Notes: Here's another one-shot I had hiding on my computer that I just got around to finishing. It starts with a portion of Cacophony's dialogue from ACITW, with a few minor additions by me.
"Come on now Livvie, there are children present!" Julian teases, and Olivia flips him off even as she dislodges herself from where she was practically attached to Brian's face.
"Oh leave her be, Jules," Charlotte says gently. "There's nothing wrong with kissing under the lights." She punctuates her words by leaning over to kiss her husband, which of course makes all her kids groan. Not to be outdone, Burt plants one on Carole too, and Finn covers his eyes though it just makes Kurt smile.
"Oh, yuck! Mom! Burt! Just … just don't! Okay? That's unnecessary!"
"Says you," Carole shoots back with a chuckle as Burt continues to assault her cheek and jawline. "I married the man! I have every right to make out with him whenever and wherever I want!"
"How in the world do you kids think you came into this world?" Burt adds.
"Yeah!" Greg says, ready and willing to lend his support to any argument of Burt Hummel's.
"Stork," Julian replies. "Maybe some kind of woven basket floating down a river."
"Ha!" Olivia barks so loudly, a white rabbit rooting through the underbrush comes racing out of hiding and scurries across the grass. "You wish!"
"Come on now boys," Julian teases a second later, deflecting attention away from himself. "Aren't you gonna give us poor single folk a show, too?"
"Yeah, Seb. Plant one on him!" Olivia crows.
"Kiss, kiss, kiss," Finn starts to chant, grinning a goofy upside-down grin at Kurt and soon everyone (even, to his everlasting horror, his own father) takes up the chant.
Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!
"What d'ya say babe? Do we give the people what they want?"
"Kurt?"
Kurt blinks slowly when he hears his name, caught between here and his daydream, and Sebastian's voice - his voice from the past - fades from his brain. Unbeknownst to Kurt, he'd been staring at those gathered getting situated on the grass. Amid the talking and the ongoing game of tag, the laughter it elicits, the family lays their blankets underneath the indigo sky, hunkering down together to wait for the fireworks to appear. There are more members of their clan now than there were over a decade ago, but they migrate to the same sections of the hillside - Greg and Charlotte in one corner; Olivia, Brian, and their brood in another; Julian and Cooper dead center and attached at the mouth like lampreys, ignoring the world at large, completely focused on one another. They're acting a bit more PG-13 than most everyone seems comfortable with, but as the sky grows darker, they make it a point to politely look the other way.
It's Cooper and Julian's behavior that spurred Kurt's memory of the first time he spent the fourth here. Despite the vulgar noises Julian and Cooper are making in front of a gaggle of impressionable children (probably on purpose to garner a reaction out of Olivia, who keeps tossing tufts of grass their way), Kurt smiles. It's nice to see the two of them so happy - content considering the long road the two of them traveled to get here.
Every year Kurt sees them, Cooper makes it a point of telling Kurt and Sebastian that Blaine sends his warmest regards. Kurt's not entirely sure what to make of that. He knows that after all this time Cooper still carries guilt over what happened between Kurt, Sebastian, and his little brother. The chapters of Kurt's life where Blaine features prominently are as far behind him as he can possibly put them, but he's glad Blaine found his happiness.
So many things have changed in their lives.
So many things have stayed the same.
"Kurt? Babe?"
"Huh … what?" Kurt shakes his head, pulling close to the warm body cradled in his arms.
"You're thinking hard. I was wondering what about."
Kurt breathes the cold air in deep. It stings his nose, brings him fully back to the present. "Nothing much …" Sebastian raises a skeptical eyebrow. Kurt's eyes dart away. "Just … are you sure these things aren't going to crush her head?" Kurt changes the subject, gazing lovingly, but worriedly, at the impossibly tiny baby girl in his arms, head compressed by a humongous pair of noise canceling headphones.
Sebastian doesn't buy Kurt's excuse for a second, his shift in conversation. Kurt is sentimental to a fault, especially when they manage to get the whole family together. The more of them they wrangle to one place, the more memories flood his brain like the beach at high tide. He gets so caught up in them, it's like he's splitting time between the past and the present. It's his way of savoring every second he has with the people he loves, probably a side-effect of losing his mother so young.
Sebastian will let it go, see if he can get Kurt to talk with him about it later, when they don't have such an invested audience close by.
"She's fine," Sebastian reassures his husband, bending down to lightly kiss their baby's wrinkled forehead. "I mean, look at her! You have her bundled like a burrito and she's sleeping like a …" Sebastian stops short and snorts over the words about to leave his mouth "… well, you know."
"A baby?"
"Not to put too fine a point on it, but yes. And she doesn't look like she's going to wake up any time soon."
"If she's going to sleep through the show, why did we drag her out here, the poor thing? I'm sure we could have found a babysitter to watch her down at the house."
Sebastian stares at his husband, comically aghast. "Uh, no! I will not have some stranger watch our precious angel down at the house while we're up here enjoying the most magical night of the year!"
"We could have stayed inside with her," Kurt presses. He's bluffing, of course. He wouldn't miss watching the fireworks with his family for the universe. But he knows arguing will irk his husband, get his hackles up. "We can see the fireworks from the house and besides, it's warmer inside."
"Sitting out in the cold till our asses go numb while our combined family makes out to the horror of all is tradition! A tradition she needs to be a part of - unconscious or no!"
"Goodness gracious," Kurt mutters.
"When little Elizabeth here gets older and has an s.o. of her own, we'll inflict the same trauma on her. It's what being a parent is all about. And I, for one, embrace those parental duties. I wouldn't change a thing."
"Sebastian, you've only been a parent for about three weeks!"
"I've had plants," Sebastian says quickly in his defense, and Kurt can't decide between tutting or laughing. "But more importantly, I've been a son my entire life. I know what it feels like to be traumatized by my parents. I can't wait to pass that experience along to my children." Sebastian's gaze drifts over Kurt's shoulder. He swallows hard and motions with his chin. "Case in point."
Kurt turns his head, looking in the direction Sebastian is currently staring. Charlotte and Greg, lying on their own blue gingham flannel blanket, are cuddled so closely together, they're nearly a single entity, joined at the lips the same way Julian and Cooper are, only with a lot less gratuitous moaning involved. Sebastian frowns, shaking his head in disgust. Kurt gives his ridiculous husband a lopsided look.
Kurt isn't too keen on a stranger watching their little girl, either, even if it's just at the house for about an hour, two at the most. Eventually they'll get her a nanny. A thoroughly vetted nanny. One who's been fingerprinted, whose had their background checked by local police, the CIA, and the FBI. Their hectic work schedules pretty much demand it, though Sebastian has been toying with the idea of working from home, possibly taking a leave of absence. At this point in their lives, they don't really need the income. And as much as Kurt teases him, Sebastian would make an excellent house-husband. Either way, they have time.
Their little girl isn't leaving their sight any time soon.
"Traumatizing a newborn for life it is then." Kurt leans over their baby's head, his gaze fixed on his husband's lips, ready to get started by aiming for their first kiss of the evening. "Not gonna argue with that."