The spotlight came up on Evan sitting criss-cross on a twin bed with a laptop in front of him. He began his attempt at a self-esteem-boosting pep talk, but remained decidedly anxious and unconvinced by his own words. His mom walked in and attempted to reassure him as well. None of it actually working. He slipped his shoes on, grabbed his laptop, and put it in the backpack, leaving behind the stack of papers with scholarship opportunities his mother had printed out for him.

Ms. Hansen sang on another part of the stage.

The lighting shifted to show the Murphy kitchen at breakfast with the four family members arguing. Mrs. Murphy moved away from the kitchen scene and the two moms sang together in separately lit areas on the stage.

The scene switched to Evan at school where interacted awkwardly with a female student and a male student. Connor entered and shoved Evan down. He got up and started singing "Waving Through a Window".

The audience was entranced. They loved every minute of the show. They showed their enthusiasm and appreciation with thunderous applause at the end.

Kurt headed backstage and changed. He went out to greet people with the rest of the cast. He was surprised to see Sebastian at the front of the line. A huge smile spread across his face. "Sebastian!"

He refrained from reaching out to hug Kurt, not wanting to give other people in line any ideas about crossing the barrier. "You were fantastic, mon feu. Absolutely amazing!" He handed Kurt his playbill.

Kurt signed it and handed it back. He leaned in for the selfie Sebastian was waiting to take.

"I'll wait for you. Meet me out front." He pointed toward the marquee.

Kurt smiled and nodded.

Sebastian moved back and stood where he could photograph people talking to Kurt.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

Kurt practically launched himself at Sebastian and hugged him. "I didn't think you were coming."

Sebastian laughed and pulled him close. "I just didn't say anything. I bought a ticket for myself for the preview opening as soon as they went on sale. I'm going to come with everyone again next weekend. I just wanted to see you. You were SO good." Sebastian kissed him. "Go stand by the poster. I want to take another picture of you."

Kurt rolled his eyes, but obliged.

Sebastian took his hand and squeezed it. "I knew you'd be great, but seeing you proved it. You brought the whole thing to life."

"Now to keep that level of energy up for seven weeks of eight shows a week while I finish my classes at NYADA."

"I'm glad you didn't try to keep Vogue in your schedule too, even though I know you miss it."

"Even if I hadn't given in back when I did, I would have had to by now. The show takes a lot of energy."

"It's an emotional rollercoaster, so I'm sure it's hard work. You were fantastic. You worked so hard and it shows."

When they got to the corner, Kurt took his phone out and pulled up a picture. "There's my spot. And the daisy. Thank you." He put it back before the light turned for them to cross.

He took Kurt's hand back and interlocked their fingers. "You're welcome."

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

Kurt unlocked the door and stepped inside. "Mmm. It smells good in here." He hung his jacket in the closet and went in the kitchen to wash his hands.

Sebastian followed along behind. Kurt pulled some bowls down and ladled soup into them. He turned and pinned Sebastian to the counter while he was drying his hands. Kurt leaned in and kissed him. Sebastian put the towel down and wrapped his arms around Kurt. Kurt leaned into him and nuzzled into his neck. He breathed in deeply and let it out slowly, humming lightly. They stood that way for a few minutes before Kurt stepped back a little. He carried their bowls to the table. Sebastian grabbed drinks and silverware.

"I think this idea is going to work. I'll eat some nutrient-dense banana nut or some other fruit and nut bread before the show and then come home and eat a mostly-vegetable, low-calorie soup when I get home."

"We'll put those French cookbooks to work for us. Let's look around for some other soup cookbooks in the shops when we have time. Maybe we can find one from Italy and Spain or even something Middle Eastern, but I suspect those would be made from a lot of dahl or lentils, which would push the calorie content up quite a bit."

"That sounds like a fun idea."

They mostly ate in silence. When they finished, they packed up the leftovers, washed everything, and headed to the bathroom to shower.

Once they were curled up in bed together with Kurt as the little spoon, Kurt took a deep breath and let it out. "I did it."

"You did." Sebastian kissed the back of his neck. "You did it and you were great."

"I wasn't fishing for compliments, but thanks."

"I know you weren't, but I mean it. I will admit that I'm not terribly fond of the parts where you kiss Madison."

Kurt laughed. "I'm not fond of the parts where I kiss Madison. At least they're supposed to be awkward kisses."

"There's that to be thankful for. At least I don't have to see you French kissing and making out with some hot guy."

"I'd rather only do that with you for the rest of my life." He pushed back a little so Sebastian would scoot back, and then he rolled over to face Sebastian. He kissed him with a just barely there kiss and started their kissing game, only he didn't last long and he kissed Sebastian after a few times.

Sebastian chuckled, but responded willingly kissing him back passionately.

"I may have to kiss people because it's my job to, but I will never kiss anyone but you like that. I love you, and only you, Sebastian Fontenay Hummel-Smythe."

"I'm not worried, you know." He ran his hand along Kurt's face. "I love you. I trust you." He pressed back in and kissed Kurt. "You better turn back over before I get the idea that you're not ready to go to sleep."

"It's a dilemma." He pecked Sebastian on the nose. "My very sweet and handsome husband is within kissing distance, but I know we have plans tomorrow. My body hasn't reset to sleeping until 8:00 quite yet, so I guess we should sleep and save my amorous ideas for when we wake up." He kissed Sebastian gently and turned over.

Sebastian scooted up behind him and they both got comfortable.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

Kurt woke up with Sebastian kissing the back of his neck.

"Oh, good. You're awake," Sebastian teased.

"Mmm hmm. I am now."

"I'm all ready to hear about those amorous ideas you had last night."

Kurt smiled and stretched. "Is that so?"

"It is. Very much so." He began kissing down Kurt's shoulder.

"Well, that's a good start."

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

"We're cutting it close. We're supposed to be there at 10:00," Kurt said.

Sebastian squeezed his hand as the came up from the subway. "Well, you did have some really good ideas this morning."

"We didn't have to do more than one of them."

"Oh, yeah we did. And again and again, some other time."

Kurt blushed.

"It's not that far. Just a couple of blocks."

They walked as quickly as they could and entered the restaurant. They were greeted at the door.

"Hummel-Smythe," Kurt said.

"Right this way gentlemen," she said. She led them to a small private area upstairs. Instead of windows, the room had balcony doors that had the curtains pulled back. Combined with the lighting, the outdoor-styled tables, tall plants, and the stucco walls, the whole room had a patio feel to it.

"Kurt!" Jeff said, as he got up to greet them. "Sebastian, good to see you. Come on in. Sit down with us. Almost everyone is here."

They sat down.

"This is a nice place," Kurt said.

"We like it. We've been here quite a few times. The servers will set the food up in about five minutes. They set up a small buffet in here. That way, there's no orders and we just split the ticket evenly. It's simple and they have really good food."

"Sounds like a good set up," Sebastian said. "Who are we waiting on?"

Nick looked around. "It looks like Jon, Wes, and David. They had the longest drive, so we'll give them a break."

Jeff said, "We're all looking forward to the show this afternoon. How did the first show go last evening?"

"It went really well," Kurt said. "No major mishaps. No one forgot their lines or anything."

"It was really fantastic," Sebastian said. "You'll see." He wrapped his arm around the back of Kurt's chair.

Wes, David, and Jon came in. And not too far behind them were a few members of the wait staff pushing in three tables of food and drinks. They all stood up and waited for Kurt and Sebastian to get in line first.

There were omelettes, pancakes, a couple of quiches, bacon, sausage links, sliced turkey, ham, and cheese, sourdough toast, sliced tomatoes and lettuce to make sandwiches, fresh fruit, mini muffins, and juice, coffee, tea, and water to drink.

While everyone ate, Kurt and Sebastian got caught up on what everyone else had been doing the last few years. A couple of them were graduating in May and were heading to law school or medical school. A couple were already in law school. The rest still had a year or two left of undergraduate work ahead of them.

After they graduated, Nick and Jeff, with the help of a few members who had graduated the year before, worked to pull the group back together to the level of the brotherhood the group had always had before their senior year with the mess Hunter had made of everything.

They talked about how a few of them and some older Warblers had spent their third week of winter break the previous year at Dalton passing along the skills the new Warblers needed to arrange their songs and create choreography on their own. They revitalized the club as a student-led group with a staff member who merely observed. The older members helped to reinstill the value of teamwork, brotherhood, and excellence over winning competitions judged by local celebrities. They told how the group continued to compete in the show choir competitions, but had moved their focus to singing in a cappella competitions where the judges were musically trained during the current school year. They had used every teacher in-service day and single days off to hold all-day rehearsals.

Wes concluded, "All of their work paid off. They won the Midwest title and made it to the national level this year, which is going to be held here in New York on April 29th."

Kurt said, "Oh, wow. That's an amazing turn around."

"A couple of those guys that were freshmen last year were incredibly motivated and talented. They just needed some pointers. When Dalton disbanded the Warblers for a year after the incident, the group had to start completely over. There were a couple of guys still at the school who were seniors, but they didn't rejoin the group."

Kurt said, "Not surprising. They had probably joined other things and had leadership positions by their senior year."

Wes nodded. "We're going to go see them. I'm sure you can't due to your schedule, but if you're interested, we posted about it on the Alumni page just recently – right after they won the Midwest title a few days ago."

Kurt nodded.

Small conversations started back up and everyone went back to eating.

Once everyone had eaten their fill, Thad got everyone's attention. "We're here today to congratulate Kurt and Sebastian on their marriage. This is a new and unprecedented occasion as same-sex marriage being recognized across the country is fairly new. You two are the first Warblers to get married to another Warbler. You are also the youngest Warblers to ever get married, so we had to contact some of the older Warblers to find out what we were supposed to do. Once we did, we were convinced that the old traditions needed to move to the archives and we needed to create some new ones for a new generation of Warblers."

Wes chuckled and said, "We were urged to contribute to the purchase of something suitable to your station, such as buying the china you had registered for, or something that would be a permanent fixture in the estate that you would be living in after your wedding. Plus, it was supposed to be our job to arrange your bachelor parties, which were to be at our cost, not yours. They were to be discreet with high-end entertainment that we men would appreciate."

Kurt laughed.

"Exactly." Wes continued, "Since most of the Warblers' families have strict rules about schooling, careers, engagements, and weddings, it was assumed that no one who was in the Warblers while I was the Council Leader would get married for another 5 years or so. So, we were all supposed to be able to afford a lavish bachelor party for each member of the group as we all started to get married five or more years from now."

Thad spoke again. "We didn't want to go to our parents for the money because we honestly knew that many of them would not support the two of you getting married before firmly establishing your appropriate careers. And beyond that, many of them would not support the two of you marrying each other. Today's meal together will be the start of a new tradition instead of the previous discreet bachelor's parties. We discussed amongst ourselves and decided that discreet or not, we wouldn't go that route in the future. Our fathers have moved forward with the times enough to allow us some choice in our future partners. None of us is facing an arranged marriage, just a potentially limited pool of women to choose from. But honestly, there are thousands of women who meet our parents' requirements these days. And none of us would consider drinking ourselves into a stupor and then putting ourselves in the situation of making very bad choices while drunk. Those of us who have already chosen our future wives would actually like to marry them. We're not looking for a trophy wife to run around on."

"I'm glad to hear that," Kurt said. "You know we're fine with the brunch. There's no need to get us anything else."

"We knew you'd say that," Jeff said. "So, those of us who have been friends with Sebastian on Facebook for a while went back and looked through his posts. What we found is that the two of like to go to New York City attractions."

Kurt and Sebastian nodded.

Kurt responded. "One of the things that drew me here was the fact that there are so many amazing things to see and do here, but the first two years that I lived here, I barely kept my head above water financially. So, Sam, Adam, Sebastian, and I set aside time to go see the amazing places and be tourists in our own city last spring and part of the summer."

"Well, we looked through the places you had gone and we got you two tickets to the places that are popular that you hadn't been to," Wes said. He handed them an envelope. "We duplicated a couple of the places you've already been, but they were places that are large enough to spend more than a single day viewing."

Sebastian reached out and took it from Wes. "Thank you. We'll really enjoy that."

Kurt smiled. "That was a really thoughtful gift. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Wes said. "And if you ever want company, just post to the Alumni page where you'll be going and maybe a few of us might be interested in going with you."

Nick said, "We found a gallery nearby with an up-and-coming watercolorist as their current artist. We thought we'd go see that before Kurt has to head to the theater to get ready."

"That sounds nice," Kurt said.

"Before we go, we wanted to ask if you two had any photos," Trent said. "I'd like to see them."

Sebastian pulled his iPad out and accessed his photos from the cloud so he could show everyone. After everyone had seen them, he slipped his iPad back into his bag and put the envelope in with it. The group took care of their bill and asked the server to take a couple of group photos of them before they left.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

After the matinee, Kurt came out and signed autographs. There was a large crowd, which surprised him. He figured there would be mostly friends and family along with a few die-hard musical theaters fans that attended every new show that opened off-Broadway or on Broadway. Kurt happily signed the playbills and took photos with whoever wanted them before he went back inside to get ready to go.

The group of Warblers waited until the end and they all posed with Kurt and Sebastian under the marquis in front of one of the posters. They said their goodbyes and left. Sebastian waited for him and they went home together afterwards.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

As they walked towards the Metro station, Kurt said, "It's really nice, but weird for them to be so welcoming now. I was only there for five months. And honestly only a few of them were as friendly as they all were today. I know the game of 'What if?' rarely makes anyone feel better, but sometimes I really do wonder how things would have been different if I hadn't joined the Warblers at all and I had joined some other clubs and actually made friends with some of the other students. If I had found a group where I was accepted right off rather than joining a group that was suspicious of my motives. If I had been able to come up with a way to afford the tuition for the remainder of that term and the following fall, then my dad could have afforded it after he got elected. I would have still been there when you arrived. You might have been just as unhappy, but we might have met in Advanced French and hit it off. Maybe we could have been friends from the beginning."

"There are endless possibilities. There's just no way to know. I have a lot of my own 'What if?' questions. What if I had just been nice to start with? What if I hadn't put on that stupid playboy act? What if I had actually talked to you and found out about all of the things we have in common? What if I had just did my best to fit in and mind my own business? But I can't undo any of what I did and neither can you. The Warblers can't undo the things that happened that made the group fall apart, but they are making a difference. When they found out that Blaine had been hired, they were more mad about that than they had been about what Hunter had done. He was stupid of course, but what Blaine did caused problems for all of us individually and for the whole group to be punished for the actions of an individual and the people he influenced. Blaine did it to put himself back in the competition. Everyone knows we had to have 12 people to compete. All he had to do was go to the headmaster and report Hunter and say that he had a witness. We've talked about this before, I know. And I know that Finn and Sam were involved, but they didn't know Dalton like Blaine did. If Hunter and those involved had been expelled from Dalton, we wouldn't have had 12 members anymore."

"He probably thought you'd find replacements and still compete. We had members of the jazz band sing with us my senior year at Sectionals, back when the Troubletones split off from our group. We just stuck them in the back row and had them sing too soft to be heard because we all know how hard it is to lip sync properly. The three of them knew that you could take Hunter's place, even if he had the lead on all of the songs. I'm not saying that what they did was right, but it was the right move to make sure that the Warblers would drop out of Regionals, and that was the goal."

"Which just proves my point that it was a deliberate power move to destroy the Warblers. If they had just been interested in the welfare of teenagers being forced to take steroids, they would have gone to the headmaster to get everyone help. The headmaster stepped down at the end of that year due to pressure from parents who were displeased with his lack of leadership. The new headmaster obviously viewed Blaine as the good guy, like everyone else drawn to him. He's the one that allowed the Warblers to start again with Blaine as their leader. I need to let this go. Obviously, I need to talk to my therapist about this still." He took a deep breath. "No more of that topic."

"The brunch was delicious. We'll have to tell Grandma Smythe about that place. And getting us tickets to different places was a really creative and personal gift. I love going places with you."

"Me too. And it was a really nice gift."

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

Five days later, the evening of the first of April, Burt and Carole arrived while Kurt was performing. Isabelle sent a car to the airport to pick them up. The driver picked Sebastian and Kurt up from the theater after the show and took all of them to Kurt and Sebastian's.

Sebastian opened the door and let everyone inside. Burt and Carole took their suitcase down to the spare bedroom. They came back out a few minutes later to find four bowls of soup on the table, ready to eat.

"It smells wonderful," Carole said. "I'd like to get some of those spices you brought with you. I haven't been able to find them locally."

"Sure," Sebastian said. "We can go out tomorrow and get some."

They talked about school, the musical, Burt's shop, and Carole's job while they ate. When they finished, Kurt and Sebastian collected up the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen.

Kurt said, "You two are welcome to stay up and watch TV or a movie, but I'm still working on training myself to sleep later, so I'm trying to go to bed at the same time every night to reset my internal clock. I've gotten up so early for so long that I struggle to stay asleep past 7:00 and with not getting home until so late every evening, I really need to sleep until 8:00 now."

"It's fine honey. Go get some sleep. We understand. It's hard to go from being a morning person to stay up until midnight every night. We'll see you in the morning."

He hugged both of them, double-checked the door, and headed down to their room. Sebastian followed him. They showered quickly and got in bed.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

Saturday morning, Kurt woke up at 7:00. He lay as still as possible to let Sebastian sleep more, but it didn't take long before Sebastian stirred.

"Scoot back a little, so I can lie on my back." He rolled back. "Now, come lie on me and we can snuggle."

Kurt scooted closer and laid his head on Sebastian's chest. He snuggled up and intertwined his leg with Sebastian's and wrapped his arm across Sebastian's chest and played with the hair above Sebastian's ear. Sebastian ran his fingers along Kurt's upper arm and kissed him on top of the head. He reached across his own chest and put his hand on Kurt's hip. They both lay in each other's arms with their eyes closed for a while.

"After seven shows, the hardest part isn't the awkwardness of kissing Madison. It's being shoved by Mark. He plays Connor. It makes singing "Waving through a Window" harder, but I suppose it actually improves my performance because I'm feeling exactly what Evan feels at that moment."

"I'm sad for you that you feel that way every time you do the show."

"I'm just going to be open with you like we always have been. I think I'm going to need a lot of positive physical contact and upbeat activities while doing this show. Not necessarily sexual contact, although I do enjoy that a lot. I need to not let myself shrink back into my shell. Once school is out and I will have time to pursue some hobbies again, I think that will ease the tension. But struggling to keep up with everything at NYADA while working slightly more than full-time is hard. And while the show has some uplifting parts to it, it's actually pretty depressing."

"It is. And I can see how performing it while doing so much school work will leave you emotionally exhausted."

"I don't want to shortchange us. Or put a lot of pressure on you. I'm going to see what I can do to get weekly meeting with Mr. Salazar again. I think I need to talk about some things that I pushed to the back of my mind for too long."

"That sounds like a good idea." He kissed the top of Kurt's head again. "But I'm up for snuggling any time. Look up." He waited to make eye contact with Kurt. "You're not that lonely young teenager anymore. You're an amazing man with a professional role in a musical. You have a husband who loves you." He kissed Kurt on the forehead. "You have friends who love you and a big crazy family that loves you."

Kurt scooted up and kissed Sebastian. "I do have all of those things and it's amazing. You left out the part about how much I love my husband."

"Silly me."

Kurt ran his fingers down Sebastian's ribs, tickling him just slightly and kissed him again.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

Kurt and Sebastian left at 8:30 to head to the subway. As planned, Sam arrived at 9:00 to take Burt and Carole to Isabelle and Grandma Smythe's building.

Kurt and Sebastian went to Isabelle's apartment first. They picked up the groceries that she had ordered and took them up to Grandma Smythe's flat. Isabelle had taken her out to have her hair done. The other three arrived not long after they did. They had Burt set the table while the other four got to work on the surprise birthday brunch.

An hour later, Isabelle and Grandma Smythe returned.

Isabelle said, "Surprise!" as she opened the door so that they wouldn't actually scare her.

"My, my, my. You all are tricky aren't you?" She hung her jacket in the closet and her bag by the door. She stopped and looked over the half-wall. "What all have you three whipped up in there? It smells fantastic in here." She turned and went into the half-bath and washed her hands and went to see what all was sitting out on her counter. "Oh, my. French toast, bacon, sausage, eggs, fruit salad. It all looks delicious. I'm assuming we're eating this now."

"Yes, Grandma," Isabelle said. "Please go first."

She took what she wanted and the others followed behind her. Carole poured their drinks and everyone sat down to eat.

"Well, this is a lovely surprise. Thank you, dears."

"You're welcome," everyone said.

"It's nice to see you, Sam. Thank you for making the trip here to come with us to the show and to arrive early enouch to have brunch with me on my birthday."

"I was glad to be invited."

They all started to eat after she did.

"This is delicious. You all are excellent cooks."

"I'm glad you're enjoying it, Grandma," Sebastian said.

Once they finished eating, Kurt, Sam, and Sebastian cleared the table and did the dishes. When Isabelle and Carole noticed that they were nearly done, the two of them got up and pulled gifts from their bags. Kurt got out what they had brought, as did Sam. They all placed their gifts in front of Grandma Smythe on the table.

"You all did not need to get me gifts."

"What did you tell me last summer?" Kurt teased.

She huffed and rolled her eyes and smiled. "You're right, dear. Thank you for the unexpected gifts."

"Open Isabelle's first, Grandma," Sebastian said.

She looked at the packages and unwrapped the one from Isabelle. "An iPad Pro 9.7 with 512gb. Is this the one we looked at, Sebastian?"

"It is."

"Excellent." She opened the smaller box wrapped in the same paper. "Ah, yes. The pencil that goes to it. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Isabelle said.

She moved on and opened Sam's gift. "I'm not sure what this is for, dear."

"Oh, it's a special glass screen protector that's super durable to help keep the glass on the iPad from getting damaged. We'll put it on for you."

"Well, thank you, dear."

"You're welcome."

She unwrapped Burt and Carole's gift next. "Oh, it's lovely. I like the flowers."

"I thought you might," Carole said. "It has the keyboard with it."

"That's perfect. I didn't even see that they made cases that held the keyboards."

"It has a place to store the pencil as well, to keep it from getting lost."

"Well, don't they just make the most useful things these days. I'm going to be the most new-fangled, tech-savvy great grandma around," she boasted with a grin on her face. She reached for Kurt and Sebastian's gift and unwrapped it. "Now, what is this for?"

Kurt answered, "It's a portable charging device with two ports. You can charge it overnight when you charge your iPad and the keyboard. You plug it into the outlet, plug the iPad and the keyboard into it to charge. In the morning, all three will be charged. Then, you can take the charger with you and you can sit here at the table or on the sofa and whenever your battery gets low on your iPad or keyboard, you can plug it into the portable charger and not have to try to sit less than 6 feet from an outlet somehow."

"That's amazing." She opened the last package from them. "I see Kurt's design skills all over this." She winked at him. "The fabric coordinates with the case."

He nodded.

"I'm assuming this is a pouch that will hold that charger and the cords when I'm not using them and when I want to take them with me."

"That's correct."

There was one gift left on the table. Grandma Smythe reached for it and looked for the tag. "It's from Iris and Lucas." She opened it up. "A Bluetooth speaker bar. I'm afraid that I don't know what that means."

"We'll hook it up to your TV and it will have a lot nicer sound quality," Kurt said.

Sebastian added, "The Bluetooth part means that it will connect wirelessly to your iPad. Once you download music to your iPad, you'll be able to play it through that speaker without using any cables to connect them."

"Well, that is just the most amazing technology. There's more computer horsepower in this little thing than in a computer the size of this flat back in the '60s. I appreciate all of the effort you all went to and I love these gifts. I'll let whoever's going to put the screen cover on my new toy get to it. And one of you can put it in its case. And Kurt can put the cords and charger in the fabric pouch. Oh, and the speaker – someone can hook it up. While all of you do those things, Isabelle can come help me figure out where to charge it in my room."

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

An hour later, Grandma Smythe had an Apple ID, an iTunes library with three CDs in it, a book, two magazines, and a selection of word games to choose from. She had learned to use the Bluetooth speaker and had chosen one of the big band CDs to listen to.

Sebastian was the first to make a move and he stood and offered his hand out to Kurt to dance. Kurt stood and took his place, as they started dancing around the room.

"Come on, Burt. Let's dance," Carole got up and held her hand out to Burt.

Sam asked Isabelle, "Would you care to dance with me?"

"Why, of course."

Grandma Smythe took advantage of having her new iPad nearby and she used it to take photos of everyone dancing. At the end of the song, Kurt stepped away from Sebastian and leaned over and hugged Grandma Smythe.

"I have to get going, but I'll see everyone after the show. Happy birthday."

"Thank you, dear. We'll see you in a couple of hours."

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

Sam and Sebastian bid everyone farewell until the show as well. Sam dropped Kurt off at the theatre and then took Sebastian to do their weekly shopping before the show. He and Sam left the non-refrigerated foods to put away later and took the subway back down to the theater district and met up with the others to watch the matinee.

They sat down with Burt and Grandma Smythe.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

"I feel bad not going to see Kurt," Carole admitted.

Isabelle put her hand on top of Carole's. "It was his idea for us to spend time together rather than you go to the show. I went with Chase and a few others from work to see Kurt the other night. It's not an upbeat show, even though the songs are great. It's a story that makes people think. He was concerned about Burt seeing it, but Burt insisted that it didn't matter what the story was about that he was going to see Kurt perform in his first professional show, no matter what."

Carole nodded. "I just feel like I should be stronger by now. I'm assuming someone dies and he doesn't want me to relapse."

"It's more than just that," Isabelle said. "I don't know you well enough to know specifically which part of the show Kurt is trying to shield you from, but there are several not happy things."

"He was so excited about it and wanted us to both come, and then changed his mind. Did he not realize those other things? Why did he take this role?"

"I am sure that part of it had to do with the fact that he was being offered a major role in a professional production. Even if the show only runs a few months, if he does a good job, people will have seen him. It will look good on a resumé. Actors can't afford to be really picky when they first start out. And the show is really amazing. I honestly think it's going to take off and be a huge success, but it does deal with some really touchy issues."

"Burt and I really appreciate how much you care for Kurt. He told us back when he first came to New York that you were like his fairy godmother."

"I think I'm more of the aunt now. Sebastian's…well, Stephen is my cousin, making Sebastian my second cousin, but I'm his de facto aunt. If Kurt didn't work for me, I would probably have both of them call me that now that they're married. When I hired him that day, I didn't know that Sebastian was back in the States and I had honestly lost track of how old he would have been at the time because he and Marceline had been gone for so long. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't keep in touch with her as much as I should have. We did write back and forth some, but she had her family and I had my job." She sighed. "We let ourselves get too busy some times."

Carole nodded in understanding.

"But Kurt and Sebastian, they're so good together. They're both sarcastic and they tease, but they sheathed their claws and don't scratch each other. They just joke and have fun together. Sebastian does it just to get Kurt's attention. I've seen how Kurt is when he's in a relationship. Other guys just don't exist to him. He doesn't notice guys flirting with him or checking him out. I would imagine that the only way to get Kurt's attention back in high school was to provoke him."

"Probably. Kurt was under an immense amount of stress that he didn't share with anyone back then. He was a fantastic actor – so good that he fooled all of us. In hindsight, that is something I should have realized since that's the career he wanted to pursue. He fooled me into thinking he had everything under control while his life was spinning out of control in a lot of ways. You helped put a stop to that, you know."

"I met a wildly creative teen whose talent hadn't been fostered. And I fell in love with his spirit, if that makes any sense. He came here with no experience and a lot of hopes and dreams. I knew he was special. And now he's family."

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

"I may not answer, but sure."

"Did you not have any interest in getting married and having kids?"

"I tried dating back in high school because everyone else was. I dated a few guys, but I never felt anything. I just chalked it up to being young and to teen boys being too childish to hold my interest since I was pretty serious. I went to college. I was never attracted to men or women, but I gave them both an even shot, thinking that maybe I just needed to give myself time to get to know someone before that spark would be there. Nothing changed. And after a few years of sincerely trying after I got out of college, I talked to a therapist about it. I thought maybe I needed some kind of therapy to get over whatever was keeping me from being attracted to people romantically. I'm definitely a people person and I love to go out, so that wasn't it. I don't have any aversion to being touched. I couldn't come up with any real reason, so I went and talked about it with someone. I even went to a sex therapist for a few sessions. No issues. Well, I have a bit of a hording problem with sunglasses, but…"

Carole laughed.

"And maybe my shoe collection might rival that of Imelda Marcos in the '80s…"

Carole smiled.

"But since we're family, I'll answer you honestly. I've determined with the help of the therapists that I'm aromantic and asexual. As I said, I thought I'd grow into it, but I just never did. I don't feel hollow or empty inside without a partner. I love my friends and I'm happy with my life. I like to go out dancing. I'll dance with whoever asks me and sometimes I even ask people. I go out on 'dates' with my friends, both male and female. Dinner and movies or a show or out dancing. All of my good friends know that I'm not looking for someone and none of them try to set me up. And I always manage to find someone to go as my plus one to events that require one. Kurt's one of my favorites to take because he's so funny. I'm sure that all of my acquaintances that I only see socially at events think I'm bi, which doesn't bother me. In a weird, round about way, I am bi. I'm equally attracted to people of all genders – meaning not at all attracted to anyone."

"I would imagine that throughout history that many of the men and women who never married were either gay or asexual."

"I'm sure. As for children, I could have done that on my own without a partner, but I actually really do love my job. I know it's shallow and ridiculous in a lot of ways, but to me it's this crazy, expressive, wearable art. Some of it makes you just want to sit and examine every detail and watch it move and flow. And some of it makes you want to put on a sleep mask so you don't have to see it at all. But it's all entertaining and fun."

Carole nodded. "I won't say anything to anyone."

"At my age, I usually just tell people that I've never found Mr. or Mrs. Right."

"Which I'm sure gets a lot of laughs since your last name is Wright."

"It does and it stops people that I'm not close with from asking me personal questions. I didn't mind you asking. We're family now. I have no siblings, so we can be sister's-in-law in some really convoluted way."

"Works for me. I'm not as close to my family as I used to be. Quite a few of them were really ugly about Kurt and Sebastian at Thanksgiving and I've quit interacting with them much. I've decided that whatever time I have left, I'd rather spend it with people who don't dislike my son and son-in-law on principle instead of getting to know them before they make that type of decision."

"I grew up spending family holidays with Stephen as my closest relative."

"You have my sympathy."

"Well, he's an ass. Marceline was the sweetest woman. I could never see what she saw in Stephen."

"Obviously his charm wore off since she divorced him and took Sebastian back to France."

"Speaking of France, it's so hard to wrap my mind around the fact that Kurt found his grandmother, aunt, uncle, and two cousins."

Their conversation jumped from topic to topic the rest of the afternoon until the others returned from the theater.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

Grandma Smythe sat in the lobby with Sebastian while Burt and Sam got in line to greet the actors at the stage door. They had each cast member sign their playbills. When they got to the end, Kurt signed them as well and took a selfie with Burt and another with Sam. They walked back towards the lobby afterwards.

"Wow. That was some show. I think my heart got ripped out more than once," Burt said. "That's a lot of rough topics in one show. No wonder Kurt tried to convince me not to come. I'm glad I did because I wanted to be there for him for his first professional show, but boy do I feel like Evan's mom."

Sam interrupted him. "This isn't the best place to talk. There are ears everywhere. Any of these people could be stage critics or just work for a newspaper or magazine or a gossip column."

"Right. I should know better after all the time I spent in DC."

"The car's here already." Sam pointed. "Why don't I get Sebastian and Grandma Smythe. You can go ahead and get in."

Burt nodded and headed towards the car. Sam came out a couple of minutes later with the other two. Sebastian didn't get in with the others. As the car pulled off, he went back to where he normally waited for Kurt after the shows. He pulled his Kindle out of his bag and read while he waited. Kurt slid next to him on the bench and kissed him on the cheek.

"Hey, handsome."

Sebastian slipped his Kindle back in his bag and reached around Kurt's back and put his hand on Kurt's waist and pulled him closer. "Hey, gorgeous. You were great. Are you ready to go?"

"Definitely."

They stood up and Sebastian didn't let go. Kurt slipped his arm behind Sebastian and they walked along holding each other close.

"Let's just walk back, okay?" Kurt asked.

"Sure. It's nice out. I think spring has finally sprung."

"I am totally looking forward to going dancing Monday evening after not being able to go for the last nine weeks. And yes, I actually looked on my calendar and counted."

"I'm looking forward to it too. We can do this. It's too much. We both know it is, but there's an end in sight. Six weeks. Finals will be over. We'll be college graduates in six and a half weeks."

Kurt took a deep breath and leaned into Sebastian. "Tomorrow evening when we're home, I'm going to look through my schedule again and see what I can do to streamline anything. I know we planned and scheduled, but now that I've been performing for a week, I need to rethink some of it. I really didn't factor in how late I'd be getting home. I scheduled myself like I did during the rehearsals."

"Working on it again sounds like a good plan."

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

After Kurt knocked, he unlocked the door to Grandma Smythe's flat and let Sebastian go in first. He closed and locked the door behind him. He saw that an early dinner was waiting for them on the table.

He took his place at the table. "I see Isabelle's is keeping her favorite Indian place in business this afternoon."

"Well, I figured someone will eat the leftovers with me." She winked at him.

They passed the cartons around until everyone had what they wanted.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

While everyone cleaned up after the meal, Burt pulled Kurt aside and asked to speak to him into Grandma's Smythe's extra bedroom. Burt grabbed a chair on the way in. He placed it facing the sitting chair in the room. Kurt deferred to Burt to sit in the more comfortable chair.

Before he sat down, he said, "So, that was some show. You were fantastic. You knocked it out of the park, kiddo. I'm so proud of you. You worked hard and you got a professional role." He pulled Kurt into a hug and then let him go. "I can see why you didn't want us, especially Carole, to see it. I think she would cry a whole lot more than I did."

Kurt nodded. They both sat down.

"My heart got ripped out a few times. I saw myself in Evan's mom."

Kurt sat quietly giving Burt a chance to formulate his thoughts.

"Working hard, trying to keep things afloat, all while not paying enough attention to her kid. You didn't push me away. I was just busy and when I came home from work, I let you take care of me instead of the other way around. And I know you considered ending it all. To my knowledge, you never actually tried."

"I didn't. I knew how much it would hurt you and I could never bring myself to do anything that would cause you pain. I'm not upset about taking care of you and the house. You worked hard and it needed done."

"And that scene with Connor shoving you. I know the other guys shoved you around like that and worse. That can't be easy for you to go through every night. Being reminded of stuff you wanted to leave behind."

"I'm not going to lie and say that it's easy. But I'm going to go see my counselor again to help deal with the lingering ghosts from my past."

"That's good. I'm glad you have someone to talk to."

"And Sebastian is amazing. Really."

"You don't regret moving forward so quickly?"

"Not at all. Being with him is really relaxing and calming. But it's also exciting and fun. You asking me that makes me wonder why you're asking. I thought this was already settled."

"Don't mind me. I'm just being a ninny of a dad. You'll understand if you have a kid and they married. You'll feel like it's just been a few years since you were trying to keep them from crossing the street without you."

"I get it. Time speeds up the older you get. I think it's because we require too much of ourselves. We're always figuring and calculating and planning for everything on our schedules weeks in advance. We miss the present by focusing so much on the future and then it seems like time flies, but I think it's because we're not paying attention to our day-to-day lives. I'd imagine that the reverse is true if we ask Grandma Smythe. My bet is that her days feel quite long in comparison to when she was running the law firm."

"You're probably right, but hopefully that iPad you got everyone to get her stuff for will keep her more occupied than she has been lately. I'm glad she moved here to be closer to you three. I'm sure she's enjoying it here a lot more than being in that manor in Columbus by herself most of the time."

"She is. She likes it here. She goes down to the Lexington House a couple of times a week when they have the Casino Cafés. She's quite the card shark."

Burt chuckled. "I bet she is. Just make sure you keep people in your life to offset the sadness of being in that musical. I thought you were great, but it's really intense and being that character for so many hours a day would be a weighty thing to do. Especially when you have to do it twice in the same day."

"Like today."

"Yeah, like today."

"So, even though it was tough to watch, you're glad you came?"

"Yeah. I really am. I guess over the years, the only musicals I had any knowledge of were the old ones that you and your mom watched and then you continued to watch. I've not been to a bunch of live performances, so honestly until you said something about it not being a good fit for Carole, I had never considered that the show would be about teen suicide and loneliness and wanting to be included."

"There are plays and musicals about all sorts of things. I told you what the play in the fall was about."

"Yeah. I guess people need to get their feelings out in different ways. I put all of mine into tearing cars apart and putting them back together."

"That can be very cathartic. I've done it before."

Burt chuckled. "I miss having you around the shop and being part of my life. I know you've grown up and moved on, but I still miss you."

"I miss you too. There are times when I ask myself why I want to do this. Sebastian and I have talked about it a lot of times. I guess we'll see whether it's what I really want to do after I've done it long enough to know. And I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that as soon as the semester ends, I'll be brushing up on my automotive knowledge so that I can renew my certifications. I don't want to let them expire. Who knows when I might decide that working in a shop will be a lucrative, stress-relieving way to pay my bills?"

"It pays better than asking people 'Do you want fries with that?' or waiting tables."

"It definitely does. Sam did well at the coffee shop, but he's adorable and young. I'm sure the less hot, older baristas don't do as well on the tips."

"Well, use what you've got while you've got it, right?"

"Dad!" Kurt said, indignantly.

"What, bud? I'm not too old to remember flirting with the teen waitresses to try to get a free drink or a free dessert."

"I'm scandalized," Kurt said with mock self-righteousness.

Burt cackled. "You can't tell me that you've never flirted even a little to get a guy to buy you a drink."

"I have not. Honest. Blaine publicly accused me of cheating on him for texting with a guy for like three days. Can you imagine his response to me accepting a drink from a guy at a bar? Plus, the only place I went like that was once with everyone after Rachel's opening night as Fanny. Going out to places like that is expensive. There are cover charges most places and then the alcohol is outrageously expensive. Dental floss budgets do not allow for wasting money and my schedule was far to crammed full of stuff I had to do to have time to waste in a club."

"Do you ever relax and just let your hair down and let go?"

"I do. In our living room, where I'm completely free to be myself. Sebastian and I snuggle up in the corner of the sofa and read."

Burt chortled. "Sorry, bud. Reading? Very scandalous," he teased.

"Mmm hmm. It is SOME places. We dance, we talk, and I relax and let go. He's… I don't know how to explain it. I feel both completely relaxed and re-energized with just a look and even more so with a gentle touch from him. It's just this most amazing feeling."

"I'm glad for you. I really am. This is what I wanted for you. I mistakenly thought your issues with Blaine were the typical "You left the milk out to spoil' or 'You left the car lights on and the battery is dead now' kind of issues that every couple has at some point. I thought you had what you have now, and that you were just hitting bumps in the road because you were so far apart."

"I never for one minute felt like I do with Sebastian when I was with him. I explained it to Sebastian. I told you this too. I was performing all the time. There was Vogue Kurt, NYADA Kurt, Blaine's boyfriend Kurt, Rachel's best friend Kurt, diner Kurt, and on and on. I was always playing the role of 'Kurt' in reference to someone or something else."

"And now, you're just Kurt."

"I am. I'm me and Sebastian is himself. We aren't pretending to be something we aren't. Sebastian and I are good together, Dad. Just believe me and trust me. I know it's hard because I kept things from you for so long, but I'm being truthful with you. Think about how calm I am around him. Just watch and you'll see. I know you're concerned because of the way you saw me act in the musical. But keep in mind that I'm portraying someone 5 years younger than me. I'm supposed to sound broken and vulnerable. Evan has an anxiety disorder. He made a bad decision and continues to pile more and more bad decisions on top of the first. Something I know about firsthand. So, I have a lot of experience to bring to the role to help me portray the character believably. But I'm not a high school student anymore. I'm an adult. I'm very happily married. And I've almost finished college – six more weeks. I was acting. Just remember that."

Burt nodded. "I will do my best. You were very convincing."

"Thank you." His phone alarm went off. "I have to get going. I have to be back at the theater in a half-hour. I at least want to go sit with everyone for a little bit. I know Sam is leaving when I do, so I can stay a little longer since his truck is down in the parking garage." Kurt got up and grabbed the chair.

Burt opened the door and they went back into the living area. Kurt put the chair up to the table and walked over to the sofa. He sat down between Sebastian and Sam, even though there wasn't really room for him. He squished in between them, making them both laugh. He slipped his hand into Sebastian's, interlacing their fingers.

Grandma Smythe spoke up. "Sam was just showing us some of his pieces from school."

"Ooh. I want to see," Kurt said.

Sam took his phone out of his pocket and opened the folder with his art pieces in it and wrapped his arm around Kurt's shoulders. Kurt leaned in and looked at each one making comments on all of them. He concluded with, "I like all of them."

Sam laughed. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry to say that I'm going to have to get going," Kurt said. He stood up, but didn't let go of Sebastian's hand.

Sebastian stood up too. Kurt led him to the closet area where no one could see them and he kissed him. "I love you. I'll see you later." He kissed him once more. He nuzzled into Sebastian neck and took a deep breath. "Have fun shopping with everyone. Maybe you can find us some lightweight onesies. Our fleece onsies are getting too heavy to wear."

"I'll see what I can find. I may need to order some like I did the ones we have." He kissed Kurt gently. "I love you, mon feu."

Kurt nodded and stepped away. He called out, "Sam?"

"Coming."

Sebastian went back to sit down with everyone and Sam met Kurt by the door. They waved on their way out.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

"You were really terrific," Sam said on the way down in the elevator.

"Thanks. I'm glad you came today."

"Me too."

"You've gotten a lot of pieces done this year. You're really good. Are you enjoying going to the classes?"

"I am. I've learned a lot and I really do like it. I haven't figured out how this can be a career, but I'm enjoying myself for now. I haven't done that in quite a while, so I'm just enjoying the now for a while."

"Me too."

"I can see the happiness oozing off of you. I'm glad for you."

They got out when the doors opened. Sam unlocked his truck and they climbed in. He drove Kurt back to the theater.

"I'd like to go somewhere again, the three of us. I know you can't do much with the show schedule, but maybe as soon as school is out, we can work out a 48-hour vacation at the beach. I can be here to pick you up after the Sunday matinee and we can head to the beach right then. I can drive you back Tuesday in time for you to be at the theater before you show."

"Sounds great. We'll work it out somehow. I miss you."

It didn't take long to get to the theater. Kurt slid to the center of the truck and hugged Sam before he got out. He waved as Sam drove off.

"That was definitely not your husband," Mark teased, as he opened the door and let Kurt go through.

"Definitely not. That was my best friend, Sam. He came into town to see the show and to celebrate Sebastian's great grandma's birthday with our combined families."

"Is he Sebastian's cousin or something?"

"No. Sebastian's great grandma 'adopted' both of us. Sebastian is her only great grandson. She decided that she needed more. She was 87 at the time. It's not polite to argue with 87-year-olds."

"I suppose not," Mark laughed.

"Plus we don't have any great grandparents of our own, so it's fun. She's a hoot. Between her daughter and son-in-law, granddaughter, and the rest of us, we got her set up with an iPad pro and all the stuff she needs to go with it. She took to it like a millennial."

"She sounds fun."

"She is. Ready to do this again?"

"The days we do two shows are long, but I'm ready."

Kurt opened their dressing room and let Mark step in.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

Monday at lunch, Kurt got a text indicating that his last afternoon class had been cancelled. He left for home right after his class after lunch. He changed into a pair of casual jeans, his Doctor Who hoodie, and his gray plaid boots. He fixed his hair quickly. He grabbed their picnic blanket and folded it to fit in his larger messenger bag, took a quick photo of Sebastian's Monday afternoon schedule, and scurried back out the door in less than 10 minutes.

He made it to Columbia about 20 minutes before Sebastian's last class was scheduled to let out. He sat down on the floor across from the door and took his iPad out to study the monologue he needed to learn. He set his alarm on his iPad to vibrate in 18 minutes. When it went off, he put it away, stood up and waited. Sebastian came out the door, talking to someone and abruptly stopped.

"Kurt!" He crossed the hall in an instant and hugged Kurt. "You're here!"

"I am."

The guy Sebastian had been talking to hung back, but hadn't left.

Sebastian motioned for him to come closer. "Avery, this is Kurt."

Avery extended his hand and Kurt reached out and they shook hands.

"It's nice to meet you."

"You, too," Kurt said.

"Look, we'll talk about this tomorrow," Avery said, as he held up a book.

"Okay, sure."

Avery smiled at Kurt and waved as he walked off.

"You've never come here before."

"I never had time. My last class got cancelled this afternoon and here I am. I didn't mean to ruin a study date."

"It's fine. He's in one of my classes tomorrow morning too. We can talk about it after that." He hugged Kurt tight. "I can't believe you're here. Come on. I'm going to show you around." He paused long enough to slide his backpack around and put what he had been holding inside. He zipped it up and put it on before taking Kurt's hand. A huge grin spread across his face. He stepped closer to Kurt and kissed him. They walked out of the building hand in hand. The grin didn't fade much and each time he looked at Kurt it spread back across his face.

Kurt hadn't realized what a big deal it would be to Sebastian for him to visit him on campus. He felt bad that they had been close friends for over a year and then boyfriends and husbands and he had never made it to the Columbia campus just to visit Sebastian. Kurt smiled back at him and winked.

"There's this little place that has the best smoothies. Let's go there and split one."

"Sure. That sounds really good. I brought our picnic blanket. I thought maybe you'd know of a nice green place we could lie out in the grass and enjoy the weather for a bit."

"Ooh. There are several nice green places. I'll think while we walk to get the smoothie." He continued to talk and tell Kurt about places as they walked through campus hand in hand.

Fifteen minutes later, they spread the picnic blanket out near Wallach Hall and lay down on their stomachs side by side and shared the smoothie.

"Sam wants the three of us to go on vacation together again. He's got this idea for a 48-hour beach vacation when school gets out."

"Sounds fun."

"It does. I'm glad it's finally warmed up. I've missed being outside. Plus, I just spend too much time indoors anyway now. After I quite working at Vogue, I've not been walking in the afternoons anymore. I've been finding little quiet places in the buildings at NYADA where I can hole up and study and I spend time in the windowless practice rooms so I don't fall behind." He extended his right arm and bent it at the elbow, using his upper arm as a pillow with his head facing towards Sebastian.

Sebastian finished the smoothie and mirrored Kurt's position. He reached out for Kurt's hand and intertwined their fingers. He looked Kurt in the eyes and grinned again, something Kurt hadn't seen enough of in quite a while. Kurt winked at him, causing him to smile even more.

"So, what else did he say about this vacation he wants to go on?"

"Nothing really. He just was trying to come up with a way for us to get away together with my crazy schedule now. So, he said he'd drive here and pick us up right after a Sunday matinee and bring us back in time to be at the Theater on Tuesday for the show."

"Well, we could get two days in at the beach if it's nice. That would be fun. Or a day at the beach and a day at an aquarium or something."

"That reminds me that I need to Skype Adam tonight. I need to talk to him about figuring out another time of day that works for him. Since I've not been coming home for dinner, I've missed Skyping with him for like a month. I feel terrible about it. I told him how much I wanted the two of us to stay friends and I've dropped the ball. I've talked to him, but just briefly each week. I need a new scheduled time. Have you kept in contact with him?"

"Yes. I still Skype with him at the normal time when you're at the theater."

"Oh, good. At least we're not both dropping the ball."

"He doesn't think you've dropped the ball. He knows that a 5-hour time difference on top of your crazy schedule is the problem, not you."

"I hope so." Kurt closed his eyes and relaxed.

Sebastian stroked his thumb gently across Kurt's. "I'm going to read the chapter I need to read while you rest, okay? I just need to get my book out and slip my hoodie off to use as a pillow." Sebastian got comfortable and slipped his hand back into Kurt's and read.

When Kurt woke up about 45 minutes later, Sebastian was lying across from him watching him. He smiled and stretched a bit.

"You looked very peaceful."

"I always do when I'm with you." He brought Sebastian hand up to his mouth and kissed his knuckles. "Did you read what you needed to?"

"Yep. I finished about five minutes ago."

Kurt stretched more and scooted closer to Sebastian. "How open minded are people on campus. If I kiss you, will people react badly?"

"Not that I know of." He scooted towards Kurt and kissed him chastely. "So, what do you want to do now that you got to nap while sunbathing?"

Kurt laughed. "We're not in the direct sun."

Sebastian smirked. "Irrelevant detail."

Kurt chuckled and sat up. "Let's go out dancing earlier than we usually do. It's not quite as lively, but I'd like to go home and have some time left to just snuggle and talk and kiss."

"Done and done." He put his book back in his backpack and grabbed the smoothie cup.

Kurt shook the blanket, folded it back up, and put it in his bag. He put the bag on crossbody style and reached out for Sebastian's hand. They walked to the edge of campus. Sebastian dropped the cup in a trash bin.

"How about we just walk home instead of taking the subway or a bus. It's so nice out."

"Sure." Sebastian slipped his other arm through the strap and adjusted his backpack. He reached out and took Kurt's hand again, interlacing their fingers.

As they walked along the street, Kurt pointed out different places. "Ethiopian food. I have no idea what that would taste like, buy maybe we could try it sometime. Caribbean food sounds interesting too. I don't think we could eat at every restaurant in the City even if we went somewhere new for dinner every day for the rest of our lives."

"Probably not. New ones open and others close, on top of the fact that there are so many to start with. But we could do a search and make a list of places within a half-mile of our flat and organize it by price range and start trying the ones we can afford once a week. Or we could try a new place near Taj every Monday evening either before we go dancing."

Kurt squeezed his hand. "Let's do it, either way. We can look in both areas. We may not have time to make the list until school gets out, but I think it sounds fun."

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

Kurt came out of the bathroom wearing a crimson button-up shirt with a tiny black diamond pattern, black slim-fit dress slacks with plenty of flex to the fabric, the black dance shoes, and a black belt.

Sebastian wolf whistled. "I don't own a single thing that would make me come close to looking as hot as you do."

"Mmm. We'll see." Kurt looked through Sebastian's side of the closet and pulled out a black button-up shirt with a mini fleur-de-lis pattern, charcoal gray slacks, and a black belt.

Sebastian slipped the pants on and then the shirt. He tucked it in and put the belt on. He grabbed his shoes, did a cat walk pose, turned and strutted to the bed to sit down and put the shoes on.

"Very nice. From the front AND the back." Kurt winked at him.

Sebastian's faced lit up. "As long as you think so, I'm good." He finished tying his shoes. "Ready?"

"Almost." He undid his belt and slipped the travel wallet on and tucked it in with his ID, his debit card, and a little cash.

Sebastian grabbed his and did the same.

"Let's go! I'm really excited. This is the first time we've gone out dancing since we got married."

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

"Long time, no see," the server said, as she seated them. "I didn't know if you'd be back in at all. You're great as Evan."

"Oh, you came to the show?" Kurt asked.

"Me and a group of my friends. One of them went and said how amazing it was, so we all went. She was right. We all loved it, but we couldn't hang around to do the stage door thing. We all had early classes the next morning. It took me a second to place how I knew you that night because you look really different in those plain clothes you wear in the show."

Kurt chuckled. "Yeah, plain isn't really my thing."

"Well, you pulled off 'high school boy with an anxiety disorder' quite well. Very different from your more let's say 'outgoing' personality that we see here on the dance floor."

"I'm glad that you and your friends enjoyed it."

"Can I take a selfie of the two of us? They'll all be super jealous."

"Sure." Kurt got up and stood next to her and let her take the picture.

"Thanks. I'll get your order and quit pestering you." She wrote it down and left.

"Well, now you're famous," Sebastian said. He reached out and took Kurt's hand.

"Now, one server recognized me," he sassed back. "I'm not sure I'm ready to give up my anonymity, but one selfie away from the theater and I've opened a can of worms. I'm not sure I'll be able to eat in public. The thought of people snapping secret shots of me eating makes me really uncomfortable. I hadn't ever really given it a lot of thought. I'll be sure to mail order anything that I purchase that I don't want to be common knowledge."

"That's an interesting point that I hadn't considered either. We're going to have to live through the rumors that you're secretly in love with Madison and that you're cheating on me. Or that you married me for my money, but you're actually in love with Madison."

Kurt took a deep breath. "Someone will eventually dig and find a video of me marrying Blaine. Madison was there, too. I fled after the wedding and went to DC. When the school closed down, she went back to DC to live with her parents. She got the role there. I didn't audition for the role, you know. Will there be rumors that my paramour got me the role?"

Sebastian shook his head and rolled his eyes. "People will make stuff up no matter what."

"Maybe I should start using my Instagram account and we can post selfies from the places we go and things we do, but we'll wait a few days to post them."

"Sure. You can post some older ones to get it started, like the two of us in Paris and different places around the city."

"A brief photo history."

Their server put their food on the table. They thanked her and started to eat. They made up ridiculous rumors to entertain themselves. When they finished eating, they made their way out to the dance floor.

Kurt stepped into Sebastian's embrace and they slow-danced to the Spanish guitar music. It wasn't much longer before the tempo of the music began to pick up and they transitioned into ballroom dancing, and then the Tango as more people arrived. They stayed and danced for an hour.

{]:[} {]:[} {]:[} {]:[}

"Are your eyes," Sebastian asked, as he opened the bathroom door just a little.

Kurt turned his head toward the door with his eyes closed.

Sebastian stepped into the room and said, "Open them."

"Those are cute. The pale gray with darker gray stripes looks good on you." He reached out and touched the onesie that Sebastian had on. "Soft too." He ran his hand along Sebastian's leg. "Oh, and look, it has a 2-way zipper just like our fleece ones. How very useful." He looked up at Sebastian and winked.

"Very. It's actually the feature I looked for after finding the ones with zippers instead of buttons. I did not want to have to mess with 15 tiny buttons."

Kurt chuckled. "Well, I approve. You look adorable. Very snuggle-able."

"Close your eyes again."

Sebastian opened their dresser and pulled out a second pair. "Open them."

"Ooh. Mine are gray camo. I like them." He took them out of Sebastian's hand and put them on. "They're very soft. You did a great job. I didn't really think you'd find some so quickly." He pecked Sebastian on the lips.

"Ready to go snuggle on the sofa and watch the movie?"

"Mmm hmm. After I give you a few more appreciative kisses." He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around Sebastian and kissed him passtionately. "Snuggles." He stepped back and skipped off to the living room.

"You're so much fun." Sebastian closed the distance between them and picked him up bridal style and spun him around. He grabbed the pillows and fluffed them in the corner and climbed over the ottoman and spread his legs apart leaving room for Kurt to sit between his legs and recline on his chest.

Kurt grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, giving him enough light to see by once he turned the light off. He flipped the switch and climbed over the ottoman and into his spot. They rearranged until they were both comfortable. Kurt picked a French movie and pressed play. He proceeded to completely ignore the movie and kiss Sebastian.

Catching his breath, Sebastian said, "I thought you wanted to watch a movie."

"'Watch' might have been a bit hyperbolic. What I meant was that I want to kiss you while we snuggle and the movie we've already watched twice plays in the background."

He smiled and said, "A bit of hyperbole and a lot of kisses. An English major's delight," he teased, as he pressed his lips back to Kurt's.