Chapter 27

The next morning, Kurt’s mood was better than it had been for months. Somehow, talking – even without letting any of the details slip – spending the night so close to Blaine, and waking up in his best friend’s arms made everything better. He found he was in perfect control of his emotions at least half of the time, and with every passing moment, his ability to keep them in check seemed to be increasing.

He was humming, as he practically waltzed into the house. Having left his coat in the hall, he headed for the kitchen, rubbing his hands together to warm them up.

Burt was sitting at the dining room table with a cup of lukewarm coffee as Kurt went in.

‘Oh, hi, Dad.’

‘Hi, kiddo. How was your sleepover?’

A wide smile split Kurt’s face.

‘Great.’ He scrutinized his father’s expression for a moment; it felt off. ‘Something’s happened?’

Burt sighed heavily and smiled weakly.

‘Nothing bad, Kurt, don’t freak out,’ he said, getting up from the table. ‘Only your Granny called.’

‘Granny called?,’ Kurt repeated, disbelieving. ‘You mean Granny as in Mom’s mom?’

Burt nodded in response.

‘She wants us to come see her at Christmas.’

‘But we were supposed to spend Christmas with Blaine and Aileen,’ Kurt protested. He was still processing the news. He hadn’t seen his maternal grandmother in almost nine years, since the day of his mother’s funeral. She lived no more than a two-hours’ drive away, but would only call them every Christmas and every birthday with her best wishes. Apart from that, she largely treated her daughter’s family like they had died along with Elizabeth.

‘That’s what I told her, that we’ve already got plans. So we’re going to see her on the 26th,’ Burt explained.

Kurt sighed with relief. There was no way he would give up spending Christmas Day with Blaine. There was no way he would want to spend any Christmas without him.

‘Why do you think she wants us to come? She hasn’t come or invited us since- for years,’ Kurt said.

‘I guess she wants to meet Carole. You know, I sent her an invitation to the wedding, but she didn’t RSVP or show up.’

‘So we’re all going?’

Burt nodded. ‘She told me she wanted us all to come.’

‘But we’re not staying longer than that one day, right?,’ Kurt asked, already beginning to miss Blaine, even though they hadn’t said goodbye more than a half hour ago. Spending a few days away from him would be torture.

His father smiled with understanding; those boys were inseparable. He was still harbouring a hope that he’d live to see their wedding. Seeing Kurt now – perfectly happy despite everything that had happened to him not even a month earlier – made him wonder, whether his son was aware how Blaine, even a mention or thought of him, made his face light up.

‘We’re going just for one day, don’t you worry,’ Burt said, and left the room, trying to suppress the smile that was forcing its way onto his face.

He could swear Kurt wouldn’t admit it – or maybe he hadn’t even figured it out? – but Burt had been sure for months that his son was in love.

***

‘Did I ever tell you I have a grandmother?,’ Kurt asked, without greeting Blaine on the phone not ten minutes later.

‘Um, you mentioned you haven’t seen her since your mom died,’ Blaine said, taken by surprise to get a call from Kurt so soon after he’d left Aileen’s. That meant something happened and his friend needed to talk to him.

Kurt gave him a short account of his conversation with his father.

‘…so it seems I have to go to Lebanon on the 26th,’ he finished.

‘Le- Lebanon?,’ Blaine asked, confused. ‘How are you supposed to go to Lebanon and come back in a day?’

Kurt barked out a laugh, seeing the ambiguity.

‘Lebanon, Ohio, just outside of Cincinnati, Blaine,’ he explained.

‘Oh. But that still means we’re not going sale-hunting, right?’ Blaine sounded disappointed.

‘Yeah, I guess we’re not going this year,’ Kurt sighed. ‘You can go, if you want, but I’m out.’

He hadn’t even thought about it before, but now that he remembered, he was quite upset with the situation. He loved the after-Christmas sales, and now he was deprived of the fun of shopping with Blaine, because his grandmother had to remember she had a family at this precise time. It was hard to appreciate the effort.

‘Shopping’s no fun without you,’ Blaine said completely seriously.

Kurt couldn’t help the wide grin that crept onto his face.

***

A thud on his window woke Kurt up on Christmas morning. He groaned, opening his eyes to an almost blinding whiteness of his room and the bright light from outside. The sun was already up, sparkling on the fresh snow. Kurt wasn’t sure what the noise was until it sounded again, drawing his attention to the two snowballs squashed against the windowpane. Intrigued, he rolled out of bed and ran to look outside.

On the driveway, directly under Kurt’s bedroom window, with a small package in one of his hands, and another ball of snow in the other, stood Blaine, grinning widely under a huge, furry cap. That meant that he probably hadn’t gelled his hair yet.

With a roll of his eyes, Kurt grabbed his thick bathrobe and wrapped himself closely with the fabric, trying to stay warm. Then he skipped downstairs to let Blaine in. He couldn’t allow for him to freeze on Christmas morning.

‘Couldn’t my Christmas gift from you be a chance to sleep in?,’ he whispered as he opened the door.

Blaine’s smile didn’t shrink at all.

‘I would’ve snuck in and left your gift under the tree, but I thought I’d rather give it to you personally,’ he said.

Kurt waved him in, and once Blaine was out of his overcoat, boots and cap – with no gel in his hair, as Kurt had rightly guessed – they tiptoed upstairs, careful not to wake anybody else up.

With the door closed quietly behind them, Blaine offered the small, rectangular package to Kurt, who only shook his head and jumped up to his bedside table to take a box out of its drawer. Blaine placed his gift gingerly on top of Kurt’s bed, as he followed his friend with his gaze.

‘Me first,’ Kurt said, putting his present into his best friend’s hand. ‘It’s nothing much, but I guess you could use it.’ His eyes wandered playfully to the top of Blaine’s head.

There was a small smile on Blaine’s lips, as he lifted the lid, but was replaced with a bursting laughter the moment he saw the contents.

‘I know how fast you run out of this stuff,’ Kurt said, nudging the pink bottle of kids’ raspberry-scented hair gel that occupied half of the box.

‘Yeah, you do, and I could never have enough of this,’ Blaine replied with a grin and took out the other item, a suspiciously familiarly looking smaller box. At opening it, he felt his heart melt into mush.

‘The pattern is just like the tie you got me last year,’ Kurt said, hoping deep down that Blaine remembered and the explanation was redundant.

Blaine shot him a doubtful look.

‘I know, dummy, I bought you that tie, I know what it looks like.’ He took out his brand new bowtie from the box and put it to his neck. One glance into Kurt’s tall mirror proved it would be perfect on him. ‘Now we can tie-coordinate!’

Kurt felt an unconscious beaming smile stretch his facial muscles at the same moment as his cheeks began to burn.

‘So you like it?’

‘Duh,’ Blaine said, putting carefully the bowtie into its box, and proceeding to give Kurt a hug. ‘I love it. I’m wearing it for dinner tonight, and you better wear your tie.’

‘I will,’ Kurt assured him, trying to hide his disappointment as Blaine backed out of the embrace. ‘Now, you can give me my gift.’

Blaine picked up the small rectangle, his expression growing a little uncertain, as he extended his hand to Kurt once again.

‘Merry Christmas, Kurt.’

Taking the present swiftly, Kurt didn’t bother to unwrap it nicely, but ripped the green-and-red paper away, revealing a purple book cover.

‘I know it’s just a book, but I know you like Forster, and I know you still haven’t seen the movie for this one, and you’re gonna love it, because Helena Bonham Carter was in it, and the book is great, too,’ Blaine explained hastily, and paused, biting his lip.

‘But there is another reason you got it for me,’ Kurt guessed.

‘Yep.’ Blaine nodded and took the book out of Kurt’s hands, flipping it instantly to the right page. ‘There is a fragment I particularly love, and I kinda hoped you’d promise me something.’

That was strange, but Kurt only narrowed his eyes and nodded, waiting for his friend to continue. Blaine cleared his throat and read out the fragment.

‘”I don’t intend him, or any man, or any woman to be all my life – good heavens, no! There are heaps of things in me that he doesn’t, and shall never understand”.’ Blaine stopped reading and looked up at Kurt.

‘So… what do you want me to promise?,’ Kurt asked, his mind occupied only with one thought, “but you are all my life, and I never intended for this to happen”.

‘I want you to promise me you’re never going to become anything less than what you truly are for someone else’s sake. No matter how much you would love them, don’t let anyone become everything that you have,’ Blaine said, placing the book back in Kurt’s hands and stopping a mere foot away from him. Kurt could feel his breath hitch in his throat, almost causing him to faint. ‘Just be the amazing person you are, don’t let anyone bring you down just because they don’t understand everything about you.’

Kurt swallowed, touched so deeply that tears were filling his eyes.

‘You understand me,’ he whispered, unable to speak any louder.

Blaine shrugged, a smile reappearing on his face. ‘I do, but what we have, that’s one in a million. Or maybe in a billion even.’ He paused, lifting his gaze to look straight into Kurt’s wet eyes. ‘So do you promise?’

‘I promise I’ll do my best.’

And before he knew it, his arms were around Blaine, the warmth of their bodies squashed together making his knees wobble slightly. It wasn’t just a book that Blaine gave him; it was a tangible proof that, no matter in what way, Blaine loved him. Maybe even more than he loved anybody else in the world.

‘I love you,’ Kurt told him, glad to be able to say the words without letting his secret out.

‘I love you, too, Kurtie.’