Blaine was still mentally lamenting his poor life choices when he heard a polite knock, and Kurt came into the room with a soft smile and an enquiry as to why he'd stayed away for so long.
Well, he had a point there. It wasn't very polite, when you stayed somewhere as a guest, to hole yourself up in your room and completely ignore your hosts.
So Blaine apologized, and got up to go downstairs again, but Kurt made no move to leave. Instead, they got talking, and straight up skipped the superficial stuff. Soon, they were unburdening their hearts to each other, to the point of ugly crying. Well, in Blaine's case. There was no ugly where Kurt Hummel was involved.
After a cathartic crying jag and comforting hugs, they switched to more upbeat topics, but Blaine, exhausted from all the emotion, not to mention the snowball fight, was soon struggling to keep his eyes open, and drifted off to the sound of Kurt's lovely voice.
When he woke up, it was dark in the room, and he heard someone stomp down the stairs.
I slept the afternoon away…
He sat up, rubbing his eyes, and noticed Kurt was lying next to him, still sleeping.
Blaine hesitated, but then gently caressed Kurt's jaw and stroked his arm until he started to react.
Kurt blinked his eyes open slowly.
"Sorry for waking you," Blaine whispered, "but if you sleep too long during the day, you won't be able to sleep tonight."
Kurt sat up, stretched and yawned.
Blaine saw his shirt ride up and lost his train of thought for a second. When he tuned back in to the conversation, he heard Kurt say, "… and I don't even want to know what my father thinks we're doing up here! Let's go downstairs, we can help with dinner."
But when they reached the kitchen, dinner was ready to be served.
"I didn't know it was so late already," Kurt said to Carole, sounding apologetic, but she waved it off as them being tired from the snowball fight.
During dinner, Finn announced he'd be inviting his girlfriend to come over the day after Christmas.
"Cathy's coming?" Kurt asked. "Let us know what she likes to eat, okay? Her favorite dish and dessert, so we can make it for her. Oh, I'm so glad I finally get to meet her after hearing so much about her. How did her teacher training with the special needs kids go?"
Finn beamed and started to tell Kurt all about it.
Blaine smiled softly at their enthusiasm. He just loved the way this family was so supportive of each other.
After dinner, Finn started the first Die Hard movie, and Kurt offered to do stack the dishwasher and wash up the pots and pans. Blaine helped him bring everything to the kitchen and load the machine, and then grabbed a tea towel to dry as Kurt started washing up the rest.
"Finn will want to see at least two of those movies," Kurt told Blaine. "And I don't care for them. So I'm not going to hurry with the dishes. The more I miss, the better."
True to his word, Kurt dawdled, telling Blaine about the oven dish that originally belonged to his great-grandmother – "Look, it has her initials and my great-grandfather's" – and about how everyone in his family had fought to get it when she died, but it had been the youngest grandchild who inherited it, Kurt's mother Elizabeth. "She had the same initials, you see, and her groom had the right initials too. That's what Granny Eileen found most important. But the family didn't agree, and some of them have never spoken to my mother again for the rest of their lives."
"Just for an oven dish?"
"Just for an oven dish. It's antique, and apparently worth a lot of money." Kurt sent Blaine a mischievous smile and added, "I think my relatives would be horrified that we actually use it instead of putting it under glass as a museum piece."
"I'm sure your Granny Eileen would be glad that you use it."
"I like to think so too."
The precious oven dish came very close to being broken when Finn startled the both of them by sticking his head inside the door and yelling that he wanted snacks, but Blaine managed to hold on to it with his fingertips. He carefully set it on the counter to continue drying it, while Kurt scolded Finn for scaring them and told him he'd have to wait until the dishes were done, and then Kurt would whip up a batch of banana oatmeal cookies.
Finn flashed him a smile and disappeared again with a "Thanks, bro, you're the best."
Kurt shook his head and rolled his eyes at his brother, but hummed happily as he finished the last of the dishes and then went to the pantry for the staples he needed.
"You can mash the bananas," Kurt said, handing him a bowl and a fork. "Two bananas should do it."
All that Kurt added to the bananas was two packets of quick oats and two handfuls of chocolate chips.
"No eggs?" Blaine asked. "No flour?"
Kurt grinned. "Nope. Easiest recipe ever. Just mix it all, put spoonfuls of it on a baking tray and flatten them into a cookie shape, bake for fifteen minutes and you've got cookies."
"I need to remember this one."
"Of course, we're not going to tell Finn they only take twenty minutes to make, tops."
"Right."
"Or that I'm in fact making two batches."
Blaine nodded slowly.
"And I'm going to make us some chamomile tea, and we're eating the first batch before bringing the others to Finn."
The mischief was there on Kurt's face again, and Blaine couldn't help laughing.
"Clever."
Kurt shrugged. "Necessary. Finn would eat them all in five seconds and we'd be left with only crumbs."
Kurt's phone chimed, and when he checked the message, he whooped with joy. "Rachel is hosting a New Year's Eve party again. Can't wait to see everyone. Oh, I hope Mercedes will be there, it's been too long! Finn! FINN!"
Kurt ran out of the kitchen, presumably to go tell Finn about the party, leaving Blaine to scoop out the cookie dough and put it in the oven.
By the time Kurt came back, the cookies were cooling on a rack and the kitchen was spic and span. Blaine had also made a pot of chamomile tea, like Kurt requested.
"Oh, thank you, sweetie," Kurt said, pouring them both a cup of tea and taking a cookie. "Sorry for disappearing on you, but I wanted to ask Finn if he's going too. He's an ex of Rachel's, so I wasn't quite sure. But he's going. With Cathy."
"So we're going too?" Blaine surmised. "Who else will be there, other than Finn and his girlfriend? Tell me about them."
Kurt needed no more prompting, and while he drank tea and ate cookies, Blaine heard all about a high school glee club with an obscene name, where Kurt had made life-long friends.
About half an hour later, Finn came to look for his cookies himself, seeing as Kurt had totally forgotten to bring him some. There were only six cookies left, and apparently, that wasn't enough for Finn, who went rummaging in the pantry, resurfacing with a big bag of cheese puffs.
Kurt was still telling Blaine about all of his friends, and Finn laughed. "Better warn Blaine that they're all a bit crazy. And nosy. You've never brought a boyfriend to one of these parties, but let me tell you, they won't leave Blaine alone. They'll want to know everything about him. How you met. When you're planning on getting married, how many children you want, and bla, bla, bla. And Rachel is already on her high horse because apparently, you haven't told her about Blaine yet, and she fancies herself your BEST FRIEND and can't believe you would do this to her."
Blaine looked at Finn with wide eyes.
Uh-oh. We had better coordinate stories.
Kurt shrugged it off. "I might have told Rachel if she'd listen to me for just five minutes, but she never does. Either she's blathering on and on, and I can't get a word in edgewise, or she's in a hurry and has no time to talk. So it's her own fault, and you can tell her that."
"Nuh-uh. Took us long enough to get back to being friendly. I don't want her to hate my guts again. You can tell her yourself."
"Will do."
Finn went back to the living room with his snacks, and Blaine directed his wide-eyed stare at Kurt now. "What are we going to tell them?"