Hey!

I love this chapter.

That is all :)

(Oh, and someone asked what kind of dog Lady is, and I realized I never mentioned it! She's a King Chares Cavalier, a white and brown one.)

SB CH 8

Biting his lip nervously, Kurt looked around the arrival hall. His plane had landed half an hour before, and he had sent a text to Blaine right away. Blaine had replied instantly, saying he was waiting for Kurt at the coffee stand. He was about to get his phone and call Blaine when he saw Blaine waving at him enthusiastically. Kurt let out a breath of relief and grabbed his carry-on, making his way over to Blaine. He stopped a few feet in front of the other man, not sure what the social protocol was in greeting the biological father of your daughter, slash friend, slash potential love interest. Blaine seemed to have thought about it beforehand, or he simply didn't care, as he pulled Kurt into a hug right away.

"Let's get coffee first, okay?"

Kurt nodded in agreement. Blaine's hands were on the small of his back for barely a minute, but he couldn't help the goose bumps that seemed to erupt from that spot. Blaine grabbed his carry-on and walked into the coffee shop, ordering a tall non-fat mocha and a medium drip. Kurt raised his eyebrows in surprise at this. "You know my coffee order?"

"Of course." Blaine looked at him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and Kurt couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks," he murmured as Blaine handed him his cup.

"No problem." Blaine smiled broadly. "I'm so glad you decided to come."

Kurt bit his bottom lip to suppress his grin. Blaine's enthusiasm was rubbing off on him, and his nerves that had been building up all day had almost disappeared completely.

"Let's get a cab and go home," Blaine said, still rolling Kurt's carry-on behind him as they walked to the exit. Kurt followed closely behind, protesting for a moment he could carry his luggage. "Don't be ridiculous," Blaine contradicted. "I'm sure you're exhausted from the trip here. It's nothing."

Kurt had to admit he was tired. He had hurried home after Emma's dialyses to get his stuff and leave for the airport. He had made it with half an hour to spare. Thankfully there had been no traffic. He had hoped to relax a bit on the plane, but of course he had been seated next to an overly talkative woman who had felt the need to tell Kurt stories of all five of her grandchildren.

"I figured we'd just hang out at the apartment tonight. Watch some bad reality TV maybe."

"Sounds like heaven," Kurt admitted. "I actually am tired. I have one request though; can we stop by Junior's Bakery for cheesecake first? I haven't had Junior's in years."

"Sounds like a plan," Blaine agreed. "The Brooklyn one isn't too far from my apartment, so we'll just let the cab driver drop us off. It's barely a five minute walk from there."

…

"You know, this was not what I expected, at all," Kurt said between two bites. "It's a loft. I love it."

"Thanks," Blaine beamed. "I love it here. It's home, you know?"

"And you have a dog," Kurt shook his head as he scratched Lady, who had made herself comfortable on the couch, behind her ears. "You could have mentioned something, you know. Like that I should be expecting two houseguests this summer."

"Oh, I didn't want to… I mean, I can ask Cooper to take care of her," Blaine mumbled, trying not to stare to intently at Kurt, who was sitting comfortably on his couch, with Lady half draped over his lap, and enjoying his cheesecake a little too much.

"Nonsense, Emma will love her. She always wanted a dog." Kurt hummed as he took another bite. He closed his eyes and moaned softly. "This is probably the thing I've missed most about New York. I mean, my cheesecake is good, but you can't beat Junior's."

"You can't," Blaine replied softly, gazing at Kurt intently. He couldn't help it, the way Kurt was moaning at every bite he took. It drove him crazy.

Kurt cleared his throat. "So, did you always live here?"

"I did."

Kurt looked at Blaine expectantly.

"Are you sure you wanna know?" Blaine asked. "It involves a lot of Rachel."

"I do," said Kurt. "I'm curious what happened after Emma's birth. You two broke up I assume, or what?"

"Oh, no, we broke up before Emma was born," Blaine said. "Do you want to hear the whole story?"

Kurt nodded. "If you want to tell me."

"Sure.I knew I was gay pretty early, I guess it's just one of these things I always knew, you know. I never had a big realization about it, I just knew."

Kurt nodded. "Yeah, same here."

"Right, so I used to go to a public high school, and this one year, I was 14, they organized a dance. I asked another boy to go with me, just as friends. He was the only other gay guy I knew. We had fun, but at the end of the evening some of the jocks decided we shouldn't flaunt our sexuality, so they beat us up." Blaine shrugged at Kurt's horror-struck face. "It's okay; it was a long time ago. Anyway, I transferred to a private all-boys' boarding school. I wasn't keen on coming out there right away, and I was 15 and ... well … confused. I figured I could be straight if I tried. There was this sister school, an all-girls' boarding schools a few miles further. It was kinda a thing for the Dalton boys to date girls from there. I joined the glee club, The Warblers, and we had some friendly competitions with the girls' glee club. Rachel was their lead soloist, so we had some sing-offs. She asked me out on a date, and I, well, like I said, I was confused. I liked her, and I figured, why not, right? It was nice, to fit in for once. So we dated for about a year. By then our schools decided to do a play together. Rachel and I landed the lead in West Side Story. We got some comments from the director that we weren't passionate enough, so Rachel decided we should have sex, to enhance our performance."

Kurt had to stifle his laugh, and Blaine bumped his shoulder gently. "Hush, you. I was sixteen, okay. So we had sex, I figured out I really didn't like girls, and came clean to Rachel, who was surprisingly supportive about it. Funnily enough she had two dads, and they really helped me come to terms with my sexuality. Unfortunately, I only figured that out after we had sex, and Rachel got pregnant. She said she didn't want to keep the baby; it would only be in the way of her career. My parents agreed with her, and I really couldn't care for a baby on my own, so I reluctantly agreed to the adoption. Rachel graduated right after she gave birth to Emma, choked on her NYADA audition, but went to New York anyway. She auditioned again and got in. She lived in the dorms for the first semester, but when I got in half a year later we decided to get an apartment together. This one. It was a wreck, but it was all we could afford. After she graduated she got a big role and moved out. I had some okay roles, so I could keep the place on my own. I redecorated it some more, and this is where we are now."

"Wow."

"Yeah," Blaine shrugged. "Life's weird sometimes."

"Just… you lived with Rachel. How much does she know about Emma?"

"Emma?" Blaine looked confused for a moment. "Oh, you mean because of the letters. Nothing. She made it very clear she didn't want anything to do with her after the adoption, so I never told her."

"Okay," Kurt took a deep breath. "Are you two still close?"

"Not really. I mean, we talk when we cross paths, but she's got it in her head she's a big Broadway star now and she's… well, she's very ambitious."

"And you're not?" Kurt raised an eyebrow.

Blaine shrugged. "I don't know. I love performing, I really do, but it's not… like, I love that I can make a living out of something I love to do, but it's just… a job, you know. It's not my life."

"Oh."

"Like," Blaine pondered for a moment, looking for the right words. "If… I mean… with the right guy… if it turned out that the right guy for me lived half way across the country, I wouldn't mind following him there." Blaine shook his head, chuckling softly. "I'm sorry. I know I sound like a hopeless romantic right now."

"I get it," Kurt said. "I gave up my job at Vogue for Emma. Sure I loved my job, and I loved working for Vogue, but I love Emma more."

"Yeah." Blaine nodded. "In the end, it's just a job. You can work any job, but you can't love just any one, right?"

…

On Saturday morning they had visited the FAO Schwarz toy store first, at Kurt's insistence. He had promised Emma a giant present from New York, and what was a better place than what used to be his favorite New York toy store? They grabbed some food from one of the vendors just outside, and decided to take a stroll through Central Park before Blaine had to go to the theater. That's when they bumped into him. Andreas. Blaine's ex.

They had been too caught up in their conversation for Blaine to notice him, until the man had called out at him. "So that's how you treat all of your exes? You just walk right by them?"

"Andreas?" Blaine had looked surprised. "I honestly didn't see you. I'm sorry. How are you?"

"Not as good as you, apparently," came the reply. "What, the whole 'playing daddy' thing didn't work out so you're flirting your way into some other guy's pants now?"

"Andreas, please," Blaine pleaded. "Don't make a scene. I didn't handle our situation well, I know, but I don't think a public shouting match is going to help matters."

"Fine!" Andreas rolled his eyes before focusing his attention on Kurt. "Let me tell you something. He only wants to get into your pants; he's not interested in a relationship. Also, he apparently has a secret disabled daughter somewhere he won't talk about, but whom he goes running for at the first call."

Kurt glared at Andreas. What was this man thinking, talking about Emma and Blaine like that? He was about to give the man a piece of his mind, but Blaine stopped his by putting his hand on Kurt's arm.

"Look, I'm sorry, Andreas. I never wanted to give you the impression our relationship was anything more than what it was. I didn't want to end it like I did, but that's just the way it was. It wasn't ever going to be more than sex between us. I'm sorry if you thought otherwise." He grabbed Kurt's hand. "Come on, Kurt, we're going."

Kurt followed Blaine reluctantly, but not before throwing a venomous glare in Andreas' direction. They walked for a few minutes until Blaine stopped abruptly, seating himself on a bench and pulling Kurt down beside him. "I'm sorry," Blaine gritted. "I should have called him to talk it out, but I just ... ugh!"

"It's okay," Kurt said, softly squeezing Blaine's hand, tightening his grip when Blaine tried to pull away. "We all have a nasty break-up story. This can be yours."

Blaine shook his head. "How is it a break-up if we were never together to begin with? At least I didn't think we were."

"Sometimes, people think differently about a situation."

"I guess," Blaine shrugged and looked from their entangled hands up to Kurt with a small smile. "I promise I'm not the asshole he makes me out to be."

Kurt chuckled. "I believe you. So far you seem like a catch to me. No wonder he wanted to date you, although I don't get what you saw in him."

Blaine raised an eyebrow. "Did you not just see him? He was hot, Kurt, and I was single."

Kurt laughed as he bumped their shoulders together. "Yeah, I guess. He's hot, but still, you deserve better."

Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand and got up from the bench. "Let's get to the theatre, okay?"

Kurt nodded. "I can't wait to see you perform."

A few hours later Kurt was sitting in the fifth row, mindlessly flipping through the playbill. He had hung around backstage for a while, when Blaine was getting ready, but he had retreated to the seats ten minutes ago. The walk to the theatre had been silent, but Blaine had held onto Kurt's hand the whole time. He could still feel the spaces between his fingers where Blaine's had been, and it still brought a smile to his face. If he was being honest with himself, he had to admit there were more than friendly feelings for Blaine. He was falling for the man. Hard. How could he not? Blaine was sweet, generous, an playful but serious when he needed to be. He loved theatre, and Vogue, and most importantly, he loved Emma. If he let his mind wander, he couldn't help but imagine how good of a father Blaine would be. He was probably the type that made blanket forts and took his daughter out on a walk after it had rained, just so they could jump into the puddles. Yes, Blaine would be an amazing father; he had fitted into the role perfectly when he had stayed with Kurt.

Only, Kurt wasn't sure it would be fair to give in to his feelings. If something were to happen between them, Emma would be stuck in the middle, no doubt. Legally, Blaine would have no rights to her, but emotionally, Kurt wasn't sure he could handle that. And then there was the fact that Blaine lived in New York. He had a job in New York, one that he couldn't do just anywhere. It wouldn't be fair for Kurt to ask Blaine to move to Lima, but he also couldn't just pack up his stuff and move back to New York. And all of that was assuming that Blaine returned his feelings. What if he didn't? Would Kurt end up heart-broken and alone?

He was shaken from his thoughts as the lights dimmed and the curtains opened. Kurt was determined to enjoy the show, so he put his thoughts aside and focused on the play. After all, he had a whole summer to figure out what to do, right?

…

"Oh, Blaine, you were amazing," Kurt gushed as he flung himself in Blaine's arms, squeezing the man tightly. "I mean, I knew you could sing but this, it's a whole new experience to hear you on a Broadway stage!"

"Thanks!" Blaine beamed as he buried his head in Kurt's neck and breathed in deeply. "I'm glad you liked it. I was so nervous."

"Why would you be nervous? You're a natural!"

Blaine shrugged as he pulled back from the hug. He was flushed, and he couldn't control the smile that was plastered on his face as he looked at Kurt. "I'm always nervous when someone I care for is in the audience. Like, I want to do it extra well for them, you know."

Kurt bit his bottom lip and nodded. Blaine cared for him. He thought back to before the show when they had been holding hands and he shivered. Almost on instinct he grabbed Blaine's hand again and squeezed it softly. "You were perfect."

Blaine smiled and squeezed back. He looked down at their intertwined hands and nodded. "Okay, let's get going. I have the rest of the evening planned out."

Kurt let himself be lead around by Blaine, even though he knew the city by heart. Blaine took him to Ellen's Stardust Diner, a tourist hotspot that he had always avoided, but he had to admit, he enjoyed it. Together, they sang along loudly to all the songs, and at one point one of the performers recognized Blaine, and insisted a performance, so Kurt and Blaine sang Lay All Your Love on Me, Blaine's biggest song in the musical.

Kurt was still giddy as he walked around Times Square with Blaine close in tow. Their hands were once again clasped together, and it almost started to feel normal, except for the sparks that shot right up Kurt's arm whenever Blaine brushed his thumb over Kurt's palm, or when he squeezed his hand softly.

"So, I have one last surprise for tonight," Blaine said as they walked by the famous stairs and back towards the theatres further along Broadway.

"Oh, do tell," Kurt insisted, turning his body towards Blaine and smiling widely at him. "I can't imagine today getting any better."

"Hmm, just wait and see," Blaine replied. He grabbed Kurt's other hand and pulled them closer together. He lifted one hand to caress Kurt's face for a moment. "Kurt, I have to tell you something first."

Kurt swallowed and nodded. He noticed Blaine licking his lips and his eyes looking down at Kurt's mouth. He squeezed Blaine's hand reassuringly, and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Today, this weekend, it's been amazing, and I—"

"Kurt?"

Kurt face fell, and he turned around at the familiar voice he hadn't heard in months. Trust Chandler to ruin his moment with Blaine.

"Chandler." Kurt forced a smile to his face. Next to him he could feel Blaine stiffen up. "What a coincidence."

"Yes, what brings you to the city? Or did you move back here?"

"I… uh, no. I'm visiting—Blaine! Yes, I'm visiting… with Blaine!"

"Visiting with Blaine?" Chandler repeated, slowly. "Oh."

"Yes, Blaine and I booked a romantic weekend away, just the two of us, you know," Kurt said, as he leaned into the other man. If Blaine was surprised by his lies, he didn't show it, as he immediately wrapped an arm around Kurt's waist to pull him closer. "You have to get a bit of air every now and then."

"Right, right. I get it." Chandler frowned. "So, how's Emma?"

"Oh, Emma is great," said Kurt, his voice a bit higher than usual. "She's, yeah, she's great. She's with my parents for the weekend."

Blaine looked at Chandler while Kurt babbled mindlessly about how well Emma was doing. He obviously didn't want his ex to know what was really going on, and it really wasn't Blaine's place to interfere. He had been a bit surprised when Kurt had said they were on a romantic weekend, but grabbing hold of Kurt felt so natural, he hadn't thought twice about it. He could see Chandler glaring at him, and he tightened his grip on Kurt unconsciously.

"…it's almost summer break, so she's happy about that…"

Chandler kept asking about Emma while shooting murderous glares at Blaine, making the man feel uncomfortable. He obviously assumed Blaine had some sort of fatherly connection with Emma, probably since Kurt had declared they were together, but that still wasn't a reason to be angry at him, Blaine thought. After all, he was the one that had left.

"… we have a bunch of plans for the summer, the three of us, so…"

Blaine knew Kurt was talking nonsense, but he couldn't help but smile at the idea he was in fact spending the whole summer with Emma and Kurt. It did almost feel like a family, to him.

"So maybe, I can come to visit over the summer?"

Blaine blinked at Chandler's proposal. Kurt had told him the man hadn't seen Emma in years, and now suddenly he wanted to visit? It wasn't making any sense.

"Oh, uhm," Kurt faltered. "Well, sure, maybe... Call us first. We might not be at home, so yeah."

"Kurt, we have to go," Blaine said, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen between them. "Your surprise, remember?"

"Yes!" Kurt squeaked in an unnaturally high voice, so he cleared his throat. "I mean, yes, of course. We should get going. Chandler, nice seeing you again."

"You, too. You look good, Kurt." He looked back at Blaine. "Happy."

Kurt smiled softly and leaned into Blaine a little more. "I am." The two of them left, and once Chandler was out of view Kurt visibly relaxed. "I'm sorry, Blaine. That was the last man on earth I imagined running into here. I mean, I knew he still lived in New York, but still .…"

Blaine hummed.

"Are you… mad?"

"What?" Blaine looked surprised. "No, of course not. I'm just surprised. You said he hadn't seen Emma in years, but he asked loads of questions and asked to visit her over the summer. I don't get it. And why did you lie and say she's doing fine? If he visits, he'll obviously see she's not."

Kurt bit his lip and thought for a moment. "I don't know. I doubt he'll visit, I'm sure it was just out of politeness he asked. I just, I didn't want him to think I wasn't doing okay. He still has legal right to Emma. I don't want to end up in a custody battle."

"Kurt, he hasn't visited her for years. Do you really think anyone would take Emma away from you and place her with him?" He spat out the last word. "The guy left you. He didn't visit her. He doesn't care."

Kurt shrugged. "I'd rather not take any chances." They walked in silence for a few moments. "Are we okay? I'm sorry I dragged you into this mess."

"It's okay. We're okay." We're more than okay, Blaine thought as he looked down at their hands, still intertwined. If it was up to him, he'd never let go. "We're here."

Kurt looked around and clasped his hands in front of his mouth to silence his exited squeal. "Oh, God, Blaine, this is The Gershwin Theatre. Don't tell me you have tickets for Wicked?!"

"I do!" Blaine grinned. "And great tickets as well. It pays off to work in the Broadway world. I've got connections!"

Kurt was practically jumping up and down in excitement. "Oh, God, Blaine, you're amazing. I love you. This is so great. It's been years since I saw Wicked, and oh, my God! Blaine!"

Blaine laughed as Kurt engulfed him in a bone-crushing hug, as he tried not to obsess over Kurt's words. The man was exited, he probably hadn't realized what he'd said, and he obviously hadn't meant it in the way Blaine wanted it to be said.

…

Kurt had been quietly singing along from the opening notes of No One Mourns the Wicked until For Good. Not that Blaine minded, he sounded good, great even. Blaine had seen the show several times over the last two years, so he wasn't as focused on the show as he was on Kurt. He loved to see the man's face shift with emotions, from laughing at Glinda's superficiality, sympathizing at Elphaba being an outcast, to crying softly at As Long As You're Mine. He saw it all cross over Kurt's face, and he hadn't been able to help himself, during Elphaba and Fiyero's duet he just had to grab Kurt's hand and press a soft kiss against the knuckles. His heart had skipped a few beats when Kurt had torn his eyes away from the stage for a second to shoot him a watery smile and squeeze his hand softly. They had held hands until the end, where Kurt had jumped up to give the actors a standing ovation, along with the rest of the crowd. As the noise in theatre began to die down, and almost everyone started to leave, Kurt sat back down and grabbed his playbill.

"God, Blaine, that was amazing. The girl who plays Elphaba is one of the best I've seen. I need to know her name, so I can look her up online," Kurt said as he frantically searched his playbill.

"Yeah, she's amazing," Blaine agreed, hesitantly. "You can look her up later. We should get going; almost everyone's gone."

"It'll just take a minute," Kurt murmured. "Here she is. Rachel Berry, 26 years old, shines in her first big Broadway role since graduating from NYADA four years ago." He was silent for a moment as he read over her past performances, both on and off Broadway. "Rachel is from Ohio, and would like to thank her dads who gave her all the opportunities in the world, and Blaine for being an awesome duet-partner."

Kurt blinked as he slowly looked up at Blaine, who was biting his lip and looking like he was a child caught grabbing a cookie from the jar before dinner.

"So… Rachel… hmm."

"Kurt, I… I wanted to tell you, but you were always so firm that you didn't want to know anything about Rachel, so I didn't and… I'm sorry."

Kurt nodded. "I… so that's… Rachel, wow. I just… I would have liked a warning, Blaine. That's my daughter's biological mom up there. I thought you two weren't close anymore."

"We're… we're not as close as we used to be, but we're still friends. I got these tickets from her," Blaine explained.

"I just… I don't know what to say, to be honest. That's… I mean, she's… I mean Emma… she gave birth to her," Kurt was babbling, he was clearly upset by this, and Blaine started to wonder if this had been a good idea. He knew Kurt loved Wicked, and he had just wanted to surprise him, give him a good day, make him forget all his worries for a moment and just enjoy. He just wanted to make Kurt happy.

"Kurt," Blaine grabbed Kurt's hand before continuing. "She might have given birth to Emma, but she's not her mother. She didn't want her; she knows nothing about her. We never talked about her. She doesn't even know her name, or yours. Kurt, they told us nothing at the adoption. I didn't know a thing until your letters arrived."

Kurt nodded. "I know, but I can't help freaking out."

"Don't think of her as Emma's birth mom, think of her as an amazing Broadway actress you just saw. You don't have to meet her; you don't even have to see her anymore if you don't want to. We can just walk out and pretend this never happened."

"I don't want to pretend that this never happened," Kurt said, his voice quivering as he wiped a few tears away with the hand that wasn't clutched in Blaine's grasp. "This was an amazing day, I haven't had so much fun on a da-, I mean, I just, it was great, Blaine, you're great."

"You're pretty great yourself."

Kurt chuckled as he clutched Blaine's hand, tighter. "God, all I seem to do around you is cry. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Blaine shook his head. "I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to be yourself with me. I… I had fun today as well, Kurt." Blaine had never wanted to kiss a man more than in this moment. He just wanted to close the gap between them and make all of Kurt's worries go away.

"Can we just go home?" Kurt asked, his voice fragile. "I mean, your apartment. I just…"

"Yeah, yeah of course," Blaine agreed, not daring to do anything. He felt like he had already messed up enough for one day. "Come on, we'll get a cab and go home."

Kurt nodded as he wiped the last few tears from his eyes. "Thanks. At least I learned one thing, tonight."

"Oh?" Blaine looked curiously at Kurt.

"I finally get why Emma is so small. She has two hobbits as biological parents."

Blaine laughed as he grabbed Kurt's hand to pull him up. "Yeah, I can't deny that. But good things come in small packages, right?"

"That they do."