Sorry about the brief hiatus. Like I already warned you, now that I'm back at school, updating will be erratic. I substitute teach fifth and sixth grade during the day, so there's no saying how much time I'll have to write during the day and I have grad school at night, so life's a bit...grrr... Ideally, I would like to have this finished before the show ends its hiatus though. I HATE being influences by outside sources.

xoxoxo

It was Tuesday, and Kurt was fully convinced David had one of the coolest moms ever. Dave hadn't been feeling well enough after his surgery Monday morning to have any guests, so Kurt skipped school on Tuesday and drove out to the backwoods of Lima that housed the Karofsky residence. It was eight in the morning when Kurt got there; he had wanted to get there early enough to make Dave breakfast.

Kurt rang the doorbell and Joan was the one to answer it. She pulled him into a big hug and, in her unusual way of talking, told him there was fresh coffee in the kitchen. Kurt followed after her, looking around. He had been correct; the house was much brighter during the day.

"Day-Day is still sleeping, but he'll be up soon. The surgery went really well. They don't think he'll need any follow-up surgery on his knee." Kurt took a seat at the kitchen table as Joan handed him a cup of coffee.

"Thank you, so much Joan." He made sure she was looking at him when he spoke. Kurt knew how to finger spell…kind of. But lip-reading just seemed to be so much simpler. "I'm curious…how did you know I rang the doorbell? Do you still have some of your hearing left?"

"Oh, no. I was born significantly deaf, but lost all hearing when I was five. Look over the door." Kurt followed Joan's gaze. There was a small light over the door. To Kurt, it looked like one of the ones they hooked up to fire alarms, except it was white instead or red. "It's a strobe light, it goes off when the door bell rings." Kurt nodded; he was learning more and more over the past few weeks how much being in a wheelchair, or being deaf, or having any kind of handicap was not simply an inconvenience in a person's life, but an entirely new way of living. "Dave should be awake in about an hour or so…whether he likes it or not. You're welcome to make yourself at home until he wakes up, or, if you want, you can go pull him out of bed…or just join him. Whatever you like."

Kurt choked on his coffee slightly. Had Joan really just suggested Kurt get into bed with Dave? He looked up at her, rather incredulously, over the rim of his coffee. Joan winked at him. Kurt started chuckling into his coffee. "Paul and I like you a lot Kurt. Whether or not you and David are…serious, we like how he has changed since you came along. He's…happy." Kurt felt guilty. It was bad enough that he felt like he was using David, even though he had David's consent to be used. But he didn't want to disappoint Dave's family. He really liked them. What if things didn't work out between him and Dave? Kurt had no real romantic interest in Dave, despite the warm mushy feelings he got when Dave was around. Kurt was terrified that this relationship was doomed to crash and burn. Would the old Dave come thundering back if that happened? How would Joan and Paul cope if their son went back to being the moody, depressed Neanderthal he once was (and sometimes still was?). Would it ruin Burt's new friendship with Paul if something happened between Dave and Kurt? I really hope Carol's right. If it is puppy love, then maybe Dave will settle and our relationship will amiably taper off into a steady friendship? Kurt's head was starting to hurt. He didn't like thinking about where things would or would not go. Instead, he just wanted to live for the moment. Isn't that what teenagers are supposed to do? He handed his dirty mug to Joan and decided to take her up on his offer.

xoxoxo

Dave woke up when he felt the bed shift slightly underneath him. Turning his head, he saw Kurt scooching closer to him on top of the covers. Dave smiled and tried sitting up, only to get pushed gently back down by Kurt. "Go back to sleep, Dave. You look cute when you sleep." Kurt wasn't lying. Dave looked adorable sleeping, like a ginormous baby with his pudgy cheeks and the roundness of his face.

"Uh-uh, I don't wanna miss a thing." Dave tried pulling Kurt closer but failed to hook his arm around Kurt's waist. He hated not being able to roll comfortably onto his side. Anytime he tried, he couldn't find a comfortable way to balance the weight of his casts on top of him. Any time he rolled the other way, he ended up rolling too much on his casts and off the side of the bed.

"Are you going to sing to me Aerosmith songs now?" Kurt curled up under Dave's arm, his head and hand lying on Dave's chest while he wormed his other hand under Dave's back.

Dave scoffed at that. "Steve Tyler is a creepy bastard. Even though that is a pretty good song. Too over done though. Like that Titanic song." Kurt agreed with that sentiment. They had both been young when "My Heart Will Go On" came out, but they could tell from the looks their elders made anytime it played that it had apparently gotten some serious airtime in its prime…to the point that people would rather be deaf than hear it again.

"I think your mom thinks we're getting married or something." Kurt couldn't see Dave laughing, but he could feel it reverberating through his chest.

"Mom goes a bit overboard on some things. I'll let her know we're just…friends with benefits."

Kurt looked up at Dave, feeling slightly hurt at that. He wasn't sure why it bothered him that Dave characterized their relationship like that, but it made him feel slightly whore-ish. "I like to think we're a bit more than that."

Dave shrugged, "We are whatever you want us to be." Dave snuggled into Kurt's hair. Unable to help himself, Dave inhaled deeply. Kurt smells like apples. Kurt liked that characterization of their relationship slightly better, but they would still have to have a talk about exactly what they were.

Kurt didn't mention that thought to Dave and instead agreed with him. "Mm-hmm." Kurt rubbed his hand in a large circle on Dave's chest. Dave had been sleeping in a pair of boxer shorts and a wife-beater. Kurt could only see the wife beater since Dave was mostly under the sheets, but he could still tell how nice Dave's body was through the thin cotton. Kurt wondered if it would be appropriate to have another make out session with the recuperating Dave, a boy that he admittedly had conflicted and confusing feelings about. He decided it might be better to keep things…calm. "How's your leg?"

Dave pulled the sheets off himself, revealing a light blue cast in lieu of his former white one. That wasn't the first thing Kurt noticed though. Dave has really nice legs…or leg, rather. He obviously couldn't see Dave's other leg, but he assumed that there was some reasonable sense of symmetry beneath the cast. "They told me at first that they thought I would need two to three surgeries to get all the pieces of my knee-cap to fuse where they're supposed to go, but they said after my surgery yesterday that things might be a lot better than they originally thought."

"That's great, Dave! How much longer will you be stuck in the chair?"

Dave shrugged, "Another two months-ish?" Kurt rolled away from Dave and off the side of the bed. Dave got a sense of panic in his chest. He replayed the last few minutes in his head. What the hell did I say, this time? Kurt left Dave's room and Dave let out a pitiful whimper. Kurt came back a few minutes later, with something in his hands. "I'm sorry, whatever I said this time."

Kurt flopped onto the bed, and propped himself on his elbows near Dave's knees. Dave let out another little whimper. Kurt smiled, it sounded like the whimper he made after the first time he had kissed him. "You didn't say anything wrong, Dave." Dave could see Kurt fiddling with whatever was in his hands. "And if you keep whimpering like that, I'll have Marshall re-re-christen you 'Squeaker.'"

A sharpie, that's what Kurt had. Dave watched as Kurt scribbled on his cast. "Seriously…what is this, middle school?" Dave sat up so he could see what Kurt had written. Get well NOW! - Kurt Elizabeth Hummel. "Your middle name is Elizabeth? Did your dad want you to be gay?"

Kurt sat up, a mildly annoyed look on his face. He brandished the sharpie precariously close to Dave's face, like a dagger. "My middle name, according to my birth certificate, is Brandon. I hate that name though. If you EVER tell anyone my middle name is Brandon, I will tell everyone that you like the Princess Dairies books."

"FIRST of all, they're the Royal Diaries books…I kinda like history. And second of all…why Elizabeth?

Kurt put the cap back on the sharpie and curled up in Dave's lap. Dave pushed himself back on the bed, pulling Kurt with him, so that he was supported in the upright position by the headboard. "My mom's name was Katherine Elizabeth Hummel."

Dave thought about that for a minute. Kurt didn't talk about his mother a whole lot, although everyone knew she had passed away. Dave wasn't sure why or how long ago and he didn't feel comfortable asking Kurt right now. "Then how come not Kurt Katherine Hummel?"

Kurt smiled to himself. "Ever wonder why my name rhymes with my dad's?" Dave grunted a negative response. "My name is a portmanteau of Katherine and Burt. The "K" from Katherine and the "urt" from Burt."

Dave nodded. It made sense. If Kurt and I ever have kids, we could name them Kavid, or Karommel. Dave immediately cut off that line of thought. If Kurt wasn't as serious about this relationship as he was, he wasn't going to let himself get attached.

Kurt watched a cat walk through the room and exit through a door Kurt hadn't gone through yet. Kurt, never having had a pet (other than Pavarotti), was a bit weird-ed out by seeing the cat just roaming around loose. Though he maintained his composure, it was much akin to seeing a squirrel or raccoon just saunter through your house. Dave didn't even seem to notice the fluffy grey and white critter. "I'm named after a former friend of the family. He helped hook my parents up but died of a heart attack before I was born."

"How did your parents meet exactly?"

Dave thought about it for a minute, not sure if the full story was worth telling, He didn't want to bore Kurt, but then again, if he wanted Kurt to be open and honest with him, Dave should probably do the same. "They met at college. They were in a chemistry lecture together. I get my love of science from my ma. Because my mom can lip-read so well, she never needed a translator at school so long as the teacher faced her general direction." Dave pulled Kurt closer to him and adjusted Kurt so that he wasn't cutting off the circulation in his good leg. "My dad sat behind and to the side of her. He says it was love at first sight…but my mom never even noticed him. About a week after he got the hots for her, he followed her out of the class, walking just behind her, he asked her what her name was. He totally thought she was ignoring him, but obviously she had no idea he was even talking to her."

Kurt smiled. Paul and Joan seemed almost psychic the way they had talked with Burt and Carol; Paul stopping talking a moment before Joan would start, Joan turning to face Paul just before he would say something. It was hard to imagine that intuition was anything but natural. "My dad walked beside her just about every day after class. Finally my mom got kind of annoyed. She was like 'why do you follow me everyday?' My dad was super-flustered. He told her he just wanted to know her name. He told her he thought she was very pretty."

Kurt interjected, "Aw."

Dave kissed Kurt's head. "Yeah, aw. My mom was kind of self-conscious about being deaf and was afraid of giving my dad a chance, so she just told him she was deaf and completely shut him down." Kurt frowned, Poor Paul. "But my dad's not one to take rejection lightly. He talked to his roommate, David, about it. Dave went to the school library and got a Sesame Street sign language dictionary. Two weeks later my dad went up to her after class and told her, in sign, that she was 'the most beautiful woman he had ever met.' My mom says he completely butchered it and his grammar was atrocious, but she still thought it was the cutest thing she had ever seen. She was still afraid to get involved with my dad, though. Being deaf isn't really a disability. It's more like a culture; especially if you grow up in a deaf community like my mom did. Dave had the school library do an interlibrary loan of every sign language dictionary they could get their hands on. For the next semester Dave quizzed my dad on sign language until my dad knew just about every word there is to know. My dad says he studied for that more than he did for the bar. Finally, after they returned from Christmas break, my dad sought her out and told her, flat out in sign, that he liked her a lot and was willing to go to any lengths just to get a shot at dating her. She said yes. They've been together ever since."

Kurt smiled. "That's so cute. I can see where you get your tenacity from." Dave shrugged. He never really likened himself to his father. He was a total momma's boy.

Dave stroked his fingers through Kurt's shaggy brown hair. "So…um. You wanna watch a movie or something?"

Kurt sat up. "Sure. But no sports movies this time."

Dave shrugged, again. "That's fine by me."

"Fight Club counts as a sport."

"Damn…"

xoxoxo

Next chapter will have a bit more "action" in it.