Chapter 22: Dinner at Kurt's
"I have to admit, that was a pretty cool movie." Sam said, as he and Kurt tidied up the couch and coffee table. "I can see why you and your Mom loved it."
"Sam, how come you haven't asked me about her?" Kurt said.
"About who? Your Mom?" Kurt nodded. "I figured it might be a touchy subject, and thought you might want to tell me when you were ready." Sam said.
"You're right, it is a bit of a touchy subject for me, but I have no problem telling you about it." The boys made their way upstairs.
"Do you want to stay for dinner and I can tell you about her?"
"Uh, yeah, I'd like that. Just let me call my Mom first?" Kurt nodded and turned to let Sam go make his call. Kurt opened the freezer and took out the frozen meat he had marinated a few nights before, letting it thaw a bit on the counter. He washed his hands in the sink before drying them and heading to the fridge.
He opened the door and pulled out broccoli, bell peppers, carrots, green onion, and garlic, and placed them on the counter, before heating up a skillet on the stove. He added some oil and let it heat before chopping and dicing the vegetables.
Kurt had just started to julienne the peppers when Sam walked in.
"I can stay if you don't mind driving me home afterwards." Sam said, walking over to Kurt.
"Why would that be a problem?" Kurt looked over his shoulder at the blond that was standing behind him. Sam placed his hands on Kurt's hips and rested his chin on the boys' shoulder.
"I don't know, maybe you had something else to do?"
"No, nothing else." Kurt closed his eyes as Sam pressed his lips to the crook of his neck. Kurt inhaled before saying:
"Do you want to help me make dinner?"
"You're trusting me not to mess it up?" Sam said in his ear.
"I'll be here to help if you need it. Go wash your hands."
Sam complied and took the bag of meat when Kurt told him to.
"Carefully add that into the skillet on the stove."
Sam opened the bag and poured the meat into the pan.
"Carefully stir it around, let the heat seep into it." Kurt finished with the vegetables and reached into a cupboard for a box of rice. He pulled out a medium sized pot and filled it with water.
"Watch out." He nudged Sam over with his hip as he put the water on to heat and boil. He added a pinch of salt before taking the spoon from Sam and stirring the meat and sauce.
"How did you get so good at this?" Sam asked.
"My Mom taught me a little." Kurt said. "Can you get the vegetables?"
Sam picked up the bowl of cut vegetables and he poured them into the pan when Kurt motioned him to.
"Can you tell me about her?"
"Well, as you saw, she was beautiful."
"Yeah, and you DO look like her."
"I know. I think that bugged my Dad as I grew up. The son that looked like his dead Mother, haunting him every day." Kurt said. "My Dad loved her a lot. She was so full of love, and never had an unkind word about anyone. She was the one who got me enrolled in ballet when I was three, and had me take vocal lessons when I showed a lot of potential as a singer.
"She loved singing too. And I can't begin to tell you about how much she loved Christmas. It was her favorite holiday, and she loved to spend it with me and Dad. She'd always go out and get the perfect tree, and we'd all decorate it together."
Kurt turned to get the box of rice, adding it to the boiling water. He stirred the meat and vegetables around in the skillet before taking it off the burner.
"You must miss her a lot." Sam said quietly. Kurt looked up at Sam.
"I do. There's an old dresser of hers that still smells like her perfume. Sometimes I just lie down in the room and smells her, remembering her." Kurt said, stirring the rice as it began to boil.
"I can't imagine losing my Mom." Sam said.
"It was rough. She was sick for awhile. She's been gone for-"
"For eight years." Sam and Kurt jerked towards the kitchen doorway.
"Dad. I didn't hear you come in." Kurt said, face paling.
"I thought I'd come home from work early today, since I asked Carole and Finn to come over for dinner."
"How come you didn't call me or leave me a note?" Kurt asked.
"I thought I did leave you a note." Burt said.
"No, there was nothing." Kurt took the rice off the stove and set to draining it.
"Should I leave?" Sam asked, looking between Kurt and his father.
"No, you're still staying." Kurt looked at his Dad, giving him a look as if to say 'Don't even think of kicking him out.'.
"I invited Sam to stay for dinner, since I thought I was going to be alone."
"So, you're Sam." Burt walked over and stretched out his hand. "Burt Hummel, Kurt's father."
"Sam Evans. Pleased to meet you, Sir." Sam shook Burt's hand, before standing uncomfortably.
"Sam, would you please get some more vegetables and meat from the fridge for me? We'll need it. Finn's a walking human trash compactor." Kurt asked Sam.
"Uh, sure." Sam said.
"Dad, can I talk to you for a minute?"
Kurt led his father out of the room.
Kurt lead his Dad to the door and spoke in a hushed tone.
"Please do not embarrass me in front of Sam. If I had known you were going to be home, let alone invite Carole and Finn for dinner, I wouldn't have asked Sam to stay."
"Is that the same Sam you were going to do your duet with last month?" Burt asked quietly.
"Yes, and it turns out he's bisexual and likes me back. He and I are paired for an assignment in Glee, so we were working on it. We got to talking about Mom, and I asked him to stay for dinner." Kurt hissed out.
"Does his parents know he's here?"
"Of course, he called for permission to stay."
"Then I have no problem with him being here." Burt paused. "Are you two a thing?"
"No, not yet. We're going to go out on dates for the next week, and make it official then." Kurt heard Carole's car pull up into the driveway. "No one in Glee knows about this yet, not even Finn. I'd like to keep it that way."
"Hey, you have my word on keeping it quiet. You can tell the kids from your group when you're ready." Burt said, putting his hand on Kurt's shoulder and pulling him in for a hug. "I'm happy you found someone, Kurt."
Burt pushed Kurt back.
"But I WILL come after him if he hurts you, do you understand me?"
"Of course, Dad." The doorbell rang. "I'm gonna go make more stir-fry. We'll need it with Finn around."
Burt nodded and opened the door as Kurt walked back to the kitchen.
"Everything okay?" Sam asked nervously.
"It's fine. Don't worry." Kurt smiled.
"Just keep the PDA to a minimum, we don't need Finn spreading the news yet." He whispered as Finn and his Mom came into view.
"Hi, Kurt!" Carole beamed, reaching out to Kurt.
"Hi, Carole." Kurt leaned in for a hug as Finn looked at Sam.
"Hey, Finn." Sam said, as Kurt and Carole pulled apart.
"Hey." Finn nodded his head in acknowledgement.
"Carole, this is Sam. He's in Glee with me and Finn." Kurt said, making the introductions.
"Sam. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sweetie." Carole said, giving Sam a hug too.
"Pleasure is mine, Mrs. Hudson." Sam said, returning the hug.
"Do you need any help in here?" Carole asked, looking around as she let go of Sam.
"Oh, no. Sam and I have this. You guys go relax." Kurt shooed them from the kitchen to join his Dad.
"Okay, Sweetie." Carole smiled, going to sit with Burt, her giant of a son lumbering after her.
"Let's get dinner ready, shall we?" Kurt asked.
"I already started on the other bag of meat and more rice. I hope that's okay."
"Of course." Kurt set to chopping more vegetables, adding them to the meat, and straining the rice.
Within ten minutes, everything was cooked, and the table was set.
"Dinner's ready, if you all would like to wash up." Kurt called out, he and Sam scrubbing their hands.
Burt, Finn and Carole washed up and joined Sam and Kurt at the table. Kurt set about serving everyone.
"Thank you, Kurt." Carole smiled graciously, taking the plate from Kurt.
Kurt smiled in return, handing a plate heaping with food to Finn, then serving Sam and his Dad before serving himself.
Everyone tucked into their plates of food.
"Kurt, this is delicious!" Carole said.
"Thank you, but I can't take all the credit. Sam helped a lot." Kurt said, nudging Sam with his foot. Sam smiled and nudged back, before twining his foot around Kurt's.
"So, Finn," Burt said, looking at the teen that was trying not to shovel to food into his mouth. "Kurt tells me the Glee Club is all paired up for an assignment."
"Yes, that's true." Finn cleared his throat, swallowing his food.
"What's the assignment?" Carole asked, lifting a forkful of food to her mouth.
"We had to watch our favorite Disney movies with our partner, and we each take our favorite song from our movie, without telling our partner the song, and sing it to them." Kurt said.
"Yeah, and it has to work with our partner's song, like we're telling them something important with it." Sam added.
"We're allowed back up singers to help us, as long as it isn't our partner, and as long as the back up singers don't tell your partner the song you chose." Kurt went on, rubbing his foot on Sam's ankle subtly under the table.
"So, you and Sam are partners?" Carole asked.
"Yes, we are." Sam nodded. "We watched my movie last night, and Kurt's this evening."
"What movies?" Finn asked, clearing his plate.
"Mine was Mulan." Sam said.
"And mine is-" Kurt started.
"Anastasia." Burt finished, smiling. "That's alway's been your favorite."
"Yeah," Kurt said, flushing red as he gave everyone seconds, an extra big helping to Finn.
Finn smiled his thanks as he dug in again.
"What movie is your favorite, Finn?" Kurt asked curiously.
"I'd rather not say." Finn mumbled with his mouth full. He swallowed before he spoke again. "Brittany already laughed at it."
"Come on, it can't be that bad." Sam chuckled.
Carole tried not to laugh as her son squirmed in his seat.
"His favorite movie is-"
"MOM!" Finn cut her of.
"Honey, it's not that bad." Carole said.
"It's bad enough." Finn said.
"Is it...The Little Mermaid?" Kurt asked.
"Cinderella?" Sam guessed.
"Sleeping Beauty?"
"Alice in Wonderland?"
"Dumbo?"
"The Arisocats?"
"Fantasia?"
"Lady and the Tramp?"
"Fun and Fancy Free?"
"Toy Story?"
"The Jungle Book?"
"The Lion King?"
Sam and Kurt took turns guessing as Burt and Carole barely held back laughter.
"How about..."
"IT'S LILO AND STITCH, ALRIGHT?!" Finn caved under the pressure.
There was silence before Sam and Kurt broke out in laughter.
"That's your movie?" Kurt giggled.
"C'mon, Dude, it's not that bad." Sam said.
"It's bad enough." Finn grumbled. "Even Britt's is better than mine."
"What's hers?" Burt asked.
"Beauty and the Beast." Finn said. "She sang along to all the songs, so I can't even guess her favorite."
"A Tale As Old As Time." Kurt said.
"What?" Finn asked, confused.
"Her favorite song. A Tale As Old As Time. She sings it under her breath non-stop."
"I thought you couldn't tell him?" Burt said, pointing with his fork.
"Only if we were Brittany's back up singers. The song doesn't call for them though, so it's safe." Kurt explained.
"What are your songs?" Finn asked.
"We can't tell you that."
"Yeah, neither of us can know the others' song." Sam said.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Finn smiled sheepishly.
Kurt and Sam rolled their eyes and grinned at each other, rubbing their feet together as the subject changed.
