But Mia wasn’t the reason he was there. He was there for his family and for Blaine. When he reached the door he raised his fist and knocked. It took a few minutes but eventually Nick answered and soon as he did he stared at Kurt with obvious surprise.

“Oh,” he said, “it’s you. Come in I guess.”

Kurt stepped inside and took a moment to look around. The room was a bit of a mess with paintings and other pieces of art hanging from any wall with space or leaning against walls and each other. A lap top sat on the couch and a notebook full of notes on the coffee table. Some clothes were strewn around the room as well as food containers. Mia definitely didn’t need to be coming around to an environment like this.

“It’s a bit messy,” Nick said and rubbed the back of his neck, “but, um, you can sit anywhere. I – what the hell are you doing here, Kurt?”

Kurt set his bag down gently on a chair, but he remained standing. “I came to talk to you. Blaine doesn’t know I’m here and he’s going to call you up later to set up a meeting, but I thought I could see you first. He’s upset about it, and I don’t want him to do something hastily.”

Nick eyed him. “Okay,” he said, “so talk.”

Kurt nodded. He walked a few steps towards one of the paintings, “you were never much of a writer,” he said, “these are beautiful.”

“Flattery isn’t going to help. So I’m writing a book, nothing you say’s going to stop me from…”

“There are other lawyers out there. Good ones,” Kurt said, “my dad doesn’t want to involve Blaine in this – he doesn’t want to hurt Mia – but I want you to know that we will take legal action if it comes to it. I personally think you’re being smart for once, taking what you have and using it. It’s a bit hypocritical, all things considered, but then you do what you have to do, right?”

Nick stared at him for a moment and then he crossed his arms. “What do you want Kurt?”

“I want to give you something,” Kurt said and walked back to his bag, “and you might not want it, but I want you to hold on to it because there are other options.”

He pulled out a checkbook and ripped out one of the checks, already written out.

“No,” Nick said, “no, I won’t take money from you. I’m not going to stoop so low as to take some hand out from the likes of you.”

Kurt laughed. He’d expected as much. “You’re not just taking money from me,” Kurt said, “I am buying two of your paintings. I know you, Nick, and I know how you feel about your art. It’s still as good as ever and yet it piles up in this living room when it’s supposed to be out there for the world to see.”

Nick stared at him, but he neither moved to take the check that Kurt was extending towards him or towards his paintings.

“I haven’t decided which I want yet,” Kurt continued, “I’ll have to look through them, but this is what I’m doing.”

“Why?”

Kurt shrugged at him and he walked to the farther wall to look at the paintings hanging there. They were all beautiful, some full of color, bright with happiness and feelings and others darker more depressing; a few depicted people, others landscapes, and a few random objects.

“Mia is amazing,” Kurt said as he moved one of them out of the way, “she is sweet and beautiful, and smart and I owe that not only to Blaine but to you. I love that little girl like my own and I know she will always hold you close in her heart because you are her dad in a way that I won’t be and I don’t want to ignore that you are having a hard time right now or for her to know what you did against her family with this book. Nick, no matter what we do, we’re connected through her and I will not let you hurt her that way.”

Nick frowned at him and Kurt turned away, back to the paintings. It was hard to choose, really, they were all so good. Kurt had met Nick in an art class, something about drawing. He’d taken it to hone his skills with designing and Nick had sat down next to him, a boy far more talented than Kurt.

They’d gone out to eat once, talking about a project. They’d become friends, meeting up to study or so Nick could help Kurt with the techniques they were being taught. He’d introduced him to Blaine halfway through the semester, meeting up for coffee and Blaine had liked him well enough but Nick had disliked him at once. Sometimes long after the fact, Kurt had wished he’d never introduced them.

“You care about her a lot,” Nick said.

“Of course. I love her.”

“Oh.”

Kurt nodded a little, “we’re sort of family, aren’t we? I’m her cousin and you’re her father. We should be friends, at least. We’re going to be in each other’s lives for a long time and this isn’t me just helping you, it’s thanking you for being so good with her. I think I’ll take this one.”

Kurt walked around a little more and tried to make up his mind about the second painting.

“I should add I could give a fuck about the book. I could care less if you dragged my family’s name through the mud like that, it’s press. It gets them talking just as I am premiering my line of clothing and no publicity is bad publicity when your name is out there.”

Nick looked thoughtfully at him.

“I’m here to make sure you do the right thing, because I cannot stop Blaine from doing what he wants to do much less than I can stop my father and then where will you be? Without a daughter and without the money you hope to get. This one. I’ll take this one.”

Kurt was slightly surprised that Nick was letting him just take the two pieces of art without saying anything. He dropped the check face down on top of the lap top.

“You have an amazing talent, Nick, you always have, and the world will know it. Spend the money well.”

He picked up the two paintings and then his bag.

“I hope you do the right thing.”

- - -

Blaine sighed and tried to glare at Rachel across from him.

“You have to start looking into these things, Blaine,” Rachel said, “if you want her to go to a good school then it’s important. Finn and I looked two years ahead of when Shelby would be in preschool and with Mike it’s a bit easier of course.”

Amie who sat next to him grabbed his hand. “Mia’s smart,” she said, “she’ll get in anywhere.”

“Who seriously thought that making preschool applications harder than college applications would be a good idea?” Blaine groaned and looked at the stack of papers in front of him.

“Well those are for the best schools in New York,” Amie offered, “they’re bound to be a bit…”

“Dalton wasn’t even this hard to get into,” Blaine added.

They were in the dining room and it was just before dinner. When Blaine had asked Rachel earlier in the week for help figuring out where he might send Mia to preschool she’d been happy to get him all the necessary information but Blaine hadn’t foreseen that she might assume he’d be sending her to the more expensive prestigious ones. But after some persuasion from Amie and Rachel he’d agreed it was probably for the best.

After all, he could both afford those and they would be the best as far as education and care went. He didn’t like the idea of the forms or the fact that other parents had probably had those filled out months or even years in advance or even that she might not get a spot in the next year, but he did want the best for Mia and if this was it, then he would fight for it.

He heard the elevator open down the hall and then familiar footsteps. Kurt was home. Blaine felt himself smile.

Kurt had been very secretive that morning, rushing out to a meeting that Blaine knew had nothing to do with his clothes because Kurt had been celebrating the end of those meetings the night before.

He heard something being set down and then Kurt walked into the dining room with a small satisfied grin that told Blaine that Kurt had definitely been up to something.

“Is Kurtie home?”

Blaine couldn’t say anything before the ball of excitement that was Mia had entered the room. She threw herself at Kurt and he picked her up easily, setting her against his hip. He kissed her cheek and rubbed their noses together.

“Hello, darling,” he said, “have you been good?”

“Yup.”

He smiled, eyes never leaving her face, “I hope so.”

Blaine could not get enough of them, of Kurt and Mia together just as he had always wanted – the two most important people in his life. Mia had dropped her head to Kurt’s shoulder and he carried her like she weighed nothing which Blaine knew wasn’t true because she was growing constantly.

“Kurtie, did you finish the dress?”

“Not yet,” Kurt answered, “but I think I’ll work on it after dinner, should be done tomorrow.”

“Oh, no you don’t,” Blaine said, “you are helping me fill out some forms and telling me where you were off to all day.”

Mia pouted and Kurt copied her.

Rachel and Amie were staring at them, grinning and Blaine rolled his eyes. “That’s not going to work.”

Kurt and Mia looked more and more alike every day. They looked like father and daughter and Mia was so taken with Kurt that Blaine sometimes wondered if she knew somehow that he had always been meant to be her other father. She did know he and Kurt were in a relationship. They’d explained that to her some weeks ago and she’d taken it rather well.

Kurt dropped into a chair. “Forms for what?”

“Preschool,” Blaine said, “I’m already late on about half of these, but Rachel says it’s manageable.”

“I helped them with Shelby’s,” Kurt admitted, “Finn kept coming to me to ask questions about his own kid.” He rolled his eyes, “I guess if we must. Does, um…does Nick know about…”

“Don’t talk to me about him.”

Kurt inhaled a breath. He and Amie shared a glance. Immediately Blaine knew that the person Kurt had gone to see that morning was Nick.

“What did you do?”

Kurt bit down on his lip. “I went to talk to him about the book and a few other things,” Kurt said, “you realize, I hope, that you can’t just take Mia from him, right?”

Blaine shrugged, “he doesn’t have any claim on her…she’s my daughter.”

Mia lifted her head, but Kurt reached up and drew his fingers through her hair gently and she dropped back down. She must have been tired from playing with Shelby and Mike all morning.

“She’s his daughter too, Blaine, and you can’t do that to him.”

“After what he’s doing to you? To your family? I think I have the right to do at least that.”

“Well, I hope that after our talk that book won’t see the light of day,” Kurt said, “but I don’t have any idea what he’ll do. I’m going to help him out. I bought two of his paintings and I’m showing them to a friend of mine.”

Blaine gaped at Kurt. Had he always been so selfless and so ready to help others, even the man that was writing a slanderous book about his family – the man that had taken his place with Blaine and Mia for so long?

“You’re too good,” Blaine muttered, “much too wonderful for the likes of him.”

“Oh, stop it,” Kurt hissed, “stop it right now, Blaine Anderson, Nick is not the bad guy. Don’t you get it? Don’t you understand that this is all a game? This is Sebastian Smythe’s work. Unlike someone, I went and looked for the reason why and did you know that Nick has been blacklisted at almost every art gallery in New York? Well, he is, and Smythe’s to blame for it. So, yeah, I went and overpaid for two of his paintings and tomorrow night I am giving one as a gift to a good friend. Nick is Mia’s father and I will not have her resent him for a stupid mistake induced by a Smythe.”

Blaine wanted nothing more than to lean over and press his lips against Kurt’s. He wanted nothing more than push the nicely stacked forms off the table and kiss him senseless until they lost themselves to each other. It was too bad that Mia was half asleep on Kurt’s lap and that Mia and Rachel were still there watching them silently.

“He’s not going to publish the book?”

“I don’t know,” Kurt admitted, “I hope he won’t. Even if he does, we’ll deal with it together and that isn’t going to destroy us.”

- - -

Kurt was seated across from his father when they got the news. Nick wasn’t publishing his book. To add to that, Nick’s friend Jeff had actually been called by Sebastian to meet up and Sebastian had proceeded to offer Jeff a bribe to steal the book and publish it anyway.

“We don’t have actual proof,” Burt said, “and that’s not going to be easy to attain, but I don’t think he’ll be much trouble for us now. Not now his brother’s left and he has no other way in. Even if he tries something, he won’t get far. And we have a good lawyer. Jeff filed a claim about the bribe and that will do something, but for now everything is as good as it’s going to get.”

Kurt grinned. Sebastian Smythe would always be someone that could cause problems, and there was no doubt that he’d do something again, but for now he was out of the way and they could figure out how to really get rid of him soon enough.

“I’m glad Nick’s doing the right thing,” Kurt said, “Blaine’s still not too happy with him, but he’s going to see Mia next weekend so it’s progress.”

Burt nodded and tapped his fingers together, “you’re not here for small talk. What do you want, Kurt?”

Kurt looked down at his hands. He still wasn’t sure if this was going a bit fast, but he knew that he wanted to do it and that was all that really should matter.

“I want to create a trust fund for Mia,” Kurt said, “I’ll use my own money if I have to – from Mom’s side.”

Burt grinned. “You really love her, don’t you?”

Kurt nodded at once, “of course I do. Blaine doesn’t know I’m doing this, but he’s been figuring things out about school and it just dawned on me that I wanted to do this for her. I want her to be able to do anything she wants and be whoever she wants to be, not held back by anything.”

“We would never not give her anything she needs,” Burt said, “Amie is her mother.”

“On paper, and she has no rights. I want this to be something just for Mia aside from anything. So that no matter what happens to me and Blaine she’ll have something. Seeing what Nick had to go through, I don’t want that for her.”

Kurt wrung his hands. He was sure his father would agree to it, and he had the means to create one on his own, but he wanted to be able to do it with his family just as they had done for Shelby and Mike. Mia deserved that.

“Does Blaine know about this?”

Kurt shrugged. He didn’t. Kurt wasn’t sure if he would agree or not, but Kurt was determined to do it and Blaine would have to just understand that Kurt was doing it out of his fondness and love for Mia.

“Hmmm,” Burt said, “when would the money be available to her?”

“Twenty fifth birthday,” Kurt answered at once.

Burt nodded. “Sounds reasonable. I’ll have my assistant get to it.”

Kurt grinned. “Thank you, dad.”

“But you have to tell Blaine about it.”

“I know.”

His father nodded and then picked up a few papers from the folder he’d been perusing. When he didn’t hear Kurt get up he sighed.

“What else?”

“I wanted to know what you thought about me asking Blaine to marry me?”

Burt began to laugh.

“I know it hasn’t been that long, but we’ve wasted enough time without being together already and I just…I think we’re ready this time and I’ll have to talk to Mia about it, but I think I want this now and…”

“And he’s going to say yes.”

Kurt shook his head, “I can only hope.”

- - -

“You do realize you’ve been living here for the past three weeks, right?”

Blaine lifted his head. He was seated at the dining room table again poring over a few documents that Burt had told him to look over about opening a new bank account. He wasn’t entirely sure why Burt needed another bank account, but he was dealing with it anyway.

“Have I?”

Amie nodded and pulled out a chair to sit down, “yup, Mia loves it. I think she’s really liking it here.”

“Not sure if that’s a good thing or not,” Blaine said, “children shouldn’t get everything they want just because they want it. I hope you’re not spoiling her.”

Amie rolled her eyes and lifted her arm to punch him gently, “she needs a cool aunt that will spoil her. Between you, Kurt, and Nick she’s going to be a smart level headed girl. But, back to my point, when are you making it official?”

“Making what official?”

“You and Mia moving here.”

Blaine shook his head. “I think that’s moving a bit fast isn’t it? And…kind of a little awkward.”

“Rachel and Finn live here,” Amie said, “and Kurt could probably be persuaded to move to his part of the house. Privacy. It’s bigger than your apartment.”

Blaine closed the folder. Everything looked to be in order even if Blaine had no idea what its purpose would be.

“The way things are now are just fine, I don’t think even if I married Kurt that it’d want to just move into this place with his parents and brother. I don’t know how Kurt feels about it, but I’d rather have our own place, separate.”

Amie didn’t respond, but then she got up. “Alright, well, I’m taking Mia out for a girl’s day. I’m waiting for Kurt to dress her – she insisted he do it.”

Blaine couldn’t help a small smile. Kurt and Mia were as thick as thieves lately and he loved it. Mia had even told him the other night that he was her best friend. He loved their relationship and how easy it was for Kurt to just be whatever Mia needed. He was so different from Nick and even Blaine himself that everything he brought to Mia was new and interesting and she was fascinated. She’d never met someone that could make her clothes, or someone that could bake with her, or fix her hair in many different styles.

“She says he’s the best at picking clothes,” Blaine said, “she’s not wrong.”

“Little fashionista in training,” Amie said and grinned fondly, “but she’s still into the whole performing thing, right?”

Blaine nodded. “I don’t think that will ever go away. I used to say she’d be Rachel – but maybe a less intense version of that?”

Mia and Kurt appeared then, Kurt holding Mia’s hand while Mia chattered at him about something. She stopped to run to him and hug him.

“Daddy, Kurtie made me another dress!”

Blaine chuckled. She would always wear Kurt Hummel originals, ones made special just for her.

“I can see that, sweetheart, it’s beautiful. You look just like a princess.”

“I think so too,” Amie declared, “and I think the princess and I have a shopping trip, hmmm?”

Blaine had just opened his mouth to warm Amie about their trip, but Kurt beat him to it.

“Don’t buy out the store,” he started with, “I know how you are Amie and I hope you consider she growing. Also, if you give her fast food or sugar, you’re keeping her for the night.”

“Duly noted.”

Mia hugged him and then Kurt goodbye and then she was off with her mother. As odd as it was seeing Mia with Kurt and seeing their similarities it was odder still to see Mia with Amie.

“One day, she’s going to realize how much she looks like Amie,” he said.

“And one day we’ll sit down and have a talk with her and let her know that she’s a very special girl who has too many parents.”

Kurt dropped himself into Blaine’s lap and let out a huff of breath.

“Exaggerating,” Kurt muttered and pecked his lips, “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Yeah?”

Kurt nodded seriously. “I’ve been thinking lately that maybe it’s time we label this thing between us…and while I was trying to figure out what to call you, I couldn’t find the right word. You’re not my boyfriend, and lover’s not exactly true, and Amie made a whole list of ridiculous things I could call you and the only thing that I want to say when I introduce you to someone else is, this is my husband.”

Blaine’s breath caught. He couldn’t form words; his mind a jumble of puzzle pieces trying to fit together to make him understand.

“Husband,” he managed to squeak a moment later.

Kurt turned a little, eyes fixed on his face, “yes,” he breathed, “my husband, my partner, my best friend, my Blaine.”

“My Kurt,” Blaine whispered. He reached up to cup Kurt’s face, “yes. Yes. A million times yes. I’ve been waiting for this moment for what seems like forever.”

Kurt began to laugh. He leaned forward and their foreheads touched. “I’m sorry for that,” Kurt said, “it’s the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.”

Kurt reached into his pocket and he pulled out a box. He opened it with shaking fingers and passed it to Blaine. The ring inside was not new and Blaine gasped when he saw it.

“Is this…”

“The one you sold?” Kurt asked, “yeah. My dad bought it, he didn’t tell me until a few days ago and I know they might bring up some bad memories, so we can get new ones if you want, but I thought you might want to see it.”

Blaine took the ring out of the box. Seeing Kurt’s ring had been one thing, but this one he’d actually imagined somewhere in Europe on the finger of some guy or girl.

“No, they’re perfect. They’re us, Kurt, finding it back to each other against all odds.”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Kurt took the ring from Blaine and slid it onto Blaine’s finger. A perfect fit, even after all those years.

“Yours?”

Kurt lifted the necklace from under his clothes. Blaine reached to undo the clasp and he too took the ring and put it on Kurt’s finger. The two of them stared at the rings and they both looked away, letting their eyes meet. It had been a long time coming, but finally Blaine was back where he belonged. It wasn’t about the money or the prestige, or anything else that everyone else would accuse him of. Instead it was about the beautiful boy he’d first met in this house…it was about the young man that had become his best friend…it was about the men they’d finally become. It was about coming home.