SORRY! It's been a little while. Like going on 3 weeks. I've been pulling extra shifts and been super tired lately. But here's a few chapters to hold you guys over. Thanks for reviews and kudos. I really do appreciate everyone that reads this. :)
The next two days were spent in the loft. Kurt fussed over Blaine and as much as Blaine was getting tired of it he let it go. Kurt was doing it out of love not to annoy Blaine. Plus Blaine remembered when he was just as bad after Kurt was attacked. Carmen Tibideaux was kind enough to give them both a pardon from their classes until after the Christmas break provided they made up the missed work and participated in the Winter Showcase at school. June had sent a large basket of sweet rolls and pastries when she heard about Blaine along with a note that she hoped he'd feel better soon and would understand if he wanted to post-pone the showcase until after the holidays. Blaine didn't want to but after much persuading and practically begging Kurt got Blaine to agree that a Valentine's Day showcase would be just as good. The doctors said he should be fine to sing as long as he wasn't holding notes for too long he wouldn't get winded and told him to be careful doing any rigorous dancing or exercising. So Kurt and Blaine were working on their respective winter showcase songs. Blaine was determined to find something he could sing and play the piano with. Whereas Kurt was looking for something a little more show stopping.
"I was thinking I could visit Gabriel tomorrow. I talked to Paige and she said she'd be happy to schedule a time to see him." Blaine said not looking up from his laptop, "I just couldn't remember if you were working tomorrow or not."
"I close tomorrow so we could always go over in the morning." Kurt smiled. He knew this little boy wormed his way into Blaine's heart and as much as Kurt didn't want to be reminded of that night there was a part of him that wanted to be there for Gabriel as well. He knows what it's like to lose his mom. He was eight when his mom died but it still hurts the same.
"Okay. I'll let Paige know." Blaine said, "Kurt?" Kurt didn't respond but looked up at Blaine, "Thank you." Kurt looked confused, "Thank you for coming with me tomorrow. I'm not sure I could do it without you."
Kurt moved over to the chair Blaine occupied, "I care about him too. I want to help him get through this as much as you do." Kurt kissed Blaine's lips, "He just seems to like you better. It's got to be because you are so adorable." Kurt teased.
"I like you enough for the both of us." Blaine teased as he wrapped his arms around Kurt's waist.
"You just like me, huh?" Kurt smirked back, "Here I thought you were head over heels in love with me. Now I find out you just like me." Kurt laughed.
"You're right." Blaine smiled, "I don't like you." He playfully stuck his tongue out at Kurt who fake gasped, "I love you." Blaine peppered kissed down Kurt's cheek from lips to neck, "And for the record. You're adorable."
"Now now. You can't just butter me up and kiss me." Kurt played, "You said you didn't like me." Kurt squirmed on Blaine's lap loving the reaction he was getting from Blaine.
"Only because I love you." Blaine held Kurt tightly as his hand wandered up and down Kurt's legs, "See, if I just liked you I wouldn't be so eager to move to the bedroom." Blaine leaned in and whispered in Kurt's ear.
"Wouldn't that go against doctors orders for 'rigorous exercise?" Kurt shifted a bit.
Blaine hummed, "Maybe I'll just lay there and let you have your way with me." He smiled.
Kurt frowned a bit, "I still think it's too much stress on your body. But, rain check?" Kurt asked.
Blaine smiled, "Okay. But only because I can already see you starting to panic and worry about my health." Blaine kissed Kurt gently, "I am head over heels, totally, absolutely, without a doubt, in love with you." Blaine swore.
Kurt wiped a stray tear as the thought of never being able to do this again crossed his mind, "I love you too." Kurt chewed his bottom lip.
Blaine pulled his arms around Kurt holding his fiance tight, "What's wrong?" He asked gently.
Kurt shook his head, "I just love you so much." Kurt leaned his head on Blaine's shoulder as he let out more tears. He was terrified of something happening to Blaine. He didn't know what he'd ever do without the love of his life.
"Come to bed with me." He whispered.
"Blaine." Kurt reprimanded.
"We can put on a movie, cuddle, we can sing along, and relax." Blaine suggested, "You need to relax honey. You've had a rough few days too."
Kurt sniffled, "I should be the one comforting you." Kurt said feeling stupid for being upset.
"We comfort each other. That's how a relationship works." Blaine smiled, "C'mon." He urged Kurt up and tugged him to their bedroom. Kurt climbed in bed followed by Blaine.
"You pick." Kurt said cuddling up next to his fiance.
Blaine picked out an old movie on Netflix they didn't have to pay attention to. Soon, however, Blaine was falling asleep with his head on Kurt's chest. Kurt rubbed Blaine's back methodically as he drifted off to sleep. He silently vowed to never let the man in his arms go.
The following morning Kurt and Blaine found themselves at social services in the family visitation room, with Paige and a very rambunctious Gabriel. He was having a ton of fun showing off the blocks, and trains he was playing with. Blaine was having just as much fun chasing after the little boy, tickling him and playing with him.
"It's amazing how good Blaine is with Gabriel." Paige said to Kurt as they sat off to the side watching as Blaine helped Gabe up and down the small indoor slide.
"He loves kids." Kurt replied, "When we have kids if one of us ends up staying home it will defiantly be him. Not that I don't love kids, I do. But he's much better with them than I am." Kurt smiled, "It's like he turns into a kid himself when he's around them."
"So you plan on having kids someday?" Paige asked.
"Eventually. We have to get married first. We'd both like to be out of college and have our careers set before thinking about it." Kurt thought, "Make sure we are totally stable, have a nice house, and no debt."
"You realize you'll be about forty-five when that all falls into place, right? If it all falls into place." Paige smiled, "Not everything needs to be perfect to have kids."
"Yea but I wouldn't want them to not have everything because we decided to have them too early." Kurt sighed, "I'd just want the best."
"Kids need loving parents. A safe roof over their heads. Food in their belly. To be clean and healthy. And clothes on their backs. The rest is just extra." Paige said, "Parents that give their kid every new toy that's out there are the ones that are spoiling their kids and turning them into brats when they are older or the ones trying to buy their child's love because they just aren't there. It's the parents that spend the day at the zoo, play horseshoes in the backyard for the thirteenth time in one day, read the same book over and over again, sing lullabies to chase monsters away, and make memories, those are the parents that all the rest should look up too."
Kurt thought for a moment while watching Blaine swing Gabe into the air before setting him down in the child sized ball pit, "Speaking of toys and whatnot. Blaine and I wanted to know if we could meet up again before Christmas or right after. We want to get Gabe some presents. I know his foster family probably will do something but we just wanted to do a little extra if that's okay." When they woke from their cat nap last night they discussed Christmas, Gabe, and gifts. Kurt remembered how sad he was, his first Christmas without his mom so he wanted to make sure Gabe didn't have a bad Christmas. Blaine had mentioned that he wanted to make sure he kept in touch and knew what was going on with Gabe since he didn't really have anyone else at this point.
"I'm sure we can work something out." Paige said, "If you'll excuse me I just have to make a few phone calls before the end of my day. You guys can hang out here." She rose from her seat, "If you need anything I'll be down the hall in my office."
"Really? You're just leaving us here with him?" Kurt questioned.
"Unsupervised visitation happens here all the time. Security is just outside so no one can leave with a kid and there are probably twenty cameras just in this room. Plus." She paused, "I trust you two can take care of him." She nodded her head towards Blaine, "He seems to know exactly what he's doing. He's a natural caregiver." She smiled before leaving the room to get some work done.
Kurt watched as Gabriel showed Blaine the balls he was playing with. Blaine named the color of each ball and was having Gabriel try to repeat the colors. Then he was quizzing Gabe on the colors as he picked through them. 'Wow! He's actually teaching him something!' Kurt thought as he witnessed Blaine ask Gabe for a yellow ball and was handed the correct color. Kurt looked at the clock on the wall near the door. They had a little over an hour left before their visit was over. Watching Blaine play with Gabe was like watching his future. He could picture all the silly things Blaine would do with their children. Story time would have a puppet theater, teaching them to play guitar and piano, singing lessons along with dance lessons, maybe even a sport if they were interested. Images of curly headed babies with Blaine's eyes passed through Kurt's head. A little girl that looked just like Kurt's mom. How many kids would they have? At least two. One Kurt's and one Blaine's, if they used a surrogate. Or would they just adopt? Who would donate the eggs? Would they pick a donor or someone they know? He remembered back to the video they made for Mr. Schuester when he had just found out he was going to be a father. Quinn had made the joke that she would donate but would she really do it? Quinn's skin was flawless and she had a killer smile. And what about who would be home with the baby? Would Blaine really want to stay home? Kurt knew it was the obvious choice seeing how he interacted with Gabriel but would he want to be home all day while Kurt worked? If not would they use daycare or a nanny? Kurt smiled as little feet toddled over to him. He reached down and picked Gabe up in his arms. Kurt snuggled the little boy. If he wasn't careful Gabriel would quickly become another important boy in Kurt's life.
"Kur pay Bane. Car!" Gabe babbled.
"Come play with us." Blaine said sounding like he was a small child himself.
"You guys are having so much fun without me." Kurt hesitated. He'd babysat with Sam before but his siblings were older and able to say what they needed. This little bundle of energy was just learning how to talk, and play, "I'm not really sure what he wants and what to do." Kurt confessed.
"It's easy." Blaine took Kurt's hand.
"I don't know." Kurt sighed.
Blaine smiled at Kurt's shyness, "C'mon. We can do it together." He took Gabe off Kurt's lap and led them to the blocks Gabe like to play with, "See. You just have to play." Kurt felt silly sitting on the floor handing Gabe blocks so he could build a tower. Once built to a sufficient height Gabe stood up and roared at the tower walking into it to knock it down. He happily clapped his hands and giggled as the blocks crashed to the floor, "Gabe-zilla!" Blaine laughed helping the little boy build his tower again.
Kurt looked over at Blaine, "How is it that you are so good with kids?" He smiled, "It's like magical to watch."
"I don't know. It just comes easily." Blaine shrugged handing Gabe another block. Blaine smiled, "What?" He said as he watched Kurt's eyes glaze over in thought.
"Nothing. Just thinking about the future." Kurt sighed happily, "Just wondering if this will be our life one day. Playing with our kid like this one day."
"I hope it is." Blaine replied automatically, "I can't wait till we have kids of our own." He sighed, "Enough so they have playmates but not so many that we turn into one of those TV shows with twenty kids or we look like we are related to Angelina and Brad." He laughed. Kurt smiled as he watched Gabe knock down another tower of blocks.
All too quickly their last hour was up and Paige was walking back into the room, "Sorry guys but this little man needs to get back." She walked over to them and sat on the floor next to Kurt.
"When can we see him again?" Blaine asked. This tiny little boy was stealing his heart slowly.
"Actually. I talked to my supervisor and Gabriel's foster parents and provided I can check out your apartment, we all thought it might be nice if you took him for Christmas. You guys can have him Christmas Eve and he can stay overnight until the day after Christmas." She smiled wide. Once Kurt had mentioned the holiday to her, a light bulb went off. She had watched Blaine with him all morning. She knew he had watched him overnight at Molly's house before. Both men had background checks done already with clean results. All that was left was for her to okay the apartment and that was easily done if they wanted to have him spend the night. The foster family agreed that Gabe seemed to love spending time with Blaine and Kurt and thought it was a great idea for him to spend the holiday with them.
"What?!" Blaine exclaimed, "Really?" He was in total disbelief.
"We what? You what?" Kurt couldn't believe his ears.
"Only if you want too. You certainly don't have to we can schedule a visit here if you want." Paige didn't want them to feel obligated to take Gabriel.
"Uh..Um…Can we just…Can we talk a minute?" Blaine pointed to Kurt.
"Yea sure. Take your time." She picked up Gabe and walked across the room to the diaper changing station. She figured she'd make sure he was clean and dry before sending him back to his foster parents.
"Kurt. Can we?" Blaine asked almost as if he was asking for a puppy.
"Do you want too?" Kurt asked still stunned by the question.
"Yea, I mean dad and Carole will be there. Would they mind?"
"I can't imagine they would." Kurt bit his lip, "Can we really take care of him overnight? What if something happens? Or he gets sick?"
"We can handle it. Together. Plus dad and Carole will be there. And they know what they are doing." Blaine was getting excited.
"You sure?" Kurt asked. It surprised him how much he really wanted to spend the holiday with Gabriel and his family. Blaine nodded enthusiastically, "Okay." Kurt kissed Blaine chastely, "Let's tell Paige." The two men got up and walked across the room hand in hand.
"Sure. We'll take him for the holiday." Blaine's smiled stretched ear to ear.
"Okay great." She pulled out her phone and flipped through her calendar, "So if I can just pop over Wednesday to do the walk through that will get everything set for Christmas Eve. I can drop him off and I'll pick him up on the twenty-sixth."
"What about anything he needs?" Kurt asked ever the responsible one.
"I'll make notes of anything and bring it by either when I drop him or before if one of you is available." She smiled, "I'm not worried about it. I'm sure you all will have a great time." She frowned as her phone beeped letting her know she had to end the visit, "Okay. I will call and confirm later today with you guys. Gabriel. Can you say 'bye'?" She smiled at the little boy.
"Bye!" Gabe waved at the couple.
Blaine picked him up and wrapped his arms around Gabe, "Bye sweetie. I'll see you soon." Blaine kissed Gabe's temple before handing him to Kurt.
"See you in a few days." Kurt hugged Gabe tightly. He passed the little boy back to Paige who escorted Blaine and Kurt out of the room before walking in the opposite direction to take Gabe back to his temporary home.
As soon as Kurt and Blaine were outside, Blaine couldn't control his excitement anymore.
"It's like he's our Christmas gift!" Blaine exclaimed.
"Are you sure you'll be okay with this?" Kurt asked.
"Positive." Blaine pulled out his phone, "We've got to tell dad and Carole!" He scrolled quickly through his phone for their names, "They are going to be so excited!" The rest of the day was spent going from store to store shopping for toys and clothes for Gabe. Kurt and Blaine were determined to make this the best Christmas ever.