Sugar Baby

Twenty-Eight

Blaine tore another sheet of paper in half, throwing the crumpled balls in the vague direction of the trashcan and tapping his pen against the desk as he turned words over and around in his head, trying desperately hard to figure out how to put everything swirling through his head and heart, running through his veins and brightening his eyes, into words. He started as the door creaked open behind him and a familiar pair of arms slid around him, massaging his chest in slow circles, soft lips pressing a gentle kiss to the back of his neck. "Why are you still awake?" Kurt asked softly, and Blaine tipped his head back to meet the concerned green-blue eyes gazing down at him. "It's late, Blaine, come to bed."

"I have to get this finished, Kurt, and I'm having trouble putting everything I want to tell the world into words," Blaine murmured, and hooked his ankle around the nearest chair, pulling it closer for Kurt to lower himself carefully into, exhaling in relief once he was seated and rubbing a hand over the ever more prominent swell of his belly. "It's a press release that Sam's going to circulate for me tomorrow, and it'll go out live on every major gossip website. I'm going to tell the world that Sebastian's confessions weren't the whole truth, that I'm not abusing you or forcing you to stay with me, that I made a mistake that I'll regret for the rest of my life, and that I'm in love with you and I'll take anything that's coming my way as long as I don't have to lose you."

"As amazingly romantic as this is, I don't want you taking all the fall for this because I'm underage," Kurt said softly, reaching out to grip Blaine's arm tightly. "I love you, Blaine, and I don't want to see you facing trial or jailed because of me. Which is why Mercedes, Tina and I sat up looking through a bunch of legal websites, and we found out that because the age of consent is Ohio is sixteen, and seventeen here in New York, and you're not in a position of authority over me, you can't be prosecuted for our relationship. Sure, it's frowned upon, but you won't get into legal trouble because of it." He smiled sweetly at Blaine, hands cupped around his bump and head tilted innocently to one side. "I don't have to lose you, and no one can try to take you away from me because our relationship is perfectly within the law. They can try to shame us all they want, but I'm not ashamed of you or the little boy on the way, and I hope you're not ashamed of us either."

"I'm not, and I never will be," Blaine whispered, looking up with his eyes shining and his smile all utter relief. "Kurt, I love you so much, thank you for looking all of that out just to reassure me and yourself. You're amazing. I couldn't have picked a better person to have a baby with." He leaned across the gap between their chairs to press a sweet kiss to each corner of his mouth, a tender parentheses. As Kurt's eyelashes fluttered open, a flush nestling high in his cheeks, Blaine tangled their fingers together and quietly asked, "What exactly is our relationship right now, Kurt? I left this decision with you, where do you want us to go?"

Kurt took a deep breath, and his eyes flickered up to Blaine's and held his gaze, squeezing his hands tighter around Blaine's and shifting as close as he could. "I love you. And I don't want any circumstances to force me to let go of you. And I want you in my life, and in our son's life. I want to try being boyfriends again. Is that something you want to try too?"

"Of course it is," Blaine murmured, and pulled Kurt into his lap, wrapping his arms around Kurt and pressing him close, lowering one hand to caress the rounded edge of his bump as Kurt's hands rubbed at his back, his face pressed into the crook of Blaine's neck, breathing him in. "I love you, Kurt."

"I love you too," Kurt breathed, and wrapped his arms around Blaine's neck as he pressed into a deep kiss that could've lasted for days, brightening souls and knitting twisted hearts back together as Kurt's hands slid up into Blaine's hair, one of Blaine's hand cradling Kurt against him and the other rubbing slow, soothing circles over the taut stretched skin of his belly, as their lips moved sweetly in time as if they'd been kissing each other for their whole lives.

Blaine reached into his pocket, for something he'd been carrying around with him since the smallest possibility that Kurt would want to be in a relationship again: a simple silver ring, two strands intertwining with a knot connecting them. Kurt's eyes filled with tears the moment Blaine held it between them, holding one of Kurt's hands to his heart and murmuring, "Kurt, this is a promise ring. Not an engagement ring. But with this ring, it you'll take it, I promise to always love you, to always find a way to help you, to defend you, to always pick up your calls no matter what I'm doing, to support you, to be faithful to you and to always make sure you remember how perfectly imperfect you are."

Kurt sucked in a sharp breath, a single tear sliding down his cheek and clinging to his jaw as his lips curved into a smile blazing with joy. "You're amazing," he whispered, punctuating each word with a soft kiss. "I love you. Of course I'll take the ring, I..." He trailed off, and Blaine lifted his hands to Kurt's shoulders, smoothing his shirt and smiling at him. Kurt looked down at him with fear in his eyes, a hand pressed against the side of his bump, and whispered, "I think I just had a contraction."

Blaine started up, and Kurt braced himself on the table, breathing slowly and gritting out a muffled whimper, clamping a hand over his belly. "No, no this can't be time, it's too early," he whispered, and turned a terrified face to Blaine. "Just get me to hospital, now. Please, Blaine."

"Sam!" Blaine shouted up the stairs, and several thuds sounded overhead before a sleep-ruffled Sam appeared at the top of the staircase. "I have to take Kurt to hospital, he thinks he's having contractions. And I promise I'll finish that press release, unless you think you can write it well enough for it to be published, but I have to go." Sam just nodded, face stoic as he watched Blaine wrap Kurt carefully in his jacket and hustle him out of the door.

While Kurt sat stiffly in the passenger seat, staring straight ahead and tense with fright, Blaine reached over to squeeze his shoulder and press a soft kiss to his temple at a red light. "It's going to be okay," he whispered, and Kurt just nodded at him, not quite believing his reassuring words, sensing the quiver behind the mask.

When they reached the hospital, Kurt was rushed away with a doctor, and Blaine collapsed into a chair in the waiting room, staring blindly at the opposite wall. What if their baby was born too early? What if he died in a doctor's arms, too late for anyone to save him? Could Kurt cope with losing a baby on top of everything else in his life? Could their relationship stand it, getting through a grievance as big as that?

Kurt emerged forty-five minutes later, pale and trembling, but his lips twitched up into a smile as he crossed the room to Blaine's arms, falling into his embrace and snuggling his head into his chest as a smooth-voiced doctor told him, "It was just Braxton Hicks contractions, and Kurt may experience them again in the next nine weeks before the birth. It's a mild discomfort, but it can be disconcerting to first time parents if you don't know what they are. Unfortunately, we can't do anything to prevent them, but now you know how they feel and you'll be able to come in for assistance if anything seems abnormal." He clapped a hand onto Blaine's shoulder and smiled at him. "You did the right thing bringing him in, Mr. Anderson. You're going to be a wonderful father."

"Am I?" Blaine asked dully as he helped Kurt back into the car, turning on the heater in the darkness and turning to Kurt, sleepy-eyed and drooping in his seat. "Am I going to be a good father, Kurt? I can't even be a good friend to you, or a good boyfriend, or a good lover, how am I going to handle a little boy who'll rely on me for everything?"

"You'll have me, and you'll have our friends, they're not going to abandon us if we need them," Kurt assured him softly, cupping his cheek gently in his hand and murmuring, "Hey, it's okay. I know you're going to be a good father. You're a wonderful, loving person, you just tend not to let other people see it. But I want you to know that I do, and I know who you are, and I have faith that you are going to be a wonderful father." He leaned in to place a soft kiss to Blaine's lips with every word as he whispered, "And when we get home, I want you to make love to me so we can be together like we haven't in such a long time." Blaine smiled into another kiss, and reached beneath the seat for a blanket to drape around Kurt's shivering shoulders as he pulled away and they drove back through the dark, rapidly cooling roads.

The moment they reached the house, Blaine called, "Everything's okay, the baby won't come early, and please leave us alone for the night and I apologise now for any noise!" up the stairs to Sam, eagerly shedding his coat, shoes and socks by the door to take Kurt in his arms and kiss the breath from him, Kurt laughing against his lips as he steered them towards the bedroom.

Blaine lay back on the bed first, his hands gentle but secure on Kurt's waist, coaxing him up to drop his legs either side of Blaine's waist, kissing him and pressing as close as he could with the bump held between them, like a special secret just for them as Kurt pulled Blaine's shirt off as quickly as he could without damaging it, running his fingers through the scratchy dark chest hair and lowering his head to kiss as much skin as he could reach. "Been so long," he whispered through swollen, kiss-bruised lips, eyes dark when they flickered up to meet Blaine's. "Sit up, Blaine, I can't get close enough like this."

Smiling and cupping Kurt's face gently between his hands, Blaine sat up slowly and pressed a light kiss against Kurt's spit-slick lips, whispering, "I love you," into the space between them, heart soaring when Kurt whispered the same words back and they parted briefly to finish undressing themselves before falling into each other once more. Unlike so many times before, it wasn't frantic or desperate, nails raking at skin and teeth nipping at plump lips, tongues seeking access as quickly as possible and moans echoing against walls and ceilings.

It was slow and sweet and tender and a little melancholy, heavy with the weight of the love both knew they shared. The whisper of skin against skin, the wet sound of kissing, quiet twin gasps as Blaine lowered Kurt onto his cock and they found a slow, steady rocking rhythm, holding onto each other and kissing at all the skin they could reach, until Kurt came with a whimper and a gasp of Blaine's name, Blaine following with barely a sound a minute later.

They lay in bed afterwards, fingers dancing and sliding sinuously together, when Blaine shuffled over to kiss Kurt and quietly asked, "Why was it so quiet? Normally we're so loud, but this time, it was almost silent. Why?"

"I don't really know for sure," Kurt murmured, sliding a pillow beneath his hip and wriggling as close as he could, pushing Blaine onto his back and pillowing his head on his chest, arms draped around him, "but I once read that, when it's real, it's the quietest thing in the world." Blaine smiled and leaned in to kiss him, retrieving the ring from the nightstand and sliding it onto Kurt's finger.

They exchanged a sweet, loving private smile, and fell asleep tangled up in each other, Kurt's head on Blaine's chest and Blaine's face pressed into his hair, arms wrapped around each other and fingers entwined over Kurt's belly, holding each other and their baby close.

Keeping their family together.