A/N 1: Thanks to GirlInTheMirror for being an awesome Beta. :)
A/N 2: Still don't own Glee. Rachel's Dads are awesome.
A/N 3: Thanks to everyone that read the last chapter. You guys are great. Reviews = Love, so thanks for all of them. Special thanks for all the reviews (JasonDragon64 you're the best). Also a special thanks to all the new readers.
A/N 4:I'm only leaving the poll up for another three days, so please vote. Thanks again.
A/N 5: I'm back it's been a long absence, but hopefully this will be complete soon. I am in the process of re-editing, reposting, and refreshing my self with this story. So here we go again. Updated on 11-13-16.
Chapter Twenty-One
When Fred and Jackie showed up at six forty-five, they came with gifts. They gave Sara two fully stocked toy chests. One was a full size white chest for her room and the other was a black one that was half the size to put in the game room. They brought Noah a leather portfolio to carry his sketching materials. They also gave him a prepaid credit card and told him to let Kurt take him shopping.
Kurt thought both sets of presents were very thoughtful. He loved the idea of shopping with Noah, maybe he could talk his boyfriend into going to the mall one evening this week. Retail therapy always worked wonders on his moods and he was sure they would be in for a rough week.
By the time Sara's chests were put in their new homes he had the table set with drinks and salad. They had three extra people at the table tonight, because his dad had invited Mr. Wayne over as well. He and Carole had agreed to keep the table as simple as possible and decided to serve the meal in courses.
After all the introductions were made and everyone was seated they began their meal. The table was silent for the first few minutes.
"Jackie, Fred, do you either of you have any questions for us?" his dad asked between bites of his salad.
"First we just want to thank you for taking care of Noah and Sara when we couldn't," Jackie said.
"It's nothing. There's just not enough we can do for Noah after what he did for Kurt," his mom said.
"Carole, are you still a nurse at the hospital?" Jackie asked.
"Yes, I really love being able to help people on a daily basis," she replied.
Carole had a wonderfully bubbly personality and cared deeply for all her patients. Kurt didn't think working with sick people could be easy and he admired that about her.
"Burt, Noah says you're a mechanic," Jackie said.
"Yes, I run my own shop," his Dad sounded a little defensive.
"That's great. We run our own construction company. We're not very big, but we're our own bosses. I truly respect a fellow business owner. It shows you're a hard worker and a responsible man," Jackie explained.
"Noah's experience working for his uncle's is where he got the knowledge to help me with the renovations upstairs," Kurt proudly told everyone.
As Kurt spoke Noah slipped his left hand under the table and placed it on Kurt's right thigh and gave it a squeeze. He hoped that meant Noah didn't mind his bragging.
"Noah is very talented with his hands. He sketches, plays the guitar, and does wood working," Fred told everyone.
"We knew he played, but had no idea about the rest," Carole said.
"He and the boys have played together a few times out in the garage before we moved the car in," Dad said.
"You boys play as well?" Fred asked.
"I have drums," Finn said. "They were my Dad's set. I've played them since I was big enough to hold the sticks."
"How about you, Kurt?" Jackie asked.
"Piano, well, keyboard right now," he answered.
When Carole and Finn had moved in with him and his dad the first time the first thing put into storage was his mother's baby grand. It had broken his heart, but he hadn't been given a choice in the matter. The piano had to go so Carole's dining set had a place. Funny thing is that dining set was put into storage when they moved here and bought this larger one. Now that he had his new room maybe he could get the piano back. He had plenty of room; the problem would be getting it up the stairs.
Noah's thumb was making soothing circles on his thigh. He hadn't expected the other teen to understand him so well already.
"Kurt's so talented the guy, Brad, who plays piano for glee and is the band leader at school secretly listens to Kurt every chance he can catch my boy practicing. Those are the only times I've ever seen that man really smile," Noah bragged.
He used to practice on Brad's piano in the choir room some afternoons during his free period. He had never known Brad listened to him. According to Noah, Brad liked listening to him and he was glad to have the man's approval. If Noah knew Brad was listening to him practice that meant Noah was listening to.
"You've heard me play a real piano?" he whispered.
"Yeah. You're great on the keyboard, but on the piano, you're magical," Noah told him.
He reached under the table and squeezed Noah's hand before standing. So far having a boyfriend was great. At this point he and his mom went about trading empty salad plates for plates of lasagna. He also put out two large baskets of fresh garlic bread on the table. Again, everyone dug in and the conversation died out for a few minutes.
"This is amazing," Fred said between bites. "Carole if I was straight I'd steal you away from Burt."
"That's sweet of you, but Kurt cooked tonight's dinner," Carole smiled.
"In that case, if you we're ten years older, I'd trade Jackie in for you," Fred winked at him.
"Back off, old man," Noah said. "You couldn't handle this little firecracker. I'll be lucky to keep up with him. Right, Princess?"
Noah brought there joined hands up from under the table and brushed his pale knuckles with a light kiss before placing them back in Kurt's lap. He noticed everyone at the table laughed and smiled, but Finn. His brother didn't look too happy with them.
~~~Glee~~~Glee~~~Glee~~~Glee~~~
Okay, so Finn knew that sometimes when he was eating he didn't exactly pay attention to what people were saying or doing. Sometimes he even agreed to stupid things because of this. Like the time Kurt made him waffles for breakfast and then he had to go all the way to Columbus to the mall because he promised in front of their parents. His brother had a bad habit of using food for evil.
So, when everyone at the table started laughing he just didn't get it. Everyone was looking at Puck so at least he knew they weren't laughing at him. This was actually nice for a change.
"Does this mean what I think it does?" Mr. Wayne asked with a smirk.
"Yes," Puck and Kurt said at the same time.
It was even freakier than when Kurt and Burt talk at the same time. At least Kurt and Burt were father and son; Puck and Kurt weren't even really friends until this week.
Heck before this week he had been lucky to get the two in the same room together without insulting each other and fussing about each other too much. Though he had to admit if video games were involved the two were pretty fun.
"When did this happen?" Mr. Wayne asked.
"Last night," Kurt said.
"This morning," Puck said at the same time.
"Which is it?" Mr. Wayne questioned them.
"I suppose, technically, Noah is correct. It was sometime after midnight," Kurt said.
Kurt admitting, he was wrong was just weird, but admitting Puck was right was Twilight Zone wrong. Was Kurt still so scared that he'd agree with Puck just to keep him around?
"Congratulations, I knew it was just a matter of time. It was very obvious from the moment I met you two. I'll need to put an amendment into the records to officially document the change so we don't have any problems with disclosure if we go to court later," the lawyer explained.
He didn't understand what Mr. Wayne had to change. Only thing that had changed between Puck and Kurt was Puck being super protective. Puck was like that about most of his friends. Well they did hold hands some and they were sleeping in the same bed. He could see how people outside of his family might not understand. Kurt was just clingy and needed the contact to keep from being scared. Puck had been the one to save Kurt and it made since he was the one to keep the fear away, even if Finn wanted to be that person instead. He wished he had been the one to save Kurt; he was his big brother after all. It was supposed to be his job to take care of Kurt.
He looked around the table and noticed everyone seemed to be watching Kurt and Puck. They all had funny looks on their faces. Burt and Jackie had these extra thoughtful and protective looks. Sara, Fred, and Mr. Wayne had huge smiles on their faces. His mom had that weird look she used to give him and Rachel.
Finn looked back at the pair of boys. Puck's left hand was under the table and his upper arm muscles were twitching just a bit. He was pretty sure his friend was moving his hand under the table. Kurt was staring at Puck and smiling.
"No fucking way," he said.
"Language," most the table snapped at him.
No way were they talking about what he thought they were talking about. Puck might keep something like that a secret from him, but surely Kurt would have told him. No wonder Puck didn't have a problem with Kurt being all over him. He'd bet anything Puck took the third floor at Dalton so he could meet up with Kurt.
"Dude how long have you been sleeping with my brother?" he yelled across the table.
He dropped his fork into his plate rather loudly; suddenly food wasn't that important anymore. His best friend had betrayed him again.
"Hudson, I'll remind you just once that my sister is sitting right next to you, so you better watch how you phrase things in front of her," Puck threatened him.
"Finny, are you okay?" Sara asked looking up at him. "Did you hit your head when we were playing at the store?"
"Huh, why would you ask that?" he was so confused.
"Well, I know you know that Kurt and No' have been sleeping in my bed with me, so why ask them about it?" Sara spoke very slowly to him.
"Sara, I'm not stupid!" he snapped.
"Finn!" his whole family yelled at him.
"You will apologize," his mother said.
"She was talking to me like I was an idiot," he defended himself.
Didn't anyone notice that? Everyone was staring at him. His parents looked ashamed of him, Puck's uncles looked upset with him, Mr. Wayne was looking down at his plate, Sara looked confused, and Puck and Kurt just looked plain pissed. Puck now had both hands on the table and his fists were clinched. His friend's jaw was twitching and the dude's eyes were shooting daggers at him. Kurt put a hand on top of one of Puck's fist and the guy noticeably relaxed some. Puck still looked pissed; but Finn didn't think the other teen would hurt him as long as Kurt had a hold on him.
"Finn, she's seven years old, that's over ten years younger than you. Luckily she didn't understand the true meaning of what you were asking. She most certainly didn't mean to hurt your feelings," Kurt said it all very calmly, but there was still a threat in his voice.
Kurt was using his 'I know you're better than this' and 'you disappointed me' voice. He hated when his brother used that voice, it meant he had done something really bad. Now he felt horrible, he'd yelled at Sara. Kurt was right she was just a kid and she didn't mean anything bad by what she had said.
"Sorry, Sara, I shouldn't have yelled at you," he told her. "You can have my share of dessert if you want."
Sara beamed up at him and then hugged his waist.
"You're the best. That cake that Kurt made looks awesome," she said.
"You're not getting extra cake," Puck told her.
"But Finn offering you food means he's extra sorry," Kurt added.
At least his brother was standing up for him. The lying and hiding things had to be Puck's idea. Puck was forcing Kurt into hiding things from him.
"I'm just mad that Puck has been hiding things from me and making Kurt lie too. And that they've been sneaking around behind my back," he said and hoped the look he gave his once best friend showed how mad he really was.
"Sara, go downstairs and play for a while. Someone will come get you when it's time for cake," Puck told his little sister.
Sara didn't look happy, but did as she was told and headed out of the room.
"Make sure to shut the door behind you, sweetie," Kurt called after her.
Everyone stayed completely quiet until they heard the door click shut. Then everyone spoke at once.
"Finn, you need to calm down," his mom said.
"The boys aren't hiding anything from you," Burt added.
"Calm down," Jackie told him.
"You will not speak to my nephew or Kurt that way," Fred said in a scary cold voice that reminded him of Kurt.
"I honestly don't think they had any intention of hiding this from you," even Mr. Wayne had something to say.
Something was very wrong when he was the bad guy. Couldn't they see how wrong this was?
"I was just starting to trust you again and I find out you're using me to get into my brother's pants," he told Puck.
His mom and Fred gasped. Burt and Jackie looked furious. He noticed Mr. Wayne lean over and whisper to Burt. Burt nodded to the man and Mr. Wayne left the table. As he watched the man leave his eyes caught sight of Kurt's face, the boy was in full ice queen bitch mode and that scared him more than anyone else in the room.
"You know what Finn, I came here because you're my best friend and I needed a friend and a safe place every now and then," Puck told him.
"Oh, so you're saying Kurt being here was just a bonus?" he said in his best sarcastic voice.
Puck stood up and leaned over the table at him.
"You want to know the truth, Finn Hudson?" Puck asked in an icy tone.
"Like you know how the hell to tell the truth?" he snapped.
"I've never lied without a damn good reason and I've never lied to you," Puck snapped back.
"Yeah right," he said standing and mirroring Puck's stance.
"The last few months have been Heaven and Hell. I got you back and you've let me hang here away from my mom. All that was great, but being around Kurt was driving me crazy. I have spent far too much time and energy denying and avoiding how I felt about him. But never once in all that time did I make a move on him. I will admit that getting to know him better was awesome, but nothing romantic happened between us until last night. I never tried to be anything, but his friend before," Puck said.
"You expect me to believe that. That you the biggest man whore in Lima aren't just trying to get into Kurt's pants?" Finn asked in a spiteful tone.
Puck turned red with anger, but before he could do anything Kurt was on his feet and rounding the table. Kurt grabbed him by the arm and jerked him around.
"How dare you! After everything he has told us, you call him a whore. Well, you're an ass of extreme portions," Kurt yell poking him in the chest.
"Kurt, you don't have to stick up for him. I know you're smarter than this, don't let him brainwash you like he does all the girls," he told his little brother.
"Finn, there is no brainwashing going on. Noah really cares for me and has for a long time. He's a good man. I know he's done some stupid stuff in the past, but most of the time his heart was in the right place," Kurt ranted at him.
"He bullied you," he yelled at the smaller boy.
"You did the same damn things to me you hypocrite," Kurt shouted back.
"I wasn't at all like him, I never hurt you," he stated.
"So you're going to stand there and deny that you bullied me?" Kurt asked.
"No, just I wasn't as bad as Puck," he argued.
"Fine then let's do it this way I'll list everything that both of you did to me and if I'm wrong about something you can correct me. Let's see… slushies to the face, swirlies and wedgies, right Finn?"
"Yes," he said not liking where this might lead.
"Notes stuck to my back calling me names, food trays slammed into my face, and locker checks. Oh, wait; unlike you Noah never locker checked me. He did give me a shoulder bump ever now and then," Kurt continued.
"I only did that stuff cause the other guys made me," he defended himself.
"Nailed lawn furniture to my roof, gave me dumpster dives, and my personal favorite hitting me with pee filled balloons," Kurt yelled louder and louder as the list went on.
"What the hell?" Burt snapped.
"Finn?" his mom asked in a sad voice. "How could you?"
"I had to, the whole team did it. The football guys not in glee still do that stuff. So, do the hockey team and the baseball guys," he defended himself again.
"Kurt, why didn't you tell me it was that bad? Why did you boys hurt him like that?" Burt questioned in shock and anger.
"Dad, that's all in the past. It was only for a little more than a year. Finn and Noah and the other jocks in glee protect me the best they can now. It's just the others like Karofsky that still bother me. And except for the few weeks before my transfer the worst they did were slushies. All of the glee kids get slushied," Kurt explained to his father.
"But you should have told me," Burt said.
"Like I said Finn and Noah and the guys keep the really bad crap from happening. I can survive the little stuff easy, just not the threats and violence from Karofsky and his sicko sidekick Azimio. There was no reason to bother you until they started their crap," Kurt stated.
"I still don't understand how you boys could do things like that," Carole said.
"Finn's right," Puck spoke up. "It's mostly peer pressure. The sad thing is we all want to be popular, to be on the top rung of the ladder. Not everyone is as brave a Kurt, most of us went into high school scared shitless and having no idea who we really were. We mindlessly follow the older, popular kids. We did mean and hurtful things to anyone different than us. We were scared and stupid, some of us more than others."
The funny thing was the dude sounded sincere to Finn. For some reason that made him even madder.
"Puck, you're the one that picked Kurt," he turned to his little brother as he was speaking. "Did you know that, Kurt?"
"Yes, I did," Kurt said. "He explained the whole thing to me the other day even though he didn't have to. I forgave both of you awhile back. He didn't have to share any of it with me, but he did and I respect him for his honesty."
That really pissed him off. Kurt should be taking his side not Puck's. Kurt should trust him more; he was his brother after all. Kurt should realize that Puck only wanted him because Finn had him. The worst part was Puck wasn't playing fair. Puck was pretending to be sexually interested in Kurt. Playing on the younger boy's need for affection, it just wasn't fair and he could play dirty too.
"Kurt how stupid are you that you don't see what's going on? He only wants things he can't have, things that belong to other people. Like Quinn, Rachel, Beth and now you. Worse part is once he has them he uses them and tosses them away. He takes everything I love away. He's just jealous and mean," Finn yelled.
"Finn, I've had enough of this. Go to your room right now and don't come out until Burt or I have talked to you," his mother said in her 'you've pushed me too far' voice.
He hung his head, was he the only one to see the truth? He didn't understand why his mom or anyone else for that matter was so upset with him.
"Okay," he mumbled.
"Finn," Burt called him. "No phone, computer, or games."
He pulled his phone out and set it on the table. He didn't want to get into any more trouble than he already was.
"I'll put my laptop and iPod outside my door," he said.
He hated being grounded and this wasn't even his fault, stupid ass Puck.
~~~Glee~~~Glee~~~Glee~~~Glee~~~
"Oh no, the world couldn't possibly have let this family have one simple dinner on this important night," Kurt mumbled under his breath as Finn stomped up to his room.
He flopped back down into his chair and rested his head in his hands. Honestly he hadn't expected Finn to be happy at first, but he never thought they would get the reaction they did. He'd thought his brother would be a little uncomfortable, but not angry. Finn was such a sweet guy most of the time; it was hard for Kurt to understand where all those horrible accusations came from.
"I just don't understand," he said.
Noah wrapped an arm around him and pulled him against his side. He rested his head-on Noah's shoulder. He felt so safe and protected in his boyfriend's embrace.
"It's not your fault, he's mad at me and is just taking it out on you," Noah told him.
"He forgave you for the whole Quinn thing," Carole said.
"Noah, I think Finn might be jealous of you," Fred stated.
That actually made some sense to him. He and Finn had really been getting along well. Granted their time together had been limited with him boarding at Dalton, but they did lots of stuff together when he was at home. They worked at the shop half a day on Saturdays, the other half they spent working on the house together, and Saturday nights were mostly spent in front of the TV playing games and watching movies together with Noah.
On Sunday's they had family breakfast before church. He was still struggling with the idea for God, but going to church with his family was a way to spend more time with them. He actually liked going, most of the congregation at Carole's church treated him just the same as they did Finn. For Kurt, it was nice to be seen as a normal teenager. Even though he assumed his sexuality was blatantly obvious, he asked Carole once if the church members knew he was gay. She had pointed out two elderly ladies and two sets of middle aged men and explained that they were all gay too.
After church on occasion he would get to visit with Mercedes and sometimes get a little shopping in with her or one of the other girls. One good thing about going back to McKinley tomorrow was he would get to see his friends on a daily basis again. Most everyone kept in contact with him electronically, but he really missed the face time.
Until now he hadn't realized just how much time he was spending with the two other boys. It really was possible that Finn was jealous of Noah. The three spent most of their weekends together for the last several months, but since the attack he had spent almost all his time with Noah. It had to have been a real shock for Finn to find out that on top of everything that has happened he and Noah were now boyfriends.
"He really is jealous," Kurt said.
He hadn't been paying attention to the conversation around him. He had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts, but now everyone was looking at him. Noah smiled.
"Sorry, I was thinking," he told them.
"Kiddo, I don't like it when you think that hard," his dad said, but smiled to let him know he was mostly teasing.
"When Kurt thinks that hard it means something epic is going to happen," Carole explained to their guests.
"The only question is will it be a fail or a triumph?" his dad questioned him.
"I told you I love this boy," Fred said as he poked Jackie in the ribs with his elbow.
"What's on your mind?" Jackie asked.
"Well, I just realized that Noah and I have basically ignored Finn since I came home. The two of us, Noah and I, have barley spent ten minutes apart until today. We've all three gotten pretty close since I went to Dalton, but the thing is if Noah was around it was all three of us together. Finn is just reacting out of jealousy. He's acting out and being mean because he doesn't want things to change. To him us being a couple means he's losing the two people closest to him, his best friend and his brother. He's most likely feeling passed over and pushed aside. He's been getting a lot of that at school lately and now to have us do it to him is a hundred times worse," Kurt explained.
"Babe, that is brilliant," Noah said.
"You're very insightful," Jackie told him.
"He's a real a keeper," Fred told Noah.
Kurt blushed at Fred's words. He had a feeling Fred was going to have him blushing for a long time to come. The man seemed to delight himself with making Kurt blush.
"Well your father and I are just going to have to have a talk with him," Carole said.
"I really think I need to be the one to talk to him," Kurt told them.
"If that's what you want we'll let you try first, but don't be too upset if it doesn't work the first time," his dad said.
"He's right. It's gonna take time to get through to him. Finn goes from one extreme to the other," Noah added.
"Let's go ahead and get Sara up here and have some cake," his dad said. "Then you can take a piece up to Finn and have your chat with him."
"Great idea Mr. H. bribe Finn into submission with food," Noah giggled and everyone laughed.
~~~Glee~~~Glee~~~Glee~~~Glee~~~
The cake didn't work. Finn took the cake and slammed the door in his face. Kurt had tried for over an hour to get his brother to talk to him. When he finally gave up his parents had tried. They got in the door, but Finn refused to talk to them and didn't seem to pay attention to them at all. Now Finn was grounded until he agrees to sit down and talk things out with him.
Now he was in his new room lying in bed trying to fall asleep. He was scared that he would have more nightmares.
His parents had sat down with him and Noah after Fred and Jackie had left. Dad and Carole had given them their first new rule. He and Noah were not allowed to be in each other's rooms without another person present. The only exception would be if he did have a nightmare and then Noah would be allowed to stay with him. Just to be fair his Dad had dug out an old baby monitor set they had used just after his mother had died. The base was setting on his nightstand and his dad and Noah each had a receiver with them. Carole had thought that this way Finn couldn't claim that they were being given special treatment when he needed Noah.
They had not even been a part half an hour and he already missed Noah. He wished he was in his boyfriend's arms right now, and then maybe he could sleep.
Kurt wasn't sure if he could handle being on his own. He was scared when he was alone; he remembered things he didn't want to remember when he was alone. It was like before, earlier today when he looked in the mirror. All those horrible images came back.
He had thought about listening to music, but he was worried he'd keep the others awake. He didn't feel like reading and couldn't think of anything else to do. So, he just laid there and stared into the dark hoping sleep with come. Hoping for nice dreamless sleep, something akin to oblivion.
He almost giggled out loud at the thought a dreamless sleep sounded like something out of Harry Potter. He could just see Prof. Snape whipping that up in his lab. As fun as thoughts about Prof. Snape and Harry Potter were, he really just wanted to sleep.
The fact that he had thought of something like that showed him just how tired he really was. He yawned and rolled over in bed snuggling up one of his pillows. At times like this he actually thought that perhaps he should pray to God, that maybe it wouldn't hurt, maybe it was better to believe in something greater than him. He really did want to believe that there was something better after this life, but all those Christians out there that hated on him and those like him still bothered him. He was starting to believe that it wasn't god that hated him; it was just those ignorant people that call themselves believers.
He thought maybe he should try going to temple with Noah. He never really paid much attention to others beliefs because he didn't believe. Now though after spending some time with Carole and Finn and their church family maybe he could learn something from Noah's as well. He supposed it couldn't hurt. Like Mortal Kombat had said 'knowledge is power.'
He desperately needed sleep if he was referencing one of Finn's favorite old-school video games. He rolled back over onto his back, maybe he should try counting.
He planned out about a month's worth of outfits in his head by the time he drifted off to sleep. It was not a restful sleep, he tossed and he turned, and he woke several times. He thought maybe if he looked as bad as he felt in the morning his dad and mom would rethink the sleeping arrangements. He knew all he and Noah would be doing was sleeping, so he didn't see the harm in having his boyfriend in his bed. And his sleep was very important to him.