“Santana! We’re back,” Kurt mumbled under his breath. “Not that you probably care.”

“Is she even home?” Blaine asked as they dragged their luggage into their bedroom.

“I don’t know. At least we can unpack in peace.”

“I don’t want to unpack,” Blaine whined as he flung himself face first onto the bed. “I want to sleep.” The past week had taken a lot out of him, and now he could relax for a few days before going back to work. “Come lay down with me.”

“But the clothes! They’ll get wrinkled,” Kurt half-heartedly protested as he laid down next to him.

“They’re already wrinkled. Just come lay down.”

“Fine.” Kurt crawled into bed and pillowed his head on Blaine’s chest. “But just for a minute.”

Four hours later they were awoken by the sound of a door closing and loud and female laughing. “Santana’s home,” Blaine mumbled sleepily.

“And it sounds like she brought a friend. Come on, let’s go spy.”

For them, spying consisted of standing in their doorway watching Santana kiss and flirt with a girl in their living room. After a few minutes, the girl noticed them and said, “I thought you lived alone.”

“What?” She finally noticed the boys. “No. Those are my roommates. They were on vacation.”

“Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

“Fine. Allie, this is Kurt and Blaine. Guys, this is Allie.”

“Hi Allie,” they said in unison.

“Hi. I should really be going, Santana. It was nice meeting you two.” She turned around and left the apartment.

“Good job, guys. You scared her off.”

“We missed you too, Santana.”

The next morning, Santana woke them up with two mugs of coffee, eagerly awaiting all the horny details about their honeymoon.

“Yeah, like we’re going to tell you anything about our sex life.”

“It’s not like I can’t hear you guys going at it at night.” When they both gave her a look she continued, “What? Thin walls. And Kurt, no matter how many times you tell Blaine to be quiet, he’s still going to make those noises. So until you decide you want to kick things up a notch and buy him a gag, don’t be expecting any sense of privacy in this place.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment, and then “I missed this.” 

At first, Kurt wasn’t sure what had woken him. Then he realized that for the first time in weeks, Blaine wasn’t next to him. It took him a few moments of panic to remember that Blaine was at work, and judging by the glowing numbers on his clock, Blaine would be working for a few more hours. But as hard as he tried, Kurt could not fall back asleep. He dragged his comforter to the living room and settled in on the couch to wait for Blaine. After all, it’s not like he had anywhere to go in the morning.

Three weeks earlier

“So Kurt, you probably know why I called you in here.”

“Because Vogue isn’t doing internships anymore?” Kurt had been waiting for this moment since he first heard the news.

“Yes.” Isabelle shifted from boss to friend as she made eye contact with him. “You know that I think you are a wonderful, talented, young man with a lot of potential.” Kurt was waiting for the ‘but’, “but the higher ups have decided not to hire you as a full employee. I’m really sorry, Kurt.”

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.” Kurt knew it was unlikely that he would get the position, but he was hoping against hope that he impressed the right people. “I guess I’ll go clean out my desk.”

Before he left, Isabelle had told him he could use her as a job reference and that his last paycheck was in the mail. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with tons of people on the subway, but halfway through his taxi ride he realized that he should probably start saving money. At the next red light he gave the cab driver his fare and got out. The few blocks to his apartment felt like miles, each step bringing him closer to the two people he couldn’t bear to let down.

He didn’t even know what he was going to say. ‘Hey I know it’s been super stressful with the wedding and the honeymoon, but I got fired today. Oh, and now we can’t afford any of our luxuries like water and electricity.’ Or ‘Hey, you know what’s really trendy right now? Hunger strikes. We may as well do it for a good cause considering we can’t buy food anymore.’

As he walked up the stairs and down the hallway to the apartment, he could hear laughing through the door, and he felt terrible for ruining what looked to be a good night.

“Kurt, you’re home early.”

“Yeah. I got fired.” Well, that was one way to tell them.

“What!?” Santana shrieked, “Are you kidding me? We’re barely getting by, and now we have even less money? Great! Fucking great!”

“Will you calm down? I can get another job. Probably not as nice as working at Vogue, but seriously, don’t worry.” Funny, since all he’s done for the past couple hours is worry.

“And what about you, Blaine. What do you have to say? After all, your husband basically just guaranteed that you have to keep working at that club.”

“Why are you being so nasty about this? I mean I know you’re a bitch but you know this isn’t my fault.”

“You should’ve found a more stable job and not an internship. Now you have no income, and we’re going to be evicted! So pack your bags, we’re all going back to Ohio!” With that she stormed into her room and slammed the door. Kurt couldn’t do anything but stand there and stare at the chair where she had been smiling and laughing only a few moments ago. He was jolted out of his staring by Blaine, who had gotten up from the couch and wrapped his arms around Kurt.

“It is going to be okay. You’re not going back there, I promise.” Kurt briefly remembered himself uttering those words to Blaine as he held him that night in December. “Someone will see how talented you are and they will offer you all the money in the world to work for them.”

Kurt stifled a laugh in Blaine’s sweatshirt, “I’m glad you have such high expectations of me, but I might have to settle for a little less than ‘all the money in the world.’”

“Well no matter what happens, we will be okay. All of us.” Kurt could only hope that was true.

“I really love you a lot.”

“I know.”

As it turned out, finding a job in Manhattan was a lot more difficult than Kurt thought. The internship had pretty much fallen into his lap; he hadn’t really had to work too hard to get it. But finding a job was hard. He spent most of his days filling out online applications and typing up cover letters. He even ventured out into the city to apply for jobs in person.

Weeks later and he was still searching.

He was only an hour into a marathon of Law & Order (Blaine’s new TV addiction) when he heard keys in the lock. Kurt sat up to greet Blaine, but when he came through the door he looked a little worse for wear.

“Hey. I thought you weren’t getting off until 2.” Blaine dropped onto the couch next to Kurt and quickly pulled him into a hug.

“My boss let me leave early after one of the customers got too grabby with me. It did not make me feel good so my boss said ‘go home to your husband.’ And now that man is never allowed in the club again.” Kurt may not have loved Blaine’s job, but he did appreciate his boss. “I wish I did not have to do this anymore.”

“I know, honey. I know you’d quit if we didn’t need the money.” Kurt always felt a spike of guilt every time Blaine or Santana came home exhausted from a long shift.

“Oh. That reminds me,” Blaine reached inside his jacket to the hidden pocket and pulled out a wad of bills, “for the water bill,” and threw it on the coffee table.

“Speaking of which, you really need a shower. You’re going to make the couch smell.” Blaine stood up in front of Kurt and stretched, his shirt riding up a bit. “And to make you feel better, and in the interest of conserving our hot water, I think I should join you.”