Epilogue

The paperwork had gone through surprisingly fast and by the time August came around and the boys were packing up their rooms getting ready to start college, Ethan was officially a Hudson – Hummel. The young boy had spent the first few weeks after his parents court hearing holed up in his room, until football camp had finally drawn him out from his hiding place. He had come back home much happier, telling everyone how happy he was to be back with his family and how much he had enjoyed his time at camp.

Finn, Kurt and Blaine had forgone their usual summer jobs and spent as much time in the shop as possible to keep Burt from working too much too soon. He had promised his family to stay away from it while government was in session and let Carole handle the business side as she was learning in college how to do that. Her degree program would only last another year and she was grateful for the hands on experience she was gaining in preparation for hopefully making her own dreams come true in the near future.

Burt and Carole also had a long overdue talk about their foster parents situation because as he told her, she couldn't adopt every kid they took in. Together they called her friend from social service and informed her that they would like to only take in older kids who temporarily needed a place to stay and voiced their preferences for kids who had to leave home because of LGBT related issues. They both had plenty of experience with these issues by now and they felt the need to help kids like Blaine who had been unfortunate enough to get kicked out by their parents after coming out.

Not long after, a seventeen-year-old girl named Stacey joined their family for the summer, because after getting accepted to college with a full ride she had decided to come out and her parents hadn't taken it well. Because she wasn't eighteen yet, the state had been trying to find a place for her until she could start college and the Hudmels were more than happy to take her in. She was just the first in a long line of teens who found temporary refuge with the Hudson-Hummel family before they were forced out into the world to make it on their own.

Kurt eventually started talking to his dad again when he understood that his dad putting his needs first was a good thing. Kurt's room soon turned into sticker central as every available surface was covered in blue, green or red. He soon realized though that moving into a shared dorm room meant he couldn't take as many things with him as he wanted.

He was glad though that he already knew who his roommate was going to be because Blaine was nervous that he would be placed with a homophobic jerk. Kurt tried to assure him that everything was going to be okay because the room advisors were aware of his situation and would surely find someone for him he was compatible with.

By the time August came around, Kurt was actually glad Blaine was going to Brown instead of Columbia because just saying goodbye to the newbies in Glee club was hard enough. This way they would only be an hour apart, and though they both knew they were going to be busy with school during the week, they promised each other to spend the weekends together and skype and talk as much as possible.

Blaine's mom, who had been hesitant to start dating again after her disastrous marriage, joined Kurt's grandma on one of her singles cruises two weeks before they had to move to the east coast and the two of them took advantage of Blaine's empty house as much as they could.

It was a bitter sweet moment for Kurt when he realized he didn't associate his old house with home anymore, but time had made things easier to deal with. He would always miss his mom terribly and as much as he loved Carole, she would never be able to replace her. Not that she wanted to – Carole was busy playing surrogate mom to all the kids in the area that needed one, and Kurt thought that was great because who knew what would have happened to Blaine if first his mom and later Carole hadn't taken him in.

Finn had decided to stay home for a bit longer so he wouldn't cost his family additional money, but had already told Kurt he had plans to move in with Puck as soon as he made some money of his own. Kurt thought that could only end in disaster but was happy his brother was finally making plans about his future.

Three days before orientation started for the new college students, New Directions came together for one last party in the Hudmel backyard and after promising to clean up after them and that no one would drive home, Burt begrudgingly handed the over eighteen year olds a few bottles of beer and wine, in the hope that the party wouldn't get out of hand if he prevented them from getting liquor with fake IDs like it had before.

The house was still standing when he and Carole got back from out of town the next day and no one looked particularly hung over, so he counted his slightly illegal methods of parenting a full success.

Not being allowed to do any heavy lifting yet, Burt was forced to deal with Kurt's clothes the day of the move but after being reminded of proper care for the fourth time, he sat back in his lawn chair and sipped on a non-alcoholic beer while the rest of the family was packing up Kurt's belonging.

Hours later, Kurt and Blaine's stuff was in the van they had rented for the move and Carole, Burt and Tala piled into Kurt's car, while Finn was driving the truck and Kurt and Blaine drove Kurt's car. Finn's classes started a week after Kurt and Blaine's and so he had decided to stay in Boston for a few days with his brother before taking a train back to Ohio in time for his school to start.

Saying goodbye to his dad had been so much harder than Kurt had expected after their shared history, but it reminded him again how much things in his life had changed in the past few years. He had already said goodbye to his mom the day before the big move and had promised her to come visit again during his thanksgiving break.

Kurt had finally found his new home and now that he had it he was reluctant to give it up. But he knew in his heart that whatever would happen in the future, he would always have his home to come back to.

The End

AN: As I've mentioned before this is the end for now. There are still things in this 'verse I want to write about and I will do so in the one shots I have planned for it. I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year, so I probably won't have time tow write anything for this till the December but when I do I will let you know what it's going to be called if I post it as a separate story.