Okay, firstly (as always) really sorry about the delay. Life sort of got in the way and then the next thing I knew it was Christmas. Anyways, not sure if I'm really happy with how this chapter turned out, it was sort of rushed, a part of me just wanted to get something up, but hopefully it's okay! Let me know. Thanks for reading XD
When Becca wakes up the house appears empty, as she makes it downstairs to the kitchen Blaine's sitting at the kitchen table with a coffee in his hand typing on his laptop.
"G'morning,"
"Good afternoon," he smiles not looking up from his laptop "sleep well?"
"Not really," She admits "where is everyone?" She sits down.
Blaine looks up at her now "Grandma and Grandpa went to go pick up food for dinner tonight and Kurt took the twins to see their mom."
"Oh, you didn't go to Amelia's with them?" She looks down at her lap.
"I had to send a few emails, and I was waiting for you to wake up. I thought maybe I could take you to see your parents." He looks at her.
"Really?" She looks up, that had always been her and Kurt's thing. Whenever they were in Lima he took her to the cemetery, and she'd go to her parents' graves and Kurt would go to his mom's, Blaine had never taken her, by himself at least "yeah, I'd um, I'd like that."
XXXX
Becca had always gone to the cemetery with Kurt because it'd simply been their thing, he understood what she was feeling, he'd lost his mom when he was young. Becca thinks of Blaine's dad, how he was always nice the few times he'd seen them, but how Blaine rarely talked of him and the pictures she'd seen of Kurt and Blaine's wedding and how he hadn't been there. Maybe Blaine understood more about losing parents than she originally thought she considers sitting next to him in Kurt's old car.
"I'm sorry," he tells her suddenly "About saying those things to you last night and just going upstairs when you were talking about..." He pauses awkwardly.
"It's fine," Becca shrugs
"I mean it's not like... I was a year younger than you my first time." He continues "It's just hard accepting that you've grown up so much, that you aren't that little girl who'd get scared of the lions at the zoo anymore. That I can't always protect you from everything anymore."
"I still need you though," Becca says quietly. Blaine sighs, not taking his eyes off the road, the silence between them becomes much more comfortable than it had been "So you never did tell me that story about kissing my mom unscripted." She grins breaking the silence. Blaine laughs, blushing as he shakes his head.
"I was drunk, well she was too. The first time at least, I think she was trying to prove something to Kurt the second time..."
"It happened twice?" Becca laughs and the rest of the ride is spent with Blaine telling Becca stories about her parents, the sort of thing Blaine had often avoided.
Becca lets the snow crunch beneath her boots as she walks through the field. Another thing that made Ohio so different from New York, there was a lot more snow during the winter.
"You okay?" Blaine asks
"Yeah," Becca nods following closer as they get closer to the grave sites.
"I can leave, if you want…" He offers.
"No," Becca says immediately "I mean- I don't want to be alone." Blaine nods and follows her to the two stones with her parent's name on them.
Rachel Marie Berry
March 22, 1994- May 15, 2022
A star on earth and a star in heaven
Becca can't help but roll her eyes, the saying had been her grandfathers' idea, it was corny but Rachel would have loved it. She turns to Finn's, which is decidedly less elaborate.
Finn Avery Hudson
November 29, 1993 - May 15, 2022
Loving and devoted husband, father, and friend
Blaine brushes the snow off them gently, Becca looks down at the flowers she and Kurt had brought last spring, completely wilted now.
"Do you still miss them?" Becca asks before realizing it's a stupid and insensitive question.
"Of course," Blaine blinks "they were like my brother and sister. I'll always miss them." He sighs "Do you remember the first anniversary of the accident?"
A small smile creeps at Becca's lips "When you let me skip school and took me around the city for the day? Yeah."
"I can't go to school today," Becca told Blaine pulling the covers over her head.
"What's wrong sweetheart?" Blaine asked.
"My tummy." She said over exaggerating a sick voice. Blaine eyed her putting his hand up to her forehead, she wasn't warm and she didn't look sick. He knew what day it was, why she wouldn't want to go to school.
"Well that's too bad," Blaine sighed deciding to play along "since Uncle Kurt had an early meeting I was going to make you chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast."
"With lots of maple syrup?" Becca peaked out from underneath the covers.
"Loads. Whip cream too." Blaine hid his smirk before shrugging at her "You said your tummy was hurting though, so I guess that means you aren't hungry." Becca groaned and Blaine sighed and pulled the covers away from her "If you tell me why you're lying I'll still make them for you."
"Because I don't want to go to school today." Becca grumbled before looking up at Blaine, her eyes watery "I miss mommy and daddy." Blaine finally took her in his arms. It was May 15, the year anniversary of Rachel and Finn's deaths, of course Becca would know that, and of course it would bother her "And everyone's making stupid mother's day cards." Right, Blaine realized, it was the second week of the month. Sunday was mother's day. Talk about great timing.
"Tell you what," Blaine said making a sudden decision, he knew Kurt was going to be pissed but looking at Becca he couldn't help but give in, and he had the day off, why not spend it with Becca? "you don't have to go to school today, but get dressed. We aren't staying in the apartment all day." A broad grin spread across Becca's face as she hopped out of bed excitedly running to her drawer.
XXXX
It was around five when Blaine and Becca walked into Kurt's office. His assistant Tory was talking with new secretary, she looked up.
"Hey you two, I think Kurt might still be on the phone but you can go right in." She gestured to the door to his office and they headed in.
"… But for the fall line they had… never mind. Yeah, they'll be ready, do we have models yet?" Kurt's was saying into the phone as he looked up and grinned at Blaine and Becca "No problem. Thank you." He hung up with an exhausted sigh.
"Rough day?" Blaine raised an eyebrow.
"Exhausting." Kurt breathed before leaning over to kiss Blaine and then take Becca in his arms kissing her cheek "What are you guys doing here?"
"We wanted to know if you could manage to take an hour off to go out to dinner with us."
"Yeah, I was actually just finishing everything up for the day." Kurt said "Tory can handle the rest."
"Yay!" Becca cheered.
"How was your day sweetheart?"
"Great!" Becca said excitedly "Uncle Blaine took me to the zoo. The monkey's were my favorite, they were funny. They went 'ooh ooh ooh,'" she mimicked a monkey making Kurt laugh "then we went to the…" She struggled to think of what it was called.
"Empire State Building." Blaine interjected not looking at Kurt.
"And we went up to the top it was like this tall!" She got up and starting jumping up and down with her arm extended.
"Wow," Kurt smiled before raising an eyebrow "but what about school?"
"Uncle Blaine said I didn't have to go today." Becca told him matter-of-fact, before turning to Blaine guiltily "I wasn't supposed to tell you that though."
"Why don't you go visit Tory," Kurt suggested "Uncle Blaine and I will be out in a moment and then we'll go get dinner."
"Okay," Becca skipped out of the room.
"You let her stay home from school today?" Kurt turned to Blaine.
"Well yeah," Blaine shrugged "she was pretending to be sick at first but…" He sighed "you know what today is."
"Of course I do," Kurt sighed "they were all I was thinking about today." He got up grabbing his jacket and looked at Blaine "So long as she understands she can't always do that."
"I told her it was a one time deal." Blaine said.
"Well that's not fair," Kurt said in mock aghast as he followed Blaine out of the office "when do I get to play hooky with her then?"
Becca sighs after a moment "Thanks for taking me Uncle Blaine," She says finally before looking back at the stones "Merry Christmas dad, happy Hanukkah mom."
"Dad!" Lizzie cries as they get back to the house.
"Hey how was it at your mom's?"
"Great! Look at the necklace she got me for Christmas!" Lizzie shows Blaine her neck which is now sparkling with a small necklace with a heart on it.
"That's beautiful," Blaine beams at her. Blaine looks over to Cam whose sitting next to Burt on the couch watching whatever movie is playing on the television "Did you have a good time too Cam?" Cam looks over and shrugs as Kurt walks into the living room with Quinn and Connor.
"He spent half the time in the car ranting about how Amelia isn't really his mom," Kurt whispers almost inaudibly in Kurt's ear "I didn't know what to do when we got to her house and he barely said a word the entire time." He sighed "I don't know what's gotten into him."
"I'm sure it's nothing," Blaine said reassuringly "That's what my dad said;" Kurt sighed, though he still sounded skeptical.
"Hey Quinn." Blaine smiled looking over at Quinn who grins.
"Hi Blaine," She hugs him "we were just stopping by to drop off some gifts and say Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas," Blaine smiles at both of them.
"Hey Becca," Quinn smiles at Becca.
"Merry Christmas," Becca smiled tentatively before turning away "well I have to go finish up my college essay."
"It's Christmas Eve," Kurt started but Becca had already walked away.
"Wait up," Connor ran after her stopping in front of the stairwell "about last night…"
"I don't want to talk about it." Becca didn't look at him "Merry Christmas Connor. I'll see you around."
Christmas as the Hudson-Hummel household had always been festive, but for some reason this year seemed even more extravagant Blaine and Kurt both seemed to notice the extra effort both Burt and Carole had put into decorating the house "The house hasn't looked this great at Christmas since you've been here to decorate it" Burt even admits to Kurt, and as the kids opened their presents it was obvious to both Kurt and Blaine that Burt and Carole had worked hard at making Christmas special this year.
"Grandma, Grandpa, you didn't have to…" Becca stutters looking at the diamond earrings she'd just unwrapped.
"We wanted to sweetheart," Carole smiles as Burt nods.
Though if Blaine and Kurt were to be honest, they'd put in extra effort for Christmas this year as well.
"A cell phone?" Cam blinked as he opened his present "Dad, pop," He looked between his dads before hugging them excitedly "thank you."
"Well since you've been begging for one since last year," Blaine rolls his eyes.
"Cam gets a phone?" Lizzie blinks agitatedly, only to open hers a minute later.
"They're only for emergency's though," Both are quick to add before both run off with their new phones.
"This is too much," Becca sighs opening the new laptop they'd gotten her.
"You're going to need it once you're in college next year," Kurt shrugs.
"And to finish your college essay." Blaine says with a raised eyebrow.
"Riiight," Becca sighs before getting up to head upstairs.
"Merry Christmas," Burt and Carole hug Kurt and Blaine before Carole heads into the kitchen to start breakfast and Kurt and Blaine head upstairs to start packing before their flight that afternoon.
"There's one more thing." Blaine says pulling something out of his pocket once they get upstairs to Kurt's old room.
"Blaine," Kurt eyes the small gift suspiciously "I thought we agreed, nothing extravagant for each other."
Blaine chuckles "trust me, it isn't extravagant. Just special." He says after a moment consideration. Kurt sighs opening it, hey eyes the jewelry box when he opens it. He recognizes the jewelry box.
"Wait a minute, is this…" He looks up at Blaine whose grinning "I thought… I thought it was gone, I lost it years ago back in college." He opens the box, and sure enough it's the small promise ring made out of gum wrappers that Blaine had given him back in his senior year "…is this the same one?"
"Yeah," Blaine grins "thought you might like it back. Carole was cleaning everything up and she found it in here." He gestures to the room.
Kurt smiles before leaning in to kiss Blaine "Thank you."
Blaine snuck up from behind Kurt at his locker "Merry Christmas," He whispered making Kurt jump before quickly pecking his cheek.
"Blaine," Kurt said looking around at kids walking down the hallway, no one had been watching them and everyone at school who didn't live under a rock knew they were dating but still, he and Blaine kept a strict no PDA policy. It was safer for them that way.
"Sorry," Blaine blushed looking around the crowded hallway himself, then he pulled something out of his pocket "but I wanted to give you your gift early."
"I don't have your gift with me though," Kurt sighed thinking of the mix cd he'd made Blaine that was sitting wrapped at home on his desk "why don't we just wait until you come over for Christmas Eve like we planned?" The bell for fourth period rang "Besides we'll be late to class."
"Fine," Blaine said, and Kurt couldn't help but notice the disappointment in his eyes, why was he so excited to give this gift to him?
"Hand it over," He breathed, noticing that the hallway was empty now. Blaine perked up and handed the small, delicately wrapped gift over. Kurt opened it and noticed it was a ring box. He eyed it suspiciously and opened it smiling slightly "Are those gum wrappers?" Suddenly Kurt started to worry that maybe he should have made a list for Blaine like Rachel. Blaine had been the one that had agreed with Artie about getting Rachel socks back in the locker room.
"It's a promise ring," Blaine explained, now seeming nervous "I was going to get you an actual ring, but I don't have that kind of money, my parents do but they'd never give me money for that. I stole the ring box from my mom. I know it isn't much, if I had the money I'd buy you the entire Elizabeth Taylor collection Kurt."
"I don't need the Elizabeth Taylor collection," Kurt said quickly, his eyes not leaving the ring "you made me a promise ring?"
"Yeah," Blaine smiled "I love you Kurt, and no matter what happens with NYADA and New York next year, I'll always be there to support you. I'll always be there, and one day when we're both in some amazing apartment in the city I'll get you an actual ring, unless you get me one first in which case I'll eagerly accept."
Kurt smiled "I love you," he looked around the hallway which was empty now, he and Blaine were definitely late for fourth period "thank you, I love it." He put the ring on and kissed Blaine, who groaned as Kurt pulled away "we're already late enough for fourth period. Besides that mistletoe is still hung all over my house for when you come over for dinner tonight."
Blaine grinned "I'll see you later. Love you."
"Love you too."
Becca walks by Kurt and Blaine mid-kiss "Gross," she mutters.
"Are you all packed?" Kurt asks pulling away from Blaine "Our flight leaves at four."
"Yeah I put all my stuff in Grandma's car already." Becca says grabbing a basketball and heading outside. She's barely dribbled the ball outside to the basketball hoop her grandfather has set up in the driveway when she hears a voice.
"You're pretty good." She turns to see Drew, and she turns away immediately.
"What do you want?"
"To apologize, I mean, I was an idiot."
"Well I was an idiot for agreeing to ride with you."
"You didn't know how drunk I was."
"I knew you'd been drinking though."
"Look, I just came to apologize, and wish you a merry Christmas, or Hanukkah. Whichever you celebrate, Connor said your mom was Jewish."
"I celebrate both, actually, but Hanukkah ended last week." Becca says as she hits a layup.
"Well happy holidays," Drew says "I have something for you." He offers her an envelope which Becca takes skeptically. She opens the typical store bought Christmas card containing a gift card to Starbucks.
"How'd you know I'm addicted to coffee?" Becca eyes the gift card before answering herself "Connor."
"Uh yeah, we were hanging out last night." Drew shuffles his feet "He said he'd just come from your house and we were talking about you."
"I didn't realize you and Connor were actually friends."
"I told you, I know everyone in this town."
"What else did he tell you about me?"
"That you're sweet, but clingy." Drew says quietly.
"Asshole." Becca muttered landing a free-shot.
"Whose an asshole?" Blaine asked as he walked out carrying a suitcase to the car along with Kurt.
"No one," Becca sighed as she continued to play with the basketball, she looked over at Drew "Oh Drew, that's my Uncle Blaine and that's my Uncle Kurt."
"Hi," He waved at them who both stared him down.
"Nick?" Kurt blinked at him before exchanging a glance with Blaine.
"Uh yeah," Drew shuffled his feet "I'm, um, really sorry about everything."
"Thank you," Kurt nodded.
Blaine looked at Drew "Just, next time you want to put yourself in danger, don't bring our niece into it to."
"No sir," Drew said "and again, I'm sorry." He looked around at the car Blaine and Kurt were packing.
"You guys going back home?" He looked to Becca as Kurt and Blaine headed back inside.
"Yeah," Becca nodded.
"Back to the good life," Drew rolled his eyes "you won't have to worry about being offered a ride by someone who's drunk, you'll just have your personal chauffeur."
"My family doesn't have a personal chauffeur." Becca spat back "Believe it or not my family does understand the concept of simplicity." She shot another basket, missing this time before turning to him "Thank you for the gift card, I think you can go now." She glared at him, watching as he got in his car and drove away.
"You okay?" Blaine walks outside watching as Drew pulls out of the driveway.
"Yeah," Becca nods.
"Can I join?" Blaine asks gesturing to the basketball.
"You sure old man?" Becca teased making a free-shot "You're going down."
"Bring it," Blaine challenged with a smile.
"My money's on Becca," Kurt said heading outside with their food cooler.
"Mine too," Becca said carrying her suitcase out to the car.
"She is taller than you Dad," Cam said walking outside with his own suitcase. Becca giggled, she'd often complained about inheriting her dad's height. Being 5'10 just made her feel lanky, especially when she was two inches taller than Blaine and the same height as Kurt. Sometimes though, like now, it was a family joke that was sort of funny. After creaming Blaine twice Becca was relieved when Kurt told them that it was time to go. She'd never liked Ohio, and as much as she loved seeing her family she would always like New York better. It was her home, Ohio, she knew, never would be.
