I rolled over in bed and groaned. "Whaaa..."

An earsplitting shriek echoed from upstairs. Not again. I glanced at the alarm clock - barely forty minutes since Vale last woke up the entire household. Well, fuck.

I climbed out of bed, frustrated. Vale kept screeching away on the second floor. I'm pretty sure I found my slippers on the cold floor somewhere before I shuffled up too many stairs for the time of night.

I followed the screams to my dad and Carole's room. Vale, of course, continued his current course of action behind the closed door. I couldn't hear anything other than him. Sure, my dad could sleep through anything, but surely most people weren't so, well, sleepy, when they were asleep. Surely Carole had woken, at least.

I knocked. "Carole?" I called. No one answered. Gingerly, aware of the squeak I knew the door sometimes had, I let myself in.

My dad and Carole were passed out on either sides of the wide bed. Carole looked like she was about to roll off. And Vale laid in between them, screaming his head off. I always knew that the two adults had bad hearing, but this was just ridiculous.

As soon as I picked up Vale, he quieted. "There, see? Quiet is nice too, isn't it," I whispered to him. I rocked him back and forth, and swept his brown hair out of his face. It was kind of the same color as Finn's.

When his head started to loll, and he was asleep (finally), I tried to lay him back down on the bed, and get out of the room. After all, this was my parents' room, it was way after midnight, and they didn't know I was here. But Vale then opened his eyes screaming.

So I picked him up again. What else was I supposed to do? He went quiet the moment my arms were around him. I let him fall to sleep. And then I put him down. And then he screeched. So I picked him up. And then he quieted. And when I put him down, he screeched. It was pretty much a nightmare for ten minutes as I tried to get the kid to be quiet when he wasn't touching me.

Eventually, I gave up. The two of us ended up in the living room, and somehow I fell asleep on the couch with the kid in my arms. 

At least I assume that's how it happened, 'cause I woke up to Carole screaming "oh thank god!" in my face and almost bursting into tears.

I almost dropped Vale on the carpet. It was morning and there was a grown woman yelling me awake and I wasn't in my be and there was a kid on top of me. What?

When the adrenaline from having someone yell in my unconscious face abated, I slowly pulled myself into a real sitting position - my but hurt so bad from sleeping half sitting - and sighed. I couldn't even rub my eyes, because Vale had his little fists wrapped around my thumbs so tightly, I was practically just waiting for them to turn blue.

"He wouldn't shut up unless I held him," I offered as an explanation. Dad looked like he was still asleep on his feet, and Carole was too busy cooing to Vale, still attached to me. It didn't seem to matter that I'd been in their room.

Vale stayed asleep until after I stood, when I let Carole pry him off of me. He let out a wail, and then stared at me.

"He really does like you, Kurt," Carole said without looking at me.

I shrugged. Surely I wasn't that special; he probably just wanted to be held. "Maybe it's because I'm so girly? Misses his mum, or something." Not that I could imagine anyone missing my aunt, even this six month old.

My dad laughed. "Carole's holding him now, kid. I'll bet he likes you the best 'cause you saved him from me yesterday." Oh yes, the not quite disaster.

"Sure then," I agreed. It was time for some serious spite. "I'm just going to go and do my hair. Pick out an outfit out for school today. And my moisturizing routine has to happen before Blaine comes to pick me up, too, you know." If I wasn't sore from spending the night on the couch, I would have flounced down to my room. As it was, I still called "not girly at all!" sarcastically over my shoulder as I stumbled down the hall.

The doorbell rang not long after I finished with my morning routine. Me and Blaine had an intuitive schedule that it seemed even Vale could not disrupt.

I ushered him in with hugs and smiles.

"You're really tired," he whispered into my neck.

"Just couldn't sleep. My mind was Single Ladies all night and I just had to get up and dance." 

He gave me a look. "That's not true."

I gave him a look, which include the wiggling of eyebrows. He was the first one to crack up.

"Come see the real reason why, then," I invited, ipulling him by the hand into the kitchen. 

"Hi, Carole!" Blaine said friendlily. Then he took a double take - Carole had a bottle of 'food' out and was slowly spooning into Vale's mouth some sort of green mush.

"Blaine, this is Vale," I said, yanking my boy closer. "Vale, meet Blaine."

Vale's eyes widened as he took in yet another new person. Then his face burst into a happy smile - of course. You couldn't not smile when you met Blaine. He was so Blaine.

Carole just grinned. She practically dumped Vale into Blaine's arms as she went to put away the jar and spoon. "He won't want to eat anything, now that there's someone new to play with," she explained.

I adjusted incredulous!Blaine's arms around the baby so he was holding Vale correctly, and then pushed him gently out of the kitchen.

"The couch smells like you," Blaine noted as we sat down.

"So does the rest of the house; I live here," I said. "I totally didn't sleep on the couch last night." I gestured to Vale in his arms. "No questions?"

He was preoccupied protecting his very gelled hair from Vale's sticky hands. He said without looking at me, "I kind of figured it might not be my place. But please, enlighten me. Who am I holding?" Blaine tickled Vale a bit, and they both giggled.

"Well, as my boyfriend, Vale is actually your honorary cousin-in-law. My aunt - my mum's sister - and her husband died. It's kind of a good thing though... He's going to be a lot more open minded to people like us, growing up here, than he would have if my aunt had raised them"

"Issues with them?" Blaine cocked his head.

I sighed. "Dad mentioned you in passing, at some reunion thing. My name hasn't been on any of the holiday cards since."

"Ouch..." Blaine was saved having to come up with the rest of some perfect and very Blaine response when Vale burped and suddenly more of the teen was the gray green color of spit up than was the pale blue of his shirt. We all grimaced at the mess (well, Vale didn't). Yuuuuuuuuuck.

I called for Carole. We had to get to school soon, anyways, and now had to dress Blaine, too, and we probably wouldn't have time to get coffee for our first periods. Damn. Still, a good excuse to not clean up the baby barf myself.

Carole took Vale from us and cooed at him like he'd done nothing wrong. Then again, he was a rather cute baby, even I couldn't resist babying the baby sometimes.

I didn't have to tow Blaine to my room. He practically ran there, holding his shirt away from himself, probably trying not to smell what was basically puke. As soon as he was in the door, he peeled the shirt off and threw it in the trash.

I was struck by how beautiful this boy was in front of me. What was he doing here, with me? He ought to be doing musicals in Hollywood and completing school by correspondence so he could hang out with Beyoncé or someone. Not boring me.

"Enjoying the view, Hummel?" Blaine asked in a low voice.

"No!" I squeaked. Crap, I must've been staring. "I mean, yes! But not like that, I mean I just zoned out and you happened to be there. I mean - I'm being ridiculous, aren't I?" I finally noticed his amused smile.

"Kurt, I don't mind. I'm your boyfriend. It's actually kind of flattering that you think I'm sexy enough to merit staring. Honestly, I think my chest is just kind of... Lumpy."

I glomphed myself onto him in a tight hug. "Abs aren't lumps, they're abs," I whispered. He smelled so good, like coca cola and Blaine and mint toothpaste and Blaine and cotton and Blaine and even vanilla, maybe, but definitely mostly only just completely he smelled like Blaine. He also smelled a bit like puke, but I ignored that.

Blaine slowly licked a line from the base of my neck to the corner of my mouth, going all the way around my jaw and tickling the bottom of my ear. I shivered until he kissed me.

"I missed you, you know," I whispered against his lips. Even though I'd seen him yesterday. It was still true.