"I really hate flying." Kurt admits, as he and Blaine sit side by side on the plane to Ohio and Kurt grips his boyfriend's hand tightly. "If your parents hadn't insisted on you flying, I would have been driving, no questions asked. Literally the only reason I'm even doing this is because you're here to babysit me."

"What about Finn? He and Rachel are flying back tomorrow, right? You could have gone with them." Blaine reasons, stroking Kurt's knuckles softly with his thumb soothingly, as he had taken to doing lately. It seemed to work as well, if not better, than any other tactics he had in mind. Kurt snorts.

"I wouldn't trust Finn to look after a sleeping ten year old, let alone a hysterical Kurt."

"You're not going to be that bad, honey." Blaine says firmly. He leans over and kisses Kurt quickly, before anyone around them could think to complain. After a couple of minutes of Blaine talking Kurt down from any fears that he could have about flying, they take off. Kurt is thankful that planes only have lap belts and armrests that can move, because he very quickly pushes up the armrest and latches onto Blaine tightly. "Okay, Finn probably wouldn't cope with this." Blaine admits, and Kurt laughs softly. Once they are in the air Kurt manages to curb his panic and reluctantly moves away from Blaine.

"I think I'm okay," Kurt says, "thank you."

"Anytime, honey, you know?" Kurt nods, and Blaine kisses Kurt's cheek. "Now do you want to watch Rent with me or what?" Kurt perks up significantly as Blaine sets up his laptop. With one arm around Blaine's and his head on his shoulder, the time passes much more quickly for Kurt. Despite the stress he begins to feel again as they are warned to turn off their devices for landing, he knows how close they are. He just had to get to the ground, to the airport, and Blaine truly made him believe that it was possible. Rationally he always knew that he would make it in one piece, but he couldn't be in one piece without his other half.

Burt picks them up from the airport and is- much to Kurt's relief- far more cordial towards Blaine than he had been not even a week ago. They sit together in the back of the car as Kurt remains slightly clingy in the aftermath of the flight, and Burt makes small talk. They run through their Christmas plan with him- how Blaine would be staying the night with them in Lima, and his parents were picking him up the next afternoon.

They get to the house and bring their bags inside, Blaine diligently following his boyfriend upstairs, marvelling at the rows upon rows of family pictures and certificates, framed drawings from Kurt's childhood, the story of his life laid out before him. There are pictures of an ever changing young boy with his mother and father, and then the pictures seem to stop altogether before they jump back in as the boy looks so much older, but with an absent mother. And then, after a series of portraits of just the two... there becomes four. And it's one of the happiest photos on the wall. Blaine knew the story of Kurt's childhood, and yet to see it like this was so much different.

Kurt comes to a stop outside his old bedroom and turns to his boyfriend. "This was my room as an adolescent, so it's sort of bare but just... don't be too harsh." They step inside together, and for what Kurt called bare there is plenty of decoration. The bookcase is full, there are posters on the walls, and a small collection of snow globes lines the windowsill. Everything seems tidy and well kept, and it was clear that for when Kurt wasn't using the room his parents made an effort to keep it presentable. They put their bags down and Kurt pulls Blaine down on top of him onto the bed, kissing him fiercely.

"What's all this for?" Blaine asks, running his fingers through Kurt's hair lightly.

"I just... mmm... haven't kissed you properly since this morning. It felt far too long." He rushes his sentence, eager to keep his lips on Blaine's. The door swings open and they spring apart, which is incredibly difficult as Blaine is still on top of Kurt, and he isn't being released from his arms.

"Oh, um, sorry," Burt says, "I'm going to go away for five minutes and then we can try this again." He leaves the room and the door stays open. Blaine groans and rolls off of Kurt, who reaches across to wrap his arms around him again but misses as Blaine stands up and stretches. He stays lying on the bed, hopeful that his boyfriend will join him again.

"Where are you going?" Kurt asks, "Come on, my kisses aren't that terrible."

"I love your kisses."

"Then why aren't we kissing?" Kurt follows Blaine's gaze over to the open door and sighs. "You would think that rule would stop applying when you were in your twenties, wouldn't you?"

"I don't think that your dad trusts me very much."

"It takes two to tango, babe. You were on me because I wanted you there. So get back here, silly, so we can use the rest of our five minutes well."

"Do you really think he will take that long, though?" Kurt groans and pulls himself to his feet, straightening his outfit slightly.

"Okay. You win. No more kissing." He says, standing in the opposite corner of the room to his boyfriend. Blaine crosses the room and secures his arms around Kurt's waist, attacking his neck with small kisses. Kurt remains unresponsive, looking at his snow globes with a bored look on his face.

"Kuuuuurrrt," Blaine whines, "why won't you kiss me?"

"My dad could be back any moment, B. Is it a risk worth taking?" Kurt teases, turning his head to meet Blaine's lips. A couple of minutes later Burt knocks on the still open door and they turn to face him rather than the window, though Kurt's arm stays around Blaine's waist possessively. Burt stumbles through the points he had to make, which don't seem to be anything similar to what he probably had the intention of saying to begin with.

"Would either of you two be interested in coffee or tea or something? Carole just boiled the kettle downstairs." Burt offers. Blaine responds positively and kisses Kurt on the cheek before he leaves to go get his coffee. He is well aware of what will continue on without his presence, but figures that it's for the best when he isn't present. He lingers in the hallway for a moment, just to hear Burt saying, "I know you love him and all, but no funny business under my roof. I'm lucky I didn't walk in any later!" He laughs quietly to himself as he patters down the stairs, hoping for only the best possible outcome. Kurt had his dad wrapped around his little finger at times, and Blaine wanted it to kick in then and there, resulting in giving him someone to cuddle with that night.

Blaine chats with Carole while they wait for the others to join them. When Carole asks Blaine if he knows what they are talking about, he doesn't hesitate to relay the point of the story- that ultimately they wanted to share a bed and Burt wasn't so happy with the idea. Carole shakes her head. "I didn't set up the guest room for a reason," she says, "you aren't the children Burt sees you as being, for god knows why."

"He walked in on Kurt and me making out earlier." Blaine confides, blushing down at his coffee. He couldn't help just telling Carole everything; she made him feel so comfortable. As much as he loved his own mom, borrowing someone else's was really nice. He had never really been the sort of person to be close enough to his friends to be close to their parents as well- but he could already tell that his in-laws to be- at least one day- were going to be the set to rival every stereotype possible. He knew years ago that his parents were going to be the slightly more problematic ones. Burt seemed to fluctuate between his feelings about Blaine, but he could only hope that things got better with him.

"Did he now?" Carole says, raising an eyebrow at him, "he did that enough when Kurt was dating Owen. You would think he would be over it after all this time."

"I'm guessing that's part of the reason he seemed to want to enforce the open door rule?"

"Oh, Burt," she mumbles fondly, "probably. I'll have a word to him later, once Kurt's done." Eventually they come downstairs and make themselves drinks too, and all four talk pleasantly until Blaine remembers that he was meant to let his mom know when he arrived in Lima, and excuses himself to call her. She answers right away, and sounds happy to hear from him.

"Blaine! How are you, darling?"

"Well, thank you." He replies, "I was just calling to let you know that our flight went well and that I'll see you when you come to collect me tomorrow. Did you receive my email for Kurt's address?"

"Yes, I did. We'll meet your soulmate tomorrow, right? And who is this Kurt, whose house you are staying at, exactly?"

"Oh, Kurt is my soulmate, mom. You're going to love him." There is a small pause, but his mother clears her throat and returns to the conversation sounding unchanged, taking it easily into her stride.

"Wonderful, darling. We will pick you up before lunch, and I look forward to meeting him."

"Yeah. See you then." He hangs up and turns to find Kurt smiling cutely from the doorway.

"That was the first time you told her, huh?" Kurt asks, and Blaine nods. "Seriously, not even bringing up my name as being a friend? I'm disappointed," he teases, tutting softly, slipping his arms around Blaine's waist.

"I just don't talk to my mom all that much. I'm sure I've mentioned you before, she probably just stopped listening." Blaine reasons.

"You sound different on the phone."

"Yeah, just to my parents, I think. I relax around them in person, but I was raised to speak properly and enunciate clearly when using the telephone. Old habits die hard, I suppose."

"It's very... gentlemanly of you. I like it."

"Thanks. If you think that I'm formal, you should hear Bas with his parents. It's even more exaggerated. He has this odd little accent he puts on around them, and I've never worked out exactly why or how."

"You've met them, then?" Kurt asks.

"Yeah, I did a couple of times, in high school. I was always his plus one at parties."

"Always?"

"Kurt, I'm completely serious when I say that he didn't have anyone else. I thought we had sort of been through this." Kurt takes his hand and begins to lead him upstairs. "What's happening?"

"Come on, we're going to go cuddle while we talk about this. I feel teenage years' stories coming on, and I want the full effect."

"You know I can't turn down cuddle times!" Blaine whines, and Kurt silences him with a quick kiss. They get comfy on Kurt's bed and tangle their limbs together, as Blaine begins to retell his story. Kurt strokes his hair absentmindedly, listening intently, knowing that the story would undoubtedly explain some of the reasons behind the interesting friendship he had observed.

Seventeen year old Blaine, start of his junior year, wasn't on the Warbler council and he didn't much have any desire to ever be so. They had asked him to come along to auditions anyway, as though singing what he was told to sing gave him some extra insight on the new hopefuls for the year.

"Sebastian Smythe," Wes calls, and the boy steps forward. He isn't unattractive, Blaine thinks, but it's as though he is yet to grow into his height. The boy is tall, but his confidence falters when he begins to sing. There was no doubt that he was a good singer, but he lacked something of the sparkle that the Warblers had. Blaine notices something else though- the look in his eyes, a look of almost... longing. He wants to have that sparkle, Blaine thinks, but he doesn't know how to get there. He makes it his own personal mission to persuade the council that Sebastian needs them, and they agree. He hadn't spoken up for anyone else before then.

At lunch time the Warblers are in their usual little bubble, mucking around and teasing one another happily. But Blaine notices Sebastian again, sitting by himself. He decides then that he was right about that longing, that all that the boy really wants is some acceptance. And so Blaine sits with him. He had clearly been practicing his bitch glare down at the table, because at the new disturbance his head shoots up too quickly, and Blaine gets the full impact of it. But still, he stays. "I'm Blaine," he introduces, "you're Sebastian, right?"

"Yeah," Sebastian says coldly, "what's it to you?"

"I think you'll be joining the Warblers pretty soon, and I'd like to know your name, at least."

"You don't have to do that. I hear you're tough competition, and you can't really achieve those results by being friendly now, can you?"

"I'm not in the loop about any other tactics."

"Ha." Sebastian says humourlessly.

"I'll leave you alone, if you want. I won't stay against your will. And I won't make you join us, either."

"You're not over here because Gavel sent you?" Blaine shakes his head. "You can stay, then." Blaine makes some attempts to make conversation, but he doesn't learn a whole lot about Sebastian- nothing further than where he transferred from and how important his father is. Soon enough Blaine is dedicating his free lunchtimes to trying to integrate Sebastian into the Warbler group and encourage him to socialise- but he never seems to get further than a few impersonal greetings. Blaine hadn't realised that he was ranking above any of the others, until he is invited to a party at his house. Sebastian explains that it will be boring but there will be booze- that his parents told him to bring a friend.

A friend.

Blaine was invited as his friend.

Indeed, the party was as boring as Sebastian anticipated it to be. They wound up sitting in his basement, avoiding the general partygoers. "Hey, Blaine?" Sebastian asks, before taking a heavy mouthful of his beer.

"Yeah?"

"You don't have a girlfriend, right?"

"No. My parents think I should be focussing on school, and I'm just waiting to find whoever The One is. Whomever my countdown leads me to. I guess I'm a little bit old fashioned."

"Oh, okay. I was just wondering if maybe you were... gay. Don't worry about it."

"Bas? Why do you ask?" Blaine is pretty sure that he knows where Sebastian is going with that, but he leaves it open for his friend to answer.

"Because I think I am. Don't think that I have a crush on you or anything and run away, please. I was just wondering."

"Hey, it's okay. I'm still you're friend." He is very deliberate in his choice of words, because he knows that even after spending a couple of months at Dalton he hadn't made many friends. He didn't go out of his way to make attempts and he wasn't always the nicest person. Sebastian seemed to be aware of that, and decided that if you couldn't say anything nice to not say anything at all- he completely withdrew from everyone to save himself from ruining something.

"And he hadn't come out to anyone else, right?" Kurt clarifies.

"Basically. I don't know if he ever even came out to his parents. But Bas just started letting his walls down around me. I was the only person in his life who genuinely cared about him. Eventually I talked him into spending more time with the rest of the Warblers, and he used to freak out to me about how they didn't really like him, and then he just stopped caring what people thought of him. It was a very sudden change, and everything leads to where we are now."

"It's weird to think that he hasn't always been that confident."

"I know, right? The way he was before he met Adam was the first time in years I had ever seen him that way. I'm still proud of him for managing to accept friendship, though. I think he finally got there with Santana about six months after I introduced to them one another. She always liked him, thought he was fiery." Blaine says.

"They are scarily similar. Well, Blaine, I'm glad that you did that for him. He was the first person to ever serenade me."

"I know; I'm still mad at him from stealing that from me."

"Aww, he didn't really steal it. Maybe you should have been quicker." Kurt teases, kissing Blaine's forehead softly.

"I'm serious!" Blaine replies and Kurt realises that Blaine wasn't really joking.

"Oh, B, it didn't really count! I stopped him halfway through his performance! You can still sing to me any time you like!" Kurt says, doing his best to kiss the grumpy out of his boyfriend.

"Do you want me to sing to you?"

"Of course, B, but don't stress out about it, okay? It can be tomorrow or in thirty years or never, I won't mind; but if you want to do it, I'm hardly going to stop you."

"I'm going to do it. But you have to give me some time to find the right song."

"Okay." Blaine leans up to meet Kurt's lips and smiles into the kiss, pleased to be in his arms. It seemed like such a silly thing for them to be being upset over, that their conversation had required the cuddles. Of course, they could have said everything in just about any setting, but just curling up together brought them some of the simplest pleasures.

The next morning at half past eleven Blaine's parents pull up in Kurt's driveway and he goes to the front door to meet them. His mother stands slightly in front of his father on the doorstep, quick to embrace her youngest son as he answers the door. "Hey, darling," she greets, "it's been a while."

"It's nice to see you both, too." He moves on to his father, who hugs him somewhat awkwardly. He tended to stick to handshakes, so the hug was slightly surprising to Blaine, but he was glad it happened nonetheless. He invites them inside and leads them through to the living room as though it was his own house, to find Carole and Kurt chatting as they had been when Blaine left to collect his parents. Burt had gone to the airport to pick up Rachel and Finn, as he had for Blaine and Kurt the day before. Blaine introduces them to his parents and they then both get to their feet to shake the hands of each of Blaine's parents, who he quickly introduces too.

"So, let's go out for lunch." Blaine's mother announces, and Carole declines the invitation because she wanted to be home when Finn got there shortly. Blaine and Kurt follow them out to the car and sit in the back together, as they all make comfortable conversation. Blaine's parents don't seem too worried about Kurt being male, but at the same time they don't touch on the subject too much.

Over lunch Blaine is pleased that his parents make an effort to get to know Kurt a little bit and it seems as though they had talked about the situation the night before. They are both perfectly polite, and Kurt answers all of their questions happily. Blaine thinks that it is most likely that they accept but won't understand and probably won't make an effort to. Since he lives in another state he rarely cares what his parents think of him, and however they chose to come to terms with Blaine having a boyfriend didn't worry him.

His parents wait in the car as Blaine walks Kurt to his door and kisses him goodbye, with the promise of calling the next day. Even being a two hour drive away from one another wouldn't stop them from spending plenty of time together over the next few days. They were set to fly back to New York together before New Year's, deciding that they physically couldn't handle staying in Ohio for that long. It wasn't the most accepting of places, and they knew that meant that physical affection was being kept strictly indoors. It was hard to even hold hands without being hurled abuse at, at the very worst times. He gets back into the car and he starts the long journey to Westerville with his parents, who are uncharacteristically quiet. Figuring that it could only mean the best about how they found lunch, he chose not to worry, instead looking forward to spending some time with them again over the next few days.

Blaine excuses himself to his bedroom long before his parents that evening, trying to readjust himself to life in Westerville. He dabbles around on his guitar for a while and then passes some more time online, listening to song after song, trying to find the perfect one to eventually sing to Kurt. He was going to stay true to his plans of a serenade, whether or not his boyfriend truly expected it. Finally, he finds one that he thinks could be exactly what he was hoping for, and instantly tries to pick it up by ear, approximating everything he heard for his guitar, learning the words he would sing. The sooner he had everything ready to go, the better.

"I told you we shouldn't have let him do photography, Marie. He was already getting more effeminate, taking all that interest in musicals." Blaine heard his father say in hushed tones to his mother from the other room.

"No, that's not how it works. Kurt is his soulmate and we should treat him as such."

"And Kurt is a fashion designer! How much gayer can one man get?"

"I really don't think this is a problem, Phillip. If you can't see how in love with that very, very talented designer your son is, then you're missing out. You don't have to support it, just accept it. Because Kurt is going to be around for a long time yet." Blaine smiles, thankful to have his mother's support. She was right.

"Marie, all I'm saying is-"

"That you should be glad that, male or not, Kurt is a wonderful person. Blaine is an adult and no, it's not a phase. If it were a phase it would have been in high school with that Smythe boy, god knows how close those two were." Blaine titters as quietly as he can manage, thinking how over the years they had only gotten closer and less likely to have sex with one another, despite Blaine's realisation of his sexuality. Marie was perhaps a little closer to the case than she probably would have liked to have been, but Blaine wasn't going to argue with her, instead taking the hint to just go to sleep.

"What exactly are your family's Christmas traditions? Because if ours fit together, it would be nice if we were a part of each other's, right?" Kurt asks over the phone, as they had agreed to talk the next day. There was some planning to be done about the next week, and they just felt the need to talk to one another. They had been talking for ten minutes already just about what had happened the afternoon before.

"I haven't been home for Christmas in years. Santana and I have new traditions and I don't even know what my parents plan on doing. Probably not chocolate breakfasts, though."

"Probably not. Well, find out from them. My dad says that all three of you are welcome for our big lunch at our place, if you don't have any other plans. In fact, he's sort of invited you to everything- breakfast, lunch, dinner, after dinner drinks, whatever. He wants you to know that he doesn't hate you."

"Thank him for me. I don't hate him either, and I really do just want your family to like me as much as I like you. Except within appropriate parameters." Kurt giggles. "Oh, shut up. You know what I mean. Give me two seconds to ask my mom." Blaine finds his mom in the kitchen and quickly asks her for the Christmas plans.

"I don't know, I guess we'll do presents in the morning before church, which you can come to if you like-" Blaine wrinkles his nose at her, "Well fine, you don't have to come. I'm not used to having you around. We don't do big family events anymore, darling. Usually your father and I just eat dinner together and then watch a movie or something. Why do you ask?"

"Kurt and his family invited me- and you two- to go over there if we wanted to. So we can do that, if you want." Blaine retells.

"Well, thank them for the offer from us, and you should just go, I think. The food will be more exciting there. I'll bake a pie for you to take with you. So my Christmas plan and your Christmas plan are different- we will do presents, we're going to go to church and you're going to head to Lima. We'll see you eventually." Marie says.

"Seriously?" Blaine isn't sure where this version of his mother had come from- they had always had a better relationship than Blaine had with his father, but Marie had always been insistent of Blaine conforming to her plans.

"Blaine, we have all week to spend time with you, one day won't matter." He smiles at her and relays the news to Kurt as he leaves the room again, and Marie just chuckles softly at how happy he is. She couldn't recall the last time Blaine had been that happy to be in Ohio.