AN: Obligatory Christmas fic. It's only Christmas Eve where I am, but I figured I'd post this now. Jumps between viewpoints and days. Random characters show up at points (ones that should have never left.) Lack of Artie/Kurt interaction, but mainly just focuses on them as individuals. Enjoy.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything.
Classes at Dalton finished up the day before Christmas Eve, and the students didn't leave until the next day. Kurt was excited to get home again, and spending Christmas with his new family. He also wanted to see all his friends again, and not under the pressure of performing against them. He had loaded all his bags into his car the night before except for the one that held all his essentials. He ended up leaving right after lunch, bidding a goodbye to Blaine and the other boys who sat at his table. He wasn't looking forward to the long drive home, especially with the holiday traffic. He had made sure to make a playlist the night before so he wouldn't have to search the radio for something to listen to the entire ride home.
He made it home by about three in the afternoon, and was greeted by his father with a giant hug. He squeezed back just as tightly, breathing in the familiar and comforting smell of his father. For the first time in a long time, he felt relaxed and happy. Burt pulled away from the hug only to sling his arm around Kurt's shoulders as they headed towards the trunk of the car to get his bags out. While they did this, Kurt caught his father up on how things were going at school. Burt then traded stories of his and Carole's honeymoon ("No details please," Kurt insisted,) and the colossal disaster that was Finn attempting to mount light up figurines on the roof.
Laughing, the two Hummel males made their way into the house, pausing to slip their shoes off. Kurt barely had time to set his bags down before he was being tightly embraced by somebody. Carole had been in one of the back rooms, but came running when she heard Kurt was home. He squeezed her back tightly, relishing the feeling. It was so good to be home again.
Kurt took a couple of trips carrying his bags down to his room, wrinkling his nose as he did. In his absence, Finn had set up camp there, and he could tell that the jock was living there with all the dirty clothes, video game controllers, and sports equipment that was lying around. It also smelled slightly like dirty socks, which Kurt vowed revenge on Finn for. Instead of going back upstairs right away, he gathered all of Finn's items, dumped them on the cot that he was using as a bed, and grabbed a Febreeze can from the bathroom. Once he was satisfied that the room wasn't quite as smelly as it had been previously, he set to unpacking his bags.
He headed upstairs a little while later, once he had gotten everything sorted out. Burt and Carole were standing in the kitchen, talking quietly while Carole stirred something on the stove.
"That smells delicious," Kurt commented as he walked in. Both adults turned and smiled at him.
"Thank you," Carole replied. "Although I'm afraid it's not going to be appreciated by many people."
"What do you mean?" Kurt asked, his brow furrowed. "We all are. Where's Finn by the way?"
"He's got some Glee thing. Something about Mr. Schuester. I figured you would be involved too," Carole answered.
"Oh," Kurt said quietly. "Honestly, I didn't hear about anything they were planning, so I guess I'll be here." He tried to smile at his parents as he excused himself. He ended up wandering aimlessly in the direction of the living room. He supposed that he should have expected this. Dalton was his school now; not McKinley. He was part of the Warblers and not New Directions. Of course they would have planned stuff and figured that he wouldn't be there to be a part of it. The only thing he honestly regretted about leaving was not being able to be with all his friends. It was just something he was going to have to get used to, he thought to himself as he plopped on the television set. After flipping through the channels, he settled on the one that was showing Christmas movies. He settled himself back into the couch and absorbed himself in George Bailey's troubles.
Of all the things that could have happened this Christmas, this was the absolute last thing that Artie could have ever expected. After the unfortunate incident with the crutches that happened last year, combined with Ms. Pillsbury's words of his harsh reality, Artie had pretty much given up on ever walking again. He didn't like it by any means, but he had learned to accept and deal with it. When they found the ReWalk under Brittany's tree, he honestly thought it was a joke. He had heard of the machine before, but never in a million years expected to get one. He knew roughly how much one would cost, and he knew it would never even be an idea. To say he was surprised was an understatement.
Feeling himself move forward smoothly, while standing upright was a sensation that he had figured was something in the distant past. He had briefly felt it last year, when Tina helped him out, but it didn't last long and only made him feel worse about his condition. Using the ReWalk though, he felt more confident and happy than he had in a very long time.
His friends had all been extremely happy for him, and they spent a good deal of time in the choir room watching him try it out. Eventually, they realized how late it was getting and people starting trickling out and heading home. Brittany and Mercedes helped him get out of the device and he then transferred himself back into his chair. Puck offered to give him a lift home so he wouldn't have to drag the thing all the way back by himself. During the ride there, Puck was strangely quiet, the only noise coming from the radio that was playing Christmas songs.
When they got to the Abrams household, Puck helped Artie carry the machine into the house, along with the crutches. They bid each other a goodbye, and Puck headed back out to his truck, shoulders hunched against the cold. Artie maneuvered his chair into the living room, bringing the ReWalk with him, and then coming back for the crutches. His parents would be home soon, with his little sister in tow, and he wanted to surprise them.
When Cathy Abrams followed her husband into the living room later that night after her son called them in there, she was completely shocked at what happened. Artie had been sitting on the couch with a blanket covering his lap and a pair of forearm crutches propped up against the couch next to him. He started talking about Brittany and Santa Clause; something that Cathy had a hard time understanding still. She liked the girl that Artie was dating; there was just a little something…odd about the girl. Then Artie had pushed the blanket off his lap, picked up the crutches and stood up.
He had some sort of device attached to his body that helped him to stand, and then he reached over and pushed a button and he started walking. Cathy felt herself begin to well up and she reached over to grasp her husband's hand. Artie looked up at his parents and grinned shyly. Cathy could even move, she was in so much shock. Here was her son, stuck in a chair for all his life, finally getting the opportunity he deserved.
Later, Artie would explain to his parent about the mysterious gift giver, and his sister would come in and practically tackle her brother in her excitement at seeing him stand up. His dad would take away the crutches and support him as his mother gave him his first proper hug in nine years. He would use the machine to navigate his way around the house, marveling at how strange everything looked from that height. He would stand in front of the mirror in his room and see himself standing upright. If he was careful, he could even balance without using the crutches, and without looking too carefully, he looked like just a normal kid, checking himself out in the mirror.
Rachel called him the next day, sounding slightly confused. Apparently Sue Sylvester had somehow found out her home phone number, and called her about spending time on Christmas Eve with Mr. Schuester. Artie could understand her confusion; he would have freaked out if Sue Sylvester had called him on his cell phone, let alone asking him to do something nice for Mr. Schue. He agreed to ask his parents if he could spend the evening at their Glee club coach's house and they readily agreed once he told them why he was doing it.
Kurt found himself sitting on the couch again after a delicious supper that night, only half paying attention to whatever movie was playing on the television this time. He was interrupted out of his reverie by his phone vibrating. He opened it to see a text from Finn.
Dude ru home yt?
Kurt typed back an affirmative, wincing at Finn's lack of spelling and grammar. A few minutes later he got a reply.
Were all at mr. schus. u shuld com ovr here 2.
Kurt couldn't help but feel excited at the idea of being with all his friends and being able to be with the club again. He quickly typed back,
Sure I'll come over. Give me the address.
As soon as he got the information from Finn, he got up, grabbed his coat and told his father where he was going. He missed the secret smile that Burt and Carole shared behind his back before his father told him to have fun and make sure Finn didn't drink too much eggnog.
"You don't want to see him after he's had too much sugar," Carole commented with a wry grin. Kurt bid them both goodbyes, before heading out to his car. During the drive over, Kurt felt inexplicably nervous. He hadn't really seen anyone since Sectionals, and that was hardly the time for just catching up (although he and Rachel had done just that.) He wasn't completely sure what they were doing at Mr. Schuester's but with his friends, he figured it could be just about anything.
His phone vibrated again as he was pulling into the parking lot outside of where Mr. Schuester's apartment was. After parking, he looked at the new text message that he had received.
Txt me wen u get ther. i want it 2 b a supriz.
Kurt hit reply and waited till he was right outside of Mr. Schue's door before pressing send. A couple minutes later, he heard the thumping of feet, and the door was flung open by Finn.
"Come in quick," he whispered. "You're the surprise; no one else knows that you're coming."
Kurt smiled as he walked in and placed his coat on top of the pile on a nearby chair. He followed Finn on tiptoe into the living room.
"Hey everybody, look who showed up!" Finn exclaimed, stepping aside to reveal him. There was a beat of silence before Mercedes shrieked,
"Kurt!" and tackled him with a bone-crushing hug. Everyone else followed suit, either hugging him or patting him on the back. The only people who didn't get up to greet him were Lauren, who just gave him a wave from where she was sitting, and Artie and Tina who were sitting on one of the couches. Mercedes ended up dragging him over to them where Tina stood up to give him a fierce hug. After breaking apart from her, Kurt leaned down to give Artie a hug as well.
"Good to see you again," Artie said, smiling easily up at him.
"Oh my God Artie," Kurt said. "I can't believe it!"
"I sent him a picture of you using the ReWalk," Mercedes said, seeing the confused look on Artie's face.
"It's pretty cool, huh?"
"You have to show me some time over break," Kurt said emphatically. Mercedes then pulled him down to sit between her and Tina. Everyone settled back into their seats, and Rachel piped up,
"We should sing carols!"
Everyone murmured their agreement, and they started tossing out ideas. Just then, the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it!" Mike shouted up, running for the door.
"Um, what?" Puck asked. Everyone glanced around, confused as well.
"Who could that possibly be?" Mr. Schuester asked, looking around. "Everyone is here." Mike entered the room again, looking extremely excited.
"Finn, you ruined everything, but I have a surprise as well." He jumped aside to show Matt Rutherford standing sheepishly behind him.
There was another general clamor as everyone jumped up to greet Matt as well. This time, the four remained on the couch, as well as Lauren and Sam. The other girl looked bored with the proceedings, while Sam just looked confused. Eventually everyone calmed down, and Matt took a seat next to Mike and Santana.
"At this point everyone who's ever been in the club is going to show up at one point, so I really don't see what you're so excited about," Lauren commented dryly. There were a few chuckles at that, before Rachel reminded them that they were trying to find a song to sing. The suggestions started up again, with Puck loudly insisting that they sing a Hanukkah song and Brittany asking if they could do the one about the hippopotamus. Kurt sank back into the couch, squished between his closest three friends, just soaking in the moment. He had honestly missed his friends, and this was the perfect reunion.
Whether it was Matt confusedly asking why Lauren Zizes and Sue Sylvester were there, or Rachel agreeing that Hanukkah songs were better than Christmas songs, or Finn asking where the eggnog was, it was comfortable and familiar. Eventually they all agreed on "Jingle Bells" and they launched into the song rather enthusiastically. Kurt couldn't keep the grin off his face as the four on the couch rocked back and forth together, giggling between verses. This was definitely the best Christmas ever.
And there you have it. Cheesy ending and all. I had to work Matt in there somehow, and so I did. I hope you enjoyed it and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Feedback is much appreciated as always. After this, I'll just do a bunch of unrelated one-shots as promised.
