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xX- Close My Eyes And Leap -Xx

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The passing month, Kurt had gotten himself fully re-emerged in work.

His fashion house, House Of Elizabeth-Melisandre were busy finishing the last minute touches on the ready-to-wear line that was due to hit selected stores throughout New York by the start of April. To say they were pressed for time was an understatement. He did feel a little guilty that he had left his team at such a crucial time to attend the funeral, but they had all waved Kurt's apology off and assured him that his personal loss was greater than some fashionista looking good. Kurt was touched. -

House Of Elizabeth-Melisandrė, named after his mothers two names was founded after Kurt's win from Project Runway. Kurt and his team were more like another family to each other since their were so few of them and they all got along so great. And even though he wa stheir boss, his employees all were able to joke and feel relaxed with each other and Kurt.

Kurt had hand-picked everyone to be on his team. Lars and Imogen were twins whom Kurt had attended NYU with. They were great friends all studying fashion design and when Kurt founded his fashion house they were more than willing to come work for him. They were both seamstresses and worked alongside Kurt and only a handful of others, creating the clothing and making Kurt's visions come to fruition.

Olivia had come on board as a stylist and design consultant. Kurt needed someone impartial to his work to fairly critique and assess the clothing. She also served as Kurt's right-hand on photo shoots using her background in marketing to assist Kurt's vision of what he wanted his ad campaigns to look like.

Jeff Nash, one of Kurt's old high school acquaintances from Dalton served as director of marketing, branding and advertising. He frequently studies the demographic for which Kurt's clothing are sold and helps to market and that target, giving Kurt advice on what the consumer wants. He also advised Kurt on what deals to take on, which often lead him into conflict with Noah. For deals and anything that had to do with Kurt's brand and product, Jeff's advice was highly warranted.

Noah was an agent with a whole list of clientele not only in New York but all over the U.S. Kurt, Rachel, Sam and Mercedes were only but a few of his most successful clients. Kurt considered him part of the House Of Elizabeth-Melisandre team because he managed the phone calls and business offers and relayed them back to Kurt. In regards to personal appearances for companies who wanted Kurt's celebrity, Kurt usually listened to Noah's advice.

Kurt also used the same models to show off his clothing. Being friends with a wide range of people all his life had made Kurt conscious of the image her portrayed with the models that he used. Every skin color, size and age he used in both ad campaigns and runway shows. He refused to conform to societies views on beauty and he was well-regarded by fans and fashion experts alike for this fact.

New York was packed to the rafters with incredible designers and even more aspiring designers, and the fashion industry in general was so cut-throat and competitive that you it seemed like you needed to be cut throat and competitive to succeed and in a way you did, but Kurt found a way to be both those things and compassionate an dkind at the same time.

His employees respected not only his talent, but him as a person. As did many of his friends in the fashion industry, and he was proud to say that he had a great rapport with the press and his public image.

He never took his success for granted, and Heidi Klum's words of 'In fashion, one day you are in and the next you are out' humbled and grounded him and he seldom turned down clients because of this. He designed for a lot of exclusive New York clientele mostly, but fans who wrote to him for special occasions held a special place in Kurt's heart and he often was the cause for many a green-eyed monster at high school girls' proms. Not to mention the orders that flooded in after every runway showing of a collection.

It was this success, and both Jeff and Noah's urging that Kurt agreed to create a ready-to-wear line.

About a year ago, Noah had told Kurt about a few stores wanting to buy the rights to a line of ready-to-wear House Of Elizabeth-Melisandre originals and Jeff had thought the idea genius, and the perfect thing to expand Kurt's name and business. Noah had agreed, and after negotiating with the store owners, Kurt had agreed also.

And that's how Kurt found himself sat at his sewing machine, stitching away at his signature trench-coat, the twenty-second one he had created today.

He breathed a sigh of relief as the last stitch in the silk sleeve was finished off. Standing up and fanning the garment out to inspect it, he smiled to himself. He was known for his inventive jackets and coats, his favorite Marc Jacobs collection circa spring 2011 a huge inspiration. Marc had laughed when Kurt had explained that bit of information to him and had asked Kurt for his cut since he was the inspiration.

This trench-coat, an imitation of the more avant garde version from his last runway show, was a take on an equestrian jacket. Black silk chiffon that tapered and synched in at the waist by the two large buttons which opened up to a deep v-neck, ending with an enlarge collar. The hemline opened in an empire cascade from the synched waist, the scarlet red lining, Kurt's signature, peeking through. The long sleeves pillowed out at the shoulders then tailored off down the arm, ending in a tight folded cuff with red stitching.

Placing the coat into a garment bag and hanging it on the rack for Olivia to inspect later, Kurt laughed when he turned around to see Lars and Imogen still working on their projects. "I beat you!" he exclaimed smugly.

Imogen, a stunning woman with fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes in her mid-20's laughed and picked up an empty plastic bottle and threw it across the room at Kurt. "Screw you!"

Kurt dodged the bottle and stuck his tongue out at her. "Misse-ow!"

Lars, a stunning man with fair skin, blonde hair as long as his sisters and blue eyes cackled as Kurt rubbed his arm where the bottle he had thrown hit. Lars, the mature one of the group, pointed and stuck his own tongue out.

Kurt was about to scold his employee but was prevented from doing so when Ella stepped into the sewing room and smiled at Kurt. "A call from Sam" she said simply, pointing behind her.

Kurt frowned and felt in his pocket for his cellphone. Extracting it, he checked and confirmed the fact that Sam hadn't called his cell. He smiled at Imogen, stuck his middle finger out at Lars and excused himself from the room to follow after Ella to his office.

The fashion house was situated in Soho only 15 minutes from Kurt's apartment. He owned the bottom three floors in the 15 storey building and the main entrance into the building lead solely into his work space.

The second story is where the sewing room and the design headquarters are, and the third floor is where the garments are stored once completed. The ground level, the main level, was divided into rooms. From the front entrance led into a lounge area where clients waited to be seen. Private dressing rooms and tailoring suites lined the right hand side after the reception area, and Kurt's office was next to Jeff's office on the left hand side.

Walking down the stairs, he reached his office and sat down in his chair at his desk and picked the phone up and held it to his ear. "Hey babe."

"Aww! How cute!"

Kurt frowned at the low voice that wasn't Sam. "Who is this?"

The person on the other end of the phone gasped. "Straight to the heart Bubbles. Ouch!"

Kurt laughed in recognition. Only one person called him Bubbles. "Hi Stevie."

"You remember! Stace! He remembers!" Kurt could hear a girls voice chuckling along.

"To what do I owe this call?" he asked, "And F.Y.I, pretending to be your brother is not ok."

"Pssh, Bam-Bam won't mind, I got into a nightclub pretending to be him a few weeks ag-ow!" Kurt listened as a girls voice, presumedly Stacy, scolded her brother for blabbing.

"Breaking the law aside" Kurt pressed with a smile, "What is it you called for? I know you want something."

"You know me too well" Stevie said, his grin practically audible, "Well, you see, you've been re-dating my big brother for a month now, correct?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Correct."

"And in this past month of re-dating, it has come to my attention that I, as an annoying younger brother to a popstar who just so happens to be fornicating with one of the hottest designers of the past decade, haven't fulfilled one of my many younger-brother-of-a-popstar-who-just-so-happens-to-be-fornicating-with-one-of-the-hottest-designers-of-the-past-decade responsibilities."

Kurt fought the urge to laugh at the teenaged boys tirade. "Oh, and that is?"

Stevie laughed on the other end of the phone. "Mooching off of you of course, I need some hook-ups. Pleeeeasee!"

"Does Sam know you're harassing me?" Kurt asked, his laughter spilling over.

"What Bam-Bam doesn't know won't hurt him. Please Bubbles, I'm doing my irresistible puppy-dog eyes if it helps. You know you can't resist my innocent puppy-dog eyes, all pleading and wanting. It's how I weaselled you out of your iPad all those years ago after all."

"You were 7, every 7 year olds puppy-dog eyes are irresistible. Don't flatter yourself."

"Well I'm 16 now and am still irresistible, which" Stevie exclaimed, "Is part of the reason for my mooching-influenced phone call. I've been asked to prom by a senior! She's totally hot and couldn't resist the Evans charm. I just flashed her my genetically gifted pearly white teeth and she was practically humping my leg. You better be holding your hand up for an emotional and moral hi-5 Bubbles, don't leave me hanging here. Senior! She's a senior!"

Kurt laughed, rolled his eyes and checked his nails at the same time. "I'll play ignorant and pretend I didn't hear the 'humping my leg' part and play the role of future-brother-in-law and say congratulations on being asked out by a senior. I'm sure your jock friends are very proud of you. What about Stacy? Has she been asked to go?"

"Of course!" the teenager exclaimed, the 'duh' tone of his voice making Kurt giggle, "The Evans charm works for the females too. Though she totally had to show the girls off to get her date. It's kinda gross now that I think of it. Eww, no! Don't think about it! Ow!"

"You're a fool" Kurt tsked, "Ok so prom outfits? For all four of you or just you and Stacy?"

"Really! Just like that! You'll do it!" Stevie squealed.

Kurt chuckled. "Of course, when is your prom?"

"Bubbles! I love you so much! You totally rock! I'll call Bam-Bam and tell him to give you the best head ever in all humanity tonight!" Stevie screamed down at the phone excitedly, "The prom is at the end of the month, and Stacy and her date will need outfits, but my date has already got her dress, so I'll send you a sample of the fabric and what's-it to match."

Kurt clicked his tongue. "It better be a killer dress she's wearing because we can't have you outshining her" he said thoughtfully, "Maybe I'll send her something anyway, it can't hurt to have other options. Also, we don't match Stevie, we compliment. Matching is for socks."

"Yeah, cool! God you're the best! Stace! He said he'd do it!" he yelled out again.

"What is Miss. Stacy doing why you feel the need to yell at her, shattering my eardrum in the process?"

"She's baking in the kitchen. Mom found a recipe this morning that she wanted to try so Stacy is trying to make it."

"How's your mom and dad?" Kurt asked politely.

"Everyone is fine. The garage is doing great and mom's paintings are selling well."

Kurt remembered when he had found out about the Evans' struggles back when he was still in high school. When he and Sam were barely friends, only acquaintances in Glee, but he still felt obliged to help out. He gave Sam some of his old clothes that didn't fit him and had altered some of his clothing for little Stacy and Stevie as well. When the job hunting that Evangeline and Simon Evans had embarked on turned up empty, Kurt had practically begged his father to hire Simon to run the books at the garage.

Sam had gotten an apprenticeship senior year fixing cars and helping Burt out. Kurt had spent more time at the auto shop during that summer than all the years he had helped out his father put together. Sam's delicious exposed arms and toned body under cover-alls drenched in sweat win grease marks on his face having nothing to do with that fact...

Evangeline, Sam's mom, had found a job as an art teacher at a pre-school thanks to Kurt's aunt who worked at the school putting in a good word. By the time Christmas 2011 had rolled around, the Evans family had doing much better, and Kurt secretly took pride in himself for being able to help them all out. They weren't able to buy their house back, but they were able to move out of the grimy one bedroom motel room and into an apartment in Mr. Schue's apartment complex.

At the time, Sam had been dating Mercedes, and Kurt and Blaine were still boyfriends, but the two boys had begun to drift apart. Kurt had denied it at the time, but looking back at the situation now, he had to admit that the reason for helping the Evans' out was because he was still harbouring feelings for Sam. It the long run though, Kurt agreed that the whole situation was one like what had happened to his dad and Carole. Good had come out of a selfish act on his part. So he could live with that.

"That's great" he said to Stevie with a wide smile, "So just send me everyone's measurements and I'll sketch something up and send it to you guys to approve. Sound good?"

"Sounds perfect! Thank you so much Bubbles."

"No problem. I have a ton of work to do, but you said it yourself, I can't resist your puppy-dog eyes" Kurt said with a light laugh.

"Aww, you better say that! Ok, well I'll let you go. Tell Bam-Bam to call me tonight. I have certain younger brother duties to fulfil with him too."

"Will do. Take care and tell Stacy she'll be wearing canary yellow, no arguments."

Stevie laughed. "No arguments from Stacy? Yeah right. But I'll tell her. Bye Bubbles, and thanks again."

"No problem. Bye." Kurt hung the phone up with a huge smile on his face. The Evans' were great people, and another family that Kurt could call his own.

He sighed but with a smile on his face and reached for his sketch book. Sure he had a million things to do to get this ready-to-wear line out, but family was more important. Family are always in fashion.

Starzhei's Note:

- *holds hands up in surrender* Don't shoot me! I totally had this chapter half written since the posting of the last chapter, but right after (literally right after! like not even 10 minutes after I posted the chapter) my computer totally flipped on me and decided it wanted to be a fucking bitch! So I sent her ass to the shop to get fixed and they took far longer than they should. But I got it back and was so caught up in reading everyone elses amazing fics that I got depressed about how mine fails in comparison. But I'm back now, and I've re-outlined the story and I know where I'm going, when it'll happen and all that good stuff!

- I've written a sex scene for the next chapter, but I'm not sure how much I can get away with with my story being rated T. Can anyone enlighten me? What can I and can't I get away with? Help me out so I don't get my ass banded or something equally as horrifying.

- And by the way, the last line "Family are always in fashion" was totally stolen. An awesome author 'thesoundofsunshine' whose awesome story 'A Quilt That's Warm With Memories' owns it. I haven't even asked them if I could use the line (I did alter it slightly) so if you're reading this owner of said stolen line, I apologize if you have taken offense. I absolutely adore the line and I thought it fit perfectly with the theme of this chapter.