Wow! I'm glad so many of you liked the last chapter. I love writing Goober Blaine, because I really do feel that under the Dalton Blaine persona is a nerdy boy who would dance around all the time and be silly. Never the less, we see some serious Blaine here, because a few people did voice concern that perhaps he really does need to mature. After this chapter, there will be a bit of a time lapse, just a warning. :) Enjoy!

Chapter 9

Kurt awoke the next morning, nestled in his favorite nook on Blaine's shoulder, to the cutest sight.

Abu had someone nestled himself above Blaine head, and was using his hair as a pillow. Kurt glanced down at the bed he had made for Abu on the floor, and realized the tiny puppy couldn't have jumped that high by himself.

Blaine must have grabbed him when he came home from work.

Kurt wasn't so sure how he felt about a dog sharing their bed, but he knew the sight was adorable. Quietly, he grabbed his phone and took a picture of his boys. He needed a new background anyway.

Kurt picked up Abu, who blinked awake and looked around terrified. It broke Kurt's heart that the little dog lived on the streets for awhile and whimpered often, so he brought it to his chest and cuddled it. "It's okay, Abu, Daddy Kurt is here." Against his better judgment, Kurt kissed the dog's head. He could feel the dog's ribs through his fur, so Kurt padded out to the kitchen and gave him some food. "Now you stay out here, Abu, while I wake Daddy Blaine, okay?"

Kurt swiftly walked back into the bedroom and shut the door. Blaine looked so peaceful laying in bed, that Kurt hated to wake him up. But Blaine woke him up yesterday with a pan, so Kurt needed to return the favor. "COMING IN FOR A LANDING!" Kurt yelled, taking a running start and jumping on top of Blaine.

"Oh my god. Why? Why would you do that?" Blaine moaned after catching his breath. "Why Kurt?"

Kurt giggled, "Sometimes I don't like being the mature one in this relationship."

Blaine raised an eyebrow, "Oh really? How's this for mature?" Blaine rolled over, landed on top of Kurt, and started tickling his sides.

"Oh no you don't, hobbit," Kurt used his legs to his advantage, pulled Blaine on his side, and then rolled back on top, "I'm stronger than I look!"

The boys continued the battle for fifteen minutes before Blaine accidentally threw Kurt off the bed and onto the floor.

Kurt laid on the ground and couldn't move.

"Oh my god, Kurt. I'm sorry. I didn't think it would hurt you. Oh my god, are you okay." Blaine kneeled in front of Kurt, worry filling his eyes. "I swear I'm not abusive! Oh my god!"

Kurt couldn't speak, he was too grossed out. He sat up quickly, "Blaine. You are cleaning up Abu's little surprise that I just landed in."

Blaine looked behind Kurt to see a wet spot on the floor and chuckled, "Oh. Well."

"Now. I have to shower and scrub my back with acid." Kurt stood, "We will resume our match later, because I'm not going out like that. Kurt Hummel losing a tickling match to pee. Never would I go out like that."

Blaine walked to the kitchen to find Abu curled on the floor, Blaine picked him up and kissed his fur, "Good morning baby. You just got me in a lot of trouble with Daddy Kurt. Is that how it's going to be? Because I'll always be his favorite."

Abu blinked and looked bored, so Blaine put him back down. He grabbed carpet cleaner and a towel and set to work on the stain. He hoped he could get the stain out, because he didn't want to have to explain that to the landlord.

Kurt finished showering and now had a very raw back. "Blaine, we have to pay bills." He yelled down the hallway just as Blaine settled onto the sofa with his bowl of Fruity Pebbles.

Blaine grumbled, "Why now? This is when the best cartoons are on?"

Kurt walked into the living room clutching his laptop. Blaine appraised his boyfriend. He was wearing a pair of McKinley High football team shorts and not much else. Blaine could feel his pain, he was wearing Dalton Academy soccer shorts and he too was shirtless. They'd turned the heat up for Abu, and it was sweltering in the apartment. But the look on his face showed that he meant business, "Because I work soon and you have to take Abu to the vet. Remember?"

Blaine scooped Abu off the floor and cuddled him, "You have a mean Daddy, Abu, a very mean Daddy. He won't let us watch the Flintstones. He's a slave driver, Abu, a slave driver!" Blaine smiled up at Kurt, but grabbed the bills from the table and was ready to work, "Okay, let's start working through this."

Kurt opened his laptop, "Okay, why don't we just work through the stack?"

"Right," Blaine looked through the stack of bills that was larger than he had hoped, "Kurt, can I look at something for a second?"

Kurt handed him the laptop and Blaine logged onto their joint bank account. Another decision neither of their families supported, but they both wanted. Sure, they both had bank accounts on the side, but Blaine wasn't allowed to touch his until he was 25 and Kurt's was pretty much zero thanks to a sale during his senior year of high school that he still owed his father for.

Blaine did quick math in his head and looked at the numbers, "We aren't going to have enough, Kurt."

Kurt opened his mouth and then closed it again and repeated that several times, "We have to. There's no other option."

Blaine looked through the bills, "Okay. Okay. We'll pay the most important bills first." Blaine shuffled through the pile, "We owe the electric company $150."

Kurt's eyes grew wide, "Holy shit. Okay." He quickly paid that bill and watched their bank account drop.

Blaine weighed weather water or internet was more important, but figured they'd have enough for both anyway. "Okay, the internet and cable bill is $60."

Kurt nodded, "That's not so bad."

Blaine wrote 'paid' on that bill and filed it into his folder, "Water is $55. Tell me how much we have left then." Blaine pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and was furiously writing things.

Kurt just watched him for a few minutes. While he loved his goober boyfriend, it always amazed him how quickly Blaine could become a forty year old, professional man. Kurt loved that he had two sides to him, because while he liked to see the goober more often, the businessman in Blaine was hot too.

Kurt went back to their banking website, "About $1800."

Blaine wrinkled his nose, "Fuck. Okay. We still need to pay $1580 for rent. But he wants a check of course so just use that electronic deduction thing they have."

Kurt watched the money in their bank account go down again, "I cannot believe we pay that much money for this shitty place."

"Okay, we need $145 for car insurance." Blaine ignored Kurt's comment, fully in work mode. "Thank god our parent's life insurance still covers us or we'd be fucked."

Kurt glared at the computer screen, "And that leaves us with $75."

Blaine looked at the remaining bill in his hands. "And we have a $200 cell phone bill."

Kurt groaned, "What are we going to do?"

Blaine looked thoughtful, "Cancel my phone."

Kurt sat straight up, "We can't cancel your phone, Blaine. You work late nights and what if something goes wrong?"

"We'll just share yours. You get more text messages and calls than I do. You're the popular one." Blaine looked sadly at his phone, "It'll only be for a month or so. I'll pick up extra shifts at work. It'll be fine."

Kurt chewed on the inside of his mouth, "But we can share it, right? Like I don't want to have the phone all of the time." Suddenly an idea sprang into Kurt's head, "Or, we could just tell your parents to pay your phone bill."

Blaine glared at him, "How about we tell your dad to pay your phone bill? We told them we could do this. Remember when they offered to keep paying our phone bills?"

Kurt groaned, "Why did we have to have so much pride?"

Blaine rubbed at his eyes, "We can do this. Plenty of people survived without cell phones. I get paid this Friday so at least we can eat." Blaine really didn't know what to do. It wasn't supposed to be this hard. Money had never gotten in the way before, and now everything revolved around it. But they were going to make it, and he wasn't going to ask people for help. "Give me your phone, Kurt, and I'll call Verizon."

An hour and a half later, Blaine held a not working Iphone in his hands. Surprisingly they agreed to cut the current phone bill because Blaine went into a long sob story about their current situation. Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine's waist, "You'll get it back next month, I promise. I'll work a pole if I have to."

"I'd rather not have a working phone than have other people see you like that," Blaine commented, trying not to show Kurt how much it actually hurt him to do that. "I have to take Abu to the vet and then I'm going to visit my grandmother. Do you want me to meet you between performances so you won't be bored?"

Kurt bit his lip and looked away, "I actually already made plans to meet with Bryce. He said he had big news about that audition we went to the other day. I really hope he got the part."

Blaine nodded, nuzzling into Abu, "I hope YOU got the part."

Kurt laughed, "I didn't. I really didn't even want to audition, but Bryce said I needed to so I knew what it would be like."

"Whatever, bozo," Blaine sniggered when Abu started licking his face, effectively dropping any of the businessman persona left. "You should be jealous, Abu is a better kisser than you."

Kurt raised an eyebrow, "I know what your intentions are with that comment. But I refuse to kiss you when you have dog slobber on your lips."

Blaine and Kurt both walked towards the bedroom, Abu following closely behind. He always seemed to be afraid they would leave him if they went off together. Kurt walked into the bathroom and Blaine followed, kissing his shoulder, "I love you."

Kurt smiled at Blaine through the mirror, "I love you too. It's going to get easier, you know that, right?"

Blaine traced his finger over a scar on Kurt's back, one of Kurt's only imperfections, a reminder of the torment he faced in high school from bullies throwing him against lockers, "We've both gotten through worse." Blaine tried to stay positive, if not for himself, then for Kurt. "Do you want me to ride down to Gershwin with you?" He knew Kurt, and he knew Kurt still had problems with the Subway.

Kurt turned and emotion filled his eyes, "You'd do that?"

Blaine sometimes wondered if Kurt realized how much he loved him, "Kurt, you don't feel safe on the subway, I hate knowing that you're hyperventilating for forty minutes every day."

Kurt kissed Blaine before hugging him tightly, "You are the best boyfriend, like ever."

Blaine only wished it were true. "Yeah, yeah. I'm awesome. Now get dressed before I change my mind and become an un-awesome boyfriend again."

Blaine pulled on sweatpants and a Warblers t-shirt, figuring he'd spend the day fixing things at his grandparent's and chasing after Abu. Kurt had his uniform on, grumbling about polyester the whole way to the subway.

Kurt sat on the subway, and Blaine stood right in front of him, holding the bar with one hand, and Abu with the other. "Want to come down and ride the subway back home with me tonight?" Kurt asked hopefully.

Blaine looked thoughtful, "I would have if I came down between shows. But since you have a hot date with Bryce…"

"It's not a date," Kurt said quickly.

"I was kidding," Blaine tried to soothe Kurt, but he couldn't put his hatred for Bryce behind him. He'd see the way Bryce looked at Kurt.

"You know you can't have that creature on here, right?" a homeless woman asked Blaine.

Blaine looked at Abu, "He is most obviously a dog, and I think I'm allowed if I hold him. Which I'm doing. But thank you for your interest."

Kurt glared at his boyfriend, "You didn't have to be rude." Where did this sudden bad attitude come from?

Blaine bit his lip, "I'm sorry, I'm having a bad day." He smiled at the woman.

"Aren't we all?" The woman got up and moved down the train.

Blaine tried to calm himself. He really didn't like Bryce, but if he was going to let it affect the way he treated Kurt and everyone else, it was only going to do him more harm than good. "I'm sorry, Kurt."

Kurt looked up and grabbed Blaine's hand, "Hey. We all have bitchy moments. I like to think of my life as one giant bitchy moment punctuated with moments spent with you."

Blaine pulled Kurt up and held him close as they walked towards the Gershwin. "Now no flirting with Bryce, okay?" Blaine gave Kurt the sternest look he could, "Or I'll sic Abu on him."

Kurt rolled his eyes, "You have nothing to worry about. He's not my type. I prefer shorter men," he ruffled Blaine's hair and walked into the theater.

Blaine waited for Ray to pick him up. He'd used Kurt's phone to call Ray so he could go to his grandparents before he went to the vet. Plus, his grandmother wanted to see Abu. "Hi Ray!" Blaine greeted the driver, "Long time, no see. How's life?"

Ray eyed the dog, "Is that thing potty trained?"

Blaine looked at Abu, "Well, no. But what can we do, tie him to the roof?"

It took some convincing, but eventually Blaine walked into his grandparent's lavish apartment with Abu.

Abu was wearing a Dora the Explorer diaper.

"Blaine," his grandmother walked over and kissed his cheek, "you are not coming over enough. I haven't seen you or Kurt in a long time. We miss you."

Blaine grandfather walked out of the bathroom, muttering something about quarterbacks. He looked up at Blaine, "You got a dog? Of course you got a dog. Can't pay your cell phone bill. But hey, look, a puppy."

"Your grandfather is in a bad mood, Blaine. Ignore him. And let me see Abu!" his grandmother tore the dog from his arms and started cuddling it, "you just found him on the street?"

Blaine nodded, "We heard a whimper from an ally and there he was, shivering in the back."

His grandmother pouted at the puppy, "Okay. We're taking him to the vet, Jack. We'll be back."

His grandfather muttered something that Blaine couldn't understand.

Blaine held the door for Angela and took Abu, "We're going to make sure everything's all right, Abu!" The amount of love Blaine felt for this puppy was ridiculous. It made him think of the future and of possibilities. Things that could happen, but only if situations improved.

The visit to the vent went well. It turns out that Abu was not a purebred dog, as Blaine had thought. In fact, as far as the vet could tell, he was half mini poodle, a quarter cocker spaniel, and a quarter golden retriever. He just looked like a tiny gold retriever right now. The good news was that he would only grow to be about fifteen pounds, so he wouldn't take up too much room. The bad news was the Abu needed shots. And he got them. And Blaine cried.

Blaine worked around the house at his grandparents, and didn't get any money. But he did get an invite to dinner the next night. Kurt would be pleased, and in the end, that's all that mattered to Blaine.

Kurt finished the matinee showing of Wicked and ran outside to look for Bryce. They hadn't spoken, apart from text messages, since the disaster of a night on Thursday, so he didn't know if it would be awkward. But Kurt wanted to congratulate him on getting a part in the show.

"Hi Kurt!" Bryce pulled Kurt in for a hug, one that lingered a little too long.

"Hey Bryce, tell me the good news about getting the part!" Kurt was giddy and jumping all around.

"I'll tell you once we get coffee," Bryce led them towards the Starbucks. Once inside he ordered coffee, "And Kurt will have the same thing? Right? We need to celebrate!"

Kurt nodded.

The barista set to work on the coffee and when she gave them the cups she smiled, "You two make a really cute couple."

"We're not…" Kurt started, but it died on his lips as she walked back towards the register.

Bryce just grinned, "Okay. Sit."

Kurt sat, but leaned towards Bryce, "SPILL."

"I got the part we tried out for, of Tony," Bryce looked like he was going to continue.

"CONGRATULATIONS!" Kurt was really happy for Bryce. He knew he deserved the part.

"I wasn't finished," Bryce flirted, grabbing Kurt's hand, "You got the second male lead part, of Alex."

Kurt desperately tried to remember the script, "The fumbling younger brother?" Kurt couldn't believe how lucky he was, "Oh my god. Are you serious?" Sure, the play was off-Broadway, but it meant he would get a foot in the door. His name would be in circles. His dream was finally taking flight. "Oh my god. Bryce, this is great! But I really didn't plan for this…"

Bryce's eyes lit up, and Kurt couldn't help but notice the spark behind them, "I know. And…you're going to have to quit your job for Wicked. We have rehearsal all day Saturday and Sunday."

Kurt's heart dropped, Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons were the only days he got to spend with Blaine. "But, that really cuts into my time with Blaine…"

Bryce shook his head, "Kurt. If you want to do this, you're going to have to make sacrifices. You'll still get to spend nights with Blaine. Think about what this could mean for the both of you. This is a great show, Kurt, it could go places."

He had to think about it more. Right now visions of grandeur were clouding his mind and he couldn't think straight. "Bryce, we can barely afford to live now. I can't just quit my job."

"Well, some of my shifts will open up at Stardust. Blaine can take them. He can work the weeknights we have practice. That's Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by the way." Bryce smiled at Kurt, "Come on, this is it. You deserve this."

Kurt knew he should focus on the happiness in the moment. But all he wanted to do was call Blaine and tell him. He knew Blaine would make up a ridiculous song and dance. He knew Blaine could convince him to take the job, even if it meant more hard times.

"So are you going to do it or not? Come on, everyone wants you, and everyone is excited." Bryce took Kurt's hand, "Look. I told you once. Don't let relationships get in your way. Don't let other people's approval or disproval get in the way of your success. If Blaine doesn't want you to take the job, what's going to stop him from telling you not to take every job?"

Kurt immediately felt the need to defend Blaine, "That's not it. Blaine would want me to take the job. But it's already so hard on him, he works so much."

Bryce groaned, "Look. Are you taking the job or not? I told them I'd tell you and get your decision. There are five other people who want the job."

Kurt knew Blaine, and he knew he would support him. Yeah, things would be tough, but they already were. "Okay, I'll do it."

Bryce rubbed his hands together and grinned, "Okay. Rehearsals are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 6-10. Then on Saturday and Sunday it is 10AM until they let us go. They want the show up and running by mid-November." Bryce dug through the bag he carried, "This is your script. You'll want to mark it for rehearsal tomorrow."

Kurt felt his head swim. He'd have to give notice today about not working next weekend. He didn't talk this over with Blaine. He should have. But he can't go back on his word. "Okay, okay. It's at the theater we auditioned at, right? Man, imagine what I could have done had I actually prepared for the role? I might be in your position right now!"

Bryce's smile faltered, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Kurt."

"I'm kidding," Kurt stood, "but I've got to go. Elphaba beckons."

Kurt ran back to the Gershwin and gave his notice. They understood, said it happened all the time. The second show seemed to be more magical to Kurt. He could be on that stage in a few years, doing what he really wanted to do.

Not working in a boutique.

Not taking ticket stubs.

Not designing clothes.

He would be singing and acting on stage.

When Kurt walked out of the Gershwin, the dread of riding the subway hit him. God, he hated it.

Kurt started down the street towards the station when he heard a bark and turned around. Sure enough, standing by a doorframe was Blaine and Abu. "You came and got me?"

Blaine smiled, "Abu and I took a little walk today. Near the off-Broadway theater you auditioned at. We saw your name." Blaine walked forward and grabbed Kurt's waist, "Congratulations, baby. Your dream is coming true," Blaine smiled the wide smile Kurt loved before dipping and kissing him, "Our dreams are coming true."

Kurt felt guilty. "I had to quit my job at Wicked."

Blaine made I face, "I know. I checked the rehearsal schedule."

"I was so selfish, Blaine. How are we going to do this?" Kurt felt his tears spill over, "I didn't know what to do. And Bryce kept saying this is my shot…"

"Shh," Blaine cupped Kurt's face, "Baby, this is your chance. Take it. I picked up Bryce's dropped shifts at Stardust. I'll work 9 to 9 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'll work 7 to 3 on weekends. I'll still work 9 to 5 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Plus I work at Paparazzi Thursdays and Fridays, and after this weekend on Saturdays."

"Blaine, you're going to die if you do that. What about your dream? What about performing in clubs? What about getting your music out there?" Kurt fought back.

"Right now it's your time. Right now your dream is coming true. My time will come. Kurt," Blaine pulled him down the street towards the subway, "Part of my dream is seeing you happy." There was a part of Blaine that was jealous, jealous that Kurt got to be the successful one first. But that part was trumped by his feelings of pride for his boyfriend.

"But what about Abu?"

Blaine laughed, "What about him? I'll take care of him!"

Blaine led Kurt onto the subway, "Blaine, this is going to be hard on both of us."

"It has be difficult before it gets easier."

That Bryce is just charming, isn't he?