Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.
A/N: This was sweet and wonderful to write. A lot of emotion and love in here. I hope it is wonderful to read.
Act For No One
It is a turbulent evening after which Kurt and Blaine stumble, tightly wrapped in each other's arms, through the main entrance of Kurt's home.
Their laughter travelling through all of the ground floor has Burt appear next to them a moment later.
Not even waiting for Kurt to unwrap himself from his boyfriend, not that Kurt really had intended to do so at all any time soon, Burt pulls Blaine closer and into his arms, and Kurt with him. Kurt wriggles free when after about 8 seconds his dad still shows no sign of intending to let go.
While taking a step, or two, back to get a better view of Burt and Blaine's interaction, Kurt hears his dad say to Blaine, "Kid, I missed you around here. Football is not the same anymore without you next to me to give me more than one of Finn's non-committal grunts in response."
Kurt is grinning even wider than Blaine, hearing his father's words.
"I missed being here too, Burt. I missed you and Carole. I even missed the drama between Finn and Rachel these past weeks."
"Kid, don't get me started on that," Burt replies shaking his head.
A familiar female voice joins in, "Yes, Blaine, please don't get him started on that. Last time it took two days for him to stop again, only talking about those crazy kids wanting to get hitched."
Blaine spins around to find "Carole!" just having stepped through the front door behind them, two big tubs of ice cream in hand, she had just made a trip to the store for.
And while Blaine and Carole are hugging and Kurt is laughing at Blaine shivering as his right side is grazed by the cold surface of one of the ice cream tubs, Burt replies, "I'm sorry, Honey. Just you two…please promise me you'll wait with the marriage plans a little longer yourselves."
"I…um…we have never even talked about…," Blaine begins to say as he moves out of Carole's arms.
Kurt takes Blaine's hands both back in his own and saves him from what he does not exactly know or want to find out just now, "Dad, you know we could not even it we wanted, not here anyway. So relax, okay!"
"Okay, okay. Sorry, out of line. I didn't mean to...um...," Burt trails off for a moment. "Oh, have you told Blaine about dinner? Earlier, at the Berries?" Burt asks with an amused smirk that has Kurt confused.
"Um…no, not yet anyway. I…," Kurt is cut off by a big joyous laugh escaping his father's throat. - What the...? Kurt thinks.
"You should have been there, Blaine. You'd have fallen ove' laughing more than once," Burt goes on. - Seriously, what the heck is happening? Kurt's gaze is still firmly fixed on his dad.
"Really?" Blaine asks, looking between his boyfriend and Burt, with a small smile on his lips, steadily growing as Burt's laughter continues.
Kurt is left to stand and watch as his father and boyfriend engage into a… wild conversation. Kurt's mind does not know what else to call it.
He and his mind are vaguely aware that at some point Carole comes back from putting the ice cream into the freezer.
She playfully bumps her right side with Kurt's left, as she finds him standing there, mouth just hanging slightly open and eyes wide.
It takes no more than one look at Carole to know that beneath those eyes, sparkling, and that hand covering her mouth, lips are pressed tight, in an attempt to stop herself from joining Blaine and Burt in their frenzy, and to not leave Kurt alone on the bewildered side of things.
His father's voice and Blaine's laughter filling the room, Kurt's head still preoccupied with...When exactly did these to get so comfortable joking about THIS kind of stuff,…sex?
"And then Hiram said … this guy sold us the wrong lube. That's why the rubber is squeaking. That's why 't feels weird when we're going real fast."
Blaine is holding his stomach and droplets of tears, of joy, bursting, wanting out, are caught in his eyelashes and Kurt really thinks he should be, and maybe even kind of wants to be, a little irritated by his boyfriend and dad joking like this, but all Kurt can think is Gosh he looks happy!
And more than anything those last weeks of recovery he has missed seeing Blaine happy.
Oh yes, and of course here is something I have not missed in the least, Kurt thinks when he hears his father say, "Like I didn' know what that was really about. I guess Leroy never told Hiram he gave me those pamphlets for Kurt."
And Kurt notices that bubbly feeling inside himself instantly, knows his mind wants him to throw some outraged comment his dad's way, something like, 'You read those yourself? I tried fingering myself for the first time holding something in my free hand that you have spent time reading?'
But there is so much, so much more stirred inside Kurt, and his thoughts are still hung up on happiness. Something that has felt as strange and unknown again sometimes these past weeks, since Blaine got hurt and had been ripped out of his arms, as strange and impossible as the idea of happiness had felt till a boy in his uniform had spun around at the bottom of stairs almost drenched in light, streaming from the skylight showing the sky under which they had met. A sky almost as blue that day as the eyes the boy in the uniform found himself held in when he had looked up from the marble floor.
Holding Blaine from that day, that moment on, a dream, first, then reality. And…what I can exist without, sure, but not live, not ever be happy without, Kurt gets overrun by the pain he still can feel so clear. His mind has not caught up yet with the truth that it is a pain that needs to be nothing more ever again than part of the past.
Carole notices before him, "Sweety," she says, putting an arm around Kurt's shoulder, "what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
But Kurt has not heard, is still wrapped up in watching Blaine laugh, and smile, and…frown? "Blaine?" Kurt whispers as Carole takes a step aside and his boyfriend's arms come around him.
Blaine's voice is loud and clear,"Love, I'm here." - But Kurt is frozen, only his thoughts still moving, So clear. How do you know? How can you feel it, me, what I need?
Burt watches on in concern, and his worries only slightly lessen when Carole takes his right hand with her left and warmth of the kind only the touch of someone you love brings floods his whole being. He offers Carole a loving smile, then his eyes flicker back to Kurt, and Blaine. Blaine who has twined himself as best he can round Kurt, offering hold.
With eyes still pressed shut, and tears streaming heavily down Kurt's face, Burt has no way of telling. He has no way of telling how deeply lost Kurt feels, as he sees Kurt standing limp, tired, exhausted, his gaze, always telling so much, now obscured from Burt's own vision.
Carole tenderly gives Burt's hand a squeeze and a tuck, asking him to follow her, give Kurt and Blaine some space, room to breathe.
Burt just shakes his head, eyes not leaving Kurt, waiting.
Waiting for a sign that Kurt can feel the same warmth of love, offered so clearly, selflessly in Blaine's arms, as Burt can feel under Carole's touch.
It takes…time.
Time to feel, Blaine. Time for Kurt to recognize that this is Blaine offering something to Kurt that is Kurt's to take.
Blaine is waiting, patiently, much more patiently than Burt, allowing Kurt to take his time, to take in the warmth completely, to recognize the gift Blaine is trying to give as happiness and as his to take.
Blaine is waiting…for Kurt to hug back.
And with a shuddering sigh and a whimper he then does, burying his face with the tears in the crook of Blaine's neck.
"I am here, Kurt. We…are here."
A/N: Technically, this is Act IV to my three-shot 'Dinner A Theatre', hence the title, but it can also stand alone, so, well, here we are. I have an idea for a second part to this, that might be even sweeter. With how much Kurt has missed holding Blaine, how could I deny them the night spend together?