Kurt and Blaine enjoyed a few days together in New York before Blaine had to fly out for another weekend doing tours in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle. Luckily, they had scheduled so he would do three shows in a row then be able to go back to New York before heading off for another weekend. Weekend shows were usually better attended anyway, and this way meant he wasn't away from Kurt for too long.
They both sadly went through the following weeks briefly seeing each other before it felt like they were being torn apart again. Most of the nights that Blaine was away, Kurt stayed in Blaine's apartment to feel closer to him. Blaine took Kurt's McKinley Sweatshirt with him every time he left, and Kurt gave Blaine a bottle of the cologne he wore to respray the sweatshirt when Kurt's smell faded.
Blaine just smiled silently when Kurt had done it. He hadn't realized how obvious he was about why he loved the sweatshirt so much.
Kurt laughed at the behind the scenes tour pictures Santana had been taking since Kurt couldn't. It seemed like he was wearing the sweatshirt in all of them.
The week of Thanksgiving, Blaine didn't have to be to the southern states until Friday, so Kurt threw a big Thanksgiving for everybody who didn't go home. Since they had all planned on seeing their families at Christmas, Thanksgiving ended up being everyone they knew.
The Lima Bean was closed for the holiday. Kurt spent hours setting up decorations and moving the little tables together to make one huge dinner table. Kurt, Rachel, Tina, and Sam did most of the cooking. Santana was smiling at Brittney who was dressed like a turkey and flapping around the café. Blaine was talking to Kitty, which surprised Kurt.
Mercedes was playing with a little stereo in the corner, trying to find the perfect holiday playlist.
Kurt turned to Blaine while they were eating and whispered, "What were you and Kitty talking about? You seemed into the conversation."
"Oh yeah." He grinned nervously at Kurt. "Don't be mad."
"Are you leaving me for her or something." Kurt couldn't even begin to imagine what they discussed that would make him mad.
"We were actually going over her resume."
"Her resume?"
Blaine looked over at Kitty who was measuring Kurt's reaction with visible concern.
"She overheard us talking about the manager situation a few days ago and wanted to let me know of her interest."
"Isn't she way too young to be your manager."
"Actually, she wants Santana's job. Santana would be my manager and Kitty would do PR. She has the experience with marketing from online classes and an internship she's been doing. That's why she's always late to work."
"She never told me she had an internship." Kurt was hurt by her secrecy.
"I want to hire her. But she would have to quit here. I don't want to rip her away from you."
"It's not my choice. I'll be sad to see her go, but it would be a great opportunity for her."
Blaine smiled and kissed his cheek, mashed potatoes still in his mouth. He grinned over to Kitty and gave her the thumbs up.
"That is of course, if you are willing to take her place." Kurt turned to Blaine, his expression serious.
"What? No Kurt, I can't do that again. I still have nightmares. People are so mean. I'm sorry I don't know what a skinny non-fat mocha choca latte ya ya is, Karen!"
"Blaine calm down. I'm kidding. Also, I don't know if that's supposed to be a drink or a song."
"Did someone say song!" Rachel stood from her chair and ran over to where her purse and coat were and came back with a black top hat full of paper.
"What are you getting at, Berry?" Mercedes glared at her.
Rachel just smiled back. "We are going to play a game of duets. You'll draw a partner out of the hat. You have a few minutes to prepare, then we sing duets and everyone can vote who wins."
"Nothing like some good-hearted competition to really celebrate gratitude." Kurt's sarcasm was followed by an eyeroll.
"I think it's a great idea, Rachel." Blaine stood, walking over to her and putting a hand on her shoulder. "And in the true spirit of giving thanks, I want to go first." Blaine giggled and reach a hand in the hat. He opened his paper and started laughing.
He turned it around, "Kurt Hummel."
"Rigged." Santana yelled from the other side of the table.
Kurt happily skipped over to Blaine and they walked off deciding on what to sing. Mercedes was next. She drew out Santana's name and they smiled at each other before getting together. Sam was with Kitty and Rachel got Tina. Brittney was an odd number so Santana quickly pulled her toward her and Mercedes.
"If the Geltastic Gay and Lady Gayer get to sing together then it's only fair that I get to sing with my woman."
Nobody objected. Not because the reasoning was sound, but because nobody wanted to tell Santana no.
Rachel and Tina volunteered to go first. Kitty pulled her phone out and recorded their performance of What a Feeling. Everyone clapped and a few whistled.
Kitty and Sam sang next, a soft acoustic song. Brittney, Santana, and Mercedes did Adele and then it was Kurt and Blaine's turn.
"We wanted to kickstart Christmas season with one of the best winter duets." Kurt smiled at Blaine.
"Also, we thought it would be funny since I will be in Florida tomorrow morning where it is 75 degrees."
They started the music and sang Baby it's Cold Outside together. Kitty smiled as she recorded the whole thing and some blushed at the intimacy of the duet. The way the two sang to each other and not them made them feel like they had walked in on something. Which was a surprising feeling since most of them actually had walked in on something at this point. Now that they didn't have to hide their relationship, they really didn't try to.
They finished the song and smiled warmly at each other. Everyone clapped. They all took a vote and Kurt and Blaine won the challenge then were promptly disqualified because Blaine was a professional and there was an agreement made that professionals shouldn't qualify. Rachel realized too late that she was included in that category and Tina glared at her for losing them the competition. Santana, Britt, and Mercedes were voted as the winners until Sam spoke up.
"Hey Mercedes, you're in the church choir right?"
"What are you getting at Sam?"
"Well the church signs your paycheck doesn't it, for working there and teaching the choir?"
"So?"
"So. Sounds like you're a professional." Kitty stated smiling up at Sam then high fiving him as he yelled.
"Disqualified. Kitty and I win!"
Everyone rolled their eyes but accepted the final decision. Sam and Kitty were each given a pat on the back and a few cookies as a trophy.
"But the point is that we all had so much fun, right?" Rachel tried to cheer everybody up. Though she also felt a little sad at having lost to Kitty and Sam by default.
"It was a fun game, Rachel." Everyone turned, astonished to hear those words leave Santana's dark red lips. "I'm serious. Nothing is better than proving to Rachel Berry that she isn't the best."
"Tina and I came in second, just so you know."
"You voted yourself into second. No one else raised their hand for you."
"You are just mad beca—"
"FOR THE LOVE WILL YOU ALL SHUT UP!" Kurt yelled waving his hands at the girls. They snapped their mouths closed and glared at each other. "Thank you."
"My man laying down the law."
"Keep it in your pants, Anderson." Kitty groaned from where she was sitting on the table eating her prize cookie.
"I like her. We will work well together." Santana muttered. Not wanting to have Kurt yell at her again.
Blaine grabbed his wine glass off the table, "Can I make a toast or is that weird?"
"No do it. It will be awesome." Sam encouraged him taking his solo cup of mysterious liquid off the table and raising it. Everybody else found their drink and held it as Blaine spoke.
"Last year at Thanksgiving time. I was working on my second album. I wrote about heartbreak and devastation. All things that I knew far too much about. I spent Thanksgiving watching Bachelor reruns and eating Chinese Takeout alone. If someone would have told me then that I would be right here in just one year I would have thought they were lying." Kurt stepped closer to Blaine and held his hand. Blaine smiled at him. "I was an idiot before."
"Was?" Santana scoffed, shutting her mouth when Kurt glared at her.
"Okay I can still be an idiot and I do a lot of stupid things. But the smartest thing I have ever done was fall in love with this man here." Blaine turned to Kurt. "Not only is he by far the most handsome man I have ever meant, but he has the kindest and wisest heart. He took me in and told me I could be the person I had always wanted to be if I realized that that person was in there already, just buried under layers of cowardice. Not only did I find love with Kurt, I also found friends, traditions, jokes." Blaine paused to look around. "Memories to put in frames around the house. Looking around I see a group of people that were lost before Kurt came into their lives. Rachel Berry always knew she was a star, but she needed Kurt to show her that stardom is a lonely trek if you don't have friends to support you. Sometimes you have to miss a note because someone needs that solo more than you do." Kurt smiled at Rachel, remembering when he purposefully flopped Defying Gravity though he had been singing it for years.
Blaine continued, "Brittney, you were telling me how you never thought you would be a leader because no one respected your intelligence, yet here you are an assistant manager who manages the store completely in Kurt's absence. Sam and Mercedes how many times did you almost break up, then after you both had a conversation with Kurt you were suddenly ready to talk things through and stay together?" Blaine put a hand on Kurt's back.
"We have all experienced Kurt's kindness firsthand. Perhaps me most of all. For God's sake I broke down on live television because I looked at Kurt watching me sing and realized that my music career would have gone down the toilet if he wasn't there to inspire an album about love instead of whatever bullshit I'd had before. So," Blaine held his glass up and everyone looked at him and Kurt. "I want to make a toast to Kurt. The real reason we are all here."
Everybody joined in the toast with a, "To Kurt!" before sipping. Kurt was openly crying. Blaine kissed the tears on his cheeks.
"Why do you have to be like this?"
Blaine got nervous that he had somehow offended Kurt. Maybe the tears weren't happy tears like he'd thought. "I'm sorry Kurt. It's just you mean so much to me. To all of us. I thought you deserved it."
"You think I deserve so much. What if I don't?"
Blaine pulled Kurt away from everybody, they figured he was just tearing up from the emotional speech, so they allowed the two their privacy.
"What do you mean, what if you don't?" Blaine was brushing his hands through Kurt's hair and over his clothes. Touching him to maintain contact.
"It's just this has all happened so fast and I let you shower me with gifts and things and you're such an amazing man, yet you put me on this pedestal and call yourself an idiot."
"Kurt you are—"
"Blaine, I didn't even call my dad today. He's the one that taught me to be the person that I am. The person that you think I am at least. And I didn't even call him to say hello."
"The night is still young."
"I don't even question it when you insist on buying me stuff. I just let you, like some sort of spoiled housewife."
"Kurt you throw fits about me buying you stuff all the time. You make it damn near impossible."
"I just—" Blaine frowned at Kurt.
"Kurt, what is this really about?"
"You're Blaine Anderson. The entire world loves you and here I am just a barista and somehow you think I deserve you."
"Kurt Hummel." Blaine pulled him over to a chair and sat him down. Blaine got on his knees between Kurt's legs, holding his hands and looking up at him through his eyelashes.
"I don't even know how-" Blaine looked down for a moment then back up. "I can't explain to you how fast I would give up everything for you. If I woke up tomorrow and no one knew my name, so long as I woke up next to you. I would be perfectly fine."
"But why? Why do you want me more than a career as a rockstar?" Kurt just shook his head. He'd been so overwhelmed with the pace of the relationship he was apparently just now processing it.
"The first time I saw you, I'd just turned a corner and found a cute little rustic coffee shop. I was thirsty, so I stopped in. When I walked up to the counter you were wearing a striped turtle neck. I thought you were cute, so I smiled, and you gave me the best bitch glare I had ever seen." Kurt chuckled through the tears. "I'm serious I was terrified. I thought about never coming back."
"Why did you?" Kurt asked.
"Your nametag." Blaine smiled and rubbed his fingers on Kurt's knuckles.
"My nametag?" Kurt was lost. He had no clue why his name would make Blaine stay, Kurt had never been particularly fond of it.
"It said Kurt and had a little flower on it."
"A daisy." Kurt remembered. He had drawn it on one day when he was bored.
"My in-love flower." Kurt pause and looked over at Blaine realizing Blaine had given him daisies for their first date.
"In love? You had just seen me."
"It was a sign." Blaine shrugged.
"What if I had hated you"
"Then I was going to do everything I could to make that not so. Step one was getting on a first name basis."
"So you took your chance after I lost that nametag?"
"Well." Blaine put one of Kurt's hands to his mouth kissing it before quickly whispering. "I stole it."
"What?! You stole my nametag?"
Blane chuckled and looked away. "A few days later you bumped it against the machine, and it came off, you were making my drink and you tossed it aside to get it out of your way. So, I grabbed it."
"You stole my nametag?" Kurt was between angry and humored. Blaine was still laughing.
"I still really don't know why I did it."
"You rockstars think you can take whatever you want."
"I guess just having it made me feel like we were connected in some way."
"You could have just been like 'Hey I'm Blaine Anderson wanna go have sex in the bathroom?'"
"You knew it was me."
"But you didn't know I knew."
"I didn't want to just have sex in the bathroom with you, Kurt. You may have been kind of an asshole to me." Kurt opened his mouth to protest but Blaine kept going. "But I watched you speak with the other customers. At the end of the first week, you gave an old woman a second coffee for free. She was on her way to a graveyard to visit her recently deceased husband. She was telling you how their first date had been to a coffeeshop. She was just reminiscing to a stranger and you handed her a second coffee and said, 'For your date. On the house.'" Blaine shook his head and laughed. "I walked out shortly after her. She was smiling with tears spilling down her face. A woman that probably hadn't had a reason to smile in a very long time and you gave her one."
"It was just a coffee." Kurt looked down at their hands twined together.
"It wasn't just a coffee to her." Blaine leaned closer, so his face was under Kurt's. "Can you really not see yourself the way the world sees you?"
"That effeminate gay man, who sings like a girl."
"That beautiful, strong man whose heart is so big it needs a second damn body." Blaine was starting to get frustrated with Kurt. "I don't understand why you think you don't deserve this? Why you wouldn't deserve me?"
"Ellen flew me out to be on her show. You pulled me out on stage during a concert." He looked over at his friends who were sneaking peeks to the corner to see what was going on between them. "It's not my world I shouldn't be allowed to be a part of it. I'm just a nobody."
"Kurt. You will never, ever be a nobody." He grabbed the sides of Kurt's head and pulled it to his forehead. "You are the most important person in my world. You deserve every single thing you get and so much more. I grew up with money, I've always had it, I don't care about throwing it around. What I didn't always have was the kind heart of a supportive and loving boyfriend and friend. You have given me what money will never be able to buy. What my own family couldn't even give me. I was never truly accepted by anybody until I met you. The last time I have spent a Thanksgiving with people who weren't just faking politeness to keep from fighting was when I was seven, before my father got abusive, before my brother moved away, and before my family learned I was gay. In all those years I haven't had a family. Now here I am. You are my family, Kurt. You and all these amazing people around us that are in my life because of you. You are the glue that holds our worlds together. You are the world to us."
Kurt started sobbing again and Blaine joined in, their faces pressed together. "Don't ever tell me you are meaningless. That would mean that everything I live for is meaningless and I don't believe that for one second." Blaine was whispering, and they sat with their foreheads pressed together for a while. Suddenly everyone was on top of them squeezing them in a group hug.
"We love you guys!" Mercedes shouted jamming her head right up against Kurt and Blaine's squished together faces. Kitty backed out first and took a photo of the rest of them hugging.
Santana had already set her up with Blaine's accounts, so she tapped out a quick Thanksgiving tweet.
BlaineAnderson: What's Thanksgiving without sob-inducing toasts and group hugs? Hope everyone is having a safe and happy holiday.
*Attached Photo*
Santana gave her a thumbs up after pulling out of the group hug and checking her phone. Kitty smiled and went back to thinking of new things to post.
Kurt finally managed to pull himself together after everyone left the hug. Blaine patted his thigh and leaned to his ear. "Go call your dad." Kurt smiled and walked to the other side of the room, pulling up his dad's number.
Blaine heard him when his father picked up, "Hey Dad. Sorry it's been a while." Kurt laughed. "I missed you too. I know this holiday is hard for you, but you have to stay away from bacon. You're supposed to eat turkey today anyway!" Blaine smiled as Kurt laughed into the phone, pacing back and forth along the windows.
"Okay. Everyone who didn't cook, it's clean up time." Blaine led the charge by grabbing empty plates from the table and taking them back to wash. The chores were split up and everyone that hadn't helped with the meal gladly boxed the leftovers and dropped the dishes in the sink for Blaine to wash.
Santana splashed him as she dropped a serving bowl in the sink. "Just so you know, I'm not allowing this to be your fourth album cover so don't get your hopes up." Blaine scooped some bubbles up in his hand and blew them at her. She swatted them away and ran. He laughed and got back to scrubbing.
Once Blaine finished washing and putting away dishes, he pushed through the kitchen doors drying his hands. He looked at his watch as he clipped it back on his wrist. "Santana our flight leaves in four hours."
"Oh, yes. Red eyes. My favorite." She turned to Kitty who was pushing tables back into places. "You want to come?"
"You want me to come on the tour?"
"It is part of the job description."
Blaine interjected. "If it's too short notice you don't have to come on this one."
"I'll cover your shift tomorrow." Tina spoke from behind the counter where she was making a pot of coffee for everyone.
"Okay yeah. I'd love to go."
"Go get packed and meet us at JFK in 3 hours. I'll text you the terminal details and your ticket information." Kitty grabbed her purse and coat and bolted to the door waving at Kurt as she ran. He was still talking on the phone with his dad. Blaine needed to leave too but he didn't want to interrupt the call. They hadn't spoken in weeks.
Kurt looked at his apprehensive expression then looked at his own watch. "Hey dad. I'll call you tomorrow. Blaine has to catch a flight in a few hours, and I want to say bye before he has to go get ready." He glanced over at Blaine then spoke into the phone. "Okay one second."
Kurt walked over and handed Blaine his phone. Blaine took it and gulped. He wasn't prepared to get yelled at by Kurt's father again. It hurt too much.
"Hello?" He walked over to where Kurt had been pacing so no one could hear the inevitably awkward phone call.
"Thank you." Burt's voice was rough.
"Huh?" Blaine was completely caught off guard. He probably sounded like such an idiot to Kurt's father.
"Thank you for treating Kurt the way you do. I'm sorry I was a jerk to you before. A father has to keep an eye out and you were waving a lot of red flags."
"I respect your care for your son, sir. I would have been concerned if you hadn't hated me before." Blaine chuckled lightly and Burt laughed along.
"Kurt told me it was your idea for him to call me today. I was being stubborn before I should have been the one to call him. But you're the one that got us back to talking. So, thank you."
"I wanted Kurt to have a great Thanksgiving and he couldn't have done that without you."
"I know it's not my place. But Kurt mentioned that you don't have a great relationship with your father. I just want you to know that if you ever need to talk to someone. If you ever need fatherly advice…" Burt was hesitant, but he sighed and continued. "You can always give me a call."
Blaine was silent for a moment. Kurt wasn't kidding when he had said he got his kind heart from his father.
"That means the world to me, Mr. Hummel. Thank you so much."
"I know you love him, Blaine. I'm glad he has you to worship him as the amazing man he has become."
"Happy Thanksgiving. Mr. Hummel."
"Happy Thanksgiving, Blaine." Burt clicked off the line. Though Blaine couldn't see Burt's face, sitting on his recliner back in Lima, Ohio, he knew that there was a smile as big as his on it.
Blaine ran over to Kurt and hugged him so tight it picked him off the ground.
"Oh wow. Blaine." Kurt laughed. "What did he want to talk to you about?"
"He doesn't hate me Kurt!" Blaine's smile lit up the room.
"Of course, he doesn't. How could he?" They laughed and hugged, and everyone smiled and enjoyed coffee and company. Until it was time to call it a night.