The instant Kurt woke up the next morning, he grabbed his phone. His attempt to call back Mercedes, numerous attempts, he growled inwardly, had failed. For some reason, his friend just was not answering her phone, and besides the worry of getting Will's number off of her, his concern was escalating regarding her safety. This just wasn't like her at all . . . there had never been a time since he could remember that she hadn't been just a phone call away.
If that wasn't enough, his father had become equally unreachable. At first, he assumed that he was just out with Finn's mother – his stepmother, and taking advantage of the "empty nest." He was starting to doubt that this was the case. . . worry was starting to break into panic regarding his dad. . . If he'd had another heart attack while no one was around . . .Kurt shook his head. No. He just couldn't think about that.
Failing again to make contact with them, he decided to get on with his morning routine. It was the only distraction he could think of at the moment. Going through the motions helped, but couldn't ease his worries entirely. He was so stressed by the time he finished his shower and skin care regimen that in trying to prepare his breakfast, he nearly broke out in tears when he saw his milk had spoiled.
About ready to just sit down and cry it all out of his system temporarily, the doorbell rang – startling him so badly he could envision someone being called in to scrape him off the ceiling. Putting his hand on his chest and taking a few calming breaths, he approached the door.
It wasn't just one person behind there, he realized absently – there were sounds of multiple shuffling feet accompanied by the unmistakable click of heels on hardwood. Kurt was puzzled. It wasn't like he gave his address to just anyone, and he couldn't wrap his head around who would possibly be visiting him quite so early in the morning.
He only needed to open the door a crack, when the sight of a hideous, but oh so familiar checked flannel shirt made him practically throw the door off its hinges.
"Dad!" Kurt leaped at the man and hugged him tightly, burying his face into his father's chest and trying ever so hard to choke back tears. Burt laughed lightly and returned the embrace. Relief flooded through the younger Hummel, his stress from the morning melting away. He's okay. . .
Abruptly remembering that there had been heels clicking, he lifted his head to notice Rachel standing behind his father – What the hell was she . . .
It made sense immediately when he saw Finn standing next to her, smirking and lifting his hand in a wave. Kurt smiled and then turned his gaze to the person on the other side of Finn . . . and then it was too much. His eyes started watering.
"Mercedes!" he quite literally squealed, and jumped to embrace the woman. She laughed.
"Happy Birthday, honey." Kurt let go of her, eyes widening, before he fumbled with pulling his phone out of his pocket and checking the date. Sure enough . . .
"Boy, you are not going to tell me you forgot your own birthday!" He blushed, shaking his head.
"I guess I got a little distracted . . . This week has been busy and after yesterday . . ." Mercedes smiled and chuckled lightly, shaking her head.
"I still can't believe . ." she began, and Burt interrupted her.
"What. . ." he began. "What happened yesterday?" Kurt smiled at the curiosity on his father's face, but then faltered slightly. He didn't think he was quite ready to tell Burt about Will yet, and knew he was going to have a hard time keeping the whole thing under wraps, especially with Mercedes here. Thankfully, there was the topic of his newly acquired part to distract from the topic of his love life.
"Why don't we get out of the hall first." Kurt started, grinning. "I can hardly be a good host for my guests under these conditions." He led the small group inside, motioning them to the parlor, then excused himself to the kitchen. Mercedes followed him, offering to help – he knew she mainly wanted to gossip, but didn't mind in the least.
Pulling a block of cheddar, a knife, and a cutting board out to hand to Mercedes, he then went puttering about his kitchen to grab the crackers out of one cupboard, mugs out of the adjacent, and coffee from under the cabinets. Then he cursed. Mercedes looked at him in confusion, and he sighed.
"I'm out of milk." he said simply, and his friend smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Why don't you call your boyfriend to pick you up some?" She asked, eyes glittering with amusement. Kurt flinched and looked quickly to the people in the other room. Thankfully, no one had been paying attention. Burt and Finn were wrapped up in some sports conversation and Rachel was busying herself with leaning on Finn, trying to nod at appropriate moments in the discussion. Kurt sighed in relief.
"Not so loud about that yet, okay? I have to find a way to tell my Dad gently. Heart condition, remember?" Mercedes grimaced and nodded. "Besides," Kurt continued. "I don't have Will's number. . . I tried to call you last night and see if you still had it on your caller ID, but I guess you turned in early to get down here. . ." The young woman smiled and stopped slicing to rinse her hands in the sink. Kurt gave her a quizzical look as he watched her pull her handbag in front of her, searching through it. What the hell was she doing?
She must have noticed him looking at her, because she held a finger up to stop him before he asked any questions. Then he gasped in surprise as his friend slipped out of her wallet a very familiar rectangular object, mended by a few pieces of scotch tape. Momentarily, he froze in shock.
"You . . . Oh my god. You went trash picking!" Mercedes laughed and handed him the business card. She shrugged.
"What are BFF's for?" she said simply. Kurt hugged the object to his chest and jumped in excitement.
"I. . . I freakin' love you!" he pecked her on the cheek. "Be right back. . . I'm going to give him a call."
In the stress of the night before, he'd forgotten to put his phone on the charger, and seeing that it was currently beeping angrily at him in his pocket, he opted for the phone in his parlor rather than having his mobile device cut out mid call. Unfortunately, having to do so caused his guests to glance at him in mild curiosity. He just grabbed the phone off the wall and dialed, shrugged, and twisted his fingers in the cord. Luckily enough, they didn't ask any questions and went back to their conversations.
Will's "Hello?" forced him to turn and face the wall, unable to keep the stupid grin off his face. His stuttered, "H-hey." made him glance over at the people in his parlor again, nervousness making him paranoid. Apparently he had nothing to worry about, though the short silence brought Will's voice back on the line.
"Everything alright?"
"Oh my god, everything is better than alright. . . you would not believe who showed up on my doorstep this morning. . ." Will chuckled.
"Should I be jealous?" Kurt smirked, his cheeks tinting slightly at the thought of Will actually wondering such a thing.
"Hmm. I don't know. . ." he teased, and double checked to make sure no one was paying attention, particularly Finn. "I did kind of have the hots for one of them for a while. . ."
"Kurt. . ." the older man questioned, his worried upward inflection making Kurt's eyes glitter mischievously.
"You probably should head over here as soon as possible. . . Oh! And I could really use some milk if you could grab some for me." then he hung up, and had to bite his lip to keep from breaking out into a laugh.
"Who was that?" his father asked, and Kurt jumped slightly before turning around and examining his fingernails as a distraction for his upcoming half truth.
"Oh, um, an associate of mine. . ." Burt blinked in surprise.
"You got a job?" he questioned, and Kurt smiled.
"I guess you could call it that. . . I'll tell you all about it when he gets here. . . It's. . ."
"Get your lazy white ass back in this kitchen!" Mercedes interrupted, poking her head out of the doorway. Kurt smirked and obliged, shaking his head as he walked.
"I almost feel sorry for the lucky bastard that gets to marry you." He quipped and entered the room, mouthing a 'Thank you' to the young woman for the distraction. She nodded, and he continued his coffee preparation task. After measuring and setting the pot to brew, he leaned on the counter to wait. Mercedes had finished up her platter and handed it to him with a face full of false attitude.
"You know Kurt, you might want to stop just hanging up on him like that. . . I mean, it's damn funny, but kind of rude. He better have a good reason for pulling that shit with me last night too, or I might have to smack him in his curly head." Kurt smirked and blushed lightly, tapping his lips with his finger - the only way he figured he could communicate what had happened without saying it aloud. Her eyes widened.
"Oh really . . ." she started, and the doorbell rang. Kurt handed her back the platter and nodded his head in the direction of the parlor. She took it and sighed, rolling her eyes. "You owe me details later, sweetie." He nodded, then took the few quick steps necessary to get to the door.
Smoothing his hair and shirt briefly, he opened it, a smile creeping onto his face.
"You. . . are infuriating. . ." Will greeted. He was obviously trying to look irritated and annoyed, but the way his lips kept turning upward made the action a lost cause. Kurt rolled his eyes.
"You love it." he replied, and Will just shook his head in amusement. Noticing the half gallon of milk in the older man's hand, Kurt smiled.
"Aww. . . you brought me a birthday present. How sweet!"
"You asked. . . wait. . . it's your birthday? Why didn't you . ." Kurt stopped him by holding up his hand.
"I forgot. Got a little distracted yesterday." He winked, and Will blushed lightly. "Come on, I want to show you the awesome surprise I got this morning."
"If it has anything to do with glitter or Barbara Streisand, I'm going home." Kurt bit his lip and faked a frown.
"That's too bad . . . I mean, there's no glitter, but that girl on my couch is pretty much the closest to Streisand that I know . . . ugh, probably the nose. . ." Will peeked into the doorway, and abruptly pulled back away, eyes wide.
"You had the hots for Rachel Berry?"
"Ew! God no! That's just . . . that's just. . . no!" So flustered as he was, it took him a second to realize that Will had been joking and was trying ever so hard not to burst out laughing.
"Ugh. Touche." he rolled his eyes and sighed. "Apparently you didn't notice that Finn and my father are also in there." he smiled. "Mercedes too." Will chuckled.
"So you honestly got me all riled up about someone I already knew you used to have a crush on in high school." He scoffed. "You suck." Kurt smirked.
"You wish."
Whatever retort Will had ready must have boiled straight out of his head with the heat coloring his cheeks.
"Sorry. . ." Kurt smiled, but didn't look apologetic in the least. "I can't help being so extraordinarily witty." After waiting a few moments for Will's face to regain a semi-normal shade, he continued.
"Come on, they're going to start to wonder what the hold up is."
The two of them stepped into the room just in time to hear Finn's first 'genius' statement of the day. He was looking to Mercedes, and said in all seriousness and appreciation:
"You cut good cheese."
The 'are you stupid' look that Mercedes shot at the quarterback was enough to make Kurt snigger, and Mercedes looked up and smiled at them, then nodded to his companion.
"Hey~ Mr. Schue. . . nice to. . ." She was interrupted and Will wasn't able to get out so much as a greeting as Rachel's surprised squeal and Finn's 'No way!' shot through the relative quiet of the room. After Finn bumped knuckles with the older man and Rachel just bounced a little on her heels, the light-bulb seemed to go off in Burt Hummel's head.
"Kurt," Burt began, and the younger Hummel's head snapped to semi-nervous attention. "Didn't you say something about Schuester doing something with directing on Broadway?" Kurt nodded.
"I did. . ." he began, and noticed a realization dawning in his father's eyes, a smile lightening his features. Unfortunately, the same epiphany was hitting Rachel, and the grin that had been on her face just moments ago was quickly being replaced by jealous fury.
Shit.
"You . . ." She began, clenching her fists and whipping her head up to glare at the young man. "You were saying earlier that he was your associate. . . and that means. . ." Kurt just looked at her expressionlessly.
"It means I made it. I'm playing Elphaba in this years production of Wicked."
The nearly simultaneous "That's awesome!" exclaimed by Burt and Finn was drowned out by Rachel.
"That's impossible!" She yelled, and Kurt glared at her.
"That's right, princess, I made it before you did. Suck it up." The young woman stomped over to Kurt and jabbed her finger at his chest.
"You! You're not even at the same level as I am. . . I've taken years fine tuning and practicing!" She narrowed her eyes. "Who did you bribe, Kurt? Who did you screw?"
The horrified chorus of "Rachel!" was deafening, and she had barely gotten the word 'screw' past her lips when Schuester cut in front of Kurt, effectively stopping her jabbing. He took a deep breath, trying to keep his temper under control.
"Rachel . . .He got the part on his own. I really wish you'd be happy for him . . . I understand your jealousy . . . but the fact remains that he's an extraordinary performer, and he's only getting better. . ." Rachel glared.
"Right. So, I suppose you had nothing to do with it? Excuse me if I find that rather hard to believe." She scoffed.
At this point, Will could see from where he was standing that Burt appeared to be about half a hair from blowing up. Schuester held up his hand and gave him a look to tell him "I've got this."
"I cited conflict of interest for an anonymous party. I really had nothing to do with it, short of telling him when the auditions were."
"Yeah," she rolled her eyes. "Right. . . It's common knowledge that it's not what you know in the biz, but who, and he. . ." she eyed the young man with nothing short of contempt. "He's not as good as me. I am the star, not him. . . he's just a talentless nobody who probably found the right producer to . . ."
She didn't get to finish.
Will snapped.
"Goddamn it Rachel, grow up! Look, I dealt with this in high school because you were only a kid back then, but you're a goddamned adult now! You are in this man's house, on his birthday, accusing him of being a cheat and a whore just because you can't wrap your infantile mind around the fact that someone is as good, if not better than you! You are talented, Rachel, fantastically so, but your attitude is nothing short of appalling! If you want the reason you're not landing roles, that's it! No one wants to hire a spoiled, overbearing, brat!" He clenched his fists, bit his lip, and stared to the right at nothing before exhaling heavily. "I need to go outside for a minute." Kurt flinched at the sound of the door slamming, and looked to Rachel. She was crying.
"I. . .I'm sorry, Kurt. . ." her voice hitched. "I was out of line. . .I'm going to go." She turned to Finn. "You were right, I shouldn't have come here. I'll meet you at the hotel." Turning to leave, Finn grabbed her by the hand.
"He. . . Mr. Schue was right, you know. . . that was. . ." He shook his head, and Rachel nodded.
"I know." She replied, and choked back a sob, then looked back to Kurt.
"I'm really. . . very sorry. . . I guess I have a lot to think about. Um . . . congratulations. . ."
She all but ran out the door.
"Well that went well." Mercedes broke the silence, and turned to her best friend. "You okay, Kurt?"
Kurt shook himself out of a shocked daze and nodded.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I . . .um . . .I'm going to go check on Will. . ." She smiled understandingly, and Kurt walked to the door, ignoring his father quietly questioning "Will?" and missing the look the man shot to his stepbrother. Finn had replied by shrugging and grabbing another piece of cheese.
Closing the door silently behind him, he found Will leaning against the wall adjacent to his apartment. Before he could say anything, the older man grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into a tight hug.
"I'm sorry I lost it in there." he stated, planting a kiss on the top of Kurt's head. "She just. . . after you were so careful to do things the right way . . .for her to say those things about you. . . I'm sorry you had to go through that." Kurt smiled into his chest, absently playing with his necktie.
"I did egg her on." he muttered. "She was just so damn incredulous that I'd accomplished something she hadn't. . .she pissed me off." Kurt sighed. "Don't beat yourself up about it too badly, Will. She needed to hear what you said. Honestly, it was probably best coming from you anyway. . .if you hadn't stepped in when you did, my father probably would have torn her a new one." Schuester chuckled.
"You're probably right." he said and Kurt rolled his eyes.
"No, I'm definitely right. I know my dad, and he's got a great ability to be straight forward and harsh when he's mad." Kurt laughed. "You, on the other hand. . . I mean you were really pissed . . . but you took time to compliment her while bitching her out. . ." he smiled gently. "You're such a softie, William." Will chuckled, and for the second time, but under much different circumstances, Kurt took enjoyment in the feeling of the vibrations of the older man's chest when he laughed. It was just so. . . nice to have someone to be so protective of him, and not only that, to have someone want to hold him after being cruelly and unjustly attacked.
He didn't know where Will stood on their whole relationship, he assumed the kiss from last night and the 'make this official' statement meant he could use the 'boyfriend' label. . . the big L word had yet to be muttered, but Kurt was okay with that for now. He didn't know if he was confident to say it himself yet. What mattered was that right now, he felt safe. Right now, he knew that there was someone who cared for him on an intimate level – something that he never thought he would experience so strongly . . .
"What are you thinking about?" Will asked. Softly smiling, he lifted Kurt's chin with his finger to look at him. Kurt blushed.
"Um . . . mostly about how pleasant this whole standing in your arms thing feels. . ." he smiled, and shook his head. "That came out a little sappy, huh?"
"Sure did," he replied. "But I really don't mind."
"Hmm. So what were you thinking about?" Tracing Kurt's jaw with his fingers, Will smiled.
"You. . . called me William. . . and I kind of liked the way it sounded coming from you." Kurt laughed.
"Really. Do . . . do you have some sort of. . . name fetish or something?" Will blinked, surprised, and blushed, dropping his hand from Kurt's jaw.
"Um . . . n-not that I know of. . ." Kurt smirked, tugging his partner a little closer by his tie.
"Really." he murmured. "Because you seemed to make a big deal about me calling you Will after you caught me belting out 'On my Own.'" he brushed his thumb over Will's lips, licking his own. "That was all about you, by the way." The brown-eyed man gulped, eyes transfixed on the young man before him.
"I – I knew that." Ghosting his fingers over Will's jawline, Kurt smiled softly.
"Yeah . . ." he breathed. "I figured you did." he lifted himself to whisper in his partners ear. "So . . . William," Will shuddered. "Now that I know about this. . ." Kurt simultaneously grabbed his ass and nipped at his ear, and Will's breath hitched. "You're screwed."
"K-kurt . . ." he gulped; his mouth had gone dry. "What are you . . . doing?" Kurt smiled devilishly.
"Thanking you." and then he was placing kisses on Will's neck, nibbling, soothing, maddening kisses that made Will weak in the knees, forced him to have to grab onto something, and that something ended up being Kurt's ass. Kurt gasped in surprise, retaliating by yanking Will's tie and crushing his lips to the other man's in a frantic, passionate dance . . . nipping and tugging and then returning to Will's neck, as he gasped and writhed and, fuck was that a moan?
"K- Kurt . . .we . . .we have to . . . we have to stop . . ." Kurt hummed into his ear and Will shuddered. "F-fuck . . . Kurt . . . you're . . . everyone is . . . waiting for you inside . . . and . . ." The younger man grinned wolfishly, locking impossibly aquamarine eyes onto currently darkened brown.
"You really should have figured me to be an exhibitionist, William."
"Fuck." he practically whined and when Kurt tried to lean back in, he grabbed him by the waist and held him there, trying and currently failing to calm the pounding in his chest, to slow the breathing that was coming out in staccato gasps. "We . . . I have to stop. . . dammit Kurt, do you have any idea . . ." Kurt just smirked, and brought his hand to Will's thigh, brushing it dangerously close to . . .
Will squeezed his eyes shut and banged the back of his head on the wall, and Kurt leaned forward once more to whisper into his ear.
"You have no idea. I know exactly what I'm doing . . . and one of these days, Mr. Schue, I'm going to teach you a thing or two."
Kurt smirked, gave Will a kiss, and left him outside.