Blaine's week was busy. He'd not only been working as often as he could to help save up money he needed for his dates with Kurt, but he was also helping Harmony with her school project, which involved a lot of writing, colouring, drawing and sticking. As well as that he was helping Cooper and Lara, who were due to fly in on Thursday, by scoping out all of the best wedding shops so that they could get stuck in straight away to prepare for the wedding. Blaine could not wait until Saturday; his date night with Kurt. They'd agreed to go to the movies to see a film that Kurt had raved about and Blaine had thought sounded great. He was excited. He hadn't been to the cinema to see a film that wasn't a children's film - though he wasn't complaining about the choice of movie - and where he wasn't surrounded by fidgeting children in years.
Cooper arrived Thursday and Blaine and Harmony went to pick them up from the airport. Harmony gripped her father's hand, excitedly clutching the card she'd drawn for Cooper and Lara in her hand, as they waited in arrivals. As soon as Blaine spotted the familiar grin of his brother he ran over, bringing Harmony with him, and launched himself into his arms.
"Coop, I'm so glad to see you," he muttered into his brother's shoulder as they embraced tightly.
"You too, little bro. You look good," Cooper replied, leaning back to look at Blaine properly and giving him a hearty pat on the shoulder. He then looked around Blaine to see Harmony waiting, bouncing on the spot in excitement. "And there's my favourite niece in the whole wide world!" Cooper scooped Harmony up, lifting her into the air as he hugged her tightly.
"Uncle Coop!" Harmony giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck. Cooper placed her down on the ground and both Blaine and Harmony greeted Lara much the same, with tight hugs and smiles. Harmony presented the couple with the card which read 'Congratchulashuns on geting ingaged!' Underneath was a drawing of Cooper in a suit and Lara in a dress, both with huge grins and holding hands.
"I did the spelling all on my own, Dad didn't help me one bit!" Harmony announced proudly.
"Wow," Lara gasped. "This is the best card I have ever seen. I think this will go straight on the mantle piece, right Coop?"
"Definitely," Cooper agreed. "Everyone is going to be so jealous when they see how talented my niece is."
This made Harmony smile even wider, looking up at Blaine to check that he was just as proud of her as she was. Of course, Blaine was always proud.
They drove over to their parents house, Cooper catching them up on everything that had been happening at home and Harmony telling the couple everything she'd learnt recently and about the drawings she'd done the other day that Blaine had put on the fridge. At their parent's house, they were all greeted with hugs and offers of drinks and biscuits. Of course, Harmony got even more excited about the idea of treats and dug right into a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Blaine frowned, worried she'd spoil her dinner, but allowed her to continue as he knew it was a special occasion of sorts.
Conversation soon moved onto wedding talk, as Lara spoke of all the ideas she had for her dresses. "I want to bridesmaids to wear dark blue and my maid of honour and Harmony to wear light blue. I've found a place that does amazing bridesmaid dresses, I was thinking of going there with my bridesmaids and Harmony when the boys are out getting their suits. And then all I have to do is find a wedding dress. I know at short notice it might be difficult, but I'm sure I'll find one I love!" Lara said.
"Woy downt chu gut kut ta do et," Harmony said around a mouthful of cookies.
"Harmy, you need to swallow before speaking sweetheart," Blaine reminded her.
Harmony chewed on her cookies before swallowing and trying again. "Why don't you get Kurt to do it?" she repeated.
"What?" asked Blaine, blushing slightly at the mention of Kurt.
"Kurt draws all those pretty dresses in the book. Didn't you say they're for when people get married? You can ask Kurt to make Aunt Lara a dress for when she gets married," Harmony explained.
"I... I never thought of that," Blaine admitted. He looked up at Lara, who was smiling at him. "I could ask him if you'd like?"
Lara nodded with a grin. "That would be awesome! It would save a lot of time," she confirmed.
"Wait two seconds, I'll call him," Blaine said. He pulled his phone from his pocket and found Kurt's number, before pressing call and holding the phone up to his ear. Kurt answered on the second ring.
"Hey, Blaine, I wasn't expecting to talk to you until tonight," Kurt said.
"Hi, Kurt. Yeah, I was going to phone you tonight, but I have a question first," Blaine replied. He looked up to see his family watching him, Cooper with a smirk on his face. He narrowed his eyes at him before turning his attention back to the phone call.
"Shoot," said Kurt.
"Are you busy at work lately? Like do you have any time for another dress?" Blaine asked.
"Erm, no I'm not so yeah I guess so. It would depend on how much time I'd have. Why?"
"Because my soon to be sister-in-law, Lara, is in need of a wedding dress, and Harmony reminded us that you make dresses. I mean the wedding is pretty soon so if it's impossible then..." Blaine trailed off, allowing Kurt to step in.
"Harmony remembered that I make dresses?" Kurt asked. Blaine could almost hear the smile on his face.
"Yeah, she's always asking about it," Blaine admitted.
"Well, I'm very glad she suggested it then. The wedding is in how long again?"
"Seven weeks," Blaine stated.
"Okay, I wouldn't have enough time to make her a dress from scratch, but if she wanted to come by this weekend, I have some sample dresses that I've already got made up. I could fit them and customise them for her," Kurt suggested.
Blaine pulled the phone to his shoulder for a second to relay the information to Lara, who nodded enthusiastically and said that the idea was brilliant. "Yeah, that's great," Blaine told Kurt.
"Great! How about you come by a couple of hours before our date. Get Lara to bring you both over to the shop and then I can take us to the movies and drop you home afterwards. How does that sound?"
"That sounds great. Thank you so much, Kurt!"
"It's no problem at all. I'll see you tomorrow? Same time?"
"Of course," sighed Blaine. "I'll have your non-fat mocha ready and waiting."
"I can't wait. Bye, Blaine."
"Bye, Kurt," Blaine replied. He hung up and looked up to see his family still watching. He'd almost forgotten that they were there. He blushed slightly but ignored the heat in his cheeks to tell them about the plans he'd made with Kurt. Lara grinned and hugged her soon to be brother-in-law tightly, before hugging her soon to be niece for the suggestion. Harmony just smiled proudly before helping herself to another cookie.
"So Lara gets to meet your mystery man," Cooper said once Lara, Lydia and Harmony were talking about bridesmaid dresses and their father had gone to the bathroom. "When's it my turn?"
"You'll meet him soon enough," Blaine assured him. "Like, when - if - we become official."
"It's definitely when going by the way you talk to him. And about him. You're going to talk about it in like, three weeks, right?" Blaine nodded. "That's great. You can bring him as a date for the wedding!"
Blaine grinned at the idea. He'd been to a lot of family weddings, but he'd never taken a date along. He thought of how they could dance together at the reception, holding each other close as they swayed to a slow song. Like the prom slow dance he'd never had.
"Hello, Earth to Blaine?" Cooper chuckled, waving a hand in front of Blaine's face.
"Sorry, got lost in thought there," Blaine explained.
"I could see that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an adorable niece that I haven't seen in forever and I intend to go and swing her around like a good uncle should," Cooper said, jumping up from the couch and heading over to Harmony.
"Stop if she feels sick!" Blaine called after him. "I won't be clearing that mess up!"
Saturday found Lara driving Blaine to Westerville, excitedly talking about dress ideas. The sat-nav guided them to the small bridal shop just around the corner from the main mall. Kurt had given Blaine the directions when he'd come in to get his coffee the previous day. They hurried out of the car and towards the shop, Lara bouncing excitedly as she hooked her arm through Blaine's and pulled her jacket tighter in the cold. They headed inside to find Kurt sat waiting for them, reading a magazine in the reception area.
"Blaine!" Kurt exclaimed when he heard the door and looked up to see them enter. He quickly put down the magazine and approached to give Blaine a hug. "It's good to see you."
"Hey, it's good to see you too," Blaine replied, squeezing Kurt's waist.
"And you must be Lara," Kurt said as he stepped backwards, holding a hand out for her to shake.
"It's nice to meet you, Kurt," Lara said politely, shaking his hand.
"You too. Shall we get right to it? Follow me, I work out back," Kurt intrstructed, heading towards the back of the shop, Blaine and Lara in tow. Lara leant into Blaine's side and whispered "He's cute," before letting go and stepping ahead of Blaine into the back of the shop.
The back of the shop was how Blaine imagined it would be. Very organised, yet teeming with creativity. There were separate racks labelled 'samples', 'complete' and 'incomplete'. There were several mannequins around the room, some empty and some wearing corsets or skirts. A table pushed up against the wall was covered in pieces of paper, pencils and measuring tapes and above it that, tacked to the wall, were tens of designs. Blaine could see Kurt working here, definitely.
"Have a seat," Kurt offered, gesturing to a couch near the door. Both Blaine and Lara sat down, but Kurt turned to pull over the rack of samples he had. "Okay, now do you have any ideas of what you're looking for?" He stood the rack a few metres away from them and stood before it, his hands clasped in front of him.
"I didn't want something too big," Lara began. "I want something elegant and beautiful and quite simple. I was thinking maybe a sweetheart neckline and a long skirt. And I'd quite like the bodice to be ruched."
"I can work with that," Kurt confirmed. He turned to the rack and began searching through the dresses, occasionally pulling one out and hanging it on one end of the rack to save it. Blaine watched Kurt work. He knew Kurt was beautiful, but when he was like this, determined yet excited and doing something he loved, Blaine couldn't help but think he was the most beautiful man in the whole world.
"Okay, how about we try these one," Kurt suggested, holding up three dresses covered with clear plastic. "You don't mind me helping you into them do you, Lara?" Lara shook her head as she stood up. "Well there's a dressing room right over here. Blaine help yourself to magazines and stuff. We shouldn't be too long." Kurt lead Lara into the dressing room and closed the door, leaving Blaine alone. He could hear the two talking, but the sound was muffled by the door, so he didn't have the opportunity to eavesdrop. Blaine stood up and wandered around the room. He paused in front of the desk to look at some of Kurt's designs.
Blaine knew Kurt was good, but some of the designs were just beautiful. His eyes wandered down to the desk where papers were scattered. Blaine noticed that some of the designs weren't particularly for wedding dresses, but all sorts of dresses and outfits. He fingered one particular piece of paper that contained a design for a male outfit. A sweater that was cut diagonally and coloured red. The design was labelled 'A Look To Bring Back'. Blaine smiled and placed the paper back where he found it. Before long the sound of the dressing room door opening pulled his attention and he turned to see Lara, clad in a beautiful dress, walking back into the room. Kurt lead her to a small stand which she stood upon to let her dress flow free.
"What do you think Blaine?" Lara asked, turning left and right to make the skirt flow. The dress was amazing. It was strapless, with the sweetheart neckline and ruching that Lara had asked for showing off her slim figure. The skirt was flowed outwards from the bodice, the plain silky material glowing under the spotlights of the room.
"You look beautiful," Blaine said, walking around her to look at the dress from all angles.
"It would need fitting a little in the back, and we decided to have a simple belt of jewels around the middle, of which I have designs for her to look at," Kurt went on to explain. "You can still try on the other dresses if you want too. In case you find one you like better."
Lara stood, appreciating her reflection in the mirror opposite her for a few more seconds before nodding. They tried on the other two dresses that Kurt had taken in with them and both were gorgeous, but Lara had completely fell in love with the first dress she'd tried on. She tried it on again and confirmed that that was the dress she wanted. Once Lara was in her own clothes Blaine watched as Kurt took measurements, and discusses prices and jewels.
Soon, they were done and Lara hugged Kurt in thanks before hugging Blaine and stepping out of the shop and heading to the car. Kurt was grinning from ear to ear when Blaine turned to look at him.
"That went well," Kurt said, pulling Blaine into a tight hug.
"Thank you," Blaine said.
"There's nothing to thank me for, I'm just doing my job. Now, how about that date?" Kurt chuckled. He stepped out of Blaine's arms and ran to get his wallet and keys. As Blaine watched him go, he couldn't help but think that soon enough, he was going to fall completely in love with Kurt Hummel.
[A/N] Sorry this was so late. I thought I'd let you know that I have never actually been bridal shopping, so everything in this chapter about that was probably what I've picked up from countless episodes of Say Yes To The Dress (okay, I'm a self confessed TLC addict). I hope you all enjoyed!