
Noah almost stumbled and fell.
Kurt's solid wooden bed was gone, and in its place there was a brand new brass one, and the reading glasses Noah had sworn he had lost were placed on the table that was on the side of the bed Noah usually slept when he stayed over, next to a picture of Kurt holding Ben.
"Kurt… what…"
"I got the bed last week, but there's more," Kurt said softly, taking Noah by the hand, the first contact of their flesh in two fucking days.
They got to the dresser, and Noah saw Sam's pictures were gone; in their place there was another picture, this time of Ben and Noah taken in Noah's backyard. The two top drawers were open and empty; they had been Sam's, and Noah knew Kurt had been using them since Sam died.
"Where are your clothes?"
"At your place," Kurt laughed nervously. "I've been there so much since we got back together it was easy to accommodate the rest of them in just two drawers. I cleaned some space in the closet for you, too."
"Kurt, why? I mean, you didn't have to. He was your husband… I understand." It hurt like hell, but Noah really understood.
"I know," Kurt smiled and wiped the corner of his eyes with the back of his hand. "But you are here, and I want a new start for us. Is that okay with you, Noah?"
Okay?
Noah caught Kurt by his cheeks, using his thumbs to lift Kurt's face to his and kiss any doubt he might have away. Kurt responded in kind, pulling Noah impossibly closer to him, his lips and tongues fighting for dominance in a battle no one lost anything, and both found a little bit more of the peace they so fucking deserved.
"There's another picture," Kurt said against his lips. "You have to read it."
It was on the bottom of the top drawer and Noah had missed it, probably because he was still trying to make sense of things. This one was new because I had Ben and Kurt sitting on the floor with their cookie bouquets on their sides, spotting smiles Noah could swear made the light in the picture brighter. Noah let go of Kurt only long enough to wrap an arm around his shoulders and keep him by his side while he turned the picture on its back to read whatever message Kurt had left for him. At this point he didn't much care; all he wanted was either right here in his arms or sleeping peacefully in the other room, but he got to the message anyway.
Thanks for making my Papa smile again.
Much love,
Ben
"This one is for you, Noah, only for you," Kurt said softly against his neck.
Noah clutched Kurt to him with so much strength he lifted Kurt off his feet. He tasted his tears and Kurt's on his lips, but he was fine about it.
Joyful tears had always been okay in his book.
*g*l*e*e*
Thanks for reading and Happy Valentine's Day!