Chapter Fourteen

Carole took the envelope that Kurt had given her and Burt and pocketed it before getting in the car. She figured it would be the kind, motherly thing for her to do, to perhaps make some coffee and breakfast for her stepson, or make a few calls if the electricity still hadn't come up. And it wasn't as though his new house was that far away. In fact, it was closer than Finn's apartment.

Fifteen minutes later, she pulled into the driveway behind Kurt's car, and then let herself into the house.

The first thing she noticed was that it was still rather cold, and she tugged her coat a little closer to her body. She wondered how on earth Kurt had been able to sleep. In fact, she knew for a fact that he usually slept under several blankets, and that was with their house kept at a heated temperature.

She walked down the hallway, deciding that she could easily light a fire for the boy, hoping it would add some warmth to the house.

She froze as she rounded the corner into the living room.

She had half-expected Kurt to be sleeping in the room, but on the couch beneath a dozen blankets. What she hadn't expected was to find her stepson with Blaine's arms wrapped around him, half-clothed in a tangle of covers and pillows forming a makeshift bed in front of the fireplace.

But, she reasoned, maybe she wasn't all that surprised, either. And the look of contentment that was on Kurt's face as he slept on, blissfully unaware? Well, she definitely wasn't upset by it. (And even though she knew Kurt wouldn't approve, she did say a small, quick prayer of thanks that they had found each other.)

Tilting her head to the side, she figured that maybe instead she could head to the Lima Bean and get coffee and bagels instead of lighting that fire. After all, they seemed so peaceful, and... yes, bagels sounded like a good idea.

Forty-five minutes, she hoped, was enough time for at least one of them to wake up. So she returned to the house with a bag of bagels and a carrying tray with three drip coffees (priding herself in remembering just the way Blaine liked it prepared). She let herself in once more and walked to the kitchen, setting the bagels and coffee down on the counter.

Only a few minutes later, after she had split one of the bagels and covered each half in cream cheese, Blaine entered the room. He froze, eyes widening a little as he saw her.

"Good morning, dear," she said cheerfully.

"I—I didn't—I mean—" he stammered. "Kurt and I—we just—"

She gave him a look. "Blaine, the two of you are thirty years old. You're adults." She handed him his coffee. He swallowed, nodding as he accepted the cup with a small 'thank you'. "And beside that," she continued, "I've thought for a while now that you and Kurt needed each other."

Blaine smiled sheepishly at her. "I think he's been fighting with not wanting to need anyone," he told her.

"Typical for him," she breathed out with a grin.

Blaine chuckled slightly. "I don't think he's ever made the connection that I need him just as much, if not more."

"Probably not," she conceded, and they were quiet for a moment before she set down her coffee. "Now, you wouldn't mind starting a fire, would you?" she asked. "I was going to call Burt to look at the heat, but..."

"Thank you for not doing that," Blaine said, a little uneasily, and Carole chuckled. "But yeah, I can do that."

They moved to the living room, where Kurt had sat up and was stretching slightly. His eyes opened sleepily, blinking a few times before registering Carole's presence. He yelped slightly, yanking at the blankets to cover his bare chest, only to tumble backwards onto the carpeting.

The woman raised her eyebrows in amusement.

"Carole!" he said breathlessly. "I didn't—I didn't know that—"

"Lots of that going 'round here," Blaine quipped, kneeling in front of the fireplace. He offered Kurt a weak smile before beginning to work on the fire. Kurt scrambled to reach for his shirt, quickly pulling it over his head.

"Honestly, sweetheart," Carole sighed. "I already told him that you're both adults. And as long as you're happy, I'm happy." She paused. "I was, however, hoping to call your father to get the heat working, so if, oh, I don't know... if you wanted to get dressed, that might be a good idea." She smiled, and Kurt felt the heat rise in his cheeks. He nodded, and with one last grin, she turned to walk out of the room, pulling out her phone. Kurt groaned, looking to the ceiling.

"Hey," Blaine murmured, crawling toward him, and Kurt turned to look at him. "There aren't any... regrets here, are there?"

Kurt looked at him with an incredulous smile. "Never," he breathed out, and he inched forward to press a kiss to Blaine's lips. "Any for you?" he asked, their noses still touching.

"Never," Blaine responded, and he smiled as he stole another quick kiss.

Kurt pulled away, with slight uncertainty. "So where does this take us?" he asked. He paused. "Is there an us?"

"Do you want there to be an us?" Blaine asked Kurt, brushing the other man's hair out of the way so he could look into his eyes.

Kurt nodded. "What do you want?"

Blaine hummed in response. "You," he said with a grin, and Kurt laughed.

"I'll see what I can do about that," he murmured. He hesitated, licking his lips. "What do we tell Aiden and Ella?"

"The truth," Blaine said simply. "Mm, once everything's all nice and set up here, we make dinner and tell them over dessert."

"And my dad?" he asked. "Finn and Rachel and... everyone?"

Blaine chuckled softly, pulling Kurt into his arms. "We tell them at our own pace, right?" he replied. "It can be on a need-to-know basis. Just... take things slow. Make them simple like Ella says."

"You honestly believe that will work?" Kurt asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Shh, let me have my moment and pretend that it will," Blaine told him, closing his eyes.

"Your dad's on his way," came Carole's voice, and Blaine pulled away slightly. "Up and dressed, boys."

Blaine stood, stretching, grabbing his jeans and pulling them on. "I can head off if—"

"No," Kurt said quickly, and he could see Carole's smile grow out of the corner of his eye. "I just thought that—I mean, Carole, did you drive the truck over? Because Blaine and I could go pick up the bedroom sets..."

After a quick moment, she held out the keys. "Sounds like a plan. I'll hold down the fort for you boys."

It was a quiet, peaceful trip. There was something very soothing about the way that Blaine slipped his hand into Kurt's without a word, the quiet that was between them so comfortable and relaxed, as though this wasn't something new to them, and maybe it was because, to an extent it wasn't.

However, after they returned to Kurt's new home, it was different. Burt had arrived, along with Finn and Rachel and Aiden, and the quiet, stolen moments that Kurt had been hoping for with Blaine had become a distant memory. Suddenly, every moment they had alone just to breathe was being interrupted by one of the other five in the house, asking Kurt questions or calling one of them away for help, working on getting everything right.

Kurt at last collapsed on the floor beside Blaine, who was putting the final few screws into Kurt's bed. "It wasn't this stressful the last time I moved," he huffed. "And that was moving ten hours away, not fifteen minutes."

Blaine chuckled, and he pressed a hasty kiss to Kurt's cheekbone. "That's the exact reason why," he said. "It's because right now there are seven people in your house, including you and your son, all trying to do things that, honestly, you could just as easily be doing yourself. In fact, it'd probably be easier if you were. Because it's your home, you know how you want it."

"I'd rather go back to yesterday," Kurt sighed, and Blaine smirked in response.

"Oh would you?" he asked teasingly, raising an eyebrow.

Kurt shook his head, but he was smiling. "You're terrible."

Blaine leaned in for another hurried kiss. "I can live with that."

Kurt reached up, placing a hand on the side of Blaine's face. "I bet you could," he murmured, and he closed the space between them, stealing a longer, more heated kiss.

"Kurt!" Kurt pulled away at the sound of his brother's voice, yelling down the hall. Kurt threw his head back in frustration. "Kurt, I think I got Aiden's room set up okay, but... I wasn't sure if—"

"Coming," Kurt shouted in response, grumbling as he got to his feet. He grimaced at Blaine. "I suppose it's too late to change my mind and go back to New York?"