“He looks at you like you are the sun that brings light to his life.” Lucas chuckled and nudged his best friend. Kurt tore his gaze from his husband so he could pay attention to Luke and smiled.

“I hope I’m sending the exact same signals because he is my whole world.”

“You are. It’s really hard to believe that you’ve been together for years. You’re so smitten by each other. You’ve always been pretty close but it seems like the adoption brought you even closer…” Kurt just nodded. With all the problems they’d faced lately, with all the tears and anger that had come their way, they were happy and in love and they somehow knew that everything would be all right eventually.

“We try to avoid the stereotype. Last week we went shopping and spent twenty minutes in a fitting room making out like teenagers.”

“So the secret to happy marriage is kissing in the shop?” Kurt laughed at his friend and grabbed his phone from the table. He found a photo of Blaine and him on an escalator in the subway, grinning to the camera.

“Look. Nice photo, right? Sometimes Blaine does things like this. He takes out his phone and snaps a picture of the two of us doing the most common stuff like going down the escalator in a subway station. Just so we remember that every moment we get to spend together is precious. We have our daily routine but once in a while one of us breaks it with something unexpected. Like when Blaine called me to be ready in fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes, Luke! But I knew he was up to something so I did my best to look presentable and he came home, changed his jacket, grabbed the car keys and my hand without saying more than Hi, I’m home, hurry up, we have to go. He took me to the observatory in Staten Island. It was one of the best dates we’ve ever had. We had a midnight picnic in the park once. I woke him up and took him out. You should have seen him. He was adorable, not fully awake yet...It was a great night." Kurt chuckled and Lucas could literally see his eyes shining.

"Sometimes we just go out of the city. There is an abandoned parking lot. You know, some people would say that we don't have to resort to car sex in our relationship status but it's amazing. The thrill that we could be caught and...I don't know. Life with Blaine is everything but boring. And I'm sure even with a child we still will be doing this kind of stuff. It's fun, it's exciting and we love it."

"I'm happy for you, Kurt." Lucas said truthfully. It wasn't what he had planned to talk about with him but seeing Kurt at ease with an expression full of love for his husband, he couldn't bring himself to talk about the adoption process at all.      

Please, come home ASAP. We’ve been rejected. – K

A text message. Two sentences and that was it. Blaine was furious. He’d been trying to call Kurt since he’d got the text but every single one of his calls had been sent straight to Kurt’s voicemail. He excused himself after thirty minutes of failed attempts to contact his husband. He knew he wouldn’t be able to have anything productive done until he spoke to Kurt so he left the studio on a very first day of a recording a new album for one of their best selling singers.

“Kurt? Where are you?” He yelled as soon as he stepped to their hallway. Kurt came to him, his eyes red and tired.

“What the hell, Kurt?!”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Kurt said and leaned to a doorframe.

“What happened? Jesus, Kurt, just talk to me!”

“I’m sorry, Blaine. It’s all my fault. I…” Kurt took a deep breath, hoping it would calm him down a little bit. How were he supposed to tell his husband he was the one to blame that they weren’t going to get Mr. Brown’s approval? “He called in the morning. He asked me if I would be home and I said yes. He didn’t ask if you would be home. I swear, Blaine. He didn’t. I didn’t know he wanted both of us to be home. I didn’t call you because I didn’t think it would be necessary. He came and asked where you were and I said you were at work and then he asked me whether your work was more important than his visit and I tried to reason with him but he kept repeating stupid examples of how parents put their work first and he kept asking question like what would we do if we were called from school that something bad happened with our kid and if we actually came to school or if we would stay at work and I said we would always be there for our child and he said it didn’t seem like that because you weren’t here when it clearly was in the interest of our future kid and I snapped. I couldn’t fucking stand how superior he was and I told him I didn’t think it was important for you to be here since he was doing the same thing thousand times before and that I doubted he came with the intention of asking or finding out something new because there wasn’t anything he didn’t know. And then he asked whether I would snap at my child as well if something wouldn’t go my way and I told him it’s none of his business.”

“Kurt!”

“I know. I’m sorry, okay? I’m so so sorry. I should have kept my mouth shut. But it’s not the worst part of it all. He had a lousy remark about gay parents and how every child needs to have a mother and a father, not two fathers or two mothers and he also said he hadn’t approved any gay couple he was assigned to but we were cutting it close. He literally told me I just finally gave him a reason for rejection because of my unstable condition.”

“What the fuck?!” Blaine’s shout made Kurt jump. He looked at him scared and wrapped his arms around his torso.

“I’m sorry, Blaine. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if we are allowed to try another agency…I know you are mad at me and you have every right to be but please, don’t leave me.”

“Leave you? Why would I leave you? God, Kurt, what are you talking about?”

“I don’t know!” This time it was Kurt who was screaming and somewhere in the back of his mind he thought it might not be the best option but he needed to get all of the frustration out. “I don’t know, Blaine. I have no idea what I’m going to do. I hate myself right now that I screwed this up for us. I hate myself because I’ve met a lot of homophobes considering where I grew up and I still couldn’t tell he was one of them! I should have known! I should have called you to come back or at least not talking back when he was being such an ass…I should have done a million things differently but I didn’t and all I can think about since he left is whether you still want to stay with me even if we may not have children because of me!” Somewhere in the middle of Kurt’s outburst, angry tears started flowing down from his eyes and Blaine remained frozen to the spot comprehending Kurt’s words. The silence made Kurt cry harder. Blaine took a few steps that were between them and embraced him in a tight hug.

“Shhh. I’m here. I’m not leaving, Kurt. It wasn’t your fault, baby. I love you. I’m sorry I was yelling at you. Your phone was off and I couldn’t get in touch with you. I was scared. I’m not mad at you, okay? Please, darling, calm down so we can talk. I love you. I love you so much. So so much…” Blaine was holding him, repeating everything would be alright until Kurt’s crying got to the point of occasional sobs and sniffles. Blaine pulled away a little only when he was sure Kurt was settled.

“Look at me, Kurt.” He said softly but firmly. “It’s not your fault. He probably wouldn’t have given us the approval either way. We are going to the agency tomorrow. We’ll complain about him to his boss and we will demand another social worker.”

“But it’s my words against his. His boss doesn’t have to believe us…”

“Well, he’d rather believe us if he doesn’t want to deal with a law suit. And trust me, Wes can do miracles and I bet he would win this for us.”

“I’m sorry I turned off my phone.” Kurt whispered and put his head on Blaine’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, baby. Just don’t scare me like that anymore.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

“And please, don’t ever think about me leaving you either. It’s not gonna happen.” Kurt recognized hurt in Blaine’s voice and he immediately regretted his words during his break down.

“Blaine, I’m sorry. I panicked. I really didn’t believe you would leave me. I swear. I’m so sorry.” Kurt connected their lips in a tender kiss.

“Let’s move to the living room. We can cuddle on the sofa while talking.”

A week later found them sitting in the adoption agency with a new social worker who was working on their case now. The woman seemed to be in her forties, she was really nice and sweet but Kurt couldn’t help not trying to find something suspicious about her. Blaine felt how tense Kurt was and he was doing his best to soothe him by holding his hand and drawing circles with his thumb on his skin. This time it just didn’t have the effect.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.” She smiled at Kurt, encouraging him to go on. She was glad he finally said something. She had been waiting for it for the last twenty minutes.

“In case we won’t be approved, are we allowed to go to another agency to try it again?” She leaned forward to him, folding her hands in front of her with serious expression on her face.

“Is there a reason why you should be rejected?”

“No. But there wasn’t any reason first time around as well and look where it got us…”

“Mr. Anderson – Hummel, let me be clear. Firstly, I supposed you don’t like to be judged. No one likes to be judged. Me neither. You assuming I’m not going to do my job right offends me because it’s you judging me according to the experience you had with someone else. Secondly, I don’t care whether you are gay or straight. All I care about is if you can provide a safe home for a child. You give me that and I don’t have any reason to reject your application. Thirdly, I shouldn’t be saying this but Mr. Brown is a homophobic asshole and everybody here knows that. Unfortunately, he has some connections to higher places and we can’t get rid of him. The cases are assigned to us randomly. You had a bad luck and I’m really sorry. Despite all of your negative experiences I need you to trust me. If there isn’t anything wrong, I’ll have your home study finished within three months.”

“I’m sorry.” Kurt apologized sincerely. “I’m stressed out and really want this to be finally over so someone could pick us as parents for their unborn kid. Please, accept my apology.”

The smiled appeared on her face again and the meeting continued in a friendly atmosphere. They left the agency hand in hand, content and maybe a little bit happier as well. After a very long time there was a hope again.

“Can we go for a walk?” Kurt asked Blaine when they were about to cross the street to the car park. “We can go home later.”

“I was thinking about dropping in the studio…” The disappointed look in Kurt’s eyes made Blaine changed his mind immediately.

“You know what? They are not expecting me anyway. We can go for a walk.”

“Honey, I don’t want to keep you from your work…” Kurt protested.

“Let’s go.” Blaine changed their direction and they spent the following half an hour in a comfortable silence, thinking about the meeting they had just had and enjoying the early autumn day.

“Aren’t you hungry? I didn’t eat much for breakfast because I was nervous. I could use some food. What do you think?”

“Okay. We passed a nice restaurant on the other street.” Kurt responded.

“Lead the way, my love.”

The restaurant was small and cozy. They were the only ones there since it was past the breakfast time but it was still too early for a lunch hour. They loved the place as soon as they entered. The food was delicious, their waitress was really sweet and they knew they would come back for sure. While they were waiting for their meal, they finally shared their impressions of the new social worker, both of them agreeing she would help them to get one step closer to their dream of a family. Kurt was smiling so much he thought he was going to get cramp but he couldn’t bring himself not to because Blaine was also smiling softly, drinking Kurt in with his sight. After they finished their dessert, Blaine excused himself to the restroom and Kurt went to take care of their bill. As he was passing by the toilet door, the idea popped up in his head and he was inside in an instant. Blaine was washing his hand when he was handed some paper towels by his husband.

“Thank you.” Kurt nodded and ripped the towels from Blaine when he was convinced that Blaine’s hands were dry enough. Then he wrapped his arms around his waist and backed them both to a stall.

“Kurt, what are you doi…” Blaine’s question was interrupted by a pair of soft lips on his mouth. Kurt kissed him eagerly, pinning him to the wall with his body. Blaine let himself be dragged to the magical world where everything was Kurt. Kurt’s scent, Kurt’s soft skin, Kurt’s touches and kisses, Kurt’s whispers…

“I saw how you devoured me with your eyes. It’s unfair of you to be so hot all the time and look at me like that. How am I supposed to behave when we are in public?” Each one of Kurt’s sentences resulted in a bite or a lick on Blaine’s jaw line.

“You’re such a bad boy, baby…” Blaine said in a raspy voice.

“Oh, no. I was being a good boy, actually. I waited to ravish you when we would be alone. I definitely deserve to be rewarded.”

“God, Kurt!” Blaine moaned and connected their lips in the last passionate kiss before he pushed his husband away.

“I’ll be outside.” He blurted out and practically ran from the room. Once Kurt took a minute to calm himself down, he joined his husband in front of the restaurant.

“Blaine, I’m sorry if I make you feel uncomfortable…” He started his apology but Blaine just grabbed his hand and rushed the shortest way to the car park. He opened the door on the passenger side of their car for Kurt and shoved him inside, buckling up his seat belt and kissing him breathless.

“I’m gonna make you scream my name so loud it will be heard even through the soundproofed walls of the music room.”

“Blaine.” Kurt whimpered and fisted Blaine’s shirt to bring him closer for another kiss. Blaine had different intentions though. He needed them to get home. And he needed to do it quickly.

They’d been stealing glances all the way, both of them praying they wouldn’t get stuck in a traffic jam. Kurt was out of the car the moment Blaine stopped in their parking place and hurried to call the elevator. Blaine killed the engine, locked the car and when he stepped next to Kurt, the elevator came. Perfect timing. They didn’t make it to the music room. They ended up screaming each other’s name pretty loud in the hallway of their apartment, giving their neighbors a clear image of what was happening behind the door but they didn’t give a damn. It was in the middle of the day. Most of them were at work anyway.        

They were celebrating Thanksgiving at Blaine’s parents that year. It’d become a tradition for Andersons and Hummels to celebrate the holidays together in Lima or Westerville. Cooper and Finn loved it deeply, because Kurt’s, Carol’s and Alice’s cooking skills combined were a killing combination and they were always leaving home with a few more pounds.

The turkey had been served and the conversation around the table was filled with a light banter and lot of laughing. However, Kurt and Blaine were quiet. They were exchanging meaningful looks and suppressing knowing smiles. Burt sensed something was out of place. When neither of them answered the question that had been directed to them, he had enough.

“Boys! Could you please stop it?” Kurt and Blaine tore their gaze from each other and looked at him.

“We all know how much in love you two are but it would be nice if you pay a little bit attention to us as well. We don’t get to see you often and I would appreciate if you could keep those love-struck expressions for private. What is wrong with you? You’ve never acted this way. It’s kind of being rude. You seem like you are hiding some secrets.” Blaine and Kurt shifted on their chairs, not making eye contact with anybody. Finn was observing them and when the remark about secret came and Kurt smiled a little he knew they definitely were keeping one.

“Guess what? It’s not a secret that you two are head over heels for each other!” Burt finished his scolding.

“We’re sorry.” Blaine said and tried to be serious so his apology would be accepted as honest but one look at eagerly nodding Kurt and a smile found its place on his face again.

“Oh my god!” Fin yelled and jumped from his chair, running to them around the table and embracing them in a big hug.

“I’m so happy for you, guys.” The rest of the table stayed frozen on a spot, still not understanding what was going on.

“Thanks, Finn.” Blaine patted him on his shoulder and Finn came back to his seat.

“Can you fill us in?” Cooper asked amused.

“Seriously, Coop? Finn – the most oblivious person I know - found out and you still don’t get it?” Kurt queried teasingly.

“No.”

“Well, we wanted to tell you after dinner so let’s finish our meal…”

“Blaine!” Alice said in a warning voice, making Blaine and Kurt laugh.

“Okay. But you have to promise me not to get too excited and get back to eating as Finn did.”

“Kurt!” Burt urged him.

“We’ve been approved.” Blaine said matter-of-factly and took another bite as if nothing happened. It was a last bite of food for a long time.

“Kurt? Can I ask you something?” Kurt turned around to face his father. He’d evaporated from the living room fifteen minutes ago, finding a peace in Alice’s winter garden. He was overwhelmed and needed some time for himself.

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you come home yesterday?”

“I couldn’t.” He whispered and sat down on an armchair.

“Why were you in Lima? Why did you tell us you were coming to Ohio on Thursday when you were in Lima on Wednesday? Is something wrong?” Burt was concerned. He’d decided to give Kurt time to come and talk to him when he’d found out but Kurt was acting like nothing happened.

“She told us on Monday. We were ecstatic. We were thinking where all of you could be online so we could tell you at the same time but then we settled upon telling you tonight. Face to face. If I had showed up at home yesterday, you would have known something was up and we would have ended up telling you before telling the Andersons and…” Kurt shrugged his shoulders and let the sentence unfinished.

“Why were you in Lima? Did you have some friend gathering?”

“No. I was at mom’s grave. I wanted her to be the first to know.” Silence fell upon them.

“I miss her, dad. Carol and Alice are great. I have two mothers now and I love them from the bottom of my heart but they are not her. Sometimes I think about what she would be like…Whether she would be pleased with me or not…” Kurt’s eyes were glassy but not a single tear sunk down his face. He’d cried himself to sleep in his husband’s arms yesterday. There were no tears left.

“I might not tell you this often, but she would be proud of you. She loved you more than anything, Kurt. She would be happy that you managed to find yourself a husband that would give you the world and she would love Blaine as much as she loved you. I’m sure of it. And she would definitely spoil your kids rotten.” Kurt chuckled and sniffled. He stood up and hugged his dad, staying in his arms for a while.

“Thank you, dad. I miss you a lot in New York.”

“We miss you, too.”