Is it bad that Christmas is two days away and I haven't printed off presents for three of the closest people in my life yet (and yes, I'm giving them stories I've mostly already written. I'm poor. Shut up.)?


Finn stomped up to his room and audibly threw himself onto his bed before the rest of the family had even fully entered the house.

"Should I go talk to him now or wait a bit?" Carole asked, desperate to offer motherly support but not wanting to step on any toes. Finn was technically an adult now.

"You might be able to get through to him in a way Kurt and I haven't," Blaine shrugged sympathetically.

"Typical Rachel, though," Kurt scowled, setting two of his suitcases by the stairs to take up later. "Of course she'd flaunt her new boyfriend in Finn's face just before Christmas. Cow."

"Be nice," Burt chided, setting a squirming Susie down so she could start her favorite game of toy parade and show off to Kurt and Blaine. "I thought you guys were friends despite her and Finn's eternal on-off relationship status."

"Oh, it's definitely off now," Kurt said, collapsing on the couch. "Finn's been sleeping on our couch for the past month and a half while her highness has been prancing around with her new beau who is, might I add, everything Finn thinks he's not."

Carole bit her lip and glanced up at the ceiling.

"Really? Did Finn tell you that?" Blaine asked, easing himself onto the floor and accepting a plush doll Susan handed him.

"Please, he's been jealous of the guy since the first time he met him. Ryan of the classically trained voice – of course Finn was jealous."

"I thought you hated Ryan's voice."

"Oh, I do. His style of singing is absolutely atrocious. I've never heard a man sing with so much vibrato. It sets my teeth on edge just thinking about it. Doesn't mean Finn's not jealous of it though."

"So you two have met this new guy," Carole asked with another anxious glance upstairs before sighing and bending to prevent the mess her daughter was making from getting any worse.

Blaine blushed as Kurt raised an eyebrow at him. "Um, I actually introduced them." Burt leveled a look at him that was so similar to one of Kurt's that Carole might have laughed if the situation weren't so serious. "Ryan was in my Aural Comprehension class last year and we got on well enough that I invited him to our end of the year party in May. He and Rachel hit it off, but I thought they were just friends until I saw her hanging off him the other day."

"Honey, your naïveté is charming, but that's just the sort of attitude that got you in trouble with Sebastian last semester," Kurt said in that flirty patronizing voice he sometimes used with Blaine. Burt shifted uncomfortably and wandered toward the kitchen.

Carole wondered how he would react when Kurt inevitably insisted that Blaine sleep in his old room with him. They were living together, after all, and Carole was fairly certain they had packed together as well. There was one less suitcase sitting by the stairs than there had been last year when they were both living on their respective campuses and too afraid to buck Burt's rules to try bed-hopping.

"Sebastian's just a friend," Blaine insisted. Carole knew he thought as much from some of their phone conversations this past year, but after her separate conversations with Kurt she had to agree with her stepson's opinion. Not that she planned on telling Blaine that any time soon. "He flirts with everybody."

"He's never flirted with me," Kurt pouted. "Though I wouldn't put it past him if he thought I might be open to a threesome."

Burt dropped something out of the fridge and Carole moved in that direction to tease him about Kurt not being a little boy anymore. Of course that still wouldn't stop either of them from worrying about him making his way in the city. Or any of the boys, really.

Kurt and Blaine continued to bicker amiably as she left, each of them paying enough attention to Susie as they talked to let the little girl think she had them wrapped completely around her finger. Which, of course, she did. Her charming green eyes could get her almost anything and she knew it. Carole cringed to think how Burt would handle the time when boys other than her brothers began to pay attention to her.

Carole rounded the corner into the kitchen and Burt greeted her with a grimace.

"Is it wrong to miss the days when Kurt was afraid of sex?"

"Honey, they're sharing a one-bedroom apartment."

"I can still pretend they've split it up like platonic roommates. I've seen some of the clever things people do in those home design shows you and Kurt like to watch."

Carole smiled at him but forgot what she was going to say when "I Wanna Know What Love Is" started drifting down the staircase.

"Not again!" Kurt groaned from the living room.

Burt raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing he's done this before."

"You talked to him alone for a bit at the airport, what do you think we should do?" Carole desperately wanted to go upstairs.

"I think we shouldn't make a big deal about it," Burt said, crossing his arms and leaning against the counter. "But I also think he wouldn't be averse to one of his mom's hugs either."

Carole closed her eyes and sighed out a laugh. Burt knew her too well at this point.

Taking the time to arm herself with two mugs of hot cocoa, Carole slowly ascended the stairs and shouldered her way into Finn's room. He hadn't closed the door, so he must have been waiting for her to come to him. She felt guilty for waiting so long.

"Hey, honey," Carole said just loud enough to be heard over the sax in Wham!'s "Careless Whisper". He really did have such an amusingly dated taste in music. She carefully sat on the edge of his bed and elbowed him gently in the side. "I brought you some of my special cocoa."

Finn pulled his head out of his pillow. "I'm not a child."

"I know, but cocoa makes everything better. I drank gallons of it when your dad died."

"Really?" he asked, turning enough to face her.

"Well, not right away," she amended. "It was summer when he actually died, but once the weather started to turn colder I did." She didn't mention the copious amounts of coconut rum she usually spiked it with, but the principle was the same. Chocolate made everything better.

"And it really helped?" Finn looked like such a child when he said that.

"For a while, until I could move on to other things."

Finn sat up skeptically and accepted his mug, smiling dimly when he saw she added his usual seven marshmallows for good luck.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Finn shrugged. "What's there to talk about? My girlfriend left me for someone smarter, handsomer and more talented than me. I suck."

"You don't suck," Carole scolded. "You're just… unlucky in love. But someday you'll meet a girl who'll be worthy of you and treat you right and all of this will just be a-a learning curve of sorts."

Finn snorted. "I'm an idiot. I followed her out to New York cause I didn't know what else to do with my life and now I'm stuck sleeping on Kurt and Blaine's pokey pull-out couch. I can't even stretch out on it properly. And I'm terrified I'm gonna hear something," he shuddered.

"Do you want to come back home, go to school here somewhere? Burt would love to have you back at the garage." Finn looked thoughtful. "It's an option. But only if that's what you want to do. Last summer you were saying you loved the city and couldn't believe you ever questioned moving there."

"Last summer Rachel was still my girlfriend."

"Hey, stop that. The sun does not rise and set with Rachel Berry, no matter what she might think to the contrary. I'm asking you to think about what you want to do."

Finn pouted into his cocoa for a while and Carole wondered if she should leave him alone to think things over. Burt was all set to take the kids out Christmas tree shopping together later and she wanted to make sure everybody had eaten something before they left the house. Before she could even mention it, however, Susan toddled in through the open door and thrust her favorite teddy bear in Finn's direction.

"Finny."

"Hey, baby girl," he said gently. "Is that for me?"

Susie thrust it at him again. "Finny."

Finn smiled and took it from her, then reached down and scooped her up one-handed, burying his nose in her hair when she squealed. And he used to say she smelled bad.

"You're my best girl, right, Susie Q?"

"Yes!"

Carole patted his knee and stood up. "We saved Christmas tree shopping until you boys came home. Burt was planning to go later tonight if you're up for it."

"Okay. We'll be down in a minute, won't we, Leeloo Monster?"

"Yes!"

Carole caught his eye and smiled. "Whatever you decide, honey, we'll support you."

Finn nodded seriously and corrected his grip on Susie as she flopped gracelessly to one side. "I'll think about it."

"Yes!" Susie cheered, flailing her arms and accidently whacking Finn in the chest. He smiled down at her.

Carole drank in the sight of her babies getting along before she left the room. She just hoped everything would turn out all right.


Thoughts?