What Brings Us Closer Together

by CrazedLunatic

When Kurt is attacked, Blaine instantly leaves college to take care of him. With one decision, their entire relationship is changed and their futures reshaped. It also makes everyone around them realize just how close they really are. AU.

24. Chapter 24

"That kid has barely said a peep all day. He knows he can talk and we won't kill him, right?" Burt asked Kurt several weeks later. It was the first Friday of the boy's winter break and the first day they would be staying at home with Carole and Burt (and, of course, the baby). Because they drove Kurt's car, Blaine had decided to just hang out all day at the garage. Although Kurt was working in the office mostly and was able to talk while he did paperwork, the older boy's nose had been buried in his book nearly the entire time.

"Oh, he knows. He's wanted to read that book for six months, though." Kurt shrugged, glancing towards the corner of the room where his boyfriend was curled up in a plastic chair and lost in a whole other world. "He wanted to start it last night before bed, but I wouldn't let him. Otherwise he'd have been up all night. So we compromised. I drove while he read."

"You sure he isn't just trying to keep out of the way?"

"Blaine." Kurt said loudly, knowing he would get no response. His boyfriend didn't even look up from the book. "Blaine. Blaine, Blaine, Blaine. Blaine, if you look up I'll make you brownies tonight. And buy you Taco Bell every day for a week. And let you have the big TV on Sunday nights. Blaine, Blaine, Blaine."

Blaine still didn't look up, just frowned at his book and flipped the page.

"See? He's off in some other land right now. Remember that huge storm in August? With all the lightening that caused tornadoes in places? He read through the entire thing, Dad. And when he finished his book he looked outside and was like, 'Oh, I didn't even hear it raining!'" Kurt laughed, sorting several folders and then sticking them into a filing cabinet. As frustrating as it could be to get Blaine's attention when he was reading, Kurt had to admit that he thought it was absolutely adorable how Blaine could get so lost in his books.

"Sometimes I wonder if he's comfortable around us. And you said he was anxious about the break." Burt confessed, still eyeing Blaine.

"No, he's nervous about meeting his brother. They talk on Facebook some and on the phone every once in a while, but he's nervous about actually seeing him again in person." Kurt explained quickly. "He even wanted to leave yesterday when he got in from his final, but I still had to get all of my baking recipes together and stuff. He's perfectly comfortable."

"Good." His father grunted and said loudly, "Hey, kid, you hungry?"

"No thanks!" Blaine called, not even looking up from his book.

"What's he reading that's so good?" Jeff asked coming into the office. He was pushing his sleeves up as he walked with one hand and grabbing his phone with the other.

"Get back out there and do your job." Burt sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"You know me, boss. Getting too antsy for Santa Claus to work!" Jeff grinned, stopping to mess up a stack of papers that Kurt had neatly set up.

"Jeff!" Kurt exclaimed. "Go do your shenanigans on someone's transmission or something! These papers are important!"

"More important that someone's transmission?" Jeff laughed loudly. "Do you realize how bogus what you just said is, Little Burt?"

"Why do you hire these people, Dad?" Kurt just sighed and straightened his pile. "Jeff, don't you have a child to steal candy from or something?"

"My wife got mad at me the last time I did that."

"No. Your wife got mad she's married to a nuisance like you."

There was a loud crash from the garage and someone saying "Whoops! I didn't do it!"

"How does he read through that?" Burt exclaimed, gesturing at Blaine who hadn't even flinched at the loud noise that had made everyone else in the room jump half a foot.

"All that gel must have gotten lodged in his ears." Jeff chucked at his joke.

Blaine looked up at that and stuck his lower lip out, looking like a wounded puppy.

"Oh, Blaine." Kurt laughed and got up from the desk, moving towards his pouting boyfriend. "Your hair looks fine. Jeff's main goal in life is to insult people, remember?"

"I'm going to see what that noise was." Burt said gruffly, prodding Jeff out of the room and saying, "Don't be mean to my son's boyfriend or I'll give him your Christmas bonus."

"Is that legal, Burt?" The boys heard him ask.

"I'll make it legal."

Kurt climbed onto Blaine's lap and carefully closed his book, making sure not to bend any pages. "Hello there, Blaine Anderson."

"Hi, Kurt." Blaine smiled and slid his arms around his boyfriend's thin waist.

"I'm almost done with the paperwork. Do you want to hang around here with Dad until close or do you want to go home and see Carole and Melody?"

"I want to go home and see Carole." Blaine said, getting a silly smile on his face. He really adored Kurt's stepmother. Kurt knew that they still had almost daily chats on the phone, even if it was just for five minutes while Blaine walked from one building on UK's campus to another. He also know that Blaine really missed being able to eat breakfast alone with her and seeing her every day in general. To be completely honest, she had become a very important part of his life and anyone could easily see that.

"I'm glad you and Carole get along so well." Kurt smiled and touched Blaine's cheek, blue eyes on him. "She's pretty amazing, isn't she?"

"She is." Blaine agreed, nodding very seriously.

Kurt leaned forward, kissing Blaine's forehead. It wasn't often that the boys got time to just be together like this, but they planned to spend as much of their winter breaks together as humanly possible to make up for that fact. The only thing that made both boys feel a little better about the lack of quality time spent together was the fact that it was because of school and the fact that they had both gotten excellent grades. Well, they knew for a fact that Blaine got amazing grades and Kurt would know by the next night. "I'm so proud of you, Blaine. I can't believe your grades this semester. And you took seven classes… I am so proud of you."

Blaine positively beamed, sitting up a little straighter. "It was nothing."

The younger boy leaned back slightly to look at his boyfriend, mouth hanging open a bit in shock. "Blaine, you got seven A's. In one semester. I can't wait to tell Dad. He'll probably take the family out to dinner to celebrate."

"You don't have to tell him, Kurt." His boyfriend said bashfully.

"He's paying. He should know that he is putting that money to good use." Kurt protested. "Straight A's. In college. That is ridiculous, babe. I'm so proud of you."

"It's not that big of a deal." Blaine shrugged, but he still had an embarrassed smile on his face. "It's just reading and writing mostly."

"So? It's still very good. You're just so smart." Kurt stroked his cheek. "I was nervous that you wouldn't do good where you took so many classes… I didn't think you'd do badly, but I thought you'd get a few B's in the mix… but, wow. Your grades are so good, babe."

Blaine smiled and pressed their foreheads together. "I'm sure your grades will be just as good when they're released."

"Maybe." Kurt smiled back, fingers still on his face. He knew most of them would, but at least one class was pretty up in the air. Depending on how he did on the final could either make him or break him. There would be no in-between. But, as Blaine kept reminding him, what's done was done and there was nothing he could do to change it. There was really no point in worrying, so instead he was trying to just enjoy himself and the six stress-free weeks that lay ahead. "Are you almost done with your book?"

"It's so good!" The older boy said excitedly. "Do you think I looked rude reading all day?"

"No, just antisocial." Kurt giggled and buried his face in Blaine's neck. "Dad was worried you felt uncomfortable."

"Psht. Why would I be uncomfortable?" Blaine waved his hand. This was funny because at the same time last year, Blaine would still get a little nervous if he walked into the kitchen alone to get Kurt a glass of water and the man was also in there alone. If there was one thing that made Kurt immensely happy about the fact that Blaine left UK to move in with him, it was how close Blaine had become with his family. Before his attack he hadn't known intimate details of the lack of familial relationships in Blaine's life, but he was so grateful that Blaine meshed so well with his own family. Because he was more than willing to share them with his boyfriend. He loved that Blaine had found a support system in them, because even if they were Kurt's family, they were now Blaine's too. He didn't know how to explain that though, so he just smiled at his boyfriend.

"So what's on the agenda after dinner?" Blaine questioned after a while, eyes on Kurt.

"Well I figured you, Dad, and Finn could stay home and watch that football game."

"You're going out with Mercedes and Rachel, aren't you?" Blaine pouted.

"Quinn's in town too. We're going shopping." Kurt's eyes lit up "I haven't been shopping in ages. Real shopping at least."

"Of course." Blaine laughed a bit, but very quickly resumed his pouting.

"We can spend time together tomorrow. I promise."

"Only if you get up early with me and go to Westerville."

"What? Why?" Kurt frowned, looking confused. "Why are you going all the way out there?"

Blaine pressed their foreheads together. "I'm going to see Wes and his family, remember? That's where they actually live. But you're more than welcome to come, Kurt."

"I don't know… I haven't met them before. They might not want to meet me." Kurt pursed his lips together. He wasn't normally one to get nervous about meeting people, but he knew how much Wes' family had done for Blaine. In a way, it would be harder to meet them than he imagined any real introduction with Blaine's family would have been. There would have been serious pressure to be liked by Wes' family and Kurt had a… strong personality. People tended to not like or understand him at times. It had always been that way. Normally it wouldn't bother him, but Blaine considered Wes' family special and because of that it made Kurt anxious.

"Wes' mother would be absolutely thrilled to meet you. You didn't have anything to do until the end of the day, right?" This time Blaine's eyes were the ones to light up and he smiled widely at his younger boyfriend.

"Well, I did…" Kurt began hesitantly. "But if you were willing to help me, I could probably get away with going to Westerville with you."

"And what would that be?" Blaine questioned. "I've already told you five times. I'm not dressing up like one of Santa's elves. I'm only half an inch shorter than you and I'm contemplating trying to stretch myself out so I won't be subject to this next year."

"How would that be helping me out?" Kurt giggled a bit. "No. I'm going to make some cupcakes. They take hours to decorate them, but if you helped…"

"I can't do that." Blaine said quickly. "I know how to make breakfast and No Bake cookies and that is it. The rare time you get me to make dinner and it doesn't explode is a miracle."

"You just don't know how to decorate things because you've never tried. But it's okay, I'm a trained professional. I've been doing this since I was four. And if you think we're going to have kids and not all sit around the table decorating cakes and cookies, then you are highly mistaken, Blaine Anderson."

"You can just stay home. I'll go alone tomorrow." Blaine began wringing his hands together nervously. He was not a fan of being thrown into family type stuff with his knowledge. Usually if you sprang it on him, he'd deal just fine. But if you warned him and gave him time to think, he would work himself into a frenzy and contemplate every single thing that could go wrong.

"You cannot tell me you're scared to decorate cupcakes. It's easy." Kurt leaned back again to look at his boyfriend. "No one will make fun of you. Well, not too much."

"I'm just not used to this kind of stuff… We didn't even do this stuff when I was… well, before…" Blaine mumbled and let his voice trail off. "I never did a whole lot of family oriented things. Even when we'd go and tour other countries, it would usually be me wandering off on my own when Dad did work things and mom went shopping."

"I realize this. But I think that since you're a part of my family now, you have to start getting used to having a real family." Kurt leaned down, kissing his forehead. "Because Dad will get out the shotgun or the flamethrower if you ever try to leave. You're a prisoner of war, Blaine. We've stolen you from the awful Andersons and you're stuck here."

"I don't know…"

"Come on. Carole will help. Maybe even Finn, if he's around." The younger boy ran his fingers through his boyfriend's hair, not even caring about the gel. In his opinion Blaine deserved it for all of the time he messed up Kurt's hair.

"That's even worse. If you see me mess something up, you still have to love me. Or something."

Kurt couldn't help it. He just laughed loudly and hugged his boyfriend. "Carole would probably marry you if you weren't nineteen and gay, Blaine. I don't think it's possible to mess up decorating a cupcake either. If it looks that bad, we'll just tell them Finn did it."

Blaine snorted. "Don't you mean Melody?"

"No. Finn. You should have seen him trying to icing the cupcakes for our Glee club bake sale. They weren't pretty. There was a reason we only sold Puck's." Kurt kissed his cheek. "I'm going to finish this last stack up and then we'll go, okay?"

"Okay." Blaine reached for his book after Kurt stood.

"Don't get too into it." Kurt warned, taking his previous seat again. "I'll only be like five minutes."

"Oh, fine." Blaine hopped up and wandered around the office, looking around curiously. He had never been in the garage long enough before to really look around the place and he clearly had a few more minutes to waste. It didn't take him long to find a picture of a toddler Kurt and a grin slowly spread across his face. "Aw, so precious."

Kurt glanced up and his mouth dropped open. "Hey! Stop looking at that!"

Blaine picked up the frame and showed him, grinning. "I like your pink shirt."

"I knew I should have Blaine-proofed this room." Kurt muttered, going and attempting to take the picture from him. Blaine held on tightly though, shaking his head. "No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

There was a low whine from the corner of the room and both boys froze and looked across the room to see Kreacher, in his cage and looking particularly miserable.

"Go get your mutt." Blaine said, shielding the picture.

Despite the fact that Kurt was taller, he knew Blaine was stronger and he had no real hope of getting the picture back without bribery or blackmail. It was low, but sometimes you just had to do what you had to do. "I'm getting on your Facebook tonight, Blaine Anderson, if you don't let me have that picture back right now. You know you hate when I look at your cute long hair."

"This isn't over." The older boy said, thrusting the picture out. He wandered to Kreacher's cage and let him out, scooping him up. "Let's give Kurt puppy dog eyes and maybe he'll get done sooner. It's just me and you tonight, bud."

"Finn's home."

Blaine went from pouting to look excited within half a second. "Really?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow he leaves again, but after that trip he'll be back on Christmas Eve."

"Hear that, Kreacher? I don't have to bond with you anymore." Blaine teased as Kreacher licked his face excitedly.

"Poor thing is so starved for interaction that he'll be friendly with you." Kurt snorted, setting the picture down where it had been displayed and returning to the desk once again. The funny thing was that he wasn't even sure which one he was talking to.

"Just hurry up before I get bored, otherwise I'll start the book again. I was at a really good part!"

***WBUCT***

"Wessssley, wake upppppp!" Blaine sang early the next morning, bounding intoWes' room and jumping on his bed.

"Hnnnnnngh."

"Wake up, wake up, wake uppppp."

"Shut up, Anderson." Wes rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head. "Who gave you coffee this early?"

"Wake up, wake up, wake up." Blaine said, sitting up and prodding Wes in the side repeatedly.

"Go bug one of your other friends." The Asian boy moaned.

"Mumma, Wes won't get up!" A toddler screeched, running into the bedroom. She placed her hands on her little hips and angled her leg so her knee was pointing out, her dark eyes narrowed into an adorable glare. This was only made more adorable by the fact that her hair was very messy and going about in different directions, probably because she tended to crawl under furniture when adults were not in the room with her.

"Lefdadooropen!" Wes smacked Blaine in the head with his pillow after sitting up. "Sarah, go."

"Mumma, Wes won't let me stay in his room!"

Blaine reached down and scooped the four year old up.

"LOOK!" she pulled her nightgown up over her head.

"Sarah, you can't just show people your panties even if they have Nemo on them." Wes sighed, leaning over and tugging her purple nightgown down. He still looked and sounded half asleep. Blaine had gotten so used to waking Kurt up that he was used to the glares, sighs, and grumbles, though, that they just didn't faze him anymore.

"No! I'm full!" She pulled her nightgown right back up and patted her stomach. "Yum oatmeal! See, Blaine? See?"

"Just say you see so she'll pull her nightgown down." Wes hissed, elbowing him.

"That's one big tummy!" Blaine laughed. "Is there any of that oatmeal left for me?"

"Nope. I ated it all." She shook her head, looking very solemn. "Braid my hair, Wes."

"No."

"Braid my hair, Blaine."

"Okay." Blaine said, ruffling her dark hair. "Go get a brush and a clip or a pin or whatever it is you use."

The toddler hopped off of the bed and ran out. They heard little feet running and shortly after there was a loud bang, which was followed by an "I'm otay!" and then the sound of little feet padding much slower. Blaine just laughed quietly, convinced that Sarah had gotten at least ten times cuter since he'd seen her last.

Wes collapsed back against his pillows, groaning. "It's too early. What time is it? Where's Kurt?"

"It's noon. And Kurt couldn't make it. There was some emergency at the garage or something. Not that Kurt can do too much…" Blaine shrugged. "Hey, sweetie."

Sarah clambered back onto Wes' bed and thrust a purple brush and two purple pony tails into his hands. "Piggy tail braids, please and thanks."

"Your favorite color must be purple." Blaine laughed, sitting her on his lap. "I like purple too. I don't even know if I remember how to do this, though, so you may have to be patient. Something your brother here knows nothing about." He separated her hair into two sections, tied one off, and then separated the remaining into four. "Like this?"

"No, no, like this." Wes moved over. "Three."

"Okay." Blaine moved the pieces together. "Wait, I'm doing it wrong."

"No, oh yeah, you are."

"Sarah, are you making the boys braid your hair?" A woman said, coming into the room. "That might be a little dangerous."

"They're smart. They're smart." She nodded.

"I'm confused!" Blaine declared, looking up at his best friend's mother. "I think I've made a mess."

She laughed and made her way over. "You're supposed to be braiding, not twisting."

"This is silly." Blaine mumbled, untwisting her hair. "Are you sure I was ever really braiding before?"

"You're taking too long!" Sarah said, climbing off of him and very nearly stepping on Blaine in an area that would have made it very difficult to stand. Or breathe, really. At least for a few minutes.

"Be careful." Wes' mother chastised as she ran from the room. "I'm sorry, Blaine."

"It's okay." Blaine assured her, standing and going to hug his best friend's mother. "She's gotten so big."

"Well it has been over a year." She pointed at him. "Which is too long… But I'm just glad you let yourself in, sweetie. I was at the other end of the house and was hoping you would. You know you can't hear anything in this huge house." She said, hugging him back. "No growth spurt yet, sweetie?"

"No." he sighed, shaking his head. "Kurt's had another one though, I'm pretty sure."

"I still want to meet this boy." She said, ruffling his hair. "I miss your longer hair still, too."

"Not growing it out, Jess. I'm sorry." Blaine said firmly, shaking his head. "I'm too old for that kind of hair. If I had had time, I would have gotten a haircut before now. It's already too long."

"Wesley!" The woman suddenly exclaimed. "Are you serious?"

Wes shot up into a sitting position, eyes flying open and looking around his room quickly. "What? What?"

"It's after noon! I knew you weren't getting ahead on reading for next semester! You went back to bed! Blaine is here!"

"So? You two catch up." He yawned.

"Come help me get the lasagna in the oven, sweetie." She said, patting Blaine's cheek. "Wes, if you aren't downstairs in ten minutes, Blaine is taking all of the cookies home with him."

Blaine's hazel eyes lit up and he grinned. "If you need the rest, Wes, you just sleep on."

Wes' mother shook her head and led Blaine from the room and towards the kitchen, chatting with him happily as they walked. "How's school going, Blaine? Are you still in English at UK? Did you get good grades?"

"Yeah, school went really well this semester. It was a little tough though." He said cheerfully, scooping Sarah up as she attempted to run past him. "I got ya!"

"No, no, no, no! Fire!"

"Wesley taught her to scream fire when she wants attention." The woman sighed. "She decided to show her father and I in the middle of Ikea last night."

Blaine laughed loudly. "That's great!"

"Five years ago you'd have been on my side. David and Wes have ruined such a sweet little boy." She laughed as Sarah struggled to break free, now yelling out, "Fire! Tornado! Snow storm! A-pop-da-lips!"

Blaine stood her on his legs and just grinned at her. "Do you even know what an apocalypse is, Miss Sarah?"

"It's when two people kiss. That's gross."

"You say gross, little sister." Wes came into the room, now properly dressed and groomed. "I say fun. Did you show Blaine your new song?"

"Put me down, Curly!" she squealed.

"Alright, if you promise to not call me Curly."

"I promise, Curly."

Blaine rolled his eyes as he sat her down. "Wes, I know this is your doing and I hate you."

"Hate is a bad word! Shut up now, please!" The little girl demanded, putting her hands on her hips. "Mommy, you should listen too."

"I'm listening." Her mother said absent mindedly as she cleaned the counter off. Wes' eyes widened in horror at this, and Blaine soon understood why.

The little girl cleared her throat, shared a look with Wes, and began to sing:

"My brother Billy had a ten foot Willy,
He showed it to the girl next door,
She thought it was a snake
And she hit it with a rake
Now it isn't ten foot anymore!"

"Wesley Isaac Li! Sarah Elizabeth Li!"

"Jessica Elaine Li!" Sarah mimicked.

Wes had to lunge across the room and push Blaine back into his chair, because he was in the middle of falling off of it as he laughed so hard that he was gasping for air. It was impossible to tell whether he was laughing at the song the little girl had been singing or the fact that she had just called her mother by her fist and middle name.

"Blaine, do not encourage this behavior!" Jessica, or Jess as Blaine called her, exclaimed as Blaine fell off of the stool, grabbing Wes and dragging him down with him. "It was not even that funny!"

"Why would it be funny, mommy? Wes told me it was the perfect song for little princesses to sing."

If the boys had been near regaining their composure, it flew right out the window as Wes let out a loud guffaw, which prompted a series of rather immature giggles from the shorter of the two boys.

"I will never understand boys." Wes' mother said, shaking her head. "Sarah, we do not speak of willies and snakes in this house. Or anything else that Wes tells you is acceptable."

"Mommy, Wes is a bad influence." Sarah said solemnly.

"They both are, sweetie." Jessica sighed, watching Blaine and Wes trying to get up from their spots on the floor but failing miserably due to the fact that they kept making each other laugh. "Never act like them or date anyone who acts like them."

"H-Hey!" Blaine pouted, finally untangling himself and standing up. "I'm not a bad influence. I'm a very good influence. I make good grades, I have good manners, and I'm pocket sized. David says that at least."

Jessica kept her eyes on Blaine and then suddenly snapped her fingers in the direction of her son, who was still on the floor and in the process of tying Blaine's shoelaces together. "Wesley, stop it. You're twenty, not four like your sister."

"Damn." Wes mumbled. "David's mom watched as I did it to David and she just laughed when he fell."

"I will have you know, Wes, that Blaine and I were trying to have a mature conversation and you entered the room and turned the entire house upside down. Why is this?"

"Because Blaine woke me up."

"It's noon!" Blaine scoffed. "What, do you sleep all day?"

"I intended too, actually." Wes retorted, taking a seat. "Go on. Carry on with your mature conversation. I'll just sit here and munch on these delicious Christmas cookies."

Jessica leaned over, ruffling Blaine's hair. "We miss having you around. We all do. And especially around the holidays. You're the only one that will sing real Christmas songs with me. Wes just sings Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer and I'm Getting Nothing For Christmas."

"I'm sorry." Blaine frowned, feeling a bit guilty. He had alternated holidays and summers at David and Wes' houses, and even if it was not his family it had always been genuinely fun. Neither family was as amazing as holidays with Kurt's family had been, but he still missed it all the same. "I'm really sorry I missed Thanksgiving too. I meant to try to come at night, but we went to see Kurt's grandparents and got snowed in."

"No, I wouldn't have wanted you driving out in that mess anyway. In fact, you probably shouldn't stay too long because Jake said the weather was going to get bad tonight too. How was meeting the grandparents? I'm sure they adored you."

"I'd already met his grandmother, but it was the first time meeting his grandfather. He was nice… they're all really nice. His family is like the complete opposite from mine, really. Geeze, I'm using the word really a lot, aren't I?"

"Yes, you really are." Wes said from the other side of the room.

"Just ignore him." Jessica sighed. "I don't know where we went wrong with him. Anyway, Kurt's family lives in Lima, right?"

"His dad and step mom do, but his grandparents live somewhere near Akron. The roads are all gravel where they live, but his grandfather works in investing in Akron… or something… it was all kind of confusing and a lot to take in at once." Blaine explained hesitantly. "So that's where we were. It's so country you can only get cell phone service if you go on the top of this really steep hill, but apparently the person that lives near the hill isn't shy about using his gun, so…" he just trailed off.

Wes' mother just laughed and ruffled his hair again. "It's fine, sweetie. Just know that we missed you and you are always welcome to come and see us. Even if it isn't a holiday. Jake and I would love to drive halfway and meet you for dinner or something. We miss having you around. It was nice to have someone sane in the house besides myself. David could offer some of that too, but we haven't seen him in nearly just as long. He lives up by you, doesn't he?"

"Sort of. It's about twenty minutes away." Blaine responded.

"David's dad advises I never run a country." Wes chirped, hopping onto another stool. "He seems to think I have control issues."

"No." Blaine gasped, grabbing a spoon and hitting it on the counter while saying, "I will have order! You're like Umbridge, Wesley. Only less like a toad and more like an Asian."

"I don't know whether to laugh or hit you." Wes snorted, grabbing his spoon and then properly demonstrating the correct way to bang a gavel. "And you're banging it all wrong. It's all in the wrist. You should be good with your wrist. You are gay, after all."

"Oh my God." Blaine's eyes widened in horror.

Thankfully, Wes' mother was used to his antics and just ignored him—in fact, she probably had blocked him out entirely. She just continued on with her questioning. "Are you all doing okay financially? I know it can be hard to live on your own and go to school. Have you still got those two jobs?"

"Yes, ma'am." Blaine nodded, after sending several glares at his friend. "And Kurt works all day on Fridays at his dad's garage, too. We've both got money saved up, so we're doing good."

"Mom, does he look like he's starving?" Wes snorted, rolling his eyes. "Can we go now?"

His mother just continued to ignore him, talking to Blaine. "I just worry about you, Blaine. We never hear from you anymore and you had a really rough time there for a while."

Blaine immediately felt guilt wash over him again and he frowned. "I really am sorry, Jess… I just never seem to have time for anything, really. Life has just been... chaotic ever since last October. There was Kurt's attack, and then my parents..."

"Have you talked to them, sweetheart? Have they come around any?"

"You know them." Blaine said awkwardly, looking down. "They aren't coming around... ever. But... but they still pay for my phone and health insurance... Then again, they have people pay their bills for them. They probably don't even know they're paying it. The only reason I haven't changed over is because it's just been so crazy..."

"Maybe they will come around." she said softly, squeezing his shoulder comfortingly.

"After all of this, I don't think I want them to come around." Blaine admitted, looking back down. "The thought of pretending none of this stuff happened makes me sick to my stomach."

"There's always your brother." Wes said cheerfully in an attempt to lighten the mood. And to end the overall conversation so they could leave, but he'd never admit that.

"Oh yeah, I've been talking to Alex some. Did I tell you that? He's still in Italy, but he came to see me about my inheritance and stuff... we talk online a lot and we've talked on the phone a few times. He's coming to see me a day or two after Christmas, I think. I'm kind of nervous about it, actually."

"Well, it's great to hear that someone in your family has common decency. Has he been nice?"

"Yeah... I think that we were just under the impression that the other was exactly like Mom and Dad or something." the younger boy mumbled, looking a bit confused. "I mean... It's both of our faults, isn't it? We both could have tried to get to know each other but the twenty year age difference... and I think the only time we ever lived together was for six months when I was five years old or something... but he's been nice and he sends money since my parents don't help out."

"Do you need money?" Jessica asked instantly, although she'd already asked once before. "If you need any at all, Blaine, all you have to do is call."

"No, no, we're fine. We've both got money in savings." Blaine assured her very quickly. "But thank you very much."

"I'll take some money if you're giving it away." Wes offered.

"Go find a nice corner somewhere." Blaine joked, feeling rather proud of himself for his witty comeback. Clearly being Kurt's boyfriend was beginning to payoff—sassy-wise at least.

His Asian friend was completely unfazed. "This actually brings me to my previous topic which we've never technically discussed before, Blainers. Who is hotter, me or David? And you can take your time to answer¸ get a feel for it, you know? Well, don't actually get a feel for it. You know what I —."

Blaine held his hand out, eyes closed, and took a deep breathe. "Firstly, you do not have to worry about me getting a feel for you because that's repulsive. Secondly, both you and David have asked me this at least once a week since you found out I was gay. And I still, just as I have every week since then, refuse to answer that question."

"It's okay, Blaine. I know you're more attracted to me. You can tell me, we just won't tell David."

"I'm not saying who is hotter!"

"Just whisper it. Mom won't listen. There won't be any witnesses."

"Okay." Blaine feigned a look of nervousness and leaned close. "Wes?"

"Yes, Blaine?" Wes asked excitedly.

"I'm not answering the question!"

Wes' face fell and he swatted at Blaine. "Alright, Curly, alright. Fine. Can you wrap up things with the mother so we can get a move on? Hey, maybe I'll go home with you and ask Kurt who is hotter. Then again, clearly his taste in men is lacking. I mean, look at you."

The shorter boy just rolled his eyes, not even fazed by Wes' antics. "Wesley, I hate to break it to you but Kurt will tell you that you're hotter and go right around and tell David that he's hotter. He's very sneaky like that. Besides, he only has eyes for me."

"Then he must be blind... OW! Blaine, that hurt!"

"What hurt?" Blaine asked innocently, lowering his balled fist.

Wes' mother decided to interject then, finally able to get a word in edgewise and not wanting any injuries to occur. "Wesley, shut up. I haven't seen Blaine in over a year and I'm going to talk to him just as much as I want to. If you have a problem with it, go and see David alone."

"Yes, Wesley." Blaine nodded adorably. "Go see David alone. God knows I see him enough already. He eats me out of house and home."

"Anyway, Blaine, are—Wes, stop bouncing up and down like that! Act your age!"

"We want to goooo." Wes whined.

"Speak for yourself. The second I walk into that house David's dad is going to try to psychoanalyze me… that or ask me about that psychology class which I never paid attention in. I've gotten really good at Bejeweled by the way. Kurt and I try to beat out each other's high scores when we have time. And, so you know, I'm in the lead."

"Jolly, jolly, ho, ho, and ho. Come on, Anderson. We're leaving. You and mom can finish this lovely chat about missing one another when we come back for your car. Alright? Alright? Alright!" Wes grabbed Blaine by the arm and steered him out of the kitchen.

"Wesley!" Jessica yelled after him. "At least put a jacket on!"

"Don't need it, mom!" Wes yelled back, opening the door. He immediately shut it and mumbled, "Okay, maybe I do."

…

"I hope Blaine makes it home okay." Kurt said anxiously later that same night, shifting his weight between both legs. He was standing at the front door, looking out the window as snow continued to fall. "Crap."

"I'm sure he's just fine, hon." Carole said from the couch as Burt stepped in, kicking snow off of his shoes. "Didn't he call an hour ago to say he was heading out? You'll have to give him extra time with the roads."

"It's coming down like you wouldn't believe." He grunted, pulling his jacket off.

Carole shook her head quickly, but Kurt just moaned and leaned against the door, nose pressed against the glass. "Blaine still isn't home."

"Kid'll be fine." Burt said, hanging the jacket up. "Do I smell cupcakes?"

"Don't touch them." Kurt said absentmindedly, still peering outside. "They're not decorated."

"Sweetie, it'll be at least an hour before he gets home. You can't stand at the door like that. You'll catch a cold." Carole stood and made her way over, rocking Melody. "Do you want to hold the baby?"

"Sure." Kurt sighed, stepping back from the door and taking his sister. At least the baby would take his mind off of worrying about Blaine, who he really knew had to be just fine. After all, Blaine was the most careful driver he'd ever met. "Hey, Mellie. Can I hold you when Carole makes dinner? Hmm? Can I hold you?"

Melody gurgled, making bubbles with her spit and touching Kurt's face.

"Look at you, pretty girl." Kurt cooed, following Carole into the kitchen and bouncing Melody. "What's mumma doing? Is mumma getting you a bottle? I think she is."

Melody, who had initially been looking at Kurt, moved her head to watch her mother preparing a bottle. Kurt kissed her chubby cheek noisily and gave her a tiny squeeze. He was still convinced his sister was the most beautiful baby and the very definition of perfection.

"Here you go, hon." Carole brought the bottle over and handed it out to Kurt. "Your new tablet for school came in the mail today. It's up there on the counter. It's very light."

"Ooh!" Kurt said excitedly, glancing over at the box. "Santa came early for Kurt this year, didn't he, Melody?"

Melody gave him an irritated look as she reached for her bottle.

"Sorry, sweetie." Kurt kissed her cheek and repositioned her so she could drink from her bottle. Her little hand rested on his wrist and he felt himself smiling a bit. "Hey, Carole?"

"Yeah, hon?" Carole said as she gathered her ingredients and supplies for dinner.

"Thanks." Kurt bit his lip a bit and looked down.

"For what, hon?"

"Dad has been so much happier since you came into his life and… and thank you. I know our very first Christmas was… awkward, and last year's was awkward because I was still sick… but this one has been really nice so far. Dad's just… and… I'm just glad you're here is what I'm trying to say…"

Carole blinked at him, in shock. After several seconds she crossed the room, arms carefully wrapping around him. "Oh, Kurt, you don't have to thank me, hon." She pulled back and touched his cheek. "I'm just glad we can be a family."

Kurt gave her a small smile, snuggling Melody. "Me too."

Melody made a noise of protest as her bottle tumbled to the floor.

"Uh oh." Carole cooed, picking it up. "You better hurry up and finish so Kurt can help Mommy with dinner. Yes, you better. Because Daddy's sat himself in front of the television and he probably won't leave that spot until December 26th."

"'M not on the couch." Burt grunted, coming into the room and waving his fingers at his daughter who now had a toothless grin plastered on her face. "Has Kurt got you?"

"Kurt's always got her." Kurt said, glancing in the direction of the doorway.

"It's gonna take him a while in this weather, bud." His father sighed. "But I'm sure he'll be fine. They're keeping the highways real salted this winter."

"I know." Kurt murmured, passing Melody off to his father (though this was only because the baby had begun to reach for him, letting out loud whines). "We definitely have a daddy's girl on our hands."

Burt just sat at the table, chatting animatedly with his daughter and wearing that proud smile that had been on his face since the day Melody had been born. Instead of going to help with dinner though, Kurt pressed his nose against the glass. "Do you think I should call him?"

"I think the less distractions he has the better." Carole responded, gently pulling him away from the door. "Why don't you move those cupcakes off of the table and onto the counter so they'll be out of the way when we eat?"

Kurt sighed in a resigned sort of way and began moving the four plates of cupcakes to the counters. He had worked at the garage until three in the afternoon and immediately set out to bake the cupcakes that he was determined he and Blaine would decorate together. That is, if he showed up alive. Sure, on the phone Blaine sounded absolutely fine and confident about driving the roads. But it had now been an hour and a half. Forget rush hour, he just wanted Blaine to get home. He knew he shouldn't call, though, because it was exactly like Carole said. With the roads being bad, Blaine didn't need any distractions. The only thing that made him feel a little better was the fact that by now¸ in the event that traffic wasn't backed up, Blaine should at least be off of the highway and would be driving considerably slower.

"Stop worrying." Burt gruffly, looking at his son. "The boy's been driving longer than you."

"Actually he didn't get his license until right before we met, although he wouldn't tell me why he waited so long. My worrying is completely justified." Kurt retorted, scooping up Kreacher who had pranced into the room. "I hope your daddy isn't dead on the side of the road somewhere."

"Have you no faith in me whatsoever?" Blaine asked, walking into the room behind him.

"You! Why are you here so soon? Did you speed? You're not dead and a ghost, right?" Kurt spun around on his heels and pointed at him, looking completely shocked.

"I called you after I'd been on the highway for an hour because I didn't want you worrying for two and a half hours. And it's a good thing I called later, apparently."

"I was just worried." Kurt said, almost sheepishly. "Finn called and said the roads were really bad."

"They weren't awful." Blaine leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I did pass a few wrecks though. It's mostly slush now, but give it a few hours and it'll be an ice rink out there."

"Oh no! We still have stuff to get for Christmas dinner!" Carole gasped. "Burt, go check the weather and see what it's going to be like tomorrow. We may both have to just run out and get stuff tonight before it gets too bad. Blaine, were the roads in town bad?"

"Nah. Not yet." Blaine smiled and waved at Melody, who was grinning at him adorably. "Hi there, pumpkin."

Melody let out an excited squeal and began wiggling around, reaching for him.

"I see how it is." Burt laughed, standing and carrying her to Blaine. "She's one of the babies who just wants whoever walks into a room. Can you hold her when I check the weather? Not that it looks like you have a choice."

"Sure!" Blaine smiled happily and took Melody, kissing her rosy cheek. He then followed Burt into the kitchen, cooing about how sweet Melody was as he snuggled her.

"I think Blaine's first in line at being her best friend." Carole laughed from her place at the oven. "He's really become a part of this family, hasn't he?"

"He has." Kurt said, considerably more cheerful now that he knew Blaine was safe and sound. He went over to the oven and began helping her with stuff, chatting away about school, Carole's work, and Melody until Burt came back into the room with Blaine and Melody in tow.

"Well?" Carole asked, stepping away from the stove and wiping her hands on her apron. "This dinner is done; all you boys need to do is make yourself some plates when you're hungry."

"We should probably head out and get the stuff. It might not ease up. With it this bad, maybe they'll let Finn come on home tonight. They should." Burt said.

"Okay, okay. I'll go get changed. Kurt, hon, can you and Blaine make a list of anything you all want while we're out?"

"French fries!" Blaine exclaimed. "And cheese. And chili."

Kurt rolled his eyes, grabbing a piece of paper. "Don't you want something that doesn't fall under the can-be-served-at-a-fast-food-restaurant category?"

"I can eat cheese in a non-fasty-food type way." The older boy protested while making a funny face at Melody, who was loudly giggling.

"How so?"

"On some of your rabbit food junk. I can, but I won't. I would like it with fries and chili please."

Kurt shook his head and began to fill out his list. By the time he was done Carole and Burt were once again downstairs and bundled up in their jackets. "It's broken down by aisle so you don't get lost again, Dad."

"That will be very helpful for him, hon!" Carole ruffled hair. "But I'll be with him, so hopefully we can figure it out."

"Don't let him go down the car aisle."

"Oh, I learned my lesson last time. Two hours, Kurt. Two hours." Carole laughed. "When you two decide to start the cupcakes, just bring her swing in here and set her up in it. She loves it so she won't get very fussy with you. Finn should be getting home soon, they're letting him come a day early since the weather is so bad."

"We gots it." Blaine cooed, wiggling Melody a bit. "Don't we, Mellie?"

Melody just tangled her chubby fingers in his hair and blew spit bubbles, eyes twinkling.

"Be careful." Kurt said, passing the list to his father. "Watch that turn out of—."

"I know, Kurt. I'm the father. I say the same thing to you every winter." Burt ruffled Kurt's hair. "There better be some finished cupcakes when I get home, boys."

"You can't eat a lot, Dad. They're not healthy for you."

"I've been eating your rabbit food. I'll have as many cupcakes right before Christmas as I'd like, kid."

Kurt pulled a chair to the counter, climbed up on it, and opened the cabinet over the stove. It was overfilled with cookies, potato chips, and basically any other unhealthy snack you could imagine. "Junk food!"

"That's Blaine's." Burt grunted, looking away quickly.

"Dad…"

"I'm not an animal!"

"I want a bunny." Blaine said randomly from across the room, smiling at Melody. "But Kurt won't even let me look at them. Because he's not nice."

"Blaine, if I let you look at the bunny you'd try to bring the bunny home." Kurt said reasonably. He had learned his lesson after the sales clerk had let Blaine hold a hedgehog back when they had first started dating. Kurt had, in all honesty, thought Blaine was going to cry when he remembered that you could not have pets (apart from the Warbler birds) at Dalton and he could, therefore, not take the animal home. Kurt did not want any repeats, and rabbit poop was much smellier than dog poop.

"If I wanted to bring the bunny home, then the nice thing to do would be to let me." Blaine said slowly, wincing as Melody tugged at one of his curls.

"You won't even take care of Kreacher, how can I trust you to take care of a bunny?"

"I'd take care of it if it was nice. Unlike you and your damn dog." The older boy muttered darkly, wincing again as Melody tugged again. "No, no, no. Blaine would not like to have bald spots, Mellie."

"Santa Clause might hear you being bad, Blaine. We wouldn't want him taking your presents back to the North Pole." Kurt chastised. "Would we now?"

Blaine very quickly shut up, but he did continue shooting Kurt very displeased looks.

"As entertaining as watching you two go back and forth is, we really do have to go, boys." Carole said, grabbing Burt's hand. "We'll be back as soon as we can. You two will be okay with Melody?"

"We're almost trained professionals by now, Carole. Blaine even changed a diaper semi on his own last night." Kurt said proudly. "He's come a long way from being the one who passed her off any time she pooped or cried."

"Okay, the poop was coming out of the diaper and up her back. I thought she exploded." Blaine stated, and returned his attention to Melody. "I thought you exploded. I thought you went ka-boom."

"Melody causes his IQ to drop drastically." Kurt laughed. "Go, we'll be fine. Be careful and don't worry. Blaine and Melody will just be over there having squealing contests to see who can be the loudest and most adorable and I'll probably still be making the icing by time you get home."

As if on cue, Melody let out a loud squeal which Blaine immediately copied.

Burt waved at them all and led Carole out of the house. Kurt shut the door behind them and turned to Blaine with a little hop, clapping his hands together. "Baby down! You're going to help me make icing!"

"Uh… isn't it in a can with that little dough boy?" Blaine asked slowly.

"Well, we have some of that but I usually make icing." Kurt eased Melody out of his arms. "Grab the swing. And get that look off of your face. You look like I just said I'm killing your dog. I don't know why you're nervous about this."

Blaine grabbed the swing, frowning. "Because I don't do stuff like this. I've never done anything like this before. Wes' family buys pre-made baked goods and David's mom doesn't know how to even turn an oven on. They have a cook."

"David's family has a cook?" Kurt's jaw dropped.

"They're kind of rich. Both of his parents are in medicine." Blaine explained, sitting the swing down where the younger boy pointed to near the table. "They have a cook and two maids that alternate each day. It's a little crazy. It was so awkward to have someone clean your dishes and your room."

"I can't even imagine having that much money." Kurt said quietly, placing his baby sister in the swing after kissing her cheek. "Is it all from their jobs?"

"Probably not. Big money like that is usually passed down, I think." Blaine sat himself at the table. "What are you doing?"

"Putting on Christmas music." The younger boy chirped, putting his iPod onto his iHome and starting it. Have a Holly Jolly Christmas music immediately filled the room and Melody cooed happily, eyes watching Kurt as he got ingredients ready.

"She's entranced." Blaine laughed, tickling her tummy. "Mellie likes her big brother, doesn't she? I like him too a little bit."

"You liked me a lot last night." Kurt smirked in a smug sort of way.

"Your brother's ego has gotten a little too big for how tiny he is." His boyfriend responded, giving Melody a 'See what I have to put up with?' look. Melody just continued staring at Kurt, a silly grin on her face. "Fine, I see how it is. It's because he's taller, isn't it?"

Kurt just rolled his eyes. "Only half an inch, Blaine. It hardly counts. At least I'm not as tall as Finn."

"I guess that's true." Blaine said, nudging Kurt's foot with his own when he sat down.

"Are you trying to distract me, Blaine Anderson?"

"Fine, fine, fine." Blaine sighed and bit his lip anxiously.

Kurt leaned over and kissed him while saying in a muffled voice, "Do you know what song is on this CD?

"Wh… Oh. Do you want me to chase you around the kitchen, Kurt?" Blaine grinned into his lips.

"No." Kurt just tugged Blaine closer, sliding his tongue into Blaine's mouth.

Blaine made a rather pleased noise, sliding his tongue along Kurt's. He shivered slightly when Kurt placed his hand on Blaine's cheek, pulling his face even closer. Melody let out a high pitched squeal.

"Melody, stop." Kurt mumbled into Blaine's lips.

"Gross, dudes. In front of the baby?" said Noah Puckerman, who was now standing in the doorway¸ leaning against it, and looking very amused.

Kurt quickly pulled away and turned to face Finn's best friend. "Puckerman, what are you doing here?"

"Trust me, I wouldn't have come in here if I knew I was going to see two guys about to go at it. I just smelled the cupcakes. Are they any good?"

Kurt gave a resigned sigh and took two un-iced cupcakes off of a plate, handing one to Blaine and one to Puck. "Where's Finn?"

Puck finished his cupcake with record speed and walked to the baby swing, kneeling down. "Think he's putting his bag up. Wow, she's gotten so big."

Kurt laughed. "Babies grow into little people, Puck. You can hold her if you want."

"No, that's alright. I should probably go. I'm supposed to stop by Quinn's. She wants to talk. As long as she doesn't bitch me out again over her abs, whatever." Puck shrugged, but Kurt didn't miss the almost longing look he sent towards Melody. It made his stomach churn just a little bit for his old friend.

Finn trudged into the room, hands in his front pockets. "Cupcakes! Where's the icing and stuff?"

"I was making the icing and stuff when you two interrupted."

"Actually, dude, it looked like you were about to attempt to make something but I don't think icing was involved." Puck pointed out.

"What were they trying to make?" Finn asked, looking confused.

"It looked like they were going to get it on." Puck said very bluntly.

"Thanks for that, Noah." Kurt said in a seemingly sweet voice. He gave a smile which very quickly turned into a glare.

"I'm leaving before Lance Bass goes all diva on me. See you dudes later."

"Bye Puck!" Finn waved and bit into one of his cupcakes as Puck let himself out the back door. "Ooh, are you making the icing? 'Cause your icing is really yummy."

"I was going to, but I don't think I have time." Kurt said, glancing at the cake. "Want to help?"

"I'd much rather watch VeggieTales with Melon Head. Don't tell anyone I said that." Finn reached down and lifted Melody out of her swing. She whined a bit, but immediately stopped when he snuggled her. "We'll be in the living room." As he left the room, he was singing in a silly voice, "There's never-ever-ever-ever-ever been a show like VeggieTales! There's never-ever-ever-ever-ever been a show like VeggieTales! It's time for VeggieTales!"

"Finn has way too much fun with watching kid shows with Melody." Kurt snickered. "Alright, Blaine. Are you ready for this? Are you ready?"

"Do I have a choice?" Blaine sulked, wishing he could go back to making out at the table. There was no pressure in making out. In fact, it was one of his favorite things to do. Kissing, cuddling, and reading. Three things he was fairly sure he could not live without. He would rather go without food and sleep than without those three things in his life.

"No, you don't." Kurt chirped, crossing the kitchen and pulling out two things of icing and two butter knives. "Okay. This is a butter knife."

Blaine gave him a look that clearly said, "I can withhold sex, you know? I have a hand."

Kurt just laughed. "Alright. So that is covered." He sat next to Blaine, resting his leg against his boyfriend's. He spoke in a much softer voice, "My mom taught me how to decorate cupcakes. She actually taught me how to bake everything I know how to bake… It's fun. And you'll think it's fun too. Don't put too much thought into it, okay?"

"I won't be good at it." Blaine took one of the butter knives and picked up a cupcake.

"That's okay. It takes practice. It took me until I was eleven to really get it right. Put some icing on the middle of the cupcake."

Blaine got enough for three cupcakes on the butter knife.

"I know you enjoy sugar, but not all of us like to have heart attacks right before Christmas Eve." Kurt giggled, scraping some of the icing off. "There. That much is perfect."

"This is silly." Blaine mumbled anxiously. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize!" Kurt ruffled his messy hair. "Make short strokes from the middle and outward and work your way down in a circular motion."

"That sounds like you're propositioning me, Kurt." The older boy said, grinning mischievously as he began icing the cupcakes, surprisingly doing a very good job for someone who had never decorated cupcakes before.

"You would turn putting icing on a cupcake into something sexual." Kurt snorted, watching him. "See? You're good at this part at least."

"This part? Isn't this it?"

"Of course not. It would be boring if we just had cupcakes with white icing. We have to use tubes of icing with tips to make designs and stuff."

"There is a reason I'm an English major and not an Art major, Kurt." Blaine said, glancing up from his cupcake. "It's not all smooth. Make it smooth."

Kurt rolled his eyes and reached over, guiding Blaine's hand in the proper motion. "See? It's easy."

"It's not as bad as I thought it would be." Blaine said, visibly relaxing. "Your mom taught you this?"

"Mom baked with me a lot. I just picked stuff up… but, like I said, I didn't really get good at decorating cupcakes until I was eleven." Kurt began icing his own cupcake. "Dad doesn't cook much… at all, really. I mean, sometimes he tries… but he's worse at it than you." He offered his older boyfriend a small smile.

"I can make spaghetti. And I make a killer breakfast. And." Blaine held up a perfectly iced cupcake. "I can also make your cupcakes look passable. Oh, and I'm very good at heating up your leftovers and heating up frozen foods from Kroger."

Kurt reached past him, sliding one of the plates of cupcakes in front of him. "Yes, yes, I know. But maybe learning to actually cook might not hurt. Imagine this. Seven years from now we're living… say, somewhere… and you're a lawyer and I'm a well-known fashion designer."

"Uh-huh?" Blaine said absent mindedly, working on his third cupcake.

"And I have to be in London for a week. What do you do first?"

"Lock Kreacher in the bathroom and throw away the key?" The older boy asked, smiling sweetly.

"And then?" Kurt rolled his eyes again.

"Stop at a fast food restaurant."

"You have no cash."

"Use my debit card."

"No debit card."

"Alex's card."

"No Alex's card or debit card."

"Use your dad's."

"You have no cash and no cards!"

The older boy hesitated at this, looking thoughtful, and then retorted, "Clearly I'll make spaghetti every day."

"Three times a day?"

"Why not?"

"I give up." Kurt laughed. "You're hopeless. I don't know why you won't take a cooking class with me this summer. I think it would be fun."

"Yes. The idea of sitting in a hot kitchen with fifteen elderly couples trying to rekindle their love and fifteen middle aged couples on the bridge of divorce taking a cooking class as a one last ditch effort to save their relationship sounds like loads of fun."

"It would be something for us to do together, though. Afterwards we could get coffee at that café you liked so much… And we could do something you like too on another night."

"Like sex? All night? I can go for this."

"Hopeless, Blaine. Hopeless."

Blaine just grinned adorably. "I'm not hopeless, Kurt. I'm precious, adorable, kind, sweet, and dapper. Sometimes slightly kooky. But never hopeless."

"We banter more than any couple I've ever met." Kurt laughed. "And you are taking a cooking class with me, so I suggest you look into what you want to do once a week."

"Yes, father." Blaine snorted. "I'll get right on that. And it's going to be something you'll haaate. Maybe we'll go to that dinosaur museum weekly."

"But I'm terrified of dinosaurs!" Kurt dropped the cupcake he was holding.

"And I don't want to take a cooking class."

"That's mean." This time it was Kurt who pouted, crossing his arms over his chest dramatically for the effect. Of course he really wasn't this upset, but where was the fun in that?

"You're mean."

Kurt leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Alright, now for the hard stuff. This is what you needed to be scared about."

"I'm going to make a dinosaur!" Blaine announced, grabbing the tube of green icing a little too eagerly.

"Is that very… Christmasy?" The younger boy questioned, staring at Blaine in amusement.

"It is if I make it wear a Santa hat." His boyfriend scoffed, attempting to make a dinosaur on his perfectly iced cupcake. It didn't end up exactly as he wanted it too though—in actuality, his dinosaur ended up looking like big green globs and the boy had somehow even managed to mess up the white icing on it. "But—but—how?"

"Because you pushed down too hard and moved it too fast. Slow, Blaine."

"Well you just like a lot of things slow, Kurt, don't you?" Blaine quipped, and then his hazel eyes widened in shock. Here he was making his second sexual reference in one night. Wes would have been proud.

Kurt gasped, his own eyes widening as well. "Undapper Blaine! No! We like Dapper Blaine, not Undapper Blaine! Undapper Blaine burps, makes rude sexual comments with Wes, and kisses girls."

"No." Blaine corrected. "Undapper Blaine makes rude sexual comments and burps, but Drunk Blaine kisses girls. Undapper Blaine can be held accountable for his actions while Drunk Blaine cannot."

"Let's just go back to the cupcake decorating before Happy Kurt begins to think about Drunk Blaine and Drunk Rachel, okay?" Kurt said in an overly sweet voice. He wasn't mad at Blaine. Sure, it had not been Blaine's best moment… but it wasn't something he was going to dwell over. That didn't, however, mean he wanted it being brought up in any way—even a joking way.

"Dapper Blaine is sorry for Drunk Blaine's actions." The shorter of the two said quietly, giving Kurt a sheepish grin. He seemed to have picked up on the overly sweetness in his boyfriend's voice and didn't want to push his luck. He picked up a fresh cupcake and held it out to Kurt. "Make me a dinosaur?"

"Please?"

"Make me a dinosaur please?" Blaine repeated. "I'll love you forever."

"I thought you were already going to love me forever." Kurt teased, nudging Blaine's foot with his own.

"I'll love you forever and ever?"

Kurt laughed and took the cupcake. "I don't know how to do dinosaurs. I know how to do Santa, Rudolph, snowflakes, presents, snowmen, holly, jingle bells—don't open make any comments you'd make with Wes, Blaine Anderson. I think that you should try a snow man. How badly can you mess that up? It's just three circles, a face, and three dots for buttons."

"I'd really like a dinosaur though… with a little Santa hat…" Blaine stuck out his lower lip. "Or a fish? Can you make me a Christmas fish?"

Kurt rolled his eyes and spoke as if he was talking to an upset child. "Okay, how about this? Tonight we'll stick to Christmas cupcakes and I'll make you a dinosaur cake for Valentine's Day and a fish cake for your birthday?"

"It's not going to be tiny, right? Because if it's going to be a dinky tiny cake, no deal."

"It will be an average sized cake." Kurt laughed again and thrust the black tube of icing into his hand. "Now just make three circles for the snow man, okay?"

Blaine sighed and anxiously leaned over the table, attempting to do a straight circle which turned into a very curvy blob. "I suck! I suck! I give up!"

Kurt giggled a bit. "It looks better than your dinosaur."

Blaine's jaw dropped and he blinked at Kurt. Kurt couldn't tell whether he was angry or trying not to laugh. Eventually, though, he let out a giggle himself. "Should I try another one?"

"Yes. There's a reason I made two full batches." Kurt scooted closer, putting his hand over Blaine's wrist and guiding the icing along the next cupcake as Baby It's Cold Outside came on the stereo. His heart skipped several beats, remembering the day in Dalton that the two had sang the song together. And then remembering how Blaine later told him that he had wanted to kiss Kurt that day, singing that song… Kurt was sure Baby It's Cold Outside would be his favorite Christmas song for the rest of his life. He spoke gently in Blaine's ear, "See? You just have to take your time."

Blaine turned his face, capturing the younger boy's lips in another kiss. It wasn't rough and eager. It was slow, sweet, and loving. It made Kurt's heart speed up quickly and almost took his breath away. This was what a kiss was supposed to be when two people were in love. Kurt was sure of this. Because it was perfect—it was perfect.

Kurt let his hand move from Blaine's wrist to his chest. He tried to speak in a stern voice, but he couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face."Mmh, you're distracting me."

"Couldn't help it." Blaine slowly pulled away and smiled sheepishly. "On the bright side, it looks like a snow man! I guess this isn't so bad."

"No, it's not so bad when I'm the one moving your hand." Kurt teased, tickling his side. "I love you, Blaine."

"I love you too." Blaine answered, leaning over to kiss his boyfriend again as the Bing Crosby sang, "Ooh, your lips are delicious."

Yes. Baby it's Cold Outside was definitely Kurt's favorite Christmas song and he had a feeling that it was probably Blaine's favorite too.

***WBUCT***

"Mmmh."

Kurt smiled as Blaine snuggled close to him, burying his head in Kurt's side. He was sitting up early on Christmas morning, fingers running through Blaine's soft, dark curls. He had been that way for quite some time, too, but he really didn't have the heart to wake his sleeping boyfriend. Especially because he kept making those tiny little noises and snuggling, trying to get just a little closer. Truth be told, he absolutely loved that Blaine was what he teased him for being all the time—and that was a snuggle bunny. He didn't care what time of the day it was, where they were, or what they were supposed to be doing. If they were alone or with certain company, Blaine would for sure scoot up to Kurt, nuzzle his arm or his side or his shoulder or his neck even, and then just blink at him expectantly until Kurt slid an arm around his waist and tugged him closer. Yes, Blaine was a tiny and positively adorable snuggle bunny. It was becoming one of his favorite things about Blaine.

"Mmh?" Kurt prompted.

"Mhmm." Blaine mumbled sleepily, hand resting on Kurt's leg.

"Mhmm?"

"Stop watching me sleep, it's creepy."

Kurt just laughed and bent down to kiss the top of his head. "You're so adorable when you sleep though, Blaine. You gravitate towards body heat. And you mumble."

Blaine cracked one eye open and closed it before stretching. "You're warm and it's cold. Don't make fun of me."

"Oh, come here." Kurt slid into a laying position and held his arms open. "Merry Christmas, Blaine."

"Merry Christmas." Blaine yawned, getting in Kurt's arms and wrapping his own arms around his boyfriend's thin waist. "I love you."

"I love you too." Kurt smiled and began playing with Blaine's curls again. "I don't think anyone else is up yet."

Blaine scooted closer, hand sliding up the back of Kurt's pajama shirt and stroking the small of his back. "Good. We can lay here together for a little bit."

They two boys fell into a comfortable silence, Kurt's fingers stroking Blaine's hair and Blaine's stroking Kurt's back, until the sun had risen and filled the room with so much light that the Kurt had to resist the urge to squint (thanks to the snow that had not tapered off since the twenty third and was reflecting the sun). Blaine was breathing deeply and evenly, clearly somewhere between being asleep and awake.

Blaine suddenly pushed himself into a sitting position and sat Indian style, blinking somewhat sleepily at him. Kurt sat himself up and smiled, still wide awake. Blaine gave him a very child-like grin. "It's Christmas!"

"It is." Kurt laughed. "You're such a big kid."

"Tiny kid." Blaine corrected, crawling out of bed and going to his backpack.

"I knew my gift was in there! You lied!"

"Of course it's in there." Blaine snorted. "You're very gullible, Kurt."

"Gimme, gimme." Kurt chanted, sitting up even straighter.

"This is the big one. I got you other tiny stuff too. But this one will make you love me forever and ever." Blaine sat back on the bed with a tiny red and green wrapped box in his hands. "At least I hope it will."

"I've been in love with you since the day you sang Teenage Dream to me—don't deny it, you were totally singing it to me." Kurt rolled his eyes.

"I wasn't supposed to be singing it to you, but you were too adorable to not sing to. It was your eyes and your smile."

"Not my fabulous hair?"

"Come on, let's be serious." Blaine scoffed. "I have the best hair. Mine is versatile. It can be curly and adorable or styled and elegant while also being adorable."

"You do not have the best hair, okay? If anything, we're tied in that department."

"Nope. You've got the adorable smile and I've got the adorable hair." Blaine disagreed, shaking his head.

"If anything it is definitely you with the best smile."

"No, no. I love your smile. It's adorable, like you. Let's just go on and admit that you're gorgeous and I'm the little elf."

"Santa's elf?" Kurt smirked.

"House elf." Blaine scoffed again, placing the small box into his hands.

Kurt reached into his nightstand and pulled out an envelope. "This is just your big one too. You go first."

Blaine opened the envelope and pulled out a AAA booklet. Inside it was four hundred dollars. "What's this?"

Kurt took the book and opened it to the last page, pointing to a map that had a green circle in the corner of one page. Inside the circle was written HARBOR SPRINGS, MICHIGAN.

Blaine stared at it blankly, mouth agape. "Wh… what?"

Kurt scooted close, grabbing his hands. "You said being at Harbor Springs was when you were happiest before we met and I just thought… you might like to go back. I wanted to take you next week but I may or may not have messaged your brother through Facebook and he said that it would be better to go after March at least because of all of the ice and he said a lot of stuff you liked would be closed… so… I figured we could try to go over spring break. Yours is a week after mine but I figure we can work it out so that one of us misses a few days of classes. We'll—."

Blaine grabbed his face, crashing his lips against Kurt's.

"Oh!" Kurt said into his lips, pulling his boyfriend closer.

"Thank you, thank you!" Blaine said, kissing him repeatedly. "You don't even… you just… thank you!"

Kurt kissed him back¸ feeling rather proud of himself. "Are you okay with that? Is it a good gift?"

"I can't even tell you how okay with this I am, but it's way too much money and you shouldn't have gotten that much money, and it's just totally amazing." Blaine said, clearly flustered. "Thank you, Kurt. Just… thank you"

"You're welcome." Kurt smiled happily, content to just sit there kissing and hugging his boyfriend all day. He had been hesitant about his idea, and maybe it was expensive, but when he thought about everything Blaine had done for him over the past two years… Of course he was going to do something like this for Blaine.

Blaine kept his arms around Kurt, pressing random kisses to everywhere he could reach and murmuring quiet thank you's.

"You're welcome." Kurt repeated each time, holding him close.

There was a quiet knock on the door and then Burt called through the door, "You kids up yet?"

"We are not kids, but yes!" Kurt called back, feeling a sense of emptiness when Blaine sat up straight, no longer in his arms. "We'll be right down, Dad!"

"Take your time, Carole's searching for the camera."

"It's in the living room on that top shelf with the pictures!"

They heard Burt's retreating footsteps as he called, "It's by the pictures, Carole!"

Kurt snorted. "Take the credit, Dad. That's alright."

"Oh no. I need to give you your big one." Blaine frowned.

"I can wait." Kurt assured him, hopping up. "I don't think I'm even going to get dressed yet."

"You mean you're going to let the rest of the world see you in your pajamas?" Blaine gasped mockingly.

"I know, this is all so shocking!" Kurt laughed. "But my grandparents won't be here until later on. We just won't tell them."

"Oh, they're coming?" Blaine asked, looking genuinely happy. "Good! I really like your grandparents."

"They like you more than you like them. You were all Grandpa could talk about for days apparently." Kurt grabbed his hand and led him out of the room. Finn was on the couch in his pajamas, looking half asleep with his hair going up in all directions. "Morning, sunshine!"

Finn grabbed the couch pillow and tossed it at Kurt, who of course caught it with ease. "Dude, good catch!"

"I was awesome at Dodge Ball." Kurt said cheerfully. "I got a certificate for it."

Blaine snorted loudly while Finn laughed.

"What?"

"Those gym class certificates are stupid." Finn responded.

"Yes. You want trophies and championship wins. Not a paper saying you're good at Dodge Ball." Blaine added.

"Oh, and where are your trophies, Mr. Anderson?" Kurt scoffed.

"I used to have tons of soccer trophies. Santa Barbara didn't want me for nothing, Kurt. I'm sure they're long gone by now, but that's okay." Blaine shrugged a bit and sat down next to Finn.

"Your hair is so curly." Finn snorted, pointing.

"Well you look like that guy from YuGiOh."

"I loved that show!"

"Me too! I was so depressed when they stopped making new episodes. Nothing will ever top YuGiOh."

"Sailor Moon was neat." Kurt said, taking a seat on the floor by the tree.

Blaine and Finn blinked at him and then began to laugh loudly.

"I just want to feel involved." Kurt pouted. "I didn't watch YuGiOh or anything like that. I watched Sailor Moon and As Told By Ginger… stop laughing at me! I do not approve of the way you all make fun of me!"

They all looked up when they heard loud squealing. Carole was walking downstairs with Melody, but the tiny baby was so loud that they had no trouble hearing each shriek. Carole tried to shush her, but her squeals only got louder when she walked into the living room and saw Blaine, Finn, and Kurt—all in the same room at once!

"The poor thing is going to give herself a heart attack from excitement." Burt chuckled, coming into the room from the kitchen. This made her squeals increase even more in volume and Kurt's eyes widened in shock. How was a baby so tiny all of a sudden so… loud? "Up on the couch, kiddo."

"I'm not sitting with them." Kurt pouted. "They're not being very nice to me."

"Sorry that your dodge ball certificate didn't impress us." Finn snorted loudly, which prompted snickering from Blaine.

"Not that certificate again, Kurt. How many times do I have to tell you to not mention that in public?" Burt sighed and shook his head, pointing at the empty spot on the couch between Finn and Blaine. "Up there."

"Do I have to?" Kurt moaned, standing.

"Yes."

"Thank you for distracting them, Burt." Carole said cheerfully, turning her camera off.

"No!" All three boys exclaimed at once. Kurt stared at his pajamas in horror, Blaine raised his hand to his messy hair, and Finn stared down at his pink socks.

"Dude, that is not cool!" Finn exclaimed.

"Oh my God, I thought you were taking pictures of the baby, not us." Kurt stood back up. "I'm changing into clothes before anymore embarrassing photos are taken."

"I'm sure my hair has looked worse." Blaine shrugged.

"Nah, man, it looks pretty bad." Finn snorted.

"Says the one with YuGiOh hair. We can go back there if you'd like. Only then Kurt will bring up the Powerpuff Girls and get pouty again."

"I liked that show." Kurt mumbled very quietly.

"Aw." Blaine grabbed his hand and gently tugged him back down. "Your girly taste in shows is cute. I actually used to watch the Powerpuff girls too. David says I remind him of Bubbles."

"David watches the Powerpuff Girls?" Kurt asked, giggling a bit.

"I made him." Blaine sat up straight, looking very proud of himself. "And he enjoyed it very much. He'll never admit it, though. Can I get some potato candy?"

"No." Kurt said instantly. "We have to open presents first, Blaine."

"Can my first present be potato candy?" he stuck his lower lip out. "C'mon. 'Tis the season and whatnot, Kurt."

Carole disappeared and came back into the room with the bowl of potato candy, handing it to him from behind and patting his head. "There you are, hon."

Blaine let out a tiny squeak and pulled the lid off of the bowl. After hearing Blaine's squeak, Melody began making her own squeaks which kept increasing in volume until Carole shushed her with a pacifier.

"Now that the children are quiet," Burt said looking between Blaine and Melody pointedly. "We can decide what Christmas movie to watch while we open presents."

"We get to watch Christmas movies while we open presents?" Finn asked. "That is so awesome! I vote Olive the Other Reindeer because I couldn't hear it yesterday over Kurt and Blaine singing along with that dumb Christmas song."

"That song is not dumb. It just so happens to be my favorite Christmas song!" Kurt exclaimed.

"What song?" Burt grunted, taking his seat by the tree and bending to pull out some presents.

"Baby It's Cold Outside. Dumbest song ever." Finn muttered. "Ever."

"'S a 'ood song." Blaine said, covering his mouth, which was full of candy.

"Blaine, sweetie, remember how we discussed not talking in public with food in our mouths? And how even if you cover your mouth and we can't see the food, it's still disgusting?" Kurt laughed, squeezing his leg.

"Kurt, I think you have to learn to live with the fact that you have found a boyfriend who is like a boy and not another you. They can't all have your mannerisms." Carole laughed. "Would you like to hold Melody?"

"I get to hold her next!" Finn said.

Melody reached for Kurt, still happily sucking on her pacifier.

"Oh God, you're really not taking pictures of her opening everything are you? I'm in my pajamas." Kurt gasped as he carefully took his sister. He kissed her chubby cheek as she giggled, which his father of course got on camera.

"We sure are, bud. Your mother and I did this with you too, and Carole did it with Finn. It's her first Christmas." Burt said, holding a present out to Kurt. "Which means she gets to open the first present!"

Kurt settled Melody on his lap and stole her pacifier after taking the small box. "Look here, sweetie!"

She looked down at the box and then back at her father, as if Kurt had lost his mind. Blaine reached over and pulled the gold bow off, sticking it to her hand. Her huge green eyes widened in shock as she stared down at the bow, transfixed.

"You're going to have to help her, hon." Carole said, sitting on the floor where Kurt had been and reaching up¸ tearing some of the paper off. Melody's attention immediately turned to the box and was squealed in delight when Kurt took her tiny hand and helped her get all of the wrapping paper off.

"Hold on, hold on!" Kurt laughed, prying the box and torn shiny paper out of her tiny hands. "I'll get it out for you."

She began to fuss when Kurt took the box away from her. Kurt pulled the stuffed doll out of it and went to hand it to her, but she yanked the box back quite roughly for such a tiny girl and put the corner of the lid in her mouth, grinning. The doll fell to the floor, completely unnoticed by his sister.

"This is where Kurt finds out babies are more interested in shiny paper and boxes than the actual gifts." Burt chucked as he took a picture of his two children, Melody looking content and Kurt looked flabbergasted.

"But it's the best little doll I could find!" Kurt pouted. "And she was going to love it!"

"She does love it, sweetie." Carole laughed, squeezing his knee.

"I could have gone to any old dumpster in Cincinnati and wrapped up an empty box and got the same reaction." Kurt said, his pout not leaving. He picked up the doll and held it out. "Melody, don't you like the doll?" Melody let the cardboard box fall and wrapped her tiny fist around the small baby doll's dress, cooing at it. "She does like it!"

Burt passed over another present.

"No, she's busy with this one!" Kurt exclaimed. "She needs adequate time to bond with her doll."

"If everyone spends twenty minutes bonding with their presents, kid, we'll be here until next week."

"Not everyone. Just Melody." Finn shrugged, reaching down and handing a present to Blaine. "There ya go, dude."

"Movie! Movie!" Kurt yelped, standing and thrusting an annoyed Melody into Finn's arms. "We're forgetting the movie. No, Dad, we're not watching A Christmas Story. That's the dumbest movie ever."

"You only say that because I forced you to wear a bunny suit like he wears in it once." Burt grinned and winked at Finn and Blaine. "I've got pictures."

"Did not and do not." Kurt waved the statement off, crouching down. "Does anyone oppose Charlie Brown?"

"Bor-ring." Blaine answered and then leaned speaking so quietly that Kurt couldn't hear. "Can I see those pictures later?"

Burt nodded a little too eagerly as his youngest child continued going through movies, completely oblivious to his boyfriend and father's plotting.

"Alvin and the Chipmunks?"

"Christmas, Christmas time is here…" Finn and Blaine began together.

"Moving on." Kurt said quickly. "The Grinch?"

"Cindy is probably right at Blaine's height." Finn snorted.

"At least I'm not the Jolly Green Giant." Blaine said, taking the bow off of his still unopened present and putting it on Melody's head. "So pretty!"

"If someone doesn't pick a movie soon, we're watching the History Channel's explanation of Christmas. Does anyone really want that?" Kurt asked impatiently. He was glad Blaine and Finn got along and all, but they could make it very hard to get anything done. Melody blew a raspberry at him, waving her tiny fingers. "Fine, fine. Finn, you win. We'll watch Olive the Other Reindeer. But only because I'm too lazy to wait for you two to choose something that…" he trailed off and shook his head, popping the movie into the DVD player and moving back into his spot between his brother and boyfriend.

Blaine scooted right up, head resting on Kurt's shoulder, as he opened several books from Burt and Carole which he had been dying to read. As soon as he saw them, though, he sat up very quickly and very excitedly thanked the two.

"Santa Jr. over here may have given us a few hints." Burt laughed. "But it kind of defeats the purpose of the other thing we got you."

"How did you know what books I wanted?" Blaine said, smiling goofily at his boyfriend.

"You have a list on the fridge titled 'BOOKS I NEED TO READ.' It wasn't too hard." Kurt laughed, pulling Blaine's head back down to his shoulder. "Now you have something to do when I'm working on school stuff." He looked at Carole. "When I'm working on school work and he has nothing to do he sits on the floor and pouts. Pouts. And it's not just that pouty face he's doing right now. I mean he whimpers too."

"It's endearing, right?" Blaine nuzzled him.

"Not in the least bit." Kurt lied. Blaine would have been convinced if Kurt hadn't squeezed his leg briefly. "Let's get this celebration over with. I'm starting to regret not getting dressed every time Dad takes a picture. Is it really necessary to take pictures of everyone?"

"Shut up, Kurt."

"Fine."

"One day, boys, when you all three have many babies you'll understand." Carole laughed. "And then your older babies will whine when you do this too."

"Not gonna happen, dude." Finn said. "Who wants pictures of babies opening bibs and dolls and blocks?"

"You, Finn, will be the worst of all three of you. Just because you act this way now." Burt pointed out.

"Yeah well Kurt will probably hire a camera crew and everything that way he doesn't miss one thing fooling with the camera." Blaine snorted. "Ow! Kurt, that is abuse!"

***WBUCT***

"I'm so nervous." Blaine declared a few days later, coming into his and Kurt's—was it okay to say his and Kurt's at this point?—bedroom and towel drying his hair. "What if I say something wrong? What if mom and dad lied about something and he—."

Kurt, who had been preoccupied staring at the gorgeous watch that Blaine had gotten him for Christmas for the millionth time since opening it¸ looked up. He was sitting in bed, already dressed and showered. "Blaine."

"No, Kurt. I'm serious. You just don't understand my family. They—."

"You talk to him on Facebook a lot. You talk to him on the phone once every one or two weeks."

"What if he doesn't want to see me? What if he thinks that I'll think it's rude if he doesn't?" Blaine gasped. "What if he doesn't even want to talk to me at all? What if he just wanted to give me that folder and now I look like I'm obsessed with him and—."

Kurt made his way over to Blaine and straightened the collar of his shirt. "Generally he calls you, Blaine. I could sit here and tell you how wrong you are, but you'll just disagree." He reached up, smoothing Blaine's hair down in the back. "Don't worry."

"I have to worry. This is just so weird." Blaine mumbled. "I don't want him to feel obligated."

"He's your brother. Your family. He's not doing it because he feels obligated." Kurt kissed his cheek. "Look at us, Blaine. We've gone a whole week without any sort of dramatic breakdown or argument or furniture malfunction."

"That only happened once. It's not my fault you bought a crappy kitchen table, nor is it my fault that Kung Fu Fighting happened to come on while I was making spaghetti."

"Oh I know." Kurt said softly, clearly remembering hearing a crash and walking into the kitchen to find Blaine looking rather surprised on a collapsed kitchen table while said song played in the background. "The world is just out to get you, isn't it?"

"Uh-huh." Blaine nodded and looked down at the watch. "Are you sure you like it? If you don't, you can exchange it. I won't be offended. I know you can be picky."

"It's perfect. I wouldn't change it if you paid me." Kurt said firmly. And he really did think it was perfect. It was a lovely watch, it really was. What he loved most was what Blaine had had engraved on the back. Time has no meaning when you're in love. When he'd read it the first time, a chill ran throughout his entire body and he thought his heart would beat right out of his chest. All he had been able to do since opening the gift was stare at it, with big eyes. He had never expected anything as nice as his watch, his gift paled in comparison in his opinion. Blaine was bad at romance? Yeah right. Blaine Anderson was awful at cooking and telling people no, but he was most certainly not bad at romance.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Times one thousand seven hundred and forty six."

Blaine nodded and then began to look anxious again. "Are you sure he even wants to see me? I mean, he brought it up. But he may have just brought it up to seem nice and—."

"Blaine, stop. You're doing that thing where you build things up in your head. This is about an anxiety level of six, and you've made it to level twenty. Breathe. He is coming because he wants to see you. He's in the state and he wants to see his little brother, alright? The same way that when we're in Lima we stop to see Finn. It's nothing more than that, babe."

Blaine didn't look convinced. Instead he sort of wrapped his arms around himself uncomfortably as he sat on the bed. He remained there until the doorbell rang, staring ahead. "Crap. Does my hair look okay?"

"Messily adorable as it always is when you don't style it." Kurt responded, tugging Blaine off of the bed. "Don't worry, really. Everything will be fine. I promise."

"Can I have a hug?" Blaine asked, almost pitifully.

"Oh, Blaine!" Kurt wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close. "Of course. And after he leaves, we'll come up here and snuggle. How does that sound? An entire night curled up. You can even read on the Nook C that dad and Carole bought you…"

"Love my Nook." Blaine gasped, as he always did any time someone asked him how he enjoyed his Nook, if he'd figured out how to get books onto it, or, in Finn's case, if he'd named it yet.

As they made their way downstairs, they could hear Burt and Blaine's older brother Alex talking. As soon as Blaine made it into the room, Alex's smile grew and he leaned down towards his son, who was standing and holding onto his leg, and pointed. "Look! Remember Blaine? You talked to him on the phone yesterday!" he then added to Burt, "Well, it's not really talking. It's more stringing random sounds together mixed in with a few words. Is that normal? They say it's normal."

"Oh yeah, it's normal." Burt said gruffly, nodding.

"Hi, Danny." Blaine said, smiling nervously at the little boy.

Danny looked up from where his head was buried in the crook of his father's knee long enough to wave his little fingers and then returned to his previous position.

"Don't you start being shy. You were chanting his name the whole way here." Alex laughed, nudging his son a tiny bit with his leg.

"No!" Danny whined.

"That would be one of the few words he knows quite well." Alex said. "C'mon, Danny. Say hello."

"No hello."

"Hi, Blaine. Hey, Kurt." Alex said, waving. He seemed to have given up hope. "The baby is feeling a little anti-social right now."

"Bud, you want some candy?" Burt asked, kneeling down. "I think the boys have got some candy around here and it might have had your name on it."

Danny raised his head, eyes lighting up. "Hello?"

Burt just laughed as he stood, promising, "I'll be right back with some chocolate, bud."

Danny nuzzled Alex's leg and waved at Kurt, a little smile spreading across his face.

"Hey, Danny!" Kurt bent down and waved at him, smiling. "Do you remember me?"

He shook his head, his smile getting even bigger and his eyes brighter.

"I don't think he knows what you're saying." Alex laughed, ruffling Danny's curls. "Do ya bud?"

"Can he really talk?" Kurt asked curiously, watching Danny. Blaine's nephew was almost as adorable as Melody and that was saying something. Then again, Danny appeared to be much more advanced and was probably much older.

Alex reached down and heaved Danny up, kissing his chubby cheek. "Well, sort of. I think he understands quite a bit. He knows random words. Like 'no', 'don't', 'want', and 'fucker'. Say hello, Danny. He's usually not quite so shy. Dad wasn't very nice to him." Alex apologized, trying to make his son face them again. "Oh, come on, son. I'm telling you the whole ride home he was saying 'Blaine! Blaine! Blaine!'"

Blaine, still a little nervous about seeing his brother again, stepped a little closer. He was beginning to feel better about it though. Alex didn't look like he'd been forced into coming. Maybe their talks over the internet and phone had made it a little easier, and he was glad about that. He wasn't near as nervous as he had been several months ago meeting Alex in that restaurant.

"Look, Blaine's coming up to you since you won't look at him. Wanna say hello?"

Danny stuck his head up, glanced cautiously at Kurt, and then waved at Blaine excitedly.

"Hi, Danny." Blaine smiled and waved back.

"Hi!" he squeaked before covering his face again.

Everyone looked up when Carole rushed in, almost squealing with excitement. "Oh my God, look at him! That is the most adorable little boy I have ever seen! You must be Alex."

Alex held out his hand, shaking it. "Hi. Carole? Blaine talks about you a lot. Thank you for taking care of him so well. All of you."

Carole positively beamed, reaching over and smoothing down one of Blaine's curls that had gone particularly wild.

"We were more than happy to take him in. And Carole's very emotionally attached to the kid. We couldn't get rid of him if we wanted." Burt laughed, coming into the room and holding out a tiny chocolate Santa for Danny. "Here you go, bud. I hope you like chocolate."

"Can't make the woman of the house mad, otherwise you don't eat." Alex said cheerfully. "What do you say, Daniel?"

"Want!"

"No." Alex sighed. "Please?"

"Fuc—."

Alex quickly covered his mouth with his free hand. "No! Don't say that! It gets Daddy in trouble with mommy. Okay?"

The second he lowered his hand Alex chanted, "Fucker, fucker, fucker, fucker!"

"The trick is to act like he's doing nothing wrong." Burt said knowingly. "If it doesn't get a reaction, he'll stop. Worked with Kurt at least. His favorite word was s-h-i-t."

"So if we just ignore it he'll stop?"

Burt just pointed at Danny, who was happily eating a tiny bit of the chocolate that Carole had broken off for him, completely forgetting about his curse word chant.

"You are a genius! Oh, Mia is going to love you for this. It's been three weeks now. Isn't that right, Danny?"

Danny let out a whimper, hiding his face in his father's shoulder.

"My God, he is too precious." Carole cooed. "How old is he?"

"Thank you." Alex smiled and repositioned his son so he was facing everyone. "About 18 months. Isn't that right Danny?" he bounced his son. "We've got the big birthday 2 coming up in June, haven't we?"

Danny frowned, attempting cover his face with his little hand.

"You can stop being so shy and quiet now. Grandpa isn't going to come be mean to you again. Kurt's family's all nice, remember?" he lowered Danny's hand, but the boy just stuck his thumb in his mouth and began sucking. "They're nice. Come on and show them how cute you are."

"What did dad do?" Blaine mumbled, his stomach tightening. How could anyone be mean to a little baby? Especially one so cute and chubby?

"He told him to stop being so loud last night. He hasn't talked very much since." His brother's eyes narrowed a bit, but then he kissed Danny's cheek and smiled. "Of course when you did that when you were his age, you'd just get louder. He may look exactly like you, Blaine, but he sure doesn't act like you."

"Is this what Blaine looked like as a baby?" Carole asked, slowly moving closer and then tickling Danny's cheek. He smiled and pulled his slobbery thumb out of his mouth, extending his fingers in a shy wave.

"Almost exactly." Alex nodded and set Danny down on the ground. "But Mr. Danny here is very shy and Blaine's never had a shy bone in his body. Danny, where do you think you're going?"

"Up!" Danny said firmly, toddling a few feet and coming to a halt next to Kurt and then reaching up.

"Another word he knows well." Alex snorted. "If you don't want to hold him you don't have to, Kurt."

"I love holding babies!" Kurt exclaimed, scooping Danny up.

"Just don't get too attached." Blaine teased, laughing. Kurt really was adorable when it came to babies. "This one has to go back to Italy soon."

"This one?" Alex questioned.

"We have an almost seventh month old." Burt said. "Kurt's very attached. You'd think she was his kid."

"She is my baby." Kurt cooed to Danny. "But you're still pretty cute! You're the cutest almost toddler and she's the cutest baby. Does that work?"

Danny just looked around the room curiously, not even responding.

"If he was like Blaine, he'd have had a full conversation with you by now." Alex snorted. "Wouldn't you have, Blaine?"

"Probably. You were right. I've never been shy. Not in most cases at least." Blaine said, jiggling Danny's foot. "Was he walking when we saw each other this summer?"

"Nah. He was lazy on us about that. He started crawling really early but started walking really late." Alex said. "It seems like he's going to talk on time though. I'm hoping he's not going to be too shy, but I don't exactly want him to be quite as… friendly as you were."

"Was Blaine a mean baby?" Carole's jaw dropped as Burt laughed.

"Oh no. Uhm… Not unless you made him mad. He was very friendly until then. He would talk to anyone. Literally anyone that would walk by… but if they didn't answer, he'd get heated." Alex responded. "Once I took him to the store with me when he was four and we were in the check out line and he kept talking to everyone within hearing distance. But this one huge man just ignored him. And he was like 'You're an asshole!' I swear, everyone in any checkout lane heard it and just stared at me."

Blaine rolled his eyes. "Did not."

"You did so, Blaine. I thought the man was going to beat me up or something. He was huge. Blaine had a temper when he was ignored—you were a bit of an attention whore, really."

Kurt smirked. "Not much has changed then—Ow! Your elbow is pointy, Blaine!"

Blaine just stared ahead innocently, prompting Danny to giggle.

"Oh no. He really said that to the man?" Carole laughed, not even chastising Blaine.

"Yes ma'am. And the guy just stands there. They ended up getting into an argument right in the check out aisle. I swear to God, Blaine, stop shaking your head. The man told Blaine that he was rude and obnoxious. So Blaine argues with him, of course. Well you coulda just said hello, it's not that hard! Even parrots can do it!"

Carole laughed loudly, squeezing Blaine's arm. "I can see that somehow."

"Oh God, Blaine. I thought he was going to beat both of us up. He could've done it too, easily." Alex just shook his head. "You were such a smartass."

"He's still a smartass when he wants to be." Kurt assured him, bouncing Danny a bit and making the little boy giggle. "Especially when you try to come in-between him and fast food. It's not pretty."

"Are you two hungry? We've got some lunch left over." Burt said, suddenly realizing they hadn't offered Blaine's brother anything to eat.

"No thanks." Alex smiled. "You okay with that chocolate, Mr. Danny?"

Danny responded by sticking his fingers in his mouth and pulling out a very slobbery piece of half eaten chocolate. He then flashed Kurt a big smile and offered it to him.

"No thank you." Kurt giggled, carrying him to the couch and sitting down. "You can put that back in your mouth and eat it." He then added, "Please. This is a very nice shirt."

Alex laughed and reached into his diaper bag, pulling out a wet wipe. "Babies and nice shirts do not mix, Kurt. I'm sorry to tell you. Actually, babies and anything nice do not mix." He sat by Kurt on the couch, wiping his son's hands, face, and even shoe off. "How did you manage that one? This boy is like a ninja."

Carole squeezed Blaine's shoulder and led him to the couch, sitting down with him. They sat quietly for a few minutes before cries sounded from the other room. "That would be Melody. I'll be right back." She nudged Blaine a bit, clearly trying to get him to talk more, and then headed off into the other room.

"How's school going for both of you? And how's money? Are you two doing okay?" Alex asked.

"Blaine got seven A's." Kurt said, loud enough for Burt to hear.

"Seven?" Burt's jaw dropped.

"Maybe." Blaine said sheepishly.

"I dropped out my freshman year." Alex snorted. "That's good though, Blaine."

"I thought you graduated?"

"I lied to Mom and Dad." Alex shrugged. "I dropped out and got a job in a small business. Mia's dad was my boss, actually. He was the only one stupid enough to hire me. He probably would have fired me too if Mia hadn't liked me so much."

"Is she here?" Kurt asked, interrupting his very serious talk with Danny about how he loved the baby's shoes. Danny of course babbled back, but the only actual word in the string of babbling was "toast" and no one knew what to make out of that.

"God no. She hates my parents. I told her we'd get a hotel but she didn't want to. She's staying with her sister while I'm gone. I don't think you've even met her, Blaine."

"I don't think so." Blaine shook his head and smiled when Danny crawled over to him, plopping down in his lap. "Hello, there!"

"That's his sleepy face." His brother laughed. "Look, look. There the eyelids go. Down, up, down, up, the glare—we go through this a lot—and he's out."

Danny curled up to Blaine, stuck his thumb in his mouth, and let out a tiny snore.

"Do mom and dad… know you're seeing me?" Blaine asked hesitantly. He looked over at Kurt who smiled and ruffled his curly hair.

"They know I'm seeing you before I go back to Italy. They might not know we're here now. I left in a huff after Dad made Danny cry and don't intend to go back before the flight out." Alex responded, sighing a bit. "They're not too happy we talk to each other, but I don't give a shit. I think they've convinced themselves that we're going to join forces and try to take down the family. That or they can't stand the fact that we don't like them and like each other… Wanna join forces and take down the family? I live in Italy. I'm sure I can find some ex-Mafia people and you can find some of your old Warblers. I'll buy the weapons and torches if you buy the food."

Blaine just let out a surprised laugh. "I don't know. They probably have the place rigged to blow up if I walk within 100 feet."

"That's nothing compared to what they'd do to me if they found out I dropped out of college… because I may or may not have blown the college money off on a whole lot of useless crap…" Alex laughed.

"Like what? That tuition had to be, like, even worse than out of state." Blaine gasped.

"Clothes, music, movies, TV, car, food, more food…" Alex counted on his fingers as he listed stuff.

"It's a wonder you two aren't fat with how much you all like to eat." Kurt pointed out, taking Blaine's larger hand into his own and squeezing it.

"Our mother was a crappy cook. At least she was when I was little. I'd have to find innovative ways to hide good food in my room. I'd go around to my friend's houses and beg their moms for stuff."

"She's still a crappy cook. But I just walked down to David's and ate with them a lot. Or David's older sister would take us to get fast food." Blaine shrugged. "And trust me, Kurt… if I didn't still run, I'd probably blow up like a balloon."

"In that case, I hope you don't stop running any time soon." Kurt said, squeezing his hand again.

"Danny is out like a light." Alex laughed loudly at his son curled up more against Blaine, balling some of his shirt in his chubby fingers. "I let him stay up late last night watching Disney since Dad was mean to him. I may or may not be wrapped around his finger. He's just so cute though! And he knows it! This is his mother's fault. He's discovered if he knows certain words and says them, we'll give them what he wants."

"Huh?" Kurt questioned.

"Like last night when we got to the hotel he pointed at the television and cooed 'Disney' in his baby voice until I put a movie on." Alex glanced at his watch. "I've gotta head out in about fifteen minutes so we can make it to the airport in time, Blaine. This is your cue to tell me where the flamethrower is so we can hightail it and burn our dear parent's house down."

"In the shed!" Burt called from the kitchen.

"Dad doesn't like your dad." Kurt laughed as Blaine snorted loudly.

"Well he's not a very good dad." Alex said seriously. "Good parents tend to see that clearer than others."

They fell into a short silence before Blaine spoke up. "How long have you been married? Mom said you were about to get married before everything… happened."

"I have been married for seven years, but mom doesn't know that. We waited to have kids and when Mia got pregnant I figured I had to lie and say I was about to get married. But we've been together since my 'sophomore year of college.'" He made air quotes as he spoke the last words. "So, a very long time."

"Why did you wait so long to get married?" Kurt asked curiously. "And why did you lie to your parents?"

"She kept saying no." he snorted. "Actually, she kept telling me to ask her next year, next year. And finally she said yes… and I lied to mom and dad because I didn't want them to have…" he trailed off.

"Anything at all to do with it." Blaine finished for him.

"Exactly." Alex nodded, looking very serious. "Our mom and dad have ways of ruining anything good."

"Why did she say no so many times?" Blaine laughed himself, feeling himself becoming more comfortable. They at least had that much in common—their parents sucked and they didn't want them involved in anything concerning their personal lives. That was a pretty big thing to have in common, though, in Blaine's opinion. It probably cancelled out most of their differences.

"Because her dad approved." His brother snorted again. "She didn't like doing things her father approved of. But it really started off as a joke anyway, to be honest. We weren't ready to get married and then we were and then we did. It wasn't like I would ask and be heartbroken each time or anything. I wanted to marry her one day, but I asked when I was really young and everything was about love… but she was right to say no, we were too young then. It just turned into a joke."

Blaine laughed a bit, although he didn't see how something like proposing marriage could ever be seen as a joke. "Well I'm glad she said yes finally."

"Me too, I suppose. Now my life is full of her dad bossing me around, her bossing me around, and this one bossing me around." He pointed down at his sleeping son. "It could be worse, I guess, right?"

Blaine looked at his brother. The older Anderson had had the same parents, a sort of similar childhood, and everything had worked out for him. He may not have known his brother very well, but everything about his brother made him feel better about his own life. Maybe one day everything would work out perfectly for him. Maybe things would just naturally fall into place and one day he'd wake up a husband and a father, teasingly complaining about his husband and children bossing him around. In that moment, to be completely honest, he wanted nothing more than to know that would one day happen.

***WBUCT***

"Do you think it's enough junk food? Are you sure I shouldn't have bought crackers and cheese?"

Blaine looked at Kurt over the book he was reading two days later and said in a sweet voice, "I don't know. Are we all little old ladies meeting for a book club meeting?"

Kurt narrowed his blue eyes. "Says the little old grandpa reading a book at the kitchen table by the window in that sweater."

"You said this sweater was cute."

"I lied."

Blaine stood and, as he walked past Kurt, teasingly motioned as if he was going to punch him.

"Oh, I dare you to punch me. I could take you and we both know it." Kurt laughed.

"Only because I'm too much of a gentleman to use my leg strength!" Blaine stuck his tongue out and went upstairs. "Why are you following me?"

"People will be over. I have to make sure you pick something you'll look presentable in."

"You just want to see me without a shirt on." Blaine corrected, stepping into their room and going to the closet. "I still think this sweater I have on is nice. It's so warm."

"Nice and warm aren't the same things. I don't know why you shop at Old Navy anyway. I know it's your favorite store and all, but you could do so much better. Like Express." Kurt said, and then added, "Who wouldn't want to see you without a shirt on, Blaine? Your body is perfect."

Blaine pulled the current brown sweater he was wearing off and grinned. "We can't all have my boyish charm."

Kurt rolled his eyes, moving past Blaine and pulling out a red sweater. "There. Wear this one. It brings out your eyes."

"No, I want to wear the blue one. I like blue."

"Suit yourself." Kurt shrugged and put the sweater back on the hanger, not even attempting to do it perfectly because he was too busy staring at Blaine's muscled chest.

"Kurt!" Blaine suddenly exclaimed, eyes wide.

"What?" Kurt jumped a bit.

"You just looked at me and licked your lips!" Blaine accused, pointing a finger at him.

"I did not!" Kurt yelped, cheeks going red.

"You did so!" A smirk spread across Blaine's face and he leaned over, still quite shirtless. "If you want my body and you think I'm sexy, come on, sugar, let me know."

"You're such a jerk." Kurt pushed him with his shoulder lightly and walked towards the door.

"You just wish you were as adorable as me!" Blaine called as he left the room. "And by the way, your shoulder is really bony just like my elbow!"

Kurt didn't even bother to respond to that statement, clearly feeling as though his 'assault' was justified. When Blaine made it back into the kitchen, he saw Kurt was putting some potato candy into a smaller bowl. "What's that?"

Kurt looked up, feigning a look of annoyance. "Wipe that fake innocent curiosity off of your face. You know I'm giving you your own bowl of candy to hide from David. Although I don't know how you're going to handle waiting until next Thanksgiving before getting any more. You've become quite obsessed."

"W-What?" Blaine sputtered. "Thanksgiving is so long away!"

"I already told you. This is holiday candy." Kurt said firmly, filling the plastic bowl to the top and placing an airtight lid on it.

"But… really? Why can't it be a once a week candy?"

"Because then it would not be holiday candy… What time are your pips going to be getting here?"

"A few hours probably but I'm not too sure. David's got a church thing. Wes is going with David—wish I could be there to see that—and then they're coming straight here… Thanks for letting me invite them, by the way."

"You live here too!" Kurt laughed. "You can always invite whoever you want to come over. No one will mind."

Blaine shrugged a bit and scooped up his bowl of candy cheerfully. "We might actually get a New Years kiss tonight. How exciting is that?"

"Did we not have one last year?" Kurt asked, looking confused.

"No. You fell asleep around 10:30. You weren't feeling very good, remember? I think your side was hurting you."

Kurt touched his side instinctively, right where his largest scar was. He hated that scar more than he'd ever admit and had gotten into the habit of not even looking in the mirror when he was shirtless because of it. He knew it was silly, but he couldn't help it. "Oh."

Blaine leaned over, tickling his side. "It'll be another first for us."

"Have you ever had a New Years kiss?"

His boyfriend's hazel eyes widened and he said quickly, "Let's not get into that!"

"Oh, I think we should." Kurt said, grabbing his arm before he could leave. "Who was it?" Blaine mumbled something indecipherable. "What was that?"

"Imawef." He mumbled again.

"What?"

"I said Wes!"

"W-What?" Kurt sputtered out before bursting into laugher. "Wesley?"

"We were drunk."

"Blaine, Wes watches gay porn and has kissed you. Are you sure he's not gay?" Kurt said through laughter.

"We were drunk." Blaine repeated. "And I'm very sure he isn't gay, Kurt. I've walked in on him having sex a fair few times. With girls. He's just… curious. And, again, we were drunk."

"How does David put up with you two? You see, this whole dynamic you three have. It confuses me. David is like the father, but you're the serious one, and Wes is just… Wes. I don't know how your friendship meshes so well." Kurt said thoughtfully. He perked up when the doorbell rang. "That would be Rachel and slash or Mercedes."

"You didn't have to add in the slash there, my love." Blaine laughed. "I would have gotten that much on my own."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Kurt waved his hand and rushed off to get the door.

"Please be Mercedes, please be Mercedes." Blaine muttered as Burt walked into the room. He groaned and covered his face when he heard Rachel Berry's voice. "Damn."

Burt just chuckled. "We're about to head out, kid, if you want to say a prolonged goodbye to Melody. May buy you some time until someone else gets here."

"Good idea." Blaine said, and left the room calling, "Need any help packing, Carole?"

As soon as he made it into the nursery Carole shook her head at him. "You're only offering to help because Rachel is here. I'm onto you, Blaine."

"I'm offended you would say such a thing." Blaine cooed, picking Melody up from her crib. "Hi there, pumpkin. Do you get to go and see your grandma and grandpa? What are Kurt and I ever going to do without you here to entertain us?"

Melody waved her plush rattle in her little hand and then hit him in the head, grinning mischievously.

"I spot a tooooth!" Blaine exclaimed. "Don't I?"

"Tooth?" Carole asked eagerly, rushing over from the changing table where her bag was set.

"Yep, right there. Maybe. I think it's about to be one." Blaine leaned closer to look, earning himself another smack in the head, courtesy of Melody's rattle. "That's a tooth, isn't it?"

Melody frowned at his lack of reaction and hit him again harder before snapping her mouth shut.

"Somebody's in a bad mood." Carole sang, taking her daughter. "It looked like it was a tooth. Daddy's going to be thrilled, Mellie!"

"Don't leave." Blaine whispered.

"Blaine!" Carole laughed and shook his shoulder. "Your friends will be here soon!"

"That won't do any good if I kill myself before they get here." He mumbled.

"Don't be so dramatic, hon." She laughed again. "I bet you could be worse than Kurt if you tried."

"Kurt's dramatizations are pretty hard to top." Blaine responded, zipping up the diaper bag for her. "Can I go with you?"

"And leave your friends stuck with Kurt, Finn, Puck, Mercedes, Rachel, and possibly Quinn?" Carole asked, giving him a doubtful look. "You can come with us, but I don't think they'd appreciate that very much."

"Wes and David like Finn." Was Blaine's response.

She gave him a one armed hug. "Say bye-bye to Blaine, Melody."

Melody threw her rattle into the air and let out a loud squeal.

"Can I have a kiss?" Blaine said, leaning over and kissing her chubby cheek. "Thank you very much!"

"Have fun tonight, sweetie." Carole squeezed his hand.

"I'll try. Be careful on the drive!" Blaine waved goodbye to Melody and then made his way into the living room, thanking God when he saw that not only Mercedes was there but Finn as well.

"Hi, Blaine Warbler!" Rachel said cheerfully, waving. She was seated on the couch on Finn's lap and directly next to Kurt.

No way in hell was Blaine sitting on Kurt's other side, so he sat in the chair Burt usually sat in and sighed, "Anderson. And hello."

"Hi, White Boy." Mercedes said, waving to Blaine also. "We were just talking about NYU and CCAD. How's UK?"

"He got seven A's." Kurt said before he could speak. He had decided that if Blaine wouldn't boast about his grades, that he would just have to do it. Because seven A's in college was definitely something to boast about in Kurt's opinion. And besides, he was just really proud of his older boyfriend. "And he took seven classes."

"Dude, are you serious?" Finn asked, jaw dropping. "Did you cheat off of someone?"

"Uh… no." Blaine said slowly, looking confused.

"Then how did you get seven A's?"

Blaine hesitated before speaking again, maintaining his slow voice. "I read and studied…"

"You must have read and studied a lot." Finn's eyes were wide.

"Uh… sort of, I guess… I mean, I wanted to take eight classes but they wouldn't let me since I was technically still a freshman… But hopefully in two semesters I'll be back on track."

"So you're trying to graduate on time?" Mercedes asked.

"It won't happen." Blaine shrugged. "But I'm trying. It would save a whole lot of money and I managed this semester… alright."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Alright? Try with ease. I'm dating a genius."

"No. I'm bad at Chemistry." Blaine shuddered a bit. "Very bad. And at foreign languages. And I absolutely hate philosophy."

"Hey, are your friends coming? The funny ones?" Finn asked eagerly.

"They should be here soon."

Kurt's blue eyes lit up and he clapped his hands together. "Mercedes, you are going to love David."

"I don't need you to play matchmaker, White Boy." Mercedes said instantly and in a firm voice. "I am perfectly fine being single."

"No. Just hear me out." Kurt said, ignoring her comment. "He's in pre-med in Cincinnati, and he'll probably be transferring to Toledo. He was one of the council members for the Warblers—his leadership skills are debatable, sure, but he's less controlling than Wes which is saying something."

"Kurt—."

Kurt just held his hand up to shush her, making her glare. "He comes from a very well-to-do family. His dad is a therapist and his mom… well, she's in medicine. They had two maids, Mercedes. Two! Now he does have a bit of a problem when it comes to change but that's manageable. He's easily the sanest of he, Blaine, and Blaine's other best friend Wes. He's a good friend, did well in school, has a nice personality and a very nice smile, he's funny, he's cute. You two have similar taste in music and I can almost guarantee he'd like an independent woman like you."

"What part of I don't need you to set me up do you not understand?" Mercedes said, her glare darkening. "I am perfectly fine. I've got more than enough to worry about with classes at NYU and spending every other weekend with Miss Bossy Pants over here. There is absolutely no time in my life for—a boy." The last two words were barely audible as Blaine, who had gotten up mid rant, came back into the room followed by David and Wes.

"David, Wes, you know Finn. The girl on his lap is Rachel Berry and this is Mercedes Jones. Mercedes, Rachel, this is David and the Asian who just wandered into the kitchen without paying attention to me is Wes." Blaine said, pointing at Wes as he just walked into the kitchen as if he owned the place. "I'd remind him that is rude, but he has control issues."

"Wes? Control issues? No!" David gasped. "Hey guys, hi Kurt. Got any cake?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Follow the Asian. It's on the counter next to the coffee maker. Just try to leave some for everyone else this time, okay?"

"I'll try but I can't make any promises." David swatted Blaine's shoulder a bit. "Come with me. I've got to tell you about what my sister did. You're going to die."

Blaine and David made their way out of the room after David politely waved to everyone. Kurt waited all of half a second before turning excitedly to Mercedes. "Am I right? Was I right? Oh, look at her, Rachel. She's staring after him."

"I am not." Mercedes said, sitting up a little straighter and returning her attention to her friends. She said in a very casual voice, "He's alright, I guess."

"Come on, Mercedes. He was cute." Rachel pointed towards the kitchen. "I think he's your type."

"I'm right here." Finn pointed out. "Please don't openly say other boys are cute."

"Then leave." Rachel gave him a sweet smile, sliding off of his lap.

"Dude, is Quinn for real coming though?" Finn asked Kurt as he stood, after giving Rachel a very quick kiss.

"Yes, Finn." Kurt sighed for the millionth time. "And yes, I'm aware Puck is coming too. They are both dating other people. I think we can all be under one roof together without all hell breaking loose, don't you? We're all mature adults."

"Mature? You?" Mercedes laughed. "Boy, you had a fit the other night about someone's fashion line being pushed back a week."

"That was a nervous breakdown, not a fit." Kurt responded haughtily, holding his head up. "I can't help that I love Marc Jacobs. It's not like I have Alexander McQueen's line to look forward to anymore."

"I'm going to go and hang out with the dudes." Finn said, moving Rachel off of his lap and standing. "This conversation is going to get much more boring very fast."

"Excellent. We can have girl time—with Kurt of course—and talk about boys and New York!" Rachel squealed, scooting back into her previous seat which was next to Kurt. "You have got to come and visit us, Kurt. Washington Square Park is amazing and right near NYU's campus."

"And BB Sandwich Bar is amazing!" Mercedes cut in. "The food—Cravings, Kurt. I get cravings for it all the time. And there are so many vintage clothing shops right in the area. You'd love East Village."

"And the shopping in SoHo. It's just… amazing."

Kurt laughed a bit and stood, eager to hear all about New York but also knowing that there was something else he had to do—something very important if anyone wanted to eat any time before the next morning. "I'll be back, guys. I want to make sure they aren't tearing into all of the food."

"Hurry up! I want to tell you about my second run-in with Patti LuPone!"

***WBUCT***

Things had been going alright.

Of course it was a little weird. Being in a relatively small house with Kurt, Rachel, Mercedes, Finn, Puck, Quinn, David and Wes? The clashing personalities were almost enough to give Blaine a headache—but it was still going alright. Finn, Puck, David and Wes surprisingly got along together well. Puck and Wes were already pretty drunk and had done a rendition of Eye of the Tiger, which had caused David to choke on the soda he was drinking as he snorted in laughter. Blaine was sure the girls and Kurt were up to their own exciting things too. It had sounded like he had heard the beginning of a Diva Off a little while back, but the boys were being too loud to hear well enough for him to be sure.

"Lego Rock Band!" Wes cried out drunkenly in the middle of a quick moment of silence. "Let's kick the girls and Kurt out and play Lego Rock Band!"

"Lego?" David asked, eyebrow arching.

"Oh, it's totally fucking awesome!" Puck stood up and moved away from the table where they were all sitting.

"I think the girls and Kurt are waiting for Edward Cullen to be on that MTV show." Finn said, screwing his face up. "Dude, did you know they sparkle? Dude, what kind of vampire sparkles?"

"Blaine read those books." Wes giggled. "Didn't you, Blaine? Come on and drink, drink, drink." He began banging his fist on the table in time with his chants.

"I don't want to drink." Blaine said in a firm voice. Okay, maybe he really did. But drinking at a party where Rachel Berry was involved did not sound like a good idea. And things had been going so well for him and Kurt since finals were over. There was no stress. Everything had just been… nice. No arguments. Just cuddling, talking about random and completely stress-free things, and the occasional sex—maybe spending the whole break with Kurt's family hadn't been the brightest idea where sex was involved, but hindsight was 20/20 and they had both already agreed to not stay the whole time on the next winter break. That was beside the point, though. The point was that Blaine didn't want anything to ruin how well things were going—and they were going pretty damn well.

"He's more whipped than whipped cream." Wes declared dramatically. "Let it be known that I am five hundred and twenty six percent sure that he is only not drinking because his boyfriend has got him totally whipped cream."

"Totally whipped cream?" David asked, snorting.

"Wes, you might want to lay off of the alcohol for a few hours." Blaine sighed, rolling his eyes. "Alright?"

"Lego Rock Band!" Wes stood. "Don't you bitches try to take the microphone, it's mine!"

"The girls are watching TV." David tugged him back down with ease, more than used to Wes' drunken antics. He had gotten exceptionally well at handling Wes and Blaine under the influence of alcohol.

"We can take 'em." Puck slurred. "We'll just lock 'em in Kurt's room. Maybe they'll do sexy things to each other."

Blaine's stomach churned and he was pretty sure he threw up a little in his mouth.

"Look at his face!" Wes giggled, pointing at him. "C'mon, Blainers. Drunk time. Have a sip, have a sip!" He thrust his own plastic blue cup in Blaine's face.

"David, I'm going to take this moment to apologize for every single time you have ever dealt with me when I was drunk." Blaine said, lowering Wes' hand. "Bad Wes."

"Blaine parties hard." David informed Finn and Puck. "He's actually about ten times worse than this when he's got sufficient amounts of alcohol in him."

"He got arrested." Wes chirped, taking another gulp of his drink. "Lego Rock Band, Anderson! Make it happen!"

"I'll go see if the girls are watching the TV." Blaine sighed and stood.

"Dude, you are short!" Puck announced, looking Blaine up and down with wide eyes. "Like, you're a pygmy!"

"I called him that once. Wait for it, wait for it." Wes giggled, gulping down more alcohol. "He has monologues for everything, guys!"

"Pygmy people are typically shorter than five feet." Blaine said and smacked Wes upside his drunken head when Wes mouthed the words with him. "And that is highly offensive."

"But you're super short!" Puck protested.

"Just go, Blaine." Finn snorted. "He'll only argue."

This is going to be a long night, Blaine thought to himself as he made his way into the room separating the living room and the kitchen. He paused when he heard loud chattering, smiling a bit to himself. He saw David a lot and Wes some, but Kurt very rarely saw Mercedes, Rachel, and Quinn since they were all in college at NYU.

"I wish you were there with us, Kurt." Blaine heard Quinn sigh softly, and then what he heard next tore his heart in two.

"I know, me too." Kurt said quietly, but Blaine heard each word. His eyes widened in shock and he stood, feet glued to the floor. He knew he shouldn't stand and listen… but how could he not? And how could he stop the overwhelming guilt that flooded through him? It wasn't like he'd asked Kurt to stay, but he hadn't exactly told him he should go either…

"You would love it." Blaine heard Mercedes say as she launched into a discussion about a particularly good café that Quinn mentioned 'had Kurt's name all over it.'

"CCAD isn't all that bad." Kurt's voice was still very quiet. He hated that Kurt didn't sound as enthusiastic as the other girls did about NYU, and he really hated the fact that he now felt like he was holding Kurt back from something great, something he wanted.

"But NYU is just so you. You belong there." Rachel added.

Blaine stood for several more seconds before heading back into the kitchen and saying in a controlled and hopefully normal voice, "They're just talking. I think you all can play."

David released his hold on Wes and the Asian boy ran out the back door shrieking he'd brought everything they would need. Puck stumbled after him, letting out some very odd giggles. I'm pretty sure those are very out of character for him, Blaine thought to himself. The whole scene probably would have been a lot funnier if he wasn't feeling so depressed and upset all of a sudden.

"I think I'm going to need to drink just to get through this." Finn muttered. "I suck at Rock Band. You okay, dude?"

"Fine." Blaine said, taking a huge gulp of his Cream Soda in an attempt to ward off any more questions. Finn shrugged but Blaine was well aware that David was watching him carefully, trying to figure out if he was just in a quiet mood (which happened frequently) or if he was upset.

"Okay well I'm going to go set the TV up if the girls don't care." Finn shrugged again, looking unsure, and headed into the living room.

"What?" Blaine asked, a little more sharply than necessary, when David gave him a quizzical look.

David held his hands up in the air, as if surrendering. "Nothing, nothing."

…

"I wish you'd just tell me why you're being so quiet all of a sudden." Kurt said, following Blaine into the kitchen. He had been trying to get Blaine alone for the better part of two hours, but Blaine had practically attached himself to David's hip. It was hard to properly introduce Mercedes and David with Blaine in such proximity and Blaine was really starting to mess up Kurt's plan. At least, that's what he'd been annoyed about at first. Now he was just becoming worried. Had Blaine's parents called or something? He didn't know what else could have caused such a drastic attitude change in the older boy.

"I told you, I'm fine." Blaine sighed, grabbing a handful of chips.

Kurt grabbed his other arm gently. "No. You've had this incredibly forced smile on your face for two hours, Blaine. I'm sure other people can't tell and think you're happy, but I've gotten better at reading your faces and this isn't a happy one. What's wrong? Did Puck say something to you? I mean, he can say stupid stuff sometimes without thinking about it and—."

"Puck's been nice." Blaine muttered, looking down.

"Then what's wrong, babe?" Kurt sighed, moving his hand down and lacing their fingers together. "Do you feel sick?"

"I'm just… Kurt… I heard what you said."

Kurt's eyebrow went up and he looked at Blaine, mouth hanging open slightly. Then he said, almost a bit nervously, "What did I say? I didn't say anything bad. I don't know what you're talking about, Blaine."

"You said you wished you were at NYU." Blaine whispered, not looking up. Kurt could barely hear the words he spoke.

"When did I say—oh, I did—Wait… You weren't in the room when I said that, Blaine. Were you listening to me?" His initial reaction was confusion, after that realization, and then he felt himself becoming aggravated. He loved Blaine, he wouldn't have minded Blaine hearing him say that… but why was Blaine spying on him? Maybe spying was a bit of an exaggeration, but Kurt didn't go around listening to Blaine's private conversations.

"I was coming to see if you all were watching the TV so they could play Rock Band." Blaine snapped, having to raise his voice over the cheers in the other room. "I just overheard it."

"Oh, and you just decided to hang around outside the door and listen to us? Is that required for checking to see if we were watching television or just an added bonus?" Kurt snapped back, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I wasn't listening to you. I just happened to overhear what you were saying."

"If you weren't spying, why didn't you come in?"

"Spying?" Blaine exclaimed, actually taking a step back from him. "I wasn't spying on anybody. It's not my fault I chose that minute to walk in."

"You didn't walk in! You stood in the hallway and listened!"

"Stop, stop." Blaine said in a hushed voice. "I'm sorry, Kurt. I didn't mean to listen. I just heard that and I started to feel guilty about CCAD and—."

"This conversation is not even happening." Kurt said, shaking his head. "Blaine, no. Don't make this bigger than it needs to be. This is nothing. Is that why you're upset?"

"Yes! You're going to a school you don't like, you refuse to meet anyone, you're stressed out all of the time and this break has been amazing, Kurt, it really has. But it's going to end soon and you're going to go back to being unhappy and I'm going to go back to being unhappy because you're unhappy!" Blaine said, hazel eyes big and upset.

Kurt's assumptions were right. He was really working himself up over Kurt's comment—but that comment had truly been nothing. Did he wish he was at New York? Sometimes, yeah. But not to the point where he was unhappy about it. He was being conversational, that was all. He loved living alone with Blaine.

"Blaine, I'm not unhappy. CCAD is just very competitive and if I was in design at NYU it would be even more competitive. I get stressed out because I have so much work due and I'd probably have just as much work due there, if not more." Kurt explained in a gentle voice. "I'm not unhappy. I like CCAD. I like Cincinnati and I like living with you. Okay?"

"I—Just—Are you sure, Kurt?" Blaine said, looking at the wall right next to Kurt instead of directly at his boyfriend. His foot was jiggling anxiously and he bit his lip a bit like he typically did when stressed out.

"Yes. I am sure." Kurt nodded and then added, "I'm still not very pleased you were listening in on my conversation though, Blaine."

"I wasn't—I just—." Blaine trailed off and just walked out of the room.

Kurt's jaw dropped a bit and then he went into the living room and asked sharply, "Where did Blaine go?"

Normally he would have been delighted to see Mercedes and David in the corner of the room deep in conversation and both looking genuinely happy, but there was no time for that.

"Upstairs, dude." Finn called without even looking up from Rock Band.

Kurt ran up the stairs and pushed the bedroom door open. "What? Do you really want to start a fight right now, Blaine?"

"You wish you were in New York!" Blaine said in a hushed voice, looking sad and defeated. "Kurt, you should withdraw from CCAD and start up there next year. You—."

"I don't want to go to NYU!" Kurt exclaimed, much louder than entirely necessary. "I want to stay in Cincinnati with you! I chose to stay with you!"

"If I wasn't here, you'd be at NYU with your friends!" Blaine shouted.

There was a stunned silence in the room and it took Kurt several seconds to recover from the shock. They were not a couple that yelled. Blaine was not a person who yelled. "And if I wasn't here, you'd be off playing soccer for Santa Barbara or Duke or wherever else offered you a free ride! You'd be getting picked for a pro team!"

"I didn't want to play soccer professionally! I want an English major so I can go to law school! I have always wanted to be a lawyer! Not a soccer player!" Blaine's voice only rose. "I don't want you to hate me because I'm holding you back!"

"You're telling me if we hadn't met in your senior year that you wouldn't be at Santa Barbara right now?" Kurt asked very quietly, blue eyes staring into Blaine's hazel ones.

Blaine hesitated and licked his lips nervously. "I… I probably would be. But only to please my family. I never wanted to play pro soccer. Did I assume I'd go to college on a soccer scholarship and get my undergrad that way? Yes. But then I met you and everything changed."

"Fine." Kurt said. "Did I assume I'd go to college at NYU with Mercedes and Rachel? Yes. But then I met you and everything changed."

"Don't use my own words against me." Blaine pleaded. "Kurt, please… go to NYU. I'll wait for you."

"No. I want to be at CCAD with you, Blaine. I want to be with you, with my family, near Melody. I wouldn't go to NYU if you paid me. Just like you wouldn't go to Santa Barbara. Blaine, just let this go. Okay? Let's go down there and sit back on the couch and watch Puck and Wes make idiots out of their drunken selves and watch David and Mercedes fall in love while Finn plays Rock Band with two drunk idiots and Rachel and Quinn force nice talk. Okay? Really, we should get out there just so they don't kill each other."

"But—."

"End of discussion." Kurt grabbed his hand and dragged him downstairs. The boys didn't look up from Rock Band, Mercedes and David glanced over but soon continued their conversation, and both Quinn and Rachel looked extremely pleased to see them. Kurt sat on the couch, fingers still linked with Blaine's, and plastered a rather convincing smile on his face. "Where were we, Rachel? Something about your show, I think?"

"The director is terrific, she really is. And the girl who plays the lead role… Well, of course I'm better than her, but everyone has to start at the bottom, you know? It's only a matter of time before I'm the lead. My dads will of course be coming for the show, even though I play a minor role. It's all a stepping stone. I hope Finn will come with them. They really like Finn." Rachel said very quickly, looking excited. "Who did you say your friends were again, Blaine?"

"Wes and David." Blaine mumbled, pointing them each out and still looking rather sulky.

"Well David is charming, but Wes acts like he belongs in a zoo."

"Rachel!" Both Kurt and Quinn gasped at the same time.

"Yeah, well, what planet are you from? They can have you back." Blaine mumbled, but only loud enough for Kurt to hear. He winced when Kurt elbowed his side. "Ouch!"

"Are you okay?" Quinn asked, looking concerned.

"That depends on your definition of okay." Blaine responded as he stood and went to join Wes, Puck, and Finn at the television.

"Don't worry, Quinn. It's probably my presence. See, we went on a date a few years ago and had a lovely time. Clearly he's still attracted to me and is afraid if we're on friendly terms he'll be tempted to act on those urges." Rachel said cheerfully.

"Oh no. I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you said his friend belonged in a zoo." Quinn said slowly, in her sweet voice, as Wes let out a loud whoop and fell over his own feet.

The three fell into an awkward silence. Quinn looked annoyed at being so close to Rachel, Rachel was staring at the four boys almost curiously, and Kurt was too annoyed with Rachel's last comment about Blaine to say anything nice. What was supposed to be a nice night with friends was turning into a terrible night for anyone who wasn't drunk, in the process of falling in like, or Finn (who seemed to find Puck and Wes' drunken antics hilarious, even if he had yet to drink himself).

Several very long minutes later Blaine stood and made his way back over, hesitating anxiously. Finally he sat back down next to Kurt.

"They're like animals." Kurt said softly as Wes and Puck began to wrestle on the ground, each of them fighting for the microphone.

"See? It's like they belong in a zoo." Rachel chirped. "My dads never acted like that and Finn doesn't act like that. I realize I don't have that much experience in how guys are supposed to act, but—."

Kurt tuned her out, turning his attention to Blaine who was looking very pitiful. "Blaine, stop it."

"Stop what?"

"This." Kurt gestured at him. "Don't be upset."

"Are you sure you're fine with… this?"

"Damn it." Kurt moaned, standing and grabbing his hand. "Quinn, make sure they don't stick that mic stand through someone's head, okay?"

"Alright." Quinn said softly, watching them head into the kitchen.

"Kurt, it's okay if you want to go to NYU. I won't be upset. I don't want to hold you back. I just want you to be happy."

Kurt raised his hand up to stop him, feeling himself becoming angrier. "The only thing that is making me upset about it, Blaine, is you bringing it up every five minutes. I like CCAD. I like the professors, I like the work, I like that I can go to CCAD and still sleep with you every night! That is worth more than NYU to me, alright? Yes, I would love to be in New York right now. Yes, it was a dream. But you're what I want. And you're here, in Ohio. And that's where I'm staying."

"That was all you had to say." Blaine sighed.

"I did say it. You just wouldn't listen." Kurt moved past him and grabbed a bottle of alcohol off of the table, not even looking to see what kind it was, and then waltzed out of the room without another word, leaving Blaine looking not only pitiful but also very confused.

Great going. Maybe I should just go upstairs and go to bed before I make our lives even more difficult, he thought to himself. This probably would have been the wise thing to do, but instead he went back into the living room and rejoined the boys playing Rock Band. It was no longer Rock Band, however. It was more like Puck and Wes screaming into the same microphone while Finn dozed with his head on the drum set and David held down all of the buttons on the keyboard, which the television was definitely not appreciative of.

Blaine dramatically plopped onto the floor and looked up at David, sticking his lower lip out. "I made an uh oh."

"I think everyone heard as much when you and Kurt were upstairs earlier." David sighed, pushing the keyboard aside and scooting onto the floor with him.

"I AM IRON MAN, DUN DUN DUN DUN, WHATEVER WORDS ARE NEXT!" Wes shrieked, throwing himself onto the floor over them. "Drunk Blaine yet? Blaine drunk yet? Yet Blaine drunk?"

"Blaine is not drunk." David said pushing him into a sitting position. "And I think you would do well to cease drinking yourself."

"I'm smart and sexy, David. Girls love it when you drink. Girls also like it when you—hey, Blaine, remember that time you walked in on me and that girl having sex? Was it sexy?" Wes slurred, moving onto Blaine's lap and pressing his forehead against Blaine's.

Blaine leaned back, looking at David. "Help?"

"Wes, you're making Blaine uncomfortable."

"He likes when guys sit on him." Wes giggled. "When you and Kurt have sex, does he ride you? I bet not. I bet you two… I bet… Hey, Kurt! Hi, Kurt!" He began fiercely waving and Blaine silently thanked God that Finn was too preoccupied with Puck to pay attention to his Asian friend's drunk rambling. All he needed was Finn realizing they did indeed have sex. He wasn't looking forward to that. He had a feeling it would put a hamper on their friendship.

"Wes, c'mon." Blaine sighed, standing and tugging his friend up.

"Where are we going, Blaine?" Wes asked cheerfully, leaning against him.

"To meet a girl." Blaine lied, dragging him upstairs. He made his way into his and Kurt's room.

"Where is she?" Wes asked in what ended up being a loud whisper.

"She's there, on the bed. Crawl on in, okay?"

Wes climbed onto the bed. "I don't see a girl, Blaine."

"You have to lie down." Blaine sighed.

Wes moved himself into a laying position and almost immediately let out a snore.

"Do I feel bad about this? Not one bit." Blaine turned the bedroom light off and made his way downstairs, fairly confident that Wes hadn't had enough alcohol to put him in danger of throwing up in his sleep and dying. Either way, he'd check on him every few minutes just to make sure.

"I don't get why he wouldn't just let it go!" Kurt was saying loudly, sounding… not quite right. Granted Blaine had never been around Kurt drunk before, but he could tell that Kurt was definitely not entirely sober. "I should be able to decide what I do with my life, where I want to go to school. It's not just about him, Mercedes. Damn him. It's my decision. He just won't let it go!"

"I think you're tipsy, annoyed, and upset." Mercedes sighed. "I thought we agreed when you were sixteen that we weren't having anymore alcohol, remember? Put that down."

"I just had one." Kurt scoffed. "Why does he have to upset me? Haven't I been through enough, Mercedes? And he wants to make it worse? I miss you guys!"

"Boy, what have you been through lately that hasn't been your fault? We all get that you're having a hard time after what happened senior year but you can't blame that on everything. You've got to just let it go." Mercedes said, sounding rather impatient. "At least you have someone that cares about what you want."

Kurt let out several loud scoffs and then fell eerily silent.

Blaine made his way into the living room, avoiding looking at Kurt and taking a seat next to David. "Can we go outside and talk?"

"Sure." David nodded and instantly stood up, following Blaine not outside but into the kitchen. He sat at the table and gestured at the seat next to him. "What's wrong? You've got sad Blaine face on."

Blaine sighed and sat down, putting his elbows up on the table and rested his chin in the palms of his hands. "I already told you. I made an uh-oh."

"How about we speak from an adult point of view and not a toddler's, firstly?" David prompted. "How did you make the love of your life mad this time, Blaine? Care to elaborate?"

"I overheard him talking about how he wishes he'd gone to NYU when I was going to… when I was going to see if they were using the television. I can't tell if he's mad I was listening to him or if he's mad that I keep bringing it up." Blaine said miserably. "It's not like I was sneaking around or anything. I just heard it and… froze. It's not like I asked him to stay, you know? Before any real discussion about college came up, I told him he should go. But now I feel like he wants to go and he isn't because of me and that isn't fair."

"Kurt's a big boy. Kurt can decide where he wants to go to school."

"Not if he's going to make the wrong decision and resent me." Blaine mumbled. "But every time I bring it up, he gets even madder."

"Then maybe you shouldn't bring it up? If it's only going to upset him… then why force him to talk about it? Getting mad doesn't mean he resents you. It means he doesn't want it brought up. How many times did you ask him?"

Blaine groaned and buried his face in his hands. "A lot, I guess. I just feel really guilty and I don't want him to hate me later on…"

"You didn't ask Kurt to not go to… NYU, was it? He can't be mad at you for something you didn't do." David ruffled his hair. "You have an awful habit of making something out of nothing, Anderson. It's endearing and all, don't get me wrong. It's very aw-worthy… but you can't beat yourself up over something that is basically nonexistent. Don't make problems for yourself. Wait for them to happen and then try to fix them."

"Yeah well I already caused the problem and now Kurt's pissed at me." Blaine gestured towards the living room. "And he's freaking drinking? Kurt doesn't drink. He's just being dramatic. That's all the boy is. Drama, drama, drama, drama, drama."

David did not respond, just listened to his friend speak. It took Blaine several minutes to calm himself down, although he mainly repeated the same things several times—that he was afraid Kurt resented him, he was afraid Kurt would resent him later on if he didn't already, that Kurt was too dramatic, that at least he was a better spy than Kurt, and that he really needed to learn to keep his mouth shut. When he finally fell silent, David said very cheerfully, "Now that that's done and you've ranted, I think you should go and make up with Kurt. It's about to be New Years and wasn't he going on about how it was going to be your first New Years Kiss?"

"New Years Kiss, New Years Shmiss." Blaine grumbled as he stood. "Thanks for listening to me, David."

"You know I'm here for you to talk to, Blaine." David sighed. "I'm going to go check on my other child and make sure he's not drowned in a puddle of vomit."

"Thanks for that image. I guess I'll go try to put a stopper in Kurt's fit now then." Blaine sighed. "Although at this point I think I'd rather just go up to bed and cuddle with the drunk Asian."

"Go make up with your boyfriend." David said, pointing in the direction of the living room. "I'd suggest you not tell him the drunken Asian is in his bed until you've made up, though. I can't imagine that'd be the best way to begin the conversation."

"Can't we just make up tomorrow when he's less tipsy?"

"Anderson…"

"Fine, fine." Blaine noisily pushed the chair into the table simply for dramatic effect and then made his way straight into the living room before he could chicken out. He didn't let his feet stop until he had reached Kurt, who still looked like he was trying to figure out whether or not Mercedes had really told him to get over what happened more than a year ago. As soon as Blaine reached him, the younger boy looked at him with big blue eyes.

"Can I sit with you?" Blaine asked softly, shifting his weight between each leg anxiously as he awaited his boyfriend's answer.

"I'll be over there." Mercedes said pointing in the corner of the room where David was once again seated. She stood and quietly made her way over.

"They're going to get together, you know?" Kurt sighed in a resigned sort of way, scooting over to make room for Blaine.

"Maybe it will be good for them." Blaine sighed himself as he sat down, side pressed to Kurt's side. He waited several seconds and, once he was sure Kurt wasn't going to resume the argument, slid his arm around Kurt's thin waist. "Kurt… Please don't be mad at me, okay? I didn't mean to upset you."

"But you did." Kurt said loudly, but Blaine thought it was more from alcohol consumption than anything else. "And I'm having a hard time adjusting." His nose scrunched up.

His initial reaction was to remind him of what Mercedes had just said. Blaine knew that it was difficult to deal with what Kurt had gone through the October before last… but it was the October before last. The trial was over, nothing more could be done. Nothing. So, as insensitive as it may have sounded… Kurt needed to attempt to move on. It wasn't even that Kurt was always bothered by it. It just seemed like anytime that something stressful arose, it came back up. That wasn't the way things worked. At least not in Blaine's world.

"Kurt…. You've got to stop with that. You can only do that for so long. It was more than a year ago, it—."

"I'm not talking about that!" Kurt exclaimed, throwing his hands dramatically into the air. "I'm talking about everything. I'm not—I'm just—I didn't want to fight! I don't want to be this!"

"Be what?" Blaine whispered, rubbing small circles on his back in an attempt to calm him down.

"I want to be with you." Kurt poked him hard in the chest, still speaking loudly. "Not at New York. With you. In—In our home with the puppy and your dumb fishie cup. Okay? Okay, Blaine?"

"Alright, Kurt." Blaine nodded, praying he never had to deal with a less-than-sober-but-not-quite-drunk Kurt Hummel again. "Okay. I'm sorry. I just want you to be happy."

"'M happy." Kurt moved onto his lap, kicking him several times in the process and almost elbowing his nose. "'M happy with sexy Blaine."

"It's 11:58!" Finn suddenly called out, shutting the game off and turning the television to MTV.

"Hey, we were totally winning!" Puck said. "We were pwning, man!"

Blaine wrapped his arms tighter around his boyfriend, whom was pressed close still. The clock on the television was taking forever to reach midnight.

"Sorry." Kurt mumbled tiredly in his ear, arms going around Blaine's neck.

"I'm sorry too." Blaine whispered back, hugging him even tighter.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!" Quinn, Puck, Mercedes, and David cried out as Rachel and Finn began to make out.

Kurt pressed his lips against Blaine's, hands moving to hold Blaine's head in place. Blaine had no intentions of pulling away from the kiss, however, and pulled his boyfriend even closer.

It seemed as though several minutes pulled away before Kurt finally pulled away. He was very still, eyes still closed, for a few seconds before he opened his blue eyes and blinked slowly. "Happy New Year, Blaine."

"Happy New Year, Kurt." Blaine smiled a bit.

"Another first." Kurt giggled and pressed their noses together. "I love you."

"I love you too, Kurt. Even if you're a little bipolar when you're tipsy."

His younger boyfriend just let out several more giggles, making Blaine wonder if he'd even understood a word he'd said. Blaine had more important things to worry about, though. Like where he was going to put his boyfriend¸ whose eyes were already drooping, to bed. Clearly any New Years party next year would have to be in a much bigger house.